Authors Note: Once again, Hi guys. After this week I will be back in my own country so I should be able to post much more frequently. In case of emergency you can find me on LJ at AntigoneBlack and on tumblr as sansa-stark.

(1927)

Caroline laughed as she spun in Stefan's arms. Their life together was so carefree, fun of nights of drinking and dancing. And even occasionally Caroline would go and sing herself. If she was feeling particularly bold that was. Lukas and Stefan had become close over the weeks that they had spent together, and for the first time since Elijah left Caroline thought her brother was acting like his normal self, carefree and playful. He just needed a brother.

The song ended and the couple walked back to their typical booth, Stefan's arm securing around her waist. As she slid into the booth she placed a kiss on his lips and looked over at her brother who scrunched up his face. In some ways Caroline wondered if her brother would ever really grow up. She rolled her eyes at him as she looked around the bar. "Anyone look appetizing tonight, brother?" she asked.

"I have had my eye on that couple there. Thought we could play with our food tonight, what do you think Stefan?" Lukas said with an evil grin.

"Sounds perfect, let me bring them over," Stefan said as he started to walk away. Caroline hated it when they did this, tortured their victims before they killed them. It was just too cruel for her, but she loved them both too much to stop them.

The night was coming to a close, the couple long since drained when the sound of police sirens started wailing on the street above the speak easy.

Stefan grabbed Caroline's hand and started towards the door. The crowd was overwhelming as the police started to enter the bar. A face in the dark blue mass running towards them was too familiar. "Father," she said softly. Caroline dropped Stefan's hand and found her brother. They needed to get out of town, and quickly. She didn't even notice when her necklace was torn from her neck in the madness.

Once they were in safety Lukas started to think through the plan. They would have to leave Chicago, and quickly, their lives depended on it. He started to tell Caroline exactly what their next move was to only be shocked at her response.

"No. Not without Stefan," she said firmly. Caroline had never loved anyone in the way that she loved Stefan. For all his anger and rage, he also was loving and sweet, and she wasn't going to let that go because her father was on their heels again. They had been running forever, she was sick of running.

"It's not safe little sister. We have to leave now, and he can't know about Mikael. You know that. No one can know our weaknesses, Care, Philadelphia has plenty of good looking men for you to fall in love with, now let's go."

Caroline stood still. She had to think about this. A choice was laid out in front of her, leave now with Lukas and continue this life on the run, never having anyone other than Lukas but knowing they were safe, or leaving him and going with Stefan. Living a life of risk but also of love. "No, I'm staying with Stefan. Goodbye Lukas."

Caroline ran back to their apartment to get her things before heading over to Stefan's to tell him what happened and to run away with the love of her life. She rang the bell to his building and waited for him to come out to her. Only Lukas beat her there, when Stefan came to the door he looked at her with a blank face. "How can I help you, miss?"

Stefan was gone. He had forgotten all about her. Crushed she started to sob and ran from the door. Now she was completely alone. This was the punishment that Lukas gave her. For eternity she would be alone.

Nick woke up around midday, glad that it was Saturday. Extending his arms, he stretched and looked around his dark bedroom. Unlike most of his peers his room was relatively neat, with only his clothes from the night before sitting on the chair instead of their place in the hamper in his closet. He would have to find a way to get the blood out of his white undershirt before his mother took the wash. He would have to ask Stefan about that…

Getting up out of the bed he stretched again before walking over to the window, pulling open the thick shade. Burning consumed his entire body. His skin was on fire, and quickly he pulled the shade back. "What the hell?" he said out loud. The skin on his arm was going from pink and blistered to its beige color. Throwing on a pair of sweat pants and his old Virginia Tech tee Nick walked back over to his bed and picked up his phone.

"Yeah?" Stefan asked, obviously distracted.

"Hey Stef, wanna tell me why I just got third degree burns trying to open my blinds?" Nick answered sarcastically. He was not really pleased by this whole situation. He had seen both of the Salvatores in the daylight, why was it that he was playing the Dracula – demon of the night thing?

"Oh that… Yeah most vampires can't go out in the sunlight. I'll see what I can do about that…" Nick could hear giggling in the background and was now sure that he didn't want to know what was distracting his friend. "Elena I am on the phone…"

"Well I will chill out here in the dark for now, go back to whatever it is that you were doing…" Nick hung up the phone and walked over to his door, hitting the light switch next to the doorframe. He threw the phone onto his bed and paced his room. What the hell was he supposed to do until Stefan 'figured it out'? How would he convince his family that he needed to be in his dark room all day? Faking a hangover would work for now, or maybe just saying he needed rest, but how long would that last?

