Chapter 4: Tight strings

Caroline had spent the whole day reassuring everyone that she was alright. After her breakfast with Enzo, she had more or less been handed over to Bonnie. She wanted to examine her magically which included her hands hovering above Caroline's head and stomach while she chanted something over and over. It had been difficult for Caroline to keep herself from giggling at the sight and she was relieved once it was over.

Afterwards, having cleansed her aura or whatever and having found everything to be as much in order as possible, considering her current state, Bonnie took out her laptop and they watched a few episodes of a new show on Netflix together. Ric had left the hospital to take a shower and get some food over at his place, when he got back he joined them for a few episodes.

They were about to start the second season when Caroline finally spoke up from having been deep in thought for the last hour. "Bonnie?" she said carefully to the brunette crawled up next to her in the hospital bed.

She blinked at her in confusion. "Yeah, Care? Something wrong?"

"No, nothing. It's just… I got this crazy sweet-tooth and thought I'd go get some snacks from the vending machine but my feet are killing me." she lied with a smile and shook her head. "Could you go get some Skittles or something, if you don't mind?"

"Sure." she said with a soft smile and stood up to leave. She stopped at the doorframe. "Want some coffee, Ric?" she asked him.

He nodded. "That would be great, thanks. If you don't mind?" he grimaced and twisted a little in his chair next to the bed.

Bonnie shook her head. "Not at all, I'll be back in a few minutes." she said and smiled at Caroline once more before leaving.

"I need to tell you something." Caroline said to Ric and started fumbling with her hands nervously.

He looked bewildered for a moment before turning towards her. "What it is, Caroline?" he asked.

She took a deep breath before starting. "I was going down to the vending machine this morning while you were sleeping and I borrowed your jacket…" she said and got up from the bed, walking towards the jacket where she'd hung it next to the door.

"I forgot to bring my wallet so I thought I'd just borrow some money from you and then…" she rummaged through the pockets until she found the paper and held it up for Ric to see. "Then I found this." she said and walked over to him, handing him the paper.

He looked down at it with a frown.

"Those are your vows to Jo, right?" she said carefully. "I don't think I could ever forget that speech because it was kind of the most romantic thing I've ever heard." she smiled nervously. "So I recognized it and… Why are you carrying it in your wallet, Ric?" she asked with a soft voice and sat down on the edge of the bed.

He was silent for a long moment before he answered, not looking up at her. "It probably sounds a little morbid but…" he began and folded the paper properly, since she'd nearly crumpled and ripped it in her hurry to hide it from Enzo.

"To remind myself of that day." he explained and met her patient look. "Of what I lost." His eyes looked sad but a small smile spread across his lips despite it. "Because that way I'll never forget just how lucky I am." he told her and shrugged.

Then he took on of her hands in both of his, having put the paper in his pants pocket. He looked into her eyes with a soft expression. "I am forever grateful and blessed for, against all the odds, still getting these babies." he said with a low voice and nodded at her stomach. "My kids." he said with a wide smile.

She looked at him softly, sensing he had more to say and waiting patiently for him to get it off his chest.

He took a deep breath before continuing. "And I want to start my life over, with them and spend the rest of my days with them and never ever forget just how lucky we all are for being where we are…" he explained and looked thoughtful for a moment before studying her eyes. "You can come with us, if you want to." he said.

She froze. "T-to Dallas?" she stuttered.

"I know we wrote the option off all too quickly without really considering your feelings about it." he said apologetically and squeezed both of her hands in his. "But… You are always welcome to stay with me and the twins. For however long you want."

She looked into his eyes for what felt like forever, completely stunned by his words. "I… I thought you didn't want to raise them near vampires." she said, shaking her head in confusion.

"I think you define the only exception here." he said with an amused smile. "You are giving me my life back, Caroline. Do you realize that? You are giving me the family I wanted, the future I lost and the dreams I gave up on… And I can never repay you for it. But I will try, for the rest of my life. Starting with this; if you want to leave Mystic Falls and start over with us, we'd be lucky to have you."

"I…" she breathed, feeling her heart clench in her chest. Was he really asking her…? Did he mean it? Could this actually work? Could she stay with the twins? Could she live with them instead of trying to find out how to go on without them? "I don't know if I can…" she whispered.

"We can transfer you to the university there and get you moved into a dorm, or you can stay with me and help me once these little kickers show up." he suggested with a smile. "We can do this, together. We can start over, leave all of the pain and heartbreak behind… Jo and your mother…"

She flinched at his mentioning her mom and swallowed hard as it still stung and took her breath away whenever she thought about her.

"You deserve to have at least a fraction of your human life back, Caroline." he told her with a nod. "And if you want it, it's yours. We'll leave the supernatural drama far behind and never look back… And-and Stefan! You can bring Stefan with you if you want too."

Stefan, right. Speaking of him; Where the hell is he!? She thought and felt really nervous all of a sudden, breathing rapidly as her heart raced away.

