Sorry this chapter has taken so long to get written – life gets in the way of entertainment and creativity.

He cuts me off with a finger to my lips, "You worry too much, Elena, you're going to give yourself wrinkles." He presses his lips to my forehead and then moves so fast I hardly feel his lips against mine, but they tingle with even the briefest of touches; I'm half-certain Ric doesn't even know what Damon has done. "I'll see you soon."

And then they are gone.

All of them are gone and I sure as hell would love it if only half of them returned.

"Well, that was a fabulous little reunion, I wonder how I can get off that mailing list," Alaric offers me a half-hearted grin. "You okay? You didn't get any creepy old original vampire germs on you or anything?"

I only shrug and offer the same half-hearted smile back at him, "I don't like this."

"Me neither, but what can we do, it's probably better that we humans sit this one out. I don't really want to keep testing my ring out on a regular basis, you know?" He stands up and grabs his jacket, "We should probably get out of here before everyone comes back and wonders why we're the only ones here."

I stand to join him as my phone vibrates with a text. I smile when I see it's from Damon but frown at the contents of his message: Bennett witches on the Lockwood property, down in no-go-vamp tunnels with something you might be interested in seeing. See you soon. Kisses.

I hate that Bonnie and her mom are so deep in all this; hate that everyone is in this messed up situation because of me. Caroline's a vampire because Katherine wanted to send a message, Jenna, John and Isobel are all dead along with a handful of my classmates, Matt's life is totally screwed up and Jeremy is half a country away. And yet they still love me, would still fight for me and put themselves in danger. Hopefully someday I can repay them, make it up to them for all they've been put through. But how to you undo it all, make all of this right? I have no clue.

"Well, I know where we're off to next," I sigh, showing Ric my phone. "Never a dull moment."

"Hey Bonnie, fancy seeing you here," I call out ahead of us as we approach the part of the tunnels where I know she'll be, not wanting to catch them by surprise. "Damon sent us."

We turn the corner and while I expect the coffin to be there, I'm still taken back by the scene in front of us. Candles are burning in every corner of the space with the coffin in the middle and white powder in patterns on the ground all around it. Bonnie and her mom look exhausted, like they've run a marathon and followed it up with 5K.

"Hey Elena, I'm guessing Damon sent you, considering he's the only one who is supposed to know we're here," Bonnie frowns. "Is it a good idea that you're here?"

"The hell if I know, but I'm guessing he probably thought I was safer here than anywhere else, though whatever is in the coffin might not be friendly so I guess it's a toss up." I give my friend a hug and smile warmly at her mom. "So, it doesn't look like you've had any luck."

"Not yet but it feels like we're getting closer," Bonnie wraps her arms around her body. "I don't know how to explain it because the coffin hasn't changed a bit but I just feel like we're closer, like something's happening. Where's Damon? How did his meeting with Elijah go?"

I raise my eyebrows, surprised that Bonnie knows about Elijah, "What? Am I the last to know things around here? When did Damon tell you about Elijah?"

"About five this morning when he came and woke us up and told us to get to work with the coffin. He said he was going to try and keep stalling Klaus and Elijah but he wasn't sure how long we'd have. He said he was meeting Elijah this morning to offer him an alternative solution to the problem at hand or to see if he could get him to turn on his brother. Do you know what the plan is?"

"I definitely do not know what the plan is, I didn't even know Elijah was back in the living, or un-living as it is, until he stopped by Ric's this morning while I was working out."

"Lovely, that must have been a nice moment for you." Bonnie wrinkles her nose. "Nothing like a surprise visit from someone who screwed you over."

"I've had my fair share of surprise visits in the last 24 hours..." I trail off, not wanting to get into it all at the moment, not with more pressing things literally in front of us. "I don't want to distract you from this, maybe if you can get it open, this can all be over." But my words are filled with doubt, I know better than to hope that this will soon be over.

"Oh, I welcome the distraction, do tell... who else was visiting you since yesterday?"

I smile at Bonnie and because I've missed the normalcy of girl talk, it all comes out in a rush, "First Damon woke me up this morning wanting to talk about 'us' and then Stefan showed up in my room earlier this morning and we finally ended it properly, not because someone was out of his mind or dying and then Damon came back and saw us having out final kiss goodbye. But instead of pulling a normal Damon vanishing act, he stuck around and heard me out and we ended up... well, confessing our love for each other."

