A/N The Vampire Diaries Settings and Characters all belong to LJ Smith and the CW. Any original characters and this story are copyright © 2011-2018 to Hopelessromanticgurl, all rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

The next day at school Elena and Stefan walked into school giggling and laughing with each other. Life was good again and nothing was going to ruin it… that's what they thought anyway. Ric came over to them and told them they had to talk in his classroom. So the three of them headed to his room.

Elena sat in shock as she tried to register what Ric had just told her. The perfect life just came crashing down and smacked her like a million bricks. Her birthmother was really alive and wanted to meet her. She honestly didn't know how to react to it. Sure, she wanted to meet her birth mother, but it was more complicated than that. Her birth mother was a vampire and for her to want a meeting with her it meant she wanted something, which was never a good thing. She was thrown from her thoughts when the classroom door opened. Damon walked in.

"Damon, thanks for coming." Alaric said.

"Sorry I'm late. My dog ate my, uh… " Damon trailed off when he noticed the look on everyone's face.
"Never mind. What's with all the frown brows?

" I saw Isobel last night…" Ric said.

"Isobel is here? In town?"

He looks to Elena in shock. She just looks away from him. She didn't want to look at anyone at the moment. She was in too much of a shock

Damon looked back to Alaric. He started to question him.

"Did you ask her about Uncle John? Are they working together? "

"No…"

"No, they're not?"

"No, I didn't ask!"

"What about the invention?"

"I didn't ask."

"Did she know about the tomb vampires?"

"I don't know."

"Did words completely escape you?"

"No, I was a little too distracted by my dead vampire wife to ask any questions!"

Elena sighed, them fighting was the last thing she needed right now. What she needed was quiet so she could think about what to do next. She felt Damon looking at her.

"What did she want?" he asked her.

"She wants to see me, Damon…"

"Alaric is supposed to arrange a meeting. We don't know why or what she wants" Stefan said finally speaking up.

"Well are you going to see her?" Damon asked.

"I don't really have a choice." She sighed.

"She's threatening to go on a killing spree." Alaric said.

"Oh… I take that's not okay with you guys?"

Elena couldn't take anymore of his sarcasm, she was confused enough and he wasn't helping. She stood up and yelled "NO DAMON IT'S NOT OK! KILLING INNIOCEN PEOPLE TO GET WHAT YOU WANT IS NOT OK!"

Elena sighed and covered her face with her hands. "I'm sorry." She muttered. Stefan walked over and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap. I'm just so confused and he isn't helping."

"Shhh I know, I know. It's ok." He cooed in her ear as he rubbed her back.

Elena took a deep breath and let it out. Once she was calm again, she looked back up.

"I want to do it. I want to meet her. If I don't I know I'll regret it."

"Ok, I'll set it up." Alaric said.

Elena just nodded and left the classroom. Stefan went after her.

He caught up with her quickly and took her arm to stop her. She instantly turned and buried her face into his chest and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in. "Stefan…"

"It's ok. Just breathe. I'm right here. It's going to be ok. You're not doing this alone. I'll be by your side the entire time. Just breathe."

Elena just nodded and clung to him tighter. "I don't feel good all of a sudden."

He kissed her head and rubbed her back. "Do you want to go home?"

"Jenna's home today. She'll question it and I really don't want to explain it to her."

"We can go to my house. Just Lexi is home today."

Elena nodded. Stefan kissed her head once more and headed out of the school. He'd make sure Elena was able to get her work she missed so she didn't fall behind.

They arrived at the house and just as Stefan unlocked the door his cell phone rang. He chuckled when he saw it was Lexi's number.

"Lex, I'm here, what's up?" he called as he walked into the house.

Lexi came over to them. "I'm guessing since you're here and the look on Elena's face you heard the news."

Stefan nodded. "We just found out. How did you find out?"

"Vicki told me. She came here a little bit after you left for school, and she was crying hysterically."

