Walking into her old room a month after waking up from her coma felt like something out of a dream of a dream. Nothing prepared her for this, for seeing her life starting over again, seeing the remnants of who she used to be.

There was no evidence if all the horrors she endured before were real and she was starting to wonder if any of it was more than a bizarrely vivid dream.

As she moved slowly around her room, she ran her fingers over pictures she'd lost in the fire, items she never thought she'd see again.

"Elena?" Jenna stood in the doorway, watching her with concern in her eyes. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine." She blinked back tears.

"The doctors said you'll need to take it easy still for a few weeks even though you're no longer in physical therapy, so is there anything you'd like to do or read?"

"Jonathan Gilbert's old journals. Do we have any here?" She had to know, was it all nothing more than a dream? If there proof something more was going on, Jonathan might have written something about it. She had to know, was any of her dream real?

"You wanna read through all of that?"

"I need the distraction." Elena collapsed onto her bed and pulled a light blanket over her legs.

"I'll bring up whatever we've got here. I'm pretty sure your mom's got some in the closet downstairs."

"Thanks."

Jenna nodded once, then left the room. There was shuffling from the closet under the stairs and then a few moments later, she reappeared with a box full of old books.

"Here you go. Maybe you'll actually be able to make use of these." Jenna deposited the load at Elena's feet with a wry smile. "Your grandfather had a very vivid imagination."

"Yeah. I just want to try to get a look into the minds of the people who came before." The excuse sounded weak to her own ears, but she didn't back down.

Jenna gave her an odd look, but said nothing as she left her alone once more.

Elena picked up one of the journals and opened it up.

Just what would she find in here? Would what she thought she knew they contained be proven true? Or would she find evidence that nothing happened and she was just a human girl with an entirely human family?

Page after page of her grandfather's journals told her that she might need to try to see if she could get more information out of Jenna, just to see if more was matching up to what she'd learned in the dream life she'd lived while in her coma. Because, contrary to what she'd started to believe, the journals matched up with everything she'd experienced.

"Do you want anything?" Jenna asked as she knocked Elena's door. Since it hadn't latched, the door opened after the first tap.

"I'm good." Elena barely glanced up, so focused was she on her reading. Everything she'd tried to forget after becoming human once more was suddenly very important and she needed to remember it all over again.

"Are you sure? You've been reading for hours."

"Aunt Jenna?" she chewed on her lower lip. This would be the confirmation she needed to know if more of her other life was real. "Was I adopted?"

"Yes." Jenna froze, staring at her. "How did you know about that?"

"I read something somewhere and it got me curious." Her heart skipped a beat as chills chased themselves down her spine. The information she knew about herself from before was being proven true this time around too.

"We were always planning on telling you, but it never seemed like the right time," Jenna admitted. "I'm so sorry. We didn't mean to lie to you."

"I'm not upset, I promise. I just wanted to know if it's true." How could she be upset when she already knew it and she had so much else to deal with?

"How can you not be upset? We kept this from you."

"I figured it out a few years ago, so I've had time to process everything."

"How'd you figure it out?"

"My mother, was her name Isobel?"

"Elena, just how much do you know?" Jenna blinked hard a few times, as if trying to wrap her head around the fact that Elena knew this about herself.

"Enough, I think." She fought for control of her breathing. If Jenna realized there was anything up, please let her think that it was because she'd just had it confirmed that she was adopted.

"Are you okay?" Jenna's expression turned truly concerned.

"I'm fine."

So, if that was true, was it possible that vampires were actually real and the events of what seemed to be nothing but a dream really did happen?

If they were real, Katherine would come into town and mess everything up, then Klaus would follow and kill Jenna, and indirectly, John and Isobel, and Jeremy would suffer so much. Who could she trust to make sure the people she loved didn't go through that?

Stefan and Damon would only do things exactly as they'd done the first time around. So contacting them about what she knew was out of the question. As much as she cared about them, she couldn't let them get the people she loved killed, again.

Who could she call though?

Elijah. He was the only one strong enough to stand a chance against Klaus, so long as his brother didn't have a dagger handy and if she told him everything she knew, he could stay one step ahead and remain conscious.

As she thought things over more carefully, she knew she had to do it. She had to find a way of contacting Elijah. As long as she went along with his plans, he could keep the people she loved safe. But how? How did one contact the Originals?

Memories of her first time around came to her and Slater's voice echoed weakly through her mind.

"Craigslist."

