Hello, everyone! I'm back, finally. After three months of radio silence, here I am. I apologize, but I have been going through a lot of stuff lately. My best friend decided to ditch me and it's been hard on top of finals, but needless to say, I found other friends and I'm determined not to stress about anything because I've realized that it's just not worth it. With 2015 here, I've decided to turn over a new leaf and really try harder and be more involved. That said, I needed a little time away but now I'm back and I am excited to continue this story as well as my others while also adding some new stories on my profile.
The next two episodes have been pre-written and will be published as usual, Wednesdays at 5PM EST. Hopefully I can get a little further ahead in the next two weeks so you all won't have to wait for a long time again. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)
Plan B
"If I had known that the key to great sex is a divorce, I would've broken it off ages ago." Claire sighed as she swung her legs off of the sizeable bed in one of the more luxurious rooms in the King household that was not neglected upkeep. She began to slip on her clothes while Christopher relaxed in his temporary bed with his arms behind his head, as blissful as she was.
He laughed. "I don't think it's the divorce, Claire."
Unknowst to him, she grinned widely while she dressed. "I'll give you that."
"You're skipping out on me already?"
"Well, I have to." She got up and turned around while bending down to get the heel that somehow managed to fly all the way to the connecting bathroom's door. "We don't know if Katherine has anyone else watching us. We're already taking a risk with my sister. Or…well…"
Claire trailed off, unable to finish her train of thought when she realized: what, exactly, was her sister? Obviously not blood-related to her. But were they still going to act like they were? Of course, Claire loved her sister like she's always loved her, but the new information that Amelia was not her sister was a topic they'd never gotten to discuss. With all that was happening, she was afraid they never would.
"A risk?" Christopher repeated, sitting up straight. "What do you mean?"
"That's not what I meant." Claire shook her head, amending her statement. She tried to slip on her heel, but for some reason, she was having trouble getting the balance. "I'm not saying we can't trust her. We can trust her—of course we can, she's my sister! But it's been a really long time. I only knew her as a little girl and…well, now she's seventeen and she's a vampire. I don't really know what to expect."
While she talked, Claire tried desperately to get her shoe on, but she was failing miserably. Eventually, she just settled upon pulling both heels into her arm and going barefoot, deciding that it didn't matter. She had to get back to the boarding house and change, anyway. She'd already risked too much spending the night at the King mansion with her husband.
Christopher sighed. "You should really talk with her, Claire."
The vampire nodded slowly. "I…know I should. And I will. Soon." She began to move towards the door, but then stopped for a moment. Realizing she was being terribly inconsiderate and hasty, she turned around and gave her husband a small smile. "I'm really out of practice with this whole…race in the morning thing. I usually…"
Claire stopped, realizing that it was not time to rehash her morning-after routine. She could see that Christopher caught on to the end of her sentence, but he brushed past it, deciding to not dwell on it.
"Yes, you do seem more of the type to sneak out in the middle of the night. I'm pleasantly surprised you stayed until morning."
"I'm sorry," she apologized, frowning before walking over to his side of the bed. He just smiled and watched as she hesitantly sat down on the edge, dropping her shoes for a moment to sigh heavily. "Are you going to the Lockwood mansion today?"
"Mrs. Lockwood wouldn't take no for an answer."
"I figured she wouldn't. I don't think it's a good idea, but…" Claire rolled her eyes. "We just have to make sure we've got this under control. All the fights we have are fake."
"Of course they are," he agreed, leaning forward to move a wild golden strand off her cheek. "We're adults. We can handle this."
"I know we can." She paused, trying to search for the right way to approach the subject she wanted to talk about—the subject that scared her more than anything else in the world. He waited patiently for her to finally come up with the words to say. "I just want you to promise me something."
"Promise?" he repeated sarcastically. "Who would do such a thing?" While Claire gave him a frown, unamused, he chuckled at her and finally smiled. "Go ahead, Claire."
"You can't…fall in love with her," she ordered calmly, finding the courage to say the words she'd been fretting over for the last few days. Immediately upon this topic, Christopher's boyish smile dropped. "Katherine is going to try to do a lot of things to get you to turn on me. She's going to try to use my past against you…tell you things that you might not want to know. And in the process, she's going to try to get you to fall in love with her, whether she truly loves you or not. Her endgame isn't to find happiness, it's to ruin mine."
Things were silent—quite deafeningly—for a very long time after Claire spoke these words much like a confession. Christopher stared at her for a period of time, trying to figure out her meaning behind the words. Finally, without warning, he leaned forward and crashed his lips onto hers and just kissed her, completely bypassing the question. But, in itself, the kiss was an answer. It was an affirmative one.
When Christopher finally pulled away from his wife, he didn't lean back. He kept his face close to hers and let his hand cup the side of her face.
"You don't ever have to worry about me falling in love with Katherine Pierce," he promised her, resisting the subconscious urge to laugh. Seeing Claire so stressed about it was somewhat reassuring, in a terrible sense. "The bitch killed me."
Tried as she might, Claire couldn't stop the inevitable burst of laughter that escaped from her mouth after hearing the word "bitch" escape from Christopher's mouth. He watched her and laughed himself, acknowledging the way she rocked back and forth in wholehearted amusement.
"What?" he asked innocently, and though it seemed odd of her to laugh at him cursing, he knew it was probably the case. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing." Claire leaned forward and kissed him quickly. "Nothing. I'm…I'm just gonna go now."
"Bye," Christopher agreed, and just observed as she raced out of her family's home without any shoes on her feet. Claire exited the King residence, closing the door carefully. As she did, she temporarily forgot about her heightened senses and was, amazingly, frightened by a voice.
"Claire?"
Stiffening, the blonde vampire jolted and turned to where the voice came from, only to see Jenna Sommers lean over on her knees, sweating from what looked like an early morning jog. The young aunt had her dirty blonde hair away from her face to prevent the sweat from hindering her lively locks. Claire put her hand on her chest and recovered from one of the few times she was ever frightened by someone, much less a human.
