Taylor's POV

I looked over Stefan as he lied nearly catatonic. He wasn't answering me. It had been a few days. After a few minutes, Damon and I left the cell. I was hoping that it wasn't hopeless. I looked in one last time before I walked in.

The next time that I went there, he seemed to be sleeping or at least trying to. I don't know if he wanted to see me.

"I don't know what to feel right now." I told Damon as I leaned against the bars. I don't know why.

"You put him in there." Damon pointed out.

"You helped." I countered.

"Well yeah, I can't have him feeding from people now." Damon declared.

"Of course I would never confuse you for someone who cares." I quipped.

"I will leave the caring to you." He stated.

I began to prepare for school. I guess whatever problems Stefan had would still be here when I got back. I looked over to Damon who had received…something from Pearl.

"What is that?" I asked.

"I don't know, but it doesn't work." He answered. I folded some clothes. I had an idea for the next time that I came over. "You know you're not-great grandfather was a crazy inventor. Have you spoken to your uncle lately?"

"I've tried to avoid talking to him at all costs." I explained. "I've also slept over the last few nights."

Which I might add was kind of sexually frustrating.

"Will you be here again tonight?" He asked.

"Yes." I declared. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No, I was just checking." He replied. "But you are a nuisance."

"I guess it takes one to know one." I rebutted.

Ashley's POV

I met Jeremy in the parking lot at school. I was grateful that my mom was still okay with me seeing him. I was in a lacy black dress and knee socks. Suddenly there was a pair of hands over my eyes.

"Guess who." Anna asked.

"Alice Cullen?" I guessed as she removed her hands and frowned. "That's a compliment."

"What are you doing here?" Jeremy asked.

"I was picking up this." Anna stated as she showed off a piece of paper.

"Does that mean what I think it does?" I asked in excitement.

"Yup, as of tomorrow, I am a student here." She remarked.

"That's great." I replied, giving her a hug. "You know you should try to make some friends."

"I don't know if that's such a good idea." Anna responded.

"Why would you want to go to high school?" Jeremy asked.

"It's a great place to see the two of you and maybe I could meet a boy." She replied before she walked away.

Taylor's POV

I was walking through the courtyard looking for Ashley when I crashed into someone. I need to learn to be more graceful.

"I'm sorry." I replied as I noticed just who it was. It was Anna. "What are you doing here?"

"I was picking up my schedule." Anna replied nervously.

"Look, can we just put the whole kidnapping thing behind us?" I requested. "I've mostly forgiven Damon for killing people, and I think it wouldn't be fair to hold anything against you."

"I would like that." Anna declared.

"You know I was wondering if I could ask for your help with something." I stated. "It's about Stefan."

"What about him?" She questioned.

"Well can you tell me what he used to be like?" I requested.

"Well, in the 20s, he killed a lot of people. His nickname was The Ripper of Monterey." She explained. "Is something wrong with him?"

"Yeah, I just don't know what." I answered. "I'm really worried about him."

"Well I don't know if I can help, but I'll come over with you." She offered.

"Sure, give me your number I'll text you when I want you to come over." I accepted.

After school, I called Damon to let him know I was coming over. I had to get some things from home first.

"What?" He answered.

"I'm getting some things, but I'll be right there." I promised. "How is he?"

"Good, because I have something I need to do tonight." He responded. "Stefan won't eat, not even bunnies."

"Do he have a favorite kind?" I asked.

"Yes, bald eagle, good luck finding that." Damon joked.

"Would it kill you to be serious?" I questioned.

"Maybe." He answered. I just hung up and noticed that I was face-to-face with John.

"Hey." He greeted,

"I didn't see you there." I stated. I definitely didn't want to see him.

"I wanted to talk. We haven't had a chance to catch up." He pointed out.

"That would imply that I wanted to." I declared. I sighed knowing he would not just go away.

"I don't think you should be dating Stefan." He stated.

"Well I don't give a damn what you think." I told him. "You're not my father and you don't get to decide who I date."

