Elowen's eyes popped open early the next morning, much to her displeasure. She turned her head to look at the alarm clock and groaned when she saw the time. She pulled the covers back over herself to block out the sunlight just as the door to the dorm room opened. Bonnie, Caroline and Veronica all came in, announcing themselves.

"Okay! Time to wake up, sleepyhead," Caroline said in a loud voice.

Elowen huffed from under the comforter. "No. I'm not leaving this bed."

"Which is why we brought you breakfast!" Veronica piped up in an overly cheery voice, reaching over to rip the blankets off of Elowen.

With a grunt, Elowen sat up and saw the tray of food Bonnie was holding. She furrowed her eyebrows.

"What's all this?"

"This is your break up breakfast!" Caroline gushed with a smile.

"My what?" Elowen shook her head, one of her hands coming up to rub her eyes. "No, this is unnecessary and stupid. Damon didn't break up with me. I broke up with him."

Veronica nodded. "And rightfully so. I'd eventually draw the line with my self proclaimed serial killer boyfriend, too."

Caroline, who was holding a bottle of champagne, opened the bottle and poured a glass for Elowen. She walked over to hand it off.

"Drink this."

Elowen eyed the drink for a second, moments away from declining it when Bonnie spoke up.

"Josiah said it's okay. He's not going to judge you."

Elowen looked around the room and with a sigh, she took the glass from Caroline. Bonnie opened her mouth again.

"Josiah also says he's sorry. He knows how hard it must've been for you to make this decision."

Elowen scoffed, addressing the room.

"You hated Damon."

Bonnie paused as she waited for Josiah to reply, then turned to Elowen.

"He says maybe, but you cared about him, so he learned to tolerate him. He also thinks you did the right thing."

Caroline nodded. "I agree. Holding Damon accountable for his actions is better than blindly following him around like a puppy. You're smarter than that."

Veronica came over and sat on the edge of Elowen's bed.

"What are you going to do about it? Just go about your usual life?"

Elowen sighed, shrugging. "There's nothing else I can really do. Until Damon can prove to me that he's making real progress, I can't be with him, and I can't force him to change. It's as simple as that."

"Well, at least you still have Stefan. Or do you think Stefan doesn't wanna be caught in the middle of all this and he'll break up with you, too?"

Elowen paused as she thought this over, but Caroline immediately scoffed.

"Stefan would never do that. Damon might be his brother, but Elowen is his soulmate. He wouldn't just abandon her."

Elowen's phone started to ring and she lazily reached over to grab it.

"Speak of the devil."

She lifted her phone to show everyone the caller ID before answering the call.

"Hey, Stefan."

"Hey. Can you get back to the boarding house?"

Elowen frowned. "Why? Is everything okay?"

"Depends on how you look at it. Katherine's dying."

"No shit. I thought this was common knowledge."

"No, I mean she's dying. She won't make it to the end of the day."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Can you get here?"

"Uh, yeah, yeah. Sure."

"Thank you. See you then."

"Yeah."

Elowen hung up her phone before looking up at everyone else.

"Pack up, ladies. We're going back to Mystic Falls."

xxxx

Elowen had stopped at her house and picked up Esmeralda, Eliana and Sydney, while Veronica went to her apartment to grab Angel and Adriana. They all walked into the library to find everyone else drinking to Katherine's death. Esmeralda immediately frowned.

"You guys are kidding me, right?"

Damon groaned. "Oh, don't get all mom on us. We're just playing a friendly little drinking game."

"Yeah, a drinking game to celebrate somebody dying."

Sydney walked over and picked up the bottle of bourbon they were all using, then showed it to Esmeralda.

"And they're using top notch booze."

She tossed the bottle over to Damon, who caught it, and shook her head as she went over to Eliana.

"Let's just go. I'm not going to sit around here and watch them be a bunch of insensitive brats."

"Hey!" Damon chided. "Katherine is a psychotic bitch. She's screwed over 95% of the people in this room."

