Hi everyone, I am back! Quickly, because I was really excited to write the next chapter. Here is a quick thank you to Imarifirst, for my first review! I'm not sure if that sounds silly, but it really made me quite happy. Thank you to any other people who decided to follow my story! This chapter will be all, or mostly Delena, to see how there relationship is going after the one month jump I decided to do. Please stay tuned, and I seriously hope you guys still enjoy this!

ELENA'S POV

It had been one month since Stefan left Mystic Falls, without telling me. To put it simply, I was a complete mess, and Damon was forced to deal with me. Jenna believed that I was spending some time with family in Colorado, with the help of Damon's compulsion. I didn't know what I was supposed to do when I were to come back, so I stalled that a lot. I was staying at the boarding house, with Damon. He had made the guest room, my room. I was keeping up with my schoolwork with the help of Bonnie, who was disgusted that I kept living with Damon, but helped keep my secret. Damon also used his compulsion skills to make sure I didn't fail the last semester of my junior year. I hated the compulsion, but there was no other way. I couldn't go back to school, because Jenna would know. It's not that I couldn't stay with Jenna, it's that neither her, me, or Jeremy was safe with my presence.

Damon had been a good host to me, and surprisingly, he was sometimes nice to me. I could tell he cared about me, underneath the rude and selfish acts he could not stop doing. He always made me dinner, or at least bought me something, and would make sure that I slept well. He would seem to do anything that involved making me comfortable, but we rarely actually hung out. Believe me, I was so, very grateful for him. If he had left as well, I would be a complete mess.

I began getting sick all the time, from anxiety, and probably depression. It started three weeks after Stefan abandoned me, and still continued. I felt weak, and what I hated the most was thinking that Damon thought that. I didn't want him to think of me as someone vulnerable, and that I was unable to take care of myself. Even if it was true. He never said anything, but I was sure that was exactly what he was thinking.

Another issue that had been occurring, was that I saw one or two women each night. Damon loved to bring women home with them, sleep with them, and feed on them, meanwhile I was alone the entire night, until I saw people leaving the house each night. Even though he had been taking pretty good care of me in Stefan's absence, this annoyed me, because I was the most lonely at night. I wanted to be with him, although I really did not know why. I told myself that I just needed anyone, but I honestly was not sure if anyone except Damon could fill the hole that was inside of me. Not even I could understand what the hell that meant. He just made me feel less lonely, and sometimes I would laugh. That was only on a rare occasion, though.

One night, he came into the house with four other girls, which made me immensely annoyed. I knew it was not a good idea, but I had to confront him about this. I could barely deal with one girl being used and bitten every single night, but four, that was completely out of hand. When the four, of course, blonde and beautiful girls went up the stairs, I stepped in front of Damon. I glanced back at the girls, who certainly made me feel insecure about myself, and then looked up at Damon, extremely aggravated. "What the hell is this? You know, Damon, I'm getting really sick and tired of having to see this all happen, every single night. I am living here!" I exclaimed, not at all trying to be quiet, even though other people were in the house at the time.

He took in a deep breath, and sighed loudly, just to annoy me. "Two things. You're not watching, but you could if you wanted to." He smirked and raised his eyebrows, as he stepped closer to me. "And second, this isn't your house, it's mine. That means I can do whatever I want. I don't need your permission, I never have." Now, he actually looked slightly annoyed.

I thought I could keep my cool, and not lose it in front of him for the first time, but of course, I can't control any of my emotions. For some reason, my mind told me he was about to walk out on me, or just kick me out at that moment. That is the damage that Stefan had caused me, from just randomly leaving. I felt tears as they started forming in my eyes, and he gave me a strange, confused look. "You can't do this anymore! Because I'm gonna keep getting upset and blow up on you, and you're going to get pissed and make me leave, or leave yourself." Those probably were not the only reasons he should stop sleeping with these girls. "If you can't tell, I got really bad at hiding my feelings from people lately, including you." I should have stopped trying to explain myself, but I couldn't go back now. "You never talk to me unless you're asking what I want to eat, or if I'm vomiting! Don't get me wrong, I'm so beyond grateful that you are letting me stay here. But you are all I currently have, since I can't go anywhere. It is making me absolutely crazy not even having you!" At this point, I was basically screaming at him. "Stop sleeping with these girls every single night, and completely neglecting me!" I was almost scaring myself, because of how loud I was being.

I was expecting him to blow up at me, maybe even worse than I had, but I was taken by surprise. "Okay." He said to me, like it didn't even matter. He used his vampire speed to get up the stairs, leaving me speechless and confused. In just a few moments, he and four other girls, who were giggling, came down the stairs, and walked out the door, shutting it behind them. Damon casually walked down the stairs, and stood in front of me. His face returned to a slightly cold expression. "Done."

Once again, he left me utterly speechless, and he turned around, going back upstairs. I heard his door slam, and that was it.

