Elena trailed behind Jenna and Jeremy as they stepped into the lavish living room of the Salvatore Boarding house. She felt a surge of resentment and anxiety in her chest. She hated being here, especially with Jenna and Jeremy in tow. She wanted to keep them out of this mess, this dangerous world of vampires, werewolves, and witches. But Damon had ignored her wishes once again and summoned all three of them, claiming it was urgent to talk about the whole moonstone/doppelganger/sacrifice situation. That was what Stefan had told her, anyway, when he had delivered the invitation that morning at school. Right after he had rejected her plea to move the stone from the entrance of the tomb so that she could confront Katherine.

Anna had turned her down too, when she had asked for her help, after Stefan had refused. She hadn't bothered to seek anyone else's assistance. She knew that if Stefan and Anna had said no, it was unlikely that anyone else would say yes. Damon would probably have said no just to spite her, she thought with a bitter huff. He had probably told Jenna about vampires for the same reason, not because he cared about her safety like he had claimed.

She was taken aback by the number of people who were gathered in the living room when they walked in. She had expected it to be just Damon, Stefan, and the three of them. As her eyes scanned the crowd, she felt a jolt of surprise to see Sheila there, conversing with Pearl and Maggie, with a friendly smile on her face. Elena had gotten the impression that Bonnie's grams despised vampires, so seeing her mingle with them so cordially was a shock. Mason Lockwood was there too, chatting with Enzo.

Mason had come to rescue her from Elijah, though no one had offered an explanation for that, so she supposed he wasn't that much of a surprise either. The real surprises were Tyler and Caroline sitting on either side of Maya, Elena could see a teasing smile on Caroline's face as she said something to Tyler. Something that sent Maya into a fit of giggles, that drew a fond look from both of them as well as Bonnie and Anna, who were sitting with them. Elena had no idea why Caroline or Tyler were here. Neither of them knew about the supernatural. Did they?

Jeremy didn't appear at all surprised by the people gathered in the room, as he went to sit down next to Anna, throwing greetings at the others, like he had just expected that they would be here. Elena frowned at him. Had he been keeping secrets from her? Did he know something she didn't? And if he did, why hadn't he said a word to her. Jenna just seemed to accept them all being present as well, walking over to join Enzo and Mason.

Elena traipsed uncertainly across the room towards her friends. She didn't miss the encouraging look that Bonnie and Tyler sent at Caroline as she approached. Nor the apprehensiveness that marked Caroline's face. It was clear to her that they both knew something she didn't. Even clearer that Maya, Anna, and her own brother were aware of it to. She glanced over her shoulder at Stefan, and could see in his eyes, that whatever it was, he knew it as well. His gaze was fixed on Caroline, with the same encouragement that Bonnie and Tyler were giving her.

A small, uncomfortable part of her was jealous, that he had never looked at her like that. That he knew something about her best friend that she didn't. Hell, she was jealous of all of them, except Bonnie, she'd thought she was closer to Caroline than the rest of them. Yet they'd all been told something that she hadn't, something Caroline was clearly unsure about telling her.

"Hey guys?"

She couldn't help but make what should have been an ordinary greeting sound like a question. A dozen questions really. Why are you here? What's going on? What don't I know? Why does everyone else know but me? Bonnie, her closest friend in the world, the one person she had never thought would keep a secret from her, though evidently, she had, patted the space next to her.

"Hey Elena, have a seat."

A soft flurry of greetings followed Bonnie's words. Caroline, Tyler, Anna, and Maya, all offering her some form of hello as she sat down. Stefan ruffled Maya's hair and sat down on the other side of Caroline, and Elena was forced to supress another flash of jealousy. Caroline was dating Matt, at least Elena thought she was, and Stefan was just a friend, even if she wanted more.

"Hey Elena." Caroline was the last to speak, smiling shyly at her.

"Hey Caroline."

"Before… Before we get started with what Damon wants to talk about. I wanted to tell you… I…I've…" Maya and Stefan each took one of Caroline's hands, giving her the courage to continue. "I'm a vampire. After the car crash Damon gave me his blood and I was healed, but then I died, when –"

Caroline kept on talking, but Elena didn't hear a word of it. Caroline was a vampire. Her best friend was a vampire. Had been a vampire for almost a month and was only now telling her about it. Elena had been against Damon giving Caroline his blood for this very reason. Because of what it might do to Caroline, but she'd been overruled and now Caroline was a vampire. Even worse, they'd hidden it from her. Everyone had known but her.

"Elena?"

"Damon did this to you."

