Elena's cell phone started to ring which woke up the three friends sleeping in Caroline's bed and witch a groaned "Go away!" Caroline pushed Elena out of the bed.

"Unf." Elena groaned as she hit the floor and glared back up at Caroline. Then she crawled over to the dresser to answer her phone. "Hello?"

"Shhh." Bonnie hissed at her from the bed.

"Elena!" Caroline reprimanded, annoyed at being awakened.

"How was the slumber party?" Stefan asked with a laugh.

"Good and much needed." Elena said as she walked out of Carolines room.

"I'm glad that it helped." Stefan hummed.

"How's Tyler?" Elena asked softly.

"He called Jeremy yesterday and they both stayed here for the night." Stefan told her. "He didn't want to go home where Jules could get to him."

"Hmm." Elena hummed thoughtfully.

"What are you planning?" Stefan chuckled, knowing by now about Elena's weird but brilliant mind.

"Tyler doesn't want to go home where Jules and her pack of murderers can get to him, right?" Elena murmured.

"Right." Stefan agreed.

"Maybe we should either let him stay at my place, your place or maybe even send him to spend some time with Mason until this whole mess is over." Elena suggested.

"I can ask him what he wants to do, if you want?" Stefan offered.

"Yeah that would be great." Elena smiled. "But tell him he doesn't have to decide right this second either, there's no pressure."

"By the way," Stefan said. "I have actually fixed so you can stay at the Gilbert cabin for the weekend, you know, to get away for a while."

"Oh, that sounds nice." Elena sighed. "Thank you."

"You are very welcome." Stefan laughed. "I'll pick you up from your place in around two hours."

"Sounds good." Elena agreed and hung up.

She looked down at her phone and noticed a text message, which she opened quickly.

Elijah:

You're welcome.

Elena smiled as she felt warmth fill her chest and then she frowned. Why did these weird things keep happening around Elijah, was she sick? Then she looked down at the text again and the smiled crept back on her face.

She quickly snuck back into Carolines room to grab her things and then made her way home to pack a bag for the weekend. As she walked towards the Gilbert house, she started to plan what to pack.

An hour and a half later Stefan nocked on the door to the Gilbert resident and walked in when he heard Elena call out for him to enter.

"Ready for your relaxing weekend?" Stefan smiled as he saw the enthusiasm on Elenas face.

"Beyond ready." Elena bounced in place. "Let's go before John shows up pretends to be a concerned father."

"I'll put the bags in the car then, shall I?" Stefan chuckled and carried the bags out.

Elena walked after him and when her phone buzzed, she pulled it.

Caroline:

Need to talk, where are you?

"Please tell me there is nothing wrong." Stefan begged as he saw her with her phone in hand.

Before Elena could answer she got another text from Caroline.

Caroline:

All good, never mind. Have fun!

"Nothing's wrong, Caroline wanted to talk but I guess it could wait till Monday." Elena smiled brightly. "Let's go."

XOXOXOX

Stefan pulled up to the lake house and turned to Elena when she sighed sadly, "You okay?"

"Yeah, I just miss Pearl, Harper and Anna." Elena smiled at him. "But they seem to be having fun with traveling all around the world and I don't blame them."

"Did you also get the post card from them?" Stefan chuckled as they stepped out of the car.

"The one from France? Absolutely." Elena laughed softly. "Anna has also been sending be pictures every few days. She also sent a video of Harper trying cotton candy for the first time, you should have seen the look of absolute wonder on his face."

Stefan grabbed the bags from the car and followed Elena up to the front door. she unlocked the front door and walked in with Stefan right behind her until he froze right outside the door awkwardly.

"You don't have to wait out there, you know?" Elena looked at him.

"That's great but um..." Stefan shifted awkwardly. "I'm stuck."

"Oh, my God!" Elena started to laugh. "You can't get in."

"I'm glad that you find this so amusing." Stefan mock glared at her. "Could you be kind enough to invite me in?"

"I can't, I'm sorry." Elena became completely serious. "The cabin belongs to Jeremy."

"You're kidding me, right?" Stefan asked a little worried.

Elena just looked at him seriously for a while until her lips started to twitch. "Stefan Salvatore, I hereby invite you into this home."

"You are such a liar." Stefan vamp-sped over to her and started to tickle her.

"I give, I give." Elena called out admits her giggles.

A few hours later Stefan and Elena were preparing dinner while they listen to some soft music playing in the background.

"I love cooking and baking." Elena told Stefan as she chopped some onions. "But I got to admit that I absolutely loath chopping onions."

"You okay?" Stefan chuckled as he saw the tears running down Elenas face.

"Next time you can chop the fucking onions." Elena declared as she was finally done and stepped back from the chopping board.

"Here, try this." Stefan placed a cold wet towel over her eyes.

"Thanks." Elena murmured.

"Any time." Stefan smiled even though Elena couldn't see.

"Fire's dying." Elena said as she took the towel of her eyes after a few minutes. "I'll go and get some more wood while you finish dinner."

"No, no. It's cold outside." Stefan protested.

"So, I'll get a jacket." Elena shrugged and walked up to her parent's old bedroom.

Elena knew there was a hidden room with vampire hunting equipment up here thanks to the tv show and she wanted to find it. On the closet door she saw a jacket and pulled it down to toss it at Stefan.

"Here, bundle up. It was my great-grandfathers." Elena smiled as she watched Stefan put it on and pop the collar. "It looks good on you, you should keep it."

"Are you sure?" Stefan asked.

"Yes, I'm not going to use it and I don't think Jeremy would want it." Elena walked further into the closet. "And if you have it, it will at least be of use instead of hanging in the closet for the rest of time."

