I do not own TVD.

whimzystories - I'm choosing to take your no words as a positive thing ;).

Hopefully you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.


He stepped lightly into the mansion, crossing the floor like it were air. Above prominent cheekbones his eyes sparkled.

"Good evening, Bex."

The muscles around her spine tensed; she knew on an instinctual level that once the screaming started she would be able to trace the events to that one moment.

"What are you grinning about?" Her eyes narrowed.

"I can't be happy?" He countered, dropping onto her sofa and propping his feet in her lap.

He hadn't smiled due to genuine happiness in centuries.

"Grins on you mean massacres," she rolled her eyes. The heel of his shoe trapped her magazine so she lifted his leg by the hem of his jeans to free it and began perusing a selection of lipsticks.

"I haven't been responsible for a massacre in a century," he folded his arms beneath his head.

"You haven't been happy in centuries either," she muttered, flipping a page. From the corner of her eye she saw his easy smile strain. Instant guilt racked her, causing her stomach to turn over.

"And whose fault is that?" His eyes narrowed.

"You know full well that it wasn't mine, so kindly stop glaring at me," her nails cut through the corner of the next page. "I miss her too, Kol."

"And yet you forgave him." He sprang to his feet.

"He was responsible for many things Kol, but not that." She cringed at the thought of defending him after everything he had done. She had been tormented, punished with extended coffin stays and deceased lovers, but the one thing she couldn't blame him for was the loss of her best friend; he never wanted to hurt their sister.

"The only reason she's gone is because of him." He shoved his hands into his jacket pocket.

She knew what he reached for, the same thing he always reached for when her loss struck him anew. She waited for his fingers to close around the cool metal, but instead of calming down panic flashed in his eyes.

"Kol?" She stood, shivering as her toes hit the floor.

He ignored her, frantically searching his pockets.

"Hey," she grabbed his forearms, concern flashing in her eyes. "Take a breath and relax."

"I can't relax; it's gone." He snapped.

"Are you sure it's not in your other pocket?" She reached to check. "When's the last time you saw it?"

He let her reach into his pockets and curled his fingers into fists.

"It was in my pocket when I left the mansion."

"It's not now, so it probably just fell out. Like it did during Christmas dinner in 1911 when you tore the compound apart, remember?" She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Elijah found it in the fountain. I'll help you look. Where did you go?"

She backtracked to the couch, shoving her feet into her shoes and feeling between the cushions.

"I played a game of billiards with Elena Gilbert and then returned." The ghost of a smile flashed through his eyes.

"Wait a second," she held up her hands. "Please tell me you were not smiling because of the doppelgänger."

Elena Gilbert. She loathed Elena Gilbert. First because she had taken Stefan's affection. Then because she shoved a dagger in her back at the very moment she had thought that maybe, just maybe, she could have a friend again. And since Nik had declared her off limits under the threat of a dagger, and mother had decreed no murdering the locals, she hated her even more. Every time she saw the brunette she felt the stirring in her bones to accept the girl as a friend along with the sting of a knife in her heart.

"I happened to have a rather enjoyable time with her."

She supposed if Elena were capable of making him smile like he had she could leave things alone.

"Watch she doesn't stab you in the back," she smiled, sweet as sugar. "Come on, let's retrace your steps."


Her fingers slid over her bare arm, raising goosebumps. She could think of literally nothing else to do as Bonnie studied the spell and Caroline painstakingly copied each rune from the bracelet to a sheet of paper.

"Do you trust him?" Bonnie folded her legs.

"Do you believe him?" Caroline consulted a chart on the computer screen, cross-referencing with a pdf of the old Norse language.

Elena lifted the spell and tilted her head.

"I… I'm not sure. I know that the bracelet was mine… is mine…"

"I think Kol might have something to say about that," Bonnie shared a look with Caroline.

"I know," she sighed. "I feel like the spell is right too, I can't explain how, but I know. I just don't know if I trust his motives."

