A/N: Thank you so much for all the fantastic reviews! :)

Witty A/Ns are not my forte, so I think I'm just going to leave you with the cliffhanger lol

Chapter 3

The sky was colorless, an almost transparent shade of blue and Jeremy caught himself thinking he had never seen anything like it, in any other place he had been to in the last five years.

Which probably wasn't true, he thought with a faint smile, searching for the keys. But the fact that he was seeing it that way probably meant that he still considered this town home, because home was always the most beautiful place, no matter how far away from it he'd wander, no matter how little was really left of it.

"Shouldn't we knock?" The dark-haired girl next to Jeremy asked when he produced the keys out of his pocket and proceeded to opening the door.

"It's 5am," Jeremy said with a small, mischievous smile.

The door opened with a quiet screech and the girl held her breath, outstretching her fingers when she noticed that her hands started automatically curling up into fists.

"Besides, that's what keys are for and I do kind of live here," Jeremy added, walking in and waiting for the girl to follow him.

"While you're not hunting vampires," the girl pointed out in a hushed voice.

Jeremy widened his eyes at her. "While I'm on holiday breaks," he corrected, bringing a finger to his mouth in a silencing gesture, his eyes laughing.

"Right," the girl nodded, looking around the parlor, taking in all the details with a mixture of awe and repulsion. "So... if anyone asks, how have we met?" She asked, still keeping her voice quiet and wiggling her hand into Jeremy's, suddenly feeling uncertain if coming here was a good idea. She'd been thinking about it for so long, but now that she was here it felt... not even frightening, just wrong, for very conflicting reasons. "I ran into you in a library or you into me in a cafeteria?"

"Chess club will do," Jeremy offered, smiling a little as he dropped their backpacks on the floor in the living room.

He took a look around, not sure if he found it comforting or depressing that nothing was ever changing here. Every time he'd come visit not a single thing would be out of order. Not that anyone probably cared about moving the furniture, what with Stefan going out of town very often and Damon-

Jeremy's eyes lingered on the pictures sitting on one of the cabinets, Elena's eyes so bright on each photograph.

"I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry that you've lost so many people."

It was so impossible to think that they might never see, never talk to each other again.

"I still have you."

"Go ahead and make yourself a coffee," Jeremy said absently, slowly walking away from the pictures. "I'll go upstairs to see who is home and will be right back."

"Is that your sister?" The girl asked, stepping closer to him and glancing at the photographs.

"Yeah," Jeremy nodded, his voice barely audible. He cleared his throat.

"You know you may still get to see her if you listen to me, quit eating junk food and other unhealthy habits and swim more," she said in a humorously severe voice and then smiled warmly at him.

"Right. I'm already looking forward to introducing my 21-year-old older sister to our grandchildren," Jeremy said, heading toward the stairway.

"Jeremy-" The girl started, noticing the lack of humor in his tone despite the intention to sound at least a little lighthearted.

"I'm fine," Jeremy said from the stairs, holding her gaze for a second, before turning around and climbing up the stairs.

Sarah looked after him, standing motionlessly for a longer while, the realization that she wouldn't be able to drag it out for longer than a few more minutes falling over her like a cold, sticky shadow and she just hoped that when she'd explain it all to him afterwards, Jeremy would understand.

xxxdelenaxxx

Bonnie looked back and forth between Stefan and Caroline, giving both of them expectant looks, but it didn't seem like either of them was going to say anything more than what they had already said.

"Yes, he seriously just asked her to be nice," Caroline said brusquely, glancing at Stefan and then sitting back in her chair with a sigh.

"Oh. Sorry. I thought that was a... joke." Bonnie gave Stefan a quick, apologetic smile.

Stefan grimaced, stifling a humorless laugh. "It's not like I had a choice. If I told her that sure, she could have Elena's blood, she'd know right away I was lying. At least that way-"

"At least that way she knows you're an honest guy. I'm sure that if she wasn't a homicidal sociopath she'd appreciate that," Caroline interjected, her tone sour.

Stefan only sighed in resignation.

