Chapter 2:

Her eyes opened to pure white. White blankets. White walls. White gowns. Everything was just white. The room started to beep as her heart rate increased. She thought to herself, my parents are dead…my parents are dead… She started to cry as nurses rushed into the room to see why her heart rate climbed so fast. "Elena, Elena…you need to calm down honey." My parents are dead.

Another nurse said, "We have to calm her down." Elena realized that the nurses were the only color in the room because of their pink and green scrubs. It was a small and insignificant detail but for some reason her mind only wanted to focus on the insignificant details. She didn't want to think about the big picture. She didn't want to think that she and her brother were parentless. She didn't want to think about a funeral, or expenses, or how the hell she was going to live without her parents now. She just wanted to think about color and how the room barely had any.

"No! Don't touch me!" Elena screamed, "You're not going to medicate me because I'm freaking out! My parents are dead!" The nurse held her hands up defensively, "Can I leave?"

"Um…" A different nurse said, "Let me talk to a doctor." She didn't have any IV's in her arms and she could tell she wasn't injured. She had just been unconscious. She didn't wait for a nurse to return before she was sliding into her, now, dry clothes. She walked out of the curtained room and into the waiting room.

"Elena!" Her Aunt Jenna gripped her tightly once she saw her, "I am so sorry, Elena…so sorry." She didn't know why Jenna was apologizing- it's not like she drove Miranda and Grayson off the bridge. If Elena hadn't gone to that stupid party because she was trying to impress stupid people that were just so stupid… her parents wouldn't be dead.

No, that's not true.

Because Elena saw something- a figure in the middle of the road. Her father had sped up as if he had intentions of hitting whatever roamed the street and her mother grabbed the wheel, Miranda grabbed the wheel and the next thing they knew, they were fully underwater. Drowning. And then everything was black.

Then it was white.

"Where's Jeremy?" Elena asked, "Is he okay- wait that's a stupid question- of course he's not okay."

"He's with Sam and Dean." Jenna said, "Nice boys." She commented, "I'm going to take you home now, okay?"

"Okay." Elena sighed, "I'm not really discharged though so they might think you're kidnapping me."

"Then I'll just kidnap you."

XXX

Elena held off on her research until two weeks after the funeral. She needed time to think, to breathe, to tell herself that she was completely mental and there wasn't a person standing in the middle of the road. It didn't work. She opened her laptop to reveal a wallpaper of Caroline, Bonnie and her in their cheerleading outfits. She wanted to be as happy as she looked in the picture. She just couldn't and that was understandable. She clicked on her Google Chrome browser and searched: Mystic Falls+ Man in Road.

There were no results but a suggested search popped up:

Did You Mean?

Mystic Falls Animal Attacks

She clicked on it out of pure curiosity. She was nose deep into the research when a rough knock on her bedroom door and the sound of it squeaking open startled her. She slammed her laptop shut. "What are you doing? Watching porn?" Dean joked with her. She blushed a little and to prove she wasn't watching porn she opened the laptop again.

"No, I was just looking into some weird events around town." She said, "Listen, you're going to think I'm crazy when I tell you this. Don't laugh."

"I'm pretty sure I won't think you're crazy." He crossed her room and sat on the edge of her bed like he owned the place. "Go ahead, try me."

"There was a man in the middle of the road and I could have sworn that my dad was trying to kill him." Elena said, "But my mom grabbed the wheel and we crashed."

"You didn't tell the police this?"

"No, I didn't want to sound like a crazy person." She shrugged, "It doesn't change things anyway. They're dead and they're not coming back." She sounded broken when she said it and he felt sorry for her. "Anyway, I looked it up and it corrected my search towards animal attacks and it's crazy because I didn't even know we had that much of an animal problem. Don't you think that if this has been going on since 1864 we would have done something about it? It just doesn't make sense."

"Elena, I'm going to tell you and story and you're going to think I'm crazy…" Dean started- he knew that if John ever found out about what he was about to tell Elena, he would hit him so hard he wouldn't remember his name. But Dean didn't care at the moment. He just wanted Elena to know she wasn't crazy and why people seemed to die in her hometown. And maybe, just maybe, he didn't want to have to hide himself anymore.

When he was finished putting the world's secrets out in the open, it was 4:00 AM. Jeremy and Sam were in the room next door sleeping. Jenna was downstairs in her bed sleeping but Dean and Elena just looked at each other. "You're telling me, and correct me if I'm wrong, that my parents are vampire hunters?" She shook her head, "You really are crazy."

"Elena, it's true." He pleaded with her, "I know it sounds a little crazy but it's true and deep down you know it is."

"A little crazy? No, Dean! That sounds a lot crazy, like, institutional crazy." She said, "What else do you want me to believe- that your dad is out on one of these hunts right now?"

