Hey, everyone! I'm so grateful for all the feedback last chapter. I'm happy you're all enjoying the story. Unfortunately, things are going to start getting really complicated real soon so stay with me. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Review at the end if you can, please! Flashbacks to return next chapter.

Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)

Fool Me Once

Over the past several hours, Claire and Stefan searched high and low in the town of Mystic Falls, trying to find Elena. Presumably, Anna, the vampire from 1864 who wanted to get into the tomb as well as Damon, had taken Elena in her home while Stefan was getting aspirin. But no matter where they searched both vampires had come up with the same conclusion: they needed someone else's help. Unfortunately, the person they needed help from really didn't like them all that much.

"Anna took Elena," Stefan announced as he barged into the study with Claire on his heels. Damon was on his favorite chair, looking over his precious Grimoire.

"Yeah, I got that from your six hundred voicemails."

"Damon, all night long, every single street in town, we've been searching," the younger brother confessed frantically. Damon didn't bother looking up from his reading selection at the two people who had just betrayed him less than twelve hours ago. "What if your blood hasn't passed out of her system?"

"Well, then at least you know you'll see her again," Damon said vindictively, still keeping his eyes glued onto the Grimoire. Stefan sat down on the couch beside Damon and looked at him desperately.

"Please," he begged. "What do you know?"

Damon said nothing, and at this, the blonde vampire in the room sighed heavily. "Damon, come on, this is gone too far. You tracked Anna down to find the location of the Grimoire, which means you know where she's staying. Tell us where we can find her."

She didn't bother with a "please" like Stefan had asked for. Though she felt so guilty for her betrayal, she didn't want Damon to see past her rough exterior. He was being stubborn and immature, and he wasn't deserving of beggary. Not from her.

Damon looked up at her and shook his head. "Nope." His eyes drifted towards Stefan. "You two can go. Really." He shot a smile to his brother and his brother's best friend and then dropped it sourly.

Claire scoffed at the sad case of Damon Salvatore and just shook her head. "Come on, Stefan. Let's go. He's hopeless."

She turned to walk away, but Stefan's deep, heavy sigh stopped her from leaving entirely. "You know…" Stefan began, straightening beside his brother. "All I can remember is hating you. There might've been a time that was different, but your choices have erased anything good about you."

Damon looked up from his Grimoire now, Stefan's confession capturing his full attention. Claire wanted to advise her friend to quit while he was ahead, but she didn't stop him. Instead, she listened as Stefan continued on painfully.

"But see, I also know that you have just as much reason to hate me. This all began with me. Katherine got taken away from you because of me," Stefan admitted slowly, his eyes full of regret and sorrow. A pain flickered behind Damon's eyelids, and Stefan dropped his gaze. "And I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted," Damon chuckled softly with a forgiving smile. But he said no more, so Stefan moved on.

"So please," Stefan tried again, "just tell me what you know." The raven-haired vampire shifted in annoyance, and Stefan's voice turned completely as desperate as he was. "It's Elena, Damon. If you know something…tell me."

Claire wanted to stay silent, but she had a feeling that Damon was budging, just in the slightest. She stepped forward.

"Your problem is with us, Damon," she said softly, capturing his electric blue gaze. She tried not to raise her voice at him so that they could get what they wanted and be done with it. "Don't take this out on Elena. She could be in real danger with this." Her eyes locked with his, and a silent, unnoticed moment went between the two of them. After a moment of thought, Damon sighed, closed the Grimoire, and moved so that he was standing up. Stefan copied him, not to block his brother's way but to get to the same height.

"I mean this sincerely," Damon began, almost exhausted. His next words were slow and emotionless, despite the progress Claire and Stefan thought they were making. "I hope Elena dies."

Damon gave a slight pout, brushed past his brother, and without giving any unnecessary attention to the beautiful blonde in the room, left without anything else to say. If Claire thought he was worthy enough of a lecture, she would've gone after him, but instead, she shook her head at Stefan.

"We'll find her without him," she said, shrugging. "We have to." Stefan nodded, trying to accept his friend's words, but truth be told, Claire had no idea what promises she was making to him. "Try her again," Claire insisted, gesturing to Stefan's phone, and the vampire pulled his phone out and tried to call Elena again, hoping this time that she'd answer. He paced and paced, calling and calling, and, eventually, there was a sharp ringing sound, signaling an incoming call from Elena's cell phone.

"Elena," Stefan answered it immediately upon seeing the Caller ID. Claire straightened beside him, following the vampire as he came to a stop in his pacing. "Are you okay?"

"She's fine," said a different voice over the phone—certainly not Elena's voice. Anna's, of course. "For now. Tell me you have the Grimoire and she'll stay fine."

