A/N This is the longest chapter yet it has gone through several re writes until I was happy with it. The first scene is a flashback regarding Abby's back story. I hope I did it justice. A lot happens in this chapter. Ghosts from their past come back. Please let me know how well or bad I did with a review PLEASE! It helps with writing the next chapter and the next.

~15 Years Ago
Gilbert Residence
March 21, 1995

Abby shifted in her seat, still trying to find a more comfortable sitting position. And it's only going to get worse. She knew from her own experiences with carrying Bonnie for nine long months. A dark part of her sometimes just wanted to hex her husband into next week, especially when he had the gall to comment about how bad it could be this time around.

She tried distracting herself by rubbing the slight baby bump with a silent prayer that her little guy would settle down soon. Abby understood that fetal movement at this stage of her pregnancy was nothing abnormal. Not that she wasn't too surprised they hadn't all yet recovered from the ordeal from the previous night. Miranda had suggested it was just the residual effect of the stress they'd built up. But Abby guessed he was probably still reacting to her build up of magic. Still, she thanked the Spirits that the council had managed to stake one of the three vampires that had entered their sleepy town, who apparently were asking the townsfolk some disturbing questions. Only two people would truly understand the underlying meaning of what their questions were in search of, and unfortunately for Abby she was one of them. Not that her family's obligation was made over two thousand years ago. Still the founders' council, while oblivious to the real reason for the threat, had issued a warning to all the founding families to go into quasi lockdowns.

They were calling it a late play date for all their children while they waited for the all clear from the founder's council. Liz Forbes was absent, having decided not to make things worse with a sick toddler. She couldn't resist the urge to smile as she watched as her daughter and Elena played together. Their only focus was with their toys in the playpen. Not for the first time did she wonder what their shared future held for them. At some point, she'd need to tell Bonnie about the connection she had with the Petrova Doppelgänger. A part of her felt her own mother would better prepare Bonnie for her responsibilities. It would help that the two girls were friends beforehand.

Miranda was still on the phone with her husband, only occasionally glancing over at where Jeremy was who'd thankfully were still fast asleep in his bouncy chair.

Ever since they had staked the older male vampire, its two female companions had supposedly fled, and despite looking for them during the daylight, they hadn't been found. Abby shook her head in annoyance. Other than her mother and husband, no one else knew that she was a witch. It didn't help that she'd never considered joining as an inner core member of the council. So she wasn't privy to their contingency plans, but she knew enough to be concerned.

Everyone on the council, including Grayson Gilbert, believed that vampires were restricted by daylight, but she couldn't suggest otherwise without outing herself as a witch. Her husband Rudy knew, but he'd forbade her from practicing her magic or teaching it to her children when their magic developed. That was the reason her marriage was suffering: they had put on a good public face to their relationship, but in the privacy of their own homes it was a bitter hell. Her only consolation was that she had covertly used magic to muffle the sounds of their fighting from their daughter. Her troubled thoughts were interrupted by her best friend's voice as she talked with her husband on their cordless phone extension.

"Yes… Abby is here with little Bonnie now. Elena and Jeremy are in the living room with Abby now too," Miranda answered. Her voice was firm but held tension from their ordeal which was far from over.

Although she wasn't practicing her magic, much to her mother's growing annoyance, she did have a premonition that she'd needed to be here to protect them, especially since she knew they'd be after the Petrova Doppelgänger. The Bennett line has been tied to the Petrova one for nearly two thousand years, and although Sheila had warned her that her time as guardian was approaching, Abby had not really prepared herself for it.

"No, John isn't here. He said he'd be with the council's hunters assisting with staking the final two of them. Yes, Grayson, we will hide in there if we have to. But don't say I didn't warn you to find time to fix the problem instead of spending your time conducting your experiments at the Augustine Society!" Miranda said harshly, then apologized.

Abby's attention was diverted when she noticed that Elena and Bonnie were trying to stage a joint escape from their playpen. Standing as quickly as she could, she moved to thwart their escape. And despite their quasi lockdown status, Abby did find amusement in the pair; she could have sworn that despite their age they were working together to escape.

"Alright, I'll let you go then. Have a safe flight back. I'll give your love to the kids. I love you too, bye," Miranda answered before hanging up and rejoining them in the living room. Abby picked up Bonnie when her friend did the same with Elena.

"Is everything alright?" Abby asked, bouncing her daughter just enough to keep her from crying. Bonnie was having none of that and based on little Elena's reaction, neither was she. The two weary friends looked at each other and, as if in silent agreement, put their daughters back down onto the floor to play together.

