Alaric knocked on the door as Elena and Damon waited hidden at the side of the house. As Alaric lied about his car breaking down to be let in to borrow the phone Elena had to hide her face in Damons chest to not make a sound as she did her best to not laugh, that was the most used trick in the book for fucks sakes.

As Alaric is let in Damon and Elena walked over to the door to wait for Alaric to come back.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Miss Gibbons said as Alaric opened the door for Elena and Damon. "He's not allowed in the house."

"I know that." Alaric said. "But you have to make an exception."

"Just get her out of the house." Damon snarled.

"Sorry not sorry." Elena reached forward and grabbed Miss. Gibbons arm to pull her out of the house.

"Now, Miss. Gibbons." Damon grabbed her and looked her purposefully in the eyes. "Tell me the truth. Are you married?"

"No." Miss. Gibbons answered dully.

"Parents, children, anyone else who lives on this property?" Damon asked.

"No, it's just me." Miss. Gibbons said.

"Good." Damon smirked and broke her neck.

"You were supposed to compel her!" Alaric glared.

"It doesn't work that way." Damon told him.

"She's human!" Alaric kept glaring.

"And Damon isn't and truthfully, if he hadn't killed her, I would've." Elena said as she pushed her way past Alaric and into the house.

"That is one hell of a girl." Damon smirked then he turned to Alaric. "Now, get out of here and get rid of the body."

Elena runs into an unknown man? vampire? Manpire? Vampman? Eh, whatever, he tried to attack her but she punched him in the face with her knuckled duster making him call out in pain and then while he was shocked, she stabbed him with a stake, killing him for good, and kept going to the basement.

A man is standing guard by the door at the end of the hall and Elena assumed that it would lead her to the basement and Stefan. She made herself ready to attack him with one of her vervain filled syringes but before she could Damon had already dispatched him.

"Nicely done on the one in the hallway." Damon complimented her.

"Thank you." Elena smiled and together they walked down the stairs to the basement.

"Elena." Is the first thing she hears as her and Damon enter the cellar. "You shouldn't be here..."

"She refused to be left behind." Damon informed him and was about to stake the dark-skinned vampire staked to a chair.

"No, no, no, no, not him." Stefan mumbled out.

"Whatever." Damon shrugged. "Let's get you down."

"There's vervain on the ropes." Stefan hissed.

"Elena, pull that." Damon gestured towards something behind Stefan.

Elena pulled at the rope thing and Damon caught his little brother as he sagged to the floor. "All right, let's go."

"Wait." Stefan said and made his way over to the dark-skinned vampire to help him.

"What's your name?" Elena asked gently as she helped Stefan remove the stakes from the dark-skinned vampires legs.

"Harper." The vampire groaned out in pain.

"Hello, Harper." Elena smiled. "My name is Elena and I wished we could have met under different circumstances."

"Me too." Harper tried to smile bit it came out like more of a grimace.

"Do you want to come with us Harper or would you like to stay here and wait for Pearl to come back?" Elena asked softly.

"I'll stay here and wait for Pearl." Harper smiled at the kind young woman. "But thank you for the offer."

"If you ever need anything you can come find me and I'll do my best to help." Elena smiled, she hoped she could save Harper from her uncle/dad, he was such a sweet and gentle soul.

"Can you get him to the car?" Damon interrupted when Stefan and Elena were done pulling out the stakes.

"Yeah." Elena nodded in determination. "But what about you?"

"You rescue, I'll distract." Damon smirked. "Go!"

Stefan groaned as they slowly and in Stefans case painfully make their way back to Damons car. Elena looked at Stefan in concern, "Can you make it?"

"Ugh hu." Stefan groaned out in some sort of agreement.

The took a couple of more steps and then Elena tripped and they fell. She hissed in pain as she cut herself on something sharp but felt that it was something she could deal with later.

"You okay?" Stefan mumbled.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Elena reassured and helped him to his feet. "Come on, keep going."

They finally arrived at the car after some very colorful curse words from Elena. "We're almost there."

Elena helped Stefan into the car and went to the driver side to see that something was wrong. "Stefan..."

Before Stefan could ask what was wrong, the vampire that had called her Kathrine busted the window on Stefans side and pulled him out and started to beat him.

