Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)
Disturbing Behavior
Just as Klaus smiled at the saleswoman of the upscale city boutique who kindly replenished his empty champagne glass with endless alcohol, he was snapped out of his appreciative look by a long, frustrated groan and a certain blonde vampire who walked over and snatched the newly poured drink from his hands. The alcohol in the glass lasted merely a few seconds before being guzzled by the defeated Claire. This, in turn, made Klaus's smile widen.
"You seem troubled," he noted. She stared up at him with knives for eyes.
"Well, your sister is a pain in my 'troubled' ass. Everything I try to find for her is 'too provocative' or 'too tackless' or 'too...blue'!" Claire mocked her new companion's British accent as she leaned back on the soft couch to take in a moment of silence, knowing full well that Stefan and Klaus were both watching her theatrics.
Could they really blame her, though? Following Damon and Amelia's stunt the night before, Klaus had taken them back to the warehouse where Rebekah was supposed to be recovering from the dagger, only to find her alert and able. She was so alert and able, in fact, that she found it necessary to drain the life out of the security guard Klaus had compelled. As a peace offering for being so cruel to her back in the 1920s, Klaus gifted Stefan his memories of the era back to him for Rebekah so Stefan could realize what he and Rebekah had between him. But that, of course, wasn't the real reason he had brought her back to life. He wanted what Rebekah could give him so he could give it to Gloria and track down the source of his werewolf problem, but she didn't have it.
The catch was, both Stefan and Claire knew who did. Only, Klaus would have to kill them both before he got it out of them.
Meanwhile, as they lounged around the boutique, Klaus chuckled under his breath at Clarissa's dramatics. "My sister can be quite a handful, can't she?"
Claire lifted her eyes. Which is why you don't want to deal with her, she thought, and before she could think of saying it, Rebekah interrupted them with a troublesome sigh.
"There has to be more to this dress," she demanded from behind the curtain where she was changing. Klaus's eyes locked on Claire for her to answer, but she kept her mouth in a tight, thin line so that he could begrudgingly respond.
"There's not."
Rebekah pushed aside the curtain and stepped out into the view of all three vampires. She was exceptionally beautiful, even Claire had to admit that. She had shoulder-length, deeply saturated blonde hair that had been easily tamed, a thin and strong stature, and a posture that any woman of the century would not be able to rival. Everything about Rebekah screamed 'confidence', no doubt the result of her family lineage.
"So women in the 21st century dress like prostitutes, then?" Rebekah challenged. Klaus shrugged.
"Look at Clarissa."
"Jackass!" Claire snapped, throwing a throw pillow at him from the other couch. He snickered as the saleswoman waiting on him and Stefan brought him another glass of champagne and then moved to refill Claire's.
"You know, I got dirty looks for wearing trousers." Rebekah scoffed. Klaus could not look any more disinterested.
"You wore trousers so women today could wear nothing."
"And what is this music? It sounds like a cable car accident."
"I-It's dance music," Stefan replied, trying to save them all from Klaus's 'ugh' lecture. Rebekah turned to him with a disgusted look.
"People dance to this?"
Stefan agreed, but the conversation was beginning to bore Klaus; not even the alcohol could entertain him. Tiredly, he looked up at his sister. "Are we done?"
She stepped forward to him. "And why are you so grumpy?"
"I needed one thing from you for my witch to find out why my hybrids are dying. One thing: your necklace...and you lost it."
"I didn't lose it. It's just been...missing for ninety years." Ignoring her stubborn brother, she turned to Stefan and Claire on the opposite side. She twirled for them. "So what do you think?"
Claire opened her mouth, but Stefan took the words out of it, deciding to ease the burden off his friend for once. He thought he had been doing a good thing, but it didn't turn out that way.
"I like it." Rebekah stared at him blankly, causing him to question defensively, "What? I said I liked it!"
"I can always tell when you're lying, Stefan."
The blonde-haired Original turned on her heel and went back to the dressing room to try on another of her thousand dresses she kept behind the door. When she was behind the curtain and out of sight, Claire turned to her bronze-haired friend and slapped him so hard on his arm, it actually retained an "ouch" from Stefan, who was confused as to what he had said that made it go wrong. Klaus sighed heavily.
"Nice one. Good work," Klaus muttered. Stefan's eyes widened in protest.
"You're the one who pulled the dagger out of her."
"I heard that!" Rebekah shouted out of sight. With a frustrated breath, Claire stood up and chugged the last of her champagne.
"I'll try to see if I can speed this fashion show along some." She set the champagne glass down on the table in the center of them all and turned to go back to the rooms, but instead, Klaus called her back with his voice as he lounged on the red velvet chair in front of her.
"Clarissa?" She stopped and turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow, prompting him to continue. Klaus smirked. "I wouldn't be opposed to you putting on a fashion show, you know. It might make this a little less boring."
Claire processed his words for a moment and then shot a sour smile. "The only time you're gonna see me parade around you half-clothed like a prostitute would be in your dreams. So have fun with that."
Without anything more to say, she turned and went behind the curtain to Rebekah's dressing room, whereupon Rebekah looked at her with a scowl and said, "See, I knew it was prostitute-like!"
When the two blonde vampires had disappeared to do their bidding, Klaus and Stefan were the only ones left on the couches in the boutique. After Claire went back to the dressing rooms and Klaus was left longing after her, Stefan turned to the hybrid next to him and just scoffed, slightly in disgust. He hadn't learned about what Klaus had done until later that night, hours after they had found out Rebekah did not have the answer to Klaus's prayers. The only reason he did find out, in fact, was not because Claire or Klaus told him, but because when mentioning what happened with Damon earlier in the evening, Claire seemed to hold herself in an entirely different manner. She was evading defending his brother, she did not cry to him, and she didn't even show any shred of pain for what she had lost. When asked why she was acting so strange, she didn't realize what she had done, and upon further conversation, Stefan came to the realization that something was different about her. Something had changed.
Based on the memories that had been returned to him, Stefan had a pretty good idea of what happened while he was outside with Amelia and Klaus, Claire, and Damon were all in one room. A follow-up conversation with Klaus cleared it up as if he was walking out into a cloudless sky: the hybrid dick compelled his best friend to forget about all her feelings for the older Salvatore brother in an attempt (a futile one at that) to win her heart and pledge her loyalty. His advances were just the beginning, he reckoned.
Stefan turned to Klaus with a smile that rivaled the sharpness of a dagger. "You do know that you didn't compel her to like you, you just compelled her not to like my brother, right?"
The hybrid frowned. "She'll come around soon enough, Stefan."
"I wouldn't hold my breath." He scoffed and lifted himself from the couch he was sitting on. "All right. I'm going to get some fresh air."
Klaus didn't object, he merely just pulled the full champagne glass to his lips and waited for Rebekah and Clarissa to continue their completely irrelevant and unentertaining escapade while Stefan was off doing his own bidding. Stefan, disinterested in sitting around for hours upon end waiting for Claire and Rebekah to finish up, stepped up to the front doors with coffee on his mind.
Then, he looked out the glass doors only to see the haunting presence of a ghost from his past standing across the street: Katherine Pierce.
Amelia opened the blinds of the Salvatore study with a bitter edge to her steps. Damon roused himself from the couch with a groggy groan, but she didn't really care that she had forcibly woken him up from his passed-out state. A bottle of bourbon sat lonely and empty on the coffee table, as disheveled as Damon looked.
"Gah," Damon snapped. Amelia paid no attention to him, but instead picked up the mess that he'd made the night before. He slowly brought himself up off the couch and glared at her. "Don't you know that's rude?"
"Don't care," she said shortly while gathering all his trash into her arms so she could clean up. "Get up. Get dressed. Elena's taking you today."
He scoffed. "No one's 'taking' me. I don't need to be babysat."
"Yes. You do. Get up."