"Jenna," she breathed in relief. She gulped and confoundedly asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I was just out for a jog," Jenna confessed, though it was clearly obvious. Claire nodded eventually, but Jenna spoke again, this time as the confused one. "What are you doing here?"
Quickly, the vampire scrambled for a lie. "Oh, just…checking out Uncle Jack's place here. It's really something." A chuckle escaped her lips, but she didn't break a sweat. Lying came as natural to her as feeding did.
"Oh, really?" Jenna proposed, arching an eyebrow. She glanced over Claire from head to toe and finally pointed at her chest. "You might want to fix that."
Bewildered, Claire looked down to see what Jenna was talking about—then she realized. In her haste, she had idiotically missed a button on her shirt, causing her lingerie to inevitably be exposed to whomever looked her way. Hardly anything embarrassed her, but Claire had to admit that it was slightly humiliating. She looked up at Jenna, who was suppressing a smile, and realized quickly that she could potentially salvage the situation.
"I…uh…slept here last night and I have to get the Lockwood mansion to help with the masquerade ball setup. In a bit of a rush," she explained.
Jenna bit down on her lip and nodded slowly. "Uh huh. Well, anyway, I'm glad I caught you. I'm cooking dinner tonight and Ric will be there. You and Christopher should join us."
Claire cleared her throat and tried to get into the mindset of the divorced woman she'd indefinitely have to pretend to be. "Oh…you know, I'd love to, but Christopher and I are actually going through something right now. We decided to…separate for a while. It's not looking too good."
"Wow. Really?" Claire nodded as Jenna held back a smile. "Because, you know, I could've sworn I saw someone move their stuff in here yesterday." The honey-haired woman pointed back to the King house and Claire realized just what she meant. "And I'm, uh, almost positive it was Christopher."
Immediately, Claire realized that she had been caught red-handed. She turned back to the house, trying to come up with another lie that could get her out of this mess; but hearing and seeing the caught look on Claire's face, Jenna smiled.
"You know what?" she proposed, putting in an earbud she ripped out. Claire looked over at her and watched as Jenna grabbed her other earbud and, before putting it in, whispered subtly, "I'm sure I was just imagining things. I'll see you tonight, then."
And Jenna jogged away, leaving Claire in an awed and somewhat grateful state.
"This is a problem," Stefan admitted sadly as he and Claire stood behind the soon-to-be full bar on the Lockwood lawn for the masquerade party coming up. Claire flipped the glasses from the crate upright and set them down before her with a shrug.
"I don't see what the big deal is. So Jenna knows? What harm could it really do?" she retorted. Stefan sighed.
"A lot. If this gets out in any way, shape, or form, Katherine will come after you and you know that."
"And I promise that you can be the one to pour the hot water on the wicked witch's head," she teased. Stefan frowned at her.
"Why can't you ever take things seriously?"
This only made Claire grimace at him, losing her amusement because Stefan was forcing it out of her. "I do take this seriously, Stefan. You wanted me to 'divorce' Christopher, I did. You wanted me to fight with him, I did. You wanted me to help curve you on your cravings, I am. But this all just seems futile. We're not making any progress in finding and killing Katherine, we're just…setting up champagne glasses for Carol Lockwood."
"Damon's handling it," Stefan promised, moving the glasses in his crate. Claire laughed.
"And that's supposed to make me feel better?"
"Yes, it's supposed to make you feel a whole lot better," he agreed, pausing to look at his vampire friend for a moment. Claire crossed her arms and waited for further explanation. "Despite the fact that you're furious with him, he doesn't want you to get hurt. Neither do I. Plus, he's looking for his own vengeance at Katherine."
She sighed. "Well, how about I compromise? He can deal with the big bad wolf at Grandma's while we protect the citizens of good ol' Oz from the green-eyed monster."
Stefan chuckled. "I think you're overusing the allusions there, Claire."
She frowned, unimpressed. "Well, I happen to think they were perfectly timed, thank you." She swiped the crate in his hands and went to unpacking them while Stefan sighed and went to grab another crate of his own. When he came back to pull the glasses out, Claire snuck a glance at him and finally asked the question that she'd been itching to ask all morning. "So…how are you?"
The veiled attempt at chopping down Stefan's built-in wall of solitude was a bust. He let out a heavy exhale. "Claire, I don't want to talk about it."
"Oh, come on! Of course you want to talk about it!" she protested exhaustedly. "You and Elena broke up because you couldn't tell her that you don't have feelings for Amelia. That's one serious situation that you've avoided talking about."
"Because…" Stefan trailed off, shrugging. "There's nothing to say."
"How about 'Claire, I think I might be in love with your sister'? Ever thought of that one?" Claire propositioned. Stefan let out a frustrated sigh.
"But I don't know if I'm in love with her, Claire. I don't know anything right now, I just…" He paused. "I need time to think about things."
A long silence passed before Claire finally blurted out, "Well, Elena's devastated. Or, well, she's disappointed, I think. I haven't talked to Amelia yet but I'm sure she's probably going to ignore it until you say something. That is, if I know her at all anymore."
"She's still the same," Stefan assured her. "She's just a vampire now. She's older, too, obviously. And…she's not your sister. But trust me, she's the same."
"Oh, and you would know." Claire turned at him with narrowed eyes. "Because you spent an entire day with her whereupon you spilled the beans about our family. You know, we never really discussed that."
"I…thought she deserved to know," Stefan defended himself. Claire shook her head, but she wasn't angry. In fact, it saved her of an awkward conversation. Still, she was disappointed that she never got to tell her sister that they actually weren't blood-related. "But you're right. It wasn't my place."
"It could be your place," Claire pointed out as she glanced up at him with a playful smirk. "If you are, in fact, in love with her."
