Chapter Twenty

Rose had spent the better part of the night explaining who Klaus was and it wasn't a pretty story. Rebecca didn't like anything that was said about him. This man was cruel and manipulative and didn't care about anyone but himself.

Rebecca had called Elena to ask her to come over before going to school, so when Rebecca opened the door at quarter to five to find Elena on the doorstep it didn't faze her.

"Hey, Elena," she said.

"Hey. You called and it sounded important, so . . . here I am."

"Right this way," Rebecca began leading the brunette into the parlor. "Before we go in, I have to tell you . . . Rose came here last night with information, and –"

"Rose. The vampire who helped kidnap me?"

"Yes, and – oh, just come on," she said, grabbing Elena's arm and dragging her into the parlor. "Now, sit."

Rose was standing in front of the fireplace; Damon was standing behind the sofa; Stefan was sitting on the sofa; Rebecca chose to stand beside Damon, and Chelsea was sitting on the ground playing by their feet.

"Okay, you have to understand I only know what I've picked up over the years. And I don't know what's true and what's not true. That's the problem with all this vampire crap. But Klaus I know is real."

"Who is he?" Elena asked.

"He's one of the Originals," Damon answered. "He's a legend."

"From the first generation of vampires."

"Like Elijah," Elena assumed.

"No, Elijah was the Easter Bunny compared to Klaus," Rose said. "He's a foot soldier. Klaus is the real deal."

Rebecca noticed Damon rolling his eyes, but she didn't know if it was because he didn't believe Klaus was real or if it was because he wasn't scared because Elijah had been easy to dispose of and he had been an Original.

"Klaus is known to be the oldest," Stefan explained.

"Okay, so you're saying that the oldest vampire in the history of time is coming after me?" Elena asked.

"No," Stefan said just as Rose said, "Yes."

"What they're saying is – I mean, if what she's saying is true –" Damon began.

"Which it is," Rose said.

"And you're not just saying that so we don't kill you."

"Which I'm not."

"Then we're looking at a solid maybe."

Elena nodded but didn't look convinced.

"Look, Elijah's dead, right," Stefan asked, standing up, "so no one else even knows that you exist."

"Not that you know of."

"That's not helping," Damon said.

"Look, I've never even met anyone who's laid eyes on him," Stefan said. "I mean, we're talking centuries of truth mixed with fiction. We don't know what's real. I mean, for all we know, he could just be some sort of stupid bedtime story."

"He's real! And he doesn't give up," Rose said. "If he wants something, he gets it. If you're not afraid of Klaus, then you're an idiot."

"A'right, we're shaking," Damon said. "You made your point."

Elena grabbed her bag and stood up.

"Where're you going?" Stefan asked.

"School. I'm walking, so if I don't start now I'll be late."

"Let me, uh, let me grab my stuff," Stefan said. "I'll go with you."

"That's okay. I know where it is."

Elena took off and Rebecca had to stop herself from following her. Elena wasn't usually mean, but what she'd said to Stefan had been bordering on Katherine-esque.

"She's in denial," Damon said.

"Shut up, Damon," Stefan said.

Damon smirked at his brother and Rebecca rolled her eyes. They may antagonize each other, but they still loved one another.

Not even a minute after Elena had walked out the door, Rebecca received a text from the brunette.

Hey, meet me at the tomb. Gonna talk to Katherine. Don't tell Stefan.

Jeremy had arrived at school just in time to help Bonnie pick up some of the books she'd dropped in the parking lot.

"Thanks," she said as he handed the books to her. "Where's Elena?"

"She's, um, she's actually running late today." Jeremy smiled. "What're you doin' later? You wanna hang out at the Grill, shoot some pool? Winner runs the table."

"Uh, why?"

"Why what?"

"Well, you've never asked me to play a game of pool before, so why now?"

"Uh . . .I dunno. I thought that it would be fun. Never mind."

"No. Hey, okay." Bonnie hit him on the arm and smiled. "Sure. It's just . . ."

"Just what?"

"It's just you're Elena's brother and . . ."

Jeremy chuckled. It was cute that Bonnie was making such a fuss over one game of pool.

