He was followed by Enzo to the main headquarters they had in the city. Not knowing why exactly he was enraged- well yes, Stefan called a meeting without telling him. As if he was planning something with keeping him out or planning something against him? As he walked with large known steps in the highly lit corridor towards the meeting Enzo had earlier informed him about he was getting more and more angry. Ever since Caroline's murder, Stefan was being reckless. He let Stefan carry Caroline to the doctor despite it being hopeless. His brother was in huge denial earlier and now he was being reckless with all this sudden attack plans. He walked in after pushing the glass door to the big room which had a big round conference table with a lot of space in the middle. Stefan was standing at the front just pacing, maybe previously talking, now interrupted, Damon, without regard to anyone in the room, walked across the table and held him by his elbow nearly seething, "What are you doing?"

He jerked his arm away with equal force, "I don't recall you being invited-"

"Shut up- outside, right now!" he said and went towards the exit, Stefan followed him outside while Enzo stayed inside to calm everyone down.

Stefan closed the door after him and turned around facing his brother, "Everything I do isn't supposed to be approved."

"Yes it will be, Stefan." He bit out each word, "You can't take on Klaus and Kol by your own, You can't let this get to you."

"So what's suppose to get to me?" he clenched his teeth, "My child is dead, the girl I love is fucking dead." He growled, "And you don't care because it's not Elena, I wouldn't care either if it were her, it was supposed to be her! Not Caroline. You know it's very easy to give people the 'stop being reckless' lecture when nothing was taken away from you."

"So what is your case? I should wait till someone kills my wife before I give you advice? I know you want revenge, I want it too. But this impulsive reaction is what Klaus and his brothers might be waiting for."

"So what!" he fisted his hands at his sides, "What do you wanna wait for? I have planned all the attacks on Michaelson family with all these men! What are you waiting for?"

"Great, warn them by attacking them this way." Damon huffed, " you need to cool down before anything."

"I am not going to cool down, it's the first and last thing I am asking you for is to leave me alone- I don't care if anything happens, I have nothing to lose." He spat, Damon frowned, "But I do, Stefan. I don't want to lose you."

"You don't want to lose Elena." he said with disgust, "If you cared about me, you'd support me." he pushed at Damon's shoulder and walked straight back inside.

(-TVD-TVD-TVD-TVD-TVD-)

Elena wrapped the blanket tighter around herself, digging herself deep under it as if wanting to hide her existence. The small amount of sunlight left filtered through the light curtains and brightening up the room was nauseating her. She would never have thought a world without her best friend would still have this sunshine. It pained her to think back on the last few months with her. Caroline's plan for herself and the baby would pop in her head, her cheery voice would ring in her ears and it would bring tears to her eyes. On realizing that the spot under her cheek on the pillow was wet due to her tears she slightly moved back, still not planning to get out of bed. When the door opened, she didn't care to even look over her shoulder, just by the sound of the steps, she knew it was Damon. He was upset too, but his main concern was her safety right now which always made her angry. Maybe because it was a reminder that this was all her fault.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, the side of his thigh pressing against her back and she could sense that he was looking at her. She tried to muff any sounds from her mouth so he wouldn't initiate any conversation just assuming that she's asleep, but when his hand started to stroke the top of her head, she sniffled. Without saying anything, he simply wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer to him, she gave up and let him comfort her. Her face was pressed against his chest as she silently cried. "It's going to be okay." He said in a whisper.

What did he mean? Caroline was dead. How was anything suppose to be okay after this. She shook her head against his chest, "I am so sorry." She said between tears, "For being the reason that everyone around me dies." She looked up at him, cupping his face, "Mom didn't have to die, Caroline and her baby didn't have to die." She broke into tears, "I ruined everything, her life, our marriage, Stefan's life-" he shook his head, "Elena, you aren't the reason for Kol's sick head, he is the one responsible for this." Even though he was bothered with her constant self-blame, he tried to sound very polite. She became quiet but he knew she wasn't convinced at all, she had already started loathing herself and that worried him, "I know she was an important part of your life and I am aware that this is devastating for you but this in no way is your fault and I am not just saying that because I love you." She interrupted, "Then why is that Stefan hates me? When he looks at me ,I feel like a criminal and murderer of his happiness."

Damon sighed, he didn't know what he was going to do about this, he was torn between his heartbroken brother and the love of his life. Stefan was acting like a crazy person. He initially had accepted the death but had rushed Caroline's body to the doctor in case the baby had survived. Despite him telling Stefan that that was impossible. Well later when he found out it was hopeless, he completely went insane. He never knew how serious Stefan was about Caroline and his baby till then. Stefan had definitely fallen for Caroline.

