From the Outside
DG32173
Sarah: I've had requests to do Stefan's view on Damon and Elena's relationship in my Setting Things Right sister-series. I finally have inspiration for it. Be warned, this will be a one-shot that takes place after the end of the first books (Setting Things Right and The Woman I Love) in the sister-series, before she wakes up in the first chapter of the second books (Our Eternity Begins and New Beginnings). If you have not already done so, please go read at least one of the first stories before reading this so you understand the back story.
CREDIT
Credit goes to crzykittyfangirl for helping me make my stories be the best they can be.
DISCLAIMER
I own this story and the sister-series it is a companion to. Please don't use anything I have claimed in the sister-series without asking me for permission and waiting for a reply. Same goes for the bond-breaker curse, claimed first in my fanfic For Lack of a Better Name. If I let you use one of my original creations, I'd like a link to the story you used in it so I can read it and I'd like credit for the idea. Other than that, be assured I don't own it.
SUMMARY
(Offshoot of Setting Things Right sister-series)While waiting for Elena to wake up from death, Stefan thinks back on everything that has happened the past three months and comes to a conclusion that he is not happy with. But will he finally accept the way things must be? (Damon/Elena, one-sided Stefan-Elena)
'Is Damon's theory right?' I can't help but wonder while waiting for Elena to wake up in transition as well as Bonnie's arrival with a daylight ring for her. 'Did Elena really live the past three months twice? Did Damon actually die last night in the original timeline? Was she actually sent back to correct that?'
True, it's the only logical explanation for her eccentricities since she and Damon returned from Georgia. But, still, it's hard knowing that in a possible alternate timeline, Elena had been mine the past three months only to change her mind with Damon's death. It's hard to know that she'll always choose Damon over me in the end, no matter how that choice comes about.
Damon's theory makes sense and explains away all the odd knowledge she had somehow gained three months ago. There's no way to know for sure until she wakes up, but Damon's theory makes the most sense of any I've considered since they came back from Georgia.
They have both my blood oath and the mating mark Damon left on her to keep me from ever trying to interfere with their relationship again. Even though only half the mating ritual was completed because Elena wasn't a vampire when she received Damon's mating mark, I can still sense that I'll become a bond-breaker if I try to get her back. Not a fate I want to risk facing, I can assure you of that much.
Even if it weren't for the bond-breaker curse and my blood oath, I still wouldn't have a prayer of getting her back, not after her heart had accepted his mating mark at some point while they were on their road trip to Georgia. Elena is the human girl from that ancient prophecy who will at last bring peace between humans and the supernatural and Damon will be the vampire at her side who has succeeded in marking her as the girl of prophecy.
I doubt Damon was placing the mark consciously when he did so. Not with the way he had still been determined to 'free' Katherine from the tomb for a short while after the mark had been placed successfully until he had realized just what the scar on Elena's neck meant.
I've been reaching out to some old contacts over the past few months, asking for whatever information they have on that old prophecy. Even though I don't like that Damon and Elena have been destined to be together since that old prophecy was foretold, long before even Damon was born, that doesn't mean I don't want to help them any way I can to succeed in the mission the Fates had given them.
From what I've pieced together from what my contacts could tell me, there are actually two 'Tests of Fate' the girl of prophecy has to succeed in before she and her mate can even start to work on the prophecy. I'm guessing the first 'test' was her saving Damon's life. But what is the second one?
Damon and Elena may have an idea, but no one I've talked to knows what either of the 'tests' might be or even that the time of prophecy is here, that the girl of prophecy has been marked. I didn't let slip to any of them why I was asking the questions I did of them.
I have learned from one vampire who was actually there when the prophecy was first spoken that the girl of prophecy and her destined mate will eventually become King and Queen of a vast empire spanning countless stars. That's a far harder pill to swallow than just the fact that Damon was destined to be Elena's from long before he was even born.
I have yet to get up the courage to confront Damon or Elena about what, exactly, they know about the prophecy they are to fulfill. I have a feeling they know far more about it than anyone else in existence today. But they seem to be playing their cards extremely close to the vest right now, as if unwilling to risk jeopardizing whatever it is they know by spilling too much information to the wrong person at the wrong time.
