Epilogue to Part II – Back Before Dinner

"I'm not happy about it Elena!" Stefan said – again.

"Oh this time it worked. Now I understand. I didn't the first 34 times, but now I see. You badgering me is not helping, and it's not changing anything."

"You should never have made this deal with Katherine. It was not a good choice."

"Really? You know what I did and why I did it. And you know as well as I do that someone is alive because of my choice. I don't know who, and I don't have to. How's the life/death ratio with your choices?"

Stefan shook his head. "First you let Damon start hanging around, then Isobel shows up, now Katherine? You're getting into the wrong crowd."

"Yeah, my mother, my great something or other grandmother, and your brother. It's not changing Stefan. May even get worse. Maybe your dad'll show up next."

"I can't take you but Damon can? Why would she let him?"

"I don't know. There's something going on between those two, but I can't get Damon to tell me anything."

Stefan was getting frustrated. He knew this was lost – why not just stop?

"And is there still something going on between you and me?" he asked her.

His eyes had gone down again, so Elena pulled his chin up. "Yes. Still 'Team Stefan'" she said pointing at herself. "Though you're making it really hard."

"I'm just worried about you. Do you really trust Damon?"

"To keep me safe, yes. To keep me pure, no. But don't worry, 'mom' will be there. I'm sure she'll protect my reputation."

"That's not it and you know it. I just can't believe she lets Damon help, but not me."

"I've been around when you talked about her Stefan – it was not flattering. And what about when she was pretending to be me? Did you insult her then? Or were you too busy kissing her?"

"That's not fair. You know what she was doing. We need some kind of signal for the future."

Elena shook her head. "Really? You can't tell the sweet teenager from the 150-plus-year-old who's killed who knows how many people? You must be flattering me now."

Elena pulled Stefan's eyes toward her one more time before leaving. "Less than a day. Two hour drive to get there, a couple of hours there, two hours to get back. I'll be home by dinnertime."

He didn't seem moved. She gave him a kiss on the cheek anyway.

"You're all I want, Stefan, but not like this."

Elena left her home walking towards the car with the waiting Damon, off to serve Katherine one more time.