Im sorry! I know it has been far too long since I updated this story. I have been really busy. But here is the final chapter. Hope you like it.
Elena's POV
Elena woke up inside a dimly lit room, lying on an unfirmiliar bed. The last thing she remembered was...Damon! He had come to rescue her. All of the memories of what had happend came rushing back to her all of a sudden. Had Damon actually said he loved her? Elena's heart beat slightly faster at the thought. No. That's not possible. Elena assumed she must have been so out of it from the pain that she must have imagined some of the things that had happend.
Elena looked down at her body to see it bandaged in a couple places. This was a bit odd, she realized. She knew she had more injuries than what she saw. But she couldn't feel them anymore. She knew her left leg had been broken, and the bones in her wrist and hand completely shatterd. But she couldn't feel any of these injuries. Or see any sign that they had ever existed. Really, the only bandages she found were one on her side and one on her shoulder.
She tried to sit up, thinking it wouldn't be too difficult to do, considering how good she felt. Suddently there were two hands pushing her back down onto the bed, carefully avoiding the bandage on her shoulder. She looked up in faint surprise and noticed Damon's ice blue eyes staring at her.
"Don't try to sit up, Elena. I know you feel better but you are still too weak to stand," Damon explained. He looked at her with a slightly worried look in his eyes and he sat down on the edge of the bed, beside Elena. He lifted his hand to Elena's face and brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear. His hand touched her face slightly in the process and she could feel herself stop breathing. Damon noticed and he smirked slightly in response.
"Where are we, Damon?" Elena asked, once she was able to breathe again.
"We're still in Atlanta. You were in such bad shape when we left...I didn't trust taking you to a human doctor. They would have wanted to know why you were hurt, and also, you obviously healed faster this way. I knew a doctor that wasn't too far away who specialized in supernatural injuries," Damon answered. Elena nodded her head, she really was feeling a lot better than she had been.
"Are you okay? You're not hurt anywhere are you?" Elena asked, though he seemed fine.
Damon seemed to be considering her question, "Hmmm. If I told you yes, would you kiss me?"
Elena was sure her face showed her confuesed emtion. "Why would I kiss you for telling me you were hurt?"
"To make me feel better, of course," Damon said, as if it were the most obvious answer.
"You make it sound like a kiss is some sort of all-healing magical medicine."
"Well, not all kisses, of course. But I'm sure that a kiss from you would be very magical," Damon responded with a smirk on his face.
"Ahh, well with such sweet words as that, how could I not kiss you?" Elena said, sarcastically.
"Now, is that any way to treat the person who came to your rescue?"
"Oh, so now you're going to try to guilt me into kissing you?"
Damon sighed. "Well, it was worth a try. You truly are the most stubborn person I have ever met," Damon said with a small smile on his face. Elena smiled slightly in return, becoming lost in the swirl of his blue eyes.
"How did I heal so fast?" Elana said, changing the subject before she completely lost her train of thought.
"Well, the doctor is a witch. Or, well, technically he is a man, so I suppose the term 'male witch' would be less offensive," Damon explained, with sarcasm in his voice. "So he performed his magical voo doo and what not," Damon represented his words by waving his left hand while wearing an unimpressed expression on his face, "then you were healed."
"Hm, well I am grateful for his 'magical voo doo and what not'. I was beginning to worry about my chances of survival," Elena said.
"So was I," Damon said, almost too quietly to hear. "I was going to give you some of my blood, to help heal you. But, I wasn't sure how you would feel about that and if something had happend...you would have become a vampire."
Elena nodded. "I understand," Elena said. Suddenly a thought came to mind, "Isobel! Is she okay? Did you get her out?"
"Yes," Damon answered. "She is here, she's being cared for as we speak. Honestly, Elena, I can't believe you did all of this to find her. You nearly got yourself killed," Damon's voice held a barely noticable edge at the end of his sentence.
"I had to find her. I just knew she was in trouble, and I was right. I need to see her, where is she?" Elena asked while trying to throw her feet off of the bed.
