Chapter 7: Hope is a luxury none of us can afford

Stefan and Valerie were going through the photos on Bonnie's phone together, Valerie translated some of the writing while Stefan made a list of everything they needed to get for the spell. Or rather; spells.

There was one for binding vampires to one anchor and another one for targeting someone using their blood with the advantage of being able to kill them from afar. They were both tricky and required many complicated ingredients as well as a lot ofmagic… Also, they needed to do the spell during a full moon. The classic cliché made Stefan snort before he returned to writing down everything Valerie needed for preparing the different rituals.

Valerie swiped past the last photo sent from Damon and accidentally opened a picture of Bonnie, Caroline and Elena. She glanced over at Stefan as he sat next to her on the couch in his apartment, he wasn't looking down at his list anymore but was instead concentrated on his right hand. Between his thumb and fingers, he was rolling and turning on a small Lapis Lazuli ring. The one belonging to Elena that would hopefully help them find wherever Julian might have taken her.

Stefan was too engrossed in his analyzing task to notice her staring so she cleared her throat to get his attention and break the momentary silence between them.

"As long as Julian stays in that magical safe haven of his in New Orleans, we won't be able to specify his location well enough to perform the spell to strike at him." she told him as he hurriedly put the ring in his pocket before facing her. "And without his blood, we won't have any means to kill him either." she continued. "Not to mention the fact that these spells separately are far too powerful for me and Bonnie alone…"

"So, how about we let Damon kill Julian while we track down Elena's coffin?" Stefan suggested.

Valerie rolled her eyes at his priority in the matter being to rescue Elena. "If we kill Julian we will only be met by his wrathful lackeys and we will all die as vengeance for their leader's demise." she reminded him and shook her head slightly. "No, we need to rid ourselves of all of them at once, or else we'll spend centuries running away from an army of new enemies… Our best chance is to try and combine the two spells, that ought to help us harness and focus all our strength on one single spell."

Stefan nodded. "Okay, so we get Julian's blood, bind him to his men and kill all of them with one spell during the next full moon… Sounds easy enough." he said with a grimace and shrug of his shoulders.

Valerie fought back a smile at his playful sarcasm and looked down at the list he'd compiled instead. "To bind Julian to his friends, we will need for as many of them as possible to be at the same place at the same time." she explained. "The next full moon is in a week, but if we can harness enough magic then I believe we won't have to wait until then to perform the ritual… However, the best-case scenario would be to lure Julian back to Mystic Falls and round him up with the others."

"And if we can't get the ones in New Orleans to come here?"

"Then Damon would need to procure their blood as well as Julian's."

"What about the men he probably assigned to keep an eye on Elena's coffin?" Stefan asked.

Valerie pursed her lips for a moment. "Perhaps we should send some of us to fetch her coffin at the same time as the spell is being cast? That way we ensure Julian doesn't get the opportunity to use that leverage against us to save himself."

He nodded slowly. "We'll need someone to do the spell, someone to distract Julian's men as well as Julian and also someone to get Elena's coffin?"

Valerie grimaced. "And what's worse; I'm not sure how we are even supposed to gather enough power to complete the spell to –" she cut herself off as a thought suddenly crossed her mind…

She remembered her conversation with Caroline from earlier that day, how she had somehow managed to survive the desiccation brought upon her by the twins… How she had apparently ended up in some spiritual plane… She must've absorbed such a large amount of power by the twins as they attempted to protect themselves when she'd started desiccating… Was that their answer?

"I might have an idea." Valerie said silently, ashamed of herself for what she was about to ask a carrying young girl to do… "I think we need Caroline's help."

Stefan looked at her in confusion. "Caroline?"

She met his eyes with a frown. "The twins." she explained. "We'll harness the twins' magic for the spell."


It had been nearly two years.

Two years since she'd seen Klaus Mikaelson. Two years since their day in the woods. Two years since she graduated from high school and he promised to be her last love…

Two years and not once had Caroline felt as tempted to go and find Klaus in New Orleans as much as she did right now. Especially after their phone call...

She caught herself comparing Stefan's actions to Klaus'… It bothered her that, despite being hundreds of miles away, Klaus managed to find the time to actually listen to her and promise to help her when she asked him to. Meanwhile, Stefan couldn't stay by her side for longer than five minutes before something new came up that he desperately needed to tend to…

It was either chasing Damon or disappearing with Valerie or jumping at the first chance to save Elena. And what about her? Was her nearly dying not urgent enough for him? Was she not important enough to him?

