Thank you SO much for the reviews, they make me happy :D Disclaimer: I do not own these wonderful characters; I just like to play 'puppet master'. I chose this outcome because it suited my story best, sorry for the wait; hope you enjoy... 3

DPOV

There it was. The moment he had been dreading; the moment when Elena Gilbert's heart gave up. All too soon the room was filled with a deafening silence- no raspy breaths or stammering heart, just silence. Losing all hope (that's strange he thought... hadn't he lost all hope when Katherine wasn't in the tomb?) Damon lifted the limp girl off of the bed and ran out of the window, running full speed to his house. Not caring if Stefan was home already, and not caring about the blood soaking into the silk sheets and staining them, he put Elena down on his bed. She looked serene and peaceful. She looked dead. Not quite knowing why he was doing it, Damon tucked her in. He didn't want her to be cold; he didn't want her to be exposed. That's STUPID Damon, she's DEAD, he thought bitterly. Where she was now there was no feeling. He concentrated on her face; looking for any signs of life... the rest of her was too painful to look at. He knew that only time would tell if she died or turned. Only time would tell if she died loving him or woke up hating him. One thing Damon was certain about however, was that this time, he wouldn't leave her. He saw her pain, and he would stay to bury her or console her. Stefan had left her hurting, which was something Damon couldn't bring himself to do; no matter how much he wanted to escape this nightmare. Damon would stay. Damon would wait. Damon would face the consequences.

EPOV

She hurt all over, but she wasn't scared. The darkness was almost a relief, after the chaos of her life. The darkness closed in, becoming more and more frightening and uncomfortable, suffocating her. As soon as the pain had arrived however, it disappeared, and a glowing, magical sensation began to flow through every fibre of her being, making her feel better. Elena was sure she had felt this feeling before, but... she couldn't quite remember it. It was all too hazy. Ordinarily, Elena would have been frightened. Not of death, but of the unknown. The uncontrollable. But someone somewhere was comforting her, whispering reassurances to her. The voice of an angel was soothing her but... they were crying. An angel was crying for her. Elena felt a sense of familiarity with the voice too, but once again the answer escaped her. Finally, Elena embraced the new wave of darkness and was grateful: for the end, for the release, and for the person beside her crying for her... mourning her. Elena Gilbert was grateful that she had someone who loved her in the end.

Light. Bright, blinding, annoying fucking light. That was what she saw as she woke up. Was this the afterlife? Eternal annoyance? It was then that Elena realised that she was not in some cloud covered heaven, but someone's bedroom. She leapt up and ran to the window, snapping the curtains shut. Briefly she saw that the sky outside was grey. Well why does the light hurt so much? As darkness descended upon the room, Elena felt blissful. Much better. Her head was killing her, but the gloom seemed to make some of the throbbing go away. Feeling better already, Elena thought to herself with a smile. ... Feeling better? Last night... OhMyGosh! Elena remembered the event of the previous night and a wave of nausea overcame her. She couldn't understand why she wasn't dead. OhNo. Turning slowly to face the doorway she noticed that Damon was leaning against the frame looking crushed. Looking just like he did when he had found out that Katherine wasn't in the tomb. Hopeless. He wouldn't even meet her gaze. After a minute of awkward silence, Elena found her voice.

"Am I...?" Elena couldn't even bring herself to ask if she was a monster.

"I tried SO hard Elena... I had to try. Obviously I failed but... I couldn't just give up." Elena winced at the sound of his voice. What was normally so calm and collected and mean was desolate and quiet and shaky. He sounded tired too and he still refused to meet her eye. "Elena... why...why did you?" his voice broke. Elena saw the tears forming in his eyes and watched him try to stop them from falling. Once again, he was fighting a losing battle. Even when she was trying to stop herself from hurting him, she was still doing it. It became clear who the 'angel' from earlier had been, and Elena decided than Damon needed some answers. He deserved at least that much.

"Ever since I met you and Stefan, I have been told one thing OVER and OVER: 'History will not repeat itself'. I bet that make you angry. Well think about how YOU feel, and multiply it by ten, because that's how much pressure I felt. I was Katherine in the making as far as you and Stefan were concerned, so I set out to hate you. I had to. So imagine how I felt when I started to go to you for comfort or fun; or...or... comparing you to Stefan; or at the dance, when I was glad that Stefan wasn't there. Glad because I wanted you. I loved Stefan so much, but by trying to keep us away from each other, he only succeeded in pushing us even closer together. Imagine how I felt when I woke up one day and realised that I was Katherine. I had fallen for both of the Salvatore brothers. At first I told myself that I wasn't as bad, because my feelings were genuine but I realise that that made me worse. And every time I thought of Stefan and the pain it would cause him I died a little inside. The other night, I made you hate me Damon, and that last little spark went Poof. I couldn't go on living a lie, and I couldn't reveal my... my true feelings." Elena swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. She expected a long speech from Damon about how she was, in fact, Elena and NOT Katherine. She was bitterly disappointed.

"I understand exactly what you're going through Elena, but WHAT THE FUCK!" his voice echoed through the house's many rooms. "You were spoilt for choice, so you decide to KILL yourself? You get to take the easy was out whilst I'm left here to hate myself, and blame myself, and wonder why? To you, that may have been romantic and heroic, but to me, that was just plain selfish. Leaving me here-alone- after making me care about you! I'm going downstairs to get something to eat. You can join me and complete the transition, OR you can fuck off and leave me alone like you originally intended. Just like Katherine. I saved you Elena, and I'm sorry if you didn't want to be saved. But I also waited for you. If that was all in vain then just go. Go back to your 'white knight'." With that, he disappeared.