Sydney turned to Damon and crossed her arms. "I've never even met her. Why should I drink to a woman who's never done a thing to me?"

Adriana looked over at Jeremy. "This is wrong. You're kicking someone while they're down."

Matt loudly cleared his throat and stood up. "We're going to need more booze."

As he left, Stefan came into the room.

"I agree with them," he said. "Knock it off or take it somewhere else. You guys are being insensitive."

"Thank you," Sydney stated.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Come on, Stefan. Don't let the sight of a frail, human, Elena look alike cloud your memories of the manipulative psycho that she is."

He handed over a full shot glass to Stefan, who hesitated for a second before taking it, ignoring Esmeralda's look of disapproval.

"In 1864, Katherine moved into my home, she compelled me to love her, seduced my brother, fed us full of vampire blood and then started a war with the town that got us killed."

"Exactly. Bottoms up."

Damon drank his shot, but Stefan continued talking.

"But, centuries before that, she was just an innocent girl that was shunned by her family, so for 500 years, she lied and manipulated and did whatever she had to do to survive, and she did. She's a survivor, right? So, that's the girl I will drink to today. Cheers."

Stefan drank his shot as Esmeralda nodded.

"Now that is something I'll drink to."

"Ditto," Sydney piped up.

"I'll take one of those," Veronica spoke up. "That's something decent to clink our glasses to."

Caroline huffed. "Are you sure you aren't just being nice to her because you slept with her?"

A brief silence fell over the room before Elowen broke it.

"... You did what?"

Veronica rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, all of you stop looking at me like that. Since when do any of you care what I do? I'm the unimportant triplet, remember?"

Both Angel and Adriana frowned and shared a look with each other, something Veronica ignored. Veronica picked up the empty bottle and wiggled it.

"Can't exactly make a toast without alcohol, can we?"

"That's why you never send a busboy to do a man's job." Damon stood up and saw Nadia standing behind Stefan. "Nadia… the devil's spawn."

Elowen turned and saw Nadia before leaning over to Esmeralda. "This is Nadia?"

Emeralda nodded. "Uh-huh."

Elowen sighed. "Katherine's upstairs."

Nadia shook her head. "Actually, I'm here to see all of you. I found a way to save my mother, and I need some help."

Damon immediately shook his head. "Uh-uh. No way. Even my biased brother knows I will kick his ass from here to Kentucky if he helps Katherine Pierce live one more day on this earth. No volunteers."

Damon pointed at everyone in the room to make sure nobody spoke up.

"I figured as much," Nadia said. "Which is why I found that old safe your brother spent the summer drowning in and buried it on this property with your friend Matt inside of it. Oh," Nadia held up the Gilbert ring, "without this."

xxxx

Sydney carefully crept into Stefan's room, where Katherine was, as everyone downstairs tried to think up a plan to find Matt. Katherine looked over at the door at the sound of someone coming in and squinted to see who it was.

"You don't know me," Sydney said softly as she approached the bed. "My name is Sydney. Sydney Jones-Smith."

"Right," Katherine wheezed weakly. "Elowen's aunt's girlfriend from England. I almost used you as leverage once. Decided not to. What can I do for you?"

Sydney reached the bed and carefully sat on the edge. She shrugged.

"I guess I just wanted to meet the great Katherine Pierce before she died, see what all the hype is about."

Katherine tried to laugh, but it turned into a cough.

"Well, does my reputation precede me?"

Sydney gave a small smile.

"I suppose it does." Sydney reached out and brushed some of Katherine's hair from her face. "You know, something tells me you used to be very pretty in your prime."

"What are you talking about? I'm still pretty even now."

Sydney chuckled. "Yes, you are. Your daughter seems very set on making sure you live. She's buried Matt somewhere on the property to make sure everyone will help, but… you want to know what I think?"

"Not really, but something tells me you're going to say it anyway."

