It is full winter now: the trees are bare,
Save where the cattle huddle from the cold
Beneath the pine, for it doth never wear
The autumn's gaudy livery whose gold
Her jealous brother pilfers, but is true
To the green doublet; bitter is the wind, as though it blew.

-Oscar Wilde

Elena tells Stefan she loves him and hangs up the phone as she walks through her front door. She calls up the stairs to Jeremy, but there's no response. A loud thump comes from the direction of the kitchen. She startles, and then goes to investigate.

Uncle John is lying there, his neck bent at an impossible angle and his eyes sightless. Elena swallows. She picks up the phone to dial 9-1-1, and then puts it down. There's nothing human medicine can do to help him now – she just has to wait for him to wake up. She reaches for his hand, figuring it will help him to have someone wait with him.

That's when she notices he isn't wearing his ring. She checks his other hand, desperate – but no ring.

"Uncle John?" she says, unable to stop her voice from shaking. If he isn't wearing his ring…

"Are you looking for this?" her own voice calls from behind her. Elena jumps up, turning around to see her own face, smirking at her. Katherine holds up the ring, seemingly admiring it. "Such a helpful contraption. Emily really did outdo herself. Too bad poor daddy dearest wasn't wearing it when I snapped his neck."

Elena doesn't know what to do. There's nothing Elena can do. Uncle John is dead, and he's going to stay dead, and if Katherine wants Elena dead too, she will be. But before Elena can take another shaky breath, Katherine just – disappears.

"Jeremy!" Elena shouts, running up the stairs. "Jeremy!"

She runs from one nightmare into another.

"John's dead," Elena whispers to Stefan when he arrives. "Katherine killed him. She stole his ring, and then she killed him."

Stefan pulls her into his arms, and she holds onto him. She's trying her best not to fall to pieces. She's not sure she succeeds. Uncle John might not have been her favorite person – he might have done terrible things in the name of what he thought was right – but he didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to be killed, to be murdered - and to have his murderer wear his daughter's face.

And a part of Elena, a small, selfish part of Elena, mourns that she'll never get her questions answered now – her questions about Isobel, about John, why they gave her away, even if it was to such wonderful people as Grayson and Miranda Gilbert.

"I think Jeremy's okay," she murmurs into Stefan's shoulder, trying to focus on what matters most. "He – um, he said that Anna gave him her blood and then he took these pills. But he seems fine. Do you mind going upstairs and checking? I need to – I need to talk to the police."

"Of course," Stefan tells her, bringing his hands up to brush her hair from her eyes and gently caress her cheeks, wiping away the tears she's trying so hard to keep inside. "I'll stay here with Jeremy. I'm here for you – whatever you need."

Elena summons a smile, and leans up to press a quick, chaste kiss to his lips. Then she goes outside, onto the porch.

"Can I call my Aunt Jenna?" she asks the police officer who approaches her. "She should – she should be here."

He nods. Aunt Jenna doesn't pick up the phone when Elena calls. She leaves a message and tries not to grow frantic, dialing Sheriff Forbes directly. "Uncle John is dead," Elena says, not even bothering to say hello. "And I can't get in touch with my Aunt Jenna."

"She's meeting with the fire chief," Sheriff Forbes tells her, her own voice shaky. "Elena – Caroline was in a car accident. She's in surgery. I – I'm sorry about your Uncle John, but I'm needed at the hospital."

Elena hangs up and sits in the porch swing before her legs give out beneath her. The same police officer approaches her again, trying to take her statement. Elena tries to answer his questions, but she's not sure how to explain that her vampire doppelganger snapped Uncle John's neck after stealing his resurrection ring. She allows herself to break down, sobbing too hard to say anything at all. He looks at her sympathetically and tells her that she can go to the station tomorrow to give her statement.

Elena figures she isn't a suspect because he can't imagine someone who looks like her snapping the neck of a grown man like Uncle John.

Joke is on him.

Eventually, the police and coroner all file out, bringing Uncle John's body out and loading it into a van. Stefan comes down to sit on the porch swing with her. He tells her that Jeremy will be okay, and goes back upstairs to sit with him when Elena asks him to. She wants the comfort of his presence – but she needs him to watch Jeremy to make sure he doesn't try to kill himself again.

At some point, Elena gets a text from Bonnie, letting her know that Caroline is out of surgery and is expected to make a full recovery. She shudders with relief. Elena can't stand to lose another person tonight.

She isn't sure how much time passes before Aunt Jenna walks up the steps and sits next to her. "I came home as soon as I got your message. I'm sorry about John, and I'm sorry you were alone when you found him," she murmurs. Elena nods, leaning her head onto Aunt Jenna's shoulder. She's going to have to tell her about Katherine – but not right now.

Not right now.

After Aunt Jenna goes to sleep – after much insisting from Elena – Elena just sits in the kitchen, staring down into her long-cold mug of tea. Stefan joins her, telling her Jeremy has gone to sleep as well, and he'll keep an ear out. The front door opens, and Elena can't help but jump – but it is only Damon.

"Are you alright?" Stefan asks, putting his arm around her. She closes her eyes, letting her head lean against his shoulder for a moment before pulling away.

"No," she responds. "Katherine killed Uncle John. Right in this kitchen. Uncle John is dead, and Aunt Jenna and Jeremy aren't safe – not if Katherine has been invited in."

