CHAPTER 20&

"What?!" Elena stopped walking and Charlotte spun around to face her, almost happy to see Elena's distress.

"Yeah. She said that she'd been trying to help people for years but most of them went mad and killed themselves. It worked for me though." Charlotte said proudly. She really had lost her mind. Elena felt faint as she realised what this could mean. This whole time she had been frightened that Damon's control over her mind could make her lose herself and here she was walking right into a scenario that (judging by the outcome of Charlotte's mental state) didn't give her much hope that she would emerge as Elena anymore either. Her heart started to batter against her ribcage as she swallowed the bile that had come into her mouth. Should she do this? What if it made her mad? Was it worth the risk of losing her mind? Elena's eyes filled with tears as she tried to blink away the panic that had her by the throat as Charlotte stared on at her, unblinking and emotionless.

"I could just kill you instead, save you the worry." Charlotte smiled with such evil dripping from her that Elena wondered how the woman had ever been human. Elena gulped down her anxiety and straightened up. She had no choice now but to go through with this. Charlotte was dangerous as long as she thought Elena was competition and the only way to absolve her would be to either convince her that the bond had been broken or actually break it for real. That was what she wanted wasn't it? To break the bond and know once and for all if she did love Damon? Damon would never approve of what she was contemplating and she knew it, but somehow the guilt she would normally feel empowered her. He was always doing stupid dangerous things to save her and look out for her, now she would prove she was willing to do the same for him. Elena shook her head at Charlotte and began walking towards Charlotte's car.

She was going to do this and she was going to be ok. She just had to remember why she needed to do this, she needed to think about Damon and not let go of how she felt about him. She pulled her cell out of her pocket as it vibrated. Caroline. Elena let it ring hoping she would get the message. Caroline of all people would tie her up and lock her away if she knew that Elena was thinking of doing this. Caroline persisted calling again so Elena hung up. None of them could know or they would try and stop her. She sent Jeremy a brief text telling him that she needed some time away from Mystic Falls and she would call in a few days and then she turned her cell off completely. Every fibre in her body burned for her to text Damon and tell him that she loved him, just in case this went wrong, but she knew that her present company would notice. She slipped the cell back into her jacket and continued on towards her fate.

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Damon lay with his arm draped across his eyes. He couldn't call her just yet. He had to figure out what he was going to say. He had spent the past day kicking himself for having made such a rash decision to send Elena away before they had even thought about a wicked witch of the west option. The creepy professor seemed to have an idea that could work on helping to programme a sense of deliberation in Jeremy, but Damon didn't completely trust him. Would it really be wise to let the guy tinker around inside Elena's head, when they didn't know that much about his intentions? Bonnie seemed to trust him. He let out a huge sigh and reached for his bourbon glass on the floor beside him.

"Still drunk?" He heard Stefan scold as he surveyed the volume of liquid missing from the formerly full decanter.

"Thankfully." Damon muttered. What did Stefan expect? That he would be dancing around and merry? That he would shrug off the fact that he had finally gotten the girl but had had to give her up because he loved her and in spite of how much he loved her? Yeah that was just what Stefan wanted. He wanted Damon to get over it as though it had never happened. Deal with the fact that Elena would never be his and go back to being her second choice. Well, he couldn't do that anymore. Not after having had her. Not after knowing how she smelled, tasted, how she sounded when they had made love. He would never be able to expunge those details from his memory.

"Where's Elena?" Stefan ventured. Oh, that's right! Stefan had taken off and missed the perfect romantic ending to the Damon and Elena story. He must think that Damon hadn't had the guts to do it. Anger boiled inside Damon and coiled in his stomach like a snake waiting to spring. He lifted his arm from his face and stared hard at Stefan with eyes that screamed murder. Stefan raised his eyebrows and licked his lips nervously.

"You…you did it?" Stefan asked carefully, trying not to sound too surprised. Damon's jaw tightened as he considered getting up and ripping Stefan head off. It would make a mess over the new Persian rug but it might make him feel a lot better. Stefan tensed up, as if he sensed the impending onslaught.

