They were sitting on her bed, hands intertwined.

"I think I really like you, Elena." He whispered.

"I think I really like you too, Matty."

Her eyes lifted up to look into those warm blue eyes. God, could he get any cuter? Those eyes made her melt into two, literally.

"Really really?" He asked, tilting his head.

"Really really really." She shyly smiled as he gave his hands a squeeze, wondering how lucky she was to be here with Matt. God. Perfect, adorable Matt.

He beamed down at her before slowly wrapping his arms around her, squeezing her tight with laughter. She, in turn, laughed out loud with him, her hands reaching out to tuck him into her body.

"You make me feel like the luckiest guy in the world, baby." Elena froze. That wasn't Matt's voice. It was...his. She slowly unwrapped herself from the body in front of her and with a huge grin plastered on his face, there sat a grinning Damon.

She let out a scream.

It's surprising to find that when you scream in a dream, it happens in reality. It's like a mirror effect. What happens in the dream...is reality. Is...was. It all managed to actually happen.

And...it happened.

As Elena laid in bed, wondering where she was, a nurse stood over her with worry.

"You screamed. Was it a nightmare?" Elena nodded, not knowing what else to do. "Well, you're okay. You're safe." The woman took a pause. "But no more parties. Okay, sweetie?" Elena nodded again.

"Will she be alright?" Her father blended into her vision and instinctively, she couldn't help but look around for one more person - more specifically, her mom. But as fate would have it, Miranda was nowhere near her father, nowhere near this Earth or any other planet. The only place she could be in was heaven, if there really is a God. Hopefully there was. Her mother deserved to go to heaven. She was among the few Elena could point to and say she belonged there. Her mother was a believer in Christ. She'd always tried to get Elena to go to church, but Elena on the other hand never felt the need to. She still doesn't.

"She seems to be under more stress than usual, Mr. Gilbert-" The nurse turned to glance at her patient before taking Elena's dad farther away so she couldn't hear. Elena sighed. This was the reason why she couldn't fall back into life and whatnot. It just doesn't happen. No matter what she did, he'd be there in the back of her head and she would lose her grip on everything, even the little things she had achieved since her rescue.

She looked at the clock, 8:00 AM. How she got here, she had no clue. Her dad probably came in and noticed her knocked out. This was the tenth time it happened. The first time had been so severe that Elena had had to go to the emergency room. She had lost so much oxygen that she couldn't breathe anymore.

Her eyes remained open as she willed herself to stay awake. Thoughts of last night flashed past her, but they all blurred into one picture. And that picture, to Elena's horror, was Stefan. Her head ached as she willed herself to remember more, but it wore her out and sighing in defeat, she relaxed into a better position. She looked around for something to do and found her phone next to the bed. The newest notification was from Caroline(20), all asking where Elena had been the night before.

Even though she'd grown used to it, Elena was still afraid to fall asleep. It would only result into more and more nightmares. But now that she didn't have school, maybe things would get better. Hopefully. For the summer, Elena had planned to sleep during the day and stay awake at night. Days when she followed that schedule, the nightmares were less severe, but still horrifying.

"Elena?" Her dad appeared behind the curtains, wearing a tired smile.

"Let's go home, sweetie."

She winced at the nickname but nodded while she raised herself up from the bed. Even though a part of her despised him so much, seeing him so worn down worried her. Maybe it was because he was all that Jeremy had. All that she had. With Aunt Jenna, of course. Oh god, her head hurt. Elena shook her thoughts away, the more she used her brain the more pain her head endured. She had to stop thinking so much.

Mr. Gilbert watched his daughter as they walked out of the hospital and into his car. As they both put on their seatbelts, Grayson looked at his daughter carefully, wondering if he should say what he was going to say next. He knew it was too hopeful of him, but as her father - he had to do it. "Elena, I think we should go back to your therapist. Dr. Reynolds is insisting this time." He said, all in one get go. His hands were starting to moist. "I-I want to do something for you as your father-"

"You've done enough, Dad. Your party idea ended up horrible, remember?" Elena looked up at her dad without remorse. She didn't want to rub in the mistakes her dad's made, but she wasn't going back to those therapeutic sessions either. She didn't want to tell anyone what Damon did to her. It was still vivid in her mind. All the torture, all the pain, all the memories. Sure, people in Mystic Falls talked - well, gossiped - but they would never know the truth. Her own father didn't.

