Elena opened her eyes slowly, as if testing the waters. Everything was new - pristine. She could see the individual hairline cracks in the tiles on ceiling. And then, when she shifted her eyes to Damon, she could see all the individual shades and hues of blue that were present in his eyes.

It was odd. The last thing she saw before she had died was the deep sensation of being in the unknown. The water had slowly worked it's way into her lungs, and she thought she would be glad if she never saw a drop of water again. But now, looking into Damon's ocean-coloured eyes, she couldn't be more happy.

Then Stefan was there, his aura radiating security. He looked down at her emotionlessly, not sure how to react.

It was Damon who broke the ice, his insistant humour breaking into the cracks of Elena's brain.

"Well," he said, pensive, "I guess we're going to have to buy you a new car."

Elena gave a small smile, and burrowed into the warmth of Damon's leather jacket. She didn't think much of the action - it was more because she was absolutely freezing. Cold seemed to be dripping off each of her words.

Damon, however, did. He held her close, pulling one of his arms out of his sleeve so that he could drape the jacket around her shoulders.

"You have no idea," Stefan breathed, "How glad we are that you're finally awake. It felt like we were waiting days."

"Matt?" Elena said immediately, completely ignoring Stefan. Her mind could only focus on him. She had remembered being in the car with him and swerving off Wickery Bridge because Rebekah was standing in the middle of the road.

"Meredith is with him. He was in a bad state - water had completely filled his lungs. I couldn't get him to come to when I got him out of the water. She's using vampire blood to heal him."

Elena slapped her palms to her temple, and raked her nails across her skin with grief. "This is all my fault. If I had just made him stay at home, none of this would of happened and Matt would be okay and Alaric-" a look of complete sadness dawned over her. "Alaric?" She looked to Damon for confirmation.

Damon wouldn't look at her, and his grip on her waist loosened to nothing.

"No," she whispered, tears dripping from her eyes, "No, I didn't die! I didn't die!"

Stefan crouched low, placing her hand in his. "Elena, you have to listen to me very closely. You drowned in the lake. There was nothing I could do. You wouldn't let me get you out until I got Matt, and by the time I had got back into the water for you, you were already long gone. Alaric's life was tied to yours - as soon as you took your last breath, so did he."

Elena was shaking, throwing her head from left to right as she refused to accept what Stefan was offering. Veins appeared in the hollows under her eyes, and red-coloured ink spread into the whites of her eyes, completely enveloping the Elena that they once knew and changing her into a vicious monster.

"She hasn't fed," Damon said, stating the obvious, "Why are her eyes like that? She hasn't completed transition."

"Someone must have fed her blood when she was asleep," Stefan said, worry in his tone, "But no one has been in the room except for me, you and Jeremy."

Elena was beginning to sieze, and, instead of only filling the whites of her eyes, the blood was now travelling through her whole eye, turning everything red in it's tracks.

"Get Meredith," said Damon calmly. He lifted Elena up onto the bed and tried to hold her down, but she was much too strong. Her arms and legs kicked wildly into the air, trying to throw Damon away.

But he held on, whispering to her softly.

"Elena." His fingers lightly brushed the flyaway strands of hair from her face, and he looked deep into the pools of blood that used to be her eyes. "Elena, it's Damon. I'm not going to hurt you. We need to find out what's wrong with you. You need to let us look at you."

Elena stopped almost instantly, blinking up at Damon. She couldn't see anything clearly - her vision was clouded by a thin sleeve of red that covered everything. But she could see Damon, his face inches from her as he tried to calm her, and she could feel the warmth that radiated off of his skin, and the short puffs of his breath against her cheeks.

"Damon?" she breathed, her voice unsteady. She closed her eyes, and heaved a sigh. "Damon."

"It's okay," he said, stroking his thumb in soothing circles against her cheek, "Stefan's gone to get Meredith. They'll be back soon, and you'll be fine."

Elena nodded, trusting his words. "I'm sorry you had to go through that with Alaric, Damon," she whispered, "I know how much he meant to you." Her eyes flicked open. The red was fading from her eyes, but the veins were still prominent under them. She turned her face to look at Damon. "I'm sorry I killed your best friend."

Damon didn't miss a beat as he replied, "Alaric would have wanted you to live, Elena."

She almost laughed. "Not as a vampire." And then she smiled up at him, her lips parted slightly. "I want to ask you something." She paused for a few seconds, letting her words sink in before she continued. "Will you look after Jeremy for me?"

Damon's eyes turned dark, and he pulled away from her. "You're not going to die, Elena."

Elena nodded. "No, I know. But if I get the choice between being a vampire and not being at all, Iknow what I'm going to choose."

"Don't be stupid," Damon hissed, "You don't get to make that decision! What about Jeremy? Stefan? Caroline and Bonnie? What about me, Elena?"

"I'm not going to be the one to break you two apart," she whispered, almost silently, as she reached out her hand to catch his. He stared at it for a few seconds, deciding, and then he took it.

"And you think dying is going to make us happy again?"

"I think dying will take away the thing you're arguing over," replied Elena.

"That's the most selfish thing I've ever heard you say," he said angrily, letting go of her hand, "Dying won't fix anything - it'll make it worse!"

"I don't want to be a vampire, Damon."

"The jokes on you then, because this is not your decision, Elena!"

"It's my body!"

"Yeah, and you're high on vampire blood right now, you think we're going to let you make stupid decisions while you're half dead?"

"That isn't your choice!"

"I gave you my blood!"

"You didn't give me anything, Damon!"

"Obviously not." He gave her one last painful look, turned on his heel and began to stride toward the door.

"Damon, you can't just leave me here," she called after him as she raised herself into a sitting position.

He turned, stared at her for a long second, and then crushed his lips to hers. She gasped against him, trying to catch herself, but soon found her arms winding around his neck to pull him closer. Her eyes automatically closed and she breathed a sigh of relief and comfort.

"I can do what I want," he whispered against her lips as he pulled away.

She kept her arms encircled around him, staring deep into his eyes. "No," she said, "You can't."