** It's the final chapter of my first story **

Thanks for sharing the long ride with me and continuing to read and review even after long breaks between chapters. It's because of you guys that I've actually FINISHED my first story... I've started loads but never finished one!

Have a fantastic year everybody.

John stared helplessly at his daughter just willing her to breathe, but she continued lying across his legs, unmoving. He might know how to kill a vampire but he had no idea how to resuscitate Elena. He pushed her off him and stood up. He tried to pick her up but she was too slippery so he just put his arms around her shoulders and pulled her out of the bathroom to where the brothers lay. He prayed one of them would be able to help her because he certainly couldn't.

He nudged Damon with his foot. Damon still looked unconscious.

"Damon." John shouted right next to Damon's ear and Damon stirred a little but after a second of movement went back to being still.

John looked at Damon's naked body and saw the horrific wounds including the spattered gashing wound in his head and the long stake sticking out of his side. John sat down and braced his legs against Damon's side and put his hands firmly around the stake. He pulled, bearing down with his legs to try and get the stake out of Damon. With a loud slurping sound and a scream from Damon it shifted and flew out, Jonathon falling backwards with the momentum.

Damon groaned and tried to move but he had no strength left in him and he looked out of one eye towards where Jonathan was and groaned.

"So, you finally going to kill me?" He asked, his teeth clenched in pain.

"It's Elena." John pointed to Elena's body lying just to the right of him. Damon turned his head sharply, his eyes watering with pain, to where she lay and almost howled with despair. Her face was ashen and his first impression was that she was dead.

Damon moved an inch towards her before screaming in pain again as he realised just how badly he was wounded. He could hardly see and couldn't move at all. He had never been this badly wounded and he knew it would take a while before he was able to move properly.

"I can't get to her." He sobbed in anguish, realising she was either dead or very close to it.

"Please John, try and wake up Stefan. Surely he won't let her die. And he's not as badly wounded as I am."

John looked towards Stefan's prone figure and looked back at Damon.

"Is that wise?" He said, remembering the way Stefan had spoken earlier - utterly devoid of emotion.

"For fucks sake, can't you just breathe into her lungs to expel the water?" Damon tried again to move but he couldn't so much as lift a finger.

Jonathan looked helplessly towards Elena. "I don't know how."

He moved towards Stefan and tried to wake him but Stefan didn't respond at all. The two wooden chair legs stuck out of Stefan's chest at a horrible angle, very close to his heart.

Damon carried on staring at Elena and couldn't believe it would end like this. He was so helpless at that moment and he hated himself more than he could bare. He couldn't remember how much blood she had ingested from him. His mind was befuddled from the pain and lack of blood and he still had a while to go before he would start to heal properly.

Jonathan had started to try and breath into Elena. He had his mouth over hers and Damon could blearily see John's chest moving in and out. But Damon knew John was doing it wrong. He hadn't put his fingers over Elena's nose and the air would just go straight out of her again, not moving any water from her lungs at all.

Damon realised that nothing could be done. He found that he had lost track of time entirely but he knew that the length of Elena having no oxygen meant that she was dead. He gasped silently as he realised that she was actually dead. His living, breathing, warm blooded beautiful girl who had just started to give him life was definitely dead.

He wanted to scream in anguish but knew that wouldn't help. He tried to remember his last few hours with her. How much blood had he given her? He thought that he had let her drink from him at least twice in the past couple of hours. Surely that would be enough?

His next thought made him pray for the first time in at least a hundred years. He prayed that his useless body would start healing a little quicker then it was doing now. If Elena was going to awaken he wanted her far away from his brother and Uncle John. John hated vampires and Damon didn't put it past him to try and kill her if she changed.

He could feel the broken and damaged muscles and tendons slowly kneading themselves together and the sight in his eye slowly returning. He knew it would take a while and that he shouldn't move for a couple more minutes but the time was fast approaching when he would have a little strength back.

Damon also knew that there was a surefire way to speed things a little faster along. John's attention was totally on Elena and if Damon just shifted a few centimetres he would be close to one of John's outstretched legs. He thought of the lovely warm flowing blood in John's body and his teeth started to elongate. He started to move and it hurt badly but at least his body was responding to him. He was within reach. Only a couple more seconds and he could fill himself with blood.

Damon was about to sink his teeth into John's leg when his ridiculously slow brain remembered that John was probably full of Vervain. If he drunk from John now it would cripple him for hours.

He realised his best strength would be in the element of surprise and that would mean patience.

Jonathan was now shaking Elena urgently and weeping to himself.

"Give it up John. She's dead." Damon whispered, the words causing him even more pain uttered aloud.

Jonathan looked over at Damon with utter hatred and Damon realised that the danger was not yet past.

John slowly backed away from Damon and picked up the stake lying there beside him. He slowly stood up and looked at Damon.

Damon knew that he was still too weak to fight back and that John was at a colossal advantage.

John was rolling the stake between his fingers staring at Damon and grinning.

"So Elena is dead. Well it's because of you stinking vampires. The main question is which brother do I kill first?" John paused for breath before continuing. "I think the vampire who's actually awake, don't you?"

He suddenly lunged for Damon and brought the stake down. Damon closed his eyes waiting for the inevitable. But it never came. He let out a pent-in breathe and opened his eyes to see Stefan holding John against the wall, his hand around John's windpipe. John had started to gag and Stefan grinned looking like a freakish marionette doll with the wooden chair legs sticking out of him.

"Thanks for your help John." Stefan said as he snapped John's neck and let John fall to the ground. Stefan then bent down and picked up John's hand. "And you won't be needing this anymore I think." He then removed the all important ring from John's middle finger.

