Elowen sighed as she entered the boarding house. Stefan had called her last night asking her to come by without much explanation, and she put everything else on hold to go see what the problem was.
"Hello?" She called out as the door closed behind her. "Stefan?"
Esmeralda walked into the room. "Hey, honey."
Elowen frowned. "Mom? What are you doing here? Is everything- Oh my god, is Stefan-"
"Stefan's fine. It's actually Katherine."
"Katherine? What about her?"
"She tried to kill herself last night."
Elowen widened her eyes. "Oh. Whoa. Why?"
"Apparently the cure did something to her and she's aging at a rapid pace. She wanted to die before time could kill her."
"I mean that's… understandable."
Esmeralda shot her a look.
"What? Mom, she's dying. Who knows how painful letting that drag out is going to be?" Elowen sighed when Esmeralda's face didn't change. "Fine, okay, Katherine doesn't deserve the easy way out. Why am I here?"
"Two reasons. One, help with suicide watch, and two." Esmeralda lowered her voice and stepped up to Elowen's ear. "Stefan had a really bad panic attack earlier and he broke a chair. I think you can get to him better than I can."
Elowen sighed and nodded. "Okay. Where is he?"
Esmeralda led Elowen to the library, where Stefan and Katherine were. Katherine rolled her eyes when she saw Elowen.
"Great. You here to watch me wither away, too?"
Elowen huffed. "No. I'm not here for you."
Her eyes found Stefan's and Katherine followed her line of sight.
"Well, if I knew you were coming, I wouldn't have called for backup."
There was a knock at the door and Esmeralda, Elowen and Stefan all looked at each other before the three of them walked back over to the front door. Stefan opened it to reveal Caroline and Veronica.
Elowen frowned. "What are you two doing here?"
"I heard Stefan needed help," Caroline replied.
"And I'm just along for the ride," Veronica responded.
"I also got my mom to drop off something for us to use."
Caroline stepped aside, revealing the safe that Stefan had been locked in for three months.
"Don't worry. I sanitized it."
xxxx
Damon and Toby sat in seperate cells, both sitting on the ground and leaning against the wall.
"Just do you know, didn't end well for the last Augustine's," Damon spoke up in a tired, annoyed voice. "You're inviting bad karma in by holding me here."
Dr. Maxfield, who was watching the both of them and writing something down in a journal, looked over at Damon.
"Is that what you told Dr. Whitmore?"
Damon groaned. "Dr. Whitmore wasn't much for conversation. The guy stabbed me in the eye once because I wouldn't shut up. Ever had that happen to you before? Not fun. So, you Augustine freaks are still at it?"
"Jesse was proof that my research goes far beyond that. I trained him to crave vampire blood instead of human blood. Now, I'm ready to take my research to the next level."
xxxx
Caroline, Stefan, Elowen, Veronica and Esmeralda all stood in front of the safe.
"I spent three months drowning in this thing," Stefan said. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"I was thinking it's time for you to deal with the source of your PTSD," Caroline replied with a smile.
"And you think locking him in the safe that got him into this mess in the first place is a good idea?" Elowen asked. "Caroline, would you have locked me in a room with Luis and told me to deal with it so I could get over my PTSD?"
Caroline faltered. "Well… no."
"So how is this any better?"
"If you ask me, I think she's just sublimating her feelings about what happened to Jesse last night," Veronica commented, crossing her arms.
Caroline scoffed. "Feelings? What feelings would I have about my friend's boyfriend killing the guy I was crushing on?"
Veronica sighed dramatically. "Would you have preferred he kill your best friend's boyfriend? Because that's what would've happened if Toby hadn't done anything."
"What do you know about what happened last night? You were too busy flirting with Aaron."
"Actually, we just talked. I think he was trying to flirt, but I wasn't feeling it. Nice guy, though. Besides, aren't you a drama major? What do you know about PTSD that the girl who literally has it doesn't?"
"Look, all I'm saying is, maybe trying it this way wouldn't hurt."
"Wouldn't hurt?" Elowen repeated. "Are you listening to a word I'm saying?"
"Elowen, no, it's okay," Stefan cut in. "I'll give it a try."
Elowen shot him a look of disbelief and opened her mouth to say something, but Esmeralda placed a hand on her shoulder.
"If he wants to try it, let him. We'll be right here."
Elowen looked from Esmeralda to Stefan, who nodded. She sighed, giving in, and nodded.
