Then, suddenly, a hooded figure appeared in the middle of the road. Elena slammed on her brakes, but it was too late. Her car plowed into the man, and the world turned upside down.

When Elena regained her bearings, she realized that her car had flipped. Her seatbelt was keeping her imprisoned in her seat, but that wasn't her biggest problem just now. The man she'd hit was getting up, his bones audibly snapping back into place. He stalked toward her. Elena struggled fruitlessly against her seatbelt, panic washing over her. The man reached her car and started to bend down. Elena screamed.

Suddenly, the man ran away, blurring into the distance. Moments later, Damon crouched by the shattered driver's seat window. "How ya doin' in there?"

Damon soon freed Elena from the wreckage of her car. Unfortunately, shock seemed to be setting in, and she could barely stand up. She mumbled something about everyone lying to her, then passed out in his arms.

Damon stroked her hair, trying to decide what to do. He considered giving her some blood, but her injuries didn't seem to be as serious this time. He checked for broken bones. Nothing. She was a bit banged up, but she'd heal fine on her own.

So. What to do with the unconscious girl in his arms? He couldn't just leave her here, especially since he was fairly certain a vampire had just tried to attack her. He could take her back to her house, but given what she'd said about lies, he imagined she wasn't in the mood to see her aunt just then. He could take her to Bonnie's house, but he didn't fancy explaining why he had a battered and unconscious Elena in his arms. He doubted Bonnie would believe it honestly wasn't his fault this time. He supposed that really only left one option.

Elena slowly came around to the sounds of country music playing through car speakers. She was strapped into the passenger seat of an old car, and in the driver's seat was…

"Morning," Damon said cheerfully.

Elena looked around. She didn't recognize her surroundings at all. "Where are we?"

"Georgia."

"What?" Elena clutched her head, still looking around. "What are we doing in Georgia?"

"I need to see a witch about a spell, you seem to need a break from your life, and you clearly shouldn't be allowed near motor vehicles without a vampire nearby to save you."

"Vampire." Elena stiffened. "There was a man—I hit a man—but then he got up, and—who was that?"

"That's what I would like to know," Damon said grimly.

"So it wasn't…did you deal with Logan?"

Damon scowled. "Somebody did, but it wasn't me. Logan knew someone else who wants to get into that tomb, someone who thinks it's possible without the crystal, but then the Sheriff showed up and our conversation was cut short. We were going to meet up to discuss it further, but someone got to him before we could. Hence, going to see a witch about a spell."

"And you just decided to kidnap me and take me along?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, next time I'll just leave you to die, shall I?"

Elena stared at her lap. "Thanks," she said after a moment.

Damon eyed her with concern. "How ya feeling?"

"Ugh," Elena groaned. "My head hurts and my entire life is a lie."

"I can help with the first one, but there's not much I can do about the second."

Elena checked her phone and saw two missed calls from Jenna. Suddenly angry, she switched off her phone. Jenna wasn't really her aunt anyway, why should she have to let Jenna know where she was? "You know, it's a school day today."

"My apologies, am I keeping you from attending class with Stefan the liar?"

Elena contemplated this, then leaned back in her seat. "Georgia sounds good right now."

Bonnie was concerned when Elena didn't show up to their shared history class. She texted her friend under the desk to ask where she was, but there was no response. By the time the bell rang again, Bonnie had texted two more times, still with no response. She caught up to Stefan on her way out of class.

"Hey, do you have any idea where Elena is?"

Stefan winced. "Probably avoiding me. She's kind of mad at me right now."

Bonnie frowned. "Even when we thought you were some paranormal stalker with a vendetta against her, she didn't skip class. And she's not responding to my texts."

"Ask her brother?" Stefan suggested, not knowing what else to say. Bonnie sighed and walked away.

When they finally arrived at Bree's Bar, Elena was…surprised, at the welcome Damon received. Bree was an old flame, that much was clear. And Elena was rather annoyed by the gnawing pit of jealousy in her stomach. What right did she have to be jealous, when she had promised herself that Damon was off limits—at least for now?

"So, how'd he rope you in?" Bree asked, jerking Elena out of her thoughts.

"Technically, he kidnapped me," Elena replied.

"You were unconscious, I couldn't exactly ask you where you wanted to go!" Damon said defensively. "And you were headed out of town anyway, so I figured you didn't want to be taken home."

Bree snorted, clearly amused. "You certainly do know how to charm a girl."

A/N: And that's as far as I wrote. Since Lexi is still alive and Bonnie didn't nearly die at Fell's Church, that kinda removed all sources of conflict from the episode, and I drew a blank trying to invent new ones. As I said before, I'm not opposed to continuing this if I get new inspiration, but I doubt it's going to happen any time soon. Sorry to leave you hanging, but I hope you enjoyed what I had!