Alright guys, this is what you've been waiting for and I hope it doesn't disappoint! It starts off right where we left off and since it's the second half of the last chapter some of the metaphors I was using continued over.
Other than that, I really hope you like it! :)
We rode the few streets that led us to the highway in silence. I'm sure Damon could sense that the silence wasn't comfortable, considering my legs were mashed against the door and my posture was as stiff as a board, but to my relief he hadn't mentioned it. Instead he remained unsettlingly quiet.
The air in the car felt thick; so thick that only a razor sharp, 5-star rated knife would be able to cut through it. And this was because I had no idea what to say and for some reason he wasn't speaking. It was like the English language had suddenly become unfamiliar to us.
When we merged onto the highway, Damon kicked the speed up to somewhere I had to assume was in the upper hundreds. The speed should have terrified me, but all I could focus on was my extreme awareness of how close his body rested next to mine. Every inch of my skin tingled as I remembered how it felt to touch him and have him touch me in return. It remembered the way his lips felt pressed against my own and the way it felt with him inside of me…
"Why didn't you fight me when I said I wanted to tag along?" I abruptly asked because I needed conversation to keep my mind from drifting to the sensation of his skin on mine.
He turned to look at me as we continued to tear down the highway and my heart strummed away at the sight of his electric eyes. Only half of me begged that he'd mistake my personal acceleration as fear over his eyes not being positioned on the road and not that it was because they were focused on me.
And it appeared he did, because his signature smirk slid into place and he replied, "Because you're not the worst company in the world, Elena, and this is going to be a long trip." The sight of his smirk allowed Damon's troops, who had apparently crossed over the middle line dividing my heart, to take another step into Stefan's territory and his reminder of Georgia had them taking another.
I was mentally replaying blissful moments I'd shared with Stefan and tapping my fingers nervously against my leg when Damon turned his attention back onto the road and declared, "My turn. Why did you have Bonnie lie to me about you waking up? I've been going crazy and I thought we were closer than that."
He'd attempted to remove all emotion from the statement, but failed to completely remove the subtle suffering edge to it. I hated hearing it and I felt the troops take another step forward.
"I'm sorry, but I didn't think you'd let us follow through with our plan if we involved you," I replied. It wasn't exactly a lie, since I'd initially assumed this would've been the case if we had filled him in on our plans, but it was also a much easier answer to give than the full truth. And I knew the answer would be justifiable in his mind.
He nodded, kept his focus on the windshield, and questioned, "Because Klaus is psychotic and lashed out and killed you in your future?"
My head snapped to the side in shock. I felt like I'd just been hit with a stun gun and I stared at him because I never imagined Caroline would have filled him in about that. And also because I seriously didn't understand how he was acting so calm about it; it was completely uncharacteristic of him.
He turned, smirk sliding across his face again at my expressional response, and explained, "Caroline has a big mouth. If you want anything kept secret you don't want to tell her."
"What all did Caroline tell you about my future?" I asked, suddenly extremely nervous over what his answer might be.
His attention remained focused on me as he narrowed his eyes seductively and teased, "Why? Are there things I shouldn't know?"
"If there was, I wouldn't admit it anyway," I countered back playfully knowing for sure that Caroline hadn't spilled the beans about our future because if she had he'd of rubbed it uncomfortably right there in my face.
"I have ways of getting you to spill," he threatened with a devilishly handsome grin, confirming he had no clue.
"I'd like to see you try," I countered impulsively, my best adorable defense face intact. Then I realized that I was edging dangerously close to the flirting line and immediately withdrew my eyes from his and repositioned myself in my seat. We weren't a couple and although it felt natural to behave that way around him, I had to remind myself that it wasn't entirely appropriate. But I couldn't ignore how comfortable the interaction had been and I felt his troops charge into Stefan's territory with full speed.