"What do you think he would think when he found out that your boyfriend was stealing from his place of work?" John asked me.

"Fuck off, John." I remarked as I headed out the door.

I headed to the boarding house and there was Stefan. There was a bottle full of blood in front of him. He once again seemed like he was completely catatonic.

"You need to drink that Stefan." I told him. He only shook his head. "It's not an option. You can't live without it."

"I don't wanna live." He told me.

"What?" I questioned in shock. "No, you don't get to give up. You don't get to say that."

"It's my life, Taylor, and I want it to end." He responded. "I've done too much to go on."

I headed back out into the living room where Damon was getting ready to go somewhere. I heard the bell ring and decided to answer it.

"What are you doing here?" Damon asked Anna upon seeing her. "Did your mom find out what the doohickey does?"

"Actually, I asked her to come over." I remarked.

"She kidnapped you and fed your blood to her mom." Damon pointed out.

"Well you're kind of directly responsible for Vicki's death." I told him. "I needed another vampire's opinion on this."

"What are you wearing?" Anna asked in surprise. I was wearing a tied blue t-shirt that showed off my bellybutton and white shorts.

"I'm trying to get Stefan to feel something other than anguish." I explained. "Lust was one of the things I was going for."

"Well you two kids play nice." Damon remarked. "I know Charles Manson if you're interested.'

Damon went out the door.

"So, what is Stefan like in bed?" She asked. I glared at her. "Okay, I don't know what you wanted me to do. I'm not very good at small talk."

"Well do you know what he's going through is like?" I asked. "Has there ever been a time where you felt like life wasn't worth living?"

"When my mom was taken by Jonathan." Anna answered. "Even though Emily promised that she would save her, I still didn't know if I could believe her."

"How did you come back from it?" I inquired.

"Noah convinced me that we needed to find a way to open the tomb." Anna explained. So that was that guy's name. "My life had a purpose again, even if I would have to wait a long time to get it."

"So, you're suggesting that I need to find a way to give Stefan a purpose?" I asked.

"It would help." She agreed.

Ashley's POV

I looked at my belly and noticed that I was starting to gain weight. It was probably only a few pounds at this point, so it wasn't that noticeable. I was in Jeremy's room.

"So have you told your dad yet?' He asked.

"No, and I feel that if he's not going to come back here, he doesn't deserve to know." I opined. "Have you told Jenna yet?"

"I will soon." Jeremy promised.

"So you know we can still have sex." I declared. "I can't get pregnant while I'm already pregnant."

"I don't know if I feel comfortable with that." He admitted.

"Well what about oral?" I asked. I noticed him grin.

At that point, we began to take off our clothes. Although I didn't need to, it still felt more intimate. I got underneath his covers and engulfed his organ with my mouth.

"Do you guys want anything?" Elena asked as she opened the door. She probably noticed the human-shaped lump and the fact that Jeremy shirtless. "Oh my god, I'm sorry."

She walked out immediately. I couldn't keep going after that. My removed my head from…his and blushed extremely.

Taylor's POV

I went back downstairs while Anna stayed up. I didn't think Stefan would hurt me and I had to get through to him. I was just about ready to feed him the animal blood myself.

"You know I could really hurt you." He declared.

"You would never hurt me, Stefan." I told him.

"Leave me alone, Taylor." He requested. "I don't want you here."

"It's not going to work." I stated. "You can't push me away."

I decided to take it a step further. I entered the cell and picked up the bottle.

"Get out." He threatened.

"No. If you're going to kill me, then kill me." I told him. "Or you could take one look at this outfit I wore for you. Drink this. I will not let you give up."

"Get out." He repeated.

"Drinking the freaking blood." I ordered.

He got up and pushed the bottle away. He then showed his vampire face to me. Well I got him to feel anger. I don't know if that's good or bad.

"Get out!" He screamed.

"No." I said. I saw him return to normal in front of me and he took a seat.

I took a seat next to him.

"Tell me why it hurts so much." I remarked. I am not a psychiatrist.

