Thank you to lets-not-go-there and smilin steph for favoriting the story and AshleyMarie2010 for following.

Aarolye and CalligraphersNib, thank you for the reviews and sorry for the wait. I realize that taking a month to post is not a nice way to say that, but your reviews always buoy me.

To everyone, sorry that it took so long, I started class at the very beginning of October and haven't sat still since. It is fourth year which means a BA and the like so I will try to update, but please be patient with me. I promise I will not abandon the story! I am getting ready to really kick things into gear with this. I am going to work out a schedule for updating that will hopefully be happy making for everyone.

Seriously, review please. It just takes a second and it makes me so happy and so ready to update. And I love input. I have a general idea for this fic but that doesn't mean I am going to ignore suggestions. In fact, I love them!

Thanks,

Lisolotte

The whole room began to vibrate. This time it was the kind of vibration that everyone could hear, not just Jeremy Gilbert. Tears began to build up in Charlotte's eyes. "Leave, Kat," she bit out.

A lot of pure confusion crossed Katherine's face. "I don't understand," she said weakly.

Charlotte's eyes never left Elijah who was staring emotionlessly back at her. "There are things happening. Very bad things. Other people's actions have put you in the middle. I am removing you. Leave, Katherine. This is not your fight." There was a certain hollowness to Charlotte's voice that was entirely foreign to Katherine. "GO KAT," she yelled. "I don't want to fight you, too, just go until you are no longer in the middle."

"Are you serious?" Katherine whispered. She looked truly broken for the first time in the recent memory of anyone in the room. "What did I do?" she asked hopelessly. Charlotte simply closed her eyes and did not answer. Katherine slowly got up from the bed and ran with tears running down her face.

Charlotte's cold gaze remained on Elijah. "Nothing?" she asked with a quirked brow. "I just threw out my oldest and best friend in the world because of you!" she howled. Rebekah made an indignant noise. Charlotte turned on her. "You certainly don't think I would consider you a friend after this, right?" she asked. Rebekah looked on the verge of tears. Charlotte almost felt bad, but then she remembered just how far this went. "Tell me it isn't true," she taunted in a soft and dangerous voice as her eyes moved from Rebekah to Klaus to Elijah and finally to Kol. Rebekah burst into a loud sob and Klaus had the dignity to appear ashamed. Kol stepped towards Charlotte and a look of purest disgust blossomed on her face.

"It's not like that, Sweets. I swear. We were just protecting our brother. And we couldn't fix it what could you possibly do? We didn't want to hurt you more than you already had been. It let your love of Elijah die and allowed you to move on."

"I never moved on," she said with the most menace you could fit in a quiet voice. "And every one of you made a fool of me. How dare you all stand here and act like I should not be ripping you to shreds until the screaming headache that is building in my poor confused head abates. How dare all of you. What could possibly have motivated you to even think for a moment that this was okay? What kind of fool do you think I am? Am I that meaningless to all of you?" Charlotte's words echoed hollowly in the room. Every single person looked ashamed now except for Elijah. He stared her straight on. She moved to start in on him again, but the doorbell rang. "Not a single one of you move. This conversation is not over."

Charlotte answered the door to see Stefan, Elena, Caroline, Matt, Jeremy and Meredith looking very upset. "Please come in to explain what is going on," she said emotionlessly. They entered one by one. Meredith Fell was the last person to come in and she grabbed Charlotte in a fierce hug. Immediately, a confusion settled over all the occupants of the room. Not a single person had known that Charlotte and the good doctor knew each other, let alone were good enough friends to be on hugging terms.

Charlotte quirked an eyebrow at the group who had just arrived. "What happened," she asked.

"Someone tried to kill me," Jeremy answered. He lifted his shirt to reveal a rather large bandage on his abdomen, that explained the need to have Meredith there.

Charlotte nodded. "Makes sense," she responded. She turned on Rebekah. "What happened in the '20s, Rebekah?"

Rebekah paled considerably. "I tried to tell you, Lottie, I did. Do you know how hard it is to be caught between your family and your best friend? I thought it was wrong to keep it from you the entire time, but they insisted. What was I supposed to do?"