Stefan hesitated, but it was too late. His hesitation had given everything away, so he just said the one thing that he could. "I can get it."

"Which means your brother has it," Anna clarified for the both of them. "And I have the witch. So one of you had better meet me in the very public town square in thirty minutes so we can safely discuss how fun it's going to be to work together."

Once the call was ended, Claire's attention was diverted from the phone to the threshold of the study, where Damon was standing against it with a sadistic expression worn on his face.

"Go ahead," challenged the vampire as the two others turned around at him. "Grovel again. Oh, wait, no. I don't care," Damon said dully before straightening and walking out of the threshold.

With Damon's comment, it only made things worse, so a very angry Clarissa snarled and said to her best friend, "I'll be right back," before fleeing Stefan and following Damon out the threshold into the hallway.

"Don't bother," Damon sighed as he leisurely walked out of the study and down the hallway into the foyer. "Elena betrayed me just as much as you two did. Fact is, I don't care whether she lives or dies. Not my problem."

"Yeah, well Stefan is your problem," Claire retorted at him, walking as leisurely as he was. Damon responded just as uninterested and emotionless as before.

"Yes, Claire. He is my problem. A problem that I intend to make suffer in all ways I can. Just like I intend upon doing to you." The dark-haired vampire gave a careless shrug, but was pulled to the stop just as they reached the foyer and the threshold to the parlor.

Claire was in front of him now, closer to him than before. "Damon, I know that you sent me that text message when you found the location of the journal." The vampire gritted his teeth but said nothing in response to her accusation. "I get it now, okay? And it sucks, but you got what you wanted. Just get over it."

Damon's eyes were hard and cold, a sign of him not even budging on the matter. "No can do, sugar. Holding grudges is my strong suit." He whispered the last part vindictively, practically spitting in her face with spite. Claire wanted to try to talk to him more; she wanted to try and get him to understand that what he was doing was bulldozing everything in his life before Katherine returned. Instead, she saw no hope in the matter, and just scoffed viciously.

"Yeah, well, have fun holding grudges while you spend the rest of your eternity alone with no one who gives a damn about whether you live or die!" The female vampire snapped angrily, causing Damon to fall silent. But she didn't regret her words—not in that moment, anyway. "You know, maybe if you just stopped for one second to think of someone other than yourself, you would realize that Stefan's trying to make an effort here and I was, too! But I'm done trying to fix things with such a heartless bastard." Claire scoffed, angry at her own tone as much as she was at him. "Do whatever you want to do, Damon. Stefan and I are going to save Elena."

She didn't waste anytime jutting off to the right, grabbing her leather jacket that hung on the coat rack by the door, and stepping out into the daylight, where she was sure Stefan would follow her. Sure enough, Stefan exited the boarding house just as she was outside on the lawn, and he caught up to her.

"That…might've been a little harsh." Stefan tried to calm his friend down as they both walked across the Salvatore lawn.

Claire scoffed again. "Really? Because I think it wasn't enough!"

"Was it true?" Stefan asked, causing her to stop. "About him sending you that text message? He really did trust you?" She didn't respond for the first few moments, wondering whether or not she should lie to Stefan about the matter. But because he was oblivious to her extracurriculars, she decided that it wasn't worth the lie.

The vampire nodded. "Yeah. Damon texted me and asked me to meet him at Giuseppe's grave yesterday. I didn't get the text message until after everything was over, but he sent it while we were digging up the grave. That much I know."

Stefan sighed and rubbed his eyes, one of his idiosyncrasies that Claire had picked up on all the way back when they were children. "Ah…well, now everything just got more complicated."

The blonde just shook her head. "No. We need to stop thinking about crybaby Damon and start focusing on Elena. A plan, Stefan. We need a plan. Is there any way we can find Elena? Or even Bonnie?"

Stefan opened his mouth as if to say that there was nothing possible, but instead, he gasped. "Actually, I think there is."

After a visit with Sheila Bennett, Bonnie's grandmother, Stefan and Claire had learned the location of Elena and Bonnie. The location was given to them by Sheila, who had done a locator spell to find her daughter. Just as the thirty-minute deadline Anna gave hit, Stefan and Claire had found their way to the crappy motel, and the two vampires desperately searched for any noise as to where the two teenagers were being held. After a while of listening, they finally realized what room they were being held in, and Stefan left Claire to kick down the door.

Since the blinds were drawn and every crevice that could possible show any amount of sunlight had been covered, it wasn't a surprise when their captor, probably Anna's minion, had crumbled to the ground screaming out in pain. He found the first sign of coverage he could—in between the beds, of course. Stefan drew the shades back quickly so that more light streamed into the room.

"Stefan! Claire!" Elena exclaimed happily upon seeing her rescuers, and she immediately jumped off the bed.

