Elena lay limp on the couch the following morning. She clunked out after Caroline broke her neck. With Sarah in one arm Damon caressed the hair out of her face and left the room. A smirk etched it's self across her face. After a short while Damon returned into the room carrying Sarah into the kitchen along with breakfast from the Mystic Grille. "Damon," Bonnie yelled as she raced down the stairs.
"Ssh." He said looking into the hall leading to the living room. Elena was still knocked out on the couch. "Elena's sleeping."
"Here?!" Bonnie yelled with a sharp edge to her voice.
"Ssh, yes, here."
"Why? Why didn't you send her back to the boarding house or her parents?"
"Her dad knows she's a vampire, ergo my dad knows too, along with Tyler and Caroline's parents, and Matt is staying with Tyler so that leaves her with us or Katherine, and I don't have to explain anymore because I'm sure you get the picture."
"Damon Angelo Salvatore, you get her out of my house or so help me I will end you," she ordered as she took Sarah allowing Damon to fix their plates. "Is it honestly not enough that you put our child in danger to save her, but now she is staying here?"
"Look, She's not that Elena, at least not yet. The Bonnie I came here with wanted to protect her, and send her home safely. She's still your best friend-your sister."
"Like I said before, you're not mine yet so you don't understand."
"I know what she did to us."
"But you don't understand Damon. You don't understand because you have those other memories of her, and who she could've been. I know that I can't trust her. Especially when the name Salvatore is involved. She put you and Stefan through hell, and if he didn't take her away and get her to that shrink… I might have killed her."
"Okay, I'll see if Matt will be interested in taking her to stay at Vickie's."
Bonnie licked her lips. "Thank you," she said.
"Like I said before. I'm yours. ALWAYS."
Bonnie caressed his cheek. "I love you so much." Damon could feel her sadness. Something was wrong. "I'm going to stay with my grams and I'm taking Sarah. I know you want to help her Damon. And you have every right to."
"I don't want you to leave," Damon said with a clear edge to his voice. "You're not leaving."
"Damon I can't do this with you and her."
"Nothing is happening Bon, NOTHING."
"Okay," Bonnie said, but he knew she didn't mean it.
"Stefan," Giuseppe called to him from the kitchen.
"Father," Stefan said as he came into the room.
"I heard Elena is in town," Giuseppe noted as he set aside his paper.
"I knew it would be a matter of time before she came to find me," Stefan admitted.
"So you were hiding out from her?" he inquired.
"No I just missed my family and friends. Portland is far, and I missed Sarah's birthday. I just know Elena isn't welcome in Bonnie and Damon's life. They're really close to getting it right. And I want that for them," Stefan said.
"So you understand that girl is a threat to our family," Giuseppe warned.
"I wouldn't go that far, but I know she's not helping Bonnie trust Damon."
"And how are you going to fix that?" he asked as he relaxed in his chair.
"What?"
"You are the only one that has ever been able to get through to her. Her own parents can't control her. FIX THIS," Giuseppe demanded and left the room.
"Morning sweetheart you want something to eat?" Lilly asked as she entered the room.
"No I'm good," he said being short with her.
"So he told you about Elena," she said as she sat next to her son. "Are you okay."
"I'm fine with her being here, I'm not fine with her sense of ownership over me, and entitlement," he laughed.
Lilly placed her hand gently on his cheek. "You were always a caring boy. And that's what people need sometimes, just someone to care about them when they can't care for themselves."
Stefan placed his hand on hers. "I guess."
Caroline was both surprised and delighted when Tyler franticly called her not knowing how he and Matt wound-up in Mystic Falls. She didn't dwell too long on the fact that she had her Tyler back. Her main concern was Bonnie and Elena.
She tried Bonnie and got no answer. And calling Damon produced the same result. She placed a call to Stefan and when it seemed as though he wasn't going to answer he picked up. "Stefan where's Bonnie?"
"Damon said she'd be at Shelia's all day working on the spell," Stefan informed her.
"Well we have a huge problem. Tyler and Matt don't remember anything before crossing over. And I'm assuming the same happened to Abby and Elena"-
"So this Elena is loose in Mystic Falls?" Stefan questioned.
"Yeah and she is probably not going to be a big fan of Bonnie's."
"We have to get over to the manor," Stefan said.
"I'm already on my way meet me there in five."
"Okay," Stefan said grabbing his car keys and leaving the boarding house.
Damon was off to work and Bonnie had taken Sarah. Elena was done playing nice. She had to get Damon back, and now was as good a time as any. She knew that Damon wasn't going anywhere with her if Bonnie and Sarah were still in the picture. She needed a plan to get them out of the way. Elena's planning was cut short when the front door opened. She perked up assuming it would be Damon checking in on her.
"Elena," Stefan said as he came into the living room from the foyer.
"Stefan," she said a bit surprised, but happy to see him.
"Hey we brought you blood from the clinic."
"We?" she questioned.
"Caroline."
"Oh, no Lexi?"
"She's at work."
"What is it that she does?"
"Teacher at the elementary school on Harbor and Clark."
"And what do you do?"
"I work at my father's real estate agency. We are coast to coast," Stefan smirked.
"And that's why we went to Portland?"
"Partly, more because you needed to get away, but you also needed a friend."
"Friend."
