If anyone had told Katherine Pierce that she would return to Mystic Falls, she would have thought them mad.

But then she heard the news.

Klaus Mikaelson was dead.

Finally dead.

She was free for the first time in over five hundred years.

And her doppelgänger was a vampire.

At least if her sources were to be believed.

So Katherine found herself once more returning to Mystic Falls, telling herself she just wanted to see if her last living descendent was still … Well, sort-of living.

As night fell, she decided to stop for a few hours to get some sleep. She wasn't far from the old Salvatore lake-house after all, and that didn't have a human owner.

It was not, however, empty.

As she pulled up to it, she realised that Damon's car was parked outside as well.

Katherine sighed, resting her head on the steering wheel.

If Damon was out here, there were two possibilities.

One - Elena was dead, and Damon had come out here to grieve.

Unlikely, in her opinion.

Two - Elena was a vampire, and Damon had brought her out here to help her learn control.

That didn't seem likely either - surely Elena would be with Stefan; unless she had completely misread things last time she was in Mystic Falls, her doppelgänger was still in love with the younger brother.

Then again, Katherine had kept enough of a watch on both the Salvatores to know that Stefan's go-to reaction after a blood binge was guilt - maybe he was pushing her away.

Whatever the reason, Katherine had to know.

Letting herself in through the unlocked door, Katherine moved silently through the living room, listening intently.

All was quiet above her, except two vampire hearts beating not quite in time with one another. One of them was accompanied by soft breaths she knew was Elena.

The fact that no one else was breathing at least told her that Damon was fast asleep - vampires didn't need to breathe, but most continued to automatically.

Damon stopped only when he was asleep.

Katherine hesitated, but she knew in her heart that she had returned to Mystic Falls for a reason. She put the remaining blood bags in the refrigerator, then opened her bag and pulled out some clothes and a robe, folding them into a pile, before carrying them upstairs, trying to remember the layout of the house.

She hadn't been back here since the few secluded days she and Damon had spent hidden away from the world, and she had been in a lot of houses since them.

She followed the sound of Elena's breathing to one of the bedrooms, and paused outside to make sure definitely asleep, before pushing the door open.

This had been Damon's mother's room, if she remembered correctly, and Katherine placed the clothes on top of the dresser, laying the robe on top so that Elena would see it when she woke up.

A soft murmur made her freeze, but a glance at her sleeping doppelgänger told her that Elena was not waking, but dreaming - an unpleasant dream, going by the creases forming in her brow. The covers had slipped almost to the floor, leaving Elena shivering slightly in a nightgown that was certainly not hers, given the age of it.

Before she had consciously thought about it, Katherine crossed the floor and pulled the covers back up and over her doppelgänger.

Elena let out a small whimper, and Katherine hushed her, smoothing a hand across Elena's hairline without thinking about it.

Elena stilled, her breathing settling into something more rhythmic, and Katherine breathed as sigh of relief, blurring from the room and silently shutting the door behind her.

Now came the fun part - working out which room Damon wasn't in.

Vampire heartbeats were somewhat harder to track.

As it happened, she struck out on the first try, but at least she had been right - Damon was dead to the world … no pun intended.

She should retreat, ensconce herself in one of the other rooms, and prepare for the inevitable drama that tomorrow would bring, but against her better instincts - she was full of them tonight - she crossed the floor to Damon's still form.

Asleep, Damon could pass for the sweet, innocent human she had fallen in love with all those years ago, but she knew better.

He wasn't truly innocent then, and he certainly wasn't now.

Katherine suddenly felt very, very tired, but she knew better than to do anything stupid.

The truth would hurt her far more than it would him.

Her hand reached out without her consent to touch his face. Even asleep, his mind was racing, and she wrenched her hand away as thoughts flooded into her head.

It hadn't been her intention, but it would certainly help her work out what happened.

Filing them to the back of her mind, she left the room, picked up her bag, and made her way to the empty guest room.

Everything else could wait until tomorrow.

When Elena awoke the next morning, the first thing she noticed was the aching hunger inside her, worse than anything she had felt before. With that in mind, it didn't take her long to remember what had happened, and she rolled over to hide her face in the pillow, groaning loudly.

The smell of breakfast wafted up the stairs and under the door, but it wasn't what she wanted, what she craved, not at all.

Still, it was something, and it might just satisfy her long enough for Damon to procure some blood bags, so she reluctantly got up, running a hand through her hair.

There was a pile of neatly folded clothes on top of the dresser, along with a silken robe, and Elena frowned, checking her phone.

Odd … It's not late. Damon must have gone out overnight.

Slipping the robe on, Elena tied it around her middle and stepped out of her room, only to find Damon doing the same thing down the corridor.

"You shouldn't really leave breakfast on its own," she said. "We don't want to burn the house down."

Damon frowned. "I thought you were cooking."

"If I was cooking, the smoke alarm would be going off," Elena said.

