Phoenix Rising
Ch. 26

"Hey." Katie said getting Damon's attention from where he was staring off into space. "Where did you go?" she asked as she turned onto her side, propping her head up with her hand and elbow and rested her hand on his chest.

"I was just thinking about the first time I saw you." he told her as he turned onto his side and tucked his arm under his pillow.

"At the grill, after the bonfire?" Katie asked and Damon shook his head no. Katie tilted her head curiously.

"That was the first time you saw me." He corrected her. "The first time I saw you, you were sitting outside the grill after hours, reading." He told her with a content smirk. "It was during the summer. So I couldn't help but wonder, what is a beautiful girl like her doing reading when she could be out partying with her friends?"

"You did not think that." She laughed and he slid his hand absentmindedly over her bare side.

"I mean I thought you looked a little nerdy because of the glasses and the book, but you were and still are undeniably beautiful." He told her then looked into her eyes.

"You are so full of it." she laughed as he kissed her.

"I am not and you know it." he told her as he started kissing her neck. "I found out after I read your journal that you were sitting out there after work because you were waiting for your grandfather to get too hammered to make it up the stairs."

"Yep, and you saved me from him." she told him as she pushed him to lay on his back then straddled his hips. "Something I will always be thankful for." She leaned down and started kissing his chest. "Now, no more talk of the past." He smiled as she pressed her lips to his.

A laugh left her lips as he rolled her over with vamp speed and started kissing her stomach, knowing it would tickle her. They both laughed when she grabbed his hair and pulled him up to her lips. Her legs, wrapped around his waist kept him in place as she slid one hand to grip his back and the other held the side of his neck.

They were stepping out of the shower when she saw Damon frown. "What's the frown for?" she asked as she towel dried her hair.

"Elijah's here." He answered as he tied the snow white towel around his waist.

Katie listened to them downstairs. "Tonight is the full moon. We should assume that Klaus is prepared to break the curse." She heard Elijah saying.

She headed into his bedroom and grabbed a robe. "I know you don't like this plan, but for right now it's the best we've got." She tied the robe closed.

"No, the best option would be for Bonnie to take him down now." He argued.

"I don't have any blood family, Damon. My friends are the closest thing I've got and I refuse to let any of them die." Katie argued.

"Then one of us should give Elena our blood and let her come back as a vampire. At least then we would know for sure that she would come back." he argued as he went inside his closet.

"Elena doesn't want to be a vampire Damon." Katie pointed out as she walked into the closet with him.

"Has she told you she doesn't want to be a vampire?" he asked as he grabbed a long sleeved button up shirt and took it off the hanger.

"No, but she didn't have to. I know her well enough to know it's not something she would want." She told him and he brushed past her. "So you're back to being mad at me?" she asked as she watched him pull on the shirt.

"I'm not mad at you I'm just…mad in general." He sighed and she walked over to where he was grabbing a pair of jeans out of his dresser.

She didn't know what to say so instead of saying anything she grabbed his face in her hands and looked into his eyes for a moment then kissed him. "I'm gonna go get dressed. I'll see you down stairs?" he hummed a positive answer then kissed her again.

She went to her room and threw her hair up into a messy bun and put on a pair of dark wash jean shorts and a flowy, black, floral print tank top. She finished it off with classic black and white converse then headed down stairs. "The curse has kept his werewolf aspect from manifesting. But if he breaks it…he'll be a true hybrid." Katie heard Elijah saying as she walked into the study and stood at the table that held the tray of decanters and glasses. She was debating on pouring herself a drink when Damon walked up beside her, pulled the stopper out of the bourbon then poured two glasses and handed one to Katie.

Elijah watched her take the glass and sip the amber liquid as Damon wrapped his arm possessive around her waist. He couldn't help but think about how weird it was to see Katie drinking when Hannah refused to touch even a drop of liquor.

"Alright, how do we break this curse?" Stefan asked from where he sat in an armchair.

"Well, the ritual itself is relatively straightforward. The ingredients, so to speak, you already know." Elijah stood up and walked past Damon as he spoke.

"The moonstone." Stefan answered.

"A witch will channel the power of the full moon to release the spell that's bound within the stone." Elijah answered and it only reminded Katie how much she liked to listen to him talk. "After that, Klaus, being both werewolf and vampire, will sacrifice one of each."

"And where do I fit into it?" Elena asked as Elijah walked back over to the armchair he had been sitting in and rested his hand on the back of it.

"The final part of the ritual." He told her as he walked over to the bookshelf behind him and picked up a wooden box. "Klaus must drink the blood of the doppelganger to the point of your death." Damon glared at Elena while Stefan reached over and grabbed Elena's arm and rested his head in his hand. Katie sighed and tapped the table that held the decanter set, nervous about if Elijah's way of saving her would work or not.

"And that's where you come in." Elena said with a sigh up at Elijah.

"This is an elixir that I acquired some 500 years ago for Katerina. It possess mystical properties of resuscitation." He answered as he took an odd shaped glass container out of the box.

"So I'll be dead?" Elena asked.

"And then you won't." Elijah answered.

