Thank you for the lovely reviews. As promised, the plot comes back after all the fluff. For Dexter Riley and Scarlett2112 I'll preface this with a Stefan warning. You may prefer the end of the chapter.

Sorry for the lack of update earlier in the week, I went indoor skiing, and it threw my entire schedule out of whack.

x-x-x-x

Perhaps compelling an Aston Martin at the airport wasn't the most inconspicuous decision he made. He wasn't sure he gave a fuck. It had taken him most of the day to fly across the country, he wasn't wasting time driving like a grandma.

The brakes were pretty damn effective, he had to admit, as he stopped suddenly in front of the Gilbert home. This was when he had to slow down.

Stepping out of the car at human speed and closing the door carefully (she was a beautiful thing; he wasn't about to damage her) he walked up to the door and knocked. He desperately wanted to just jump in her window, but he didn't know who was in the house for sure. He could hear heartbeats.

Jenna opened the door, and he watched her shoulders immediately tense.

"Stefan." She said in greeting, with no smile upon her face. "What a surprise."

He smiled at her, the winning grin that usually made hearts melt. It had worked on her in all their previous encounters, but something told him he wouldn't have much luck this time.

"Good evening, Jenna, is Elena here?" He asked. He was pretty sure of the answer now. There were two people in the house. One was Aunt Jenna, and the other was the history teacher.

"She's not here." The teacher spoke firmly, as he stepped up behind Jenna, wrapping an arm around her waist. His other hand was flexing, clearly itching for a fight.

She must have been a mess after he left; that explained their displeasure at the sight of him. He was the unwelcome ex, the boy who had broken Elena's heart. If only they knew he had done it for her, to protect her.

"Do you know where I can find her?" He asked, letting the concern he felt wrinkle his forehead. He needed these people to know he wanted to help her, protect her from Damon.

Jenna shook her head, as the teacher spoke. "She's not here, you need to see Bree."

At that, the door closed in his face. Stefan ran his fingers through his hair, pacing the length of the deck as he decided his next move. He wasn't listening to anyone until he saw Elena.

x-x-x-x

Caroline sipped her drink through the straw, looking up at him through thick eyelashes. God, he was handsome. His dark eyes bore into hers and she felt a strong desire to jump across the table and rip his clothes to shreds.

But this was the grill, and her mother was at the bar speaking to John Gilbert and Carol Lockwood.

She couldn't possibly have hot, steamy sex in front of their parents. She could damn sure picture it though. Taking another big sip of her drink as she listened to him speak about his workout routine, she fanned herself. Was it getting hot in here?

The doors opened, and her eyes flickered over to them. Expecting another local she looked away at first, before doing a double take.

Stefan Salvatore had just walked into the Mystic Grill.

Her boyfriend was suddenly only the second hottest boy in the room. Wait, was he, her boyfriend? They hadn't actually had that talk yet. They'd had a date, that very, very hot make out session and now they were out again getting a bite to eat. Did that count?

Did she need to ask him? Would she have to wait for him to ask her?

What if he didn't? What if he just kept making out with her and buying her food and she was just one of his girls? Dammit, was she the new Viki Donovan?

She was moments away from blurting out her innermost thoughts and insecurities when Stefan spoke, his voice rough. Caroline was drawn out of her own head, startled to see he was stood by their table.

"Hey, Caroline, Tyler. Have either of you seen Elena?" He asked.

Not distracted by her own insecure thoughts, Caroline looked at him properly this time. His hair was a mess, which was rare for him, and his fingers were tapping on the table. He was clearly agitated.

More importantly, she'd not seen him in months. He'd moved back to where they'd come from, living with relatives. Come to think of it, she didn't have a clue where that was.

Instead of greeting her properly, as he should, he only cared about Elena. Caroline rolled her eyes as she shook her head. That was typical of Stefan, ignoring everyone around him whilst he drooled over Elena Gilbert.

Caroline hoped, just a teensy-weensy bit, that he'd get his heart broken by her.