Damon's frown deepened. "Where'd you get the robe?"

"It was on the dresser," Elena answered. "Didn't you drop some clothes off?"

"Elena, I've been asleep," Damon said, with some exasperation. "Where am I supposed to get clothes from? Thin air?"

"Damon …" Elena said slowly. "There is someone cooking breakfast. If we're both up here, then who's down there?" Her face brightened. "Do you think it's Stefan?"

Damon grimaced. "Don't get your hopes up. You know as well as I do that Stefan's as stubborn as hell."

"He told me that he loved me last night," Elena said. "Well, sort of."

"'Sort of'?" Damon repeated.

"Well, he kind of did it in code," Elena said. "I think."

"Then it's unlikely to be him," Damon said bluntly, but not unkindly. "I suggest we find out who it is."

Of all the people Elena expected to see in the kitchen, wearing an apron and serving up French toast and scrambled eggs, Katherine Pierce was not one of them.

But there she was all the same, humming to herself as she moved around the kitchen, looking uncharacteristically domestic.

"What the hell are you doing?" Damon asked, too shocked to sound angry.

"Making breakfast," Katherine answered without looking up. "Hope you both like French toast; I made a lot."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Don't be cute, Katherine. What are you doing in my kitchen?!"

"Well, I'd look a bit of an idiot making breakfast in the living room, now, wouldn't I, Damon?"

Sensing that Damon was on the verge of blowing up, Elena stepped forward, placing a calming hand on his arm. "I think what Damon means, Katherine, is what are you doing here in Mystic Falls, rather than in - I dunno - Cyprus, hiding from Klaus."

"Wasn't in Cyprus. Wasn't far from Mystic Falls actually," Katherine said breezily. "Heard Klaus was dead. Heard what happened to you. Thought I'd come and help."

Damon let out a bark of humourless laughter. "Katherine, the word 'help' isn't in your vocabulary."

Katherine gave him a dirty look. "Sometimes it is."

Elena looked down at the robe she was wearing. "You left me this? And the other clothes?"

"I did," Katherine confirmed. "It'll do you for the time being. All the curtains are closed, although it is very cloudy today, so you can probably go outside …"

"I'll be the judge of that," Damon said darkly.

"… and I brought blood-bags," Katherine continued, as though he hadn't spoken. "I know you won't trust me, but you can get Damon to check the seals; I promise they haven't been opened …"

"Katherine, why are you doing this?" Elena asked softly

Katherine paused in her movement, and fixed Elena with a contemplative gaze. "Maybe I feel like being nice," she said after a few minutes. "Maybe for the first time in my life, I can actually live my life rather than looking over my shoulder." She smirked. "Or maybe I have an ulterior motive."

"What ulterior motive?" Elena asked. "What do you get out of helping me?"

"Well, I'd get the blame if you snap and kill people," Katherine said with a shrug.

"She's not going to kill people," Damon said.

"All newbies kill people, Damon," Katherine said breezily. "It's pretty much a given."

"Damon …"

"You won't, Elena," Damon told her firmly, not taking his eyes off Katherine.

Katherine glanced at her again, and her smirk softened. "He's right, Elena. We won't let you."

"We?" Damon repeated. "Did you just join my side?"

Katherine rounded the island in the middle of the kitchen, brushing against his chest as she met his eyes. "Damon, I've always been on your side."

Damon snorted and left the room. "Yeah right!"

Katherine just rolled her eyes and turned back to Elena. "Your call. If you want me to go, then I'll go."

Elena didn't bother lowering her voice. "Why do you want to help me? You hate me."

Katherine raised an eyebrow. "I don't remember ever saying that. We are family, after all. Do you want my help or not?"

Elena opened her mouth to answer, then hesitated, Damon's warning the night before echoing in her memory. "Excuse me a second," she said, following Damon into the living room. "Can you tell me it's okay?"

"What's okay?" Damon asked, peering through the gap in the curtains. "She is right about the cloud cover, if you want to try going outside."

Elena hesitated, then shook her head. "Not today."

"Alright," Damon said. "What's okay?"

"I know you don't particularly want Katherine around," Elena said softly. "I need to know that my reaction is mine, not yours."

"Now she gets it," Damon muttered. "Look, Elena, she's a doppelgänger as well, so there might be something she knows that I don't. And she might be up to something. Probably is. But it would make me happy if you decided this for yourself. And I mean that."

Elena nodded, returning to the kitchen. "What's the catch?"

"No catch," Katherine told her, still leaning against the counter. "I swear to you, Elena."

"Then what do you get out of it?" Elena asked. "Seriously, not that 'not getting the blame' thing - we both know you'd wriggle out of it; you always do."

Katherine smiled. "Thank you."

Elena couldn't help remembering Damon's words of warning after Katherine had first returned to Mystic Falls: "She loves to play games, and you're fooling yourself if you think you can figure out what she's up to before she wants you to know."

