So this chapter took forever for me to get out and I'm really sorry about that. I've been halfway done with the episode since November but I couldn't get myself to write the other half. To be honest, this episode is a little boring to me. So is 6x04 but 6x05 on should be more interesting. And probably longer...you know, as if this 12,000 chapter wasn't long enough. Sorry about that. Anyways, enjoy!

Disclaimer: Chapter 1 please :)

Welcome to Paradise

"So, of course, Mads already took off for the hospital," Elena breathed irritably as she walked into the dorm room with three cups of coffee in her hand. "But we volunteer until, like, two, and then I figure we can carpool to the party at the swimming hole. That is if my sister decides to indulge me for a little while with some fun…"

Though Elena was spewing the information expecting both Audrey and Caroline to hear what she was saying, she finally trailed off and realized that only one Forbes was actually in the dorm room.

"Whoa. Where did Audrey go?" Elena asked, looking around to see if the red-haired freshman was anywhere around.

Caroline sighed and gently put down a picture of her, Elena, Bonnie, and Mads at their graduation. "She went to class."

Elena raised an eyebrow, thinking that she was positive Audrey didn't have a class in the morning—or even at all. But instead of dwelling on that, she looked down at Caroline's packed-up suitcase with even more concern.

"Um, normally when you move back in, you unpack."

"I'm not staying," Caroline rushed out. "I only came to stay with Audrey last night but she seems to be doing better today."

Elena scoffed. "Are you kidding me? You think that she's actually doing okay with this whole thing? Stefan practically kicked her out the door. She needs her friends right now—her sister, mostly."

"Because you know so much about being sisterly, right?" Caroline snapped, partially unaware of the words that flew out of her mouth before they escaped. Realizing that what she said was slightly offensive, the vampire looked up to find her friend tense and defensive with a look of guilt upon her face. Calmly, Caroline sighed. "I'm sorry. That was harsh."

"No…I kind of deserve it." Elena sat down on the bed frustratedly. "You know, I can't seem to get Mads to have any fun at all. It's like—"

"It's like she's the old Madeline?" Caroline filled in as she zipped up her suitcase. Silently, Elena turned her head to look at her friend. "The one who hated confrontation and the idea of ever loving another human being?"

Sheepishly, Elena nodded. "Exactly."

"Well, Damon taught her how to get over all that." Caroline swung her suitcase down so it landed with a hard bang against the wooden floor. "And now she doesn't care about him or anyone else for that matter. Metaphorically, she rebooted."

"I didn't know this was going to happen, Caroline," she tried to defend herself. Caroline paused for a moment to hear Elena out. "She didn't, either. All I wanted for her was to be happy again."

"Yeah, and she is." Caroline swung her bag over her shoulder. "Or, at least, she thinks she is. The way she's acting right now is exactly what she called 'happy' before she ever fell in love with Damon. But you saw her last night. She couldn't sympathize at all with Audrey or what she's going through."

Elena jumped up from her seat on the bed and smiled. "All the more reason to stay!"

Caroline scoffed, but in the midst of it was a small laugh. But she knew that she couldn't stay at Whitmore—that she had to figure out a way to get Mystic Falls back from the anti-magic spell. With another whole-hearted sigh, she looked at Elena with apologetic eyes.

"No, I…I gotta go. I've got breakfast with Enzo so—"

"Enzo?"

"Mmhmm."

"You guys go on one road trip and all of a sudden, you're breakfast buddies?"

"Yeah…I guess so." Caroline shrugged. "Ironically, he's recently become one of the more stable people in my life."

Though she looked at Caroline with disdain, Elena accepted it. "Okay…then invite him to the party."

Caroline groaned, "Elena!"

"Come on!" Elena urged, not taking no for an answer per her usual. "I'm dragging Madeline whether she likes it or not, I got Matt to take the afternoon off from his training, and Tyler to give the practice squad a break. Even Jeremyis coming. It's been forever since we've all been together, it'll be fun!" Seeing Caroline's reluctance, Elena pointed a finger at her. "Don't make me invoke the nuclear option. Because I will selfie-bomb you. Every five minutes"

Unable to resist chuckling, Caroline finally caved, "Okay! Fine! I'll go to the party."

"Yay!"

Caroline grabbed a cup of coffee from the tray Elena had in her hand. "But I'm not moving back in."

Without waiting for Elena's response, Caroline began to walk out of the dorm room while hearing Elena shout, "That is a conversation to be had over Jell-O shots!"

When Caroline was finally outside and away from Elena's prying ears, she pulled out her phone and called the first person she could think of: Matt.

"What did Alaric do to Mads?" she asked eventually, itching to get the question off of her chest. She'd spend the entire night with Madeline and could barely recognize her friend—it was like she wasn't Madeline anymore. All Elena even cared about was getting her sister to have some fun, but she had become so focused on making everyone happy that it was becoming a hindrance.

It seemed like Matt didn't have much experience with the new Madeline, for all he said was: "All I know is she doesn't remember ever having a relationship with Damon and we're supposed to keep it that way. Oh, and, since she never had a relationship with Damon, she assumes that she lost her virginity to me."

Caroline scoffed. "What? Madeline would never, ever…" Abruptly realizing that she was about to say something rude, she stopped and cleared her throat. "I mean—"

"I know what you meant, Caroline. I get it."

"I just spent the whole night with her and…it's weird. I would say she doesn't seem like her old self, but that's the problem!She is her old self—the Madeline before Damon who didn't know how to comfort anyone or be emotionally involved at all."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Matt proposed.

"How in the world is that supposed to be a good thing? She practically flipped the humanity switch except…she still hasher humanity and isn't killing people…but still!"

"But she's happy being that way, right? Isn't that the point?"

"I guess…" Caroline trailed off, still not sold on the idea. "But what if she's really not happy being this way, it's just that she can't tell the difference anymore so—"

"Caroline?" Matt cut her off while Caroline kept continuing. "Caroline! Caroline, I've got to go."

But just before he hit the end button, Caroline could've swornshe heard a girl's voice with Matt. What's more is that she was positive it was the voice of her sister.

Maybe she was hearing things.

"Dr. Robles?"

"Come on in, Madeline," Dr. Robles accepted me as I pushed open the door of the private patient room slightly. She was standing right beside the middle-aged Caucasian male who looked severely sick. However, without hesitation, I walked up right by her side and she passed me the chart. "Mr. Warren here has got a number of symptoms. I'd like you to assess them for me."

Jo Robles was a smart woman—an extremely intelligent one, in fact. There was no doubt that she was asking me to diagnose a patient just to see how intelligent I was, so I instantly made it worth her while.

"Dizziness, decreased urine output with discoloration, headache, low blood pressure…" I listed, and then closed the chart after thinking to myself for a brief moment. I handed the file back to Dr. Robles. "Severe dehydration."

She beamed at me. "You never disappoint, Madeline." I nodded back at her and watched as she brushed past me towards the door. "Treat him for me, will you?"

"Of course," I agreed just as Dr. Robles closed the door and left me with the patient. I sighed. "Mr. Warren, let this be an indication that you definitely need to increase your daily consumption of water."

"You bet," he promised as I began to prepare the IV for the patient. "I just don't enjoy the taste much. I've been that way since I was a kid."

"Well, dehydration is a serious problem and can lead to a number of health issues. Will you sit straight and relax for me?" I asked kindly, not that he had much of a choice in the matter. The middle-aged Mr. Warren sighed and sat up straight, avoiding all sight of the needle being injected into his arm. In no time, the fluids were being transported into Mr. Warren's system.