"That's your plan?" Damon asked with an attitude that was getting on Katie's nerves. "A magical witch potion with no expiration date?" he asked Elijah then turned to Elena. "You want to come back to life, what about John's ring?"

"Those rings only work on humans." Elijah answered. "The doppleganger's a supernatural occurrence. Odds are, the ring wont work."

"I'll take those odds over your elixir." Damon replied then looked at Elena. "What if it doesn't work, Elena?"

"Then I'll just be dead." Elena answered.

Damon looked at Stefan for help, but Stefan just shrugged. So he looked at Katie. "I don't know what to tell you, Damon. I wish I did, but I don't." Damon scoffed and walked out of the room. "You said Klaus needs a werewolf and a vampire." Katie spoke up as she moved around the couch and sat down on the opposite end from Elena. "Do you know if he has a werewolf?"

"Klaus had been waiting to break this curse for over a thousand years. If he doesn't already have a werewolf, my guess is by tonight he will." Elijah answered.

Katie and Elena looked at each other. "You're worried about Tyler." Elena said more than asked, but Katie still nodded.

"I'm gonna go talk to Damon." Stefan sighed as he stood up and walked out.

"Who's Tyler?" Elijah asked curiously.

Elena smiled at her, wondering if Katie was going to give Elijah the whole back story on her and Tyler. Katie rolled her eyes at her then looked at Elijah. "Tyler is my ex and happens to be the only werewolf from Mystic Falls." She answered as she stood up. "He left to figure things out after he triggered his gene. No one has heard from him since, not even his mom."

"If Klaus has him there's nothing we can do." He told her with a sympathetic look.

"I need a drink." Katie sighed and headed out of the room.

"Where are you going the alcohols right here?" Elena asked with a point to the decanters behind the table.

"A real drink." Katie answered as she headed to the basement.

She had just poured the blood bag into a glass when she heard Aunt Jenna yelling. So she whooshed to the sound to see everyone gathered around while Jenna held a crossbow on Alaric. "It's me, I swear, okay?" Alaric pleaded holding his hands in the air. "He let me go, okay? Klaus let me go."

"Prove it." Damon told him standing behind Alaric.

Alaric looked at Jenna. "Okay, uh, first night you and I spent together, Jeremy walk in right when I was about to-"

"Okay!" Jenna cut him off. "It's him."

"Ugh, TMI." Katie whispered.

Elijah, who she was standing behind looked at her over his shoulder. "What's TMI?"

"Too much information." Katie answered then they turned their attention back to Alaric.

"He wanted me to deliver a message." Alaric told them then looked at Elena. "The sacrifice happens tonight."

Katie heaved a heavy sigh and headed to the parlor where she sat down in a high backed chair at the end of the couch, her glass of blood in her hands. Elijah followed behind her as did everyone else but Damon, who went to his room. "Are you okay?" Elijah asked as he stood behind Katie and rested his arm on the high back.

She tilted her head up, looking at him. "I'm fine. Just…nervous I guess." She answered him quietly as Elena, Alaric and Jenna sat down around the room. Stefan remained standing. Katie gave Elijah a small smile before she turned her attention to Stefan.

"So you don't remember anything that happened?" Stefan asked Alaric.

"No. It's like I blacked out and woke up three days later." He answered with a look at Jenna. "Katherine was there."

"She's under compulsion." Stefan replied. "Damon snuck her some vervain, but she can't leave until Klaus tell her she can."

"Which is a good thing in my opinion. Keeps the conniving, backstabbing, bitch away from me." Katie added as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Katie." Stefan sighed with an aggravated look at her. "That's not helping."

"Where is Damon?" Elena asked getting the attention off of Katie and the look that Elijah was giving Katie even though she couldn't see it.

"I saw him go upstairs." Jenna answered so Katie left them.

"So what else did I do?" Alaric asked getting a pointed look from Jenna.

"I think I'm going to sit this conversation out." Katie sighed as she stood up, not wanting to be witness to Jenna and Stefan telling Alaric what all he had done while Klaus had control of him.

Elijah found Katie in the kitchen munching on a bag of dill pickles potato chips. "May I ask you a question?" he asked as he stood on the other side if the bar.

"You just did." Katie told him with a smirk then stuck another chip in her mouth. He smirked back at her and she waved her hand for him to ask.

"Why do you hate Katerina so much?" he asked and Katie's eyes fell to the counter and she stopped chewing. "What did she do to you that was so bad?"

Katie finished the chips in her mouth and started rolling up the opening of the bag of chips. "Right before I turned I was in a car accident along with Tyler, Caroline and Matt. Caroline would have died and I would have either been paralyzed or stuck in a coma, but Damon gave us his blood and saved us."

"And Katherine killed you." he finished for her.

She turned away from him and opened the kitchen cabinet. "She killed me the night after it was confirmed that I was three weeks pregnant with Tyler's child." She stuck the bag of chips inside and turned back to him. "Damon could hear the second heartbeat, and that was before he healed me. So I know that she could hear it before she broke my neck."

