Disclaimer: I only own my OCs

A/N: Welcome to Season 2! Aka the season where the author tortures Alexa lol This season will be a bit more angstier than season 1, however it all works out well in the end, I promise :) I hope this lives up to the expectation and that you all enjoy!

XXX

So, where was I? Oh yeah, I remember, noise in kitchen, Gilbert twins investigate.

I was curious as to what the noise was. Maybe Aunt Jenna had finally decided that Uncle John was worth the murder charge. Because if that were the case, I would so give her an alibi. As you could probably tell, I was still pretty angry at my Uncle Who Isn't Really My Uncle But Is Actually My Birth Father John.

What he did was just... it was indescribable. Like he claimed that he loved us and wanted to protect us, and then he tried to kill people that we care about. My feelings towards him had always been complicated. Now even more so. The real question for me was: do I forgive him? He was family, which meant that I would normally forgive him in the end. But after what he did? After he tried to take Stefan from Elena? After he tried to take Damon from me? I don't know if I could forgive that. Or if I even wanted to.

I followed Elena around the corner into the kitchen, only to see Uncle John lying in a pool of his own blood. It took a second for the scene in front of me to register.

"Uncle John!" I gasped, my eyes widening in shock, as my sister gasped out a shriek next to me. I just, sort of, froze. Blood. He was bleeding. Oh sweet jesus why was he bleeding?

Fortunately, Elena had a bit more sense. She grabbed my arm and pulled me forward as she rushed to Uncle John's side. I dropped to my knees beside the bleeding man and flapped my hands over him in panic. There was just so much blood. It was everywhere. The floor, there were streaks on the cupboards next to him. It dripped down from the kitchen island. The noise echoed in my ears as Ellie took charge of the situation

"What do we do?" I rasped, fighting back tears as I looked at Elena. "What do we do? What do we do?"

My shock was making me useless. After everything that I had been through today, almost losing Damon, this was just the cherry on the top of the cake. A bleeding Uncle slash Birth Father was the last damn thing that I needed.

Ellie threw a white towel at me as she rushed to get the phone. Right, put pressure on the wound, try and stop the bleeding. That was a sensible idea. And it gave me something to do instead of just flapping.

"Don't you dare die on me!" I whispered to Uncle John as I pressed the towel onto his wound. "Not now. Not today."

The once white towel was quickly stained red. Red with blood.

"Hi, I-I need an ambulance to, uh, 2104 Maple Street," Ellie spoke into the phone, panic clear in her tone as she looked down at us.

I pressed down harder on the wound, grimacing as blood seeped through the towel and covered my hand. John slowly lifted his hand and placed it over mine. It was then that I noticed that three of his fingers were missing. It took all of my willpower to not throw up.

"You're gonna be fine. You're gonna be fine. You're gonna be fine," I chanted quietly as I couldn't stop staring at the bloody stumps. They oozed blood all over my hands but I didn't shrug it off. I got the feeling that John needed that contact. And my hands were covered in blood anyway, what was more blood to add to the situation?

John's mouth moved, but I couldn't hear what he said. He closed his eyes and swallowed loudly, fighting to stay conscious as he repeated himself. But it was still too quiet. I exchanged glances with Elena before leaning in closer, "Huh?"

"Behind you!" the man spoke louder, the effort leaving him gasping for breath.

Ellie spun around with a gasp, using one hand to make sure that I was safely behind her.

But there was no one there.

Ok, deep breaths, no need to freak out.

Too late.

I saw my twin grab the bloody knife off the floor and stand up. I knew that she would tell me to stay with John so I decided to act first. As much as my uncle needed me, I needed my sister more. And I couldn't let her go investigate on her own. God knows what was in this house and I needed to make sure my twin was safe.

"Don't move," I said to John before getting to my feet and clinging onto Ellie's back. The blood on my hands quickly stained her top but I didn't care. I needed that physical contact and if that meant her top was ruined, then tough shit.

"Don't you dare leave me alone," I whispered in her ear as I slowly eased to her side. Ellie nodded before taking one of my hands in hers, holding the knife out with the other. The sight of John's blood covering it made me feel ill but I focussed on the potential danger instead.

We slowly walked into the hallway, our eyes anxiously scanning the area. My heart pounded and my hands shook as my breath rasped in my throat. It made sense that this was the thing that attacked John. And after the way it brutalised him, then we were definitely fucked. The only saving grace was that the police would soon arrive with the ambulance.

Someone vamp ran behind us, making me scream and spin around. Elena turned with me, brandishing the knife wildly. I took a step forward, tugging on Ellie's hand and pulling her with me.

I knew that us being together wouldn't stop a vampire if it wanted to attack. But maybe, just maybe, it would give us the opportunity to stop it. A fools though? Perhaps, but it kept me from freaking out about the threat to my sister. And if she was by my side, then at least I could protect her. I could use my body to slow down the attacker while she escaped.

The sound of a vampire running and the front door slamming had us, once again, spinning around. Well... at least the vampire was no longer in the house. But...

Ellie and I looked at each other, eyes wide as the exact same thought hit the both of us at the same time.

"Jeremy!" we both exclaimed in unison before racing for the stairs. I took the lead, fear for my baby brother causing me to run faster than I have ran in a helluva long time. Today had been such a shitshow. And the thought of losing my brother made my heart clench. He needed to be safe. It was my job to protect the kid and if he was hurt in my own home, then I would have failed spectacularly.

I burst through the door to Jeremy's room and fell onto the bed.

He was unconscious.

"Jeremy?!"

"Jeremy!" Elena appeared by my side as I grabbed his head and turned it towards us.

"Wake up, Jeremy! Wake up!"

"You have to wake up!"

"Please, baby brother, wake up."

I shook his body, hoping, wishing to get a reaction. Any reaction. I just needed him to move. To do something. Not just lie there.

Just as I was about to lose hope, Jeremy woke with a gasp. It scared the life out of me but it eased my heart. He was alive.

"Jer!" I cried out in relief, pulling him into my arms and squeezing him tight. Ellie's arms encircled the both of us as she tucked her chin on my shoulder.

He was alright. My brother was alright.

XXX

Even when the ambulance arrived, I didn't let go of Jeremy. I just tightened my grip on him and rested my head against his. He was tucked protectively against my body, my chin digging into his head as I periodically squeezed him tighter to myself.

Uncle John's blood was still on my hands. Dried blood was not a nice thing to have on you. Especially when it belonged to your uncle who was really your birth father. But I was too worried about letting Jeremy out of my sight to go and wash it off.

"Don't you ever ever scare me like that again," I whispered into his hair as I felt his heartbeat in his chest. Jer didn't verbally answer; instead, he curled his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. "Too many people have almost died on me today, I don't need you dying too."

Ellie paced the room in front of us but she glanced up at my words. Today hadn't turned out how anyone had expected. But I think this was the last straw for both of us. Jeremy was just too precious and he needed to be protected. To find him unconscious like that was horrific. Jeremy's explanation was even more horrific. He actually wanted to turn into a vampire. If it didn't involve him dying, then I would respect his choice. But the thought of my baby brother being dead just killed me.

My mind wandered back to earlier that evening, to when Damon was in that burning building. The thought that I might lose him, the pain that it caused, it was almost as bad as the pain that I felt when Luke died. Damon had become as important to me as Luke had been. Maybe even more important, which was just insane.

Stefan walking into the room shook me from my thoughts.

"He said that Anna gave him some of her blood and then he took these pills," Elena was explaining to him. "And now..."

"He looks alright to us," I picked up when Ellie trailed off. "But on the other hand, so do you and all of the other vampires that we know. So we just..."

"Don't know," my twin sighed as she looked sadly at her boyfriend.

Stefan nodded, glancing between me and my twin, before kneeling down in front of Jeremy. He took my brothers face in his hands and stared intently into his eyes. If it wasn't such a serious moment, I would've made some sort of comment about that. But like I said, it was too serious a moment.

Jeremy tried to pull away as Stefan stared intently at him.

"Look at me," Stefan ordered him, gripping his face tighter as he examined him.

"I'm fine, okay?" Jer snapped, trying to shove the vampire away. "I feel exactly the same."

"Should I call a paramedic up here?" Elena asked, worry clear in her tone, as she looked at our brother. "What should I do?"

"Stefan, he's gonna be ok," I looked at the vampire as I squeezed my brother tighter to me. "Isn't he?"

"He's fine," Stefan reassured us with one of his serious nods. "He's fine."

"You mean I'm not a vampire?" Jeremy frowned before muttering, "Damn it."

