13:01 – Gilbert House – Kitchen
Jenna was brought home from the hospital and settled in the living room with Matt for company.
"So, what are we gonna do?" Jeremy hissed once the three of us were alone in the kitchen.
"Make lunch." Elena uttered simply and passed me a baguette out of the bag of groceries.
"About Katherine." I scorned, waving the baguette back at her.
"We're not gonna do anything." Elena stated calmly.
"She tried to kill Jenna." Jeremy hissed, "We can't let her get away with that."
"Yes, we can." Elena said, "If it keeps us safe, then we can."
I exchanged a bewildered look with Jeremy and asked, "What if she tries something else?"
"She won't." Elena whispered, "Katherine hurt Jenna because I didn't do what she said. Well I'm doing it now. Me and Stefan are over. She wins. The end."
"You're being naïve and you know it." Jeremy scorned and grabbed his jacket.
"Where're you going?" I asked.
"Out." Jeremy declared and hollered to Jenna, "I'll be back."
"Don't look at me, I have no idea where he's going." Elena shrugged to me and set out the plates.
"Elena, we can't do nothing." I implored my sister.
"I don't want her finding out about you." Elena whispered back, "I thought Jenna was safe and she still got hurt, I don't want Katherine using you as a significantly more powerful weapon against me. So please, stand down, for now."
I could have argued that I couldn't be compelled. She would argue that none of the rules applied to Katherine, she'd always find a way, a work around. I didn't argue with her because she looked so defeated. Elena had a big heart and the thought of others being in harms way because of her, was constantly eating away at her. She just needed some time to get her fire back.
18:30 – Gilbert House – Living Room
"I feel like an invalid." Jenna groaned as she reached over for a slice of pizza.
"That's because you are an invalid." I laughed and helped her settle back down.
"Where's Jeremy?" Elena asked, "Isn't he hungry?"
"He already left for the Lockwood Party." Jenna explained.
"He went to that?" I snorted, "Hell hath frozen over."
"I'm glad. He needs to have more fun, lose some of that emo-thing." Jenna said, and turned her attention to me, "I get that she's all heartbroken and wallowing, but why aren't you going? I thought you and Tyler were smitten."
"Okay. I'm gonna get some napkins." Elena declared and sauntered through to the kitchen to confront Ric. The two had a hushed conversation, that I couldn't make out. Ric was imploring her to do something.
"Hey, the pizza's good, but it isn't 'ignore the question' good." Jenna scoffed.
"I had my first time with Tyler, and I fell…pretty hard for him, and he was nice for a bit, and then he was a reclusive asshole and also made out with Matt's mom that one time." I uttered and stuffed the crust into my mouth, then waffling, "So I don't want to see him, let alone party in his house."
"I…didn't know that." Jenna asked, with a slice of pizza flopping down her hand, "So that makes two heartbroken wallowers, the invalid, and…"
"A history teacher." I shrugged.
"He's more than that." Jenna giggled, "The glutton-for-punishment widower."
"That's a bit of a mouthful." I laughed.
"Do you want me to send him away? So we can talk about it?" Jenna whispered.
I shook my head vehemently, "No. No, seriously, it was a while ago, and there's nothing more to say. It's done."
09:55 - Mystic Falls High School - Hallway
"Stefan?" I called out and sauntered over to him.
"Hey, Ro." Stefan sighed, with a half-smile. His mind was clearly elsewhere.
"Hey, so, if I need to cover for Elena, you need to give me a head's up." I said.
"Uh, what?" Stefan rasped.
"Don't get me wrong, Jenna's totally cool with the two of you, she really likes you, but you're kinda pushing it." I shrugged.
"What are you talking about?" Stefan said.
He stopped in his tracks, and put his arm out.
"You. And Elena?" I explained, "I'm glad you're back together, and the doom and gloom is lifted, however temporarily that may be. But if she's gonna sleep over-"
"Wait, wait. Hold on a minute." Stefan said, and shook his head, "We're not back together."
"She didn't stay at your place last night?" I asked, with a raised brow.
He wasn't playing dumb, he genuinely had no idea what I was talking about.
"No. I mean, I saw her at the party, but that was it." Stefan said, "She didn't sleep over."
"Her bed hadn't been slept in, and Mrs Lockwood said her car was still in the driveway...and I was just gonna be the reluctant messenger for that." I explained, "Where is she, then?"
Stefan's expression darkened, his mind was racing.
"Stefan?" I rasped.
"Find Bonnie. I need to talk to Damon." Stefan drawled and stormed off.
