A/N: I don't own Vampire Diaries or any of the canon characters, but I wouldn't mind stealing Damon to save him from the curse...

We won't see Katherine just yet. She'll probably see if she can get the effect she wanted by Isobel's visit first before getting directly involved.

As for Stefan, he will be dealing with issues from drinking human blood again, though I'm not sure how much I'll dwell on it. That's part of why he was standing so far away from Alaric, he's already having cravings for human blood.

"Do you know how to get ahold of Katherine?" Stefan asked.

Isobel was a long time in replying, her eyes on Alaric, her expression inscrutable. "You don't find Katherine, she finds you." She said finally, rising to her feet. "Which is something I don't recommend."

"You're leaving?" Alaric caught hold of her arm.

"I think that's for the best, don't you?" Isobel easily shook her arm free. "Take my advice. Drop this plan of flushing Katherine out. She doesn't like having her plans messed with and trust me… she's got plans for all of you."

A feeling of dread settled over me at those final words, and we all watched in silence as she slipped from the room.

"So…" I said finally, trying to gauge Damon's mood but he seemed just as shell-shocked as the rest of us.

"It's late." Alaric sighed. "I think I'm gonna call it a night. You coming Stefan?"

Stefan gave a slow nod, filing towards the door with him.

"Hey… thanks. I know that must have been hard for you." I called out after him, and Alaric gave me a half hearted wave before he pulled the door shut. "Are you okay?" I asked Damon once we were alone.

"Compared to what?"

It was true, there were so many things wrong with our current situation I could have meant anything; his physical strength, his emotional state, the fact that Katherine had evidently never loved him. "Well… I guess I meant with what she just told us." I clarified.

"I should be asking you the same thing." Damon pulled me close, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "You just met your mother for the first time and that's gotta be weird for you at least. She's some piece of work isn't she?"

"It was strange, I'm not gonna lie. I have to say I'm definitely glad she gave me up for adoption." If I'd thought about it I should have asked who my father was, but the way things were going I decided maybe it was better if I didn't know. "But are you okay with what she had to say?" I didn't want to come right out and use the K word.

"Honestly? In a strange way it's kind of like a relief."

Not at all what I'd been expecting him to say… "Um, but didn't you spend the better part of a century pining over her?"

"I wasn't pining." He frowned and I just gave him a look. "Okay so maybe I pined a little…" Damon allowed, fingers absently stroking my arm. "But now it's sort of a relief to think that she's not out there somewhere building all these fantasies about me. That way we can just forget about her, she's Stefan's problem now."

Somehow Isobel's warning made me doubt that we could just forget about Katherine, but I tried to put her from my mind at the time. "I'm all for putting her in the past, but now I'm wondering what we can find out about this Arnaud guy. Have you ever heard of him before?"

"Can't say that I have, and I've been all over the states and my fair share of Europe."

"You have?" My head came up at that, a little pang of jealously going through me. "I've never been anywhere good. Except for maybe Disneyworld, my parents took us when I was ten." It's still one of my fondest memories.

"We'll have to remedy that then. How about we do like Izzy suggested? Get out of town, lay low, put all of this in the past and see the world together?"

But for how long… There would always be this shadow of the curse hanging over our heads until eventually Damon got so weak… I didn't even want to think about what would happen to him then. I knew what Isobel had been suggesting when she said we should give up the plan to find Katherine or Arnaud. But what could I say to Damon? "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Where should we go first?" I found myself answering.

For the next hour we talked softly, dreaming aloud about where we would go and what we would see. Damon wanted to start with Italy but I was a little leery of attempting a cross country flight without a ring to let me walk in the daylight. In the end we decided to take a road trip across the country, no particular route in mind, just seeing where the road took us. The time of year was favorable as there was a lot more night than daylight and Damon assured me he would be able to keep me safe from the harmful rays of the sun. What was important was the time we would spend together. I understood that money was no object, and I had long since ceased to worry about missed school.

We wove a pleasant fantasy together, and it was tempting, oh so tempting… but in the back of my mind I knew it would never come to pass. I wouldn't allow Damon to wither and die because of my love; and that meant just one thing.

I had to leave him.

