Author's Note: So…this is basically my dream version of season 3. I'm starting it now before the show comes back but I might continue it even after the show comes back (since obviously it won't be exactly the way I want it to be…..probably. Although anything can happen in TVD. ^0^). And….about my other story So Close But So Far….for the people who are reading it…I will be continuing that one too as soon as I get inspiration for it again. So….back to this story….please read & review.=3
~Elena's POV~
I woke up to find the sun coming through my blinds. I sat up in bed and quickly went through the events of the past few days in my head. The sacrifice. Jenna and John's death. Damon almost dying. Me kissing him. Damon getting cured. Stefan giving himself over to Klaus. Stefan….I knew I needed to find him but I had no idea how. I only knew that I needed to start soon. I got out of bed and quickly got dressed and ran downstairs. After eating a quick breakfast and making sure that Alaric didn't mind staying with Jeremy, I got into my car and went to the boarding house. I knock on the door and wait impatiently for Damon to open it. After a while he does. "Why hello Elena. To what do I owe this pleasure?" He says in his usual sarcastic tone. I roll my eyes and sigh a little. Some things never change. I thought that almost dying would somehow change Damon but…I guess I was wrong. "Not the time for sarcastic comments, Damon. We need to find Stefan." He rolls his eyes and moves back to let me in. Then he closes the door and turns around to face me. "First of all, I won't stop making sarcastic comments because in case you haven't noticed that is how I deal with stressful situations. Second of all, I know we have to find Stefan but I have no idea how to do that. And third" He says the last sentence as he moves closer to me. I flinch a little because of his nearness. "I thought you would be a little nicer to me. Especially after hearing my deathbed confessions." He smirks a little but his eyes are serious. It's true. I should be nicer to him. After all, he had almost died and had also lost his brother to Klaus. Even though Damon would never admit it, he and Stefan were close. I smiled a little as I continued talking in a more friendly voice. "I'm sorry Damon. I'm just feeling stressed today. But I shouldn't take it out on you. Will you forgive me?" I look up at him with puppy eyes. He considers it and then shrugs."Sure. Now on to Operation Save Saint Stefan. I was thinking that maybe Alaric could give us some of Isabel's old papers. Maybe there was something in her research about how to kill a hybrid." I'm about to glare at him for the "Saint Stefan" remark, but I stop myself. He had said himself that sarcasm was how he dealt with stress and I couldn't blame him for that. I was under a lot of stress myself and I didn't want to take it out on him. After taking a deep breath and nodding, I continue talking. "That's a good idea. Maybe there is. But if not then we'll have to think of something else. I don't know what,though." Damon shrugs a little and says "I do. Maybe Bonnie can-" But his sentence is interrupted by a knock at the door. He frowns a little and looks at me. "Why don't you go sit in the living room? I'll go see who that is." I nod and walk into the boarding house's large living room. I wonder who could be at the door….
~Damon's POV~
I watch as Elena walks into the living room. With a sad smile on my face, I walk toward the door and open it. When I see who it is, my eyebrows raise. "What are YOU doing here?" I say in an annoyed voice. "Well that's no way to talk to someone who wants to help you. You need to learn your manners, Damon." Katherine smiles in that fake sweet way she has. I roll my eyes and move over so I'm blocking her entrance. "There's no way I'm letting you in." Katherine shrugs. "You don't need to. Did you forget that I was the one to bring you the cure? And I wasn't invited in at all." She pushes me aside and walks into the house, closing the door behind her. "Now…..you are going to be nice to me or else I will make sure that you die. Or better…..I'll just kill my doppelganger and have you watch." I glare at Katherine and say in the most menacing voice I can "You are not going to even TOUCH Elena or I will put a stake through your heart before you can even say 'sorry'" Katherine laughed. "Ok, Damon. I'm just warning you. And I doubt you could kill me. Especially since I look just like her." She put special emphasis on the word her just so I knew she was talking about Elena. I moved closer to her and began to talk in my menacing voice again. "You may look like Elena but that is the only thing that the two of you have in common. I would kill you if you even thought of hurting her so you should be careful, Katherine. If you really want to help then you will leave since I don't think you could have any useful information. Now go before I stake you just to get you to stop annoying me." Katherine laughed again. "My my. I never thought I'd see the day when Damon Salvatore got all protective. And you're wrong about me not having information. I was the last person to see Klaus and Stefan. And I've known Klaus longer than any of you. I may not know exactly where they were planning on going but I know enough about Klaus's habits to help you two figure out where to start." She shrugs. "But….if you don't want my help…" She begins to walk away but I grab her arm before she can leave. "Wait. We could use all the help we can get. But what's in it for you? You never do anything unless there's some benefit for you." I raise my eyebrows and wait for a reply. "Well, Damon I'll tell you what's in it for me. One word :Stefan. If I help you get him back then I have to get