"She was apparently at school earlier, helping out with the floats. Not that she stuck around long enough to actually be of assistance. She just stuck on a dozen flowers and then disappeared off somewhere again. Seriously, her and Bonnie have been all over the place recently. Bonnie was late, something about working with Bree. I mean, seriously, the amount of girl time Elena has missed is spec…."

She was cut off by Stefan, "Do you have any idea where she could be?"

She shrugged, "Ask Damon."

Maybe that was just a little bit bitchy, she thought after. Then again, she wasn't sure she cared. She was mad at Elena for not being present recently, and both Salvatore brothers were far too obsessed with her.

Stefan really was agitated, he didn't even bother to say goodbye, he just walked straight back out again, running his hands through his hair.

She felt guilty suddenly, Caroline might have been annoyed at Elena for missing so many girl nights; but Elena did have drama going on with her mother and she was building a thing with Damon (despite Caroline's best advice against it). Elena probably had a good reason for missing girl time. Caroline had just stirred the pot and created more drama.

Excusing herself for a moment, she pulled out her phone and dialled Elena's number. Unfortunately, she had to leave a voicemail.

x-x-x-x

As he pulled the extravagant rental car up his drive, he noticed Elena's car on the drive and clocked the lack of Damon's Camaro.

The hope he felt was surrounded by a sense of impending doom. Why would she be here?

Slamming the door open as he entered, he saw her.

She was sitting in the parlour, frown lines on her face as she worried over something. Her skin pale, she was beautiful even as she looked mournful, sorrowful.

Her face turned to the noise he had created, and she smiled. His world stopped for a moment. How had he left her? He knew all the logical reasons for pushing her away and moving across the country. As he looked at that smile, they all seemed utterly baffling. How had he ever had the strength to walk away?

She stood, and he came to stand in front of her, taking her hands in his.

It was a moment of true serenity, a moment of peace in his long existence, as she smiled at him. The way her eyes smiled, the spark in them as her eyes met his, the way the corner of her mouth turned up so elegantly. He hadn't lost her, as he feared. She was his.

"Elena, I'm, I'm so truly, deeply, sorry for leaving you. Are you ok?" He squeezed her fingers affectionately, hoping she would accept him. The smile had given him too much hope, if she rejected him now, he thought he would shatter.

The girl in front of him sniffed, shaking her head.

"Damon never left Mystic Falls, Stefan. He made Bonnie open the tomb, and he's killed people." Her bottom lip quavered, and he instinctively brought her into a hug. She smelt delectable.

His mind was running a mile a minute. If the tomb was open, was Katherine free? Now wasn't the time to ask, Elena needed comfort and Katherine had been a sensitive topic even before he'd left for months.

"Has he hurt you?" He stroked the side of her face softly, praying he wasn't responsible for any more pain for her. Her skin was soft like silk. How he had missed that touch, he didn't think anything compared.

She had no answer, her eyes merely cast themselves downwards refusing to meet his own. Her breath hitched slightly, as if she were fighting back tears.

He let the growl escape his throat.

"I'll kill him, Elena. If he hurt you, I'll kill him."

Her eyes flew up, wide and furious they glared at him.

"No, Stefan. I couldn't do that to you, he is your brother. You can help though." Her voice, firm at first, softened.

"You've been gone a long time; a lot has happened." She continued, "Now, Damon has one of Jonathan Gilbert's inventions."

Her eyes darted across the room, as if she were checking her surroundings before daring to reveal her secret. "He's trying to use it to kill my birth mother."

Stefan's brow furrowed. She'd obviously discovered her family history, how was her birth mother a vampire? More pertinently, why would Damon want her dead?

"Elena, that doesn't make sense. Why won't he just stake her?" He asked, trying to pull at the threads of the knotted half story he could put together.

"He's obsessed with me, Stefan. It's hard to expl…" She paused mid-word, almost visibly flinching before standing up.

"I'm sorry, I've said too much. I should go." She said quickly, leaving as fast as a human could reasonably move.

He grabbed her wrist, trying to stop her but she winced as if he was causing her pain. Perhaps he had? There was certainly enough anger running through his veins as he wished his brother dead.

The sound of her pain caused him to instantly let go, watching mournfully as she fled the property.

