Stefan came as soon as visiting hours permitted, I was waiting impatiently for him. "Have you spoken to Damon?" I said the minute he came within a meter of my bed, "I haven't seen him since he was here yesterday. Why?"

"He came here last night. He said he had to go away until I get better," I took a deep breath, Stefan looked at me puzzled. "What's going on Lizzie? What's happened?"

"He said that I wouldn't believe that he wasn't coming back so he left me something to prove that he was." I held up my right hand and Stefan made a hissing sound, his face rigid with shock and fear as he saw his brother's ring on my finger. A couple of minutes later he shook himself out of it and gave me a weak grin, "trust my brother to take things to the extreme, you two need some sense knocked into you, you really do." Then seeing the look of confusion on my face he grinned and shook his head some more, "my brother wants you to know that he trusts you with his life despite everything he says and does. He'll be coming back, don't worry about that Lizzie.

The great Damon Salvatore always pops up when you least expect and want him to, you should know that by now. You are his biggest fan after all." That got me laughing, if only because it was true.

"Look, I'm sorry Stefan. About everything, I'll do whatever you want but don't let them put me in a psych unit, please." Stefan squeezed my hand and smiled, "Elizabeth Roberts. Do you really think I'd let that happen to you? Besides, all you stuff has been moved back into your room last night and knowing my brother it's all been taken care of already. you're still our little sister after all."

He stayed with me for a few minutes and then told me he had to go as the nurse was coming round to take blood samples, as he leant over me to kiss my forehead I grabbed him and gave him the biggest hug that I could give with a drip in my arm- it surprised him only for a second before he returned it.

I spent a week in hospital, by the end of it I was so desperate to get out that I was thinking seriously of ripping my drip out and seeing how far I could get before they spotted me. Finally the doctor pronounced that I was physically fit and well, he told me that I was to be released back into the care of my brother. Apparently, a visiting psychiatric consultant whose name he couldn't remember, had told him about a new treatment. Patients were treated in their home environment rather than being admitted and this eminent consultant had arranged to take me on as part of his trials and would be contacting me personally to arrange further treatment.

"You're a very lucky young woman, having such a doctor offer to take you on, you know. One of my junior nurses nearly fainted when he smiled at her. Well take care young lady and I hope not to see you again- in the nicest possible way of course." With that the doctor walked out and as soon as he had left I burst out laughing.

"You're not meant to laugh Lizzie, I seem to remember you practically swooning at the sight of him not so long ago." Stefan grinned.

"I have never swooned at Damon! I nearly swooned at you when I found out who you were," Stefan looked surprised at this. "But I never got the chance as his nibs came along and spoiled it," I poked my tongue out at Stefan who cracked up. "As long as I live I swear, I will never forget the look on my brother's face after you attacked him. I think that has to be one of my favourite memories, but don't try and change the subject young lady and you can't fool me with your little charade- I'm keeping a close eye on you. Now let's go, the hospital car park costs a fortune."

Stefan hadn't told Elena or Bonnie what I did, I did say I didn't want them to know, but he couldn't understand why I did something so desperate and I didn't particularly want to talk about either.

"I know you must have felt very down at everything that on Lizzie, but you could have come and talked to me. There was no need to do something like that and then ask us to kill you? I could never do that to you." He said to me a couple of days later during the ad break in a show I was watching, "I don't want to talk about Stefan. I understand that the things that happened to me must seem stupid in comparison to what you've been through and all I can say is that I'm sorry but I really don't feel like talking about my reasons." He tried to probe my thoughts but I just went up to my room and started playing on my computer leaving him alone downstairs.

Every night I went to bed I barely slept. I was so worried about Damon, I knew every detail of his ring inside and out and I would lay there with the curtains open wondering where he was and when he would come back. Stefan tried to keep my mind off it and although there were days when I appeared to be my normal self again and he relaxed a bit, most of the days I just put on a brave face and tried to act normally.

Bonnie and Elena kept in regular touch with Stefan, Elena had sat down with her Aunt and Robert and discussed things as civilised adults, she had told Stefan that although they had found things hard to swallow at first they were slowly coming round, although there was still a lot of work to be done before her Aunt would be able to fully accept Stefan.

Bonnie had a lot of explaining to do as well to her parents, she had taken extended leave from her job as a nurse in one of the surgical wards at the hospital to visit them with Elena to reassure them as all the publicity in Atlanta had raised some awkward questions such as what was their daughter hanging around with two vampires one of whom was a known murderer.

Stefan had stayed out of the way to give the girls a chance to talk with their parents, catch up with Meredith and have a bit of fun like old times, I knew he missed Elena deeply and got anxious when he didn't receive a phone call from her at the allotted time.

As the third week drew to a close despite Stefan's reassurances, I began to worry that the worst had had happened to Damon. I also began to realise for the first time that having him in my life was almost like an addiction; he had gotten used to and dare I say, accepted the small group of humans that he lived with. Some of his barriers had began to come down I like to think, because of my acceptance of his nature. There were times when I felt like the one person sticking up for him, I knew it amused him greatly and although Elena pushed him to care more for humans and to be a bit more like Stefan, when I pushed him I tried to explain my reasons and make him understand why he should do what I wanted him to do.

Then finally one night I woke up in the middle of the night, feeling extremely drowsy due to the anti-depressant it took me a few moments to realise that there was someone in the room. I touched the bedside light, a dull glow lit up the room and I saw a familiar figure standing besides me.

"Hi. I was beginning to think you'd never come back."

"You have my ring, of course I was coming back. I gave you my word didn't I? " Cue awkward silence, he sounded peeved and I couldn't think of what to say or do next, he just stood there. So I reached under my pillow and gave him his ring, "thank you for trusting me with it."