"He said he was imprisoned for most of his immortal life," Caroline murmured. She sat up and pushed her translation aside. "I mean… if you were with Kol, and at some point he turned you, then you would have been a participant in keeping Finn locked up. If you did that to me, best friend or not, I'd hold a grudge. This whole thing about making your own choices could be a trick."

"I had thought of that," Elena pressed her lips together. "I do this spell and after it puts me to sleep the house is stormed and someone takes me to Esther, hand delivering the doppelgänger. Last time she had access to a doppelgänger she cursed her children. Who knows what she really wants this time?"

She had meant it as a rhetorical question until Bonnie stiffened, shifting on the bed. Elena fixed her in a steely eyed stare that felt foreign and familiar on her face.

"In my defence," she held out her hands, "I just found this out, and we've been jumping between you having eye sex with your once husband and this spell so it hadn't come up naturally."

"For the love of…" Elena threw up her hands. She flopped back against her pillows with a groan and covered her face with her arms. "We were not having eye sex."

"People doing it don't always realize they're doing it and have to be told by their well-meaning best friend who saw the entire ordeal."

Elena kicked out, connecting her foot with Caroline's thigh. She attempted to shove her friend off the bed, but vampires were immovable when they chose to be. And Caroline had chosen to be.

She laughed and grabbed Elena's foot. "What did you find out Bonnie?"

"My mom came to me. She said Esther came to her." Bonnie fisted the comforter on either side of her knees. "She wants to channel my bloodline for a spell that will kill all of her children."

Elena shot up.

"That should have been the first thing out of your mouth."

"She said she couldn't actually do the spell yet because Esther needed something from the doppelgänger first." Bonnie finished.

Caroline looked from Bonnie to Elena.

"Bet it's blood." She let go of Elena's foot. "What do you wanna do? You're right. It could be a trap."

Elena thought for a moment, mentally tallying all of the vampires with an invitation to her home.

"Elijah's the only Original who can get inside. He's the family above all type, so I highly doubt he would be in cahoots with his mother."

"He did betray you once." Caroline quirked an eyebrow.

"For family," Elena stressed, realizing she was already halfway to forgiveness. "If it had been Jeremy I'd have done the same thing. If Elijah does, for whatever reason, come for me then tell him about his mother."

"So you're doing the spell, then?" Bonnie nodded, standing to begin clearing the bed.

"I'm doing it." She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, holding out her wrist for Caroline to slide on the bracelet. "And if anything goes wrong…" she licked her lips and pulled her bottom one between her teeth. "If anything goes wrong I want you to find Kol and tell him everything."


She approached the booth he pointed out while he veered off for the pool table, taking a moment to be impressed by his restraint. She had expected him to topple furniture and not stop until the Grille lay in ruins or the bracelet lay in his palm.

She braced her legs at the head of the table, smirking into the upturned face of Carol.

"Sorry to interrupt Mayor Lockwood, but did you or the Sheriff happen to find a bracelet when you sat down: silver, covered in carvings, about yay wide," she held up her thumb and forefinger, roughly a centimetre apart.

Liz's eyes flickered from Rebekah's throat to her ears, examining the small fortune she wore like trinkets.

"That doesn't sound like it's your taste," she shook her head.

"It belonged to someone very important to my brother. He's held onto it through the centuries, bit of a sentimental fool that one," she nodded her head in Kol's direction, waiting for the Sheriff and Mayor to nod and take in the desperation painting her brother as a man that maybe they could relate to.

Then she placed her hands on the table and leaned in, whispering in a conspiring tone she once used with her dear sister.

"Kol is also a complete maniac," her eyes sparkled with just the right amount of gleeful madness. "If someone were to steal it, and then attempt to lie about it, he would make that person regret their words… and then their existence."

"We are well aware of your family's violent leanings, Rebekah," Liz lifted her chin, displaying the streak of defiance so prominent in her daughter. "And you can threaten all you like, but there was no bracelet here."

"You might try the lost and found," Carol suggested.

"Nothing's been turned in," Damon called over.

