Taylor's POV

I woke up in the morning with Stefan in my bed. The past few days have actually been calm. I don't know if things were getting better, but when the highlight of the past few days was finding out that Ashley was having a girl. I looked over Stefan's nude Adonis body as he slept.

"You're staring." He said without opening his eyes. I guess he wasn't asleep.

"I'm gazing." I argued.

"It's creepy." He declared.

"It's romantic." I refuted. He then covered up with a pillow, but I wasn't having that and we started doing it again. "I should feel bad that we're having sex now."

"Do you?" He asked.

"We can't have Veronica find out." I remarked with deep breaths.

"She won't." He told me as I felt him go deeper.

No POV

Meanwhile, Veronica was rolling in some sheets of her own.

"Not so loud." Ronnie said playfully. "Miss Flowers won't think very high of me if she finds out that I have a man over."

"What are you even doing here?" Mason inquired.

"I like somewhere quiet that I can sleep where I don't have to worry about people finding me." Veronica told him. "I think I prefer the bed most."

"So do I." Mason agreed.

Taylor's POV

I got up off him after a second run-through.

"I need a shower because I'm sharing the house with three other girls, one who is pregnant, my brother, and my aunt." I remarked.

"Let's go." He said.

"Not this time." I stated. "I have to be at the Lockwoods' in 17 minutes. There's this decorating committee for the masquerade ball."

"That's a funny coincidence because I'm also on it." Stefan replied with a smile.

"Are you sure that you should go considering Mason tried to kill you?" I asked.

No POV

The vampire pushed the werewolf back on the bed as she went down on him. Before she finished she came up.

"Where's the moonstone?" She asked.

"It's in a safe place." Mason responded.

"Why won't you tell me?" Ronnie pouted.

"I don't trust anyone." Mason stated.

Taylor's POV

"I'd rather be there than leave you alone with him." Stefan told me.

"Well this is going to be the highlight of today." I explained. "We're not talking and we shouldn't even look at each other. You should probably get dressed and leave now. I really need to bathe."

No POV

"I told you I don't plan on killing anyone and that includes you." Veronica said before she bit into him.

"Easy there, Ronnie." Mason told her.

Taylor's POV

"We need to do one more thing." Stefan reminded me. I let him bite into my wrist and after a few seconds he was done.

No POV

Ronnie licked up his blood.

"So what happens when you get the moonstone?" Mason asked.

"We can get married and maybe adopt some underprivileged Indian baby." The blonde declared.

"I'll make sure to bring it to you tonight and then we can get out of this town." Mason responded.

Ashley's POV

I stood next to Jeremy on the porch of the boarding house. I needed to see my mom and he needed to talk to Damon. I was wearing a loose khaki dress and leather jacket with black boots. I don't know how much longer I would be able to wear heels. I really haven't done much research, but I heard wearing heels in certain trimesters is bad.

"What can I do for you two?" Damon asked.

"I need to talk to you." Jeremy declared. I decided that I would hear this and then

"I don't need to talk to you." Damon responded.

"Tyler has to kill someone to become a werewolf." Jeremy explained.

"You can go now." Damon replied. What a dick.

"Mason is looking for a moonstone: a special rock with mystical powers." Jeremy continued.

"Why are you telling me this?" Damon asked in confusion.

"Because he wants Mason dead/gone after he tried to kill me." I explained. "Now if you excuse me, I need to go see my mom."

I noticed that Caroline was by the stairs.

"She won't talk to me." My sister remarked. "She hates me."

"No, she hates vampires." I argued. "I think we can change that by showing her that you're still the same Caroline that she gave birth to."

Taylor's POV

I looked around the Lockwood yard as I looked for something to do. I wore a blue and grey short-sleeved top with a brown hem and a pleated black skirt with my hair in a ponytail and black three-inch heels. I spotted Josh and decided that I could talk to him since I hadn't done that in a while.

"So where's Stefan?" He asked me. I guess I did have to answer that.

"We're fighting right now." I told him. "You know we haven't talked much lately. How are you doing?"

"It's hard not being with Caroline. I don't even know if she even still has any problems with blood anymore and I know that's why we broke up, but she hasn't talked to me at all." He remarked.

"Well, she's not gonna be here today." I responded. "She's watching over her mom."

"I heard she was sick." Josh stated.

"What's really happening is found out about Stefan and Damon and Caroline being vampires and the Salvatores were keeping her prisoner until the vervain got out of her system." I explained.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Josh asked.

