a/n: Hello all! I thought I would begin my summer by writing a Season 4 fic. I hope you enjoy it. =) As always, please review and follow me on Twitter at Rachel_Leann58
I'd love to have conversations on there about Vampire Diaries or anything else you want to talk about. Just let me know you're from here and I'll follow you back. ;)

Chapter One The Arrived

A little death without mourning
No call, no warning
Baby, a dangerous idea
That almost makes sense.
-Love is Blindness by U2

Elena saw Rebekah standing on the bridge and knew there was nothing they could do to stop disaster from happening. Matt swerved to miss her, hit the side of the bridge, and plummeted into the water before Elena could even scream.

A few moments disappeared as the water flooded the vehicle. Elena struggled to wake up, and when her eyes finally fluttered open, dread filled her body. Visions of the night her parents had died blazed through her head. Trying to not repeat the same terrible fate with Matt, she shook his body in an attempt to wake him up.

No matter what she did, nothing seemed to work. She tried the door, but it wouldn't open. She then banged her elbow into the window, but all that did was rob her of her last remaining strength. As many times as she tried her seatbelt, it absolutely refused to free her. All of her fears came true as she realized they were both trapped within the vehicle.

A glimmer of hope arrived, however, when Stefan's face appeared at Matt's door. He tried to pull her out first, but she wouldn't allow that. She had cheated death once. If it was anyone's turn to do the same, she owed it to Matt to try to save him.

Stefan reluctantly pulled Matt out and disappeared from view.

Elena's lungs had been burning for minutes now, and she knew there wasn't much time left. She momentarily thought of all the goodbyes she had never said. If the Salvatore's had really descended from Klaus, they would soon be dead anyway. She said a silent prayer that Matt and Bonnie could find some way to move on and be happy after this.

And then she let out the last breath of air within her body. The water instantly filled her body. Within seconds, the water lulled her into a deep sleep…

Elena opened her eyes and gasped for breath. The pain that burned through her entire body was so great that she closed her eyes again and leaned back into the cold table she could feel below her. Fragments of what had happened glazed through her mind, but she wasn't sure how much of those images were dreams and how much was reality.

Trying to adjust to the intense pain she felt, she remained motionless and tried to breathe. No matter how much oxygen she took into her body, though, she never felt like she had enough.

Then, she heard voices hovering over her. She knew they thought she was still asleep, so she lay there perfectly still and listened intently to the conversation taking place.

"This isn't going to change anything," Damon snapped. "She chose you, brother. She will always choose you."

"She chose me in a rushed situation where she thought she was going to lose Caroline and Tyler too," Stefan retorted, also obviously annoyed. "I can't believe you never told me about all of this."

"It was something you didn't need to know," Damon shrugged.

"And when she wakes up, she's going to realize that all this time you've been someone besides the Damon she's always known. How many moments have you shared together, Damon, that you've made her forget?"

"I-"

Elena couldn't stay silent any longer. Ignoring the still consuming fire inside of her, she opened her eyes, bolted up on the table, and said a little too loudly, "What are you talking about?"

Then, she blinked at the empty room around her. She could have sworn that Damon and Stefan had been standing right above her as she had laid there. But now, she dismissed that conversation as nothing more than a dream.

At least, she was trying to, until she heard their voices again.

"And your blood was the blood that saved her?" Stefan sighed. "It looks like we're now fighting for her on an even playing field."

"It will never be an equal fight," Damon retorted. "And we have to convince her to feed before there even is a fight. She never wanted this."

"And it will still be her decision."

"I can't lose her twice," Damon made clear. "And there are many candidates around here to complete the job."

As their conversation continued, Elena tiptoed away from the cold, metal slab and toward the door at the other end of the room. She pushed the door open slowly before wandering into the hallway beyond.

Here, the bright hospital lights blinded her. She blinked a few times before she could finally keep them open. To her surprise, both Damon and Stefan stood in the hallway and continued to bark at each other.

"Elena."

It was Damon who saw her first, and Damon's arms who first embraced her in a fierce hug. The contact felt too harsh on her, and she immediately recoiled. She took a step back and looked into the pain in Damon's eyes.

