Damon was drinking again.

That wasn't anything new. Stefan was used to seeing his brother with a glass in his hand. But he was not used to seeing Damon like he was not. Damon. Was lounging in front of the fire place, bottles strewn all around him. His clothes were in disarray, rumpled and generally looking worn.

Damon though was another thing all together. The man was sagging into his seat. Bags lined his eyes and purple bruising could be seen from where Stefan was.

Had Damon slept at all last night? The thought came to him suddenly. He thought nothing of it when his brother was drinking in the morning, nothing was amiss when he thought back on it. His brother had been the same was he was the night before; sarcastic and wit as quick as a whip.

Now, though… Stefan picked his way towards his brother, every step he made accompanied by the sounds of bottles moving. Damon did not move an inch from where he sat, his eyes watching the vacant fireplace. Stefan turned his eyes to the fireplace and hoped that he could see what his brother saw, if for a moment, he could see what had caught his attention.

"Damon?" Stefan tried. His brother did not even budge from his stop, let alone acknowledge that his name was called. "Damon?"

"What? What do you want?" Damon grumbled out. He sunk lower into the chair. Stefan watched as his brother tried to be swallowed whole by the chair. The chair gave some, but ultimately Damon was still visible. Stefan picked up a bottle of alcohol and read the label.

"1807," Stefan whistled out, his eyebrows raised, "You really pulled out the good stuff."

"Yeah because I need it," Damon slurred. He brought a tumbler close to his lips, noticed that it was empty and then reached for a bottle on the table. His brother stumbled, hand knocking over aged glasses in his pursuit for the dregs of one of the bottles. "I need it after the night that I had."

Damon had mumbled out that last part, but Stefan was still able to catch it. What had happened to his brother the night before to make him like this. Stefan shrugged his shoulders and tried to rouse him brother.

"Come on get up," Stefan said. "There can only be one of us brooding and I can't have you stealing my thunder."

Damon did not move and inch, but Stefan expected that. He got close to his brother and wrapped his arms around his torso, easily lifting him off the ground. "Come on," Stefan huffed, still lifting his brother.

Stefan dragged his brother out of the living room and up the stairs. When Damon still made no move to support his own weight, Stefan shoved him into the bathroom and turned on the water. The cold water pelted Damon and the thick to his system was enough.

Damon yelped as the cold water pounded him. He scrambled away from the water and stumbled into the bathroom. Stefan could hear the click of Damon's jaw as he slammed into the floor. Damon sputtered, wiping water from his eyes.

"You couldn't think of any other way of getting me up?" Damon growled from the ground shivering.

"None that would yield results as fast as this," Stefan said, leaning against the wall. Damon shivered where he stood, but there was a light in his eyes that was not there before. An awareness that had been missing when he was down stairs all by himself. "Now are you gonna tell me why you are drinking all the good liquor or and I going to have to resort to another tactic that Lexi showed me?"

Damon sat on the floor. For all his brother thought himself aloof and cool, he was surprisingly easy to read. HIs fingers tapped a beat against his shirt and there was a look of desolation that he was trying and failing to hide behind his eyes. He let loose a breath and Stefan waited.

"I spoke with Katherine," Damon said. Stefan grimaced as he thought of the older doppelgänger. Katherine had always been a hard person to pin down, even in their time with her when she was human. Katherine was someone who knew what she wanted and made sure that it was a mystery to everyone else.

"What did she have to say?"

"Nothing important. Things that I already knew. But then—" Damon swallowed at the next words. Stefan waited patiently for his brother to gather himself and find the right words. "She told me that I wasn't who she was waiting for. That there was someone else."

"Oh." What else could Stefan had said? His brother and him were never ones to really talk about their emotions to one another. They had not been open with one another like that in such a long time that Stefan struggled to remember a time when they had been open with each other about their feelings. Maybe when they were human, before Katherine, before Damon was sent off to war.