I sigh as I hear Bonnie's car turn into the boarding house driveway a couple hours after midnight. I decide that I'll do what I can to help Damon and Elena succeed in their mission from Fate. One day, I'll get over the hurt of finding out that Elena was never meant to be mine, that she was always destined to be Damon's queen.
Even I can see that she's his humanity. There's a good chance that now that she's becoming a vampire, he will become her humanity as well. They balance each other out. He'll be the leader of their mating bond as the older vampire, but even I can see that he'll never do anything to truly hurt her, not without hurting himself in the process. And Damon is not a fan of self-torment.
I wonder if maybe, one day, after the hurt of realizing she was never meant to be mine fades, will Damon and I be able to recapture the bond we shared as humans before the Katherine Ordeal? God, I hope so. I'll admit, if only to myself, I have missed that closeness we once shared over the decades.
Now that I'm thinking back, Damon has tried many times since our transition to put an end to our feud, but I have never been willing to meet him even halfway. Will he be willing to put himself out there just one more time? Will he be willing to try just once more to give me a chance at being a better brother to him? God, I hope he hasn't completely given up on me! I hope he hasn't given me all the chances to bury the hatchet he can handle giving me!
If he gives me just one more chance to bury this long-standing feud between us, I can't let him down again. I know I've received more chances than he's given anyone else in the world. I have a feeling only Elena and I can get more than a maximum of two chances to betray him. From what I've seen the past three months, Elena would never willingly betray him so she doesn't need those chances.
I've wasted more chances he's given me than I can count. Probably more than I can even remember. I can't keep that trend up. Eventually, he's going to give up on me completely. I don't know why he hasn't already. I know he hasn't, only because he's still permitting me to be friendly with his mate, which he wouldn't do with someone who has feelings for her that he didn't trust at least a little. Somewhere deep inside of Damon, he trusts me at least a little. I hope to one day have the chance once more to nurture that trust back into our former bond of brotherhood that was broken when Katherine played us against each other.
The doorbell rings and I answer it. "They're upstairs in Damon's room," I tell her. "Second floor, take a right, last door you come to."
She nods and heads upstairs with a great amount of trepidation. Even if I hadn't been in the same room as Damon when he made the call to inform her what her grudge has done to Elena, I would know that he had let loose his fury at what her betrayal of Elena had caused to happen over the phone call. But I had left the room after Damon had ended the call and stopped paying attention to anything but his mate's temporarily lifeless body.
Thank God Elena had the foresight to drink so much of Damon's blood yesterday morning. My brother would have killed the ones responsible for her death before death-willing himself if she wasn't in transition right now. The mating mark he left her with would leave him no other option. Vampires mate for eternity and if one of the mated pair were to die, then the other would kill whatever had caused their partner's death before literally dying of a broken heart without any outside help. That's one reason there are so few mated pairs among vampires, though there are certainly other reasons as well.
I listen in as Damon tears into Bonnie a second time when she opens the door to his room at his invitation, though this time it's spoken a lot softer. I don't know how long it will be before Elena wakes up in transition, but I know Damon's not going to permit Bonnie to stay in there with them while we wait.
When Bonnie comes back down, I offer her a glass of scotch to settle her nerves, which she downs quickly before we settle down in the living room to wait for Elena to wake up. I'm more than a little upset with Bonnie myself, so I stay quiet and don't try to engage her in conversation as I normally would. No matter what excuse Bonnie gives herself, there is no good reason for last night to happen the way it did. Neither Damon nor I will ever believe there was a good enough reason and I doubt Elena will either.
So we sit and wait in silence as the hours slip by. I've made some hard decisions and come to some difficult conclusions. But there's a chance of my life getting better. A slim chance, but a chance just the same. Now to just convince Damon I seriously want our bond of brotherhood back just as much as he obviously has over the years.
Sarah: And that's a rather long one-shot. I hope you enjoyed a peek into Stefan's view of my Setting Things Right sister-series. Review and tell me what you think.