"Yeah, he was able to leave the medical conference by claiming a family emergency and booked the earliest flight he could leaving Denver. He's not happy that he's using some of our travel points to get back but we don't have any choice." Miranda sighed, looking down at her daughter.

"Seriously, he's worried about travel points?" Abby asked, incredulous of her friend's husband's concerns.

"We were planning a family trip to Disney World when Jeremy was just a little older. However, being together as a family is more important," Miranda answered honestly. Abby nodded in understanding and then asked a question she knew she shouldn't, but her curiosity had been piqued earlier by what she'd partly heard of their phone conversation.

"Sorry in advance for listening in to your call, but what exactly is this Augustine Society you mentioned? Just what are these experiments that he is conducting?" she asked and didn't miss how her friend's body tensed when she mentioned the mystery society by name or that they conducted experiments.

"I can't really talk about it, Abby I'm sorry."

Abby wanted to press harder, but she was keeping her own secrets such as that she came from a long line of witches. But just maybe, she could glean a little with a simple question.

"At least tell me if it involves vampires?" Abby asked softly, almost in a whisper.

"It does," her friend acquiesced.

Abby, wanting to change the subject, started thinking about what they should prepare for dinner when she froze in mid thought.

"Abby?"

She ignored her friend's concerned expression and reached for the powerful presence that she'd only just felt mere moments ago. Astral projection wasn't unfamiliar to her, and she'd learned enough magic over the years to be sensitive to it herself. Someone powerful had brushed up against her wards. It wasn't one of her ancestors she'd been visited by them enough to feel the difference this she was sure but whoever it was didn't seem to mean her harm in fact the urgency she felt from coming from her visitor was more like a warning. A new bout of fear formed in her gut, and her gaze darted to the front door.

"Abby? What's wrong? Why do you seem like you've seen a ghost?" Miranda pressed, all amusement in her voice absent. Abby ignored her and pulled on her magic. It felt oddly comforting as if she had just found a long thought missing jacket. Holding up both hands towards the still closed front door, she started her incantation with not a second to spare.

"Nego vestibulum omni petenti nocituri!" Her voice rang true and as the magic settled into the entry points of the Gilbert Residence. It was only then she felt the looming presence of three beings outside, and one of them was a witch.

Fifteen minutes later.

The shattered wood from the front door lay off to the side in the foyer. The now deflated soccer ball, the distinguished looking elder vampire, had apparently used it. To open the door now laid amid the wood fragments of its former self.

Abby earlier had to use her magic again to calm her friend and added the barest hint of compulsion to encourage her to take her suggestion of moving their children and what baby essentials they could into the Gilbert Panic Room, whose steel reinforced door was now firmly locked and the frightened three children and near panicking adult waited their fate.

She stood proud as a Bennett witch should. Her family had faced worse odds, and she knew that this was no exception, but a hint of doubt hovered in the back of her mind. Was she really prepared to do what was needed? Powerful as she was, she was also out of practice and it showed in how sloppy her boundary spell had been erected. It worked. Still it was weak in places she dared not start to patch or else the witch on the other side of the doorway would notice.

"Come now. Enough of this foolishness. I only require the child. If you just surrender her to me, we will be on our way. I promise I will even bring her back intact once she has served her purpose in luring the abomination out. I will even compensate her and her family for her services to my family," the older vampire reasoned amicably. Abby felt he meant every word, but she still wasn't going to trust the words of a blood-sucking vampire.

"Where did your other vampire friend go? And why aren't you dead? I heard you were staked," she asked instead, trying to avoid discussing who he was after.

"Oh, she's not a friend, merely an associate that is in my services for now. She went to retrieve some items we need if our negotiations don't bear fruit. As for myself. Let's just say I'm a special vampire," he said with a note of humor in his tone. Abby didn't appreciate the attempt at levity.

Abby had watched the byplay between the older vampire and the sullen looking teen aged vampire before she'd vamp sped away on whatever mission she'd been assigned. Her counterpart was a powerful witch, while not as strong as Abby should have been. She had tried to keep the peace at home. If Abby practiced more often. Whoever she was now was irrelevant. She had to do everything she could to protect the people that mattered to her. With that in mind, Abby had been forced to channel her unborn son for the extra power boost.

"Why do you need a Petrova Doppelgänger?" Abby asked. She knew lying would only infuriate the vampire and his companions.

"Ah… I see you know what we seek then," he said with a smile and peered at her through the doorway. "You must be a Bennett witch then. My beloved wife once mentioned the shared connection between your kind and the Petrova Doppelgänger."