"'Damn it'?" I repeated, moving so that I could look at my brother's face. "Don't... You... You don't say that! You don't get to say that!" I punched him in the arm before pulling him close again. "Don't you dare say that!"

"Why would you want that?" Ellie frowned sadly as Stefan stood up.

"Did you hear about Anna?" Jer retorted angrily, but the pain was clear in his voice. "What happened to her tonight?"

I ran my hand through his hair as my heart sank, "What happened?"

"She died," was the blunt answer.

Oh Jeremy.

As Ellie and I exchanged a sad look, Stefan must have realised something else as he quickly crouched down in front of the kid.

"Jeremy, I need you to listen to me very carefully, ok?" Stefan stressed in his most serious voice, once again taking Jer's face in his hands. "I am very sorry about Anna, but with every passing moment, Anna's blood is leaving your body. If you try and kill yourself right now, you could really die."

I really didn't like the thought of Jeremy, of my baby brother, dying. It hurt. The thought of my life without Jeremy, I just couldn't imagine it. He was my little brother, losing him...

No, that will never happen.

Never ever.

Jer stared at the vampire for a second before looking away.

"Hey!" Stefan barked, slapping Jeremy on the back of the head to get his attention again. "Do you understand me?!"

Gee whizz, forceful much?

I placed my hand on my brother's head, where Stefan had slapped him, and gently rubbed it as Elena warned the vampire from further Jeremy mistreatment.

"Yeah, I understand," the kid finally mumbled as he curled back into my side.

"Good," the vampire sighed, moving to stand next to my sister.

"What about the pills that he took?" Ellie frowned up at her vampire.

Yeah, that's a good question. A great question, actually. The kid had taken so many. How it didn't kill him, I will never know. It must have been luck or some guardian angel that protected him.

"He didn't take enough to die, so Anna's blood actually healed him," Stef explained, sliding an arm around Elena's waist. I, once again, rested my head against Jeremy's shoulder as there was a knock on the door. I closed my eyes and buried my face in his floppy hair. He was going to be okay.

"Miss Gilbert?" a voice asked from the doorway. I didn't bother opening my eyes to check. It was bound to be one of the deputies or paramedics that had swarmed the house earlier.

Uhhh, which one?

"We'll be right there," my twin answered the voice as she realised that I was too busy fussing over Jeremy. Oh, guess he means both of us then. Fair enough.

"You need to be at the hospital," Stefan said softly to Ellie as I finally opened my eyes.

"But-" Elena tried to argue, gesturing at Jeremy.

"No, no, I'll stay here with Jeremy," the vampire cut her off gently with a stroke on her cheek. "Just go with Alexa to the hospital."

Well, guess that I'm definitely going to the hospital then. Curses. I wanted to say here with Jeremy and try and find out why he thinks that becoming a vampire was a good idea.

"I don't need a babysitter," the teen next to me muttered petulantly.

"I disagree, dear brother," I snorted, raising an eyebrow and turning his face to me. "If anyone needs a babysitter right now, it's you."

I gave him a stern look before standing up and walking over to my twin.

I know that I sounded a bit… snippy. But the kid tries to turn himself into a vampire, which involves dying, and then has the audacity to say that he didn't need a babysitter. Boy, does that kid push buttons.

But I loved him. And I always would.

XXX

Once we got to the hospital, we immediately tracked down Bonnie. If anyone could tell us how Caroline was doing, it would be her. She had been here longer than us. And since the two boys were being checked out one last time, she was the one who had been getting updates on our dear blonde.

"Bonnie," Elena stated, catching the witch's attention as we approached. "How's Caroline?"

"She's weak," Bon-Bon answered, her voice thick with unshed tears. "They don't know if she's going to make it."

"What?" I breathed; eyes wide as my legs threatened to give out. No, not Caroline. She can't die. She was so vibrant and full of life, she deserved to live.

While I was in shock, Ellie was speechless. Ellie hadn't seen the ugliness of tonight like I had. She just saw how it affected the Salvatore's. I had been the devices impact on others. I had been saved by it. Bonnie had explained earlier that the device had affected Tyler, which was why he crashed the car.

Bonnie enveloped her in a hug as I took her hand and squeezed it. I could see the guilt written all over the witch's face as she tried to comfort Elena. Caroline was in the hospital because of the device. Because Bonnie didn't take the spell off of it. I made a mental note to speak to our friendly neighbourhood witch at some point.

"Is there something that you can do?" twin asked quietly as she pulled back from the hug. "Like a spell or something?"

"She doesn't know how," Damon Salvatore's voice sounded from behind me. "Do you?"

I glanced behind me to see Damon appear from around the corner. A slight smile formed on my face as he came to stop next to me, his arm brushing against mine.

"No, I don't," the witch reluctantly agreed through gritted teeth, giving Damon one of her more vicious looks.

"No, you don't because it took Emily years to learn a spell like that," the vampire elaborated on his point as he gently rested his hand on the small of my back. I rolled my eyes at the two as I unconsciously moved closer to the man. His very presence just comforted me. And I really, really needed that right now.

"Well, I can take down a vampire, that spell was easy to learn," Bonnie countered, crossing her arms.

Really guys?

Is this really the time to be doing this?

Let the egos fight later, we have a Caroline to save.

Damon stared at the witch for a moment before glancing at me and offering, "I can give Caroline some blood."

His thumb lightly stroked my back as he spoke. I shifted slightly so that my head rested against his arm. The first emotion that I felt was 'oh hell no!', but then I stopped and thought for a minute. That could… that could work. It would save her and she would be safe in the hospital while it left her system.

"Damon…" Elena started, a frowny look on her face as she thought of all the reasons why it was a bad idea.

"It would just be enough to heal her," the vampire cut her off, anticipating what she was going to say. "She will be safe in the hospital and it will be out of her system in a day, she'll get better Elena."

It is strange that I felt strangely… jealous… about the fact that Damon was giving Caroline his blood? Yeah, it is strange. Just… just ignore that. It's been a long day and I'm not thinking right.

"There's a big risk," Ellie spoke slowly, considering the offer. "I don't know… if we can… agree… to that."

"Do it," Bonnie ordered Damon confidently before looking at Elena. "This is Caroline. We can't let her die."

My twin nodded slowly as she considered her words.

"You would immediately do it if it was Alexa," Bon-Bon stated softly, glancing over at me as I nodded. Because I would immediately do it if it was Elena.

"If I do this," Damon cut in, stopping Ellie from speaking, giving Bonnie a look. "You and me, call a truce?"

"No," the witch replied with a sly look. "But you'll do it anyway." She glanced at me. "For Alexa."

Bonnie turned and walked away, leaving an awkward silence behind her.

Thanks Bonnie. Thank you so much. That was exactly what I needed right now.

Damon glanced at me. So I glanced at Elena. Elena glanced at Damon before glancing at me. I cleared my throat before glancing at an old man sleeping in one of the chairs.

"Soooo," I drawled uncomfortably, rocking back and forth on the heels of my feet as I just stared at the old man. "I'm gonna go find Tyler, see how he's doing."

I nodded once before leaving as quickly as possible without running.

Sorry Ellie, but you're gonna have to endure the awkwardness on your lonesome. Love ya though.

Facing Damon after Bonnie's statement? Not happening. We still had to discuss what happened earlier tonight, we didn't need Bon making it worse.

It didn't take me long to find my Tyler. He was sitting in one of the waiting rooms, staring morosely at the wall.

Oh Ty.

My heart broke as I saw a tear slowly trickle down his face. He quickly scrubbed it away but I had still seen it. I don't know what had happened to get this sort of reaction from him, but whatever it was, it was bad. Tyler hated showing emotion in public so for him to be crying? It was bad shit.

I slowly made my way over to the teen and sat down next to him.

"Alexa," Tyler greeted me, quickly wiping away another tear.

"Oh my darling Tyler," I sighed, placing my hand on his shoulder and gently turning his face to look at me. "What happened?"

"You mean other than the car crash?"

I ran my hand through his hair, "Yes, I mean other than the car crash." I paused for a second. "How are you, by the way? Were you hurt?"

He had told me that he was fine. But my dear brother, like all the other people that I care about, had an irritating habit of hiding his injuries. Not that I can comment on that, of course, as I tended to do the same. My neck being the most recent example.

Tyler caught my hands in his and avoided eye contact by looking at my cast.

"I'm fine, a bit of a headache, but other than that, I'm fine."

"Good," I sighed in relief. "Now, tell me what else happened."