He glanced in the table's direction before refocusing his attention on the glass of bourbon in his hand. Based on the way he swayed Rebekah deduced it was his fifth or sixth glass. She expected that to be the end of his input on the matter, but then he swivelled on his stool.

Unfocused eyes squinted. He tipped his glass back and forth, listening to the gentle clink of ice cubes; when he spoke there was a slur to his words.

"Is it anything like that one your brother was carrying?" His mouth twitched, twisting into a grimace.

"If you are referring to Kol then you likely saw the bracelet." She crossed her arms and shifted her weight onto her heels.

"Not that one," Damon shook his head, waving his glass towards Kol.

She felt her brother at her shoulder.

"The other one…" Damon went on. He squinted as if struggling to focus. "Put a delicate silver bracelet in his pocket when he left here. He was real precious about it. It was covered in some old language."

Rebekah started to relax. Elijah or Nik must have popped around for a drink and found it; they'd see it safely in Kol's hands before the moon reached it's apex.

"Nik or Elijah probably took it back to the mansion for you." She started to turn towards the door.

Damon's derisive snort stopped her in her tracks.

"It's not the one you're looking for," he sat his glass down, motioning to the bartender for a refill.

"How can you be so sure about that?"

Rebekah bristled, recognizing the dangerous tone of Kol's voice.

"Because he was leaving as I was coming in." The more Damon talked the clearer his voice became. "If it was yours wouldn't he have given it to you then?"

"If you knew it couldn't be the bracelet in question, why bring it up?" Rebekah took a deep breath and willed Kol to do the same.

"Sue me for trying to be helpful," Damon rolled his eyes. "It must have been the bourbon."

She put out her arm, stopping Kol from instigating a scene.

"Don't," she gripped his sleeve. "We'll check the path you took to the mansion."

"You do that," Damon picked up his refreshed drink, "but first, my curiosity demands an answer. Is it the same kind of bracelet?"

"Do you realize who you're talking to, mate?" Kol took half a step towards him.

"Still trying to be helpful," he held his hands up in a mock imitation of peaceful surrender. "Also, it was the other brother. The older one… dour expression… looks like he hates everyone and everything."

"Finn?" Rebekah frowned.

"Yeah, that one," Damon nodded. He muttered under his breath about there being too many of them. "He put it in his pocket then ran off across town."


He ran over every possibility as they combed the straight path he had taken, pausing near foliage to pull back leaves and scan the ground. The only explanation he could come up with was that it had fallen out when he entered the Grille and Finn had happened upon it.

Still, he examined every inch of ground and several nearby bird's nests just in case until he had no choice but to accept he was home again.

Home, where Elijah watched as he and Rebekah tiptoed with their eyes glued to the ground. Nik stood a few feet off, watching them as if they had each grown a second head.

"What are you two doing?"


Esther's head snapped up, swivelling towards the door. She resumed her search when her eldest son rose a single eyebrow, bending to search the small fridge Niklaus had concealed behind a moveable bookcase in his studio.

"Where have you been?" She glanced in his direction. Her fingers sorted through sealed bags of blood. Most bore hospital labels declaring the contents to be AB negative.

"I gave her the spell," he hummed. Countless canvases lined the walls, stacked five deep. He flicked through them, pausing on a portrait completed in oil. The sapphire's sparkling on the bodice reflected in her laughing eyes. He let the canvas fall back and moved to another.

"I see," Esther moved through another handful of neatly labelled rare blood types. At the very back of the fridge her fingers closed around a slim vial. Two block letters marked it as EG.

A tight smile turned up her lips. "She'll be bombarded with memory from every moment of her life."

"It won't be as bad as that," Finn lifted a smaller canvas and surveyed the field Niklaus had played in as a child. "I ensured it."

"What do you mean you ensured it?" She stiffened, freezing with the vial above an open bottle of scotch.

"Her mind would have been a mess," he lowered the painting. "That spell works best when there is something to focus. She'll be better able to cut through the fog of the past with her bracelet."

Her chest tightened. Urgency spurred her hands to motion, adding a drop of blood to the liquid.