Taking a deep breath, Elena pulled out her laptop and signed in. After considering for a moment, she started typing.

MISSED CONNECTION in Virginia

You're the second oldest son of the Original residents of my home town and you have a thing for suits. Your younger half brother thinks your older brother is a bore and that he's never outside the box. You are also quite a bit older than you look, and I look just like the first woman you ever loved. Please meet me in the place where your mother died this Saturday at sundown.

Elena

Before she could talk herself out of her decision, she posted her message.

"Please, let this work."

She closed the laptop and pulled on a pair of shoes. She was too nervous to sit around. Grabbing a light jacket, she headed down the stairs and out the door. Even though the August weather was warm, Elena still chilled more easily than she had before, proof that she still wasn't 100% recovered even if she felt more recovered.

"Don't go too far!" Jenna called after her. "You're still weak!"

"I'm just going around the block," Elena replied.

As Elena walked slowly down the street, she wondered if she was doing the right thing. A part of her still wondered if she was crazy and things she took as signs that her dream was real were just coincidence.

But she hadn't known about Isobel prior to the accident, and the fact that she ended up on the riverbank in a way that no one could explain was more than enough proof to keep her from going back and deleting her post.

Contacting Elijah was a dangerous move, but as she mulled things over, she realized that the only reason his plans didn't work the first time around was because the Salvatores got involved. If she could keep them out of things until Klaus's curse was broken and he knew he needed her human blood to create his hybrids, things would be okay.

She missed Damon, but couldn't dare risk trying to find him too. He'd call her crazy for what she was attempting and try to mess things up for her because he disagreed with her plans. Besides, at this point, he was still an emotionless asshole, and likely to make things even worse than they were the first time through. He'd probably use what she knew and not think about just what his actions could change. He was far too impulsive, especially right now, to trust with her family's lives.

At least this time around, she wouldn't get involved with Stefan since she knew how it would end. This time, she wouldn't be like Katherine and come between brothers. Her actions drove a wedge between them that never really went away, no matter how hard they tried to pretend otherwise. And, if her plans worked, Stefan wouldn't have a reason to die anyway, so that would be more awkward, trying to explain to people that she'd gone from one brother to the next.

As she thought about everything, another thought crossed her mind.

How would it be, seeing Elijah again? The last time she'd seen him she'd been an emotionless vampire, insulting him. But now, the slate was wiped completely clean. She was a human teenager once more and he was back to wanting revenge against his brother. Even if she told him about their history that only she remembered, she wouldn't act that way towards him again. The man who was willing to risk everything so she could have a normal life after his mother turned Ric into a crazed vampire hunter deserved better from her.

A few minutes longer, and Elena found herself feeling exhausted, and she was glad she hadn't gone very far. Her endurance had plummeted during her coma, so she couldn't run the way she used to before. Therapy had given some of it back, but she was still less than where she was used to being.

Elena tucked her hands deeper into her jacket and sighed.

If only she could just will everything to happen as she wanted them to. But she couldn't. She might know certain things, but people would never fall directly in line with what she knew to be so. People were unpredictable, even when they knew the future and what she knew might not be what happened this time.

Doubts started creeping in, mixing in with everything else swirling through her brain. What if what she did ended up making everything worse? What would change? She wasn't a teenager this time. She was a grown woman who'd lived her entire life, so her own actions might be different and change even more.

But, if she acted in a way that kept everyone's best interest at heart instead of what she wanted, then things would turn out alright in the end. She had to believe that, even if things changed. As long as she kept her focus on doing what was best for everyone, instead of what she wanted, it would all be okay.

With her resolve firmly intact, Elena climbed the steps to her home and entered the house.

As she closed the door, she heard Jenna muttering from the kitchen where she was working over her psychology degree work and from upstairs she could hear Jeremy moving around, opening a door and closing it. All that was left of her family, or almost all of it. These were the people she sacrificed so much for the first time and still lost so much.

This was her chance to do right by them and she would keep them safe. She knew what she did wrong last time, what actions caused their pain and she would make sure they were safe.

Elena climbed the stairs slowly and climbed into bed.

She wouldn't fail. Not her family, not the others she loved, not Elijah or his family. She owed him that if he came through for her. Hell, she owed him that for what he'd done for her the first time around. And this time, she had a chance of warning him of the possible outcome of his decisions and together, they would make their futures better than they were before.

With a weight she didn't realize she'd carried until now lifted, Elena drifted into a more peaceful sleep than she'd experienced since before her parents' died in her first life.