(A/N): Hey Guys! So, I know I haven't updated this story in a while, so, Happy New Years!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Leo, Elaine, Nicholai, Shari, Brooke, Mia and Jonothan.

Elaine

It had been a week since I had been attacked by Jonothan, and Leo, Shari, and Mr Ellwood had been taking watches in turn to make sure that my family and I weren't left in danger. The threat was almost certainly gone by now, but even without knowing what had happened, my brother Jay was still suspicious of one person in particular: Leo. Even though Leo had actually been the one to save my life- but I couldn't exactly tell Jay that, now could I?

Every time I mentioned Leo, or even one of our other friends, he gave me a dirty, distrusting look that never failed to make me wince. Did he really believe that Leo could do something like... this? Well, I guess he could, but he wouldn't, no way in hell- unless I was in mortal danger and it was the only way out... I cringed, imagining for a second that it had been Leo who had cut open my throat with jagged fangs and gorged himself on my blood, leaving me with a stinging throb that rang through my whole body; it had stayed with me for the first few days but by now it was almost completely gone, only a slight headache in the place of the pain from before.

But... you know how, after you find out something new about a person that your realise, both suddenly and in snippets, why they did something or reacted to something a certain way? Well, it dawned on me just as I was about to take a shower that Leo was outside my house right now... and not only could he have heard every single bad thing Jay had said about him over the past few days, he could probably see me, right now, using his blood sensor- and that thought made my cheeks flush. "What's the matter?" A voice asked, and I jumped slightly, my eyes fluttering closed for a second as fear jolted through my veins before I recognised the voice.

"Nothing, Leo- it's nothing," I whispered, wrapping my dressing gown tighter around myself before turning to face him- finding him leaning through the bathroom window, blue, blue, blue eyes fully focused on my face.

"Are you sure?" He asked hesitantly, observing the blush still staining my cheeks, and I bit my lip as I nodded quickly.

"Yes, now get out- I need to shower!" I hissed quietly, and he chuckled before disappearing from the open window- which I raced to pull closed, scanning the ground outside for him only to find no sign he'd ever actually been there. I moved away from the window and pushed my gown off my shoulders, leaving me clad in only my undergarments before turning the shower on hot.

After holding my hand under the water for a few minutes, I shed my remaining clothes and moved into the path of the jet; the hot water coursed down my back and I squeezed some shampoo into my hand, moving to place it in my hair before I was shocked into dropping it as I heard the dull thud of something heavy hitting the bathroom window. As my head snapped up, my eyes widened at the sight of something pressed up against the glass- which, by the color, appeared to be the back of Leo's shirt, held fast by something... or someone.

I didn't turn off the shower, not wanting to alert them that I knew- even though I knew they most likely already did- and quickly reached for my dressing gown, pulling it on and tying it quickly before moving slowly, cautiously, over to the window, trying to hear what was being said. I paused, about a foot away and off to the side, with my view still blocked by Leo's back, pressed firm as it was against the glass. Then for a split second a sliver of light shone through, before it disappeared again- and the window shattered with the force of Leo being shoved, rather forcefully, through it.

"Leo!" I exclaimed quietly, incredibly concerned, but not quite wanting my brother or mother to know that he was here, even though I could already hear them pushing their chairs back in the kitchen, almost certainly on their way up here. He groaned, and I noticed the red staining his shirt- a stain growing larger and larger as my eyes finally caught on the large shard of glass sticking out from his side.

"Leo..." I whispered, and his eyes found mine before he pushed himself to his feet.

"I'll be fine," He groaned, before staggering over to the window and jumping out once again.

Footsteps thundered down the hallway outside the bathroom, and I jumped as the sound scratched the insides of my brain like a caged animal- trapped and panicked. "Izzy! Izzy! Elaine!" I recognised my brother's voice, filled with terror- something I had hoped I had finally erased from my memory, but judging by the way my breakfast tried to crawl its way back up my throat, I guess I'd been a fool to ever think I could forget such a thing. He banged a fist on the bathroom door, the knob jiggling as he obviously tried to wrench it open at the same time, but was inevitably foiled by the lock. No doubt if I didn't act quickly, he would resort to trying to break it down to come try to rescue me- from what, I don't know... if he ever even considered the cause.

"I-" My voice shook, and I fought to control myself even as my body did the same. "I'm fine!" There was a moment of silence filled with, I could tell, disbelief. "I threw something and hit the window by mistake!" It was a bad lie and I knew it, considering there was blood- Leo's blood- splattering the tiled floor, and I felt sick to my stomach that he had gotten hurt because of me. Thinking quickly, I grabbed my bath towel and mopped up the blood as best I could before throwing it into the still running shower, where tendrils of red flowed down the drain- and I wasn't sure whether the smell of copper was legitimately filling the room, courtesy of it clinging to the steam rising from the shower, or if it was far more subtle than I feared, and the prevalence was just a symptom of my anxiety.

"Izzy..." Jay murmured through the door, and I winced.

"I'm fine, Jay, don't worry." He was going to worry either way, I knew that- just like how I was going to worry about Leo, now that I had seen him with a great big shard of glass sticking out of his side. He could die, and yet he had still gotten up- still went to defend me and my family- and Jay had the nerve to accuse him of trying to hurt me? It was just so... it was all so wrong!

(A/N): What did you think?

This chapter has had edits made to it on 16/2/24 - formatting, of course, plus some reconfiguring of certain sentences... as well as some added length. This chapter used to be about 220 words shorter, so pretty much every time you see Elaine panicking, I added that (specifically because I thought it was odd that she wasn't reacting to certain things that I thought would likely remind her of her father/abusive childhood). Elaine reacting badly to hearing someone (Jay, in this instance) run down the hallway toward her, because she probably equates that to being pursued by her father or her/Jay/Audrey running AWAY from him. Her feeling sick in response to the terror in Jay's voice (which she probably heard a lot throughout their childhood). I didn't write her reacting badly to Jay banging on the door with his fist because I don't think she took note of that BECAUSE it was a more obvious reason to be afraid, so she was like, 'yeah, of course. No need to mention it', whereas with everything else, she was like, 'hm, that's odd. Wondering why I'm reacting like THAT?' I also added the smell of blood filling the room partially to mirror a scene later in the story, with Leo (in chapter 230). I also changed Elaine referring to Jay by his full name at one point, because I thought it was more fitting for his full name to only ever be used by his parents, other than the very first time she introduces him to us. I also changed Jay saying 'Elaine! Izzy! Izzy!' to him saying 'Izzy! Izzy! Elaine!' because I thought it fit better for him to use her 'full' name as a sign of true desperation, since he always calls her Izzy, rather than to start off with that.