"You know, that means we're even now, "Elena told Damon as he came back into the room. By now, she was heavily drugged and content to lie in the hospital room with Stefan holding her hand by the side of the bed.

"Even?" Damon said with raised brows.

"Don't forget. I saved your life that time in Georgia. So now," she said smirking, "We are even Steven."

"Wow, how many drugs did they give her Stefan," Damon said, holding back a chuckle.

"Enough to calm her down and apparently sing Britney Spears songs. You were a little too late for her last performance though, "Stefan said grinning at Elena.

"Hey, you know I could beat her any day. I even have my own head of hair," she replied, reaching up to touch her head. She took a little intake of breath at the movement. "Oww," she said half moaning, half chuckling. "I almost forgot."

"I'll have what she's having," Damon replied, taking a seat on the other side of Elena.

"What are you doing, Damon?" Stefan asked, eyeing him with annoyance.

"Kicking my feet up and relaxing, and apparently waiting for Elena to bust out in song," he said wryly, winking at Elena.

Stefan gave him the look, and he and Damon stood up.

"Where are you going?" Elena said turning serious.

"I need to talk to Damon for a minute. We'll be right outside. I promise I'll be back soon," he said, bending down to give her a kiss. She kissed back enthusiastically, forgetting Damon was in the room.

"Ahem. I'd say get a room, but you already have one. Come on Stef," Damon said, leaving the room. "Stay," he said at Elena, pointing his finger. She sighed and put her head back on the pillow.

"So what's the story, Damon? Where did you go?" Stefan asked as soon as they were out of Elena's room.

"Unfortunately, not much. I went sniffing around trying to get a lead on Katherine, or even Isobel for that matter since she's connected, but no luck. I'd ask the sheriff, but she's a little busy with Caroline and dealing with a dead mayor at the moment."

"We need to figure him out sometime too, Damon. Why was the mayor with you guys in the first place? It doesn't make sense," Stefan said speculatively. "But first things, first. We find Katherine and keep Elena out of harm's way," Stefan ended, looking determined.

"Couldn't agree with you more, brother," Damon said, looking distracted. "Well look what the cat dragged in," Damon said, peering over Stefan's shoulder.

Stefan turned around and saw Alaric looking pale.

"What is it?" Stefan didn't know how much worse things could possibly get.

"It's Jenna," Rick said visibly upset.


Jeremy was contemplating the syringe in his hand. He remembered reading somewhere about how if you inject a needle into your body with just air in the syringe, that you could cause your heart to stop because of air in the blood. Was it an embolism? He couldn't really remember, but if he was correct, then this was his chance to finish what he started. He was still considering the possibility when he saw a rush of nurses. He threw the syringe back on the tray, startled, and then relaxed when he saw them rushing to some other room down the hall.

"Real smooth, Jer," he thought out loud. But just then, he heard what sounded like Rick's voice in the hallway calling for help. "What the hell?" he thought, and got up off his cot. He stumbled a bit, but regained his balance as he stepped out in the hall and rounded the corner.

He was greeted by Rick holding an unconscious Jenna, with doctors hurriedly coming to her aid.

"Jenna. Jenna," Jeremy called rushing to the scene. "Mr. Saltzman, what happened?" he asked, panic setting in his face as he saw the Jenna wasn't breathing.

"I, I don't know. I was just holding her when she just went still and stopped breathing…"Alaric said in shock.

Jenna was ripped from his arms, put on a gurney, and was sped to the nearest room.

"We need a crash cart in here," one of the doctors yelled.

Jeremy and Alaric stood tense and anxious in the corner of the room while the doctors worked to resuscitate Jenna.


"Knock, Knock," a voice called from the door.

Elena opened her eyes when she heard Bonnie's voice from the doorway. "Bonnie," Elena said, smiling and then bursting into tears at the same time. She may have felt loopy, but seeing her best friend brought her down to reality.

Bonnie rushed over and gave Elena a one armed hug. "Elena. Oh my God. I'm so sorry. Are you ok?" Bonnie asked, concern all over her face.

