A/N: You are a bunch of awesome reviewers! I hate to say it but this story is almost over. But as a Valentine update, I'd like to say Happy Valentines Day!

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Stefan burst through the door of the house that he had originally traced Cailee to. Elena followed quickly behind him, looking around for any sign of Cailee. There was no sign of her downstairs, so Stefan led the way upstairs, pausing half way when he caught the strong scent of her blood.

Stefan kicked open the door to the bedroom that the smell was coming from and paused in the doorway staring. Elena elbowed past him and saw Damon sitting on the edge of the bed, next to a still Cailee.

"You can't turn her!" she exclaimed, watching Damon caress Cailee's peaceful face. It was much too peaceful in her opinion.

"It's a little late for you to be saying that," Damon commented, glancing up at them.

"You already turned her," Stefan said, his brow furrowing.

Damon sighed. "If you had been here an hour ago, you might have been able to stop me…The heroes bursting in to save the damsel in distress." He shook his head. "Save the beautiful monster from a horrible monster…but you didn't come. You didn't stop me from breaking her neck."

Elena stared at him in shock. "You killed her?"

"Didn't your boy-toy tell you about how vampires are created?" Damon asked, looking once more at Cailee's peaceful face.

"How could you?" Elena demanded, growing angry. "You loved her!" She took a step closer, her hands clenching into fists. "She trusted you!"

Damon's eyes turned a soulless black and he glared at her with something animal-like in his eyes. "I know!" he snarled. "Do you think I enjoyed the fact that I had to kill her? I love her. I didn't want anything bad to happen to her. She was my world and… I had to kill her or she would never survive."

"Damon, do you realize what you could have created?" Stefan asked, watching Cailee's face for any trace of movement.

"A beautiful monster," Damon whispered before he snarled again. "Don't tell me that you wouldn't have done the same if your precious Elena was the one who needed to find peace in the world! Cailee was my everything and she trusted me to make everything better, to make her live in peace and to just live in this world." He glared at Stefan. "She would have died if I hadn't turned her. Her body was shutting down and her mind was wandering farther and farther away from me. You should understand why I did what I did." He looked away and caressed Cailee's face again. "You would have done the same if Elena had been in Cailee's place."

Stefan glanced at Elena. She stared back at him for a moment before looking back at the two people on the bed. He knew that he would have done the same if Cailee had been Elena. She was his everything and he would have done anything to keep her with him, happy and whole, no matter the consequences.

But Elena was not Cailee. She wasn't schizophrenic. She hadn't suffered from hypothermia. And Cailee had. Cailee had been looking for peace and as much as Stefan wanted to see his brother happy, Stefan knew that Cailee was better off never coming back. He didn't want to think of the consequences of Cailee waking up as a vampire with schizophrenia. The world would not be prepared for something like that.

"Damon, she can't wake up," Stefan told him quietly. "Not after everything she's been through."

"People have been turned in far worse conditions than her. From the brink of death and still they live as vampires." Damon shook his head. "She will wake up. She promised that she would stay with me forever. For our love."

Elena crossed her arms. "Damon, you should have waited for her to recover."

"Weren't you listening?" Damon demanded, glaring at her. "She was dying! If I hadn't stepped in, she'd be dead in a few hours."

"But she's dead right now," Elena pointed out coldly.

Damon opened his mouth to say something, but closed it just as fast. He looked back at Cailee's peaceful face and willed her to come back to life. She didn't move, didn't breathe. She was cold to the touch and growing colder by the minute.

"Damon…" Stefan muttered, unsure of what to say.

"Don't say anything," Damon ordered, never taking his eyes off Cailee's face. "Don't tell me that my efforts were all for nothing. Don't tell me that my love for Cailee was worth nothing. All of this…was for nothing. Don't tell me that…" He sighed and picked up one of Cailee's hands, holding it gently in his. "I just wanted everything to work out for us. To have that happily ever after that I've been looking for through all of these centuries. To make her the happiest girl in the world…to grant her peace in this world…"

He cracked a small smile as he remembered so many perfect moments where he could have told this to Cailee when she was living. Did she ever know how he really felt about her? Had he not told her that he loved her enough? Had his love been too late to save her?

"Damon…we'll give you an hour with her," Stefan told him. "Then, if she doesn't wake up, we'll need to call someone."

Damon sighed again. "Fine."

Stefan took Elena by her arm and pulled her out of the room, closing the door behind the two of them to give Damon and his love some privacy.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Cailee was reading a book when Damon plucked the book out of her hands and placed his head on her lap. She looked down at him with a smile as he flipped through the pages of the book.

"What are you doing reading self-help books?" Damon asked, stopping to look at a picture in the book.

