AN: So, I just watched the new episode – I know, a little behind over here – and I'm so glad it's finally up and running again. I don't want to put any spoilers in here, in case someone hasn't seen it yet, but I thought it was good. Looking forward to next week! And, in the mean time, I have this story to keep me going. I didn't get much feedback on the last chapter, and I hope you guys aren't losing interest. I know that there isn't much action in this story, and, like I said, it's pretty much a link between "Everything" and the second sequel I'm planning, but, for that story, it's important to establish some things. Anyway, thanks to everyone who did review – you rock! xlittleminxx – I know I haven't addressed the issue of Elena still drinking Damon's blood as a precaution in case she gets hurt, but she is, I just haven't put it in writing. And spiritedghost, the whole channeling Buffy and company from BtVS is not always intentional – I've just watched that show way too many times, so sometimes it sneaks in there all of its own accord! I'm just glad when someone catches my (OK, not always) subtle hints! OK, that's it. And lots of hugs for my amazing beta, sunshine2006578!

Disclaimer: The characters of The Vampire Diaries are the property of L.J. Smith and the people at The CW. I'm just borrowing.

Chapter three

The next day, Damon was woken up by the sound of his cell phone ringing incessantly. Elena had finally fallen asleep at around five in the morning, and, after having made sure that she really was asleep, he had dozed off shortly after her. The display on his phone said that it was now almost half past eleven – meaning that they had been asleep for a little over six hours, which was more than he had hoped for – and that the caller was Stefan. Amazingly, the sound of the phone hadn't woken Elena up, and he hurried to answer the call before it did.

"Hang on," he whispered, extricating himself from Elena's arms – still not waking her up – and slipping out of bed. He left the bedroom and carefully closed the door behind him before speaking. "Yeah?"

"Good morning to you too," Stefan greeted him in an amused voice. "Did I wake you up? Isn't it close to noon over there?"

"As a matter of fact, you did wake me up," Damon replied, going into the kitchen. "Elena was pretty upset last night, it took her a while to calm down and she didn't fall asleep until around five this morning." He managed to keep from yawning until he had finished the sentence, but then he couldn't hold it back anymore.

"Oh, well, sorry for the early call then," Stefan apologized. "Did I wake her?"

"Amazingly, no." As he spoke, Damon started the coffee machine, knowing that Elena would need the caffeine when she did wake up. To use her own words, she didn't feel quite human until after she'd had her first cup in the morning. "So?"

"Well, another student has already moved into Jeremy's old dorm room," Stefan revealed. "I guess the turnover's pretty high when it comes to student housing, always someone waiting for a place to live. I didn't find anything that might be a message from him, and the roommate said that Jeremy didn't leave anything in the room. Furniture, clothes, personal belongings, he took everything with him."

"Damn it!" Damon exclaimed, despite the fact that he really hadn't been expecting anything else. He had still hoped, for Elena's sake, that there would be a letter or something. "Well, thanks for at least trying, even if it didn't really give us anything new to work with."

"No problem." Stefan hesitated for a moment. "I haven't booked a flight back to San Francisco yet," he then said. "Do you want me to come to Durham instead? I don't have to get home right away, really, and I was thinking that Elena could use the extra support."

Damon contemplated that for a moment. "That's up to you," he then said, not wanting to tell Stefan that he couldn't come if he wanted to. That would be too much jealous boyfriend. Stefan was Elena's friend, after all, and he cared about her too. "I think I have everything under control, but if you want to …"

"You know what?" Stefan cut him off. "Tell Elena to give me a call later, she can let me know if she wants me there or not."

"Sure, I'll do that. And thanks again."

"Don't mention it. I'll talk to you soon."

"Yeah."

Damon hung up the phone and popped a couple of slices of bread into the toaster – Elena had barely touched the Indian food last night and was bound to be hungry now and, even if she wasn't, he was going to make her eat anyway – and waited until they were done, then he spread some butter and strawberry jam on the toast and put them on a tray. Just when he had finished that, the coffee was done and he poured some into Elena's favorite mug, a big, brown one that held half the contents of the coffee pot. Putting the mug on the tray as well, he carried everything into the bedroom.

