"Beth… Beth…" I moaned and rolled over in bed. The feminine voice sounded familiar, but I was too tired to open my eyes to see who it was.

"BETH!" Suddenly my mattress was flipped over and I landed hard on the floor, I jumped up, fangs out as I looked around the room. The tall blonde girl was laughing from the other side of my bed.

"Lexi!" I cried. I jumped over my bed to hug her. She was still laughing as she returned the hug. I pulled away to look at her.

"What are you doing here?" I asked in disbelief.

"You're big bro's birthday is coming up. I wouldn't miss it! Seeing us was a big bonus though." She bobbed my nose and then took my hand and skipped down the stairs, pulling me with her. As she skipped she called:

"STEFAN! THE THREE OF US ARE GONNA HAVE SUCH FUN FOR YOU'RE BIRTHDAY!"

"So this Elena girl. She'll come around. Have you had sex yet?" Lexi asked Stefan. The three of us were sitting in the living room. I laughed a little. Lexi was already kind of blunt.

"No." Stefan answered.

"Sex always works. I mean, you'll rock her world so hard with your vamp sex, she'll be yours forever!" Lexi told him.

"Yeah, but see this isn't about sex, or compulsion or any of our other tricks. She has to be with me on her own terms." Stefan told her.

"Wow. That sounded all mature and grown-up. Didn't that sound mature and grown-up to you, Beth?" Lexi asked, cocking her head as she looked over at me.

"For a guy still in high school, yes, yes, it did." I agreed. He rolled his eyes at the two of us and we smiled over at him.

"I'm not getting any older." He said. Lexi opened her suitcase and pulled out a blood bag to take a sip. Lexi raised her eyes to Stefan.

"Want some?"

"No… Thank you…" Stefan told her.

"Relax, I didn't kill anyone for it. This phlebotomist I went out with a few times, he's my supplier." She assured him. I gave her a look, trying not to smile. She saw it and tried to hide her own smile.

"Oh, don't judge, little sister!" She said, playfully shoving my legs from where they'd been laid across her lap. I held up my hands in surrender.

"Look, I tried the animal diet, it lasted three weeks." She told Stefan.

"It doesn't matter. Because if I started again, I just don't know if…"

"You could stop?"

"I could never judge you for drinking human blood considering what I've done, Lexi." Stefan said.

"I'm just jealous of you two's restraint. I have none. I delight in hedonism." Lex returned. I nudged her leg with my foot.

"Speaking of which, what are we doing tonight?" I asked her.

"Funny you should ask, little sis." Damon said as he came into the room. All three of us glared over at him hatefully.

"She wasn't asking you!" Lexi snapped. He ignored her.

"There's a party at the Grill. You'll love it. Banquets. Tacky wait staff. All of Stefan's friends…" Damon continued.

"Yeah, I don't want a birthday party…" Stefan protested.

"Well, it's not for you. It's a party party. No one's gonna know it's your birthday. Caroline's throwing it." Damon told him.

"Damon, stay away from Caroline!" I warned.

"We're friends, its cool. It's important for the town to see us out and about like normal folk. We need to blend." Damon said. He saw Lexi's stack of blood bags in her open suitcase.

"I prefer mine at 98.6." Then he walked out of the room again. Lexi and I both turned to Stefan and saw just by his expression he didn't want to go.

"Please?" Lexi pleaded. He shook his head. She turned to me.

"We can both plead together. He can't say no to his best friend and little sister."

Lexi and I walked into the grill together that night. Damon hurried up to us and Lexi's smile turned to an expression of disgust.

"Where's my brother?" Damon asked.

"He said he'd met us here."

"Buy you a…" Damon started to offer. But Lexi was already walking away from him. I smirked at Damon and hurried to follow her.

"Okay, I'm going to need a little more foot movement…" Lexi complained later that night. She and I were dancing but Stefan was not.

"Yeah, really not interested in making a fool of myself." Stefan told her.

"Come on, you're not that bad." Lexi told him.

"Do me a favor. Tell me if you see Damon with his camera phone." He said. Lexi and I exchanged grins and looked back at Stefan.

"Right, of course." We agreed. Then he started dancing. He took Lexi's hand and spun her around and then did the same with me as we laughed.

"Three shots of tequila." Lexi said as we walked over to the bar. She saw Elena sitting at a table and looked back at the bartender.

"Make that four."

"I need to see some ID." Lexi compelled him at once.

"No you don't."

"That'll be…"

"Free!" Lexi said, still compelling him.

"On the house."

"Thanks!" She flashed him a grin as he put the four shots on the counter. I grabbed two of the shots and she grabbed the others. Lexi led me over to Elena. We set the shots down on the counter.

