"What are you doing here, Katherine?" Damon asked the vampire while she was still in Charlotte's grip.

"Is that even a question?" Katherine responded. She acted as if everything was normal and she was not a mere squeeze away from Charlotte crushing here neck. "I made you and Stefan vampires, Rose turned me, Mary turned her, and Klaus turned her. If Klaus dies, I die just the same as you and your little group of friends. I was keeping watch."

Damon laughed at this. "You expect me to believe that you have just been sitting here since the body got staked? That would take the patience and temperament of a saint. You are not even close. Not to mention you would be mummified."

"How about your little friend lets me down and I'll explain myself," Katherine snapped back. She was definitely irritated by the fact that Charlotte had not put her down.

Charlotte finally spoke. "I am not his little friend," she said with as much derision as that one word could hold. "I am someone you should be very afraid of." Charlotte gently squeezed Katherine's throat. Well, she squeezed it gently to how hard she could squeeze it. Katherine tried to fight out of her grasp and realized how strong Charlotte truly was.

"Okay," she said in a wheezy voice. "I understand."

Charlotte dropped her unceremoniously. She ignored Katherine's showboating performance on the floor and she began to cough and whimper in pain. She turned her attention to the coffin. She checked inside and saw the ashen corpse of Klaus, but it was in better shape than she expected.

"Explain in the car," she said to Katherine. "We need to put as much distance between Mystic Falls and ourselves."

"We'll be fine," she said in response. "In all the time I have been here, no one has tried to even check on the body."

"We have already encountered some friends on the road, so humor us," Damon snarked at Katherine.

"Play nice, children," Charlotte said and let the way.

~AHC~

"Is it really normal for one person to sleep that much?" Katherine asked again.

"As I have told you four times now, she is not a normal person. And it's still none of your business."

Damon and Katherine had been bickering intermittently throughout the car drive. Since they had left Mystic Falls, Charlotte had been sleeping. At least, it seemed that she had been sleeping the whole time. The few times she had woken up, she feigned sleeping to stay out of the argument between the two. She had enough of her own messy personal drama to deal with. She also figured that she should be well rested once someone did attack them. She assumed they would. It would be absurd to hope that Tatia had squashed all hope of that. The Tatia issue had been bugging her, too. Sleeping meant not having to think about it. Her dreams were filled with the issues that had been plaguing her though. The worst had been one where they were all dressed up for a ball. The ladies lined the wall and waited for their escorts. First Kol came to collect a dark haired girl with a wicked grin. Finn and Sage were already on the dance floor looking over the moon with happiness. Klaus offered his arm to Caroline. She thought it was Klaus, but then it was Tyler. The two were vying for control, perhaps. Jeremy escorted a lovely dark haired girl who Charlotte assumed was the Bennett girl. The Salvatore brothers arrived and Elena took one on each arm. Elijah was dancing with Tatia, although it might be Katherine. He was casting glances at Elena who was dancing with both Salvatore brothers simultaneously. The girl dancing with Kol winked at both Salvatores like they shared an old secret. Damon was casting suggestive looks at Rebekah who stood against the wall with Charlotte. Charlotte tried as she might, but she could not catch anyone's eye. They continued to dance this way until Damon broke from Elena. Instead of dancing with Rebekah, he came up to Charlotte and asked her "can you keep it all straight? Do you really think any of them can love you? Why are you standing alone then?" Charlotte looked past his shoulder to see the ballroom filled with dancers and Rebekah among them. He turned from Charlotte and danced with Elena or Tatia or Katherine. Whoever it was, she was not Charlotte. Instead, she stood alone.

There were things you could read into the dream; Charlotte knew that. Some of those things might even be true. Didn't mean all of them were. Charlotte just wrote it off as her subconscious overworking. Vampires had a subconscious, right? They slept. They didn't have to as often, but still. It wasn't like they completely changed how their human bodies worked; they just evolved. Minor changes were made instead of a revolution of how the whole body worked. She definitely still had a subconscious. Charlotte was definitely overthinking this. She was getting too far into her own head for this.

She opened her eyes and looked at the landscape out the window. She knew she had said that she loved to see America and how it changed, but really she just wanted to be home now. She wanted to be alone. She wanted to sit by the lake and just be. She knew now if she were to sit by the lake, she would be plagued with thoughts and worries. This really was the tubes.

"I'm just asking, Damon. Remember when you used to be so sweet and fun? You would do anything I want. Now you are so grumpy and bitter. I don't like it one bit." Katherine reached forward to stroke Damon's ear.

"You do one thing to make him crash this car and I will use you as my footrest when we get to my home in Chicago," Charlotte threatened.

"Sleeping Beauty awakes. Or should I liken you to the dragon?" Katherine responded.

"We're on our way to Chicago where we will join a large group of people including Klaus, who I am pretty sure still has an issue with you. The only standing between him and your heart in his hand is me. You should probably liken me to your fairy godmother." She turned in her seat to look Katherine in the eyes when she said, "You should be so sweet to me that my mouth starts to ache. I could change my mind at any time."

"I'm trying to help you guys!" Katherine said with a shocked expression crossing her face. "You should be grateful to me. Why am I being treated like I am being held prisoner?"

"Because we don't really like you," Damon responded immediately.

"And while we appreciate that you guarded the body, we don't really need you. Sure, having a 500 year old vampire on our side would be helpful, but let me clear things up for you, we don't need you."

"Who are you?" Katherine asked.

"Charlotte Petrova-Mikaelson," Damon said.

"That is not my name," Charlotte snapped.

"Whatever. The point is she is Tatia Petrova's sister and Elijah Mikaelson's super angry estranged wife. She is the one who is going to save all our asses."

"We're not doing this, Katherine. I made a promise not to lie to Damon. Katherine and I know each other. She knows exactly how I am."

Katherine sighed. "You would go full disclosure. There's no position of power with that, Charlie."

"Well, Kathy, I don't need a position of power when it comes to that. There's no harm in Damon knowing that we know each other."

"People are going to ask questions, Charlie. Like why you would be friends with someone who looks exactly like your dearly despised sister."

Charlotte smiled. "Just because people have questions doesn't mean I have to answer them, sweetie. I will tell Damon though. Not right now."

"Why Damon? Almost anyone else would pick Stefan. Wait, they already have."

Damon reached back to attack Katherine and the car swerved. Charlotte reached to steady the car. "Damon," she said. "DAMON!"

"Little busy removing a slutty vampire problem."

"Maybe you should put that on the backburner and stop the car. We've got company."