"She's fine. Would you stop trying to get up?" Damon responded while pushing her back onto the bed. "Katherine had been depriving her of blood. So she wasn't really in the best shape. But she will recover soon enough. Unfortunately, we need to get you home, and she won't be well enough to leave by then. So we will have to come back for her in a few days." Damon saw that Elena was preparing to object and he placed a finger over her lips. "Elena, we don't have another option. You need to get home because i'm sure people have begun to notice your absence by now and, unfortunately, I cannot compel the entire town and getting you home would be much easier than telling them all that you were in Atlanta, saving your vampire birth mother from another vampire who tortured you for her own sadistic advances. Your mother will be safe here for a few days while she heals."
Elena tried to think of a reason to object but came up with nothing. "Fine," she said reluctantly.
Damon smiled and stood up, looking down at her."I think it's really best, for both of us, if I just carry you out to the car," Damon said reaching down to curl his arms around her small body. Elena rolled her eyes but otherwise did not protest.
The ride back to Mystic Falls was mostly silent except for a few comments back and forth between the two of them. Elena had told Damon the things that Katherine had told her. Damon had said for her not to worry about it, Katherine was dead now and, without her to lead them, the rest of the rebelling vampires would be pretty much hopeless. But even as he said this, Elena noticed a slight tightening of his eyes, and she knew that he was just as worried about it as she was.
They had just driven into town when Elena turned to Damon with a look of determination on her face. "Did you mean it?" she asked him.
Damon glanced at her for a moment before returning his eyes to the road. "Did I mean what?"
"What you told Katherine. When you said you...loved me," Elena answered, her voice almost hesitant.
Damon looked over to her, this time for a slightly longer measure of time. Then he pulled off of the road and put the car in park. He shut off the engine and turned his gaze back onto Elena.
"Elena," he began, looking into her eyes with a mixture emotion displayed across his face. "I meant every word of what I said to Katherine. I though I had quit feeling things for other people a long time ago. That is, until I met you. That first day when you walked into the house, I started to change. I didn't notice it at first, and then when I did, I tried everything I could to ignore it. I mean the thought that after over a century I had begun to feel things again for someone other than myself, was completely insane. But it happend. I love you, Elena. I am only sorry that it took me this long to realize it."
Elena stared at him in shock for a few moments, trying to read the emotions she saw on his face. But she couldn't read them as well as she hoped. The one she could pick out though, was worry. Why would he be worried? she thought. Then she realized that he was worried because he wasn't sure what her response was to his words.
"I love you too, Damon. I don't understand it exactly...but I do. I have for a long time. It's so different from anyone else I have been with, it's like I was meant to fall in love with you, and I think that's what scared me. That constant pull in my mind, the one that always led me straight to you. I didn't understand it, so I refused to admit it to myself, but...I love you," Elena said, wonderingly.
A new emotion washed across Damon's face, which was still very odd, coming from someone whose face usually gave away absolutely nothing. This new emotion was relief.
Damon stared down at Elena, both of them aware of the pure love surrounding them both. "Elena," Damon said, but his voice came out a bit choked. Elena seemed to figure out the best comprimise and leaned down and brushed her lips against his. Damon was still with surprise for a moment before leaning forward and pressing his lips more firmly against hers. Elena was the first to break away, though she didn't move away from him completely, only leaned her forehead against his.
"That was...," Damon began, but seemed at a loss for words.
"Passionate," Elena finished for him. Remembering the night that seemed so long ago when she and Stefan had stood talking about her previous relationship with Matt. She had been the one at a loss for words then in describing her relationship with the other boy. While she and Matt's relationship had not been passionate, she and Stefan's hadn't really been either, she realized. But with Damon, all it took was a simple kiss. A kiss that had meant more to her than any other she had experienced in her life.
"Passionate," Damon agreed, leaning down to capture her lips with his again.
Just as his lips brushed hers his head snapped back up to look out of the window and into the small path leading into the woods right beside the car. Elena turned her head aswell, worried of the possible danger they might be in. What they saw, however, was more shocking than anything they could have imagined.
"But-it was-and they," Elena stumbled over words quietly, in an attempt to form an explination for what they were seeing.
"I know," Damon responded, just as quietly.