Stefan laughed and shook his head, refusing to answer. Claire bumped his shoulder as they began to unwrap more glasses, but before they could move onto another subject, Mason Lockwood appeared with another crate just in front of their tent. Claire and Stefan both caught his gaze, and the wolf definitely looked startled. However, he didn't break a sweat. Instead, he smiled politely.
"Hey, Stefan. Claire."
"Hey, Mason," Stefan said nonchalantly, watching as Mason set down the crate with his back turned. Claire and Stefan shared a silent look at each other just as Mason turned around nervously.
"Wasn't expecting you two here," he admitted. "Or anywhere."
"You could say we were distracted," Claire shot, giving the wolf a curt smile. "But everything's under control now. We're fine, thanks for asking."
Finished with beating around the bush, Mason stepped forward and hushed, "What did you do to Sheriff Forbes?"
"Oh, she's fine, too," Stefan informed him. "But from now on, you'll have to do your own dirty work."
"Not a problem." Mason smiled.
"We're sure it won't be." Claire waved at him innocently as the Lockwood began to back away from the bar to get out of the crossfire. In the haste, he accidentally collided with Bonnie. From an oblivious human's perspective, it seemed like it was just an accidental bump. But Stefan and Claire could see clearly from Bonnie's face that there was something she felt that put her under distress.
"What's the matter?" Stefan asked as the two vampires approached the witch with concern and intrigue. "Are you okay?"
"When I touched him, I saw something," Bonnie confessed.
"What do you mean, like a vision?"
"I saw Elena."
"You saw…Elena?"
"He was kissing her," Bonnie agreed, confused herself. Stefan stood with his arms crossed, wondering to himself if his ex-girlfriend was capable of such a thing. But he knew Elena, and he knew that she wouldn't just go around kissing Mason Lockwood, of all people.
However, Claire scoffed from behind him. "Elena? Kissing Mason Lockwood? Jesus, she bounces back fast. Who would've thought?"
"No," Stefan blurted out, shaking his head. "No. Elena wouldn't kiss…" And then it dawned on him, and poetically he looked off at the morning glow of the sun and sighed. "You didn't see Elena, you saw…Katherine."
Elena watched from inside the Lockwood mansion as Stefan, Bonnie, and Claire were gathered together discussing something that looked urgent and important. She couldn't help feeling out of the loop, like there was something going on that she didn't know about. She debated, for just a moment, about going out to find out what was going on, but she remembered that she and Stefan were no longer together. That she had been the one to call it off and that he couldn't tell her whether or not he had feelings for Amelia King.
Christopher looked up at the distressed human, noticing that she stopped sorting the masks Carol had asked them to sort into boxes for the party. Concerned, he raised an eyebrow.
"Is everything okay?"
Elena was brought back to reality by his question, earning her to look at him and sigh. "Um…yeah. Everything's fine."
As she went back to sorting the masks, Christopher straightened and frowned at her, disbelieving. "Now we both know that's not true." She peeked up at him. "It's okay, Elena. I know about what happened with Stefan."
Elena let out a frustrated sigh. "I didn't know it was yesterday's gossip," she said, irritated. Christopher waited for her to calm down and finally say, "Has Claire said anything?"
"Just that you two broke up," he admitted quietly. "And that it had something to do with Amelia. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out."
"I just don't know what to do," admitted the human. "I've tried to ignore it, but I can't. And as much as I would love to blame Damon for being crazy, I can't help but think that he's right. Especially since he knew Stefan and Amelia as humans."
The vampire before her nodded. "Damon has a habit of telling people the truth when they don't want to hear it."
Elena scoffed. "Yeah. I know."
Seeing her sorrow, Christopher studied her for a moment, trying to think of the right words to say. He could see the look of disappointment and despair on her face, no matter how hard Elena tried to hide it from him. He could tell that she was trying to be tough, but it wasn't working out. Finally, he came up with the words he thought would make her feel better.
"No matter if this works out or not," Christopher started, gaining Elena's undivided attention, "this won't make you sad forever. You'll find someone else, Elena."
The two were silent for a very long time until Elena scoffed, taken back by his words. "That's…almost exactly what Stefan said to me once. About my parents."
Christopher smiled. "Well, at least we know he gives great advice."
There was a moment of light laughter, but before Elena could overthink things (as if she hadn't already been enough) Damon came up behind her and nearly scared her half to death. She jumped and recovered with a gasp.
"Damon, what are you doing here?" she asked.
"Looking for my baby bro," he quipped with a sigh. "Speaking of, would you tell yours to stop following me around?"
"What's going on?"
"Ask eager beaver." Without anything else, Damon took off in the opposite direction as soon as he spotted Stefan outside with Claire and Bonnie. When Jeremy came trotting in after Damon, Elena caught his attention.
"Jeremy, what is he making you do?"
Jeremy sighed, exhausted with his elder sister's condescending attitude. "He's not making me do anything. Damon and I—"
"Ah!" Elena stopped him instantly. "No way. No, no, no, no. There is no Damon and you. There's Damon and whoever Damon's using. And those people, they end up dead. Whatever's going on, Jeremy, I want you to stay out of it."
The younger Gilbert shook his head. "I don't really care what you want, Elena. It's because of you that I'm in this mess in the first place so, sorry, you don't really get to tell me what I'm gonna do."
Taking off in Damon's footsteps, Jeremy turned on his heel and walked out. A frustrated and worried Elena turned back to Christopher, who was standing behind her witnessing the entire conversation. When she looked up at him and the two locked eyes, Christopher sighed and put down his mask.
"Don't worry. I'll keep an eye out for him."
"Thank you," Elena said graciously, and was once again left by someone else to go after Damon.
"Katherine's with Mason Lockwood?" Damon asked, expressing his obvious distaste. The two brothers paced back and forth around each other.
Stefan nodded. "We missed it. He got into town right after she did. It makes perfect sense."
"I know, but Mason Lockwood?! Werewolf thing aside, the guy's a surfer!" Damon growled. "She's got to be using him. She has to be!"
