A couple of hours later Elena walked out of her bathroom in her pajamas, booty shorts and a tight top, only to jump when she's startled by Damon sitting on the bed.

"Holy shit on a pogo stick!" Elena cursed with a chuckle. "You scared the bejesus out of me."

"Sorry." Damon said quietly. "I'm only doing my part in the neighborhood watch."

"Thank you for looking out for my family." Elena said sincerely.

"Well, I'm the brother who is calm in a crisis." Damon mumbled.

"Have you been drinking?" Elena laughed as she walked over to her dresser to put on some fluffy socks.

Damon held up his thumb and forefinger a small distance apart, indicating that he had been drinking a little.

"And you didn't bring any with you so we could keep drinking?" Elena mock huffed. "Rude."

"And you're surprised that I would kiss you." Damon muttered to himself in disbelief.

"Damon..." Elena looked at him.

"You see yourself as unlovable because someone has hurt you and forced all these thoughts about being weird and a freak into your head." Damon got up from the bed and walked towards her. "And it's like you can't see the way Stefan looks at you or even how I look at you, like you are the most important thing in the universe."

"What?" Elena exclaimed quietly, really not understanding what he was talking about.

Damon grabbed her face gently in his hands and kissed her softly with intense passion. Elena's eyes widened in surprise and she froze, then she pulled back while placing her hands against his chest.

"I can't." Elena mumbled. "I'm sorry but I don't see you like that."

"I hope you know that I won't stop trying to make you see me like that." Damon murmured to her. "You are the most amazing woman I have ever met."

"Damon..." Elena sighed and was about to continue when Jeremy cleared his throat from the door.

"Sorry to interrupt." Jeremy smirked, showing he was clearly not sorry. "But Stefan is here."

"Sorry I'm late." Stefan said as he walked in, sending an apologetic look at his older brother.

"That's okay." Elena smiled.

"I'm going to play some COD with Anna." Jeremy informed them. "Have fun you three."

"Say hello to Anna from me." Elena called after him as she closed her bedroom door.

"What was it you wanted to talk to us about?" Stefan asked when Elena turned back towards them.

"A few weeks ago, I started to have weird dreams of a dark being walking besides me. It wasn't evil or anything like that, It was actually protecting me from something." Elena explained as she started to pace. "Then I started to feel like I was being watched, followed by seeing the same dark being in the corner off my eye. It's presence, as I've told you both, feel powerful and old."

"This is the same thing you said stroked your face?" Damon asked, trying to clarify if it was the same being or not.

"Exactly." Elena nodded. "But then on the morning of the Founders' Day parade I noticed this." Elena pulled down her top to show the two tattoos in the valley between her breasts.

"Are those...tattoos?" Stefan asked as he and Damon walked closer to see better.

"I guess." Elena hummed. "Except they just appeared overnight."

"They look likes ancient Nordic runes." Damon hummed in thought.

"YR for Death, End, and War." Stefan mused quietly. "And ALGIZ for Life, Beginning and Protection."

"And you know this...how?" Damon looked at his younger brother.

"I looked up different runes after Elena gave me my armband." Stefan would have blushed if he could.

"You are such a nerd." Damon said fondly as he ruffled Stefans hair.

But Elena wasn't paying any attention to them, instead she started at the corner of her room, completely frozen. The dark being was standing there, just looking at her. Before the being flickered and vanished, Elena thought she saw It nod at her.

Elena was knocked out of her shock by her phone ringing. "Hello?"

"Elena?" Caroline sounded shook up and scared.

"Caroline, what's wrong?" Elena was on high alert in seconds.

"I think Kathrine killed me." Caroline murmured.

"Are you okay?" Elena asked softly.

"She looks so much like you." Caroline mumbled a bit dazed.

"Caroline, can you tell me what happened?" Elena coxed her best friend.

"Yesterday someone who I thought was you came to visit but she said her name was Kathrine and that I was supposed to give a message to the Salvatore brothers and then she smothered me with a pillow." Caroline sobbed quietly. "And then I woke up and I'm so very hungry."

"I'm sending both Stefan and Damon to you, okay?" Elena looked at the brothers and they nodded back and left.

"I don't want to hurt anyone." Caroline sniffled.

"I know and even if you accidentally do hurt someone, we'll fix it." Elena tried to reassure her. "What was the message, by the way?"

"She just said to tell them 'Game on'." Caroline sounded confused.

"Hey Elena." Stefan's voice sounded over the phone. "Me and Damon are here now and we'll take care of Caroline, okay?"

"Thank you both and tell Caroline that I love her." Elena told him and hung up.

If Kathrine was in town that meant that there soon would be werewolves and originals and a sacrifice in which she herself had center stage. Should she try and save Trevor and Rose or just let it play out as it did in the tv show? Well, this was going to be fun, note the sarcasm.

XOXOXOX

A few days later Elena and Bonnie are helping prepare for the Mystic Falls High School Carnival. Elena hadn't seen Damon or Caroline in that time but she talked to Caroline at least once a day.

"Kathrine looked just like you." Bonnie murmured. "It was freakish."

"Why do you think I went to the hairdresser and asked them to put in blood red highlight in my hair?" Elena asked, gesturing to her hair. The blood red highlights almost glowed as the sun hit Elenas hair, making it looked like she had actual blood in her hair.

"I understand that." Bonnie nodded. "And it looks really good."

"Thank you." Elena smiled. "By the way, I moved the student booth into the cafeteria."

"How do you know she's not out there pretending to be you?" Bonnie asked slowly.

"Oh, that's easy." Elena shrugged. "I don't. What I do know is that those 'in the know', so to speak, know to ask me a personal question if they get uncertain if I'm me or not."

