Ch. 2: Sleepovers
Elena stepped into her room and started to remove her top to get ready for bed. She looked up and jumped back, "Stefan! You scared me, what are you doing here?"
Stefan was standing by the window as he walked over to embrace her, "Thank god you're okay," he sighed. "Katherine is out of the tomb. Since Elijah's dead the compulsion he had over her is gone and she got out." Elena gasped and hugged Stefan tighter. "It's gonna be okay Elena, I'm not gonna leave your side."
"Why is she still here?" she mumbled into his shoulder.
"She told Damon she wants to help kill Klaus."
Elena pulled back to look at him, "What if she's telling the truth Stefan, after I talked to her I believe that she's afraid of him."
"Elena I don't doubt that she wants Klaus dead. But I know Katherine is only looking out for herself; which means she doesn't give a damn if you get hurt in the process. I just want to keep you safe, and I don't trust her."
"I'm not saying I trust her Stefan, but maybe we should consider being more civil to her. We're probably gonna need her help eventually. She does know more about Klaus than we do."
"Okay fine, but try not to take everything she says to heart. Katherine is used to manipulating anyone to get what she wants... It's late we should get you to bed, we have school tomorrow," he said as she pulled away and started to change into her pajamas.
"Oh joy another day in school, while there's some psycho vampire waiting to kill me," Elena said with a grumble.
Stefan pulled her over to the bed and crawled in beside her, holding her close. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you Elena. I will protect you with my life. Everything's going to be okay, we'll figure it out."
Elena turned to face him, "Thank you for telling me about Lexi, I needed to hear it. And I'm going to fight…I'm going to fight for my life with you. I love you Stefan." "I love you too," he said as pulled her closer to kiss her goodnight.
The morning light streamed through the window as Elena buried her face in Stefan's neck. "Good morning beautiful," Stefan said as he kissed the top of her head. "Sleep well?"
"Mmm, amazing thanks to you."
"We have to hurry and get ready so we can leave before Jenna wakes up."
"We? Aren't we going to school?"
"Yeah we are, but I gotta stop at my house and grab my stuff and I am not leaving you alone."
"Stefan I'll be fine for a couple of hours."
"Elena just humor me, Jeremy's not here and with Katherine around I wanna keep you close."
"mm, okay but you owe me," she said as she leaned in for a kiss.
He smiled up at her, "If that's the kind of payment you require, I'd be glad to." He kissed her again and rolled them over. He ran his fingers through her hair and Elena moved her head to the side as he started kissing down her neck. Running his hand down her side and back up again to play with the strap of her shirt, slowly pulling it down…
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP
Stefan stopped his movements as Jenna's alarm went off in the other room. Elena threw her head back onto the pillow in frustration, "Ugh, can't I have a normal moment with my boyfriend!" Stefan chuckled as he kissed her forehead and whispered in her ear, "We'll continue this later I promise."
"You better, we didn't get any alone time at the lake house. We deserve a few moments of fun." Stefan rolled off of her and waited while she got ready for school. She quickly got her things and they snuck out before Jenna made it to the kitchen.
When they arrived at the boarding house, Damon came to the door with a worried look on his face.
"Katherine didn't come after you last night, did she?"
"No Damon, I stayed with her all night and she didn't show," Stefan replied.
Damon sighed in relief but had an unreadable expression on his face at the mention of Stefan's sleepover, "Well now the bitch is back, Stefan. What do you want to do?"
Stefan started going upstairs to his room, "We're going to school, and we can worry about Katherine later. I'll be with Elena all day, but I don't think she wants to hurt her this time. Either way, she'll show up when she wants to be seen. So for right now I'm not gonna worry about it."
"hmm I think I like this version of you Stef, so carefree and stupid! It's Katherine!" Damon exclaimed, but Stefan was already upstairs and didn't feel like responding.
Elena stood behind Damon and replied, "I think he's right. I don't think she wants to hurt me this time. I'm not gonna turn my back on her but I think she wants to help."
"I hope you're right or there's gonna be a dead Petrova in the near future," Damon said with a smirk.
At lunchtime, Elena and Stefan finally caught up with Bonnie and Jeremy. Elena ran over to them and threw her arms around Bonnie, "Oh Bonnie I'm so sorry about all this! Are you alright?"
"Elena it's not your fault, I did this. I used Luca and now I'm paying for it," Bonnie said with a sad look in her eyes.
"Bonnie don't blame yourself, this is Jonas' fault. We're gonna find a way to get your powers back." Elena pulled back and looked at Jeremy, "Thanks for looking after her last night."
Jeremy and Bonnie shared a look and Bonnie turned to Elena, "Umm, Elena do you mind if we talk alone for minute?" Elena turned to Stefan, "I'll just go over there with Jeremy so he can fill me in," he said as walked off with her brother.
Bonnie breathed a big sigh and Elena looked at her worried, "Bonnie what is it? Is there more bad news?"
"No Elena, it isn't, or I hope it isn't. I don't know if you've noticed but Jeremy and I have been hanging out a lot. He's really been helping me with all this witch stuff, making sure I'm not straining myself. And with all the time we've spent together we've gotten closer…" Bonnie started to get nervous knowing this was Elena's little brother, and she didn't want to upset her best friend, "He'sareallysweetguyand he'," Bonnie babbled.