"Oh don't start that, Bonnie. Please?" Elena said, starting to laugh a bit. She was thinking back to when she was starting school again after everything with her parents and how everyone asked if she was ok. She didn't need that again. Bonnie smiled in an apologetic way and sat down.

"How did you find out I was here anyways?" Elena asked.

"Well," Bonnie said looking guilty, "I didn't know you were here. I heard about Caroline and came to the hospital to see her. She's fine. She's awake," she said because Elena looked like she was going to interrupt. "They fixed her internal injuries and she's fine. Chatty as usual," she said smiling.

"Good," Elena said, sighing out a breath of relief.

"But I came here and Matt told me if I knew what happened to you, and I came running. What did happen? Really?" she asked looking serious.

"How much do you know?" Elena asked, not really anxious to tell her story again.

"Only what Matt told me."

"Well. Long story short, Bonnie. Katherine's back."

"Crap….Tell me everything," Bonnie said.


"Clear," the doctor said, shocking Jenna's chest for the second time.

"No, no, no," Jeremy said, shouting from the corner. "You can't do this Jenna. Not you too." Jeremy couldn't help but to think of all the people he had lost. He felt cursed. She was really trying with him, and he appreciated her patience with him. It felt like bad karma that after he failed to die, she was seemingly succeeding effortlessly instead.

"Please," he said, near tears. Alaric held his shoulders looking just as upset. The doctor put the paddles to her chest a third time and got a reaction on the monitor.

"Alright, people. Let's get her out for a head CT, stat," the doctor said. Turning around, he faced Jeremy and Rick. "We're going to do some tests and see what's going on in her brain. We won't know more until then. But for now, she's stable.

With that, the doctors started wheeling Jenna out of the room and toward the elevators. Jeremy felt both a wave of relief and a wave of nauseous over what just happened. "Whoa. Easy Jeremy. Maybe you should go lay back down," Alaric said, taking his arm. "I'll make sure she's ok. You take care of you. She wouldn't like to wake up and have you hurt even worse," he said with knowing eyes.

"But…ok. But how about Elena? She doesn't know. I want to see her," Jeremy said, taking a deep breath until the nauseous passed. The charcoal they forced on him was still making his stomach uneasy.

"I'll go tell her what's going on. But you need to calm down, first. She doesn't need to see you in bad shape while hearing about Jenna. So just stay put," he said. He waited till Jeremy was back in his bed with a nurse going over his vitals to go check on Elena.

"This day sucks," he sighed as he went toward Elena's room.


"I don't know if you should tell Elena, yet," Stefan told Rick. "The only reason she's in that room right now is because they drugged her up. You give her a reason, and she's out the door. We'll tell her when we know for sure what's wrong with Jenna."

"I think Elena would want to know, Stefan" Rick said.

"Know what," Bonnie said, coming from Elena's room.

"Nothing," Stefan said, glancing from Alaric to Bonnie. "What are you doing here, Bonnie?"

"Really, Stefan?" she said, giving him a look.

"I'm sorry. Of course you'd be here." Then he turned back to Alaric. "Please. What she won't know, won't hurt her." This was the second time that night that they had to use that line.

Bonnie was looking between the two men curiously. "Stefan, what shouldn't she know?" she said, now peering into Elena's room. "Because I think Damon's telling her right now."

Sighing, Stefan looked back to Rick. "Ok. Well, head back to Jenna then. I'll still be here for Elena."

Nodding, Rick left the room in a hurry to get back to Jenna, hoping she was alright.

"What do you mean her heart stopped?" Elena said, getting flustered. He own heart sped up in the response to the news Damon was telling her. "What does that mean? Is she going to be ok? I should have known something was wrong. I feel stupid for not even asking how she felt. She only had a huge bandage on her head…"Elena added looking upset.

"Easy, Elena," Damon said trying to calm her, "If you would have let me finish, I was going to tell you that they got her heart beating merry happy again and they are going to do a CT scan to see what exactly happened. She'll be back to giving me the evil eye and cozying up to Rick in no time." He smiled in hopes that she would settle down. It didn't.

