After the Party

This missing scene begins after the end of "The Dinner Party"…

She was alone in the kitchen of her home when he showed up.

"It's been a hard day, Damon. I'm tired."

"I know." The vampire said. "I saw. Stabbed yourself, grew a backbone, killed an Original. I know how hard that is. Did it myself once, though he didn't really stay dead."

She really was tired, so she sat at the table as she responded to him. "And, I did the research that kept you alive, even though you kept your stupid plan from me."

"The stupid plan worked, Elena." He remained standing, next to the door, his face showing no emotion.

"That's not the point," she said glaring at him, just a little. "You kept it from me. All this talk about keeping me safe but you and Stefan just lied to me."

"We did what we had to do, Elena. Anytime we mentioned to you that we didn't like your plan, you'd say 'I'm protecting everyone I love – even you'," he did an exaggerated, bad imitation of her voice. Then he switched back to normal. " Not that you mentioned the part where you expected to die. We weren't the only ones keeping things to ourselves."

She rubbed her forehead with one hand, eyes closed. She had already done this with Stefan, she didn't want to do it with Damon as well. "I did what I thought was right, Damon." She looked at him again. "Now we have no idea what will happen, no idea who'll show up next."

"You're right, Elena. We don't know who will come. Since Rose knew about you, others probably know – they could show up anytime. But we do know one thing."

She hesitated to let him finish before forcing herself to ask, "Yeah? What's that?"

"We know Elijah won't kill you or turn you over to be sacrificed." His face continued to be blank..

Elena broke eye contact with him. She felt so tired. She put her head into her hand again, her elbow on the table, and spoke softly. "We do it my way now. You both agreed."

"We did agree, Elena. I will do it your way, as long as you fight. As long as you don't go kamikaze again."

"I was never suicidal, Damon, just resigned to my fate."

She saw his face harden ever so slightly. "Maybe you're not, but Uncle John is. He tried to get me killed."

She didn't want to argue with him about this either. "You're alive. I kept you alive. That's getting to be a bad habit."

His smirk appeared now. "I'd ask you why, but it's obvious – my looks and personality." Then he mimicked looking thoughtful. "I don't know why Rick is so keen on helping me."

"He's looking out for Jenna."

Damon ignored her comment, continuing his thought. "Even Katherine let me live, though I was the one who trapped her in the tomb for weeks."

Elena was unsure what he meant. "Katherine?" she asked tentatively.

"Oh, right. You didn't hang around. She showed up, in my shower. Elijah compelled her to stay in the tomb, you stabbed him with fancy dagger and ash, ergo…"

Elena could feel fear added to her weariness. She buried her face in her hand again. "God, what am I going to do?"

Damon didn't respond. She glanced back up at him to try to read his expression.

"She's the one who brought everything together, Damon," she said, justifying her reaction to the news. "She was going to turn me over to Klaus."

Damon looked at her with a hard expression. "Don't, Elena. Not again."

"Don't what?"

"Don't revert - no giving up. You faced an Original today, and you took him out." His face softened as he continued, a little sarcastically, "Besides, she says she's turned over a new leaf. She's here to help us protect you."

The human closed her eyes and shook her head. "Like we can believe her."

His words brought her eyes back to his.

"See, Elena? You're still smart - as well as being strong."

She held his eyes for a few seconds before he spoke again. "You're tired too. Go to bed. We've got Katherine covered and you need to work out this 'my way' strategy of yours."

Elena nodded and rose to leave. Before leaving the kitchen, she turned back to him. "Thank you, Damon."

"For?"

"I'm not the only one who faced an Original today," she said before turning away from him and heading for the stairs.