"Follow Claire outside," Stefan told the two girls, and they immediately went with Claire, who was beckoning them out of the room. Leaving Stefan to handle the threats against Elena's captor—as any good boyfriend would do—Claire led Bonnie and Elena out into the sunlight where they would be safe against any vampire who didn't have a daylight ring under Anna's control.

"You two okay?" Claire asked as the she and the humans all slowed to a stop in front of the parking lot. Bonnie and Elena had to catch their breath, but they both nodded. "They didn't hurt you, did they?"

Bonnie swallowed. "No. He was about to, but no." She gave a slight nod to the vampire, who gave the witch a nod back, and a second later, Stefan emerged from the motel room and Elena ran to him, practically jumping into his arms in security. After the commotion of the breakout died down, Stefan took Bonnie and Elena back to the Bennett house, where Sheila reluctantly let Claire inside.

After filling Elena in on what happened with Damon earlier, Elena, Claire, and Stefan all re-entered the Bennett household and Elena started the conversation as soon as she walked in.

"So what do we do now?" The teenager sighed.

"Well, for now, you need to stay inside," Stefan told all of the non-vampires—whether it was the Katherine look-alike, the novice witch, or the expired witch, it didn't matter. For them to be safe from Damon or any other vampire, they needed to stay inside the house where no vampires other than Claire and Stefan had been invited.

"A prisoner, in my own home?" Sheila scoffed. "I don't think so."

Claire shook her head. "We can't protect any of you if you leave the house. I might be strong enough to look after one of you if I'm not being fought, but—"

"We'll protect ourselves," the elder Bennett witch returned, her voice trenchant.

Elena surprised everyone in her next sentence, changing the topic completely. "We need to let him have Katherine back." She glanced up at Stefan and Claire. "He's not going to stop until he gets her. If we help him, maybe that ends it."

"No!" Bonnie protested softly. "He doesn't deserve to get what he wants."

"Maybe is a really big 'if' to be taking right now, Elena," Claire reasoned with the human, but Elena merely fought back defensively.

"What other choice do we have?" she told them all, exhausted. Everyone in the room realized the truth to her statement—if they didn't help Damon, he would kidnap Bonnie, do it all on his own, and let loose twenty-seven vampires.

"Witches being pulled down by vampire problems," Sheila expressed with distaste lining her words. "As much as we tried to do to stay out of it." Another silence filled the room before Sheila conceded. "I'll open the tomb. You get your brother's girl and destroy the rest with fire. Then this will all be over."

"We still have to get Damon to agree," Stefan protested.

"He already agreed once," Elena offered, shrugging as if it would be no big deal to earn his trust back. However, the teenager wasn't quite aware of how Damon was acting this morning, let alone the fact that Damon flat-out said he couldn't care less whether she lived or died. Stefan scoffed.

"Yeah, and then we double crossed him. Now, he's furious."

"He's hurt," Elena returned empathetically. "There's a difference." Her eyes drifted to the side to see Claire, who didn't even realize Elena had been staring at her. Stefan caught Elena's stare, and his eyes drifted to Claire in realization. A few seconds later, the adult vampire recognized that she was being looked at with prompting stares. Behind those stares hid a suggestion, one that Clarissa King wasn't quite fond of.

"You guys want me to talk to him, don't you?" She trailed off, and then began to laugh. "Ha! No. Yeah, that's not happening. Damon hates me right now, and I'm not too eager to jump on this 'joining forces with Damon' bandwagon. Besides, even if I wanted to apologize, he wouldn't take it!" She cut her gaze from Elena to Stefan. "You heard me this morning. I blew up in his face."

"So apologize for it," Elena suggested lightly. Claire frowned. "I'm sure he'll accept your apology if you really mean it."

"But I don't mean it," Claire complained, looking across the room and throwing her hands up. Elena, Stefan, Bonnie, and Sheila all said nothing, but their words were written all over their faces. "Why do I always have to be the one to talk to him? It always backfires. Damon and I are enemies. We hate each other, remember?" she reminded Elena and Stefan, mostly. The witches idly sat by and watched as the other half of their party argued.

"Come on, Claire," Stefan returned, crossing his arms. "You and I both know that once upon a time, you and Damon were once friends. Which means that somewhere deep, deep inside of you both, you have to at least...care." Claire gave a whimpering sigh as a response, but the agreement was written all over her face. Elena cut in.

"Just give it a try," she proposed in an encouraging voice. "If not, then that's it. There's nothing else we can do. After the way Damon reacted last night, I don't think there's anyone else he would listen to." Elena Gilbert was absolutely positive that Stefan was right, the two enemies cared for each other on some level. But she, on the other hand, had a feeling it was more than just a friendship. When she mentioned it to Stefan, though, he absolutely denied that fact, saying it was impossible. Elena wasn't so sure, especially from Claire's expression as she softened.

