A.N. Enjoy!

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"This is a lame way to make a joke Damon.." All she could do is stare at the floor, there's no way he could be dead, she talked to him a month ago and he seemed fine. Sure, it was over the phone, but he sounded fine.

"I'm not trying to be funny Elena." He stared at her long and hard. "I tried to contact Katherine, but she hasn't been heard from in awhile, and I was hopin-"

"You were hoping I had her contact information." She met his eyes and only then did she let a tear escape, but it didn't last long. "I haven't spoken or seen her since then." She walked back over to her desk opening a few drawers until she found a letter. Without hesitation she handed it to Damon. "She sends me letters every month. I don't open them but I am asuming this is the last known address." Glancing at him one more time she started gathering her stuff. She didn't hear him move until his hand was on her shoulder. Shrugging him off she moved away grabbing her remanding stuff. "Just.. Don't... You're welcome to stay here but I'm leaving, on your way out lock the door." With that she left the room.

"You know he is only trying to do his job." Looking to her right she gave Stefan a hard look.

"Not now. If you're going to be around, keep your mouth shut." With that she walked with her headphones on, but no music playing, just hoping no one would disturb her. She got to Caroline's classroom and knocked on the door. Mr. Torwess answered with a scowl, he hated anyone inturuppting his class.

"Yes, Ms. Gilbert?" Ignoring his look she peaked into his classroom seeing Caroline.

"I'm here to collect Ms. Forbes, it's a very urgent matter, I promise she will get what ever work you have assigned done by the due date." Giving him a firm look, he rolled his eyes and called for Caroline. After a few moments they said their goodbyes and started walking.

"Are you ok Elena?" Without looking she kept walking.

"Just come with me please." Walking in silence they got to the parking lot and got into the car. Caroline started driving, they were about two blocks away when she finally started crying. She didn't notice that they were home or the fact that she was on the couch.

After she calmed down, she looked at a worrisome Caroline.

"Best you tell her, you will cry more, but someone needs to know besides the police." Looking up she saw Stefan standing behind Caroline. Nodding for her to talk she took a deep breath.

"Y-you remember my younger brother?"

"Little Gilbert? Of course." Caroline gave a soft smile.

"He... He uh... I was told... Damon..." Caroline touched her shoulder giving a reassuring squeeze. "Jeremy's dead..." She burst into hysterics again. Both Caroline and Stefan comforting her, telling her soothing words. She didn't remembering falling asleep.

"Lena'! Lena'!" A little boy came running to her, causing her to fall over when he made contact.

"Jer! You're hurting me!" She couldn't help but giggle.

"You both should stop running in the house, you know mom doesn't like it." They both got up pouting and putting their heads down.

"Sooorrrryyyy."

"Well, since mommy isn't here... How does ice cream for dinner sound?" Both children squealed and ran to their dad. The rest of the night they watched Sleeping Beauty and Toy Story. By the end of Toy story both of them could hardly keep their eyes closed. Slowly walking up the stairs they each went to their own bed, waiting for their dad to come say good night. Before dad came to Elena's room, Jeremy came to the door rubbing his eyes.

Sniffling he said in a quiet voice. "Lena', just for tomorrow?" Yawning she nodded her head.

"It's tonight not tomorrow." She turned over so they were both facing eachother.

"Ney, Lena'?"

"Yea Jer?"

"We be together foreva right?"

"Of course Jer, always and forever." Holding eachothers hand they fell asleep, believing the promise they made.

She slowly opened her eyes, she was in her room, it was night time and everything seemed blurry. Yawning and closing her eyes she tried to shift to get more comfortable.

"You might want to sit up." She shook her head, she wasn't ready to get up. "Lena' get up." She opened one eye to look at Stefan who wasn't looking at her, but slightly to her right. This peaked her interest. Slowly she turned her head, and she sat up immediatly. "Told you."

"Oh shut it." She scowled at Stefan who only smirked and held up his hands in defense. She turned her head again when she heard a mumble. Unsure of what she should do, she took a pillow and wacked the person in the face.

"What the hell!" She watched as he sat up rubbing his face and looking around the room until he saw her sitting up holding a pillow up. Her face said she was surprised and scared, she knew it by the look of concern on his.

"You have three seconds to tell me why you are in my bed." She held the pillow up ready to hit him again. He held up one hand to block the pillow just in case.