"I have to go see her. I'm done just lying here while people I care about are in hospital rooms," Elena said, wincing as she sat up and turned to put her feet on the ground.

"You were so much more fun when you were high on meds," he said as he watched her get up. "Are we really going to go through this again, Elena," Damon said, shaking his head and going to go stop her before a rush of movement beat him to her.

"That's why I didn't want to tell her yet, Damon," Stefan said, angrily forcing Elena back on the bed.

"You weren't going to tell me?" Elena said breathing heavily from the effort of moving around and being forced back onto the bed.

"I didn't want to upset you with the news especially since we didn't know what we were dealing with yet," he said, glaring at Damon.

"I still think it's better she knows if her Aunt it going to kick the bucket or not, Stefan. She wouldn't like it if she found out too late that she could have seen her or at least been given the 411 on… Elena?"

At that point, Elena started hyperventilating and crying. "This is all my fault," she said between breaths, "I'm so stupid. I should have done something to protect her…" she cried, her pulse rate alerting the monitor.

"Elena. Shhh, shhh, shhh. It's not your fault. It couldn't be your fault, ok?" came Bonnie's voice from behind Stefan. "Breath." But Elena wouldn't listen.

"Elena, if you don't calm down, you're going to do some real damage, and if it kills you, do you really want to turn? You know what would happen?" Damon said looking serious and concerned at the same time. "I mean we could always use the company…." Stefan was livid when he figured out that Damon had given Elena his blood. Bonnie looked disgusted and angry at the same time.

Stefan was about to say more, but he noticed this idea seemed to calm her, if only for her own sake. And for the sake of all of them, a nurse came in the room to check out what had happened, shooing the three into the hallway.

"Well, that was fun," Damon said sarcastically, giving a grim smile. But his smile was interrupted by a piercing pain in his head. Clutching his head, his fingers gripping his hair, he looked up to see Bonnie glaring at him.

"I warned you, Damon," Bonnie said staring him down as the pain intensified in his head.


"Bonnie, Bonnie. That's enough. Stop. He didn't hurt anyone," Stefan said reluctantly. He was angry at Damon for a lot of things lately, but he couldn't fault him for giving Elena his blood when it probably saved her. "In fact….He saved Elena's life at the time."

Damon's hands dropped to his side as the pain disappeared. Cracking his neck from side to side, he looked over at Bonnie and glared.

"Next time you want to witch-out, Bonnie. Don't," Damon said getting in her face. He had meant his apology earlier that day, but his patience could only wear so far.

"I figured it was more effective than just the slap in the face I had in mind. What's wrong with you?" Bonnie said, moving closer, not afraid of his reaction. "We weren't going to tell Elena and you rush in to tell her," she said poking a finger at his chest. " And you only now decided to let everyone know you gave her your blood. So if something terrible would have happened…" she couldn't even end her sentence because she was so mad.

"She was going to die, Bonnie," Damon said with more emotion in his voice, "She was bleeding out fast. If I would have taken her to the hospital like that, she would be deader than me and Stefan. So take your power trip somewhere else."

She stepped away and controlled herself. "I've let you get away with only so much because of Elena. So don't push it," she said walking away. "I'm going to check on Caroline," Bonnie told Stefan.

"Oh, and p.s. Damon, you're not Stefan. So stop acting like Elena is yours," she said with a nod and walked away.

"Witches are so touchy," Damon said, still glaring as she disappeared down the hall.

"She's right though, Damon. I don't think we need to have another conversation again, do we."

"No. As much as I love out little chats, Stefan, I have places to be, people to eat, bitches to find," he said smirking.

Stefan sighed. "Just be careful."

"Whatever," Damon said. And with a final look at Elena, he left.


"Stefan, stop fussing over me. I'm fine. I can do it, "Elena said as Stefan was rushing to help her with her books. "The doctor said if I don't use my shoulder it'll get all stiff. So carrying and stretching and stuff is good. Really."