"No." He reached to his side and grabbed an unopened bourbon bottle from behind the couch. He laid back down as he popped the bottle open and Amelia stared down at him angrily. Damon shrugged. "I want to stay here. This is my house, remember? You have your own house go...bother someone else there."
He waved her off, but Amelia wasn't taking it. She reached forward and snatched the bourbon out of his hand effortlessly and watched as Damon's eyes widened as if his candy had just been taken away and he was a three-year-old. She sauntered out of the room and called out over her shoulder.
"Get dressed! Elena will be here soon."
Speaking of, the moment she walked out of the study and into the foyer, grabbing a trash can and shoving all of Damon's shit inside of it, she saw the door open and Elena step through. Amelia looked over her eyelids, but didn't stop moving with the trash in her hand. She put the bourbon down on the small table beside her and sighed.
"Morning, Elena. Damon's getting ready."
"Why do I have to take him again?" Elena asked, crossing her arms and avoiding Amelia's gaze. She was so angry that Amelia had neglected to tell her about Stefan, but she'd already had her fight with her when they came back from Chicago the night before. No one had told her anything except for the fact that the whole trip was a bust, and it was killing her. She wanted to know if Stefan was okay. "What's wrong with him?"
Amelia hesitated, slowing her movements for a while as she realized that she hadn't told Elena what had happened to Claire. She looked up at Elena slowly, who had been waiting for an answer. Setting down the garbage, Amelia lowered her voice to a whisper.
"Claire," she said quietly. Elena cocked an eyebrow. "Klaus...compelled her to forget that she cares about Damon. Not just...to not care about him, but to hate him. He's not taking it so well."
And, suddenly, Elena's demeanor changed on a dime. No longer was the anger towards Damon and Amelia consuming her, but now she felt terrible. There she was, whining about the fact that no one took her to Chicago when Damon was devastated, no doubt. After everything she'd done for Claire and Damon, to think that Klaus could ruin it with a look just disgusted her.
Amelia looked away quickly and tied the garbage bag up. "Anyways, I need you to take care of him today. I don't have time to watch him."
"Is he okay?"
"No, Elena. He's not okay. I don't know if he'll ever be okay." She threw a look over her shoulder. "Which is why I need you to watch him, okay? Take him to the Lockwood thing today."
"But—"
"No buts, Elena. I need you to do this for me." With that, she disappeared, and after Elena gave an exhausted sigh, she watched Damon begrudgingly walk down the stairs with a sour frown on his face. A sad smile twinged at her lips.
"Hey, Damon, are you—?"
"Ooh. My bourbon." He ignored her completely and walked to the table and grabbed his bourbon to take a long, hearty sip. She frowned and reached forward, snatching the bourbon out of his hands. He scowled at her. "Seriously, Elena?"
"Move it," she demanded, pointing towards the door. He sighed and went forward, and Elena wasn't too far behind; though she stopped to take a long sip of bourbon before setting it back down and following him out of the house.
A while later, in the Gilbert family household, Damon made a dissatisfied face as he set the wooden spoon back into the pot on the stove, which was radiating the scent of the Gilbert's Family Chili. He was less than pleased.
"I just don't know why you want to bring chili to a potluck. Everybody brings chili." He shrugged and turned back to the breakfast table, ignoring Elena's hovering over him at the center island. She kept a clear vision of him through the corner of her eye while she chopped onions, as if he were on suicide watch or something. In an attempt to keep the conversation steered away from him, he noticed Alaric walk into the kitchen and smiled at his friend. "Hey, Ric."
"What's up?" Alaric asked. Elena looked up immediately, breaking her 24/7 Damon Watch to speak to the guardian in her household.
"What time do you want to go to the Lockwood party?"
"Uh, those Founders parties aren't really my thing..."
Damon, still fixated on the chili situation, muttered, "...show up, there are gonna be nine other people there who brought chili."
Elena turned to him with a roll of her eyes. "It's an old family recipe, okay?"
He glanced at her bitterly. "Yeah! I know. I knew your old family. They made sucky chili."
The brunette teenager rolled her eyes yet again at the condescending tone from the vampire, making it extremely hard to feel bad for him at that particular point in time. Alaric could see the annoyed expression Damon had put on Elena's face, and therefore, he turned to his friend and, in the least offensive way possible, asked, "Why are you here...exactly?"
The blue-eyed vampire sighed. "I'm being held hostage."
Elena set down the knife in her hand with a frustrated breath. "He's not being held hostage!"
He lifted himself from his chair, almost excitedly. "Really? Great, then I can go?"
"Damon, sit down!" Elena picked up the knife in her hand and pointed it at him in a very scary manner. Damon, partially afraid of what Elena would do to him if he took one more step towards the back door, reluctantly sat back down in the chair at the center island and looked at her as if she were in the middle of chastising him. Realizing she might've been a bit harsh, Elena set the knife down gently while Alaric opened his mouth, also reluctant to say something but deciding to take the risk.
"Um, why is Damon being held..." Elena scowled at him, causing Ric to rephrase after clearing his throat. "Why is he not allowed to leave, again?"
"She thinks I'm gonna break." Damon rolled his eyes and looked at Ric. "Which is...wrong. I'm completely fine."
Elena shot him a disbelieving look. "Klaus compelled Claire to forget that she loved you. Actually, he compelled her to hate you. So basically, everything that you've spent your entire life trying to get her to stop thinking about you kind of just blew up in your face. And you think you're 'completely fine'?"
Damon shrugged, although her words had stung as if someone held him down and poured alcohol on an exposed wound. Nevertheless, he kept his tough exterior. "I am. In fact, if I weren't being held hostage here right now, I would be at the Grill with a nice bottle of top-shelf bourbon drinking pathetic humans under the table while I try to forget...well, everything you just said. And it would've worked out great, thank you."
The doppelgänger turned to Ric and hissed, "He's in denial."
"I'm not in denial!" Damon threw up his hands frustratedly and then, in a twist of events, turned and pointed at her accusingly. "How about you, Elena? Don't you think you're the one who's really in denial?"
Instantaneously, she became defensive. "What? How?!"
He pointed at her chest, at the round, silver token of affection Stefan had given to her merely days after their first meeting. The necklace she cherished and, despite having broken up with him more than six months ago, still wore every single day. She looked down at it with wide eyes, as if she'd never realized what it meant by keeping it on.
"You're still wearing that necklace. Isn't that just a painful reminder of your unbreakable-slash-totally breakable bond with Stefan?"
Elena became silent, staring down at her necklace while thinking of what harsh words Damon implied. A few moments passed before she brought up the courage to suck in a deep breath and look back up at him with a fire in her eyes that he knew ran in her blood.
"And yet you still neglected to take me with you to Chicago." Damon's triumphant smirk dropped instantly. "That's what I thought. So, like it or not, Damon, I'm bringing chili to the potluck. And you're coming with me. In fact, you're gonna stay by my side the entire day because I don't trust that you won't go running off to the Grill to get drunk and eat the first attractive girl you see and then regret it when Claire comes back."
At this, Damon frowned, but he had no say in the matter. Elena gave a victorious pop of her shoulder and turned around to put the onions she had been chopping into the brewing chili on the stove.
Elena begrudgingly walked up to the front door as it rang, tired of looking after Damon as he downed half the alcohol stash in her house—which was saying a lot because Alaric had kept a decent stash lying around because of his binges. When she opened the door, she found Caroline standing in the threshold with a big smile on her face and a pot in her hand with the familiar stench of chili.
"I come bearing gifts!" the preppy blonde announced. Elena scowled.
"Please say that's not chili."
"Of course it is!" Damon boasted as he sauntered into the foyer. Elena shot an annoyed glare at him over her shoulder as he smiled sourly at Caroline. "Isn't it, Blondie?"
Caroline didn't respond, but instead stepped inside with a weary look towards her friend and the vampire in her foyer. But before anyone else could say anything, Elena caught sight of the small, dark-skinned witch who popped out from beside the threshold with her arms wide.
