A/N: Hello all! New chapter up. Thanks to all who favorited/followed. Hope you enjoy! Sorry that it's really short and that I've been slow to update. Been going through some tough times but I'm healing. Much love.

Damon's POV

"Sam?" I hear her crying for me and rush down stairs. Coming around the corner I can see her crumpled behind the couch, clutching her side as blood runs down her neck.

"Sam? What happened?" I reach my hand around her neck and look into her eyes.

"Damon…everything…ah! Hurts…" Sam squirms beneath me in obvious pain. Her face is draining in color and the panic in my chest increases. The worst of my fears is coming true right before my eyes. I grab Sam and carry her to the basement. Carefully setting her down on the floor, I reach into the old white freezer and pull out a pint of blood. Human blood. Ripping off the top of the plastic I bend down putting the package to her mouth.

"Samantha, if you want to, if you choose to become a vampire, it's here. I'm here."

Sam's POV

I'm struggling the raise and lower my chest enough to pump air in and out. I never imagined death to be this way. So painful. So cold.

Damon's voice pulls me from the pain momentarily. I know what it is he's asking me, but I don't yet know what to choose. The pain clouds my mind and I'm too confused and scared to think clearly.

"If I do…If I change…If I don't want to stay like that…will you…change my mind…Damon…" Suddenly I feel tired. More tired than I've ever felt in my life. As the blackness takes me I hope my message was clear. If not, this will be the last time I'll see his eyes. His face. My hand feebly attempts to touch his face but I can't remember if it made it or not.

Damon's POV

I know what she was asking me, so I put the blood in her mouth and watch as she swallows the entire pint. While I wait for her to awaken, a long lost memory replays itself in my mind.

"Stefan…I need to ask you something…" While my brother had accepted his new way of life, I was struggling. I didn't think I could, or would want to, live the rest of my life as a monster. I knew it couldn't be a human, they wouldn't be strong enough. It had to be him.

"What's the matter, brother?"

"I need your help. I can't keep on this way. You must…you're the only one who can…" The words fall silent on my lips so I pull out the wooden stake from my coat pocket instead. I remember Katherine saying this is one way a vampire could be killed, so I had found a branch and forged a stake form it. Stefan's eyes fall flat on the sharp object.

"Brother…I can't. We can live like this forever! Together! We can live any kind of life we want!"

"No! We cannot! We cannot live any other life than that of a murderer! Please, I'm begging you, Stefan. End this suffering for me."

"I will not. You will see brother. This is the life for us." Without another word Stefan turns and leaves me alone by the river.

The emptiness inside of me fills up. I can't bear the thought of living as a killer. This isn't what I wanted. The easy silence of death is preferable to this. If Stefan won't do it, then I must do it myself.

Mustering up every ounce of will power I have, I whisper my good byes to the trees, glancing at the glowing moon one last time. The stake rips through my chest as a single tear betrays me and slips down my cheek.

Obviously my wish to die was not fulfilled. A stake too blunt. Too far to the left. Only skimming the tissue around the heart.

I know what Sam asked me. If she becomes a vampire and changes her mind, would I have the strength to kill her. To end her suffering. And the answer is yes. Although is it my wish she will decide to live as a vampire, I know I would not make her live this life if it was not her wish. I would give her peace, and then complete my failed attempt many centuries ago.