Elowen wakes up to a noise echoing throughout the house. She sits up, looks around her room but sees nothing, so she stands and gets out of bed.

"Hello? Josiah? Mom? Hello?"

She peers out of her room and tries to flip the lights on in the hallway, but nothing happens; it appears as if the power is out. Confused and curious as to why the power is down and why nobody is responding to her, Elowen left her room and went downstairs. When she reached the bottom, she could hear the tv on in the living room. Turning the corner, she saw that the news channel was on, reporting the latest Mystic Falls news.

"This is Logan Fell, coming to you live from the streets of Mystic Falls with breaking news of another deadly animal attack. The wild animal terrorizing the citizens of Mystic Falls has claimed another victim, local high school student Elowen Ramirez. Police are certain that forensic evidence will confirm that this is the same animal responsible for recent attacks."

A look of pure confusion crossed Elowen's features, and, now a bit freaked out, turned to head to the kitchen when a figure appeared in front of her. Damon.

"You know what's coming next," he taunted, prompting Elowen to turn and run for it. She pried open the front door, saw Damon and slammed it shut. She was panting slightly, swallowing thickly as she slowly tiptoed back towards the kitchen, heading for the door that led to her mother's study. She reached it and slowly turned the knob, creeping in as quietly as she could. Except, when she turned, Damon was already standing in the room. His face darkened as his fangs came out, but right as he lunged, he stopped as fast as he had started. His eyes were wide in shock, and when he looked down, there was a sharp, pointed object sticking out of his chest where his heart should be. Grey veins quickly began to race across his body and as he fell to the ground, dead, it revealed Esmeralda standing behind him.

"That's what you get for trying to mess with my daughter, you egotistical prick."

Stefan woke up with a loud gasp, breathing heavily as he pushed himself into a sitting up position on his bed.

"Bad dream?" Damon mocked from the other side of the room, taking a sip of his bourbon. "Do you know how easy it was to get into your head just now? You really need some human blood. However, I was pleasantly surprised at that ending. Wasn't expecting that. Guess saying you simply care about Elowen is an understatement, isn't it?"

Fed up with his brother, Stefan vamp sped to a table in his room, picked up a letter opener and threw it at Damon. It hit him in the stomach but had no effect. He stood and removed the object from his body.

"All right, I deserved that. But I just wanted to let you know, they caught the culprit. The animal responsible for killing coach Tanner and all those people."

"What are you talking about?"

"It was a mountain lion. Really big one." Damon imitated the size with his hands. "It attacked a hunter this morning, it's all over the news. 'Deadly beast captured. All's well in Mystic Falls'."

"Why would you cover your tracks?"

"I've decided to stay for awhile. And I'm just having way too much fun here with you and Elowen."

"You do realize you can't touch her, right? That ending from the dream wasn't just a dream. Her mother will kill you if you hurt her, and I'll be there to watch it happen."

Damon scoffed. "Did it ever occur to you that my goal isn't to kill her?"

The letter opener was still in Damon's hand, so when he approached Stefan he sunk it into his gut. Stefan yelped in pain, falling to the ground. Damon looked down at the bloodstain left on his shirt.

"This is John Varvatos, dude. Dick move." Damon turned and left the room, leaving Stefan to remove the letter opener on his own.


Josiah was in the kitchen making himself breakfast while Esmeralda was at the dinner table, which was covered in her work as usual. Elowen came around the corner, phone up to her ear. She sighed in frustration a second later.

"Bonnie won't answer any of my calls. Were you able to get ahold of Sheila?"

"Mm-hm," Esmeralda hummed in confirmation. "Said Bonnie was really frightened about what happened last night. Had to comfort her until she fell asleep. My advice is, give her space until she's ready to come back. This is still new to her and she's rightfully scared."

"But what if she doesn't come back?"

Esmeralda sighed and removed her glasses. "Honey, she's a Bennett. Of course she'll come back."

Elowen's phone vibrated and she immediately unlocked it to see if it was a message from Bonnie. Her shoulders deflated a bit at discovering it wasn't.

Hey, it's Vicki. I went looking for you last night to get those bracelets from you, but you bounced pretty quickly. Understandable considering recent events. Should I just stop by to get them?