Shaking the thought and lump in her throat off, she kept running far away from the hospital. She wasn't going very fast due to her huge stomach, as well as not so smoothly since she felt both clumsy and disoriented and actually had no idea where to go. All she knew was that she wanted to leave.

Needed to leave.

She needed to get away from Stefan as he continuously pushed her aside for everybody else. She needed to disappear from the reality of being a freaking miraculous surrogate mother to her high school history teacher…

She needed to be someone else. Or perhaps she just needed to be herself again. Either way, the person she was now made her sick. She hated being the girlfriend who was jealous of her boyfriend and his exes. She hated being weak and vulnerable and not even able to run away from her problems without feeling winded and dizzy and needing to take a break every once in a while.

But most of all? She hated feeling like the second choice. Like she wasn't enough. She wasn't the first person Stefan went to or the one he actually valued over everyone else… And she hated that it was him, her best friend and boyfriend, who made her feel that way.

It took her a while before she realized where she was as she stood outside a door in an apartment building…

Ric. She had run to Ric.

She was just about to turn around and leave when she instead found herself raising her hand and knocking on the door. A long few seconds passed, making her hold her breath as she waited for him to open. Finally he did and she was met by Ric's big eyes, first due to confusion and then later due to worry as his expression turned grim.

"Did something happen?" he asked seriously. "Are you okay? Are the girls –"

She shook her head, pressing her lips tightly together as tears ran down her cheeks. "They're fine… We're fine…" she sobbed and shook her head again. "No, I'm not fine." she confessed.

He frowned and brought his arms around her, embracing her firmly. She wrapped her arms around him and rested them on his shoulders, sobbing into his shirt.

"I'm sorry." she murmured against his chest.

"Don't be." he said and stroked her back before he started disengaging himself from her. "Let's go inside and have some coffee." he said softly. "Or… Hot cocoa might be a better idea." he said as he gave a pointed look to her belly.

She looked down at her stomach and sniffled silently before nodding her head. "Okay." she whispered and looked up at him with a weak smile. "Hot cocoa it is." she giggled slightly, finding it so odd to imagine Alaric making hot cocoa. She bit her lip to keep from turning the short chuckle into another sob.

He gave her a warm smile and let her in. "I probably have some whipped cream too actually." he said as he closed the door behind her.

She giggled again. "What do you use whipped cream for?" she mocked and turned around to look at him.

He held up a tissue for her and smiled at her again as she accepted it and blew her nose. "For pancakes and hot cocoa of course!" he said with a wink.

Caroline let out a short laugh, feeling a lot lighter all of a sudden. "I wouldn't mind some pancakes." she said with a shrug.

Chuckling himself, he squeezed her arm and nodded. "Whatever you want." he promised before turning away and heading towards the kitchen. "Make yourself at home in the meanwhile!" he called out.

She bit her lip again and looked uncertainly around the room. "Right…" she whispered to herself as she mulled it over. "Home…"


"Bonnie, calm down…" Enzo tried as he watched the brunette pace the hospital room in a frenzy. "I'm sure Caroline is fine."

"Not if she heard Stefan and me…" she muttered and cursed to herself. "Everybody keeps running off, first Damon and now Caroline…"

Enzo tensed at Damon's name, hoping he wouldn't need to lie to Bonnie. Again.

His phone rang in his pocket as Alaric texted him. He exhaled subtly, relieved to hear that Caroline wasn't hurt or missing. "See… She's at Ric's place." he said with his smug façade in full play as he turned the mobile display towards Bonnie.

She grabbed the phone and stared at it for a moment before closing her eyes in a long breath. "Thank god." she whispered.

He smirked slightly as he watched her trying to cover her emotions up, clearly finding it difficult to express them freely. Which was something he related to.

"What?" she scoffed and pushed his phone against his chest. "Don't think this means we're friends just because we were both worried about Caroline together for five minutes."

He held his hand over hers, keeping it secured against his chest before she could pull it back, his thumb rubbing gently over her knuckle. "Well, darling, you did seek me out once you realized she was missing after all…" he reminded her with a grin.

She tore her hand away and scoffed at him, turning around so he couldn't see her face anymore.

