I'm a little surprised at how fast I finished this. Not much actually happens in this chapter, so that might be one reason I finished it rather quickly and it's also not one of my better chapters but I still hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing my OC's.

Chapter 25: The Sacrifice

Last night –

Her fingers run through her hair once again, tugging harshly to free her fingers when they get stuck on knots and even though it hurts slightly she welcomes the pain anything to distract her from his stare.

"Adele…tell me what you know."

"Tyler…"

"Adele please!"

"What do you know?" Tyler is about to demand she talk again but stops realizing she had asked him a question instead. "What?"

"What do you know? Because I can't just go blurting out peoples secrets here." He stares at his best friend pacing in front of him. She had shown up 15 minutes after he called and right away he jumped into finding out exactly what she's been hiding from him for so long but so far he hasn't gotten anywhere.

"I know that Caroline is a…vampire." He seems to choke on the word and she stops frowning up at him but he continues. "And I'm a werewolf, I know I didn't tell you about the curse and I know I didn't tell you I accidentally activated it but I know you know whether I told you or not."

She takes a deep breath. "Yeah I do know and I know that Caroline is a vampire but Tyler I didn't tell you because it wasn't my secret to tell."

"Is she really the only one?"

Adele's eyes rank over him slowly. "Is that what she told you?"

He nods. "But it's not true is it?"

"Once again, not my secret to tell. What brought this on Ty? Why call me out now?"

"Michael…" Adele blue eyes widen slightly. "He suspects you and Jasmine are hiding something, he told me this at lunch and it just got me thinking…" Adele's mind is now reeling, how could she be so careless? Of course Michael would notice something is up with her for heaven's sake she dated the guy for 3 years, there practically in sync with each other!

"He doesn't know anything right? He was completely clueless?" Tyler nods and she lets out a small breath but it doesn't calm her down. She's going to need to be extra careful now…

"How are you holding up Ty?" She asks in a way to distract herself from her thoughts but also because she's been worried about him. "I killed someone Adele and now I have this curse and I don't even know what to expect from it…I just…I don't even know." Adele nods stepping forward to embrace him. "It's understandable Tyler, but just know that I'm here for you okay? I'm going to be by your side the whole time." He nods against her shoulder, holding her tightly against him her presences as comforting as it has always been and she can only hope that what she just said is true.

~x~

Her eyes pop open and out of reflex she sits up reaching into the drawer of her bedside table to grab her gun before shoving her comforter off her legs and sliding out of the bed. Being the light sleeper that she is, she had heard the bang from downstairs. It sounded like someone was in the house.

She makes her way into the hall way, her hands gripping tightly to the handle of the gun as she flips the safety off and positions her finger at the trigger, swinging around the door frame to face her sister. "Did you hear that too?" Elena whispers and Adele nods her head towards Jeremy's room. Elena nods at her ignoring the gun in her sister's hands, they might actually need it. Together the twins move to Jeremy's half closed bedroom door.

Elena steps away from Adele to peek into the room, a noise coming from the stairs startles them both and they swing around, Adele raising the gun as she does and her finger threatening to pull the trigger in a moment of blinding fright.

"Holy shit!" Alaric exclaims his grip on the cereal bowl in his hands tightening and with his heart racing and his eyes wide he stares into the barrel of the gun point at him, fear freezing him the spot he's standing not allowing him to move even a finger. He had never before been held at gun point and he sure as hell did not expect the first time he is that his girlfriend's teenage niece would be the one holding the gun.

Adele noticing who it is she's staring at, drops the gun to her side. "What the hell dude? You don't sneak up on a girl like that! I almost shot you!"

"Well most girls I sneak up on don't pull a gun on me!" He responses in a huff, now that the gun isn't pointed at him his heart rate is slowing down and his grip on the bowl loosens, he's able to move his fingers again.

"Since when am I most girls?" Adele asks

"Touché." He nods.

It's then that Jenna shows up beside Alaric a guilty look plastered on her face as she regards both her nieces. "That was us…" Her eyes fall to Adele's side. "Is that a gun?" Moving her hand slightly so the gun is behind her bare leg Adele sends her aunt a smile. "No."

Jenna narrows her eyes at Adele but lets it go. "I'm sorry."

"We didn't think anyone was up." Alaric speaks up on their behalf and Jenna nods.

"But here you guys are and here we are…" In all the hype Adele had failed to notice that Alaric was half naked and it would seem the only thing Jenna had on was Alaric's button up. Alaric seemed to notice this as well, moving the bowl down as if it would help cover him up.

"We we're just…um…Chunky Monkey?" Alaric holds the bowl out to them and Adele breaks out in a laugh. "Way to make an already awkward situation even more awkward Ric."

