Stone Free

On the ferry ride to Nova Scotia, Elena braces into the wind and imagines her winter ride with Klaus. The wind is different now, warm instead of bitingly cold. She misses his arms around her and his earnest desire to convince her out of the sacrifice. She'd give anything to have that fight they had that day over children. She'd go through it all again if it meant talking to him. Ask him more questions about what he thought about being a dad if he could. Ironic now that she was pregnant with their child on a boat without him.

"You're deep in thought." Stefan leans against the railings, mirroring her posture. "Care to share?"

"What do you think?" She opens her eyes, letting the image of Klaus walking down that tiny, snowy village with her hand and hand fade back into her memory.

"Baby daddy issues?"

"Ew, Stefan. Please. Leave the jokes to Damon. You're not that great at them."

"A sad attempt to break the ice." He sighs, heavy. "He will come back, you know? Klaus is a lot of things, but family is important to him above everything. If there's even a chance that baby is his, he'll come back."

"It is, Stefan. I'm certain." He nods and she backs off. "You remember him? What was he like?"

"That is a loaded question, Elena. I was at the peak of my blood craze in those days. Full on ripper. So, it isn't exactly a ringing endorsement when I say that he was my friend. He was fun and we enjoyed spending time together. He saw me as a brother and I guess I did too."

"And Rebekah?"

"Everything she is now. Charming. Beautiful. Dangerous. Hold on. Did she put you up to this?"

"You started this conversation, Stefan, not me. She didn't and I am not trying to get involved. I like you and Caroline together. I'm just trying to hear some old stories now that you remember them. You know a piece of them I don't. I'm curious."

"It's weird, Elena. I have all this memories now and it feels like it was yesterday. My time with Rebekah and Klaus is so fresh in my head. And she won't stop trying to corner me to talk. Closure or trying to get back together. I'm not sure." She gives him a knowing smile. "This was me, wasn't it? This is what it was like for you? Elena, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, Stefan. I didn't blame you. Letting go can be difficult. I would just ask that you be as kind to Rebekah as you can without it causing issues with you and Care."

"How do I manage that?"

"Stop avoiding her and just listen to what she has to say. Really listen, Stefan. Don't just wait for your turn to talk. Tell her what you felt back then, but be firm with how you feel now. Tell her what Caroline means to you and that you are sorry about what happened, but it doesn't change anything. Tell her that she's wonderful and that she will find love again."

"Not bad advice. Thanks for talking to me."

"Anytime," she gives a comically soft punch to his shoulder.

"This is nice, being able to talk to you like we are friends. Someone who knows me."

"Well, we are friends." In the years since she had left Mystic Falls, it was as if they had both unconsciously put their lives on hold. Like cicadas who forgot to count the years and hibernated too long until Klaus came along and brought her back to life, seeing her so alive had inspired Stefan to move on as well. Only when they had both broken out of stasis could they begin to settle into this new friendship built on an old, reliable foundation.

When they land on Nova Scotia they rent two boats, ever aware of keeping the Hunters and the vampires separate from each other as long as possible. Damon and Bonnie stay at the back of the boat and Elena notices how tense Bonnie's tight hand gestures are as well as the troubling way Damon's jaw clenches.

Kol distracts her in the only way he knows how and she laughs him off, pushing aside her concern for Bonnie. It doesn't quite feel like they are on a dangerous mission, more like an exciting family trip. Finn is happy at the helm of this boat, even if it took him a few troubling minutes to get the hang of it. It makes her wonder what a real vacation with the family would be like.

They make quick time to the island and everyone pitches in to varying degrees to set up camp. Elena and Rebekah lounge on beach towels in the sun while the rest gear up to venture into the center of the island. Elena keeps leaning up on her elbows to see if her stomach looks any different than normal.

"It's not as if it will magically grow just because you will it so," Rebekah chides her.

"Well, it does look bigger than it used to," she replies as she reaches out to touch her rounding stomach.

Elijah circles the encampment, unearthing excuse after excuse to stick around and delay the expedition. He's fixing a stake holding a tent in the ground when he hears Kol chuckle behind him. "I know why I'm hesitant to venture forth, care to explain why you are stalling?"

"Merely making sure the camp is set up adequately while we leave our sister and Elena to their own devices."

"Wish to trade places with our sister? Spend the night alone with Elena? Mend her broken heart with your miniscule charms? Moving at snails' pace on our brother's girl? The dishonor. The shock!"

Elena looks back to Kol, doubled over in laughter at a stern Elijah. "What are they talking about?"

"Huh? Oh, I wasn't paying attention," Rebekah dismisses the question and launches back into her complaints about Caroline.

