"Wait. Why am I even asking that?" she murmured mostly to herself. "I already did do something. Stefan, would you like to escort me home?"

Damon sighed and grabbed the keys to his car from the bedside table. "I have the car but I suppose you guys will want to walk. I'll see you later brother." Then, with not a glance back he left the hospital.

Damon arrived at his house only to find Elena and Stefan already there snuggling on the couch, being warmed by the fire. They must have ran home. Elena had probably wanted to try out her new abilities.

"You guys look like an old married couple. Everything back to normal already?" Damon said bitterly.

Elena swiveled around on the couch to look at me. "No, Damon. Of course not. But it was time to move on and going back to normal seemed the best way to do it."

"Oh, okay. You and denial again. I should've known. That's how you seem to handle everything these days," Damon said. His body language was upright and stoic and proud, but his eyes gave him away. His eyes were filled with a pain that only was seen in that of an old widowed man.

"Damon..." Elena whispered. Damon turned away and trudged up the stairs to go collapse on his bed and stare at the ceiling or maybe read a chapter of Gone with the Wind.

Elena watched him climb the stairs and then moved to go after him. She couldn't have him behaving this way after they'd been through so much. He was her best friend and she was going to fix what she'd done wrong. Stefan sensed her desire to leave and his hand formed an unbreakable manacle around her arm.

"There's nothing you can do Elena. Let him mope for a while. Eventually he'll be back to normal."

"I know, Stefan. But which normal. The one that kills people, picks fights, and endlessly teases me, or the one that watches my back, watches your back, and would do anything for the both of us."

"I don't know."

"Well, knowing him, I'm inclined to think the first. I have to try and do something. I can't see him so hurt because of me."

"You'll just hurt him more."

"This is my decision, Stefan. Let me go."

Stefan thought seriously for a moment about not releasing her, but as always the idea that everyone should have free will, which he hadn't had at some point in his long life, overclouded his fears and he slowly unclasped his hand from around her arm.

Elena approached his bedroom even thought the doors were closed. She raised her hand and rapped lightly on the door. She heard an almost imperceptible groan from Damon as he lifted himself off his bed and came to the door.

"Your slave awaits your command, princess," he said, bowing slightly.

Elena rolled her eyes to the ceiling and sighed. "Can you please just let me in. I want to talk to you."

"As you wish." He cracked the door open wide and strolled back to his bed letting her follow. He spread out, his lanky limbs stretching reaching the end of the mattress. She shut the door behind herself and perched next to his head on the side of his bed.

"Don't leave me, Damon. I need you. You're more than just a friend to me; you're a part of me. And it keeps getting ripped away and leaving a vast hole that hurts like hell."

"Why should I care?"

"Stop acting like a baby. I know you care."

"You're right. Because I told you I loved you twice, I kissed you twice, and I did practically everything you asked of me. But it doesn't make a difference, it never made a difference. So I'm having trouble caring."

"Damon," she whispered. "You promised you'd never leave me again."

His fluttered closed and he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And I won't. But stop talking to me like I'm the greatest thing in the world. Like you love me. Because it's driving me up the wall. One second, I swear you're going to come sprinting into my arms, the next Stefan's. How would you like me to handle it?"

"Just be my support, my friend, my rock."

"Well I can't because I also promised you that I wasn't going to screw up what we had. That I wasn't going to give up on it."

"You don't have to keep that promise."

"Oh, so now we're playing the game of selective promise keeping?" he questioned bitterly.

"Well, for god's sake Damon, what do you want me to do?"

"Admit to yourself that you love me. Admit it to me, because you do, and I'm still not sure you know that."

"It's not going to make anything easier."

"You're right. It won't. But life isn't supposed to be easy and sometimes you have to sacrifice that fake simplicity for others. You made the choice between us seem easy and let me tell you there is no way in hell that it should've been. Stefan isn't completely normal and your relationship with him will never go back to the way it was. And through everything, every step of the way, even though it was always about Stefan, I was there with you, helping you get him back. I was being unselfish, now maybe it's your turn."

"But you already know that I care about you," she replied weakly.

"Care? Care?" he glared vehemently. "That is so not the same thing and you know it. Saying I love you is more important to me. While it seems like more commitment, and too big of a word to describe what we have; it isn't. Please, Elena. I just need to hear it once."

"But I don't know..."

"Then we're done here. Please get out of my room. Run back to Stefan and complain about how awful I am. I'll only ask nicely once."

Elena stumbled off the bed and hobbled backwards out of the room her shocked eyes never leaving Damon. She reached behind her and turned the knob to the door, slid out, and shut it again.

"What did you expect, Elena?" Damon whispered. "I love you." And an odd pain wracked his body and he shuddered. "I'll always keep fighting for you."

And then the door catapulted back open and Elena was standing there. "What did you say?"

"That I loved you?" he answered quizzically. He had no idea what was going on.

"No," she shook her head. "After that."

"That I'll always fight for you," he said matter-of-factually.

She zipped across the room, and was all of a sudden grasping his hands in hers. He was going to have to get used to that. And then she muttered, "I love you, Damon," kissed his forehead, and then was gone.

Thank you to everyone who is reading this and it'll only keep getting better I promise. I'm not even close to done. I'm fully working through the love triangle that the show was too scared to. Thanks for all the favorites, and notices. It means the world to me.