Keeping Secrets
Ch. 16

Katie stood in her bedroom looking at herself in the full length mirror. Her dark red hair was pinned in a sideswiped style, the nicest thing about her look for her date tonight. Tyler had told her to wear something casual. So she simply wore distressed dark wash skinny jeans, red flats and a black long sleeved Henley shirt.

She was applying a thin layer of clear lip gloss when her text chime dinged and she looked at her phone to see a message from Tyler, "Change of plans. Meet me at the Grill."

Katie texted back, "Okay, leaving now." Then tossed her lip gloss in her bag, grabbed her keys and headed out.

When she pulled up to the grill she noticed it looked busy for a Sunday night, but she brushed it off and headed inside to meet Tyler. As soon as she stepped inside everyone yelled "Happy birthday!" as they blew horns, twirled noise makers and popped of party poppers. Katie yelped and jumped back, completely taken off guard causing everyone to laugh.

"Sorry, I got roped in at the last minute." Tyler said with a shrug as he stepped out of the crowd. "I blame them." He said with a point at Bonnie, Caroline and Elena standing a few feet away from them with smiles on their faces.

"Hey, don't blame us." Bonnie laughed and held her hands up in surrender.

"Yeah, we know you hate surprises." Caroline added.

"We were just going to give you your gifts at school tomorrow like we always do." Elena said with a guilty look.

"Then whose idea was it?" Katie asked with a look around.

"That would be me." Damon spoke up as he strutted out of the crowd with a cocky smirk on his face. "I wasn't aware that you hated surprises." he told her as he walked over to her. When Damon got too close for comfort, Tyler wrapped his arm around Katie's waist. Damon looking at Katie, cut his eyes over at Tyler "Give me a minute with the birthday girl?"

Tyler looked at Katie, silently asking her if she wanted to be left alone with him. "I'll just be a minute." she said awkwardly and he kissed her then walked off. When she was out of sight she looked up at Damon.

"Happy birthday." He told her with a smile as he showed her a metal clasp envelop.

"What is that?" she asked as she tried to take it from him, but he jerked it up out of her reach.

"Your birthday present." He told her with a look that told her it was the obvious answer.

"Yeah I realize that, but what's in it?" she asked getting playfully snippy with him.

"It's a surprise that you're going to have to wait till the end of the night for." He told her as he brought it back down to her level. "So I'm going to ask you not to bring your boyfriend home with you tonight, because I want to be with you when you open it." he told her as he held the envelop out to her. She started to take it, but he pulled it back. "Deal?"

"Deal." She told him and he handed her the envelope. "I'll go put it in the car and I promise I won't peak at it."

When she got in from putting the envelop in her car she met up with her friends where they stood at a table with a few gifts on it. "Open them." Caroline told her cheerfully then announced to the room that it was time for gifts.

"I'm going to murder Damon." Katie mumbled under her breath as the people that had brought gifts gathered around, which wasn't a lot of people. Most of the people in the grill, making it so packed were just there for the party atmosphere, not because they knew or cared about Katie.

"This one's from us." Elena told her as she picked up a white, oblong box with a teal bow tied around it.

Katie untied the bow and took the lid off the box revealing a bracelet with three different colored star charms hanging on the chain. "Best friends are like stars. You may not always see them, but they're always there." She read the inscription on the underside of the lid out loud. "Aw, you guys…" she got engulfed in a group hug. "Thank you." she told them as they let go of her then turned back to the gift table as Bonnie walked off to join the onlookers and Elena moved to stand with Stefan and watch her open the rest of her gifts.

Caroline picked up a square brown box with a navy blue bow tied around it. "That's from me." Tyler spoke up and walked over to stand beside her while she opened it. "I was going to give it to you on our date tonight but then this happened." He said with a motion to the room.

"It defiantly smells good." Katie comment as she untied the bow then lifted the flaps of the box the revealing 10 thin bars of soap. She took out the card and read, "Enjoy these little leftovers of our handmade all natural soaps." She smiled at Tyler. "Who told you I like hand made soap?" he pointed to Caroline who just shrugged. She looked back at Tyler and pressed a lingering kiss to his lips. "Thank you."

