Katherine raised her eyebrow at her newly vampire doppelganger. She knew compulsion would wear off but she wasn't exactly sure how much Elena would remember in such a short amount of time.

"Remember what, exactly?" Katherine asked. A suggestive tone embedded in her voice.

She knew exactly what Elena meant. The night at bridge, the one night she had found courage to admit how she really felt. Since then she had shut her humanity away. She remembered exactly how dangerous it was to cling to foolish emotions such as love.

Yet this girl, this one girl, who was human the last time they saw each other, managed to bring her feelings to the surface. What she really wanted to do was grab Elena and take her far away from Mystic Falls, far away from where she would be in danger. She cursed herself mentally for being such a romantic.

"You know what I remember," Elena said, her tone obviously showed she was irritated, yet it cracked.

Katherine was puzzled. Over the centuries she'd become very good at reading human emotions, but Elena's emotions were jumbled. She was confused, scared, sad, and hurt at the same time.

She couldn't help but remember part of her human life where she had felt so lost. Every emotion she felt jumbled together as one. She didn't know what to feel, what to think, or even whom to be.

"Enlighten me," Katherine told Elena, removing herself from her thoughts to focus on Elena.

Elena scowled at her elder doppelganger but Katherine only smirked. She tried to see what was on Katherine's mind, but failed, she had never been able to tell what Katherine was planning, but she never wanted to.

She wanted Katherine to surprise her, and as much as she hated to admit it, thinking about Katherine when she was human helped her get out of bed in the morning.

Katherine was so strong. Klaus killed her entire family and yet for five hundred years she survived. She survived because she was strong, and Elena had envied her.

"The night on the bridge," Elena said, "You saved me."

"What about it?" Katherine asked, shrugging off her act of humanity as if it were something she did because she was bored.

"Why?" Elena asked, her eyes flickering back and forth as she thought, trying to conjure any reason for Katherine to save her.

"Well," Katherine said with a sigh as she cocked her hip, "couldn't exactly hand you over to Klaus if you were dead."

Elena shook her head, "That's not the real reason Katherine," she told her twin, "you and I both know that."

"Really?" Katheirne asked, a glimmer of mischief in her eye, "Fine. Try to go through my mind and find other reasoning for saving you, Elena. There won't be any."

"That's not true," Elena argued, "You stopped me from trying to save my parents."

"You would've drowned yourself, Elena," Katherine said, her tone said drop it, but Elena pressed on.

"You held me when I cried."

"And?"

"You comforted me!" Elena's voice growing louder with each observation she reminded Katherine of.

Katherine raised her eyebrow, "And?"

Elena stood from the table and brought herself face to face with Katherine, "You cared!" she yelled.

Elena was breathing heavily from her anger, but Katherine remained calm. Her face still twisted in a smirk and her eyes still glimmered in a way Elena couldn't get enough of.

"Funny," Katherine said with a small laugh, "You talk in the past."

"Why shouldn't I?" Elena asked, trailing off when she saw Katherine's body language change for a split second.

For one single moment Katherine's shoulders slumped and her eyes, instead of shining with mischief, gleamed with regret and pain. It all vanished in an instant, and Elena began stammering.

"You turned off your humanity," Elena said.

"I thought that was obvious," Katherine drawled.

"Not now," Elena said, "Back then. When you left you turned off your humanity. That's why you came back and tried to get Stefan back."

Katherine scoffed, "Stefan?" she asked, as if saying his name were disgusting, "You really believe I came back for Stefan?"

"That's what you said," Elena laughed and stomped her foot, causing Katherine to raise her eyebrow.

"Why didn't I see it before?" Elena said, "You lied. That's what you do, Katherine. You lie and cheat your way out of situations. You lie your way into peoples' hearts. You lie to get everything you want. So tell me the real reason. You've been lying to me for a year, I deserve the truth."

"You want the truth, Elena," Katherine said, "there's a difference."

"This isn't fair!" Elena yelled.

"Life isn't fair, Elena," Katherine said, anger seeping from her voice, resisting the ever so tempting urge to snap Elena's neck.

"Don't you think I know that!" Elena couldn't stop the warm tear from falling down her cheek, "I've lost so many people! I've lost almost every single person in my family! Vampires took everything from me; I never wanted to be one! You killed Jenna!"

"I didn't kill her, Elena," Katherine yelled, "Klaus did!"

"You put her right into his hands!" Elena yelled louder than Katherine, ignoring all the tears that smeared her face and created a small pool on the tile floor. "It was either her or me, Elena," Katherine said, calming down, "I chose her."

"That's because you never think about anyone but yourself Katherine," Elena said, her voice catching in her throat every once in a while.

Before Elena could do anything Katherine had her pinned against the wall. Elena could feel Katherine's hand at her throat, but she wasn't choking. She couldn't feel any pain at all. The truth of it was Katherine wasn't hurting her.

"I watched over you for seventeen years!" Katherine said, her voice laced with rage.

"Why?" Elena asked.

"Isobel asked me to! With your precious Salvatores in town I couldn't get anywhere near you! I was hoping they might be able to protect you, but I was wrong!"

"That's what you hate," Elena said calmly, "You hate that you were wrong."

"I hate that you died twice and I couldn't do anything about it!" Katherine's fist found the wall in under a second. When she pulled her fist away her knuckles were broken and scratched, her hand in a seemingly impossible position. The wounds healed quickly, but not before blood could pool on the floor.

"And now," Katherine seethed, breathing heavily hoping to regain control, "you're a vampire."

Elena was let down from the wall. She put a hand to her throat but found no wounds, no mark made by Katherine. Elena could see how gentle Katherine was being. She'd never seen Katherine's truly ruthless side, but she'd also never seen Katherine being so soft.

"Why did you come back?" Elena asked, a single tear running down her cheek.

"For you."