Chapter 7

One week later...

I wake up in Damon's bed to the sun shinning in his enormous windows. Sleeping here with him had been so peaceful. Nothing to worry about. Everyone was fine. I was alive and so was Damon. I rolled over to find him gone. Damon was still Damon. That werewolf bite did nothing for his fatalist attitude. We had barely spoken. He did his thing and I did mine, but everynight I would come over and cimb into bed with him and just hold him. He didn't push me away but he didn't incourage it either. Everything was on my own accord, which I liked because this was Damon after all. We didn't talk about anything. I wanted to let things mellow out and for him to fully be back to normal. But I had enough. I throw on my robe and head downstairs to find him, but instead I find Stefan sitting writing in his journal.

"Goodmorning."

"Morning. Have you seen Damon?"

"Him and Kaherine went to the blood bank. We were pretty close to being out."

"He went with Katherine?" I couldn't believe it. He had been spending mostly all of his time with Stefan and Katherine. So much for hating and wanting to kill her, but she did help save him. I couldn't completely hate her anymore.

"Yep. Don't ask, I was just as suprised when she offered to go with him instead."

"Don't be. Katherine is caculated. She wanted you to be here alone when I got up."

"I guess it's past time we talk huh?"

"I think."

"Elena..."

"No. Let me say this. I heard everything while I was out of it. You could have told me Stefan. I would have been hurt but I would have understood. Things happen the way they are suppose to. I know you never meant to hurt me and I never meant to hurt you. I love you, Stefan, I always will. But when I realized Damon was dying I couldn't breathe, I needed to be with him. I knew he loved me and I needed him to know that I felt the same. It's why you went to Katherine that night. You couldn't let her die. I'm not mad anymore because Damon couldn't let me die. He never could and he knew what took me too long to see. I was saving him from the start, I couldn't let him die. Katherine hurt you, Damon hurt me, but Stefan we awlays forgive the people we love. It's who we are. We see the good in them when no one else does, maybe it's stupid but it's us. As Damon says I'm all heart, you are too. There's nothing wrong with it. We just don't fit. You and I are water Katherine and Damon are oil. You shouldn't mix them but when it comes to us it turns out to be something great. They bring out the best in us because they push us when we need it. And are there for us, always."

"I'm not sorry I saved Katherine, but if you would have died I never would have forgiven myself. I will always love you just the same, but your right we don't belong together. Not anymore. Damon loves you, he always has. He will never hurt you and you never have to wonder where his loyalties lye." Stefan finishes as he pulls me into a hug. I let a few tears fall, because we were good together, there's no denying it but we weren't great.

"I see the lovers quarell is over." Damon says as he saunters over to make a drink. Stefan wraps his arm around me should and my one arm rests on his back as we look over to Damon who looks like he's been expecting this.

"Actually brother, we just broke up." Stefan tells him matter of factly and Damon looks up like a deer caught in the headlights. "Where is Katherine?"

"She said she would be waiting for you outside."

"I told you she was calculated." I laugh at Stefan as I hug him one more time before he leaves.

"You can be so oblivious sometimes to what is right in front of you, Damon."

"What I saw didn't look like a break up to me."

"I'm going to say this. One time. Only. I. Love. You. Damon. Salvatore. You listen to me and really listen, stop the wheels from spinning this in any way other than what it is. I love you, Elena, and it's because I love you that I can't be selfish with you, I'm telling you to be selfish with me. I don't deserve you, but my brother does, I'm telling you that you do deserve me. Why you can't know this, I'm telling you I deserve to know it. You need to tell it to me and not make me forget and not as a dying confession. You deserve it. Stop thinking that I'm going to change my mind, because it's been made up for a long time. I was just afraid to acknowledge it, I didn't want to hurt anyone, but I almost lost you, so I'm done ignoring it. No going back. I don't want to. I'm going to get dressed and then go have lunch with Jenna. I'll see you tonight. Oh, I like the right side, if you don't mind." I walk away leaving Damon utterly speachless. I couldn't be more proud. Using his own words against him was genius.

