A/N: Well, this took a long time to update. Just gonna get right into it. I own nada. Leave me love. Xoxo

I Remember You

Chapter Three: I'd Come for You

Damon POV

Damon didn't know just how long he had been running. He was all set to keep running from Mystic Falls and never return, and he was doing well. That is until someone mentioned that there were whispers about a scheme to finally obtain the doppelganger and end the whole Vampire VS Werewolf war once and for all. Yes, Damon was all set to never step foot near Mystic Falls ever again, he had made that promise to Elena two years ago; but when he heard from a very reliable source in New Orleans that the youngest Gilbert was going to be taken and used as leverage to kidnap Elena, he changed his mind. It took Damon five days, three cities and endless amounts of Vervain, but he finally figured out where, and more importantly who, had Jeremy Gilbert.

Without even hesitating, Damon was on his way back to Mystic Falls, the town he had just recently vowed he would never return to. It didn't matter that he saw Elena with Tyler, or that he knew how great the chance was of Elena, or Ric -assuming he was still protecting Elena- slamming the door in his face never occurred to him. All he could think of was the guilt and hurt that Elena would feel if her brother ended up getting hurt for her, and in Elena's book, because of her. No matter what he may have said to anybody, or what he may have written to Elena; he would always care about her and do whatever he could to protect her and her family.

About fifty miles away from Mystic Falls, Damon was starting to rethink his decision. Surely by this point, Elena knew that something was wrong and had already called upon her resident Bennett witch to locate her brother. By Damon's calculations, it had been over a week that Jeremy Gilbert had been missing and obviously Elena would know that something was wrong. She had, no doubt, rounded up Bonnie, Caroline, Matt and Tyler to start a search party for her brother. Another thing was bothering him though about this whole situation, and it's what disturbed him the most about the whole incident and made him want to just go save Jeremy himself. The whole act had Klaus and Stefan written all over it. He had been following his brother's movements off and on since he left those few years ago and thinking back on where people had said Stefan had been spotted; it seemed that his ripper brother was moving closer and closer to the area in which Jeremy was now being hidden. Damon had been doing the vampire version of pacing for the last hour; he was running back and forth between Mystic Falls and a town about 100 miles away. He had to keep reminding himself that he had promised to stay away for a reason. He needed to stay away to keep Elena safe from his kind. But, he thought to himself, wasn't it even more dangerous to stay away from her? What is protecting her from Klaus and Stefan right now? It was that thought that convinced him he needed to turn around and go back to the past he vowed to leave behind. Before he could start running however, his phone rang with a name he had ignored countless times before. "Hello, Elena." He tried to sound brusque, but that never worked when he was talking to her. He always ended up sounding more like a kitten trying to roar like a lion.

"Damon, you answered," Elena breathed over the phone, and Damon could hear the relief in her voice and it almost surprised him that after all this time he could still read her without seeing her, "I need your help. Please, Damon? I didn't know who else to go to. Jeremy and Ric are gone. Something bad happened to them. Bonnie found them, but she won't do anything else. I know you left me, but please? It's my brother and Ric. They're the last family I have left. I need help. I don't know what to do." She started sobbing over the phone, and Damon felt his heart break. If he hadn't already decided to make the trip back to Mystic Falls, this phone call would have settled it for him.

"Elena, don't cry. I'm coming. I'm already on my way. I'll do whatever I can to help," he spoke gently to her; like he was talking to a scared child, and truthfully, he was. When you compare his decades to her twenty-odd years, she was still a child.

"Thank you. Just, please hurry. I have a bad feeling about this, and I'm scared." Before he could say anything else, Elena had hung up the phone. Damon shoved his phone in his pocket and sighed heavily as he took stock of the situation. Not only was Jeremy missing, but Ric was missing too. The question was; were they taken by the same person, or by different people? All the possible scenarios that were running through Damon's head were just making him more nervous for the fate that would be awaiting his former best friend and ex-girlfriends brother.