"Well, you never know," Bonnie said with a shrug. "Maybe it will work."

Caroline's glare shifted from Stefan to Bonnie. "Seriously?"

"I think we talked about my failed mission enough," Stefan interrupted. "You said Enzo was here?"

"He wants to meet me and Damon tonight on the Wickery Bridge," Bonnie replied blandly.

"What for?" Caroline demanded.

"Obviously if I knew why I would've told you," Bonnie retorted with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Caroline jumped to her feet and started pacing around the room. "How do we know he's not just doing Lily's bidding? This change of heart seems a little sudden after five years of being a very happy minion."

"You don't know that," Bonnie said before she managed to stop herself. Being more inclined to argue with Caroline was probably falling within the scope of her heightened emotions.

"Are you defending him?" Caroline asked incredulously, looking Bonnie up and down as if she was checking if she wasn't being possessed.

"I think Bonnie's just trying to say that we can't be sure what Enzo's reasons are," Stefan observed in a reconciliatory tone, which unfortunately seemed to actually aggravate Caroline more.

"I don't need a translation from English to English, Stefan," she snapped.

"Are you mad at me, Stefan, both of us, or just... generally mad?" Bonnie asked, thinking that being a vampire felt a little like being drunk all the time. Granted she never enjoyed being drunk, but speaking faster than she was able to think was kind of fun.

"I'm not mad at anyone!" Caroline exclaimed after a few moments of just blinking at both of them in indignation. "I'm just- I'm stressed out because I have a meeting with an investor. My first meeting as a mayor," she clarified when she noticed that Bonnie didn't seem immediately sympathetic to her ordeal.

"Elena's in danger, I'm a vampire and you're mad because you have a meeting," Bonnie said after a moment of silence, her voice calm but in a threatening way, so Stefan opened his mouth to intervene before the argument would get blown out of proportion-

But before he did, everyone's attention was drawn to the candles that suddenly lit up, not rendering the sunny room brighter, but definitely rendering everyone in it speechless.

Bonnie's eyes went wide.

"Um, weren't you supposed to not be able to do that anymore?" Caroline asked cautiously and for the first time since yesterday Bonnie felt like smiling.

xxxdelenaxxx

The clock in the hallway struck 5am and Jeremy frowned, confused, irritated and yet fully aware that he had no reason and no right to be upset. In fact, he should probably try to understand. That's what Elena would want anyway.

Would she? Jeremy leaned his head against the door, holding his breath to differentiate between the words. All he could hear was Damon's voice, but he couldn't make out what he was saying. Neither could he hear the voice of the other person... unless Damon was talking to himself, which wasn't all that unlikely now that he thought about it.

In fact it was very likely, Jeremy thought, the frown on his face deepening as he was trying to decide if he should be worried in general or on Elena's behalf.

Raising his hand as if to knock, Jeremy hesitated for a moment, but then changed his mind and just walked right in.

He wasn't sure what he expected to see, but it certainly wasn't this.

"Is you hand so tired from doing homework you can't be bothered to knock on the door?" Damon asked, rising to his feet, his eyebrows furrowed, although he seemed too tired to glare and for some reason Jeremy found it most upsetting.

His eyes focused on Elena who was lying on the bed, her eyes closed, face as motionless as it was when he had seen her for the last time five years ago, Jeremy was trying to decide if walking in on Damon talking to and apparently sleeping in one bed with his comatose sister was sad, weird, pitiful, heartbreaking or creepy. "Why is Elena here?"

"Why are you here at 5am?" Damon shot back, kicking something that looked very much like a stake under the bed.

Jeremy narrowed his eyes at him, out of the corner of his eye noticing Damon's ring on Elena's finger.

"I live here," Jeremy said carefully, the scent of freshly cleaned floor prompting him to take another look around and realize that everything looked spotless including a very fancy-looking bottle of bourbon. "What's going on?" He asked in an unabashedly suspicious voice, slowly shifting his eyes back to Damon.

