I Want it All

by londonbella

In 1858, Damon Salvatore and Clarissa King had a falling out that ended their friendship and resulted in despise for each other. As vampires, the two somehow found themselves in the midst of an unorthodox secret arrangement that was mutually beneficial. Now, as Mystic Falls suffers from continuous doom, Damon and Claire must choose a side: to love or to hate? *ON SEASON 3*

15. The Return

Sorry this chapter is so long. I was actually thinking about not updating it until next week, but I was talked out of it. Again, sorry for the length of this chapter, a lot of shit just happened to go down.

Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)

---

The Return

Mystic Falls, 1860

"Mother, I don't like Mr. Gilbert's house," complained a thirteen-year-old Amelia in the nicest, most mature manner for her age. "Why can't I go to the party with the rest of you?"

"Because this is an adult party, Amelia. Besides, Stefan won't be there," Marianne assured her, knowing exactly what her young, ambitious daughter was thinking. Amelia frowned to herself.

"Surely Mr. Salvatore will be attending this 'adult party', correct? If Stefan isn't attending, we could keep each other company."

"Amelia, since Clarissa and Damon are no longer getting married, we have no right to be asking Mr. Salvatore's boys to be taking care of you. Mr. Gilbert offered." Marianne knocked on the Gilbert's door promptly and waited for the door to be answered.

Amelia didn't want to say what she had been thinking—Michael Gilbert scared her. He drank too much, he slurred his words, and she thought he was a complete pig. Growing up in a household dominated by women, Amelia didn't understand why the Gilbert household was so messy and unclean. To a thirteen-year-old who was just starting to become a lady, that was considered to be scary.

Sure enough, Michael Gilbert answered the door with a glass of alcohol in his hands. He saw Marianne and her daughter at the door and he smiled at them politely.

"Mrs. King," he greeted, slurring his words. Amelia flinched as he looked down at her and smiled again. Shudders ran down her back. "Lovely Amelia. Come in, make yourself at home."

Marianne pushed her daughter through the threshold without much of a choice, and Amelia wrinkled her nose at the look of the unkempt household. Back at the threshold, Marianne's voice dropped to a whisper. "Thank you, Michael, for taking care of her while we have the Council meeting. Clarissa was unavailable."

"It's no problem, Mrs. King. Your daughter is lovely company."

"Thanks again, Michael," Marianne smiled at him before turning, leaving her daughter in the care of the drunk, Michael Gilbert. Everyone knew he drank the day away, but no one actually believed that he was harmful. When Michael shut the door, he turned back to Amelia and smiled at her.

"So, Amelia…" Michael trailed off with a smirk that made Amelia's insides lurch. "How would you like to play a game with me?"

---

Claire didn't care that she slammed the fire cabinets shut so loudly that the deputies outside could, no doubt, hear the intrusion. File cabinet after file cabinet, she rummaged through all the folders to try and find the one that mattered—the vampire folder. The one that would tell her if Elena was lying or not. The one that would tell her if Damon was lying or not. She went through them ruthlessly; not even bothering to close some of them as she hastily checked all the cabinets at laser-speed. Eventually, she came to the bottom right cabinet to find that it was locked when she pulled the handle open.

Bingo.

With a simple flick of the wrist, Claire had the cabinet sliding open into her grasp, and she looked inside to find files upon files detailing every vampire encounter that Sheriff Forbes had ever seen. Those files were not to leave her eyes, obviously, but Claire needed to see them. She needed to know the truth.

Page after page, she flipped through to find the file that matched the date of Stefan's birthday—the day Lexi had been killed. After only a minute of looking through the files, Claire finally rose to her feet when she found the vampire report of her blonde friend that she had spent decades with.

Male was killed at the Mystic Grill by a vampire. Female had witnessed and had pointed out the vampire to myself and the deputies. The vampire was then escorted out of the Mystic Grill, but attacked the deputies. Damon Salvatore intervened and killed the vampire with a wooden stake to the heart. Vampire was blonde, female…

Claire shut the folder with shaking hands, unable to read any more of it. Her hand went to her mouth and she wiped the dry skin as she sank down to the floor where the rest of the folders sat.

Damon lied to her, plain and simple. He flat-out lied to her about Lexi's death. It wasn't Sheriff Forbes who drove the stake through her friend's heart.

It was Damon.

---

Amelia King stood in front of Stefan Salvatore with her lip between her teeth, trying to control what she said and when she said it desperately. She'd never been good at keeping her speech under control; people always said she rambled on too much and said things she wasn't supposed to. It was a habit that could be derailed by biting down on her lip so she would have an obstacle to get around. Amelia watched as Stefan stared at her, completely shell-shocked.

"Amelia?" he breathed out, looking over her dozens of times to see if she was actually real. She didn't blame him—if she wasn't there, she wouldn't have believed it, either. It had been so long. "W-What are you…how are you…?" Stefan swallowed and his eyes met hers. "Alive?"

"I think that should be pretty obvious," scoffed Amelia, who shrugged listening to the question. Stefan shook his head in disbelief. Amelia hesitated a second before finally replying, "I'm a vampire, Stefan. Just like you and Damon are. Claire, too."

"But…but how? Who turned you?" Stefan urged. Amelia let out a nervous breath.

"Stefan, I can't—"

"When were you turned? What happened to you after you left, Amelia? I don't, I don't under—"

Before Amelia could open her mouth and answer all of Stefan's bombarded questions, Stefan felt his phone vibrate in his hand, causing him to stop the conversation and look down at it. It was Elena on the Caller ID, but Stefan couldn't think about that right now. He looked up to get answers from his long-lost friend, only to find that the beautiful blonde vampire had escaped him. Stefan's phone vibrated again, and this time, he didn't hesitate to answer it.

Picking up the phone, Stefan rubbed his head. "Hey…Elena, what's—"

"Stefan, it's Jeremy..." Elena trailed off nervously, practically stuttering. Stefan knew that Amelia coming back was strange and direly important, but he couldn't think about that when Elena was asking him to come over to her house to check on Jeremy because of something that happened. But with every passing moment that Stefan spent thinking to himself, all he could think about was how Amelia King was alive.

It just seemed…surreal. And it also seemed like it was going to bring trouble.

When Stefan arrived at the Gilbert household, he watched John Gilbert get taken away on a stretcher that was sprinkled in John's blood. The deputy at the door prevented Stefan from coming inside until Elena spoke behind them at the top of the staircase.

"He's okay." Stefan raced up the stairs as soon as the deputy at Elena's door let him pass, and Elena met him and showed him to Jeremy's room.

"What happened?" the younger Salvatore asked.

"He said that Anna gave him her blood and then he took these pills," Elena explained as she showed Stefan the empty bottle of pills. "A-And now, I-I mean…he looks fine, but then again, so do you. So I just—I don't know."

Stefan tossed the pill bottle onto the bed and reached forward to grab Jeremy's face. "Come here. Look at me."

Jeremy tried to jerk out of his grasp. "No. I'm fine, okay? I feel exactly the same!"

"Should I call a paramedic up here? What should I do?" Elena interrogated. Stefan looked at Jeremy with intent, trying to determine whether or not he was in the transitional stage. Eventually, he shook his head.

"No. He's fine." Stefan straightened and Elena sighed in relief while a look of disappointment crossed Jeremy's face.

"You mean I'm not a vampire? Damn it," he cursed under his breath. Elena looked back at him, shocked.

"Don't say that! Jeremy…Jeremy, why would you want that?"

With his eyebrows knotted, Jeremy rose from his bed to tower over his sister. "Did you hear about Anna? What happened to her tonight?" Elena shook her head. "She's dead."

"Jeremy." Stefan rushed over to him and forced him back down on the bed with his cold hands around his girlfriend's brother's face. "Jeremy. Come here, sit down. I am very sorry about Anna, but it's very important that you listen to me right now! With every passing moment, Anna's blood is leaving your system. If you tried to kill yourself right now, you could really die!" But Stefan could clearly see that Jeremy wasn't paying attention, so he slapped the kid lightly on his face just enough to earn his respect. "Hey! Do you understand me?"

"Stefan…" Elena trailed off behind him; worried about the intensity Stefan was exhibiting on her brother. Jeremy just nodded at Stefan.

"Yeah. I understand."

"Good." Stefan straightened with a playful smack to Jeremy's cheek. He realized that he might've gone too far, but so much was on his mind at the moment that he wasn't really thinking straight. A million questions raced in his thoughts and his mind was on overdrive. Stefan didn't know what to do or what to say. Especially when it came to Claire.

"What the hell is going on?" The blonde vampire interrupted, walking into Jeremy's room and capturing the attention of the trio inside. Claire's eyes landed on Elena. "You left me a voicemail saying that I needed to come over ASAP?"

"Jeremy tried to turn," Stefan informed her, gesturing to the teenager on the bed. He decided that it wasn't time to share his information with her. With Jeremy, with John, with Caroline, and all the other things that had happened, it just wasn't a good time. Claire widened her eyes and turned to Jeremy.

"What? Are you kidding me?" She rushed over to Jeremy and looked down at him with a cold, hard stare. "Is that why you were asking me all those questions about vampires turning off their emotions? Because you wanted to know about it when you became one? For God's sake!" Claire looked at Elena and Stefan. "He's fine, right?" Stefan nodded and Claire sighed in relief. "Good."

"What about the pills that he took?" While Stefan paced, Elena looked down at her brother worriedly. Stefan shook his head.

"He didn't take enough to die. So Anna's blood actually…healed him of that."

Suddenly, there was a knock on the kid brother's door. Everyone turned to see the deputy waiting for her with an arched eyebrow. "Ms. Gilbert?"