He brings the bowl back to him with a shake of his head and a small smile. "Well I'm naked…so I'm going to go." Adele nods at him as he passes them quickly and disappears into the master bedroom.

Adele sends Jenna one last glance before her and Elena begin towards their rooms. "Once again…I'm really, really sorry." Jenna says moving from the stairs and stopping them in their doorways. "It's okay Jenna." Elena assures and Jenna doesn't seem to buy it as she looks between them. "I know he's been staying over a lot…are you sure it's okay?"

"Jenna, you deserve to be happy to and it seems like things are good." Adele smirks at her Aunt who smirks back at her. "Things are extremely good."

"Then we're extremely okay with it."

~x~

There's a knock at the door later that morning and Adele freezes in the kitchen, she had just grabbed a handful of grapes and a water bottle and was getting ready to head out to school. She waited a minute hoping someone else would get the door but when there's another knock she sighs.

She opens the door while at the same time popping a grape into her mouth. She sees its Stefan and Damon which doesn't surprise her. "Hey, can we talk?" Adele stares at them for a moment, popping another grape into her mouth. "About what?"

"We went to see Katherine." Damon answers when Stefan glances back at him and Adele stares at them for another couple seconds before stepping aside and letting them in. "Elena!" She calls up the stairs as she passes, the guys following her into the kitchen.

Damon lingers in the doorway of the kitchen; his eyes hadn't left Adele since she opened the door. He knew she was at the house last night, he had heard her pull up but she didn't come inside and while usually he would want to know why, at this moment he's glad. He feels horrible enough about hooking up with Rose without having to be caught. It's not like Adele had slipped from his mind at all last night, his thoughts we're all about her and he thinks maybe that's why he did what he did and when it was done, he felt wave after wave of guilt for doing it.

He doesn't understand why though. There not together so he's technically he has free rein to do whatever he very well pleases but that logic was lost when it came to the guilt. There's no denying that he belongs to her, weather she wants him or not.

He moves out of the doorway to stand at the other side of the Kitchen, away from her and she's noticing that even though he's staring right at her, he doesn't notice her staring back and she's staring because there's an expression on his face that tells her, he's done something wrong. That he's guilty of something. It's also in the way his eyes narrow in on her and flash with regret.

Not being able to stand the intensity in his gaze when she doesn't know what's wrong with him, she opens the drawer next to her on the left and takes out her digital camera. Turning it on, she points it at Damon and angles it just right before snapping the picture and the click makes Damon snap out of his mind and really focus on her and he frowns in confusion. Did she just take a picture of him?

Before he comments Elena joins them and Stefan right away jumps into explaining to them how Katherine told them if they got Bonnie to lift the spill on the tomb she'd give them the moonstone and then take off. Adele frowns because there's no way that's true.

"You don't believe her do you?" Elena finally asks causing Damon to scoff like it was the stupidest question ever, which it could very well be. "No of course not, we just want the moonstone."

"According to Rose's friend Slater there's a way to destroy the spell that Klaus wants to break." Stefan explains and at the mention of Rose Adele suppresses the urge to roll her eyes.

"No spell, no doppelganger sacrifice, ergo you live." Adele turns away from looking at Damon to look at Elena and she can tell by the look on her sister's face that she already didn't like this plan.

"How do you destroy it?" Elena finally asks and Stefan leans forward on the counter. "By releasing it from the moonstone." Adele runs a hand through her untamed hair. Elena's not the only one who doesn't like this idea. After everything they learned yesterday Adele figures destroying the spell will only anger Klaus, not to mention, "How do you guys even know this is going to work?" She speaks up as Elena moves to stand in front of the Island.

"Because we have a crafty witch on our side." Damon responses and Adele looks up at him, wanting to shake her head. "You discussed it with Bonnie." Elena says casting her eyes down to the white counter. "She agreed to do anything she could to help us." Adele's not sure how she feels about the brothers coming up with plans without consulting her and Elena. Sure she knows there just trying to save Elena, but Elena is the one who needs to be saved and Adele is just as much a part of trying to save her as anyone else, they have a right to know what is going on.

"Katherine has the moonstone; she's not going to give it to you." Elena argues and Stefan shrugs a shoulder. "We're going to get it from her."

"Well what he means to say is we will pry it from her cold dead hand if we have to." Damon stops pacing to stand beside Adele.

"Bonnie just needs to lift the seal long enough for us to get in, get the moonstone and get out in time for her to return it." Stefan explains as simply as possible.

"Wow." Elena nods glancing between the two brothers. "It seems like you guys already have it all planned out."

