The doorbell echoed through the whole house when the first rays of sun started peeking through the sheer curtains of her room, illuminating the walls and ceiling with a soft light, making the whole place look like something from a fairy tale. Elena stirred sleepily, pulling the cover over her head in hopes to drown out the noise that was threatening to make her head ache. Nobody should have the right to intrude her sleep, nobody but Stefan, she happily thought back to the Ferris wheel surprise he had arranged for her a few months ago.

The person ringing the doorbell persisted on, the ringing having more urgency. Elena took a deep breath and looked over to the clock sitting on the bedside table – 6.32 am. She groaned in frustration and looked over to Stefan who was sleeping like a baby next to her, his hair dishevelled and looking as sexy as he always was, whereas Elena knew that she looked as if someone had forced her to stay awake for ten days straight.

Things had been going very well between her and Stefan. When Stefan wasn't at work and she wasn't at college they spent most of their time together in Elena's house since Stefan's apartment was usually very crowded. For some weird and incomprehensible reason Caroline and Nik got together, being inseparable after the infamous November ball (which Elena rather would erase from her mind) so the pair was always at Stefan's apartment, glued together and making living in that place nearly impossible. Even Damon opted for other, safer, places to stay at, but no one never knew where exactly.

Elena was happy for Caroline though, knowing that Nik was probably the only one who could control the blonde's temper, although she couldn't imagine how he didn't lose his mind in the process. Maybe love really was something that made everything about a person good and wonderful.

As for her own relationship with Stefan, she couldn't even imagine her life without him and how she had survived when there was no Stefan in her life – she couldn't remember. He constantly showered her with little surprises such as taking her skating, although Elena had told him that she has the worst coordination that a person could have, but even that experience was amazing, because Stefan had been with her.

One of the hardest moments for her was when Stefan took her to her parents' graves. Elena had been furious with him for putting her through that at first, but when they arrived at the graveyard a sudden calm had taken over her body and the support that always emanated from Stefan gave her the courage to take the necessary step, which she later realized, she had needed badly - closure. She had accused her parents for leaving her, cried her heart out in front of their tombstones and then thanked them for all the memories she had with them and all the while Stefan was standing next to her, never uttering a word and never judging her.

Stefan was her rock and already, though they had been together for a short time, Elena had finally found herself again and accepted everything, both bad and good, that had happened in her life.

The doorbell rang again and this time the person didn't let go of the button because the ringing was incessant, which woke Stefan up as well.

"What the...?" he muttered and turned to his side, rubbing one eye with his fist.

Elena swung her legs over the bed, grabbed a hoodie from a nearby chair and pulled it over her head – "I'll go check it out," she mumbled and slipped on a pair of slippers before disappearing from the room, leaving Stefan wondering who would be crazy enough to disturb people at such an early hour.

The doorbell was still ringing when Elena reached the door, but before opening it she glanced through the window next to the front door making sure that it wasn't some kind of an axe murderer waiting for an innocent person to open the door.

The first thing she noticed was Damon's blue convertible parked next to Stefan's red Porsche.

Confused, Elena opened the door and her confusion grew even more when she saw Bonnie standing next to Damon who was holding down the doorbell button with an annoying smirk plastered over his features. Elena felt the urge to slap it off his face when he remarked – "Nice PJ's, Elena," his eyes glided over the pink shorts she was wearing.

Bonnie shot a murderous glare at Damon who instantly wiped the smile off his face and turned to Elena – "We have a problem."

"Problem?" Elena croaked, the sleep evident in her voice, "Haven't you got a watch or something? Do you know what time it is?"

"Sure we do," Damon said, "But we really don't care," he added smugly, earning another glare from Bonnie who looked like she was wishing that the ground would swallow her up whole.

Elena head footsteps behind her and with a quick look saw Stefan descending the stairs, wearing nothing but a pair of trousers loosely hanging from his hips.

"Geez, bro, cover up," Damon commented when Stefan took his place next to Elena.

"What's going on?" Stefan asked suspiciously, his eyes landing on Bonnie and then on his brother.

Bonnie, growing clearly impatient with each passing second, decided to take control of the events and with determination in her voice she raised up her phone – "Caroline called half an hour ago."

Something in her tone of voice caught Elena's attention and as usual, a sense of fear settled in the pit of her stomach because phone calls for Elena never meant any good, especially when delivered at such hours.

"What happened?" Elena asked.

"The better question," Damon butted in, "Is what didn't happen."

"Cut the crap, Damon," Stefan said angrily. "Tell us."

"As I said before," Bonnie began talking again casting a sharp glance at Damon, making sure he wouldn't interrupt again, "Caroline called not so long ago, panicking over the phone. Apparently she and Nik got so drunk last night that they booked a flight to Vegas..." she paused not sure how to continue.

Elena's head began to spin, thinking of the worst scenarios she could imagine – what if their plane crashed, what if along the way to the airport they got into an accident?

"What Bon's trying to say is that those two morons got drunk, flew to Vegas and got married," Damon said with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Elena blinked, one time, two times, registering the words in her head.

"What?" Stefan's voice finally broke through the haze.

"Yeah..." Bonnie mumbled, "Caroline told that she had tried calling Elena, but she wouldn't pick her phone up."

Elena quickly thought back to the previous night when she had put her phone in her bag and had forgotten it there. There's no way she could have heard it ringing.

"So Caroline called Bonnie next and fortunately she was able to pick up," Damon said pointedly, looking at Elena's shocked face.

"Damon, why are you even here?" Stefan asked, tired of his attempts at being remotely funny.