"Um, I'll be right there."

"You need to go to the hospital," Stefan insisted, shaking his head.

Claire scoffed. "What, for John? I saw the ambulance outside taking him away. He'll be fine."

"No, Caroline, Tyler, and Matt got into a car accident," Elena blurted out, causing Claire to widen her eyes at the new information. Elena turned back to Stefan. "But I can't—"

"No, no, I'll stay here with Jeremy." Stefan looked up. "Claire, can you take her?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"No. No, I don't need a babysitter," Jeremy protested on the bed. Elena just sighed and looked down at him condescendingly.

"Yes, you do."

---

"Bonnie!" Elena called, getting the witch's attention in the midst of the busy hospital. Bonnie turned around to face her friend and the blonde vampire that accompanied her. Claire was trying to push all thoughts of Damon out of her mind in fear of literally ripping out the throats of everyone around her in all-consuming blind rage. "How's Caroline?"

"She's weak." Bonnie nodded with a sorrowful expression. "They don't know if she's going to make it."

Elena stood, frozen at the words, until she whispered under her breath, "What?" Bonnie leaned forward and gave her a hug. "Is there something that you can do?" Bonnie pulled back. "Like…like a spell or something?"

"She doesn't know how," a new voice said, and Claire gritted her teeth when she recognized the voice. While everyone turned to face Damon, Claire avoided his gaze at all costs. Damon looked at the witch. "Do you?"

"No. I don't," Bonnie confessed.

"No. You don't. Because it took Emily years to learn a spell like that." The annoyance in his tone was unmistakable. Damon was furious with Bonnie for lying to them about the Gilbert device, that was no secret. However, since she had saved him, he decided not to kill her. Claire, on the other hand, who was probably just as furious, had bigger problems to deal with than the lying word of a Bennett witch.

"Oh, well I can take down a vampire. That spell was easy to learn," the witch snapped back. Damon turned to the shaken Elena and dropped his voice to a murmur.

"I can give Caroline some blood."

"No." Elena shook her head immediately in protest. "No way."

"No, no, no, just enough to heal her…she'll be safe in the hospital…it'll be out of her system in a day," Damon reasoned, trying to ease some of Elena's worries. "She'll be better, Elena!"

"It's too risky. I can't agree to that," Elena objected.

"Do it." The agreement surprisingly came from Bonnie. This immediately captured the attention of both Damon and Elena in the midst of their argument in absolute surprise. Bonnie looked at Elena. "This is Caroline. Okay? We can't let her die."

"It's a bad idea," Claire sung, her voice high-pitched. Damon looked at her in confusion, and she stared right back at him coldly. "Problem is, they can't trust you, Damon. If anyone's going to do this, I will."

Damon raised his eyebrows at her, but Bonnie looked back and forth between Damon and Claire. "I don't care who does it, just take care of it."

The peeved witch turned on her heel and walked off, leaving Elena, Claire, and Damon by themselves. The second Bonnie was gone, Damon turned his attention to the pissed-off blonde vampire in front of him.

"They can't trust me? What's that supposed to mean?"

Claire hummed sourly. "Mm…I don't know. Elena, what do you think that meant?"

Elena cocked an eyebrow. "That...we can't trust him?"

"It meant that you're a selfish, heartless vampire liar," the blonde snapped at Damon, who widened his eyes in complete and utter confusion at her hurtful exchange of words. A thousand thoughts had been racing through his head, but the idea that Claire would be mad at him wasn't one of those thoughts.

"What the hell are you talking about, Claire? Is this about...what happened earlier tonight?"

"What happened earlier meant absolutely nothing! And it will never, ever happen again!" Claire spat, trying to keep her tone to a whisper. Elena, who was caught in the middle of it all, just held up her hands.

"Hold on a second, what happened earlier?" she asked. Claire scoffed as Damon turned to Elena with irritated eyes.

"Come on, Elena. We appreciate you pretending like it didn't happen, but it did." Damon's eyes cut to Claire and burned. "We kissed, Claire. And don't you dare think that you have a right to be angry with me because of it."

"I do have a right to be angry!" Claire almost shouted. "I wish it never happened in the first place!"

"You guys kissed?" Elena gasped, looking back and forth between them with wide, stunned eyes. "W-What? When? Where?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "Seriously, Elena? Don't play dumb. You saw us."

Elena pursed her lips. "No…no, I didn't."

Claire nodded at her. "Yeah, you did. Because after Damon left, you finally told me the truth about Lexi." She turned to Damon, who was slowly coming to the realization upon her words. "I know, Damon. I know you killed her. Elena told me and I broke into the Sheriff's office and confirmed it."

Damon took in a deep, agitated breath before he looked at Elena with eyes that let the human know he was about to lunge at her. Elena stood, baffled at being accused of things that she had no recollection of. "You told her about Lexi, Elena? Are you insane?"

"Don't get mad at her!" Claire snapped angrily. Damon looked back. "You should've been the one to tell me! You shouldn't have lied!"

"I had to lie! You would've hated me!"

"Yeah! I would've! But now I detest you!"

"Claire," Elena intervened, shaking her head. "I really didn't—"

"Elena!" The trio turned to watch Jenna rush up to them, interrupting their conversation. She eyed Damon and Claire in the background and continued without a hitch. "I came as soon as I got your message. How's John?"

"Where've you been?" Elena demanded, earning Jenna to blink at her in disbelief.

"At…the fire department. I had to fill out a report," Jenna said slowly, trying to get Elena to recall the message. Elena just stared at her with puzzled eyes, causing Jenna to sigh. "I told you earlier—"

"No, you didn't," Elena interrupted her, shaking her head at the false accusation.

Jenna nodded. "Yes, I did."

"No, Jenna. You didn't."

Damon and Claire watched as Jenna and Elena argued over something that seemed so pointless, but was actually serious. "Yes, I did," Elena's guardian repeated.

The two vampires behind them shared a glance, and the two came to the very same conclusion at the same time.

"Oh, shit," Claire murmured under her breath.

At the same time, Damon sneered, "Mm…you've got to be kidding me!"

---

Stefan stood over Jeremy, who was sleeping off the vampire blood in his system. He paced back and forth somewhat like a guard, but it was when the door creaked open downstairs that Stefan left his post at Jeremy's bed to greet Elena, who had walked into the house with a frown on her face. As soon as Stefan reached the bottom of the stairs, he turned to face Elena.

"Hey. How's Caroline?" Stefan moved closer to her. Elena shook her head at him.

"Not good." She reached forward and pulled him into a hug, which Stefan returned immediately. They folded into each other, but Stefan couldn't shake this feeling that something was wrong. He was trying to place a finger on it when Elena murmured into his shoulder, "Just what I needed."

Elena pulled back to face Stefan, and her eyes locked with his. Stefan's eyebrows knotted together as he saw something that he had only seen in one person before. When Elena moved forward to kiss him, Stefan reached forward and yanked on her hair, pulling her back with his fangs elongated in attack.

It wasn't Elena; it was Katherine.

With an animalistic growl, Stefan tossed Katherine down into the living room and the dark-haired vampire refurbished quickly, standing up to face Stefan head-on.

"Katherine," Stefan snarled.

The vampire shrugged. "At least I fooled your brother and his bitchy girlfriend." Stefan flashed forward with his hand wrapped around Katherine's throat and pinned her to the closest wall to the left of the house. He growled again, but Katherine didn't flinch. Instead, she sighed. "Feel better?"

Again, Stefan growled, and he flashed her over to the opposite wall with as much force as he could manage, but he was soon distracted when the sound of a key turning entered his hearing range. Using this distraction as leverage, Katherine pulled Stefan's arm and twisted it back so she flipped the younger Salvatore down on the ground with a groan. Stefan fixed his arm just as Katherine fled the scene, and when Claire, Damon, and Elena stepped into the household, he rose from the floor.

"Stefan?" Elena asked him.

"Elena."

"What happened?" she asked, looking around her house for any sign of trouble. Damon and Claire wouldn't tell her what was going on in the car ride over to the house, so she was completely clueless. Damon looked around knowingly, almost appreciative.

"Katherine happened."

"Ding dong," Claire sung dramatically, biting the inside of her cheek in rage. "The wicked bitch of the west is back."

---

"Did she say what she wanted?" Damon asked his brother as Stefan paced in Elena's kitchen worriedly. Claire walked into the kitchen with Christopher by her side, talking with him about how Katherine had returned, when Stefan responded.

"No."

Damon groaned. "Well she certainly knows how to make one hell of a goddamn entrance," he murmured to himself. Stefan continued pacing, trying to figure Katherine out based on his memory of her words.

"She said she fooled you and your 'bitchy girlfriend'…whom, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say is Claire." Stefan knotted his eyebrows together and tried to put the pieces together. "What does that—what does that mean?"

"She pretended to be Elena with us, too," Claire spoke up, sitting down with Christopher at Elena's dining table. "When we were here earlier tonight."

"She told Claire about Lexi," Damon growled underneath his breath. Claire inhaled sharply, her knuckles turning white from clenching the oak dining table so hard.

"And that is about the only thing I will ever thank Katherine Pierce for doing!" she barked.

Stefan turned around at her. "Claire…"

"You knew, too, didn't you?" Claire asked him, her words cutting into him like a knife. Stefan nodded eventually, not willing to lie again. "God damn it, Stefan!"

"I told Jeremy," Elena interrupted, causing the conversation to halt as she came into the kitchen and looked around at all the vampires crowding her. "I can't lie to him anymore."

From the dining table, Christopher looked up at the human. Seeing her paleness, he expressed concern. "Elena? Are you all right?"

Elena shook her head. "No, I'm not all right. I thought that, with all the tomb vampires gone, things would get better."

