The next morning Elena woke up to the sound of a pen on paper, she slowly sat up and saw Jeremy sitting on his desk chair, sketching. She smiled and mumbled good morning to him as she walked out of his room.

After her shower Elena decided to wear a tight black, sleeveless top, dark camouflage cargo pants, sneakers and one of Jeremys jackets. Elena chose to wear a teardrop necklace and small hoop earrings to complete the outfit.

As she walked into the kitchen she smiled at Jenna. "Jeremy's got his sketch pad out."

"You're kidding?" Jenna looked ecstatic at the news.

"Nope, but don't say a word." Elena looked up the stairs. "The minute we encourage him, he'll put it away."

"Psychology major." Jenna smirked. "Check that!"

"Anyway, I have something for you and Jeremy." Elena smiled at picked up her bag. "Jeremy, can you come down here?"

"What's up?" Jeremy asked as he walked into the kitchen.

"Presents!" Elena beamed. "As thanks for you two being there for me."

"Lena, you don't have to thank me for that." Jeremy murmured as he pulled her into a hug.

"I agree." Jenna smiled sadly, still horrified about what had happened to her niece.

"I know, but I wanted to." Elena shrugged as she pulled back from Jeremy. "First to the absolute best aunt in the world."

Elena held out a small box towards Jenna. When she opened it, she gasped, inside was a beautiful locket in silver with Aunt engraved on the front. When Jenna opened the locket there was a picture of Elena and Jeremy smiling, the picture was taken around a year ago from a trip with their parents.

"Oh, it's beautiful. Thank you!" Jenna hugged Elena tightly. "Help me put it on?"

"Of course, I'm just glad you like it." Elena fastened the necklace. What Jenna didn't know was that there was a hidden compartment behind the picture that contained vervain, so she would be protected against compulsions.

"And for Jeremy." Elena looked through her bag again and pulled out two boxes. One green and the other blue. She gave the blue one to Jeremy as she put the green one in her pocket.

The bright smile on Jeremys face as he opened his present was worth everything to Elena. In the box was a men's ring, it was pure black, with a black, square stone and in the stone the Gilbert crest was carved in silver.

Of course, Elena had put a hidden compartment filled with vervain behind the stone. The jewelers had looked at her very weirdly at the order but hadn't actually said anything.

Jeremy gently pulled the ring out and put it on and said softly. "Thank you."

"You are very welcome." Elena smiled brightly. "And now I have to go to Stefans to give him his late birthday present."

"Late birthday present?" Jenna asked with a smile.

"The numb-nut didn't tell me it was his birthday yesterday." Elena grumbled. "So, I guess he can get his Christmas present as a birthday present instead and I'll find something else for Christmas."

"Have fun at Stefans and don't do anything I wouldn't do." Jenna smirked.

"That leaves a lot of options though." Elena sassed back as she made her way to the door.

XOXOXOX

Elena almost didn't have the time to even knock before Damon had opened the door. "Elena, what a pleasant surprise."

"Damon, nice to see you again and thank you for taking care of the vampire stalking me." Elena smiled. "Now, where is that door stop you call a younger brother?"

Damon burst out laughing and led her inside to the parlor where Stefan was sitting. Stefan gave her a look at her calling him a door stop.

"You deserve every single insult I can come up with." Elena declared.

"What did I do?" Stefan asked shocked.

"You forgot to tell me it was your birthday yesterday." Elena mock glared. "And I can only blame the drama going on yesterday that I didn't lecture you then."

Before Elena could finish her rant, the doorbell rang and Stefan went to open it. "Sheriff Forbes?"

"I'm here to see Damon." Sheriff Forbes told Stefan and Elena, who had followed Stefan to the door.

"Uh, sure." Stefan said, then called out, to keep the illusion of them being human. "Damon!"

"Sheriff." Damon smiled as he came walking from the kitchen as Elena and Stefan made their way back to the parlor. "What a surprise."

"Sorry to bother you, but we need to talk." Sheriff Forbes murmured.

"Come in." Damon let her in ant they made their way into the back yard.

