Alexandria Gilbert

by JChavz95

Vampires, witches, werewolves and doppelgangers, oh my! All Alexa Gilbert wanted was a quiet life, a free drink and to party the night away with her friends without being nagged by her twin sister Elena, but the arrival of the mysterious Salvatore brothers may just ruin those plans... Starts Season 1, Episode 1, Slowburn Damon/OC, Now on Season 4!

33. By the Light of the Moon

Disclaimer: I only own my OCs

A/N: This chapter has always been a favourite of mine. It allows me to explore more of Alexa's relationships while also dealing with the sacrifice drama. It also turned out a lot longer than I expected it to! Probably because I just couldn't resist some Dalexa moments ;)

XXX

Sighing in contentment, I rested my cheek against the cool pillow and just allowed myself to enjoy my last few minutes in bed before I had to leave. Elena was sulking in her bedroom and Jeremy was out somewhere with friends, so there was no chance of me being disturbed until it was absolutely necessary. Or at least, that's what I thought.

Just as I was slowly dozing off, which was not the wisest thing considering I was going out in a few minutes, a gentle hand landed on my back. While my heart gave a small jump in surprise, I didn't show any outwardly signs of surprise. Because I knew who it was. There was only one person who it could have been.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked over to where Damon was lying down on the other side of my bed.

"Hey," I whispered, a small smile forming on my lips.

"Hey yourself," my vampire smiled back as his hand slowly stroked up my back until it was gently resting between my shoulders. His thumb played with any nearby strands of hair while his fingers carefully began to massage my tense right shoulder. And tense was a bit of an understatement. This whole 'I don't want to be saved' thing that Elena had going on, it was making me so so stressed. And I just didn't know how to cope with it.

Sighing, I shifted so that my head was resting against my Damon's strong, firm chest instead of the pillow.

"Why are you so sad, Alexa?" Damon asked as his other hand drifted down to rest on my hips, his fingers soothingly stroking the patch of bare skin where my top and shorts didn't quite meet. The feel of his fingers on my skin had the ever familiar tingles shooting throughout my body. I welcomed them because I just loved the feel of his skin against mine, even if it was just something simple like this.

"I'm not sad," I muttered, fiddling with the buttons on Damon's shirt. I refused to look up because I knew that he would see the lie on my face. Because I was sad. I was very very sad.

"Now I know that that's not true," I could just sense the vampire rolling his eyes and my lips twitched up into a small smile.

"Yeah, it is," I argued, partly because I was just trying to be difficult and partly because I needed someone to believe that I wasn't sad. That I was just fine.

Because I just couldn't let Damon see how much this was affecting me. Even though I knew that he wouldn't care, that, considering the situation that I was in, he would just offer me more support, I just couldn't. I needed to be strong. If I let myself go, even for a second, I wouldn't be able to get myself back together.

"Ok then, then tell me this; what happened to Happy Alexa?"

I sighed, that was a very good question Damon. And I suppose that there was really only one answer to that question.

"Happy Alexa went on vacation when her idiot twin sister decided to use her so that she could give herself up to Klaus."

"And are you still giving her the silent treatment for it?"

Silent treatment? Me? Give my darling twin sister the silent treatment? Would I ever do something like that?

"… Noooo..."

"Really?" I glanced up to see Damon rolling his eyes.

"Really. It's not my fault if our paths haven't crossed since we got home from Richmond."

"Alexa, you live in the same house."

"Your point?"

I couldn't help but giggle as Damon dug his fingers into my ticklish side.

I loved it, just being here with my vampire. He never failed to make me smile. Even when I was feeling so utterly miserable and betrayed, he still managed to make me smile and laugh. My only wish was that I could just spend forever in his arms. Because it made the sad, empty feeling go away. Even now, I still felt as though something as missing.

"Hmmm, if I wish that I didn't have to move," I groaned, snuggling in closer to my Damon, tucking my leg between his.

"Then don't."

"Ugh, I've gotta, I promised Ty that I would go and buy the stuff for tomorrow with him. Not that I don't wanna help, because I do, he needs all the help that he can get and as his honorary sister, it's my duty to help him through such a difficult time, it's just that… I have to move."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're lazy?"

Me? Lazy? Never.

"I prefer to think of it as 'conserving my energy'."

"Of course you do, Alexa. Whatever you say."

"Oh shut up."

I would have elbowed him, but that would require moving away from him and I just weren't willing to do that. Guess it'll be victory through words.

Damon laughed, and it was such a lovely laugh, "Does that mean that I win?"

Oh no no no, we can't have that. You're not allowed to win. Especially when I'm your opponent, Dameydoodle. Being bothered to move or not, I could not just let that slide.

I turned around and moved in close, so that my face was only inches away from my vampire's. I could feel his breath on my face and if I leaned a little bit closer then I might just be able to kiss him…

No, Alexa, focus, damnit. Your ego is at stake here.

"No," I whispered, before smirking mischievously and pushing myself away before I could allow the temptation to take hold and just kiss him. And if I just happened to get a good feel of his deliciously firm chest while I pushed myself away, well, that was just incredibly good luck.

But before I could completely get off the bed, a strong hand gripped mine and pulled me back. I landed against Damon's firm chest and his other arm wrapped around my waist. Laughing, I entwined my fingers with his and relaxed.

"If you let me stay like this then you can win," I smiled, snuggling back against my Damon and allowing my eyes to slowly flutter closed.

"Well, if that's what it takes to win," Damon smirked into my hair.

"Shhhhhh," I lifted our hands so that I could place a finger over his lovely lips. "Alexa trying to sleep."

I allowed Damon to move our hands back down until they were resting against my tummy. His thumb started stroking my side as I tucked my feet up against his legs.

Right now… it would be so so so easy to just tell him how I felt. To just open my mouth and say 'I love you Damon'. To tell him how I feel. Just open my mouth…

"Damon, I-"

"Alexa! Tyler's here for you!" Aunt Jenna shouted up the stairs, effectively, thoroughly and completely interrupting the moment.

Damnit Aunt Jenna, I was so close.

"You what?" Damon asked when I failed to finish my confession of love.

Crap, think fast Lexa, think fast.

"I need to leave, apparently."

Meh, it'll have to do. But it wasn't what I wanted to tell him.

Insert sad face.

"Was that really what you were going to say to me?"

I tilted my head back so that I could look my vampire in the face, only to see him looking down at me, eyebrow raised.

"Well, not really, but that's not important," I deflected as I reluctantly let go of Damon's hands and slowly moved away. "We can talk about that another time."

Moments after rolling off of the bed, I started to miss Damon's warmth. And his smell. And, well, him. Which was ridiculous since he was still laying on my bed.

"Hey," I smacked his foot and pouted at him when he looked over at me. "Off the bed. If I can't lay down in my bed, then you're not allowed to lay down in my bed."

"Alexa?" Aunt J shouted again, a bit louder this time. Ah damn, I didn't answer her previous summons. I pranced over to the door and opened it slightly.

"Be down in a minute!" I shouted back before muttering, "Just gotta kick an idiot vampy offa my bed."

"Excuse me, who are you calling an idiot?" the previously mentioned idiot vampire whispered in my ear, his breath tickling the back of my neck.

But of course, I was not expecting him to be right behind me nor did I expect him to whisper in my ear. The dick. So I leapt several inches up in the air in shock and banged my head on the doorframe.

"Owwwww!" I whined, rubbing the side of my head and pouting at the vampire. Who, to be fair, did look suitably contrite.

"Aww, did you hurt your head?" Damon asked, part mockingly, part serious.

"Yes," I nodded, making my pout even bigger.

"You'll be fine," Damon sighed, shaking his head, even as he gave the sore spot a quick pat. "See you later, Alexa."

"Damn right you will," I nodded, smiling as the hand rubbing my head found its way to his forearm.

My vampire stared down at me for a moment, almost hesitating, before leaning down and pressing a soft kiss to my forehead. I gazed up at him, wide eyed, as he gave me a gentle smile and sped out of the room.

I couldn't resist the small smile the tugged at the edge of my lips.

No, I didn't have time for this. Tyler was waiting for me. Grabbing my overnight bag, I skipped down the stairs, almost falling down them twice.

"Hello dear ones," I beamed as I reached the front door and looked at my darling Aunt and older brother.

"You took your time," Ty-Ty raised an eyebrow as he held out his hand.

"I was saying goodbye to my bed," I shrugged, accepting the hand and allowing him to pull me over.

Ty sighed and shook his head, "Of course you were. I really should have been expecting that."

"Yeah, you really should have," I smirked before smiling at my aunt. "See you tomorrow, Auntie Jenna."

"Have fun, Alexa," Aunt Jenna said as she gave me a quick hug. "Don't be too much trouble."

"Aunt Jenna," I gasped in mock offence, placing a hand over my heart. "I am never any trouble."

"Yeah right," Ty mumbled, rolling his eyes, as he pulled me out of the house and over to his car.

"Bye bye family," I waved at the house before turning my attention to my dearest Tyler. "I don't know what you mean by that."

"Of course you don't," the only warning that I got was a quick smirk that the Lockwood sent my way before I was jabbed in my ticklish spot.

I couldn't help but giggle. However, that didn't stop me from getting my revenge in the form of tripping Ty up.

"I win," I laughed before climbing into his car. Haha, try and retaliate now Tyleranthia.

"You seem happy," Tyler remarked as he climbed into the car. "Even with your declaration that you were gonna be even happier, you just seem… extremely happy."

I thought back on what my mood had been like recently and even I noticed a remarkable difference. But there was a reason for that difference.

"Someone cheered me up," I smiled gently as I thought back on my little encounter with Damon earlier. He had really helped to improve my mood. I remember the early days when an encounter with him would just put me in a grumpy mood, god, those days seem like such a long time ago, those were the days before we were properly friends. They were just so different. Now, an encounter with my beloved Damon was more likely to have me smiling and laughing and just feeling better.

"Don't you mean 'Damon cheered you up'," Ty, the little shit, smirked at me.

"Oh shut up," I pouted, punching his shoulder.

Meanie.

XXX

Unfortunately, by the time that we had finished our little shopping trip, neither one of us were in a good mood. It wasn't that we had had a fight or even that something bad had happened during our trip. It was just that, what with the full moon getting ever closer, Tyler's worry levels were rapidly increasing. And I couldn't do anything to help. I felt utterly powerless and that made me upset. Tyler had helped me time and time again, but when he needed my help, there was absolutely nothing that I could do. And I hated it.

"Alexa," Mrs Lockwood smiled at me as I walked through the front door. "It's so good to see you. I didn't know that you were coming over tonight."

"Hi Mrs Lockwood," I smiled back, sheepishly rubbing the back of my head. "I didn't really know that I was coming over until this morning. It was a last minute sort of thing."

"Well, it doesn't really matter, I suppose," the Mayor ushered me further into her home. "It's just lovely to have you here again, Alexa."

"Thank you Mrs Lockwood, it's lovely to be here," I was successful in keeping her attention diverted from Tyler, who was busy smuggling in the fruits of our shopping labours. It was a necessary distraction since we both figured that it would not be a good idea for Mrs Lockwood to know that her son was buying chains, especially since he was planning on using them for tying himself up.

No kinky thoughts implied or intended.

"So how have you been, Mrs Lockwood?" I asked as we walked into the living room.

It had been ages since I had had the opportunity to have a proper conversation with her. Which was sad, because I had known Mrs Lockwood my entire life. She used to babysit me when I was younger. Well, I say babysit, most of the time I was just having a sleepover with Ty. But I count that as babysitting.

"I've been better," she answered me, sitting down on one of the chairs. "But I'm doing a lot better than I have been."

"Yeah, I can imagine that it has been difficult for you," I nodded, giving her a small sympathetic smile. I sat down on the sofa, on the end closest to Mrs Lockwood, making sure to leave plenty of room for Tyler to sit down next to me.

"Thank you dear," Mrs Lockwood smiled, giving my hand a quick pat. "Now how have you been? I've heard that you haven't been in the best of moods recently."

I shrugged self-consciously, "Me and Ellie have been arguing, but other than that, I've been just fine."

Yeah, just fine. If you count feeling the urge to drown my sorrows in whiskey just fine.

"Why have you been arguing?" Mrs Lockwood asked, concern written on her face. Well, because she is determined to sacrifice her life for some stupid ritual to save my life and the lives of the people that we care about. She was determined to die and leave me.

"It's nothing important, we've just been disagreeing on something that she did," I replied, trying not to lie but also knowing that I couldn't tell the truth.

