AN: Chapter 3! I hope you like it. We'll meet Stefan in this one!

thanks to my awesome beta: Danielle Salvatore!

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer and L.J. Smith own everything Twilight and Vampire Diaries- related.

Fell's Church, Elena POV

When Elena walked home from school that day, she felt like her head was going to explode. And it wasn't because of the weird things that had been happening lately. Everyone wanted to know about France, complimented on her new clothes, tried get a seat near her at lunch, … She hadn't found one moment to sit back and think.
But maybe that had been a good thing, she thought, it hadn't been as hard as she thought it would be. The feeling had come to her only hazy, and it didn't bother her as much as it used to. She knew something had changed, though. It felt like she was in control of it, rather than the way around.

She had noticed this when the words Bonnie had said earlier ran trough her mind. "We should test it on some people." She had thought about that when she noticed Dean Jordans walking over to her. He was always extremely friendly, but to Elena it had always felt very fake. She hadn't known what to think, until now. When he had almost been at her side, she had actually tried to feel something. And her new sense hadn't let her down. It didn't take her over, and she didn't really feel it the way she felt emotions. It was the way Bonnie had talked about it before: she tested the guy, scanned his intentions, and they weren't the best kind. 'Pretending', her feeling had told her, 'deceiving', 'be suspicious'. That was a lot more specific than 'good' or 'bad! run!'. Elena thought that maybe this new thing of hers could come in handy, that maybe it wasn't so bad.

When Dean had started talking to her in a sickly sweet voice, she'd cut him of by saying: "You don't have to act all friendly, Dean, 'cause I'm not buying it. I know how you really are, so don't try to play any games."

He had looked surprised, which was exactly what she was getting from him: 'surprise' and 'humiliation', but also 'discovered'. Which meant that her accusation had struck home.

She told her friends about this when they stopped at Bonnie's house.

"So that means you can do it whenever you want? And you know more than a person's intentions?" Meredith asked.

"I think so, I guess I know what the guy's most important feelings were… or something like that." Elena wasn't sure how it all worked, but it was more than she initially thought.

"That's awesome! Try it on me!" Bonnie pleaded.

Elena sighed, but tried it anyway. There wouldn't be any surprises, Bonnie had been near her all day. She was sure she would have noticed a big change.

"It still feels the way it did at first, it feels good, but stronger than with other people. And underneath that, I think you're disappointed and hopeful?" It ended up sounding like a question because Elena had no idea where those feelings came from.

"It's probably because of Stefan Salvatore. He wasn't at school today –which we already knew yesterday because the whole school is talking about him –but Bonnie wouldn't believe it and has been depressed all day."

Now that Elena thought about it, she hadn't really been paying attention during conversations, but she remembered that Bonnie had talked about him a lot. She was curious as to who this guy was, and what was so special about him.

"I wasn't exactly depressed, just the tiniest bit disappointed. And I was hoping he would be back tomorrow." Bonnie mumbled.

"Well, I am, too. I want to know what all the fuzz is about." Elena said.

After that, Bonnie went inside and Meredith went home.

Elena had been picking flowers along the way and by now she had a nice bunch. She was going to see her parents. She hadn't visited their grave yet because she came back from France only yesterday. It took a while to get there, but she didn't mind the long walk, it gave her time to think.
When she had walked almost half of the way, she followed a little path between the trees. It wasn't any longer or shorter than the normal way, but she wanted to feel alone.

It was beautiful between the trees. When she had been walking for a few minutes, she stepped into a little clearing with high grass that came to her knees. The sun still stood high in the sky and beams of sunlight filtered through the leaves. It was such a quiet and peaceful place that Elena decided to stay there for a while. She looked for a tree trunk that lay in the sun and sat down on it. She let her backpack fall down next to the trunk and took off her jacket. She closed her eyes and tilted her face up to let the sun warm her skin.

Elena felt so calm, time lost meaning. She didn't know how long she had been sitting there, between being awake and dozing off, but it was getting darker. She couldn't go to the graveyard anymore if she wanted to get home before dark. She laid the flowers down on a patch of moss and thought it was almost as good as laying them in front of her parents.

Elena was bending over to pick up her backpack when she heard something on the other side of the clearing. She stood up and whirled around in one fast motion to see what had startled her. It was a guy. And he was standing on the edge of the clearing with one hand raised, as if he were about to say something. Instead of doing that he just stood there. Elena was annoyed, he had been watching her while she thought she was alone.

"How long have you been standing there?" She asked.

He dropped his arm as he slowly said "I …don't know…"

"Who are you?"

Elena realized she wasn't acting very friendly, but it felt like he had stepped in on a private moment.

"I'm Stefan Salvatore." He still wasn't able to utter longer sentences.

"Oh, I've heard about you."

So this was the guy everyone was talking about, Elena thought. Well, she could certainly see what Bonnie had been going on about, he was really good-looking to say the least. He had wavy dark hair, high cheekbones, a lovely mouth, expensive looking clothes, … Her eyes followed him up and down and then up again to once again stop at his mouth.