Elijah was about so say something when she heard a commotion upstairs in Damon's room and whooshed away. She found Damon staring at Stefan and Elena, who was crying and wiping at blood on her mouth. Katie whooshed over to Damon and grabbed his wrist to see blood smeared on it. "What the hell, Damon!" she asked as she threw his arm to his side.

"I saved her life." He said with rage in his eyes not looking at Katie, but at Elena who was still on the floor coughing and wiping at her mouth.

"I told you she didn't want to be a vampire!" Katie yelled at him.

"She was so bent on dying, at lest this way I know she'll come back and you won't lose anyone." He told her.

"Don't act like you did this for me or for her! You did this for you, because you don't want to lose anyone!" Katie yelled at him then fell to the floor next to Elena.

"How could you of all people take that choice away from her?" Stefan asked leaving Elena since Katie was with her.

"Go ahead wish me an eternity of misery. Believe me you'll get over it." Damon told Stefan making him shove him across the room, breaking the wooden lamp that sat in the corner. Damon grabbed it and pinned Stefan to the wall with the lamp post pressed lengthwise across his neck. "Admit it. You just wish you had the balls to do it yourself."

Stefan shoved Damon and started wailing at his face, punching him over and over until he fell to the floor. Katie knew as soon as Damon's hand landed on the broken lamp post that he was going to stab Stefan. Out of reflex she didn't know she had, she shoved Stefan out of the way. The sharp end of the lamp post went through her side, and came out a few inches above her belly button.

Katie groaned in pain and stared at Damon's wide shocked eyes as she sank to her knees. "Get out of here!" Elena yelled at Damon as she ran to Katie's side.

"What happened?" she heard Elijah's accented voice from the door way and soon his face replaced Elena's in her line of vision.

"What the hell's goin' on?" Alaric asked as he and Jenna came into the room.

"Just get him out of here!" Elena yelled looking at Damon, her hand resting on Katie's back while Elijah wiped Katie's tears.

"Oh my god." Jenna said as she observed the stake sticking out of Katie.

Alaric tried to touch Damon, but he jerked his arm back and stared at Katie where she sat on her knees panting in pain until he was out of the room. "Okay, Jenna, downstairs in the basement are some blood bags. Go get them, now. Go." Jenna ran off.

Elijah grabbed the lamp post in one hand and pulled it out in one smooth motion. Katie screamed out and doubled over. Just as smoothly as he pulled the stake out he picked her up and laid her on the bed. "First time getting stabbed." Elijah asked as he sat down on the bed beside her.

She groaned, already healing slowly, as she pushed herself up to lean against the headboard. "I've been stabbed in the neck with a stake the size of a drum stick, but…" she winced and pressed her hand to her side, "That was child's play compared to this."

Jenna came in with three blood bags and handed them to Elijah. "Are you going to be okay?" she asked with a look at the blood on Katie's ruined shirt.

"Yeah. This should fix me right up." Katie told her as she took the blood bag from Elijah. "Thank you." Jenna nodded and walked back over to Alaric.

"Is there anything else we can do?" Alaric asked from where he and Jenna stood at the foot of the bed.

"Maybe find Damon?" she asked as she wiped the blood from her lips. "Make sure he knows I'm not mad at him for stabbing me. It was my fault, I shouldn't have intervened."

"Okay." Alaric told her with a nod then he and Jenna left her alone with Elijah.

"He stabs you and forces your friend to drink his blood and you're not mad at him?" Elijah asked, watching her suck down the blood bag.

"You know I can't even remember what this stuff tastes like when it's fresh." She said looking at the blood bag. When Elijah didn't say anything back Katie finally looked at him.

"You are avoiding my question." He pointed out and she sighed.

"I said I wasn't mad at him for stabbing me. I'm pissed at him for what he did to Elena." She said then finished off the blood bag.

He popped the stopper out of the second one and handed it to her. "How are you feeling?" he asked and Katie picked up her shirt to see the exit hole was healed.

"Better." She answered and felt of her side to feel that it was healed too. "I hate being what I am sometimes, but I've gotta say…The quick healing part is kind of awesome." She turned to him and winced a little. "Still a touch sore though." She could tell by the look on his face as he opened his mouth that he was going to say something about Damon. "Don't." he closed his mouth and sighed. "Whatever you're about to say about Damon, don't say it."

"Okay. I won't say it." he told her and she gave him a not in thanks. "But I will say that if you insist on being with him would you do me a favor and stay out of his way. Just because you heal fast does not mean you should accept him hurting you."

Katie sighed and slid off of the bed, picking up her empty blood bags from the bed as she did. "If you'll excuse me I need to get cleaned up and change into something that doesn't have a bloody hole in it."

"Hello?" Katie heard Alaric call from downstairs. "Anybody home?"

Katie whooshed down and found him in the study. "Hey."

He jumped not having heard her walk up. "God, don't do that."

"Sorry." She laughed.

"Where is everybody?" he asked as Katie walked over to the decanter and poured herself a glass of bourbon.

"Elijah left when I started feeling better, and Jenna left when I was taking a shower. I don't know where Stefan, Elena or Damon are at." She answered then took a drink then headed to the parlor.