"Just… Just think about it, okay?" he said and stroked the back of her hands with his thumbs. "I've got a good feeling about that job interview and if I end up getting hired then I'll be able to put a bid on this little house I found that's great with a big yard in this calm neighborhood next to a nice park and… And you can be there, with us."

She snapped her eyes up to study him at the last word. Us. There could be an 'us'. She wouldn't have to forget about the babies or move on from them… She could be a part of their lives… Or could she?

An image suddenly flashed before her eyes. Two small girls in a backseat, one staring up at her with wide eyes.

"Mommy? Where are we going?"

She shivered as the picture passed as quickly as it had appeared, having been enough to rattle her completely and nearly forget that Alaric was technically waiting for an answer.

"I-I have to think about it." she breathed out.

He nodded. "Of course, take all the time you need." he assured her.

"They were out of Skittles –" Bonnie's voice made them flinch and drop each other's hands almost immediately, feeling like they'd been caught doing something wrong. "Is everything ok?" Bonnie asked when she noticed their nervous faces.

"Yeah, everything's fine." Caroline said with a nervous smile. "Um, I'm just going to use the bathroom really quick." she announced and got up from the bed, walking quickly into the adjoined bathroom. Leaving Bonnie confused and Alaric worried in the other room.

As she splashed some water over her face, she leaned against the faucet with a hand and covered her mouth with the other. Feeling tears run down her cheeks as images kept flooding her mind.

"Shhh, don't wake up your sister."

She shivered as she remembered seeing herself in that car… Driving somewhere…

"To visit mommy's friend."

What's happening? she thought to herself, covering her face with both of her hands as she breathed loudly and shallowly. Heart pounding in her chest, trying to break free from her memories poured through her like a waterfall, suddenly drowning her with everything at once.

Flashes.

Images.

Sounds.

The car that almost hit her, sitting in the passenger seat with herself as the driver…

"Where are we going?"

"To visit mommy's friend."

But there was something missing… She felt it… What was it?

She saw trees. Everywhere. Woods. And then buildings.

"To visit mommy's friend."

She was suddenly walking down an empty street. Winds blowing past her. Whispers in the air.

"To visit mommy's friend."

She walked across the street, towards an alleyway. There she saw herself again. With someone else. A man with dirty blonde hair and a long grey coat.

"To New Orleans. To visit Mommy's friend."

The words were suddenly clear as day in her head as she remembered all of it.

As she remembered Klaus being in that place… In that dream…

His words rung in her ears as he talked to the other Caroline, his hand cupping her cheek and sending warmth all the way to the real Caroline's skin.

"Is this a mirage?"

She gasped aloud as she stared at her own reflection in the bathroom mirror. The images were gone but the memories remained. All of them. Leaving an unsettling feeling in her stomach as she tried to figure out what the dream had meant.

What had happened to her? What had happened to him?

She dug into the pockets on her sweater, taking out her phone and quickly dialing Valerie. Unsure of what exactly, but still knowing something was terribly wrong.


Julian and Damon walked the crowded streets in search of a witch's apartment. Julian was studying his phone and looking up every now and then to make sure they were in the right direction. It had been ten minutes of silence and Damon felt bored and annoyed and uncomfortable out of his mind. So he decided to try and get some more information out of Julian instead.

"What's so special about this guy? Don't tell me he's an ex-lover of yours…" Damon teased.

Julian let out a sigh and kept his eyes on the map in his phone. "Are you aware that there exists a way for a vampire to avoid one of the deadliest of threats known to our kind?" he asked. "Hm?" He glanced over at Damon as his gears started turning behind his eyes.

"Werewolf venom." Damon said with uncertainty, wondering where exactly he was going with the subject. His thoughts were soon answered as he stopped in the middle of the street and looked at Damon with narrowed eyes.

"And how would you react if I told you that this friend of mine happens to be possessing the cure for that otherwise lethal bite?" he asked curiously.

Damon studied him closely. "Why would you need the cure? Planning on getting bitten by a werewolf any time soon?" he teased.

Julian snickered and ushered towards an old brownstone building with a large, black wooden door.

Glancing over at Julian, Damon opened the door and stepped inside the building. A long hallway in front of them led to old flights of stairs. It was all ill light and smelled of dust and old wood.

"Well…" Julian said and tucked his phone away, leading the way towards the stairs. "It is merely one of the numerous objects that my dear old mate has collected over the years. Spells, potions, talismans, herbs… all sorts of magic that can be used both as means to protect oneself from attacks and such, as well as –"

"Weapons." Damon said, stopping dead in his tracks.

Julian looked back at him with a smile, pleased to have gotten a reaction out of him.

"It's basically an arsenal…" Damon thought aloud. "And why on earth would you need that?"

"To defend myself, mate." Julian said with a shrug and continued as they'd now reached the stairs and began walking up them.

