Author's Note: Hello everyone I am sorry for my long absence; I have not been in the been state both physically and mentally. I have had four wisdom teeth pulled out and due to current conditions, I could not be put under they could only be done with a local so not the funnest time in the world.

And second my mental health has worsened, and I have been diagnosed with a second mental illness, Generalised Anxiety Disorder with Panic. They have been adjusting my medications and it hasn't been the funniest time in the world. Anyways here is the second chapter I don't feel like it is up to scratch so please let me know what you all think of it and as always on with the story…

Chapter 24: Graduation

Salvatore Boarding House, Mystic Falls, Virginia

Saturday, Morning, 2011

Damon Point of View

Damon had been reclining on the bed with Elena gently sleeping beside him for the last two hours, he had read only a quarter of the way through the first journal when he heard the sound of Stefan's car screeching up the driveway. Damon placed the journal next to the others by the bed before he got up putting on some jeans and t-shirt walking to the door. He opened it before he stopped over the threshold and looked back at Elena who was currently buried under the blanket only her bare back and head were visible. He smiled softly before he turned around as he heard his brother's car come to a screeching halt in the driveway. Damon sped down the stairs and into the sitting room pouring himself a drink as the front door opened and the sound of footsteps echoed out as Damon turned to face his brother who appeared in the entry way.

"Damon…its true…you're awake, but Elena…" Stefan said as Damon walked up to his brother a sad smile on his face.

"She's ok…she did something stupid but she's alive…kind of" Damon replied as he came to a stop in front of his brother who looked like he was trying to control himself.

Stefan took a deep breath before he slowly grasped Damon's shoulder, when he felt it for himself several tears dripped from Stefan's eyes before he pulled Damon into a bone crushing hug burying his head in his older brothers' shoulder.

"I'm back Stefan" Damon murmured as he pulled, he younger brother in closer trying to reassure him he was in fact back and he wasn't going anywhere.

After a few moments Damon could feel a wetness on his shoulder, and it made him realise that Stefan was in fact crying from being reunited with his brother. Stefan pulled back after a few moments to look at him again, a question forming in his eyes.

"How did Elena break the spell, Caroline just told me that Elena had figured out a way to break it nothing else" Stefan murmured as Damon sensed Elena waking upstairs through their bond.

"There was only one way to break the spell Stefan, Elena died but she's ok…well as ok as she can be in this situation" Damon murmured as he felt Elena leave his room and start to wander towards the staircase.

Stefan had a look of confusion on his face as he suddenly sensed another vampire on the stairs, as Elena walked down the stairs dressed in one of his shirts and her jeans Damon's heart melted at the sight before him.

"Hi Stefan…guess what?" Elena weakly joked as she came to stand beside Damon sliding her hand into his.

The look of confusion lasted on Stefan's faces last only a few more moments before it was replaced by a look of understanding and betrayal as if Elena had just told him Elena and I had been sleeping together while she was still with Stefan.

"You're a vampire…that's how you broke the spell. You became a vampire for him?" Stefan asked looking between Damon and Elena.

"It…it was the only way Stefan, I'm sorry if this hurts you but I had to get Damon back" Elena murmured leaning into Damon as he wrapped an arm around his waist.

Stefan looked hurt for a couple of moments before he looked back at Damon and the angry, hurtful looked washed away to replaced by one of happiness.

"You know what, I'm happy you are awake Damon" Stefan murmured as Elena smiled at him in thanks.

Damon looked down at Elena realising that she was still in the early hours of being a vampire and she would need more blood.

"I'll be back, need to feed the new vampire" Damon murmured leaning down and softly kissing Elena before racing off to cellar.

Damon raced down the stairs and to freezer where they kept the blood bags, he was still hungry and his and Elena's little 'activities' had drained him dry. As he drank a blood bag his thoughts wandered to the journal Elena had been keeping whilst he had been asleep. He had only read several chapters before Stefan had interrupted his peace, but he and Elena would be having a long chat what happened while he was gone. Damon drank another blood bag before he grabbed two more and raced back up the stairs, Damon found only Elena standing in his lounge room with Stefan nowhere to be seen.

"Where did my brooding brother go?" Damon asked as he walked over to the couch and sat down, Elena followed his lead her eyes solely focused on the blood Damon carried in his hands.

"He went to say hi to Caroline" Elena murmured as she came to sit down beside Damon still transfixed by the red liquid in his hands.