Stefan started to relay what was being talked about to Elena.

"Um, I hope you understand the secrecy." Damon said to the sheriff. "Stefan doesn't know about this yet and I'd like to keep it that way."

"Of course, kids are too young to be brought in to this." Sheriff Forbes nodded.

"I agree." Damon smiled sadly. "Sadly, I did have to tell Elena about all of it."

"What? Why?" Sheriff Forbes asked shocked.

"The vampire from yesterday had been following her and yesterday before you and the others arrived, he tried to take Elena away and when I tried to stop him his face changed and she saw it."

"Poor girl, she doesn't seem to get a break." Sheriff Forbes murmured. "How did she take it?"

"She understandably freaked out a little but she did calm down when I explained." Damon lied. "I also, with her permission, put vervain in the armband Stefan had given her."

"That's good." Sheriff Forbes smiled.

"So, what did you need?" Damon brought them back to the reason the sheriff was there in the first place.

"There's been another attack." Sheriff Forbes informed him grimly. "A female victim, her throat torn out and completely drained of blood. It fits the pattern."

"I'm sorry, I don't understand. I thought we solved that problem when I..." Damon looked around. "Staked the male one."

"You have to give him credit for being an amazing liar and actor." Elena murmured to Stefan.

"I'm thinking that he must have turned someone." Sheriff Forbes sighed. "Or several someones. I don't know. The story for the town is another animal attack but I'm not sure how long we can keep lying to them. The council is in an uproar, we thought we were past this."

"So, uh, what do we do?" Damon asked slowly.

"You are the only one who's ever taken on a vampire." Sheriff Forbes looked at him. "We were hoping you could tell us."

Elena and Stefan pretend to be busy when Damon and sheriff Forbes came back in again.

"Elena." Sheriff Forbes smiled kindly at her as she walked past her towards the door.

"Sheriff Liz." Elena smiled back, it was a bit of a joke between her, Caroline and Carolines mom. Every time Elena had been over at Carolines house since she woke up in this world, she had called Carolines mom for Sheriff Forbes until the sheriff had asked Elena to call her Liz and Elena had responded with 'Of course, Sheriff Liz.' And the name had stuck after that.

Damon said good bye to Sheriff Forbes and shut the door and then Stefan was up and had Damon pushed against the door.

"Stefan!" Elena chastised as she glared at his back.

"What is wrong with you?" Stefan growled at Damon, ignoring Elena. "You killed someone?"

"You can't just throw around accusations like that, Stefan." Elena chided in Damons defense and she got a look of shock and awe from him before he hid it behind a wall.

"Get off of me." Damon pushed Stefan off. "A) don't touch me. B) If I had, I wouldn't have been so obvious about it. And C) There's another vampire in town."

Damon turned around and walked towards the parlor with Elena and Stefan following.

"That's impossible." Stefan mumbled.

"Obviously not." Damon drawled mockingly.

"If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Elena murmured.

"Did you just quote Sherlock Holmes?" Stefan and Damon looked at Elena.

"No, I quoted Spock." Elena smirked and put her hand up in a Vulcan salute. "Liv long and Prosper!"

"You're a trekkie?" Damon asked surprised.

"I like a bit of everything to be honest." Elena shrugged. "Star Trek, Star Wars, Iron Man, Stargate..."

"You have hidden depths, Miss Gilbert." Damon smirked at her.

"I know." Elena sassed as she flipped her hair over her shoulder.

Damon laughed as he walked over to his alcohol table to pour himself some bourbon. "So, did you come over just to insult Stefan or...?"

"Oh, right." Elena perked up and pulled a green box out of her jacket pocket and turned to Stefan. "Happy late birthday."

"You didn't have to get me anything." Stefan smiled and gently took the box.

"I know but you're my friend." Elena shrugged with a small blush.

Stefan slowly opened the box and froze when he saw what was in it. On the satin pillow inside the box was a Viking bracelet in black leather with an amulet in the form of Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, surrounded by the 24 Old Norse runes 'Futhark' for divination, incantation and the holy protector.

