Stefan was already there when we arrived home at three-thirty. He and Elena suspiciously stopped talking as soon as I entered the living room. "Hello Norah," Stefan said politely. "Hello," I responded.

Just looking at his face made me think about what I saw last night. His eyes darkening as he lowered his mouth down to Elena's bleeding hand, the uneasy, yet calm look on her face. I shuddered at the thought. Stefan looked as if he were going to say something, but was interrupted by the doorbell.

"Come on in Alaric," I heard Jenna call from the kitchen. The door opened and closed, and I felt the couch sink down next to me. Only when I turned to greet him, it was not Alaric's face that I saw. "Damon," I said confusedly. "What forget who I was already," he asked with a smirk. Just as I was about to ask what he was doing here, Jenna walked in from the kitchen and beat me to it.

"Oh, Damon what are you doing here," Jenna asked, a perplexed look on her face. "Yeah Damon, I don't remember anyone sending you an invitation," Elena said heatedly. "I did." It was depressing really, after two weeks of ignoring me I still defend him. Everyone turned to look at me, and a fake smile formed on Jenna's face. "Alright then, the more the merrier I guess. I'll just go and set another place at the table. Elena, can you come help me in the kitchen?"

Stefan, Damon, and I were left in an awkward silence as Elena followed her aunt out of the room. I started to fidget in my seat, not able to get comfortable in the presence of the two people who probably wanted to see me the least. Stefan cleared his throat. "Well, I'm going to see if they need any more help." He got up and went into the kitchen as well, and I subconsciously let out a sigh of relief.

"Not getting along with Stefan," Damon asked from next to me. "It's not that," I responded, slightly surprised that he was speaking to me. "Then what is it?" He moved closer to me, a curious look painted on his face. "It's really none of my business, but I saw Stefan doing something to Elena last night that he probably shouldn't have been doing to her." As soon as the words left my mouth, I realised how it sounded.

Damon's smirk grew. "Care to demonstrate; I don't quite understand what you're referring to?" I rolled my eyes and moved closer to him so no one would hear. "Damon, he was drinking her blood," I whispered, my hand resting on his shoulder as I leaned close to his ear. "Well, he is a vampire, so it's not completely uncommon for him to, you know, drink blood," He said in his normal voice. "Shhh," I hushed him, putting a finger over my lips. His voice was way too calm for comfort.

"I thought Stefan drank animal blood?" Damon leaned his head back on the couch in annoyance. "Are we really going to talk about my brother's taste in blood right now?" I glanced down at the couch before looking back up to him. "Is that normal; I mean for a vampire to feed off of his human girlfriend?" He picked up his head from the couch and looked at me. "You're not going to drop this are you? If you're asking me if I'm going to ask the same of you the answers is no, I don't need the extra strength." I looked at him curiously. "Why does Stefan?"

"Why are you so concerned about this anyway?" I shrugged my shoulders. "Why are you answering a question with a question?" Damon rolled his eyes. "Just drop it, like you said it's none of your business anyway." I moved farther away from him, slightly insulted at the way he lashed out at me.

I sighed and turned to look at him. "Are you still upset with me because of what I said?" He turned towards me as well. "What makes you say that?" I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration. "Well you've been avoiding me for the past two weeks." He shook his head, a sliver of a smile forming on his face.

"I haven't been avoiding you, so you can stop worrying your pretty little head on my account. If you must know, I found some more information on that coven. Or did you want to keep having these near-death experiences?" I took a breath to answer, but was interrupted by Jenna. "Norah, Damon, dinner's ready!"

I got up and headed to the kitchen with Damon following, his hand brushing against the small of my back as we entered the room. Damon sat down across from Elena, leaving me to sit in the seat next to him across from Stefan, who offered a small smile before we both looked away from the other. I looked around the table at everyone, my eyes landing on Alaric. I was so engrossed in talking to Damon; I didn't even notice him come in. He nodded his head to me in greeting, and I mouthed a hello.

Everyone helped themselves to the various foods on the table, and ate in an uncomfortable silence. It was almost as bad as eating with my own family; unspoken words hanging in the air that not everybody knew about. A piece of turkey was placed in front of me by Alaric, causing me to notice that I was still staring at everybody. Embarrassed at being caught, I looked down at my food and started to eat.

Stefan was the first to break the awkward silence. "Jenna, the food is amazing." Jenna smiled. "Thank-you Stefan." I glanced at Damon next to me who in turn looked back, smirking as I assumed he would be.