"I'd say that's worth something." he added with a shrug while he put his phone back into his pocket. "Perhaps now you'll actually listen to my explanation for taking Rayna Cruz."

"You don't get it, Enzo." she muttered.

"Get what, Bonnie?" he asked with amusement.

"I don't trust you!" she yelled and looked at him with full red fury in her eyes. "I never know who's side you're on! One minute you're helping us figure out what Lily and the Heretics are up to and the next you freaking join them and help them kidnap Caroline!" she continued, gesturing emotionally with her hands and taking threatening steps towards him as she went on.

"Then you show up from having been MIA the last three months and save me from being choked to death by this old lady who's supposedly the Huntress – but then what? Oh! That's right! You turn around and literally steal her away so we can't ask her any questions, let alone kill her and –"

"She can't be killed!" he burst out, shutting her up immediately.

She stared at him with an open mouth as she had been about to say something more. "What are you talking about!?"

He sighed and looked away from her as he pressed his lips firmly together, he was conflicted on whether or not to tell her the truth. And just how much of it she would actually want to hear.

"Enzo, I swear to God if you don't explain –" she began but he cut her off again.

"She would only return to life stronger and more powerful than before if she did die." he said grimly.

"So what?" she asked slowly. "You're telling me you were trying to do us all a favor or something?" she said in disbelief, making him snap his head back to stare at her.

For a moment, he considered lying and telling her that 'yes, he did do it for her'… But looking into her expecting and doubting eyes he felt the need to be honest, to win her trust back. To win them all back… "No." he confessed. "The Armory wanted Rayna Cruz. I was merely following orders."

"The Armory?" she echoed venomously with raised eyebrows and he swallowed hard as he finally had the chance to come clean once and for all. She was finally listening, finally giving him a chance to prove himself to her. And he had to take it…

"Remember when I told you they were the reason I disappeared?" he said slowly.

She scoffed. "Right, okay. The secret organization that apparently Matt is a part of... Sure." she rolled her eyes and turned away from him, closing herself up again.

"It's the truth, Bonnie." he insisted. "Your friend Matt is highly involved with this 'secret organization' as you so delicately put it… And I know this because they told me." He snuck his hand inside his jacket and pulled out a piece of paper as well as a pen and held it up to her. "And then, there's this."

She looked over at him with squinting eyes. "So you like to draw?" she said incredulously. "You're right! That does prove everything! I'm so sorry I ever doubted you, Enzo."

He snorted at her sarcasm and pressed the paper against his palm as he took the red pen and drew an 'X' on it. Then he showed it to her. "The postcards?" he said as recognition slowly dawned upon her expression. "I was the one who sent them."


When Damon returned to Julian's suite later that night, he found the Brit looming over a bunch of random and weird looking objects spread out over the side table in the living area.

"Sneaking in past your bedtime?" Julian said teasingly. "I'm guessing you chose to take my advice and enjoy Crystal's company after all?"

Damon gulped. "I don't want to talk about it." he said shortly, earning a side glance from Julian. "Not the kind of guy to kiss and tell." he added with a smirk.

That answer seemed to please Julian as he nodded with an amused expression.

"What are all those?" Damon asked, taking a seat in the armchair diagonally next to him.

Julian looked down at the things in question and shrugged. "Necessary means in case that sword-wielding vixen does seek us out after all." he said and collected them all in a duffle bag. Before Damon could comment on the secrecy as well as him using his own words against him, Julian turned around with a smile.

"So? Did the witch have any information for us?"

Damon gulped again, Julian clearly already knew about his little unscheduled visit to Leila during the night… He raised his wrist into the air to show off the silver chain clasping it that Freya had been nice enough to give to him as a cover. "Decided to take this off your plate." he said and sighed.

"And she did have something; an address." he continued, beginning the lie he had constructed in his mind to match his whereabouts in case he had been followed by Julian's men. "I went to check out whether it was real or not but didn't find any serial killers there." he teased.

It wasn't a total lie; Klaus Mikaelson must have passed the bounds of being called a 'serial killer' centuries ago. Perhaps mass murderer was more accurate now?

"You believe she was conning us?" Julian asked seriously.

Damon shrugged. "When I went back to her place afterwards; she was gone."

Julian sighed and shook his head. "Well that's disappointing."

