Phoenix Rising
Ch. 27

Alaric spoke to one of his buddies at Duke University and got Katie into a three week medical internship program for students who want to peruse a career in the medical field. While she was there, away from Mystic Falls and the vampire/werewolf craziness, she started to change. She felt free and more herself than she had in a long time. It only made her more eager and excited to get into college and out of Mystic Falls.

Her third day there they were given a tour of the nearby hospital's neonatal unit and nursery. "Babies who are not held, nuzzled, and hugged enough can stop growing and if the situation lasts long enough, the baby may even die." The instructor who was leading around the group of students told them where they stood in the middle of the room full of clear hospital bassinets and incubators, a few of which held babies. "Baby Smith here is a prime example." She told them as she walked over to a bassinet with a baby inside wrapped up like a burrito in a white hospital blanket. "Her father signed all rights over before she was born and her mother passed away during the birth."

"So she's orphaned." Katie was talking more to herself than the nurse, but she caught the nurse's attention.

"Yes." The instructor answered. "What is your name?"

"Katie." She answered.

"Katie, would you like to hold her?" she asked putting Katie on the spot. "She needs all the love she can get." Katie just nodded and stepped through the group to the hospital bassinet. "Do you know how to hold her?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Katie answered with a smile down at the baby as she gently slid her hand under her head and another under her back. As she picked up the tiny baby and moved her into the crook of her arm, making sure to support her head, it started crying. "Hey, sweetheart, no tears." Katie told the baby softly temporarily forgetting about the other people in the room. "I got you, it's alright." She started gently bouncing the baby, humming a lullaby and the baby's cries quieted.

"You have the magic touch. Baby Smith usually cries the whole time she's being held." The instructor told her with an impressed look. "Does anyone else want to give it a try?" Katie almost didn't want to let the baby go, but she knew she had too.

-That night—

~Dream~

Elijah opened the door of their cabin, letting Fiona, who was cradling a six month old baby in her arms, inside. "He is absolutely perfect." Hannah gushed as she caught sight of the little boy's dark complected face that was surrounded by a soft hand made blanket.

Elijah moved behind her and took a peek at the baby over her shoulder. "Hannah is right, as usual." He told Fiona then looked at Hannah with a look that said he was kidding with her. "May I?" he asked with a motion to the baby.

"Of course." Fiona told him then passed him the baby.

The sight of Elijah, a strong man that some would call a monster, holding something as small and fragile as a baby caused Hannah's heart to skip a beat. Fiona saw the look on her friend's face and nudged her shoulder with hers. "Do you need this?" she asked holding burp cloth out to her.

Hannah blushed and slapped it away. "Oh stop it."

"You know," Fiona started with a look between Elijah and Hannah as she sat down that the dining table, "Julie over at the inn is in bad health and looking for someone to take in her two year old if you two would like to consider it."

"Oh, Fiona, I don't…" Hanna drawled with an unsure look at Elijah.

"We will talk about it." he told Fiona surprising the hell out of Hannah. Elijah's eyes found Hannah's before he looked back down at the baby in his arms and started talking to him in a soft voice that made Hannah smile.

~End of Dream~

The whole time she was gone she dreamed of Elijah.

Katie walked into the boarding house to find that, nothing had changed. That was until she walked into the parlor and saw Damon, covered in soap suds while wrapping a red throw blanket around his hips and Elena stood across from him covering her eyes. "What's going on here?" she asked a little shocked at the scene.

"Elena doesn't know how to knock." Damon answered with a smirk. "I thought she was you."

"He's covered now. You can put your hand down." Katie told Elena who peeked through her fingers then dropped her hand as Damon walked over and kissed Katie on the cheek.

"Sheriff Forbes gave us another location to check." Elena told Damon as she pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket then held it out to him as Katie ducked under his arm and he wrapped it around her shoulders. "Memphis."

"Another dead end, you mean?" he asked as he took it from her.

"You don't know that." Elena told him.

"You're right, Elena. This could be the one." Damon told her. "After almost two months this could be the clue that tells us Stefan's alive and well and living in Graceland."

"Fine. I'll go by myself." Elena took the paper from him and walked around him, but he whooshed in front of her and took the paper.

