AN: Chapter 4! I hope you like it :)

Thanks to my beta Danielle Salvatore, she's the best.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Vampire Diaries or the Twilight series. It all belongs to LJ Smith and Stephenie Meyer.

Fell's Church - Elena POV

Elena felt better, she was still leaning against Stefan, her eyes were closed and she didn't want to move. But she couldn't sit here forever, and her aunt would probably start worrying if she stayed away much longer. She was thinking about that when Stefan turned to her and asked: "It's getting quite dark, won't your family wonder where you are?"

"They probably will." She answered, but didn't move.

"If you want to get home, maybe we should get up?" He didn't seem to like that idea either.

"Yeah, we should." She murmured…

He laughed and started to get up while she reached out to pick up her backpack. It was getting colder so she put her jacket back on, and then realized it was wet because it had been laying on the ground. She took it off quickly and hung it over her arm.

Stefan was waiting for her on the edge off the clearing and she hurried over to him. They walked through the trees together, and Elena hated the few spaces between them. She wanted him to take her hand, but she thought that maybe he didn't want to. Maybe the moment of intimacy in the clearing was just because she needed comforting, and he didn't want more.

But she did, Elena realized, she wanted him. She felt a bit silly for thinking it, but the way he had held her had felt different than other times she'd been soothed, deeper somehow. And she had liked it. Whenever she'd been with a boy before, it had never felt special. When they had held her, it was because they were supposed to. That's what you did when you were a couple. With Matt it had been different, too. She could feel that he loved her in everything he did. But with Stefan it had been more than that. It had made her feel safe, as if nothing could hurt her. She didn't know if he wanted her in the same way, but she really wished he did.

It was raining when they walked back to the road, but the leaves held a lot of the drops back.

When the pathway ended and they stood on the pavement, it wasn't just a drizzle anymore, it was a downpour. Before Elena knew it, her shirt was soaked. Stefan was looking up at the sky.

"Did you come on foot?" She asked, and really hoped his car was nearby. She was completely drenched and soon all of her clothes would be see-through. He nodded, and when he looked at her she saw his eyes widen. He quickly shrugged out of his coat and offered it to her. She put it on and shot him a grateful look.

"You should run home with me, you'd get a cold if you had to walk all the way back to the boarding house. You can wait inside until it stops raining."

"I don't think it will stop anytime soon."

"I don't care."

He hesitated for a second, but nodded. When they arrived at Elena's house, she was exhausted from the run, and Stefan wrapped his arms around himself against the shivers. Elena felt bad for wearing his coat, but she didn't even want to think about the alternative.

She hurried inside as soon as the door opened and kicked of her wet shoes. Her aunt noticed Stefan on the porch and said: "Oh, don't stand there in the pouring rain! Come inside!" He stepped in and Aunt Judith quickly went to get them a few towels. For an awkward moment, Elena and Stefan stood there, dripping in the hallway.

Then Aunt Judith came back with the towels and said: "They're still warm from the drier."

She turned to Stefan: "You can clean up in bathroom if you want, it's right over there." she pointed out the right way.

Then she turned to Elena with one raised eyebrow. Elena wondered if her aunt had sent Stefan away, just so she could talk to her, but she had to admit that Stefan really had looked as if he needed a minute to clean up. "So?" her aunt said. Elena explained how she and Stefan had ended up soaking wet on the front porch. She left out the part about him holding her because she'd had kind of a breakdown. Stefan reappeared a few minutes later, thanked Aunt Judith and asked: "Is it still raining?". Elena and her aunt both turned to the window and looked outside.

"Yep, still raining buckets. But you better drive Stefan home now, Elena. It will probably rain all night and I want you to get some sleep, you look tired."

Of course she looked tired, she didn't get any sleep last night. But her aunt's offer surprised her, she hadn't thought about giving Stefan a ride. But she couldn't let him walk home in this weather, now could she? Stefan was looking like he really wanted to refuse the offer, but couldn't find a polite way to do that. Elena almost dragged Stefan to the door before he could find one and tried to thank her aunt with eye signals.