It had been almost a week since they released Elena and she was starting to feel better. She didn't really want to go back to school, but she grinned and bared it. Caroline was back in action too, making it a point to tell teachers that if she fell behind on homework, it was because of her accident.

"Alright," Stefan conceded, "But I'm still going to carry your backpack later." He smiled at her and, began to open the history class door to let them out.

"Agreed," she said. She was about to leave when a voice stopped her.

"Elena. Any news on Jenna?" Alaric asked, walking toward her and Stefan.

"It's the same," Elena said frowning. "They are keeping her in a medically induced coma until the swelling goes down in her brain. They said that she had a concussion and that since it wasn't looked at fast enough, it progressed and she actually threw a clot, causing her heart to stop. I don't know, I'm not a doctor or anything. I don't even know if I got it right…" she ended looking frustrated.

"It's ok. You did fine explaining it, Elena," Alaric said. "So how long till they know anything?"

"Well, luckily they said it shouldn't be long because she's healing pretty well. Then they will take her out of the coma I guess," she said sighing. "I just wish she would have taken the time to get looked at instead of fussing over me and Jeremy."

"Speaking of, how is he doing," Alaric asked curiously.

"He's been quiet, but for the most part, I think he's going to be ok. We're talking again, at least. I think Jenna almost dying and me being hurt really brought him down to reality or something," Elena said thinking back to Jeremy's behavior. He was told to talk to a shrink a few times a month for a while, but he seemed to do so without complaint. She didn't know how much help he could get considering what he could and couldn't talk about, but at least he was still alive.

"Thanks for the update, Elena. I'll be dropping by the hospital later," Alaric said, closing his bag.

"I'll see you there then," Elena nodded and went toward the door.

"Hey Stefan, can I talk to you in private for a quick minute."

"Yes… But Elena may as well stay. She'll just hear about what you had to say later anyway," Stefan said after Elena gave him knowing eyes.

"Fair enough….Any word on Katherine? Or…Isobel?" he ended, looking tense.

Elena remembered being shocked when Stefan told her of Isobel's appearance in the hospital. She hadn't seen or heard of her since, but she wasn't surprised. She wouldn't forget what Isobel had told her at the Grill the night she met her: "Don't look for any redeeming qualities in me, I don't have any."

"Nothing on Katherine. She seems to be lying low. Damon might have gotten a lead on Isobel, but he's not sure yet. We're doing our best to make sure everyone's safe," Stefan said.

"I guess that's the best we can hope for at this point," Alaric thought thinking of Jenna.


Jeremy didn't know what was worse, his decision to stay human or his decision to see the therapist. Well, it wasn't so much a decision as a must to see the therapist, but it still, in his opinion, sucked to go through the motions.

Seeing Jenna almost die made him realize how important family was overall. If she had died after Jeremy had made his choice, Elena would be left alone blaming herself for everyone. And as much as Jeremy hated living life feeling so much pain, he didn't want Elena to have to live the same way too. He also conceded that Anna wouldn't have wanted him to live his life an unfeeling shell of a person. At least that's what he told himself to counteract the 'what if' feelings that were racing through his mind.

Sighing, he left the doctor's office after a stubborn session where he skirted around a lot of the problems that had occurred in his life. They would probably find him insane if he told them how he was depressed about vampires. He was halfway to his car when he spotted Elena leaning against the door.

"What, are you checking up on me? Making sure I'm seeing the shrink like a good boy," he said a bit annoyed.

Elena crossed her arms over her chest. "I wasn't checking up on you. I was just making sure you were ok after the appointment," Elena said, hanging her head. "I'm sorry I bothered you." She started walking away.

"Elena. Wait," Jeremy said, catching her arm, "I'm sorry. The appointment just made me so tense and mad, and I'm just still going through a lot….I didn't mean to snap."

Elena thought about it and wrapped her arm around Jeremy. "It's ok. I understand."

"Do you need a ride or did you drive here?" he said, looking around for her car. "Did Stefan drop you off?"

"Yeah. I told him about your appointment and he offered to take me. So here I am."