Dinner dragged on, making me want to jump for joy when it finally ended. Jenna told us that her and Alaric would clean up and get dessert ready, so we all dispersed. Elena and Stefan went up to her room, and Jeremy went up to his, leaving Damon and I alone.

I followed Damon into the living room, and sat down next to him on the love seat. He surprised me by putting his arm around my shoulder and pulling me closer to him. I sat there with my hands in my lap, refusing to return the contact; as much as I really wanted to lean into him, I didn't want him to think that he could just up and leave for weeks and then expect everything to be the same when he returned.

"Damon, what were you about to tell me before Jenna called us in?" He sighed. "You always know how to ruin the mood." I gave him a look and he sighed again. "Fine, like I said before, I found out more about the coven. It seems as though hunting isn't all that runs in the family." I looked at him questioningly. "You know how your parents were after the coven when they died right?" he looked at me and I nodded.

"The reason they went after the coven wasn't just because they were vampires. Norah, the man that attacked you two weeks ago, did he look familiar?" I shook my head no and gave him a confused look. Where was he going with this? "Well, you were probably too young to remember, but apparently your mother had a brother named Michael; your uncle. He was turned by someone in the coven." He paused and when I didn't say anything he continued. "When your parents found out, they planned to go after the coven and your uncle. Since your uncle was new at the whole vampire thing, he attacked them."

I took a moment to let it all sink in. "Damon, how did you find all this out?" I couldn't resist leaning into his touch any longer. After everything he found out, it was hard to stay mad at him. "Town archives," he responded while leaning his head onto mine. I pulled away from him. "The Town? How do they know about that?"

He pulled me back, seemingly unfazed by my outburst. "There is a secret Council in this town made by the founding families. They are dedicated to finding every vampire that roams this town and killing them. My father was the head of the Council back before I was turned, and I am on the council now seeing as my father is now supposed to be my great-great-grandfather, and I am the head of my founding family." He and I were laughing at this point, both seeing the irony of the situation: A vampire in the vampire hunting council.

As the laughter died down, I raised my head up from his shoulder and kissed him; extremely grateful for all that he has done for me. He responded by pulling me onto his lap and deepening the kiss. After two weeks of not seeing him, it felt good to feel his lips on mine once more. "Thank-you for finding all that out; it means a lot to me," I said, briefly pulling away. He continued to kiss down my neck in response.

"Ahem," a voice said from the corner of the room. I looked up from my spot on Damon's lap to see Jenna and Alaric. "I hate to interrupt, but dessert is on the table," Jenna said, looking as if she was trying not to laugh. I could only imagine the expression on my face. "Great, let's eat," Damon said, lifting me to my feet as he got up. I was glad at least one of us could speak, because if it was left up to me, we probably would have been sitting there for hours. He kept a loose grip on my arm as we once again sat at the table.

Minutes later, Jenna returned from upstairs with everyone else. Judging by the sceptical expression on Elena's face, I had a strong feeling that Jenna told her what she just witnessed. I turned my gaze back to the food on the table, pretending not to notice the look she gave me.

I nibbled on an oatmeal raisin cookie as Stefan and Alaric held a conversation about some football game; I wasn't really listening. I was too focused on Damon's hand resting on my thigh.

His hand didn't leave my leg until everyone started getting up from the table to clean off their plates. "Guys, I'll clean up. You all go off and have fun." Jenna was about to protest but I interrupted. "Please, it's the least I can do after allowing me to stay at your home." She reluctantly accepted my offer of cleaning and left with Alaric, followed closely by the others. The only one that stayed was Damon. I piled all of the plates and went to the sink.

As I was cleaning the dishes, Damon came up behind me, wrapped his arms around my waist and began kissing my neck again. I turned around in his arms, and caught his lips with mine, while snaking my arms around his neck. He lifted me up so I was now sitting on the counter. The kissing continued for a while before I broke it off.

I leaned my forehead on his chest while I tried to catch my breath. "As much as I would love to continue, I would rather we not put on another show for the people in the house, which is likely to happen if we continue." He slid me off the counter until I was on my feet. Then he went back to the table and grabbed some more dishes, all of which he did without saying a word.

We finished cleaning in silence; well really I finished cleaning while he leaned against the island behind me. "You shouldn't have left your house," Damon remarked. I shut the water off and turned to face him, ready to defend my actions. "I needed to leave that house." He shook his head. "No one has ever been invited in there, and it's a given that no one ever will be. It's practically a safe haven from vampires. You should have sucked it up and stayed." If that came from anyone's mouth but Damon's I would have slapped them silly, but I knew that he didn't mean it as an insult. It was his twisted way of showing concern. "I'm not going back," I bluntly stated. He rolled his eyes. "You're being over-dramatic."

