This missing scene occurs between two scenes of Season 3, Episode 6 – "Smells Like Teen Spirit"; between the end of the scene in which Elena leaves Stefan and Alaric and the beginning of the final scene in which Damon is rolling a rug…
Elena hadn't been ready for Alaric to show up, to take her away from Damon. She had probed the vampire a little, mentioning that he seemed to have Rebecca 'drooling' over him. She needed for him tell her about his feelings for her again, though she wasn't sure why. Probably because of the way Stefan was treating her.
As soon as she managed to get a couple of stakes into Stefan, as soon as she left the vampire and Alaric, she ran up to her room and called Damon.
He answered his phone by saying, "Are you checking up on me now?"
She didn't even hear what he said. She just got to the point of her call, "Stefan was here when we arrived home."
She could hear Damon's concern as he asked "Do I need to go there?"
"No. It's fine. But I need to thank you."
"For?"
Elena had to take a breath before she could say it. "He called me pathetic – because I still want to help him get his humanity back."
Damon didn't respond. She heard nothing from the other side of the call, making her wonder if Damon agreed with Stefan.
"It made me mad," she continued quickly, "Rick had me hooked up with some kind of weapon, so I punched Stefan and got a couple of stakes into him."
Damon did react to this. She could hear his smile as he asked "Really?"
"Yeah. I told him I was strong while I did it, and I felt strong."
Damon snickered a little as he asked "Where did you get him?"
"That's what I need to thank you for," Elena said. "If you hadn't…shown me…where to hit him, I might have gone for the sternum. It might have been pathetic. But I knew where to put the stakes, and he felt them, so, thank you."
It was hard for her to even think about the moment when Damon had interrupted her workout. Really, it was a little embarrassing – she knew the truth of what he was saying when he told her that Stefan was gone. But she had convinced Damon to help her with her plan to lock Sefan away, again, the way she had always convinced him to help her, by asking him to do it for her. Then he had used his body to show her where the sternum was, which she should avoid, and her body to her show the vulnerable point.
It was hard to think about the moment, knowing how exposed her feelings had been then. It was hard to think about and to talk about. But she had to bring it up – she owed him her gratitude.
"You're welcome," Damon was saying. "Anytime you need a refresher…"
"I know," she quickly said to cut him off, afraid he would tease her more. Even though she had been reassured tonight, she didn't want to hear his teasing.
"Do you think I'm pathetic," she asked, trying to change the subject.
"No. You're stubborn, headstrong, persistent, maybe what you want is a little unrealistic sometimes. But you're as far from pathetic as it's possible to be."
Elena whispered a "thank you," in response, then wondered if she had put him too much at risk, again, having part of the plan being for him to try to keep an Original occupied. "Why did Rebekah sta….uh, hurt you?"
"Maybe she knew I only have eyes for you," the vampire replied. "Or maybe, like you, she's just stuck on Stefan. Either way, she saw through me."
This flustered Elena a little. "I don't 'have eyes' for Stefan, not anymore. You know that."
When he didn't immediately respond, she added "I just want to help him. You do, too. You always help me."
"I always will. You know that."
"I do, Damon, and I appreciate it."
She was quite for a few seconds, so he asked "Do you need me go there, calm you down, give you more lessons on vampire anatomy?"
Elena tried to suppress her laugh, or at least keep it quiet. "Not tonight. But I assume you'll check up on me tomorrow." She added a sigh to that last statement, trying to sound a little annoyed, but knowing it wasn't working.
"You can count on it. Good night, Elena."
"Good night, Damon." She was glad that she called, it was exactly what she needed after Stefan's harshness, after staking him.
Damon put his phone away and turned to the task at hand – cleaning up after his brother.
