A/N: Sorry for this longer than usual update. I was in some sort of writing funk that came from nowhere. I just didn't feel like writing. WeIrD. I think Nanowrimo went to my head since I'm always writing all the time. But anyways, here is the chapter since I got my groove back.

"What do we do…what do we do…..oh my god," Caroline cried as she sat at her mom's side staring at her in disbelief. Her anger had worn off and was shortly replaced by grief.

"I hate to have to tell you this, Caroline, but you're going to have to call the police. The people she works with will know how to handle it," Stefan said slowly.

"And tell them what? That I murdered my boyfriend and a crazy vampire killed my mom…" she said, trailing off at the end as tears threatened to spill again.

"You won't have to tell them anything. They will put two and two together, Caroline. They will realize a vampire did it to them both. They'd have no reason to suspect you," Stefan explained.

"I don't think I can do that," she said standing up and shaking. She began to pace slowly, averting her gaze from the bodies on the floor.

"The only other option is for you to be someplace else…at Elena's or Bonnie's or somewhere. Then make an anonymous tip and they come to the house. Either way, they need to be taken care of," Stefan said seriously.

Caroline stopped her pacing and turned to glare at Stefan. "Taken care of? You make it sound like taking out the trash," she shrieked.

"Caroline, that's not what I meant…"Stefan started, but soon he was surprised to hear police sirens.

He looked at Caroline in surprise, but she shrugged her shoulders in confusion.

"That can't be for here, right?" she asked, listening in.

But Stefan wasn't so sure. He looked down at the sheriff and thought of something. He quickly bent down and checked her pockets. Soon he found her cellphone and he scrolled through it.

"What are you doing?" Caroline asked angrily.

But Stefan wasn't paying attention. Instead he finally found what he was looking for and looked up at Caroline. "She made a call about 10 minutes ago to one of her deputies. We have to go: now."

"Why would she make a call?" Caroline asked in confusion, but Stefan had already grabbed her hand and rushed her outside and out the back door. They sped hastily through the backyards not pausing until they were a few blocks away.

"There's something I don't understand," Caroline said quietly as they slowed their pace.

"What?" Stefan asked, glancing around to see if anyone had seen them.

"How did Katherine get inside my house?" Caroline said in confusion. "I never invited her in and you said yourself that my mom knew about her, so she wouldn't just jump aboard and let her in without checking…"

Stefan was surprised that she jumped to that realization that fast. But he was able to cover for it easily. "You must have let her in before you ever turned and you didn't know it."

Caroline looked like she was thinking hard trying to remember, but she shook her head. "I can't think of any time, Stefan...I can't freakin believe this," she moaned out, looking like she was ready to fall apart.

Stefan sped to stand in front of her and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Caroline, I know what happened was terrible and that you want to break down, but you have to hold yourself together until we get somewhere safe. You've got blood on you and you're not going to make it much further if you slow down and think about everything."

Caroline sniffed and looked down at her clothing. Sure enough she had blood over the front of her shirt trailing down to her pants. She shook her head and composed herself, trying not to think of whose blood was on her. "Where are we going to go?"

"Back to the boarding house," Stefan sighed, quickening his pace again.

"I should have just stayed there with you….then none of this would have happened," Caroline murmured as she sped up to match his pace. "Oh! Oh my god, Stefan. Katherine totally set it up! Both of them."

"What do you mean?" Stefan asked suspiciously.

Caroline took in a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. "There was a reason I attacked Matt…he made a long cut down his arm and then said something about Katherine, like a message from her…"

Stefan paused to look at her. They had just reached the boarding house and were making their way to the door. "What did he say?"

"That she said "welcome to her world"" Caroline said angrily. "But if she wanted to send a message like that, why would she just come moments later to kill my mom? It doesn't make any sense…"

"It's Katherine. She doesn't have to make sense," Stefan said angrily. "The bottom line is that Katherine is to blame, Caroline. No one else. If Matt hadn't done what he did to himself, you wouldn't have attacked him and….

"And when Katherine showed up I could have saved my mom," Caroline said with tears in her eyes as they walked inside. "I'm so stupid."

