Elena didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It was like he was bipolar. One minute he was telling her he was leaving, the next he "needed" her.
"No," Elena said as she felt herself beginning to lean her cheek into his hand. This wasn't okay. What he'd said and done wasn't okay. She'd spent the night crying on Jenna's shoulder because of him. It was not okay for him to just walk back in, give her some flowery words and expect everything to just be okay again. Giving him a little shove to get him away from her, Elena turned, standing up abruptly so that the chair she had been sitting on clattered noisily to the floor. She lifted her hands, running them up into her long, dark hair at her temples, clutching at her head as she turned away. If she'd been human, she was sure she'd have the mother of all headaches right now.
Whirling to face Damon again, Elena fixed him with a glare, lowering her hands again until they hung, balled, at her sides. "We can't keep doing this, Damon!" she said, her voice rising due to frustration. "You can't keep doing this to me. I can't take it. I've lost you too many times already. You can't keep putting me through this." She shook her head and lifted hand to angrily wipe away the tears that were running down her cheeks.
"Don't you get it?" she asked, her voice high pitched and trembling with every word. "This is the only chance we have. That we'll ever have. At home you're..." She stopped. She couldn't say it. "This is all we have now. If you throw this away..." She shook her head.
"I'm not a saint, Damon. And neither are you. I knew that when I fell in love with you but, news flash, I do love you. Even after everything, I love you; the whole of you, and that includes your bloody, messy past and all the snark and recklessness and bad choices. And I know things aren't always going to be plain sailing but..." She paused, swallowing to try to wet her suddenly dry mouth. "I need to know that you're not planning to leave me the next time you get drunk or someone says something about the past or something doesn't go to plan. Otherwise... I just can't do this." She trailed off, feeling more vulnerable than she had in a very long time.