A/N: Thanks for reading, you guys! Hope you're satisfied with the ending...

Once they made it back to the present, Elena looked at Damon. "So now it's your turn to go somewhere with me. You up for it?"

Damon raised an eyebrow at her. "My girl whisking me off to a mystery location? Bring it."

When Elena parked the car, Damon got out and looked around. "You know," he said, eyeing the dock, "I thought this night was gone forever. That you'd never remember."

"I know," Elena said as she walked over to grab his hand and squeeze it. "I'm so sorry. I really am! I-"

"Stop, Elena. You don't have to keep apologizing. Really."

"Well," Elena said with a sarcastic twist in her voice, "You are the one who told me that we went home because I was cold and miserable. You forgot to mention the part where we promised to be together forever."

"And yet we ended up back here together anyway," Damon said, smirking.

"Of course we did! That forever you promised me is just getting started," Elena shot back.

"Yeah, about that. Elena…" Damon started to say before being cut off.

"I swear, Damon. If you keep bringing up that damn cure…I told you I don't want it!"

"Elena, you need to think about this. What about Jeremy and Bonnie and Ric? Even Lockwood and Donovan. They're your family. You'd get to be human with them – raise your families together and get all humaney and old together."

"The part of me that wanted that life is gone," Elena said firmly. "You, Stefan and Caroline are my family. Of course I still love Jer, and Bonnie, and Ric and everyone else – but I still get to be a part of their lives. I can watch them raise their kids. I can even be a part of it! We can watch over their families for generations."

"Besides," Elena continued as she led him to the edge of the dock to sit, "Who exactly is it do you think I'd be raising kids with? The only two men I've ever really loved are both vampires. I came to terms with that a long time ago."

Damon just looked at her silently, not knowing what to say.

"Now, what else was it you mentioned me giving up earlier? A career? I'll be a more successful doctor as a vampire! I can work on a torture-free version of the research my dad did with our blood. And a picket fence? Please. We live in a mansion, Damon. You're loaded! I think that area is covered."

"You're making it sound so simple…but it's not. You know it's not!"

"Nothing about our lives has been easy since we met, Damon. That doesn't mean it isn't worth fighting for! So what if this isn't the life I would have chosen for myself a few years ago? I didn't know this world existed then, I didn't know all the things about myself that I know now." She stopped briefly to rub her nose against his cheek. "I didn't know you."

"I don't understand why you keep acting like I'm worth giving up a normal life for!" Damon said. "Especially now that you have your memories back. Don't you remember all the fighting we did before I died? All the times I screwed up and you had to clean up the mess. Why would you choose this life for yourself?"

"Easy," Elena started. "You told me earlier that you've loved every version of me? Well every version of me has fallen in love with you! Over and over again."

"Elena, you don't have to do this. We can just-"

"No, I want to. Let me talk, okay?" Elena said, smiling as she caressed his cheek. "You deserve to hear this, and I think you need to." She took a deep breath before continuing. "When I became a vampire, I was terrified of myself. I tried so hard to feel nothing. But you made me feel everything."

She paused to laugh. "Once, before you came back, when my memories were gone, I was with Stefan and he got so frustrated with me talking about you like I barely knew you at all. He snapped and told me that I'd compelled you away. That I couldn't handle losing you because you'd always been the one that inspired me. That you forced me to accept the parts of myself I couldn't even let anyone else see." She squeezed his hand. "You've always been the one that made it okay not to be perfect, that made it safe to embrace the darkness in myself I was always so scared of, even when I was human."

"Then you came back," Elena continued, "And even when I was so against it at first, being around you felt different. It ended up being so easy to trust you, to fall in love with you all over again. I don't know if it's because the feelings were still inside me somewhere or if we just started all over again, but it doesn't matter. Even with my memories gone, you made me feel alive."

"Speaking of those memories," Damon said, unable to stop his growing smile as he wrapped an arm around her waist, "why did they suddenly come rushing back? And don't tell me you don't know."

"Okay," Elena said, grinning. "But first, why don't you tell me when you think I fell in love with you?"

Damon shrugged. "You just said it, you understood me better when you became a vampire."

Elena shook her head. "I also told you that you're the only one that could really reach me, even as a human."

