A/N: A lot of the inspiration for this chapter was just in my devoted love for the ship that is 'Delena'. However, I suggest you put the song: Love Song Requiem – Trading Yesterday on endless repeat while you read this chapter, (or at least for the Delena parts) because this was the last ounce of inspiration that lead to the finish of this chapter. Right. So where we left this last chapter... Damon, in an attempt to look for his recently estranged brother found himself at the end of the chapter residing in Elena's bedroom? (Oh how much does that sound like a typical Damon?:L) Well, it's evening... Damon's waiting for Elena in her bedroom of all places – I wonder how this chapter's going to develop? Helpful hint: Delena fans you can thank me later with a handy review after you've finished the chapter. ;) As for right now adios and enjoy. (I know I did very much so writing it.)

Chapter 25: Maybe Someday Love.

EPOV

Okay, so an almost hysterical Caroline pretty much having a heart attack at the mere sight of me wasn't something I was expecting to be dealing with today, but what could I say, really? As much as I despised the woman that was Katherine Pierce I had to give her some credit, at least, she knew how to cover her tracks without much as a face mask. Luckily though, after a few shifty looks from passing nurses and some 'is everything okay in here?' murmurs I managed to calm Caroline down enough for her to actually listen to me.

To say that I had just blurted out my whole doppelganger resemblance to a bloodsucking killer to my recently hospitalised best friend would be lying. How could I tell her all of that? Caroline still had no idea that vampires existed and it was Caroline we were talking about. I didn't know exactly how she would cope with it but I somehow knew she wouldn't take it lying down; besides, it wasn't my secret to tell and as Stefan had once said to me, people of who were oblivious to the fact of the existence of vampires were usually the safest. And so, no matter how bad I felt in lying to my best friend, I knew it had to be done.

So I simply just talked things out with her and left the hospital pretty easily and without much more bother from Caroline who shortly after her little panic attack found herself succumbing to her subconscious. I knew if Caroline hadn't been so doped up on anti biotics and what not it wouldn't have been that easy; but to my advantage, that had in fact been the case. And now I found myself driving home. Man, it had dark fast. It only felt as though I'd been visiting Caroline for an hour and I'd had to switch my car headlights on as I drove home. Little droplets of rain splattered onto the front of my windscreen eventually easing into a dull thrumming 'pitter, patter, pitter, patter' it was quite soothing actually.

Despite the eventful visit to Caroline, I felt strangely at ease, relaxed almost. For once all I wanted to do was curl up in my large, double bed and let every single emotion, every single problem simply pass me by. I knew I missed Stefan, deep down but if I tried hard enough I could forget about that; what was the point in grieving over a relationship of which was seemingly a lost cause? None at all, I was sure. (Yes, I was purposely not thinking of Damon; for thinking of Damon would only event to a further problem and I wasn't doing problems today.) After a surprisingly relaxing drive back home from the hospital I pulled up outside of the house and got out in one swift motion.

Getting to the door and into the house was like routine. I glanced around, nothing different, same old Gilbert household.

"Aunt Jenna?" I called to nowhere in particular whilst draping my coat over the sofa back.

When I received no response I frowned and cast my eyes elsewhere and walked over to the bottom of the stairs. It was then a small square-shaped white sheet of paper caught my line of vision. It was stuck by the means of sticky tape to the wood of the stairs. My eyes scans over the messy letters scratched into words and I nodded subtly. So Jenna was out and dinner was in the microwave; I wasn't particularly hungry right now but I'd bare that last part in mind for if I found myself a little peckish later. Whilst thinking this I kicked my shoes off and padded up the stairs.

I threw them down quietly beside the door and then opened it with ease; it was then that I had to blink twice. Hold on, was Damon Salvatore sitting down on my bed in my room? The moment my sock-covered feet stepped over the threshold of my bedroom he looked up at me with those beautiful ocean orbs of his. For a split second I was dumbstruck to say the least. Without thinking my hands managed to shut the door closed behind me and I could feel my eyebrows knit together.

