Jeremy was in the kitchen trying to concentrate on his homework. Weeks had passed since Damon killed him and he ended up on the Other Side. He'd mostly managed to convince himself that what he'd seen there was some sort of dream or delusion. It wasn't possible for it to be anything else. What Ayana had told him wasn't possible. Sure, he'd seen some crazy things in the last several months, but this went beyond even that. No, it couldn't be true. Elena was his sister, not his mother. His mother was Miranda Gilbert.

Most of Jeremy was able to believe that, but there were things that nagged at him, things that made sense with that 'dream', like his relationship with Elena. Elena didn't treat him like a brother a lot of times. She acted like a parent. That made sense to an extent after their parents died, but she was like that even before hand. He could remember her keeping better track of his grades than his own parents. He could remember her lecturing him worse than they did when he did something stupid. It pissed him off a lot because he'd already had two parents. He didn't need a third. Unless she was his parent.

Jeremy shook that thought away for the millionth time. It wasn't true. The world couldn't be quite that crazy. He was Jeremy Gilbert. His parents were Miranda and Grayson Gilbert. Elena was his sister. She was his sister. He was just letting that dream make him crazy.

Jeremy was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of footsteps. He turned around and stiffened when he found Elena there.

"Hey. You doing homework?" Elena asked.

"Yeah."

"Need some help," Elena asked.

"No, I'm good," Jeremy said before returning to his homework. He was hoping she'd get whatever she was looking for and go back upstairs. Her presence was really awkward for him lately.

Elena hesitated before walking towards her brother. She took a seat at the table across from him. "Jer, are you mad at me."

"Why would I be mad?" Jeremy asked.

"I'm not sure. Maybe for letting Damon hurt you. It seems like you've been avoiding me since that night," Elena said.

Jeremy sighed. She wasn't wrong about the last part. He was avoiding her. It was hard for him to be around her. Every time he was, he thought of what he'd seen when he died. Not that he thought about much else when he wasn't around her. He'd actually spent quite a bit of time drinking and getting high again, hoping it would all go away. "No. It wasn't your fault."

"I should've stopped him. I never should've allowed him to hurt you," Elena said. She hated herself for not being able to stop what happened. She was supposed to protect her little brother.

Jeremy shook his head. "He's a vampire. There's nothing you could've done. But why are you still his friend?"

Elena's expression darkened. "I am not his friend! Any friendship we had died when he broke your neck in front of me. I'll never forget those few seconds between him breaking your neck and seeing the ring on your finger. I felt like I was dying inside. I've never felt pain like that."

"Not even when Mom and Dad died?" he asked.

"No," Elena said.

Jeremy barely kept himself from flinching. There was that nagging feeling again, "But you still hang around Damon."

"Reluctantly, yes. Stefan believes that we need him to help protect me and all of you, first from Katherine and now from this Klaus guy. That's the only reason I have anything to do with him," Elena told him.

"So, you don't forgive him?" Jeremy asked.

"I will never forgive him, Jer," Elena said strongly. She could forgive a lot of things, almost anything, in fact, but one thing she would never forgive was someone harming Jeremy. He was off limits. Anyone who harmed him would pay the price. The only reason she hadn't shoved a stake into Damon's heart was because of Stefan, and that almost wasn't enough. "He'll pay for what he did to you one day. I promise. So, why have you been avoiding me."

Jeremy shrugged. "I guess what happened that night just freaks me out." That was definitely not a lie. He could barely get it out of his head for five minutes.

"It should. It shouldn't have happened. It won't ever happen again. I won't let Damon get near you again," she swore.

Just then, the back door opened and closed, and Jenna walked in. "Hey, you two. What are you doing?"

"Just talking. How was class?" Elena asked.

"It was class," Jenna said unenthusiastically.

"Yeah, kind of like this history assignment," Jeremy said.

"Well, I'm glad to see you doing your homework, and I'm glad the two of you are talking again," Jenna said before sitting down in between them. She'd noticed the tension between brother and sister. She didn't know what was going on, but she decided to let them work it out themselves. "You know, you two used to be inseparable when you were little."

"We were siblings. We were each other's first playmates," Jeremy reasoned.

"Oh, no. It went beyond that. There were times when you were little when Elena was more in tune with your needs than your mom and dad were. And when you were around four or five, you even started calling her 'Mama', Jenna told him.

"He did? I don't remember that," Elena said with a frown. She would've been around six or seven. She should remember something like that.

"Yeah. The first time it happened, your dad thought it was hilarious, not so much with your mom," Jenna said with a chuckle.

Jeremy felt his hands start to shake and immediately shoved them under the table.

"Why don't I remember that?" Elena wondered out loud.

Jenna shrugged. "You were pretty young still. You must have just forgotten about it. Your mom and dad actually got pretty worried after a while. They thought it was a fluke or a prank the first few times, but when it kept happening, they got concerned, especially when Jeremy stopped going to them for things and started going to you. They took Jeremy to a psychologist a few times, who suggested that they separate you for a little while. That summer, they sent you to stay with our parents."

"They kept us a part?" Elena asked. That really pissed her off. They had no right trying to keep her and Jeremy apart, and especially not because of a phase that Jeremy was sure to grow out of, which he apparently did. Who were they to keep him from her?

"Yeah. I thought it was pretty messed up, so did my parents. It didn't work out anyway. Jeremy screamed bloody murder for a week, and you were a terror for my parents. Then it just abruptly stopped one day. Well, actually it stopped after your dad took you to see Sheila Bennett," Jenna explained.

"Sheila Bennett?" Jeremy asked in a shaky spell. Sheila was a witch. It sounded to him like she'd done something to make them forget. That was why Elena couldn't remember, even though she should.

Elena was having similar thoughts. Bonnie's grandmother was a witch, and her father likely knew that, as he hunted vampires. Had he asked Sheila Bennett to use magic on them to forget. How could he do that? Just because he felt a little uncomfortable over a childhood phase? She was starting to have a not so nice picture of her parents.

"Yeah. I guess your dad thought that wisdom from an experienced parent would be helpful. It turns out it was," Jenna said.

"Uh, I just remembered I'm supposed to meet up with a friend," Jeremy said before grabbing his books and rushing out of the room. He needed to get out of there. He needed to find some booze or drugs and try to forget this day, along with the last month of his life. This couldn't be happening. He couldn't deal with this.