Disclaimer: Chapter 1 please :)

Fade Into You

"I'm a vampire."

Caroline and I watched Elena as she struggled with the words coming out of her mouth, looking at us with a serious and nervous expression that was highlighted in her doe-colored eyes. Caroline and I turned to each other as we stood at the table on the downstairs level of the Whitmore dorm and though it was unspoken, we both shared the same opinion: this was a bad idea.

Caroline shrugged, turning over to Elena. "I don't know, maybe a little less emphasis on 'vampire'?"

"I'm...a vampire," Elena corrected, trying the phrase a different way. Caroline walked around the table, setting cards with names printed on them on each setting at the table. We were silent. "I mean, there's only so many ways you can say it!"

"Well, maybe Liam will stop digging into Lady Whitmore's 'miraculous' recovery and you won't have to come clean!"

Elena sighed. "Or he'll keep digging, realize that I force-fed her my vampire blood...and then just bail." My sister sighed as I walked over to the chair in the corner of the communal dining room and slipped on a jacket over my shoulders. "God, Mads, you're so lucky that Sebastian already knew about vampires before you slipped up. It would make things so much easier for me."

I scoffed. "Yeah, I'm super lucky that the guy you kept setting me up with is the son of a Pure Blood whose mother went insane over some demon bitch alter ego. Maybe I should try for the lottery!"

My words were spoken sourly, but it didn't surprise anyone in the room. Caroline and Elena had come to known of my secret when I was forced to tell them, realizing that a) Stefan would never keep a secret from Elena for more than two weeks and b) this was becoming a serious thing. The magic on the anklet was about to run out in another day and Madeline Reichs would come back stronger and meaner and ready to take over this body without batting an eye.

Elena sighed frustratedly. "I should've seen this coming. Those blackouts couldn't have just been caused by some crazy drug addiction! Given your specific history—"

"Elena, relax." It was odd that I was having to comfort my sister about something that was solely affecting me, seeing as I could either get shoved out by some Norman Bates complex inside me or die from a super creepy witch ritual Sebastian tried to save his mother with. I looked up at Caroline with a soft smile. "As much as I would love to stay for this...interesting 'Friendsgiving' dinner, I have an alter ego to get rid of. And about Liam...if you really think that telling him is gonna fix it, then tell him. If it won't, then wipe his memory of it and move on."

I turned to walk out of the room right as Dr. Robles entered carrying a turkey wrapped in foil. She smiled. "Madeline."

"Jo," I returned, but left without another word. Sometimes it worried me how naïve Elena could be sometimes. Don't get me wrong, most people in my life thought I was the naïve one. Sweet little innocent Madeline can do no wrong and all that jazz. But the thing was, I didn't have to be a slut to be competent. It was a simple dilemma: tell him the truth or erase it.

When I walked outside, I also ran into Audrey, who was walking into the dorms with Matt on her arm. I wasn't going to say anything—not that I liked to meddle or felt empathy towards them at all, but it was a pretty shitty situation. Stefan was in love with her, she had been in love with him, Damon died, Stefan gave up, and Audrey somehow found her way to Matt and was now ignoring Stefan with a strange amount of hatred. It sucked...for them, at least.

Of course, my situation was no better. Damon was avoiding me and...and honestly, I didn't want to bother him, either. I hadn't even told him about what was going on with me, primarily because I didn't think he needed and/or wanted to know after what he'd said the night of the Whitmore Hospital fundraiser. So he was in the dark, though I had no doubt Stefan would tell him soon enough. Hopefully by then he'd have stayed far enough away for me to figure this mess out on my own.

Sebastian was waiting for me in the parking lot a little ways away from the dorm entrance, and I walked over to his car and found him standing outside of it patiently with his arms crossed over his chest. God, I would be lying if I said his face was not symmetrically attractive. But I had more important things on my mind.

"Why do I feel like I've suddenly stepped into 'Mission: Impossible'?" I asked, looking him up and down at the leather jacket and expensive shoes. He straightened and turned to me with a smile.

"Who knows? Maybe you have. This message will now self-destruct in five seconds..."

I frowned. "Hilarious."

"Oh, come on, smile a little," Sebastian begged lightly. "I know this is hard...the next few hours will be, anyways, but this will be over soon. I meant it when I said I wouldn't let anything happen to you."

"This anklet is almost out of juice, Sebastian," I told him slowly. "And I can feel it draining every second. Every minute we waste is another minute Madeline Reichs gets stronger, so if it's all right with you, I would rather just get in the car with my very comfortable frown and get this over with as quickly as we can."

After a moment, Sebastian opened the passenger door for me and sighed. "If it helps, I don't doubt for a second that you're strong enough to fight her off as long as it takes." I watched him carefully as I stepped forwards the inside of the car and his eyes followed my movements. "You know you can do this, Mads."

I swallowed thickly and climbed into the car. "Let's just hope you're not wrong."

