Note: I do not own TWD or TVD… just having fun.

Chapter Songs:

The Fray – Look After You

Scene: Maggie and Stefan

Imagine Dragons – Radioactive

Scene: Damon and Kol through end

Chapter Thirty-six

She pushed herself up to a seat slowly and that's when she felt a crinkled and a slight pressure against her hip from her jean pocket. Reaching into it immediately, she found a folded piece of paper with handwriting on the front.

When you need to find me. – Kol

Unfolding the piece of paper, she found an address written with directions to it.

Damon walked out of the police station, feeling anxious behind his pointed glare as he looked around. The meeting had dragged on longer than he would've liked it too. They had first been concerned for their lives, probably envisioning the whole Council being blown up or something like that. Stefan and Elena showed up with him just for added security, not that he was going to point out how ridiculous a bunch of teenage vampires would be against an Original.

With all the extra officers and their guns along with the three vampires, the meeting actually had carried on as planned. There hadn't been any sighting of Kol or anything out of the ordinary. Matt had been shaken up when he contacted Sheriff Forbes this morning, but he insisted that he was fine. It was odd and Damon didn't like odd.

Stefan and Elena left before he did, saying something about going back to the Gilbert house. Damon just absentmindedly acknowledged that as he wanted to get back to the boardinghouse to Maggie.

As he was walking out of the station and towards the car, he glanced around. The Grill was still being repaired. Most of the windows had been blown out and some of the front structure would have to be reconstructed. It shouldn't take too long in a town full of supernatural creatures to help with that.

He looked over at the town square and his eyes lingered a moment on Maggie's picnic table. What alarmed him was to see that someone was lying on top of it. He furrowed his brows as he walked closer and instantly recognized the figure.

Maybe some of that homemade brew was finally starting to make him hallucinate, Damon thought.

Maggie laid on her back with legs slightly curled up against the table and her hands on her stomach as she stared up at the sky. A faint content smile lingered on her lips while she stared aimlessly at the clouds that rolled over head.

Damon approached hesitantly, his mind whirling into frenzy at wondering what he was seeing and how this was possible.

Maggie glanced over at her new company before looking back to the sky. "I've missed this," She declared in a soft tone.

"Lying on a table?" Damon questioned incredulously with his hands in his pockets, standing a few feet from her.

Maggie smirked slightly but shook her head, "No, being able to feel the sun… It probably seems silly. I know it's only been a few days." The idea of having to hide forever in the dark was something that had terrified her since waking up. It was easy to take for granted such little things in life until they're taken away.

Damon stilled and closed his eyes. He took a moment to shake his head slightly as if trying to get rid of the overwhelming sense of déjà vu this conversation was bringing on. He had to remind himself this wasn't a dream and while it was Rose's voice, it wasn't her.

"How are you here?" Damon asked, trying to break himself away from those memories and opening his eyes.

Oblivious to his inner turmoil, Maggie shrugged lightly and just answered honestly, "Oh I drank before I came here." She had stopped at the boardinghouse, feeling thirsty after everything but she didn't want to just stay there. The day was still ahead of her. She drank a bit more than usual before heading downtown where she knew humans would be. That was part of the reason why her hands were on her stomach, the cramps and chills were still coursing through her. Between the nausea and exhaustion, she doubted she would take off from this table after anyone unless they were openly bleeding.

"Good to know," Damon muttered as his eyes narrowed slightly on her, "But not really what I was referring to…"

"Oh, you mean this," Maggie said innocently and held up her right hand, Kol's ring visible on her finger. She didn't tear her eyes away from the clouds. While she didn't show it, she was rather nervous to how Damon would take it.

Damon took his hands out of his pockets and leaned them against the table as he stepped closer to look at her hand. He frowned slightly as he commented, "That doesn't really look like something Bonnie would spell…"

Maggie gave a slight sarcastic snort and shook her head, "Nope. I was never too keen on the idea of asking the girl my ex-boyfriend is shacking up with for a daylight ring."

Damon quirked an eyebrow slightly, when it was put that way it was kind of hard to blame her. His eyes fixated on the ring, wondering how the hell she got it then. He also wondered about her attitude, she seemed more relaxed than he has seen her in days. The slight snarky attitude was there, but it didn't seem to be trying to bury everything else on the surface.