Elena didn't take in the various reactions her words caused. Didn't see the hurt on Caroline's face. The frown on Bonnie's. The way Anna and Jeremy both shook their heads at her. The anger in Stefan's eyes, or the absolute fury in Tyler and Maya's. Too caught up in her own thoughts, to register even a hint of anyone else's.

"If he hadn't given you, his blood."

"Then what Elena?" Caroline snapped out, surprising her. "Or didn't you listen to a word I just said."

That jolted her out of her own head, and see the way everyone was regarding her. Even the adults were looking in their direction, surprise, and concern on their faces, having heard Caroline's outburst.

"Care…" Elena attempted to placate her friend.

Caroline wouldn't listen though, standing up and storming out of the room. Stefan immediately followed, as did Tyler after pausing just long enough to shoot Elena an absolutely murderous look. Maya was staring at her, her normally blue-green eyes looked like chips of ice right now.

"Are you really such a horrible person that you'd rather Caroline be dead instead of a vampire."

Elena was taking aback by the absolute venom in Maya's tone and the hateful look in her eyes that didn't once look away from Elena's. Not until she stood up and stormed out after Caroline and the others, throwing a single parting word at Elena.

"Kjerring!"

Given the way Maya spat that word at her, she didn't think it was at all complementary. Anna and Jeremy were both frowning at her, and Bonnie looked angry, not as angry as Tyler and Maya had been but still angrier than she had ever been at Elena before.

"Seriously Elena. Caroline died! She was murdered in her hospital bed and if Damon hadn't given her his blood, she'd be dead right now. Really, truly, dead." Bonnie shook her head, "How could you say that to her?"

"Bon, I –"

"Save it Elena, I need to make sure Caroline's okay. 'Cause right now, she's the one who needs me. Not you."

With that, Bonnie too got up and left the room. Leaving Elena behind, feeling small and alone. She hadn't meant to imply that she preferred Caroline gone than as a vampire. She'd just been surprised and maybe a little angry that they'd all been keeping secrets from her.

"Well, that went well." Anna commented snidely.

Elena shot her an angry look, but didn't otherwise respond, Anna wasn't technically wrong. The only way that could possibly have gone worse, was if she'd gone straight to the Sheriff screaming vampire. She needed to apologise to Caroline, explain that she hadn't meant it the way it sounded. She stood up, planning on seeing if she could find Caroline and try and talk to her, but before she could Damon walked in followed by someone Elena was shocked to see.

"You." It came out barely above a whisper, as she stared at the vampire in fear.

Rose bit her lip looking slightly guilty as she offered Elena a small wave. Damon meanwhile was looking around the room, and immediately noticing that a third of its occupants had disappeared.

"What happened?"

"The reveal didn't go so well." Maggie said, entering the room behind Damon. Elena hadn't even noticed her leave.

"Caroline is upset. The others are with her." Maggie continued, turning her head towards Elena, a hard look in her eyes. "I suggest you give her some time to calm down before you apologise, Miss Gilbert."

Elena felt a rush of guilt at Maggie's words and nodded her head. She would hear whatever Damon wanted to say, and then she would apologise to Caroline. She lowered her eyes when Jenna shot her a hard look, they'd been clashing a lot lately. Ever since Damon had told her about vampires and Jenna had confronted them with their lies. Her more than Jeremy, since she'd been keeping it a secret longer. Elena had a feeling that her argument with Caroline was just going to be another thing for them to clash over.

"What's going on Damon?" Jenna asked. "Does this have something to do with Elena being kidnapped Sunday night?"

"Yes. Actually, this has everything to do with that."

"Am I going to need a drink for this conversation?"

"Probably." Damon admitted, immediately pouring her a glass of scotch, and handing it over.

"So. Elena was kidnapped because she's a doppelganger of Katherine Pierce." Damon said jumping right into it.

"This is about the sacrifice, right?" Elena jumped in before Damon could say anything else. "About the 'curse of the sun and the moon?'"

"What sacrifice?" Jenna demanded, "What curse?"

Damon sighed, looking irritated at the bombardment of questions before he'd even had a chance to explain.

"If everybody could listen while I explain and save questions till the end I would appreciate it, immensely." He said giving them both a hard look until they'd settled back down.

"Okay. So, first things first. 'The curse of the sun and the moon', it's fake, a bedtime story made up to give baby vampires and werewolves hope, or a legend that contains a single grain of truth to it."

Elena opened her mouth, prepared to bombard him with questions about how he knew this, but shut it again with a snap when he sent a sharp look her way.

"There is a curse, but it's on a single person, not two species." He took a sip of his own drink and began.