Though the signs of improvement weren't instant, I could see definite progress. Mr. Warren breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Doctor…" he trailed off, unaware of what to call me. I shook my head.

"Actually, I'm—"

"Treating my patient." I turned to see that at the door, it wasn't Dr. Robles who stood with Mr. Warren's chart in his hand; it was one of the other doctors around. I didn't flinch, but I moved away from Mr. Warren seeing that my treatment was finished. The male doctor scoffed. "Let me guess, another one of Jo's eager students?"

"One of Jo's astute students, yes," I shot back. The doctor seemed slightly surprised by my retort. "Is there a problem?"

He seemed dazed, as if there was something on me or about me that intrigued him. However, I couldn't tell the difference either way.

"No. No, I…I guess not." I gave a small, sour smile and opened the door to move past him. As I did so, I looked back at Mr. Warren.

"Mr. Warren, you'll need to stay on fluids for some time. I'm sure your doctor can handle the rest."

I moved out of the room without a second thought, but the intrusive doctor followed me out and shut the door. I heard it, of course, with my extra-sensitive hearing, but I tried to be as normal as I could and ignored it. Obviously, though, he called me back to him.

"Wait." Reluctantly, I turned around and met him with a pleased-to-meet-you civil smile. The dark-haired, grey-eyed doctor held out a hand to me. "I'm sorry for being so rude. I've had some bad experiences with Jo's interns before."

"Apology accepted," I promised, and moved to leave again. Instead, he held out his hand professionally and smiled.

"I'm Dr. Buckner."

I stared down at his hand, but then realized what a bad idea it would be to take it. I wasn't completely oblivious—I was a twenty-year-old college student who was very structurally attractive. It wasn't hard to deduce what a young, good-looking doctor was doing talking to me.

"And I've got to get back to Dr. Robles before I get reprimanded." My not-so-subtle way of telling someone I wasn't interested. At all. "Nice to meet you, Dr. Buckner."

I didn't wait for a response, nor did I care to hear one. I pushed through two of the swinging doors inside the hospital just to come face-to-face with my sister, who was grinning from ear to ear.

I frowned at her. "What has you all chipper?"

"Who was that?" she asked, pointing through the window to the stunned doctor I had effortlessly rejected. I shrugged and moved past Elena to start officially with our volunteer shift.

"Dr. Buckner."

"Ooh, he's a doctor."

"Yeah, and I want to be one too. That's why I'm here." Elena stopped me excitedly and I sighed at her. "What's your point?"

"Well…we have that party at the swimming hole today. I've already invited Matt, Tyler, and Jeremy. I had to call Audrey a million times because she left the dorm before I could ask her, but she agreed to come, too. Even Caroline said she would…and surprisingly, she's bringing Enzo," she tried to entice me, but I was far from the girl who shone at parties. Especially when it was a pool party. "You should invite Dr. Buckner."

"Stop trying to make his name sound sexy, Elena. It's a name." I moved past her again towards the wall dispenser hand sanitizer and sterilized my hands. "And no, I'm not inviting some egotistical doctor to a party at a swimming hole. I'm not even going myself."

"No, no." Elena pulled me back as I tried to walk away from her, and I decided not to fight anymore. "You're going. I don't care if I have to drag you kicking and screaming into my truck. You need some fun, Mads."

I glanced around. "I am having fun. This is my fun." She scowled. "The definition of 'fun' is relative! Two people could have the same idea about what 'fun' is, but you and I, we don't have the same definition of it. I like working, you like partying…so you go and party while I stay and work."

"Mads—"

"I'm not having this discussion anymore, Elena," I said simply and walked off in another direction, no doubt leaving my sister as frustrated as she could possibly be.

"I got it," Damon growled as he and Bonnie fought over who had control over the grocery cart. The two were walking down the household supplies aisle at the local store that was completely barren, as it had been for the last four months.

Bonnie and Damon were at each other's throats constantly; bickering over everything they could possibly argue over. Finally tired of arguing, Bonnie sighed and gave in. "Okay. We need strawberries, eggs, milk, and—ooh—candles." She dropped a white candle into the cart with a smile on her face, but Damon had a grimace on his.

"I know it's been a while," he said, continuing to move the cart, "but you couldn't do magic as an anchor. So I'm curious what momentary lapse of reason makes you think you can do it now."

"You know," the witch began, "when all this started, you sucked at making pancakes and now they're somewhat edible. Milk," she commanded. Damon grabbed the milk from the mass fridge while Bonnie reached out and grabbed a pair of blue Aviators from a display stand by the fridge. "There's no reason to be Peter Pessimist. We have proof. We're not alone."

"First of all"—Damon threw the milk into the cart—"don't nickname. That's my thing." He snatched another pair of blue Aviators from Bonnie's hand. "And this proof, this mysteriously filled-in crossword, could very easily have been you."

"I didn't fill it in," Bonnie said slowly.

"No. You don't know you filled it in. You also don't know that you talk in your sleep. Eggs." Bonnie reached into the fridge and grabbed the eggs to place them in the cart.

"So what are you saying? Are you saying I sleep crossword?"

"I'm saying it makes more sense than the alternative." Snatching the eggs from her, he placed them in the cart with the other groceries.

"I know what you're doing," Bonnie accused him.

"What am I doing?"

"You refuse to have hope that you'll see Mads again so you don't have to be disappointed."

"I refuse to have hope because there's nothing to hope for."

Before Bonnie could prove her point, she spotted something out of her eye and blurted out, "Pork rinds."

Damon reached forward and looked at the small green slip of paper with Bonnie's scrawled handwriting on it. "Not on the list and ew."

"No, Damon. There were pork rinds here on the shelf. There have been pork rinds here on every shopping trip we've had for the past four months." Damon stayed silent, slowly processing the information, but as the silenced washed over them, the 90's music in the store had been drowned out by the obnoxious sound of a carousel coming from somewhere. Bonnie gasped. "You hear that?"

She rushed out of the market immediately, and Damon followed pursuit, curious himself as to why there was carousel music coming from outside the store. A pleased Bonnie turned to find that the quarter-powered carousel was spinning around and around.

"You hear that, Damon?" she repeated proudly, strongly believing that there was someone else with them. "That's what hope sounds like."

As for Damon, he didn't know what to believe.

"You did excellent today, Madeline," Dr. Robles praised me as I kept up with her around the hospital. "But I need you to go home and get some rest."

I shook my head. "Trust me, Dr. Robles, I don't need rest. I really enjoy it here." Truth be told, it made me happy. There were few things that ever made me feel happy.

"I'm sure you do." Dr. Robles stopped in front of a patient's room and grabbed the chart outside the door. "But I need rest and I've already sent all the other volunteers home, including your sister. Too much of a good thing is never good, Madeline."

"But Dr. Robles—"

"I'll see you for your next shift." Wow. That's what it felt like to be brushed off. She walked into the patient's room and closed it without inviting me in, giving me somewhat of a taste of my own medicine. I sighed heavily, displeased with the fact that I was being shafted out of my enjoyment, but then I felt something peculiar behind me. A familiar presence.

And when I turned, a little bit of my happiness flooded back. Maybe I shouldn't have been so happy—considering what I spent hours the previous night talking about with Audrey—but I was.

I grinned. "Well I'll be damned."

