Okay, so I'd followed Damon to the Gilbert's place and listened sadly when he told Jeremy of Anna's death. I was just curious! It wasn't too creepy. I don't think. Probably.

I was just walking away from the side yard when I heard Elena say, "What are you doing here?" I don't know what compelled me to do this, but I impulsively crept towards the porch, hiding in the dark and shadows.

"A failed and feeble attempt at doing the right thing," he said tightly, and I wondered what was wrong with him. I knew Jeremy hadn't taken the news well, but that was no reason for Damon to be upset.

"Which was?" she huffed as she lugged her bags up the steps. He took them and laid them on the porch swing.

"It's not important. I'll take these away."

"Thank you." The curls in her hair still hadn't died down from this morning, and she was wearing a leather jacket I hadn't seen on her before. A smile flickered on and off her face like the crackling flame of a candle.

"You know," he started, "I came into this town wanting to destroy it now I've found myself wanting to protect it. How does that happen? I'm not a hero, Elena. I don't do good. It's not in me." It happened because you're caring about people again, I thought.

"Maybe it is." Maybe it is. I'd heard that said somewhere, just like that, when I'd asked aloud if the strength to kill my family was in me. Maybe it is, she'd replied. I couldn't breath, but I couldn't move either. I had to know what would happen.

"No. That was reserved for my brother and you and... Bonnie, even though she has every reason to hate me, she still helped Briana save me." I saw her face split in confusion for the briefest of moments, but she quickly composed herself.

"Why do you sound so surprised?" All she was doing was asking questions.

"She did it for you, even though Briana's the one who asked. Stefan told me you'd gone to Bonnie and convinced her to save me, which means that somewhere along the way you'd decided that I was worth saving." I could tell it hurt him in his stance and the twisted tone of his voice, the idea that Elena felt for him. It would change everything even if she did. "And I wanted to thank you for that."

"Your welcome," she murmured, and this was it.

Damon leaned towards her tentatively, tipping his head forward to kiss her softly on the cheek. Rage boiled inside of me, knocking the air out of me, and I bit my knuckle to keep from crying out. He does love her, just like Isobel said. When he pulled away, Elena looked serene and there was something glinting in her dark eyes that pushed him forward again, and...

they kissed.

I couldn't take it. I ran towards the open window on the right of the house and jumped up to grab the edge of it's pane. I knocked my hand twice on the siding of the house and when I peeked over the edge, Jenna looked around, and then walked out of the room and towards the door, thinking someone had knocked. Just as I had hoped. I was on top of the roof over the porch in a microsecond,and dipped my head over the edge, my choppy hair falling around my head. Elena noticed me and I wagged my finger like a mother looking at her child, ashamed. Her eyebrows pushed towards each other as she kissed Damon harder, and at that very moment, the door opened and light poured out into the yard. As I had done with him, he hid his face behind her collar, and her mouth dropped open.

"Hi," she said coolly. I couldn't see Jenna's face, but I can imagine the shock.

"It's late. You should probably come inside." Elena grabbed her bags sending one more irritated glance at me and walked into the house and Damon, who had his back to me, rubbed his lips when the door closed, and the street was once again enclosed in thick darkness. When he walked off the porch, listening as Jenna asked accusingly, "What are you doing?" I grimaced. Faintly, I heard 'Elena' reply, "I don't want to talk about it."

Damon looked back once, utterly freaked, and ran his tongue over his lip. I would've growled if it wouldn't have given me away. Between Jenna, a relative, and Damon- who was in love with her for crap's sake- hadn't realized. Nobody had known the truth except me. Granted, I knew who had kissed Damon better than either of them, though I hadn't slept with her like he had. But seriously?

Nobody had noticed Katherine was back?

Katherine's POV

It had been so easy to fool Damon I wanted to laugh out loud. Jenna had been silly enough to invite me inside unintentionally, but, as I walked my bags up to the room I could tell was Elena's, what bothered me was her. Apparently, she went by 'Briana' now. Last I'd seen her, her name Mariann, but to just see her there, while kissing Damon, posing as Elena two hundred years later... well, let's just say it was a shock. I walked into the kitchen, and I noticed John Gilbert's black pants under the door of the fridge. I hid my grin. The door closed and he nearly ran right into me. He reared back.