"One more." Caroline told Katie, as she picked up a thin, rectangle, unwrapped white gift box. "Who's this one from?" Caroline asked looking on the box for any indication of who it was from, but she found nothing. "Okay, well, here's this one." She shrugged and handed the box to Katie.

She popped open the scotch tape that was holding the box closed and took the lid off. White glittery tissue paper covered the gift so she lifted it up revealing a framed picture of Katie, Tyler, Caroline, Matt, Elena, Stefan and Bonnie that had been taken at the Christmas festival. The picture was framed in a thick, silver, metal frame with rhinestones inset into it. "I really wish I knew who this was from." Katie said feeling an overwhelming amount of love for everyone in the picture who were also watching her open her gifts. None of them seemed to give any indication of who it was from. So Katie set the photo back in the box and stacked the other, smaller gift boxes on top of it.

Seeing that she was about to take the gifts to her car to get them out of the way, Damon stepped up and took them from her. "I've got that, you enjoy the party. Pretty sure Caroline's about to shove cake down your throat." He said with a nod at Caroline.

She was bringing out a cake with cobalt blue icing flowers on the corners of it. Caroline lit the candles and everyone in the restaurant started singing happy birthday. Katie blew out the candles setting off another round of horns, noisemakers and party poppers.

While everyone else ate cake Katie and Tyler danced. They took a break to eat dinner with her friends then when the night was over Tyler walked with her to her car, kissed her good night then they went their separate ways. Katie wished that she hadn't told Damon that she wouldn't bring Tyler home with her, she had been looking forward to spending time with him, but she had promised. So she went home alone.

When she walked into her room and set her gifts down on her bed. She was about to open the envelope Damon had given her when she heard a knock on her window. Damon was standing on her roof, outside her window. Katie walked over and opened it. "Since when do you knock?"

"You'll see. Now, invite me in so we can open your gift." he said then smirked at her.

"Okay…" she drawled. "Damon Salvatore will you please get your ass inside my house so that I may open my birthday gift?" she asked with sarcasm dripping from her words.

"Thank you smart ass." He told her as he ducked inside then sat down on her bed. He patted the spot next to him so she sat down. He watched her lift up the metal tabs of the clasp then pull out a stack of papers. "There was a reason I didn't want you to open this at the party." He warned her as she looked at the first piece of paper.

"You got the house put in my name?" she asked with a look from the paper to him.

"Yep." He popped the p at the end of the word. "You are officially legally able to kick your grand father out of your house."

"I think I'll keep him around for a little while. He pays some of the bills that I can't." she told him with a frown.

"Keep going." He motioned to the papers.

As she flipped through copies of news articles from New Orleans and reports from private investigators she started realizing what this was and why Damon hadn't wanted her to look at it at the party. "Oh my god." Katie covered her mouth at the image of her mother's dead body. A wooden stake was sticking out of her chest, her skin blue with protruding veins. As she continued through the paper work she found out that her mothers body had been shipped to the Mystic Falls mortuary where it was incinerated and disposed of. "All it says about my father is that he's still missing and has an empty grave in the Mystic Falls cemetery." She pointed out with a confused look at Damon.

He took the envelope from her and looked inside then pulled out a color photo of her father exiting a brightly lit bar in New Orleans. Damon pointed at the time stamp in the bottom corner. "I took this myself."

"My father's still alive?" she asked with a wide eyes smile.

"Yes and no." he answered glumly making Katie's smile fade and her heart sink.

"He's a vampire." She said more than asked and he nodded. "You obviously got close enough to snap this picture. Did you talk to him?"

"I didn't let him know I knew you." he said with a frown. "I casually mentioned that I hated making myself stay away from my human family." He explained. "I got him drunk enough that he mentioned his daughter, Scarlett."

A tear slipped down her cheek at the memory of her father chasing her down the hall as a little girl, calling her Scarlett as she ran away screaming and giggling. "He always called me his Scarlett."