"Is that the reason Caroline assigned me the turkey and the cranberries? Stefan wasn't invited," Alaric realized as he, Damon, and Stefan walked away from the car parked right outside the Gemini Coven lot that Stefan was taking them to. Damon threw up his hands.

"See what you did? Now we're pulling your weight. I really hope you figure this out before Christmas," Damon added.

"Yeah. Well, I'm glad you're both finding amusement in my ex-girlfriend's sister banning me from all collective activities," Stefan mumbled under his breath. Damon groaned.

"Why don't you just compel Matty blue-blue to take a hike? Or win Audrey back...something! Put us all out of our misery," he suggested.

"Because she asked me to let her go, so I'm letting her go, Damon."

"Stefan, when a girl tells you to let her go, what she really wants is for you to fight for her!" The dark-haired Salvatore pushed passionately, his voice exerting dramatic fervor. Behind him, Alaric chuckled.

"I mean, if you're going to listen anyone, it should definitely be Damon. I seem to recall dozens of times Madeline turned him down."

"Her words might've told me 'no', but her eyes always told me 'yes'," Damon countered, still with the same dramatic sense in his tone. He looked back at his brother. "Women, Stef, are tricky creatures. You just gotta play them the right way."

Stefan turned around. "You make it sound like she's a sensitive game of Pac-Man."

Damon smiled. "Matt beat your high score, now you've got to beat it right back."

Ignoring his brother, Stefan came to a stop in the middle of the empty field he had tracked down once before during the summer when Damon was gone. He threw up his hands.

"Oh! Look, we're here. Behold, the Gemini Coven. Exactly how it looked...4 months ago." The three men stood staring at the barren field, but Stefan was irate with disbelief as Damon and Alaric stepped forward to look around the field, still carrying hope. "Like I said, uh, three thousand miles ago, it's not here. Can we, uh, go home now please?"

Alaric looked at him. "You know what? Check the GPS again. Just because we don't see anything, doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

Damon took the opportunity the second it was thrown at him. "Not unlike Audrey's feelings for Stefan."

Stefan smiled sourly. "Hilarious. Keep 'em coming."

From his bag, Damon pulled out Ms. Cuddles, Bonnie's stuffed bear from their 1994 universe they had been trapped in. She had managed to somehow send it over to the real world right as he was dwelling in the cemetery about her being stuck in 1994 with Kai and the fact that the one thing that kept him from going completely mad in the last 4 months had forgotten all about him.

"Oh, no," Damon began in a higher tone, mimicking the bear's voice as he moved the teddy's arms amusedly. "Is Stefan feeling sensitive about his breakup with Audrey? She really loved him and he broke her heart."

"See, Stefan?" Embarrassed, Stefan turned to Alaric, who gave him a serious look. "Even the bear knew."

"And now she's with someone else and poor Stefan's heart is broken, too..." Damon continued childishly. "If only there was something Stefan could do to make it better..."

"Give me this!" Stefan snapped, grabbing the bear from Damon's arm and punting it into the field, expecting to watch it go flying across the empty space. Instead, the bear hit an invisible barrier, making the wall shudder majestically and a new scene come upon their eyes after one blink. A home stood in the center of the field, Mrs. Cuddles upright on the front porch step.

With a smile, Damon sauntered forward and grabbed the bear. He held it up dramatically and continued in his normal tone.

"Ms. Cuddles, one! Invisible creepy mansion...zero."

Sebastian took me to his place again, and this time I didn't wait outside in the car. He took me inside, and it looked just as nice on the inside as it did on the outside. I was a little surprised...I mean, of course I knew he was a doctor and doctor's didn't get a light salary or anything, but his house looked like it belonged to a Kennedy. I was slightly overwhelmed as I entered the home, looking around with extreme caution. I was no doubt nervous, but I tried to calm myself down before I started opening my mouth and rambling about unimportant facts I'd crammed into my brain as a child. And unfortunately, as result of being a vampire, that impulse just gave quicker.

Seeing my weariness, Sebastian turned around and explained, "It's a family home. When my mother died, it was left to me."

I nodded with pursed lips as we came to a stop in the foyer. "So...how are we going to do this?"

"Is this her?" Sebastian and I both turned to find a boy, looking around the age of 17, trotting down the stairs. He definitely fit the profile of what people would call "nerdy" what with the characteristic glasses on his face, the graphic tee he chose to wear, and the floppy blonde hair on his head. I was slightly confused, looking between Sebastian and the young teenager, waiting for an explanation. Sebastian nodded.

"Yeah. Madeline, meet Elliot. Elliot, this is Madeline Gilbert." Sebastian looked over at me. "Elliot's my cousin."

"Distant cousin," Elliot corrected him, his eyes shifting quickly from Sebastian to Madeline. "I hear we've got a bit of a situation on our hands, don't we, Norman? Or would this make you Norma? Is Hitchcock's reference even relevant in this situation?"

I shook my head, still confused. "I'm lost. Officially. What are you here to do?"

