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*

18. Memory Lane

Another long chapter, guys; sorry. But bare with me! Things should start picking up soon, I hope. There are multiple scene changes in this, but this is one of the rare times when I had to switch between so many people.

Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)

---

Memory Lane

"Miss King, do you think you could spare your handsome fiancé for one small dance?" Katherine asked teasingly, her eyes never flickering towards Clarissa. They remained focused on Christopher, and his conversation with Clarissa ceased at the interruption. Clarissa turned to face Katherine, but she didn't want to be rude.

"Of course, Miss Pierce. One dance," she promised and gave her husband a reassuring smile before walking off into the rest of the crowd at the Lockwood mansion. Giving Katherine a smile, Christopher held up his hand and Katherine held up hers as well.

"You look lovely tonight, Miss Pierce. As always," Christopher told her politely. It was rude not to compliment a lady on her appearance.

Katherine giggled. "Thank you, Mr. Fell. You look very handsome as well." They walked around in a circle before switching hands. Christopher spotted Damon in the crowd alone, watching them. He sighed.

"Damon Salvatore must be very upset that I've taken a dance from you. Didn't his brother escort you tonight?"

"Indeed he did," Katherine agreed as they held up two hands now to go around in another circle. "But Damon needs to concede that you are quite possibly the best dancer in the whole town. Clarissa is so lucky to have that on her wedding day."

"Yes. The date is fast approaching."

"Well, I'm sure it will be delightful." Katherine gave Christopher a loving smile and then looked elsewhere into the crowd and gave a look of approval. "Oh, looks like Damon found someone else to occupy his time."

As they came back around in a circle so that Christopher was facing Damon Salvatore, he found Claire holding Damon's hands as he stared at her with affection in his eyes. Claire peeked at Christopher from the side, almost as if on purpose. Immediately, Christopher broke away from Katherine without giving it a second thought.

"Claire?"

"Christopher, don't," Katherine warned behind him. But Christopher followed Claire as Damon led her away from the party and behind the door. He picked up speed and burst through the door they had disappeared into and shouted her name.

But when he opened the door, he was no longer in the Lockwood mansion. He was standing in the middle of the Grill, staring at Claire who was a few yards away from him at the pool table. She extended a cue stick and he stepped forward cautiously.

"Come on, take your shot," she spoke, a small smile playing on her lips. Christopher stepped forward again to go to her, but instead, he found someone coming around the corner with two drinks in hand.

"Be prepared to lose," Damon taunted as he walked over to Claire and kissed her, still holding the drinks in his hand. She smiled at him and laughed. Christopher felt an anger rise inside of him that he'd never experienced before.

"It hurts, doesn't it?"

He spun around to face Katherine, still dressed like she was in the Lockwood mansion. Her face was solemn and she looked back at Claire and Damon at the pool table. Seeing her eyes avert, Christopher followed them to find Damon leaning with Claire over at the pool table with his hands around her waist, showing her how to make a shot. She shook her head, obviously detesting his help but still allowing him to guide her.

"Now you know how I feel."

"That's ridiculous," Christopher scoffed and turned around to look at Katherine with narrowed eyes. "You're not in love with me."

"Aren't I?" Katherine challenged him, her doe eyes staring into his. "Why do you think I hated her? It wasn't for Damon, it wasn't for Stefan. It was for you."

Katherine's hand had come out to touch the side of his face, but Christopher looked back at Claire and Damon like a reflex. He felt a pang of jealousy overcome him when he saw his ex-best friend kiss his wife's cheek. Katherine's hand slid to Christopher's arm.

"You really never thought of me that way? At all?" All of a sudden, they were standing back in the Lockwood mansion with no one surrounding them. Katherine walked up to him and placed her hands on each side of his face. "You never thought of this?"

Katherine leaned forward and kissed him.

---

Christopher shot up in bed, the sheets pooling around his ankles as he probably kicked them off during the night. He had no shirt on, but was wearing pajama pants that he had bought sometime when Claire went to take him shopping for modern clothes. The dream he had still raced in his memory, and it all made sense when he found a modern version of Katherine on the bench at the end of his and Clarissa's bed, her head in her palm.

"It was not easy to get into your head. I'm impressed. Keep up the good feeding," she praised.

Christopher sighed. "What are you doing here? Where's Claire?"

Katherine shrugged. "How should I know? You were sleeping alone when I came in." A small smile played at her lips. "And I think that dream says enough."

Christopher scoffed. "Uh huh. Right, because you're in love with me. That's the funniest joke I've heard since I became a vampire."

Katherine watched him as he got up from the bed and walked to his dresser to grab a shirt. She eyed him with passion in her eyes and sighed. "Oh, you know it was the best thing that ever happened to you. Besides, you're so much…sexier nowadays."

The other vampire rolled his eyes. "I'm married, Katherine." He paused and muttered, "Not that that'll stop you, anyways."

Katherine's smile was infectious. "Come on. I turned you…there's got to be something there for me inside of your oblivious, Clarissa-loving heart."

Christopher peered back at her, now fully clothed, but he decided to make a rash decision. He flashed over to her and pinned her throat against the bed, causing Katherine to choke for a minute before recoiling. She threw him back, and he landed right at the dresser, causing some of the items from the furniture to come crashing down. Katherine sighed and got up from the bench at the end of the bed.

"I said you had good feeding practices, Christopher, but I didn't say you were indestructible. We both know I could rip you to shreds and do my nails at the same time."

Christopher got up from the floor and sighed. "What do you want from me, Katherine? Shouldn't you be annoying Stefan, per your usual?"

"I told you, I'm here to see you," Katherine insisted, but Christopher wasn't buying it. "Indulge me for a little while, please?"

"Fine. What are you doing back in town?"

"Three reasons. You, you, and you," Katherine said playfully as she counted up three fingers with each listing. Christopher frowned.

"You mean, Claire, Claire, and Claire." Katherine said nothing and he laughed at her. "You think I don't know what you're trying to do? It's a petty move, Katherine. Trust me, I know much more about you than you think. I won't fall for it."

The doppelgänger groaned desirably and reached out to trail her finger across Christopher's chest. He didn't move, only because he was waiting to see what she'd do. "Don't you want to try it though? See what the hype is about? I bet the only person you've been with is your beloved Clarissa." She said the word with so much distaste that it was less mocking and angrier than it should've been.

His hand reached down to catch her finger just as it neared the waistline of his pajama pants. Katherine giggled and he threw her hand back to her side. "I'll pass."

"Fine," the vampire agreed, amused. "Then get a drink with me. I'm sure we could both use one."

"You turned my wife into a vampire, tortured her for three weeks, forced her to admit to me that she was a vampire, and then turned me to get back at her. Then, you tried to have me killed and I ended up trapped in a tomb for a century and a half," Christopher listed, scoffing. "I don't want to get a drink with you."

"I'll make you a deal," Katherine promised, stepping forward to come face-to-face with him. They were inches apart, but Christopher didn't move, again trying to figure her out first. He was trying to be smart about this—she'd already come in contact with Stefan, Damon, and Claire, so this was his one shot to change everything. And, potentially, he could. "You supply me with drinks downstairs and I will answer your questions. Just spend the day with me."

"You're that desperate for company?" Christopher almost laughed.

Katherine's lips turned up childishly. "I'm that desperate for you."

---

When Stefan came to, he could feel that something was wrong. He could sense someone in the house that wasn't supposed to be there. His bright green eyes snapped open and he stared at the ceiling, trying to pinpoint the location of this abnormality. He soon realized that it was nowhere in the house other than his room. He shot straight up in his bed only to see Amelia standing at this desk a few feet away, recognizing his consciousness.

"A—"

Amelia flashed over to him and clamped her hand down on Stefan's mouth to keep him from saying anything. Their faces were so close that he could smell the shampoo in her hair and the perfume on her skin. Stefan breathed through her hand, and she felt his hot breath tickle the skin. Amelia gulped and whispered lowly.

"We have to be quiet," she said, her voice barely able to be heard by even him. Stefan nodded, and she removed her hand hesitantly, bringing it to her side. Stefan gulped down a lump in his throat.

"What are you doing here?" he said quietly at the same volume she was at. Amelia sat down on his bed with caution.

"We need to talk," she said, shaking her head. "But not here. Is there somewhere we can go?"

Stefan looked around his room to think to himself, but eventually, he thought of a place outside of his home that they could talk in. First of all, though, he needed to know the subject of the conversation.

"Talk? Talk about what?"

Amelia was silent for a long time, her grey eyes pouring into the younger Salvatore's. "Katherine. We need to talk about Katherine."

---

Before heading over to Jenna's barbecue that she'd been invited to by both Elena and Alaric, Claire went to go grab a drink at the Grill. She ordered a shot of tequila, needing a head start for the day, and she knocked it back without even thinking twice. Things were fine with her and Christopher—the only reason she wasn't with him this morning was because of the barbecue, and she had left a text telling him where she was so he could join. Her problem was with Damon, who just so happened to show up at the Grill while she was there, most likely to annoy her. She caught sight of him as she knocked her drink back and came back to a horizontal position and sighed.