"Katie he…" Damon started reluctantly as she wiped the tear and put on a strong face, "He made it clear that he would never have anything to do with you. He said you were better off without him. That it wasn't safe for you to have a vampire in your life and he hoped you never learned about us."

Katie's brows creased as she struggled to keep confused, hurt tears from falling. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"I don't know." Damon told her with a pained look.

She stood up, placing her hand over the pendant that hung around her neck as she started pacing the room. "How…how could he just…" she was losing the battle with her tears, taking beep breaths in a futile attempt to calm herself. "How could he leave me here?" she could no longer talk or pace as tears flooded her face and sobs shook her shoulders.

"Hey, hey, hey," Damon stood up and placed his hand on her shoulder, "come here." She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face into the crook of his neck. He threaded his fingers into her hair, cupping the back of her head as he shushed her soothingly. After a few minutes he scooped her up and laid her on her bed. "Be right back." he told her quietly then went to her bathroom and grabbed a soft wash rag and wet it. When he walked back into her room he saw that she had sat up and was leaning against the head board with her knees pulled up. Her arms rested across them. "Didn't mean to make you cry on your birthday." He told her as he handed her the rag and sat down beside her.

"It's my party. I'll cry if I want to." She joked flatly as she took off her glasses and wiped her face. Damon smiled a little and rubbed the small of her back. Katie tilted her head back, resting in against the headboard behind her and draped the rag over her face. When the rag got warm, she took it off of her face and tossed it into the clothes basket across the room. Damon looked down at her as she leaned over resting her head on his shoulder. "It's always felt like there was this huge blank space in my life, not knowing if my parents were alive or lying dead in a ditch somewhere…" As she spoke Damon moved them around so they were lying across the bed. "I used to tell myself that they got dragged into some cult or mafia madness and couldn't come back for me because they had been placed in witness protection." She snuggled into his side placing her hand on the expensive black button up shirt that covered his chest. He slid his slender hand over hers holding it in place. "It's a stupid story I know, but now I don't have to come up with stories. I don't know the whole true one, but I at least know the ending." She tilted her head up to look him in the eyes. "Thank you for filling in some of that blank."

He gave her a small smile as he cupped her cheek in his hand. "You're welcome." When she laid her head back down on his shoulder he kissed the top of her head and wrapped his arms around her. Things fell quiet as they both got lost in thought and the feel of each other. So Katie was confused when Damon said, "It was Stefan by the way."

"What?" she asked with a frown up at him.

"The famed picture. It was from Stefan." He elaborated. "He didn't want to upset his jealous little girlfriend or your boyfriend."

"Huh, never would've guessed it was from him." She said as she sat up, pulled the box out from under the others that sat on the foot of her bed and pulled the photo out.

Damon sat up and looked at it over her shoulder. "Gotta admit, I'm kinda bummed I'm not in that picture." Katie looked at him over her shoulder with a frown. "What?"

I just realized that I don't have a single picture of us." She stated.

"Here." Damon grabbed her phone, pulled up the camera then leaned in and pressed his cheek to hers as he snapped a picture. She laughed as he propped his chin up on her shoulder and took another one. She was turning to kiss him on the cheek and he was about to kiss her on hers when their lips brushed. They both paused and looked into each others eyes for a second. Katie's slipped closed as he closed the few centimeters of space between their lips causing her heart to race.

Without meaning to Damon snapped a picture then the phone slipped from his hand to her bed as he wrapped both of his arms around her waist. All too soon the fog cleared from Katie's mind and she looked away from Damon, breaking the kiss. "Damon I-"

"You love Tyler." He finished for her and she nodded. "I know. I'd have to be blind to not see it."

"I'm sorry." She whispered, her eyes getting misty as she closed them and pressed her forehead to his. "You told me to stop stringing you along and choose. I choose him. I choose normal and simple."