"Using him for what?"
"Can we stop pacing, please?" Claire asked abruptly, rubbing her head as she surveyed both Damon and Stefan. "It's making me dizzy and I'm sitting down."
"You two should really not be here together right now," Stefan pointed at Claire and Christopher, disregarding Claire's request and continuing to pace. "If someone sees you…"
"Just because we're divorced doesn't mean we can't handle a tough situation together," Christopher pointed out. Before Stefan was able to argue, Amelia was suddenly beside Claire at the outside porch chairs. She sat down with a sigh and looked at Damon.
"I came as soon as I got your message."
"I can see that," Damon nodded with a tight smile. Amelia leaned forward on her knees.
"So…Mason Lockwood's looking for a moonstone?"
Damon nodded and looked at Stefan. "That's what she's got to be using him for. The moonstone allegedly can break the full moon werewolf curse. Maybe Katherine wants it as well."
"Why would Katherine want a moonstone that can essentially allow werewolves to wipe out the entire vampire population?" Christopher asked, confounded.
Damon opened his mouth to respond, but he gave a delayed answer. "Well…no idea. It's the beauty of Katherine. She's always up to something."
"So how are we going to find this moonstone?" Stefan asked.
"Jeremy's getting it from Tyler," Damon answered, as if the problem was solved. Instead, Stefan looked at him like he had fifteen heads.
"Why would you involve Jeremy?" The younger Salvatore gave his brother a punishment slap on the shoulder, but Damon shrugged defensively.
"He's playing Indiana Jones!" he called out. "He involved himself!"
"Who's Jeremy again?" Amelia whispered to Claire as Damon watched his brother walk away.
"Elena's little brother," replied Claire.
"Oh!" Amelia nodded. "Right. You know, for a small town, there sure are a lot of names to remember."
"Hey, legally blondes!" Damon's exclamation caused both Claire and Amelia to look up from their conversation to watch him as he started to walk away towards the direction Stefan had gone into. "You two coming?"
Amelia made a sour expression as she repeated the words "legally blondes" under her breath with incredulity and started after him. Claire lingered just long enough for Christopher to be right at her pace so that they unintentionally walked side by side.
"You think this is a good idea?" Claire murmured. "Working together? Being seen out in public?"
"Do you think Katherine's watching?"
"She's always watching." Claire stopped him and spun around on her heel so that she was walking backwards with her eyes locked to his. "Go find Elena. Keep her out of this. The last thing we need is something going wrong. We finally have an upper hand, I'm not letting it slip away."
"But Claire—"
She was gone before he even got a full sentence out, chasing right after Damon, Stefan, and Amelia's tails. He wasn't left with much of a choice but to comply with her command, even though he didn't want to. On some level, she was right; but she didn't have to be so dismissive about it.
Leaving Christopher behind, Claire met up with Amelia and Stefan up on the first-level lawn of the Lockwood property. In their sights, Jeremy and Tyler were standing facing towards each other in the midst of a conversation.
"Do you think I could, uh, check it out again?" Jeremy asked subtly. Tyler shook his head in rejection.
"Nope. Gave it to my uncle."
"Why'd you do that?"
"Because I'm done with legends and curses," he rationalized. "I don't want anything to do with it, okay?"
Trying not to seem too desperate, Jeremy chuckled and pretended to brush it off. "Yeah. Uh, yeah, sure. It's probably just…stupid folklore anyways, forget it."
Claire, Amelia, Damon, and Stefan all looked at each other and realized: they'd have to go after Mason Lockwood. Again. Only, this time, they'd be smarter about it.
Jeremy and Damon's arrival to the Lockwood mansion had Elena on edge from the moment they showed themselves. She knew that there was something else going on, but no one was telling her anything. Finding a moment to spare, Elena took out her phone and texted Claire.
Everything OK?
Elena waited for a response and eventually got one seconds later.
Complicated. With Bonnie. I sent Christopher to find you. He'll fill you in.
Elena stared at the text message Claire had sent her and scoffed. Angrily, she typed: Bonnie? Christopher's not here. Fill me in.
"Elena," Christopher said behind the human. The doppelgänger looked up to see Claire's husband make his way down the stairs to her. She got up immediately and turned around at him.
"What the hell is going on?" she demanded. "Damon's got Jeremy into something and Bonnie's with Claire and I'm sorting stupid masquerade masks for Mrs. Lockwood!"
"Calm down," the vampire instructed her, looking around. Elena sighed heavily. "Look, Claire, Damon, Stefan, and Amelia are handling this. They found out that Mason and Katherine are seeing each other."
Elena blinked. "What?"
Christopher nodded. "Yeah. It's a real shocker. But we also found out what she wants—a moonstone. My guess is that right now, they're enlisting Bonnie into helping them find it."
After sending the text to Elena, Claire turned her phone on silent, slipped the device into her pocket, and listened as Bonnie whispered protests to the urging Damon that dragged her to the farthest point she would voluntarily walk
"Okay! Okay! This is as far as I go."
"Okay," Damon agreed.
"What do you want?"
"A favor."
"Like that's gonna happen."
"So predictable!" Damon exclaimed at the pushy, entitled witch. He looked at Claire and Stefan. "That's why I brought them."
Stefan started first, sighing quietly. "I know how you feel about helping us out, but since you're the one that linked Mason with Katherine, we finally have an opportunity to get an upper hand on both of them so just hear us out."
"Pretty please," Damon added.
Bonnie was quiet for a moment. "I'm listening."
"All you have to do is touch Mason Lockwood again and see if he gave Katherine the moon stone," Damon explained with a small smirk. The witch looked up at him with a equally teasing expression.
"My visions don't work like that. I don't get to ask questions."
"How inconvenient!" Damon exclaimed.
"Rude," Amelia chirped at the elder Salvatore, who just rolled his eyes. Stefan intervened.
"He…he didn't mean that."