"He doesn't hate you baby. This is a great loss for him and he isn't thinking straight right now, anyone wouldn't. I can't imagine being in his place." He too cupped her small face in his hands and wiped the tears from her cheeks, she nodded, "But I just want to comfort him, I know he's hurting and I am hurting too because she was so important to us." Her eyes filled up in tears. She moved forward and wrapped her arms around him, "Sometimes I want to end myself or just disappear but I can't."

"I am not letting you do that either." He patted the back of her head, "We're going to get this and live a happy life together."

"Happy." She chuckled humorlessly, "I don't even know what that means anymore." She looked up at him and swallowed thick, "I constantly am terrified that I'll lose you too, like every person I've ever loved and I rather die-"

"No-no don't say that." he said instantly, "You won't lose me." his voice held somewhat vulnerability and command at the same time which she was unable to deny. Unable to build more words to explain her dark mind she nodded slightly and breathed into his warm shoulder with hopes that his arms were stronger than any other shield for her.

Throughout her flight back from Italy, her hand was wrapped around his arm and her head down on his shoulder, she was surprised at how patient he was being with her. He wasn't pressuring her to feel alright. He was giving her space while being with her which was such a relief. Stefan on the other hand found blaming her as a coping mechanism, Damon had told him to come back with him and Elena but he had refused as he was planning to inflict retribution on the person who had ruined his life. Elena knew Damon was a bit taken aback with Stefan's sudden resistance towards him. Stefan had not only been disrespectful towards Elena but him too in front of everyone. However, Damon didn't let his 'Capo' pride get to him and let it go, had it been someone else, he would give the person an exemplary punishment for disrespecting him and his wife. Elena looked up at him and noticed him lost in thought. He was probably worried about Stefan. The reason he was on this plane was her. He was trying to get her to a safe place. Guilt filled her again but she didn't let it get to her lips. She didn't want to burden him with more. She didn't question his choice of coming back to the same house, his silence was getting concerning but she knew he was planning something in his head, she wanted to know but she knew he wouldn't tell her. Everything was so calm and quiet. Just like the calm before a storm. They went to their room after getting to their house. She picked some water for them and when she came back to the room, he was sitting on the sofa, lost in thought. She downed a glass of water still feeling sick from all the traveling they were doing too suddenly. She quickly changed into her silk shorts and a camisole. Though she was exhausted , she couldn't sleep without making sure he was all okay first. She walked to the sofa, her hand rested on her hip as she eyed him. "Come to bed." Her voice was above a whisper. He looked up at her slowly. Instead of getting up, he held out his hand for her. She breathed out and slipped her hand in his which he held firmly, slowly pulling her to himself and making her sit in his lap, he pressed a kiss to her shoulder, "How do you feel now?"

She finally gave him a small smile not wanting him to worry about her, "I am okay I guess." She let her forehead fall against his as she stroked his hair softly, "What about you?"

She heard him chuckle slightly as if the idea of him being upset was absurd, he kissed her temple and shook his head, "What about me? I am-"

"Totally not fine." She interrupted him, "Please Mr. Salvatore. Will you let your guard down for a second and talk to me?"

He rolled his eyes at her tone and looked up at her, "There's nothing to say, I under-estimated that pest and I regret that."

She sighed and he cupped her face, "Should have ended him way more before all this happened. The audacity of him that he thinks he can turn my own brother against me and well he succeeded. Stefan doesn't trust me anymore." He said in a voice above a whisper. She nodded slightly, "Maybe that was his aim but I just feel there is another motive there Damon." She pursed her lips. He huffed, "Elena, my love please- I don't want you thinking about this and ruining your health." He stroked the side of her face, she tried to talk but he interrupted, "Honey, I love you but I won't encourage you coming in the middle of all this." He said in a soft but firm tone, she considered it was best to keep it to herself for now, she nodded in agreement and got up from his lap, "I am going to lie down, I still feel a little queasy."

He let her hand go, she went to bed and once again covered herself in the blankets, every traumatic incidence in her life had made her more afraid of the night. She would cover up more and more as if she was trying to make herself disappear. After a while she felt as he too came to bed and lied next to her, wrapping his arms around her. She relaxed against his warm body and slowly found herself surrendering to sleep.

(-TVD-TVD-TVD-)

Same dull sunshine, same stilled air- the same pressure of agony as she remembered her friend's face. Her smiling and laughing form a few hours before a bullet had tore through her head, blood, pain, fire, smoke- a sudden jolt from her body woke her up and she felt as if she had disturbed him too because her shoulder had bumped so hard into his chest, "Elena?" he asked patting the side of her head, "You okay?"

