Disclaimer: I don't own Saving Hope or The Vampire Diaries.

Hello again, everyone. Thank you again chiwi-luv for the reviews, and as for whether or not Elena tells Caroline and Bonnie about Joel, well… read on, everyone.

Chapter 3

"So, how was your first day?" Bonnie asked. The three girls were doing a video chat, as they had almost everyday for the past 2 years.

"It was good," Elena answered. "I'm working most with Dr Goran, an orthopedic surgeon, for the next however long. Seems pretty cool."

"Is he hot?" Caroline asked.

"Care!"

"What?! Everybody knows surgeons are supposed to be hot!" Elena considered telling her best friends that Joel was actually a doppelganger of Elijah, but decided against it. The last time the supernatural got involved in a doppelgangers life, it had brought her years of fear and misery. She knew Caroline and Bonnie wouldn't hurt him, but what if Klaus or someone else found out? She told herself this was why she decided against telling them. There couldn't be anything more than that. Besides, she'd heard that Joel was dating the other doctor she'd made friends with that day, Maggie Lin.

Why was she even thinking about that?

"Well? Was he hot?" Both of her best friends were more looking at her in interest. She held in a smirk.

"Yes. She was."

"Seriously? You're going to be working with one person for whoever knows how long, and the doctor's not even a guy?" Elena burst out laughing.

"I'm kidding Care. He's a guy, and," she thought for a few seconds, picturing him. "He's definitely hot."

"Maybe we'll meet him when we come up to Toronto in a few months," Bonnie said.

"Guys, I know none of us are dating right now, and some of us," at this point she gave Caroline a pointed look, but Caroline just looked back innocently, "want to get back in the game, but seriously, Dr Goran is off the table."

"Oooh, got your eye on him?" Caroline teased, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"What?!" Elena exclaimed, blushing slightly. "No! No, no, no! He's not even my type!"

"Tall?" Bonnie asked.

"Taller than me."

"Dark hair?" Caroline asked. Elena nodded, a slight crease in her forehead, wondering where her friends were going with this.

"Dark eyes?"

"Yes, why?"

"Bit of a bad boy?"

"I don't know him well enough to say." Caroline and Bonnie exchanged smirks before turning back to Elena on the screen.

"Totally your type," they both said at the same time.

"Seriously?! Guys, even if I did have a crush on him -which I don't," the last part Elena said pointedly as both girls opened their mouths. "He's dating another doctor already."

"Gah, fine," Caroline groaned dramatically. She was all for her best friend putting her education and career before guys, but she hadn't dated anyone since the Salvatores when she was 18. How was she supposed to meet her soul mate if she never met anyone? "But when you marry this guy-" she ignored Elena's protests and Bonnie's sniggering, "I'm going to be the one planning the whole thing, OK?" Elena eventually decided that nodding along was the best thing to do. Trying to deny Caroline something she wants was not the best idea. "Hell, I'll even plan the proposal. It's all going to be perfect."

-TVD/SH-

Elena sat with Gavin as they waited for Maggie to get out of surgery. She was helping with a heart transplant and the three of them were going to eat lunch together afterwards. She was currently trying to get him to open up about his feelings for Maggie.

"I don't have feelings for Maggie," Gavin denied for the third time in the past two minutes.

"Oh come on, Gavin," she said. "You of all people know how important it is to talk to people." Gavin have her a look.

"Are you trying to use my own profession to manipulate me into talking about my feelings for Maggie?" Elena looked victorious at getting him to mention there were feelings. Which Gavin caught onto. "Feelings which are purely friendly. Love or crushes or anything. We're just friends."

"But you want to be more, right?"

"No! There's nothing between me and Maggie, Elena."

"Are you sure?" Elena asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"You're lying."

"I'm not lying. Maggie's my friend, we've been friends for years, why would I need more than that?"

"You said need," Elena pointed out, poking a finger at him.

"So?"

"Need. Not want." Gavin almost groaned and thumped his head on the table, but held back, not wanting to give her any more ammunition against him. "So?"

"So nothing. She's my friend, that's all she'll ever be."

"How long have you loved her?" Elena asked. Gavin sighed. She clearly wasn't going to let this go. Might as well come clean, because otherwise they'll be at this all day.

"Since we started college," he admitted. "I mean, we became friends in the first week, and I got to know her. I don't even know exactly when I fell in love with her. I guess she just… snuck up on me. Then one day I realized... I was in love with her. And I haven't stopped loving her since. It just gets stronger." His watch beeped, Gavin having set an alarm for when his next patient – a young girl called Heather – was arriving. "I've got to go," he said, standing up with an apologetic look. "Got a patient."

"It's fine," Elena said with a smile. "Go. Your patient needs you." Gavin smiled and kissed her on the cheek.

"Thanks for listening."

"Not that you made it easy," she teased as he walked out. A few seconds later, Joel walked in passed Gavin. He walked over to her and reclined on the couch next to her, looking at her. She looked back. "What?"

"So… You and Gavin?" Elena looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Joel just looked back.

"Gavin and I are just friends. We were waiting for Maggie, but she's still in surgery. What does it matter?" Joel had no idea why it mattered to him. He just knew he felt jealous whenever they spoke. But he had no reason to be, and he knew that. She was gorgeous, yes, but he had Maggie. Even so, he was jealous and he knew it. He just didn't understand why.

Joel shrugged.

"Curiosity."