"Okay. Okay, fine. We'll give this a shot."
xxxx
Toby looked through the bottom of his cell and saw Elena unconscious on the floor. He dragged himself over to the opening.
"Elena," he called out. "Elena, wake up."
Elena started to groan and stir around on the floor before her eyes squinted open. She saw Toby through the opening in the bottom and started trying to crawl over.
"Toby? Are you-"
"I'm fine. Wes injected you with vervain. Damon's here, too."
"Peek-a-boo," Damon mumbled in a singsong voice. "Welcome to the party."
"What the hell is going on?" Elena asked as she sat up. "Why are you guys here? Why am I here?"
"Wes is carrying out the grand Augustine tradition," Damon explained. "Getting his kicks off vampire torture."
"Did he tell you that?"
"He didn't have to. I've been here before. Someone in my family sold me out to the Augustine's in 1953. Everyday, this nutjob Dr. Whitmore tortured us, cut into us, took pieces of our eyes out, pushed us to every limit he could imagine, and he had quite the imagination. Kept me in this very cell, and don't think I haven't appreciated the irony."
"How long were you here?"
"Five years, give or take."
"Dude, how did you not go crazy?" Toby asked.
"Believe it or not, I made a friend. His name was Enzo. He was a soldier in Europe during World War II."
"How did he end up here?"
"Dr. Whitmore was working in a battlefield hospital when he discovered Enzo was a vampire, so he drugged him, locked him in a coffin to ship him overseas. He'd been here for ten years by the time I joined the party."
"Toby," Elena said to get his attention. "Wes knew my dad. They worked together. He said that my dad was an Augustine, too. I know that my dad was a vampire hunter, but he was also the town doctor. He was kind and gentle and loving. He wouldn't be part of a place that would cut your eyes out."
Toby sighed. "I'm sorry you had to find that out. We all have perfect pictures of our parents in our heads, but… Elena, your dad was a vampire hunter who was apart of the vampire hating council of Mystic Falls. I don't think him experimenting on vampires is that much of a stretch." He stood up and walked over to the bars of his cell. "Maybe if I turned, I could break open the bars."
"No, you idiot," Damon replied. "If you expose yourself as a hybrid, who knows what these freaks will do to you. Besides, you lose control when you're a wolf. Who's to say you won't try to eat us? Klaus is thousands of miles away in New Orleans. Something tells me he won't be available to give us some of his blood."
"Well, do you have any ideas, genius?"
"Look, once Elowen realizes we're missing, she'll come looking."
"I don't know about that," Elena spoke up. "Elowen went back to Mystic Falls this morning. Stefan called her last night and said he needed her help with something."
"Needed help with what?"
"I don't know. She didn't say."
Damon groaned, but bit his tongue. "I'll think of something, okay? Just let me worry about it. I'll get us out of here."
Except Damon wasn't sure if he was trying to reassure Toby and Elena, or if he was trying to reassure himself.
xxxx
Elowen, Caroline, Veronica and Esmeralda were all gathered around the safe, which Stefan was now locked into. Katherine was standing off to the side, observing.
"Caroline!" Stefan called out nervously, his voice muffled. "Do you even know what you're doing?"
"Yes," Caroline replied. "Well, it's in my textbook."
She had a textbook in her hands that she was flipping through. Veronica peered over her shoulder.
"'Clinical and Practical to Conquering Fear'? This isn't a fear, Caroline," Veronica deadpanned with a drawl. "It's PTSD. These things are not synonymous to each other."
"Just let me find what I'm looking for, okay? I got this."
"Sure you do."
Caroline ignored her and continued looking through the pages before she found what she was looking for.
"Here! Okay, Stefan. Prolonged exposure therapy. 'In vivo exposure, gradually introduces elements of prior trauma, e.g physical objects, comma, certain aspects of duress, comma-'"
Katherine rolled her eyes and walked over to Caroline, grabbed the textbook and closed it.
"Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Got it, got it, got it. Stop talking. The words that are coming out of your mouth are giving me a headache."
Caroline huffed. "I'm just trying to help Stefan understand what I'm doing."
"Acting like a school teacher isn't going to make him feel any better."
"Caroline?" Stefan's muffled voice rang out. "Caroline! Elowen? Elle?"
Elowen, who was standing over the safe, crouched down to get level with it.
"I'm right here, Stefan. Breathe. You need to breathe."
Stefan started to pant and hyperventilate, banging on the sides of the safe in an attempt to get out.
"I can't breathe."