The teen released my hands but turned around to face me. He pulled me closer and buried his head in my neck. Tyler's answer was muffled but I could still hear it.

"My dad died."

Oh sweet jesus.

Mayor Lockwood was dead?

How?

No, that's not the important part.

I wrapped my arms around Ty and pulled him closer. With my free hand, I ran my hand through his hair as I pressed his face closer.

"Oh, Ty, I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry."

I held my brother to me as he finally broke down.

While he may not have particularly liked his father, the man was his father, his parent, his dad. And, deep down, he loved him.

XXX

Elena's POV

I watched as Alexa bolted from the area as quickly as possible. I really needed to talk to her about her feelings for Damon. Everytime I tried, someone ended up interrupting us, be it Stefan or a tomb vampire trying to kill John.

"I know this is probably the worst time possible to have this conversation," Damon started to talk, drawing my attention from the door that Alexa disappeared through. "But we really need to talk about what happened tonight."

"Yeah, one of the tomb vampires got into the house and almost killed John," I frowned as I remember what had happened. Not only did that vampire try and kill John, but it threatened Alexa and Jeremy's safety. Which I was not happy about. We were supposed to be safe in our home. We had been so careful about inviting people in, it wasn't fair.

"What?" the vampire exclaimed in shock, his eyes widening. "When? What are you talking about? After I left?"

After you left? I wasn't even aware that you were there in the first place. I never saw you and I know that Alexa didn't, she was with me. After what happened, I refused to let her out of my sight. Especially since she was so determined to run into a burning building.

"You were there?" I questioned with a frown.

"Come on Elena, you know I was."

Now, was it just me, or is there a hint of anger in his tone? Whatever he thought happened, it wasn't good. And that meant that there was something else to add to the list.

"When were you at the house?"

"Really?" Damon snapped, making an effort to keep his voice down. "Earlier on the porch, we were talking, all cathartic, I exposed my feelings for your twin."

At my look of complete and total confusion, the vampire huffed before growling, "Come on, Elena, you kissed me."

What? He thinks that I did what? I would never hurt Alexa like that! Who did he think I was? Katherine?!

"Ok, I don't have time for this, Damon," I glared at the vampire, preparing to go and find my twin sister.

"If you want to forget what happened, fine, but I can't," he growled, grabbing my arm. "What happened was wrong."

"Damon, I would never kiss you. Or even think about kissing you. I would never hurt Alexa in that way."

Damon frowned in confusion and opened his mouth but was promptly interrupted by Aunt Jenna. She glared at him as he released my arm and moved away a couple of steps.

"Elena, I came as soon as I got your message," my aunt said, turning to look at me. "How is John?"

Instead of answering her question, I asked, "Where have you been?"

She wasn't at home, which is actually a good thing, but she hadn't left any notes telling us where she was. It was something that she had gotten into a habit of doing so that all of us, (mainly Alexa), knew what was happening. Especially with all the vampire drama in the town.

"At the fire department, I had to fill out a report," Aunt Jenna replied, confusion in her tone. "I told you earlier."

She couldn't have, I haven't seen her since before the vampire incident.

"No, you didn't," I told her.

"Yes, I did," she argued.

"No, Jenna, you didn't."

"Yes, I did."

Why would she think that? I know that she didn't tell me earlier, so why did she think that she did? There is no way that she could have gotten me and Alexa mixed up. My little twin had barely left my side since she saw that Damon was alive.

"Oh," Damon suddenly groaned, drawing our attention to him. "You've got to be kidding me."

Jenna and I exchanged glances before looking at him. Whatever he had figured out, he didn't like it.

The vampire looked at us, realising that he had spoken out loud. He looked at us before turning and stalking off. In the direction that Alexa had left in.

I needed to know what he had figured out so I turned to look at Aunt Jenna, "I'm going to go and find Alexa and take her home. Let me know if anything changes."

"I will," Jenna nodded, still looking in the direction Damon walked in. "Just get home and try to relax."

"I don't think that that will be possible," I stated dryly with a shake of my head. "Not with Alexa worrying about John and Caroline."

Despite how much she claimed not too, I knew that she cared a lot about him. Even if he did try and kill her Damon. She was very possessive over Damon. I don't think that she's even realised it. I only know that because I know her so well.

XXX

Alexa's POV

I was just sitting in the waiting room, on my own. Mrs Lockwood had taken Tyler home earlier. I had promised to be there to help at the Mayor's memorial. The Lockwood's were so organised, that they had plans in place for when a memorial service for one of them was needed. And as a way to battle her grief, Mrs Lockwood had put those plans in place.

Tyler had been there for me when I lost my parents and when I lost Luke. Now it was my turn to be there for him. I knew what it was like to lose a father, so I would do everything in my power to stop him from falling apart like I did.

That's what siblings do.

And now I'm getting all morose. Oh joy of joys.

I glanced up, startled, as Damon came bursting through the doors. Well, he seems to be in a hurry. Wonder where he's going.

Towards me, was the answer to that question.

He grabbed me the arm and pulled me up. I didn't bother putting up a fight. I was crashing from the adrenaline high that had kept me going all evening. The pain in my neck was growing with each swallow and all I wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be happening anytime soon. But it made it a bit easier to just go with the flow. Including when I was being directed somewhere by a disturbed vampire.

"Come on, we've got to go and see Stefan," he said as he pulled me from the room.

"But what about Ellie?" I protested as I let him pull me. I watched as Damon kept glancing around as we walked. Something had put him on edge which put me on edge. So I looked around for my sister before I went to dig out my phone. Only to remember that I had left it at home in my rush to check on John and Caroline.

"She'll be with us in a minute," the vampire answered distractedly as his grip switched from my arm to my hand. I frowned in confusion for a second before I heard my twin's voice behind me.

"Alexa! Damon!"

She soon appeared by my side, looking between us.

"Hey Elena," I quickly nodded at her before looking back at Damon. "Where are we going, again?"

"To see Stefan."

"So we're going home? Goodie, I think I left my phone there."

As I let Damon pull me along, I noticed that there was a strange sort of tension between my vampire and my twin. Hmmm, wonder what's going on there, then.

XXX

Damon barely spoke a word on the quick drive home. He was worried about something, that much I could tell. But whatever he was worried about was a complete mystery to me. And I didn't like that.

If something was bothering him enough for him to be visibly showing it, then it was bad bad juju. And the last thing that I wanted was more bad juju happening. I had almost lost Damon, Jeremy, Tyler, Caroline and John tonight, I didn't need anything else bad happening. Especially since my voice was slowly going and bad juju normally meant that I needed to yell.

We entered the house to see Stefan slowly pick himself up off of the floor.

Dude, I know that the floor's comfortable, but there's a time and a place for floor sleeping. And since you have no reason to wallow, you shouldn't even be on the floor. At least he didn't try and do it on the kitchen floor. No one was allowed to lay on it apart from me.

"Stefan?" Ellie frowned as she cautiously stepped forward.

"Elena," Stefan stated slowly, almost sounding uncertain that he was actually addressing my twin.

"Dude, what the hell happened?" I wondered aloud, carefully examining the mildly panicked look on his face.

"Katherine happened," Damon answered for his brother, causing me to look at him.

"Katherine?" I repeated incredulously.

My vampire nodded.

Well... crap... that little bitch was back.

XXX

I was in the kitchen, making myself a nice, hot, strong coffee while Ellie was speaking to Jeremy and Jenna upstairs. And before you say anything, the coffee was alcohol free. I was being a good little twin and hadn't drunk a drop of alcohol since me and Ellie made up.

I moved slowly, methodologically. I was still trying to absorb the information that Katherine was in town. It was... a lot to handle. I never thought that I would encounter her. A little naive, but it was wishful thinking.

After the revelation that my sister's lookalike was back in town, Elena had called Jenna home. When Jenna arrived, Ellie had quickly ushered her upstairs. I left Ellie in charge of telling the two about the Katherine situation. And judging from the exclamation from Jenna, Elena had also spilled the beans on Jeremy's little attempt to turn into a vampire.

"Did she say what she wanted?" Damon asked his brother from behind me.

Oh yes, forgot to mention, our Salvatore vampires were stood behind me in the kitchen. From what I could gather, they were giving each other looks and were trying to figure out the Bitcherine situation.

"No," Stefan answered sharply. What an informative answer, Stef, thank you so much. That's exactly what we needed right now, unhelpful answers.

"Woman certainly knows how to make an entrance," Damon spoke, a faint hint of admiration in his tone. And god I hated how that caused a spike of jealousy in me.

