Here's the new update. I hope you guys didn't feel too bad about waiting this long. I have been thinking about certain plotlines that I am considering and wanted to make sure that it was going to work out. I hope you guys don't hate me for that! I had it extra-long to say that I am sorry!

Thank you cenation123 for both following and favoriting! Also, thank you to gossamerclouds for favoriting! I love that kind of feedback. It lets me know that you guys are enjoying it!

CalligraphersNib- Now I feel like I cannot update until I get one of your reviews. It really matters to me getting your feedback. Thank you so much! I really feel like someone other than Bonnie needed to think about all the things that have happened to her which is why I had Lucy come in the way I did. For all Bonnie's problems, that poor girl is practically all on her own.

Fictionangel22- Thank you for reviewing! I had no idea I had kept you waiting. Honestly, even a short little review telling me that makes me want to take the extra hour to finish a chapter! I am glad you like it so much. I promise I have a whole lot of awesome in store for you. I hope you're ready!

Lisolotte

Waiting the whole two hours that Rachel, Bonnie and Lucy needed to prepare was unbearable. Kol broke Klaus's jaw. Klaus had dislocated Kol's shoulder twice and Elijah had come as close as he could to kill both of them without actually doing it. Eventually, Rebekah had to restrain him. Katherine and Rebekah had actually sat there quietly holding hands. They still didn't like each other, but they just needed some comfort right then and not one of the boys seemed willing to offer it. Damon was watching Elijah and Katherine's interactions closely. He still hadn't seen anything suspicious. Maybe Tatia had exaggerated the effect her "curse" had on Elijah. He was sitting as far away from the whole group as he could. He had no desire to get into a fight with any of them. The information that he had gotten from Charlotte and Tatia about the craziness that was the Original Family made him want to watch everything as closely as he could. Nothing overly exciting had happened yet. It didn't mean that he was going to stop watching.

"You're being awfully quiet, Salvatore. Busy trying to steal my brother's wife?" Kol taunted.

Damon gave Kol a steely glare and said nothing. He was going to stay as far away from the drama as he could. They could fight amongst themselves if they wanted to, but Damon was not going to get involved for a second. Kol could make all the comments that he wanted, but Damon was not going to give him a reaction. When shit hit the fan, Damon did not want a single thing for Charlotte to call him out for.

Kol stepped closer to Damon once he realized he was not going to get a response out of him.

"Enough, Kol," Elijah said stepping between the two.

"No, 'Lijah, I don't like it. I am supposed to just watch Damon salivate over Charlie? Are all of us just supposed to sit here and pretend like he isn't chasing after her? Great, it is thanks to him that he are able to help her, but how do we know he didn't do it? What if this was his way of getting her all to himself and it backfired?" Kol ranted to no one in particular. Everyone avoided making eye contact with him. This was certainly not the place or time to discuss this. "Charlotte is too good for your worthless ass." He yelled at Damon.

Damon slowly stood up, but made no move to attack. The group slowly watched him. Damon was a fool, but no one thought he was a big enough fool to take on this whole group by himself. "I'm not lying, Elijah Jr., and I am not trying to get Charlotte all to myself. If that is what I wanted, I certainly wouldn't bring the Munsters in. In fact, I would keep both of us as far away from all of you as possible."

"And we are supposed to believe you just because you say so?" Kol asked combatively.

"No, you're supposed to believe me because I'm telling the truth," Damon responded levelly.

"Enough!" Rebekah yelled standing up glaring at everyone. "I don't care about your macho garbage! That is Charlotte in there. She is more important than any of that garbage! Shut up for a second. We are waiting for the witches to ready the spell for us to give everything to save her." Tears began to run down Rebekah's face in earnest. Katherine stood up and wrapped her arms around Rebekah. The blonde was not the biggest fan of Katherine, but she was scared. It felt good for someone to care. Katherine needed someone, too, whether she would admit it or not. That is what the whole group needed: to work together. Fighting with each other would not help them when it came down to the moment that they went in to get Charlotte. Katherine was probably the only one with the foresight to see that. Being so calculating could still be useful even if she was on the "straight and narrow" it seemed.

"I think the waiting is putting a strain on all of us," Katherine said quietly while still hugging Rebekah. She gently rubbed circles on the blonde's back trying valiantly to calm the girl down.

"Do you think, Katerina?" Elijah blasted. "What if we are too late?!"

"Getting upset isn't going to help," Katherine said in the same sad and quite voice. "We need to wait and be ready to help the witches whenever they say it's time. Until then, let's not kill each other. We don't want to waste an ounce of our energy. I want us to be as strong as we can be when we go in for my girl," Katherine said fiercely.

For the second time in less than 24 hours, the intensity of emotion that Katherine showed on behalf of Charlotte silenced and confused the room. No one really knew what to say to her or how much to believe her. Instead, they all decided to follow her lead and shut up.