Jeremy unlocked the door and Elena moved around to get to the passenger side.

"Elena…I'm sorry," Jeremy started.

"I know. You don't have to say it again, Jeremy," Elena said, buckling up.

"No. I mean, I'm sorry about what I was going to do….you know…turn," he added at the confused look on Elena's face. "I wasn't thinking. It was just that I lost Anna and I was already feeling crappy, and I just wanted it all to go away. I didn't think of how I would hurt you."

Elena seemed at a loss for words.

Jeremy seemed to decide whether to tell Elena the next thing he was meaning to say, because he wasn't even sure if he meant it just yet or not.

"What?" Elena said, noticing his little internal struggle going on, shown in his facial expression.

"Well. I guess the next time you see Damon, just thank him for me," Jeremy said reluctantly, putting the car into drive.

"Damon? I'm sure he already knows how grateful both you and I are for getting us help," Elena started.

"It's more than that. I thought he would have told you," he said, looking awkward.

"Tell me what?"

"Well, if he hadn't shown up when he did, I would definitely be a vampire right now…He found me right after I took the blood and pills and he compelled me to puke it all out and apparently, drink a cup of his blood to fix whatever damage I had done…." He said, looking embarrassed. "So, I guess I owe him one."

"You mean you didn't have any vervain?" Elena asked.

"He must have taken it off. It was in that bracelet you gave me, right?

"Yeah," she said, looking out the window, looking distant.

"What? What is it? Are you mad?" Jeremy asked, looking concerned.

Then Elena laughed and looked back to Jeremy. "No, I'm not mad. I just…I just didn't think it would be this easy…" she ended, smiling at him.

"Think what would be easy? Us getting along again," Jeremy asked with a slow smile.

"No," she said, her dark eyes dilating, "Getting to you so easily…so, unprotected. Now pull over," she said with command in her voice, boring her eyes into Jeremy. Silently and obediently, Jeremy pulled the car to the side of the road.

"Now, you're going to listen to me very carefully. Understand?" Katherine began, staring at Jeremy.

"I understand."


"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're stupid," Damon said, standing inside an old evicted house. "And though you are stupid, I know that you wanted me to find you on purpose."

Isobel sat down on the leather couch and crossed her legs. She had found a perfect house outside of town that still had furniture left; a bonus she was luxuriating in until Damon showed up. "I had to finish my meal way too early to deal with you, Damon. The least you could do is not insult my intelligence."

Damon rolled his eyes and decided to take a seat across from her, but not before snatching up a half empty bottle of whiskey she had sitting on the counter. "Well, at least you have good taste in liquor," he said, taking a swig.

"So let me get this straight, and please stop me if I miss anything. You left town all 'you'll never see me again, I'm just a messenger, blah blah blah," Damon started, settling into the loveseat, " and then you come back to town because you sort of care what happens to your 'daughter', maybe even your ex perhaps?" Damon said, tilting his head at her.

"That was put rather elegantly. But don't confuse caring with usefulness, Damon. I gave up actually feeling anything a while ago," she said narrowing her eyes at him.

"What use could you possibly have for either Elena or Rick—the superman-wannabe history teacher?" he said, containing his urge to snap Isobel's neck for even thinking Elena could be used.

"That's for me to know, Damon. I have my reasons, just as you have yours for doing whatever you do."

"And what is it that you think I'm doing exactly," he replied, taking another swig from the bottle.

"Looks like you are going through a lot of trouble on Elena's part to keep her safe…watch over her family…win her over. I'm not naïve, Damon. You do things hoping for something in return," she said, taking the bottle from his hands and taking a sip. "I don't know what your master plan is, just as you don't know mine."

That was the second time in a month that he was told he didn't do anything unless he expected something in return. He didn't know whether to be annoyed by the fact that that's what people thought of him or not.

"Well, that usually is the case," he conceded. "But this time, I'm involved because when Katherine is in the picture, it's not just who is useful to you anymore. What does Katherine want?"

