Anything recognizable is the property of the appropriate owners. I do not make any claim to ownership, nor do I make any money from this.

This fic diverges at the end of Season 3, Episode 21: Before Sunset. Note: This was written before watching Season 4, Episode 16: Stand By Me.

Trigger Warning: Talk of suicide and descriptions of suicidal actions.

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Considering Lost Choices

Elena turned her face towards the sun as they walked through the verdant forest. She had spent a lot of time in the dark since her transition and the warmth felt glorious on her skin. Stefan just walked along solemnly with his hands in his pockets, watching the ethereally compelling woman dance gracefully through the forest. He silently thanked whatever karma had lead to her return and finally couldn't hold back his smile. The brunette twirled back into his arms and caught his hand to hurry him along.

Stefan felt the delicate bones clasped in his hand, but something was wrong. He stopped walking and pulled Elena back to face him, catching her other hand. "You don't have a daylight ring."

They stared at their joined hands and the large lapis lazuli ring on the blond man's finger. By any logic, there should be a ring on her finger as well, considering the dappled sunlight wasn't sending her running for the shadows. But Elena smiled secretly. "I don't." She agreed.

"Then how are you not burning up?" After 150 years, Stefan thought he was somewhat of an expert on being a vampire, but here was a young one with a new trick.

"It took a while to find a witch that would even talk to me. And in the end she wasn't powerful enough to spell a whole ring. She could only do the gem."

"So you set it in something else? A necklace?" Except her neck was bare, as were her wrists.

The brunette smiled again mischievously, looking almost like her conniving ancestor. "Let's just say that I don't have to worry about anyone stealing my charm without some surgical experience."

Stefan was impressed. There had been more than one occasion where he had misplaced his ring or had it stolen. "That's rather ingenuous." One less weakness could never be a bad thing should Klaus come sniffing around again.

Hunger quickly sated by furry mammals, the couple walked leisurely back to the boarding house. The silence was comfortable until they reached the driveway and Elena recognized the car parked next to the house. "Jeremy."

"Shit, I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you that I've been tutoring him."

"Oh, that's good." She replied distractedly. Elena wasn't sure how she was going to announce her return to family and friends, but it certainly wasn't going to be on her first day back with no plan or preparation.

Stefan squeezed the brunette's hand to gain her attention. "I'll go in and take him to the library, you just run upstairs."

"Okay." Nodding her head in agreement, they opened the front door.

Immediately, they clearly heard Damon's voice from the sitting room. "I'm sure Stefan will be back any minute, Jeremy."

Sure that the coast was clear, Elena sped up the stairs and down the hallway towards the brother's bedrooms. Suddenly nauseous from the exertion, the brunette turned towards the first open door and practically threw herself down in front of the toilet. She then proceeded to vomit up all of the blood she had consumed that morning. Damon appeared in the doorway as the nausea was fading and he was instantly on his knees at her side, gently pulling the hair out of her eyes.

"Elena, what's wrong?" His concerned cerulean eyes scanned her for any sign of injury as he reached for a hand towel to wipe away the blood on her chin.

"I'm fine now." She spit another mouth full of blood in the toilet and tried to open her eyes. All she wanted was a nice long nap.

"Let me get a blood bag from downstairs." He tried to get to his feet but Elena clung to his black shirt.

"No, don't bother."

"Then tell me what's going on." Damon pleaded, staring at her fluttering eyelids, hoping for another peek at her chestnut eyes.

"I can't drink animal blood but I know Stefan won't want me feeding on people." The brunette confessed.

Damon nodded as if he understood even though he had never heard of a vampire being unable to stomach animal blood. Most of the time, blood was blood. "What about blood bags?"

Elena opened her eyes enough to watch the concern on the older man's face as he rubbed soothing circles on her back. "They make me sick if I exert myself."

"From the vein it is." The vampire agreed. "Can you stand?"

She nodded, determined to make it to her feet, but her knees hadn't seemed to get the memo. When her legs were unable to support her weight, Damon easily swept her into his arms and carried her gently to his bed. He laid her down and smoothed back her hair, letting the silky strands tickle his palm. Elena's eyes immediately fluttered shut.

"Sleep, beautiful. I'll pick out some clothes then run you a shower so we can go out and get you something tasty."