"You're happy. Don't be sorry for that Katie Cat." He whispered then pulled his head back to see her open her eyes and give him a look that asked if he was okay. "I'm not going to go murder anyone if that's what that worried look is about." She just rolled her eyes and gave him another look that told him to be serious. "I know how to admit defeat."

"Who are you trying to fool?" she asked sarcastically.

"Okay so I'm a selfish, sore loser." He admitted and she cracked a small smile. "But I love you. So I'll settle for friends." He said as he tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. Her eyes slipped closed when he brushed his thumb over her cheek bone and she heard the whoosh of him leaving through the window. She opened her eyes to see the curtains blowing in the wind.

She picked up her phone to see the picture of them kissing on the screen. An ache shot through her chest at the sight she had never seen before. Knowing she couldn't keep it on her phone for Tyler to possibly see she emailed it to herself, saved it to her computer then deleted it from her phone.


~Eight Days Later~

She stood in the dressing room of the founder's hall taking the rollers out of her hair while wearing a corset and puffy skirt to fill out the white and green dress that Scarlett O'hara wore to the party at the beginning of Gone with the Wind. After she finished her hair complete with green bows that matched the dress on each side of her head where her hair was pinned up to look like Scarlett's, she put on the dress and headed outside.

As she headed to the float her eyes found Damon and Stefan staring at Elena in her time era dress making Katie realize that they both were probably feeling like they had been jerked back in time. She ignored them and was walking past them when she heard Damon call out in an Irish accent, "Katie Scarlett!" She found herself smiling as she stopped and turned around to see him walking toward her. "You took the theme and your name a little far don't you think?"

"I've always wanted an excuse to wear this dress." She said with a smile down at her outfit.

"The 1800s really suit you." He told her as he walked closer and adjusted one of the green bows making her roll her eyes. "Seriously if you were alive back then every man within a fifty mile radius would've been fighting to be your beau."

"And would you have been one of them?" She asked being coy.

"Absolutely." He told her with a cocky smile.

"Liar." She told him making his smile fall. "You wouldn't have seen me for Katherine standing in the way." She walked around him to Tyler who was walking over to them. "Hey handsome." She told him as she looked him up and down taking in his grey soldier's uniform for the float for the history class. "You know, all ladies love a man in uniform."

"Oh yeah?" He asked as he leaned down and kissed her.

"Are you sure you can't be on the founders court float with me?" She asked with a frown.

"You know I can't. Mr. Saltzman's grading all of us on it." He said with a shake of his head. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. The guy that escorted Caroline for the pageant has agreed to stand up there with me." She sighed.

"Guys, get on your floats." Tyler's mom told them as she walked by.

"Yes ma'am." Katie sighed then kissed Tyler one more time before she headed to the float where Caroline was standing higher than the rest of them. Elena and Stefan stood on the pillar below Caroline while Katie and her substitute escort stood one down from them.


When the parade was over Katie went to the founder's hall and changed into street clothes then met up with Tyler and enjoyed the festival. Eventually when they had their fill of cotton candy they went to the grill and started playing pool.

"You know, one of these days I'm going to beat you." Katie said after she stood up from failing to sink a ball.

Tyler was going to say something back, but he saw Katie make a face and place her hand over her mouth. "Are you okay?" he asked, but she shook her head no and made a run for the bathroom.

Katie barely made it into a stall before her dinner came back up. With a groan she stood up and flushed the toilet. "What the hell was that about?" She thought to herself trying to figure out what was wrong with her. She felt fine until a waitress walked by with a sizzling plate of fajitas and the smell wafted in her face. She loved fajitas. Why would the smell make her sick? "Oh my god." The fact that mother nature was two weeks late hit her like a punch to the gut and she placed her hand over her lower stomach. "Okay, Katie, get it together. Don't freak out, it could be nothing. Having a lot of sex can throw off a period and there is a stomach bug going around."

She was washing her hands, when Caroline came in. "Hey, Tyler sent me in to check on you."

