Warning: Use of language in this chapter, as well as mentions of blood and death.

Cut Me Open

Bonnie was glad to be finally packing. After receiving a few texts from Elena and having a very lengthy phone conversation with Jer while he was on break, she was dying just sitting around here while everything was going on back home. Which was weird, considering at the beginning how reluctant she'd been to get involved in anything supernatural, especially after her Grams died opening that stupid tomb, and for nothing at that. And yet, these past few weeks, she'd been starting to get a little stir crazy, she had to admit. Maybe it was being away from Mystic Falls, being separated from her heritage and her magic, or maybe she'd just gotten so used to surviving in a state of perpetual stress and anxiety that when she finally stopped...she didn't know what to do with herself. Which was kinda pathetic, truth be told, but it was just that: the truth.

Elena was back, and now she was supposedly going off into the Smoky Mountains to track down Klaus and Stefan on a full moon. And Jeremy had been told not to worry by Alaric, who had supposedly 'taken precautions' and 'called in reinforcements,' whatever that meant. It didn't put her mind at ease. So she was trying to distract herself by packing, pulling a leaf right out of Caroline's book -who hadn't called her back all day after she'd sent her twenty five gazillion videos from last night's party, which was weird and very not-like her, since she was never more than three feet away from her phone -they all were, really, just in case, and also because they just like texting.

Once she got back, though, it would be all systems go. This was their senior year, and Bonnie wasn't stupid enough to think that's they'd be able to get through it scott-free, that there wouldn't be some sort of supernatural apocalypse or catastrophe that they'd have to band together to deal with. She knew that the grimoire that she'd been hiding at the bottom of her laundry basket would be coming out a lot in the weeks ahead for one reason or another.

It was times like this, where everything was quiet, where it was just her and her thoughts, that she wondered about her mom. Being here with her Dad's family made her absence all the more apparent, and now with her Grams gone...she didn't have anyone she could really talk to about all this. Lucie was great and everything, and she's helped her a lot, but she wasn't here. She had her own life to live, and Bonnie didn't want to get in the way of that with all her teen drama. She couldn't tell her how she was scared about Jeremy, how he'd seemed so off this morning, had practically rushed her off the phone for whatever reason. Maybe he wasn't as cool about her being a witch as she'd thought. Maybe he'd changed his mind and wanted to be with somebody normal. Maybe...

Maybe she was overreacting, and should focus on the problems in front of her, rather than making up more that might not even be there in the first place. Like how the heck was she going to get her suitcase closed? Sitting on it always worked in the movies, right? Bonnie reasoned to herself, so she hopped up onto the bed and tried to reach around for the zipper, but the slim piece of metal seemed to have vanished into thin air. With a groan, she got off the bed -and the suitcase- and sent the lump her best 'Sheila Bennett Glare.' Which, of course, did...nothing.

"God, I'm so dumb," Bonnie cursed herself as she waved her hand in the air and began to change, using her magic to zip up the case for her, watching with glee as an almost invisible force seemed to pull it closed.

"Here's hoping all my other problems will be so easily solved."

Deep in the Smoky Mountains, with a summer sunshine blazing on his back and a dead werewolf at his feet, Klaus took a moment for himself to simply relish in the enormity ot the moment, this moment, the moment he'd been working towards all his life, all thousand years of it.

"It's fascinating, actually," he said conversationally to his group of soon-to-be hybrids, a teacher lecturing his students, the uniformed, sharing life's secrets and accrued wisdom. "A werewolf that isn't beholden to the moon, a vampire that can't burn in the sun. A true Hybrid."

At that moment, Ray Sutton's eyes flew open, chest lurching upwards as he fought for breath.

"Excellent timing, Ray," Klaus smirked villainously, never one to share the spotlight. "Very dramatic."

"What's happening to me?"

The Original Hybrid waved his hand in a grand gesture. "Stefan?"

Pushing off the tree he'd been leaning against like some nineteen fifties bad boy, Stefan walked the length of the clearing and called out, "Are any of you human? Your friend here needs human blood to complete his transition to a vampire. If he doesn't get it, he will die."

