The next morning, Elena met with the guys at the Boarding House. "Hey."

"Hey."

"Glad to see you're here in one piece." Damon said.

"You know if you tick me off, I could easily end you, right?" Elena told him.

"Okay, enough, you two. We need to start planning our strategy." Stefan pointed out, breaking up the argument.

"Well, the first thing we need to do is find the journal."

"I can ask Jeremy." Elena said. "He was the last one to see it."

"How do we know if it'll even have the location of the grimore?" Stefan asked. "Are we really going to take the word of the guy who tried to kill us?"

"Do you see any other options?" Damon pointed out.

"Okay, what's a grimore, exactly?"

"It's basically a witch's spell book and journal. They record the results of their spells and what it takes to create them." Stefan said.

"How did you learn all that?" Damon asked.

"I've met Bonnie's grandmother. She told me." Stefan told him.

"Wow. She usually doesn't tell strangers." Elena said.

"She knew I was a friend of yours, so…" Elena nodded. "Anyway, what about our mystery vampire? Dimwit obviously wasn't working alone, so whoever's out there knows who we are."

"I know, but they won't be able to get in if we don't let them." Damon pointed out. "So we'll just start with finding the journal." He left the room.

"Is he always this way?"

"Mostly when he's focused on something." Stefan told her.

"Well, I should head back and start looking." Elena said. She turned to go. "You know, I could use some help."

"No problem." They left the house.

A few hours later, they were going through a box full of items. "Do you think he really trusts us?" Elena asked as she took out an old pendant she figured was dated around the eighteen hundreds.

"I'm not sure. Trust isn't something that comes easy to him, especially after these last few years." Stefan told her.

"I feel kind of bad for him. I know we lost our parents more recently than you guys, but still, being the only one to look out for your sibling is tough, especially when you're young." Elena said.

"He's gotten better at it, though. It's been about three, maybe four years since we lost them." Stefan pointed out. "He's still pretty distant, though. I can never tell what he's thinking, he can be unpredictable sometimes."

"What do you think will happen once the tomb is opened and he gets Katherine back?" Elena asked.

"I don't know." Stefan told her. He was looking at a picture.

"That's Jonathan Gilbert." Elena said. "One of our ancestors." Jeremy came downstairs.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"We're looking for that old journal that Dad had in here." Elena said.

"You mean Jonathan Gilbert's?" Jeremy asked.

"Yeah, how did you know about it?"

"I did my history paper on it." Jeremy told them. "I held onto it afterward cause I didn't want it falling into the wrong hands."

"Do you still have it?"

"Yeah, I can show it to you." Jeremy told her. The two of them headed upstairs. Jeremy handed her the journal. "Are you sure about all this? I mean, what if Damon decides to kill us or something?"

"That's not going to happen." Elena told him. "Besides, if he wanted us dead, he would've done it a long time ago."

"Still, I think we should be careful." Jeremy said.

When they got downstairs, they were surprised to see that Damon had shown up. "Dude, ever hear of knocking?" Jeremy asked.

"Your aunt let me in."

"Remind me to tell her to not let strangers into the house." Elena said. She glanced around the room. "Where'd Stefan go?"

"He went out a few minutes ago." Damon told her. "He should be back soon."

That evening, the group was still waiting. Elena was on the phone with Bonnie. She decided to leave the guys alone. She knew she was on a date. "Okay, I'm alone. What's going on?"

"It's going great." Bonnie told her. "He's a perfect gentleman."

"Really?"

"I know. Boring, right?" Bonnie said. "I just want to grab him and lay one on him."

"Why don't you?" Elena asked.

"Because I'm a chicken."

"You're a powerful witch goddess." Elena pointed out. "Come on, seize the day, Broom Hilda."

"Okay, I'll text you later with more details." Bonnie told her.

"Good luck." Elena said. She heard the door open downstairs.

"About time you got here." She heard Jeremy say.

"Give me a break, Jer." She headed downstairs. "I had to make sure I wasn't followed."

"He's got a point." Elena said as the guys turned to look at her. "I mean, we all know that idiot wasn't working alone. He could've had help."

"Isn't that why the four of us are stuck in this together?" Jeremy asked. "Because of him?"

"Five, Jeremy." Elena reminded him. "They need…" Jenna came into the room then.

"What's going on here?" She asked. The group turned to each other, not knowing what to say.

"Uh, can you give us a minute alone?" Elena asked them. The guys headed upstairs.

"So, you guys have been going through some family stuff, I see."

"We were trying to see if there was any information about my birth parents." Elena said.

"I don't know much, but your mom told me everything." Jenna told her. They sat down next to each other. "Your father was working late one night at the hospital. At the end of his shift, a young woman came in and she was about to give birth. He delivered her baby and gave her a place to stay, but a few days later she disappeared. At the time, your parents were trying to have a baby, but it wasn't working. And all Miranda wanted was to be a mother."

