A/N: I know probably hundreds and hundreds of these fanfics will come out, since season 3 ended, and what an ending huh? But I have been dying to write on from one season, and this one seemed like the perfect way to start... Reviews are loved, and hopefully if it's enjoyed enough I'll continue.

Somewhere, almost two hundred miles away from Mystic Falls, Damon found himself clinging to newly mummified body of his former best friend, Alaric Saltzman. He held onto the man that had for the last year made his life that tiny bit easier. His drinking buddy. The man he'd confide in. His bloodied fingers knotted into the newly turned psycho Originals shirt before a piercing, soul shattering cry left the raven haired vampires body, shaking the newly deceased alongside his own. "You can't…you can't be dead…" he wept, managing somehow out of it all to find his phone and dial her number. "Pick up, come on 'Lena, you can't leave…no, come on!" Damon prayed, his azure hues shining with the unshed tears that had yet to fall from his eyes, land on his cheeks and further add to the already wet shirt of his, courtesy of the beating he had received from Alaric.

Hey… It was her voice. His Elena's voice. The girl he deemed as his angel. She was alive. "Elena!" Damon all but screamed into the mouthpiece before his world crashed once more around the already crumbling surface. It's Elena, *giggling* I'm currently unavailable, "damn right you are, get back here! Your hair isn't finished yet!" Caroline shhh, *more giggling* …so leave me a message and I'll get back to you! Mwah!

No. This wasn't happening. It couldn't. She hadn't died. There had to be some justification to why her phone was off. She could have left it somewhere. She could still be asleep. She could be with her friends…Call Stefan. His subconscious screamed, before Damon followed, finding his brothers number before pressing the call button. "Damon…" the voice of Damon's brother sounded broken, swallowing the mouthful of blood mixed with his own spit he spoke, somehow finding the strength to ask the question he so desperately needed to know the answer to. "Is she alive?" Finding the strength he pulled himself to his feet, receiving nothing but silence from the opposite end of the telephone, shifting Alaric's body into the back seat of the car before speeding his way over to the driver's side. The silence seemed to drag on, suffocating the eldest Salvatore brother. He had received his answer without the need for words. But still, something in Damon needed the confirmation from the one person he still had left.

The one person who still loved him, disregarding everything he had ever done. "Stef…" Damon exhaled, "is she alive?" He received a sniffle, before choking out a lungful of air into the atmosphere, "she's go-gone, Damon. She drowned. She made me save Matt…" before he could finish off the sentence the blue eyed vampire notified his brother he would be there before dusk, ending the call before throwing his head against the headrest, breathing as if it would help, azure hues searching the depot, looking for some sort of…reason, some sort meaning for this. She was dead. Turning on the ignition, his hair falling in a disarrayed style over his features, obscuring some of the slow healing wounds from the battle prior, he pressed down onto the acceleration, the tyres skidding across the floor before the words tumbled forth from his lips whilst he set off towards the one place he truly called home….towards Elena. "I love you…" the words burned his throat, burned every fibre of his being before he made the decision as he passed by the Heading to Mystic Falls – 167 miles to go.

Funeral, and then you leave Mystic Falls for good, Damon. That's the only way the pain will ever subside.

It'll be the only way forever won't seem like another lifetime away.

Her eyes shot open, and imminent jade hues met with her own chocolate ones. Concern, shock, and happiness filled the hues she found herself staring into. Sharply inhaling the thick air around her Elena listened and waited patiently for the constant beating of her heart she had grown so accustom to finding after the events that had occurred after mythical creatures had wormed their way into her life.

"Elena!" Stefan breathed, helping her up before she sat studying everything around her with wide, questioning eyes. "I died…" the brunette tapered off slowly, "I died Stefan, why am I still…" it hit her at that point before she pushed him away, unable at that moment to locate the sadness that took over his features. Hand placed over her chest, lips pursed together in sheer concentration, she listened. She waited. She felt a light drumming against her fingertips, nothing like before. It wasn't strong. It wasn't consistent. Every few seconds she'd feel absolutely nothing, and with each breath of air she inhaled into her lungs it became that much harder to take a mouthful and enjoy the essence which had kept her alive for the last eighteen years of her life.

