Thanks for all the lovely reviews again. The encouragement is fabulous. Big shout outs to kat and joejonasluver18 in particular, you're making me feel like this isn't complete OoC nonsense, which I do worry about sometimes. I'm hoping the plot will pick up a bit once Elena gets back to Duke, so you may or may not have to forgive all the fluff. Once again, don't be afraid to review and let me know what you think!

There was a screaming buzz in her ears, as her whole head rang. Her temples pulsed and her throat felt dry. She felt like she wanted to throw up. Elena knew a hangover when she saw one. Blearily opening her eyes, she wondered how much she'd drunk last night. She'd been at the Masquerade Ball...and Damon had been there...

Elena had to stop herself from springing up and making herself decidedly ill. Damon! How could she have forgotten about him? He was the reason she'd left the house in the first place. As Elena moved slightly, she decided her hangover was probably only minor compared to some of Jenna's mornings. Elena could freely admit she wouldn't normally have been drinking at all. But she'd been so nervous, and she'd just wanted to relax, take the edge off. That was what they all said about alcohol, right? It took the edge off. Elena groaned. Silly, naive girl. What had she expected? Admittedly, Elena had a vague memory of Damon, telling her to stop. But now, all her memories seemed hazy. She remembered Damon stopping her though. After that fourth glass, he'd made her stop. She was aware of that much.

As for the rest of the night, Elena felt lost. She could vaguely remember fighting with Damon...thinking that he'd come back to save her from herself. Elena laughed weakly at the thought. Damon Salvatore, returned to be her Prince, and save her from the ivory tower and the wicked witch? In what reality was that possible? It certainly wasn't even plausible in the world Elena knew. Elena remembered the dance. She'd probably already been influenced by the drinks she'd had then. What else would encourage her to feel how she seemed to remember feeling? Elena had to stop herself from shuddering at the thought. Last night, she'd almost felt something, dancing with Damon. But how could she? Despite the break up and the heartache, Elena knew she was still hurting from Stefan. Her head may have ended their romance, but her heart hadn't received the message yet. How could Elena even consider getting into a relationship again after Stefan? More than that, with his brother? She'd be crazy. Insane. Of course, Elena was sure she'd reached the crazy limit a few months ago, so she supposed anything was possible. But not that. Anything but that.

Elena rolled over, her head spinning as she stared at her alarm clock. The neon numbers blurred and glowed in front of her eyes, dancing just out of sight until they focused into a time. 11:30. It was at least a three hour drive back to Duke. Plus it was Sunday. Elena had class tomorrow morning, and she was meant to have left half an hour ago. Elena usually stopped someplace in the journey, stretching the time out even further. And she'd told her roommate to expect her back for the evening. They'd probably order in pizza. Elena was going to have to move soon if she wanted to make it back in time.

She kicked the covers back, and swung her legs out of bed. She walked over to her window and threw the curtains open, and the morning Virginia sunshine streamed in. Elena blinked against the strong light, which only made her head pound even more. A crow was settled in the tree across the street. As Elena watched she became oddly unsettled by the bird - it was almost like it was watching her. Elena shook her head, turning away and dragging her hand through her hair. The alcohol was clearly still addling with her brain. After all, it was just a crow.

After Elena had showered and got herself packed up, she could feel her head clearing. The ringing faded to a bearable level, and although her throat was still dry, she felt better. She was better. She headed downstairs into the kitchen, hoping to grab something to eat before she left. When she got there, though, someone was waiting for her.

Jeremy looked up at his sister, smiling lazily at her. "Hey. How'd you feel?" he asked, vaguely aware that she'd been drinking a bit last night. Elena smiled back, heading for the toaster.

"I've been worse," Elena conceded, dropping a slice of bread into the toaster. "Where's Jenna?"

"She went out for a couple of things from the store," Jeremy said, putting his phone down on the kitchen island. "She wanted to see you before you left, though," Jeremy said. Elena's eyes flashed from her brother's phone to his tired, happy eyes. Elena smiled slightly.

"How's Kate?" Elena asked casually. Jeremy shrugged.

"She's fine. She had fun last night. But forget me, what about you?" Jeremy pressed. Elena's brow creased slightly with confusion.

"I'm fine. My head's still buzzing, but I'm fine." Elena was painfully aware this was her standard deflection. She used it all the time. 'Your parents just died, how do you feel?' 'Your boyfriend's psychopathic ex just tried to kill someone again, how do you feel?' 'There's a murderous group of vampires after your head, how do you feel?' Elena always came up as fine. It was her answer for when she really didn't want to think about how she felt. Elena was on autopilot. She spoke without thinking, hoping Jeremy would drop it. He wasn't so easily distracted, however.

"I thought you weren't going to bother with the party," Jeremy pressed. Elena shrugged, not making a reply. "So Damon made you go. But you had fun right? You looked pretty happy."

"I don't know, Jer, okay? My head's still spinning from the whole thing. But you and Kate looked like you were having fun. I'm happy for you." Elena spoke while handling her fresh toast, spreading jam on the bread quickly. Jeremy was silent. Elena turned back around to glance at her brother. He was sitting there, grinning like an idiot. "What?" Elena asked, curious.