"I'm fine." Katie said, putting on a fake, but believable smile as she turned off the water and grabbed some paper towels. "Pretty sure I just ate too much cotton candy." She lied and tossed the paper towel into the trash as they walked out of the bathroom. Caroline went back to Matt and Katie met Tyler at the pool tables.

"Hey are you okay?" Tyler asked as he slid his hand around her waist.

"Yeah, I just got a little sick to my stomach." She said as she waved him off. "I'm fine now." She gave him a smile and grabbed her pool stick.

Tyler got quiet when he saw his dad walking over. "What are you doing here? I told you to go home." His father asked.

"I decided not to." Tyler told him with a defiant tone.

"If I tell you to do something you do it!" The mayor snapped while grabbing Tyler's arm, hard.

"Get off me." Tyler jerked his arm from his father.

"Mayor, is everything okay?" Caroline asked as she rushed over with Matt not far behind.

The mayor looked at Caroline and Matt then looked at his son. While he wasn't looking at her, Caroline mouthed, "Are you okay?" to Katie who nodded.

"Please, Tyler, I need you to go home. Now. Take you're friends with you." He told Tyler softer and calmer now that he knew he had an audience.

"Why, what's the problem?" Katie asked confused.

"I can't explain." He said as he looked around at the four of them. "But all of you need to get home. Please."

"Yeah, okay." Tyler told him skeptically.

"Here, take my car." Tyler's dad placed his keys in Tyler's hand. "It's out back." Tyler nodded and placed his hand on Katie's back. "Caroline, Matt, go with them." Caroline and Matt nodded and grabbed their things.

They were on their way to Tyler's house with Tyler driving, Caroline in the front passenger seat because she hated sitting in the back of a car and Matt and Katie in the back when Tyler asked, "What the hell is that?"

"What the hell is what?" Katie asked scooting to the middle to see out the front glass, thinking Tyler saw something in the road.

"That noise." Tyler answered then grabbed his head with both hands, groaning in unbearable pain.

"Caroline the wheel!" Matt yelled from beside Katie.

Caroline grabbed the wheel and tried to get control of the increasingly speeding car, but she failed and the car crashed into a brick wall. Katie saw the fleeting image of Caroline's screaming face as she flew past her from the back seat and crashed into the front glass. That was the last image she saw before her world turned black, like someone flipped a light switch.


Tyler and Matt were sitting in the waiting room when Sheriff Forbes came out of the double doors that Katie and Caroline had disappeared through on stretchers.

"What's happening? Is Caroline alright?" Matt asked as he stood up and Tyler followed.

"Um, there was some internal bleeding. They're taking her into surgery." She answered, shaken up.

"What else did they say? Is she going to be okay?" Matt asked.

"They're going to do everything they can." She answered knowing it was hospital slang for it doesn't look too good.

"What about Katie?" Tyler asked and Sheriff Forbes eyes started to get misty. "Please don't tell me she's..." Tyler asked as his eyes watered, but he didn't cry.

"She's...alive. She's suffered a traumatic brain injury and her..." she paused to get her voice under control. "Her neck is broken. If she wakes up there's a chance she'll be paralyzed."

"Oh god..." Tyler sank down into the chair not knowing what else to do.

"Tyler, have you talked to your mom?" Sheriff Forbs asked.

"I left her a message telling her I was here." He answered in shock.

"You need to call her." She told him, hating that he was going to possibly lose his dad and his girlfriend on the same night.

"What is it?" Tyler asked.

"It's your dad." Sheriff Forbs answered sounding like she was going to break down.


"Bonnie." Elena called as she found her friend pacing the hospital hallway. "How are they?"

"Caroline's out of surgery, but she's weak. They don't know if she's going to make it." Bonnie answered. "Katie's unconscious. They won't know anything for sure until she wakes up, but they don't think she will."

Damon, who was watching them, felt an invisible dagger stab into his chest.

"What?" Elena asked as she placed her hand on her stomach and Bonnie pulled her in for a hug. "Isn't there something you could do, like, a...a spell or something?" Elena asked as they let go of each other.