"I know. We all did," Stefan agreed, walking over to Elena.

"Katherine was in this house," the human realized slowly as Stefan put a hand on the small of her back comfortingly. Elena looked at everyone else in the room with worry. "Which means that she's been invited in. What are we going to do?"

With a bitter smile, Damon suggested, "Move."

Elena frowned at him. "Very helpful. Thank you."

"Katherine wants you dead, there's zero you can do about it—you will be dead. But you're not. So, clearly, she has other plans," Damon pitched, reasoning with Katherine's logic.

"So how do we figure out those plans?" Christopher asked, looking around the room. Stefan shook his head.

"I don't know. But we can't provoke her in the process." A silence ensued around all of them as they thought about what an inconvenience Katherine coming back to Mystic Falls was, but Stefan spoke again to interrupt the silence. "Claire…there's something that I need to tell you."

Claire huffed. "If it's an apology—which I fully expect from you for lying to me—it can wait, Stefan. We have bigger problems to handle."

Stefan shook his head. "No. No, it's not an apology, Claire. Not yet, anyway. I think I know someone who might know Katherine's plans."

Everyone—including Elena—looked over at him. Christopher was the one to speak when Stefan fell silent. "Well, come on, Stefan. Don't keep us waiting. Who?"

Stefan tried to figure out how to say it—what the most appropriate way to drop the bomb that Claire's sister was still alive. Eventually, he ended up flat-out saying, "Amelia."

Claire scoffed. "Great. You have an Ouija board or something we can use?" She frowned at Stefan and crossed her arms, annoyed at the waste of time. "Stefan, she's dead. Or in some record book because no one lives to be 163-years-old."

"Claire, she's not dead," Stefan assured her. Claire blinked at him. "I saw her, earlier tonight. She's a vampire. Turned at seventeen, maybe."

This made Claire's skin turn paler than it already was. "B-By who?" Stefan shook his head in a confession that he didn't know.

Elena looked up at Claire. "Wait…so your sister's alive?"

Damon smirked over by the center island in Elena's kitchen. "Oh…not just Claire's sister, Elena. Stefan's childhood crush." Stefan hung his head as Damon spoke the words, and Elena looked up at her boyfriend to assess the merit of Damon's accusation. The elder brother continued mercilessly. "That's right, Stefan. Don't think I forgot about all the notebooks filled with 'Mrs. Amelia Salvatore' written all over them. It was gross, actually, since she was originally supposed to be your sister-in-law."

"I'm sorry…but can we move back onto the subject of how Amelia is alive?" Claire scoffed, completely shell-shocked at the news. She looked at Stefan with wide eyes. "Why did she come and see you? Did she know about me? That I'm here or…?"

"She knows you're a vampire," Stefan told her, nodding a few times. "But as for why she came to see me first—"

"Mrs. Amelia Salvatore," Damon commented, answering the question with his quip. Everyone turned back to him, and he shrugged. "What? We all know it's the truth."

"But how is this supposed to lead us to Katherine's plans?" Christopher stood up, looking at Stefan and ignoring Damon like everyone else had. "Can you contact her again? Where'd she go after you saw her?"

"I-I don't know. Elena was calling me, so I looked down…when I looked back up, she was gone."

"Well, great." Damon scoffed. "So that settles that. Amelia's not helping us."

"John must know something," Elena suggested, trying to come to a logical conclusion. "There has to be a reason why Katherine tried to kill him."

"She's Katherine!" Damon exclaimed, rolling his eyes as a smirk played on his lips. He walked across the kitchen to the exit and spun around to lean against the doorframe. "She loves to play games, and you're fooling yourself if you think you're going to find out what she's up to before she wants you to know."

"No, actually, Elena's right. John could know something through Isobel," Stefan voiced, throwing a stare at Damon. He looked down at Elena and explained, "Your mother, she was in touch with Katherine…so maybe we can go to the hospital and talk?"

"I've got a better idea," Damon mumbled.

"Well, then, enlighten us," Christopher suggested, turning around at Damon. The elder Salvatore shrugged carelessly.

"I'm just going to ignore the bitch…" Damon smirked as he turned to walk out. "See ya."

"I-Is that smart?" Elena stuttered, stopping him from leaving. Damon turned around at her with his arms crossed over his chest.

"If Katherine thinks she's being ignored, it'll lure her out. She'll make a move."

"Yeah? Then what?" Stefan prompted.

"Stake her, rip her head off…" Damon shrugged. "Something poetic. We'll see."

---

Amelia knocked on Clarissa's door late at night when they were supposed to be asleep. But she knew, from experience, that her sister was never asleep at their given bedtime. She always stayed up, unable to rest, until her body finally gave out and let her close her eyes.

"Clarissa…" Amelia whispered lowly as she entered the room. "Are you asleep yet?"

The response came slow, but it came, at least. "No, Amelia. Come in." Amelia stepped into her sister's bedroom without having to be asked twice, and Clarissa lit a candle on the nightstand so that they weren't sitting in complete darkness. Amelia came into the room and climbed into the bed, sighing. "Is something the matter?"

Amelia shook her head tightly, afraid to say what she wanted to. Instead, she just sat in silence until she could feel Clarissa start to impatiently wait, almost as if wondering why her presence was mandatory. Truth be told, Amelia just wanted time with her sister. Ever since Michael Gilbert's house, the only person she felt safe with was Clarissa.

"Clarissa…" Amelia trailed off, biting down on her lip. "I have a question."

The older sister twisted her hair around her finger and laid back against the pillow, smiling in dim light. "What is it, Amelia?"

"What does it mean when you don't menstruate?" Amelia asked suddenly, causing shock out of Claire. Immediately, Amelia amended her statement, "Hypothetically, of course. I'm just curious."

Clarissa chuckled under her breath, almost laughing at the question because she knew Amelia's curious mind had probably thought it all up on her own. Eventually, Clarissa's laughter died down. Amelia was still frowning in the soft candlelight, displeased with her sister's humorous response.

"I'm sorry, Amelia. It's just…when a woman misses that time, it's because she's pregnant—with child, that is. It's something you won't have to worry about for a very long time, trust me." Her lips curled into a smile and she patted the space beside her. "Come on. Sleep in here if you want."

Amelia nodded meekly before she laid down on the bed and Claire pinched the candle out beside her bed. When they were surrounded in complete darkness, Amelia waited for the sound of her sister's heavy breathing to let the first tear fall as she cried herself to sleep yet again.

---

"Hey, Matt," Bonnie greeted her friend at the hospital. Matt was partially clean, considering the fact that he had spent the entire night at the hospital by Caroline's side. Out of the three friends that had gotten into the car accident, he was the only one that got away without a scratch. However, he did have a broken arm from the float falling on him the day prior to the parade.

"Hey."

"You been here all night?"

"Yeah, with the Sheriff."

Bonnie was hesitant, but she was fishing for something. Or, rather, someone. "And no one else?" She'd never forgive herself if Caroline never got better because of what she did to Elena to try and get the vampires killed.

Matt had to think for a moment. "Well...I don't remember her name, but Stefan's friend stopped by late last night."

A look of relief flashed across Bonnie's face. "Claire?" she prompted. Matt nodded.

"Yeah...I didn't even know she and Caroline knew each other, but Claire insisted upon just stopping in to say hi."

Bonnie nodded. "Yeah, they...um, they have a lot in common." A small smile played on her lips as she realized what this meant. "How is Caroline today?"

Matt scoffed in disbelief. "See for yourself," he told her as he started to walk towards Caroline's room. Bonnie followed him to find her friend laying down in the hospital bed, all the color freshly returned to her face. Caroline was watching television, but the second she saw Matt and Bonnie enter her room, she sat upright in the bed and smiled at them.

"'Jersey Shore' is on," she informed Bonnie enthusiastically, causing Bonnie to smile even wider. Without waiting, Bonnie rushed into the room and wrapped her arms around Caroline in complete relief that her friend was going to be okay. Granted, it was by means of vampire blood, but it didn't matter. Caroline was okay, and that was all that mattered. Caroline gasped at Bonnie's hard hug. "Ooh! Careful! Still a little sore."

"Sorry," Bonnie apologized, straightening.

Caroline laughed. "It's okay. But they say I'm healing really quick." Bonnie nodded in agreement, and Matt leaned down with a smile painted on his face at Caroline's health.

"My turn." The two lovers kissed until Matt pulled away and Caroline girlishly giggled.

"Aw! Isn't he cute?" Caroline looked at Bonnie, who was nodding with tears in her eyes. Caroline frowned. "Why are you crying?"

"I'm just happy you're okay," Bonnie confessed as Matt pulled her into a hug. Caroline smiled, appreciating the attention.

"Well, I love you guys!"

"We love you." Matt swayed Bonnie side to side as Caroline cooed, feeling happy that she was going to be okay.

---

"I still can't believe she's alive," Claire commented as she and Christopher walked around the food table in the Lockwood mansion. Carol was hosting a wake for the mayor, who Claire had witnessed die in the basement fire. Christopher watched as his wife detached a cherry from its stem and chewed on it, deep in thought. They hadn't talked much the night before, but that was mostly because Claire went to the hospital, fed Caroline some blood, and had come back to the house just to crash in her bed. Besides, he'd still taken to one of the other guest rooms. "And the fact that she would visit Stefan just makes me want to…scream or something."

"Hopefully, she'll come see you soon," Christopher tried, knowing that there was no way to make it better for her. It was all up to Amelia. "For now…I think it's enough to just know that she's alive, right?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Claire agreed, nodding a few times. "I just have…so many questions. I mean, first of all—why'd she run away? Our parents didn't beat us or anything. I…I thought she was happy in Mystic Falls…" The vampire trailed off, trying to find some reason that her sister would've left. "Was it me? Did I not give her enough attention or something?"