"Doesn't take much," the blond encouraged in a rare display of geniality. "Just a sip. Anyone?" He was met with only silence, so he continued on. "A boyfriend? A girlfriend, along for the ride?" Klaus turned, senses narrowing to a pin-point. "You."

His fangs descended, and Klaus made quick work of biting the lad, savouring the coppery taste of his blood flooding his mouth, trickling down his throat. He discarded him with a careless toss, and listened with vague interest as Stefan urged Ray to feed from him. "If you don't drink from him, I will. The only problem is, I don't know how to stop." Perhaps it was the low, gravelly tone of his voice, or the hungry truth that shined in the vampire's eyes, but Ray pulled the body towards him and took his fill.

Right. Onto victim Number Two. This one was a wily one, obviously not used to -or liking- being told what to do. Still, he offered her the choice, the choice no one had afforded him all those centuries ago. "You drink, or you die."

The woman shook in his arms with a potent mixture of disgust and rage. "I'd rather die than be a vampire." Such spirit.

"Wrong choice." He fed her his bleeding wrist, and snapped her neck the next minute. "She'll thank me for that later," he said to no one in particular. He could feel the fear in the air, crackling against his skin, stoking his own wolf to the surface. He was the predator here. He was the one in control. He was the one that would soon be untouchable, never to be afraid, only to be feared for the remainder of eternity. If only Mikael could see him now. Oh, how the bastard would cower at the sight, right before Klaus ripped his blackened heart from his chest.

But first... "Okay, who's next?"

"A couple hours, the full moon's gonna rise just above that ridge," Ric told her as they made their lengthy climb through the mountains while she pretended like she wasn't exhausted simply looking at how far they had to go, let alone actually climbing it. "If Tyler's right, that's where the pack will be."

"You were a Boy Scout, weren't you?" Elena teased him as she walked behind him, careful to make sure that she didn't stand on anything sharp or spikey, of which there was a lot. But what else should she have expected? They weren't exactly walking around a theme park, where they? Still, it would have been nice if there was a conveniently placed tree stump or bench or a heard of horses that would magically pop out of nowhere and take them up the mountain, maybe even offer them some iced tea while they were at it.

"Shut up," Ric told her indignantly, but Elena was on a roll; the laughter was keeping her sane.

"A Boy Scout slash Vampire Slayer."

"Slash whiskey drinking, all-around lost cause," he finished, and she felt her heart twinge in her chest at his words, at how hurt he was, and how hard he's tried to hide it, but worst of all was how she hasn't been there in the first place to see it.

Slinging his backpack off his shoulder, Alaric set it down as she stashed her water bottle in her own bag. "Wow, you came stocked," Elena remarked as took stock of all the weapons he'd managed to stuff in there.

"Well, we aren't exactly bird watching, are we?" was his dry reply.

Fair point.

He reached into a pocket, taking something out and holding it out to her. "Here, put that in your bag."

"Vervain grenade?" the brunette guessed but stowed it away, content not to argue with him when it came to being safe and prepared.

"Wolfsbane," he corrected her, adjusting several crossbows before closing up the backpack.

"Well, since we're exchanging gifts," Elena said as she pulled out the object she'd placed in the pocket of her shorts and been checking every five minutes, paranoid that it had fallen out in the climb.

"That's John Gilbert's ring," Alaric exclaimed with avid puzzlement, surveying the shining ring with an uncertain expression.

"It was yours once," Elena reminded him gently, holding it closer to him. "Go ahead, take it. It'll protect you from whatever supernatural mess we're about to get ourselves into."

He protested, "He gave it to you."

Elena argued back with, "But I'm a doppelgänger, it's not gonna work on me." She shrugged, as if her next words didn't effect her, as if it wasn't something she ever thought about, especially not after that day on the beach with Elijah and Daisy. "He left it for if I ever have kids."

"Yeah, well why don't you save it for future generations of stubborn, relentless baby Gilberts?"