"It was a total surprise that my childhood friend would have a connection to the Petrova's," Abby stated. Her weary eyes kept returning to the witch who was keeping up the pressure but dividing her time looking through a large grimoire. Abby couldn't keep channeling her unborn child, not without adverse consequences for them both. As she considered her options, the younger vampire returned with a burden tucked under one arm. Placing the box on the ground before the older vampire, she extracted a glass bottle with a cloth sticking out of the neck. Her mind whirled at the implied implications and when the still as yet unidentified vampire casually took her Zippo then with the flick of a wrist set the kerosene soaked cloth a blaze. The smirk on the teenage vampire's face made Abby's skin crawl.

Her options were few and while her enhanced boundary thanks to her magic was still in place, the Molotov cocktail was a useless threat but as she both felt her shattered ward collapsing and the triumph look in her counterpart's eyes. She acted out of sheer desperation. Her magic pulled the Molotov from the surprised vampire's hand and Abby threw the weapon at the now shocked witch. The effect was immediate while the witch had protected herself from magical attack she'd ignored the more mundane methods. Ablaze as a human torch, her counterpart's screams tore at her heart and resounded through the once sleepy neighborhood.

She allowed a brief thrill of her own exultation before she struck again. Placing a hand over her unborn child, she recited the half remembered spell she once found in one of her mother's hidden grimoires. Her mother had warned her more than once not to find a solution by this way. She knew Dark magic could extract a heavy price, but she was frantic. Dark veins quickly spread along her arms and body. She tasted the coppery taste of her blood as it leaked from her nose and eyes, yet she still pulled on her and her child's magic and life force.

The spell's effects were slow but quickly grew in speed. The once confident vampire went rigid in alarm. As his body quickly desiccated. She only stopped her spell once the now stiff as a board vampire toppled over. Breathing hard and feeling dead inside, she moved her still extended hand towards the now horrified female vampire. Her eyes flicked to her dead companions.

"Leave vampire and never come back or suffer the same fate as they did!" Abby's voice was hard, and she knew it had to be because she was bluffing.

Trembling in fear, the teenage vampire only nodded once and then quickly vanished in the manner her kind could. Abby sighed, sagging her body against the door frame, and looked at the grisly scene outside of the home of her friend. While the threat was gone, there was too much still left to do. She needed to collect the newly desiccated vampire and put him somewhere he wouldn't be a threat to Elena or her family. As she hurried to complete her task, her mind worried about the repercussions she would face. There had been no other choice and giving little Elena up to those monsters wasn't it. She knew for a fact. However, she also knew that she stepped over a line when she tapped into dark magic, and she also knew there would be a heavy price the Spirits of Nature would collect from her.

"God, I sometimes really hate being a witch and especially a Bennett one," she muttered aloud, using her magic to levitate the neutralized vampire. As she moved its body in the back of her mind, she knew something was indeed wrong with her magic: it felt somehow weaker, but she put it down to stress and expending so much magic to defeat whoever this creature was.

"Time to get busy."

A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A

Charlotte, North Carolina.
October 22, 2010

"So when I finally arrived here in Charlotte, I hunted through a few hardware stores before I found enough high tensile strength steel chains. Which I then wrapped him up in, literally like a mummy. Then afterwards I found this lovely place and stuffed him into the Mausoleum. I knew he had no living relatives. Thus decreasing the chance of him being inadvertently discovered. At least that was the original plan. Now how did all of you find it?" Abby asked pointedly.

"Um… Uh? That would have been my doing." Jeremy said, looking rather sheepish.

"You!? How?" Abby asked, stunned. Jeremy opened his mouth to speak, but Bonnie beat him to it.

"Long story short, I brought Jeremy back to life after Sheriff Forbes accidentally shot him. When I did, the Spirits said there would be consequences. And they were right. Ever since that fateful day, Jeremy has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. I accidentally shared this detail of his new abilities with Elena's Doppelgänger Katherine while she was posing as Elena. Based on your description, it sounds like the young female vampire must have been Jeremy's former girlfriend, Anna." Bonnie said, hiding the bitterness that crept into her demeanor.

"Wait a minute, how did Katherine Pierce get out of the tomb under Fell's Church?" Abby asked.

"That is an entirely different story, but we all can say that Katherine was never actually in the tomb back in eighteen sixty-four. Trust me, my older brother spent most of his undead life trying to rescue her when in fact the whole point of it all was as a deception tactic to keep Klaus and his minions from finding her." Stefan added.