"Me?" Elliot asked, pointing at his chest. I nodded at him, still waiting. He smiled, genuinely and triumphantly. "You know, I always said to Sebastian that he would suck as a teacher. Not even one of my teachers, just a teacher in general. He can never explain anything right." Suddenly, Elliot brought his hands up and a flame came from them, bursting right from his palm. I watched without jumping back, but I was still surprised. By closing his fist, Elliot smothered the flame with his hand. "I'm a warlock."

Sebastian elaborated further, which was what I was looking for in the first place. "Elliot...is going to help us lock up Madeline Reichs."

"Lock up?" I repeated, confused. I shook my head. "What, you mean like put her somewhere in my head and hope she doesn't get out of...I don't know a metaphorical cage or something?"

"I thought you said she was smart," Elliot countered with a scoff, looking at his cousin. I turned to Elliot with an offended expression.

"I am smart."

He rolled his eyes. "Then it's not complicated. This will be what the Other Madeline will be locked up in." Elliot walked to the side by the staircase and picked up a gold band sitting on the hallway table. It was a cuff, unclipped so that it could be clasped onto someone's wrist—my wrist, apparently. "Problem is, we don't know the exact spell."

I shrugged. "So let's find it."

"Gee, who would've thought of that idea?" Elliot gave a small, bitter smile and walked between me and Sebastian to the library which was on the left side of the front door, leaving me and Sebastian behind. I looked over at the doctor with an eyebrow cocked and my arms over my chest. He sighed.

"His father died a few years ago so his mother sends him to me for a month every year because she's afraid Elliot doesn't have a father figure to look up to." Sebastian started to move towards the library, and I followed him. I felt an odd pang of empathy.

"Is he your cousin on your mother's side or..."

"Father's," Sebastian answered. When we entered the library, there was a loud sound of books slamming on the table. Elliot moved back and forth between the four shelves in the room, picking out stacks and putting them on the oak table in the center.

"Dark Magic..." Elliot mumbled as he pulled out another stack, set them down, and moved back. "Possession...Pure Bloods...Okay. I think this is enough. There are approximately 143 books relating to this situation...each one of us should take about 46."

"What are we looking for?" I asked as I sat down at the table and grabbed a stack of books. Elliot and Sebastian did the same as Elliot hesitated thinking about what to tell me to look for.

"The books are mainly in Czech," he answered, clearly debating with himself inside his head. "Anything with the word 'démona' in it. Surely you can figure out what that means."

I swallowed and looked over at Sebastian, who looked from Elliot over to me with a reassuring glance. Feeling that oddly safe feeling yet again, I sighed and grabbed the first book from my stack, opening to the first page, the letters that made up the word obviously meaning 'demon', whatever the hell was residing in me, imprinted in my brain.

Elliot was pacing back and forth in the library with a book in his hand, hissing the words aloud to himself as he nervously flicked at his fingernails, a very annoying tick that I was starting to find growing increasingly on my nerves. Sebastian and I sat at the table next to each other, each of us pouring over all the Czechian words we read over and over again in our stacks of books that were barely starting to dwindle. By now, who needed a language course on Czechian? I felt like I'd gotten an entire lesson by just reading the same words over and over again. It was still light outside, but the sun was going to set soon because they had been at it for hours. Each one of the 43 books were more than 1,000 pages long in tiny font printed on both sides. After a while, I couldn't bear it anymore. The clock was ticking louder and louder every single second as I felt my power drain away, physically and emotionally. It was like the wall was thinning between me and Madeline Reichs.

I don't know what happened, but an impulse took over, and I slammed by book shut and stood up from my chair. "This is pointless! All of this is pointless! We're never going to find an answer, not by tonight!"

"Not with that attitude," Elliot scoffed beside me. Again, I have no idea what came over me, but there was a sudden vampire urge that washed over me. The noise of his fingernail-picking was like insects crawling on my skin and I snarled unconsciously, turning to him with red-colored eyes. In a flash, I was at his throat, my hand tightened around it. Elliot dropped his book on the floor and it landed with a loud thud that echoed through the house.

"I'm sorry what did you just say about my 'attitude'?" I hissed. Sebastian stood from his chair.

"Madeline," he said soothingly, but it wasn't working. Elliot struggled against me, trying to use his magic, but when I realized what a royal pain in the ass I was being, I sighed and set him down. The red didn't fade from my eyes, and I watched as the innocent warlock coughed and doubled over his stomach, letting the air return to his lungs. I looked back at Sebastian, whose form tensed at my red eyes, and completely and utterly embarrassed of my behavior, I flashed outside, the wind beneath my feet in an instant. I stopped on the front step, sitting down with my head in my hands and the cool air on my skin. Slowly, I felt the red fade away, but my actions were still in my head. The pending doom upon me was still flashing like a neon sign. I was screwed, plain and simple.

It was a moment or two before I heard the sound of the door opening and closing behind me, but I didn't look up to see who it was. Sebastian came and sat down on the porch step beside me and I sighed without looking at him.

"I'm sorry," I apologized sincerely. "I don't normally lose control like that."

