"You what?" Stefan roared, pacing Elena's bedroom. "Why did you agree to help him? You know what she did! What she'll continue to do once she's out!"

"Because I love him," Elena whispered, her voice hoarse. "I want him to choose me."

Stefan paused to notice Elena's face was puffy from crying. He hadn't noticed that when he first came around to her house after letting off steam in the woods. "Choose you?" he asked.

"You've told me about Katherine. I've read her journals. She was selfish, manipulative, and cruel. When he realises that—"

"Elena, you have to understand. Damon knows all of that. Yet he still loves her."

"No, Stefan," Elena argued. "He loves the idea of her. The idea of a love that will love him forever. He was willing to share that love with you in hopes that she would, ultimately, choose him."

"Katherine didn't love either of us," Stefan said. "She only loved herself."

"And hopefully Damon will see that," Elena said. "Before it's too late."

Stefan nodded. "So, what's the plan?"

"I'll go through the Gilbert journals. Bonnie is going to convince her Grams to help her with the spell when the time comes. I need your help to get that grimoire."

"What's Damon doing?"

"I left him a few hours ago on his eighth glass of scotch, still not believing I wanted to help."

"I'm not sure I believe it."

"Love is selfless Stefan," Elena said with conviction. It was something her mother said to her just before Elena broke up with Matt. "If she is what he wants, I love him enough to let him go. But part of me believes he loves me too." He kissed me back, Elena thought, touching her lips absently. "Or, he could, anyway. And that hope is what is driving me right now."

"What do you think will happen?" Stefan asked. Elena looked at Stefan quizzically. "After we get out and he chooses you, what do you think will happen?"

Elena shrugged. "I haven't thought that far ahead," she admitted. "He's waited 145 years to get her out, but is it her he wants? Or closure? I mean you guys didn't exactly break up. She was trapped in a tomb and you two were killed."

"I don't think you know Damon well enough to make that judgement, Elena."

"I know it seems fast and that we haven't known each long, but I know what I feel Stefan. Sometimes when I look into his eyes, I see it too. That all-consuming love that's so scary it makes you want to run away. I see myself in Damon. I don't want to run from it. My parents wanted me to live my life to the fullest and that's what I'm doing. I'm taking a risk, baring my soul, hoping the person I give my heart to won't tear it to pieces..."

As Elena spent the evening updating Stefan on her plans, Damon lay on his bed. An empty bottle of scotch sat on his bedside table and Caroline pulled on a fresh dress from her overnight bag. He didn't know why she bought it with her. She never actually stayed the night. "No yellow," he said as she pulled on a yellow dress. "Go for the blue."

"But it has a bloodstain on it from where you bit me too hard. I can't be seen going home in a bloodstained dress," Caroline shot back. "Besides, I don't like the blue."

"Well, I do."

Caroline huffed and pulled the yellow dress off and threw it into her overnight bag. As she climbed into the blue dress, Damon grinned at his win and went back to the book he was reading. "What's so special about this Bella girl?" he asked. "Edward's so whipped."

Caroline smoothed the dress over her body. It sat nicely on her shoulders, giving the world the perfect view of her neck. That's probably why Damon chose it, she thought. With the dress on, she gave her attention back to her boyfriend. "You gotta read the first book first. It won't make sense if you don't."

"I miss Anne Rice. She was so on it."

Caroline crawled across the bed to where Damon rested, one hand resting behind his head. She flirted with the loose buttons of his dress shirt. "How come you don't sparkle?"

"Because I live in the real world, where vampires burn in the sun."

"Yeah, but you and Stefan go in the sun."

"We have rings to protect us. Long story. Witches were involved."

"I know these bites won't turn me, but how exactly does one become a vampire?" Caroline asked excitedly. While she didn't think she'd ever want to turn, she couldn't help but be incredibly fascinated by vampires.

"You'd have to feed on my blood, then die, then feed on a human's, it's a whole ordeal. This book, by the way, has it all wrong." Damon kissed Caroline on the neck. "Although Edward does remind me of Stefan. You aren't thinking of switching Salvatore's, are you?"

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Stefan is obviously into Elena. I think I have the hotter Salvatore, anyway."

Damon rolled so Caroline lay beneath him. "Damn straight." He kissed his way down her throat and along her shoulder. "You'd better drink some blood before you go. I don't want mommy dearest shooting me with a wooden bullet if she sees you coming home like this."

"You can be very sweet when you want to be," Caroline said sarcastically. "Besides, there's still a chance my mother will shoot you, vampire or not."

"Oh?" Damon inquired, leaning back, a dangerous glint in his eye. "I thought we got along so well at our business meeting. Since our meeting last week, she's got the whole Founder's Council thinking I'm some big-shot vampire hunter. If only they knew, 'ey."

Caroline giggled, mischievously. "Is that where they think you were while you were out of town? Hey, where did you go, by the way?"

"That's for me to know and for you to…" Caroline's laughter filled Damon's bedroom as Damon's fingers attacked her stomach and his mouth went back to her throat. He nibbled at the skin there and kissed his way down to her collarbone.

Taking in her scent, Damon bit into the swell of Caroline's breast, her warm blood coating his throat. Damon licked at the wound to keep the blood from spilling all over her pretty blue dress. Once the bleeding slowed, he bit into his own wrist and held it up to her lips. She drank greedily from him before laying back against his pillows, sated.

"You're being very secretive," she said after a beat. "Everyone has been actually. Do you know what's going on?"

Damon suppressed an eye roll as Caroline's insecurities bubbled to the surface. "Elena, Stefan and Bonnie have agreed to help me bring Katherine back."