"You scared me," he mustered. I shrugged.

"Sorry." I pushed past him to dishwasher and began to unload like a good girl as Jenna had asked me to. She hadn't been too happy to see me in Damon's arm. Gladly, I grabbed the handful of shining knives and brought them over to the counter, setting them by the holder on a towel.

"You know I met Isobel when I was a teenager," John said, and I prepared for a lecture, jabbing the proper blades into their slots, "and I fell in love with her instantly, although she never loved me. She was special." That's not true. Isobel was a curiosity, but only another smart human who begged Damon to turn her and then hit the switch on her emotions. Nothing new. "Part of why I hate the vampires so much is because of what she became. How it ruined her. I never would've sent her to Damon had I known she wanted to turn. It's my fault." I turned to him and he leaned on the counter. "I'm telling you this because I'd hoped maybe you'd understand." I nodded.

"Thank you."

"Can I help?" I eyed his gaudy blue ring, inlaid with an ancient silver crest.

"Sure." And then I cut off his fingers. They slid across the counter on a pool of thick scarlet blood and I rammed him against the opposite counter. I felt my eyes shift, and in a second, all the pieces fell together in his. I smirked.

"Katherine?" he gasped. I raised the knife in my hand and forced my opposite elbow into his chest.

"Hello, John. Goodbye, John." I thrust it into his gut and then froze. There was the sound of a voice outside, a very familiar voice. Mine. Elena was walking up to the door, the knob turning slowly... this was going to be fun.

Briana's POV

Esther was there. In that empty blackness, she was there illuminated with a single spotlight, not laughing or sneering, just standing there, frozen. What was most interesting was her eyes, a pure, immaculate white like I'd never seen, and they were leaking tears. She was crying a long stream of red blood that fell into an impossibly large pool. I looked all around me, disoriented, but all I saw was darkness and her and that blood at her feet. And then it was morphing.

Shapes were crawling out of the blood, grasping the bottom of my mother's violet robes, gasping in the raw, freezing air. I knew those shapes. It started with Rebekah and Kol rising up, leaning on each other for support, and hunching over around my mother. Then came Finn, loyal to my mother, taking her in his arms. Last was Elijah and Klaus, true brothers, all of them soaked and spluttering. Slowly, Klaus took Esther from Finn's arm and looked at her lovingly. And then he bit her. She screamed horribly, clawing at his face, but he kept ripping into her flesh, tearing at the veins until she was just gore and mess, laying silently in his arms, dead. But that screaming was still sounding in my head, pounding on my skull. It wouldn't go away.

"Briana!" someone said. And the vision broke. I looked around, shapes doubling and blurring into one another. Damon was there. When I saw him, the shrieks cut off. My shrieks. My sheets were damp, and I could feel a cold sweat drying all around my body, yet I felt feverish. That was impossible. I was anti-vamp, and I don't get sick.

"Wha-what's going on, Damon?" I breathed and shuttered. He rubbed my arms and I wildly grasped his hand, still seeing the bloody forms of my family, my marred mother. They were everywhere, hiding in the crevices and corners of the room, glaring at me.

"Shh, it's okay. You were just having a nightmare. It's over." Gradually, I calmed down, my pulse slowing, and I took several deep breaths. "Good thing Stefan's at the hospital-"

"The hospital? What's happened?" I was losing it again, and though the images were gone, I was still scared out of my wits.

"John Gilbert. He's been attacked, plus Caroline Forbes went into surgery after the Lockwood kid ran their car up a pole. I think the Gilbert device affected him, but I don't know how. It got his dad killed, too, but you saw that." I pinched my lips and nodded. So Tyler hadn't gotten Matt and Caroline home in time. Damn it. "I already went up their, comforted the Sheriff, but nobody knows what happened to John."

And I wasn't about to tell them. I'd meddled in peoples' lives much too often to know that knowledge is a burden to those who are to weak to protect it. They needed to figure things out for themselves, which they will.