"I'm Elena Gilbert, I go to the same school as you, but I only came back from vacation yesterday."

He smiled, "I've heard about you, too."

Of course he had, she thought annoyed. She should have known people had been talking about her late return.

Then she realized something, she hadn't felt anything from this guy. Not even something vague. Was it already gone, her new sense? But when she tried it out, it turned out to be working just fine.

Elena wasn't prepared for the amount of information that hit her. It was just like the way it had been when she came near the school that morning. And if a whole day being surrounded by people hadn't taught her a ting or two about this new feeling of hers, she would have been covering her ears and struggling to stay upright all over again. Right now, all she did was yelp quietly and cringe. Stefan reached out as if to help, even though he still stood on the other side of the clearing.

He looked worried and asked: "are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Elena said, gasping. "I'll explain in a minute."

She didn't know if she would really tell him what was going on. At that moment all she could do was try to make sense of the complicated mess inside her head. Layers upon layers of different feelings had been coming at her with incredible speed. It would take way too much time to examine everything she felt, so she settled on the most important things. He didn't mean her any harm. If she wasn't this sure, she wouldn't still be standing there. She did sense that he was dangerous. Very dangerous. But his concern for her overruled any other thing that might have made her doubt him. She decided to get back to the amazing amount of feelings later.

Elena realized Stefan was still watching her with a worried look on his face, probably waiting for the explanation she had promised him. "I'm okay, really." She assured him. Her legs were shaking so she sat down again on the trunk and motioned for him to come closer.

That really hadn't been like with any other person she had seen today, this guy was as complicated as the whole student body. He came closer and slowly sat down beside her. For a while they sat together in silence, Elena didn't know what to say.

"Were you hurt?"

He asked, and for a moment Elena was too dazed by the sound of his voice to answer, then she shook her head and said:

"No, it was nothing. Some… things have been happening over the last two days, and I'm confused."

When she looked at his face, she saw that he knew there was more to it, and he wasn't about to let this go.

"What kind of things?" he pressed, and Elena thought about what to say.

"You can trust me." he said, and she realized she would tell him everything he wanted to know. She didn't know how she knew it, but Elena was sure that if there was anyone she could trust with her new secret, it was Stefan.

"I know I can." She said, because she knew it was true.

"That's what has been happening. Since I came back from France, I've been able to tell people's intentions, or what kind of person they are, or something like that. It's all very confusing."

Elena had been saying she wanted the new sense to go away before, but she had never wanted that as bad as she did now. It was because she hadn't had time to really think about it before. Last night had been crazy and at school she'd had to focus on a million conversations. It all came down on her now. What was she supposed to do? The thing hadn't come with a manual! Why was it even there?

She felt a tear rolling down her face and wiped it away. She didn't want to cry with Stefan here. She wanted to save that for later, when she was in her room. Then she sighed. Oh, why do I care if he's here, she thought, I don't think being alone would be much better, I would probably feel even worse. So she let out the tears she'd been holding back so desperately.

Stefan surprised her by gently wiping them away and holding her to him with his arm around her. She put her head on his shoulder and leaned against him.

"Is this alright with you?" he asked, and she nodded.

Fell's Church (Stefan POV)

Stefan was on his way back to the boarding house, he had just fed very thoroughly and felt good. Being surrounded by people and having to walk in sunlight all day long had weakened him, and he realized he had to feed more often if he wanted to keep living this new lifestyle.
He felt more comfortable here in the woods, where he didn't have to be careful about anything. He was moving faster than any human ever could because he felt like stretching his muscles. Even on the football field he couldn't completely let go, people would start noticing things.

That's when he saw her. At first he thought he was dreaming, he had been dreaming about her a lot over the past few days. But none of those dreams had been as beautiful, had felt as real, as this one. She was sitting in the sun, her face held upwards to meet the warmth, a soft smile playing around her lips. She looked peaceful. He was looking at her for a long time because he wanted to drink up every little detail. He saw the wind playing with her hair, the sun making it shine, her hands were folded in her lap. And that's when he noticed it. Her hands. She wasn't wearing her ring. Of course she's not wearing her ring, he thought, I have it here with me. Would this dream end just as horrifying as all the other ones? Would he watch her turn to ashes this time? He couldn't let that happen! But she was already standing up, reaching down to pick something up. He wanted to stop her, but it would be too late. In every dream he had, he came too late, and all he ever found was her dress. He reached out and tried to call her name, but all he could do was whisper: "Katherine".

She turned around, startled. Her big blue eyes looked at him and there was something different about them. Surprised, he realized they looked angry. They weren't Katherine's eyes.

"How long have you been standing there?" she asked, and she sounded angry too.

And that's when it all came back to him. This wasn't a dream, how could he have been so stupid? This was the girl that came back yesterday, Elena.

"I… don't know." He answered, still stunned at the sight of her. He'd seen her in a picture. He had been looking at a wall with photos of school activities when he first saw her. He had thought it was Katherine. He'd started asking about her and looking for information about her, until he was a hundred percent sure she wasn't Katherine. And now that he saw her for real, he knew she wasn't. Her stance was confident, and just by looking in her eyes, one could see that she was strong willed. He realized she'd asked him something, his name.

