Salvatore Boarding House
October 22, 2010

The front door closed a little harder than he'd planned. Hopefully it didn't need to be repaired; vampire strength can be both a blessing and a curse. Damon snarled in frustration. The last week was spent splitting his time, keeping an eye on the coffins and every minute he can spare looking for Elena. And he was no closer to finding where Stefan had sequestered her. A few days ago he even toyed with the idea of tailing his little brother in the hopes of Stefan leading him right to her. But ever since that night at the bridge with supposedly Elena in his car, his little brother had been spending most of his time away from the boarding house. Probably a good thing too, since any vampire could come in now. Considering that since Elena had technically died during the sacrifice, the magic protection for uninvited vampires had ceased.

So here was yet another day out looking for her with nothing to show for it, other than feeling a tad peckish. He'd been so busy he hadn't been feeding regularly and he hadn't been this underfeed since he was locked in that stupid cage courtesy of the Augustine Society.

Fortunately, he'd remembered to take his daily dosage of vervain this morning as much as he hated to do it. He had even laced his favorite bourbon, just in case he ever forgot. When he stepped into the study, he froze and was suddenly glad that he had remembered.

"Well, Klaus, it looks like you've made yourself feel at home. And I see that you helped yourself to my liquor cabinet too. Might I offer a tumbler of my preferred bourbon?" Damon asked. Not waiting for a response from the Original Hybrid, he poured himself a splash into his glass before downing it.

"Sorry, but I'll think I pass on your offer. Your vervain laced preferred choice of drink leaves much to be desired, Mate. No, I just would like to have another congenial chat with you." Klaus said dryly.

Damon scoffed at the notion of what Klaus would've considered a 'congenial chat' would actually entail.

"What do you want Klaus? I warned you at the charity function at the Founders' Hall that my brother is operating in crazyville now. Him keeping your family from you is one thing, but what he almost did with Elena." Damon swallowed and for once he let his emotions free. That day he so badly wanted to make his own brother pay for what he'd almost done. It had only been knowing how Elena would've reacted if he had killed him, which stayed his hand.

"Oh, I will admit your little brother did surprise me, but I shouldn't have been surprised. After all, I did know him back when he was at his best being a Rippah," Klaus answered, not showing any sign of emotion until the last part. His eyes glinted with a hint of malice.

"That's my little baby bro for you. He could never handle his bloodlust," Damon paused, draining his glass

"Hell, even when we were still human he would bounce between two extremes, not really finding his center and being content with it."

The pair of them shared the silence that followed, however brief it was, before the mood in the room changed the instant Klaus opened his mouth.

"Hopefully, someday, he and I can salvage our friendship. But for now I will need to see to the safe return of my family, and by extension my doppelgänger as well," Klaus paused, and Damon didn't respond. To Damon he seemed momentarily surprised before he continued, not giving any indication of what he'd expected Damon to have said in response.

"No offense, but seriously, why do you even need an army of hybrids in the first place?" Damon said, reaching for the liquor bottle and refilling his empty glass.

"I get that you'd wanted a means to defend yourself against Papa Original, but the last time I checked he was a pile of ashes, which have most likely been vacuumed up by now. So why did you even need an army now in the first place? It can't be for world domination now, could it? Because I'll be frank with you, I'm not all too impressed with the quality of candidates you have conscripted as of late."

To Damon's annoyance, Klaus actually seemed to have some degree of a sense of humor. He shook his head in irritation. What he'd said was the truth between him and his younger brother: they've probably dispatched at least a half dozen and he hadn't been impressed with any of them. Damon smirked at the memory of getting the best of the hybrid who'd apparently been stalking Elena and just grazed her with his car. If she hadn't been so stupid to run out into the road, she'd never had to make that deal with the monster drinking his booze.

"Believe it or not, but my hybrids are protecting my interests. Specifically the return of my family and the safe return of my doppelgänger." Klaus said, not breaking eye contact with him.

Although Damon knew he was safe from compulsion, he stood up and put the half empty bottle back and turned to face Klaus. Even before he could turn all the way, Klaus moved so fast not even Damon could track. The next thing he knew was being pinned up against the study's wood-paneled walls with Klaus's hand wrapped tightly around his throat.

"Elena Gilbert is mine!" he snarled, slamming Damon against the wood paneling, cracking it. "I want her and my family back. Intact!"