"Scoot over," Damon demanded, nodding at the table. Maggie looked at him bemusedly before shuffling over on the table top to make room for him. It definitely wasn't spacious for two people, but at least being a vampire now comfort wasn't exactly something she had to worry about as much. Maggie looked back up at the sky as Damon laid down on the table next to her, shoulder to shoulder.

His gaze studied the profile of her face closely. He noticed the layer of dust and dirt on her clothing, which faintly smelled of drywall and must. That was something he would have to ask her about later. "Who gave you the ring?" Damon asked in bluntly.

Maggie sighed and looked down to her hand, her fingers running over the cool stone a moment. As much as she preferred to keep her encounters with Kol to herself, she knew this truth would be almost impossible to keep to herself. "Kol," She admitted in barely a whisper.

"Kol…" Damon repeated in deadpan. Maggie turned her head towards him and he stared at her blankly a long moment. She wasn't sure if it was from disbelief or if he was waiting for a punch line or something else.

"Let me get this straight… the homicidal baseball-obsessed Original dropped by the boardinghouse just to give you a daylight ring?" Damon questioned with an edge in his voice, but still mostly perplexed.

"Pretty much," Maggie shrugged, not particularly wanting to get into what they did afterwards.

Damon sat up, turning on his side and leaning against his elbow. "What the…" His lips mouthed and based on his expression it was really easy to fill in the last word going through his mind. His wordless sputtering would have been amusing under different circumstances.

"Why the hell did you accept it?" Damon snapped sharply. He had a hard time believing the Original just gave it out of good will. There had to be some sort of catch to it.

Maggie stiffened on the table, but refused to raise her voice at him. "I don't know if you've noticed, but there aren't exactly daylight rings lying around everywhere," She bit back at him sarcastically.

"But it's Kol! I found the sick freak smiling over your dead body, Maggie," Damon stubbornly exclaimed.

Maggie startled slightly at that piece of information, since she really didn't know much about the state that Damon had found her in. Despite that, she pushed herself up onto her elbows to glare at him harshly and hissing before she realized it, "Probably because he knew I wasn't really dead."

Shock caused his face to deadpan for a second time.

His head jerked back slightly as coherent thought came back to him. "Kol turned you…" Damon mumbled when it came to him. He had his suspicions that it was one of the Originals for a time now, but he couldn't be quite sure how and when their blood had gotten into her system. He was beginning to believe it was Klaus, another one of his sick games like he did with Carol.

Why would he turn her? To spite his brother, maybe, but Damon couldn't be sure and he didn't like that.

Damon ran a hand through his hair anxiously, beginning to shake his head. "I don't like this. He's got to be up to something. You can't trust him, Maggie," Damon warned her and she didn't like his tone.

Maggie glared at him and didn't say anything. He made it sound like she had any choice in all of this. Granted, she did to an extent, but it's not like she planned for it to play out like this. She really didn't like the way that Damon was trying to tell her what to do, like if he had any claim on that to begin with. In some ways, it reminded her of the first fight they got into after the first confrontation with Klaus. Treating her like an object to be possessed were Kol's words that ran through her head and it wasn't lost on her how they had been very similar to the ones she said to Damon that night.

Damon saw that he apparently wasn't getting through to her. "Do I really need to remind you that I spent the majority of the Founder's celebration locked in my trunk because he nailed me upside the head?" He snapped in irritation.

Maggie couldn't bite her tongue any more. She leaned forward, getting right up in Damon's face. "Then by that logic, I shouldn't trust you either," She spoke darkly, the emotions of her first days with him bubbling up to the surface, "You actually attacked me, handcuffed and duct taped me to the passenger seat of said car. Don't tell me what I can and cannot do. I will decide for myself."

Maggie didn't wait to see his reaction. She knew he felt guilty about kidnapping her and it was a low blow, but she didn't care. She wasn't going to stand being talked down to like that. She got up from the table and walked towards the Camaro briskly for what would likely be a long, and rather awkward, drive back to the boardinghouse.

The next three days proved to be as tense as she thought they would be. The effects of her nearly going off the deep end that night still bothered her deeply. She frequently thought of her family and missed them terribly, but she buried it behind her cold and calculated stare around the house. She didn't want any more prodding questions.

It took some adjustment to get back to functioning on a normal schedule. She could see in Damon and Stefan that they were relieved a bit to have her operating during the day and sleeping at night again. Even as a vampire, it threw her body off at first. Stefan never really asked about the ring, so she figured Damon probably told him or he just didn't care enough to get involved with it.