"And let Klaus know that you're tracking him? He thinks you're dead. Let's keep it that way." He told her as he looked at the paper.

"It's a new lead, Damon." Elena argued. "We haven't had one in a while."

"Okay. I'll check it out. If I find anything, I'll call you." he told her then turned around and walked off leaving Katie alone with Elena.

"So, how was med. camp?" Elena asked with a sigh and an aggravated look on her face.

"Good. I'm going to be a pediatrician." She answered getting a raised brow look from Elena.

"Really?" Elena said as she pulled the ponytail holder out of her hair making it fall around her shoulders.

"Yep." She said with a shrug as she watched Elena gather her hair back up and tie it back up into a ponytail. "Are you excited about your birthday party tonight?"

"I don't even want a party. Caroline is-"

"Being Caroline?" Katie asked with a smile and Elena nodded. "It's happening, so the least you can do is make an appearance and eat a piece of the cake I'm making you."

"Wait, you're making the cake?" Elena asked as Katie headed into the kitchen to get to work.

"Yep, you said no gifts so I'm making you something you can't say no to and it's not technically a gift if everyone enjoys it." she told her as she started looking around the kitchen for cake pans.

"Since when do you cook?" Elena asked as she sat down in one of the barstools.

"If you ask Elijah you might have to run to the store and buy a second one, but that was before these were invented." She told her as she grabbed the chicken shaped timer and set in within arms reach. "So I guess the answer to your question would be since about freshman year, home economics." Katie said as she slammed a cabinet door shut. "How is it possible that there isn't a single cake pan is this big ass kitchen?" she turned around to see Elena looking at her. "What?"

"Do miss him?" she asked making Katie give her a confused shake of her head. "Elijah. That's at least the fiftieth time you've mentioned him this summer."

"I've been at a medical camp half the summer and a lot of medical emergencies happened when we were together. It's just drumming up old memories." She answered truthfully as she tapped her ear and pointed up.

"Have you heard from Bonnie recently?" Elena asked getting the hint that Katie wanted to change the subject.

"I talked to her this morning. She compared her father's family to wet paint that never dries." Katie answered as she pulled her car keys out of her pocket. "I have to go buy cake pans you wanna tag along or…"

"No, Caroline is on her way over with Tyler to decorate." Elena answered so Katie waved over her shoulder and left.

TVDTVDVD

Katie worked on the cake all day and was putting the finishing touches on it when people started showing up for the party. "Are you done with that yet?" Caroline asked as she walked into the kitchen to see Katie still slaving away over the cake.

Katie ignored her and finished writing Elena's name in cursive with black icing. "Done." She stood up and motioned to the cake with the hand that wasn't holding the icing bag. "What do you think?"

Caroline walked around the white three tiered, topsy turvy cake covered with pink and black poke-a-dots glaring at it with her appraising eyes. "A professional could have done it better, but I think Elena will like it."

"Okay, now that I have your seal of approval I'm going to go get dressed. Make sure no one messes with this please." Katie didn't wait to hear what Caroline had to say as she headed up to her room to change.

She was straightening the neckline of her white, spaghetti strap sundress with a scoop neck and a floral print of small red flowers, when Damon walked into her room. "I missed you." he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder.

As Katie turned in his arms a hard box in his pocket brushed her leg. "What's this?" she asked tapping it with her finger.

"Elena's birthday gift." He answered as he stood up straight and pulled a small black box out of his pocket then opened it for her to see Elena's necklace that Stefan had given her laying on a pad of white fluff. "Alaric found it in his apartment. I thought it might make her feel like she still has a piece of Stefan."

"That's sweet of you." Katie thought out loud then walked over to her dresser and grabbed a pair of small silver hoop earrings off of it. "So how was the road trip?"

"Interesting." He told her. "Stefan killed two people, but the interesting part is there was a secret werewolf holding cell under the house." He didn't give her a chance to say anything before he said, "I'll meet you down at the party." as he tucked the box back into his pocket and left the room. Katie couldn't help letting her ears follow Damon up to Stefan's room where Elena had been getting ready. "I got you something." She heard him tell her. "I know I promised not to buy you anything. So don't worry I didn't pay for it."

