Chapter Thirty-Four
When Damon woke up the next morning Rebecca wasn't in the bed, but Chelsea was in her crib. Damon heard Rebecca and her father in the living room. She was checking to see if the compulsion had taken the night before.
"You know you can still change your mind," Robert was saying. "We don't leave for another few weeks. I can still buy another plane ticket."
"No, Dad," she said. "My life is here. Chelsea can't be a part of it. It's too dangerous. That's why Tina left, it's why you're leaving, and it's why you have to take Chelsea with you."
Damon listened to their back and forth conversation, knowing it was hard for Rebecca to admit they needed to give up Chelsea – especially to Robert. Damon didn't like it either, but with the battle that was coming, Chelsea needed to not be in Mystic Falls.
They still needed to find Klaus so that Bonnie could take him out. She'd told Rebecca she'd channeled enough power to be able to defeat him. Damon hoped that was true because it would make everything so much easier.
What would also make things easier was if Bonnie could do a tracking spell, but she couldn't, not without something that belonged to Klaus, and with the moonstone gone they had nothing.
Katherine had taken it, and she was either dead, tied up somewhere being tortured and used for information, or she'd taken off on her own and was hundreds of miles away by now. Damon really didn't know what he preferred when it came to Katherine Pierce.
Once Rebecca was done speaking to Robert she came back in the room, face determined. She was not changing her mind. Damon was not going to talk about it.
"So, Stefan has probably signed over the house," Damon started. "He said first thing this morning, and it's almost noon."
It was weird, but Damon actually stayed up later at night now more than he had before he'd met Rebecca. Slept later in the mornings, too.
"We need to be invited in then," Rebecca said. "That should be fun. Elena will tease."
And she did. Once Damon and Rebecca got there, Elena wouldn't agree to let them in unless they agreed to do things her way. Damon agreed so she'd let him inside; Rebecca didn't agree and was let inside anyway.
Bonnie was there, and Stefan had already been invited in. Elena, Bonnie, and Stefan looked like they were getting ready to leave.
"Where're you going?" Damon asked.
"To school," Elena answered.
"No. We didn't create a safe house just so you could leave it."
"Look, I really appreciate what you guys are doing, and I'll be able to sleep at night knowing I'll be safe here, but I'm not gonna be a prisoner."
"Don't worry," Bonnie said. "If he shows his face, I can take him. I know how."
"The way I see it, next to Bonnie is the safest place that I can be."
Elena led Stefan and Bonnie out of the house, and Rebecca rolled her eyes.
"She's not gonna have a life to live, if she doesn't protect it. Sometimes I don't know why we try."
"Because she's your friend."
"Yeah, I know." She sent Damon a weary smile. "Just running my mouth."
At school Bonnie, Elena, and Stefan sat in their seats in the history room. Class had yet to start so Ric hadn't arrived. The students were more worried about the paper advertising the sixties dance coming up anyway.
Stefan was completely against it, but both Elena and Bonnie seemed interested. Elena was smug about having outvoted him, but Stefan guessed that meant he'd just have to go.
"Hello, class," Ric said as he stepped in the room and went to his desk. "What are we learning today?"
They'd been learning about the sixties because of the dance theme.
"I wish there was something good I could say about the sixties, but . . . Actually, they kind of sucked. Except for the Beatles, of course. They made it bearable. Uh, what else was there? The Cuban Missile thing, the . . . we walked on the moon. There was Watergate."
"Watergate was the seventies," Elena corrected.
"Right. It all kind of mushes together up here, the sixties, the seventies. Thank you, Elena."
Stefan stayed with Elena as often as he could during school. Between him, Bonnie, Caroline, and Jeremy, she was almost never alone. At lunch a girl came up to the group to let them know that someone named Klaus had been asking whether or not she'd be going to the dance.
"Where is he?" Bonnie asked. "Is he here?"
"I don't know."
