The Consequence of Love

Elena eyed the arrivals board. Stefan's plane had landed on time, so where was he? She had been standing there for the past 20 minutes; a knot in her stomach and her heart caught in her throat. Not because she was a newlywed, anxious to see her husband. No, she was nervous because she had screwed up. She had stepped over the line with his brother Damon, and had made out with him on New Year's Eve.

She felt like a hypocrite; one minute she had been worried about Stefan, being together with Rebekah in a different city on New Year's Eve. The next minute she was the one doing what she had feared that Stefan would do; she had cheated on her husband.

This was not what she had expected her life to be when Stefan had proposed to her months ago. She had wanted the perfect life with a white picket fence. Now, life wasn't so perfect for her anymore; she wasn't perfect.

Staring at the 'Welcome Home' balloon, the ribbon clutched in her hand, she felt ridiculous. She hated herself. She had managed to betray one brother and had stomped on the heart of the other. The look on the latter's face was not something that she would be forgetting anytime soon…

As soon as Damon's lips touched hers, there was a fire inside of her so fierce and strong that she thought it could never be extinguished again. When he kissed her, the world spun on its axis. With every slide of his tongue against hers, nothing mattered anymore, except that feeling that she was meant for this. She was meant to touch him, hold him, caress his perfect skin and bury her hands in his black hair.

Elena moaned as Damon hoisted her up against the wall and his arousal came in contact with her sweet folds, still clothed with her underwear. Her hands slid down his chest, wanting to feel him. She needed his bare skin under her hands and grasped his shirt tightly, before ripping it open. Buttons flew everywhere as Elena was finally within reach of that warm, pale skin. His nipples puckered underneath her palms as she slid her hands over them.

"Elena," Damon breathed against the side of her face. Her name had never sounded so sacred; like a prayer. But what they were doing was far from sacred. Elena's eyes widened as the realisation hit her full force.

This was wrong, so wrong.

She planted her hands firmly on Damon's bare chest, before pushing him off of her. He stumbled back in confusion, eying her with concerned eyes. "What's the matter?" he asked, still panting from their sinful kiss.

"What's the matter?" she almost laughed. "What's the matter? What are we doing here, Damon? I am married… to your brother, no less! This… this can't be me. This isn't happening."

Damon raised his hand to touch her cheek, but she fended him off. "Don't!" she warned.

He dropped his hands to his sides, defeated. "Listen, Elena. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have kissed you, you're right. And you shouldn't have kissed me. It is wrong and unfair to my brother in so many ways, I get that. But you can't deny that what we have here is real. Something is happening between us and you know that! How long are we going to lie about this? Do you think that it's fair to my brother that his wife has feelings for someone else?"

Elena ran a hand through her hair. "Don't tell me what I'm feeling, Damon. I'm barely figuring this out myself. What we have here; is this love or is it just some sort of lust? I need to think! I can't jeopardise my marriage on a silly little infatuation!"

Damon narrowed his eyes at her. "You call this an infatuation? You call lying awake at night, not being able to concentrate during the day and always fighting against it because you feel guilty towards Stefan, an infatuation?"

He took a deep breath, before continuing. "If this was an infatuation, Elena, it would be easy. Everyone has fantasies now and then, there is no harm in them. No, it becomes dangerous when this 'infatuation' is able to penetrate the walls around your heart and nestles firmly inside. You are not an infatuation, Elena, not to me. To me, you are love. Love, that I have never felt for anyone or anything."

Elena's eyes widened at his confession. Damon smiled painfully at her expression.

"Yeah, you heard it right. I love you; the annoyingly, frustratingly beautiful woman who married my brother. And I feel god-awful about it. My life was simple before you came along, Elena. I got up in the morning, went to work, left work, went to a bar, picked up a woman and got laid. That was it; that was all that I had to worry about. Until you came along. Now, I can't get any work done, I'm not satisfied anymore by a blonde with a nice rack and I'm miserable. You got me here, Elena, you and your nice little speech about passion that is worth fighting for. Now you can see it for yourself; passion doesn't save people, it ends them."

Silence filled the room as they stared at each other. Elena was shivering, but not because she was cold. A part of her wanted to grin like a giddy child, because Damon, cold-hearted, non-passionate believer Damon, had just told her that he loved her.

But the other part of her was confused; did Elena love him back? Was what she was feeling strong enough to even consider leaving Stefan? And even if she did, what would this do to their bond? She could potentially destroy them.

