A/N: Just quickly, this is not the end of the story. There is still A LOT to come, so please stick around. I promise it'll be worth it!

I chatted to Cami for a long time. I wasn't sure about sharing the supernatural stuff at first but after a little hesitation, she assured me that Klaus had more than filled her in. That made it a lot easier. At least she wouldn't think I was crazy.

I told her about things I wasn't sure I'd be able to say, about Lucien, about how I felt. I didn't tell her everything that had happened, there were somethings I couldn't bring myself to say, even though I knew Cami wouldn't judge me. We'd been talking for about an hour when the door opened and Sophie came in.

"So the rumours are true" She grinned. "You're back!"

"I am back."

She came over and gave me a hug.

"Well, welcome home your majesty."

I groaned.

"Please don't call me that."

"Oh yeah," said Cami. "You're like the queen of the city aren't you? Does this mean we have to bow and scrape to you?"

"No! Please no!" Despite my protests, I was laughing. It was nice to be back with my friends again. "It didn't take long for people to notice me then."

"Of course not. We've spent five years with the Mikaelsons badgering every supernatural creature in the quarter to help find you…" she looked down, a little ashamed. "And… I'm sorry, about the witches not helping. I did what I could… but that was really shitty of them."

"It's okay… I doubt it would have helped."

She touched my hand, squeezing lightly in a sign of apology and comfort. I squeezed back.

I stayed at the bar as the two of them set everything up and opened. People started to drift in and I noticed a number of people, witches and vampires I presumed, doing a double take when they saw me. At first it was okay, but after a little while it began to get on my nerves.

"Okay, I am going to head home," I said, getting up. "I'll see you two soon though!"

I left the bar and headed back down the street. The crowd I'd noticed earlier had thinned a little but was still there, along with even more police officers. Curiosity got the better of me and I crossed over to investigate.

"What's going on?" I asked someone at the edge of the crowd, craning my neck a little to see.

"They found a body. A girl," the person responded before diverting their focus back to the alley.

"Do they know who it is yet?" I asked.

"Some tourist," said another person.

I frowned, watching the alley for a moment before deciding to move on. It was none of my concern, most likely some vampire had got careless and left their dinner on the street. I headed home, feeling oddly relaxed. Even without telling Cami everything, I'd been able to unburden myself a little bit and that felt good.

I reached the Mikaelson house and went into the courtyard. The girls were seated in front of Freya who was making feathers float for them while they laughed and tried to catch them.

"Hey Freya." I frowned. "The boys stick you with babysitting?"

I'd expected them to still be glued to the girls, like Rebekah had predicted but there was no sign of them. I felt my heartbeat pick up, panicking a little. Had something happened?

She laughed.

"No, Rebekah dragged them off upstairs. She had a task for them. I volunteered to watch them so I wouldn't get roped in."

I nodded and went to sit down, but a loud bang followed by an angry curse from upstairs diverted my attention. I couldn't help but flinch at the sudden noises, but I recognized the voice as that of Klaus which calmed me something. I was home… I was safe…

"Was that…?"

"Yes. I felt it was safer down here."

I decided to investigate the noise and headed upstairs to find the source. The banging, which continued and seemed to be getting more aggressive, led me to the girls' room and I quietly pushed open the door to peek in. A peculiar scene met my eyes.

Finn was leant against a wall, watching with mild amusement. His brothers were clustered around a box in the middle of the room. Wooden boards and screws were dotted around, several looked damaged. Elijah had his jacket off, shirt sleeves rolled up and a perplexed look on his face. Kol had a sheet of paper in his hand containing some form of instructions. Klaus was holding one of the boards and was glaring at it furiously like it had insulted him.

"These don't bloody work!" He yelled, hurling the board across the room. Elijah's hand darted out with practiced ease and he caught it without looking up. I wondered just how many had been thrown for him to get that good at catching them.

"As I told you before, throwing them will not help them fit better," he said. "Kol, have you made any headway with the instructions?"

"It's Greek to me brother." He paused and turned the instruction sheet over in his hands "Which is ironic since if it was Greek, I'd actually have a chance at being able to read it."

I smiled to myself, noting the logo on the box. IKEA. Oh Rebekah, you wicked, wicked woman.

"You guys okay?" I asked innocently, drawing their attention to me for the first time.

"We're fine Elena," said Elijah, putting on an obviously strained smile. Finn stifled a laugh and Klaus glared down at the offending pieces of flat pack furniture.

"Are you sure? It sounded like you could use some help… or that the furniture was trying to beat you up."

"We're fine!"

"You're stubborn," I noted.

"We are not going to be beaten by furniture."

"Look, I've done this before, let me help… before you kill it. Not being able to build whatever that's meant to be doesn't make me think any less of you."