A mixture of emotions overwhelmed Elena at that point. Fear: Would Stefan still love her if she was a monster? Anger: How dare he talk to her like some child? How dare he save her when she wanted to die? Sadness: Her old life was gone forever. Elena had never felt emotion with such intensity before, but she vaguely recalled Stefan mentioning that it was a 'newborn vamp' thing. She needed to calm down, but one look at herself in the mirror, still covered in dried on blood; HER blood angered her once again. After punching a hole in the wall, Elena decided to take a shower to clean up and calm down.

An hour later, a clean, relaxed Elena emerged from Damon's room and went downstairs. Her own clothes had been a mess, so she had disposed of them and was wearing one of Damon's black shirts. During her shower she had been able to think... she owed Damon an apology. When she had woken up, she had taken all of her anger and fear out on him. But he was the one who did his best to save her. He was the one holding her hand as she met death. Up in the bedroom, Damon had been covered in her caked on blood, but from the bottom of the stair she could see that he too had cleaned up. Currently he was nursing a glass of scotch and gazing into the fire.

"You're wearing a different top," Elena noted, trying to break the tension between them. He stared at her as though she was mad.

"It's identical to my other one. How'd you know?" the normal answer... the human answer would have been that this one was clean,

"It's a shade darker," Elena admitted.

"Oooh... you're getting your super-senses. Congratulations. Oh, and Elena? ASK before you take people's clothes." He declared in a typically Damon, sarcastic way. "Speaking of which, there's a bag of blood in the fridge with your name on." Elena opened her mouth to comment but in a flash he was stood before her, with his gorgeous blue eyes were staring at her with a fiery intensity. "And before you go all 'St. Stefan' on me, I don't care about your inner turmoil, Elena. As far as I'm concerned, I've already lost you. Personally, I'd rather you died than completed the transition and went back to him." He spat out the last word with more hatred than Elena had thought he was capable of. "So drink, or don't drink Elena. Just don't pull me into your stupid little head games. You can't have a Salvatore on each arm, and I have a very strong feeling about which one of us you'll chose, so I'll just save us both the trouble and leave now." He turned to leave but Elena caught his arm. She could tell that he was being typical Damon yet again; transforming his useless emotions (sadness, fear) into ones that he could use. Anger. Hatred. She had hurt him so many times, and she just wanted to make his pain go away. But she couldn't. All she could do was beg for his forgiveness.

"I'm so sorry, Damon. I never meant for any of this to happen. And I'm not going to complete the transition. I've hurt you so much in such little time... imagine putting up with me forever. I'm going to say goodbye to Jenna and Jer' and then I'm going to curl up in a corner and die somewhere." This time she was the one to leave, not being able to look back at the tears that she knew where falling down his face. She could smell the salty odour in the air. Doubling her speed (not quite vampire speed yet, but getting there), she ran in the direction of her house.

"And that was all I wanted to say." Elena finished her long, heart-felt goodbye and glanced at their faces. Both Aunt Jenna and Jeremy were crying. She had tried to say goodbye without raising suspicion (she assumed that neither of them had been in her room) but Jeremy knew her. He knew something was wrong. "Look, guys, I have something I need to do, so I'll be off." Elena realised that she hadn't fooled her brother and didn't want to face his questions. Not now. Elena walked out of the front door and into the darkening streets. It had been difficult to explain to Aunt Jenna why she had turned up wearing nothing except one of Damon's shirts, and she still hadn't bothered changing; she had just added some sunglasses to protect her newly sensitive eyes. She liked Damon's shirt; the scent of him made her feel safer and braver than she actually was. After an hour of waling, Elena found herself by the creek and decided that it would be a nice place to die. Well, die again. Elena closed her eyes as she lay on the floor and fell into herself. She knew that Damon wouldn't follow her and force blood upon her like Stefan would have. Like Stefan did to Damon all those years ago. Damon, whether he loved her or hated her, had given her the choice out of respect. Stefan wouldn't have. Once again Elena found her thoughts wandering toward the older Salvatore brother. She was in love with him, she was certain. How could she betray Stefan? Elena's train of thought was interrupted.

"Miss? Miss, are you alright? This is a mighty dangerous place to be at night. I just found that out myself when I took a fall." He waffled on and on before showing her his hand. Barely visible in the dim light, Elena saw the hand covered in blood. His bloody hand that would be her undoing.

Within a fraction of a second, Elena was at his side, sucking on the wound that she had been unable to resist. He began to move away but Elena clung to him, too strong for him...too greedy for him. Elena felt her face changing into that horrible vampire mask that she had once been conditioned to run from and smiled cruelly before sinking her fangs (newly emerged for her aching gums) into his neck. She was clumsy, and her first few attempts only drew a little blood, but soon enough the man was dead and Elena lay next to him, crying. Although she knew she should hide the body, burn the body (that was what Damon would do right?) she just couldn't bring herself to 'cover her tracks'. Instead, she ran. She ran as far as she could, as fast as she could (which she found was very fast). The world passed in a blur or colours and sounds and before she knew it, Elena was stood outside the boarding house, screaming.

DPOV

Damon was sat wallowing in his own misery (Yet again, he thought) when it happened. A scream of absolute terror bombarded his sensitive ears. Running to the front door Damon saw the strangest sight of his entire life. Elena Gilbert, on her knees, face raised to the sky in a silent prayer. Elena Gilbert, wearing nothing but his shirt and covered in leaves. Elena Gilbert, with blood smeared on her face and hands... blood that was definitely not her own. Elena Gilbert, screaming at him to help her. Elena Gilbert: the vampire.