Damon: “I thought, that you said she was dead.”
Stefan: “Look at her.”
Damon: “Do you know where you are?”
Elena: “In the woods.”
Damon: “And who is that?”
Elena: “Stefan. Your brother.”
Damon: “And who am I? Do you know who I am?”
Elena: “Of course I do. You’re Damon, and I love you.”

Stefan: “That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it, Damon? And now you’ve got it. You had to make her like us, like you. It wasn’t enough just to kill her.”
Damon: “That’s the third time you’ve said that, and I’m getting a little tired of it…Elena, did I kill you?”
Elena: “Of course not.”
Stefan: “I never thought you were a liar, just about everything else, but not that. I’ve never heard you try to cover up for yourself before.”
Damon: “In another minute, I’m going to lose my temper.”

Elena: “There was someone in the cafeteria… Caroline. She was going to read my diary in front of everyone, and that was bad because…I don’t remember why. But we tricked her.”
Damon: “Oh, ‘we’ did, did we?”
Elena: “Yes. You got it away from her. You did it for me. Because you love me. You do love me, don’t you?”

Stefan: “Someone came after you.”
Elena: “Some thing.” (to Damon) “Let’s go away somewhere, just us.”
Damon: “In a minute… what kind of thing came after you?”

“I’m fine,” she said around Damon’s fingers. “I’m tired, that’s all. I was going to sleep when I heard you two fighting, and I came to help you. And then you wouldn’t even let me kill him,” she finished, disgusted.

Damon: “With Katherine? I can say it, if you can’t. Katherine made a foolish choice, and she paid the price for it. Elena is different; she knows her own mind. But it doesn’t matter if you agree. The fact is that she’s weak now, and she needs blood. I’m going to see that she gets it, and then I’m going to find who did this to her. You can come or not. Suit yourself.”

“She needs to rest now, I’m taking her someplace where she can do it safely.” He wasn’t asking Stefan; he was telling him.

Stefan: “For Elena’s protection. I wanted to keep Damon away from her. But it looks as if that’s not what she wanted after all.”

There was a long moment while they stared at each other.
“I’m going down,” Elena said quietly and turned.
“No.”
“They need help.”
“All right, then, damn you.” She’d never heard Damon’s voice so low, or so furious. “I’ll—” he broke off and Elena, turning back quickly, saw him slam a fist into the window-sill, rattling the glass.

“It’s all over,” Damon said. He sounded only mildly interested, but Elena glanced at him sharply. All right then, damn you, I’ll what? she thought. What had he been about to say? He wasn’t in any mood to tell her, but she was in a mood to push.
“Damon…” She put a hand on his arm.
He stiffened, then turned. “Well?”
For a second they stood looking at each other, and then there was a step on the stair.

Elena: “Damon, if I ask you something, will you tell me the truth? I know you didn’t chase me off Wickery Bridge. I could feel whatever it was, and it was different. But I want to ask you this: was it you who dumped Stefan in the old Francher well a month ago?”
Damon: “In a well?”
Elena: “On Halloween night, the night Mr. Tanner was killed. After you showed yourself for the first time to Stefan in the woods. He told me he left you in the clearing and started to walk to his car but that someone attacked him before he reached it. When he woke up, he was trapped in the well, and he would have died there if Bonnie hadn’t led us to him. I always assumed you were the one who attacked him. He always assumed you were the one. But were you?”
Damon: “As a matter of fact, no.”
Stefan: “You can’t believe that! You can’t believe anything he says.”
Damon: “Why should I lie? I admit freely to killing Tanner. I drank his blood until he shriveled like a prune. And I wouldn’t mind doing the same thing to you, brother. But a well? It’s hardly my style.”
Elena: “I believe you.”

Damon: “Don’t be any more stupid than you can help, I told you four days ago that someone else had killed Elena. And I said that I was going to find that someone and deal with him. And I am. You two can continue that private conversation you were having when I interrupted.”
Elena: “Damon, wait. Whatever this thing is, it’s strong, I felt it when it was after me, and it seemed to fill the whole sky. I don’t think any of us would stand a chance against it alone.”
Damon: “So?”
Elena: “So…So… I think we three ought to stick together. I think we have a much better chance of finding it and dealing with it together than separately. And maybe we can stop it before it hurts or—or kills—anyone else.”
Damon: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn about anyone else, but are you suggesting that this is your choice? Remember, we agreed that when you were more rational you would make one”.

Damon: “No, I don’t think it’s dangerous, particularly. But I don’t see what you expect to accomplish.”
Elena: “Neither do I, exactly, but I don’t have any better ideas. Do you?”
Damon: “What, you mean about other ways to spend the time? Yes, I do. Do you want me to tell you about them?”

Stefan: “Are you willing to stay with Elena the entire time you’re over there? Every minute?”
Damon: “Try and stop me…”

Damon: “Romanticism, myself, I like you in black.”
Elena: “Well, you would, wouldn’t you?”

Katherine: “It all depends on your taste, but then I have such a sweet tooth.” She grasped Damon by the hair, and, yanking his head up, sank her teeth into his neck.
Elena: “No! Don’t do that; don’t hurt him any more…”

Damon: “Use your will, Elena. Hold on. You have the strength—”
She smiled at him, waveringly.

Still, there was no point in hurting Damon. She loved Damon, too. “I’ll try,” she promised.
“We’ll take you home,” he said.
“But not yet,” she told him gently. “Let’s wait just a little while.”
Something happened in the fathomless black eyes, and the burning spark went out. Then she saw that Damon knew, too.
“I’m not afraid,” she said. “Well—only a little.”

Something was shining on Damon’s face. She reached toward it, touched it, and lifted her fingers away in wonder.
“Don’t be sad,” she told him, feeling the cool wetness on her fingertips. But a pang of worry disturbed her. Who was there to understand Damon now? Who would be there to push him, to try to see what was really inside him? “You have to take care of each other,” she said, realizing it. A little strength came back to her, like a candle flaring in the wind. “Stefan, will you promise? Promise to take care of each other?”