Jesus, Damon wasn't even trying and the battle felt like a full on massacre of Stefan's side.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Damon's had narrowed as he tried to figure out my sudden mood change. Then they shifted to the road and he reverted back to our previous discussion. "But back to the topic at hand, I'm not worried about Klaus killing you this time. From the way Caroline explained things, I'm assuming he only killed you because he was on the verge of death, which considering that it hasn't been a decade yet, he's not quite there."
He then paused and I assumed he was done, but then he added, "And besides, I plan on leaving you at a hotel when I pay him a visit anyway."
Well, that explained why he was so calm about the matter. I turned on him with full force and challenged, "That's not going to happen."
He didn't even dignify my reaction by looking in my direction when he argued, "It is, because otherwise the spell I had Bonnie cast a few weeks ago to protect and secure your location from Klaus would be for nothing. But ultimately because you coming with me isn't an option. Your life isn't something I'm willing to risk."
"And you storming in and pissing off Klaus with your snarky attitude only to get yourself killed isn't an option either! Your life isn't something I'm willing to risk." I shot back, only vaguely aware of how close my hand got to his shoulder when I threw it around in the air.
"Give me a break, Elena; I'm smarter than to go in there with guns blazing. I'm perfectly capable of having a civilized conversation with the guy," he muttered beside me.
"Are you?" I asked mimicking the tone drop his voice had taken. "Because I had a hard time accepting the fact that in order to keep you alive I had to keep him alive as well. I can only imagine how well you're going to handle that fact when you come face to face with him."
I saw his eye roll and slight head shake. Then my words fell like a dead weight onto the floor of the car and a heavy silence settled over us. We remained like this for the longest time before Damon finally broke it and questioned, "Do you just fight me because it's in your nature to do so?"
I scrunched up my nose because I didn't argue without reason, and this time I had a very important reason behind doing so. "No, I fight you because if I don't, you'll do something reckless and get yourself killed," I answered defensively.
At that answer he furrowed his brows, and I noticed him mull my answer around in his head. Suddenly, he swerved the car onto the side of the interstate and adjusted the clutch into the parked position. I wasn't even worried that we were wasting time by being parked on the side of the road when he turned on me. His left arm rested on top of the steering wheel, his right on the back of his seat, when he asked, "I understand why you want to save Stefan's life, but why are you always so worried about saving mine?"
"Because I need to save you!" I responded impulsively. And as soon as the words left my lips I realized that was why Stefan had no chance in defending his reign over my heart. It didn't matter if I saw him or we brought him back to who he used to be, because I already knew that I only wanted to save Stefan, but I needed to save Damon. There was no point in trying to fool myself anymore; it was the reason we were going on this trip, not to bring Stefan back, but to hopefully change the progression of Damon's stages in the future. A future I'd already lived that I could only alter, but never erase.
Because my moments with Damon made that impossible. The intimacy, the connection, the feeling of being finally complete in such an exhilarating way - that could never be erased. I could choose to ignore the way I'd felt and still feel; choose the easy road, the one I had been, where I picked Stefan. It would be so much simpler and it could last forever, whereas my relationship with Damon never could. But my relationship with Stefan would never compare to what I had with the old brother; the one that made me feel.
And as he watched me with his blue, indescribably blue, eyes, waiting for an answer because mine really hadn't been one, I felt a mixture of everything. I felt anxious because I wanted to set our future in motion. I didn't want to waste any more time; I'd learned the importance of it and frankly I'd already wasted enough. I felt terror because I knew the admittance of how I felt towards him did set everything in motion. We'd live a version of the future I'd already seen and although I wouldn't make the same mistakes, there were still circumstances that were beyond my control and there was a chance it could end the exact the same way. And then I felt acceptance once I realized it didn't matter. I'd still die for him, I'd kill for him, I'd defend him; I'd do anything but choose to live the rest of whatever time we both had without him.
