A/N. This is my first fan fiction and I'm slightly nervous about it, so be kind..or not. I'll be happy knowing someone is reading this! I'm totally in love with the originals and this is a story that's been swirling in my head for a while. Hope you guys enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries, only my OC. If I did, the show would be Originals centric!

The wind blew in through the window whipping her hair across her face, obscuring her view. As she tucked the offending hair behind her ear in an attempt to tame it, she couldn't help but feel the excitement building up. She hadn't told them she was coming back. She had wanted to surprise them, and couldn't wait to see the look on their faces when she did! Nothing seemed to have changed in good old Mystic Falls, the world may go to pieces, but this little town in the middle of Nowhere, Virginia would always stay the same. She supposed that was a sense of comfort and annoyance that the residents of Mystic Falls lived with constantly.

For her, this time, it was the comfort that comes with finally having come back home. She'd traveled, studied formally what had been her passion and the raw talent she had been blessed with, and was returning a little more worldly wise, but stil in a lot of ways the same sixteen year old girl who'd left two years ago. The crippling grief that she had left with had dulled down a little with time, but it was still there..less visible than it had been two years ago, but still very much present. Her grief and art had fed off of each other and the two years she'd been in Florence had seen her producing some of the best work she'd done in her life.

She'd discovered painting at the tender age of six and had never looked back. Art was as integral to her life as food was to others. She had been blessed with a raw natural talent that allowed her to express her innermost feelings and desires. It was her escape from reality, her way to communicate with the world around her, the place she went to to exorcise the demons in her she didn't understand. While her sister ran to her diary, she could be found in front of her easel wielding her brushes and knives like a warrior might wield his sword on a battlefield.

When she had applied for the two year specialist course in fine arts at the Florence Academy of Art, she hadn't really expected anything more than a polite refusal due to her age and the fact that she hadn't even finished high school. Imagine her surprise when she received an acceptance to the programme. However, the Academy insisted that she would need to pursue her high school education along with the course. The next few weeks had been a blur of getting her parents to agreeing to let her go, getting her school to sign off on letting her continue her high school education as a long distance course, handling all the paperwork and getting ready to leave the only home she clearly remembered. If her parents hadn't been the wonderful people they were or one of Mystic Falls' founding families, things might have gone a whole different way. Thankfully, she was blessed with a wonderful family too. Those few weeks made what came later that much more difficult, the grief that much more crippling, left her that much more devastated. If it hadn't been for her siblings or aunt she wouldn't have left town, become who she was today.

Her heart clenched painfully as she passed the cemetery, she looked away and blinked back her suddenly watery eyes. None of that right now, she was going to see her brother and sister and her aunt. This was a day of reunion and happiness, not a day of loss and sadness. As the car turned onto the road, her breathing hitched, her heartbeat quickened, and that tingling in her tummy from the excitement multiplied manifold. The car drew to a stop, and she sat there just taking in the sight of the house she hadn't seen in two years. Then, unable to contain herself any longer, she threw the car door open grabbed her handbag from the passenger seat and got out slamming the door shut. She ran up the pathway, taking the porch steps two at a time in her hurry to get to the front door, and rang the bell. Seconds later the door was flung open with a very annoyed looking Elena. She blinked a couple of times looking completely poleaxed, then Elena's face split into a huge goofy grin, a grin that matched the one on her face. "Fiona?!"

"Surprise!", said Fiona.

Before she could say more, she was enveloped in a massive bone crushing hug. As Elena embraced her, Fiona clung onto her sister as if she were the last life jacket after the Titanic crashed, both of them swaying slightly. Then suddenly, as if she thought she was hurting her, Elena let go of her.

"What are you doing here Fee? Why didn't you tell us you were coming? Oh god! It's so good to see you!" and she was whipped back into Elena's embrace.

"Hey Lena, not that I'm not thrilled to see you...but I kinda can't breathe!", Fiona managed to get out. Elena let go of her immediately and looked sheepish.

"As to your many questions, mind if we go inside so I can get comfortable?!", Fiona retorted.

The two made their way inside and into the living room, plopping onto the couch and then just looked at each other.

"It's so good to see you..", started Fiona

"I've missed you so much...", Elena said at the same time. The two burst out laughing until their eyes watered, and then they were hugging again, babbling incoherently to each other while they cried and laughed. After a few a minutes, when they had calmed down they pulled away and Elena looked at Fiona seriously and asked again, "What are you doing back Fee? I thought you had another two months left of the course. Please tell me you didn't bail out at the last minute!"

Fiona looked offended and scoffed, "Oh ye of little faith! Like I would throw away two years with only two months left! You know me better than that Lena!"

"Then what are you doing back here when you're supposed to be in Florence?", Elena demanded.

"Well, these last two months are supposed to be dedicated to our final course project and my professor said I could finish it up at home if I I've been homesick for a while now, it seemed like the right thing to do. I've missed you and Jer and Jenna so much.", Fiona sighed.