"It's fine, Elliot can handle it." Sebastian rubbed his hands together and exhaled. "Are you okay?"

I found the will to look over at him with a bittersweet laugh. "How can you ask me that? We've been at this for hours and none of us have found anything that can trap Madeline into that cuff. If we don't do this by tonight, I'm finished. So, no, I'm not okay."

"The spell exists, Madeline, trust me." Sebastian leaned back. "We'll find it before the night's over. If anyone can figure it out, it's Elliot. He's one of the most gifted warlocks I've ever known and don't think I'm exaggerating. I spent forever tracking down warlocks I thought were powerful enough to perform that ritual on my mother. The one that I had do it wasn't nearly as gifted as Elliot is. He's been practicing since he was a kid."

"You don't...you don't know what it's like." I looked at him with soft eyes. "I feel like I'm disintegrating. Like I'm turning to dust on the inside and she's taking over like I'm in the middle of an internal eclipse. My entire life will just be...gone if she gets what she wants and I remember every second that I spent with her projection when I turned impure. She was relentless, she drove me mad. If I hadn't turned into a vampire so quickly, I would've snapped. If I didn't have...if I didn't..."

Now this was strange. There was something on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't say it. I didn't know what I was thinking of or who I was thinking of, but I could feel something strange. Gratitude...love? How could it be love?

"If you didn't have that Damon guy?" Sebastian filled in cautiously, watching my expression. I turned to him, surprised, and watched as he pointed at my face. "It's all over your face, Madeline, I can see it. You looked at him that way at the fundraiser."

"Damon?" I repeated quietly. "But I don't remember...I don't..."

"Look, Mads." Sebastian straightened with a deep breath and began as I shifted to look towards him. His hand reached out and grabbed mine. "I may like you in an entirely different way than you feel towards me, but I'm not a blind...or deaf idiot. Just because you forgot about Damon doesn't mean...you forgot about him. Do you see what I'm saying?"

"No," I said honestly. He pursed his lips.

"It's kind of like when a person dies," he started. "Their body is cold, their heart stopped...but is the person ever truly gone? Just because you bury a body doesn't mean it doesn't exist anymore."

"I'm a woman of science, not a woman of faith," I countered firmly, indirectly telling him that I didn't relate to the statement. He shook his head with a small smile.

"You don't have to have faith to love someone without realizing it."

"Guys!" Suddenly, the door swung open behind us and Sebastian and I turned to see Elliot standing at the threshold with an achieved look on his face. Both of us stood on the porch and faced him as he smiled. "I found it. I found the spell. We'll need a few things but—"

"Well what the hell are we waiting for?" Sebastian stepped up on the porch and turned at me. "Let's get this demon bitch out of you, huh?"

With a small smile, I nodded and followed him into the house.

"Candles...water...sharp knife for blood..." Elliot listed as he walked around the room nervously and pointed at the things he needed. I stood in the center of the room surrounded by a ring of salt and Sebastian was just outside of it, watching his cousin as he paced back and forth with the book right in front of him on a table. I could feel the wall between me and Madeline Reichs wearing thin and realized that this was our last chance. If this didn't work, I had no idea what would. Suddenly, Elliot looked up at me and Sebastian. "Okay. I think we're good. Let's do this."

I clenched my fist at my side. "Do you even know how to read Czechian?"

Elliot looked up at me with a laugh. "I'm 17. Of course not."

I swallowed thickly and kept my panicked self buried inside. "Right."

"But he can do it," Sebastian added from outside of the ring. Elliot nodded, though it was clearly weak. "It's a simple spell, Elliot. If we were doing the ritual, it would be different, but we're just locking it up in a cuff. You can do this, you know that."

"Of course I know that. How do you think I get an A in gym class every semester, huh?" Elliot looked down at the book and exhaled heavily. "All right, this is going to be tricky. The Other Madeline is gonna have to come out for a few seconds in order for me to snap her into the cuff. The cuff's with you, right?"

I looked down at my feet and nodded. The cuff was right beside my ankle, unclasped and waiting to be locked. "Yep. It's in here."

"Good. When I come to the end of the spell, it'll snap on and it'll seal." Elliot looked up at me cautiously. "You won't ever be able to take it off. If it somehow does manage to come off, she's free. Got that?"

"Yeah. I got it."

"Make sure she stays in the circle," Elliot said pointedly at Sebastian. "Hopefully her alter ego isn't strong enough to get out."

"But if she is strong enough..." Sebastian trailed off, a hidden concern in his voice. I looked over to him, but he watched his cousin and kept his eyes off of me. Elliot's voice was strained.

"Let's...hope it doesn't come to that."

Things were silent, and I knew it was time for the spell to take place. Elliot started to mumble softly, mumble words that I was unaware of, and I heard no talk of a demon. I waited, feeling nothing important, and listened as his voice grew louder and louder. The flames in the room sparked, jumping with an extraordinary orange glow, and Elliot took the knife on the table and, still speaking the Czechian words, cut into his palm. The blood dripped into the water, and just as it did, I dropped to the floor.