"Well, I hope that you resolve your issue."

"So do I," I smiled with a sigh. God do I hope that we resolve it. And soon. I hated fighting with my twin. Hated, hated, hated it.

"Now, I hear that there may be some romance in your future," there was a knowing smile on Mrs Lockwood's face. One that worried me slightly. As far as I knew, I had not told her about my feelings for Damon. So unless, she meant someone else…

"You do?" I cough, trying to playing it cool and failing miserably. Damnit Lexa, that's practically saying that you have something to hide.

"Tyler tells me that you have strong feelings for Damon Salvatore."

"Did he now?" I glared at Tyler as he walked through the doorway into the living room.

Ty stopped short, looking slightly worried.

"Whatever I did, I'm sorry," he cried out, holding his hands up in the surrender position. I could only hold my glare for a couple more seconds before I couldn't help but laugh at the scared look on his face.

"It's alright, Ty-Ty," I smiled, patting the seat next to me. "Take a seat, I promise that I won't bite."

Ty rolled his eyes, instantly getting my little tongue in cheek joke.

"You're unbelievable, Alex," he muttered, sitting down and wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

"Aww, but you love me anyway," I rested my head on his shoulder and beamed up at him.

"Yeah, no, I don't," he smirked down at me.

"Ass," I rolled my eyes before an evil idea popped into my head. "I'll tell your mom on you."

"You wouldn't," Ty mock-gasped, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth.

"Wanna bet?" I raised an eyebrow before looking over at Mrs Lockwood who was smiling at our interaction.

"Alright, that's enough out of you," Tyler hastily covered my mouth as I got ready to 'tell on him'.

"Have you eaten yet, mom?" Tyler asked, looking over at his mother as I rolled my eyes and tugged on the hand covering my mouth.

"No, not yet," she replied, shaking her head with a smile. "I was waiting for you to get back. Have you?"

"Uh no, we haven't eaten yet, have we Alex?" Tyler took his hand away from my mouth and let me reply.

"Nah, not yet," I said before offering, "If you want, I could always cook for you?"

The Lockwood's quickly exchanged glances before Mommy Lockwood smiled at me, "That would be lovely, Alexa."

"Alrighty then," I beamed, pushing Tyler's arm off of me and standing up.

"But I'm afraid that I have no idea as to what we have in," Mrs L warned as she got herself comfortable.

"That's fine," I waved away her concerns. "I'm sure that I'll be able to make something. I am very good at experimenting."

"And don't I know it," Ty muttered as he, too, stood up.

I rolled my eyes at him but didn't say anything. He really did have a very good knowledge of my experiments since he was always the one who tested it for me. And while I might be very good at creating some very delicious combinations, when I got it wrong, it got it very wrong.

And Tyler never let me forget it.

But anyways, today I was gonna create something yummy to eat. I definitely was. It was Ty's last meal before the day of the Full Moon and I was gonna make it a damn good one. It was the least I could do since I couldn't do anything to properly help him through the transformation tomorrow.

Spinning around, I grabbed Tyler's hand and grinned, "Let's go cook."

Ignoring Ty's mumbled, "Oh god", I pulled him out of the room and into the kitchen.

"Now, what have we got?" I asked myself quietly as I let go of my bro's hand and bounded over to the cupboards. Ok, so, there was food. Which was a good start for not even I could create a meal for three people from no food. Nay, not even I was that good.

"Hmm," I stood in the kitchen and tapped my lip, thinking of recipes. There were a few meat dishes that I could cook for us all, but I didn't really have the patience to do that tonight. Nor did I have the right accompanying ingredients. Because you can't put any old thing with meat. It had to suit it.

"Any ideas yet, Alex?" Ty asked from where he was leaning against the counter.

"Give me a moooooooment," I stared at the oven, waiting for an idea to hit me. If I didn't do a meat dish, I could always do...

"What about stuffed peppers?" I asked, turning around to look at my Ty.

"Sounds good," Tyler smiled as he pushed away from the counter and walked over to me. "What do you need?"

I did my best to remember the recipe that I had found online. It was one that I was fond of and had done a few times at home.

"Peppers," I answered, resisting the urge to smirk and laugh.

"Well duh," my big bro rolled his eyes.

I giggled and he jabbed me in the side.

"Nooo, go way," I squealed, dancing away from his tickle fingers. "Alex need to think."

"Well think then, shortstuff."

"Meanie," I pouted, sticking out my tongue.

"Whatever, Alex," Ty laughed, rolling his eyes. I had to resist the urge to cheer for myself; it was good that he was laughing, especially since he was so worried about tomorrow night. And I was just so pleased with myself that I had made him happy, even if it was just for a moment.

"Alright," I cleared my throat, finally remembering the recipe. "We need: peppers, shut up Ty, mozzarella, tomatoes, doesn't matter what kind, uh, garlic, any vampire comments and I will smack you, basil leaves, olive oil and anchovies. Have we got all of those here?"

I peered over at Ty who had been very helpful and had collected the ingredients as I listed them.

"No need to worry, Alex, we've got it all."

"Good," I sighed, wiping my forehead in mock-exhaustion. "At least stage one went alright."

"One less thing to worry about."

"Exactlemon," I allowed myself one last silly Alexa moment before I got into my serious cooking mode. "Righto, let's get this done."

"What do you need me to do, Alex?" Ty asked, rolling up his sleeves. "Put me to work."

"Can you turn on the oven and pass me those peppers?"

While I carefully prepared and cooked all of the food, Tyler made himself very useful by passing me any ingredients that I needed or by putting things in the oven for me. It was nice having a cooking buddy. Although I always enjoyed cooking, I preferred it when I had someone to cook with, even if they just stood at the side and talked to me.

Jazz used to be my cooking buddy. She had absolutely no cooking talent whatsoever, as was proved when she tried to cook cheese sauce without even turning the hob on first, but she was very good at keeping me company. I still miss her when I cook. And I think that I always will, but I suppose that I've gotta make new memories. Besides, Tyler was a very good replacement, especially since he could follow basic cooking instructions.

It didn't take long for dinner to be cooked and we were soon sat around the dining table. While I had been finishing off the peppers, I had walked Tyler through making a stir-fry salad, which, considering the fact that he wasn't the most experienced cook, was very delicious.

"Mmmm, Alexa this is delicious," Mrs Lockwood said as we ate.

I bit my lip and had to resist the urge to blush, "Thank you Mrs Lockwood, cooking is actually one of the things that I am good at."

"Maybe I should ask you around to cook more often."

I smiled and glanced over at Ty, "As long as I have my Ty to help me out, then I have absolutely no problem doing that."

Tyler groaned, "Trust me mom, you don't want that. While this may be good, just wait until she starts experimenting."

I pouted and kicked him under the table.

"Ignore him, Mrs Lockwood," I said over his groan. "He's just being childish."

"Says the girl who just kicked me," Tyler rolled his eyes and gave me an unimpressed look.

"Hush, dear, and eat your food," I smiled at him. It was my 'don't push me' smile and my friends had quickly learned that that smile meant bad things.

Ty grumbled but did as suggested.

Good Ty-Ty.

Despite Mrs Lockwood's protests, I volunteered Tyler and I for the cleaning up once we had all finished eating. While I normally did my best to get out of cleaning up after food time, this time I didn't mind. And, despite his moaning and grumbling, Ty didn't mind either.

I was the one washing up and Tyler was in charge of drying up and putting away. I would have helped with the putting away, but Ty knew where everything went better than I did. Surprisingly, Ty and I finished our little cleaning duty bone-dry. While I did have the urge to splash him with water, I valiantly resisted, because I knew that he would just retaliate and then things would escalate. As it always did with the two of us.

Once we had finished, Tyler took me into his dad's study where he had hidden the shopping bags from earlier. He had also hidden a gym bag, a laptop and Mason's werewolf journal in there, too.

"Didn't you say that Mason made a recording of his first transformation?" I asked as I pulled out the laptop and turned it on, leaving it on the desk to boot up.

"No, Alexa, you can't watch that," Tyler immediately shook his head. "I can't…"

"Hey," I said softly, stepping forward and cupping his face. "I need to watch it, if I'm gonna be able to help you properly, then I need to know what happens."

"I don't…"

"Shhh," I placed my finger over his lips. "Just let me watch it."

Tyler moved my hand and griped it tight, "There's no saying 'no' to you right now, is there?"

"Nope," I shook my head, giving him a pat on the cheek with my other hand.

Sighing, Ty pulled the data card out of his pocket and reluctantly handed it over.

"For the record," he said, looking sadly serious. "I didn't want you to watch this."

"It'll be fine," I reassured him before walking over to the laptop and plugging the card in.

It wasn't fine.

Watching what Mason went through, what Tyler was going to go through, it was awful. I know that it's a curse, and that means that it was not going to be fun. But I never thought…

I watched in silent horror, biting down on my fist, while Tyler puttered about the room. He transferred the chains that we had brought that afternoon into the gym bag and placed some other essential items in there.

As Mason let out a particularly loud scream, Tyler looked over, only to see me wincing and looking away.

I looked up at him and, damn it all, I could just feel the tears in my eyes.

"Oh Ty," I sighed, my heart clenching at the thought of what he was going to go through.

Ty swallowed hard before striding over and picking up the phone. I watched in confusion as he dialled an obviously well memorised number. But whoever it was that he was calling, they didn't pick up. So Tyler left a message.

"Mason, it's Tyler again."

I closed my eyes, guilt churning in my stomach. Tyler needed his uncle, his werewolf uncle. Mason was the only one who could have helped Tyler through this. But he couldn't. Because he was dead. And I had helped.

God, I felt sick to my stomach.

"Look, your cell's voicemail is full. I need to talk to you. It's a full moon tomorrow and… I found your recording and I'm freaking out over here. So, just call me back, please."

Oh Tyler, I'm so sorry.

XXX

"I've decided that you're an idiot," I declared as I walked into the room the next day and slumped down on my idiot twin sister's bed.

I had been kind enough to let Tyler spend the morning in bed, so instead of demanding that he drive me home, I walked. I had even got up earlier than a normal person should be awake to do so. Why was I being so kind and giving up my lie in, I hear you ask? The answer for that was because it was the full moon that night. After watching what Mason had gone through when he changed into a wolf, I just didn't have the heart to disturb him. And so, being the kind, amazing sister that I was, I let him stay in bed. But I had told him that I would see him later, when he and Caroline went to set up the old Lockwood cellar for tonight. He wasn't too happy with that, but one Alexa glare later, he gratefully accepted my help, even if it was just to stop me from glaring at him. Hopefully, with me and Caroline there, everything should go ok. Well, as ok as it can go considering what was gonna happen.

"Alexa," Elena sighed, sitting up straight on her window seat.

I held up my hand and shushed her, "Hush dearest sister of mine, Alexa has decreed it so, therefore you can't disagree with it."

Elena "hmphed" but didn't otherwise comment on the subject. Which was lucky for her since I had plenty to say on the topic and some of it would pretty much guarantee an argument. And despite my recent attitude, that was not something that I wanted.

Instead, she asked, "So where were you yesterday? And last night?"

Ah damn, did I not tell her? Oh snapdoodles, I didn't. Why didn't I…? Oh yeah, that's right, I was going to do it before I left but then I got distracted by a certain someone. And, well, I just forgot entirely. Plus, the whole silent treatment part kind of didn't help either.

My dear twin must have be rather worried…. Oh well, it's what she gets for being determined to sacrifice herself.

Yes, I'm being petty, so sue me.

"Avoiding you," I mumbled into her pillow. "Oi! Hey!"

I pushed myself up onto one arm, using the other to rub my head. She had thrown a pillow at me! My mean mean twin had thrown a pillow at me! How dare she!

"Answer the question, Alexa."

"Technically there were two questions," I muttered petulantly, narrowing my eyes.

As my twin's hand drifted suspiciously closer to another pillow, I hastily answered, "I was at Tyler's house. Because he doesn't throw pillows at me."

I stuck my tongue out at my sister before slumping down onto my back.

Ellie rolled her eyes, "The pillow didn't even hurt."

I pouted up at my twin as she stood up and made her way over to the bed.

"Yes it did, Ellie, it hurt here," I placed a hand over my heart and did my best to look as pathetic as possible. Which was actually quite an easy thing to do.

"You're unbelievable, Lexa," my twin sighed, shaking her head, but there was a smile tugging at her lips.

"And you're mean," I retorted, shifting over so that she had enough room to sit down.