"Are you okay now?" I nodded and gave a shaky smile, trying to play strong. He made to get up but I snatched his wrist, pulling him back down.

"Don't leave me."

He looked down at me, a strand of fine midnight hair falling over his face. He blew it away. A slick smile pulled at his lips, and I ran my fingers over his bare chest, searching for a handhold to pull him down. Finally, he laid down, pulling my duvet and blankets over his blue boxers. I snuggled up to him, curling against his torso and pressing my toes to his. The smile grew larger and he wiggled his foot around mine, tickling me. I giggled and punched him in the chest, forcing out, "Stop it!"

"Oh, you're ticklish? That's interesting," he joked, poking me just under the ribs and brushing his fingertips across my stomach. My nightmare was practically forgotten. The pain was delightfully fun, and I could barely speak it was so overwhelming.

"No! I-I can't... breath!" and he stopped.

We were still catching our breath, laughing softly when I kissed him. Technically we didn't need to breath, and I much preferred this to filling and releasing air from my lungs. Damon returned it enthusiastically, letting his tongue run over my lip. I almost pulled back when I remembered how he'd licked his lip after he'd kissed Katherine, but he seemed to have forgotten that completely, or figured out that Katherine was here already. That was probably awkward.

He pulled me towards him, closer and nearer until there wasn't a centimeter of space between us anywhere, my leg hitched up his thigh, his hand crawling up my shirt. His lips were everywhere, on my neck, my collarbone, and then returning to my mouth. Any breathing done was wild gasps in the gaps of time where our lips weren't connected. This wasn't love, it was far too quick for that, but it was pure lust and need, our own desperate connection. I wanted Damon. When he sank his fangs into my body, I let him. As my heart and pulse was a defense mechanism, I pumped human blood through this body, and Damon could take it if he pleased. It wouldn't harm me.

There was the gentle pull of blood leaving my body, and I moaned. When he was sated, he licked the remaining blood from my neck, and that was when my night became strange. I couldn't remember the reason I'd ran off to Mystic Falls; I forgot that Damon was a snake charmer, and that I was the venomous viper. I craved him. Everything after that was lost in the nighttime. Damon was mine, and no one, not Elena or Katherine or anyone, would have him.

Elena's POV

So, Katherine was back. I was laying down with Stefan, replaying it's events in my head. Damon had walked up to me in the hospital and offered to give Caroline blood, and I honestly think he was doing it for Sheriff Forbes, seeing as how he'd actually looked caring when he'd calmed her tears and worry. The key word was 'looked', but I still think he cared.

When Bonnie had left, he'd looked all serious and started going off about some kiss we'd supposedly shared last night after my bags had gotten stolen and turned up miraculously on my bed. And then, Jenna had shown up ranting about how she'd told me where she was going when she really hadn't and Damon got the weirdest look on his face. It was a mixture of fear, shock, and unsurpassed realization. He'd asked where Stefan was, and I said probably on his way to my house. Then he dropped the bomb: Katherine's been having a bit of fun.

We entered my house to find Stefan pressed against the door frame to the living room, looking frightened and worn out. Katherine had attacked him, saying, "At least I fooled one of you." Later, I'd found out that Damon had unintentionally kissed the vamp bitch thinking it was me, which Stefan nearly tore his head off for, and I know I hurt his feelings when I'd turned him down. He'd left the house looking peppy and arrogant, but I know I'd broken him a little bit.

Then why couldn't I stop thinking about it?

Damon had tried to kiss me, and, under it all, there was something growing in me. It was betrayal, a sick, burning feeling that made my toes curl. I couldn't hide it, couldn't deny the fact that, though I was relieved it had been Katherine instead of me, there was the smallest bit of me that wished it really had been me. It was so tiny it could've been considered insignificant, but it filled my thoughts, and I couldn't get over. Sometimes, I wish it had been me, just to see how I would've reacted, but I knew that, no matter how much I would've kissed him back if at all, I would always choose Stefan. It was always going to be Stefan.