"She's not as open-minded as other. I don't know if her knowing about Caroline is a good thing." I responded.

Ashley's POV

Caroline and I stood outside of Mom's cell. She was lying on her back. Caroline opened the door and the two of us walked in. I wanted to give her a hug, but I'm not sure if she wanted to see me. She sat up and the two of us noticed a plate full of food that hadn't even been touched.

"Are you gonna eat?" I asked. I didn't get a response. "So I found out that I'm having a girl."

Still nothing.

"So Doctor Damon says the vervain should be out tonight and we can get you out of here soon." Caroline tried only to also be met with silence.

"Mom, we want to talk to you." I remarked. "You can't seriously want to pretend Caroline doesn't exist, can you?"

"Yes." She answered. "I want you to go, both of you."

I guess she was mad at me for not telling her, but given her reaction, I didn't have a reason to tell her.

"Fine, I was just trying to be helpful." Caroline replied spitefully as she grabbed the tray. I kind of wanted to eat that even though it was cold. "It's not like I died or anything."

That kind of was it.

"Are you really dead?" Mom asked sadly.

"Not entirely." Caroline said

"How?" Mom questioned. Caroline shut the door. I still wanted to eat the food. I decided I would give them a few minutes before so I could eat before I came back down. I found Jeremy and Mr. Saltzman were upstairs. I didn't know what was going on.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"I'm helping Damon since I'm the one who found out about the moonstone." Jeremy explained to me and the teacher.

"Does Taylor know about this?" The teacher asked.

"No." I answered. "What's in the box?"

"Isobel's research from Duke." He responded. "Her assistant sent it to me?"

"I remember her." Damon stated.

"Do you remember the old Aztec curse she told us about?" Alaric asked.

"What Aztec curse?" I inquired.

"Supposedly vampires and werewolves used to roam freely before a shaman put a curse on them to limit their power." He explained. "Since then werewolves can only turn on a full moon and vampires are weakened by the sun."

"Are you even sure shamans are real?" I inquired.

"According the legend, the werewolf part is sealed with the moonstone." Alaric continued.

"What do you mean sealed?" Jeremy asked.

"It's a witch thing." Damon answered. "Whatever seals it usually unseals it."

"Mason probably wants to use the moonstone to break the curse." Alaric declared.

"Should really be dumb enough to take this picture as the word of God?" Damon asked rhetorically. He then looked at Jeremy. "You said you know where this stone is."

"Tyler has it." Jeremy answered.

"Get it from him and your life will have a purpose until your little one is born." Damon remarked as he grabbed Jeremy and took him away.

Taylor's POV

I had just finished telling Josh everything about Veronica.

"So are you saying that Caroline just wants to protect me from your murderous lookalike?" Josh asked.

"And she wants me to break up with Stefan." I added. "That's why I'm not with him right now."

"I really wish that you guys would tell me more about this." Josh admitted. I didn't have a good response.

"I'm telling you now." I proposed. "And while I don't like excluding people, this is still dangerous."

At that time, Anna walked up to us.

"There you are." She said. "Jenna sent me to find you."

"You two haven't met." I stated. "Josh, this is Anna. She's the vampire that's staying in my house."

"Hi." Anna greeted him. "You should probably be getting back now."

"Okay, I'm coming." I said before I stumbled in my heels. Josh ended up catching me. "Thanks."

"It's not something I've never done before." He replied. "So if you and Stefan are still on the outs then, do you think you might want to come to Masquerade with me? You know as a friend?"

"Sure." I replied. "You can let go of me now."

He let me go and walked away as I smiled began to follow behind him.

"What are you doing?" Anna whispered to me.

"I'm not cheating on Stefan, but I want to go to this." I explained.

As I neared the house, Bonnie and Elena came to me.

"Taylor, please tell me that you're not sleeping with Mason." Bonnie demanded.

"What?" I asked, wondering how she even got that idea in her head before I realized the answer. "Veronica. You need to tell Stefan about this. I'm keeping my distance for now."

They walked away as did Anna and suddenly Damon was behind me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"Looking for my brother. Speaking of which, I want yours to leave me alone." He answered.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Ask him." He said before he walked away and I found Jeremy.

"Jeremy, what are you doing here?" I questioned. If he had signed up I wouldn't be confused and I don't know why he was hanging out with Damon.