"Oh, no, he did." Claire crossed her arms. "But we're sorry for it, anyways. Is there anything that you could do to help us get the upper hand on Mason?"
"Ooh!" Damon spun back around at Bonnie. "Let's talk about that little witchy juju thing you do with me. You know, the fun one where my brain bursts into flames? What is that?"
"That's me giving you an aneurism," the witch explained with a smile. "Your blood vessels go pop…but you heal quickly, so I do it over and over again."
"Is it vampire-specific?" Damon asked.
"It'd work on anyone with a supernatural healing ability."
"Good," Damon murmured. "Good, good."
"Damon, I'm not going to help you hurt him."
"Look, Bonnie—" Claire started, but was promptly interrupted by Damon's argument with the witch.
"Mason Lockwood's a werewolf, Katherine's evil—they're the bad guys. Really? You're gonna play morality police with me right now?"
"Whoa, okay!" Amelia stepped in. "Maybe, Damon, you should just step—"
When Damon interrupted Amelia as well, Stefan just sighed and rubbed his forehead, ashamed of his brother's negotiation tactics. "Let me put it to you in another way—they're a threat to Elena. So you, witch, are gonna get over yourself and help us."
Things went silent, so Stefan added, "Yeah, he meant that as a question with a 'please' on the end."
Damon smiled. "Absolutely."
Bonnie agreed to help because of Damon's logical points, but she did feel bad about it. Once Mason Lockwood was knocked unconscious by the pain Bonnie executed on him, Damon loaded both Mason and Bonnie into a truck and went off to the boarding house, where she figured out the location of the moonstone.
"Keep an eye out on Elena," Claire told Christopher as she transported a box of masks while he followed closely behind. She tried not to look at him so that they could at least try to remain covert. "I'm waiting for a text from Bonnie about the stone. Once I get it, I'll take Stefan and Amelia and we'll go get it ourselves."
"That's going to be extremely hard," Christopher told her. "Elena's not gonna give up so easily."
"Then keep her distracted." From Claire's pocket, there was a buzzing sound, and she immediately pulled out her phone to find the location of the moonstone in a text from Bonnie. Sighing, she slipped her phone back into her pocket and turned around at Christopher. "Okay?"
Again, even if he didn't agree, he didn't have much of a chance to. Claire walked over to Stefan and Amelia, who were standing by the front doors of the Lockwood mansion, talking in a hushed tone, and she showed them the text about the stone. Immediately, all three walked out and went straight to the location Bonnie texted them. Elena stood by a box of costumes and watched as her ex-boyfriend left with the King sisters and she started to get intrigued and curious. Matt looked back at Claire, Stefan, and Amelia, and then turned to Elena.
"Who's the other blonde with Claire and Stefan?"
Before Elena could respond, Christopher walked up to them. "That's Claire's sister, Amelia."
"Is everything okay?" Elena asked the vampire, eyeing him carefully. Christopher nodded unconvincingly.
"Yep. Everything's fine." He looked down at the costume boxes. "So…costumes, then?"
While, against his own judgment, Christopher kept Elena distracted and busy at the Lockwood mansion, Claire, Stefan, and Amelia made the journey out to the well where Bonnie said the moonstone was located.
"Seems like an odd place to hide a moonstone," Amelia admitted, looking over the net covering of the well.
"Bonnie better be right," Stefan grunted as he managed to bend the lock of the net covering off. He grabbed hold of the covering and said to Amelia, "Watch out."
Stefan tossed the circular metal ring to the side while Claire used her flashlight to shine it inside the well, but the well was too dark and deep for her to see into. She shook her head and looked up at both Stefan and Amelia.
"All right, who's going in?"
"I will." Stefan sighed and climbed on top of the well while Claire handed him her flashlight and nodded at him. As Stefan was about to lunge into the well, Amelia held him back.
"Wait a second…" she trailed off. "This doesn't…this doesn't feel right, Stefan. What if this is a trap?"
He paused, but then shook his head. "Then we'll find out soon enough."
Amelia frowned at him but had no choice in the matter. They had to find the moonstone before Katherine figured out what they were up to, so she nodded and removed her hand from his arm.
"Be careful," Amelia warned. Stefan nodded at her and, without another interruption, jumped down into the well. He landed with a splash into the well water, but found instantly that it started to burn his skin alive. He pulled out his hands and found them raw and bloody, realizing immediately that the well water was contaminated with tons of vervain. Above him, Claire and Amelia heard his cries.
"Stefan?" Claire called out into the well.
"Claire!" Stefan shouted. "Amelia!"
"Stefan! What's wrong? What happened?" Claire shouted down into the water. He groaned again and, though his voice was faint, she could still hear him.
"Vervain," he choked out. Claire and Amelia instantly shared a frightened look and desperately tried to come up with a solution. Claire looked around the well until she finally found the bucket chain. Immediately, she used her supernatural strength to swing the heavy chain so that Stefan could tie himself with it and she could pull it up.
Amelia had another plan.
"What the hell are you doing?" Claire shouted at her sister as Amelia climbed onto the well and looked ready to jump inside. Amelia looked up at Claire.
"Saving Stefan," she said simply. The younger King braced to jump down into the well, but Claire put out her arm so that Amelia couldn't go anywhere.
"Are you insane?" Claire demanded with eyes wider than the moon. "That well is full of vervain! Two vampires going down there will just make it worse!"
"Claire, just trust me on this!" Amelia shouted at her sister impatiently. Claire, though reluctant, eventually pulled her hand back and allowed for her sister to jump down into the well. Just as she did, Claire felt someone flash up beside her and she turned to see Caroline.
"Claire? What's going on?" Caroline asked.
"Stefan's down there," Claire explained. "The well is full of vervain. Amelia went to save him."
Amelia settled into the water, feeling the burning sensation on her skin as half of her body was submerged. Stefan had already fallen unconscious due to his weak skin and was floating in the water, face-first. Though the vervain was eating away at her skin, Amelia ignored it effortlessly and pulled Stefan into her arms, feeling his head flop. She looked up at the opening of the well.