"It's beautiful." Stefan gently took it out and put in on his right wrist. Then he walked over to Elena and pulled her into a tight hug, "Thank you."

"That's a really amazing gift." Damon as he came closer to be able to see the armband better, almost sounding jealous. "Hey, Elena, I have a problem and I would really appreciate if you could help me?"

"That depends, is it a 'I'm in love' sort of problem or a 'I can't fit the body in the trunk of my car' sort of problem?" Elena asked with a smirk. "Because the first one I can't help with."

"So, you would help me hide a dead body?" Damon chuckled.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Elena shrugged. "The best place to hide it would be in a graveyard, there the likelihood of it ever being discovered is slim to none."

"Elena?!" Stefan gapped at her while Damon laughed.

"What? It's true!" Elena defended her idea.

"I don't think that is what he has a problem with." Damon chuckled with a smirk.

"Oh." Elena hummed. "Anyway, what did you need my help with?"

"I need you to take this and follow it." Damon handed her a pocket watch.

"This is Jeremys." Elena accused. "Where did you get it?"

"Found it in the hand of the guy who shot Stefan full of wooden bullets." Damon shrugged. "It used to belong to Jonathan Gilbert and it is designed to track vampires."

"And you can't use it because you interfere with the signal." Elena nodded in understanding.

"Exactly." Damon had a smirk that was part smile on his face. "I want you to go out and follow where that compass is pointing while talking to me on the phone. That way you won't be in danger and we can quickly find the other vampire."

"Okay." Elena nodded and said good bye to Stefan as she walked towards the door.

"I'll meet you at the career fair after you're done." Stefan called after her.

She drove very carefully as she followed the compass to an abandoned warehouse at the outskirts of town. Elena already knew it was Logan Fell but she just couldn't tell anyone else that. What was she supposed to say, 'The vampire you are looking for is Logan fell, how do I know? I saw it in a dream.'? Please, everyone would think her insane.

"So, what do I do now?" Elena asked after she had given Damon her location.

"Just wait there, I'll be there soon." Damon said as he hung up the phone.

Elena started to hum softly to herself as she waited for Damon to arrive.

"You can give me that now." Damon held out his hand for the compass as he arrived beside Elena. "Then you can go to that career fair that Stefan talked about, I'll handle it from here."

"Okay, be careful." Elena smiled softly at him and got into her car.

XOXOXOX

Elena met up with Stefan at the school and they slowly walked inside together. "I'm guessing you're not here to plan the path for your future? You are here to look out for me."

"Hope that's okay." Stefan shrugged. "Before everything happened, I wanted to be a doctor, but then I couldn't."

"Because of the blood?" Elena asked softly, then she looked thoughtful. "Wouldn't being a medical examiner be one of the best jobs for a vampire? I mean, there would be access to free blood or something?"

"I really don't have the control to..." Stefan trailed off and changed the subject. "I've dabbled in a bunch of different things over the years, though."

"So why didn't you stick with one thing you loved doing?" Elena looked at him as they walked past a booth with pamphlets about journalism.

"I had to move before anybody could notice that I wasn't getting any older." Stefan shrugged.

"How long can you usually stay in one place?" Elena looked intrigued.

"Few years." Stefan hummed. "Sometimes shorter."

"I'm sorry." Elena murmured.

"What about you?" Stefan asked with a smile. "What do you want to do?"

"It's probably going to sound silly." Elena mumbled with a blush.

"No, it won't." Stefan reassured.

"I want to write books for children and teenagers." Elena admitted. "And I was going to ask Jeremy if he wanted to illustrate them."

"I think you would be very good at that and I'm almost certain that Jeremy would illustrate them for you." Stefan smiled at her.

"Hide me!" Jenna ran up to them and tried to hide behind Stefan.

"What's going on?" Elena chuckled at her aunt's antics.

"The Scum Fell has landed." Jenna glowered.

"Logan's here?" Elena asked.

"Wait, Logan Fell?" Stefan asked surprised.

"Stefan, if Logan is here, and you told me he died, where is Damon?" Elena murmured so only Stefan could hear her.