Elowen was getting ready to answer when there was a knock on the front door. Being the closest, she turned on her heels and went to open it to see who it was. She was surprised to discover Stefan on the other side of the threshold.

"Hey, what are you doing here? I thought we were meeting up-"

Stefan stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, giving her a tight embrace. Elowen stepped back from the momentum, confused, but reached up and returned the hug anyway.

"Is everything okay?"

She felt Stefan shake his head against her.

"No, not really. Damon- Uh- I, I just wanted to make sure you were alright, is all."

Elowen pulled back slightly to stare at him. "Damon? Wha- Why wouldn't I be okay? Stefan, what did he do?"

Stefan sighed and unwrapped his arms from around her. He shook his head, trying to smile reassuringly at her. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing."

"It's not nothing. I can see it in your eyes. You can talk to me, y'know." She took his hands in hers, getting him to look at her properly. "I mean, I don't want to force it out of you but just know I'm always willing to listen. Even if it seems silly," she added at the end, having a feeling he must've felt something similar.

Stefan looked down at their hands, contemplating on telling her the reason he was so bugged was because of the dream Damon gave him, when Esmeralda's voice rang out.

"Stefan, I swear to god if you don't just tell her what's going on I'm going to kick you out of this house because your stress and worrying is distracting me from my work. Oh, and if you need to be somewhere private to talk, the backyard is empty. I better not catch you two trying to sneak upstairs. Not on my watch."

Josiah was shaking with laughter while Elowen was biting on her bottom lip to keep from laughing. She cleared her throat to stop herself as Stefan scrunched his face up in embarrassment.

"Sorry, Ms. Ramirez!" He called out, allowing Elowen to drag him the opposite way through the sitting room (that nobody ever really utilized) to get to the sliding door on the other side of the house. Once they were outside, Elowen wandered over towards the tire swing that hung from the lone tree in the backyard, swatted away any cobwebs that might've collected over the months of disuse, and took a seat on it. Stefan trailed behind her, coming up to lean against the tree. She sat quietly, waiting for him to explain himself. He fiddled with his fingers for a moment before he said anything.

"So, I'm assuming you knew I wasn't drinking human blood because of your power?"

Elowen nodded.

"Figured. Anyway, I've been on a strictly animal diet and it makes me significantly weaker to pretty much anything, including Damon's little mind tricks. Vampires have a very limited telepathy power, where we can get in people's heads when they're asleep. Getting into other vampire's heads is a bit more difficult, but not when said vamp is vulnerable. This morning, Damon gave me this dream….. It was more of a nightmare, really. Umm…" Now that he was actually to the point of telling her what happened, he suddenly got nervous again, shifting his weight between his feet. He awkwardly cleared his throat. "He, um, attacked you. Damon, I mean, in the dream. It felt really real and even though I knew it wasn't, I had to come see that you were okay for myself."

Elowen stood up, walked over to Stefan and hugged him. He sighed, his arms snaking around her waist and resting his chin on the top of her head.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that. I can't even imagine what it's like to have to suffer through false ideas somebody literally planned in your head when you have no control over it." Elowen leaned back from the hug, but kept her arms around the middle of his chest. "As you can see, I'm fine. Damon hasn't hurt me and I doubt he ever will. My mom would kill him first."

Before he could stop himself, Stefan let out a loud laugh. The irony of her statement. Elowen looked up at him, confused.

"What? What's so funny?"

"Don't worry about it." Stefan shook his head, deciding to keep the part where Esmeralda killed Damon in the dream to himself. "Anyway, now that that's out of the way. How about that date?"

"Stefan, it's 9:30 in the morning. Who goes on a date at 9:30 in the morning?"

He grinned down at her. "We do."


They didn't go out on the date.

Elowen hadn't even showered or eaten breakfast yet, and she still had to meet up with Vicki sometime during the day to give her the vervain bracelets. Stefan agreed to swing by The Grill instead of going to the movies like they originally planned. They didn't leave the house until roughly 12 in the afternoon.

"Lunch date. Could be worse," Stefan commented as they walked to The Grill hand in hand. The vervain bracelets were secure in Elowen's purse.