Her eyes lit up with the color of blood the second her head dropped to the ground. Elliot continued chanting and Sebastian looked inside the circle at the vampire in the middle her back to the ceiling as she was in a curled position, her face hidden by the soft brunette curls around her head. He waited, his heart pounding, as Madeline stood with her eyes closed, her movements slow and strategic. She was faced right at him and her eyelids fluttered open, the bold color pointed right at him.

"Madeline..." Sebastian whispered quietly. The girl's eyes shifted around the room and finally found Elliot, chanting the Czechian words. Like a predator, she stalked over to the edge of the circle, but didn't near it. Her eyes roamed around at the border of salt with a wrinkled nose.

"You can't save her." Madeline looked between Elliot and Sebastian, whereupon Elliot stopped his chanting for a brief moment to listen. The brunette tilted her head. "She will never be free of me. It's a pity to waste such strong magic for a useless cause."

"Saving Madeline is not useless." Sebastian stepped forward, careful not to cross the boundary. "She will be free of you."

"So noble," she noted blandly without turning her body, just her eyes. "But you, Sebastian, son of Elizabeth Buckner, have a nasty little habit of trying—and failing—to save these women you claim to be so noble towards."

He shook his head tightly. "You don't know me."

"On the contrary." Her eyes turned away from him and she looked around the entire home. "I know...everything."

Without warning, Madeline barreled herself towards the invisible blockade, only to be forced back by the salt. Realizing that the vampire was trying to escape, Sebastian turned towards Elliot. "Elliot, finish it!"

"O-Okay! Okay!" Elliot shouted out. Madeline slammed herself against the barrier again, feeling it getting weaker with every push. Elliot continued the spell, trying to say the words as fast as he could, but it only sparked rage within the parasite. She growled and hit the barrier a third time, and it broke, setting her loose. Elliot pushed to finish the spell before she could do any damage, but it was too late. Madeline attacked him, tearing her fangs into Elliot's neck and draining the warlock of his blood. Elliot let out a scream, but was left alive as Sebastian forced her to drop Elliot by shooting a stake right at Madeline's shoulder. The crossbow still in his hands, he watched as Elliot stumbled over and away from the thirsty vampire and the two Buckners watched their uninvited guest snarl at the stake and yank it right out.

"You shouldn't have done that," Madeline snarled and flashed right at Sebastian, tackling him to the ground.

"F-Finish the spell!" Sebastian ordered Elliot as he struggled against the strong vampire, but he was stronger than average humans, thankful to the magical anomaly he had been gifted being a Pure Blood's son.

"I can't!" Elliot shouted back. "You have to get her in the circle! Get her in the circle, get her in the circle! Get her in the—"

"I hear you!" Sebastian snapped and felt Madeline try to bite the wrist he held her at arm's length with. She had the chance to leave, they couldn't stop her if she wanted to, but what she wanted was more than escaping. She wanted to kill them, she wanted to slaughter everyone in her path. She wouldn't leave without blood, she just couldn't. It was a parasite's vice, and Sebastian used it to his advantage. He let Madeline bite him, her fangs piercing his skin and she attempted to suck him dry. But as she drank, he knocked her over and they rolled over into the circle, the gold cuff right by her head, and he yanked his wrist away and pinned her to the floor. He wasn't able to hold it long, but Elliot had already begun finishing the spell once they were in the circle. The girl with red eyes fought back, stronger than ever, and yanked them up to a standing position. She was lost to the spell going on around them and just gripped Sebastian's shirt, her fangs barred and her head leaned down just as Elliot finished the spell with the word 'démona', like he had told them to look for.

Suddenly, Madeline pulled away from Sebastian's neck and he watched with panting breaths as her eyes refocused from red to her natural color, and he cuff on the floor—as if it were magnetic—jumped up and snapped onto her right wrist, sealing it for good, with just a few exceptions. The red in Madeline's eyes faded to the face of a normal vampire, and then she fell, right into Sebastian's arms, unconscious. Sebastian looked up at his cousin, clutching the injury on his neck.

"Is she supposed to be knocked out?" Sebastian asked, confused.

Through heavy breaths, Elliot nodded. "Yeah. It'll take a few hours for her to wake back up. She should be good by morning." He pulled his hand away from his injury and stared at the blood on his hands, then looked up at his cousin who was too preoccupied on Madeline. Seeing the lack of concern for him, Elliot added, "I'm fine, by the way! Thanks for asking."

Early in the morning the day after Friendsgiving, Audrey left the dorm room with her bag on her shoulder ready to head out for the day. She had a class in half an hour and then a lunch date with Matt on campus before heading to yet another class. Sometimes she felt like she was the only one who actually took classes seriously, but all's well that ends well. Right as she turned to walk out the hallway and to the exit, she watched as Stefan walked in and spotted her.

"Hey," he said, making her freeze.

"Um...hi," she trailed off wearily. "Are you here to see Caroline? She's still at class."