"You stole it?" Elena asked and Katie rolled her eyes.

"No." Damon told her with a scoff. "I found it."

"My necklace." Elena said quietly. "I thought I'd never see it again."

"Alaric found it in his loft. I figured you'd be happy to get it back." he told her.

"I am happy." Katie could hear the sad, but slightly happy tone in Elena's voice. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Damon told her.

Katie left her bedroom just as she heard them walking by and a little jealousy shot through her when she saw Elena's arm looped through Damon's. He could see it on her face so he held his other arm out to her. She took it, but as soon as they were at the bottom of the stairs she let go and headed to the kitchen to make sure no one had messed with the cake. However when she got in the kitchen she found that it was gone.

Worried she headed to the parlor where she saw Elena and Caroline getting a cup of beer from the keg in the corner. "Caroline!" Katie called getting Caroline's attention so as soon as she could Caroline and Elena headed over to her where she stood on the steps.

"I moved the cake to the laundry room." she told her then offered her a cup of beer.

"Thank god." Katie sighed as she took the cup from her. "Where's Damon?"

"I think I saw him go outside with Alaric." Elena answered.

"Happy birthday by the way." Katie told Elena then looked at Caroline. "I'm gonna go see if Damon wants to dance."

She found Damon and Alaric out back sitting on the brick half wall between the cement and the grass. "How was the internship at Duke?" Alaric asked when he saw her walk up. "Did you decide if med. school was right for you?"

"Yep. You're looking at a future pediatrician." She told him with a proud smile.

"My girl, the future doctor." Damon said as he grabbed her hips and pulled her to stand between his knees as he pulled her in for a kiss.

"Hey, can you keep the p.d.a. to a minimum please?" Ric complained and Katie laughed as she moved to sit beside Damon on the brick wall.

Before she could ask Damon to dance Elena walked out, said "Drink", grabbed the glass of bourbon out of Damon's hand and took a large drink. "Jeremy's smoking again."

"Is his stash any good?" Damon asked getting a slap on the arm from Katie.

"You're an ass." Elena told him with a pissed off look then turned her eyes to Alaric. "Talk to him, please. He looks up to you." she put the glass in Damon's hand spilling it everywhere.

"You're screwed." Damon told Alaric who just shook his head.

Katie nudged Damon with her shoulder to get his attention and he looked over at her. "Wanna dance?"

"Na, I'm good." He told her then refilled his glass with the bottle that was sitting between him and Alaric.

Katie sighed in disappointment. "Okay then. I'm going to go get another beer." She said more to herself than him as she hopped down off the wall and headed inside. She had gotten a refill and was headed to her room to change shoes because the ones she was wearing were impractically high heeled when she saw Caroline leaning on the wall watching Tyler and Slutty Sophie dancing as she drank straight from the bottle. "Would you two just hook up already and get it over with?" Katie asked getting Caroline's attention.

"He's had all summer to do something about us." Caroline told her. "Besides, it's…complicated."

"Okay," Katie started as she walked up the steps to stand beside her and watch people dancing on the dance floor, "weren't you the one that told him you didn't want to go there after he kiss you?" Katie asked getting a look from Caroline across her shoulder. "You are also the one that said and I quote, It's easy. Boy likes girl, girl likes boy. Sex."

Caroline laughed remembering that she told Elena the same thing when she first met Stefan. "That's not exactly one of my best quotes."

"Either way the ball is in your court now. Pick it up and take a shot." Katie told her with a smile and a pat on her shoulder as she headed up to her room. She expected to find some random couple making out on her bed, but instead she found Stefan, sitting at her desk reading her journal. "Stefan?"

He looked up at her with an emotionless face then whooshed over to her and stabbed her in the neck with a vervain dart causing her body to grow weak. It effected her more than it should have considering she ran out of vervain two weeks into her trip and hadn't had a chance to drink any since she got back. She stumbled to her bed and grabbed the post of the footboard, holding herself up. "Hello, Katie."

"Why are you doing this?" She groaned.

"Because I need to send a clear message to my brother." He told her as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"What message?" she asked quietly.

"He and Elena need to let me go." He told her in a matter of fact tone "Just like you need to let him go."

