Stefan always waited until Elena left for school before coming down to grab a cup of coffee. This morning he felt unusually lucky since Damon was also out, at what was for him, an ungodly early hour.

He heard the front door open and curious as to who had come back, he walked out sipping a cup of coffee. "So much for my lucky morning," he muttered as he watched a curly haired brunette throw her pocketbook on a sofa and saunter over to him, crossing her expensive red soled, impossibly high heeled, pointed shoes one in front of the other.

Not for a moment did Stefan mistake the girl for Elena. She was not dressed for school, and Stefan noticed for the first time as she swung those hips from side to side that she was slightly wider than Elena. A small part of his mind thought 'she had a child', while the main part of him felt foreboding.

She smiled that small, charming, devilish smile that forewarned she was up to no good. She slowly twirled in front of him, while he watched her cautiously. "I look good, don't I?"

He just shook his head, exasperated. "Why are you here, Katherine?"

She didn't reply, just slowly walked by him trailing one finger over his chest as she passed him and headed up the stairs to the second floor. His eyes narrowed, but he followed her up, not sure what her intention was.

She sauntered into Damon's room and sniffed experimentally and then raised her eyebrows at him. He knew the sniff was done for dramatic effect. They could both easily smell the scent of sex still ripe in the room. She exaggerated the sway of her hips as she strutted over to the closet and threw open the doors, rifling through Elena's clothes, pushing the hangers along the pole, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "B-o-r-i-n-g!" was her only comment.

She moved on, while Stefan picked up the dress she had allowed to slip to the floor, re-hung it and carefully shut the closet door she had left open.

She was now going through the dresser drawers. She picked up a pair of red bikini panties, dangling them on one finger, and shrugged at Stefan. "I don't recall her wearing things like this when she was with you."

He didn't bother to reply, just grabbed them off her finger, replacing them in the drawer. By the time he was done, she had left the room.

He found her in his room where she just stood in the center, her head swiveling around. When she was done she faced him. "Have you decided where you're going and when?"

He wasn't surprised that she had noticed the telltale signs in his room. There were a lot of marks where things had been moved or reshuffled. There were journals and diaries missing, and other little signs that a change was coming, so he didn't waste time denying it.

"No and no," he drily replied. "I want to wait until Caroline and Bonnie are settled. I owe it to them."

"Do they know?" was the next question.

"No," he replied. "They don't notice much these days other than each other." The last was said without rancor.

Katherine accepted that calmly enough, merely offering, "Then I'll keep my mouth shut."

Stefan just looked at her, his look clearly saying 'I'll believe that when I see it' and then said, "When will you be going?"

An enigmatic smile was her only answer as she walked out. "Help me bring my suitcases in."

Stefan just shut his eyes in resignation. There wasn't much that he could do with Katherine. He wasn't strong enough to forcibly throw her out, so unless Damon helped him he was screwed.

By the time Elena and Damon returned late that afternoon Katherine was firmly entrenched in Stefan's room. He had protested that there were six unoccupied bedrooms in the house, but she affected not to hear him. Her stuff was strewn all over his room, or rather his stuff was, because she had emptied his closet and bureaus to make room for her clothes. The only bright spot to Stefan was that with his stuff all over, the fact that he was slowly emptying his room was no longer apparent. He wondered if that had been her intention, but he couldn't fathom why she would cover for him.

Elena was vocal about her disapproval of Katherine, but Damon was at first ambivalent. Katherine rather overtly courted his approval, congratulating him on winning Elena and turning a deaf ear to all of Elena's insults, refusing to be provoked into retaliating. She was careful to be amusing and take pokes at Stefan that entertained the older brother. They had actually parted on decent terms for them, and he was so happy with the situation with Elena that he had no problem agreeing to her staying.

Stefan watched quietly, knowing exactly what she was doing, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what she was up to. She was in no danger; her life was her own for the first time in over five hundred years, so why was she back in Mystic Falls? He took their ribbing quietly, taking the first opportunity to leave and pick up Caroline.