"I'm back!"
"Bonnie!" Elena exclaimed as her friend jumped into her arms as a greeting. "Hi!"
The two teenagers clung onto each other as if they hadn't seen each other for years, and yet it'd only been a few months. Caroline smiled over at her friends, and Damon just took one long swig from Alaric's bourbon and chuckled to himself.
"Aw. Isn't this cute?" he mocked. The doppelgänger turned around at him, this time annoyed beyond repair. She lifted her arm and pointed to the back door.
"Out."
Damon frowned. "What?"
"You heard me. I said out! You said Liz called you so...just go. Meet me at the Lockwood party in an hour. Not a minute later!"
But before she could even get half her sentence out, Damon was already out the door, leaving Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena to their reunion. The moment he was outside, he drove off in his car and went to go meet Sheriff Forbes, who had called to talk to him about what had happened while he was away in Chicago with Amelia. They met in town square, only a few minutes from Elena's home, and walked through the city under the midday sun.
"So, Mayor Lockwood called your gay ex-husband to torture your vampire daughter?" Damon repeated simply, an underlying incredulous tone in his statement.
"Yes," Liz replied. "I've been keeping him detained to make sure the vervain's out of his system. So you could...you know."
Damon frowned, confused. "Can't we just kill him?"
"No, Damon! He's Caroline's father."
"He sounds like a douchebag to me."
"Yeah, well, just because you and I are on okay terms doesn't mean I'm suddenly a big advocate for your...lifestyle."
Damon could sense the discomfort from his friend, and as an attempt to lighten the mood, he looked over at her and joked, "Is that what you told him when you got divorced?"
Liz rolled her eyes at him and the two kept moving until they finally reached the underground City Jail that had been long since out of commission, but was the place that Liz could keep Bill without raising any suspicion. As they continued down the long stairs, Liz warned him to check the level of Bill's vervain before compelling Bill to forget what happened. Soon, they reached the jail cell, where Liz opened the gate and revealed to Damon the middle-aged man tied down to a chair.
Damon reached forward and ripped the duct tape off his mouth, and as Damon threw it on the floor, Bill looked at his ex-wife with narrowed eyes.
"You brought another vampire into this?"
"It's the best thing for all of us, Bill."
"So, Bill..." Damon began, looking down at Bill with ravenous eyes. "I hear you're into the whole daddy-daughter vampire torture thing."
"I was trying to help her," the father defended himself. Damon lowered his head to level with Bill and gave him a small shrug.
"Well, if there's anyone who doesn't need help, it's your annoying control freak of a daughter." As Damon spoke about Caroline, he couldn't help but picture a similar blonde in his head, but then shook it off as his eyes went red and his fangs popped out from his mouth. Quickly, he bit into Bill Forbes and tasted his blood, but found that it was completely clean. Wasn't worth the effort, though. Damon turned back at Liz. "Yep. Vervain-free."
"Just erase his memory, Damon," Liz instructed. But instead of cutting to the chase right away, Damon decided to ask a few questions first for the sake of understanding why what went down happened.
"So, Bill, I have a question. What makes you think you can change the basic nature of a vampire?"
"The mind's a powerful tool. It can be trained and retrained. You just have to be strong enough."
"Oh, yeah?" Damon came to a slow in front of Bill and clasped his hands on the father's shoulders, staring him right in the eyes. He could see the fear in the human's pupils as he hissed, "I completely agree. I actually happen to love mind control myself!"
Bill tried to turn away, but Damon grabbed Bill's face and forced his eyes back to his. "You will leave town immediately. All you remember is you came to bring your daughter back to school shopping. But she didn't want to see you, so you decided to return back to whatever cave you crawled out from and that's where you'll stay. Okay?"
Damon watched as the dazed look of a newly compelled human crossed his face and he smiled triumphantly before turning back to Liz. "Okay. That's done. Now for a drink."
When Stefan walked into Gloria's, he saw exactly what he expected—Klaus's flamboyant sister sitting up on the bar like she owned the place, Klaus with his feet up on the bar like he owned the place, and Claire fixing herself a strong drink behind the bar as a means to drown out the sounds of Klaus's advances and Rebekah's high-pitched shrills.
"You left us," Rebekah pouted as Stefan sauntered in, embracing them all with his company.
"Yeah, sorry. Retail therapy was making my head explode."
"Tell me about it," Klaus muttered under his breath. Stefan turned to look at Gloria, who was sitting at a table completing a spell that he was sure was being used to find the vervain necklace he had given to Elena. He tried to remain calm.
"What's she doing?"
"She's failing," Klaus growled, the grumpiness obviously still present in his tone. Gloria did not appreciate his impatience.
"It's hard to find something when you don't have anything to go on," she bit back. Stefan watched her, hoping that she was getting nowhere. But it was as if his presence into the bar had miraculously given Rebekah a great idea. She jumped off the bartop and flipped her hair over her shoulder.
"So use me. I only wore it for a thousand years."
"See?" Gloria sighed. "Now this one offers a solution. All right, give me your hand, sweetheart."
Rebekah jumped up onto the table Gloria was performing her spell on and extended her hand for Gloria to use to her advantage.
"The only problem with my dad's normal side of the family...is normal made for a really boring summer," Bonnie admitted as Elena walked back and forth in the kitchen trying to finish off her family's chili. Caroline helped, too, and upon hearing Bonnie's confession, she turned around with a scoff.
"Well, after the last few days...I would kill for a normal family." She turned to look at Elena as they attempted to pour the chili into a bowl to transport to the party. "Since when did you learn how to cook?"
Elena sighed. "Damon helped a little. That's why he was here earlier. Well, not exactly..."
"Uh oh." Bonnie straightened. "You have your bitch face on. What happened, Elena?"
Her eyes flickered to Bonnie disapprovingly. "I don't have a bitch face. But what happened was, Damon and Amelia went to Chicago without me to find Stefan. And apparently while they were there, Klaus compelled Claire to forget about her feelings for Damon and—"
Before she could finish her sentence, Elena screamed in pain and dropped her hands from the chili bowl. Caroline put the bowl down on the counter and Bonnie and Caroline both looked at their friend with immediate concern.
"Did I splash you?" Caroline asked. Elena squirmed as she tried to remove the source of her pain.
"No! No, my necklace!" She reached up and tore her necklace off her skin, which had been burnt by the silver. Elena looked up at her friends, wide-eyed. "It burned me."
Caroline scoffed. "Maybe it's a sign you shouldn't be wearing it."
"Caroline!" Bonnie hissed. The blonde shrugged while Elena took off the necklace from her neck in order to prevent it from burning her further.
"What? She and Stefan broke up over six months ago. Don't you think it's time for her to move on?"
The witch scoffed and merely turned to the brunette in front of her and nodded to the necklace. "Let me see it."
Elena reached forward and extended the necklace to her while Bonnie reached out and grabbed it, but as soon as her fingers touched the silver pendant, a spark of electricity shocked her and Elena both and the necklace fell onto the counter, mystical energy radiating from its core.
Stefan watched cautiously as Gloria inhaled and opened her eyes. Claire made her way from around the bar and came to stand next to her friend, a few feet closer to Gloria than he was. They both held their breath as Gloria spoke.
"I found it."
Stefan and Claire tried not to look at each other, but they couldn't help it. This was serious. If Gloria found the necklace, it would lead them back to Mystic Falls, where Klaus would find out about Elena and things would go to hell yet again. Rebekah leaned forward impatiently.
"So where is it?!"
"It doesn't work like that, doll. I get images. There's a girl...with her friends—"
"Yes, a dead girl with dead friends if I don't get my necklace back!"
"Well, I have to dive back in to get the details."
"So dive," Klaus proposed as he walked closer to Gloria. Behind his back, Stefan and Claire shared a sigh of relief, but the stress wasn't over yet. Gloria turned to look at Klaus with heated eyes.