Despite their bickering, Maggie still chose to sleep in Damon's bed. She didn't reach out to him physically, but she took comfort in his presence. It was easier to like him then, when he wasn't looking at her questioningly and trying to figure out what was going through her mind. She knew that he wanted to help her, but she wasn't sure if she could really let him in right now to the dark turmoil within her mind.

The supervision began to back off by the second day a little bit. Maggie took Kol's advice and found a few stainless steel mugs. The first one she shattered the lid by accident and the second crumbled from the force of her grip before she started to gain control over it. She spent a frequent amount of time in the library, reading through the books and hugging a mug to her chest. While her features still vamped out from the blood, the Salvatores seemed to relax a bit that she wasn't completely out of control. In truth, the blood wasn't any more appealing in the cup as the bag. It still made her feel sick afterwards and the frustration of that was beginning to wear down on her.

While the Salvatores didn't keep a constant direct eye on her, she noticed there always seemed to be one around her. That was how Damon ended up tagging along with her when she felt the frustration starting to get to her and she took off towards the abandoned neighborhood that Kol showed her. He hung back and said nothing while she trashed an overturned car. She kicked and punched at the body of the vehicle until her hands began to bleed and the steam within her ran out.

Damon didn't say anything about it later, but she could tell that he didn't quite understand it. In some ways, it was like the county line all over again. At least this time he had the wits to keep his mouth shut, Maggie thought bitterly to herself.

She spent most of her evening hours over at Carol's, which Damon let her go visit on her own now. She was pretty sure he only did so because he didn't want to get his neck snapped again. Maggie enjoyed being able to confide what was going on with Carol. She was the closest thing she had to a mother in a long time. True to her word, they went on a hunt one evening. Maggie tagged along with Carol, but when it came to the kill, she didn't do anything. She let Carol have the deer while she hung back. There were questions in Carol's eyes, but she didn't say anything.

Maggie often spent time running her fingers over the letter that Kol had given her, which she kept hidden either in her pocket or Kol's jacket pocket at the bottom of her duffle bag. She had the directions memorized by this point, but always hesitated on whether or not she should take him up on his offer. It was the third day that made the decision for. She was heading up from the basement with a bag of O negative in her hand. She walked into Damon's bathroom and threw on the shower while she popped open the cap to have a drink before she hopped in.

She was half way through the bag when it dropped from her hands and into the sink. The next thing she knew, she was hunched over the toilet and heaving. The dark blood splattered the white porcelain of the seat, mixed with chunks of black bile. She retched for several minutes while the steam filled up the room before her stomach finally settled.

Late that night, Maggie was lounging on the couch, her legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles with a slightly worn out journal in her hand. She flicked through the pages, her eyes darting over the handwriting. Occasionally, she came across something that would cause her eyebrows to rise. Despite how painful it was to read at times, it probably was one of the more helpful things she's read so far.

The front door opened and Maggie didn't look up to see who it was. Stefan walked into the hallway and glanced into the living room at Maggie. He wore workout clothes as if he had just been out for a run or something.

"Hey, where's Damon?" Stefan asked her casually as he dropped his workout bag.

"He went to help Alaric move some stuff from his apartment and then he's picking up some blood bags from the hospital afterwards," Maggie answered lightly in a bored tone. Apparently between Meredith's apartment and the Gilbert house, Alaric was rarely spending any time at the apartment anyway. Maggie wasn't too keen on going to the hospital so she opted to stay behind.

Stefan nodded absently and then his eyes fixated on the journal in her hands. He took a step forward as he frowned a bit, "Are you reading my journal?"

"Yep," Maggie popped the 'p' a bit as she turned the page. Her eyes flickered slightly as she commented on it, "So much brooding… I haven't seen this level of self-loathing since a Salinger novel." Her lip then curled up slightly in mock disgust, "Must be all that animal blood…"

Stefan gave an aggravated sigh. Based on her expression and the snaky tone, he could tell she was in one of those moods or lack of giving away her actual mood, he should say. Instead of feeding into the insult by reacting, Stefan stepped forward and placed his hands on the back of the couch. "What are you doing?"

"Actually, I was looking for you," Maggie finally looked up with a smirk and snapped the book shut loudly.

Stefan's eyes narrowed slightly and he responded dryly, "Really? You were looking for me in my desk drawer?"