10:14 - Mystic Falls High School - History Classroom
I had caught Bonnie up to speed on the situation and she had assembled all that she needed to perform a locator spell. She spread out a map of the state, and lit a pillar candle.
"How does this work?" I asked her.
"I'll use your blood to draw the energy for the tracking spell." Bonnie explained, "You're blood-related. It'll make the connection stronger."
"All right, Alaric said we gotta clear out of here within 10 minutes." Stefan declared as he burst into the room, with Jeremy in tow, "I got weapons. He stocked me up."
"Are you ready?" Bonnie asked me.
"What are you doing?" Jeremy asked.
I nodded and she cut the palm of my hand with a dagger. I winced at the slice and blinked, disheartened to see that my hand was already healing over.
"Crap." I huffed out, and turned to my brother, who was already rolling up his sleeve.
Without a word, I stepped out of the way, and Jeremy leant over the map, presenting his hand to Bonnie. He joked about finally being useful and could almost hear Damon sneering that being a blood bag was his only use. He clenched his fist; three drops of blood plopped on to the map. Bonnie began chanting gibberish and we watched the blob of blood track away from Mystic Falls. It kept going, further and further down south. I'd never even been out this way. We collectively tensed, wishing for it to stop.
"There." Bonnie declared, and pointed, "She's there."
"That's 300 miles away." I groaned and passed Jeremy a bundle of paper towels to press against his palm.
"No, Bonnie, we need a more exact location than that." Stefan implored.
"That's as close as I can get." Bonnie said.
"We can map it, get an aerial view." Jeremy suggested, "It'll show us whats around there. Help us narrow down the area."
"Perfect." Stefan said, "Call me with whatever you find."
"Call us." I declared, to Stefan's fallen shoulders and heavy sigh, "If you're going in blind, you're not going alone."
"No, I'm coming with you too." Jeremy scorned.
"No, Jeremy, you're not." Stefan refused, point blank.
"I'm not gonna just sit here." Jeremy implored, "What if she's hurt, okay? Or worse?"
"She's not. You three go back to your house, just in case." Stefan suggested, "I'm gonna call you the minute I find her."
"You can't do this alone." Jeremy said.
"He's not." I said, and picked up the other bag, "Let's go."
"Rosanna." Stefan sighed and put an arm out to stop me, "I can't watch your back and focus on Elena, it's too much-"
"I never asked you to." I scorned back.
"We agreed you're laying low, you're an unknown quantity." Stefan implored.
"Ow. My feelings." I sneered, "That all means jack the second my sister's in trouble. So save it. We're wasting time."
"That we are, Scooby Gang." Damon declared, as he poked his head into the classroom.
"You're coming?" Stefan asked.
"It's Elena." Damon shrugged and lead the way.
12:46 - On the Road
"Alaric sure likes his weapons." Stefan muttered under his breath as he rummaged around in his bag.
"What the hell is that?" Damon asked.
"Well, it's a vervain bomb or grenade launcher or something like that." Stefan said.
"Weird." Damon muttered and shuffled his driving position a little further away.
I leant forward from the back and asked, "Hey, how much further is it?"
"Are we there yet?" Damon mocked, and received a harsh slap on the shoulder from me.
"About 80 miles." Stefan informed me and asked, "Who do you think took her?"
"Someone from Katherine's past." Damon suggested, "She said she was running from someone. Maybe they got the wrong girl."
"Thank you for helping me." Stefan said.
"Can we not do the whole road trip bonding thing?" Damon scoffed, "The cliche of it all makes me itch."
"Oh, come on, Damon, we both know that you being in this car has absolutely nothing to do with me, anyway." Stefan said.
"The elephant in the room lets out a mighty roar." Damon sneered.
"Well, it doesn't have to be an elephant." Stefan suggested, "Let's talk about it."
"Oh good lord." I mumbled and shrunk down in my seat.
"There's nothing to talk about." Damon uttered.
"That's not true. Sure there is. Let's just get it out." Stefan sang, "I mean, are you in this care because you want to help your little brother save a girl that he loves, or is it-is it because you lover her, too? Hmm? I mean, come on, express yourself. I happen to like road-trip bonding."
"Keep it up, Stefan." Damon scorned, "I can step out of helping as easily as I stepped in."
"Nope, see that's the beauty of it." Stefan scoffed, "You can't."
I watched them glare at each other for what felt like a solid minute, before uttering, "Maybe...maybe the glares can wait until we're uh-stationary, and our eyes can go back on the road?"