He drove her over to the town where Slater's coffee shop was open under new management, which just happened to be his former girlfriend, now a vampire. He found Lee and some of his other old friends, and they all sat down for coffee. The place held mostly humans because the vampire population had been drastically reduced with the death of three of the originals. Stefan was pleased that Lexi had been from the same line as he and Damon, which guaranteed Lee's life and that of some of his dearest friends. These were all vampires he felt good about introducing Caroline to, honorable, well intentioned people who tried to make something worthwhile of their gift of long life. She and Lee had hit it off, both of them finding common ground in their grief over their lost loved ones. Stefan knew he could feel easy leaving Caroline in his hands. He left early; Lee eagerly promising to see Caroline home.

Stefan stopped next at Bonnie's house, never realizing that Katherine had shadowed him all evening. She watched as the witch smilingly admitted him to her home and then left, not pausing to eavesdrop.

Stefan got home late to find Damon and Elena watching TV. Damon waved a cheery hand, but Elena pointedly ignored him, still hurt by his refusal to help her. Stefan just nodded at his brother and went upstairs, taking the steps two at a time. He quickly showered and went to bed only to be pushed over by Katherine, scantily clad in a negligee.

Frustrated, he sat up in bed, looking down at her curled against him, one hand resting on his lower stomach. "I'm tired and not in the mood for games."

She pouted adorably and murmured, "But you know how much I love games!"

He tried to push her hand off his stomach, but he couldn't budge it. Even when consuming human blood he wasn't a match for her strength, so rather than lose his dignity even more then he already had, he turned on his side, back to her, attempting to ignore her.

She pressed her face against his back, and he could feel her triumphant smile. He gritted his teeth and punched his pillow into a more suitable shape for his head and tried to go to sleep.

He finally succeeded, only to wake in the middle of the night totally aroused. He had dreamed he was having sex with Elena, no Katherine, no Elena, no someone named Tatia. He woke to find Katherine riding him and by that time he didn't care anymore. His rage transformed into passion, and he quickly flipped her, slamming into her as if he could drain all his frustration into her. She clawed huge furrows down his back with her long blood red nails which only inflamed him more. They quickly tumbled out of bed continuing against the wall, his thrusts causing pictures to come crashing down.

When they finally climaxed neither one bothered to muffle their screams.

Damon and Elena, woken by the noise reacted differently. Damon thought it was hilarious. "Never underestimate Katherine. I knew she'd get him in the end." A particularly loud crash made him add, "Bet Stefan gets the worst of it!"

Elena's was coldly disapproving. "How could he possibly want her? It's disgusting."

Damon turned to look at her. "Why should you care? He needs someone after all. What difference if it's her?"

She just pinched her lips together and turned over, sidling to her edge of the bed. When Damon put an exploratory hand on her shoulder, she shrugged it off. "I need to sleep. I have school tomorrow."

They were woken before the alarm went off by the sounds of Katherine and Stefan going at it.

Elena was in a foul mood slamming things around. The four of them met in the kitchen; Katherine and Stefan breakfasting on a cup of coffee and a glass of blood. Katherine hadn't bothered to throw anything over her negligee, so when she obligingly got up to pour two more cups of coffee Damon's eyes showed his appreciation for her scantily clad figure, especially when her bare bottom peeked out. That did absolutely nothing to improve Elena's temper. Outraged, she looked to Stefan for support, but he kept his eyes trained on his coffee cup. The two of them obviously hadn't showered yet because Stefan's back and chest were covered with dried blood streaks, spaced to exactly match Katherine's fingers.

Damon made a point of tracing them with his hand, eyebrows waggling at Katherine, who merely returned 'a cat that licked the cream' smile.

That was too much for Elena, who slammed her coffee cup into the sink and flounced out, book bag in hand.

Damon looked surprised, and Katherine took the opportunity to play friend, solemnly counseling him. "She doesn't like me you know, so you should ignore me."

Damon frowned, draining his coffee cup. "I'll talk to who I want."

"I just don't want to cause trouble for you." Katherine was careful to school her features to a caring expression, so when Damon shot a suspicious glance at her she was able to meet his eyes without hesitation.

It wasn't until he left to drive Elena to school that she allowed herself to explode into laughter. Stefan watched her, shaking his head.

