PROLOUGE
Her eyes glistened with fresh tears threatening to spill over. He looked into those eyes-her eyes-and was immediately drowning in them. He leaned in, pressing his lips to hers, fire igniting his bones, his skin. Pulling her closer, he found himself unable to breathe. Her very presence was breathtaking.
They collapsed onto his bed, her shirt already off and on the floor, his in the process of being torn off. Soon all their clothes were discarded, and they were bare before each other. She continued to whisper "I love you," over and over, relishing in the feel of finally being able to admit it. Their bodies tangled together, making each other feel things they never had before, never would feel again.
When they awoke in the morning, still tangled together, he had already made up his mind. "Elena," he whispered, pulling her up to meet his gaze. He ripped the necklace from her neck, glaring at it before tucking it in his pocket. "I want you to forget everything about me, forget Stefan had a brother, forget your feelings for me, everything. I want you to marry a nice man, and stay with him until you take your last breath. He will make you happy, and you will make him happy.
"Goodbye, Elena." And then he was gone, and Elena was in her bed, alone. Completely alone.
DAMON
Four years, that's how long it has been since I last saw or spoke with Elena. I still loved her, and was I would always love her. I had chose to let her live the life she was meant to, compelling everyone to forget everything about me. I would create a new life for myself perhaps, but not yet. Today I was going to see Elena, see how she was doing with...Randy. That was his name.
Her husband.
ELENA
I sat in the warm bath, soaking my incredibly sore muscles. Randy had been rougher than usual last night. I wanted to leave, but I couldn't for some reason. Something was preventing that, and every time I tried to focus on it, it was if someone took the thought and ran away.
I hissed when I moved and one of the purplish bruises ached. Damn Randy. He had seemed so sweet...promised to take care of me...promised to never hurt me like Stefan had...but he did.
I suddenly felt an unreasonable amount of love and pleasure when I thought of Stefan. That always happened when I thought of him. I thought of someone else, someone with raven black hair and gorgeous blue eyes.
It was night time, Randy would be home soon...I could cry right now thinking of the pain I'd feel as soon as he stepped through that door. Four years I'd been dealing with his shit. I didn't know how much more I could take.
DAMON
I found Elena's house easily, the smell of her still imprinted on my brain. When I glanced through the window, I drew in a quick breath. There she was, gorgeous as ever, sitting in a window seat, just like in her old house. Her hair was thrown back in a messy ponytail, and her lips were in an adorable pout. I wanted to break the window and gather her in my arms.
Suddenly a SUV pulled into the drive. A man with blond hair and brown eyes hopped out, who was rather ordinary, but there must be something about him she liked. I prepared for her to jump out of the seat, run to him and kiss him. If it went any further I'd defiantly leave, not able to deal with such things.
I was surprised when Elena threw down her book, and a worried expression replaced her pout. My eyes narrowed, confused, and then startled when Randy entered the room with an enraged expression.
I decided to go to the door, a better option than crashing through the window. I bounded from my place in the shadows to the front door, so excited to hear her voice and kill her husband. I smirked internally at the thought, too angry and upset to do much else. I wasn't sure why I was angry, maybe it was because she was with somebody other than me?
I knocked three times on the door, and immediately heard footsteps coming to the door. Randy opened it, a flare of anger still built up in his eyes, but otherwise looked like a typical loser. "Hi Randy," I hissed. He sensed my anger right away and his smile faded.
"Who are you?" was his blunt response. In other words, Get the hell off my property.
"I'm Damon Salvatore," I spat.
"Salvatore, eh? As in Stefan Salvatore?" I grimaced at Stefan's name.
"Is Elena here?"
"No, sorry."
"Actually, I know Elena is here, so if you could," I suggested, moving my head in the way that said, get out of the way. He didn't budge so I pushed him into the door. He made a firm grip around my hand and tried to punch me. I slammed him into the door, knocking him unconscious. I pulled him inside and slammed the door. "Elena?" I called.
I heard the heavy thud of her heart beat, the sound that I loved more than life. I heard sobs, and heavy breathing. I raced upstairs, suddenly realizing...she wouldn't know me, or remember me. My heart sunk a few inches.
"Elena?" I called again, entering a master bedroom clearly designed by her. I rounded the corner, remembering all the times I had come to find her, to save her, this feeling like another one of those times. What I saw shattered my heart, and I felt it lower even more. She was crumpled on the floor, her head in her lap, and the thing that astonished me most was the purple bruising...everywhere.
"Elena," I whispered through clenched teeth. Her head shot up and I saw the tears falling from her eyes. No picture stuffed in my wallet for when I wanted to remember her-which was every moment of every day-, no old memory from four years ago of her telling me she loved me, nothing could compare to this moment of seeing her again. "What happened to you?" She sobbed again.
"Who the hell are you and how do you know me?"
"Did Randy do this to you, Elena?"
"No, no...I tripped, that's all." I made a Psht sound in the back of my throat. "Please, just leave. I do not know who you are and I don't want to know." A little piece of me that remained somewhat alive died then. I couldn't handle her not knowing me. No. This ended here.
I kneeled down to get face to face with her. "Elena," I purred in a soothing voice, the voice that used to drive her crazy. "I want you to remember everything I made you forget four years ago. Remember me, remember what we did, what you felt, what I felt." Her pupils dilated, and she blinked a few times.
"Damon," she sighed. I was relieved. I had never tried to un-compel someone before. When she looked down to her bruised and beaten body, she gasped. "Damon!" she squealed. "Oh my God, Randy!" She glared at me suddenly. "How could you leave me? Do you see what you did to me, Damon? Randy hits me every night, for no reason! He's crazy, and I couldn't leave him, because of you!" she screamed. My head lolled to the side.