"What do you want, Damon?"

"So this is where you spend your time when you're not stabbing people in the back."

She rolled her eyes. "I never stabbed you in the back. I tricked you so that Elena could know more about Katherine and I could, ideally, find out why the hell I have a psychotic bitch set on destroying me. But if my memory serves me right, you've done way worse to me over the years. Consider it payback."

Without warning, she got up from the barstool and left a bunch of bills down on the counter for the bartender. She wouldn't have been so bitter to him if it hadn't been for his mouth running off about her being exactly like Katherine. If she were being truthful, it had bothered her to no end. Not that she would ever be truthful to Damon. As she tried to leave, he gave her a sour smile and ignored her comment.

"Where are you going?"

She smiled at him, equally as acidic. "Away from you."

Damon shrugged from his seat as he watched Claire attempt to leave. "Okay. See you at Jenna's barbecue."

Of course, this stopped Claire right in her tracks so that she turned around to face Damon, who was staring at the alcohol on the shelves beyond the counter. Claire opened her mouth sharply.

"How…did you know about Jenna's barbecue?"

Damon scoffed. "It was my idea." Claire arched an eyebrow. "Jenna went to high school with Mason Lockwood, so I figured a social gathering would be a good way to get to know the guy. So I told Ric to tell Jenna and—"

"Does Elena know you're going to be there? Because neither one of us are a big fan of yours right now."

Before Damon could answer, one of the waitresses interrupted when she brought Damon a box, causing him to smile. "Perfect! Thank you." Claire looked down at the box and watched as he looked up at her. "I'm hoping this peach cobbler will pave the way."

Claire laughed. "You think a peach cobbler is going to make up for killing her brother?"

Damon shrugged. "No, but Jenna's sure to like it." He smirked and got off of the bar, sliding right past Claire. She frowned, unamused at his behavior.

"What are you up to?"

Damon stopped right next to her, just by her ear. "I'm gonna put some silver into Mason Lockwood and prove he's a werewolf." He smiled bitterly and instantly dropped it. "See you at the barbecue."

---

"So," Katherine started as she sat down on the armchair in the parlor. Christopher passed her the glass of bourbon and took the supply of alcohol to his own seat on the couch. "I heard you and the Scooby gang had a recent werewolf sighting. That must've come as a surprise."

The night that Claire, Damon, Elena, and Alaric had gone to the Duke campus to learn about werewolves, Christopher, Caroline, and Stefan had encountered one. Mason Lockwood, most likely. Tyler had stopped it before the werewolf could bite any one of them with a fatal injection, but they had cut it pretty close.

He nodded. "We did. But what do you know about werewolves?"

Katherine shrugged and sipped her bourbon. "I know…not to pet one. Their bite kills, Christopher. It's best to stay clear of them during a full moon."

"And you know this…how?"

"Who do you think was responsible for ridding this town of vampires in 1864?"

"The Founding Families, obviously."

"Spearheaded by…?"

"The Lockwoods."

Katherine took another sip of alcohol. "You remember the Founder's Ball, don't you? The one that you were dreaming about?" He nodded. "Well, that was before Stefan and Damon knew I was a vampire. Before I even turned you or Claire. Henry approached me that night and told me that he looked into the recent attacks; they weren't vampires, they were something else."

"Werewolves," Christopher filled in.

Katherine nodded. "But there was something about George Lockwood that struck me as odd. From the moment I met George, I knew he'd be a problem."

"So all the Lockwoods are werewolves?"

"The werewolf gene runs in the Lockwood family, not that they're all wolves," she corrected him, pointing a slender finger.

"So is it just the Lockwoods, then?"

"No. There are others. Not many," Katherine explained. "They're practically extinct. They mainly exist now in…books and really bad movies." She downed all the bourbon in her glass and smirked. "Okay! It's my turn now."

"Your turn?" he questioned, immediately realizing that he'd walked into a Katherine Pierce signature trap. "That wasn't the deal, Katherine."

Katherine leaned forward and passed Christopher the empty glass so he could use it for himself. "But that's how a drinking game works, sexy. It takes two to play, you know."

Christopher didn't want to play, but it seemed that he was the only willing participant. He took the bourbon glass and poured some for himself while Katherine thought of his first question. When he had all the contents of alcohol in his glass, Katherine began.

"Do you really love her?" she asked, making a face. Christopher scoffed and looked away from her. "I'm asking to be mean or question your feelings, I simply just want to know. I could always tell her love for you wasn't as real as it was for Damon."

"Katherine, of course I love her. I love her even more now that we're both vampires, so your plan essentially backfired." Katherine scowled at him and he shook his head at her and drank. "Besides, you're wrong about Damon. She never loved him."

Katherine arched an eyebrow. "You really believe that?" she asked skeptically. He nodded at her. "Wow. You're more oblivious than I thought, then."

Christopher drank again and shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Just think about it," Katherine urged him, tilting her head curiously. "When has she ever really told you that she loves you? It's just a game with her. She can't handle love, it's not in her cards."

"Katherine, all you do is play games. And are you supposed to be the expert on her?" he asked the doppelgänger, turning his head to her with cold eyes. "You turned her because you were jealous of her. What does that say about you?"

Katherine supplied an empty hand. "I don't have a drink, you can't ask me any questions."

Christopher eyed her, trying to play her game, and then he figured it out. He downed the bourbon in the glass and slammed it down on the coffee table, barely batting an eye as the strong alcohol went down his throat. He then poured his guest a drink and handed it to her, earning Katherine to give him a sly smile. She took a sip, and he watched her with curious eyes.

"All right, now you have a drink. So tell me more about what you know about werewolves."

Katherine sighed and drank. "Well, back at the Founder's Ball—"

Christopher cut her off. "Katherine, I don't want to hear anymore stories about the past. Tell me what you know or I'm leaving."

"Yes, you do," Katherine pressed, nodding at him. He cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "Christopher, stories from the past are exactly what you want to hear. George came up to me that night, and I threatened him and confronted him about his secret. He tried to leave, but I kept him back. Werewolves are strong but…not as strong as vampires."

"What did he want?" Christopher asked, intrigued. Katherine fell silent, refusing to speak as she continued drinking the alcohol in her cup. He straightened on the couch out of annoyance. "Really? We're gonna do this again?"

Katherine smiled coyly and slid the bourbon glass back to him for another round.

---

"Why is she in town?" Stefan asked Amelia as they sat down at a table in the Grill together. He had changed into actual clothes and, though they didn't know it, when they'd left the house, Christopher and Katherine had still been upstairs. "And why'd she bring you back with her?"

Amelia shrugged. "I don't know. Her answer changes every day. One minute, it's Damon…one minute, it's you…another, it's Christopher…then, it's Claire…"

"Christopher?" Stefan repeated, dumbfounded. Amelia nodded. "What's he got to do with anything? Why would Katherine come back for him?"

"She claims she's in love with him or something. It's either that or she's trying to get back at Claire. Take something of hers like Claire did because…apparently she took Damon away from Katherine." Amelia snorted. "Which never really made sense to me. That's why, when I learned Katherine was the one who made Claire into a vampire because of Damon, I turned against her. I'd always thought my sister died because…I don't know, she got caught in a fire and had vampire blood in her system or something. Not that Katherine stabbed her and purposely fed her vampire blood so she'd die and turn."

He shook his head. "Katherine didn't stabbed her, she drowned her. Then she tortured her for three weeks until Emily Bennett turned on Katherine, too. Emily was supposed to take her to the church before it burned, but instead, she made Claire a daylight ring and told her about me and Damon."

Amelia was silent before she took in a deep breath. "God, that's even worse." She rubbed her head, brushing her bangs out of the way as she did so. "I can't believe I ever…admired that bitch. I'm such an idiot."

"She's the one who turned you, isn't she?" Stefan asked quietly from beside her, watching as his old friend beat herself up over it. Amelia looked up at him and eventually nodded.

"Yeah. It was after the church had burned and the vampires were gone. A month later, Katherine found me living on the streets of Delaware and she made me a vampire. She didn't know I was Clarissa's sister until later, but…I don't know, she still wanted to keep me around." She propped her head up with her hand. "I think I'm just a pawn now. She has me running around town trying to destroy Claire's life. Today, I was supposed to get you to turn against her." Amelia shook her head. "I won't do it."

Stefan snorted. "You can't. Claire and I have been friends since the beginning, nothing will never change that." Amelia nodded to herself, as if processing it. "And…since we're so close, she…she kind of—"

"She told you, didn't she? About Michael?" Amelia cut him off, leaning back in her chair. Stefan hung his head and nodded. "Well, I can't say I'm surprised. But I'm not looking for pity, Stefan. In fact, I don't want it."

