Within Temptation

Chapter Twenty-Nine

A/N: Hey all! I'm finally posting. This chapter is actually a belated birthday gift for one of my awesome readers! Happy belated 18th AimzFrancis! :)

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Within Temptation-Chapter Twenty-Nine

"I shouldn't be here, Damon." Stefan commented as they sat down inside of the Raleigh-Durham International airport at a bar.

"Oh, come on. You have it under control, don't you?" Damon asked him, watching as Stefan sat beside him on a bar stool, nervously tapping his hand against the wooden table, glancing around the small bar area.

"I don't right now. All I want is a drink, Damon. I really just want a drink because I keep thinking about everything he did to her. It makes me want to beat the shit out of him, Damon. I want to find him and I want to kill him. I want to make Matt's life a living hell. Because, that's what he did to me. I sat by Elena's bedside for three weeks, watching Elena flat line in front of me twice. She died on that table, Damon and there was nothing that I could do. All I did was stand back as the doctors and nurses rushed into her room, and worked on her. And, while I watched the life drain out of her... I thought about the few dozen moments that we were together, really together." Stefan confessed to his brother, as they both watched the bartender walk over to them, a smile on his face when he threw a white towel over his shoulder. "What can I get for you two today?"

"We're day drinking." Damon stated with a smile, patting Stefan on his back as he looked over at the bartender and then back at the struggling look on his brother's face.

"A scotch on the rocks for me and..a sparkling water with a lime for my brother over here." Damon ordered as the bartender nodded and Stefan looked over at him.

"I know that you're feeling anxious about this. But, I'm not going to let you give up on yourself now. Stefan, you're an addict. And, we both know that if you take that drink in your hands right now because of how you're feeling, that it's not going to help you. So, to calm you down. I have a better idea...Tell me more about, Elena Gilbert." Damon said, smiling over at his little brother as he saw Stefan run his hands over his face in clear frustration. It was hard for him. Being in a place that was such a temptation. But, hearing Elena's name and thinking about her, made him calm.

"I love her, Damon. I love her and maybe, after all of this is over with Matt and Katherine, maybe in a few years after Elena and I are settled down somewhere, out of the limelight and all these damn tabloids. Then, I'll make her my wife and we'll live somewhere nice and out of city limits, off a beaten path. Just the two of us, living a good life." Stefan confessed truthfully.

" I can already see that she makes you a better person. But, Stefan. I had no idea that you saw a future with her." Damon told him, taking his glass of scotch from the bartender as he placed it on to the table and nodded when he walked away from them.

"Yeah, I never thought that I would either. But, Elena's different than Katherine. She's warm and sweet, kind and caring. She's everything that Katherine isn't, everything that she hasn't been for a very long time." He told Damon, nodding and taking a sip of the sparkling water in front of him when Damon cleared his throat and asked. "When was the first time you saw the difference between them. Like, not just slightly. But, really saw them as two different people. Instead of being fooled by Elena being Katherine." Damon heard himself ask Stefan, watching Stefan's eyes close shut, a huffed out breath escaping past his lips when he added.

"When Elena came to see me in rehab while I was having a really bad night. One of the counselors allowed us to talk and be together privately for a few hours. It was against the rules, the guy could have lost his job if anyone had found out. But, he thought that seeing her would help me." Stefan explained as he turned away from his brother and glanced out the window that overlooked the tarmac, getting lost in his memories…