The next morning at school, Matt walked up to Elena and Bonnie. "Hey. I don't know what's going on with you two, but whatever it is, it's got Caroline convinced that you don't want her to be your friend any more. So unless she's right, I suggest you talk to her and sort this out."
Elena and Bonnie shared a look that was simultaneously guilty and nervous. "Uh, thanks," Elena said. "We'll bear that in mind. You're a good friend, Matt."
"I just hope I'm not Caroline's only friend right now," Matt said flatly. He walked away.
"What are we going to tell her?" Bonnie said anxiously. "We can't tell her the truth."
"Why not?" Elena countered. "At the very least, we can hopefully convince her never to take that necklace off."
"Do you really think she can handle knowing about vampires and witches?" Bonnie retorted. "How do you think she'd feel if she knew she'd been in bed with a murderer?…and please tell me you're not going to follow in her footsteps."
"I'm not," Elena assured. "At least, not so long as he keeps killing people whenever it suits him. But anyway, maybe we should start small. Tell Caroline you're a witch, see how she handles that."
Bonnie shuddered. "I'm barely handling that. I think my ancestor Emily is haunting me. I've been having dreams, ever since I started wearing this crystal."
"What does Grams have to say about it?" Elena asked, concerned.
"I can't call her, she's gonna tell me to embrace it," Bonnie grumbled. "I don't want to embrace it, I want it to stop."
"We'll figure something out," Elena said encouragingly. "Maybe we can ask Caroline for her input." Bonnie looked doubtful, but Elena refused to be dissuaded. "Come on, we're gonna have to give her something. I'll invite her to come over for dinner tonight."
"Fine," Bonnie relented. "But these dreams are really freaking me out. I woke up in the woods!"
Elena stared at her. "Freaky. You sure your Grams can't help?"
"I'll…keep her in mind as a last resort," Bonnie said grudgingly.
Caroline proved difficult to track down. Elena finally found her after school. "Hey, Caroline!"
"What?" Caroline said flatly, not slowing her step or looking at Elena.
"Dinner, my place, tonight. You, me, Bonnie."
"Am I actually going to be part of any of your conversations?" Caroline asked bitterly.
Elena sped up and moved in front of Caroline. "Look, I know we've been leaving you out lately. There's things we haven't been telling you, and that's not fair to you. Give us a chance to tell you."
Caroline narrowed her eyes, then sighed. "Fine. I'll be there."
Meanwhile, Bonnie had just made it to her car when Damon appeared in front of her. "Okay, it's your last chance," he said.
"Or what?" Bonnie retorted. "You gonna kill me here, in broad daylight, with people all around? Because that's the only way you're getting this crystal."
Damon rolled his eyes. "I'm trying to help you."
"I don't want your help," Bonnie snapped.
"Oh, I think you do," Damon persisted. "Have the dreams started? The sleepwalking? Emily creeping inside your head yet? I wish you no harm, Bonnie, just let me get her off your back."
"Everything okay here?" Elena asked, coming up behind them.
"Everything's fine," Bonnie said firmly, her eyes still on Damon.
"I will get that crystal, even if I have to wait for Emily to give it to me herself," Damon warned. "So, next time she comes out to play, you tell her a deal's a deal." He opened Bonnie's car door and stepped aside to let her in.
Bonnie gave him a shrewd look, then closed the door without getting into her car. "Actually, I don't think I'll be going home just yet. And you're not getting this crystal." She walked away.
Damon made to follow her, but Elena stopped him. "Hey, I was wondering…do you have any pictures of Katherine? A drawing, or something?"
"No, but Stefan has a daguerreotype. Why?"
"Lexi said I could be Katherine's twin, and…I guess I'm curious," Elena admitted. "I mean, if I really look that much like her…maybe we're related, or something."
"Yeah, you do look that much like her," Damon replied. "Come by the boarding house, I'm sure Stefan won't mind you having a look at it."
Elena raised her eyebrows. "You'd tell me to do that even if he would mind."
Damon shrugged, not bothering to deny it. "Do you want to see the picture or not?"
