A/N - Thank you so much for all the reviews, I've gotten a little busy, so I'm unable to reply to them all, but I appreciate them so much!


Elena sighed as she paced around the room, waiting for Klaus to come back from wherever he had gone to. He had avoided her after the memorial, leaving before she could've said anything and she'd actually been busy with school for once. She realised she needed to finish her courses quicker than she had planned before, to get everything done while she could still fit in behind a desk. Which meant that she hadn't been able to talk to him before, so as soon as she was done for the week, she decided to spend her Friday afternoon in the giant mansion. She'd been led in by one of the hybrids, Kimberly, who had given Elena a very crude once over before letting her in, and she'd chosen to wait in the library. It wasn't a room she had been in before, but it was similar to the rest of the house, tall ceilings, marble floor, expensive rugs, and a number of wooden bookshelves lining the walls. A set of leather couches was in the centre of the room, and a large wooden desk was on one side of the room. It was a dream room for any bookworm, but she couldn't even focus on that right now.

She'd spent all night tossing and turning, wondering how to say it to him, what to say and she had come up blank. She wanted to tell him, but she was so afraid, what if he didn't want the baby, what if he didn't believe that it was his, what if he thought it was some sort of trick, what if he did believe her, but wanted nothing to do with her baby. These thoughts had kept her up all night, and she had almost fallen asleep in History. It was bad enough to take the subject now, where Alaric used to teach, without the added stress of a pregnancy. She looked around the room, trying to control her breathing, but her effort seemed useless.

The door opened and she turned around to see him. She frowned as she saw the trench coat he was wearing over surprisingly formal clothes.

"I didn't think you would drop by." He said as he walked in to stand beside her, "but it is a rather pleasant surprise."

"Yeah, well, I had time and well, we haven't talked in weeks," a dark look fell over his face, and she frowned, remembering how quickly he'd left the memorial. "If I didn't know any better," she said deliberately, eyes trained on him, "I'd say you were avoiding me."

"I haven't been avoiding you, I just found out some new information recently." He sounded as if he was deliberating something, like he was wondering how much to tell her about whatever he knew, and it made her instantly curious, almost pushing thoughts of telling him about the baby away from her mind.

"What new information?" She asked searchingly, "please don't tell me you have a long lost brother who's eager for revenge." He chuckled at her words, looking more amused than anything.

"Unless you count Finn, no. No more dead family members coming back for retribution, I assure you."

"Well, that's good to know. So what is it?"

"Well, let's just say that new hunter isn't the first of his kind that I've met." She looked at him through narrowed eyes, wondering what he was up to.

"I know that tone," he gave her what he thought was a look of innocence, "you know something, don't you? What's special about that hunter?" She knew she had asked the right question when he met her eye, "he's just a vampire hunter right?"

"He's a special kind of vampire hunter. They're the lot I got the daggers from." She looked at him in slight shock, eyebrows raised as she processed what he said.

"You got the daggers from vampire hunters?"

"Yes, after they stabbed us all with them." Her eyes widened at his words, wondering how any hunter had gotten that close to his entire family. She had always assumed the daggers were his doing, strong arming some witch into making them, so it was news to her.

"I guess they didn't work on you," no one should ever look that proud, she thought privately, "and then you killed them."

He stepped towards her, closing the small distance between them, one hand cupping her cheek, "you know me so well love. It's a good thing we're intimate, I would hate having you as an enemy now, not that I liked it before." She blushed at his choice of words, surprised that he would use them so casually. She cleared her throat when the door opened, and a hybrid stepped in telling him that a flight was ready. She waited until they were alone again to turn questioning eyes on him.

"Flight?"

"I need to go dig something up from my past, I'd ask you to join, Rome's a lovely city, but I'm afraid it's rather tedious work."

"You're going to Rome, you just got back!" If he was shocked at her outburst, he didn't show it, his face a carefully controlled mask as ever, and it unnerved her a little. She hadn't meant to shout, but she hadn't thought he'd leave again, and it made her stomach turn a little, just how much it upset her. "When will you be back?" If he was planning to spend another three weeks away, she might just go with him.

"Not long, three days or four. Unlike last time, I can see how much you've missed my company."

"No, I had Bear, so it wasn't that bad." She bit her lip to suppress her laugh at how affronted he looked, but it spilled past her lips anyway. "I'm kidding, besides I'm pretty sure you had the same dilemma." He shrugged and she looked away for a minute. It was just four days, she was sure she could wait that long, it would even give her some time to arrange the perfect way to tell him. "When you get back, we should talk."

"What about?"

"Just some stuff." He didn't say anything at her words, just nodding, and then leaning down to press his lips against hers, and she relished in how it made her feel.