"Look, I know that you're mad at me," Elena said, looking down at me. "And you have every right to be, but I have to do this, it's for…"

I held up my hand, interrupting her little speech. I made sure to wait until I had her complete attention before speaking, "Ellie I swear to god that if you say that it's for the best, then I will do something that I shall at some point regret," I warned my darling sister, before smiling brightly and tapping her on the shoulder.

God but I hated that speech. It's for the best, blugh. My twin dying would never be for the best. Never ever. Nope. Nuh uh. No way.

"Alexa…"

"Uh! No! Shhhhhhhhh," I placed my finger over her lips. "Alexa no arguing with you."

Greeeeat apparently talking about myself in the third person was going to be a common, recurring thing right now. Meh, could be worse.

"But…" Elena started to protest, a determined look on her face.

"Ah!" I snapped, immediately shushing her. Ok, so, apparently, I'm angry at my idiot twin now. I had moved past betrayal and into anger. Well, wasn't that just wizard. As long as I didn't say something stupid, anger should be alright.

"What's going on in here?"

We looked over to the doorway only to see Bonnie Bennett standing there, looking at us.

"We've just decided that Elena is an idiot," I cheerfully declared as I pushed myself off of the bed and began pacing the room.

"The both of you decided or just you decided?" Bonnie asked me as she took my place on the bed.

"Just Alexa decided," twinnie answered before I could open my mouth. I shot her a quick glare before rolling my eyes.

"It's true though," I added as I wandered into the bathroom.

While Elena and Bonnie had a little conversation, I took the time to examine the bruise on my hip. Now, I'm sure that you are wondering how I got the bruise, so here is story time. It was my own fault really, I was very very tired and I just wasn't looking where I was going. It happened while I was walking back from Tyler's house this morning. I was approaching this little corner and I knew it was there, the amount of times that I had tripped there before was far too numerous to count. But anyways, there I was, walking down the road and since I hadn't yet had my morning coffee, I was extremely tired and out of it. And I got to that corner and the next thing that I knew, I was flying forward, heading for the ground. Fortunately, I managed to stop myself from getting hurt then but when I stood up, I wacked my hip on the corner of a street sign. And wam bam, I got myself a bruise.

But anyways, that's enough about my clutziness and bruise, let's go eavesdrop on the witch and twin.

I peeked around the doorway to see Elena holding the blasted moonstone and looking at Bonnie.

"Now that you've got this back, what are you gonna do with it?" my twin asked the witch.

"Right now, it's what is binding the Sun and the Moon Curse," Bonnie answered, going into witch mode to answer the question. "If I can figure out a way to remove the spell from the stone, the stone becomes useless."

Please figure out a way, Bon-Bon. Please. I need you to.

"And according to Katherine, Klaus becomes vengeful," Ellie retorted, a frustrated look on her face. Yeah, well, I'd rather deal with a vengeful Klaus then a dead twin. And if Klaus did become vengeful, then he may be more likely to make mistakes and hopefully it'll be easier for me to kill him. Because I hadn't forgotten about my deal with Katherine, I just hadn't thought of any way in which I could do what she wanted me to do.

"That's a risk that we're willing to take," I spoke up, moving so that I was leaning against the doorframe.

"And he'll only become vengeful if he finds out," Bon added, backing up my point.

"Bonnie, can't this wait?" my twin sighed, looking all pitiful and sad. "Stefan is stuck in the tomb with Katherine. We've got to get him out."

Poor poor Stefan. I hadn't been allowed to go and visit him. Damon had been adamant in not letting me go there. He said that Stefan had made him promise not to let me or Ellie go and see him while he was stuck. I probably would have gone anyways, but my Damon was very good at catching me when I was sneaking off. It's actually rather weird how well he knew my habits.

"Stefan wants me to focus on this," the witch argued, shaking her head.

Sighing desperately, Elena turned to look at me.

But I, too, shook my head, "Sorry Ellie, but I agree with Stef too. If I have to choose between doing something that could save you and getting Stefan out of a tomb where he is still perfectly healthy and is given blood bottles by Damon, then I choose you anyway day of the week."

Judging from the look on my twin's face, she already knew that.

"Don't listen to him," Elena said, turning her attention to Bonnie. For if either one of us were to be persuaded to do what Ellie wants, it would be her. Because what I said was true, I would put her first, I would always put my twin first. And she knew it. "He thinks that he's protecting me, but he's wrong."

Tough cookies twin, we're with Stefan here.

"I'm taking Stefan's side with this one," Bon said firmly, giving my sister a stern look. "We're not gonna let you get used in some creepy sacrifice ritual."

Damn right we weren't.

Before anyone else could say anything, Jeremy chose that moment to walk into the room.

"What are you guys arguing about?" he asked as I wandered over to him. Slumping against his side, I sighed and closed my eyes. Jeremy wrapped his arm around my shoulder and I took a moment to notice just how tall he was. I swear he grew every time that I saw him. But my baby brother was the perfect height to snuggle up against. So I suppose that his height did have its good aspect.

"We're not arguing about anything," Bonnie replied, sounding all innocent. The witch put the moonstone into her bag before giving Jer a very significant look. Hmmm, wonder what that meant. Alexa be intrigued. Alexa wanna know.

"I need a coffee," Bon said as she left the room, deliberately not looking back at my sister.

"Hey Bon, make me one too?" I asked, putting on my pathetic 'make me coffee' pout that I usually wore in the mornings.

"Yeah, sure," she answered, giving me a wave of acknowledgement.

Jeremy and I then turned our gazes onto our errant sister.

"What?" she asked self-consciously, standing up and walking over to her dresser. I exchanged a quick glance with my baby bro and, with a small nod, gave him the go ahead to take charge of the conversation. I had already said my piece earlier and she knew exactly what I thought.

"Why are you on some suicide mission?" Jer asked, going straight to the point.

"I'm trying to prevent everyone else from getting hurt," twin sighed, once again repeating her reasoning for her idiotic decision. Now is it just me or does she sound like a broken record? Because I sure as hell think she does.

"Oh, so bringing Klaus the moonstone so that you can get yourself killed is ok?" Jeremy snorted, shaking his head. "Come on, Lexa, let's go and get your coffee."

He offered me his arm which I accepted and we strode out of the room. While Jer went into his room, I made my way downstairs and into the kitchen. The moment that the smell of beautiful coffee reached my nose, I was instantly over by the friendly neighbourhood witch. Said witch already had a mug of coffee ready and waiting for me.

"Thanks Bonnie," I smiled tiredly at her. "This is just what I needed."

"How have you been coping?" my witchy friend asked as she made herself a mug of coffee.

"Uh, badly," I answered, not even bothering to lie. "In fact, you could even say that I'm not coping at all."

Because that was true. Yeah, I put on a good mask and pretended that everything was alright. I joked and bantered with my friends, I was all normal Alexa levels of touchey-feely, especially with Damon, I played a good game. But deep down, I just didn't know what to do. My twin wanted to die. Yeah, it was so that an evil psychotic vampire wouldn't kill everyone that we care about. But the point still stood, she wanted to leave me. And I just didn't know how to handle that.

"Elena will be fine," Bonnie tried to reassure me. "We won't let anything happen to her."

"I know that, believe me, I know that. It's what she'll do that worries me," I bit my lip and gazed down into my coffee.

"For today at least, I've got that covered."

I glanced over at Bon-Bon, only to see a peculiar smile on her face.

"Bonnie… what did you do?" I hesitantly asked, almost not wanting to know the answer. But instead of answering me, the witch just walked into the hallway. I quickly joined her and watched as my darling twin walked down the stairs, car keys in hand.

"Hello dearest twin of mine," I beamed, sarcasm dripping from every word. "And where are you off to on a lovely say like today?"

"Um, to see Stefan," she replied, refusing to look me in the eye.

Oh come on Ellie, you used to be such a better liar than that.

… Wait? Why am I complaining? Keep going twin, badly lying right now would be goooooood for me. So I can stop your stupid little plans.

"You're lying," Bonnie exclaimed, saying what we both were thinking.

"No, I'm not," the silly little twin tried to deny.

"Hmmm, yeah, you are," I contradicted her. "It's written clear as day on your face. You might as well have it written in big red pen."

"Are you serious?" was her oh so clever retort.

I just shrugged while Bonnie shook her head in disappointment. I knew that Bonnie had put a lot of hard work in trying to save my sister. We had had several conversations on the past few days over what we could do, especially my sister's little stunt a couple of days ago. It was stressing Bonnie out almost as much as it was me.

"She took the moonstone," Jeremy announced, appearing at the top of the stairs, Bonnie's purse in hard. Oh god, did she really?

… Wait, what? She took the moonstone? You guys left the moonstone where the idiot could get it? What am I missing here?

"How did you…?" Ellie frowned, glancing between the two. She did momentarily glance over at me but my own confusion was easy to see on my face. So she knew that I had absolutely nothing to do with it.

"We tested you," Bonnie told her with a sigh. "And you failed."

Of course she did. Le sigh. But really, what did they expect?

"Klaus killed Katherine's entire family just because she crossed him," Elena's frown deepened as she finished walking down the stairs. "I can't let that happen. I won't let that happen."

Instead of arguing with her, like I expected Bonnie to do, the witch just stepped to the side and let my sister pass her.

Eh?

I stared, open mouthed, as Elena walked over to the front door. Uh, why are we letting her leave?

Guys?

Guys.

Come on guys, do something.

While my twin was also confused, she quickly took advantage of the opening and opened the door. But her confusion quickly turned to annoyance as she discovered that she couldn't actually leave the house. It was almost as though…

Oh my god, Bonnie Bennett you are a goddamn genius. She had put a similar spell to the tomb spell on the house. Elena banged on the magic barrier a few more times before turning to look at us, an accusing glare on her face.

"What did you do?" she asked, looking directly at our dear little witch.

"It's the best, Elena," Bonnie answered, only sounding a little bit regretful. Our sweet little brother, though, had absolutely no regrets since he stood, leaning against the banister, smirking away. Oh Jeremy, whatever are we going to do with you?

Saying that though, I had to resist the urge to smirk. Take that Els, how are you gonna do stupid things now?

XXX

"Peace offering?"

I held out the coffee mug to my twin, a hopeful expression on my face. But Elena just gave me dirty look and refused to take the coffee.

Sighing, I slumped down next to her on the settee, "Please don't be mad at me, Ellie. I had nothing to do with this."

"You didn't?" my sister glanced at me, a suspicious look on her face.

"Nope," I shook my head. "I haven't been around, have I? I been at Tyler's."

Of course, I neglected to tell her about the numerous phone calls and text messages that I had exchanged with Bonnie. But since the witch hadn't told me about the plan to lock my sister in the house, I figured they weren't really worth mentioning.

"Well, ok then, I suppose," I once again held out the mug of coffee and this time, Elena took it.

"Don't be sad, sis," I rested my head against her shoulder.

God, why did I have this stupid need to make sure that she was never upset? Even when we fought I couldn't let her be upset. Guess I knew the reason for that, it's because she's my twin sister and I loved her. And, what was that saying, 'love makes fools of us all'. Indeed it does.

We sat there in silence, sipping our coffees.

Elena was sulking about her forced imprisonment while I was just enjoying the time with my twin without anyone saying anything about that damned sacrifice.

I got where she was coming from, I really did. She wanted to protect us. She wanted to keep us all safe. But she didn't see the other side of it, she didn't see my side. My silly, silly twin didn't understand that her death would affect us. We… I… would feel as though we failed her. I would have to keep on living without my twin sister. The twin sister who has been there for me every single day of my life. And I don't think that I would be able to do that. I wouldn't be able to live without her. It would be too hard.

The sound of the front door opening and closing caught our attention. We looked around to see who it was that was visiting us. I couldn't help but smile as I saw my Damon Salvatore lean against the doorway.

"You should really lock your door," he smirked, looking entirely too pleased with himself.

"What? Like you do?" I retorted, raising an eyebrow as I hid a smile. Well, at least Damon was now around to cheer me up.

"Alexa, shush," Damon said, placing a finger over his lips. Ok, my attention may have been slightly diverted as I stared at his lips a little longer than I should have. But come on, those lips look pretty damn kissable.

"Nope, can't make me," I shook my head, messing up my hair on my sister's shoulder.

"Wanna bet?" the vampire raised an eyebrow, taking a slow step forward.

"Not particularly," I used my sister's arm as a shield.

"That's what I thought," Damon gave me one of his special smiles before looking at my twin. "Oh come on, pouty. At least give me two points for ingenuity."

