Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)
The Last Dance
Damon, Claire, Stefan, and Amelia all waited outside of the closed-door Salvatore boarding house as Elena finished up inside with the lawyer, taking the title for the brothers' family estate. Though it was extremely early in the morning, all four vampires were dressed and functional as they stood outside and waited to be invited back in.
"You really think Bonnie can take down Klaus?" Damon challenged them openly. Stefan shrugged.
"She said she could channel enough witches' power to kill him."
Claire made a reluctant sound. "Yeah...she said she could, but does that mean she really can? I mean, what if she tries and it doesn't work? Then we're really screwed."
"Elijah thought that it would work," Amelia chimed in with a claim to back her boyfriend's answer. "And he's an Original. If an Original thought it would work, I'm sure it does."
"But we don't know that for sure," Claire repeated. Her sister shot her a disapproving stare, causing the other blonde to frown. "Fine, Amelia. I'll stop being pessimistic."
The younger blonde changed her expression on a dime, smiling rather than staring. "Good. Thank you."
"Whatever."
Damon cut into the conversation, bringing them back to the topic at hand by raising a sigh deep in his chest and continuing, "We just need to find Klaus. If we find him, we can kill him. Can't Bonnie just do one of those witch tracking spells?"
"Nope." Stefan sighed and leaned back on the cobblestone facing the door. "Not without something that belongs to him. Believe me, I already asked."
Things went silent for a while until Amelia let out an unsure hum and looked at Claire. "Doesn't Elijah belong to Klaus though?"
Claire looked at her and cocked an eyebrow. "Belong to him? I don't think that's how it works..."
Amelia shrugged. "I mean, he's an Original. He's one of his henchmen, I guess. Shouldn't it be the same thing?"
Claire frowned. "You want to try tapping an undead-dead Original vampire to find his invincible Original brother? Go ahead. Have fun."
"I'm just saying..."
Damon and Stefan listened as Claire and Amelia went back and forth, disagreeing with each other's statements and ideas. While the two sisters were wrapped up in their own conversation, Damon sighed and quietly spoke to his brother, his words barely escaping a mumble from under his breath.
"Do you think he killed her?" Damon asked. Stefan glanced over at him.
"Katherine?" Damon turned his head, confirming Stefan's question. With his mouth in a hard line, Stefan nodded. "Probably."
Damon was quiet for a long time before he finally growled and turned his head from his brother awkwardly, "It's not like she didn't have it coming."
Stefan turned his head as well, both brothers growing nostalgic by the moment. "Yeah..."
Claire and Amelia stopped their arguing as Stefan and Damon finished their conversation and the front door of the Salvatore house swung open, Elena and the lawyer in front of the threshold. Elena gave the old lawyer a compassionate smile.
"Thank you, Mr. Henry." He grinned at her and they shook hands before he left the premises and Elena turned her back on all four vampires outside of the door, unable to walk inside. Suddenly, Elena stopped short, gasping and turning around with wide eyes. "I'm sorry. I completely forgot. Stefan, Amelia...would you like to come inside?"
"I would love to. Thank you," Stefan said to Elena, who smiled at him as Stefan and Amelia both crossed the threshold. Claire and Damon both stood on the outside, confused as Elena turned back at them with hard eyes. Claire scoffed, offended.
"Hold on a second...so your ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend can come inside the house but I'm stuck out here with Damon? How in the hell is that fair?!" Claire demanded. Elena crossed her arms.
"You have a habit of getting angry at me with my decisions, Claire." Her eyes flickered to Damon. "You, too."
Damon smirked bitterly. "What are we, twelve?"
Elena frowned at him. "One of us is. If I let the two of you in, do you promise to obey the owner of this house?"
Damon and Claire looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Elena and answering at the exact same moment, "No."
She groaned. "Seriously, guys. If we're gonna get through all of this, I need to know you're on my side. I need to know you're not going to do anything I don't want you to do because you think it's the right thing. We're doing things my way from now on. I call the shots. No lies, no secret agendas. Promise?"
Claire opened her mouth to protest, but Damon elbowed her in the stomach and gave Elena a charming smile. "Yes, Elena. Sure."
Elena grinned triumphantly and looked at Claire, who was pouting behind Damon as she tried to think of words to say that would get her inside the house without promising anything Elena had said. But seeing no other choice, Claire finally let out a deep sigh and growled, "Fine. Promise. Can we come inside now?"
She nodded and smiled. "Then please, come in."
Claire and Damon were both allowed to pass through the threshold, only greeting by their siblings' laughter. Damon scowled at them before going over to his decanter. "Shut up."
Stefan looked over Damon's shoulder once he passed and watched as Bonnie grabbed Elena's coat for her and the brunette put it over her shoulders with a smile on her face. Stefan stepped forward, his eyebrows knotted together in confusion.
"Wait, where are you going?"
"To school."
"Huh?"
"No, no, no," Damon scolded behind his brother, looking at the young teenager with something that resembled anger. "We didn't create a safe house for you to leave it!"
"Yeah, guys, Klaus is out there. We know that," Stefan tried to reason with them. Elena shrugged at him.
"Right. But where? No one knows." All the vampires in the room shifted, clearly uncomfortable with her decision. Elena sighed and stepped forward. "Look, I really appreciate what all of you are doing. And...I'll be able to sleep at night knowing that I'll be safe here, but I'm not going to be a prisoner."
No one knew what to say to that. What were they supposed to say? The evil, genius doppelgänger had phrased it so perfectly that no one could refute her argument unless they wanted to look like the evil jailer holding his or her prisoner hostage. Stefan eventually decided not to say anything, as did Amelia, and while Claire was waiting for something to come to her, she listened as Damon clucked his tongue and cowardly gave in.
"Your way, Elena."
Claire's eyes flashed to him. The one person she could count on to be a dick and speak his mind had failed her. She turned back to Elena with wide eyes. "No! No, absolutely not! Look, forgive me if I don't feel like sending you out into a world where there's an evil ancient vampire out to kidnap you for a sacrifice in a centuries-old, utterly ridiculous curse!"
Elena raised a sigh deep in her stomach as Stefan, who was standing beside Claire, mumbled, "That sounded oddly maternal of you."
"I don't do maternal," Claire snapped at him. Stefan backed off, though his expression made it clear he thought she was deeply wrong. Elena gave Claire reassuring eyes as she nodded.
"I'll be fine. Promise."
"Don't worry, I'm ready," Bonnie chimed in, trying to make the vampires feel more comfortable. "If he shows his face, I can take him. I know how."
"The way I see it, next to Bonnie is the safest place I can be," Elena piped as they walked to the door. "Come on."
Claire scoffed and used her hand to slap Stefan in the stomach, at which point he realized the message and looked at Amelia, who also understood. Calling out to Elena and Bonnie, Stefan and Amelia jogged after them.