The group departs with Bonnie and Jeremy in the lead trailed closely by the rest of the Brotherhood and at a distance the vampires. She squeezes Jeremy tightly when they say goodbye and he jokes about how the baby must be making her stronger.

"Take care of yourself, Jer."

"You too. Try not to burn out here okay?"

She smiles and watches him walk into the forest, grabbing Elijah's hands when he passes by. "Watch out for my brother. Please? I know everything will be fine, but still."

"I will make sure no harm comes to him, Elena." She leans up, kissing him on the cheek and whispering a thank you before she joins Rebekah back on the beach.

"She'll keep walking away and you'll keep letting her." Kol's hand is at his back and Elijah turns, ignoring him to follow the group.

"What is happening?"

"Oh Finn, do we need to have a conversation about the birds and the bees? How long did Nik keep you in that dreaded coffin?" Kol makes Finn blush further, recounting loudly the different women he'd lusted after over the centuries.

Death is swift to find the group when, not a mile inland, Simon springs a trap launching several arrows at him. Caroline lunges forward in an attempt to save him, but he's standing unnaturally still. The first arrow had, unknown to her, lodged itself straight in his chest. She rolls to the ground with Simon limp in her arms when a stray arrow jams right into her shoulder, breaking off when she lands on the ground.

She ignores the injury to bite into her own wrist, trying to offer her healing blood to Simon. His head moves only with Caroline's strength. "Come on. Hey. You got this. Drink." She hates losing anyone, even those she doesn't know.

Connor tries to push her off and her nose crinkles, glaring up at the bigger man without fear. "I'm trying to save him! Or do you hate us that much you'd rather see him dead?"

"Care. He's already gone." Stefan is at her side, examining the broken piece of wood in her shoulder. "You've healed over the arrow. We should get you back to camp and make sure we get it all out."

"You should go with them, Bonnie. In case they need any kind of witchy assistance pulling that sucker out. It'd be a shame to lose Caroline to a stray bit of wood." Bonnie is about to argue with Damon but the mention of the arrow breaking off in her body and pushing into her heart changes her mind.

"Good idea," she agrees and takes up Caroline's other side as the three trek back down the path to the camp.

The rest of the group moves on, tense with the loss of Simon and likely the loss of the only human buffer in their company, Bonnie. Elijah moves past the rest of the hunters to walk side by side with Jeremy, much to Connor's disdain. Galen trails behind, losing distance with each step. Simon's death seems to have affected him more than the others. Both men sat firmly in between Connor's intense hatred and Jeremy's bleeding affections for vampires and had bonded like only those caught in between extremes can.

It's only when he drops through the forest floor to an open pit and he calls out for that group that he realizes how far he must have fallen back. He yells until he's hoarse while Damon listens from the edge. "I can feel you out there! Which one of you is it?"

"Don't worry. I'll come back for you. I promise. See the thing is, I have a very mortal witch for a girlfriend and she's made it clear that vampirism isn't an option. So, I don't have much of a choice, do I? Watch her grow old and die and live forever without her or…kill Silas and take this cure."

"You can't kill him without the cure, moron! There's only one and it's meant for him!"

"Calm down, Shrek. I'll figure it out." But he's gone before he can hear Galen, screaming for help in a hole in the ground far away from anyone who would care to save him.

Connor spends most of his time arguing with Jeremy about involving the Originals in this plan so when they make it to the mouth of the cave, he's surprised to find Galen gone. "And Damon," Jeremy notes impassively as he walks into the entranced, stopped only by Connor's arm across his chest. "We can't stop. Can't you feel that? The pull. We are closer than anyone has ever gotten before us. You want to turn around now?"

"We should find Galen."

"With what? Nothing modern has been working since we got here and he knew the risks. We will look for him. After."

The tunnels twist and turn, but Jeremy can feel Silas's presence in the tomb like he's a homing pigeon coming back to roost. He leads them on until they get to the desiccated, deformed body lying in wait, wrapped in vines and time. Jeremy traces the hands clutched together at the stone chest.

"The cure must be in his hands," Jeremy tugs, but the fingers do not budge.

"Let me try." Connor moves in and Jeremy takes a step back to let the bigger man flex his muscles.

Kol looks on, intrigued through his hesitation. "You'll need to break his fingers to get to that. Or feed him just enough blood to move, but not enough to destroy us all." Jeremy and Connor look to each other, neither relishing the idea of opening a vein for Silas. Before they can decide which man will sacrifice a few drops, a swell of wind stirs around their feet, but they are too deep underground for it to be anything other than supernatural.