Christopher shook his head. "I didn't know your sister, Claire, so I can't say. But I'm sure it wasn't for that. You loved her; she had to have known that."

Claire looked at him for a while before breaking her gaze to look down at the food. The guilt for kissing Damon consumed her every thought, but she forced it out of her mind to keep herself from feeling the guilt that came with kissing her friend's murderer. Not to mention the fact that she was—somewhat arguably—married. And the fact that she kissed the very reason she was on the outs with her husband was…pure irony. Sick irony.

She wanted to apologize; she wanted to tell her husband everything and hope that he would understand where this was coming from. There were feelings for Damon inside of her that she couldn't describe. Rogue feelings. Feelings of absolute attraction and nothing more. How could she have been so stupid to let her guard down? To actually think that she and Damon could attempt something more? It had been this way since the beginning of time and it would never change.

It was time to accept that.

However, there was something that Claire knew would get in the way. Damon, of course. He wouldn't just let her go crawling back to Christopher without repercussions. Maybe she had come to the realization that she and Damon would never get past the stage of being "frenemies", but every time Claire felt her lips collide with Damon again in her brain, she knew there was something different about the way he kissed her this time. It wasn't like that first night in the 20's before they'd come up with the no-kissing rule. It was more like the kiss he'd given her back in her room the night everything changed.

And if there was one thing Claire didn't want resurfacing, it was that night. So, when she spotted Damon out of the corner of her vision spying on Claire and her husband, she sighed. The dark-haired vampire tensed watching her eyes meet his, and he took a sip out of his alcohol and went out on the front porch of the Lockwood mansion. Claire sighed and looked at Christopher, who was grabbing food from the buffet before them, completely oblivious.

"I'll...be right back, okay?"

Christopher looked up at her and shrugged. "Okay."

With a nod of assurance, Claire turned and walked around the buffet table to follow Damon's footsteps. She went through the two doors that exited to the Lockwood's front porch. She looked right and didn't see him, and then she turned her head to the left and spotted Damon sipping his alcohol and staring off into the distance of sad town residents. Claire stormed up to him and crossed her arms.

"Every single freaking time that I think we can actually move past all the deception and the lies, there you go again…hiding something else from me," Claire said as she reached him. Damon sighed to himself and kept his expression blank.

"I thought it was the best thing…at the time," Damon confessed with a small shrug. "Stefan was already pissed at me for killing her, and I didn't need someone else to guilt me."

"You killed Lexi!" Claire hissed angrily. Damon turned to her. "How can you live with yourself? She was our friend!"

"She was your friend," Damon pointed out. "Not mine. And, quite frankly, every time I think that you're ready to actually accept the fact that there's something more going on between us, there you go again…picking another argument with me."

Claire scoffed. "You think this is me picking an argument with you because we kissed? This is me pissed at you for no other reason than you killed my friend! And then lied to me about it, plain and simple."

"I kissed you," Damon said blankly, his eyes clouded from the alcohol. "You kissed me. The fact that you're now pissed at me is actual proof that you always find something to argue about whenever that happens."

"I do not!" Claire whisper-hissed, but stopped short when she saw Elena, Jenna, and Jeremy walk up beside her and Damon as they entered the house. Elena spotted them in their heated argument, and she turned to Jenna.

"Uh…you guys go ahead. I'll...uh, I'll be right there, okay?" After a shrug from Jenna and Jeremy, they walked into the Lockwood household and Elena walked over to Damon and Claire. "Is everything okay over here?"

Claire sighed. "Elena—"

"Clarissa?"

Claire froze in her sentence, trying to determine whether or not her ears were deceiving her. Damon and Elena looked behind Claire, but could not see what was standing before them. With slow movements, Claire turned around to come face-to-face with her younger sister, who stood only a few feet away from her.

"Oh, my...God," Claire spoke, breathless.

Amelia gave a small, tight smile to her, and Claire looked at the stranger she called her own flesh and blood. Amelia was older now—seventeen, maybe, like Stefan had suggested. She had grown taller, gotten thinner, and had only matured with more beauty. Claire couldn't help herself—after over a century and a half, she couldn't contain it. She rushed forward and pulled her sister into an embrace, finding comfort in the teenager's arms. Damon and Elena watched Amelia, first shocked at the touch, but then softening as she wrapped her arms around her sister.

"I thought you were…gone, Amelia. Long gone," the elder sister whispered against the teenager's hair.

"I know." Amelia pulled away and looked over at Damon and Elena, her eyes lingering over the human look-alike for a moment before she turned to Damon and smiled slightly. "Hey, Damon."

"Amelia," he greeted, reeling over it, himself. His brother had been telling the truth—Amelia King was actually alive. A vampire, no less. Amelia looked at Elena again but then moved her eyes towards Claire.

"Claire…do you think we can…go somewhere to talk?"

"Sure." Claire nodded, still shocked, but glad that she finally came to visit her. "Come on, let's…let's go this way." She gestured towards the exit on the left side of the porch, and Damon and Elena watched as Claire and Amelia left without another word to them. Damon sighed once Claire and her sister were gone.

"Well, isn't that a wonderful family reunion photo-op?" he taunted and turned back at Elena, who crossed her arms and looked up at him with innocent doe eyes. Damon groaned. "What?"

"How are you doing?" Elena asked skeptically, almost afraid to ask the question. Damon sighed.

"Great, Elena. Walkin' on sunshine. Thanks for asking."

"Damon…"

"Elena," he deadpanned, giving her a look. She frowned at him again, not amused by his theatrics.

"Damon, we're close enough now. I really want to know how you're doing with this whole…" Elena cleared her throat, "…Claire thing."

"Claire thing?" Damon repeated, shrugging and shaking his head. "What Claire thing?" Elena scowled at him and kept her arms crossed, waiting for him to stop joking around with her and actually answer the question. When Damon realized there was no way out of it, he finally caved. "Fine. I kissed her. I thought she kissed me back. Doppelgänger hijinks ensued, and now she hates me again. How do you think I'm doing?"

"I think that you're hurt."

"Mm…no, I don't get hurt, Elena."

Elena looked at him with knowing eyes. "No, you don't admit that you get hurt. You get angry, cover it up, and then you do something stupid."

Damon let out a soft groan. "You know, instead of worrying about me getting hurt, maybe you should take a second and worry about getting hurt, yourself."

Elena cocked an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, Amelia King is back in town." Damon shrugged at her as if it were obvious, but Elena shook her head. "Come on…Stefan really never mentioned her? At all?"

"He told me that they were close as teenagers, but then she ran away and he never saw her again," Elena told him, still confused.

Damon smiled. "And I'm assuming he didn't tell you about all the nights he kept me up talking about how beautiful she was or how smart she was or how he wanted to ask our father to marry her and keep the hope of a marital tie between the Salvatores and the Kings alive?" Elena fell silent, giving Damon his answer. "Right. Of course he didn't tell you. I'm sure it's on a diary page somewhere. If I find it, I'll let you know."

"It's different now," Elena assured Damon, refusing to give into his tactics. "Stefan loves me. Amelia coming back won't change anything."

"Keep telling yourself that, Elena."

"You know, I know what you're doing," Elena accused him, doing all but pointing the finger. Damon gave her a teasing look. "You're trying to distract me from what I wanted to talk about—you and Claire. You kissed last night, and Stefan doesn't know."

Damon shrugged. "He doesn't need to know."

"But I'm guessing it's not the first time," Elena said suddenly, and Damon tried to mask his surprise that she figured it out by drowning himself in a sip of alcohol. "I'm almost positive you've done it before, actually. I can see it between you two."

"See what?"

"You love her," Elena said simply, shrugging her shoulders. Damon peered at Elena from the side, and she watched him as he tried to keep a straight face. "More than Katherine, too. Because if you didn't, Katherine never would've felt threatened and she never would've had to turn Claire. I think you've always loved her."

"Elena!" someone shouted before Damon was allowed to respond to the accusation. Damon and Elena turned to see Bonnie breathing heavily as she rushed out of the Lockwood mansion. Elena raised her eyebrows.

"Bonnie, what happened?"

---

"The Lockwoods have a lot more land than they used to," Katherine commented as she and Stefan walked around the pond behind the Lockwood's mansion. "The possessions of all the tomb vampires built them quite a fortune."

"Yeah, why did you want them dead, hmm?" Stefan asked, trying to get answers. "You're the one who turned most of them."

Katherine scoffed. "There's nothing more annoying than a vengeful vampire, Stefan. Just ask John Gilbert."

Katherine and Stefan came to a slow in front of a bench up at the top of the pond, and Katherine turned around as Stefan chuckled. "You haven't changed at all, have you?"

"But you have," Katherine countered, looking back at him. "You're stronger. Meaner. It's sexy."

"Don't flirt with me, Katherine. I'm not Damon. I haven't spent 145 years obsessed with you."

"Yeah…" Katherine trailed off, her lips twitching down as she walked around Stefan, but she was nowhere near agreeing. "But based on your choice of women, I'd say otherwise." Stefan just laughed, feeling an anger rise in him as Katherine mentioned Elena. "Though I'll admit, it does bother me that you've fallen in love with someone else."

Stefan turned around at her. "Oh, I was never in love with you, Katherine. You compelled me. So none of my feelings were real."

"You know whose feelings were real?" Katherine stepped forward with a vindictive smile as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Clarissa's. Damon's. I knew I was always right about them." A sour expression overwhelmed Katherine's features.