Caroline looked over at Stefan, who had seemed bored by the conversion, only shrugged when he noticed her staring at him.

Tension in the crowded motorhome was running high, and it was Jamie who broke it with a suggestion that they all take a break. Then after eating something their discussion could resume. Jeremy was the first one out the door, quickly followed by Stefan and Caroline.

Caroline, feeling somewhat peckish herself, went back to the car and pulled a blood bag from her cooler and downed its contents quickly before heading back to Abby's RV. Half way back movement in the corner of her eye drew her up short. She only partially relaxed her defensive stance when she realized it was only Stefan. Who based on the small pile of animal carcasses next to him had just fed like she had. Caroline grimaced at the memory of tasting animal blood. She knew she could do it if she really had to, but she much preferred human hemoglobin. It just tasted a thousand times better, and she wasn't ashamed to admit that anymore.

"I see you had the same idea as me," Caroline offered as a way of greeting. Pointedly now ignoring the dead animals. She had always loved bunny rabbits too, but certainly not as food. Both human or vampire preferences aside.

"Yeah, I don't think that Bonnie's mom feels very comfortable with us inside her home at the moment," Stefan laughed. She waited as he reached in his pocket for a packet of sanitizing wipes. Now why haven't I thought of that, she thought absently while trying to figure a way to continue their talk without making it too awkward for either of them.

"Well, it was a first for me. It never occurred to me we would need to be invited inside an RV, of all things. Have you ever experienced this before?" she asked, speculation running to ramp it to his response.

"Never. The closest I've come is the one time I needed to be invited to a mobile home, but those are considered semi permanent, anyway."

"I wonder?" Caroline started then after a moment she quickly added, "So what happens if a human is living in their car would we need to be invited in too?"

Stefan blinked at her, then opened his mouth to answer but seemed to be at a loss for words. Running his now clean hands through his hair. He considered her question.

"I really have no idea. It's possible I suppose."

They stood in silence, both considering what to say next when, not surprisingly to him, at least she beat him to it. He'd learned shortly after meeting her Caroline was not someone who would let sleeping dogs lay not without a good reason, he amended.

"Why are you doing what you're doing!? I mean, yours and her love story was epic. So why did you throw it all away? For revenge?"

"Klaus took everything I ever loved and destroyed it. Caroline I tried so hard to protect her from Klaus even knowing she was still alive. And she didn't make it easy for me: first it was in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, then it was one-too-many locations in Chicago. I tore my heart out when I told her I didn't love her. I had to get her to leave, but in the long run it didn't matter. Klaus found her and then-" Stefan words choked in his throat. If it wasn't for Caroline putting a reassuring hand on his arm, he knew he would have lost it.

"Then he compelled me to turn everything off and to feed from her," his breath hitched at the memory.

"I know Stefan," she said, but he pressed on.

"It's worse than you think. And its not because I'm a Ripper either. It's Elena. Caroline, has she ever offered her blood to you?" Stefan asked, his voice firm enough she knew he was serious.

"No? Why would that be important? What does her blood have to do with anything?"

"Don't ever accept it if she offers it to you," he cautioned her.

"Why?"

"I really should have noticed this when she was giving me small dosages of her blood before Klaus showed up, but when I fed from her vein that night in school I… I felt powerful. I don't think Klaus noticed it the one time he drained her. He was probably too caught up in breaking his curse but there is something about her blood."

"Could it be because she is the last Petrova Doppelgänger?" Caroline surprised herself by asking aloud a question she'd been asking herself.

"Yes and if Klaus has his way, she won't be the last one either."

"But-"

"It's worse than you think," he interrupted. "Caroline, when I was compelled to obey him and had my humanity stripped from me he occasionally shared some details about his plans. Part of them involves Elena having as many children as humanly possible. Hell, Klaus even mentioned bringing in some willing Warlocks to father her children. I don't know why or what he is after but it's more than just the next appearance of a Doppelgänger."

"Elena would never do that, it's not possible, she-" Caroline started but stopped when she realized, and Stefan only confirmed it for her.

"He said if he had to compel her to take multiple lovers, he would. I'd think he'd even watch."

"Oh God! Elena! Does Klaus think she is what a broodmare?" Caroline stammered she felt sick for her best friend and her future.

"I don't think he cares so long as he gets what he is after. Blood donations are one thing, but this is entering the realm of Machiavellian. It's part of the reason I did the whole Wickery Bridge gamble."

"Still not cool, Stefan. Does she know what he has planned for her? Where is my friend? Can you at least tell me if she is safe?" Caroline battered him with questions.