"I need more time." He leaned forward over her shoulder, as if waiting for her to continue. She sighed frustratedly. "And space! You're harshing my ju-ju."
"We can wait."
"I'm sure you can." She turned serious. "But that's not what I asked."
Things in the room turned stale extremely fast. Stefan, sensing the tension in the room, decided to walk forward to Klaus and ease things up a bit. He clapped his shoulder and nodded his head outside. "Hey, you know, why don't we just...uh, why don't we jut come back later? I'm hungry, anyway." Klaus didn't budge, so Stefan made it more appetizing for him. "I'll let you pick who we eat..."
Klaus stared at Rebekah, who looked off at Stefan as if she pined for him, which Klaus no doubt expected. But instead of following Stefan as he tried to leave, he looked over at Claire, who was silent beside him, waiting for them to decide what to do. He straightened himself and looked Claire right in the eye.
"Stefan, take Rebekah to get a bite to eat." Stefan paused and watched as Klaus nodded to Claire, who narrowed her eyes at him. "You and I are going somewhere else."
"And where are we going, exactly?"
"Be patient, love." He turned back to Gloria and threw her a small bit of the anger that he had reserved for her delay. "I have to go see a friend."
Elena sat nervously far away from the rest of the Founding Families with Caroline at the Lockwood party that she wanted to go to. She was sure Damon was around somewhere and reminded herself to go and find him after everything was done. Elena and Caroline turned their heads as Bonnie came rushing up the hill to them and sighed.
"Hey. Okay, I got it." She sat down on the bench and looked between them both. "I have an identification spell that might be able to tell me what magic affected the necklace." Elena nodded and handed over her necklace as Bonnie looked around cautiously. "It's going to take a while, so tell me if anyone's coming, okay?"
Elena and Caroline both nodded in silence, and after a moment of the painstakingly brutal quiet, Caroline had to speak. She turned to Elena sharply and said, "So I know this guy. His name is Mike, he's a varsity lacrosse player at school—"
"Caroline, what are you doing?" Elena asked her, sighing with exasperation. Bonnie broke her objective to look over at the urgent blonde.
"Caroline..."
"Stay focused." Caroline waved her hand at the witch and turned back at Elena. As Bonnie frowned and continued with the spell, Caroline continued her lecture. "Look, Elena, I just think it's time you move on, okay? Amelia has been searching high and low for Stefan and after everything, don't you think it's time for you to start dating again? Let Amelia deal with Stefan."
"Caroline, I'm not going to give up on Stefan. I told you that before."
"I know! And I'm not saying you should give up on him. But, Elena, it's about time you start getting back out there, you know? I hate you break it to you, but he chose her. He chose Amelia." Caroline looked at her with pitiful eyes, but Elena exploded.
"But he didn't, okay? He didn't! He loves me!" Elena exclaimed, and the second it came out of her mouth, she regretted it. Caroline stiffened, confused, but before she could say anything, Elena let out a shaky breath and asked, "Y-You know what, why are we even talking about this? I'm not dating anyone, Caroline. Let it go."
"But, Elena—"
"Hey. Guys..." Bonnie trailed off, and the two arguing friends looked over to find that Bonnie was staring down at the necklace that had been resting on her book and found that the necklace was slowly beginning to float upwards. Caroline flinched away from it.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm not doing anything." They all stared at the necklace as it rose higher into the air. Bonnie shook her head. "It has its own magic."
Bonnie and Caroline looked over at Elena, who was just as confused as they were.
Damon walked around the picnic tables looking for some good alcohol and something to eat. But, like he had said to Elena earlier in the morning, all anyone had brought was chili. Lockwood Family Chili, Fell Family Chili, Gilbert Family Chili...chili, chili, chili. Elena should've listened to him. He was right. But he wasn't going to be a jackass about it and say something, that would just be mean.
So instead, Damon looked up at Alaric across the picnic table and sighed. "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Founders parties are just an excuse for the Council to gather in back rooms and plot against vampires."
Alaric sighed and watched as Damon took a swig of the beer in his hand, but it wasn't strong enough for him and Alaric knew that. He could see Damon's tastes starting to refine. Alaric let out a deep breath and tried to get what he had been thinking off of his chest all day.
"Hey, man, I'm...I'm sorry about Claire." Damon turned around, as if the name-drop had been a slap in the face instead. Alaric continued. "But I don't want you to go down a downward spiral again. Maybe you should try to lay low for a bit."
He frowned. "Excuse me?"
"Elena can't watch you twenty-four seven. She told me about what happened when you didn't find Katherine in the tomb, I just don't want this to be a repeat of that."
"I'm fine, Ric."
"But are you?"
Damon sighed frustratedly. "Even if I wasn't, I don't really think it's your problem. I can handle myself."
"Well, obviously you can't. If you haven't noticed, Damon, you tend to go rogue when things don't go your way."
Damon stepped forward, pissed off now. He could see the judgement in his friend's eyes and didn't appreciate it one bit. Everyone was acting as if he were going to blow up like an atomic bomb all day, but all he had done was drink. That's all he wanted to do. He just wanted to drink in solitude, perhaps with a few girls on his arms, and just be left alone. But no one wanted to do that. And Alaric trying to convince him to stay on the good side just pissed him off even further.
Before he could say anything, though, Liz Forbes walked up behind Alaric's shoulder and interrupted them.
"Damon? Sorry." She looked at Alaric and gave him a pleasurable smile before turning back to the dark-haired vampire. "Uh, the mayor just called the Council meeting."
Damon looked at Alaric for a moment, anger still blazing in his eyes, but without anything more to say, he nodded at Liz and walked off with her to the meeting.
Claire and Klaus both stepped out of the taxicab in front of The University of Chicago's science building. Klaus spoke to the driver, most likely to compel him to wait for them at the main entrance because they would have to leave soon. When the taxi was gone, Klaus walked up to Claire's side and she turned to look at him with a cocked eyebrow.
"What are we doing here?" she asked. He nodded inside.
"Come on, love. I'll show you." Klaus ushered her into the building, where Claire followed him through the halls blindly, immensely confused as to why they were visiting a college. He had told Gloria he wanted to see a friend, but why would his friend be at a college? She didn't ask any questions, though, and merely followed him into one of the classrooms. They interrupted an entire class session, catching the teacher in the midst of his sentence regarding some mumbo jumbo about the pH levels in their experiment.
"Can I help you?" asked the teacher with an incredulous edge to his voice, slightly annoyed that Klaus interrupted his entire classroom. Klaus didn't even bother to respond, but merely looked around the classroom until he found who he was looking for, and she found him.
"Oh, my god!" Claire jumped hearing the near-shrill from one of the students who immediately ripped her goggles off her face and chucked them down on the floor. Klaus broke out into a wide smile, and Claire was taken back.
She'd never really seen him smile like that before, without a hidden agenda. What she expected to happen was that twenty-something, bright blonde would come into Klaus's arms and give him one of the sluttiest kisses she had seen in her lifetime, as Klaus wouldn't let that chance to go waste. But instead, she just came up to him and hugged him tightly, as did he. There was no romantic involvement in the hug at all, and that sort of scared her. The blonde pulled back in her hug with Klaus and smiled ear-to-ear.
"I can't believe it's you! It's really you! You know I don't graduate for another year. Why'd you come back?" she asked, a twinkle in her eye. His smile faltered slowly, and she realized. "Oh...you need help, don't you?"
"I do," Klaus admitted. She nodded.
"Okay. I can help." At this point, they both realized that they had been conversing in the middle of a summer session with about fifteen others in the classroom, including the teacher. The blonde's face turned a deep shade of red as she looked around and apologized quickly, but Klaus gave no thought. He took her hand and led her out of the classroom, leaving Claire to follow them.