"Claire and Damon were engaged for sixteen years. They were attached at the hip, it was natural for them to have some sort of…feelings," Stefan scoffed, and then shook his head. "But you don't know them now. Things changed over the years—they can't stand each other."

"Do you really believe that, Stefan?" Katherine asked, narrowing her eyes. Stefan shrugged, indicating that he did agree. "Really? You do? So...why did I walk in on your best friend and your brother having a hot make-out session on your girlfriend's front porch?"

Stefan shook his head and tried to get the image of Damon and Claire kissing out of his mind. Katherine was messing with him. He had to convince himself of that. So Stefan just plainly scoffed, disappointed at her theatrics. "That's…impossible. They would never."

"Believe what you want, Stefan. But I know the truth." She smiled at him. "And deep down, so do you."

"The truth?" Stefan prompted, and Katherine hummed in agreement as she chuckled to herself, trying to be innocent. "Well, the truth is…you're the same lying, selfish, manipulative bitch that you've always been. So whatever it is that you're doing here, why don't you just get on with it and leave town? Because if you don't, I will hunt you down and I will rip your heart out," the younger Salvatore snarled, satisfied watching Katherine's girlish grin fall from her face almost instantly.

Katherine let out a shaking breath. "You want to know why I'm here, Stefan? I came back for you."

Stefan felt an anger he'd never felt before rise up inside of him as he spat, "Well, the problem, Katherine…is that I hate you."

Katherine gritted her teeth in anger and flashed, picking up the first sharp object that she could see. With blind rage, she shoved the metal stick into Stefan's abdomen so he groaned and doubled over into her shoulder, and Katherine held him upright as she hissed, "You hate me, huh? That sounds like the beginning of a love story, Stefan. Not the end of one."

Katherine twisted the stick in him further and dropped the youngest Salvatore, causing him to fall straight to the ground in pure weakness while she flashed away from the scene of the crime, too pissed off to play games at the Lockwood mansion anymore. Stefan groaned at the stick in his torso, but he couldn't find the strength to pull it out himself.

Christopher, who had stepped outside the Lockwood mansion for some fresh air, immediately heard Stefan's groans and looked around, trying to find the Salvatore brother. He looked back and forth, but the sounds weren't coming from anywhere closer to him. Eventually, when he looked up, he saw Stefan in front of him by a bench out over by the pond, trying to pull an iron stick out of his stomach. Flashing so fast that no human would notice, Christopher rushed up to Stefan.

"What happened?" the vampire asked, reaching down to help Stefan take out the stick by ripping it out like a Band-Aid.

Stefan groaned once more out of pain before he growled, "Katherine."

---

"Don't you just love the smell of the roses, Amelia?" Stefan practically sang as they walked through the gardens behind the Salvatore estate, smelling the fresh spring roses on the bushes. "It's exceptional, isn't it?"

Amelia nodded, but she wouldn't know. She found the smell foul, and she hadn't even gotten closer than a few feet away. Stefan could see her pinched nose, and he just laughed and extended a rose to her.

"You didn't even smell one, Amelia. Go on, try it."

"I'm all right, Stefan. I think roses are...overrated," she fumbled for the excuse, feeling the bile rise in her throat. Stefan eyed her features, watching as Amelia drifted from flower to flower with a disgusted face, so he moved backwards and towards the tulip bushes. He plucked one of them off and returned to Amelia, who hadn't even noticed that he had left, even for that split second.

"Well, perhaps a tulip is better suited for you," Stefan said quietly, extending the flower to her. "In my opinion, they're just like you. Special. Beautiful. Fascinating " He smiled as he trailed off and watched as Amelia looked up at him with those beautiful, big grey eyes of hers.

"Oh, Stefan…" she trailed off, taking the flower, but the scent was too much. She doubled over and tried to shield herself from Stefan as she threw up her breakfast for seemingly no reason at all. She loved the smell of flowers—she used to, anyway. Stefan reached forward and brushed Amelia's long, blonde hair out of her shoulder so the vomit didn't get in her hair.

"Amelia! Amelia, are you all right?" Stefan pushed. "Have you come down with something?"

Amelia dropped the flower, having no room for it in her hands. She was most certainly not all right. This wasn't a stomach bug, it wasn't a fever. It was something…something that she couldn't let anyone realize. Something that was absolutely morbid to a thirteen-year-old who barely started her life.

Amelia King was pregnant.

---

"What are you…doing back here?" Claire asked Amelia, shaking her head as they walked across the front lawn of the Lockwood mansion together, avoiding the crowds of people that flocked for Mayor Lockwood's memorial. "After all this time, why now?"

Amelia stopped next to the water fountain, touching her sister's arm lightly. "Claire, I know you have a lot of questions. And trust me, I know you want answers, too. But I can't...give them to you right now. Doing this is hard enough."

Claire grimaced. "So you won't tell me why you're here?" Amelia shook her head meekly, having nothing to say. Her sister just remained quiet for a long time before continuing, "Fine. Fine, then tell me...what happened back in 1860? Why'd you run?"

Though Amelia was able to answer that question, she didn't want to. She hated talking about it, even 163 years later. She'd been pushing it out of her mind for 163 years and counting. But one look at Claire's face and she knew she had to answer that question, much to her dismay. The younger King ran her tongue over her teeth. "All right. Claire...do you remember Michael Gilbert, Jonathan Gilbert's son?"

"The drunk? Sure. Why?"

Amelia sighed and held up her hands. "Just...promise you won't freak out. It was a long time ago and...I mean, I hate talking about it but I've moved on. Promise me."

Claire crossed her arms. "Okay...but what's so bad that I'd freak out over it?"

Amelia knew her sister was protective. "Protective" was more of an understatement, sometimes. Looking back on it, Amelia realized that Claire most likely would've taken a bat over to Michael Gilbert's house and beat the shit out of him for what he did to an innocent 13-year-old. Claire was a very passionate woman; Amelia was no different. But she had learned, over time, that it was a very futile habit.

"Well, that one day that Mother took me to his house while they were...I don't know, having some party or something"—Amelia rolled her eyes to herself, knowing that her mother had not kicked her out of the house because of a party, but she couldn't dwell on that now—"Michael...well, he raped me. I think that's the simplest way I can say it."

Claire stood still for a while, her expression unmoving. Her eyes blinked, trying to process the information she was given. "Amelia, you were...you were thirteen."

Amelia nodded. "I know, Claire."

The elder sister swallowed down bile that threatened at her throat. "He...he..." She gave a disgusted look and her jaw practically hit the floor. Eventually, she recovered from the shock and looked at Amelia with eyes full of puzzlement. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

"Because I was scared, Claire." Amelia scoffed, as if it were obvious. "I didn't know what to do. That night I came and asked you if it was normal for a girl to miss her period and you told me that it meant she was pregnant, I lost it. I started throwing up all over the place, my body was changing in ways I didn't even know it could..." the teenager trailed off, shaking her head. "I thought the best thing to do was to leave and have the baby somewhere else."

"You got pregnant because of that son of a bitch?" Claire snapped, almost growling the words. Amelia frowned.

"Claire, I told you not to get angry."

"How can I not get angry?! You had a child when you were thirteen! That's not normal, Amelia." Amelia shrugged in agreement, but it'd been such a long time that she didn't feel like getting angry over it anymore. She had to accept the fact that her luck had been astronomically unfortunate. "What happened to the baby?"

"I gave her away," Amelia replied. "I could't take care of it on my own. It was just too much pressure. I didn't know the first thing about taking care of a child."

"Is she still alive?"

"Not that I know of. I doubt it, though."

"Didn't you try to find her when she was older? After you'd turned?"

Amelia shook her head. "It was too hard for me. I couldn't handle it." Claire looked like she had a million more questions, but Amelia stopped her. "Claire, that's all I can say about it. I'm sorry."

Claire swallowed, fighting the urge to bombard her sister with questions. "O-Okay. Fine. So who turned you, then?" Amelia was quiet, causing Claire to snort. "Oh, come on, Amelia. You show up after 163 years and expect me to not ask who turned you?"

"Claire, I just can't."

"When'd it happen?"

"Before my eighteenth birthday."

"How?"

"I can't...I can't tell you."

"God damn it, Amelia!" Claire snapped, fighting the urge to angrily stomp her foot like she was a teenage girl again. Her sister was being so difficult with her. "You don't find me for over a century and then you come back here, waltzing right into Mystic Falls, and you're just...just secretive! I don't understand any of this!"

Amelia looked at Claire with apologetic yet unapologetic eyes. "I know, and I told you, I'm sorry. But I can't answer all your questions right now, Claire. It's not the right time or the right place to do that."

"Well...when is the right time and the right place?"

"Soon."

"Soon?"

"Soon." Amelia nodded firmly. "And I didn't mean to just...waltz back here or anything. Over the years, I just got so comfortable with myself that I realized it would only make things harder on both of us if you knew I was a vampire. You were wrapped up with Stefan and Damon...they became your priority."

"Wait a second, you checked up on me over the years?"

Amelia scoffed. "How else would I have known you liked to be called Claire instead of Clarissa?"

Claire was taken by surprise. That's right; her sister had been calling her by her nickname instead of her birth name and she hadn't even noticed the difference. For a moment, she pondered on how Amelia learned it, but then she narrowed her eyes. "You went to Rio, didn't you?"

"It's nice."

"It is, isn't it? Claire agreed, nodding. Amelia smiled, and Claire moved on, thinking back to what Amelia said before. "Look, I love Stefan like a brother, but he's not my brother. You're my sister, Amelia. My real sister." Amelia's shoulders rose and fell, but Claire knew that it wasn't her relationship with the Salvatores that drove her sister into hiding. Amelia was afraid of being with family again, and Claire didn't blame her. Being raped at 13 by the town's drunk and having it result in an unplanned pregnancy was reason enough to stay away from the ones you love. "So what made you decide to visit Stefan first?"