"That's the first time you've said that. About me and Kate." Jeremy told her. Elena looked at him, puzzled.

"That you looked like you were having fun?" Elena asked, trying to clarify.

"No. That you liked us together," Jeremy told her. Elena thought about it. She'd never said she was unhappy either.

"Oh. Well, I do." Elena informed him, turning back to the safety of her toast. She was confused. She didn't understand Jeremy's point. Jeremy knew that his sister failed to get what he was saying, but he didn't want to tell her for fear of driving her off. Because it was the first time he'd heard any kind of real emotion from his sister in months. Anything else had been courtesy, on her other weekend visits home. But now she had actually spoken of her own accord, and she'd said something that meant something. Jeremy didn't like the fact that it had taken Damon Salvatore to snap her back to reality. But he would take it. He could tell progress would be slow, but with Elena, he would take whatever came.

After all, you had to crawl before you could run.

Elena might have pushed her brother about the whole aspect a little further, but she was cut off by the doorbell ringing. Jeremy got up from his seat, wandering down the hall, muttering something about Jenna learning how to bring shopping in and remember her key. Elena sighed, distracting herself with her toast. She took a bite of the bread, chewing, forcing the food down her throat. As she ate, Elena dug herself out a glass, filling it with fresh, cool water. The thirst had been driving her crazy more than anything. She'd need to fill her car with at least four bottles of water before she left.

The sound of the door closing was quiet, but Elena heard it clearly enough. She ate some more of her toast, listening to the tempo of steps coming down the hall. Elena turned towards the kitchen doorway, wanting to press Jeremy further. What had he meant by his comment? What was his point? Had she really been so switched off for the last four months that she hadn't even passed a comment on her brother's new romance? And if so, how pathetic had she been? Elena would never forgive herself, for hitting a minor depression over this. Elena wanted her brother to tell her exactly how bad she'd been, so she could work out what had started to drag her out of it. Copious amounts of alcohol (by her standards, anyway, which were decidedly low)? Going to the stupid party (which maybe hadn't been so stupid after all)? Or was it something more subtle, deeper? (Elena refused to turn his name into an answer for anything.) But Elena was disappointed when she looked up. Her brother wasn't standing in the kitchen doorway.

Damon was.

Elena's eyes widened slightly in surprise as Damon sauntered in clad in his usual black armour. He'd always looked out of place in her kitchen, Elena thought. Well, at least while he was being usual, leather-jacket clad 'terror' Damon. When he was caught in one of his oddly domestic moods, things were different. But when he came in like this, Elena was always thrown off balance by the incompatibility of her safe home life and the vampire life that Damon seemed to be an integral part of. The words spilled from Elena's lips before she had thought about it. It was too early in the day to think. "Damon, what are you doing here?"

"Good morning to you too, Elena" Damon teased her viciously, a satisfied smirk on his face. Elena had to stop herself from reacting physically. Typical, Damon. Just typical. Elena picked up her glass of water, watching Damon closely.

"Seriously, what do you want?" Elena continued on blindly. Damon walked over to the kitchen island, picking up an orange from the fruit bowl, loosely tossing it up in the air.

"I came to say goodbye," Damon told her. Elena could feel her pulse pick up slightly. He was leaving. Again. He'd barely been back twenty-four hours, and he was off again. This would be it. She'd never see him again. He'd live out his days on Hawaii with a couple of surfer babes in wetsuits and bikinis. At least, he'd live out the rest of her life there. Elena was well aware that Damon would still be breaking hearts and ruining lives long after she'd gone. At least, this was what she told herself. But then, if she was so sure and steady about how he'd live, why was she so panicked to hear he was going to leave? Why was she so worried about his permanent departure? If she wanted to move past the events of the last few years of her life, she'd need to forget more or less everything attached to that world - including Damon.

But why did she want him to stay?

"You're leaving?" Elena pulled it off much better than she would have imagined. She didn't sound panicked. She didn't sound strained or worried or even concerned. Just pleasantly surprised. Elena wondered if she should have gone into acting, not medicine. But medicine had been her choice. After all the pain and sorrow she'd seen, it felt nice to be able to heal something for a change. She knew most people saw it as a desperate attempt to reconnect with her parents. After all, her father had been a doctor. And although Elena thought about him when she was in class, that wasn't why she'd chosen medicine. Besides, she didn't want to be a doctor. She wanted to be a nurse. She didn't want to sit in an office and file paper and diagnose patients and let lesser people handle the rest. Elena wanted to be there, on the front line. She wanted to make a difference. And secretly, deep inside, she guessed there probably was a part of her that wanted to make her parents proud.