They had just walked past the front door when Stefan walked in. "Hey, there you are." Alaric greeted him.

Stefan looked around. "Where's Damon?"

"I don't know." Katie shrugged.

Stefan whipped out his phone and called Damon. "Bad time, Little Bro."

"What the hell are you doing?" Stefan asked.

"Saving the day. I figured you'd understand." Damon answered. "Just tell Elena to stay put."

"She's already gone, Damon." Stefan told him.

"What?" Damon asked.

"Klaus came. He took her." Stefan answered and Katie started biting her nails.

She heard Damon growl on the other end of the phone. "I'll take care of it."

"Well what the hell does that mean?" Katie asked letting her arms fall to the sides.

"It mean's you need to call Elijah." Stefan told her so she grabbed her phone and called him.

"The sacrifice is completed in stages as the full moon sets." Elijah told them as they got out of the car at the witch massacre house. "First the werewolf is killed, then the vampire then finally the doppelganger. Once Elena dies, the curse will be broken and Klaus with become a hybrid."

"So when do we attack?" Stefan asked from where he walked next to Elijah.

"Elena's death will activate his dormant werewolf side. He'll be vulnerable during the transformation." Elijah answered as they came to a stop outside the house. "That's where Bonnie comes in."

"And you're positive Bonnie will survive this?" Stefan asked and Katie looked at him, hoping he wasn't lying the whole time to get to this point.

"If she can deliver him to the brink of death, I'll finish the job myself." He answered.

Stefan's phone started ringing so he answered it. "Damon."

"You're not gonna like what I'm about to say." She heard Damon tell him.

"Cut to the chase. Is the sacrifice happening or not?" Stefan asked in no mood to beat around the bush.

"It's happening. I tried to stop it, but things got…complicated." Damon answered.

"We're sticking to the original plan. We're meeting Bonnie right now." Stefan told him.

"He's got Jenna, Stefan." Katie's shoulders slumped and faced dropped at his words.

"What?" Stefan asked as she turned and looked at Alaric.

"He got Katherine to lure her out of the house." Damon told him. "He's going to use her as the vampire in the ritual."

"What is it? What's wrong?" Alaric asked and Katie looked at him with wide, sad eyes.

"Klaus has Jenna." She told him. "He's planning on using her as the vampire in the ritual." Alaric ran his hand through his hair with a sigh. "But I'm not going to let that happen."

"What can you do to stop him?" Alaric asked.

"I'm going to offer him me." She answered getting shocked looks from all three of them.

"No, Katie I can't let you do that." Stefan told her as he hung up the phone.

"Nor can I." Elijah told her with a hard look.

"Look, I am the only one who can do this." She told Stefan then looked at Elijah. "If I die as long as you are alive I will come back. Klaus killed me before and he was trying to figure out where he knew me from when he was in Alaric's body. I'm sure he'll accept me in Jenna's place."

"Katie I just found you. I will not lose you now." Elijah stepped in front of her and placed his hand on the side of her neck.

"Elena has lost enough already. I will not let her lose the only guardian she has left. She may not be my family by blood but she's still family." She told him sternly. "I'll come back, just don't get yourself killed."

Elijah wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into him, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Fine."

"Then it's settled. I'm stepping in for Jenna." Katie confirmed with a look around to see that Alaric was gone and Bonnie walked out of the house.

"You're what?" Bonnie asked only having heard the end of the conversation. "Why did he take Jenna?"

"As punishment for meddling." Elijah answered.

"Klaus was going to use Tyler and Caroline." Stefan spoke up. "Damon rescued them."

"Then we need to go. Now. Before Jenna's been sacrificed." Bonnie told them. "I can kill Klaus myself."

"Bonnie we've been through this. We're not letting you die." Katie argued. "It's not going to happen." Katie shrugged at her.

"So you're going to die instead?" Bonnie asked.

"I'll be reincarnated again." Katie argued.

"Yeah in who knows how many years when Elena and I are dead." Bonnie argued.

"Look we can argue about this all night, but I'm taking Jenna's place and that is the end of it. Now can we please get a move on before we run out of time?" Katie asked getting aggravated.

"Yeah. Fine. Whatever." Bonnie told her with a glare then went inside with Elijah to do a locator spell leaving Katie and Stefan alone.

Stefan walked over to her. "You don't have to do this you know." He told her as he bumped her shoulder with his. "Losing you is going to hurt Elena just as much as losing Jenna."

"Yeah, well, I'd rather her lose me than another parent figure." She sighed. "And thanks to Damon she'll probably still be around when I come back." She sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"She's not the only one who will miss you." Stefan told her. "And I'm not just talking about Bonnie and Caroline." She looked across her shoulder at him, wishing he would stop talking. "Or Damon for that matter." She caught on that he was talking about him and he saw the light bulb above her head light up and gave her a sad smile. "I know we haven't been super close since you turned, but…I still consider you a friend."

Katie just gave him a smile and looked out at the moonlight lit trees in thought. "I uh…" she started as she turned toward him. "I never told you thank you for my birthday present."

