Sixty-nine years, almost, and no longer a vampire. She still looked the same to me. Elena Gilbert.
She was a teenager when we first met. When I was still fully amerced in my quest to reunite with Katherine. I was clueless to the fact I had just met the love of my life.
Katherine had that affect on people. She had a way of making you see only her, and nothing else around you existed. I had been in love with Katherine then, heart and soul. I would have been blind to anyone. Even to someone who was Katherine's doppelganger.
I didn't care that Elena looked exactly like the woman that I loved. I wanted the real Katherine Pierce, and no imitations. Stefan was the opposite of me. He fell in love with Elena at first sight. I should have known that Elena wouldn't wait for me.
She likes to believe that she had. I can tell by the look she gives me after sixty-nine years apart. Elena is hurt by the decision that I had made, and it dawns on me that maybe Elena really did love me. I just wasn't something she'd been curious about. Elena had really fallen in love with me seventy years ago.
I can tell by that look on her face. She still bore hurt from the damage that I had done to us. I left her waiting for sixty years, and then I had given her a big bunch of nothing in return. I did it because of that day I seen her with my brother. It was then I knew what I had done to them.
I had interfered with fate. I had never stopped it. After the mess with the travelers, I had wanted to believe that I had stolen Elena away from fate itself. She was mine, and she loved me. It didn't matter that she had fallen in love with my brother first.
But when I saw them together, and the look on my brothers face. I had stolen away the woman my brother loved only for a brief time. I was too late.
Stefan, again, was there first for Elena when she had needed him most.
Destiny had finally reared it's vengeful head, and I officially lost Elena the moment she decided to kiss my brother, and stop waiting for me.
"Damon," She speaks and I'm forced back to the present.
Not only did I lose her, Elena is now my brothers wife.
We're standing in the upstairs hallway of her and Stefan's house. I had sneaked a peek at Elena being mother to two little kids. Jeremy and Miranda Salvatore adored their mother. This life suited her most. Elena Gilbert was never meant to be a vampire, and neither was Stefan Salvatore.
"I had to see," I guiltily admit to her. She smiles, much to my relief.
"They are beautiful, Damon," Elena whispers with obvious pride.
"They look a lot like you," I reply back. She smiles again.
Elena. I will never forget her.
"Elena...I just wanted to tell you, I'm sorry. I should have came back and told you what I wanted..."
"You should have," Elena quietly agrees. "But here we are now... Damon, I forgave you a long time ago...I will always love you. But I had to live my life over again. I'm human, and I couldn't wait too long... And I didn't want to wait...not when I met Stefan again...It was like everything made sense again after one very long sleep...I knew it was the right choice to make..."
I smile again. I couldn't argue that. It was true. It always had been true. Stefan had a way of making everything right for Elena. I couldn't top that. Not only was he right for her, he was more deeply connected to Elena than I ever would be. It was over.
Stefan was right.
Time had decided for Elena who she was meant to be with. And it wasn't me. I had always known the answer to that question.
"I think you make a lot of sense," I reply, and Elena is stunned, but happy to hear it. "I just wanted the chance to say goodbye Elena...this life, it's yours and Stefan's..."
Elena smiles and then embraces him quickly. She lets him go, and she remembers that she is happy in her new life with Stefan. She refuses to dwell on the loss of Damon anymore.
No apology he had could make her start all over again. She had let him go.
It still stings sharply. She had day dreamed this moment, so many times. But she was really over Damon. It was alright to be his friend. For Stefan, their two children, and herself.
Fate had brought her back to Stefan. She had once loved Damon so much.
She blinked through an awkward silence and then Damon was gone from sight.
That was it.
She forced back unshod tears, before smiling and nodding to his absence. Damon did not want to be cried over just as much as she fought not to cry over him.
Elena finally had the life she had always wanted. There was no reason to grieve anymore.
THE END