Stefan beamed at me, his white teeth glistening in the florescent lighting of the hospital. "Is that how you greet everyone now?"

I laughed and went up to Stefan, hugging him for a brief moment as I felt a wave of relief crash over me for my friend that I had truly missed. He hugged me back, but he almost seemed surprised.

I pulled away from him. "Do you know how long it's been?"

"Four months."

"121 days," I agreed. "2,921 hours. 175,316 minutes—"

Stefan interrupted me promptly, "Wow! Didn't realize you missed me so much."

"I didn't," I teased. "I just happen to be excellent at math."

Because we hadn't seen each other in such a long time, Stefan and I walked out of the hospital side-by-side, trying to catch up with each other. The afternoon sun settled upon us and the blue skies were without a cloud.

When the time came—and I knew it would—Stefan somewhat awkwardly asked, "Working at a hospital…around blood all the time. It's got to be hard."

"Sure. At least, it was at the beginning. But Elena's been teaching me control and…well, it's no secret that I didn't want to be a vampire in the first place." I sighed. "No one does, I guess. Maybe with time, I'll get used to it, but when I realized that the cravings might keep me from doing what I've wanted to do for my entire life…"

I trailed off, trying to find the right phrase to let pass through my lips, but I was at a loss for words. Stefan surveyed me as I walked, but I finally came up with the expression.

"…I was devastated, for lack of a better term. That despair's what pushed me to work harder at controlling myself." I gave Stefan a smile, but he only returned it with a look of concern and pursed lips. "But the hospital's great. The volunteers are supposed to only observe, but Dr. Robles lets me help a lot with the patients. I even treated a man for dehydration today."

While I chuckled softly, Stefan came to a stop and caused me to come to one as well. He revealed a small, growing smile, but still held the concerned look on his face.

"You're different," he noted quietly. I scoffed.

"Becoming a vampire changes people," I agreed. "It changed you, it changed Caroline, it changed Elena, and it changed me."

"Are you happy?" asked Stefan. I peered up at him with narrowed eyes.

"Well, what is 'being happy', really? Just a bunch of hormones that lead you to believe you're interested in something," I retorted, a small smile at the edge of my lips. Stefan laughed, but I could tell that it was forced. "What about you? I heard about the…uh—"

"About the dinner party from hell?"

"Caroline's words—verbatim. I swear," I snickered. I assumed Stefan was somewhat angry over it, yet I could hardly tell. "She said something about a new job. And…well, I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but Audrey mentioned something about a new girlfriend."

Stefan cleared his throat. "I'm sure she did."

"Look, I'm not meddling or anything." I held up my hands in defense. Stefan watched me carefully as I dropped them and slowly commented, "But…from a logical standpoint, you do realize that this is what people commonly refer to as a rebound, right?" Instantly, I watched as Stefan began to shift uncomfortably. "Hey, I understand. I mean, when I lost my brother it was terrifying. Granted, I can't really relate because I've never been in a relationship with anyone except Matt and we weren't even dating when Jeremy died but…well you lost your brother. And that was your way of coping."

Stefan looked at me with a look that I was not able to deduce from the time he wore it on his face to when he wiped the slate clean and moved on.

"Things don't always have to be so black and white, Madeline."

"Of course. There's a grey area sometimes," I agreed without hesitation. What Stefan failed to understand was that, in his case, things were black and white. He lost his brother; he acted out by cutting all ties with his friends and his girlfriend and invented an entirely new life without them. In some cases, a grey area most certainly existed—just not in this one.

He shook his head. "Anyways, speaking of Caroline, have you heard from her? She's not returning any of my calls and I really want to apologize for the way I acted."

I looked around the campus, thinking. "Well, I would say that she's at the dorms, but then again, Audrey was supposed to be there and apparently Elena had to call her like a million times so that she could invite her to the party at the swimming hole…"

"Party at the swimming hole?" Stefan repeated as I thought. Hearing his question, I nodded.

"Yeah. Elena tried and inevitably failed to get me to go…but I think she said that Caroline's going to be there. And she's apparently bringing Enzoso—"

"Wait, Enzo's going to be there?" asked Stefan. I shrugged.

"I guess." I studied him as he stood deep in thought, almost as if contemplating something major. I frowned. "Why?"

I watched as a smile overcame Stefan's face, but I wasn't really getting the meaning out of it until he said, "Mads, I think you and I need to have some fun today."

And it wasn't until a few seconds later when I finally realized what he meant and sighed.

"Do you understand the rules?" Caroline urged as she and Enzo sat at a table in the middle of the diner just outside of town eating breakfast like she told Elena they were. The British vampire sighed.

"Yeah. Rule one: don't mention Madeline was madly in love with Damon, engaged to Damon, lost her virtue to Damon, or fated with Damon or you'll kill me."

"Mmhmm," Caroline prompted.

"Rule two: don't really reference Damon at all or you'll kill me."

"Yep."

"Rule three: wear sunscreen and—"

"Don't make fun of me!" Caroline interrupted, immediately objecting to Enzo's nonchalant attitude. "It's important that we let Mads live her new-slash-old…zombie life the way she wants."

"A sentence that sounded oddly supportive and judgmental."

"I support her," said the blonde firmly. "She did what she needed to do to stop chomping on innocent people and feeling miserable for herself. I'm just worried."

"So am I." Enzo leaned back in his chair. "Worried about how Damon's going to react if we manage to resurrect him and he finds out his fiancée doesn't remember falling in love with him. Again."

Caroline blinked, impressed with Enzo's surprisingly caring words. "Who knew you were such an advocate for their relationship?"

"Believe me, I'm not," Enzo said immediately trying to cover up for his momentary weakness that Caroline exploited. "And if I wasn't aware of how strong the bond between Damon and Madeline was, I definitely would not be here with you right now." The other vampire rolled her eyes. "But Madeline told me something once that made me realize, however annoying it could possibly be, even trivial things such as memories can't stand in the way of them."

Caroline tilted her head, confused. "What'd she tell you?"

Enzo sighed, trying to make his next words sound less mushy than they were. His irritability covered most of it up, but the true meaning was still there no matter how much sarcasm he brought into the comment. "She said that the memories weren't want brought her back to Damon, he's what brought her back to him. Sounds like something out of a Jane Austen novel if you ask me but she got the point across."

There was a silence that washed over Caroline and Enzo for a while until she finally spoke and avoided Enzo's eyes, not on purpose but because she was thinking about the friend that she'd essentially lost. Things were going to change now and Caroline knew that. At the time where she practically needed Madeline the most, not just for herself but also for her sister.

"I guess you're right. They've been through this before…they've been through a lot, actually. Bottom line is, all I want—all anyone wants—is for her to be happy." She paused, but then added, "That doesn't mean that I'm enjoying marinating all alone in my misery."

"Well," Enzo started, "I'll marinate with you."

"I appreciate it. Really, I do."

She smiled at him, but Enzo could clearly see the doubt in her eyes. He grumbled, "But I'm not Stefan."

Instantly, Caroline's smile dropped. "Rule number four: don't ever mention that jerk's name again or—"

"Or you'll kill me. Got it." A brief pause enveloped them before a smile prickled at Enzo's lips. "That's probably going to apply to your sister as well, isn't it?"

"Yep."

"Where do you think she is?" Enzo asked, leaning back with a curious look on his face. Caroline surveyed him and watched as he deduced the situation.

"She said she had a class." Caroline shrugged. Enzo tsked at her. "What?"