That was when I felt love; that familiar all-consuming, earth rattling love. And I was only slightly surprised to notice it was the most comforting feeling I'd had all day. It was then that I finally stopped fighting and allowed the tiny remaining portion of my heart that still belonged to Stefan to be taken over by Damon; not like I ever really had much of a choice in the matter anyway.
And that was why I finally let my hand reach out and grab onto his cheek. The contact sent a jolt of energy straight through me and I suddenly felt alive. I smiled at the feeling and confessed softly, "And also, because you and I have something."
"An understanding, I know," he scoffed as his irises momentarily disappeared beneath his upper lids.
"A future," I corrected. "A tragic, crazy, demanding, beautifully passionate one. Complete with broken hearts and obstacles that never stop coming, but despite everything that got in our way; we still remained nothing less than stellar."
I was very aware that Damon was looking at me like I was explaining the mathematical equation for defining gravity, but his dumbfounded expression did little to slow my speed. My hand had removed itself from his skin, my arms were full of life as they jolted through the air, and I continued, "And I've always fought for your life because I guess a part of me has always known that our potential sat right beneath the surface waiting to breach it. And now that I've lived it and felt what it was like to embrace that potential, I can't shake the way I felt during it. And that's why I'll continue to fight for your life, because while I've learned so many things from the spell's experience, the most important one is that while I may be your lifeline physically, you're mine in every other sense of the word."
I then stopped and took a deep breath, suddenly aware that I hadn't taken one during my entire speech. To my surprise, Damon said nothing, but instead sat there with a disconcerted look on his face; eyes directly on mine, but not focusing on them. I remained impatiently still, every fiber of my being begging me to reach out and smooth that look from his face, but my insecurities had me frozen in place. Because I'd just poured my heart out and laid everything on the line only to have stunned him into silence.
Never in a million years would I have guessed that the moment I finally gave in to Damon he would shut down like this, but he had. He wasn't breathing, he wasn't moving, he was still; even those goddamn eyebrows of his were immobile. And as I watched him warily I started to doubt the way I'd unloaded everything on to him. I always assumed he could handle anything I'd throw at him, including all of the low blows and pain I'd thrown his way in the past and also the times he didn't know about, but apparently when it came to giving him what he wanted, it was too much.
But then he finally took a breath and his eyes shifted just slightly enough to reassure me I hadn't shocked him into a coma. When the rest of his body started to move, I anxiously awaited his response, but instead he opened his car door and stepped out onto the side of I-40.
I sat there like a deer in headlights as he made his way to stand just along the edge of the forest that lined the interstate. I was utterly stunned because never during any of my interactions with Damon had he been at a loss for words and in need of separating himself from me and I wanted to smack myself upside the head because maybe I'd poured out the emotions too strong, too soon.
I remained in the car desperately trying to figure out what had happened. I'd always been so confident in my ability to read him and predict his actions, but in all honesty, it didn't matter if I knew every aspect that was Damon Salvatore; he was unpredictable and never failed to keep surprising me. It was one of the many characteristics that set him apart from everyone else, including Stefan, the one who had transitioned into the other brother instead of the brother, and it had me throwing open my door.
I didn't take slow hesitant steps as I made my way to him, although considering his rigid stance I should have, and began, "Damon, I know for you this has to appear like it's coming out of nowhere…"
"It's not what you said or your abrupt delivery," he interrupted softly, cutting me off.
He paused and took an unnecessary breath before continuing, "I've waited to hear something like that from you for the longest time and I always assumed I would eventually; though, you're right, I never expected it to be so soon. And yeah, the fact that you've suddenly lived out our entire relationship without my own personal involvement is a little unnerving, but it's not the craziest thing I've come across in my lifetime. I've handled worse."
He then turned around and I didn't even realize I'd stopped my forward motion along with my words until I noticed how far away he still was. But then, almost reacting to every desire I'd been harboring within me, he flashed in front of me and closed the unbearable distance between us. His brows were furrowed, forming three distinct lines across his forehead, as he explained, "It's the fact that I now understand why you died in your future and that need to sacrifice yourself for me is not something I can set in motion. No matter how much I want to."