She posed a compromise. "Okay, how about you borrow it until we survive this?" She added with a crooked grin, "I'd feel bad if I got you killed before happy hour."

Ric smiled, clearly worn down by her charming personality, irrefutable logic and witty humour, and took the ring from her waiting palm. Grinning victoriously, Elena tossed her backpack and shucked off her shirt, saying over her shoulder, "I don't know why you think you're a lost cause," before a force barreled into her from behind, tearing a startled scream from her throat as she hurtled off the cliff and into the frigid water below.

Her attacker was none other than the raven-haired, Camaro-driving, Bourbon-drinking bestie of her current travel companion.

"Damon!" Elena yelled up at him. "How are you even here?"

"Thanks for the tip, brother," Damon said by way of explanation,

The dripping doppelgänger turned to her History teacher, almost unable to feel the cold chill of the water: her anger and betrayal were keeping her warm just fine. "You sold me out," she accused, not even trying to contain her hurt; they'd been having a moment, father-daughter bonding and all that. Wasn't it surrogate daughter before drinking buddies?

"Did you really think I'd take you into a mountain range of werewolves on a full moon without backup?" Alaric called out to her in a tone of disbelief.

A third voice called out from the shadows of the foliage. "Indeed, that would have been remarkably stupid of you."

Elena knew that voice. She'd been listening to that voice for the last three weeks, had heard it's owners last words playing over in her head on repeat like a broken record all day, slicing her open, leaving her raw, until only the thought of making sure that it was all worth it -that she actually found Stefan- kept her going. Elena loved that voice, the way it could purr in amusement or growl in protective rage when provoked, especially when it came to protecting her. She loved the way he said her name, took the time to stress some syllables and be softer on others, just like he'd been so soft with her.

"Elijah."

Hearing Elena Gilbert say his name did things to Elijah's senses that he'd never admit to aloud. It had been not even a day -twelve hours, to be exact- since he'd seen her last, and yet in that time he'd been able to descend to a level of misery he had not felt since the death of his beloved Celeste some two hundred years ago. So he could only look on with cool immovability as the elder Salvatore ordered her, "Get out of the water, Elena."

But of course, she wasn't having any of that. "If I get out of the water, you're gonna make me go home."

"Yeah, because I'm not an idiot like you," the younger vampire retorted back petulantly, and Elijah took great pains to restrain himself from removing his head from his body for daring to talk to Elena like that.

"Right now you're both acting like idiots," Alaric remarked disappointedly as he watched their verbal sparring match. He tossed the Original a look that he assumed meant, 'You're a thousand years old, can't you get in there and sort this out?' but if he really thought that he had any staying power over Elena Gilbert, then he really didn't know her at all. Alaric didn't even know him, and yet he'd called him anyway, explaining what Elena had planned with such worry that only a parent can convey in so few words. 'Look, I know that you've spent the last couple weeks with her, that you've taken care of her, and I think she cares about you, a lot. So if you care about her, come out here before she walks into a bloodbath, before your brother can get his hands on her. We both know how badly that would end.'

So here he was, just a few miles away from his brother and a few short feet from the woman who held his heart, his past and his present colliding. Nothing good could come from such a thing.

"Aren't you going to ask why Elijah's here?" Elena inquired to Damon, a blatant distraction if there ever was one, buying herself time as she treaded water. He'd give her ten minutes, ten minutes to stand her ground, and if she wasn't out by then, he'd drag her out himself, if only because he didn't want her to get hypothermia.

"Ric told me all about your 'What I Did On My Summer Vacation: Originals Edition,' and right now, I don't care. All I care about is getting you to think straight and getting you home before you get yourself killed, which you seem so very hell-bent on doing."

Elena crossed her arms, splashing out gentle ripples to the shore with her movements. "You have up on him, Damon," she accused in a tone that would bring most men to their knees to plead for her forgiveness.

Except Damon Salvatore, it seemed.

"I didn't give up on him, Elena. I faced reality." He once again demanded, "Get out of the water!"

"No!" she shot back just as angrily.

"I could have told you she'd say that and saved you the trouble," Elijah remarked casually, sliding his hands into his trouser pockets.