"I doubt it. Would you like to know what I think?"

"Not really…" Caroline mumbled, but Enzo just barreled on despite her rejection of his opinion.

"I think she's doing everything in her power to forget about…" Caroline eyed him carefully, so Enzo skirted around the word, "…a certain Salvatore. Dangerous things. Reckless things. I'd love to know just exactly what she's up to and if there's anything I can do to help."

The vampire groaned. "Please tell me you don't have a thing for my sister." He grinned, causing Caroline's eyes to widen. "Enzo!"

"Relax, gorgeous," Enzo chastised as he stood up from the table. "I have a feeling I'm not exactly her type."

Caroline was about to protest as to what that meant, but she spotted something on Enzo's shirt that immediately caught her undivided attention. "Whoa! Is that blood or pie? Please say pie."

"Oh…" Enzo took his fingers and sampled the taste of the substance on his shirt, unaware himself of the red liquid's origins. "That would be, uh…Shirley, a special off-menu item. This little diner is surprisingly well stocked."

As he moved to the door, Caroline jumped up and blocked his way. "Tell me that you snatched, ate, erased."

"Yeah, funny thing about that. You do the first two properly, the third isn't necessary."

"You killed her?"

"Oh, don't act all shocked."

"Well, I'm sorry, but death shocks me! And it also leads to a missing person's report which leads to—"

"A sheriff's investigation? I'm terrified. I already have three warnings. One more is a fine," he quipped emotionlessly and, without further protest from Caroline this time, walked straight out of the diner.

Damon forced open the switch box to the horse carousel, refusing to get his hopes up for no reason and desperate to find another explanation for it. He had to admit, there was a tiny glimmer inside of him that yearned for the hope to get back to the present, but he covered that shred of light with very ounce of darkness within.

"It's got to be a short," he muttered. "Faulty wiring…something."

"Or…" Bonnie suggested happily, "…someone put a quarter in it and turned it on."

"You know, I'm a little confused with all this misplaced hope." Damon looked up at her and stopped fidgeting with the switch box to find out what got the carousel to move. "All right, let's just say there's someone here. How do you know we're gonna get out?"

"Well…you say that this is your hell, right? If there's someone else here, that means it's not your hell; and if it's not your hell, that means Grams put us here; and if Grams put us here, there's a way out."

"That's a hell of a logic knot you've tied for yourself." Damon shut the switch box promptly, trying to ignore the line of logic Bonnie presented.

"Thank you." It was hardly a compliment. "So, now that we've properly placed our hope, let's play a game. When we get out, what's the first thing you're gonna tell Mads?" Damon thought about it for a moment, but then Bonnie retracted her statement with a shake of her head. "No. No, scratch that. You proposed to her, right? So, knowing you, you're probably not gonna waste any time with words—"

"Sorry I killed Bonnie," Damon answered, ignoring her amendment. Bonnie's face fell. "But she was the most annoying person in the world." He ducked out of the carousel and began walking away from the market, knowing that Bonnie was following him. "She wouldn't shut up. She's just kept talking…I mean, it's a wonder I made it as long as I did—but here's the thing, I think it's better this way because she didn't have magic and she was pretty much useless—"

"Damon," Bonnie interrupted, noticing something strange—quite impossible, actually—in the parking lot.

An irritated Damon spun around on his heel and groaned, "What?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, you…still think I'm useless?" The Bennett made a sweeping gesture towards a parked car, and when Damon's eyes wandered towards where she was showing him, his jaw practically fell to the floor.

"That's my car," he whispered in awe. Slowly, he made his way over to his car in a crablike motion, growling with excitement, "That's my car!"

Like a seven-year-old boy, Damon was relishing in the sight of the car he missed so dearly by pretending to make racecar sounds as the car idled in the parking spot. Bonnie, meanwhile, was growing increasingly annoyed with Damon's childishness.

"How much longer are we going to listen—?"

Damon cut her off, "Shh, shh, shh, shh. This sound is the opposite sound of your voice and I so enjoy it." He beamed.

"How did it even get here, Damon? Did you leave it here in 1994?" Bonnie proposed pointedly, throwing a stare at him.

He sighed and admitted tiredly, "I don't know, Bonnie. It was eighteen years ago. Had a lot going on that day."

"Okay, so you admit that it's pretty unlikely that you did," she suggested, searching to expand that glimmer of hope she knew Damon had within him.

"Very unlikely," he agreed.

"Which would stand to reason that…"

Tired of Bonnie's probing, Damon finally shouted, "Someone may have put it here, Bonnie. Yes, I admit that."

He ran his hands over the steering wheel and breathed in a deep breath, admiring his beautiful car for all the memories he shared with it. The one he clung to most, however, was the last one he had—the one right before he and Madeline went up in flames, quite literally.

"I'm gonna tell Madeline how much I love her," Damon mumbled under his breath, but Bonnie heard it loud and clear. She smiled, happy with herself for finally getting through to Damon and giving him something to hope for. Then, Damon turned to Bonnie with a signature smirk. "Then, I'm going to marry the crap out of her. Afterwards, I'll apologize for killing you."

She shook her head. "Can't kill me before the wedding. You've gotta promise I'll see it first."

"I don't know if anyone's going to see it, Bonnie, because in case you haven't gotten the memo, I died," Damon retorted. Bonnie shot a smile at him that was ironically innocent and finally made Damon sigh and promised, "All right; fine. You can stay for the wedding. Then, I'll kill you."

Bonnie began to laugh, but it was interrupted when she heard something move from behind a pick-up truck in one of the front spots. She looked up at the movement, causing Damon to look as well.

"Did you just see that?"

Something moved from behind the truck this time, clear as day. Damon turned back around at Bonnie. "I did that time." He climbed out of his precious vehicle. "Let's go meet our little friend."

"I can't believe you dragged me all the way out here," I castigated Stefan as the two of us walked up to the scene of the swimming hole party, complete with the under-age drinking and shameless PDA everywhere. The party just seemed like a hazardous affair in itself, waiting for a problem to arise and present itself in the worst way possible.

He snickered. "Come on, Mads, this will be fun!"

I frowned. "No. You know what would be fun? Treatment options for a patient with anemia. Now that sounds like my kind of fun."

Stefan nudged me in the elbow. "You were already kicked out of the hospital, anyway."

"There's this really intelligent thing called a textbook where I can learn information for future patients, Stefan. It's practically the same thing."

"Mads?" I heard before Stefan could try to convince me any further that this party was a good idea. We both turned to see Elena drying herself off with a towel, dripping wet from the murky water of the swimming hole. Behind her, Liam—or "cute brag" as everyone called him at the hospital—trotted along right on her tail, looking just a smidge less uncomfortable than I was. Seeing me, however, Elena smiled widely. "You made it!"

I looked over at Stefan. "Blame this guy."

Just then, Elena seemed to realize that Stefan was beside me, and she gasped loudly. "Stefan?"

He smiled. "Hey, Elena."

"Hey!" She rushed forward and gave him a hug, awkwardly trying and failing not to get him wet. At last, they pulled away laughing, but I just stood there uncomfortably watching Liam look at Elena with eyes that were practically ogling her. I resisted the urge to roll my own eyes at the desperation of my fellow student, who I never liked anyway because he actually had some competition in him. "For the record, four months is far too long for me to go without seeing you."

"I know. That's why I'm here," Stefan told her. "I wanted to stop by and say hi." Elena gave him a disbelieving look, to which Stefan finally responded, "And…I wanted to apologize to Caroline about yesterday."