"What?" she asked with a weak frown.

"I thought I heard you kiss Elijah before we went to Klaus." He grabbed her journal and held it up. "I was right. You need to let Damon go. The longer you draw this out the more it's going to hurt him." He told her as he pushed buttons on his phone. Before he could hit the call button Damon walked into the room and Stefan grabbed Katie, holding her back to his chest with his arm wrapped around her chest. "Hello brother."

"Stefan." Damon greeted him worriedly. "What did you do to her?"

"Vervain." He answered as if it was obvious.

"I swear if you hurt her…" Damon threatened.

"Now that I have your attention." Stefan said making Damon look back at him. "I need you to stop following me. It's causing some…problems."

Katie, growing weaker and weaker as the vervain spread through her system, couldn't hold her head up any longer and it fell limply back onto Stefan's shoulder. "With who, Klaus? I'm supposed to care what he thinks?" unlike Katie, Damon could see the stake in Stefan's hand and knew that if he made even one move toward her Stefan would stab her and possibly kill her.

"What you're supposed to do…is let me go." Stefan answered as Katie's eye's slipped shut, slowly losing consciousness.

"I've got a birthday girl downstairs that isn't going to let me do that." Damon answered.

Stefan stabbed her in the side with the thick stake making her wake up and scream. "I said…let me go." He let Katie fall to the floor then whooshed out the window.

Damon pulled the stake out of her side making her scream again before she passed out. Damon sighed and picked her up in his arms. He laid her on her bed and brushed her hair out of her face. He tore a clean page from the notebook on her desk, wrote her a note and left it on her bedside table incase she woke up and he wasn't there. Reluctantly he headed down stairs to make sure Stefan hadn't gotten to Elena.

When Katie woke up she saw the note. "Went to find Elena." She read then tossed the paper to the side as she stood up and walked over to her door. The party was still going on, but as she pulled the door open Damon and Elena's voice's hit her ears and she stopped. "All summer, every single time I came to you with a lead you made me feel like an idiot for having hope." She heard Elena saying.

"You were an idiot. We both were." Damon told her as Katie made her way toward Damon's room.

"Tell me what you know." Elena demanded and Katie could tell just by the tone of her voice that she was really upset with him as she should be.

"I know you need to get back to your party, Elena." He told her dismissively.

"We're supposed to be in this together. Why didn't you tell me you've been tracking Klaus' victims?" Elena told him.

"Because they're not Klaus' victims, Elena, they're Stefan's!" Damon snapped at her.

"What?"

"He's left a trail of body parts up and down the eastern seaboard." Damon told her, his voice agitated.

"No. You're wrong."

"I've seen it happen before. He's flipped the switch, to full-blown ripper!" Damon practically yelled at her and Katie wanted to step in, but she knew Elena needed to hear what he was telling her.

"Stop it Damon."

"No you stop, Elena. Stop looking for him. Stop waiting for him to come home. Just stop!" instead of standing out in the hallway eavesdropping Katie went back to her room to wait for them to get done arguing. "Stefan's gone and he's not coming back. Not in your lifetime."

Katie didn't know where Damon went from there, but he didn't come to her. So she headed down to the party that was almost over and started compelling people with the line, "you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here".

She was picking up the plastic cups and trash that lay around when she heard Damon destroying Stefan's room. Deciding that it would be best if she didn't interrupt she kept cleaning. She was picking up the study when Damon found her. "What are you doin'?"

"Cleaning. This place is disgusting." She shoved a plate with half a piece of cake on it into the black trash bag she held in her hand.

"That's what maids and compulsion are for." He took the trash bag out of her hand and tossed it to the floor. "Come shower with me. You still have blood on your shirt." His hands found her hips and pulled her into him. "How long have you been awake?"

"Since you and Elena started fighting about you keeping secrets from her all summer." She answered as she lifted her eyes to his. "I guess I really could use a shower."

"Are you okay?" Katie's eyes didn't look at his, but at her hand that rested on his chest, knowing their conversations like these usually went better without eye contact. "I heard you in Stefan's room earlier."

"It's been a long time since Stefan and I had been as close as we have been recently. I screwed everything up." He answered.