"Go to hell, you android freak," Damon thundered before making his way down the bank and into the water. "What's your big plan, Elena? Huh? You gonna walk through a campsite full of werewolves and roast marshmallows and wait for Stefan to stop by?" he sneered cruelly, coming to a stop in front of her.

Elena said gently, "My plan is to find him and to help him. Damon, this is the closest that we've been to him since he left. Even I haven't gotten so close in all the time Elijah and I spent searching for him. I'm not going home!"

Damon decided to pull out the Intimidation Card from his bag of particular tricks. "Klaus thinks you died when he broke the curse. That makes you safe. This," he spread his arms, encompassing the lake and their current situation, "this is not safe.*Don't you think you've courted danger enough these past weeks doing what you did?"

"That's what I said," Ric chimed in unhelpfully as he strung one of his crossbows, and Elijah held in a disbelievingly scoff. He was an Original: he never would have let any harm come to her, would have rather died -and still would- than see her anywhere near Niklaus. Who did they take him for? An idiot?

Their protests fell on death ears. Elena was a bull in a china shop -an incredibly gorgeous, smart, funny, amazing bull in an albeit watery and dangerous china shop. "I'm not leaving before we find him."

"It's a full moon tonight," Damon reminded her.

"Then we'll find him before then." She paused, then beseeched him, "Damon, please." Even from here, Elijah could clearly see how Elena was looking at the younger vampire, how her eyes shined with equal worry and pleading, and how that vampire's resolve crumbled under the intensity and ferocity of her assault. And she'd barely had to say a word. She had eyes that could bring kings and their empires to their knees, if only to see them glow with the happiness Elijah had been lucky enough to witness for himself.

Alaric sighed, looking unimpressed by the fact that his best friend was so clearly wrapped around the finger of his daughter.

"Okay, okay," the Salvatore folded. "But we are out of there before the moon's full."

Elena nodded, smiling gratefully. "I promise."

His next words piqued Elijah's interest immensely. "Unless you wanna do that whole death-bed kissy thing."

"I said I promise," she reiterated before Damon let out a bedraggled, "Fine," and headed back to dry land. Elena took her time getting out of the water, though, her teeth chattering hard enough to shake her jaw. He found himself moving to her side instantly, crossing the speck of sand and taking off his jacket before handing it out to her. He would have put it on her himself, but he wasn't quite sure where they stood at present, and deemed it best to give her space.

"Thanks, I'm freezing," Elena managed to get out before slipping the jacket over her bare shoulders, and then robbed him of any illusions of where they stood as she wrapped her arms around him. "I can't believe you're here," she murmured into the material of his shirt, her damp hair clinging to his neck in wet tendrils. He held her closer, feeling a piece of himself slot back into it's rightful home now that she was in his arms.

"Of course I did, sweetheart. I didn't even entertain the possibilty of not coming out after you. I would never wish for you to do something like this alone. All I ask is that you be careful."

"I will be," she assured him, moving out of his embrace to grip his hand. "We're in this together, until the bitter and likely very scary end."

"Hey, you two finished up your reunion down there? Despite offering to be the bait, I kinda don't want to get eaten if you don't mind, so time is kinda of the essence," Damon remarked, his jealousy remarkably apparent; Elijah surprised the younger vampire hadn't turned as green as the Grinch by now. Not that he cared, of course, but he was -unfortunately- right.

"We'll be right there!" Elena said and began to pull him up the path and into whatever danger lay ahead.

The sun was cresting in the sky, painting the campsite in stripes of golden yellow, a pretty contrast to all the greenery. Not that Stefan was taking much notice as he leant against a tree surrounded by dead werewolves, watching on as Ray moaned in pain to his sire, "I thought you said it was gonna feel better. Why doesn't it feel better?" Indeed, the poor guy looked worse, covered in blood as he was with more dripping from his eyes with every blink.

Klaus crossed his arms, every muscle tight with restrained power and... concern.

