I was awoken by the shrill ring of my telephone. Groaning, I reached for it to look at the screen. Elena's name flashed across the screen. Rolling my eyes, I hit the ignore button, knowing that she was calling to try to work things out after we had ended our four year relationship earlier. I was in no mood to deal with that right now.

Flashback

"I can't do this anymore, Elena! I'm not some puzzle that you can put back together! There will always be pieces missing from me."

"Fine, Damon. I'm done. I can't love someone that doesn't love themselves. I've tried everything possible to make you happy and it's never enough for you. I have to move on."

"Get out, Elena. Just leave. And don't look back."

She gave me one last tearful look before slamming the door and walking out of my life.

As I remembered the fight, I found myself getting angry again. Who was she to try to fix me? She didn't understand the things that had happened in my past. She wasn't a psychologist, she can't diagnose me and make me into the man that she wants me to be. I wasn't capable of being fixed.

Knowing that I would not be able to get back to sleep now that I was up, I walked downstairs to fix myself a drink to try to shut my mind off. Sitting on the couch, bourbon in hand, I realized that my thoughts were running rampant and I couldn't get away from them. Vaguely, I registered that my phone was ringing again. I ignored it. And then it happened again, and a third time. Sighing, I pushed myself up from the couch ready to tell Elena to leave me alone. When I looked at my phone, I noticed 4 missed calls. The first was from Elena, the second was from Jeremy, the third from Caroline and the fourth was from a number I didn't recognize.

I felt myself get annoyed that Blondie and Jeremy were calling me this late at night to yell at me for hurting Elena…again. I noticed one of them had left me a voicemail and against my better judgment, I pressed play.

"Mr. Salvatore, this is Dr. Meridith Fell at Mystic Falls General. We have Elena Gilbert here. She was in an accident and had you listed as her emergency contact. Please call us as soon as you can."

Without realizing, I had fallen to the floor. If I had thought my mind was going crazy before, it was now in overdrive trying to process the message I had just heard. 3 words kept repeating themselves over in my head, accident, hospital, Elena. Snapping myself out of my stupor, I got dressed as fast as I could and flew downstairs, grabbing my keys on the way out.

I sprinted into the hospital, yelling at anyone who was in scrubs to tell me where she was. The nurse at the desk told me she was on the 3rd floor, in ICU. As I took the elevator up to where she was, panic began to set in. Stepping out onto the third floor, I immediately saw Caroline and Jeremy huddled in a corner. They looked up, relieved to finally see me.

"What happened?" I yelled a bit too harshly at them.

"She was in an accident, Damon. She was on her way home and crashed her car. The paramedics said they thought she had been crying about something and that's why she lost control. We haven't heard from any doctors yet, we just know that she is in surgery." Caroline told me, sniffing slightly at the end.

As the story that Caroline relayed to me began to sink in, I was overwhelmed with guilt. If I hadn't kicked her out, this wouldn't have happened. She would be curled up against my side asleep right now. I did this to her. This is my fault. I know that I have caused her more pain than anyone deserves, but if I cost her her life, I couldn't handle that. I would rather stake myself than know that the world lost her beautiful, warm presence because of me. Before I could breakdown completely, a doctor walked into the room, calling out her name.

"The family of Elena Gilbert?"

All three of our heads snapped up towards the door, eager to find out any information at all.

"Is she okay? Is she out of surgery?" Jeremy asked the doctor.

The doctor smiled warmly at us before continuing, "I'm Dr. Fell. Yes, Elena is out of surgery and she will be okay, eventually. We ran into a few complications during the surgery and had to put her into a coma in order for her to continue healing. We plan on keeping her in the coma for a week in order to stabilize and keep an eye on her. She will wake up though, I have no doubts."

A collective sigh was heaved from all three of us. Relief washing over us as we looked at each other, tears in our eyes.

"I must inform you that there was brain damage that occurred during the accident. We don't know how much, if anything she will remember when she wakes up. There is no way of knowing until Elena herself wakes up and lets us know. She is in her room now if you would like to visit her. One at a time, please."

Jeremy and Caroline looked at me and nodded their heads slowly, to show that they thought I should go in first. I opened my mouth to protest but Caroline offered me a watery smile and pushed me towards the door. I hesitantly followed Dr. Fell towards Elena's room. She told me to put on a smock and mask before I could enter the room. I took my time getting them on in order to calm my nerves about seeing Elena. Once I had mustered up enough courage, I slowly opened the door. When I saw her laying in that bed with wires coming from what looked to be every part of her body, and a big ugly, gash on her forehead, my heart broke. Tentatively, I walked toward her and sat down in a chair next to the bed. As carefully as I could, I took her hand in mine, and finally let the tears spill from my eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Elena. This is all my fault." I repeated to her over and over again, hoping and praying that somehow she could hear me.