Bonnie took the juice from Stefan with an appreciative smile and sipped at it. She sat it down on Stefan's dresser as Elena stepped out of the bathroom. She looked better in cloths her own size. "You look great." she stated matter of factly and gave her a reassuring smile. "Now down to business. Your Aunt is going to freak. Your sister is going to be happy, well confused and happy at the same time. Now how to go about explaining all this. Your Aunt though, I'm afraid to say, is going to be the easy part. We still have the town to tell. Not to mention Tyler Smallwood is out there armed with the information that your back and I'm sure he's plenty pissed at us. There is no telling how he's going to retaliate." she began to pace very similar to the way Elena had the first time she was in this very same room.

Bonnie chewed on her lip, deep in thought and once again found herself at the window. If only Caroline and Damon hadn't left, they needed all the help they could get. Her thoughts moved back to Tyler. 'No he's not going to be happy at all.' An idea suddenly hit her and it sent shivers down her spine. "God, Tyler's out there somewhere and Caroline's alone. I mean she might be at home for all we know, with her parents but they're not going to be any help to her against a very mad werewolf." With that said she snatched the phone away from Meredith and dialed Caroline's number. "Please Caroline be there. You've got to be there."

Caroline was in light sleep when the hallway light shined in and flooded her bed. Her dad stood in the doorway, the cordless phone in his hand.

"Caroline. Get up for a moment."

Caroline rubbed her eyes, "wha...what."

"Bonnie's on the phone...do you have your ringer off?"

Caroline looked at her phone. Sure enough it was off. "Yeah...I wanted some undisturbed sleep."

Her dad frowned. "Well, you have your own phone so that when your friends call. My sleep won't be disturbed. Here." he tossed the phone to Caroline. It landed on her bed.

"Sorry, dad." the door shut behind him and he scuffed off back to bed. Caroline held up the phone. "Hi bonnie."

Bonnie felt a momentary wave of relief pass over her. "Caroline. I don't know what happened earlier but you've got to get back over here. Um. It's not safe for you out there by yourself. Caroline I have to know if you've seen Tyler at all today or if he's tried to contact you? Caroline this is really important. If you want us to come get you we will. You're just... well it's just not safe." Bonnie's heart was pounding and she felt her palms begin to sweat. In the middle of her plea she had once more began to pace. She heard silence on the phone and a panic shot through her. "Caroline are you there?"

Caroline could hear Bonnie's panic. Maybe something was wrong. She was after all psychic or whatever.

"Ok, bonnie. You win. Come and get me. My parents wont let me out so watch for me to climb out of my window. Down the trellis."

She hung up the phone quietly...and snuck around like a mouse. She put on a pair of sweat pants and a matching hooded sweatshirt. She tossed her long hair into a ponytail and threw on a pair of running shoes. She surveyed her look in the mirror. How uncarolinelike, especially without makeup. She smirked and watched out her window and waited.

She heard a crackle in the yard below. She sunk into a shadow and bit her lower lip watching. A dark figure stepped from the shrubbery. A looming, muscular figure. It looked like Tyler and he looked beyond pissed off. His eyes scaled the house with a scary predatory glare. Wolf eyes. Primal viciousness. Caroline began to shake as she held her breath. Please bonnie. Hurry!

Matt pulled up in front of the boarding house, parked his truck and got out. He spotted Bonnie's Cherokee in the drive ahead and saw that a light was on in the room Stefan occupied. Tugging at his jacket he made his way to the front door. He didn't know if he should knock or just go in. He decided on the latter. Poking his head in the doorway he looked about. "Hello? Mrs. Flowers?" he asked as he looked into the house that was slowly darkening by the setting sun. Not receiving an answer he started up the first flight of stairs. When he made his way up to the door that led to Stefan's stairway he stopped abruptly at the sound of Bonnie's frantic voice calling out for Caroline. 'Oh god, is Bonnie in trouble?' the thought sent chills up his spine and he felt an all-familiar fear. 'Klaus?' A cold glint came into his eyes as his brow furrowed. 'Not again.' He thought and with a determined look he charged up the stairs. Matt bursted through door and he looked about. His scowl quickly turned into a look of confusion as he surveyed the room. There was Elena in some of Meredith's clothing, Meredith was nearby at the door, Stefan was standing near his dresser, and Bonnie was in the middle of the room with a cell phone in her hand. "What the hell is going on?" he demanded as he swept a shaky hand through his hair.

