~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*v*(B/J)*v*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jeremy put his phone away quickly, but not quickly enough, it seemed.

"Was that Damon?" Bonnie asked, sliding into the passenger seat beside him.

"Yeah, I was supposed to be there by now." Her text had caught him just as he'd been leaving the house he no longer shared with anyone but Alaric's ghost. Although Ric had promised he wasn't going to cross over, Jeremy didn't think he'd be able to get over the fact that he wasn't truly there in any tangible way. His life was filled with the people who were there but not, and at the moment, Bonnie was at the top of that list. He thought they'd be something, after she'd killed him and then brought him back when they'd desiccated Klaus. Nothing made a person realize what they felt for someone like losing them, as well he knew. Sometimes he wondered if Bonnie would have realized that if he hadn't come back. They never talked about where things stood. Life kept tossing them storms to weather and the questions of what they were to each other, whether she forgave him for being unable to let Anna go fully, whether they could ever be together again was always shoved to the back burner. Afraid of the answer to those questions, he let them be.

"Thanks for coming to get me," she said as she buckled in.

"What were you doing all the way out here, anyway?" he asked her, keeping his tone light. He adjusted the rearview mirror more to seem as though the question wasn't a seriously probing one and caught a pair of dark eyes in the back seat. He knew the answer, knew more about the goings on of his sister and her friends than he really wanted to. Ghosts had no boundaries when it came to the living, and he was the only one on this side who they could talk to and be heard, so he was the first stop on the Too Much Information line. Sheila wore a worried frown, a sentiment he felt all too keenly. Bonnie had been touching forces, drawing power from dark places, and the spirits were unhappy about it. She'd warned him that there would be a reckoning soon. Jeremy feared what she meant by that.

"Oh, you know," Bonnie chuckled nervously, "witch stuff." Bonnie had also been getting more secretive. This wasn't the first time Klaus had managed to rope her into doing something for him. He was very good at turning witches to his purpose, Sheila had said.

"Stirring cauldrons? Riding brooms?" he needled.

She tried to glare at him, but the corners of her mouth turned up. She knew he knew what witchcraft entailed, had helped her and studied grimoires with her, so although she wanted to take offense to the stereotype, she knew he was joking to put her at ease.

"Dancing naked under the full moon?" he continued, grinning.

She rolled her eyes, smiling. "It's just past new moon, so sorry to ruin the fantasy but… no."

"All right, keep your magical secrets," he continued, still light and joking, "but you do dance naked under the full moon, right?"

"Not when there are werewolves and hybrids to worry about," she laughed. "That gets dangerous fast."

"Oh, all right. Ruin all my fun, why don't you?" Jeremy reversed the car into a three point turn and backtracked through the woods to the main road. He felt confident after that maneuver that no one was following him. He glanced back at Sheila, to be sure. She shook her head 'no,' so he drove toward the Lake House without a qualm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*v*(C)*v*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The drive up to the Lake House was rough with traffic jams, construction sites, and rubberneckers slowing to a crawl at a half dozen wrecks. Caroline glared at her GPS. "You're useless, you know that?" The damn thing had steered her into worse messes than the last at every turn. A drive that it had calculated to be a forty-five minute little jaunt had turned into a two hour sojourn into the deepest pits of Hell.

Currently, her SUV was idling at a complete standstill. She was watching the minivan two cars ahead of her park. The driver, a bedraggled-looking soccer mom type in a cardigan and stretch pants got out and was attending to something in the back seat through the open side panel door. Her ass wiggled wildly out of the car, something the trucker to in the lane beside her found enthralling. By the sounds of wailing infant that Caroline couldn't help but hear with her up-jumped vampire senses, the woman was changing a diaper. For her part, she was glad for the unseasonably cold weather, else she might smell as much, too.

Caroline sighed and gave up. She jammed the shifter into park, herself, and cut the engine off to conserve gas. At this point, it would be quicker to get there on foot, but then she'd have to explain to the highway authority why she left her car in the middle of the biggest traffic jam in Virginia. "Umm, so sorry, officer, but I had to get out to pee and then I got lost!" wouldn't cut it. Even if she Compelled every interstate trooper for a hundred miles into buying that load of crap, there would still be a paper trail. She checked her phone for messages, of which there were none, not even a return text from Bonnie. That done, she drummed her hands on the steering wheel for the thousandth time before finally giving in and crawling into the back of the SUV to raid the cooler. If she didn't feed soon, with the stress she was under, she'd get out there and rip out Mr.-Ogle-Eyes(the trucker)'s throat before she knew what she was doing. In her mind, he was wearing Damon's face as she did it. She found the fantasy satisfying, briefly, before chiding herself for letting the monster in her have its say for even a second. She didn't like hurting people. She didn't! So instead, she returned to her seat, refastened her belt, and sucked down the freely donated blood in the bag, clutching it like a lifeline.