"No, I came to see you," Stefan countered, stepping forward to meet her halfway. Audrey, still concerned seeing as she thought she made herself astronomically clear the other night, sighed.

"Well...I guess that's a good thing. Caroline wanted me to give these to you anyways so it saves me a trip to...wherever the hell you're staying." She reached into her bag and produced a package of leftovers Caroline had kindly put in a box for their favorite Salvatore. It wasn't really Caroline's fault that Stefan hadn't been invited to Friendsgiving, but Audrey had asked her not to invite him for the sakes of everyone else. Matt and Stefan in the same room would just cause too many problems for her that she didn't want to deal with.

Stefan took the box with a cocked eyebrow. "You made me a doggie bag."

"Caroline made you a doggie bag. I agreed to give it to you." She crossed her arms. "It'd be a shame to see a vampire starve to death. Can that happen?"

"I don't think so," Stefan admitted. "But thanks, anyways."

"Sure. I mean, it is Thanksgiving, so..." She shifted uncomfortably, clearing her throat. "Besides, there's so much to be thankful for. Bonnie's alive...we're going to do whatever it takes to save her...and on top of that, Madeline's trying to fix this whole...demon thing she's got going on. She should be back soon with news. Of course, if it didn't go well, she probably won't be back, but...yeah."

She trailed off awkwardly at the end, realizing she'd divulged too much in the meeting. Stefan ignored her awkward small talk and said what he came to say. "Look, when Damon was gone, I...um, I pushed you away."

"Yeah, I think I got that part pretty clearly," Audrey confessed softly under her breath. "But you pushed everyone away. Not just me, Caroline too. And she was supposed to be your friend."

"I know, but I pushed you away the most." His green eyes were focused on hers. "Besides Caroline, I knew that you would be the one person would would sit with me and let me cry...you would make me feel better and I didn't want to feel better. And I also didn't want to cry...so I had to push you away the most."

Her mouth felt dry, her heartbeat felt fast and strong, and she hated it. Her eyes snapped away from his and she nodded carefully.

"I appreciate you saying that."

Stefan, seeing her reluctancy, stepped forward, closer to her. "Listen—"

But it seemed to push her over the edge, the space he closed. She shook her head. "No, I...I've got to go to class and then I've got a date with Matt." Hesitantly, she looked up at him and started to walk away. "Enjoy your leftovers, Stefan."

And he couldn't find anyway to stop her, nor was he sure he wanted to. A part of him wanted to listen to Damon, to fight for her, but another part of him knew that it wasn't who he was. If she wanted to be let go, he wanted to do that for her.

But though Stefan prided himself of being so noble, of being able to put his feelings aside to let the girl he loved be happy, it was starting to kill him.

Damon sat in the Whitmore bar with a glass of bourbon in his hand, drinking quietly with himself so early the morning after they'd come back from Portland to learn that the entire trip was a waste because the Ascendant, what would help bring Bonnie back, was really with Jo the entire time because—what a shocker it was—Jo was a part of the Gemini Coven, as was Luke and Liv. So there was nothing left to do but drink.

Elena walked into the bar, knowing that's where Damon would be, and joined him hurriedly.

"You should've brought me with you. Well, first, you should've told me that Bonnie was alive...and then you should've brought me with you," she reprimanded.

He shrugged. "Well, Ric had more frequent flyer miles and Ric didn't deliberately push my fiancée to forget our entire relationship."

The brunette vampire sighed heavily. "All right, I know I deserved that. But are you really still angry with me?"

"Mmhmm."

"So you and Bonnie spent the last four months together?"

"Yeah."

"What did you do?"

"Bicker, mostly," Damon answered with a soft smile. "Cooked. Ate. We went through a Tetris phase, but I beat it, and she got mad." Elena laughed quietly. "We talked. A lot. Apparently, there are a lot of words in the English language, and Bonnie knows just about all of them."

The teenager smiled. "Yep. I know this is gonna sound...pretty strange, but I'm really happy that the two of you had each other."

Thinking about his friend made Damon inevitably smile, until he realized that she was still trapped in that hell. He murmured, "She sacrificed herself so I could come back. Hmm. Wow." Damon drank out of his glass. "Because when she wasn't talking, she was listening. She listened for hours and hours and hours, so when the opportunity presented itself for me to come home, she made sure I took it."

Elena was quiet for a long time. "Do I even have to ask what you talked about?"

"Nope." Damon drank again. "She consumed every thought of mine; every breath. Only to come back here and find that she doesn't remember caring about my death at all when I was gone. Moved on with some...overconfident doctor type."

"That doctor is helping her with something really important," Elena pressed, trying not to spill the secret, knowing that her sister wouldn't want her to. "It's not about you, Damon. It's about her, about what she is. She'll get around to you eventually."

"And when she does?" Damon glanced at Elena quietly. "What, do you think everything's just going to go back to normal? I tried to make her remember, I tried everything. She was willing to put herself through physical pain because she couldn't bear knowing that there was a part of her life missing and I will be damned if she dies so soon after I just got my life back."

