Author's Note: Thank you for your reviews! I'm glad you like it, and I have big plans for this fic! Please keep reading it's going to get a little angsty in the next few chapters

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Chapter 2: Just Me

Stefan mulled over what Rose said earlier that night. It's wasn't over…more Originals were coming, and they were doing it for him. Klaus. If what she said was true, then they need help. Well there was himself, Damon, Caroline, maybe Isobel and…no. He wouldn't even let himself think of the last name. She was locked up in the tomb where she belonged.

He couldn't stop himself from thinking how this was all her fault. Katherine was the original Petrova doppelganger and if she had really died in that fire, Elena wouldn't be the one they were after.

There was a lot of research to be done and Stefan made a mental note to talk to Alaric tomorrow morning. They were lucky tonight. Stefan and Damon caught Elijah off guard, but he knew it wasn't going to be that easy next time.

Stefan stood from the chair in front of the fire, and frowned when Damon blasted his Anberlin CD from his room. He shook his head and headed upstairs.

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Damon reclined gracefully on his bed and smiled sadly. He did it. Elena knew nothing of his feelings and as much as that hurt him, it was best that way. He just needed her to hear the words once before he erased them forever. Now hopefully they could go back to the friendship they once had.

Elena was better off anyway. What could he give her that was any better than Stefan? He couldn't give her anything but pain, because that was all he knew. He loved her for obvious reasons and although he had his suspicions that she had feelings for him too in some way, he didn't want her to feel sorry for him and give him those pitying looks. His heart clenched a little at the look on Elena's face as he told her of his love for her.

It was shock mixed with surprise. She didn't say a thing the whole time, and he was grateful for that. If she did, Damon wasn't sure if he would have been able to go through with it. He closed his eyes and sighed.

Damon's eyes swung to the door. "Stop hovering behind the door Stefan…its rude." He called out over the music. Stefan popped his head inside. "I said stop hovering…not come in and be a pain in my ass." He eased off the bed and strode to the shelf of books pulling out one of his favorites and turning his back to his brother. "What do you want?"

Stefan crossed his arms. "I came to say goodnight." Damon slowly turned his head and gave his brother and incredulous glance. "And to tell you to turn down the music…it's two in the morning."

The elder Salvatore blinked, and turned around fully the book in his hand. "I'm sorry…I was under the impression that we're vampires! Up all night, sleep all day; any of this ringing a bell, Stef?" He spoke to his brother as if he were a child. Just as Stefan was about to speak Damon cut him off. "That's right!" he hit the book against his hand. "You try and keep human hours…makes you feel like a real person. And of course there's Elena…you gotta keep the same hours as your snuggle bunny. Speaking of which, I'm assuming since all this is over the two of you have resumed your nauseating-lover's status."

Stefan smirked. "Yes…does that bother you, Damon?"

Damon's lip curled in disdain. "No, I think it's great. I'm sick of seeing you brood around the house like a character from some Anne Rice novel." He moved back to the bed and rested his back against the headboard, flipping open the book to the first page.

Stefan shook his head and turned down the dial of the stereo, ignoring Damon's glare. "Goodnight, Damon." He headed towards the door then turned back to his brother. "Thank you…for tonight. Not only did you save Elena's life, but you saved mine too." With that said he quietly moved to his bedroom, closing the door behind him.

Damon thought about his brother's parting words. He was never the hero. He was the one that fucked up the plan or ended up getting someone hurt. He was never the hero. He smiled tightly to himself. It felt good to be thanked. He couldn't remember the last time he was thanked for something.

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Elena groaned when her alarm clock went off the next morning. It was too early for her to be up on a Saturday, but she forgot to turn off her alarm last night. Knowing she couldn't go back to sleep anyway, she blindly smacked it and ended the blaring noise. Elena slowly sat up and rubbed her face. She got a couple hours sleep tops last night, and her body felt worn. The first thought that entered her brain was Damon and everything he said to her. What was she going to do about that…what was she going to tell Stefan?

"Knock, knock." Jenna popped her head in and walked to the bed. "Someone looks like they had an eventful night." She said knowingly.

"Something like that." Elena mumbled running her hands through her tangled hair.

"Well, how about some coffee and maybe an edible breakfast? I'm feeling like Suzy homemaker this morning so indulge me, please?" Jenna joked with a smile.

Elena gave her a tight smile. "Yeah, thanks…I'll be down in a few, kay." When Jenna left to go back to the kitchen, Elena moved around her bedroom changing into jeans and a t shirt, brushing her hair and teeth and lightly doing her make up. She felt horrible so making herself up made her feel a little better. Just as she was walking out of her bathroom she jumped when someone called out to her.