I snorted quietly into my coffee, "You can say that again."

"She said that she fooled one of us, at least. What does that mean?"

I perked up a bit at the question. As you could probably tell, I, too, was curious as to what the answer of that question was. How did Katherine fool Damon?

"She pretended to be Elena too, when she showed up earlier tonight," Damon answered vaguely. Seriously, are these two incapable of elaborating on their answers? Infuriating, it was.

What happened? What did Katherine the Bitch Who Was Pretending to be My Twin Sister do? Details, Damon, gimme details.

Just as I was about to open my mouth and demand more details, Elena walked into the room. I immediately walked over to her and gave her the coffee that I made for her. She accepted it and smiled gratefully at me.

"I told Jeremy and Jenna," she explained to the two vampires. "They needed to know, just in case Katherine tries to trick them too."

See, I already knew that she was doing that. I didn't need it explaining to me. I know my twin so well. Aren't I a good twin?

"How'd they take it?" I asked as I made myself another coffee.

"As well as can be expected," Ellie answered, sighing quietly.

It is a bit of a crazy thing to believe. A five hundred year old vampire who looks exactly like Elena can now get in the house and massacre everyone whenever she gets the fancy. I'm amazed that we haven't been locked up in a mental institute yet. Even Luke thought that we were ever so slightly bonkers, and he knew about the supernatural!

He he, Supernatural, supernatural. Get it? Hem hem, I should probably move on.

"Are you alright?" Stefan asked, walking over to my twin and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"No, I'm not alright," Elena answered with a frustrated sigh. Well, guess that's understandable. "I thought that with all the tomb vampires gone, things would get better."

"Oh Ellie," I sighed in agreement. "We all thought that."

"Katherine was in this house," is this going where I think it's going, "That means that she's been invited in," apparently yes, it is, and can I just say, oh snappturtles. Katherine being invited in was bad shit.

"So, the question is, what the hell are we gonna do?" I asked, looking at Damon. He was my go-to for answers and I knew that he wouldn't sugar-coat it.

"Move," he suggested, a small smirk dancing around his lips.

"Ha ha," I deadpanned and rolled my eyes. "Thank you for the very helpful suggestion."

My twin rolled her eyes at the pair of us and sat down at the dining table.

"Katherine wants you dead; there's zero that you can do about it; you would be dead, but you're not, neither of you are," my vampire remarked, suddenly deadly serious. Well, aren't you just a barrel of sunshine right now? Although, now that I think about it, perhaps that's a good thing. "So clearly she has other plans."

"Right," Stefan reluctantly agreed. Shocking, I know, the two Salvatore's agreeing on something. "We need to find out what those other plans are and not provoke her in the process."

Ohhh, but that's one of the best parts. Meanie Stefan. I wanted to provoke Katherine. She had caused so much misery to the ones I cared about, I wanted her to pay for it.

"What happened tonight when you thought that she was Elena?"

We all looked at Damon intently. I was especially curious. I wanted to know what Katherine had done with my Damon. He had been so reluctant to answer the question each time it had been asked. And that made me wonder how bad was it.

"To risk another frown line encroaching on a very crowded forehead," Damon started warily. "She..." He trailed off, glancing at me with an almost guilty look on his face. But that can't be right... can it? The vampire steeled himself before finishing, "She kissed me."

It felt as though all the breath had been knocked from my body. She kissed him? Katherine kissed him? I was so gonna stake that bitch. She was dead... well, deader than she already is.

A red hot pit of jealousy formed inside of me. How dare she! She had no right to kiss him. But what right did I have? What right did I have to be jealous? I had no right. Damon wasn't mine. Even if I wanted him to be, he wasn't. And he could kiss whoever he wanted to. Even if it was Katherine. Ugh.

"And you thought that it was me?" Ellie asked, sounding vaguely horrified. I knew that she would never do that to me. My twin understood my feelings for Damon better than I did. And she would never betray me like that.

"What do you mean 'she kissed you'?" Stefan asked, frowning deeply as he looked between his brother and his girlfriend. Ooh, lookie, a new frown line. Another one for the collection.

Damon had a cheeky look on his face as he answered, "Well, you know, when one set of lips puckers up and goes-"

The vampire then proceeded to make kissy noises.

How mature.

Stefan shot towards is brother in anger, using his vampire speed. But Damon was faster and blurred behind me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled my back against his chest, using me as some sort of human shield. It felt... right to be in his arms. I felt... safe. I didn't want to leave. God, what do I sound like? I drank my coffee to distract myself from those thoughts.

"Don't be obvious, Stefan," Damon warned his brother mockingly.

Silly Stefan went to try again, but Ellie immediately shot up from her seat to intercept him. She placed her hand on his chest to keep him in place before speaking.

"Stefan wait," she told him as I rested my head against Damon's strong chest. "Katherine kissed him, not me." She looked back at us, staring straight into my eyes. "I would never do that."

The unspoken words of 'not to you' ended that sentence. Ellie knew how I felt and I knew that she knew. My twin would never even consider kissing Damon as she knew that it would hurt me. Which is one thing that we promised to never do to each other. The twin code.

"We don't have time for this, guys," Elena took charge of the situation. It made sense as the two brothers were more concerned with getting pot shots in than actually working out the situation.

The two brothers glared at each other for a few seconds longer before they both looked at Elena. Isn't she such a good little leader? Even the two vampires are listening to her.

"John must know something," my twin tried to reason as she thought through the situation. Good logic there, twinnie. John was definitely involved in all of this bullshit. And he had managed to piss off Katherine enough that she wanted him dead.

"Yeah, he has to," I agreed with a nod. "There has to be some reason as to why Katherine tried to end his life."

And there's some good logic from me. Amazing, isn't it?

"She's Katherine," Damon stated with an eyeroll, as though that explained everything. Actually, thinking about it, it probably did. "She loves to play games and you're fooling yourself if you think that you're going to find out what she's been up to before she wants you to know."

She sounds like a clever little conniving bitch. Still hate her though. Don't admire her at all.

"No, actually, Elena's right," I cleared my throat, "Elena and Alexa are right." Thank you, Stefan. Much better. "John could know something through Isobel." Oh joy, bitch number 2. "Your mother, she was in touch with Katherine, so maybe we can go to the hospital and get him to talk."

She's not our mother, Stefan, she doesn't deserve that right. Not after what she did. She would never be our mother.

"I've got a better idea," Damon countered quickly as I began to shift uncomfortably at the mention of Isobel.

"Oooh, and what's that then?" I asked, twisting my head to look at his face. Damon had quickly distracted me from my thoughts on my birth mom.

"I'm just gonna ignore the bitch."

"Oooh, I really like that idea."

Sounded like a good idea to me.

"Is that smart?" Elena asked, shaking her head a little, but I could see the small smile on her face.

"If Katherine thinks that she's been ignored, then it will lure her out, she'll make a move."

Finally! Elaboration!

"Yeah? And then what?" Stefan challenged with a glare.

"Stake her, rip her head off, something poetic," Damon answered as he let go of me and started leaving the room. "We'll see."

"What about ripping her heart out?" I suggested as I followed the vampire from the room.

"Feeling a bit violent, are we?" Damon smirked at me as I joined him on the porch.

I shrugged, "Katherine's a bitch."

And she kissed my Damon.

I was incredibly... jealous... that she had kissed him. What right did she have to kiss him? She abandoned him. The little bitch. Hmmm, Queen Bitch...?

I allowed the small river of jealousy inside of me to plan out increasingly violent and poetic ways of killing Katherine.

Oooh, alliteration.

Kill Katherine. That would be an awesome movie. Maybe I should make it... I really hated Katherine. Like majorly hated her. God, the bitch tried to kill my birth father.

Bitch kissed my Damon.

Bitch was dead.

XXX

As I stared up at the night-sky and plotted Katherine's murder, I could feel Damon's gaze on me. I swallowed uncomfortably and refused to look over. While the warm coffee had helped to soothe my throat, it still hurt. And my voice still sounded wrecked. I was just lucky that no bruises had started to form.

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice that Damon had approached. He stood next to me, his arm brushing mine as he stared at me intently. I couldn't help but glance over at him. He gorgeous eyes captured mine and I was startled by how intense they were.

"Are you going to tell me what happened to your neck or am I going to have to ask?" he asked softly. His tone was dangerous in a way that I hadn't heard in a while.

Almost as though his words had commanded it, my neck started hurting even more. I couldn't help but raise a hand to gently stroke it, wincing at the pain.

