Hello! I am back after a little respite where I've started to get back on my feet money-wise. The fact that I'm a compulsive shopper doesn't help much.

I've been way excited for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 premiere next week! Planning my whole week around it!

I've also been quite excited for these new episodes of our lovely show. But I was so disappointed when I found out that the next episode is on December 2nd. WHAT IS THIS?

Thanks to butterflysmile who suggested a storyline in the reviews Rest assured that IS the path I will be taking.

Disclaimer: "More shirtless Tyler!" "Who are you?" "Oh right. Don't actually own anything."

Veronica entered the diner and glanced around for the most secluded area. Quickly making her way over to a seat in the corner as she heard Damon entering behind her she immediately got the attention of a young man passing by.

"Excuse me, would you be able to help me?" The boy, who had a pair of the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen, smiled at her and put down the tray full of glasses he was carrying.
"Sure. Matt Donovan at your service."
"A pleasure to meet you, Matt." She glanced over his shoulder to see Damon watching her, but not approaching yet. "Could you, perhaps, be able to get me something to eat. I'm starving." Matt chuckled.
"Well, I'm only the busboy but I'm sure I can find you something. What are you in the mood for?" Ronnie wasn't sure what a busboy was but she smiled anyway.
"What's on offer?" She asked, keeping an eye on Damon who was still watching her, only now Stefan and Katherine's lookalike, a sweet girl named Elena had also joined him.

Damon watched as Ronnie talked with Matt and smiled. What was it about that guy that had all the women around this town smiling? He'd make an awful vampire. He was too nice.

He heard Stefan and Elena come up behind him and knew what Stefan was going to say before his brother even opened his mouth.
"Before you start telling me off, I didn't do anything. Not anything to hurt her, anyway."
"Oh I have a hard time believing that Damon."
"Yeah, because I would hurt her." Damon kept his eyes glued towards Ronnie and Matt but it was obvious he was being sarcastic.
"Not in a physical sense." Stefan had him there. He had caused more than enough emotional damage and that kiss was more than she needed after trying to get her emotions and her body in check after being brought back to life.

"I might have...flustered her a little bit."
"You what?" It was clear that Stefan had misunderstood. But Elena got it right away.
"You kissed her." Damon just glanced briefly at her and his brother, standing there expectantly.
"Maybe." Stefan heaved a sigh of annoyance and looked at Elena who just shrugged and shook her head.
"Of all the stupid things, Damon."
"Spare me your lectures, Stefan." Damon walked towards Ronnie before his brother could say anything else. Just in time too, as Matt moved away from her table. Damon plopped himself in the seat opposite hers. She refused to look at him. "You can't ignore me, Ronnie. Not now, with everything that's going on."
"Don't call me that."
"Oh good, a reaction."
"Your attempts at getting a reaction from me are childish."
"And they're working." He smirked as a waitress brought over Ronnie's food. Damon had to contain his laughter.
"What is so funny?"
"You got buffalo wings and fries? I'm pretty sure we didn't have these back in 1864."
She glanced down at her food for a while.
"Well, that lovely boy Matt suggested them." Damon scowled at her description of Matt as 'lovely.'

He definitely wouldn't make a good vampire.

"How are you going to pay for them? Did 'lovely Matt' say they were free?" That got her as she looked around for Matt. He knew she wouldn't have any money. She glared at him.
"Now I'm humiliated." She said, flushing crimson at her embarrassment. Damon sighed.
"Look, don't worry about this I'll handle it."
"Thank you."
"On one condition. We talk about what happened." She looked at him.
"There is nothing to talk about."
"Fine, have fun explaining to sweet little Matty why you couldn't pay for your meal. Knowing him, he'd probably tell them to take it out of his pay. Poor kid." Ronnie deflated at this and Damon hated himself for blackmailing her like this. But he needed them to talk.

"What you did, in Tyler's house, was terrifying for me." He certainly hadn't expected her to jump straight into it. "After so many years that we've known each other, after so many obvious signs that I loved you, you chose now, when I am at my most vulnerable to do this to me."
Damon was quiet as he watched her attempt to keep the tears from falling down her face.
"What's worse is that you did it only after you knew Katherine was out of your life and after you finally opened your eyes to what a psychotic, manipulating whore." As it had over one hundred years ago, the sound of such a word falling from her innocent lips startled him.
"Ronnie, you know, more than anyone that I am not the most reliable person when it comes to love. But when I feel something, it's hard for me to ignore even when I try my hardest to ignore it."
"So, all of a sudden you have fallen in love with me, is that it Damon? For over a century you have done nothing and think about your feelings for me? I am not an imbecile. I saw the way you looked at that girl, Elena even when you were all trying to comfort me. And even though I know that this is absurd I can't help but think that Katherine is still the shadow that haunts our relationship."