Around three in the afternoon Nick heard the doorbell ring and his mother's call. His friends were here, was he well enough to see them. "Send them up!" he yelled back. He knew that this would be a sore point for his overly polite and traditional mother, but it was a little difficult for him to navigate the house to be able to walk his friends to his room like he should.

A minute later, after what Nick was sure to be apologies for his rudeness from his mother, Elena and Bonnie walk into his room. Bonnie doesn't even look at his face, instead taking a seat on the desk chair that sat near the window. Elena pulled one of the shades, causing Nick to dart across the room. When he saw where the light hit he was able to find a spot on the bed that was out of the direct sunlight and settled down.

Elena was trying her best to navigate between her two closest friends but found herself at a standstill. Bonnie was against anything and everything vampire, especially after all the mess with the Founders day mishaps. Then there was the whole killing the carnival worker thing… "So Stefan remembered that Katherine's witch friend Emily was the one that made the rings that they wear to allow them to walk in the daylight. It's a pretty rare spell, but Bonnie did find it in her grimoire."

"Great, because we all know this gorgeous face needs to be shown off in the sunlight. Do your witchy thing and I'll forget the whole you being a witch and not telling me thing," Nick said looking towards Bonnie.

Her face scrunched, giving her classic disapproval face. It was one that he had grown accostumed to over the years, but this ignore act was something completely new to him. Bonnie stared blank face at him, pouring over his every feature, trying to find the friend that once lived inside this monster. She couldn't trust this Nick, the Nick that killed that poor guy.

"I will do this on one condition," Bonnie said, holding her head up high. She was going to stick by her moral compass, for better or for worse. That was always something that Nick respected about his friend, even if they often disagreed.

Nick rolled his eyes. Typical. "What is that, Bon?"

She gave him a mad glare and started to say what she thought. "No more killing or attacking humans. I will not make you have the ability to go out in the sun if you are going to use it to kill people."

"Easy. Deal. You really think I want to kill people?" Nick asked, disappointed that his friend thought so lowly of him. Even though he may not always act like it, Nick had a moral code that he lived by and not killing people was a not something he found acceptable.

"Well… I don't know. You are a vampire, so you have to get the blood somehow?" Bonnie replied shortly.

Elena saw tensions rising and decided that the best thing to do was just to move things forward. "Bonnie, he agreed to your terms, and Stefan already told me that he was going to teach Nick how to go into the forest for animal blood. No humans will be harmed. Now what do you need us to do for this spell?"

Nick shrugged, still a little upset that Bonnie really thought that he was going to make a habit out of killing people. He still felt pretty awful about the whole thing at the carnival, the man's face never seemed to leave his dreams. Nightmares really. How did this happen to him? If vampires were real, what else is true?

Bonnie opened her purse and grabbed an antique ring and placed it on Nick's bed. Nick stared at it, giving a disgusted look. He would have to wear this for eternity so Bonnie could have picked something a little nicer than the ring with the black stone.

She gave Nick one last glance, trying to determine if she was doing the right thing in helping him be able to walk in the daylight. Witches were supposed to mistrust vampires, history has shown that they go against their word and are truly monsters according to her heritage. Even though it was Nick, how could she trust him now that he was one of them?

"Okay, okay, just give me a minute," Bonnie opened up the Grimoire that she brought with her that listed the spell that created the rings that the Salvatore brothers were made by Emily Bennett.

Elena and Nick remained silent as they watched Bonnie mutter under her breath and stare intently on the ring. She stopped and looked back up. "That's it?" Nick asked, considering no real change or magic trick really happened to show that it worked.

"Yeah that's it," Bonnie told him.

Nick grabbed the ring off the bed and put it on his finger. He was going to have to see it before he believed it. Walking around the large bed Nick got closer to the window and stuck his hand into the direct sunlight. No burns, no pain. Stepping in front of the window he felt the sunshine on his face.

"I guess I'll be going then," Bonnie said as she sat up from the chair. She walked out the door, knowing that she was not going to get the praise that she deserved for helping him out.

