Come Home to Me

Disclaimer - not my characters, borrowing them with respect for their creators and the amazing people who bring them to life, no infringement intended.

Timeline: Set at an imaginary point late or post season 3 where Klaus and his family are gone for good and Jeremy's back.

It was strange, being alone with him at the Salvatore mansion after all this time. It suddenly struck her that they'd barely been alone since he'd returned to Mystic Falls after that horrible summer when he ran off with Klaus and everything fell apart.

"Elena," Stefan began, his voice low and desperate, "I'm sorry for everything I put you through, but I did it to protect you. You have to believe me, I'm back now."

"So now that Klaus is gone things are just supposed to go back to the way they were?"

"Of course not, but I will do anything to get you back. To earn back your love. To deserve you again."

"You never lost me Stefan. I never stopped loving you, even when you gave me every reason not too, but you can't have be back, not the way things were." They were the hardest words she'd ever had to say but she had to say them. "It's wonderful that you've got your humanity back Stefan, but I'm with Damon now, I have to be with Damon. You have to understand that, you're his brother, he has fought so hard, for so long, to be worthy of me, to be worthy of you, if I turn my back on him now I'm afraid we'll lose him. Forever."

"So you're staying with him so he'll behave? That's not love Elena."

"That's not the only reason Stefan, you have to know I wouldn't be with him if it there wasn't more than that to our feelings, don't make me say it."

"You love him? He's a monster, he's a killer."

"And so are you. None of us are perfect Stefan, I'm not the innocent little school girl grieving for her parents anymore. That was the girl you fell in love with Stefan, and I'm not her anymore. I've done things, I've hurt people. Stefan, you will always put me up on a pedestal and I love you for it, but I can't do it anymore, I can't be up there, I can't be that perfect Elena Gilbert."

"I never asked you to be."

"No, but you made me want to be."

"It's that a good thing? Shouldn't we bring out the best in each other? You've always brought out the best in me Elena, always, none of what happened after Klaus was your fault. It's because of you that I'm back, that I'm me again."

"I know and I'm happy for you Stefan, really I am. But it's exhausting trying to be the girl you want me to be. For too long I had to be perfect, for Jeremy, for Alaric, for my parents. I'm begging you Stefan, let me go. Let me just be seventeen and stupid. Maybe I'm dating the wrong guy, maybe Damon is going to be the biggest mistake of my life. Maybe one day I'll be a thirty three year old soccer Mum married to an accountant. I don't know, I'll always be the Doppelganger but with Klaus gone I deserve to find out who I really am, and part of that is letting me grow up." The flood of tears was silent but the raspy note in her voice was exaggerated, the way it always was when she was emotional, and this was about as emotional as it would ever get. It felt like a death, ending her relationship with Stefan and making her commitment to Damon real. "I want to say, I want to be friends, but I don't know how to be friends with you Stefan."

There was a long pause as the tortured eternally young vampire searched for any sign of hope, any sign at all that his beloved's conviction was faltering, that the right words might still sway her. His brain was screaming and his heart was breaking, blood pounded with anger in his veins. Klaus was dead but he'd still won, he'd torn them apart. He wanted to blame Damon, part of him did, but part of Stefan knew that Damon had kept her safe when he hadn't. He'd done more than kept her safe, he'd been there for her when Stefan couldn't. His brother really had shown that he could be the better man. Had it been for any other girl in the world Stefan would have been bursting with pride at the transformation his brother had shown. There was no use declaring war on Damon, it would only hurt Elena and push away his only family.

"We can work it out, together. You, me and Damon. We'll find away. You're not Katherine."

"I wish I could believe that."

"I'm not suggesting a double date at The Grill tomorrow night," Stefan deadpanned. Wow, thought Elena, Stefan made a joke, he's really trying here. "But Elena we can do this, we can be in each other's lives." He took her hands gently in his and looked deep into her eyes, with the reassuring gaze that she's fallen in love with, "I'll give you all the space that you need, you and Damon. You're my family, both of you."

Elena just nodded. What could else could she say? That it would never work? That they'd end up killing each other. That they'd be miserable, all of them? Matt had gone from being her boyfriend to one of her best friends. She of all people knew that it was possible to move on. Okay this was different, she was the Doppelganger, Stefan had fallen in love with her great great great... okay her ancestor, Katherine. But if beating Klaus had taught her anything, it was that together anything was possible.

Elena was numb and exhausted when she walked into her bedroom, ready to crash out out on the bed. Ex-boyfriend farewelled, the sounds of Jeremy unpacking in his old room, no original vampires trying to kill her, if ever there was a time for sleep, this was it. But her room wasn't empty. A vision in black sprawled on her bed, impatiently toying with a stuffed teddy bear. Elena noted with annoyance that a seam had broken on Mr Bear and the stuffing was poking out a little.

She was about to say, "You you Damon, you really didn't have to take this out on my teddy bear, I can handle it, whatever it is you need to say, but please can it wait until the morning," but the words never reached her lips, she was too drained for words, she just crawled onto the bed, lay her head on Damon's lap and closed her eyes. Damon's body relaxed with surprise. He'd been expecting the goodbye speech. A breakup where they would bicker and she'd cry and his heart would break and the world he'd built without over the past six months would dissolve in an instant. He'd thought the tears were her not wanting to tell him that she'd taken Stefan back. Not this, not her coming home to him.

As he stroked her long hair his heart sung with joy, relief washing over him like a cold shower on a hot day. He couldn't have felt further from sleep but he could sense she needed it and he could hold her all night like this, whatever she wanted she would have it. Part of him hurt for his brother, had it been any other girl he might have gone to Stefan and tried to offer wisely words of comfort, like "Lets have bourbon and play pool until you forget the bitch," but the cost of being with Elena was knowing it hurt his brother, and for once Damon was okay with that, because she'd chosen, not between Crazy-Ripper-Stefan and Doing-His-Best-Damon but between the real Stefan, the bunny eating, post-Klaus hugs and cuddles Stefan, and him Still-Far-From-Perfect Damon. His only guilt was that he still didn't feel he was good enough for her, but he loved her too much to leave her, to question her choice. He could always let her go if she needed to go, if she changed her mind he'd never fight her, knowing that he'd finally had his chance, a real fair chance. "I love you Elena," he whispered as he watched the gentle rise and fall of her breathing.