Maggie gave a nonchalant shrug, her expression not diminishing. "I got bored along the way, it's not my fault you have terrible hiding spots," She defended herself as she leant forward to discard the journal on the coffee table. The journal had proven to be quite interesting, not for the emotional drabble, but what has been going on in Mystic Falls before she got there. She also found a fair amount of unsavory details about Damon, which she had to remind herself frequently of who the source was too.

Stefan's eyes rolled up as he took a deep breath. Moments like these were when he thought she could quite literally be the female version of Damon. Minus making a pass at anything that moves at least. Apparently any sense of privacy must have been something she lost in transition, he thought.

His intrigue at the fact she had been looking for him at all was the only thing that kept him standing there.

Maggie's expression softened as she looked at him seriously, "I wanted to talk to you about Lexi." She moved to tuck her legs underneath her, leaving an open seat on the couch.

Stefan hesitated as he thought back to that time in the basement cell. "Alright then…" He gave in gently and moved around the couch to sit down slowly in the seat. He couldn't say he was particularly thrilled at the subject, but if she was going through half of what he did, he could sympathize. And just because he wasn't on the best of terms with Damon currently, he couldn't punish her.

"How did she help you?" Maggie asked curiously.

Stefan looked down a while, thinking about his answer before finding the words. "She showed me a different way of things… She was the one that taught me about animal blood, which wasn't the only thing that brought me back. She was fun and a great friend. She picked me up when I fell apart. She made me see reason when I lost myself," He frowned slightly as he struggled to do proper justice in describing it.

Maggie nodded slightly as her face was pulled together thoughtfully. "Like a moment of clarity in the chaos of everything?" She questioned.

Stefan nodded at her clarification.

Maggie looked away from Stefan and aimlessly to the fireplace. Her minds drifted away for a bit as Stefan stared at her, for once trying not to hide the conflict in her eyes behind a controlled mask.

"Someone that can make all the pain go away, even just for a little while," Maggie whispered out loud, her voice coming out less of a question this time.

The frown fell from Stefan's face as he heard her. Not only did she seem to understand perfectly what he meant, he had the feeling that she wasn't exactly asking about Lexi anymore. "You know someone like that, don't you?" He realized.

Maggie took a deep breath and nodded, "I think so…" It was still early for her to tell for sure, things seemed to be heading that way when she was with him.

Stefan watched the way she fumbled with her hands anxiously in her lap. "I wouldn't describe my brother as a voice of reason… so I'm guessing it's not Damon," Stefan mused out loud.

Maggie shook her head, growing quiet as she wasn't sure how much she wanted to admit to.

"Who is it, Maggie?" Stefan asked gently, leaning slightly closer to her.

"I'm not sure if I should…" Her voice trailed as she wasn't sure if she should admit who it was or even pursue this any further. Maggie refused to look at Stefan and she bit the inside of her cheek.

Stefan leaned forward, resting his forearms against his knees as he looked at her. Sensing her anxiety, he tried to reassure her a bit, "How bad can it be? I can't really throw any stones about who you keep company with, especially considering I was with Klaus during my ripper phases." He couldn't keep the hint of bitterness in his voice.

Maggie's lips pressed together tightly as she looked down at the carpet. She didn't say anything.

"Unless it is that bad…" Stefan muttered when the tension didn't ease in the slightest bit from her shoulders. His voice wasn't accusing, if anything, just understanding as he started to realize why she was so on edge about the subject.

Maybe it was the fact that Stefan knew what she was going through and could possibly be the only person that would understand, but Maggie looked up to him. "It's Kol," She admitted quietly.

Stefan's eyebrows rose instantly. He had been expecting at first to hear a family member, but definitely not an Original. He leaned back against the couch and rubbed a hand against the back of his neck. "Oh, wow…" He muttered not so eloquently, "That would be a close second to Klaus, I'll admit…"

Maggie bit the inside of her cheek again as she stared down at her hands. She doubted that Damon told him some of the finer details of what happened in the town square regarding the daylight ring, which would only make this seem even more of a surprise for Stefan.

Stefan remained quiet and rooted to his seat for a few minutes while he thought about the ramifications of what she was saying.

The silence was excruciating for Maggie as the thoughts that had been plaguing her now came to the surface. She did appreciate the difference in the younger Salvatore brother. Unlike Damon, he didn't immediately start snapping at her and she could see in his expression he was seriously trying to understand.

"I don't think I really need to express my doubts with this," Stefan voiced diplomatically, thinking to the way Damon never made an attempt to hide his opinion on matters and the history they had with the Original.

