Damon was wrong. He knew it, Stefan knew it. He did this by giving Nate blood without him knowing and it was only a matter of time until it blew up in his face. Which it did of course, because it was bound to happen. Stefan didn't realize though that it would have been so permanent and he knew that even if Damon and Serena had gone behind Nate's back, giving him blood without him knowing, that Damon never wished for Nate to actually die. But that's what happened. You die with vampire blood in your system, you become a vampire. For Nate though, it was the ultimate. There was no fixing it. There was no dealing with it. Nate hated vampires and Stefan thought that even if Nate hadn't killed Matt, Nate would still have done what he did and killed himself. It was only a matter of time.
They sat on the couch and sometimes they didn't speak. The minutes would drag by, but then Damon would say something, say something that would get under Stefan's skin, but Stefan took it. He knew how Damon was. He was trying to push Stefan away, but it didn't work that way with him. There was nothing that Damon could have possibly said that would make Stefan give up which meant that Damon would dig down deeper, twist that knife a little more and he knew that it was only going to get worse. He was preparing himself because he knew where this would lead to and he didn't want to lose it. Not tonight. Not when that was what Damon wanted the most.
The younger Salvatore shot a glare in his brother's direction, but said nothing about his comment. Instead he finished off his glass of scotch and got up, walking over to the counter and poured himself another. "They don't blame you. I mean, that's what this is about, right? How other people are going to look at you and judge you?" Stefan narrowed his eyes. It was just how it was. Damon got the free pass, not saying that Stefan didn't either, but Damon had done much worse to their friends than Stefan could have ever done, yet here he was.
"Or is that you actually care and it scares the shit out of you?" Stefan pondered as he walked back to the couch and sat down, getting himself comfortable. He knew it was going to be a long night. "She needs you. You need to stop doing this." Stefan had tried all night to not bring Elena into it, but it was the truth. She just lost her friend, both of them and as much as Stefan probably hated it, the one person she would have wanted was Damon to help her get through this.