A few weeks of searching for the tree Bekah and I were at the Wickery Bridge Restoration fundraiser. We spoke with Carol about many topics concerning everything I looked over and saw Ric, Meredith Fell and Damon. I saw Carol follow my gaze and excuse herself before walking to them.

"What are they doing here?" I asked.

"It's a fundraiser, don't worry about them." she told me.

"Don't worry?" I asked her. "Did you seriously just say that to me?"

"Yes I did. Now start listening to me and stop worrying." she told me.

"You and your siblings are linked and if someone finds out a way to kill one of you, you all die." I reminded her.

"Yes, I remember. I was there. Thank you." she said sarcastically.

"Don't forget why we're here." I told her. "Don't get distracted by a pretty face." I looked back at Damon.

"I'm 1000 years old. Don't mock me." she said.

"But you're still a girl who wants to be loved. Trust me, I know the feeling." I said before walking away and talking with people I'd grown up with.

"Hi." I turned to see a woman with red hair smiling at me.

"Do I know you?" I asked her.

"No, my name's Sage." she told me still smiling.

"Sage? The vampire obsessed with Finn? That's how you like them? Tall dark and suicidal?" I asked her and her smile quickly became a mask of anger.

"Take that back." she told me.

"Or what?" I asked her. "You'll kill me? This town is already paranoid about vampires, go ahead and make it easier for them." I dared and she glanced around us before smiling at someone behind me.

"Damon Salvatore, my favorite student." she said and I turned to see Damon talking to us.

"Sage, my hottest teacher. What are you doing here with her?" he asked her.

"I'm just passing through when I met your friend." she told him looking back at me.

"Oh, come on, nobody just passes through Mystic Falls." Damon told her.

"Look what the cat dragged in." I looked to see Bekah on my other side.

"Easy there, Rebekah. You know she use to beat men for sport." Damon told her.

"Please tell me she beat you." I told him and he just gave me a look I smiled to.

"She always was quite common." Bekah said.

"Rebekah. What a happy surprise." Sage said with a false smile.

"What are you doing here Sage?" Bekah asked her.

"Well, I heard Finn was finally freed from that casket your rageaholic brother Klaus carted him around in." Sage said and Bekah immediately grabbed my hand so I couldn't hit her.

"Watch it Bitch." I told her.

"You just missed him. He left town and didn't tell a soul where he was going." Bekah told her.

"He probably went looking for me." Sage told us and I laughed.

"Or quite possibly he forgot all about you." Bekah told her.

"I doubt that." Sage said.

"No?" I asked her with a smile. "Cause he didn't seem to mention you. Then again he was so busy with Esther planning to kill himself and his siblings." Rage filled her entire features again.

"Sorry you came all this way for nothing. Have a nice life." Bekah said before we turned and left.

"That felt good." I told Bekah and we started to laugh. We talked more about the plans to find the White Oak wood, her past, my past, anything and everything we could think of. We were becoming extremely good friends and I felt as though we would need each other more than ever in the future.

"Did I ever tell you you're sexy when you're bitchy?" Damon said coming up behind us.

"We're talking now, are we? Cause you were quite rude the other day, using me to help you with Stefan and then shooing us away like a stray dog." Bekah told him.

"Oh, but that was brother business, you can't hold that against me. Besides I really did appreciate your help even if I don't show it." Damon told her.

"You were mean." Bekah told him.

"I'm going to go." I said to myself as they continued to talk.

"You like mean." I heard Damon say.

"Hi again." I saw Sage walking up to me and rolled my eyes.

"What do you want?" I asked her.

"Damon tells me you're close to the Original family." she said, avoiding my question.

"Perhaps I am. What's it to you?" I asked her.

"Any chance you want to tell me what you and Rebekah are looking for?" she asked me and I gave her a look.

"And why would I do that?" I asked her.

"It could save us all a lot of time." she told me reaching for a strand of my hair. I quickly moved away from her and glared.

"Whatever you want from me, forget it. I wouldn't tell you want you wanted to know in 1000 years." I told her before walking away. The rest of the fundraiser was a bore. Bekah had her mind on something and I was still fuming about Sage. How dare she think I would tell her anything! I looked down at my phone as it went off to see I'd gotten a text from Elena.

We need to talk.

I sighed and told Bekah where I was going before driving off.


When I got to the Gilbert house I walked right in.

"Elena?" I called to her.

"Up here!" She called down to me. I looked to see Meredith, Jenna and Ric sitting at the table staring at me. I gave them a confused wave before going upstairs to my twins room.

"Hey, you said we needed to talk. What's up?" I asked her.

"I wanted to apologize to you for what happened when Ester was still here." she told me and I nodded and waited for her to continue

"I shouldn't have sent Jeremy away without talking to you first. It should have been a family decision instead of just mine. "

"It should have been his choice to begin with. Not ours." I corrected her.

