Damon sputtered and choked and tried to buck her off of him, but Elena held him down until she was sure he'd swallowed all of it. When she let him up, Damon scrambled back and grabbed her tightly by the forearms, too tightly.

"What did you do?" He asked, his eyes wild. "Elena, what did you do?" He threw her from him and stumbled backwards off the bed. He checked himself in the mirror.

"You're human now." Elena whispered. Damon turned from his reflection, his eyes unreadable. She braced herself for his reaction.

"We hadn't even talked to Klaus." Damon's tone didn't yet carry anger, just confusion. He was still in shock.

"I did. He wasn't going to cure you, and I wasn't going to let you die." Elena said quietly.

Damon looked at his hands as though he expected them to be claws. He felt his heart, and she saw him try to transform his face into a vampire's feeding face. Nothing.

"Elena." He turned back to her. "You could have had this. You could have been human."

"Without you." The thought twisted her stomach. Damon stared at her for a long time, his face void of emotion at first. The intensity of his eyes grew, however, until he said,

"Leave."

"Damon, please-"

"Leave. Now."
Elena wanted to protest, but she had violated his trust and forced the cure down his throat. Maybe I should just go and give him the space he wants.

"Just let me try to explain." She pleaded one last time.

"I want you to go."

Damon didn't look angry, but the intensity with which he regarded her was unsettling, confusing. If he wasn't angry, why did he want her to leave? Elena stood up nonetheless and reluctantly walked from the room, casting one last glance at him before exiting. He was still watching her with that same intensity, but some of it had crumbled, leaving hopelessness and despair in its wake.

Elena trudged through the halls, unsure of where to go at first. She had been sleeping in Damon's room. Everywhere she would go, Damon was there, helping her breathe and learn to live again. He had been her rock, her support throughout this entire ordeal.

Now she had ruined their relationship and betrayed him. She had taken away his choice for her own selfishness, because she couldn't lose him.

He had never once asked her to leave his side before.

For what felt like the millionth time in too short a time, tears welled up in her eyes and a sob choked her.

What if he never forgave her?

When she looked up, she realized that Stefan was standing in the middle of the hallway, watching her. No, watching was too weak a term- fixated. His eyes raked over her, taking in her tears, and a wild joy sprang up in him. She realized what it must look like to him: she was walking from Damon's room, crying as though she'd just broken his heart.

He strode towards her, about to lift her into a big romantic kiss, forgive her indiscretions and sweep them under the sire bond rug, but she stopped him with both her hands on his outstretched arms.

"Stefan." She said simply. She didn't want to say this. She didn't want to hurt another person she cared about. She might lose him, too, forever from her selfish decision to give Damon the cure. She knew how much he wanted to be human… and she had a feeling Damon wouldn't stay human long.

"You're not human." Panic swept through him as he felt her cool skin. He searched her eyes. "What happened? It didn't work? That was the cure that Silas was going to use, it has to work!"

"I didn't take it." She admitted, her tears renewing. "I tricked you."

Stefan watched her face contort in sadness, putting the pieces together.

"No." He said faintly, the level of misery in his tone causing her to wince. "No, tell me you didn't." He broke out into a run that quickly accelerated into vampire speed, heading in the direction of Damon's room.

Elena let him go.

She wandered down the stairs, aimless. She had to leave, had to get out of this house.

She had to find her brother. She had to find Alaric.

Bonnie let her inside, but her movements were rigid and tense. Elena noticed that much of that hidden anger was directed towards her. Elena sat at her kitchen table. She was exhausted, but not from anything physical. Her heart hurt. Her bones hurt. She had no energy, no will, except to see her brother and Alaric.

Bonnie crossed her arms and remained standing.

"You lied to me about a closing spell, Elena. I didn't expect that from you."

"I know." Elena winced.

Bonnie glared at her for a moment longer. Elena took it in, feeling ashamed for all the damage she'd caused.

"We voted to give you that cure. Not Damon." She said finally.