"Wait!" Stefan protested. "We're...coming. We're coming."
Stefan and Amelia left last, closing the door on their way out. Claire let out a worried sigh and turned her back on the door, where she watched as Damon poured himself a glass of early-morning bourbon from the decanter. She walked forward and opened her mouth to ask him for one, but she didn't need to. All it took was the sound of her footsteps towards him and he extended a glass to her, where she took it silently.
"I wouldn't worry," Damon assured her. "She'll be fine...she's with two vampires and a super-witch. There's no way he'll get to her."
"I hope you're right about that." She downed the alcohol in her glass and set it down with a hiss. "Okay. Okay, I'm done worrying. Take my mind off it."
She walked around the couch as Damon looked up from drinking his bourbon, watching as she kicked off her shoes on the parlor rug and started to unbutton her shirt. He nearly choked setting his glass down.
"Take your mind off...wait, what?"
"Come on, Damon, take my mind off it. Please. If there was ever a time that I need this, it's like...right now. So clothes off. Come on," she demanded, stripping off the white button-down, leaving her in black camisole she had underneath so her undergarments wouldn't show. Just as she was about to yank the black tank top over her head, Damon, who had been staring at her with pain and lust all at the same time, suddenly snapped his fingers.
"Um, you know what..." He picked up his alcohol glass and swallowed it whole. "I forgot...I have this...thing that Carol Lockwood wanted me to do this morning. Oh, wow, I'm, uh, really late. I've got to go."
"What?" Claire demanded as he jogged to the door. "What thing? Damon!"
"Sorry, Blondie, but I really have to go." He opened the door, hoping to get out before she said anything, but all he heard was a small scoff before she spoke again, optimistic.
"Fine, then. Later?" she prompted. Damon stopped cold at the threshold, looking back at Claire, who was standing in a defensive position with her arms crossed over her almost naked chest. Damon let out a heavy sigh, but he couldn't help it.
"Later," he promised before closing the door and stepping out into the light, only to go to the bar where he would drink and drink and drink until, maybe, what he was doing with her started to make some sort of sense.
Damon's plans to drink himself into oblivion didn't really work out so well. Stefan called for an emergency meeting at the boarding house and so he returned promptly, where he was filled in on what Claire had already been told by the group of four teenagers: Klaus made himself known to Elena, telling her he would be at the high school's '60s Decade Dance later in the evening. Upon hearing this information, Damon shrugged.
"So we go to the dance, we find him," he suggested lightly.
"Really?" Stefan prompted incredulously. "How are we going to do that? We don't even know what he looks like."
"Something tells me he's not going to be sixteen and pimply."
"He could be anywhere at any time. He compelled somebody at school!"
"Guess it's not as safe as you guys thought it was, huh?" Claire threw at Bonnie and Elena with a triumphant hum. She could see Elena get agitated, but before the young brunette could even think of a comeback, there was a knock on the door behind them. Everyone turned to see Alaric walk through the threshold of the Salvatore house, joining their group meeting.
"There you are!" Damon exclaimed.
"Sorry I'm late," Alaric apologized as he closed the door. Damon moved past it.
"Hey, I need you to put me and Claire down as chaperones at the dance tonight. Klaus made his first move."
"Okay...so we find him and then what?" Elena asked, getting exhausted with standing in the middle of her parlor without so much as an understanding of what should happen at the dance later. "What's our plan of attack?"
"Me," Bonnie said simply, turning to Elena. "I'm the plan. He has no idea how much power I can channel. If you can find him, I can kill him."
Mostly everyone bought Bonnie's dark tone, but Alaric started to laugh. "That's not gonna be that easy...I mean, he is the biggest, baddest vampire around."
"Alaric has a point," Damon agreed, "I mean...what if he—"
The dark-haired Salvatore stopped himself short and flew at Bonnie, attempting to attack her with the element of surprise. Instead, Bonnie held out her hand calmly and her magic, though barely at a fraction of its power, knocked him back all the way across the room without her having to bat an eye. Damon, unharmed, lifted himself from the mess she made as Stefan gave a look of approval and nodded.
"Well, I was impressed."
"It doesn't matter if he's an Original," Bonnie continued confidently. "I can take down anyone who comes at me. I can kill him, Elena. I know I can."
The witch looked up at her best friend reassuringly, and Elena didn't doubt for one second that her kick-ass supernatural best friend could pull it off.
She was just afraid of what would happen if she tried.
"Okay." Claire let out a deep sigh. "So I guess we're going to this Decade Dance thing. What is it, the '60s? I think I have some clothes from back then. I don't know, I'll have to check."
Stefan shrugged. "If not, there's always stuff in the hallway closet. Zach never liked to throw things out."
"Okay, well I'm gonna go..." said Alaric as he started to back out of the parlor. He pointed at Damon. "Uh, Damon, I'll make sure to put you and Claire down on the chaperone list."
"See you tonight, Ric!" Elena called out for him as he approached the door. But just as Alaric turned the knob and opened the front door to leave, he stopped short when he saw someone standing on the other side of the threshold, about to knock. It was someone he was not familiar with...someone Katherine didn't explicitly mention.
"Um..." Alaric trailed off. The man at the door gave him a half-smile.
"Hey, Ric. You're looking good."
"Thanks..." Alaric trailed off again, unsure of what to call the man before him.
"Ric, who is it?" Claire asked as she turned around and walked over to the door, which was partially covering who was outside waiting to be let in. As soon as Claire took control of the door and swung it open, her mouth practically dropped to the floor and her limbs froze.
Christopher gave his ex-wife a small smile. "Hi, Claire."
"What did you do?!" Claire practically screamed at Stefan as they reconvened in her bedroom. Stefan confessed that it was his doing that brought Christopher back to Mystic Falls to help with defeating Klaus, and therefore, Damon had Christopher put on the chaperone list and Amelia was graciously helping him rummage through Stefan's things for something he could wear. Stefan sighed heavily.
"I only did it because we need help to save Elena. And you, for that matter. That's why he wants to help."
Claire slapped her hands to her sides angrily. "Bringing back my ex-husband doesn't help anyone! He left me, Stefan! He left me! Which means...he left! He didn't want to come back. You asking him to come back to help save my life—which I am perfectly capable of handling on my own thank you—defeats the whole purpose of him leaving me!"
Stefan groaned. "Fine. Then I did it for Elena, okay? I brought him back so he could save Elena."
"Oh, really? Would you like that to be the explanation I tell Amelia because I'd be more than happy to relay that statement."
"Claire." Stefan let out a brisk breath and stared at her with hard eyes. "He left you, yes. But he's back now and he wants to help save both you and Elena. He wants to do it. No one forced him to get on a plane and come back here. So just try to play nice, please."