"You're right, and I'm sorry." she said to me. "I'm sorry for agreeing to link the Originals together but I don't want to be controlled by Klaus anymore. I don't want any of us to be controlled anymore."

"I'm not controlled by them." I told her.

"Aren't you?" she asked me.

"Not everyone is like you and your boyfriends, Elena. Not everyone has to compel the people they care about." I told her and she glared at me.

"And how would you know if he's ever compelled you?" she asked me in anger.

"Because I've been taking Vervain for almost four years now Elena. I've only know Nik for half that." I told her and she looked at me shocked. "He's never compelled me before Elena. I met him knowing who he was, what he was, and what he wanted with me, us."

"Then how could you go looking for him? How could you love him? He's a monster!" she shouted at me.

"And Stefan and Damon are better?! They've never killed?! They are vampires, Elena. They all have a past." I said to her.

"Ric's been killing people." she told me after a moment.

"What?" I asked her.

"The ring that brings him back to life has done something to him and he's started killing the council members." she told me.

"And you're just now telling me this?! Why didn't you tell me before?" I asked her.

"It's not like you've been around, have you?" she yelled at me.

"Nikky! Elena! Could you guys come down here for a minute?!" Ric called up to us. We glared at each other but made our way down to the kitchen where Ric was sitting at the table, writing something. After we sat down he pushed it towards us. "Listen, I want you to have this. This is a list of my bank accounts, passwords, where to find my will, and how to contact my family, just in case this doesn't go my way." Elena pushed the pad back towards him.

"No, no, no. Don't even think like that." Elena told him.

"Elena, I need to know that you, Nikky, and Jeremy are gonna be okay." Ric told her.

"We're all gonna be fine." I told him as Elena's phone rang.

"Caroline?" she asked into the phone as she got up and walked away from the table. "Thank you so much. "Okay, yeah, I- I'll get it. Bonnie, I'm so sorry for everything, thank you for doing this." she listened to the reply before hanging up and turning to us.

"Well? I asked her.

"Good news? Bad news?" Ric asked as she walked to us.

"Bonnie thinks that she can help you with a spell." Elena told him.

"Well, it's worth a try." he told her and I smiled.

"See, you're going to be okay." I told him and he smiled at me.

"But she needs something that you wore before you put on the ring. Something personal." Elena said, ignoring me as Jenna walked into the kitchen.

"Well, there's uh- there's my wedding ring." Ric said glancing at Jenna. "It's at the loft."

"Okay, yeah, uh- that's a – that's a good idea." Elena said. Ric started to get up but Jenna pushed him back down.

"I think it's better if you stay here with me." she told him, hugging him. "Meredith will be coming back soon.

"Oh, you two and your tranquilizers. It's in the dresser by the kitchen. It's in a - an aspirin bottle, probably covered in cobwebs." he told us.

"Okay." Elena said. I glanced at Jenna and got up to leave with Elena. This wasn't just her family, it was mine too.

"Nikky." I turned to Jenna and stared at her.

"I'm sorry." she told me and I nodded to her before following Elena out.


Elena and I walked up the stairs to Alaric's loft but when we got to the top we were startled by Stefan leaning against the door frame.

"Missed you at the house. Alaric told me you'd be here." he told us.

"You made yourself perfectly clear this morning, Stefan. You don't want to be around me." Elena said to him. I walked to the door and unlocked it going inside.

"I'm not trying to hurt you, Elena. I just can't be who you want me to be right now. I'm not in control." Stefan told her.

"So then, what are you doing here?" Elena asked as I walked inside with them following.

"I uh- I did a little more digging on Samantha Gilbert." he told us.

"Who's Samantha Gilbert?" I asked him as he closed the door and turned on the lights.

"She's the one who was killing everyone in 1912. Founding families were always pretty good about destroying their records, but I found a couple of newspaper articles. It seemed she killed two people while she was in the institution. A nurse and a guard." Stefan told us.

"So, she was a psychopath. We get it." I told him.

"She was under suicide watch. No personal effects, no jewelry." Stefan told us and my eyes widened at the meaning of that.

"Wait, so, your saying that the violent behavior can still happen even if the person isn't wearing the ring?" Elena asked him for clarification. We began searching for Ric's wedding ring.

"What if Bonnie's spell doesn't work? What are you gonna do with him?" Stefan asked us.

"I'm not gonna do anything, Stefan. I'm gonna keep looking until we find something that'll help him." Elena said.

"The eternal optimist." I said under my breath and she glared at me.

"You don't know how long this has been going on, Elena. It might be too late already." I told her,

"The eternal pessimist." she told me and I gave her a look. "It's our family's ring that's doing this to him. It's our responsibility to fix it."

"You can't put that on us. Not everyone is our responsibility. Not everyone can be saved." I told her and Stefan agreed.

"Maybe you should remember that about Klaus." she told me.

"And others." I said.

"And who are we really talking about here Alaric or are we talking about someone you know?" she asked looking at Stefan. "Because I wasn't planning on giving up on any of you." We all looked at each other for a moment. Stefan looked away first and opened a drawer and I moved to him to see photos of dead bodies of Bill Forbes and another man, newspaper clippings and other stuff about the murders.