Suddenly her eyes started to turn blood red and veins appeared beneath her eyes while fangs grew in her mouth. Elena hand shot up to her mouth expecting to feel more pain, but she found none, Damon raised a hand holding a blood bag and gently handed it to her.

"Go slow ok, try to control how fast you drink the blood bag and the blood lust will get easier" Damon murmured as Elena snatched the bag from one of his hand his other hand had come up to rest gently on the side of her face.

It stayed there as she popped the cap off the blood bag and took a deep breath, leaning into his hand slightly as she drank. The second bag went down much slower than the first and as she finished, she dropped the bag and leaned her forehead onto Damon's chest and took several breaths. After several moments she looked back up, she had been able to calm herself much quicker than he had thought she would but then again once Elena had gotten through the struggles of the sire bond in the future she had made a magnificent vampire. She smiled up at him as one of her hands came up and around his neck to gently play with his hair whilst the other simply stayed on his chest.

"Where's Stefan gone?" Damon murmured after several moments of silence.

"He went to see Caroline; I wanted some time with you before graduation this afternoon" Elena murmured from her spot near his heart.

"Why did you do this Elena?" Damon murmured pulling away slightly and looking down at her with disappoint in his eyes. Elena backed away from him, as if she didn't understand the meaning behind the question.

"It was the only way to get way you up Damon, I did what I had to do" Elena said almost hissing at him and for a moment Damon had forgotten she was not longer a human and she was new so to being a vampire that he needed to tread carefully.

"You could have let me go" Damon murmured causing Elena to raise her hand to her mouth.

"What…I just move on with my life, pretend that I had never met you never entered my world" Elena exclaimed the rage she was feeling was being expressed in the darkening of her yes and rippling of her veins being exposed under eyes.

"Yes Elena your eighteen you have your whole life ahead of you, you could of went to college me some perfect med student and lived an apple pie life, the one you always dreamed of" Damon screamed back no longer able to whole back his self-defamation.

"And what the hell makes you think I want that anymore, huh. Don't you remember what you said to me what you said to on the side of the road. You knew exactly what I wanted…what I needed. I needed passion and adventure and even a little danger. I'd give all that up in a second if it meant an eternity with you" Elena said walking closer to Damon and raising her hand to his cheek.

She pulled her hand and placed in over her chest, where her now undead beating heart lay. Damon took some breathes and remembered a similar time in an alternate when she had done this. The circumstances where different but the intent was there; she was trying to convince him about him much she loved and just like before he couldn't accept it.

Not only that but there were other ramifications to what she had done; in the future Cade had taken Elena's coffins for two reasons. The first was that he required in as part of his ritual in which to open the doorway and second was how dangerous Elena was to Cade. Petrova blood had special properties, but act into the fact that it was lethal if injected into Cade it would be able to kill him. The only reason he hadn't killed Elena was because.

She was an easily acquired pure soul and if he hadn't had the time to find another. The conditions needed to open his portal only came once a millennium. But now he would have the time, almost eight years to find one and now Elena was a direct threat to him. Cade, when he finds out what Elena had done would stop at nothing to make sure she would be taken out of picture.

"Damon…please I need to. The entire time you were gone I felt like I had lost a part of me. Just a big part, just the part that made me feel human" Elena spoke backing away from Damon.

"I need to get ready for graduation, it's in a couple of hours. Can we save this until after that please?" Elena asked as she prepared to leave the house, Damon heart clenched, and he swiftly made his way to her.

"Hey, I'm, I just I love you and I want to give you everything you want" Damon murmured leaning down and capturing her lips in a gentle kiss.

Elena ended quicker than she usually did and made her way out the door, Damon could sense he had upset her but before he could really do anything about it, he sensed she had sped off and was gone. Cursing himself he started to walk back over towards his drink cart and when he finally arrived, he started to swear up a storm. Someone had drunk his entire liquor supply and hadn't even bothered to replace it.

"For the love of…you are gone for a few months and suddenly it's open season on your bourbon. You are back for five minutes, you upset Elena and you can't even have a drink" Damon mumbled to himself as he sped up the stairs and got ready.

He had to go hunt up some bourbon, then get ready for Elena's graduation (he was really was gone a long time) and find a way to…apologize, something that he didn't do…period, but Elena had always been the exception to the rule.