Elena hesitated. She didn't want to go through Stefan's things while he wasn't there, but the curiosity was driving her nuts, and she didn't have long before she needed to get things ready for dinner. "I'll be right over."
Meanwhile, Bonnie searched the school grounds for Stefan. She found him over by the picnic tables. "Hey, Stefan," she greeted.
"Oh, hey Bonnie. What's up?"
Bonnie lowered her voice. "Did you know my ancestor Emily?"
"Yes. She was Katherine's handmaid…" Stefan trailed off, noticing Bonnie's necklace. "Is this about the crystal?"
Bonnie nodded nervously. "What do you know about it?"
"I know that Emily gave it to Katherine on her last night, and that was the last time I ever saw it." Stefan frowned. "Where'd you find it?"
"I got it from Caroline, who got it from Damon, who wants it back. He won't leave me alone."
"Has he said why?"
Bonnie shook her head. "But that's not all. Ever since I started wearing it, Emily has been haunting me. And Damon claims he made some sort of deal with her." She took off the necklace and handed it to Stefan. "Do whatever you want with it. I don't want Damon to have it, but I'm done being haunted by a hundred-and-fifty-year-old ghost."
"I'll get to the bottom of this," Stefan promised, pocketing the crystal.
Elena arrived at the boarding house to find that Damon had beaten her there. He was waiting in the parlor, holding what looked like a small, very old piece of paper framing a silver image. "Here you go," he said, holding it out. "Your long-lost not-twin."
Elena took it. It was almost like staring into a mirror, apart from the fact that Katherine wore her hair in ringlets. "That…that is spooky," Elena managed, unnerved. "That is…wow. I really do look like her."
"You see why I was so confused, that first night when you told me your name was Elena."
"Yeah." Elena handed the image back to him. "Am-am I related to her? Do you know?"
"Well, if you were descended from her, it would mean she had a child before she was turned." Damon looked thoughtful. "She never said anything to me, but then again I never asked. I could look into it, if you want."
"You'd do that for me?" Elena said, surprised.
Damon shrugged. "Hey, now I'm curious too. I'll let you know what I find."
That night, Stefan found Damon at the bar of the Grill, looking through a stack of papers. "I thought I was the one with homework, not you," Stefan commented.
Damon took a sip from his glass. "Then shouldn't you be doing it? It's a school night, Stefan, and as your guardian, it's my job to make sure you get a proper education."
"Ha, ha." Stefan sat next to Damon and ordered a coffee from the bartender. "So what are you looking for, there?"
Damon sighed and set aside the papers before Stefan could get a good look at them. "I'm not plotting murder, you don't have to keep an eye on me."
"I'm not here to keep an eye on you."
"So why are you here?"
Stefan shrugged. "Why not?"
Meanwhile, Elena unpacked her bag of takeout while Caroline and Bonnie awkwardly stared at each other over the kitchen counter. Elena eventually cleared her throat. "Bonnie, is there something you'd like to say?"
Bonnie sighed. "You know that crystal you got from Damon?"
Caroline raised her eyebrows. "The one you've started wearing obsessively?"
"Actually, I got rid of it," Bonnie admitted.
Elena and Caroline both stared at her. "Uh, what?" Caroline said skeptically.
"I gave it to Stefan. But anyway, let me start at the beginning."
"No, hold on, hold on—if you gave it to Stefan, then what's that you're wearing?" Caroline said, pointing.
Startled, Bonnie looked down. Sure enough, the crystal was back on her neck. "O-o-okay. How long has that been there?"
"You were wearing that when you walked in," Elena informed her, frowning in concern.
Bonnie groaned. "Emily."
"Who's Emily?!" Caroline demanded, frustrated.
"Seriously, let me start at the beginning," Bonnie repeated. "I'm a witch."
Caroline rolled her eyes. "And don't we all know it."
"No really, she is!" Elena said defensively. "That crystal is honest-to-god magic. And so's your necklace, by the way, it protects you from Damon."
"This protects me from Damon?" Caroline said skeptically, holding up the pendant.
