Damon and Elena
The next day, Damon was walking to the Grill when he spotted Elena. She grinned and ran across the street, catapulting herself into his arms.

"Hi," she said when they were wrapped up in each other. She kissed him gently, then he leaned his forehead against hers. "Mmm I missed you."

Damon pulled a way after a few moments, and Elena became aware that people were staring at them.

"I need to talk to you," Damon told her, taking Elena's hand and leading them both to the bench in the middle of the square. It was the same place where she'd first heard from Isobel that Damon was in love with her.

"So what's going on?" she asked casually. Damon always brightened her mood.

"Nothing. I just wanted to talk to you about bringing me back," he said quietly. It was the middle of the day, and there were many people out in the sunny weather.

"What about it?" Why did it matter? She'd brought him back. End of story.

"It's just that I've heard what happened before, and I understand why you did it, but I was wondering what you were thinking."

Elena looked away. "Why does this sound like you disapprove?"

Damon tried to hold her eyes, but she wouldn't look at him yet. "I just don't understand why you would risk it. Bonnie told you what it did, yet you still did it. If a witch wouldn't do it, then why would you, Elena?"

"Bonnie was wrong. I did the spell and nothing bad happened." She sighed in frustration. "Aren't you happy I brought you back?"

"Of course I'm happy that you brought me back. But, Elena, bad things did happen. That vampire you met? Joseph? He was probably drawn here by the power you used. And you've changed. You're not the same Elena I once knew."

Elena turned to glare. "So what, now I'm not a pushover like I used to be? Why is it that I've made up my mind, but you're pulling back?"

"I'm not pulling back," Damon tried to explain. "You pushed forward blindly. Once I died, you cut all ties with Stefan, then brought me back so you could push them onto me. You never had to think or consider who you wanted to be with. Instead you just assumed you'd chosen me because you missed me. That's not love, Elena, that's loss."

"How can you say that to me? I chose you. I know what love is."

"Love is something you live and die for. I died for you, but you erased that when you brought me back." Damon took a deep breath. "What am I, Elena? I'm not dead, but I'm not alive. I'm not a puppet, either, but you treated me like one when you brought me back."

Elena hadn't stopped glaring. Holding his eyes, all of her movements deliberate, she cut her hand on a piece of metal sticking out.

"What are you doing?" Damon asked, trying not to show the fear he felt. He couldn't afford to drink her blood now. Half the town would see...but her blood smelled so good, and he remembered every detail of how it had tasted before.

Elena held the hand so that it looked to the public like she was examining it, but really she was putting it right next to Damon, tempting him. He tried to pull away, but all of his instincts were screaming attack.

Just when Damon was about to give in, Elena took her hand out of his reach. "Don't ever forget that I'm the reason you're here. You owe me. I can do whatever I want, and there's nothing you can do about it."

He stood up and walked away, leaving her on the bench. She would realize soon that you couldn't play with people's lives. As much as he loved Elena, Damon knew that the girl he'd left on the bench wasn't her.

Joseph
Joseph was watching Elena and Damon on the bench. At first they were the picture of love, a happy couple enjoying the nice weather. After a few minutes, though, the facade broke and the ugly truth started to spill out.

They kept quiet enough so that the happy civilians around them wouldn't hear anything, but being a vampire, he heard every word. Damon wasn't appreciating the gift Elena had given him, and she was angry that her struggle had not been approved even by the person it benefited.

At the end, she did something that shocked both him and Damon. She cut her own hand, pretending it was an accident, when really they all knew it had been on purpose. Joseph had never seen a human do anything like that in his six centuries of life.

He knew why she did it, of course. She wanted to show that she had the power to do whatever she wanted, and he couldn't stop her. It was only a cry for dependence, the right to do what she wanted without being questioned, and it had worked.

Joseph was more impressed by Elena then he'd ever been before. She had just as much fire as any vampire, was as strong as a witch, but also had delicious human blood to give. The fact that she knew and used the power she, a human girl, had over vampires, was astonishing.

Jeremy
Jeremy was sitting in the Gilbert kitchen, looking at a sandwich, but all he could think about was Elena.

He'd known her his whole life, and for most of it he'd thought she was his sister. Obviously he knew better now, but as Elena had said, it didn't change anything. They still loved each other like siblings, fought like siblings, and no one in the world could annoy the other so much.

He had so many good memories of Elena. He remembered using action figures to play with her barbies. When she was 5 and started leaving for a few hours every day to go to school, he'd cried for a week. When he was 9 and she started bringing Bonnie and Caroline over, he'd feared she would forget about him, but she always made time for him.

They got older, and Elena learned to drive while a teenage Jeremy watched enviously. She started dating Matt, and he fell for Vicki. When their parents had died, Elena had never given up on him. She always put his needs above her own.

Now Elena was hurting, and it was Jeremy's turn to help. He'd gotten through for a few minutes the other day, but then he'd lost her again. It proved that the old Elena was still under there, waiting for help to come and bring her back out again. He would do that for her. He'd finally found a chance to help her find herself again, just like she'd done for him so many times.