Chapter Thirty-Three

The next morning Rebecca had a rude awakening in the form of a phone call from Elena letting her know that Isobel was in town. The woman had just shown up at Elena's doorstep the night before while Jenna was home, so now Jenna knew Isobel wasn't dead and that Alaric hadn't been completely honest with her. She'd found out that Elena and Jeremy had known too, so Jenna wasn't in a good place with them at the moment.

"What's she doing here?" Damon asked, obviously listening with his super-sonic hearing.

"I don't know," Rebecca said. "Elena, what did she want?"

"She said she only wanted to talk to me."

"You didn't invite her in, did you?"

"No, I slammed the door in her face."

"Good girl," Rebecca said.

Considering what Isobel had done the last time she'd been there, Rebecca didn't want to have to worry about her being invited into anyone's home.

"Okay, well, I've already called Stefan. We need to figure out what to do."

"I'll let Ric know," Rebecca said. "I'll call you later to check up on you."

After getting off the phone Rebecca got up and got dressed. Chelsea hadn't woken up yet. Damon seemed to just want to lie there for a few more minutes, and Rebecca was just fine with that.

"Damon, maybe you should be the one to call Ric. You are closer to him."

He grunted, which Rebecca decided to take as a yes.

"We shouldn't let Isobel know that Katherine is here. They're worked together before. Lead her not into temptation and all that."

"Yeah, good." Rebecca sat down on the bed again. "Do you wanna just hang here for a while? We'll probably need to go to Elena's later. We'll be closer if we stay here."

"Whatever you want."

"Then, yeah. Here. Not with Katherine."

An hour later, at the Gilbert residence, Ric was knocking on the door. He was determined to be let in. He had dropped Jenna off the night before to make sure she'd gotten home safe from the Grill.

Once inside the house he didn't go anywhere past the front hallway. Elena had let him in.

She won't come out of her room," she said. "She won't talk to me. She's been in there since last night."

"We're gonna have to fix this, Elena."

"How?"

Ric had no idea. He had been lying since he'd met Jenna. Unless he told her everything, there was no way he could fix anything.

A few minutes later Jenna came downstairs, an overnight bag over her shoulder. She stopped at the foot of the stairs and glared at Ric.

"I don't want you here, Ric. You need to go."

"I can't imagine what you must be going through right now," he said, almost cringing at how lame he knew that sounded.

"Rage and betrayal would pretty much cover it."

She grabbed a jacket from the coat rack near the door.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to stay on campus. I have a thesis to write, and I don't want to be in this house."

"Jenna, please, just stop," Alaric said. "Let us explain to you exactly what is going on."

She ignored him and looked at Elena. "I need you to go to the Lockwoods today and accept the Historical Society's check for your mom's foundation."

"Okay, but . . . Jenna, please –"

"I don't have it in me to hear any more lies from you."

She did leave then. Ric stuck around until Stefan showed up. Stefan was on the phone with Caroline, who seemed to be having problems with Matt again.

Stefan really didn't know what to do. There were so many problems right now, but he knew he couldn't leave Elena unprotected.

Caroline had called him when he'd been on his way to Elena's to let him know that Matt knew what she was. He didn't know about anyone else, but still . . . Her mom had come home last night and Caroline had had no choice but to let him leave. Now she couldn't find him and he wasn't answering his phone.

Caroline didn't think her mom had heard anything bad – Liz had asked why she and Matt were fighting but that had been it.

"A'right, listen. You have to find him. You have to calm him down – compel him if you have to. Is he still on the vervain?"

"I slip it into his soda when he's at work, but I didn't get to last night, so it's out of his system. He has a catering shift as the Lockwood's today. I'm gonna try there."

Caroline hung up and Stefan did the same. He looked at Elena, who was lying on her bed in her room looking up at him worriedly.

"This is bad," she said. "Between Isobel and Jenna and now Matt, this is disaster bad."

"Hey, Elena!" Jeremy called from downstairs. "Uh, someone's here to see you!"

