"Elena Gilbert open this freaking door right now! I will bust it down, you know I will. I know you don't want me to ruin Damon's door. So open it. Now! You have until the count of three. One! Two! Thr-"

"Stop! Who are you my mother?" Elena swings the door open, and vamp speeds right back into bed.

"If that's what I need to be right now then yes. Stefan told me you've been holed up in here for the past two days. You haven't even left to feed. Elena you know how dangerous that is."

"Caroline. I. Am. Fine."

"Clearly. Barricading yourself in Damon's room. Not feeding, ignoring everyone. How is that fine?"

"There is no danger to anyone right now."

"What does that matter? Stefan said you found Damon, that he's okay. That's good news. You have Ric and Jeremy back and it's like you don't care."

"How dare you! Get out!"

"Elena, that's not what I meant. It's just your not you anymore. I don't know how to help you."

"I didn't ask for your help."

"You need it though. Look at you, you have never given up on anything before, why are you giving up now?"

"Don't I have a right to finally give up? I have fought for everyone! Constantly. For two years of my life I spent worried about everything, everyone. My whole family is dead. All of my parents, Jenna, and Bonnie. We got Ric and Jeremy back and I can't be more thankful for that. But I lost Damon, Caroline. I know you don't understand it. You loved Tyler, he was good and everyone loved him so you can't possibly understand. You lost him, and it wasn't fair, but you can have him back now."

"You lost me."

"Care, I love Damon. I know you hate him, but he has made me feel more alive than I felt when I was alive. You said Stefan was my epic love but your wrong. Love isn't constant turmoil, it's not back and forth. When you are in love with someone you can't just fall in love with someone else. Love is salvation, it's making each other better, it's honesty. I turned and it felt was worse than death. It felt like I was still drowning and then Damon stepped in and I all of a sudden I wasn't drowning anymore. I was floating and breathing. Everyone thought it was the sire bond, but I knew it wasn't. I saw everything so much more clearly. It was always like that with Damon. Every single time he stepped in and did something good, or saved me I felt like I was going to be okay, that some how it would be okay because of him. I don't know how else to explain it."

"Love is Damon."

"Love is Damon, and it's too late. He has done horrible things, he has hurt so many people, but I understand Caroline. If I got screwed over by everyone I thought loved me, if I was never good enough, no matter how much good I did was never enough I would be like that too. He changed for me, and he has been the better man, and look where it got him. A sire bond thrown in his face because how could someone actually love him? I told him I would let him go when I chose Stefan and I couldn't do it. Every fiber of my being refused. I loved him long before I could ever accept it. He accepted me how ever I was. He tried to keep humanity-less Elena safe, and free and loved. He would never have given up on me. If it took a hundred years he would be by my side. Never judging me, just helping me and loving me. He is the only one who was able to get me to flip the switch back on. He knows me. Me as in whoever I am. Human, vampire, humanity, humanity-less. I'm just too late in realizing it. He's done with me Caroline and it's my fault. So excuse me if I give up."

"Elena. I didn't-"

"You didn't know, but now you do. So please just leave me alone. Let me grieve in peace so I can get back to my life."

"I'll leave but Elena I want you to know that I think you are one of the strongest people I know. I don't know how you do it. I don't know who you are right now because I don't know this you. The one that gives up. If love to you is Damon then fight for him."

Caroline has said what she came to say, there is nothing left for her to do here. She can't make Elena do anything she doesn't want to do. Really, there was only one person that ever could. She closes the door. She knows what she has to do next.

"Damon Salvatore! You come out right now! I know your here. Stefan told me! I'll give you to the count of three! Or I will get Jeremy to have Bonnie and her Grams get rid of your stupid spell. Don't think I won't. One. Two. Thr-"

"Shut. Up. Blondie. Who are you my mother?"

"Damn, you too are alike."

"What?"

"Elena. I gave her to the count of three too. She opened the door half way through three and said the same thing."

"Someone else finally told you to shut up?"

"No. The mother part."

"Where are you doing here?"

"I came to talk, and you owe me because I got Klaus back here to give me his blood. You hate owing people. So just pay up and it'll be over with."

"What do you need to talk to me about? You hate me, remember?"

"Yeah well, hating you isn't so easy these days. Want to sit? I brought bourbon."

"Even you knew this conversation was going to require alcohol."

"I maybe blonde Damon, but I'm not stupid."

"Okay, let's get this over with."

"Elena hasn't fed in two days."

"What am I suppose to do about it?"

"You remember the night you saved me from getting bit by Tyler?"

"Of course I do. Dumb idea, by the way."

"I don't believe you. You knew what could happen and did it anyway. For Elena. I know what you thought Damon. You knew she couldn't handle losing another person, and you thought her losing you would be easier because she loved me and not you."

"So what? I didn't die. It's over with."

"You were wrong. She did love you. The day after Katherine brought you Klaus' blood she came to my house and she told me about what happened. She was so scared she was going to lose you. She was worried there would be side effects, all she wanted was for you to be okay. She would have been devastated by your death. That's when I knew she loved you."

"So the whole 'you only feel this way because of the sire bond' was what exactly?"

"Because I didn't know she was in love with you. I was mad because I thought you used it to make her more like you, but I guess I was fooling myself. She doesn't need the sire bond for that."

"What are you trying to say? You are giving me whiplash."

"I'm trying to say I don't know if we will ever be friends, but that I was wrong about just how in love with her you are. Don't let her go Damon. She really does love you."

"You really don't expect me to divulge further into this with you do you?"

"No, this is my apology for disregarding her feelings for you because of how I feel about you. This is my thank you for saving me, and for what you told my mom the night she found out about me, I heard you. I just hated you so much at that point I couldn't acknowledge it. This is me trying to make it easier for the two of you by me making my peace with you. I just want Elena to be happy."

Caroline can tell by the way Damon is looking at her that this is hard for him to comprehend. Elena was right, he doesn't get enough credit where credit is due. So Caroline does something she thought she might never do, she gives Damon a real smile. One she's never given him, because even when she did like him she didn't really like him she was using him. He stuns her when he gives her one in return. She puts the bottle down on the ground and decides to leave him with what she's told him.

"Hey Blondie?"

She looks down at him and she can tell he doesn't feel comfortable at what he's going to say.

"You have a good mom, she loves you."

"Thanks Damon." She thinks...no she knows that's the nicest thing he's ever said to her, and it means the world to her. Damon cared for her mom and that meant something, he would never hurt her, he would protect her. Caroline leaves Damon sitting there more glad that she came than she thought she would be.