"Some master race," he commented to the hybrid dryly, and was rewarded with a particularly terse, "Lose the attitude." Frowning, Klaus ordered without taking his eyes from Ray, "Derrick, come feed your girlfriend." At the human's approached, Ray bolted, vaulting over an upturned log and dashing off into the depths of the mountain.

"Go get him," Klaus commanded in a tone that expected to be obeyed without question or hesitation, and regretfully Stefan did neither as he sped off after the transitioning hybrid.

And what did he get for his troubles? A werewolf bite, that's what, ironically in the same place that his brother had been bitten. The universe certainly didn't like him much, did it? It was because of that bite that when he heard the voices, he almost thought that he'd imagine them, although Stefan knew that the hallucination stage of the Werewolf Bite Package wasn't until later, not a few minutes.

"How you doing?" Damon was asking, and a voice responded in a way that meant it could only belong to one person grumbled, "I'm fine."

His brother continued to his girlfriend, "You know I can help you..."

"No thanks."

"I'd be more than happy to carry you over my shoulder-" Damon began but was cut off by Elijah -Elijah?- exclaiming, "I believe when a woman says no, Mr Salvatore, she generally means it, and repeated asking of the same tedious question does not alter their minds in any way."

"He's right, Damon. Besides, knowing my luck you'd drop me," Elena added with a smile in her voice.

"What are you guys, twelve?" Ric interjected, and then the rest of their conversation was eaten up by the mountainside, but Stefan doubted he would have remembered any of it, anyway.

Elena was here. Elena and Damon were here. The two most important people in his life were barely a mile from the most evil and vicious being on the entire planet, a being he now heard coming up behind him and interrogating, "Where did he go?"

"He got away," Stefan told him, trying to sound as contrite as possible. "Let's go."

Klaus froze him with a strong grip on his forearm, baring the mauled flesh for his inspection. "Fatal werewolf bite," he observed dispassionately and insultingly -as if Stefan didn't know what one looked like by now. "Ouch."

"Yeah, I'm gonna need your blood to heal me," Stefan stated matter-of-factly, but this was Klaus, and therefore nothing was ever simple, there was no give or take, and he was never one to pass up an opportunity to remind everyone that he was the most powerful person in the room: the one with all the power.

"Well, tell you what: you find Ray, and I'll heal you," he dropped Stefan's arm and gave him a smile like he was Mother Teresa.

Stefan shook his head in awed disbelief. "You can't be serious."

Klaus gave him a look that implied otherwise. "You better hurry; that bite looks nasty."

Damon was talking, but he didn't think Elena was listening. All she seemed to be interested in was Elijah flipping Mikaelson, who was at that very moment offering her his hand so that she could jump over a fallen tree limb. Love in the making. It made him want to gag, or wish that Stefan had just let him die of that werewolf bite; he would have preferred it to having this nauseating front-row seat to Robby The Original Robot putting the moves on Stefan's girlfriend and the love of his life.

"I'm aware, Damon," Elena huffed as she walked up beside him, so maybe he hadn't given her enough credit.

"Mr Salvatore, don't you think things would go more smoothly of you refrained from treating Miss Gilbert like she doesn't know what she's doing? She's well aware of the promise she made to you, but unfortunately one can not put a time frame on these sorts of expeditions."

Damon bit his tongue, literally, to stop him ripping out Elijah's. "And don't you think, Mr Mikaelson, that you're not very well equipped to make judgements on mine and Elena's relationship given the fact that you've known her all of ten seconds?" he fired back with, overjoyed to see the elder vampire's jaw twitch with either frustration or annoyance, he couldn't tell, but Damon was more than happy to take the win.

"Can we not play the whole 'Who's Known Elena Longer?' game and stay focused on what we actually came here to do?" Elena beseeched them. "As in finding Stefan and not dying in the process?"

"Of course. We'll be civil, Elena."

Damon snorted. "Speak for yourself, buddy."