He shook his head. "I wasn't going to give it you, I promise." Amelia was always a hardheaded girl—almost as hardheaded as her sister. "But it just makes a whole lot of sense. That day you vomited in the garden, that was because of…of the baby, right?"

"Yeah, that'd be a little weird if I threw up because of a bunch of roses and tulips, wouldn't it?" She chuckled. Stefan did the same, reliving the memory. Amelia smiled through her laughs. "God, you were so worried about me. You thought I had come down with some kind of flu, but you still insisted upon trying to take care of me. Eventually, your father had to come and pry you away because he was worried you'd get sick."

"I always hated him for that. It was one of the last times I saw you for a good five minutes." He paused for a while as the silence ensued.

Amelia glanced up at Stefan, capturing his eyes at last. "Why did you try to stay with me, Stefan?" she whispered, confused. "Back then, I could've been sick with something lethal, and you knew that. Your father knew that, which was why he took you away. But why did you want to stay?"

Stefan looked at her for a moment and almost spilled the truth. Instead, he cleared his throat and averted his eyes, letting them sweep across the public restaurant. "You know, I…um, I don't think I should be the one to tell you this, but I feel like it'd be wrong of me if I didn't tell you."

Amelia leaned forward and shrugged. "Tell me what?"

Stefan put his lips together. "Claire's…not your real sister, Amelia."

---

"Thanks for inviting me, Jenna. And thanks for letting me bring Caroline along. She could use a nice distraction," Claire thanked Jenna graciously as she helped Elena's aunt set up for the barbecue in the Gilbert kitchen. Elena was off with Caroline somewhere, and Claire had supplied the young vampire with chips to keep her cravings down. As it turned out, she wasn't nearly as controlled as they all thought—she almost killed Matt the night she went to Duke. It seemed that trip was beneficial for no one but Elena.

"It's no problem," Jenna said, waving her hand dismissively. "But she's not the plus one I'm worried about." Claire looked up at the young woman to find her arching an eyebrow. "Why is Damon coming?"

Claire snorted. "Because your boyfriend's looking for a charity case." She fit a chip into her mouth and processed it. "So you're not a big fan of Damon's, either?"

"Not since Elena told me that he kissed you." Claire tensed at Jenna's exclamation, and Jenna sighed. "To be honest, I knew before she told me. You two were kissing on the porch…it was kind of hard to miss." The vampire sighed heavily and put another chip in her mouth. "But he needs to keep his hands to himself. You're married, aren't you?"

Claire nodded, but felt an overwhelming pang of guilt overcome her. It wasn't just a one-sided kiss; she'd participated, too. She wished she hadn't, but she did. "Don't worry. He's, uh, he's not gonna do it again."

"Ahh! Good news! Found the shot glasses," a voice boomed, and Claire and Jenna turned around to see Mason Lockwood enter the kitchen. Claire felt uncomfortable around the very person that could kill her, but she wasn't Damon. She wasn't paranoid.

Jenna laughed. "You're here ten minutes and already I'm back under the bleachers at the pep rally."

"It's just like old times, huh?" Mason asked her, pulling his friend closer to him in a hug as they laughed and reminisced. "Only I didn't swipe this bottle from my old man."

Claire looked down at the alcohol, but decided against it. "I think I'm gonna go call Christopher. See where he is. He should be here by now. Excuse me."

Jenna and Mason watched her go out of the kitchen with her phone in her head, ready to call her husband. Claire stepped out onto the porch and put her phone up to her ear as she called Christopher's cell phone that he was fully equipped to use. Instead of getting him, however, she reached his voicemail. When the beep sounded, Claire sighed.

"Hey. Where are you? I sent you a text about Jenna's barbecue…I don't know if you got it or not, but…" Claire turned around sensing someone else, and she found Caroline listening in as she came out onto the porch with a bowl of chips in her arm. Claire turned around to herself and said into the phone, "Just…call me back."

"Was that Christopher?" Caroline asked as soon as Claire ended the call. The young vampire went around to sit in the outdoor chairs on Elena's porch to get more comfortable. Claire, however, just stood by one of them and nodded.

"Yeah. It's weird, I can't get a hold of him. I mean…I told him he didn't have to come, but I would like to think he'd want to," Claire mumbled to herself, already worried. Caroline shrugged.

"I'm sure he's fine." She crunched a chip in her mouth and groaned. "God, I cannot stop eating! Is that normal?"

Claire nodded. "Yeah. It's great to sublimate the cravings for a while. But we should really curve you on the human stuff so you don't attack Matt again."

Caroline shook her head. "Matt and I broke up."

The other vampire dropped her small smile. "Oh…Caroline, I'm sorry."

Caroline waved her hand. "No, it's okay. Really. I think I just realized that…well, he wasn't enough for me, you know? I want…I want passion. I want someone who makes me feel good or…or bad, even. Someone I can be myself around, no restrictions at all."

Claire shrugged. "Well, if that's what you want, then go for it."

"What about you?" Caroline peered up at her with a questionable look. Her sire arched an eyebrow. "Does your husband make you feel that way? I don't know…like…like you just hate him so much that you love him?"

The two blonde vampires stared at each other, one awaiting an answer and one processing the odd question. Before Claire could come up with a response, Elena walked out onto the porch, swinging herself out of the door to look at them.

"Hey, the food's ready."

"Finally!" Caroline exclaimed, setting her chips down and standing up. "I'm starving."

The young vampire left her sire standing outside, still confused over the question she'd been asked and where it came from. Something was peculiar about Caroline; something that she didn't quite understand yet.

---

"If you're not going to tell me anything more about the werewolves, then you need to tell me something else," Christopher warned Katherine while she drank more alcohol. "You need to tell me why you came back to town."

Katherine rolled her chocolate eyes. "I already told you."

"I'm not a reason, Katherine," he almost snapped, and Katherine saw the seriousness in his eyes, too. "You and I both know that you're lying to me. You told Stefan the same thing."

"Yeah, I was lying to him. But I'm not lying to you, okay? Just...seeing Stefan with Elena really pisses me off," she urged, putting her glass down on the coffee table. This time, she poured her own glass. Her companion scoffed and looked elsewhere in complete disbelief, but Katherine just pushed on. "Look, I might've been…with Damon and Stefan back in 1864, but you don't know the truth. All that time, I wanted you."

"You're only saying that to get me to turn on my wife," Christopher said, seeing through her like she was transparent. Katherine gave a look of offense to him. "You know she'd be devastated if I ever betrayed her, so you're trying to make me believe that this is real. But it's not."

"Yes, it is," Katherine hissed, tired of beating around the bush. Her eyes met Christopher's. "Don't you remember 1864? You can't tell me that you didn't feel anything between us. At that Founder's Ball, it was all there. That was the night I decided that I was going to turn you—not because it was an act of revenge on Claire whenever I decided to turn her, but because I wanted you. We danced that night and you said I was both strong and beautiful. That anyone would be lucky to have me."

Christopher laughed to himself. "I was being polite, Katherine. I was engaged to Claire. Do you really think that dance meant something more to me?"

"You never treated me like I was a prize," Katherine whispered, almost hurt at his dismissal of her reasoning. "You treated me like I was a person, not an object. With Stefan and Damon, it was all about competition. About who could win me over." Getting up, Christopher grabbed a glass from behind the couch, unable to handle Katherine's presence without the help of alcohol. "I didn't try to kill you by putting you in that church, Christopher. Believe me, I was going to take you with me. Claire was the one who was supposed to die. I wanted a life with you."

Things had turned for him. Instead of laughing, he just looked at Katherine over the couch and sighed. "Why are you telling me this?"

Katherine shrugged. "Because you deserve better than her. You do. I'm telling you, she'll never love you as much as she loves him." The female vampire's eyes roamed across his face with a sincerity that Christopher could not tell whether it was false or not. "And deep down, you know that."

---

Stefan stared at Amelia as she processed this information, completely shell-shocked. He didn't blame her one bit—she'd just realized that the father of her child, the man who raped her, was her half-brother. If that wasn't sick, Stefan didn't know what was. Amelia's hand shifted to wrap around her lips, wiping them free of shock as she stared at the table and thought.

"I can't believe this," she whispered, shaking her head. "I…I was…" Amelia looked up at Stefan sharply, and he saw her eyes water. "No. No, this has got to be a mistake."

The younger Salvatore shook his head. "It's not. Claire brought back the family lineage books on the Gilberts and the Kings. You aren't listed in the King line, you're listed in the Gilbert's. Your mom gave you up to Marianne when you were born and then left Mystic Falls."

Amelia fell silent. "How's Claire taking this?"

"She wanted to tell you the next chance she had, but…since you came to see me first…" Stefan trailed off for a moment, seeing the look of disgust on the beautiful blonde vampire's face. Feeling sorry for her, he reached out and touched her hand. "Look, everything's gonna be fine. You and Claire are still going to be sisters, even if you're not blood related."

