I have noticed a mistake in my own story that I will have to fix as soon as I can! I was re reading it and in the first chapter, in the flash forwards, Damon says that Jenna was killed after Elena was killed, without knowing the truth about anything and he should have told her. But in later chapters in a flash forward she is standing in the room with Jeremy when they are all talking and knows things! Oops...oh well, I will fix it for new people reading it lol! Thanks for reading and reviewing and letting me know what you think.

Chapter Thirteen

"What did I see?" Elena asked him. "You mean..."

"Just now," Damon said patiently. "What did you see?"

Elena knew then that she had hurt him more than he was letting on. He thought she had only kissed him because she wanted information. That was partly true but...she had wanted to kiss him. Had wanted for a while now...probably ever since Atlanta. She had to fix this, but how could she make him see the truth?

"Damon," she started softly. "I saw the moment when I first realised that I...cared about you as more then Stefan's brother. It was something so small and simple...you were taking care of me. Stefan was trapped in a tomb...had been for months," she looked away, her voice shaking and she felt very nervous for some reason. "He no longer wanted to see me and...he was trapped with Katherine. There was no excuse for what I was thinking about you...what we were leading up to. You brought me a drink...that was it and...it was then I realised how far you'd come, and how far you'd changed. And then that was when things started up between us and... after, I told Stefan what had happened between us, when he and Katherine got out of the tomb and he turned evil. He did a lot of evil things and caused you so much pain and it was all our fault. I can understand why he was angry. But I tried my hardest to get him to talk to me, to listen to me instead of her and in the end he chose her way before I chose you.

Most of it I saw just now...but some things I saw in Atlanta. Other things are vague. The exact things that Stefan did I can't see. But that's why you came back through time. To change things, to make things right between you and Stefan and to try and make sure that he's ok with the idea of us before anything happens and...all this I saw just now. Oh Damon..."

She leaned closer towards him, taking his hands in her own. "Oh you have no idea how much I'm admiring you right now. I know you've done terrible things in the past...things you know you can't make up for, but you're trying. And you have to know that in that other reality, I'm sure that I really cared about you...loved you even. But I'm sure there was a lot of guilt too over us being together, on both sides and...now because you're changing things then we can be together guilt free!"

Damon looked lost and confused. "You really mean all these things? You've actually thought about me? I mean I thought I was rushing things and..."

Elena smiled. "Why do you think I never got back together with Stefan? I know that you're different now. Before I could never be with you, because of the choices you made and you killed people. But in that other reality...you obviously changed enough for me to care about you...love you even, and that's who you are now and that's a person that I can love. Stefan may take time to come round to the idea but...he has Lexi now to help him."

"I can't believe you really believe me."

"I trust you now Damon. Completely. And that's all that matters."

Damon sighed. Now was the right time if ever there was one to tell her his deepest regret. And he wasn't sure he was ready or that he ever would be.

"Since we're being all confessional and everything I have something to tell you that may change your mind about me."

He could see her bracing herself for bad news. "I hope that after I tell you, after this has all sunk in that I never have to see a look like that pass over your face again, Elena. That I will never hurt you anymore. This is the last secret that I have from you. After this anything is possible and the rest will be up to you. If you can accept that this is part of my history, part of who I am and I can't go back and change things but just remember that I'm not that person anymore. Well, I'm not that monster anymore."

Elena nodded and then he told her everything about Isobel. How he turned her, how he had enjoyed it and how he hadn't even remembered her face until Elena had so brutally told him in the other reality of what he had done.

Elena listened in shock not sure how she was going to cope with all of this. She had barely coped when she had found out that she was adopted, but she was Elena. In the end she was a strong person. She could be shaken up but she would always come back fighting. This time was no different.

"Ok," she murmured. "Ok. I can handle this. This doesn't change anything that I just said. I have faith in you but...I do still need some time. Can you give me time?"

Well, at least she wasn't putting a stake through his heart. This had to count for something. He nodded. "I have all the time in the world."

Just as he was turning to leave she called out his name again. He would never get tired of hearing her say his name. "Thank you for being honest with me. In the other reality if you had just told me in the first place...I probably would have still been mad at you for a long time. Not talked to you in months maybe. But it wouldn't have been so bad. Now I know that eventually I will get passed it. But I have a question. If you know how to time travel how come you can't just go back and change what happened to my mother?"

"Because in the future your mother is important. She helps us, Elena. I can't risk it because we need all the help we can get. And at the moment I don't know exactly how much of the future I've changed and I can't exactly remember the spell Bonnie used."

Elena's eyes widened in surprise. "Bonnie? Bonnie helped you? The same Bonnie who doesn't like you very much right now...you or Stefan? Wow, that's amazing. But we can just ask her grandmother if she knows the spell."

"Some things you just can't change no matter how much you want to. Speaking of that Elena...you might want to call Bonnie. "

...

Everyone was in shock at what had happened to Bonnie's grandmother. And everyone who was at the tomb new it was the spell that had weakened her. Elena wrote in her diary almost every day trying to clear her head hoping that the answers would come to her. She knew about her mother now and she had rung Stefan to tell him. Angry at first that he and Alaric both knew this before she had, she soon realised that she couldn't go through the rest of her life feeling angry at everyone around her...she wouldn't survive long if she did that. Jenna helped by giving her some information, even though she knew all she needed to know thanks to Damon!