"He was going to die, Bonnie." Elena said, her exhaustion leaking out in her voice.

"He didn't deserve it, Elena. He didn't even want it! It could have gone to my mom, or Caroline, or Stefan for that matter! Has the sire bond completely destroyed your judgment? What happened to it being a group decision?"

"You voted it to me. I used it the way I needed to use it."

"You're saying you… needed to keep Damon alive?" Bonnie almost looked disgusted. This probably didn't help her case for discrediting the sire bond.

"If I lost him Bonnie…" Elena shook her head, unable to finish that sentence. If she lost him? It wasn't a question of 'if' anymore.

But he was alive. She took solace in that thought.

"Please, you can be angry with me as much as you'd like, but for now let's just find Jeremy and Alaric."

Bonnie sighed and sank down into a chair next to her on the table. "I'm back to square zero with my magic. I can't do a locator spell."
"How are we going to find them then?" Elena moaned.

"You said you saw mostly vampires around the area of the spell? When they came to attack you and Silas?" Bonnie's forehead wrinkled in thought. Elena nodded. "Vampires, and werewolves on a full moon like tonight, can move very fast. It took them a minute or two to get there, so I think it's safe to say that they didn't originate at the point of the spell, they were just drawn there. I think we should check where they died first. If we don't find them there, they probably tried to go somewhere familiar, like your house."

"Alaric died an hour from here, and Jeremy died in Nova Scotia!" Elena was starting to panic. It had only been an hour, maybe two, since they performed the spell, but it was dark out and they might not be safe. Now she had to wait for a flight out to that godforsaken island?"

"Let's try the house first, since that's closer. If they did originate nearer to the spell, then that saves us a flight... but I doubt it, since Mystic Falls isn't currently overrun with over a thousand years worth of dead supernatural creatures."

"Alright." Elena was thinking of Jeremy, dazed and disoriented, on that horrible island. "Ok. I'll call the airlines."

"Elena." Bonnie stopped her, her voice soft. "You have to be prepared for what Alaric might come back as." Bonnie said, her eyes not looking at her. "He may come back as the crazy Alaric, and we may need to-"

"Alright." Elena cut her off abruptly. She couldn't even think about losing someone else. Not today.

"I can't believe she did this." Stefan was staring at Damon as though he was looking at his worst nightmare.

Damon looked down at his weak human body.

"Yeah, well, she did." He scowled.

"You realize why, right?" Stefan slammed Damon into the wall, grabbing his collar and hoisting him from the ground. Rage gave him strength. Damon was almost too shocked to react. Almost. He tried to shove him off of him, but found he was actually weaker than Stefan.

Oh, hell no.

Stefan growled and red lit up his eyes.

"She did it because I got bit by a werewolf and Klaus wasn't in the mood to cure me." Damon rolled his eyes, irritated that he could no longer beat his brother up. Stefan let him go slowly, backing up off of him as shock registered in his face. Damon straightened his shirt with a haughty shrug.

The red in Stefan's eyes retracted and a blank look settled over his features. He was obviously left out of the loop in the pre-cure problem solving. Elena probably knew that he would predict her next move if Klaus refused to help, and might try to intervene.

"Let me guess, you were going to revisit the 'sire bond' mantra?" Damon moved to put on his jacket. He had to admit, he was wondering himself if that might have been part of it. It was so difficult to tell what was real and what wasn't from her. Everything that they'd been through since she became a vampire… he'd thought that they were growing closer. He could see this move from the vampire Elena he had come to know, but the human Elena, the one who chose Stefan, might have been more rational about it.

"I didn't know. But I'm sure we could have pushed Klaus to help if she had just shared that knowledge with everyone." Stefan was pissed. He crossed his arms, lost in his brooding.

"Yeah, well, I guess she isn't thinking that clearly. Her brother just died, I don't think she wanted to take a chance on losing another person."

Stefan nodded, but Damon got the feeling this was the first time he was looking at it that way.

"And the sire bond?" Stefan asked, hesitant, like his entire world depended on the answer.