Isobel sat there smirking at him for a moment before looking at him. "Honestly, I have no idea what Katherine's up to. Why don't you ask her yourself? Oh wait, you can't find her. So you listen to me Damon Salvatore, "she said standing up and going to the door. "Your threats to kill me don't scare me. They are empty and we both know it. I have information you want, and like it or not, I am Elena's mother." She said, smirking and opening the door, "So why don't you go find someone else to bother. Like Katherine. And when you find her, send her my way."

Damon got up and finished the bottle of whiskey in one gulp. "Don't think we're done, Isobel," he said breaking the empty bottle. In one quick moment, he rushed to Isobel and plunged the shattered bottle into Isobel's stomach. She cried out in pain as Damon twisted it deeper.

"And don't forget that my threats, unlike this bottle, are never empty. I will kill you as soon the moment you become useless to me. So how about you spill something other than your guts, Isobel, starting with your reason for being here," he said snarling as she stared on in fear.


"Jeremy should be here any minute," Elena told Jenna. "And when he is, you should wake up and yell at him for being late," she told her, holding her hand and imagining Jenna's response.

Elena sighed and looked at the door for the millionth time. She had been waiting for Jeremy for over an hour now and she was starting to get worried. She was reaching for her cell phone to call him when the door finally opened and Jeremy came in.

"Finally. I thought you'd never get here. How was your appointment?" Elena asked.

"It went fine. Told him it was normal teenage angst stuff. Couldn't really got into details, you know…But it was only the first visit so it's not like they're going to cure me in one shot," Jeremy said, taking a seat next to Elena.

"You were talking for a while, though. You were supposed to show up like an hour ago."

"Oh," Jeremy said looking over to Jenna with a distant look, "I needed to just got for a drive and clear my head."

"Alright. I won't push it," Elena said, taking his hand. "Umm, so how was school?"

"Really, Elena? We're going to talk about school?" Jeremy said raising his brows.

"Sorry…."Elena said. "I just don't want to bring up anything that you don't want to talk about or anything."

They sat there for a minute in silence before Elena started up again. "Did you hear about the memorial service they're going to put on for Uncle John?"

"I think I heard something about it. How's that gonna work, exactly, considering we don't even know what happened to his body?" Jeremy said. "You are sure he was dead, right?"

Elena shivered at the memory of his body on the ground. "Yeah. I'm sure. Damon even checked as well."

"Sorry, that was a bit harsh. I didn't mean for you to bring up something like that."

"It happened and we're moving on, Jer," Elena said, squeezing Jena's hand.

"How is Jenna anyway? I didn't ask earlier because I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear bad news. Did they say anything?" Jeremy asked.

"The only good news they gave me was that they were taking her out of the coma sometime tonight so that tomorrow she will be out of it. Something about the swelling having gone down enough…I just hope she's ok when she wakes up," Elena said closing her eyes.

"I'm sure she'll be fine." Jeremy said, standing up.

"Where are you going," Elena asked, surprised by his rush.

"I have some homework to catch up on and….I have to buy a notebook. My doctor wants me to start some lame journal so I can write about how I'm feeling," he said, rolling his eyes. "No offense."

"I'll go with. I have stuff to get done too. I'll see you later, Jenna," Elena said, bending down to give her a peck on the cheek.

"See you at home later tonight?" Elena asked Jeremy as they left the hospital.

"Yeah," Jeremy said trailing off as he saw Alaric coming toward the building. "I'll see you home a bit later. I have to talk to Mr. Saltzman, first."


"You were gone for a while. Am I correct in thinking that you found something?" Stefan asked as he saw Damon come into the living room.

"Yeah. You could call her that," Damon said, heading over to the liquor bottles and pouring himself a glass.

Stefan noticed some blood on his shirt, and sat up. "Katherine?"

"Funny. I wouldn't call her a thing. More like a….never mind. I'm not in the mood to share with you my sarcastic bantering. But no, I found Isobel," he said plopping down on the couch next to Stefan.

"And what, you beat her up? You have blood on your shirt, "Stefan said, gesturing at the splash of red just above his waistline.