She had also kept in touch with Lexi, finding out how Stefan was coping. Stefan and Lexi both knew that she knew the truth about everything now and she was glad that everything was out in the open. The only thing left to do was for her to talk to Stefan and then she could be free to do whatever she wanted. That talk wouldn't be easy, but it had to be done. In the other reality, he hadn't been able to handle things at all. But then, he had been trapped with Katherine all that time after she had told him. This time he had a whole support system that would hopefully make things different.

She told Damon that she was going to have the talk with Stefan and Damon had wanted to be there, but she had said no. She had to do this by herself, it was the only way.

So while Elena was trying to let Stefan go...permanently, the easy way, Damon had his own talking to do.

He had decided to talk to Alaric before anything else happened. It didn't go as well as everything else seemed to go. He ended up telling Alaric about his wife and the ring that she had given him had actually worked but then Alaric had proceeded to pummel him to death for even talking about his wife. Damon had let him beat the crap out of him, and luckily for him he had super healing powers as a vampire otherwise he would have a nasty black eye. Possibly two and some cuts and bruises too go along with it.

Stefan on the other hand, was taking things remarkably calmly. "Well, I can't say that no one didn't see it coming," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

Elena blinked in surprise. "Well...that's it?"

"O f course. You're dumping me. Again. What's left to say?"

Elena shrugged. "Nothing I guess I just...I don't want to hurt you. I don't want you to be angry with me."

His expression softened ever so slightly. "Elena, break ups are hard, you can never find an easy way to do it. And...of course I'm upset and a little angry that you chose Damon. But..." he swiftly moved to interrupted her when he said that. He could tell she was going to start protesting.

"Listen to me Elena. If you and Damon are going to worry that I'm going to turn all evil, well you can stop, ok? You both know that if it wasn't for Katherine and the circumstances I would never do the things that Damon says I did. And at least you came to me before anything happened between you two. I'm thinking in that other reality you came to me after you guys had kissed or something and that has to be worse to take. And of course Katherine. Maybe being a monster is a part of who I am but, I have it under control I promise."

"Well, Damon told me about my mother. So I said I needed some time to think things through. I don't really know what to do."

There was a silence between them. "Well, if you're asking for my blessing that will be a long time in coming. But I don't hate you. And I don't hate Damon. We both know he's changed. After all, he came all the way through time at a great risk to himself to make things right between us all. We can't forget that."

Elena sighed, grateful for his words. "No, we can't forget that."

...

So Elena spent her time trying to figure things out and for almost two weeks she made it without seeing Damon or Stefan. It was hard, very hard for her not to pick up the phone to hear Damon's voice, or just walk over there to feel his arms around her, having him comfort her and tell her it was going to be ok. She needed help and advice from her girlfriends, But Caroline had her own problems and insecurities with Matt, and had even asked Elena to go on a double date with them. She had had to inform Caroline that she and Stefan had broken up, which had taken to Caroline snapping at her.

"Well, that's just perfect. I guess you're back to your old self again. Miss, I always get whatever I want and I will trample over anyone to get it. You went from Matt to Stefan and let me guess, you like Damon now, since you guys were at the dance together."

"It's not like that," she had tried to protest, but Caroline was relentless.

"It's exactly like that!I thought that Stefan was supposed to be the one. But then years ago, when you saw how popular Matt was becoming, you said Matt was the one. Maybe everyone you can't have is the one Elena."

"I have changed Caroline. Ever since the accident I'm different. And so is Damon. You don't understand anything." Thoughts of the car accident made her feel guilty again. While Damon had come through time to save her life, she couldn't forget that Stefan had saved her life the first time. He had saved her from drowning and she had never known until recently. She had to sort this out!

Caroline had apologised soon after, probably fearing that if Matt heard what she said there would be hell to pay. But she couldn't talk to Caroline for a while after that. It was just one more thing she had to fix and she wasn't up to it. She knew that Caroline felt second best to her and she hated it, so she really didn't think Matt was the best choice for her friend. But how could she tell her that when she was in the mood she was in?

And Bonnie was still grieving for her grandmother. And the double date would have been a disaster anyway.

She knew that two weeks wasn't long enough time to decide anything. She had been with Stefan for nearly a year and that was a long time to just forget someone. But she couldn't forget Damon either. But she had to see them all again soon...they needed to sort out Anna and Pearl. There had been some attacks recently in the woods and she trusted that it wasn't Damon the way he had changed, and Stefan or Lexi would have let her know. So it was something else. Oh it was so hard...but she had to do it. Tonight. They had to talk tonight.

...

Damon woke up from a bad dream. In it people were sad and crying. Bonnie was crying, because Caroline and Matt had died and no one knew what to do next.

He was sure he had prevented some things from happening, hopefully they were still alive. But there was only one way to know that the future would be changed for good. He had a plan now. It wasn't time yet but when the time was right he hoped that he would be strong enough to actually do what needed to be done.

But first he knew he had to sort out the mess that was vampire's escaping from the tomb...and he knew no one would be happy to hear about that. They hadn't been the first time round!

TBC

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