"No, I don't think that she does. It might make her do something she wouldn't consider in normal circumstances."

"Oh God!" she repeated. She desperately wanted to take her missing best friend into her arms and never let her go. "Are you ever going to answer my other question?"

Stefan sighed and eyed the younger vampire, resignation set deep in his troubled eyes. "She is safe, as you can probably ask Bonnie. Witches can't find her and as to her whereabouts... She could perhaps be residing in a property owned by some unknown person and being looked after. Or I found a decent human, compelled them to take her safely away from this mess and only return her when I call her. If I could I would have even compelled Elena to forget everything about the supernatural but that would leave her defenseless such as it is."

"So it's true then; you're compelling your ex-girlfriend. I knew you had to be doing something. There is no way she would've stayed put for so long" Caroline stated mainly for herself. Stefan only shrugged his shoulders in agreement.

"She'll hate you if we all survive this," she added.

"If she does or doesn't I can't honestly say, but what Klaus has planned for her is far worse," Stefan stopped and looked back the way they came. "I think we should head back. I think we've been gone long enough and besides, I smell grilled cheese and tomato soup, don't you?"

Caroline didn't argue. She was feeling hungry herself. She still loved to eat human food and considering the cold late October weather, melted cheese and hot soup sounded perfect to her palette. They walked slowly in silence, enjoying the night air, when Stefan stopped suddenly, grabbing her upper arm to stop her movement.

She huffed in annoyance. But he only put a slender finger to his lips before pointing to his ears. Nodding in understanding she tuned her own ears higher until she heard a single voice and caused her brow to crease in concern. Bonnie, she decided, is not going to be happy if she found out. And she for once had no intention of telling her. They already had enough going on without more teen drama mucking it up even more than it already was.

A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A

Jeremy's fast stride took him into the cemetery, brought him almost a full football field length away from Bonnie and any prying ears. But he was still upset and continued walking deeper for several minutes. Until he was lost among the headstones and random mausoleums.

"Jeremy, wait! Please! Will you stop and just talk to me!"

Jeremy refused at first, taking several steps forward before he whirled onto his interloper. His heated glare brought her short of him. She looked the same as the last time he'd seen her, and that only made it hurt more.

"What do you want to talk about, Anna? How about the fact that you were part of an attempt to kidnap my sister when she was still a freaking toddler? What were you and Mikael planning to do to her? Have a little midnight snack?!" he instantly regretted saying the last part, but his emotions were running too hot.

"Jer, what type of person do you think I am? I would never harm an innocent child, especially if they are still a baby, for goodness' sake. I might have been a vampire but I could never be that type of monster," Anna pleaded, her eyes glistened with unshed tears. Feeling chastened for bringing his first girlfriend to near tears caused his heart to lurch into his throat.

"Anna, I'm sorry. No, I don't think you're a monster. It's just so much to take in," he said solemnly, taking the opportunity to lean against a headstone.

"If I remember correctly, Katherine had said that your mother knew about Mikael, and at some point she'd told you about him. Why did you go looking for him?" Jeremy asked. He was trying his best to calm his voice and only partially succeeding.

"Actually, he found me. He'd somehow learned that I was trying to open the tomb to get my mother out and offered the services of his witch and access to the Gilbert Journals. If I helped him with his one task. And before you ask, Bonnie's mother was correct. Mikael did indeed promise to bring your sister back to your family, but I got the distinct impression it would've been at least a decade or more, however."

Jeremy studied her even now. He missed her. He so much wanted to both hold and yell at her, but doing either was counterproductive. Then her last statement about when Mikael was supposedly going to bring his sister back set his mind in motion.

"Why did you think he'd wait fifteen years or so, before bringing Elena back? While we're talking, how did he even know where to look for her? I mean, it's not like we advertised to the outside world that Mystic Falls had the only human Petrova Doppelgänger amongst its citizenry," he half heartedly joked. Oddly, the quirk upturn of her lips made his heart jump.

"I think he was personally going to train her to be a vampire hunter like him. More than once, he mentioned something about preparing her to fight the abomination. At the time, I didn't know he was talking about Klaus. She was supposed to be his secret weapon. The witch that died that day was powerful in precognition and she knew that even as a toddler Elena was the next doppelgänger," she answered truthfully.

"His witch should have been more inquisitive about her own future then," Jeremy observed dryly. Anna's snort of derision brought another smile to his lips.

"She was a rather arrogant bitch, truth be told. She told me once that she hoped for a chance to go up against a Bennett witch. After knowing Emily Bennett, I just thought she had a death wish and who was I to prevent that," Anna scoffed. Her blunt statement made Jeremy bark out a barely strangled laugh.