Amelia looked down at her hand that Stefan had taken, and he realized very suddenly how inappropriate it was. In fact, he hadn't even thought about it until after he'd grabbed her hand, but he did have a girlfriend. Elena, his mind reminded him. Elena.

Assuming she knew this, Amelia slipped her hand out of Stefan's and shifted uncomfortably. "Doesn't this make me your girlfriend's…great-great aunt or something?"

"You know about Elena?"

Amelia scoffed. "It's hard not to know. Katherine despises her. I don't know if it has something to do with you or because the girl just looks like her. But she's not a big fan." Amelia paused. "I don't think Katherine could hate anyone as much as she hates my sister, but…well, Elena's probably a close second."

The only sound for quite some time was the sounds of conversations around them. Eventually, Stefan sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, Amelia…"

The girl looked up at him. "Don't be sorry, Stefan," she interrupted him, shaking her head. Stefan waited for her to explain. "It's your life. I can't be the one to tell you how to live it, now can I?"

Stefan hung his head and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Another silence resulted before Amelia took out a deep breath. "Okay. So here's what we're going to do, you're going to ask me whatever you want about Katherine and I'll try to answer as much as I can. I don't know how much time I have left here and I want to make it as beneficial as I can for both of us." She leaned forward and grabbed one of the fries that were in the bucket the waitress had brought over. Putting it in her mouth, she looked back at Stefan. "Ask me anything."

The two younger vampires stared at each other in understanding before the questions really began.

---

"Dress! Ballerina!" Jenna shouted.

"Puppy!" Caroline yelled. "Puppy! Puppy…with a tutu!"

Claire and Elena listened to the rest of the bunch in the living room as they shouted out their answers to the Pictionary game they were all invested in. They'd offered to get the dessert ready for the group, needing some space away from the coy Damon who had spent most of the barbecue trying to get into Mason's head.

"Okay…dog. Hound dog!" Aunt Jenna exclaimed excitedly. "You ain't nothing but a hound dog!"

"Dances with wolves." Mason's answer silenced the rest of them and he earned a suspicious look. Mason just smiled in his relaxed position in one of the chairs, but said nothing else.

"Mason wins…again," Damon added.

"How is that a wolf?" Jenna chided as Damon left the living room at that time, letting the next person have their turn. He walked out of the living room and went to the kitchen, where he found Claire taking out the peach cobbler from its box and Elena grabbing a bunch of plates to set at the dining table.

"Aunt Jenna's getting tipsy," Damon warned the two as he walked around the center island to Claire's spot. Elena looked up at them and sighed to Damon.

"Will you stop plying her with alcohol?" the teenager chastised.

"Well, I want her to like me," he defended himself. Claire snorted.

"That's physically impossible." She turned her body to him. "In her eyes, you're just the guy who kissed a married woman."

Damon's blue eyes rolled around dramatically. "If only she knew how much you wanted that kiss."

Claire grimaced at him and turned back to the peach cobbler, avoiding Damon's gaze and looking straight into the living room at the smug Mason Lockwood and the rest of them that sat on the couch. "Any progress with the Wolverine?"

Damon came up behind her, his lips right at her ear. "He's my new BFF."

Claire shuddered and moved away from him, earning Damon to smirk at her in a complete contradiction to what most men would do. The vampire grimaced, only furthering Damon's amusement, but they were interrupted when Elena walked into the kitchen and looked at Elena.

"There you are!" The elder human looked at Damon and Claire behind the center island. "Isn't this fun?" She smiled.

"Yes. Thank you so much for inviting me," Damon said immediately. Claire shook her head and walked around Jenna to grab the pie cutter from Elena, who was by the cutlery.

"Did I have a choice?" Jenna deadpanned.

With a scowl, the handsome vampire moved closer to her and murmured, "I know what you must think about me…"

"No, you don't," Jenna cut him off angrily. "You've never dated you. I have dated many yous."

"Well…I'm a work in progress." Elena handed Jenna the pie cutter from the cutlery while Claire stood back with her arms crossed and her eyes surveying Damon, who was staring right back at her. A smile played on his lips before she scoffed and turned and Damon caught sight of the silver next to her. "Ooh! These are fancy."

The elder Salvatore walked over to the cutlery as Jenna sighed. "Thanks. My mother's silver set."

As soon as Jenna said the words, Elena, Claire, and Damon all looked up at each other with a mutual understanding. Damon reached into the bottom of the cutlery box and grabbed a silver knife with a sly smirk appearing on his full lips.

---

Christopher sat down on the couch and poured himself a glass of bourbon. "You could be lying, you could be telling the truth. But if there's one thing that I know for sure, Katherine, it's that I don't love you." He leaned back with the alcohol in his hand and gave her a bitter smile. "In fact, I might even hate you."

The female vampire snorted. "If there's something you should know by now, it's that love…hate…it's such a fine line. Damon and Claire can't tell the difference. Love and hate, it's all one thing for them." She paused and watched her companion take a sip of his bourbon in thought. Eventually, Katherine sighed. "But I can wait."

"Go ahead. Hold your breath," Christopher muttered.

Katherine ignored him and moved on. "Anyway, George Lockwood was causing all sorts of trouble. He…used the vampires to cover up his own tracks. Told the Founding Families about us. But, he was willing to strike a deal."

"What kind of a deal?"

"A deal to rid the town of vampires," Katherine answered as she leaned forward and poured alcohol again. It was somewhere along the lines of her fourth or fifth glass. "He and I came up with a plan to burn the vampires in the church. 27 vampires were supposed to be killed, I was supposed to be among them. But he had an escape plan for me. However, things didn't go as according to plan. Emily turned on me and helped Claire rather than kill her and you were caught and brought to the church. Had I known you were inside, I would've taken you out with me."

Christopher shook his head in disbelief at her. "You were the mastermind behind the entire thing?"

The female shrugged. "I practically lit the match."

Scoffing, the other vampire just stared at her incredulously, seeing the color of red around her. He thought Katherine had sent him to the tomb on purpose, but he'd always thought that she just told someone he was a vampire so they would come for him as well. What he didn't know was that this was all premeditated; that she planned for all those vampires to die.

"Those vampires were your friends. Pearl…Henry…Harper. You just sold them out like they were filth!"

She agreed, "Without blinking."

---

"Mason," Damon announced as he brought the peach cobbler over to the dining table so they could eat the delicious dessert. Alaric and Mason were sitting at the table while Jenna was in the kitchen getting something for their last meal. Mason looked up at Damon with a smile. "Why don't you start us off?"

Damon placed the peach cobbler in front of Mason with the silver server handle in front of him. Mason's eyes flickered from the cobbler to Damon, and he just gave the vampire another smile.

"Sure." Reaching forward, Damon watched as Mason turned the plate around and grabbed a piece of the cobbler that was pre-cut, and instead of using silverware, he just used his hands to take the piece out. He ate some of the crumbs that came off and looked back and forth between Damon and Alaric, playing dumb. The testosterone in the room shot up the rough. "Oh! What am I? I apologize, I'm an animal."

Mason licked his fingers as Damon hummed under his breath and Alaric laughed to cover up the awkwardness. "So, Mason, you and Jenna never dated?"

"She was always lost in Logan Fell land."

"Ah, my first mistake," Jenna reminisced, coming over to the table with a laugh. "Mason was a catch. He had girls lining up!"

"Really?" Damon exclaimed, feigning surprise as he sat down at the table at the chair opposite of Mason. "Huh. I always pegged you for a…lone wolf."

Mason grabbed his beer and shrugged. "Oh, I'm sure I wasn't half the lady killer you were." Damon and Mason stared at each other from across the table, the hidden innuendos finally showing their true meaning. Once Jenna rejoined the table, he rose his beer bottle. "How about a toast? To new friends!"

"Cheers!" the group chorused and threw their bottles together. From inside the living room, Claire watched the group at the table from the couch, but she didn't want to get into it. She could've been hanging out with the adults—she was one, after all—but she was too worried. Though she'd been texting and calling, she had heard nothing from her husband. Eventually, it got to the point where she started to make a list of all the terrible things that could've gone wrong with him.

"Would I be the worse sire in the world if I left you here and went back to the boarding house?" Claire asked Caroline as she straightened on the couch and stood up. Elena was taking down the pad full of sucky drawings the rest of them used to play Pictionary, but it wasn't her question to answer. She just oversaw Caroline and Claire as they spoke.

Caroline looked up at her with surprise. "You want to leave?"

Claire nodded. "Yeah…I just…I think it's a wife thing. I'm really worried about him, especially with Katherine out for me. It'd be just my luck that I'm…here while Katherine's trying to kill him or something to get revenge."

The younger vampire laughed it off. "Oh, come on! That's ridiculous. He's fine, he probably just didn't want to come with…you know, Damon here and everything."