"So now what?" Damon asked with another shrug. "Are we still going to look around for the mouth-slashing psycho or can we just drop it and go back to Mystic Falls already?"

"In a hurry to return to your judgmental brother, Damon? That doesn't sound much like you at all." Julian teased, turning his back towards him as he walked over to pour himself a drink. "Don't tell me you're still going to attempt resurrecting Elena Gilbert even after having found out that Leila was scamming us from the start for god-knows-what-reason?"

"Well, even if she was lying about being able to bring Elena back it still doesn't mean there isn't another way of doing so." Damon protested. "And I have to figure something out."

"By going to Stefan?"

"By going to Bonnie and your nice little Heretic family back home. Someone has to know something, right?"

Julian shook his head and finished the drink in his hand in one sweep before putting it down on the glass table next to him. "We're not returning to Mystic Falls, Damon."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "What, still worried about the postcards? It's not like you could hide away in New Orleans forever…"

"No." he agreed with a short nod before he shrugged. "Only until I find a way to kill the Huntress and protect myself and my men from the war between the sire-lines."

"Oh, that's all then?" Damon said bitterly.

"And you're going to stay by my side to ensure none of the knowledge you now have acquired falls into the wrong hands, incidentally leading Rayna Cruz to me."

"Really?" Damon scoffed.

Julian flashed over to him with a hard face before he suddenly smirked. "Really." he purred and held up his phone in front of him.

Damon stared at the photograph on the display with a clenching heart. Elena. He took the phone from him and bore holes into the screen as he kept staring at her as if it was the first time he'd ever seen her.

"The side-effects from the Phoenix Stone must have made you hallucinate killing her since; here she is." Julian guessed with a shrug. "Fully intact. No need to locate her ashes in an effort to bring her back to life, because you never killed her in the first place."

Julian took the phone away from him with the grim look back on his face. "However, her newfound life-status may easily switch to the former one."

"If you touch her –" Damon began, gritting the words out through his teeth.

"What, mate?" Julian said with a smirk. "What will you do?"

Damon clenched his jaw so hard he could hear his teeth breaking slightly against each other, his fingernails digging into the inside of his palms and drawing blood. He needed to control himself, this was all part of the plan and Julian needed to think he had the upper hand… He couldn't lash out at him. Not yet. Not until Bonnie figures out a way to kill him once and for all…

"Now…" Julian said, turning away from him with a leisure walk. "I suggest you call it a night and get some rest. We'll need to give our dear Leila a visit early in the morning… I've been dying to kill someone ever since we arrived." He sighed contentedly and glanced over at Damon. "You'd be wise not to tempt me into turning my twitching gun in Elena's direction. Might cause you your only chance at happiness after all."

Damon glared at the vicious smirk on Julian's face as he poured himself a second drink and swallowed it all at once. His blood nearly boiling over as he fought against every single fiber of his being that screamed at him to rips the Brit's throat out…

The sooner they got rid of this guy – the better.


Leila made sure to lock her apartment, unlock it and lock it once more before she left – just to be safe… Ironically… Then she hurried out of the building and onto the dark street. It was the middle of the night but there were still quite a few people outside – this was New Orleans after all.

Turning the corner to a more vacant neighborhood, she kept walking until she reached the end of the street and neared the old cemetery on the outside of town.

The dark haired young girl waited for her there.

She could see her standing on the other side of the cemetery gates, her hands clasped together in front of her and a far too serious look on her face – making her appear a lot older than Leila imagined her to actually be.

"Do you have it?" the girl asked as soon as Leila reached the gates, still remaining on her side of the magical barrier between them. The thought passed Leila's mind that this young child would one day find herself in this position again, only in reversed roles; Willing to give up everything she was for them and begging to get it all back again through the only release…

"Yes." she said and dug out the golden dagger from her purse. Handing it over to the girl, she frowned a little as she saw the unpleasant look in her eyes. "Why did you want me to help him? The younger one?" she asked uncertainly. "The Salvatore?"

The young girl shrugged after she tucked the dagger safely on the inside of her black coat. "I guess I'm just a hopeless romantic but… I know what it's like to lose the love of your life." she shrugged again. "I thought he deserved the chance to get his back if it was still possible."

"How did you know he wouldn't realize he was infiltrating the Mikaelson's for us?"