Damon followed with a frown. "From whom?" he asked.

"From everyone." Julian said, almost sounding amused. "Why do you think I've been gathering so many men under my wing of late? For companionship?" he asked with a glance over his shoulder.

"Well, yeah. Kind of." Damon admitted with a shrug.

Julian shook his head with a sigh and turned his attention forward. "Don't you see? There is a war brewing amongst our kind, Damon. And if we are unlucky we will either end up on the wrong side of it or turn into collateral damage caught in the crossfire. However, there is a way to ensure our survival."

"What, by killing everyone else?" Damon scoffed.

His words made Julian stop at the top of the stairs, turning back to look at Damon as he stood merely two steps behind him. "By making sure we cannot be killed along with the rest." he said grimly and turned away again, continuing past another hallway.

"And what?" Damon hissed, noticing the various apartment doors along the way. "You think your army can keep you safe? Or your buddy's weapons? You seriously think you have an actual fighting chance?" he asked incredulously and nearly walked into Julian as he suddenly stopped again.

"You know, don't you?" he asked, turning his head slightly to the side but not enough to actually reveal his expression.

"Know what?" Damon asked with a hushed tone.

After a short moment, Julian turned around and studied him closely. "The sire-lines." he began. "They are all bound. Whoever the legends of our beings are, if one of them falls so will everyone in their respective bloodline."

Damon noted the fact that Julian seemed oblivious to the Originals, finally putting an end to his speculations on whether their mission here actually involved them or not. "How do you know about that?" he asked, stepping closer to squint at him.

"Well, after my return to the living and breathing I did manage to get in touch with a few old friends – the ones who hadn't perished during my time in the Phoenix Stone that is." he said with a shrug. "They informed me of the change of conditions, so to speak."

"So, while you were running around getting drunk with these new friends of yours; you were not only building yourself an army but also preparing yourself for an actual war?" Damon said incredulously, letting out a nervous chuckle. "You do realize you don't have a chance if the first vampire of your sire-line dies, right?" he hissed. "It doesn't matter how many people you hide behind!"

Something flashed across Julian's face at that, making Damon lean away from him in surprise. "Unless…" Damon said carefully. "Is there something in your friend's arsenal that can somehow keep you excluded from your own bloodline?"

Julian smiled widely at him, pointing an index-finger at him. "I knew there was a reason for my sparing your life." he smirked and turned to keep walking again.

"So that's your plan?" Damon hissed. "To sever the bloodlines?"

"I'm not naïve, Damon." Julian said exasperatedly, walking quickly up the next flight of stairs with Damon in tow. "I'm well aware of the kind of magic that bound the sire-lines in the first place and I know that it is not possible to undo the spell." he sighed. "However, with what I have in mind we won't need to. All we have to do is find this friend of mine and borrow a certain object from his collection."

They'd reached the third level of the building, which seemed to be Julian's final destination as he turned away from the other flight of stairs and instead walked across the hallway. Passing five or so doors before reaching the one right before the end of the hall.

"And you think he's just going to hand it over to you, no strings attached and without demanding anything in return?" Damon asked as Julian knocked on the door in front of him.

"Once we've explained our motives, I wouldn't be surprised if he even offered to help us with the rest of the plan." Julian said and raised his eyebrows playfully.

"Which is what exactly?" Damon hissed.

Julian sighed and knocked at the door again, ignoring his question.

"Right." Damon scoffed as he realized that share-time was over. "You know; I don't get why you're so eager to live anyway. Did you or did you not tell me yourself that you would be spending the rest of your existence suffering for losing Lily? Why would you choose to fight for that? Or have you already moved on from her, huh? Maybe my mommy-dearest didn't mean that much to you after all?"

Julian gripped his throat faster than Damon could even see and had him pushed up against the wall next to the door in matter of heartbeats. "You should know better than to speak ill of your mother in the presence of the man who loved her." he warned with a cold glare.

"Either way, Damon. I may not look forward to an eternity with a broken soul, but I'd take it over death any day. And so should you." he said and put him down on the ground, letting go of his throat just as the door opened next to them.

"Yes?" said a low, raspy voice from the small opening of the door. Through the crack, they could see the woman glaring at them with annoyance. Olive skin and piercing green eyes, the long grey hair made into a braid that draped her left shoulder. "What do you want?" the woman hissed in a thick Louisianan tongue.

Julian straightened up and met the woman's glare with a polite smile. "Good day, ma'am. I was told I would be able to find a Leila Gardiner here. Could that by any chance be true?" he asked friendly, his accent almost sounding a tenfold more emphasized when he was acting all proper and mannerly.

"Depends on who's askin'." she grunted.

"Please." Julian said with a polite nod. "My mate and I are only here to ask for assistance in locating someone. Would you possibly consider helping us with the matter?"

