What if After Homecoming Stefan just skipped town, and Elena made good on her promise of letting him go. Everything would go back to normal right? Wrong

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Chapter One: Scars

She tossed and turned on her mattress, unable to fall asleep, she winced as she rolled over on her arm. It was always the same. Once a month he would return, once a month she became even weaker than she was before. He took just enough. Enough for her to survive, but enough to weaken her for weeks. The Scars that he left each time never truly faded. Right as one began to disappear he would return and the wound would become fresh. Despite this unwilling monthly donation Elena was happy that this was all but over. Klaus's monthly appearances never lasted more than an hour and for once mystic falls seemed to be the quiet old town she grew up in. She had expected that once the dust had settled and the immediate danger had passed, she would feel different. Yet it was more or less the same. True she no longer woke in the mornings wondering if the ones she loved would survive to the next sun rise, but she still felt a nagging pull on her soul. Now that her mind wasn't on high alert, fearing for the lives of those around her, she began to absorb what she had lost in this battle. She had never truly given herself the chance to mourn her losses. She couldn't. If she aloud herself to breakdown, to let her walls fade away she would only make herself weak, giving those around her chance to attack. Now she was left alone with nothing more than the memories, and the pain. She tried to shut the world out. To hide away and grieve. Maybe just maybe she would be able to heal. Of course the world had other plans. She had thought that if she could be alone, let herself feel everything she had been holding back she could open back up to the real world. A world where everything made scenes. She soon came to find that she could never be part of that world again. She had trapped herself in her home for days, not letting anyone enter, not that anyone had tried. Somehow they all seemed to realise that she needed this time. Not even Damon, who had been itching to rush to her side. To see for himself that she was safe that she hadn't fallen into yet another dangerous situation. Yet he stayed away. He had stopped by her house ever night without her knowing, simply to calm his fears. After a few days on her own Elena couldn't stand it anymore. Any of it. Being alone, with only her pain as a companion, she couldn't even be in her own home. As she looked around the rooms she grew up in the pain chewed at her insides. There wasn't a single person in her family that she hadn't lost and it was all her fault. Her parents dead, because of her, Jenna, her fault, Isobel, the mother she never knew she had, the one she never wanted, dead. John, dead all to save her. Jeremy, who had witnessed so much pain in his short time on earth. She had torn him from his life and sent him away. She soon found herself on the floor in the every hallway where she took her first steps. Her knees pulled up against her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Tears running down her face. She couldn't stand it anymore. With Shaky hand she dialled the number, knowing that in that moment he was the only person that could make it go away, make her feel something other than the sharp blade of loss.

His breath hitched as she saw who the number was from. He had been waiting, hoping for days that this call would come. He wanted nothing more than to be at her side, to hear her voice, to feel her warmth. When he picked up the phone the only thing he could hear was the sounds tears. To anyone else Elenas words would have been inaudible, but he heard them loud and clear. Her voice shook as she whispered

" I need you"

Damon reached the Gilbert residence within minutes. He didn't brother knocking, knowing that she was in no fit state to answer the door. He had almost seen this coming. He knew what Elena had been holding back known that at one point she would have to let herself feel her losses. He found her in the hallway, tears running down her face.

Broken, numb, where the only words to describe Elena. For a merciful moment the pain she had been feeling had seceded. Instead she felt nothing at all. She wasn't sure who she was, where she was. Suddenly she felt herself being lifted as a pair of strong arms wrapped around her. The Numbness she had felt vanished and she felt a new emotion, not pain, or loss, or fear. She felt... Safe. She felt relief, Before darkness enveloped her. She an un known amount of time later. At first un aware of her surroundings of where she was or how she got there. When she turned over in the un known bed she realised where she was. She had spent so much time in this house since meeting the Salvatore brothers that it began to feel more like her home than the place she grew up. She felt safe there, where as her own house where the only thing she now felt was pain. She sat up slowly. Dried tears still clung to her face. The house seemed silent. She slipped her feet onto the floor, walking quietly out of the room and down the stairs of the large boarding house. She found him in front of the large open grate fire place. He turned when he heard her coming. A slight smile spread across his lips as there eyes connected. The look in his eyes told her that he knew that she didn't want to talk about it, she knew that he understood. At that moment, standing in that room with him across from her. They didn't have to talk, or touch to know that it was right. She felt it. She knew now that she could let go. Move on.

For once looking forward Elena didn't see anything dark. Yes she knew that Klaus was still around, but she knew it was time for her to move on. Let everything she had been holding on to go. Everything including Stefan. As Elena thought of her future she had no idea of the danger that had just arrived in town.