A/N: Jenna was such an amazing character that the writers either took advantage of or forgot she was there. Here is my take on Jenna being an awesome guardian and what her character could have brought into the fold if she knew wayyyyyy earlier. Enjoy xoxo

GILBERT HOUSEHOLD

"Ow!" Caroline hissed as Jenna used her tweezers to remove another shard of wood from Caroline's skin.

"Sorry," Jenna winced, placing the wood in a bowl with the many other shards she'd removed.

Caroline shook her head; she hadn't moved her eyes from Aella's still unconscious body since Jenna began, "No, it's fine."

Jenna placed the tweezers down with a tired sigh, "Caroline?" The blonde didn't move her gaze, so Jenna gently turned the blonde tear-stained face to meet hers, "Honey? It's not alright." She gestured to the tools and bloody gauze around her, "This will never be alright."

Caroline tried to hold back more tears, "But I'm a vampire; I'll heal." She showed Jenna the arm that had been cleaned up only minutes before, "See." She tried to smile brightly, but the tears that followed betrayed her, yet she pushed on with the act, "Look, I'm already healing; you'd never know."

Wiping the tears, Jenna smiled sadly at the teen. "But you know...." She pointed to Caroline's heart, "Here-" then to Caroline's head, "-and here. You will always know."

Caroline swallowed down her sobs, glancing back over to Aella, who remained unconscious, Stefan unmoving by her side before whispering heartbreakingly, "I was so scared."

"Oh, Honey," Jenna pulled the blonde into her arms, allowing Caroline to finally break down. When the eyes of her niece and others focused on them, she waved them away, smiling thankfully at Ric as he closed the door separating the kitsch from the living room. "You are safe now, Caroline. You will always be safe here."

"He just wouldn't stop," Caroline sobbed. "He acted like it was game, a water gun with vervain, and he would write stupid vampire puns on the wooden bullets. He put me in a cage like an animal, he spat on me, and he leered down at me with this sick look in his eyes." Jenna just held her tight, this was Caroline's time, but she couldn't stop the tears from falling the more the teen spoke.

"I thought..." Caroline pulled back and roughly wiped her face, which Jenna was quick to halt. "I thought that when I became a vampire, I'd never feel so dirty, so demeaned by someone. I'm immortal, the strongest I've ever been physically and emotionally, and he just..." she sobbed into her palms.

"You are strong," Jenna forcefully told her, pulling her psalm down so she could look Caroline dead in the eye. "You were in a cage and tortured." Caroline flinched at the last word, but Jenna continued. "But you prevailed. You are sat here, safe and loved. You are surrounded by so many people who love you. And what about him? Where is he?"

Caroline huffed out a laugh, "He's teeny tiny pieces."

Jenna pulled back, confused, "What?"

A real laugh fell from Caroline's chapped lips, "Yeah, Aella exploded him into teeny tiny bits."

Jenna blinked, then blinked again, "Okayyy." She blinked a third time, her shock making Caroline smile to herself. Even unconscious, Aella could stun. Jenna composed herself, "Okay. We'll table that for when my delinquent-" she side-eyed where Aella lay "-awakens. But for now, know you are safe and you are loved. Got it?"

Caroline nodded her head, "Got it."

Jenna picked up the tweezers with a wiry grin, "And so we continue." She had just started on another wooden piece when there were raised voices from the living room. Just as she plucked the wood out, the doors flew open, and there Damon stood, "Damon," Jenna smiled a little too widely, her gaze on another piece she was about the remove, "I wondered when you and your need-to-know-all attitude would burst in here."

Damon smiled mockingly at the guardian before he turned his sight on Caroline, his steps stumbling slightly as he noticed the wooden pieces Jenna had removed from her body already. He quickly straightened and asked the blonde straight, "What the hell happened?"

"Apparently, Aella blew someone to pieces," Jenna answered for her a little too cheerily. She missed Tyler, who stood just behind Damon, and flinching.

"What!?" Damon exclaimed before he turned to Tyler, who saw the blood there and casually told the teen, "Well, that explains that mess. But it doesn't explain how a dozen wolves were incapacitated like ants under a boot, and Aella looked like the holy ghost possessed her!"

"I don't know!" Caroline exclaimed; she glanced at Tyler, angered when he avoided her stare. "One minute, a gun is being held to my heart, and the next, we're all pushed by this force, and this bright light is just everywhere."

Damon turned back to Tyler, "And you?" He motioned to the teen's soiled clothes, "Did Aella really..?"

Tyler seemed to tense at the question. Suddenly he turned on the spot and marched out of the house, slamming the door behind him; the room seemed to freeze at his actions, except for Stefan, whose eyes had finally lifted from Aella's face to narrow his eyes at the door Tyler had exited from.