Halfway through the bag, she stilled. There was a sense of wrongness… of danger that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Soccer Mom had long since gotten back into the driver's seat and all Caroline could see for miles was the glowing red of taillights standing still, but there was a different stillness in the air. I sense a disturbance in the Force, her mind supplied, but other than the traffic, she could't see a reason for her unease. She glanced back down at her phone, wondering if she was going insane. Bonnie was the one with psychic powers. Caroline only possessed heightened senses… and instincts. Her instincts hadn't always been good before the change, but now they were better, supernaturally enhanced. Something was wrong and they were all in enough danger right now for her to pay heed to them.

She rolled the window down to get a better sniff of whatever was unsettling her, and that's when they came.

Nine men in dark clothing materialized from the cars around her. By the smell of them, she could immediately tell they weren't human. The mix of blood and wolf could only mean one thing: they were hybrids. Within her vehicle, she was a sitting duck, and they were closing fast. She slammed the button down to roll up the window hoping to buy time. With a surge of vampiric speed, she threw open the sunroof and snapped her belt clean off. In a flash, she was crouching on the roof of the SUV, looking for a likely avenue of escape. They had her surrounded, outnumbered, and outclassed. She could only hope they were intent on her capture, not the kill, and resolve to take a few of them out with her, if she could.

They all paused as if at some unspoken signal, waiting to see which way she'd jump. Escape was definitely out. She slithered back inside the vehicle and battened the hatches. There was no way that the car would be able to keep them out, but she felt better with even that small measure of armor between herself and them.

"Come with us quietly and you won't be harmed," one of them intoned, completely assured she could hear him even through the glass.

"Yeah? Why don't I believe you?" she replied. "Oh, right, 'cause you're all still sired to Klaus."

"How did she know he's still…?" one of the others started, taken aback.

"Duh," Caroline cut in, rolling her eyes. "'Cause you'd all be dead with him. I guess I don't get a say in this?"

"You can go the easy way," the first guy who spoke put in gleefully, and licked his lips, "or the fun way. Fun for us, any way."

"Spare me. I'm pretty sure Klaus won't like it if you rough me up."

"He only said not to harm you unnecessarily, but he definitely wants you there, and if you fight us or give us trouble, it'll become necessary."

"Just… give me a minute. I can't exactly leave my car here. I've got a cooler of blood bags in the back, and I'm pretty sure that'll raise a red flag with the state troopers."

"So you'll come along?" Hybrid number two asked, sounding relieved.

"Yeah, I get it. Let's get this over with."

"Cody, grab the lady's picnic basket," Hybrid number one immediately jumped into issuing orders. "Steve and Jess, you're on witness duty. Chico, Aaron, Micah, pick up the car and move it to the shoulder. When you're done, help Steve and Jess. I want this clean, people." Caroline figured that Hybrid number one had to have some military training, with how he took charge of the situation. With a feeling of going to her doom, she grabbed her overnight bag out of the back and unlocked the doors.

She pulled out her phone to let her friends know she'd been waylaid. Thinking fast, she pressed the buttons with vamp speed in quick succession, but number one snatched it up almost before she could get her message sent. If her English teacher saw what she wrote, she'd probably have an aneurism, but she had no time for niceties and silly things like grammar and punctuation.

"Calling for backup?" he sneered.

"No," she scoffed back. "I'm supposed to be somewhere. I was going to tell my friends I'll be late."

"We'll let Klaus decide whether you get phone privileges."

"You've got to be kidding me," she exclaimed. "I swear, he's going to get an earful from me when I see his Original Hybrid ass. We better not be hiking anywhere. I'm not wearing the right shoes."

Hybrid number one shared an eye roll with one of his buddies. She was used to the reaction, had even wanted it. If they thought she was some flaky airhead, they'd underestimate her, and she may be able to use that to her advantage if the opportunity to escape presented itself. She'd just had a top up, so she was feeling pretty fast and strong, but she knew she couldn't face all nine of them. They were splitting up, though. Five were staying behind, which meant the tally was down to four-to-one, much better odds.

"Lead on," she muttered, waving her hand in a weary gesture.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*v*(E/D)*v*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elena opened her eyes to find Damon's crystal blue gaze dancing before her. A smile played around his lips and his tousled hair blew rakishly in the wind. Other than those riots of movement about his person, he was completely still. Watchful, even.

"All right?" he asked her, his whisper so soft she nearly had to read his lips to understand him.