"I'm looking for Tyler." Jeremy replied.

"Are you two suddenly friends now?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, we are." Jeremy responded.

"And where's Ashley?" I questioned.

"She's at the boarding house." He told me.

"Well I guess I'll help you." I remarked. I really didn't want to do this decorating this anyway.

The two of us went to find Tyler.

"Hey man." Jeremy greeted him once he was done talking to Matt.

"So Jeremy was telling me that you had this cool moonstone." I remarked. "I heard about this Aztec legend that involves the same kind of stone. Is there any way I could see it?"

"Nope, my uncle has it." Tyler answered.

"I thought you weren't gonna give it to him." Jeremy remarked.

"Well I'm done with all of this supernatural stuff." Tyler replied. Well, that was a dead end. I decided to text Stefan the news since that was the only contact I could have with him. I wouldn't be surprised if Veronica had found some way to tap my phone.

Ashley's POV

I was back downstairs with Caroline as she explained herself to Mom.

"I'm drinking mostly from blood bags." She said. "It doesn't taste as good as fresh blood, but it's safer."

"So you're stealing from the hospital?" Mom asked.

"Damon is." I replied. "He said that always get way more than they actually need."

"I'm been stealing from them." Caroline remarked.

"But as long as you have blood, you don't need to hurt people?" Mom inquired.

"I kind of want to, but I don't need to and I've gotten much better at controlling it." Caroline admitted. She did it much quicker than Stefan said that she would.

"We haven't talked like this in a long time." I noted. "All three of us haven't talked like this since Dad left."

"I don't want this." Mom declared.

"I'm sorry, but it's something that I can't change." Caroline stated. "Damon's here."

Caroline and I went upstairs and suddenly there was a very awkward conversation between her and Bonnie that I didn't want to witness. I went to go check on what Damon was doing. I noticed that he had Mason chained to a chair. Okay, this was weird.

Taylor's POV

I was currently folding clothes with Matt and Elena. I don't know why I was folding clothes. What was the point of folding these clothes?

"So, why isn't Caroline here?" He asked. "This seems like her thing."

"She's taking care of her mom." I answered. It really wasn't a lie."

"I can't believe that she and Josh broke up." He commented as I was suddenly hit with the awkwardness of Stefan coming over. We weren't supposed to be in the same room. He then looked at his phone and I looked at him. Should I be worried about what he's doing?

Ashley's POV

I watched as Damon heated up a poker from his fireplace. It looked like he was planning to torture Mason. It seemed interesting.

"What's the point to all this?" I asked as Mason cried out in pain.

"I just want to make him feel pain." Damon replied. "Those wooden bullets hurt."

I didn't have a response.

"So how do you know my girl Ronnie?" Damon asked.

Taylor's POV

I ended up following Stefan to an old well. He looked surprised to see me.

"What are you doing here?" He asked me.

"I could ask you the same question." I pointed out.

"Unless Veronica has cameras attached to all of the birds, I think this is a same place." I remarked. "What's in the well?"

"It's a moonstone that has to do with the Curse of the Sun and Moon." Stefan answered before he tore the lock off and opened it. "I'm going in."

He jumped down and I noticed something green was down there. Vervain, the well was filled with vervain. Now I had to find a way to save him. I noticed that some chains that were too heavy for me to lift.

"Taylor." Caroline said as she run over.

"Stefan's down there." I replied as Caroline tried to go down. "No, you can't the well is filled with vervain."

She lifted the chains and we began to plan for our rescue. I hoped I wouldn't screw this up.

Ashley's POV

Mason wasn't talking. I noticed Jeremy had walked in.

"Did she seduce you? Tell you that she loved you? What?" Damon pried.

"What's he doing?" Jeremy asked.

"Trying to get answers to questions only he cares about." I responded.

"Why are you still here?" Damon asked my boyfriend.

"I found a plant in Ric's box of stuff." Jeremy remarked. "He's got some wolfsbane."

"Werewolves are weak against wolfsbane." I replied. "Pretty much every mythology has them weakened by it."

Damon took it and rubbed it against Mason's skin. Note to self, do not get on Damon's bad side.

"Why is Veronica here?" Damon inquired.

"She's here with me." Mason answered. "She said that she wants to get married."

"Mason, I hate to break it to you, but there's one person that Ronnie loves and you're not Stefan." Damon declared. "That slut will only rip your heart out. Allow me to do it first."