"She told me that I was never the one, that there was someone else the whole time. And—and it just makes me wonder, it makes me question everything. Did I ever mean anything to her? Was I just a toy for her to amuse herself with while she waited for the person who she really wanted. If I was never the one, then why did she give me her blood? If I was never the one then why string me along?"

Stefan paused. If they were both nothing more to Katherine then why had she given them her blood? Were they unplanned for? Vampires made by mistake?

"Why would she do this and then tell me that there is someone else? And who is that other person? The one who caught her attention?" Damon was rambling on now, his thoughts stringing together. Stefan nodded his head and let his brother spill his heart out.

When he was finally finished, the air simmered between the two of them. Damon had unearthed every thought that was in his head and Stefan had listened to it all. Stefan scuffed his shoe on the tile floor of the bathroom.

"Listen, I can't say anything about Katherine. You know she has always had her own plans and machinations. And she was never someone who was particularly open to us." Stefan stopped what he was saying, watching his brother sink into himself some more. New tactic. "Who needs Katherine? You've gotten this far without her. There's no need to be hung up on her."

Damon snorted from where he was sitting on the ground. "If this is your way of trying to cheer me up, you aren't very good at it."

"What I am trying to say is that it doesn't matter why Katherine gave you her blood. At the end of the day, you are immortal and that is something you are going to have to live with. So who needs Katherine? She is just going to be another footnote in your story."

Damon sighed and pushed his hair away from his eyes. There was still some life in those blue eyes and Stefan sighed as his brother rose from the floor. Good, he didn't know how much of moping Damon he could take. "Yeah," Damon said. "Yeah, you're probably right."

Stefan smirked. "I am usually right about these things."

"Yeah, yeah, you get a girlfriend and then you think you know everything," Damon flapped a hand at him. "Now get out of my room so I can change."

"Yeah no problem."

The AC hummed as people milled about. The police station wasn't very busy. With a few people here and there as cops wandered around the room. One police officer looked like he was going to fall asleep at his desk.

Klaus smirked as he took it all in. The protectors of Mystic Falls, here they were and they were so out of shape. The police officer who Klaus had suspected would fall asleep did fall asleep. His light snoring rang out across the room and Klaus smiled.

Oh, this would be easy.

It took a little amount of compulsion to make it so that he was next to meet with the Sheriff. The sheriff was not an imposing woman. In fact it looked as though she was at her wit's end. She shuffled papers around on her desk, looking over each and every one with a harried eye.

Klaus watched her from the door of the office. The desk was littered with papers and styrofoam coffee cups. The sheriff sat behind the desk, not even taking notice of him for a moment.

Klaus knocked on the door. The sheriff jumped at the sound, her eyes rising from the papers in front of her and taking in Klaus's form. She sighed and rubbed her eyes.

"Didn't mean to intrude but we did have an appointment," Klaus said with an easy grin. The sheriff rubbed her eyes.

"We did? We did. You're-" she snapped her fingers, "—you're the new guy. The one who moved into the woods with his family."

"Guilty," Klaus said with a show of his hands. The sheriff gathered the papers that she was looking at and put them to the side. She gestured to one of the chairs sitting in front of the desk.

"Please take a seat." Klaus slid into one of the chairs and looked at the sheriff. He tented his fingers and gently tapped them against one another. With how frazzled the sheriff was it was possible that infiltrating the council would be easier than he thought.

"I hope this isn't a bad time, Sheriff," Klaus said. He really didn't care. He needed an in with this council if only to soothe Caroline's nerves and he was going to get it. He leaned back in the chair, resting in it like it was a throne.

The sheriff simply nodded her head. "No need to be so formal. You can call me Liz." Liz nodded her head and checked one of the cups, probably looking for more coffee. Klaus nodded his head.

"Then Liz, what is this I heard about their being a council?" Klaus asked.

Liz scoffed, "Which one? I swear that this town makes a council for any and everything. I heard that they were going to make a town beautification council recently."

"As much as I'd love to hear about the town beautification. I meant the one that deals with Mystic Falls… animal problem."