"I'm Stefan Salvatore."

"Oh, I've heard about you."

He watched her scrutinize him and it looked as if she liked what she saw.

"I'm Elena Gilbert, I go to the same school as you, but I only came back from vacation yesterday."

He already knew that and smiled "I've heard about you, too."

She looked annoyed.

Then something happened. He felt a probing thought hover around him and wondered where it came from. At the same time, Elena made a sound as if she were in pain and cringed. For a moment he thought she had felt it, too, but then he grasped that it came from her. He didn't think about that when he saw her cringing in pain. She suddenly looked so much more like Katherine, so vulnerable and small. He wanted to help her but didn't know what to do.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she gasped "I'll explain in a minute."

She seemed to be able to handle it on her own, so he waited. When she looked up again, she looked confused and a little pale.

"I'm okay, really." She said, and sat down on the tree trunk.

She motioned at him to come closer and that was something he had wanted to do from the first moment he'd seen her sitting there. What had she done? Had she looked into his mind? And how much did she know about him now? He wasn't sure, and he didn't want to scare her, so he walked over to her and slowly sat down beside her. He waited for her to speak, but she didn't say anything. He wanted to know what happened, but he didn't know if he should let her know that he had felt her probing, so he asked "Were you hurt?".

She shook her head "No, it was nothing."

Stefan knew that was a lie. He had felt the pain in her mind when he was searching for the one who sent the probing thought. And it had been her, he still couldn't really believe it. He knew she was human, because if this had happened before he had fed, it would've been much, much harder to just sit next to her. And he was very glad he had fed. He wanted her to trust him, he wanted to be able to comfort her. And not just because she looked like Katherine, but because of a reason he didn't fully understand. He pushed the thought away.

"Some… things have been happening over the last two days, and I'm confused."

It wasn't a good enough explanation. Stefan wanted to know everything, and what he wanted to know most was how much she knew.

"What kind of things?" he asked, when it became clear she wasn't going to tell him everything by herself. She hesitated.

"You can trust me." She only knew him for a few minutes, so he knew it sounded stupid, but he wanted her to understand.

"I know I can." She said, sounding very confident.

When she saw his puzzled look, she told him: "That's what has been happening. Since I came back from France, I've been able to tell people's intentions, or what kind of person they are, or something like that. It's all very confusing." She said, sounding miserable.

He hated that and he wanted to make her feel better, but he didn't know what would be okay with her. He couldn't stand it anymore when he saw a tear rolling slowly down her cheek. She angrily wiped it away with her sleeve and he could tell this wasn't her usual behaviour. She normally didn't cry in public, she held her head high and waited until she was alone. Then she sighed and more tears fell. She had let her guard down while he was there, and he couldn't describe how that made him feel. He gently wiped away the tears that had followed en held her against him with his arm around her.

"Is this alright with you?" he asked. And she nodded against his shoulder.

He knew it was a risk, holding her this close, but as he held her, all he thought about was making her feel okay. His own needs could wait.

Volterra, Italy, Eleazar POV

"He said what?" Carmen screeched.

"Don't scream! Someone might hear you!"

"Well, I don't care! They should all know for what kind of –Eleazar covered her next words up by coughing very loudly –leaders they work!"

"I have an important function, I can't just leave, you must see that, love." He didn't like it when he realized he was quoting Aro.

"Of course you can leave! And you're not just important, they're using you! How can you be so blind!"

"What? Why don't you tell me about that later and calm down now."

He liked having a floor, and she was ruining it.

"I am calm!" She hissed, while stomping her foot with a force that made a dent in the floor. That seemed to stop her outburst. She gazed at the damage she had caused by pacing, there were crumbles of stone all over the floor. Then she sighed and slumped down in a sofa.

Eleazar went to sit next to her and pulled her closer. He tilted her face up so he could look at her and stroked her cheek. If it would have been possible, he was sure there would be tears rolling down from it.

"I'm sorry. I can't change Aro's decision, but you can come with me this time. We won't have to be apart. That's something, right?"

She nodded and put her head on his shoulder, leaning against his chest as if she were tired. He gathered her long black curls in his hand and held them so he could kiss her neck.

"Why do you wear your hair down all the time? I love the curve of your neck."

She grinned and turned her head to look at him.

"I wear it like that so you will play with my hair to hold it up."

He kissed her teasing smile.

"You had a lot of time to plot when I was in the south didn't you?"

"Yes I did, and I learned a lot about strategy while I was here. I guess the Volturi's way of thinking is rubbing off on me."

"Let's leave as soon as possible, then." He laughed.

"You know, I wasn't ready to let go of you when you left for your talk with Aro. Tomorrow morning is soon enough for me…" She smiled mischievously.

His love for her overflowed him and he pulled her closer, kissing her lips as they whispered to him in Spanish. He didn't care if he had to search all over the planet for decades, as long as she was with him.

AN: So, that was it! I hope you liked it. Remember: Reviews are love. It would make my day.

A lot of Stefan/Elena stuff in the next chapter!