Damon swallowed hard. He thought back to their last encounter.

"Leave."

"Damon, please-"

"Leave. Now."

"Just let me try to explain."

"I want you to go."

She left. She wanted to stay, but she left because he told her to.

Damon shook his head. Stefan's mouth fell open. He sank down onto Damon's bed, his face in his hands.

"No." He moaned softly.

Damon looked his brother over, feeling at once angry with him and sorry for him. Not in the least as sorry as he felt for himself; now he really would have to order her away, just as he had done to Charlotte. Every time he thought about it, it made him want to take off his daylight ring and stand in a nice patch of sunlight.

"Where are you going?" Stefan looked up as Damon walked towards the door.

"I'm going to find Alaric and Jeremy." Damon sighed as he adjusted his leather jacket. "Maybe then we'll get some semblance of the old Elena back." He muttered to himself.

The brothers were here. They'd known, they had the same thought as she and Bonnie.

When she saw Damon, she wondered if she should just turn around and leave before he could see her. He was so angry with her he would probably when he saw her anyway. At the sight of his beautiful face, she paused, the ache in her heart swelling until it was white hot fire. She clutched at her chest and stopped, and Bonnie turned to see her.

She was still readjusting to how powerful her emotions could be as a vampire. Damon had been helping her, comforting her and watching over her, so she had been managing. That's not going to happen anymore.

"Elena? Are you ok?" Bonnie asked, a hand on her shoulder. Damon and Stefan turned at the sound of her voice. Damon's crystal blue eyes met hers. Pain flowed over him before he pushed it down.

Stefan wasn't happy to see her either but, like Damon, it only showed for a second before he tried to be civil.

Elena looked at the ground and glued her eyes there. She didn't want to see that again.

They resumed walking and the Salvatores met them halfway.

"He's gone." Stefan repeated.

"I can't do magic anymore, so I can't do a locator spell to find him." Uncomfortable silence settled between them as they all thought about how to proceed next. Elena couldn't help stealing a glance at Damon. She knew he felt her eyes on him, but he did not meet hers.

"Well, Damon." Stefan patted him on the back. "Maybe we use your newfound humanity to our advantage."

"What?"

"Ric came back as a vampire, right? So, if he hasn't fed yet, you can be our bait." Stefan looked a little too pleased with his plan.

"Great." Damon groaned.

"He's had three hours. I doubt he's in this area anymore." Bonnie sighed.

"I've got Caroline camped out at my house waiting for him if he shows up there." Elena said softly, almost afraid to speak. She didn't want either of their eyes on her.

"Well, I guess we'll do it the hard way. Let's spread out, then, and look around this part of the city. A human to a vampire, we'll try to bait him out if we can."

"Three hours is plenty of time to feed. I don't think this is going to work." Damon sighed, but he acquiesced. Bonnie saw Elena's expression as she watched them go.

"Wait!" Bonnie stopped them. "You two have been vampires for centuries; you know how they think. We don't. We need one of you in each group so we have a better idea of where to go and what to look for."

Damon's eyes locked on hers as he realized that they would be partners. Elena's heart stilled. She saw his reluctance pass through him and tried to swallow her hurt down so it wouldn't show on her face.

"No, that's ok. I've been a vampire long enough, we'll be fine." He doesn't want to spend time with me.

"No, Bonnie's right." Damon agreed, making his voice deliberately low and even. Bonnie cast her a covert smile as she switched places with him.

Elena was at once nervous that they had been thrown together and incredibly happy that she could spend more time with him, even if he didn't want the same thing. She didn't even need him to speak or look at her, just his presence alone soothed her.

It might be one of the last opportunities she had to spend time with him.

They walked in silence for a while, and she let Damon lead them, walking slightly behind him so she could follow his direction smoothly.

"There's a bar down here, I saw it on my way out of the city last time. I think there was an alley behind it. If he's looking to pick someone off without a struggle, that would be the place. Lots of drunk idiots stepping out to take a piss."