Elena pursed her lips. "Caroline? That's it?" He said nothing, earning Elena to sigh. "All right. Well, I mean…I guess she's around here somewhere. You can look. I kind of lost her when I was…"

She let her gaze drift off to the water, and I had no doubt that my show-off sister did a somersault into the water earlier. It seemed like her style. Sure enough, in confirmation to my thoughts, Liam stepped forward and looked at Stefan and me with a wide grin.

"She was bragging about her gymnast skills," he clarified, looking back at Elena, who almost blushed at his charming boyish smile. Stefan and I looked at each other as well, unimpressed—or, at least, I was. He was more confused than anything.

"Stefan," I began, gesturing to Liam. "This is Liam, another volunteer at the hospital. Liam, this is Stefan Salvatore. He's an old friend."

Before Stefan and I had a chance to ask any questions about Liam's presence, someone interrupted our awkward meeting. It took me just a few moments to realize that this intruder was someone I knew—someone I met only today.

"You know what, Elena…" Dr. Buckner started politely, "…thanks for the invite, but I think I'm going to—"

Elena stopped him by turning to me. I, of course, looked at her with a hard, cold expression, not caring whether or not Dr. Buckner saw it as well. She smiled at me and made a grand sweeping gesture as if I was the catch of the day.

"Dr. Buckner, this is my sister Madeline." Elena eyed me carefully, almost waiting for me to react in some way that played towards her fantasy. "Madeline, I believe you've already met Dr. Buckner, haven't you?"

I looked up at the clean-cut, casually dressed Dr. Buckner with a small smile as he did the same. "Madeline, huh?"

"Uh huh," I murmured in agreement and looked back at Elena. "Elena, what—?"

"Hey, Liam, why don't we go get some drinks?" Elena suggested, obviously and unsubtly leaving me alone with the somewhat handsome doctor who was more comfortable yet a little more embarrassed about the sticky situation than I was. Liam and Elena split almost immediately, and when I turned to find Stefan for a getaway, I found that he was already gone.

"Damn it," I cursed beneath my breath, realizing that Stefan had driven us to the swimming hole and was the only one who could probably bring me back. I was stuck here on a blind date.

"What was that?" the doctor asked. I turned around at him and sighed.

"Nothing." We sort of stood in awkward silence for about thirty seconds when I finally couldn't take it anymore. "So…uh, Elena invited you?"

Dr. Buckner nodded. "She did."

I didn't even think twice before asking, "Aren't you a little too old for a party at a swimming hole?"

After I said the words, I sort of realized that maybe I hadn't said the right words so that it didn't come out as rude or offensive. I braced to correct myself right when Dr. Buckner started chuckling, amused rather than offended at my statement. After a moment, he looked up at me curiously.

"I may be a doctor, but I've been ahead of the game since I was born," he promised me with a small smile. I waited for a further, less vague explanation. "I graduated from high school early, got a head start on the first couple years of college, and before I knew it, medical school came around and…"

"And let me guess, you soared above the rest of your class and worked so hard you somehow managed to get all your classes done early?" I challenged.

"You never do give a man a chance to explain, do you, Madeline?" he asked cautiously. I stayed silent, but the slightest shake of my head gave him an answer. "But yes, you're right."

"Aren't I always?" I said to myself, though I was almost sure he heard me. "Listen, Dr. Buckner—"

"Sebastian," he corrected me. I stared up at him for a moment before sighing heavily, unimpressed.

"Fine. Sebastian. I don't know what my sister told you, but…"

"Needless to say Elena gave me a few little hints on how to get you to take a walk with me." I took in a deep breath, about ready to kill my sister for embarrassing the crap out of me, but then he spoke again. "But I thought I'd just try it my way."

Now, I had to admit, I was a little intrigued. I crossed my arms and unintentionally avoided his gaze. "And…what would that be?"

He paused before smiling. "Do you want to take a walk with me, Madeline?"

For the second time, Stefan's phone went straight to voicemail, annoying Elena in the very slightest. He'd said that he came to apologize to Caroline and yet, there they were, waiting for him in the midst of the forest, and he was nowhere to be found. Elena didn't bother calling Madeline because she knew, by her own intentions, that Madeline was busy with someone else.

"Yeah. Not answering is one of his new things," said a pessimistic, yet nonchalant Caroline from her position on the log behind Elena. The brunette vampire walked over and sat down with a shrug.

"He said he was here to apologize." Elena defended him. "To you."

Caroline scoffed. "I'd appreciate an apology as much as the next girl, but we all know I'm not the one he really needs to apologize to. He might've said he wanted to apologize but—"

"He's lying," another voice said, earning Caroline and Elena to look up from each other to see Audrey as she approached them by the tree stump. The red-haired Forbes girl leaned against a tree with a frown. "It's another one of his new things. Apparently, he picked up on a lot of new things over the past four months."

"Hey!" Elena called out as soon as she spotted Matt and Tyler approach them at the tree stump as well. "Have you guys seen Stefan?"

"I didn't even know he was back," Matt admitted, glancing over at Audrey for a moment. No one seemed to notice, but she just shrugged at him as Tyler moved on.

"So…you want to fill us in on what we're doing here?" he asked Elena. She looked around with a smile, but no one seemed to return it. An incredulous glance crossed her face.

"You don't remember this place?" she asked. "We used to sneak off here and get wasted while our parents were outside grilling." Elena stood up from her place on the log. "Granted, we all have a few less parents, but we can still have fun." She extended the Jell-O shots for Matt and Tyler to take, but they just stared at them.

"Actually," Tyler started apologetically, "I can't. I'm working on my rage issues and…this wouldn't help."

The next response came from Matt. "My buddy's wasted and I've got to train in the morning so…"

Both boys looked apologetic, but Elena scoffed and just looked at one of her last resorts, Audrey, who was more than disinterested with Elena's distraction tactics. Elena shrugged at her.

"What do you say?"

Audrey straightened. "I'm not really in the mood, Elena."

The vampire sighed. "Okay…well, I don't want to sound like an alcoholic…but I do want a shot, so will someone do one with me?"

Caroline raised her hand. "Done!"

Pleased, Elena gave Caroline a shot, cheered "Bottom's up", and downed the Jell-O shot with her in all of a few seconds. After the two finished, Caroline wiped her mouth and tried to give her friend a smile. However, she couldn't get the thought of everything changing and being messed up out of her head.

"Mm!" Caroline hummed. "Well…here we are, having fun. I'm having fun. Aren't we having fun? This is really fun!"

Elena seemed to get the hint. "Okay! Clearly, this was a big mistake. I just wanted to spend one afternoon where we pretend for just one second like we're not all drifting apart."

She returned to her seat on the log beside Caroline, but at this statement, Caroline started to get more irritated than anything else. She leaned forward on her elbows.

"Well, that's the problem, Elena. We're not all okay with pretending. Or making our sisters pretend when the best thing is obviously to face problems head-on," she shot pointedly, this time meaning the slip more than she did earlier in the morning. Elena stared at Caroline for a long time, deducing her words.

Before Elena could reply, Tyler and Matt both looked at each other carefully until Tyler finally said carefully, "I…think we should go."

Audrey, who was idly standing by watching as the argument began to unfold and obviously included her and Madeline, sighed at the two sisters while Elena spoke her mind.

"Caroline, I told you that it wasn't my fault! She wanted it," Elena defended herself.