"IF you call shoving a broken bottle in her gut beating her up, then yes," he said smiling.

Stefan's eyebrows shot up at that. "Is she…."

"I didn't kill her. I was just putting her in her place, that's all. Settle down tiger, or should I say rabbit? Or squirrel? Whatever it is you had for dinner."

"Anything useful come out of it?" Stefan asked, eager for information.

"You'd think so, right? Well, she confessed her love for long walks on the beach, moonlit boat rides, and a heavy admiration of AB positive blood…."

"Damon. Seriously. What did she say," Stefan said, not in the mood to play games.

"Grouchy. OK. Well she said that she was here for Elena because she decided deep, deep down that she actually cares for her; like her motherly side was coming through. I don't know how much motherly stuff came out of her gut, but there may be some truth to her caring about Elena. However, she made it clear that she had some sort of use for Elena or something. I don't quite know, but I don't like it," Damon said scowling and taking a sip of his drink.

"That's it?" Stefan asked. "I don't buy that Elena's the only reason for her to be here."

"Well, the other part I got out of her pertained to her seeing Rick and asking him some important questions, but she wouldn't indulge what that was… As far as I can tell, she's here on her own agenda. Not Katherine's." Damon said frustrated.

"For now, at least," Stefan replied. "We'll just have to keep a close eye on her then regardless. For the sake of Elena and the town."

"Sounds like a plan…..Hey, where is Elena anyway?" Damon asked.

"She was going to the hospital to visit Jenna, and then she's going to swing by here," Stefan asked, eyeing Damon. "I don't want you to tell Elena…"

"Why do you insist on keeping things like this from her, Stefan? You already know she gets angry when you try to treat her like a child," Damon said to him with disdain.

"I was going to say that I didn't think you should tell her about you attacking Isobel, not the whole incident. There are just some things that she shouldn't know unless it's important, or it won't hurt her," Stefan answered back angrily. "It's called being considerate. You should try it sometime."

"Unless of course you think Elena will be alright with you semi-gutting her birth mother, then be my guest. She doesn't need to be treated like a child after all?" Stefan said getting up as heard a car roll into the driveway.

Damon rolled his eyes and reclined in the chair thinking about the last thing Isobel had said to him.

"I know you say Elena's not like Katherine, but come on now. She's stringing both of you along like little puppies. Don't forget whose blood she has running through her veins, Damon. When it comes down to a final choice, who do you think she'll choose? Or can she?"

Shaking his head, Damon was surprised that Stefan hadn't walked in with Elena yet.

He walked to the front door to see not Elena, but the Sheriff.

"Sheriff Forbes. To what do we owe the pleasure," Damon said, folding his arms over the bloodstain on his shirt.

"Hello Damon. I was telling your brother that we were having animal attacks in town again," she said looking uncomfortable.

"I thought John took care of that with his device," Damon said, knowing full well it was probably Isobel or Katherine.

"Well, the thing is, it's different this time. It's like it's an actual animal attack…" she ended, looking flustered.

"Don't you have like, forest rangers for that or something?" Damon asked, not getting where she was going with it.

"What's different about it then?" Stefan asked, seeing that she had more to say.

"I don't want to sound crazy, but I knew you'd understand something weird because of everything that's happened, but the wounds are large like a person was clawing at the body. And the bite mark, was enormous for a bear or wolf," she said looking at both of them.

"I'm sorry. I sound stupid. I shouldn't have bothered you," she said. "It's just…"

"What? What are you thinking?" Stefan said, slowly putting some pieces together.

"Well in the founders' journals, they made mention of the same kind of animal attacks, but it wasn't attributed to vampires…..they said….well they said it was werewolves."

This brought Damon to attention. "Now that's an interesting theory….Where did you read about said werewolves."

Sherriff Forbes shifted uncomfortably, reluctant to tell them. "It's probably not even true. I mean, werewolves? It was probably some wild animal in the day and they let their imagination run…"

"Where did you read it, sheriff," Damon asked getting more curious.

She sighed and shook her head. "In the Lockwood journal."