"Not on Wednesdays," Damon continued his previous train of thought, ignoring Jeremy's question. "And by the way, I want to see your grade report."

Jeremy snorted. "Yeah, sure. But could you first tell me why did you bring Elena here?"

Damon glanced at Elena's sleeping form over his shoulder and then looked at Jeremy again with a grim expression on his face. "Long story. Didn't Caroline call you?" He asked with a grimace.

"No," Jeremy widened his eyes at him, annoyed. "Why didn't you call me? What happened? Did something happen to Elena? To Bonnie? To her spells? To the crypt?"

"Gee, I have no clue how we've managed to survive for so long without your helpful input," Damon muttered derisively. "I'll see you downstairs in a few minutes if that's OK with you," he added, ushering Jeremy out of the room and then slamming the door shut behind him.

Jeremy rolled his eyes, shot a glare at the door and headed downstairs.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Oh, come on, Elena. Playing hide and seek all day long is boring. And I've spent so much much time here watching you and Damon that I deserve some entertainment for a change," Kai said in whiny voice, pursing his lips and looking around the forest he had just walked into.

Elena ran soundlessly in between the trees, glancing over her shoulder and gritting her teeth at the bizarre, frightening impression that the further she ran, the louder his voice was becoming.

"By the way, don't you ever get tired of saying and hearing the same stuff over and over again?" Kai stopped, straining his ears. "I know I'd get really bored." Smirking to himself, he turned around. "You're not really surprised to see me here, are you? You couldn't possibly think I didn't have a plan B and C and... R," he chortled. "Plan R," he repeated in a theatrical voice. "I like this one. What do you think, Elena? Come on. Stop hiding. You're behaving as if I were some scary guy capable of awful things like murdering his own pregnant sister-" He trailed off and then chuckled. "Oh wait. I did that. But hey, still doesn't mean I'm that scary. Your boyfriend, for instance, chopped my head off. Now that's scary. And painful. It hurt really, really bad. I have to say, caught me a little off guard, but fortunately I was prepared to be caught off guard. Would you believe my parents didn't think I was all that smart? They thought Josette was smarter and here we are. She's dead and I'm alive-ish." He trailed off again and looked up just in time to see all the trees around him break, but before the falling branches could smash him, he made them disappear with a wave of his hand.

All of a sudden, the forest was transformed into a desert with nowhere to hide. Turning around on one foot he came face to face with Elena who looked around in bewilderment.

"I'm sorry. Did you think it was your world?" Kai asked, tilting his head to the side. He pouted and then chuckled. "My spell, my rules."

Straightening up, Elena fought an automatic urge to run and told herself that he must've been lying at least to some degree. They were in her mind and whatever tricks he was playing he wasn't in control of everything here. He couldn't be.

Kai grinned. "My special effects."

Elena frowned and then drew a sharp intake of breath when the ground under her feet suddenly vanished and she crashed into the water.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Sarah, this is Damon, Damon, this is Sarah," Jeremy introduced his companion when Damon joined them downstairs, a bit taken aback by an unexpected guest.

"Ah. Let me guess. You dropped out of college together."

Jeremy groaned. "What is your problem with my educational achievements all of a sudden?"

"We just happened to discuss it with your sister the other day. Tea? Coffee? Bourbon?" Damon asked, turning to Sarah, who quickly smiled at him in a rather forced way, which he couldn't blame her for.

"I don't know what Jeremy told you, but meeting me is a much nicer and less stressful experience than meeting any parents, so you can consider yourself lucky."

Something flashed in Sarah's face, but it was gone before Damon he managed to discern which word seemed to hit a nerve.

"Water, thanks." Sarah said in a low voice, holding onto the strap of her purse and only now it struck Jeremy as a little odd that she hadn't put her purse away.

"I'm guessing you haven't had a breakfast yet?" Damon asked, heading for the kitchen. "Would you like some-"

"Pancakes," Jeremy cut in, sending a smile Sarah's way. "He can't cook anything else."