"You didn't screw everything up." She told him as she trailed her fingers down the center dip of his abs. "It wasn't your fault Tyler bit you. I never thanked you for saving him and Caroline. I know you mainly did it to try to stop the sacrifice, but it still mean's a lot."

"You need to stop…just stop trying to make me feel better about this." Damon snapped at her. "Stefan is gone because of me."

"Stefan may be gone and he may be off the rails, but he is alive." Katie sat up and looked at him with insistent, stubborn eyes. "Had you not done what you did not knowing you would get bit, my friends would be dead. Dead, Damon. It sucks that Elena may never see Stefan again, but one of these day you and I will and well go Lexi 2.0 on his ass as soon as we do."

"Katie, he vervained you and staked you in the side." Damon argued.

"But he didn't kill me. If he was really as gone as he wants us to believe he would have killed me." She argued. "I will help you get him back even if it means I get staked in the side a thousand times over. Hope isn't lost, Damon, not yet."

"Either way I'm done chasing him." Damon's words made Katie breathe in a deep breath then led it out as she nodded.

Katie woke up from another Elijah dream to the smell of burning paper and sat up in bed with a sigh as she saw Damon throwing his research on Klaus and Stefan into the lit fireplace. "Are you sure you want to do that?" Katie said as she grabbed one of his shirts out of his dresser and pulled it over her head. "Maybe you should sleep on it. You might change your mind and decided to not give up on him."

"I have slept on it, Katie. Last night, nothings changed and nothing is going to change. So Let it go." He told her not looking at her.

"Okay." She sighed as she held her hands up in surrender then headed to her room to get dressed.

She was sitting on the couch in the living room reading a book when Damon walked over and sat down next to her. When she didn't look up from her book he started walking his fingers up her hand and over her arm. She smiled but didn't look at him so he grabbed the book out of her hand and tossed it across the room. She laughed as he grabbed her by her shoulders and moved her to straddle his lap. "Are you bored?" she asked as he slid his hands up her sides. He hummed as she started unbuttoning his shirt then grabbed his sides and caught his lips in a kiss.

He had moved her around to lie on the couch when his phone started ringing. He ignored it, but as soon as it was done ringing it started up again. So he pulled it out of his back pocket with an aggravated groan and answered it. "Bad time Ric." Damon told him as Katie started kissing his neck, not paying attention to Alaric. "She what?" Damon's change in tone made her stop and pull back to look at his eyes, wide with worry and aggravation. "Yeah we're headed your way." Damon told him as he got off of Katie and hung up the phone. "Stefan and Klaus are in the Smokey Mountains. Elena talked Alaric into going with her to find Stefan." he told her as he headed to the door.

"Is she insane?" Katie asked as she stood up and rushed after him.

"She has to be because I'm about two seconds away from locking her in a padded cell." He said as he walked over to his car and pulled the door open as Katie opened the passenger door. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going with you." she told him as if it were obvious.

"No. Tonight is a full moon and we will be in werewolf country. It's too dangerous." He told her over the roof of the blue mustang.

"All the more reason for me to come with you." she argued and he took a deep breath and let it out in a huff. "I'm not going to just sit here and not help make sure my friend gets her stupid ass back here in one piece."

"Fine, just…don't do anything stupid." He told her and jerked his head for her to get in the car.

When they found Alaric and Elena halfway up the mountain, Damon, still pissed at Elena pushed her off the ledge she was standing on into the water below. "Damon, Katie, what…? How are you even here?" Elena asked, soaked from head to toe as she stood waist deep in the muddy water.

"Thanks for the tip, brother." Damon told Alaric over his shoulder.

"You sold me out." Elena asked Alaric with her hands held out to the sides over the water.

"You think I'd take you to a mountain range of werewolves on a full moon without backup?" Alaric asked getting a pissed look from Elena.

"Just get out of the water so we can go home." Katie told her with an aggravated tone.

"No." Elena answered making Katie sigh and pinch the bridge of her nose.

"Get out of the water, Elena." Damon told her with more force.

"No. If I get out of the water you're going to make me go home." She stated the obvious as Katie dropped her hand from her face and rolled her eyes.

