A/N: Split this chapter up into two parts because it was like 5,000 words long... Part 2 will be up by weekend.

Again, I just want to say thank you SO MUCH for all the feedback, I logged into my email three days after I loaded and I swear down on the holy name of Stelena, I nearly fainted.

Hope you enjoy!

"How the hell did you let him get away?!" Damon exploded to no one in particular.

"Well it wasn't like we planned it, anyway, he's hardly a prisoner!" Caroline retorted.

"Anyway, he was left with you!" He snapped, turning to Elena.

"Yeah, Damon and he got out, but arguing won't make any difference," She replied, grabbing her keys and her purse. "We have to go and look for him,"

"She's right," Caroline agreed. "Damon, go south. Tyler, west, I'll go north. Bon, Elena, go east, take your car, split up and try and find him before someone else does!"

Immediately, they all dispersed.

Tyler and Caroline disappearing into the distance as they sped away at vampire speed.

Elena and Bonnie hurried to where Elena's Ford Explorer was parked in the drive way and were soon driving out of the grounds, leaving Damon still stood in the foyer, muttering to himself, he shut the door and disappeared himself in search of his brother.

"How you doing?" Bonnie asked, some minutes into their journey.

Elena gave half a laugh as she turned the corner. "I'm... I'm..." She stammered, unsure of what she was. "I dunno," She finalised, pulling a face. "We just need to get him home and sort out this..." She trailed off and leant her head into the hand that wasn't steering.

"We'll sort it, honey, I promise," Bonnie said, reaching over and squeezing her knee. "We'll come up with something we always do," Elena glanced at her and smiled gratefully.

"I don't know what I'd do without you," She murmured and Bonnie returned the smile.

"Join the club," She agreed.

"How's the spell coming on?" Elena asked, nodding to the map on Bonnie's lap and the pendant she held above it.

"I can't track him," She replied, with a sigh.

"What do you mean?" Elena asked, confused. Looking out of the window and scanning the hills for any sign of Stefan.

"I think it's the cloaking spell that Klaus' witch cast when they first left, I don't think it was ever lifted," She explained, closing her eyes and trying again but to no avail, it merely dangled on top of the border of Virginia.

"But Klaus is dead, doesn't that lift the spell?" Elena asked, confused.

Bonnie shook her head. "Not necessarily," She glanced out of her window, she too searching the landscape for him. "The witch must have been powerful, very powerful, it could last forever,"

"Brilliant," Elena sighed. She turned at looked around the entire road. "I don't think he'd have come up here," She muttered, "I'll go back to the crossroads," She reversed her car and Bonnie watched as she did so.

"It's not your fault," She whispered and Elena gripped the wheel tightly as her best friend had just voiced the opposite of what she had been screaming at herself for the last hour.

"Well then, whose fault is it?" She asked rhetorically. "I should have been looking after him, I should have been with him,"

"Elena, it wouldn't have made any difference," Bonnie insisted. "You couldn't have stopped him, Caroline was there and she couldn't stop him and she's a freaking vampire,"

"I could have tried, instead, he's alone and he's hurting and it's down to me," She replied, her voice barely audible as she searched the surrounding fields for him desperately.

"Baby, it's not, I promise you it's not," She tries again, this time pulling on the hand brake causing the car to stop. "Elena, listen to me, none of this is your fault!" Elena turned her head to look at her.

"Stefan is a hero. He saved us all, he killed Klaus. He finished it. He gave us all our lives back. But Elena, at the end of the day it was his choice! You never told him to, you didn't hand him the stake. You are not responsible!"

"Then why do I feel so guilty?" She asked, simply.

"Because you're Elena and you want to protect everyone, but you can't," Bonnie replied, sighing. "Right, I promise you – we'll find him!"

"Then what?" Elena asked sadly.

"Then we take it an hour at a time," Bonnie murmured. "We take it an hour at a time,"

"I can't lose him," She mumbled. "I've had to bury too many people I care about and if it was Stefan or you or Jer or Care, then I don't think I could do it,"

"We will try to find something," Bonnie assured her, careful that she didn't offer her a straw to cling to. "We will try,"

Elena smiled in gratitude. "Thanks, Bon," There was a pause. "I just wish there was some way to... reverse it,"

"What did you say?" Bonnie asked, suddenly.

"Huh?" Elena looked confused.

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter,"

Their conversation was interrupted by the loud buzzing of Elena's phone. She scrambled for it, seeing Caroline's ID flash up on her phone.

"Hello?" She said, pressing the phone to her ear.

"Hey it's me," She replied.

"Have you found him?" She asked, desperately. There was a sigh.

"No, Elena, no sign... what about you?"

"Nothing, we don't even know what to look for," She answered, glancing around the land outside the car.

"How's Bonnie's spell going?" Caroline asked.

"It's not; Klaus' cloaking spell hasn't lifted so she can't track him," She sighed and Caroline tutted on the other end.

"Typical Klaus, just when we thought we were done," She mumbled.

"What next?" Elena asked.

"You and Bonnie go back to the boarding house," Caroline instructed.

"No, we'll keep looking," She insisted.

