Dear Diary,

It has been a couple weeks since Jeremy was admitted into rehab and due to protocol I haven't been able to see him and see how he is doing. I'm so worried about him in there and although it's for the best and I hope that Jeremy can get his life back on track it's just hard not having him here.

Following the custody case and Jenna winning, my grandparents decided to return to Florida but made if clear they would be making random drop ins to see what we have been up to and if Jenna is doing anything that would make the judge change his mind of rewarding her custody.

As spring has arrived school is preparing for its final stretch before the summer break. Caroline has had us all signed up to decorate and run the Mystic Spring Fling dance and both Bonnie and I dread when our phones go off because we know who it is and it means she has found a new job for us. I think that Caroline is trying to busy herself a lot lately after she told Maria she would testify against her father and it's starting to really sink in that one day soon she will have to come face to face with him. Bonnie and I are doing what we can to be there for her and while she isn't ready to talk about the situation we are being as supportive as we can by letting her order us around getting ready for the Spring Fling.

Elena

As Alaric pulled up to the Gilbert house he hopped out of his car and headed up the driveway. As he got closer he could hear the sound of Claire screaming and using her little lungs as much as she could. Not to sure what was going on Alaric stepped inside after knocking but figured no one would hear over Claire trying to set a new record on how loud she could be.

As he stepped inside he found Jenna desperately bouncing Claire up and down in her arms, as the little girl didn't seem to want to be consoled. She was talking softly to Claire but Claire didn't seem the least bit interested as she just screamed louder and louder as she arched her back in Jenna's arms.

When Jenna saw Alaric she looked a little disappointed and then went back to trying to calm the little girl down.

"What happened?" Alaric asked as he came over to them and tried to see what he could do to help.

"Nothing, Elena just left for school and it seems Claire's new thing is to scream bloody murder when Elena or Damon leave the room. I was hopping you were Damon" Jenna told him as she tried bouncing Claire a little more. "Poor Elena went to school crying because she had to leave Claire crying and reaching out for her," Jenna added as she tried holding Claire a little tighter in her arms. "So what brings you by, don't you have classes?"

"I have a free period first thing, I wanted to see if you wanted to have coffee before work but you ah I can see you're busy" Alaric told her. "Hey baby girl, what's the matter?" Alaric said as she rubbed her back trying to help Jenna sooth her.

"She was fine all morning and then just as Elena was leaving she started crying, it's like she did it on purpose to make her feel terrible about leaving"

As the two did their best to calm Claire down they were finally able to get her to stop screaming but she continued to have a muffled cry as she had her mouth pressed against Jenna's shirt. There were no longer tears in her eyes so now the crying was pretty much pretend now.

Shortly after there was a knock on the door and then Damon walked in and Jenna let out a relief sigh. "Oh thank God you're here!" Jenna said as she quickly close the distance between her and Damon.

"I told Elena I was running late," Damon said with a confused look as he opened his arms and took a pouty lip Claire into his arms. Immediately his ladybug snuggled into him and let out a few muffled cries as she gripped her tiny fists onto his leather jacket.

"Yeah she cried non-stop while Elena was leaving for school and causing Elena to leave in tears" Jenna said as she saw how quickly Claire seem to calm down in her daddy's arms.

"Aw did you make mommy feel bad on her way to school?" Damon asked her softly as he pressed a kiss to her temple as he swayed her back and forth.

Jenna shook her head at how easy Damon was able to make her calm down and rolled her eyes as she went to get her coat and bag. "Well Elena said she is going to be late, I guess Caroline has her signed up to decorate for the spring dance."

"Aw shame I'll miss that" Damon said with a chuckle as he made his way over to Claire's baby seat and went to strap her in. As soon as Claire realized what he was doing started to fuss and arch her back not wanting to be strapped in. "Come on Ladybug" Damon said to her as he struggled to get her to sit back so he could strap her in.

"Well you have a good day" Jenna said with a smile now that Claire was no longer her responsibility this morning.

"Yeah thanks" Damon mumbled as he picked up the baby seat and followed Jenna and Alaric out of the house.

"Alright we need streamers hanging from this side to here!" Caroline said cheerfully as she held her purple clipboard and walked around the gymnasium as the committee got Mystic high all ready for the Spring Fling dance. "Oh no I need Lavender Purple not dark Purple balloons" Caroline said as she noticed one of the students blowing up the wrong colour. "Lets keep it moving people!" Caroline called out as she hurried around the gym.

