A/N: As ever I do not own the Vampire Diaries – and thank you for all the lovely reviews. Enjoy! And review!

There Goes The Neighbourhood & Let The Right One In

Summary: Elena is upset and avoiding Damon. Pearl visits Damon and informs him about the tomb vamps being free. Pearl wants Damon to stop supplying the town with vervain and act as her spy – she offers Damon information about Katherine in return. Elena and Stefan double date with Caroline and Matt. Damon gets drunk with Jenna and Kelly. Jeremy confronts Anna about being a vampire – he asks her to turn him. 2 of the tomb vamps come after the Brothers Salvatore resulting in a wicked good fight and Stefan kills Beth-Anne. "Could ya help me out a little?"

Let The Right One In

"And I am short on words
Knowing what's occurred
I wish that I could carry her
But this is our Ungodly Hour"

I'm going to have to get someone to replace the damn window the tomb vamps broke through last night. God can we not just go and kill them already? I've told Elena and Stefan what happened with Pearl.

"I can't believe you made a deal with her" Oh I'm sorry Elena, did I not mention her gouging my eyes out?

"Besides, she's gonna help me get Katherine back" Foot. Meet Mouth. Seriously Damon, why would you say that to Elena? Idiot. She's already been avoiding me since the whole Isobel debacle.

"Of course she is – Damon gets what he wants as usual no matter who he hurts in the process" Is she serious right now? Could someone please tell me when was the last time I got something I wanted because honestly; I can't remember. But I do love it when she's feisty.

"How long are you going to blame me for turning your birth mother into a vampire?" – "I'm not blaming you Damon, I've accepted the fact that you're a self serving psychopath with no redeeming qualities" ouch. Um...yeah...I might deserve that but it hurts.

Stefan asks something in what I'm assuming is an effort to diffuse the situation but actually I just need some time to process what she just said so yeah. Leaving now. Doesn't stop me from overhearing her though.

"I'm sorry, he just makes me so cranky" Great; even better. Can my life get any worse right now?

When I hear Elena leave I go down and try to clean up some more of the mess left over from last night. Yes I'm a little obsessive when it comes to cleanliness. Stefan's going a-hunting and wants to talk when he comes back. I'm assuming to plan our attack on the tomb-vamps. Match. Light. Fire. House. Done. Sounds like a good plan to me.

After a while he's still not come home and I'm starting to get a teensy bit worried so I call Elena who is apparently dodging my calls as well as avoiding me and being vicious. Not to worry, I happen to know where she lives. Knock Knock! Stefan's not here. Something is wrong.

"You're not going to like what I'm thinking"

I go to Pearl's house first; I left Elena in the car. The vamp Fredrick, from last night opens the door.

"Where's my brother?" Fuck. There's my brother. He doesn't look...good. "You are dead" Dammit! Dammit! I can't get in the bloody house.

"You haven't been invited in" – no shit! "...never let this bad man in" – okay that could be a problem. He keeps talking and I'm not listening and all I can see is red and fury and I want to kill and rip apart. That is my brother in there. Fuck.

It's raining so hard and this storm is a bitch and Elena's out of the car;

"What happened? Where is he?" – "They have him, I can't get in" – "I can get in" – uh, no, are you crazy? You are not going in there!

"Why are they doing this? What do they want with him?" – revenge 'Lena, they want revenge. She's getting panicky now and I'm not an expert when it comes to that so I clasp her face in my hands.

"Elena I know. But I don't know how to get him out" and I fucking hate it. And I'm drenched. And what the hell am I supposed to do now? And as awful as this sounds, even now, in this moment, with my brother being held captive and more than likely tortured; in a part of me...a very, very, very selfish bad part of me I really, really, want to kiss Elena right now. Yeah. I know. I'm a dick.

Fortunately Elena picks this exact moment to fill me in on the history teacher who wouldn't die and since he's our only viable option at the moment we head for the school.

"You can't hurt me" – ooh yeah I can.

Or. Not.

Enter Elena. "We need your help" she's explaining the situation and I'm staring at the rain until I hear her say "I would go" – but your life is valuable– it appears the teacher has a ring that brings him back to life. He doesn't seem to want to help so I dangle a little bait "the woman in charge of the crowd could help you find your wife" – lies. It's a lie. But in this particular situation I'm not above lying.

He takes the bait and says he'll help. Van Helsing has some fancy equipment – vervain darts – awesome. "Just get me in – I'll get Stefan out" Elena questions my methods of madness and grabs one of the darts.

"I'm going with you" Em, no. No. No. No. No. She is crazy isn't she? "You'll get yourself killed you're not going in there" – "I'm going" – maybe if I ignore her she'll stop talking and give up on her insane ideas.

Or. Not.

God, fine. "Elena you can...drive the getaway car but you're not going in the house" – "you can't stop me" – you wanna bet? "It's Stefan we're talking about here – you don't understand" um...really?

Elena he's my brother. I'm fairly sure I understand or do you really believe I hate him that much? She doesn't, does she? Of course I don't say that.

"I understand. He's the reason you live, his love lifts you up where you belong. I get it" and then I'm in trouble for joking. Man I just can't get it right with this girl. Okay, fine I'll be serious. Maybe that will actually get through to her.