The brunette nodded once then gave in to her body's need for sleep. Damon watched her slumber for several minutes, rather in awe of her presence. Everything about her was delicate, from the gentle curve of her waist, to the fine bones in her wrists, but he also knew the power she held as well. It wasn't the same as the shear strength he and Stefan possessed, but the petite woman could accomplish anything she set her mind to. Figuring he shouldn't spend all of his time watching her sleep, the raven haired man pressed a kiss to her temple and went to find an appropriate outfit for the brunette.

When the clothes were selected and laid out in his bathroom, Damon checked in with his brother to let him know he would be leaving the house for the rest of the evening. He then returned to Elena's side to decide how best to wake the brunette. His logic was that the young woman would be taking a shower when she awoke, so he figured he would help her by removing her shoes. Ankle boots deposited safely on the floor, the vampire eyed her socks before removing those as well. And then he was distracted by stroking the sinfully soft skin on the tops of her feet, quickly turning the ministrations to a gentle rub when she mumbled in her sleep.

Elena rolled onto her back and threw one arm up over her head, making Damon pause at the strip of skin revealed when her shirt pulled up. He had started out trying to wake the brunette, but the sleepy murmurs that passed her lips as he touched her skin made him reconsider the game. The playful vampire carefully crawled up the bed until he could press small kisses to her stomach as he pushed her shirt up under her breasts. Even in sleep, her muscles jumped at his caresses, but she didn't object, so he upped the ante. The buttons on her jeans were tricky, but Damon was determined and soon the material had parted enough to tease him with the sight of dark green satin panties covering her mound.

Oh the things he could do, but they would have plenty of time for games later. Right now was just for removing her clothes. He justified that it would make her nap more comfortable, and make the transition to the shower that much easier so they could find a bite to eat before it got too late. Pulling the jeans off Elena's hips and down her legs was slow going, testing his resolve to enjoy the moment. As much as he wanted to spend all of his time buried between her long legs, especially now that he had experienced the heaven that it was, he also wanted to worship her body. She was the type of woman that deserved to have everything at her beck and call, not just exist for his pleasure.

Once the pants were flung across the room, Damon eyed the long sleeved shirt binding up around her chest. If he had his way, he would have torn the material off her, but he also found the way it had clung to her body very alluring and would hate to ruin such a well fitted piece of clothing. Besides, when he went to retrieve her things from the car still waiting outside the club that morning, there was only a limited number of outfits and he didn't fancy having to take her shopping any time soon. Maybe Stefan would be inclined to do mall duty.

Damon pushed the thought of Stefan and Elena together out of his head and carefully began positioning her arms to slip the shirt off over her head. Finally dressed only in her underwear, the dark haired man just watched the beautiful woman shift in her sleep. She rubbed her thighs together subconsciously before sighing happily and relaxing completely on the duvet. The older vampire forced himself to look away from her hedonistic sprawl for a moment to get himself under control. When he finally felt like he wouldn't get distracted again so easily, Damon crawled up beside the beautiful woman, tickling his fingers across her stomach to rouse her.

"Come on lovely, time to wake up." He whispered in her ear, brushing the chocolate strands from her cheek.

Elena just turned towards his meandering fingers and made a noise of sleepy disagreement which brought a fond smile to his lips. Just a small movement on his part would bring their mouths together, but he held back, vastly preferring her as an active participant. He felt along her rib cage instead.

"You should shower so we can get a bite to eat." He prompted, trying to resist the temptation to lay his head down on the pillow as well and pull her into his arms.

"Five more minutes." Elena didn't open her eyes as she nuzzled into Damon's shoulder.

Unable to resist her simplest desire, the older vampire let his hand come to a rest on her belly and started silently counting to 300. When he had estimated that 5 minutes had passed, Damon resumed his attempts to wake the brunette by caressing her arms and shoulders.

"Wake up sleepyhead." He wheedled, growing firmer with his touches until she complained with a series of unintelligible mumbles and tried to roll away. "Nope, in the shower you go."

Damon scooped the brunette out of the bed and strode to the bathroom. He could tell that she was only feigning sleep but he wanted to play along, so the dark haired man kicked off his shoes and stepped into the shower stall to let Elena's feet drop to the floor. She kept her arms around his neck as he continued to support most of her weight against his chest while he fumbled for the controls behind his back. The dark haired man hissed when the initial spray against his back was closer to icy than tepid and quickly soaked his shirt and black jeans.