The female vampire bit the inside of her cheek, but everyone in the whole room was looking at her with hope. Finally, she realized that she had dug herself into a hole so deep a hundred years ago and now was the time she had to climb out of it.

"Fine," she snapped at them, moving around Stefan towards the exit of the Bennett house. "I'll meet you at the church ruins."

With one swift movement, Damon grabbed his leather jacket on the back of the desk chair in the study, getting ready to head out. It was when he sensed another person in the room that he turned around to find Claire standing at the doorway, her own leather jacket clashing with the pale brightness of her long hair that she kept down. He was surprised to see her, sure, but that could only mean one thing.

Damon grabbed the Grimoire on the table before him, almost protectively. "Back so soon?" She said nothing. "I take it you staged a jailbreak for Elena?"

"Yep," Claire admitted, standing at her place on the second tier of the study, staring at Damon, who was on the bottom level by the couch. "Though the credit mostly goes to Stefan. He knew how to find her."

"Oh, brother. Ever the white knight." Damon gave a sour, bitter smile, and Claire sighed.

"Elena convinced Bonnie and her grandmother to help you get Katherine back," she said immediately. Damon didn't waste any time in his wicked response. "Stefan and I are willing participants. For real this time."

"I doubt that."

"If you're looking for an apology, Damon, I strongly suggest you look elsewhere," Claire snapped, moving from the door over to the stairs so she could get closer to Damon. "Stefan and Elena thought it was best I apologize for betraying you, but I'm not going to do it. I'm not sorry for what I did."

She stopped at the top stair leading into the main room, and Damon just tilted his head at her. "Well, at least you're honest."

"I was protecting myself, Damon. And I was protecting Stefan. And, on some level, I was protecting you. From Katherine. You may love her, but we both know what a bitch she could've been. And not just to me." Damon stayed with a straight expression, but she was aware that he agreed.

Damon straightened and swallowed. "Why are you here, Claire?" he asked, his tone accusative. The vampire across from him just shielded her eyes for a moment as she answered him.

"Elena keeps saying there's something to be redeemed in you. And…I think I can see where she's coming from now."

"Really?" Damon questioned, straightening. "Because, as I recall, that's not how you saw it this morning."

"Well, if you asked me if you could be redeemed this morning, I would've laughed in your face and pushed you down the stairwell. You were being an asshole," she snapped, and Damon crossed his arms over his chest defensively. Regardless, Claire let out a deep breath and walked down the steps leading into the study, her shoulders rising and falling in a deep sigh. "But, I do have to say that I think that I overreacted a little." Again, she shielded her eyes, but he knew the words coming out of her mouth were hard. "What I said earlier was…harsh and nasty, and I'm sorry."

Damon pursed his lips. "Apology accepted."

Claire nodded. "So, please," she began, stepping forward. Now, her real intentions were coming out. "Let us help you with this. We're all on the same side now, Damon. We'll get Katherine back, just as long as everyone else in that tomb is destroyed."

"Not interested," Damon said blandly, turning away. Claire stopped him.

"Yes, you are! Because you wanted to work with us yesterday, and you even trusted me enough to tell me where to find you so we could dig up the Grimoire together!"

Damon turned around sharply by the lower-level exit. "Fool me once, shame on you," he whispered and then turned again, ready to bolt, but Claire stopped him.

"Hey!" she called out to him, causing Damon to stop. "You know, I asked you what the worst thing I did was, but you never asked me what the worst thing you did was!" Damon didn't even turn around, but he heard her words being spoken softly. "Ask me now. I'll tell you."

Damon thought about it for a moment, but then he spun around sharply and walked forward, setting the Grimoire down on the table for resting. "All right. Worst thing I ever did to you?"

"You fell in love with me," she said abruptly, causing him to stiffen. "You kissed me, Damon, and that terrified me to no end. I was frantic about dying, I was worried about the fact that we might've been forced into getting married—"

"Your excuses don't support anything!" Damon snapped angrily, making her look up at him. "I told you how I felt. I told you that I would be there for you. You kicked me out of your life, Claire!"

"Because I was scared, Damon!" Claire whispered irately, stepping forward. "Don't you realize that? How's a girl supposed to react when her mom tells her that her best friend's going to be her husband someday, huh?" She ground her teeth together, and the two of them stood in silence until she spoke again. "Then, you show up in Chicago after Stefan left and we...started this." Claire gestured between the two of them, sighing. "And it was good—no, it was great, actually, and as guilty as I feel going behind my best friend's back, I don't really…regret it. But the problem with this is that it'll end as soon as we get Katherine back."