"Well it seems Caroline has bounced back and bossy as ever" Bonnie said with a giggle as her and Elena walked into the gym carrying boxes of blue and purple coloured lights that they would use to give the gym a romantic spring feel to it.

"Yeah, I'm just glad she is keeping her mind off the whole trial thing at least for a few days" Elena replied as she set the box on the far table of the gym and started to unload.

"Yeah being in charge seems to keep Caroline relaxed," Bonnie laughed as the two moved towards the stage and started to unscrew the lights and then replace them with the blue and purple lights. "So have you heard from Jeremy?" Bonnie asked.

Bonnie had seen how worried Elena was when Jeremy was first admitted to rehab and although she knew it would help him the idea of not being able to see her brother for a whole month wasn't easy for her.

"It's been two weeks and they uh… they won't let me see him" Elena told her sadly as she started to climb a latter to reach one of the lights and switch it for the coloured light bulb. "They have told us that a plan visit will be scheduled in the future but until then they just tell us he is getting help from professionals."

"That's good though right?" Bonnie asked.

"Yeah it is, but he's my brother and I feel like I should be doing more to help him you know" Elena stated as she made sure the light bulb was tight and then started to climb down the latter. With a slight smile Elena and Bonnie hopped down off the stage and made there way over to get some new instructions from Caroline.

Sitting on the bed in his room Jeremy pressed his hands against his forehead as he continued to go through withdrawal. Squinting his eyes and pulling his legs up against his chest as the dark circle under his eyes seemed to be getting worse. It had been days since he had slept and he was sweating uncontrollably. He sat there as long as he could before he found it unbearable and ran to the washroom and held his head over the toilet.

While vomiting in the washroom there was a soft knock on his bedroom door. After a moment the door slowly opened and a young woman in her mid-twenties peaked her head in. "Jeremy? Everything all right?" she asked him as she stepped into the room.

After letting out a groan Jeremy wiped his mouth and then stood up and moved to the sink to wash his hands and then lean over for a drink from the running facet. "Yeah I'm coming out" Jeremy told her and then turned off the facet and grabbed the towel. Stepping out of the bathroom he looked up at the long dark haired girl who gave him a slight smile. "How long am I gonna feel like this Sarah?" Jeremy asked as he slowly and weakly took a seat on the bed again and leaned his head between his knees.

"You have probably been through the worst of the nausea," Sarah told him as she set a tray of food down on the bed for Jeremy. "But this path is never easy" she told him. "Here have some lunch, it will help"

"Unless that glass has vodka in it I don't think it will" Jeremy told her but in the end reached out for the sandwich and took a bite.

"The doctor will be in to see you soon and then we have a group meeting after dinner," she told him as she watched Jeremy eat his sandwich.

"I hate those meetings," he told her.

"They help you understand that your not alone and that they are others who want to help you" Sarah told him.

"When do I get to see my aunt and sister?" Jeremy asked since he hadn't had any contact with them in two weeks.

"After todays visit with the doctor he will decide when it is the right time to begin to reintroduce you to life outside the rehabilitation center. They will schedule a meeting with your family so that everyone involved will be able to help you continue staying clean and sober" she told him. "I'll see you later okay Jeremy."

"Thanks Sarah" Jeremy said as he sat back on the bed and picked up his copy of Alcoholics Anonymous book and flipped it open. He had a long journey ahead of him but he knew he had to get better.

Stefan strolled into the house after a day at school and dropped his bag at the front door. As he entered the main room he noticed that Damon had all his university research and a calculator lay out on the dinning room table. Stefan walked over to glance at the schools Damon had applied to including University of Virginia, Virginia State University, University of Richmond and Hollins University.

For the last few weeks Damon had been spending a lot of time going over his options because in the coming weeks the acceptance letters would be coming in and he would have to make the decision about his future.

"Hey" Damon said as he entered the room holding Claire in his arms as the little girl snuggled into her daddy. It was obvious that she had just woken up from her nap as she was holding two fingers on her left earlobe much like she did when she was either tired or just waking up. Her other arm was holding her plush ladybug as her head was snuggled up under her daddy's chin.

"Hey" Stefan replied with a smiled as he stepped forward to see his little niece. After a moment Damon handed Claire over to Stefan so that he could probably greet and talk to his nice. "How's my girl" Stefan asked her as he cuddled with her and kissed her temple.