"D… Do you really think Stefan will listen to me?" Damon gasped. Having given up on trying to pry the vice like fingers wrapped tightly about his neck.

"If Stefan wants to play games? Then please feel free to give him this message from an old friend."

"Wh… What's the message?" Damon managed to breathe out.

"Game on," Klaus drawled and with a flick of a wrist, he easily snapped Damon's neck. Staring at the broken form of the upstart vampire, rage filled him. Out of sheer spite, he savagely kicked him hard in the ribs. For Klaus, the gruesome sounds of bones breaking sounded like music to his ears. Feeling somewhat sated and having nothing else to say or do, he departed. It could take a few hours for Damon to recover and deliver his message. Depending on if Damon had been feeding regularly, it could take even longer. So much the better. Plenty of time for Klaus to get the proverbial ball rolling. The one person whose skills he needed had arrived and had so thoughtfully collected the things he needed to set his plan in motion.

Klaus exited the Boarding House. The need to punish the Salvatore brothers a little more was just too great. Feeling petty, not caring, he slammed the front door hard enough to knock it part way off its hinges. With a renewed smile on lips, he turned away from the scene with a merry tune in his undead heart.

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Damon groaned in pain as the lingering aftereffects of his neck bones repairing themselves gradually subsided. Inflicting a cervical fracture on someone, he'd always felt a certain thrill from the act. Especially if the intended target was a vampire themselves. It was a sure way of passing the time. He once had spent the entire day amusing himself with the same route with snap, wait, and repeat. However, Damon decided being the inflicter was way better than being the inflicted.

Because waking up afterwards, from being a recipient of one, was most definitely on his list of least favorite experiences. It wasn't like he could die unless his head was completely separated from his shoulders, and he quite enjoyed breathing.

Working his jaw, he sat up and immediately winced in pain from his still tender sternum. He cursed his own stupidity. It seemed that Klaus wasn't satisfied with breaking my neck. Damon grumbled. While the likelihood he could have successfully grabbed a blood bag, the second he got home with the Original Hybrid waiting would've been rather problematic. With a sigh, he trudged down into the basement to grab a blood bag. He knew he'd finish healing on his own, but having fresh blood in his system would only speed up the process.

Just short of reaching the doorway to the basement floor, his cell chimed with an incoming text. Tempted to just wait till after he fed, he eventually relented. To his annoyance he found one text message from Stefan, four from his drinking buddy Ric, and one from Bonnie. He just rolled his eyes when he scanned through his notifications and found six texts and two very terse voice messages from his least favorite blond vampire.

Rolling his eyes, reading through her texts, only left him with more questions. Bonnie was jumping ship to go find her long lost mother and, according to Caroline, Jeremy and she are going with Bonnie for moral support. Whatever the hell that meant. His lips pursed with mild aggravation. The only useful message she'd thought to give him was that her mother was looking for him. Shaking his head, he continued downstairs, knowing he really needed to feed to have a clear head.

He paused at the last step, rereading Stefan's terse text, and growled in frustration. His thumb hovered over the dial icon before giving it an exasperated flick. After what felt like an eternity, which was ironic considering his expiration date lately was a big fat question mark, the line connected. He didn't feel the need to waste time with pleasantries.

"Where the hell do you think you are going?" he hissed.

"Hello Damon," his little brother answered in such a nonchalant manner he wished it was feasibly possible to inflict a cervical fracture remotely. Damon mentally counted to ten before slowly breathing out. Through the phone, he could hear the distinct sounds of the vehicle motor. Which wasn't really a surprise, since his brother was mysteriously absent.

"Don't 'Hello Damon' me I asked you a simple question!" Damon yelled.

"I thought my text should have been self explanatory?" Stefan asked, sounding puzzled.

"Self explanatory? We already have a witch helping us with our locked box issue. Why do we need one more?" Damon demanded. He jerked open his refrigerator and pulled out two bags of B positive.

"We need help, Damon, and technically its three witches. I need to see a witch to find another witch. Why are you complaining now? I sent you that text almost four hours ago. What took you so long?"

"What!? Oh that Klaus paid me a little visit at home today. About the same time I literally walked inside, by the way. He left a message to give you just before snapping my damn neck!" Damon growled at the refreshed memory and of his humiliation at the hands of the Original Hybrid.

"Huh… Well, that wasn't too original. So what was the message?"