The right thing would be to walk away from this; to order Damon to leave, turn around and make a vow to herself never to let Stefan go again. Yes, that would be right. She couldn't do it; she couldn't tell Stefan she was having feelings for his brother and watch it break them apart.

"Damon...," she began. Her tone of voice immediately caused a flash of pain in his eyes. It was like a shot through her heart. This was exactly what she was afraid of; she didn't want to hurt either one of them, but it seemed as if she had to. She chose to hurt the oldest brother.

"I think it would be best,"she began hesitantly, waiting for the bomb of her decision to detonate, "if you and I try to stay away from each other, because when you're around, it throws me. We should just go about our lives. I can't hurt your brother, Damon, which is why we have to do this. We keep our distance until some time has passed. Maybe a lot… given enough time we should be able to…"

"Forget?" Damon snapped, finishing her sentence for her.

Elena nearly hung her head in shame. "Yeah..," she whispered.

She swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat as she watched the hard shell being put back in place with Damon. There he went. The warmth in his eyes was gone and she was the cause of that; she had destroyed his love. But she couldn't crack now. She had to do this, so she straightened her shoulders and delivered the final blow.

"Maybe you should go, so we can start forgetting. I guess we've covered it; this is all there is really to say."

Her heart lurched as Damon almost reared back with her words. His eyes narrowed and shot fire at her.

"This thing between us; it's over. I'm done with this," he spat.

Elena raised her chin defiantly into the air. "Good. Finally." She watched as he turned around and walked out of the house, slamming the door behind him. Silence returned to the house as Elena stood frozen, staring at the door where Damon just left. Tears were slowly starting to stream down her face, until finally, a sob tore its way through her body and it reached her throat. She doubled over in pain and sank to her knees as her small body released wails of anguish….

Elena gripped the silly little balloon tighter as her knees trembled with the memory of her decision to send Damon away. It was sad how she had realised, with the way it had felt as if someone had ripped out her insides after Damon had left, that she indeed did love him… very much. She hadn't been able to stop crying that night.

But she had made her decision. How could she and Damon be together if the cost was their brotherly bond? No, she had done the right thing.

"Stefan!" she yelled out as she spotted him finally entering the arrivals hall. His tired emerald eyes landed on her, giving her a small smile. Rebekah was with him, not looking too great herself, actually. They looked exhausted. Had their job in New York been that stressful?

"Elena," he said, giving her what felt like an awkward hug.

"Did everything go all right in New York?" she asked, at bit wary with the way he almost wouldn't look at her. Stefan nodded. "Would you mind if I told you about it at home? I'm beat right now."

"Sure," Elena hesitated, before giving him the balloon. Rebekah eyed it with disdain.

"How… nice of you," she stated, clearly indicating that she didn't think that it looked that way at all. Elena rolled her eyes at her, before linking her arm around her husband's. "I just wanted to do something nice for you," she told him quietly.

Stefan gave her an absentminded smile, before walking towards the exit with them. "Where did you park your car?" he asked.

"At the parking garage at the very back of the airport. We're going to have to walk a bit…"

To say that the car ride back home was quiet, was an understatement. Elena watched with concern as her husband stared vacantly out of his window. Rebekah was sitting in the backseat and wasn't faring any better. She was more grumpy than usual; something was obviously bothering her.

"So, any details?" Elena offered. "How did it go? Did they love your work?"

Stefan turned his head to look at her, his eyes almost vacant. "I think they thought it was nice enough," he shrugged. What was with his attitude? Usually, he was so excited to share his stories about expositions with her. She was beginning to think that something happened in New York, that wasn't exciting at all, and that scared her.

What happened to her husband?

She decided to try a new approach. "You know, I talked to Caroline on the phone on New Year's Eve. She told me that even though she was in the Hamptons with Tyler, she might try to take a subway and see if she could catch your exposition. Did she go? Did you run into her there?"

Stefan had nothing to say in response.

The silence in the car was starting to irritate Elena to no end. She was trying to be a supportive wife by picking him up from the airport and inquiring about his big break in New York City. And here he was, giving her the silent treatment.

Her heart began to pound as a thought popped into her head. Had he somehow found out about her meeting up with Damon on New Year's Eve? He wouldn't have said anything, would he?

She looked at her husband's features; they were stiff and tight. What the hell was going on?

"I'm sorry, Elena. I'll talk later. I'm just so tired right now," Stefan replied curtly.

Elena nodded and kept her eyes on the road. She would have to wait. Her curious mind about what happened went into overdrive as they dropped Rebekah off at her place. It almost seemed as if she shot Stefan a dirty look, before turning around and entering her apartment building. Stefan didn't react, however, leaving Elena to wonder if she had only envisioned it.