"Elena, like you said 'you don't know what you're looking for' get back to the Boarding House and wait there in case he comes back – for all we know he's sat on the front steps, locked out,"

"OK," Elena sighed, "Call if you find him,"

"Of Course,"

"Bye, Care,"

"Bye,"

"What's going on?" Bonnie asked, looking inquiringly at her best friend as she hung up her phone.

"We're going back to the boarding house to see if he comes back and to carry on looking through more Grimoires," Elena replied, turning the engine back on.

"OK," She nodded, "I'll keep trying," She added, gesturing to the pendant only to find it continued falling on the border over one hundred miles away.

They arrived back to the Boarding House to find Jeremy and Matt, both of whom had gone to school that day to cover for the others, sat on the doorstep, but no Stefan.

"Hey," They greeted each other and Jeremy came forward to hug them both with one arm each.

"What are you doing here?" Bonnie asked, firmly. "I told you to stay in school; Ric did a hell of a job with the principle getting you re-enrolled"

"Ric, says he's sorry but he couldn't leave, Mr. Jenkins is off and he had to cover – but he's looking – all of his documents online – he'll be over as soon as he can," Jeremy explained to the two girls.

He and Bonnie continued her hushed conversation as Elena went to hug Matt.

"Any news?" He asked, knowing of the situation after Bonnie had texted him. She shook her head.

"It's gonna be OK," He promised, pulling her into a tight hug, "It's gonna be OK".

She let everyone in with the key she has, she half tries to explain she kind of owns the Boarding House but from their puzzled expressions she thinks that they think she's gone delirious and they begin to search through more of the Grimoires, for something – anything.

Tyler returns forty minutes later, shaking his head. "Nothing," He sighs, panting, his face red, sweat covering his body. "I thought I caught his trail, but there was nothing, turned out to be an antelope,"

Five minutes later, Elena and Jeremy have vacated to the front porch and are sat on the step, Grimoires still resting in their laps. He wraps his arm tightly round her and pulls her to him, sensing that she was only a fraction away from breaking point.

"Do you remember when we were little, like I must have been five and you must have been what, seven? And Dad went away on that business trip and we broke Mom's favourite vase?" He asked, rubbing her arm, trying to take her mind away from the world for a moment.

"Playing Power Rangers," Elena laughed at the memory. "You always wanted to be the pink one,"

Jeremy laughed as well. "Yeah and she shouted at us, then we went upstairs, and I packed my Spiderman backpack and you packed your My Little Pony one with the most un-useful shit that we had and told her we were moving out and weren't coming back until he came home,"

She smiled. "And we made a den on the front lawn out of her bedding that had been on the washing line,"

"Yeah and we sat in there with Yoyos with no strings and felt pens that had run out for four hours trying to prove a point," He added.

"We were weird kids," She pointed out and he laughed in agreement.

"Special," He corrected her. "Do you think they're watching us?" He asked suddenly and she nodded.

"Every day," She replied, finding her eyes were pricking with tears for the millionth time that day. "And they're so proud of you and I'm so proud of you," She added, kissing the side of his head as she hugged him.

"And if they were here, Dad would be telling you to pull your finger out and not to let a girl like that get away!" She pointed out and he smiled.

"We're taking it slow," He shrugged and she was happy for her best friend and brother.

"Then get back inside with your taking-it-slow-ex-slash-current-girlfriend" She encouraged, swatting him away.

"Will you be OK?" He asked and she nodded,

"I'm fine," She assured him, her voice sounding a lot stronger than she fel, and he placed a hand on her shoulder before returning inside.

Damon came back an hour later.

He was walking slowly, head drooped, his feet dragging along the floor. He raised his gaze and met Elena's eyes, shaking his head sadly. He dropped down besides her on the step and sighed.

"Nothing," He announced after a moment. "No trail, no scent, no body..." He let out a groan. "I shouldn't have let him out of my sight,"

"It's not your fault," She uttered, running her hand through her hair.

"It's not yours either," He added, looking briefly at her before back out at the woods.

There was silence for a moment.

"So what happens now, Elena?" He asked. "You get him back home now, then what?"

"I don't know," She shrugged. "We just need to think and try and work out something – all of us!"

"All of us?" He asked, sceptically. "Elena, there is nothing to work out! How much clearer do you have I have to make it? Stefan is going to die, your ignorance is pathetic!" He spat.

"Damon, can you hear yourself?" Elena asked, turning to him. "Did you hear what you just said?"

He lowered his gaze to the floor, his jaw twitching.

"If the tables were reversed, he would do anything to keep you safe!" She stated. "He gave up everything to keep you safe and this is how you repay him? Maybe he shouldn't have bothered!"

There was a pause.

"Elena, it's not that I... don't want him to survive," Damon stammered after a minute. "It's that I can't face getting my hopes up, the thought of him dying... I know where I stand. But...the possibility of him surviving, us saving him ... I can't even go there because if he doesn't make it, it'll hurt even more,"

There it is! Let me know what you think! Love it? Hate it? Want to explode it Guy Fawkes' style? Please let me know!

Love you all :D xxx