"Hell if I don't know. Something about 'Game On' whatever that means. Consider it delivered. Now where are you going? When are you coming back here?"

"Not sure when and I will not tell you where." Stefan said.

"Stefan!"

"Fine… I'm somewhere in North Carolina."

Before Damon could demand a better explanation, his little brother hung up on him. Damon couldn't decide if everyone had suddenly lost their minds. He wasn't ready to admit to anyone else, but when Elena disappeared or was taken by Stefan either way, their little world started to fall apart. And he had really no idea how to keep it from doing just that.

Popping the seal, Damon removed what he at least thought of as a handy straw and drank the revitalizing nectar. When his refreshed senses picked out another heartbeat in his home. Had he been so blood deprived he'd missed Klaus? The heartbeat was human and the familiar scent he'd somehow missed suggested it was Liz standing inside his foyer. He finished his bag already, knowing he wasn't going to like what his friend had to say.

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"Seriously Damon! Damn it! You nearly scared me!" Liz Forbes gasped when she'd turned from looking at the damaged door she'd gingerly stepped over a few seconds ago. Damon only quirked an eyebrow up in response, as if to say. What should she expect from a vampire?

"Mind explaining what happened to your door?" Liz continued after regaining control of her beating heart.

"Oh… That. I had an unwelcome visitor just a few hours ago. He must have been in a hurry," he deadpanned, leaning against the wall. Resisting the urge to open the other bag and down it right there in front of her. After all, her daughter was a vampire, but he kept it friendly for now. But he was really craving for the contents in the remaining bag.

"Uh… huh?" Sheriff Forbes, always a police officer, Damon noted dryly. He could almost feel the need urging her to press him for more information, like her training demanded. Maybe because he needed another pint of blood, but his mind wandered back to the first time he had first met Liz Forbes. She had been invited to the disastrous solar eclipse party over sixteen years ago. It was still hard sometimes to see how many people changed and how little he and others like him didn't change at all. His friend, now in the present back then, was so proud of her nineteenth month old daughter. Shaking his head to clear head, he only then realized that he might have missed something.

"Damon?" Liz asked, her voice laced with concern. How long had he been zoning out on her? He really needed to feed, and soon.

"Sorry Liz. I was lost in memories of the past. What can I do for you?" he sighed. Already wishing that their conversation was over before it really started in earnest. Elizabeth Forbes was one of few people he could honestly say was a friend even after knowing what he was. For Damon, having a true friend that is human would be a rare occasion indeed. Oddly enough, in the very town his own family had played a vital role in its establishment. Which he and his brother had to flee from after Katherine Pierce's blood turned them into the very things his father despised. He, in fact, had found several friends and while he could probably count them on a single hand, the truth was hard to deny.

"I've been trying to find you, Damon. I even had Caroline call you-" she started, but he cut her off.

"I saw that. Liz," he paused feeling the weariness weighing down on him. "It's been a rather long and unproductive day for me," he said, motioning with an exaggerated tilt of his head to the broken door.

"I need to fix this problem then grab a quick bite before trying to catch some sleep before I-" he stopped, not really knowing how to finish what he wanted to say. Counting today Elena Gilbert had not been seen in Mystic Falls by anyone other than his own brother for exactly twenty-seven days and Damon was growing more desperate. He even briefly considered giving all but one of Klaus's coffins back to take some of the pressure off him. He'd rejected that notion weeks ago, but his own desperation was edging into frantic now.

"You still haven't found any sign of her yet?" Liz asked, sympathy in her eyes.

"Nothing! Hell Liz, I can't even discern her by the scent of her particular blood traits!" he snapped instantly, regretting it when he watched her take an involuntary step backward.

"Sorry. Like I said, it's been yet another unproductive day," he apologized, trying to calm his torrent of emotions.

"I know but what I have to tell you won't make it any better. If anything, it might make it even worse."

Damon eyed her warily, thinking how could she say anything that might make it worse than it already was. It was like fate had suddenly focused on him. Her next terse statement only proved to him the Universe had a perverse sense of humor.

"There was a motion to convene an emergency meeting of the founders council. Regarding the disappearance of one of the founding family's members," Liz said briskly.

"Who called for the motion and exactly who is missing," Damon asked. He didn't know why but he suddenly felt a knot forming in his gut.

"Alaric Saltzman acting as proxy for Elena Gilbert. And before you ask the missing family member is Elena herself."