"Do you think this is funny?" Elena snapped, slamming her coffee mug down on the table and giving the vampire a filthy look. As my support suddenly disappeared on me, I had to grab at the arm of the sofa. Looking at my twin with wide eyes, I slowly inched backwards. Uh oh, Ellie be maaaaaad.

"Yes, Elena, I find hilarity in the lengths that I have to go to repeatedly save your life," Damon snarked, rolling his eyes. Well, he did have a point, dearest sister. We do have to go to extreme lengths to keep you safe. Extreme and unusual lengths.

"What does Stefan have to say about this?" Elena pulled out her trump card. Or what she thought her trump card was. If I knew Stefan as well as I thought that I did, then I suspect that he wouldn't be happy but if it kept the girl that he loved safe while he was stuck in the tomb, then he probs wouldn't mind. But that's that I thought, anyway.

"We had a good laugh," the vampire said dismissively, walking forward.

"And what did he say about Elijah still being alive?"

Hmmm, that's a really good question, sis. I looked up at Damon, interested in his answer. Damon sighed and sat down next to me on the sofa. As he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, I immediately curled into his side. His fingers slowly stroked my arm as he replied to my sister's question, "Yeah, that… I didn't tell him."

"You didn't," I frowned, glancing up.

"Why not?" Ellie asked, finishing off my thought.

"Well, A, he can't do anything about it, and B… what I just said," my vampire said as Jeremy walked into the room.

He, too, sat down on the settee, forcing Elena to scoot closer to me. Which, in turn, forced me to scoot closer to Damon. Not that that I was complaining about that at all. I rested my head against my Damon's chest and closed my eyes. Ugh, I needed more coffee. I had not had enough coffee to deal with this.

The Salvatore glanced between the doorway and my brother.

"Where is Bonnie?" he asked baby bro.

"I thought she was meeting you," Jer replied, peering around me and Elena to look at the vampire.

"No, she's on moonstone duty," the vamp told Jeremy. "I'm on twin patrol."

"Wait, why am I being patrolled?" I asked, leaning my head backwards so that I could look at Damon's handsome face.

"Because, Alexa, you have an annoying habit of getting yourself into trouble," Damon explained with an eye roll. "And it's easier to keep an eye on the both of you at the same time."

That's not fair. I don't get into that much trouble…

… Ok… yeah I do… damn I hate it when Damon's right.

"Shut up," I mumbled, elbowing him as I failed to argue with his logic. I felt Damon smirk into my hair and had to bite my lip to stop myself from smiling. But then my darling little brother had to go and ruin the moment.

"And who's on the Tyler Lockwood and the full moon?" he asked as he settled himself into Elena's side.

"Vampire Barbie asked me if she could handle it and I said 'why not?'" Damon shrugged, as his thumb stroked my shoulder. "Figured that if she screwed up, he'll bit her and then I'll be rid of two of my problems."

"Uh, sorry to ruin your carefully thought out plan," I smiled sheepishly, staring at Elena's coffee mug on the table. "But I've offered to help Tyler prepare for the full moon tonight, so I'm gonna be with him and not be here…"

"Can't you just cancel," Damon groaned, tightening his grip slightly.

"No, I can't. He's been there for me throughout this entire thing," I disagreed with a shake of my head. "He's been there for me during my darkest times, even when we were fighting his was there. I won't abandon him now. I can't."

The vampire was silent for a moment before sighing, "Fine. But only because it is impossible to say no to you."

"Thank you, Damon," I smiled softly, allowing myself to once again relax against his chest.

"Hold on a second," Elena frowned, drawing our attention. "Tonight's the full moon?"

"Yup, sure is. Guess you were too busy being a suicidal idiot to even notice," I gave a sarcastic smile as I reluctantly moved away from my vampire and stood up.

Moving into the kitchen to get more coffee, I heard Damon's phone ring. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him stand up and walk into the kitchen to answer it.

I poured myself another mug of coffee and greedily gulped it down as I eavesdropped on his conversation. I had been drinking a lot more coffee than normal recently. But there was a reason for that. I was substituting coffee for something that, while it was far more effective in helping me, I knew that a lot of people would be on my back for drinking. As you've probably guessed, that something was my delicious alcohol. But I was so close to cracking. And I honestly didn't know how long I would be able to hold on for.

"What?" Damon greeted whoever it was that phoned him.

He was so rude.

Whatever the person was saying, it obviously wasn't good as a frown quickly appeared on his handsome face. My vampire wrapped his arm around my waist and I relaxed against his firm body.

"What? Why?"

While I was curious as to what was being said, I was far more content to just enjoy being with Damon.

"What girl?"

Ok, so from what I can gather, some girl did something for some unknown reason.

… I've gotten a lot out of that conversation so far. Meh, oh well.

I poured myself another half a mug of coffee as Damon said, "That's not good. Where are you?"

Aw man, does that mean that Damon may be leaving? Dang it. Although, saying that, I was leaving too. Silly Alexa.

"I'm on my way," my vampire said before hanging up the call.

Hm, guess I was right.

"Come on," Damon didn't bother removing his arm before he walked me back to where my siblings were sitting.

Fortunately, I had finished my coffee, otherwise I would have had something to say about the fact that he took the mug out of my hands before we left the kitchen.

"Another change of plans," Damon announced as we reached my twin and brother. The vampire looked at my brother and said, "You babysit."

Jeremy nodded as he switched positions so that his head was resting on Ellie's lap.

"You off to join Tyler, then, Lexa?" baby bro asked as I made no move to join them.

"Yuppers," I nodded, resting my hand on Damon's arm, which was still wrapped around my waist. "Probs won't be home until late so don't wait up."

I waved goodbye to my siblings and prepared to leave, but Damon had other ideas.

"Hey, you know, you should really get out, enjoy the sun," he smirked at my sister, unable to resist the urge to mock her.

And, because she had been so determined to break her promise and leave me, I joined in, "Oh but Damon, she can't."

I sent a cheeky smirk at my twin before laughing as my twin threw a cushion at us. Damon pulled me out of the way and the cushion went flying harmlessly past us.

"Laterz twin," I smiled at her before Damon led me from the room.

I shifted so that I was leaning against his side and walked out of my house, grabbing my bag on my way out.

"Give me a lift to the woods?" I asked, looking up at Damon.

"You know, I'm still not happy with the idea of you being there when wolf boy changes," my Damon informed me, looking into my eyes.

"I'll be fine," I reassured him, holding up my hand. "Look, I've got my magic Gilbert ring on so I'll be just fine."

"Just because you are wearing your ring doesn't mean that you'll be fine," Damon shook his head. "Remember the last time that you died and the ring brought you back? You were a mess for days."

….. And that was so true. I was a mess. In fact, if I think back to that little… incident… then I'm a mess again. I hadn't gotten over it and, to be perfectly honest, I don't know if I ever will. No matter how much I pretend that I will. After all, how can you get over the fact that you died and was brought back by a magic ring?

We stopped walking and I turned to face him. Damon did the same, allowing his arm to slide away from my waist but resting his hand on my hip instead.

"Damon," I sighed, shaking my head. But before I could say anything else, my vampire placed a finger over my lips.

"I don't want you to have to go through that again," he said softly, staring into my eyes as his finger gently stroked the edge of my lips.

My lips parted slightly as I leaned forward. Desire surged through me as I just wanted to kiss him. Kiss him and tell him that I loved him. But I caught myself before I could take that one final step. God, out of all the times to think before acting, I just had to choose this one.

Instead, I rested my forehead against his cheek and whispered, "Please."

Damon sighed but scooped me up into his arms. He held me close as he used his vampire speed to take me to the old Lockwood cellar. Throwing my arms around his neck, I gripped on tight, fighting to control my stomach. Vamp speed always did make me feel nauseated. But I did enjoy being able to press myself so close to his firm chest.

Sigh, naughty Alexa.

My vampire gave a moment to gather myself before he carefully let go of my legs. My feet hit the ground and I clutched even tighter to him to make sure that I didn't fall.

"Just be careful," he whispered as he finally relinquished his hold on me.

"I always am," I smiled reassuringly, or what I hoped was reassuring.

"That's what worries me," he rolled his eyes, running his hand through my hair before blurring off.

I allowed myself a moment to smile and bite my lip, running my hand in the exact same place that he did, before getting a grip on myself.

Come on Lexa, we had a brother to help.

XXX

Tyler and Caroline were already down in the cellar when I finally forced myself out of my 'Hmmmm Damon' mood and made my way down there.

"Hey guys," I greeted them as I walked further in.

"Hey Alex," Tyler returned as he immediately walked over and gave me a hug. From the tightness of his hug, I could just tell that nerves were getting the best of my big brother. Not surprisingly really, considering what he was going to be going through in a few hours.

As he rested his head on my shoulder, I whispered in Ty's ear, "How are you holding up?"

"Not well," he admitted, pulling back with a shaky smile.

"Well, Alexa's here now so everything is gonna be just fine," I smiled with a cheerfulness that I didn't feel and gave Ty's hand a squeeze.

"Thanks Alex," Tyler somehow managed to smile back before wandering over to the bag which I helped him prepare last night.

"Don't mention it," I whispered, watching him sadly.

I startled slightly as an arm wrapped around my shoulders. Glancing to the side, I saw my blonde vampire friend also watching Tyler. There was an equally sad look on her face and I could that she felt as bad about this as I did.

"Hey Care," I sighed, resting my head against hers.

"Hi Alexa," she replied, giving my shoulder a gentle squeeze. "I didn't know that you were going to be here today."

"I didn't give Ty a choice. I knew that he would need someone with him, even if it was just to help him set up. But then again, I didn't know that you were gonna be here. Wonder why he never said."

"Maybe he just wanted both of us to be here for him."

"As if we would be anywhere else."

Tut tut, silly wolf. But then again, my Ty does have issues. He probably thinks that everyone would leave him if they would out that he turned into a wolfy wolf once a month. Or at least, that he will turn into a wolfy wolf once a month.

"Hey Alex," Ty said, pulling our attention over to him. "You wanna help me set this lot up?"

"Of course I do," I replied, giving my blonde vampire one last squeeze before walking over to Ty-Ty. "Tell me where to put what."

As Tyler pulled the chains all the way out of the bag, I had to resist the urge to make comments on the kinkiness of the situation. They were totally inappropriate comments, not that that normally stopped me. But this was serious and important, this was affecting Ty really badly, and I wanted to help him, not be a nuisance.

"Tell me that you brought the instruction manual," Caroline commented, staring at the mass of chains with slightly wide eyes.

Uh, that is actually a rather good point. I hope Ty did bring the instruction manual with him and didn't do a typical Lockwood and insist that he didn't need instructions. Believe me when I say that that was a common occurrence.

Without even looking at me, Ty said, "Alexa shush."

I gaped at him, "How did you even know that I was going to say something?"

"Because I know you," my Ty replied, glancing at me and rolling his eyes.

I had no choice but to accept that answer, "Yeah, ok, fair point."

Tyler gave me a faint smile before asking the vampire, "Did you bring the wolfsbane?"

"Yes," she replied, digging through her bag. "Not an easy herb to find."

Tell me about it. Damon has not stopped complaining about how difficult it was to get hold of. It was quite ironic really, it was easier to get a hold of vervain than it was to get a hold of wolfsbane.

"Aha," Care pulled a bag containing a yellowish herb out of her bag. "This is it."

I stepped forward and carefully plucked the bag out of the blonde's hand. Slowly grasping the end of the wolfsbane, I pulled it out of its bag and held it up. I examined the yellow herb in the lamplight, hating the sight of it already.

"Doesn't look like anything special, does it?" I remarked as casually as I could considering the situation.

"I don't think that it's supposed to," Ty countered, reaching out to touch the wolfsbane.

"Ty-Ty, no," I warned, trying to pull the wolfsbane away from my adopted big bro.

But, alas, I was too slow.

Tyler gently clasped the tip of the wolfsbane, only to pull his hand away with a hiss when it burnt him. My brother paled slightly as he realised what exactly he would be putting into his water. And god, he really was gonna drink that. Mason had to drink that. Oh god.

But, like the brave darling that he was, he still said, "I have a water bottle in my bag, we can mix it in there."

"Are you sure that you wanna do that, Ty?" I asked wearily as the vamp in the room dug around in Ty's bag for the water bottle.

"I've got to, Alex, I can't risk hurting anyone," Ty replied, giving a tiny sigh.

"But you'll hurt yourself instead," I shook my head. Why were my boys such stubborn idiots? Not that I could talk, of course, but that's the beauty of being me, I didn't care if I'm being a hypocrite if it meant keeping the people that I love safe.

