Disclaimer: I guess you all already know that I don't own The Vampire Diaries, but I'll say it again: I don't own The Vampire Diaries.

Author's note: I know I have to update my stories, but this came to me and I just couldn't help but write it. It took me a while, but here it is!

Searching for a Way

They say hope is the last to die. Elena wanted to take that to the letter. As Damon laid in his deathbed, she was still researching a way to save him. There had to be one. She didn't want him to die. She couldn't take it if he died. After all the battles they had fought together and won, after going against the odds so many times, she had grown fond of him. Though she wouldn't admit it, she loved him. Like Katherine, she had fallen in love with both brothers.

Damon had told her to give up, to try and make peace with the fact that his death was imminent, but she couldn't bring herself to even imagine him dying. It wasn't fair that Elena had to lose anyone else. She had lost enough people. Jenna and her parents were gone and never coming back. She refused to allow Damon to have the same fate. She promised herself that she wouldn't let him die. She would find a way, not matter what it took. If necessary, she would give her life. At least that way she wouldn't have to live without him.

She flipped another page in the heavy book. Everywhere Elena looked said the same thing, the same words she had come to hate with all her heart, "death is inevitable". It couldn't be. She wouldn't let Damon die. After all those times they had cheated death, he just couldn't die. Elena sighed in worry as she heard his coughs getting stronger. She needed to come up with something fast.

"Damon... I can't seem to find anything." She said, her eyes gleaming with sadness.

"It's okay, Elena." He murmured.

She couldn't accept that. It wasn't okay. Nothing about that situation was okay. She was afraid of losing him.

"I will find a way. Just hang in there." She stated, feeling more decided than ever.

She turned her attention back to the book, but the words didn't make sense anymore. Her sight blurred as tears ran down her eyes. She swallowed them and tried to concentrate again, knowing that there could be something there, in one of the many pages of the book, hidden between useless information, that would save Damon's life, but she was finding it harder and harder to concentrate, especially as she became aware that each minute she spent researching was one minute less that she spent with Damon.

With a sigh, she got up from the chair where she had been sitting and went to kneel beside Damon, holding back the tears that wanted to run down her eyes. He shouldn't have to see her like that. He was the one who was dying, and she was the one who was freaking out. There had to be something wrong with her, she was supposed to be the brave one in that situation, not Damon.

"I'm... I'm sorry. For everything bad I ever did to you." Elena blurted out between sobs.

"It's okay, Elena. You were the best thing that happened to me in a long time." Damon replied, turning his head to look at Elena.

"I was cruel and insensitive. I was too afraid that I'd be like Katherine, and I ended up being completely selfish." She said, the tears flowing more slowly as she managed to regain her composure.

"You showed me that I didn't have to be the monster I thought I was." It was true, and Elena couldn't deny it, even though she felt guilty. Damon had changed a lot since he'd come to Mystic Falls, and everyone told her that she was the reason for his changes.

With a sigh, Elena laid her head on Damon's arm, a sad smile coming to her lips. She'd never enjoyed that gesture so much, and she guessed that was because she had been too busy trying to be Elena, not Katherine. But in the end, she had only caused more pain to both brothers and herself. Maybe Katherine had been right in trying to have both Salvatores. Choosing was impossible, and trying to only stay with one had caused a lot of pain to everyone, especially Damon, and he deserved better than that.

Most of all, he deserved to know, especially as he lay dying, how she felt towards him. But how did she feel? That was a question she had been too afraid to answer before, but which she thought was absolutely necessary to answer, and fast. She didn't want him to die thinking he was nothing more than a friend of hers.

"I love you, Damon." She blurted out, not a hint of hesitation in her voice. She'd known it for some time, she just hadn't ever come to terms with it. But she couldn't bear the thought of Damon dying without knowing that.

"You... You love me?" For a split of a second, Damon's voice was almost normal. But just as soon as it came, that strength vanished.

"I told you I was selfish... I didn't want to be Katherine. I should have told you before. It was so hard to keep it to myself, to deny it even to myself... But I thought it was best, I thought that I could bring myself to fall out of love with you and just live a happy life with Stefan." The sobs were back, making Elena's speech almost incomprehensible. However, Damon understood what she was saying.

"Don't beat yourself over it. You told me, and that's all what matters. I love you too, Elena. I have never loved anyone as much as I love you."

There were so many other things that Elena wanted to tell him, but all of them sounded selfish, and she didn't want to be selfish, especially on what would probably be his last day of life. It was such a simple thing to say, and it felt so good to say it, but Elena had never had the courage to do it. Just three little words, three little words that had terrified her so much that she could only bring herself to say them when she was in danger of losing her chance of saying them forever.

Her cellphone then vibrated, bringing her out of her moment with Damon. Checking the caller's ID, she sighed. Stefan.