The next day, Elena sat in uncomfortable silence in the backseat of the car as Damon and Bonnie's bickering finally came to an end. Damon hadn't said much to her after their fight in the church, and Bonnie hadn't said much because she didn't want to discuss anything about her grams in front of Damon. Elena sighed as she realised how long the day was going to be, she hadn't expected that when she agreed to go to Whitmore with Bonnie, Damon tagging along.

Just as she thought that they were blessed with silence, she heard Bonnie and Damon argue again, this time about the song on the radio. She looked down ar her phone, pulling up the article she had been reading last night, trying to pay attention on it instead. She had always been curious, whenever something odd or unexpected happened, she always wanted to know as much as she could about it. Which was what she was doing now, regarding her pregnancy. Everything she read scared her a little.

"That hunter is either dead or on the lose again." Damon said to Bonnie after a while, and Elena focused a little more on their conversation, not looking up.

"Why? What did you do?" Bonnie asked him, and Elena could imagine her giving him an unimpressed look.

"Well, it wasn't just me, it was Klaus too." At this, Elena did look up, trying to understand what they had been talking about and how they had gotten to that point.

"And was it your idea to blow up part of a hospital or Klaus'?"

"Mine mostly, although he did help set up. Also, I'm pretty sure he knows something, and he's not sharing." Damon said, catching Elena's eye in the rearview mirror, looking slightly suspicious.

"About what?" She asked casually.

"He mentioned something about The Five, maybe you should ask him, you're quite the dog - sorry, wolf whisperer these days." There was a edge to Damon's voice that Elena didn't like, and she could see that Bonnie also looked a little conflicted.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She tried not to be defensive, but it was difficult. Kol had already guessed what was happening, Elijah knew for sure, the last thing she wanted was for Damon to find out and tell everyone in a fit of rage.

"Well, just that he talks to you a lot, he tells you things, doesn't he?" Elena caught Damon's eye in the rearview mirror, and shrugged, knowing he'd catch it.

"We haven't spoken in weeks."

"Why don't you ask him?" Bonnie said to Damon, "since you're the one he likes to plan with."

"Yeah, but he doesn't like me the way he likes Elena." It took everything in her to not react to that statement, but there must've been something about the way she was looking at him, "you know, I don't have precious doppelgänger blood that he needs. So she's less likely to be at the end of, I don't know, werewolf claws or something." His explanation was almost enough, but not quite. She tried to put it out of her mind as they reached the college, but there was something about Damon's behaviour that had her on edge.


"Hey, are you okay?" Bonnie asked, and Elena nodded as the three of them walked onto the campus, feeling a little nauseated now. Soon, she wouldn't be able to hide anything from anyone, and she almost regretted not telling Klaus, despite how scared she was. She wished she hadn't been such a coward, but she was also glad that she had a little time to think, to find the perfect way to tell him.

"Just a little motion sickness I guess." She said as Bonnie handed her a bottle of water. For a brief moment, their fingers brushed and Bonnie frowned as if trying to make sense of something. Elena felt her own heart race, but thankfully, her friend didn't say anything. She watched Damon look at some sorority girls as if they were meat, which made sense all things considered, but the thought of him around those girls made her feel a little uneasy, the way she used to when he had first come into her life.

"Some people never change, do they?" Bonnie said sounding distant, and Elena shook her head.

"Alright then, lead the way, let's go meet this professor."


"He's kind of attractive, isn't he?" She whispered to Bonnie conspiratorially as the three of them entered class, settling into their seats. Bonnie looked smitten for once, and Elena would be glad if her friend found some good in her life after everything that had happened in the last few months. Besides, she was the last person to judge anyone's choice in men. The professor was good, and had everyone engaged in the class, except for Damon and well suited to teach occult studies. When he mentioned doppelgängers, Elena found it hard to keep still, the idea that her lineage was being discussed in a class was odd and it made her uncomfortable.

Later, when they got out of class, Damon convinced them to go to a frat party. "Think of it like an early college experience." He had said, and while it was the last thing Elena wanted, Bonnie wanted to meet the professor who was going to be there, and she couldn't come up with an excuse.

She did not let Damon convince her to dress up as one of his victims though, keeping her shirt and jeans, along with a scarf wrapped around her neck. She did manage to sneak away to fill her prescription and kept it hidden in her purse, so that was one thing that was done. When they reached the frat house, Bonnie broke away from her and Damon, to look for Shane.

"Here, drink." Damon handed her a red cup as he drained his, and Elena looked at the liquid in slight disgust.

