A/N: This chapter's a little shorter than the previous one, but it's just more of a filler before the good stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to get another chapter up before the end of the weekend, possibly another one sometime next week to help hold everyone over for that damn week-long hiatus VD decided to have. Enjoy and don't forget to leave me some feedback when you're done. I really appreciate it.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of The Vampire Diaries or the show itself. This is just fiction purely for fan entertainment. I do however own the ideas and most of the plotlines of the story. Please don't take them.

Chapter Four: Guilt

Elena lay on her bed, body clad in pyjama shorts and a tank top, clutching her teddy bear to her chest. It had been two weeks since her "date" with Damon. No, she thought to herself, it wasn't a date. She'd been spending a lot of time with Damon lately. To tell you the truth, she'd been spending more time with Damon than with Stefan. But that wasn't her fault. Stefan had been the one who was MIA. She'd tried calling him and going over to see him but he never answered his phone or was never there when she visited. It was always Damon. Damon answered the phone to blow her off for Stefan. He always answered the door when she knocked, insisting that they go hang out or something. She was beginning to get suspicious.

Suspicious of what? She didn't really know. She just knew that she needed to stop spending so much time with Damon. She didn't think her head could take it anymore.

He'd suddenly gotten so...clingy? It was as if he couldn't leave her alone; as if he needed to supervise her if she couldn't be with Stefan, as if he had to keep her occupied while Stefan was gone. The worst part was that she liked it. You know that heart-pounding, butterflies flying, head-spinning feeling? Yeah, he gave her that every time he was with her. It was driving her insane. She loved Stefan. She knew she did. At least, she thought she knew she did. It was all so damn confusing. But here she was again, lying in bed thinking of how Damon made her feel instead of dreaming happy dreams of her lovely life with Stefan.

She felt a gust of cold wind fill her bedroom and she turned toward the window, curtains blowing in the cool night breeze. She shivered and groaned, getting up to slam the damn window closed. She turned back around and almost let out a scream.

"DAMON!" she scolded in a harsh whisper. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I was bored, and Stefan and Ka–" he stopped himself, feigning a cough, "and Stefan wasn't home, so I decided to come over and bug you."

"Well, that's great Damon, but I'm really tired and I'm gonna go to sleep...so, it would be nice if you'd kindly let yourself out."

He sighed. "Fine, I guess I'll just ask you tomorrow then." He stood from her desk chair and walked back towards the window he'd entered from.

"What?" she asked puzzled. "You wanted to ask me something?"

He nodded slightly. "It's not important, though. It can wait."

She sat down on her bed in her previous location, "No, no! Ask me now," she insisted.

"Well, somebody's eager," he smiled before sitting on the edge of her bed.

They shared a moment of silence, Elena anxiously awaiting his question and Damon struggling to find out how to ask it without it being weird.

"Just...spit it out, Damon," Elena insisted again.

"Why do you like Stefan?" he asked, his eyes searching hers.

"What?" she asked, finding the question strange and oddly off topic even though a topic had not yet been established.

"Just what I asked: why do you like Stefan? I mean, what is it about him that you like?"

"Damon, I..." she paused, "Why would you want to know that?"

He shrugged. "I'm just wondering. Just, tell me the first thing that comes to mind."

She smiled, looking to her legs crossed beneath her, "His honesty...loyalty. I could trust him with my life, and he always tells me everything. He's so open even though he has every reason not to be."

Damon's cringing had begun when she had first started her reply. "That's what I thought," he murmured to himself.

"Is that the answer you figured? Or were...looking for?" She asked, her eyes meeting his again.

"So, if he had something he was hiding, you'd want to know right?" he concluded with a sigh.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "Damon," she started, sternly, "Is there something I should know?"

He looked at her confused face, her anxious eyes. He couldn't tell her. Not yet. Not now. "No..." he lied, "nothing important. I think I'm just gonna go now. I'll see you tomorrow or something." He stood and walked to the window, reaching to push it open.

"Okay..." she murmured.

"Goodnight, Elena," he almost whispered as he flew out the window, closing it behind him just as quickly as he went.

Now that was odd. Elena sighed to herself, reaching to turn off her bedside lamp and rolling to her side. She closed her eyes and fell right to sleep.

"So..." Stefan spoke into the silence. "I think I'm going to tell Elena...about us."

Katherine's eyes shot towards him as she raised herself up to rest on her elbows. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah...I think she should know. Shouldn't she?"

"Well," Katherine laughed. "She's not going to like it...so you'll have to deal with that..."

He furrowed his eyebrows, sitting up from his earlier lying down position in the bed. "I mean...it's not like I'm telling her just so I'll stop feeling all this guilt...which I do feel by the way." He reached under the covers for her hand. "I know that this is what I want...and I know you're in it for real this time right?"

"Of course," she insisted, returning to lie down on her side, facing away from him. A smirk appeared on her face that Stefan was unable to see as he snuggled up behind her.