"He's my ex-husband!" Claire hissed as she crossed her arms. "Of course I'll 'play nice'! But that still doesn't excuse the fact that you brought him back here!"
As Stefan and Claire argued in her bedroom, Elena, Amelia, and Christopher hung around in Elena's new bedroom, picking through Stefan's things that were mixed up with Claire's and boxes from the Salvatore house. All of the vampires could hear Stefan and Claire arguing, but no one said anything about it. They were all mostly silent while Amelia helped Christopher's '60s outfit come together.
Elena, who had been digging through one of the boxes, mumbled, "The Salvatores are such packrats."
"Oh, that box isn't from the boarding house," Damon informed her as he waked into the room, fully dressed to impress in one of his late-sixties shirts and leather pants. "It's Claire's. Those are all her dresses from the '60s."
Elena looked up at him. "And how would you know? I thought the last time you saw each other before Mystic Falls was the '70s..."
"It was." Damon walked forward and tapped the box she was rummaging through. Elena looked at his finger and beneath it she saw an inscription on the box reading: '60s dresses, CK. Elena nodded her head once, understanding. "Right."
"Okay." As he walked away from her to make sure he looked good in the mirror, Elena turned around at him with two dresses in her hand. Damon looked at her through the mirror as she held up the two outfits. "What do you think? Twiggy or sexy hippie?"
"Sexy hippie." Damon made an approving expression. "Definitely sexy hippie."
She rolled her eyes. "You're only saying that because you like anything with the word 'sexy' in it."
Damon shrugged and turned around. "True. But I'm also saying it because I know Claire's probably gonna wear the other one."
From behind him, as she was fixing Christopher's cotton button-down, Amelia scoffed, "Claire? Twiggy? Please."
Damon smirked. "It's only Twiggy if it's on Elena. It's sexy if it's on Claire."
The elder Salvatore had no problem spewing out comments like that, even when Christopher was in the room. In fact, he did it because Christopher was in the room. If he were being honest, all he wanted to do was punch the guy for leaving. You don't give up an opportunity like that because some manipulative bitch played you like a violin. In Damon's mind, Christopher was the biggest loser of them all. It might've seemed cruel, but though they were friends back in 1864, they were far from best friends. Nothing close to it. He tolerated the guy, that was all. It was a family compromise.
And he could sense the annoyance coming from Christopher as he cleared his throat and tried, "Thought you hated her, Damon."
Without turning around, Damon grinned. "Oh, I do." He twisted and shot a smirk at Christopher. "But that doesn't mean she isn't gorgeous as hell."
"Are we ready to go in here?" a voice asked, and everyone looked to find Claire walking in with Stefan, both of them dressed for the dance already. All Stefan had on was a suit and tie that looked worn-down and probably was from the '60s, even though it looked modern. Claire was all dolled-up in a black and white gogo girl costume, and when she walked in with that question out of her mouth, she wasn't even paying attention to what they were saying before. All she saw was the fact that Elena and Amelia were both not dressed. "Hey! Chop, chop! We don't have all night, people! We've got a scary Original to kill!"
Elena held up the two dresses in her hand. "I can't decide what to wear."
Amelia shrugged at her sister. "I don't see anything I want to wear."
Claire sighed heavily. "All right. All the men in this room...get out." Stefan, Damon, and Christopher looked at her weirdly, and when they didn't respond within the first fifteen seconds, Claire shouted, "Anyone who has testicles, get out of the room! Now!"
Stefan and Christopher reluctantly obeyed, but before Damon left the room, he quipped, "Wait a second, shouldn't that mean you should be leaving, too—?"
She held up a hand at him and tried not to smile. "I...knew that was going to come out of your mouth sooner or later. Just go."
With another smirk, Damon obliged and left the room, where Claire was left to do her magic. She took the pink dress out of Elena's hand and tossed it to Amelia. "There. You wear the Twiggy dress, Elena wears the sexy hippie one. Go change."
With an impressed look, Amelia went to the bathroom in Elena's room to change into her costume as Elena, who wore a faltering smile on her face, turned around slowly and set the dress on her desk. Claire seemed to notice the change in atmosphere, and with her arms crossed, she stepped forward cautiously.
"You know, you can back out of this. No one will blame you."
Elena scoffed. "And what? Miss out on all the fun? We've got ex-husbands and evil Original vampires..." The room fell silent and, after a while, Elena turned around reluctantly and looked at Claire with a sigh. "All this time spent worry about Klaus...I think I convinced myself that he's not real."
"But he is," Claire began softly.
"But he is," Elena agreed. "And not only is he after me, he's after you, too. I think we've all...seem to have forgotten that part."
Elena scoffed and put the dress down beside her as Claire laughed and shook her head. "Trust me, Elena. No one's forgotten. But tonight, all of that ends. Tonight, this bastard dies." The two were staring at each other for a while before Claire reached forward and gave Elena a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. "Now get changed, sexy hippie. Wouldn't want to be late!"
The second they entered the gymnasium at Mystic Falls High, it was already like there was something wrong. Dana, the girl that had given the message from Klaus to Elena, was up on the stage, initiating a clap for the entire crowd. Stefan, Christopher, Elena, Amelia, Bonnie, Jeremy, Damon, and Claire stopped in the middle of the dance floor as they listened to Dana's amplified voice on the microphone.
"We have a special shout-out tonight. This is for Elena." All of the vampires and the one human looked up, immediately on high alert. They waited as Dana smiled at them in the crowd. "From Klaus."
A song started to play as the crowd erupted in applause and then started to dance. After a few seconds went by and the applause died down, Damon stepped around to face all of them.
"That was a lame cheap-shot. He's just trying to bait us!"
Elena looked around the crowd and shook her head. "I know everyone here."
"Maybe he's not here," Stefan suggested darkly. "He just wants us to believe he is."
Damon sighed. "It's a party, people! Blend! Let him come to us."
"Good idea," Bonnie added as she pulled Jeremy's hand from behind her. The young Gilbert groaned softly.
"No, no, no...I really don't feel like dancing."
"Too bad."
"There's Ric," Damon informed as he spotted Alaric in the crowd surrounded by a bunch of teenagers. He nodded to the teacher before informing the rest of the vampires around him, "I'll be back."
As Damon sauntered off into the crowd, Stefan turned to Claire and sighed. "So...do you think I can make it up to you if I ask you to dance?"
Claire shrugged. "It's a start." But with a small smile, she looked up at him and he grabbed her hand to pull her out to the dance floor. When they were gone, Christopher turned to Elena beside him and extended his hand.
"Would you like to dance, Elena?" Christopher asked with a hint of a smile on his face, trying to cheer her up from the scare caused by Klaus earlier. Elena, though nervous, nodded and he took her out onto the dance floor as well, leaving Amelia alone. She huffed and looked around, bored, but then with a shrug, she turned and went to go get herself some punch.