Elena ran over just as the vampire was about to stake Stefan in the heart. She launched herself at his back and plunged the vervain filled syringe into the vampire's neck with a loud "No!!"

"Stefan!" Elena tried to slap him awake but he was almost none responsive. "You are not allowed to desiccate! You hear me?!"

"Elena please run." Stefan mumbled out.

Elena looked at him and she knew that she could just feed him her blood but at the same time she didn't want to. She knew how Stefan became on human blood and while she didn't care, he did.

"Here." Elena held out her bleeding hand to him, he could hate her later as long as he was alive to actually hate her. "You need it."

"Go, Elena, run!" Stefan tried to make her leave him.

"No!" Elena snapped. "I trust you."

Stefan finally drinks the offered blood and regains his strength. Suddenly he is up and has the vampire that Elena vervain against a tree, repeatedly stabbing him in the heart with a branch.

"Stefan!" Elena called out to get his attention.

Stefan spun around, his face in full vampire form. Elena just smiled kindly at him, the vampire face was almost adorable, and slowly walked closer to him.

"I think he's really dead now." Elena informed Stefan with a small laugh.

Elena softly helped Stefan clean his face of the blood and led him to the car just as Damon arrived.

"You two okay?" Damon looked them both over with worry.

"Yeah, we had a little hick-up when we were attacked by that one." Elena gestured to the desiccated vampire by the tree. "But Stefan made him dead dead."

"Good on you little brother." Damon clapped him on the shoulder as he started the car so they could go back to the boarding house, Damon and Alaric shared a nod as Alaric got into his own car.

Around an hour later Elena stared out of Stefans bedroom window as Stefan approached her from behind.

"How are you doing?" Stefan asked softly.

"I'm good, thanks to Damons blood I am fully healed." Elena smiled at him. "What about you?"

"I'm okay." Stefan reassured. "The wounds have mostly healed."

"That's a relief." Elena hugged him.

"I'm sorry you had to see me like that." Stefan pulled away self-consciously.

"Hey, look at me." Elena touched his face to make him look at her. "I wasn't scared of you, okey? I know what you are Stefan and you could never scare me away by just looking a certain way."

"You really mean that." Stefan sounded so shocked that someone could accept him for all of him and not just the 'good' parts.

Elena's phone rang and she answered with a smile when she saw that it was Jeremy. "Hey, Jere...What?... What's going on?... Oh, no. Shit!...I'll be home soon, okay?" Elena hung up.

"They've found Vicki's body. You know it only takes one wrong step to turn you from somebody into some body." Elena shrugged with a bit of dark humor as she made her way out of the boarding house.

Elena arrived home at the same time as Jeremy. "You okay?"

"Yeah, but what are we supposed to do?" Jeremy asked as he closed the door after they both had walked in.

"You are going to play the grieving ex-boyfriend and I'm going to be the supportive big sister." Elena declared with a dramatic bow.

"Wanna watch a movie or something?" Jeremy asked after a while.

"Sure, but I want explosions." Elena decided.

"A New Hope?" Jeremy smiled.

"Sounds good." Elena agreed and walked into the kitchen to make popcorn.

"I'll go get it from my room." Jeremy called out as he ran up the stairs.

"Is it okay if Anna joins us?" Jeremy asked as he came back into the living room just as Elena put down the soda and popcorn.

"As long she's okay with cuddling." Elena turned to smile at the vampiress that was partly hidden behind Jeremy. "You want soda or blood with your popcorn? Or both?"

"Blood?" Anna asked shocked.

"Yeah Elena got a couple of blood bags in the fridge for when Damon is here." Jeremy smiled.

"Both it is." Elena chuckled. "I hope you're okay with A+."

"That's fine." Anna looked like she had been hit or something.

Elena came back from the kitchen with two more glasses, one empty so Anna could have soda and one filled with blood.

"Thank you." Anna smiled in wonder at the Gilbert siblings.

"No problem." Elena beamed and sat down on the couch as she pulled Jeremy down at the same time so he could sit in the middle.

The movie began just as Anna sat down beside Jeremy and like they had practiced it her and Elena leaned against Jeremy at the same time with a content sigh.