Stefan didn't hear anyone other than Jeremy downstairs. Only supernatural creatures could be so silent. He was curious as to who was there, so he led Elena downstairs. Jeremy was standing at the bottom, the open front door behind him.

Outside, standing on the porch, was Isobel. She seemed calm, almost emotionless, cold even.

"Jer?" Elena asked.

"She says she has information about Klaus."

"Since I was last here I've been doing everything possible to find Klaus. I knew your best chance was to find him before he could find you."

"Best chance at what?" Stefan asked.

"Keeping Elena alive." Isobel looked at Elena. "Can I come in?"

"No," Elena said. "You don't get to do anything. Not after everything you've done."

Stefan put a steadying hand on Elena's shoulder.

"Were you able to find Klaus?"

"No. Nobody knows where he is, but there are rumors that are flying around that a doppelganger exists."

"Come in," Jeremy said. When Elena began to protest he continued with, "Any vampire who knows you could try to get at you and take you away. If she can help, I'm all for it."

Isobel stepped inside and shut the door even as Elena shook her head.

"I'm not buying any of this. The last time you were here, you made it clear that you didn't give a crap about me. Now all of a sudden I'm supposed to believe that you want to help?"

The last time Isobel had been in Mystic Falls, Matt had had his arm broken and Jeremy had been kidnapped.

"Klaus has been obsessed with finding Katherine for centuries," Isobel said. "All it would've taken was any one of those 1864 tomb vampires to spread the word around that Katherine was still alive and it would bring him straight here to Mystic Falls, where you were bound to be discovered, so John and I plotted to have them killed."

"You almost killed Stefan and Damon in the process."

Isobel didn't deny or apologize for doing the things she'd done. She just moved closer to Elena and made her an offer.

"I have a safe house that I can take you to. The deed is in your name. No vampire can get in without your permission, not even me. Let me help you."

"You wanna help? Then get out of my house."

Rebecca's plan to stay at her dad's house for the day lasted until about two that afternoon when Bonnie called to ask her to go with her to the Martin's house. Bonnie wanted to pick up the grimoires they had collected over the years.

Rebecca and Damon met Bonnie at the Martin's apartment building. Jeremy was with her. As soon as they arrived Jeremy let them know about Isobel coming back and that he'd invited her in.

"Jer!" Rebecca exclaimed. "Why?"

"She says she can help, and I sort of believe her."

"You do remember what happened last time, don't you?" Damon asked. "She kidnapped you."

"Because she wanted something from Elena. We have nothing she wants now."

"Stefan is still with her?"

"Yeah. She's safe. Where's Chelsea?"

"With Robert," Rebecca answered.

With Katherine in town it was best all-around for Chelsea not to be at the boarding house. Plus, Chelsea needed to be around Robert more often. As much as Rebecca wanted to keep Chelsea, she couldn't. When Robert left in July, Chelsea would be going with him.

Robert was off of vervain now and Rebecca was planning on compelling him to take cake of Chelsea the way a father should.

Once inside Rebecca had to cover her mouth and nose. Luka's burnt corpse was there in the living room.

"So he really was burned," she said. "What a horrible way to die."

"And ironic," Damon said, "seeing as he was a warlock."

Bonnie went straight for the grimoires. They were stacked in a book case against the wall. She opened the duffle bag she'd brought with her.

"Think we could just take 'em and cremate 'em?" Damon asked, squatting down beside the body.

They already had Jonas's body in the trunk of Damon's Camaro. Rebecca still had the key; they could take both bodies to the funeral home, but . . .

"How would we explain it?" Rebecca asked. "Let's just bury them."

"What exactly are we looking for?" Jeremy asked Bonnie.

"According to Luka's dad, one of these contains a spell that'll let me harness the energy that's left behind when a witch dies violently."

"Uh . . . Bonnie . . . How are you supposed to do that?" Rebecca asked.

"He gave me a message before he . . . um . . . died."

Rebecca tensed. She knew Bonnie had been about to say 'before you killed him,' but she was grateful Bonnie hadn't.

"If I can find the spot in town where the old Salem witches were burned I can harness their energy to use when I need it."

