For all new readers, please go here before reading any further or you won't understand the plot: .net/s/5970928/1/Homecoming (remember to type fanfiction in front of the .net for the link to work)

For all those continuing on with me from Homecoming, nothing has changed. No time change, plot change, nada. It's just part 2. Don't forget to read last chapter from homecoming, ch 17-awkwardness- FIRST- before reading this chapter. AND reviews now work, so I expect them without excuses. ANYWAYS. Here you go!

Jenna was wheeled into the small room Rick was in and glanced over and saw him sitting on the bed. His arm was heavily bandaged and was propped up next to him on some pillows looking like he was in a lot of pain

"Rick," Jenna said as she approached him. He looked over at her in surprise, but then his face relaxed a little.

"Hey. You're up and about…" he managed to blurt out.

"Well more about than up...but it's a plus. What happened?" she asked, taking in his sweaty face and pained expression. She could only imagine what a broken bone felt like.

He shook his head and thinking fast, came up with something. "I was on my way down to the parking lot and tripped over my own two feet and fell down some stairs. I landed on my arm weird and it resulted in a compound break, according to the doctor," Rick said sighing and wincing as though someone had bumped his arm.

"I'm sorry. Can I do anything to help you?" she said fretfully.

"You can tell the nurse to give me more drugs," he said trying to smile, "this freakin hurts."

"What have they done or what will they do?" Jenna asked, wheeling over to the call button to get him some help.

"They gave me some drugs for the pain, but the swelling has to go down and they can properly set the arm. Right now it's in a splint. Later I should have a cast," he said shaking his head.

"Can I sign it?" Jenna asked, trying to lighten the mood.

It seemed to work as he let out a chuckle. "As long as it's not in pink marker."

She smiled at him as she reached the button and pressed it down. Shortly after the nurse came in but didn't provide any help when she told him that he would have to wait a while till he could get more pain meds.

"Tough break…" Jenna said shaking her head.

"Haha," he replied, resting back on the pillow.

"Oops. Didn't even mean to do that joke, but I guess it worked out…I'll let you rest and get fixed up. And who knows, maybe I'll be good to go before you, and I can watch over you for a change," she said with a wink.

"Sounds like a plan," he told her.

"I just need to call Elena and Jeremy and let them know," she said starting to wheel herself out of the room. "Wait. Is Elena still around here? Does she know what happened?"

"No," Rick said after a minute. "She went home a bit before I did to do something with Jeremy. She didn't witness my break," he said honestly.

"Alright…ok. I'm leaving. Rest up," she said looking at him crossly.

"Can do," he said closing his eyes and internally cursing Katherine. The only thing that made him feel better was imagining Elena run her over with a car. A grin formed on his lips as the pain meds allowed him to drift off into sleep.

Elena jumped back in surprise. She hadn't even realized that Damon was still holding her—apparently he hadn't forgotten as he looked at her with a mischievous look and winked.

"Until we get to the part in the story where this makes sense, for the time being, he was about to save me some pain, but it was unnecessary," she said, walking over to Stefan and giving him a hug, burrowing her head in his chest.

He was about to ask again to explain when he looked down and saw how beat up her neck looked…complete with bite marks on the side.

Stefan pulled away and looked her in the eyes, but she brought her hands up to his lips. "We'll talk inside," she said, knowing she was in for a deep line of questioning. "Besides, I would really like a shirt on," she said embarrassed.

She didn't wait for his reply as she moved away from him and rushed into the house and up the stairs, turning around and motioning him to follow.

Stefan looked at Damon suspiciously, but Damon threw his hands up. "Just friends, Stefan. Sorry your girl just happened to be shirtless in my presence. It happens with me sometimes," he said with a smirk.

Stefan glared at him, but brushed past him to head up the stairs to Elena.

"You know, you really have to stop that," Bonnie said looking at him sternly.

"Stop what? My awesome bantering ability, because I say it's pretty epic."

"The flirting with Elena," Bonnie said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Just give it a rest," she said heading into the house.

"I flirt with all the girls, Bonnie. I just choose to ignore you because you annoy me," Damon said following her inside.

She turned around with a serious look in her eyes. "I know you think that you have feelings for her, but I think you're just trying to pass on some long lost feelings from Katherine onto her, and I don't like it. So leave her alone with Stefan," she said narrowing her eyes at him.

Damon looked at her for a bit, his expression unreadable. "Enough with the Dr. Phil act. You don't' know anything about me or what I feel," he told her angrily. "My history with Katherine, none of your business. My relationship with Elena, also none of your business…so let's just cut to the part where we go inside and pretend to be friendly for everyone's sake, ok?" he said, raising his brows at her and stalking off into the kitchen where Jeremy was attending to his wound.

Letting out a big sigh of frustration, Bonnie followed and went to see if she could be of any help in the kitchen.

Upstairs, Stefan shook his head, overhearing Bonnie and Damon's conversation as Elena was in the bathroom. It took a bit for him to put his jealousy under control seeing Damon with her, but he was glad he wasn't only just imagining Damon's growing infatuation with Elena: Bonnie was on the lookout too. Stefan didn't know if that made him feel better or not.