"Definitely," she replied. "I feel like a million dollars. Are you all right?"

"I don't think 'all right' begins to cover what I am."

"Then what's with that look?"

He glanced down and back, flirting with his eyes. "What look?"

"That look," she proclaimed, catching sight of it as his face once more returned to the unlined, shining countenance she'd never seen on him before. "That one right there."

He rolled his eyes and shrugged. "I'm happy."

"It's a good look on you," she decided, smoothing back the tendrils of midnight chocolate that dipped down to obscure his eyes. She knew the disarray of his normally impeccable grooming was all her fault, and she felt not just a little pride in it.

He beamed at her for a little while and held her closer. Though the ground was cold and the wind biting, they may as well have been in a featherbed for all they noticed. Eventually, they'd have to get up and find their clothing, but for the time being they were content to remain where they were. "And… are you? Happy, I mean," he finally asked her, his boyish smile tainted somewhat by the worry that still plagued him.

She tried to smile reassuringly, but the memory of their coupling turned it into a cheeky, playful little grin. Her eyes sparked like embers in a banked fire. "I am, now." Damon hummed in approval and let his head settle to her shoulder, content for the first time in a long while. He had everything he wanted at the moment. For all intents and purposes, he had Elena all to himself.

"I was worried, actually," Elena began after a long silence, in which her thoughts and emotions decided to take a turn for the broody. "After what happened this morning, I thought I'd have to beg you to get you to touch me again."

Damon raised his head up abruptly to fix her with a searching look. "I can see why you'd feel that way," he admitted finally. "You're used to people expecting you to act a certain way, and flipping their shit when you don't, but I love you, Elena. Flaws and all."

"I just… didn't know I had that particular flaw."

He rolled his eyes at that. "So you're not perfect. Join the club. Yeah, it hurt that you did what you did with Stefan, but the idea of denying myself the pleasure of your company and your body never once crossed my mind, so you didn't need to worry about that."

"I don't wanna lose you." Tears sprang to her eyes unbidden, and suddenly she had to fight to hold them back.

"You won't," he assured her, rolling them so that he could pillow her head to his chest. He stroked her hair tenderly as he felt the liquid in her eyes dapple onto his skin. "I just got you, there's no way I'm letting you go."

"Don't leave me," she choked out, sobbing in earnest.

"Hey, hey, I promised I wouldn't," he assured her, wishing like hell it had been a decade since her transition instead of a day so her emotions weren't so chaotic and overwhelming. He hated when the woman he loved was reduced to tears.

"I'm terrified I'm going to do something to push you away," she admitted, calming with the soothing strokes of his hand on her hair and the steady rise and fall of his chest as he took unnecessary, but calming breaths beneath her.

"Then don't. There doesn't have to be a bump, Elena. With everything we've been through together-everything I've done to upset you-that was nothing. Just don't make a habit of it. I know I'm going to piss you off some time in the future. I pray it won't happen soon or frequently, but when it does, I want you to remember everything you're feeling right at this moment and try to cut my dumb ass a little slack, ok?"

She hiccuped and smiled a little. "Ok."

"Now, as much as I love lounging about with you in the nude, and believe me, I'll never get enough of it, we'd better find some clothes to put on," he drawled.

"If only for my brother's mental health," she agreed.

"And my brother's," he finished. With a great show of reluctance, he rolled off of her and got to his feet. He sped back to the car and hoisted out their duffels, returning before Elena had finished getting to her feet.

"You really think Stefan will show up here after what happened today?" She wondered aloud, her attention fully on finding an outfit in her hastily packed-away bag.

"I sent him a text," Damon muttered, shrugging into another hundred dollar button-up.

Elena swept her hair from the collar of her shirt and shimmied into her last clean pair of underwear while Damon just eyed her appreciatively. He was fully attired long before her and wanted to watch the play of all that olive skin moving with oblivious grace while she dressed. "So it could go either way," Elena decided.

"In time, he'll forgive you, forgive both of us. We've got nothing BUT time. Hopefully he'll see that before the broody lines in his forehead become permanent."

Elena combed her fingers through the wreck of her hair and gave it up as hopeless. Rummaging through her bag, she came up with a hair tie, but her brush seemed to be suspiciously absent, or else buried in one of the bags that Jeremy had packed for her, and thus in his car. Pulling her hair back into a ponytail, she hoped he hadn't forgotten it. She liked that brush.

Damon pulled out his phone once more, checking for new texts. One from Jeremy: "Rnning L8, still alive, no Council so far", one from Stefan: "I'll be there." and an unintelligible mash of letters from Caroline. "What do you make of this, Elena?" he asked, turning his phone so she could see.