"Sure," Bonnie continued from where she'd left off. "It's just I'm really bad at pool."

"Yeah? Yeah, I thought you might be."

Jeremy laughed and Bonnie joined in. They began walking toward the entrance of the school. There they found a young man who looked lost.

"Hey," the boy said. "Excuse me. Do you guys know which way's the office?"

"You must be new here," Jeremy said, just being friendly.

"Yeah, I am. It's kinda hard to hide it. My name's Luka."

"I'm Jeremy," he said, shaking Luka's hand. "This is Bonnie."

"Hi, Bonnie."

Luka had light brown skin, a short-cropped hair cut, and seemed friendly enough.

"Anyway, I'm actually headed in that direction. Why don't you follow me? It can get confusing."

"Okay. Thanks, man. It was nice to meet you, Bonnie!"

Jeremy led the new student away. He had an ulterior motive behind showing Luka the way. Luka had been eyeing Bonnie and he didn't want the new kid getting any ideas. He'd been in a love triangle once with Vicki; he wasn't doing it again with Bonnie. Love triangles weren't fair to anybody involved in them.

When Rebecca made it to the tomb she found Elena and Caroline already there. Elena had a huge brown bag with her, but Rebecca had no clue what was in it.

"Tell everyone I wasn't feeling well and I went home from school," Elena told Caroline.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this. I'm a terrible liar."

"Keep Stefan busy. I don't want him knowing what I'm up to."

"I'm even worse at duplicity," Caroline exclaimed. "And you know this!"

"You managed to keep me occupied when Katherine paid Stefan a visit."

"Yeah, because she threatened me. Not that I'm saying that you should use that as a tactic. It's – Stefan is gonna see right through me."

"Caroline, as my friend, do you promise or not?" Elena asked.

"You had to break out the girlfriend code. Okay. I promise."

"Okay."

"But why don't you want Stefan to know?"

"Because he would never be okay with me doing this."

"And why am I here?" Rebecca asked. "What are we doing?"

"Katherine is the only one who knows the truth about Klaus. She's the only one who can tell me how to stop him."

"But you're asking for the truth from someone who has probably never given it," Caroline said. "Are you sure about this?"

"I can't just sit back and wait. I have to know, Caroline."

Caroline and Rebecca went forward and picked up the stone that was being used as a door, and moved it to the side. Nothing happened at first, but then there were quiet footsteps coming from inside.

A very weak and dirty Katherine appeared at the mouth of the tomb.

"Hello, Elena," Katherine said, voice scratchy.

Elena looked at Caroline and said, "I'll be okay from here. Becca's staying with me."

"Come to watch me wither away?" Katherine asked, leaning heavily on the wall of the tomb. "Good-bye, Caroline."

Caroline left and Elena put the brown bag on the ground. Rebecca sat beside it.

"Stefan know you're here?"

"I brought you some things," Elena said, obviously ignoring her question.

"You came to bribe me. What is that you want?"

"I want you to tell me about Klaus."

Elena pulled out a leather-bound book that had the last name Petrova written on it. It had to be Katherine's family history.

"Hm. You've been busy."

"I also brought you this," Elena said, pulling out a jug of blood she had brought. Rebecca wondered where she had gotten it. "In your family history, it said that the family line ended with you. Obviously that's not true."

"You thought that if you brought me some family keepsake that I'd open up?"

"No, that's what the blood is for. You don't look so good. How long before your body shuts down? Ten, twenty years? Must be painful to desiccate and mummify. I can't even imagine."

Katherine jumped toward the opening when Elena opened the jug, but was blocked by the barrier that Bonnie had helped set up. She settled down when Elena put a small amount of blood in a cup and used a stick to push the cup into the tomb. It seemed, that, for once, Elena was being cautious.

"You have the Petrova fire," Katherine complimented, then knocked the blood back as if it were a shot of liquor.

"More blood?"

"It's a long story, Klaus and I."

Elena got the cup back the same way she'd given it to Katherine: with a stick.

"Goes all the way back to England, 1492, after I left Bulgaria. Or was thrown out. My family, your true ancestors . . . they disowned me. My indiscretions were not tolerated at that time. I'd had a baby out of wedlock. The shame."