"Yes, you can. Breathe, Stefan."
"I can't…"
Stefan trailed off as he passed out from feeling overwhelmed from panic, anxiety and fear. Elowen felt herself get worried when she didn't get a full answer.
"Stefan? Stefan!" She stood up and started trying to open the safe. "That's it. We need to get him out of there."
Caroline rushed over and put her hands over the handle to stop Elowen from opening the safe.
"Wait! We've barely started."
"Caroline! He's been through enough!"
"Okay, let's just calm down." Esmeralda stepped in, placing a hand on both Caroline and Elowen's shoulders. "Stefan said he wanted to give this a shot, but we also shouldn't push his limits. I think we're about to cross that line. I can feel what he feels, remember? He felt pretty freaked out and anxious a second ago."
"I think the main question here is, how do you help the guy that always comes to the rescue?" Veronica asked nobody in particular. "The guy who always knows what to do. The hero. He might not be able to come through for himself, but he comes through for everyone else, every time, without fail. You can try and be there for him all you want, but sometimes that's not enough. He needs someone he can connect with, who knows what they're doing. I wonder who that could be."
Everyone looked over at Elowen. She shook her head.
"I mean, what do you want me to do? He's locked in a safe that he drowned in for three months, which is by far the stupidest thing to do, and nobody else wants to let him out. I'm a little outnumbered here."
Veronica shrugged. "Easy. Go in there with him."
"What?"
"Think about it. You've struggled with PTSD, so you know the symptoms and you know how to handle it. Obviously being in there by himself isn't working, so if a familiar face is in there with him, someone he happens to trust his life with, maybe it'll help stop him from having a complete meltdown. It's worth a try, isn't it?"
Elowen thought about this for a moment before sighing and nodding her head.
"Okay. Okay, fine. I'll give it a try."
Veronica walked over, pulled open the safe, and gestured inside.
"Off you go."
Elowen looked over at Esmeralda, who nodded, and then carefully swung her legs over the sides and sank down into the safe, next to Stefan. Veronica let the door close behind her, locking them both inside.
xxxx
Toby was standing by the bars of the cell, pulling at the door and rattling the metal together when Damon spoke up.
"Give it a rest, will you? It's useless."
Toby let go of the bars with a frustrated huff, kicking at the door as he walked away.
"Damn it!" He ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Want to tell me the secret of surviving in here for five years?"
"We're not gonna be here that long," Elena said, trying to be optimistic, but even she wasn't sure.
"To answer your question, it was Enzo's friendship that kept me alive," Damon answered. "He gave me a reason to hang on to my humanity, even when I thought I'd be a prisoner forever."
"Well, look on the bright side, you're stuck in here with us this time," Toby replied. "Not the best company, but I'll take what I can get."
"Maybe- maybe you're right," Elena spoke up. "Eventually, Elowen will come looking when no one hears from us, and she might get a premonition or something- and- and- Stefan! What about Stefan?"
"Points for optimism," Damon drawled. "But unfortunately, Stefan doesn't even know this place exists."
"But you were here for five years."
"Yeah, and in the first year, I thought he'd rescue me. He didn't. Once I escaped, there was no point in giving him more to feel guilty about, so I never told him what happened here. I never told anyone."
"Yeah, but you did escape. How did you do it?"
"They let us out of the basement once a year. Every New Year's Eve, the Augustine people had a little cocktail party with vampire buffet on the side. We were weak from vervain injections, half starved from living on a glass of blood a day, chained up like animals. This little annual shindig is where Dr. Whitmore got to show all of his Augustine friends what he'd found in his research. He let his guests drink from us to demonstrate the healing power of vampire blood, but on the plus side, that's how Enzo came up with his plan."
Toby walked over to the wall and leaned on it. "Which was?"
"Like I said, we were only given a single glass of blood a day to stop us from mummifying. If one of us drank two a day for a whole year, we would build up enough strength to break out."
"So? Did it work?"
Damon took a few seconds to reply, a serious, faraway look on his face.
"... More or less."
"How did you get out?" Elena asked eagerly.
"It doesn't matter. I got strong. I got out. It wasn't pretty. All you need to know."
Toby turned and punched the wall. Elena flinched, but neither of them said anything else.
xxxx
Stefan started to stir inside the safe. Elowen was lying beside him, resting her head in the palm of her hand, watching him carefully.
"Stefan?" She called out quietly, not wanting to startle him.
Stefan blinked groggily and turned his head in her direction at the sound of her voice in confusion.