Elena seemed to flinch at Jenna's name. She went to ask her about it when she saw that look come over Elena's face. The one that Sheriff Forbes had when she came by the house to tell them that their parents had died and Elena was in the hospital. What? NO! NO! Her mind screamed. Her face must have expressed it as Elena moved to comfort her. "How? When?" Fiona whispered.

"A year and half ago." Elena choked out.

"WHAT? I've been speaking to you and Jer, emailing you guys...why the fuck are you telling me this now?!" Fiona screamed. She couldn't understand this, what kind of sick game was Elena playing? But Elena would never do anything hurtful like that, not to her. Then why is she saying this? Fiona's brain was a jumble of thoughts as she tried to process what her sister had told her. Elena reached out a hand and took hold of one of Fiona's hands and looked into her eyes, "I'm so sorry Fee. We wanted to tell you, but I decided against it. If we had you would have come rushing back, and it was too dangerous for you to be here then. Please believe me when I say I did to protect you.", Elena pleaded.

"Too dangerous? Protect me...what the fuck Lena..", Fiona didn't understand what she was hearing.

"This might be hard for you to understand, you won't want to believe me. Hell, I wouldn't believe me if I didn't experience it. But trust me, Mystic Falls was never just a sleepy town in Nowhere, Virginia. I need you to listen to me and hear me out...please Fee.", as Elena finished talking Fiona had gone beyond confusion and uncertainty to being freaked out. Elena might have always had a flair for the dramatic, but this was beyond what she was used to from her sister.

"Okaaay...you know you're creeping me out right?", Fiona asked.

"Believe me Fee, by the time I'm done you're not going to look at me the same way.", Elena stated direly.

So she told her, about Stefan and Damon Salvatore, about Bonnie's abilities, about Katherine Pierce aka Katerina Petrova, about Anna, about Caroline's death and rebirth, about Mason, Tyler and the werewolves, about Isobel and John, about the Originals, about the curse and the sacrifice, about Jenna's death, the hybrids, Mama and Papa Original and all of their craziness, about Alaric turning dark, about Klaus's desiccation and about how Elena died and woke up to the rest of her undead life.

After Elena was done talking, the two sister's sat in silence. Elena could see her sister needed time to let everything sink in, so she stayed silent and let Fiona be until she was ready to talk.

After a while, Fiona suddenly turned to Elena and put a hand to Elena's heart. She concentrated intently for a few minutes, she then slowly lifted her tear filled eyes and whispered "It's true...I can't feel your heartbeat.", with that she started to cry uncontrollably. She cried for Jenna, for Elena's doppelganger curse, for Jeremy's loss, for John, for Caroline, for Bonnie, for Tyler, for Matt, for Elena's death. She cried for it all and she cried for not having been around for her family and friends. When she had finally drained herself of tears, she lifted out of Elena's embrace, cupped her sister's face in her hands and said "I'm so sorry Lena. I should have been here. I never should have left. I should have known there was something wrong."

Elena looked at her her sadly and said "How could you Fee? You didn't know just like none of us knew before. And you going away, you had to do that for Mom and Dad. They would have been very disappointed if you had stayed back, you know that. I'm glad you weren't here. I'm glad because it was one less person for Klaus to use against me. I could get through all the dark times knowing you were safe. That one member of the Gilbert clan was safe and out of harm's way. That kept me going. I may not have been able to protect Jenna or Jeremy, but by god! I was going to keep you away from here." She finished dramatically.

"Actually, I might have known about vampires.", Fiona said with scrunched eyebrows and a strange expression.

Elena looked dumbfounded "WHAT?", she exclaimed.

"One summer I found Jonathan Gilbert's journals at the lake house and read through them. I asked Dad about it later. He said Jonathan was considered a bit of an eccentric who might have been suffering from delusional paranoia. But he did tell me that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction Fee, and whether Jonathan had mental issues or not he might have been onto something. Dad also said that maybe something of Jonathan's paranoia must have filtered down to him, because he drank vervain tea. Something Dad said must have resonated with me, because I put vervain in the locket that he and Mom gave me for my sixteenth birthday. I've always worn it since that day.", Fiona finished her explanation. Elena just sat there looking at Fiona with the most perplexed expression, she finally seemed to shake herself out of it. "Well, I'm glad you haven't laughed outright at my face and then gone running for the hills. I'm not sure I could have handled that.", Elena said emotionally.

"You're my sister Lena, no doppelganger curse or vampiric lifestyle is going to change that. Not unless you start eating me that is. I can promise you I won't be Matt and be a nice sacrificial blood bag!", Fiona said laughingly.

Elena gathered her in another hug and mumbled into her hair "I'm so glad you're back. I'm so glad I can finally tell you all this."

The two sat like that for a while until Fiona shifted away and said, "Well, I should probably get the rest of my stuff out of the car and unpack. Then we've got to go find us a brother!"

So, What did you guys think like it? Hate it? Have ambiguous feelings towards it? Whatever it is let me know.

xx

Bee