What was he going to do?

x-x-x-x

The sun bathed the room in light, gently waking her. She'd slept incredibly soundly, she reflected, yawning slightly as she stretched.

He wasn't here in the bed with her, and she frowned at the realisation before pulling herself up to sit. She was still incredibly naked, but for the first time in hours she felt it.

Last night, she'd laid comfortably with him, speaking about anything and everything, without ever noticing. She'd slept intertwined with him, the lack of clothes never crossing her mind.

Now, she felt naked, exposed, and she quickly looked around for clothes.

He'd brought her overnight bag up to the room, she noticed. Carefully folded on top of it was one of his shirts and a pair of her own panties. She grinned to herself; he really did like seeing her in his shirts. She'd speak to him later about how she'd prefer her bag to stay private.

Padding down the stairs, she was thrilled to smell coffee. It didn't matter that she'd slept like a log, she always appreciated a good dose of caffeine in the morning. Plus, they had a busy day in front of them.

He was in the kitchen, two plates in front of him. As he finished adding something to one of the plates, he looked up at her.

His eyes were so incredibly, beautifully blue and the intensity of his gaze burnt through to her core.

"Good morning, my beautiful Elena." He whispered in her ear before placing a chaste kiss on her cheek. He ushered her to the breakfast bar, placing a plate of pancakes in front of her and a strong cup of coffee, "You're just in time."

The pancakes were amazing, melting in her mouth. He watched her eating more than he ate his own, his eyes blazing with the same intense affection he'd looked at her with last night.

She should count herself lucky it wasn't the look that made her want to melt into a puddle. This time his gaze made her feel strong, like she could fight anything, tackle the whole big bad world.

Finishing her last bite, she decided to try and check in with that big, bad, real world. She hadn't checked her phone since before they'd eaten last night, and she was sure there'd be at least 5 texts from Caroline in that time.

More, if Bonnie had told her that she was spending the night away with Damon.

Elena almost winced as she checked her phone, it was worse than she thought. 5 missed voicemails. Over a dozen texts. Surprisingly, they weren't all from Caroline.

Uh-oh.

X-x-x-x

He was washing the dishes when he heard her whisper his name.

He was instantly beside her, reading the messages. Well, it seemed his brother was home, and he was certainly making an impression. A quick look at his phone revealed a similar abundance of notifications.

Wrapping one arm around her and placing a quick kiss on the side of her forehead, he dialled Ric first.

There was no way Bree would be awake at this time, even with the drama currently going down in Mystic Falls.

"Ric, I heard you have an impending crisis."

"Why the fuck have neither of you been picking up, man? The only reason Jenna agreed to not drive down there was we might lead the bitch to you!" Ric was definitely awake and pissed. He clicked the phone to speaker and placed it on the coffee table in front of them.

"Sorry, Ric. We were busy, important journal hunting business." He paused to wink at Elena, making her blush, "Care to fill us in on all the fun we've missed?"

"I never thought I'd say this Damon, but your brother is more of an ass than you." Damon grinned.

"I've been saying this for decades, but why exactly this time?" He probed, his fingers starting to tap on his knee. He needed the details and Ric wasn't getting to the point quite as quickly as desired.

"He turned up last night. Jenna's place first, but we turned him away. Jeremy and Anna found him at the boarding house when he got back. He was apparently ranting and raving about Elena having just been there, how she was scared of you, how she'd told him you planned to kill Isobel."

He deliberately kept his reaction measured, calm, his decades of practice with a poker face being put to good use. If his brother thought he had seen Elena last night, the poor fool was sorely mistaken. He had suspected she would go for Stefan, that's why he'd needed him back. They needed to be protected, working together.

Damon had thought he had weeks, at least, before she appeared. He could stall the likes of John Gilbert and Isobel Fleming that long, he'd believed.

Time enough to convince Stefan that they could work together, that he wasn't inherently evil.

As she had been 165 years ago, Katherine was always a step ahead. Damn her.

"Where is he now?" He looked up to the ceiling in a silent prayer as he awaited the answer. If he'd gone after her, Damon had no idea how to win this game she was playing. If he'd stayed, listened to reason perhaps he had the chance.