"What is this?" I asked as Elena moved next to me.

"Pictures of his victims." he told us. We pulled out the stuff in the drawer and dug through it Elena pulled out an envelope and opened it, pulling out the papers inside.

"Jeremy, if anything happens to me, carry on my work. You have the other ring, let the ring make you strong. The council must be cleansed before the work can begin." she read. Stefan took the papers from her and looked them over.

"It's the Founder's Council roster. Looks like some sort of hit list." Stefan told us.

"No, Alaric didn't write this." Elena said, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Who else could have written it, Elena?" I asked her. Elena tore the note that Ric had written for Jer and continued to search for the wedding ring angrily. When she found a bottle she opened it and poured the ring into her hand.

"We have to get back." she told me and we bolted from the toom.


When we got to the Gilbert house we quickly got out of the car and went into the house. Before we could call for any of the others Stefan caught our arms before he moved into the house. He went into the kitchen and looked down on the ground at something. Elena and I closed the door behind us and before we could say anything we looked up and saw Ric walking down to us wrapping his hand in a towel.

"Hey there." he said smiling at us. Something was off.

"Hi. Where's Meredith and Jenna?" Elena asked him.

"Oh, Meredith got called into the hospital for a last minute surgery, but she'll be back later, and Jenna is sleeping." he told us.

"What happened to your hand?" I asked him suspiciously.

"Oh, I – I broke a coffee cup and sliced my hand open trying to pick up the pieces." he said looking down at his hand. Lie. "Did Stefan catch up with you?"

"No." Elena lied.

"We didn't know he was supposed to." I said and he nodded.

"Yeah, he called here earlier and I told him where you two would be. Did you get my ring?" he asked us.

"We couldn't find it." we told him together.

"Yeah, well my place is a bit of a disaster. I guess I'll just have to go get it." he said walking down to us. He looked down at the floor and I followed his gaze to see a bloody knife lying on the floor. I looked back up to see him staring at us. He lunged for the knife when Stefan grabbed him from behind and put him in a sleeper hold.

"Don't hurt him!" Elena begged him.

"I'm trying not to." Stefan said. Eventually Ric passed our and Stefan laid him down on the floor before suddenly standing up and looking up the stairs. "Elena, Nicole, I need you to come upstairs with me." he said moving towards the stairs.

"Why?" Elena asked as we followed him.

"I'm gonna need your help." he told us. We walked up the stairs where Stefan broke the bathroom door open. We looked inside to see Meredith sitting on the floor with blood all over her. Elena quickly flipped on the light and rushed to her while I stayed next to Stefan.

"Meredith. Hey." Elena said quietly to her. I watched as Stefan's face started to change.

"Stefan, you need to control it." I told him. "If you feed from her, she will die." I watched his face become normal before he bit into his wrist and got down next to Meredith to feed her his blood.

"You're gonna be okay." Elena told both of them. I left the bathroom and searched for Jenna only to find her in bed, just as Ric said. I went to her and held her hand. It was extremily cold. I turned on a light at looked at her to see her gray.

"Jenna?" I said shaking my head and rubbing her hand. "Come on Jenna, wake up." I begged. I turned to see Stefan in the doorway staring at the sight before him, shocked. "He killed her. I can't believe he killed her." I cried.

"Shhh, Nicole." he came to me and hugged me, giving me comfort.

"We should have been here." I said. "One of us should have been here."

"What could you have done?" he asked me. I knew what he was trying to do, make me toke the blame off myself. "Think of your life right now. You're dating a Hybrid, the Original Hybrid, and you share a child with him. He would have killed you." I didn't say anything, just kept on crying into his chest. I heard Elena walk in and scream out for Jenna, just as I had, begging her not to be dead for all of us. But she knew, just like I did, Jenna was gone.


I stood next to the crib and stared down at Nikolas with a blank face. I bent down and put my hand into his crib and he grabbed onto my fingers, staring at them. Stefan had taken me home after my crying had stopped and told Nik everything that had happened with Jenna.

"Nikky." I turned to see Nik before looking back at Nikolas. "Nicole."

"No." I said plainly.

"You have to talk at some point, love. You can't stay quiet forever." he told me.

"Watch me." I told him.

"Your grief will pass, you know that." he told me.

"Then who will be next?" I asked him. "First my adopted parents, then Isobel, then John, now Jenna. I'm running out of family Nik." I said "I should have stayed with them. I could have done something."

"Like what? Stefan told me what he said to you when he found you with her. He was right, there was nothing you could have done. You have to keep yourself alive, for our family." he told me. I said nothing. "Talk to me, please."

"Did Rebekah find the White Oak?" I asked him.

"She did. It's been destroyed. Let's get some rest. We have a long day tomorrow." he told me walking to me and finally getting my hand from our son and pulling me to bed.