Damon has Connor kneeling in front of him with a well-placed knee to the back of the thigh. He takes a generous bite out of the side of his neck and shoves him on top of Silas. The blood works its reviving miracle and the stone hands release their grip on the cure. It seems impossible for Silas to be holding him down by force, but a kind of magic holds Connor in place, bent over at his death.

"Sorry, little Gilbert," Damon apologizes briefly before he disappears from the cave on the same surging wind. He leaves before noticing that Silas has one hand on the back of Connor's head and the other firm around Jeremy's wrist.

Elijah and Finn are on either side of Jeremy, struggling urgently to free him after Connor slumps off the slab. Kol is paralyzed. For all his experience and bravado, he is still just a young boy standing in the face of his greatest fear.

The two older men are still focused on Jeremy when Silas's eyes open, the bright green is strangely obscene compared to the deathly grey of his skin. Kol's voice is stuck in his throat as he tries to warn his siblings. When he tries to rush forward, his legs aren't moving. Frantically, he tries to bring his hands up to catch their attention but even that doesn't work. He's immobile and finally, when those eyes look over to him, he understands that this isn't caused by fear but by a power that even he has never seen before.

He watches in horror as his brothers are thrown back like they are flimsy humans. In all his years on this earth, he can't remember the last time he'd felt truly terrified. Had it been when he was still human? Silas sits up as if on a hinge, Jeremy still pulling at his arm like a fox in a trap. Kol's vision darkens and he can feel invisible fingers along his jaw, strong and sure as they twist his head and break his neck.

Elena is alarmed when she sees her friends stumble into camp that afternoon, but Stefan assures her everyone else is fine. Well, at least the people she cares about are fine. Caroline is drenched in sweat and her grip is tight on Bonnie and Elena's offered hands when Stefan starts digging into her shoulder. With the last shard safely out of her body, Stefan goes out to the shoreline to wash off his hands while Caroline cleans off her shoulder with a damp washcloth.

The sky takes on a reddish hue and Stefan elects to start a campfire. Elena is surrounded by her friends and they excitedly discuss the merits and drawbacks of different baby names.

"Amelie is cute. Oh! Or Eva? Cassie?"

"Sophia?" Bonnie offers weakly under Caroline's assessing eye.

"Hmmm…no, Charlotte! Olivia? No."

"Caroline! We don't even know if it's a boy or a girl yet."

"So, you have to be prepared, Elena. For either. What are you going to do, wait for a name to come to you? You should be writing these down somewhere." Caroline leans into Stefan, holding on to his arm, and sighs with visions of decorating a baby room.

Elena catches Rebekah walking off down the beach and she starts up at a jog to catch up with her. "Hey, is everything okay?"

"You seem to be having fun with your friends."

"Not when one of them is wandering the beach by herself."

"I can't sit there and watch them like it means nothing to me. It isn't fair, Elena! It isn't fair that no time has passed for me at all, but he's moved on since then. I saw it! He was so worried about her. Why can't I find someone to worry about me like that?"

"I worry about you." When had Elena turned into her mother? Into Jenna?

"It's not the same." Rebekah's tone sounds so similar to hers whenever she complained about an unrequited crush as a teenager.

"No, maybe it isn't. But it doesn't mean nothing. I know it hurts and there isn't anything I can say or do to take that away. I would if I could. But one day, you'll wake up and realize it doesn't hurt anymore."

"And what about love?"

"You'll get that, too." Elena assures Rebekah with the kind of blind confidence of a woman who has found love already and can't imagine a world where it doesn't exist for anyone. They keep walking together down the beach, only turning around when the campfire and her friends have disappeared out of sight. She stays by the fire to make sure it's completely smothered, long after Stefan and Caroline sneak off into their own tent. Bonnie had planned to share a tent with Damon, but asks to crash with her and Rebekah since the group hasn't come back yet.

"We should go to sleep," Rebekah says, bringing a blanket around Elena's shoulders. "It's getting late."

"They haven't come back yet though."

"That was always a possibility. They'll be fine." With encouraging, Rebekah manages to get Elena into the tent. Since she doesn't need as much sleep, Rebekah watches over Elena, willing her to go to sleep. When it's clear she's too anxious to drift off peacefully, Rebekah uses her exceptional talents in dream manipulation to craft a calming image for Elena; a family Christmas around a tree like the kind she'd been watching in the holiday romance movies they'd been binging.

A/N: I think it's a shame that Kol had to die in the show before Silas showed up. It would have been interesting to see Kol's reaction to Silas after that build up. Anyway, thanks as always for reading and especially for reviewing. It means so much.