It was at that time that a shape came plundering towards them out of the woods, stumbling into the clearing. "Vampire," the guy that Damon could only assume was Ray Sutton -given the 'Missing Person's' report he'd read only this morning had a picture of someone who looked just like him, minus the gore- snarled at them, lunging forward to no doubt take a piece out of him - Damon wasn't lucky enough for Ray's intended target to be Elijah- but Ric was quick on the draw and the man soon had a crossbow bolt embedded in his back. He didn't seem all that bothered by it, though, since he just kept coming, Terminator style, pining Damon to the forest floor and lunging for him.

He managed to get him off his chest and flip him, but the guy sprang up to his feet in a move that Damon didn't doubt wasn't anything to do with being a werewolf. So, a Hybrid then. Awesome. All he needed was more Klaus'.

Thinking on her feet, Elena called out his name and lobbed something in his direction, a Wolfsbane grenade, and he detonated in Ray's face, watching grimly as the man exploded with angry red welts.

"Would the Original in the room please stand up and lend a fellow a hand?" Damon asked sourly, especially when Elijah proceeded to pin Ray to a nearby tree with seemingly no effort. Fucking show-off.

"Have you got anything to hold him down with? He won't be neutralized for very long."

"Sure." Elena and Ric searched through their bags and emerged with some heavy chains which they used to tie the semi-conscious hybrid to the tree. After a few minutes, his skin calmed down, returning to it's previous sickly pallor.

Ever the bleeding heart, Elena cried with no short amount of sympathy, "He's dying,"

"How do you know that?" Ric asked at the same time Damon snarked, "Since when do you have a PhD in Werewolf?"

"His body can't handle the transition, it's breaking down. Klaus missed a step, a key ingredient in the recipe, so to say."

"And what's that?" Damon questioned her, folding.

"Me."

"What do you mean, 'you'? You how?" Damon barked at her in a tone that Elijah didn't like or agree with, not for a moment, but he knew Elena wouldn't want him to step in, not just yet. Although he felt severely disinclined to respect her wishes, given the secret she'd been keeping, but that was a discussion for another time, far away from immature vampires and worried guardians.

"Klaus was born a werewolf, right?" Elena began, gaze skating back to Ray with every other heartbeat. "When the Original Witch cursed him, she took that into account, and used a binding agent for the spell to work."

"The blood of the doppelgänger," Elijah pieced together, feeling icy-cold dread sluice through him at his own words.

"Exactly, like the moonstone in the fake Sun and Moon Curse. For normal werewolves that ingest vampire blood, they can't handle the two halves at once; it's like a virus attacking their system, a foreign entity, hence their blood going into overdrive and coming out like it has with Ray, likely trying to purge itself of what it deems an infection, because to them, it is. I think my blood is what stabilizes the two halves, allows them to co-exist in the same host, if you will. I know it sounds crazy but..."

"Actually, it's most ingenious," Elijah admitted, loathe as he was to do so. "A failsafe our mother put in place for if Niklaus ever did succeed in breaking the curse. Should that occur, the doppelgänger would be dead, as is required, and he'd have no way of making successful hybrids. She cheated him, in order to avoid an imbalance in nature's order."

"Exactly. Vampires were never supposed to exist in the first place, let alone werewolf-vampire mash-ups."

"Okay, awesome, Biology lesson over. Because I'm sure no one here doesn't understand what that means for you, Elena: the last place you should be is anywhere near Klaus or werewolves. We need to go. Now."

"Not until I help Ray," Elena insisted, going into her backpack and producing a bottle of water.

"What, you gonna give doggie a sip? I don't think he likes sparkling water, Elena."

Elena snapped, "Shut up, Damon," before unscrewing the lid off her bottle. Elijah had a feeling he knew what she was thinking, as he always did, and he was sure he wasn't going to like it. Indeed, when she pulled out a pocket knife and sliced open her palm, he was most certainly not comfortable.

After letting a few drops fall, Elena close the lid and wrapped a bandage around her hand before giving the bottle a firm shake, her blood turning the water a light red. As she made to approach the rumpled hybrid, Elijah caught at her wrist, inching her towards him.

"Your compassion is a gift, Elena," he murmured as he re-tightened her bandage more securely around her wound. "Please don't let it be what causes you harm."