Elena appeared at the loud noise, slightly breathless from running down the stairs, "What the hell was that?"

"Where's John?" Damon asked her instead.

Elena glanced around the room, shoulders dropping in disappointment that Aella had not awoken, and told him, "Jeremy and Ric are distracting him with questions about Jonathan Gilbert."

"John's not stupid," Stefan spoke up. "He needs to be gone. We need him as far away from Aella as possible."

Elena rolled her eyes as she sniped over her shoulder, "You're the one who brought him here."

There was a groan from the couch as Aella croaked out, "I told you so."

Everyone seemed to rush into the living room and surround her as her eyes slowly fluttered open, only to shut firmly again when she saw everyone looking down at her, "Whoa! A little space, people!"

Damon rolled him, stepping back with everyone else, "She's fine."

"Of course she's fine," Jenna returned to the kitchen. "She got to say her favorite phrase. She's always fine when she can prove someone wrong."

Stefan and Caroline were the only two who hadn't moved. The blonde smiled tearfully down at Aella, "Are you okay?"

Aella grabbed her best friend's hand and squeezed, "Are you?"

Caroline nodded shortly, then pulled away, returning to the kitchen with Jenna. Aella's eyes, while still a little drowsy, followed her intently.

"Hey," Stefan nudged her, and her attention turned to him; his eyes were full of comfort. "She's okay; Jenna's looking after her."

Aella swallowed heavily, "I heard it all."

Elena perched on the couch next to Aella's legs, brows furrowed, "Heard what?"

The witch's teeth gritted, "Brady." Her eyes flashed a bright green so quickly only the two vampires nearby could see.

While Elena fell onto Aella to hug her tight, Damon pulled his brother up and hissed, "We need to talk."

As they left the living room, Ric was just walking down the stairs. Damon's brow rose, "I thought you were on John Gilbert babysitting duties?"

Ric rubbed his forehead roughly, "I may be a history teacher, but listening to that man talk about Jonathan Gilbert makes me want to put needles in my ears."

"Forget him," Damon pulled Ric towards them. "We need to discuss what Mini Morgana did to the werewolves."

Stefan sighed heavily, "She dealt with them, isn't that enough?"

"Enough?!" Damon exclaimed in a harsh whisper. "Stefan, we were worried about one wolf killing us, and she just scared the shit out of a pack of them. You heard what Caroline said; she exploded one of them."

Ric shifted on the spot, "If I hadn't seen it, I'd have never believed it." His eyes glanced to where Aella lay, "But it reminded me of a very similar event not too long ago when someone else-" his eyes met Stefan's "-she wanted to protect was in danger."

"The tomb vampires," Stefan remembered when he tasted Aella's blood for the first time. The power he could feel running through his body had gone on for days; he had felt invincible.

"It was just like tonight," Ric recalled. "A gust of energy and the tens of vampires that were ready to kill me and Damon-" He snapped his fingers "-incapacitated. But unlike the vampires, she hurt them. She punished the wolves for what they did to Caroline."

Stefan twisted his lips before he revealed, "Jonas, Elijah's witch, he was there because of me. I called Elijah for help."

Damon's eyes widened, "And when were you going to tell me that?"

Stefan ignored him as Ric asked, "Do you think Jonas helped her?"

When Stefan said nothing, Damon was even more frustrated, "What?"

"Jonas did nothing," Stefan hesitantly divulged. "In fact..." He shifted uncomfortably, "He looked terrified."

This time it was Damon who was quiet as he glared at his brother. The air hissed from his nose as he tried to hold back his anger, "You're telling me that Elijah's big bad witch was scared of Pixie? I don't know if that helps us or has made things a billion percent worse!"

"Stefan?" Elena approached the group slowly, her brow raised at Damon's exclamation. "Aella's asking for you."

Stefan nodded, waiting for the girl to leave before he turned back to Damon, "I'll deal with Aella. You get John Gilbert out of town."

"Cleaning up after you again, little brother," Damon snarled before he turned and left the house, not even caring to shut the door behind him.

With a heavy sigh, Ric closed the door, "Has Lexi found anything new?"

Stefan shook his head, "No, but I'll call her tomorrow. Update her." He glanced over his shoulder where Aella lay and motioned with his thumb, "I better see Aella."

Ric nodded, his eyes looking mournfully up the stairs, "Yeah. I better get back to Jeremy; give him a break from John."

The two separated, and Stefan returned to Aella, who had a hot tea in her hands and looked a little less pale. Their eyes met when she saw her boyfriend, and Stefan could see they looked less dopey than when she had awoken.