"Uhm.. Damon. Hi?" 'Uhm Damon hi? Really, now?'

It was then my favourite (yes, I was as sad as to have a 'favourite Damon Salvatore smile') smirk pulled out the corner of his lips and he responded.

"Why hello there, Elena. Fancy seeing you here," he said smoothly.

Right, so he had noticed my slightly star struck staring moment, great. Covering this as best I could I got straight down to business, folding my arms over my front.

"What are you actually doing here, Damon? Not that I don't thrive in your company, but I'd like to know why you are in my room making yourself very much comfortable on my bed," I said, focusing on my words rather than the man in front of me.

Damon's head cocked to the side a little and he smirked, leaning back, his body now in a rather provocative position. I suppressed the urge of how seeing Damon that way made me feel.

"Well, you know, Elena... I'd be even more comfortable if you came along and laid here beside me," he crooned with that lavender soaked tone that he knew always got to me.

I mentally braced myself, demanding that I kept control of myself. Right, so he wasn't going to answer my previous question, I'd just ask him another.

"What do you want, Damon?" I asked, rubbing my arm absentmindedly.

Damon's brown brows shot up and he frowned, once again sitting up.

"Now now, Elena... I thought the other day we were finally getting somewhere... There's no need to be rude," Damon murmured before standing at the foot of my bed.

Images of that moment in the graveyard flickered across my eyes, becoming oh too real, the feeling becoming too much a crave... I was frozen in the position my feet were, I couldn't do anything other than watch and listen to the words and actions I was subjected to.

"Suddenly silent, princess?" he mused before chuckling slightly then shaking his head as he advanced slowly towards me "Have no worries, my intention on this evening is not to claim you as my own, I'm merely here as a messenger and while I'm here I suppose I should ask how my little brother is.."

His unusual muse over Stefan snapped me out of the trance like state I was in and I frowned.

"..Stefan? Stefan and I broke up; how am I supposed to know where he is... Hold on, you don't know where he is?" I asked, worry obvious within my tone.

Damon stopped his advance; he was about a foot away from me when he spoke, confusion evident there, too.

"No? Honestly, I wanted to talk to you about the attacks; there's been a break through, Stefan and I-"Damon was cut off by my voice.

"Katherine... It's Katherine," I said quietly, holding his gaze.

He was silent for a moment or two and then nodded stiffly.

"Yes, I believe so, but how... Stefan and I only found out a couple of days ago," Damon muttered.

"Caroline. I went to visit her today and when I asked her about the attack she was so scared of me," I thought back reciting the scene between the two of us, Damon for once looked totally interested.

"Hmm... That makes sense," he mumbled and I took the chance of his distraction to break our eye contact but what he added caught me off guard "Although, maybe it's a good thing... The fact Stefan's missing, I mean."

My eyes instantly flashed up to meet his and I scolded him with that very look.

"How can you say that?" But Damon didn't seem to be interested in what I thought of his brotherhood right now, he seemed far more intent on his eye's gaze upon my face.

"It gives you more time for the right brother..." he whispered, he was close enough now that his sweet, sensual breath washed over my face. I shivered.

However, I'm not sure how I did it, but my hand rose and scored forward, but was unfortunately caught by Damon's right palm, another try and the same thing happened. He smiled.

"Oh, I wouldn't try that, Elena... We both know I know your next move, your entire self better than even you do," he said in a low breath; taking advantage of Damon's averted attention my right hand ripped from under his closed hand and I slapped him fast and hard across the side of his face.

Damon's head of course reacted to the sudden movement but an instant later his eyes were once again boring down into mine; my breath caught and no matter how hard I tried my hand wouldn't remove itself from Damon's cheek. His eyes were so heavy, so bright, so... beautifully tempting. It was then I felt every wall, every barrier of my self control diminish as my hand moulded into the shape of his defined cheekbone. I leant closer to him; Damon for once looked so innocent, so utterly vulnerable – his fingers linked with mine and I closed the breath of a gap between our two sets of pouted lips.

