A/N- This is kinda shorter than my other chapters and I'm not 100% happy with it. But I wanted to get a chapter up and so...here it is! The chronology of it too is a little messy, we jump 2 weeks fairly quickly in case anyone wondered. Let me know what you think.

By four am most guests had left, Elena saw Matt to the door, giving him a brief hug and thanking him for coming. She walked back into the living room slowly and kicked off her shoes, Caroline was fast asleep on the sofa and she grabbed a blanket that was draped over a chair and covered her with it, smiling at her softly. She walked into the kitchen and sighed as she saw Stefan and Bonnie washing glasses, his brother just stood leaning against the counter tops watching them idly. She reached behind him, not even acknowledging he was there and grabbed a towel and began drying the glasses that Bonnie was placing on the side.

"You don't have to help clean up." She told Stefan lightly; although she was glad he had stayed. They had spent most of the evening talking to each other and even though his brother was just about the most hated person in her life, she could look past it when she saw him smile or heard him laugh at something she said.

"It's no problem." He said, flicking her with a bit of soapy water and smiling as she giggled and scrunched her nose playfully. Behind them Damon groaned and rolled his eyes, he dramatically raised his arms and shrugged back his sleeve to look at his watch. He tapped it and placed a mock look of confusion across his face, "Is that the time!" He suddenly cried out sarcastically, "Better go Stefan, it's way past your curfew little brother." Stefan shot Elena a look of exasperation before putting down the glass he was washing and drying his hands.

"It is pretty late, I should go." He said, pretending like his brother wasn't present. Elena walked them both to the door and leant against the frame as Stefan turned around on her doorstep to smile at her. "Thanks for inviting me...us."

"Tick tock Stefan!"

"I had a really good time." He continued, a slight clenching of his jaw the only sign that he had heard his brother. "I'd really like to take you out some time." The words came barrelling out of his mouth quickly and Elena held back a laugh as she noted how nervous he looked.

"I'd really like that too." She replied, the evening's alcohol bolstering her confidence slightly.

"OK, well I'll call you." She nodded and waved goodbye to him once more as he and his brother walked down her driveway. She closed the door and leant her head back against it, smiling like a fifteen year old after her first date.

Sunday awarded Elena with a well deserved lie in, her head throbbed slightly whenever she moved and her, Bonnie and Caroline spent the day on the sofa, curled up in several duvets and watching scrubs re-runs. On Sunday evening she attempted to keep herself awake for as long as possible, her night shifts started the next day and she was trying to force her body into the new sleeping pattern she would need to adopt.

She woke up on Monday just after midday and pottered around the house until half six in the evening when she walked slowly to the hospital. She quietly slipped on her scrubs in the empty changing rooms and headed to the ward where she knew she'd be working. As she entered the ward she made her way to the nurses' station, greeting some of the staff there warmly; she was already well liked by a lot of the staff.

"Dr Gilbert, I presume." Came a voice from behind her. She swivelled round and was met with a pair of brown eyes that she knew to be almost identical to her own. She took in the sight of the woman in front of her, she was wearing a pencil skirt, just tight enough to be deemed acceptable in a hospital and a crisp white shirt; over which she wore an impeccable white lab coat that had her name stitched in careful calligraphy over the right pocket.

"Dr Pierce." She smiled nervously.

"My reputation precedes me, I see. Please, call me Katherine." She flashed a knowing smile and flicked a piece of her impeccably curled brown hair over her shoulder. "You're Dr Salvatore's intern, are you not?" Elena nodded carefully, Bonnie had been right about her being a powerful person, even just standing in her presence Elena could see that she was used to controlling everything and everyone around her. "And how are you finding your time with Dr Salvatore?" Elena bit back an honest answer and smiled docilely.

"It's good, thank you, I'm learning a lot." She stated simply, hoping that her answer would seem convincing.

"I'm sure you are." Quipped the older brunette knowingly and flashed Elena a quick wink. Elena found it already incredibly hard not to like her and not to want to impress her at every opportunity; she clearly had that effect on people. "Well, let's get to work then and see what Dr Salvatore's been teaching you." Elena inwardly groaned, not much, she thought bitterly.

The shift went by surprisingly quickly and Elena was pleasantly pleased with her performance as she left the hospital the following morning at 7am. She yawned widely as she stepped out into the fresh fall morning, the sun was beating down brightly, without any heat, but Elena appreciated the feel of it on her face. Dr Pierce, Katherine, had allowed her to take the lead with almost all of her patients. The rest of the week's night shifts went by without a hitch and Elena's self confidence had been bolstered by Katherine's encouragement and allowance for her to actually treat patients.