"Eleanor, this is my friend, Clarissa King," Klaus introduced them as soon as they were out in the hallway. Eleanor turned to Clarissa, who was still a little puzzled over the situation, and stepped forward happily and pulled her into a sudden embrace. Claire tensed, and Klaus chuckled behind them. Eleanor squeezed her tight.
"It's so nice to meet you, Clarissa!" She pulled back and smiled. "Klaus calls me Eleanor, but you can call me Ellie."
Claire smiled softly, but she was completely taken off guard. Klaus could see her uncomfortableness as she said, "And you can call me Claire."
"Claire..." Ellie grinned and sighed dreamily. "Such a beautiful name. You know, Clarissa—or, Claire—your name means 'clear, bright'. My name, Eleanor, means a shining light. Because that's me, I light up everywhere I go! What about you? Do you make things clear for everyone?"
"Ellie..." Klaus stepped forward and chuckled under his breath as he watched Clarissa's eyes widen from the rambling she had heard. The young girl stepped back and Klaus looked at her deeply. "I think Clarissa's had a long day. Most likely didn't understand a word you just said, but that's alright. We're in a hurry."
"Of course." Ellie waved her hand dismissively. "You know I always get off topic. I'm so sorry, Klaus, what can I help you with?"
Klaus shook his head. "It's not that simple, Ellie. I think it's time you come with me."
Ellie paused, and Claire could see her bright smile completely dissipate from her face. Her lip trembled, as if she were about to cry. "But...but Klaus, I'm only a year from graduating! You promised me I'd graduate!"
"I'll compel the Dean to grant you early graduation. Come on, Ellie, you knew it would be this way."
"I thought I would have another year!"
"I'm sorry, Eleanor, but I need this." He looked at her sternly, and almost instantly she removed all signs of sadness and straightened. He hadn't compelled her, but it was like...like she knew what she had to do for him and decided to put his interests before her own willingly. "You understand?"
"I understand, Klaus. I'm just disappointed."
"I know you are, sweetheart. Go on, gather your things. Clarissa and I will be waiting at the front for you."
Ellie nodded and gave a small smile to Clarissa, as if attempting to make sure she didn't think she was a complete child, and walked in the other direction to gather her things by Klaus's demand. Klaus ushered Claire outside with him yet again, where they walked through campus to get to the front gates while Ellie packed her bags. Claire was so confused.
"You promised her she'd graduate? How long have you known Ellie?"
"Since she was thirteen." Klaus turned to look at the beauty of the campus as they walked. "I found her in a jail cell. She had been charged with murdering her whole family. They had found her earlier standing over her parents dead bodies soaked in their blood. When I talked to her, I realized that she hadn't meant to hurt anyone. Something extraordinary happened." The hybrid turned and looked at Clarissa, whose eyes had widened upon hearing the horrifying story. "Her magic was so strong, it created a surge that had killed her entire family during Thanksgiving. It was absolutely astonishing."
Claire stared at him, incredulous. "You're joking, right?"
He turned to her and studied the panicked look on her face. Klaus chuckled under his breath. "Clarissa, it's not like she wanted to kill her entire family! It would've tormented her to this very day, had I not eased her pain by giving her a forgetting potion to use on herself. I'm not a terrible human being."
"You're not a human being at all," she corrected, and soon after saw the small smile on his lips. "In fact, you're just...terrible, really."
"You don't believe that."
"Oh? I don't?"
"No. You don't." He turned to her sharply, stopping them in the middle of the campus. Claire frowned, feeling uncomfortable stopped in the middle of the pathway, but there was hardly anyone around, and those who did past them just cut onto the grass. His green eyes captured hers and held them hostage as he said lowly, "You're only denying everything that I compelled you to remember. You're denying our past."
"I'm not denying anything." She crossed her arms defensively. "I get it, okay? You and I had sex...many, many times. It happened, but it's never going to happen again."
"And why not?" He stepped closer with a mischievous grin. "If you're not denying anything, you can't possibly deny the fact that it was—"
"You killed me!" Claire interrupted him as she stepped away from him. Realizing that she'd said it a bit too loud, she took her voice down a few notches and sighed. Klaus stared at her blankly, but she just looked at him with disappointment. "You ripped out my heart on an altar of fire and then killed one of my closest friends. And because you were selfish enough to want to keep me around afterwards, you planted a revival spell in my ex-husband's head for him to use to martyr himself. Not only did you kill me, but you killed him, too!"
"But that's the point, Clarissa." He stepped forward again, and this time only a frustrated breath came out of her mouth instead of stepping back. "I gave Christopher that spell to save you. I never wanted you dead. Those memories prove that."
"Those memories prove nothing. The only thing they proved was that you didn't just want me, you wanted my heart, my time, my life—"
"Yes, all of which are true, but I don't see the issue here!" Klaus looked at her with confused eyes. "The Clarissa I knew would have forgiven me by now."
Claire stared at him and realized that he was serious. After a while, she couldn't help herself. A scoff came out of her lips and she said, quite harshly, "Then you must have never really known me at all, Nik."
She snarled his name with the utmost disgust, and two seconds later she turned on her heel and continued walking in the direction of the front gates. Klaus stared after her, wondering where he had gone wrong. He had thought that erasing Damon from her memory would ease his troubles, but it seemed to do nothing but make her even more unavailable to him.
Klaus sighed and merely followed her, the wheels turning in his head to figure out where he'd gone wrong and how to fix it.
"Did Stefan ever tell you where he got the necklace?" Caroline asked quietly as she and Elena walked through the Lockwood house to the front door, on their way out. Through the chaos of the necklace drama, Elena had entirely forgotten to make sure that Damon wasn't off somewhere ripping some girl's head off like Amelia had asked. To be honest, at that point, she really didn't care.
"No." Elena sighed. "And I never asked. Hopefully, Bonnie'll be able to figure it out."
"Please tell me it's time to go." Elena and Caroline looked over their shoulders to see Alaric settling a glass of bourbon down on a drink platter as he joined the two teenagers. She nodded.
"Beyond. Where's Damon?"
"Probably somewhere sulking in a dark room." Caroline turned and looked at Elena, as if she'd just registered what had happened. "I can't believe that someone would do something like that. What does Klaus have to gain by her hating Damon?"
Elena shrugged. "Amelia never said. I don't think she knows. Then again, I haven't really been in the 'loop' lately."
Caroline sighed, distraught, but before she could say anything more, something caught the corner of her eye, and her tone changed on a dime. She suddenly got very stiff and moved away from the open foyer to Elena's side. Elena, realizing the change in the atmosphere, looked at her friend with knotted eyebrows.
"What is it?"
"It's my dad," the blonde whispered. Elena turned and looked into the foyer, where she saw Bill Forbes conversing with a bunch of townspeople. She inhaled sharply.
"Why would he even show up here?"
"I don't know, but I...can't..."
"I get it. I'll call you later."
Caroline nodded gratefully to her and then, without a sound, made her way up the stairs to her boyfriend's room. When she was gone, Alaric turned to Elena, confused. "Okay...what was that all about?"
The doppelgänger shook her head dismissively. "I'll fill you in later. Let's go."
Without another word, Alaric and Elena quickly headed off into the night, but right as they stepped out onto the front lawn of the Lockwood's property, the door opened and shut behind them with a panicked voice following their path.
"W-Wait! Houston, we have a problem!" Damon informed them. Elena glanced quickly over her shoulder at the vampire, confused.
"Where've you been?" she inquired.
"Managing Bill Forbes. Apparently, he's impervious to compulsion."
"How?" Alaric asked, Damon's words making no sense. Damon quickly caught up with them.
"I have no idea. But he threatened to out me. Don't get me started on the irony of that."
"What'd you do to him? How do you know the compulsion doesn't work?" Elena asked quickly, earning a Damon look of disapproval.
"That's not the most important piece of information I mentioned, Elena!"
"Well, what does he want?" Alaric urged.
"He wants to control the Council. Says its been compromised."
"It has!"
