A/N: As I stated last chapter, this story is therapy for me. I love D/E, and that means both parts of the 'ship', but I'm tired of watching a certain character suffer so much EVERY single episode. I'm tired of being fed breadcrumbs; of hanging out for a couple of minutes of D/E scenes here and there. I'm tired of worrying that that D/E will never be. Most of all I'm tired of the way these two impact me so much, but they do. I don't understand it. They have me totally sucked in.

A couple of months ago, I read a fantastic piece of fanfiction, that depressed me so much I couldn't write for days. It's part of what inspired this mini fic. I never expected this story to receive this kind of response, and I thank everybody who subscribed and reviewed. I wish I could offer you more. It lacks polish, and the realism that some of my favorite authors could inject into this kind of story, but I hope if you read it that you can find something you like about it.

When I sat down to write this chapter, it was like setting off a room full of mines and not knowing which way to look first. With four characters (even thought it's only two POV, I had my work cut out for me). I hope it's all clear enough.

With many thanks for reading, and apologies for the loooong author's note, I wish you all a happy weekend.

Lots of Love,

LoveEpicLove

Tonight We Tell The Truth: Part 2

"What game are we playing, Elena?" Katherine asked.

Elena watched Damon pour himself another drink and tried to determine if he was about to tell Stefan and Katherine what was in that bottle. He looked up at her, but his expression was completely blank. Elena's gaze shifted between the three vampires in the room. She'd come here tonight wanting to know the truth, but now she thought it would be better to leave here with these relationships still in tact.

"You know, it's late. I think I might skip tonight."

"Elena…" Stefan started.

"Isn't going anywhere," Damon said with finality.

Elena locked eyes with Damon. She wondered why he was doing this. Did he want to destroy the relationship she had with his brother? Did he believe that her relationship with Stefan could be ruined so easily?

"What is going on?" Stefan asked again, looking between the two of them. "Elena?"

"I know what this is," Katherine said, grinning slyly. "I thought it smelt familiar."

Elena looked at Damon, to see if he would help her, but he shrugged. Instead of sounding angry at being tricked, Katherine sounded more amused and pleased by the situation.

"Would someone please tell me what is going on here?" Stefan said.

"I think Elena should answer the question," Katherine told him, smiling like a Cheshire cat.

"Elena, what's going on?" Stefan asked her, his irritation with being the only person in the dark clearly growing with every second that passed.

"I came here tonight because I wanted to talk to you. Do you think we can go somewhere more…private?"

Stefan looked alarmed, only adding to Elena's growing sense of dread.

"Neither of you are going anywhere," Damon told them as if he owned the night.

Elena didn't want to do this here in front of them, surely Damon could understand that. She walked up to him, and put her hand on his arm. "Don't make me do this here. This is between Stefan and I."

Damon shook her hand off. She always thought she could get what she wanted from him by appealing to him to be the good guy. Well she'd made it abundantly clear that it didn't matter how good he was, it would never be enough to win her love. So what was the point in playing the good guy tonight?

"No can do, Elena."

Her eyes widened a little. Was it really such a shock to her that he wouldn't give her everything she wanted? Stefan joined them now.

"Elena," he said to her softly. "Come upstairs with me."

"She's staying here," Damon told his brother.

The tone of his voice was enough to make both Elena and Stefan stare at him.

"Ask them what's in the bottle, Stefan," Katherine instructed, from across the room. "You might get an answer that way."

Stefan spared Katherine a quick glance before turning back to them. "What's in the bottle, Damon?"

"Bonnie's truth potion."

Damon didn't have any trouble answering his brother's question. Tonight was about the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and it was all coming out tonight. By Stefan's stunned expression he certainly hadn't seen that one coming. Well, it wasn't every day your girlfriend turned up trying to poison the truth out of you. Katherine made a show of pouring herself yet another glass of the tainted alcohol, before making her way to the couch. She shouldn't look quite so comfortable, Damon thought.

"Why did you do this, Damon?" Stefan asked him. "What are you trying to prove?"

"It was Elena's idea," Damon told him, not wanting to take all the credit.

"I didn't want to go through with it," Elena snapped at him. "I wanted to take the bottle home."

"This is you just trying to cause trouble between us," Stefan said, sounding more disappointed than angry. He reminded Damon of their father when he spoke to him like that.

"Yes, it's what I live and breathe for."

"Damon, I thought that after everything that had happened with Klaus, and everything that we've been through..."

"That everything was just peachy?"

"He's still upset that both of us chose you," Katherine said to Stefan, sauntering over to where the three of them were standing.

Elena physically flinched at the statement, but Damon looked completely unperturbed by the comment. In fact, Elena thought that Damon was unnaturally calm at the moment. Normally she found it quite easy to feel what was just underneath the vampire's surface, but right now he gave away nothing. She didn't like not being able to read him.

"How does this stuff work exactly?" he asked her, making her aware of the fact that she had been staring at him.

The three vampires waited for her to answer.

"Bonnie said it's a simple truth potion. It forces you to give a truthful answer to any question asked. If the question is vague, the answer may also be vague or blurred. If you ask a direct question, you'll be more likely to get a direct answer."

"Is that it?" Stefan asked her.

She shook her head. "It also brings buried feelings to the surface."

"I didn't know about that part," Damon told Stefan.

"Care to elaborate on that?" Stefan asked her.

"Any thoughts and feelings that are being suppressed become stronger and are more easily able to be felt."

"Goody," said Katherine.

"Why did you bring this here, Elena?" Stefan asked her.

"I wanted to know if you still have feelings for Katherine."

"Finally, the truth comes out," Damon said.

Both of them glared at him.

"You can thank me later," he told them.

"Damon…" Stefan started.

