Title: Love's Fool

Summary: Elena made her choice and Damon kept up his end of the deal. He left Mystic Falls more than a year ago and he hasn't looked back since. Now the Original stake has gone missing and suddenly they need him again. But Damon has no intention of playing their whipping boy anymore and this time he has a powerful ally on his side.

Spoilers: Everything through the S3 finale.

Pairings: Delena is the plan but you never know. I'm not the biggest Elena fan at the moment.

Disclaimer: If I owned Vampire Diaries there would be a lot less of Damon getting left to die heartbroken and alone. As it is, I can only hope to vent my frustration by punishing those characters responsible.

Note: Thanks for all your reviews guys! You really keep me going. I didn't get as far as I hoped with this chapter, but I did make some progress. The next chapter looks like it is going to be pretty intense. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Five

She came to slowly and everything hurt. She groaned and reached up to rub her throbbing neck. Then her last memories came flooding back to her and she groaned for an entirely different reason. Had she really attacked Stefan in front of everybody? Oh god, she winced in misery as flashes played out before her closed eyes.

"I'm sorry."

The sound of Stefan's voice so close by made Elena jerk. Suddenly it was as though her senses snapped back into focus. She could smell his familiar scent. She could hear the clock ticking on the bedside table. She could taste the slightly dusty air and smell faint traces of scented candle wax. She knew before she ever opened her eyes she was lying on Stefan's bed in his room. It had been longer than she cared to examine since she'd found herself there, but she still remembered.

When Elena moved to sit up she could hear the muffled sounds of lowered voices from what she assumed was the parlor. She bit back another groan and shook her head. "Apparently it isn't possible to die of embarrassment because I'm still here."

"I'm sorry," Stefan repeated himself as he reached forward to hand her a mug of warm blood as a peace offering. "I should have told you, Elena. I have no excuse." His face was drawn into a brooding expression so familiar, so very Stefan, that Elena didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

She took the mug instead and sipped the blood slowly. She settled into her routine and worked to control the monster. She let her mind process the new information as she drank. When the mug was empty she placed it safely on the bedside table before speaking. "I shouldn't have attacked you like a crazy person. I'm sorry about that."

Stefan shook his head. "I understand, Elena. I know you're still struggling with…"

"So help me god if you say the words newborn rage, Stefan, I will throw something at your head," Elena growled. "I'm clinically depressed, damn it. Deal with it."

Stefan lifted his hands in surrender. "Okay, I'm sorry."

"I know you don't get it, but it's real and I'm working on it," she told him as calmly as she could manage. Then she shook her head. "But that's just one issue on our list, Stefan. We have so many issues at the moment I don't even know where to start."

"Elena…"

"I could start with this stupid ass deal you and your brother apparently made behind my back, but then I might start breaking stuff again," Elena's eyes darkened as she glared at him. "So I'm going to let that one lie for a while."

Guilt shadowed Stefan's face and he looked down. "I should have told you..."

"Letting it lie!" Elena cut him off. She felt herself tense even thinking about it, but then winced in pain and reached for her neck again. "And what kind of mutant bumblebee stung me?"

Stefan made a face. "Damon stuck you with vervain dart, Elena."

Wow, so that was what a large dose of vervain felt like. Elena took her daily dose of vervain just like the rest of the group. She couldn't afford to be susceptible to compulsion with Originals still running around. She knew vervain stung. It felt like drinking acid, but she'd never gotten a real dose before. Frankly it sucked and her neck was still killing her. "Note to self: control temper." She ignored the muffled laughter she heard from the other room.

"Damon was out of line," Stefan said.

"So was I," Elena reminded him. "He got the job done. Isn't that why you called him back?"

The last year had given Elena plenty of time to look back and evaluate the way they all treated Damon. She was more than a little ashamed at what she'd found. Damon was right. They'd used him to be their bad guy. They'd counted on him to make the hard decisions, to get his hands dirty while they stood back in judgment and reaped the benefits of his actions. Elena couldn't change the past and she couldn't change her friends' opinions, but she was done throwing stones out of her glass house.

Stefan didn't like her defending his brother. Elena didn't care. She wasn't going to pretend to be outraged just to make him feel better. They'd spent too much time pretending. It was time to deal with their reality.

"Now, Stefan, how about you explain to me why you didn't think I needed some warning that your brother was back in town?" She reached over and picked back up the empty coffee mug. "And remember what I said about newborn rage."

Damon's lips curled in disgust as he listened to his baby brother and Elena argue in Stefan's room one floor up.

"They're probably going to be at it for a while," Caroline noted. Damon turned to find the bubbly blonde beside him. She tossed him a quick grin before reaching around him for an empty tumbler and helping herself to the vodka. "This fight's been coming for months."

Damon's eyebrows shot up. "I only got back today."

Caroline snorted. "This isn't about you. Stefan's denial has gotten completely out of hand." She took a drink and shrugged. "Hiding your deal was just the icing."

Damon turned and leaned back against the sidebar. He cocked his head to the side and met Blondie's eyes. "She's really depressed?"