She nodded, it was already morning again, she didn't want to think about death first thing in the morning, she certainly didn't want to cry. She removed his arms from her body feeling rather suffocated in them, "El-"

"Bathroom." She explained as she rushed to the toilet and leaned over the seat to vomit, after it was done, she felt like her legs were going to break with pain, slowly she washed her mouth and walked back into the room, where he was sitting on the bed with the expression on his face as if asking a question, she waved her hand in a no, "I told you I didn't want that sandwich last night." She said and sat back down on the bed, "I feel sick."

"Oh." He said and let his hand around her rubbing her back, "I should get Bonnie so she can call a doctor."

She held his arm as if refusing, "No it's going to be fine-I just need sleep." She tried to convince him and lied back down on the pillow, "Continue with your day, no need to worry."

"Are you kidding? You look pale and sick."

Her eyes widened at his alarmed voice but she shrugged after a moment, "I mean that's how you want it to be, not caring about each other while still being in 'love'." She grinned. He narrowed his eyes at her statement before realizing. He knew she was going to use that card back on him but this soon? he moved close to her, almost blocking all sunlight from the window, "It's a good thing I didn't require your permission."

"for the record I am fine." She said pushing at his chest slightly but he didn't move, "Elena-"

She hissed, "I understand , Damon- everything, I know what this has come to and I won't hate you for it and I am not stopping you anymore."

"And all it took was Caroline dying to understand that Kol isn't avoidable, not when he was going to kill you?" he said a bit harshly, she was shocked by the sudden argument from his side, she swallowed thick at his slightly loud voice, of course he was mad that she didn't care about herself as much, "It's not because of Caroline, it's because I can't risk you. I don't want you to be distracted while he plans something-"

She got on her knees and moved forward, "I don't know what the future means, but I want you to be with me." she cupped his face as her eyes filled in tears, he sighed wiping the tears from her cheek, his thumb stroked her chin as he let his lips brush against hers, she said his name in a sigh opening her mouth for him, letting him cover her body with his. He placed hard kisses down her neck and kissed all the skin that the camisole allowed. Her small hands unclutched from the sheet. She felt the smooth skin of his back under her palms. She loved the way his lips made her feel. He trailed kisses from the smile line between the small forming abs back to her heaving chest. Their eyes met once again and she gave him a soft smile, she sat up a little and slipped her hand between their bodies to stroke him. He breathed out her name like a prayer, lifting her slightly to remove her lacy shorts from her. She threw her head back on the pillow as he laid her down and settled between her legs. "Of course I would be, the moment I first saw you. I've seen that future." He hooked her legs around his waist and thrusted inside her. She moaned as his length filled her, he moved out and then thrusted back inside her filling her to the hilt. She gasped holding on tighter as he began moving in and out of her. "Yes." Her encouraging moans controlled his amazing pace and soon she climaxed, feeling her world crash around her. As she was riding down the ways, she felt the final few thrusts before he released inside her, he let his head fall against her chest, while her hands stroked his shoulders. She cupped his face, bringing it up to look at him. He kissed her deeply, loving the way her tongue danced with his. He pulled away and she giggled when he pecked the tip of her nose. "I am going to take a warm bath, want to join me?" she raised a brow asking, he pursed his lips, "Now who in the right mind would say no to that- I'll run you a bath, you look like you could use some pampering."

She smiled as he moved away and went towards the bathroom, Elena sat up in bed and reached for her phone on the nightstand. She dialed a familiar number and brought it to her ear, "Bonnie, are you here yet?"

"I am." She replied.

"Good. Look I can't talk right now and Damon probably isn't going anywhere today I'll distract him one way or another but I want you to get every name linked to Kol and Klaus- especially Klaus and can you please also get an update on Stefan. Remember Bonnie you and I have to do this."

"I know Elena, I do- but if Mister. Salvatore found out about this- he will no doubt have me killed." She said in a light tone but Elena knew the girl was fearing for her life, "Bonnie, You have my word on this- Damon would have to deal with me before doing anything about it." she promised, though she didn't know how she trusted this enough, Damon would never hurt her and maybe using that to her advantage wasn't fair but she had to do this for herself, for him, for her best friend and her innocent baby.

When she kept the phone down that instant he walked back in to the room, "The bath's ready." He bowed dramatically and she chuckled. "Do you have to be some where after this?"

"Well Enzo and I did schedule a few meetings- casual nothing-"

"Ahuh-" she stood up and palmed her head, "Maybe I'll call Bonnie home, I don't feel very well- I just don't feel like being alone." She took lights steps to the bathroom-hoping to hear him say. "I'll stay." He said at once following her to the bathroom, "It's not that important."

"Damon I don't want us to have an argument about this later." She had to make it a bit more strong- slightly guilting him to absolutely not go, "If it's important to you-"

"Don't be ridiculous." He rolled his eyes and picked her off the ground, she giggled as he put her in the tub.