The emptiness of her eyes let Stefan know the girl was being compelled.
"Now we have to go to the dance. So we can find him," Elena said.
"Really? How are we gonna do that? We don't know what he looks like."
"Well, we know he's not a student, and we know all the teachers and the usual chaperones," Bonnie said.
"He might not even show up," Jeremy said. "He compelled that girl; he might compel someone to come in his place."
"Let's meet at the boardinghouse after school," Stefan suggested. "Damon and Rebecca need to know what happened. So does Ric."
"I'll meet you guys at the dance," Caroline said. "Matt's picking me up tonight."
"Okay, so . . . we find him and then what?" Elena asked. "What's our plan of attack?"
"Me," Bonnie said. "I'm the plan. He has no idea how much power I can channel. If you can find him, I can kill him."
"Maybe Becca can help with that," Jeremy said. "She can tire him out for you, make it easier."
"Sure, if she wants." Bonnie gave an almost relieved smile. "We can work together for this."
At the boardinghouse, once everyone was there, Bonnie and Jeremy joined Damon and Rebecca in the living room while Stefan and Elena went to check for an outfit for Elena. There had to be something; their ancestors had been packrats.
Once Elena was out of hearing distance Jeremy took off his ring, the one that would protect him from death by supernatural creature.
"I want you to have this," he told Bonnie.
"The ring won't work on me, Jeremy."
"But it was made by a witch."
"To protect from the Supernatural, not for someone who is."
Damon didn't know what he'd missed, but he'd obviously missed something.
"Are you going to need anything tonight?" Rebecca asked.
"Maybe your help. I can take him, but I may need your help luring him in."
Rebecca nodded. "No problem." She turned to Damon. "Guess we're chaperoning again. Think you have anything I can wear?"
"Probably. We can check the attic."
On the way up Damon asked about the ring thing.
Rebecca sighed. "Bonnie doesn't want Elena knowing, but . . . the power it will take to kill Klaus might actually kill her."
She was speaking softly enough that only Damon could hear, so he knew Stefan didn't know about this either. Apparently no one other than Jeremy, Bonnie, and Rebecca had.
"How'd she find that out?"
"The witches warned her once she'd taken the power into herself."
"Hm. What'd you say when you found out?"
Rebecca shrugged. "I told her that it was her life. I don't . . . like it, but, I mean, we don't have much choice. We need a way to kill Klaus."
"And if she could defeat him without dying?"
She grinned. "That's preferable. Why?"
"I may have something. I'll talk to Bonnie."
Damon continued up the stairs and he heard her follow him.
"Well, aren't you gonna tell me what that something is?"
"Nope. We have to find you a dress."
She squinted her eyes at him. "You know, if I didn't trust you, I wouldn't let you get away with not telling me what you're planning."
Damon could've smirked then, but he didn't. Instead he grabbed her hand and pulled her to him. Her eyes softened, which was a relief considering he'd been hearing that she'd been willing to let her friends just die. He kissed her, just a brief and gentle few seconds of contact, but that was all they needed at the moment.
They had other things they needed to focus on.
In the attic Elena was already going through the box of clothes Stefan had gotten out for her. There were so many things she liked, and she'd put aside a few things she thought Bonnie and Rebecca might like.
In fact, Elena was fairly certain that Rebecca would head straight for the black thigh length dress. It had a while flower pattern to it, and there were cute black ankle boots to go with it. All in all, it was adorable, and Rebecca could fight in the outfit.
Damon and Rebecca came in then, and Rebecca homed in on the dress Elena had set aside for her.
"How're you doing?" Damon asked her.
"Um . . . freaking out a bit," she answered. "You?"
"Cool as a cucumber. Remember the last decade dance? The vampires were all argh!" He growled. "And you were all aahh!"
"Right." She grinned. "And you won!"
"Yes, we did."
"Considering this is an original," Stefan said, "I think we should take in vervain tonight."