Katherine went around behind him, kissing his neck while wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "We need a shower. We both stink of sex, and then maybe we can fill Damon's tub and soak while we talk."

Stefan leaned back against the side of the tub, eyes closed, breathing in the violet scented bubbles that Katherine had added to the tub. He always associated the smell of violets with his first meeting with her. She had stepped out of the carriage and given him her delicate hand, the scent enveloping him on that warm summer day. He was totally relaxed for the first time in months.

Katherine, leaning back across from him, watched him with a self-satisfied smile. The shower had turned into something more than just a cleaning session. She thought once again how smart she had been to change him when he was at his physical peak. He could go for as long as she wanted and then recover and go again. She lifted one shapely foot and prodded him in the chest with her toe. He murmured a protest which just widened her smile.

She raised her arms up, stretching contentedly. "You remembered everything I taught you," she purred. "It's a good thing I'm not human or I would be very, very sore.

A soft, noncommittal grunt was the only indication he heard her.

She was pleased that he was so relaxed and used the opportunity to further her plans.

She gently poked him again with her toe, eliciting another incoherent protest.

"So, you're hooking Caroline up with Lexi's old boyfriend, what's the plan for Bonnie?"

That made him briefly open his eyes to look at her and then they slowly closed. "I thought I sensed you once or twice last night. I should trust myself more."

"What's Bonnie's plan?" She was never one to get sidetracked when she wanted to know something.

Stefan sighed, not having the energy or a good reason to deny her the information. "She's moving to go to college. She'll be near Lucy and that branch of the family."

He missed Katherine's angry look at Lucy's name, but she let it go. The Bennetts were no threat to her right now, and she had other fish to fry. It didn't mean she wouldn't do something about Lucy in the future, but for now she would let sleeping dogs lie.

"When's she going?" Katherine prodded.

"Soon. Couple of weeks," was the lazy reply.

"So, when will you be ready to go?"

He stayed silent for a moment and then replied, "Right after she does. I should have most of my stuff taken care of by then." He idly flipped the bubbles with his fingers, saying more to himself then Katherine, "I need to get out of here for good. There's nothing but bad memories here."

She looked at him with what in another person would have been called compassion. It was surprising on Katherine's face. "I'll leave with you."

He locked eyes with her. "I don't think that's a good idea."

She mocked him. "How do you intend to stop me?"

He shook his head and leaned back, slipping lower under the water, ignoring Katherine's tinkling laugh.

Three weeks later Katherine and Stefan loaded up their suitcases as soon as Elena and Damon had left for the day.

Katherine watched curiously as Stefan tossed his phone on the living room table. Their suitcases were already in Katherine's SUV. "Are you going to leave a note?"

Stefan, hands now in his pocket, shrugged as he looked at her. "What's to say?"

She nodded her understanding.

They walked out together, she heading for the driver's seat. He offered to drive, but she declined saying, "I know where I'm going."

He didn't protest, and she noticed he never looked back as they pulled away.

She drove for an hour before pulling into a truck stop. He looked at her puzzled. "We don't need gas."

He momentarily stiffened as the back door opened and quickly closed. As he tried to rise from his seat, a hand like a vise gripped his shoulder and forced him back down.

Katherine sped away as Elijah leaned over and kissed her cheek. "I missed you."

She turned her head to return the kiss. "I'm back."

Elijah catching Stefan's stunned, fearful expression laughed and gentled his grip. "Don't worry, Stefan. There's nothing for you to fear. I know my mother was responsible for my sister's and brothers' deaths. If anything I have you and your brother and friends to thank for my life."

Elijah then slyly smiled and settled back against his seat. "Of course, you were saving yourselves also, since I am your sire."

Stefan opened and then closed his mouth, looking from Katherine to Elijah. "Wha . . . Why?"

Elijah smiled broadly. "Katerina has always wanted a threesome. Don't worry. We'll have a good life together."

"Where did you decide to go first?" Katherine looked at Elijah in the rear view mirror.

"Italy. Head to the airport."

Stefan thought about it for a moment and then shrugged and relaxed against his seat. He wanted to forget the past and this would certainly do it.

~ Fin~