"Oww," he heard Elena mumble as he turned his attention back to her room.

"You need help in there?" he asked, coming to the door and looking at her. She was wiping the blood off of her shoulder and neck and wincing as she turned her neck to look at it.

"Would you mind?"

"Here," he said, holding his hand out to grab the towel from her. She passed it to him and he gingerly started patting down the blood near the wound. "Let me know if I hurt you, ok?" he told her being as careful as he could.

She nodded and watched him closely before she let out a small laugh.

"What?" Stefan said smiling back.

"It's just funny that you're a vampire and you're wiping blood off of my neck with a towel…" she said jokingly.

"Would you prefer I Iicked it off?" he said playfully.

"Don't tease me…" she joked back.

He laughed and put the towel down, cupping her face in his hands as he brought her close for a kiss. It was slow and gentle; Stefan being careful not to move her head and cause her pain. He pulled away first and put his forehead against hers. "So what happened…?" he murmured as they stood there.

He felt her breath on her cheek as she let out a sigh. "I'll tell you my side of the story, but you're going to have to hear Jeremy and Damon's side too to get the whole picture….I don't even know everything yet," she said stepping away from Stefan's hold and walking back to her bedroom.

"So I guess the thing to ask first is do you want to hear why I was shirtless downstairs, or why I have bite marks from Katherine on my neck?" Elena said looking at Stefan seriously.

His face dropped as he took in her words.

"I'll start with why I was shirtless…" she said after a moment.

"I don't think she bought your story," Rio said as Tyler walked back in the room. "It was weak…I should have just told her you were resting and then told you something better to say."

"I already told you I didn't remember what happened. What was I supposed to do? And just stop talking. You're starting to sound like dad already," Tyler said shaking his head and plopping down on the couch.

"Well someone has to take responsibility," Rio said seriously. "Speaking of, you never did quite answer Chloe's question…"

Tyler looked away, uncomfortable. "This is the first time I've been home since everything…I don't even know what happened."

"Oh come off it, Tyler. It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together," Chloe said marching up to him and getting in his face. "Mom was mauled….killed by a wolf….a seriously large wolf…and you're nowhere to be found," she said arching her brows and waiting for his response.

"I WASN'T HOME. IT WASN'T ME," Tyler yelled, pushing her out of his face. "I was attacked too. I couldn't have killed mom!"

"Just because you were attacked it doesn't mean you just didn't get into another fight with forest life," Rio said quietly.

Tyler turned his head slowly to look at his brother. "Do you honestly think I killed mom?"

"Yes," Chloe said after Tyler was met with silence from Rio.

Tyler put his hands in his hair and tugged a bit, closing his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he decided to tell them what he knew.

"I'm being totally honest when I tell you I don't remember anything, but I remember flashes of memories," he started, anxious to finally get it off his chest. "I remember fighting with mom in the kitchen…then nothing until later and I was looking through some bushes at the house and I think I followed some sort of scent in the woods. But that's it….I couldn't have killed mom, I couldn't…." he ended, choking up and burying his head in his hands.

"You're new. That's why you can't remember things…" Chloe started, softening up and sitting next to Tyler and throwing an arm around his shoulders. "Until you can really control yourself as a wolf, pure animal instinct is released and you let it control you. The only reason you remember anything at all right now is that part of you is trying to cling to your humanity and trying to go back to it that in that moment…your mind Is alert and human again," she explained.

"It was an accident," Rio said after the silence settled in at Chloe's explanation. "The only thing I would say to be grateful about it the fact that you can't remember doing it. I think that would be devastating to re-live," he said closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"But at least I would know if I did do it….what if it really wasn't me?" Tyler said, perking up as an idea occurred to him.

"We already went over this," Chloe said exasperated.

"No. Listen. A few days ago I had a…conversation with someone about how werewolves aren't usually loners; that there's a pack or just random wolves in the area," Tyler said, thinking hard. He edited out the fact that Damon had confronted him on knowing what he was and asked if there was others; there was no need to tell the twins about that now.

"You talked about being a werewolf?" Rio said, opening his eyes in shock.

"No. We were talking about the idea of werewolves since that animal attack a while back….anyways," Tyler said, shifting uncomfortably under their gaze. "What if there were other wolves around?"

"And they had something against mom the same night you shifted?" Rio asked, shooting down Tyler's idea.

"The only thing I can think of to really know for sure is to try and get the scent and see what wolf it leads to," Chloe said thinking hard, but looking uncomfortable.

"Are you crazy?" Rio said, looking at her in disgust.

"Wait. Why is that crazy?" Tyler said, not understanding.

"Because it means we would have to go as wolves and smell it out…"Rio started.

"So. You guys are more advanced. You can do it…what's the problem?" Tyler asked. He was holding on to the hope that he was innocent so much that this idea seemed like his only hope.

"We would have to get the scent from mom's body," Chloe said, hanging her head. "At the morgue."

P.S. technically thsi means I posted 2 chapters in one day...don't expect that again unless I'm cracked out on caffeine again, lol!