"Yep, we're awesome." This time Adele does shake her head as she looks up at Damon. "Except for one thing…" She mutters causing the brothers to look at her before Elena continues for her.

"I don't want you to do it." There gazes return to the brunette in surprise, before glancing at each other. Stefan turns back to Elena while Damon glances at Adele who has gone back to being silent. "What are you talking about? Elena, we don't have a choice."

"What about Klaus?" Adele asks.

"We'll find him, right after we get the moonstone." Stefan answers glancing up at her.

"Is that before or after he kills everyone that I care about? Including the three of you." Elena all but snaps.

"Elena, if we can destroy the moonstone we can save your life." Stefan tries to reason but Elena sighs. "I know everyone keeps saying that." With that Elena pushes away from the Island and walks away leaving the three of them in the kitchen. Damon glances down at Adele as Stefan looks back at her and she only sighs shaking her head before going after Elena.

Adele walks into Elena's room after a few moments of waiting for the brothers to leave. "There plan is ridicules! You know it is!" Elena exclaims, pacing the length of her room. Adele nods slightly. "They're going to get themselves and everyone else killed!"

"Elena, I don't think we have much of a choice at the moment. We have to do something."

"I know and I think I know what. We have to find Klaus." Adele opens her mouth to say something but closes it just as quickly. She's not sure she understands. "I have to give myself up to him."

"Whoa! Elena, slow down. No. That's a horrible idea."

"It's the only way to save all of you, if they destroy the moonstone, your all dead."

"Elena…"

"Adele…please." Taking a breath Adele runs a hand through her hair again, if she doesn't stop doing that she's going to start pulling it out.

"Okay, clam down. I think I have a plan forming…"

"Is it stupid and dangerous?" Elena stops pacing to stare at her and Adele shrugs slightly.

"Probably."

"Okay…what is it?"

"We need to get all the information we can on this guy and fast. Damon and Rose went to this Slater guy for information right? Obviously they didn't get enough. We're going to go to the boarding house and we're going to get Rose to take us to him. We're going to find a way to stop him before he finds us."

~x~

Elena follows behind her sister as they enter the boarding house. She feels bad for what she's doing; yeah she's going with her sister to help find information but for a completely different reason. She's going to give herself up; it's the only way whether they see that or not and yes she's using her sister to do it and she doesn't expect Adele to be even remotely happy with her by the end of the day, but it's all worth it if she can save them.

"It's not nice to leave a girl naked so early in the morning…" Turning Elena's eyes widen as Rose walks in with nothing but a silk red robe on and there's no mistaking her comment which makes Elena glance to Adele. Her eyes are narrowed slightly and cold, she's also very tense.

Rose looks up from tying the robe and is surprised that it's not Damon she's looking at but Elena Gilbert and the girl Damon's so in love with, Adele Gilbert who is staring at her with a killer glare. "Whoa…sorry I thought you we're…" She cuts off realizing it might not be a good idea to say his name at the moment and even though she shouldn't be smiling she can't seem to wipe it from her face.

"Uh…sorry, we uh…" Elena stutters out when it becomes clear Adele isn't going to say anything and Rose gestures to the rest of the house. "There's no one else here."

"Well, we came to talk to you." Adele finally speaks, wiping the glare from her face and putting on a convincing poker face, it could have worked to if Rose and Elena didn't know just how mad or upset she really is. "Then I should probably get dressed." Rose smile widens and Adele sends her a smile back, hers though is wicked and cold making her look twisted and more threatening than any one human should. "You probably should."

Rose disappears and slowly Elena turns back to Adele who is pulling at her hair in frustration. No wonder he looked so freaking guilty this morning, and now she's glad she didn't get a chance to go into the house last night. It shouldn't hurt so much, knowing Damon slept with Rose but it does and inside she's yelling at herself. Stop feeling so hurt! This is what you want! You don't want Damon caught up on you; you need him at a distance!

~x~

"It's a bad idea." Rose shakes her head; all feelings of being smug about last night towards the blonde is gone after listening to what these girls wanted from her.

Elena had just explained to Rose that they need to go find her friend to get more information on Klaus but she was disagreeing with them not that Adele was surprised about that.

"No it's not, from what Stefan told us your friend Slater obviously has more information about Klaus. You and Damon just gave up before you got it." Elena says and Rose looks on in disbelief. "Because someone blew up a coffee shop with us in it."

"Well that's not really our problem is it? There's more to learn, we just have to find a way to learn it." Adele explains.

"Why are you coming to me with this?"

Elena straightens her shoulders. "Because you owe me, one word from me and Stefan and Damon could've killed you for kidnapping me."