"I can't believe Kathrine actually killed Caroline to send a message." Bonnie looked sad at the thought.

"If Damon hadn't given her his blood earlier, she would have been gone." Elena felt her heart squeeze at the prospect of losing her best friend.

"How you talked to her since she turned?" Bonnie asked softly.

"Yeah, I talk to her every day. She's doing good, Damon has been teaching her control." Elena smiled. "On that point, did you make the daylight ring for her?"

Bonnie looked through her bag and pulled out a ring, "Here, I hope she likes it."

"She will love it." Elena reassured as she took the ring from Bonnie. "I'm going to find my brother to see if he set up the goldfish thing, see ya later Bon."

"See you later." Bonnie smiled.

Elena found Jeremy at his locker talking to Stefan.

"Jere-Bear." Elena bounced over and hugged her brother.

"Sister-mine." Jeremy hugged back.

"How sure are you that I am me?" Elena asked with a smirk.

"100%" Jeremy chuckled. "I don't think that Kathrine would bounce over and call me Jere-Bear while hugging me and I'm certain she wouldn't ask if I was sure if you were you."

"You might me right about that." Elena giggled.

"What am I?" Stefan looked mock offended at being ignored. "Chopped liver?"

"I'm sorry." Elena looked down, then she bounced over to Stefan and hugged him with a squealed, "Steffy!"

"Elena!" Stefan hugged back with equal enthusiasm.

"Jere, did you..." Elena started to ask as she pulled back from Stefan.

"Yup, I set up the gold fish toss with all three hundred gold fish." Jeremy patted Elenas head with a smirk. "It's going to be epic!"

"Of course, it is." Elena laughed even as she tried to dodge Jeremys' hand. "You did it."

"You two are the weirdest people I have ever met." Stefan told them with a laugh.

"Thank you!" Jeremy and Elena chorused as they bowed to him.

"Anyway, Damon said that he would bring Caroline to the carnival to test her control." Elena beamed as she sort of bounced in place. "I have missed my bubbly blond bombshell of a best friend."

"She has missed you to." Stefan smiled at her. "But she didn't want risk hurting you."

"She is so sweet." Elena gushed. "But tell her I wouldn't blame her or be mad at her if she accidentally hurt me."

"Elena." Jeremy groaned.

"What?" Elena looked at him.

"While you might care if you get hurt, I do and I would bet that others do too, like Stefan, Damon, Jenna..."

"Okey, okey, I get it." Elena mumbled. "It's just...rather me than my friends and family, you know?"

"If you're not going to value your own life, we'll do it for you." Stefan declared.

Elena just looked at them sadly, not understanding why they would care so much, no one else ever had. When she was Alex, people only liked her for what she could do for them and when her usefulness was gone, they dropped her like yesterday's trash.

"Here." Elena said after a while, holding out Carolines new ring towards Stefan, trying to change the subject. "Bonnie made a daylight ring for Caroline."

"Thank you." Stefan said as he put the ring in his pocket. "I should get this to Caroline as soon as possible, but I'll see you both at the carnival this evening."

"Absolutely." Elena smiled as Stefan walked away.

"Hey Elena, could we talk?" Jeremy asked hesitantly after Stefan was out of sight.

"Of course." Elena looked at him with big earnest eyes. "You know you can talk to me about anything."

"How about lunch at the grill and the we can talk while we eat?" Jeremy asked hopefully.

"Oh, yes, I want a smokey BBQ hamburger with onion rings and Coca-Cola." Elena almost drooled as she pulled her little brother after her.

"I absolutely love that you never eat salads or healthy food, it's just pizza, hamburgers and steak when it comes to you." Jeremy laughed as he followed Elena.

"Why would I force myself to live on rabbit's food? I'm a carnivore and anyway; YOLO." Elena chuckled, then she stopped and frowned. "Unless you are a vampire, then I guess it becomes YOLT."

"YOLT?" Jeremy asked as they started to walk again.

"You Only Live Twice." Elena smirked.

The car ride was spent singing along to the radio and in Elenas case, who wasn't driving, dancing in her seat.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Elena asked as her and Jeremy sat in a booth at the grill waiting for the food.

"Me and Anna." Jeremy admitted after a few seconds.

"Okey." Elena nodded and then thanked the waitress for their sodas. "What about you two?"

"Well, you know how we are dating and hanging out and stuff?" Jeremy mumbled awkwardly.

"Yeah..." Elena said slowly. "Jeremy what is bothering you?"

"I really, really like Anna." Jeremy looked at Elena. "But..."

"Here is your food, enjoy." They were interrupted by the waitress arriving with their food.

"Thank you." Elena smiled, then when the waitress was gone, she turned back to Jeremy. "But...?

"I think I only like her as best friend." Jeremy mumbled as he picked up a fry.

"Why do you think it's only like a best friend?" Elena asked kindly.

"I don't feel any sparks when we touch, no butterflies in my stomach when we are going to meet and that sort of stuff." Jeremy groaned. "But I like playing video games with her and watching movies. I don't know what I should do, Lena."

"Talk to her." Elena told him gently.

"That easy, huh?" Jeremy looked at her sadly.

"Trust me, she will appreciate it way more if you talk to her and explain how you feel than if you try to pretend to be something you're not." Elena smiled softly.

"But what if she hates me afterwards?" Jeremy asked, worried.

"She might be sad and hurt but I don't think she'll hate you." Elena reassured him. "But if she does then she wasn't worth your friendship anyway."

"Thank you, Lena." Jeremy looked at her with love. "You are an amazing sister and I love you."

"I love you to, little brother, and I always will." Elena smiled brightly at him.