July 2015 Update/Rewrite

"Caroline?" Stefan turns to her with a look that clearly says she needs to start talking, and fast. Klaus chuckles at their friend dynamic.

"Okay, so I was hanging out at this bar-"

"Caroline"

"I'm getting there, hold on! Okay, so at this bar I run into Kol-"

"Oh are we recapping the weekend?" Speak of the devil, Kol walks into the living room and flops down next to Klaus who is watching the two guest still standing at the door.

"and we did the whole 'woe is me' drinking thing. Or at least I did-"

"We are going to be here a while" Kol informs Klaus to which Klaus just laughs.

"Anyways. We ended up in New York-"

"Where baby vamp got a one up on me. Don't be expecting that to ever happen again, by the way," Katherine says joining the group in the living room.

"How exactly did that happen?" Rebekah asks in a friendly taunting manner as she also joins the group.

"Anyway, I released Klaus out of the coffin-"

"Why?" Stefan asks her honestly confused on the young vampire's team change.

"Because she's in love with him" Kol pipes in.

"What?" Stefan barks.

"I can explain-"

"I'm listening" Stefan folds his arms in front of his chest fully sliding into the roll of the older brother.

"Um… I'm in love with him" There was a pause where no one said anything and the group just let the fact that she verbalized it, out loud, to someone else, sink in.

"Okay" Stefan nods, while trying to wrap his mind around what this revelation truly means.

"Okay?"

"Okay. You love him. You rescued him because you love him. Knowing you, I think that is the least surprising thing going on here. What is going on here?" He points around the room referencing the odd group of people who he was pretty sure all hated each other before Caroline went out of town. Yet, he knows from experience that no one rallies people together quiet like her.

"That explanation I am going to leave up to them because I didn't actually tell my mom I was leaving town so I should probably go show up at my house sometime today"

"Are you going to tell her where you were?"

"No… not right now at least. Do you mind being my excuse? I'm going to tell her I was so torn up about the break up with Tyler that I spent sometime at the boarding house to make sure I wouldn't eat anyone in my emotionally unstable state. If I make it a vampire thing she wont dig in with questions"

"Yeah sure" Stefan shrugs, she was fine so he didn't really mind being part of the lie.

The rest of the group was just amused with her logic on how to deal with the Sheriff.

Damon POV

"I remember you," a British voice says sitting at the bar to my right. "You're the bloke my bat is so found of. It missed you"

"Yeah? What brings you to back to Mystic Falls? I thought you and the rest your creepy siblings were long gone by now"

"Eh. What can I say? I had a moment of nostalgia, thought I'd come back home to see what everyone is up to" I could feel my shoulder blade fracturing from his pat on the back but I wasn't about to let the pain show in my face.

"What is this the part where you kick my ass for putting your dick of a brother in a coffin?"

"No this is the part where I tell you that if you ever hurt Caroline Forbes, I will string you up by your intestines and reintroduce you to my favorite bat" What the hell?

"What the hell do you care about blondie all of the sudden?"

"Don't worry your tiny little head about that. Just know if you piss her off, or tell her about this conversation, I'll turn you into a piñata. Got it?" With that the asshole walks off.

Wtf is going on? I need to head home. I make it to my car to be slammed against the side of it.

"Hello Damon. Miss me?" Now Barbie Klaus is back?

"Not really" I moan out, feeling my ribs crack

"Good. Then I'll make this quick. From now on you are to treat Caroline like she deserves. No asshole comments. No judgie stares. No throwing her into danger, especially for your precious Elena. Understand?" She whispers in to my ear, which surprisingly really up's the creepiness of this whole conversation.

"What the hell? Since when were to two of you friends?"

"Since I said so. From this point forward, if you mess with her, you mess with me and I think I gave you plenty of reasons to not want to mess with me. Also, if you tell her about this conversation, I'll compel you to eat your own hand. Do you understand?" She squeezes her hands around my neck even tighter

"Yes!" She breaks my back before walking off. I lay there for about 15 minutes before I can get up and go home.

I make it back to the house with out running into anyone else but that luck runs out once I notice there are people waiting in the living room.

"Damon, took you long enough to show up" Katherine says from the couch, Elijah is standing behind her, both are drinking my alcohol. Lovely.

"Katherine… and Elijah. Let me guess, I should be nice to Caroline?" Really. What the hell is going on?

"Oh good. You got the memo," Katherine says. Elijah stays quiet. "Just so we are all clear, I like this new little family I am apart of. Therefore, sweet little Caroline and naïve little Rebekah are under my protection. So if you pick a fight with them, I'll get involved. You don't want me involved. I'll tear out your kidney and feed it to wolves. Together we will figure out if an out of body organ still counts as a wolf bite. Got it? Good" With that she vamps over and puts her fist throw my stomach then leaves. Elijah follows her with out saying a word.

Third Person POV

"When you said you wanted to make a quick stop before dinner, I wasn't expecting that. But I can honestly say, I'm pleasantly surprised"

"Good, because we aren't talking about it"

"I just want to know why"

"I don't know. It sounded like a fun way to start the evening"

"Katarina"

She rolls her eyes but relents to his question, "Or maybe I like this little misfit of a group we have put together. Maybe I like not only not running, but also fitting in. Maybe that talk earlier with Stefan and Kol brought up some emotional response with the idea of being part of a family or maybe I just like showing up when people least expect it and cause pain or trouble. It's your call but the bottom line is that Mystic Falls is still a supernatural war zone and I was making it clear which side I'm on"

"Which side is that?" He asked in amusement. It wasn't often Katherine let her shields down.

"Ours"