"I am sorry that bringing him back here upset you," Stefan told Claire over the music as they swung back and forth to the slow and upbeat song playing over the speakers. She shrugged.
"Yeah...I'm over it. I just wanted to dance." She spun herself under his arm and laughed, causing Stefan to roll his eyes. "You remember the '60s? Oh, God...your hair. You burned all the pictures from that time, too! Damn. I wish I had one so I could show your brother. He'd get a kick out of it."
"Evil!" Stefan claimed, widening his eyes at her. Claire nearly cackled at him. "Hey, but if I remember correctly, you didn't look so hot yourself, either!"
"I always look hot!" she corrected him. Stefan gave her a look, almost telling her the opposite. Removing one of her hands from his, she slapped his arm. "I didn't look ugly in the '60s! I had very pretty braids!"
"Hippie braids," Stefan reminded her. Claire was about to say something in return before she spotted Caroline and Matt across the room, entering the dance with Caroline in a First Lady costume and Matt in a JFK one. How fitting. However, she gasped realizing that there was something she forgot to do. Stefan looked back and spotted Caroline and Matt but turned around at Claire with a shrug. "What? What is it?"
"I completely forgot to tell Caroline what's happening tonight! I have to tell her!" Claire told him, slapping herself on the forehead even as she kept to the upbeat music. Stefan nodded at her.
"Don't worry, I'm on it," he promised. She was too focused on Caroline and Matt to notice Stefan's head nod to someone else, and taking Claire's hand, Stefan spun her around, confusing her for a brief moment before she ended up in Damon's arms. The moment she crashed into him, Damon took them for a whirl.
"How you doin'?" Damon asked, a smirk sliding right onto his cocky face. He released her from his grasp as she sighed.
"I'm kind of a mess, actually. You?"
"Cool as a cucumber."
"Of course you are."
"Come on." Damon groaned. "Remember the last decade dance? The vampires were all 'ahhh!' and Elena was all 'ahhh!' and you were all...kickass and stuff."
"Kickass and stuff?" Claire repeated, nearly bursting out into laughter. Damon grinned at her as she shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I was pretty kickass. And we won."
"Yes! We did." Damon grabbed her wrists and yanked her closer to him, just close enough so that his lips fell shy of hers and her hands were resting on his warm chest. Her breathing was slow, and he barely even realized how close he was until the words escaped his mouth. In an attempt to cover up the sudden shift in moods, he held her hand while he spun her outwards and back into him, this time so that her back was against the rest of his body. Claire, though she didn't know why, managed to smile a bit.
"You know..." she trailed off. Damon hummed as he swayed them back and forth and waited for her to finish her statement. "I know we've danced before...ages ago and everything...but you're surprisingly not bad at this."
Damon smirked and whispered against her temple, "I've got moves even you've never seen."
"Oh, really?"
"Mmhmm," Damon agreed before spinning her back out and collapsing her into him the right way, momentum forcing her hands to clasp around his neck as he kept them moving at the tempo of the song. For a few moments, he watched her smile, but after those wonderful moments, he leaned in closer to her ear and whispered, "We need to talk. It's about Bonnie."
Without moving, while they remained swaying back and forth, Claire whispered into his ear, "What's wrong?"
"I overheard her and Jeremy talking. I think that maybe, if she uses all the juice those dead witches gave her when she liked herself to the massacre site, she...doesn't exactly have the best chances at survival," Damon said slowly. Suddenly, Claire pulled back, staring into his eyes with wild ones of her own.
"What?"
"Shh!" Damon hissed at her, grabbing her waist and pulling her closer to him so that his lips were at her ear again. "We don't know who's listening."
Claire shook her head. "I don't understand. Why would she do this? Why wouldn't she tell anybody? She can't do this! Elena wouldn't let her if she..." Claire trailed off, answering her own questions, and finally let out a sigh. "Elena wouldn't let her do this if she knew how risky it was. That's why she's keeping it a secret."
"Bingo," Damon agreed, but let out a soft sigh. "But I'm not sure how much of it is true."
Claire finally pulled away as she saw Bonnie walking through the crowd, about to pass her and Damon. "Well, you're about to find out. Bonnie!" Claire exclaimed as she pulled away from Damon and stopped the witch in her tracks. "Damon needs a dance partner. I'm gonna check on Elena."
Without waiting for a protest from either one of them, Claire disappeared into the crowd to find Elena. As it turned out, Christopher and Elena were on the dance floor, laughing as they moved to the turned upbeat song that blasted on the speakers above them. The second they saw Claire, their laughter died down just a little bit.
"Hey," Claire started as she walked over to them. They stopped dancing to talk with her. "You doing okay, Elena?"
"Yeah...I'm fine." Elena let out a deep breath. "Nervous. Anxious. But fine. Your...err, ex-husband is good company, I guess."
Claire plastered a bitter smile on her face. "Well, at least he's good for one thing."
Christopher tensed at the sour comment and Elena, who was feeling immediately awkward standing next to the strained divorced couple, jerked her thumb into the crowd and cleared her throat. "So...um, I'm gonna go find Jeremy, then. Okay? O...okay."
The teenager nearly ran like a bat out of hell, desperate to avoid the tense conversation she could feel coming from a mile away. As soon as Elena left, the first words escaped Christopher's mouth as he stepped forward.
"Claire, we're going to have to talk at some—"
"Don't," Claire snapped, turning to him and holding up a frustrated hand. "Don't talk to me, okay? I don't want you here. I didn't bring you here, Stefan did. I didn't even know you were coming and, to be honest, if I had known, you would definitely not be here right now. So I don't want to talk to you."
But before she could get away, he stepped in front of her and blocked her exit strategy. "Look, Claire, I'm sorry. The things I said to you...they were uncalled for and...and mean but I didn't mean to hurt you. I needed some space."
"Space?" Claire nearly laughed. "Space? All I wanted was space! When I asked for space, we took space! You up and divorced me, Christopher! You left. So do me a favor and just...do what you do best. Just leave. I can handle myself and I can handle Elena. What I can't handle is...you."
With a frustrated scoff, Claire walked around Christopher and pushed herself through the crowd to get as far away from him as possible.
When she finally was able to make it out of the maze of crazy '60s teenagers, she found Bonnie standing at a table and watching Damon from afar. Claire walked over to her, trying to look back and see what she was looking at, and when she was right in Bonnie's line of view, she could see it. Damon Salvatore getting his '60s on with a bunch of high school teenage girls. Again.
"Really?" Claire leaned against the table as she exhaled dramatically and Bonnie looked back at her with a smile. "That's just so sad. This is the second time I've seen him inappropriately dancing with jailbait."
Bonnie shrugged. "He's having fun. I think."
"Still doesn't make groping underage girls okay."