"She was very stubborn and not wanting to go for a nap," Damon said as he took a seat at the table as he started punching numbers into the calculator.

"That doesn't sound like you at all" Stefan said with a chuckle. As he moved to set Claire down on the floor he set her down in front of her box of toys. Once Claire seemed to be distracted and entertaining herself, Stefan looked up at his brother who seemed very stressed out. "Everything okay?" he asked him while he sat on the floor next to his niece.

Damon stared down at the calculator for a moment and then as the frustration set in he let out a grunt and threw the calculator across the room. As it hit the wall Damon bowed his head and ran his fingers through his jet-black hair and making it all stand up. "It's my trust fund" Damon said with a sigh.

"What about it?"

Letting out another grunt Damon sat back in his chair and looked over at his brother who was playing with Claire on the floor with his legs crossed. "The money was meant to go towards paying for school but so much of it has been used to bail Jeremy out of Jail, and his rehab treatment I don't have enough for school" he explained. "It has gotten to the point that I have to get some scholarships so that I can afford to go" Damon told him as he tapped his pen up and down on the table.

Stefan sat there on the floor as Claire started crawl up and over his lap as she tried to reach for her plush ladybug that Stefan was holding. "You can always just ask uncle Zach for…"

"NO!" Damon snapped as he shook his head. He was done having to have Zach bail him out of trouble or cover for him. He spent his whole high school years getting into trouble and Zach having to smooth everything out. When Damon found out that he had knocked up Elena it was a bit of a wake up call that he couldn't have his uncle getting him out of jams all the time. He was eighteen and it was time to take responsibility of his life and his choices. Sure the money was gone because it went towards helping out Jenna so that she wasn't having to scrape together money while she was having to care for her Elena, Jeremy, Claire, go to school and also work long hours but that didn't mean he wanted to go crawling to his uncle for more.

Zach had done everything to make sure him and Stefan were taken care of after their mother bailed and their drunken father passed away. He knew that Zach would indeed give him the money in a heartbeat but Damon didn't want to have to depend on his uncle anymore. He had a daughter now and it was his job to start setting a good example for her.

"And what happens if you don't get a scholarship or what if the scholarship isn't for your first choice university?" Stefan asked.

"I don't know" Damon said as he bowed his head again. He was still waiting to hear from the universities but while he really wanted to get into University of Virginia there was a chance he might have to go to another one and one that would cause him to leave town. Right now he had a lot riding on the hope that he could get a scholarship to University of Virginia. He let out another sigh as he watched his eleven-month old daughter crawling around and blabbering away to herself.

"Hey do you mind watching Claire for about an hour, I have something I need to do" Damon asked as he got up.

"Um yeah sure" Stefan replied.

"Okay well keep her preoccupied while I slip out" Damon told his brother.

"Why" Stefan asked as he picked Claire up in his arms and had her standing up while he held her under her arms.

"Her new thing is to scream when Elena or I leave the room," Damon explained. "If she doesn't see me leave she will probably be okay"

"What?" Stefan asked as his eyes went wide with concern as he watched Damon heading out the door.

"Don't worry you'll be fine" Damon assured him as he snuck out of the room while Stefan was waving the plush ladybug in front of Claire's face as she reached out for the plush toy.

For a moment Stefan thought he was in the clear but then as Claire started to look around the room she noticed the absence of her daddy and then the water works started. "Hey, hey you're okay" Stefan said to her as he pulled her into her arms. It was too late though once she started there was no stopping it and she just got louder and louder. All he could do was hope that Damon would be back soon.

He was standing on the front porch of the Gilbert house sweating buckets with his heart racing. He had been standing there for a good ten minutes trying to force himself to ring the bell but something always stopped him. It was so stupid he had come over hundreds of times no problem and now here he stood as if one of his worst fears would come true. Actually one of his worst fears could come true but also on the other hand one of the best things to ever happen to him could also be the outcome.

Rubbing his sweaty palms on his pants he took a deep breath telling himself over and over again he had nothing to be afraid and that what ever happened he could handle. Actually that was a lie there was a good chance he wouldn't be able to handle it if her answer wasn't what he hoped for. Taking a deep breath he reached into his pocket and pulled out the Diamond ring he had been carrying around for a about a week now just hopping he would find the perfect time to ask her to marry him.