Surprisingly – because the smell of coffee usually woke her up – Elena was still asleep. He put the tray down on the bedside table and sat down on the edge of the bed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Even asleep, she didn't look completely relaxed; there was a furrow between her eyebrows that he had learned to identify as a sign that she was upset. She stirred a little at his touch, but didn't open her eyes. He leaned in closer, his mouth just at her ear. "I have coffee," he murmured, not wanting to scare her awake. "If you don't wake up right now, you won't get any."

As he had suspected, her eyelids fluttered open and she immediately located the mug with coffee on the bedside table.

"Mmm, breakfast in bed," she said, voice still a little raw from sleep, and rubbed her eyes.

"I thought you deserved it today," he replied. "Just don't get used to it."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Thank you, and I wouldn't dream of expecting it to become a permanent thing." She scooted up a little in the bed, leaning against the headboard, and he put the tray down in her lap before getting into the bed on his side. "What time is it?" she asked after having taken a large gulp of coffee.

"Eleven thirty," he replied, stealing a slice of toast.

"Crap, I missed my morning English class!" she exclaimed, frowning. "Do you know where my phone is?"

Damon thought for a moment. "Coffee table, I think,"

"Could you get it for me?" She gave him her best puppy eyes.

"Sure I could," he agreed, not making any move to get out of bed. She raised her eyebrows at him. "Oh, you weren't asking if I could get it physically, you actually wanted me to go and get it for you. Right. Back in a flash."

She rolled her eyes at him but couldn't help but smile as he got out of bed and left the room. He returned a moment later with the phone in hand.

"Thank you," she said when he had handed her the phone, leaning over to give him a kiss before taking another bite of her toast. Turning her attention to the phone, she found a text from Alison, which was what she had been expecting. She opened the message and read it, then shook her head, a slightly amused look on her face. "Of course. I should have known."

"What?" he wondered, and she held up the phone so that he was able to read the text. "sinC Ur nt n cls, i gueS U avent recovAd d uz of Ur lgz aftr ll d sx w/yr BF lst nyt BG TM l-eight-r star-w-star … OK, I might be over a century old but I thought I was good at the whole modern technology thing. But apparently not, because I'm completely lost. What is that? It can't be a language known to man."

Elena couldn't help but laugh when Damon read the text out loud, spelling everything out. "Alison's a big fan of text message short hand," she explained. "I've learned to decipher her messages, but it wasn't easy in the beginning, let me tell you."

"What does it actually say?" he wondered, frowning at the display. Why couldn't people just write normally? He had nothing against technology – in fact he loved it, it made everything so much easier – but this was just ridiculous.

"Since you're not in class I guess you haven't recovered the use of your legs after all the sex with your boyfriend last night, big grin, thank me later, wink," Elena 'translated'. "I told her that yesterday was our anniversary, and she naturally assumed that would mean an all-night sex-a-thon, so she offered to take notes for me in class today if I didn't make it in. I hadn't planned on taking her up on it, but I guess it's a good thing she offered, since I completely missed the class."

"We should take advantage of her generosity more often," he said in a suggestive voice, leaning in to plant a kiss on her shoulder. She pushed him away.

"I'm eating!"

He looked at her through narrowed eyes for a moment. "Fine. Be that way."

She took her phone back, frowning. "I guess Stefan hasn't called yet. It is only eight thirty over there, maybe he's still asleep."

For a moment, Damon thought about telling her that, no, Stefan hadn't called, only to get a little more time before he had to disappoint her. But there was no point, better to get it over with. Besides, she would only get mad if she found out that he had lied to her, no matter how good his intentions had been. "He called me a little while ago, actually," he said. "I don't know how the sound of the phone didn't wake you up – and would you remind me to change that annoying ring tone? – but it didn't."

"What did he say? Did he find something?" She didn't sound like she really wanted to hear the answer, but he knew that he would have to tell her anyway.

"No, he didn't find anything. Jeremy's roommate said that he took everything with him, so there wasn't anything left where he could have hidden a letter or something." He squeezed her hand. "I think we have to accept the fact that he has decided to go underground for a while, or at least stay away from you and Jenna."

Elena nodded, swallowing hard. "I think I knew," she said after a moment. Her voice was a little shaky, but she didn't look like she was about to start crying or anything, which was progress. "I was just procrastinating, looking for an excuse not to tell Jenna right away."

"I don't think you can push it off much longer," he told her gently. "And I don't think you should, either."