"Okay. So roughly 1500 years ago a powerful witch died and as she died, she cursed the people who'd killed her to turn into wolves on each full moon, binding the curse to their bloodlines. Passed down to each new generation and triggered if they ever caused the death of a human being, whether by accident or murder.

"Fast-forward half a millennium and another powerful witch had an affair with a werewolf that resulted in a child. Being married at the time, she pretended that the child was her husband's son, a lie that she was able to maintain up until she turned her children and husband into vampires. The first of their kind. Unfortunately, being the first they had no-one to teach them how to control the bloodlust and so her werewolf son killed for the first time and triggered his curse. Becoming a hybrid, both a werewolf and a vampire.

"Her husband upon discovering this was enraged by her betrayal and forced her to bind her son's werewolf half. Making him nothing more than a vampire. Using the blood of a doppelganger, an ancestor of you and Katherine, she bound the curse within a moonstone. According to what we know right now, the only way that Klaus can break the curse that binds him is to sacrifice the doppelganger, along with a werewolf and a vampire."

"Klaus?" Elena asked, seeing that Damon had finished his story.

"The Original vampire, who's also a werewolf, or will be of he can break the curse."

"How do you know all this?" Elena asked, looking at Rose, had she told them.

Rose shook her head in response to Elena's unasked question.

"No. I didn't tell them any of this. I didn't even know most of this, I always thought the 'curse of the sun and the moon' was the real deal."

"How we know doesn't matter." Damon said.

"Uh, yeah. It kind of does." Elena retorted. "How do I know what you're telling me is true, it could just be another legend, like the 'curse of the sun and the moon' supposedly is."

"It's very very real Elena."

"What are you doing about it?" Jenna asked, interrupting the comeback Elena was about to spit at Damon. "You said according to what we know right now. Which means you think there's a chance it's wrong or that there might be another way to break the curse."

"We have the moonstone, and some very knowledgeable people that I trust implicitly are examining it to see if the curse can be broken without having to sacrifice anyone." Damon answered, complete sincerity in his tone.

Elena wanted to scoff. Just because Damon supposedly trusted these people didn't mean they were actually trustworthy. Jenna and Jeremy were both nodding however, clearly relieved by Damon's promise and putting their faith in him and it.

"In the meantime." Damon added, "You all need to be careful about who you invite into your house, any new people that show up. We don't know what the Originals look like and just because we were able to rescue Elena yesterday, doesn't mean we'd be able to pull the same trick off twice."

Elena did scoff this time. It was clearly a royal 'we' Damon was using, since he'd played no part in rescuing her. Jenna shot her another look and Elena subsided sulkily.

"Thank you, Damon, for telling us this. Thank you all for what you did for Elena yesterday. We will be careful, all of us. I promise."

Elena was about to ask more questions when the others returned. Caroline walking into the room flanked by Bonnie and Stefan, a clear look of hurt in her eyes, that sent another jolt of guilt through Elena. Tyler and Maya followed just behind. Maya was still glaring angrily at Elena, but Tyler had his arm wrapped around the younger girls shoulder and was speaking to her. Too quietly for Elena to pick any of it out, but whatever he was saying was clearly keeping Maya from lashing out at her again.

"Care… I'm sorry. What I said, it came out wrong. I wasn't trying to say I thought it would be better if you were dead. I just… I'm sorry."

Caroline offered her a tremulous smile in return.

"I know."

"Forgive me?" Elena asked.

"It hurt Elena, what you said, and I know you didn't mean it, and I do forgive you. I just need some time, okay?"

Elena held her gaze for a moment, before dropping her eyes and nodding. She couldn't deny that it hurt that Caroline hadn't forgiven her immediately, but she'd hurt Care first, and given what her words had implied, probably a lot worse. Elena could wait for however long it took for her friend to forgive her.

She was momentarily distracted when Rose's phone rang. She headed away from everyone else as she answered it, but by the looks on all the vampires, plus Mason's faces, they could hear every word that was being said. Elena wondered if Mason was a vampire as well, maybe that was why he'd been there yesterday. She didn't ask, figuring she'd messed up enough already today with Caroline's reveal. She did notice the frowns that flickered across several faces, presumably at whatever was being said on the phone call. Jenna stood up, putting her glass down.

"Thanks Damon. We should go home. Please let us know if you find anything else out."

"It's a promise" Damon replied.

Elena reluctantly followed him and Jenna out of the room, after offering a quiet goodbye to everyone else. Jeremy said his own, much more normal goodbyes and also followed them, accepting the car keys from Jenna when he offered to drive them all home, since Jenna had drunk the scotch. It was a silent drive, each of them lost in their own thoughts, each of them considering what they had learned.