Stefan and Elena shared a look, and then looked back to Lexi. "How did she figure it out?"

"Jeremy told her himself."

"Wait, how did Jeremy find out?" Elena asked.

Lexi looked confused. "Ok, I think we need to back up a second. What are you guys talking about?"

"Isabel is back in town and wants to meet with Elena, if she doesn't, she is going on a killing spree."

"Wait, Isabel, as in your birth-mother?"

Elena just nodded. "What were you talking about what happen to Jeremy is he all right?"

"Uh…" Lexi looked to Stefan wondering if she should tell Elena or not. Now was the worst time for her to know the truth.

"Lexi, tell me the truth, what's going on?"

Lexi sighed as Stefan nodded. "Jeremy knows about vampires. He also knows, Vicky, their new friend Anna, Stefan, Damon, and I are all vampires too."

"What!?" Elena shrieked. "How did he find out?"

"Their new friend Anna, she is a vampire from way back and she told him all about vampires and encouraged his belief in them when Vicky tried to discourage it."

Elena dropped to her knees and covered her face with her hands. A million bricks just attacked her and she could barely breathe.

Stefan knelt down next to her and rubbed her back. "It's ok. We will get through this together. We will deal with one thing at a time. Meeting with Isabella is most important, so we will deal with that first. After that we will confront Jeremy and compel him if we have to. Just breathe, Baby, breathe. Everything will work out and be ok."

"I'm sorry I thought you knew." Lexi sighed.

"It's ok. Thank you for being honest." Elena said softly as she looked up from her hands.

Stefan helped her stand up and hugged her close to her chest as he rubbed his back. As if things weren't bad enough now Jeremy was in danger. He didn't know how but he promised himself he'd help her get past thing no matter what it took.

Finally, it was the day of the meeting. Elena sat alone at one of the tables at the Mystic Grill. She jumped when a lady set down her tea. She looked at Stefan, who was watching her from the pool table.

They shared a smile.

"Can you hear me?" she asked.

He nodded, so she continued.

"Thanks for coming. I'm really nervous."

He nodded and smiled at her, letting her know he heard her.

" I'm happy that you're here. I love you."

Stefan mouthed the words back to her and smiled. Just then her mother appeared in the flesh in front of her. She set down her things before taking a seat.

"Hello Elena. You look just like her, that's eerie." Were the very first words her mother actually spoke to her.

" You've met Katherine?" she asked.

"She found me after I turned. Genetic curiosity, I suppose. She would be fascinated by you."

Elena noticed Isobel's necklace had the same type of stone in Stefan's ring. "Is that how you can walk in the day?"

Isobel lifted the stone to look at it. "Katherine helped me obtain it." She answered obviously.

Elena had this nagging question that she had to get it off her chest. She had to ask even if she didn't get the answer. "Who's my father?"

Of course Isobel's answer was less than helpful.

"Not important. He was a teenage waste of space."

"A name would be nice."

"It would, wouldn't it? But you don't always get the nice things that you want."

"Why did you compel that man to kill himself? Right after he told me to stop looking for you?"

She was looking for something nice in her mother, something loving or caring… something… mother like. This woman was her mother after all and so far she was as heartless as Damon… maybe even more so.

"Dramatic impact. I wish it would be more effective."

Ok, that wasn't what she was hoping for. Her answer actually stung. Her mother didn't care about anyone. "Human life means that little to you?"

"Human life means nothing to me Elena. It's just a part of being a vampire."

Elena wanted to slap her, just because she was a selfish vampire didn't mean every vampire was like that. Stefan wasn't anything like her. Stefan actually cared about human life. "No, it's not. I know other vampires, that's not true."

Isobel just smirked and without even looking pointed behind her to the pool table."

"You mean your boyfriend over there by the pool table? Stefan Salvatore. Why Stefan? Why you didn't go for Damon? Or are you enjoying them both like Katherine did?"