On the following Saturday morning she drove over to Stefan's house, she slipped on her sunglasses as she turned up the volume on her car stereo and wound down the window, her elbow leant casually on the side. Stefan lived at an old boarding house outside of town, she loved spending time there and the feel of the whole house made her feel like she was in some kind of period drama. The only downside to his living situation was that, owing to the fact that it was a large house, both brothers currently resided there. She didn't feel overly comfortable when Damon was there however, they had settled into a pleasing routine whereby they were cold and detached towards each other within the confines of the hospital and any other time was spent by throwing insults back and forth at one another.

She pulled into the large driveway and sighed as she saw the older Salvatore's motorbike propped haphazardly next to the garage door. She found it odd that a doctor, someone who essentially helped in saving people's lives and maintaining their health and wellbeing would spend his spare time riding around on a motorbike at break-neck speeds. She walked up to the house and raised the large, Dickensian door knocker, letting it slam into the door loudly a couple of times. She could hear someone approach the door and she quickly ran a hand through her loose hair. The door swung open and the smile on her face dropped as Damon opened the door. "Elena." He greeted her tersely, at least they we're on first name terms now, she thought gratefully.

"Damon." She replied with the same monotone speech. "Is Stefan here?" He didn't answer her, just simply stepped back for her to enter before closing the door behind her. As usual it took her a few seconds to adjust to the dimly lit hallway of the Salvatore house, the hallway was lined with old dusty paintings and Elena longed to wipe the grimy signs of time away and look at what lay beneath. She immediately traversed the huge old staircase and found her way to Stefan's room as Damon settled himself in front of the large hearth in the living room.

She knocked gently on the door and pushed it open, poking her head around and smiling at the sleeping form of Stefan. She crept lightly into the room and edged her way to the bed before throwing herself onto it and laughing loudly. "Wakey wakey, sleepy head!" She was met with a pained groan from Stefan who rolled onto his side to face her, he inched his eyes open and narrowed them at her.

"I hate morning people." He grunted before he reached across the space between them and pulled her roughly to him. She giggled and placed a hand on his chest and leant back to look him in the eyes, pouting playfully.

"You mean you hate me?" She asked, jutting her bottom lip out slightly.

"Absolutely not." He quipped and pulled back the covers before flinging them back over her to cover them both.

Later that evening they were back in his room and Stefan was sat on the bed watching Elena. "Oh! I forgot to ask you, I have this work thing next weekend, the annual dinner and dance," Stefan rolled his eyes exasperatedly, "And it would be a whole lot more bearable if I had your beautiful self by my side." He came to stand behind Elena where she was stood looking in the mirror as she took off her makeup. She sighed and twisted her mouth awkwardly.

"I can't, sorry." She turned around to face him, "I have to work that weekend." He frowned and stepped backwards from her.

"Can't you just...book it off?" He asked nonchalantly.

"It doesn't work like that." She shook her head, feeling increasingly guilty. "I'm sorry."

"Damon books days off all the time-" He began bitterly.

"Damon is an attending." She stressed, not liking where this conversation was going. In the short time that they had been together she had lost count of how many dates she had had to cancel on because of work. Stefan usually understood but she could see that his patience was beginning to wear thin with her.

"Well can't you just get someone to cover for you, this is really important; my Dad will be there and..."

"Stefan I can't just skip work, if I get caught I'll-" She could see the anger begin to build in his eyes.

"What? You'll get a slap on the wrist, everyone who works there loves you, you could screw up a million times and they'd never fire you! Sometimes I wonder if you even wanna be with me." He was shouting by now and she raised her hands to try to get him to lower his voice, all too aware that his brother was probably in the house somewhere listening.

She rubbed her forehead and sighed heavily, "I do, I do, it's just...can we please not do this right now? I just want to go to sleep." She pushed past him and tied her hair up and slid into his bed. Several seconds later she felt him slide in next to her and turn off the light, never once saying goodnight to her as he turned his back and they slept facing in opposite directions.

She woke the next morning to an empty bed, a note on Stefan's pillow read 'Gone for a run, be back later.' She sighed heavily, throwing her head back onto the pillow and covering her face with her arms. She checked the clock on his bedside table and realised she had slept much later than she had intended to. She rummaged around in the overnight bag she had bought with her and slipped on some jogging pants and a hoody before stomping down the large staircase into the kitchen.

"Morning." The cool voice behind her made her jump and she turned around to see Damon sat at the large centre countertop, drinking a cup of coffee. He raised his eyebrows quickly and flashed a smug smile at her.

"Morning." She replied tersely, lifting the still hot pot of coffee off the countertop and pouring herself a cup.