The sight before them could not be possible. A small distance into the woods, only slightly concealed by the trees, were three figures. Katherine stood, arms crossed over her cheast, staring down at the other two with a wicked glint in her eye. How can she still be alive? Elena wondered, desperate for an explination. Then she found one. Looking at Katherine, she noticed the sun glinting off of an all to familiar object on Katherine's finger. A ring. One exactly like Alaric Saltzman wore on his hand. So, that was how she had came back from the dead. But still, what was even more shocking was the sight on the ground. Katherine was watching a vampire feed off of a young girl from town. Elena had noticed the young girl from time to time, walking through the school hallway like any other teenager, from what she knew this girl was kind to everyone and she felt terrible thinking of the fact that this poor girl's life was about to be ended by the sadistic vampire looming over her, Elena thought, absently. Just then the vampire lifted his head from the girl's neck, apparently having had his fill of blood. Elena gazed at the vampires face, completely unconcealed by the tree branches surrounding him. A single tear fell down Elena's cheek before she wiped it away.
The vampire was Stefan. Katherine had been able to do it. She had been able to get Stefan to side with her, Elena couldnt believe this was happening.
Suddenly, Damon had started the car and they were racing through town at speeds that Elena did not even want to contemplate. In no time, they had reached her house. Damon followed Elena up to her bedroom silently, carrying her bags. Apparently no one was home, or at least if they were, Elena couldn't hear them.
When they reached her room Elena turned around to face Damon who had set her things on her bed. Damon tilted his head to the side with a slight look of sympathy and anger on his face. He opened his arms to Elena and she stepped into them. Loving the comfort and safety she felt as his arms wrapped around her fragile body.
"How could Stefan do that, Damon?" Elena asked, helplessly.
"I really don't know."
"I'm sorry I killed Katherine," Elena said, suddenly. "I know how much you cared about her, I just didn't know what else to do, and I couldn't let her hurt you and-"
"Elena, calm down," Damon said soothingly, running his hand down the back of her hair. "Shhh, Elena. I'm not mad. I'm not even upset. I'm glad she's dead. The things Kathrine did...it was all for the challenge of it. For the love of blood, for the disaster and chaos she caused. After everything she did to you, she got a much quicker death than she deserved. Did you not hear me when I was talking to her? I thought you were awake. I never loved Katherine. She means nothing to me. I love you. Only you."
Elena looked up to him with a slight smile on her face. One mixed with noth happiness and worry.
"It's going to be okay. I promise. I won't let her hurt you again. Ever. I'm so sorry she was able to get to you the first time."
"It isn't your fault. I should have told you where I was going. It was stupid of me to take off like that without telling anyone," Elena said.
Damon could hardly argue that point. She should have told him where she was going. "Just don't scare me like that again, Elena," he said, tightening his arms around her.
"So," Damon said, changing the subject to less depressing matters. "Technically, I saved your life. I do believe you owe me for that, dearest Elena."
"Well, if I remember correctly, I was the one who kept Katherine from killing you and I both back there. So I believe it is you that owes me."
"Hmm. So I saved your life and you saved my life, it seemes we have reached a bit of a disagreement, Elena," Damon said, leaning down so that his face was only inches away from hers.
"It seems we have," she replied, moving her face slightly closer to Damon's as she spoke.
"How will we ever solve this problem?" Damon asked, his lips just barely brushing Elena's as he spoke.
Without answering, Elena pressed her lips to his once more, for only a few moments before pulling away.
"Why didn't I think of that?" Damon asked, laughing softly before kissing her again.
Damon was the first to pull away this time. "Thank you for saving me, Elena"
"And thank you Damon, for saving me," as she said it, Elena knew she did not just mean when he saved her from katherine.
Elena wasn't sure how she was going to deal with everything that was happening right now, but at least she knew that she wouldn't have to do it alone. She would have Damon right beside of her. Her beautiful dark knight. Things had certianly changed a lot in the last few days but, she supossed that was what happend, when in the world of blood and vampires.
Okay, so I am just slightly disappointed with this chapter. I have rewritten it several times but i'm just not sure if I like it or not. I think I wrote D&E a bit to OOC for my taste. But im not sure. It could just be me. Tell me what you think, please? This is the last chapter in this story. But I am thinking of doing a sequal. So if you want a sequal, please let me know. If you want me to write a second one, please give me some ideas. I have some thoughts about what I want to happen but I could seriously use some opinions :)