"Just hit him."

She slightly turned her head in Stefan's direction. "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything..."

"That's right he didn't."

She turned fully to face Stefan. "I said shut it!" She turned back to see a puzzled face. "Spit it out!" She hit him with the pillow again.

"Ok. Ok!" Sighing he rubbed his face once more.

"Damon.. Tell me now!" She was getting angry now.

"I came to check on you. You didn't show anything when I told you and I just wanted to make sure you were ok." He looked up to meet her eyes. "I came and you were in such hysterics you didn't realize I was carrying you to your bed. Caroline asked me to because she couldn't get you to move. I tried to put you on the bed, but you refused to let go of my shirt, so I sat on the bed with you. We both fell asleep. That's it."

"You swear?"

"Course not." Turning again she faced Stefan throwing the pillow at him causing him to duck.

"Shut up!" She looked back at Damon, who looked more confused than ever.

"I swear." She nodded looking at her hands. Letting the tears slip again. She looked back up at him.

"So that means..." He could only nod. "How?"

"Elen-"

"HOW!" She looked at him, anger and sadness all over her face as the tears fell uncontrollably.

"You sure?"

"How.." She looked at her hands, which were now shaking. "how..."

Sighing he looked at the picture that hung on the wall of Elena, Katherine and Jeremy. "They found bruising consisting with a beating, he was then later stabbed a few times before he was shot twice, once in the chest the other in the head. Overall, he suffered 23 hours of torture before he was killed."

"Elena.." Stefan went to comfort her but she only flinched.

"don't..."

"Elena, who are you talking to?" She looked up at Damon in disbelief. No one questioned her, ever about her talking to herself, it was her thing.

"Tell him Elena. He's not as bad as you think..." She whirled around, standing up off the bed, there standing in front of her was Jeremy, giving a soft smile.

"No... No... NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" She kept screaming until Damon wrapped his arms around her to stop her lashing out at the air. She kept trying to free herself so she could touch Jeremy again.

"I'm sorry Elena..." Jeremy looked at her with sadness.

"NO! YOU DON'T GET TO BE SORRY!"

"Elena, no one is there." Damon kept his hold on her as best as he could.

"SHUT UP! THEY'RE THERE, I KNOW THEY ARE!" As she kept screaming, Caroline came running into the room.

"Let her go." She grabbed Elena on the shoulders.

"You sure?" He was very hesitant.

"Do it!" He let her go, and Caroline held onto Elena's shoulders. She was looking behind her, away from Caroline.

"Elena... Elena... Elena! Look at me." After a few times Elena finally made eye contact with Caroline. "It's me Elena. Caroline. I'm right here. It's ok, it's ok." After a few chants Elena finally losened up and stopped struggling. Her knees buckled and gave out cause her to sink to the floor. She clung onto Caroline, sobbing into her shoulder.

"Damon... Help me get her onto the bed." Slowly walking over, he helped pick her up and place her on the bed. "I'll be down in a minute." Nodding he left the room.

After a couple minutes, Caroline came down the stairs holding her finger to her mouth.

"She's finally asleep."

"What was that. I have never seen her act like that, and i've known her for a long time." He was confused, angry and scared, not sure what he just walked into.

"How long have you known her?" She looked at him as she sat on the couch in front of the fire.

"I used to date her twin sister, Katherine. I've known them since they we were 8. We lost contact for 5 years." She nodded, looking into the fire.

"Amazing how you never knew."

"Knew what?"

"What I am about to tell you, well, it will sound superficial, but I am telling you now, it's as real as you and me, and it can get pretty bad." After looking at eachother for a few minutes he nodded his head for her to continue.

"You know about the accident?"

"With their parents?"

"Yea, it got worse around then." Looking away from him, she looked into the fire, it wasn't her place to tell him, but she could tell he cared, something people didn't show much around Elena. "She's a paranoid schizophrenic." She looked at him, and his eyes had widened and the look of surprise and sadness was in every part.

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So, this chapter is actually pretty long, i just realized how long haha. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Also to clarify a few things:

She see's and hear's people, some real, some not.

Her dream, her and Jeremy were roughly 5 and 2, hence the word choice.

Don't worry, Damon will be sticking around, it will just take Elena some time to warm up.

If you have any questions about it so far, I'll gladly answer. Thanks for reading!