He stared hard at Elena before letting out a breath. "You think then the lake house will help you?"

Elena expected this. And she slowly turned to meet her father's eyes. "It's better than strolling around town as the certified rape victim."

His face contorted into pain and Elena could see him process things out.

"Alright. Okay." He inserted the key and turned the engine on.

"I...never wanted this to happen, Elena." It was so soft that she had barely heard him.

"Neither did I."

The car ride was silent and heavy, but Elena didn't mind. She used to hate it. Silence and fighting were the two most unbearable things for her, but they were better than all the things Damon did with her. They became bearable.

As the car pulled up in the driveway, Elena could hear a wolf howl in the distance - mourning for a loved one or maybe a companion. She frowned.

"Elena." She had been ready to open the door, but turned around.

He looked anxious to say something, but instead smiled a tight smile before saying, "I love you, kiddo. Call me if you need anything."

Elena nodded and got out of the car. The morning fog enveloped around her body as she walked towards the front door of the house. The door was unlocked and she stepped inside, locking it as soon as she was in. She let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding.

And suddenly, she smelled something glorious. Sausages. And not only that, sausages and eggs and...waffles. Her stomach growled, awakening her hunger for the day. "Jenna? You here?" There was no one else who could be here making these kinds of food so with that, Elena sauntered over to the kitchen and instead of finding Jenna -

"Morning." He swung his leg over the other, all the while leaning onto the counter.

Somehow, she wasn't surprised at all.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, well yelled, glancing at the food before actually taking a good look at him. It seemed as if he'd just gotten out of the shower. He wore different clothes from yesterday, a checkered flannel with some dark jeans and boots, and she swore - there was some sort of wood smell coming off from him.

"Making you breakfast, of course." Stefan smiled and hopped off the chair and motioned towards the three plates at the table. "One for me and two for you. I expected you'd be hungry after all the drinks you had yesterday. Orange juice or milk?"

"Neither. I want you out." She pointed at him then towards the entrance. In response, Stefan sighed and took out both the juice and milk, setting it on the table.

"I know what you're trying to do. Get rid of me so you could steal my plate too. I can always make more, Elena." He lightly laughed, running a hand through his soft hair. Elena frowned.

"No. You're not supposed to be here. This is my house."

Stefan glanced at the food before pursing his lips. "What do you say we eat then talk? Or yell on your part. I'm actually starving so I'm just gonna..." He settled down on a chair, took one look at Elena, and dug into his food. An image of her mother sitting in the exact chair, eating, flashed in front of her eyes and she furrowed her eyebrows.

Elena didn't know whether it was the sickness from last night that got her to resign, but nonetheless she did.

"Fine. But can you sit somewhere else? Like over there." She motioned over to the living room, still in her position, arms crossed.

"I took a look at the furniture in that room earlier. I'd be awfully sorry to spill anything in there. After all, I'm the one to thank for all the cleaning." Stefan gave her smirk and took a bite out of his sausage. "You should eat too. C'mon, Elena. Just sit." He waved at the chair in front of him, pouring some syrup over his waffles.

Why wasn't she kicking him out already? She could totally take him. After all, she didn't train herself for no reason. He was definitely right about 6'0, only a few inches above her. But before she could even think twice to go try and beat him up, she realized: he was her bodyguard. The memory of her dad introducing Stefan came to her immediately and Elena grimaced. She would have to get rid of him some other way.

She sat in the chair, farthest away from Stefan and jabbed at her sausage. The only thing she wanted to do was eat the sausage in whole and chow down the waffles, but that would mean his gain. And she wasn't about to give anything away.