"She doesn't know how." Damon spoke up as he walked over to them. "Do you?"

"No." Bonnie answered. "I don't."

"No you don't." Damon said walking closer. "Because it took Emily years to learn a spell like that."

"Yeah well, I can take down a vampire. That spell was easy to learn." Bonnie bit back.

Damon turned to Elena. "I can give them some blood."

"No, no way." Elena argued.

"Just enough to heal them. They will be safe in the hospital, it will be out of her system in a day... they'll be better, Elena." Damon argued back.

"It's too risky. I can't agree to that." Elena stood her ground.

"I was only asking on the behalf of Caroline. You can't stop me from giving Katie my blood." Damon told her with one of his pissed off smirks.

"Do it." Bonnie spoke up making the two of them look at her like she was crazy given her stance on vampires. "This is Caroline and Katie. Okay? We can't let them die." She looked at Damon. "Do it."

"If I do this for them, you and me call a truce?" Damon asked.

"No, but you'll do it anyway...for Katie." Bonnie told him with a knowing glare.


Damon walked into Katie's ICU room, his eyes landed on her bruised and badly cut up face and body lying motionless in the bed. A ventilator tube was sticking out of her mouth, a machine making her chest raise and fall. "Katie Cat..." he sighed, resting his hand on her forehead brushing her red waves out of her face.

He was biting his wrist when he heard it, a small rapidly beating heart that made him freeze in place. "Oh...no..." he groaned and grabbed the rails of the bed leaning over it, placing his forehead on her stomach, the small heartbeat growing louder. "How could you be so stupid?"

With a pain twisted face he bit his wrist and held it over her face, dripping his blood into her mouth.


Katie woke up in the middle of the night gagging on the tube that was down her throat. Panicking, her heart rate spiked causing the monitor to start beeping, altering the nurse. Tears ran down her cheeks as they put a shot of something in her arm and her world turned black again.

The next time she woke up, she found the tube gone. The only thing attached to her now was the I.V. in her arm. Feeling like she had swallowed shards of glass, she pressed her fingertips to her neck. A passing nurse saw her moving and stopped in her tracks. "Ma'am." She called with raspy words. The nurse walked in. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"Um, let me go get your doctor." the nurse told her with an odd look.

Before Katie knew it a doctor and two nurses came in and started throwing around the words miracle, broken neck and severe brain trauma. "Can someone please tell me what is going on?" She asked getting mad at being talked at and about as if she wasn't there.

The doctor told the nurses to leave then sat down on the stool in the room and rolled over to sit near her head. "We can't figure out how you have healed." He started.

"Healed from what?" She asked as he handed her a Styrofoam cup if ice chips.

"What's the last thing you remember?" He asked for a second time.

"I told you. I was in a car with my friends and the driver thought he saw something in the road so I scooted to the middle of the back seat to see what he was talking about." She explained, agitated with him.

"That car crashed and you went through the windshield." He explained and Katie's jaw slacked. "Just 12 hours ago. You suffered a broken neck and a very traumatic brain injury. You shouldn't even be able to move your head right now."

"You're telling me I'm supposed to be...what, paralyzed?" Katie asked, confused.

"Yes, but you're not and we don't know why or how." He told her with an astonished head shake.

Katie's eyes went wide with realization. The only explanation to her recovery was that Damon or Stefan had given her blood. "What about my friends?"

"The boys in the car with you were fine, but your friend Caroline is experiencing the same miraculous recovery as you." He told her with a confused shake of his head. "For right now were running blood tests."

"So when can I get up and walk around?" She asked already getting tired of being in the bed.

"Just take it easy for now. Okay?" he asked as he patted her arm.

"Okay, where are my personal belongings?" She asked looking around for her things as she realized her necklace was no longer on her neck.

"I'll get a nurse to bring them to you." He told her as he stood up. "Do you have any other questions before I leave?"

"Yes." She told him with a dry mouth and a weight on her chest. "I think I'm pregnant."

"Okay. We'll do a blood test to check." He told her with a nod then left.