Damon shrugged at her comment, watching Elena as she ate another bite of toast. Elena tried not to be disturbed by his penetrating gaze, but it was hard. She could feel the shivers running up her spine already. "Well, you're going back to Duke, right?" Damon clarified. Elena looked at him curiously. So did this mean he was only leaving because she was? Elena was gripped with a mad desire to drop Duke and stay if that was what it took to make him stick around. She'd missed him when he left. More than the others because he had just left. All the others had made their peace and said their goodbyes. But Damon had walked away without a backwards glance, leaving Elena speculating over why he was gone. It was crazy, but it was also true. Elena didn't want to explain it. She always said she missed the safety. Damon had been her protector. Being without him made her feel vulnerable. But she could deal with it. She could get used to it. She refused to be dependent on Damon forevermore.

Nodding in response to Damon's question, she watched as he began idly tossing the orange between his hands again. "Then what else am I going to stay for?" Damon asked her. Elena opened her mouth to reply, but closed it again when she realised she didn't have an answer. Stefan was gone. Damon could find him, but after all that had happened, Elena doubted that he'd want to. Damon had only been in town for Stefan and Katherine in the first place. Even most of the old gang had gone, if Damon had felt any connection to them whatsoever. Bonnie was in self isolation and exile, Caroline (who had never been best friends with Damon anyway) was in Los Angeles with Tyler... there was really no one of consequence left in Mystic Falls. Not for Damon, anyway. No one, that was, apart from her, on the odd weekends she returned. Elena had once told Damon that he'd lost her forever. That had been a lie - through the course of events, they'd somehow ended up friends again anyway. She hated how he did that. Elena also felt cheated thanks to Damon's vanishing act, but their relationship was as close as Damon ever got to a friendship, anyway.

"So are you going to vanish of the face of the earth again, or will you phone me to death instead?" Elena asked with a hint of frustration in her tone. Damon looked at her curiously. Elena couldn't help but notice the increasingly infamous 'eye thing'.

"Do you want to be called to death?" Damon asked her. Elena shrugged.

"It just seems weird that you turn up yesterday and then shoot off again before I can even being to get things straight." Elena told him sedately, finishing off her toast before sipping at her water. Damon was smiling smugly.

"Well, you know, I don't think I'm going too far. I hear Durham is great at this time of year." Damon told her. Elena stared at him for a moment, putting her glass down on the kitchen counter. She made to walk towards Damon, but ended up stumbling over her own feet. The hangover obviously wasn't quite as minor as she had thought. However, she caught herself before she smacked into the floor. When Elena recovered, she was slightly surprised to find Damon at her side, his hands hovering over concernedly, as if to help her, to catch her before she fell. He backed away fairly quickly, though. "Are you sure you should be driving all the way back to Duke today? You did have quite a few shots last night." Damon told her. Elena took it to be patronising, but chose to entertain him, anyway.

"What would you suggest, Dr. Salvatore? I do have class tomorrow." Damon smirked at her comment.

"Well, I would normally diagnose rest and lots of water, but since you do have class tomorrow, I don't think you should go back to Duke alone, anyway," Damon told her. Elena sighed, turning back to her water. She was safer while chugging some fluid, clearly. It didn't matter what Damon said, she had to go alone. She was careful to explain this to Damon, too.

"Well, Jenna has better things to do than make an eight hour round trip to North Carolina, and I don't think Jeremy is the best idea, either. So I'm going to have to ignore your well thought out advice."

Damon smirked. "Who said I was thinking of them?"

Elena stared at Damon for only a moment, before realising what he'd meant.

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. You are not driving me back to Duke. No way." Elena protested. Damon smirked at her tossing the orange back into the fruit bowl.

"Come on, I've done it before." Damon said, as if trying to ask her what the big deal was. Elena, sipping at her water again to give her hands something to do. Elena shook her head.

"That was different." Elena said flatly.

"Not so different," Damon insisted. "Elena. What do you think I'd do if you crashed your car on the way there?"

"No. I'm not letting you drive me all the way to North Carolina. How would you get back here?" Elena said. She was desperate to find a reason for him to stay.

"Didn't I mention I was leaving? Besides, how do you think we got around before the invention of things like your little sports coupe?" Elena didn't reply, obviously wrestling with the issue. She didn't feel so drunk, but likewise, she didn't want to crash and die. Elena was feeling many things these days, but suicidal wasn't one of them. The gap stretched, and Damon looked so hopeful. Elena sighed.

"Fine. One trip."

"See, you can be reasonable," Damon told her. Elena held up a finger to silence him.

"This is only because I'm probably still too drunk to drive. Don't read into this as one of your little deep-and-meaningful moments, please."

"Since when have I done that?" Damon asked, clearly confused. Elena sighed, turned and picked up her glass, swallowing the last of her water and began to head out of the kitchen. She paused briefly, thinking things through.

"And Damon?"

"Yes, Elena?" Damon asked with false obedience.

"Jenna does not need to know about this." Elena spoke in a tone that made it clear the matter wasn't up for negotiation. Damon rolled his eyes.

"Fine. Drop by the boarding house when you've said all your little tearful goodbyes."

Elena didn't even have time to respond before Damon was gone, like a ghost that had never even existed. She sighed, heading upstairs to get herself ready. It was going to be a long drive.