"I'm making the choice I should have made years ago." He told me. What did that mean?

"I don't understand." I responded.

"I didn't want to complete the transition." He stated. He then proceeded to tell me how he killed his father. "How can you look at me?"

"That was the past, Stefan. You didn't mean it." I explained.'

"I did mean to kill some of the others." He pointed out.

"I don't care about your past." I admitted. "Come upstairs with me. You can get everything out. We can talk all night if you want to."

"You're so sure I'll be better." He noted. I was sure. I know that he will be better.

"I know you will be." I promised as I pulled his ring out of my pocket. "And when you're ready, you can put this.

I went upstairs to find Anna had left. She left me a note saying that she was going home. Well, I guess the house was kind of depressing. I decided to do some homework while I waited for Stefan.

"You're still here?" Damon asked as he entered.

"You act like you weren't expecting me to be." I declared.

"It was more of a statement than a question." He remarked as he took a seat next to me.

"How did your thing go?" I asked.

"Futile. Although, I think I witness your stepdad having an existential crisis." Damon answered. "Has Stefan eaten?"

"Didn't you say that you didn't care?" I questioned.

"I'm just curious." He replied.

"He seems to be get closer." I explained. "We had a bit of a breakthrough tonight. He has a lot of guilt. You haven't exactly helped with that."

"Let me ask you, did you happen to get the fact that he literally forced me to turn out?" He asked.

"No, that is not something that he would do." I argued.

"I was ready to die and he had killed our father. He kept going on about how great he felt and fed some girl into me. He said that he didn't want to be alone." The vampire explained. "Stefan was different from the start. I guess I should thank for what he did."

"He said he wanted to die." I remarked. "He's feeling the pain of everyone you killed as well."

"If he wants to die, I say let him." Damon opined.

"Don't do that." I ordered. "Don't pretend that you don't love him just as much as I do."

I went downstairs only to find that Stefan was gone. He left his ring behind.

"DAMON!" I yelled as I ran upstairs.

"What?" Damon asked. "You don't have to yell."

"He's gone." I replied. "He's gone and he left his ring behind."

"That's not good." Damon commented.

"I know that it's not good!" I yelled in frustration. "Do you have any idea where we can find him? He said he wanted to go back to where it all began. What does that mean?"

"I think I have an idea. You're going to want a coat." Damon replied as he grabbed my arm.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Just come on." He stated as he pulled me with him.

He took me to the quarry where he and Stefan had woken up in their transition.

"Stefan." I called to him. That had gotten him to look at me. "Damon told me how you forced him to transition. He also brought me here."

"I should have died that night." He replied. "We both should have died like we decided we were going to do."

"Dying now won't change anything." I pointed out. "You can look back and feel bad about what you've done, or you can move on."

"The blood everyone that both of us have killed is on my hands." He stated. I went over to him and slapped him.

"Snap out of it!" I told him. "You want to what would happen if you had died? Sure, a bunch of other people wouldn't have died so soon, but I'm betting the bridge still collapses. Without you there to save me, I would have drowned Stefan. I could say it was my fault that my parents died, but it wasn't. Someone was probably going to die when that bridge gave out. I can't feel guilt for that and you shouldn't feel guilt for what you or Damon did."

"You don't understand." He remarked/

"You are a good person, Stefan." I said. "You've made some mistakes, but everyone does. You've reformed. You're good. Stefan, I'll make you a deal. If you can honestly tell me that you don't love me, I will leave and allow you to die."

"Love is not enough here, Taylor." He replied.

"Yes it is." I pointed out as I took his ring out of my coat pocket. "Please take this ring and come back with me."

I watched him put the ring on his finger and then I kissed his lips. I took him back to the boarding house. I decided to let him talk to Damon. I think I would sleep well tonight.

So, Anna and Elena never interacted apart from that one episode. I want her to have more friends than just Ashley and Jeremy. She will find her guy at the school. I wonder if you have any guesses on who it'll be. Also, I found a good use for Elena in this chapter. Please don't forget to review.