AN: Sorry, Sorry, Soryyyyy!¡ Please don't be too mad at me... It's just I've been so much stressed in the past few weeks. So many tests pressure from my parents, etc. etc. So I didn't have time to translate the chapter, which has been written over a month.

Well, here I am. I don't know if you'll like the chapter. In fact it hadn't been too much interesting to write (now I feel bad for this ridicously long delay). I think the next one will be much better.

I also wanted to tell you that in these weeks I have thought about a new fic: Elena is turned by an anonimous vampire and wakes up just before her autopsy begins. She meets Damon later (it must be a DE fic, of course) and he teaches her how to be a vampire. What do you think? Please tell me in a review! Now I leave you with the chapter!¡

Loveeee!¡ Rebeca

Chapter 8

Elena's POV:

"Why do you care about my safety so much?" I didn't understand it. Right. I had been chained in a cell at his house. Right. He had saved me from his brother. But, besides that, Damon and I were complete strangers. The only thing that remotely liked us was my similarity to the vampire who had turned him and his brother in 1864. Was that the reason why he cared so much about me?

I watched Damon carefully. It was obvious I had caught him off guard. He was absolutely petrified. His beautiful blue eyes were fixed on me but he wasn't looking at me. He looked lost in his own thoughts. I had almost lost all my hopes that he gave me an answer when he talked:

"Your aunt is awakened."

It took a moment for me to process his answer. I didn't really expect he gave me a heart-felt answer but I didn't expect him to avoid the topic like that either. In fact, I was so focused on my question that I had forgotten Jenna was in the living room.

I looked at him for the last time. He was still thoughtful, looking straight, where I had been standing mere seconds ago. He turned his head when he felt my glance on him. When our eyes met, I could see he was as confused as me by his attitude, or that's what I thought I saw. And among all that confusion I could tell there was a sparkle of admiration, but I wasn't too sure either. I think Damon isn't the kind of person you can be totally sure about anything.

I headed to the living room to see Jenna sitting up slowly on the couch.

"Aunt Jenna." I asked softly.

"What…?" Jenna turned her head in all directions until she saw me standing in the living room's doorway. Again, her face got pale, but now the horror I had seen last night had been replaced by confusion. "Elena? But-but- I'm hallucinating again, because you're dead."

"No, Jenna, you're not hallucinating. It's actually me. And you weren't hallucinating last night either. That guy lied to you. I'm not dead." I said while I walked towards the couch little by little.

"No, it wasn't just last night. Since you died, you came here every day to tell me your death is my fault, you blamed Jeremy doing drugs on me and you said I'm a bad guardian and-and it's all true, all of this is my fault…" Now Jenna was crying. I hugged her and she sobbed on my shoulder.

"Shh… everything's gonna be okay. You know that's not true. You're the best guardian we could ever ask for." I kept whispering soothing things to calm her down. Then I spotted Damon heading to the doorway. "Where are you going?" He wouldn't leave me alone now after the little 'I-have-to-protect-you-speech' speech, right? Maybe he had changed his mind. Maybe because of my question he had realized that he didn't have to protect me.

"I'm just gonna give you a little of privacy." He winked when he felt my worry. "Don't worry. I'll be at the porch."

A wave of relief ran through me while I nodded in his direction and I focused my attention on Jenna again, who looked calmer, although she kept whimpering thins such as:

"I miss you so much, Elena… Nothing's the same without you… I wish you could come back…"

"Aunt Jenna," I said seriously, "this is real. I'm here. I came back. Don't you see me? Don't you hear me? I'm here and I'm not planning on leaving, okay?"

Jenna nodded; as if she simply wanted to agree with me to not make me upset but without believing it completely. Was that thing vampires did that powerful? Would my aunt see a ghost every time she saw me? Would she think she was crazy because of these 'hallucinations'? No. That wasn't the right question. Would I be making her go crazy right now? But she said yesterday wasn't the first time she saw me. Maybe there was another doppelganger of mine over there? Maybe it was Katherine. No. Damon said Katherine was dead, or he suggested it, at least.

"Jenna, when do you say you saw me before yesterday?"

"Sleeping. You appeared in my dreams saying that all of this is my fault."

"But those were dreams, Jenna. They weren't real, but this is. This" I said while I squeezed her hand. "is real."

She nodded again, but she still didn't believe it. I thought the best thing I could do was telling her what had happened to me in the past few days. I took a deep breath and prepared myself to tell her the hell I'd been gone through.

3rd person's POV:

"And what brings you here?" Damon asked casually closing the door behind him.

"Don't pretend you don't know, Damon." Stefan said and smiling. "I've come here to get what is mine." The smile vanished.

"What is yours? What's the matter? One of the bunnies you were chasing came in here in a desperate shot to survive?" Damon replied sarcastically.

