A/N: Just a little more to go, folks. Hope you're still with it.
I.
Elena got up the next morning quietly and went back to her room. She got dressed, gathered her phone, and went out to the beach. The day was a grey one, overcast and prone to rain. The sun of yesterday was gone. She looked at the spot down the beach where so much changed for her. The tide had come in and either it or Damon had cleaned up whatever evidence of last night's struggle might have remained. Only the piece of driftwood remained, its jagged outline stabbing upward into the morning sky.
She pulled her phone from her pocket, sighed, and looked at the message count. 10 new messages, all from Bonnie.
And here we go….
The phone didn't even ring.
"And just who the hell have you been doing?"
II.
Damon was awake before she left his room. Damon was awake before she finished leaving his bed. He'd fought the urge to grab her, roll her under him, and begin again what had been so wonderful the night before.
No. If she's leaving me quietly in the cold, still light of morning, then I need to let her go.
He watched the woman he loved more than anything gather her clothing from the various places it had been thrown, reflected on the process that had resulted in it getting thrown there, and smiled to himself.
At least for now. She gets to go…for now. But she'll be coming back to me. Whether she knows it yet or not. Because be straight up damned if I'm going to have her once and let her go.
III.
"So what? You're telling me you had some kind of Spring Break moment down there with Damon? You did one too many shots of something and he got lucky? You have to be telling me that this is what happened, Elena, because you and I both know what Damon is…"
Elena grimaced. She could have predicted Bonnie's reaction right down to the last words.
"No, Bonnie. What is he? The guy who kept me from getting killed by Elijah? Or the guy who kept me from getting killed by that no-name sleezeball vamp who bit me last night? Or, oh, I know, the guy who loves me and not my cheating-ass ex-boyfriend vamp who screws at the drop of a hat?"
"Yeah, I know he has done some things that seem good, and he's come through in the pinch several times but that doesn't balance out things like… Wait, what now? He loves you…"
Elena had not meant to share that secret. She never had. She'd kept it even from Bonnie both because it was precious to her and because she knew that if Damon ever heard it from anyone and realized that he had not been able to make her forget it, most especially Bonnie, he would probably come completely unglued….
"Just forget I said that, okay?"
"No. I don't think so. What, he's writing you poetry and giving you roses? He's the ultimate schemer. He'd probably have said anything to have gotten you in the sack. You know how he is…"
"Really. Really. This is not that kind of thing."
"Aaand I don't have to tell you that words said in duress or orgasm are not legally binding contracts…"
"Bonnie," Elena hissed, "Let. This. Go."
"I. Can't. You call me up telling me you're sleeping with my own personal version of the anti-Christ, and I'm supposed to turn cartwheels. Well, honey, unless you make with some evidence to the contrary, I'm going to feel free to hold my own personal opinion."
Elena could just see the slender witch standing in her own living room, arms crossed, stubborn and judgmental expression firmly in place.
"Okay. Fine. Do you remember that time when I got kidnapped…."
IV.
She wasn't in her room. He peered around the door curiously, and then stopped to ponder.
Hmm…. Now. She could be avoiding me. Or….
The curtain on the French doors was pulled back slightly. Her jacket was gone.
Really? Again?
He sighed and headed out to the beach. It was when he opened the door that he heard her voice, bell clear. He couldn't hear the other half of the conversation until he got a little closer.
V.
"So he told you he loves you but he thinks you don't remember."
"Right."
"And you two, so far, have made out in his car…"
"Um…yeah…"
"Had that really icky moment with the blood on the beach…What the hell are you thinking by the way?"
"It wasn't exactly on purpose you know. And you weren't there. I wouldn't use the word "ick." And that it shows how much he cares or he would have just …well…you know…"
"Oh yeah. I do know…."
"Anyway…"
"And then last night, you two…."
"We've already been all through that…."
"Yeah, and I'll probably be sick for days. So from all this your grand conclusion about him is what?"
Elena was quiet a moment. She was drawing idle patterns in the damp sand with her index finger.
"Come on, Elena. Don't keep us all in suspense here."
The voice from behind her was laced with sardonic amusement, and it made her freeze.
Bonnie's voice came through the phone into her ear. "The spirits are telling me you're going to have to go…"
"Amazing how perceptive you're getting with that. Think so. Yeah."
"Tell him if he hurts you, WHAM."
Damon reached down and slipped the phone from her nerveless fingers, lifted it to his ear.
"Bye-bye, Bonnie. No. I'll take very good care of Elena. No worries. Uh-huh. You know what good….taste…I have in these things…." He laughed with deliberate malice and hung up the phone, handed it back to Elena, sat down on the sand with her.
Elena was eyeing him oddly.
"What? Oh. That. Yeah. Well, she's terribly easy to wind up, and I can't be good all the time. I mean, come on…" He grinned wickedly, reached for her hand. He pulled it to his lips, kissed it gently, chastely. Then he turned it over and nuzzled the pulsepoint there while watching her reaction. "Well, mostly that's what I meant, anyway. Why? Are you worried, my dear, maybe a little bit…afraid?"
"Of you? Please."
His hand tightened on hers. "That's not what I hear."
"How long were you back there?"
"Long enough."
"Ah. Guess we're about to have our first fight?"
"Bingo, precious. Guess Bonnie isn't the only one with preternatural perception this morning…."
VI.
"How long, Elena? How long would you have let me go on without telling me that you knew? Especially after last night?"
He'd released her hand and was standing, staring down at her with hurt and anger in his eyes, something scared and something betrayed there.
It was more than she could stand.
"What? You're pissed at me for this? When you told me you loved me and you took it back by trying to erase my memory? You do NOT get to be righteous about this." She stabbed her finger into his chest for emphasis.
"It was for your own good, damn it. Did you want to go around knowing how I felt? I thought I was doing you a favor. I had to say it, but you didn't have to live with it. That was all. I didn't want it to twist you up like it was doing to me." His expression changed, grew bitter. "But maybe I have the wrong idea about that. Maybe that's the part you enjoyed after all. Maybe you got a kick out of watching me burn."
"I'm sorry. Did you hit your head last night when you were fighting that vamp? Because you're making no fucking sense this morning…."
"No. Maybe I am at last. Oh, maybe all is finally revealed! You've been pulling me in and pushing me away for so long now, and it never made any sense, but now I get it…. You've known all along, and you just like to watch me twist. Kiss me in the car, pretend it was a dream, make me feel all guilty for wanting you, then suck me back in again, make me the one who's hurting. Damn, you're good. I'll go so far as to say you might even be better than Katherine…"
She slapped him hard enough to turn his head, and her other hand was coming right behind. He took the first one, but he caught her other hand and stopped it stone still. She struggled against him, tears running uselessly down her cheeks. He snarled, pulled her close.
In her pocket, her phone began ringing, ringing….
"Let me go, Damon," she said, her voice low, controlled. "Just…just…let me go."
Deliberately, he opened his hands, releasing her, and she spun away from him, walked away down the beach. He watched her walk back up the stairs to the hotel's terrace and disappear. She did not look back.