"I think it's going to be harder to make out in the dark in The Grill, though." Elowen joked, laughing when Stefan shot her a look. "What? Don't act like we weren't going to sit in the back of the theatre and play tonsil hockey instead of watch the movie."

"Only during the boring, uneventful parts!" Stefan defended, displaying faux offense.

Elowen sighed and rolled her eyes, but there was still a wide smile on her face as they continued walking. They eventually made it to The Grill and took a seat at an empty booth. Vicki greeted them.

"Hey! You made it! I have a break soon, I'll meet up with you then. Can I get you guys anything to drink?"

"I'm fine with water, thanks," Stefan stated politely, taking the menu Vicki handed over. She turned to Elowen.

"Iced tea."

"Sweetened or unsweetened?"

"Sweetened."

"Got it, coming right up!" She slid the second menu over to Elowen and turned to the kitchen to get them their drinks. Elowen opened the menu and rested her chin in the palm of her hands, squeezing her cheeks together. Stefan looked up and tried to fight off a smile, so instead he cleared his throat, gaining her attention.

"Hmm," she hummed, glancing up at him briefly before going back to the menu. Stefan realized she was expecting him to say something and mentally cursed. Quickly, he blurted the first thing that came to mind.

"Damon's covering up his tracks. I don't know what he's up to but it's something."

"I know," she absentmindedly answered, before freezing and looking up at Stefan again. He was looking down at his menu now and didn't even think twice about her response.

"Of course you do. Must be nice to have a power like yours…" he trailed off when he realized her heartbeat had increased. Curious, he looked up to see what the problem was but he didn't get to question it because the entrance to The Grill chimed, indicating that somebody had walked in and the voices that followed distracted him.

"So, are you planning on asking Josiah to the founder's party tomorrow?" Bonnie asked Caroline, a teasing tone to her voice as she nudged her friend. Caroline flushed a deep red, trying to bow her head to cover it up with her hair.

"Maybe…. Why does it matter anyway? You still have Elena to go with! And El- Actually, never mind. If she's going, her date will definitely be Stefan. Ooh! Maybe we can go together and have a double date or something!" She turned excitedly to Bonnie, who had gone quiet at the mention of Elowen. She was still really freaked out from the whole Tanner thing and right now, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with witchcraft. It wasn't some cool ability to play around with anymore, it was serious and dark and scary and now she had something to really think about.

Elowen had noticed before Stefan, since she was facing the doorway, and she had to will herself not to get up and approach Bonnie. Her mom was right; Bonnie was still new to this and trying to shove it down her throat or constantly bring it up would just result in pushing her away. This needed to be her decision. Stefan sensed the gloomy cloud beginning to hover over her head, so he reached over and grabbed her hand, snapping her out of her trance and bringing her eyes away from Bonnie's direction. He gave her an encouraging smile.

"She'll come back. I know it."

Vicki had come back with their drinks and had just placed them on the table when Caroline seemed to finally notice that Elowen and Stefan were sitting near them. There was a loud, audible gasp before Caroline's loud, peppy voice followed.

"Oh my gosh! I was just talking about you two and now you're here! What a coincidence." She had left Bonnie's side, who was slowly trailing behind her with much less enthusiasm, and pushed Vicki out of the way. Caroline slid into a seat next to Elowen, beaming at her while (not so) subtly looking around the rest of The Grill.

"Is Josiah with you?"

"I'll just…. Be over here." Vicki pointed in a different direction and wandered off to tend to Tyler Lockwood and his parents. Elowen nodded her head in acknowledgement before turning back to Caroline. "No, he's at home. It's uhhh…. Just Stefan and I."

Caroline widened her eyes as it seemed to finally click on her head. An embarrassed, apologetic expression came across her face. "Oh. I just interrupted a date, didn't I?"

"Well….." Elowen trailed off, shrugging her shoulders. Caroline covered her mouth.

"I'm so sorry-!"

She was cut off by Bonnie, who had finally stepped forward and grabbed the blonde by her arm. "Care, c'mon on. Let's leave them be." As she dragged Caroline out of the booth, Bonnie sent Elowen an amused smile, which greatly assured the latter that she didn't hate her or didn't have any ill feelings towards her. She sent a grateful smile in return and watched as Bonnie led Caroline to another part of The Grill.

