Thanks to the reviewers: EtherealDemon, Elliichen and kcinara.

This one came out faster because vacations are here and I'll be gone for a while so I might not update these next two weeks. This is to cover for the vacations. Hope you guy like.

Enjoy!

-x-x-x-

"So," asked Caroline, "what do you want?"

Bonnie had asked for her help, not bothering with many details. They were now in a clearing outside of town. It was rather empty, on the side of the road, surrounded by trees. The clearing was filled with very tall grass that came up to their knees. Caroline regretted wearing a dress; it was a bit early since it wasn't summer yet, but when she'd put it on she'd thought it would be fine. But now, in this sort of field-slash-clearing with itchy plants brushing against her legs and ants crawling all over her was not something she appreciated.

At the moment, she noticed some sort of horrid centipede thing on her platform shoe and she shrieked.

"Off! Off! OFF!" She shouted, shaking her leg with supernatural strength. The poor creature was sent shooting towards the other end of the field, probably vaporising on impact with the ground.

Caroline brushed her hair away and straightened, composing herself. She breathed in deeply, and her customary smile was in place.

"You were saying?" she asked Bonnie.

The witch was looking bemused, but unsurprised at Caroline's... Carolineness.

"I want to practice a spell," answered Bonnie. "I just want you to be there for support."

"Wait," said Caroline, opening her arms as if to show off the whole clearing. "So you got me out in the middle of nowhere 'cause you want to practice a spell, and I'm just going to watch?! I can't even do something while you do your magic shtick?!"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Care, don't be dramatic. You're also there to help if anything goes wrong."

Caroline raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh. Don't think I can't tell you made that up right now."

I'm gonna rip you apart for the waste of time, human, growled something within her. Caroline inhaled, and exhaled slowly, pretending the voice wasn't there. Ignoring it was the only thing she'd been able to do so far, and it generally worked well.

Bonnie said nothing. She was opening her grimoire, reading as she advanced towards the centre of the field. Caroline followed her, keeping an eye on her in case she tripped because she'd been too busy reading to look at where she was going.

After half a minute of walking, Bonnie stopped. Caroline waited, but her friend seemed completely engrossed in her witch book. She waited some more, until it became apparent that this was going to be extremely boring.

"What are you doing, exactly?" asked Caroline, already exasperated after having spent barely a few minutes there. She crossed her arms, tapping her high-heeled show against the uneven ground.

"I'm testing a spell," said Bonnie, "to hide the scent of my blood from vampires. That way, I won't smell as good to them."

Caroline nodded distractedly, already dreading the hours she'd spend doing nothing while Bonnie practiced.

"Riiight. Fantastic."

-x-x-x-

Weeks later came the masquerade ball, organised by the Lockwoods. It was quite the grand affair, with everyone of importance being invited. Mystic Falls was known for its extravagant celebrations, and those were what had the levels of tourism so high. The parties, balls and festivals attracted people from all the nearby towns and cities, and it was one of the major sources of revenue for Mystic Falls.

Caroline was going, of course. Matt would be her date for the event. Of course, it wasn't like she would have taken anyone but her boyfriend to the event. Bonnie was coming along, and she would be with her boyfriend Carter, the handyman she'd met at the carnival the night Caroline had been in the hospital. They'd really hit it off and were now in a happy relationship.

Elena was going with Stefan, and Damon was tagging along with some girl who looked a bit too young to be with him.

"Is that... Aimee Bradley?!" asked Caroline, completely shocked. Last she knew, the girl was single, but to think she'd be with Damon...

Caroline remembered what she'd been told, about how apparently she'd been mistreated, abused and raped by Damon, and then it had all been erased from her memory. Was Damon doing the same to Aimee? Caroline had never liked the girl because she'd always been clingy and had hung off Caroline as if that would increase her popularity, but that didn't mean Caroline was leaving her to such a fate without even bothering to help.

"Matt?" she asked sweetly, batting his eyelashes at him.

He wasn't fooled.

"What do you want, Care?" he asked, seemingly amused despite himself.

She loved him and so wouldn't lie to him. Much.

"Damon's a jerk and doesn't deserve Aimee, so I'm going to save her from him. Can you go get drinks while I do that?"

Matt raised his eyes and looked over at the couple. They were dancing, with Aimee looking blissful and Damon bored out of his skull.

"Isn't he a bit old for her?"

Caroline nodded. "Exactly."

"I'll get the drinks. Go do your thing."

Smiling, she pressed a kiss against his cheek and gave him a quick hug.

"Thanks."

And off she went. As she approached, Damon raised his eyes to look at her. When she was in the middle of the dancing area, within hearing distance, he asked:

"Anything you want, blondie?"

"I need Aimee for a sec," she said, and without bothering with an answer, she ripped the girl out of his arms rather violently.

"Hey!" shouted Aimee, causing people to turn to look.

