A/N: Please review. Constructive criticism is welcomed. I want to hear from you guys, with what you do and don't like; if you want to see something happen or just to know you like the story.


Pulling into the square, Prudence slammed the driver side door and walked around to join her cousins. Mystic Falls was certainly a beautiful town with historic roots. Climbing up onto the sidewalk, the three walked side by side passing unfamiliar faces as they made their way to Mystic Grill. The door chimed as they made their way through the darkly lit room and saw Caroline waving at them from a booth.

Sitting, a tall blond came over with their menus and took their drink orders. "Thanks Matt," Caroline said and turned her attention to the Halliwells. "We can order first and then talk about what I have planned."

"Anything particularly good," Phyl asked with the menu spread out for her and Payton to look at.

"You can never go wrong with their burgers and steak fries," Caroline said and Matt came back with their drinks and took their orders. While they waited for their food the blonde tour guide filled them in on what they would be doing. "I thought I could show you around the square and go over the settling of Mystic Falls before heading out to some of the old plantations and your old family homestead."

"Sounds like a plan," Payton smiled. "It's such a cute little town. It's got that scenic attribute to it that you can't really get in the city."

"You guys are from San Francisco, right? How is it to live out in California? I've always wanted to go," the vampire inquired.

"It's great," Phyl jumped in. "We live in a historic area and pretty much all of the houses are old Victorian Manors. Actually, our house is kind of famous there because of the architecture. See, it was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1901 and we've had professors do papers on it. The Manor has been passed down through the generations and right now our Aunt Piper lives there with her husband and our cousins. After my parents got pregnant with us," she pointed between herself and her twin, "they bought the Manor next door and Denny's mom lives across the street."

"So you guys got to grow up close to one another," Caroline sighed wistfully. "I wish I had that kind of life. Unfortunately I suffer from 'Only Child Syndrome' which is characterized by chronic loneliness. It sounds like there are a lot of you too," she said and smiled at Matt as he brought out there food.

"Nine of us plus all the Aunts and Uncles," Denny finally tuned into the conversation before taking a bite out of her burger. They continued to talk as they ate, glad to have some food in them before starting the exploration.


Matt headed back to the bar where Jeremy was. The only two humans left in their group, they had bought the grill when the old owner retired a couple of years back making it possible for them to keep their prospective households, not they would ever want for anything. Their friendly gang of vampires had made sure that the two young men would be taken care of.

"Well," Jeremy washed glasses, "if they're witches they don't seem to bee too much trouble. Still, I hope Caroline isn't putting herself in a position to get hurt. I definitely don't want Klaus finding out that witches have returned to Mystic Falls."

"Don't make it sound like they're here to stay, man. Look at them, they're babies and from what Caroline said they're only here for the summer and then it will be back to California. Besides, Klaus hasn't been here in almost five years. Who's going to pick up the phone and tell him that someone is here breaking his rules?"

"I still can't believe he enforced those rules of Marcel's. You would think after he helped the witches in New Orleans that he would start acting like a decent human being."

"Well, you know Klaus. The only witches he wants near his homes are the ones he keeps on payroll," Matt rebutted. "Rebekah pretty much told me that after he helped NOLA he forced the witches into servitude. The guy will do anything to protect what he thinks is his."

"How is Rebekah," Jeremy grinned and watch his friend turn red. After spending the summer in Europe together the two had a new found respect for each other but they had never spoken of what happened on their adventures. Matt had dated on and off during the past decade, even getting engaged once before calling it off. He still spoke to Rebekah every couple of months and even exchanged letters; still, he never let that particular secret past his lips.

"Shut up," Matt threw a towel at Jeremy before heading for the office, leaving his partner laughing while he served their customers.


"Mystic Falls was founded in 1859 by the founding families; the Fells, Forbes, Gilberts, Lockwoods, and the Salvatores. Of course, others occupied the town long before it was settled including your ancestors," Caroline spoke as they walked. "Most of the buildings on Main street are original to the town like the Police Station and the Clock tower; because it is a historic town we allow new buildings to go up on new plots of land, but we don't like to tear down originals. Most of these buildings are official town landmarks because they are over a hundred years old, which prevents changing their structure too much.

Moving on, Caroline described a lot of the towns efforts to honor their history with events like the Ms. Mystic Falls pagaent, decade dances at the high school, the Founders day parade and party, and numerous fundraisers to raise money to preserve the woods and old plantations lying outside of the residential areas. "If you guys want, we can take my car out to see Charlotte Warren's old homestead."

"That would be great," the girls agreed and followed her to her car.


Caroline continued to talk while they were in the car, unaware of the cousins communicating with one another. Phyl pushed her way into Payton's and Denny's consciousness. "Are we all agreed that everything is on the up and up here?"

"Sure," Denny oozed sarcasm, "because evil is incapable of making clever maneuvers in their effort to destroy good."

"That's not what she meant and you know it," Payton responded. "I know you have an off feeling about her but never once did you describe it as dark or evil, so can we just give her the benefit of the doubt?"

"Sure, as she lures us to an undisclosed location with no way to leave," Prudence pointed out.

"As if we don't have any method of leaving a dangerous situation," Phyl snapped back.

"She doesn't know that," the teen pointed out.

"Well if she really does mean us harm then she's going to be the one in for a surprise," Payton reassured them.


Elena and Damon waited outside as they watched Caroline drive up with the strangers. They wanted to be close by in case Care needed their help, but had hesitated to go inside since the spirits still didn't seem to like Damon.

They watched as the group sauntered into the old house, hearing Caroline continue to go on with the tour guide farce. There was no way they were the descendants of Salem witches as well as one of the original settlers of Mystic Falls without some kind of knowledge of their ancestry. It made their being here even more suspicious.