"Alex," Tyler gave me a warning look.

"Fine," I sighed reluctantly. "I won't say anymore. Just know though," I pointed at the Lockwood, "That I am extremely not happy with this."

"Noted," Ty grabbed my hand and gave it a quick squeeze. While it was supposed to reassure me, it really didn't.

And, right now, nothing would. I refuse to be reassured about this stupid, stupid, stupid situation. My big brother was about to go through unimaginable pain and nothing would make that alright for me.

While Caroline mixed the wolfsbane with the water in the bottle and I watched on, looking all grumpy, Tyler decided to share a little fact with us, "The guy at the hardware store said that this set-up could hold up to 5,000 pounds."

Well, ok, it was a fact for Caroline, because I was there when he brought the chains and the hardware guy told him.

"Is that more than a werewolf can pull?" Care asked, putting the water and wolfsbane bottle mix down on the step.

You know what, Caroline, that's a very good question.

"I have no idea," Ty answered after a moment of thought.

"So it's a trial by fire sort of thing then," I commented dryly. "Just… wonderful."

Ok, I was feeling slightly sarcastic. It was getting worse as the full moon drew closer. I was feeling so powerless to help my brother. I couldn't use my usual humour to make him feel better and I couldn't fight this for him. There was nothing that I could do and I ahted it.

"Hey Tyler," Caroline said, sounding a tiny bit nervous. "How are you doing?"

"Still human," Ty answered, avoiding the question.

"Not what she mean, numbskull," I shook my head, gently knocking my fist into the side of his head.

"I know," Tyler shrugged, giving me one of his special 'please don't push me on this' looks.

"Ass," I rolled my eyes and stepped forward, giving my brother a quick hug. "Avoiding questions is my thing."

"Well, you know what they say Alex, caring is sharing," Ty took the moment to rest his head against mine and I could feel the tension in his body ease of slightly.

"Oh alright then," I kissed my big bro on the cheek before allowing him to pull away and continue getting ready.

I held the chains out while Tyler attached them to the hooks on the floor. Thank god that he knew what he was doing with them because I had no clue.

It didn't take long for dear old Ty to get all the chains set up. With every second that tick tocked by, I became more and more of just how close the full moon was. And I wasn't even the one who was gonna turn into a werewolf. God knows how nervous and scared my Ty-Ty was feeling at that very moment in time.

"Oh my god!"

I heard Caroline exclaim and looked up from where I had been gazing at the floor in thought. The moment that I looked up, I saw my darling adopted older brother pulling his shirt off, leaving him only in his jogging bottoms.

"You're not gonna get naked, are you?" Care asked, not looking as grossed out as she sounded.

"Uh, Tyler, honey, if you are, give me enough time to flee from the area," I added my own thoughts, a quick, sarcastic smile appearing on my face.

"Relax, Alex," Ty rolled his eyes at me. "There's no need to flee the area. And to answer your question, Caroline, they're elastic."

"Ooooh, ok, makes sense," I nodded my head and moved to sit down on the step.

"Besides, what should I wear? I don't think that it's like The Hulk, where I get to keep my pants," Tyler said with a forced lightness.

That's a very good point, dearest brother.

XXX

Elena's POV

Sighing, I stared at the picture of me and Alexa that was taped to my mirror. Lexa had her arm wrapped around my shoulders and a massive grin on her face.

She looked so happy, which only served to remind me how unhappy she was now. Yeah, she was good at faking otherwise. But we're twins, I've known her for her entire life and I could tell that she wasn't truly happy.

Groaning, I pushed myself off of the bed. I needed coffee. Hopefully with Alexa out with Tyler and Caroline, I'll be allowed near the coffee pot with having something thrown at me. Honestly, my little sister did have issues when it came to people 'stealing' her coffee. If she could get away with it, she would probably write her name on it and forbid others from drinking from it. Lexa was slightly obsessive like that.

Thoughts of my sister's lack of self-control flashed through my mind as I walked downstairs. But they soon disappeared as I saw Jenna searching through the closet under the stairs. Frowning, I stood there for a moment, watching her, before continuing down the stairs.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I asked, leaning against the wall.

"Perfect timing," Jenna declared instead of answering the question.

What would Alexa say to that? Ah yeah, 'how rude'. I'd have to agree with her, that was rather rude of Jenna.

She picked up a box and shoved it into my arms.

"Whoa!"

Not expecting it, I stumbled back slightly before adjusting the weight of the box in my arms. Noticing that one of the books was about to fall out, I tipped the box towards me slightly. Wouldn't want to damage anything. Steadying myself, I looked over at my aunt who stood up.

"What is this stuff?" I asked, peeking down at the box of old books.

"Your mom's files from the Historical Society," Jenna replied, sounding slightly distracted. "I got roped into helping Mrs Lockwood."

Aunt Jenna must have sensed something that I didn't, since she smiled and said in a raised voice, "And by roped, I mean very excited to participate."

Jenna shut the door to the closet and this time, I really did drop the book.

At the sight of Elijah standing in my hallway, in my house, I gasped and took an automatic step backwards.

What was he even doing here? Oh my god, he was in my house. He'd been invited in. He could get in my house whenever he wanted. How the hell had he gotten in? Why had Jenna invited him in?

"Hey, I'm Elijah," he smiled, stepping forward.

He knew that I knew who he was. The introduction was merely for Aunt Jenna's benefit.

"Elijah is in town doing research on Mystic Falls," Jenna told me, taking the box from my arms.

Yeah…. Research on Mystic Falls… sure….

"It's a pleasure," the Original vampire said, stepping forward even closer and holding out his hand for me to shake.

A small smirk appeared on his face as I hesitated for a moment before cautiously grasping his hand and shaking it. I let go as soon as it was polite to do so. I just knew that he could see just how nervous I was. But I didn't even bother to try and hide it because even if he couldn't see it, the vampire would still be able to hear my frantic heartbeat.

But I was just thankful that Alexa wasn't in the house. I didn't want her anywhere near the Original vampire. She wouldn't be safe near him. And I needed her to be safe. No matter what, Alexa had to be safe.

Almost as though realising that my darling twin wasn't present and ready with a snarky comment, Jenna looked over at me, "Where is Alexa?"

"She's spending some time with Tyler and Caroline," I told her, leaving out the werewolf part as Jenna clearly didn't know about Elijah's true identity. "She did tell me that she was going to tell you. Guess she forgot."

"When Alexa is concerned, that doesn't really surprise me," Aunt Jenna sighed and rolled her eyes. I couldn't even say something to defend my twin because Lexa really was bad at remembering to tell people stuff. But I wouldn't have her any other way.

"So," Jenna said, turning her attention back to Elijah who had listened in on the conversation with an amused smile. "You're welcome to say here and rummage through this stuff or Elena and I could help you lead it into your car."

Uh, how do I explain to my Aunt that I can't go out of the house because a spell was cast on me? Especially with Elijah right there.

"Or I can get someone to pick it up tomorrow," Elijah put forward another suggestion. I couldn't help but feel slightly relieved as it was a plan that didn't involve me going outside or, since I can't actually go outside, trying to explain to my aunt why I couldn't help out. She was still getting her head around the witch part. Vampires were bad enough for her, but the whole witches and sacrifices and all the stuff that came with that, it gave Jenna a headache.

"Also a good plan," my aunt smiled, laughing a little bit. I could tell that she was a little charmed by him. To be fair, he was rather charming. But I suppose knowing that he was an Original vampire who wanted to give me to Klaus takes away the charm somewhat. I almost felt bad knowing that I would have to tell her the truth about him.

Elijah smiled at my aunt and took her hand in his, lightly kissing it, "Thank you so for inviting me into your home, Jenna."

I couldn't help but feel as though that was aimed at me. After all, why else would the vampire phrase it like that? I just hoped that Jenna recognised that double-meaning there.

"And Elena," Elijah looked over at me. "I hope to see you again sometime soon."

A cold chill reverberated through me at his words because I could just tell that by soon, he meant this very evening. I needed to get some help. There was no way that I would be able to deal with Elijah on my own. Especially if he wanted to take me to Klaus.

The moment that Elijah left my house, I ran up the stairs and over to Jeremy's bedroom. Knocking frantically, I waited for a moment before just grasping the door handle. I hated to bring my brother into this but until one of our vampires could arrive, he was the next best thing. But I was just glad that Alexa wasn't here. Especially with Elijah threatening to come back.

But before I could open Jer's door, a strong hand gripped my wrist.

After closing my eyes for a moment in silent horror, I glanced over to the side to see Elijah standing next to me. He shook his head and placed a finger against his lips, warning me to be quiet. I nodded, not daring to do anything to anger him.

"What is it?" Jeremy asked, opening the door and pushing his headphones off his ears. Elijah moved behind the door, out of Jeremy's line of sight, keeping a firm hold of my wrist.

"Have you heard from Alexa?" I blurted out, speaking the first thing that came into my mind.

"Uh, no," he answered, shaking his head. "Why?"

"No reason," I said, trying to force a casual smile on my face. "Uh, Jenna was just asking me to get you to help her with the boxes."

I dread to think what the vampire would have done to my brother if I had told him that he was there. So I did the next best thing to keep him safe, I got him out of the way.

"Ok," Jer nodded before walking past me and going downstairs. I sighed in relief the moment that my little brother disappeared out of sight. At least he as mostly co-operative, unlike my darling little twin. But my attention was soon drawn back to the Original vampire stood next to me.

"A wise choice," he said, finally letting go of my wrist.

"What do you want?" I asked through gritted teeth.

Now that my family weren't in immediate danger, I was able to keep better control of my fear. Elijah was here for a reason and it wasn't just to scare me. He wanted something. I just had to work out what.

"I think it's time that you and I had a little chat."

XXX

Alexa's POV

The mood in the cave had soon turned from 'mildly worried' to 'holy crap this is actually happening and I don't like it'. The tension was so thick and uncomfortable, I was longing for a good, long drink of something naughty. Which was bad of me, but this situation was just so stressful.

Tyler and Caroline had told me of Mason's friend who had come to town. And how she had managed to persuade Mayor Lockwood and Sheriff Forbes into declaring Mason as a missing person. While would normally just be very, extremely annoying, at this time of the month, it was just bad. The last thing that Tyler needed with the full moon and his first transformation, was the news that his uncle was, in fact, missing.

And, of course, I now felt even more guilty. Ty was now worrying about his uncle being missing. And I had to support him, to help him through it, all the while knowing that Mason was, in fact, dead. It was bad when my brother thought that Mason had just left town like he does best. But this time, it was gonna be even worse.

Add that to my twin being so determined to sacrifice herself to save everyone else, her using me to do so, Tyler being forced to painfully turn into a werewolf and my inability to tell the man that I loved that I actually loved him. Well, I'm just surprised that I still have the self-control to not do something stupid. Something that I would eventually regret. And that doesn't even include my deal with Katherine which I still have no idea how to complete. Ugh, this was just horrible.

But anyways, moving rapidly on before I decide that drinking to the point of sickness was actually a rather good idea. I had helped Ty wrap the chains around his wrists and ankles. There was also a chain looped around his neck, despite my most empathic protests. But he just pulled the whole 'I don't want to hurt anyone' card and used his best puppy dog eyes, so, of course, I caved and helped him with that too. Damn brothers manipulating me like that.

The chains were all attached to the hooks in the walls and floor. We were all just hoping that they would be strong enough to hold him. Because I'm guessing that Care hadn't told my dearest Ty that a werewolf bite was supposed to be fatal to a vampire. Otherwise Ty would have immediately sent her away so as not to hurt her.

"What time is it?" Tyler asked us as he paced to and fro around the room.

I glanced over at Caroline from where we were seated on the step, waiting for her to check her phone, since none of us wear watches. Despite the fact that we actually owned quite a few between us.

"Almost 8," she replied, her voice containing none of her usual upbeat peppiness. "What time does the moon crest or whatever?"

"It apexes," I replied to her question, having studied as much as about the moon and the lore as possible. "And I don't think that it's for a while yet."

Of course, the longer that it took to arrive, the better. I really didn't want Ty to have to go through with this. It was just too awful and he didn't deserve it. Neither did Mason. No one did. It was a curse, one that I wouldn't wish on anyone.

"Mason's journal said that the first transformation can happen before the moon hits its apex," Ty spoke up, glancing over at us. His hands shook slightly, the only visible sign of the fear that he felt. But it was his voice that gave him away, it was the same scared voice that he had as a kid. I hated hearing it then and I hate hearing it now. Oh Ty, my darling, sweet Ty.