"He wants to put vervain in the town's water supply!"
"Maybe it's not a bad idea," Elena suggested. "I mean, it'll help keep you in control with Claire and Stefan gone and Amelia and I both distracted..."
Damon suddenly stopped, causing Elena and Alaric to stop with him as he blocked their path. He looked at Elena, his expression furious. "What the hell are you saying, Elena? That I need someone to keep me in check? That no one can do it so we have to resort to poisoning the blood supply to make me behave?" She opened her mouth to say something, but he just spat, "I should've killed him this morning."
"He's Caroline's dad, Damon."
"Yeah, and when I kill him, she'll have one more parent than you do." He moved past Elena to go back into the Lockwood house, but right before he got past her, Alaric blocked him from his pathway angrily.
"Oh, come on, Damon!"
Damon snarled under his breath. "You're repeatedly killing my buzz today, Ric. Step aside."
But instead, that only made Ric angrier. He stepped forward harshly and shoved Damon back. "Yeah, it's not going to happen!"
Damon stopped in his tracks, Alaric's hand on his chest preventing him from moving closer. With a sigh and a shrug, Damon looked down at Alaric's hand to make sure that he was wearing the Gilbert ring before simply stating, "Your temporary funeral."
"Damon, no!" Before Elena could realize what was happening, Damon reached forward and snapped Alaric's neck so fast that he fell onto the floor within seconds. Elena's eyes went wide as she watched Alaric's limp body fall to the floor and then looked back at Damon with heated pupils. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"Nothing." He brushed past her. "Absolutely nothing."
When Klaus, Ellie, and Claire returned to the abandoned warehouse that Stefan and Rebekah had scampered off to before they went to the University, they were surprised to find only Rebekah surrounded by at least three or four dead bodies on the floor. Despite the layer of dried blood that skidded across the floor, Rebekah looked impeccably flawless, not a blood stain anywhere. When she saw her brother and the two blonde trailing him, she jumped down from the top of the coffin she had been trapped in for a almost a century before and looked to greet them.
"Ooh. Did you bring dessert?" she asked, licking her lips as she eyed Ellie behind Klaus. Ellie swallowed thickly, obviously uncomfortable, but didn't freak out. Klaus sighed.
"Give it a rest, Rebekah. I found someone who can help us with our hybrid problem."
"Your hybrid problem, you mean."
"Since you lost the necklace that would have made this done and over to begin with, it is our hybrid problem." His sister scowled at him before he reached behind and brought Ellie forward. "This is Eleanor, she's one of my most prized possessions. She's going to help us out."
"You can call me Ellie," the bright-eyed witch smiled at the older vampire and extended her hand. Wearily, Rebekah allowed herself to reach forward as well, but Ellie suddenly jerked herself closer and grasped Rebekah's hand tightly. It was then that Rebekah began to felt violated, as if someone was combing through her every moment in life. Ellie squeezed her hand so tight, if she wasn't an Original Vampire, she was afraid it would break. Claire watched with panicked curiosity, hoping to God that Ellie wasn't as powerful as Klaus thought she was.
Suddenly, Ellie jerked away from Rebekah's hand and stepped back, bumping right into Klaus, who held her by her shoulders and waited for her to come down from the magic rush. At last, when Ellie opened her eyes, she looked at Klaus with wide, crazed ones.
"Uh oh."
Klaus shook his head. "No 'uh-oh's, Eleanor, tell me what you saw."
"Not much..." she trailed off. "A girl, her friends—"
"Dead girl. Dead friends, we've been through this!" Rebekah shouted angrily. Klaus turned around and hushed her, then looked back at Ellie urgently.
"What else?"
"I saw...I saw..." Ellie slowly turned her head, and Klaus followed the trail her eyes led him until her eyes finally landed on Claire. With a trembling arm, she picked up her hand and pointed at Claire, whose heartbeat began to race so quickly she could've fainted. "I saw her with the girl wearing it."
The room fell deathly silent, and as she could see the anger build up in Klaus's eyes, she turned to Ellie with a small laugh.
"Me? No, you couldn't have seen me." She watched as Klaus stalked closer to her, but she took a weary step back and continued to laugh. "You know, K-Katherine told me that there are...are people that look like me, but they're not me. She killed one of them when she turned, that's why she hated me and—"
"After you turned into a vampire, there were no other yous, Clarissa." She found herself backed into a wall, and suddenly Klaus's hand came and smacked down on the drywall beside her head. She flinched, but tried not to make her guilt known.
In an attempt to steer the conversation, as her voice trembled, she asked, "H-How would you know?"
He ignored her. "You lied to me. You and Stefan both, you lied to me didn't you? You know something."
"What would I possibly know?!" she evaded, but before he could get something else out of her, as he stepped closer to box her into her corner, she snarled, "What would I possibly tell you?"
Klaus paused. He realized, suddenly, that she was right. What would she tell him by her own free will? She made it clear earlier that she pledged no allegiance to him, no matter what he had done for her. His other option was to use compulsion, but look at where that got him. It was only a step in the wrong direction, and he didn't want to compel her again. Besides, it would be much quicker if...
Clarissa's body fell limp in Klaus's arms after he snapped her neck so fast that she couldn't see it coming. He let her heavy body rest on his shoulder as he dragged her over to Rebekah and Ellie and set Clarissa down by Ellie's feet. He stood up and looked at the witch seriously.
"Look in her head." He swallowed thickly. "Tell me what she knows."
Ellie, weary of the situation but destined to do what Klaus told her to, nodded slowly and sank down to her knees to the blonde vampire lying dead on the ground. She reached forward and touched her temple softly, a small hiccup escaping from Ellie's lips. Only two seconds passed before she pulled away and looked up at Klaus.
"What did you do to her?"
"Excuse me?" Klaus asked, annoyed. She looked down at Claire with a shake of her head.
"I...I can't see it. Her memories are so...so fuzzy. It's like someone erased half of her life."
Klaus looked down at Clarissa's frozen body and frowned. Rebekah scoffed at him. "Well, that bit you in the ass, Nik, didn't it?"
"Piss off, Rebekah," Klaus murmured under his breath before bending down to lift Clarissa in his arms. Ellie rose off the floor and Klaus jerked his head to her. "Come on, Eleanor. I will put Clarissa away for safekeeping and then you and I are going to find Stefan. I'm sure he knows just as much as she does."
"I'm not sure where he went," Rebekah admitted. Klaus looked back at her as she shrugged. "He mentioned getting another bite to eat, but I had a feeling he was lying."
Klaus nodded at her. "Stay here in case he comes back."
His sister agreed, and Klaus walked out of the warehouse with Ellie on his tail and the dead Clarissa in his arms.
"Whoa, whoa!" Damon exclaimed as he stalked into the Lockwood office to see Bill Forbes pouring himself a drink unexpectedly. "Is that scotch? I figured you for an abstainer."
Bill turned at him. "Everything in moderation. Keeps the mind clear from...influence."
Damon crossed his arms and cocked his head curiously. "Like vampire compulsion."
"Yeah, I tried to tell you—"
"Yeah, yeah, powerful tool...got it." The vampire sighed. "I am impressed. Can't say I've ever seen that before."
"Well, it takes a certain human focus. It's a skill that I've been honing for decades. Plus, your technique..." Bill trailed off, as if he were trying to find a way to put his words lightly, "...is a little lazy."
"Duly noted." Despite the rude comment, Damon continued to walk further into the room with a suspicious, calm look on his face. "I'm curious. Why not just expose us to the council?"
Mr. Forbes stiffened. "I know you think I'm the bad guy here, Damon, but I would never expose my own daughter to these morons."
"It's a pretty risky move, taking me on, don't you think?"
"I knew what I was risking when I didn't leave town, but I figured...you're not self destructive enough to kill the Sheriff's ex-husband."
