AN: Still don't own anything, but would love to, lol..

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and alerted. You are making this story such a pleasure to write.

Here is the next installment. I actually almost ended it with this chapter. I had a way to do it, but decided to rewrite the chapter and attempt to take it in another direction. Lets hope this works. (:

Stefan drew in a sharp breath. There he was standing only feet from where his brother had Elena's back against a wall. At first only murderous thoughts crossed his mind as he couldn't imagine Elena allowing Damon that close to her under her own will power, then quickly he remembered the scene in the hall where she had shown him the necklace. Without a doubt Elena was there of her own free will. Stefan cocked his head to the side and tried to meet Elena's eyes, but she ducked her head quickly to hide the flush of guilt that swept across her face.

After a moment Elena was finally in control of her emotions and put her hands on Damon's chest and tried to push him away from her. Not surprisingly, he didn't budge, but stood still staring daggers at his brother. With another nudge from Elena, Damon pushed himself off the wall with his hands and took a small step in front of her putting himself between Elena and Stefan as if to protect her.

Damon watched in a morbid amusement as a variety of emotions swept across Stefan's face. He felt a little guilty. Ok, not really, but he could see where Stefan might get a little touchy, maybe a lot touchy. Damon watched as Stefan's face morphed in front of him and knew that Stefan was close to releasing his fury. He could feel his own face changing in response. Damon took a deep cleansing breath and released it slowly to get back in control.

"Not a good idea Stefan."

Stefan said nothing in return and continued to grow more and more furious with Damon. He couldn't tell if his anger came because Damon was with Elena or if it was deeper rooted and connected to his battle with Damon over Katherine. Either way one wrong fed upon the other and the result could be disastrous.

"How could you?" Stefan finally roared his fangs clearly visible. Logically he knew he wasn't as strong as his brother, but that didn't factor into the outrage he was feeling at the moment.

"Stefan! Not here!" Damon said in a controlled voice as the sounds of Jenna coming through the front door penetrated the air.

Stefan barely let the sounds break through his consciousness. He jerked his head in the direction of the sound and heard Jenna call out to Elena and Jeremy that she was home.

"This isn't over." He hissed as he made his way to the kitchen door and disappeared.

Elena let out her pent up breath and looked at Damon with accusing eyes.

"Maybe I should talk to him." Elena said as she heard Jenna make her way to the kitchen.

Jenna stopped short at the sight of Damon and raised her eyebrow. "You again, huh?"

Damon gave Jenna a smile and replied, "I can't seem to get enough of you beautiful ladies."

Jenna laughed and said, "Handsome and full of it." Then added sarcastically under her breath, "there's a surprise."

"I hate to rush off, but I have some…" Damon paused and searched for the right words, not finding anything better he settled for, "brotherly duties to attend to."

"Damon." Elena said reaching and grabbing Damon's upper arm. Damon looked at her hand then looked her in the eye and walked out the door.

Jenna looked at Elena confused at what seemed to have transpired wordlessly between the two of them, "What was that all about?"

Elena just looked at Jenna and said. "It's a long story."

"Good thing I have all night then, huh?"

~*~*~*~

Stefan paced the floor of his room. His mind was reeling from what he had seen. Again his brother was stepping in between himself and love. He should have killed him the last time. Stefan shook his head to clear the last thought from his mind. He couldn't understand what was happening, why it was happening. Damon clearly had something up his sleeve. There had to be some connection to Katherine, he just couldn't figure out what it might be. There was no other reason for Damon to want Elena.

"Au contraire." Damon said casually stepping out of the shadows.

"Stay out of my head Damon!" Stefan growled.

"You make it too easy." Damon laughed.

At the look of fury on Stefan's face Damon held his hands up as if to surrender then sat in the chair.

"Why do you keep doing this?" Stefan asked furiously, "You messed up my life with Katherine and now you are messing it up with Elena. Why can't you just let it go?!"