"Yes, because I'm not an idiot like you." Damon told her as he propped his arm up on the tree beside him.

"Right now, you're both acting like idiots." Alaric spoke up, over their arguing.

"You gave up on him, Damon." Elena told him standing her ground in the water.

"I didn't give up on him, Elena." Damon told her as he walked a little close to the small ledge. "I faced reality. Now get out of the water."

"No!" Elena argued as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"What's your big plan Elena?" Damon asked as he hopped down to her level. "You gonna walk into a campsite full of werewolves," he started walking out into the water, "roast a marshmallow, and wait for Stefan to stop by?"

"My plan is to find him and help him." Elena argued. Seeing as how this was going to take a while Katie walked over to a tree and leaned back against it, content to watch them argue. "This is the closest that we've been to him since he left. I'm not going home."

"Klaus thinks you died when he broke the curse. That makes you safe." Damon told her with a glare. "This?" he asked with his hands held out to the sides. "This is not safe."

"I'm not leaving before we find him." Elena told him.

"It's a full moon tonight, Elena." Damon told her really getting aggravated.

"Then we'll find him before then." Elena told him and as a moment of silence passed Katie realized something. Damon was actually listening to Elena and considering letting her stay. Normally Damon didn't listen to anyone but himself, and on the rare occasion, Katie. "Damon, please." Another moment passed Katie turned her eyes up at Alaric to see if he was noticing the same thing Katie was, that Elena had more power over Damon than they thought. He looked at her then down at Damon and Elena then back at her.

"Ok." Damon caved. "Okay, but we are out of here before the moon is full and we're wolf bait."

"I promise." Elena nodded.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Katie asked, jealous anger bubbling to the surface. "The plan was to bring her home not go on a hike in werewolf territory. I've lived in Irish werewolf territory as a human and I gotta say I'm not liking it any more as a vampire that could die from a single nip."

"If you don't want to be here, go home." Elena snapped at her.

"Unfortunately I'm just as stubborn and stupid as you are, so no. I'm not going home unless you're coming too."

"Not happening." Elena told her stubbornly.

"Then let's stop wasting daylight." Alaric spoke up with a look between the two girls.

They had been walking in silence for an hour when Alaric, who was walking behind Damon and Elena spoke up again. "So you lived in Ireland?" Katie knew he was trying to break the tension and she decided to let him.

"In the 1800's, yeah." She nodded.

"Why didn't you just move out of werewolf territory?" he asked just to keep her talking.

"Because I was a struggling single mother with no where else to go." She answered. "They killed my sister one full moon. Bit my son another, and one would have ripped me to shreds on another. Elijah saved us both." She saw Damon look back at her at the mention of Elijah. "Before Elijah showed up I wasn't even aware werewolves were a thing. I just thought there was an over population of wolves."

"How you doin?" Damon asked Elena when he noticed she was getting winded.

"Fine." She told him aggravatedly.

"You know I can help you." he told her.

"No thanks." She replied as they climbed a small hill.

"Just one little whoosh." He told her as he moved his arms out in front of him like superman.

"Yeah, with my luck, you'd drop me." Elena said with a groan as she took a large step up.

Alaric looked at Katie who was still walking beside him. "You're not whooshing me."

Katie laughed with a shake of her head at the thought of how awkward it would be to have to grab him and whoosh him that far. She loved him as a teacher and friend of friends, but it would have to be an emergency for that to happen.

They had been walking for what felt like forever when Alaric said, "We've got about a mile left."

"And the sun isn't far from setting." Katie told them getting antsy.

"I can see that, Katie." Elena told her with an attitude. "The moon doesn't reach it's apex for a while. We have time."

Damon's walking slowed, sensing someone else around them so Katie opened her ears and heard someone's shambled footsteps and beating heart. She was about to say something when a guy in jeans and a red flannel shirt over a grey t-shirt stepped out of the woods. He had blood on his face, dripping from his eyes and down his throat and his t-shirt. When he saw them he looked up and said, "Vampire".