"It was kept secret," Rebecca surmised. It hadn't been in any of the books her ex-watcher had leant her.

"Mm-hm. My baby was given away. I was banished to England and I had to learn to adjust, so I quickly became English. It was there that I caught the eye of a nobleman named Klaus. I was taken with him at first, until I found out what he was and what he wanted from me, and then I ran like hell."

"Where does Elijah fit into all this?" Rebecca asked.

"He was helping Klaus. He knew what it was Klaus wanted from me and he did nothing."

"So what did Klaus want?" Elena asked.

"Same thing that he'll want from you. He wants to break the curse."

"By sacrificing the Petrova doppelganger."

"He wanted to drain every single drop of blood from my body."

This Klaus character had been willing to literally destroy a human girl because of some stupid curse that would release the spell of the sun? The sun wouldn't bother vampires anymore and werewolves would continue to be ruled by the phases of the moon. But why? Vampires already had a way to walk in the sun because of the Lapis Lazuli stone.

What was the point of it all?

Damon was having a dilemma. He needed to get Rose alone so he could get some answers from her, but he was Chelsea-sitting. Rebecca had taken off somewhere without a word. He didn't know what was up with that. Maybe she needed space because of all the new information that was being released in her mind. What kinds of memories were being restored, anyway? She hadn't been too forthcoming with those details. It bugged him that she hadn't opened up to him about this.

She eventually would, he knew, but it still bugged him that she was waiting. He just kept imagining something horrible – like maybe Elijah had fallen for her or she had fallen for him or something like that. Had Rebecca felt for him? Elijah had seemed almost delighted when he'd met up with her at the old house Rose had been keeping Elena.

Damon stepped into the parlor and saw Rose there, crying softly on the sofa.

"A'right, Rosebud, I need some answers," he said. She stood up and wiped her eyes on her jacket sleeve. "Oh, please don't tell me you're crying because your buddy Trevor lost his head."

"Have you always been this sensitive?"

Chelsea had stayed close to Rose since she'd gotten here. Damon hoped that the girl wasn't feeling Rose's sadness. That wasn't fair for someone so young to be affected by negative emotions.

"There's a little vampire switch you can – pfft – for this very reason. Takes the emotion out of it."

"Yeah, you switch yours, I'll switch mine."

"Is that a dig?"

"Just an observation," Rose said. "You're practically a husband and a father to Rebecca and Chelsea, respectively."

Instinctively he raced toward her and stopped maybe six inches away. Rose had no right to talk about Rebecca or Chelsea.

"Don't get on my bad side," he warned.

"Then show me your good side."

Damon rolled his eyes and stepped away from her. "How do I find Klaus?"

"You don't find Klaus; he finds you."

"Come on, somebody's gotta know somebody who knows where he is, right?" Damon asked, walking away to the other side of the room and taking Chelsea with him.

"Add another two hundred somebody's to that list and you're still not even close."

"Humor me." Damon was trying to work out a plan here and Rose's negative opinions weren't helping. "You got in touch with Elijah. How'd you do it?"

"Through a very low somebody on the totem pole. A guy named Slater in Richmond."

"Perfect. I'll drive."

"No. You forget, not all of us can do sun."

"Then you drive." Damon pulled out his cell phone. "Set it up quickly. I have a call to make."

Rebecca almost jumped when her phone rang. Every Time We Touch, by Cascada, filled the tomb and Elena locked at her. It seemed to have frightened her also. Katherine looked amused and bored at the same time.

"It's Damon," she said. "I'll go take this outside.

When she answered she got an almost annoyed, "Where are you?"

"Uh . . . with Elena. She's, um . . . we're at the tomb talking to Katherine."

"What're you doin' there?"

"Finding out about Klaus," she responded.

"How ironic. That's what I'm trying to do. I need you to come home, so you can watch Chelsea. I have to go to Richmond."

"Well, Damon, I'm in the middle of something right now. I can't really –"

"You need to come home and watch your sister."