"Why don't you go upstairs and clean up…I'll be down here," Stefan said, taking his phone out of his pocket. He noticed he had a few missed calls from Elena and Damon.

"Yeah," Caroline squeaked. "And Stefan, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you….thanks for helping me."

Stefan simply nodded his head slowly in response. Once she was upstairs and gone, Stefan got his phone out, deciding who to call first. Sighing, he decided on Damon's.

"Really, Rick, your taste in music is disturbing," Damon said, shaking his head.

"It's Nickelback. I thought rock would be right up your alley?" he replied, glancing from the road to Damon.

"I'm not even going to begin to tell you what's wrong with the first part of your statement," Damon said, raising his brows. "But I do love some good rock. This…this is crap," he said, shutting off the radio.

"You know, it's my car and I can listen to whatever I want," Rick said, giving Damon a look. He looked like he was going to turn the radio back on, but he thought better of it with the stern look from Damon.

"Awkward silence it is then," Rick said, looking back on the road.

"It doesn't have to be silent. We can chat away like good buddies," Damon said with mock excitement. "How's your sex life?"

Rick blanched and swerved the car a bit before straightening out. "That's really not appropriate."

"I guess that means you're not getting any," Damon said, wagging his brows. "That's a shame that a strapping history teacher like yourself can't have some fun. I was sure that when you liquored Jenna up enough she'd be pretty open to suggestions."

Rick grumbled loudly. "I never said we didn't…I just said it was none of your business," Rick said, blushing with instant regret as he caught the knowing smirk on Damon's face. "Let's just talk about the plan, ok."

"We go to this place, shimmy open the locks and steal the green. Too bad it's not the other kind," Damon said suggestively.

"I don't feel right robbing the place, Damon," Rick said, shaking his head. "It's an honest place of business."

"Why would such a person be selling vervain and wolfsbane? Doesn't sound that honest. It sounds like he's up to something," Damon replied, looking out the window.

"He just happens to sell rare plants and herbs because he was in the same field of study as Isobel," Rick said with a glance at Damon. "He sells them for people who know about such things and want to protect themselves. Otherwise, he's a basic florist."

Damon looked surprised, but he brushed it off. "Well if he's up on the whole supernatural things, then he'll understand you breaking and entering to get the wolfsbane. You can even leave money behind if you want."

"Or you can," Rick suggested.

"Sorry. Left my wallet in my other stealth pants," Damon said with a shrug. "Are we almost there anyways?"

"Yeah. It's about another 5 minutes. His shop's not that far from town," Rick said with a sigh.

They drove in silence after that until Damon's phone went off.

"Stefan. …So what did you do, tuck Caroline into bed? You didn't answer your phone," Damon said.

"Not exactly," Stefan said, sounding anxious. "There was a problem at her house, but it's getting taken care of. I…"

"What was this little problem exactly? Caroline go out hunting for a midnight snack?" Damon asked smugly. "I knew she shouldn't have been let around town. Did she kill someone?"

Stefan paused before he replied back. "She killed Matt, but she didn't go looking for him, Katherine sent him to her…and afterward, Katherine came herself to finish off the Sheriff."

Damon's eyes shot up in surprise as he took in the news. "That doesn't make any sense. Why would she kill the sheriff? Or how? Wouldn't Bonnie's little spell prevent that?"

Stefan was silent for so long that Damon had to make sure he was still connected. "Stefan?"

"Look, I can't talk right now because Caroline's here and she'll just break down again if she hears me talking about it, but I wanted to let you know. And I also wanted to find out about Chloe. You left a message," Stefan said, hastily changing the subject.

"Alright, crazy… Like I said in your voicemail, Isobel said she was taken by Katherine somewhere and blah blah blah, so we need wolfsbane since it's the vervain of the wolf people," Damon said impatiently. "We don't know where she is and the best we can do is be armed up against it."

"And this is going off of Isobel's word? Damon, since when do you just believe what she says. For all we know, Chloe is somewhere easy to find. Did you even look around town?" Stefan asked, sounding angry.