Once they were gone, Vicki came back to take their orders. She was glowing, trying to bite back a wide grin as she wrote everything down. Elowen squinted at her and cast a glance at Tyler's table. He was staring at Vicki, also smiling, though once he realized Elowen caught him, he averted his gaze. However, his mom didn't look so happy. Carol appeared to be miffed or upset about something. She got up the moment Richard paid and headed to the door, Richard following behind her. Elowen turned her attention back to Vicki, her eyebrows raised in interest.

"So, uh, care to explain what that was about?"

"Tyler just asked me to the founder's party in front of his parents."

If it were possible, Elowen's brows raised even farther. "He asked you in front of his parents?" Her voice was incredulous. Everyone knew Tyler did his best to look like the perfect son, so for him to ask Vicki Donovan, the resident druggie and daughter of known deadbeat alcoholic, Kelly Donovan, in front of them was as the plot twist of the century.

"Yeah, I know. I'm surprised he asked me at all."

"Founder's party?" Stefan questioned. "They still have those?"

Vicki turned to him, curious. "How long have they been holding these things anyway? I mean, you're like, super old, right? But you know about them."

Elowen snickered. Stefan shot her a small glare before answering Vicki's question. "They've been a tradition in this town since it was founded. I'm just surprised it lasted this long."

"Oh." Vicki shrugged. "After I put your orders in I'll take my break. You can come find me then, alright?" She looked to Elowen, who nodded her head. She turned and left after that, heading to the kitchen to hand in their order. She sighed and started to take off her apron when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her. Smiling, Vicki turned her head and spotted none other than Tyler. Spinning around, she placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned up to kiss him.

"So, what was up with that?"

"What was up with what?"

Vicki clicked her tongue at him, stepping back. "You know, asking me to the party like that in front of your parents. I thought you didn't want them knowing about us."

"Well, I changed my mind." He brushed the subject off, leaning down for another kiss, but Vicki evaded it.

"I'm serious, Ty. What's going on?"

Tyler sighed, not exactly wanting to have this conversation in public. He glanced around, then lowered his voice a little. "I thought about what you told me last night, about how you're tired of me not treating you like a proper girlfriend or a proper human being. And you were right, about how I'm not very supportive of you and I treat you like you're some dirty little secret. I decided that I'm not going to do that anymore." He slid his hands from her waist to her hands, taking them in his own. "You need all the support you need right now, especially since you're trying to get clean. I'll be there every step of the way. So will Matt…. And so will Elowen," he added after a moment of hesitation. "Because you are friends with her now, right?"

Vicki laughed a bit at him, nodding her head. "Yeah. What's your deal with her, anyway?"

Tyler grimaced. Now that he had a clear head and wasn't talking to someone like Matt, it sounded pretty ridiculous. "Don't worry about it."

Vicki raised an eyebrow but let it go. "Alright, well, speaking of Elowen." Tyler turned to find her approaching them, stopping short a few feet.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I? I sorta need to talk to Vicki."

Tyler drew back his hands, stepping backwards. "She's all yours."

Sending one last smile at Vicki, he walked off, leaving The Grill to follow his parents. If he didn't start on damage control soon, who knew what they'd do.

After making sure they were completely alone and nobody was listening (other than probably Stefan), Elowen reached into her purse and pulled out the vervain bracelets. Vicki took both from her and slipped one onto her wrist.

"What exactly does this do again?"

"Protects you from vampire compulsion. It's essentially mind control, where they make you do anything they want and can even wipe your memory. I don't trust Damon, especially since he's already attacked you and I want to make sure you and Matt stay safe."

Vicki nodded. "I appreciate this, by the way. You making sure I stay safe. The last thing I need right now is to become vampire food."

"Eh," Elowen shrugged. "Don't worry about it. That's what friends are for, right?"

The two shared a laugh. Vicki stuffed the other bracelet in her back pocket and nodded towards Stefan. "Now get back to your date. He's not being very subtle at listening in."

Elowen turned around and spotted Stefan, who was now looking in the other direction and occupying himself with his drink, probably because he'd been caught. Shaking her head, she gave Vicki a quick hug.