Amelia could sense the annoyance in Claire's tone, and she sighed. "I...I don't know what I was thinking. I was really going to come to you first, but I saw him at the Grill and I...well, I wanted to talk to him. But he just threw questions at me and then his phone rang, so...I panicked and left."

"Where'd you go?" Amelia was silent. "Come on...you can't even tell me where you're staying?" The teenager shook her head tightly. "What about how long? How long are you staying?" No answer. "Amelia..."

"I told you, Claire. Not now. I can't," Amelia said softly, trying to explain without explaining. Now, it was just pissing Claire off to be an outsider in her own sister's life. Amelia studied the elder blonde before her. "Just give me some time, okay?"

"Time for what?" Claire exclaimed, exasperated. Amelia stared at her again, unwilling to answer. This time, Claire just gave up. She admitted defeat gracefully, deciding that she wasn't in the mood to fight with someone else. A groan escaped her lips. "Fine! Fine, I'll stop asking questions, then. Happy?"

Amelia nodded. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "And I promise, I will try my hardest to make sense out of all this soon. But right now...well, I've got to go."

At this, Claire snapped her eyes over to look at the teenager. "What? No! You just got here."

"I'll talk to you soon. Okay?" Amelia called out as she began to back away. Claire shook her head and stepped forward to follow Amelia.

"Amelia, wait a second—" But it was too late. Amelia had already vanished in thin air, leaving Claire by the water fountain in front of the Lockwood mansion, alone.

---

Elena dabbed at Stefan's wound, trying to clean up all the blood with a tissue that she had gotten from inside the Lockwood mansion. Stefan looked down at it, and then up at Elena, who sighed trying to clear all the blood before someone noticed.

"Are you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah. It'll heal," Stefan assured her. Elena frowned at him.

"That's not what I meant," she told him, and Stefan turned his head, thinking the same thing. Eventually, he sighed in exhaustion and defeat.

"I was…trying to figure her out. I was…playing along, and I let her get to me," Stefan mumbled.

"I tried to track her, but she's gone. Christopher went to look for Claire and Amelia," Damon interrupted. Seeing Stefan's torso exposure, Damon cringed and shut his eyes. "Ooh! Cover up, Fabio. We've got a crazy ex on the loose." Stefan covered himself up and Damon looked down at Elena with a smirk. "Better watch out. Now there's two women trying to steal your guy."

Stefan raised his eyebrows at Damon. "Two?"

"Oh...come on. Blonde, seventeen, absolutely stunning and...shockingly, not dead."

"Damon…" Stefan trailed off, shaking his head in disregard. Elena looked over at him, but Stefan turned away from her so he wasn't looking her straight in the eyes. "That's not what's happening."

"Isn't it?" Damon retorted, trying to create more of a problem then there already was. "It's only fair since—"

"Since what?" Stefan looked up at Damon with hard eyes. "Since you kissed my best friend?"

Damon fell completely silent, admitting his guilt by default. Stefan scoffed at him and returned his head back to a hanging position, and Elena looked up at Damon before she cleared her throat.

"I'm…gonna go check on Jenna and Jeremy," she said, feeling as if she was in a tight situation that she had no business being a part of. Grabbing her purse, Elena got up from the bench and walked back to the Lockwood mansion, only left to imagine what was going on between Stefan and Damon since Stefan now found out about Damon and Claire's kiss. Sure enough, once Elena was out of earshot, Damon sighed at his brother.

"So what's it gonna be, huh?" He held up his hands in a boxing position mockingly. "Fight to the death?" Stefan scoffed. "Go ahead. Make your threats. Protect your best friend's innocence! Or...well, lack thereof." Damon punched his brother playfully, but Stefan looked up at him and shook his head.

"I'm not gonna fight you."

"Why?!" Damon exclaimed, dropping his hands in disappointment. "I'd fight me!"

"First of all, I'm not even the one this really affects, and you know it." Damon's smirk dropped as Stefan sat up from the bench and gestured between them. "But Katherine's going to try to play us against each other; you do know that, right?"

"Brother, don't you worry. Our bond is unbreakable!"

However, Stefan was not amused by Damon's sarcasm. He stood up immediately and brushed past Damon's childish actions. "We need to stay united against her. Specifically to protect Claire because we know how much Katherine hates her. So, yes, as much as I would like to kill you, I'm not going to fight you. And I hope for all our sakes that Christopher does the same."

Damon narrowed his eyes, not willing to accept his brother's reaction. In attempt to provoke Stefan, Damon called out tauntingly, "I kissed Claire!"

"Because you feel something for her!" Stefan spun around, stating the obvious truth. Damon turned his head and tried to downplay his brother's exclamation, but it wouldn't work. "Because you actually care. And I'm not gonna let Katherine come in here and destroy that part of you that has finally, after all of this time, willing to feel something other than hate." Damon turned his head to lock eyes with his brother, who stepped forward. All while Stefan remained talking, Damon tried to remain disinterested, but his brother's words were getting to him. "Katherine will try to break you. She'll try to break us. And how we respond to that will define us. It's our choice. So…no. I'm not gonna fight you."

Stefan walked off, leaving Damon to think about the conversation. While Stefan walked back to the Lockwood mansion, Claire jogged up to him and stopped her friend in his tracks, breathing heavily.

"Hey! Christopher told me about Katherine. What happened? Are you okay?" Claire rushed out, her eyes roaming Stefan to any sign of an injury. Stefan sighed at her and shook his head.

"Claire…did you kiss Damon?" Stefan asked suddenly, causing Claire to stop and look up into Stefan's green eyes. She scoffed and shook her head.

"W-What are you talking—?"

"Don't try to deny it. I know," Stefan interrupted. Claire dropped her eyes and realized that she'd been caught, and she tried desperately to find an excuse.

"Stefan, I'm…"

"Don't say you're sorry," Stefan interrupted again, holding up his hands with a scoff. Claire shifted, finding guilt consume her as she saw Stefan look at her with hurt in his eyes from the truth being hidden at him. "We both know it's not me you should be apologizing to."

"Stefan—" But before she could get out another word, Stefan had brushed past her and continued walking to the Lockwood mansion, leaving Claire to find Damon a few feet away from her, staring at her expression as the guilt overwhelmed her entire capacity to feel inside.

---

When Damon returned to the boarding house, all was quiet. He was certain that Stefan was at Elena's and Claire and Christopher were probably with him. Of course, he was the only one that Claire didn't forgive for killing Lexi. She'd already forgotten about the fact that Stefan lied—because Saint Stefan could do no wrong in her eyes. And, of course, the girl was never the one blamed for a scandal such as kissing; it was always the evil, ruthless older brother, wasn't it? So Damon accepted the fact that he was all alone in the boarding house and moved on, starting his first drink of the night by pouring himself a glass of bourbon in the solitary of his own home. He turned to go upstairs to his room, but instead, he felt the presence of someone else inside the house.

Not Stefan.

Not Claire.

Not Christopher.

"Very brave of you to come here," Damon growled as he turned around to face Katherine, sitting on his couch with her feet up on the coffee table.

She shrugged. "I wanted to say goodbye."

"Leaving so soon?"

"I know where I'm not wanted."

"Don't pout," Damon chided. "It's not attractive on a woman your age." He pulled the glass of bourbon up to his lips and downed it, watching as Katherine scoffed playfully.

"Ouch." The glass drained, Damon set it down on the coffee table and turned to ignore Katherine's presence and go upstairs, but instead, she stopped him yet again with another cat-like pout. "What, no goodbye kiss?"

"Why don't I kill you instead?" Damon suggested. Katherine chuckled at him, but she wasn't afraid and he could tell. "What are you doing here?"

"Nostalgia, curiosity…et cetera."

Damon shrugged at her in disapproval. "I'm better at the enigmatic one-liners, Katherine. What are you up to?"

"Trust me, Damon. When I'm up to something, you'll know it." Damon just raised his eyebrows at her as he tried to figure her out, but Katherine merely stepped forward and changed the subject. "Come on. Kiss me. Or kill me. Which will it be, Damon?" Damon tried to step back, but Katherine was relentless. "We both know that you're only capable of one."

Damon turned, finished with Katherine and her games, but she appeared before him and knocked him down on the floor without remorse. Damon landed with a thud and a groan, and Katherine leaned on top of him with her hands roaming around the area of his chest that was covered by his black button-down shirt. Her hair fell over them as he leaned closer, her lips right at his ear.

"My sweet…innocent Damon…"

Damon flipped them over in an instant, catching Katherine off guard when he wrapped his hand around her throat and held her tightly against the floor. He looked down at her with crazed, murderous eyes, but he could see the light that shone in Katherine's. She wasn't afraid that he'd kill her. She was waiting for him to do the opposite, actually.

And Damon conceded, surging down to capture Katherine's lips with his own in a fiery, sloppy kiss that he had waited to have for 145 years. Katherine kissed him back enthusiastically and purred underneath her breath, "Now that's more like it."

Damon pulled his lips back to hers and Katherine flashed them up to a standing position across the room. Damon found himself pinned against the wall, Katherine's hand wrapped tightly around his throat just like he had done earlier. But Katherine panted with desire and released his throat, her hands moving down to rip open Damon's shirt mercilessly and her desperate hands clawed at his exposed chest. He kissed her again and threw her against the side table in the parlor, knocking over a pile of books that he had neglected to put away. His lips tasted her skin—her perfect skin—and he moaned aloud, coaxing the same reaction from Katherine. But before Damon could let it get any further, he had to stop himself.

