In Repair

Rated T

S05E04 Iron


Caroline closed the trunk of her car and looked up at Elena. "Are you sure you won't reconsider?" asked Elena. "I mean, it's just a few weeks away. Then we can go together." She suggested. Caroline shook her head.

"No Elena, I'm ready to get the hell out of here. Bonnie's away with her mom, I love you- but you're off with Damon, Matt and Rebekah are on vacation, and Stefan is heading out too. Tyler isn't coming home anytime soon, and neither is Klaus. There's just no reason for me to wait around anymore." Explained Caroline.

Elena raised her eyebrow, thinking it was interesting that Caroline mentioned Klaus- but didn't acknowledge it. "Damon and I can put things off a bit. Or, I mean well we don't have to go anywhere…" struggled Elena as her friend filed a few boxes in to the back of the car.

"Elena." She sighed, turning to put her hands on her friend's shoulder. "Everyone else has moved on with their lives. It's time I did too. You're with Damon, so go be happy and in love and junk." Caroline teased as her friend smiled. "I'll be waiting for you at Whitmore College when you're done your proverbial honey moon." She insisted. "I just want to get a head start you know? Pick up a summer job, find a sorority to take me in… I just feel so… stagnate." She looked down at her shoes.

Elena embraced her friend. "Okay. I understand. But you need to text me every day. Bonnie only seems to be talking to Jeremy and I get it if she needs her space, I just don't want both my best friends ignoring me." Part of Elena flashed with guilt, knowing that after everything she did with her switch turned off, both women had every right to hate her. She woke up thankful every day that they'd forgiven her.

Caroline hugged back. "Okay, I promise." She grinned at her friend. "Now you better go home before Damon comes looking. You know how my mom hates him stalking around."

Elena nodded and grinned.


The figure stood watching Meredith Fell in the hospital. She was sneaking around hoping to go unnoticed as she took blood bag supplies. The figure knew what it was for. The vampires. Mystic Falls was the town that couldn't get a proper hunter to save its life. Not even the famed hunters of Silas lore were able to do much damage. But he would be different. He had a plan for Silas, and he had a plan for the others too. But that plan meant getting close to Meredith Fell first.

"Can I help you with something?" he said clearing his voice, and stepping into view.

Meredith jumped and turned around. "Oh my goodness, you startled me!" she had almost spilled the contents in her arms. She looked at him curiously, and satisfied that she didn't know him nor him her, continued with her charade. "I'm just getting some supplies for a transfusion. Do you need any help? You look like you're new around here." She smiled, trying to remain confident. He found it pathetic.

"Actually, I was just wondering why a doctor whose license has been suspended was stealing supplies." He said flat out, but still with a smile. Her face reddened as she flailed for a response. "Don't worry I'm not going to rat you out. I happen to think using vampire blood to heal people is a terrible reason to fire you. You should be glorified."

Meredith frowned and raised an eyebrow. Who was this man staring back at her? From behind his glasses she could see that one eye was a different color than the other. One green, one very brown. His hair matched the brown eye.

"Who are you?" she asked.


"Seriously bro, if we're going to be roomies when I get back, we need to go over some ground rules." Said Damon leaning over the counter where Jeremy was working on a sketch and drinking a glass of orange juice.

"What?" he asked confused, looking up from his work and giving Damon an almost embarrassed look.

"I'm just saying, I'm trying to turn over a new leaf here. For your sister. So don't do anything that might make me need to kill you again." Explained Damon, very nonchalant. Damon and Elena had decided that with everyone else taking road trips and vacations, that they'd have a little fun before she had to leave for school too.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" groaned Jeremy while rolling his eyes. Damon, so predictable.

"Like get in the way if our alone time." Replied Damon with a toothy grin. "You've got a habit of showing up just when you should be leaving."

"I'll keep that it mind." Groaned Jeremy. "Hey, do you think Stefan has been acting strange?" he prodded as Damon opened the fridge.

"Stefan? Strange? He's always strange. Be more specific little Gilbert."

"I don't know. He just seems quieter than usual. And this whole trip he's planning but still hasn't taken. He's been spending a long time going through old stuff here, and he's been visiting the library." Remarked Jeremy.

Damon raised an eyebrow as he came out of the fridge with a glass of ice water. It was sweltering hot out. "Stefan? More brooding than usual? You don't say." He sat down across from Jeremy at the kitchen island. "He's still coming to terms with everything that's happened, Elena choosing me, seeing Lexi, all that stuff."

Jeremy slumped his shoulders. "It just seems a bit odd."

Jeremy clapped him on the back. "Chin up. He'll be out of here soon, and he'll find himself again on the open road. He always does. Sometimes Stefan just needs a little space."

Damon did find it odd that his brother seemed to be digging into the family history before this trip. But that was Stefan, full of regret and nostalgia. Damon preferred to live in the moment.