"People become very focused on what they might lose when their happiness is at stake, they sometimes become blind to the consequences that their actions bring." said a voice from behind Leila, startling her and making her skin crawl as she recognized it before she even turned around to see the woman who had suddenly appeared and spoken up.

Aya.

The young witch walked around Leila, exiting the magical barrier that protected her from the old vampire and stalked over to where Aya stood. As she handed the dagger over to her Leila cleared her throat and ducked her head.

"What about Julian?" she asked nervously, knowing what Aya was capable of and fearing the young girl didn't have a single clue. "Won't he cause problems for the witches of New Orleans if his plan –"

"That's not our concern." the dark-skinned, short-haired woman said with a shrug as she studied the dagger with a small smile. "All we needed was the dagger and to put Freya Mikaelson's powers to a test. Thankfully we got everything necessary through the Salvatore… We were lucky Julian picked up on the rumors about your clairvoyance and that he was willing to make a deal with us. Maybe we'll be lucky again and the Bennett witch will manage to bring Julian down before he gets the idea to come after any of us…"

Leila gulped. "Y-you…" she stuttered. "You promised me that… That if I did everything you asked of me… Spying on the Salvatore and procuring the dagger for you… Turning Julian away from the hot trail of the friend he was looking for that… That you would reward me."

Aya tilted her head sideways and studied her for a moment. "Yes." she said and took a step towards her after handing the dagger back to the young witch next to her.

"You've done an excellent job at keeping up your end of our bargain, Leila Gardiner. The Strix thanks you for your compliance." she said, continuing to walk towards her while her black eyes bore into hers and sent shivers over Leila's body.

"You've earned your reward, my dear. Enjoy your freedom." she said just before she jumped at her and dug into her neck with her fangs.

Leila felt the piercing pain shoot through her in waves as she fought hard not to scream. A small smile spread across her lips as Aya pulled away from her flesh and held onto her face with both her hands.

For a moment, Leila found herself hoping that the lie she had told the Salvatore would be true; That she really would return to her ancestors with her death… But that was never the case with a Strix witch. They had cut their connection off from the ones before them long ago, and this… This was their only way out of the eternal torment… The suffering of practicing magic in the dark, of never feeling the connection to the earth the way they once had when they were still true to their nature.

"Thank you." Leila whispered, silently praying to find an end sweeter than the painful existence she had experienced for the last five decades. "For releasing me."

Aya nodded at her before finally snapping her neck and turning everything black.


"Why?"

Bonnie stared at Enzo in utter chock as he held up the piece of paper in front of him, telling her that he was the one who got them to look for the Huntress in the first place. "Why did you do it?

"Because I needed you to lead me to her since I hadn't had any luck in finding her on my own… Not to mention that I had a deadline to work with." he told her.

She shook her head in confusion. "Deadline? What are you talking about?"

"The Armory, they told me they had something of interest to me and were willing to hand it over in exchange for my assistance in capturing Rayna Cruz."

"Something of interest?" she echoed. "What did they have?"

"Information." he said and looked away from her. "About my family."

"Your family?" she repeated, still not being able to wrap her head around it all nor quite understanding how to pin down Enzo's alliance… Did this mean he wasn't on their side anymore?

"If I helped them, if I brought Rayna Cruz to their custody, they would help me find my remaining living relatives." he explained. "However… Julian got too close to breaking my cover since he suddenly showed up just a few miles away from The Armory's headquarters where I was bringing Rayna…"

"Whitmore." Bonnie breathed out as she remembered Enzo conveniently being there just when they needed someone to keep an eye on Julian and Damon.

"Yes." he said with a nod. "They sent me after him to ensure he didn't attempt anything foolish like killing the Huntress… Since, like I said, we can't allow anybody to kill her. She needs to be contained somewhere far away from vampires… Someplace where she can't hurt anyone."

"Alright, so now what?" Bonnie said flatly. "Got a family reunion scheduled for Tuesday or something?"

"No." Enso said with a deflated sigh. "The Armory isn't holding up their end of the deal… Now they want me to keep doing their dirty work."

"Like what?"

Enzo turned away from her, crossing his arms over his chest before he faced her again. "They want me to kill Julian since they apparently see him as a threat due to his history with the Huntress." he explained before he grimaced shortly. "But they also want Elena." he confessed, making her tense up. "The sole living doppelganger… As well as the last remaining Bennett witch."