The blonde and I exchanged glances, we could both see and hear the signs. And while there was nothing that we could do to stop the cause, we could offer as much comfort as we could.

"Does it say how long you'll actually be a wolf?" the vamp asked, looking as though she regretted asking the question as soon as she did so.

"A few hours," Tyler replied, slowly walking over to us. "Maybe more, maybe less."

So, in other words, we don't know. Isn't that just fantastic? Why could nothing ever be easy? Oh yeah, I know why, fate hates us. Well screw you too fate.

Tyler tried to sit down next to us on the step, but the chains tied around his ankles weren't long enough and he came to an abrupt stop. My heart ached as he reached down and gave the chain a futile tug.

"Oh Ty," I sighed, grabbing his hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

My Ty rested his head against my knee for a moment, gripping tightly to my hand. His other hand rested on my knee. Placing my free hand on the back of my brother's neck, I allowed the soon to be werewolf to draw as much comfort from me as he needed. He just needed reassuring that he wasn't alone, that he didn't have to go through this all by himself.

Sighing to himself, Tyler gently pulled away from me, giving my hand a squeeze in thanks. Letting go, reached past me and grabbed the bottle of water wolfsbane mix. He stood up and moved away from us, undoing the bottle.

"Hey Ty, you sure you wanna drink that?" I asked, standing up myself and walking forward. I knew that I looked as worried as I felt, but I couldn't hurt it. I had seen what effect vervain had on the vampires who drank it, I didn't want Tyler to go through that as well as the transformation.

"Yeah, Mason said that it'll diminish my strength so that I can't break free," my Ty explained, taking in my worried expression.

A hand shoulder told me that Caroline had also stood up and joined us in the centre of the room. Her and Ty exchanged a long look over the top of my head and I couldn't help but feel slightly worried. Tyler passed Care the bottle before placing both of his hands on my shoulders.

"Alex, maybe you should leave now," he said softly, rubbing my shoulders.

"But Ty," I protested, rapidly shaking my head. "I promised you that I would help you through this. I can't leave you now."

"It's not safe for you here, Alex," my brother sighed sadly. "You could get hurt."

I held up the hand with the magic Gilbert ring, "I've got my ring, I'll be fine."

"But I'll still have the memory of hurting you," Tyler gave me those big, sad eyes of his and my heart melted.

"Oh Ty," I sighed, leaning forward and resting my head against his shoulder. His hands slid down my arms and my brother wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me against him. "I don't want you to have to endure that as well as turning," I mumbled into his shoulder. "But I don't want to leave you either."

"I won't be alone, Alex, I have Caroline with me," he reassured me with a squeeze.

"But I don't wanna leave you, Ty-Ty."

I knew that I was being stubborn, but I just couldn't leave him. Yeah, I knew that he would have Caroline there with him. And yeah, I knew that it was safer from me to leave. But I just… couldn't leave him. After all that he had done for me, after Katherine had killed me, after I had lost my Nolans, after just being there. Now it as my turn to help him.

"You've been there for me, Alex, you've helped to reassure me, to keep me calm. Now all I need is to be certain that you are safe."

The pleading in his tone and the way that he tightened his grip on me had me swallowing hard and nodding.

"Ok, I'll go," I gave in with a great amount of reluctance. "Just promise me that you'll be ok."

"I promise," Ty looked me in the eye as I slowly pulled away.

"And call the moment that you become human," I added, pointing at him.

"I will," he promised, walking me as close as he could to the entrance of the cave.

"Ok then," I reached the exit but I couldn't resist pulling my big brother forward for one final hug.

"Good luck, Ty-Ty," I whispered in his ear before pulling back.

"Thanks, little sister," he gave me a sad smile.

I looked over at Caroline and gave her a pleading look, "Look after him."

"I will," she nodded with a soft look on her face.

I nodded back before walking out of the cellar. With every step that I took, I just wanted to go running back to my brother. But I knew that I couldn't. Because he was right, it would be better for him if I weren't there. Because then, then he wouldn't be worrying about my safety.

And I hated that.

XXX

Elena's POV

I reluctantly led Elijah into my bedroom and shut the door. Couldn't risk anyone barging in, especially since there was large chance that they might get hurt because of it.

"Forgive the intrusion," the Original vampire said, looking around my room. "I mean your family no harm."

Somehow, I don't completely believe that. Especially when I think back to that house and how willing he was to bring my sister along as an incentive for me to behave. But there was one thing that was bothering me, even more now that he was in my house.

"Why did you kill those vampires when they tried to take me?" I asked, because if he was here to take me to Klaus, why didn't he just let them take me instead?

It wasn't that I wanted to die. I just didn't want anyone that I love to die because I was too selfish to give my life for them. I couldn't bear to have that on my conscience. And if they died, then she would die. My little twin sister would die. And Klaus would kill her slowly and painfully, just to punish me. I wasn't like Katherine, I couldn't handle letting my sister die for me. Losing her would destroy me.

"Because I didn't want you to be taken," Elijah answered my question. "Klaus is the most feared and hated of the Originals, but those that fear him are desperate for his approval. If word gets out that the doppelganger exists, there'll be a line of vampires eager to take you to him and I can't have that."

Ok…. That made absolutely no sense to me. Because that's why Elijah wanted me, so that he could take me to Klaus. So why would he stop others from doing so?

"Isn't that exactly what you're trying to do?" I asked, a confused look on my face as the Original sat down on my window seat.

"Let's just say that my goal is not to break the curse," Elijah looked over at me as I cautiously sat down on the edge of my bed. There was no point in me staying standing because there was no way that I would be able to outrun him. The vampire would have caught me before I even made it to my bedroom door.

That intrigued me and, with those words, I felt some of my fear fade away.

"So, what is your goal?"

"Klaus's obsession has made him paranoid," Elijah answered with a shake of his head. "He's a recluse. He trusts only those in his immediate circle."

…. Is this going where I think it's going?

"Like you?"

But the Original shook his head, "Not anymore."

And with that, it all clicked into place. Elijah wasn't trusted anymore, he wasn't a member of Klaus's immediate circle. So he didn't know where he was and he didn't draw the big bad out.

"You don't know where he is, do you?" it was phrased as a question, but we both knew the answer. "So you're trying to use me to draw him out."

"Well, to do that, I need you to stay put and stop trying to get yourself killed."

"And I'll do that when I'm absolutely sure that my twin will be safe," I snapped before taking a deep breath. Calm down Elena, you won't be able to do anything if you anger him.

"How do I know that you're telling the truth?" I asked once I was sufficiently calmed.

"If I wasn't being truthful, all of your family would be dead, your precious twin sister would most likely be dead, and I'd be taking you to Klaus right now," Elijah answered, sounding faintly amused. "Instead, I'm here and I'm prepared to offer you a deal."

"What kind of deal?" I stood up and walked closer to the vampire, curiosity and desperation driving me.

"Do nothing," he said simply. "Do nothing, live your life, stop fighting and then, when the time is right, you and I shall draw out Klaus together and I shall make sure your twin and friends remain unharmed."

"And then what?" I was curious as to what the rest of his plan was.

"Then I kill him."

I frowned, "Just like that?"

"Just like that," Elijah repeated. "I'm a man of my word, Elena. I make a deal, I keep a deal."

I asked something that was very important if I was going to accept his deal, "How are you gonna be able to keep everybody safe?"

"I notice that you have a friend, Bonnie, is it? She seems to possess the gift of magic. I have friends with similar gifts," the Original vampire answered.

I nodded, "You know witches."

"Together, we can protect everyone that matters to you. So, do we have a deal?"

"Two conditions," I shook my head, holding up my hand.

"We're negotiating now?" Elijah sounded amused, like he did the first time that we met.

"Yes," I replied firmly because I needed him to agree to these.

"Well, go ahead," Elijah smiled and waved me on.

"Ok," I nervously sat down next to him on the window seat. "Firstly, Stefan is stuck in the tomb with Katherine. Bonnie wasn't strong enough to take down the spell on her own and I need… I need him out of there. I need him with me."

"I'm sure that my witches will be able to get him out for you," the vampire nodded. "And I'll… deal with Katherine."

Was it wrong of me to hope that whatever it is, she suffers? After what she did do my twin, I still didn't like her. And I wanted her to hurt, like my sister was still hurting.

"And the second condition?" Elijah prompted.

"Alexa. I want you to promise me that no matter what, she'll be protected. I don't care what it takes, she is to be kept safe." There was a look of slight confusion on the Original's face, since he had already guaranteed that my little twin would be safe. But I needed more than that. "She is not to be harmed in any way. On the off chance that she is, she is to be immediately healed. She is not allowed to die. And if Klaus gets his slimy hands anywhere near her, then that's it. Deals off."

"I accept your condition and I shall endeavor to protect Alexandria to the best of my abilities."

I sighed in relief, "Thank you."

If an Original vampire can't protect my sister from Klaus, then I don't know who could. But then again, Damon would do his best to. He loved her.

XXX

Alexa's POV

While I had made sure to exit the woods as quickly as possible, once I had reached the town limits, I slowed my pace down. I still felt the urge to go rushing back to Tyler, to be with him, but I knew that I couldn't. And it was only the knowledge that I may be hurting him if I went back that kept me in check.

But I was losing control. I hurt. Not my body. But my soul. Everything was just building, building and building up and I didn't know what to do. I couldn't let it out. None of my other coping methods were working. I must have baked more than ten cakes in the past few days and I still felt as though I was buzzing all over. There was an itch under my skin. And I knew of only one thing that could scratch that it. That would help me stay in control. And I couldn't fight it anymore.

My feet slowly took in the direction of the Grill. It was the only place that I could think of where I could get my coping method. Everyone who had helped me were dead. But then again, in this town, that wasn't particularly shocking.

Walking in, I immediately began to make my way over to the bar. You can probably guess what I was after. But before I could get there, a strong hand grabbed my arm, stopping me. I was spun around and came face to face with Alaric Saltzman.

"Alexa, what are you doing here?" he asked, pulling me closer, away from the bar.

"Getting a drink," I answered without thinking. It wasn't until I had actually said the words that I registered who, exactly, that I was talking to.

Ric sighed, "Alexa…"

"Relax, Rickity," I gave an empty smile as I lied through my teeth. "I don't mean that kind of drink."

I hated lying to him. He had been so good to me, to my family, to Aunt Jenna. He made her happy. And here I was, lying to him. What a great way of repaying him for that kindness.

"Alexa, what's wrong?" my aunt's boyfriend asked as I leaned against him, resting my head against his chest. Ric helped to steady me. Ever since his relationship with my aunt had gotten more serious, he had become used to my habit of getting physical contact.

"Ty-Ty made me leave, said that it wasn't safe for me down there," I mumbled, picking at a loose thread on my sleeve.

"He's just looking out for you," Alaric said, trying to comfort me, his eyes scanning the bar. But I was too depressed to try and see who he was looking for.

"I know that. I've been having that argument with myself the entire way here. It's just that…. I'm worried about him."

"That's because you care about him. And it's not easy caring for people."

No, it's not. Sometimes, it's the people who we love and care for the most that hurt us the most. That's why love hurts. That's why it hurts so much that Ellie was willing to leave me, to break her promise and leave me.

"Why do I bother?" I asked, part jokingly, part serious.

"Because you're human, Alexa," Ric sighed, running his hand through my hair and giving a gentle nudge towards the bar. "Now go get your drink."

For once, I did as I was told.

I slowly made my way over to the bar, my gaze fixed upon the bottles of alcohol on the wall. Fixed to the point that I was blind to all else around me. Which considering all the supernatural beings that were littered around the town, probably wasn't the smartest thing.

So when an extremely familiar voice called my name, I jumped like a mile in the air before glancing to my right. And a small smile immediately formed on my face as I saw my Damon Salvatore leaning around a strange woman to look at me. There was a confused frown on his beautiful face and I immediately changed direction to wander over to him.

"Hey Damon," I said softly as I came to a stop right in front of my vampire, giving the woman a quick glance as I did so.

"What are you doing here, Alexa?" Damon asked as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me back against his chest. I snuggled down deep into his chest, my body relaxing the moment that he touched me. Even if I did not know if he reciprocated it, it was nice to be held by the man that I loved.

"I was just getting a drink before I made my way home," I replied, glancing over at the lady Damon had been talking to.