"Bonnie slow down, you're babbling and I can't understand you." Bonnie took a deep breath and looked Elena in the eyes. "Jeremy and I kissed, Elena." Elena just looked at Bonnie with a blank stare.
"I knew you would get freaked, we haven't done anything it was just that one time," "Bonnie"
"And if you don't want us to go out I completely understand," "Bonnie!"
"You're my best friend and I would never want to lose you over a guy," "BONNIE!"
"Yeah?" "Bonnie it's okay," Elena said with a smile.
"Really?" Bonnie smiled back. "Yes really!" Elena giggled. "You're my best friend and a wonderful person, Jer's lucky to have you in his life. And I know Jer will look out for you. I have noticed him crushing on you lately, I just didn't know you felt the same way."
"So you're not mad?"
"Nope not mad." Elena smiled and gave her friend a hug. "We should go tell Jeremy"
Elena looked over Bonnie's shoulder at Stefan and Jeremy and said, "Looks like Stefan already did, vampire hearing." As Stefan and Jeremy began to make their way back over, Jeremy gave Elena a quick hug and laced his fingers with Bonnie's as he gave her a smile.
At that moment Caroline came bounding over, "I knew it! I knew you had feelings for Jeremy! You guys make such a hot couple. I was standing over there and I heard everything."
"Caroline!" Bonnie exclaimed as she slapped her shoulder, Jeremy chuckled as they went to sit down at a table.
Stefan decided it was time to let everyone in on the Katherine news as he proceeded to tell them about last night's events.
"Wait a minute you're saying you trust her now! Can I remind you that she killed me then manipulated me to do her dirty work!" Caroline looked furious.
"Caroline calm down, we're not saying that at all. We need to have a meeting and decide what our next step is going to be. We're going to need more information if we're going to go after Klaus and unfortunately she has it," Stefan said.
They all agreed to meet at the boarding house after school to discuss their options.
When everyone was settled they got down to business. "Since everyone here knows about Katherine, we just need to be on the lookout for anything suspicious. Other than that I think we should just wait for her to make a move," Stefan said as they nodded in agreement. "We need to focus on getting Bonnie's powers back, since she's the only witch on our side. Bonnie do you have any idea how to reverse what Jonas did?"
"No, I tried everything I could think of and I looked through grams' grimoire but there was no mention of taking a witch's powers. Maybe I can talk to Luca, apologize, get him to have his dad reverse the spell?"
"No Bonnie, I don't want to approach them about this yet. Jonas can't be trusted and they're obviously upset about the situation, I don't want this to get any worse. Until then, I want someone guarding your house at night; we don't need any more unexpected attacks. Damon…?"
Bonnie glared over at Damon and interrupted before he could respond, "No way! Why can't Jeremy or Caroline do it?"
"Because Bonnie, Jeremy needs his rest too, not to mention he'll probably be distracted," Stefan responded as Bonnie started to blush. "Besides, I know Jenna's a cool aunt, but they both can't be gone from the house all the time. And Caroline doesn't have complete control yet."
"Stefan! Yes, I do!" Caroline defended herself.
"Caroline I just don't want to take any chances. So…Damon?" Stefan asked glancing in Damon's direction.
Damon rolled his eyes and gave a sigh of frustration, "I guess Samantha and I will be spending more time together. Any chance you wanna share a bed?" he asked as he wiggled his eyebrows.
"Not a chance in hell!" Bonnie exclaimed, while Jeremy glared at Damon.
"Relax Gilbert, I wouldn't dream of touching your lovely witch. But you know you're going to have to invite me in. It's the only way I can protect you if something goes wrong."
"Do I have to?" Bonnie pleaded with Stefan.
"It's the only way we can keep you safe until we get your powers back."
"Ugh, fine," bonnie agreed, frustrated.
"Don't get too excited Bonnie. You could really stroke a guy's ego," Damon said with a chuckle.
Before any more comments could be shared Elena butted in, "Look guys, we need to focus on our next step. We still have no idea where Klaus is or how we're going to kill him. We obviously need more information, and until Katherine shows up again we need to do some research. Stefan and I found the remaining Jonathon Gilbert journals, so we're going to read through those to get some answers."
"I could help with that," Jeremy offered.
"Sure Jer, that'd be great."
"So I don't have any homework," Caroline asked.
"Honestly Care, we're stuck until we have more information." Elena responded.
"I'll keep looking through Isobel's research, maybe we missed something," Alaric stated.
"Okay, well I guess that covers everything." Stefan said as he started walking everyone to the door.
Damon walked over to Bonnie and tried to help her with her coat, "Ready for some quality time, Samantha?" Bonnie snatched her coat from his hands, "Don't touch me Damon!"
"You know you really should be nicer to me, I am the one doing you a favor."
Jeremy moved in front of Damon to help Bonnie with her coat, "I think you're the one that owes us after everything you've done."
Damon rolled his eyes, "I already said I'm sorry for killing you, it was a mistake. Jeez when are you gonna get over that already!"
"Very sincere Damon," Bonnie said as she pushed past Damon with Jeremy through the door. Damon reluctantly followed behind.
Caroline walked over to hug Elena goodbye, "I think I'm going to head to the Grill and see if I can catch Matt."
Everyone filed out the door as Stefan turned to Elena, "Don't tell me you're leaving too."
"Why do you have a better offer?" she asked with a smile.
"As a matter of fact I was thinking you, me, and a romantic dinner. What do you think?"
"I think it sounds perfect, let me just call Jenna."