"Curiosity killed the cat," she warned him with a small smirk on her face.

"Satisfaction brought it back," he retorted with a bigger smirk. He leaned his elbow on the couch and rested his cheek on his palm, looking at her. "Are you sure you and Gavin aren't dating?" She leaned towards him. The faint scent of strawberries and vanilla, with a hint of something he couldn't name reached his nose, almost driving him crazy. Again, he wondered what was with this woman. No one had effected him quite like this since Alex. Quickly he brushed off the thought of his ex, focusing again on Elena.

"Yes." When that she pulled away and started reading a book she had brought with her, settling down to continue waiting for Maggie. Joel huffed a laugh. A few minutes later, Maggie walked into the room and sat with Elena. The two of them talked about the surgery before Maggie told her that her sister was coming over with her baby.

"If you like, you can stay with me," Elena offered her new friend. Maggie smiled brightly at her.

"I'll think about it. Thanks for the offer. Right now I've got to finish knitting this hat." Half an hour later, she was scowling at it. "A hat that fits the head of a new born should not take this long to knit." Elena laughed a little bit. Gavin b walked back in and over to the fridge, before closing the fridge door.

"Great!" he exclaimed. "Somebody ate my quesadilla. How do you eat somebody else's lunch?! That's a serious, serious violation!" Joel sighed.

"Doctors are scavengers," he mused.

"Yeah, they'll take it where they can take it," Maggie added. Joel sent her a look. Elena raised an eyebrow. She let her arms drop. "He's colicky, he's gonna bawl whether you like it or not." Gavin came over and sat on Maggie's right, since Elena had taken her left.

"How are you going to study?" Garvin asked curiously.

"Dr Goran recommended an excellent brand of earplugs." Elena raised her eyebrows again, noticing the emphasis on the title, wondering what had happened between the two of them.

"You can… crash at my place," Gavin offered. Maggie looked up at him from her knitting, surprised.

"Really?!"

"Yeah," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Thank you, you're a prince." Then she stopped and looked at Elena. "But, Elena already offered, " she said with a sigh.

"It's OK. You can stay at Gavin's is you want," Elena said. They both smiled at her, then Maggie looked down at the hat she was attempting to knit.

"You know what, screw it," she said, scowling, throwing the hat and knitting needles back into the bag. "Gift shop. I'm buying one of these bad boys." Maggie got to her feet and left.

"So," Gavin started. "You going to hang with Maggie and get sister this weekend?"

"Uh, no," Joel responded, as if it was obvious. Gavin shook his head with a snort, clearly annoying Joel as he turned to look at him. "What was that?" Gavin made a non committal noise in the back of his throat. "Maggie doesn't even want to hang out with her," he said in defense, turning back so that he wasn't looking at Gavin.

"Joel –" Elena started but was interrupted by Gavin.

"I'm not getting involved in this."

"No one's asking you to."

"Actually you are fishing for some kind of tacit approval from me and… you're not getting it."

"Guys –"

"What does that mean?" Joel asked incredulously, being the one to interrupt her this time. She crossed her arms annoyed, and decided to let them have their pissing contest before being done sense into both of them.

"It means that you're asking me to tell you it's OK to do something when it's not," he said, looking at Joel.

"Right, her friend," he said, raising an arm so that it was now resting on the end of the couch underneath his head.

"Yeah," Gavin responded simply. "What? You don't think men and women can be friends?"

"No. Not really, no." He looked at Gavin and Gavin looked away.

"Interesting."

"Are you guys done now?" she asked annoyed, arms crossed as she glared at them both. The guys looked at her at the same time and both saw the look on her face and started wondering, if maybe they should fake needing to be somewhere. "Good. So here's what's going to happen here. Gavin, you're going to still psychoanalyzing Joel." The look she shot him as he opened his mouth had him keep quiet. "Joel. You're going to hang out with Maggie this weekend, without whining or complaining. And seriously, guys can be friends with women and vice versa. I would know. And, finally, you guys are going to get along. No fighting or arguing or anything. Understood?" Both men nodded. She nodded back, satisfied. "Good. Now, usually, I would have a lot more to say right now, but I've got to go. I'll talk to you both later." And then she was out the room before either could say another word.

-TVD/SH-

Elena walked out into the car park 3 hours later to see Joel standing next to a cop car, talking to the guy who was probably the one to bring in the dead prisoner. She was about to call out to him when he suddenly shouted, "Jimmy!" which was followed soon by a gunshot. Elena ran over to them and gasped when she saw the cop in the car, dead. She turned to Joel, who was stood there in shock, breathing hard, just staring.

10 minutes later, more officers had arrived and asked them for statements, given that they were there when it happened. Elena went first. It only took a few minutes, seeing as she had only just got there as the trigger was pulled. She walked out to tell Joel that they were ready for him, to see him sitting with Dr Reid who she had met a couple of days before. She looked pretty upset, which was to be expected, considering her fiancé had been in a coma for a little under two months now. Joel got up just as she approached them.

"They want to talk to you." He nodded and left without a word. Elena took his vacated seat, not feeling up to driving just yet. "How did the hearing go?"

Caroline and Bonnie love teasing Elena. Like a favorite time of day. And I don't remember if Maggie and Gavin and when they meet or how Gavin feel in love with her was actually explained, but I think they met in college. And it seems Elena is making excuses to keep Joel a secret for now. OK, so, Now that you've read the chapter, please, leave a review.