"You really should have said thank you, you know," Elena told Nick with a frown.

"I do know that, but I didn't. The woman thinks I am going to turn into some crazy pyscho killer, so why does she get my respect?" Nick snapped back.

Elena just shook her head as she watched her friend stand in front of the window, looking at the outside world with new eyes.

Caroline used the weekend to get herself more adjusted to the town. It didn't take her long to find the decent places to get clothes and other necessities and figure out the make up of the town. It was pretty basic, with a population that was nosy and cheerful, much like any small town in the United States. Nosy wasn't always the greatest thing for a vampire to run up against, but she would have to find a way to make it work. Also she found the local blood bank, and was rather surprised to see that she wasn't the only person trying to break in.

When she walked up to the back door of the building she could hear the noise of someone inside, someone that was obviously not supposed to be there. Caroline waited, knowing the potential of getting her cover blown and stood against a wall for the person to leave. A tall dark haired man in a leather jacket snuck out the door with a large duffel bag. Caroline picked up on the smell of blood and stopped him before he had the chance to get away.

"And who might you be?" he asked her. Damon was clever enough, he knew that it was another vampire, but he wondered what she would possibly want to do with this town if word had gotten out about what happened at founders day with the stakings.

"If you don't know who I am you are safer not knowing," Caroline said with a bit of attitude. It was better that most people didn't know who she really was. What was to say that she could trust this vampire? People always wanted something out of the Originals, vampires for centuries had assumed that her family had all the answers. They were the most powerful vampires in the world, that was true, but that didn't mean they wanted to solve every little dispute. "Caroline. And before you ask, I am older than you."

Damon gave a little laugh. Whoever this woman was she was feisty. He liked that in a person, generally speaking. "I would never ask a lady for her age, I was raised better than that. Damon. Damon Salvatore."

Salvatore. The image of the blonde man from her past flashed through her mind. Stefan. Could this be the brother that tried to hold him back, that unleashed the ripper only to want to control it? He didn't look anything like Stefan, but there was something about the knowledge in his eyes that made her know that it was true. Stefan was in Mystic Falls. But why?

Caroline didn't want to reveal that she knew Stefan on such a personal level, but she was curious about their reasons for being in the town. "Well then, Damon Salvatore, since you just emptied the blood bank I was going to steal from, I think you owe me a drink."

Damon gave her a small smile and a nod. "If you play nice maybe some of these bags will be yours. My car is over here," he said pointing at an old black mustang.

"I'm sure I will, let's go," Caroline retorted as she walked over to the car and sat inside. This will be an interesting night, she thought to herself.

"So it's not the same as human blood, but it keeps you from harming humans, so it's a solution," Stefan explained as he walked Nick further into the woods that surrounded the town. Stefan himself never really did care for animal blood, but he knew what human blood could do to him so this was the way to keep himself as sane as possible. "With human blood you are much more likely to fall off the deep end. Turn emotions off and killing without guilt or concern. It's not really great for staying in the same place for a long period of time, especially in a town like this…"

"Like Damon?" Nick asked. He really didn't care for the older Salvatore, and knew that Damon was the reason that he was now a vampire, at least part of the reason.

Stefan just nodded his head. Damon was getting better at keeping away from live prey but it was still risky to be stealing from the local blood banks and hospitals so frequently. Stopping he looked around and determined that this was a good place to start. Nick was confused as he waited for Stefan to explain, but the older vampire was too busy listening to the woods around him to instruct Nick to wait. After a few moments he turned back towards Nick and gave his plan, "Okay, so there is a deer about 500 meters from here. Can you hear it?"

Nick shook his head. Of course he didn't. Then he started to focus on the noises of the woods. What first appeared to be silent was actually full of life. He could hear a squirrel racing up an oak tree, and a bird flying high in the sky. And then he heard it. The deer. Or at least something about that size moving through the trees. "Yeah, I hear it now."

Nick raced ahead, towards the sound and spotted the animal quickly. With his new reflexes he was able to easily outrun the young doe and grab it around its neck. Stefan caught up to him as he was sinking his sharp teeth into the neck of the animal. Taking his fill Nick dropped the animal and licked his lips as his canine teeth started to retract. Blood still covered his face, but this time he made sure not to get it on the old black henley shirt.