Damon grinned sourly at his opponent, who stared at him with misplaced certainty. Maybe, if he hadn't witnessed his girlfriend being compelled by a hybrid dick to forget their entire lives together, the Sheriff's ex-husband would be right, but then again...he did, and so Bill was wrong.
"Makes you the third person to underestimate me today."
Before Bill could make anything out of what Damon muttered under his breath, Damon sped forward and sunk his fangs into Bill's neck, holding his head so tight that Bill could barely move a muscle without Damon putting him down. Damon drank harder and harder, attempting to finish the job, but he realized quickly that he wanted more than just a snatch and eat. He yearned for the taste of forced blood on his mouth, something he'd yet to experience in a while. Attempting to revel in it, Damon pushed Bill off of him so that Caroline's father knelt on the floor, clutching his wound desperately.
"Whoo!" Damon exhaled as he licked his lips free of the blood that dripped from them. "You know, with all this behavioral modification going on around here, I almost forgot how good blood tastes when it's..." He licked his lips again and sighed, "Fresh."
"What are you gonna do? Kill everybody who discovers your secret?"
"No. I'm not gonna kill you, Bill." Lies. Damon bent down to stare into the Sheriff's gay ex-husband's eyes with an insatiable thirst for blood. "I'm just gonna take pleasure in perfect little moments like this."
His fangs barred again, but this time, he'd only gotten a small taste before he felt himself being thrown off of Bill Forbes, against a wall, and then through the window of the Lockwoods' office. He could see the faint outline of Caroline, no surprise. She rushed over to her father's side.
"Daddy, are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
Damon lifted himself from the floor just as Caroline offered her blood to her father, who initially refused to take it, but Caroline forced him to anyways. As she made her father drink her blood from her wrist, Damon growled at her.
"Let me teach this ass-wheel a life lesson!"
"Just get out of here," Caroline mumbled to him as he came behind her. Damon didn't like the sound of her tone; it was too threatening. It only made him angrier than he was already.
"Or what?!"
She whipped around and slapped him so hard that he stumbled back, and the next thing he knew, she was running towards him to finish the job. Instead, Damon was ready and blocked her attack, forcing her back onto the desk in the office so that she landed with a painful groan. He climbed on top of her and wrapped his hand around her throat so tightly that she screamed, and Damon couldn't control himself. It was as if the blood in his veins boiled so hot he had no control over his mind or body whatsoever.
"I'm stronger than you, little girl!" he snarled.
"Well, I'm angrier!" Caroline snapped back as she took his hand around her throat and twisted it back. Then, in a following sequence, she head-butted him and forced him off of her so hard that his back hit the wall behind him. Caroline then rushed to her father and dragged him out of the room fast enough that Damon could not catch up. When he saw they were gone, he slumped against the wall he had hit and rolled his eyes.
"Bummer. I love a good girl fight." He lifted himself from the floor and stumbled upright to see Elena and Amelia standing at the door. He winced at the pain in his back before shooting a confused look towards Amelia. "Little King, what are you doing here? I thought I wasn't your problem for today?"
"What the hell is your fucking problem, Damon?!" Amelia shouted at him as she blew up unexpectedly, marching over to the vampire in front of her with burning eyes. "Do you even realize what you're doing? Who you're hurting? Get your shit together, damn it!"
"Me? I should get my shit together?" Damon scoffed. "Look at you, Miss I'm-So-Perfect! You're gallivanting around fighting for a guy who doesn't even love you anymore! You and Elena both, you should listen to your own lectures and get your fucking shit together before you go judging mine."
"Damon, this isn't you." Elena stepped forward from behind Amelia and looked at the vampire before her with pitiful, yet furious eyes. "But more importantly, this can't be you. Not in this town, not around everyone. You have to learn how to control yourself!"
"Why is it suddenly so important for everyone to keep me in check? Why? Because I had to witness the love of my life staring down at me with so much hatred it cut like a knife?"
"Because we will find a way to fix this!" Elena shouted at him. He stared at her with his teeth gritted as she snapped, "And when Claire realizes what you've done, she'll hate you more for it. I'm trying to save you."
"No one asked you to, Elena. No one ever asks you to." He stepped closer to her, a snarl on his lips. "How about you stay out of my business? How about you stay out of Stefan's business? How about you stay out of everyone's business and try figuring out your own for once!"
Elena stared at him, slack-jawed, but he didn't care. He brushed past her again, but just as he turned to leave the room, Amelia stepped in front of him with an equally pissed off vampire face.
"We can still...we can still try to save them, Damon—"
"I don't care anymore." He looked her up and down with an evil spark in his eyes. "And neither should you."
Amelia opened her mouth, but nothing came out. He saw her at a loss for words, and he took that as his cue to leave the room. He left Amelia and Elena standing at a loss for the second time in only a few short weeks, but he didn't care this time. This time it was over. This time, he knew there was no going back. What was done was done and that was it.
Klaus stormed into the warehouse again looking for his sister. Ellie was by his side, and Claire was already in one of his trunks ready to be transported when they decided to make a move. However, when returning to Gloria's bar earlier to look for Stefan, Klaus came upon a surprising discovery.
"Gloria's gone! She's cleared out." Klaus and Ellie stopped as they stumbled upon Rebekah and Stefan standing side by side, a caught look on Stefan's face and a pissed one on the other Original vampire. Klaus cocked an eyebrow. "What's going on?"
"Where's Claire?" Stefan asked, desperately trying to take himself off the hotspot, but Rebekah wasn't having it.
"He's lying." Rebekah snuck a glance at Stefan, who began to panic at the blonde's words. "Something's definitely wrong. He was asking about Mikael." She turned her head to Stefan with a sigh. "He's not with us, Nik. I can sense it."
"She's wrong." Stefan stepped forward cautiously and smiled at his friend. "Klaus..."
But Klaus didn't buy it. He already knew something was wrong, that part Stefan didn't know. But, naturally, Klaus wasted no time with playing games and instead snapped his friend's neck and threw him into one of the trunks with Clarissa for the two of them to occupy until he could get them to their destination.
"I'm not gonna say I told you so," Caroline informed Elena as they walked through the town square in the bright summer sun. Elena exhaled in relief.
"Thank you."
"...But I did tell you."
"Caroline..." Elena let out a frustrated sigh. "Look, you were right, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I know I have to move on from Stefan, but I...I don't really know how to do that. I didn't tell you before, but right before the ritual, Stefan and I had this...this moment where he told me—"
Caroline suddenly came to a stop in the middle of the center of town, and Elena stopped as well to look her right in the eye so that she could get what she was thinking off her chest. Caroline looked as if she'd had enough of Elena's rambling and just decided to end it all of a sudden.
"Wait...it's been a long week, so I'm just gonna be blunt. Stefan doesn't love you. You may think he loves you because of whatever he said to you before you almost died, but he doesn't. Even if he does, why do you keep waiting around for him like he's some knight and shining armor on a white horse coming to rescue you any day now?" Elena flinched at Caroline's words, but Caroline continued without remorse. "Just admit it, Elena, you need to move on. You need to get your own life and stop trying to live one that's toxic for you. You need to get over him! It's the only way you're ever going to be happy."
"I can't, Caroline!" Elena snapped, causing Caroline to stop talking in the middle of her thought process. She switched her brain off from the talking part to the listening part as she saw the look of utter distress on Elena's face. "If I admit that I need to move on...if I try to move on, that means it's really over. And I don't think I'm ready for that." Elena watched as Caroline shifted her look from angry to pitiful, and so the brunette just scoffed and turned to sit on one of the benches near her with a scoff. "Oh, God. Shit. Now what does that say about me?"
"It says you're human, Elena." Caroline slowly walked over to the bench and sat down on the other side of her friend, who had her hands on her knees and was breathing in and out of her mouth trying to calm herself down. However, Caroline still looked at Elena with that pointed look in her eyes. "But it doesn't say that you're wrong for wanting that or...or doing that. Stefan would want you to be happy, you know. Torturing yourself, being angry at Amelia, putting your heart and soul into having hope for Damon and Claire...that's not making you happy."