"I've looked at my birth certificate, though." Elena said. "It lists Miranda and Grayson as my parents."

"Your father was a doctor." Jenna pointed out. "He took care of it. They didn't want to lose you, so they kept it quiet and told as few people as possible."

"What else do you know about the girl that came in?" Elena asked.

"Only her name." Jenna said. "Isobel."

Elena met the group upstairs. They were starting to go over the journal. "So, find anything?"

"Nothing that we already don't know." Jeremy said. "I heard everything down there." He whispered.

"At least I know where to start now." Elena told him. She sat next to him and started reading. After a few minutes, she came across something. "Hey, can either of you read this? It looks like it's written in a different language."

"Let's see." Stefan said. He looked at it. "It's like nothing that I recognize."

"Wait, isn't that the sign for grave?" Jeremy asked , pointing at the picture beneath it.

"It's a prophecy." Elena realized, looking at the series of pictures under it.

"What do you think it means?" Damon asked.

"If I'm reading this thing right, it says the secret of the spell book will be protected by the person who will carry it to his grave." The group looked to each other. "I know where it is." Stefan realized.

"You guys go on." Jeremy said. "I think I'll stay here. If he did have help, we can't all go together. We don't know how many others there are."

"He's right, guys." Elena said. "Still, I'm going anyway. Someone's got to be able to help them if they find us."

"Be careful out there." Jeremy called as they left.

A few minutes later, the three of them were at the cemetery. "This place is really creepy at night." Elena said.

"I thought you were all into this stuff." Damon said.

"That's just some stupid stereotype." Elena said. "Vampires aren't into some gothic clique, well unless they already were a goth to begin with. We're not all into darkness and gloom you know."

"I was just saying." Damon said, backing away from her.

"Are you sure it's here?"

"If it's one thing I remember about our ancestor's journal, it's that a Salvatore would always carry any of his secrets to the grave." Stefan said.

"Yeah, though I never thought he meant it literally." Damon said.

"And I thought my family's history was weird." Elena said.

"Look, you don't have to do this if you don't want to." Stefan told her.

"No, I made a promise to help you guys." Elena said. "Besides, you're not the only ones who want to protect this town. This town's my home, everyone I care about is here." The guys looked at each other.

"Okay." Stefan said. The group got to work on digging up the grave. It took a long time, but finally Elena found it. She looked at the state of her clothes. They were covered in dirt.

"Man. This was new." She said.

"I never thought you were fashion-conscious." Stefan said.

"Save it, Salvatore. This isn't the time or place to be making jokes like that." Elena shot back. Stefan opened the coffin. Elena looked away, not wanting to see the body's remains. Stefan pulled a book out of it and handed it to Damon.

"Are you still sure you want to go through with this?" Damon asked.

"Of course I am. She's important to you." Stefan pointed out. "You shouldn't have to do this by yourself, you know."

Damon turned to Elena. "If you do anything to make me think I can't trust you…"

"I get it." Elena said. "But if it means anything to you, Damon, I still trust you." She started to leave. Stefan looked as his brother, unable to believe he'd try to threaten her after everything they'd all been through. Then he left, following her.

At Elena's, the two of them were in the bathroom. She was looking for the bandages. "I hate how vulnerable you guys are sometimes." She finally found the box and got it from the shelf.

"Hey, we've been through worse." Stefan pointed out. "I'm surprised you didn't notice it until we almost got here."

"I noticed before, I just didn't want to scare you." Elena said, placing a bandage over a cut on his hand that he got while they were digging up the grave.

"You know Damon didn't mean that, right?" Stefan asked. "He's probably scared of losing her again now that he's so close to finding her."

"I understand that." Elena said. "When this happened, I was worried that Jeremy wasn't going to wake up with me. That I'd be alone through this."

"Good thing it didn't turn out that way, then." Stefan said. "You need anything?"

"No, I'm just going to rest for a while." Elena told him. He headed downstairs and ran into Jenna.

"You know you're not staying the night, right?"

"Yeah, we're just hanging out for a while."

"It's a good thing I like you." Jenna said. "Leave the door open, though."

"No problem." Suddenly, Jeremy burst into the room. He seemed a little shaken.

"Hey, have you seen her?" Jeremy asked.

"She went to the bathroom." Jenna said.

"Wait, seen who, Jer?" Stefan asked.

"His friend came over, so I let her in." Jenna said.

"Anna." Jeremy said. Then he realized something. "Oh, no." He ran upstairs with his speed, with Stefan following behind. Elena wasn't where he left her.

"Elena…"

"I never should've hung out with her tonight. It's my fault." Jeremy said.

"Hey, relax. Anna had us all fooled." Stefan told him. "We'll get Elena back safely, Jer, no matter what happens."