"Thanks," as they went further inside the house, Elena started feeling more uncomfortable and her earlier nausea returned, stronger than before. She tried to control it, but the smell of alcohol, and the music was making her dizzy and she broke away from Damon, who was about to feed on someone, and rushed out the front door. She barely made it into the front lawn before she dropped to her knees, heaving as her stomach churned and threw up. She felt her face twist in disgust even as her throat burned from the acid, but the earlier feeling of discomfort was gone now. She wiped her mouth as she felt someone touch her shoulder, and thought for a moment that it was Bonnie.

When she got up however, she saw that it was someone new, a dark haired woman who looked a little too old for college. She handed her a small bottle of water and Elena moved away slightly, feeling a little uncomfortable. She rinsed her mouth, and drank the rest of the water before going back.

"Um…thank you."

"No problem, it must be pretty early in the pregnancy, huh?" She asked knowingly, and Elena felt her eyes widen at her words. She wondered if the woman was supernatural, the ease with which she found out.

"How did you-"

"Well, you don't reek of alcohol like everyone else, and I remember my own pregnancy, the slightest smell of alcohol made me want to hurl. So I figured…"

"Yeah, I guess I'm a total cliche, pregnant teenager." She laughed, slightly derisive, and then immediately shook her head, "I'm sorry, I should have…"

"It's alright, I was in college when I had my daughter, she probably just a year or two younger than you. Do you go to college here?"

"Uh, no, just came here with a friend. I'm still in high school."

"That must be hard."

"Yeah," silence fell between them, not uncomfortable and Elena bit her lip slightly, she didn't know anyone who she could take to, other than the Sheriff probably, and they weren't that close. Being pregnant had made her realise how much she'd missed her mom. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Was it hard? Having a kid in college?"

"It's the hardest thing I've ever done, and I run a bar in a place called Bourbon Street. But it was also the most rewarding thing. A lot of early mornings and late nights, and doing it alone was very difficult, but I love my daughter more than anything. I did have my sister though." Elena nodded at her words and turned to the woman, to ask the question she really wanted to ask.

"What about the father?"

"He didn't want anything to do with us," Elena's heart broke just as fear settled over it. "But it was okay. Is that bothering you? Haven't told the father yet?"

"No, I haven't told him, I'm not sure he'll want….I don't know. He's so….unpredictable, there's no guessing what he'll do at times, how he'll react. I could've told him yesterday, I almost did, I had the perfect opportunity too, but I just couldn't, I was so scared." She felt a soothing hand on her arm, and under the dark cover of the sky, this stranger reminded her of her mom. Her mom would've known exactly what to do, who to tell first, how to go about everything. Even Isobel, God, Isobel had been in this exact situation, she would also have been able to help her if she had wanted to.

"It's okay, don't beat yourself up too much over it, I'm sure you'll be able to tell him in time, but you might want to tell him quickly, the last thing you need is for him to find out from someone else." She hadn't thought about it before, but if Klaus found out through someone else, she knew he'd be angry, well, that would probably be an understatement.

"Yeah, I'll tell him the next time I see him. Sorry for bothering you with so many questions."

"That's alright, I'm waiting for my sister anyway, she goes to college here and is coming home fore the holidays."

"Oh," right, Christmas. She'd almost forgotten about it.

"Do you feel a little better now."

"Yeah, I do actually, it was probably just all the alcohol in there." From the corner of her eye, she saw Bonnie come out of the house, looking for her presumably and waved to her. "My friend's here."

"Oh, that's alright, I should probably head out too. Wait till my sister's done saying goodbye to her boyfriend." She said with a small chuckle and Elena smiled genuinely, it was good to have talked to someone about it. "But, and I know this is odd, if you ever need any advice, you can call me." The other woman scribbled something on a piece of paper and gave it to her.

"Oh, sure. I'm Elena, by the way." She'd told her so much about herself, but didn't even know her name.

"It was nice to meet you Elena." She said as she closed her purse, moving away as Bonnie advanced towards, "I'm Jane Anne Devoroux. Fell free to message me, it might take a little long for me to get back to you, like I said I have a bar in New Orleans, but I'll get back to you whenever possible."

"New Orleans?" She asked, frowning.

"Elena?" She turned around to see Bonnie standing a few feet away.

"Well, I should head back now." Jane said, and she gave her a nod.

"Sure." She waited till the woman was gone and then walked towards where her friend was standing.

"Who was that?"

"I guess her sister goes here, I wasn't feeling well, so she was just trying to help me."

"Right you weren't feeling well." There was a edge in Bonnie's voice that made Elena look at her friend sharply.

"Yeah, I'm just-"

"Pregnant, you're pregnant."


A/N - I know it's not what you guys wanted, but I promise Klaus is going to find out in the next chapter, just bear with me a little.