"Come on, Elena. Human you was Team Stefan all the way."

"Hey," Elena said forcefully, "I did love him. He's the first thing that made me want to really live again after my parents died. But that was a long time ago, and there was a lot about life I didn't understand yet. He was trying so hard to act human, and I was trying so hard to be the person I was before my parents died. He didn't want me to see his darkness, and I couldn't even accept my own. When things went wrong, we both turned to you, not each other. Stefan went to you with his vampire problems, just like I did. We were both trying so hard to live up to our expectations of each other that we didn't even notice at first."

"Notice what?" Damon asked warily, uncomfortable with talking about her relationship with Stefan.

"That even though I loved him, I didn't trust him, not completely. I trusted you. The way I felt about Stefan? It was real, it was an important part of my life, but it wasn't built to last." Elena shook her head. "When Alaric was compelling my memories away, he told me that once we got to the signature moment when I first fell in love with you, changing that one memory would bulldoze through the rest of them and reprogram everything else at once."

"Okay?" Damon said, prompting her to continue.

"Well, we went through a lot of memories." Elena snorted. "I couldn't come up with the one he was looking for. We both got pretty pissed off about it, too. He even called Caroline for advice!"

"And did Blondie come up with some magical insight?"

"Actually, yeah. She forced me to confront what I've never been able to acknowledge, even to myself. She told Ric that I couldn't admit when I fell in love with you because it happened when I was still with Stefan."

"Elena," Damon said, shaking his head. "We all dealt with that. It took Stefan awhile to stop blaming the sire bond, but he came around. You changed when you became a vampire, that isn't your fault!"

Elena rolled her eyes. "You aren't hearing me, Damon."

"Hearing what?" Damon asked incredulously. "I'm trying to be wise and insightful here!"

"I didn't fall in love with you after I turned, Damon." Elena said with a small smile. "I know that I chose Stefan the night I died. That version of me was so scared of you, scared of the things you made me feel. Scared of the way you made me question myself and what I wanted out of life. Stefan was the safe choice, the comfortable one. So, you see? Dying didn't make me fall in love with you, it just made me stop denying who I really am."

"And who is that?" Damon asked as he rubbed his hand up and down her back.

Elena smiled and tangled their fingers together. "The girl who fell in love with you on her eighteenth birthday. That recognized how hard it was for you to give her the necklace when you knew what it stood for. The girl that understood how selfless you were being and loved you for it."

"Seriously?" Damon shook his head in mock regret. "I knew I should have made a move on you that night."

"Don't ruin it," Elena said, elbowing him in the gut. "Besides, that's why my memories came back. Because you did it all over again, with the cure."

"Ahh," Damon said knowingly. "So you were once again so overcome by my selfless heroism that you fainted in my arms?"

Elena rolled her eyes. "Come on Damon, be serious."

Damon nodded. "I just don't know what to say. We never talked about any of this before."

"Because it was messy. There were things I couldn't even admit to myself until they were compelled out of me! And you guys are brothers, the less we talked about it, the easier it was for you both."

"Still," Damon ran his thumb across Elena's cheek. "I'm glad you told me."

Elena leaned into Damon's touch. "I just don't ever want you to doubt the way I feel for you – the way I've always felt. I've never been able to see a future with anyone but you."

"And you know I don't even want a future unless I can spend it with you. But Elena-"

"No! No buts, Damon. Not wanting the cure isn't just about you – it's about me, too. The person I am now? I'm happy, it feels right. I don't think I could go back to being a human, not after everything we've been through. Everything I've done. It isn't a sacrifice or the lesser of two evils – it isn't even really a choice. Like I said, I have career goals I want to accomplish as a vampire. There are plenty of people in our life who will have kids I can help protect. And more than anything else, I want to be with you forever. Forget getting married as a human – we can get married over and over again. This is the life I want."

"Married over and over again, huh? Once isn't enough?"

Elena laughed and stood up, tugging Damon up with her. "I'm never going to have enough of anything with you."

Facing each other just like they did the first time they stood on the dock in the rain, they smiled.

"I can't wait to spend eternity with you," Damon said softly as he wrapped his arms around her.

"And I can't wait to spend forever loving you," Elena whispered as their lips finally met.