It was the first words he'd spoken to her. The sound of his voice shocked her out of silence, and the words shot out of her mouth before she could think about it.

"I know why you're angry. At least I think I do. But why are you so angry you don't even want to see me?" Elena asked. Damon turned his head sharply to meet her eyes.

He slowed his pace, but kept walking.

"Look, it's for the best, Elena." Damon growled eventually, turning away from her to survey the approaching bar.

"How? What do you mean? I know that I hurt you by forcing the cure on you, but now you just don't even want to be around me?" She asked, tears stinging her eyes. She pushed them down.

Damon looked back at her again at the crack in her voice. Sympathy flooded his expression before a hard edge crept in.

"You know why. Please, let's try to make this as painless as possible."

Elena looked hard at the concrete passing beneath her feet. She did know. He'd taken away her choice to live or die so many times, she knew exactly how he felt. Violated. Angry.

But she'd also felt safe, protected, and secretly grateful, even while burning with frustration.

Just as they approached the bar, a couple of older men smoking outside the bar eyeing them as they passed, Damon's phone started to vibrate. Damon pulled it from his coat pocket.

"Any luck, brother?"

"We found him." Came Stefan's triumphant voice. Elena's heart sped up.

"Where are they?" She asked, too excited to contain herself even though she knew that would be the next words out of Damon's mouth. Damon repeated her question.

Stefan gave them a meeting place that Damon recognized.

"Wait. Can we talk to him?" Damon asked.

There was silence on the phone. Then another voice crackled through the speakers.

"Damon?"

"Ric!" Elena had rarely heard that voice from him. A cheerful sigh followed his exclamation. "How's being raised from the dead?"

"Like my birthday and Christmas all rolled up into one."

"Everything you'd hoped and dreamed it would be?" Damon asked, a soft grin lighting up his face.

"Alright, dick, just get over here to I can roll my eyes at you in person." Damon chuckled, a real laugh.

Elena tugged the phone from his grasp. Damon's hands snapped back at her touch like she was made of fire, but he let her pull the phone from him. She tried to cover up her hurt by turning away from him to talk into the phone.

"Alaric! I'm so happy you're safe!"

"Elena. It's so good to hear your voice. Is Jeremy with you?"

"No…" She swallowed hard. "No, we haven't been able to get to him just yet."

"Oh." Ricks tone had changed. "Well come meet me and we'll talk battle strategies, just like the old days."

"Ok." Elena smiled. She bit down on her bottom lip, her happiness so intense she could have hugged the phone.

With some reluctance, she hung up. Damon immediately began walking, directing her to their meet-up spot.

Bonnie, Stefan, Alaric, Elena, Caroline, Jeremy and Damon all sat in the drawing room of the Salvatore's mansion, catching up on everything that had gone down in their absence. Lexi had yet to show up, and Stefan had a feeling that she had gone to track down her lover before she visited him. Elena couldn't keep her eyes off Jeremy, and for the first time in what felt like forever, she couldn't keep a smile off her face, either. She sat close to him, holding his hand just to make sure he was still there, that this was all real. Jeremy didn't mind it at first, but she could tell he was already growing weary of the childlike handholding.

Bonnie drove to the nearest airport while they were searching for Alaric and, upon discovering that her original magic was returning little by little, convinced the airline attendant to change the destination of one of the flights. She returned home the next day, triumphant, with Jeremy on her arm.

Elena realized when Bonnie called as they were on their way back that flying out there after them would be useless, so she exercised all the patience she had left and waited for them to return, spending most of the day talking with Alaric in his old apartment, curled up on his couch with many different cups of tea. It seems even Evil Alaric was a diligent and responsible citizen who paid his rent up to 6 months in advance.

As she sat there with Jeremy's hands clutched tightly in hers, her eyes wandered over to Damon. He had been dutifully avoiding her and was only in the same room as her because she had hogged Alaric all day and now he had a chance to talk to him. A piece of her conversation with Alaric floated to her mind as she watched him.

"A sire bond?" Alaric's head tilted to the side like it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard. "And that makes you… love… Damon?"