"I know." She took a deep breath. "I don't want to miss my Lit class this afternoon, but I'll blow off Psych tomorrow, it's not like it's my major or anything. I don't want to tell Jenna this on the phone. She'll need me there when she finds out."

"We'll leave as soon as your class is done this afternoon," he offered. "We should be there by seven."

"Thank you." She moved the tray to the foot of the bed and hugged him tightly. "For being here."

"Of course." He hugged her back, burying his face in her hair and inhaling her scent. When she pulled back, he remembered Stefan's offer to come to Durham for moral support. "By the way, Stefan wanted you to call him." He kept his voice light, so as not to give her any reason to think that anything was wrong. Well, that anything more was wrong.

"Why?" she asked, frowning. "I talked to him … well, yesterday, but before that just the other day, without all the 'missing brother' drama."

"He's worried about you," Damon improvised. He didn't want to tell her the real reason, because then she would ask him what he thought, if he would be OK with her asking Stefan to come, and he didn't want to say that he wished that he could be enough, that she wouldn't want his brother there too.

"I guess I'll give him a quick call then," she concluded, finding Stefan's number on her cell and hitting the 'Call' button. He picked up after the first ring.

"Hello?"

"Hi, it's me. Damon said that you wanted me to call you, so I am. Obviously."

"Oh, uh, yeah." He hesitated. "I just wanted to tell you that, if you need me, I don't have to get back to San Francisco right away. I'm sure I can get a flight out of here to Norfolk this afternoon, it wouldn't be a problem. If you want me to come, I mean."

His offer warmed Elena's heart, but she didn't want to ask him to come all that way just because of her. He had already done enough, going to Los Angeles to check out Jeremy's dorm room. And, also, she didn't really need him. He was her friend, a very close friend, even, but now, for this, the only one she wanted by her side was Damon. He was all the support she needed.

"Thank you so much for offering, but you don't have to do that," she replied. "I'm so grateful that you could go to LA, but you should head back to San Francisco. Damon's here with me, and we're going to Mystic Falls this afternoon to tell Jenna. We'll probably stay the whole weekend."

"OK." She thought that he sounded a little disappointed that she had rejected his offer, but if he did, it disappeared soon and he sounded just like always when he continued. "But promise that you'll call me if you need me, OK? Day or night, I don't care."

"I will. Thank you again."

"Anytime."

She hung up the phone and turned to Damon. She thought she saw a flash of relief on his face but, just like with the hint of disappointment she had thought she could hear in Stefan's voice a moment ago, it was gone before she could be sure.

"He offered to come here, give me moral support, I guess," she said. When Stefan had come back to Mystic Falls two years ago and Damon had immediately assumed that she was going back to his brother, she had made herself – and him, though he didn't know it – a promise to always be open with him about her contact with Stefan. It was the least she could do, considering how accepting he was about her friendship with her former boyfriend. "But I told him that I have you here, and that's all I need."

"Yeah?" He gave her a half-smile.

"Always."

"You know, I can be very insecure sometimes," he told her, leaning in closer. "You might have to prove it to me."

She laughed but pulled away when he tried to kiss her. "I have to get ready for class," she pointed out. "And if we're going to stay in Mystic Falls until Sunday, I need to pack too."

"Fine," he grumbled. But he didn't try to stop her when she got out of bed, which she was grateful for. She knew that she wouldn't have been able to resist if he had tried to 'convince' her to stay in bed for just a little longer. He had an uncanny way of being able to make her forget everything else except the two of them, even important things like school.

"You don't mind staying in Mystic Falls for the weekend, do you?" she wondered, realizing that she hadn't asked him if it was OK with him. "I want to be there for Jenna, she's gonna need me after we tell her. I can't even imagine how she'll react."

He shook his head. "No, of course not."

She offered him a grateful smile. "Thank you," she said before going into the bathroom and turning the shower on. She half-expected Damon to follow her into the room and continue his persuasion to try to get her to come back to bed, but the door remained closed as she pulled off the t-shirt she had slept in and stepped into the shower. The warm water felt nice against her skin and she stayed under the spray a little longer than what was really necessary, letting it ease some of the tension she could still feel in her body.

She had to decide exactly what she was going to say to Jenna, or she wouldn't be able to do it. She'd cave and tell her aunt the truth, and that wasn't a good idea. And, since she wasn't really a very good liar, she needed to go through what she was going to say, rehearse it so that it sounded genuine and she didn't lose her thread in the middle of it.