Damon sighed. "Look, I get it. But I can't continue things with you and be with Katherine—"

"I know," she cut him off immediately, shaking her head. "Trust me, I get it. Which is why I want you to decide. Right now," Claire demanded, never tearing her gaze away from him. "And if you choose me, things can keep going on the way they've been going on and, one day, maybe we can try for something else. But if not, you take Katherine, you leave, and you let me go."

Damon took a step forward so that they were only a few feet apart. "And how is this supposed to get me to trust you?"

"Because, either way, Damon, I'll help you get Katherine back, if that's what you really want," she explained. "I never actually told you that I would before, and now that I have, I've given you my word that I will. I won't go back on it, no matter what you decide."

Damon stepped forward again, closing the long distance between them so that they were nearly a foot apart. She watched, practically holding her breath, as he took his hand and brushed off a stray strand of pale blonde hair with an apologetic smile on his face.

"There was I time when I'd do anything for you, you know," he said quietly. "Walk through water. Jump through flames." But Damon dropped his hand to his side, shaking his head. "But this has to stop. I...I choose Katherine." He cleared his throat and recoiled into his strong build, all while watching as she reacted to his words.

Claire nodded, swallowing. There was an acrid taste in her mouth that she didn't expect. She walked into the house knowing that she had to make Damon decide for himself, and yet...his rejection hurt her more than she thought it would. Instead, she brushed it off and made sure he didn't see her break a sweat about the issue. "I figured you would. I just thought I would give it a shot."

Damon and Claire stood just a foot away from each other, too close for comfort but not ready to part just yet. "I'm trusting you, Claire," Damon murmured. "Don't make me regret it."

They left, together, for the old church, but they found themselves among a group of rowdy teenagers with cheap, red plastic cups in their hands. Both over-age vampires looked around, feeling completely out of place, but luckily no one spotted them and they kept moving all the way to the church ruins, where the tomb would be opened shortly. Upon his entrance, Damon whistled.

"Brother. Witches. Elena," Damon greeted simply, immediately traveling down into the tomb, where everyone would eventually meet him inside. Stefan and Elena turned to Claire, who walked up to them with a forced smile.

"Everything okay?" Stefan asked her, confused. Claire nodded.

"Mmhmm. I apologized. It was hell. Whatever." The vampire shrugged. "Let's just get this over and done with. Everything set?"

"I guess so," Bonnie agreed in the background, and wasting no more time, everyone set off into the tomb, where the ritual would take place.

Bonnie and her grandmother grabbed the lighter and walked around to each torch, setting the tool aflame while commenting on each torch's representation. "Air. Earth. Fire," said Sheila.

"Water," Bonnie added, holding up a bottle of tap water.

"That's it, just water from the tap?" asked Elena by the entrance/exit of the tomb as she watched Sheila sprinkle the water on the ground, making the soil damp.

"As opposed to what?" Sheila prompted the teenager.

"I just figured maybe it would have to be blessed, or…mystical, or something," Elena confessed, and after a naïve smile from Sheila, the conversation stopped. Beside Elena, Damon pulled out a blood bag from inside his jacket, unraveling the tube.

"What's that?" Stefan asked, shining his flashlight on the object.

"It's for Katherine," Damon said lightly, and then he snuck a glance up at his brother. "Gotta have something to get her going. Unless your girl's offering a vein to tap." Stefan sighed heavily, and at the expression of distaste, Damon whispered, "Admit it. You can't wait to get rid of me."

Stefan chuckled to himself. "I can't wait to get rid of you," he admitted, but it was duller than Damon might've hoped for, despite Damon's triumphant hum. The two brothers stared at each other until the witches in the circle looked up at them.

"We're ready."

Bonnie and Shelia joined hands in the middle of the circle and began to chant the incantation over and over again in unison; ever so often making the torches' flames jump higher. Damon was anxiously waiting at the door of the tomb, but upon hearing the foreign words, looked back at his brother, who was standing next to Claire and Elena.

"What are they saying?" Damon asked.

"Sounds Latin," Stefan answered, but he didn't know for sure. Beside Claire, Elena shook her head.

"I don't think it's Latin," she protested. The blonde vampire beside the human teenager just shrugged.

"Well, how about we get Google Translate to figure it out? Not like we're in the middle of anything..." Claire muttered in a joking tone. Elena chuckled to herself and went back to watching Bonnie and her Grams chant the words over and over again in whatever language it was. Eventually, the flames that had jumped higher on occasion completely sparked, causing them to violently rise and for Elena to jump back and clutch Stefan, frightened.

"What's happening?" Elena asked aloud to anyone who would answer, but no one did. Her only answer was the sound of stone breaking—a seal breaking—and the witches turned their head towards Damon's direction and watched as the tomb door opened to let people inside.

