This story takes place in season 1 going off canon, Elena has given Stephen some of her blood and now he has fallen on the wagon and become the ripper. This is a Delena story all the way! :) AU and OC don't really want to follow along with the plot, but I will to some extent but things are different now.

Hopefully you enjoy!

Elena Gilbert ran her hands through her hair as she attempted to go to sleep. When had things become so complicated? As if having a vampire boyfriend for a first love wasn't hard enough, now he was on a bender. How could she not question her love for him when he was now a completely different person, the opposite of everything she had fallen in love with.

Elena thought back to the night she had given him her blood to save him, but somehow she ruined everything. She had found him with Damon's help, he had been storing dead bodies in the woods, a sloppy attempt to try to hold on to his old self and not lose Elena...a what she didn't know couldn't hurt her philosophy, but it had hurt her, more than anything she could of imagined. "I'm not the person you fell in love with, Elena! Don't you get that! Leave me alone...I want to kill you right now..." she had shivered at his words but held a strong defiant look on her face, "i'm leaving town, i'm doing it for your own good before the ripper takes control of every last part of me." "Stephen, no we can help you, I love you! Please!" she had begged, "Elena, don't come after me, I will kill you. I will come back here after I kill you and I will kill your family, and I will enjoy it, because that's who I am now."

Elena would do anything to protect her family, and now she didn't know what to do. She sank into her dreams, perhaps staying in Stephen's old room at the boarding house was not her best idea, but had felt out of place in the other rooms and Damon's bed wasn't an option she reminded herself. This was the bed she had spent the most time in afterall. However, it left her with the sinking feeling that she wasn't alone, it felt as if Stephen should have been right there, as if he would reach out for her any moment.

That's what was causing the nightmares. As she whimpered in her sleep and gasped waking herself up, Damon was already there, leaning in the doorway, watching her to make sure she was safe.

"Elena, you can have your pick of rooms, preferably one's that don't belong to my little brother..."

Elena sighed and ran her hands through her hair, Damon hadn't let her be alone since the night Stephen had told her he would kill her, it was Damon's theory that Stephen would be back at anytime. That's why he had given Elena ownership of the boarding house, no vampires were invited in expect for himself, the better to protect her. He had compelled Jenna and Jeremy to go far away, conniving Jenna that she needed a break and should be looking for new job opportunities out on the west coast, taking Jeremy along with her; Elena had really hated compelling them, it was against her very nature, but a more prominent part of her nature was to protect the people she loved. Damon stepped out of the doorframe and walked toward her.

"I just don't know what to do, Damon..." She let the thought trail off as he set next to her on the bed. When had she started to trust Damon more than anyone else in her life? Since when had Damon been the good one. But he was, he was a bad and good all wrapped into one person that anyone could be. She had no idea how to explain it, but somehow she had noticed that it was always Damon there when she needed help and somehow it was still him now helping her again, keeping her alive.

"I just wish there was something we could do to help him." Elena looked up at him and he couldn't help but be so drawn in by her big brown eyes, he would have promised her about anything had she asked.

"I know, I know..." he felt very much apart of this, it was he who had wanted Stephen to turn into this person, but he had wanted him to have self control, and Damon had never imagined they would have added a fragile human girl into the mix.

"You need sleep, Elena."

"Will you just stay here with me for a while?" She needed to feel safe.

"Sure," he smirked, as he set on the opposite side of the bed as she tucked herself in and curled up, "I'll give you good dreams, baby."