Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries TV show. That honor goes to Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson.

Hello, my lovely readers. This story is brought to you by Alexis2106, ParaVis, Gams2000 and a Guest reader who wanted to see the possible sequel to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." I hope that you enjoy the first chapter because the next one won't be posted until after New Year's. On with the show…

Chapter 1: Just NO!

"No," Caroline continued to say as Enzo pestered her all the way back to her dorm room. Damon had dropped Caroline off and Enzo insisted on coming with her. "No, Enzo. I am not going to New Orleans!" Caroline snapped as she pulled out clothes from her drawers. She could not believe that he was insisting that they go down there.

"What are you so afraid of, Gorgeous?" Enzo inquired, sitting down on her bed and grinning at her. "Thought you would want to see the man that I reminded you of. Although I'm sure I'm much more attractive."

Caroline turned to pin Enzo with a nasty glare. Placing her hands on her hips, she opened her mouth. "Enzo, my reasons for not wanting to go there are mine. And you're not more attractive," she muttered the last bit as she turned back to her dresser.

Chuckling, Enzo rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. "Fine. What do you suggest that we do? Go to the Grill and have a party waiting for the Mystic ball to drop, or whatever it is you people do? Or do you want to go to the Salvatores for a rousing bit of pin the tail on the jackass with the younger brother?" Enzo inquired with twinkling eyes.

Rolling her eyes, Caroline whirled around to close her suitcase. "Shut up, Enzo," she ordered her friend before grabbing her suitcase and heading toward the door.

Before Caroline could reach the doorknob, she found herself face to face with Enzo. "You know the more you avoid a problem, the worse it gets," he told her seriously while leaning against the door.

"I have enough problems. I don't need more. Now move! I need to get back to the hospital," Caroline snarled, shoving Enzo with a one arm, holding on to the suitcase with the other.

Enzo didn't budge an inch. "You're going to the hospital? For what? So that you can sit around and wait to see if your mother passes? Just compel a nurse to keep an eye on her. I'm sure you can spend some time doing something other than driving your mother mad."

Narrowing her eyes, Caroline shook her head. "I was not driving my mom insane. And I resent that implication. Now, get out of the way!"

The older vampire didn't move an inch until Caroline's phone began to ring and then he simply shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Planning on answering that?" he inquired with an amused look.

Caroline glowered up at Enzo sourly as she pulled her phone out from her purse. "Hello?"

"Caroline. You need to come over. Right now," Matt said quickly.

"Over where?" Caroline replied as she looked at Enzo, her confusion evident.

"The Salvatore Boarding House," Matt stated. "That Kai dude, who Damon and Bonnie were stuck in hell with, kidnapped Elena. I guess he's holding her hostage until Damon hands Jo over to him. But Damon, Ric and Stefan have some kind of plan to stop him.

"We'll be there soon," Caroline said, hanging up her phone. She waited for Enzo who took a step to the side before opening the door for her. If they hurried they should be able to get there is less than thirty minutes.

Matt looked around at Damon, Ric and Stefan. None of them looked happy. Damon had been yelling at Kai for ten minutes straight before hanging up. Stefan who had been the one to answer the phone looked almost as angry. Ric had come over within fifteen minutes of the time that Damon had called him. Now, they just had to wait for the others. "We're not giving him Jo," Ric said with a frown as Damon glared back at him.

"Oh, well, gee. Thanks, buddy. So glad that Elena means less to you than some woman that you've known for zero time," Damon snapped back.

"Stop!" Stefan ordered the two. "This is not the time to argue. What we need is to wait for the others to show up. Then we will deal with Kai. Alright?"

Damon shook his head as he walked away to fill his empty glass. "Yeah, let's sit around and wait for the cavalry to come," he muttered sarcastically.

Sitting on one of the couches, Matt felt uncomfortable as they waited when Caroline and Enzo entered the room. "Hey," he called, causing everyone to glance up.

"What's the plan?" Enzo asked Damon who shook his head.

"We're waiting for some witches to show up to save the day. Is that great? Sit around and wait," Damon growled.

"Well, it beats walking in there and getting very dead since Kai has all that Traveler magic," Alaric snapped at his friend whose lips curled backward in a killer grin, laced with no humor. "And if someone had been paying attention when they were on babysitting duty none of this would be happening now," Alaric continued.

"Yeah, that's right," Damon yelled. "Blame me. 'Cause it's always fun to play the 'Blame Damon for Everything that Ever Goes Wrong Game?' Why is it that Bonnie is stuck in hell? Because Damon got sent back. Why is it that Stefan can't have a normal life? 'Cause Damon will find a way to ruin it for him. Why is it that Enzo has chronic anger issues? 'Cause I left him to burn to death. Why is it that Caroline can't find happiness with a guy? Could it be because she just sucks at dating? No! It's cause she dated me! Sorry. Sorry. Sorry! Now let's save Elena before I go outside and have an existential crisis, again?!"

"Did anyone order three powerful witches?" Liv called drily as she walked into the room with Luke, Jo and Tyler.

"Yeah, minus the werewolf," Damon replied with a smirk as Ric glowered at him and Matt smiled at Tyler who nodded back. It was nice to be around his friend even if the circumstances sucked.

"Too bad. I come wherever she goes," Tyler informed Damon while taking Liv's hands.

"How sweet," Damon snapped at him. "Now, here's the plan," he began as Matt sat back and hoped that this did not involve him dying in some gruesome manner. Yeah, he had the founder's ring. But that didn't really mean anything. When Damon was finishing, he looked around the room. "If anyone wants out, now, then I suggest you go because this is going to get ugly." No one left the room. "Good. Let's go."