It was like all the light was sapped out of Liz's face. She said nothing as she rose from the chair and went to close the door, not before she took a surreptitious look out of the door for any eavesdroppers. With the door firmly closed she turned to face Klaus again.

"What do you know about that?"

"I know that the animal attacks aren't caused by animals. They are caused by something much worse." He dropped his voice, making it so that it was barely a whisper. "Vampires."

Liz looked as though a shiver went up her spine at the very mention of vampires. She stalked back to the desk and sat down in it with a sigh. She rubbed at her face with her hands.

"So you know about vampires?" She asked with a glance towards him.

It took everything in Klaus not to burst out laughing. Know? He probably started every misinformation and misunderstanding there was to know about vampires. He and his family were the pioneers when it came to vampires. They were the Originals!

Klaus nodded his head in the most solemn way he knew how and cut his eyes to Liz's. Liz let loose a breath at that.

"Well what do you want to know about the council?" Liz asked.

"Mainly who comprises it. And how do I get in?"

Liz paused at his suggestion. "You know that dealing with vampires is no joke. Not everyone is ready to deal with the blood shed."

Klaus thought back to the slaughters that he and his siblings rout in their earlier days of being vampires. The blood, the decadence, the craziness of it all. If anyone knew about bloodshed it would be them. Klaus nodded his head again.

"The council is made up of the founders of this town. Their bloodlines. Lockwoods, Fells, Forbes, you know the like. I don't think that we have space for an outsider."

"Well, I'm no outsider. My family and I moved here because we have traces of family here. Apparently our family settled here long ago during the Viking age." The best lies always had a kernel of truth in them. Besides it was better that they knew that they had ties here, that they were known.

"That is fine and everything, but I don't think that we need a new council member," Liz said. Klaus frowned at that. He did not expect the council to reject him. It almost stung. "Besides we haven't had an animal attack in a while. Everything is calm. No vampires in town."

Klaus wanted to laugh at her. Did she not know that the Salvatore brothers were the unspoken protectors of this town? They were what kept most of the monsters at bay. Not to mention that they had the Original vampires now taking up shack in their town. There were plenty of vampires in their town. They just refused to see them.

Klaus nodded his head and rubbed his palms on the armrest of the chair. "Well I can't push. If you think that there is no reason for me to join the council—"

"I'm not saying that you wouldn't be a valuable asset. I'm just saying that there isn't a need for the council to look for outside sources for help," Liz said. She rose from her chair and walked over to Klaus. She clapped a hand down on his shoulder and tilted her head. "It's nothing to worry yourself over. The town is peaceful and there hasn't been an animal attack in weeks. Mystic Falls is safe."

Klaus smiled up at her and rose from his chair. "Thank you Liz. For hearing me out." Liz gave him another smile and opened the door to her office.

"No problem," Liz said with a grin. "Thank you for offering your help. If we need your help then we'll definitely call you first."

Klaus gave a small laugh at that and ducked his head as he made his way out of the room. "I'll be waiting for that call then."

Liz gave him another smile and Klaus made his way out of police precinct. The moment that his back was turned a the smile dropped from his face and he turned his pulled out his phone from his pocket.

"Yes, Caroline darling. It seems that we have run into a bit of a problem."

"Don't you ever want to let yourself go?"

Caroline stood before the body, her hands fisted in one another. She wanted to lunge, she wanted the blood that poured from the neck of the man. But something was holding her back.

"Caroline, sweetheart," Klaus came into view then, his eyes red with blood. He gripped her face between his bloody hands and the sent of blood made the veins rise in her face. She wanted to dive in. She wanted the blood, but her feet remained firmly planted in the ground. "You need to let go. You need to stop listening to that voice that tells you that you shouldn't. Embrace what you are."

Caroline wanted to embrace what she was. She wanted to lean into being a vampire the way that others seemed to do so easily. She wanted to let go, but all the training that her father gave her, the impulses and urges that she was trained to control were reigned in.

"I can't." Caroline almost sobbed. Klaus shushed her. He brother their foreheads together so that for a moment all they could do was breathe one another in. Caroline fisted her hands in her dress, the fabric tearing under her hands.

