After what felt like agonizing hours of driving around, Elena pulled into the lavish parking lot of the Richmond Hilton. She parked Damon's car and got out, glancing wearily at the skyline; the sky itself was dark purple and red, and the sun was slipping behind some trees. Nightfall had arrived, and that meant Stefan likely had, as well. Quick to want to get her mind away from that subject, she rushed into the hotel, pushing through the glass doors into the huge lobby. Not even bothering to take in her surroundings she walked straight up to the front desk where there was a middle aged man with gelled back brown hair standing in a tux. He raised an eyebrow questioningly at her casual appearance; no one dressed as plainly as Elena and walked into his hotel ever had good intentions.

"Hi," she said, a bit awkwardly; she wasn't sure what to say at a hotel this swanky. She wished that Damon were with her… "Um… I have a reservation for a room? It should be under Salvatore," she said and the man checked his computer. After a few seconds he nodded, seeming a bit surprised to find her information valid. "Ah, yes..." he said. "Mr. Salvatore called in your reservation about an hour ago… something about a family crisis?"

Elena bit her lip and nodded. "You could say that."

"Well, I'll just need to see your credit card to verify that everything gets paid for, and I'll have someone show you to your room."

"Oh," Elena said, not realizing she would need Damon's credit card. "Um… just a second…"

She slid her purse off her shoulder to pull out her wallet; she would likely need to dip into her college fund to pay for whatever crazy room Damon had rented her, but since he failed to… oh.

Her eyes widened a bit when she noticed what was neatly stashed in her purse. Wedged neatly between her own wallet and her car keys was Damon's wallet, fully stocked with every single black card, gold card, and membership card he possessed. Clearly, he had been prepared where she hadn't. A pang of yearning went off in her stomach as she held the black leather wallet in her hands, stunned.

"Mrs. Salvatore?"

Elena's head shot up in surprise. "What did you just call me?"

The man's eyes narrowed. "Mr. Salvatore specified that his wife would be spending the night with us," he said as though it should be obvious. Elena felt blush creeping into her cheeks; Mrs. Salvatore? As in Mrs. Damon Salvatore? Of course, in all logic, it made perfect sense for Damon to have masqueraded her as his wife; that way it wouldn't look suspicious when he set her up with a room and she found his wallet in her purse. But still… it would have been nice to know they were suddenly married…

"Oh," Elena said, still blushing. "Right. We, uh… we've only been married a few weeks, and I'm not really used to the name yet…"

The man nodded as Elena pulled out one of Damon's many black cards and passed it to him. He scanned it, verified that it did, indeed, belong to Damon Salvatore, and then called a bellhop over to collect her things and show her to the… "Presidential suite?" Elena repeated in disbelief and the man at the desk shot her a grin. "Clearly nothing is too good for Mrs. Salvatore."

Elena blushed again and shook her head when the bellhop offered to take her bag. Instead, she just allowed him to show her to the elevator, and take her up to the 21st floor, which appeared to be private. Elena decided right then that she didn't want to know how much this all cost. "Thank you," she said when the bellhop passed her the key that allowed her to get into her bedroom. The elevator doors shut behind her, and Elena found herself entirely alone again. She bit her lip and walked across the hallway to a window which overlooked a large part of Richmond in the distance. The sun was no longer in the sky, and stars were beginning to appear. Elena, now free of any distraction, felt her worry sinking in again. What was happening back in Mystic Falls? Was everyone alright? What did Stefan want? How had he reacted to Ellie? Were Ellie and Damon alright?

Her hands shaking, she walked over to the large, cream and gold colored double doors and unlocked them, walking into the master suite on the private floor. She was greeted by a large white king sized bed with a thin canopy, and walked over and flopped down on the bed, pulling out her cell phone. She had no missed calls, and wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign. As tempted as she was to call someone back home, she knew it would be a bad idea; what would Stefan think if Elena called someone in the room while Elena was supposed to be standing right in front of him?

Elena placed her phone on the bedside table and shut her eyes, trying to calm her nerves. She had just begun to drift off to sleep when a hand suddenly clamped down over her mouth, muffling her shocked scream as her eyes snapped open.

