Josie woke up the day after the Masquerade with a headache. The dark-haired woman in the suit had been haunting her dreams again. She was brushing her teeth when she felt the telltale spark of a vision.
She saw a scene before her. It was Mason, his face anguished, kneeling on the ground, in a ring of fire. He was being sacrificed as the werewolf to break Klaus' curse.
"Imagine," Klaus was saying, "One of my assets informs me about a delightful pack of Florida werewolves. I could have my pick of the bunch, of course, but there's something poetic about the descendant of the man who helped Katerina escape all those years ago and who, until recently, was Katerina's lover."
Josie gripped the sink and tried to steady herself. Though she'd been getting more visions, it still unnerved her every time. Not just that her mind was being invaded, but a reminder of what was to come. Apparently, saving Mason from Damon had only driven him into Klaus' grasp.
She wondered if this meant Katherine and Isobel would fail. Who knew? She felt like she was playing whack-a-mole with all these possible futures.
She blinked, trying to get the image of Mason in agony out of her head. And… Klaus. It had been a while since she'd seen his face. Since she was in her world. She'd forgotten how handsome he was.
An hour later, Josie was standing at her locker when Jeremy and Stefan came up to her.
"Have you heard from Elena?" Jeremy asked. "She didn't come home last night, her car is still at Tyler's and she wasn't at Stefan's."
Oh god. Elena had been taken by Rose and Trevor. So soon? Josie thought that was a while away. And… Elijah. They were about to contact Elijah, if they hadn't already. So here it was. The oncoming Klaus storm. She forced herself to remain calm.
"I haven't heard from her," said Josie, shaking her head. "Not since I saw her last night at the ball."
Stefan picked up his phone and called Damon. They made plans to meet outside the school in ten minutes.
"You two should get to class," said Stefan. "I'll call you if I hear anything. Don't worry, we'll find her."
Josie and Jeremy nodded. Josie said she needed to go to the bathroom before class started, but ducked around the corner and went to find Stefan outside.
"How did I know you weren't going to class?" he asked, looking out for Damon's car. "Did you have a vision? Do you know where Elena is?"
"No," admitted Josie. "But I know she's been kidnapped. And it wasn't Katherine or any of her minions."
"Who was it?"
Josie started to respond, but spotted Damon's car and decided to wait.
When Damon arrived, Stefan filled him in. "You don't think Katherine?" started Damon.
"No," said Josie.
"She may be in the tomb, but that doesn't mean she didn't have a Plan F or whatever," said Damon.
Josie pushed back her guilt at the fact that Katherine was definitely not in the tomb. Soon, she told herself. She would tell them all soon. About everything.
"What does it matter if it was her or not?" asked Josie. "We just have to find Elena."
"How?" asked Damon.
Josie smiled. "I bet Bonnie knows how."
So, they found themselves in a classroom ten minutes later. Damon, Bonnie, Stefan, Jeremy, Anna, and Josie. Bonnie performed the locator spell and Jeremy offered to get a more exact location via satellite images. Stefan rebuffed his attempts to come and help, telling Jeremy and Bonnie they should go back to his house.
Anna offered to back up Stefan and Damon, figuring three vampires were better than two. Josie smiled, happy for the millionth time that she had saved Anna. Of course, none of it mattered since they couldn't kill Elijah, but still, couldn't hurt.
Josie followed the three vampires out to the parking lot. "I'm coming with you."
"No, you're not," said Damon.
"Stefan, please," she said.
Ever since she'd sent Katherine off to find Klaus, she'd been thinking about trying to make a deal with Elijah. If she could deliver his family, or at least tell him where Klaus was keeping them, Elijah would probably help her with Klaus. Plus, she wanted to make sure Elena was okay.
Stefan looked hard at her. "She can come."
"What?" exclaimed Anna and Damon.
"She's a measly human," said Damon.
"If you didn't let Jeremy come, why are you letting her?" asked Anna.
"She's just going to follow us in her own car," said Stefan, shaking his head. "This way, she's safe."
Josie smiled. "Thanks, Stefan," she said, climbing in the back with Anna.
"Whatever," said Damon, rolling his eyes. "I'm driving."