Damon hated how everyone seemed to pick up on his feelings for Elena. But it had never bothered him as much as it did now.
"Elena is nothing like Katherine. Besides her looks, they are nothing alike."
"I believe that, I do. She seems sweet and caring and lovely but she still looks like her and that will always be a part of why you love her. And why you will never love me."
"You're wrong. I do love you."
"As a friend. As you have always loved me since the day we met in that park. I wish it were more, I wish I could hold your heart the way you do mine but," she hesitated and wiped some tears from her eyes. "But you won't, because she is everything that I'm not."

With that she got up and started to walk away, her buffalo wings and fries untouched and Damon Salvatore speechless and, whether he cared to admit it or not, heartbroken.
She made her way past Elena and Stefan, who seemed to be having their own argument and walked out the door onto the street, only to realise that she had forgotten her way back to the Lockwood Mansion.


Stefan had watched his brother walk over to his old friend like a hawk. He was afraid that Damon's emotions would get the better of him and cause him to do something stupid.

Elena, on the other hand was still dwelling on what Stefan had said outside. She knew it was juvenile of her to think like this but it really got to her that he saw Damon and Veronica's friendship as a connection he himself had never seen or experienced. What did he think of their relationship?

"Stefan." She tried getting his attention.
"Yeah." He replied but didn't look away from the scene at the other end of the diner. She put her hand on his cheek and forced him to look at her.
"I need to talk to you about something."
"Sure." She sighed before starting.
"What you said out there, about their relationship being unlike any other you had ever seen," he nodded as she continued "it really got to me. How do you see our relationship then? Don't you think what we have is special?"
Stefan looked taken aback for a moment.
"Elena, of course what we have is special. I had just never seen this kind of relationship back then. Now, it's different."
"Don't lie to me Stefan. You said that they had the most profound connection you have witnessed. Have. Not had."
"Well then I messed up my words, please don't think too much into it you know I love you more than anything."
"I know you love me. I love you, too." She smiled, reassuring herself that she was being paranoid and she was over-thinking it.

Just then Damon appeared in front of them. "Did you see where Ronnie went?"
"What? She left?" Asked Stefan looking around.
"Some vampire you are." Damon said before sitting down at the bar and ordered more shots than Elena had fingers.
"Let's go, Elena. We can't do anything for him." Elena hesitantly complied, looking over her shoulder at a Damon Salvatore she's never seen; depressed.

Veronica wandered the clean streets of Mystic Falls in hopes of finding something familiar, but she had rushed out of Tyler's house so quickly that she never paid attention to where she was going and what route she was travelling on. Friendly people smiled at her as they passed her on the street and she always smiled back and offered a polite "Good Afternoon" just as her mother had taught her. This stopped her dead in her tracks. Her family, what had happened to them after her death? How did they deal? Surely Damon, no, Stefan would know and would tell her. Did she even want to know.

Too preoccupied in her own thoughts to watch where she was going, she crashed into someone. She looked up and to her relief saw that it was only Tyler, carrying a big cardboard box.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
"I left that restaurant and got lost trying to come back to yours. Thank goodness I've found you." Tyler simply laughed and led her back to his car, putting the box into the backseat. "What is that you have there?"
"Just some things for the masquerade tonight. My mom's really into this stuff you know? The whole town is coming."
"Yes we had such traditions in 1864. I enjoyed them but my mother was apprehensive about letting me attend."
"Why is that?" Veronica smiled at the memory.
"I was...or I suppose I still am, somewhat stubborn and opinionated? I had a knack for voicing my opinions freely and that was, shall we say, unbecoming of a young woman at the time."
Tyler could imagine a woman not unlike his own mother lecturing her daughter in manners and social class. He chuckled at the thought before starting his truck and driving off.
"Tonight should be good. You can see the rest of the descendants of the Founding Families. Maybe you can find out what happened to yours?"
"Oh, that would be lovely. But I'm afraid I can't."
"What? Why not? You live in my house anyway."
"I don't have any clothes for the occasion. I can't simply turn up in this can I?" She had him there.
"I can call Bonnie and she can take you shopping. How about that?"
"I have no money."
"Don't worry about money, just promise that you'll find something and come? I think it'll be good for you."
Veronica smiled at Tyler. He reminded her very much of her brother, who had perished in the Civil War before her own passing.
"If you insist."
"Good." He smiled at her as they neared his driveway.