"It worked," Bonnie breathed out, astounded at her own power. Sheila, however, wasn't surprised.

"Of course it worked," she told her granddaughter. Damon turned around at Stefan who was shining his light on the opening of the tomb.

"Don't you have some fires to build?" he prompted his brother, who turned back at Claire and Elena.

"I'm gonna go get the gasoline," Stefan informed them.

"I'll help," Claire offered, but Stefan shook his head.

"I've got it, Claire. It'll just take me a minute; I'll be right back. Don't go in without me." The blonde nodded, and without further hesitation, Stefan went off, climbing the ladder to higher ground so he could grab the gasoline to wipe all the vampires out. But once he was gone, Damon kept his eyes on the witches and directed a question.

"You ready?" he asked, his eyes flickering to Elena. The human widened her eyes, confused.

"What?"

"You think I'm going in there by myself so you can seal me in?" Damon growled, pulling Elena to his side. Claire stepped forward, but Damon maneuvered him and Elena so that she was out of Claire's reach.

"Don't take her in," Sheila snapped beside Bonnie inside the circle. "I'll bring the walls down," she warned.

"You'll bring the walls down if I don't. You think I trust you?"

"As much as I trust you."

"That's enough!" Claire snapped, her attention shifting over to Damon, who looked over at her. She took in a breath and gestured towards the witches. "Look, I promise they won't do anything to keep you inside. Just let Elena go."

But, instead, Elena shook her head in Damon's grasp. "No, Claire. Look, he needs leverage. He needs to know that you won't shut the door when he gets inside," she reasoned, flickering her gaze to the witches. "I get it. I'll go." Claire shifted uncomfortably, but Elena shook her head. "I'll be fine. Trust me."

Damon released her from his unwilling hold, and she went with him willingly as he grabbed a torch that had been lit earlier and asked politely, "May I?"

Without waiting for a response, though, Damon turned and led the way into the tomb, Elena trailing behind him with a flashlight. As Claire waited for Stefan to come down, she paced in front of the tomb door, keeping an ear out for any kind of trouble. But the real trouble wasn't inside—it was outside.

Anna came down the stairs, first being recognized by Bonnie, who stopped her. "Hey! You're not going in there!" Anna looked back and forth between the witches and Claire, who had now turned her attention to Anna.

"Well, well, well," Claire said slowly, stepping forward. "If it isn't Miss Annabelle."

"Clarissa," Anna greeted coldly. "I guess it's no surprise you're helping Damon. It's a bit confusing why you're not in there, yourself, though."

Claire stepped forward. "Simple. It'll be easier not to kill Katherine once Damon has her. He won't let me touch her." Anna straightened and a confused emotion flickered across her features. "What?"

Anna studied the vampire before her, trying to decipher whether or not Claire knew the truth. After piecing everything together, Anna cleared her throat. "You mean…Damon never told you?"

"Told me what?" Claire asked, shrugging. With a sigh, she continued upon Anna's silence. "Look, you kidnapped my best friend's girl and her best friend this morning. Now you're here in my way. Needless to say, you're kind of getting on my last nerve. So if you don't come out and say it—"

"Christopher," Anna said abruptly, causing Claire to stop and immediately move her eyes to the dark-haired female vampire in front of her. "He's in there, Clarissa."

Claire was silent for a long time, but then she scoffed. "Yeah. Right. Anna, Christopher died back in 1864. You're not fooling anyone."

"It's true," Anna said quickly. "Katherine turned him into a vampire—I was there. She had this…elaborate scheme to make you suffer, but, somehow, he ended up with the rest of the vampires in the church. Damon was there, too."

All earlier violent thoughts escaped her. "Damon…knew?" Claire whispered, confused. Anna nodded slowly.

"He did. He was there when Christopher turned, just like I was," she agreed. "And if you let me, I can help you find him inside. I just need to find my mother first."

But, despite the truth that spilled from Anna's mouth, Claire couldn't help but be skeptical of it. "Why should I believe anything that comes out of your mouth, Anna?" she spat.

"You don't have to," Anna returned, shaking her head. "But I'm going inside, Clarissa. And even you can't stop me."

As much as Claire wanted to fight, she couldn't bring herself to. She'd been lost to absolutely everything—the man she'd thought had long since passed was now revealed to be alive, more or less, entrapped in a tomb just a few feet from her. She was skeptical beyond belief, but nevertheless, she knew there could be a possibility. Damon's words came back to her from the night at Elena's house—he said opening the tomb was for her benefit, too.

Nevertheless, Anna walked past Claire and went inside the tomb after a slight protest from Bonnie and an interjection from Shelia telling Bonnie to let it go. The world, as Clarissa King knew it, was spinning before her, and she didn't even listen to Bonnie and Shelia's protests as she turned around and entered the tomb to find Christopher Fell and bring him back.

