Author's note: Hi everyone!

Thank you for the utterly delightful comments! It's always joyful for me to receive them, because creative work comes straight for the heart, and that validation is absolutely invaluable. Truly, I appreciate every kudos, subscription, bookmark – and especially comments! Thanks for giving this story love, all! :D

Happy Vernal/Spring Equinox! It's a little earlier than usual this year, on the 19th. (In the Northern Hemisphere, anyway – happy Autumnal Equinox for the Southern Hemisphere!) Fun fact! 'equinox' translates from Latin to 'equal night,' since, as we know, those are the two days per year when days and nights are of equal length, marking a change of seasons. If it weren't for the 23.5-degree tilt of the Earth on its axis, we wouldn't have seasons at all, so thanks, random celestial body that crashed into a very hot, young Earth all those ages ago! :D

Happy Spring, y'all! :D


Mid-October 2009

The following day saw Anna invite Elena to the quarry for a thermos full of hot cocoa, an apple pie from the Grill, and a much-needed conversation, the subject of which was making the vampire objectively nervous.

Anna looked worn out, Elena thought – which was unusual for her. Before Anna revealed the secret of her immortality, Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline often wondered how the girl always managed to look so perfectly rested and alert, despite frequently being out quite late with them, and clearly having the same amount of sleep.

Even when having gone without a wink of it, she'd frequently look fresh and rested.

Now it made sense, of course. The boon of immortality did wonders for one's complexion.

Except this was the first time Elena had actually seen dark circles under Anna's eyes. She narrowed her eyebrows in consternation. "You okay?"

Anna seemed distracted with pouring the cocoa into their respective cups and cutting the pie. "Shit! Forgot the whipped cream."

"Anna?"

"Hm?" Anna looked up, clearly not having heard her interlocutor. "I normally would have made the pie myself," she said, her nose wrinkling at the taste after she took a tiny, experimental bite, "but the house has been a cacophonous mess," she divulged, then muttered to herself. "At least Noah's finally gone."

"He is?" Elena asked, having caught the phrase much to Anna's surprise. She must have been louder than she realized.

"Yeah. Mama and I told him that when Katherine feels especially paranoid, she has a trick where she hides out in a small town and compels everyone to forget she exists unless she's speaking to them. And she's definitely paranoid now, since her tomb cover story's blown. It's a pretty clever ruse, actually," Anna grudgingly admitted.

"So now Noah's going to search every small town for weird anomalies, coast to coast?" Elena smirked in amusement, though if she had to be perfectly honest, she felt quite sorry for him. Katherine clearly didn't want him either. Damon obviously had the right idea to move on, which she hoped was genuine. Shouldn't Noah do the same? Being so obsessed with a woman who continued to spurn him must have been painful, not to mention profoundly unhealthy.

Anna just shrugged, not particularly caring, as long as he was gone. This meant that taking her mother to the Himalayas to heal finally became a realistic option.

"Why is he so…?" Elena trailed off, not wanting to sound so rudely judgmental about someone who may have actually been Anna's friend, though judging by the way she spoke about him, it didn't seem to be the case.

"Obsessed with her? Who the hell knows? Katherine, ensnares, like I said. She knows exactly what to say. She's great at analyzing what makes people tick, and then weaponizing it to crawl deep inside. I've seen her do it again and again when she and Mama spent a lot of time together," she said, handing Elena a paper plate holding a piece of pie and a spoon.

"Damon and Stefan seem okay," Elena said before taking a bite of the pastry. Perhaps it wasn't the best apple pie she ever tasted, but Anna was definitely overreacting, Elena thought. Then again, when she thought of Anna's eggplant rollatini… Elena caught herself near-drooling at the memory, and quickly propelled her mind back to the present.

"That's debatable," Anna snarked. At Elena's amused-yet-disappointed glance, she rolled her eyes and relented with a snicker. "Okay, fine, fine. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Salvatore isn't that bad – neither of them."

"You owe Damon an apology," Elena pointedly pressed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Ugh, I know – I know," Anna scoffed. "Doesn't mean that I'm happy about it. But first," she said, her tone considerably gentler as she let a profoundly vulnerable gaze wander to her friend. It wasn't often that Anna Zhu let her guard down this way – a feeling with which she wasn't entirely comfortable yet, if she had to be perfectly honest – but she was cognizant enough to know that Elena deserved it. "I'm sorry, E."

