A/N: Happy birthday Sara. I hurried to finish this for you.

"Elena!" I blinked. The world was bright and blurry, vague images all around me, slowly solidifying into something more recognizable. I could make out bodies around me, the shapes of faces.

"You shouldn't do that… it's not good to shock her."

"How do you know? You can't be an expert on how to treat her when you don't even know what happened!"

"Shh you two. She's coming around…" I sat up slowly. I was on the sofa at home. The siblings were crowded around, looking concerned.

"Elena… are you alright?" Klaus asked me softly. I rubbed my head and nodded slowly.

"What happened?" I asked quietly, confused. Everything was a mess, a confused painful mess that made no sense to me.

"We're not sure…" Elijah said. "Kol said he found you in a janitor's closet. You were crying and screaming and you tried to bite him."

"I don't remember that part…"

"You may not have been specifically trying to bite me. You were thrashing around a lot, I probably just got in the way." They looked at me expectantly, clearly waiting for me to fill them in on what had happened. I closed my eyes, wanting nothing more than to just… stop. I wanted to stop thinking, stop feeling until everything made sense again.

"Elena… we need to know what happened," Elijah prompted softly. I sighed and opened my eyes again.

"I don't know. I was just standing there and there were this voices. In my head. Like I was hearing things and they just got louder… and louder…" just saying the words brought the memories all flooding back.

"Get the witch, see if she can explain." Klaus ordered, his hand coming up to check my temperature. Elijah nodded and left the room, returning with a familiar woman. I realized she'd was the witch who'd bound us together in the first place. She knelt down beside me and placed a hand on either side of my head. I squirmed, uncomfortable.

"Elena, let her work," Klaus said, touching my leg in an attempt to comfort me. I forced myself to stay still as the witch murmured under her breath. After a minute, she pulled away.

"Do you know what happened?" Elijah asked.

"Yes. The connection between you works like a door that only swings one way. You can get into her mind but she can't do the same to you. Somehow… she's managed to push open the door on all your minds. What happened to today was she was hearing what you hear. But given your vampire hearing and that you were all in various locations hearing different things, it crashed onto her at once and nearly drove her insane."

"You never said that would happen. We asked you about the risk and you said –" Klaus snapped.

"I didn't think it was a possibility. No spell is completely known or without risks," she cut in.

"Can you fix it?" Elijah asked calmly, giving Klaus a warning look.

"Yes, I have. It shouldn't happen again." The witch gave me a long look. I got the feeling that she knew what I'd done. I looked away, feeling a little guilty.

"How did it happen in the first place?" Klaus asked "If it was so impossible you neglected to mention it to us."

"I don't know. You said she channelled your pain? Maybe when she did that, she accidentally opened the connection up completely? Other than that I don't know." I was relieved she hadn't told them what I'd done. I didn't want them to know I'd been snooping around in their heads. I had a feeling they wouldn't appreciate it. But then again, I didn't really appreciate it when they did it to me so maybe they should know so they could understand just how I felt.

"Thank you Gwen for your help," Elijah said. "I'll show you out." They left the room. I slumped back down on the sofa and closed my eyes.

"I told you sending her back to school was a bad idea…" Kol muttered. "She barely survived a day!"

"Well I hardly blame that on the school environment," Klaus retorted.

"Please stop fighting…" I muttered. They ignored me.

"She is not going back there!"

"That's not your decision to make, it's mine!"

"You're so full of shit Klaus, you know that? You think you're some great leader but you're not. You're nothing but a bloody –"

"STOP IT!" I snapped, jerking upright with my eyes flying open. They fell silent instantly as I glared at them. I was in no mood to deal with their possessive 'I know better than you' crap. They needed to understand that if they wanted me to be part of the family they had to start treating me right. "I'm going back to school tomorrow. I don't care what happened today, I'm not letting this stupid connection dictate my life. What I do is no one's decision but my own. Now, can you both handle that?" I looked at them both. Klaus nodded slowly and eventually Kol did the same. "Good. I'm going to my room."

I left the room, not wanting to witness them fighting anymore. I was determined to go to school tomorrow. I had a feeling Kol wouldn't be too cooperative with the idea if his performance downstairs was anything to go on, but I had a plan to get round him. If it came to it, I would walk to town so I could go back to school.

I went up to my room and found that someone had left me some sleeping pills and aspirin. I went into the bathroom and ran a bath, deciding it would help me to calm down. The hot water did help a little bit, relaxing my muscles and allowing me to take on a more peaceful feel. I could hear Kol and Klaus yelling downstairs and the occasional smashing sound. I sighed and got out of the bath, knowing I wouldn't be able to completely unwind as long as I could hear that. I dried off, put on clean pyjamas and climbed into bed. I took the pills and let myself slip into a peaceful drug induced coma.