"So what happened after Abby desiccated Mikael? I'd assumed you followed her here to this place. How else would you know where he was? Why didn't you just wake him up and try again?" Jeremy asked the one question that was bothering him about the whole ordeal.

"One, Bonnie's mother told me not to, and after Mikael was 'dead' the compulsion he put me under broke and I felt no allegiance towards him. And two, my mother had been right. I should have turned and ran the first moment he approached me," Anna said tersely, and Jeremy knew her enough to know by her body language that something awful must have happened. He couldn't help himself, and the words passed through his lips before he could stop.

"Anna, what did Mikael do to you?"

"Mikael never fed from the innocent, or more accurately humans. He preferred to consume the blood of a vampire," Anna said, her voice clipped, then she broke in tears. "He fed from my mother more than once and he wasn't gentle about it. He did the same to me after he compelled me to do as he said," Anna sobbed. Jeremy could only stand there and offer what condolences he could to the ghost.

"He sounds like the perfect asshole!" he said finally, and that did bring a smile to her beautiful lips. Jeremy was about to follow up with another snide remark about the former vampire hunter when his stomach growled, reminding him it had been several hours since his last meal. Even as a ghost she must have heard it too, he observed, because she turned to head back to Abby's RV.

"Come on, let's see if you can get something to eat."

As they walked in shared silence, it was Anna who spoke up first. "Jer, I do miss you."

"I miss you too, Anna."

A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A

Once everyone had returned from the outside and settled back into their previous seating arrangement, Jamie started to serve everyone but Stefan and Caroline. Years ago Bonnie remembered Elena likening Caroline's puppy dog eyes as a weapon of mass destruction and now wasn't the exception. Nor was Jamie immune; he had wilted on her gaze in under a minute and quickly started another grilled cheese sandwich.

As they waited, Jeremy handed over his small bowl of soup to Caroline. "Hey Care, you can have my soup. I'm not really a big fan of tomato soup anyway," Jeremy offered.

"Excuse me M… Mom, while we are waiting for Caroline's food could you please continue with where we had left off after entombing Mikael? Why didn't you just come back home?" Bonnie asked. She didn't feel hungry. She'd watched Jamie prepare their food for them and the only thought going through her head was if she and he were related. More specifically, was he her little baby brother? She was almost too afraid to know.

Abby's heart clenched. This was the second time she called her 'Mom'. She realized how much she craved to hear it again.

While her son was busy preparing their meal, Abby had remained silent, choosing instead to observe her daughter. She so wanted to take the mature woman sitting in her RV into her arms. But she couldn't after what she had done. Even holding her daughter, she didn't deserve that privilege. Knowing that only added to the guilt and shame she'd been experiencing for the last fifteen years.

"On the night I subdued Mikael, I had not really practiced my magic for a very long time, and I was desperate to keep everyone safe. I was channeling my unborn son and while that is risky, especially at the stage of my pregnancy, I thought I could handle it. But when the witch broke through my protective wards, I had to act quickly and take her out. However, to neutralize Mikael I had to tap into some very Dark Magic to bring him down and I didn't know the full extent of the repercussions until after I secured him in what I had hoped would be his final resting spot. Not only had I lost my access to my magic, but the incantation I used had been done in great haste. Because of my carelessness, I had to tap into my unborn child's life force to pull it from the vampire."

"What did you do, Mom?"

"I had to stop my son's heart to do the same to Mikael. But the manner I did it made it impossible to restart my child's heart again," Abby responded, her throat constricting with every syllable.

"I don't understand Mom? Jamie is right here unless-"

"As much as I would want it to be true, it isn't the case. You see Jamie is not my biological child, Bonnie," Abby answered, regret filling her voice and tears she'd thought had long since passed started anew.

"By using my magic, I unintentionally killed my unborn child! How could I face you or your father after what I had done?" Abby sobbed.

A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A+A

Gilbert Residence
October 22, 2010

Alaric cursed as he struggled in vain to find the right key needed to open the front door with one hand, while the other was balancing a stack of papers that still needed to be graded before classes resumed on the following Monday. Just too many bloody keys.

"Here, let me," Damon coughed and pushed around him to stand directly in front of the door before he could ask Damon what the hell. Damon smirked and produced a key and slid it effortless into the lock and opened the front door to the Gilbert Residence.

"Ta-da! Please hold your applause until after the show," Damon said with a flourish and waved his friend inside.

