So here's a Damon and Elena one shot that has been in my head. This story is completely AU. The story is Damon's POV and that's all you really need to know. I hope you like it & thank you so much for reading!

The very first time that I saw her was at the wedding. Her wedding. She had looked so beautiful standing in her white dress, her brown hair cascading down her back in beautiful curls and her make-up done to emphasise her natural beauty. I could remember her laughing at something when I first laid my eyes on her, her head tilted back and I had never seen someone look so free, so beautiful. Her hands had been wrapped around a champagne glass whilst her other hand had been on my brother's back, her newly wedded husband, stroking soft circles. She didn't have dimples as much but these lines on her face that seemed to radiate life and love. She took a sip of her champagne and I could see, even from the other side of the room where I stood by the entrance, that those chocolate innocent eyes were twinkling with happiness and her cheeks were slightly flushed from both the alcohol and the excitement of her day. Everything about her just seemed to shine and glorify every single thing that she touched with her fingers.

And it was wrong. It was awful, terrible of me to be looking my lost brother's wife as though she was the most beautiful creature on the planet that I had ever seen. It was wrong that my heart started to beat a little faster with each graceful moment that she took. It was so wrong that she was the reason that I was invited to the wedding reception because she wanted Stefan to fix our problems, for us both to be brothers again. It was wrong that I was attracted to her from first sight. It was wrong. It was so wrong that she was spending the night dancing with my brother.

I can remember taking a deep breathe, shaking all the thoughts out of my head and walking over to where my brother and his wife stood talking to friends. It had been years since me and my brother had spoken, several in fact. We had fallen out due to our parents, due to our father more than anything and when my mother had died I didn't see the point of ever returning to our family home because I had been nothing but a disappointment. Stefan stiffened when he saw me and Elena, her name seemed so effortless to say, darted around to look for what had caused her husband's distress. His green eyes landed on mine and I nodded, staying where I stood not wanting to intrude on his life that he made for himself unless he wanted me to.

"Damon." He breathed, letting go of Elena and walking over to me in his tuxedo, a huge smile on his face.

"Hello, brother." I grinned back at him, holding my hand out for him to shake but he let out a laugh and pulled me in for a hug.

"It's been too long." Stefan beamed patting me on the back and Elena stood next to him, smiling to herself and my eyes quickly flashed to her just wanting to breathe her in a little bit more. "This is my beautiful wife, Elena Salvatore." Stefan placed a soppy kiss on her cheek and her nose scrunched up a little, and I swear I had never seen anything so cute. Ever.

"Elena." I smiled, taking her hand, unable to stop myself, and brought it to my lips. My eyes were on hers the other time and red flooded her cheeks as she bowed her head. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You too, Damon." I dropped her hand and immediately it went around Stefan's waist causing jealousy to spark through me. This is so wrong.

"I'm sorry I couldn't make it for the ceremony." I half smiled because I think now, looking back, I am glad that I didn't make it to the ceremony. I think seeing them say their vows would have made everything worse for me in the long run, would have it more hurt more if I had known more about their past and their undying conquering love for each other.

"Work?" Elena enquired, leaning her head on Stefan's shoulder.

"Yeah, the hospital keeps me busy." I tried to smile back at her the best I could, flashes of the elderly woman dying on my table because of her brain tumour. "I'm sure it was a beautiful service."

And, for the rest the night that was all I heard about from her was the service. Apparently, they had written their own vows and they had got married in the same church that her parents had got married. She had several bridesmaids, all of whom she later introduced me to and they were all charming and beautiful but nothing compared to her. She introduced me to her family members and some of Stefan's co-workers, getting all excited that Stefan's big brother was back. It was easy introducing myself to everyone. I was used to talking to strangers after working in the hospital for so long and usually, at weddings I would pick my favourite bridesmaid and take her home for the night before leaving her the next morning. For some reason I didn't want to that night because I didn't want to dull that spark Elena had her eyes when she looked at me. It was the first time someone beamed at me as though I was a good person. She didn't know my past or what I had done, the mistakes I made and she didn't care. She just kept smiling at me and talking to me about her life on her wedding night. Who does that?

That was the first night where she took my breath away.

Through the many years that followed before that day, Elena and I had grown to be great friends much to Stefan's displeasure who kept telling Elena that I was trouble. As you can tell, my brother and I's relationship was still pretty much strained and only know and then did we have our moments where we acted like true brothers. Elena, bless her, kept trying and fighting for us to work out our differences but we just couldn't. We couldn't be fixed. We had grown apart in the years that we had separated from each other and there was no going back after it.