"Anna snapped his neck; Jeremy dosed him with vervain. He's in the basement."

Thank fuck for that.

"Can you make sure he's guarded all the time? Send the message around, nobody speaks to Elena unless she's holding my hand. Got it?"

Elena reached out and squeezed his hand in that moment, as if it was a command to her.

"Got it."

"We'll be back this evening. Elena will be staying with me." He hung up at that. If Jenna or Ric disliked it, he didn't care.

She was his.

x-x-x-x

Caroline woke up that morning and instantly checked her phone. Still no news from Elena. Her patience was starting to wear very, very thin. Instead of trying to contact Elena again, she sent Bonnie a text. Neither would be awake yet, but at least Bonnie would respond later.

Today would be a good day, regardless.

Tyler had walked her home last night, leaving her ridiculously hot and bothered with his good night kiss. They'd sat and laughed for hours, sharing stories from school, various trips with their parents, even little-known anecdotes about their friends. She hadn't felt so comfortable just talking for so long, nobody else had ever wanted to listen.

She hadn't expected Tyler to be so open, but perhaps he was open because she'd already seen the worst? He hadn't mentioned his father once, not since that night.

Today, she was going to make him her official boyfriend. She would be no Viki Donovan.

Luckily, Tyler would be one of the few teenagers in Mystic Falls actually awake so early this morning. He liked a morning run, so she was planning on surprising him with bagels when he returned.

It didn't take long to prepare, ensuring she was in her most 'Date me' outfit, her hair curled at the ends and her lipstick the perfect shade of pink to be kissed. Driving over to the Lockwood mansion, she did feel a wave on anxiety.

What if he didn't want her?

What if he laughed in her face?

No, that wouldn't happen. She told herself off for being insecure as she drove, listing out loud all the reasons she would be a spectacular girlfriend. By the time she pulled up, she was determined to make today and amazing day.

She had timed it perfectly; as she stepped out of her car, Tyler appeared over the hill. He had to run along the tree line and around to her, so she had a few moments to appreciate his arms- he was running in a sleeveless vest.

Moments after he appeared, a taller figure appeared running behind him. The figure, much more muscular, and with a mop of curly hair, sped into a sprint as he rounded the hill. Racing Tyler across the grass at the edge of the tree line, the stranger sped ahead.

He came to a stop a few feet from Caroline, his hands resting on his knees as he panted. He looked familiar, but she couldn't place him. Seconds later, Tyler arrived, gently slapping his fellow runner on the shoulder.

"Morning Caroline. Have you met my uncle?" Caroline smiled weakly at the runner and extended her hand.

His was hot and sweaty, even though he'd wiped it on his shorts before greeting her.

"Mason Lockwood, a pleasure to meet you." His smile almost matched Tyler's, slightly lopsided and completely genuine. Caroline tried to focus her eyes on that smile, so she wouldn't stray to his ridiculously muscular arms. Seriously? How did that guy get so trim?

"Caroline Forbes." She responded properly, her intonation and expression perfected through hours of practice at every town event.

"Liz's daughter?" He asked, and she nodded.

"Caroline is my girlfriend, Mason." Tyler said, placing a sweaty kiss on her cheek.

Did he really just say that? She'd been ready to batter her eyelashes, hint until the cows came home, or simply just ask him bluntly. She hadn't needed to. She felt her cheeks flush red.

"Nice to meet you, Caroline." Mason nodded at her, before disappearing into the house. She tried really, really, hard to not picture him going to get a shower.

Instead, she focused on the image of Tyler doing the same. He really needed to; she could smell him from a foot away. Perhaps post-workout bagels weren't the wisest choice?

x-x-x-x

They started in her parent's bedroom, as she had suggested. They'd opened all the cupboards and drawers first even though neither of them expected it to be that easy. The room at the back of the clinic basement had been well hidden, they expected something similar here.

Then, they'd tested every floorboard, every wall panel. They'd eventually found it, behind the back wall of the closet. Damon had lifted the wood off the wall, revealing a hidden storage room.

Her eyes had almost popped out of head. The walls were lined with stakes, crossbows, every conceivable manner of killing a vampire. Her mind could not put the image in front of her into her parent's bedroom.