The woman's eyes seemed to glaze over for a moment as she looked above their heads in silence. Then she met Damon's confused eyes and nodded. "Yes. I'll help ya'. Come on in." she said and fully opened the door, stepping aside to let them in.

Julian nodded at her once more. "Thank you, you're too kind." he said with a smirk and entered the apartment with his hands folded behind his back.

She nodded at him as he passed her and then met Damon's eyes. For a long moment, it looked like she was going to say something to him and Damon fell silent and still as he awaited it. Instead, she gestured for him to enter. "Come on then, already. We ain't got all day."

He gave her a polite smile and crossed the threshold carefully, studying his environments like a hawk. The apartment was fully revealed from his position in the entrance hallway, you could see through opened doors to the other three rooms. A living room, a kitchen and a dark bedroom. His eyes followed Julian as he was studying the living room from outside it's door.

"Step on in to the sitting room." the lady gestured. "Ya'll want some ice tea or lemonade or some' in the meantime?"

They shook their heads in unison and walked to sit on a couch in the living room. The lady sat down on one of the armchairs opposite to them and let out a sigh. "So?" she said with a raised eyebrow as Damon's observing eyes finally met hers. "Did Marcel send you?"

"We've come on our own accord, miss…?" Julian said uncertainly, giving her a questioning look.

"Leila." she corrected. "And you are?"

"Julian." Julian greeted with another polite nod and then gestured a hand towards Damon. "This is Damon." he explained and started digging for something inside his jacket. "We're looking for someone who we believe to be in New Orleans. Surely, his victims couldn't have gone unnoticed."

Leila frowned a little. "How so?"

"Well…" Julian said, pulling out some papers and spreading them on the coffee table between them. "They are rather eccentric."

Damon and Leila both leaned forward a little to study the papers. They were crime scene photographs, and gruesome ones too at best. They were all of white, dark haired young men strung up like marionettes with the corners of their mouths cut up to their ears in what Damon recognized over the years as Glasgow smile scars.

It was bizarre how much alike the men looked, even making Damon doubt for a second that they were in fact not the same person. But of course, the different locations on the photographs confirmed that there were in fact more than one victim. Damon counted six or seven.

"I need a name." Leila said, sounding completely unfazed by the images before her. "Or at the very least something that belongs to him."

"I can't give you his name." Julian sighed and collected the photographs.

Leila furrowed her eyebrows and squinted at him. "Why not?"

"Because he made me forget it." Julian said.

Damon flinched and stared at him. "What!? You mean he compelled you?" Suddenly his theory about this mysterious friend being an Original didn't seem too far-fetched anymore and it made Damon's skin crawl with uneasiness.

Leila spoke before Julian could answer. "No." she said, sounding so sure that Damon glared at her in disbelief. "I can see it now. You've encountered several kinds of dark magic. The one that erased your memories of him was based upon Expression."

That's great, Damon scoffed to himself as he remembered it being the same magic that Bonnie and Silas used to nearly bring hell on earth with. "But I don't get how you know anything about him now if he swiped your mind?" Damon asked incredulously.

Julian shrugged and was about to answer but got cut off by Leila once more.

"Have you been touched by the Huntress Sword?" she asked.

Both men stared at her, making her nod in confirmation.

"And your time in the Phoenix Stone brought some of them memories back to you, didn't it?"

"Only bits and pieces of our encounters, not much else." Julian admitted.

Leila glanced at Damon, once again looking like she was about to tell him something but staying silent. After a long moment, she looked back at Julian just as he glanced between them in suspicion. "I'll help you. But of course it will cost ya."

Julian nodded with a small smile. "Of course." he said.

She shook her head. "And if you kill me, your debt oughta live on with my spirit until ya'll repay the ancestors instead. Trust me, you'd much rather owe me a favor than them."

"Fine." Julian said with a slight grimace. "What is it that you will need as payment for your services?"

Closing her eyes for a moment, she tilted her head back and whispered something into the air that neither of the men could quite catch. Eventually, she straightened up and met their bewildered expressions with a nod. "I see you are about to come across a quite interesting and rare collection of magical objects. One of which I need."

"What is this object?" Julian asked.

"A golden dagger." she explained, glancing at Damon momentarily before continuing. "It should be stored away closely to what you yourselves are looking for. Neither should be too difficult to find nor steal though."

"That shouldn't be a problem then." Julian smiled.

She nodded. "I will show you this friend of yours but it won't be easy. Nor definite."

Julian nodded again. "Whatever you can procure will be appreciated and payed for accordingly."

Leila stood up from her chair and walked to close the blinds to the three different windows in the room. Then she returned to her seat with a slightly flattened bowl in her hands, placing it on the table and pulling out a knife from a drawer on the side of it. "I will need your blood." she explained. "It has to be drawn with this knife to create a spiritual connection to search your mind."

