A/N: Once again, thank you everyone for being so supportive!

Chapter Eight: Jeremy's story

Jeremy

He was quickly gulping down some blood, lovingly donated by someone and sealed conveniently in a little bag, complete with a serial number and blood type. He could feel the bullet wound healing away into nothing, and it had almost been worth it for the free snack.

"I'll go to Elena," Stefan said walking to the stairs.

"No, I will," Damon replied, standing also. He'd refused to heal himself, on principal.

Jeremy dropped the empty blood bag onto the table. This was all very confusing. He didn't understand how he knew Damon and Stefan were not in their right places. They just didn't feel like they belonged in their skins, it was like an extra sense, which Jeremy felt uncomfortable with. What he did know for sure was that he didn't always need his eyes anymore, in order to see this new world.

"I'll check on Elena," Jeremy said preventing an argument. "You should call Bonnie, and get this sorted out."

No one argued with him, and Jeremy crept up the stairs listening for Elena. It did not take him long to locate her, sniffing and trying to hold back her sobs behind a closed door. She was in Stefan's room, and as he opened the door he found her face down in a pillow.

She froze as she sensed someone behind her, and her hand came up to wipe at her face. She looked around slowly.

"Oh," she said, pushing herself into a sitting position. "I'm sorry Jer, I shouldn't have left you downstairs."

"I'm fine."

She sniffed again, and tried to compose herself.

"Damon shot you," she stated, her voice weak through her tears.

"Yeah," Jeremy concurred. "He's an ass."

"He's more than that," Elena replied bitterly. "He's a lying, secret keeping, total jerk…"

"Who by the sounds of it never took advantage of the unbelievably weird body switch thing. I mean like, ew, imagine if we…"

"Lets not go there Jer."

"But… OK. Look, mostly I hate Damon Salvatore, and yes he shot me," Jeremy said with a roll of his eyes. "But I'm already dead…" he saw Elena flinch. "Would I make you feel happier if I put a bullet in his gut? Because I could, if you wanted?"

Elena

Elena tried to keep the smile from her face. She didn't feel like laughing, but Jeremy was making it difficult. His happy tone was hard to ignore, and it was a long time since she had seen him so happy and at ease with the world. And despite his claims, she suspected that he had made peace with the Salavtore brother's, in a bizarre way.

"OK, but wait for them to switch back first please, I like my boyfriend bullet wound free," Elena replied.

She didn't know how Jeremy managed it, but he always been able to make her smile. Perhaps it was because she liked to see him happy, and that had been a rare commodity lately. She didn't know why, but Jeremy looked taller now, he looked as if he belonged and had an assured place in the world. Had it really taken him the act of dying to value living?

No matter what had happened, and what she had seen recently, wanting to die was not something Elena Gilbert could understand. But she was not in Jeremy's shoes, and didn't think it was her place to try and understand why he'd chosen this.

However that was assuming he had chosen to change. What if he had not? What if Katherine…

"Jeremy, did Katherine turn you?" Elena asked. She held her breath for the answer.

"No. It's a long story."

"Go on," Elena prompted. "I want to know."

Jeremy

Jeremy took a deep breath. It felt good to have so much air rushing into his lungs, clearing his head. He'd never noticed before. In fact there was so much he'd failed to notice through the unhappiness of the past few months. Like how tiny and fragile his sister was. How had she ever managed to 'look after him'? How could he have thought she was trying to control his life? She was the one that needed looking after, and he was sorry he had never noticed before.

"Before Anna died, she offered to turn me. She was frightened of this town, she wanted to turn me, and we would leave together. But I couldn't do it. I was sure then that I would make it through, that I would be OK. I'd made my peace with myself. So she gave me some of her blood, in a bottle. I didn't even think about it, I just threw it into a drawer," Jeremy explained, seeing Elena sit up straight and interested. "But when Damon told me she had died... I took a bunch of pills and drank the blood...I don't really know why I did it."

"You killed yourself?" Elena asked.

Jeremy shook his head.

"I didn't take enough," he replied. "I was lying there, unable to move, but alive. Then someone was in my room. I thought it was you. You came into my room and were talking to me. But I couldn't understand you. Then I realised that it wasn't you, and I was scared. I knew then I didn't want to die, but it was too late. She took hold of my head and snapped my neck. She never blinked. It was Katherine, I knew it must be, from your journal. She killed me."

"Did she know?"

"That I'd drunk Anna's blood? No, I don't think so. I think she was going to find Aunt Jenna next. I lay still, snapped, and I heard you calling me. Katherine ran past me then, and it looked as if she flew from the window. She must have jumped," Jeremy explained.

"Why didn't she kill me too?" Elena asked. "I was alone."

Jeremy shrugged.

"Maybe she didn't want to be found out just yet? Or maybe she thought you'd be with Stefan? Or maybe she wanted to scare you first?"

"By killing my family? Yeah, that'll work," Elena mumbled, Jeremy supposed her sarcasm was allowing her to deal with the seriousness of the situation. "What am I going to do? Stefan and Damon are not in the right places, which has to be something to do with Bonnie. Unless another witch is in town? Which can't be a good thing. And if it is Bonnie, then she has been lying to me too. Jenna is under compulsion, Damon's an ass, you're dead, and to top it all, Katherine is trying to kill everyone. I'd say she's succeeding in scaring me."

"You seem more pissed off about the Damon thing than anything else," Jeremy observed.

"Well, yeah, I am."

"Again the offer to shoot him is still on the table."

Stefan

He had decided to collect Bonnie himself. Now that he knew Jeremy was with Elena, and that she knew the truth, he no longer feared what Damon could do to her. As it happened, she had never really been in any danger, but it did not ease his mind. Damon had still stolen something from the both of them, and now Stefan would always be wondering.

What had they talked about? What had they done? He trusted Elena, but this was not a normal situation. She had not known. She could not be blamed for anything. It had been all Damon … This time.