I turned back towards the sink and continued to wash the dishes, slamming them down in frustration as I put them on the drying rack. I was not being dramatic. "You don't know what happened; you have no right to tell me where I can stay." Damon moved away from the island and leaned on the counter next to me. "And who is going to come to your rescue when Jenna invites a vampire inside that wants to kill you." I whipped my head around to look at him, but I didn't get the chance to speak.

We both turned around to meet Elena, who looked extremely uncomfortable walking in on our argument. Great, like the other night didn't make things awkward enough. I put on the best smile I could. "Oh, hey Elena."

She diverted her eyes when I looked at her. "Hey Norah, I was just coming to see if we could talk, but I obviously interrupted something."

"Yes you did," Damon rudely replied. Elena went to walk away. "Wait Elena, I do want to talk but can you give me a few minutes to finish cleaning up and then I'll meet you in your room."

I gave her a reassuring smile, and she gave me one back in return. "Okay, see you soon." She looked at Damon who wore a slightly annoyed expression, and then left the room.

"Going back there is out of the question; at least for right now. Plus Stefan's here all the time. I'm sure he could help if something happened," I said, returning to our conversation. "Stefan's only concern is getting Elena to safety. Anything besides that will be left in second place to fend for themselves. What will you do then?" I sighed. "Then I guess I'll have to fend for myself like you said." He guffawed. "Yeah a lot of good that'll do you. Without any training, you'll do just as well as any other human out there." I slammed my hands down on the counter as I finished the washing the last dish in the sink. "Can we just drop this? We're obviously not going to agree."

He threw one of the dish towels off of the counter, obviously annoyed with my answer. "This isn't going to just disappear because you don't want to talk about it." I picked the towel up off the floor. "All I'm saying is that there is nothing I can do about it. There is nothing to talk about unless you have some brilliant plan that doesn't involve me going home." He let out an annoyed huff, but didn't say anything further.

He either agreed with me or was mad at me. It was hard to tell, because I being right would get him just as annoyed. I got on my toes and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I'm going to go talk to Elena now; I'll talk to you tomorrow." I started walking out of the room when he called out to me, causing me to stop. "Just call me if anything happens; that's the least you can do if you insist on staying here." I smiled, still facing the away from him. "Okay."

I left Damon in the kitchen, and climbed the stairs to Elena's room. The door was closed so I knocked and waited for a response before opening it, trying to avoid what happened last time. "Come on in Norah." I opened the door and saw that Elena was on her bed looking at something on her laptop. When I entered, she shut the laptop, walked over to her desk and put it down.

She looked at me with nervousness written all over her face. "H-hey Norah, why don't you sit on my bed?" I obliged and sat across from her. We were both looking down at our laps, occasionally stealing glances up at each other; both of us probably wondering how to start. She broke the ice first. "Listen, Norah, I know that what you saw freaked you out last night, but it's not what is seems!"

I looked up at her pleading face, but rolled my eyes and began talking in a quiet voice so no one overheard. "Really? Because it seems that your vampire boyfriend was drinking your blood, but please do tell me what was really happening." I knew I was being harsh and that my sarcasm really wasn't helping the situation but I couldn't help it; I was scared.

"Stefan wants to get stronger, so he can protect me. Drinking animal blood makes him weaker than other vampires, but he can't just jump into drinking human blood after so many years of steering clear of it. I'm helping him build up his tolerance so he doesn't loose control; he only takes a little bit at a time." I stared at her, my eyebrows half way up my forehead.

"And when he builds up his tolerance and he's ready to take more? If he's not careful he can kill you Elena." Elena interrupted me, outrage clearly written all over her. "He is careful; Stefan would never hurt me." I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. "I'm sorry; it's not my place to say that. I'm just concerned, but I do trust your judgement. If you think that this is the right thing to do, then I won't utter another word about it."

Elena got up from her desk and sat next to me on the bed. "I appreciate that." She smiled up at me, and I returned the gesture. "Now that that is over with, why don't you come to the mall with Bonnie, Caroline, and me tomorrow? It'll be fun; take your mind away from obnoxious brothers and thirsty vampires." I laughed. "I guess I could use some down time."

"Great," Elena exclaimed. "We're leaving at eleven tomorrow. Caroline will pick something cute out for you." I just continued to smile, not wanting to break it to her that I didn't have any money to pay for clothes. I was just going along for the company.

We talked through the rest of the night until about eleven thirty, when we both decided to turn in. I fell asleep on the floor next to Elena's bed, just a little bit happier than the night before.

.