"Or maybe it's because you know they wouldn't want you doing this and there moonstone plan gave you a chance to sneak away."

"We had a disagreement okay? Their willing to risk everyone that I love and I'm not."

"There just trying to protect you."

"And you've proven that you couldn't care less if I'm protected or not so we're back to you taking us to Salter." Rose moves to sit next to Elena and Adele stays put standing behind the couch. "What exactly do you hope to achieve by this?"

Seeing that Elena is thinking about an answer Adele steps in, leaning forward slightly. "How would you like to be able to walk in the sun?" Rose's eyes snap up to her and she raises an eyebrow. "I've been a slave to shadows for 500 years what do you think?"

"I know a witch who's willing to do whatever it takes to help me out. You know if you're willing to make a deal."

~x~

Where are you? ~Damon

It's the fourth message asking her to tell him where she is in the last 30 minutes and she wasn't about to tell him she was walking up to the door of Rose's friend Salter's apartment. All he would do is race down and drag her and Elena back kicking and screaming. Some things we're better left in the dark at this moment.

Rose bangs on the old warn out double doors twice waiting for an answer and when she doesn't get one she bangs again. "Slater! Slater its Rose! Open up!" When she gets no answer once again she turns to them. "He's not home, sorry." Adele snorts stepping forward, she's not about to let her just give up. "We didn't come all the way out here for nothing." She nods towards the door and Rose sends her a solid hate filled glare before turning back.

She grips the two handles tightly waiting for the twins to step up beside her before pushing and the chain that is locking the door snaps with the force letting the door swing open to reveal the apartment to them and Adele has to attempt it's a nice apartment.

Rose walks in first calling out Slater's name as Adele takes in the surroundings and Elena looks around as well sticking close to Adele. "I don't think he's going to be much help." Looking up Adele and Elena rush over to Rose to see what she's staring at and Adele curses as they see the vampire dead on the floor with a wooden stake sticking out of his chest.

Rose moves forward to move the body while Elena watches her and Adele moves over to the desk counting exactly 6 flat screen desktop monitor lined up. "Looks like whoever blew up the coffee shop, found him and killed him for his information." Adele observes picking up a couple stacks of papers to exam them as Elena and Rose come up behind her.

"Yeah probably to stop him from helping people like us. The guy was a vampire almanac, knowing too much information just bit him in the ass." Rose mutters and there's a hint of sorrow to her voice and while Elena looks on sympathetically, Adele doesn't react. Call her heartless but at this point she just doesn't care what happens that causes the vampire behind her pain and it might have everything to do with her flaunting Damon in her face this morning, because that is exactly what she did and while he's not hers, she feels very possessive of him.

Rose moves over to open the curtains causing the twins to look up. "What are you…?" Rose cuts Elena off. "Tampered glass. The UV rays can't penetrate. I used to just come here and watch the day." Elena who had picked up a picture on the desk with who she assumed is Slater and some girl, looks up from it. "I'm sorry about Slater."

Rose looks back completely ignoring the comment. "Any luck?" Elena sets the frame to the side moving on to the computers which they come to find out is password protected not that they really thought they wouldn't be.

"It's password protected I can't get in." Elena sighs and Rose shrugs. "Then this is pointless, let's just go." Adele shakes her head sitting down in the desk chair. "No, there's always a way." She mutters but the sound of something hitting the ground from behind them causes them all to turn.

Rose tells them to stay put before she moves to another set of wooden double doors off to the side. She pushes them open and peers into the room, seeing the raven haired woman peeking out from behind what looked like a tall wooden storage cabinet. "Alice?"

Adele and Elena glance at each other from the side as they watch the woman rush into Rose who awkwardly hugs her back while the woman who she had called Alice cries muttering about him being dead.

~x~

After a few minutes of consoling the still crying woman in the other room Rose joins the Gilbert twins in the kitchen where Elena is making tea. "She found him a few minutes before we did." She explains to them while Adele leans back against the counter playing with the ends of her blonde hair. "How is she?" Elena asks and Rose shrugs a shoulder glancing between Elena and Alice. "Over reacting. Big time."

"Her boyfriend just died, there's no such thing as over reacting." Elena snaps and Adele stays quiet because she had noticed right away that Alice wasn't all that torn up about the death of her boyfriend. Half those tears she's still managing to produce are fake. "Those tears are for her. She didn't care about Slater. She was only dating him long enough to see if he'd turn her." While Elena gazes at Rose with a look of disbelief Adele steps forward taking a cup of tea from Elena. "Good, then I don't feel bad about what I have to do."