… . … . … . … . …

Damon glanced nervously out the window at the setting sun as he held Ellie, sleeping again, close to his chest. "This is never going to work," he choked out and Katherine sighed. "Don't be such a fatalist, Damon…"

"There's no way in hell that Stefan is going to buy that Ellie's heartbeat is yours, too!" Damon snapped nervously. Of course, he had kept his cool while Elena was there, so he could get her to cooperate; but in all honesty, he was more terrified of the possible outcomes than she had been. He had left out a rather bleak part of Katherine's plan when explaining to Elena, the bleakness being that Katherine had no heartbeat, being a dead vampire. Katherine's brilliant improvisation was that she keep Ellie close to her at all times to make it seem like her own heart was beating as well as the baby's. That way, if anything went wrong, she would be able to protect her. It was a win-win in her eyes; in Damon's eyes, it was a lose-lose. If and when Stefan realized it wasn't really Elena, he was going to go at her first. And if Katherine had Ellie, God only knows what could happen to the fragile little angel…

His anxious over protective father side kicking in, Damon began to nervously rock back and forth on his heels, placing a kiss to Ellie's head as his beady blue eyes focused on the driveway. "Where is the bastard?" he got out shakily.

Katherine sighed. "How should I know? He never calls, never writes…"

"This is no time for jokes, Katherine!" Damon snapped.

Currently they were the only two in the parlor. The others were standing by at other areas of the house where Stefan could decide to silently stroll in. "It's always time for jokes, Damon," Katherine said, grinning. "Especially when you're so tense…"

Her voice had a purring edge to it and Damon scowled. "If you're trying to seduce me, it isn't going to work. We all know that there are only two reasons I want you here, and one of them is currently in Richmond, likely in a worse state than I am."

"And the other being your pwecious wittle baby…" Katherine said in a baby voice and Damon shot a glare at her. "Katherine, why don't you just…"

"Katherine?"

Damon and Katherine both looked up in stunned shock and Damon hissed under his breath. He had only turned away from the damn window for a second…

Stefan was standing in the entry way, gazing curiously at Katherine, who sat on one of the couches. Katherine stared right back, unable to believe he had so easily slipped past them. How long had he been waiting for Damon to turn away…? "Damn," she purred, grinning. "Ripper Stefan is stealthy."

He shrugged as if to say, it's nothing. "Tell me," he said, entering the living room. "Why are you dressed as my girlfriend and why," he turned to face Damon, "is my brother holding a baby?"

Damon was stunned. How in hell had he slipped past them…?

"Well, I could tell you, but you won't like my answer," Katherine said tauntingly, grinning flirtatiously at him. Stefan shrugged. "Try me."

Katherine opened her mouth to start talking and Damon cut her off, glaring daggers at her. "Don't you dare say a word, you traitorous little bitch," he spat. She shook her head, grinning. "Damon, Damon, Damon; sweet, naïve Damon… me telling Stefan the truth wouldn't be traitorous; me being on your side would be traitorous, since it's always going to be Stefan who I choose. Now, what would really be traitorous," she grinned, knowing Damon could do nothing to stop her while protecting Ellie, "would be for me to not tell sweet Stefan here that, while he was off with the coffins, you… shacked up with his girlfriend."

Stefan's eyes narrowed as he turned to look at his brother. "Why am I not surprised?"

"You shouldn't be," Damon spat venomously, "What with you being a traitorous jackass to everyone, including Elena. It's your own fault that she…"

"That she what, Damon? That she decided she was lonely and would screw you for a while until I came back to Bunny Land?"

Damon's glare deepened. "There you go again, with the stupid jackass routine; you shouldn't be surprised that Elena got sick of waiting on someone who didn't want her, and decided to be with someone who actually loves her!"

Stefan gave a hysterical, rather frightening laugh. "Oh, you obviously don't know how pretty little Elena's mind works, big brother… you see, she was more than willing to stab you in the back a few months ago when you were trying to get Bitch here out of the tomb she was never really in. Why should she suddenly warm up to you so much?"

Damon glared. "Maybe because while you were off ripping innocent people apart, I was actually trying to keep her alive!"

Stefan rolled his eyes. "Just keep telling yourself that, Damon; you just keep pretending that Elena isn't just some sort of replacement for Katherine…"

Damon's lip twitched; he wanted nothing more than to rip his brother apart. Stefan knew nothing about how he felt for Elena, and he certainly couldn't talk about them that way. He had no right to say anything about him and Elena being happy together after the way he had acted over the past few months. "You've changed, Stefan," Damon said roughly and Stefan grinned, shaking his head. "So have you, Damon; the last time I checked, I didn't think you were a soft sap of a pushover who would do anything for someone else's girlfriend, including being her little sex slave…"

"Shut up!" Damon yelled. "Shut the fuck up…!"