Elena could hear Bonnie suck in a sharp breath and Damon's face dropped immediately from a slight smile into a frown.

"Um..." Damon began to conjure up some kind of a feeble excuse, "I...Bonnie..." he sputtered, looking at Bonnie like a lost dog.

"Were you with Bonnie at the time Caroline called?" Stefan suddenly asked.

"No!" Bonnie exclaimed. "I mean...we...it's just..."

Elena noticed the slight blush on Bonnie's cheeks and the way she fiddled with her fingers, she was clearly trying to hide something from them.

"You were!" Elena exclaimed, slowly starting to put the pieces together. For a second the fact that Caroline had got married in Vegas slipped from her mind because what was right before her eyes was plainly obvious. Bonnie and Damon were together and by the embarrassed looks from their faces they were never planning on confessing her that.

"It just happened," Bonnie muttered under her breath, her eyes firmly glued to the ground.

"How long...?" Stefan asked, leaving the question hanging open in the air.

"Can we go back to the more interesting topic of Nik and Caroline?" Damon snapped with angry sparks flying from his eyes, annoyed with the onslaught of questions.

"When were you planning on telling us?" Elena frowned and looked at Bonnie, hurt that her friend hadn't told her anything about it.

"I don't know..."Bonnie whispered, "I mean you were so busy with your own life and with Stefan and I just didn't really think much of it."

"Plus I told her to keep it a secret," Damon added with the return of his cocky smirk and earning a what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about look from Bonnie.

"No you didn't," Bonnie said incredulously.

"Okay, we'll talk about it later," Stefan looked at his brother who just shrugged nonchalantly. "Just come in, this is getting weird," Stefan said and took a step back, allowing Damon and Bonnie to step inside, but they stayed rooted at their spots and exchanged awkward glances. "Caroline's plane is going to land in half an hour, Damon and I were going to meet them at the airport." Bonnie said quietly.

"That's why we're here, dumbasses," Damon added, "Because Bonnie here thought that you should come with us, so you'd better put a shirt on, Stef." Damon grimaced, uncomfortable with the thought of Stefan and Elena tagging along with them, especially after their secret that had been spilt.


The ride to the airport was harrowing. You could cut the silence with a knife and even if it had been in pieces, it still would have been torturous. Also, the smallness of Damon's car didn't help the situation along at all.

Elena and Bonnie were crammed in the backseat while Damon was driving with Stefan in the front seat. The brothers occasionally exchanged a few words, discussing the shortest way to the airport, sometimes almost getting into a heated argument about which highway they should take. Elena fiddled nervously with her fingers, unsure how to approach Bonnie who was single-mindedly gazing out the window, trying to avoid Elena.

"Bonnie?" Elena finally whispered, not being able to take the silence anymore.

Bonnie flinched at the sound of her name and looked cautiously at Elena as if she was a rabid animal ready to attack her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Elena asked, hurt colouring her voice.

A flash of guilt crossed Bonnie's face and she looked at Damon who she knew was listening to her every answer. "I don't know," she answered, "There never seemed like a good time for it."

"Does Caroline know?" Elena asked.

The look of guilt on Bonnie's face intensified tenfold, "Yes."

Elena felt as if someone had got a hold of her heart and was now twisting it painfully.

"I'm sorry, Elena, I really am," Bonnie was quick to add, "You just seemed..."

"I seemed what?" Elena unintentionally snapped, regretting her tone of voice immediately when she saw a look of hurt in Bonnie's face.

"Away." Bonnie said, this time more harshly, "You seemed so far away, Elena."

The rest of the car ride resumed in silence, even heavier than before.


"I'm sorry you had to hear that," Elena said when she and Stefan were walking towards the gates that Caroline and Nik were supposed to arrive to.

Stefan sighed, squeezing her hand, "You don't need to apologize."

"I just can't believe that she didn't tell me," Elena said.

"Damon told me nothing either," Stefan replied, "I guess we were both blind to what was going around us."

They arrived at the gate, the screen on the wall telling that the flight from Las Vegas was landing in 7 minutes; Elena looked back and saw that Bonnie and Damon were a few feet behind them.

"Bonnie and I have been best friends since childhood, I just can't believe that she would keep something like this from me," Elena said, almost petulantly.

"I think that what Bonnie said was right," Stefan said quietly.

Elena's head snapped up, "What?"

"About you being away..." Stefan paused, "I mean I am as much to blame as well, because I've keeping you from your friends and I've been away too. Away from my brother, away from Nik. I have no idea what is going on in their lives."

Elena wanted to say something back at Stefan, but his words always had the ability to sink in quicker than she sometimes wished for. Stefan was right. She had been so immersed in her own relationship with Stefan that she had basically neglected her friends. Frankly, Elena had no idea how things had been going on between Caroline and Nik, and Bonnie was never one to talk openly about her life, so there was no surprise that she had missed everything.

"We have been spending every free minute together..," Stefan said, brushing his hand through his hair, making it even messier.

Elena sighed, realizing that she was being unfairly frustrated with Bonnie. "I should talk to Bonnie...and Caroline."

"And I should talk to Damon," Stefan said with a smile.

"Nik too," Elena reminded him and Stefan nodded in agreement.

"We should make a rule," Stefan suddenly said when the screen over their heads showed that the plane had landed.

"Oh?"

"To at least spend one day in week with our friends." He said.

"That way we don't miss out on their lives," Elena's lips curved into a smile.

"Yes." Stefan agreed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, "Here they come," he nodded towards the gate and Elena saw a familiar blonde head approaching them with a wide smile on her lips.


Not many chapters left to this story...