"Hey." Stefan greeted from in front of her window.

She sighed when her gaze landed on him. "Hey, Stefan." She tried to keep the awkwardness out of her voice, but she failed miserably.

He frowned immediately. "Is everything okay?" he moved toward her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Yeah…I'm just, I didn't get enough sleep last night." She shrugged, and turned her eyes away.

"Yeah, neither did I. Damon had his music blasting until the early morning." Elena's eyes caught his when Damon's name was said. He continued. "He said that he stopped by here last night." He prodded, his brows knitted together with an unasked question.

She nodded. "Yeah…he dropped off my necklace." She tried to keep her voice calm and her heart rate down. It was hard having a vampire boyfriend…he was like a lie detector. At least she wasn't lying. He smiled happy with her answer. After an uncomfortable moment of silence, Elena spoke up again. "I'm about to go down for breakfast…" she left it open-ended hoping he'd get the picture.

Stefan ran his hands down her arms. "That's fine…I was actually hoping Alaric was here I have some things I need to talk to him about."

"What did you need to talk to him about?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Nothing you need to worry about. I just have some questions."

Elena crossed her arms to remove his hands from her without actually telling him. "Well I don't think he's here. Look Aunt Jenna wants to spend some time with me and Jeremy…just the three of us, so can we talk later?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, okay…I'll call you." He leaned in to kiss her softly before speeding out the window.

Elena sighed deeply. She was anxious. She still loved him but he seemed to think that just because she almost died last night that automatically they were back together and everything could go back to normal. But it wasn't, she still needed a break from everything. She has been spending all this time being 'Stefan and Elena' and now she needed to just be Elena.

She sluggishly moved down the stairs and smiled at the sight in front of her in the kitchen. Jenna was fumbling with a bowl of pancake batter, and making a mess as she poured it in the frying pan. Jeremy was laughing as she wiped her forehead and with the hand that had batter on it.

"Damn!" she cursed; she broke the pancake as she flipped it.

"What's going on in here?" Elena questioned as she grabbed herself a cup from the cupboard and poured herself a coffee. She sat next to Jeremy and they watch their Aunt shuffle around the kitchen.

Jer never took his eyes off Jenna. "She's trying to make breakfast. I told her I'd be fine with cereal…but she insisted." He chuckled.

Elena smirked. "I'm glad she did. This is entertaining." She looked over and caught her brother smiling at her. "What?"

"I'm just happy that you're okay. That Elijah guy is dead; Katherine's locked away in the tomb…everything worked out." He whispered so Jenna wouldn't hear.

Elena smiled sadly. "Jer…just because last night turned out okay doesn't mean its over. There's always going to be something. I'm a doppelganger, and that means something to certain people. It's far from over Jeremy."

"Damn it!" Jenna hissed as she burned herself.

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Caroline walked into the grill, her eyes scanning the room before falling on the person she was looking for. She gracefully waltzed over and slide into the seat next to him at the bar. "Hi." She greeted.

Damon looked over at her, and then turned back to his drink.

Caroline frowned. "Okay that was rude. I said 'hi' the least you could do is say 'hi' back." she scolded.

"Hi."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay…Damon listen, it looks like your," she looked at his drink. "…really busy, but we need to talk." She said firmly.

Damon blinked and looked at her. "What could we possibly talk about?"

Caroline leaned in. "Our little wolf situation…" she trailed off. She had Damon's attention now. "I talked to Tyler. I tried to get him to stop asking me about the other night but he kept pushing. So I had to push back." she said sheepishly. At Damon's wide-eyed intense glare she tried to explain herself. "Please don't look at me like that…look I tried to act all innocent and oblivious but he had me pinned and I felt I needed to defend myself." She nodded happy with her answer.

Damon's face calmed a little. "I guess I can understand that. Did you kill him?"

Caroline looked at him like he was crazy. "What…no! I just bared a bit of fang, and scared him a little. I had to tell him what I was and before you say anything I didn't out you or Stefan." She held up her hand to stop him from talking. She paused and when Damon didn't say anything she continued. "He's really scared, Damon. He has no one to talk to…no one to teach him. He's all alone in this."

Damon raised a brow. "So what do you want me to do? Train the puppy?" he gulped down the rest of his drink.

The blonde rolled her eyes. "No…" she scoffed. "But maybe he might be useful to us. You don't have to do anything…I'll take care of it."