Claire shook her head this time and pulled out her phone, but there were no notifications. She sighed. "He didn't even know Damon was coming, Caroline. Anyway, Damon's got it under control here with Mason. You'll be okay, right Elena?"

Behind Caroline, Elena nodded and shrugged. "Yeah. I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid, either."

Claire nodded at her and braced to go, but Caroline stopped her. "Take it from me, okay? There's nothing worse than a clingy girlfriend."

"I'm not being…clingy, Caroline. He's my husband and I'm worried about him. Trust me, you can handle the craving just…eat some food or something and I'll find you later and we can work on it," Claire suggested as she moved towards the door.

After taking two steps, Caroline shouted out, "Wait! Wait, can I come with you? I can drive you in my car."

Claire thought about it for a moment. She hadn't taken a car to Elena's house, she had simply just flitted from one point to another or had even taken the human route and walked. But knowing that this wasn't about the amount of exercise Claire had to endure, she sighed and realized that Caroline probably didn't want to be in a room full of a bunch of humans. She nodded.

"Okay. Sure, Caroline." Claire nodded, earning Caroline to nod, too. After saying goodbye to Jenna, Mason, Damon, and Alaric, she and Caroline went outside to get back to the boarding house. Claire immediately jumped into the passenger seat and tried Stefan this time to see if he'd answer, but he didn't. Just like Christopher, he went straight to voicemail, which was definitely peculiar.

While Claire was busy inside the car, Caroline walked around to the driver's seat and pretended to drop her keys. Once she was squatted down next to the back tire, she silently broke the seal on the tire, grabbed her keys, and climbed inside the car.

---

"So she was the one who set the vampires up in the tomb?" Stefan asked Amelia with disbelief in his eyes. Amelia nodded solemnly as she fit another fry in her mouth and watched Stefan process the information. She could see his disgust as he scoffed and crossed his arms. "Unbelievable. Unbelievable! I don't get it. Why would she do that?"

Amelia shook her head. "That, I have no clue about. She never told me why she had to fake her death. Obviously, it's because she's running from something, but…I-I never figured out what it was. She always said that you and Damon almost ruined it for her."

The younger Salvatore stared at Amelia blankly. "Are you kidding me?" She shook her head and Stefan scoffed. "We risked our lives to try and get her out of it, and we ended up becoming vampires. We tried to save her."

The blonde shrugged. "She didn't want to be saved, Stefan."

"So then Damon and I died for nothing!"

"No, Stefan," Amelia retorted, sighing. Still pissed, the Salvatore looked up at her and caught her gaze. "You didn't die for Katherine, you died for love. You love might've been misplaced, but…" The girl shrugged. "It's a very noble way to die, at least."

Things were silent before Stefan asked, "You said she found you on the streets of Delaware?" She nodded. "Did she just…turn you out of the blue?"

This time, her head moved side to side. "I was malnourished, I had gotten sick with the influenza…I was dying very slowly. She saved me." Amelia looked off into the crowd at the Grill in thought, but then coughed. "But it doesn't matter now. I'll never choose Katherine over my own sister. Or…well, my adoptive sister, I guess."

"So you think that's what she's here for?" Stefan filled in, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. "Claire? To ruin her life again?"

Amelia looked up at Stefan and nodded. "I think that's one of the reasons why she's here. But if there's anything I've learned about Katherine, it's that she can multitask." The girl paused for a moment and sighed. "And that there's always a secret agenda."

---

"So you escaped from the tomb because of George's help, but…what did he get in return?" Christopher asked Katherine as she stared down at the alcohol and sighed.

"Do you have anything other than bourbon? I'm starting to get bored with it."

"Answer the question and I'll raid Claire's tequila stash."

Katherine looked up at him. "Something that he wanted desperately." Christopher stared at her, awaiting clarification for the vague answer, but she just stood her ground. He scoffed.

"You can deal with the bourbon," he ordered, causing Katherine to scowl at him. He poured himself another glass as he spoke again. "So what was so drastic that you had to send 26 vampires to their death just to fake your own? What were you running from?"

Again, the female vampire gave another vague answer. "Everyone has a past, Christopher. Mine needed to stay far, far away." Katherine's next words were of the highest mockery. "But thanks to everyone's favorite trio, my plan fell apart. Claire was pitied by Emily, who kept her from the town while the roundup was going on and made her a daylight ring. Your parents found out about you being a vampire and they sent you off to the church with the rest of them. Stefan's father used his love for me against him; he poisoned Stefan's blood. Then Damon, being Damon, nearly ruined everything."

Of course, Christopher knew she was referring to how Damon and Stefan tried to get Katherine out of the cages before she was taken to the church and ended up getting shot. He scoffed at her distaste for the memory.

"They died for you and you consider them a problem?" Christopher asked, cocking an eyebrow. "You're even more heartless than I thought."

Katherine shrugged. "I didn't want to be saved."

---

"Jenna just brought out Guitar Hero," Mason exclaimed as he walked into the kitchen where Elena and Damon were hush-whispering about the person that'd just walked up to them. Upon Mason's arrival, they silenced. "It might be time to mutiny."

He put two empty beer bottles on the counter and Elena took them away with a shy smile. Damon locked eyes with Mason. "Well, I just happen to like Guitar Hero. So you, my friend, are barking up the wrong tree."

Mason stared Damon down and eventually scoffed. "Okay. Enough with the innuendos. You win. You're hilarious."

"Thank you." Damon smirked proudly.

"Come on, man, you don't think I know what this barbecue is about?" Elena surveyed the two men in front of them, both of them facing each other head-on. She was uncomfortable, but she knew she had to stay and make sure Damon didn't step out of line. She didn't trust him any more than Claire did.

The elder Salvatore narrowed his eyes accusingly. "How do you know about me? Your brother was completely clueless."

"It doesn't matter. I'm not your enemy, Damon."

"You tried to kill my brother," Damon retorted, shrugging. Mason looked at him with apologetic eyes.

"That was a mistake!"

"Really?"

"There was confusion. I couldn't chain myself up in time. I have no control once I shift!"

"Aw. What, no obedience school?"

"Damon," Elena warned him through her teeth. "Can we not do this…right now?"

The vampire waved his hand dismissively in front of Elena's face and Mason stepped forward. "I'm serious. Let's not spark some age-old feud that doesn't apply to us."

"You expect me to believe that you're in Mystic Falls planting peace trees?"

Mason shook his head at the heartless vampire that was trying to get inside of his mind. He spoke softly this time. "I lost my brother. My nephew lost his father, I'm here for my family. Let's be above this."

The wolf stuck out a hand for the vampire to take, and Elena and Damon shared a look with each other. Elena was obviously urging Damon to take the peace offering, and Damon finally reached forward and shook Mason's hand, negotiating a pact. But when Mason turned away without a word, Elena saw Damon staring after him with intent in his eyes. Elena was too smart to think that Damon would just let it go.

"Damon, don't," Elena said slowly, but Damon set his alcohol down on the silver set box that was closed and he pulled open the bottom drawer on it. Elena watched as he drew the silver knife, and she sighed as he walked away from her with a tight smirk.

---

As Caroline drove down the back roads to get to the boarding house, she sung, "Here we come! To the rescue."

Claire peered at her from the side. "Is there a reason you're being snippy with me right now?"

Caroline sighed. "It's my own drama, Claire. I mean…I'm sure you two will beat the odds and everything. Not that there's any study to pull odds from. Spending forever with only one person?" She scoffed. "You know, what is the ratio for vampire marriages these days? I'm guessing nil."

The elder vampire stared at her protégé for a moment before beginning to laugh uncontrollably. Caroline peeked at her sire with a raised eyebrow and Claire's laughter died down after a while.

"All right, Caroline. That's enough. I get it…heightened emotions and all, but keep the thoughts to yourself." It was just funny, watching as Caroline projected her own doom and gloom emotions on Claire. The younger vampire frowned.

"Sorry."

The two vampires sat in silence as Caroline drove speed limit to the boarding house. But only a few seconds passed in their silence before the two heard a noise from the back and the car started to slow without Caroline's control. They eventually stopped on the side of the road, and Caroline looked over at Claire with her lip between her teeth.

"Oh, crap. I think we have a flat."

---

"No takers for more drinks at the Grill?" Mason called out, disappointed as Alaric and Jenna both shook their heads and gave each other a knowing look. He laughed. "It's like I'm with a bunch of adults here!"

"I prefer the term role model," Jenna corrected, knowing Elena was in the kitchen talking with Damon. The wolf shrugged.

"Ah…okay. Well, thanks for having me! It was awesome." He hugged Jenna and then straightened to shake hands with Alaric. "Alaric? Catch that game next week?"

"Yeah. Looking forward to it."

"Hey, you know, I should…I should probably head out, too," Damon added as he walked out of the kitchen with Elena on his tail. Mason gave Damon a curt nod and left while Damon said goodbye to Jenna and Alaric. "Jenna. You are a wonderful hostess."