His yelling and furious step toward his brother woke Ellie, and she started to cry. All three pairs of eyes locked on Ellie; worried blue, narrowed brown and skeptical hazel. "Why the hell do you have a baby, Damon?" Stefan snapped.

"None of your damn business," Damon said, clearly fed up as he tried to sooth Ellie while not looking away from his brother.

Katherine rolled her eyes. "He's going to find out eventually…"

"No, he isn't!" Damon yelled at her and Ellie cried louder.

Stefan's lip twitched in irritation. "Shut that thing up!" he snarled and Damon glared, looking down at Ellie and holding her close to his chest in attempt to stop her sobbing. Stefan turned back to Katherine. "Care to share, Kat?" he asked and she grinned now that Damon wasn't paying attention. "Damon and Elena have decided to adopt a baby," she said, grinning devilishly.

Stefan's badass I-Don't-Give-A-Shit attitude seemed to fly out the window at that statement. "They what?"

Damon's eyes snapped up to glare at Katherine. "Remind me why the hell I called you?"

Katherine shrugged. "You called; I never asked you to."

Stefan's eyes snapped back to his brother, suddenly furious. "At this point, Damon, I don't give a shit if you slept with her. I could care less if you've been fucking her since the night I left; but now you honestly think you're going to be happy, and start a family with her…?"

His hazel eyes fell on Ellie's tiny, quivering form and his lip twitched. "No chance in hell, brother."

The next few seconds were mad; brother appeared to have been everyone's trigger word. Stefan took off in a snarling lunge toward his brother and Damon had made a vampiric jump upward, landing in the rafters just as Alaric thundered down the stairs, shooting Stefan numerous times with a vervain tranquilizer gun. Katherine herself had appeared to make a lunge to stop Stefan from targeting the baby, and was now lying on her face on the floor, her target having collapsed before her. Matt was tying vervain soaked ropes around Stefan's wrists, and Bonnie was heavily sedating him with some form of spell. Jeremy was offering a very miffed Katherine his hand, which she snarled at and stood promptly on her own, wiping dust off her clothes in irritation as she stalked into the kitchen to get more blood. Caroline was gazing, terrified, up into the rafters at Damon and Ellie. "Get down from there!" she hissed, afraid he may drop the baby. She knew Damon never would, but her brain still wanted to assume the worst was possible. Damon gracefully leapt back down to the floor, whispering soothing words to Ellie, attempting to stop her terrified wailing.

"Matt, Jer; help me get him locked up in the basement," Alaric said and both boys nodded, helping him pick up Stefan and start for the basement entrance.

Katherine waltzed back in, a tumbler of blood and vodka in her hand. "Well, that certainly didn't go as planned. Good thing the history teacher came prepared."

Caroline glared at her. "From what I heard, you were no help."

"Neither were any of you, staying hidden until the last minute. The plan was…"

"The plan was that he was supposed to think you were Elena! You blew that within the first thirty seconds!"

"Technically not my fault; Damon was on watch duty, and he turned around."

Caroline rolled her eyes in disgust as Katherine took a casual sip of her drink and flopped down on the leather couch.

"You're pathetic, do you know that?" Caroline spat at her. "I think Rebekah would have been more help…"

"Barbie Klaus?" Katherine said with a laugh, "Over my dead undead body will she ever be walking amongst the living dead people again…"

Caroline glared and walked over to where Damon sat, stroking Ellie's cheeks as she curled her fists up, clutching the fabric of his shirt with her tiny hands. Her eyes were wide open, and Caroline didn't like how traumatized the little baby looked. "Can babies be compelled?" she asked. "Can you make her forget Stefan lunging at her, and you jumping with her…?"

"Anyone can be compelled, Caroline… I just don't want to do it right away," Damon said, continuing to calmingly stroke the baby's cheek; partially for her sake, and partially for his own. "I need to call Elena," he said and stood up. "Will you take Ellie for a little while?"

Caroline's eyes lit up. "Really…?"

Damon nodded and passed her over, surprised when she didn't cry. "I'll just be a few minutes," he said, and walked into the kitchen, pulling his cell phone out. He frowned when he realized he had an unknown missed call. His frown deepening, he redialed the number and waited for a response.

The voice he heard made him snarl in irritation.

"Damon; I was wondering when you were going to call me back. Been busy, mate?"

Damon didn't like the chipper note in Klaus' voice. It was never anything good when that bastard was happy. "What do you want?"

"Well, I think we all know what I want, but your brother is keeping me from getting it. I was actually hoping you could help me with a little dilemma of mine."