"I was hoping that no one would notice," I admitted with a weak smile before I walked over to the porch swing. I sat down and rested my feet under me. I heard Damon sigh before he joined me. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into his side. I went willingly and curled up against his warmth.

"You did a good job at hiding it," he allowed me that much, "But I noticed you wincing at the hospital. And your voice sounds awful." He paused before sighing and stroking the hair from my face. "Plus you've been incredibly jittery, especially when someone unexpectedly comes near you."

Despite being annoyed at myself for failing to hide my injury, I couldn't help but feel warmed by Damon's words. He had noticed, despite me trying to hide it. No one else had noticed that something was wrong, not even Elena. She had bought my lie incredibly easily.

"After you warned us about the tomb vampires," I began to explain, keeping my voice low in an attempt to keep the pain at bay as much as possible. "I split from Ellie and Stefan to go look for Jeremy. I searched the Grill before going into the back alley. He cornered me there. I don't even know his name. But he attacked me. He didn't even try to bite me, just went straight to choking me after throwing me into a wall. Which hurt like a bitch but it'll be worse tomorrow."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Damon's voice was soft as he gently brushed away an errant tear. I hadn't even realised that I had been crying. So much had happened, I suppose I was allowed to have a little cry over it all.

I shrugged, "There were more important things to worry about. The vampire was taken down by the device and I assume that he's dead by now. So I would have just been worrying everyone over nothing."

"Alexa, you've been hurt," Damon's tone was gentle and his voice patient. "That's not nothing." He sighed before shifting away slightly. "Let me have a look."

I let Damon tilt by head back and examine my neck. I couldn't stop myself from hissing slightly as his careful fingers touched the sensitive skin. But that was the only pain. Damon was quick in his examination and he soon allowed me to return to my previous position.

"You should be fine, but just keep an eye on it," the vampire was quick to assure me. "Do you want some blood?"

I considered the offer. It would get rid of the pain. And my back wouldn't hurt in the morning from its collision with the wall. And I really hated how much my throat hurt right now. But I couldn't do it. It would heal my wrist too and I really didn't want to worry about explaining that to the doctor at my next check-up.

"Thanks for the offer," I made sure to give Damon a genuine smile. "But I'll be fine."

"As long as you're sure."

I nodded slowly as I rested more of my weight against Damon. I was so tired. Everything that had happened today had finally caught up to me. The attack, Damon nearly dying, Jeremy nearly dying, John's attack, Caroline's accident, Katherine's return; it was all catching up to me.

I was just about aware of Damon picking me up and the feeling of being moved. Ellie's voice rang out but it was quickly hushed by Damon. My eyes were so heavy and I was in that comfortable place between awake and asleep. Damon tucked me into bed before covering me with my blanket. I slurred out a thanks before sleep took me.

XXX

The day of the Mayor's wake.

I had managed to find some memorial appropriate clothing to wear. Amazing, I know. Unfortunately I didn't have any appropriate dresses that covered my neck. But I did manage to borrow one of Jenna's scarfs that was dark enough that I could wear it. I had covered as much bruising as I could with makeup but it wasn't enough. So a scarf was definitely needed.

It didn't take me long to find my Tyler. He was by the door, greeting the guests as they arrived. I was one of the first to arrive at the Lockwood house; I had even got up early for the event. Aren't I an amazing sister?

I was immediately pulled into a hug the moment Tyler saw me. I gently wrapped my arms around him and gave him a squeeze.

"Thanks for coming, Alex," he said softly when he pulled back enough that he could look me in the face.

I cupped his face and smiled, "There's no need to thank me, Tyler. You're my brother and I will always be here for you."

My brother shakily took a deep breath.

He had put his walls up again. There would be no outburst of tears from him, today. But then again, Tyler had never been as emotional as I was. I didn't even want to be as emotional as I was, but that was an annoyance to be dealt with on another day.

I supported Tyler as he greeted everyone who arrived. No one questioned my presence; I guess they were used to the fact that me and Tyler were besties. Tyler had been by my side when I had to go through this, it just made sense that I was by his side. Carol Lockwood was inside, trying to stop herself from falling apart. Liz Forbes had arrived a while ago with one of the Fell ladies and had ushered her aside to check on her.

"Do you even know who that guy is?" I asked as a dude with a wine glass walked away. The caterers and bar-staff had set up everything quickly and everyone had soon taken advantage. I had pinched a tea with honey from them soon after they arrived. I needed it for my throat. If it sounded like my voice was wrecked yesterday, then today it sounded like it had detonated. My voice rasped like I had a bad head-cold and it hurt like a bitch. Luckily I had a ready supply of cough sweets to suck on to soothe it as much as possible. And the honied tea helped too.

"Nope," Ty answered with a sad sigh. "I don't know who half these people are."

"I don't know who three quarters of these people are," I mused, watching the crowd. It made me wonder if people just turned up for the free food and booze. The vultures.

Oh look, there's Damon. Nope, gone again. My darling family had yet to arrive. Elena was with Stefan at the hospital, interrogating Uncle John on Isobel and Katherine. Jenna had wanted to use the time to have a chat with Jeremy regarding his sudden death wish.

"No way."

The sound of Tyler's shocked voice jolted me from my thoughts. I turned around to see a familiar jeep pulling into the Lockwood driveway.

"Are my eyes deceiving me?" I gasped as I took a step forward. There was no damn way that that man is here. Not after so long. We ignored the people around us as we watched the jeep park up and searched for any glance of the driver.

"So the black sheep returns," Tyler commented as Mason Lockwood got out of the jeep.

"Tyler?" Mason smiled as he walked up the steps.

"Yeah," Ty-Ty confirmed, wrapping an arm around my waist. This drew the older Lockwood's attention to me.

"Alexa?"

"The one and only," I smirked at the shock on his face.

"What happened to you two?" he asked as he looked between us. Nawww bless, I think we've shocked him. Served him right for being gone for so long. "You both look so grown up."

"That's because you haven't seen us in years, Uncle Mason," Ty retorted but it was clear to see how pleased he was to see his Uncle.

"Two years, to be exact," I added, just to be a little bitch.

The last time that we had seen was the day after the Duke Party, the year before last. I barely even got a goodbye. Mason had left town quickly after arguing with his brother. Tyler had been gutted when he got home and found out that his uncle had bailed. Even though Mason had done it a lot, it was still hard when it happened. Especially for Tyler.

Mason sighed and looked at his nephew. It was clear to see that Tyler was struggling to cope with his father's death. Hopefully having Mason around would help him.

"It's good to see you again," he stated as he pulled him into a hug. I 'awww'ed quietly in the background as I let the two have their moment.

"It's good to see you too," Tyler finally smiled at his uncle as they separated.

Cue more 'awwwws'. But this time, Ty- Ty heard me. He looked over at me and rolled his eyes.

"What?" I pouted, trying to defend myself. "It's cute, ok? Cute!"

"Whatever Alexa," the teen sighed but I could see a small smile dancing around his lips.

"Do you want a hug, Alex?" Mason smiled, opening his arms.

"Yep," I answered without hesitation, accepting the hug.

I loved hugs. Hugs were good. Especially from the people I cared about. Mason was like an uncle to me too. One who had been a very bad influence! I had missed him while he had been out of town.

"It's good to see you, Masey," I sighed in contentment as I let myself relax.

"Still insist on the nicknames, huh?" Mason laughed as we moved apart.

"My nicknames make people feel special," I couldn't help but grin at my boys.

"Special?" Ty repeated sceptically with a raised eyebrow. "Sure, Alex, whatever you say."

"Hush child," I stuck my tongue out at him, enjoying the smile I received.

"You're the child, Alex," Tyler stated before speaking to his uncle. "Come on inside."

I watched as the two Lockwood's entered the house. I'm glad that Mason returned. Tyler needed him now. Now more than ever.

XXX

It didn't take me long to find someone else to spend time with. That lucky person just so happened to be Matthew Donovan. I had recently proclaimed Matt to be my cast buddy and made him sign my cast while I did the same to his. Now every time we encountered each other, I reminded him that we were united by our casts. It got me one of his lovely smiles so I just had to keep repeating it.

"Good day, cast buddy," I greeted him as I walked up beside him.

"Hello Alexa," Matt smiled back at me, shaking his head. We had gotten our casts on the same day, which was a sick kind of hilarious. So we had accompanied each other to all of our check-ups so far. It made me feel better to have someone with me.