Elena still didn't notice how I would look at her when I knew that I shouldn't be. She didn't notice how whenever I would walk into a room my eyes would dart around frantically searching for her and when I did find her, everything inside me seemed to calm down. She didn't know how excited I would get when she would tell me that she wanted to meet for coffee or to go play pool at the Mystic Grill. She had no idea how I would sometimes wish for her to call me just so I could hear her voice. She didn't realise that sometimes I wasn't looking at her face but at her lips, wondering and going insane at thought of how her lips would taste against mine. She had no idea how I was slowly falling in love with her with every second I spent with her.

For the first two years of the marriage, I had been doing good and kept my feelings for Elena at bay and she had been blissfully happy with Stefan until my brother decided to become an alcoholic and wreck his chances with the most perfect girl on earth. She didn't say anything to me about how he was getting violent when she would hide his bottles from him or when she pleaded with him to stop drinking. She never told me about it. The only reason I did find out was that Caroline, one of Elena's best friends, had told me that Stefan was going through a real rough time and chose to tell me all about his little problem. Of course, I went straight over to their home that night and walked right in without knocking not caring to come up with an excuse for being there. I could hear her muffled cries, the sound of furniture crashing to the floor and the sound of clothes being ripped. I can remember running into the kitchen, pleading that I was getting there fast enough, that I could save her.

Nothing prepared me for what I was witnessed in the kitchen that night. Elena had tears in her eyes, her make-up had run all done her face and she was shaking her head so slowly. He had her wrists locked above her head with one hand whilst the other had ripped her shirt open, revealing her white cotton bra underneath. My stomach turned and I felt physically sick at the sight of my younger brother, gazing at her with drunk filled eyes as he whispered in her ear and touching her when she clearly didn't want it. He had a smile on his face, a twisted cruel smile similar to the one my father used to possess when he would hit me whenever I did anything wrong. No! This was not going to happen to her!

"Let her go!" I demanded through gritted teeth and my brother turned his head sharply at me, rolling his eyes as he let go of her hands but kept her pinned between him and the kitchen counter.

"Look who came to save the day." He snarled at me. His green eyes had looked black in the shadows of the night.

"Get away from her, Stefan!" I shouted at him but he didn't move so I stepped closer to him, waiting to see what his reaction would be.

"She's mine, brother." He trailed a finger down over her breasts and both Elena and I flinched. "She's my wife."

"Please." Elena choked out and that was all I needed to take the necessary steps towards my brother, my fist coming into contact with his face as he fell to the floor with a loud crash.

Elena stared at me before moving from him and running at me, flying into my arms and for a second I just held her and tried to get her to stop shaking. Stefan woke up, clumsily rising to his feet and just shook his head at me before grabbing the bottle of bourbon off the counter and heading back into the parlour. Breathing a sigh of relief that I had got there in time, I picked Elena up in my arms and carried out through the back of the house and took her back to my place. There was no way that I was letting her stay the night in the house with a man that was going to try and attack her.

I remember taking her back to my place as if it had happened only moments ago. Her arms were wrapped around her, my jacket loose on her but still fitting her. Her beautiful doe eyes had been searching around my apartment, glancing at everything and then back at me before finally sitting down. It wasn't as if she had never been to my apartment before but there was something different about this time that had made us both nervous. She didn't speak about what Stefan had nearly done to her and I didn't bring it up. I just stayed with her all night, watching and talking her as she complained that she was feeling dizzy, which I thought was from stress, and I took her to bed. I made her tea, tucked her in and then went to sleep on the couch. And, she slept all night and for the majority of the morning.

I didn't know there was something wrong. I didn't know that I was never going to be happy again. I didn't know that the last time we had gone out was the last time.

I didn't know.

She woke up in the morning, smiling and blushing and I could feel my heart stop in my chest because she was the most breath taking sight when she had just woken up looking all natural and perfect. She had slept in one of my shirts and shorts that had been much too big for her but she didn't complain. She never complained about anything. The both of us were the ideal domestic picture that morning, the last morning, with me making her breakfast and her sat at the kitchen bar waiting and laughing just like she had done the first time I saw her.