"You took advantage of her!" Caroline stood from the log and looked down at Elena with intent. "She was in a vulnerable state, Elena, like any sane person would be after losing the person they cared about most! And you violated her trust by convincing her—brainwashing her—to do what you thought was best. You never gave anyone else a chance."

"She's my sister, Caroline." Elena stood now, getting angry with her friend for questioning her judgment. "Not yours. You may choose to keep your sister miserable, but I wanted mine to be happy."

"On what planet is Mads happy?" the other vampire shouted. "She's living a lie! She's a living shell! All she wanted was someone to tell her that it was going to be okay and for someone to help her get through it, not someone to tell her that forgetting everything was the answer! Because it never has been and it never will be!"

"Stop it!" Audrey yelled at the two as the argument seemed to heat up between the friends. Elena and Caroline silenced upon the red-haired girl's interruption. No one spoke until Audrey said something again. "You two don't get to decide for either of us. What Madeline did was her decision, Caroline; she did it for herself and she wouldn't have done it otherwise. But Elena, you can't possibly think that forgetting everything is the only solution to every problem. Neither one of you get a say in what and how we handle things." Everything was still silent as Audrey backed away. "So…quit blaming each other for everything that's gone wrong and deal with it."

With nothing more to say, the freshman left to go back to the party, leaving Caroline and Elena still at odds. Since Audrey's departure, the two said not a word, and Caroline simply left Elena alone, needing time to cool off.

"It was behind the pickup," Bonnie insisted.

"No," Damon retorted. "It was in the front."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Absolutely, I'm sure; it was right there!"

As the two came to a halt at the back of the pickup truck, they heard the sound and saw the same movement they saw before—only, this time, they actually saw what it was. And it was disappointment on a silver platter.

A tarp moved on the back of the truck, replicating exactly what had gotten the pair's hopes up in the first place. A sick crash of despair washed over the two of them.

"It was a tarp," Damon whispered, defeated. "We saw a tarp." From the front of the market, the carousel turned on automatically, furthering their setback. "And that—that is on a timer. That turned on by yourself."

"But your car…" Bonnie argued.

"I left it here in '94."

"And the crossword?"

"You filled it out, Bonnie!" Damon said exhaustedly. For a moment, things were silent, but then Damon furiously slammed the back hatch of the pickup truck with a loud banging noise. "Which means we're alone in my own hell with no Grams escape hatch. We're never getting out."

Bonnie didn't reply. Instead, she just held out her hand. "Give me your ring."

The dark-haired Salvatore glanced over at her. "What?"

She grabbed his hand and fought with him to slide the ring off of his finger, but she was putting up a hell of a fight. Damon resisted, but she spat, "Give me your ring! All I've heard you say is that you have no hope and that this is your hell! So if it's so bad, why don't you just end it?"

Bonnie screamed frustratedly at him, but he pushed her off so she stumbled a few feet back and they faced each other angrily. He studied her while she continued.

"Hope is the only thing keeping me going, Damon! So if you're really done, if you have none"—she shoved him wrathfully—"then be done! Because this isn't helping!"

Damon did not respond to her but only watched as she left the market angry, as always. After a moment of contemplating the harsh words, he walked back into the market intent upon getting himself some alcohol to soothe the empty pit in his stomach where the hope had been stored and cut down. But, as he walked to the farthest edge of the store and grabbed a bottle of low-quality bourbon off the shelf, he heard something.

Putting the bourbon back on the shelf, Damon walked around the display of outdoor furniture carefully, following the sounds of the food crunching that was not made by him. Sure enough, there sat another person that he had never seen before in his life, lounging on a patio chair eating pork rinds.

"Rough day, huh, Damon?" said the stranger. Damon didn't say anything. "Sorry. Manners. I'm Kai. Nice to meet you." Kai extended the bag so that the opening faced Damon, and he smiled. "Pork rind?"

"You don't get out much, do you?" asked Sebastian as we walked around in the forest, farther away from the hooting and hollering of the high school kids at the swimming hole. I looked over at him with arched eyebrows.

"What makes you say that?"

He glanced me over from head-to-toe. "It's pretty obvious."

I looked down at my attire and, though I couldn't see the problem by myself, realized how odd it must seem to others. While everyone else was strutting around in their bikini and shorts, I had decided upon changing out of my Whitmore Hospital uniform to my regular clothing—a black blazer, black jeans, and a black-and-white striped shirt. It was, oddly enough, the most casual clothing I could bear to wear. Everything else in my closet seemed ridiculously strange.

I looked up at him with a frown. "So you're one of those guys?"

Sebastian laughed. "What guys?"

"Those guys. The guys who go to a pool party just to see a girl in a bikini doing body shots with her friends," I said nonchalantly, sort of whispering the statement in an unintentionally ambiguous tone. He just kept chuckling as if I'd told the funniest joke in the world.

"I appreciate the label. However, no. I'm not one of those guys. I came because of you." Things fell silent for a while until he sighed, "Not because of the lack of clothing."

I stopped us between trees, crossing my arms defensively. "I don't believe you. Not one bit. All guys want one thing, there's nothing more to it."

He copied my stance. "You're a very black and white person, Madeline." Again, Sebastian eyed my clothing. "No pun intended."

"I believe in patterns of behavior," I corrected him. "And in the male species, the patterns of behavior are extremely similar between all relationships. It's just a matter of when and how."

"Now you're accusing me of wanting to date you?"

"I'm accusing you of wanting to have sex with me." The forwardness of the statement crossed my mind, yes, but I was not one to play games. I hated them. Games were only acceptable when challenging the mind for a purposeful cause. All other reasons were excuses.

Sebastian half-smiled, then pursed his lips. "You're a regular Kate Minola, Miss Gilbert."

I watched him as he circled me, all while thinking about the famous Shakespeare play. Basically, the man my sister wanted me to date called me a bitch in just a reference. I didn't say anything, primarily because I didn't care anymore. He could think I was a bitch, but I was just telling the truth that no one wanted to hear.

"We should probably head back," he suggested as he began to walk backwards while keeping an eye on me. "I'll…try not to want to have sex with you if it makes you feel better."

At his own words, he smiled, and I wanted to call him on his arrogance, but I ended up smiling, too.

Damon had declined the pork rinds, obviously, but that didn't mean that Kai stopped eating them. All Damon heard for the minute following Kai's introduction was the annoying sound of Kai munching on the food. The pissed-off vampire stepped forward.

"That is gonna have to stop."

"Oh, you think this is annoying?" Kai challenged. "Hmm. Try listening to you and Bonnie bicker every five minutes."

"So you've been following us?"

"Of course I have," he laughed. "You two are the closest thing I have to a TV. I mean, you're no 'Baywatch,' but…remember 'Baywatch'?"

"No," responded a disinterested Damon. "I do not."

"Oh! Oh, man, you got to watch it. You like lifeguards…like, hot ones?"

After Kai finished his questions, Damon was finally fed up with the small talk. He sighed. "This has been a monumentally bad day in a sea of bad days. So I'm gonna need to know who you are, what you're doing here, and how it relates to me, or I'm gonna rip your throat out."

Kai frowned. "Temper's gonna get you in trouble, Damon. It's already driven Bonnie away…how many times? Oh, oh, oh, wait! I know! Thirteen."

"You think my temper's bad with her?" Damon started. "I like her. You, not so much."

