It has been over a year and a half since this story began, and has been months since the last part was posted. So, if you need a reminder of where it is, or just want to try it out from this point on, here is a summary of our story so far...…

Part 1 - Vampires and Withches and Elena. Story begins where Season 1 ended. Damon has just kissed Katherine, thinking she is Elena. In this story, Damon stays nearby after Katherine enters, sees Elena enter, and follows. Katherine confronts Elena and Damon, then leaves. Elena goes to help Jeremy while Damon buries John Gilbert (who has died).

Bonnie sees a vision of Damon burying John's body and attacks him. He is saved by Elena, but Katherine threatens to kill Bonnie because of what he did to Damon (in this story, Katherine is back in town to see if she still likes Damon or Stefan). Elena does all she can to protect Bonnie, but in the end Bonnie confronts Katherine herself. To keep Katherine from killing Bonnie, Elena pledges her loyalty to Katherine. Damon agrees to help Elena with whatever arises because of her pledge.

Part 2 – The Replacement. Katherine decides she wants to replace Elena to get closer to Damon and Stefan. She forces Elena to stay at Bonnie's house (Bonnie is in the hospital from the confrontation in the previous story), and takes over for Elena. Katherine is soon bored with Stefan and after dropping hints to Damon, decides to let Elena have her life back. While walking to Bonnie's house to tell Elena, she is kidnapped by vampires and a human who are after Elena. After learning their plan for her, she, Damon and Elena devise a plan in which she will pretend to be Elena and let the vampires take her. Then Elena will pretend to be her to distract them enough to take them hostile vampires out. The plan works, but before leaving, Katherine obtains a promise from Bonnie to protect Elena, and makes sure Damon knows she is interested in him.

Part 3 – Home by Suppertime. After an ugly scene with Stefan, who does not approve of Elena's pledge, Damon and Isobel take Elena on a job for Katherine. They are to deliver a ring to a vampire with Elena pretending to be Katherine. It goes bad, and they escape with Elena unconscious, their car destroyed. Damon carries Elena away from the house while Isobel remains behind to cover them and call for help. When Elena wakes up, Damon has bandaged her with strips torn from his shirt. She tells him that though she has feelings for him, she plans to stay with Stefan, which seems to upset him. While Damon is protecting her, Elena reconsiders, and tells him she will give him a chance with her. She ends up kissing him, which is interrupted when they are found by a hostile vampire. Damon keeps the hostile away from Elena until help arrives. Stefan is there, and Katherine sends Elena home with him while she and Damon go back to Mystic Falls together. When they arrive, later than expected, Elena is worried about what is going on between Damon and Katherine. Katherine informs Elena that, against Elena's wishes, she will assign other vampires to stay near her and protect her. She also gives Elena a phone that will give her directe access to Katherine, but tells Elena to use it only when she is in danger.

Part 4 – Choices and Consequences . Stefan can tell that Elena is changing and is upset. Damon decides to take Elena up on her offer to give him a chance, Elena is relieved that he is still willing. After hearing of "animal attacks" near Mystic Falls, Elena convinces Damon, Bonnie and Alaric to check them out with her. As she picks Damon up, he gives her a beautiful bracelet which he says is a token of their agreement for her to give him a chance. She will keep it, or give it back if she decides not to choose him.

When they arrive at the area of the attacks, Damon enters the woods alone, thinking he has found a trail. When he is gone, Elena sees the vampires Katherine has assigned to protect her for the first time. She calls Stefan to help her and sends Bonnie and Alaric to find Damon (Elena has become so cranky that the witch and the teacher are happy to go). When Stefan arrives, he warns her that other vampires are near, but she says the 'idiots' won't help (a nickname she starts using when referring the vampires Katherine has around her.)

Stefan takes her into the woods, finding Alaric and Bonnie under attack. Damon has found hostile vampires, tried to lead them away from Elena, and contacted Katherine about the problem. Katherine has entered to woods as well. Eventually Elena hears that Katherine is fighting for her life, but has instructed that Elena leave the woods for her own protection. She refuses to leave and with Alaric, Bonnie and the one remaining idiot (the others having left earlier to help Damon or Katherine) finds and saves Katherine and Damon.

Part 5 – Protecting Jeremy. After Damon takes Elena dancing, she is confronted by Jeremy who insists that she take him to where Anna and Vicki used to hang when they were vampires. She finally agrees to take him to where she and Damon last saw vampires. After an incident occurred there, she starts to worry about protecting him. She asks Katherine if she has the ring John Gilbert wore when she killed him, and being told she did, Elena asks Katherine to give it to her to give to Jeremy. Katherine becomes very angry and refuses.

Elena approached Bonnie to make such a ring for Jeremy, but was refused. She returned home and was visited by Katherine, who had reconsidered and decided that, because of her trust for Elena, she would give Jeremy the ring.

Part 6 – Jenna and the Choice. While Elena is on a job for Katherine, Alaric arrives to stay with Jenna and finds her under attack. Damon and Stefan are already there, fighting a vampire and two humans. When Alaric arrives and takes down a human, he is shot by the other. The attackers take the injured man and leave, Damon and Stefan take Jenna and the dying Alaric to Bonnie's house. Bonnie refuses to let Damon enter, but Jenna and Stefan do, where Alaric dies. Isobel, having heard of his condition, arrives and talks her way into Bonnie's house.