"Thank you." Stefan smiled at her.

Elena stumbled over a pair of old shoes and fell against the wall, mostly on purpose. "Hey, Stefan?"

"Yeah?" Stefan walked over to her.

"Does this sound hollow to you?" Elena asked and knocked on the closet wall.

"Hmm." Stefan broke of one of the wall panels and then removed the rest with ease to show a hidden door behind the wall.

"That is seriously awesome." Elena giggled with excitement.

"If nothing else it's a very good hiding place." Stefan said as he broke the lock on the door.

As Stefan flipped the light switch, they see an arsenal of weaponry for hunting vampires within the hidden room. Elena looked around with wide eyes, "Oh my God."

Elena removed a journal from the bookcase and flipped through it. "This must be the other Jonathan Gilbert journals. Jeremy had one but John said that there were other. His whole life must be in here."

"I'll go get the firewood while you look through all this." Stefan smiled and left.

Elena looked around the room in excitement, this could come in handy in the future. As she looked around, she saw a few newer looking journals all with the name Greyson Gilbert engraved on the front.

After putting the Greyson journals in her bag to bring home to read she walked out into the living room, rubbing her arms due to the cold. She walked out on the porch and called out to Stefan, "Are you growing the trees out there?"

When Stefan doesn't respond she glanced around in worry and started to walk down the steps, "Stefan?"

Elena pulled out the small switch blade that Lee had sent her and flipped it open, "Stefan, what are you doing out there?"

Suddenly, Brady came up behind Elena, who quickly turned around with a gasp and stabbed him in the stomach. As Brady fell to his knees Elena rushed back into the house, shutting and locking the front door behind her.

Elena ran up the stairs just as Brady kicked the front door open with ease. He called out to her, "I can smell you!"

She tripped on the step closest to the upstairs landing and fell forward. Elena tried to quickly get up and run but brady managed to catch her by the hair just before she could run into a room. Brady threw her down on the floor and was on her before she could react.

"I'll show you how wolves show dominance." Brady snarled and started to rip at her clothes.

"Get off!" Elena scratched and kicked and bit at whatever she could reach.

"You'll make a good pack bitch before we do the ritual." Brady smirked darkly as he squeezed her breast painfully through her shirt.

Suddenly Brady froze with a pained look on his face and then he collapsed to the side. Elena looked up in time to see Stefan drop Brady's heart to the floor as he slowly walked over to her.

"It's okay. It's okay. You're okay. You're okay." Stefan repeated softly as Elena started to cry and run into his arms. "You're all right, it's okay."

"I want to go home, Stefan." Elena murmured.

"Okay, we'll go home." Stefan agreed. "You just sit here on the couch while I clean up a little, okay?"

"Okay." Elena sat down and pulled a blanket around her.

Half an hour later Stefan walked back into the room. "We're good to leave."

Elena stood up slowly, "I'm sorry I ruined the weekend."

"That's no fault of yours." Stefan reassured. "By the way, Damon called and we need to talk."

"What is it?" Elena asked softly.

"He learned that Elijah is planning for you to die in the ritual." Stefan told her.

"I know the deal I made, Stefan." Elena smiled gently at him. "Elijah's very careful with his words and while he promised to protect my pack, he never said anything about me."

"You knew you weren't going to survive this?!" Stefan glared at her.

"If it comes down to a choice between me and the people I care about, I will always give up my own life without hesitation." Elena informed him. "And you can all hate me for it but I rather you be alive to hate me than have you caring for me and be dead."

"Have can you just stand there and not care that you are going to die?" Stefan asked like he couldn't comprehend it.

"I'm just willing to do whatever is needed to keep you all safe." Elena said.

"No!" Stefan growled lowly. "What you are doing is you're being a martyr."

"You fucking hypocrite!" Elena glared at him. "How is this any different from when you say that you will die to keep me safe?"

"Because I've lived. 162 years I have lived and you've barely begun and now you want to let yourself be killed?" Stefan scoffed. "That's not heroic, it's tragic."

"One person can live more in one lifetime that others can in several." Elena snapped as Stefan walked past her to the car.

The car ride back into town was spent in silence. Elena was certain of her choice of being sacrificed in the ritual and it wasn't just to keep her pack safe. Klaus has spent a thousand years with part of himself gone and Elena wanted to help him get it back.

She couldn't imagine having to live with that. It must be so painful and hallow to miss part of your being so it's no wonder he had anger issues and such.

When Stefan pulled up to the Gilbert house, she said a quiet goodbye to Stefan as she grabbed her bag and walked in. the first thing she did when she entered was walk up to Jenna and hug her.

"Elena?" Jenna asked even as she hugged back. "You okay?"

"Not really." Elena sobbed and told her about what had happened with Brady.

"Oh, baby." Jenna hugged her tighter. "Want to go with me to show Elijah around some historical sights tomorrow to get your mind of things?"

"Yeah that would be fun." Elena pulled back and dried her eyes.

"Want me to make you some hot chocolate?" Jenna offered; it was the only thing except coffee she could make.

"No thanks, aunty," Elena giggled softly. "I'm just going to take a shower and then go to bed."

"Okay, love you doodle bug." Jenna kissed her head.

"Love you to aunty." Elena smiled and walked up the stairs.

She slowly stripped of her clothes as she started to feel the aches in her body from Brady throwing her on the floor, then she froze as she looked at herself in the mirror. There on her left breast was a dark hand shaped bruise where Brady had grabbed and squeezed.

Elena stepped mechanically into the shower and turned the heat up and then she sank to the floor as sobs wracked through her body, hoping that the shower would prevent the sound from reaching Jenna.