"I heard that," Damon said, glancing at them over his shoulder. "So you're getting zero pancakes and your... fellow student you guilt-tripped into a road trip? Math tutor you begged to play your girlfriend? Random person you kidnapped?"

"My girlfriend," Jeremy replied, a little miffed.

"And your girlfriend is getting as many as she wants," Damon concluded his sentence and was about to disappear into the kitchen but then changed his mind and turned around. "Have you met in college?" He inquired in such a ridiculously matter-of-fact, bordering on concerned tone that it cost Jeremy some effort not to laugh.

"Really?" He asked, giving Damon an incredulous look.

"It's a casual question," Damon replied with a frown. "And a polite one at that, which can't be said about walking into someone's room without knocking."

"I'm sorry."

Sarah's voice was quiet when it broke into Damon and Jeremy's trite argument, but there was something odd enough about it that it drew Jeremy's attention and he looked at her wondering if maybe she wasn't feeling well.

During the entire car ride here Sarah had been strangely listless, but he thought she was just tired after a bad night sleep.

There was something in her hand, Jeremy noticed and it was one of those weird, horrible moments when everything seemed to be happening in slow motion and at the same time so fast that there was not enough time to even start wondering-

His eyes wide, Jeremy leaped toward Sarah, a glimpse of purple liquid in the syringe in her hand triggering an immediate reaction.

"They're my family, I told you, they're my family," Jeremy spoke hurriedly, completely shocked and bewildered by what was going on.

Why would his girlfriend try to use a deadly poison they were using while hunting vampires on someone he had told her was his family?

There were tears in Sarah's eyes when she looked at him, her hands shaking, but apparently she decided it wasn't the right time for explanations.

Using on him a foot sweep they had been practicing together on sunny mornings by the lake, she knocked Jeremy to the ground.

Utterly confused by the sudden turn of events, Damon zoomed toward Jeremy to help him, but before he could do anything he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder.

Out of the corner of his eye, Damon could see the syringe in Sarah's hand. It looked so small and insignificant and he couldn't fathom how it could hurt so much, the purple liquid blurring his vision as if it was suddenly splashed over his face, and he couldn't see anything anymore, couldn't stand, searing pain shooting through him as if his blood was set on fire, rushing through his veins and burning them inside out.

"No! Why did you do that?!" Jeremy shouted, jumping to his feet, confused and angry, his eyes flying to Sarah, her words registering in his mind a split second before another measured strike rendered him unconscious.

"He killed my parents."

xxxdelenaxxx

It was only imaginary water and she was only imagining choking on it, Elena knew, but somehow it was becoming increasingly difficult to think clearly when the pain was coursing through her body like grinding wheels, waves crashing against her over and over again, making it impossible for her to breathe, excruciating pain spreading through her chest every time she tried to catch her breath.

But perhaps that was exactly what she shouldn't be doing.

Clinging to the remnants of lucidity, Elena concentrated as hard as she could on the safest place she could imagine.

She squeezed her eyes shut and gathering all the strength she could muster, she started painting all the details in her head... the color of sunlight on the dark wooden floor... the scent of the leather-covered books stashed near the bed, the texture of the paint on the picture by the door...

Damon's face buried in her hair... his breath on her neck... his arm wrapped around her-

xxxdelenaxxx

"Is that Jeremy's car?" Caroline asked, walking across the hallway and into the living room.

"I thought you were late for your meeting," Stefan observed with a small smile, closing the door behind them.

It was strangely comforting that some things remained unchanged. In all the sadness and chaos, Caroline's unapologetic spontaneity-

"Jeremy!"

Stefan froze for a second and then rushed to the living room where he found Caroline kneeling on the floor next to Jeremy, trying to revive him.

Without thinking twice about it, Stefan hurried upstairs to Damon's room.

He pushed the door open and stumbled backwards caught off guard by the sight of Elena, who was standing near the bed, looking slightly confused and a little dizzy.

Elena's eyes lit up at the sight of him, but the petrified expression that appeared on Stefan's face made her smile fade and she drew a breath, feeling as if she was drowning again, only now it wasn't in a dream she could wake up from.