Mason made sure to keep an eye out for either of the Salvatore brothers as made his way into the woods surrounding Mystic Falls. He was going to make sure that the moonstone was still secured at the bottom of the well filled with vervain. As much as he loved Katherine, he didn't trust her within an inch of his life when it came to this particular stone.

He still didn't know its significance and she wouldn't let about why she wanted it in the first place. But he knew it was important, and that was enough for him at this point.

He kept his wits about him as he made his way towards the well. As he neared it he as suddenly thrust against a tree by none other than Damon Salvatore, who had, judging by the smell of whiskey on his breath, been drinking.

"You know you can't hold me here forever Damon. You might be stronger than me but she'll come find me and you know it."

"Well, it's a good thing I have back up then isn't it?" Damon replied as the girl he knew as Bonnie and the boy who was Elena's brother (his name escaped him) came into view.
"Oh, and what are they going to do? Talk me to death?" Damon merely smirked as Bonnie walked up to them.
"Do your thing, Samantha." He let go of Mason, who was about to attempt his escape when a searing pain shot through his head, over and over again. He screamed in pain until everything went black.

"That," Damon said "was easier than expected."
"What are your motivations behind this Damon?" Bonnie asked as she watched him effortlessly pick Mason up and start carrying him to his waiting car.
"I told you, I want to ruin all of Katherine's plans. And get rid of a pest."
"But this plan seems horribly last minute. What happened to have you want to jump into this so quickly?"
"You know what I hear? I hear you questioning me on a plan that could make all of our lives a whole lot easier. Jeremy isn't saying anything." He gestured to the teenager walking mutely beside them and Bonnie just sighed.
"Fine, but this is where I finish. You got what you needed from me and I'm leaving." She turned to head towards her own car when Damon grabbed her.
"Don't think I haven't forgotten about what you did. I'll deal with you later." He said menacingly as Jeremy stepped forward and gently eased Bonnie away from Damon.
"Damon, that's enough. She's done what she can just leave her alone." Damon simply sneered at him.
"You can't tell me what to do."
With that he shoved the unconscious werewolf in the back seat of his car before he and Jeremy hopped in and took off.

Tyler couldn't reach Bonnie on her cell and instead called the only other person he could think of. That's what had Caroline Forbes standing in his room getting ready to head back out with Veronica in tow in order to find the girl a dress for tonight.
"This is totally last minute but I'm glad you called me." She said to Tyler as she helped Veronica into a jacket and handed her one of her own spare handbags. "Just for show." She said to her when Veronica looked at the back questioningly.
"Yeah, thanks for doing this Caroline. I think Bonnie's a bit freaked right now."
"Well we all are. It's not every day someone just comes back from the dead. Well, as a human anyway."
"Yeah, about that. You're a vampire? How come I'm the last to know about this?"
"Oh so I would have just come right up to you and said; 'Hey Tyler how's it going? By the way I'm a vampire now.'"
"Well, when you put it like that." She smiled triumphantly at him and he couldn't hold back a smile. She had always made him laugh, one way or another.
"OK, so we'll be back ASAP since everything closes soon anyway. It shouldn't be too hard to find something for her." Tyler stood up as they made their way out of his room and down the stairs. Before Caroline could open the front door he stopped her and reached for his wallet.
"Here, take this it'll let you get everything you need." He held out his credit card to her but she shook her head.
"It's OK, I have money. Besides, you're the one feeding her and giving her a place to stay so I should be the one to clothe her. Everyone does their share right? Besides, we can bond." She smiled at Veronica who smiled back as they headed out the door.
"Goodbye Tyler." Veronica said as they left, passing the many decorators and caterers as they went.