Bonnie glared at Silas defiantly. "If you kill him, I'll send him back. I can still harness the power from the expression triangle." She growled.

"Can you Bonnie?" smiled Silas. "Is that a risk you're willing to take? I can crush Jeremy and you know it. I've already done it once."

"What are you proposing." Interrupted Bonnie's grams. Both sets of eyes turned to her.

"You need Bonnie. " she continued. "If you kill Jeremy, you'll never have her help. You'll need to wait for years until a new witch like her is born, and with our bloodline cut off the way it is, you could be waiting forever."

The words didn't fail to register on Silas, but he kept a cool face. "I will have what is mine, even if I have to kill everyone you love dear to get it." He spat.

"I can't even help you from this side. Hello! I'm dead?" screamed Bonnie. "I can't just make a new triangle and drop the veil."

"I'll wait until the veil is thin again. It's only a few months away and I can keep myself busy- I have a lot to do. Then, I'll allow you to possess me." Silas smiled.

"Possess you? How will that help anything?" Bonnie turned to her Grams but she could see the older woman was thinking hard.

"It's a chance, Bonnie. More than you'll ever get again. Possess me and it will become a battle of who is stronger. If I overpower you in my body, I absorb your power and you stop existing. I can then drop and raise the veil at my every whim. However, if you maintain control…" he paused for effect.

"I can stop you." She said coldly. He nodded.

"The barrier between this world and the other side will be thinner in October. That gives us several months to both prepare. Do we have a deal Bonnie Bennett?" asked Silas with a wry smile.

Bonnie hesitated. Her Grams seized her chance. "Don't do it Bonnie. If he accesses your power he can do unknown damage. If you stay like this you have the power, he has to wait for your move."

"It's too good a chance Grams, I know I can beat him." Bonnie fixed her eyes on Silas and put out her hand. "You've got yourself a deal."


"You're really not going to turn me in?" asked Meredith as she and the stranger sat down over coffee at the hospital cafeteria. She was now in plain clothes.

"Well, I feel bad that I was hired as your replacement. But at least you'll know no one will go on suffering with me around." Said the man. He extended his hand. "Scott Turner." She took it and shook it, with a cautious smile. "I'm sorry for what happened to you. I come from another small town – in Canada-a lot like Mystic Falls. We don't have any renegade vampires there. They all live normal lives, work normal jobs, and we provide them with blood bags so there's no victims. Back in my hospital we used their blood all the time in healing, but I was forced to leave my job when I accidentally turned a patient." He said that last part while casting his gaze away from her shamefully.

"Oh no." said Meredith. "I've been there."

"Your council doesn't seem to be aware of how things operate where I am, and my record only shows that I lost a patient, so I was seeking a transfer. I jumped on this telling them it would be nice to be somewhere warm for a change." He smirked and she giggled.

"But how did you know about me?" she asked.

"Our vampires talk. I heard everything through the grape vine, and I did my own research." He answered. "I don't want there to be any hard feelings between us." He said reaching out and putting his hand across hers. "I didn't intend to take this job from you; I just want to do the same kind of good you do. And maybe we can work together to get your license back."

Meredith had been so stressed and depressed the past few weeks. She welcomed any help she could get.


Damon and Elena had arranged to take a day trip to the coast and hit a beach. It was summer, they had daylight rings, and Elena was determined to do something normal now that Klaus, Silas, and Katherine were out of her hair. It nagged at her in the back of her mind that Katherine was still out there…. But she didn't feel like Katherine was a threat anymore. Forcing the cure on her had almost been better than destroying her. But now that Elena did the thing that brought her back to her emotions- the thing she'd been using as an anchor- memories and feelings would bubble up. Sometimes she'd talk about them, sometimes she wouldn't. But she was always surprised at just how well Damon responded. He had so much wisdom. She'd look at him funny.

"What?" he grinned smiling at her from the corner of his mouth- looking out at the road.

"You're just so smart sometimes." She chirped.

"You're figuring this out- now?" his grin got wider.

"I knew you were cunning, manipulative, passionate, and ruthless…" started Elena.

Damon rolled his eyes chuckling. "Go one, tell me more!"

"But I guess it never dawned on me that you could be this wise." She ended.

"I've been where you've been. Many times. So has Stefan. You should learn from your elders." He cast her a cool glance and she grinned. "We know a thing or too."

"I'm starting to get that." Admitted Elena. "But I'm not the same as you or Stefan. In some ways I am. But I still have my own unique parts."

Damon nodded. "Very true. I think it took me a bit to realize that."

He turned down a dirt road that would lead them to their destination. "You've grown a lot since you've become a vampire. You've matured."

"How old are you Damon?" asked Elena suddenly.

"One hundread and-" he started but she cut him off.