She leaves the two in the kitchen to join Alice where she hands her the tea and sends her a small smile but its fake much like the woman's tears. "Thank you." Adele nods taking a seat next to her. "Your sister looks really familiar. Did either of you know Slater?"

"Not personally, no. I just knew that he kept…detailed…records of all of his vampire contacts and I was hoping that you could point me towards Klaus." She explains briefly and Alice looks back up at her from her tea.

"Doubtful. Klaus doesn't want to be pointed at."

Adele nods, she figured as much. "Do you know Slater's computer password?"

"Are you seriously asking me that right now? I just saw my boyfriend with a stake through his heart."

Adele nods at her again. "I know and that's all very…horrible." She tries to sound sympathetic but soon realizes she failed when the woman's gaze turns into a glare. She rolls her eyes, she wasn't about to play games with a mourning woman who wasn't even truly mourning. "Do you know his password?"

Alice's eyes rank over Adele in something along the lines of disgust before turning back to her tea. "Who do you think you are?"

In any normal situation Adele would've lost her patients with the woman long ago but she takes a deep settling breath and continues on. "Who do I think I am? I think I'm a girl who needs information. What would you say…" Adele leans forward slightly and lowers her voice though she knows very well Rose can still hear her. "If I could convince Rose to turn you? Would you help me then?" The woman's sad eyes light up right away and a small smile forms on her red lips causing Adele to smirk.

The woman quickly moves to the computers and Adele follows along with Rose and Elena who come in from the kitchen. She enters his password and begins searching only to find nothing. "Someone's been here. The hard drives completely wiped out."

"Yeah probably whoever killed him." Rose mentions as Elena paces behind the desk chair losing all hope that they might find something.

"Lucky for you Slater was paranoid. Everything is backed up on our remote server." Adele watches as the girl does whatever it is she's doing to get into the files and barely regards Rose as she leans over. "You know she's not getting anywhere near my blood right?" She whispers and Adele sends her a quick glance as she moves forward. "I know that, but she doesn't."

"Kristen Stewart, god was he obvious." Alice mutters as she pulls up a folder with way more than a few files with in. "These are all leads to vampires?" Elena asks and Alice nods. "Slater was obsessed, almost as much as me."

Rose who is gazing over their shoulders speaks up as a name stands out to her. "What about that one? Cody Weber. They exchanged dozens of emails about Elijah." She observes as Elena glances at her and Adele reads over the names of the files.

"I could call him." Alice offers and Elena hands her the phone next to them.

"Tell him that we're trying to send a message to Klaus. The Doppelganger is alive and she's ready to surrender." Adele stands up straight, her shoulders tensing and her eyes widening, complete shock washing over her as she turns to look at her sister. "What?" Rose snaps before Adele has the chance to and Alice stares up at Elena in amazement. "Oh my god, I knew I recognized you."

"Get him the message please." Elena says and Alice nods before Adele grabs a hold of Elena's upper arm and Elena hisses in pain, her grip is a little harder then she intended it to be but at this point she doesn't care. She drags Elena from the room and into the kitchen where she pushes her forward. Elena stumbles to keep her balance, bracing herself on the counter before turning to look at her sister in surprise. "What the fuck are you doing?" Adele voice booms through the apartment, even though she tried to keep it quiet.

"I'm getting Klaus's attention." She answers shortly as she sees Rose coming up behind them. "If Klaus knows that your alive, he'll find you and he'll kill you." Rose points out and though Adele didn't hear her come up –not with the blood rushing through her head– she doesn't take her eyes from Elena who is staring back at her. "Which is exactly what you wanted all along." Rose realizes and Adele feels her hands clenching by her sides. "It's either me or my family." Elena points out.

"So this whole charade was a suicide mission that your sister obviously knew nothing about just so you could sacrifice yourself to save everyone else?"

Alice pops up beside Adele. "Cody is on his way and he really wants to meet you." Adele whips to the side starling Alice. "Get out." She snaps and Alice's wide eyes widen more. "Excuse me?"

"Get out, both of you get out now!" She demands and while Rose is backing out, Alice stands her ground. "This is my kitchen…" Even though she's a few inches shorter than the woman Adele squares her shoulders and straightens her back, her eyes on fire and blackening and her fist clenching tighter, so tight her knuckles have turned white. "I need a word with my sister alone, so I suggest you get out or I'll knock you on your ass and throw you out." She whispers and while Alice glares she does as she says, because the wild look in the young girl's eyes made her feel a bit uneasy.

She turns back to Elena. "You have 3 seconds to tell me you're joking." Elena swallows and shakes her head. "I'm not joking."

~x~

"You used me to get over here just so you could sacrifice yourself! Well it's not going to happen!"