Before Stefan could answer Logan came up to them, "Jenna, are you dodging me?"

"It's a form of self-preservation." Jenna glared.

"Back off Logan or I will rip your balls off." Elena stepped in front of her aunt.

"Um, Elena, why don't you and Jenna go somewhere else?" Stefan angled his body so Logan couldn't get at either Elena or Jenna.

"Come on aunt Jenna." Elena grabbed Jenna's arm. "Let's go talk to Mr. Saltzman."

"Hi Mr. Saltzman." Elena called out with a smile as she dragged Jenna over to the history teacher.

"Hello Jenna." Mr. Saltzman smiled at Jenna then he turned awkward and embarrassed as he looked at Elena. "Hey Elena."

"Mr. Saltzman, just because you have seen me naked doesn't mean you have to be such an awkward cookie." Elena smirked as Mr. Saltzman spluttered and Jenna laughed. "Now could you take care of aunt Jenna and keep her creep of an ex away?"

"Creep of an ex?" Mr. Saltzman still looked embarrassed but it seemed like he chose to focus on helping Jenna.

"Logan Fell." Elena informed him. "He won't leave her alone."

"I'll look after her." Mr. Saltzman nodded, then he turned and smiled at Jenna. "It's not like it's a hardship to spend time with you."

"Thanks Mr. Saltzman." Elena smiled and started to leave.

"You know, you can call me Ric." Mr. Saltzman called after her.

"Thanks Mr. Ric." Elena called back cheekily.

Elena finds Stefan outside of the school. "Is Damon okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine." Stefan reassured her. "He's on his way here."

Stefan explained everything as they walked down a hallway together. As they walked, they bump into Matt who's walking in the opposite direction.

"Hey." Matt nodded at them.

"Hey Matt, have you seen Logan Fell, the news guy?" Elena asked.

"Yeah, he just gave Caroline a ride home." Matt informed them and walked off.

"Stay here." Stefan started to leave.

"Stefan." Elena called after him. "Make sure Caroline is okay and safe?"

XOXOXOX

An hour and a half later Elena had started to pace in the hallway. When she sees Stefan on the other end of the corridor, she hurried over to him. "Caroline?"

"She's okay, I took her home." Stefan told her quietly. "She was shaken up but she handled it very well."

"And where is Scum Fell?" Elena sneered as she said the name.

"Damons dealing with him." Stefan said.

"As in...?" Elena asked and at Stefans nod she smiled darkly. "I hope Damon makes him suffer."

"Elena." Stefan sighed.

"What? He threatened my aunt and kidnapped my best friend." Elena snapped. "I am not some goody goody two shoes who want everyone to get along. I have a lot of darkens in me too."

"Sorry." Stefan mumbled.

"No, I'm sorry." Elena sighed. "I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"It's okay." Stefan hugged her. "You've had a lot happen today."

"It's not okay." Elena insisted. "Could we maybe go to your place and just watch Disney movies for a while?"

"Yeah, that would be nice." Stefan smiled.

After they arrived at the boarding house, they made their way to Stefans bedroom. They argued for a while on what to watch but decided on The Little Mermaid.

"Do you leave everything here when you come and go?" Elena asked as the end credits roll on the tv.

"It's the only place that..." Stefan hesitated before he continued. "...that has remained constant. This room holds every memory that I've ever thought was important enough to hold on to."

"That is a lot of memories." Elena smiled gently.

"Yeah, I've collected a few over the years." Stefan chuckled. "You thirsty or anything?"

"A little, yeah." Elena admitted.

"Let me get you something to drink." Stefan smiled and walked out of the room.

Elena decided to look around and started to explore. She absolutely loved the antique watch standing on Stefans desk, it was beautiful. Then she saw an old picture and went to pick it up. Elena knew about doppelgängers and everything but knowing and seeing are two different things and staring at a picture of Kathrine just made sadness fill her for some reason.

Elena gently put the photo down and left. Going to her car and driving off. Did Stefan only become her friend because she looked like Kathrine? Was she a replacement for a woman he lost or couldn't have?