Sixteenth.

We arrived a few minutes later in the town square and found Elena and Stefan sitting at one of the outdoor tables at The Grille. We took our seats and exchanged greetings. After a little small talk Elena turned to me and asked about my life. "So Norrah, where are you from? What brought you to Mystic Falls? Do you have family nearby?" I shifted around uncomfortably in my seat and looked to Damon for help, but he only fueled the fire.

Stefan leaned in closer to me, "You don't have to worry, Elena suspected something when she heard you were staying at the house with us. I guarantee she won't be nearly as shocked as you think. She can handle this type of thing." He smiled and squeezed my hand. I gave a weak smile back.

I knew that they hadn't told her about Katherine, so initially I left that part out. I told her about growing up in Europe, moving around a few times and ending up in England after my father died. I told her about my mother and the cottage by the woods, Daniel and Maddie. I told her about my mother dying when Maddie was a baby and living in the cottage with my little family. I looked back over to Stefan for help, he nodded and told me to go on so I continued telling her about that horrible night when I was kidnapped, killed and turned, and then left to figure it all out by myself.

I paused for a minute to collect my thoughts and to let my story sink-in. I looked up at Elena expecting shock, but there was none, if anything she looked sad for me. I figured that if there was ever going to be a time to tell her this was it. I glanced around, but there was no one in earshot so I dove back in. Before I told the rest of the story I decided that I needed to explain to her who I really was. When I told her about the night I was born and my birth mother I saw shock and disbelief cross her face, but she didn't question me. I told her that Katherine had killed my parents for telling me about her, had compelled a young man to love me and bear a child with me, and finally that she had killed and turned me.

Everyone was silent for a few moments until Elena spoke. "So if you're Katherine's daughter then we are related."

I nodded "That's why I am here now," I explained. "I know that Katherine has been through Mystic Falls recently, and I also know that she had made multiple threats aimed at you Elena. I came here not only to ask for help in Finding Katherine, but also to offer my help to you." I spent the next half hour explaining everything about me and my life as a Unique, from my inhumane creation to my miserable eternal existence, my incredible speed and strength to my ability to turn my healing ability off and on. All three of them sat there intrigued by my story. Even Damon hadn't known everything.

I sat back in my chair and took a few sips of my water. Elena was still curious though. "If you hate your existence so much, why don't you just end it?" she asked.

"Believe me, I have tried," I told her. "The problem is that because of the spell, I am linked to Katherine and therefore I can only die at her hand, or if someone was to kill her. Neither of us can live without the other, so when one dies the other will die as well. Since Katherine has no intension of dying anytime soon it would seem that I will have to wait until she is killed."

"So if someone other than Katherine tried to stake you, what would happen?" Elena probed.

"The stake wouldn't penetrate my heart; it would stop just shy of hitting it. I would be in a lot of pain because I would, in essence, have been stabbed, but it wouldn't kill me." I answered. It was a long story, but I was happy that they were all there to hear it so I didn't have to repeat it three times. They noticed that I was starting to fade, telling that story always took a lot out of me.

The table was silent, no one knew what to say after all of that. The waiter came by and took our order. After he left Stefan asked "Have you really been alone all these years?"

"No, in fact I had a good friend with me for centuries. We were very close and we became each other's family." He stopped and thought about that for a minute.

He looked up at me with questioning eyes, "are you 'that' Norrah?" I nodded back to him as shock registered across his face.

Never wanting to be left out of anything Damon asked, "what are the two of you talking about?"

Stefan turned to me. "Do you want to tell him, or should I?" I figured I had come this far today, might as well finish it off with a bang.

I prefaced the story by telling them all that I never wished this curse upon anyone, and unlike my reckless mother I had vowed never to turn a human. Unfortunately fate intervened one night as I was taking my leave from a small village in Massachusetts when my best friend tried to come after me and ended up bleeding to death in the woods. I told them about trying to save her and killing her in the process, and then allowing her to choose death or un-death. She chose to stay with me, she didn't want me to be alone, and we spent the better part of three hundred fifty years together before she was unnecessarily staked.

I watched as Elena and Damon tried to work this out, something sounded familiar about this. Stefan reached out and squeezed my hand just as Elena came up with the answer. "Wait, Lexi is the vampire that you turned?" she asked. I nodded, fighting back tears as I turned to Damon. He had nothing to say.

I looked back at Elena. "Did you ever have a chance to meet Alexia? She nodded and I smiled, I was glad that they had met one another. The uncomfortable silence between Damon and I was finally relieved when our food came. Elena and Damon started talking about some plans they had made with Alaric, and Stefan and I quietly reminisced about our good friend. She was sorely missed, that's for sure.