Sydney sighed. "I think you should let her go, even if you do survive this. Nadia's expectations of you are alarmingly high, and you don't seem like the type to want to meet these expectations. I just don't want her to get hurt by her own mother after fruitlessly searching for her for centuries, and if you do want to build a relationship with her, you need to make her your priority, because it's what she deserves."

Sydney stood and started walking towards the door when Katherine stopped her.

"Why does this matter to you?"

Sydney faced Katherine and tilted her head. "I guess you can say I'm the type who just wants everyone to be happy. After everything you've been through, you deserve to ride off into the sunset with your daughter."

Sydney turned to leave again when Katherine said something else.

"How come you and Eliana never had kids together? You seem like the picture perfect suburban soccer mom."

Sydney paused, looking over at Katherine from over her shoulder.

"Eliana and I have been together for almost 13 years. We've talked about it many times before, but… I think we're both satisfied without any. Children aren't an obligation, and sometimes they make the situation worse." Sydney shrugged. "They're not for everyone. Take care, Katherine."

Sydney started for the door once more, and this time Katherine let her leave.

xxxx

Later, Eliana, Esmeralda and Liz entered Stefan's room and found Damon holding a pillow over Katherine's face, as if to smother her while she was sleeping.

"Put the pillow down, Damon," Liz said loudly to get his attention.

Damon internally groaned at being interrupted.

"Liz."

"If you kill her, it's murder. I'd have to bring you in, lock you up… there's all that paperwork."

Damon turned to face them. "Every awful thing I've ever done is linked to her. She taught me how to kill. I don't enjoy it. She ruined me and I can't take any of that back."

Eliana shook her head. "No, you can't blame her for every single bad thing you've ever done. You're trying to shoulder all of the blame on her and taking none of the responsibility for yourself. That's not how redemption works, Damon."

Esmeralda came over and took the pillow from Damon. "Look at how much control she still has over you. Prove her wrong. Prove Elowen wrong."

Esmeralda set the pillow down, away from Damon, and silence fell over the room.

xxxx

Caroline and Klaus were walking through the woods together. Damon had told Klaus about Katherine dying and he initially came to gloat over her death, but instead he was with Caroline.

"So, the quarterback has been saved," Klaus announced to Caroline. "What now?"

"Don't you have a dying girl you need to go punish for her sins?" Caroline retorted.

"I do, but I won't, for you."

Caroline looked over at Klaus and narrowed her eyes.

"So you came all the way to Mystic Falls to back off when I tell you to?"

"No. I came all the way to Mystic Falls to gloat over a corpse to be, as you so poetically put it, but I will leave, minus the gloating, in return for one thing."

"And what is that?"

"I want your confession."

Caroline stopped walking and so did Klaus. She turned to him, confused, shaking her head.

"My confession? I didn't do anything. Confession about what?"

"Me. As soon as we're done here, I'm going to walk away and I'm never coming back. You'll never again have to look me in the eye and cover our connection with hostility or revulsion, and you'll never have to loathe the darkest parts of yourself that care for me, in spite of all I've done. I will be gone and you will be free. I just want you to be honest with me."

Caroline sighed. "I'm in college! I'm building a life for myself! I have plans, and a future, and things that I want. I've already had to rearrange this plan once because my boyfriend died. Remember him? Josiah? I was going to marry that boy one day. I don't know when, but I had been planning to walk down the aisle with him at the other end the second I met him, and now he's gone, and I'm not really sure what I'm going to do about that, but none of these things involve you, okay? None of them."

"I see."

"No, you don't. Yes, I do cover our connection with hostility, because yes, I hate myself for the truth, so if you promise to walk away, like you said, and never come back, then yes, I will be honest with you. I will be honest with you about what I want."

Silence passed between them for a couple of moments before Klaus spoke up.

"I will walk away, and I will never come back. I promise."

Caroline slowly started to approach Klaus, closing the gap until she was standing directly in front of him.

"Good," she whispered, before leaning in to kiss him.