The tomb was dark and eerie, filled with cobwebs and all kinds of bugs, but none of it bothered the rarely grossed out vampire. With the flashlight and her enhanced vision, Claire was able to make it through the tunnels of the tomb to search for Christopher with every vampire who passed. She hadn't run into Damon, Elena, or even Anna, but it didn't matter. She went down every corner that felt right to her, searching and looking for the right desiccated vampire, but she didn't find the one she was looking for. Suddenly, there was a scream—Elena's scream, she realized. It was when she was about to leave that she heard Stefan save her and Elena get to safety, and she relaxed and kept moving from vampire to vampire, trying to recognize a face in the darkness of the tomb.

"Claire!" someone shouted loudly, causing her to rise from a vampire she was surveying, who she'd thought, but had mistaken, for Christopher. As far as she could tell, he wasn't here. At least, not in that part of the tomb. Stefan emerged before she had the chance to continue moving inside of the tomb, immediately grabbing her arm upon his arrival. "Claire," he breathed frantically. She turned back and shook her head at him, puzzled at his worried expression.

"What is it, Stefan? What's going on?"

"The tomb," he rushed out. "It seals vampires in. Bonnie and Sheila are trying to get the seal down, but they won't be able to hold it long. We have to get out of here."

"But, Stefan—"

"Claire, please. We have to find Damon, too. He doesn't know that vampires can't get out." Claire was silent, but Stefan egged her on. "Claire, we don't have enough time! Please, come with me. Now."

She could've pulled away from the grip on her arm, but instead, she let Stefan pull her with him through the twists and turns of the large tomb that ran underneath the old church ruins. There was no point to searching for Christopher anymore—Anna was lying, she should've noticed. They found Damon, pacing back and forth in a closed-off space with only a few vampires inside. But no one had time to look them over as Stefan and Claire raced up to him.

"Damon—"

"She's not here," Damon whispered, ignoring his brother's try. Nevertheless, the two vampires heard him loud and clear.

"What?" Stefan whispered.

"She's not here!" Damon shouted loudly, throwing the blood bag that he had against the wall of the tomb, letting it splash and drip down on the walls.

"Stefan, they can't hold it much longer!" A voice rung throughout the caves of the tomb, but Damon was too busy ranting and arguing with Stefan to notice it. Stefan was trying to get his brother to concede, but he wouldn't. After hearing Elena's cry, Claire quickly spun around to Damon and Stefan and pushed Stefan out of the way.

"Damon, you need to listen to me!" she snapped angrily, causing Damon to look over at her. "If we don't get out of here, all of this is for nothing. Please," Claire whispered desperately. Damon looked her over with eccentric eyes, and eventually, he nodded, and she sighed in relief.

Then, something caught her eye, making her stop in her steps to flee. She could see it, gleaming in the low candlelight of Damon's hand torch. But it was just for a small second that she saw the ring, and then in another second, it was gone, and someone was pulling her in another direction towards the exit. All three vampires emerged just as the tomb door shut behind them, sealing everyone else inside that tomb to the rest of eternity as they were before.

After all the commotion ended, Stefan and Elena went on higher ground with Damon and Claire trailing behind them. Elena and Stefan immediately rushed up to Jeremy who was knocked out cold on the ground, but was still conscious and alive. Stefan assured his girlfriend that her brother would be okay, but he could see Damon stumble out onto the ground, completely lost and broken. Claire was behind him, a little ways away, and she, too, looked broken and lost.

The blonde vampire stepped forward, towards Damon by the very second. The image of a silver wedding ring that she had picked out herself was branded into her memory in the small, glowing light of the torch, and she stumbled over to Damon, her expression emotionless.

"It was him, wasn't it?" she whispered softly to Damon, realizing that raising her voice at a time like this would do neither of them any good. "It was Christopher."

Damon stood in his place, and she expected him to lie to her. Instead, he nodded once, not needing to say anything else to go with the gesture of agreement. Her eyes filled with tears, but she kept them back, licking her lips to try and refrain from breaking down.

He didn't need to say anything to her, and he didn't feel like it, either. Neither one of them said anything, in fact, until Claire nodded and shielded her eyes from him. She didn't step forward; she didn't move, in fact. Instead, she just hung her head.

"I'm sorry that Katherine wasn't there, Damon," she said, taking Damon completely by surprise. He didn't show it, but he watched as she just shook her head once and turned, abruptly fleeing the scene, unwilling to talk to anyone—not even her best friend, who watched from afar and put the pieces together.

