Dear beloved readers, thank you so much for all the story alerts and reviews! It means more than you will ever know! I had a lot of inspiration to get this chapter up as soon as possible thanks to all of you :) Also, I want to get as much written before the show returns from its hiatus this Thursday. I don't know about you guys, but I am stoked for the new episode!

With that said, read on my friends :)

Chapter 4: The Return

See I thought love was black and white

That it was wrong, or it was right

But you ain't leaving without a fight

And I think I am just as torn inside.

Where I Stood- Missy Higgins.

Damon sat at the bar in some small town in North Carolina, already feeling the effects of the amber liquid that filled less than half of the bottle he was holding in his hand. He took another swig from the bottle, and stared with unfocused eyes at the vibrating phone in front of him. He rolled his eyes, and sighed. It was Elena—again—and he was still in no mood to talk to her. A little absence would do her some good, he thought.

He had considered turning off his phone completely, but there was a small part of him—actually a rather large part if he was being honest, that cherished the fact that she had called about fifty times, and left about half as many voicemails, because it proved that she still cared. However, he knew that as soon as he heard her voice his resolve would break and he would go running back to her, so he had deleted every single message she left without even listening to them.

He had been away for an entire week, which was perhaps the longest amount of time he had spent away from her. The night he left he had done the one thing she would probably never forgive—took the life of an innocent human. Needless to say, he hadn't done it since. Instead, he had attempted to drown all his sorrows in alcohol—over and over again—until he could at least get through the night without thinking about her, and tonight was no different.

Truth be told, he really wished he could return to Mystic Falls—to see her again—even if it meant that he still couldn't have her. He had, after all, promised her that he would never leave her again, and he was definitely breaking that promise now. But he knew that as soon as he laid eyes on her, with her olive skin and beautiful brown eyes, the sting of rejection would nestle itself in his heart once again, and he wouldn't be able to handle it. He had almost reached his breaking point the night he gave in to his instincts and killed that human, but the guilt he felt afterwards quickly brought him back to reality.

If there was one thing he didn't want, it was to turn the switch off of his emotions, but 148 years of being rejected by Katharine and then her doppelganger, were beginning to take its toll on him. He knew it was easier to flip the switch; he had done it before, but his feelings for Elena kept him grounded, even when he wished they didn't.

He downed the last couple swallows of alcohol, and shook his head, trying to clear it of those invasive thoughts of her, deciding that he clearly wasn't drunk enough yet. He slid the bottle towards the bartender who threw it in the recycling and brought back another full bottle for him before he could ask her for another one. She handed it to him, and gave him a pitying look that almost immediately drove Damon over the edge.

With lightning speed he grabbed her wrist tightly, and practically growled, "Don't ever look at me like that again, or you will not live to see another day." Even in his drunken state, he was able to focus his mind compulsion on the young girl in front of him who thought she had the right to feel sorry for him. "I don't want you're pity. Are we clear, miss?"

She stared at him in a daze, repeated his words blankly at him, and he released her. She shook her head, and blinked a couple times, unsure of the feeling that had just come over her. She spared a glance in the brooding man's direction, and returned to work as quickly as she could.

He grabbed the bottle from the counter, and decided to take his brooding back to the mansion on the outskirts of town, where he had compelled the owners to take a nice long vacation while he occupied their home for a week or two.

He had nearly downed the entire bottle by the time he wandered into the house and crashed on the leather sofa in the living room. It was a nice house, almost as elaborate as the Salvatore boarding house, but it was too clean. It almost smelled as if nobody actually inhabited the house prior to its inhabitance by Damon. He preferred the warmth and comfort of the boarding house where Elena's scent surrounded him, even when she wasn't there. Damnit. It was one of those nights where no matter how much alcohol he consumed, he simply could not keep her out of his mind.

It was well past midnight at this point, and he decided to just sleep off his drunken stupor, and return to his brooding in the morning. Unfortunately his dreams were just as plagued by images of the woman he loved as his reality was.

Elena parted from Stefan, and walked up to him, with a sorrowful expression on her face, and he immediately knew what she was about to tell him. "I'm sorry Damon, I do love you, but it will never be the same as the way I feel about Stefan." She truly looked sincere, but it didn't lessen the pain that it caused him, even in his dream. And then she was gone. Stefan had taken the one thing that Damon would have given the world to have for his own.