Elena rolled her eyes and watched as Damon grabbed her aunt's hand and kissed it chivalrously, but Jenna wasn't taking it. The human teenager laughed seeing Jenna rip her hand out of Damon's grasp.

"And you are a terrible artist."

Damon raised his eyebrows. "Is that the only thing that makes me terrible?"

Jenna narrowed her eyes into slits. "Still deciding."

"Good enough for me! Alaric…let's not catch that game next week."

With a smirk, the vampire left the Gilbert household with that and Elena stared after him, but she knew what Damon was going to do. It was wrong, she realized, for Damon to go stabbing Mason Lockwood. In a split decision, she shook her head.

"Uh…Jenna, I'm gonna head over to Stefan's. I'll be back soon," Elena lied as she grabbed her coat, keys, and walked out of the house before Jenna could even give her permission. When Elena stepped out into the cold, she found that Damon had already taken off to go to the Grill, and she took in a deep breath. She needed to find him before he did something he'd regret.

---

The sun was just setting down by the time they had come to a slow, and Caroline promised that it wouldn't take more than a few minutes for the tow to come. Claire agreed to wait with her instead of just flitting back to the boarding house because Caroline insisted that she didn't want to be alone. But Claire was running out of patience; the night had fallen, crickets chirped, and they were still waiting for a tow truck.

"What kind of idiots are these people? We've been waiting forever. It's not a big town!"

"I know," Caroline agreed, nodding. "It's…weird. You know, they said they'd be here by now."

The elder vampire sighed. "You know what, I'll just go to the boarding house and get my car after I make sure Christopher's okay—"

"No! Just…let me try the tow people again. And I'll use my aggro voice." Caroline brought her phone up to eyesight while Claire shrugged.

"Caroline, we're vampires. We can be at the boarding house in seconds…"

Caroline stepped in front of her as Claire tried to brush past to leave. "I can't just leave my car, Claire."

"Then we'll come back for it later."

"Just give me a minute, okay?"

"Just stay here with your car! Hopefully, by then, the two people will have come already and I can come back to give you a ride. But I've got to get back to the house, okay?" Claire stepped forward again, but this time, her protégé snapped.

"What's the rush? Why are you hurrying to get back to a relationship you know will never work?"

This time, the pissed-off blonde crossed her arms. "Excuse me?"

"Vampires are not made for monogamy, Claire! We hunt, we kill, and we bring a different person home every night!" Caroline shouted desperately. "You and Christopher are pretending to be human, but you're not!"

"I'm sorry," Claire hissed, the thought completely escaping her that Caroline was turned by her own blood. "But how long have you been a vampire? A week or something? Guess what, Caroline! I've been a vampire for over 100 years. And you will not take your own personal problems and project them onto me again, do you understand me?"

Caroline cowered for a moment under Claire's hard gaze, and the two female vampires stood for a while in complete silence until Caroline whispered, "I-I'm sorry, Claire. I was…just trying to be your friend."

With a sigh, Claire shook her head. "I can't…deal with this right now, Caroline. Okay?" She walked around the other blonde and found a pair of headlights coming towards them and turned around at Caroline again. "Look. There's your tow truck. I'll see you later."

"Claire, please!" Caroline reached out and grabbed Claire's arm hard, but Claire just slapped it away back to Caroline's side and spun around at her with eyes flaring. Before she could say anything, the tow truck pulled up to the both of them and surveyed the two.

"Hey, there. Someone call about a flat tire?"

Claire looked at the guy in the truck and then back at Caroline, who was looking at her with crazed eyes. Confused beyond belief, Claire scoffed. "Yep. She did."

This time, Caroline couldn't stop her from leaving. Claire walked away to start heading out to the boarding house, and in a moment, she was gone.

---

In the large alleyway between the Grill and the courthouse, Mason parked his car and climbed out of it so that he could go inside the facility and get a drink. He rolled up his sleeves, preparing for a good time, but he soon found Damon walking towards them. Damon blended into the night with his all-black ensemble.

"Damon?" Damon just smirked at the wolf. "What, more dog jokes?"

"Nah. Those got old." In one fluid motion, Damon just stuck the silver knife into Mason's heart and kept walking forward. Mason doubled over, coughed, and fell to the floor, but Damon left him there on the street to die while he went to go inspect the wolf's car.

Elena had tried to catch up to Damon before anything happened, but she realized she was a second too late. She broke out into a sprint once she saw Mason on the floor, and she jogged up to the dying wolf and gasped.

"Damon!" she shouted at the vampire in all black surveying the Lockwood's car. "Are you crazy? Why'd you do that?! He tried to make peace!"

Damon scoffed. "I don't make peace, Elena. Peace gets me killed." He opened the back of Mason's car without turning around to Elena, but the human teenager just watched in curiosity and confusion as Mason started to grasp at the knife in his chest. He pulled it out and let it fall to the ground.

"Damon…" Elena trailed off, causing Damon to turn around at the sound of Elena's warning and the knife dropping onto the concrete.

"You know," Mason started, getting up from the street. He sauntered toward Damon. "I think it was werewolves who started this whole silver myth. Probably for moments like this." Damon avoided Mason at all costs in fear of a very pissed-off wolf.

"Elena, get inside," Damon warned the human, and with only a moment of hesitation, Elena complied. Damon looked back at Mason. "Duly noted."

Mason felt the dry blood on his shirt and looked up at Damon with disappointment. "And I was really looking forward to last call." The wolf walked up to Damon, and the vampire tried not to cringe at the proximity knowing that a werewolf bite could kill a vampire. "Now you've made an enemy."

Damon's eyes amusingly traced over Mason, but the wolf turned and went back into his car, so Damon turned and went to go find Elena in the Grill.

After hearing Damon's warning, Elena had run inside the Grill to get into a populated area just in case Mason decided to do something drastic. She sighed around the people and looked around at residents that she knew. But what surprised her the most was when she saw Stefan sitting at a booth by the billiard table with Amelia King, the girl she'd seen at the Lockwood memorial.

"What do you think Katherine will do to her?" Stefan asked Amelia, never breaking eye contact. "Kill her?"

Amelia shook her head. "It's not about the kill for Katherine. At least, not yet. I think, right now, she's trying to isolate Claire. Wreck her relationships. She wanted me to make you turn against her, there's no doubt she's trying to do the same with Christopher, and she already told Claire about Lexi…which made her so pissed off at Damon that she's isolating herself from him. But I think Katherine's first priority is wrecking Claire and Christopher's marriage."

"Can't you convince her to stop?"

"She'll kill me and won't bat an eye, Stefan. Trust me, I've seen her kill our closest friends before."

"Well, we have to do something," Stefan pressed, leaning back in his chair. "If Katherine keeps coming after Claire, there's gonna be a lot more collateral damage than we need. Plus, with all the werewolves running around town…and not to mention the fact that we don't even know the real reason why Katherine's back—"

"Stefan?" Elena asked as she came up to the table he and Amelia were sitting at. Amelia and Stefan both broke their eye contact to see Elena walk up to them, looking back and forth between the two. Amelia surveyed Elena, but immediately deemed that it wasn't Katherine. Elena felt a wave of jealousy overcome her, Damon's words finally getting burned to her memory: Mrs. Amelia Salvatore.

"Elena?" Stefan realized immediately, straightening in his seat. "What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"No," Elena replied, but then amended her statement. "Well…yeah, I guess something's wrong, but…it can wait." Elena looked at Amelia. "I'm Elena."

"I know." Amelia gave the teenager a tight smile and looked over at Stefan and cleared her throat. "Um…Stefan told me about you."

"Elena, what happened?" Stefan pushed, concerned now. Elena looked at Amelia again and Stefan caught the gesture. "It's fine. Trust me, she's…she's here to help."

Elena looked back and forth between the two vampires. "It's just…it's just Mason Lockwood. Damon just…well, in short, he kind of made things a lot worse."

She looked elsewhere to see Damon sitting down at the bar as he ordered a drink, and Amelia and Stefan looked in that direction as well and saw the same thing. They turned around and shared a glance, knowing that it only added one more problem to their list.

---

"All right, I'm done playing games." Christopher set the bourbon glass down on the coffee table and looked up at the sly Katherine Pierce. "I want an honest answer. What are you doing back here?"

The doppelgänger groaned. "Haven't you heard a word I've been saying? I've told you five times over now."

"You've told me lies five times over now. Tell me the truth this time." Katherine was silent and Christopher scoffed. "Fine. Then I'll tell you what the truth is, or part of it, anyway. You came back here to finish what you started. You're trying to destroy Claire again."

Katherine shot Christopher a teasing glance. "Now that wasn't very creative. It's a given." Claire's husband scoffed at the female vampire, who just dropped her amused look. "But I want what I want, Christopher. And I don't care what I have to do to get it. My list of victims is a long one and I have no problem adding one more name to that list, even if it has to be short and sweet."