Elena looked to Stefan, a loud cry of HELP was written all over her face. She had envisioned this meeting going differently. She wanted to get out of there so she had to stop with the chit chat and get down to business. "Why did you want to meet me? Can't be just to catch up?"

"Because I was curious about you…."

"Yeah, I'm sure you were. What's the real reason, because I doubt for a second you actually care about me. Plus, you said it yourself. Human life means nothing to you."

"Ok, you're right, the real reason is… I want what your uncle wants. Jonathan Gilbert's invention."

"How did you know my uncle?"

"I used to spend a lot of time here when I was younger. John had a crush on me for years. He was the first one that told me about vampires."

Ok, so her curious mind was getting the better of her and she had to have answers. "What made you want to be one… or… did Damon turn you without your consent?"

"Oh no, I wanted very much to be a vampire. For a very long list of reasons Elena. All of it, I'm sure you've thought about"

Elena shook her head. She had no reason to want to be a vampire, at least none that she could think of off the top of her head.

"That was your first lie. It's inevitable, you're going to get old Stefan won't. Forever doesn't last very long when you're human"

Elena looked to Stefan. She hated that Isobel was right in that fact and she wasn't going to sit around and listen to this again. "I'm sorry, but I don't have what you're looking for."

She stood up, but Isobel grabbed her wrist tightly, preventing her from leaving. Elena tried to hide the flinch of pain. Stefan instantly started to walk over.

"Sit down! Tell your boyfriend to walk away"

Elena looked to Stefan and nodded. She could tell he seemed hesitant, but he stopped and just continued to watch from a distance. Elena sat back down.

" I want the invention."

"I don't have it."

"I know that, but Damon does and you're going get it for me."

"He's not going to give it to me."

"Then the blood will be on your hands."

Isobel grabbed her stuff and walked away. Elena looked crushed and pain was written all over her face. Stefan started walking back towards her.

Elena stood up ready to meet Stefan halfway when she noticed Bonnie. A lone tear slipped down her cheek as she saw her best friend. Before either of them can react Stefan appeared behind her. Elena looked at them both. She opened her mouth about to speak, but Bonnie walked away.

"Bon-Bonnie." Elena choked out.

She instantly turned around and buried her face in Stefan's chest. She started to cry. She would never admit it, but ever since she learned the truth, she had, had dreams and visions of meeting her birth mother and none of them were as bad as the real one turned about to be. On top of this being a disaster she had to find a way to get that stupid invention from Damon. She still had to confront Jeremy about his new belief in vampires. How on earth could she do that. She clung tighter to Stefan. He rubbed her back and whispered soothing words into her ear.

With Stefan's arms wrapped around her they walked out of the Grill. Damon was instantly in front of them.

"What did she want? What did she say? Is she working with John? Did she mention anything about John or the tomb vampires?"

Elena shrunk back behind Stefan. She didn't want to deal with this right now.

"Damon, enough! Just leave her alone. When she is ready, she'll tell you everything. Until then, back off." Stefan growled.

Damon growled and walked away. Stefan looked to Elena. "Come on, let's get you home."

"Will you stay with me?"

"Of course."

Elena nodded and they walked back home.

They arrived home and went into the kitchen. Stefan went over and started to make some hot water. Elena was rubbing her arm.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"This is where Isobel grabbed me. It still hurts." She answered.

"Let me take a look."

Stefan went over to her and lifted her sleeve. She had a bruise forming on her arm from the strength in Isobel's grip. He sighed. "You have a bruise."

She sighed. "Of course I do. As if this day couldn't get any worse."

Stefan went over to the freezer and grabbed some ice for her. As she held the ice to her arm, he made her some warm tea. They spent the day cuddled together drinking hot tea. It was just what the doctor ordered.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Stefan asked.