"Ok Caroline I'm on my way." the words had just left her lips when a very distraught Matt rushed into the room.

"What the hell is going on?" he demanded as he ran a shaky hand through his hair.

Bonnie shook her head as she cut Meredith's phone off and tossed it on the bed. "No time to explain Matt but I've got to go." before she made it to the door though a strong hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her in mid step.

"I'm going with you." he said matter of factly and remained holding her wrist as the shot down the stairs, leaving the others to watch them.

With her free hand she pulled her keys out of her bag and jerking, gently away from him made her way to the driver's side. With shaky hands she attempted to unlock her door. Once again Matt was there to take control and took the keys away from her.

"I'll drive, you're in no condition to be under the wheel."

Bonnie's eyes narrowed and she bit back a retort and ran to the passenger's side. 'Men... they think they know everything.' she thought angrily but she couldn't keep herself from shaking. 'God Caroline, we're coming.' she sent her thoughts out to the young girl. 'I wish she were psychic.' Suddenly a thought came to her. Damon could hear thoughts maybe he heard that one. 'Oh please Damon you've got to help Caroline. Tyler could be there at her house right now!'

Bonnie gave a quick sigh of relief as Matt unlocked the doors with push of the button on the key chain. 'Oh yeah, that was brilliant Bonnie. There's a stupid button on the damn key chain.' she scolded herself as she got quickly into the car and buckled up. She barely had time to shut her door as Matt threw the car in drive and sped out of the driveway.

"Ok. Now tell me. Why are we hauling ass to Caroline's?" he asked as he glanced quickly at her.

"Tyler's out there somewhere and Caroline's at home. We don't know what mood he's in. he could have either 1 saw the error of his ways or 2 is even more pissed at us that before." Matt nodded and tossed a grim look in the rear view mirror.

A couple minutes later they arrived in front of Caroline's house. Bonnie opened the door and leapt out of the car. She spotted the other girl hiding in the shadows and glanced around for any sign of Tyler. Sure enough a little ways away from Caroline stood a man, his back to them. He did look like Tyler, but Bonnie couldn't be sure. He must have heard them come up for he disappeared into the shadows. Bonnie ran to Caroline and grabbed her hand. "I'll explain to you on the way back to the boarding house." she simply said as she dragged the other girl to the car. Once everyone was back in the car Bonnie signed a breath of relief. "Somebody's up to something. I don't know who it is but I don't think he came to your house to sell Girl Scout cookies," she said in a half shaky half joking voice.

Elena watched as Bonnie worked herself up into a frenzy, punching buttons on her cell phone as though she were fixing to break it, before speaking in a rushed, obviously frantic voice to what Elena assumed was Caroline.

She swung her raised eyebrow _expression towards Stefan, hoping that at least he would be the cool, calm, and collected voice of reason. Opening her mouth to point out that it wasn't smart for them all to go scurrying off in different directions. Although, it seemed to be more than she could hope for Bonnie to listen to that reason like she once did.

*I've been gone long enough for things to change... a lot...* Elena thought slowly, the edges of sadness coloring those emotions. She had once been the Queen of Robert E. Lee High School. And now she was, what? Not even supposed to be alive. It gave her a queer sense of not belonging, even of not belonging within the same sphere of existence of Stefan and Damon, who were outsiders by their nature alone.

During all of this, Matt appeared and was quickly dragged out by Bonnie, leaving just herself, Stefan, and Meredith in the boarding house.

"This meeting's going well," she said dryly.