"Has he bothered you since you started wearing it?" Bonnie challenged.
"Once." Caroline hesitated, then sighed. "And only because he wanted that crystal. He left as soon as I told him I didn't have it." She sighed again. "Fine. Let's say that crystal is magic. What does it do?"
Bonnie grimaced. "So far, all it's done is give me nightmares about my ancestor Emily, who apparently owned it back in the 1860s. She won't leave me alone. I think she's trying to communicate with me."
"It also zaps anyone who tries to take it from you," Elena reminded her.
"Seriously?" Caroline made a grab for the crystal. Sure enough, it shocked her. "Ow. Okay. That is weird. Are you wearing polyester or something?"
Bonnie shook her head. "No. I'm being haunted. I woke up in the woods!"
"Hmm." Caroline leaned against the counter. "I have an idea! Why don't we have a séance?"
Stefan plied his brother first with darts, then with football, and finally got Damon to admit that he intended to use the crystal to rescue Katherine—who apparently was not dead, but rather trapped in a tomb underneath Fell's Church. Stefan had barely had a chance to process this shocking revelation before his phone rang. Seeing that it was Elena, he answered it. "Hey. Everything okay?"
"It's Bonnie," Elena said breathlessly, sounding worried.
"What happened?"
"Emily is possessing her. She said something."
"What did she say?"
"She said, 'I won't let him have it. It must be destroyed.' And then she just left!"
"But…" Stefan began, reaching into his pocket. To his surprise, the crystal was no longer there. "Did she have the crystal?"
"Yes! She said she was going 'back to where it all began'…"
"Fell's Church," Stefan realized. "Stay there. I'll find her." He hung up, then looked around and saw that Damon was gone.
Elena paced in her living room. The night was going wrong. Terribly wrong. Bonnie was possessed, and Caroline had left after declaring the whole thing a hoax. There had to be something she could do to fix this.
Her mind made up, Elena got in her car and headed out to Fell's Church.
Stefan arrived at Fell's Church to find his brother impaled on a tree and Bonnie/Emily using a large branch to draw something on the ground. After freeing Damon, Stefan questioned Emily and discovered what his brother had failed to mention: all twenty-seven vampires had been saved in the tomb.
"I don't care about them," Damon defended. "I just want Katherine."
"I knew I shouldn't have believed a single word that comes out of your mouth," Stefan snarled angrily. "This isn't about love, is it? This is about revenge."
"Maybe at first," Damon admitted. "Not any more. Come in there with me and stake them all in their sleep for all I care. I just want Katherine."
Stefan narrowed his eyes. "'Not any more'?"
"The founders may still have a council, but I know of at least one founding family member with a more progressive attitude," Damon hedged. Stefan realized that this was probably as close as Damon was going to come to admitting that Elena was the reason he'd changed his mind.
"I can't free them," Emily stated, finishing her drawing. "I won't. Incendia!" A wall of fire sprang up around her, forming a pentagram.
"No!" Damon cried, a desperate note in his voice. "Don't do this, please!"
"Bonnie!" Elena shouted, arriving on the scene.
Emily threw the crystal up in the air, where it exploded. "No!" Damon yelled again. Emily stared at him through the flames, unrepentant. Then the flames died down, and Bonnie's head slumped to her chest. Slowly, she looked around, dazed.
Elena was also reeling in shock, but she had been half paying attention to Damon, and she spotted the danger. "Damon, wait—" she pleaded, moving in front of him right as he tried to vamp-speed over to attack Bonnie. He crashed into Elena, stumbling and knocking her to the ground. The scent of blood instantly hit the air. Stefan looked away, the scent of Elena's blood straining his self-control.
"What's happening?" Bonnie demanded fearfully.
"Oh, no," Damon breathed, snapped out of his murderous rage by the sight of Katherine's double lying injured on the ground. He knelt by Elena, discovering that she'd hit her head on a rock and fallen unconscious. She was bleeding profusely from a wound that looked likely to be fatal if not treated soon. He quickly bit into his wrist and pressed it to her mouth.
"What are you doing to her?!" Bonnie cried angrily, rushing toward him.