Maggie nodded numbly, not particularly surprised to hear that. What Stefan said next did surprise her though.

"If you're sure Kol could be that person for you…" Stefan shook his head slightly, as if he didn't quite believe what he was say either. "You can't let that go," He dropped his hands in his lap with a sigh.

Maggie looked up at him sharply in bewilderment and confusion.

"I'm never going to find another Lexi. It's rare to find someone like that," Stefan explained at her stunned silence. "If Kol really can help you…" Stefan's trailed and he didn't really need to finish his sentence for Maggie to understand him. If Kol was the one that could help her, then be damned with what anyone else says about it, she needs it.

Seeing that he gave her quite a bit to think about, Stefan began to rise from his seat. Maggie faintly watched him as the idea that he had given her some sort of blessing or support for this was settling in. Stefan paused before leaving the living room.

"I'm going to take a nice, hot shower," Stefan declared in a pointed tone. Maggie's brows furrowed slightly at him as she stirred from her thoughts. "It's been a long day, between hunting and repairing the Grill. I might be in there a while," He explained in a meaningful voice before disappearing down the hallway.

"Be careful," was the last thing she heard from him before he went up the stairs.

Maggie stared after him oddly a bit before it dawned on her.

He was turning a blind eye and giving her an escape route for a bit. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the note, looking down at the address one more time.

Damon trotted down the steps lightly of Alaric's apartment complex before being hit with a wave of fresh air as he stepped outside. At least it was one of the few apartment complexes near downtown that had power, so he wasn't met with complete darkness. A few flood lights from the building and the occasional street light lit the way to the parking lot where his Camaro sat waiting.

Reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket, he then pulled out a small handle of vodka that he nicked from Alaric when he wasn't looking. Grinning at his success, he popped the cap open and took a gulp before setting the bottle down on the top of his car. He reached into his pocket, looking for his car keys when he heard a voice behind him.

"Salvatore!"

Damon turned around quickly at the British accent to see the dark haired Original striding towards him. He had a broad grin, which Damon really hated, as he carried a baseball bat with him, resting on his shoulder. "Kol," He acknowledged with a sneer.

"How do you fancy a little chat?" Kol challenged in a tone that was really anything but a question as he grinned.

Damon's hands immediately clenched into fists, wanting nothing more than to have a good go at the Original for everything. Kol closed the distance between them so he was just standing a few feet away. His eyes flickered to the baseball bat before remarking sarcastically, "Doesn't really look like you're just to talk."

"I didn't say I was," Kol stated in a blunt, innocent tone.

Gripping the bat tightly, Kol swung it forward towards the younger vampire. At least having the warning of his presence this time, Damon was able to block the blow with his arm. The force was still enough to break his arm in an instant. He reached forward with his other hand and yanked the bat away from Kol's grasp, tossing it aside.

In a blur of motion, the two vampires went at it. Damon threw him down on the pavement first, getting in a few good punches before Kol pushed him off. Grabbing him by his jacket, Kol threw him down heavily against the pavement. With a slam of his foot, he busted one of Damon's knees with a crack and pop.

It slowed him down enough to grab the baseball bat again.

From there Damon lost any advantage, he was struck in the ribs with the aluminum sport equipment. He felt several of them crack from the blow. In less than a blink, he caught another hit in his shoulder and then the leg. Damon groaned and grunted from the pain. He clenched his jaw, refusing to cry out and give Kol that satisfaction. Despite his tenacity, Damon didn't really stand a chance against the speed and strength of the Original.

Damon rolled onto his side before being struck with one last blow to his lower back, temporarily putting him down for a while with the cracking in his spine.

His breathing was labored as he opened and closed his eyes, trying to stay alert. The harsh gravel of the pavement pressed against his cheek before he looked up. Kol crouched down placing his forearms against his knees, setting the bat aside while he smirked down at him.

"Now, I could just bleed the vervain out of you and compel you to do what I want, so consider this a courtesy that I will not repeat," Kol started in a threatening tone. He quite frankly didn't have the patience to be dealing with that route right now.

Damon glared up at him coldly, but didn't say anything at first. He was gasping and trying to deal with the pain.

"You can go to hell if you think I'm going to take orders from you," Damon snarled out in a strained voice.

Kol's eyes narrowed at him and the smirk fell from his face in irritation, "My list of reasons for leaving you alive has been steadily decreasing lately. I don't suggest you push it any further."