"I don't think so, but everyone else seems convinced of it." Elena shook her head.

"So you actually do love Damon?" Alaric shuddered a bit at the thought.

"You don't approve of us?"

Alaric struggled for words.
"Well, I initially didn't like the idea of you and Damon because I was sure hanging around him was going to get you killed or vamped, but now… I guess we're both up vampire creek."

"So you don't have a problem with me and Damon?" Elena pressed. That was a vague answer if she'd ever heard one.

Alaric sighed and chuckled a bit before answering, running a hand over his face in exasperation.

"Look, I'm not great at this kind of advice, but I'll give it my best shot." He took a breath; "I haven't just been floating in free space this whole time. The other side was mostly darkness and quiet, but there were moments when people were thinking about me, or talking to me, that I could look in on and watch and listen. Damon was in a lot of those moments for me, as were you and Jeremy. Damon can be a monumental dick, but he's not the worst guy I can imagine you with. If you think that this 'sire bond' business isn't real… well I hesitate to tell you to ignore everyone and go with your gut, since it very well might be that your gut is affected by this magic, but if what you're feeling right now, in this moment, is real love, and you can identify it by the other feelings of love you've had, then how can it be wrong to be with someone you love? If you find out, some day, how to break the sire bond and you realize that your feelings were different… are you going to feel sick with yourself, or hate him, because you let yourselves be in love? Is he going to hate you because you had that time together and in the end it didn't work out? I doubt it. I know that you cared about Damon before all this, and that it was a difficult choice to make between him and Stefan, so you had feelings for him anyway. I can see that now you don't love Stefan, and forcing anything isn't going to work. So just do what makes both of you happy, and for Christ's sake don't worry so much over it because I can tell you first hand that life can be short. As for Stefan…. someone was always going to get hurt in this little love triangle thing you have going on; someone had to get the short stick. I think Stefan will survive, and it might suck for a long time for him, but that's just how feelings go. We can't control or rationalize them, we just have to accept them. If you're worried about missing out on your soul mate in him, don't be. Soul mates are overrated. There are plenty of people in this world who want love and can give love, so if things don't work out with Damon and Stefan's moved on at that point, you haven't missed your shot at true love."

Elena kissed Jeremy on the cheek, hugged him and said goodnight. Jeremy was sad to see her go, but also looked a little bit relieved that this adult handholding business was done for the night. She and Jeremy were both staying at the Salvatore boardinghouse for the night, but Alaric was talking about moving some things out of his spare bedroom for Jeremy tomorrow.

"I'll see you in the morning. I'm going to bed." Elena smiled.

"Ok." Jeremy smiled back, and Elena felt such a surge of affection for him that she hugged him again, tightly, until he called for a stop.

On her way out, she caught Damon's eye and held it. Alaric's words had given her strength. He may be angry with her now, but he had done the same thing to her many times and she had forgiven him. She would make him forgive her, too. She would make it up to him, somehow.

She retreated into her room and waited until the sounds from downstairs died down. Eventually, she heard footsteps in the hall. Her plan was to wait until he was alone in his room, then she would make him understand how much she loved him and beg with him to forgive her, or at least try to forgive her. She had the whole speech planned. Then a knock came at her door.

Confused, she eased the door open.

Damon eyed her almost cautiously as he leaned against the door frame. Elena waited in stunned silence for him to say something. He had been trying so hard to avoid her, and now he was knocking on her door.

"Can we talk?" He said. There was very little warmth in his voice, and a touch of sadness peaked through his careful composure.

"Sure." Elena said, but her insides were twisting. She had a feeling this conversation was going to be painful and not at all the way she had planned.

Damon wandered inside her room, stopping at the side of the bed and running his hand along the old mahogany bedpost. Silence spilled over between them.

"I can't believe those two are back."

"I know." Elena smiled. "It's like a dream."

Damon smiled back, his eyes lingering on her, a wistful quality ghosting through them.