"I get it already. You love my baby brother." He mumbled in his sleep, and then the dream changed.

They were walking hand in hand down the street to the Grill. She was smiling that beautiful smile of hers, and looking over at him with those big brown eyes that never failed to captivate him. In the distance they saw Stefan, and Elena waved at him happily. A very familiar pang of jealousy and hurt seemed to erupt throughout his entire being at that moment, and he stopped dead in his tracks. Elena looked back at him in surprise and confusion.

"Damon? Are you ok?"

"Oh yeah sure, just stop the act already, I know you love my brother. Go ahead, just admit it." He was getting angrier by the minute and more so when Elena played dumb about the whole situation.

"Damon, I thought that was all in the past? I don't understand what brought this on all of a sudden… I've made it pretty clear that I'm over Stefan." She was perfectly calm, but when he gave her a cynical look, she continued more urgently. "I love you, Damon. Not Stefan. Please believe me when I say that." She took his hands in hers and brought them up to her lips to place a small kiss on the top of his knuckles.

A small smile crept upon Damon's face as he dreamed about a day when they seemed to be truly and completely in love with each other. Then the dream switched again.

It was the night of the sacrifice again, and he stood at the edge of the forest, watching helplessly as Klaus had drained Elena's body dry. He had acted brashly that day in order to save her life, feeding her his blood so that she would come back as a vampire. But all he felt now was guilt about taking away the one choice that was still hers to make. Luckily John had been there and chose to give up his own life to save his daughter; otherwise he never would have forgiven himself for it.

As the sun rose, he had carried her limp body out of the clearing and back to the boarding house, praying that she came back to life as a human and not a vampire. Hours passed by excruciatingly slowly, as they waited for her to wake up. But it never happened. They waited all day, and by the end of the day John was still very much alive and Elena was still very much dead. He didn't understand what had gone wrong. Either way she should have lived. It made no sense to him. He placed a finger where her pulse would have been and there was definitely no heartbeat.

"Elena. Wake up. Please. You have to wake up! I can't lose you…." He gently touched her cheek with the back of his hand and brushed the hair out of her eyes. "Elena, I love you. Please, wake up Damnit!" He sobbed, sitting on the couch, cradling her cold body in his arms, and then he let out a loud cry, one that was full of anguish and pain. His worst fear had become a reality. Elena Gilbert was dead.

Damon sat up abruptly, surrounded by the white down comforter that didn't belong to him. He was breathing heavily, and beads of sweat slid down his temples mingled with the tears that had escaped during the night. He wiped them off, remembering the nightmare he had just woken up from. He walked over to the window to pull open the curtains and saw that the sun was already brightly shining. He winced as the rays struck him in the eyes and he shook his head, also trying to rid himself of the image of Elena's cold, lifeless body in his arms.

He sighed, and finally accepted the fact that he had been away from Mystic Falls long enough. He needed to see Elena again. He had to at least explain himself. He was, after all, just as responsible for the rift that had formed between them as she was, and he wasn't ready to give up yet.

. . .

Elena woke up to the tantalizing aroma of bacon frying on the stove. She wandered into the kitchen while rubbing her eyes, and leaned against the island counter.

"Rough night, huh?" Alaric asked, concerned when he saw her bloodshot eyes and the bags that had formed beneath them. She looked tired, like she hadn't been sleeping well.

"Yes. But not in the way you're thinking." She smiled slightly, and then let her thoughts wander to the night before. She vaguely wondered if she had done the right thing, and then decided to ask Ric for advice. He was probably the only one she could really talk to about this at the moment. He set a large mug of coffee in front of her, and she took a sip before she spoke. "Can I ask you something?

He nodded, "I'm not sure I fit this parental role too well, but ask away. I'm all ears."

She chuckled lightly, thinking that Ric had done a fine job looking out for her and Jeremy after Jenna's death. She didn't know what they would have done without him, so here she was asking him for advice as if he had been there for her throughout her entire life. "When you have to make a decision, a choice between two options, how do you know when you have made the right choice?"