Bonnie mimicked his posture, crossing her arms over her chest before scoffing. "Why are you telling me all of this? So that I'll feel bad enough for you or start trusting you enough that I'll suddenly want to help you? Is that it?"

"No." he gritted out, seemingly livid over her accusation. "I'm telling you this so that you will understand my intentions for going behind your back in regards to Rayna Cruz. So that you will understand that I was trying to protect you, to keep you from making a huge mistake by letting Nora and Mary-Louise kill her."

"Why do you need me to understand your motives, Enzo?" she protested.

He suddenly whooshed over to her, standing just an inch away from her as his breath fanned her face. His eyes studied hers for a long, silent moment before he finally spoke. "Did it ever occur to you that perhaps I can't stand to have you hating me over a mere misunderstanding?" he asked her with a low voice. "Or for you to hate me at all, under any circumstances?"

She looked into his dark, expressive eyes for a long moment as she found no snappy line to throw at his words. Her heart raced as she became suddenly nervous with him standing so close to her… Looking at her like that…

Thankfully, his phone rang and broke the tension between them. He sighed before backing away from her and picking it up. "What now?" he muttered.

Bonnie looked down at her feet, catching herself feeling cold from the sudden distance between them and cursing the thought for even taking up residence in her mind in the first place.

"Fine, I'll bring Bonnie and meet you there in a few minutes." Enzo said before ending the call.

She looked up at him with raised eyebrows. "Um, when exactly did you start making decisions regarding my whereabouts?" she mocked.

He rolled his eyes at her. "Stefan is calling an impromptu gang meeting to discuss some plan that he and Valerie have come up with." he said sarcastically.

Bonnie watched him as he neared her once more. "What are you doing?" she asked, cursing herself for her voice slightly breaking at the middle of the sentence.

He smirked at her, obviously having noticed both it and her heart starting to race in her chest at his new proximity once again. "Well, I did promise we'd meet with them very soon and the fastest way to get to Alaric's apartment is to run over there."

She gulped hard. "I'm not going to let you carry out some weird fantasy of me on your back or something while you flash through town."

He grinned and shrugged. "Caroline will be there." he reminded her.

Bonnie felt a sting of guilt in her stomach at that. She needed to check in with her friend after what she must've heard Stefan say earlier… But was it really worth encouraging Enzo and his charms?

Not that she found him charming.

No, God, no.

He was just a flirt, that's all. And she refused to make him think she was responding to any of his advances. Because she wasn't.

Really.

Seriously! She wasn't!

"Fine. Just hurry." she sighed and uncrossed her arms, ready to jump up on his back like she'd joked about before.

He gave her another smirk before he suddenly swept her legs away with one arm, and carried her close to his chest. "Let's go then, darling." he said with another smile as he looked down at her surprised face.

She gulped audibly, making him smirk even wider before he started running so fast that her vision completely blurred out.


"Absolutely not!" Alaric yelled out as he stared at Stefan with clenched fists.

Caroline watched them through the corner of her eye as she tried to focus on the small beings inside of her instead to drown out their ridiculous plan.

"Under no circumstances, whatsoever, are we using my children for some spell that might not even work and that Valerie herself says is too risky for even her and Bonnie to do!" Alaric protested. "Have you lost your damn mind, Stefan!?"

"This is our only chance at stopping Julian." Stefan said, trying to reason with him.

"And what if it doesn't work? What if the twins get hurt or what if he comes after all of us!?" Ric exclaimed.

"If he is going to go after anyone then it will be me and Damon, he won't have a reason to kill you or Caroline. Not if he doesn't know you were involved…" Stefan tried but only earned a shaking head from Ric.

"Listen, I know it isn't an ideal solution –" Alaric scoffed and turned away from him while Stefan continued talking. " – But we don't have any other way of doing the spell. We have to put Julian down before he and his men come after us first."

"You mean before he kills Elena." Caroline muttered, silencing the whole room as she caught everyone's attention. She hadn't said a single word since Stefan and Valerie showed up at Ric's door a few minutes ago with the promise of a new plan to solve their Julian-problem.

"What?" Stefan said making her lift her head up and give him an expressionless look.

"You want to stop Julian before he kills Elena, right?" she reminded him. "That's the only reason you're rushing all of this instead of waiting until the next full moon to do the spell when Valerie and Bonnie can try to manage it on their own."