Stefan smiled and looked down at the ground. "Damon told you, didn't he?" he asked and Katie nodded.

"I liked it, better than my gift from Tyler actually." Katie said with a frown then a smile.

"Yeah, who gets their girlfriend soap for their birthday?" Stefan asked with a laugh. "Was he trying to tell you that you stink?"

They were laughing when Elijah walked out of the house and over to them. "Bonnie did a locator spell. They're at Steven's Quarry." He informed them stopping just a few feet from them.

"Stefan and I will head there first?" Katie asked with a look at the two of them.

"Then you follow with Bonnie when it's time." Stefan confirmed with a nod.

"Just as the moon hit's it's final phase. She's to stay hidden until then." Elijah added. "He can not know that she's alive."

Katie took a deep breath and held it, trying to muster up some courage. "If Klaus doesn't accept Katie, I'll offer him me." Stefan told them with a look at Katie then Elijah then started walking in the direction of the quarry.

"You're very honorable." Elijah told Stefan.

Stefan stopped and walked back over to stand in front of Elijah. "Are you? Because this whole plan is, um… It's contingent upon your honor, Elijah."

"I won't fail you." he told him.

"Klaus is your brother. I know I've wanted to kill my brother a thousand times. I've never been able to." Stefan told him and Katie watched them talk.

"Well, Klaus was not my only brother. I had siblings; parents. I had a family. Over the centuries Klaus hunted them down one by one and he took them from me." Elijah told Stefan then looked at Katie's sympathetic eyes. "He scattered them across the seas where their bodies could not be found." He looked back at Stefan.

"You want revenge." Stefan stated.

Elijah looked at Katie and smirked then looked back at Stefan. "Sometimes there's honor in revenge, Stefan. I won't fail you."

"Please end this." Stefan told him then walked away.

"You should get going." Elijah told her as she walked up to him.

"If I'm going to die tonight, there's something I need to do first." She told him quietly as she grabbed the sides of his neck and stood on her tip toes, catching his lips with hers. He sighed into the kiss and wrapped his arms around her waist. Her hand slid over his jaw line as the kiss broke and she pulled back to look into his brown eyes that looked black in the night lighting. "I'll see you again, my love." She whispered then whooshed away to catch up to Stefan.

Katie stood on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ritual that looked to already be underway given the fact that Jules laid dead in the center of a burned out circle. Elena and Jenna sat in the middle of their own flaming circles. "I don't recall you being on the guest list, Love." Klaus said then looked up at Katie.

"I just want to talk." She told him, keeping her voice strong despite the fact that she was shaking in her boots on the outside.

"Very well then." He said the vamped up to her, grabbed her shoulders, then vamped them back down to the ritual site. "Hello Katie. Or should I call you Hannah?" he asked with a smirk.

"So you remember me?" she asked keeping her face hard.

"Yes, if I remember correctly I ripped your head off with my bare hands." He told her with a smile. "Now, what can I do for you?"

"I came to ask you not to kill Jenna. Let me take her place." She said not losing her strength or tall stature.

"I don't know." He drawled looking like he was thinking about it. "The last time I killed you my brother didn't speak to me for at least a decade."

"Is that really so long in the grand scheme of things?" Katie asked. "Besides I'm in love with Damon."

"That's besides the point." He told her then smiled a devious smile. "Plus I have feeling Damon won't be with us much longer."

"What did you do to him?" Katie asked getting mad as Klaus walked around her. She didn't bother turning to face him.

"I didn't do anything to him," she felt his chest against her back as he leaned in and whispered in her ear, "But I'm sure you'll find out everything you need to know in the morning."

"What?" Katie asked, but before she could turn around to face him he stabbed her in the back with a thick stake then broke it off even with her skin.

"No!" Elena cried as Katie sank to her Knees in pain.

"Don't worry Elena." Klaus told her as he walked around Katie. "I need her alive, but for now…" Klaus turned and grabbed Katie's head in one hand and with a simple flick of his wrist, broke her neck making Katie's world go black.

Katie woke up to the sounds of Klaus screaming and Bonnie chanting. A searing pain shot through her aching back when the stake was removed and she looked up to see Damon walk over to Stefan who was lying next to her and pull a stake from his back as well. "Damon." Katie sighed as she stood on her knees then he helped her stand up. He turned back to his brother.

"I need you to get Elena out of here." Stefan told him.

"What about you?" Damon asked him then looked at Katie.

"I'm not leaving until he's dead." Stefan told him. "Go."

"I'm not leaving either. I'll be okay, just get Elena somewhere safe." Katie told him agreeing with Stefan and he nodded then headed over to Elena.

Katie and Stefan walked over to Bonnie who had stopped torturing Klaus so that Elijah, who walked over to his brother lying on the ground, could finish him off. "Elijah?" Klaus asked.

"Hello, brother." Elijah answered back then slammed his fist into Klaus' chest. Klaus screamed out. "In the name of our family, Niklaus…"

"I didn't bury them at sea!" Klaus pleaded.

Elijah paused, "What?"