Damon's mouth worked, but no words came willingly or not. His brain was working faster than his vocal cords to handle what he wanted to express. Ric, the only other person he occasionally called 'brother', would do this to him and indirectly to Elena herself. He did finally manage to find a single word that best suited the current situation.

"WHY!?"

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Somewhere on the Road
October 22, 2010

They had only been on the road for a few hours but they were making good time considering it was a Friday, and thanks to her ability to compel a few select people the three of them had left school earlier than they normally could have otherwise. Caroline reflected as she drove her car with Bonnie in front and Elena's little brother in the backseat. She knew Jeremy was far from the little kid she would always remember him as being, but at least to her she'd always think of him that way. It was depressing just to know that in ten years or so he'd be about the same age as her father was when she was born. Here she was forever stuck as a teenager. In ten years she'd have to leave her hometown for at least several decades. If she didn't, people would start to notice, and she wasn't about to compel them not to. She'd brought this up with Bonnie and Elena shortly after being turned. Elena even had suggested that Bonnie might find a spell or a charm that could change her appearance, making her look older. Of course Bonnie at the time was still learning her magic and had initially bulked at the idea. Not because her friend wouldn't help since she was now a vampire, but because that sort of spell must take a lot of magical power and skill to work.

"So Bonnie, tell us again why we are taking a weekend road trip to Charlotte, North Carolina? Of all places to go over the weekend, why there? Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Charlotte. I'm just saying," Caroline said preemptively.

She'd been enjoying her lunch with her blood infused latte. She knew better than to bring blood to school, of all places, but she'd been craving caffeine and feeling stressed about Elena's worrisome absence enough to have succumbed. The thing she learned about control, especially as a vampire, was the trick of allowing a minor indulgence can go a very long way. Truth be told, she was also concerned how Tyler and her father were getting along.

"All week I've been having dreams about-" Bonnie hesitated.

"About what?" she pressed. Jeremy was playing with his phone, but she knew he was paying attention.

"I keep seeing my mother, and she's calling for me to come find her." Bonnie sighed. Caroline was sympathetic fifteen years ago, since her mother had disappeared one night.

She'd tried asking her mother about it once when she was older, who at the time was a deputy and so should have been aware of the disappearance of a prominent member of their town. Her mother had been evasive and eventually stated Bonnie's parents had been having problems with their marriage and she had run away. Everyone had accepted that belief until their sophomore year. When as a surprise Bonnie had wanted to repaint the walls in a seldom used room for her father before his birthday. Bonnie had even gotten her two friends to help. Everything was going great until they started sanding, and that is when Caroline had noticed the painted over wallpaper. At the time it hadn't been a big deal since they all knew that the room had been used as a nursery for Bonnie. What they didn't expect was to find wallpaper meant for a little boy.

That night Bonnie had confronted her father and learned that her parents were expecting their second child. But something had happened and Abby had left Mystic Falls. Because of something she had done. That startling revelation had almost ruined their second year of high school, but Caroline had ultimately prevailed when she, with a little help from Elena, had encouraged Bonnie into joining the cheer squad. In Caroline's opinion everything had been great until the fateful night of the bonfire when Elena had broken her relationship off with her then boyfriend Matt.

"Caroline?" Bonnie asked

"Sorry Bonnie, I heard you. I was just trying to understand, why Charlotte?" Caroline said, quickly recovering. She mentally chastised herself for not being more supportive of her friend. Before they learned her friend was a witch, they had occasionally teased Bonnie about her premonitions. How little they knew how it would come to affect them all.

"I don't know, I just got the impression that I should start looking there for her."

"How?" she pressed but Bonnie only shrugged.

"Grams always told me to just trust the magic and not force it. So that's what I'm doing. Now I have a question for you: how did you convince Ric to let us leave early? With Ric taking vervain I know you didn't compel him like you had with everyone else."

"Bonnie, I only had to compel three people, and one of them was the school's resource officer. He isn't yet one of my mother's 'trusted' deputies so he wasn't vervained like everyone else. I had too or he would have turned us over to the vice principal." Caroline huffed defensively.

"I'm just surprised that your mother didn't give it to him, anyway. Just to keep you from doing what you did today." Jeremy spoke up from the back.

"It lives!" Caroline said in a sing song voice. She did manage to stifle a giggle when he rolled his eyes before switching his attention back to whatever he was playing on his phone.