"How have you been?" Mattie asked me, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye as I tried to scratch under my cast.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" I retorted gently, giving him a look. "You were the one in the car crash, after all."

"I'm fine; I'm just worried about Caroline."

"How is she doing?"

"Better, she's a lot better."

"That's good. That's very good."

Damon's blood obviously helped at lot. Which just goes to show, he is capable of being 'good', whatever good is. What can be defined as 'good'? Everyone had different definitions of good. Which was something that I needed to talk to Bonnie about. I'll have to add it to my list.

"I'm just glad that she's ok," Mattie sighed, running a hand through his hair.

I looked at him, like really looked at him. It was clear that he hadn't slept last night. And despite having on clean clothes, there was a faint hint of that hospital smell on him.

"You love her," I stated softly and confidently. It was obvious. The way he talked about her. The way he looked at her. The emotion in his eyes and voice. I had seen Matt when he was in love. And it was like this.

"Yeah, I do."

"Good," I nodded with a smile. "Hold onto that love. Never let it go." I sighed. "Trust me when I say that your life won't be the same if you lose it."

"How are you coping with that? I mean, you no longer appear to be so self-destructive."

That's... that's a good question. How was I coping? Was I coping? Nah, I was. Maybe not well, but I was coping with it now.

"It still hurts. I still have this pain in my heart. But... I'm healing, slowly but surely."

Time heals all wounds.

"I'll see you later, Matt," I smiled softly before slowly making my way outside.

Talking about Luke, it brought back the memories of his funeral. I was a mess. Could barely go five minutes without breaking down into tears. I had Tyler on one side, Elena on the other and Damon lurking around in the background.

There's been so much death recently. Too much. It just... makes me think. Would all of those people have still been alive if the Salvatore's hadn't come to town. Would Mr Tanner, my cemetery buddies, Vicki, Mayor Lockwood, Logan Fell, Eric, Heather, Jazz, Luke still be alive? Or would some other freak accident have taken their lives?

But if Stefan and Damon hadn't have come to Mystic Falls, Elena wouldn't be alive right now. Stefan was the one who saved her. I would be without my twin. We would never have met Alaric Saltzman. And that would have been... bad.

And I would never have met Damon.

Speaking of Damon, guess who was standing to the left of me. Three guesses, the first two don't count.

I shook my head and walked over to him.

"Hey, Damon," I greeted the vampire, leaning against the pillar next to him. "How ya doin'?"

"Great, Alexa, walking on the sunshine," Damon replied sarcastically, not looking over. "Thanks for asking."

"There's no need for sarcasm."

"There's always need for sarcasm," a small smirk formed on his lips.

"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit."

"Explains why you're not that witty, then."

I gasped in mock outrage, "I am witty!"

"Sure you are, Alexa."

"I am witty," I muttered petulantly, crossing my arms.

"Denial."

"Is a river in Egypt," I retorted before sniggering at my own funny. I'd been waiting ages to say that to someone. And I mean ages.

"Really?" Damon groaned, raising an eyebrow.

"Really really," I giggled slightly, giving him a cheeky smile.

Damon rolled his eyes at me. Well, at least he doesn't done the exasperated nose pinch yet. It was always an achievement when I drove someone that far. That sounds really bad, doesn't it? But it was the little things in life. Like getting that special smile from Damon.

"Oh! Oh! Guess what!"

"What?"

"There's a city in Egypt called Alexandria!"

"And that interests me because..."

"I'm so awesome that they named a city after me," I enjoyed the look on Damon's face as I carried on speaking. "Just goes to prove that I'm more awesome than you."

Damon turned to face me properly, "One, the city was built before your ancestors were born, so you're named after the city, the city was not named after you. Two, there is no way that you are more awesome then me."

"Of course I'm more awesome than you, that's why I'm called Alexa the Awesome."

The vampire gave me a look, so I wisely changed the subject. But I had achieved what I wanted, Damon was smiling again.

"Seriously though, Damon, how are you doing?"

From the look on his face, I could tell that he wouldn't tell me. Now, was that a guy thing or a Damon thing? Because from my experience, boys rarely talked about their feelings. But then again, my main experience of boys is Tyler and Luke who were both manly boys. Luckily I had raised Jeremy to be more in touch with his emotions.

"Please? I thought that our friendship was strong enough that you could talk to me about these sorts of things. Guess I was wrong."

Hmmm, emotional manipulation. Don't do that much anymore. Don't really like it. But I needed to know how Damon was doing. The Katherine situation affected him just as much as it did me and my sister. Maybe even more so.

"I thought that your twin kissed me. I tried not to kiss her back. Doppelganger hijinks ensued. How do you think I'm doing?"

"Hurting. I think that you're hurting. Katherine willingly kissed you and then she went and kissed Stefan only a few hours later."

"Don't be stupid, Alexa, I don't get hurt."

I sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder. Looking into his ice blue eyes, I said, "I'm not the one being silly. Of course you get hurt. You just don't admit it. You use a very common and popular method and use your anger to cover it up before proceeding to do something stupid."

"You're scared. You think that Katherine is gonna send me off the deep end, don't you?"

"No, I don't think that," I answer truthfully with a small shrug. "But Stefan does. And he has been trying to persuade Elena and me that he's right. That you're gonna go off the deep end."

"You don't think that," Damon frowned thoughtfully. I think he genuinely expected me to say that I thought that he was gonna go off the deep end. I'd like to think that I know him better than that.

"I don't think that," I assured him, giving his shoulder a squeeze. I never even noticed that we were only a couple of inches away from each other.

"Why did you think that Elena would kiss you?" I asked curiously, titling my head to the side.

"I didn't want to. I never wanted to believe that she would do that to you."

"And you didn't kiss her back."

There may have been a teeny tiny hint of smugness there.

"Why would I? I-"

"Am I interrupting something?" Elena's amused voice interrupted whatever it was that Damon was gonna say.

I quickly stepped back, my cheeks turning a lovely shade of red.

"Not at all, dear twin," I replied as casually as I could.

Ellie raised a sceptical eyebrow, but didn't comment. Knew I loved that girl for a reason.

"I just wanted to ask," she said to Damon. "Why would you think that I would kiss you? I thought that you understood our bond better than that."

"I do," Damon retorted sharply. "Which is why I was so shocked."

Awww, he understands our bond. Not many guys understand the bond between me and Elena. Hell, not many people understood it. Fortunately, though, for us, everyone that we have ever dated has understood the bond.

"Elena!" Bonnie's panicked voice drew our attention to the witch who had just ran over to us.

"Bon-Bon, what's wrong?" I frowned, taking a step towards her as she breathed quickly, glancing between me and my sister.

"Katherine's here," she explained breathlessly. The bitch was here? At Tyler's house? Was nothing sacred anymore?! But, her being here meant that she had been invited in. Oh shit, that's not good. I needed to warn Tyler.

"Stay here!" Damon ordered us before stalking off.

Oooh, someone's Katherine hunting.

Good luck, Damon, please kill the bitch for me.

XXX

Ellie had, gently, suggested to Bonnie that perhaps she should go home. The witch listened and quickly hitched a lift home from Matthew. Katherine had done something to seriously freak her out. It wasn't just her resemblance to Elena; Bonnie knew that and was prepared for it. No, Katherine had done something to Bonnie, which made me even angrier at the bitch.

So here I was, sitting with Elena.

"So," my twin started, subtly glancing over at me. "You and Damon looked liked you were having a moment earlier."

Yeah... we were...

"Ellie, I'm confused," I huffed, crossing my arms and resting my head against her shoulder.

"About what, Lexa?"

"My feelings for Damon."

"Well, what are they?"

"Safe, appreciated, cared for... wanted..."

The way that I felt about Damon reminded me of how I felt about Luke before we started dating.

"I think that Damon has taken a place in your heart," Ellie started, choosing her words carefully. "But, I think that you still need to move on from Luke some more."

I looked at her. She knew me so damn well.

Ellie must have picked up on something as she elaborated slightly, "What you felt for him, it's still there. All you need is to move on some more before exploring how you feel about Damon."

"Good advice, twin, I shall follow that."

"You? Listen to advice from someone?" Ellie gasped in mock shock. "You must be desperate and confused.

"Ha ha," I deadpanned, giving her an unimpressed look.

"Seriously though, Lexa, you need more time before you can start thinking about your feelings for Damon."

Time... Time would help.

XXX

Not long after our deep, meaningful conversation, Elena got a call from Stefan. He wanted the both of us to meet him out by the Lockwood Lake. No idea as to what he was doing out there. Admiring the scenery, perhaps? Swimming in the lake?