"Stop using people," Caroline hissed at Damon, "or I will end you."

Damon waved her away, looking supremely amused, like she was a little puffed-up kitten trying to scare him.

"Sure," he said, not meaning it in the least.

Bastard.

-x-x-x-

Caroline woke up the day after the masquerade, feeling tired and in need of a long bath. Her phone was ringing, and it was what had woken her. She really wanted to go back to sleep. Her hand shot out and grasped the object. She brought it her ear.

"What?!" she snapped, only half-aware.

"It's Elena," answered Bonnie. "She's not there. Jeremy called me because apparently she never came home, and he wanted to know if she slept at my house. She's gone, Care. Someone took her."

Caroline stiffened. She looked at the little clock on her bedside table. School would be starting in an hour.

"I'll be right there," she said. "Bye."

She ended the phone call and practically jumped out of bed. Unwilling to put on several articles of clothing, she threw on a yellow, breezy summer dress with a belt cinching it underneath of breasts. Then she added some white flats and grabbed her bag.

Within a few seconds she was out of the house, having shouted a quick goodbye at her mother on the way. Of course, she hadn't bothered answering her mum's questions as to why she was leaving so early. Caroline would just have to make it up to her later.

She ran to her car and jumped in, brushing a hand through her hair to try and make it a little bit presentable. It didn't take her long to arrive at Bonnie's house, as it was early and there were few cars out at that time of the morning. She parked her car across the front yard crookedly and made it up to the front door, nearly tripping on the way there. Bonnie was already there, with the door open, a stressed expression on her face.

"Come in, quick," she said, opening the door further.

Jeremy was there, sitting on a couch in the living room. On a table was a map. Bonnie made Caroline sit down, and then went to sit next to Bonnie.

"Elena's been kidnapped," said Bonnie. "I'm going to use Jeremy's blood to track her, since they are family and he's close enough for it to work. I want you, Care, to be the one following my directions, to Elena."

"Shouldn't... we be telling Stefan and Damon about this?" asked Jeremy.

Yeah, why weren't they calling the Salvatores? Caroline knew they were supposed to be pretty strong, so they'd be useful, wouldn't they?

"No," said Bonnie. "Caroline's the one I trust with this, and she's not your average vampire; she's stronger. She'll do a better job and won't risk being killed for doing something stupid. I don't trust them to do it right."

Caroline smiled, proud. Sometimes Bonnie would still flinch at her, because of what she was and what she ate. But their friendship was stronger than that, and they were making efforts to stay united, as close as ever. This was why they were saving Elena together; they were a team.

The ritual to track Elena was simple. Some of Jeremy's blood was dripped on the map, and Bonnie used her power to make the blood move until it was on the spot where Elena was. There was only one problem with it...

"Elena's moving," said Bonnie. "She's in some sort of vehicle, so I'll need to do the spell several times to keep tracking her. Caroline, drive over there, and then I'll track Elena again and tell you where you should go."

Caroline's first destination was Lynchburg. It was small, and while driving she came across a big empty stretch of land on an isolated road crossing the countryside. There was a parked car there, with an open door and no one in sight. As she approached the seemingly abandoned car, she finally noticed its owner on the ground, with blood on the ground.

It took a quick examination to deem him a vampire's victim.

"I found something," she said into her phone. "A body. Someone a vamp drunk from." She didn't sound the least bit disturbed by it; it was her other, darker side talking. "I think Elena was in the back of the car, but she's not there anymore. There are tracks left by another car, so I think someone else took her from here."

"Good job," said Bonnie. "I've done the tracking spell again. Here's your next location..."

And so it went. Caroline went from Lynchburg to Roanoke, then Danville and to Martinsville. It was at that last stop that they encountered a problem.

"Bonnie's unconscious," said Jeremy on the phone. "She used the spell too many times. She just started bleeding and I don't know what to do!" He seemed quite distressed.

"It's okay," said Caroline, even though it was not okay. She had no way of finding Elena now, and every second wasted was a second someone could be hurting Elena. It didn't help that her dark side, the memories that weren't hers, were appearing and strongly informing her of what they'd seen being done to female captives.

She spent the next several hours combing the town, driving everywhere in a vain attempt to find her friend, and asking townspeople questions in hopes of finding anything. No one could recall seeing a car passing by, because too many had passed for them to notice anything specific.

Finally, hours later, Bonnie was finally capable of performing the spell again, and this time to location didn't change; Elena's location had stopped changing, so she was likely being kept in a more permanent place.

Caroline's destination was near Eden, which was West of Reidsville. It was three hours away from Mystic Falls.

The area Elena was at was woody, a large forest with no indication of where Caroline should go. Jeremy went to search on a laptop and looked up an aerial view of the place. There was only one building in the vicinity; a mansion in the middle of the forest, near the East of the woods.

And so, Caroline went, ready to tear to pieces whoever had dared touch her friend.