I don't know when the soft talk and lazy touches turned into something more, but suddenly we were kissing. Unlike the frenzied grappling we sometimes indulged in, this was slow and unhurried. There was passion, but it was tempered with a new tenderness as we touched each other as though we were discovering each others bodies for the first time. Our clothes fell away as we stumbled into the bedroom. Once I felt him shift as if he might sweep me off of my feet but thought better of it, maybe unsure if he had the strength to carry me.

"Shh, let me do everything." I bade him, pressing him back against the soft mattress. With my lips and hands I laid worship to his perfect body, memorizing the planes of his taut muscles, the texture of his skin, the taste that was uniquely him. With soft sighs of pleasure and gasps of delight we came together, moving with practiced ease now, each knowing how to move to give the other the most satisfaction. I wanted it to go on forever but soon we were tumbling into the abyss together, hoarse cries of fulfillment mingling as I collapsed atop him.

"Love you." Damon murmured into my hair, already falling asleep.

My head came up to look down at his beloved face, his dark lashes fanned across the top of his cheek. "I will always love you Damon." I whispered, stroking his cheek. He was too beautiful, too perfect, my soulmate… and I would never see him again. Gently I disengaged myself, tugging the thin comforter over his body, watching him as he settled into a deep sleep, his chest no longer rising and falling in the mimicry of unnecessary breaths.

Swiftly I dressed, shutting the bedroom door behind me as I searched for my shoes in the other room. Fat tears were already rolling freely down my cheeks as I sat down at the little desk to write him a goodbye note. He deserved more than a hurried note but there was no time. Each moment that I delayed meant that he might wake up and find me gone and I couldn't have him come after me. The pen shook in my hand as I wrote, but I managed a steadying breath and put my thoughts to paper.

Damon,

There are no words to express how you've wrapped yourself around my heart. Please believe that it's tearing me apart to even think about being away from you for a day let alone the rest of our lives. But it has to be this way. Better for me to know that you're out there safe and loving me… or even hating me for leaving, I don't know… but it's worth it to know that you're alive. Someday maybe we'll find a way to beat this curse, we have eternity to figure it out, right? Please don't come after me, if I can find Arnaud and get him to revoke the curse then I'll find you. Just know that I'll keep you in my heart forever. I could never love anyone the way I love you.

Yours always,

Elena

I stared at the words, wishing I could share them with him, but I knew what had to be done. Crumpling up the letter, I threw it away, starting again with how I knew it should go to keep him safe.

Damon,

We were kidding ourselves that we could make this work. You and I both know forbidden fruit tastes all that much the sweeter, and that made things hot for a while but this is starting to get dangerous for the both of us. The last thing I want is your psycho ex on my case for having anything to do with you or your brother. I think it's better if we just go our separate ways and forget we ever met each other. Don't try to find me; let's just cut our losses and move on. Good luck, maybe someday you'll find someone who loves you back the way you deserve to be loved.

Elena

The page fell from my nerveless hands as I re-read it. It was too awful; I couldn't be so cruel could I? I had actually started to pull out another sheet of paper when I realized what I was doing; I had to get out of there before I lost my nerve.

My shoes were on, purse slung over my shoulder, keys in my hand when I heard his voice behind me.

"Don't do this Elena."

"Don't do what? I'm just going down to get something to drink." I couldn't turn around and look at him, my eyes were all red and puffy from crying, it was all I could do to make my voice sound normal.

"Don't give me that. I thought we were going to run away together?"

"Then you're stupid." I made my voice hard, trying to remember what it had been like when I'd switched off my emotions. Swiping my wet cheeks with the back of my hand, I turned to face him, hardening my heart to the look on his face the best I could without switching off my emotions. "Look at you; you're dead weight to me. A liability. How much longer do you think you can keep this up?"

Damon's jaw twitched at sound of my words. "Don't do this. It might seem like a good idea to switch off your emotions now but it won't last. Sooner or later you'll regret what you gave up, losing what we have."

"What we have?" I forced a bitter laugh. "Don't get me wrong, you're a tiger in the sack, Katherine was right about that. But you're not exactly the always and forever type that a girl settles down with. If I were you I'd worry a little more about myself." I flipped my hair so that it obscured half of my face.