"Their bodies are safe." Elijah stared at him. "If you kill me you'll never find them."

"Elijah, don't listen to him." Stefan pleaded.

Elijah look at Stefan, then Katie, then back at his brother. "I can take you to them." Elijah stared at him still. "I give you my word, Brother."

"Do it or I'll take you both out." Bonnie warned him.

"You'll die." Elijah warned her.

"I don't care." Bonnie answered back.

"Elijah, please." Katie pleaded with her words and her eyes.

"I'm sorry." Elijah grabbed Niklaus and whooshed away.

Katie walked into Damon's bedroom and saw him standing in front of his mirror fixing the collar of his dress shirt. "I'm guessing Stefan has already told you that I offered to take Jenna's place?"

"Yeah he did and I gave him a piece of my mind for not stopping you." He answered as he turned to look at her. "What the hell were you thinking?" He asked with furious eyes.

"That unlike Jenna, I would come back." She answered. "If I die I will be reincarnated again. I will come back to you." She told him with wide, pleading eyes.

"No, you would come back to Elijah. Your link is to him. The first person you'd remember after Klaus killing you agan would be Elijah, not me." He pointed out getting in her face. "Not to mention that you are the last of your bloodline and we don't know if you can be reincarnated into someone who isn't related to you." Katie blinked up at him with tears pooling in her eyes. "You didn't stop to think about any of that did you?"

"No." She answered quietly. "I didn't."

"Well you should have." He told her as he unbuttoned the cuff buttons on the sleeve of his dress shirt. "Because I don't think I can go through this without you." Katie gave him a confused look as she watched him roll up his sleeve.

"No." Her voice was unnaturally high pitched as tears started sliding down her cheeks at the sight of his reddened, decaying arm. "No, no, no. Not you." Katie cried and Damon pulled his sleeve back down and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Jules or Tyler?" she asked, her tears soaking into his shirt.

"Tyler. It was just a nip, but…it still counts as a bite I guess." He sighed and she pulled back to look into his eyes. He could see the question she was about to ask. "No. You're not going to go to Elijah about this."

"Why not, Damon? He said there was a cure, maybe I'll have time to get it this time." She argued.

"No, Katie. No one else needs to know about this." Damon argued back.

"So you're just going to let yourself die when we know there is a cure out there?" Katie argued and Damon shushed her.

"Lower your voice." He warned her. "If I promise to help you find the cure after the funeral will you calm down and keep this between you and me fore right now?"

"Fine." She told him then threw herself into his arms. "I refuse to lose you." she told him as she pulled back and grabbed his face in her hands. "You hear me? It's not going to happen."

"I hear you Katie Cat." He sighed then pressed his lips to hers and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Katie stood next to Damon as they walked with the rest of her friends to the Gilbert graves. As she watched Elena put a rose on each of her parents graves and Alaric place a second rose on Jenna's fresh grave, Katie couldn't help but feel like she should be putting a rose on Damon's grave. Damon kissed her temple then walked off into the distance. Stefan followed him and Katie knew he was going to tell Stefan. "Hey," Bonnie said getting her attention, "we're going to head back to Elena's. You coming?"

"No. I uh, I have something I need to do first. I'll be by later though." She told her with a solemn look.

Not knowing where to start looking for Elijah, she simply got in her car and closed her eyes. She knew that if she called to him he would somehow know where she was. So she called to him hoping that she could somehow follow the link. After a few minutes she started to feel him too and eventually she could tell exactly how far away he was and that he was traveling towards mystic falls.

So she cranked her car and headed toward him, feeling the link like an invisible string tied between them. The closer she got to him the more she could tell exactly where he was heading, Alaric's loft.

She ended up beating them there and when she opened the door she found Stefan and Katherine inside. "Katie, what are you doin' here?" Stefan asked as she walked inside.

"I followed my link to Elijah. He should be here any second. What are you doing here?" she asked in confusion. "How's Damon?"

"Bonnie did a séance. She heard the witches say Klaus'." He told her and avoided her second question.

She was about to grill him, but Klaus walked into the open door with Elijah right behind him. "You two just keep popping up don't you?" Klaus asked seeing Katie and Stefan.

"We need your help…for my brother." Stefan told him while Katie was having trouble taking her eyes off of Elijah.

"Well, whatever it is, he's gonna have to wait a tick." Klaus told him. "You see, I have an obligation to my brother that requires my immediate attention." He walked around the three of them.

Elijah walked over to Katie and Stefan. "You understand how important family is or you wouldn't be here. My brother gave me his word that he would reunite me with my own."

None of them saw Klaus whoosh behind Elijah until he said, "and so I shall" then stabbed Elijah in the chest with a dagger.

Both Elijah and Katie screamed out in pain. Katie fell to her knees, the pain so intense she couldn't breathe. "No." Katie gasped looking at Elijah lying on the floor, his skin grey and veiny. Her glaring eyes moved to Klaus who was looking down at her with a smirk. She whooshed at him with savage eyes, but Stefan caught her around her waist, stopping her. "Why spare me if you were just going to dagger him the first chance you got!?" Katie yelled at him, fighting Stefan's grasp on her.