"What do you think I'm doing?" she snapped. "I am watching out for her and you and everyone else in this town. I need to find out about this Klaus guy and Katherine's the only one who's met him."

"Well, I can't take Chelsea with me. I'm going with Rose to meet some guy she used to get in touch with Elijah. I'm not risking her life over this, Becca."

"Oh, I know that and I understand that. I just . . . I feel I need to find out about him."

"Look, you can interrogate Elena later about what Katherine says. But I'm actually trying to find out where Klaus is."

Klaus's actual location would be good to know, and Rebecca did understand where Damon was coming from. They couldn't always rely on other people to watch over Chelsea when things needed to be done.

"I'll be there in a few minutes, okay? Let me make sure Elena's gonna be okay here on her own."

"Thank you."

"Mm-hm. See you in a bit."

Rebecca went back into the tomb and saw Elena pushing blood toward Katherine again. She hoped that Elena wasn't giving Katherine too much, because if the Evil One got enough to feel comfortable then Elena wouldn't get the answers she wanted.

"What does the Petrova bloodline have to do with Klaus?" Elena asked.

"It's really tedious, but . . . the curse was bound by the sacrifice of Petrova blood," Katherine answered. "Witches are crafty with their spells. The doppelganger was created as a way to be able to undo the spell. Once a doppelganger reappears, the curse can be broken."

"So you ran before he killed you?" Elena asked.

That was actually a good question. How had Katherine died? Who had turned her?

"Something like that,' Katherine answered. "A man named Trevor helped me escape from Klaus. I ran all night and then I came across a cabin and asked for aid. Rose, a friend of Trevor's, was there. She lived with an older woman."

"Trevor and Rose. They were vampires at the time?"

"Yes," Katherine said. "I see you've met them. I stole something."

"The moonstone," Rebecca said.

"Rose refused to help me because of it," Katherine said. "She gave me food and water, but she locked me in a room and was going to take me back to Klaus after sundown."

"Rose never ended up taking you back to Klaus," Elena said. "Did she?"

"No. But not because she had a change of heart. They had brought me dinner and, with it, a knife. I stabbed myself. Rose came in at nightfall and was going to take me back, but I had lost a lot of blood. I'd have rather died than gone back to Klaus. Rose forced her blood down my throat and left me to heal. She made the mistake of leaving the rope she meant to tie me up with. With it, I made a noose . . ."

"You killed yourself?"

"Klaus needed a human doppelganger. As a vampire, I was no longer any use to him."

"But it didn't work," Elena said. "You didn't really escape. You've been running ever since."

"I underestimated his spirit for vengeance. But living out of a suitcase is better than dying so that I could have my blood spilled over some silly little rock."

Rebecca had to say she actually agreed with Katherine on that. If Elena's look of worry was anything to go by, then Elena understood too.

"What's wrong? Afraid I'm right? You don't wanna die? There's another way out."

Elena shook her head and turned away.

"I made the other choice," Katherine said.

"Rose and Trevor just spent the last five hundred years running because you used them. Trevor just got killed."

"Never thought he would've lasted that long," Katherine said carelessly.

"You don't even care that you ruined their lives," Elena said.

"I was looking out for myself, Elena," Katherine stated.

Rebecca figured that that statement was the truest thing that had ever been said by Katherine Pierce. That's all one really needed to know about her.

"I will always look out for myself. If you're smart, you'll do the same."

Katherine turned from them and picked up her family history book and started going through it. Rebecca kind of felt sorry for Katherine Pierce. Katherine would forever be alone if she didn't change her attitude. She would never know real love and would never have real friends.

Rebecca's phone rang again and she knew it was Damon again because of the song playing. She answered quickly and said, "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

"Are you riding on the back of a turtle or what?" he asked, sounding annoyed. "Get here."

"Don't tell me what to do, Damon. I said I'd be there in a few minutes. The more impatient you are, the longer I'm gonna take."

"So . . . how much of your little story is true?" Elena asked Katherine, dividing Rebecca's attention between Damon and the Petrova's conversation.

"I have no reason to lie, Elena. I have no reason to do anything but sit here and read and rot."

