This little encounter takes place after Season 4, Episode 9 – O Come, All Ye Faithful…

"You're here," Elena said softly. She heard Damon enter her room through the window. He was sitting at the window, so she sat up in her bed, intending to go to him.

"Just to talk," Damon said.

"Talk," Elena repeated, staying in place, but looking down to where her feet were under the covers. "You mean to tell me again that, because I want you, you don't want me."

Damon winced a little. "You know that's not it."

Elena let her pain show. "Isn't it? Just because my feelings for you keep getting stronger…"

"Just because of the sire bond," Damon interrupted, correcting her.

She shook her head. "I don't buy it, Damon. Why is this bond any less real than the schoolgirl crush I had on Stefan?"

Damon didn't respond. He just looked at the floor.

"Every time I'm with you," Elena continued, "every time someone tries to talk me out of it, my feelings for you get stronger. You can send me away and tell me to live my life without you, but it only strengthens the bond. I can't stop the way I feel about you, and I don't want to."

Damon looked up to meet her eyes. "You have to."

"Then you have to do something besides protect me," Elena countered. "something besides help me and my brother. You need to be like Stefan – lie to me, criticize me, accuse me. Maybe then I could walk away from you."

Damon just shook his head, so Elena continued, "You won't," Elena said, "because you love me as much as I love you. The bond works both ways."

He was still shaking his head when he said, "I don't love you just because of the sire bond."

"Same here, Damon. You know the bond only strengthens the feelings. You can't take the feelings from me, and I can't believe you're trying to."

He winced again, just a little. "I'm not trying to take your feelings from you. I just need to know they're real."

"I know they're real," Elena said emphatically. "If I haven't been able to show that to you, then I don't know what else I can do."

"Neither do I." Damon said softly. "I just know I have to be careful with you."

Elena nodded. "I know. I know you want me as much as I want you, and I know why you're doing this, but Damon, it only makes the bond stronger. It's just another way that you're showing me that you love me."

Damon nodded, but didn't say anything else, so Elena finally asked, "So what do we do?"

"We wait for the cure," Damon said. "When you're human again, the sire bond should be gone."

Elena almost laughed. "Do you really think you can cure me from loving you? You know the feelings were there before."

"But you didn't act on them," he countered.

"That doesn't mean they weren't there, Damon. I stayed true to Stefan through it all, but I was different by the time I changed. It wouldn't have lasted with Stefan, and it won't last if I'm cured of this vampirism."

Damon shrugged. "You may forget all about this, about me…"

"I keep a journal, Damon," Elena interrupted. "Everything you've done for me, everything you've done for Jeremy is there for me to see. So is everything Stefan and Caroline are doing to me. I won't forget."

Damon nodded. "But you'll be free."

"I'm free now, Damon," she countered. "Free to love who I want, free to save my friends and fight with those trying to hurt us. The only think I'm not free to do is to go to you. I'm forced to keep my distance."

"It'll give Stefan hope," Damon offered weakly.

"It's giving Stefan control," Elena countered. "I don't want him to control either of us, certainly not whether or not we can be together."

Her reaction startled Damon. "He's not controlling this, Elena. This is me being as careful as can with what I love most, with who I love most."

Elena looked down again. "I'm a vampire, Damon. I can kill with a twist of my wrist. Whatever you can dish out, I can take. You don't have to be careful with me."

"Not for you," Damon agreed, "but I have to be careful with you for me." He made sure he had her eyes as he added, "This is what will make me happy."

Elena cringed at the words. "Things can never be the same between me and Stefan. You know that."

"I know," Damon said. "They can never be the same between you and me, either."

"Maybe that's true, Damon," Elena said. "But whatever else is true, my feelings for you are getting stronger. Don't forget that."

"I won't," Damon said, rising and walking to her. He kissed her forehead as she closed her eyes, hoping for more. As Damon turned to leave, he added "And you remember that whatever I do, it's because I love you."

"I'll remember," Elena whispered as she opened her eyes to see that he was gone.

Actually, I think the sire bond thing is a pretty good plot item. Though I at first thought of it as a way to cheat us out of Delena, to minimize it or whatever, it really is just proof that her feelings were there for Damon all along (a la Lying to Herself), so will be there after. And surely the intensity of the feelings now dwarfs anything she ever had for Stefan. She'll have a reference point…

Too much babble…The game begins again in a couple of days, and I will be there…