Elena hadn't exactly been thrilled about the idea of not going down there right away, but she knew that if Stefan wasn't restrained, he could very well attack her. After all, his comments to her were far from the Stefan she knew. The one who had been her boyfriend before Katherine had shown up and forced them to break up. The one she had defied that order for which ended up with Aunt Jenna stabbing herself. The Stefan who had done everything to care for her. Deep down, Elena knew he was still in there, he had to be. He had told her to warn Damon about werewolves, which meant that he still cared, even when he claimed not to. But just because she knew that version of Stefan to be in him, that didn't mean that he was there right now. And as he was a week off of human blood, the chances of him attacking her were high, even with Lexi there. So while she didn't like the fact that Lexi had gone down by herself, Elena had accepted it and went to a room to put her stuff in as this was going to take time.
Still, Elena wasn't the type to just sit around. She had let Anakin know that she wasn't going to be at school, so he could at least get her assignments so she could work on them while she was here. She'd have to figure out an excuse, doctor's note, something to explain away her absence, however long it might be. But for now, she was waiting until Lexi thought it safe for her to go down to the panic room. After ten minutes or so, the brunette had decided to go see if Bobby needed help with anything. She knew that he enjoyed calling people idjit but she wouldn't let that phase her. She just wanted to do something, even if it was cook for the hunter helping with Stefan when undoubtedly his instincts were screaming at him to stake Stefan and leave it there. So what if it confused the man?
By the time she had cooked them both something to eat and they had finished, Lexi was calling her, so Elena told Bobby she'd take care of the dishes later and went down to the panic room. Looking at the door once down there, the teen took a deep breath before she slipped in.
Seeing Stefan as he was, it hurt. A lot. Because it was her fault he was there. But she had to tip Jo off. She should have said something sooner, but she hadn't known for certain. And even when she had, she had been naive enough to think she could find him and help. But she finally had told Jo because she knew what Stefan would do and it wasn't right. He would never forgive himself once he was himself again. He held onto that guilt to keep this from happening, she knew that. She didn't know just what he'd been before, she didn't know all of his secrets, but she still knew that the guilt kept him from this.
A year ago, she would have been horrified to see this. Lexi staking him in the shoulder, even with the warning earlier that she wouldn't like what she saw. And while it still hurt her to see him in this state, she also had been in Lawrence for nearly a year now and this place changed people in ways no one could understand. Made them harder. So closing her eyes, Elena took a deep breath before she opened them once more and looked at her ex.
"Stefan...."
She didn't know what to say, but she wanted to help, however she could.