"You're welcome; both of you. So I was thinking we should make this a game of twenty questions. Five questions each, and we take turns. Who's in?" Damon asked.

"I'm in," Katherine said.

"Thought you might be," Damon returned.

"Who could resist the chance to watch this disaster unfold?"

Damon watched Stefan and Elena wrestle with what they were both feeling. Neither of them had a choice about participating, but he let them work that out on their own.

"Who goes first?" Stefan asked, finally resigning himself to playing the game.

"Youngest to oldest," Damon said, hoping to remove the 'deer stuck in headlights' expression from Elena's face. He moved from her side now, no longer able to tolerate the waves of anxiety she was exuding because she was about to find out if his brother loved someone else.

"That means you go first, Elena," Katherine said.

"I know what it means," Elena snapped.

"She's like a little ray of sunshine tonight isn't she?"

"Pour me a drink," Elena said to Damon. "Please," she added, when he merely looked at her.

Elena walked over to collect the glass from him. "Thank you," she added, feeling the need to be polite to him tonight.

She walked up to Stefan who was sitting on the couch slightly away from Katherine. She sculled the alcohol Damon had poured for her, before looking Stefan in the eye. "Do you still love Katherine?" she asked him.

Stefan closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. "Yes," Stefan told her quietly.

"Is that why you brought the potion, Elena?" Katherine asked, amused. "Because I could have saved you and Bonnie the trouble."

"Is that your first question?" Damon asked Katherine, appearing beside Elena, who looked like she was about to collapse. If she happened to fall he might as well be there to catch her one last time.

"Sure, it's not like I need my five questions anyway."

"Then phrase your question correctly, Katherine."

Katherine gave Damon a look of mild annoyance before turning back to Elena.

"Elena, did you bring the truth potion to find out if Stefan still loves me?"

"Yes, but…"

Katherine turned to Stefan. "She doesn't trust you."

"With good reason," Elena said to Stefan, finally finding her voice. "Whenever I've asked you that question in the past, you've always said no; that your love for her is in the past."

"I thought it was for a long time. Lately…feelings aren't black and white, Elena. The feelings I have for Katherine, they're…"

"They're complicated," Damon finished for him.

"You've caused enough trouble tonight, Damon." Stefan stood up and put his hands on Elena's arms, stroking them softly. "I love you, you know that."

"But you also love her," Elena said, hearing her voice waver slightly.

"Don't you also love Damon?"

"Yes," Elena said, feeling the answer roll off her tongue before she could stop it. Damon was still standing beside her, and for a moment she felt him tense; felt the familiar tension underneath the surface that she was used to experiencing when she was around him. "But not the way I love you," she finished telling Stefan.

She hated feeling torn between them, but she'd told the truth. She loved Damon differently to Stefan; she loved Damon in ways that made no sense to her. Suppressing those feelings had been her safeguard against becoming like Katherine. A dull ache began to drum in her chest as she tried not to think about how often she'd hurt him for the sake of not being Katherine.

"See," Stefan said to her. "It's easy to love two people."

His eyes pleaded with her to understand, but Elena didn't understand at all. Were Stefan's feelings for her mixed up with his feelings for her vampire double? Katherine had hurt and threatened Elena and her family, yet Stefan still loved her. His love for Katherine raised so many questions about their relationship that Elena couldn't decide which one to ask first.

"It's your turn, Damon" Katherine prompted, in a bored voice. "Is this where we get to witness you have a break down while you ask Elena why she won't ever love you the way she loves Stefan?"

"No," Damon said, the urge to answer the question as strong as his urge to strangle the vampire he had once loved. "Consider that your second question."

"You're the one imposing a five rule limit. Why do you get to make the rules tonight?" she asked curiously.

"Because it's my last night here in Mystic Falls," he explained as if she was five years old, instead of five hundred, "and this is my going away party. That's your third question."

"You're leaving?" Stefan asked him.

"Yes," Damon answered.

He took in the three shocked faces around him. He didn't know why any of them would be so surprised.

"Elena is safe; Klaus is dead," he explained, and there was nothing here for him but the constant pain of watching Elena love his brother.

"You never said anything," Stefan said to him.

"I didn't realize I'm obligated to tell you everything," Damon told him. "You should be happy I'm leaving you in peace."

"When did you decide you were leaving?" Elena demanded of him.

"Tonight."

She'd done this, Elena thought. He was leaving because of this, or because of her, or because of both. She'd finally pushed him over the edge. She couldn't cope with this; not tonight. Finding out that Stefan still loved Katherine was one thing, but to hear Damon was leaving tomorrow was too much to process right now. She needed Damon; she needed him here to help her get through whatever was happening between her and Stefan. When her world was spinning normally, Damon made it feel off kilter, but when her world was off kilter, Damon made it feel normal. She needed him here for things to feel right, and even as she acknowledged that she was selfish for wanting it that way, it didn't change how she felt.

"That's how easy it is, Elena," Katherine said to her.

"How easy what is?"

"That's how easy it is to decide you want to keep them both."

"I don't…I would never…"

"Ask Damon to stay. That's funny; I thought you were about to."

"It wouldn't matter if she did," Damon told both of them, putting his glass down.

Elena didn't even have time to blink at the coldness in his voice as she watched Damon stand right in front of Katherine. He leaned over her, so that they were eye level.

"It's my turn to ask a question."

"Let me guess," Katherine said, rolling her eyes, "you want to know why I didn't pick you; why I didn't love you."

Damon felt anger, resentment and the bitter sting of rejection swirling through him as the potion worked its magic on him. He didn't want his life to be about just these things anymore. He didn't want his life to be about just these women anymore. And so it was time to say goodbye to both of them, but before he did, he needed closure from the woman who had started all of this.

"Why wasn't it me?" he asked Katherine. "Why is it never me?"