"Okay. Okay, wait. Wait," Damon pleaded against her jaw. Katherine's eyes opened, snapping out of the desire-filled fun she'd hoped to relive, but Damon wouldn't continue. "Brief pause."

An annoyed Katherine shoved him off of her, pushing Damon a few feet away. She stood before him, waiting, and the two stared at each other from across the way. Katherine was displeased, but Damon was determined to get an answer of his own. Stefan had talked to her, and he wanted the same courtesy.

"I have a question. Answer it, and it's back to…fireworks and rocket's red glare." He chuckled. "Answer it right, and… I'll forget the last 145 years I've spent missing you. I'll forget…how much I loved you. I'll forget everything and we can start over. This can be our defining moment. Because we have the time. That's the beauty of eternity." Damon stepped forward and placed his hands around Katherine's face, brushing her dark curls out of her eyes. "I just need the truth; just once—"

"Stop. I already know your question. And its answer." Katherine placed a hand between them and closed her eyes, shaking her head in the process. Damon looked her over, trying to find some hint of a good sign that could let them be happy together. Damon brushed another piece of hair out of her eyes and traced the outline of her face, desperately trying to hold onto the image of her that he viewed as a human. But her next words ruined it. "The truth is…I've never loved you. It was always Stefan."

Her words cut through him like a sharp knife, and Damon felt his heart shatter into a million pieces at her truth. Katherine stared at him, unapologetic, until she finally lifted his hands from her face and walked off, leaving Damon as a broken as he could possibly be.

---

Though Amelia was frightened beyond doubt when each day went by and she didn't notice the regular splotches of blood that came from her, she knew she had to do something. She'd seen pregnant women in the town—their bodies had changed beyond the ability to hide. Being a thirteen-year-old girl, people would definitely notice if she were to start showing that bodily change, and she had to admit that she was afraid. Not afraid of what would happen to her, but afraid of what people might think. Would anyone believe her if she cried to them that Michael Gilbert forcibly violated her innocence? He was a Founding Family member—a Gilbert, even. No matter how much importance came with being a King, no one would believe a 13-year-old girl's word over that of a grown man, and Amelia knew this. She wasn't stupid.

But the only person that she could trust—the only person that she knew would believe her—was her sister. Clarissa carried more weight than Amelia did in the family. She would be able to convince them all of the truth.

Amelia found her sister and her father in the midst of an argument when she finally found the free time to talk with them. She caught the tail end of this argument as she went unnoticed for a few seconds, and it was clear to her what the argument was about. Their father was insisting that she either apologize and patch things up with Damon Salvatore or find another willing man to marry. Clarissa refused, appalled at the idea of apologizing to the Salvatore boy. Amelia's sister and her father silenced once Clarissa spoke her peace and found her father staring behind her.

Edward King looked at his daughter with cold eyes. "Clarissa, your mother told me that she informed you of your obligation. You don't have much time left, so I suggest you make a decision before I make one for you."

Clarissa opened her mouth, but her father was gone in an instant. Amelia immediately moved out of his way, unwilling to look at her father when he was angry. Overall, she lived in a good household—Edward and Marianne didn't beat her or neglect her. But, like every other male in town, when Edward got angry, it was something a woman did not want to be around. Amelia stepped inside of Clarissa's room while her elder blonde sister sighed frustratedly and clenched her fists to subdue her anger.

"Clarissa?" Amelia asked in a small voice. "Do you think that we could—?"

"Amelia." Clarissa turned around at her with eyes that pierced through her. Amelia had never seen her sister look at her like that—with annoyance. Considering her situation, it was not a comforting sight. "I do not have time for your childish inquisitions or even your presence right now. Can't you see I have too much to deal with? Go."

"But, Clarissa—"

"I said leave, Amelia!" Clarissa barked, swallowing hard. Amelia's eyes watered watching as her sister moved over to her dresser without a second glance over her shoulder. Clarissa angrily pulled out the silver combs in her hair and set them down, yanking out some of the blonde strands in the process. Amelia kept her cries to herself until she returned back into her room in solitary. She didn't know what to do or who to turn to. Her parents would never listen to her and her sister flat-out threw her out of her room. If she didn't have Clarissa, who did she have?

She had no one. That was the simple answer; she had no one.

Mystic Falls was no place for her anymore—not with a Gilbert baby inside of an adolescent girl due in nine months. But what could she do? She had nowhere to hide, no one to talk to about her impending problem. She'd be dead before she went back to Michael Gilbert for any sort of help. With the way he treated her, he'd rather see her dead than with child. The concept seemed so foreign to her—being with child.

There was only one thing to do to keep herself and her family from facing shame beyond belief: leave.

---

"Perimeter all clear?" Claire asked as she watched Christopher walk through the back door of the Gilbert house and shut it. She was in the kitchen, filling a kettle with water so she could heat it and make some tea for all of them before the night was over. Christopher sighed and nodded.

"Yeah. As far as I can tell. You really think Katherine's gonna come here again?" he asked. Claire shrugged.

"There's always the possibility. Katherine's unpredictable." Christopher snorted in agreement and walked over to her at the sink as she waited for the kettle to fill. "Do you want to head home? I think I should stay a little while longer, but I can meet you back there. Stefan can stay overnight, which I'm sure he was going to do, anyway." She looked up at him with hopeful eyes and turned her back after shutting off the tap. She set the kettle on the heated stove just as her husband responded.

"Sure. I guess I can head back," Christopher agreed, and things went silent as Claire fidgeted with the heat options on the kitchen's stove. After a while, Christopher sighed. "You know...we never really...talked about what happened with us. Where we stand, I guess."

Claire stopped fidgeting with the knobs and turned around to face Christopher, who was leaning against the Gilbert's kitchen island. She swallowed and averted her eyes. "Yeah...I guess you're right. But I think I have a solution."

"And what would that be?"

"I think we need to let it go. Both of us," Claire said immediately, intriguing her husband as he listened to the mending theory. Claire had no idea whether or not she liked this method of arguing...or, rather, talking. "I don't know if Damon...loves me, and I don't think I'll ever know. But what I do know is that I don't love him. And I can't promise you that Damon and I won't...spend time together or get along, but I can promise you that it won't be anything more. I don't think of him that way."

Christopher crossed his arms with an expression of approval. "I can accept that."

Claire smiled. "Good."

"But I'm not done," Christopher shook his head, causing her to raise his eyebrows. "You said I...I looked at you like you were a human, but I don't agree with you. Do you want to know what I see in you, Claire? Even when I call you Clarissa?" She opened her mouth to protest it, but he flashed forward and brought his lips to hers without warning.

Claire had never been kissed like that before—not by him, anyway. There was something different about it, something that she wanted to explore. Some part of her had feared that she was no longer attracted to her husband, but the kiss he gave her completely rid her of that. It was no longer soft, like she was breakable, but it was rough and hard and it made her head spin like she was a teenage girl again. She kissed him back without reserve and soon realized that it was one of the best kisses she'd ever had.

Christopher broke away from her, only to be satisfied by her panting breath and the lack of air in both of them.

"Where the hell did you learn how to kiss like that?" Claire said breathlessly as he stepped back and she traced a thumb over her lips. Her eyes looked up. "Have you been kissing other women?"

Christopher frowned. "Now that's just ridiculous."

"I was just wondering." Claire shook her head in disbelief. "I...I—"

"I've never kissed you like that before, Claire, because...well, let's face it. We were forced to marry each other." He threw up his hands and shrugged, but she felt a pang of disappointment in her heart. "And until I realized the very likely possibility that you were going to die down in that basement, I never realized how much it was possible to love one person. Because I do, Claire. I love you. I'd love you even if we weren't married."

She stood silently, but she knew he knew that she wasn't going to say it back. She watched as Christopher stepped forward and brushed her long, blonde hair off of her shoulder and gave her a tight smile. "And despite what you think, I like Claire more than I like Clarissa. I know what kind of person you are, and I love you even more for it. Does that make any sense to you at all?"

Claire nodded, but she found herself focused on Christopher's lips. Without knowing it, she blurted out, "Please kiss me again."

She could see the flash of a grin across Christopher's lips before he pulled her head to his and their lips touched in another burning kiss that she realized she was missing out on. This time, she was a more avid participant, moving her lips in sync with his. She found herself blinded with a passion that she knew, as did he, they couldn't satisfy in the midst of Elena's family's kitchen.

Claire pushed him away from her gently, holding her husband by the collar of his shirt. "Let me say goodbye to Stefan and I'll go back home with you."

Christopher shook his head. "No, I think you were right. Stay here for a little while longer. I'm gonna go get a drink, anyway." His index finger came around and wrapped under her chin to pull it up. He kissed her again, quickly, and then released her. "I'll see you at home."

Claire nodded, speechless, and he smiled as he left by way of Elena's back porch. Claire knew he was gone the second he stepped foot outside, but she remained unmoving, processing for a moment.

"Wow," she murmured to herself, tracing her lips again. It was like something had possessed him. She'd never felt that way before. Her eyes widened as she turned around to the stove in disbelief and repeated, "Wow."

But just as the kettle whistled to let Claire know that the hot water was ready, there was a knock on the Gilbert door. Hearing the knock, Claire brought herself out of her mesmerizing experience and she put the kettle on the unheated burner so that it wouldn't boil over. She answered the door in extreme caution, realizing that Elena and Stefan were probably too busy panicking over Katherine to hear the knock. When Claire opened it, she found an alcohol-clouded Damon standing on the porch, barely able to keep himself upright. Seeing his state, Claire widened her eyes and let all thoughts drift from her as she brought herself out of the house and pulled the door shut behind her.