"I'm sorry Damon." He said quietly with a genuine tone. It sounded like he meant it. Damon watched him suspiciously. Stefan really seemed to mean it. "Thank you." Stefan said sincerely, which only added to Damon's internal rage.

"I didn't do it for you!" Damon growled and put his arm over his eyes again, trying to calm himself down. Even though he couldn't see him, he knew that Stefan was nodding. He was so damn sure of himself it made Damon sick.

"She'll forgive you, you just need to give her space and time." Stefan added. Why the hell was he still talking, couldn't he see how much Damon was having to hold himself back from launching into him and beating his head against the wall until he felt better? Hell, he could go around and beat quite a few people today and undoubtedly feel much better than he did right now. It was so tempting – that was why he had gone the bourbon route. Intoxication made for slower reflexes and coordination. He sprang up, stumbling slightly thanks to Mr Bourbon and gripped the end of the sofa, crushing some of the wood beneath by accident.

"Oh, don't you worry brother, she can have all the space and time she needs coz I'm not going to stick around and watch you make little moon eyes at her. I'm done with all of this shit!" Damon shouted taking Stefan off guard. Stefan watched speechlessly as Damon battered his way through the hallway towards his room, knocking into every wall along the way in his inebriated state. Stefan sighed and lifted Damon's half full glass and downed its contents, wincing as it burned on the way down his throat. Damon wouldn't leave. He wouldn't leave her.

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Caroline had been trying to think of how to pick Tyler's mind about the sire bond all day, but she knew there was no way to sugar coat this kind of conversation. After sitting through Tyler rant about the most recent football game on TV and then discuss the progress of one of the other hybrids breaking the bond, she gave up and just asked.

"Ty, I need to know more about your sire bond." She looked up at him sheepishly. Tyler wasn't fond of talking about the sire bond in terms of him specifically. It made him feel vulnerable even though he had broken his bond. Tyler's' jaw tightened and he sighed.

"What do you want to know? I've told you everything I know Care." He reached over and turned the TV off to give her his full attention.

"I know you've told me a lot about how it makes you do things you don't want to, even if you don't realise it, but I want to know more about how it feels." She said suggestively, trying to get him to discuss his emotional aspects.

"What do you mean?" He asked, clearly no following.

"I mean, when you first turned, did you have any feelings, you know, for Klaus?" She bit her lip, already regretting her decision to phrase the question in that way. Tyler grimaced and shook his head slightly.

"What kind of feelings? What are you talking about Care? What's going on?" He asked in a slightly irritated but gentle tone. Caroline couldn't help the blood rush to her face as she contemplated telling him why she was asking such weird questions. She had promised Stefan that she wouldn't tell anyone about Elena being sired to Damon until they all understood exactly what that meant, but then Tyler was her boyfriend and she should be able to talk to him. She let out a long exhale and decided to bite the bullet.

"Ok, I have to tell you something but you have to promise not to tell anyone Tyler. It's really important that this conversation stays between us." She looked at him imploringly and he nodded, albeit with a tightness to his face which was emotive of his discomfort.

"Ok." Caroline nodded to herself. "Elena is sired to Damon. It was his blood that made her a vampire. Stefan and I noticed that she seemed to be agreeing with him on everything and then she broke up with Stefan because she said she had feelings for Damon and…"

"Wow, hold on, hold on!" Tyler interrupted perplexed as Caroline's mouth remained open in mid-sentence. "Elena is sired to Damon?" Caroline nodded sadly and finally closed her mouth, waiting for Tyler to say something helpful. Tyler let out a whistle and shook his head. "That's got to be playing with Stefan's head a bit."

"Yeah, especially since she ended things with him to be with Damon." Caroline added, holding a cushion to her chest to comfort her.

"How long has this been going on?" Tyler turned to her, more intrigued.

"Well, she's been weird since she transitioned and the past week she and Damon have been getting closer. Stefan and I thought that maybe they needed to try things out and get it out of their system, but then we figured out that she was sired to him."

