AN: Hey! Sorry about the length between updates. I had major writer's block on this one, in addition to my fiancé forgetting valentines! Needless to say, I was in a mood. He was thoroughly shamed, and surprised me with a belated valentine's day last night, so here I am! The song is "Complicated" by Retrograde.

Elena was definitely shaken up, and Caroline wasn't sure what to say. She never would have guessed that Stefan had flat-out killed someone; when Elena had said it, she thought it was an accident. Elena's sobs from her lap reminded her that it had actually happened.

"Did he say why?" She said, stroking her hair.

"Because she would have killed me. I can't see how that's possible, though. Even if it was true, the Stefan that I know would have found another way!" She said, sitting up. "He tried to blame it on the switch, but I know that it shouldn't make that big of a difference." Elena had told Caroline about the switch, and it sounded downright bizarre.

"You're right, Elena." She said. In reality, she wasn't sure. Vampire instincts were a lot stronger than humans understood, and the instinct to kill was definitely at the forefront of their minds at all times. Stefan would be no different. "Did Damon do anything about it?" She asked

"No, he wasn't strong enough in Stefan's body, even after drinking human blood." Elena said, wiping her eyes. She didn't normally cry like this; but it felt like she had been lied to.

"Is there anything I can do?" Caroline said, wanting to help her friend.

Elena smiled. "You already helped by letting me cry" She said. In reality, she was still reeling. "I should get home; Jenna's making a huge dinner tonight, courtesy of Damon's recipes." She said, smiling halfheartedly.

"What are you going to tell her, Elena? You know Jenna, she'll pick up on your mood."

"I'll tell her the truth." She said. "Stefan and I are over."

When she got home, Jenna was putting the finishing touches on dinner. Elena had stopped crying on the drive home, but she could feel the puffiness in her face, and she knew that Jenna would pick up on her mood. She walked to the kitchen, wanting to get the conversation over with before Alaric and Jeremy came down.

"Elena, you're back" Jenna smiled, laying out cutlery. She looked at Elena sideways when she saw the expression and state of her face. "Is everything alright?" She asked.

"I...Stefan and I are over." She said, running her finger around the edge of one of the plates. Jenna looked up, shocked.

"What?" She said, a hint of disbelief present.

"He's not who I thought he was" She said.

"Are you ok?" She asked. "You don't have to eat with everyone else...I know that would be tough".

"I might actually take you up on that today. I know you put a lot of work into dinner; I'll have some later for sure" She said, half smiling. The last thing she felt like doing was sitting down to a family meal, and she felt guilty. Jenna really had put a lot of work into dinner.

"No problem kiddo" Jenna said, pulling her plate off the table. "Believe me, you're doing a lot better than I ever seemed to when I had a breakup..."

"Thanks, Jenna." Elena said. "I'm gonna go take a nap, I think...if I can get to sleep." She doubted that she would. Jenna nodded, watching her head back upstairs.

Elena locked Jeremy's door to the washroom, after deciding to take a bath. The last thing she needed today was an interruption of that sort, especially when she was feeling this unstable. She turned the tap on for the large claw-foot tub, reaching for a glass jar of blue bath salt. She only used the salt when she wanted to think, or when something was really wrong. Since finding out about vampires, she'd been using her salts a lot. She looked under the sink for a clean towel, realizing that there wasn't one in the bathroom. "Jeremy..." she muttered, walking out of the bathroom, her room, and into the hallway to the linen closet. She reached for a towel on the top shelf, cursing under her breath when she couldn't reach it.

"Need some help?"

Stefan—no—Damon leaned against the doorframe of her room, hands nonchalantly in his pockets.

"Not now, Damon." She said. She was in no frame of mind to play games with him today. "I want to be alone." She said, forgetting about her towel. "Besides, the bathwater will overflow."

"I turned it off" he said, half smiling. It was only then that she noticed that she couldn't hear the rushing water. She looked at him, realizing that she was glad he was there. She walked into her room, Damon following.

[Hello...what is your secret?
Tell me if you can, what's on your mind?]

"Oh..." She didn't know what to say or where to begin. What she did know, was that she didn't have to stop herself from talking; she had no one else who would understand. "I don't know what to do" she said.