In a flash he grabbed Damon, spun him around and pinned him to a nearby tree. Damon was keeping him from biting him with his hand on his throat. In a flash Katie grabbed the werewolf guy around his waist and slammed him on the ground. She pinned him down with her body and placed her converse clad foot under his chin to keep him from biting her. "Someone wanna help me out here?" Katie asked, surprised that the werewolf seemed to be on the verge of overpowering her when most werewolves couldn't take a vampire out of wolf form.

Alaric grabbed a wolfsbane dart out of his backpack and stuck the guy in the neck with it, weakening him enough that Katie could stand up, but she kept her foot on the guys neck as Damon and Alaric started tying him up. "Let me guess. Hybrid." Alaric said getting a look from all three of them. She only moved her foot when Damon tapped her ankle then picked the guy up from the ground. After using everything they had the guy was tied to a tree, but still managing to fight. Nothing seemed to be holding him down for long. "Alright, that's the last of the vervain." Rick said as he tided vervain soaked ropes around the guy. "We don't have enough stuff to hold him. I don't think we're gonna make that ridge before the full moon."

"If we can get him to talk we don't have to." Elena was reaching her hand out to the hybrid guy when he took in a deep breath, lifted his head and screamed out as his neck started twitching, the sickening sound of breaking bones filled the air around him.

"Is he turning?" Damon asked with a frown as he looked up at the setting sun.

"It's impossible. It's still daylight." Elena said as she too turned her eyes up to the sky.

"Tell him that." Alaric popped off.

"There aren't supposed to be werewolves out here until the moon is full." Elena said freaking out as Damon placed his hands on the hybrid's shoulders keeping him pinned to the tree.

"Those ropes and us are nothing to a wolf, much less a hybrid with wolf and vampire strength." Katie told Elena and Alaric as the hybrid leaned forward trying to bite Damon.

"We've got to get out of here." Elena said and Katie breathed a small sigh of relief that Elena was starting to see the light on this whole adventure of hers. "Damon, we've gotta get out of these mountains, now!" she shoved Damon and he took his hands off of the hybrid as they all made a run for it.

Katie wished with everything in her that she could just whoosh away to safety and a dark part of her thought about it, but she couldn't leave Elena and Alaric behind. So she stuck with the group. The sun had completely set when Elena tripped over a tree root and they all stopped and turned to look at her to see a wolf staring her down where she sat on the ground.

Katie's eyes looked at the wolf, then Damon who knew what she was thinking just by looking at her eyes. Damon mouthed the word no at her. She was about to whistle at the wolf to get it's attention before she ran when Damon said, "Here doggie, doggie." and zipped away with the wolf on his trail.

"Son of a bitch, Damon." Katie cursed him as Elena stood up.

"Come on. Let's keep moving." Alaric waved his hand for them to follow him.

"We can't leave Damon." Elena argued.

"He can handle himself. Let's move." Alaric argued.

Elena looked at Katie. "Go after him."

"I can't Elena. So let's go before I throw you over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes and carry you down kicking and screaming." Katie told her as she put her hand on Elena's back and gave her a small push to get moving.

"I'm the reason he's out here, Katie." Elena argued.

"I'm the reason he's out here." Alaric snapped at them. "I told them where we were and I'm telling you to keep moving!" Elena hesitated, but started walking down the mountain.

Katie was leaning against Alaric's car waiting for Damon, seriously considering going to find him when he came out of the woods and she whooshed over to him. "Are you okay, were you bit?" she asked getting an aggravated look from him.

"I'm fine, Katie Cat." He sighed as they started walking toward Alaric and Elena who were getting out of the car as they neared them.

"Damon, are you okay? Did you-" Elena asked as she rushed over to him.

"I'm fine, bite free. Get back in the car, please." Damon told her as he put his hand on her chest and pushed her back.

"Can you just give me a minute to appreciate that you're not dead?" she asked.

"I'll give you ten seconds, 9, 8..." he grabbed her by her shoulders and turned her around. "Hey Ric, did you happen to see where I parked my car?" he pushed her toward her car.

"Damon, stop being such a caveman." Elena complained as he opened her door and pushed her into the car then shut it behind her.

"What happened out there?" Katie asked as they headed into the boarding house, Katie walking behind Damon. "You haven't said a word since we got in the car." He turned and looked at her with wide pissed off eyes. "You're mad at me. Why am I not surprised?"