"So you're just going to give up?" Elena questioned. Damon didn't answer her, but drank from the glass of bourbon in his hand. She sighed. "I broke up with Liam."

"Who the hell is Liam?"

Elena rolled her eyes. "My boyfriend. Well...ex-boyfriend, I guess."

Damon looked at her, confused, from the corner of his eye. "Is this supposed to be a pep talk? Because you suck at pep talks, Elena, trust me."

"I made a choice," Elena barreled on, ignoring Damon's rude comment. He listened respectively. "I could've stayed with him. I could've...pretended that what's good for me is to be with a normal human and to pretend to be normal. But where would that get me? And I could've wiped his memory, but then I would have to lie. So I let him go."

Damon locked eyes with her. "So you're telling me that I should let her go?"

Elena shook her head. "No, I'm telling you that you and Madeline...are far different from anyone else on this planet. So don't give up."

The two vampires stared at each other for a long time, and eventually, Damon sighed. "Yeah, you still suck at pep talks, Elena. Cutting to the chase would've been a lot better."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, sorry. I guess." Climbing off the bar stool, she began to walk away and leave Damon to his solitude, but then she turned around and inhaled sharply. "You're...gonna help me get Bonnie back, right?"

Damon turned around on the stool and raised his glass to her. "Whatever you say."

"Elena. Damon." Both of them turned and looked at the door to see the doctor they spoke of earlier—Dr. Buckner—enter the empty bar with an unconscious Madeline in his arms. Elena's eyes went wide and Damon, wasting no time, set his glass down on the counter and flashed over to him.

"What the hell did you do to her?" Damon growled, snatching Madeline's body from Sebastian's arms into his own. He had Madeline's feet on the ground as he surveyed her, brushing the curls out of her face and making sure her body was unharmed. Sebastian looked between Elena and Damon.

"We did the spell," he said, mainly towards Elena. "And it worked. Madeline Reichs is locked in the cuff on her wrist so unless it breaks she won't ever get out. In the event that she does...well, Madeline will only have about 24 hours before she takes over. Permanently, this time."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Damon snarled, turning around at Elena, who didn't seem to be freaking out. He turned back around at Sebastian. "Tell me what happened to her!"

"Damon, just relax," Elena said softly behind him and walked over. She looked at Sebastian and nodded to him. "Go. I'll take care of this."

"She should wake up soon," Sebastian added before he walked out into the daylight, leaving the bar. Damon stared after him, debating on whether or not to go, but he stayed with Madeline's body propped up in his embrace and looked at Elena for an explanation, where she divulged all that she was made aware of by her sister.

I didn't know how long it'd been since I had fallen to the floor during the ritual, but the good news was that I woke up. In...my dorm, nonetheless, which was odd but pleasant. The bright light outside hurt my eyes and I realized that it was no longer the dead of night, which meant that something had happened. I shifted in my bed, feeling a strange heavy feeling on my wrist. Looking down, I saw the gold-plated cuff snapped around my tiny wrist, sealed off. I attempted to sit up, but someone pushed me back down as I felt the bed's center of gravity deepen on my side of the bed.

"Don't." It was Damon's voice demanding me, and once my eyes stopped going in and out, I saw his face right above me. His hand was on my arm and he was holding me down gently on the bed. "You need to rest, Madeline. You've been through a lot."

"What the...what happened?" I said quietly, shaking my head. It hurt, but I did it nevertheless. "Is she...is she gone?"

"You mean the demon...parasite thing that you kept secret from me?" Damon drank some bourbon out of a glass in his other hand. "Yeah. She's gone, as long as that cuff stays on."

"Mmm...let me up," I ordered, trying to sit straight, but I had to admit, I felt so weak that I would just fall right back. Damon disobeyed me and forced me right back down.

"I told you, you need to rest."

'I don't want to rest, Damon, I'm a goddamn vampire. We don't need rest."

"After you internally fought a battle with an alter ego demon bitch, I think it's a little necessary, vampire or not," he snapped coldly. I silenced, still stubborn wanting to get up, but Damon set his bourbon glass down on the nightstand and shifted himself. "Come on, scoot over."

Hesitantly, I complied, shifting over in the bed so that he could climb onto it. I had to admit, it felt a little strange, Damon Salvatore being in my bed and all, but I didn't have the energy to object. He laid down flat on his back, but I was still lying on my side, facing towards him. He looked up at the ceiling with a sigh.

"You could've told me," he began. I bit down on my lip, remembering that he didn't know anything about this.

"I wanted to figure it out on my own."

"You mean you wanted to figure it out with that doctor of yours."

"Jealousy is an emotion I am not fond of," I stated blandly. Slowly, he turned his head at me with a small, Damon-like smirk.

"That's odd. I seem to recall you being very adorable when you were jealous of all the other women I dated." He paused. "Including Elena."