"Again . . . how?" Rebecca asked. "You don't have your powers. He took them, remember?"

Jeremy grinned and picked out a Grimiore from the bookcase.

"Are we gonna have to read through every one of these books until we find the right spell?"

"Not exactly," Bonnie said.

Bonnie closed her eyes and raised her hands. The grimoires fell off the shelf and onto the carpeted floor. One of them opened to a certain page and Bonnie opened her eyes. She smiled down at the book and picked it up.

"It's this one."

Damon stood up from over the body and smirked.

"Great. Who else knows you have your powers back."

"Only the people in this room."

"We should keep it that way."

"Thanks for sharing, Bonnie," Rebecca teased.

Not even a full five minutes later they had packed the grimoires in the duffle bags Bonnie had brought along and had put them in the backseat of Bonnie's car.

They had also put the Martin's in Damon's trunk. It had been a tight fit, but they had worked it out eventually.

On the way to bury them, Elena called to tell them about Isobel coming back. Rebecca didn't mention that Jeremy had already told her what had happened.

"Do you really think that Isobel's telling the truth that word's gotten out about the doppelganger?"

"Well, you haven't been so careful about hiding it," Rebecca said. "Plus . . . Katherine."

Rebecca looked at Damon, who would've heard Elena's question even if he hadn't wanted to – vampire hearing and all.

"Look, just don't leave the house without one of us with you and you should be fine."

"Yeah. I'm going with Stefan to the luncheon at the Lockwood mansion. Some historical thing my mom was into. I have to accept something in her honor."

"A'right. I'll check in later. Uh, Damon and I have to take care of something."

After they hung up Rebecca turned to Damon then. "So . . . why didn't you tell Bonnie that you knew where she needed to go to channel that energy.?"

Damon shrugged from the driver's seat, one hand on the wheel.

"Didn't want her going without me."

"Oh."

Rebecca smiled. She should have realized that would be the reason. Besides, the only reason she knew was because she'd been there when Damon had shown Stefan.

"We'll meet them at the old Lockwood estate once we're done here, okay?"

And so it was, two hours later, that they met up with Bonnie and Jeremy again. Rebecca and Damon had buried the Martin's bodies far enough in the woods they hoped no one would find them.

"Is this the spot Emily Bennett was killed too?" Jeremy asked as they stopped outside the old estate.

"Founders thought it was poetic burning her where the other witches burned," Damon answered.

"How do you know where the witches were burned," Bonnie asked.

"Journal," Damon answered. "Found out yesterday."

Rebecca sighed. This place had good and bad memories for her. Good because she had played there as a child – not in the house, of course, but on the grounds. She'd come there with Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline.

The bad memories had more to do with the fact that the place had always given her the creeps than anything else. Now she knew why.

The house itself was chaired almost to the point of blackness, and Rebecca hoped it was stable enough because they needed to go inside.

Bonnie went in first, seeing as to how she was the witch, and sat up candles and the Grimiore she needed. She let the others know when it was safe to come in.

Almost as soon as they were all in the living room area Damon said, "Whatever witchy prank you're playing, don't. It's not funny."

Rebecca looked at him but saw nothing wrong so she looked at Bonnie, who shrugged.

"I'm not doing anything."

"I can't move."

"Witches," Rebecca muttered.

She remembered that Emily had done this to her once when Bonnie had been possessed by her ancestor. It had been super uncomfortable to not be able to move when she wanted.

The stench of burning flesh hit Rebecca's nose before Damon said anything about his ring not working anymore.

"Emily!" Rebecca exclaimed. Then to Bonnie, "Do something."

"I don't think the witches like him being here," she said but closed her eyes anyway and began to chant.

Suddenly Damon was able to move and he hid in the shadows. Of course, Bonnie had picked a sunlit room.

"I'm gonna go wait outside," Damon said. "If my ring will work."

Damon's ring did work, he was relieved to find out. He was happy when Rebecca followed him. He'd been almost certain that she'd been going to, but still . . . he didn't want to take for granted that she wanted to be with him whenever she could.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah."