"Sorry, I don't mean your vampire age. How old when you when you were turned? Stefan was 17, but you'd already done military service. I know so much about his human years but next to nothing about yours." She reflected.

Damon was silent for a moment. "I was 24 when I was turned."

Elena raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Really. I think it's hard for you teenage vamps. You're only experience of life is the drama of the teen years. You don't get to experience how things eventually mellow out." He grinned.

"What was it like?" asked Elena as they continued down the dirt road.

"Well, I did my military service. I enjoyed making the rounds. Dad was pressuring me to get married, but he was pressuring Stefan more. He wanted Stefan to take over the family home and business. Didn't see me as that sort of type- and he was right." Began Damon. "And then Katherine came along and changed it all." He muttered with contempt.

"You really loved her… didn't you?" it wasn't the first time Elena asked the question; it probably wouldn't be the last. She still found it hard to wrap her mind around Katherine's hold on her favourite men. Oblivious to the irony.

"I don't know." He admitted. "She's teased me before telling me that she compelled me into it all. But I still believed I loved her when I met you. Maybe there was even a sire bond thing going on who knows." He shrugged. "I think I was bored with life, and Katherine was exciting."

"Sounds familiar" admitted Elena.

"She was an escape, and I didn't want to hurt my brother but something about her made me want to fight for her. Seeing the way she is all of this time though- she seems to be really skilled at making men and women alike want to do that." Explained Damon.

Elena nodded. "She'd even convinced my real mom- Isobel to do that." Elena went silent for a moment. "Am I like her? At all? I mean, the old Katherine you knew?" she was afraid to ask the question, but every part of her needed to know.

"Besides the looks?" asked Damon. She nodded. "You're both head strong." He laughed, and so did she. "I mean, you're doppelgängers, you're going to have some things in common." He trailed off for a moment. "If you're asking me if you're bat shit crazy like her the answer is no." he grinned.

"That's not what I mean." Replied Elena. "I just… I just wonder sometimes, what she was like, if she was always the way she is now."

Damon watched her speak and realized she put a lot of thought into this. "I guess it can't be easy looking like her." He agreed. "I'm sure that wasn't a fun thing to find out when you met Stefan. I'm sure you're reminded of that little detail…"

"…everyday." She finished for him, looking down at the floor.

"Katherine had her good points, but at the end of the day even back then she was a lot like Klaus. What drove her was running from him, and her need to be invincible. Klaus ran from his dad, and needed to be invincible too." Remarked Damon as he pulled into the beach parking. "They'd actually be perfect for each other." He joked.

"Do you think Klaus will ever change?" asked Elena, thinking of all the bad things Klaus had done, but also thinking of Caroline.

Damon shrugged. "He already is if you ask me. Yeah, he's done some terrible things, but sometimes it takes the right person seeing the good in you- and never giving up- to motivate you to want to be better." He leaned across the seat and planted a kiss on her.


Silas stood in the town hall yard. Everything that ever went on in Mystic Falls- happened here. The gazebo was here, the fundraisers were held here, graduation… everything. Now, he was standing on a platform looking out at a crowd of people. Each one of them had been compelled to show up there at that time. He'd spent the entire morning walking from stranger to stranger, insisting they arrive and wait for him. Silas wanted to run a little experiment. It was time to stretch the limits of his power- now that he'd had enough blood to recover from his time spent asleep.

He stepped to the edge of the platform and looked out at them from behind Stefan's face. "Hello everyone." He said with a smile. "Thank-you for coming." He paused to clear his throat. "This summer, I have consumed an immeasurable amount of blood. I have found myself getting stronger and stronger every day." Silas paused to watch the audience stare at each other in disbelief. He knew they'd be exchanging the usual confusion over what he was saying. But that didn't matter right now. "…and I started to wonder. What are the limits to my powers? How many people… can I influence… two… ten… an entire town square?" They all stared at him now, and he held their gaze… feeling his power seep out and envelope them in darkness. He grinned. They were his.


Something was happening to Stefan in his dormant state. He hadn't been without blood for long, but animal blood never lasted quite as long as human blood. He had lost track of time, no idea how many days he'd spent submerged in his inky wet darkness. But his mind was playing back memories. 150 years of memories. Memories of his Father, of even his mother, his boyhood with Damon, and his early school days. As his mind replayed these images, he lessened his grip on them. They'd slip away like a dream, and suddenly… he couldn't remember them at all. He was semi-conscious of this happening, but was still holding his breath and keeping his body in the dormant state. With his emotions turned off, he didn't feel bad about the memories fading, and he didn't fight to keep them.

Moment by moment he watched his life behind his eyes like a film. Memory by memory they faded and were lost to him. He didn't put up a fight, just watched the show. It was easier to focus on them then focus on how hard his chest wanted him to breathe.