"Because, love, he won't stay dead forever. Besides you're in love with Damon. Remember?" he asked and the veins appeared under her eyes that were turning red.

Stefan whooshed her out of the apartment. "Go home." He told her as he pinned her to the wall with his hands on her shoulders.

"No." Katie practically growled.

"Damon tried to kill himself." He told her and the veins disappeared from under her eyes.

"What?" she asked shocked.

"He's locked in the basement to keep him from hurting himself. He needs you and you need to be with him." Stefan told her as he looked into her eyes to get his words to sink in. "We both know you won't forgive yourself if he dies and you're not there. Go." Katie nodded so Stefan let her go.

Katie was heading to the basement when she ran into Alaric. "Stefan put you on suicide watch too?" Katie asked they headed down the stairs. She had a cool wet rag and a bottle of water while Alaric held a glass and a bottle of bourbon.

"Something like that." Alaric sighed.

"Would you mind doing me a favor and locking me in there with him?" she asked as they came to the cell he was locked in.

"Why so he can stab you again?" he asked and Katie rolled her eyes.

"Can we let that go please?" she asked as she pulled the latch open and stepped inside. Alaric closed the door behind her.

"Katie." Damon groaned. "You went to Elijah, didn't you?"

"Yep, fat lot of good it did. Klaus daggered him." she answered as she kneeled down beside him, lifted up his head and placed the rag on his hot neck.

"Well that looks bad." Alaric commented from the small window in the metal door.

"If feels worse." Damon answered as Katie moved to sit across from him, leaning back against the wall. "My subconscious is haunting me, Ric." Damon looked at the door to see Alaric set down the glass and Damon's daylight ring. "Please tell me you have something for that."

"Double shot." Alaric answered as he poured bourbon in the glass.

"That's good." Damon groaned and stumbled up and over to the door where he put his ring on then grabbed the glass. "So my brother sent you two for suicide watch?"

"He's just trying to help." Alaric answered.

"He's doing what he always does, trying to right the wrongs of the past." Damon said then doubled over in pain and started coughing. "You should want me dead. I'm the reason Jenna got killed."

"Damon you should sit down. Conserve your energy." Katie told him as she stood up and placed her hand on his back.

"I don't blame you for Jenna." Alaric told him then took a drink from the bottle in his hand.

Damon let Katie help him sit on the large rock in the room. "Oh, sure you do. Let's not forget I turned your wife into a vampire. You must really hate me for that one."

"Okay, give me your glass. Neither one of us is drunk enough for this conversation." Rick told him and Katie reached for Damon's glass, but he grabbed it first and walked over to the door.

Damon finished off his glass then grabbed Alaric's neck. "Kill me. Please."

"Damon, let him go!" Katie grabbed his arm and tried to make him let him go, but he wouldn't.

"Screw you." Alaric rasped then stabbed Damon in the arm with a vervain dart.

"No." Damon groaned and let go of Alaric. "Katie."

"I'm right here." She told him as she eased him down to sit on the dirty floor. "He needs blood." Katie told Rick who nodded and headed to the deep freezer.

Katie was brushing Damon's hair back out of his face when she heard Sheriff Forbes voice outside the cell. A male deputy's face appeared at the window of the door. "Sheriff Forbes, over here."

The sheriff's face replaced the deputy's. "Please, don't open that door." Katie begged, but she slid that latch on the door and opened it any way. "Damon's not in his right mind." She told her holding her hands up while she sheriff held a gun on her. "He-" she started as if to keep pleading with her then knocked the gun out of her hand and threw her to the floor. Damon whooshed out of the room as a deputy stabbed Katie in the arm with a vervain dart, but she had built up enough of a tolerance that it didn't bring her down too much. She threw him to the floor and whooshed after Damon.

She managed to follow him to the town square, where she lost him. "Damn it Damon." She sighed as she tucked her hair behind her ear and listened. "No, Damon, no." she heard Elena's voice and whooshed over to them to see him feeding on Elena.

"Damon, stop!" Katie snapped and Damon turned to look at her. Elena's blood on his face as he sank to his knees. Elena fell to her knees next to him, pressing her hand to her neck. "We have to get him home." Katie told her as she wrapped her arms around Damon and pulled him up, but he couldn't stand. So Katie scooped him up bridal style. "Do you have your car?"

"Yeah, it's this way." Elena nodded and jerked her head for her to follow her.

"Did he hurt anyone else?" Katie asked as she laid Damon in the back seat then slid in after him, laying his head in her lap.

"Katie?" Damon asked weakly.

"Yeah, it's me. I'm here. I've got you." Katie told him, brushing her hand over his cheek.

"No, just me. I think he thought I was Katherine." Elena told her as she started the car.

"Elena?" Damon asked looking toward the driver's seat.

"I'm here too, Damon. You're safe." she told him without looking away from the road.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

"It's okay. We're going to get you home." Elena replied with a look back at him.

Katie sat on Damon's bed, her back resting on the headboard with Damon laying on her with his back against her chest and her arms wrapped around him. Elena brought over a cool wet rag and placed it on his sweaty forehead. "Thanks." Katie told her with a smile as she placed her hand over the rag, holding it in place.

