wickery bridge } { it's time to say goodbye to turning tables

[braveandstupid]

She walks away, and she doesn’t look back. She doesn’t listen when Stefan pleads with her to get in the car, and she doesn’t take the easy way out to go with him in the car. She can barely even look at him right now, so she isn’t going to make things worse by trapping herself in a car with him, again.

She had been fighting for so long to save him, to believe that the part of him that she had fallen in love with is still there, and in five minutes, it is all thrown back in her face. She can’t give up on him, she won’t, but now she’s starting to wonder if what she thought was there, if what she thought this meant was ever really there at all. She’s eighteen years-old, and she knows that people say things always feel so much more intense when you’re a teenager, but she never realized that that also meant the bad as well.

She still wouldn’t give up on Stefan. She still would fight for him with everything that she had, because it’s the only thing she can do, but she isn’t sure if she can love him again. She isn’t sure if the person she fell in love with is ever coming back.

The tears are starting to dry sticky against her skin, and she knows that she should probably call someone to come get her. Wandering through the streets of Mystic Falls at night with all the hybrids around isn’t the smartest move. They probably wouldn’t kill her, given who she is to Klaus, but she isn’t sure that they’ll completely leave her alone either.

She couldn’t call Damon—given his feelings for her at the moment, she isn’t sure she could trust herself to be alone with him. Bonnie is mad at her, Alaric is probably drunk at this point—in fact, most people she knew were probably drunk at this point. Her fist closes around her phone in her pocket, and then releases it. She just needs to walk. She needs to get all her emotions out so that she can put on the brave face tomorrow, and go on saving Stefan as though nothing’s happened.

Damon has done worse to her and she’s still managed to forgive him. It wouldn’t be fair if she didn’t do the same for Stefan, who she actually loves.

So she just keeps walking. Eventually she’ll find her way home, but for right now, she’s alone on the side of the road, and needs to keep walking.

Comments

[forsake]

Matt Donovan has known Elena Gilbert for most of his life.

He is incapable of taking a good, hard look at it, his life -- past or present -- and finding she isn't in it. Elena is inextricably entwined into so much of who he is and what he has been through. Giving up on the idea of the two of them finding their way back to each other was painful. Matt may not be relentlessly stubborn to the point Elena is, but he doesn't give up in his own quiet way.

She may no longer be that girl she used to be before the car drove off the bridge, but Matt knows who Elena is. He knows what she looks like when she's happy, and he knows what she looks like when she's sad. They may not be together anymore, but they will always be a part of each other's lives. He will always look out for her.

Anything else to him is unthinkable.

It's why, when he catches sight of her form on the side of the road, his truck comes to an abrupt halt. Things have been crazy the past year, crazier than usual, and while Matt's still just the guy wondering how the hell it all got so screwed up, he also understands now how bad things can take a turn for the worse in a split second.

Stefan is back, Klaus is in town, none of the people he cares about are safe, and one of them is alone on the side of the road. One of the people he cares about most.

Something happened and he knows it.

"Elena?" he asks, the worry catching in his throat.

Matt gets out of the truck as he moves to catch up with her.