Julian nodded and cut his wrist, filling the bowl up to the middle with his blood. Then Leila dipped her index-fingers into the blood and drew a figure eight in it, chanting as the shape started stirring on its own. She then brought her fingers to smidge the blood on her closed eyelids. Resting her hands in her lap, palms up, and chanting on.

After a long moment, candles all around the room lit up by themselves and Leila stopped her chanting. She sat silent for a long moment before she flinched, jerking her head to her left as if she was hearing something that they weren't.

"Ya' first saw him in London, is that right?" she asked, eyes still closed but the question clearly directed at Julian.

He nodded in response and cleared his throat as he realized she couldn't see him. "Yes. That is correct."

She nodded and turned her face to her right. "Ya'll hunted together." she said and took a few deep breaths. "Fed together. Killed together. All throughout Europe… France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Russia, Sweden…"

Her face turned downwards, eyes still shut but looking like she was studying something in her hands. "He searched for something." she whispered. "A weapon."

Damon and Julian exchanged a glance before Leila let out a grunt.

"I see his victims. All rich and fancy…" she tilted her head back to face the ceiling. "There." she gasped. "I see him clearly now."

"Is he in New Orleans?" Julian asked carefully, moving to the edge of the couch.

She jerked her head and started whispering something again, facing her left and right while the candles in the room burned brightly. "He…" she began but flinched a little, turning to her left again. "Yes. He lives in a penthouse apartment in town." she said and then gaped shortly. "Interesting." she breathed.

Suddenly the candles went out all at once, making Damon and Julian glance around the room nervously. When they looked over at Leila again, she was sitting up straight with her eyes open, studying the men before her.

"What's interesting?" Damon asked impatiently as she looked like she wasn't going to explain herself.

She looked at him and then Julian. "You won't be able to enter his home." she said flatly.

"We need an invitation?" Julian said incredulously and glanced at Damon.

Leila suddenly got up and held her hand above the bowl of blood, murmuring a few words until the content suddenly faded away from existence before their eyes.

Damon's eyebrows shut up in surprise as he studied her while she cleaned up the rest of the things and walked over to the windows.

"You will be able to compel a human to acquire the object I seek. Until I've received it, the ancestors won't allow me to help you any further." she said while she opened the blinds, letting the afternoon light into the room.

"All we need is an address." Julian said. "I'm sure we'll be able to find him on our own from there."

She turned around and glared at him. "Get me the dagger and I will lead you to him. Betray our deal and the ancestors will ensure the only way you will leave town is through coffins." she threatened.

Julian stood up and straightened his jacket with such a haste movement that it was clear to be a display of reluctance. "Fine." he said grimly. "I will see to it that you receive that which has been promised to you."

Leila nodded at him. "Good. Because I will need Damon to stay behind."

Damon flinched. "What? Why?"

"You will see soon enough." she said with a shrug, writing something down on a piece of paper and handing it to Julian with a bemused expression. "Now, go get me that dagger and return here before midday tomorrow."

Julian glared at Damon for a moment before giving Leila a nod and taking the note. "Very well then." he said. "Thank you for your time, I will see you tomorrow."

Leila studied him closely as he walked to exit the apartment by himself. Silence fell over her and Damon as she seemed to wait for Julian to be out of earshot, since another moment later she ran over to Damon.

"I have a message from Bonnie Bennett." she said hurriedly and put her hands firmly on each side of his face.

Suddenly a flash of white light filled Damon's view and a burst of energy ran through him like a shudder. He soon adjusted to the light and noticed that he was still standing in Leila's apartment, only it was completely empty.

No furniture. No Leila. Only bright light shining through the windows accompanied him.

"Damon?"

He spun around immediately at the sound and froze in place. "Bonnie?" he said, squinting in disbelief at his friend in front of him.

She smiled at him with relief. "Finally." she breathed out.

"How am I seeing you?" he asked carefully, taking a step towards her as she stood completely still. "What is this place?"

"An astral projection spell." she explained. "And this -" She gestured around the room. "- Is a cosmic plane of wherever the hell you are right now. I found a way to kind of build an energy around you, if you met a witch then they would sense my message and feel obligated to pass it on."

"You ever heard of texting?" he smirked, secretly glad to see her.

She scoffed. "Like that wasn't my first choice? You've gone MIA, I had to retort to more drastic measures."

"So, I'm not really having a conversation with you now?"

"No, you are." she nodded and shrugged. "I'm probably unconscious somewhere as of now actually, so I'll need to get back soon before someone notices."

He frowned a little and studied her as she suddenly grabbed his hands and gave him a serious glare. "Damon. Enzo is up to something and I can't figure out what it is or who's side he's even on in all of this… Stefan's going off the rails… And everything is falling apart. We need you, Damon. Come back." she pleaded and glanced over their surroundings.

"Or at least tell me where you are so I can come help you!" she exclaimed desperately. "Whatever Julian's got on you, we can take him together. Just, don't give up on me. Okay!? I'll find you."

