Hey guys, I am back and it has been a while I am aware. College is ramping up, but honestly I must tell you I have lost most of my interest in TVD. That being said, I still love this pairing, and this story, and I will do my very best to finish it. MakaS0ul has been pushing me to update this story forever, so to all of you out there, send her some love and thank her by reading some of her stuff (she's currently writing for RWBY), because she is the reason this new chapter is out. To you amazing readers, thank you for all the support and reviews last chapter, it means a lot that you still care enough to read. So here is a new chapter for you all. I hope you all enjoy what is to come. Thanks for reading. -Lioness002

The meeting with Emily ended some time after she warned us about the counsel and their vampire removal plans. She knew about Katherine's plot to fake her death, that Katherine had gone to the Lockwood's and whispered in their ear to ensure that the vampire round up would take place. Emily also told us that because Jonathon Gilbert's vampire compass was going to be stolen by Pearl, we were safe from detection. We didn't correct that information because she warned us to interfere with upcoming events as little as possible so it would be easier for things to mend once we left.

As we were leaving, Emily instructed us to lay low for the next week until the comet. She didn't want us messing with much more, so she said I should only show my face in public when it was necessary and Damon should stay hidden all together. We were walking up the steps of the cellar when Emily told Damon to stay away from his human self, said that the closer he was to himself the faster nature would try to correct for his existence; it would act like amplified feedback and hit Damon tenfold. That's why when Damon and Human Damon touched, Damon was crippled with pain; it wasn't just the memory transference, but a warning from nature. As long as he stayed away, he would perish at a much slower rate.

Damon and I left the cellar with a metaphorical cloud of doom over our heads. I could feel the tension and negative energy coming off him in waves; he was furious. Once we were upstairs and the air cleared out, I took a deep breath, partially so I could breathe, partially because I needed to hold back my tears. Everything was falling apart.

When we rounded the corner to head for the stairs, Cordelia, the housemaid, called out to us. "Miss Gilbert, Mr. Salvatore." We turned in unison and while I forced a smile, Damon just looked bored and irritated. Cordelia exited the hallway opposite the one we just left and came to stand in the middle of the entryway looking up at us on the partially winding staircase.

"Yes, Cordelia," Damon said. "What is it?"

When Cordelia took a step closer, her eyes slid between the two of us suspiciously. I straightened, put a few inches of space between Damon and I, and cleared my throat. Her eyes glinted with knowing, but then she straightened and said, "I just wanted to inform you that dinner will be a bit late tonight. Your father has put in a tall order."

"Fine," Damon said waving a hand at her. "Thank you Cordelia, you may go back to what you were doing. Miss Elena and I have some things to discuss."

"Yes sir," she said as she curtsied and walked away. Damon and I walked up the stairs, but at the top I felt eyes on my back. When I turned over my shoulder, I saw Cordelia staring intently at us. When our eyes met she froze, then she turned and began washing down a table with a rag she pulled from her apron.

"Come on," Damon sighed from next to me as he began to trudge down the hall toward my room. I nodded, spared Cordelia one last glance, then turned to the right and followed Damon. He was leaning against the wall with closed eyes when I caught up to him.

"You alright?" I asked as I turned the knob and opened the door.

"Yeah," he said sharply as he walked by me and entered the room.

I hesitated outside for a moment before I entered the lion's den. "So," I sighed closing the door behind us. "We have a week."

Damon nodded and sighed. "Yep." He walked to the window and turned his back on me. I lingered around the door for a minute, and when Damon said nothing, I spoke up.

"So what Emily said earlier," I started as I moved and sat on the edge of the bed. Damon's shoulders hunched and I frowned. "Damon," I whispered, "please come here and talk to me. I want to help." From this angle, I could at least see half his face, but that wasn't any better. His head was tilted down and his hair, which was getting long since it hadn't been cut in a while, was falling right above his slit eyes. His mouth was in a hard line and I could see from the strain in his jaw that he was gritting his teeth. He didn't move.