"No, seriously, Jer, join in with us. You've seemed a little preoccupied lately, is it because of Elena?" Caroline pleaded. She knew that he and Bonnie had ended their relationship, but that shouldn't be a reason not to be part of the group.

"Um… Can I tell you both something? Just don't tell anyone else, especially not Damon or Stefan."

When both of them agreed. Jeremy described his encounter with Klaus at the Grill a little over a week ago. The atmosphere in the car grew tense when he went specifically into the seemingly generous offer that he'd extended to him and his sister.

"Don't you see? It's because of Elena that Klaus is leaving me out of his little war with Stefan," Jeremy concluded. Caroline didn't need to be a vampire to sense the inner turmoil he no doubt had been enduring for more than several days now.

"Are you seriously considering his offer, Jer?" Bonnie asked, turning around in her seat to face him.

"No… Yes, I don't know. I mean, look if he'd suggested it before what Stefan had done with her on the night of your birthday I would've resoundingly said no. End of discussion. But-" Jeremy's words choked off in a grimace.

Caroline's fingers tensed, forcing her nails to dig gouge marks into the hardened plastic of her car's steering wheel. Unbidden, the memories of her disastrous birthday came rushing back. She was still weak while recovering from the venom in Tyler's bite. At the time she thought she was going to die until Klaus showed up and offered up his blood. When he appeared at her bedside that fateful night, she honestly thought he'd come to finish the job his hybrid underling had started. It hurt her even more when it had been her boyfriend, Tyler Lockwood.

Klaus had called her collateral damage from the war he was raging with Stefan over his stupid coffins. Damon had finally broken down and explained the situation, but it didn't take a genius to observe that he was holding something back. Caroline just didn't know what it could be.

Despite how she was feeling when she first learned what Stefan had done, she wanted to confront him in that instance. But like everyone else, it was the following day Stefan rather bluntly explained what had transpired. All the while he was talking, she was growing increasingly angry at the very man she once called Elena's epic love. It was an act of will to control, to keep her heightened emotions in check. Damon being Damon, reacted before anyone could do anything.

She just knew that Elena was going to be royally pissed about the utter destruction of a family heirloom. Finding her voice again, she broke the silence with a simple question.

"So would you do it, Jer?" she asked rather bluntly. She'd expected the reaction she'd gotten from him. What she didn't expect was how Bonnie did.

"Jeremy would never do that!" Bonnie exploded.

"You're probably right Bonnie, but what happens twenty of even sixty years down the road?" Jeremy spoke directly to his former girlfriend.

"As much as I hate or even want to try denying it, vampires are always going to be a part of my family's life. Especially if a Petrova Doppelgänger is involved. This has been keeping up at nights, but what happens to my or Elena's descendants after we are both dead and buried. I'm sure as hell not going to want Klaus running everything," Jeremy paused, looking forward as if his eyes could see the future laid out in front of him.

"Just the mere notion of having either Damon or Stefan watching over my family doesn't sit very well with me nor should it with my sister, especially after what her former boyfriend almost did to her. And I think you both would feel the same if you were in my or Elena's shoes right now!" he finished.

"Out of curiosity, if you did supposedly take Klaus up on his offer do you have any ideas where this so-called family estate is located? I would like to know if I need to reserve a seat on a plane or be selective of my wardrobe when I inevitably come to visit," Caroline joked, trying to lighten the mood in the confining conditions of her car. Maybe taking her smaller vehicle was a poor decision, but she didn't want to suggest taking Elena's more accommodating Ford Escape.

"Elena and I still have a few distant relatives that live in Colorado. If not there, then perhaps Montana. Look, this is just speculation at this point. I've had to think about having a future with my sister instead of..." Jeremy's voice trailed off as if not wishing to tempt fate. It was to everyone's surprise, even Bonnie's, when she tried reassuring Jeremy.

"Don't worry, we are going to find her. I just feel it in my gut that-" Bonnie stopped chewing on her bottom lip as if afraid to continue. Unfortunately Caroline is not the type of person to back down.

"Bonnie, what do you mean, feel it in your gut? Are you talking about your magic?" she asked gently. Ever since her friend had discovered that she was a witch belonging to a powerful bloodline of witches, it still left Caroline in awe of the amount of sheer power her friend held.