"Good," Elena replied with an unusual amount of haughtiness for her.

"I mean it," Anna insisted, taking Elena's hands in hers to emphasize her sincerity. "You've been really kind and forgiving with me, but you have to understand – I couldn't take the chance – not with my mom's life."

"I know," Elena relented, the gentleness in her tone matching Anna's as she squeezed her hands. She had so much trouble staying mad.

"And this is – weird for me," Anna admittedly awkwardly. "I've been on my own for so long. I don't even remember the last time I had a real friend. So, this – trust – it doesn't really feel natural. But I'm trying, E. I really am."

"I know you are," Elena said empathetically, before biting her lip nervously. She had to make a stand. "But! No more lies. You have to trust me from now on."

"I promise," Anna confirmed, relieved that this part of the conversation went so well – though her anxiety about act two was no closer to abating.

"And in the spirit of trust, look what Damon gave me," Elena said, taking the compass out of her jacket pocket and placing it on the blanket, its arrow pointing at Anna. "So, this is what the Gilbert watch was for."

"That's the compass that identified Mama as a vampire," Anna breathed. "Why did he give it to you?"

"He said he wanted to keep it someplace safe since he planned to stick around, so he stole it from the Council," Elena smirked. "I guess I'm Mystic Falls' new honorary Protector of the Illicit Contraband."

"With a collection of one," Anna needled, grinning. "I might have something to add to it. Mama mentioned stealing a device from Johnathan Gilbert, but I don't know where it is yet."

"What does it do?" Elena asked, frowning.

"No idea," Anna shrugged. "The plan was to ask Aurelia's witch friends to analyze it. Somehow, I doubt Sheila's going to be all that forthcoming, what with all the threats she threw mine and Damon's way on the night we got the tomb open. And I doubt Bonnie's knowledgeable enough yet to figure it out."

"They're still here?" Elena asked, surprised. "I thought they left that night."

"Which brings me to the next part of our talk," Anna winced. "Now that Noah's gone, and I know that Damon won't hurt you – and probably won't let you get hurt by anyone else, since he seems to have formed some kind of attachment to you," she explained with an eyeroll at the obvious smile and blush lingering on Elena's cheeks. "Nice scarf, by the way. New?" she inquired suggestively. "From the way you've been not-so-subtly nuzzling it, I think I can figure out where it came from."

"When I went to check on Damon, the closest he came to actually smiling was when I reminded him of our prank, so I went downstairs and threw my red scarf, my green socks, and that whole bottle of glitter I stole from the pageant into his cycle of whites," Elena revealed with a wicked grin. "Turns out they were Stefan's."

Anna guffawed. "Nice! A worthy sacrifice. I wish I could have been there to see his face."

"Me, too!" Elena squealed excitedly.

The girls spent the next few minutes in comfortable laughter, and Anna just allowed herself to enjoy the moment of relative peace before she dropped her bombshell. She knew Elena would be upset, but of course understanding. That's why she loved her best friend so much.

It was time.

"Listen, E," Anna began uncomfortably. "Mama's not acclimating too well – and," she stalled for a few seconds, playing with the remnants of pie on her plate. "I'm going to take up Aurelia's offer to bring her to the wellness center she runs. It's her best bet."

"Yeah, I completely understand," Elena nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. She had a feeling she knew what Anna's next words would be, and she felt horribly selfish for being so premeditatively crushed by them.

"I can't let her go alone," Anna pleaded. "I just got her back. I have to take her – make sure she's okay."

"I…" Elena sighed, playing with her new scarf in her hands in an effort to soothe herself. "I know. You have to do what's best for your mom."

"I'll be back!" Anna was quick to reassure. "I just don't know when. I have to at least stay to help her get settled, which probably means that I'll miss Halloween," she added with a pang of disappointment.

"So much for going as Sexy Vampire Twins –" Elena sulked, then her eyes danced with mirthful epiphany. "That was another hint, wasn't it?"