He was completely healed. He hadn't been burned badly or for that long, really, and it hadn't taken much energy to heal himself.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

The only response he received was a shrug. Rebecca had been a little off since the night before, since she'd killed Jonas. Damon understood. She hated killing people. Jonas was, in fact, only the second human she'd ever killed. He was the first human that she'd killed by instinct, however, and Damon knew it was weighing on her.

She'd flinched when Bonnie had mentioned Jonas's death even though the witch hadn't blamed her, and she hadn't been able to touch Jonas's body when they'd buried him and Luka.

Rebecca hadn't really cried since killing the man, but maybe she needed to. Granted, they'd been busy, so she hadn't really had time to emote in her usual way, but still . . . Damon knew she despised the murderous part of herself and probably felt at least somewhat guilty.

"I wonder how long this is gonna take," Rebecca said and gestured back into the house.

Only a few moments had passed but already Bonnie had come into contact with the witches that had been burned in the house. Damon could hear the whispers of the spirits. He assumed Rebecca could too. He couldn't tell what they were saying and he didn't really care what was being said. He just wanted this to work.

Damon's phone rang. He found that his brother was calling him when he checked the ID screen.

"Stefan?"

"Elena is missing," Stefan said. He sounded groggy, as if he'd just woken up. "Katherine did something. Elena was with me, but Katherine switched before we left."

"Why does he sound so out of it?" Rebecca asked.

When Damon asked Stefan said that Katherine had dosed him with a syringe full of vervain. If they hadn't been working up an immunity to the herb, Stefan probably wouldn't have been awake yet.

"Meet us back at home," Damon said. "You need to feed, get your strength back."

He hung up and turned to Rebecca then. "It's gotta be Isobel and Katherine."

"Yeah. Agreed."

Rebecca opened the door and stuck her head in. "Guys, are you okay here? Stefan needs help."

"We'll be fine," Jeremy called out. "I'll get a ride home with Bonnie."

At the same time, across town, Caroline had come to her house. She'd been almost everywhere she could think of that Matt could have been, but she hadn't been able to find him. Until now. Matt was seated on a chair in her living room.

"Your mom brought me here," he said. "I accused her of covering up Vicki's death and she threatened to arrest me."

"Did you tell her anything else?"

"Nothing about you."

Caroline hated this, the tension between them. Matt was afraid of her, and she was afraid he would tell someone her secret.

"I got the feeling she wasn't gonna believe anything I said, so I shut up. Then she brought me here to cool down. She got called away."

Caroline moved towards him but stopped when his whole body began to stiffen.

"Why'd you stick around if you're still scared of me?"

"Because I need to know more about Vicki, and about you."

She told him, to the best of her knowledge, everything he wanted to know. What she knew was that Vicki had died a vampire – that was why no one had been allowed to see her body at the funeral. The town had used the excuse of Vicki's body having decomposed, which would've been true had she died human. She knew Vicki had been killed because she'd attacked Elena and Jeremy. She knew Damon's blood had turned her. Vicki had died by accident, and Stefan had had no choice in ending her life. Stefan and Rebecca had tried helping her, but Vicki hadn't been one to accept help.

Caroline hoped she wasn't making a mistake by telling Matt everything.

"This is the house?" Stefan asked as he, Damon, and Rebecca pulled up to a huge two story house.

"Better be. It's the nicest foreclosure in town."

"If she's not here . . ."

"Don't be such a pessimist."

The three vampires entered the house without a problem, so no one owned the house. Damon had taught Isobel to always pick the most expensive bank foreclosures when she was planning on staying in one place for a while. This was just the type of place he'd taught her to take over.

"I'll check upstairs," Stefan said.

Damon knew no one was there, however, because he had been focusing his hearing and there had been no noises at all. Stefan hadn't been drinking human blood for long, and his senses weren't as strong as they should have been. His hearing wasn't as acute as Damon's was – or Rebecca's for that matter – but Damon knew his brother had to see for himself. Stefan wouldn't be satisfied otherwise.

