Author's Note: Hey everybody, I know I said this chapter would be up quickly but I finished writing it and it went all sucky, so I had to re-write it, and I'm still not happy, but here it is. If I keep going over it I'll never post it. So sorry if it's worse than the other chapters, but hopefully I'll do better next time! Oh, and this is an extra-long chapter, I know, but I couldn't really bring myself to break off in the middle of it.

There was reply, and again no indication that she had heard him.

Damon sensed Meredith and Bonnie's eyes on him, and looked up. What are they expecting, that she'll snap out of whatever's wrong with her just because I'm here? He frowned. If he was going to help Elena, he needed to do it alone.

He stood. "Leave us," he said quietly.

Bonnie started towards him, and then stopped. "But what if she—"

"I'll call you."

Bonnie still looked worried. "Matt said he didn't want us to leave you alone with her," she confessed.

Damon's temper was fraying badly. "What does he think I'm going to do? You asked me to come and help. That's what I'm doing. Helping." Bonnie opened her mouth again, but Damon interrupted her. "Helping Elena," he clarified sharply.

Bonnie still looked anxious, but she nodded and left the room. Meredith looked at Damon for a moment longer, and then turned and followed the red-head.

Damon closed the door behind them, and listened intently. Their voices faded as they walked down the hall and away from the room. Satisfied, he returned to the sofa.

Elena still stared straight ahead, her eyes unseeing and blank.

Damon knelt in front of her again and fixed his eyes on hers, their faces inches apart.

"You listen to me," he said suddenly. "I don't take kindly to being followed for two weeks solid by a girl who, quite frankly, I should have drained by now. I also do not take kindly to being dragged away from a pretty nice town where I had everything perfectly worked out to come and solve somebody else's problems. It grates on my nerves." He paused, watching her. "So you'd better make this worth my while. You hear me? If I've come all this way to watch you staring straight through me like I'm not even here, then I may have to drain the girl after all, as well as the rest of your friends. Call it payment." His face was deadly serious, and he was concentrating on what he was saying so much that he almost didn't see Elena's head turn slowly towards him.

Her eyes, although still empty, showed at least a little recognition, as she said shakily, "Damon?"
If his heart was beating, it would have stopped at that precise moment.

"Elena?" he said, a little hesitantly.

Then life flooded back into her eyes, and Damon could suddenly see understanding and sadness reflected in them. Gradually, they began to fill with tears, and the tremor in her hands gave way to full shaking.

Softly, she whispered, "Kill me."

Shocked for the second time that night, and too many times in the past two nights, Damon took a moment before he could answer.

"What?" he asked, appalled.

"Kill me." She suddenly threw herself off the sofa and landed on the floor beside him, grabbing his arms desperately. "Please, please, kill me…" She was clawing at him and at herself, pulling at her clothes and scratching her skin.

"Elena…" He stared at her. She was sobbing hysterically now, holding her head in her hands and rocking backwards and forwards. Seeing her like that made him recover and he said sharply, "Elena! Stop it!"

She didn't hear him, and continued to dig her nails into her arms and make huge scratches over and over. Damon reached out to take her by the arms, and she tried to push him away. Brushing them away as though they were feathers, he got a tight grip on her, and she struggled against him.

"Elena! Stop that now and listen!"

She screamed.

"You little fool! They'll think I'm trying to hurt you!" His eyes flashing, his ears strained to hear any sounds of the others coming, but he heard nothing, so turned his attention back to Elena.

"Elena, stop this now."

She looked at him, her breath short and fast. "Why won't you kill me?" she asked him bitterly, the tears still running down her face.

He stared at her. "Is that what you want?" he demanded.

"Yes," she pleaded, sobbing.

"Is it? Is that really what you want, Elena?"

She looked at him a moment, her eyes clouded with tears. "It's better than this," she said painfully.

"Then you're even more selfish than I thought." His voice was cold.

Elena looked shocked. "What?" she whispered.

"You heard me. You're selfish, Elena. Don't you think your friends might have something to say about your little idea? Don't you think that Stefan's death might have affected them too? How would they feel if their best friend died as well? Could you leave them behind to cope with that?" He was firing the questions at her intensely.

She shook her head, dazed. "I don't care… I just… I can't feel like this anymore, Damon. It hurts... it hurts more than you can ever know." The tears spilled over and streamed down her face.

Damon regarded her silently. When he spoke, it was quietly, but not without the bitterness that had been in his voice before.

"I do know, Elena. Don't you remember? Or have you forgotten Katherine already?"

Elena stared at the floor and didn't answer him.

"Pain is what life is about. Without pain, we'd be nothing. We'd be empty, unfeeling and cold. It's hard, but you have to live through it. It's the only way to heal it." He searched her face, looking for recognition. God, now I'm giving speeches about life? How can I talk? I'm dead, he thought wryly to himself. But he waited for Elena to speak.