Elena was quiet for a minute, but then she spoke. "You know, ever since I heard Isabel was back in town, I had this small ounce of excitement. I could actually have a relationship with my mother. We'd explain things to Jenna and they'd get along and be friends, Jeremy and she would get along, she would love and approve of you. We'd go shopping, get our hair and nails done, do girl stuff, bond, have an actual mother daughter relationship." Elena sighed and shook her head. "I'm such an idiot. I should have known from the beginning it wouldn't be like that. I mean… she's a vampire. She compelled a man to kill himself just for dramatic impact. She threatened to kill people if I didn't agree to meet her. Yet, I was stupid enough to believe she would be a perfect loving mother Miranda is."

"Elena, you aren't stupid. You were hopeful. There is nothing wrong with that. It's good to have hope."

"False hope?"

"You didn't know it was false at the time."

"Yes, I did. I just didn't want to admit it to myself. I let myself believe this lie. My mother is a heartless vampire who doesn't care about anyone but herself." Tears filled her eyes and she finally let them fall. Stefan pulled her into his arms and hugged her as she cried.

The next morning Elena stirred and opened her eyes. She saw the sunlight and heard some birds chirping. She groaned and pulled the blanket further over her head. She heard a chuckle and knew it was Stefan.

She whined, "Stefan make it stop."

He laughed harder. "Make what stop?"

"The sun! It's too bright"

"You want me to take the brightness of the sun away?"

"Yes."

Stefan laughed and shook his head. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you."

He stood up and went over to the window and stood in front of the window blocking he sun.

"Much better." Elena smiled and snuggled back into her covered.

Stefan chuckled. "Elena?"

There was no response and he knew she had fallen back to sleep.

He smirked softly and went back over to the bed. He got on the other side and got under the blanket with her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest. She moaned softly in pleasure and snuggled into his chest. He kissed the back of her head.

Then when she least expected it, he attacked her stomach poking and tickling her. She shrieked and giggled and squirmed.

"Stefan stop it!" she squealed trying to get out of his grip, but of course it was useless.

He chuckled and continued. "You've got to wake up, you promised Caroline you'd help her set up the floats for the school."

Elena giggled and squirmed and finally gave up. "Ok, ok, just stop."

Stefan stopped and kissed her once ore. "I'll be there too. So I'll meet you there."

Elena nodded and they shared kiss and in a flash he was gone. She had a good feeling Jenna didn't know he spent the night and he didn't want her to find out. She smiled at the thought and went to get ready. Flashbacks of her meeting with Isobel haunted her as she tried to go about her day as normal.

Just as she was about to leave someone knocked on her door.

She answered it to see Bonnie. "Hey." She greeted softly.

"Hey, I couldn't sleep last night. You were obviously upset about something and I just walked away. It's not me. That can't be us. You're my friend Elena. If you need me, I'm here for you and I'm sorry I couldn't show you that yesterday." Bonnie said. Honestly.

Elena was quiet for a moment and then sighed softly and said "I met my birth mother"

"Oh. Was it…" She stopped when she saw Elena's face change to pained and tears fill her eyes. " Are you okay?"

The walls broke down and Elena started crying right here. She loved Stefan but there was a special kind of comfort only best female friend could give and that's what Elena needed. Bonnie didn't wait a second before pulling her into her arms and hugging her close.

Once they pulled away Elena told Bonnie all about Isobel and the invention and her threat and everything else that happen at the meeting.

Together they headed to the school and met in an empty classroom and Bonnie used her books to look up the invention and what it did. Elena was shocked to find out that the invention Isobel wanted so badly was actually a weapon used to weaken vampires and hurt them. Now she was even more confused. Why would she want something that would hurt herself?

"Let's find Stefan, maybe he knows." Elena said.

"Uh…" Bonnie looked unsure.

Elena smiled and softly nodded. "It's ok. I understand. I'll go find him and explain everything to him. Thank you, Bonnie you're the best."

They shared a hug and Elena ran off.

As he was searching or Stefan she ran into Jeremy. They got into a fight because of his new belief in vampires and Elena tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't listen and got mad and stormed off.