"Elena, I am so sorry, I wanted you to have a normal life-the life you claimed to want!"
"Claimed?" she shrieked. "Of course I wanted to grow up, and have kids, and get married, and do it all properly! But I chose not to Damon, I gave up all of that, because of you! And you gave up me."
ELENA
To feel everything come flooding back at once was exhilarating, but wonderful. I wanted to hate Damon, to hit him and curse him, but all I wanted to do was kiss him. I sighed, pacing around the room once more, wondering why Damon was sitting frozen on the floor like a deer in headlights.
"Elena," he finally whispered. I recoiled from the way he said my name, it was too much like when we were deeply in love-not that I wasn't now, but him...-but I wanted to hear it. I wanted to hear my name drawled out on his tongue. I shuddered suddenly, remembering Randy...I was abruptly glad he had knocked him out.
"Elena," he tried again. "I never wanted to leave you. But you wanted a proper family, and I really never knew you weren't ever going to get back with Stefan. Even with me out of the picture you didn't marry him. I expected that, but I wanted to leave the option you wanted open. You surprised me though, Elena. You chose human life, you chose Randy. So don't be mad at me for giving what you begged for and wanted. Five years ago, you chose death over becoming a vampire." He sighed, done with his speech, rising from the floor to leave.
"Don't," I hissed.
"What?"
"Don't," I repeated. His eyebrows raised to his hairline. "Don't leave. We need to deal with Randy."
"We?" he spat.
"Damon, did you forget the part about him beating me every night, or were you just going to let that one slide?" His eyebrows furrowed, and I saw the anger boil beneath his skin.
"You won't let me kill him, if I hurt him, ninety nine percent chance he'll hit you even harder, so what do you want me to do?"
"I want you to...stay here. With me."
"What happened to hating me?"
"I don't hate you for what you did. I understand it, not saying it was the right decision, but I understand it." He smirked, and then it faded almost instantly.
"So, can I kill him?" I groaned loudly.
"Only if he tries to touch me again," I finally decided. His eyebrows shot up.
"Good." I strolled over to the bed, collapsing on it, groaning loudly and holding my sides when my cuts, bruises, and possibly sprains hit the mattress. "I can fix that, you know."
DAMON
I didn't let Elena know I gave Randy an extra hard beating, three vampire strength kicks to the stomach, and a break of the arm would probably leave him dead in the morning. I didn't give a shit. How dare he think he could ever get away with hurting Elena like that. The most caring, wonderful, generous, beautiful woman to ever walk the face of the planet.
I was shocked, yet glad that Elena had forgiven me so easily. I thought it would be, "You shouldn't tamper with others memories," and, "I'm a married woman now, Damon, I can't be fooling around like a teenager anymore."
None of that. I was even laying in bed next to her, Randy nowhere in sight, my blood coursing through her system. I smiled at that fact and pulled her closer to me. God I had missed her. A few years ago I saw her every day, every moment, I could smell her, I could sense her, and I hated not feeling this. My heart actually hurt thinking of it, but I pushed that away and relished in the feeling of being with her now.
I awoke in the morning, Elena no longer in my arms, nowhere in sight. No heart beat, nothing. I looked down to my stomach. A dried blood stain spoiled my shirt. How had I slept through that? Elena, where was Elena? God damn it! I pushed myself out of the bed, and blurred down the stairs. Calling out her name, but not hearing anything, I rushed out of the house, not sure of where I was going.
ELENA
I woke up in the back of a car...Randy's SUV. No! No, no, no! Damon! "Randy!" I tried to scream, but it came out a grumble. "Where are you taking me?"
"How dare you sleep in bed with that guy, and in my bed. Have an affair with your boyfriends brother, Elena?" he spat.
"Randy, take me home," I demanded, but it came out more like a plea.
"Not until you get what you deserve."
"And what is that?"
"To be alone." I abruptly became woozy, and felt myself falling...and falling...until blackness consumed me.
Hours, maybe days passed. My eyes flickered open, and I gasped at the blackness. I was...somewhere. Obviously I was somewhere. My mind wasn't working properly, everything was hazy, and memories were unclear. I remembered Damon and Randy...and Randy dumping me off at the end of some logging road, probably surrounded my bears, wolves, and God knows what else. I pushed myself from the ground, groaning at the stiffness of my joints, the aching of my bruises.
Where was Damon? I needed him to save the day, to kill Randy. To find me. To hold me in his arms, tell me he loved me, and that everything would be alright. I wish he hadn't ruined everything. I could've been a vampire by now, could've been happy with him, could've lost my virginity to Damon!
But no, Randy took that. He took it all. Four years of my life, years that could've been spent getting closer to the man I always remembered vaguely, but only some things, like the way he looked...the way I felt about him. Damon was him. He was the one.
A few hours later, morning had come, and I had my way to some kind of civilization. There was fortunately a pay phone in town-God knows where-and I bummed some change off a nice looking business man, and then realized, who was I to call? I tried Damon's cell, finally coming to realize when a man named Dennis answer it that he had changed his number. New life, new number.
So I called Bonnie. I told her the situation, I told her everything-needing some extra change half way through-and I told her to contact Damon Salvatore, tell him I was in some town near Atlanta that I didn't know the name of, and come to pick me up. I was counting on him seeing the plan through.
DAMON
After I tore limb after limb off Randy's body, and forced him to tell me where Elena was, and though he was half dead, he was able to make the words clear. The Camaro would defiantly be too slow, so I would run there. I didn't care, as long as I could get to Elena.
a/u: holy shit! that was a loooong chapter! review! should I continue with what happen with DE reunite? ;) REVIEW!