"Claire!" she shouted. "Throw down the chain!"
Claire and Caroline, hearing the voice of Amelia below them, quickly struggled to get the chain up and working on the well so that they could bring Stefan up safely. Once the chain hit the bottom of the well, Amelia, grunting and groaning, tied it around Stefan's waist and shouted up at them, "Pull him up!"
"What's going on?" Bonnie asked as she rushed up to Claire and Caroline as they started to pull on the chain to bring the younger Salvatore up. She looked at Caroline. "You just took off in a blur!"
"I heard Claire shouting," Caroline explained. Finally, the two managed to bring Stefan up to land.
Bonnie gasped. "Oh, my God! What happened to him?"
"Mason put vervain at the bottom of the well," Claire explained as she untied the chain from her friend's waist and tossed it back so it was ready for Amelia to use. She pulled Stefan over so that he was lying on the ground beside the well and said to Bonnie through quick breaths, "The sneaky son of a bitch knew vampires were gonna come after it one way or another. Come on, Caroline, we've got to get Amelia out of there."
"How is Amelia able to survive the vervain?" Caroline asked, still confused. Claire shook her head.
"Beats me." She leaned over the well. "Amelia! Grab the chain so we can pull you up!"
"Let me find the moonstone first!" Amelia shouted back. Claire groaned frustratedly.
"Of all the idiot plans!" she murmured to herself, and then shouted to her sister, "Sweet Jesus, Amelia, you can't be down there for long! You can't even be down there at all! I don't know how the hell you're doing it! Get out of there!"
Amelia shook her head to herself as she scowered the walls and floor of the well for the moonstone, all while feeling the vervain gnaw at her skin. Eventually, she stumbled across a brick and pulled at it long enough to find a box. Inside that box, thankfully, was the moonstone.
From the ground, Claire, Caroline, and Bonnie started to hear shouting from Amelia. "Holy shit!" They heard.
"What?" Claire screamed down the well. "What is it?"
"Get me the hell out of here!" Amelia demanded and, immediately, Claire and Caroline both worked the chain to get her sister out of the well. Amelia finally rose to the top, soaked and covered in hives and red bumps from the vervain, but she climbed out of the well and shook herself off with a shudder.
Claire stared at her sister. She deadpanned sourly, "What, did the vervain finally bother you?"
Amelia shook out her leg. "No. There were just a whole bunch of snakes down there. It was disgusting."
Once the intensity of the well situation had calmed down, Claire was able to get Stefan back to his full strength by giving him a sip or two from her personal blood stash she kept on her for emergencies. The Lockwood volunteering had ended and Christopher promised to take Elena home before heading back to the King house. Claire and Amelia walked out from the Lockwood mansion onto the porch while Claire eyed the moonstone in her hands.
"Such a small prize for such a big leap." Claire looked up at her sister. "We've got to talk about what happened."
Amelia sighed. "I know you're not an idiot, Claire. I did it for Stefan. I know it, he knows it. We all...know it."
"I know why you did it." She pulled them to a stop on the stairs. "But I want to know how. I was about ready to save Stefan, too, but I wouldn't be dumb enough to go into that well because I knew I couldn't survive it. No sane vampire could. But…you did. How?"
Amelia was quiet, creating an air between the two of them that was tension-high. Claire waited, patiently, and when Amelia realized that her sister would not let it go until she got an answer, she settled upon the truth. "I told Stefan the other night that Katherine built up a tolerance to vervain. What I didn't tell him was…that I did, too. She taught me."
Claire was silent, thinking over her sister's words before coming up with a response. "You and Katherine trade secrets, then?"
"It's not like that, Claire—"
"Then tell me what it is like, Amelia!" Claire said furiously, shaking her head. "This woman is out to destroy me and…what, you two stay up at night braiding each other's hair? Painting each other's toenails? Teaching each other how to build up a tolerance to vervain, I mean…this is ridiculous! How can I know that you're on our side?"
"How could you even ask me that?" Amelia barked, more hurt than anything. "I'm your sister, Claire!"
"No, Amelia," Claire snapped, the words chucked out of her mouth before she could stop them. The two blondes stared at each other for a while before the elder one sighed heavily and whispered at last, "You're not."
Amelia was quiet for a moment until she swallowed. "Is that what this is about? Us not being sisters? Claire, I don't...I don't care what a stupid book has to say about our family lineage."
"It's not about the book, Amelia, it's about blood." She gestured between them. "And you and I don't share the same blood. We never did. Even if we did, I don't know you anymore. I...I thought you were dead for 150 years! And, as it turns out, you were tag-teaming with the woman who killed me!"
There was nothing that Amelia could say to make things better between them. Claire was right; they weren't related by blood and they hardly knew each other. But that didn't mean they weren't sisters. Amelia began slowly, "Once I found out the resentment Katherine had against you and she started to plan things, I knew I had to get out of it. And that's what I'm doing. We may not be real sisters, Claire...and we may not know each other as well as we'd like, but we have the rest of eternity to...figure everything out."
Claire bit down on her lip in thought, staring at the stranger in front of her in wonder. Eventually, she exhaled. "You're…right. I'm sorry. That was harsh." Amelia nodded in understanding, and Claire finally whispered, "You do know that she's going to find out that you're double-crossing her sometime, right? And when that time comes…"
"She'll be out to get me, too. Trust me, I know."
Claire frowned. "Well, I was gonna say that you always have a room at the boarding house, but yeah…that too." The sisters smiled at each other quietly before Claire let out a sigh and started to move down the stairs. "All right, well…I have to get Stefan back to the house and I have a dinner with Elena and her aunt. Are you gonna be okay?"
Amelia nodded. "Yeah. I'm probably going to go get a bite to eat first." They both knew that she wasn't talking about a cheeseburger. "I may have built up a tolerance to vervain but…"
"But it still drained you. I got it." Claire smiled softly. "Goodnight, Amelia."