"How the hell do you have a key?" Alaric demanded after they both had entered and he closed the door with a slam, thus cutting off any non vampire eavesdropper from listening.

"Why are you even here? I thought you were going home to lick your wounds after the ass kicking Klaus gave you before the emergency council meeting?"

"Technically, I don't have one. This actually once belonged to Jenna," Damon paused, finally noticing the perplexed frown his friend was aiming in his direction.

"Come on, Ric, it can't have been that long, has it? You should remember how many times she'd lose her front key. She'd always had a spare safely tucked away somewhere on the front wrap-around portico. What's gotten into you lately? First it was the emergency council meeting, now this. How can you forget-"

"Don't be a Dick! Nor have I forgotten nothing about my deceased girlfriend, and neither has Jeremy nor Elena for that matter. I'm choosing to only dwell on the good things about her, not her failings. And you're just being an asshole for no real reason," Alaric snarled, taking an aggressive step towards Damon, and for the briefest of an instant Damon felt an odd sense of deja vu. But the feeling was gone before he could investigate further.

Damon held up his hands in mock surrender. "Easy there, Ric, chill out! Fine, I will not speak disrespectfully of the dead, especially in her case," Damon responded, for once looking sincere, but that was quickly broken when Alaric noted Damon's trademark smirk emerged.

"What now Damon?"

"Change of topic. I think there is a somewhat relevant question for a would-be vampire hunter like yourself chock-full of vampire lore? Unless you're still mad at me," Damon deadpanned.

"Well, it would depend on the question then now, wouldn't it?" Alaric asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Okay. You know how a vampire like myself needs to be invited inside a residence and the only two ways that I know how it can be revoked are the death of the former owner and ownership is passed on. The other method is by having a witch cast a spell to magically revoke the invitation."

"Damon, by any chance is there going to be a question in the near future?" Alaric interrupted.

Damon ignored his friend and continued on with his part of their discussion. "Okay, here is my question- actually make it two while we're at it. If the owner of a residence leaves a key outside the entry way, does that qualify as an invitation? The second question is regarding the overlooked flaw in how a vampire can compel a person to invite them inside even when that person is safe within the residence?"

"Uh… Well, to answer the first, it probably requires a verbal permission to enter. As to the last question, I don't really know but it does seem like a minor plot hole for a cable television series to me."

"Ha… I just knew you were watching True Blood!" Damon teased. Which only earned him another annoyed glare from his friend.

"If you must know, I was looking for weapon ideas and I might have become somewhat hooked on watching it," Alaric said defensively. "Anyway, what the hell are you doing here anyway? I thought you'd said you were getting a ride home after the meeting from Liz. Why are you here?" he added, changing the subject. Damon didn't seem to mind; he seemed to have a few questions of his own for his drinking buddy.

"Well for starters, who exactly on the council was pressuring you to bring up the matter of Elena missing for nearly the last month?" Damon hissed. Alaric didn't respond, and it only forced Damon to reflect on who had spoken at the meeting. It didn't take long for who to come to mind.

"It was Pastor Young, wasn't it?" Damon probed and the subtle changes in his friend's body posture were enough for him at least. "Why does he care?" Damon demanded.

"Duh… How much do you really know about Elena?" Alaric pressed. "Apparently Elena used to babysit his daughter April and read her some stories she'd written herself. Supposedly she'd asked Elena to beta, read a few of her own stories. They'd been exchanging emails for a couple of days before Stefan took her. Naturally, she asked her father if something was going on with Elena. Being Elena and Jeremy's guardian, he started pressuring me about her whereabouts. I had to give him something."

"And since he's literally swimming in vervain aftershave and whatnot, I can't compel the egotistical prick," Damon added. Annoyed, he could just make the man disappear. After all, it wasn't like he hadn't done it before.

"Well, it was still a Dick move to blindside me like that," Damon continued. Tamping down his desire to go pay the Pastor a little visit.

"Damon, I did send you at least four texts by my count, don't go blaming this all on me. Now tell me, what is the real reason you're here?" Alaric responded, all serious now. They shared a moment of silence, and Damon nodded his head to a bookcase and whatever secrets lay behind it.

Acting together, they approached the oddly door sized bookcase and started looking for a release mechanism, which Alaric found hidden behind a dusty medical hardback journal. Once triggered, the offending bookcase swung effortlessly, revealing a dark set of stairs leading down.

"Did you know this panic room even existed?" Damon asked as they both headed down in semi dark, pierced by the twin beams of light only after Alaric found a pair of flash lights for them.