"Why do you have to do something?" Damon asked, leaning against the foot of her bed. It was so uncanny; knowing that she was talking to Damon, but seeing Stefan. It felt like another world.

"Because Stefan-!"

"Stefan made his choices, Elena." Damon said, soothing her with a voice that was all too familiar. "You aren't responsible for them." Elena sat.

"But he isn't like that, Damon." She said, looking at him.

"Elena, he's a vampire. Before he saved you from your parent's car accident, he was like that." He said. It was true; he was shocked by the change he'd found in his brother when he came back to Mystic Falls.

"I don't believe you." She said.

Damon smiled. "I know." In time she would.

"If he was just another monster, why didn't you warn me before?" She said.

"Because I thought...I thought that maybe you had changed him. You were so happy; I couldn't ruin that...at first I thought he was being selfish, and then I believed that he really loved you. Besides, it wasn't hard to see how in love with him you were." He watched Elena look away, then back at him. She hadn't been sure that she really loved Stefan until recently, and even then...it didn't feel right.

[Hello there...I saw you laughing,
So innocent, enjoying your life.]

"I love him, but I don't think I've ever been in love with him..." she looked at Damon. "There's always been something missing; honesty." She ran a finger over her necklace. Stefan had always been willing to hide things from her, regardless of her opinion.

"Honesty can be overrated." Damon said.

"No, it can't be. You've always been honest with me, and that's part of the reason that I trust you." She said. "Even when..."

"Even when what?" he asked.

"Even when you told me how you felt about me." She said. It had twisted her in knots since, and she'd felt guilty around Stefan, even though she'd done nothing.

"But I—"

"I drank vervain tea. You needed to believe that the compulsion worked, and I...I needed to believe that I was with the right person." She said. "The amount of times..." There was a lump in her throat. She was admitting things that she'd never expected to. Damon looked at her expectantly through Stefan's green eyes, and she felt like both of them were in the room. She touched her hand to his arm, watching the ring on her hand turn to a burning crimson red. "The amount of times that I've imagined what we'd be like together is unimagineable."

[We've become complicated...
Can't tell right from wrong...]

She swallowed. "And hearing that you really felt the same, and knowing that you didn't confess to hurt me or split Stefan and I up...it made me realize that I'd made a stupid choice." She said.

"You're rebounding, Elena" he said, no willing to look her in the eye. Hearing her say these things was giving him false hope, and tearing him apart at the same time. She was looking for someone to reach out to, and he wasn't stable enough.

"No, I'm not." She said. "I've been thinking about you and I for months, Damon. I stopped seeing Stefan in my dreams months ago..." She hadn't expected this to ever come to the surface. "I was just too scared to make the right choice."

Damon laughed darkly. "Elena, I'm the furthest thing from the right choice. I'm probably as far as you can get from being safe; from being safe." He said. "You had to choose Stefan; you should choose Stefan." He said. He hated the words that were coming out of his mouth, but he would rather scare her away now than have her realize that he was right weeks, months...even years down the road.

[We are so complicated,
Is anything ever really wrong?]

"You're so passionate, and destructive. Stefan was the safe choice, but not the right one." She stood, walking in front of him. "I'm not in love with you yet, Damon, but I could be. I've been fighting my feelings away from you for so long...if I let myself feel them, I could get lost in you right now." She stepped forward, tears brimming in her eyes. Damon looked away.

"Do you mean everything you're saying?" he asked.

"Of course!" She said, shocked by his question. "Do you think I would lie to you about this?".

He stood, looking down at her, and she could see the difference in his expression. This was definitely Damon, and she felt herself react. She wanted him, in more ways than one. He spoke.

"Elena, I love you, and if I were to let myself fall for you completely only to be shot down...I wouldn't be able to take that."

"I know, Damon." She said, taking his hand. He pulled away, catching her eyes with the intensity of Stefan's...an intensity that only Damon could give to the greenish eyes.

"You have to be sure, Elena. When I lose control, people die."

"I'm sure."

Damon looked at her for possibly the longest seconds of her life, before something changed in his expression. She could see him thinking.

[Tell me,
Are we the same now?]

"Fine."

His lips met hers.