Damon stood quickly knocking the chair over behind him. "I didn't mess up anything!"

"I could've lived happily with Katherine if you hadn't decided to stay home from war." Stefan accused. "Instead you came back and destroyed my life!"

"Is that what you think?" Damon asked in a low menacing voice, "She did a real number on you." Damon gave a low husky laugh. "I already knew about her Stefan. I knew who she was and what she was. I didn't give a damn. I came back because she asked me to. She didn't compel me to. She asked."

"I don't understand." Stefan said confused, "How could you already know?"

"I caught her feeding on the stable hand the night I taught you football." Damon replied, "I caught her and I didn't care. I still wanted to be with her. I asked her to change me that night. I told her I wanted to be with her always, but her vanity got in the way. She knew how you felt about her and she wanted to play her little game."

Stefan shook his head as some of the pieces started falling into place, "But why would she come to me after being with you on her last night?"

"Because she was Katherine." Damon said flatly rolling his eyes. "She compelled you to love her Stefan that's why you feel the innate need to be with her. It wasn't real with you."

"It was real!" Stefan said raising his voice again.

"It was real to you, brother." Damon said, "It was just another game to her."

Stefan slowly sat on the corner of the bed as all of Damon's words swirled through his head. "That doesn't excuse Elena." Stefan said.

Damon took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He had never seen Stefan look so utterly broken before. He was so used to Stefan's calm confidence and his own desire to frustrate and slowly make him suffer that he never before saw the pain that Stefan was hiding from.

On a sigh Damon sat on the bed beside Stefan and said, "Elena is just a by product of Katherine's compulsion."

Stefan looked at Damon as if he had lost his mind.

Damon went on, "You loved Katherine because she wanted you to. Now that Elena is here and she looks so much like her…exactly like her, you feel compelled to love her all over again."

"I don't care Damon! My being "compelled" to love her has to be better than your phony manipulation of her emotions." Stefan told him, slowly trying to regain the upper hand in the conversation.

Although Stephan's barb hit its mark Damon decided for once to be the bigger man and leave it. He stood and left the room to let Stefan over think everything he had told him. He knew now beyond words that he would have to get to Katherine. He just had to find a way…

~*~*~*~

Elena went to bed early that night. After having an emotional discussion with Jenna where she had given the reason of her and Stefan's break up as there being another girl in the picture. How funny was that considering the girl literally was "in the picture"?

Elena went about her nightly routine. Shower, change, brush her teeth, finally sitting on the edge of her bed clutching her journal in her hand. Elena got comfortable and propped her journal against her legs and tried to think of ways to describe today's events. She decided at last to start with the emotional angle...

Dear Diary,

I'm so confused. Is it possible…How do you choose between….

She scribbled out the last line.

Is it possible for someone to be conflicted about everything in their lives? How can someone who is so shockingly appalling in most cases somehow seem, dare I say, perfect for someone who is their complete opposite.

When Elena finished she looked out the window and dusk was finally settling in. She sighed to herself wondering what was taking Damon so long. She wanted to know what had happened with Stefan. Its not that she didn't care for Stefan, because without a doubt she did. But his actions had practically killed any emotion she had for him.

Everyone said that the opposite of love was hate, but really she was easily finding that the opposite of love was the lack of any emotion. It seemed that hating someone still carried an inherent sense that you still cared enough about someone to let their actions bother you. So right now she was content in the assessment that she hated Stefan because no matter what happened she didn't want there to be nothing.

After waiting for what seemed like hours for Damon to show Elena let the pull of sleep drag her down. She turned off her lamp and stared out the window as her eyelids became heavy watching for Damon to appear. Trying not to admit her disappointment in his absence as anything more than wanting to know what happened, Elena finally let sleep overtake her.

What Elena didn't see outside her window was the beautiful black crow sitting on the limb of a tree watching over her while she fought her own inner demons.

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