"Guilty!" Anna toasted with a clip of cocoa to Elena's awaiting clink as the two girls drank and lapsed into another comfortable silence. "I'll wear it at the 'Center of Serendipity,'" Anna announced with faux magnanimousness at the loaded name, equipped with air quotes and a playful eye-roll. "Probably get made fun of by all the other vamps for leaning in the to cliché. The things I do for you."

Elena smiled in return, awash with conflicting emotions. "When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow," Anna replied, a weight on her chest. She had the oddest feeling that she couldn't quite shake, but she didn't know why.

"What are you going to tell the school?"

"I don't know. Family emergency? I'll just compel them to not look into it too much," Anna shrugged casually.

"Anna! You can't abuse compulsion so much," Elena admonished, then dropped her voice. "Won't it create irreparable brain trauma, if it's done so much? It can't be healthy."

Anna laughed. "Who told you that?"

"I…" Elena trailed off, not entirely sure. "I just assumed."

"I think that's on me," Anna admitted. "I got you all obsessed with this when I fabricated Damon's 'condition,'" she grinned. "But no, there haven't been any noticeable long-term effects on the brain from excessive compulsion use."

"How do you know?" Elena challenged. "Has it been studied?"

"What? No, it hasn't been – Why would there –?" Anna retorted, growing increasingly amused. "Okay, nerd. Go start a study. Get a control group going and document your results," she sassed. "You can publish your research on The Secret Vamp Journal of Non-Medicine. You'll probably need to get some mice or whatever."

"Maybe I will," Elena replied smugly.

"Yeah, you do that. In the meantime, I have a few affairs to settle before I have to get going," Anna lamented. "We're leaving early in the morning for our flight."

"You know what this means, right?" Elena smiled impishly. "Girls' night!" she continued cheerfully, without giving Anna a chance to respond. "I'll call Bonnie and Care."


"Hey, dick," Anna called to a surprised Damon mid-bourbon pour. He looked considerably better than she imagined given the circumstances, but the usual carefree jocularity was gone from his eyes, now clouded and undeniably troubled. His humanity must be back, Anna surmised. "Where's Santa's Little Veggie-Vamp Helper?"

Damon grinned sincerely, eyes twinkling in amusement at his brother's very grumpy attitude over the last few days. "Trying to get your buddy's avant-garde paint job off his precious boy band uniform. The squirrels prefer the classic look, so they've been running away extra hard in protest of his Fashion Don't."

Anna shrugged with a smirk of her own. "Yeah, well, Stefan could use the exercise. He looks like most of his workout happens between his eyebrows."

"He definitely puts those muscles to good use. To what do I owe the…" Damon deliberately trailed off, pretending to think of what he'd use in place of 'pleasure.' "Reliably annoying interruption?"

"I owe you an apology," Anna said contritely. Damon raised his eyebrows, prompting her to continue. "That was it," she said flatly.

"Wow, still the very definition of eloquence, Anna. How could I expect anything else?" he quipped.

"I need to leave for a little while – make sure my mom is out of harm's way while she acclimates to the modern world. Since you gave Elena an oh-so-beautiful scarf, that she just adores oh-so-much, would you be a dear and make sure nothing happens to it? She likes to get herself into trouble, and she'd be just crushed if she had to lose another favorite accessory."

"Why, of course, Anna," Damon clutched his chest dramatically. "I'll protect Elena and her scarf – for you and only for you. Because your requests are so important to me, as is your opinion."

"Whatever," Anna smirked, relieved by what she'd found. He was obviously planning to protect her, anyway. Good. Although she suspected that leaving Elena alone with only Damon and Stefan in town would be safe, based on what her friend described, she had to see for herself. Confirming her suspicions with profound relief, Anna only elaborated by once again affirming to Damon that he was indeed, a "dick," and promptly blurred away, ending their meeting on a verbal bookend.


Late October 2009

It had been a few days since Anna left, and Elena missed her terribly. Girls Night had been an absolute blast. Although the remaining three friends certainly felt awful for keeping Caroline out of the supernatural loop, they decided that given the head cheerleader's propensity for gossip, it was probably for the best that she didn't feel tempted by such a dangerous secret. Instead, they just told her that Anna had to visit an aunt out of the country, and that Noah wouldn't be able to return, because he got a job in Seattle. Since Anna had become so attached to the town, her aunt would most likely return with her to act as her guardian henceforth.