"Damon, I'm not in the mood for your games. Where is she?" As time passed, Stefan got angrier. If Damon pushed the buttons a little more, he'd lose control. That wasn't normal in Stefan. Stefan didn't got angry. He could glare dramatically, roll eyes, but never get angry. Stefan only got angry when... Comprehension hit Damon. Stefan was actually back on human blood. Elena wasn't the only one he had bitten. It was like in the 20s over again... Stefan being controlled by his bloodlust, not knowing what his actions were. Yet, Damon was convinced that, if Stefan attacked, he could easily beat him: while Damon had been 145 years on human blood, Stefan would only have been on it for a week or two, so he decided to keep pushing his little buttons.

"Who?" He finally asked.

"Damn it, Damon!" Stefan yelled. "You already know who I'm talking about! Katherine's doppelganger!"

"Ah, Elena Gilbert you mean? Well the lovely Elena isn't here right now. Do you want me to give her a message from you?"

"Damon, don't lie to me." Stefan replied threateningly. "I've already been invited to this house. I can get in whenever I want." He aded stepping closer to Damon little by little. Damon didn't back down.

"Yeah, but you have a little problem: I'm not gonna let you in."

After that, Stefan took a step back, with a smile on his lips and an amused sparkle in his eyes. "In that case, I guess I should leave, right?" He said raising his hands up with mock surrender and turning around to leave.

He hadn't taken even two steps when he stopped to look at Damon again. "You know, Damon? Now that I think about it, you should be as angry with Katherine as I am. After all, it's her fault you have this life, just like me."

Damon narrowed his eyes at him when he heard that. "I think we both know that's not true. You're the one I should kill. Anyways, what does any of that have to do with Elena?"

"Don't you realize?" Stefan said going back on his tracks. "That girl is opportunity for us to retaliate, to get our revenge on Katherine!"

"How? Leaving her dead every two days switching turns?"

"Turning her into Katherine. It'd be like in 1864 again, we could even turn her in a vampire if we get tired of her. Come on, Damon, we can get what we had back, be brothers again."

Damon seemed to think about it a long moment and then said:

"You tempt me, brother, really, but I already have my own plans towards Elena and I warn you I don't like sharing."

Stefan looked at him between amused and disappointed, but he said nothing.

"You think about it. You have 24 hours." And with that he turned around to leave.

In that moment, the door opened again. "Damon, if you want, you can..." Elena stopped at the half of her statement when she saw who was with Damon at the porch. Her eyes widened with fear while her breath caught in her throat and her pulse quickened.

"Hello, Elena." Stefan said. "Sorry I can't stay here any longer, but I should go. See you soon." He said with an evil smirk while he walked back to his red, old Porsche.

Elena was still shocked. The fact of seeing Stefan again was terrifying by itself, but the fact that he hadn't attacked her o he had said a few 'kind' words to her surprised her while it disturbed and terrified her even more her at the same time.

"What...?" She began to ask, but her voice broke.

"Get in." Damon said. As Elena didn't move, Damon shoved her inside the house gently. She didn't resist. "Now."

Once they were inside, Damon guided Elena to the kitchen again.

"Elena." Damon whispered. "Elena!" He repeated a little louder, snapping his fingers in front of hter eyes.

Elena just whispered incoherencies. "That... that... wa... Stefan... it was Stefan." When she heard herself saying it aloud, it was like she'd just realized what had just happened. Her pulse quickened so much Damon feared she was going to have a tachycardia along with her breathing. When she looked like she was about to scream, Damon said:

"Elena, Elena, look at me." He put a finger under her chin, forcing her to look at him. "You're gonna be okay, alright? I'm here and I'm not gonna let anything happen to you, okay? You're safe with me." Elena nodded briefly.

"Why were you talking to him?" She asked in a whisper.

"He had come for you." Unlike he expected, Elena didn't look affected. "He also told me his plans. He wanted me to join him."

This time, Elena's expression changed. "Are you gonna accept?" She asked with fear.

"No!" Damon looked offended. "But he gave me some 'time to think about it'."

"Oh. And how much time would that be?"

"24 hours."

Elena nodded briefly. Suddenly her expression was of absolute regret. "God, for a moment, when I saw you both in the porch, I thought you two had planned it and... God, I'm really sorry." Elena started sobbing softly. "I'm sure you hate me so much right now." She let out a laugh with no traces of joy in it.

Damon gave her a sympathetic smile. "Come on, come here." He said wrapping his arms around her and setting his chin on the top of her head. Elena simply buried her face in his chest and allowed herself to relax a little.

"Thank you." She said after a few minutes of comfortable silence. "For everything."

He smiled a little and said: "Whenever you want, princess."