Elena paused. She'd never thought about it that way. Just as she was about to say something, Caroline's eyes flickered up, where she smiled, which caused Elena to immediately grow curious. When her eyes followed where Caroline's went, she looked up to find a handsome seventeen-year-old standing a few feet in front of them with two coffees in his hand.
"Hey, Caroline." The teenager said. Elena and Caroline both stood from the bench as the teenager walked over to them. His eyes glanced over Elena, who tried to contain her appreciation for his looks. "And you are...?"
"Elena."
Elena turned to Caroline with prompting eyes, and Caroline gasped. "Right! Right, Elena, this is Mike, the lacrosse player I was talking about."
Mike rolled his eyes. "Wow, Caroline, you really gave her all the details."
"I have to leave some things for her to find out." Elena turned to look at Mike, and the moment she saw him smile, she thought to herself that it wouldn't be such a bad idea to spend a few minutes with him. When Caroline looked up and saw her father walking across the town square, she touched Elena's arm gently and nodded to her. "Have fun."
"Thank you," Elena mouthed to Caroline as the blonde vampire walked away into the daylight, leaving Elena and Mike, who extended an extra coffee to her as he sat down on the bench with her by his side.
After Alaric practically spat in his face, Damon was subjected to sitting alone on his couch drinking the rest of his bourbon in solitude. He had to admit, he enjoyed the peace and quiet, but there was something about being alone with his thoughts that made him uneasy. As he drank himself to oblivion, he barely noticed Amelia dragging two suitcases down the stairs, each with at least three or four boxes stacked on top of them. When she wheeled them around to the door, Damon looked over at her disinterestedly and watched as she flipped her pale blonde hair over her shoulder to sneak a look at him. He frowned.
"What the hell are you doing, Blondie?"
"Leaving." She parked her suitcases and put her hands on her hips as she walked into the parlor. Damon cocked an eyebrow at her and she shrugged. "All the renovations are done at the King house. I'm moving in."
Damon scowled through his bourbon glass. "That's what you've been doing while you had Elena babysit me? Renovations at your goddamn house? There's a perfectly good room for you right in this one!"
"Yeah, well, Damon, I don't like waking up every day being reminded of the person who apparently doesn't love me anymore!" she snapped, so angrily that Damon could see her practically shaking. He kept his mouth shut and didn't say anything for the life of him. "You can torture yourself all you want, binge drink and kill people and wreck havoc everywhere for all I care. I need to get the hell out of this house. You're more than welcome to come with me."
Damon watched as she turned to her suitcases, but under his breath he muttered, "Why the hell would I go anywhere with you?"
She heard it. She stopped at the doorway with her two suitcases and sighed. "I know I'm a constant reminder of the pain she caused. But you can choose to either mope around or get off your lazy ass and do something about it. Let me know what you decide...or don't. See if I care."
With that said, she refused to say anything else to him as she left the Salvatore house for good. Damon didn't stop her or go with her. He just sat on the couch and drank and drank and drank and drank until he heard something that faintly sounded like a knock on the door. In his half-drunken stupor, he stumbled over to the door and opened it softly to find Elena standing on his front step with a peeved look on her face. Damon crossed his arms angrily.
"I'll accept only written apologies only." He paused. "And maybe not even then. I'm super pissed at you right now."
Elena cocked her head with disapproval, but then something strange happened. A cat-like smile spread across her thin lips, and she popped her hip and put her arm out as if she were proud of something. He knew immediately who it was.
"So little Miss Perfect isn't so perfect anymore. What'd she do now? Breathe? That always gets me going."
Damon groaned and banged his head against the door as he muttered, "Katherine! What do you want?"
"I'm just a girl looking for a partner in crime." She held up her hands in defense as Damon took himself away from the door, not wanting any of whatever she was offering. But as she went on, he got more intrigued. "You feel like hitting the road? Getting the hell out of dodge?"
Damon stopped just as he was about to go back into the parlor and grab his bourbon. He turned around and frowned at her.
"Impeccable timing. I was told that I am welcome to wreck havoc for all I want."
Katherine stepped into the Salvatore house with an eyebrow raised. "Is that a yes? I'll drive."
Damon stared down at her as she looked up at him with her cat-like eyes and her slick smile. He knew it was a bad idea, but at that moment, he really didn't feel like being stuck in the house doing nothing but getting drunk and possibly going into Claire's room to trash her things. He was starting to feel why Amelia decided she needed to get the hell out of their house.
"Why not?" Damon shrugged. "The walls are starting to close in on me here anyway. Where are we going?"
"Away from here. That's all I'm going to give you for right now, but believe me." She grinned as she held up Elena's necklace in her hand, the necklace that she had stolen from Bonnie while pretending to be Elena. Damon stared down at it, knowing that it was wrong, but not really caring. Katherine chuckled. "It's good."
Claire shook Stefan so hard she was afraid that he would wake with the shakes at that point. She whisper-hissed his name over and over and over again, knowing full well that Klaus was right behind her watching her every move. She needed him to get up. She slapped him a few times on the face, trying to rouse him from his sleep, and finally, Stefan woke with a gasp to look right into his best friend's alarmed eyes. He scooted back as he saw Klaus standing in the corner of the back of the truck, and Claire bowed her head in defeat as Stefan held out a hand to Klaus to try to explain.
"Just give me a chance to explain myself, okay?"
"No need." Klaus shrugged. "I'm not mad, I'm just curious. My witch found that Claire knows something about Rebekah's necklace that she's not telling me about and Rebekah seems to think that you're holding onto something, a piece of your own life. The thing is, she's got flawless instincts...borderline supernatural...so I thought I would check it out." Klaus walked forward closer to them and bent down, his face right next to Clarissa's. She flinched away from him, but Stefan and Claire both watched as a sadistic smile overcame Klaus's face. "See for myself what it is you two have been hiding."
Stefan helped Claire up as Klaus lifted himself up from his squat to march his way over to the end of the truck they were in and lift the compartment door. Bright light flooded into the dark truck and, when looking outside, Claire and Stefan could see the all-too-familiar town square of Mystic Falls. Klaus looked at Stefan and Claire with a greedy smile.
"Welcome back to Mystic Falls."
Thanks for reading! Please review!
Katie00980: I know it's so sad :( Klaus always has a bad way of going about things lol. The dynamic with Claire will be interesting, especially when Claire learns some secrets of Klaus's past in the midst of Damon trying to win her back the old-fashioned way. Claire's still hot-headed, even without hating Damon, so she's still pretty upset that (a) Klaus abandoned her, (b) Klaus killed her, and (c) she just things Klaus is an evil dick haha but maybe she'll get over it eventually...Thanks for the review!
NicoleR85: That's the next chapter and I'm excited to see how it goes too! Here's the update, hope it wasn't too long :)
heytay1: Thank you! Here's the update!
klandgraf2007: Oh wow thank you! Yeah lol it's Damon, of course he handled it this way, but maybe he'll get better in the next few chapters, we'll see. I mean, it's got to be tough though because he's basically been trying since forever to get her to love him and when she finally shows something towards him, Klaus ups and takes it away that's got to hurt, you know? Claire will handle it with grace, as she always does, but you know she's still gonna put up a fight because...well, it's Claire :P I'm glad you enjoyed it and here's the chapter! By the way, those flashbacks of Damon and Claire in the 20s are coming this season, but I have something a little bit more special planned for those!
HALEBTRASH: I don't know I haven't decided...we'll see how things work out :)
Adela: Thank you!
vampangel25: Lol it is! Thanks for the review!
Gigi: He fucked everything up ;P I'm sorry! It'll get better though...eventually. Thanks for the review!
grapejuice101: He did! Here's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!
SomebodyWhoCares: :(
Guest: Haha I'm glad. Thanks for reviewing!