It was a single brush of the lips and I felt him pull away. Damon pull away! But not even a second later his lips motioned back to mine; my eyes closed and I kissed him, really kissed him. After a few seconds, his lips parted and I felt a slippery intruder at the perimeter of my lips, begging to be allowed inside and I willingly granted its entrance. Damon's tongue massaged itself against mine and I moaned quietly. This was truly beyond anything I had ever imagined in regards to kissing Damon Salvatore – he tasted even better than he smelt and right now I wanted nothing more than to feel Damon's hands all over me.

My wish was soon granted as Damon's free arm coiled around my waist, pressing my body onto his; my hand broke free from his and joined the other in bracing around his neck. Damon's hand reached the bottom of my back and slipped underneath the fabric of my shirt, I let out a tender breath as I felt it snake upward, caressing the now bare skin at my back. My chest leant into his and both of his hands then shifted down to my thighs. Without a moment's notice he grasped the skin there and a gasp betrayed my already parted lips; I could feel him smiling under our emotion-filled osculate as he pulled my body upwards.

My legs constricted around his hips and his lips broke from mine only to graze across the skin at my jaw line and mere seconds later plague the surface of skin at the hollow of my neck. The red hot sensation powering through my entire body truly was something indescribable; my fingers ran into his hair, taking careful fistfuls as I let out occasional out-breaks of my obvious arousal of which, speaking of was absolutely aching for him. The budding tension of how long I'd been awaiting Damon to hold me, to treat me this way had been well and truly unleashed, overwhelming and then encapsulating the both of us.

"Elena..." I heard him whisper and I wasn't sure if it was a voluntary or involuntary sound.

However, the need I had for his lips to be moving in sync with my own was far too strong, even if his lips were making themselves known upon my neck – my hands unthreaded from his hair and I brought his face back up to mine, once again ravishing in the one thing I knew for sure I wanted. Damon. Seconds later my hands slithered down to the top of his chest, stripping him easily of his leather jacket as Damon carried me over to bed. Our lips never did part in the act of removing each of our shirts and the wandering of hands. My games shaped up the perfect planes of his chest whilst he groaned into my mouth, his own fingers delicately tracing my waist then hips; I'd never felt safer, more comfortable in the arms of someone as I had when in the arms of Damon Salvatore.

It was when my eager fingers reached the rim of Damon's jeans that he pulled away. My eyes immediately opened and I simply lay there, panting hard as Damon's blue fire orbs scanned by face, my barely covered chest and then back up again; his hands slowly retreating back up my body and gently began caressing each cheek. He was shaking his head, not in regret but in...disbelief? An emotion I couldn't quite fathom dominant on those beautiful features – I was, not for the first time and I certainly knew it wouldn't be the last lost in his mesmerizing eyes.

"Damon..?" I murmured quietly, unable to break the hold his eyes had on mine; he didn't answer with words, he didn't need to.

A single tear rimmed at the brim of Damon's eye and slid down his cheek. That was my answer. I caught the diamond segment on the tip of my finger and raised it to my lips, tasting his tear.

"I... You.." Damon choked almost soundlessly and I placed my still-moisturized finger onto his lips then smiled.

"I know, Damon... I know," I said, my voice barely audible.

And then his arms wound around me, crushing my body to his, in turn, my own did the same. I buried my head into the crook of his neck and closed my eyes. I had been wrong before – I didn't need a good night's sleep away from everything, away from him. I needed him, for he was my everything; I'd now found the thing that was missing.

That thing was Damon.

Author's note: Yes, this chapter was a little longer than others; but this is DELENA. I'm sure you guys will forgive me and I do hope you liked the way this planned out. Please, PLEASE review for me! It'll make my day. :)

Jackie xxx