"Friend," Stefan assured her. "Everyone thinks because we left together that it means we are together. I gave up on us when you decided you were in love with my brother."
"I'm sorry about that Stefan," she said.
"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to Bonnie for everything you put her through, and Damon. You didn't destroy me. You destroyed them. And you're not going to do that again. You're going to leave when Bonnie says the time is right."
"And what about this Elena? Do you think she'll just let this be? Do you think she'd let Bonnie still her happiness? Stefan I"-
"-Elena don't go there," Caroline said.
"You were always sticking your nose where it doesn't belong," she smirked.
"And you were always the one playing the victim to get what she wants. If people are too busy feeling sorry for you it's hard for them to see through your bullshit right."
"Don't test me," Elena warned.
"Or you'll what?" Caroline said coming into the room. "You can't hurt me the way you did Bonnie. I stopped caring about you a long time ago," she smirked.
"You bitch," she said breaking the table leg using vampire speed to stab Caroline in the stomach.
"Elena," Caroline yelled as she looked down.
Stefan swooped in while Elena was in shock and stuck a needle full of vervain. "Are you okay Care?"
"She just fucking stabbed me," Caroline yelled as she removed the piece of wood in her abdomen.
"Stefan," Elena softly cried.
"Bitch," Caroline yelled and kicked her in the face.
"Caroline," Stefan warned.
"I just got stabbed."
"Help me get her to the cellar," Stefan said with a smirk.
"I just got a manicure, but I guess I could."
Bonnie returned Caroline's phone call in time to meet them at the boarding house and to do a cloaking spell to make it easier to get Elena to the cellar. "I can't believe she stabbed you," Stefan noted.
"You're the only one," Bonnie said.
"Definitely are," Caroline smiled as she clapped Stefan on the back.
"What are you guys planning to do with her?"
"From what I know about our lives in Portland Elena was fine, she was making progress in therapy and enjoying her time in the hospital. Jeremy came up to visit every month and things were fine."
"So maybe this has something to do with the vampire part of her?" Bonnie questioned.
"Caroline had a hard time controlling her vampire urges the first few days following her being here. Maybe that has something to do with what's going on with Elena. Maybe she has her humanity turned off. Or she can't control her rage?" Stefan proposed.
"How was Abby?" Caroline asked.
"She was fine. She spent time studying heretics so she gained use of her powers. It's been fine," Bonnie said.
"Well something is going on with Elena and we need to get control of it. And we need to do it fast," Stefan said.
"Caroline go get my Gram's grimoire maybe there's something in it about turning on a vampire's humanity we've never known. Stefan you get Damon here, maybe he can help us."
"And what are you going to do?" Caroline asked already knowing the answer.
"She already stabbed you and Stefan's human now. I can subdue her without alerting anyone."
"She's spicy," Caroline warned.
"And I can handle her."
Caroline hugged Bonnie. "Call if you need us. We'll be right back."
"Okay."
"Seriously Bon. Call," Stefan said.
"I will."
It didn't take long for Elena to wake and she wasn't too pleased to see Bonnie looking down at her. "I should have known that you'd send your minion after me once Damon was gone. You can't stand the fact that he's not over me can you?" Elena said.
"If Damon wasn't over you he'd be with you and trust me he's not going to let you anywhere near our home again."
Elena smirked. "You can't give Damon what he needs. One day you'll be old and fragile and he'll be tired of you. Sarah will be off being a mother, and you'll just have to watch as you slowly waste away and Damon loses interest in you. He'll start staying late at work, then wind up with a younger secretary or intern and you'll break-up and then he'll find me. And will be just the same. Vampires. Forever."
"You don't believe that bullshit."
"You do. That's what you're afraid of. Why you won't marry him. You know all roads lead back to me. Baby or not. He's mine."
"That's not why I haven't married Damon," Bonnie laughed. "He's over you. He's been over you since the second you wormed you way into his bed. And you only did that to get Damon to lore Stefan home, but you got caught up in the drama or it all that you lost the one thing you truly want. Stefan."
"It's not about Stefan."
"It was about Stefan that first Christmas you came back."
Elena growled and lunged at Bonnie. "You stole everything from me," she growled.
"Elena you ruined your own life. And the second you realized you did, you blamed me because you couldn't handle the truth. You pushed Caroline away, you toyed with Matt, you used Damon, and hurt Stefan. You did all of that not me."
"Caroline is the poor man's version of me. She always wanted to be me. And once she realized that wasn't going to happen, she moved on to trying to be Lexi."
"And there you go deflecting to Caroline. You are the problem; why can't you see it?" Bonnie yelled.
"And you're just perfect. You're a Saint. Aren't you? Ever tell Damon about that night? You ever tell him how cozy you in Stefan got by the fire?"
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"I know I saw him holding you like you were his whole world," she yelled with tears in her eyes. "And him telling you how much he wishes he could be her to watch Sarah grow-up and spend time with Damon. And you two acted as if I was holding him back from that. You are the problem Bonnie. Everything with Damon and Stefan was fine until you and Sarah became pieces of the puzzle."
"I wish you didn't feel that way."
"Well, I don't. And that's why I'm going to win. You dwell on the past. Like that first Christmas and I understand why. I intimidate you. And I should. Because I'm not the only one who's in love with both of them. All you have to do is admit it Bonnie. That's the easiest part."