When they were in the car, Stefan finally said something.

"You really didn't have to do that. It's not that far."

"Yes it is, especially if you have to walk in this rain. Besides, I don't want you to get sick."

He didn't answer. Elena thought about how beautiful the weather had been when she'd arrived in the clearing, and how close they'd been. There was something she didn't like about the memory but she couldn't really point out what. Then, when she saw Stefan sneaking glances at her, his brow furrowed, she knew what it was. She had liked it when he soothed her, but she wanted him to know that normally she didn't need soothing. She hadn't really been herself at that moment. No, she thought, that's just it. It was the real me, not the Elena everyone else knows. Only Bonnie, Meredith and Matt knew her like that.

But she wasn't weak, and from what Stefan had seen that day, he might think she was. She wanted to change that. She wanted him to know that she was strong enough to handle her new talent.

"It's not always like that, you know."

"What isn't?" She thought he knew what she meant.

"When I get near someone. It's not like that every time."

"With 'like that', you mean 'overwhelming'?

"Yes. That only happened with you."

"Oh, so it's me who's the weird one?" he laughed, and Elena wanted to stick out her tongue.

"Don't laugh at me."

"I'm not." He said, instantly serious,

"I've seen my share of strange things, so trust me, I believe you." He reached over to take her hand.

Elena nodded, surprised by how intense he sounded and by the unexpected move. He hadn't touched her since they left the clearing but Elena wondered if maybe she had seen too much in that. She'd never felt the need to be close to someone like this before. Maybe he wanted to be with her just like she wanted to be with him. She decided to test her new theory.

"So you still like me, even though I feel freaky things?" She tried to sound confident. Normally she didn't have to try, flirting with boys had been easy as breathing, but this was too important. She kept her eyes on the road.

He laughed "I still like you."

Elena tried not to show the relief she felt at those words.

"Thank you. For today, I mean. I needed that." She said. Stefan only nodded and looked out the window. Elena didn't get it, one moment he was incredibly sweet and the next he was acting frustratingly detached.

When they arrived at the boarding house, Stefan turned to face her. He looked into her eyes and Elena drowned in his. They were the most beautiful green colour, and they looked so pained, at that moment there was nothing she wanted more then to ease that pain.

"Elena, can you trust me?" he asked.

"What do you mean? I trust you, don't you know that?" Only after she answered the question automatically, she realized it had sounded wrong.

"I didn't ask if you trusted me, I asked if you could." He said.

"What? You're confusing me."

"Elena, what does your sense say about me?"

He looked down while talking to her, not wanting to meet her gaze. She didn't get it, he wanted her to try to feel something? She tried, and what she felt was still overpoweringly much. She took a deep breath and curled her fingers around the edge of her car seat.

"I don't know, there's too much! It's confusing me!"

"I'm sorry, but try. It's important." He managed to get her fingers from the seat, but when he wanted to let them go, Elena held on to his hand very tight.

"It's hard to sum up. You're so conflicted!" Elena tried her best to explain what she sensed.

"It's made up of layers, a lot of them, but that's only you, no one else has that, why is that?" She didn't wait for an answer,

"The easiest one is on top, you're worried, angry, protective, you're… ashamed? Then there's some much underneath, but I'm feeling something that's even deeper, wait a minute."

She closed her eyes in concentration and took a deep breath before speaking.

"You want something, or need it? You really need it. I don't know what it is, I know it's not 'lust', I felt that enough today to know the difference."

She shuddered at the memory of what she had felt with half of the boys at school.

"But it's really close, what is it?" Her forehead creased in frustration.

She opened her eyes again and looked at him fiercely. "But I can trust you, Stefan. I know that you care about me, I'm safe with you. And I'm not just saying that, I know I am, I can feel it."

He looked at her desperately, "Elena, you should know that I am…" His voice faltered.

"Dangerous?" she asked. "I already know that, I knew that from the moment I saw you."

"Then why are you here? With me?"

"Have you listened at all? Haven't you heard that I said I could trust you? Don't you know that yourself?"