Entering the high school where so many mind numbingly horrible events had ended in either the death or near death of himself or his friends, Damon led the march forward. He was told to come alone. Damon wasn't one for following orders. Keeping his eyes and ears open for the sneaky little bastard known at Malakai Parker, Damon felt better that Stefan and Ric were flanking him. They would stop at a certain point and he would go on his own, but there were a number of allies in the building. If Kai pulled something stupid they were waiting for him.

Jerking the doors open to the gymnasium, Damon found Kai shooting hoops in an old Mystic Falls High T. 'What the hell, was he trying to relive his misspent youth?' Damon thought irritably.

"Right on time," Kai called without turning to look at Damon. "Want to play some one on one?"

Damon sped across the floor and jerked the punk off his feet. "Look, Kai, you'll have to excuse me but I'm not in the mood for your bullshit and this is not a social call."

No more were the words out of Damon's mouth than Kai had him on the floor gasping in pain. "Now, Damon, I was trying to be nice. But if you want to get down to business, why don't you tell me where my sister is? Josette?" Kai shouted. "Where are you?"

"I'm right here, Kai," Jo replied as she marched into the room, followed by Liv and Luke.

"Ah, there you are. And you brought Olivia and Lucas. That makes it so much better so that I don't have to track them down," Kai told Jo who glared at him. When he came toward her the Wonder Twins joined hands and began to chant. Kai bumped into an invisible barrier. "Nice work. But not quite good enough. You see I recently came into some cool new powers. Want to see what I can do now?" Kai inquired. He began to chant when Caroline walked up behind him and stabbed him through his carotid artery with a pencil.

"That was for Bonnie," Caroline snarled. Stabbing him through the back, she growled, "And that is for Elena."

Kai sank to his knees. "You're going to have to do a lot better than that if you want to kill me," he told them with a grin.

"We don't want to kill you," Jo told her brother.

"We want to make you suffer," Stefan added as he appeared with a blow torch.

Kai put his hands up. "Okay, okay. I give up. Not that I'm opposed to being set on fire so that I will have even more of a reason to kill you when I get out of here, but I think that maybe you could stop now since Jo's here and I don't really need the rest of you." Everyone stopped what they were doing when Kai and Jo disappeared.

"Damon," Elena cried as Alaric looked around frantically for his girlfriend.

"Jo," Ric yelled. "Where is she? This is not part of the plan!" he cried.

Just as Damon opened his mouth to reply an angry woman appeared in the doorway. She lifted her hands as she strode through the doors with Jeremy Gilbert beside her. Her chanting was filling the room. "Ancestors, here my plea! Make the unseen seen!" she screamed as Kai appeared with his hand around Jo's throat. Waving a hand, the woman sent Jo flying in Ric's direction.

"Who the hell are you?" Kai demanded as he looked around him. Touching another barrier, he rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on! Find a new trick!"

"This is a new trick," Damon replied as he smirked at the angry witch who was making her way toward the barrier. "This is a vampire. Who was once a witch. And more importantly, this is Bonnie's mommy. You two kids play nice now," he called to Kai who did not look smug anymore. "P. S. That is Bonnie's boyfriend. How lucky are you that you get to spend time with two people on the planet who hate your guts, other than your dad, who is on his way as we speak? Have a happy New Year!"

Waiting outside the gym, Enzo was waiting for a good fight to begin. He knew what the signal for him to join the fray was. It was Caroline screaming. When he didn't hear that sound, he groaned. "Is this as boring as I think it is, or is just me?" he asked.

Matt looked at him from his position leaning against the opposite wall, "We've had more exciting times like the time that Klaus -"

"Matt, shut up!" Caroline yelled as she came out of the gym with Damon and Elena walking behind her.

"Ready to go?" Enzo asked Damon who nodded.

"Go. Go where?" Elena asked Damon who forced a smile.

"It's a surprise," Damon told her before attempting to pull her down the hall but she refused to move.

"They're going to New Orleans," Caroline stated drily with her arms folded over her chest. "First, they dragged me to Duke. Now, they want to go to Louisiana? Seriously?"

"Maybe it would be a good thing to go. Just for the holiday," Elena argued as Caroline looked at her like she was insane.

"No. I mean no way," Caroline shook her head. "You can go. But I'm not."

"Come on, Caroline. Your mom will be fine. I have a nurse compelled to see to her every whim and to slip a little of my blood into her system every twenty-four hours. Something happens, we'll be back before she wakes," Damon told Caroline who rolled her eyes.

"There is nothing stopping you, Caroline. Except you," Matt added. Enzo had to admit that Matt wasn't so bad after all. He did have the good sense to figure out which side to take in this argument. "Besides someone has to make sure that I don't get turned or eaten by someone and Elena can only do so much."

Caroline sighed heavily. "Fine. But I swear that next time I pick the holiday vacation spot," she said, waving a finger in her friends' directions.

"Yes," they answered.

Falling into step with his friend, Enzo watched Caroline's face out of the corner of his eye. Deny it all she wanted, she looked excited. Oh, this was going to be interesting. He wondered whether he would like New Orleans. After being locked up all those years almost anything would be better. "What's the first thing you're going to do when you get there?" he asked Caroline conversationally while Damon, Elena and Matt chattered away.

"Lock myself in my hotel room until it's time to go home," Caroline told him.

"Uh huh," Enzo just wondered how long that would last.

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Peace,

Jessica