some time alone with him. And then I'll get Stefan. You'll get Elena. Everyone wins." She smirked at me. I moved closer to her and began to speak in a menacing whisper. "I'm not going to let you steal Stefan from Elena. It would hurt her and she's already been through enough lately. And Elena doesn't love me. She loves Stefan. Everyone knows that." I sighed and continued speaking. "Elena will already have too much to deal with when we get Stefan back. She'll have to deal with him being out of control and she probably won't even be able to see him for a while. You are not going to add to it." Katherine claps and smirks at me. "I'm impressed, Damon. You're getting good at this selfless thing. Alright, I'll play along. I won't 'steal' Stefan from Elena. I will be perfectly good. But based on what I walked in on when I gave you the cure I'd say that Elena loves you. She just doesn't know it." With another smirk, she jerked her arm out of mine. I shook my head. As much as I –for once- wanted to believe Katherine, I couldn't. I knew the truth. Elena loved Stefan and she always would. All I could do for her was help her to find him. I sighed again before replying to Katherine's words. "Thank you for the compliment." I said in my usual sarcastic tone. "And you're wrong. Elena doesn't love me. She only kissed me out of pity. I was dying. She felt bad for me. That's it." I heard my voice sounding sad but I didn't care. Katherine shrugged. "I have eyes Damon. That didn't look like a pity kiss to I me." I smirked at her and spoke in a sarcastic tone. "Haha. Good one, Katherine. You almost had me for a minute." She smirked back. "I'm not lying, Damon. But fine. Don't believe me. But I would ask your precious Elena about it if I were you." I rolled my eyes. "I won't bother her. She has enough to think about right now. Now do you have anything useful to say or are you just here to annoy me?" I raised my eyebrows. "I'll tell you and my doppelganger at the same time if you don't mind." She said with a smirk. "Fine." I rolled my eyes one last time before leading her into the living room.
~Elena POV~
I heard Damon opening the door and talking. I heard someone answer him and frowned. Katherine? What is she doing here? I didn't really want to see her. The last words she said to me were still haunting me. "It's ok to love them both. I did." But it wasn't ok. I knew that. You can't love two people at once. That's just wrong. And I didn't…..did I? No,no. I love Stefan. Only Stefan. But a little voice inside me is denying that. I continue listening to Damon and Katherine's conversation, trying not to think about anything. When Katherine says she'll kill me,I roll my eyes. I didn't doubt Katherine's ability to kill me but doubted that she would do it now. She probably wanted to find Stefan as much as I did if not more. I wondered briefly why it didn't bother me that my doppelganger wanted my boyfriend but I was distracted from my thoughts by Damon's reply to Katherine's threat. Awwwww he's so sweet. No, No Elena. Don't think like that about Damon. I wondered why I had to tell myself not to think about Damon that way. I hear Katherine replying to Damon and frown a little. Why is Katherine so sure that our resemblance would stop Damon from killing her? There was a time when Damon would have killed me and not thought twice about it. But now, of course things were different. Damon and I were…friends. We had been through a lot together. I smile again as I hear Damon reply. I almost laugh when he threatens to stake her. Of course, Katherine replies by saying that she has useful information. The frown returns to my face when Damon says that she can help us. Is he crazy? This is Katherine we're talking about. She could easily betray us if some better offer came along. And how do we know she won't give us to Klaus and just leave with Stefan? She would love that. I hear Katherine explain what's in it for her and sigh. I knew it. She was always after Stefan ever since she had returned to Mystic Falls. Of course, I know Stefan would never cheat on me. Or would he? I have no idea how drastically his personality could change with an extended period of drinking human blood. But I won't think about it now. I listen for Damon's reply but I can't hear it. He seems to be whispering. I wait for Katherine to speak again, hoping that what she says will give me a clue to what Damon was whispering about. Katherine starts talking about how she won't steal Stefan from me. Yeah, right. I don't believe her for a second. Then she changes the subject by mentioning what she had seen when she came to give Damon the cure. I didn't really want to think about that now. I hear Damon replying and frown at the sadness in his voice. I hear him saying that I kissed him out of pity. Yes, that's the best excuse….but is it true? I had, of course, felt bad for him. After all, he had been dying of something that was supposed to have no cure. But that hadn't been what I had been thinking when I had kissed him. I had been thinking something more along the lines of "If I'm going to lose him, I might as well do this." I heard Katherine speak again and smile. For once I agree with my doppelganger. No, no. It's not true. I love Stefan. Not Damon. Stefan. But a little voice nags at the back of my head and says "Why did you kiss Damon, then?" Damon doesn't seem to believe Katherine. Good. It's probably better that way. They talk about going in the living room and I try to compose my face into a normal expression. Damon and Katherine walk in. Katherine smirks at me and waves a little. "Hello doppelganger. Let's get down to business, shall we?" She sits down on the couch and puts her legs over the table as she grins in that fake way of hers.