She was about to run after him when a strong grip, grabbed her arm to stop her. She turned and gasped in surprised to see Isobel. " Isobel. What are you doing here?"

"I'm your mother Elena. I want to be more involved in your life."

Elena rolled her eyes. Was she serious? "I don't want you in my life."

" I understand that. You've already got a lot of people that you care about, but I've been studying. Let's see if I got this right."She looked to her right and saw Bonnie. "There is the Witchy best friend, Bonnie. Gonna stay away from that one."

Then she noticed Jeremy looking really upset texting on his cell phone. "Oh… sad little brother Jeremy." She saw Caroline up on the float who gave an excited and happy wave. "And there's Caroline… obnoxious Caroline. I got all of my info from her by the way. She had no idea who I was and she wouldn't stop yapping. Oh… And there's Matt, friend, ex yuppies future ex. Lots of connections there."

"Matt is not involved in this." Elena said fearfully. He was the closest to them and Elena had a feeling he was going to be her first victim.

"He's involved with you isn't he?"

"Look, you shouldn't be here. You need to leave." Elena said calmly.

"No, I have some friends here too. Look, you see that man over here, standing next to Matt by the Float? His name is frank, he's very handsome and he's also quite handy and he'd noticed that the aces are rusted which is very dangerous. So, all you have to do is apply a little bit of pressure and…"

"No!" Everything seemed to move in slow motion from there. The trailer came crashing down, crushing Matt's arm in the process. He was pinned under it crying out for help and groaning in agonizing pain.

All the boys tried to lift it, but it was not lifting. Stefan came over and used his vampire strength and got it off of Matt. Once Elena knew he was ok and being taken are of she turned to Isobel. "Why are you doing this?"

"I'm showing you how easy it is to hurt the people that you care about."

"And you're doing this just because of Jonathan Gilbert's invention?"

"Hand it over and all will be stopped."

"I told you, Damon is not giving it to me."

"I think that you underestimate how much Damon cares about you."

"He'll kill you before he gives it up."

"Is that before or after I kill your brother Jeremy?"

A surge of panic rushed through her and when she looked to his previous spot he was gone, and so was Isobel. A weight dropped on her chest as she cried out for her brother frantically looking for him everywhere. Her brother was gone and Isobel was going to kill him.

"Jeremy? Jeremy!"

She looked all around, he was nowhere in sight.

Stefan rushed over to her.

"Stefan! Jeremy, he's gone and… and Isobel took him. I can't find him anywhere Stefan! We have to find him, we can't let her hurt him!"

She was panicking so much she could barely speak and was hyperventilating.

"Elena, hey look at me." Stefan said.

Elena looked at him.

"I understand you're upset. I promise you we will get your brother back safely, but you need to calm down. If you panic you can't think and right now we both need to come up with a plan all right, so take some deep breaths and calm down."

Elena took some deep breaths and tried to calm down. "Sh-She's going to… to kill him." She stuttered.

"Not, if we can stop her."

"How can we stop her. You and I both know Damon isn't going to just hand it over right?"

"We will think of something. What about Bonnie, maybe she can help us. Let's find her and ask her."

Elena nodded. They locked hands and took off running, trying to find Bonnie.

When they finally found her they went to Alaric's classroom knowing it would be empty.

"Where is the device?" Bonnie asked.

"Damon has it. He's going to be difficult to reason with."

Elena paced back and forth. She couldn't sit still if she did her mind would wander to all the horrible things that could be happening to her brother while they just sat there trying to come up with a plan. Stefan was right, Damon would not give in so easily, but she had to have some hope.

"We'll go to him, I'll talk to him!" she said desperately.

"He's not just going to hand it over, especially if it's harm for the vampires."

Suddenly an idea struck Elena.

"What if it's not harmful to anybody?" Elena asked.

They all looked at each other. For a moment Elena actually had hope….

"Absolutely not!"

Ok, that hope was gone. They had gone home to talk with Damon about the invention, but he was less than pleased to hear the idea. She had to keep trying her brother's life was at stake.