"What do you even have to be jealous of?" I scoffed, confused. "I know you've dated other women. Vampires, humans...experienced women...prettier women. There is no logical reason to be jealous of someone close to me. I, on the other hand, have many reasons to be jealous of those women—including Elena." Finding my mouth dry, I licked my lips slowly and added, "Of course, I would only be jealous if I loved you."

Damon took in a deep breath. "Sometimes it's not about experience or beauty." He shrugged, confused, and shook his head, "Which...I'm not really sure why you think you're less beautiful than any of the other people I've dated, but my point is, you were different. And you were mine."

I could see the sincerity in his eyes even though he wasn't looking at me. Slowly, I told him, "There's nothing going on with me and Sebastian. You should at least know that."

Damon was quiet for a very long time, and finally, he sighed. "I need to tell you something." He looked down, locking eyes with mine, and eventually continued reluctantly. "Bonnie's alive. I-I didn't say anything to you because she was stuck in that prison world and I wasn't sure if we could get her back, but I think we found a way. Your sister wants to help and...and I thought you should know."

At the confession, I felt a warm wave crash over me realizing that my friend was alive. A smile overcame my features, and just as I smiled, I watched Damon's lips turn into a small smile as well. I laughed. "Can I sit up now?"

His smile dropped. "No."

"But Bonnie—" I moved to sit up, but his hand came on my shoulder and he forced me back down.

"Can wait," he finished. "There's nothing we can do right now, this second. I promise, we'll get her back. But I'm serious, you need to rest. I'll wake you later, okay?"

I watched as Damon moved to get out of the bed to give me space, and I'm not really sure what came over me. It was like Sebastian had said—a person may be dead, their body cold and their heart stopped, but they were never truly gone. I understood it now; feelings worked the same way. They could be dead and buried, but they were never gone.

"Wait." My hand came up and wrapped around his arm, and Damon seemed genuinely shocked by the gesture. I didn't sit up, as he had told me to, and just watched as he turned back at me with hope shining in his eyes. I swallowed. "Stay. Please."

And I watched those hopeful eyes turn to pain, and I realized how torturous I was being to him. He loved me, in the purest form, and I couldn't give that to him—not yet, anyway. If this was false hope, it would break his heart. But it wasn't...it wasn't. And that was strange, beyond strange, for me at least.

Damon laid back on the bed as I asked him to without any objections. His arm opened, and I moved myself closer to him, where I laid with my head on his chest and his arm wrapped around my body, and I felt oddly comfortable and safe. It was beyond comprehension for me; I mean, here I was lying with the man whom, up until a few days ago, I believed to be one of the most vicious men alive. But I didn't mind it. In fact...I liked it.

I could feel his lips on my hair as he kissed it softly and sighed, "As long as you promise to sleep."

I nodded and, before I could respond, felt myself drift off.

Thanks for reading! Sorry for the wait. Please review!

Tvshowsmaniac: Thank you! Yeah the storylines in TVD are SUPER repetitive. I kind of feel like this was a little repetitive too but I have my fun with it unlike the show that just does it on purpose and thinks that it's a whole new thing. Ugh. Anyways, thanks for reviewing!

twin of a sister: Thank you! I actually did publish the first chapter of that Monte Cristo story but then I decided it would be so much better as a summer project so I took it down. Hopefully I can revisit it soon!

grapejuice101: Oh yeah the sexual tension was through the roofs in 6x08. This was more sweet at the end :)

kamster4000: Oh my God, thank you! That's pretty intense. Here's the update, I'm so sorry that it took so long!

vampangel25: Here it is! Thanks for reviewing!

SomebodyWhoCares: My thoughts exactly :P

Seddielover945: Welcome back! Yeah I feel bad for Damon too, can't get away from the freaking memory wipes...sucks to suck. The returning of the ring was probably one of the hardest scenes but I knew it had to happen. But in my head I was like "damn it, Mads!" because it's so unfair to both of them. But don't worry that'll be fixing itself soon enough. Sebastian isn't going to die or anything he's just floating around...I can't decide whether or not I want him in the next couple episodes because he's kind of like a 2nd Liam just with a deeper character arc so either he won't show up until 6x16 or he'll show his face once or twice in the upcoming episodes. Mads and Damon were very cute in that scene (though I thought they were cuter in this last scene lol). Mmmm...not giving away any secrets but things for Madeline and Damon may be turning up sometime soon...thanks for reviewing again!

Adela: Audrey and Stefan are tricky because of everything going on with Stefan and Caroline nowadays. I don't want this to turn into a love box and have them end up being exactly like Mads, Damon, and Elena where Stefan and Caroline get together and it pisses Audrey off and stuff so Caroline and Stefan can't have a relationship, but I have to be careful of the metaphorical grenades the writers throw at us because one wrong move and there's no coming back, which is why I'm taking updates slow. Mads and Damon will also be complicated, but they've had their fair share of complications in the last season so I'm a little more inclined to fix things for them soon enough. Thanks for reviewing, here's the update!

Tvd2014: It'll be up again during the summer once I work on it and improve it and make sure I still have the motivation to do it! Thanks for the interest in it though!