Mason woke up strapped tightly to a chair in front of a fireplace with Damon Salvatore looking down at him.
"Bout time you woke up. I've been punching you in the face at fifteen minute intervals for the past hour."
"You thought that would wake me?"
"No, it was just amusing me for the time."
Mason let out a dry laugh. "You're pathetic. You think keeping me here and torturing me is going to make me tell you anything?"
"Well, yes. That and I really, really want you and that bitch Katherine out of my life."
"You're just upset because she doesn't love you."
"Oh and you think she loves you? Please, you're just her pawn. She's using you, just like she uses everybody else in her life." Mason just glared at him. "So, now that you're awake," Damon picked up a hot poker from the fireplace "let's get busy."

Jeremy heard screams of agony as he entered the Salvatore house. He winced, knowing that Damon was torturing Mason Lockwood for information whilst Stefan looked around the area of the woods they had caught Mason in for any clues as to the whereabouts of the moonstone.

Entering the den he saw Damon put down a hot poker that was covered in blood. Sometimes, Jeremy forgot just how malicious Damon could be, any vampire for that matter. But he knew this was necessary. That's why he was about to tell Damon about his discovery.
"Alaric and I found something." He said as he held up the flower. Damon walked over to him and grabbed it.
"What is it?"
"It's wolfs bane. It's like vervain for werewolves." Jeremy knew that this in the hands of Damon was dangerous but did he really have any other choice?
"Ooh. Good work." Damon smirked at him as he went back over to Mason who looked exhausted and beyond bloody and beaten. "Now, let's try this again." With that, he ran the flower over Mason's face and Jeremy watched in horror as it burned the werewolf's skin and caused him to cry out in agony. "Where. Is. The moonstone?" Still no answer from Mason, so Damon shoved the wolf's bane into his mouth.

Jeremy watched as tears appeared in Mason's eyes and couldn't take it anymore. "That's enough, Damon!"

In a flash, Damon had pinned him against the armchair and was holding his neck. Even though he couldn't die, Jeremy was still terrified of Damon, especially after watching him torture someone as strong as Mason.
"If you can't handle this then don't beg to be involved every time we decide to do this. This is what our world is like and if you can't take it then leave and never bother us again." Damon threatened and let him go.

Jeremy knew he was right, and so with one last look at Mason he grabbed his things and left.

Caroline unlocked the door to her house and led Veronica, or Ronnie, inside. Just like she suspected, finding a dress for her was easy. She suited so many colours and styles it was only a matter of picking her favourite.
"You are going to look amazing tonight. Especially after we've done you up." She smiled at her. They hadn't talked much. Well, it was more like Caroline had done the talking and Veronica had either smiled, laughed or agreed. She seemed more interested in the way the world had changed.

"I haven't really had time to take it all in. Everything has just happened so quickly." She had said as she tried on the dress that she ended up choosing.
"It must be weird. I mean for me, I was only dead for like a few minutes. But you were dead for over a century."
"How did it happen to you?" The question came out of the blue and Caroline was unsure how to respond.
"Katherine. She wanted me to pass on a message to Damon but she wanted to make sure I was a vampire first."
"In order to mock him."
"Yeah, I guess so. To show him that whatever he did he could never stop her. But that's going to change tonight."
"Tonight?"
"Oh, let me see your dress!" Caroline didn't want to let on that Damon planned on killing or stopping Katherine tonight at the masquerade so she had quickly changed the subject.

Now as they stood in her room and laid out their clothes, Caroline's phone rang. The caller ID said 'Damon' and she knew this had to do with what was going down tonight. She made sure Ronnie was preoccupied before answering.
"Hello?"
"Be here in fifteen minutes."
"Well, I'm kinda in the middle of something."
"I don't care." With that, he hung up. Caroline huffed at through her phone on the bed before picking up her bag and heading out.
"I'll be back. Don't worry about my mom she won't be home till way later so you can just raid the fridge and maybe start getting ready? Take a shower! You know how to do that right?" Veronica nodded before replying.
"Where are you going?"
"Oh, a friend of mine is having a problem with her boyfriend and her dress. You know girl dramas. Don't worry I won't be long." With that, Caroline headed out.

Veronica just stood there before decided to take her mind off of things by exploring the house. So much had changed since her time.

Caroline walked into the den of the Salvatore house to find Alaric, Jeremy, Bonnie, Stefan and Damon all standing around.
"How did things go with Mason Lockwood?" she asked.
"Fine. He's dead." Damon replied.
"Oh. Well, good I guess."