Only on a few brief occurrences had he let even her see his true self. Now, he stood there and fought the tears welling up within his eyes. He cursed, turned away, and paced. His sadness had quickly evolved into anger.

"I will kill her," he spat as he raked a hand through his dark hair. "If it wasn't for me, Alaric would have killed her. I should have given her up to him and watched her burn."

"You're talking about Rebekah," Elena spoke softly as her cloudy thoughts cleared. "She was the reason we crashed into the water." Her doe eyes grew wide. "Where is Matt? Is he okay?"

"He's unconscious, but Meredith says he will be fine," Stefan spoke, but his tone didn't sound as hopeful as it should have. The fragments of the conversation she had heard so far came together and caused her to arch an eyebrow.

"And how did I survive?" Elena asked. "And why didn't I wake up in a hospital room."

She stared at Stefan and demanded answers, but he didn't move. After several silent moments, Damon stopped pacing, turned to face her, and sighed.

"It seems that your injuries the last time you were here were more serious than Meredith let on. She fed you with vampire blood, my blood, that she had taken from me so she could heal her patients. Stefan didn't save you, this time, when you were trapped in a vehicle underwater. Elena, you died."

Shock rippled through her body, and Elena found that she couldn't move. Her head swam with dizziness, and before she knew it, her legs collapsed underneath her. Thankfully, Damon caught her before she hit the ground.

"So I'm a…" she began, but couldn't finish the sentence.

"Not yet," Damon remarked. "You know what has to happen if you want to live."

Before the words even truly registered, she heard Jeremy's voice calling out to her. Her eyes left Damon and turned toward her brother.

"I thought you were dead," Jeremy gasped as he raced to her and hugged her. While the touch still overwhelmed her, this time she didn't back away.

But then something happened Elena wasn't prepared for. Fire erupted within her lungs, blazed through her esophagus, and then flared within her mouth. She felt her body changing, and her will power slipping away. Hands grabbed onto her and pulled her backwards. To her surprise, both Stefan and Damon held tightly onto her arms.

Elena's body tensed then, and she walked back into the mortuary while streaming curses. Both Salvatore brothers followed her inside.

"So this is real?" she finally asked as she crossed her arms over her chest. When Damon nodded, she repeated his action before sighing.

Then, Elena realized several things at once. She collapsed onto the cold metal table, buried her hands in hands, and sat there in silence. Finally, after gathering her courage, she looked up at Damon. She knew he would tell her the truth about the questions she asked, even if they were hard to hear.

"Klaus died," she began slowly. "How much longer do I have with you two?"

"An indefinite amount?" Damon shrugged. "We still feel fine and our time to die as long since passed. Apparently Klaus wasn't the one who sired us."

Elena let out a sigh of relief, before remembering the other question she had to ask. Despite the fact that she wanted to hold on to hope, she tried to push that feeling down and be realistic.

"I died," Elena repeated slowly, her brown eyes looking into Damon's hypnotic blue ones. "So Alaric died too."

Even though it wasn't really a question, Damon nodded somberly in response. At that moment, she wanted to rush to him and comfort him somehow, although she stayed glued to her current spot. Tears welled up within her eyes. Even though she had already mourned for him once, this time it felt far more real. Nothing she could do would bring him back this time; there was no tiny sliver of hope to cling to. Alaric had died the second she had.

For the next few moments, she tried not to think. She tried not to think of the humanity that had been stolen from her, the hearts that were breaking from both her and Alaric's deaths, or the decisions she would have to make in a short time. She tried not to think of the burning sensation consuming her lungs, her anger at Rebekah for standing on that bridge, or the eternity she could have with either Salvatore brother now. She tried not to think of those things, but failed miserably.

The tears continued to fall without pause. She just let them come. With everything that had happened so far, she deserved this time to mourn for the life she could no longer even pretend like she could have.

After what felt like hours, she stood up. As much as she didn't want this lifestyle, as much as she had wanted to have children and grow old with her husband, she still wanted to live. And if becoming a vampire was the only way to truly survive, then she had to make that decision. Even though she had been through so much, she couldn't be selfish and truly die and leave Jeremy alone.

"I suppose it's time to do this then," she said as her eyes glanced from Damon to Stefan. "I'll complete the transition."

a/n: Review! =)