After exchanging gifts and thanking each other, they decided that it was time to sing some carols. The girls were doing a repeat of "Santa Klaus is coming to town", much to everyone's joy when suddenly the door bell rang, interrupting the joy filled laughter that was echoing through the entire house.

"Who's coming to see us at half past 1 in the morning?" Damon asked as he got up and went to open the front door, only to see his younger brother on the other side.

"What are you doing here?" Damon asked, surprise evident in his voice, bringing everyone to come and join him, curious as to who it was and what they wanted.

"I...I just wanted to wish you and Rachel a Merry Christmas." Stefan replied, looking sad.

He had a bag in his hand where it looked like 2 wrapped gifts were.

"I thought you said you didn't want to come here because dad and I were fraternizing with the enemy? Isn't that what you told me when I asked you to join us at the Mall?" Rachel asked him, looking mad.

She had truly been hurt when he refused to join them and now he was trying to play nice!

"I think I said 'sleeping with the enemy' and you told me that you weren't." Stefan replied, trying to bring humour in the conversation.

Rachel couldn't help but blush, along with Rebekah while Kol chuckled mockingly.

"You can't have it both ways Stefan, you can't be mad at us, try to kill your niece's boyfriend and come for Christmas, play nice and go back to trying to kill our friends and family the next day." Damon said seriously.

"I am your family. They're friends of yours but nothing more." Stefan said defensively.

"No, they are our family, not only because I'm with Rebekah and Rachel is with Klaus but also because Sage has helped me raise Rachel and is her aunt." Damon replied.

"Listen... I... I'm sorry for everything... I know that I should have known better than to trust Katherine and let her feed Elena all those lies... You were right, Elena is acting so different now than the way she was when we met... I... I just want to spend a bit of Christmas with you." Stefan said.

"Fine, come on inside, but you better play nice or I won't be stopping Rachel from attacking you this time." Damon warned his brother as he stepped aside and let his brother inside the boarding house.

The tension in the living room was pretty intense for the first few minutes.

"Your gift is under the tree Uncle Stefan." Rachel told him with a sweet smile that helped him relax almost immediately.

"Thanks, I also have something for you two." He replied, opening his bag and handing Rachel and Damon a box each.

Stefan opened his gift first and Rachel explained to him what she told everyone else. He loved it of course, it was a really good gift after all, especially for him. He was already considering rewriting all his old journals into this magic one. Then Damon opened his own gift to find a very old looking book.

"You remembered?" Damon asked his brother, unable to hide the emotions in his eyes.

"Of course I did." Stefan replied.

Seeing the questioning glances from everyone he explained:

"Back when we were human, Damon had a book like this one. Our mother had given it to him when she was still alive and he loved to read it over and over again. One day, I think I was 10, it was the anniversary of Mother's death and I was in a phase were I was angry at everyone. I accidentally burned the book and seeing how much it had hurt Damon I promised him that one day I would replace the book, no matter how rare it was."

"Well, that's sweet." Rebekah commented while Elijah looked over Damon's shoulder to see what the book was about.

"Your turn love, go ahead, open it." Klaus said, encouraging Rachel, who was sitting by his side, to open her gift.

She nodded and opened her own gift. Stefan had gotten her a complete make up set and a gift card to buy more.

"I know that it's not the most personal gift but I didn't know what else to get a teenage girl..." Stefan apologised.

"It's okay Uncle Stefan, I like it." She replied with a smile.

"Yeah well, Rachel isn't really a teenage girl, she's much more mature than Elena." Sage commented under her breath, pretending that she didn't know everyone could hear her.

"We're having a big party tomorrow with a lot of people, you're welcome to come Stefan." Damon suggested as his brother was about to leave.

"I know, Jeremy, Jenna and Alaric are coming. Jenna told Elena that she could come if she apologised to Rachel and the Mickealson's but she refused...I was planning on spending it with her." Stefan replied, looking sorry.

"Elena is behaving like a spoiled brat, she could use being on her own for a while. If she's not mature enough to apologise when she's wrong, I really don't see why you should spend so much time with her. She's the one letting Katherine feed her all those lies." Rachel snapped, finally letting out what she was really thinking.

"You might be right... I'll think about it." Stefan replied before he left.

Soon after Stefan, the Mickealson's followed, minus Rebekah who was spending the night with Damon. Klaus stayed a little longer to help Rachel clean up and then went home, resisting the desire he had to spend the night with his Love.

Before she went to bed, Rachel checked her phone and realised that she had another message from Santana. Apparently Christmas with her family was going surprisingly well and she was considering forgiving them. Rachel quickly replied, telling her what had happened in Mystic Fall's and went to sleep, thinking of her future with Klaus.

What did you think about this chapter?

Should Stefan come to see reason and leave Elena?

Please review!

Lorelei Candice Black