I was enjoying teasing them and the look on Finn's face showed he approved, even as the others glowered at me.

"We can do it just fine by ourselves, Elena," said Klaus, stiffly.

"Okay then… if you're sure."

I left the room. Rebekah was in the hall, almost doubled over in silent laughter.

"You are evil," I murmured.

"I know. But it was too good an opportunity to resist. I'm getting the girls proper beds, none of that rubbish. But I thought they could use it till their actual beds arrived and I thought my brothers could use the challenge."

"If the girls are meant to use that till their beds get here, you're assuming they'll actually finish it."

"Fair point, didn't think of that."

As I predicted, the beds did not get built and the girls made do with the sofas. More often than not I would find myself on the living room floor in the morning. I didn't always remember moving there, I would just wake up there in clean clothes and a blank space in my brain between going to bed and waking up.

I found myself slowly turning back into my old self. I knew I had a long way to go, I wasn't delusional, but I was improving slowly. I'd managed to use my old room again, even if I didn't stay in there the whole night. I still hadn't broached the uncomfortable topics but I was talking to Cami fairly regularly about everything else. She had also started seeing the girls and Elijah, in between angrily trying to build the Ikea stuff, had begun their schooling. His siblings helped too. They divided things up quite neatly, each covering a few different subjects for the girls. I understood that the girls needed to learn, and that the siblings were probably the best people for it (I mean, I hadn't even finished high school officially) but it left me without much to do. The one thing I did get to join in with was Lilah's sign language lessons since Finn pointed out there was no reason for her to know it if no one else could understand her.

I still wasn't ready to announce myself to 'my people' but word had spread quickly through the city and after my first trip to see Sophie, gifts had started showing up on our door. When I asked Elijah about it, he explained that they were a mixture of welcome gifts and apologies. Apparently the witches had a lot to apologize for. Still, it really started to make me uncomfortable. I didn't like being 'in power' and even though I knew it was for the best, I didn't like it.

I came down to breakfast one morning. The brothers were eating with Freya, except Elijah who was standing by the courtyard door with a delivery man, signing something.

"More gifts?" I asked, sitting down.

"No, it's for Rebekah," said Klaus.

"Oh! That must be the beds."

Silence fell over the room and I felt three sets of eyes on me. I turned.

"What?"

"The beds?" Klaus asked.

"Yeah…"

"So after we've been trying to put those Swedish monstrosities together, she bought beds anyway?"

"Yes…" I bit my lip. Finn was fighting laughter. He must have known what Rebekah was doing. Kol glared at his breakfast.

"I'm going to kill her," he muttered.

"Get in line," said Klaus.

"Oh relax you two, it was a joke," said Rebekah, coming down the stairs. She went over to the delivery man and directed him to take the beds upstairs. Elijah came over and sat back down, picking up his paper.

"Did you hear that?" Klaus said. "We've been going crazy with that… thing… and Rebekah was playing a joke on us."

"I heard. Nice one Rebekah." He gave a slight smile. Nice to see his sense of humour hadn't gone over the years. His smile disappeared quickly, replaced with a frown.

"What's wrong?" I asked. He opened his mouth to speak and then looked at the girls, who were watching us with wide eyes.

"Girls, why don't you go look at your new beds?" he said.

They nodded and ran off upstairs. He waited until they were out of sight and put down the paper, displaying the page.

SIXTH BODY FOUND. IS A SERIAL KILLER ROAMING THE STREETS?

"Six bodies?" Klaus picked up the paper. "Vampire you think?"

"If it is, they're being bloody careless…" Kol muttered. "And that's coming from me."

"If it was a vampire, Marcel would have picked up on it," said Rebekah, coming over. "You know nothing goes on around here without him knowing. Besides," she tapped the paper. "These victims weren't fed on."

"So a serial killer. It's a matter for the humans." Klaus put the paper down, disregarding it.

"Just because they weren't fed on, doesn't mean it's a human," said Kol. "It could always be…" He paused and glanced at me. The others followed his gaze, understanding him without speaking. I wondered if this was something they'd discussed before.

"Elena, we don't want to worry you," said Elijah.

"Okay, I'm worried."

"Relax. We just wondered… these killings… it could be Lucien." I stiffened slightly.

"It's certainly his style," murmured Klaus.

I looked down at my breakfast, feeling suddenly sick.

"We just have to know… did Tristan free you… did Tristan kill Lucien?"

The nausea in my stomach seemed to grow and I felt bile burning at the back of my throat. I got up quickly and darted out of the room to the bathroom, making it just in time to throw up in the toilet.

I steadied myself against the sink, meeting my gaze in the mirror. Don't let them see you cry, don't let them see you hurt. Don't let them know.