Hello lovely followers. I am so sorry for my lack of updating. It's been an intense year. I know where I plan to have this going, and I look forward to taking you on an adventure with these two. I will try to update in just over/under a week! Thank you to all of my… excited reviewers, and to those who offer constructive criticism- it is always appreciated. If there is anything you want by request to be included, or excluded, feel free to drop a review, or even send me a personal message! I hope all is well and that you enjoy this chapter!

Rebekah's point of view

She let her pace slow as she walked up the steps with the girls trailing behind her. She could feel their unspoken questions on the back of her neck as they got to the front door. She opened the door and felt confidence as she strode in to the house knowing that the barrier would not stop her. She called out to Elena that the girls were here, and walked straight to the kitchen.

She went to the cupboards and took plates and set them around the table. She hummed to herself as she heard Elena get up from her bed and head down the hallway to the stairs. She put silverware and glasses down on the table and got napkins out of the drawer. She could tell that Jenna was thankful when she looked out of the corner of her eye and saw her smiling.

It made Rebekah happy to be acknowledged for something so human, something that would have been so easily dismissed with her kind. She felt domestic, and it made her a little bit happy on the inside.

She heard Elena and her friends practically squealing at each other, and the sound of Elena's excitement and happiness made Rebekah smile. Elena's happiness always had a way of somehow becoming hers as well. Jenna's eyes locked with hers and a faint knowing smile spread across her lips.

"What is it?" Rebekah asked curious at the sudden and yet completely inexplicable reaction. Jenna turned her head to look more clearly at Rebekah as she spoke.

"It always makes me happy to hear her with her friends too. Its so nice to hear her being happy." Jenna replied offhandedly to Rebekah's question. Rebekah's smile widened even further as she opened the fridge and took out the cheese and hot sauce and put it on the table.

"She really does have the loveliest laugh that I have ever heard in my life." Rebekah mumbled, making sure that everything was just perfectly so. Once everything was lined up she approached the stovetop where Jenna stood and leaned over the counter a bit.

She could see the meat sauce turning a deep red as it boiled and cooked to perfection. It smelled beautiful and delicious and she wished that she could make anything nearly as perfect as it seemed. She made a mental note to find a recipe for an authentic Spaghetti Bolognese to give to Jenna. She could tell that Jenna really loved cooking- she could tell the way that Jenna hovered over her stovetop, as if this spaghetti sauce was her entire life at the moment.

Rebekah admired that her care and precision was so delicate and masterful. It made her laugh almost; that human beings were even capable of such delicate behavior. She rarely ever saw one who possessed this undervalued kind of grace that Jenna seemed to possess when it came to food.

"When did you start cooking- Learning to cook…" Rebekah said watching Jenna put in a pinch of salt and some green herbs. The woman looked as if she was born to cook, born to create.

"Well, I started really young; basic things first." She began, stirring her pot once more bringing the wooden spoon to her lips. "Once I got a hang of those things I kept going. Moving on to more complex things." Jenna said with sauce on her lips. Seeing her like that made Rebekah laugh.

"You have a little sauce on your lips there…" Rebekah said gesturing to her own. She found it so funny to be interacting with a human this way, but it was comforting to a point. She still had her humanity.

"Well that's always embarrassing…" She heard Elena say as she came up behind her and rested her right hand for only a moment on the small of her back. Rebekah would be remiss if she didn't feel little tendrils of electricity stab her right here Elena's finger had been, sending a wave of goose bumps up her back, into her neck, eliciting a shiver that radiated from her core out through her limbs. She couldn't remember the last time she felt such an intense level of calm and trust with a human being.

Her body tensed up for a moment, before becoming soft again, her body melting into the touch of Elena's hand, which disappeared faster than it had came. The other girls approached as well, while Elena moved to the table, making eye contact with Rebekah, urging her to sit in the vacant seat next to her- and she did.

Rebekah watched Jenna give the sauce one more go around, and smile to herself as she set noodles down on the table followed by the delicious sauce. Rebekah knew that eating this food was going to ultimately upset her stomach, but part of her wanted to taste human food the way she had when she were in a fact human. They hadn't had spaghetti when she was a human.

She wondered what it would be like to be able to taste anything other than the taste of burnt toast that accompanied everything she ate, with the exception of blood. She missed it, the full flavours that she could remember vaguely in the back of her mind. Like a dream, she could remember the taste of fruit and chicken, and wild boar. She could remember them as a faint aftertaste; but since she had died, she had never been able to replicate the taste. Human food tasted like dirt and burnt toast to her now.

She knew that Jenna would take offence to her blatantly refusing to eat the spaghetti being doled out in front of her, especially after that had spent a few moments bonding in the kitchen.

She plastered a smile on her face as Jenna divided everything equally between the five of them. The food smelled so good, but Rebekah knew it would taste nothing like it smelled for her. There was no acknowledgement of the true beginning, but she watched Elena next to her as she began eating almost immediately.

Her human companion was probably hungrier than she had imagined. She watched the way her lips moved while she chewed, and it made her smile. Rebekah played with her food chasing it a while before accepting that she would truly have to eat some of it.

She swirled her fork in the center of her spaghetti, creating a sauce typhoon in the middle. When she lifted it to her mouth, the smell made her remember how hungry she used to get as a human. The food touched her lips and she had to consciously force herself to pry them apart in order to let it past her lips.