"Night, Claire."
Once again, the youngest King disappeared off into the night. Claire drove Stefan back to the boarding house and then went right over to the Gilbert's. Elena was upstairs as Alaric greeted Claire at the threshold and took her into the kitchen, where she helped with the setup for the dinner. She had to admit that it was nice to spend a night where she wasn't surrounded by two constantly fighting brothers or worrying about what lies Katherine was spreading around inside of Christopher's head. It was nice to spend a few moments with her friends.
Elena came down a few minutes after her arrival. "Hey, Claire," she greeted.
Claire smiled. "Hey, Elena."
"Where's Jeremy?" Elena asked Alaric as she tried to get in on helping set the table. Alaric shrugged.
"Oh, he went straight up to his room. He said he wasn't hungry."
Nodding, Elena looked over at Jenna and asked Alaric a question that Claire wasn't focusing on when her phone buzzed in her pocket and she found a text message from Stefan on the screen.
Damon provoked Katherine. You still with Elena?
Quickly, she typed a response with an exasperated exhale.
Of course he did. Yeah, why?
His final response came seconds later: Just make sure you're both careful.
With a respectful "will do" response from Claire, she put her phone away just to have Jenna walk over to her and hand her the phone.
"Claire, it's for you," Jenna said softly before returning back to her cooking. Claire looked at Alaric and Elena with curiosity before pulling the phone up to her ear and speaking carefully.
"This is Claire," she said cautiously.
"Hello, Clarissa."
Alaric and Elena both waited for her to tell who the caller was, but Claire stiffened and moved out of their way into the living room, shaking her head to tell them to keep away.
"What do you want, Katherine?" she hissed into the speaker.
"Did you enjoy your little rendezvous with Christopher last night?" The vampire fell silent, but opened her mouth to protest when Katherine took words right out of her mouth. "I will always know, Claire. I will always be one step ahead of you. When are you going to figure that out?"
"You listen to me, you sadistic little bitch—"
"Do you know how easy it was to get inside of Elena's house?" Katherine barreled on, never minding Claire's unfinished threat. "To replace Aunt Jenna's vervain perfume? To convince her to stop drinking her special tea?"
Elena walked over to Claire, silently asking who it was. Claire refused her, focusing on Katherine on the other side of the phone, waiting to see what sort of move she made. She kept quiet and waited for Katherine's punch line.
"Jenna's been my little spy for days now. But, unlike you, Jenna actually listens to me. So when I suggested that the world would be a much better place if she were to just—"
From behind her, Claire heard Elena shout, "Jenna, no!"
Claire whipped around, but it was too late. Elena started to dash, but Jenna had already stabbed herself in the stomach with the knife she held in her hand for slicing the bread. Blood began to pool everywhere as Alaric and Elena rushed up to the human and started to panic. Claire wanted to help, but she turned back to the phone and listened as Katherine finished, "Well, you get the idea."
"Going after me, Katherine, that's one thing," Claire began through her teeth. "But Elena? Jenna? Your fight's always been with me, Katherine! No one else!"
"Well, now I'm playing by different rules." Katherine paused. "But you are right. My fight is with you. Which is why I took a trip over to Jack King's house a few minutes ago."
Claire looked back to find Elena talking to a 911 operator on the phone while Alaric desperately tried to stop the bleeding from his girlfriend's stomach. Claire knew she had to help, but she wasn't finished talking to Katherine yet.
"What did you do?"
"Me? Nothing. You? Everything." Katherine giggled. "You know, Claire, it's really quite ironic. You do all my dirty work for me. So all I had to do was...tell the truth. For once."
"Christopher?" Claire called out as she walked into the King household looking for her husband. Jenna was at the hospital making a recovery and Elena had told Claire to go and check on what Katherine was trying to say to her earlier over the phone line. Claire could tell that the human was not too happy with her at the moment and the vampire felt astronomically horrible about it, but couldn't help at all. Elena refused vampire blood and her support so there was nothing left to do, at the moment, other than give her space.
Christopher didn't respond, and for a moment, Claire feared Katherine had killed him. It was a dark thought that crossed her mind for only a moment until she reached his bedroom and pushed open the door to find something probably worse.
"What are you doing?" Claire asked Christopher as she watched him shove his clothes into an open suitcase on the bed. Christopher looked up at her for a moment and she saw something that she didn't care for—disappointment. He ignored her and turned back to the dresser where he carried his clothes from the drawers to the suitcase. But if there was one thing Claire loathed, it was being ignored. "Hey! I asked you a question! What are you doing?"
"Don't bother telling me it's not true." Christopher shook his head. "Katherine's a lot of things, but there are some lies she can't pull off. She wasn't lying this time."
"What the hell are you—?"
He threw a few shirts into his suitcase and cut her off, shouting, "You kissed Damon, Claire! On Founder's Day! She said she saw it with her own two eyes and I believe her!"
Claire fell absolutely silent. Now she understood—Katherine was right. She did do the dirty work for her. All Katherine had to do was tell the truth.
The blonde vampire inched forward to her husband. She thought of lying, but what was the point anymore? One lie after another involving her selfish relationship with Damon, that wasn't the right thing to do. "Christopher, I'm so sor—"
"Sorry?" he finished furiously. "You're sorry? God damn it, Claire! No! You can't tell me that you're sorry every single time you end up making a mistake that involves Damon Salvatore. I believed you when you told me that there was nothing going on between the two of you and here we are—you lied to me!"
Claire shook her head desperately. "I didn't know how to tell you the truth, okay? I didn't want to ruin everything we worked for!"
"But you already did that, didn't you?" Christopher challenged, causing her to silence. "By kissing him, that's exactly what you did. You ruined all of it."
