[ The question catches her off guard, though it shouldn't have. It's the question she needs to answer most, the one she's been avoiding thinking of - which means it's one of the most important that Sam could have posed. For a moment, it's hard to breathe, her chest so tight that it hurts, and it will be clear to Sam from the ebbing tide of emotion within her that she's trying. And then-- ]
(I love him. I was in a relationship with him, I thought it was what I should do. )
[ But that's too simple an answer, and it doesn't even begin to encompass all the reasons she'd made that choice. ]
(Going back to Stefan meant going back to my friends, too. To Caroline, my best friend, and to Tyler. Matt was driving, I couldn't not give him the chance to say goodbye to them too.)
[ What kind of person would she have been if she'd kept him from that, when he hadn't gotten to say goodbye to Vicki when she died? But even that isn't all, and tears sting her eyes and bite into her heart as she struggles with the next, an image of herself rising to the surface of her mind. Her but not, a ghost who haunted them all in flesh and bone. ]
(I couldn't be like Katherine.)
[ And emotionally she begins to crumble, that desperate need eating away at her. To not be like that horrible woman with her face, the woman both brothers had loved, who had used them and who had caused Damon so much pain. She couldn't be like that. ]
no subject
( I love him. I was in a relationship with him, I thought it was what I should do. )
[ But that's too simple an answer, and it doesn't even begin to encompass all the reasons she'd made that choice. ]
( Going back to Stefan meant going back to my friends, too. To Caroline, my best friend, and to Tyler. Matt was driving, I couldn't not give him the chance to say goodbye to them too. )
[ What kind of person would she have been if she'd kept him from that, when he hadn't gotten to say goodbye to Vicki when she died? But even that isn't all, and tears sting her eyes and bite into her heart as she struggles with the next, an image of herself rising to the surface of her mind. Her but not, a ghost who haunted them all in flesh and bone. ]
( I couldn't be like Katherine. )
[ And emotionally she begins to crumble, that desperate need eating away at her. To not be like that horrible woman with her face, the woman both brothers had loved, who had used them and who had caused Damon so much pain. She couldn't be like that. ]
( I can't be like her. It isn't fair. )