If he had thought ahead, he would have changed out of his clothes, but this was probably safer. Having a wet and soapy Elena pressed against him while naked would probably mean they wouldn't leave the house for several hours and while Damon would never say no to a hedonistic day in bed, he knew that the brunette woman really did need to feed. He tried to keep the worst of the spray out of the brunette's face while he groped for the clasp on her bra. And the petite woman tried to help by pushing down her panties, but the way she wiggled against the taller man made him groan.

"Don't tease." Damon begged, removing her underwear and tossing them out of the shower.

Elena smiled at the blue eyed man, caught in his steamy gaze while the water warmed. They broke apart gently and Damon turned the smaller woman into the spray where she immediately soaked her hair and let the water cascade over her body. The older vampire stepped back to watch and consider all the things he wanted to do to the beautiful woman putting on a show of running a soapy shower puff over her chest.

The brunette forced herself to keep her eyes off of the way his soaked clothes clung to his muscles even as she could feel his gaze on her. She tried to ignore the wetness between her legs that had nothing to do with the shower, but all the petite woman could think of was how much she was looking forward to the foreplay being over. Despite having slept together at the club, Elena couldn't help feeling like they had regressed a year to longing looks and the barest innocent brushes of skin.

Unable to take the lingering smoldering gaze any longer, Elena wrung out her hair and slipped out of the shower while reaching for a towel. As she dried herself, the brunette allowed her eyes to wander to the frosty shape of Damon removing his sodden clothes. She looked forward to getting to know his body better in the future, having been teased with glimpses of his bare chest and well muscled arms. His entire being radiated sensuality, yet she knew that he could also be incredibly romantic in his own way.

Forcing thoughts of being pushed up against the counter and ravaged by the dark haired man, Elena examined the clothes he had picked for her. From the selection, she could assume that he was going to take her out to a club again. Low lights and inebriated crowds made for easy feeding as she had quickly learned. Most of her nights had been spent trawling clubs like the one Damon had found her in, and she looked forward to the sensual evening ahead. But when she picked up the underwear he had selected, the brunette drew the line.

"You really expect me to wear this?" She held up the pink pair of crotchless panties she had stolen from Victoria's Secret on accident.

Damon cracked the shower door and peeked at what article she was objecting to. "Trust me, you'll want to wear those." He smiled wickedly and returned to his shower.

Elena left the bathroom in her towel only to return moments later. "Did you only bring the skankiest clothes I owned?"

"No, I put the rest in Stefan's room." He turned off the shower and stepped out of the stall in all of his naked glory.

The brunette didn't bother trying to hide her appraising gaze until Damon rushed forward and had her backside planted on the sink and her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist. "I thought we were going out for a bite."

Elena had momentarily forgotten about their dinner plans when she felt his silky hardness pressed against her thigh, tantalizingly close to where she needed him. But two could play that game, so the brunette pressed her breasts against his chest while winding her arms around his neck. She leaned in nuzzle Damon's neck below his ear. "The sooner we go the sooner we can come back and finish this."

Her whisper sent a shiver down the blue eyed vampire's back and now he was questioning why he was so determined to continue teasing her. Internally, he justified waiting as being considerate of their brothers downstairs. Jeremy was completely clueless regarding the brunette's presence, but Stefan would surely be listening to every sound from upstairs. "Yeah, let's go."

They dressed as quickly as they could, sneaking down the stairs quietly before bounding into Damon's car in the dark. Elena blushed when she glanced in the back seat, wondering if the night was going to end up the same way, especially considering his insistence that she wear the panties he had picked out. Rather than spend all of her energy wondering, the brunette decided that she would just enjoy whatever he had in mind.

She smiled carelessly, thinking inanely that this was what being a vampire was all about. There were no responsibilities, human rules hardly applied any more, and what else was immortality about if not to enjoy every aspect. Intoxicated by anticipation, Damon reached over and captured the petite woman's delicate hand and placed it on the shifter between them. He gave her one of his signature lopsided smiles and a wink before speeding away from the boarding house.