She squeezed back, albeit awkwardly. "I won't."

Elijah let her go, watching her intently as she took careful, tentative steps towards Ray. At her approach, the hybrid blinked, eyes large with fear, no doubt expecting some sort of attack.

"Hi," Elena smiled, and he seemed to relax somewhat -what man wouldn't when seeing a smile like that?- as she met his frightened gaze. "You're Ray, right? Ray Sutton. I'm Elena, Elena Gilbert. I know you're in a lot of pain, and I'm so sorry about that: I never wanted this to happen to anyone, I never wanted innocent wolves to get hurt. But I can give you something that will make you better, if you'll let me."

"Why?" the hybrid croaked out tiredly. "Why would you want to help me? You don't even know me."

"True," Elena acknowledged ruefully, "but I've never been a person to turn away from someone in pain, whether I know them or not. What Klaus did to you was wrong, it wasn't your choice, but you can choose to let me help you now."

Ray paused, but eventually gave her a nod. Elena brought the bottle to his lips, and the assembled group watched with bated breathe for something to happen.

A minute. Then another. And another. Then...

He healed. The blood stopped running from his eyes, and his breathing evened out. Elena was right, her blood was the key, and now there was another Hybrid alive in the world.

Ray broke free of his chains with a few quick jerks, shaking them off like they were mere strings and not solid metal. He looked at Elena and said with such sincere gratitude, "Thank you," before the sound of bones snapping reached their ears, and soon Ray was on all fours, yellow eyes shining brightly, reflecting the dying sun.

Then he was gone, darting into the treeline.

He and Damon shared a look.

The other vampire nodded, and rushed off after him.

"Here, doggie doggie," Damon called out as he chased after wolf-Ray. "Why don't you get a nice slice of tasty vampire pie? I'm told I'm real delicious to you guys." Ray couldn't be left alive, on that both he and Elijah agreed. It was too dangerous, the threat his very existence posed to Elena if he got word back to Klaus of what she'd done for him, how she'd saved him. Elena was, once again, the seat at Starbucks by the window, near where the phone chargers where: the one thing everybody wanted.

A snarl, a flash, and then Ray was on him, trying to scratch at any available inch of flesh. He pushed him with all his strength, but Ray was at full-power thanks to his Elena top-up, and he found himself once again facing the prospect of another fatal werewolf bite.

That was, of course, until Stefan saved his life.

"What the hell was I thinking?" Elena scrubbed at her face, feeling the material of Elijah's jacket whip across her cheeks. "He's a hybrid, he can kill Damon with a bite, we won't be able to get any of Klaus' blood. Oh, God, what was I thinking?"

"Less worry, more walking," Ric ordered as he shouldered their bags. "We need to get out of here. Now."

"You're right, we do, but not without Damon."

"Elena, he'll be fine," her teacher promised her, bit she couldn't tell who he was trying to convince: her or himself.

"I'm the reason he's out here, Ric! I'm not leaving without him!"

"I was the one that called him and told him where we were, just like I did Elijah. It wasn't safe for either of them, yet they came anyway. For you. And neither will be too happy if we just stand around and you end up hurt. Isn't that right, Elijah?"

"It is, Mr Saltzman," Elijah said from behind her, imploding with those beautiful, dark eyes of his. "Please, Elena. You need to put your own safety first for a change. Damon will be fine."

"You promise?"

"I give you my word. I'll go find him myself," he offered grimly, "if that is what you wish."

"No, don't," Elena shook her head at him. "The last thing I need is to worry about you, too. Especially if Klaus realizes you're here, and he puts you right back in that coffin. I have to trust that Damon can handle this."

Damon could certainly not handle himself, was the thought running through Stefan's head as he pulled Ray's heart from his chest, watching as it pattered to the leaf-strewn ground.

He reached down, offering Damon a hand. His brother got up with an impassioned groan, winching slightly as he settled on his feet.

"Fancy meeting you here."

"What part of 'Don't Follow Me Anymore' got lost in translation?" Stefan thundered at him breathlessly, trying to stay steady on his own feet.

