A/N: I know that the chapters are getting shorter and that the updates are being slow as well, but this story is slowly coming to an end and I want to finish it.

Enjoy this chapter!

It took Elena twenty more minutes to convince Damon that she was ready to go down there with him, but here she was now. Standing on the steps of the stairs, ready to skip the last and set foot into the basement where her boyfriend was still being held, against his will, but for the greater good.

Damon glanced back at her, his eyebrows furrowed so heavy that she thought his forehead might split in two right there and then. He didn't like this at all, her being down here even though she was mortal. Her being down here without any kind of protection besides him and the vervein around her neck.

He could protect her. He knew that. She knew that. They knew that. Especially since Stefan had been down here long enough that his veins should have turned to nothing but dry dust by now.

Damon winced at the thought of starvation. It was not a nice feeling. But in this situation, a necessary means to get the old Stefan back.

As much as Damon wanted his brother to enjoy human blood and the strength that it brought to their kind, he also wanted him to be able to cope with the daily life and not to ruin things for them in Mystic Falls and that was something that Stefan was unable to do at the time.

Whatever screw was loose in his head, no one could twist it back in properly and human blood only made everything worse for him.

They stepped closer to the door and the small window with the bars came into view. Elena was barely tall enough to glance through it, but Damon met it on eye-level and was immediately able to see Stefan flat on the ground, just barely breathing down there. He swallowed.

He wasn't heartless. It hurt to see his baby brother like this.

"You stay here." He told the girl behind him sternly.

"Damon." She tried to argue, her hands wrapping around his upper arm.

Her touch was like electricity, but he ignored the good feeling and pressed his teeth together before murmuring. "For now. I need to secure him."

Elena sighed through her nose, but let him go, leaning back against the cold brick wall behind her. To think about how Stefan had been down here, in the cold, dusty basement all by himself this entire time made her heart ache.

Guilt over-came her once again and she swallowed thickly as Damon unlocked the heavy metal door to let himself in.

He grabbed his younger brother by his shirt and dragged him up into a standing position. But all Stefan managed was to hang limply in Damon's hands. Elena was finally able to see his face. It was dusty and looked grey-ish. Some of the veins of his face were visible through the skin.

Suddenly his dry lips cracked apart and a low chuckle made its way past the broken skin. "Well, well.." he muttered through his dry mouth. "Look who's paying me a visit."

And then his eyes shot open, they were bright red, blood shot and stared directly at Elena, who wrapped her arms around herself and gave herself a comforting squeeze. Like she didn't know that she had screwed up.

But Stefan's verbal torture at her continued. "I guess.." He coughed, sand falling from his lips. "That it's way more fun up there, with the older Salvatore." And then he laughed darkly.

This was Damon's cue and he stepped forth, forcefully tossing Stefan back and dropping him down into an old wooden chair that had been sitting in the corner of the room ever since they had first been in here. It was still robust enough to handle Damon's strength, because it didn't break when his brother was thrown onto it.

Damon then slipped on the thick hide glove and started wrapping the vervain laced ropes around his brother's limbs.

The screams tore actual holes into Elena's heart and she had to turn away, a hot tear making its way down her cold cheek.

What followed were hours of torture in which the worst things that Elena had ever heard were thrown against her head. Damon told her several times to just leave. That he could do this on his own and that he promised to not stop until Stefan was fine again. But Elena reminded him of what she had said before they had come down here together.

That they indeed could do this together. And so she stayed and endured what the monster within Stefan threw against her.

It hurt. All she felt was pain and despair and the way that she saw the man in the chair, the man that she had loved so much, changed. She was exhausted. And reality seemed to blur.

But Damon could tell that she was getting weak and so he rammed the stake that he had just drawn from Stefan's hand, through his thigh and poured another glass of vervained water down his throat before turning away to concentrate on Elena while Stefan was choking for air.

"Elena." Her name fell softly from his lips, despite the roughness that he had shown these past few hours and Elena turned to glance at him.

Her eyes had lost their light and there she stood, leaning into his touch as his hand raised to caress her cheek. She could see the spots where the vervain had hit his skin too and touched him softly, her brows perking worriedly.

"Damon."

But his hand pulled away and he quickly covered the burning wounds.

"It's okay." He reassured her. "I'm fine."

Just when he was about to bow his head down and kiss his forehead, Stefan cried out, his tone changed entirely as he rocked his chair forth with all the strength that he had left in his body.

"Don't touch her!" He howled at them, coughing and spitting. "Don-" He repeated weakly.

Damon's movement stopped immediately and he turned to glance at Stefan.

A second ago, the weakened vampire had been growling and screaming and yelling. But this was something else. This was desperation and fear and jealousy. Not the 'I will kill you'-kind of jealousy, but the kind of jealousy that proved that he was afraid to lose her.

Damon's motivation spiked and he turned back to his brother, leaving the door to Elena open as he kneeled down in front of Stefan to raise his chin and glance him in the eye. "What did you just say?"

And then the emotions broke free and as Damon lifted his face, tears could clearly been seen running down his cheeks. "Stop touching the love of my life."

Damon's face lifted and he looked at Elena as if they had just won the lottery.

But Elena's stomach turned. When Damon had told her that he needed her down here with him, she hadn't thought about what that had meant. But here she was, the channel of Stefan's emotions. She carried all the responsibility for not screwing him up again now.

Damon was too busy with not being able to believe that he had just managed to bring Stefan back. Yes, Lexi would certainly be proud of him.

Elena, however, felt like she was going to faint.

And to make all matters worse, Damon lifted Stefan up and helped him out of the chair, glancing at Elena to motion for her to help him with the weakened vampire.

She reluctantly rushed to his side, supporting him on her shoulder as she glanced at Damon.

When they had brought him up to his bedroom and had just closed the door behind themselves to head back downstairs, Damon's strong fingers curled around Elena's wrist and before he could say anything, Stefan's voice broke through the silence from behind the door. "Elena?" He yelled weakly and coughed.

And it was only then that Damon and Elena's eyes met and he seemed to realize as well what they had done today. Stefan was back. Which meant that their time together was..

Neither of them really wanted to think about it.

A/N: Hope you liked it, the next one will hopefully follow soon and might be the last! But I promise a happy ending!