Damon tried moving his fingers, which caused him to wince further in pain. He wanted nothing more than to reach up and tear into the arrogant bastard.

Undeterred by his silence, Kol continued on with his demand, "I want you to get Maggie feeding from humans."

Damon's expression started slightly at the mention of her name. He had gone after Kol, wanting to get back for everything that had been done to her, knowing it was partly Kol's fault. He hadn't been expecting Kol to come after him with the same woman in mind.

"I would gladly," Damon muttered sarcastically, having never been shy about feeding from the vein before in the past. "But the Council might have a stake to pick with that one."

Kol flashed a dark smile, which came out more menacing than anything else as he tilted his head slightly. "I'm sorry, you have me confused for someone who gives a damn about what the Council thinks."

Kol dropped the smile to promise him seriously, "Get her drinking from humans or I will."

Damon grimaced slightly from the injuries and the implication in Kol's voice. If it was up to the Original, he knew that blood would be spilt and a lot of it. The bodies would start piling up instead of just the simple feed and erase method.

Unsure if he was getting his message across, Kol then promised harshly, "And I will take her so far away, your eternal memory will no longer be able to recall her face before you ever see her again."

Satisfied with the panicked look in Damon's eyes, Kol moved to stand up with the intentions of leaving him to think about the implications of his threat. They both know that he wasn't to make them lightly.

As he began to turn away, Damon's voice stopped him.

"Why do you even care about her?" Damon gasped out in confusion, struggling to understand the Original's fixation with Maggie in the first place. The Salvatore struggled to push himself up to a sitting positioning with his broken arm. He barely managed to with only the support of the car behind him keeping him up as he slowly started to recover. It would be a while before he would get the feeling back in his legs.

Kol gave out a humorless chuckle before turning around to face Damon again with an amused smirk. "That's precisely it, I don't care about her," He corrected him before stepping closer to Damon.

He crouched down to be at his eye level again and leaned close enough that they were nearly nose to nose. The amusement faded from his face as pent up frustration surfaced in his black eyes as he snarled, "I've spent three centuries trying to hunt down and destroy the Leavey bloodline. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find the doppelganger of someone you've never even seen?"

Damon didn't get much of a chance to react before Kol picked up the bat roughly and rammed it into his stomach by the handle end.

His eyes slammed shut as he hissed through his teeth, tensing up and clutching with his one good hand at the moment barely at the bat. Kol didn't move and his expression remained unchanging as he took in the pain and straining in front of him.

Damon's mind spun a mile a minute, from the torture to Kol's threat and finally to what he just admitted to him. His eyes were wide as he finally opened them again and panted heavily. He struggled to make sense of everything that was happening. Kol claimed not to care, but here he was beating him up for not properly taking care of Maggie essentially. If he really was hunting her family down for three centuries, why were they still alive now when he found them?

"What's stopping you now?" Damon questioned out loud weakly.

Kol's nostrils flared and his jaw set heavily. Without answering him, he reached out with both hands in a blur and snapped Damon Salvatore's neck. The crack echoed in the air and he watched his body drop limply to the side.

He didn't need some adolescent vampire asking him the same question he had already been asking himself lately.

He glared down at the body in disgust, ready to leave before his eye caught Damon's hand. He reached down and roughly pulled the family ring off his finger. "You know what, I think I'll hold onto this a while," Kol sneered down at his unresponsive form before stuffing the ring into his pocket and standing up.

Without a look back, Kol blurred out of a sight.

It took a bit before Maggie heard the water running in the house and even longer for her to run from the boardinghouse. She didn't bother with any cars that would make it easier for Damon to come back and track her later. She just needed enough time to talk to Kol. She followed the directions and that was how she found herself standing in the driveway of the massive Mikaelson mansion.

She felt much smaller and for a while her resolve was shaken. A few lights were on within the oversized home and two black SUVs were parked in the circle. It seemed odd to see a mansion of this size being powered when most of the world did not have it. Then again, who was going to argue with who lived there?

Taking a deep breath, Maggie braced herself. She got this far, so she might as well keep going.

Marching up to the large double doors, Maggie raised a fist and knocked on the wood a couple of times. She stepped back slightly then and fidgeted with her fingers a bit.

"What?" She faintly heard an irritated snap of a female's voice from within the house before the door was yanked wide open.