But anyways, we made our way outside to see Stefan sitting on one of the benches with a bloody shirt. Apparently, Katherine had gotten a teeny tiny bit jealous and had stabbed him with an iron pole.

Lovely woman, isn't she?

But I'll tell you what; I would love to stab her with a wooden stake. Evil bitch.

Elena helped him clean up the blood while I turned my back. There were somethings that I didn't want to see, Stefan's muscular torso is not one of them.

Damon's, on the other hand...

Wait, what I am saying?

Ignore that please.

But anyways, predict sweet lovey-dovey moments, I do.

Sickening they would be.

Turn my back, I must.

I stared out over the lake and allowed my mind to wander.

When I was around 6, we had too much frogspawn in our little pond at home. Mrs Lockwood was going through a nature friendly phase so she said that we could put them in her pond. And we did. Me and my mum drove over to the Lockwood place to give them the frogspawn. Mason was there. He told me that when the baby frogs were adult frogs, they would march to my house to eat me. Needless to say, the six-year-old me was sufficiently terrified. I had nightmares for weeks.

Stupid Mason.

"You gonna be ok?" Ellie asked Stefan as she continued to clean him up.

"Yeah, it will heal," Stefan replied as he stared at my sister. Awww, what a brave little soldier.

"That's not what I meant."

Yeah, Stefan, that's not what she meant. It was obviously Katherine related.

"I was trying to figure her out. I was playing along and I let her get to me."

Ya know, there's this saying: hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. I don't know why, but it feels strangely apt right now. Katherine really struck me as someone who that saying was created for.

"I tried to track her, but she's gone," Damon announced as he walked over to us. A small smile tugged at the corner of my lips as he approached. "Ooh, cover up Fabio."

He exaggeratively put a hand in front of his eyes and turned to the side, winking at me when I giggled. As Damon once again turned to look at the couple behind me, I assumed that it was safe to look.

"We've got a crazy ex on the loose."

I've never really had a crazy ex. Not that I'm complaining, of course. Crazy ex's are not good. Caroline had a crazy ex once. I helped her avoid him until his parents moved him out of town.

"You better watch out," the vampire smirked at my sister. "Looks like Katherine is trying to steal your guy."

Now, I could have sworn that Damon put a special emphasis on the 'your', but I was probably imagining it. Nah, I must have been.

"That's not what's happening," Stefan swiftly attempted to correct him as he glanced over at Elena in worry.

"It better not be," I snorted. "Or that bitch is deader." I paused to consider that. "Well, deader than she already is."

My statement was completely ignored, much to my annoyance. The only person who gave any sort of response was Ellie, who smirked at me. Evil twin.

"We both know that that's exactly what is happening, Stefan," Damon stated, glaring at his brother. Who glared right back.

"Well," Elena stated awkwardly. "I'm gonna go and check on Jenna and Jeremy. Let me know when you guys are done." She looked at me. "Alexa, come."

"What am I? Some sort of pet that you can order around?" I whined as I followed my twin sister.

"Yes," Ellie smirked at me.

"You truly are evil, aren't you?"

"Of course not."

"I call your BS."

XXX

Right, note to self, storming away from your twin sister when she out snarks you is not a good idea when she is your ride home. Dagnabbit.

I stared around the car park.

Why did I never learn how to drive, again? Oh yeah, that's right, no one trusts me behind the wheel of a car. I asked Tyler to teach me once, he responded by saying that he wasn't suicidal. Ya know, thinking about it now, that was the common reaction to my question. But why does everyone think that I would be a bad driver? I think I would be a good driver. Maybe I would get Damon to teach me. He couldn't get hurt, so he doesn't have an excuse for saying no.

"You look like you need a ride home," a very unwelcome voice spoke from behind me.

"Well, you must need your eyes testing then," I retorted, turning to face John as he loitered behind me.

He merely raised an eyebrow at me.

"Fine," I pouted, crossing my arms. "I do need a ride home."

"Where's Elena?"

"I dunno. She out snarked me, so I stormed off."

"And now you can't find her."

"Pretty much."

Uncle John sighed and shook his head, "Come with me, I'll take you."

I stared at him suspiciously for a moment before shrugging, "Why do I feel like I'll regret this?"

A ride home was a ride home. No matter who was giving it to me.

I followed him to his car and got in. Glancing at his bandaged hand, I asked, "Can you even drive with your hand like that?"

"It's remarkable how quickly vampire blood can heal wounds," the man remarked casually as he started the car.

Vampire blood?

"Who gave your their blood?"

"Stefan Salvatore."

"He threatened you, didn't he?"

"How did you guess?" John asked, glancing over at me.

I shrugged before laughing slightly, "He's Damon's brother. Explains it all, really."

"I suppose it does."

"And you upset Elena. So really, you're lucky he let you leave town alive."

John had to acknowledge that point. It was clear to see how protective Stefan was over Elena. Even John had seen it.

There was a strangely... comfortable silence in the car. It was nice. Silences were rarely comfortable between me and Uncle John.

"Why don't you hate me?" Uncle John asked all of a sudden, breaking the silence. That's... a really good question. I thought about it for a moment. But there was really only one answer that I could give.

"Because you're family."

"You still think of me as family?"

Hmmm, he sounded rather shocked. I don't know why. He was my uncle and birth father, why wouldn't I think of him as family? Even if he was a complete ass and did a lot of shitty things, he was still family. And I didn't have enough of that left for me to completely reject him.

"Of course. You're my family and I love you."

A small smile danced around his lips as he parked the car outside my house.

I shot out of the car and revealed in the sight of my home. Finally, pyjama time. Maybe even nap time. My throat couldn't hurt if I was sleeping. And my back would definitely appreciate my soft mattress. It had stiffened up over night and not even a hot shower could completely ease the soreness.

When we entered the house, I immediately headed for the stairs. My pyjamas were calling out to me. Along with the chocolate hidden in my room.

"Alexa, wait," Uncle John said, catching my arm.

"Hmm?"

"I need to talk to you for a minute."

I turned to look at him properly. I examined him and saw the suitcase by the couch. It didn't take a genius to put it together.

"You're not staying, are you?"

I felt strangely... sad at that thought.

"No, I-I can't."

I nodded in understanding. I'm guessing that Stefan forced him to leave. And after what happened, it was probably the right thing. With his negative attitude towards vampires, it probably wasn't best for John to hang around town.

"But there was something that I wanted to give you before I left."

"Oh?" I titled my head to the side in curiousity.

The man nodded and pulled something out of his pocket, "You're reckless, Alexa, you'll do anything to protect the people that you love, even if it endangers you. And I couldn't leave town without knowing that you were protected." He gently took my hand and slid a ring onto my middle finger.

"Jonathon Gilbert created a third ring. For his daughter." I looked down at my hand. A smaller version of the Gilbert ring sat on my finger. "I've had it for years. Neither Grayson nor I could decide who to give it to. Elena or you. But now I know that Elena is a doppelganger, a supernatural entity."

"And these rings can't work on supernaturals."

"But it'll work on you."

"Because I'm not a doppelganger."

It's amazing how having green eyes instead of brown affects so much. My... father... gently rested his other hand on mine, "You need to look after yourself, Alexa; I don't want to lose you."

"You won't."

"With this ring, I can be certain of that."

He cared. He really cared. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his shoulder.

"Promise me that you'll look after yourself."

"I promise."

XXX

I spent the rest of my day reading 'The Lord of the Rings' in Jeremy's room, curled up in his duvet. When he returned home not long after I did, he sat next to me and sketched. I still have the portrait drawing of me that he did. It had pride of place on my wall.

When Jeremy yawned for, like, the sixth time, I glanced at the clock. Oops. Late it was. Very late.

"I'm gonna go to bed," I announced as I got up and stretched. I groaned in satisfaction as my back clicked.

"Ok, Lexa," Jer mumbled as I gathered up his sketching stuff and placed it on his desk.

Kissing his cheek, I whispered, "Night little brother, love you."

"Love you too, Lexa."

As you can probably tell, Jeremy and I have completely made up. It wasn't hard. After his failed attempt to turn, we had a proper heart to heart. And properly explained everything that we had felt and all of our intentions.

I meandered into my bedroom, only to gasp in shock and place a hand over my heart.

"Sweet jesus mother of god! You scared the hell outta me!"

Damon glanced up at me from where he was sitting at the end of my bed, "Just doing my part in the neighbourhood watch."

