Mystic Grill
September 26, 2010

"I feel like I'm going crazy. Totally paranoid all the time." Elena explained to her best friend, Bonnie. When she only offered a sympathetic look back at her. Elena felt like pulling her hair out by the roots. I would never tell her or anyone else, but I'm really getting sick of people doing that to me, Elena thought. Her strange encounter while out on her morning run had left her on edge almost the entire day. It didn't help that she'd felt as if someone was watching her.

"You have a right to be. Klaus is still out there and he knows you tried to kill him." Bonnie offered and stole a curly fry from Elena's plate.

"Yeah, but why hasn't he made a move? There has been no sign of him. Nothing. Just my slow spiral into insanity." Elena groused. When she heard they had failed with Mikael, she half expected that Klaus would show up in her doorway and disappear with her into the night.

"Join the club. Every time I close my eyes, I keep having that nightmare. On repeat. Again, I thought, how many times can you have the same dream? Hell, I can't even remember the last time I had the same dream more than once." Bonnie groaned, rubbing her face.

"Uh… The same dream you say?" Elena asked casually, trying her best to hide her sudden interest. She wasn't about to bring up that she been having the same dream for about the last week herself. She only hoped that her friend wasn't paying that close attention to her.

"Yeah! Four coffins, and this is the really freaky part about it. I randomly open a different coffin with each dream, but the one I eventually pick I always find you or someone that looks a helluva a lot like you, is in one of them, holding the same silver locket Stephan had given you. It's just weird." Bonnie laughed but stopped herself short after scrutinizing her friend's body language.

"Hey Lena, you can talk to me, you know, and don't tell me it's nothing! I've known you since grade school." Bonnie offered.

"Really, Bon it's nothing-" Elena started, but Bonnie cut her off.

"Spill!"

"Okay, fine, it's probably just stress, Bon. But I keep going over things we did to stop Klaus. I've been wondering if we missed something and I wasn't going to mention this but since you shared its only fair that I do too." Elena relented. Still, she was a little hesitant to bring it up if it wasn't for the fact that she had the strangest feeling she needed to do something about her dreams, and who better than a witch.

"Bonnie, I don't know why but I keep having my own dreams about that cave we found with all the pictogram drawings about the Original Family."

"Well?" Bonnie asked, not sure where Elena was going with it, but her friend had listened to her crazy dream. Maybe there was a connection.

"I'm not sure what it means but in my dreams I'm standing there just staring at the pictograms and out of the blue I hear your voice calling me from behind but every time I turn around seeking the source, but no one is there. I keep doing this until I eventually turn and see myself standing there. Then there is a sudden flash of light and I wake up." Elena finishes with a sigh.

"If there was even the slightest chance that my dream and yours might've been connected. I don't know, I just can't think straight anymore. Honestly, Bonnie, I don't think I've gotten a decent night's sleep ever since homecoming."

"Lena, it's probably just stress. I'll figure out mine own dream and you'll figure out yours. Change of topic, but what about Stefan? Has there been any sign of him?" In response, Elena just shook her head.

"He betrayed us, Bonnie. As much as I hate to say this, the Stefan we know the person I once loved is gone."

"How is Damon handling it?" Bonnie wondered aloud. Looking over her table mate's shoulder, Elena could still see Alaric and Damon sitting at the bar. Being true to form, Damon had a lot of different liquor bottles laid out in front of him, and based on Alaric's tensed back, he was trying his best to ignore whatever Damon was up to.

"Damon is… Damon." Elena said with a sigh. The vampire was over a hundred forty years old and still acted out, she wondered. Elena was about to say the same thing when Alaric turned away from whatever Damon and he were talking about and his gray-blue eyes locked on her. It didn't take too much of an effort to get the unspoken meaning behind those eyes.

"Uh… Look, I've gotta go. Besides, I really think I need to see what is going on over there. I'll talk with you later." Elena said, putting a couple of bills on their table and stepped towards the bar. She wondered what new fire was going to need putting out now. Was she simply fated to move from one crisis to another? Perhaps one day I might find a plausible reason why, Elena thought.

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Elena paced anxiously, waiting for Jeremy to pick up, but once again it went straight to voicemail.

"Jeremy, the minute that you get this call me!" Elena yelled, then stuffed her phone into her front pocket. Drawing closer to Damon, who was still playing darts after Ric had left, to find a quieter place to work. Elena knew it wasn't his fault he was just the messenger, but didn't stop her from feeling guilty at how she exploded at him when he showed her Jeremy's midterm paper grade.

"Unbelievable!" She muttered, feeling half tempted to try calling her brother again.

"You are feisty when you are mad." Damon smirks, retrieving his darts for another round.

"It's not that I'm mad. I'm just-I'm worried."

"But why?" He paused, then threw his first dart. "So he lost his job at the Grill. He can survive, Elena."

"He is spiraling. Ever since Bonnie broke up with him, he is moody, he is not really talking to anyone."

"It's a typical teenager." He snorts, then throws another dart.

"Who's seeing ghosts and has just about lost everyone that he cares about." Elena said, rubbing her pant thighs in frustration.

"Not everyone. He still has you." He said, giving her a meaningful look and then shoots his final dart with a little more force than normal. As he goes to the dartboard to retrieve them. Elena asks.

"You okay?"

"What makes you think I'm not okay?"

"Well, your day drunk. It's not exactly your most attractive look." Elena snorts.