She was staring at me, an interested look on her face. A look which had gotten even more interested when Damon pulled me into his arms. She looked pretty and oh my god is it really bad that I actually feel slightly jealous that Damon was talking to her? No, bad Alexa, he isn't yours to get jealous over, even if you do love him.

"Hi, I'm Alexa," I gave the lady a quick wave before resting my hands on my vampire's arms.

"Jules," she returned, nodding slightly.

"Pleasure to meet you," I mumbled, narrowing my eyes slightly. "Whatcha doin' in Mystic Falls, Jules?"

"I'm looking for Mason," she replied, sounding a little too… I dunno, she just sounded off to me. And it put me on edge.

"Why? He's back in Florida," I frowned, once again lying through my teeth. God I hated doing that. Especially about Mason. He deserved to be buried properly, even if he did threaten to snap my twin's neck. I had declared him dead to me and god, I regret that so much now.

"Uh, actually, the sheriff has declared him a missing person," Damon cut in, telling me what Caroline and Tyler had told me earlier. And great, now I was thinking about Tyler again. And what he's going through. Just when I had finally pushed it out of my mind, here it was again.

"Mason's missing?" I gasped, glancing between Damon and Jules. "But…. I just thought that he had gone back to Florida. That's what he normally does when he leaves. Now you say that he's missing. I just can't believe it."

Well done Lexa, that was some amazing acting there.

I turned and rested my head against my Damon's shoulder. I was so tired. It wasn't even a physical tired. It was an emotional tired. I felt as though I had been on an emotional roller-coaster throughout the day. And now I was feeling the effects of that.

"How do you know Mason?" Jules asked me, sounding extremely curious. Guess her interest in me has just sky-rocketed after my reveal of knowing Mason.

"I'm best friends with his nephew," I shrugged, my reply muffled slightly by Damon's shoulder.

"Tyler?" the lady clarified with an interested look.

"Yeah, my Ty," I smiled softly at the thought of my adopted older brother. "He's like an older brother to me. And Mason was like an uncle to me while I was growing up. A very naughty uncle who was a very bad influence." I couldn't help but add that bit as I thought back to all the parties that Mason helped us get to and get home from. And all the horror films that he let us watch before our parents let us. "But he was amazing for Ty when he came back. He helped Tyler during Mayor Lockwood's funeral and he even stuck around afterwards to help him get through all of the grief. Mason's a great guy and he spent the whole time with Ty, just being there for him," I was extremely grateful to Damon for pulling me closer to him.

I needed his support and he gave it to me. He helped me, just like he helped me through everything else. And people say that he's the bad, selfish brother. Guess they just never bothered looking past all of his defenses.

"And, you know, I'm really tight with the sheriff," Damon said as his fingers lightly stroked my side. "If there's anything that I can do to help locate Mason, I will."

I closed my eyes and allowed Damon to take control of the conversation now that it was moving away from my Lockwood's. And he obviously had a plan in mind, since he had his 'Plan Face' on. I loved his plan face. He looked so serious.

"You haven't touch your drink," my vampire said, momentarily removing his hand from my back to gesture towards the drink. I internally frowned. There was a reason as to why he said that. But did I want to know that reason?

"You know, I'm not much of a drinker," Jules countered, pushing the drink away from her slightly. "I should get going."

If she wasn't gonna drink it then I sure as hell was.

"Oh come on," Damon protested with an odd look on his face. "Look, one drink."

Hmmm, why was Damon pushing the issue so much? Be careful Dameydoodle, push her anymore and it'll look suspicious.

The lady looked at the glass for a moment, a considering look on her face, before she gave in, "It'll help me sleep."

"To sleep," Damon repeated, raising his own drink.

I opened my eyes to watch as Jules picked up her drink, sniffed at it and then slammed it down on the bar. I jumped slightly at the noise and Damon pulled me even closer, reassuring me. But seriously, what was her problem? Did the drink offend her or something?

"You fool," she spat, glaring at my vampire. "You think you're clever, don't you?"

"What do you want with Mason Lockwood?" Damon asked, dropping the nice act and leaning forward.

I stared between the two with wide eyes. What the hell have I gotten myself into this time? Why? Why did this always happen to me?

"He's my friend," she snapped, her voice dangerous low.

"Well, I'm sorry to inform you that you probably won't find him," the vampire got off of the barstool and moved closer to Jules. He carefully guided me backwards so that he was stood between me and the lady supe. Because there was no way in hell that she was a human.

"And why not?" Jules growled. Seriously, what kind of supe was she? She obviously wasn't a vampire, or at least, I didn't think that she was. A witch would be a no no since she would be witchy jujuing Damon's brain right about now. So that must mean…

"You should leave town," Damon said threateningly, pushing me further behind him.

"You're threatening me?" Jules scoffed mockingly. "On a full moon? How stupid are you?"

Well, guess that answers that question. Miss Jules was a werewolf. A werewolf who's bite is fatal to a vampire… Craaaaaaaap not good not good.

I tugged on my Damon's arm in an attempt to get his attention. He needed to stop, full moon plus werewolf plus possible fatal to vampires bite equals bad. But unfortunately, while I did manage to get Damon's attention, I also got the attention of Jules the Werewolf.

"And you? You're even worse than he is," the werewolf growled at me. "He killed Mason and there you are, cuddling up to him. What would Tyler think if he knew?"

"She's not a part of this," Damon snapped, pushing me behind him so that I was out of sight of the pissed of werewolf. "Alexa had nothing to do with Mason's death and she knows nothing about it."

But she was right though. Tyler will hate me for my part in what happened to his uncle. Because I did have a part in it, thus meaning that I had a part in hurting Ty. He'll hate me and I'll completely deserve it.

While I was caught up in my thoughts, dear Ric had made his way over.

"Damon, how about that second round?" he asked, slumping over the bar and pretending to be drunk.

"I think we're done, Ric," my vampire told him, basically telling him that whatever ruse that they had concocted was over and done with. He then looked over at lady wolf, raising an eyebrow in arrogant amazement, "You think I'm afraid of you?"

Um, Damon, honey, one bite from her could possibly kill you, so yeah, you probably should be afraid of her. I know that I'm afraid of her for you. Because you're too much of an idiot to be properly afraid.

"No, I don't," Jules smirked arrogantly. "That's your vampire arrogance. You should be. I sniffed you out the moment that you entered this bar, along with your pathetic wolfsbane." Here she glared over at Ric who had the grace to look moderately ashamed at being caught. But that explains why Damon was fixated on her drinking her drink. The sneaky little so and so was trying to wolfsbane her. "I've been at this a long time," she continued. "And any other night of the month, the situation would be reversed, but tonight is not the night to pick a fight with me. You've been marked."

With one last dirty look at the three of us, the werewolf left the Grill.

We watched as the wolf left, none of us speaking a word. Well, you've gotta give it to the girl, she certainly knows how to make an exit. I watched until she had reached the doors before turning back around to face the bar.

It didn't take long for Damon to follow her, looking decidedly unhappy, with Ric giving chase to make sure that he didn't do anything stupid. I knew that I had to follow, since Damon was unlikely to listen to reason while in the mood that he was in, but there was something that I had to do first.

I waved down one of the bartenders and gave him one of my most charming smiles, "Hey honey, could I possibly purchase one of your finest bottles of whiskey?"

I know, I know, I was being bad. I wasn't supposed to be drinking. I had promised Elena that I would stop. But she promised that she wouldn't leave me. So I'm gonna do this. And nothing was gonna stop me.

The lovely bartender immediately rushed off to get me my bottle. It was at times like this that I loved Damon for compelling the bartenders to give me whatever I wanted without IDing me. And I just put it on Damon's tab, not that he minded.

"Thank you," I smiled at the dear as he passed me the beautiful bottle of whiskey. I placed the bottle in my bag and made my way out of the Grill. With every step that I took with the bottle, a pit of guilt in my tummy grew and grew. And I hated the fact that I felt guilty for buying it. Why should I feel guilty? Ugh.

I stepped outside and immediately shivered as the cool night air hit me. Looking around, it took me less than a second to find Damon and Alaric.

"Where is she?" Damon growled, looking around. But Jules had disappeared. Much to my vampire's annoyance.

I made sure that the whiskey bottle was well hidden before I made my way over to the pair. I knew that Ric would get all disapproving if he saw the bottle and Damon would just start worrying about me even more than he already does. And they didn't need to be distracted by me having a breakdown. They had more important things to worry about, like keeping Elena alive.

"Just let it go, Damon," Ric said, chasing after the vampire as he stalked to the center of the town square. "Don't be stupid."

"So what? Just let her get away?" Damon snapped as I caught up with them. "'You've been marked'. What the hell kind of wolf throw-down crap is that anyway?"

"Damon, calm down," I pleaded, catching his hands in mine and holding on tight. "Just look up. See? It's a full moon."

The vampire glanced up as Ric took over, "If this werewolf stuff is true, then one bite and you're dead. One bite! Alright?"

"Please Damon, just don't risk it," I said softly, bringing Damon's attention back to me. Damn it Alexandria, don't you dare cry. Don't cry. No crying. Nuh uh, none. If you start, you might not even be able to stop.

But I think we were getting through to him. Which was good. Because we needed to get through to him. I needed to get through to him. I needed him to be ok. With Elena being so determined to sacrifice herself, I couldn't lose Damon too.

"Look, just go home, lock your doors and we'll deal with it in the morning," Ric sighed, squeezing the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"Yeah," Damon nodded, finally understanding what he had managed to get himself into. I smiled, pleased, as I subtly rubbed my eyes. I was back to feeling tired. Or rather, now that I was no longer worried about Damon doing something stupid, the urge to go to sleep was no stronger.

"Come on, Alexa, I'll take you home," Ric offered, having noticed me rubbing my eyes. Guess I wasn't as subtle as I thought.

"No, I'll take her," Damon immediately disagreed, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me back against him. "I'll get her home quicker."

I rolled my eyes, "Honestly, guys, I'm not a child. I am capable of getting home by myself."

I was given two looks that said 'yeah right'. Which was actually quite insulting. I mean, I was capable of getting home by myself without getting into trouble…. Ok, maybe I wasn't, but still, I felt insulted.

"Say bye to Ric," my vampire said as he lifted me up, bridal style.

"Buh bye Ric," I waved at my favourite teacher, who smiled and waved back.

"See you later, Alexa."

I wrapped my arms around Damon's neck and buried my face against his shoulder as used his vamp speed to get me home. While I did still feel the usual nauseating feeling that I normally felt, I did still get to enjoy being pressed up so close to the man that I loved. I was completely surrounded by his Damoney smell and I loved it. And that was another thing that I enjoyed, being able to admit to myself that I did, in fact, love Damon Salvatore. No more hiding my feelings from myself. Now if only I could tell him…

It didn't take long for Damon to arrive on my front porch. As he slowly let go of my legs, I kept my arms tightly wrapped around his neck. I didn't want to let go. Being held by Damon, it helped me forget all the things that I had to worry about. I was able to push them to the back of my mind. And I was reluctant to let that go.

Damon must have felt the same, since he kept a hold of me and didn't push me away.

"I'll be fine," he whispered in my ear. "You know me, I'm always fine."

"Just, please, be careful," I returned, unwilling to join in on our usual banter.

"I will be," Damon promised, looking me in the eye as I pulled away.

"Good," I nodded firmly before a small teasing smirk formed on my face. "Because if you die then I swear that I will find a way to resurrect you, just so that I can kill you myself."

The vampire rolled his eyes as he pulled away completely, "Somehow, that doesn't surprise me."

The smirk turned into a small smile as I unlocked my front door, "Buh bye Damon, see you tomorrow."

"Night Alexa," Damon said, vanishing the moment that I walked through my front door.

I closed the door and rested against it for a moment. God, I just hoped that he was as careful as he promised to be.

XXX

Damon's POV

After saying goodbye to Alexa, I quickly made my way home. Once I was through the door, I made extra sure to turn the lock for what was probably the first time in months. After all, what was the point of locking a door when two vampires lived in the house? And the only people who were stupid enough to break in were vampires.

Wandering over to the drinks table, I poured myself a shot of bourbon and quickly downed it. Pouring myself another one, I pressed the cool glass against my forehead and willed myself to get some self-control. I could still the warmth of the body that had been pressed up against me mere minutes ago. Her delicious scent still clung to me and I had to fight the urge to go straight back to her. But having been 'marked' by that wolf girl, I knew that I couldn't. I would only be putting Alexa in danger. And I could never do that. Because I was in love with the infuriating girl.

Downing the drink in my hand, I made my way through to the library. Only to find Rose sitting on my couch.