"No problem." Elena answered back with a sad smile.

"Elena, get out of here. I could hurt you." Damon told Elena who still stood beside the bed.

"No, you won't." Elena argued.

"Elena he's right." Katie spoke up. "You saw how bad it got with Rose."

"I'm not leaving him." Elena argued.

"I'll give you a few minutes." Katie told her as she slid out from under Damon as gently as she could then laid him back on the pillows. "But seriously, after that you need to get out of here." She gave her a warning look that told her she would forcibly remove her if she had to as she walked out of the room and downstairs.

She heard him coughing and groaning in pain as Elena shushed him and told him it's okay. "It's not okay." Damon argued. "All those years I blamed Stefan. No one forced me to love her." Katie new he was talking about Katherine and she started picking at her cuticles. "It was my own choice. I made the wrong choice. Tell Stefan I'm sorry, okay?"

She heard Elena take in a deep breath. "I will."

Not being able to handle not being with him Katie headed back upstairs. She found Elena lying beside him, one of her arms behind him, holding the rag to his head while the other rested on his chest. "Katie." Damon sighed and motioned her over weakly.

"I'll leave you two alone." Elena told her as she slid from the bed and handed her the rag.

Katie moved around to the right side of the bed and slid over next to him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. "I'm not gonna lie, I just had a flashback of walking in on Katherine trying to seduce you."

"I know, I saw the jealousy in your eyes." he told her quietly. "You don't have to be jealous of her."

Katie pushed herself up on her elbow to look at him. "All my life either Elena or Caroline ended up with what I wanted. As much as I love them, I'll always be jealous of them and maybe even a little paranoid that they will unintentionally take what is already is mine." She placed her hand on his sweaty neck and rubbed it with her thumb. "And I love you more than anything else, so I can't help but be jealous of her. Especially since I know you two are friends. Guys tend to not stay just friends with her for long."

Damon lifted his hand weakly and brushed his thumb over her cheek. "I've made a lot of choices that have gotten me here. I deserve this." Katie's eyes watered and a knot grew in her throat. "I deserve to die."

Katie placed her hand over his on her cheek and shook her head. "No, you don't and you're not going to." Katie cried.

"I do, Katie Cat, and it's okay." He told her wiping at a tear with his thumb. "'Cause if I would have chosen differently I never would have met you." Katie's eyes slipped shut and she took a deep breath, trying not to be a sobbing mess for Damon's sake. "I'm sorry. I've done so many things to hurt you and the people we care about."

"I forgive you. I always do." He smiled sadly and he smiled back.

"I know you love Elijah, but I want to thank you for choosing me." He told her, fighting to keep his eyes open. Not being able to speak she took his hand from her face to kiss the backs of his fingers. "You have no idea how much that means to me." He told her making a tears slip down her cheek. "I love you, Katie Cat, and I'm sorry I never took you out on a real date."

"I love you too, so much." She told him as she leaned down and pressed her lips to his. Tears slipping from her eyes to land on his cheeks. When then kiss broke she pressed her forehead to his. "Who needs a real date when we have epic high-school dances?"

Damon laughed only for it to end in a groan. "Don't let me interrupt." They thought it was Elena, but when Katie looked up from Damon she saw Elena and Katherine standing in the doorway. "It's not like I brought the cure or anything." She walked over to the bed and sat down on it as she took the cork out of the bottle of blood.

"You got free." Damon said weakly.

"Yep. Finally." She answered as she put the bottle to his lips and poured the blood into his mouth.

"And you still came here?" he asked as Katherine cupped his cheek in her hand making Katie see red.

"I owed you one." Katherine answered then patted his cheek and stood up.

"Where's Stefan?" Elena asked as Katherine turned to her.

"Are you sure you care?" Katherine asked.

"Where is he?" Elena asked harshly.

"He's paying for this." She answered holding up the bottle of blood. "He gave himself over to Klaus. I wouldn't expect him anytime soon."

"What do you mean he gave himself over?" Elena asked.

"He just sacrificed everything to save his brother, including you." she told her with her usual snotty tone. "Goodbye Elena." She started to walk away then said, "Oh," and turned back. She looked at Katie then slowly slid her eyes to Elena. "It's okay to love them both. I did." She tossed Elena the bottle then whooshed away.

"What the hell did she mean by that?" Katie asked with a look at Elena.

"She's just messing with your heads." Damon groaned as he sat up, already feeling better. "Ignore her."

"I'm gonna go see if I can get in touch with Stefan." Elena said as she walked out of the room leaving Katie and Damon alone.

"I promise this is the last time I'm going to ask." Katie said as Damon stepped out of the shower. "How do you feel?"

"I feel fine." He told her as he walked over and rested his hands on her shoulders tiredly. "And like I could sleep for a week straight." He added with a small laugh then headed over to the bed and flopped down on it quickly falling asleep. "Katie brushed his wet hair to the side and kissed his forehead then left him to sleep.

A/N: So... how was it?