Frustrated with the back and forth game, the vampire supersped over to Kai and grabbed him by the collar of his jacket, lifting him just above the floor. Kai struggled to get out of Damon's grasp, spewing out words.

"Okay! Okay! Sorry. Seriously. I'm just…kind of rusty on the face-to-face type human interactions." After a moment of proving his sincerity of death to Kai, Damon finally released the intruder by shoving him.

"Answers. Now."

"Maybe you should have a drink," the stranger suggested. "That usually calms you down."

"Thanks." Damon ripped a bottle off the shelf.

"Then makes you angry," Kai continued, "then sad, then calm again. It's a…weird cycle, and look, if you really want to know the reason I'm following you…it's because I want to kill you."

Damon was too late to hear the confession, as he had already started to drink out of the bottle that had now obviously been spiked with vervain. He began to cough it up, his mouth and skin burning at the contact of the herb that he had avoided for four months with no issues. But he had ingested too much, and he was on the floor in seconds with blood coating the outer edges of his mouth while he coughed up the brown liquid on the floor.

Kai smiled triumphantly. "Vervain in your bourbon. Who didn't see that one coming?" Damon coughed again, trying to get the taste of blood out of his mouth. Kai turned on his heel and started to survey the market. "Who buys patio furniture from a grocery store? I mean, somebody must. Otherwise, it…it wouldn't be here." In the midst of his rambling, Kai picked up a beach umbrella in a bin and broke it, rendering the umbrella a now capable weapon against a vampire. "But now I'm a little unfamiliar with vampires, but from what I've gathered, a stake in the heart should do it, right?"

Trying to get away from the psycho murderer, Damon reached forward, only to be struck in the hand by Kai's now deadly weapon. He groaned and watched as blood poured out of his wound and gave him relentless pain.

"You can always fight dirty, Damon. Like that time you and Bonnie played Monopoly and you stole from the bank. Not cool."

With all his strength, Damon forced himself up from the floor and stood his ground before Kai. He managed to snarl, "I'm gonna rip your head off."

"No," Kai retorted. "You're not."

And then he swung the umbrella, but towards the shelves this time. The bottles broke with the impact of Kai's blow and alcohol spilled everywhere, burning Damon wherever skin was exposed. Again, Damon falls to the floor from the vervain that impaired his strength.

"I didn't know which bottle you'd take, so I vervained them all," Kai explained and raised the umbrella to stab Damon again. But before Kai could follow through, there was another voice.

"Stay away from him!"

Damon turned back to see Bonnie holding her ground against Kai as he tried to before, but she was much more effective. Kai was unfazed by her appearance.

"The useless one is here. Thank God," he began sarcastically. "I've watched you try to do magic for months now. What are you gonna do, fail at me? It's embarrassing. I'm embarrassed for you."

Bonnie looked down at Damon and he gave her a reassuring nod, having hope that she would save the both of them before Kai could get to him. Kai, wasting no time for a failed attempt from Bonnie, once again raised the umbrella to kill Damon. Bonnie, determined not to fail this time, looked over at a candle on a table and focused as hard as she could.

And the candle, surprisingly enough, sparked with fire from her restored magic.

Seeing the change in events, Kai muttered, "Uh-oh."

Bonnie looked down at Damon with a smile and said one single command: "Run."

He was gone in less than a second, and as soon as he was out of sight, Bonnie said the words that she'd been trying to make work for the past four moths.

"Phesmatos incendia."

The market began to glow orange with bright, hot fire trailing right up to Kai, who immediately recognized the danger he was in. He lowered his weapon and nodded.

"Okay. Okay. Okay," he caved.

"Giving up so soon?" Bonnie challenged. "I'm embarrassed for you."

As soon as she finished the words, Damon knocked Kai as hard as he could from behind, sending the evil psychopath flying across the flames until he was unconscious. From over the fire, Damon looked at Bonnie and smiled.

"Sorry I called you the most annoying person in the world. I hadn't met him yet." Damon shrugged and threw his weapon to the ground, causing Bonnie to give him somewhat of a half-smile.

As the time shifted from afternoon to evening where the sun set beneath the horizon and the moon came out from hiding, things hadn't been so quiet at the swimming hole. Stefan, it seemed, had gone after Enzo with the intent to kill, Caroline had stopped it, but Matt's training buddy had been found guilty with a weapon that was intended to kill Stefan—or any vampire, that was.

However, it wasn't Caroline who was primarily angry with Stefan, though Caroline did harbor some resentment. It was Audrey who chased after Stefan in the forest after hearing about what he tried to do to Enzo. Granted, there was cause; Audrey learned that Enzo killed Ivy when he stormed back into the household seeking revenge on Stefan for making her cry. Though Audrey thought Stefan deserved it, she still thought it was wrong.

"Stefan!" Audrey shouted at him in the woods, causing the vampire to come to a stop. She waited for him to turn around, but he started to take off, so she sprinted to him, refusing to let him get away this time. "Hey! Hey! Stop it!"

She finally was able to get in front of him and slow the irate vampire down. Her breathing was quickened, but she managed to slow it enough for him to be able to understand her words. Audrey swallowed thickly.

"I'm sorry about Ivy, okay? That was a really shitty thing for him to do but—"

"But what?" Stefan snapped. "What? I was fooling myself; I was using her as an escape? I already know what you think of me, Audrey, you made yourself clear."

Audrey squared her jaw. "Actually, I was going to tell you that getting revenge on Enzo won't help you feel better. It won't change anything."

"He can finally stop reminding me of my brother," the vampire retorted snidely, revealing his true intentions. Audrey stared at him with a sorrowful expression, realizing and understanding just how hard it really was. "I kill him, I can leave this place and I can start over again."

Silence washed over them for a long time before Audrey whispered, "You're gonna tell me that all those phone calls you made to Caroline, getting Mads to come with you to the party, seeing Elena again…you're gonna tell me that you did all of that just to kill Enzo and start over?"

There was a moment of hesitation, but Stefan nodded eventually. "Yep."

She narrowed her eyes. "You may be a better liar than Madeline is, but you're still lying. I know when you're lying, and you're lying. You know that there's a part of you inside that wants to be here with us—with your friends. We need you, Stefan, and I know you can see that!" Audrey exclaimed frustratedly. Stefan tried to avoid letting his true emotions slip through his stare, but he was starting to fail. "I need you, Stefan. So if some part of you—no matter how small—came back to help Mads, who is going through the most terrible time in her life, or Alaric, who just came back from the dead, or Caroline, who's losing her mind over not being able to go home, or…or me…if there was any part of you at all that came back to check on me because you still care…then stay."

Her long-winded speech required her to take a deep breath at the end, all while her heart started pounding violently waiting for Stefan's answer. She couldn't make out his answer from just his expression, but when Stefan said nothing and walked around her, leaving her alone in the middle of the forest, she had her answer. She had all her answers.

And it broke her heart. For the second time.

But what Audrey realized, after Stefan had left and she started to feel dizzy, was that she was not alone. Matt was standing just a few feet in front of her, realizing quickly how upset she was and inferring that Stefan was the one who caused that pain. She felt her heart tear thinking of the pain that she was causing to Matt, too, who she treated as a summer fling when he had actually been there for her through thick and thin—through everything, despite what he wanted and did not want to hear. They didn't say anything to each other, but he walked over to her and just pulled her into his arms, giving her the embrace that she needed. As much as Audrey didn't want to do it, she couldn't stop the tears as they came again, and she didn't understand why. She thought she'd said all she needed to say to Stefan; she thought that she had put it to rest.