"Kbridstkngmdnwhr," she read off. She frowned for a moment, tried sounding it out. "Oh, no! I think she's saying that Klaus's hybrids took her and she doesn't know where she's going."

"So… don't wait up?"

"Damon! This is serious!"

"Klaus isn't going to hurt her," Damon scoffed, then reconsidered. "Well, he isn't going to kill her. He's got the big lust on for our blond baby vampire cheerleader. He probably thinks he's in love with her or something. He'll be wanting a consolation prize for losing his hybrid-making blood source. A new trophy girlfriend is what I'd be wanting right now if I were in his shoes."

"How can you know that for sure, Damon? What if he knows I'm not… dead and grabbed her so he could torture her into telling him where I am? What if he wants to take his revenge on her?"

"'Lena, love, we can't do anything for her right now. Our best chance of finding Caroline is finding Klaus. If Katherine's legit, you'll be able to find him through the bloodline and in order to do that, you have to meet her in…" he glanced back at the phone, "three hours. Check your phone. She might have sent you a text. This one is from over an hour ago."

"My phone?" She cast about her for a moment, clearly at a loss. "My phone was in my pants, wherever they went…"

"I'll get 'em," he assured and sped off to a darker patch of night blooming shadows, where their scents still mingled deliciously. He returned with their discarded clothing quickly, not wanting to be sidetracked so soon by the lust that stirred in him. He tossed her the denim but kept the rest, pocketing her underwear with a little sleight of hand, which she noticed anyway.

"Perv," she muttered and dug out her phone.

"You know it," he smirked, "It's all part of my irresistible charm." He then proceeded to fold the clothing that had survived neatly and stow it in the compartment to the side of his own duffel. She secretly thought that his attention to cleanliness and detail was a much larger part of his charm. Her brother would have just balled it all back up and tossed it in with the clean clothes.

She sighed, and shook her head, smiling. Glancing down, something on her screen caught her eye. Her eyebrows nearly hit her hairline and she grit her teeth, grateful that Damon was momentarily distracted so she could compose herself. Trying hard not to betray her anger and confusion, she deleted the message and turned the screen dark with the flick of a button. "No new texts. Damn I hope she's going to be okay."

Damon zipped up his bag and returned to Elena's side and pulled her into a comforting hug. "She's going to be okay. She's smart and resourceful, something I never thought I'd say about her, but there you have it. We've got options. I can give Liz a call and have her track the phone, trace her car. She'll be just as eager to locate her daughter as we are, and she's got cop connections. When Jeremy gets here, we can use his laptop to aid the search. Also something I never thought I'd say: Witchy would be a good person to have around right now, tracking spells and all. I don't think Klaus has had time to find himself a new witch, so he might not have anything to block that."

"I'll give her a call," Elena sighed, a spark of hope lighting the worry she felt for her friend. Damon's reassuring embrace went a long way toward nurturing that spark. The thought that the feeling of peace he brought her, her emotions toward him, that it might not be real…

"No need," Damon interrupted her thought, drawing her attention to the sound of tires spitting gravel. "Looks like the cavalry has arrived."

They turned as one to face the headlights coming up the drive. Beyond that, it was clear that Jeremy had a passenger with him, someone who bore a striking resemblance to the witch in question. Elena broke from Damon's side and was at Bonnie's window almost before her brother could throw it into park. "Klaus has Caroline," she burst out, opening the door for her friend.

"I'll get a locator spell going," Bonnie replied, getting out and bursting into action. She paused to snag her bag of spelling supplies from the floorboards and marched off into the direction of the house.

Jeremy got out and Elena rushed around to hug him around the middle, careful not to squeeze too tightly. Wordlessly, they rejoiced that neither of them had died (again) that day and then began unloading the luggage. Between the two of them and Damon, it only took one trip. Dispensing with ceremony, Jeremy tossed over his shoulder, "Elena, Damon, come in."

It was only after they had stored the bags in bedrooms and Bonnie had completed the set-up for locating Caroline that Elena allowed herself a moment to think about that last text from Stefan: "Have you even considered the fact that you might be Sired to Damon?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*v*(TBC)*v*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All in all, I'm almost done with the boring set-up parts. Two hours to go until Elena meets Katherine at the Tomb.

I decided to go ahead and address the sire bond, as I had planned.

Also, don't expect fast updates from me. It takes forever to write a chapter (I'm a bit of a perfectionist). Also, they just made me manager at work! Wooo! Long hours, I'm afraid, but with no new episodes of TVD, I'm pretty sure my muse is going to be jumping up and down on my head.

Special thanks to Mandalynca for giving me the kick in the butt I needed to finish this chapter. You rock, Maddie!