Slowly, she raised her head. "Will you help me?" she asked very softly.

He sighed. "Isn't that why Meredith brought me here?"

She closed her eyes briefly. "I can't talk to them. Not yet. It's too soon. Will you… will you tell them that I'm better?" She raised her eyes to his. "I mean…" she trailed off.

He nodded slowly. "I know what you mean. And yes—I'll tell them. And I'll keep them out of your hair until you need them."

"Don't be too hard on them, Damon. They only want to help. I know that, I just—it's too much right now."

Damon nodded once more. "Wait here." He stood, but Elena grabbed his arm fearfully.

"Where are you going?" Her voice was panicky.

He looked down at her. "Outside, to tell your friends."

Her breathing became faster again. "Don't leave me here, please, Damon, don't leave. I don't want to be on my own anymore."

"I'm not going anywhere," he assured her. "I'll tell your friends and come back in here, I promise."

She hesitated, and then released his arm, sinking back to the floor.

Damon sighed once more, and walked to the door. Suddenly, his concentration returned to him, his ears picked up the sound of breathing coming from the other side of the door. Smiling to himself, he turned the handle with all the quietness he had mastered after years of being a vampire, and pushed the door open quickly.

There was a yelp from the other side, and as the door swung open, it revealed a dishevelled Bonnie on the floor, rubbing her arms. Matt and Meredith were stood a little further behind her. Bonnie glared at him.
"That hurt!"

"Then you shouldn't eavesdrop," Damon replied pleasantly.

Bonnie frowned. "I just wanted to know if Elena was okay."

"She's better."

Bonnie's face brightened. "Really?" She pulled herself up and started towards the door. "I'll go in and see her. I bet she'd love a nice—"

"Bonnie." Damon stood in her way. "I said she was better. I didn't say she's completely herself again."

Bonnie looked worried. "But she's speaking again? She's not just staring into space anymore?"

Damon made himself count to three before he answered. The energetic, anxious redhead frustrated him sometimes. "Yes, she's speaking. But she needs time and space. She specifically told me that she didn't feel ready to talk to any of you at the moment."

Matt moved forward, an angry expression on his face. "But I bet she's ready to talk to you, isn't she, Damon?"

"Matt," Meredith said warily. But he didn't listen, walking up to Damon.

"Just what exactly happened in there?"

Damon's temper was reaching boiling point. "Precisely what I told you. I talked to her, she talked to me, and she said that she doesn't want to talk to you yet. Nothing more."

Matt moved closer, speaking in aggressive tones. "Listen, I've just about had enough of this. Just because you're a vampire, and you could probably beat the hell out of me in a fight, you don't scare me. Either you let me in there right now to see Elena, or I'll—" He broke off suddenly, staring behind Damon.

Damon turned around to see Elena standing shakily behind him.

Meredith shot a warning glance at Matt, sending him mental messages to shut the hell up, but she needn't have bothered. Matt was not saying another word. Bonnie, too, was staring in wonder. Finally, though, she spoke.

"Elena…you're back," she said softly.

Elena looked around the room, her face unsure and afraid. She spoke quietly, her voice broken.

"I'm sorry. Please try and understand." She looked to Damon for guidance, but he was watching silently. Looking back at her friends, she continued. "I just—I can't deal with this at the moment." Her eyes darting around her fearfully, she turned and ran back into the lounge, slamming the door.

Damon turned angrily back to the others. "Satisfied now?" The venom in his voice was mainly directed at Matt, who was staring at the shut door in silence.

Meredith drew in a breath. "I think we all need to go and calm down somewhere. Separately." Before Bonnie could say anything, Meredith added, "Away from Elena."

Matt's eyes shifted to Damon. "Apart from him. He'll go back in, won't you?"

Damon was using supernatural efforts to stop himself from hitting the boy, for Elena's sake alone, but he was almost being pushed to his limit. With one stride, he covered the distance between them and looked Matt in the eyes.

"Earlier, you said you should be grateful that I'm here if I help Elena. Well I've done that. And you don't seem very grateful." He narrowed his eyes. "I'd correct that, if I were you."

Matt swallowed. "I told you, you don't scare me."

"Then why are you trembling like a leaf?"

"Because I'm angry! I'm angry at the way you think you can just walk in here and take over everything!" Matt was breathing heavily. "Well you can't! Elena is our friend, not yours. She hated you! You were always trying to split her and Stefan up and take her away from us. He was your own brother and you don't even care that he's dead! Why would Elena want anything to do with someone as messed up as you?"

Damon didn't stop to think about how to resolve the situation and calm the boy down. He simply punched him.

It was good, strong punch, and it caught Matt on the side of his face, throwing him back against the wall. Bonnie squealed, and hurried over to him to see whether he was hurt. Matt was pulling himself up slowly, anger and humiliation on his face, but Damon merely turned round and walked silently back into the lounge, to Elena.

Meredith watched him go and sighed. "Well, that went well."