"Okay, assuming it's even partially true, that's the reason why you came back, isn't it? Because you wanted to be the one to hand me over to Klaus."

"Five hundred years on the run, I figured maybe he'd be willing to strike a deal."

"So you got Mason Lockwood to find you the moonstone."

"You're still at the tomb? What's so important that you couldn't come when I asked you to?" Damon asked.

"Information, hold on."

"What else is needed to break the curse? It's not just me or the stone, is it? Otherwise there would be no reason to trigger Tyler Lockwood's werewolf curse."

"Witches and their spells," Katherine said, shrugging. "So many ingredients, so many people to sacrifice."

"So you need a werewolf," Rebecca surmised.

"Believe it or not, they're hard to come by."

"What else?"

"A witch to do the spell," Katherine said. "Mine bailed, but little Bonnie will do just fine. You need a vampire."

A vampire. Katherine had turned Caroline.

"Could've been anyone, I suppose, but I like the poetry of Caroline."

"So you were just gonna hand us all over to be killed?" Elena asked.

"Better you die than I," Katherine said and then turned around and walked back into the darkness of the tomb.

Damon had only heard a little bit of what he assumed Rebecca had been learning. He was sorry for snapping at her, but he was on edge anyway because of Rebecca keeping things from him. Now he knew Katherine had been planning on ruining a bunch of lives – lives of people he cared about.

In order to break the curse, this Klaus character needed Elena, Tyler, Bonnie, and Caroline, though Damon was sure any vampire, witch, and werewolf would do. Those were the ones Katherine had chosen, however.

Elena's blood seemed to be a big deal because she was a Petrova doppelganger. Damon knew that from what Rose had told them all that morning, but the other three . . . Rose hadn't mentioned that. It was quite possible she didn't know anything about it.

Tyler didn't matter to Damon. Tyler was a werewolf; to Damon, that meant Tyler needed to die, anyway, so that potential problems could be avoided. It was a form of self-preservation. The only reason Damon hadn't killed him was because he knew Rebecca wouldn't like it. Plus, the kid hadn't done anything wrong yet.

Then there was Caroline, who was still annoying, but she didn't deserve to die. Katherine had changed Caroline specifically for that purpose, however.

A witch would be needed, obviously, but there was one little flaw: Bonnie would never perform a spell that would kill her friends. In fact, he was fairly certain that Bonnie wouldn't kill anyone human. She'd had qualms about helping hurt and kill Mason, who hadn't even been human.

"Damon? Did you hear all that?" Rebecca asked over the line. Damon could hear the strain in her voice and felt an immediate need to go and comfort her.

"I heard. We'll . . . we'll think of something later, when we have more information. Just get here soon, okay?"

"Yes. I'm . . . I'm sorry I'm being so difficult, but I have a lot going on in my mind. As I'm remembering things about Elijah I am . . . I am learning other things as well. Things that used to not make sense. But I don't want to tell you until I can say it in a way that makes sense. Okay? Just bear with me, please?"

What? Did she think that just because she was giving him a hard time that he was going to leave her? He couldn't stand the thought of being away from her, let alone the thought of staying away for long periods to time.

"Of course I will bear with you."

Meanwhile, Caroline and Stefan were at the Grill. She had caught up to him as he'd been leaving school, and it was a good thing, too, because he'd been planning on checking on Elena. Stefan had been worried about her because, like Elena had asked her to do, Caroline had spread the rumor that Elena had gone home sick.

Caroline had ripped through that plan just by telling Stefan that she might have let it slip to Tyler that she was a vampire; Stefan had not been happy, but it had gotten him to forget about Elena because he needed to know what had happened. He didn't want anyone getting hurt.

"I'm sorry to drag you here, but if I don't eat, I get those kill innocent people urges," Caroline said, taking a bite out of the salad she had ordered. "Tyler totally has those, too, by the way."

"Yeah, what else did you say to him?"

"Not much. I was trying to keep the questions to a minimum," she admitted. Though she had explained about the Founder's Council and what they were really about. "Are you mad? Because I didn't mean to. He attacked me and I reacted and I couldn't help it."