"And why in hell would I help you?" Damon said, his voice sugary sweet with sarcasm.

"Because, my dear friend; I have leverage. Tell me; do you know where my sister is? She hasn't been answering my phone calls…"

"I don't blame her, after what you did to your mother."

Klaus was silent. "How in hell do you know about that?"

"Well, it turns out that said little sister is a bit of a chatter box. We got your whole backstory, and then Ric put two and two together with these very useful ancient Original wall diaries… and bingo; Mommy-Killing-Nikki was his name-o."

"Alright, you bastard, that's it; where in hell is my sister?"

"Let's just say she's having a nice little reunion with Stefan, and I really don't think she wants to talk to you. That isn't a problem, is it?"

"No, of course not; but this may be for you."

Damon frowned. "What…?"

"Elena, sweetheart; come say hello to your little boyfriend back home."

Damon's grip tightened on his phone as he heard the familiar sound of struggling, then Elena's pleading voice was on the line. "Damon, no matter what he says, don't give her to him…"

Damon snarled. "Where the hell are you?"

"In a nice little room in the Richmond Hilton; your treat, I believe."

"You can't hurt her; you need her alive for your stupid hybrids," Damon spat, holding on to the only hope he had that Elena would stay safe until he got there to save her.

"Oh, I can't hurt her; but I can do something much, much worse."

"You sure as hell can't kill her!" Damon said.

"No… when I say worse, I mean worse for you, Damon."

Damon was trembling. "If you touch a single hair on her head I swear I'll rip your heart out."

"You see, Damon, that's the thing; I don't need to hurt her to do this. If I wish to, I could take her away with me right now, and you shall never see her ever again for the rest of her pathetic human existence."

"Damon, don't listen…!"

"Quiet, now, Elena, don't be rude."

Damon ran a hand through his hair in exasperation; Klaus had him. "What do you want?" he snapped.

"Bring me my sister. Oh, and to make things more fun, let's give you a time limit, shall we? You have exactly two hours to bring me my sister, or I'll take your precious girlfriend into hiding somewhere you'll never find her, and you will never see her again."

Damon heard Elena sobbing as the line went dead and he chucked his phone across the kitchen. "Damn it!"

Caroline, Katherine, and Bonnie all rushed into the kitchen at hearing his outburst. "What is it?" Caroline asked.

Damon had his face in his hands, trembling. "He has her. Klaus has her!"

"Who does he have?" Caroline squeaked and Katherine rolled her eyes. "Who do you think he has, Barbie?"

Bonnie was seething. "It's Elena, isn't it?"

Damon nodded, looking tortured. "He's going to kidnap her if I don't bring him Rebekah in two hours. He'll take her somewhere we'll never find her…"

"Don't do it. I can locate them with a locator spell…"

"You think he hasn't thought of that?" Damon snapped in irritation. "He'll have thought of everything! Klaus has hundreds of witches on his side; there's no way you would be able to locate her. If I don't give him Rebekah… we'll lose Elena."

"We can't hand her over, Damon," Katherine said and he glared. "I'm not risking losing Elena!"

"What about Ellie?" Caroline asked and all eyes turned to her. "Well, does he know? Did Elena say anything…?"

"He didn't mention it," Damon said, confident that Elena would never mention her baby to Klaus. He knew she would die before she would say anything, and it scared him. "I'm taking Rebekah to him, whether all of you like it or not. I'm not going to lose Elena just because we don't want Rebekah undaggered."

"Rebekah will kill her anyway if she gets undaggered! Am I the only one who remembers Elena stabbed her in the back?" Katherine asked and Damon glared.

"At least if I bring her home safely I can protect her!"

"You can't protect her from an Original, Damon!" Katherine hissed.

"Well, currently Rebekah isn't the Original I'm worried about," Damon said, closing the subject.

At that moment Alaric, Jeremy, and Matt returned. "What's going on?" Jeremy asked.

"Klaus has Elena," Damon said and Jeremy paled.

"He… he what…?"

"He wants Rebekah, and he somehow found out where Elena was going to be tonight. He's holding her hostage, and we have two hours before he… takes her."

"Takes her where?" Alaric asked.

Damon shook his head. "That's the point; he won't tell me. If I don't bring Rebekah to him… I'll never see Elena again."

Amongst their group were many mixed feelings. But Damon's mind was set, no matter what any of them said; he was taking Rebekah to Richmond, and getting Elena back. He didn't care what price he may pay later.

He just got her; he wasn't going to lose her.