"No idea, and based on the amount of dust here I highly doubt either Elena or Jeremy knew of its existence," Alaric said in all honesty, studying the cramped interior from the entryway. The four inch thick steel concrete reinforced door stood open off to the side. Curious, he tested the ease of how much force it took to close it and to his surprise that despite the door's obvious weight it could easily be moved.

It didn't take long to find a working light switch. The interior of the room was cramped, but livable for a short time. Damon even found a working washroom. He didn't even want to consider what it would be like to be trapped down here with sweaty panicked people and dealing with the smell of a latrine, and he couldn't tell which would be worse to be human or vampire. Shaking his head to clear it, he found Alaric poking through a large collection of Banker boxes.

Having nothing better to do, Damon followed suit and started with a random box. Not surprisingly, the box he'd selected was filled with literally hundreds of file folders. He grabbed a random one and started flipping through its contents.

"So, Damon, during the meeting I'd noticed how you reacted when they name-dropped the Augustine Society. What do you know about them?" Alaric started flipping through a sheaf of computer printouts before selecting another random box.

"You might say that I was a guest of theirs for about five years. During my stay there they denied me blood and conducted what they called scientific experiments on me and another vampire who'd been there since nineteen forty-three" Damon answered, finding another file and started perusing through its contents. Its contents made him sick to think that Elena Gilbert called this man dad.

"How did you end up there, and who is this other vampire?" Alaric asked. His concern only helped Damon to feel even more guilt than he had at the time.

"Oh… A human relative of mine invited me and my brother back to Mystic Falls to celebrate the thirty-ninth anniversary of the opening of the Salvatore Boarding House. Apparently, for the previous two years Joseph Salvatore had spent a lot of time and money renovating the interior. I should have known it was a trap of my ingrate of a descendant. Turns out he was desperately short of cash and was going to turn me and my brother over to Augustine Society for a large sum of money," Damon said.

"What happened?"

"I killed the bastard, but afterwards Doctor Whitmore of the Augustine Society arrived and knocked me out with a heavy dose of vervain. I met Lorenzo St. John there. He'd told me afterwards that he'd been there for just over a decade before I was added as a test subject."

"How bad was it?"

"Let's just say that the members of this secretive society could have given pointers to both Germany's Angel of Death and Japanese Unit 731. I guess when your test subjects are less than human or worse, soulless creatures, it's easy to justify what they ultimately did to us," Damon spoke with no trace of humor in his voice. Alaric looked up from his pile.

"That sounds barbaric."

"It was Ric, you have no idea what they did to us. We concocted a plan to escape, and it mostly worked, but Lorenzo died in a fire I accidentally started. Do you know what the worst thing about what happened to my friend was?" Damon waited for a moment before starting up again. "Lorenzo, at the time, was a British subject and wanted to fight against the Nazi's, and how did he get rewarded? He was captured and shipped back to the states to be a lab rat. What!?"

Damon noticed a far away look on Alaric's face and thought he saw a look of sympathy before it returned to a more neutral expression.

"That sucks, man. Sorry to hear about that. Hey, I think I might have figured out a pattern with how these files should be ordered."

"Well, please share. Or are you just building up suspense?" Damon smirked.

"Very funny. Each file has a series of three number sequences separated by a dash. Take this file, for example. The first four digits represent the year in this case, two thousand and seven. Followed by a three digit number which I've come to the conclusion means the experiment number. I think they rolled the numbers with each new year. But I can't make out the purpose of this last five digit number. Whatever it means, it's on every file I've found so far."

Damon's breath caught, and he felt as if someone had just staked him in the chest. With a calm that surprised even himself, he asked a question he both wanted to know and at the same time didn't.

"Ric? What is the number you're talking about?" he asked, keeping his voice neutral.

"Damon?" Alaric asked.

"Just humor please," was all Damon allowed himself to say.

"Uh… Okay, let's see one-two-one-four-four, why?" Alaric asked, now curious. Damon didn't say anything, instead, he grabbed a handful of files and started looking for the number sequence Alaric had described. One by one the files joined the others on the panic room floor, and Damon's frown deepened into a snarl.

"What's wrong Damon?"

"Fuck! Sonofabitch! I should have fucking suspected. Ric, I do know what that number is," Damon yelled. Alaric seemed content to allow his friend to vent and allowed him the courtesy.

"I had a similar number once upon a time, it's a test subject tracking number and the one you and these other files here are for my friend Lorenzo. What was the year on your file?"

Alaric smiled and repeated the number with an evil grin on his face.

"Hey buddy, what do you think about staging a good old fashion jail break?" Damon asked finally.

"I thought you'd never ask."