Stefan just shook his head. The issue with deer was that if you killed one, you then had a corpse to deal with. Much like a human. He should have remembered Nick's impulsive nature would become even more irrational as a vampire. "Now what are you going to do with the rest of it?" he asked pointing at the body that was lying on the forest ground.

Nick shrugged. What did it matter? "Deer die all the time. Let mother nature take it, Stef. It's the circle of life and all that."

"What if someone were to find this deer with the huge bite marks in it's neck? What do you think they would assume killed it? This is why you need to stick with smaller animals Nick. Bunnies, squirrels. This is the blood that no one will notice, not deer."

Nick rolled his eyes. This whole thing was stupid anyway. He wasn't going to kill anyone, but he could drink from bags like Damon. Then he remembered that he did promise Bonnie, and he needed to get her to believe that he wasn't some kind of crazy pyscho killer. Maybe once she realized he's still the same guy he can switch back to the real stuff.

"Why don't you drink human blood anyway?" Nick asked.

Flashes of his wild days passed. The 1910's and 20's and even the more recent incident with Elena. How much pain and suffering he had caused. The faces of his victims flashed through his mind. The look of fear in their face when they realized their fate. This is why he had to stop. To protect himself, and to protect others.

"I am worse than Damon. Well I can be. The emotions turn off and I become something that I'm not. It's not really something I am proud of."

Nick couldn't imagine this side of Stefan, this monster that he spoke of. Stefan was pretty much selfless where Nick was concerned. He would have died for Elena, Nick knew that to be true. How could this killer be hiding inside? It made him wonder if there was a monster in him as well. And who that monster might be.

"Every emotion, from anger to happiness, it's all magnified. That's why so many people shut it off, Nick. Don't shut it off. It may seem easier than sadness or anger, but don't. Indifference is the worse thing that can happen to a person, it brings out the worst in mankind."

"Okay, Stef. I won't." Nick lied easily. But when he thought about his life, about the pain and suffering that he endured, that his sister had endured, all he could think about was making it all go away. If anger was magnified, then revenge would come to those who deserved it.

"So why stay?" Caroline asked as she sipped on her drink. Damon had just told her how he came to this town to free his lost love, only to discover that she was never imprisoned in the first place. That was over a week ago, and he was going to stay in Mystic Falls. If the chances of being discovered were so high, why risk it to stay here?

Damon sighed. This is the same question that he had been asking himself since the night of the comet. Since he discovered that Katherine wasn't waiting for him. That she was out there, and she wanted nothing to do with him. "My brother, I guess. In life, we were the closest. And we never let anything get between us. When we were turned without her, he was the one that got me to drink. I never forgave him for cursing me to live eternally without her. Now that she's gone, well, we can be brothers again." He didn't mention Elena. He couldn't deal with that right now. The feelings he had for her were not just because of Katherine, they were something else entirely and he just couldn't bear to face them. That's why he took this blonde out for a drink, to get his mind off of things. Only for her to bring it up.

"You could both leave, you know. I just don't see the point in being in your hometown if it's so dangerous for you," Caroline lifted her eyebrows. She had to know why Stefan was here, why he was staying. If he didn't come for Katherine, than why was he here?

"It's nothing to worry about really, I got myself on the council, the group of families that take care of vampire situations. So I think I can keep Stefan and I in the clear. And Stefan has his reasons," Damon muttered the last part under his breath.

Caroline knew that she wasn't going to get much more out of the man, so she moved on to more light hearted topics knowing that Damon might be a good friend to have. If the vampire could keep her from getting discovered it might be worth the effort of spending her time with the cold man in the leather jacket.

Nick had been spending most of his nights at the Salvatore house lately, getting tips and lessons from the older vampires, and to spend some time away from home. He walked into his house late in the evening and tried to sneak in the best that he could.

His mother heard him and came out of the living room to greet him. "And where do you think that you have been the last few nights? You angered your father."

Nick rolled his eyes. "What doesn't anger him?" he said as he walked by her and up the stairs towards his room.

"Don't let your father hear you being that disrespectful, Niklaus."

Nick slammed his door closed and got ready for bed, falling asleep almost instantly. Only to be awoken an hour later to a woman standing over him. The Elena look alike. The one that killed him.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked her.

She laughed and flashed a smile. "Katherine. And you, my boy should be dead. Considering I killed you. But you seemed to have lived. No worries though, I have great ideas on how to use you. Say, Nick, do you like to play games?"