He stared at her with wide eyes as she looked back with a vile look in hers. She wasn't going to be fooled by Stefan's false heroism anymore, it was clearly only founded and striving upon the will of keeping precious little Elena alive. Even in a coffin she came before Caroline in everybody's eyes. Even in a coma, Elena was getting everyone to bend over backwards to protect her at all and any cost.

Even now, as Caroline was supposed to have Stefan's heart, Elena still managed to keep her claws dug deep into his soul.

Their staring match was interrupted by a knock on the door and Caroline quickly got up to invite Bonnie and Enzo inside. She was however momentarily chocked to see Enzo putting Bonnie down from his arms while Bonnie's cheeks slightly darkened at Caroline catching them.

"Um. Okay." Caroline said with furrowed eyebrows. "We'll talk about this later." She pointed between the two of them, earning a smirk from Enzo and a scoff from Bonnie.

"Come on in and take a seat!" Caroline said as she opened the door wider for them. "Stefan and Valerie have gone completely insane; you're welcome to enjoy the show."

"Caroline…" Stefan sighed.

"No, I agree with her." Ric said as he crossed his arms. "You really are crazy and I have no Idea why we're even discussing this in the first place."

"Um, what exactly is going on?" Bonnie asked carefully, looking around the room to try and find someone to explain the situation to her.

"Caroline induced a lot of power when we were trying to keep her from desiccating." Valerie said, directing her comment towards Bonnie. "… And we believe the twins absorbed it all. They are therefore our safest source to channel for the spell."

"Wait." Bonnie said incredulously. "You want to use the twins!?"

"Caroline…" Valerie pleaded, ignoring Bonnie's question. She walked over to the blonde with a sympathetic look. "I, of all people, understand what it is like to have Julian take a child from you." she told her. "Which means I will do everything within my powers to ensure that doesn't happen to you and Alaric."

Caroline watched her, the sincere look in the red-head's eyes just nearly persuading her before she remembered where the whole plan was coming from and that it had nothing to do with Valerie and Stefan wanting to keep Alaric's children safe. She shook her head. "We're not risking two unborn little girls' lives on a rash decision and risky spell." she said with a cold chuckle.

"There must be something else we can use…" Bonnie muttered, mostly to herself. But no one was paying attention to her.

"How can you be so willing to do this, considering what you're trying to use against me right now!?" Caroline yelled, staring at the Heretic with black eyes.

Valerie glanced over at Stefan for just a brief moment, but long enough for Caroline to catch it. Making Caroline chuckle again. "Oh… I see… You're backing Stefan on this because you hope it'll help bring you two closer." she said before her voice began rising as she found herself getting more upset as she continued.

"You're willing to see two babies possibly hurt all so you can finally have your perfect happy ending with the guy who was supposed to be the father of your child like two hundred years ago!? Seriously!? And you wonder why we're not jumping at the first chance to trust you when you say this will work!?"

Stefan looked over at Ric for a short moment before turning to Caroline again, pulling at her arm so she was no longer facing Valerie. "Can I talk to you alone for a moment?" he asked softly.

Maybe it was because she felt so damn angry and wanted to rip someone, anyone, a new one but in any case, she found herself nodding and following him out of the apartment. They exited the building and began walking down the street in complete silence, the cars driving by in the distant being the only sound as they walked side by side.

After a while, Stefan stopped and looked at her, making Caroline realize he had intendedly walked this far away to make sure none of their friends heard their conversation. "What's going on, Caroline?" he asked softly. "I thought things were settled between us."

"Well, so did I." she scoffed but her attitude weakened as she continued. "But that's before I woke up to your little conversation with Bonnie outside my hospital room. Catching you in the irritatingly repeating act of choosing to run after Damon and Elena instead of staying by my side when I needed you."

"That's not what I'm doing, Caroline." he insisted.

"Really?" she said in disbelief. "Then why are you in such a hurry to kill Julian?"

He pressed his lips together tightly as he studied her for a short moment. "Why do you keep misinterpreting me trying to do the right thing with me choosing everybody else over you?"

"Because that's what you're doing, Stefan!" she burst out, raising her arms in the air. "You're constantly too busy saving everyone else to even spend more than an hour with your own girlfriend, what am I supposed to think about that?"