The way his expression sat portrayed how very much he wanted to. I hadn't missed the finality in his tone, but refused to sit back and abide by it. So, I tightened my features and threw as much determination into my words as humanely possible, and countered, "It's not something I really have a choice about anymore. I love you and there's nothing that could possibly happen in this lifetime that's going to reverse that. So don't you see, I'd sacrifice myself either way, even if you didn't accept me."
His expression softened as I spoke those three very important words for the first time in this lifetime, but by the end of my speech he'd pulled himself back together and argued, "I don't care, Elena. You need to get the concept of you and me out of your head because I will not let you die for me!"
I didn't even flinch when he ignored the three words or at his heightened tone; I'd gotten used to this means of communication. Instead, I stepped up on my tip toes, inched my face forward so it was right in his, and argued back, "That's why we're changing it! So I don't have to!"
At my closeness, he took a step back and shot me an incredulous look. "With a pair of blood bags in the back seat and a make-shift plan to cut a deal with Klaus? It's not going to happen and I'm sure as soon as your within 100 feet of the psychopath, he'll drain you dry because he's a monster, Elena. He's been a killer his entire life, so what makes you think he'll suddenly change that now?"
It didn't surprise me that Damon had little faith in Klaus. He'd been let down by this supernatural world too many times to ever invest faith in something or someone other than himself. I couldn't help him with the first, but I could ensure him that the latter could be changed.
So I suddenly lowered my voice and professed, "I don't know for sure that he will, but I can guarantee you I'll make it out alive this time."
"And how is that?" he questioned.
I crossed my arms over my chest and cocked my head to the side as I answered, "Because you're going to give me your blood."
"Oh really?" he asked cynically before he bit into his wrist and threw it in my face. He wore a smug expression, sure that he'd just called my bluff, and was shocked when I grabbed onto the thing without hesitation and took a deep gulp.
Damon watched me with lids retracting back far enough for me to see all of the white of his eyes. He was too stunned to stop my actions, but I only took one sip. It was enough to seal my fate and prove my point, but not enough to sexually affect my body the way I knew his blood had the power of doing so.
The flabbergasted expression still rested on his face when I pulled away, wiped my lips, and declared, "Insurance policy in-tact. I'll survive our visit with Klaus."
He looked at his wrist before he dragged his other hand through his raven hair and remarked, "Now I know you've gone off the deep end. You don't want to be what I am."
"Your right, I didn't," I replied. And I'm not sure if it was his blood swimming through my veins or the color burning from his eyes after my sudden committal action, but I suddenly found the confidence to reach out and touch the side of his cheek.
Fire scorched the palm of my hand as it rested against his porcelain skin; symbolically representing the fire that continued to burn for him inside of my chest, as I softly professed, "But things change, especially when you realize there's someone worth sharing longer than a normal lifetime with."
My confession had struck its mark and I saw his resistance slowly slide away as he offered ruefully, "I can't guarantee you I'll even last that long."
The thought of him not doing so had my second hand latching on to the other side of his cheek as I assured, "But I can guarantee you that I'm not wasting my knowledge this time around, or our time fighting what I feel for you. I understand the power of the first and the importance of the second. So you're just going to have to trust me; this deal will work and so will we."
"You're entirely too confident," he halfway laughed out.
"And you, uncharacteristically, are not," I teasingly observed, resulting in a playful eye roll and soft chuckle from his end.
Then his expression suddenly changed and I knew things were about to take a turn.
"What about Stefan?" he asked.
His statement hadn't held a possessive tone, but I knew he had every right to ask the question. To him it must have appeared like I'd jumped right from one to the other, but that wasn't the case at all. "I've had an entire lifetime to figure out it's not always going to be Stefan. It took me too long to figure that out the first time around, but I can promise you that from now on, it's always going to be you."