Okay, I didn't expect Damon to literally reach into his chest and rip his heart out. Now that was just flat out disgusting. I held Jeremy close.

Taylor's POV

Bonnie had arrived and she and Caroline had set up the chains around me. I hoped this would work. They slowly lowered me into the well.

I first wrapped the chain around Stefan so they could pull him up.

"I want to get you next." Caroline called down.

"I'm getting the moonstone." I replied as I noticed a wooden box. Suddenly something bit me. I felt faint. I think it was a snake. There were a lot of snakes. Caroline pulled me up as I clutched the box. I could barely breathe.

"Snake bit me." I managed to get out. Suddenly I had a mouth full of Caroline's blood. After a few seconds, I began to feel better and looked at Stefan. He was badly burned. I had to feed him some more of my blood.

I went home and found that Jenna was cooking with Elena and Alaric. Anna was watching America's Next Top Model for some reason.

Ashley's POV

I was back downstairs with Caroline and my mom as Caroline recapped her day. I didn't want to tell her about Mason.

"Am I freaking you out?" Caroline asked.

"You've become this person." Mom commented.

"Don't say it." Caroline replied.

"No, it's a good thing. You're strong and not just physically." Mom continued.

"Thank you." Caroline responded.

"You don't have to take my memories away." Mom declared. "I can keep the secret. If you're worried about them, you can say that you compelled me. I don't want to do anything to hurt you."

"It's not just about me." Caroline replied. "It's that you'll never be able to look at them the same way again. Damon was your friend. You're going to think that you were home with the flu and slept for most of the time. You don't know that I'm a vampire, that Stefan's a vampire or that Damon is one. This will take effect as soon as we get back to our house."

Caroline was crying as all the progress she made went away for the greater good.

No POV

Damon and Stefan were rolling up Mason's body as Stefan clutched the stone. Damon grabbed Mason's phone. He texted Carol to make her think that he left.

"Let's see the last number dialed." Damon said.

"Damon, don't provoke her." Stefan chided him, but Damon called anyway.

"Mason, I was wondering when I was gonna hear from you." Veronica declared.

"Sorry wrong guy." Damon replied.

"And why do you have Mason's phone?" Veronica asked in confusion.

"I killed him.' Damon said bluntly.

"What?" Veronica asked in shock.

"I surprised you and I thwarted whatever mater plan you have. I've had a pretty good day." Damon added.

"That's nice but I have a Plan B." Veronica declared. "Tell Stefan I love him."

Veronica then went through her phone.

"So I want you to wait two minutes and then stab yourself in the gut. We need to make sure that you live through this." She told the person. "Oh and I want to speak to Taylor."

Taylor's POV

"It's for you." Jenna replied.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hi Taylor." Veronica responded.

"How did you get this number?" I asked in surprise.

"It's listed online." She answered. Okay that was a stupid question. "So I heard that you and Stefan were having sexy times this morning. I compelled Jenna to keep an eye on you. But that's not the only thing."

Jenna then suddenly put into a knife into herself.

We then went to the emergency room and she was quickly admitted. I don't get it. If Veronica compelled her to kill herself, why not just have slit her own throat? Did she want me to save her?

"I don't understand why you wouldn't let me heal her?" Anna remarked.

"Because Veronica could turn her. This has already happened once." I explained.

"Why would she hurt Jenna?" Jeremy asked me.

"Because I slept with Stefan." I replied. I didn't want to keep anything from them. The tears were beginning to stream down my face. "She wants us to be over for good and we're going to be."

"She won't get away with this." Jeremy told me as he hugged me.

I didn't want to do this in person. I called Stefan. He had already heard about what happened.

"Stefan, I think you should just listen to me." I responded. "Veronica's won. She wants us to break up. So, I'm breaking up with you. As long as she's around, I can't be with you. I'm know I'm a coward for not doing this in person, but it's not worth it."

No POV

"So it wasn't easy to find someone who wasn't on vervain. Normally I'm opposed to killing, but with Mason dead, I need to make an exception." Veronica remarked. "Why don't you tell me what you're gonna do?"

"I've gonna pick a fight with Tyler Lockwood." Matt droned. "And I won't stop until he kills me."

So it looks like Taylor won''t be going to the masquerade with Josh, not that anyone expected her to. Also Ashley connected with her mom and then lost it all. And finally Taylor didn't break up with Stefan in person so there was no goodbye kiss. Please don't forget to review.