Damon gave her a weird look. "Since when is there an 'us'?"

Caroline smirked. "Since I saved your ass from my mother."

The older vampire shrugged. "You do know a wolf bite kills right?"

Caroline nodded. "Duly noted. As long as he's all locked up on the full moon you, me, Stefan and the rest of the town will be safe." When the bartender walked by Caroline stopped him. "Can I get a beer please?" She smiled.

"ID?" He asked.

She locked her gaze on him. "You don't need my ID."

"Okay." He rushed to get her a beer.

Her eyes lit up when the beer was in front of her. "I love how that works!" she took a sip from the bottle.

Damon smiled bitterly. "It is pretty nifty."

"I know it's not great to do all the time, but I really like having things go my way for once, you know?" Caroline babbled.

"Nope." Damon mumbled. He looked at the bottom of his glass like it was going to refill itself.

After an awkward silence, Caroline sighed deeply and glanced around the Grill. "Oh look Elena's here!" Damon's head shot up and his eyes sought her out. "Gotcha! I knew it. You like Elena!" her eyes bright with her observation.

Damon scowled. "I don't like Elena…I don't like anyone." His lips formed into a thin line, mad at himself for being so obvious.

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Yeah…" she hopped off the stool. "And maybe one day, you'll believe it yourself." She walked out of the Grill and towards her car.

Damon frowned mulling over what she said. How could she possibly know anything about him? He chalked it up to letting his walls down a little too much, but he promised himself that they would stay firm and high from now on.

Then he smelt her. He turned around and saw her walk through the doors. She sat down at a booth and looked down at her hands. He watched her for a while. She was alone, and he didn't sense Stefan anywhere around. She shook her head at the waitress that offered to get her a drink and looked up and caught his gaze. Her face showed no emotion and she didn't say anything, but he knew she wanted him to go over there.

He gracefully stood from the stool and sauntered over, sliding into the seat across from her.

"Hey." He said casually. "Stefan here?" he made a show of looking around.

She just stared at him for a second before replying. "No…I came here alone. I think Stefan's with Alaric."

He nodded. "Alone? You shouldn't be alone…especially after everything that happened." Is that all it took for him to show even just a little bit of care…her presence?

She shrugged. "I kinda need to be alone." She backtracked when she saw the hurt on his face and he started to get up. "I mean away from Stefan. Even though Katherine is locked up it doesn't mean that Stefan and I are back together. I need a break…We've been Stefan and Elena for so long that I need to learn how to just be me. I lost that somewhere along the way." She looked back down at her hands.

Damon frowned. "Well I thought you two were back together…I mean Stefan told me as much last night."

Elena's head shot up. "He did?" Damon nodded. "We'll that would explain the unexpected visit this morning." She said more to herself. "He seemed pretty interested in why you showed up last night."

Damon sat frozen, his eyes darting to the side before focusing on her again. "You remember me showing up last night?" If his heart could beat it would be pounding right now.

Elena looked at him funny. "Yeah." She said slowly. "You dropped off my necklace…I was wearing my cute pj's?" she smirked jokingly. She had decided to play along and let him believe she didn't remember anything of what he said.

He laughed forcibly. "Yeah…well you seemed tired I thought you would have…blocked that out." He was confused. Damon thought that he had erased her memory of him ever stopping by in the first place. Guess not.

"Anyways…he asked about it like he was trying to catch me in something. Did you say anything to him?" she prodded, wondering if he told Stefan anything about why he stopped by there.

Damon shook his head. "Nope…just the truth. Came by, dropped off the necklace." He frowned and looked around the Grill, trying to avoid her gaze.

A small smile grew on her face but she quickly hid it as he looked back. "Yeah, that's what I told him, I guess I answered correctly because he dropped the subject." She chuckled. "I don't know why he's so worried, we're friends, right?" she asked.

Damon grinned, although it was forced. "Yeah! BFF. But you know Stefan…he's got to brood about everything." It was nice to have this back. No tension, no worries, just the two of them having a good time.

"Hey Elena…Damon." Stefan slid in beside Elena and kissed her cheek. He didn't catch the look she gave Damon that clearly said 'See what I mean?' He directed his next question at Damon. "What's going on here?"

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Author's Note: Thank you for reading! I'm having fun writing this. I love writing for Damon and Caroline so she's gonna be in here a lot. Hope you all liked it, please review and tell me what you think and things you'd like to see happen and I might consider slipping it in and of course crediting you! I'll try and update again in the next couple of days.