She pulled back, Klaus grinning at her, to which she grinned back. Klaus leaned back in, kissing her more passionately than before, and sped her against a nearby tree. Caroline pushed off Klaus's jacket and Klaus ripped open Caroline's shirt, the remnants falling down to the ground.

xxxx

Much later, after dark, and after Matt had been saved by Rebekah, Stefan and Damon were outside, sitting on the steps of the walkway leading to the boarding house. Both of them each had a drink in their hands. Stefan sighed as he opened his mouth to say something.

"You know, whatever's going on with you and Elowen… you need to fix it. She's the best thing that ever happened to you."

Damon scoffed. "You think I don't know that? I can't live without her, but when you think about it, maybe she's right. I take one step forward and two steps back. I can't be what she wants me to be, and she's better off without me in her life. That way, I can't disappoint her."

"So you're just… giving up? You're not even going to try to be the better man?"

"I can't be the better man, Stefan. Not while you're around. I can't compete with you."

"Okay, then don't compete with me. Just do what you feel is right."

"And here I thought you'd be fine and dandy with finally getting Elowen all to yourself again."

Stefan sighed. "Sure, occasionally I miss the days when it was just me and her, but sometimes you were there for her in ways that I couldn't be, like when I had my humanity off. I showed her that life was still worth living, but you showed her how to live it. Just try, okay?"

Damon huffed. "Fine. Fine, I'll try, and when I win her back, which I will, you better not say a word."

"I won't say a thing."

"Good."

xxxx

Inside, everyone else sat in the living room when the front door opened and Caroline came in, looking slightly disheveled and all over the place.

"Hey," she said airily, trying to be casual.

"Hey," Elowen said back. "Where have you been?"

Caroline grabbed a leaf that was in her hair and tossed it to the ground before zipping up her jacket further.

"In the woods," she answered quickly. "I got lost."

Everyone looked at her a little funny, so she quickly changed the subject.

"So, what are we doing?"

"We are waiting for Katherine to bite the bullet," Jeremy replied bluntly, garnering a glare from Esmeralda. Jeremy shot her a look. "What? She killed me."

"And she brought my asshole of a husband back to life, but you don't see me complaining."

"So," Matt spoke up, talking to Bonnie, in order to ease the tension. "This anchor thing… does that mean you'll be able to, like… feel Katherine's death, or whatever?"

Bonnie shrugged. "I think so. I mean, she's human, but she's also a doppelganger, and a traveler, apparently."

"So, who else do you see over there? Anybody I know?"

"I see lots of people. My grams, Josiah, the other witches…. Vicki," Bonnie added at the end, knowing that's who Matt had been fishing around for. "I just don't talk about it, you know, because it's just…"

"Because it's depressing as hell," Vicki said from behind Bonnie. Bonnie looked over her shoulder at Vicki and smiled. Vicki smiled back.

"Tell Matty I love him."

Matt furrowed his eyebrows. "What's happening?"

Bonnie faced Matt. "She's here. She said she loves you."

"Tell him that I watch over him," Vicki told Bonnie. "And no more knocking around with that blonde Original chick who almost got him killed."

Matt looked at Bonnie expectantly. "Wait, what's happening? What am I missing?"

"Me."

Everyone looked over and saw Tyler standing in the foyer. Veronica frowned.

"Tyler?"

"Rebekah says to tell you that I'm her parting gift," Tyler said to nobody in particular as Matt, who was grinning from ear to ear, stood up to give Tyler a hug.

Stefan walked in through the door, holding an empty bottle of alcohol.

"Have we really gone through four bottles of bourbon today?"

"Will somebody tell all of these idiots to lay off the booze?" Alaric asked, leaning against the doorway.

Jeremy turned at the sound of his voice. "Alaric!"

Esmeralda, Elowen, Eliana and Sydney all perked up at his name.

"Ric's here?" Damon questioned, pouring himself another drink.

Jeremy faced Alaric. "Where the hell have you been? I thought you bailed on us to go find peace or something."