"Yeah, well, maybe you should stop with the late-night phone calls then, brother," Damon remarked, blue eye burning, yet Stefan detected just the faintest hints of gratitude and relief.

Stefan shook his head. "I didn't call her."

"Sure you did," Damon replied. "So, I'm guessing you heard all of Elena's little 'Show and Tell' demonstration?"

"Every word. Which is why you need to get her home, and see if you can keep her there this time."

Damon sighed, tossing him his patented, 'I Think You're Being An Idiot' look. Stefan hated that look. "She's not going to stop looking for you, Stef. She's not ever going to stop. Not until you're sitting at home with your diary and watching Bambi on the couch together. She loves you, don't you get that? And when has Elena Gilbert ever done the smart thing and given up on someone, even if she knows she'll get hurt?"

"This isn't about her getting hurt, Damon: this is about keeping her alive. Klaus is smart, he'll find out what's missing, and he'll come for her. She needs to go."

"She's not gonna give up."

"Well she has to, because I'm not coming back!" Stefan sighed, closing his eyes before asking his brother once again to, "Get her home, Damon. And watch your back; I don't trust Elijah around her."

Damon raised a brow. "Jealous, are we?"

Stefan raised one right back. "Aren't you?"

"Be careful."

"I don't care about being careful," he told him, "I only care that she's alive at the end of all this, and now it's your job to make sure of that."

When he found his way back to the campsite empty-handed -he wasn't empty-handed exactly, it was more like Ray was the one with an empty chest cavity- Stefan thought that this was it, Klaus wouldn't give him his blood and he'd die of a werewolf bite, because oh, the irony. After watching him rage for several minutes about how 'It should have worked!' and making sure nothing he'd just learned showed on his face -Stefan had always been good at Poker, but never as good as his brother- Klaus eventually bit into his wrist and poured his blood into an empty beer bottle, his comment of, 'I guess you're the only comrade I have left,' sending chills down his spine that had nothing to do with the cold sweat on his t-shirt.

But he had to keep going, had to keep moving forward; there was no way he could ever go back.

Still, he couldn't not see her, just the once. He saw how she clung to Elijah's side, saw how she worried over his brother as he manhandled her into the car, and her bristling comment of, 'Stop being such a caveman,' would have made him laugh any other day.

Just not today.

He saw her, and he knew she saw him.

They'd always been able to see each other.

Which was why he hoped he'd never see her again.

Caroline didn't think that anyone was coming to rescue her. It wasn't that she didn't want or hope to be rescued, but more the fact she was in some creepy torture dungeon with hardly any light and she couldn't hear anything nearby, so she guessed she wasn't anywhere close, which totally sucked. Why did stuff like this always have to happen to her, especially right in the crucial moment of her relationships? Tyler probably thought she wasn't interested in him anymore or had just used him for sex which wasn't true she really liked him, she might even...the other 'L' word maybe, in time.

If this was some sort of 'intervention' of Mrs Lockwood's in an effort to get her to stop seeing her son, Caroline totally didn't approve of her methods. A nice sit-down would have been fine, with some tea and cucumber sandwiches on those fancy doilies...

Caroline stopped thinking about doilies when she heard the tell-tale pattering of a heartbeat descending what she assumed was a set of stairs.

"Hello?" she called out, rattling her heavy chains. "Hello? Mrs Lockwood? Mrs Lockwood!"

But it wasn't the stern yet graceful town mayor of Mystic Falls, the one who had always told her to wipe her feet and wash her hands and who had praised her for having such neat colouring, although it was someone who had also known her since she was born, before that even.

"Hello, Caroline."

Despite not needing oxygen, she felt like she couldn't breathe. "Daddy?"

Author's Note: Hi, everyone! It's me, back with another chapter. This was super tricky to write, blending canon with non-canon, so I hope I did an okay job. The Elejah fight will be at the start of the next chapter, which will also include a POV from a different character, one you don't see a lot of in fic. As always, feel free to leave a review and tell me your thoughts!

Happy Friday!

All my love, Temperance Cain.