"Now that you have them back…" Damon took a deep breath, and then the words rushed out, forced. "I think I need to leave."

Elena's throat constricted with emotion.

"Damon, I'm so sorry I forced the cure on you, I just couldn't let you die and I knew you would never let me give it to you-"

"I know why you did what you did." Pain was ebbing through his controlled expression now. "I don't blame you for it."

"Then why? Why are you leaving?" Elena couldn't help taking his hands in hers, desperation rising up in her.

He looked down at their joined hands, his face cracking into true misery then.

"I have to. You're sired to me, forever now. We can't do this anymore Elena, it's not right. I won't do this to you, and I can't do this to my brother."

Elena felt another round of tears threatening to overflow from her eyes. What he was saying… she could barely stand the idea of it.

"We don't know that I'm still sired to you."

"I do."

Her heartbeat thudded to a stop.

"How? How do you know?"

"You left. I asked you to leave, and I knew how badly you wanted to stay, I could see it, and you left anyway because I made you." Damon moaned.

Then everything clicked into place. The strange intensity in his eyes as he demanded she go, the listless way he had looked at her and avoided her, never showing a hint of anger or frustration. He was sad, miserable, thinking that she would always be shackled to him by fake emotions, not pissed that she had forced the cure on him.

Elena took a deep breath, her heart pounding in her chest. This was the moment. This was when he would believe her. This was when she could finally kiss away the pain that had ached in his eyes every time she declared her love for him. This was when he would touch her, unashamed and unabashed.

"Ask me to go one more time."

Damon looked up at her, reading the shining determination there and mistaking it for stubbornness. He sighed.

"Elena, please leave me alone. Now." His voice was tired and vacant of any sort of conviction.

"No. I want to stay with you, Damon. I love you." She said the words very distinctly, and she couldn't help the tenderness from her voice.

Damon looked from eye to eye, weighing the sincerity there. A profound change came over him as she stood there steadily, no sign of struggle in her at his words.

"Elena, I want you to leave this room right now. This second."

"No." She was starting to smile now. A smile was cracking Damon's face as well. His eyes darted over her whole body as he waited another beat.

Then he pulled her to him with all the passion she had watched him resist these last couple of months. He kissed her mouth ferociously, his hands traveling across her body and twining in her hair.

"Get out of here now…" He panted as he came up for air.

"No." She breathed heavily, her mouth crashing back into his.

He pushed her up against the wall and dragged her legs around his waist, as he had done so long ago next to the fireplace after the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. He held their bodies together so tightly she felt like they might press into one, kissing his way down her neck.

"Leave." He mumbled against her skin.

"No."

He cupped her face in his hand and kissed her mouth again. His lips caressed her with just the right amount of pressure and she was dizzy with desire for him. He touched her gently, unhurriedly, like he was praying to her body. His tongue savored her mouth, and she was drowning in the powerful, overwhelming wave of him all over her.

He pulled back, looking between her shining eyes, happiness pouring out of him. He stroked her cheek tenderly and kissed her once more, a soft, brief incredibly sweet kiss before declaring.

"Then I guess I'll just have to stay."

Thank you so much for reading! Thank you for asking for more of what was originally just a oneshot!

Did you guys notice that in the promo pic for 4x23 Elena is opening Damon's shirt and looking at his shoulder in concern? LIKE EXACTLY WHAT I WROTE LAST CHAPTER EXACTLY THE SAME EXACTLY? I'm going to laugh so hard if he actually gets a werewolf bite on his shoulder and she uses the cure to save him. I will laugh. And then I will send Julie Plec a message with a link to this fanfic, saying "look at the date I published this I called you out I predicted your every move I am clearly your biggest fan."….Sorry my sentence structure really suffers when I'm too excited. I will definitely not be upset if the season finale goes the way of this fanfic, but again, it's TVD… so probably a lot more painful. I think there's a real chance we might get a Delena ending, though, at least for this season!

Again, thank you for all your amazing reviews. I read and get so excited over every one of them so please don't forget to review one last time !