She grunted in frustration, bringing her hands up to her forehead. "Gosh… I mean, what are we even doing if you keep finding excuses to not be around me anymore? If you keep choosing to take Valerie's side on everything and telling Valerie where you are and what you're doing as if she was the one you supposedly love!?"

"Hey." he said and circled his hands around her wrists, bringing her hands down from her face so he could look into her eyes. "Listen to me, Care. I love you." he said softly.

The words stung, making her eyes water slightly. "Do you?" she asked silently. "Because you're sure not acting like it."

He furrowed his eyebrows as he looked into her eyes for a long moment, then he leaned closer and pulled her into a hard kiss. Caroline second-guessed herself for a short moment before she gave in and started kissing him back.

One of his hands cupped her cheek, holding her in place while the other tangled itself into her hair to pull her closer. She held onto his shoulders and let out a sigh when he slipped his tongue between her lips and intensified the kiss. And she realized that she had missed this. Him. Them.

And for a moment. If even just for a second. Caroline forgot all about the complicated and dramatic and life-threatening factors that came with being who she was, what she was. And for that second she was just a girl in love with her best friend.

But then, as the kiss slowly came to an end, she looked into his eyes and felt a sting of disappointment when she remembered all of those things once again. Because she realized that as of now, the bad was outweighing the good. And the two of them; they were cracking.

She had no idea when it had started or why… And she didn't know what to do to save it from becoming irrevocable either… How did they save what they have before it slipped through their fingers for good?

After everything they'd been through, they had to find a way.

"I love you." she said softly, whishing with all that she had that it would be enough.

He smiled at her and kissed her lips sweetly. "I love you too. Which is why I want to make sure Julian's out of our lives for good as soon as possible... For us."

She furrowed her eyebrows for a moment. "What do you mean?"

He stroked her cheeks and pressed a kiss against her forehead before he let go of her face. "I want to end this for us. So that we can finally leave all of it behind and start over, have the life you should have had and the life that I want to have with you. Together." he explained softly.

"In Dallas?" she asked hopefully.

He smiled. "In Dallas. With Ric and the twins." he promised. "And nothing is going to happen to either of them, or you, if we go through with this spell. Valerie will be there the entire time and she'll make sure to stop the ritual if it seems to be causing the babies any harm. She even thinks she'll be able to get the rest of the Heretics' help to stabilize the spell as much as possible."

"How do you know this will even work?" Caroline sighed.

"We have to try something, anything. And if there's the slightest possibility that this could work then we can't just let the opportunity pass us by."

She pressed her lips together firmly and crossed her arms over her chest, her hands slightly stroking her stomach where the small creatures she now had responsibility of rested peacefully. "I'm scared, Stefan." she admitted.

"You're allowed to be scared." he said with a warm smile. "But you shouldn't let fear control your decisions in life, Caroline. We can't just give up when we're this close to a whole new start... When we can finally be happy for the first time in ages..." he sighed and took her hands into his, squeezing them to focus her eyes on his.

"You wanted me to not choose Damon over you, over us." he reminded her pausing slightly until she nodded for him to continue.

"You asked me to choose you first. Now I'm asking you to do the same, Caroline. Choose us first. Choose your happiness first. Choose our future first... Let's give it our best try, and if it fails then it fails. But if we succeed... Then we can finally have it all. And I believe in you, in us and in these twins… I believe this is our best chance at killing Julian. The question is; do you?"

She studied him for a moment, the control freak in her wanting and needing to at least discuss back-up and escape plans in case anything does go wrong… But she looked into the eyes of the one person she's always trusted throughout the toughest years of her life… And she finally decided to have a little faith in that everything would turn out alright in the end.

Before she had a chance to say anything, Bonnie showed up and interrupted them.

"I think I have an idea." she said, making them look at her eagerly. "We'll do the spell in the barn."

"What barn?" Caroline asked with a sigh.

"The one where Jo and Alaric were getting married in, the one where the whole Gemini Coven died. We'll have you and the babies siphon off the magic from the ground, like you've been doing so far with all the magical objects. And that way they'll be strong enough. We'll be strong enough."

For a moment, Caroline wondered whether she was relieved or scared out of her mind. Because even though this did sound like a much less of a stretch, it did still feel like an impossible plan. But they had done so much more with so much less before. They needed faith, and if Caroline could give that to Ric and help everyone by showing a strong façade… Then that's what she was going to do.