"Yes it is! You can't stop me! I have to do this Adele! Why can't you understand that?"

"How am I supposed to understand that my sister is allowing herself to die? Please enlighten me Elena! How?"

"I'm trying to save you and Jeremy and Stefan and Damon and everyone else!"

"We can take care of ourselves; we've done a damn good job so far! We're leaving now!"

"You can leave but I'm staying! This is my choice, not yours!" Elena in a show of bravery pushes past her sister and stocks from the room. Adele takes a moment to gather her self-control before going after her. She slows to a stop seeing Elena over by the monitors with Alice. Elena looks back at her before her eyes travel behind Adele causing her to spins around and she curses as she's met with the sight of Damon's lean figure standing tall and tense in front of her.

"What are you doing here?" He asks, his eyes narrowing down at her before looking up to Elena who has come up behind Adele. "What are you doing here?" Elena asks before turning to see Rose step out of a different room. "You called him?" Adele can't even begin to express the amount of relief that is rushing through her veins. This situation became way too much for her to handle on her own a long time ago and she was contemplating calling him herself.

"I'm sorry Elena."

"I thought you said you understood?"

"She lied." Damon says cutting off whatever Rose was going to say in her defense.

"Damon Salvatore." Adele's head snaps over to look at Alice. Where in that woman's mind did she figure it was the appropriate time to come over and announce who they we're talking to in utter amazement when it's obvious that the air in the room had become very tense? Who does this woman think she is? Adele is about to say something when Damon does it for her.

"Get rid of her." Rose grips Alice's elbow steering her from the room but not before she can utter a 'No Way' that makes Adele want to slap her.

"Come on we're leaving." Damon demands much like Adele had as he regards the both of them, more so Elena as he saw the relief flash across Adele's face the minute she realized it was him.

"No." Elena shakes her head, standing her ground while Adele moves to the side. She knows when she needs to back down.

"Elena he's right we need to go." Adele tries to reason.

"Exactly, I said we're leaving."

"I'm not going with you guys."

"You don't get to make decisions anymore, neither of you do!" Damon snaps causing Adele to look at him but before she responses Elena beats her to it.

"When have I ever made a decision? You two and Stefan do that for me. Now this, this is my decision."

"A stupid decision." Adele mutters threw gritted teeth but they ignore her.

"Who's going to save your life while you're out making decisions?"

"You're not listening to me! I don't want to be saved!" Her voice echoes through the apartment as her voice level rises. "Not if it means that Klaus is going to kill every single person that I love."

"Get your ass out the door before I throw you over my shoulder and carry you out myself." And he's completely serious. He made a promise to himself that Elena isn't going to die. If it's the one thing he can do for Adele, he's going to do it. When Elena fails to move Damon reaches out to grab her arm but Elena hits his hand away. "No." She snaps but he goes for her again. She pulls back her fist and throws it forward trying to hit Damon but failing when he catches her fist.

Adele can see that he's more livid then he was when he first arrived as he narrows his eyes down at Elena who's own eyes flash with fear and she gasps at the pressure he's putting on her fist as he holds it tight refusing to let it go. "Don't ever do that again." He threatens and Adele springs forward, grabbing the hand over Elena's and pulling it off. "Damon, clam down." She whispers as she looks up at him, now wedged between the two. Before she can pull her own hand from Damon's he grips it and squeezes before leaning forward, inches from her face where his eyes travel from her eyes to her lips and back again. "Do you realize how stupid this was?" He whispers and she nods, his eyes soften. "Good." He breathes letting go.

~x~

Adele pulls at the ends of her hair as she waits for Damon to finish compelling Alice into forgetting about today. Elena is sat on a chair being watched by Rose, while Adele chooses to pace the room.

Her phone buzzes in her pocket and to distract herself she pulls it out.

Just reminding you of our coffee date tomorrow; don't be late. ~Unknown Number

Adele glances up at the other two in the room and turns away slightly.

I won't be late as long as you don't pull anything funny. I mean it, only you and whatever his name is. That's it. If I came and see more, nothing is going to end well for you. ~Adele

I'm a man of my word Adele Gilbert. You have nothing to worry about. Have a nice night. ~James

The doors to the bedroom open and Damon steps out with a scowl still present on his features. "Time to go. Alice is soundly sleeping and won't remember a moment of this horribly stupid day." Adele seems to notice that one word is being thrown around a lot today but with good reason of course.

He stops in front of the three but nobody has a chance to move before the doors are flung open and both Elena and Rose jump to their feet while Damon turns around, his arm going out to push Adele somewhat behind him. Three guys, all of decent size stroll into the room like everything is normal and they didn't just bust into someone else's apartment. "We're here to meet the doppelganger."