"Yeah," Rebecca agreed. "And we need to feed properly. We need our strength."
Damon agreed by nodding. "I'll get everything set up."
Damon met Jeremy on the way downstairs. He was making his way to the attic, it seemed. He didn't envy Jeremy's position at all. He was stuck between the lives of his sister and his girlfriend. It couldn't be a fun place to be.
Alaric had made his way to the boardinghouse while Damon had been in the attic. He was talking to Bonnie, but Damon didn't mind butting in.
"I need the witch for a second," he said. "I also need to be written down as a chaperone. Becca, too. And watch out for anything funky tonight."
He gestured for Bonnie to follow him and, surprisingly, she did without a fuss.
"Becca told me about what'll happen," he said, leading Bonnie to the cellar. "So you'd lay it all on the line for Elena. No matter what?"
"No matter what." Bonnie stopped following him. "You can't tell her."
"Your secret's safe with me, but I mean . . . with all that power, isn't there a way to increase your odds?"
"Careful, Damon. I might start to think you actually care."
"We wouldn't want that."
They had reached the cellar by then and Damon gestured to the purple plant there.
"We need enough to keep us from being compelled."
"Right. You know, I don't know why they don't just put this stuff in the water supply. The Council knows about it, and it would keep the other vampires away."
"Hush," Damon said. "Don't even think it. Though, from your prospective, I can see why that would be good."
Bonnie nodded and began breaking off sprigs of vervain for him.
Upstairs, Jeremy had taken Stefan aside – well, actually, he'd been about to tell Elena what would happen to Bonnie if she went through with killing Klaus, but then he'd decided it wasn't his place to tell her. Bonnie didn't want her knowing, but he had to talk to someone – and not Rebecca, because he already knew where she stood.
"If Bonnie takes on Klaus, channeling all that energy's gonna kill her, but she doesn't want Elena to know, 'cause if Elena knows, she's gonna try to stop her. And it's Elena that could turn up dead, so . . . what am I supposed to do?"
"Who else knows?"
"Um, Rebecca, and probably Damon."
"What did Rebecca say?"
"That it's Bonnie's life to give if that was what she wanted."
"Okay, well." Stefan shrugged. "Maybe it won't matter. Klaus might not even show up, and if he does, I'll handle Elena. I never said I wouldn't tell her."
Literally a few minutes after everyone arrived at the dance, Klaus made his presence known – or, well, sort of. He got a student to dedicate a song to Elena in his name.
"Maybe he's not here," Stefan said. "He just wants us to believe that he is."
"Whether he's here or not, we should try to enjoy ourselves," Rebecca said. "We'll stand out if we don't dance."
"Good idea."
Bonnie grabbed Jeremy's arm and began tugging. He reluctantly followed her. Stefan grabbed Elena's hand; she gladly followed him.
Caroline and Matt had already been there when the others had arrived – they had come as JFK and Jackie O'.
The only two left were Damon and Rebecca. Strictly speaking they didn't have to dance as they were there in a chaperone capacity.
In fact, both Damon and Rebecca did more watching than they did dancing, and so when Jeremy stepped out and was followed by three other guys Damon caught it almost instantly.
"Stay here with Bonnie and Elena. Something's not right. Keep an ear out."
Rebecca nodded as he walked off, noticing that Stefan was already heading to the door. He must have noticed Jeremy's situation as well.
They followed the sound of flesh hitting flesh only to find Jeremy fighting three guys – the ones that had followed him. He was doing okay, but he had a bloody nose and a bruise forming on his cheek.
Once Stefan and Damon arrived, they pulled two of the guys off of Jeremy, and one of them had a stake up his sleeve.
Klaus's doing, Damon assumed, grabbing the one with the stake and considering snapping his neck.
"No. No, no, no. Don't kill him," Stefan said. "He's being compelled."
"So?"
"So . . . the whole thing's a distraction. Klaus is actually here, and we left the girls alone."