Mystic Falls High School, Mystic Falls, Virginia

Saturday, Afternoon, 2011

DPOV

Damon had found his favourite bourbon at a liquor store two towns over, and after find some blood as well he made his way back to Mystic Falls. He was still trying to figure out what he was going to say to Elena when he pulled up in the Mystic Falls parking lot along with the other guests who were arriving for graduation. Damon got out and started to follow the crowd, his mind was lost in thoughts he didn't notice the stares he was coming from everyone around him; forgetting that to the rest of the world he had been in a coma for the last six months.

As he came to the football field he could see the stage that had been set up for the ceremony and the senior class in their burgundy robes were already seated in front of the stage with seats behind them reserved for the loved ones of the students. As Damon stood there, he searched the crowed of young faces until he came across Elena's, she was seated next to Caroline and Bonnie, her soft smile and laughter he could both see and hear from where he was.

"Elena, Elena please can you we talk for a few minutes?" Damon murmured knowing her new hearing would be capable of picking it up.

Sure, enough not only did Elena turn in his direction but so did Caroline and after a quick murmur Bonnie was looking at him as well. Elena stood up and made her way towards Damon who turned for a moment and took a deep breath before turning back around almost dropping when he realised Elena had snuck up on him.

"Jumpy Damon?" Elena asked causing Damon to smile at her before he grimaced, his face looking like he had swallowed a lemon or some vervain.

"I'm…sorry" Damon murmured to her causing Elena eyebrows to shoot up at him, to her knowledge he had never apologized to anyone other than Ric and he had killed him to cause that apology.

"Wow, I never would have thought I would hear you say those words again?" Elena questioned as Damon took a deep breath and held up a hand.

"I'm sorry because I know how you felt…in the future in my darkest moments there were times I considered…killing Bonnie" Damon said hesitantly, there wasn't a look of shock or disappoint…just understanding.

"You didn't Damon and I know you didn't, but this was different. If I did this you would wake up, your life force was tied to mine Damon. This was my choice and I made it. And you know what I would do it a hundred times ov-" Elena's rant was cut off as Damon pulled her to him and started to devour her lips with his.

They simply lost themselves in the moment, forgetting that Elena's entire Senior class was getting a front row seat to the show. A tap on Damon's shoulder almost distracted him, it wasn't until he felt a hand connect with the back of his head that he pulled away from Elena ready to kill whoever it was. Unfortunately, it turned out to be Ric and Stefan; both had smiles on their faces whilst Ric looked decidedly uncomfortable.

"I know it has been a while but maybe you should wait until you two are in private?" Ric asked as Stefan laughed a response Damon wasn't expecting.

"Go on Elena, you need to get ready and so do you Ric. Let's go take our seats with the families" Stefan murmured as Damon kissed Elena again before she started to walk away.

"You seem to be much more understanding of my relationship with Elena now?" Damon asked as Stefan smiled at his brother.

"You being gone for six months changed a lot of things Damon and it gave me some perspective and time to think" Stefan murmured as he walked over to the family area and took a seat beside his brother.

Cade Point of View

Cade stood on top of the school watching the ceremony play out, rage filling him when he spied the dark raven hair of Damon Salvatore in the crowd. They had broken the spell, but how and as he looked at Elena, he realised how it had been done; she turned herself into a vampire. He had to admire her tenacity, but it was no matter he would continue with his plans, as he watched the students Mystic Falls graduate, he thought of what his next play would be. The loss of Kai had been unexpected and the spell to keep the Bennet witch down had taken more out of him than he thought it would. The witch was powerful and if he didn't deal with this soon, he would be facing too powerful enemies and Damon would win.

Suddenly Cade knew what Damon would next, if not Damon if other members of Mystic Falls find out about the cure the same thing would happen now as it did in the future. They would need the proper incentive to do it but first he had a few things to accomplish; the first was to make sure a certain hunter found his way to Mystic Falls. And the second…it was time wake the first immortal, when they travelled to the island for the cure Cade would be waiting for them…and so would Silas.

Cade continued to watch gathering as the students threw their caps in the air and cheered, Cade let out a laugh he hoped they'd enjoy it while they could because next time Damon wouldn't be put under a spell, Cade was going to put him into the ground.

End of Chapter Notes: Well what did everyone think, did I overdo it at the end with the foreboding or was it good enough?

Let me know what you think with a review and as always thanks for reading.