"Hey." He smiled, sitting next to her. "How are you feeling?"

Aella smiled tiredly, "The devil whispered to me, 'I'm coming for you.' And I whispered back, 'Bring tacos.'"

"Soft or crunchy?" Stefan's lip quirked, happy she was joking again.

Aella smirked, "Soft, of course, he's the devil. That bitch punk deserves the second-best taco."

Stefan laughed; it was a sound he'd not heard for a few days, days he and Aella had been arguing. The two stared at each other before simultaneously blurting out, "I'm sorry."

"I shouldn't have called Isobel," Stefan finally admitted. "I was so angry at you going missing, thought you'd been hurt. Only to find you'd been with Elijah for hours."

"I just needed you to trust me," Aella confessed tearfully. "You've always trusted my instincts."

Stefan nodded, "I have, and I do." He squeezed her leg, happy to have her so near again. "I was just so scared...." He slowly leaned over and kissed her forehead, "Tomorrow, we'll talk, okay?" Aella's smile was the answer he needed. "Do you need anything-"

Suddenly the Gilbert front door slammed open, and Bonnie came running in. When she saw Aella on the couch and Caroline in the kitchen, she let out the loudest relief of breath before bending over and gasping, "Oh, thank god!" She glanced between her cousin and friend, "You're both okay. Right?"

Elena smiled tiredly at Bonnie, "They're... good." However, Bonnie saw her eyes dart to Caroline for a split second.

Bonnie straightened up, "When Grams told me...." She hesitantly approached Aella, "All I could think was that I'd messed up again, and if anything had happened to you...."

"It's okay, Bon Bon," Aella smiled, waving off her cousin's apology.

Bonnie frowned; Aella had not only called her Bon Bon, but she was also smiling a little wider than Bonnie was comfortable with. "A-are you sure?"

"Aella's a little high on magic right now," Stefan explained gently, and Aella waved at her.

Bonnie opened her mouth to question him when Elena stepped close and hissed, "Accept it; at least she's not flinging you across a room."

Bonnie's mouth shut with an audible snap, and that's when Caroline stood, Jenna's tweezers removing the last splinter from her skin, and announced, "I better get home."

Jenna frowned, "Is your mom home?"

"No," Caroline shook her head and, shrugging on the jacket Elena had leaned her to hide her ripped clothes, "She's at work."

Jenna's eyes darted to Stefan, sending him a very 'mom' look. It had Stefan offering immediately, "I can come if you want me to?"

Caroline sent a narrowed look over her shoulder at Jenna before walking towards the door; she answered him with a bit of frustration in her tone, "I'm fine, Stefan."

Elena stopped her motion by standing before her, "You don't have to pretend with us, C. What you went through tonight...."

"I'm okay, Elena," Caroline smiled tightly, moving her friend to the side. "I'm not girly little Caroline anymore. I can handle myself."

Aella pouted, "But I love girly little Caroline."

Caroline pointed to her friend, "a) That doesn't make sense. b) You don't get a say; you're practically high right now."

"Um, excuse me!" Aella exclaimed and stumbled off the couch, her legs not ready to walk just yet. When Stefan moved to help her, she glared at him. Her boyfriend held up his hands in defeat. "A) I'm Aella Bennett, I don't have to make sense, and e) you just got horrendously tortured for hours, that deserves one thing and one thing only...." Trying not to fall flat on her face, Aella missed the winces of her friends at her lack of tact, and instead, she went full-on jazz hands as she sang, "A sleeeeeeeepover!"

The room was skeptically quiet at her announcement before Elena declared, "Okay, she's definitely got brain damage."

Aella quickly glared at Elena as Caroline tried to shuffle to the front door, "As nice as that is, I just want a shower and then go to bed."

As Caroline's hand touched the handle, she pulled, only to feel a pressure holding it shut. She spun on the spot to see a smug Aella holding her hand, her green eyes practically alit with magic despite only using the smallest amount as the witch not so apologetically said, "Well, I want to lay on a private beach being fed grapes by Leonardo DiCaprio, but we can't have it all can we?"

Caroline pulled with all her strength, to the point the door handle began creaking before she gave up with a glare and a low, "Fine."

Aella's smug smile was wiped when her legs could not hold her up anymore; the small amount of magic she had been using too much, and Stefan quickly swooped in. As Caroline stomped upstairs, Aella smiled up at her boyfriend in appreciation.

"Leonardo DiCaprio?" He questioned with a raised brow.

Aella tapped his chiseled cheek playfully, "I love you, Stefan. But Leo will always be the one that never had the opportunity to get away."