"Stay safe, alright? I'll probably end up seeing you tomorrow night at the founder's party."

"You're going?"

Elowen cast another glance at Stefan, who was still playing around with his water but had perked his head up slightly at her words. She shrugged.

"Dunno. We'll see."

"Ahh, I see." Vicki caught on to what was happening, a teasing, but playful, glint in her eyes. "Well, I'll leave you to that, then. I've got a bracelet to deliver to Matt." She stepped passed Elowen and headed for the backroom, most likely to give Matt a call before her break ended. Now that she was gone, Elowen found herself becoming a little nervous as she made her way back towards Stefan. Now she had to live up to the founder's party date or else she'd look bad. Nice.

She calmly took her seat across from Stefan, who was eyeing her expectantly, the tip of the straw to his drink hanging from his mouth. Instead of acknowledging it, she nonchalantly took a sip from her own drink.

"So," Stefan began, trying to give her the opportunity in case she was too scared. Elowen set her drink down and tilted her head, narrowing her eyes at him. She quietly sized him up for a moment, making Stefan feel a bit awkward to the point that he squirmed under her gaze. Finally, she opened her mouth.

"On a scale of one to ten, how good do you look in a tie?"

"Hmm," Stefan contemplated his answer. "I'd say a solid 9."

Elowen's eyebrows shot up. "Cocky, are we?"

"Nah, I'd like to think it's self-confidence. It sounds less Damon-y that way."

"Damon-y?" She repeated, laughter already in her voice even though she hadn't laughed yet. Stefan rolled his eyes at her.

"Yes, Damon-y. New words are invented everyday. Mark this as the day Damon-y was created. Meaning: self-righteous, sarcastic, arrogant, I could go on."

Finally, Elowen burst into a fit of giggles, finding the situation ridiculous. Stefan smiled at the sight, also finding himself laughing a bit. When she sobered up a little, she sighed, a big grin on her face.

"Come to the founder's ball with me tomorrow."

"As in like, a date?"

"If you want to put a label on it, yeah."

Stefan reached over and brushed some hair from her face. "Of course I'll escort you to the founder's ball. It'll be an honor."

He started to lean over the table, but seconds before his lips touched hers someone cleared their throat. They both looked over to see a waiter standing there with their orders. Stefan pulled back and allowed the waiter to set the food down, all of them deciding to act like nothing ever happened.

The two started eating, though their eyes flickered up, a silent agreement being made.

Later.


There was obviously something bothering Bonnie, that much Caroline could tell. She had a suspicion that it involved Elowen, but Bonnie wouldn't tell her what was going on. It took several minutes to get Caroline to let it go, though even then she had a hard time concentrating on the subject at hand because Bonnie kept glancing over at Stefan and Elowen.

Eventually, Caroline cut their hang out short and came up with some excuse that on a normal day, Bonnie probably would've picked up on. She was so out of it that she mumbled a goodbye and the two went separate ways. Bonnie was secretly happy it turned out that way. After seeing Elowen in person after dodging her calls and texts, she decided she needed to do some serious thinking about this whole witch thing.

Caroline, on the other hand, had decided to go straight to the source of Bonnie's problems. Well, not really. She didn't want to march over and interrupt her date with Stefan again, which is how she found herself in the middle of the town square, sitting on a bench next to Josiah. They each had slushies in their hands and a bag of sour gummy worms in between them.

(Caroline was really just using this as an excuse to hang out with him, but she'd probably never admit that out loud).

"So," she began as Josiah bite off half of a gummy worm. "What's going on between Bonnie and Elowen?"

Josiah stopped chewing, taken off guard, and looked towards Caroline with wide eyes.

"Huh?"

Caroline rolled her eyes in response and took a sip of her slushie. "I'm not an idiot, y'know. I was with Bonnie earlier. We decided to catch up at The Grill and ran into Elowen and Stefan. Immediately after we spotted her, Bonnie got all weird. I know she's really freaked out about the whole Tanner situation because she apparently predicted his death, but I don't know how that would affect their friendship."