Meanwhile

Charlotte sat in some demented Alice in Wonderland setting. Thank goodness that she had not been dressed in Alice's garments. She was still in her pajamas, mercifully. At least she was comfortable. She had walked around and around, but kept ending up at some demented and warped version of the Mad Hatter's tea party. There was a thick forest around the clearing that the table sat in. There was nothing outside the forest, though. Not even an animal to be seen. At least it could have been fun to hunt an animal or pet it if it was friendly. Finally, she had felt hopeless enough to sit down. Nothing had happened though. She was expecting some sort of…well anything. No Hatter or March Hare had showed up. Not even a little mouse dozing in one of the tea cups.

Instead, she sat and stared at her tea. Charlotte felt like she had enough tea in her lifetime to last her forever. It was not that she disliked the stuff. It had just been so popular and present at social gatherings for so long that the stuff made her want to nap. For a while, she went through a list of guests she could have "over" for tea. She went through the list mentally. At first she imagined having her parents or Rebekah or Katherine or Damon, but that thought pattern made her terribly upset. Then she went to famous people she hadn't met. Karl Marx was obviously a terrible choice. Even Joseph Stalin would be preferable to this silence that Charlotte was currently experiencing.

Charlotte eventually laid her head down on the table when that became too boring for her. She tucked her arms under her head and tried to sleep. After Charlotte had discovered that she could not sleep inside this dream, Esther showed up. She took the seat across from Charlotte. She looked at the array of cups in front of her and eventually settled on the one that she thought was the cleanest.

"I trust you aren't too uncomfortable?" Esther asked Charlotte after taking her first sip of tea.

Charlotte sat straight up and looked her mother-in-law in the eye. "I am bored out of my mind. Actually, I'm not because I am stuck here. I am so uncomfortable I could scream."

"Sorry to neglect you for so long. I had some matters to attend to. I am all yours until the ceremony begins."

"What a wonderful boon for me. Who do I write the thank you note out to? Do you guys have postal addresses in the spirit world? Wait, we both know I know the answer to that. I am sure you know all about what I am capable of."

"No need to be so snappish, Charlotte. You were never this talkative or rude when I knew you. It is very off putting. You certainly are unique when it comes to powers, but yes I do know what you are capable of. I targeted you for a reason. And I wanted to spend some time with you. I knew once you got to the spirit world, you wouldn't want to see me. Even if you did, you would probably ascend to a higher level than me." The look that Esther gave Charlotte was one that a mother might give a child, disapproving, but filled with love.

"Give it a rest, Esther. Reminding me how afraid I was of you won't help. I have come a long way from that girl. I had to. And don't talk to me about the Other Side. I know all about it. Lest you forget, I was having play dates with ghosts before I could speak. I first visited the Other Side when I was 10. Please go bother someone else. I liked it much better when I was imagining that I was having tea with the Queen. At least she didn't bug me about things I didn't care about. We talked all about Harry's photo scandal. She thought it was ridiculous that I would still consider marrying him."

Esther looked at Charlotte disapprovingly. "Is this how you really want to spend your last hours on Earth? You really can prattle on, but isn't there anything you have left to say?"

"I would prefer to spend my last hours on Earth AWAKE. And there is certainly nothing I have to say to you."

"I'm sorry you feel that way. I really wish I could give you what you want, Charlotte. I have always loved you like a daughter. You are just too powerful to be left unchecked. Instead, I will sit with you until you are no longer able to stop me."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

Esther laughed a hollow brittle laugh. "I have already said too much, my dear. I am not going to spill my guts to you in the off chance that you are able to share them with the people desperately trying to 'save' you. Let's talk about your father instead."

"I would rather chew my own lips off of my face," Charlotte bit out.

"What is it he called you again?"

Tears welled up in Charlotte's eyes. She shook her head viciously. "I won't do this, Esther. I am not going to share all my precious recollections with you. My father was a good man."

"His little hummingbird, right? Because you were so small but you could get so excited because you would move as fast as a hummingbird's wings."

Charlotte clenched her teeth. "My father was an amazing parent. He loved me so much and would never dream of doing things like you have done to your children. Consider what you did to Klaus. You are the one who had an affair. YOU," she shouted that word. "But you cursed your own son for your mistake and shunned him. How dare you. HOW DARE YOU." Charlotte shouted and the air around her practically vibrated.

Esther looked scared for the first time. Charlotte leaned in towards Esther. "You better hope that this is the end of me. Because if it's not," she leaned in and moved a hair behind Esther's ear. "If it's not, I promise you that I will hunt you down, in this world and the next. I will hunt you down until I am absolutely sure that you have not only paid for what you have done to me and my family, I will also make sure that you cannot do another thing to another person in the world. Are we clear?" She asked Esther with a disarming smile on her face.

Charlotte looked down to her right palm which had a cut blossoming across it. As the blood began to flow out of her hand, her smile turned sinister. "I hope you know what you are doing, Mommie Dearest, because I have a feeling that the show is starting and I am betting on my team."