Elena sat up with a gasp. The gasp had alerted the others in the room and they rushed over to where she was sitting on a bed.

"What happened?" Elena asked as she looked around. Damon, Stefan, Jeremy, Caroline, Bonnie and Mason were standing around her bed with relived expressions on their faces.

"What do you remember?" Stefan asked slowly.

"We were going to get the moonstone from a well full of vervain, the chain broke and hit me and then you had to call Caroline." Elena told them. "I found the moonstone and then..."

"You stumbled into the well wall and the three ribs that broke when the chain hit you were pushed into your lung." Stefan explained what had happened. "You were drowning in your own blood."

"But I didn't." Elena gestured to herself. "Obviously."

"But it was a close call." Caroline told her. "If I hadn't arrived when I did and Stefan hadn't had me lower him into the well to get you up you wouldn't be here."

"But I feel fine." Elena looked earnestly at them.

"Only because Stefan, Caroline and me gave you our blood." Damon stated as he gently grabbed her hand.

"You almost died, Lena!" Jeremy actually sobbed as he hugged her close.

"Your heart stopped for ten seconds." Stefan took a gasping breath.

"I'm am so, so, so sorry!" Mason mumbled. "It's all my fault."

"Okay, that's it, pity party over!" Elena stood up, absentmindedly noting that she was wearing Stefans sweatpants and Damons shirt, and looked at her friends and family seriously. "I am fine and my injury is nobody's fault but the rusty chain that decided to give up on its own life. We clear?!"

"Yes ma'am!" The others chorused and everyone started to laugh.

After they had calmed down Elena turned towards Stefan and Caroline, "Are you two okay? I know I was covered in vervain when you pulled me up from the well."

"We're fine, all healed." Caroline smiled.

"How did it go with the glamor pendant thingy?" Elena turned towards Bonnie and Mason.

"It's done but we haven't tried it yet." Bonnie smiled and held out a silver necklace that looked like an arrow head with a red stone in the middle. "Mason, I need you to put this one, okay? I have already keyed me, Jeremy and Damon to it so we can see if it works."

"I like it." Mason said as he inspected it before putting it on.

"Whoa." Caroline hummed. "That is really cool."

"So, it works?" Mason asked.

"Yeah, I would say so." Elena laughed. "Even your voice sound slightly different."

"He looks and sound the same to me." Damon said and Jeremy nodded in agreement.

"To me he looks like a blond surfer, he sort of reminds me of Deeks from NCIS: Los Angeles." Elena told them.

"That's where I recognize him from." Stefan chuckled.

"Seriously good job, Bonnie!" Elena hugged her friend proudly.

"Now we just need to key the rest of you to the pendant." Bonnie smiled. "Need all of you to prick your finger and smear a drop of your blood on the red stone while I chant, okay?"

"Let's do this shiz." Elena took the needle from Bonnie and pricked her finger.

Two hours later Jeremy and Elena walked into the Gilbert house to find Alaric cooking in their kitchen.

"Need any help?" Elena asked as they joined Ric.

"If you could set the table, that would be helpful." Alaric smiled.

"Why does it smell like fireball in here?" Elena sniffed the air.

Jeremy took a whiff and turned to Elena with a smirk. "It's cinnamon you fucking alcoholic!"

"Oh, right." Elena gave a bright smile as Alaric almost broke down in laughter but managed to keep standing.

"Where's aunt Jenna?" Jeremy asked.

Alaric nodded to were Jenna was talking on the phone.

"Who is she talking to?" Elena wondered.

"No idea." Alaric shrugged. "Everything go okay today?"

"Yeah, we did have a few hiccups but it solved itself." Elena smiled.

"You almost dying isn't a hiccup, Lena!" Jeremy glared.

"You what?" Alaric dropped the wooden spoon he was using to stir with,

"I'm fine." Elena reassured as Jenna walked back into the kitchen.

"Elena it's for you." Jenna held out the phone with a tiny smirk and mischief in her eyes.

"Hello?" Elena hummed.

"Hello, Elena." Kathrine greeted from the other end.

"Kathrine." Elena said back, sounding bored.

"Do you know how easy it was to get inside your house?" Kathrine had a smirk in her voice. "To replace aunt Jenna's vervain perfume, to convince her to stop drinking her special tea?"

"What's your point?" Elena asked with a bored sigh.

"What will it take for you to realize that I'm always one step ahead?" Kathrine asked mockingly. "I hope me compelling Jenna to stab herself with a knife will make you get the message."

"Oh, you are so, so, so slow." Elena chuckled. "You really think I wouldn't protect my family against you or vampires in general?"

"Say good bye to your aunt." Kathrine growled.

"Hey Jenna?" Elena called out. "Are you going to stab yourself with a knife or something?"

"God no, why would I do that?" Jenna laughed.

"Something you should know about me, Kathrine, is that I will always protect my family and friends." Elena informed her doppelgänger darkly. "And if I can't protect them, I'm sure as hell going to avenge them!"

Elena hung up the phone with a smirk. She had just quoted Tony Stark from The Avengers two years before the movie even premiered and no one knew. It was a good line tho.

And Jenna was protected thanks to the information Pearl and Anna had given them about Kathrine. Kathrine made a big mistake in forsaking Pearl to rot in a tomb for 145 years because Pearl could be vicious when she was mad.

"Well, it seems like the vervain anklet was a good idea." Jenna smiled.

"What?" Elena asked perplexed.

"I went to the jewelers and asked them to first put some vervain in one of the hearts on the anklet and then soak the anklet in vervain for twenty-four hours." Jenna told them. "I said it was for a religious reason and they accepted that."

"Awesome!" Elena did a happy dance around the kitchen.

As they sat down to eat Elena heard a distant chuckled in her head and smiled. She was going to protect her family against everyone and anyone who wanted to harm them, she wouldn't fail, how could she with Death on her side?