I woke up early the next morning, feeling groggy from the pills. I dressed quickly, located my bag and headed downstairs. I was going to school. I never thought I'd be this determined to do that but here we are. I was heading towards the door when I heard someone say my name. I froze and turned sharply. Rebekah stepped onto the hallway.

"Relax it's just me," she said. "You going to school?"

"Yeah. I figured Kol would probably drive me somewhere else if I relied on him." She nodded.

"I agree. So I took Nik's keys. You can drive right?" I nodded. She smiled brightly and chucked the keys to me. "Then let's go."

We headed outside to the cars and got into Klaus'. I was still a little shocked by Rebekah's helpfulness and after a few minutes of driving, I decided I had to ask.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked.

"A couple of reasons actually. I agree that you should be able to choose what you do, you shouldn't be trapped in the house like a prisoner… especially since Nik is still milking the family angle. Family don't… well family shouldn't… treat each other like slaves or prisoners." She paused, gazing out the window. "Plus I met some really cute guys while I was there yesterday, so I want to go back." I laughed. That was more what I expected.

"I can imagine that growing up with Klaus made dating… difficult?" She nodded.

"Stefan was the first boyfriend ever he seemed to like. And even then he only liked him until my loyalty was in question. I can't count the number of boyfriends he killed because he felt that they weren't 'worthy' of me… or worse." She sighed softly and looked down as painful memories came to mind. I bit my lip, wondering what I could say to comfort her. "Still, now you've got that to look forward to. Joys of being a sister of the Mikaelsons."

"Are the others like that? I mean, overprotective?"

"They have their moments. It's always been me, Nik and Elijah. Finn's never really been the protective type and… well, you know Kol." I made an affirmative noise. "But there are times when they've all joined together and ganged up on me. We're all we've got after all." I nodded.

"Well now we can gang up on them." She laughed and nodded.

"Girl power and all that." I smiled.

"I still find it really odd that all the experiences girls our age normally have, you never got. Like… going to the movies, having slumber parties…"

"What's a slumber party?"

"It's when all your friends sleep over and watch films and play games and give each other make overs." She was silent for a while before looking at me.

"That sounds… kind of nice actually. But I never had many friends who were girls. Many friends at all if I'm honest. Where I grew up there were only a few other families and most of them were too afraid of my father or brothers to spend time with me. I mainly kept to myself. The only friend I had was in 1919. I was working as a nurse and I made friends with a witch who was doing the same." I noticed how her face lit up slightly as she spoke and her eyes took on a faraway quality. "Her name was Genevieve."

"What happened to her…?" I asked warily, already sensing that it wouldn't be pleasant.

"I asked her to do something and she wanted to tell Klaus. I couldn't let that happen so I infected her with influenza and left her for dead."

"Oh." She sighed softly and rested her head against the window.

"It's one of my greatest regrets Elena. And believe me, I have quite a few. All vampires do, as you'll find out." I frowned.

"What do you mean?" I asked hesitantly. Was she saying that I was going to be turned? No one had mentioned that to me.

"Well it's inevitable that Klaus will turn you. Eventually anyway." She said it like it was completely obvious. I blinked. Okay… what?

"What…?"

"If he really wants you as part of the family, the only way he can that is to turn you. Did you never think of that?" I hadn't actually but it did sort of make sense. If Klaus really was serious about me being a part of his family, it would be inevitable that I'd be turned.

"No… I mean, I never really thought about it. He wants me for my blood so he can make hybrids, but he can't use it if I'm a vampire."

"True but all he needs to ensure he has a supply of blood is to make you have a child. Eventually another doppelgänger will occur, all he has to do is wait." Oh god… was that true? Would he really do that? Was that the inevitable future of my children? "You really never thought about it?"

"With everyone around me having such a short life expectancy, I didn't think I was going to survive long enough to have children…" She reached over and touched my hand.

"Be grateful you have the opportunity Elena. I know that many of my kind would die for that opportunity." I nodded slowly. I needed to focus on the positives, think about what I had and what I could do with my life now people weren't trying to kill me constantly. The siblings wouldn't let me die which meant I would have all kind of chances that I wouldn't have had before. I could find love, get married, maybe even have children. Even if one of my descendants ended up being a blood bag for Klaus, I would still be able to watch them grow up. If I was a vampire I'd be able to help them through it.

Think positively. It could be worse.

After a few minutes of driving in exceptionally awkward silence as I contemplated my own mortality and Rebekah thought about something else (her life of mistakes I presumed), we pulled up outside the school. I gave Rebekah a brief smile.

"I'll see you at lunch?"

"Yeah." We both got out and headed our separate ways. I didn't see any sign of Kol's car and I wondered to myself if he'd show up today. Probably, if only to give me hell about sneaking out with Rebekah.