I could see my words had had an effect, but Damon hid his satisfaction well and clarified, "You don't need to reassure me on the change of heart, I get it. But that's not what I meant. This is gonna break him and we'll have no chance of repairing Klaus' damage once he hears that you've moved on; especially to me."
I'd already given this thought. I knew waking up today that even if I did save them both, that I would ultimately still end up hurting one of them. I could bear the weight of hurting Stefan and not Damon, but that didn't mean I wanted to. I wanted him to get better and I wanted him to still have a life after I manhandled his heart, so I justified, "I don't think you give him enough credit where you're concerned. He saved you for a reason. And besides we'll keep this a secret until he's better."
"That's not going to be easy," he reasoned.
I couldn't contain my laugh. He watched me quizzically until I finally got the thing out of my system and explained, "Trust me, nothing about us is."
Concern etched across his features as he asked, "Then why do you still want to be with me?"
"Because it's worth it," I mused, internally flipping through memories of us together that could rectify my future. "And because I explained incorrectly before. It's not us that isn't easy; it's the world that makes it difficult. You and me, when the world lets us be, we're remarkably effortless," I clarified, closing my eyes as the last word fell from my lips.
"You and me?" he questioned skeptically when I reopened my eyes, an edged disbelief tainting the words that fit so perfectly together.
I laughed in amusement again because three days ago I would have questioned my statement the very same way. But I knew the reality of it now and that assurance laced my voice as I said airily, "Who'd of thought, right?"
He stared at me, uncertainty still streaming from those breathtaking blue eyes of his, when I cocked my head to the side and proclaimed, "But just in case you don't believe me, I can prove it."
Damon's lips started to form a question along the lines of, "How so?" when I capture them with mine. I knew I probably should have waited until I at least had his consent, but any doubts I had about my abrupt act vanished as his arms wrapped around my back. He'd hesitated at first, but then he pulled me into him and further into the moment, momentarily forcing everything about our crazy lives to fade away.
Damon kissed me with all he had, every inch of his body simultaneously pushing into me and pulling me against him. I kissed him back with equal force, hands wrapping against the back of his head and burying themselves in his disheveled strands. Passion, lust, hunger, and love spiraled together sucking the very air from my lungs and replacing it was something otherworldly.
I had entered this moment knowing exactly what to expect, but my future memories did absolutely nothing to prepare me for how it actually felt to experience this act first hand.
It shattered the memory of our first kiss at the lake house, the kiss at the underground club in New York, our trillion sweet kisses that led up to the passionate kiss when we'd re-entered each other's lives, the kiss after I said "I Do," the last kiss we ever shared before I knew I'd die saving him; it shattered them all, because this time it was really me and him. Not a memory, but an actual moment that set the course of the rest of our future.
And it was the opportunities of this future that I held on to when our lips finally separated, leaving mine tingling and desperately craving more contact. I parted my lids to peer at Damon's whose lingered shut a moment longer before he finally blasted me with his eyes. They were unnaturally bright, brighter than I had ever witnessed before, and I knew I'd capture him. There was no going back at this point; for either of us.
He assured me of this when he cocked his head to the side, whipped his brows toward the sky, and declared, clearly awestruck, "We're definitely something."
I could feel my smile widen across my entire face. My lips tightened, my cheeks plumped up, and my eyes squinted as it fought for occupancy. I then whipped my brows at him in return and seductively quipped, "Just wait until you get to our sex life."
I didn't miss his guttural growl that followed my statement. Damon's hands slid their way to my hips and they tightened as he tried to reign in some control over his libido. He did this because he understood, exactly as I did, that our mission was unfortunately more important than our personal affairs. He licked his lower lip and cocked his head to the side, before he ordered, "As soon as we get my brother home and locked up in the cellar, we're setting Ric on watch duty and our first stop is your bedroom."
"Agreed," I submitted with a nod of my head, loving the idea of a rendezvous in my bed.