Rebecca.
Elena.
Bonnie.
Damon threw the guy against the locker hard enough to probably knock the compulsion loose before taking off in search of his friends.
Back in the gym where all the students were, Rebecca, Bonnie, and Elena were off to the side because Ric had taken them to the side. Apparently, Jeremy had been kidnapped.
"What?" Both Elena and Bonnie exclaimed.
Without question the girls followed him. Rebecca wondered what had happened to Damon and Stefan if Klaus had actually gotten hold of Jeremy
"Where are you taking us?" Elena asked.
"Just a little further."
"If . . . if Klaus has Jeremy, how do you know?" Rebecca asked.
"Where is Jeremy?" Bonnie asked.
Rebecca stopped walking first and grabbed the other two girls. As if sensing they had stopped behind him, Ric turned around and laughed.
"I just had to get away from that dance. The sixties. Ugh! Not my decade. I mean, whose call was that anyway? I much prefer the twenties. The style, the parties, the jazz."
"Ric, what are you talking about?" Rebecca asked.
He didn't seem compelled. His eyes weren't glassy or empty and he wasn't acting like a robot.
"What's going on?" Elena asked.
"Okay, I'll give you a hint. I am not Alaric."
"Klaus . . ."
"Surprise!" he sing-songed, and made a mocking bow.
"That's not possible. Ric . . ."
"Just relax. I'm not here to hurt you, Elena. You're not on my hit list tonight." Then to Bonnie, "But you are."
Ric was thrown backwards against the wall and he hit the ground hard. He got up without a problem, though.
"Now, did I mention that I know a witch? You're gonna have to hit me a lot harder than that."
He moved toward them and was thrown into a glass display case for his efforts. He only laughed. To Rebecca that was the creepiest part.
"By all means . . ." Ric – or Ric's body at least – got up and threw his arms open wide. "Fire away! If you kill this body, I'll just get a new one. Maybe Jeremy."
"We have to run," Rebecca said. "We have to find Stefan and Damon!"
She had figured out two things just seconds ago. Ric was alive even if Klaus was in control at the moment, so the first thing she'd realized was that, logically, Ric might have to die. Yes, Klaus could find another body, but it would buy them time. The second thing she'd realized was that Klaus knew about Bonnie's powers, about the energy she would have to expend, and that it would kill her. He knew and he wanted her to use them. He wanted Bonnie gone – Klaus saw her as a threat and he was scared of her.
They went through a set of double doors, and Bonnie slammed them as they went through. Two hallways later they almost slammed into Damon.
"Klaus is in Alaric's body."
"What?"
"He's possessing him or something," Bonnie said. "Ric's not at home."
"We need to find Stefan. Now," Damon said. "Elena, we'll be here, staying between you and Klaus."
"Okay."
She ran off, and if Rebecca hadn't been completely sure that Klaus really wasn't looking to hurt her at the moment she would have gone with her.
"Can you kill him?" Damon asked Bonnie.
"He's got some kind of protection spell."
"You have the power of a hundred witches. Break it."
"If I kill Alaric, he'll just possess someone else. He knows I have power, Damon. He's trying to kill me."
Rebecca nodded. "He's been taunting her to use it."
"No. Klaus does not get to win tonight. No way. You still willing to do whatever it takes to kill him?"
Bonnie nodded. "Just help me find him."
They found him in the cafeteria, just waiting calmly for them. Bonnie didn't know if that scared her or just made her angry. Who did this guy thing he was, anyway, coming into town only to want to run everyone's life?
"What took you so long?" he asked. "And do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?"
Bonnie imagined Ric's wrist bone popping out of place and it did, but he healed. She didn't know how that was possible. Ric wasn't a vampire no matter who was possessing him.
"The hard way. Got it."
His shoulder was then dislocated – basically Bonnie was just finding ways to hurt him. She didn't know if she had it in her to kill him yet, not when he was in Ric's body. Although . . . Ric wouldn't want to live that way. He wouldn't want to be used for Klaus's purposes.