"Sleep well?" Asked Damon, smirking into his cup as he raised it to his lips. She frowned in his direction and shrugged noncommittally. "So..." He began and she groaned, knowing that it was only a matter of time before the verbal swipes began. "Trouble in paradise already?" He asked playfully, she blushed slightly as she realised he had probably heard every word of their argument last night.

"No, just a disagreement." She answered, taking a sip from her coffee cup as she leant on the surface opposite him and regarded him carefully.

"That's not what it sounded like to me." He threw back, clearly enjoying every second of this. "He'll never understand, you know." This time his voice sounded more serious and she frowned in question. "The missed birthdays, forgotten anniversaries," He listed carefully, "The work events." At this one he smirked knowingly. "For people like you and me," He gestured to them both, "Work always comes first." She snorted and shook her head.

"You and I are nothing alike." She spat back angrily.

"My father's the same." He continued, ignoring her angry response.

"I thought your father was a retired lawyer." She retorted, raising an eyebrow as she thought she'd caught him out.

"He is," He answered, toying with the rim of his cup, "But my mother was a doctor and he was just the same with her as Stefan is. He couldn't stand that his wife was a bigger workaholic than he was." He glanced up to see that she was listening intently. "You see some men, they just can't take that;" he explained, "They can't stand to be with a woman who's more powerful than they are." He widened his eyes and she felt herself blush again under his intense stare. "Me," he shrugged, breaking the eye contact, "I kinda like it." He threw a playful grin her way and she snorted, doing her best to look as disgusted as possible.

"Is that what you saw in Dr Pierce?" She quipped, raising an eyebrow. He took a sip from his coffee and almost spat it out before regaining his composure.

"Ah yes," He nodded thoughtfully, "And how is dear Katherine?" He asked.

"Good." She answered brightly, "I learnt a lot from her, she was really nice." The insult hurt more than he would have liked it to and he downed the last of his coffee and stood up to place his cup in the sink. He nodded thoughtfully and turned to lean against the countertop adjacent to her; she had turned around now and was fetching various items from the fridge.

"Just for the record, Katherine isn't nice." He raised his fingers air quoting what she had said. She rolled her eyes and grabbed a chopping board before starting to slowly and messily chop a tomato. "What are you doing?" He asked suddenly and she looked up, a large knife raised in her hand. He involuntarily took a small step backwards.

"Making a sandwich." She explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He sighed and frowned at her.

"Move." He said, pushing her out of the way with his hips and carefully prying the knife from her fingers. She scoffed in annoyance and crossed her arms across her chest as she watched him begin to slice the tomato quickly and accurately.

"I didn't realise there was a right way and a wrong way to make a sandwich." She retorted sarcastically, trying not to be impressed by his evident culinary skills.

"There's a wrong way for everything, Elena."He said as he threw her a glance over his shoulder. She sighed as she realised his words had a more profound meaning that he could possibly have known. She was doing everything wrong with Stefan, he was perfect, he was Mr Right and she was doing absolutely everything wrong. She realised that the only time they saw each other was when she deemed it suitable, she blew him off because she was tired or stressed and her crazy hours at the hospital made her almost impossible to be around even when she did see him.

"So Katherine's been letting you have free reign then, I take it?" His voice snapped her out of her daze and she snapped her head up from where she had been staring at her feet doubtfully.

"She lets me do a lot." She nodded, "I like her." He snorted and shook his head.

"Be careful with her, there's a side to her that not many people see." He warned, wondering why he felt like Elena needed protecting from the woman.

"Maybe you're just not as good a judge of character as you think you are." She quipped, smirking at him as he twisted his head to look at her again, knowing that she was referring to their conversation in her kitchen.

He shrugged lazily, "Maybe I'm not, but when it comes to Katherine, trust me, I know what I'm talking about." He turned around and handed her a small plate that had a heaped sandwich that looked like one of those plastic ones they use in adverts to make the food look especially enticing. She accepted it hesitantly, throwing him a look of confusion before sitting down to eat. "Look," He continued, he raised his hands in an attempt to reason with her, "I don't want to fill your head with my opinions about Katherine, if you like her that's fine. Just," He sighed, trying to find the right words to say, "Just don't cross her." He added quickly, "She doesn't like competition."

"Why would I be competition for her?" Asked Elena, looking up from her sandwich. Her eyes met his and she understood as soon as she looked into his eyes. For you, she thought, before quickly dismissing the ridiculous thought from her mind. He cleared his throat awkwardly and went to leave the room.

"Enjoy your sandwich." He said quietly and she listened as his footsteps faded away. Suddenly she didn't have much appetite.

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Much love xxx