"We've looked everywhere, Damon." Elena sounded exhausted.
Damon had his tongue pressed to the side of his teeth, mouth slightly open in vague thought, not looking at her. "No, if we'd looked 'everywhere' we would have found him by now." For some reason he was still glancing around the Salvator Boardinghouse from the front hall as if something there would tip him off. He'd done the same thing in almost every other room.
Elena huffed a breath. She hated when he treated her like a child so she changed the subject. "Why do you think Professor Shane was like that when we left?"
"Like what? Like a man who's plan wasn't being followed? Like a douche with too many freakin' secrets?" his smile was tight, eyes squinted in irritation.
"Uh, yeah." Damon pinned down what she'd been thinking. They'd worked out a system since last night. He tried to make sure she voiced her opinion before he said his just so they knew what she really thought. Damon hadn't said anything about Shane yet Elena's trust of the man had disappeared. Something was off about him and it wasn't Damon's thoughts overriding hers. Late last night, the Professor kept trying to make excuses about why they shouldn't go. He appeared to barely restrain his anger when they told him that Bonnie would have to put her "training" on hold until they found Stefan and so would Jeremy for that matter. He was a man who had a course and people were deviating from it. That fact did not go unnoticed. Even Jeremy had looked at his mentor funny. He caught it too.
"Well, something's definitely been up his sleeve for a while. Glad we agree. If we didn't, you wouldn't have asked. Or, well, you just would have agreed eventually anyway." Damon said with a smirk, resting his head against a wall.
"You don't think he would do anything stupid, do you?" She asked.
"Shane?"
"No. Stefan."
"What do you think, Elena?"
"I'm asking because I have no idea. As his brother of 160 odd years, you should know better than I would."
"First fight: Check" Damon snarked.
"This isn't a fight."
"Oh," Damon faned innocence and surprise, standing straight from his lean and looked at her, "You don't think so? You don't agree?"
Elena squinted her eyes pointedly at him. "I'm starting to," she grumbled. And I'll be damned if I'm not! She thought but just shook her head and laughed.
"What?" He asked.
"The sire bond."
"You find it humorous?"
"Kind of. I mean, I know what I think and I'm starting to recognize the change when it shifts to what you think so I'm starting to be able to keep track of everything. When I don't agree with my initial thought, I now know to stick with it anyway. Because it was my own and simply because sometimes it pisses you off." Elena giggled.
Damon loved her thought process. Her personality was really unchanged since she became a vampire. More amplified, sure. More kinky, fuck yes. But still the same wonderful girl he couldn't help but adore.
"No." Damon said.
"No what?"
"No, I don't think he would do anything stupid. Not suicidal stupid anyway. He'll probably just go off the deep end." He hiked up his eyebrows with fake joy. "And you know who we'll have to get to help us with that."
"Klaus," Elena plopped the name out there.
"Yep, so come on." He grabbed her hand.
"Wait, Damon. What even happened with all that yesterday?"
"Don't know," he shrugged. "Guess we'll find out."

Caroline awoke slowly. The kind of gradual transition from sleep to consciousness where you just enjoy the journey, taking in one thing at a time. The first thing she noticed with her eyes still shut was that her face was nuzzled into someone's warm neck and not in a feeding kind of way. The second thing was that she was in someone's lap and that person had their strong arms wrapped around her. She was also draped in a blanket and had her arms cuddled around a torso.
The events of last night slowly came back to her and she identified the comfy loose clothing she was wearing as Klaus' and sure enough, when she opened her sleepy eyes and looked up, he was the one holding her. She sensed that he'd been watching her sleep for some time. It was one of those romantic things that guys did in movies but never did in real life. The leading man adored the leading lady so much and was so smitten with her that he just had to gaze at her beautiful face at rest. But this was no movie and yet, he was doing it anyway.
"How long have I been out?" her voice came out more raspy than she'd thought it would.
"It's morning." Klaus eased back a tendril of hair that had fallen in her face.
Their eyes locked and tentatively, Caroline extended up and kissed him. The same kind of kiss they had in the woods. A light feathery one. It just wasn't enough for her though. She kissed him again but this time she shifted to straddle him and crushed her lips to his. The mood was changing at lightning speed.
Klaus only skipped a millisecond before he grabbed her thighs and anchored her in place over him. The pressure of him angled in, between her legs was sending flashes of heat through her lower stomach and he placed a hand just above her butt to keep snuggly in place.
Holy shit she thought right before she bit down on his lip. She could feel his cocky smile. His other hand coming up to the back of her head and deepening the kiss. It became more forceful and desperate. He'd wanted her for so long and she had tried to deny her feelings for so long. The combination just exploded in this collision course.
Caroline couldn't help moving her hips. It was an animal driven instinct when in this position. She heard him hiss a moan and he trusted himself to her where they were already so snug. Her nails dug into the coarse short curls at the back of his neck and opened her mouth even wider to him.
There was only so much of this a man could take. Suddenly, he jutted them both up off the couch and the tumbled to the floor with him on top. Caroline felt like such a wanton hussy when she wrapped her legs around his hips. He braced himself with his arms on either side of her and thrust with his hips again and even through clothing, it was driving them both mad. It was only a matter of time before the clothes were off.
"And you judge me?!"
Caroline angled her head up to see an upside down Elena and Damon standing just inside the big parlor. Klaus let out a stifled groan as he stopped his roaming hands and helped Caroline up.
"All this time, you're like 'Elena, how could you fall for Damon? Elena, you're just sired. Elena, how could you?!' and now look at you!"
Damon steadied a hand on her arm.
"If it's any conciliation, I was always fine with you two being together. I was actually quite intrigued by the sire bond between two vampires." Klaus voiced. Elena just looked at him annoyed and then back to her friend who's waist had an arm snaked around it from behind.
"He's just- well, he's..." Caroline was trying to explain it to a very pissed off Elena. "He can- er, he's so..." She couldn't get anything out, not after he'd just completely scrambled her brain with all his touching. "He's-" she cut off again, agitated.
"Aw, you too, Love." Klaus smiled as he swiftly kissed her cheek and took joy at squeezing her hip from behind, making her jump.
"Just stop touching me!" Caroline's inner drama queen reared it's head. If he kept it up, she'd squeal and beg for more. And Elena's raised brow was more than she could take.
"So," Klaus began, stepping from behind her, and clasping his hands formally behind his back, "what is it that brings you two to our little neck of the woods" he slowed the word 'our' down a bit giving Caroline a side glance.
"Stefan." Elena said.
"What about me?" Elena and Damon whirled around as Caroline and Klaus careened to see as well. Stefan stood just inside the main door.
His face was a mask, all seriousness with flat lined lips.
"Ste-"He interrupted Elena.
"Klaus, Professor Shane just called me. He can help us get the cure."
At the same time, Elena and Klaus said the same sentence with one variation "I don't need the cure." came from him and "I don't want the cure" came from her. Caroline and Damon gave both the others very confounded looks. "What?!" They said in unison with Stefan...

*** Finally figured out how to add chapters thanks to a very helpful comment. This is a bit shorter than I wanted but I came up with a twist that didn't fit into a more drawn out chapter. working on the next one at the moment. Very tricky...