Rebecca took off on her own, but didn't stay away long. She'd found luggage in what was probably the living room

"This is Isobel's stuff," Damon said. He could smell Isobel's scent in the room now. "It's definitely the right place."

"So . . . where is she?"

"I don't know."

"Elena hasn't been here," Rebecca said. "I don't smell her, but . . . Katherine's been here. Recently."

Damon agreed. Katherine had been there. Someone else had been there too, but Damon didn't recognize the scent.

"Isobel must've taken Elena from the Lockwood mansion while Katherine was pretending to be her."

"I swear, we need to get Elena a tracking device. Implant one in her, even."

"Would speed things up a bit," Damon said.

"I'm all alone," Matt said.

He'd sit through Caroline's explanation, all of it, and had learned that Caroline had fed from him before, months ago, and had compelled him to forget. She hadn't meant to hurt him and had avoided him after. He remembered she'd been acting crazy and now he knew why. She'd been adjusting to becoming a vampire.

"My mom doesn't care, my sister's dead, and all of my friends are liars, and you're a . . ."

"I'm still me."

"No. This is too much. All of this is just too much. I don't want to know this."

Elena had known about Vicki – everyone knew, really. Stefan was a vampire, Damon was a vampire, even Rebecca was a vampire. He had been dating a vampire, and he loved her. But he couldn't be with her.

"Tell me what I can do," Caroline said. "I want to help you."

"You can make me forget. You've done it before. Please make me forget, Caroline. I don't wanna look at you and see what I'm seeing right now."

"Matt . . ." she said as tears fell.

"Just make me forget, Caroline!"

To her credit, Caroline did try to compel him. She didn't want him remembering what he'd learned or what he'd seen at the Grill the night before. She did that for him.

It wasn't her fault that he had vervain in his system. It wasn't her fault that Matt was now working for the Sheriff.

When Stefan, Damon, and Rebecca found Elena, the girl was kneeling in front of a pile of ash that was in the vague shape of a body. Isobel.

Stefan had received a call from Elena and had found out that Isobel had double-crossed Katherine. Katherine had been kidnapped by a warlock that was working for Klaus. Isobel had been working for Klaus, though Elena thought she'd been compelled to do so.

Isobel had taken Elena to Grove Hill Cemetery. Isobel had grown up in Grove hill, and now she'd died there. Isobel had chosen her grave site and had removed her lapis lazuli necklace; she'd burned to death.

Elena was holding the necklace, staring in shock. She wasn't crying, though, and she was aware enough to know the three had arrived, but it wasn't until they were all on the way back to Mystic Falls that they really began talking.

"I never thought I would feel bad about her being dead, and yet."

"She was your mother," Stefan said.

"Hm. Why did she let me go?"

"Well, Isobel knew, so we have to assume that Klaus knows about you, so he knows you're not gonna turn yourself into a vampire. He knows that you have us keeping you safe."

"He knows I'm not gonna run."

"Which is why we need to take some precautions, 'cause we got played," Damon said. "All of us."

"Isobel had the right idea with the safe house. You'll just stay at our house until it's over. We can sign the house over to you and you can control who gets invited and who doesn't."

Elena wondered if Jeremy would consider moving into the boardinghouse until all this was over. She just wanted everyone she loved to be safe.

Once back in Mystic Falls, they took Elena home to pick up some clothes and to get Jeremy. They had been gone so long that Bonnie and Jeremy had found their way there. They were in Jeremy's room, on the bed, with Bonnie's Grimiore open between them.

Rebecca stepped inside the room and waited for them to acknowledge her presence before sitting beside Bonnie.

"So . . . did it work?"

Bonnie nodded. "I should be able to take out Klaus without a problem."

"They warned her against using that much power, though," Jeremy said. "Using too much power at once can kill her."

Rebecca wondered how much was too much.

"How much would it take to kill an Original?"

"All of it,' Bonnie admitted softly.

"No, I'm not gonna let you do that," Jeremy said.

"Jeremy, do you think I was born with these powers so I could float feathers and light candles? There's a reason I was called to do this."

"No one's called to get themselves killed," Jeremy countered. "Plus, Elena's not gonna let you die for her."