He shook his head in a bitter smile as he knew she wouldn't stop trying to find him even though she should. Not only did he want to disappear, he couldn't ever face her again since he wouldn't know how to begin telling her about Elena. "I'm sorry, Bon. But I can't do that." he said lowly and pulled away from her grip.

"No, wait. Damon!" she exclaimed just as another white flash blinded him.

When his eyesight adjusted, a moment later, he was suddenly back in front of Leila. Her hands were still holding his head but he stepped away from her as her eyes came to focus.

"Who is Elena?" she mumbled to him.

Before he could think, he wrapped his hand tightly around her neck. Holding her high up in the air, her feet not reaching the floor which made her legs dangle a little.

"Where did you get that name?" he asked venomously.

"From your mind." she coughed out, clawing at his hands in an attempt to get him to loosen his grip. "I saw your last thought right before ya were brought out of the vision. One name; Elena."

He dropped her hastily, making her fall to her knees in front of him while stroking her throat and coughing. "Who is she?" she rasped and looked up at him.

"No one." he said grimly. "At least not anymore."

"You killed her." she said, making him flinch and stare at her. "I'm sorry for your loss." she breathed and stood up straight.

"I recommend that you stop talking before I do to you what I did to her." he threatened as the continuous reminder of Elena was like a repeating stab in his chest. He turned and whooshed towards the door but stopped at her next words.

"Wait! There could be a way to bring her back!" she called out.

"What!?" he hissed in disbelief and turned around to stare at her. "No there isn't!"

"There is a spell." she said, nodding furiously. "It can bring back someone lost. But the ingredients are rare and… almost always impossible to collect."

Suddenly the most dangerous thing Damon had ever felt started brewing in his chest; Hope. He whooshed over to her, standing close to her face as he stared at her with wild eyes. "Tell me." he said carefully, as if the chance to save her would break and slip away if he got too eager.

"Do you have her ashes?" she asked.

"No, I… I left her behind…" he stuttered and swallowed hard, already feeling the hope in him turn everything it touched into toxin as it started dying away. "Is there a way of finding out if her remains are still at the same place?"

"No." she admitted. "But… is her remains in someone else's possession?"

"Tyler." he breathed out. "I left him there with her… Can you find out where he is, if he's still alive?"

She nodded. "Yes. But it'll cost."

He gritted his teeth. "How about I spare your life as payment?" he threatened and raised his hand to strangle her again, but suddenly he felt a splitting headache searing through his mind.

Letting out a grunt and bringing his hands to firmly press against his head, he fell down to his knees in pain.

Leila scoffed. "Ya' got the upper-hand on me for a minute, don't be foolish to think you'll get that chance again. I will find this Tyler and in return you'll do me a favor. Afterwards, I might even help with the resurrection spell myself."

"Ok, fine!" he growled. "Just stop!"

At once, the pain subsided and his ears stopped ringing. He took a few deep breaths and studied Leila as he stood up and straightened his back. "What do you want me to do?"

She gave Damon a wicked, cringe-worthy smile before she answered. "Well, I want you to kill Julian of course."


When Caroline finally got ahold of Valerie, she asked her to meet her for a late lunch. Because honestly, Caroline was kind of starving and she had a knack for multitasking.

They sat down at a secluded table in the hospital cafeteria half an hour later.

"So, he's okay?" Caroline asked as Valerie had just filled her in on Stefan's hunt for Damon.

"I think he will be. Eventually." she said and averted her eyes for a moment. Making Caroline furrow her eyebrows in confusion.

Is there something she's not telling me? she wondered but discarded the thought quickly, she had bigger fish to fry after all…

"I just want him to call me back." Caroline murmured while staring down at the tray of food in front of her. She'd grabbed really random plates of dishes due to her swift and confusing cravings: A Caesar salad with bacon and parmesan, a piece of carrot cake, a pear and an egg-sandwich. It all looked pretty bizarre to her now and her hunger had suddenly faded as something unwary filled her stomach.

"I'm sure he will." Valerie assured her, smiling at her softly once she met her eyes.

Caroline nodded and took a deep breath. "That's not what I wanted to talk to you about, though."

"It's not?" she asked confusedly.

"No, I… I wanted to ask you about just what it was that happened to me when I was…" she hesitated for loss of a word to explain having been unconscious and constantly refueled magically to keep from desiccating due to the witch-twins in her womb unintentionally sucking the life out of her. She let out a sigh and decided on not even trying to frame that within a single word.

"I just…" she sighed again and shook her head, chuckling nervously. "This is probably going to sound crazy and weird and slightly melodramatic…" she grimaced and bit her lower lip.

"I believe we have crossed the lines of crazy, weird and melodramatic long ago." Valerie told her and gave her a small smile. "Surely there is very little you could ask or tell me that would chock me at this point."