Stefan then looked at both Elena and Damon and his eyes filled with tears.

"I didn't mean for this to happen." He murmured quietly to himself. He then quickly and methodically pulled the two stakes out of his chest, wincing as he did so.

Damon felt anger towards his brother even though Stefan had just saved his life.

"Oh you didn't mean this to happen?" Damon said sarcastically. "And yet it did. All because you couldn't accept that she had moved on from loving a a righteous asshole."

Anger crossed Stefan's face briefly before the look of anguish returned.

"I was upset and angry. It was the blood. I drank so much blood and I just wanted to kill you for taking her love away from me. I loved her Damon. And you took her away from me." A large tear rolled down his cheek.

"You bastard." Damon shouted. "That's the difference between us. I have always loved her too. Almost as long as you have. But I allowed her to love you. I wanted her to be happy." He paused and looked over at her dead body. "But you've always been selfish brother. I can't help that she fell in love with me. I might have initiated it a little, but she wanted it too. And you couldn't just let me have her could you."

Stefan looked at his brother and the cold calculating look was back in his face.

"No." He said. "I couldn't."

Stefan walked towards the bed and Damon knew that he had enough strength in him to shift towards Elena. He slowly edged towards her and pulled himself up as he looked down at her. He picked up the bloodied stake that had pierced them both and dropped it feeling sickened. Her blood was on that stick, intermingled with his and he felt utterly miserable. He picked up her head and lay it gently on his lap. She was naked. Naked, cold and beautiful. Her hair was still wet and clung in clumps around her. He started stroking her, picking out the tangles.

He was waiting. Waiting for her to wake up. To be a vampire like him.

"She's dead Damon. We should cover her up and think about how we can sort out this mess." Stefan looked around the smashed up room. He wondered whether it would be better to just run away from it all. There was nothing to keep him in Mystic Falls now. The person he had loved was dead. His brother had killed her the minute he took her as his. He should just leave and let Damon clean up all the mess.

At that very moment Elena gasped and opened her eyes.

Damon jerked from shock and smiled his most beautiful smile. He hugged her to him tightly. He had been expected it as his memory reminded him of how much of his blood she had ingested, but still it was a wonderful shock. He hadn't thought he would get a second chance at happiness.

Stefan looked on in disbelief. Elena had drunk Damon's blood. This was something sacred amongst vampires and only the luckiest humans received blood from a vampire. Elena had had sex with Damon and drank from him, maybe even offering her blood in exchange. Something that Elena had never even offered to do to Stefan. His mind snapped and with it his last ounce of humanity. He knew that Elena was lost to him for good. He wasn't going to let Damon have her for all eternity. He picked up one of the wooden chair legs and stood up.

Damon felt Stefan moving towards him with deadly intent but Damon couldn't move fast enough to protect Elena.

"No Stefan." He screamed as Stefan lunged at Elena with the stake and threw himself at her with all his strength, the stake aimed at her heart.

Elena screamed as she saw Stefan flying towards her. She acted instinctively and with a speed she had never had before she picked up the wooden stake beside her and thrust it in front of her. Stefan fell on it and it sunk right through him. The stake he was holding pierced Elena and she howled.

Stefan looked down and realised that Elena had struck him through his heart. He looked towards his brother with utter torment as his skin slowly started changing gray. He whispered one word before he died.

Elena was shaking uncontrollably from the shock of waking up to her new life and the events that had just transpired. Damon tried to push Stefan off her to see the damage done to her but he was still so weak.

Elena pulled her legs towards her body and pushed Stefan off. Damon looked down at the damage and breathed a sigh of relief seeing the stake wedged firmly above one breast. A few centimetres away from her heart.

He grabbed the stick with both hands and pulled. But he couldn't shift it. Elena placed her fingers over his and pushed with him. It eventually moved slowly out of her body and she moaned gently.

Damon looked at Elena and held her to him tightly. She clutched at him and buried her head into his chest.

He started to weep as he realised that they were both still alive. They had a future together. A ridiculously long one. The tears continued to fall as he started to laugh.

Elena looked up at him and cupped his cheek with her hand.

"I'm alive." She said.

"Yes you are. But as a vampire." Damon said back. "But we have the beauty of eternity. We can be together... forever."

Elena gasped as the realisation hit her.

"This isn't what I wanted." Elena whispered back and Damon's face fell. Elena realised how her words could be misinterpreted and she cupped his cheek in her hand. She smiled. "I meant about becoming a vampire. But being together with you. That I can deal with. The forever part might take some getting used to."

Elena then noticed the bodies around her and she screamed, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Uncle John. Stefan. Are they both dead?"

"Yes." Damon responded.

"Well, Stefan wanted to kill us." She said. But the conviction behind her words were lost and she sniffed loudly. She hadn't wanted Stefan to die. Or her Uncle, however much she didn't like him.

"Yes he did Elena. But I think right at the end when he realised he was going to die he felt remorse for what he'd done."

"I don't think so." Elena said. "He tried to kill me."

"Yes. But his final word before he died was sorry."

Elena looked up at Damon and hugged him. She knew that they needed time to grieve and reflect over the terrible events that had transpired but right now she just wanted to hold her lover because whatever the future held she could cope with as long as she was with Damon.

Damon clutched her tightly back and kissed the top of her head. They were together and that was all that mattered.

"Em Damon. I'm kinda hungry right now." Elena said as she licked her lips. "Care to find me some liquid lunch?"

Thanks for sticking up with me until the end.

Hope you don't hate the ending too much :)

Happy fanfic reading xxx