Charlotte's face betrayed absolutely no emotion. On a girl who showed her every thought on her face, the effect was terrifying. She looked to Klaus and Kol. "I suppose you will both claim that you were following the company line, also?" she asked. They were not given the chance to respond before she turned on Elijah. "And you! What made you think I didn't deserve to know? This changes everything. I remember how I was when I first met you," her voice turned soft. "You were so sweet and kind and perfect. I was in love with you before I could blink. And even better yet, you liked me. Tatia wasn't even on your radar. Do you know how that felt?" her voice cracked here. "Tatia always overshadowed me. She was just too compelling for people to see me, even if I was standing right next to her. And here was this perfect guy that I was nuts over. He liked me. He liked ME. We had a beautiful and simple wedding. That day, I got a person to spend the rest of my life with and then I got a whole family.

"I was seven months pregnant when I found out that my whole perception was wrong. When I found out, it ripped me to shreds. Can you imagine how that felt? After all the love and hope I put into you, that you chose her over me? I died that day. And now I find out that it isn't what actually happened! Do you know how much hurt you could have saved me?" Tears began to run down her cheeks like rapids. She began to pound on Elijah's chest and he stood there and took every single hit. "Your family corrupted me. So I left, and you know what? A secret for a secret, Elijah. Our baby never died. I gave birth to a baby girl. And I let someone else raise our daughter because I wanted a better life for her. She was so beautiful and perfect, Elijah. And I let someone else—I let someone else call her their daughter to protect her."

A muscle in Elijah's jaw began to twitch. Charlotte smacked him across the cheek. "You don't get to be upset. I don't regret it. Not even a little bit. Because your monster of a mother would have done something horrible to my daughter. I did what I had to do and I would do it all again. My daughter lived a happy full life and never had to deal with any of this bullshit. Our bloodline lives on." Sobs began to rack Charlotte's small frame. Her anger had sustained her until this moment and the truth of what had been uncovered finally hit her.

Everyone in the room wanted to hug her but only one person did. In a move that was both surprising and unsurprising to everyone, Caroline Beula Forbes hugged her and held her while she cried. This went on with everyone feeling varying degrees of shame until Charlotte abruptly ran from the house after thanking Caroline in the smallest voice.

Elijah turned to Damon with a dark look on his face. "You felt it necessary to tell her?"

Damon shrugged. "I made a promise to always be truthful to her."

Kol stepped forward ready to break every bone in Damon's body. Elijah put his hand up. "I can respect that." He slowly sauntered up to Damon until he was close enough to kiss him. "Don't mistake that for anything other than respect for honor though. Charlotte is my wife and I have loved her for 1000 years. Quite literally. So don't think I am going to let some cocky baby vampire step in and take the most perfect woman ever created away from me." Elijah brushed an imaginary piece of lint off Damon's shoulder and walked out of Charlotte's house with each of his siblings following him not sparing anyone a look.

A few minutes later, Caroline's phone chimed. "Klaus says that his family will protect us as long as we stay in Charlotte's house while they figure out what to do about whoever attacked Jeremy."

"How does Klaus have your number?" Meredith asked.

Caroline blushed slightly and narrowed her eyes at Meredith. "Why did you hug Charlotte like you were old friends?"

"I'd rather not answer."

"Me either."

Damon's phone pinged in the silence that followed and he smiled. "Looks like I have something to do that will take me away from this otherwise fascinating conversation. No one die while I'm gone."

-AHC-

Damon got off the plane in Las Vegas carrying Charlotte's bags. They got into a cab silently and remained that way while they drove, checked into their hotel and rode the elevator. Once the bellhop was gone, Charlotte removed her sunglasses. She stood in front of the window looking out on the city. The sun was setting and Damon watched her while she watched the sun go down.

She turned to him once it was fully set and smiled shyly. "This is our lost weekend, Day. No one is ever going to find out what happens this weekend. We are going to let go. We are going to give into every single impulse that we have. And we are going to forget all that emotion shit and just live for this one weekend. Ready?"

Damon smiled devilishly. "I was born ready, princess."