DISCLAIMER: I own nothing

A/N: Takes place 2 months after the second season finale.

Elena anxiously chewed on her fingernails. Glancing over at the alarm clock on the nightstand in the motel room, she let out a frustrated sigh. Time was moving agonizingly slow. Damon should have been back by now. Something was wrong. Elena bounced her legs up and down a few times and sprung up off of the bed. She was about to head towards the door when she saw the handle turn and Damon stepped into the shabby, dimly lit room. Relief washed over Elena, just seeing Damon calmed her and lowered her heart rate back down to a somewhat normal speed.

He was quiet. He was too quiet and he was soaked through from the storm outside. Elena swallowed thickly as Damon shut the door behind him and leaned up against it, sliding down it until he hit the floor. He covered his face with his hands and stayed deathly still.

This journey had taken a toll on the both of them. They had been searching for Stefan for the past two months and so far every lead was a dead end, most of the time literally. In fact, Damon and Elena had been met with so much death and destruction while searching for Stefan, that Damon had started refusing to let her come with him, if and whenever they got a new lead. He made her stay back in whatever shitty motel they were staying in. Elena had fought with him at first but Damon told her that she did not need to see what Klaus and Stefan had done. She didn't need to see the carnage and the horror.

Ever since Damon was cured it had been his and Elena's quest to find Stefan and destroy Klaus. Stefan had sacrificed himself for Damon and Damon was going to do everything in his power to get his brother back.

For the past two months Elena had been leaning on Damon. He was her rock, her constant, and now as she watched him sitting on the floor with his legs pulled up to his chest looking so broken, it frightened her. Elena had seen Damon vulnerable before and she had seen him at his lowest but there was still something about him that let her know he still had that fire inside of him and that he was going to be all right.

"Damon?" Elena's voice came out soft and shaky.

He didn't answer her and he didn't look up. Elena walked over to Damon and crouched down. She placed her hands on his knees and waited. Damon finally took his hands away from his face and covered Elena's with his own. Elena didn't have to ask any questions and Damon didn't have to explain when she saw the blood staining his face. She knew that this new lead had led to nothing. At the moment however, that didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that she had Damon.

"I should have died." Damon finally spoke.

Elena laced their fingers together and squeezed. "Don't say that Damon."

"I should have died." Damon said again shaking his head. "I deserved it. He should have let me die. He should have never turned himself over to Klaus."

"Don't say that." Elena said, starting to get angry.

"I've done some twisted shit in my time Elena but what I saw back there... he should have never done what he did. I don't think it will even matter anymore. From what I've seen I don't even know if there are any traces of my brother left."

"Stefan did what he knew he had to do to save you, Damon." Damon tried to look away but Elena grabbed his face and forced him to look at her. "I know deep down that he's still in there."

"You still have faith in him because you love him."

"I still have faith in you... I always have and will." Elena said.

Damon quirked a thick black eyebrow and scoffed. "Right, because I'm your charity case."

Elena felt the sting of those words. For the past two months that last thing that Katherine had said to her still rang inside her head, now louder than ever.

"Oh, it's okay to love them both... I did."

Elena did love Stefan, in a way she always would, but everything she felt for Damon had been bubbling under the surface and she knew it was about to boil over. She loved Damon, she could no longer deny that to herself, she didn't want to deny it to herself.

"I have faith in you Damon, because I love you." Damon's eyes studied her face long and hard. "You should know that."

Damon brought his hands up to cup Elena's face. He pulled her to him and captured her lips in his in a searing kiss. "I do." He told her when they finally broke apart.

Elena closed the small space between them and kissed Damon again, this time slower, taking her time to explore his mouth with hers. In a disorienting flash Elena found herself on her back. Damon was on top of her, his strong body pressed into hers. She titled her head back and moaned out his name as his lips traveled down her neck. His tongue lightly licked over her pulse before moving down to the hollow of her throat and back up. Damon pinned Elena's hands up over her head and their fingers intertwined once again. Elena felt like her body was on fire in the most amazing way. She finally felt whole again for the first time in a long time. She stared into his crystal blue eyes and she knew that she loved him and she had always loved him.

"I love you." Damon said in a heavy voice, his eyes filled with lust and love. "You should know that."

"I do." Elena breathed out.

THE END