Alaric grinned. "Did you honestly think I'd leave Damon in charge and never look back? Besides, I have a fiance and a daughter to watch over because I can't trust Thing 1 and Thing 2 to do it, and I promised I'd watch over Josiah over here."

Josiah appeared next to Alaric and slung his arm around his shoulder.

"He's been doing a crap job, too."

Alaric reached over and pushed Josiah's face away from his, causing Jeremy to laugh.

"What are they saying?" Elowen asked eagerly, her eyes darting over to where Jeremy was looking.

Jeremy looked over at Damon. "First, he says you're a dick."

Eliana and Sydney laughed. Damon lifted his drink.

"Cheers, buddy."

"Second, he said he can't rely on you two to do your jobs right," Jeremy gestured at Stefan and Damon, "and-"

"Whoa, whoa," Damon cut him off. "What job?"

"Taking care of Elowen and her family," Jeremy answered as if it were obvious.

"Hey now, we don't need to be taken care of," Eliana piped up. "We're big girls, and we all bite. Except for Sydney."

"Hey!" Sydney frowned. "I bite."

Esmeralda, Eliana and Elowen all looked at each other before all bursting out laughing. Sydney pouted.

"Oh, come on, guys! Knock it off! I can fight! I took a self defense class once, and Ric showed me some pointers! Stop laughing!"

"Tell them to be nice," Alaric said with a grin.

Jeremy nodded, getting their attention. "Ric wants you to be nice."

Sydney twisted in her seat to face the direction Jeremy had been looking in. "Thanks, Ric!"

"Wait, what was the third thing?" Elowen asked.

Jeremy smiled a small, soft smile in Elowen's direction. "That he promised that he would take care of Josiah."

"Katherine," Bonnie mumbled suddenly.

"Ding dong," Damon said in a sing-song voice. "Does that mean the witch is dead?"

After a second, Bonnie frowned.

"That's weird. She's gone."

Everyone all looked at each other in confusion. Veronica set her drink down and stood up.

"I'll go check, see if your anchor thing is broken or something."

Veronica walked off before anyone could say anything and climbed up the steps to Stefan's bedroom. She stopped in the open doorway when she reached her destination. Katherine's body lay on the bed, unmoving. With a sigh, Veronica slowly walked over, stopped at the edge of the bed, and leaned over to press her index and middle fingers on Katherine's throat to feel for a pulse, something that was nonexistent. Veronica sighed again.

"So long, Kath. You really weren't all that bad of company... and you were severely misunderstood. As someone who's also done terrible things to make sure I survive, maybe not as bad as you, I understand. We could've been best friends in another timeline…. Or maybe more than that, if you were into it, because I kind of liked you. Last person I liked ended up being ran out of town by Klaus, but then when he was finally allowed to come back, he left again to live out some kind of revenge fantasy. I mean, he's back again, but after that, I don't think he's worth it."

Veronica scoffed.

"Look at me, rambling over your dead body. How sensitive of me. All the nosy vampires downstairs are probably listening in and I probably sound like an idiot. Actually, it's probably only Damon."

She sighed once more, reaching out to brush some of Katherine's hair from her face.

"You really were just a teenager forced to run. You didn't deserve that. Monsters aren't born, they're made. Nobody else probably thinks so, but I hope you find peace."

Veronica drew her hand back and turned to leave the room. Unbeknown to her, Katherine, in Elena's body, was hiding out on the balcony. Once Veronica was gone, Katherine peered her head back into the room, the gears in her head turning.

Veronica liked her? In that kind of way? Despite everything she heard, Veronica tossed all of that aside and decided to get to know Katherine herself, judge her by her own standards, and Katherine could respect that. Truth be told, she kind of also liked Veronica. Of course, she still loved Stefan, and she probably always would, but Stefan made his feelings towards her clear, no matter how kind he'd been to her on her deathbed.

Maybe, just maybe… her and Veronica could have a chance, whether it be as friends or as something more.

Katherine smirked.

This should be fun.