The sauce hit her taste buds first. She knew were she human, she would remark at how delicious it was, knowing full well how much effort it had taken Jenna, and how much flavour she knew must be present; but right now all she could taste was dirt. It tasted as if Jenna had gone outside to the garden and picked up a handful of earth and dumped it into a pot. Rebekah could tell by the looks on the faces of the other girls that what she as tasting and what they were tasting were two very different things.

Rebekah smiled at Jenna, as she swallowed bravely. It went down significantly easier than she had anticipated. She felt Elena's hand reach under the table and squeeze her knee in support. The action brought a faint warmth to her cheeks. At that exact moment, her eyes met Jenna's, and she watched a knowing smile present itself. Something about it made Rebekah's body tense- but she knew better. Whatever it was Jenna seemed to think that she knew- she knew nothing important.

"Elena," Jenna interrupted the dinner conversation, "Are you going to introduce the girls to Rebekah?" She gave Elena a nod of her head, gesturing to Caroline and Bonnie.

Rebekah felt Elena's hand disappear from her leg as she gasped in shock at herself, almost sending her plate toppling over. Rebekah couldn't help but laugh. Elena was probably the clumsiest human being she had ever met. Rebekah looked up from her laughter to see the other girls' eyes on her,

"I'm sorry." She said, slowing her breathing… She had just embarrassed herself in front of Elena's friends. There was silence for a moment, before laughter roared from all of the girls in turn. Rebekah joined them as her inhibitions disappeared and she felt truly at place within humanity for the first time in centuries. She felt herself settle down, and her fear and embarrassment wane as her tense and stiff body became less rigid and more relaxed.

Rebekah watched as Elena's breath evened out and she cleared her throat. The change was too subtle for the rest of the dinner guests to notice- but for Rebekah it passed almost as if in slow motion. She noticed the smooth skin of Elena's throat move as she swallowed her growing fear.

Rebekah let her own hand travel underneath the table and rest on the edge of Elena's leg as a sign of support and comfort. Elena turned to face her- and Rebekah gave her a slight nod that only she could notice. Rebekah watched anxiously as Elena cleared her throat loud enough to get the attention of the still laughing girls.

They all god quiet, and Rebekah watched as Jenna looked onto their situation with a deep apprehension. Rebekah could tell that Jenna knew what was about to happen, and they both waited with baited breath to hear the words that were about to leave Elena's mouth.

"I wanted to bring all of you here, to tell you something really important.." Elena began, her hand lacing with Rebekah's on her knee. "Trust that, were it not important, I would not bother to bring it up at all…" Elena said, her body language changing to one of confidence. Rebekah watched her closely; all of her attention was on Elena.

"This is Rebekah." She said gesturing to Rebekah's existence, and it made her smile a bit as she nodded her head to the other girls who simply smiled at her and nodded their understanding. "But she's not just Rebekah either…" Elena's words fell short of completing the sentence, Rebekah could tell as she swallowed her words.

"Rebekah and I have only known each other for a short time, but she means a great deal to me." Elena said, giving Rebekah the most sweet and thoughtful look she had ever received. "Since her being here, I have come to realize things about myself that seemed incredibly out of reach before…" She said giving Rebekah's hand a squeeze under the table.

"I've come to the conclusion- no, the understanding that I am in fact a lesbian." The girls stared in shock for a moment, although Jenna simply smiled and nodded as if she had already known. "I don't want this to change things between us, our friendship if very important to me… But I also don't want anyone in my life who doesn't support me in this." Rebekah watched as Elena sat still and how her body started to tremble slightly at the anticipation.

"I don't care what you are, as long as you're Elena." Bonnie said chuckling. And Caroline nodded in silent agreement. Jenna was the first to start laughing again.

"I've always known you were…" Jenna said laughing harder than before. "You always had a thing for girls, even when you were younger- I'm glad you've caught on though."

Rebekah leaned a little closer to Elena and whispered so gently that only she could hear, "You really didn't have to do this you know. It's a big step, but I am so glad that you did." Elena smiled at that and cleared her throat again.

"Rebekah is my girlfriend, and I wanted you to hear it from me before hearing it from anyone else." Elena said. And it wasn't a moment later that Rebekah felt Elena's lips on hers again. It made Rebekah's skin crawl in the most lovely of ways. Sooner than it even happened, it stopped.

The information passed from Elena's lips to the ears of the others, and slowly but surely the information sank in. The girls all smiled, and gave congratulations to the two of them, but Rebekah couldn't focus on that, all she heard was the word 'girlfriend'.

Did that mean what she thought it meant? And if so was Elena sure? Rebekah now had all of these questions and things that needed to be discussed… But she also knew she had to wait until the other guests had left. She felt Elena's hand settle on top of her own, and she was granted a small reprieve from her own wandering mind. Something in her knew that as long as she had Elena, she would be ok.

The evening resumed in a typical human fashion, and Rebekah was delighted to join in, doing her best to fulfill her duties to her girlfriend. The word still hung loosely in her mind as she smiled and ate with all of the living, breathing people at the table. And although she knew she would never be either of those things, the notion scared her less and less the longer Elena's hand was in her own.