"I'll leave the bitch work up to you," Damon said in annoyance. "Call me when you're less irritable."

Stefan was about to respond, but Damon hung up. "I swear, it's like everyone expects me to do everything. I know I'm pretty awesome, but I only care to do so much," he said with a nod at Rick.

"For the record, I think you're an ass," Rick replied.

"That's comforting," Damon said with a smirk.

Rick let out a small grin before he pulled into the parking lot. "Alright. Let's make it quick," he said, turning to Damon, but as he turned to look, he was gone.

"Come on slowpoke," Damon said from outside the driver's side window.

Rick rolled his eyes and opened the door. "Vampires," he mumbled.

Elena paced around the living room nervously. They had all tried to come up with something positive about Chloe, but to no avail. Tyler kept wanting to go back out and search for her, but they all decided that it was safest for him to stay put. John even suggested that he stayed the night since Katherine wasn't invited in there anymore.

Elena didn't really like the idea of having him there since he could wolf out at any time, but she couldn't sent him away knowing he could be in trouble. She would have suggested him staying at the boarding house with Stefan and Damon, but Damon was out with Alaric and Stefan was busy and it was getting late.

"Tyler, you can stay up in the guest room," Elena sighed, frustrated that Stefan still hadn't called back. "Jeremy can get you set up."

Jeremy nodded his head and headed for the stairs, Tyler following reluctantly behind.

"Tyler, I know you want to find her; I'd feel the same if Jeremy was missing," Elena began with a look at Jeremy, "but if you sneak out or try to go looking for her, you could end up dead or captured and that won't do anyone any good. So please, just sit tight and we'll figure this all out in the morning."

"Easier said than done, Elena," Tyler grumbled, but moved up the stairs regardless.

Elena brushed her hands through her hair and closed her eyes. She just wished she could go back to the way things were before Founder's Day; before there was danger all the time and Katherine roamed the town.

"Those were some wise words, Elena. Too bad you'd never actually follow them yourself," john said, walking into the hallway.

Elena rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "What was I supposed to say? Go and get killed? Yes I would go looking for my family if they were in danger. But it doesn't mean that I want others to do the same as me."

John raised his brows and smiled. "It's a Gilbert trait I suppose."

"The idea of family first was instilled in me by my real mother and father," Elena said with a glare. "Blood has nothing to do with it."

John pursed his lips and shook his head. "Are you ever going to forgive me one of these days? Or are you always going to be this bitter toward me?"

"I don't know, are you going to continue to be an ass?" Elena asked, cocking her head to the side.

Getting more serious, she softened her face and looked at him. "Look, you messed up by not telling me about who you really were. I get it now because you were young and all that, but it doesn't change the fact that even though you knew that you were my father, you haven't ever acted like one," Elena said." Even now. You start stuff with Jeremy and you wanted and probably still want to kill Stefan out of your spite for vampires. If you cared so much about this relationship, you should try harder not to hurt me. In the meantime, yes, I will be bitter."

John nodded his head and for a moment, Elena almost swore she saw regret and even sadness play across his face, but within seconds it was gone. Soon he put on a grim smile. "Thanks for being honest, Elena. But you can't just expect me to tolerate vampires overnight; I can barely tolerate myself," he said with a chuckle. "You can't change years of resentment on that end. But what I can try to do is be more tolerant of your feelings towards others…" John said hesitantly.

"It's a start," Elena said with a shrug.

"So are you staying the night, then?" Elena asked after a minute. "I know the guest room is taken, but there's still the couch…"

John was about to reply when Jeremy appeared at the top of the stairs looking frantic.

"Jeremy, what's wrong?" Elena asked with dread.

"It's Jenna…She's not in her room and her car's not in the street," Jeremy said in confusion.

Again, sorry for the uber long wait and that this chapter was more talk than action. But I hope you liked the Alaric/Damon bonding, haha. It'll heat up again soon. I just wanted to lay things out. On a random note, did anyone see the midnight showing of Harry Potter yesterday? Amazing! Anyways, enjoy and review. Title is by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Cheers.