I stood up from the bed and took a few tentative steps until I was right behind him. I placed my right hand in between his shoulder blades in a silent act of support and rested my forehead there. I closed my eyes and enclosed Damon in my grasp with my left arm. His whole body was tense, on edge and ready to explode, but I needed to be there for him like he had always been there for me. "What is it? I can't help if I don't know what you are freaking out about."

"I was sent here because I was stronger than him," Damon finally growled more to himself than me. His hands were clutching the windowsill and at his words, I heard the wood began to creak in protest. I could feel my heartbeat accelerate on its own accord. Even if I wasn't afraid, my body knew that being this close to a lethal vampire when he was likely to go off was incredibly dangerous.

"What are you talking about? You aren't making sense," I said quietly against his back.

Damon suddenly reared around and ripped himself from my grasp. I gasped in surprise and stumbled back and managed to catch myself on the bedpost before I fell. When I had righted myself, I looked up and flinched at the look in Damon's eyes. It was anger, but not at me, at himself. "Don't you get it, Elena?" He hissed. "I was sent here because I was stronger than Stefan! Because I could protect you! But thanks to nature and its fucked up rules, that's kind of a moot point. I'm worthless to you if at any second I could lose the ability I need to save us. Worthless to you in every way if I die and leave you here alone. Worthless-"

"Stop it!" I yelled coming to stand right in front of his seething form. I stood on my tiptoes and leveled him with an eye to eye glare. "I've had enough of your self pity. You are not worthless, so stop calling yourself that. This whole time correction thing is just another obstacle, but we've gone through tougher. We can get through this, together. I trust you, I support you, and I wouldn't want anyone else here with me."

Damon shook his head and sneered. "Really, you wouldn't want your boyfriend to get you?" he finally said. "It would have been better for everyone that way." My eyes widened and I slowly dropped flat on my feet. What started out as shock quickly became something else entirely. I grit my teeth, wound up, and slammed Damon in the face with my palm. The sound of my slap resonated throughout the whole room and I watched as Damon's head whipped to the side. There had been no resistance to my slap. His head slowly swiveled until he was glaring me right in the eye. I would not back down from him.

"He isn't my boyfriend, not anymore and you know that."

"But does he know that?" Damon asked coldly.

I stiffened and glared at him. "Do you think I like the idea that I started cheating on him the second I accepted the fact that I loved you? No, but I'm not going to hop around the truth anymore in hopes that my problems are going to disappear. I am going to face them and I am going to fight. I don't like the circumstances, but I have no way of fixing it until we get home. I can't just get him on the phone and let him know that I fell for you and I want to break up," I snapped sarcastically.

"It's kind of hard to tell someone you want to break up when you are separated by 145 years, Damon. But when we get back, that will be one of the first conversations Stefan and I have." My shoulders straightened and my gaze narrowed. "Be sure of that."

"Ah Time, you are a sadistic matchmaker from hell, but I owe you. Thanks to you and the wonders of 1864, I get the girl," Damon bit out to no one in particular.

"Time and place have nothing to do with it. The more I spent time with you, the more I would have fallen for you. That's true of anywhere and anytime. And honestly, if you and I had met first, things would have been different and we would have been together from the start. But that didn't happen, and now we have to deal with Stefan, but I will gladly let him go because for the first time in my life I feel like I made the right choice."

"Ha, that's a lie if I've ever heard one," Damon snarled nastily.

I grit my teeth and shook my head. "You want to be tough? Cause drama?" I hissed poking at his chest. "You want to be pissed at the world and how unfair it is? You want to hurt? You want to be self-destructive? Fine."

I stood back and crossed my arms. "That is pathetic Damon. You are a fighter. You say 'fuck the world' and do your own thing. When have you ever given in? I love you because you do that, because you fight tooth and nail against the hand you've been dealt and you win."

"I can't win against fucking nature!" He yelled throwing his arms out. He huffed in frustration and ran his fingers through his already messy hair as he paced back and forth in front of me.

"Says who? Earlier you said you were fine. Are you going to let nature mess with you and make you a liar?" I challenged.

"What?" He snapped. He stopped pacing and rounded on me. His eyes were blue fire at this point, and that coupled with his chiseled, classic features, made him look like an ancient god about to smite someone off the face of the planet. Beautifully deadly.