I rolled my eyes, "You just can't stay away, can you?"

As I walked over to her, Rose stood up and said, "You don't answer your phone."

"Well, I've been busy," I retorted sharply, unwilling to play along this time round. Because I had been busy making sure that Alexa didn't have a breakdown after finding out that her twin wanted to sacrifice her life to save everyone else's. It was an honorable and brave idea, until you realized that it meant abandoning the very people that you were trying to save and breaking the promise that you made to your sister.

"What do you want, anyway?" I asked as I allowed the curiosity for her return take hold.

"I wanted to apologise," Rosebud admitted with a wry smile. Nope, sorry, no emotional apologies for me tonight. There was only one person who I would be willing to do that with right now and, fortunately, you are not her.

"Just admit it, you don't have anywhere else to go," I smirked, trying to deflect the imminent emotional conversation which I was just not in the mood for.

Unfortunately, the she-vampire was not to be deterred, "I'm sorry about the twins, about Alexa. I know that I shouldn't have taken them, but Alexa was so good at persuading me to go. But I never would have agreed if I had known that Elena had a death wish. And I know that it hurt Alexa which was why I helped her call you, to make it right, ok? I'm sorry, Damon." She paused for a moment before adding with a sheepish grin, "And I have nowhere else to go."

I considered her words and she did sound remorseful. But even if Alexa didn't blame her for what happened, I still did. And she ran out on us when Elijah arrived. We could have used her help but nooo she just fled.

"There's nothing here for you, Rose," I said coldly, turning to face the fire. After catching a glimpse of her face, I did slightly regret my words but not enough to take them back. Maybe, with a bit of time, it would be ok for her to come back.

"Well then," Rose mumbled, preparing to leave.

But before she could, the sound of smashing glass reached our ears. We exchanged looks before rushing off to investigate. I knew that there was no one else at home since Stefan was still stuck in the tomb with Katherine.

The noise had come from the living room but when we arrived, there was no one in sight. Which was not good. I sped forward and pulled one of the swords off of the wall. My eyes darted around the room, searching for the intruder.

There was a low growl behind me and I slowly turned around to see a wolf crouching down, baring its teeth and growling at me. But of course, it was no ordinary wolf because I was just that unlucky. No, this was a werewolf. Whose bit could possibly be fatal to me.

The beast pounced, aiming straight for me. But before I could raise the sword and defend myself, a frantic voice called out my name and a body collided with mine, pushing me out of the way. I landed heavily on the floor and looked up in time to see the wolf land on Rose instead of me. They both fell to the floor and before I could get to my feet, the wolf sank its teeth deep into Rose's shoulder.

I froze for a moment in shock before her terrified screams forced me from my shock. I shot forward and plunged the sword deep into the wolf's side. It let out a pained while and fled from my house before I could kill the damn thing.

But that was unimportant at the moment.

Dropping to my knees, I allowed the sword to fall from my hand as I helped the traumatized Rose sit up. She was shaking in fear and tears slowly fell from her eyes.

"How bad is it?" I asked gently, carefully peeling away the sleeve of her top to get a better look at the bite.

It looked nasty.

"It hurts," Rose whispered, turning her head to look down at the bite. I almost stopped her but she deserved to have a look. If that bite was what was gonna kill her, then she deserved to see it. But hopefully that wasn't the case and the book was lying.

My eyes widened in surprise as the supposed fatal werewolf bite started to heal. I guess it was just something that the wolves made up.

"It's healing," I told the terrified vampire in my arms.

"Oh my god," she gasped out tearfully. "I thought that a werewolf bite was fatal. I thought…"

Her words trailed off into sobs as the relief that she wasn't going to die overwhelmed her. I pulled her close and wrapped my arms around her, allowing her to sob into my shoulder.

"You're gonna be ok," I murmured, resting my chin on the top of her head.

XXX

Alexa's POV

As I entered my bedroom, I carefully placed my bag down on the floor before slumping down onto my bed. I pulled my cuddly bat and wolf toys into my arms and curled up into a ball around them. Since I couldn't actually cuddle up to anyone, my cuddly toys were the next best thing.

My gaze slowly drifted to the full moon outside and I sighed in frustration. I had no idea as to when a werewolf changed back into a human. So I had no idea as to when Tyler would call me to tell me that he was ok. That he had survived his first full moon. Because I would not, could not, stop worrying about him until he called. Until I heard his voice again.

It felt as though that I spent all my time these days worrying about someone. Be that Elena, Tyler, Damon, Jeremy, Stefan, Caroline, Bonnie. Each time that I thought that we were alright and that the people that I loved were alright, something else happened and they were in danger again. And I hated that our lives were like that. Gone were the days when they were safe. And it was all because Ellie and I had fallen in love with a couple of vampires. Although, to be fair, it probably would have happened anyway. Elena was a doppelganger, so Klaus would have come after us anyway. But at least with everything that has happened, we are moderately prepared for him.

I must have dozed off at some point during my worrying because I awoke to a gently hand brushing my hair away from my face. I groaned sleepily and slowly opened my eyes, blinking away the sleep.

"I didn't mean to wake you," a familiar voice whispered and I focused my gaze upon the one and only Stefan Salvatore.

Wait, Stefan?

"Stefan?" I murmured, frowning at the vampire crouch in front of me. "Why aren't you in the tomb?"

"You sound as though you want me back in there," Stef joked, resting a hand on my forearm.

"You know what I mean," I retorted, a small smile unwillingly forming on my face.

"Elijah helped me get out," the vampire informed me.

"Why?"

Stefan looked reluctant to answer my question and, because of that, I dreaded to know the answer.

"On second thoughts, don't tell me," I said before Stefan could say anything.

He looked slightly relieved, which made me dread finding out the real answer even more.

"Shouldn't you be with Elena?" I asked curiously.

"I'm going over there in a minute, I just wanted to check on you first," Stef answered me. "You didn't come and visit me while I was stuck in the tomb, which was incredibly unlike you. So I was worried about you."

"There's no need to worry about me, I'm fine," I muttered, avoiding eye-contact with Stefan. I knew that if we made eye-contact then he would immediately know that I was most definitely not fine. Which would distract him from protecting Elena. And that I couldn't have. Protecting Elena was much more important than looking after me. Her well-being was more important than mine.

"Yeah, I can see that."

"Shut up Stef," I smiled shakily as those blasted tears started to form again.

Stefan frowned and moved so that he was sitting next to me on the bed. Which allowed me to sit up and throw my arms around his neck. I buried my head against his shoulder and valiantly tried to stop the tears from falling. Stef wrapped his arms around me and just held me as I tried to get control of myself.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, just knowing that his super vampire hearing would enable him to hear me.

"Don't be," Stefan chastised softly, stroking my hair. "You're allowed to cry, you know."

I immediately shook my head, "No. I need to be strong for Elena. She needs me to be strong."

"Does she know how much this is affecting you?"

"Nope. And she's not gonna know either. If she's so determined to do what she's doing, then she can't know."

"Alexa," Stef sighed, sounding like he wanted to argue with my logic.

"Promise me, Stefan? Promise that you won't tell her?"

"Ok, I promise, but only if you promise to tell her yourself."

"Don't worry," I snorted into his hsoulder. "It's all bound to come blurting out in typical Alexa fashion at some point."

I pulled back slightly and wiped away the treacherous tears that had fallen.

"Now go on, go see Ellie. She needs you," I nudged the vampire in the tummy.

He reluctantly pulled away and stood up. There was still a hesitant look on his face and I could just tell that he didn't want to leave me while I felt like this.

"Stefan, I'll be fine," I reassured him, pulling on the well-worn mask. "Pinky promise."

"Ok Alexa, as long as you're sure," Stefan said seriously as he bent down and pressed a kiss to my temple.

"I am," I assured him as he walked over to my bedroom door.

"I'm glad that you're out of the tomb," I said before he could leave. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, Alexa."

As soon as Stefan had shut the door, I slumped back down onto the bed so that I was laying on my back. That's what I liked about Stefan, he cared. He cared about his girlfriend's crazy younger twin. He cared about how I felt. And it was true, I did miss him while he was stuck. Even if I was extremely busy worrying during that time. I did still miss him.

Which was why I felt guilty for lying to him. For I had no intention whatsoever to tell Ellie how I felt. She was never gonna find out how much this whole situation has affected me. I know, I know, it might make her stop her idiocy and stop her from trying to sacrifice herself. But then she wouldn't be her. A part of my twin sister was her idiot desire to give her own life for the people that she loved. And I couldn't change that about her. She didn't try and change me so it wouldn't be fair to do that to her.

So I won't tell her how I feel and I won't try and guilt her into stopping. Even if it does mean that I lose her forever. But that doesn't matter, because I get the feeling that if she died, then I won't be long behind her.

XXX

Damon's POV

I was sat on the couch, slowly drinking a shot of bourbon while staring aimlessly into the flames. Rose had disappeared off to take a shower and try and wash off the wolf stench. I had made sure to phone vampire barbie to see if Lockwood had gotten lose. But he hadn't. And there was only one other wolf left in town.

"I talked to Caroline," I said as Rose wandered into the room, a new set of clothes on. "She said that Tyler was all locked up."

"So it was Jules," Rose realized as she sat down next to me. "The other werewolf, the one who attacked you."

"Yeah, I'm sorry," I sighed in genuine regret as I poured her a drink. "I picked a fight with her. She was coming after me."

"All's well that ends well," Rosie smiled at me, taking the drink and accepting my apology.

"You're all healed?" I checked, praying that she was. Rose didn't deserve to die. Especially because of me. And I hoped, for her sake, that the bite was all healed.

"Yeah, seems that way," the she-vampire answered, glancing down at her shoulder.

"Rose, I'm happy that the legend was a fake. Maybe the werewolves made it up to keep vampires away."

It was possible. Even if it did inspire vampires to hunt the werewolves to the point of extinction, it also had the effect of making the vampires way. After all, who wanted to hunt something where one bite could possibly kill you?

"Lucky me," Rose laughed, obviously agreeing with me. But she quickly grew serious, "Look, I'm gonna stay and help you."

I looked over at her from where I was pouring another drink, "Help me do what?"

"Save and protect Elena for Alexa. And to keep Alexa safe."

That surprised me. I knew that she had formed a bond with Alexa during that stupid trip, but I didn't realize how deep it had gone.

"Really? Why?" I asked skeptically.

"Because I like you. And I like Alexa. I believe in friendship. I happen to have a vacancy in that department and you can use all the friends that you can get."

"Thank you," I said, my tone completely serious, as I looked her in the eye.

"There's no need to thank me, I'm doing this for Alexa as well. Besides, you love her and even I can see that losing her twin sister will completely break her."

As I poured her another drink, I allowed a small smile to form on my face. I was just thankful that I had someone else to help me look after the trouble magnet twins.

We sat in silence for a couple of minutes, just enjoying the comfortable silence. But then Rose hissed in pain and brought her hand up to the shoulder where the bite had been. Her eyes flew up to meet mine and the fear in them was unmistakable.

I moved closer and pulled down the sleeve of her top, revealing her shoulder. The skin where the bite had been had changed dramatically. Instead of smooth skin, there were now open sores and blisters. The veins had a diseased appearance and looked blackened.

I looked Rose in the eye as we both realized the same thing.

The bite had not healed.

XXX

Alexa's POV

I sat, cross-legged, on my bed, staring at the whiskey bottle in my hands.

Just one sip. One sip and I would be able to cope with everything. One sip. That's all I need.

Slowly, almost as though I was in a trance, I unscrewed the lid. The delicious, sharp smell of whiskey reached my nose. I briefly closed my eyes in satisfaction. It had been ages since I had last had a drink.

Inch by inch, I raised the bottle to my lips. Sensible thought had completely deserted me and all I could think about was the beautiful alcohol in my hands. In mere moments, I would once again have that feeling that I would be able to cope with this.

But just as the cool glass of the bottle touched my lips, reason hit me.

There was a reason as to why I haven't been drinking recently. It was wrong. I went to extremes and I needed to have a clear-head. I couldn't protect my twin sister if I was completely hammered. And I promised her, promised, that I wouldn't drink again. I can't break that promise.

I've got to prove that I'm a good enough sister for her.

I have to prove to her that I'm worth staying alive for.

I have to prove that I'm important.

XXX

A/N: Thank you for the reviews, darlings. They motivated me to finish a chapter which had been driving me crazy! Please keep them coming! And if you have any childhood moments from the twin's that you want to see, please let me know! Until next time, hope you enjoyed xoxo