"I need to come up with new ways to help myself," Cailee commented, reaching for the book, but Damon held it beyond her reach. "My episodes are getting closer together and longer. I'm starting to think that I'm really going crazy…maybe even worse than crazy. Psychotic."

"Well, you won't find anything helpful in here," Damon said, tossing the book aside. "These books are nothing but garbage written by worthless people who have nothing better to do in life than give their own opinion of how to deal with common problems. You'll learn nothing helpful." He smiled, reaching up to run his fingers through her hair. "You could always ask me for help."

"Damon, you know I would love nothing better than to have you be the person I turn to for help all of the time, but you are no expert in schizophrenia. You can't always be there to help me."

"Just try to stop me."

"No. I need to be able to help myself before I grow to dependant on you." Cailee scratched her head, swatting his hand aside. "Damon…I've got something to tell you."

"Don't tell me you're pregnant."

"No! I am not pregnant!" Cailee shook her head furiously. "I just…well I've been having hallucinations of…bad things."

"That doesn't sound new."

"I've seen myself dying…at my own hands." Cailee admitted quietly. "I slit my wrists…I eat rat poison…I stab myself in my stomach…I take a gun and shoot myself in the head…I run into traffic… I jump from the top of a building…"

Damon's eyes widened and he sat up, turning to face Cailee. She was looking down at her hands now and they were shaking.

"Cailee, have you tried any of those things?" Damon demanded.

"No…not yet," Cailee whispered. "I'm scared Damon. I don't want to see these things and it's getting harder and harder to deal with it...I just want to find peace." She looked up at him with watery eyes. "You're the only reason that I've held on this long…but I'm afraid that it might never be enough."

Damon pulled Cailee to him and stroked her hair as he held her against his body. He could feel her trembling against him and wished there was something he could do to help her…

"Cailee, tell me what you want me to do," Damon breathed in her ear. "Do you want me to stay with you twenty- four seven? I'll hold your hand for as long as you need me to and I'll hold you in my arms until the world comes to an end…"

"Damon, I want peace. I want to know that I'll never hurt you again. You or anybody else. I don't want to be afraid all of the time…" Cailee sighed and her breath tickled his neck. "Damon, I don't want to die…"

"You won't," Damon promised, his hand sliding from her hair to her back. "I'll keep you alive and young forever."

"As a vampire?"

"As a vampire."

Cailee pushed herself away from him, putting a little distance between their bodies. "But I will die then too. You have to kill me to make me a vampire."

"It's a temporary death," Damon told her. "You'll come back within a couple of hours."

"I don't…" She turned her face away from him and swung her hand at thin air as if she was batting aside a monster. "No…"

She pushed herself to her feet and walked away from him. Damon clambered to his feet and hurried behind her. Cailee stopped and looked up at the sky, hugging herself.

Damon wrapped his arms around her, sliding his fingers in between hers. "Cailee, what are you afraid of?" he asked her quietly.

"Me."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Damon lay next to Cailee's body, his arm thrown across her slim waist. She looked so peaceful as she slept the eternal sleep of death. It struck him as odd to think that the thing she had not wanted to happen had granted her the peace that she had been searching for. Yet, it was the same thing that had taken her away from him.

"Cailee, come back to me," Damon whispered, looking at her peaceful face. "Come back and I promise I'll take care of you. I won't let the hallucinations control you anymore. I'll do anything for you that will make you happy. I'll love you like there's no tomorrow…"

He let out an awkward chuckle. "I know there's no tomorrow. If you don't wake up from this, there will be no tomorrow for either of us. Stefan and Elena will take your body to be cremated or something and then I'll join you in death by taking my own life." He brushed a strand of her hair away from her face. "You see, there's no point in living if you're not there to live in this world with me. I found something great in you and then I lost it because I made a mistake. I should have never left you alone…If I hadn't you'd be fine, happy and alive. Who cares if you were a little crazy? Who isn't?" He sighed. "I would have been happy taking care of you for the rest of time. Yeah, me, the solitary badass would be happy playing the nurse maid as long I got to be with you…"

Cailee didn't move. Damon heard a timer go off downstairs and knew that his hour with Cailee was up. There was no chance that she would wake up before the two intruders came upstairs. Damon sighed and kissed her on the forehead.

"It was one hell of an adventure being with you, Miss Cailee," Damon whispered, climbing to his feet. "But all good things must come to an end…I bid you adieu in this life and I will see you in the next…"

As he climbed to his feet, he could have sworn that he saw her fingers twitch…

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A/N: So, is she alive or was Damon seeing things? Stay tuned to the next chapter and always remember to review! ~ Scarlet