"Just hear me out please!" she begged.

"I'm not going to give the device to Isobel so she could give it to John, who is going to turn around and kill me with it. I like being a living dead person."

"But it would be useless, Bonnie can take its power away."

"I don't trust her."

"I can remove the original spell." Bonnie said.

"John and Isobel will never know."

"No, I'll get Jeremy out my own way."

Elena sighed. This was useless. Damon was never going to help them and Isobel was going to kill her brother and she would lose another person she cared about. What's worse is they never got to make up before this. He would die hating her.

"Really? How are you going to do that? Because Isobel is a vampire and Jeremy could be dead the second you walk in the door." Stefan asked.

He wasn't stupid. He knew whatever Damon was planning was going to get Jeremy hurt worse.

"Are you even up for this? I mean no offense, you're not Emily Bennet. Emily knew what she was doing." Damon said, ignoring Stefan's last remark.

"I've been practicing." Bonnie answered.

" It's not piano lessons honey."

"What's your favorite book?"

"What?"

"Name a book, any book."

"Name a book… How about "Call of the wild" Jack London

Bonnie walked over to the book shelf an without touching anything a book flies and lands in Damon's hands.

"Jack London…"

Elena couldn't stand here waiting anymore. Every second they wasted Jeremy was getting closer and closer to his death. She had to take charge."

"We're doing this Damon. I'm going to do it in my way. Now give me the device."

He didn't budge.

"We're wasting time!"

"No Elena, I'm not going to give you an invention that your Uncle is going to use to kill me."

"What do you want from me Damon! I'll do anything! Do you want me to get on my hands and knees and beg, huh? Is that what you want Damon?"

"That would be very entertaining." Damon joked.

He wasn't serious, but Elena was getting desperate. Every second that went by her heart broke just a little bit more knowing her brother was closer to death. She sunk down to her knees and folded her hands to together literally begging.

"Please Damon Please! I know you don't trust Bonnie but you can trust me please!"

"I can't trust you. You're the one who tricked me into believing you were going to help me get Katherine back when you were really planning on destroying the spell book to prevent me from doing that."

"Elena is the one who convinced my Grams and I to help you open the tomb to get Katherine back. It's not our fault she wasn't in there. So don't use that as an excuse!" Bonnie said.

"Please, I'm begging you, please." Elena begged tears filling her eyes. "What if it was Stefan, what if Isobel had taken him? Wouldn't you do everything in your power to save him?"

"I still wouldn't give you the invention."

At that moment Elena lost all hope. Damon was never going to give her the invention. Isobel was going to kill her brother and she'd never see him again. Elena buried her face into her hands and started to cry. How could Damon be this heartless?

Stefan walked over to Damon as Lexi went over to Elena..

"Come on Elena, Sweetie, stand up." She said gently taking her by the arms and lifting her up. It killed her to see Elena like this. She was literally on her hands and knees begging and Damon was just enjoying it like it was some kind of show.

Elena slowly stood. "What are we going to do?" she cried.

"We will get him back, I promise." Lexi said.

Stefan looked at his brother and glared. "When the tomb vampires had me trapped and tortured who helped Lexi save me? When we were kids and someone was bullying me who stood up for me?" Stefan said finally taking a stand against his brother. "All Elena is asking is to give her an invention that she can make powerless to give to her vampire birth-mother, who you turned by the way, and save her brother's life just like you've done for me."

Damon sighed and handed her the device.

"Thank you." She said softly.

She handed it to Bonnie. Bonnie did a quick little spell and gave it back to Elena.

She called Isobel and told her she had the invention. They agreed to meet outside the Grill. Elena left with Damon, Lexi and Stefan behind her.

She finally arrived. At first she was alone but then a sudden gust of wind blew past her. She turned around and saw Isobel. "Where is the device?" she asked bluntly

"Where is my brother?" she answered.

"This is not a negotiation. Where is the invention?"

"Where is my brother?"