Damon tries to find the attackers. He does and is joined by Isobel, who left Bonnie's house after Alarics recovery. Jenna is told about vampires and Elena's pledge. Hearing that Elena is on her way back to town and that she is close, Damon manages to get into the house with hostile vampires and humans, though injured and as a prisoner. Isobel is left outside. Elena arrives and tries to go in, but is kept out by Isobel until they formulate a plan and arm her. They manage to get one hostile vampire out of the house while Elena is thrown inside. As Damon fights the remaining vampire inside, Elena finds herself confronted by the human homeowner, who, even though she has injured and subdued him, refuses to invite the other vampires in. When she thinks Damon is about to lose, she does the unthinkable, allowing Isobel and other vampires inside.

When Elena learns that her family is coming to her after Bonnie did a locator spell, she asks Damon to take her someplace they can be alone before she has to face Jenna. When she does finally talk to Jenna, she convinces Damon to compel Jenna to forget about the experience, vampires and Elena's dealings with them.

Part 7 – Livin' the Life that she Chose. Elena's friends are upset with her because Jenna was forced to forget. She is talking to Bonnie about it when Damon arrives to tell them that Katherine has learned that a band of vampires has come to town to take out Elena. Bonnie is convinced to invite Damon in, where, after realizing that this could be the end, Elena tells Damon that she would keep the bracelet, she has chosen him.

With Katherine having Stefan and another vampire take Jeremy and Jenna to safety, with Isobel bringing Alaric into the mix, Elena decides to leave Bonnie's house to try to draw the hostile vampires, who have been setting fires around town to draw her out, out of town. Eventually she succeeds and ends up on a hill out of town, surrounded by fire as a wall between her and 50 or so hostiles. She and Bonnie work out a plan that lures the hostile vampires into the fire ring while they leave, causing most of the enemy to be burned. Katherine and others mop up after they escape. Elena learns that the experience has brought back Jenna's memory and that she must face Jenna now, as well as tell Stefan of her decision to choose Damon. And she learns that Katherine received help from a vampire named Nathaniel as she protected Elena, and that Katherine has promised to loan Elena to Nathaniel in return.

Part 8 – Paying the Debt. Elena asks Stefan to watch over Jenna what she, Bonnie, Alaric and Isobel go with Katherine to Nathaniel. She is told that she is to meet with witches and negotiate an agreement on Nathaniel's behalf. She is not allowed to have vampires with her, so she, Bonnie and Alaric go to the meeting. At first she meets Sarah, a blonde witch about her age, who is nice, so she is hopeful. However, she is soon attacked by one of the witches, and only saved by Alaric's ring (The ring works differently in this story, it will save anyone who wears it. Really, the way the ring works in the show makes little sense…)

Elena convinces Katherine to let her keep working on the agreement, even after another attack on her – this time by vampires. Katherine insists on going into the witch's house with Elena, and Sarah agrees. Elena finishes the job right at sunset, and is unexpectedly attacked by hostile vampires who enter the house at that time. Damon and Katherine pull a ruse where Katherine pretends to be Elena as she is confronted by the hostile witch, with Elena interceding at the right time to cause enough of a distraction for Katherine to kill the witch. When learning that the hostile witch acted alone, and the hostile vampires had come from the house next door, the neighbor's house is entered and a specific threat against Elena is found. Also, Katherine is so impressed by Sarah, who saved Elena twice during these events, that she offers to pay the blonde witch for her future help.

Part 9 – Witches and Rings. Upon returning to Mystic Falls, Katherine learns that one of the vampires left there to watch over Elena's house is missing. Elena is kept away until they are sure it is safe, then is confronted by Jenna who can tell that she has been hurt. Jenna learns that Elena died on her trip to the witches house and threatens to interfere. Stefan insists on being told why they don't know who is attacking Elena, which leads Alaric to recall that he has a ring obtained from one of the vampires that was killed trying to get to Elena. Isobel has a similar ring. They decide to try to research the rings to determine who made them. When Sarah is consulted, she learns that it is from her family. She quickly goes to Mystic Falls to talk to Elena, revealing that she and her mother were formerly dark witches, but had left the rest of the family and were trying to change.

Isobel learns that the ring is from Sarah's family as well, which causes confrontations between Elena, Sarah and Damon. They learn that a number of vampires and witches have come to Mystic Falls to try to get Elena. These have split up and are at looking for Elena at Bonnie's house as well as her home and other places. Damon is hit by spells a couple of times, as is Jeremy. They are healed by Sarah, who learned the spells at a young age while her family was working for vampires. They end up separated with Bonnie and Stefan trying to convince a group of hostile witches that Elena is at Bonnie's house, Katherine finding the headquarters of the attackers and capturing a hostile witch, and Elena and Sarah being told to leave town.

In the end, Katherine attacks the headquarters but is captured, though they think they have Elena . Damon finds the place and thinks she is Elena and ends up captured himself. Sarah, who has found out that witches from her family are being forced against their will to hunt Elena, manages to lead a rescue of Damon and Katherine, allowing only the hostile vampires to be destroyed. She allows the witches to leave. Elena learns that Bonnie has started having doubts about helping her, and that Jeremy and Sarah were starting to like each other. She is also worried about Damon acting so rashly against people she trusts, but resolves that she and Damon will stay together and work out their issues.

In the Epilogue, Elena has become so upset about the recent attacks on her and the injury caused to her family and friends that she has asked Damon to go with her to find her attackers. He agrees, but before they go, they find that her protection is gone. She doesn't know why, and decides to call Katherine to see what has changed…

Now you're caught up. Yay. Let's get it on!...