Claire found herself back at the boarding house for some reason—sitting on the couch properly with a glass of bourbon swishing back and forth with the motion of her hand. Everything, as of the moment, seemed absolutely destroyed. And, as much as she felt sorry for the vampire in the next room over, she couldn't face him. As it seemed, he didn't want to face her, either—at least, not in his darkest hour. However, contrary to what normal people might do, Claire didn't shed a single tear. She just sat there, staring at the floor with absolutely nothing to say.

Stefan walked into the parlor, his hands in his pockets, and he greeted her in a small, soft voice. "Hey."

She didn't move her eyes up to meet his as Stefan sat down beside her, just waiting for her to be ready to speak. A minute passed, but she finally opened her mouth.

"A hundred and forty years," Claire whispered, her voice completely bland. "A hundred and forty years and I didn't realize that he was entrapped in a tomb cursed by Emily Bennett. I didn't even…know he was a vampire. Everyone said he was killed in the battle."

Stefan gave a heartbreaking expression. "That's why you went in there, wasn't it? To find him?" Claire nodded. "Did you?" She nodded again. "It was right before we went out, wasn't it?" Again, another silent nod. "God, Claire, I'm…I'm so sorry."

A dark, heavy silence pierced them both until Claire brought the bourbon glass up to her lips and drank the burning alcohol, claiming it with a fiery tsk and returning the glass back to her lap after she was finished. Stefan watched as she sat, completely broken.

"I left my husband to rot in a tomb for the rest of eternity, Stefan." Finally, she turned her head to meet Stefan's green eyes that pined for her happiness. Instead, all he saw was emptiness. "How am I supposed to live with myself for what I've done?"

"You didn't have a choice, Claire," Stefan pushed, scooting closer to her. "If you had stayed in there any longer to get him, you would be right where he was. You and I barely made it out in time." He put an arm around her shoulder, and she didn't object. Instead, she bowed her head and water pricked at her eyes. "You had no other choice. You can't take this out on yourself."

She didn't say anything after that, and Stefan didn't expect her to. He held her while she cried, something that he hated seeing from his friend. He hardly ever saw her cry, but he knew it was possible. It was only that lately, she had been happy to some extent. However, all of that was gone now, and he just tried to comfort her in the best way that a friend could. But what could a friend really say to make something like that better? She was absolutely right; her husband was rotting underneath of old church ruins and there was nothing they could do about that. Getting in the tomb was a one-time deal.

All Stefan could do was hold her until she decided that she wanted to be alone, to which he obliged and soon after went to Damon.

Fell's Church, in spite of recent events, was silent, dark, and absolutely untouchable. Though the Duke Party had ended, there were a few wandering strays here and there, but they didn't go out near the ruins. But that didn't exactly mean there wasn't any life there at all, of course, because underneath the surface, a tomb full of bloodthirsty and desiccated vampires existed. Within that tomb, of course, happened to be a cove where a dim fire flickered across the dead, yet not dead, vampires' faces, and beside the fire was a man. The man—really, the vampire—was dressed in a once proper, dusty, and tattered suit, slumped against the wall.

At his hand happened to be the remains of a bag—a blood bag, drained of most human blood. The vampires had all witnessed the invasion of other vampires upon their resting place, and though they had begged to be taken out with one, they didn't get their wish. They'd all heard the seal of the tomb again, but not all of them had the strength and the means to grip onto the blood bag at this male vampire's mercy.

The man with the silver wedding ring on his left ring finger gripped the blood bag tight, brought it up to his mouth, and had just enough to gather enough strength to stand. It was a step-by-step process, first crawling and gathering up all scraps of blood, then standing, and then finally licking off the remainder of the blood on the wall so that he could walk. It took long enough, but the vampire was able to wipe clean all evidence of blood and walk past all the rotting vampires to the entrance of his entrapment. A surge of adrenaline to get out of the tomb overwhelmed him, and the strong, yet still weak, vampire broke the seal on the door, moving it to the side enough so that he could get through. Again, it took long enough, but after a while, the man was able to get through the small crack in the door and step out, the moonlight hitting his face.

Christopher Fell stood at the bottom of the tomb; his face covered in blood, looking up at the night sky, and only one thought crossed his mind at the time. The reason he was able to muster enough strength—enough motivation—to get out of the tomb in the first place.

Clarissa King.

What'd I tell you? Complicated, right? So, what I wanted to do was make sure that Claire didn't punch or kick or scream at Damon so soon after he realized Katherine was out of the tomb...she's not a complete bitch. But in 1x15, she won't really be all warm and fuzzy to Damon like Elena at least attempts to be, feeling sorry for him. After all, if you were in her situation, you wouldn't be too happy with someone keeping a secret like that, either, would you?

So anyways, that's it for the chapter. I'll update as soon as I can. Review, please!

Love,

BellaSalvatore1918

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