"So, what are your plans for the summer?" Stefan ventured to ask, already finished with half his plate.

Elena shrugged, silent. She took a bite into one of her sausages and moaned inwardly. This was better than any kind of heaven. The eggs were lightly salted and suddenly, she started eating more and more.

Stefan couldn't help but smile at Elena's sudden enthusiasm for his food. For him, it'd been an equally as rough night and morning. After the party was over, which was around 2 AM, he had had to kick everyone out of the house - including all the drunk boys and girls and not to mention, a few naked and drunk couples - including that notorious playboy Tyler Lockwood and who was it? Caroline Forbes, someone had said. He had spent the whole night laundering most of the blankets and vacuuming the floors around the house. And after taking a ten minute shower, he decided to make breakfast for Elena. It'd been a long night indeed. But it was worth it. The house seemed special to his client and something in him wanted to preserve that for Elena. It was the least he could do.

There was a long silence after Elena had finished her two plates.

"I-"

"Just-" They spoke in unison.

Stefan and Elena looked at each other wide-eyed before Stefan broke a smile.

"You can just leave the plates here on the table. I don't mind being your housekeeper for a few days." He raised his eyebrows, crossing his arms as he relaxed on his chair.

Elena ignored him, a tight line on her face. So he knew he would be forced to leave in a couple of days. Huh. Good. She silently stacked her plates and dumped them into the dishwasher then pressed some buttons, which started up the machine. After that, she turned to face Stefan with her arms instinctively crossed.

"Let's just draw the line here and now, Stefan."

"You're not to be within the range of 10 feet from me. I don't appreciate random strangers in my own house, but since the situation allows it - I will too, strictly. You can take the guest room downstairs, preferably the farthest away from my room, thanks." She paused. "Oh, and you won't have any need to guard my room at nights. I'll be fine." She tried to think, what else could she put out? "Ah. And another thing, last time I checked, bodyguards aren't allowed to speak so comfortably with their clients. Isn't that right?"

Elena lifted one eyebrow, watching him carefully. She noticed that he was actually considering all her rules. He had his concentration face on, forehead creased and eyebrows furrowed. It made her smile inwardly, she was about to win in triumph. This was too easy.

"Elena - is it okay to call you that right now? I will, of course, oblige to your rules. However, I need you to understand when in emergencies and cases of danger, I'm going to have to break your ten feet rule." He looked genuinely apologetic and she saw a half smile as he continued to his next part. "I'm also paid to go through night shifts so I'm afraid I will have to stand by your door every night. Though, I'll try not to break the 10 feet rule. And for the name thing - I'd be glad to call you Ms. Gilbert but that totally ruins the whole 'friends' thing, don't you think?" He looked up to Elena and raised his eyebrows.

Stefan was serious about the friendship with Elena Gilbert. If and when they were in trouble, he would need full cooperation from Elena. That would never come without trust.

He noticed her start to nod after some time. He felt a wave of relief and also a feeling of surprise. He hadn't expected her to give in so easily. "Alright, fine." He noticed a small smile replacing that darn frown of hers.

"You won't be staying here for long anyway." At that, Stefan groaned inwardly. God, she was a handful. Though, he was glad she hadn't gone back down without a little attitude. He smiled and nodded. Lucky for her, he loved a little bit of trouble here and there.

"I'll take that as a challenge, Elena Gilbert." He rose to his feet and smirked. She raised her eyebrows and nodded slowly but surely.

This was going to be an interesting summer.

AN: I would like to apologize to all my readers for the huuuuge hiatus, wow. I didn't mean to go away for so long, it just so happened to be that way! Also kinda feeling emotional after hearing about Nina Dobrev's departure from TVD. Gosh. The only thing I have to say to my fellow faithful Stelena lovers out there: Elena loves Stefan. Hold on to that. Never let that go. xx

I know this chapter was a little too short, but bear with me as I'm trying to update as much as I can! Some reviews would be generous as well. Love you all!