A/N: What's this? Another update? Blasphemy! No, it's true. I've been writing like crazy these past few weeks and had to share my progress. Thank you all so much for the kind words and continuous support. Happy 2024, everyone.

Enjoy this new chapter; we finally have Stefan believing in his girlfriend!

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SALVATORE BOARDING HOUSE

Ric and Damon were in the library discussing their plan, and while Damon was calm as ever, Ric was nervous, "This is a bad idea."

Damon rolled his eyes as he poured them each a glass of scotch, "There's no such thing as a bad idea. Just poorly executed awesome ones." Ric eyes narrowed on him, but Damon just smiled and handed him a glass, "Here."

"No," Ric refused the glass and began pacing, "I don't like the idea of Elijah being in the same house with Andie - she's Jenna's friend. If anything happens to her, I'll be digging my own grave-" he gestured to his Gilbert Ring "-this thing only protects me from the supernatural."

Damon poured Ric's drink into his glass, "Andie's perfectly fine, and you're safe from Jenna, though we haven't actually confirmed she isn't supernatural yet." He ignored Ric's glare, "Besides, it's just a fact-finding mission. It's totally harmless."

Alaric paused his pacing and narrowed his gaze on the vampire, "Just a fact-finding mission?"

"Yeah."

Ric was not convinced, "Listen, no sneak attacks. No surprise plans. Nothing that's gonna put Jenna's friend in harm's way. Okay?"

Damon raised his hand with a relaxed grin, "Scout's honor."

Ric's mouth opened to question Damon more when Andie walked in, "Hey, can you show me where the wine is?"

Damon turned to Ric and smiled. The teacher sighed heavily, "I'll get it." As he left the room, Damon patted his arm reassuringly.

"Thanks," Andie beamed.

Ric's response was not as cheerful, "Yeah."

As soon as Ric left the room, Damon nudged Andie from the door and shut it before he walked over to a small trunk and opened it. Pulling out the silver dagger and white oak ash from inside.

Andie walked over to him and glanced at him curiously, "What's that?"

"Dessert," Damon dipped the dagger in the ash. "Elijah's stronger than me. Faster than me. It's all about the element of surprise.

Andie pouted, "Ah, it's too bad. I like him. He's very old-school. Classy."

To be young, free, and idiotic, Damon thought of the reporter, and instead of saying that out loud, he suggested, "Which is why you should encourage the gentlemen to take their after-dinner drinks in here while you clean up in the kitchen."

He placed the dagger with the glasses and the scotch, hiding it from view as Andie screwed up her face, "Hmm. That is a little too sexist for me."

Damon turned around and looked at her coldly, "Stop talking."

Andie smiled at him, and he thanked what entity created compulsion. The doorbell rang, and Damon looked at the library clock; it was too early for Elijah. Damon just knew he'd turn up on the dot. Old people liked to do that.

Pushing past Andie, he exited the library to see Ric answer the door, and to both their surprise, there stood John Gilbert.

Ric scowled at the man, "Who invited him?"

"John," Damon stepped next to Ric. "Surprise. Leave."

John, unfortunately, didn't leave. Instead, he smiled a little too smugly, "When Carol told me there was a dinner party for Elijah, I decided I couldn't miss out on all the fun and games."

Alaric's glare narrowed, "There are not going to be any games tonight, John." His response was to John, but Damon could hear the words were meant for him too as Ric added, looking directly at Damon, "It's just a friendly dinner party."

John raised a curious brow at Damon, who shrugged, his eyes gleaming, "What he said."

GILBERT HOUSEHOLD

Jeremy opened the door at the doorbell, smiling tightly at Bonnie, who stood there.

"Hey."

Bonnie seemed to sense something wasn't right as she remained where she was and mimicked his greeting, "Hey."

There was an awkward silence until Anna came running down the stairs with a wide grin, "I thought I heard the doorbell." She paused as she reached the bottom, looking between the teens curiously, "Are you coming in, Bonnie?"

"Yes," Bonnie forced a laugh out and stepped into the house.