She was wrong.

"He's not worth it," Matt promised her quietly. "He's not, Audrey. He's not. If he can't see what's right in front of him…" She tried to quit crying, but it wasn't happening. Matt pulled away from her and sighed, wiping the tears off of her face as she tried desperately to cut back on the tears. But as he did so, she looked into the deep ocean-colored blue eyes of the human's and realized something.

Without thinking, she kissed him—right in the middle of the forest where any one of their friends could potentially could see. She meant to do it because she didn't care who saw anymore. What was the point in hiding it? It was obviously not just sex. It never had been, had it?

"I'm so sorry," Audrey apologized as she pulled away from him just enough so that her forehead was still touching his. "I've been so hung up on him that I…"

"Audrey, maybe now's not the best time…"

"Matt? Audrey?"

Matt and Audrey broke away form each other to see Caroline standing to the side, observing their embrace and their proximity with horror and confusion. The couple froze immediately upon being caught by someone—no less, Caroline, the girl that Matt had dated and had loved unconditionally for most of junior year. Audrey's sister.

"Caroline…" Audrey began, trying to explain, but before Audrey could get more than one step, Caroline had flashed away with no luck of being found unless it was wanted. And Audrey sighed, frustrated, realizing what a mess she had created for herself to clean up.

Kai woke from his unconscious state, strapped in a chair by the Salvatore fireplace in the study. Damon was standing in front of it with the package of pork rinds in his hand, used for poetic justice.

As Kai groaned, Damon nodded. "You're awake. Good. Now for the Q&A portion of the evening." He threw the hot poker he'd been heating over his shoulder and walked in front of Kai, who realized that he was restrained.

"Let me guess. If I answer right, I get a pork rind. Wrong, I get a poker."

Damon stared down at the pork rinds with confusion. "What? No, no, no. These are for me. You just get the poker."

"Yeah. You don't have to do that." Kai sighed.

"No?"

"We're on the same team!"

Bonnie, who had been sitting in the background trying to stay out of the torture session for the sake of her own morals, walked over to Kai with her arms crossed.

"Do you always try to kill your teammates?"

He frowned. "The important thing is that you have your magic back. It worked." Bonnie and Damon glanced over at each other, wondering what Kai meant by the statement. Turning a killing around to make it seem like it was a plan? "What, you…you didn't really think I'd kill Damon, did you? In what universe does that make sense? Who would kill one-third of our population? I'm not a monster. I knew Bonnie would show up. She always comes back, all thirteen times, and I knew with the right motivation she would be able to access her magic—although I-I did get a little worried with all your bickering that Damon's life wouldn't be enough motivation but it turns out that it was. I guess that's just how you two show your love."

Bonnie and Damon were both unimpressed and unamused at the theatrics. "So you did all that just to make sure I would have my magic?"

"Of course I did," Kai scoffed. "Because your magic is the key to getting the hell outta here."

"How could you be so idiotic? Did I not teach you anything at all?" I chastised my sister as she hung up the phone with our brother. Sarah wasn't in the Salvatore house and she was nowhere to be found, which wasn't good at all because I had apparently attacked her during one of my misguided blackouts while under extreme duress from all the cravings. I didn't remember most of the attack; it was all the equivalent of a blur. However, what I couldn't believe was that no one realized that compulsion was magic and, therefore, wasn't useful once in Mystic Falls.

"If you're so smart, why didn't you say anything?" Elena propositioned. I threw my hands up in the air.

"I don't know, Elena. Maybe I've been too busy with all the blind dates you've been sending me on!"

Elena pointed a finger me. "No. No, no. Don't get all testy with me about that, Mads. You enjoyed it. I saw you two talking."

I crossed my arms. "Dr. Buckner is a very interesting person."

She smiled. "And sexy. Super sexy, actually."

I frowned. "Fine. He's attractive. Is that what you wanted me to say?" All I could see was her ear-to-ear grin, causing me to sigh. "Sometimes, Elena, you can be a real Bianca Minola."

"Um…what?"

I walked over to my side of the room. "Nothing. Nothing, just forget I said anything." As I sat down on my bed, Caroline walked out of the bathroom and into the room.

"So…I was just gonna leave my clothes here while we look, if that's okay."

Elena nodded. "Yeah. Of course."

"I was also thinking that—you know—if there are vampire hunters on the loose then living alone right by their home base is probably not a good idea."

"Is this an official unpack? Because your moving method is so confusing."

"In or out, Caroline," I challenged her. The blonde sighed.

"Yes. This is an official unpack." She began to unpack, ironically enough, as she said the words. Then, she looked up at Elena with apologetic eyes. "Hey…I'm sorry about getting mad at you earlier."

Elena agreed, "Me too."

I, however, was completely clueless as to what was going on. I looked up at the two of them in wonder. "You two got in a fight?" They looked over at me. "What about?"

I was always too distracted to notice, but Caroline and Elena seemed to scramble for a response so fast that it was a little strange for my tastes. Regardless, once they answered, I didn't dwell on it.

"Um…Bonnie. We had a small fight about Bonnie," Caroline said as she turned around and fit her clothes into the chest at the far side of the room. "Sometimes, I think Elena has a secret way of moving on."

"There is no secret way." I reached over and grabbed my textbook and flipped to the last page I'd read. Crossing my legs, I sighed and put the textbook in my lap all while feeling Caroline's eyes on me. "Moving on isn't a real thing. Death is always going to be with you. Love is always going to be with you. Pain is always going to be with you. You just have to figure out a way to live with it."

I didn't see Elena and Caroline's reactions to my harsh words, nor did I care. After I divulged myself in the textbook, I briefly heard something about Matt and Audrey, to which I listened for about a moment and a half before figuring the whole situation out. Matt and Audrey were sleeping together, Caroline felt cheated because she dated Matt before and it's strange when your sister dates someone you've already dated.

I could only imagine what that felt like.

"Well…" Caroline started with a sigh. "We better find this girl before she outs us. Mads, let's go."

I watched as Caroline and Elena started to head out the door and, with a frustrated sigh, I realized I had no other choice. I put the textbook down, pressed the pause button on my idea of fun, and went with them to help fix the mistake that I supposedly made.

Thanks for reading! Review, please!

Adela: Thanks! Sorry it took so long for the chapter.

SomebodyWhoCares: Yeah. It's super sad. But it'll get a lot more intense and we have Damon returning in a few episodes so that's something to look forward to! Thanks for the review!

grapejuice101: It was super intense. Thanks! Haha I don't know what she'd do. She'd probably put Klaus in his place a lot though. They'd have a lot of witty banter :)

Rebel royal: Thanks!

Aiphira: Yep! Madeline Reichs is back! Though she wasn't in this episode...we'll be seeing more of her, don't worry. Thanks for reviewing!

ariabella V: If we had a ship name for them, it'd be faster to say things like that in reviews because I get that a lot haha. Thanks! That means a lot! Hope you liked this chapter!

Alexa Petrova: I'm gonna be honest here, I'm kind of confused about your review but long story short is that yeah, Madeline Reichs is a wicked alter ego and we'll see in a few episodes how much of a hold she has on Madeline. As of right now, she can break through for these periods for the blackouts but it will get more intense as we go along. I hope that's what you wanted to hear! Thanks for the review!

LondonaLozzy: Thanks! Hope you enjoyed the chapter.