"He is." Dean said, "He really is…" He could tell that she wasn't believing a word that he said. "I can prove it to you."

"Really?" She said disbelievingly, "Then prove it to me." He finally got off of her bed and opened her bedroom door. She followed him as he opened the door to her parent's bedroom. She lingered in the doorway, unwilling to go inside. He pulled out the bottom drawer and set a well-crafted stake on the dresser along with some herb she didn't recognize. "It's going to take a more than a tiny craved piece of wood and some dried up herb to prove what you just said to me…for real!"

"Okay." Dean shrugged, "That's fair." He went downstairs in the closet beneath the stairs, "John Gilbert's journals are accounts of the vampire presence in this town."

"He was a drunk."

"Most hunters are." Dean pointed out, "Just read it." He told her with a smile on his face, "Or I could read it to you." She wasn't in the mood for his flirty attitude but she still welcome it for some reason. "Let's go back upstairs."

"How about we just stay downstairs." She said, "I've already invited you in my room once today, don't want to make it a habit."

"Why not?"

"Because you're bad news, Dean Winchester." She said, "And now you're crazy."

"I'm crazy?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, "Hmm…I heard crazy people are great in bed."

"Cool it, tiger." She said, "I'm not sleeping with you. We're friends."

XXX

"Every animal attack matches up with the recorded dates." She yawned, "That's insane." She was laid across his bed and it was now 7:23 AM. He sat in the tiny chair at the small desk. "What if I believe you, what next? A vampire killed my parents?"

"Possibly." Dean said, "There's evidence there's one in town and it's not that far of a leap when it comes to assumptions. Why would a demon try to kill your parents?" She yawned again, "You know, it's sort of your family legacy to hunt."

"Hunt? No, that's just ridiculous." Elena said, "I cheerlead and now you want me to hunt vampires? What the hell is this- Buffy the Vampire Slayer." He looked over at her with a seductive eyebrow raise. She noticed that he looked completely exhausted.

"Mm Buffy was a hot one."

"You're so sexual, it's ridiculous." She commented, "What would I gain from hunting this thing down?" She already knew what she would gain- revenge and a way to sleep at night. Maybe it would bring her comfort knowing that her parent's killer was dead. Still, she was logical and knew that if she just tried to kill a vampire she would die.

"Answers to why it targeted your parents… and the possibility of saving lives in the process." She hadn't even thought about getting answers. She thought vampires just killed… they just killed and they didn't care for reasons.

"Is that why you do it?"

He yawned loudly, "I do it because I was raised as a hunter. My father does it because he's looking for revenge… that's usually why people go into the business in the first place. For revenge." She just looked at him, "I don't hunt by myself though."

"Why not?"

"I'm 18, I'm not trying to die." Dean shrugged, "I have my whole life ahead of me- or as long as I can live before my day comes." He chuckles, "Still, if you convinced me to help you track down the thing that killed your parents- I'd do it." He was positive he would do anything for the girl even if his dad would kill him on the spot.

"How would we do it?"

"I think the easiest way is to cut their heads off." He said, "It's a mess, sure, but it's not impossible." He was being serious, "It'd take a few weeks to track it, find it, strategize a plan to kill it and also train you."

"Summer breaks around the corner." Elena pointed out, "Not that you've been going to school anyway."

"You haven't been going either." He said with a soft smile on his face, "I'll go when you go."

"No you won't." She laughed, "You're too cool for school."

Dean started to chuckle loudly, "I'm too cool for school? Where did you get that from- a bumper sticker?" She shrugged, her eyes fluttering as she started to drift to sleep. "You tired?"

"Exhausted. My mind is blown. I don't even know how I'm capable of forming words right now." She said, drifting off for a few minutes. Dean watched her fall asleep and hoped that she would stay that way, but she willed herself awake with a loud yawn. "That's it- I'm going to bed." She stood up, "Thanks Dean- you know, for being honest."

"Don't thank me quite yet, I may have just destroyed your life."

She ignored his comment and walked out of the room, making sure her footsteps were light so she wouldn't wake anyone up. "What are you doing?" Jenna asked, "In Dean's room this early in the morning?"

"Seeing if he's going to school." Elena said, "I thought it was time to start going again. I need normality."

"Okay, sure…" Jenna looked at her with suspicious eyes, "So are you going to school?"

"Yes we are!" Dean opened the door hurriedly, "Come Elena, don't want to be late!"

It was from that moment that she knew Dean would always have her back- from big things, to little things. Of course, they never ended up going to school because they were completely exhausted. Instead, Dean slept in the front seat and Elena slept in the backseat of the impala until 4 in the afternoon.