I remember handing her breakfast, turning around for a split second and the next thing I know she's vomiting on my kitchen floor. Of course, I didn't care. I remember running up to her and rubbing her back whilst holding her hair, trying to calm her and tell her that everything was going to be okay. Elena shook her head once she had stopped, apologising and apologising saying 'it must be stress or something' and I brushed it off, listening to her. I shouldn't have listened to her. I was a doctor. I should have taken her right into the hospital there and then but it was Elena. She was young and healthy. I didn't know.

"I'll clean this." I told her. "Go take a shower, Lena."

She apologised again, rising from her stool and jumped onto the floor. She didn't make it to the shower. She didn't make it to the TV. She just fell on the floor. Lifeless. Limp. Her body started shaking, her eyes rolling and her mouth open. Screaming. I remember screaming her name, holding her as steady as I could whilst I waited for the ambulance. I was a Neurologist, a brain surgeon and I tried my best to stop the seizure but when you don't have the necessary equipment to help you can't do much. All I could do was lay her on the floor, hold her hand as the love of my life had a seizure on my kitchen floor.

It was that day that ruined me. It was that day that destroyed my life. I was working anyway so I followed her in the ambulance doing everything and anything that I could do without knowing what was wrong with her. I screamed for someone to get her to have a scan as soon as we were in the hospital. I had to find out what was wrong with her so I could stop it, so she could be better. I changed into my scrubs and walking into the room where she was unconscious having her scan. My eyes landed on her tumour on her cerebellum and it was massive. It was the reason she had been feeling dizzy, vomiting. How didn't anyone notice this? How didn't I notice this?

She cried when I told her. She cried harder when I said I would do everything I could to save her so she requested to the see scan herself. She told me she didn't want me to do anything for her. She told me that it would be a waste of time because even she seemed to know that a tumour that massive it was unlikely that she was going to survive it. She cried again as I held her in my arms, telling her that I was going to do everything that I could. She didn't say anything when my pager buzzed and I had to go. Her brown eyes just shimmered with tears and regret as they followed me out of the room.

I tried everything. I tried it all; surgery, radiation, chemotherapy but every time it came back bigger and bigger. It always came back. I even went to the freaking church in the hospital, praying through tears that she was going to be okay. I had gotten on my knees and begged God to keep her safe, to keep her alive for me and to get rid of the thing inside of her head that was slowly killing her. It didn't work she just got worse and worse.

Stefan came by but she didn't want to see him. She sent him away and he never came back to see her. All of her friends and family came by every day and every night to see her and when they were around she just lit up, her eyes having the same sparkle in them that I saw the very first time that I met her. When visiting hours would end I would try and spend every minute I had free with her, scheduling my surgeries during the day because then her family would be with her and in the night it left me to be able to be with her. She wasn't alone. During the nights she would sleep with her arms around me, thanking me every night for being there for her, for trying to save her and I hated myself for it because I was doing nothing. I was so helpless. I couldn't save her. I was the best doctor there was and I couldn't save the girl that I loved. How messed up is that?

"Damon." She breathed. She was near the end now, her skin was white and her long brown beautiful hair was gone. She had wires sticking in and out of her body helping her to stay with me. She was slowly losing herself, losing the glow of life.

"Yeah?" I glanced down at her, trying to keep it together.

"I want to sign a DNR."

I swear to God it was as if someone had just knocked the wind out of me. I was choking. I couldn't breathe.

"What?" I demanded of her, jumping up from the bed.

"I don't want you to sit here every day waiting for me." Elena tried to sit up in the bed but every time she tried, her arms would go stiff and she would just slide back down the bed. The sight of this, of her suffering was killing me. "I know that's what you're going to do. I can't let you do it."

"You can't let me do it?" I scoffed. "Elena, I am not allowing you to sign one of those! I can't let you do it."
"It's my choice, Damon." She stared at me, her eyes filled with so much pain and suffering. "Please, let me do this."
"No." I shook my head. "I can't, Elena. I love you. I'm in love with you. I've always been in love with you. So, no I can't let you sign away any chance of me keeping you alive. You're not going to die on me. You weren't supposed to die like this. You were supposed to die old in your bed with the man you loved next to you, surrounded by pictures of your children and grandchildren. You weren't supposed to be in pain."