Josiah had to quickly remind himself that Bonnie had told both Caroline and Elena about the supposed psychic stuff from the get go and that she most likely didn't believe a word of it. Of course, he would have to eventually tell Caroline about his witch powers if they got serious, but for now he sat and tried to think of a logical explanation to tell Caroline. In the end, he shrugged and finished off his gummy worm.

"Dunno. Something about the fact that Elowen faced something traumatizing and almost died but Bonnie was too focused on the prediction thing to make sure she was okay, I guess. I usually try to stay out of friendship drama that isn't mine."

"Oh. I don't see why Bonnie couldn't have just told me they had a fight. And I don't mean to take sides, but I definitely see where Elowen is coming from. If I nearly died and my best friend was too worried about a coincidence to care about me, I'd be upset, too. Anyway, are you going to the founder's party tomorrow?"

Josiah scrunched his face up in disinterest, oblivious as to what Caroline was hinting to. "I don't think so. I don't think I even have anything fancy to wear."

"Oh." Her confidence wavered a bit. She gingerly pushed her hair behind her ear. "What if you had someone to go with? Like as a date, would you go then?"

"I dunno. I guess so." He shrugged a shoulder. "It would be much more fun than following my sister around and watching her and Stefan make out all night." He scoff-laughed at the thought, taking a sip of his slushie. Caroline was nervously playing with her fingers in her lap, which seemed to go unnoticed. She was now too anxious to ask, scared that he'd reject her because he said he didn't want to go right off the bat. She had to coax the answer she wanted to hear out of him and it made her feel uneasy.

Josiah finally realized how jittery she seemed and his eyebrows creased together.

"Care? Are you oka-"

"Come with me," she blurted out at once, catching Josiah off guard. He was so surprised that he leaned back, away from her as his eyes widened slightly. There was a worried crinkle on Caroline's forehead that increased at his reaction. Immediately, she opened her mouth and words flowed out before she could stop them.

"I'm sorry! Just forget I said anything. It's just that over the past few days I realized that I really, really like hanging out with you and I might just be psyching myself out but I think there's some kind of spark between us, y'know? And-"

"Caroline."

"-I figured that if we went to the party together it could tell me where we stood and how well we click together-"

"Caroline!"

"What?"

"Ask me again."

There was a bright, childish smile on his face. It felt like he was on a sugar rush, bouncy and excited once he figured out what she was asking. Caroline stared at him for a second before it finally registered what he had said. Soon, she had a smile that mirrored his own. Her confidence level skyrocketed as she took a quick deep breath.

"Will you come with me to the founder's party?"

"Yes."

Caroline was giggling loudly before everything caught up to her. She facepalmed, feeling super embarrassed. She wanted to ground to open up and swallow her.

"Ohh," she groaned into her hands, pushing them upward to tangle them in her hair. "I word vomited, that's so humiliating. You probably think I'm some weirdo now."

"Stop doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Talking bad about yourself. Step 1 in the mental wellbeing department: try to be as positive as you can. Trust me."

"But-"

"Ah, no buts." Josiah leaned forward and put his hands on either side of her face, cupping her cheeks. "You are fine just the way you are, word vomit and all. If my opinion means anything, I think it's cute."

"... Really?" Her voice was timid. Josiah could tell this was something she was genuinely insecure about.

"Really," he confidently confirmed his answer, watching as Caroline relaxed in his hold. He released her face and grabbed another gummy worm. It hung loosely from his teeth. "So, am I gonna have to like, wear a tux? I hope not."

Caroline smirked. "Don't worry, I've got it covered." She swooped forward and grabbed the other half of the worm with her teeth, tearing it from Josiah's mouth. She felt a flare of satisfaction at the shock on his face. It quickly morphed into one of intrigue. Josiah raised an eyebrow.

"Well then, piece of advice: don't pick anything green. It's so not my color."


It was a couple of hours later now, probably late afternoon. Stefan and Elowen had left The Grill hours ago. Now they were back at the Salvatore boarding house, hiding out somewhere on the property. Currently, Stefan was sitting on the ground, his back up against a tree and his hands setting on Elowen's waist. She was straddling him, her hands gripping his shirt as the two made out. The first couple of minutes consisted of lazy kissing, but things were starting to get a bit heated now. Stefan started to trail kisses down to her neck. Elowen hummed in pleasure.