…***…***…

Mystic Falls, VA

Elena POV

I can't believe I called him, was the only thought running through Elena's head as she roughly tugged at her hair. Yes, but it was necessary, the other, more rational side of her brain thought. No, it really wasn't. We have Tyler, he have Bonnie. I have all the training from Ric. We could've found Jer and Ric and removed them from the situation perfectly fine. Damon did not need to be called to come save the day. We do not need him to come save the day any more. We are capable of saving ourselves and those around us. Elena was pacing upstairs in Tyler's room rethinking her decision to call Damon. She was shocked he had even answered the phone. For two years, he had ignored any contact she tried to establish with him. For two years, when she was hurting, he would return every letter she wrote him. Now, he decides to rush to the rescue? She was so conflicted; Elena didn't know whether to be happy or pissed off. Should she be grateful that Damon actually cared just enough about Ric and her brother that he was already on his way to help, or should she feel resentment that it took something as awful as this to bring him back into her life. Then, there was the guilt she felt for calling him in the first place when she had made Tyler promise to not let Damon back into her life, no matter what. Her biggest fear was that once this situation was taken care of Damon would run off again and Elena would be left to pick up the pieces of her once again shattered heart. How many times could her heart break? How much more could she take? At this point, she really didn't know. She was so engrossed in her thoughts and inner dilemma that she didn't even notice when Tyler's door slowly opened and she was engulfed by strong arms on both sides.

"I know that was hard for you 'Lena. I promise, we won't let him hurt you again. He'll have minimal contact with you," Tyler murmured into Elena's hair while rubbing her arm soothingly.

"Just say the word and I'll have Tyler bite him and Caroline stake him," Matt said against her back, gently kissing the back of her head after.

Elena sniffled slightly at the amount of love and support she had coming from two of the most important guys in her life. "Thanks guys. You're the best, do you know that," she asked quietly before getting angry with herself. "Why do I have to be so damn weak though? I never wanted to have to see him again. I should have been able to fix this on my own. I don't want to need him. He's going to waltz back in like nothing has happened and save the day. He'll expect me to just fall back in love with him like these past years haven't happened. Ugh, it makes me so mad. I didn't want to ever need him again!" She pushed both Matt and Tyler away and ran out of the room and down the steps, just needing to get out of the house for a little bit to clear her head.

Wrenching the door open, Elena was not prepared for what, or rather who, stood on the other side of the door. It was a face she hadn't seen in almost four years. "Stefan, what are you doing here? Damon's not here anymore. He left two years ago." She crossed her arms over her chest and coldly acknowledged her ex.

"Oh, I know that Elena. I've been keeping tabs on him, and you. I'm here to talk to you. I know where Jeremy is, and if you want to save him, you need to come with me, now," Stefan growled at her, and when Elena hesitated a moment, he roughly grabbed her arm and started dragging her out of the house and down the Lockwood's lengthy driveway.

Stumbling the whole way behind Stefan, Elena tried in vain to pull her arm from his grip. Unfortunately for her, Ripper Stefan was even stronger than Stefan when he was drinking animal blood. "Stefan, why? Why are you doing this? Please, just let me go," Elena sobbed, pleading with him to drop her arm. He was pulling her along so roughly she just knew that there would be bruises tomorrow, if I live that long, she thought to herself. Just when she thought she was about to black out from the lack of blood flowing in her arm, and the immense pain she was in, she heard a voice she never thought she would hear in person again.

"Stefan, let her go. Now." Damon ran up to them with super human speed and it shocked Stefan just enough that he dropped not only Elena, but also his guard and in one swift move, Damon had grabbed Elena and snapped his brother's neck.

"Damon," Elena said breathlessly before passing out in a pair of arms she had only dreamed of being in once again.

A/N: This chapter was a bitch to get out. Literally, it did NOT want to be written. I had SUCH a bad case of writers block, and it finally lifted. If anyone is still reading this, please, let me know what you think.