"Jeremy?" Anna frowned at her boyfriend and whispered a little too loud, "Take her bag."

Jeremy looked back at Bonnie with a frown and only then noticed her struggling with her bag, "Oh, sorry. Here."

She passed him the bag, and he looked at her in surprise at how she could hold it for so long.

"Thanks!" Bonnie smiled as she passed Jeremy. "That thing weighs a ton."

The three awkwardly stood in the hall for a moment until Anna clapped her hands with a smile, "Does anyone want food?"

Bonnie opened her mouth to say no, but Jeremy nudged her with a grin, "Of course."

As Anna danced away to retrieve the food, Jeremy whispered to Bonnie, "She's learning to cook; I will not be the only guinea pig."

"-I heard that!" Anna yelled back from the kitchen.

SALVATORE BOARDING HOUSE

"Good evening," Elijah smiled as Damon opened the door.

Damon smiled wide at the original, "Thank you for coming and on the dot, too. Aren't you a good guest? Please, come in."

"Just one moment." Elijah didn't move, and his smile slipped for a few seconds as he murmured to Damon, "Can I just say that if you have less than honorable intentions about how this evening is going to proceed, I suggest you reconsider."

"No, nothing," Damon looked to Elijah in disbelief. "Nothing dishonorable. Just getting to know you."

Elijah hummed, unconvinced, "Well, that's good."

As Elijah walked into the house, Damon thought, Game on, gramps.

THE LAKE HOUSE

Elena sat in her bedroom, reading another of Johnathan Gilbert's journals, when there was a tap at her door. Looking up, Elena smiled at Stefan, leaning against the doorframe, "Hey."

"Hey," Stefan's smile seemed forced. He gestured to the end of her bed, "May I?"

Growing at his awkwardness, Elena quickly nodded, "Yeah, of course. Where's Aella?"

"Watching a rom-com with Jenna." The vampire smiled tightly as he closed the door before he sat stiffly at the end of her bed, his back to her, "Aella said she told you some of my past."

The reason for stiffness suddenly became apparent, and Elena slid down the bed to sit next to him, "You don't mind, do you?"

"No," Stefan shook his head, still not looking at her. "I trust that she did it for the right reasons."

"Johnathan Gilbert wrote about you in his journal," Elena admitted to him. "I was a little...."

"-Freaked out?" Stefan said for her and finally looked at her, ready to see the fear of him clearly. Except there was none.

The corner of Elena's mouth quirked up, "More confused than anything. He made you out to be a monster."

Stefan took a deep settling breath as he admitted, "Because I was. In the weeks after I became a vampire, I relished it. I took it to the darkest place I could."

"Aella said you turned off your humanity."

Stefan nodded, "I was full of guilt. What I did to my father, to my brother. I had to turn it off. It was the only way I could survive."

Elena rubbed her arms; Stefan sounded so wounded, "Aella made it sound like you were like Damon when he first came to Mystic Falls."

To Elena's surprise, he didn't deny it; he admitted, "I was worse."

A line appeared between Elena's brows, "How come no one caught on to what you were doing?"

"There was a war going on," Stefan answered with a shrug of his shoulder. "The thing about wartime. Endless, anonymous blood supply."

"And it was Lexi that saved you?" Elena questioned earnestly. At his nod, she asked, "What was she even doing in Mystic Falls?"

Stefan half-smiled, "She had heard it was a good place for vampires. Had no idea that they'd all been massacred. Needed a place to crash, so I brought her home with me. It was there she told me what I was: a ripper, and she saved me."

Elena saw sadness in his eyes, "Are you okay?"

"Talking about her..." Stefan pressed his lips together. "Sometimes I feel that it was all a dream...."

Elena's eyes narrowed, "That Damon did kill her?"

He nodded, "Losing Lexi at the hands of my brother... I don't think I'd have ever gotten over that."

Elena scoffed, "Of course not; she was your best friend."

Stefan's head bowed in agreement; when he looked back up at her, his expression was closed up, "Just as Aella is yours."

Elena's throat seemed to close, "Yes."