"Probably because you know I'm pissed at you for even thinking about letting that wolf chase you. Do you have some sort of death wish?" he asked as he walked closer and closer to her. "If you keep putting yourself in harms way you're going to end up dead and you know it."

"What I know," she started as she took a step back, "is that my best friend, my family, was in danger and I will die before I let my family die knowing there was something I could have done to prevent it! If you call that a death wish then fine. I have a death wish!" Damon just stared at her.

"No. I refuse to let you get yourself killed just because you think you will come back in god knows how many years." He told her with rage in his eyes.

Katie took a deep breath and held it as she placed her hands on her hips and looked down at the ornate rug that covered the floor. Those three words, I refuse to. They started ninety percent of the sentences that her grandfather had ever said to her and in that moment, in the tone of voice Damon was using with her, she got jerked back in time and heard her grandfather's voice in her head. Then once again heard her first father's voice telling her 'you will do this' or 'you will not do that'. "Damon," she let the breath out and looked up at him, "I have been told all my life, in both of my lives, what I can and can't, will and will not do. Please don't be another one of those people who refuse to let me do something. What I do with my life, my choices, are mine to make."

Damon didn't say a word as he walked to the front door, opened it, walked out and slammed it behind him causing Katie to jump and the pictures on the wall to shake. With a heavy sigh she drug herself upstairs to her room and took a shower. When she was done she threw on some cheer shorts and a tank top then sat down at her desk and let her hair fall around her shoulders in lose wet ringlets. She grabbed a pen and opened her journal to a fresh page.

"I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I love Damon, I do, but when he says things to me like he did tonight it makes me wonder if why I put up with it. When we first got together it was just for the fun of it. Then I saw how good of a person he could be and I fell for him. Even though I knew we wouldn't last…I fell. He's fun to be with, but here lately it feels more like we spend more time fighting to have a relationship than we do actually having one. When we're not fighting about Katherine or Elijah we're finding something else to argue about. I've never actually seen a functioning relationship, but I'm pretty damn sure this is not what one is supposed to be like."She lifted the pen from the paper, debating on if she even wanted to write down what she was thinking and feeling. If she wrote it down, she'd have to accept it and it would become all too real. But she forced herself to put pen back to paper. "I've been dreaming about Elijah. I know it's no longer the spell making me have the dreams. It's me. It's my subconscious pushing me to be with him. To follow my heart and stop pushing back everything I feel for him. I love Damon. He was been with me trough everything and we've been through so much, but it feels like we are slipping apart and I don't know what to do." Getting aggravated she threw the pen on the desk and slammed the journal shut.

She thought she heard something she followed the sound to Damon's room where he was getting out of the shower. "What?" Damon asked as he wrapped the towel around him.

"Where'd you go?" she asked timidly.

"I needed some fresh air."

"You know I can tell when you're lying to me right?" she asked as she leaned on the door frame.

"I went to Elena's okay?" he told her then turned to his dresser and pulled the drawer open.

"Why didn't you just tell me that in the first place?"

"Because I know how jealous of her you can be." He told her in a choppy tone without making eye contact.

Katie bit her lips closed and nodded. "Okay. Goodnight I guess." She went to her room, flipped off the light switch, slid into bed and closed her eyes. The image of Damon on his death bed filled her mind as his words echoed through her head, "Thank you for choosing me. You have no idea how much that means to me." Feeling the stabbing pain of her heart breaking she rolled over and pressed her face into her pillow then covered her head with the second one she never used and sandwiched her head between then as she let the tears flow.

On any other night, Damon would have come to her in the middle of the night, claiming that he couldn't sleep without her, but tonight…he didn't.

A/N: I want to thank everyone for their reviews and p.m.'s. I was surprised at the amount of people that voiced their opinions. Thank you to all of you. I was torn on what to do for a good while, but my husband pointed out that I'm not going to be able to please everyone. So since it's pretty obvious which way Katie is leaning and what's happening with Damon and Elena, to those of you who said they'd stop reading if Katie ended up with Elijah, I guess this or the next chapter is where I bid you farewell. It's been nice having you and I'm sorry if I disappointed you.