Caroline grimaced again. "Yeah… You're probably right." she admitted and bit her lip once more. Then she took a deep breath and decided to just get straight to business. "Okay." she said and nodded. "Anyways, I had this dream. Except I think it was more than that. I can't really explain it without sounding…"

Valerie gave her a kind, encouraging smile. "You can tell me, Caroline."

She nodded and began explaining, the words falling out of her and stumbling over each other quicker than she had the chance to even think beforehand. "Okay. So in this dream, that didn't really feel like a dream, I was in these weird places…" she began pushing her salad around with her plastic fork.

"Like, one minute I'm on some road and I can't move and the next I'm in a forest and thenI'm in some town and… And you were there and you grabbed me and pulled me out. But the thing is, in this dream… I wasn't me. Or I don't know… It was like I was watching myself. Like I was invincible and seeing everything happen from outside my own body… I was sitting in a car at one point and there were these children, these beautiful young girls in the backseat…" She placed a hand over her big stomach at the memory and closed her eyes for a moment, the girls' faces forever carved into the back of her eyelids.

"One of them was awake and she asked me where we were going. Except she wasn't asking me. She wasasking another me. Because there I was, in the driver's seat. Not me-mebecause I was in the passenger seat, but this other version… She told the girl that we-um-they… were going to visit a friend. In New Orleans." She let out a breath before meeting Valerie's confused eyes and continuing on.

"And I have no idea why I would be going there. So this version of me, it can't really have been me. Right?" she laughed nervously, her hands gesticulating wildly in the air."Because, why would I be going to New Orleans? And how would these girls be sitting in the back of that car and calling me 'mommy'!? I mean, this is absolutely insane! Right? This is impossible? I only know one person who lives in New Orleans… Or more specifically I only have one friend who lives there who I-her… that other me, could possibly have meant in that situation so… What does that even mean?" she noticed the speed her ramblings had suddenly picked up and decided to take another breath and slow down.

"Anyways. So this friend I know…" She suddenly tensed up, looking into Valerie's expecting eyes. A thought occurred to her for the first time, scaring her a little.

Could she tell her about Klaus?

What if she decided to advice another witch or something on the whole dream thing and they would end up using it against him? Was this something that could be used against him? Or would it instead come back to bite her in the ass? And what if Valerie mentioned herdreams about Klaus to Stefan?

Suddenly Caroline regretted having brought the topic up in the first place, because now it seemed like a really bad idea to talk about this. She couldn't resist the nagging thought that nothing good could come out of people finding out that she might know where the Bid Bad Hybrid lives.

After all, he must have enemies after those thousand years of existence… And she had people to take care of, not just the twins but her friends as well. She couldn't risk anyone coming after her because they assume she might know anything that they could use as leverage against the Originals.

Worse yet, she couldn't risk anything she said actually being used against Klaus. She couldn't stand him having his hand forced or his siblings threatened… Because of her. He may be immortal and unkillable but the people around him weren't. Was she willing to put so many people in danger all because she had a bad feeling about a dream?

"Caroline?" Valerie reached out to hold her hand but Caroline hid both of them under the table, folding them in her lap. "There's no need to be frightened." Valerie said after studying the blonde for a moment.

Caroline's eyes yanked up to stare at her. Suddenly she realized that her hesitation over telling Valerie about her friend had been misinterpreted. And massively so. She seemed to think that Caroline was scared of talking about him, worried he might come after her or do something to hurt her. If that was what she thought, then she couldn't have been more wrong. Caroline wasn't worried about Klaus hurting her;she was worried about others hurting him.

"I'm not afraid." she said truthfully after her long silence. She still didn't know if it was a good idea to tell her too much about Klaus so she quickly came up with a plan that could work for everyone involved. "It's just that my friend, Nik, he was in my dreams too."

Valerie tilted her head back slightly in incredulity. "He was?"

Caroline resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Great, now she thinks I cheated on my boyfriend with this Nik-guy in my dream, she thought and scoffed to herself.

But then she hesitated. She could understand why Valerie would go there. However, she did feel a little insulted that she seemed so quick to think that she didn't care about Stefan. All just because she had dreamed about someone else. As if she could even control who she dreamed about in the first place!

"Yeah." she finally said, narrowing her eyes at Valerie and crossing her arms over her chest. "He was there. Except I didn't talk to him." she confessed and shrugged her shoulder. "There was another me there too, she talked to him… But they both seemed just as confused as I was at all of us being there. I was invincible in that place too, I think. They didn't seem to notice me anyway."

"And what did they do, this friend of yours with this other version of you?" Valerie asked, leaning forward slightly.

Caroline didn't miss a single beat before answering. "They were both practically asking the other what they were doing there. And then you showed up and we suddenly left-" she sighed and shook her head in confusion "Whatever that place was."

Valerie nodded slightly. "To put it bluntly, you did absorb very high levels of magic as we tried to balance out the effects of the twins… It wouldn't be all too far-fetched to wonder if perhaps you tapped into an alternate, cosmic plane in that 'boosted' state. Or perhaps even glimpsed into some future events…" Her eyes wandered off to the empty air next to her for a thoughtful moment before she continued.