"We're getting close." I informed them, "Jeremy said there's an access road just past mile marker 6."
"If you want some, just ask." Damon sang as he slurped on his blood bag.
"I want some." Stefan said.
"Aw, that's so sweet, gonna be all big and strong to save your girl." Damon scoffed, "Well, don't worry. I've got your back, you'll be fine."
"I'm not joking." Stefan revealed, "I been drinking a little every day, slowly increasing my intake and building up my strength."
"Does Elena know you're drinking blood?" Damon asked.
"I've been drinking hers." Stefan said.
"Oh." I shuddered, and winced.
"Hmm. How romantic." Damon scored, "Since we're road-trip bonding, remember the days when all you lived for was blood? You were the guy who would rip someone apart just for the fun of it?"
"You mean when I was more like you?" Stefan retorted.
"Yes, Stefan. Exactly. Back when you put blood into me so I could be a big, bad vampire." Damon sneered, "Wonder if Elena would be so quick to open her veins to that guy? By the way, what happened to that guy? He was a hoot."
"Guess he found something else to live for." Stefan replied coolly.
"That's the marker." I said louder than necessary.
"House should be just beyond those trees." Damon declared, "Wait. Now, I've got a little more experience than you do with this sort of thing."
"So what's your point?" Stefan asked.
"My point is that whoever has Elena is probably who was after Katherine in 1864 and before that." Damon said.
"And?" I asked, with a hint of annoyance. Yet again, we were wasting unnecessary time here.
"And it puts them at 500 years old and strong." Damon said, "Are you sure you wanna do this?"
"Yeah, I'm certain I wanna do it." Stefan nodded.
"Why is this even a thing? Let's go!" I implored.
"Because, Little Gilbert, we go into that house we might not come back out." Damon scorned.
"All right then, I won't come out." Stefan shrugged and turned to leave.
"So noble, Stefan." Damon scoffed.
"I can't think of a better reason to die." Stefan said, "But you wanna stay here, I'll totally understand."
Rose. He said, his tone was well-spoken, and cutting.
I don't know who it is. She scorned back. Her voice was flustered and crackling, like she'd been crying moments ago.
Up here. Stefan taunted.
Down here. Damon scoffed.
I could hear the gusts of wind as he shot towards the voices, and the groans of displeasure at being toyed with. I caught sight of him through the banister, he was composed, dressed in a sharp expensive suit, he was snapping the arms off a coat rack, fashioning a weapon to dispatch his intruders.
"Excuse me." The well-spoken kidnapper declared, "To whom it may concern, you're making a great mistake if you think that you can beat me. You can't. You hear that? I repeat, you cannot beat me. So I want the girl on the count of 3, or heads will roll. Do we understand each other?"
I couldn't keep my eyes off him. Elena had been whisked away by Stefan and informed of the plan. She staggered along to her starting position.
"I'll come with you." Elena huffed out, as she emerged on the landing, "Just please don't hurt my friends. They just wanted to help me out."
"What game are you playing with me?" He asked as she snapped the pin out of the vervain grenade and chucked it at his face.
"AAH!" He screamed out in agony as his face burned and blistered.
This was my moment; the second hit. My cue had long gone and left us. My hand rose but the rest of my body did not. I threw the vervain grenade against the wall, full-pelt, from where I sat in a nook at the top of the stairs. The glass and liquid sprinkled over me as I sat there, completely frozen, unable to even shield myself from the fallout. I was shaken from the lack of power I had over my own extremities.
"What the fu-" I muttered.
I heard Stefan step in, shots were fired at the man who was supposed have to be weakened by two vervain grenades by now. I struggled to my feet after resolving that I no longer had a grenade to throw at him, it was although I had now been granted permission to rise, now that I wasn't a threat. Stefan had improvised; he rugby-tackled the man and tumbled down the stairs with him. They struggled and fought furiously at the bottom.
I snatched up another vervain grenade from the bag and took up position to toss it, but my hand jerked to a sharp halt and clenched around the glass instead. Once again the grenade exploded all over me. I couldn't...I couldn't hurt this man.
"Who's side are you on?!" Damon roared as he finally impaled the man with his own coat rack, skewering him against the wall.
It was done; he was desiccating over. Damon's attention snapped to the other woman who shot out of the house.
"Just let her go." Elena barked as Damon moved to chase her down.
"Hey, come here, you hurt? You okay?" Stefan uttered as Elena thundered down the stairs and jumped into his arms.
"What the hell was that?" Damon hissed at me.
"We've got a long drive back to figure it out." I uttered and sauntered out of the front door.