Standing in the doorway was a tall blonde with long, loosely curled hair and a round baby face. Maggie froze a bit, remembering her from the Founder's celebration. Instantly, she felt undressed in front of the blonde too. Her makeup was flawless and she wore tight skinny jeans with high boots over them along with red strapless top. In truth, it seemed a bit ridiculous to bother dressing that way to Maggie, but she noticed the blonde was several years younger than her and probably held the maturity of it too.

"Oh," Rebekah's irritation died with her surprise at seeing Maggie on their doorstep. "You're that other doppelganger," She commented when she realized who she was and she tilted her head thoughtfully.

Maggie clamped her mouth shut, not entirely sure what to say to that greeting.

Rebekah's eyes narrowed slightly and she folded her arms over her chest. "I thought my brother wanted you dead," She said in a condescending tone with a perplexed look in her eyes. They passed Maggie up and down several times, clearly sizing her up. She didn't look as pretty as the other doppelgangers, Rebekah though to herself, but it also didn't look like she tried very much.

Maggie recovered herself and threw on a fake polite smile while speaking dryly, "And quite dead I am… You must be Bekah." She concluded, faintly recalling Kol mentioning her sister before and this must be the other Original the Salvatores had talked about she hadn't met yet.

"It's Rebekah to you," Rebekah snapped in annoyance, not particularly liking anyone other than her family calling her that nickname. "Why are you here?"

Maggie had to bit her tongue at first to keep herself from openly glaring at the vampire. "I'm here to see Kol," She stated firmly.

Rebekah frowned a bit, which was more of a pout on her face, while she looked at Maggie suspiciously. "He just came in a few minutes ago," She replied.

Maggie didn't bother waiting for an invitation, she was tired of standing on the doorstep. She moved to step past Rebekah and into the house. The blonde scoffed slightly at her audacity, but didn't have the patience for this when she had other places to be. "Where is he?" Maggie asked quietly as she did.

"I don't have time to be his butler, go find him yourself," She snipped at Maggie and the doppelganger barely looked at her as she took in the enormity of the residence.

The front door closed behind Maggie with a slam, causing her to jump slightly. She looked behind her to see the blonde was gone and a moment later there was an engine starting up in the drive way.

With a sigh, she looked back around the house. "Great," She muttered barely to herself. Rebekah was a real gem, she thought bitterly.

At first she thought about just calling out for Kol, knowing he would probably be able to hear her. But then, as she stared around her, this was the first and possibly only chance she could check out what the home of the Original was like.

So curiously, she moved quietly from the foyer and through some of the first floor rooms. She wasn't going to be bold enough to go upstairs to where the bedrooms likely were. The first room she found was a rather wide open ballroom. It just seemed so absurd to be in a modern day home that was large enough to have a ballroom. The next room she found was the living room. No expense had been spared in the detailed woodwork of the home, the furniture, and even the paintings she noticed that hung on the walls.

One in particular that caught her attention was of a village. It seemed to be centuries in the past with the primitive nature of the dwellings surrounded by a thick forest. A massive tree stood at the center of it. Maggie was taken by the beauty of the strokes and details put into every inch of the canvas. The familiarity of the tree drew a smile to Maggie's face without even realizing it.

"That's one of Niklaus' paintings," Kol's voice behind her startled her from her revelry.

When he had sensed her in the house snooping through the rooms, he had been irritated at first. But he stopped when he came into the living room and saw the sense of awe on her face as she admired one of her brother's paintings. The anger from his earlier confrontation disappeared immediately in her presence.

Maggie tore her eyes away from it a moment to look over at Kol. True to Rebekah's word, he was still wearing his jacket and sneakers, as if he had just come into the house. She couldn't help but looking back to the painting, "What is this place?"

"Mystic Falls," Kol answered her, moving closer to stand directly behind her and off to her right shoulder a bit. "When my family was still human," He clarified.

Maggie gave the faintest nod of understanding as her eyes passed over the canvas. She had a hard time the destructive hybrid could produce something so extraordinary. Her eyes fixated on the center. "The tree is beautiful," She murmured softly, enjoying the way it reminded her of her mother's tree back home.

Kol smirked, "It looked even more magnificent burning."

Maggie's eyes widened as she turned around to look at Kol. "Why was it burned?" She asked in surprise.

Kol quirked an eyebrow as she apparently didn't realize what she was staring at. "That's the great White Oak tree," He declared as Maggie looked at him. Zero recognition passed her face at the name and he almost shook his head. Apparently, the Salvatores were still behind on their history lessons. "Wood from that tree is the only thing that can kill an Original," He paused to shrug his shoulders, "So naturally, my family burned it down and every piece of white oak in existence since."