We then made our way to his car. Just as I lowered myself into the passenger's seat and Damon was about to close my door, I added, "But only if you let me come with you to cut a deal with Klaus. I'll come back now if he does anything stupid."
My door was shut and he was seated beside me before I had the chance to blink. His eyes were narrowed, but not threatening, as he lightly suggested, "We'll fight about it on the way. But first I want to hear about our future, and I don't want you leaving out any of the juicy details."
I laughed as his eyes did their signature flirty thing and decided it was a long car ride, so what the hell; I could fill him in on our future. He deserved to know everything, even the low portions because they'd brought me here; to him.
So I mimicked, as best I could, his special eye move and assured, "Okay, but just so you know, it's not all great and I made some really stupid mistakes that I won't be repeating. But I'm planning on reliving some of our better moments."
Damon shot me a pleasing grin and replied, "I can handle whatever you throw my way and you better," as he shifted the mustang into drive. We sped onto the highway, determined to save Stefan, as I began to tell him a version of our future that'd we'd already jumpstarted the sequence of. The difference this time was that I'd settled for nothing less than changing the darker portions.
- June 6, Present Day -
We tore down the highway back to Mystic Falls. The warm air was coming in through the open window, whisping random strands of hair around my face. I took a deep breath and settled into a comfortably light state of relief. I wasn't naïve enough to let myself accept that this morning had been our final victory, although Damon and I had come out with exactly what we wanted from the trip. That was because our interactions with Klaus would never fully be severed. He was part of Damon's future, therefor a part of my future, whether we wanted him to be or not.
It wasn't ideal, but it kept Damon alive and that was more important than our personal opinions regarding the deranged hybrid.
That very hybrid had been easy to find once we reached the tiny town him and Stefan had been residing in. He'd been defensive at first, so confident that our appearance was due to our desire to find a way to kill him. But he was an original after all, the original; so when we'd asked to sit down and speak with him instead of storming in guns blazing, as Damon liked to say, Klaus had obliged.
The hybrid had been arrogant, cocky, and I knew it pained Damon not being able to lay a hand on the asshole that had single handedly tried to destroy the welfare of his brother. But he resisted and Klaus' attitude changed once he learned we were there to help him prolong his life instead of abruptly end it; like we even could.
I always assumed Klaus had known about the link and timeline all along, never really taking into account the stupidity behind choosing to take on both supernatural forms and create a deadline for himself when the opportunity of forever was available. That was because I figured a power-hungry monster like him wouldn't be able to see past the supremacy of it all. Everyone knew power had its downfalls, but to me Klaus didn't really seem like the type that would mind.
Apparently I'd been wrong. The information about his deadline had been news to him and it turns out he wasn't going to find out until later in our future. Which I guess made sense to me. Even someone like him wouldn't really choose to place a deadline on his life for more power would he?
Klaus had been skeptical at first, wary of accepting the information, but after some explanation he'd ultimately heeded our warning. That was when the tables turned and I saw a side of him I never expected existed. He wasn't exactly grateful, but his edge had dissipated and he was clearly impressed that we'd had the courage to visit him knowing he could hold me, his cure, captive if he wanted.
It was then that I expected Damon's territorial rage to get in our way, but his rage only seemed to have amused Klaus rather than anger him.
We didn't chat long, just long enough to supply him the necessary information I'd acquired about the restrictions to his new body as well as the conditions regarding my blood. Then I'd told him what we wanted in return for the knowledge and blood. He'd obliged almost too easily, but then again I knew Stefan had already become a nuisance, so his agreeance hadn't come as a surprise.
We then left with our precious cargo. I turned to look back at Stefan. He was currently resting in the back seat, injected with enough vervain to keep an elephant unconscious for days. He looked peaceful and I knew a part of me would always love him for what he'd gotten me through in the past. He'd been a crucial part of my rebirth after the death of my parents and it was because of him that I'd been introduced into the supernatural world in the first place. I'd always care about him, that I knew, but there was always one person I'd care about more.