"If you wanted Claire dead, she'd be dead by now," Christopher retorted, getting into Katherine's mindset. "You've had a century to kill her and you haven't taken your shot. What are you waiting for?"

The cat-like vampire shrugged. "Nothing. I can still kill her if I want to. If I have to, I mean. I would prefer to keep her around to further her suffering, but I will drive a stake through her heart so fast she won't even see it coming from a mile away if need be."

Now that pissed him off. He was done playing Katherine's game, finished with her run-around tactics. Christopher flashed and had Katherine by the throat, but she flipped the tables and threw him onto the couch. He fought against her as she crawled on him, but she only purred seductively.

"Love; hate. Like I said, it's such a fine line. Now I see why it's so appealing to Damon and Claire," she whispered, her lips just at Christopher's ear. Christopher stopped struggling, finding it useless, and Katherine chuckled. "I guess you don't hate me as much as you thought you did, huh?"

With a growl, Christopher flipped their positions so they fell on the floor, and he kept one hand tightened around her hands and the other around her throat. His legs pinned her down as he hissed in her face, but this only made Katherine angrier. She wrangled her way out of his grasp and kicked him in the abdomen. She then flashed up, leaving Christopher doubled over on the floor.

"I don't want you seeing Claire anymore," Katherine snarled at him, from her position of absolute power. "I want you to tell her that your marriage is over. No more second chances." The strong vampire bent down and grabbed a fistful of Christopher's bronze hair and yanked it up so that he was looking her straight in the eye. From the base of his throat, Christopher let out a growl. "If you don't remove her from your life completely, I will kill everyone she has ever met while she watches and then I'll kill her while you watch. Do you understand me?"

A sick chuckle escaped Christopher's mouth. "So much for being in love with me, huh, Katherine?"

She bent down to be inches from his lips. "I am in love with you. And you're in love with me, too, you just don't know it yet."

"I have never and will never be in love with you, Katherine! What isn't processing about that?"

"You will," Katherine assured him once and for all before yanking his head up so his lips barely brushed across hers. "You'll see."

She was just about to close the space between them when the door flew open and someone knocked Katherine off of Christopher so the female vampire stumbled back. Katherine recoiled immediately to face Claire standing between her and Christopher, entirely pissed off.

"Touch my husband one more time," Claire warned. "And I will kill you."

Katherine snorted. "Like you could."

"What are you doing in this house, Katherine?" The blonde snarled while Katherine began to move and circle her. Claire didn't move, refusing to play Katherine's game.

"I thought it was pretty obvious."

"What do you want with him? What do you want with me?"

"You're asking the wrong questions," Katherine hissed as she came up behind Claire. "You know what would be a better one? Where am I going to kill you? How am I going to kill you?"

Claire shuddered as she felt Katherine's sadistic breath on her. "What, am I supposed to sleep with my eyes open from now on?"

Katherine chuckled. "Oh, Claire. Always so hateful." Finally, they came to face each other and Katherine stopped circling the blonde vampire. "It's gonna come back to bite you one day."

"You should know from experience, shouldn't you?" Claire snapped, and she saw a wave of fire beyond Katherine's eyes. Before either one of them could continue, the door to the Salvatore house flew open, and Christopher and Claire turned around to see Stefan and Amelia walk in together with concerned looks.

Claire turned around to see Katherine behind her, but instead, she found nothing but air.

---

Caroline sighed heavily as she turned on the tap water in the girl's bathroom at the Grill. She was so disappointed in herself for what she tried to do to Claire all day. Her sire's angry face kept popping up in Caroline's mind, almost shaming her. And it was just pure irony that, in that moment after she'd washed her hands, Caroline looked up in the mirror to find Katherine standing behind her with a peeved expression.

Slowly, Caroline turned around. "Katherine."

"Care to share how you couldn't follow through with one simple task?" scolded the other vampire. Caroline scrambled for an excuse.

"I…I tried, okay? But I couldn't exactly kidnap Claire! She's older and stronger than I am," she stuttered. Katherine was far from amused.

"Occupy her. That's all I asked."

Again, Caroline tried to come up with a plus to prevent Katherine from getting too angry with her over her failure. "I-I told her what you said about vampires not being monogamous and…you know, all that passionate…bad-boy stuff. And I-I think I…" Katherine stepped closer without saying a word, but it was the most frightening feeling Caroline had ever experienced. "I really think that I got to her!"

Katherine looked at the young newborn vampire with widened eyes. "God, what is it about you blondes? Thinking that you own the world. It's so annoying." Katherine shifted and Caroline swallowed hard as Katherine nodded. "But I hope you did get through to her, Caroline. Because let's not forget—I already killed you once. I can easily do it again."

Katherine turned to leave, and Caroline was soon left in the bathroom of the Mystic Grill, shaking from the experience of the frightening brunette who looked exactly like her best friend. After cooling herself down from the beads of sweat that had emerged because of Katherine's arrival, Caroline wallowed in her own self-pity at a table in the Grill. Her hands traced the side of a coffee cup as she sat by herself, but it was when she sensed someone familiar that she looked up to see Claire and Christopher walk into the Grill with their back turned to her.

Unable to help herself, Caroline called out, "Claire?"

Claire spun around on her heel, not bothering to hide her anger. "Hi, Caroline."

"Hey." They stood in silence for a moment before Christopher touched Claire's arm softly.

"I'm gonna go get us a table." Claire nodded to him and watched as he left the two girls to work out their issues, and when Claire turned back at Caroline, the apology rushed out of the young vampire's mouth.

"Oh, my God. I am so sorry about earlier today. I don't—I don't know what came over me!"

Claire stopped her, holding up a hand. "Relax, Caroline. It's fine. In all honesty, I shouldn't have yelled at you. Everything you were saying was…the truth." The elder vampire paused. "I just really hate to think about it sometimes."

"So…you're not mad at me?"

Claire gave the blonde a small smile. "No, I'm not mad at you. You were just being a friend…in your own, special way. A new vampire way."

"My own head case, horrible way," Caroline corrected her, still feeling bad about pressing her on all the things she was ordered to. Claire nodded once and turned to go meet up with her husband at the table, but Caroline called her back with her name. "Claire? I really am sorry."

The two blondes stared at each other before Claire nodded. "I know, Caroline. Look, we'll try curving your cravings later. Tonight's not a good night for it."

Caroline said nothing, but just watched as Claire walked over to the table Christopher had gotten in the center of the Grill's main floor. He had ordered them two glasses of alcohol, and once she reached the table and sat down, he sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"I'm starving."

The pissed-off blonde scoffed. "Yeah, well, spending a day with a crazy, psychotic bitch who's now claiming she's in love with you will have that effect on people."

Christopher looked over at her. "Look, I know you're upset about that, but—"

"Upset? Why would I be upset? It's not like someone's out trying to destroy me or anything because that would just be insane…" Claire trailed off, sarcasm dripping off of her words. Christopher leaned closer to her.

"Hey, we need to take her seriously. This isn't just locking you up in a cell this time, she's out for blood. Your blood, if it comes down to it."

The female shrugged. "Let her come for me. I'll kill her without blinking."

"Claire, that's not the point!" A frustrated Christopher slammed his hand down on the table, but she didn't jolt. She just stared at him. "You might not be afraid of her, but we should be. Katherine is dangerous, okay? She won't stop at anything to destroy you. That's what this is all about."

Claire rolled her eyes. "If Katherine had her way, we'd be filing divorce papers at the city hall." She paused. "Which…I don't even think is possible. I'm pretty sure they don't divorce marriages from 1865—"

"If today taught me anything at all, it's that Katherine usually gets her way. And she won't stop to get it, no matter what the cost."

"I'd rather die before she gets her way again! I became a vampire because of her!"

"And she won't hesitate to kill you again, what don't you understand about that, Clarissa?" Christopher spat, earning them to both fall completely silent. Over at her table, Caroline felt a swarm of guilt overcome her as she realized that she's the one who caused this. That she would have to report this all back to Katherine.

After a long silence, Claire swallowed. "You don't actually think we should listen to her, do you?" Christopher didn't say anything. "Oh, come on! This is what she wants. She wants us to fight; she wants to get between us! You're just letting her win! We can't let her get between us, that's the only way we'll survive."

Christopher let out a heavy sigh and avoided his wife's gaze for a moment before he looked at her with his sea of ice-colored eyes. His voice dropped to a whisper.

"She already has gotten between us, Claire."

Things fell completely silent this time, and neither one of the vampires said a single word to the other. The couple were stuck, they were at a complete impasse that they were sure they wouldn't be able to get out of. Eventually, Claire grabbed her jacket on the back of her chair and nodded.

"Fine. Fine, if that's what you think, then…" Claire threw her jacket over her arm and used her right hand to twist off the band of rings on her ring finger. She set them in front of Christopher, who hung his head shamefully. "Consider it a divorce."