"Considering he was the wolf that tried to kill you, I'd say that's more than good."
"Well did you get anything out of him?"
"We didn't need to. I found the moonstone in a box at the bottom of a well filled with vervain." Stefan interjected, holding up the said stone.
"Vervain?"
"Yeah, it seems that Mason didn't trust Katherine." Alaric responded.
"How did you get it out? I mean if it was filled with vervain..."
"I helped. I found him just before he jumped in and I was able to perform a spell to get it out." Bonnie said from where she stood.
"OK, now that we're all done catching up. We have a problem. Katherine has a Plan B." Damon informed everyone.
"How do you know that?" Jeremy asked.
"Because she told me herself. Now the only way to stop her is if we work as a team."
"Elena won't be going to the masquerade tonight but you can bet Katherine will make an appearance. Alaric, we're gonna need you to stay with Elena, make sure she doesn't leave. She can't know about this." Stefan started the ball and got the plan moving. Alaric nodded his consent.
"That's fine. I can take care of Jenna whilst I'm at it." Stefan slapped him on the back good-naturedly and turned to everyone else.
"Caroline, we're gonna need you to play Judas."
"You mean you need me to betray you?" Damon looked impressed.
"You actually know what that means. Maybe I underestimated you." She returned his smirk before turning back to Stefan who continued.
"Katherine will come after you as soon as Jeremy tells her that we want to meet her by the lake. She'll assume that you're working with us and think that you'll be the easiest to break."
"But you won't, will you?" Damon looked at her and Caroline glared at him.
"Give me a little more credit."
"You'll tell her that we've hidden the moonstone in a room upstairs where in fact, we'll be waiting and Bonnie will have cast a spell to seal us all in there, where we'll kill the bitch." Damon finished laying out the plan.

Bonnie turned to her. "I saw you out with Veronica today. You were shopping." Damon focused all his attention to Caroline then, waiting for her answer.
"Yeah, she wanted to go to the masquerade so Tyler and I agreed to buy her a dress."
"Tyler called you?" Bonnie asked, somewhat taken aback.
"Yeah, why?"
"No reason." Bonnie turned then to Stefan. "I know my part but I have to get ready. See you tonight?" Stefan nodded and squeezed her arm.
"Thank you, Bonnie." Bonnie just smiled and left.
"Yeah, I'm with her on that one. If we're going to be doing some major Katherine-slaying today I wanna look good whilst doing it. Besides, I've left Ronnie alone in the house and she'd be bored to tears by now." She made to leave when Damon blocked her way.
"Ronnie's at your house?"
"Yeah, we're getting ready together. You couldn't expect Tyler to be able to help her with that."
"I don't want her there tonight."
"Well, bad luck she wants to be there. She said it reminds her of her life back then."
"It's dangerous."
"And she's got you, me and Stefan to protect her. Not to mention Bonnie the superwitch. She'll be fine."
Damon still wouldn't move out of her way, and Caroline was too scared of him to try anything. So she waited.
"If anything happens to her, I will kill you and the spoiled douche." Caroline nodded and moved around him, making her way as quickly as she could back to her car.

Veronica was freaking out. She had done something to a strange box and some noise had started blaring from it and she couldn't get it to stop. She was afraid that she had broken it when Caroline entered the house.
"Why is the stereo on?"
"I'm so sorry I didn't know what to do I just pressed this button and-" Veronica was deeply embarrassed by her ignorance but she was confused as Caroline giggled and reached over to the box and pressed the same button. The noise stopped.
"See? Problem solved? That's a stereo by the way. It plays music."
"That was music?" Caroline giggled again.
"I forgot you didn't have rock music back then. Don't worry tonight the music will be more mellow, soft. Not as confronting." Veronica smiled at her and allowed herself to be led upstairs. "We have to get ready we're kind of pushing it for time."

Phew, that was a long chapter. I was going to include the masquerade in this but I didn't want to make it a dragging read.

As you can tell, I've changed the dialogue in the more familiar scenes to fit the storyline of this fic rather than that of the actual show. Though I am trying to stick as much to the show's arc as possible besides the obvious differences.

Next: the plan is put into action at the Masquerade ball, but not before Katherine and Veronica have a confrontation of their own. Tyler and Caroline grow closer when a shocking accident triggers his curse and she's there to witness it and the whole group is shaken when both Elena and Veronica are kidnapped.

And now for the SPOILER for something that will happen around Chapters 10-12;
One of the main characters in this story will die.

Review in your guesses and also anything that you want me to put into the story! This time, review with a suggestion for what is said between Katherine and Veronica.

Much love,

Xoxo.