"Not exactly. It's more like the Spirits of Nature are telling me that I just have to do my part and Elena will eventually return to us," Bonnie stated finally, actually feeling relieved that she could share this gnawing feeling she'd been feeling for weeks now.

"Your part? What do mean by 'eventually return'? Is she somewhere we can just go get her now!? Baring that… To see if she is okay?" Jeremy and Caroline spoke over each other, bombarding Bonnie with their questions. She was confused enough as it was. She somehow managed to parse enough out of what they were asking to answer. Hopefully in a calmer manner than they had been to her.

"Guys, I don't really understand much of it myself. It's all been a confusing mess. Somehow I just know that Elena is okay, and she is just waiting for us to do our part in bringing her back to us. I've tried to meditate and ask the Spirits like my Grams taught me, and whoever or whatever they are, they are only telling me to stay the course and don't lose faith. I just know that looking for my mom is important," Bonnie sighed.

"C… Can I ask… What I mean is, how long have you had this 'gut' feeling of yours?" Jeremy asked finally, his somber voice eating at her heart. She so badly wanted to hug him, but he had hurt her, and she wasn't quite ready for that yet.

"Do you guys remember when we tried sending a message to Elena, and I ended up in the hospital from exhaustion?"

"Yeah, Bonnie, you don't mean?" Caroline asked.

"I think this is why I was so drained afterwards. It's really hard to describe but at the time I felt as if I was struggling to open a very heavy door to slip our note to Elena through. I almost thought I couldn't do it, then I felt two presences with us. One was helping me somehow. I thought it might have been my Grams at first, but it didn't feel like her. It was still familiar though."

"What about the other presence? What did it do?" Jeremy asked, leaning closer in his seat.

"Nothing really, it just seemed to be there as if waiting and then it was gone."

"Did you get a look at it?" Jeremy pressed and Caroline thought it was rather strange he was focused on this part of Bonnie's story.

"No, Jer. I didn't. Remember I had my eyes closed, focusing on the spell?" she said rather sarcastically. "All I know is that it felt cold and yet I didn't feel any malice directed towards me or us. It felt almost if it was eager for me to complete the spell."

As if the pieces of a puzzle shifted into place, Jeremy swore aloud when he remembered what he had seen that night. Until now, he'd all but forgotten about it.

"What?!" both girls asked. Jeremy briefly wondered how Caroline was splitting her attention between them and the road, but tossed stray thought aside. Not before he spotted a familiar landmark from the last time he was in the area just a few short months ago. He might bring it up as a means of distraction before long. They had been on the road for just over three hours now, and he needed to stretch his legs.

"Jeremy!" Caroline pressed, and he had to hide a smile. She was more bossy than his sister, he realized.

"Sorry, momentarily distracted. I think I might have an idea who or what this other presence was. I'm just not entirely sure why her."

"Her?" Caroline asked, dumbfounded. She had seen no one. Thanks to her heightened senses, she would have known if anyone else was in the house with them unless she asked herself. She cut him, smirking at her in the rear window. Resisting the sudden desire to throttle him for dragging this out.

"Yeah! Her. Bonnie, do you remember how you once described the feeling you have around vampires? That creeping cold?" e waited for her to nod in remembrance before he continued. "I think I saw Isobel Flemming standing in the doorway watching Bonnie, rather intently I should say."

"WHAT!?" they yelled but Jeremy's attention was focused on the road. If he hadn't, he doubted Caroline could've reacted in time.

"Watch the road, Care!" he nearly screamed. Caroline reacted faster than any human could, and thankfully she wasn't anymore. They almost barely sideswiped a passing minivan as their vehicle had wandered into the left lane. Damn, they all needed a break, and seeing a very familiar exit sign he took a chance.

"Hey Care Um… Just take this next exit! I think we all need a little breather after that and besides, there is something I want to show you from the last time I was in the area." Bonnie opened her mouth in protest, but the familiar premonition or the gut feeling came back urging her to listen to him. She thought about saying something but dropped it. She could always tell them later. So instead she asked.

"What do you want to show us, and why were you in this area? There is really nothing out here," she observed. Something still tickled the back of her mind and she didn't quite know why yet.

"Last time I was here it was against my will with none other than Katherine and I thought you'd like to see where we ultimately found Klaus's father Mikael."

The others were too stunned to speak, but Caroline still managed to exit the Interstate without killing them or anyone else.