Caroline tucked a blonde curl behind her ear and nodded. "You don't know the half of it. And we're not talking about mopey 'oh woe is me' depressed either. This is a whole different animal. From the information we've found, it's a chemical imbalance in the brain. In humans it's manageable, but Elena's a vampire and you know what our emotions are like. We're talking from numb calm to fits of homicidal rage from one second to the next."

"Fun," Damon mused, then something occurred to him and his eyes narrowed on Caroline. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you can handle it," Caroline said bluntly. "And you won't let Elena get away with her bullshit. She needs that. Stefan's completely incapable of handling her now."

Damon took a drink from the tumbler in his hand and shook his head. "They'll work it out. You know that. They always do."

"Always is a long time for a vampire."

Damon stared at the blonde in disbelief. "I didn't come back for this shit. I'm back to find the stake and then I'm leaving."

Caroline smirked. "You keep telling yourself that."

Stepping forward, Damon turned to face the wall and shook his head again. "No, she'll forgive him. They'll get past this."

"Stefan lives his whole life pretending to be human, Damon, and Elena can't," Caroline said. "I don't know how you get past that."

Damon turned his head and glared her. "What happened to your epic love t-shirt, Blondie?"

Caroline just returned his glare. "It drowned under Wickery Bridge."

Elena left Stefan in his room and headed for the parlor. They'd argued for a solid hour and had still barely scratched the surface. It was such a fucking mess. Stefan wasn't the only one to blame. Elena had been forced to admit her own role in pretending she was okay. She'd allowed Stefan to keep her up on that pedestal and now she had to own it. She'd let Stefan coddle her and protect her when she should have been standing on her own feet and accepting responsibility for her actions. It had been easier to just play along. Now look where it had gotten them, right back to secrets and lies.

They'd finally called it a night and agreed to dig deeper in private the next day. Neither one of them wanted to have unwitting witnesses to what was going to turn very ugly. They'd gotten so good at hiding things from each other and themselves that the truth had become a monster ready to devour them. A part of Elena knew when they really turned on the light there would be no going back and her stomach twisted at the thought. Some things you couldn't come back from.

The crowd in the parlor had thinned in the three hours since Elena had arrived. Caroline and Bonnie were talking on the couch while Damon and Jeremy played cards.

Elena's breath caught in her throat and her knees wobbled. He was really here. It was everything she could do not to dive across the room and latch herself onto him. She devoured him with her new vampire eyes instead. He was so fucking beautiful. Messy raven hair, pale flawless skin, those smirking lips, and my god, those unbelievable eyes, how was she supposed to face him? How was she supposed to act normal when all she wanted to do was bury her head against his chest and sob?

She wasn't supposed to feel this way, she had no right to, but as Elena had learned countless times since she transitioned, her heart didn't give a damn what she was supposed to do anymore. Her heart was done playing nice.

"Elena?" Caroline was off the couch and in front of her before she could blink. "Are you okay?"

Elena laughed in disbelief. She was so far from okay. Tears blurred her vision and Elena quickly blinked them away. She had to see him.

Bonnie moved more slowly to join them. "Did everything go okay with Stefan?"

As she watched, Elena saw Damon pause and tilt his head slightly in their direction. She silently begged him to look at her. Please, she just wanted him to look at her.

Caroline made a face. "How do things usually go with Stefan these days?"

Bonnie frowned at the blonde. "Caroline!"

But Caroline ignored her. "Elena?" She lifted her hands to Elena's cheeks and turned her face until their eyes met. "Are you okay?"

Elena opened her mouth but couldn't find the words. Her eyes filmed over with tears again. She felt herself begin to shake.

Caroline nodded as though Elena had spoken to her anyway. "Alright then, I'll give Jeremy a ride home." She turned toward the fire. "Come on, Jeremy. I have a paper to write for World Religions."

Jeremy looked at her. "I can wait on Elena."

"You're turning down a ride from a hot blonde?" Caroline lips were smiling but her eyes demanded he comply with her.

Jeremy paused and looked briefly at the space behind Damon's shoulder. Then he sighed and pushed himself to his feet. "Fine, I'm coming."

Caroline turned to their other best friend. "Bonnie, you can walk out with us."

Bonnie frowned and shook her head. "I can…"

Jeremy sighed and linked his arm through Bonnie's as he reached her. He started dragging her toward the door. "Give it up, Bon. I know you're a super witch but some things are out of your control."

Bonnie looked back over her shoulder at Elena as Jeremy and Caroline nudged her out the door. "Call me if you need to talk."

Once the front door closed, Elena pulled herself together and moved with shaky steps to sit down on the couch. Damon was staring at the fireplace. Blinking back more tears, Elena cleared her throat. "Can you look at me please?"

Damon snorted. "Don't particularly have the desire."

"Damon…" her voice choked on the name. She bit her lip and took a deep breath before trying to speak again. "Please?"

Elena could see him grit his teeth before he turned stiffly and met her eyes. She could feel that look all the way to her toes. She forced a shaky smile onto her lips. "Welcome home."

Reviews are greatly appreciated!