"Damon? What are you doing here?" She paused, sniffed, and finally added, "While you're drunk?"

"You're the liar, Claire," Damon snapped at her, cutting right to the chase. Claire scoffed, surprised at his outburst, and quite offended.

"Excuse me?"

"You blame me for lying to you about Lexi when you and I both know that's not the issue here. Lexi's dead and there's nothing you can do about it, but you're afraid. You're afraid that what happened last night actually means something," he barked.

"What are you talking about? I'm not afraid of anything, and you did lie!" she whisper-shouted, trying not to catch the attention from Stefan upstairs. "After everything I've learned, last night means nothing to me."

"You're lying!" Damon exclaimed again, raising his voice. Claire looked around desperately, making sure that none of the neighbors woke at Damon's loud voice. "There is something going on between us and you know it! And it hasn't just been going on since 1928, it's been there since we were kids! You're lying to me, you're lying to Stefan, you're lying to Christopher, and most of all, you're lying to yourself."

Claire shook her head desperately and tried to step back as he came closer to his, the bourbon on his breath highly intoxicating—even to a sober vampire. "You're wrong, Damon."

"I'm not. And I can prove it."

"No, you can't, I—" Before she could object, Damon's hands enclosed around her face and he forced himself on her, using all the strength he had accumulated from his diet to keep her still. Claire struggled against him and pushed herself away eventually, getting far enough out of Damon's grasp. "Damon! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Lie about this—"

"God damn it, Damon, stop!" Claire fought him, shoving his hands back against his chest as he tried to lean forward again, pushing all his weight on her. "I'm done with this! I told you, I'm finished! And even though I'm furious with you for Lexi, that's not what this is about. I'm married, okay? This has to stop."

"You're not," Damon growled under his breath. "You're not married and you know it, Claire. People like us don't get married. We're not the marriage type."

"I did," she said, breathless. "I did get married, and I still am...married. To someone who loves me unconditionally and despite what you might think, I want it to work. You need to move on, Damon—stop! Stop, I said stop!" Claire snapped as he tried to kiss her again.

Suddenly, the front door to the Gilbert household opened and Jeremy found Claire and Damon at the porch, and he cocked an eyebrow. "Claire, what's going on out here? We heard yelling."

Claire looked back at him and sighed. "It's fine, Jeremy. It's just Damon. I can handle this, it's okay."

"No. No, Claire. It's not okay. He wants to be a vampire." Damon turned to look at Jeremy, shaking his head. Claire could see something change in Damon's eyes, but she didn't think he would resort to such drastic measures. "You wanna turn it off? It's the easiest thing in the world! All you have to do is flip the switch, and…"

Damon yanked Jeremy out of the house and, before Claire could reach forward and pull Damon off of the Gilbert teenager, Damon took his hands and snapped, causing Jeremy's body to fall limp on the front porch.

"Damon!" Claire shouted as she shoved him off, away from the dead Gilbert on the porch. Damon stumbled back from her hard shove, and he looked down at Jeremy with crazed eyes.

At the wild exclamation from Claire, Stefan opened the front door immediately to find Claire standing over Jeremy's dead body with recognition in her eyes—Jeremy had vampire blood in his system, and he would turn; it was inevitable. Elena appeared at the threshold, dressed for bed, and seeing her brother dead on the floor, she let out a cry and dropped. The human shook her brother's shoulders as Damon and Claire shared a glance and Stefan looked over at the broken Damon. Claire stepped forward and began to shove Damon off the porch.

"Get out of here! Get out of here before I take a stake and drive it through your heart myself."

Damon watched her as she looked at him with serious eyes, and he recognized quickly where he knew them from. Those were the same eyes she looked at him when he did something unbearable, but most of those times it was because he'd done something to his brother. This time, it was because he'd done something to her. Damon backed away off the porch, seemingly driven away by her powerful snap, and he disappeared into the night.

"Come on. Let's get him inside before someone sees," Stefan said to Elena as the teenage girl cried over her brother's body, coming to the same realization as the rest of them—that Jeremy would turn into a vampire in a short while. Tears leaked and wouldn't stop flowing as Stefan carried her brother's body into the Gilbert house, and Claire helped Elena get up from the floor and go inside. The blonde vampire shut the door as Stefan set Jeremy down on the couch, but not before he realized something and gasped. "Elena…"

For a moment, Elena stopped crying just long enough to look up at Stefan and see him hold up Jeremy's hand, which glistened because of a piece of jewelry that looked all too familiar.

"The Gilbert ring?" Claire whispered, confused. Elena walked over and grabbed Jeremy's hand to examine the ring, and she came to the slow realization that her brother was not dead—that he would wake up as a human again, and not a vampire.

At least, she hoped.

"He saw the ring," Stefan reasoned to Claire as they watched Elena rock Jeremy back and forth with wet eyes on the couch, waiting for him to wake up. They kept their voices to a whisper so that the human couldn't hear. Stefan was devastated with the actions of his brother, and he was desperate to find an excuse. "That's why he did it. He knew."

Claire shook her head as she leaned back against the threshold between the kitchen and the hallway. She was disappointed in Damon; even though she was angry at him for killing Lexi, he went over a line killing Jeremy. He hurt someone that he cared about. He hurt Elena, personally. It was the fact that Damon had not learned from his mistakes that had her finished with him completely.

"Stefan, he didn't see that ring. Trust me."

"It's Katherine," Stefan tried again, crossing his arms. Claire sighed and closed her eyes, trying not to listen to Stefan's hopefulness of his brother's redemption. "She got under his skin. She undid everything that was good about him."

"Don't you get it, Stefan?" Claire snapped coldly, pulling her head up to lock eyes with the younger Salvatore. "He's never gonna change! There is nothing good about Damon Salvatore! He doesn't want to feel, all he wants to be is hated. He killed Lexi and now he killed Jeremy; he went too far. There is no redemption for him! You're just gonna have to accept that."

Stefan shook his head. "If you really believe that, why'd you kiss him?"

Claire thought to herself, trying to come up with the real reason that she knew was in her heart. Eventually, she found it. With a shrug, she responded. "Because I was stupid, okay? I thought that Elena was right, that there was something good about him at last. But he's reckless...impulsive...and I can't do it anymore." She scoffed and looked up at her friend with a blank expression. Her shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. "I hate him, Stefan. I've always hated him. Maybe there were times when I saw something that could be salvaged, but it's gone. Right now, I don't see that changing."

Stefan leaned against the threshold. "Because of Lexi or because of Jeremy?"

Claire looked over at Elena with Jeremy on the couch, and she shrugged again. "Both." Her eyes moved back to Stefan. "You lied to me, Stefan. You went along with his lie. You let me believe that Sheriff Forbes was the one who did it. Why?"

Stefan hung his head. "Because I knew that, if you found out, there would be no turning back for you." He put his head back against the threshold. "I knew you would hate him again, and I thought I could avoid that. I thought, finally, that things could go back to the way they used to be." Things were silent, and Claire didn't need to confirm Stefan's thoughts because she already had. "Claire, I'm sorry for lying. I really am."

Claire nodded and kept her focus on Elena and Jeremy. She watched as Jeremy gasped and woke up right in Elena's arms, but the two vampires didn't move. After a while, the blonde vampire looked over at her friend.

"I know, Stefan."

Damon walked into the boarding house, his mind numb and his heart aching. He knew that, in one spilt second of a bad judgment, that he had ruined everything. All the progress he'd made…it all went away in one split second. He saw the look in Claire's eyes; the hatred that rested beneath the surface. The thought made his head spin, and he looked down to find the bourbon glass that he had been nursing before going over to the Gilbert's house. He reached down and grabbed it, but he didn't drink the small contents inside of the cup. Instead, he threw it—causing the glass to shatter all around the fireplace. Ever fiber of his being wanted to not feel, but that was practically impossible now. As much as he hated it, there was something within of him that began to feel the hurt he harbored inside.

---

Caroline Forbes sat in her hospital bed her eyes shut and her body on the verge of good rest. The television played in the background, but was muted for her comfort. The light was beginning to bother her, so when her eyes opened and her body told her to shift, she turned around at the television to turn it off. Instead, she found Elena standing over her bed, making her gasp in surprise.

"Elena?"

Katherine tilted her head at the young, pretty blonde, and smiled at her. "Hi, Caroline."

Caroline sighed and recovered from the startle, burying her head in her hands "What are you doing here?"

Katherine walked up to her bed with a smile that never dropped, and she leaned over Caroline and decided that she was done playing the role of the innocent little Elena. "My name is Katherine. I was hoping you could give the Salvatore brothers a message for me."

Caroline looked up at Katherine in surprise, but she didn't believe her one bit. The drugs, Caroline determined. It's the drugs. She sighed. "What are you talking about? What message?"

Katherine waited for the blonde to shift into a comfortable position before she said simply, "Game on."

"What—?" Caroline started, but was interrupted when Katherine pulled a pillow out from underneath Caroline's head and placed it over the blonde's face. Caroline's screamed muffled and Katherine pressed the pillow down harder, fighting Caroline as she struggled weakly against her vampire strength. The blonde kicked and flailed and screamed, but eventually, her hand moved to the side of the hospital bed and Katherine watched it drop, rendering the pretty young blonde teenager dead.

For now, anyway.

"A text would've sufficed," said a glum Amelia as she stepped out of the shadows. With a devious smirk upon her lips, Katherine turned around to face the youngest King sibling who oozed judgement. However, Katherine didn't let it get to her.

"Yeah, but it wouldn't have been as dramatic." With a shrug, Katherine brushed past the younger vampire and walked out of the hospital while Amelia scoffed in disbelief at the doppelgänger's actions.

---

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