He got caught up in the moment and thought he could control himself, but once he got close enough to smell the blood pumping through her veins, he realized his mistake. He could feel his fangs poking the inside of his mouth and quickly drew back, looking away. Elowen looked down, confused.

"Stefan?" She questioned breathlessly, her hands moving up to cup his face. "What's wrong?"

Stefan shied away from her grip, not wanting her to see his vampire face.

"No," he mumbled, trying his best to get the bloodlust under control. Now that he knew what she smelled like, it felt nearly impossible to do so. "Don't look at me."

It clicked in Elowen's head on what was going on. Images of Damon's vampiric features from last night flashed through her mind, causing her breath to catch in her throat. Stefan picked up on her heartbeat getting faster and automatically assumed the worst.

"You're scared of me."

His voice was low, sad and sounded as if he wasn't surprised. It was a statement, not a question. Elowen sighed and shook her head.

"No, no… at least, not of you. It's Damon I'm scared of, or, anxious about. All I can think about from last night was his face right before he killed Tanner…. But, I can't- I refuse to associate this face, your face, with bad memories. It's part of you and not fair to you if it triggers me because of something Damon did."

"Hey…." Stefan gently reached for her hands, keeping his eyes on her lap so she wouldn't see his face. "PTSD isn't something you can just wish away. You witnessed something traumatic, Elle, don't beat yourself up about it."

"But-"

In a split second decision, Stefan lifted his head and allowed her to see his darkened irises and the red veins under his eyes. Elowen paused, staring. She was nervous and wasn't quite sure what to do. Stefan lifted her hands and pulled them towards his face. He set them on top of the protruding veins. She exhaled a breath, slowly swiping her fingers across his face, her eyes taking in his vampire appearance. The gesture seemed to calm Stefan down enough to the point that he was able to retract his fangs, the veins beginning to disappear. She continued to look at him even after his face was back to normal.

"You didn't have to do that… I mean, you were obviously weren't ready to take that step. You didn't have to rush yourself just to make me comfortable."

"I only wanted to show you that there was nothing to be afraid of." He reached up to grab her hands and pulled them down to his lap. "You were right, that's apart of me that I can't hide from you if this, us, gets serious. I think I did it for the both of us."

Elowen sighed, coming forward to rest her head on his chest. Stefan ran a hand through her hair, playing with the ends.

"In that case, thank you, for trusting me enough to show me that side of you."

She moved her head a bit to look at his face again. Stefan smiled, placing a kiss on her forehead.

"You're welcome."


The sun was beginning to set when they decided to head back to the boarding house. They'd walked around and explored the property for a bit after the whole make-out incident, although it was more of Elowen exploring and Stefan tagging along for the ride. With their hands intertwined, they walked in a comfortable silence.

"So….. who exactly was Katherine?"

Stefan sighed, keeping his gaze on the path in front of them. "I had a feeling you'd ask about her eventually. Katherine…" he trailed off, trying to find the right words. "To put it shortly, she's my ex."

"And Elena looks like her?"

"Yeah. It's a bit unsettling, to be honest. It's like I'm staring right at a photograph of her whenever I see Elena."

"Huh…. Now, I'm not an idiot; which one of you dated her first?"

Stefan tsked. "Is it really that obvious?"

"Just a bit, yeah."

"The sad part is, to this day I don't know who was with her first."

Elowen winced. "Ouch."

"Yeah, I know. But the past is in the past. I'm over it."

"Is that why Damon seems to hate you so much? Because you two fell for the same girl?"

"Ah, not exactly. But that's a story for another time." Stefan glanced at the sun disappearing behind the hills. "If I don't get you home soon, your mom is going to hex me."

"Be careful, I wouldn't put it past her."

"In that case." Stefan stopped walking and abruptly picked Elowen up, throwing her over his shoulder as she shrieked in surprise.

"Stefan! Put me down!"

He pretended to think it over for a moment before shaking his head. "Nah, I don't think so." Laughing, he vamp sped up the path they came from and headed in the direction of Elowen's house. He stopped midway to reposition her so she'd be more comfortable but didn't dare dawdle.

The last thing he needed was to be turned into a frog because he missed curfew.