"Veronica thought it was a good idea to have me in here with you," she explained calmly. "To try and keep you calm."
Stefan's eyes came into focus and he saw Elowen next to him in the safe, but he immediately started hitting the roof of the safe.
"Caroline! Get her out of here! I don't want to hurt her!"
"That's the beauty of this, though!" Veronica's muffled voice came through. "You won't hurt her. You physically can't."
"Stefan," Elowen whispered. "I know it's a lot to ask of you, but you need to ground yourself and calm down. If you start to get too anxious, you'll get violent and then you really will hurt me. Use it as motivation."
"Elowen, please," Stefan mumbled back, trying to catch his breath. "You're risking your life."
"Wouldn't be the first time. You're always there for me, Stefan. Let me be here for you."
"I can't be in here," Stefan muttered instead, mainly to himself. "Please."
Elowen's hand slid across the bottom of the safe towards Stefan's and interlocked their fingers together. This seemed to calm Stefan down a little, his eyes flickering down to look at their hands.
"You've got this, okay? I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here."
Stefan closed his eyes and willed himself to take a deep breath.
"There you go," Elowen praised. "Keep doing that, okay? Focus on your breathing."
His grip tightened on her hand slightly, squeezing her palm, as if searching for reassurance, and Elowen squeezed back, a gentle smile on her lips. Stefan's eyes opened and he looked down at her, forcing himself to take another deep breath, as Elowen shifted so she could rest her head on his chest. She could hear his heart hammering loudly against her ear and started to hum softly, the tune being a lullaby Esmeralda used to sing her to sleep when she was young. Slowly, Elowen could hear his heartbeat start to calm down, and Stefan's other arm came up to bring her closer, her head resting in the crook of his neck comfortably. The position made Stefan imagine that they were lying in his bed instead of in the safe, and he started to feel more at ease. Elowen felt him relax against her.
"See?" Elowen whispered. "You can do this, Stefan. It's okay."
xxxx
"Seriously, dude, you need to tell us how you got out of here," Toby said, lying on his back on the ground. "If you don't, Wes is going to come back down here and we'll all be the new Augustine experiment."
"You don't want to know, wolf boy," Damon replied. "Don't worry about it."
"What, are you scared I'm going to judge you even more than I already do? That I'm going to run back to Elowen and tell her whatever awful thing her boyfriend had to do in order to survive? This isn't my story to tell. I know you want to get out of here as much as I do. Now fess up."
Damon sighed. "Alright, fine. The Augustine's next party was in 1958. I'd been drinking Enzo's rations for an entire year. I mean, he kept a few drops here and there so he wouldn't desiccate, and as he starved himself, I got stronger from all the extra blood just like he said I would. When Dr. Whitmore let me out of the cage, I was able to get my hands out of the shackles and then I wreaked havoc on the whole party. Guests went running everywhere and someone knocked over the candles and set the place on fire. I tried to get Enzo out of the cage, but the bars were coated in vervain. It was no use."
Damon paused.
"Enzo trusted me with his life. The fire was getting out of control, then I would've burned up, or they would have captured me again. There's no way I would have ever gotten another chance of escaping… so I chose to save myself, and I knew that if I was going to save myself, then I had to stop caring about Enzo, so I turned off my emotions. I left my friend to die. After that, everything was fine." Damon lowered his voice to mumble to himself. "Everything was fine."
xxxx
"How do you feel now?" Elowen asked after they sat in the darkness of the safe for a couple of minutes.
"Better," Stefan replied quietly, one of his hands brushing some of Elowen's curls out of her face so he could look down at her properly. Elowen felt him move and she looked up at him.
"I don't think I've said it yet, but the blue suits you. Me without memories was onto something."
Elowen smiled for a second before it faded. She cleared her throat.
"Now that you're feeling more grounded… we should probably talk about the situation we're in. What does being in this safe make you feel?"
Elowen heard Stefan's heartbeat spike when she asked him this. Stefan swallowed, trying to keep himself calm so he could answer.
"It makes me feel like… like I'm dying. It's suffocating."
"Now take those feelings and turn them into something else. Something that will keep you in the here and now, in reality. What's the opposite of dying?"
"Being alive."
"And what are some things that make you feel alive?"
"You," Stefan replied immediately. "Being with you, spending time with you."
"And what about me makes you feel alive?"