The fact that her so-called aunt was her actual allegedly dead mother was left unsaid.

And so the night was spent on movies, a bottle of wine snuck from Jenna's stash, and gushing about boys - though that was mostly Caroline. The girls had a tearful goodbye before Bonnie left with Anna, presumably to help her get in touch with Aurelia to meet them once she and her mother arrived.

And that was that. No contact in days. Anna did mention that it would be difficult to get in touch given the magical nature of the cloaked wellness center, but Elena had expected something, at least. As is, she'd been obsessively checking her phone and email for any sign of her vampiric friend. She understood, but her heart still ached. She missed Anna so, so much.

Anna took her mom and left to the Himalayas, because she wanted to make sure that her transition went as smoothly as possible, and Elena felt so alone. She chided herself for being so selfish. Of course, Anna did the right thing. Her mother had just gone through a highly traumatic experience, and this was a town seemingly on perpetual high alert against vampires – she couldn't afford to have her stand out like a sore thumb. She'd only just gotten her back. Anna couldn't lose her again.

Of course, this meant that Elena was without her best friend for the foreseeable future. She took out her journal and pen, preparing to process the day's events through some stream-of-consciousness writing when her phone rang. Her heart nearly catapulted from her chest. It was Damon!

"Glitter Givers, Anonymous! We make your secret dreams come true! How's our latest client?" Elena cheerfully greeted.

Damon sighed dramatically over the phone. "Despondent. It appears my brother failed his audition to Elf Idol on account of not being festive enough. There just wasn't enough glitter. We might have to go bigger next time – maybe stitch some party lights in."

Elena shook her head, affecting her best chiding voice. "I'm sorry, sir, but our products are thoroughly examined by test audiences for full festiveness effectiveness. I'm afraid that the problem must be with the subject in question."

"You're right. You're right – I can't deny that poor Stef has a rare condition," he lamented theatrically. "You see, when he was a little boy, he had a hunting accident. He tripped over a stick, and it got shoved so far up his –"

"Damon!" Elena interrupted with a laugh, trying and utterly failing to sound admonishing. "Where is he, anyway?"

"On the way to the airport to pick up his annoying bestie, who's coming to town for his birthday."

"When's his birthday?" she asked curiously, sorting the information for Caroline, just in case. Oh, who was she kidding? Caroline probably already snooped his birthday, vitals, and any other identifying information he concocted for his current round of pretending to be human.

"On the first. You know those memes where you see with two pictures side-by-side? Everyone's having a blast on Halloween on the one marked 'thirty-first,' and then you see these really morose, un-fun people representing 'the first?' That's Steffie. He's that meme."

"You know you love him," Elena chided with a smile. "I've seen it. You can't lie to me."

"I love how sexy, witty, brilliant, and charming I am by comparison, yeah. Stef's useful like that. He's a great foil."

She giggled, skipping downstairs to fix herself a little midnight snack. Jenna had gone up to Duke for a few days to work on her thesis and Jeremy was apparently spending the night at the Lockwood Mansion, of all places. The two former enemies somehow managed to bond over some sketches that Tyler unwittingly revealed and were now workshopping new ideas to each other on weekends. Who knew Tyler was an artist!? That didn't fit with his jock MO at all. She nervously wondered what his douchey father would do if he ever found his artwork.

Putting the thought aside for a moment, she reached into the bowl on the table for a McIntosh apple, her favorite, while listening to Damon entertain her with a story about his 'very dull Council meeting' and his inventive nicknames for everyone involved.

She joyfully tossed the apple in her hand up and down, unwilling to investigate the instant upswing in her mood that occurred quite suddenly after Damon called her. She smiled into the phone.

Unnoticed by Elena, the vampire-detecting compass that she placed on the counter suddenly sprang to life and pointed to the adjacent room.


Cliffhanger!

Don't worry! Anna will be back soon. Sadly, she'll miss Halloween, and possibly Lexi. Not sure about the latter yet. But she's where she needs to be. :)

I totally forgot that Tyler was an artist for a while.

Much love, all.