We'd gone to Subway and eaten, then proceeded to spend the day together at the park. Elena had spoken about her favorite things and dreams she had for her future. So far, she wanted to attend college after a year of break, and then become a children's doctor.

At six, I'd taken her home so she could get her car and go off with her friend, Bonnie.

When I'd arrived at home, she'd sent me a text telling me to look under the passenger side mat on the floorboard. She ended the message with a mischievous emoji. I went back out to my car and lifted up the mat, which covered a twenty dollar bill and a sticky note thanking me for using all of the gas in my car on her. I shook my head and pocketed the money. She was sly, I'd give her that. Chuckling to myself, I walked back into the house and began to go over the files that sat at the kitchen table, which is where I was now.

Mrs. Flowers came down the stairs in her pajamas, which were pants and a long sleeved shirt scattered in cat pictures.

"Do you like my getup, Stefan?" she asked as she made her way to the fridge. "I'm the town's creepy 'ole crazy cat lady, but these are the closest things I have to cats."

I laughed.

"This one's name is Fluffy," she began as she pointed to each individual cat on her pants, "and this one is Oliver. The orange one is Tito, and the three in the middle are Fluffy Number Two, Three, and Four. The black one is Yeti, and -" she looked up - "I quit for tonight. I forget which one was Fluffy Number One."

I laughed harder, "Goodnight, Mrs. Flowers."

"Nighty night, Potty Mouth," she said as she ascended the stairs. Apparently she hadn't forgotten my actions earlier in the day.

My eyes traveled back down to the files. I'd worked on Grayson's and Miranda's, but the main mystery was always leading back to Katherine's file. There was something about it that wasn't adding up. Car accidents had always unnerved me, and it made me remember mine.

I'd been in a wreck with my mother when I was eight. Damon was in the passenger seat, and he was fifteen. He was the first to see the car coming at us, and he'd screamed for Mom to get out of the way. It was on course to hit the driver's side. Though, just as the car was about to hit her, it swerved and came crashing into Damon.

Elena described how she thought Katherine was laying down to stop the oncoming car. When I remembered it, Damon had been the same way, but instead of his hands being out to "stop the door from caving in", they were outstretched to protect me in case the car hit far enough for me to be affected.

When the ambulance came, it turned out that Damon had broken his shoulder and arm, and pulled multiple tendons. One of his ribs was cracked, and he had bruises for a good month afterward. He had to be in the hospital for a week and a half. The kicker: I didn't get a scratch on me. I'd hit my head a bit from the impact to leave a small goose egg, but Damon got the worst part of it. Our mother had only received a gash on her hand.

The doctors told me that if Damon hadn't of thrown himself in front of me, I would've died that day from the impact, because my eight-year-old body obviously wasn't as strong as his fifteen-year-old one.

I cried at the sight of him in the hospital bed. Even at my young age, I'd wished it would've been me in his spot, because he didn't deserve it one bit. I'd repeatedly thanked him for what he did, and he told me that it was alright because he loved me enough to lay his life down for me.

Damon had saved my life that day, and his only complaint from it was that the hospital food sucked. All but the chocolate pudding.

That would be the one reason why I would love my brother no matter how insanely irritating he's come to be at twenty-four. He risked his life to save mine, and even though we don't seem to get along or even like each other anymore, I'd always be grateful for him. After all, he basically taught me everything I know.

Damon had showed me how to successfully cheat at Tic-tac-toe, tutored me in math even though he hated it more than I did, and he even told me how to make a girl fall head-over-heels in love with me, although it always seemed to work better when he did it. I tended not to use the last one as much. I did try it on Katherine, though, which is why I think Damon was angered when she wanted me over him.

If I thought about it, Damon was the brother that I loved to hate. Knowing this, I smiled to myself and opened up Katherine's file. Thankfully, Elena had taken the time to put the pictures of the accident in an envelope, and so I went over the paperwork there as I wrote down my own personal notes.

Mystic Falls Medical Examiner's Report

Name: Katherine Elizabeth Pierce

DOB: January 1, 1993 (3:02PM)

SSN: 965-00-1001

Nickname(s)/Alias: Katerina Petrova (Bulgarian Descent - translated)

Date of Death: June 9, 2012 (3:02PM)

Cause of Death: Automobile Accident (Backseat Passenger, Driver's Side)

Mother: Miranda Gilbert (Deceased, Front Passenger)

Father: Grayson Gilbert (Deceased, Driver)

Sibling(s): Elena Gilbert (Survivor, Backseat Passenger, Right Side); Jeremy Gilbert (Uninvolved in accident)

Additional Info: Broken neck, broken wrist, minor cuts, and scratches. No other sustaining injuries. Dental records don't add up, but Elena Gilbert identified the body, and so did Jenna Sommers.

Date Examined: June 11, 2012

Medical Examiner: Brian Walters

Signature X: _Brian Walters_

I was quite surprised to see that Katherine had died the same time she was born, and it was sad. Another mysterious thing was that her dental records didn't add up. Were they hers? The medical examiner, Brian Walters, had written parenthesis notes in his scratchy handwriting beside the information, and his signature proved all of it. Elena had left me a note saying that she'd basically covered her parents' files and half of Katherine's, but to make sure she didn't miss anything to recheck some of the parts.

I did that and everything worked…all but Katherine's file. Why was it so off? I didn't know, and the lethargy was catching up with me, so I decided to get my work done quickly and go to bed. The last thing I had to do was look at Katherine's pictures.

I took a deep breath, and shakily opened the envelope flap. My heart was racing by the time I pulled out the overturned pictures. When my hand flipped with the pictures in it, I held in my breath and tried to calm myself at the sight of this beautiful woman I knew cut and marred from a drunk driver.

Her hair was matted and caked in blood, her lips were a pasty, pale color, and her soft skin had a tint of blue to it. I was mortified at the sight, but I had to see them as to be sure that the examiner didn't miss anything.

Her lids were covering her beautiful brown eyes to make her look as if she were sleeping, and some pictures had a zoom for certain wounds like her neck and wrist.

I tried my best to picture some stranger in these pictures as I went through them and took notes, but when I turned to the photo of her laying in the coffin, my mind went into a fit. I didn't want to examine her embalmed body because that meant she was really dead. I quickly threw the pictures back into the envelope, closed the files, took everything upstairs, and threw them onto a desk.

I fell onto my bed in tears. They were tears for sadness, happiness, and even guilt. Sadness was because my Katherine was dead and gone. Happiness that at least one survived. Lastly, I felt guilt because the person I saw in the coffin was no longer my girlfriend but Elena instead. And that made me even more distraught.

My heart broke and shattered when I saw Elena, and I felt guilty that I wasn't this upset when I saw Katherine up close in the same spot in person. She had me hooked, and she didn't know it yet, but her light was reeling me in.