A few minutes later a nurse walked in with a white plastic bag that contained her phone, purse and jewelry. She explained that the clothes she had been wearing were disposed of. She was putting her necklace back on when Bonnie walked in with a smile. "Hey." She said as she walked in and gave Katie a hug. "How are you?" She asked as she let her go.

"Apparently my recovery is miraculous." Katie told her with an eye roll and Bonnie gave her a knowing smile. "So who did it?" Katie asked quietly.

"Damon." Bonnie answered as tears pooled in her eyes.

"Aw come on. Don't get mushy on me Bonnie Bennett." Katie told her with a playful warning tone.

"I'm sorry..." Bonnie said as she wiped a tear. "It's just...we almost lost you."

"Well you didn't. I'm fine. Sore, but fine." She said as she put a finger on each side of Bonnie's lips and pushed up the corners. Bonnie smacked her hand away but smiled.

"There's something you need to know." Bonnie said, her smile falling.

"What?" Katie drawled.

"Tyler's dad died." She told her solemnly.

"How?" Katie asked.

Bonnie told her about the Gilbert device that the mayor and John used to incapacitate the vampires in Mystic Falls. She also told her about how she lied about removing the spell from the device and without meaning too caused the death of the mayor and the near death of two of her best friends along with Damon and Stefan. "Are you mad?" Bonnie asked, ashamed of herself.

"No, Bonnie, I'm not mad." Katie told her with a shake of her head. "I know how you feel about vampires, I get it."

"I'm so sorry."

"Bon...it's fine...stop apologizing." Katie told her with a look that said she was going to punch her if didn't stop.

"Okay, okay." Bonnie told her in surrender. "I'm going to go check on Caroline." She told her and gave her another hug. "Call me if you need anything."

A few hours later her doctor knocked on the door then let himself inside. "Well, Miss Finnegan, all of you're blood work came back perfectly normal." He told her as he stopped to stand beside her bed.

"And the pregnancy test?" She asked reluctantly not really wanting to know the answer.

"You are pregnant." His words took her breath away. "We're going to have an ultrasound done to figure out how far along you are and make sure everything is okay. Do you have any questions or concerns?"

Katie could only manage to shake her head no. As soon as the doctor closed the door behind him she broke. Tears flooded her cheeks. She felt like a complete and total idiot. How could she, responsible and on top of her future Katie, screw up so tremendously?

She was staring off into space, quiet tears slipping down her cheeks, when a nurse walked in, pulling an ultrasound machine on wheels behind her. "Hey, I'm here to..." she stopped seeing the tears on Katie's face. "Are you okay?"

"No, but I will be eventually." Katie answered then pulled her hospital gown up, exposing her lower stomach while her waist down was covered by the tan hospital blanket. "Let's just get this over with."

The ultrasound tech. checked her wrist band and asked for her birth date then started the ultrasound. It took a few minutes, but eventually Katie saw a little black circle with a little flickering grey circle floating around in it. "It looks like you're at about three weeks." Katie heard the nurse, but all she could do was stare at the little flicker on the small screen. After watching her take some measurements then wipe the clear gel off of her stomach the tech. turned to her and handed her a print out of the ultrasound. "Is there anything I can get you?" she asked.

"Can you let someone know that I won't be accepting visitors?" she asked and the tech nodded.


That night, Katie was woken up when someone jerked the pillow out from under her head. Her eyes landed on Elena with her pillow in her hands and an odd smile on her face. "Elena what the hell?"

"Nope, try again." She told her with a tone she'd never heard from her friend before.

When she noticed that Elena's vervain necklace was missing puzzle pieces in her brain snapped into place. "Katherine?"

"In the flesh." She told her with a sway of her body. "I have a message for Damon."

"Then tell him yourself." She told her with a glare.

With a whoosh Katherine tossed the pillow aside and grabbed Katie's head in her hands. Katie tried to get her hands off of her but she was no match for Katherine. "Tell him I said, you're welcome." With a twitch of her hands Katie's neck snapped, killing her instantly.