"Everything about you. Your laugh, your smile, your personality and your attitude. Even your family makes me feel alive. You guys make me feel like I'm apart of something bigger, and you all have always accepted me for who I am. It makes me feel normal and human."
"Now think of the last time we did something that made you feel that way."
Stefan paused as he thought about it.
"When I had no memories," Stefan responded after a moment. "Remembrance Day. You were trying to help keep me distracted so I wouldn't feel like I wanted to rip someone's head off and it was working. We had fun and that was when no memories me realized why I loved you in the first place, and felt myself feeling things for you all over again. It made me forget that I was a vampire for a day. You were always good at that."
"Good. Now think about that instead if you ever feel yourself getting panicky again. Focus on the opposite feelings, the good ones."
Stefan looked down at Elowen again and found her smiling up at him. He tilted his head.
"What?"
"You're doing it, Stefan. You're in the safe that you drowned in for three months and you aren't letting it control you anymore. This doesn't mean I endorse this method. I still think this was stupid."
Stefan chuckled. "Well, I couldn't have done it without you. Veronica suggesting you come in here with me probably saved my life." He sighed. "Does it get easier?"
"Of course it does. I've had four years to deal with my PTSD. You've only had a month or two. You're not going through this alone, Stefan. I won't let you."
Stefan smiled down at her and leaned down to kiss her when the door to the safe pulled open. Bright light flooded the dark space and Stefan and Elowen's eyes squinted, both of them raising their hands to block out the brightness. When Elowen moved her hands, she saw Veronica standing over them.
"Sorry, am I interrupting something?"
Elowen narrowed her eyes at her while Veronica innocently smiled down at her. Stefan got up and stood in the safe before offering his hand out to Elowen. She took it and he helped her up to her feet. The both of them swung their legs over the sides of the safe and Veronica closed the door behind them. Caroline beamed at Stefan.
"See?" She playfully hit his shoulder. "You made it out alive!"
Elowen rolled her eyes. "Yeah, no thanks to you."
"Hey!"
Elowen ignored her and pulled her phone out. Esmeralda peered over her shoulder.
"Who are you calling?" She asked.
"Damon," Elowen replied. "I haven't heard from him since last night and he's obviously not here."
She raised her phone to her ear when she pressed call and frowned when the call immediately went to voicemail.
"That's weird…" She mumbled. She redialed Damon's number and was met with the same result. She shook her head, stuffed her phone back into her pocket and turned to head for the door.
"Where are you going?" Katherine asked with her arms crossed.
"To find Damon. Last I know, he was interrogating Dr. Creepy, you know, the one who experiments on vampires? Which Damon happens to be? That doesn't sit right with me."
"Wait," Stefan said as Elowen walked towards the door. "I'll come with."
After the front door closed behind them, Esmeralda sighed.
"Well, I have to go, too. My new book drops tomorrow and I'm supposed to do an unveiling in New York over skype in the morning."
Katherine tilted her head. "That's right, you're a writer. I've never heard of you before I met you, so what do you even write?"
"You've never heard of me because I go by a pseudonym. EJ Lincoln."
"Hang on, pause," Veronica spoke up. "You're EJ Lincoln? I had to read The Girl Behind the Red Door in my senior year AP English class. Only other book that creeped me out like that was Coraline."
Katherine quirked an eyebrow. "Hm. Esteemed fantasy/horror author EJ Lincoln. Interesting. I personally read The Secret Forest Under the Bridge a few years back out of pure boredom and was pleasantly surprised that I ended up liking it."
"She let me read the first chapter of her new book and it's really good," Caroline piped up. "She decided to take the events of the past three years and twist them a little to make it into a story."
Katherine hummed. "Might as well take advantage of the supernatural hotbed that is Mystic Falls."
"Well, I still have to go." Esmeralda started heading for the front door. "See you guys later."
After Esmeralda left, Veronica huffed.
"I need a drink."
"Ditto," Katherine sighed.
They both walked off towards the library, leaving Caroline alone with the safe.
"Uh, hello! I might be a strong vampire, but this thing is heavy!"
"What can us, two weak humans, do to help?" Veronica called over her shoulder. "Nothing, last I checked."
Caroline narrowed her eyes, but didn't say anything else as Veronica and Katherine disappeared.
Veronica entered the library, Katherine following behind her, and walked over to the drink cart to pour herself a drink.
"So," she began, taking a sip. "You're dying and the first thing you did was try to kill yourself. A little melodramatic, don't you think?"
Katherine rolled her eyes as she came over to pour herself a drink as well.