Bonnie's nose started to bleed. She wiped the liquid away.
"Is that all you've got?"
"Let's find out."
Bonnie continued making small things happen just so she could appear to not know what she was doing. The plan was to expend energy inefficiently, to give Klaus a false sense of security.
She just hoped it worked.
Outside the cafeteria, Damon and Rebecca stood watching and waiting. So far the only outward appearance of weakness on Bonnie's side was her bloody nose. She had hurt Klaus – at least, Rebecca hoped it was only Klaus feeling the pain – but he kept getting back up.
Wind picked up in the cafeteria and flyers started swirling around the air. The light bulbs exploded, making sparks shoot from the ceiling. Why was Bonnie using so much energy and not even focusing it on Klaus?
"What is she doing?"
"What she has to," Damon said.
"No. What she has to do is kill Klaus. If she kills Ric, he'll just find someone else. It would give us time; it would be worth it. But she's not even controlling herself at the moment."
She tried to go through the doors, but they wouldn't budge. They weren't locked, and Damon hadn't stopped her. Bonnie, however, had. That meant she was controlling herself. She was doing all this on purpose.
Suddenly Stefan and Elena were there with her, trying to get the doors open. Elena was screaming for Bonnie's attention, but Bonnie was focused on whatever she was doing. Bonnie did look their way for a brief second so she could send them a small sad smile.
The wind that shouldn't have existed in the enclosed space picked up and the tables flew every which way across the floor, and a vending machine scooted fast enough to knock Klaus to the floor.
"Bonnie!"
Sparks flew one last time before Bonnie fell to the floor. Rebecca couldn't tell if she'd only passed out or if she was no longer alive, but either way the doors opened quickly underneath the combined strength of Rebecca, Stefan, and Elena.
It occurred to her then that Damon hadn't even tried to help her get in. He'd just stood there and hadn't done anything. They all four went in now, Stefan and Elena going straight to Bonnie, Rebecca searching for Klaus, and Damon taking in all the damage.
"Stefan, she's not breathing!" Elena said as she checked Bonnie over. Elena took Bonnie into her arms and began crying.
Rebecca did not cry. She just felt anger. Anger at Bonnie for wasting her energy, for not controlling herself, because Rebecca knew she could, so why hadn't she? Now she was dead, and for what?
"Stefan, I can't find her pulse! Do something! Just give her blood, do something."
"It won't work if . . . if she's already dead," Stefan said, and knelt beside Elena, who had moved from crying to sobbing.
Rebecca's resolve hardened. She would find Klaus and find a way to kill him or capture him until they could. She had to do something. She began to take off, but someone caught her by the arm. Seeing as to how she'd wanted to speed away, it jarred her a little.
Not thinking, she let her vampire through and snarled at whoever had her. It was Damon. He quickly took a step back and held his hands up in surrender and to let her see there was no danger there. In her primal state, she might have considered him a threat had he not let her go.
"Where're you going?" he asked.
"To find him." She was surprised at the growly sound of her voice.
"And do what? You can't kill Ric, and you're not even on Klaus's kill list. Don't put yourself there."
"But Bonnie –"
"I know." Damon grabbed her then and pulled her close. It helped her relax in a way nothing else could. "Earlier you said you trusted me. I need you to continue to do that."
She nodded against his chest, suddenly finding herself unable to talk.
"We need to get Stefan and Elena out of here. We'll deal with Bonnie. The sheriff can't know about this. Last thing we need is another mysterious death."
Bonnie! They were going to have to bury her or burn her, and Rebecca didn't know if she could do that. She wasn't used to death being so personal.
"Jeremy," she muttered. "Jeremy! He – Bonnie –"
"We'll find him. We'll get him to meet us at the car."
"Okay," she hugged him once, hard. "Trusting you."