The witch chuckled under her breath, but their laughter was put to an end as Elena rushed over to Bonnie, immediately grabbing her arm with intensity and fire in her eyes as she demanded, "I need to talk to you."
Bonnie and Claire looked at each other, and Claire glanced out into the crowd to see Damon eyeing them suspiciously. Bonnie left with Elena dragging her by the arm, and there was nothing Claire could do to stop it. Claire watched Stefan approach Damon with as much anger as Elena went to Bonnie with, and before she knew it, Claire turned to find Ric coming at her with great urgency. Once he reached her, Claire let out a soft groan.
"Ugh. Ric, please don't tell me you're here to scold me about the whole Bonnie thing. I didn't tell Elena because—"
"I'm not here to talk about Bonnie," Ric breathed out, shaking his head. Claire straightened as he choked out, "Jeremy's in danger. I think it's Klaus. Where's Elena?"
"S-She's with Bonnie...I..." Claire removed herself from leaning on the table and jerked her head to the side while beginning to run in the direction Bonnie and Elena went. "Come on, they went this way."
Alaric and Claire walked briskly until they were outside and they spotted Bonnie and Elena arguing on the front lawn of the school. When they saw the two teenagers, Ric and Claire broke out into a sprint until they finally reached them.
"Elena!" Ric shouted. She looked up at him.
"What is it?"
"He has Jeremy," Alaric told them. Bonnie and Elena's eyes widened to the size of the moon.
"What?!" they both exclaimed together. He nodded.
"Yeah, Klaus has Jeremy. Come on!" he urged them, causing Bonnie, Claire, and Elena to take off with the vampire slayer, who led them back into the school, this time through another door. Alaric looked around suspiciously, making sure that no one was following them. He closed the door after ushering the three inside and briskly started to walk, getting as far away from the door as possible. Elena and Bonnie struggled to keep up with his pace.
"Where are you taking us?" Elena breathed out through her shallow breaths.
"Just...a little further," he promised. But she looked around, a dark feeling in the pits of her stomach.
"Something's not right." Her eyes drifted up to Claire, who came to a stop by a row of lockers and looked around, shaking her head. Elena stopped as well, watching as Claire's eyes slowly drifted up to warn her that they were not in a safe environment.
"Where's Jeremy?" Bonnie demanded, walking a little further before falling short when Alaric finally slowed. They waited and listened as his breaths turned into laughed, which turned into a vicious chuckle and a sigh of relief.
"I just had to get away from that dance! The sixties...ugh," Alaric scoffed as he turned around to face the three of them. "Not my decade. I mean, whose call was that, anyways? I much prefer the twenties! The style, the parties, the jazz." His eyes flickered across the three of them before drifting to Claire and tilting his head. "Say, Clarissa, did you enjoy the twenties?"
She swallowed thickly. "Wasn't all it was cracked up to be."
He shrugged. "I beg to differ."
"Alaric..." Elena trailed off, watching as he sauntered forward at a slow, predator-like pace, "...are you on vervain?"
The man before them, clearly not the sane Alaric they knew, stopped. "Now why would you ask me that question, Elena?"
Elena took a step back, the wheels in her mind turning as she tried to come to a conclusion and come to it fast. "He's being compelled."
"Nope!" Alaric bellowed. "Try again."
"What's going on?" Bonnie demanded, stepping in front of Elena as to protect her. Claire stepped forward, nearly a half of a step in front of Bonnie.
"Alaric, so help me God...I love you and everything, but I will kick your skinny little ass if—"
He groaned, unimpressed. "Okay, I'll give you a hint. I am not Alaric."
It took her a while. It took Bonnie and Claire longer than it took her. Elena's eyes opened even wider as she let out a small squeak.
"Klaus."
"Surprise!" he exclaimed, a smile spreading over his face like a disease. Elena backed up, taking a deep breath.
"Oh, no. No, it's not possible."
"Just relax, Elena. I'm not here to hurt you. You're not on my hit list...tonight," he admitted. But by now, he had gotten so close, he was just about three steps away from Claire, who was a hair in front of Bonnie, who was about ten feet in front of Elena. Klaus's eyes settled upon Claire once more. "Rex sanguis ex fortissimis."
Claire drew in a deep inhale. "The strongest blood must come from the King."
"Correct, dear," he praised, pulling his hands together for a brisk clap. "You know you're stuff. I'm impressed. Then you also know that you, lovely Clarissa, are also not on my hit list for tonight. Step aside, please."
"Make me," she growled. Alaric sighed heavily before striking at her, barely lifting a finger as he threw her so hard she hit the lockers and dented them all. Elena gasped at the sudden movement and Claire lifted herself from the floor, although weak. Alaric looked at her in pity.
"The strongest blood might come from the King, but apparently you don't know how to use that strength." Alaric's eyes lifted and he locked eyes with the witch, the one he really wanted. "Unfortunately for you, witch...you're the one who is on my hit list tonight."
Then he lunged, and at the sudden movement, Bonnie repeated the same thing she had done to Damon on the possessed history teacher in front of her; only this time, it was twice the power. He recovered quickly however, stumbling back to his feet. Claire was already upright, adding an extra layer of protection between Elena and Bonnie as the human seemingly recovered from a bone-breaking throw.
"Now, did I mention that I know a witch?" Alaric said softly. "You're gonna have to hit me a lot harder than that!"
He lunged again, and so Bonnie did as told. She forced her hand forward and Alaric went flying, right into the trophy case at the end of the hallway. The glass shattered into a thousand pieces on the floor, but all they could hear was the sick sound of Alaric's laughter.
"By all means...fire away! If you kill this body, I'll just get a new one. Maybe Jeremy..." he added. Bonnie's voice nearly trembled as she spoke out to the two behind her.
"Go. Run!" Bonnie demanded, and Elena, Claire, and Bonnie all took off into a sprint into the next hallway. Before Alaric could get the chance to follow them, Bonnie sealed the doors shut with her magic, but then someone else came running out through another door from the hallway that led to the main gym. Damon came to a stop when he saw them all short of breath.
"What happened?" he asked, looking over at Claire, who was nearly trembling.
"Klaus is Alaric—um, Alaric is Klaus, I mean. I-I don't know, but Klaus is in Alaric's body and he's trying to kill Bonnie!"
Damon shook his head at her. "What?"
"Like he's possessing it or something," Bonnie tried. Damon didn't have time to try and wrap his head around it. He turned and looked at Elena.
"Go find Stefan, Christopher, and Amelia. Now."
"Okay."
"Now!" he urged, causing Elena to run out of the door he came from to go find the other vampires. When she was gone, Damon turned back to Bonnie. "Can you kill him?"
"He's got some kind of protection spell on him," Bonnie answered unsurely. Damon scowled at her.
"You have the power of one hundred witches. Break it!"