"I can't protect you Elena. I don't know how many vampires are in there" – I click my fingers to demonstrate – "that's how long it takes you to get your head ripped off. I have to be able to get in and get out. I can't be distracted with your safety...or this'll end up a bloodbath that none of us walk away from. Including Stefan" – is that serious enough for you Elena? Fuck now she looks like she's going to cry. God dammit. Make it better Damon. Don't make her cry on top of everything else please.

"I know. I get it. I understand" he's my brother. I understand. I rub her arm gently and have to hope it's enough because now we need to save my brother; her boyfriend.

We get to the house and I just have to hope the teacher doesn't get himself killed before he gets the owner outside. I hate having to rely on other people for help – makes me...itchy. Luckily he's kept himself alive and Miss Gibbons is now dead. Teacher doesn't like that too much but there's nothing I can do about it, need in the house and dead owner is the only way to accomplish that.

1 dead vamp. Wow I've missed killing. Bad people; I've missed killing bad people. Right. I make my way through the house and down to the cellar and who should I run into? Why if it isn't Elena. Will this girl ever listen to me? "Are you insane?" As it turns out she's actually kinda useful – doesn't mean she's not crazy – but useful yes. The ropes holding Stef up are soaked in vervain so touching those would have been...painful.

"Elena...you shouldn't be here" – yeah that's what I said brother. "She was supposed to stay in the car" – Elena gets the ropes and I hold Stefan up and now it's time to go. Come on, stop trying to rescue other vampires and let's go. I task Elena with getting Stef to the car while I go slayer style on the tomb vamps.

2 dead, 3 dead, I'm attacking when the one from last night runs off and now, 4 dead. That one wasn't me – that was all the teacher.

"I'm going after Fredrick" I come back when I can't find Fred-Vamp and God I'm going to kill him when I do find him. We're leaving and – oh shit – maybe not – we're kinda surrounded. And the teacher only has one dart left. Nope. Not gonna be enough.

We're waiting inside to be ambushed by the tomb-vamps – I think we can make it out alive and...undead. At least I hope so. Ric asks if I lied earlier when I said Pearl could help him find his wife and I figure he deserves the truth. He didn't have to come back after all, and then speak of the devil. Pearl. That's probably a good thing. Maybe.

"What did you do?" – Me? No. Nuh-uh. Not me lady. What did you do?

"You're merry little band of vampires spent the day torturing my brother – if I had a good side – not a way to get on it" and now it really is time to go. I need a drink. Or ten.

I head to the Grill for a drink and teacher slayer is here. We actually made a pretty good team but he looks at me like he hates me – no big surprise.

"I know you hate me – guess what? Everyone hates me" sorta used to it. "We were bad-ass" he punches me in the face. Happens; I probably deserved it anyway, didn't even hurt that much.

I get home and go to check on Stef, make sure he's doing okay after the day's events and I find him in his room, surrounded by empty blood bags. He's been crying and he's sitting on the floor clutching one as if his life depends on it. Which...it kinda does. Oh Stefan.

Dear Diary,
I'd been avoiding Damon because I still hadn't figured things out but then I had to go over to the house to talk to them about the Tomb-vampires who attacked them last night. I knew I was going to end up doing or saying something that I regretted and I did. I said he was a 'self serving psychopath with no redeeming qualities'. And god I don't even mean it and he looked so hurt and then he just walked out. I feel awful about it.

But he DOES make me cranky and I just...god he's done so many wrong things and I know he's changing, or trying to change but I still haven't figured out how I feel about everything, so yeah, he called me a bunch of times but I was dodging his calls and then he turned up at the house and told me that Stefan had been taken by the tomb-vamps.

We went to Alaric to get him to help. Damon said I couldn't go in the house, I told him that he didn't understand and then I realised that I was being really selfish. Stefan is HIS brother, of course he understands. He told me to stay in the car and I wanted to do what he said but I just couldn't. I was too worried about him and Stefan so I had to go and help and it turned out okay – well that part did anyway.

We rescued Stefan and I got him to the car eventually but it had been ripped apart and I was just thinking that Damon was not going to be happy about that but before I could even think properly one of the vampires tore Stefan out of the car and started attacking him.

I didn't know what to do and Damon wasn't there and I couldn't let Stefan die so I used my vervain dart and pulled the branch out of Stefan. I thought he was going to die, I was so scared. Stefan is not supposed to die, Damon is not supposed to die. These are the people who are not allowed to die on me.

All I could think was where is Damon? Why isn't he here? Is he okay? What do I do? I was bleeding so I did the only thing that seemed remotely logical. I gave Stefan my blood. He told me to run but I wouldn't. He's my boyfriend; Damon's brother – I wouldn't leave him. So I gave him my wrist and god but it hurt! Not that I expected any different really.

Stefan killed the vampire. Like over-killed him. And when I went to him...he...growled at me. It was rather terrifying. He was like another person and it was my fault. I made him drink my blood, even if Stefan says it's because I was saving his life I still feel terrible about it.

Then Jeremy called me to tell me that they found Vicki Donovan's body. Dammit Damon you were supposed to take care of her! I went to see Matt which was really difficult considering I already knew she was dead but he's my friend and I had to be there for him.

This day has just been deathly exhausting. I haven't even seen Damon since I got Stefan home, I hope he's okay.
Elena