Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me. They are property of the CW channel and L.J. Smith.
Elena Gilbert glanced at her bed-side clock, 3:19 am. She looked down at the one sentence in front of her.
Dear Diary,
I dreamt about him again.
He had haunted her dreams ever since the last meeting with Isobel a few weeks ago. Every night she had a different dream about him, but they all ended with Isobel's same words and a pair of intense blue eyes. And every night she jolted awake, never sure why.
Unconsciously, the scene with her birth mother swam into focus. Isobel's cool indifference. Stefan's resigned look at her words.
And Damon.
Damon's look of mild bewilderment with a mixture of hesitation… and something else (was it guilt?) as he had looked towards Stefan. She had panicked and deflected. Just as she had done that morning at the Grill when Isobel had asked her if she, like Katherine enjoyed them both. The question had made her uncomfortable. But Isobel's blatant announcement had changed everything.
He mind reverted to Damon. Damon Salvatore. And as much as she didn't want to delve into the subject, she found herself trying to figure out the older Salvatore. Damon had his vices. A lot more than most people. But she knew that as much as Damon had sworn to inflict an eternity of misery upon his younger brother, there was a lot more under the surface, like a fierce protectiveness, like she had seen that day at Pearl's. And she knew that that didn't come from hate. And just like that, she realized that Isobel was right. Damon's hesitant look towards Stefan had proved it.
She shuddered as she thought about the reasons that had made her hate Damon in the first place. His earlier heartless activities still chilled her bones. Mr. Tanner's and Lexi's cold-blooded murder. Vampire Vickie. The bite-marks all over Caroline. Bonnie being attacked.
And then the memories of the recent months flooded into her consciousness. Damon saving her from the car wreck. Their trip to Atlanta. Damon's watchful eye at the 50's dance. His compelling gaze at the Gilbert house when he was trying to figure out whether or not Stefan could be trusted. His expression when he found out that his brother had betrayed him. His look of shame after he tried to turn Elena into a vampire. His words, "I'm trusting you, don't make me regret it". His hurt when Katherine wasn't in the tomb. His guilt when he found out that he had turned Elena's birth mom. Dancing with him at the Miss Mystic party. His help in locking Stefan in the basement. His worry for Elena's safety.
And most of all, Pearl's house. She had never seen his concern more clearly. He had risked his life over and over again to save the brother who he claimed to hate. That's when she had been sure that there was good left in him. That the humanity that Stefan claimed was dead was only hidden. Hidden much below the surface.
She sighed and looked back at her diary, the words taking her back to that day in the parking lot, months ago. "You want me. I get to you. You find yourself drawn to me. You think about me even when you don't want to think about me, I bet you even dreamed about me", he had said. Now she knew that he had tried to use compulsion. But now? She thought as she gingerly fingered the pendant around her neck, now it felt like a prophecy coming true.
She thought about his compelling blue eyes, the ones that she could never tear her eyes away from. She thought about how he always pretended not to care, but always worried about her. She thought about how she was the only person could see the good in him, while everybody else thought that he was the devil himself. But most importantly, she thought back at the time when Isobel said, "That's because he's in love with you".
And she had felt her heart lurch out of her chest.
She looked at her bed-side clock again, 4:43 am. She closed her diary. She knew what she had to do.