"So why are you avoiding her?" Stefan questioned, and Elena paled. He quickly added, "She hasn't noticed... yet. But I did." Elena looked down at her lap and wrung her hands as he continued, "Every time she walks in a room, you walk out. Locking yourself in the hidden room or here while the rest of us are in the living room. Your heartbeat increases whenever her name is mentioned - like now."

Elena stood and walked around the bed, which became a barrier between her and him. "Nothing's wrong."

Stefan wasn't swayed as he smiled, though his eyes held no humor, "You know I can hear when you're lying, Elena."

Elena picked up Johnathan Gilbert's journal and tried to leave the room, but Stefan stepped in her way. As she jumped backward, the book fell to the ground and to the page she had just been reading.

Hearing the fear in her heartbeat, Stefan quickly mimicked her as she bent down to retrieve the journal, "I'm sorry. I'm just protective over her."

"I know," Elena nodded swiftly. Her hand rested on the journal as Stefan lifted it from the floor, and they both stood as he began handing it to her.

Elena's fingers barely grasped the journal when Stefan frowned, "I've seen that knife before,"

Elena's eyes darted to the page he was looking at, and her brows furrowed, "How? This is Jonathan's research on the Originals."

"You're kidding," Stefan was confused.

Elena flicked to the previous pages, "Later in life. Pages and pages of questions and scribbles." She turned back to the dagger drawing, "Where did you see it?"

"I saw Damon with it," Stefan's answer had Elena's heart beating twice its average rate. The vampire heard this and frowned, "What?"

Elena didn't answer and started to read aloud, "'The wood from one tree and one tree alone, an ancient white oak, would bring death to an Original vampire. When the tree burned, all hope was thought lost. But the ash from the tree was saved, and witches forged a dagger to which the ash could be bonded. This alchemic bond provides the necessary poison.'" Elena's eyes widened, "Jonathan, figure out how to kill an Original."

Stefan gritted his teeth, "How does Damon have a dagger to kill an original?"

Elena blanched, "Because John gave it to Damon."

Stefan's pupils flared, "John gave Damon the weapon that's supposed to kill Elijah?"

Suddenly, Aella's laugh echoed from the living room to where she and Jenna were, and Stefan seemed to shift, "That's why you've been evasive; you know something." Elena swallowed heavily as he pushed, "Something to do with Damon and this knife." Her heartbeat jumped, and Stefan's eyes narrowed, "What do you know, Elena?"

Elena felt sick as she revealed, "Damon's going to use the dagger on Elijah tonight."

Stefan rubbed his brow, "This is why you were avoiding Aella." His gaze narrowed on her, "I thought you believed her?"

"I-I do!" Elena exclaimed shakily. "I did. But Damon called saying things, and then he mentioned Jeremy and I-"

"-What?" Stefan interrupted her harshly. "Despite Aella always being truthful with you - which you demanded of her - you still went against her. Aella was willing to sacrifice my relationship with her to keep you alive. What if it goes wrong and the only plan to save you from Klaus is ruined?"

Elena had no answer; her mouth opened and closed, unable to speak as the truth was thrown at her. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah," Stefan laughed emotionlessly. "I'll tell that, Aella, as she sobs over your coffin." The vampire stomped away, throwing the door open, the sound of it hitting the wall silenced by the coats hanging on the back, leaving Elena alone.

Falling onto the bed, Elena's tears slowly fell down her face and dropped onto the journal pages she still held. Quickly wiping them from the page to preserve it, Elena frowned as she saw a piece of text she'd originally missed as she read the passage regarding the knife aloud to Stefan.

Reading the rest of the text, Elena's eyes widened. She jumped off the bed and followed Stefan down the corridor, his form just exiting the corridor, "Stefan!"

Stefan turned at the urgency in her tone and sped towards her, "What?"

"Listen," Elena demanded and then read from the page, "'It must be brandished by humans alone, for it will bring death to all demons who wield it.'"

Stefan's eyes narrowed as he grabbed the journal from Elena and looked at it, "John's trying to get Damon killed." He held his hand to Elena, "Give me your phone."