"Oh, the famous Elena!" Lexi greeted her.

"Towel girl." Elena returned. I didn't even want to know the story behind that one. I quickly drank my shot without saying anything.

"I've been called worse. Here." Lexi told her. She slid another shot towards Elena. Elena picked it up but didn't drink any of it.

"I didn't know that you guys could drink."

"Oh yeah, it helps the cravings, but makes for a lot of lushy vampires!" Lexi returned.

"I've never seen Stefan drunk. He's always so…"

"Uptight?" Lexi and I suggested at the same time. We giggled at the fact we'd said it together. Elena joined in for a second before saying anything else.

"Yeah, but not with you, Lexi."

"Well, that's the benefit of knowing someone for over a hundred years. You can just be yourself." Lexi said. She wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

"Yeah, he can't be himself with me…" Elena said.

"Well, not yet… The first step was him telling you. The rest comes with time..." Lexi told her. Elena nodded slowly.

"You seem so sure."

"The love of my life was human. He went through what I imagine you're going through: denial, anger et cetera… But at the end of the day, love really did conquer all." Lexi pointed to Elena's shot.

"You gonna drink that?"

"Go for it." She handed it over, but Lexi just passed it over to me and took the shot that was supposed to be Stefan's.

"Bottom up, little sis!" We took the shots.

"I'm scared." Elena admitted.

"But you're here… You're crazy about him… I get it okay? I mean, what's not to love?" We all looked over at Stefan at the pool table.

"Take it from someone who's been around a long time. When it's real, you can't walk away." Lexi told her. Elena smiled over at her.

"Lexi… It was really nice meeting you." Lexi smiled at her and headed back over to Stefan. I turned to Elena once she was gone.

"How's Jeremy?" I asked.

"Good, actually… He's doing homework; he's going to school every day… I don't know what Damon did, but it worked…" Elena told me. Then her expression turned from happy to concerned.

"About him knowing about you…?"

"I wouldn't tell him unless you wanted me to."

"But Stefan told me about his past and yours-."

"That was different." I protested.

"How? You love Jeremy!"

"I don't!" I protested.

"I see the way that you look at him, Beth. The way you light up when he smiles at you like he's made your eternity just with that… I saw you crying with him that night after Vicki… You love him and I can't argue that you are the best person for him." Elena told me. With that said, she went over to Stefan as Lexi went for the bar again. I tapped my fingers against the table, thinking about that.

"Oh my god!" I heard Stefan say. My head snapped around to see what he was looking at. The sheriff was subtly injecting with Lexi with Vervain. She thanked Damon for the supply and dragged Lexi out. Stefan and I ran after them. Outside, we saw they'd shot Lexi with wooden bullets. We both moved forward as she threw the cops off her. Damon appeared and shoved a wooden stake through her heart. Stefan clamped a hand over my mouth to prevent my scream from sounding.

"Oh my god…" Elena whispered as she ran out behind us. Damon dropped Lexi's dead body to the ground as Stefan hauled me into the ally behind us. He let me go once we were out of sight. The second the cops drove away with Lexi's body, he stormed out of the ally. I was right behind him.

"Stefan! Stefan!" Elena yelled after him, running to catch up.

"He killed her! He killed Zach! He killed Tanner! He turned Vicki! I have to kill him!" Stefan growled.

"No, you can't do that!" Elena protested.

"Why are you trying to save him? Elena, he is never going to change! Don't you see that?! NEVER!" I almost yelled at her.

"I'm not trying to save him! I'm trying to save you! You two don't know what it'll do to you if you do this! Please, Stefan!"

"Everywhere we've been, pain and death follow! Damon follows! No more!"

"Stefan, just talk to me, just-."

"No! You were right to stay away from me Elena!" We darted off, back to the boarding house. Damon was in the living room.

"Told you I'd take care of the counsel on our trail." Damon said as he heard us come inside. Stefan tackled him to the ground. Damon rolled away and stood up. I darted over and decked him, kicking him in the stomach hard enough to send him flying back to Stefan. Stefan picked him up and punched him, sending him flying into a wooden chair, which broke underneath him. Stefan grabbed him again and pinned him against the wall. I grabbed one of the broken pieces of chair and threw it to Stefan. He stabbed him through the chest. Damon tensed but then look shocked at Stefan.

"You missed!"

"No. You saved Beth and me from the counsel. I'm sparing your life. We're even. And now we're done!" He threw Damon to the ground and the two of us darted upstairs.

"Why does Damon always do this?" I sobbed to Stefan as we both collapsed on his bed together. He pulled me into a hug.

"Because it's Damon." The rest of the night was spent in his bedroom, wallowing in our sorrow over Lexi…