"Move," Damon says. Elena doesn't bother to reply. "If Katherine wants you dead; there's zero you can do about it; you would be dead. But you're not. So clearly she has other plans."

Stefan and Damon argue strategy for a while. Elena barely pays attention, thinking instead of the funeral she'll need to plan for Uncle John, the statement she'll need to give to the police tomorrow, the discussions she'll need to have with Aunt Jenna and Jeremy. They may very well need to move…

"We kissed," Damon says, breaking Elena from her thoughts.

"And you thought she was Elena?" Stefan responds, his tone heated.

"Stop," she whispers. They do. "I don't – I can't deal with this right now. I can't – I'm going to try to get some sleep. If you're going to fight, do it somewhere else."

Elena leaves them in the kitchen.

Elena barely gets through the next day – she gives her statement directly to Sheriff Forbes in the morning, and then goes to the Lockwood Mansion to pay her respects to Mayor Lockwood. Everyone she sees gives their condolences for Uncle John. She musters her best "founding daughter" smile and thanks them for their sympathies – over, and over, and over again. She spends half the afternoon organizing his funeral, with Aunt Jenna's help – she's not sure how she's going to get through it tomorrow.

Katherine shows up, of course – just to make everything worse. But Stefan heals - unlike Uncle John. Elena goes home exhausted – and scared, because she hasn't had a chance to speak with Aunt Jenna and Jeremy yet, and Katherine could come inside at any time. When she enters her bedroom, someone is sitting on her bed. Elena jumps – opening her mouth to scream.

She realizes it is only Damon.

"You scared me," she tells him, unable to keep the accusation from her voice. She doesn't have the energy to deal with him right now. Uncle John's funeral is the next morning, and she needs to try to get some sleep before spending another day accepting everyone's sympathies.

Damon makes some snarky remark, but Elena refuses to engage. His words slur - he's obviously been drinking. Damon stands suddenly, before flashing to stand in front of her.

"Would you kiss me back, Elena?" he asks, reaching up to caress her face. She takes a step back. "I thought you kissed me back."

"Damon…" she murmurs, turning around and trying to cut off this conversation. A feeling of unease grows in her stomach. She needs to trust him – because she can't stop him if he doesn't want to be stopped.

The problem is, a hurt Damon is a dangerous Damon. Elena is forgiving, but she isn't stupid enough to forget that.

He flashes around her so they're looking at each other again. "There is something going on between the two of us, and you know it. And you keep trying to deny it. You're lying to me, and you're lying to Stefan, and, most of all, you're lying to yourself. I can prove it."

She denies it, and he grabs her – pressing his lips to hers. She backs away immediately, but he only pulls her closer. Elena pushes against his chest to try to gain some space.

It's like hitting a brick wall.

"Stop," Elena says – pleads. He doesn't listen. She knows she can't move him if he doesn't want to be moved, so she tries to reason with him – to tell him he's better than this. He says he isn't. He proves it by trying to kiss her again. She turns her head, thinking furiously about how best to talk him down.

"I care about you," she tells him. He smiles, trying to kiss her again. She turns her head again. "I care about you," she repeats herself. "But I love Stefan."

Before she can say anything else, Jeremy walks into her room and asks what's going on. She tells Jeremy to go to bed – he doesn't listen. Everything happens so quickly after that. And Elena – Elena isn't able to stop Damon, or talk him down, or…

She hears the crack of Jeremy's neck. She feels it in her bones – in her heart.

"NO!" she screams, rushing over to hold Jeremy in her arms. He's so still, and he isn't breathing, and Elena can't breathe. She can't... She doesn't even notice Damon leaving. She can't – she can't – her little brother is dead.

Eventually, Elena manages to gather enough pieces of herself together to call for Aunt Jenna. Aunt Jenna must call 9-1-1, because the police and coroner come to the house.

Again.

They ask her questions she can't answer through the lump in her throat, and they take Jeremy – Jeremy's body - away. They ask her to go to the station tomorrow to give a statement.

Again.

She just nods. She'll have to go after Uncle John's funeral. Oh god. She'll have to plan Jeremy's funeral. Will there even be any room left in the Gilbert family plot?

Elena can't breathe. She wants to not be breathing. She wishes it was her body they were wheeling away, not Jeremy's. Not her little brother. How can this be happening?

Elena can't sleep in her room. She can't sleep where Jeremy died. Where Damon murdered him.

She may never be able to sleep again.

She goes out onto the porch and sits on the porch swing, staring blankly into the night. And then Stefan is in her line of sight, kneeling in front of her and tentatively reaching for her hands. She lets him hold her hands, even though she can barely look at him.

"Jenna called me," he murmurs. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect him – but we'll figure out a way to stop Katherine."

Elena blinks. He doesn't know?

"It was Damon," she somehow manages to say. Stefan's eyes widen, but he doesn't seem surprised. Elena supposes he knows exactly what Damon is capable of.

"It's Katherine," Stefan says. "She got under his skin. She undid everything that was good about him."

Elena shakes her head. "There's nothing good about him. I hate him. I hate him! I HATE him!" She can't stop saying it – over, and over, and over again, until her voice is hoarse and her eyes are dry.

Stefan just holds her.

Elena lets him hold her.