ELENA'S POV

The next morning, I woke up earlier than usual, at about 7:00am. I went to the bathroom, washed my face, and put my hair up. I walked out slowly, with a slight headache, and left my room, making my way downstairs, quietly. I glanced at Damon's door, which was open, so he must have been up. It was much earlier than usual for him to be awake, unless he had something to do that day, or he was pissed. I went into the kitchen to get water, not really in the mood to be eating. Last night's argument with Damon had stressed me out, making me feel slightly off. I grabbed a glass of water, and as I was about to turn around to leave the kitchen, I heard the front door slam shut. Great, I thought to myself.

Before I could say anything to Damon, he already responded to me. "Pack your bags. We're leaving. Going to Pennsylvania. Just for three days." He said, and I looked very confused.

"I've never even heard you mention Pennsylvania, so why exactly are we going there?" I asked, with concern in my eyes. He looked like he had something important to say. I knew exactly who this trip was about.

"I got a call from the evil vampire slut. Katherine, if you didn't know who I was talking about." He paused, almost as if he was expecting me to smile, or laugh about that, but I wasn't in the mood. "Stefan is there. She found him, and I know where he is. Not sure why he is there, though. He is staying in a fairly large area, so I have my suspicions to what he is doing there." He said, looking into my eyes to figure out what reaction I would have.

"He's killing innocent people, isn't he?" I said, sounding disgusted, but also pretty calm and collected for what I was processing in my head. I had been expecting this. "So are we gonna bring him back?" I asked him, looking straight back into his eyes. Sometimes I found myself not being able to concentrate, looking at his eyes. They were such a beautiful shade of blue, and a hint of green. I knew I shouldn't have been thinking about Damon, when this was clearly about Stefan, so I stopped myself right away.

"That's up to him. You can try, but it's ultimately his decision. I don't know if he's going to want to come back, Elena. I don't even know if his humanity is on or off." He didn't seem hopeful, which bothered me. I didn't know how he could just give up on his brother so quickly. I guess he did know what Stefan was like in this state of mind, better than I did.

"I still have hope, Damon. And I really believe that he will too, if he sees me. I can't give up, you can't either, not now. Please." I didn't even want to know his response, so I just made my way up to my room, and grabbed the small suitcase, which he put there before I woke up, without me even knowing.

I grabbed a few pairs of jeans, shirts, and a few pairs of pajamas, undergarments, and socks. Something inside of me felt weird, and I suddenly felt nauseous. I knew what this was, so I ran to my bathroom, and keeled down in front of the toilet. I ended up throwing up two times, and I heard Damon approaching the bathroom. I attempted kicking the door closed, but he just pushed it back open and pulled me up by my arms, with his hands. He brushed a piece of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail, and put it behind my ear. I looked up at him, with tears in my eyes, but I could tell I wasn't going to cry about this. It happened far too often to cry. "We can stall a little bit if you're not feeling good." He said, looking genuinely concerned about my well being.

"No, I'm totally fine. Just anxiety. I'll be okay. I always am." I gave him the slightest of a smile, and he took a step back, and grabbed my toothbrush, and other facial and body care items, packing them away in my suitcase.

"Then let's get going. It's a five hour drive. We're going to go directly to Stefan when we get there, so prepare yourself for the worst." He sounded completely serious, which made my stomach turn, but I then nodded slowly.

"Then why are we staying for three days?" I rolled my eyes, not understanding his logic, whatsoever.

"We can't bring you and him back to Mystic Falls, at the same time. It will look a little weird to people." What a bad excuse, I thought to myself.

"Fine. Let's go."

x

The car ride went by fairly quickly. The last hour, Damon really had been getting on my nerves, as he always tried to.

"Where are we staying?" I asked, looking out the passenger seat window.

"The Rittenhouse hotel in a presidential suite." He responded. I looked at him, with a very confused look on my face.

"That's crazy expensive for three days, Damon. A normal room is all that's necessary in this situation.

"What can I say? I like to live in luxury, and I figured this hotel would accommodate that." I knew he liked to live extravagantly, but something told me that he didn't do this for himself at all. "Besides, nothing it too expensive for a vampire." He looked over at me briefly, and smirked.

After we stopped at a Panera fast food place, he drove, until we stopped in front of a run down looking apartment complex. I looked over at Damon, who looked slightly stressed out. "I want to go in alone." I knew he was immediately going to say no, so I started talking almost immediately following what I had said. "You can hear perfectly well if you listen, and you can smell my blood if that happens, again."

He looked extremely irritated for what seemed like forever, then nodded and got out of the car, and used his vampire speed to get over the my side of the car. He opened my door for me, and I got out of the car. Before I walked in, he stepped in front of me, and put his hands on my shoulders. "If he tries to hurt you, scream. He's not going to get away with that again, I promise. I won't let him hurt you, Elena. Not again." I looked up at him, and I hugged him. He barely hugged me back, but I didn't really care at all.