Suddenly, there was a sliver of light across his face. Stefan carefully peeled his eyes open a crack as the last of his memories faded away. He slowly reached a hand out as the memories of Silas were starting to dim. He knew he needed to remember Silas, and he knew there was a reason why he, himself, wasn't dead… but he couldn't remember why, and the line of light was growing. His hand connected with the door of the vault, and the door gave way. He stared at it confused and pushed through it, out into the water. It was dark outside his vault, but the light was still penetrating to a degree. Stefan pulled himself out and floated in the water for a moment- looking around, trying to figure out which way was up. He couldn't remember how he'd gotten there.

Finally gaining a sense of up and down, Stefan gave himself a strong push off the bottom, and started padding to the surface.

He didn't know his own name, by the time he took that first breath of air.


Caroline looked around the campus, and wrapped her arms around herself. She had the sensation that she wasn't a big fish in a small pond anymore. She wondered to herself if she'd meet any other supernatural on campus, and was surprised that she'd be okay if she didn't. She was determined not to think about Klaus or Tyler, but it wasn't time for her to move into the summer dorm yet so she kept herself busy looking around. There was an outdoor bulletin board she spotted, and she walked up to it to read all the postings. There were the usual things she expected- things like back home- local socials, fundraisers, sports… but there were also ads for selling books and gear, renting rooms, clubs, and even classes.

She stopped when she saw a flyer for a class that would start in September on the Occult. She creased her eyebrows as she read the description, mentally rolling her eyes. Humans had such a fascination with the supernatural, but rarely realized how the supernatural just wanted to kill all humans.

"I hear it's a bore of a class." Came a deep British voice behind her that made her jump. Caroline hadn't been paying attention to her vampire senses considering how crazy some of these frosh were, and hearing someone so close without her noticing had caught her off guard. She spun around and came face to face with a very handsome man with striking features. His hair was jet black sprinkled with the very slightest hint of gray. His skin was dark and tanned. His jaw was high, his chin pronounced, and his eyes were two different colours. One was a very bright blue, the other a deep green with a single large fleck of white. "Sorry, didn't mean to sneak up on you." He smiled.

"That's okay, I was just reading the board." She smiled back. "Have you taken this class?" she asked

"Not for the faint of heart." Said the man. "Nightmarish stuff, and I hear the papers you have to write are hell. But interesting to some." He mused. "It's an interesting elective at least. What's your name?"

"I'm Caroline," she said extending a hand and a smile. "I'm starting here in September."

He shook her head. "Oh, a frosh. I hadn't pegged you for one of those." He admitted. "You look a little older."

Caroline narrowed her eyes. "Oh really?"

"Not like that!" he laughed putting his hands up in defeat. "Just like, you've lived a lot I guess. Seen the world."

"Hardly." She replied.

"Where are you from?" he asked.

"Mystic Falls." She answered.

"Oh, I had a colleague there." He replied.

"A colleague? Are you a teacher?!" Caroline asked, a little taken a back. This man looked to be no older than his early 20s if that.

He grinned and stuck out his hand. "Ocean Thomas." He smiled.

"What kind of a name is Ocean?" Caroline asked without even thinking. "Ugh sorry, I mean, that's very odd and unique." She blushed a little.

"No worries. I get it all the time. It's the name of a professor who teaches a course on the Occult." He grinned again.

Caroline turned red. This guy was really enjoying messing around with her. Like a cat with a mouse. She wasn't having any of it. He could keep it and his stupid course.

"Well, nice to meet you Dr. Thomas but I'm going to take a tour of the library now." She picked up her bag and threw it over her shoulder, marching off past him.

"Hey wait up, I can show it to you." He insisted.

"You always take this much interest in 18 year olds?" she demanded turning around. Not that he wasn't hot. But the guy was setting her red flags flying.

"I'm sorry. Look. I saw your high school patch on your bag and knew you were from Mystic Falls. We don't get many of you here." Explained Ocean as he jogged to keep up with her.

"Really? My best friend is coming here in September with me too. So you'll have two people." She spat as she continued to march.

"No, it's just that, my colleague- the one I was talking about? Maybe you know him, I think he taught at your high school." Said Ocean. Caroline came to a stop. She turned to face him. "Alaric-"

"Saltzmen." She finished for him. "Yeah. Alaric… he was a good teacher and a great friend."

"…was?" prodded Ocean.

"Yeah. He died." Frowned Caroline.

Ocean looked momentarily pained. "I… I'm very sorry to hear that. What happened?"

"Officially?" asked Caroline. "He drowned."

"Unofficially?" asked Ocean.

"Too close to his work." She admitted, not even sure what she meant by that but hoping it would scare him off. It didn't.

"I'd really like to get you a drink Caroline." Said Ocean after a moment of silence.

"I'm underage." She replied solemnly.

"I was thinking something with a little more iron." Replied Ocean.

They stared at each other for a moment.