The Beginning Of Our Forever [1]

3. The Hardest Goodbye

Elena pulled away from the safety of Damon's embrace and turned around to the second headstone. She gathered her strength and walked slowly and apprehensively towards it, holding Damon's hand.

As she got closer and closer to the headstone, the words engraved on it became clearer.
She couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Of all of the people she left behind, she had hoped that he would have survived long enough for her to see him one last time.

Matt.

Elena collapsed. All of the strength in her legs disappeared and Damon was lucky to catch her before she landed on the floor. She was inconsolable and although Damon did his best to soothe her, nothing worked. No amount of quiet whispers or running his fingers through her hair could stop her from crying.
For the first time in a long time, Damon felt truly useless.

"Baby, baby, shhh, hey it's okay I'm here," he whispered, trying to think of the rights things to say to calm her down. Elena pulled herself away from Damon and looked back at him with a crazed and confused look.

Elena screamed at Damon causing various nesting birds to fly out of the trees above,

"HOW IS THIS OKAY DAMON? PLEASE ENLIGHTEN ME?! THERE IS NOTHING OKAY ABOUT THIS! Bonnie and Matt are dead! Ric is dead! God knows who else is almost dead! Why did this have to happen to me Damon? Have I not been through enough? Why did Kai do this to me- to us?!"

Damon was quite shocked at Elena's outburst, he could see that she was hurting but he never thought that he would be the one that she would take it out on.

"I don't know Elena, I don't know why Kai did this to you. He was just a psycho. But don't you dare think for a second that you were the only person that this effected. I went through hell waiting for you. Do you know what it's like to wake up every day for 72 years knowing that the person you love the most is still alive but cannot be woken until one of your best friends dies? Bonnie was important to me Elena. She knew how much I wanted you back and she had to live with the fact that every day she walked around was a day that you couldn't. Yes she lived a long and happy life, but she never forgot about you. You were in the back of everyone's mind- Jeremy's, Matt's, Caroline's, Ric's, Tyler's and... Stefan's. We all loved you. We all lost you." Damon's words became crackly and Elena could see that he was starting to loose control of his emotions. Elena moved back over to Damon and placed a hand on his face.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it out on you. It's just... this whole situation sucks," Elena managed to muster a small fake smile in an attempt to reassure Damon that she was okay. Damon ran his thumb over the corner of Elena's mouth and across her bottom lip, his eyes fixated on hers.

"You have no idea what it was like to live in a world without you," Damon muttered, in-between heavy breaths. He leaned forward and placed a kiss on the section of Elena's lip that he had been running his thumb over.
"Come on," he whispered.

Damon draped his arm over Elena's shoulder and walked her over to Matt's grave. They both stood there in silence, neither of them sure what to say.

"I wish I could have seen the life you made for yourself Matt," Elena began, kneeling down.
"I know I would have been so proud of you. I have always been proud of the way you never changed your morals. No matter what crazy things happened, you were always the same person. You never let things change you. When I finally meet your family I'll be sure to tell them how much I loved you and how much of a good person you were. Sleep well Matt. I love you." A single tear dropped from Elena's cheek and onto the base of Matt's headstone. She brushed away the leaves that had settled on the top of it and leant forward and kissed it.

Elena stood back up and linked hands with Damon. He wiped away her tears and held her close in a strong, yet comforting, hug. As he kissed her forehead he mumbled 'I'm so proud of you' into her skin.

Eventually Damon and Elena made their way out of the darkness of Mystic Falls graveyard and began the long walk towards the Salvatore house. Elena sighed as she pulled her heels off and started walking bare-foot along the road. Damon laughed,

"It'll be worth the walk, don't worry," he smirked.
"There are two very impatient vampires waiting for you at home," he added intriguingly. Elena looked up at him, her eyes sparkling with new found happiness after an endless morning of heartache.

"We better get going then. I don't want them to wait any longer for me than they already have," she smiled, turning to face Damon.
"You better get your ass moving."

"Come on then princess," Damon replied, taking her shoes from her grasp and holding her hand with his spare one.