Klaus sighed. He pulled away from Caroline and in a few short steps was looming over the man. In a matter of moments the man was hoisted up and Klaus brought the man's neck to his mouth. HIs fangs sunk in with little resistance.

Caroline flashed forward then. She breathed deeply through her nose. The aroma of the blood was intoxicating. She needed the blood. She wanted the blood. She leaned in on the other side of the man's neck and bit down.

The taste of blood exploded on her tongue. She sucked and pulled the man closer to her. To others it may have looked like two lovers sharing an embrace. But Caroline bit harder and harder at the man, digging her fangs in deeper. She sucked until there was no more blood to suck.

When she pulled away, she heard clapping. She turned, the lower half of her face covered in blood. Klaus stood behind her, clapping his hands. "Good job, my sweet Caroline."

Caroline let the body of the man drop to the ground. She reached for Klaus and he pulled her closer to him. Their breaths intermingled and then Klaus ducked his head and leaned in for a kiss.

The kiss made fire roll in her belly and sent stars shooting behind her eyes. It was only the two of them in the room. Caroline reach forward and wrapped her arms around Klaus's neck, bringing him down to intensify the kiss. Klaus lifted her from the ground and Caroline wrapped her legs around his waist.

The memory was still as bright as day to Caroline. She remembered that day because it was precious to her. Because Klaus was the one who taught her how to finally let go.

A song blasted through her phone and Caroline without a second thought picked it up.

"Hello?"

'Where is that tart brother of mine?" Rebekah snarled down the other end. Caroline rolled her eyes. Rebekah was always going through some drama and it was tiring to try and keep up with who or what she was doing at any given moment.

"You are going to have to specify. You have three tart brothers running around at the moment," Caroline said with a smirk.

"You know exactly who I am talking about. Where the hell is Nik?"

Caroline rolled her eyes. Her and Rebekah had never really gotten along. Rebekah thought that she was just another toy that her brother was playing with but Caroline knew that what she had with Klaus ran a lot deeper than just sex.

"Caroline answer me!" Rebekah hollered from the phone. Caroline shook her head free of thoughts of the past and focused her attention on Rebekah.

"Why? What do you need to talk to Klaus about that just cannot wait?" Caroline asked as she perused the magazine in front of her. The house was empty for the first time in a while and Caroline intended to enjoy it. "Can't it wait until we are all gathered."

"No because that idiot erased Stefan's memories of me!"

Caroline gave pause at that. She remembered Stefan, the swagger that he had and how much fun Klaus had with the man back in the twenties. It was fun. Everywhere they went they devastated the speakeasies and terrorized the people. It was the most fun that she and Klaus had in centuries.

"Well then Rebekah I would say leave them the way they are," Caroline turned the page of her magazine.

"What?"

"If Klaus wiped his memories of you that means that he wiped his memories of all of us. He probably did it for a reason. Leave Stefan alone. That man is the past."

"Why did I bother calling you? You are just Klaus's lackey."

Caroline frowned at the wording. "You know Klaus and I don't agree on everything."

"Whatever Caroline, darling. Well if you aren't going to tell me where he is then this conversation is over."

"I—" But the dial tone was already beeping. Caroline sighed and pulled the phone away from her ear. It was no use trying to talk to Rebekah. She had her own thoughts and opinions about things and was very stuck in her ways. Caroline shook her head.

Caroline pulled away from the countertop and without a thought, moved towards the door of the house. She needed to get out and do something. She needed to stretch her legs. She got into her car and drove all the way to the Mystic Grill. Sure enough, there were people there dancing and laughing and having a good time.

Caroline scanned the horizon, looking for her prey. Her eyes narrowed when she spotted a police cruiser sitting in the parking lot of the Mystic Grill. She smiled as she walked over to the police cruiser.

"Hello, boys," Caroline said with a grin.

Author's Note: This chapter was a little harder than the rest to write. Hope yall enjoy it.