"Thank you for coming." Elena who is standing behind Adele goes to walk past her but she quickly grabs Elena's forearm gazing back at her. "I will break your arm." She threatens and Elena whimpers at the surprisingly tight and painful grip her sister is capable of.

Damon regards the three men carefully. "There's nothing here for you." A sickening crack comes from the man at the back of the group standing in the door way and all their eyes fall to him as he drops to the ground giving them full view of Elijah much to Damon's shock and horror.

Elijah uses his speed to get to the other two and before a word is spoken between anyone, Rose is gone speeding out of the apartment before anyone can stop her not that anyone was paying much attention to her anyways.

After looking between the two random guys in the room, Elijah's eyes fall on them, regarding mostly the doppelganger and lingering longer on the blonde and he doesn't fail to notice the way the older Salvatore pushes her so he's almost completely shielding her with his own body now and more out of his sight and the way the beautiful blonde grips the Salvatore's arm tightly in her petite hands. "I killed you. You we're dead."

"For centuries now." His voice isn't that deep and it's complimented by an English accent Adele notices before he turns back to the two randoms. "Who are you?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm Elijah." The man who is the only one willing to talk seems speechless for only half a minute before he points to Elena. "We we're going to bring her to you. For Klaus. She's the Doppelganger. I don't know how she exists but she does. Klaus would want to see her." Adele rolls her eyes from behind Damon. Of course she exists; what a nice way to point out the obvious.

"Does anyone else know that you're here?" Elijah asks, his tone is calm, a little to calm for Adele's liking.

"No." The man who is obviously the leader of the little group says. "Well then you have been incredibly helpful…" Adele winces as she hears more then she sees Elijah shoves a hand into each man's chest before pulling out there hearts and dropping them to the floor next to the now dead bodies. Elijah's eyes meet Adele's briefly as she peers at him from over Damon's shoulder who has stepped forward ready for a fight, only Elijah turns fleeing the scene and surprising all of them.

~x~

Adele is still very much pissed off by the time they make it home and she orders Elena inside. "You can't order me around." Elena snaps.

"Watch me! Now get inside!" Elena huffs but doesn't argue as she slips into the house, annoyed with her sister and Damon for thinking they can control what she does. As the door closes back up Adele turns to Damon. "Thank you for driving us home."

"Well your ride left you; I didn't want to leave you stranded." At the mention of Rose Adele remembers what happened this morning and she has to look away from Damon, hoping he won't notice the hurt that flashes through her eyes but of course he does as he pulls her chin back. "What's wrong?"

"I can't believe Elijah's alive." Damon rolls his eyes; she could at least be sly about wanting to change the subject. "Why do you think he killed those two vampires and just left us there?"

"If I had a dollar for every time an evil vampire surprised me." Adele doesn't say anything as she turns back to the door, ready to go inside and try to forget about this horrible night without killing her sister. She needs to be in the right frame of mind to meet James tomorrow anything less would cause there meeting to end badly depending on what it is he wants from her.

Damon takes a hold of her forearm, stopping her from opening the door. "What you did today was really stupid."

"How was I supposed to know she was going to use me to get over there just so she could go on a suicide mission? I was just as shocked as you we're and also a little betrayed at that, so I don't want to hear. You should probably go; I'm sure Rose is waiting for you." There was no denying the harsh tone of her voice and the hurt that flashes threw her blue eyes once again. Damon realizes that she knows she knows what happened between him and Rose last night. But how? Did Rose tell her? If Rose told her, Damon was going to have a hard time not ripping her throat out the next time he sees her.

"Goodnight Damon." As they turn back to the door, they notice it's open and Jeremy is standing there looking between them. Adele notices the bandage on his neck stained with a small patch of blood. "What happened?" She demands grabbing his head and turning it to the side to exam his neck further.

"Adele…" She lets him go, looking up at him with anxious eyes. "What?" She asks, a knot forming in her stomach. "Stefan…he's stuck in the tomb, with Katherine."

"What?" Adele snaps feeling like the wind has been knocked out of her. "It's my fault. I'm sorry…I haven't told Elena yet, should we?"

"No! Don't say anything to her! One suicide mission is enough for one day!" Adele yells as she's running down the porch steps, she's not even registering what she's doing but Damon is in front of her before she reaches her car. "Damon move!"

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I have to go down there Damon; I have to make sure he's okay! Please move." He can tell she's one step away from being hysterical and it catches him by surprise. He hadn't realized how close his brother and Adele actually were. "I'll take you down there, just to see how he is. Do not to anything that'll make me regret it."

