AUTHOR'S NOTE

hi everyone! so, this is my first story and this idea came to me just like that and I couldn't shake it off my mind so I guess I just had to write it. I don' t have a Beta yet, so you may find some mistakes (keep in mind thta English is not my first language please) but if anyone feels like doing the job... Tell me! Well, I hope you enjoy this, more chapters to come!

Elena Gilbert had just woken up. It was still early and the sun had come up not so long ago. Waking up early was a habit she had picked up a long time ago and that she had dropped a few years after. But these days, she just couldn't seem to stay asleep in the morning. Yet, she was exhausted. She felt like she was 60, all old and tired… Her body didn't seem to want to respond the way it should do at only 36 years old. Damn, she was only at the beginning of her life and she already felt like she was about to die. She had been feeling this way for almost 19 years… She yawned as she poured herself a cup of coffee. Elena sat at the kitchen table and took a sip of her coffee. She lifted her feet from the cold tiles of the floor and tucked them under her. Looking outside by the big window in front of her, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She just loved these moments, before the world would wake up and everything would start to move. These moments when she felt like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders but yet felt the most serene. The silence, the calm… Only her. It felt good.

"Meow."

Well, not only her. Benjy, her Bengal cat would always know the exact time when she would open her eyes and he would wait for her to get out of her room. He would always follow her to the kitchen and keep her company until she went to prepare herself for work. At almost 20 years old, he was the oldest cat Elena had ever known. She's had him for such a long time… Looking down at him, she smiled sadly. Benjy made her think about him. The chubby cat was almost the only thing she hadn't thrown away after he had left. She had wanted to get rid of everything that reminded her of him, but just couldn't abandon Benjy.

For a second, Elena felt tears fill up her eyes. She blinked rapidly and fought back the tears. She wouldn't cry over him. Not again. She had cried every tear of her frail body, for weeks. Hell, she had cried for months. For months she had locked herself in her bedroom, fixing the ceiling all day, only getting out to eat and sometimes shower. For months she felt like her life wasn't worth it without him. For months, she waited for death to come and get her, because being dead couldn't be worst than living if he wasn't there to be living with. Eventually, she stopped crying. She had to. She couldn't let her life pass her by because of some guy. She had stopped crying 19 years ago. She would never cry over him again. Or at least that's what she was repeating every morning to try and convince herself that she was over him. Because she was. She was, right?

"Meow?"

Benjy cocked his head to the side like he always did and stared at her with his big dark eyes. Damn, this cat just always seemed to know when she felt sad! Elena put down her cup on the table and clapped her hands on her thighs. As if he had been waiting for the signal, Benjy jumped on her lap and immediately started to purr. Elena smiled at the still energetic cat and scratched him under his chin. She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost did not hear the soft knocking on the door. Surprised, she checked the clock on the wall besides her and frowned when she saw the time. 7.14. Who could be knocking at her door at 7.14 in the morning, on a Tuesday?

Elena gently pushed Benjy from her lap and made her way to the front door. The cat followed her and started to hiss as she got closer to the door. Amused, Elena grinned and said:

"Easy, Benjy, it's only a visitor. It's not like you've never seen anyone before. And it's probably just the mailman."

Elena unlocked the door and turned the knob. She couldn't contain the gasp that escaped her when her eyes fell on her "visitor". Her heart ached at the sight in front of her. After all these years, when she loved him, hated him, when she cried and cursed him, when she dreamed that he would show up on her doorstep, he was finally here. Her mind filled with flashes of images of him, all those memories she had kept hidden in a corner of her head for all those years were flowing freely, hitting her like a wave. Like a tsunami. Shaking her head, her voice quivered as one soft and almost inaudible word escaped her trembling lips.

"Damon…"