Claire left promptly, not wanting to spend another minute in the presence of her now ex-husband. When she was gone, Christopher sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, stressed.

Damon sat at the bar in the midst of the Mystic Grill, having witnessed the entire fight. As hard as he tried, he couldn't help the small, growing smile that settled upon his lips at the thought of one single word: divorce.

When Damon finally left the Grill from the front door, he realized that as happy that he was about the fight he'd overheard, he still had a major problem: Mason Lockwood. As he continued down the sidewalk to go home, he heard a familiar voice.

"Bad day?"

Damon looked to the side to find Katherine standing up against the wall at the Grill. He stopped and stared, confused as to why she'd show up to see him.

"Bad century," he corrected her, staring at her signature pout. "I heard you were on the loose. You know, you're a lot of things, Katherine. But I never had you pegged as a home-wrecker." He gave her a sour smile.

Katherine tilted her head at the dark-haired vampire. "What's the matter? Jealous I spent the day with Christopher?"

He shrugged. "I don't do jealous. Not with you. Not anymore." Done with the conversation, Damon began to walk away from Katherine to avoid giving into one of her games again. However, Katherine followed him, trailing behind.

"Then why so pouty?"

"I tried to kill a werewolf and failed." He sighed. "Now I feel like I'm not living up to my best self."

"Well, werewolves aren't easy prey."

Damon turned around at her sharply. "What do you know about werewolves?"

"Why don't you ask Christopher? I'm sure he'd love to fill you in." He didn't say anything to her and watched as Katherine put a hand on her hip. "Don't try to be the hero, Damon. You'll end up dead."

"Been there, done that," he spat at her. "At least this time, it'll be worth it."

His statement obviously offended Katherine, but she didn't let it show. With that being said, Damon turned on his heel and walked off having had the last word. Katherine stared after him and sighed, trying not to let his hateful words get to her. She, herself, spun around and went in the other direction.

---

A tired Claire entered the Salvatore boarding house with a sigh and put her jacket on the coatrack at the door. She placed her keys on the table by the stairs and stood there for a moment, her light hair curtaining the sides of her face as she bowed her head. However, when she sensed someone beside her, she straightened and stiffened, and then turned around.

Christopher was standing a few feet away from her in the parlor with his hands in his pockets and his jacket off so that he was only wearing his t-shirt now. Claire sighed heavily at him and, after a second of appreciation, walked up and pressed her lips against his. He kissed her back immediately, pulling her closer to him and sighing into her mouth. Eventually, Claire pulled back, but still kept herself in his arms.

"God, I never want to hear the word 'divorce' out of my mouth again," she whispered breathlessly.

Christopher nodded. "I know. I know, I know. We need to make a list of things we can't say to each other while we're doing this."

"Agreed." Claire stepped back from him, but he kept her hand in his to feel the warmth. Stefan and Amelia stepped up into the foyer from the parlor and Claire and Christopher looked at them. "Did you see Caroline?" Her voice was filled with disappointment.

Stefan and Amelia nodded. They were at the Grill, too, hiding somewhere in the specks of people here and there. Amelia spoke sadly, "I had a feeling it was her. I just didn't know for sure."

"Well, you were right," Christopher told his wife's sister. "Katherine definitely got to her."

"She was hanging on to every word," Claire commented. "I wouldn't be surprised if the exact argument shows up in a book somewhere."

"It won't be long until Katherine gets a play-by-play," Stefan agreed. Claire sighed.

"I really wish I had been wrong," the blonde said, feeling pity for her vampire protégé. "But this wasn't just a normal case of heightened emotions. It was so obvious that she was up to something today."

Amelia scoffed. "It's just who Katherine is. She always has someone to do her dirty work for her. Once upon a time, that was me. I really wish it hadn't been, though."

"Damon was listening, too," Christopher noted as he looked around at all of them. He didn't take that as a sign of him working for Katherine, but as a sign of him believing it. Their plan had worked.

"Are we gonna tell him the truth?" Claire asked her sister and her friend. Stefan shook his head immediately.

"The only way Katherine's gonna believe it is if everybody believes it. It's the best way to make her think that she's getting what she wants. I'm not even going to tell Elena. For now, you both just need to pretend that you're not married anymore," the younger Salvatore reasoned. But, for some reason, Claire couldn't shake the feeling that it would hurt more of them if Damon didn't know than if he didn't. Instead of saying anything, however, she moved on with a sigh.

"All this just because she decided she's in love with my husband." Claire peeked over at Christopher as she said it and watched as he shook his head out of disbelief.

"She's lying," Christopher said, refusing to believe any of it. "We don't know what she's after, but Amelia's right. She can multitask. And all we know right now is that she wants to destroy your life and finish what she started back in 1864." Amelia and Stefan nodded in agreement with his statement and Christopher turned to look at his wife. "Katherine doesn't care about me, she never did. If there's anything we all know for certainabout her, it's that she doesn't care about anybody but herself."

Claire looked up at her husband and he nodded at her and squeezed her hand, and she did the same. Her left hand felt like it was naked without the two rings on them, but they couldn't do anything about that. For now, those rings would have to go back in the box and had to stay there until further notice.

---

Mystic Falls, 1865

After escaping the burning church, Katherine moved out onto the open road that she had promised to meet George Lockwood at for her final escape. She looked to the side to see Stefan and Damon's dead bodies laying on the gravel road, and she sighed. She hadn't meant for them to get caught in this.

Suddenly, Katherine felt a presence beside her and she turned to see George Lockwood. "George."

"Your carriage is waiting," he said, gesturing to the side. Katherine smiled.

"Well done, George. Thank you." She moved to walk forward, but George stopped her in her tracks.

"Ah. Now, onto your part of the deal."

Realizing that he wasn't going to give up on this, Katherine sighed and pulled out the moonstone, a clear stone, from her dress and extended it to George who looked at it in wonder.

"If anyone learns of my escape, I will find you and I will kill you," she warned. George reached out to grab the stone, but she jerked it back. "Don't think that I won't."

Finally, she gave George the moonstone and watched him as he looked at it as a father would look at his child. Katherine was clearly unimpressed before he looked up at her and nodded.

"We shall take each other's secrets to the grave." Katherine stiffened. "Now, you must hurry."

"Wait, just one moment," Katherine said, stopping George. He looked at her, impatient. "Do you know if Christopher Fell is at home? I'd like to bring him with me."

George turned to face her and stopped, raising an eyebrow at the vampire before him. "Christopher Fell was caught and put in the tomb. You said twenty-seven vampires."

Katherine blinked at George, her breathing quickening. "I did say twenty-seven vampires, George. And with Christopher, it would've been twenty-eight."

George shook his head. "No. The Founders rounded twenty-seven vampires, Katherine. Mr. Fell included. Now, please. You must go before someone learns your demise was false."

The vindictive vampire watched as George Lockwood left for the carriage, expecting her to follow, but she just stood there for a moment and wondered what this meant. If there were 27 vampires collected and put into the tomb and Christopher was one of them that meant that one vampire had gotten out...

And that's when it hit Katherine: one vampire didn't even have to show up. One vampire that she wanted dead most of all.

Clarissa King; she was still alive.

But instead of dwelling on that, Katherine thought about the fact that Christopher was burning to ash as she stood there, awaiting her escape. She felt a heavy feeling on her heart realizing how wrong her plan had gone. Without realizing it, Katherine felt a tear leak down her cheek and she reached up to wipe it away. Katherine pushed the thought out of her head, as much as it was paining her inside.

---

Katherine stood in the middle of the Mystic Falls town square, staring up at the waning moon and the cloudy sky. Thinking of the saddening memory, Katherine felt a tear fall down on her cheek almost as if it were planned. Immediately, she pulled her hand up to swat it away and she laughed, thinking of it almost poetically.

Rocking back and forth, Katherine watched as a cloud of mist covered the sky, and she turned to leave the town's square, satisfied with how things had gone during the day.

---

Sorry if it seems like Claire's taking Elena's place lately. I kind of needed it during these episodes but I'm hoping that the next couple chapters will be a little different to the point where everyone's not bored. Anyways, thanks for reading! Review, please!

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Savage Kill: Yep. Things with Damon and Claire will never be easy. "Back together" is a relative term...just wait and see :) As we saw from this chapter, Katherine definitely had some fun with Claire and it won't stop just yet. Thanks for reviewing!

SomebodyWhoCares: Short and simple and completely gets the point across. Thanks for reviewing!

grapejuice101: Thanks! Here's the Memory Lane episode, I hope I did it justice :P I definitely will, thanks!

bigdloveztexaz: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

gloriacuevas391: I love you too :) Thank you, that really means a lot.

RHatch89: Thanks for reviewing! :)

Bella Lugosi: Haha thanks! I worked really hard on that cover if I'm being honest here. It took me forever. Yeah, I'm super jealous of Claire since she has both Patrick J. Adams and Ian Somerhalder! I wish I could be as lucky as she is. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!