When they got home, he went straight upstairs, leaving her alone with the suitcases. She decided to let him be for a while, and unpacked all of his stuff, putting some of his clothes into the laundry. Finally, she approached the bedroom.

He was undressed and in bed, staring up at the ceiling blankly. Elena began to get a little angry, she was done with this treatment; she was going to get some answers! She walked over towards him, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"What happened in New York, Stefan?" she asked in a firm voice.

Stefan didn't look at her and kept his eyes on the ceiling. "Rebekah and I, we got into a fight," he finally confessed.

Elena frowned. "About what?"

"Does that really matter? Our trip was shot to hell because of it. Mr. Holland loved my work and yes, I have a few buyers. But it seems as if Rebekah won't be representing me anymore after this trip."

"Why? She's worked with you for so long now. I'm sure that one fight isn't going to immediately jeopardise everything. Let her cool off, whatever it is. She'll come back," Elena tried to soothe him.

Stefan rolled onto his side to face her and supported his head with his hand. "Did you know that she and Damon had broken things off?"

Elena swallowed at the sound of that name; that name that she was trying so hard to get out of her system. "Yes, I did," she confessed. Stefan frowned at that, so Elena felt the need to specify. "He came over on New Year's Eve. We went out, had ourselves some dinner and went dancing afterwards. He told me then."

"Really? I didn't know that the two of you were that close that he would confide in you," Stefan said, surprised.

Elena shrugged. "I guess he felt alone that night and he wanted to tell somebody." God, this was killing her!

"Yeah, but still. I mean, you? The two of you argue all the time. I figured you would be the last person he would fess up to."

Elena squirmed a bit uncomfortably. "Like I said; he was alone and didn't have anybody. Back on topic here, Stefan. I've watched Rebekah work with you all these months. She adores you and your work, the falling out that the two of you had must have been sensational for her to back out like this."

Stefan flopped back down on his back. "It's not important. I'll find someone else to book my expositions. I'm done with her."

Those last few words reminded Elena all too well of what Damon had said to her…

"I'm going to go to sleep, okay? I'll try and be in a better mood tomorrow."

Elena watched as Stefan turned onto his other side, ready to settle in. He was obviously done talking for the night. She remained seated long after he had fallen asleep, her mind a whirlwind. She had betrayed this man, her husband. She was going to do all that she could to make it up to him.

Quietly, she crept downstairs, not ready to go to sleep herself. She decided to make herself some warm milk; that would settle her thoughts. As she passed Stefan's coat, she saw that it had some dirt on it. Well, that wouldn't do! Taking it off the coat rack, she carried it upstairs towards the washing machine. Checking the pockets before putting it in, her hand came across a note.

Frowning, Elena took at out and read it:

"I'm so sorry about all this. –C"

C? Who was C? Caroline? This only added to her questions about what went wrong in New York. So Caroline had found him? Why was he staying so quiet? It made her feel really uneasy. Of course, she wasn't one to talk. She was keeping something from him as well.

She finished up with the laundry and went back towards the bedroom, to find Stefan talking to someone on the phone. From the sound of it, Stefan didn't like where the phone call was going.

"Come on, you can't go back! Look, I know that I've been a little absent lately, but we can catch up now. Please!"

Elena narrowed her eyes and walked over towards where Stefan was sitting.

"Don't do this! Yeah… Yeah, I know. How about I come over right now, we make a night of it, and after that, if you still want to do this… I won't stop you."

Something gripped Elena's heart as she was beginning to suspect what this call was all about. No, this wasn't happening. This simply could not happen; that was unacceptable. Not after everything…

Stefan hung up and immediately jumped into his pants, that where lying on the floor. "I have to go," he announced.

Elena nodded. "Yeah, I got that. What's going on?"

"Damon said he was leaving. He's going back to Italy…"

A/N: I know some of my readers have had issues with Elena's hypocrisy in the last chapter. I just want to say that I knew what she was like, I wrote her that way on purpose. She needed to realise her behaviour on her own terms, and I feel like she did in this chapter. She only managed to dig herself in even deeper ;)

Anyway, I hope you like the cliffy. Thank you so much for reading. Please leave me a review and let me know that you stopped by :)

Special thanks: I completely forgot to mention Kate (This Is My Escape) as my beta with my last update. I still feel god-awful about this, so I'm making amends here. Kate is simply awesome! Read her stories here on fanfiction. You won't regret it ;)