"I..this isn't right Stefan!" Turning she studied him, but, only when his gaze met hers there were no words needed. She knew Stefan. And as well as she knew him, at that current time she wished she hadn't, because his gaze spoke the words his mouth had yet to find to breathe out. "I'm…" unable to find the words, tears sprung forth, blurring her vision before the brunette fell to her knees, violent sobs racking throughout her petite frame as Stefan studied, the continuous mumbling of 'no, this can't be happening' voiced into the air, again and again. As if it would help, as if the words would turn back time, turn back the event that seemed to plague her life – the Wickery bridge – the result of her parents death, and now inevitably her own. "I'm tr-tr—ans-itioning, aren't I?" She questioned half-heartedly, her voice having broken multiple times with the four words she had managed to utter out. With a slight nod of his head, Stefan turned from her, and the table which she had found herself on moments before she re-awoke smashed into the wall opposite to the pair, causing her body to involuntarily flinch at the sound.

Turning into a vampire had been the last thing Elena had wanted, not at the tender age of eighteen, not before she had managed to suss out her life, deciding exactly what path she had wanted to take. What college she had wanted to attend, the classes she would have wanted to take, the university she'd find herself in, the major she'd graduate with. She had a whole human life planned out. Maybe a husband and children one day, but those dreams were now ripped from between her hands and placed into someone else's hand. Someone who had the opportunities that dwindled away from Elena the moment she had first interacted with the supernatural world. "I can't do it…" she murmured standing onto her own two feet before meeting the gaze of the first vampire she had fallen in love with. "I can't become what you are, Stefan…" As the tears fell from her eyes, she knew she had her goodbyes to say, she had a few things to let each person she loved dearly know, to each person who risked their lives for her countless times.

"Elena…" Stefan's voice sounded throughout the dark room, before their eyes met. "Let me take you home…" Her eyebrows furrowed together, before nodding her head. "Okay." At this point Elena had been far too tired to argue about anything, she wanted to go and see her brother. Her only family left at this point. Holding his hand out to her, she took it hesitantly, lacing their fingers before a sigh passed through her tiers and into the air around them. "Elena, if this isn't what you want…" she shook her head, before finding the courage to speak, "I just never wanted this life for myself Stefan. I don't know what to do. I don't want to leave Jeremy all alone, but - -" she found no use in repeating what it was she wanted so instead she decided to opt for the silence around them, all courage she thought she had disappearing and leaving her in the position of exactly how she felt when her parents had died. Hopeless and completely lost. But that lasted no longer than a few seconds until two voices sounded from afar.

"Where is she?"

Elena's head turned before her lashes hit against the soft flesh of her cheeks,

"Where is she?" The voice grew agitated and she could clearly hear the anger spilling forth from every syllable that fell from his lips.

Damon…

She moved, faster than anticipated as somehow the strength she had lost a few moments ago fuelled every cell in her petite frame propelling her forward. Unlinking their hands she moved towards the door, Stefan's voice seeming far more distant than it had before. "Elena…" she could hear Stefan pleading but she took no notice. It wasn't the time. Damon was alive. Damon was here. Damon was looking for her. Pulling the door open, she swept out into the corridor, looking around and only at that point noticing exactly where she had been placed. The morgue. Of course, she had died. Everyone had believed she had died. A frantic looking expression paved its way onto her wet features as the tears continued to stream down her already damp cheeks. She heard Stefan behind her, calling her but she could only think of one thing. Damon.

"Damon stop! I did it to save her. She would have died!"
"You gave her the one thing she didn't want…you took away the choice she had!"

A smile overtook the brunette's features before chocolate hues met the azure hues she had found herself long ago fallen in love with. "Elena…" the obvious disbelief in his voice couldn't have been more obvious but the look in his eyes had been something else entirely. Love. Relief. Euphoric. "Damon…" Elena murmured with sheer happiness that radiated over her features her feet having moved faster than she'd anticipated. With each step she found herself closer to Damon, as he stood there soaking in every second of reality. She was still alive. She was still here. She was running to him. Taking one step forward, he met her as her body collided against his own almost knocking him off his feet with the beating he had received and the lack of blood he had within the last few days.

She was warm, soft and she was alive. "You're alive…" he breathed, still unable to let the recognition hit him that she was here after it all. His warrior princess had come out alive. "Just barely…" she managed to smile, before pulling back allowing her gaze to meet his own, that connection that seemed to always without a doubt bring them together, tethering body to body, mind to mind, soul to soul but most importantly? Heart to heart made her suddenly inhale a breath of air, filling her lungs before a hair raising shrill whimper slipped through her tiers. Having already lost her footing, Damon shifted to grab a hold of her by her hips, holding her flush against him before she could hear all three voices asking her if she was fine. She shook her head as the images flooded her mind. Hazed with the memories she had been compelled to forget, each second passing by made Elena shake her head, tears springing to her eyes before managing to push away from Damon, trembling lips as the impact of the confession, and secondly their first ever meeting the night of her accident…

"I remember…I remember it all Damon."