I froze as I entered the corridor and saw that Caroline, Bonnie, Matt and Jeremy were stood by my locker, clearly waiting for me to arrive. Great, just what I really didn't want to happen. I took a deep breath, mentally preparing myself. I'd originally planned on postponing this for as long as possible but it was probably a better idea to get it done now, get it over with so I could continue on with my life.

I forced a bright smile and headed over to my locker. Caroline's head shot round as soon as I neared, as if she was a bloodhound catching my scent.

"Hi guys," I said calmly, as if nothing had happened.

"Elena! Where have you been? What happened? Damon said Klaus abducted you and brainwashed you!"

"Caroline! Give her a chance to breathe!" Bonnie said. I looked over at Jeremy.

"Are you alright?" He nodded. "Good, I was worried."

"You were worried?" Caroline said. "How do you think we've felt?"

"Caroline, please. I can explain." She looked at me expectantly. I sighed and decided to go with the honest approach. "Okay, Klaus abducted me from the hospital. I've been living with him and his siblings outside of town since then. I haven't tried to escape because he said he'd kill Jeremy if I did. I am not hurt, I am not brainwashed. I am fine."

"Siblings? Does that include that psycho Barbie doll he was with at prank night?" Caroline said.

"Did someone call me?" I heard Rebekah's cool voice behind me and a second later her arm wrapped around my shoulders. "I thought I'd just check in on Elena and make sure she was okay."

"I thought you hated her." Bonnie said.

"I did. But we're family now." I groaned. I wish she'd left me to handle this myself. I needed more time before I explained the whole family aspect to my friend.

"What?" Caroline said flatly, looking at me with disbelief.

"Klaus… kind of… wantsmeaspartofhisfamily." It came out as a jumbled incoherent mess.

"Do that again?" Jeremy asked, clearly as confused as everyone else, even though he was acting a lot calmer.

"Well Elena here has joined our family" Rebekah said with a smile. "Which I guess makes you my brother, cutie."

"No Rebekah, I was adopted…" I muttered.

"oh shame… I was quite looking forward to getting to know your brother." She was all but purring. I felt very uncomfortable.

"Oh Rebekah stop flirting. He's young enough to be your son." Damn… looked like Kol had arrived. He sauntered over and I saw Caroline give him an automatic appraising once over. "Besides you know how Klaus treats your boyfriends and I'm sure Elena would rather her brother stays alive."

"And who the hell are you?" said Matt.

"I'm the other brother. Kol. Nice to meet you, mate." I sighed. I was so done with all this macho posturing and vampire bollocks.

"I'm not your mate. Let Elena go." Matt snapped.

"Nah, I'm good." Kol went to sling his arm over my other shoulder, mirroring Rebekah but I stepped away.

"Okay, this is over. Kol, Rebekah, go to class and leave me be!" They reluctantly slunk off. I turned back to my friends. "Look, this whole thing is complicated. I'm trying to deal with it and I could really do without you all starting fights, trying to rescue me and dying in the process. So just… let me handle it. Please?" I looked at them imploringly.

"We can't just abandon you Elena…" said Bonnie softly.

"Bonnie, you're not abandoning me. What I really need right now is you guys just being normal. I'm struggling enough, I don't need the extra stress of worrying about you getting hurt."

"We can take care of ourselves," Jeremy scoffed. "It's not like this is the first time you've been abducted by vampires."

"This is different. You remember how hard it was for us to try and take down Klaus the first time? Well now he's a hybrid and he has four siblings backing him. Not to mention however many hybrids he's sired now. Please… just let this go. I'm fine." Jeremy nodded slowly and touched Bonnie's arm.

"Come on, let's go." She gave me an anguished look but took his hand and followed.

"I can't believe this Elena. We're supposed to be your friends." Matt said quietly.

"You are my friends Matt. But right now that's all I need you to be. I don't need heroes, I just need friends." He nodded slightly and left. Caroline turned to leave but I grabbed her arm.

"Caroline… umm… how's Tyler?"

"He's fine. No thanks to your new bffs." She sneered and walked away. I sighed and leant against my locker, closing my eyes. I knew this would be hard work but I hadn't realized just how much. Maybe if Kol and Rebekah hadn't interfered it might have been a little easier but… no… probably not. They'd get over it eventually, it would just take time. That's all they needed. They were my friends after all, they had to see why I was doing this.

I just had to get through this, one day at a time, and eventually things would get back to normal. Well… as normal as was possible around here.

I took a few slow breaths and opened my eyes. I could do this. I got my stuff out of my locker and headed to class, repeating the words in my head. I could do this. I could do this.

The day dragged. At lunch I ate with Kol and Rebekah. They practically snarled at anyone who came near me. Every time I entered a classroom with one of my friends in it, they would give me long hurt looks. When the day eventually ended, Kol drove Klaus' car home. I sat in the back, trying to keep up my mask of impassiveness. When we got back, I ignored everyone and went straight up to my room. I threw myself down onto my bed and I cried.