His hold on her tightened as well. It was a thank you.
Getting Elena to leave was hard. She wanted to cling onto Bonnie's body and Stefan had to pry her away. While Stefan did that, Damon texted Jeremy.
Rebecca and Damon, who was carrying Bonnie's body, ran to the Camaro, where Damon placed her in the trunk.
"We can't just leave her in there," Rebecca said. "It's –"
"She's dead," Damon said. "We can't put her in the backseat. Someone could see."
"Right."
Damon closed the trunk as Jeremy appeared.
"I got your message," he said. "I can't find anyone. Where's Elena? Where's Bonnie?"
Damon gestured for them both to get in the car. Rebecca and Jeremy listened.
"We need to have a little talk."
"About what?"
"Bonnie . . . She died." Before Jeremy could panic or get angry, Damon continued. "She died, but she's not going to stay dead. Bonnie had to die, and Klaus using Alaric's body was a total surprise. She wasn't prepared for that. He wasn't going to stop, and we weren't going to be able to stop him until he knew she was dead. He had to believe it."
"What're you saying?" Jeremy asked.
"She cast a spell, and she'll come back to life. She'll be okay."
He watched as both Jeremy and Rebecca processed. Jeremy hadn't had time for grief to settle in so he didn't have to worry about that, and Rebecca had calmed down from the anger she'd been feeling.
"That's . . . that's why you couldn't tell me, why you couldn't tell anyone. It had to be real."
He nodded, thankful she'd understood so quickly. She might get angry, but she understood. It wouldn't be a problem between them.
"Where are we taking her?" Jeremy asked. "She can't be seen alive if . . ."
"The Old Lockwood place. No one ever goes there."
"Is it safe?" Jeremey asked. "The wood is kind of dry rotted."
"The spirits should protect her," Rebecca said. "Right? I mean, they warned her against the energy she had channeled, about how it could kill her."
"Right. I'm gonna stay with her. Jenna isn't at home, and Elena's at the boardinghouse, so I'm gonna stay with Bonnie."
"Now that Klaus believes Bonnie is dead, he'll probably come for Elena soon," Damon said. "If he stays in another human body, he doesn't even need an invitation. Ric came right on in this afternoon."
"Then we need to get back there as soon as we can," Rebecca said.
"Agreed," Damon said.
Apparently all they would have time to do was drop Bonnie and Jeremy off and get them settled in.
"They'll need food and water. Blankets. Bonnie can borrow some of my clothes until we have time to get hers. We'll stop by my house."
Okay, maybe they had to make time for that too.
"What does this have to do with Alaric?" Jeremy asked.
"Apparently Klaus can possess people," Rebecca said. "I don't know if that's an Original thing or if that's just a Klaus thing, but he got Ric."
"Is he – I mean, is he still alive . . . in there?"
"We think he's still alive, just trapped," Damon answered. "We will deal with that once we figure out how to defeat Klaus.
First they needed to get Klaus out of Ric's body – and if that wasn't one of the weirdest things Damon had ever thought, he didn't know what was.
Okay, you should know I am not happy with this chapter. This story has been kicking my butt because I've pretty much lost interest in it. I still love Damon and Rebecca together, but I also know how not happy the ending is and I hate writing unhappy things, it's so hard for me to express that emotion in my writing because I am a generally happy person.
That being said, I love seasons three, four, and five, and I do plan on writing them - I'm just going through a funk right now. I'm also writing my own story that I plan on trying to get published and that has taken precedent over my other writing. I'm still writing Supernatural and The Avengers - almost done with the last, so that will be taken down off of my to-do list.
Anyway, the reason I haven't updated much is because I've been house sitting in different places the last four or five months and I don't have a laptop so I couldn't type all this stuff out and get it up for you guys.
For those who have stuck with me this far and are planning to stick with me in the future, THANK YOU! I don't mean to not update, I just get writers block a lot with this story.