My eyes then drifted over to the cooler seated next to Stefan. It contained one of the two blood bags we'd brought with us. It had been my idea in case Klaus lost control and decided to drain me dry. That way, regardless of what happened, we'd still have supplies for the future. I thought about that future for the shortest second and smiled before I turned back around and focused my attention to the open window.
As I watched the road signs and trees fly by, I thought about how lucky we'd made out and how simple the transaction had been with Klaus. He was a monster, I'd always remember that and I'd always flinch when I saw him because he had killed me, twice, but I couldn't help but feel grateful that lying underneath of that monster rested someone civilized enough to respect honesty and not take advantage of it. He hadn't laid a hand on me and I'd made it out alive, and I knew it was because when it came down to it, his life was more important than threatening mine.
He didn't care about me; he just needed me to survive. But that was okay because the vampire driving beside me, with a victorious smirk that hadn't removed itself from his lips since we left, cared enough about me to make up for it. I glanced at Damon from the corner of my eye and knew that there was enough love shared between the two of us to keep the world spinning on its axis. And I knew that there was enough love coming from him to keep me from getting dizzy when it started to spin too fast.
His eyes shifted, obviously feeling my stare, so he could peer at me from the corner of his eye. Noticing he'd caught me in my gawking act, he chuckled to himself. Since I'd unloaded the truth about our future onto him earlier, this trip's conversation had been limited to small talk. We also did this because, according to Damon, sometimes it's possible for a passed out vampire to still hear conversations going on around them; like a coma patient. And as much as I wanted to flirt casually with him, my desire to hurt Stefan as little as possible had won out.
That was why I settled for a playful batting of my eyelashes instead of another declaration of my love. I took a peek back at Stefan, just to make sure he was still passed out, and then intertwined my fingers through Damon's free hand that was resting on the center console. He didn't shy away, but instead arched the tips of his fingers up to fully encompass my hand and shot me an adoring smile. And I was immediately overcome by how right everything felt.
My heart accelerated to its standard level I'd learned to expect in Damon's presence and it was that moment that I finally allowed myself to accept our small victory. Sure, Klaus wasn't out of the picture and we'd see him eventually to hand off another sample of my blood once he was finished the first bag, but he wasn't a threat. We'd established a civilized relationship and Damon's life was secure, for at least a while.
And I hadn't wasted any time figuring out what I wanted. As I looked at him now, I knew that this time we'd started our life out together the right way. The rest of it would fall into place eventually. For now I'd settle for just knowing that we were both on the same page and we'd end up in a better place than last time.
So I smiled at him, feeling happy, content, and secure in our future when he mouthed the words, "I love you."
My smile only grew after seeing it because I knew everything that came with that statement. So, I mimicked the words back and squeezed his hand before readjusting my position comfortably in the seat next to him. When I refocused my attention to the passing scenery, I knew that as soon as we got Stefan locked into the cellar downstairs I needed to thank Bonnie, well after our mandatory trip to my bedroom of course.
Because without peering into my future, I'd have never been given the possibility to learn from my mistakes. I wouldn't have learned the importance of time. I wouldn't have known how to rescue Stefan. I would have never learned how not to hurt the one person that mattered the most. And I wouldn't have been able to save him.
But most importantly, I wouldn't have learned that in saving Damon I'd also saved myself. Because if I'd learned anything it was that my future was tied to him, however long that future lasted. He'd been my constant the first time and that was something I definitely wasn't changing this time.
Please read and review. :)
I know I kind of skimmed over the whole thing with Klaus, but I figured you'd be more interested in Elena choosing Damon over Stefan. Also, this whole thing has been focused more on them than anything else, so it seemed to make sense to me.
I haven't figure out how far into the future I plan on writing the epilogue yet, but I hope to have it up soon. And yes, all of the characters will be included so you'll find out what happens with everyone else.