"Yes, Caroline, as a matter of fact, I am a little mad. I mean you put yourself at risk. If Damon finds out, he'll kill you."

"But you're not gonna tell him, are you?" Damon had specifically told her not to let Tyler know what she was and yet . . .

"No, of course not."

Caroline smiled. "Always lookin' out for me."

"Yeah, well, you don't exactly make it very easy on me," Stefan said. He was smiling, too, though, so Caroline wasn't worried.

"Then why do you do it? Why are you such a good friend to me?"

"I dunno. I guess you just . . . you remind me of someone. My, uh, my best friend Lexi."

"You have a friend?" she asked, surprised. She'd always assumed that Stefan was a bit of a loner, so she didn't think that he'd have many friends.

"You say that with such a – such a discouraging amount of surprise, Caroline," he teased.

"No, I just . . . Sorry, I just . . . Tell me about her."

"I will some other time, but now I have to go."

"Wait. No. Um, what do I do about Tyler?" Caroline looked at Stefan, who had just stood up. "I – I don't want Damon to kill him because there's a full moon coming up and Tyler's totally freaking out about it."

"Well, I would be concerned if he wasn't," Stefan said.

Across the way, Bonnie had just walked in and had run into Luka, the new guy from school, who was with an older man – his dad, probably.

"Hey, how was your first day?" she asked.

"It was great." Luka gestured to the man he was with. "I would like to introduce you to my dad."

"I'm Bonnie Bennett," she said as the man stood up.

"Dr. Martin. Jonas Martin," he said and offered her his hand, which she shook. She felt a rush go through her. "It's nice to meet you, Bonnie Bennett. Would you like to join us?"

"Oh, I'm – I'm meeting a friend. But he's not here yet, so sure."

Jonas looked at Luka, who slid over gracefully and offered her the spot next to him. Bonnie sat and waited. She hadn't known what that rush had been, but she only ever felt things like that when something was up.

"So, um . . . where'd you move from?" she asked curiously.

"Louisiana," Jonas said.

"That's a big change."

"I'll say," Luka said.

"It's not so bad here," she said. She felt sorry for him. She couldn't imagine having to up and leave her home when in high school. In fact, the thought of leaving all her friends behind filled her with dread.

"It's lookin' up."

"Bennett, huh?" Jonas asked. "I knew some Bennett's when I did my residency in Massachusetts. Do you have any family from Salem?"

"Actually, I do," Bonnie admitted, but she couldn't help but think this guy was prying.

"What d'ya know? Small world, right?"

Jeremy walked in just in the nick of time. Bonnie had been becoming more and more uncomfortable with the way the conversation had been going.

"Oh, there's my friend. It was nice to meet you, Dr. Martin."

"I will see you at school," Luka said.

"Yeah."

Bonnie deliberately touched Luka's shoulder, keeping a smile on her face even though she felt the same rush she'd gotten from his dad.

She didn't know what was going on, but she was going to find out.

"Back entrance. How convenient," Damon said as he got out of the car and stepped onto the pavement of the underground parking lot.

He'd finally made it to Richmond because Rebecca had decided to come home. They'd parted ways peacefully because neither one had meant to snap at the other and they both knew that.

"That's the point," Rose said. "We can't all have little daylight rings."

"How do you know this Slater guy is even here?"

"I called him. He's here; he's always here."

"Good." Damon slammed her up against the wall. "Just one thing. If you are setting me up in any way, I will rip your heart out and shove it down your throat. Something I'm very good at."

Rose didn't look impressed. In fact, she turned the tables around and slammed Damon face-first against her car. She twisted his arm behind his back, but not enough for his bone to break. It still wasn't pleasant.

"I'm older than you, and stronger. Don't get on my bad side." Rose let him go and he quickly turned around only to be confronted with bright green eyes. "You can trust me."

Rose walked away. He was surprised she had turned her back to him; she obviously expected him not to try anything. He followed her to the entrance and then went in with her.

There was soft rock music playing in the building they had gone into. The building was brightly lit and not from bulbs. The windows, and there were several, weren't covered with anything.

"Whoa, what about the sunlight?" he asked, confused that Rose wasn't bursting into flames.