"Elena…" His face creased with pain and I dropped my gaze, I had to get out of there.

"It was fun while it lasted Damon, maybe I'll see you around sometime." I turned to leave but he put on a burst of speed, hand on the door to keep me from opening it.

"I won't let you leave." He growled, "For the last time, get it through your head that we are in this together."

I was weak enough to sag against him for just a moment, stealing that last touch before I shoved him back against the wall. My hand caught hold of his, forcing it away from the door. I never would have been strong enough to do such a thing before; it was a real testament to his weakened state that I was able to force him to his knees. "Get it through your head… there is no us." I bit out at him, my face and voice hard. "It's over."

"I don't believe that. I know you love me Elena, I know that deep down you care." His eyes blazed.

"Think again." I hit him. Hard. Damon went down like a sack of potatoes, and I dragged his body away from the door, laying him out by the couch. "I'm so sorry." I breathed, pressing a last kiss to his lips. As an afterthought I tugged the heavy ring from his finger. It would keep him from following after me and let me get farther away without having to worry about the coming dawn. Without having to think about a witness anymore, I sobbed freely on the way to the elevator, the dam holding back the flood of emotions eroding to non existence. It was late enough that I didn't have to worry about running into anyone on the way to the parking garage and once I got inside Damon's car I completely broke down, crying as I hadn't done since I'd woken in the hospital after my parents' death.

I knew I had to get moving, get out of there before he woke up but I couldn't bring myself to move yet, it was all too raw. The lure of turning off my emotions was strong, but I knew I couldn't allow myself that luxury just yet. Soon I would make that switch and it would get easier to bear but I had to hold tight to that misery for a while longer, until I could get far enough away that Damon wouldn't find me. Only then would it be safe to let him go and save his life.

A tap at the window made me jump and I looked up through the haze of tears, half expecting to find Damon standing there, but it was Isobel looking back at me. Her face was unaffected by my tears, no motherly concern waiting there. I rolled down the window, feeling something akin to shame for my display of emotions in the face of such a calm exterior. "Did you forget something?" I sniffed.

Isobel stared back at me for a long moment, her expression bland and I wondered just what the hell she was thinking. "Good girl, you did the right thing." She said finally as I stared back at her in shock. "Here, I wanted you to have this."

I reached for the small object hidden in her hand, surprised to find a ring there in a similar style to Damon's. "Is this… what I think it is?"

"I had always meant to give it to you someday; I just didn't think it would be so soon." She nodded. "You'll need it to get where you're going."

"Thank you." I murmured, slipping it onto my finger; it was a perfect fit. "Could you… I mean, would you mind giving this back to Damon?" I offered her his ring now that I had my own. "But… give me about a day's head start, okay?"

Her lips twitched into a faint smile. "Yeah, I can do that. In fact, I'll do you one better. I'll take care of Alaric's car. It'll slow him down a little. If I know Damon he'll be after you as soon as he realizes you're gone."

"He already knows I'm leaving. I kinda had to kosh him on the head to get out of there. Will you make sure he's okay?" I hated asking her for anything more, but I had no one else to ask.

"He's a vampire Elena, he'll be fine. Or at least he will be when you let him go."

"I know." I nodded, "Does it get any easier?"

My mother stared back at me, her face unreadable. For a moment I thought she might respond, but then she turned on her heel without uttering another single word and stalked away.

Another wave of misery washed over me, choking me so that I was glad I didn't need to physically breathe, otherwise I might have been paralyzed there with the inability to make myself go any further. As it was, I forced myself to start the car. My car now; Damon's last gift to me. "You can do this." I murmured, meeting my red rimmed eyes in the rear view mirror. As I sped through the darkened streets I couldn't help but wonder over and over again. Would it ever get any easier?

A/N: Okay, I know that was a downer, and seriously heartbreaking for me to write. But hopefully you guys know me well enough to know that they'll find a way back to each other. But first a trip back to Mystic Falls to pack a few things and say goodbye to her family. Perhaps not the smartest move on her part, but Elena isn't planning on returning for a long, long time.

I can start to see the end of this one now, and though there are a few chapters still forthcoming, it will probably wrap up in the next couple of weeks. We still have quite a few things to address though, so don't worry, it's not over yet.

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