"You took the bracelet?" Her voice elevated as she dropped the vial into an open drawer. She only realized how high when her youngest son appeared in the study.

"You have the bracelet?" He gripped the back of a sofa.

"That would depend on what bracelet you refer to." Finn cleared his throat and shoved up his sleeves. The glass on his watch flashed from his left wrist just below his arm ring.

"Her bracelet Finn," Rebekah leaned in the open door, partially blocking the studio so her brothers had to squeeze through the space between her hip and the door frame. Her eyes fell to the half revealed portrait.

"I do not have her bracelet," he shook his head, confident in his ability to speak the truth.

"I just heard mother say you took it," Kol swung his arm in a wide arc. His silver arm ring gleamed on his wrist as he levelled a finger on her.

"Search me if you must, brother," Finn held out his arms, "but I do not have it."

"Do you know where it is?" Rebekah cut through their staring contest. For a split second Finn's stoicism faltered.

"That's enough, both of you," Esther's voice broached no argument, reminding Klaus of his childhood when his mother's voice could sting as harsh as his father's blows. "I was very clear about fighting. Kol, I referred to an old trinket your father gifted me. If your bride's jewelry has gone missing I shall perform a locator spell to help you find it."

Rebekah tilted her head, listening to the gentle skip of her mother's heart. She doubted her brothers noticed, cut down by her tone as they were, and for the life of her she couldn't figure out what part of her mother's words formed a deception.

"And Finn, I want that bracelet returned as soon as possible," her eyes narrowed for a split second. "We are a family. There will be no more arguing or blood spilled. Am I understood?"

A murmur of yes went around the room.

Rebekah caught a glimpse of Elijah's troubled eyes before he focused them on their mother when she asked for the glasses on the cart at his elbow. He dutifully brought her six, but Rebekah could see him working through something particularly complex.

"I'm given to understand this was a good year," she poured out a drink for each of them. "Will you each share a drink with me?"


Caroline paced the end of Elena's bed, remembering when girl's night in consisted of pizza and copious amounts of ice cream she had to work off at cheer leading practice. A part of her missed it, but another part revelled in the thrill of magic.

She still worried.

"This is safe, right?" Her hands waved around.

"Relatively speaking," Bonnie curled her legs tighter on the window seat.

Caroline spun on her heel, skidding in fuzzy socks.

"What the heck does that mean?" Her eyes darted from Bonnie to the bed.

A half dozen candles flickered above the smoking herbs. The fragrant haze spiralled over the bed, drifting above Elena's head. She shifted in her sleep, grunting in apparent distress as a tear slipped down her nose.

"It's safer than going to Klaus was."

"Everything was safer than that," she tossed up her hands.

"Care, you need to relax, she's only been out an hour." Bonnie said. "It's just like the spell we did last night, only more intense and focused. She's got more control; we just can't let her sleep too long."

"Because a human being can only sleep so long before it effects their health," she dropped, plopping on the foot of the bed. "Nobody's come looking for her yet."

"So maybe that means Finn was sincere…" Bonnie trailed off. Her hand came up to her heart as it thudded harder, pumping like she had just finished one of their more energetic routines at half time. She knew the feeling of magic coursing through her veins.

"Bonnie?" Caroline moved, kneeling at the window seat.

"Shit," she breathed, touching her fingers to her lower lip. "It's Esther. She's channeling my bloodline."

"You said she needed something from Elena before she could do that!"

"Klaus must have had some of her blood on hand," she shook her head. "I'm pretty sure this counts as something going wrong."

But when she lifted her head Caroline was already gone.


Next up Elena takes a stroll down memory lane... literally.

I'm not gonna lie. I've probably got about 45,000 words of backstory because I wrote most of that first before deciding where and how I wanted the present to play out. Some of it you've already seen, but there is so much more. I probably won't post all of it within this story, but each year makes up a small story on it's own so I'm thinking I might post them as prequels after this story is done, or as bonus chapters at the end of this story. I haven't decided yet.