"I'm trying! But if I kill Alaric, he'll just possess someone else!" she reasoned. "He knows I have my power, Damon! He's trying to kill me!"
"That's not gonna happen," Claire stated icily as she looked back and forth between Damon and Bonnie. "That is not going to happen! This bastard is not allowed to win! Damon, we need a goddamn plan!"
"I'm thinking!" he snapped at her as he stared at the floor, trying to come up with a solution. Finally, his eyes snapped up to meet the witch's waiting gaze. "You still willing to do whatever it takes to kill him?"
Bonnie didn't answer, but she didn't need to. It was clear: of course she would. It was Elena. If needed, she would die for her.
Stefan, Elena, Amelia, and Christopher came running down the high school hallways to the last place Elena saw Damon, Claire, and Bonnie. Through the doors that Bonnie had before sealed off, Damon and Claire walked calmly out of them to spot the rest of their band of heroes.
"There you are," Damon said calmly as Elena approached him, only a few feet away.
Through her gaping breaths, she asked, "What are you doing? W-Where's Bonnie?"
Damon and Claire snuck a glance at each other before Claire took a tentative step forward and cleared her throat. "Um, Elena...she's doing...Bonnie's doing what she has to do."
Elena's eyes swelled. "What?!"
"Where is she?" Stefan asked abruptly, stepping forward and facing his brother head-on. Damon's mouth turned down into a hard line.
"Stefan, let her do this—!"
"Damn it, Damon!" the younger brother shouted. "Where is she?!"
Claire jumped between the two brothers, shoving Damon back so she could face her friend. "Stefan, you need to calm down! Bonnie is doing what she has to do! She is facing Klaus because it is what she has to do!"
"You're letting her kill herself?" Amelia gasped, looking at Claire with something that resembled disgust. Claire looked back at her and, though she had no good response, attempted to remain as stern as she needed.
"There is no other way—!"
"There has to be another way, Claire! There's always another way!" Elena screamed at her before lunging forward, about to break out into a sprint to go down the hallway Damon came from. Before she could, Damon caught her by holding the tiny human's shoulders, but Elena struggled so badly it was becoming a challenge to keep her still. "Damon, let go of me!"
"You can't go down there," he growled at her.
"Yes, she can." Damon looked up to find Christopher as he walked around Stefan and grabbed Elena's hand, yanking her out of Damon's arm and pulling her with him down the deserted hallway while picking up their pace. Stefan and Amelia soon went as well, only after they gave Claire and Damon the dirtiest looks they could muster. When the two outcasted vampires were left in the hallway, they caught a worried gaze from each other. Regardless, they didn't speak. It was too risky to speak. All they did was calmly follow Elena, Christopher, Stefan, and Amelia down the hallway they came from, hearing Elena's pitiful sobs as they witnessed her kneeling beside Bonnie's dead body.
"Get her out of here," said the dark-haired Salvatore as he stood in the dark room, attracting attention to him and the blonde standing by his side. All of the vampires looked up with sorrowful, yet angry expressions. Regardless, Damon barreled on, "Claire and I will deal with the body."
Elena looked up, her eyes red from crying. "What do you mean 'deal with it'?"
"Sheriff can't know about this."
"The last thing we need in this town is another mysterious death in a mysterious crime scene..." Claire bent down next to Elena and Bonnie's corpse and reached out to touch the young teenager. "Elena, go home and get some rest—"
"This is Bonnie!" the doppelgänger shouted at her, flinching away. Claire retracted her rejected hand and looked up at the three extra vampires standing above Bonnie and staring down at them.
"Take her home so we can take care of this," the blonde said slowly, her words articulated perfectly and maneuvered to not sound as harsh as they normally would be.
Though unhappy about it, the three vampires knew it was the right call. Stefan walked over to Elena and grabbed her gently, lifting her up from the floor as she sobbed harder. Suddenly, Elena looked up from her sobbing and asked, "No. Jeremy. Oh my God, Jeremy! What about Jeremy?"
"I'll find him," Damon promised.
"No!" Elena whimpered as Stefan cautiously dragged her away from the scene, Amelia and Christopher following right behind them. Damon and Claire shared another glance before Damon looked down at the witch on the ground and, seeing her open eyes, waved his hand over them so that they closed.
"Let's get her out of here," Claire whispered softly. Damon looked up at her and nodded, just before pulling the young witch into his arms so he could transport her. They walked back to his car, where Damon set Bonnie in the trunk of the Camaro and walked around to step into the driver's seat. Just as he was about to climb in and sit with Claire, a voice rung out, calling his name.
"Damon!" Jeremy called as he jogged over to the vampire in the dead of night. "Hey, I got your message, I can't find anyone! Where's Elena? Where's Bonnie?"
Damon was hesitant, and at this, Jeremy's expression turned down. Gulping back a lump in his throat, Damon began, "We need to have a little talk."
When Damon and Claire returned home, they were barely allowed two seconds of silence before Elena jumped at them, lifting herself from the couch, setting down her tea that Stefan made, and throwing the blanket she had wrapped around her shoulders onto the chair as she confronted the two vampires.
"What did you do with her?" Elena demanded.
Damon looked at Stefan, who was standing behind Elena. "Will you please calm her down?"
"Don't talk like I'm not standing right in front of you!" She held up a hand at Stefan as she held back her tears and tried to face the two vampires headstrong. Damon held up his hands carefully.
"Please. Calm. Down."
"You knew!" Elena turned to Claire, finished wasting time on Damon as she yelled at the person she really wanted to. "Didn't you? You knew that if she harnessed all that power that she would die, didn't you?"
"Elena—" the female vampire began, but she barely got a breath out before Elena interrupted her, practically screaming.
"Did you know, Claire?!"
"Yes!" Claire shouted, unable to stand it any longer. "Yes, Elena. Yes, I knew. Yes!"
Elena, anger rising inside of her, let out a disgusted scoff as she brought her hand up and, surprising Claire, managed to make her palm contact with the blonde's face so that, if she had been a regular human, there would be a bruising red mark down her left cheek. No one really knew it happened until a few seconds afterwards when Claire held her cheek, recovering from the slap, Elena's breath shook, and Damon tried to get Elena to listen to him.
"Elena...you need to listen to me and prepare for what I'm about to say," Damon pleaded with her, though he was about as angry as Claire was probably feeling.
"Shut up, Damon," Claire growled at him. Damon looked over at her and watched as she shoved him out of her way so that she was facing Elena head-on, her blue eyes flaming. "Elena, I knew that Bonnie would die if she used all her power. Damon knew and he told me. But she had to die. Klaus invading Alaric's body threw us all off our game. We were all fools! Bonnie wasn't prepared to take on a spell protecting Alaric's body and kill Klaus at the same time. She wasn't going to be able to do it, end of discussion! But Klaus wasn't going to stop until he knew she was dead, okay? He had to think she was dead—he had to see it for himself; he had to believe it! So she cast a spell, okay? A spell that would trick Klaus into thinking that she was dead but keep her alive so that she could kill him when he's in his own body and ready to fight. Bonnie is fine. And the next time you feel like you want to hit me, Elena..." Claire stepped closer, the rage pouring out of her like she was a waterfall, "...don't."
