***********

The next day Elena was helping Damon and Stefan clean up after yesterday's home invasion. She had started to clean up all the glass as she listen to Damon rant about yesterday.

"I say we go to Pearl's, bust down the door and annihilate the idiot that attacked us last night." Damon growled as he was putting up boards over the broken window.

"And then what?" Stefan groaned. "Turn to the rest of the vampires and say 'Oops, sorry' and hope that they'll let us leave?"

"Can't we just talk to Pearl?" Elena asked softly. "It's just..."

"Just what?" Stefan asked.

"To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi." Elena smiled slightly. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"What is that feels bad about it?" Stefan looked at her.

"I don't know." Elena admitted with a shrug. "I have the feeling that something is coming."

"Are we sure we can trust Pearl?" Stefan wanted to know then he turned towards Damon. "Why did you make a deal with her, anyway?"

"It was less a deal and more a helpful exchange of information. And it's not like I had a choice." Damon defended himself. "She's...scary. Besides she's going to help me get Kathrine back."

"Are you sure you want too?" Elena looked at him sadly.

"Want to what?" Damon asked.

"Find Kathrine and take her back?" Elena murmured.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" Damon smirked.

"Because she doesn't deserve you Damon." Elena walked up to him and placed her hand gently on his cheek. "She abandoned you for 145 years and I don't want her to hurt you again."

"I...I...I need to go." Damon stuttered out and was gone before Elena could react.

"I didn't mean to make him uncomfortable." Elena muttered.

"He'll be okay, he's just not used to people caring." Stefan pulled her into a hug.

"How are we going to handle the vampires from the tomb?" Elena asked after a while. "I don't have anything against Pearl or Anna but those that attacked us are going down."

"Let me and Damon handle it, please." Stefan pleaded. "I just want you safe."

"And I want you and Damon safe." Elena declared with a glare, then she softened. "I'll go home so I can get something to eat and maybe take a nap."

"You okay?" Stefan asked concerned, never having heard about Elena taking a nap in all the time he had known her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Elena smiled. "I just didn't sleep well last night, weird dreams and stuff."

"Okay, drive safely." Stefan told her softly.

"Absolutely." Elena smirked teasingly. "100mph the whole way."

XOXOXOX

Elena woke up to insistent knocking on the door. She got up from the couch, were she had taken her nap, and went to open the door.

"You're ignoring me." Damon walked in as soon as the door was open.

"No, I'm not." Elena defended herself as she rubbed her left eye and closed the door with a yawn.

"I've tried calling you 6 times and you didn't answer." Damon looked at her.

"Oh, sorry I was taking a nap and must have not heard my phone." Elena walked over to the couch, looking for her phone.

"That means Stefan isn't here." Damon groaned.

"Should he be?" Elena asked as she finally found her phone.

"He went out to hunt in the woods earlier and hasn't come back." Damon started to pace. "I can't reach him on his phone and I hoped that he was with you."

Elena tried calling Stefan to and looked worried when he didn't answer. "It'd going straight to voice-mail. Where could he be?"

"You're not going to like the answer to that." Damon muttered.

"The tomb vampires." Elena cursed as she remembered what had happened in the show.

"You're really smart and insightful." Damon muttered quietly.

"What?" Elena asked as she pulled on a jacket.

"Nothing." Damon shook his head. "Where are you going?"

"With you to get Stefan." Elena pushed Damon out of the door and locked it behind them.

"No, you're not." Damon denied.

"Watch me." Elena put on her knuckle duster and walked over to Damons car and got into the passenger side. Before she closed the car door she called out to Damon, "You coming or what?"

"If you are coming with me you have to promise me to stay in the car while I go talk to them." Damon said as he started the car. "Otherwise I'll knock you out and fucking leave you on your porch."

"But..." Elena started to protest but stopped at the look she got from Damon and sat back with a pout. "Fine."

XOXOXOX

Elena was bored and worried out of her mind as she sat in the car waiting for Damon, knowing he would return without Stefan due to the fact that he couldn't get into the house.

"What happened?!" Elena got out of the car as she saw a pissed looking Damon approaching.

"They have him!" Damon snarled and punched a tree. "I can't get in."

"They have a human who owns the property." Elena groaned. "I hate it when the bad guys are smart."

"Yeah that sucks." Damon snorts. "They also compelled the woman who owns the house to never let me in."

"I guess it time to do some work for a living." Elena declared and pulled on her knuckle dusters and pulled out a knife from her bag, then she started to walk the way Damon had come from.

Damon vamp-sped in front of her. "And where do you think you are going?"