~x~

As soon as the car was stopped, Adele was out running towards the old church grounds with Damon close behind her. She's down the steps and underground quickly almost tripping on one of the steps. She reaches the tomb opening.

"Stefan!" She calls loudly but she gets no answer. It makes her uneasy how silent the tomb is. "Stefan!" She calls again but still nothing and she's about to run in, to look for him, to make sure he's okay when she's moved away from the opening. He threw her a little harder than necessary as the sharp edges of the stone wall digs into her back.

"Don't even think about it."

"We can't just leave him in there Damon! Elena is going to freak out, we don't need to give her anymore reason to throw away her live! He's not safe in there! How could you let this happen?" She knows it's not fair to blame him but she just needs someone to blame and he's the only person near. Everything about this day had gone all wrong.

"I was too busy saving you and Elena from your kamikaze mission."

"That wasn't my fault! She used me; I'm just as pissed about that as you!"

"Why did you even go there?"

"Because I was trying to come up with a different approach, one that could save you and everyone else including Elena! You didn't have to go after the moonstone in the first place! We could've found another way!"

"It was the right call Adele!"

"Right call? How is any of this the right call! I'm not willing to lose everyone I love! I've lost too much already!" She throws a clenched fist at his chest and it hits hard not that it affects him in the least bit. "Let me go!" He doesn't say anything or make any move to get out of the way so she hits him again and again and his hands grip a hold of her hip tightly, keeping her from moving away from the wall. It's all her frustration from the past couple days coming out and he was the closest person to take it out on so he lets her hit him over and over again yelling at him to let her go as angry tears well up at the corners of her eyes.

Moving his hands up her sides to her back, he pushes her into him, holding her closely as she continues to fight against him and as his arms secure around her, she falls against him with a soft whimper that gets muffled by the fabric of his shirt. "Are you done?" He whispers and she pushes him away before slipping past him and leaving.

He knows she's not going to get far seeing as he's her ride home, so instead of going after her he turns to Stefan who finally appears in the opening. He had heard the whole exchange between the two and he was glad it was Adele who had come running to try and rescue him instead of Elena, Adele can hold her own, Stefan is well aware of that not that he thought she would even get in, Damon like he had would always stop her from endangering herself and she would listen because it's Damon but Elena is a different story. She'd pushed her way into the tomb and he's not sure he could stop Katherine from killing her. "Out of all the idiot plans Stefan."

Stefan nods looking to the ground before looking up and around the opening. "I'll find a way to get you out." Damon assures and Stefan shrugs a shoulder, though he's touched that his brother is showing he cares. "That's alright, I'll uh…I'll handle myself. Bonnie has the moonstone, work with her. Try to figure out how to dispel it."

"You martyr yourself into a tomb and I get partnered with a semi capable witch." Damon retorts causing Stefan to chuckle.

"Keep Adele and Elena away from here." Stefan says after a moment of silence causing Damon to snort. "Yeah because that'll be easy."

"Promise me. No matter what happens you'll protect them."

"I promise."

~x~

The car ride back to the house was silent; Adele kept her eyes focused on things outside of the car the whole time and when he pulls up to the house, she's out of the car before he can say anything but he has something to say so he goes after her, completely forgetting that the car is running and leaving the door wide open. "Adele wait!"

She freezes just in front of the porch steps, turning slowly to look back at him. "What?" She breathes and he stops walking when he's a good couple feet away.

"Look…about Rose…" He trails off seeing her shake her head. "It's fine Damon, you don't have to explain yourself to me."

"But…"

"No. We're not together Damon and I…I want you to be happy. Waiting for me won't make you happy and I can't ask you to wait for me. If you want Rose be with her, if you want someone else, be with them. Please Damon, don't hold back because of me. I can't give you what you deserve right now. I'm sorry, I'm just not there yet…I'm sorry."

She turns around and bolts up the porch steps and into the house. He didn't even get a chance to stop her, he was too stunned to move, let alone speak. He had no idea she was thinking that way, how could he? They'd been at each other's throats for days now but still he didn't see that coming and he wants to barge into the house and tell her she's wrong. That he doesn't want anyone else and that he is willing to wait for her but he doesn't, she's way too worked up to be able to be reasoned with. It would have to wait till she's a little calmer. It would have to wait till tomorrow.

Oh man, Damon just keeps screwing up doesn't he? xD So I think I gave away that Adele is going to be meeting with James in the next chapter, I hope you're all excited about that, and man I'm frustrating myself having to keep Damon and Adele apart, but I have good reason, it's all leading up to something, you just stick with me and find out what it is. ;)

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