Without skipping a step, Claire turned around on her heel, brushed past Damon, and walked calmly upstairs to her room. Damon followed shortly after, feeling out of place standing around and watching Elena dry her tears because she learned Bonnie wasn't really dead. But as Damon left to go up to his room, Christopher ended up following him for some unknown reason, but the words just spilled out of his mouth like he'd known he was going to say them all along.
"Do you realize how risky a plan this was?" Christopher asked Damon as the dark-haired Salvatore came to a slow just before the staircase. Damon turned around and watched as the bronze-haired vampire approached him. "You have no idea how much you hurt her! You could've at least told us the plan so we could've told her sooner!"
"Oh, I'm sorry." Damon scoffed. "I didn't realize you were the Elena expert now. Funny, don't you think? Considering you just waltzed back into your ex-wife's life because you felt like it?"
"I came to make sure Claire doesn't turn up dead," Christopher hissed at him. "I didn't just waltz back into her life because I felt like it. I will always love her."
"No, no." Damon shook his head immediately, shaking the words out of his ears. "No! You don't get to pretend like you were the one doing the saving tonight. I did what I had to do to make sure that she and Elena are both alive at the end of the day. You and my brother and his girlfriend can sit around and worry about collateral damage but Claire and I will be the ones to make sure that this sacrifice won't happen, not you! And I don't care how much you love her, either, because obviously you didn't love her enough. You left her in pieces. So do us all a favor and just get back to that, will you?"
With a superior scoff, Damon turned the corner of the staircase and walked up, refusing to hear another load of bullshit out of Christopher's mouth.
Claire changed out of her gogo girl costume the second she got upstairs after washing away the day's hard work. As she exited the bathroom, she let down her hair that had been in a bun for her shower and sighed heavily as she picked up the costume she had put down on her bed when she had stripped it off so that she could put it with the rest of the laundry. As she turned around from putting the dress away, she noticed Christopher tentatively walking into her bedroom, his hands in the pockets of his jeans and a fresh set of clothes on hm as well.
The moment she saw him, she stopped in her tracks. They were silent for a while, but at last, Claire sighed.
"I don't want to hear about how harsh I was to Elena. I was trying to help," she mumbled bitterly. Christopher slowly moved across her threshold and into her room, maintaining boundaries he had set for himself.
"I'm not here about Elena," he told her. "I'm here to tell you that I think it's best if I leave. You all seem to have it under control here."
Claire sighed. "Look, I know what I said earlier must've hurt you and I didn't mean to. You don't have to leave."
Christopher nodded. "I do. You're not the only one who wants me to go, Claire. And honestly, I think I should go, too. I didn't know what I was expecting when I came back here...I was just an idiot before. I gave up the woman I love because I was afraid to lose her, what kind of an idiot does that?"
"You weren't an idiot," she tried, stepping forward cautiously with a tremendous exhale. "Christopher, you had every right to want to leave. I just didn't want you to go because I thought I wanted this. I thought I wanted to be married but the truth is...I just can't do it."
The exes looked at each other, and only after Claire said what she wanted to say did she realize it might've hurt Christopher more than she expected it to. But before she could retract her statement, she watched as Christopher gave a tight, caught smile and nodded his head.
"To be honest, I don't think either of us ever really wanted to be married."
Claire let out a deep breath, almost relieved. She didn't really need to say anything to him, they both knew it was the truth. "So...are you still going to leave?"
He nodded. "I think it's what's best for all of us. I think I'll go back to Berlin."
"Berlin?" Claire repeated, surprised. With a nod, he gave her a quick smile and walked forward, kissing her forehead quickly before pulling away.
"Be careful, Claire."
With that said, he turned and began to walk out. But before he managed to get within a few steps to the door, Claire blurted out, "Are you happy? All that time...you've been spending overseas...Berlin...are you happy?"
She watched his back, waiting for him to turn around and answer her question. What she didn't expect is for him to turn around with a genuine smile on his face, something that she'd rarely ever seen. Slowly, he nodded.
"I've never been happier," he told her honestly. Claire smiled softly at him, but couldn't help but feel slightly hurt. Her eyes were distracted, which was why she didn't notice his smile slowly begin to fade as he realized the expression on hers. "Hey...Clarissa, I still love you, you know."
Claire looked up at him and, as she could feel he was about to leave, she slowly nodded up and down. "I know."
This time, when he went to leave, he left her room without stopping, leaving her to herself in the middle of the Salvatore bedroom. After taking in a deep sigh and collecting her thoughts, Claire opened her eyes to find Elena waiting at the threshold, her arms crossed seeming as if she were angry. When the blonde saw her teenage friend, the calmness that had come over her washed away like a wave while an unsettling frown took its place.
"Look, Elena, I'm not going to tell you again. Klaus needed to believe that Bonnie was dead so Damon and I did what we needed to do to make that happen. Your reaction had to be real. I'm not going to apologize for it," she snapped.
Elena uncrossed her arms and nodded. "I understand why you did what you did. Klaus was fooled and Bonnie's alive."
Claire shrugged. "Duplicity always works."
"But let's get one thing straight," Elena began as she sauntered into Claire's room uninvited, "Bonnie will not die for me, I will not let that happen."
"Elena—"
"I'm not finished. We're going to find another way to kill Klaus. But even if we don't, I refuse to use Bonnie to kill Klaus. Like I said, she will not die for me and I won't let her die for you, either. Are we clear?"
Claire crossed her arms and waited for Elena to be done with her demands. After a moment of silence passed, Claire shrugged. "You done now? Great. I never said I was gonna let Bonnie die for us. Trust me, that's the last thing I want. We will find another way, Elena, you can bet your ass on it. We're clear as crystal."
"Good," Elena agreed, surprised that it was easier than she thought it would be. "Look, I shouldn't have hit you."
"You think?"
"I'm sorry," she amended sincerely. Claire sighed.
"Apology accepted, Elena. Now go get some rest. If we're gonna find another way to kill Klaus, we're gonna need all the spare time we can get."
The brunette nodded. "Okay. Goodnight, Claire."
"Goodnight," she said softly and watched as Elena left the room. But again, right as Elena left, another came in. Damon leaned against the threshold and watched as Claire groaned. "What does this look like? A confession box? Get in here, Damon, and confess all your sins, why don't you?"
Damon grinned. "My sins would take too long to confess."
"True," she agreed as he walked into the room and closed her door.
"How are you doing?"