"Are you going to be a weakling and a liar?" I asked raising an eyebrow. I knew I was taking a huge risk by pushing his buttons like this, but it was the only way I was going to make him snap out of this self-doubt funk. If I got him mad enough, he might be liable to do something about it; fight harder against the almighty force that had painted a target on his back.

"Elena, stop," he snarled through clenched teeth. He was barely holding onto his self-control at this point and he knew he was going to lose it at any second.

I straightened, pulled in a breath, and looked him dead in the eye. "No. Not until you prove to me you are okay."

"I can't!" He screamed in frustration. "You saw what happened in the cellar, I am turning human." He said the word with such contempt I had to swallow back my doubts that maybe the fact I was human bothered him. Now was not the time for me to get all self-conscious.

"Prove it to me!" I repeated ignoring his last comment altogether and holding my ground. "Prove to me that you aren't a liar. Prove to me that you can get through this."

"You want me to prove it?" He growled stalking toward me. Instead of his normal deep sky blue eyes, they had turned to a midnight blue, and I was pretty sure that at any second, blood would rush in and veins would appear. At least, that was the hope.

"You heard me." I jutted my chin out and secured my hands on my hips. "Prove. It." Before I had time to blink, to think about what he would do, I felt a sense of disembodiment and then my back slammed against the mattress of the nearby bed.

When I had sorted out what had happened, I realized Damon had both my hands pinned above my head with one of his and the other was firmly planted next to my head. I gasped in surprise and strained against his hold but he didn't budge as he hovered over me predatorily. Speed, check.

"You wanted me to prove it," he said darkly. The tension was coming off him in crackling waves; he liked this power, liked that he could still be formidable, strong.

I squirmed and thrashed against his body, but with my hands bound and his knees on either side of my hips, I was completely stuck. Even with all of my effort, I couldn't move him, so when I found my fighting was futile I went limp, trusting myself to him, hoping in the end he would realize that this was for the best. Strength, check.

"I did," I finally whispered. "Now come on, keep going. Compel me! Do whatever you want, ask me whatever you want, I'm not wearing vervain," I pleaded looking up at him. I refused to let his concentration, his belief in himself stop.

I stared into his eyes unflinchingly, waiting for him to accept my challenge. My body was shuddering by mere proximity, and looking into his eyes filled with determination and passion made my insides turn to goo. Damon leaned forward, his nose almost touching mine, and concentrated for a moment, probably deciding what he wanted to ask me or make me do, until I watched mesmerized as his pupils began to dilate. So beautiful.

"Elena," he whispered unlocking me from his grip and tucking some stray hair behind my left ear. He pulled me up then sat me down so we were facing each other on the bed.

"Yes," I responded in a dazed manor. It took me awhile to respond because I was so calm and relaxed. He hadn't told me to be calm, had he? No, no, he hadn't done anything yet, I was just so drawn to his eyes that even without compulsion could make me weak kneed and fuzzy.

"Elena, I took something from you a long time ago, and now I want to give it back before I can't anymore." I nodded but was touched with the look of guilt and sadness in his eyes now. The fire in his eyes had faded along with the anger.

His jaw clenched and I saw the strain the words he was about to utter were putting him through. "I know this may be hard," he finally sighed, "but I want you to think back to the night of the car wreck."

Alright, and there we have it. I hope you all enjoyed this after so long, and I do sincerely apologize for the horrendous hiatus. College has been a bit of a struggle, and after all the roommate drama I had last year, writing was one of the last things I wanted to do. But, I have a profound love for this story and all you readers. I will be completely up front when I say this chapter coming out was heavily motivated by the lovely MakaS0ul, so please shower her in love because I know I have to thank her for getting my butt in motion. As for me, chapter updates will be sporadic. However, I do almost have another chapter done and this story will be finished. I'm trying very hard to get it completed and I do have an outline set up. So enough of that. Thank you all so much for reading, and send me a review to tell me how it was if you would be so kind. Thanks again for reading, I hope you all enjoyed, and until next time!

-Lots of Love, Lioness002