"I don't..." Claire trailed off. "I don't know what came over me. I was confused and he was there and I—"
"And is that your excuse?" he asked, practically scoffing. "That you were confused? That you didn't know any better? That he was just conveniently there? If Stefan had just been 'there', you would've never kissed him! Because you don't love him! Not like you love Damon, anyway. You love him, Claire, you've always loved him."
"Now that's just not true," Claire snapped coldly. Christopher snorted.
"Right. Right, I forgot. Because you don't love anyone." She flinched at his harsh words, which were carried out more by his tone than anything else. But, for once, Christopher didn't give a damn about how she felt. Furiously, he zipped up his bag and picked it up from the bed to carry it out. However, Claire wasn't going to let him go without a fight.
"Stop! I said I was sorry and I meant it. You don't have to leave. We can work through this." They stared at each other, but neither one caved. Finally, Claire shook her head. "I set Damon straight that night he came over to Elena's house and killed her brother. I told him I wanted nothing to do with him and I said it would never happen again. I meant that, too, I swear."
So they stood there, head-to-head, waiting for a compromise. Claire didn't want him to leave, she wanted it to work. She was trying so hard to make it work. But instead, he shook his head at her and whispered softly, "I'm sorry, Claire. I can't trust you anymore. I need some time."
He moved towards the door, leaving her standing in the middle of the room, heartbroken and absolutely lost. But just before he left, still keeping his back turned, he said something else while setting her wedding ring set down on the nightstand. She had entrusted him with the bands until Katherine stopped tormenting them, but now he released the responsibility.
"Consider this our divorce."
She didn't know how she got back to the boarding house. Somehow, though, she ended up pushing herself through the front door of the home feeling as if she was about to collapse. She moved slow and delayed, listening quietly as the door came to a close behind her. But the moment she entered the house, she heard her name being called.
"Claire?"
Her eyes drifted up and she watched as Damon slowly made his way from inside the parlor over to the foyer, all while wearing a guilty expression upon his face as if he'd done something wrong. She wanted to be angry with him—she wanted to throw something at his head and maybe knock him unconscious for a few hours. But nothing that she could do to him would change the fact that it was all her fault.
"Oh, God…" Damon whispered at her. "Claire, I riled Katherine up. I…I wasn't thinking—I didn't think!"
Claire shook her head. "I did this to myself."
Damon swallowed thickly. "No, Claire, you didn't do anything—"
"It doesn't matter, Damon!" Claire shouted at him, tired of hearing him defend her. Damon stopped and watched as her eyes turned to somewhat resemble exactly what he looked like when he gave up hope in times of desperation. She lost control. Before bolting up the stairs, she choked out, "She won, like she always does. Katherine won."
"I apologize if I seem rattled," Katherine stressed to her visitor as she paced around her room. "The circumstances have changed suddenly, and I had to adjust. Mind control is a necessary evil. You see, I need a werewolf, and I've lost the one that I had. Now tell me what you're going to do to help me get a new one."
Matt Donovan stared back at Katherine as he repeated the words she planted in his head, "I'm going to go after Tyler Lockwood."
Katherine smiled and leaned forward, using more compulsion on him. "And you're not going to stop."
"And I'm not going to stop."
"Until?"
"Until he kills me."
Thanks for reading! Review, please! Same time next week :) Also, if you haven't seen it, there's a poll up on my profile asking what social media app is better for me to join and communicate with you all while I'm offline on here just so that I don't keep you all in the dark on things. Vote for either Twitter or Instagram and I'll be making one soon!
Oh, and, I realize that this is late and all, but...there's a trailer up on YouTube for this story now. I was fiddling around with my video editing program and somehow it turned into a trailer. Go check it out! Link is up on my profile.
Savage Kill: Well, Katherine's a complicated woman. She never just wants a man just because, she always has a purpose, whether it's good or bad. In Christopher's case, she wanted him...probably because Claire had him, first off, and secondly because he made her feel special. But their relationship won't really kick off until later on. Yay for Stefan! Sorry for the wait but thanks for the review!
ThisIsMeAndYou: Maybe not as early as Season 4, but we'll see ;) Thanks for the review!
NicoleR85: Thanks! Yes, I hated that too. My goal with Claire and Caroline is for them to become really close over the next few seasons. After all, Caroline is Claire's first sire and Claire isn't one just to leave the people she cares about behind. We'll get to see Claire defending Caroline more probably later on in the series.
SomebodyWhoCares: Bonding's always fun. Thanks for the review.
RHatch89: Thanks!
grapejuice101: Katherine still used Jenna except...she added a little extra twist. Thanks for the review!
JessBubble: I do watch The 100! It's like my favorite television show honestly. I prefer Bellamy and Clarke over Clarke and Finn but I don't mind either couple. But in the books, I'm definitely a Bellarke shipper. Thanks so much! I'm definitely planning on bringing Klaus and the rest of The Originals in, just as it is in the show. Klaus and Claire will become...frenemies haha. You'll just have to stick around and see! Well, now that Christopher's gone, we'll have to see about Damon and Claire but I'm not abandoning Katherine and Christopher's dynamic any time soon. Thanks for reviewing.
Bella Lugosi: Yeah it's sad for Elena but I really want this story to go in the direction where Elena becomes independent. The thing is, even with Damon and Stefan, Claire and Amelia are dependent on their own and they don't need someone to save them unless it's obvious they can't get out of a situation without help. But Elena has always really been dependent on the brothers and she does a lot of things in the series for the wrong reasons. My goal for her character is to make her stronger than she is in the show so that I can write a character that I like. Otherwise, I'd just have to kill her off and I don't necessarily want to do that. The sacrifice will be an interesting thing to see but you'll just have to wait! I hope the Claire/Damon scene at the end was enough for now...Thanks for reviewing!
beth: Thanks for the review. Again, my apologies for the extensive wait on this chapter.
peygoodwin: Thanks!
klandgraf2007: Aw thanks!
mandy: It was a thought at one point, I won't deny it. But I thought that would be too cruel so the sister stays. For now, at least. Thanks for the review!