About an hour after they left, Stefan got a message from Jeremy leading them to the house. Stefan and Anna were inspecting the weapons, postulating on what they would find when they got there as Damon drove. Stefan and Damon together had taken down Elijah. Josie was sure with Anna added to the mix, it only increased their chances.
Stefan kept dropping hints/comments/etc to try and get Josie to tell him who or what had Elena. Damon finally hit the nail on the head when he suggested that whoever took Elena may have mistaken her for Katherine.
"Whoever that was, Katherine was scared of them," said Stefan, looking in the back at Josie.
"Katherine never told my mom and I who she was running from," said Anna, looking annoyed. She wasn't like her mother, who had decided to stay out of anything having to do with Katherine and the Scoobies, but she hated Katherine. "We thought maybe it was a vampire hunter who she'd pissed off."
"A vampire hunter?" asked Damon. "I doubt Katherine would be scared of a vampire hunter."
"You don't know Mikael," Anna said darkly. "But he's… not around anymore. He didn't take Elena."
Their conversation was cut off as they pulled up to the field behind the old, crumbling house. Josie stood outside the front door and listened as Damon, Anna and Stefan took down Elijah.
When nobody was looking, she slipped a note into Elijah's front pocket. Basically, apologizing for her friends' behavior, saying she had the moonstone and wanted to negotiate for the safety of her friends.
Of course the big carrot with Elijah was his family, but she wanted to save that for when they made a deal. She knew going to him was slightly risky, though he was probably a safer bet than Katherine. Elijah was noble and he wanted Klaus dead as much as anyone. At least at the moment.
Josie had gone through a million scenarios in her mind about how to handle Klaus and none of them ended well. At least not better than in the show. She needed help if she was going to stop him and none of the Scooby gang had the resources or the intimate knowledge of Klaus that Elijah had. Together with Katherine, she was hoping they could prevent him from coming to Mystic Falls altogether. Or at least stop the ritual.
Her vision of Mason being sacrificed had scared her. Clearly, she hadn't changed enough to stop the ritual from happening. At least not yet.
Plus, if Elijah became a liability, there was always the white oak dagger that Uncle John had.
On the way home, Elena filled them in on everything she had learned. About the Originals, the moonstone, how she was the key to breaking the Sun and the Moon curse. How Elijah had brutally killed Trevor without blinking. How Elijah wanted to take her away.
Later that night, Josie got a phone call from an unknown number. She left Tyler, Jenna and Alaric in the living room (they were all watching a movie) and went outside on the porch.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Hello, this is Elijah. I have your note here. Am I speaking to Josie?"
Josie forced herself to remain calm. She could do this.
"Yes," she said. "I'm assuming you're calling me because you're interested in what I'm offering?"
"Perhaps… I know that you have access to the moonstone. And I know you're the doppelganger's sister. She told me as much."
"That's why she lost her vervain necklace," said Josie, who had forgotten that detail. "You compelled her."
"She did not wish to be sacrificed, and so tried to entice me with the moonstone. She very much regretted it when I compelled the information out of her. She begged me to not go after you and your boyfriend."
That was Elena. Always the fucking martyr.
"I've heard you're a man of honor, Elijah. You want the moonstone and I want my family safe. I think there is a way for both of us to get what we want."
"Quite the family of negotiators." It almost sounded like he was amused.
"I would prefer to negotiate in person," said Josie, ignoring his tone. "There's a café in Lynchburg, Virginia called 'The Tipping Pot'."
"When?"
She already had worked out what she was going to say. There was no use prolonging this, even if it meant she had to skip school.
"Tomorrow. 9am."
"See you then," he said, hanging up.
Josie took a deep breath. The Originals are here, she thought, wondering what Klaus was up to at the moment. Wondering where Elijah was. Wondering if she was making the right move in going to him preemptively. She knew the more she strayed from the path of the show, the more she couldn't predict, even with visions. She just didn't see another way.
She shook her head. First a deal with Damon, then Katherine, and now Elijah. She felt like a damn vampire whisperer.
"Elijah?" came a voice from behind her, shaking her out of her thoughts. "Is there something you want to share, Josie?"