Her worries about her blood reaction and her purpose for being there disappeared immediately as his words echoed in her head. Her stomach knotted at the realization of how deadly this tree she was admiring could be.

The smirk slowly faded from Kol's face as he watched the mixed emotions flash before Maggie's eyes. He didn't know what was going through her mind.

Her breathing started to come a little quicker as a cold sense of dread started to fall over her, her mind churning frantically.

"What you're telling me is… A stake carved from a tree like this one is enough to kill an Original and every vampire attached to their bloodline?" Her voice came out rushed and uncertain. She gestured behind her to the tree.

Kol's eyes narrowed on the way her hand shook, not understanding fully where the alarm was coming from. "Yes, but we burned every last stake," He replied, thinking back to even the ones that had been carved from the Wickery Bridge remains.

"Oh no…" She didn't even finish her sentence as a feeling of horrified panic started to course through her veins. There was no doubting why that tree looked familiar to her, she had spent years in the branches of a similar one as a child.

It clicked in Kol's mind next. "You've seen a tree like this before?" He asked sharply.

Maggie nodded numbly. "It still stands today," She voiced while her mind struggled with what to do with this new revelation.

Before she got a chance to think of anything, she was suddenly thrown against the wall. Her head slammed against the wood roughly and a hand tightened around her throat. The air was choked from her as she gasped, her hands reaching up instinctively to try to free herself.

They were useless against the iron grip of Kol. His eyes were black with a menace she had never seen from before as he leaned close to her face. "Tell me where this tree is now, or so help me I will…" He snarled at her aggressively before his voice trailed. He didn't need to complete the threat for her to get the meaning of it.

She struggled under his grasp and for the first time considered he may actually harm her. She tried not to let her mind go into panic overdrive. "I'll show you," Her voice came out as a hoarse whisper and she squirmed under his intense gaze.

His expression was impassable and cold, considering her words but not relenting.

She tried to plead with her eyes, "We need to burn that tree, Kol." She winced from the way his fingers were crushing her throat.

Her words caused him to pull his head back a bit, narrowing his eyes on her and tilting his head to the side slightly. His fingers loosened just enough on her throat for her to speak a little more clearly. "And just why should I believe you want to burn it and not use it against my family?" He hissed at her.

Maggie swallowed thickly, taking a moment to gather her thoughts, which was exceedingly difficult under the circumstances. "Because you said it yourself, if the Salvatores get that oak… When they figure out their bloodline, they're going after the other three."

Confidence in what she was saying built with each word, she pulled her expression into a firm and determined one underneath him, "I'm tied to your bloodline and Carol is tied to Klaus'. She is my family. I want to make your brother suffer for what he did to me and Carol… But what good is revenge if either of us is too dead to enjoy it?"

Kol didn't flinch from her words and open declaration of her hostility towards his brother. He didn't move as he thought through her words and studied his face closely for any sign of deceit.

Maggie clenched her teeth tightly, shifting uncomfortably against his grip. Her hands remained at his wrist, but she didn't pull at them any further as he thought.

Just when she was beginning to fear that he didn't believe her and would possibly harm for her the location, the hand dropped away from her neck.

He stepped closer to her once their hands fell away between them with an unblinking gaze. "Fine, but if we're doing this… It's on my terms and we're leaving now," He decided, the harshness slipping from his voice but the edge still radiating through him.

Before she could start questioning her resolve, Maggie nodded her head barely and accepted with one word, "Deal."

Author's Note: Who's ready for a Kolie roadtrip?! Things have just gotten way more complicated. I want to hear your thoughts on Stefan's advice to Maggie, Kol's confrontation with Damon, and what do you think of Maggie's decision to go behind Damon's back to help Kol destroy the White Oak tree?

I'd like to give a special shout out to thesummersky for picking up on the clue about the oak tree in chapter 18!

Review responses –

I'm with all my reviewers on grieving the loss of Kol, hopefully these chapter updates can make that pain a little easier!

Poohxnyah: Thank you so much! I agree and I think if they team up together they could be quite the force to be reckoned with.

IrishBeauty: I'm crossing my fingers big time on resurrection and flashbacks!

Nethra: Hahaha, I'm a firm believer in lost causes and I think Elena is one of them. She won't be completely redeemed in this story and I will say she won't get what she wants. ;)