(-TVD-TVD-TVD-TVD-TVD-)

"I feel kinda bad." she said as she looked through all the files Bonnie had prepared. "I guilted him into almost reading me a bed time story."

"He's compensating a bit too much." Bonnie smirked and pulled out a file from under the one she was reading, "Firstly we have to look into this guy."

"Tyler Lockwood." She frowned, "I never told Damon about him."

"Damon hasn't linked him to Kol yet- but of what you told me." Elena interrupted, "So did you find him."

"Surprisingly yes. It wasn't a hard job to do so. I've sent some men to get him, once he's a bit relax we can go and check out."

"Hmm that seems about right-" she said a running her fingers through her hair, when the door got knocked at, she immediately hid the files in the bag Bonnie brought them in, "Come in."

She let out a sigh of relief seeing a servant come in, "Ma'am , From Mister. Gilbert." He put the bouquet of flowers on the table in front of her with a basket of what seemed like sweets, "Dad has been sending these every day, he really needs to stop." She grinned and handed the basket back to the servant, "Go keep this in the kitchen."

"Wait a sec." Bonnie said taking the basket from him and dismissed him, Elena raised a brow as Bonnie pulled out a pack from the basket, "What's this?"

Elena looked at the white pack, she had not looked at the basket this carefully so she didn't notice it, "What is it?"

Bonnie tore open the white paper and inside came a disc. She got up and got the Laptop, "I've seen this kind of packaging before- two years ago we got a lot of these messages-"

"What do you mean?" she asked getting a bit freaked out. "It's the way Klaus use to give us a message- Damon and Klaus were both trying to take over some area and that's how the whole disagreement started, they both had to negotiate at the end."

"Oh." Elena said sitting down to check the clip out with Bonnie. The clip started, except it wasn't Klaus on screen- it was Kol. His creepy grin really made her shiver, his dark eyes were shaking her to the core, "Hello Elena. first of all- I hope you have recovered completely from your injury- I still rue that day, You haven't understood me at all." He smiled getting a bit close to screen, "You don't realize how much this hurts me that now the love of my life is fighting tooth and nail to find me and probably kill me- It hurts honestly. I admit- but I guess I've hurt you too- with the whole Caroline thing. It wasn't intended Elena- I was there to have a glimpse of you and I don't know how in the world she recognized me."

Elena's eyes filled in tears as she watched the screen- her temperature was rising because of the anger taking over, "And then I know I could have gotten out as easily as possible but why ignore an inconvenience when you can finish it right?" a crooked smile spread across his lips, "And it must make you realize how powerless your husband is."

Elena shut the laptop and cried into her hands, her whole body was shivering from his words. Bonnie rubbed her back, wrapping her arm around her, "Shh-"

(-TVD-TVD-TVD-TVD-TVD-)

Bonnie kept a glass of water on the table and looked over at Elena who had her arms crossed over her chest, "I don't want to hand you over to my husband." She put her hands on the desk in front of Tyler who was a bit beaten up but still looked pretty tough, "Elena this is going to do nothing."

"Oh really." Bonnie said leaning over to hold him by the collar, she punched his eye as hard as she could and he let out a growl but couldn't fall backwards as Bonnie was holding him , "Don't waste our fucking time Lockwood, we want to know where, how and when we can access Kol, of course you have contacts close to him so if you think you have a chance getting out of here without telling us what we need to know- forget it."

"Bonnie." Elena sighed and patted her back and told her to step aside. "Tyler." She said softly cupped his face, making him look up at her, "I won't hand you over to Damon, he's not a very good man- he might hurt you." She stroked his cheek, "Once I tell him how you tried to manipulate me multiple times arghh he gets very jealous."

"Elena." he said through clenched teeth.

She pressed her thumb onto his bruise under his eye, pressing hard enough to make it hurt as she herself bit each word out, "But why would I detach myself from inflicting misery on a man like you- tell me where Kol is Tyler or-"

He hissed from the pain but still challenged, "Or what?"

"Or I will allow myself to enjoy your slow painful death. " she backed away and reached for the glass throwing it against his face, he screamed and moved his head back, "You fucking bitch!"

Bonnie fisted her hands and gestured her to leave him alone, Elena shook her head, "No- I've been very good for a long time Bon, I can't run away from this life- if this is has to be this way." She picked up her bag and walked to the door, "Let's go Bon, let him live a day or two without some food and see how that is going to change his priorities about keeping secrets."

(-TVD-TVD-TVD-TVD-)

AN: Hey guys thanks for waiting on the chaps. I had been writing this for a while now! do you like this story, Let me know in the reviews.

also please check out my beta's story "what's broken inside" by heyitskarma- she's an amazing writer. Scarlett has also posted some interesting stories which I've added to my read list (law school got me crazy busy) so check them out. I didn't have my beta proof read this as she is already doing two of my stories.