"What a good Samaritan you are," I teased before taking a couple of steps forward and taking a deep breath. "But in all seriousness, though, thank you. For looking out for the people that I care about... for looking out for me."

"That's me, your trusty bodyguard. Calm in crisis."

I frowned, recognising the hint of a slur.

"You're drunk," I stated and rolled my eyes. It was obvious. Well, obvious to me.

The vampire lifted his hand and held his forefinger and thumb a small distance apart.

Great. Drunk Damon. How fun. No, wait a minute. This isn't gonna be good. I could recognise the signs and it made my stomach sink.

"You're upset," I realised, twisting my new ring around my finger. "And I know from experience that drunk and upset is not a good combination."

"I'm not upset," the vampire denied with a scoff. "Upset is an emotion specific to those who care."

"That's not true," I immediately rebuked, sitting next to him. "You do care, Damon. I know you do."

Damon over at me with surprisingly sharp eyes, "You were jealous when you learned that Katherine kissed me." I opened my mouth to protest that statement, but the vampire continued talking before I could. "I know you well enough, Alexa, to know when you are jealous."

"Damon," I warned, my breath hitching slightly as he leant closer. "I'll admit that I was jealous. But can we please not talk about this right now? The memorial today, it reminded me of Luke's. And I tried not to think about it but now I can't stop. So please."

"Why were you jealous?" Damon pushed and I stood up to start pacing.

"Because I feel something for you, Damon," I sighed in aggravation and tugged on my hair. "I don't know what it is or what it means. And I'm not ready to. After what happened with Luke, losing him so suddenly, I'm not ready to move on from that. And you deserve better than that."

I spun around to face the vampire, tears blurring my vision, "Can you respect that? And just give me some time."

Damon climbed to his feet and stepped forward. He carefully cupped my face and leant forward, resting his forehead against mine. My breath hitched at his closeness and my heartbeat picked up.

"I'll give you as much time as you needed to work all of this out," he said softly before pressing a kiss to my forehead.

"Thank you," I breathed out. "Are you okay though? What happened?"

"Katherine happened," Damon replied with a wry smile.

I went to ask what that meant but was interrupted by my kid brother. Bad timing Jer. Like seriously bad time.

"Lexa, what's going on in here?" Jeremy's voice asked. I looked over to see him standing in the doorway, staring at Damon in suspicion.

I realised how close I was to Damon and staggered back a couple of steps, wiping my face. I glanced at Damon before I tried to reassure my brother and send him back on his way, "There's nothing going on, Jer. Just go back to bed, everything's ok."

"No, it's not ok, Alexa," Damon whispered, his gaze intently focused on Jeremy. He stared at him for a moment longer before glancing at me. There was something wrong with his gaze. Like his thoughts had gone somewhere bad. "He wants to be a vampire."

Wait, what?

...No.

The vampire blurred forward and pushed my baby brother against the wall, his hands wrapped around his throat. There was a blank look on his face that scared me more than anything else today.

"Damon?! What are you doing?! Stop it!" I cried out, taking a step forward.

"You want to shut out the pain?" Damon rhetorically asked my brother as Jeremy tried to pull himself free.

I ran forward and tugged fiercely on the vampire's arm, "Please Damon. Please don't do this. He hasn't got vampire blood in his system anymore. Please let him go. Damon, he's my brother, please don't do this."

Damon paused, still looking at Jeremy. My heart pounded and my breath forced it way past my throat. Everything went silent and time felt like it was dragging. It took me a second to realise what had happened.

Damon looked at me, his eyes looking so lost and broken. I gasped in a breath and went to speak. But I didn't get a chance. Damon's wrist jerked and Jeremy's body fell to the floor.

My breath came out as a scream. I dropped to the floor next to his body and shook him. His head lolled to the side and he just wouldn't wake up.

"Jeremy?!" I sobbed, shaking his body desperately as he just wouldn't respond. "Wake up! Jer, wake up! Please! Please wake up!"

But he didn't.

So I did the one thing I could.

"Elena!" I screamed. "Ellie!"

I pulled Jeremy into my lap, clutching at him desperately. My breaths came out as sobs and I couldn't get enough air into my lungs. It hurt. My heart hurt as I clutched my brother's body closer.

"Wake up. Wake up. Wake up," I mumbled into his hair, tears falling from my eyes.

Elena burst into the room, closely followed by Stefan and Jenna. I looked up at her tearfully as shock took over her face.

"Make him wake up. He won't wake up," I begged her tearfully as Jenna staggered backwards.

My twin gasped in horror before rushing over to us.

"What happened?" she asked, her hands fluttering uselessly over Jeremy's body.

"I don't know," I sobbed into Jeremy's hair. "Damon was holding him against the wall and then he just fell. And now he won't wake up."

I rocked Jeremy's body back and forth, holding him closer to me.

"Alexa, listen to me," Stefan suddenly crouched in front of me. He gently placed a hand on the side of my face and tilted my face to look at him. "Jeremy's going to be fine."

"How do you know that?" I whispered, looking into his forest green eyes as Jenna crouched down next to me.

Stefan gently took my hand and pressed it to Jeremy's neck. It took me a second but I eventually felt his pulse, beating normally beneath my fingers.

XXX

Ellie sat behind me and wrapped her arms around me and Jeremy. She hadn't once let go of us. Stefan was still crouched in front of us. He had a hand on Elena's shoulder and one on my arm. Jenna had retreated to the bed, sitting her hand on Elena's shoulder.

Jeremy still wasn't awake.

"He would have killed him, wouldn't he?" I broke the silence with a rasp. Stefan exchanged a glance with Elena but I carried on before he could say anything. "It's only cos I begged him that he didn't. but he would have killed my brother."

Stefan sighed, gently squeezing my arm, "It's Katherine. She got under his skin. She undid everything that was good about him."

Of course it would be her. She was the cause of everything. That bitch ruined everything she touched. Including my Damon.

"There's nothing good about him," Ellie fiercely argued, hugging me tighter. "Not anymore."

I didn't know what to say to that. I wanted to defend Damon, but how could I? Especially after what happened. I didn't even know how I felt. Damon stopped for me. But he was still going to do it until I begged. What does that say?

I let out a low groan and rested my forehead against Elena's chin. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that I had taken off my scarf and my makeup had worn off. Giving Stefan a perfect view of my bruised neck. I heard his intake of breath before gentle hands tilted my head backwards.

"Alexa, what happened?" he asked quietly as Elena and Jenna got a look too.

"It's nothing," I tried to deflect. Jeremy should be their main priority right now. He still wasn't awake, despite the blood Stefan had given him. He should have woken up by now and it was scaring me that he hadn't.

"Alexa, tell me what happened," Elena demanded softly as she exchanged a look with Jenna.

I shrugged uncomfortably, "One of the tomb vampires cornered me last night. It's fine, nothing to worry about. Honest."

"Then why did you hide it?" my aunt asked shrewdly as she crouched down next to Stefan.

"Because I didn't want to worry anyone," I refused to look anyone in the eye. "There was too much to worry about. Like finding Jeremy, helping Caroline, supporting Tyler. The attack had happened and the tomb vampire was taken down by the device. There was no point bringing it up since nothing could be done."

"Lexa, you were hurt. It's important. We would want to know and make sure that you were okay," Ellie sighed as she tugged me even closer to her. "Please don't hide stuff like this from us."

I agreed but couldn't make any promises. I would do it all over again, to protect my family. They needed to worry about what was important, and I wasn't that. My attack was some kind of karma for my part in the tomb vampire fiasco. Everything had happened because of my decision to get the seal lowered. Being attacked and nearly killed by a tomb vampire felt quite apt.

Luckily I was saved by Jeremy gasping awake in my lap.

He clutched onto my arms as he got his bearings. Stefan quickly grabbed his chin and checked him over. He quickly confirmed that everything was fine. And it thanked all the gods above that vampire blood was a thing. Otherwise I dread to think what injuries Jeremy would have. A concussion would have been the least of our worries.

With Jeremy now awake, we picked him up off of the floor and ushered him onto my bed. I quickly pulled him back in my arms as the others talked above us.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered into his hair. "This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for me."

"It's not your fault," my brother quickly reassured me as he buried his face in my neck. "You stopped him."

But it was my fault, it was all my fault. I was just relieved that I had been given a second chance and that my brother was okay. Because that was all I needed. For my brother to be okay.

XXX

A/N: 401 reviews! I love you all, thank you so much :) think we can get to 500 by the end of season 2? Hope you all enjoyed and see you next time! xoxo