"Ah, this is about Damon and Stefan isn't it?" She nodded, not even surprised anymore by the fact that he already knew about it. "Well…" he continued, "Rarely is there an answer that is more right than another, but I would say it depends what you feel in your heart."

"That's the problem, Ric. I don't know what I feel in my heart because my brain is constantly battling against it," she waved her arms in frustration.

He gave her a quizzical look as he set a hot plate of eggs, bacon, and toast on the counter in front of her. "If you are any more vague, I'm not gonna be able to give you my two cents."

She sighed, and ate her eggs before they turned cold, speaking between mouthfuls. "All I'm saying is that I have feelings for Stefan, but I know he's not right for me anymore. I also have feelings for Damon, but I'm absolutely terrified to give that a chance. Plus, no matter what I choose, I will end up hurting someone..."

"Well, that is the price you pay for happiness, isn't it? But that's what makes you such a wonderful person. You're selfless, and you do things based on how it affects other. But in your case, I think you could stand to be a little selfish sometimes. Being selfish doesn't make you bad, it makes you human. If you want Damon, then you better do something about it, otherwise you will lose him forever. Stefan will eventually accept it…and he had it coming anyway. As for your friends, well, they love you. They will support you in whatever decision you make. They always have haven't they?"

She nodded, taking in his words of wisdom for a few moments. She knew he was right, but she hated hurting the people that she loved, especially when it involved choosing one over another. She guessed she should have seen it coming though, she had just never intended on following a path that was even remotely similar to Katharine. Then again, she already had by falling in love with one Salvatore, and having the two of them fight over her. The only difference now was that her choice was Damon, and not Stefan, and she still felt guilty about the whole ordeal. She felt guilty about a lot of things, and that was something Katharine simply didn't have in her. Alaric was right, she was only human. She couldn't change the way she felt, but she could undo the hurt that she had done to Damon.

She finished her breakfast, washed her dishes, and hugged Alaric as she headed out of the kitchen, feeling like a weight had been lifted of her shoulders. "Thank you Ric. I know what I need to do now."

"Well I'm glad I could help."

Half an hour later, she returned to the kitchen to grab her water bottle, and headed towards the front door, feeling nervous, yet determined. Alaric was in the living room watching something on the history channel about the Vietnam War. He took in the anxiousness that Elena was emitting, and asked, "Where are you headed off to in such a hurry?" It wasn't meant to be authoritative, he was merely curious.

She smiled at him slyly. "I'm going to go find Damon."

` "You know. I could call him if you want."

"I'm not sure he would answer. He's ignored the fifty or so calls I have made…"

"Well, that's because he is upset with you."

She laughed, and let out a small sigh. "Tell me something I don't know." She sat down on the couch next to him and urged him to make the call before she left. He dialed Damon's number and waited while it rang. A few seconds later, Elena heard Damon's voice on the other end of the line.

"Whaddaya want Ric? I'm a little busy at the moment." That seemed to be his signature excuse for anyone whom he didn't particularly feel like talking to.

"Just wondering where you are, that's all."

"Oh, let me guess, Elena is sitting right next to you isn't she?"

"Ha.." he chuckled. "You caught me. But seriously, where are you? I think there's a certain somebody who misses you." He glanced at Elena and saw a smile creep onto her face.

"I'm not so sure about that. Tell her not to worry her pretty little head about me; I'll be back when I feel like coming back." And with that he hung up the phone. He didn't even have to relay the message to Elena, who had heard every word, and looked downcast at her hands in her lap, fiddling with the hem on her jacket.

Alaric turned to Elena, "Sorry that I wasn't that much help…"

"No don't worry about it. I appreciate it anyways." She rose from the couch and headed to the door.

"Still going to look for him?"

"Later. I think I'm gonna go over to Caroline's for now."

"Be careful, we still have a psycho murderer out on the prowl." Elena found it amusing whenever he adopted the parental role, but she appreciated it more than he even knew.

She nodded, and opened the door. What she found standing on her doorstep made her heart race and her breath hitch in her throat. She stood in her doorway, body frozen but lips moving without a sound until she was finally able to form a coherent word.

"Damon."

I hope you are all as happy with this chapter as I am! Damon is finally back. Now hopefully they finally manage to make amends with each other.

As always, please read and review! I love the feedback more than you know :)

~Aya Mae~