Okay. first off I want to thank everyone for the wonderful reviews! I love to read them and it makes me want to write more. I had so much fun writing this story but I'm finally finished. There are still two more chapters after this one. Enjoy!

Chapter 11

"Elena, are you awake?"

"Hmm?" She mumbles rolling over to face me opening her eyes.

"I want you to know that I love you more than anything. Always remember that."

"I love you too. Why are you saying this?"

"I just want you to know."

"I do know. It's what keeps me going."

"Me too. You've been the most important thing to me since I met you, even when I wanted to deny it, it was still true."

"Took me a little longer but I figured it out." She says as a small smile forms on her face.

"Better late then never. Go back to sleep. It's still early." She looks at me with those big brown eyes of hers and I memorize them and kiss her once more before she rolls back over and I pull her to me and hold her like there is no tomorrow. I take in everything about her. Her smell, the way her hair falls, her breathing, the steady beat of her heart and the way her hand fits perfectly in mine, the soft feel of it. She's beyond beautiful. I wait till she's asleep again before getting out of bed. I leave a note on my pillow before I leave.

Elena,

I was the better man because of you. Remember that. I love you, always, more than I've ever loved anyone.

You and I, always.

Love,

Damon

P.S. Our battles weren't the only thing epic about us. ;) xoxoxo

Downstairs

"Damon what are you doing?"

"I'm going to meet Klaus."

"We don't even know where he is."

"Well you see brother, that new witch in town is his witch."

"We know that much."

"I met up with her and asked her to give him a message for me."

"The message being?"

"I just want to meet with him, have a little 'chat'. I'm going to meet him by the falls in a half hour."

"You don't 'chat' Damon." Stefan tells me mockingly using his fingers to air quote me. For how much I denied so long that we were brother, the similarities are clearly there.

"What do you think I'm going to do?"

"Something reckless?"

"You know me so well." I give him my best devious smile that I got.

"What are you going to do excataly? We don't know how to kill him."

"I'm going to take that dagger out of Elijah and shove it right into Klaus' heart."

"Are you crazy? That's suiside." His face has five shades of horror written all over it. If he weren't a living dead person I'd be positive he was going to pass out. His voice isn't even angry which I expected, it's scared.

"It's the only thing I got. Here, have one last drink with me." I say handing him over a glass of scotch and to my suprise he takes it.

"What about Elena?"

"What about her, Stefan? What I'm doing is for her, everything I've done has been for her. She's not going to die. Not while I'm around to do something about it. The only way I can guarantee that she stays alive and human is to kill him myself. After all I am the selfish sadistic brother who cares about no one but myself. Maybe my reputation will finally have some good come out of it."

"Maybe the people that don't know you believe it but Damon we know better and what if Klaus does too? Don't do this Damon. You finally got the girl. I finally got my brother back, you have a life here."

"Klaus won't expect me to have or use the dagger knowing it will kill me. If he does know what we've been up to then he knows we used it on Elijah. A life with out her is no life for me Stefan. This is all I got."

"And what about what she's got?"

"She has her family, you, Barbie and Judgy. She will be fine, you'll make sure of that."

"I don't think you grasp the concept of how much she loves you. Maybe to our father and Katherine you were second but not for her and not for me. I've always needed you Damon and now she does. She's not going to be okay with this."

"At least she will be alive."

"I won't let you do this."

"You can't stop me either."

"I'll tell her."

"It'll be over before you can even start an intervention."

"Dammit, Damon."

"I hate sappy moments but I'm going to go out on a limb here. I'm glad I came back here to fulfill my eternity of misery on you. We weren't brothers for a long time but it's different now. I am and so are you."

"So that's it?" He says defeatedly. Knowing there is no way to change my mind. He knows how stubborn I am.

"Yea, what did you expect? Tears?"

"No, I guess not." He says before we each down the rest of our drinks.

"I'm going to see Elena one more time and then I'm outta here." I stand up and he follows suite but before I can walk away he grabs my arm and I turn to face him. He pulls me into a hug and as much as I didn't want to ever be this close with him it just doesn't matter anymore. I hug him back.

"Your my brother Damon. I love you. I always have, I didn't want this with out you."

"I always be your brother. You'll be fine...me too Stefan. Tell Barbie she turned out to be a kick ass vampire." I say it with as much confidence as I can come up with and a small smile. Saying goodbye to Stefan was harder than I thought it would be. I walk up the stairs and down the hall to my room. I close the door and rest my forehead against it before I let any of the tears that are threatening to fall actually fall. It has to be this way. We are running out of time. I wipe my eyes and try to compose myself before turning around to see her one last time. My first real friend, the girl that had blind faith in me, who trusted me even though she shouldn't, the girl I loved with everything I had, who turned out to be the only one who I could actually be a better man for. And she's gone.

"Stefan?" I yell out. I can't even think, I feel almost paralized and I try my hardest to snap out of it.

"What is it?" He's in my room as quick as I say his name.

"She's gone." I see my note lying on the floor. She knew. She knew what I was going to do because, hell she knew me better than I knew myself sometimes.

"Where?"

"Shit...Elijah." I say before flying out of the room and down to the cellar. Stefan right behind me. There lays Elijah, not awake yet. Dagger gone. Elena gone. Stefan looks at me with nothing more than fear on his face and it matches my own I'm sure. "Get Katherine. I'll call Blondie. No Tyler. No witch. And especially no Jeremy, I can't worry about him and save Elena. She would never forgive me if I let something happen to him."

"It's not a full moon. Klaus won't kill her."

"That doesn't mean anything. If Elena tries to anything with him...he will do something to her and I'm not willing to risk anything on what that something could be. Let's go." I grab a few blood bags knowing that we are going to need our strength. I should have known that she would have suspected something. I should have planned it out better. She's so much sneakier than I give her credit for and I already knew she was sneaky. What could she have possibly been thinking? No brainer...'I won't let any of the people I care about die.'. She's the most selfless person I've ever met in my life. It's the thing I love about her the most and hate at the same time. And right now we were running out of time. There was only one thing I knew for sure. I had to get her back.