Caroline and Tyler seemed to take a permanent residence outside our bedroom and the next day Caroline got a phone call I could only hear one side of, annoyingly.

"Well, where's Damon in all this?" Caroline asked the other person. "Meaning what?" she asked. "Do you think Shane took him?" I really wanted to know what was happening now. "I'm so sorry. I wish I was there to help." She said. "Anything. Tell me." She told the other person. "Unless you get the Hunter's Sword from Klaus." She said looking at the two of us. "I'll find it, don't worry. Just e-mail me photos of Jeremy's tattoo. I'll find the sword, and I'll call you back. Bye." She then hung up.

"Need my help with anything, love?" Nik asked her smirking.

"Nope." She said striding out of the hallway without looking at us.


A short time later, both Caroline and Tyler walked back toward us in the hallway. Caroline had a laptop and a baby bottle in her hands and Tyler had the sword.

"Well, if it isn't little orphan Lockwood. Come to show how laughably impotent you are against me?" Nik asked him.

"I'm just trying to help my friends find the cure." He said as Caroline handed me the bottle before sitting on one of the chair's they had pulled up in the hallway. "Found this in your attic." He said showing us the sword.

"And you think finding the sword brings you closer to the cure?" Nik asked him as I gave the bottle to Nikolas.

"You tell me. I was playing around with the handle on the walk up, and I found this." Tyler said unwraped the leather on the top of the sword, revealing some sort of turning device. Nik and I got up and walked over to Tyler.

"And what do you think 'this' is?" Nik asked him.

"It's called a cryptex." Caroline said getting up. We all looked at her. "I've seen The da Vinci Code. You turn the different sides to the different symbols to get the translation on the other side. And with the magic of the internet, Elena sent over these." She said showing us print outs of Jeremy's tattoo. "So now all we have to do is cryptex away. If you happened to want to help, we wouldn't stop you." She told us.

"Right. Well, might I suggest using the magic of the internet to purchase an Aramaic-to-English dictionary from your nearest retailer." Nik told her.

"What's Aramaic?" Tyler asked.

"It's a very dead language." I said smirking at him.

"It hasn't been used since, like, biblical times." Caroline said.


"Qetsiyah's native tongue, I'm guessing. You know, even if you had the best dictionary in the world, it could take days to translate. Perhaps weeks. "In bas so-teen-too ara-ma-eet."" Nik said smirking at the two of them.

"What does that mean?" Caroline asked him.

""If only you spoke Aramaic."" I said as he pulled me into his side. One of the many things he did for me was teach me new languages I was interested in.

Over the next few hours Caroline and Tyler tried to translate the symbols from Jeremy's tattoo.

"Okay, this is it. We've translated all the symbols on the tattoo." Caroline said happily. ""Passage inside... requires a young senator, and a pretty flower." Okay, none of this makes sense!" she said irritated. Nik looked at the symbols and spoke the Aramaic language before translating it for them.

""Requires a powerful witch and a hunter in full bloom."" He said.

"What are you doing?" Tyler asked him.

"I don't need to tell you my reasons. Caroline. Bring my sword over here." He ordered and she did as he told. ""Silas rests on the far side, the means of his destruction at hand."" He glanced at the pictures of Jeremy's tattoo. "Turn the cryptex to the right." She did. "Stop. The top of the hilt reveals a key to a nautical map. Turn it to the left." She turned it. "Now turn the other piece." She turned the second piece. "There's something else." He said before speaking the Aramaic without translating making me laugh at the words.

"What does it mean?" Caroline asked over my laughing. "What does it mean?" I dialed Bekah's number and handed her the phone.

"You might want to tell them the good news." I told her. Caroline used my phone and called Bekah and put her on speaker.

"Hello?" I heard Bekah answer.

"Hey, it's Caroline. We have the translation of the tattoo. We're emailing you pictures of the map and instructions right now." Caroline told her.

Got it. Thanks." Bekah said after a moment.

"Actually, it was me." Nik corrected them.

"Nik, you helped?" she asked surprised.

"You sound so surprised, little sister." Nik said.

"Shouldn't I be? I mean, you don't want me to be human. You don't want any of us to be human. Why would you help us find the cure?" she asked him.

"Maybe I finally realized the longer I stand in the way of what you want, the longer you'll continue to hate me. Perhaps I want my sister to finally know happiness." Nik told her.

"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me a hundred times—" she said not wanting to believe him.

"No more fooling. No more games. I hope you get to live, and die, as you wish." He told her.

"So do I." she said.

"There is one more thing, Rebekah." Nik told her and the couple in front of us looked at him confused. "There is only one dose of the cure. You need to find it first and take it. It's the only way you'll—" he spoke quickly before Tyler rushed to end the call.

"Why would you do that?" Caroline asked.

"We don't want the cure anywhere near Nik. If Bekah gets it first we don't have to worry about it." I told her making her groan in annoyance before her and her boyfriend left.


In the latter half of the afternoon Caroline walked towards us with a calm yet sad look on her face. She knew that the moment Bonnie's spell either dropped or the cure was out of the picture then Nik would go after her little boyfriend.

"You can't kill Tyler." She said.

"Not only can I, I have to. I have a reputation to uphold. Moreover, I want to." He told her.

"I'm not asking you to forgive him. All I'm asking is that you let him live, somewhere far from here." She asked us.

"So he gets to live a happy life after he turned all my hybrids against me, after he tried to kill me, after he made it his life's mission to find the cure so he could use it against me—" Nik listed off.

"Let's not forget the fact that they did kill him and left me alone with Nikolas when Ric was trying to kill everyone." I added.

"That why we all want the cure." Caroline said defensively.

"Do we?" Nik asked her and she stared mutely at us. "Do you?"

"It doesn't matter. There's only one, so it's not like I'm gonna get it anyway." She said.

"But if you could... you wouldn't, would you?" I asked her. I watched her face give away her answer. "You like who you are now to the girl I knew before I left. We're the same."

"Then show me. You know how much I love Tyler. You can see how scared I am to lose him." She said to me. "If you and I are so similar, then help me. Show me your compassion. Convince Klaus to show him the mercy that I would show the two of you." Nik and I shared a look and I shook my head.

"Yea, I know how much you love Tyler and I can see the same fear in you I had when you tried to kill my husband. I nearly lost him that night. We'll let him leave town before we got out of this cage." I told her looking at Nik.

"And tell him to run and hide in a place I will never find him." Nik told her.

"Of course." She said smiling and turning to walk away from us.

"Tell him that this is the mercy I extend for my wife's sake... that I will give him a head start before I hunt him down and kill him." He told her and she turned back to us her face showing she was scared for him.

"How's it feel? Knowing that the one you love has a death sentence on his head." I told her before she went outside to talk to Tyler.


That night the barrier was gone from our door and we found Caroline sitting on the couch in the living room.

"How did you get out?" She asked us.

"I fear something awful has befallen your friend Bonnie." Nik told her before we moved closer to her making her tense.

"Don't worry, Care. We won't hurt you." I told her.

"You've done enough." She told us.

"Before I force you out of my house, let me tell you one thing Caroline." I told her. "We will always stand with each other. Over everyone else, dead or alive, the two of us will always have each other. Now leave." I said pointing my gun at her.

"You wouldn't kill me." She said confidently. I cocked the gun for dramatic effect.

"Wanna bet?" I asked her. She used her vampire speed to quickly leave the house.

"Finally, alone." Nik said before pulling me to him and kissing me deeply.