He looked away and Elena couldn't stand the depressed look in his eyes.

"Listen to me, Stefan." She said.

When he didn't meet her eyes, she held his head between her hands and forced him to look at her.

"I didn't like it when I tried this on you, you know why? It's because everything, even the smallest detail, was underlined with self-hatred. Why are you doing this to yourself, Stefan? I feel a lot of things I don't understand, maybe they're bad, but there are so many things that are good, too! What is hurting you? Tell me, I want to make it better."

He shook his head and whispered "You can't, Elena."

And then she kissed him. She planned to give him a quick kiss and pull away immediately, but forgot about that the moment her lips met his. She only thought about Stefan. Her hands were still holding his face and moved up into his hair. She felt him pull her close and all she wanted was to be even closer. The stupid armrests were making that difficult and pressed in her stomach. This kiss told her everything she needed to know: Stefan was what she had been looking for. She felt it deep inside her, it was a smouldering flame that ran all the way through her, and Elena knew that in that moment she changed. She knew what was different, she could feel it bone-deep: she was complete now. How could she not have known before? That she was only half of what she was meant to be?

She turned her face to the side to get some air, and Stefan moved from her lips to her cheek and then trailed kisses down her neck. Then he froze. He let go of her and sat back into his seat. Elena moved to see what was wrong, but he'd already turned his head away from her and she couldn't see his face.

"Stefan? Stefan, what's wrong?"

He said nothing and just shook his head.

"Did I do something wrong? If you don't want this, it's okay, I'm sorry." It's not okay, she thought. Please don't say you don't want this, she pleaded with him in her thoughts.

"I think I'd better go now, Elena." He said, still not looking her way, and he moved to open the door.

"No, wait!" she said, while she locked his door with the button next to her. She knew it was a childish thing to do, but she didn't want him to leave like that.

"Tell me what's wrong. Please." she tried not to sound hurt. He just shook his head. She was hurt. It had felt so perfect to her, the kiss had been enchanting. To her, at least. Why wouldn't he look at her? Had it felt that bad to him?

"Look at me, Stefan." She said.

When he didn't do anything, she scrambled over her armrest en squeezed herself between the dashboard and Stefan's seat. He realized what she was trying to do and wanted to unlock his door so he could get out. To do that, he had to reach back to push the button and when he tried that, his hand bumped into Elena, who was already cramped between him and everything else in the car. She grabbed his hand when it touched her and said:

"Stefan, you're scaring me! What's the matter? Why won't you look at me?"

"Leave me alone, Elena. Open the door."

He didn't sound angry, so Elena decided that if he wouldn't look at her, she'd look at him. She reached out to turn his face to her, but she could've been yanking on a rock for all the good it did. She tried to squeeze herself even closer to Stefan. She found a place underneath the dashboard where she could put her feet and after a bit of wriggling she knew she would be able to see his face if she turned. On any other moment, the situation inside the car would've been comical: Elena's body was twisted around the seats in a way she hadn't thought was possible. But she knew that whatever was wrong, it was important.

"Elena, please, don't turn around." He pleaded, and she froze. He didn't sound stubborn anymore, only serious and desperate.

"Why not?"

"Because… You won't like what you see." He said, exasperated.

"What will I see?" she asked.

He laughed without humour. "A monster."

Elena jumped. Somehow, she knew he didn't mean that figuratively. She didn't know what to expect, but she wasn't afraid.

"It doesn't matter." She sounded firm.

"You don't know what you're saying." He sighed.

"I'll prove it to you." She said, and turned around.

She couldn't help but gasp when she looked at him. The first thing she saw was the change around his eyes. There were dark shadows underneath them, and she could see veins running under the skin. His irises were as dark as his pupils. But it was true, she wasn't scared and it didn't matter to her. Gently, she stroked the bruise-like shadows and traced the veins. She heard his intake of breath. There was a sadness in his eyes she couldn't bare to look at, so she focused on his mouth. She had looked at it before, she had studied it when he sat next to her in the clearing. If she hadn't, she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between then and now. But she noticed it, and lightly traced his lips with her fingertips. They trembled and he opened his mouth to exhale. It was dark in the car, but because they glistened in the light of the street lanterns, she could see his teeth and the extended canines.