Stefan caught her and held her back. "He's healing her," he murmured quietly.
"Come on, drink up," Damon urged. After what felt like an agonizingly long time, Elena finally swallowed. The wound on her head knitted together.
Bonnie watched anxiously. "Is…is she going to become…"
"No," Damon replied. "She would have to die with my blood in her system."
Elena stirred. "What happened?" she asked groggily.
"Damon nearly killed you," Bonnie said icily.
"I'm sorry," Damon said quietly. "I never meant to hurt you."
"No, you meant to hurt me, didn't you?" Bonnie retorted accusingly.
Damon scowled at her. "I meant to hurt Emily, who just destroyed my one and only chance of rescuing the love of my life after 145 years."
Elena sat up. "That's why you wanted the crystal?"
"Yes."
"But…I thought she was dead."
Damon frowned. "I never did tell you that part, did I." He swallowed, expression darkening again. "After I turned, Emily informed me that she had succeeded in protecting all the vampires from the fire by using the comet to seal them in a tomb underneath the church. A tomb where they will now be sealed for all eternity," he added bitterly. He briefly shut his eyes, then opened them to look at Elena again. He might have lost Katherine forever…but at least he'd been able to save Elena. Admittedly, he was the reason she'd needed saving, but it was better than nothing. She was his only link to Katherine now, and he was even more determined to uncover the connection.
"I'm sorry," Elena said softly.
Damon started in surprise, but for once he actually managed to formulate a response to her sympathy. "Thanks." He looked at her for a moment longer, then stood up and walked away.
Bonnie helped Elena to her feet, giving Damon's retreating figure a wary look. "So…is anyone gonna tell me how I got here?"
Once Elena had explained everything and dropped Bonnie off at her house, she headed home, pondering the night's events. It was easy enough to forgive Damon for hurting her—she knew he hadn't meant to, and she'd seen in his eyes how sincerely sorry he was. It was a little harder to forgive him for trying to attack Bonnie—but he'd had one hell of a reason to be upset, and he'd snapped out of it before actually hurting Bonnie. The truth about Katherine, though…on one hand, Elena found it rather sweet that Damon loved Katherine enough to wait 145 years for her, and she felt bad that it had all been for nothing. But on the other hand, from what she knew of Katherine, Damon deserved better. And she couldn't help but feel a bit of vindictive pleasure in the knowledge that Katherine wouldn't get him.
All right, so maybe Elena was a little jealous of Katherine.
After the girls had left, Stefan went home and found Damon staring into the fireplace, a glass of bourbon in hand. "Katherine never compelled me," he said quietly. "I knew everything, every step of the way. It was real for me."
Stefan wasn't sure how to feel about that. The thought that his brother had gone along with Katherine willingly, even as a human…it seemed that even before they turned, he hadn't known his brother as well as he thought. But now…he'd seen the look on Damon's face, when the latter realized Elena was injured. A part of Stefan wanted to suggest they both get the hell out of town before anyone else got hurt, but another part of him wanted to keep Damon near Elena in the hope that he would get to see that look of raw affection and concern again.
"What are you going to do now?" Stefan finally asked.
"After what happened tonight, I owe Elena a favor. I intend to pay up." With that, Damon set aside his glass and headed upstairs.
When Elena got home, she found Jenna and Jeremy looking through boxes of old family heirlooms. "Hey, by any chance have you seen the old Civil War era journals?" Jenna asked.
"Uh, yeah, I've got one in my room," Elena replied. "Why?"
"Alaric gave Jeremy an extra credit assignment to bring his grade up, and we were thinking he could write about the Gilberts during the Civil War," Jenna explained.
Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Oh, so he's already Alaric now."
Elena laughed nervously. "Uh, not sure you want to write a history paper about that journal. It's full of weird stuff about vampires. I think Johnathan Gilbert was a little loco."
Jeremy shrugged. "Sounds interesting. And hey, it's still a first-hand account of local history."
"Fine," Elena sighed. "Come upstairs, I'll give you the journal."
"Great," Jeremy said happily, following Elena.