His words, although bitter, had held a certain amount of admiration, and Elena wondered how much of his 'I hate Katherine' façade had been false before she had rejected him once and for all.

She wondered how much of it still was.

"I still want an answer," Elena said firmly.

Katherine sighed, leaning over to switch on the empty blender, gesturing Elena closer. "I'd rather Damon didn't eavesdrop," she said softly. "In the tomb, you asked me a question that I laughed off. You asked me if I ever thought about my child. And the truth is, Elena, I lied. I do think about her. I have thought about her every day my humanity has been on. They tell you that if you never saw your child then you're not really a mother, but I didn't need to see her. I loved my daughter, Elena, whatever you may think of me, and you are the last piece of my daughter that remains on this earth. For my daughter's sake, I want to help you."

Elena stared into eyes identical to her own, trying to gauge whether Katherine was telling the truth. Her eyes seemed to be clear of the usual mixture of deceit and seduction, and it didn't seem like Katherine to use something so intensely personal to manipulate her.

Then again, it didn't seem like Katherine to admit something so intensely personal in the first place.

Something in her gut told her that Katherine was not telling her something, but it also told her that what Katherine had said was true.

"Is there a difference?" Elena asked. "Being a doppelgänger, I mean. Does it make a difference?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Katherine answered. "Everyone handles the transition differently, but the only sirelings I didn't teach personally were Damon and Stefan, and most of the others were more or less like mine."

If Katherine did have an ulterior motive, surely she would have lied and said yes.

"Alright," Elena said slowly. "I can't believe I'm going to say this, but … I think I need all the help I can get."

"Good," Katherine said with a smirk, turning off the blender, "because I wasn't planning on leaving."

"Didn't think you were," Elena muttered, playing with a strand of hair restlessly. Her gums were beginning to ache, hunger gnawing at her.

Katherine must have noticed, because her expression softened and she retrieved a mug from the microwave. "Here. You need blood, and it's nicer warm." She held up a hand as Elena reached for it. "Wait. Get that under control first."

Elena stopped, feeling her face changing. "I don't think I can."

"Nonsense," Katherine said briskly. "You need to at some point, may as well start now. Close your eyes, take a deep breath. Breathe through it."

"Katherine, she needs blood," Damon said, reappearing from the living room. "Now."

"Wait," Katherine said softly. "Just wait."

Elena closed her eyes, breathing through her mouth. The scent was overwhelming, and her hands clenched into fists, her nails cutting into her palm and drawing blood themselves.

Why she was taking Katherine's advice over Damon's, she wasn't sure, but her doppelgänger had a point about starting early.

Slowly, painfully slowly, she felt her face relax and her teeth return to normal, and she opened her eyes to see Katherine smiling at her.

"Better." Katherine handed her the mug. "Don't stand on ceremony."

Elena didn't, gulping the blood down hungrily as though she hadn't eaten for weeks, only for the shame to hit her almost immediately afterwards.

"Elena, it's okay," Damon said softly, seeing the expression in her eyes. "After a couple of days, the initial rush wears off. Form comes in time."

"You'll be fine," Katherine said, almost dismissively.

"How do you know? Elena asked.

"You didn't fight it," Katherine answered simply. "Most new vampires would have ignored me and fought to get the blood. You didn't. You got the bloodlust under control first."

"But I didn't, did I?" Elena muttered.

Katherine snorted. "That wasn't bloodlust, Elena. That was hunger. The first couple of days are like being stuck in a desert, and every drop of blood is the first drop of water you've seen in days. Your body needs it. We'll try it again in an hour."

"She doesn't need to feed again for four at least," Damon pointed out.

Katherine rolled her eyes. "The more often she feeds for the first few days, the faster the initial rush wears off, Damon. You know that."

"No I didn't," Damon said. "I've never heard that before."

"No one told you after you turned?" Katherine asked.

Damon gave her a dirty look. "Who exactly was supposed to tell me, Katherine? You'd fucked off and left me with a witch who barely tolerated me who was killed not even a year later! Stefan and I figured it out on our own, in case you'd forgotten."

Katherine had the decency to look a little guilty, but Damon didn't give her a chance to respond, turning to Elena.

"We'll start with your hearing," he said. "You might have noticed that everything sounds louder."

Elena nodded. "That's an understatement."

"You just need to readjust," Damon said. "We'll deal with that today."

"Can we eat first?" Elena asked. "I know I don't need it, but it's still making me hungry."

"As it happens, that's the best way to hang on to your humanity," Katherine said, handing Elena a place. "Help yourself."

Elena did so, allowing herself a bigger portion than she would normally have gone for. "You know, I always wondered what Caroline was talking about when she complained about warring parents. Now I know."

"Except we're not your parents," Damon said, still glaring at Katherine.

"Yeah, but you're acting just like Bill and Liz did after the divorce," Elena said.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Just eat your breakfast."

"Or what?" Elena asked, grinning. "You'll ground me?"

Damon pretended not to hear her.