"Double paned and tempered. UV rays can't penetrate. You see the appeal now?"

"That and the free Wi-Fi," said a man who had snuck up behind Rose.

Damon assumed this man was Slater. Rose hugged him, whoever he was.

"I saw you come in. What're you doin' here?"

"That's a long story," Rose said. "But I want you to meet –"

"Damon Salvatore. Turned 1864, Mystic Falls by Katherine Pierce, AKA, Katerina Petrova."

Damon was automatically suspicious because of the knowledge this man had. How had he found out? Who had told him? Damon had been careful not to have been identified in the years he'd been a vampire.

"So I take it I was right? What I told you about the tomb under the church is true?"

"Yes, it was right. Thank you for the tip."

Slater offered his hand to Damon, who shook it, albeit hesitantly.

"It's nice to meet you," Slater said. "Maybe. What's goin' on, Rose? Where's, uh, Trevor?"

Rose didn't say anything, but it was answer enough. Slater led them to a table where a laptop was set up. He obviously did spend time here, and had been here already.

Rose to the story of Elena's kidnapping and the subsequent events up to Damon staking Elijah.

"And you're sure Elijah's dead? I thought it would've been harder to kill an Original," Slater said.

"Beyond dead," Damon said.

"Trevor was a good man. Helped me with my dissertation on sexual deviance in the Baroque period. I was going for my Psych Ph. D."

"Slater's been in college since '74" Rose explained.

"When I was turned. I have 18 degrees, three Masters, and four Ph. D's."

Slater and Rebecca would get along great.

"The point?" Damon asked impatiently.

"Exactly. I mean, what is the point?" Slater asked. "What should I be doing with my eternity? If you have an answer, please enlighten me."

Damon looked at Rose. Unless she wanted to lose another friend, she had better put him on a leash. He was slowly losing his patience. Damon wanted information and he wanted it now.

"We need your help," Rose said. "If someone wanted to get in touch with Klaus, how would you hook him up?"

"Craig's list."

"Really?" Damon asked.

"Seriously. I respond to a personal ad that gets sent to somebody who knows somebody who knows Elijah, who's dead . . . and that's where my connection ends."

That couldn't be the only way available to get in touch with Klaus. There was always more than one way to skin a cat; they just needed to find it.

"Caroline, you have two seconds to come clean," Stefan said.

He'd played along long enough. He'd sit through her salad and had helped her with the Tyler situation, and now she had ordered a steak. Every time he had tried to leave she had tried to get him to stay. She had always come up with a new problem to ask for help with. Now he was done.

"What d'you mean?"

"I'd believe the whole innocent act a little bit better if I didn't know how good you are at providing a distraction on demand. Where's Elena?"

Caroline bit her lip, hesitating. "I can't tell you."

"You can't tell me? Are you kidding me?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't – I can't tell you."

"Caroline! Elena was kidnapped. She could've been killed. And you're seriously not gonna tell me where she is?"

"She's not in any danger. I would not have let her put herself in danger."

"Put herself in danger? Where?" Stefan asked, frustrated. "What are – She's with Damon, isn't she?"

"Ew. No," Caroline said. "She's with Rebecca, okay? She's perfectly safe because she's with Rebecca."

"Well, where's Rebecca? Listen, if you're my friend like you've been pretending to be all day . . . then you'll tell me where she is."

"Stefan . . . I am your friend, but I'm also Elena's friend. And I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna tell you where she is." Caroline sighed. "If you think about it, I won't have to. There's only one place in town where she would need a vampire there to protect her – just in case."

Rebecca had taken off right after Elena had, and Rebecca hadn't said a word to Damon. That wasn't normal Rebecca behavior.

"Elena never even went to school today, did she?" he asked.

"No," Caroline admitted. "But she did want to learn something."

Elena would've needed someone who could give her the information she craved. She would've needed an old vampire, and she hadn't gone to Rose.

"Katherine," he said. "She's at the tomb."

Okay, I've had this on my computer for about 3 days proofread and everything, I just had no motivation to submit it. My sleep schedule is all screwed up and it's really messing with my head.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think!