Miranda and Grayson Gilbert had been the most supportive parents, always telling her and Jeremy they could be anything- do anything. Months ago, she would have guessed they would have even supported her choosing anyone at all to be her partner.

This though, this was the closet of murderers.

Then again, her instinct when seeing it had been to hold a murderer's hand. God, her life was messed up.

Damon had kept a tight hold of her as they had slowly emptied the shelves. They'd found a dozen journals easily but had started with one of the oldest. Jonathan Gilbert's.

"Anything?" Damon asked an hour later. They were sitting on the floor of her parent's bedroom. For some reason, they'd migrated there, propped up against the wall as they investigated their discover- Elena reading as Damon played with the mechanism of each new weapon discovered.

About 10 minutes in, he had accidentally triggered a small stake to shoot through his own hand. Some wrist based spring-loaded design. Elena had panicked instantly, but he had just pulled it out and grinned at her, licking the wound. After she watched it heal, she kissed the perfect skin of his palm.

Her man was indestructible.

"There's nothing about the device in this one, he's talking about a special type of vampire. The originals?" She frowned at the pages, trying to decipher the traditional scrawl her ancestor wrote in.

Damon made a sound, blowing air through his lips. "I've heard rumours, but I've never met any. I think it's more of a vampire fairytale."

Elena shook her head. Everything else she'd read so far; she knew to be true. Why would there suddenly be fantasy mixed with fact?

"An original vampire can only be killed by the wood from one tree, the white oak. When that tree burned, all hope was thought to be lost." She paused, reading on, "But witches saved the ash, and bonded it to a dagger. The dagger can be used to kill an original but must be brandished by humans for it brings death to any demon who wields it."

At that, Damon spun around, grabbing the book, and reading it for himself.

"As long as the dagger stays in place, the original is to all intents and purposes dead." Damon read aloud.

"Why did Johnathan Gilbert know this?" She mused, more to herself than to him.

He was re-reading the passages. Flapping through the pages, "I don't know."

x-x-x-x

His first thought was that his neck was stiff. Then he felt the hard stone wall behind him and opened his eyes to the familiar cold, damp cellar room.

How had he ended up here?

Stefan had no recollection beyond Jeremy and Anna entering the boarding house. He knew he'd tried to get past them, tried to get to Elena even though she'd already left.

He remembered seeing her car, having hope she was nearby. Telling Anna and Jeremy that as Anna grabbed him and then… then he had woken up.

Has Anna snapped his neck?

Trying to make sense of the events, a voice spoke.

"Wakey-wakey," Her face appeared at the bars. It wasn't the face he was hoping to see, her wild hair framing elegant features. He hadn't seen Bree in years.

"Bree. Why am I being held prisoner in my own home?" He asked, his voice rumbling as he didn't bother to conceal his anger.

The corner of her mouth lifted. "We thought it was safest, until you are fully aware of the situation."

He was fully aware all right; Elena had told him everything his brother was planning. Bree was likely helping him. He'd always liked Bree; she'd met Lexi and him once when she'd come looking for Damon. Damon, being Damon, had left her with no word and she'd wanted to check he was okay.

Of course, Stefan had no clue where he was. Lexi her persuaded her to stay for a while though and they'd had a fun few weeks sharing their best Damon anecdotes. Even he had to admit that Bree stood up to his brother, her stories of Damon always sounded like a very different person to his own.

It was probably all a sign of Damon's top-class acting, especially after his latest stunt.

Stefan couldn't help but kick himself, he'd trusted his brother to leave town. What a fool he was.

"I've been updated on the situation, Bree. My brother is tormenting my girlfriend." He growled.

Bree laughed, "Wow, she really did a number on you, didn't she?"

"Elena didn't do anything to me, she has nothing to do with this." He raced to the bars, his hand reaching through them for the witch. He was hungry, having healed his broken neck, and he wasn't in the mood for this discussion.

A sharp pain reverberated in his skull, causing him to fall to his knees.

"I couldn't agree more." Bree smiled through the bars, as he held his head in his hands.

x-x-x-x