Stefan looked at her and managed a small smile. "Bonnie seems a little eager, doesn't she?" He asked shaking his head in amusement. "Should we wait for them, or try to decided what to do by ourselves?" He asked Elena and Meredith.

Bonnie finally relaxed as Matt pulled the car once more in front of the boarding house. She had the strong urge to giggle. Everything was just so strange now. Running from shadows, jumping at the slightest noise... not knowing who to trust and who not to trust. She didn't know if it was Tyler at Caroline's house but if it was she was pretty sure he was up to no good. The three of them got out of the car and made there way to the front door. She was starting to feel like some kind of paranormal hunter type person from a TV show. Life hadn't been the same since Stefan first arrived and they had all became pawns in Katherine's personal game of revenge. The thought of that cold-hearted vampire wasting her time in hell was comforting. She glanced at Matt and noticed him staring at her with a funny _expression, like he couldn't quite figure her out.

Bonnie suppressed a growl of frustration. 'If I had known me changing my hair and picking out a cute outfit was going to cause this much confusion I would have kept the bad perm and thrown on a pair of sweats like Caroline. Bonnie felt bad for the girl. She looked frightened and like she hadn't had a good nights sleep in years. She was surprised that she hadn't snapped yet, told them all were they could shove their concern and skip town. She had left town before when things had gotten weird. Maybe it was best if they all left. Just because they grew up here didn't mean they had to stay here forever. The small town was exactly that, a small town and you couldn't buy a new shade of lipstick or go to the bathroom with out someone knowing about it. It was starting to get stifling. Bonnie, Caroline, and Matt made there way up to Stefan's room with out a word. "I wonder if Tyler followed us here," she asked breaking the silence. She gave Matt a questioning look as they entered the room.

The group in the boarding house didn't get to start; Matt must have done a hundred to Caroline's and back. The two entered with Caroline in tow. "Alright." Stefan said, trying to gain some control of the group. "I don't think we have to worry about Tyler right now. If anything, he's scared."

Elena nodded in agreement to Stefan's assessment of Tyler. After seeing him run through a bonfire to get as far away as possible, she couldn't imagine him, even being as thick headed as he was, going on the offensive so quickly. If anything, Tyler would be off hiding somewhere, licking his wounds and dealing with, at the very least, a low-grade migraine from the blow he had sustained.

But the agreement in her eyes turned to that of mild confusion when Stefan posed his question.

"My main concern right now is Elena." He turned to his girlfriend. Might as well get everything out into the open, let everyone know. "Are you alright? Are you hungry?" The way he toned his voice when he asked, he knew that Elena would know the real question was, are you a vampire, or a human. He believed her to be human. But he couldn't be sure. He had never seen anyone come back from death. As stupid as he felt asking, he had to.

She had to take a moment to mull that over. In the hectic nature of the past day or so, Elena hadn't taken the time to contemplate either the presence or absence of feeling the bloodlust. But she was vaguely surprised to realize that she *hadn't* felt hungry in the time since she had been brought back to life.

Elena shook her head slowly in response. "No. I'm not hungry," she said, her expression questioning Stefan silently as though he would have the answer to her present state of being.

Caroline hadn't uttered a word. She was too stunned at all that had just happened. In a blink she was out of Tyler's possible clutches and in Stefan's room again. The very room she had fled earlier. She stood there with her hands in her pockets of her sweatshirt. She continued to gnaw on her lower lip. She decided to go into the bathroom. While she was in there...she looked at what gave bonnie and matt such alarmed looks earlier. Her eyes were wide, frightend, and had dark circles beneath them. Ha! Must make Elena feel better seeing her like this. All shabby, scared, and glamourless. Maybe she doesn't feel so dead now. Dead. Caroline just glared at herself. She opened the door and stepped out into the room with everyone else. Hopefully Tyler hadn't followed them here. She suddenly went pale. "Did you see his eyes?" Caroline whimpered? "Animal eyes. Feral."