"To get Stefan." Elena said it like it was obvious. "Just because you can't get in doesn't mean that I can't."

"You are not going in there!" Damon growled.

"We can't just leave him." Elena looked up at Damon sadly.

"I know, Elena, I know." Damon sighed. "They are torturing him for revenge and I can't get in to get him."

"We need back up." Elena declared and started to smirk. "Who do we know that is a self-proclaimed vampire hunter and can't be killed by supernatural creatures?"

"You are a genius." Damon grabbed Elena and spun her around in his arms with a laugh.

It took them around 40 minutes to get to the school and the whole way Elena and Damon had argued about whatever Elena would go into the house or not.

"Damon, it's my choice." Elena told him strongly. "And I appreciate that you care about my wellbeing, I really do, but I am going."

"Fine, but you do everything and anything to get out of there alive even if it means leaving me, Stefan or the teacher to die!" Damon looked at her seriously.

"It's adorable that you think I would actually do that." Elena smiled and patted his cheek.

Damon muttered a few profanities as he and Elena walked into the school to find the history teacher/vampire hunter.

"What do you want?" Alaric glared as Damon vamp-sped in front of him.

"Maybe I just want to see how many times I can kill you before that ring of yours stops working." Damon smirked.

"We need your help, Mr. Saltzman." Elena told him as she elbowed Damon in the ribs.

Elena explained everything as they made their way to Alaric's classroom. "Stefan's in the house and because Damon is a vampire, he can't get in. We need you because Damon won't let me go by myself."

"I really want to forbid you to go at all but you are one stubborn little bitch." Damon groused.

"Thank you." Elena beamed at him.

"Her life is valuable, yours isn't." Damon looked at Alaric. "Your ring makes you the expendable one."

"What about my ring?" Alaric twisted the ring on his finger.

"Let's recap, shall we?" Damon sneered. "You tried to kill me, I defended myself, you died and then you came back to life... You see where I'm going with this?"

"Yeah but you forgot the part where I try and kill you again but this time, I won't miss." Alaric glared.

"Why do you hate Damon?" Elena asked with a condescending look. "Is it because he turned your wife? It's not like he just woke up one morning thinking 'Oh today I'm going to turn Alaric Saltzman's wife'. She begged him to turn her so if you want to hate anybody it should be her. I do."

"That's not the same." Alaric started to say.

"Your right." Elena interrupted with a sneer. "She's not my wife, she's my biological mother and she abandoned me when I was a baby. So, she left you to become a vampire? Suck it up and be a man!"

"I'm sorry Elena, but it's not my problem." Alaric looked at her sadly.

"That's a shame." Damon hummed thoughtfully. "Because the woman in charge of the crowd can help you find your wife."

"You're lying." Alaric glared.

"Am I?" Damon shrugged. "Why don't you ask her yourself, coward? Come on Elena."

Elena and Damon started to leave but was stopped by Alaric. "All right! Wait, I'll go!"

Ten minutes later Alaric was pulling out all his vampire hunting equipment and placing it on his desk and Elena felt like messing with him a little more.

"So...which cabinet was it that was a shrine with half naked pictures of me?" Elena looked around the room innocently.

"What?" Alaric spluttered and dropped a stake.

"What are you talking about?" Damon asked.

"Oh, you didn't know?" Elena hummed. "Apparently Tanner had a shrine in one of the cabinets dedicated to me, full of pictures of me in different states off undress, which basically means that Mr. Saltzman here, has seen me naked."

"Has he now?" Damon murmured but what Elena couldn't see was the dark glare he was sending Alaric.

"What are these?" Elena picked up something from the table.

"Those are tranquilizer darts filled with vervain." Alaric explained, happy to change the subject.

"Just get me in and I'll get Stefan out." Damon declared.

"You are not going without me." Elena told him with a raised eyebrow.

"Elena." Damon groaned.

"Damon." Elena said in the same tone of voice.

"I can't protect you in there." Damon looked her in the eyes. "I don't know how many vampires there are in there."

"I can take care of myself." Elena defended.

"Wasn't it you who asked me to teach you self-defense because you didn't know how to throw a punch?" Damon asked.

"True." Elena nodded in agreement. "But I can almost guarantee that it doesn't matter if you are human or a vampire, a knee in the balls still hurts. Plus, I have this." Elena took out a water gun from her bag with a smirk.

"A water gun?" The disbelief in Damons voice was strong.

"Yes." Elena smirked. "Filled with liquid vervain."

"Okay, that is actually quite genius." Damon admitted.

"If were gonna go, let's go!" Alaric called out as he made his way out of the classroom.