"Well? Are we just going to sit here in silence?"

"No. I'm just not sure where to start."

"You never had a problem saying whatever you wanted before so go ahead Elena purge, spill the beans, let the weight lift off your shoulders."

"Ask me what you've been dying to ask me since you saw me at your door."

"What makes you think I want to ask you anything? Your the one that came here."

"Want to try that again? Ask me."

"I don't-" He pauses as he sees her face. It's pensive and she looks so worn out. He understands that she needs him to ask her, so he gives in, because since when has he been able to deny her? "Why did you come here Elena?" She lets out a sigh of relief and starts to talk.

"I missed you Damon. I never wanted you to leave. And every single minute of the time you were gone I wished you were there."

"I've been gone a long time Elena."

"I know. I tried to come sooner, but I just had so much to handle. My partner in crime wasn't there to help me anymore. I was alone."

"You had Stefan. You couldn't have us both, you still can't." He's bitter and she doesn't blame him.

"I never wanted either of you at the same time untill recently. I fell in love with Stefan and I was in love with him untill he left with Klaus and refused to come back. I got to see how much you did for me and everyone that I thought was just Stefan. I fell in love with you, and even though I had Stefan back I was still in love with you. I don't have a switch Damon. I can't stop loving you. I tried. It didn't work. And don't even try holding the fact that I tired to stop loving you over my head, because I know damn well you did the same. My point is I wanted you while I was with Stefan, I never wanted Stefan while I was with you."

"Why did it take you seven months to come here? You obviously knew where I was."

"I was packed and ready to leave three months ago. When I told Stefan-"

"You told Stefan?" He's almost in shock at her admission.

"Did you think I wouldn't? I'm not Katherine."

"I know that Elena. Give me some credit. I just didn't think that you would risk him getting mad at you for comming to see me."

"It wasn't just that. I went to Stefan to tell him that I needed you. That we couldn't recreate the past. When I told him I was leaving and he went a little crazy. I stayed because I needed to help him get better again. Caroline and Bonnie were worried about me leaving at first, but they understood. I was just so tired of pretending, I just packed whatever I could fit and left. I already wasted too much time."

"And if Stefan loses it again?"

"Then it's on him. I don't want to go back to him. I don't want to go back there with out you. I let you walk away once with out a real fight once, I'm not going to do it again."

"What if I told you you were too late?"

"Am I?" She cautiously asks knowing that she could very well get the answer she fears.

He doesn't answer.

She starts to panic.

"You have lost me forever."

Those were her words to him so long ago, and now she wonders if she has lost him forever.

"Your going to let me go aren't you?

"It's the right thing to do."

"And we aren't right?"

"You only think that because Stefan hasn't been here."

"Please Damon."

"I want nothing more than to be with you, but I refuse to be selfish with you. You said to me months ago that I would be the one to save Stefan, because he loves me."

"I still believe that Damon."

"I do too, but I can't bring him back here and be with you. He's in love with you."

"And you aren't?"

"You, Elena, are the only girl I have ever been so maddingly in love with."

"Am I that much of a burden?"

"No. You just make everything irrational. You make me irrational. I want to do everything for you, and I can't. I can't be what you want me to be. I never could. I can try and be better than I am, but it's not enough for you."

"And Stefan can give me that?"

"He did once upon a time."

"Once upon a lie. That's what it was. He made it seem like you were the only one with this awful past, and how much of a monster you are. He's the monster Damon. Your going to bring back the monster and turn him back into the Stefan I loved, and I'm going to feel obligated to help him, to keep him that way."

"What do you want me to do? Let him go? I can't Elena. You wanted me to feel? Well here it is, I feel Elena. He's my brother I have to save him-I want to save him."

"I know that. You should want to. You promised you would never leave me again. We trust each other. No more lies, remember? If you leave that means not only are you breaking a promise, but it means you lied."

"Then I guess I'm a liar Elena. I'm sorry. I have to go."

"This conversation isn't over. I'll see you when you get home."

"I'm bringing Stefan home, but I'm not staying."

"No. You don't mean that."

"I do Elena. I can't be here."

"Where will you go?"

"I'll be close enough for when more trouble finds you, as it inevitably does. I will always protect you, but I won't have a front row seat to you and Stefan. You both deserve a real chance at happiness with out me in the way."

"Don't do this."

"Goodbye Elena."

Slam.

And with that he was gone.

As easily as he entered her life he leaves it.

He leaves her standing in the exact spot she first met him. - Nostalgia was a bitch.

He left the better man. To bring Stefan back. As promised.

Elena was his kryptonite...he did whatever she needed, asked, and he would never refuse her...untill now.

He wasn't asking her to choose.

He wasn't asking her to run away.

Or remember...

'I want you to remember the things you felt while he was gone.'

She doesn't chase after him. She just lets him go.

A part of her hopes that he didn't mean what he was saying. The other part knows he did. Damon.

She helped bring Damon back to life, and he was giving it all up to give Stefan his life back.

Elena was so proud of this Damon. The man he had become. But she missed the selfish impulsive Damon. That Damon would have never let her go. She realizes this too late.

'I like you now, just the way you are.'

It was true, even more so now. He still drove her crazy, but there was nothing about him she would change. Now she had to hope he already knew it, because she wasn't sure when she would get another chance to say it.