Even though Christmas is past, Peachie X is still giving the gift of her Beta...

The Brother and the Friend

Sarah was getting impatient. She had come a long way to talk to Elena, but Elena was so busy talking to Jenna about her that she had to interrupt.

"Elena, I need to talk to you for a minute, please. And it needs to be alone – just you and me."

Elena could tell that Sarah had not wanted to interrupt, and decided that there must be a good reason. She looked at Damon who did not look happy.

"Okay, we can go upstairs." Elena's eyes continued to hold Damon's. "You need to be where you can't hear."

Damon's face was hard. "Leaving you alone with witches hasn't worked out so well."

"Sarah saved me twice, Damon. I'll be fine."

Elena thought she heard Jenna take a quick breath, but kept her eyes fixed on Damon.

"I've heard that before."

"Please Damon. Just give us half an hour. You know as well as I do what she's done for me."

Damon pulled his eyes from Elena to Sarah, who was also looking at him. "Yes. And she knows what will happen if you are not perfectly fine in thirty minutes." Damon turned and started to leave, though he stopped and turned back to the watch them from the front door.

Elena was leading Sarah to the stairs when they both turned to look at the door as it opened. Jeremy pushed himself past Damon and headed to the stairs when he stopped, seeing that Elena had a visitor.

Elena was trying to read his expression when Sarah spoke from behind her. "Who's this?"

Elena turned back to her. Her face wore the same expression as her brother's. Elena knew what it was and did not like it.

"My brother. Come on," Elena said, pulling Sarah until she was in front of her, then pushing her up the stairs.

Sarah managed to keep her eyes on Jeremy as she was pushed up. "You have a brother?"

"Little brother. Half your age." Elena said as she pushed Sarah.

Sarah was at the top of the stairs before she looked at Elena. "He's taller than either of us, and I don't remember telling you my age."

Elena grabbed Sarah's arm and pulled her to her bedroom as Jeremy called out "Aren't you going to introduce us?"

Jeremy thought the bedroom door was slammed harder that it should have been.

"Who is she?" Jeremy asked Damon who just gave an annoyed growl and left the house.

Jeremy looked at Jenna now. His aunt answered, trying not to give much information.

"Just someone Elena met while she was away." Jenna turned and walked to the kitchen so she wouldn't have to talk any more about it.

Jeremy looked back at where he had last seen her. "Elena brought a friend…"

The Reveal

"People died because of what you did, Sarah."

Sarah had expected this reaction. She had it herself when she thought about it. Talking about it made her just as sick as thinking about it always had.

"You're right. I never killed anyone directly, but they died because of my inaction."

"You didn't tell me this."

The blonde had to close her eyes. "It's not something I brag about, Elena. It never came up when we talked. If it had, I would not have hid it from you."

"I have no idea who you are." Elena said, her face harder than Sarah had hoped.

"It's not who I am. I was twelve. It made me sick when I did it, but I had to. It was so hard to talk to my mom about it."

Sarah looked at Elena – she hadn't softened much.

"I did talk to her, Elena. I was so upset, and she didn't like doing it either. Then Aunt Sylvia's husband was killed by one of the vampires we had been helping. That did it. My mom said she did not want that for me."

Elena's expression changed. "I lost my parents." she said softly. "It changes things."

"Your mother, the vampire?" Sarah asked.

"Isobel is by birth mother. She gave me up for adoption before she turned. Though I was related to my parents – it's kind of complicated in a gross way."

"Still, the vampire seems to care."

"She does," Elena confirmed. "sometimes she shows it. So you changed from bad to good? Just like that?"

"No, Elena, not just like that. All we had ever known were vampires and witches that were dark. We moved and tried to leave that life behind."

"Nobody came after you?"

"Not that I know of. I don't think anyone thought it was unusual after what had happened."

Elena nodded. "But you're good now?"

Sarah stared at Elena. This was actually a hard question to answer. "We try to help people, protect them from vampires. We would protect them from other witches too, if we knew of dark ones near us. But really, Elena, it's not that simple. It's just us. We don't really know what we're doing, if we're helping the wrong people."

The human wasn't really following. "Surely saving anyone from a vampire trying to kill them is good."

The witch nodded. "That's what we thought. Then we saw vampires that weren't attacking people. Things weren't so simple anymore."