"Thank you, Damon." He gave me a quick nod, gave me which room his apartment was, and I walked in. Stefan's apartment was on the first floor, which made things easier for many reasons.

As I approached his room, I heard loud music playing. I sighed, shakily, and I knocked on the door loudly. I heard the music get turned down, and something glass was put down, because a loud bang. It didn't shatter, though. I could hear him walk towards the door, and I could feel my heart beating inside my chest. He opened the door quickly, and I could tell by his reaction, that he was definitely not expecting me. "Elena?" He questioned, as if he couldn't tell if it was me. "Leave."

"No, Stefan. I came here for you. You need to come home. Please, Stefan." I looked at him, with tears forming in my eyes. He stared back at me, emotionless, and my heart sunk. No, he couldn't have. He wouldn't, I thought to myself. He had turned his emotions off. I could tell by his frozen and carefree facial expression. "No..you didn't.." I trailed off, and looked up at him with a tear falling down my face.

"What? Turn my emotions off? I actually did, but nice guess." His face turned from carefree, to looking like he was irritated, although I guess that couldn't happen with his emotions off. I couldn't believe what was happening. I couldn't comprehend what was happening, my ex boyfriend had officially chose blood, over coming back home with me. "If you don't come back with me Stefan, you're gonna lose me forever" I was stammering a lot. "You need to come back with me, Stefan. I can't breathe without you. I can't do this. I miss you, I miss us. Don't do this to yourself!" I was hysterical at this point, and he just blankly looked right at me.

I tried stepping towards him, but he put his arm out. "If you come near me, Damon won't have anyone in the car with him on the way back Mystic Falls." He pushed me back ever so slightly. How did he know that Damon was even with me? He must have just assumed. Or Katherine told him we were coming. "Leave, Elena. Now. Don't come back, because I don't want you here. You are saying all this relationship stuff, and all I can think about is your blood, pumping through your veins. So, I'm going to close this door and you're going to leave. Now." That was it. He slammed the door in my face, and I felt like my whole life was shattered. I couldn't think or breathe. I tried making my way back to the car, but I felt like everything was spinning. I stopped walking for a second to catch my breath, and wipe my tears with my shirt sleeve. I took a few deep breaths, and then walked into the lobby and out to the street, where Damon's car and him were. Damon was sitting in the driver's seat. My hands were shaking, but I managed to get the car door open, and I sat down quietly. I didn't even know what to say. I felt broken, and stupid for having hope.

"Was he there?" He said in a casual tone, not looking at me, yet.

"Yeah. He's here to stay." I spoke quietly, so I could try to keep myself from breaking down in front of him. I looked to my right, facing away from him, hoping he would just drive. To my luck, he started the car.

"Unless you want to stay here for the afternoon, and spend the night, then we can go home." He said, and I could feel his eyes on me even when I wasn't looking at him.

Wanting to do something besides being holed up in the boarding house, I decided we might as well spend one night. "Let's stay here for one night." I managed to look over at him, and he nodded.

"Good. I'm taking you to a bar. I know the witch who runs it, so you'll be fine going there." I probably shouldn't have been going to bar in this state of mind, but Damon would keep me grounded, hopefully. I faked a smile and then buckled my seatbelt. He put his car in drive, and started driving. The area became more isolated, rather than the city atmosphere we found Stefan in. The entire car ride, Damon avoided the topic of Stefan. I was pretty sure he had heard the entire conversation from the car.

It took about thirty minutes of dead silence, until we pulled into a parking lot. The bar didn't even have a name, so I was surprised that Damon even knew it existed. Then again, he had been around awhile. I stepped out of the car, and walked towards him. As Damon and I walked in together, he had his hand on the small of my back, which made my heart beat faster. I once again had to tell my mind to shut up.

The bartender, whose name was Gloria, a witch, introduced herself to me, and caught up with Damon for a few minutes. Damon told me he knew her from her helping him like fifty years ago. She aged well, due to a spell to keep her as young as possible. It would catch up eventually, though. "What are you two drinking?" I was about to say I was underage, but then Damon interrupted, and said, "Two bourbons, neat." I raised my eyebrows at him, but went along with at.

Gloria gave us our drinks, and then began attending to other customers at her bar. Damon looked at me, and raised his glass. "Here's to new beginnings," he said, with a slightly sarcastic tone, and he smirked at me. This was going to be a long day.

Hi again! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Damon will become more soft as the story continues, in case you were wondering. And no, Stefan is still not gone forever. PLEASE leave reviews! Also tell me what you want for more Damon and Elena moments. I want your help and feedback! I have finals soon, so I will probably be posting either this Sunday, or next Friday, but stay tuned. Thank you for reading!