Jeremy had dropped out of school last week and, probably since he was worried that Jenna would be disappointed, he hadn't said anything to any of them. Or maybe she should say that he had talked to her about it? No, then Jenna would wonder why she hadn't said anything yesterday. So, instead of calling them to tell them what was going on, he had decided to drive back to Mystic Falls and hope that Jenna would be more understanding if he told her face to face. His cell number was Los Angeles based, so when he left the city, he had also left the number. Elena didn't think that it was a very realistic story, but she hoped that that was only because she already knew the truth.

Maybe Jenna would be optimistic for a few days, hope that Jeremy was just procrastinating and taking longer than usual to drive across the country, that he didn't want to face them just yet. But, sooner or later, she would be forced to accept that something must have happened to him along the road. Since he had no car that could be found abandoned by the side of the highway, she wouldn't really get any closure either and Elena hated that, but she couldn't do anything about it. She was pretty sure that Damon was right, that if Jeremy had just planned on telling her after the change he would have called by now … unless he was worried about what she was going to think and was procrastinating. But, no, she couldn't think like that. He had probably made the choice to stay out of their lives, maybe for the rest of Jenna's. So this was what she had to do. She hoped that, in time, Jenna would be able to move on. She had Alaric and they were getting married next summer. She would grieve, but in the end, she would be OK. Elena had to believe that, or she wouldn't be able to go through with the charade.

She got out of the shower and toweled off before going into the bedroom to get dressed. Luckily, Damon wasn't in the room, and she could get ready without him trying to distract her. When she had gotten dressed, she packed the clothes she kept in Damon's dresser into a sports bag she found in the walk-in closet. Her toiletries went the same way and when she was done, she checked her watch, finding that she would have just enough time to go back to her dorm room and get her books before class.

"I packed my stuff in one of your bags," she told Damon when she found him in the living room. "I hope that's OK."

"Of course." He looked up at her. "I'll pack my things and pick you up after class."

"Thank you." She gave him a quick kiss. "The class is done at five, but professor McGregor has a tendency to run a little late, so I might not get away until ten after or something like that. Now I have to run, or I'll be late."

She made it to the class with two minutes to spare and found Alison in one of the front rows, waving when she entered the room. Her friend gave her a pointed look when she sat down next to her, but Elena ignored it. Fortunately, the professor entered the room at that moment and prevented any questions. But, of course, as soon as the class was over, Alison pounced.

"So, I didn't expect you to show up at all today," she said in a suggestive voice as they joined the other students filing out of the room.

"I overslept," Elena replied shortly, hoping against hope that Alison would let it go. But of course not.

"I'm not surprised." Alison winked at Elena. "Considering the night I'm sure you've had, I'm shocked you even made it out of bed this morning. Post Anniversary Weak Legs Syndrome is a very valid reason to skip class, you know."

"Actually, the reason I overslept is that I found out that my brother is missing yesterday," Elena snapped, a little harsher than she had intended. She knew that Alison was just being her normal self, and that she didn't know what was going on, but she couldn't help it. They had gotten out into the hallway by now, and she quickly led the way in the direction of the stairs that lead down to the main entrance where Damon would be waiting for her.

Alison's eyes widened. "Oh my God, Elena, I'm sorry. I had no idea that something like that had happened, or you know I would never joke like that! I'm sorry, OK, really, really sorry."

Elena sighed. "I know, it's OK. You don't have to apologize."

"What happened? What are the police saying? I'm sure they'll find him," Alison babbled. "Is there anything I can do? Anything at all, you just have to ask."

"Actually, yes," Elena said as they left the building and she spotted Damon's car. "We're heading back to Mystic Falls for the weekend, I need to be with my family right now. I'll probably be back by Monday, but could you take notes for me in class tomorrow?"

"Of course, anything you need." Alison pulled her into a bone crushing hug. "I'm here if you need me, OK? Any time, to talk or anything you want, you know that, right? Just call me whenever."

Elena felt herself get a little teary eyed and realized just how lucky she had been to run into Alison on her first day here. The other girl had turned into a true friend. "I know," she mumbled. "Thank you."

"That's what friends are for."

AN: So, what did you think? As always, please let me know! It's easy, just click the little button saying "Review this Chapter" at the bottom of the page!