Damon's p.o.v

This wasn't happening. My life had been in a downward tailspin since I found out Elena would be used in the sacrifice. It only got worse from there. I thought I had lost every ounce of what she had for me when I fed her my blood. Then I try to fix it all and I get bit by wolf boy. We finally figure something out and then Elena has to go and be all hero by not letting me die. Enter her in a coma. The worst two weeks of my life. Not only was I worried she wouldn't wake up, I was dealing with the damn wolf bite, and the fact that the only person in the world that saw something in me, my friend, the girl I was in love with, I'd never get to tell her how sorry I was, how much I loved her. Then the crazy girl that always suprises me, did. I needed her to, I asked her to, all because Barbie told me to ask her to wake up. Since when did I take orders? Had to be the damn bite that made me want to try, again. Suprised the hell out of me when it actually worked. Seeing her beautiful smile and those deep down eyes again, I knew I could die happy. Then she pulls me into her arms and starts to cry, hell I used every ounce of strenght I had in me not to follow in suit, but this was Elena. Needless to say I did. I was going soft. I hated it. She made me feel every damn emotion I had. She starts barking orders after not even being awake for five minutes. Telling me she's going to fight for me, that she needs me, and the best part was when she beats around the bush about loving me, at least I was sure that's what she was talking about, then I got the clarification I needed. I choose Damon, I always have. Her exact words. Damon was enough, he always has been. If I didn't have quick reflexes my glass would have hit the floor. Never in my life did I hear anyone talk about me the way she did. So sure of me, even after everything I did to her and everyone she loved. She was still fighting for me. I tried to ignore it because lets face it, Damon Salvatore doesn't deserve a happy ever after. I figured it was something she said trying to get me to fight. I rememeber her saying to me while she was taking care of me that she likes me now, just the way I was. And then she kissed me. Elena, the most pure person, liked the monster, kissed the monster. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better she tells me that she forgives me. If she wasn't holding me so close and I didn't feel her I would have thought I was hullucinating again. Good thing for Jud- Bonnie, she worked her witchy juju on me and I asked Ric to kill me if it came down to it, Elena overheard, and said no at first, and just when I thought I couldn't love her more she offered to kill me so we could spend the end of my life together. It was a perfect way to die, except I didn't. Good old Stefan and Elijah, even Katherine, found out about the cure. I thought that everything would go back to normal with Elena and Stefan. That she would tell me she said it all to give me peace, that it was a pity kiss but this girl was something, instead she goes off on me, she's mad. I was confused, didn't she want a way out of what she said? I saw the hurt on her face as she tried to walk away so I told her the truth, that she saved me. She came in and we went to see everyone together. Hand in hand. It was true, maybe Stefan and everyone got the cure but Elena saved me in every way that some one needed and could be saved. She gave me a reason to care, to feel, to love, and I did, I loved her, and I cared, and I felt every thing I never wanted to. I knew it had to be too good to be true. There was no way she would let Stefan go...for me. Any other girl would kill to be with me, not that I wanted any other girl anymore, but not Elena. I didn't think that untill today. Till I heard her tell me she loved me. It hit me after too long. She was going to use the dagger, she had a plan that no one knew but it got skrewed up when he tried to kill me. I remembered that night. I saw her face all over again. The fear was written all over. Everything got skrewed up because she was trying to save me again, even after I had almost been the reason for turning into a vampire. It seemed impossible...Elena loved me? She had spent every night here with me, sleeping with me, and I wasted it all waiting for her to go back to Stefan. What the hell was I doing? I was even more skrewed up than I originally thought.

Elena's house

"Eliijah."

"Hello, Elena." He says as he pats the other side of the porch swing for me to sit with him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Jenna was showing me homes around Mystic Falls."

"Oh. I see. So your staying?"

"Yes. For now at least. I like it here."

"It's more peaceful now that eveything is done and over with."

"How is Damon doing?"

"Better. Thank you for helping with it. You didn't have to."

"But I did. I gave you my word that I would protect those you loved."

"I killed you."

"Lucky for me you chose to un-kill me. Which brings me to my next question."

"And that is?"

"Why?"

"Why what?"I wasn't sure which why he was asking about, although I had an idea, but the possibilities were endless.

"You forgave him. I don't understand. After what he did to you I was sure you would never, ever forgive him. And from what I heard he's done much more than that to hurt you. I can see plain as day that he loves you, you are his humanity Elena, I know you know it too. I can see that you love him too, but why, how?" I knew there was something behind what Elijah was asking me about Damon but I wasn't sure yet. He sounded as if he was looking for something.

"Because I hate him. I hate what he's done, how he's hurt me, how he acts sometimes, how he treats people, his stupid quips and pretty much everything else."

"I'm even more at a loss." He says and looks at me quizically and I can't help but laugh.

"Because everything I hate about him I love that much more. He infuriates the hell out of me, he pushes me to my limit, but everything he has done has been for love. Love brought him here, it kept him here. I love everything bad about him and I love the good even more. I forgave him and I needed to find a cure because I can't imagine him not being in my life. When things are tough I can count on Damon to be the first one to crack a joke and make me smile and the first one to try to fix whatever is wrong."

"You compliment him well, Elena. I believe he thinks the sun rises and sets on you."

"Oh, no. There are no illusions with us. He knows it doesn't."

"For him it does. No matter what you may say. He clings to you like his life depends on it. It's almost a humbling thing to see the two of you."

"Why?"

"Because it gives me hope that there are people that can love monsters."

"The only monster I knew was Klaus. You aren't a monster, you are my friend." I tell him as I hug him. I'd been doing alot of that lately. It was one of those hugs Damon was on the other side of, onsided. I pull away and he smiles at me.

"Thank you, Elena." He says as he takes my hand and places a light kiss on it before disappearing and I turn around and head inside to get Jenna. Elijah thought he was a monster, he wanted to know how someone could love a monster. I felt sad for him. I hoped what I had said helped him. It was all true. And if he thought him and Damon were monsters that was fine because I didn't care. I loved Damon anyway and Elijah was my friend. Sometimes letting go and forgiving is the best way to move forward and that's what I was going to do.