"That's why you're not gonna tell her."

"Do you even understand what you're saying right now?"

"It's not just for Elena, Jeremy. It's for you. For everyone. And if I'm the only one that can put an end to this, then it'll be my decision, no one else's. Mine."

Rebecca didn't really know what to say or if, in fact, she should say anything at all. She did want to let Bonnie know that she supported her decision, though.

"I won't tell Elena. And it is your life, so it's your decision. But, like I told Elena . . . last resort, okay? Don't die unless it's necessary."

"Becca!" Jeremy said. She could read the confusion and betrayal on his face and in his voice.

"Jer, Klaus is bad. Elijah was called an Easter bunny compared to him. We don't want him running loose, and there are some things worth dying for."

It hit Rebecca then that Katherine didn't know that Bonnie had her powers back, didn't know she'd even been trying. That meant that Isobel hadn't known, which meant Klaus wouldn't know, assuming Isobel had been his informant.

Speaking of . . . Jeremy had no clue what had happened that day. She hadn't told him.

"Uh . . . Jer, Elena needs you right now. She . . . she was kidnapped earlier. Isobel . . ."

Jeremy basically jumped off the bed and went to the door before stopping and turning back around.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"She was in Grove Hill. Isobel let her go and she's not hurt. You were helping Bonnie and I didn't want you distracted. If we hadn't been able to find her, I would've told you."

Rebecca was relieved when Jeremy didn't get mad at her. He looked disappointed, but he wasn't angry.

"Please don't start keeping things from me," he said. "Everyone else does that already."

Later that night, at the boardinghouse, Damon found out that the moonstone was missing. Katherine must've taken it, and now he didn't know where she was. She probably wasn't coming back if she had what she wanted, and if she ever got free of her kidnapper.

He threw the soap bowl to the ground and Rebecca appeared in the bathroom doorway as the bowl shattered.

"It's gone," he said.

"You're the one who put it in a soap dish," she said. "Told you it was a bad idea."

She had told him that, but that wasn't what he wanted to hear so he changed the subject.

"Are we bringing Chelsea home?"

"I'm staying at Robert's again."

"Why? Katherine isn't coming back."

Rebecca looked at the ground. There was nothing interesting there, so Damon knew she was going to say something he wouldn't like.

"Becca?"

"I'm staying with Robert tonight. He leaves in June, and Chelsea is going with him."

She looked up then, her face set, tears in her green eyes. He saw she needed him to agree with her, needed him to support her decision, and he did – logically. Emotionally, he didn't want to let go. Chelsea didn't belong to him, but she had become part of him.

"I'm going to compel him to take care of her. I need to see if it works before . . ." Rebecca swallowed thickly. "I need to know she'll be taken care of."

"You know you can't compel real love," Damon said, stepping closer. The missing moonstone didn't matter at the moment.

"I know, but I can make him think he loves her. Maybe he really will one day." Rebecca shrugged. "Either way, they need to get used to each other."

At least Chelsea was used to not sleeping in Rebecca's room anymore. They slept in the same room at Roberts out of necessity, but Chelsea could sleep alone just fine.

"Damon, you need to come with me. I need you to come with me."

Damon did, and that was how he found himself in Rebecca's old house watching her compel her father to be the father Chelsea needed. Rebecca didn't cry; she seemed determined not to.

Afterwards, Damon and Rebecca lay in her bed and he rubbed her back while she remained silent. Well, she was physically silent. Mentally, she was speaking a mile a minute. He couldn't read her mind, of course, but . . . he knew her enough to know that sometimes her mind wouldn't shut up. Now was one of those times.

She would let him in once she had everything sorted in her own head.

Okay, so you guys finally know the decision I've made about Chelsea. I didn't want to do it, but it just logically makes sense that Chelsea be sent away so that she can have a semi-normal life. Plus, she's safer that way. Rebecca had been going back and forth forever because sometimes she thought she could handle it, but she has realized that she can't. It's been that way since she and Damon were tortured by those werewolves and Rebecca had realized Chelsea could've been hurt too and she wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.