Katherine

Elena had to look away from Katherine as the vampire's smirk appeared. Not that she was afraid, there was no trace of the fear she felt during her first encounter with Katherine. She was, however, still embarrassed at the way Katherine had interrupted her and Damon.

And she was uncomfortable being alone with the first Petrova doppelganger. She was seriously lacking backup just now.

"I'm here to do you a favor," the vampire said.

The girl, though tired, was immediately suspicious. "Favor?"

"Yes. Although, if you think about it, you will realize that I have done a lot for you already. Probably more than you can ever repay."

Elena scowled. "You've done nothing but cause trouble for me since you came. You've tried to kill me."

"Really?" Katherine retorted. "I think it was you who tried to kill me. You and your boyfriends."

Elena was still glaring, but could feel her face returning to embarrassment. She looked away as she was getting ready to deny that Damon was her boyfriend. Katherine spoke again before she got the words out.

"Even so, I took out a powerful witch, in this house, to protect you."

"You were trying to save yourself" Elena muttered, still not able to look at Katherine.

"As much as you want to deny it, I also saved the vampire that saved you. You are alive because of Damon and he is alive because of me."

Elena looked back to Katherine, who was waiting for a response. "It's not like he didn't save you first."

The vampire almost laughed. "He tried. 150 years ago he and Stefan did save me. But you still owe him and you still owe me."

Elena bit her lip, wishing Katherine would get to the point.

"Not to mention the fact that if I hadn't had a child before I turned, you wouldn't be alive at all."

The smirk was gone, the vampire's face was hard. Elena had to look away again.

"And to top it all off, I kept the loves of your life around long enough to meet you. If I hadn't turned them, you would be all caught up in one of the other boring guys around here."

Elena looked up into the vampire's hard eyes again, but stayed quiet. She couldn't think of an answer anyway.

"And yet, in spite of your insults and injury, in spite of being trapped in a tomb by you and your boys, I am here to help you."

"Help me what?" Elena managed to ask as she looked away again.

"Klaus chased me for 500 years because I prevented the ritual by turning. What do you think he'll do when he finds out you lived?"

Elena considered the words and finally said, "You're still afraid of him."

"If you're not, you're a fool!"

Elena really hadn't considered this – there was too much else going on around her. What would Klaus do once he found out she still lived?

"Damon will help me," she said. "And Stefan, when we find him," she managed to quickly add.

"Damon, Bonnie, Caroline, Tyler, Alaric. And me. You're just surrounded by people who want to help you, to keep your safe. But Stefan? Don't be so sure."

"What do you mean?" she asked, suspicious again.

"I told you - he gave himself over to Klaus. He's not who he was while you knew him. Klaus made him drink a lot of blood before he let me take the cure to Damon."

Elena cringed. "Blood? Human blood?"

Katherine smirked again. "A lot."

Elena closed her eyes and exhaled. This was not good.

"We'll fix him again," she said softly, eyes still closed.

"No one said he needed to be 'fixed'." Katherine smirked. "But he does need to be separated from Klaus – and Klaus killed."

Elena lifted her head when Katherine didn't continue. Now the human girl was confused about her feelings for Damon and worried to death about Stefan.

"You need me, Elena." Katherine said as Elena's mind raced. "And I need you."

"What do you want from me?"

The vampire didn't answer directly. "I'll hang around here while we decide what to do."

Elena understood and sighed. Katherine didn't want to be alone while Klaus was still around. She shook her head. "Then I'll stay at the Boarding House."

"Mmm, with Damon." Katherine was smirking again. "Do you trust me to be here alone with Jeremy?"

Elena closed here eyes and found herself shaking her head again. Before she could think, Katherine was speaking again.

"This time, we'll eliminate Klaus. And when we do, you will leave Stefan to me."

Elena had a quick intake of breath as her eyes opened and widened. She expected to see a smirk, but Katherine's face was hard.

"I think it's only fair, after all I've done for you."

The human wasn't sure what to think. She was still confused about her feelings for Damon, but she wasn't ready to give up on Stefan. "He's not a toy you can just play with. He'll come back to me."

"Are you sure you want him to?" The vampire was smirking again.

Surely she did, didn't she? "His choice," was all Elena could say in response.

"Yours as well. You will not choose him. You will leave him to me."

Katherine's expression was still hard. The girl had to close her eyes and rub her forehead with her hand.

"You may not even want him." Katherine added. "He will not be what he was before Klaus."

"But you still want him?"

"Yes. Even if he's not quite what he was here, he has always been…" She didn't finish, but the hardness was gone from her expression.

"You left him." Elena countered. "When you came, you did what you could to hurt him."

"And he did what he could to hurt me – because of you. I trust we understand each other Elena. I will, as I have so often, help you. In return, well…now you know."

The vampire was out of her room before Elena could respond. All Elena heard was the closing door.

The Ride

Damon approached the Gilbert house a little hesitantly. Elena had said that she wanted him to visit her this morning, but he never knew what she was really thinking.

He was a little surprised as he saw Alaric opening the door just as he arrived.

"You're alive." Alaric said.

"Cheated death again," Damon said as he entered. Then he saw her.

"Elena's asleep on the couch?" Damon asked the human.

"She was there when I woke up. I just let her sleep – she's had a tough week."

"Yeah." Damon agreed, forcing himself to turn away from her to face Alaric. "Got any ideas how to take out her murderer?"

"No," the human said, his eyes remaining fixed on the girl on the couch. "But we'll find something. We kept her alive, somebody kept you alive. We're good at figuring things out."

Suddenly, Elena was in front of them. "That somebody was me!"

Damon flinched just a little, though Alaric took a full step back.

"What are you doing here?" Damon asked, not being able to muster the glare he wanted. After all, she did bring the cure to him.

"I want the same thing you want – Klaus dead. And since you and your gang are such miracle workers, like he said," Katherine nodded towards Klaus, "I'm hanging around for this one."

Katherine then turned towards Alaric. "I assume Jenna's bedroom and bathroom are available now? I really need to clean up."

Before he answered, they heard a knock at the door. Alaric opened it to Bonnie while Damon just stared at Katherine.

Bonnie only glanced at Alaric before she saw Katherine. "Elena!" she said as she rushed over, adding "you're OK," as she pulled the vampire into a tight hug.

The witch dropped her arms quickly as she determined that she was not hugging her best friend.

"Katherine," Bonnie whispered, taking a step back.

The original Petrova doppelganger smirked as she turned around and headed for the stairs. "This is going to be a hell of a ride."

"Oh yeah," Damon said softly as the he, the human and the witch watched Katherine climb the stairs.