"Get it out of their system?" Tyler gave a short laugh which had Caroline feeling a little defensive.

"Well, yeah I mean Stefan is the one for her but I thought maybe she was just a little confused. If I'd known it was because she was trying to please him, I would never have pushed them together." Tyler could hear the regret and guilt in Caroline's voice and he had to say something.

"Care I know you're not going to like what I'm going to say but I don't think you have anything to feel guilty about. The sire bond doesn't work that way."

"What do you mean?" Caroline sat forward, ditching her comfort pillow as Tyler took a frustrating ly long minute to think about what to say. She raised her eyebrows in anticipation.

"I know you hate Damon, but if Elena's into him, it's because she must be into him. The sire bond controls what you do but it doesn't change how you feel about your sire."

"But she started to have feelings for him after she was turned and he has never hidden the fact from her that he wants her." Caroline tried to argue.

"Yeah, I'll give you that but wasn't it you who was on at her to admit that she liked him when Stefan was all ripper? I mean, she kissed him a couple of times. Maybe she does feel something for him." Tyler reasoned but bit his lip when he saw the mad expression on her face. He knew that he'd struck a nerve and now she was pissed that he'd brought up the pre-vampire romantic interludes and conversations. He wanted to add that it wasn't possible for your sire to order you to love them either, but he thought it best to stop while he still had a head on his shoulders. Caroline was furious but averted her eyes from his face as she considered what he was saying. She knew he was talking sense but she just didn't want to contemplate that Elena could throw Stefan away for Damon.

"So are they like, together now?" Tyler ventured.

"I don't know. Stefan said that Damon was going to order her to stay away from him."

"Why?" Tyler asked surprised.

"Because he would mess with her head Ty! If she had to do everything he wanted…" She shivered at the thought.

"Shouldn't that be her decision?"

"What are you like team Damon or something now?" Caroline fired at him frustrated. He held his hands up in surrender.

"You know what I think of that guy, but Elena should get to decide Care. If he ordered her to leave it'd be taking away her free will, just as much as anything he could do by accident. In fact it'd be worse because he would know he was doing it, especially if it was something she didn't want." Tyler grimaced again and she watched his expressions shift from disgust to sympathy. He turned to look at her again as his words sank in.

"How would you feel if I made the decision to end our relationship and you couldn't do anything about it?" He asked her, taking her hands in his tenderly.

"You did twice before. You left me." She reminded him. He shook his head and sighed.

"Yeah but imagine if I had had the power to do that and have you mentally unable to do anything about it. Imagine I ordered you to never think about me again, against your will." He looked deep into her eyes to reflect the seriousness of what he intimating. She took a shaky breath as she imagined what that would feel like – the betrayal, the anger and pain that that would cause her, then she thought of Elena. Her stomach sank and she felt tears start to fill her eyes. Was she the worst best friend in the world? Had she done something terrible by pushing Elena like she had, like Stefan had been pushing Damon? Had they done something unforgiveable and that was why Elena wouldn't pick up her calls today like yesterday? Tyler stroked her fringe to the side in sympathy.

"Can you imagine how I would feel if Klaus had made me do that to you?" Caroline blinked and sent a few tears rolling towards her plump lips. She licked them away and tried to control herself. "Stefan made Damon do it, didn't he? It's already happened?" Tyler's words were grave as he asked. Caroline nodded in response and watched as Tyler's face straightened into one of slight anger and concern – presumably for Elena.

"You need to go to her Care. Right now she's not going to know what to do with herself and she's going to be angry with all of you. She might do something she'll regret." His words sent tingles up her spine as she realised just what a big explosion they might have caused. Elena was so new at this, she was still trying to figure out how to deal with her emotions. Look what she had done to Damon when she was angry with him in the woods that day! Something like this could be catastrophic. She nodded and rose to stand up. She grabbed her bag, planning to go over to Elena's and face her. She looked down at Tyler hoping for some words of support to give her courage. He looked up at her seriously.

"If I were you I'd hurry."