"Hmm- what is my most attractive look?" He smiles and then moves to stand very close to her. Elena felt her stomach flip as once again Damon invaded her personal space, but unlike the other times, she didn't feel the need to push him away. Her thoughts were a jumble Stefan was no longer acting like the Stefan she'd fallen in love with, but then there was Damon. Who was like a force of nature, she thought. Then coughed when she noticed he was just staring down at her as if daring her to push him away.

"Ah, ah- I'm not saying you have any attractive looks. I'm saying this is my least favorite one..."

"Noted. I'll see if I can make any improvements." He said and before either of them could say another word, a voice Elena had come to both fear and hate broke the awkward silence between them.

"Don't mind me." Klaus said, his accent driving nails into Elena's spine, causing her to stiffen involuntarily.

"Klaus." She whispered. As the acid in her stomach churned. Damon released her and stepped to place himself between her and the Original Hybrid.

"You gonna do this in the Grill?" Damon questioned. Elena sometimes admired his cocky attitude, but even she was thinking he was pushing it too far. "In front of everyone? It's a little beneath you, don't you think?"

"I don't know what you are talking about. I just came down to my local pub to grab a drink with a mate." Klaus ooffers,then half turns to show someone standing behind him.

"Get a round in, would you, Tony?"

Klaus smiles when Elena finally recognizes that the jogger that she thought had been following her then accidentally bumped into was one of his hybrids. Of course why shouldn't she be surprised.

"I'm surprised you stuck around town long enough for happy hour." Damon added.

"My sister seems to be missing. Need to sort that out." Klaus said, dropping all humor in his voice.

"Cute blonde bombshell, psycho. Shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Truth is, I've grown to rather like your little town. Think I might fancy a home here. Oh, I imagine you're wondering how does this is affect you. The answer is not in the slightest. As long as I get what I want and everyone behaves themselves, you can go on living your insignificant lives however you choose. You have my word." Klaus said, then looked around the pub as if he could see the entire town.

"What more could you possibly want?" Elena asked, not wanting to, but still needing an answer.

"Well, for starters, you can tell me where I might find Stefan." Klaus asks, picking up one of Damon's darts.

"Stefan skipped town the second he saved your ass." Damon's voice was rough.

"Well, you see, that is a shame." Klaus says with a slight tick in his voice then throws the dart, burying it more than halfway into the bulls-eye.

"Your brother stole from me. I need him found so I can take back what's mine." His voice grated out.

"That sounds like a Klaus and Stefan problem." Elena offered, but as soon as the words were out of her lips Damon was standing in front of a far closer Klaus who seemed amused. Elena could honestly say it made her sick to her stomach. She still hated when they moved so fast her brain couldn't process the visual input.

"Ha. Well, this is me broadening the scope, sweetheart."

His statement only made Elena wonder what he meant about 'broadening the scope' exactly. Knowing this much about Klaus, she knew that they probably didn't have long to wait and whatever it was, she and most likely her friends would not like it.

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Gilbert Residence
September 26, 2010

Elena was feeling better now that she had been home for the last couple of hours now. Klaus didn't have permission to enter her house, and none of his hybrids did as well. So as long as they stayed inside, for the time being they were safe. As per their usual routine, Ric was preparing their meal while Elena set the table. After Ric had moved in after her aunt had died, it hadn't taken the three of them living together to realize that Elena wasn't a decent cook. She had just finished placing the last dinner plate on the table when were brother hurried in from the front door and headed straight for the fridge.

"Just in time! We're cooking." Elena said, trying to control the urge to throttle her little brother.

"Sorry, just passing through." Jeremy said.

Elena penned Ric with a look, her eyes pleading with him to say something. "Ah, well, I thought we would all stay in, have a meal together like a typical, atypical family."

"Why?" Jeremy asked, closing the fridge and then snatched an apple.

"Maybe because you got fired, and you didn't tell anyone." Elena said, her control finally snapped. Her brother turned away briefly before facing her again.

"Ahh- look, can we do this later? I made plans with Tyler. He's right outside."

Elena and Ric looked at each other then returned their attention to Jeremy.

"Oh, wait! When did you start hanging out with Tyler Lockwood?" Ric finally asked.

"I don't know... Does it matter?"

"Yeah, Jeremy! It matters. Klaus sired him. He's dangerous." Elena said, pointedly.

"He can still hear you. He is right outside." Jeremy hissed. "Besides you of all people are gonna lecture me on who I can and can't hang out with?"

"What is with the attitude?" Elena asked, feeling that something was a bit off, but she couldn't say for certain.

"Yeah, whatever, this is lame. Tyler is waiting." Jeremy stated, then started for the front door. Elena moved to block her brother's departure.

"Oh, no no! You're not going anywhere, especially not with Tyler." Elena warned her brother holding up her hands in a pleading motion. Jeremy let go a breath he'd been holding and looked towards Alaric for help.

"I'm with her on this, Jer. Sorry." Ric said.

"All right, fine. You want me to stay in? Let's all stay in then." Jeremy said, then before Elena could ask what he meant, Jeremy surprised her by raising his voice. "Yo, Tyler! Come on in!"

"Jeremy...!" Elena pleaded, but to her annoyance Tyler Lockwood opened her front door and walked in like he owned the place. It only took a moment for her to comprehend that one of Klaus's hybrids now had access to one place she once could find refuge in. But because of her rebellious brother's actions, that was no longer the case.