[ pot calling the kettle black: check; it's on topic to mention they both have their reasons and comforts over cavorting with vampires. elena couldn't cut stefan or damon out of her life, wouldn't, would argue she won't - it would be betraying her own heart, if not her desires.
whether she knows what others think of her and the salvatores or not, it doesn't matter at the end of the day. she doesn't sense sookie's relief, but she smiles, small and not necessarily genuine, at sookie's surprise.
dean's brother = not damon (or stefan.) she hears some of that implication, or imagines it. plus there's the whole issue of dean disappearing; she feels a stab of knowing the pain of a lost and absent brother and then -
she had asked the question hoping to get more than that from sookie. they hadn't spoken in a long time, ever since jenna showed up and she heard eric and her had fought. ] I guess I missed the new apendages event. So - you and Eric?