"Fine. Christopher's leaving and Elena apologized. The night's resolved and tomorrow will come." She paused. "Of course, then comes this creepy ritual thing in which I will be the vampire sacrifice and Elena will be the doppelgänger sacrifice and most likely Tyler, wherever he may be, will be the werewolf sacrifice—"
"Hold on," Damon interrupted her, scoffing and stepping towards her. "Who gave you the idea that I'm gonna let you be the vampire sacrifice?"
Claire scowled at him. "Not even you can stop Klaus from taking what he wants. We learned that the hard way today."
"I don't care if I have to sacrifice myself instead!" Damon snapped, causing Claire to release the frown on her face for a confused look as she jumped at the intensity of his tone. "You are not sacrificing yourself. If we don't find a way to save Elena, we have another option. She can turn into a vampire just like the rest of us but you? You're a vampire already. There are no second chances for us."
"We don't have a choice!" she argued.
"We have a choice," Damon countered, stepping so close to her they were practically inches apart. "And I choose you, Claire. I will always choose you."
They were silent. Claire understood the gravity of his statement, and it was making her feel more uncomfortable by the moment. She avoided looking at him as she whispered his name, trying not to feel what he was forcing her to. But despite the fact that when she spoke his name, nothing but pain surrounded it, Damon decided he'd had enough. He surged forward, his strong hands clasping the side of her face as he held her still so it was possible to kiss her as hard, as passionate as he wanted it to be. She kissed back for a split second, but when she realized what was happening, Claire used her hands underneath him to push him at arm's length, her hands on his chest as she looked up at him with heated eyes.
"Why the hell did you do that?!" she nearly shouted.
"Because I can't do it anymore," Damon grumbled. She straightened, confused. "I can't...pretend like all I want is sex from you. I can't do it anymore, Claire, I just can't. I'm done. I want it all; I want you, I want us, I want all of it. And if you don't want that, fine. But I can't keep doing this."
Speechless, that was the word. She was speechless. Words caught in her throat and as Damon took it as a sign that she didn't want any of the things he was asking for, he let his hands slip down from the sides of her face and he pushed her hands away from his chest as he backed out of the room and turned around to leave. But just as he did, he felt Claire's hand wrap around his elbow and yank him back, and suddenly she was kissing him. It was like a dream, like something he'd never imagined. She kissed him, throwing his arm around her back so that he could pull her as close as he wanted while she wrapped her arms around his neck. After a brief moment of head-spinning kissing between the two of them, Claire pulled back and leaned against his forehead.
"Why did I do that?" she breathed, opening her eyes a little wider so he could see the crisp clear color of them. "I don't know what I'm doing, Damon, but I just...I need this. But you know I can't give you everything you want, not now. You know I can't handle it."
"I'm not asking for everything," Damon told her sternly. "I just want to be able to kiss you. That's all."
"Just to kiss me?"
"For now."
She hesitated, but it was a no-brainer. She couldn't handle letting him go because, if he walked out of her room, there was a part of her he'd be taking with him. So she nodded, slowly but surely, and without answering, Damon just leaned forward and kissed her again. This time, they didn't stop to talk.
But unknown to them, the door was cracked open; it was the first mistake they'd made in years. And as a small glimmer of light shone out onto the hallway floor, it was just beyond the reach of the person who was standing outside of Claire's bedroom—Christopher. He had heard everything, seen some of it, and was leaning against the wall outside of her bedroom, his heart breaking in pieces whilst anger repaired it.
Without making a sound, he turned his head and walked back to his room to unpack his things. He wasn't leaving, not after what he just heard. He was staying, and he was going to make Claire and Damon answer to what they'd done.
Elena had ended up in the foyer after coming downstairs from talking with Claire, one thought and one thought only in her mind. She had to figure out a way to save Bonnie, and she knew that Claire, Damon, Stefan, and Amelia couldn't figure out what that way was. No one in her house had the knowledge to figure out what would save her best friend.
Well, that wasn't true. One person did. One...dead-ish person.
Elena made sure no one was around her when she stormed off silently into the basement, walking right up to the Salvatore cellar where they were keeping Elijah's body. Still looking around to make sure no one was behind her, Elena unlocked the door to the cellar and stepped inside, where she knelt down beside the grey, desiccated dead Original and put her hand on the handle of the dagger keeping him from waking up. With all of the strength she could muster, Elena began to yank the dagger out slowly until it came clean out. She looked down at Elijah, thinking over what she'd done, but she knew there was no other option.
"What the hell did you just do?"
Elena gasped, jumping up to find Amelia standing at the door of the cellar with a bag of blood in her hand and wild eyes. The two stared at each other, but Elena kept a firm grip on the dagger in her hand as they both stared down at Elijah, knowing that it wouldn't be long before he woke.
Thanks for reading! Please review!
HPuni101: Thank you! Yep, Klaus is finally here and it's only gonna get better! Here's the update!
ThisIsMeAndYou: As it stands right now, yes. Elena will still be the one to go into the 'sleep' but I'm not 100% sure so don't hold me to it. The story should continue into Season 7 as long as I don't get distracted with other things or feel that it's time the story gets put to an end. As for Christopher, he probably won't be going into the 'sleep' with Elena because even if it does get that far, though Elena's situation was tragic, he'll have a story line of his own, as will Claire and Damon at that point. Anyways, thanks for the review! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
RHatch89: Thanks :)
grapejuice101: Thank you! Here's the chapter! I hope you liked it!
liburnap: Thanks! Here it is! Hope you enjoyed it!
Anna.B: Thanks! Damon and Claire are really going to be struggling through these last couple episodes with Christopher's interference and all the ritual nonsense that goes on but the chemistry they have will always be there. Stefan was just in a hurry and he's gotten so used to Damon and Claire's love/hate thing that he kind of just moves on and doesn't ask but in the next chapter there will definitely be a big Stefan/Claire friendship moment. Oh yeah, definitely, Claire will continue to be Elena's go-to person, but Season 3 will definitely be a hard strain on everyone's relationship with Claire. Bonnie and Claire will become more friendly towards the later seasons but Caroline and Claire will always have this special bond seeing as Claire's blood turned Caroline so that will never go away. Klaus and Claire's relationship will be interesting. Although it will initially be instant attraction, it'll definitely become something else and there will also be a little bit of a twist with other things going on between them. Honestly, I'm struggling with what to do with Amelia but in Season 3, I'm hoping somehow I'll be able to make her more independent. I know by the later seasons of the series she will definitely not follow Stefan around, mainly because by then their relationship will have many dents in them that takes time to fix. Anyways, thanks for reviewing! Here's the update!
Tvd2014: Here it is! He didn't exactly confront her with his feelings yet but it's a start. Thanks for the review!
SomebodyWhoCares: I would love to do that, too. Thanks for reviewing! Here's the update!