DAMON POV

The drive was agony; every second that passed brought a new sense of urgency. After what seemed to be an inordinately long time they pulled up in front of Elena's house. A glint of light caught Damon's eye, it was Bonnie's car rolling down the road, lights off/ Damon frowned.

"Stefan, I just saw Bonnie driving her car down the road with no lights?"

"Well, she is probably tired; she has been taking point on a lot of this. Can't blame her for needing some rest, Damon."

"No, it is something more, something not quite right… But I can't put my finger on it."

"Come on, Damon, we do not have time for this. Elena is in trouble and we need to help her. Let's go in."

They were met by all of Elena's friends grouped in the living room. Including Bonnie.

Immediately Damon went to alert and he and Stefan ran to Elena's room. It was empty.

Caroline and Bonnie pressed in behind them.

"What? Where could she have gone?"

The curtain fluttered in the breeze from the open window.

Damon swore.

"She has Bonnie's car."

"She was heading west."

He blurred down stairs with Stefan as the others scrambled into Matt's truck to follow.

The brothers slowed at the bridge as they saw Bonnie's car, Stefan swore as he saw the open trunk, he rushed to the side and saw a few bubbles coming up from the water.

Without a seconds hesitation Stefan vaulted over the side of the bridge and dove in the water after Elena.

The truck pulled up beside Damon as he leaned over and looked into the dark water.

"What is it? What happened? Where is she?" Caroline burst out.

"I think she jumped." Damon said raggedly.

"What?" And Caroline jumped into the water as well.

As the others gathered around Stefan surfaced with Elena in his arms, she was limp and not moving.

Caroline helped pull her to shore where she began cpr.

"Come on , come on!" She urged.

Then Elena began to cough and sputter. Damon sighed in relief.

ELENA'S POV

Her lungs burned.

Someone was pounding on her chest.

Her eyes opened. Suddenly she was filled with awareness of Damon. He was close. Very close.

She pushed Caroline aside and struggled to sit.

There was a flurry of voices, people were crowding around.

Then a feeling of rage simmered deep inside her.

She heard Stefan and Damon shouting. Damon was furious that Stefan had let her get this bad.

But there was more to it than that…

Bonnie was the only one left beside her as she sat on the bank.

The rest were gathering around the feuding brothers trying to break them up.

Stefan was yelling something and swung a fist at Damon.

Suddenly she was filled with clarity; she knew what she had to do. Bracing herself she stumbled up to her feet despite Bonnie's protests. She staggered towards Damon and Stefan, ignoring the burning pain in her lungs. She pushed pasted Matt; he looked surprised as she shoved past him.

"Hey, Elena, are you alright?"

She never slowed, she had to do this, it had to be done now, and the bubbling rage inside of her grew as the yelling intensified between the brothers.

She was closer now; she stooped a moment, and then stepped between the brothers. The fighting stopped instantly.

"Elena! What are you doing? Why aren't you with Bonnie? Are you alright?" Stefan turned to her his face creased with concern.

Never responding she smoothly and cleanly thrust the stick she had picked up into Stefan's heart. His face went slack in shock as he had half an instant to realize what happened before he fell to the ground, dead.

She felt the shift of emotion from rage to shock, grief, and horror. She heard Damon's despairing cry as he lunged to kneel by his brother's body. She backed away slowly, not caring that Caroline had her in an iron grip and was dragging her away.

It slowly became clear to her, dimly she was aware of what she had done while feeling Damon's rage. She gasped and covered her face as Damon still bent over his brother's body.

She did not resist when she was shoved into the truck and driven away.

Bonnie stood over Stefan's body.

"I just don't understand why she could do this."

"It was not her, Bonnie. She was just reacting to Damon's anger." Matt spoke softly.

He turned to Damon when he came and stood beside them.

"What do we do now?"

Damon was grim.

"First we bury my brother. Then I take Elena out of the country to a remote place, I know a secluded place in the Alps. We have to take her away from this. If and when a cure is found she can come back, but till then she has to stay away."

"But won't that be hard, not being able to touch her?'

"I never said it was easy, I just said that was what had to be done."

He turned and went to stand beside his brother again.

Bonnie dissolved into tears and Matt pulled her close.

"It was not supposed to be like this, Matt. "

"I know Bon, I know, but life is never like a fairy tale, it is messy, ugly and you just have to hold on till things get better."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then we take every moment of good we can and cling to them to help us in the hard times. Then we fight to survive as best we can. Just like Elena will have to. There are no easy answers. We just have to be bigger than the problems."

They started walking towards Bonnie's car as the cold moonlight shown down.