Bonnie's eyebrows raise ever so slightly and she just reaches out and pulls me in for another hug, "Girl, what am I going to do with you? Remember when the biggest drama was what color dress you were going to pick for homecoming with Matt?"

I laugh and shake my head at myself, "I know, it's crazy, right?"

"Insane would more likely be my choice in words, but whatever I think about Damon, he is totally head over heels for you and we could all benefit from someone loving us that much. I just wish he wasn't so Damon-y."

"But then..."

"But then you probably wouldn't love him, right?"

"Hey, ladies, I'm all for look at this girl talk and bonding stuff, but I think I found something interesting over here." While we were talking, Ric has been shining his flashlight around the tunnel ceiling, looking at the drawings that had first helped us figure things out with Klaus and his murderous ways. He's standing under a section depicting what we thought was Klaus' mom's funeral. The witch's symbol is on a box and that is surrounded by a ring of interlocking symbols, ones we hadn't figured out the meaning of yet. "These symbols around the coffin look like this one you guys drew on the floor. What does it mean?"

Bonnie's mom speaks for the first time, "That's the symbol for our family, passed down from the first witch in our line. I always wrote it down when I was working on a difficult spell, I just thought I'd put it on the floor here to do kind of the same thing. It helps direct my thoughts."

"Then I think I figured out this symbol, the first witch was either at the funeral or she was the one who sealed the coffin."

Bonnie's eyes light up at the same time as her mother's and the elder Bennett grabs a grimoire and flips it open, "I think I know what spell we need to work from... there is something about the familial bond and calling upon our line of witches that we come from... if our ancestor spelled it shut, we can open it building from that spell. We can do this together, Bonnie. That's why you dreamed about me, we're the only ones who can open it."

"Okay, let's get to work," Bonnie takes her mother's outstretched hand and I can't help but feel chills to think that Bonnie, who had lost her mom for so long, as finally gotten her back. I would give anything to hold my mom's hand again, to tell her that I love her and that I'm sorry for everything that has happened.

"We're probably better off not being here, right," Ric comes back over to us. "Not that I don't want to be in on the big reveal, or anything, because that would be like the highlight of this already stellar year. But..."

I continue on for him, "We'd just get in the way. Besides, we should go wait for Damon and Stefan to see what happened with Klaus and Elijah."

Ric and I head home after Bonnie promises to text or call as soon as they get the coffin open and we promise to let them know once we hear from Damon or Stefan.

At home, I leaf through the mail that has gathered for the past few days in our forgotten-about mailbox, Alaric throws himself on the couch and flips on the TV.

"Really, you can watch TV right now?" I roll my eyes at him.

"Why? Would you rather we had a nice chat about you and vampire-fueled love life?" Ric grins as I shoot him an evil look. "I didn't think so. But for the record, Damon might be a dick and he might try to kill me on a regular basis, but Bonnie's right, he really does love you and that has to count for something. But, don't forget, you're only eighteen with your whole life ahead of you."

"Well, the 'whole life ahead of me' part might be jumping the gun just a little bit, given our present circumstances." I plop down on the couch next to him. "And honestly, I can't say that I have a whole lot of confidence in love either, it certainly hasn't served me too well up until now. Love hasn't kept the people in my life alive and it hasn't kept the man I loved from going completely off the rails, nor did it get him to come back to me. Love kind of sucks."

"Yeah, it kind of does but it's also pretty wonderful," Ric gives me what-can-you-do look. "I've never regretted loving Isobel or Jenna, no matter what heartache that love brought me and no matter how much it seemed to fail me, it was still love and amazing while I was in it. Love doesn't fix everything, but having that connection with someone isn't to be ignored and if it can be ignored, then it's just not strong enough, Elena. I know you loved Stefan and I'm quite certain he loved you, but maybe it just wasn't the love you needed, the love that completed you."

"Did you just go all Jerry Maguire on me, Ric?"

"Yes, yes I did... and I'm not going to apologize for it, just be glad I didn't pick another Tom Cruise movie and start serenading you a la Top Gun," Ric bounces to his feet, holding the remote to his mouth like a microphone. "You've lost that lovin' feeling..."

"Oh God, please stop!" I find myself laughing for the first time in days. "You are ridiculous."

"And you are welcome..." Ric sits back down. "That's what misguided, pseudo-father figures are for, comic relief in the midst of a crisis. Mission accomplished... now, doesn't mindless television seem like a good idea?"