Stefan met Elena's eyes. "I didn't think you would be. He reached in his pocket and pulled out the ring that Elena had worn when she was a vampire. The ring that Katherine took that ultimately caused Elena to die. "You went outside earlier before the sun set, and nothing happened. And it's obvious that we can all touch you. And you're breathing..." Stefan trailed off, suddenly unsure of what he was feeling. "You're human, Elena." He was happy; there was no denying that. He could hold Elena, feel her kisses, and have her beside him. But then again, there was a very small part of Stefan that couldn't help but think that if she was human, then she would eventually die and leave him again.

"What do you want to do?" He asked coming to her side. "Do you want to stay here and try to explain everything? Or do you want to leave and start over somewhere else? Whatever you want, Elena, I'll be there. I'll take care of you." He twisted the ring around his own finger. He would be alive for as long as Elena lived, and he knew deep in his heart, he would never leave her. Ever.

Stefan suddenly remembered everyone else in the room. He stepped back from Elena, self-consciously. "It's your choice." He told her.

Damon the wolf tore through the woods as fast as he could manage, stopping only once to growl at an overly territorial bobcat. The cat looked at the wolf confused, unsure of what he was really seeing, then trotted off into the woods.

He stopped when he reached a small pond in the woods. Slowly, watching his reflection, the wolf grew taller, and soon Damon was reflected off of the calm clear water. Damon almost felt at home in the woods. Well, it was as close to home as anything. Here he could be who he was. A creature of the darkness.

Damon picked up a rock, and neatly skimmed it across the top of the pond. It went almost clear across before finally sinking into the water. The air was slightly chilly, but Damon didn't care. He had given Elena his jacket last night, and didn't really care to go back and get it.

He turned from the pond, and walked slowly back to the road. He watched his feet as he walked, listening to the sound of the woods. Every now and then he would hear a bird, or the snap of a twig from an ustartled deer, but other than that the woods were quiet.

Damon exited at the cemetery, in the old section. He crossed over to new section and paused in front of Elena's tombstone as Bonnie had done earlier. He wondered what they would find if they opened the grave. Was it empty? He shook his head and waked over to the new bridge and stopped in front of it.

Richmond..."This place is so disgusting...No, I don't believe I like it," she thought. She'd detested the plane ride, and hated being around so many humans at once. Fell's Church was bad enough, but at least there she was underground most of the time. The other times she was enjoying herself by messing with that silly little Vickie girl. Too bad she was mentally unstable to begin with. It was fun. Katherine giggled at the thought. "Hee hee...Poor dear...I hope there's someone else there like that...It'll provide some amusement at least."

She fingered the necklace that the devil had given her. It was silver with the Lapis Lazuli stone. Nothing elaborate like the necklace she'd had before, but it did it's job by protecting her from roasting in the sun again. She shuddered at the memory. Yes, that wasn't an experience she didn't want to have again. She slid on a pair of dark sunglasses and started walking down the road. Within' minutes, a young man pulled over.

"Need a lift?" He asked.

"Yes, I do," She replied with a smile.

"Where to?"

"Fell's Church."

"I'm going through there. Climb in."

She smiled as she slid into the car and glanced over at the guy. He couldn't have been more than 23."Thanks," she said with a seductive tone.

"Uh, sure...no problem."

The man drove her to the small town in question. "You can drop me off at the cemetery."

"The what?!?!"

"The cemetery," she said impatiently. She was really trying to resist the urge to just rip this guy's throat out. He was asking too many inane questions. "That's the reason I'm here. Most of my family is buried here."

There were few things that Damon couldn't do. Cross running water was one of them. He saw a car slow to a stop down the road a bit. Not wanting to confront anyone, Damon walked away.

"Thanks for the ride...uh..." Katherine said.

"Luke."

"Yeah, Luke. Thanks."

"I didn't catch your name."

"Kate," she said looking deep into his eyes. "But you won't remember that will you?"

"No."

"Good."

The man drove away, but would have no memory of Katherine...or Kate.