"When you've lived as long as I have, dying of old age is a pathetic way to go out. I wanted it to at least be epic."
"So you chose to jump off of a clock tower? Because that's so epic."
Katherine scoffed. "Fine. If you were me, what would you be doing to waste your life away?"
"I would do the things I wasn't able to do while being on the run for 500 years. You've spent all this time just existing and double crossing people to survive, but I doubt you've really lived. You're dying, so it doesn't really matter if you take risks, does it? Go skydiving or something. Do something you've never done before."
Katherine took a sip of her drink. "You seem to have this all figured out, don't you? Pray tell, how do you know so much?"
Veronica shrugged. "Elowen and I have gotten kind of close, I guess. She's given me a run down on what's happened since this all started."
"So you know that I'm a manipulative, scheming, psychotic bitch, yet you're being nice to me. Why?"
"Like I said that day in the dorms, you've never done anything to me personally, so I have no reason to hate you, and you're not exactly a threat anymore, are you? Besides, us mean girls have to stick together."
"We're two very different types of mean girls, if you haven't noticed. I'm a murderer. You're just a bully."
"Don't call me a bully. That's insulting. I just use intimidation tactics and seduction to get what I want. I also don't care what other people think and I have no filter, unless I need one, which is hardly ever, but something I never do is make fun of people. It's fucked up."
Veronica walked over to one of the shelves of books and started looking through them, her drink in her other hand. Katherine turned and watched her intently.
"So, where did the love for torturing people come from? Because it clearly gets you off. It's kind of hot."
Veronica smirked at Katherine from over her shoulder, who smirked back.
"I think it's the rush it gives me, you know? It's fun. I've probably just got a few loose screws in my head or something."
"I rode solo for so long, but if I were still a deadly vampire, I don't think I'd mind having you for a partner in crime."
Veronica pretended to gasp dramatically and put her hand on her chest.
"Katherine Pierce wants me to be her partner in crime?"
Katherine rolled her eyes playfully. "You're not annoying and you're good at what you do. Truth be told, Elowen would be a good contender, too, but her and I don't have a good track record."
"Uh, duh. You tried to break her and Stefan up and you brought her abusive father back to life. Then again, her and Klaus have this weird understanding, so if she were able to give him a pass, she might give one to you as your dying wish. Ooh! Maybe you could put your name in to the Make a Wish foundation."
Veronica turned away from the shelf of books and found Katherine standing behind her. Veronica raised an eyebrow.
"What are you doing?"
"Something I've never done before."
Katherine reached over and grabbed Veronica's drink, set it down next to hers and closed the gap between them. She grabbed Veronica's chin and tilted her face down towards her, pressing a soft kiss to Veronica's lips.
"You're over 500 years old and you've never kissed a girl before?" Veronica asked in a whisper once Katherine pulled away.
"No, I've just never kissed you specifically. Is that a problem?"
Veronica shook her head. "Uh-uh."
"Good."
Katherine leaned back in and kissed Veronica again, this time much rougher than before, and pulled her over to the couch. She shoved Veronica down on it, straddled her and reconnected their lips again.
Caroline, who was back in the living room, was still trying to lift the safe back into a standing up position when she heard a muffled thud throughout the quiet house. Curious, she used her enhanced hearing, only to accidentally overhear Katherine and Veronica. Her eyes widened.
"Oh my god. Ew! Ew, ew, ew. I'm out of here."
Caroline abandoned the safe in favor of rushing over to the front door. She reached it, threw it open, and quickly left the boarding house without a word.
xxxx
Author's Note: Katherine and Veronica might seem like it came out of nowhere because I wasn't able to give them enough buildup scenes beforehand and did my best. I figured that might be a good pair since they're a lot alike to a certain extent. I had to give Katherine a reason to stay in Mystic Falls in order to continue the Katherine jumps into Elena's body plot, because without her and Stefan hooking up, which caused her to try to rekindle their romance, Katherine would have nothing stopping her from just booking it with Nadia the second Elena was officially gone. That was kind of a key story arc so I didn't even want to try to rewrite it.
Also, I hope you liked the way I wrote the Elowen and Stefan in the safe scene! I hated how they wrote Stefan's PTSD in the show because after locking him in the safe, all of it magically disappeared. Realistically, Stefan still should've had some issues being in enclosed spaces still, after the fact. I know it's literally a show about vampires and witches, but it just bugged me. I tried to make it more believable :) until next time!