"If you insist," I shake my head at him and find myself stifling a yawn behind my hand, it has already been a long day and it's not nearly over.

I must have drifted off because the next thing I know I'm awoken to the sound of hushed voices in the kitchen. My neck is killing me from sleeping awkwardly against the arm of the couch.

"There wasn't anything I could do, Ric, he would have killed both of us, or Elena," the sound of Stefan's voice has me on my feet in a flash.

Stefan doesn't look harmed in any way but the look on Ric's face tells me things are not good. "What's going on? Where's Damon?"

Stefan looks at Ric, who looks back at him with the same impossible, serious expression, like they are trying to will the other one to break the bad news to me.

"Tell me what's going on," I put my hand on Stefan's arm. "Is Damon all right? He didn't do anything stupid did he?"

Stefan twists his arm out from under mine and wraps both of his hands around the tops of my arms, "He's with Klaus, he stayed with Klaus."

In an instant, I'm brought back to when Katherine told Damon and I that Stefan had given himself over to Klaus. This cannot be happening again. "What does that mean? Why didn't he leave with you?"

"He couldn't, at least not without leaving his life behind. Klaus was not amenable to the terms of our agreement for peace, keyly, he wasn't about to be leaving town without you or his coffin. But I think he was tired of negotiating because he gave us the choice, either Damon give him the coffin or Damon would die."

"What? He can't do that... Damon's the only one who knows where the coffin is, what would be the point in killing him? Why not..." I stop myself before I say the next word.

"Why not what, Elena," Stefan's hands drop to his sides. "Why not me?"

"That's not what I meant, Stefan, and you know it," I bring my hands up in protest. "It's just that it doesn't make sense."

"I think that Klaus knows that Damon's the trump card now, the key to getting you to do what he wants. He probably figures that one way or another, you'll get Damon to tell him or that you already know and you'll give up the coffin rather than let Damon be killed." Stefan's sees my face. "And he wouldn't be wrong, would he, Elena?"

"I can't... we can't let him die, Stefan," I turn and start heading toward the door. But before I can even take a step, I feel Stefan's arms come around me.

"No, Elena, you can't leave, you can't go to them or to the coffin."

I'm still stuck in the same spot, struggling against Stefan's impenetrable grip. "What then... we just stay here and let him die? We do nothing? For what? For revenge? Is it worth it, Stefan, to let your brother die just so you don't give Klaus what he wants?"

Stefan's grip loosens, but he doesn't let go, "No, but we need to have a plan, we have some time. Klaus and Elijah have promised that we have until tomorrow morning to get them the coffin, until then they won't kill Damon. And I'm guessing Bonnie and her mom are working on the coffin, right?"

Every inch of my body is aching for a fight, wanting to spring into action and rescue Damon. Which sounds completely ridiculous when I let myself go there, who am I against an all-powerful hybrid and his equally powerful vampire brother. And yet I would run in there for him, to hell with the consequences, I will not give up without a fight and I would gladly give them what they want. I am most definitely a liability, the weak link in this whole chain of things, Klaus was not wrong.

"Okay, I'll stay here, but if Bonnie and her mom can't get that coffin open, I'm going there and I'm telling them where it is." I look into Stefan's eyes, letting the tears that have been threatening to fall finally run down my face. "He can't die, Stefan. We can't let him."

"I won't let him die, Elena, I promise you. But I'm not letting Klaus win without a fight."

Stefan finally lets me go and I pick up my phone from where I left it on the entryway table, checking for a message from Bonnie. The screen won't come on and I realize it's probably been a day or two since I charged it.

"I need to go plug my phone in, the battery is dead," I'm running up the steps before Ric or Stefan can object. I need a moment to myself to pull my thoughts and emotions together. Again I curse myself for thinking today was going to be a "down" day from all the supernatural drama.

My charger is in still plugged in on the bathroom vanity so I sit down on the closed lid of the toilet, giving my phone a couple minutes before I switch the power on. I lean my head against the cold tiles of the bathroom wall, closing my eyes and hoping to calm my nerves. The phone vibrates to life and after a few seconds I see the light flashing to indicate that I have a message.

It came five minutes ago from Bonnie: Coffin open. We were knocked out and now it's empty. We'll be there soon.

Pulling the charger from the wall, I run into my bedroom, shouting for Stefan and Ric. A dark figure in front of my window stops me dead in my tracks.

"Hello, Elena. It's about time we met."