Caroline froze. "What?" she cried, sitting up from his bed. "Firstly, there's a way to bring Katherine back? As in your ex-girlfriend Katherine?"

"Look, Blondie, you knew this was a short-term thing—"

"That's not the point, Damon!" Caroline said, standing. "You could have told me! Given me some notice that your ex will be back in the picture soon!"

"But—"

"Which brings me to my second WTF moment," Caroline said, her face growing red with anger. "Why was I not involved in this? First Elena and Stefan become best friends, then Bonnie starts spending more time with Elena and Stefan, and now you? Why is everyone pushing me to the side?"

"You—"

"I'm more than some ditzy blonde, Damon Salvatore! I'm an intelligent, capable woman. I can help just as well as Elena! Maybe better, even!"

"Caroline!" Caroline paused to take a breath after Damon yelled her name.

"Don't 'Caroline' me, Damon. I'm sick of this. And I'm sick of you. Of everybody. You all treat me like shit. Well, I'm not the shit person here, Damon! You are!"

With that, Caroline Forbes gathered her things and exited Damon's room. As she was storming down the stairs, she ran into Stefan. She shot him a nasty look but continued down the stairs and out the boarding house door.

Stefan knocked on Damon's open door a minute later and asked, "Any reason why your girlfriend gave me a death stare when I came home just now?"

Damon rolled his eyes. He was sitting up in his bed now, jeans slung low on his hips, his hands behind his head. "Blondie's feeling left out," he said. "I should have ended this fling sooner, but she does this thing..."

"Left out of what?" Stefan asked, not wanting to hear about his brother's sex life.

"Our little plan to free Katherine," Damon elaborated. "She thinks Elena, Bonnie and I are on some mission to exclude her from our game of free-the-vampire-from-the-tomb. I assume Elena's briefed you."

Stefan grunted. "She's looking for a lead on the grimoire now."

"You don't seem happy about it. Feeling jealous, Steffy?" Damon chuckled as his brother's brow furrowed. Mr. Broody is back in business. Not that he ever left…

"I'll help you."

Damon froze, eye-widening at his brother's outburst. "You want to help?" he asked. "You hate me. You hate Katherine."

"I want this over with."

"This?"

"This," Stefan clarified. "Whatever has been going on between us all these years. This feud. I want it to end."

"Still… You? Help me?" Damon laughed. "I don't know. Seems a little unnatural."

"I'll do anything to get you out of this town, even release Katherine."

"What about the other 26 vampires?"

"They burn, but Katherine?" Stefan clenched his fist in an attempt to shield his emotions from his brother. "I would consider that."

"What are you doing? Hmm? What's your angle?"

"Do you want my help or not?"

"Why would I trust you?"

"See that's your problem, Damon. You apply all of your shortcomings to everybody else. If history's any indication, there's only one liar among us."

Damon jumped up from his position on his bed with vampiric speed. "Then be honest with me, Stefan. What do you want?"

Stefan gazed at his brother coolly. He missed the boy who protected and played with him, the boy who was his best friend until he let a woman get between them both. Any love Stefan may have had for Damon before this moment turned to dust as he said, "I want you to leave town with Katherine. And I never want to see you, either of you, ever again."

The road was winding and the sky was dark as Caroline sped down it, singing along to her favourite Taylor Swift album. Nothing like some TSwift to get over a boy, she thought.

Caroline wasn't in love with Damon but she did care for him. Though she wasn't sure he cared about her all that much. He was always so closed off and guarded around everyone, including her, and she could never read him. Not like Elena could.

Part of her was happy that things ended with Damon. Another part, her pride mostly, was sad about how they ended. Damon had been her first real boyfriend. She felt like a woman with him, not a scared and jealous little girl. It was those feeling he ignited in her that she would miss.

Caroline heard the CD track change as she continued speeding along the quiet, winding road that led from the boarding house on the outskirts of town to her house on the other side of Mystic Falls. She hated the drive. It was long and dreary and it took her all the way around town. Still, it was a better alternative than taking the drive-of-shame through town at midnight and being spotted by her mother or one of her officers.

Deciding she didn't want to listen to this song, Caroline reached down and pressed the skip button on her car's radio. She looked down for only a second. When she looked back up, Caroline saw another car speeding toward her. Caroline allowed down and tried to drive on the edge of the road where the bitumen met the gravel.

The car in front of her drifted further in her lane, edging Caroline closer and closer of the side of the road. The gravel along the side of the road was a thin strip before it met dense wood.

Nowhere to stop… Caroline thought, quickly checking her surrounds.

The car inched closer this time swerving more erratically. Caroline tried to catch a glance of the driver but only saw a person with their eyes closed, their head resting back on the headrest of the driver's seat.

Is that Tyler Lockwood? He looked asleep, but his lips seemed to be moving.

Caroline blew her car horn hard as the car veered far too close for comfort. Tyler's eyes opened wide and he gathered his grip on the steering wheel. His jolted, resisting his control. Vicki Donovan sat up in the passenger seat, wiping her mouth, her eyes as wide as Tyler's as she realised they were about to crash.

Caroline felt Tyler's car bump her own. The hit shocked Caroline and she let go of the steering wheel momentarily, losing control of her vehicle.

She grasped the steering wheel again, trying to gather control of her car. She heard the screeching of Tyler's breaks and pushed down on her own, hard. Her car only sped further out of control as all four of her wheels hit the gravelled along the side of the road, and she drove straight into a cluster of thick, sharp trees.

Caroline could only watch as a tree branch slammed through her front car window and impaled her chest.