I froze. I had just told my brother's wife that I loved her and I expected her to shake her head, dismiss me and being angry with me. No, Elena was constantly surprising me. She broke out into as much of a smile that she could form at this point and her brown eyes, eyes that had become my favourite thing in the entire world because they allowed me to see what she was feeling, filled with tears. Elena gasped for her breath and for a moment, I panicked and held her hand staring at the monitor, praying that she would be okay because she couldn't leave me.

"Damon," She gasped, her eyes on me and I turned to look at her, tears filling in my own eyes now. I had seen this in enough patients to know that there wasn't long left now. Her time was running out. "You know, from the first day I saw you something inside me just had this pull to you. I didn't understand it. I still don't but I know that I met the wrong brother. It should have been you, Damon. I know that now. It should have been you. I've fallen in love with you too. It should have been you and I will die knowing that you loved me in return. I love you too and I just wish we had more time on our hands. I wish that it had been you."

I wish that it had been you. The words haunted to me to this day, choking me as I remembered her ragged breaths as she confessed her love for me. It wasn't epic. For me it was the slip of the tongue because I never expected her to say she loved me in return and for her, it was her last words that she spoke to me. Yeah, her last words. Those were her last words to me and even now, ten years later, I still can't understand it. How can life be so cruel? I had spent the majority of my life wondering what it would be like with Elena and on her last day she wishes for the same. It broke me those words. We should have been given more time. We would have been amazing together. We would have been happy.

"I miss you." I told her, sitting down on an empty patch of grass. I didn't know if she could hear me, in fact I doubted it but I just had to believe that somehow she was here with me. "Went by the Grill last night and played some pool by myself. It sucks you not being here, Elena. You left me. You left me just when we could have had our chance. We could have been together and then you let go. We had been arguing about a DNR form and I told you that I loved you. It wasn't supposed to have been said like that, Elena. I was supposed to tell you when we were fighting because that's what we did, it was our thing. I was supposed to tell you and I was supposed to kiss you, I was supposed to taste your lips and take your breath away just like you took mine. But it didn't happen the way it was supposed to. It didn't happen.

Why aren't you here with me? I can't breathe without you. I walk in to a room and I'm still looking for you. I still have your shirt that Stefan ripped from that night and I haven't worn the clothes that you wore since that day. I can even go in my bedroom because it reminds that I should have known. I should have done something. I can't even cope seeing your friends and them talking to me about you, what you thought of me even after all this time. I can't. I can't make it without you, Elena. We didn't get our chance and it's not fair. We didn't get our chance." I sighed, laying the flowers, Lilies as they had been her favourite, on the ground I love you so much, my precious angel."

Ten years and all I have left of her is a grey lifeless stone that has her name carved into it along with a small message and the words 'daughter, a friend, a wife.' A wife. She wasn't his, not after what he did to her. He was the reason she hadn't been treated, why I couldn't save her. He was the reason that she wasn't here with me. Elena had died married to Stefan because there had been no time for a divorce, there had been no time for anything. She only needed more time to sort everything out. She wanted to divorce Stefan. She had wanted to fill out a DNR form but there hadn't been enough time. Now, here she was buried underneath a rock and still bound to my brother. She was still his but in a comforting way, she was mine too. Elena had died in love with me. She was my angel and yet, Stefan believed the same. He would live his life and believe that she died angry at him but still in love with him. He had no idea that she was no longer his. She no longer loved him.

Elena Gilbert had loved me. She had been the light in the dark, an angel that had managed to bring back a side in me that disappeared long ago and she wasn't here anymore. She was gone. How was that even fair? How was it even possible? How was it fair that someone so beautiful inside and out could be taken from the world so young? But even death, she wasn't mine. She was bound to Stefan, his wife and that is how she would always be remembered.

Just as she was in life, Elena could never really be mine. She was always someone else's, always Stefan. She would forever be known as his wife despite the fact that she had left him and I would be the brother-in-law. This, the idea of her being his made me feel sick and it would haunt me, destroy me until I resided in a spot close to her. It would be my endless nightmare until I could be with her again. Maybe in another life we could be together, be something amazing, but in this life our time had been cut painfully short.

In this life, Elena Gilbert would forever be someone else's angel.

Okay so what do you think? I really hoped you enjoyed this story despite the unhappy ending. Please review it would mean the world! If you read You're My Humanity & Beauty and the Beast: A Damon & Elena Love Story, don't forget, that these two Damon & Elena stories will be updated this Thursday before I go to Insurgence 6 (OMG CAN'T WAIT)

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Lauren xXx