"However… Considering the fact that, beforehand, you were in a car driving to New Orleans… Could it be possible that in this other scenario, that's where you met that friend of yours?" she suggested and studied Caroline with suddenly narrowed eyes. "What was his name again…?"

"Nik." Caroline said with a shake of her head and took a sip of water from the bottle on her tray.

"Nik… Is it short for something?" Valerie asked, her eyes observing the blonde's movements.

"No. Just Nik." Caroline shrugged in an attempt to validate her lie, then a further explanation appeared in her mind. "Nik Matthews."

Valerie rested her chin in the palm of her hand as she propped her elbow up on the table. "And he lives in New Orleans?" she asked, something hiding in her tone that Caroline couldn't quite put a finger on.

"I think so, yeah. We haven't spoken for years though, so I can't be sure." sheexplained and studied her for a moment before continuing. "But I doubt that's where we were in the dream. I've never actually been anywhere outside of Virginia before but that whole place was just…" Her voice wandered off as she remembered the cold, empty feeling that enveloped that abandoned city.

She looked up after a long pause to see that Valerie was waiting for a further explanation. "Dead." she finally said. "It seemed dead." She took another sip of her water and then continued. "It was some kind of old town; empty buildings and this one street that seemed to stretch into oblivion… And no sign of people having lived there for ages. It was a ghost town, really."

The moment she'd uttered the words, Caroline realized just how accurate the description had been. It really had been a ghost town. She couldn't explain it any better. Especially since she had the vague memory of whispers in the wind that guided her towards the alleyway where she found Klaus and that other Caroline talking…

"And seeing into the future sounds kind of weird too." Caroline admitted and sighed. "Maybe it was all just a dream."

Before Valerie had a chance to comment, Caroline's phone vibrated on the table. She quicklypicked up and cleared her throat slightly. "Ric, hi –" she began but was cut off by his panicked voice.

"Caroline, Bonnie's unconscious in the bathroom… I think she collapsed."

"What?" Caroline hissed and shared a terrified look with Valerie, who got up and disappeared right away. "I'll be there in a minute." Caroline promised and hung up.

She stood up and glanced down at her tray, after having gotten her worries about her dream off her chest she now felt hungry again. Biting her lip in unsureness, she grabbed the sandwich, putting it in her mouth and glancing around the room to make sure no one was looking her way before she vamped out of the cafeteria.

Bonnie was leaning against Valerie, walking out of the bathroom, when Caroline arrived. "What happened?" she asked in a panic and handed her half-eaten sandwich over to Ric as he stood next to her in the doorway.

Bonnie gave her a weak smile and rubbed her head. "I astral projected. And hit my head on the sink." she rasped.

"When did you learn to do that!?" Caroline watched as Valerie helped Bonnie sit down on Ric's chair. Or, well, the chair he usually sits on, that is.

"Nora taught me." Bonnie explained. "Anyways. I talked to Damon."

"Did he tell you where he is?" Valerie asked seriously.

Bonnie studied the redhead for a moment before sighing. "No, but I think we can find him now."

"Why's that?" Ric asked in confusion.

She smiled and lifted something up in the air, some piece of leather or something in her hand. "Because I got this."


"What do you think you're doing, mate?" Julian asked with a threatening, calm tone as he walked in to the penthouse suite to find Damon packing. He placed the box filled with the objects he'd collected, including the witch's golden dagger, on the floor next to the pantry.

"I need to go back." he said distractedly as he stuffed some clothes into the duffle bag he'd brought with him.

Julian crossed his arms across his chest and leaned against the doorframe to the sitting area. "Don't tell me it's Mystic Falls you speak of." he said with a cold chuckle.

Damon looked up from his task and gave Julian a wild expression. "Tyler's there and he might still have Elena's ashes somewhere." he said shortly and resumed his task. "The witch told me there's a way to bring her back if I can get them."

Furrowing his eyebrows, Julian stifled the little flutter of hope in his stomach as an image of Lily crossed his mind. "That kind of magic sounds highly improbable. And even if this witch is speaking the truth then a spell like that must come at a very high price." he scoffed.

"I don't care." Damon breathed and closed the bag with a loud zing from the zipper. "If there's any chance of getting her back, then I'm taking it. Whatever it takes." he said and started walking past him.

Julian whooshed over to him and snapped his neck before he could even reach the door. He fell down to the ground in a loud thump, his duffle bag following suit.

"Sorry, Salvatore." Julian said with a grimace and shook his head. "But with the knowledge you've now acquired, I cannot afford to let you leave."

He squatted down next to Damon's temporarily lifeless body and furrowed his eyebrows as he studied him closer. Lifting one of his arms to his face, he hummed in curiosity. "Hmm… Now, where did your bracelet go, mate?"