But it didn't matter, and she had told him she would prove it. So she leaned forward and kissed him softly, her lips stroking his without hesitation. She was still bent in an uncomfortable angle, and her body started to protest. She groaned and turned until she was sitting in Stefan's lap. He was looking at her in wonder and slowly reached out to stroke her hair. Elena noticed that gradually, his eyes were turning back to normal, and his canines were getting shorter.

She smiled at him. "Now tell me, Stefan. What are you?"

"Vampire." He whispered, and Elena only nodded.

"Will you tell me about it?" She asked hopefully. She wanted to know more about him, she wanted to understand him.

"Not now, Elena. You're aunt must be wondering what's taking so long."

"I'll make something up."

He was struggling for words , "I'm not… stable, right now, Elena. I need to get out of this car and you're making it very difficult. I'm thinking about your safety, I don't want to hurt you, but if you sit this close now, that's going to be hard. You need to understand that this is dangerous for you!"

"You won't hurt me." She said, but at the same time she reached behind her to open the doors.

"Thank you." He sighed and opened the door.

"Will I see you tomorrow?"

"That's a Saturday."

"Can't I come over?" She didn't think school would be a good place to talk, anyway.

"I'll come to your house, my room isn't in the best condition."

Elena nodded, as long as she could be with Stefan, she didn't care where it was.

"Goodnight then, Elena." He said, and closed the door.

She waved at him but she didn't think he saw it. She took a deep breath and started the car. She had a lot think about while she was driving and she was home before she knew it.

When she was inside she went straight to bed.

She'd made up her mind about Stefan. She wasn't going to stay away from him. No matter what he said or did the next day, she cared about him.

Stefan POV

Stefan walked up the steps of the boarding house, his thoughts still in a haze. He couldn't believe what had happened tonight. During the whole time they had sat together in the clearing, and when they had run to Elena's house, he had been waiting for her to ask him something.

He knew that she had felt something about him, that she knew he was different somehow. Then, when she had insisted on driving him home, he thought she did it so she could be alone with him and talk about it. And she did! She brought up the subject and didn't ask him. He didn't understand why. So he had asked her. And he'd regretted it almost immediately.

Because then she had started trying to find something, so there had been a greater chance she would find something, and also because he didn't like seeing her like that. He hadn't been able to stand it when he saw her fingers go white because she clutched her seat so tightly. He had wanted to loosen them, but she had gripped his hand instead, and it had felt good to him.

When she described what she felt, he had held his breath. She'd come so close to knowing what he was, she even described bloodlust! And right after she said she knew he was dangerous, she told him she trusted him. He had been busy with absorbing all that, when she had kissed him.

And he had stopped fearing she would discover his secret. The only thing that came to his mind was to hold her closer. He'd pressed her body against his, momentarily annoyed at the armrest between them, tangled his fingers into her hair and kissed her back.

When she'd turned her head to get some air, he'd felt her skin flush under his lips. He had been kissing her neck when he'd reached the point where he could feel her pulse. And then it had hit him. He knew it was reckless, kissing her like that. But when he'd felt her lips crush down on his, that had been the least thing on his mind.

He'd felt his canines extend and had turned away quickly. But determined as she was, she'd managed to lock him in the car and look at his face, while bending herself in unimaginable angles.

And then what it all came down to: She cared for him. Even after she saw him changed, even after she knew what he was. He couldn't describe what he'd felt when she'd caressed the veins and skin under his eyes. No one had ever made him feel that way, not even Katherine, she'd never had the chance to see him like this. But he was glad it was Elena who'd kissed his predatory mouth, so softly.

He would tell her about himself tomorrow. He wanted her to know him. He cared about her.

AN: Okay, so that was chapter 4. I wanted to get this just right, and I'm kind of happy with how this turned out. I'd love it if you told me what you think about it, so please review! :D