"Still," Elena felt she had to argue, "people need protection from vampires. Witches have always done that."

Sarah shook her head. "Most witches care as much about people as vampires care about them. We just don't have to feed on them. Witches are mostly about the power of being witches."

"But Emily Bennett protected Mystic Falls. And Bonnie's family married humans."

"Emily Bennett was rare, Elena. I don't know why. My dad was human, but he left, once he found out what my mom was, what we were. He probably knew we weren't exactly using our power for good."

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Without waiting for an answer, Jenna entered the room.

"Elena look outside. There's some…whatever in our yard."

Elena, seeing how upset her aunt was, moved quickly to the window to see. She could see a couple of vampires outside, but was not startled. She knew who they were and why they were there.

"It's OK, Jenna," the niece said, trying to calm her aunt. "They just think they need to be close to me when a vampire is not inside with me. They must have moved close when Damon left."

"They're here to protect you." Jenna deduced. She shook her head. "Why, Elena?"

Elena wished she didn't have to explain, but knew she did. "They think that Marcus, the guy that was with Stefan here, was attacked by a witch. They're just looking out for me, Jenna."

Jenna nodded. "I remember Marcus. How did it come to this?" She muttered to herself as she backed through door and closed it.

Elena moved back to her bed, followed by Sarah.

"You don't think it's because of me? Because they found out about my past?"

The human looked at the witch briefly before shaking her head. "They wouldn't have let you close to me if they had known."

Sarah nodded. "What about you? What will you do, now that you know? Do you think less of me?"

"Is there anything you haven't told me? You never personally killed anyone?" The brunette felt a pang of guilt as she asked the question. Was she a hypocrite?

The blonde shook head. "Just vampires. You know everything now, Elena."

"OK. I've done some things I wish I hadn't had to, that I wish I could forget."

Sarah released a sigh of relief. "Thank you. Will you help me explain to Katherine?"

Elena gave Sarah a small smile and nod, wondering how that would go.

The Brother and the Mother

Jenna had forbidden Jeremy from going upstairs and was actually watching him closely enough to keep him from doing it. He was waiting for Elena and her friend to come down, but was getting bored.

He had just opened the door when Jenna yelled "No! There's some outside."

Jeremy opened the door anyway. "It's OK, Jenna. They have to be invited."

He stood in the doorway, looking outside. The sun had set, it was starting to get dark. He noticed Isobel standing nearby and wondered if he could ask her about who was after his sister.

He didn't really know her. He knew she had kidnapped him and his uncle to get something from Elena, but she had let him go unharmed. He knew she was helping Elena now, and that Elena trusted her.

Still, he had to gather his nerves together to actually leave the house and approach her. The vampire's expression was mostly annoyed when he reached her.

"You should stay inside," Isobel told him coolly.

"Somebody hurt Elena," Jeremy said. "She won't tell me who, but there's no reason for you not to."

"Anyone who hurt her is dead."

"Then why are you here? Why is she still in danger?" Jeremy was fingering his ring as he spoke. It made him feel better as he faced the vampire.

"I do not answer to you, Jeremy Gilbert. Go back inside."

Jeremy started at her briefly and decided she wouldn't tell him anything. "Fine. I'll ask her friend when they come back down."

Isobel was stunned. She and the others had only seen Damon and Jeremy enter the home. She grabbed him as he turned around. "Friend? Who's with her?"

Jeremy was startled now. "I...I don't know. A girl."

"A witch? Is she blonde?"

Isobel was still holding him. He tried to pull away as he nodded. "Blonde. Is she a witch?"

"Damn!" Isobel released him and pulled her phone out, dialing. "Damon!" She yelled into her phone as soon as he answered.

The Boyfriend

"You'll stay here tonight and then go back tomorrow?" Elena confirmed. Sarah had spoken to Nathaniel and her mother. They were sitting next to each other on the edge of Elena's bed.

Sarah nodded. "Thank you for the offer. One less thing to do, and thanks for understanding."

"Sure." Elena said as she heard the commotion in the hall.

"The door's open Damon. Don't break it!" Jenna yelled.

Sarah acted instinctively as the door burst open. Damon ran into the protection spell she had cast around Elena and herself. Elena found herself leaning back from the vampire as she saw him hit the wall the spell created.

"Get away from her!" Damon yelled in as harsh a voice as Elena had ever heard from him.