"Do you really think that I came alone?"

Elena turned to see two other vampires that worked for Isobel behind her. That didn't scare her like Isobel hoped it would. She turned back to Isobel. "Do you think that I came alone?"

Isobel turned to see Damon, Lexi and Stefan behind her. She sighed, annoyed and turned back to Elena.

"Call home."

"What?"

"Call home and ask to speak to your brother Jeremy"

Elena grabbed her cell phone and called her house. She sighed in relief when she heard her brother answer. "Hello?"

"Jeremy, are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, Uncle John hit his head. It was an accident… but yeah, I'm okay."

"I'll be home soon alright?"

"Yeah."

Elena hung up and sighed in relief. "You were never going to hurt him."

"No, I was going to kill him. Don't look for any redeeming qualities in me. I don't have any."

"But you took a risk with Damon. How did you know that he was going to give it to me?"

"Because he's in love with you."

Damon looked to Stefan. Stefan didn't look at him. He just continued to watch Elena. Isobel stuck her hand out. Elena all but smacked the device into her hand. "Thank you."

" For what?"

"For being such a monumental disappointment. It keeps the memory of my real mother perfectly intact."

"Goodbye, Elena. As long as you have a Salvatore on each arm, you're doomed. Katherine was smart. She got out. But we all know that you're not Katherine."

Isobel and her helpers walked away. Elena turned to make sure they really were leaving. Stefan headed over to her. She felt his presence and turned around. She instantly threw her arms around his neck burring her face into his shoulder. He gently stroked the back of her hair.

"Hey, it's all right."

Elena's eyes caught Damon. Isobel's voice echoed through her head. 'He's in love with you'. She quickly moved her face from Stefan's shoulder and buried it in his chest. He just held her protectively in his arms. He looked to Damon, but he didn't move. He continued to stare at Elena. Lexi leaned over to whisper to him. In case you haven't noticed you're not helping right now. In fact you're making it worse. I suggest you leave."

Damon growled softly and walked away.

"Take your time. We will be back at the house." Lexi said so Stefan would hear but not bother Elena."

He mumbled a soft ok and in a flash Lexi was gone too.

Stefan stood there and just continuously stroked her hair.

"Let's get you home." He cooed gently into her ear.

"I can't."

"Can't what?"

"I have to confront Jeremy but I… I don't want to be alone."

"I'll wait in your bedroom. When you're done with Jeremy we can cuddle on your bed and I'll hold you all night. Ok?"

Elena nodded. They started to walk home.

Stefan went into Elena's room to wait while she went into her brother's room.

"Jeremy we need to talk about all this." She started.

"No, we really don't." He groaned.

"I don't know what Anna told you, but there are things you need to know."

"Yeah? Because I'm pretty sure that your journal covered it." He snapped.

Elena's eyes went wide. "You read my journal?"

"Save me the speech about invasion of privacy because I read a section about Lexi compelling me to not worry or go after Lexi, just focus on my school work and get my life back on track."

"Jeremy, please, you don't understand. The night that Vicky left, it was like mom and dad died all over again. It was all over your face and it hurt so much to see you like this. I just wanted to take away your pain. I'm so sorry."

She was silently begging for forgiveness without actually asking for it. It didn't work.

"Get out!" Jeremy responded.

" No Jeremy…"

He cut her off.

"Elena! Just get out! Please!"

She walked into the bathroom, but then turned to face him.

"Jeremy, please…"

He slammed the door in her face. She turned and walked into her room. Stefan was sitting on her bed. He was instantly up and holding her in his arms. She cried in his chest, all the events of the day finally taking a toll on her and she just couldn't hold it back anymore. All her dreams of meeting this perfect wonderful birth-mother was shattered, and her brother hated her. On top of that, Matt now had a broken arm thanks to her. It was all just too much. She let out all her feelings into Stefan's chest as he held her and rubbed her back, comforting her the only way he could.

Things would get better… wouldn't they?

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