Homecoming

"Your father is dead... Oh, my mistake. Not your actual father and not dead. Mikael. Daggered. What do you want me to do with the body?"

One hour earlier

"Let's say that Mikael followed Elena and Louise in here. He tried to grab the doppelganger twin, so he could use her as bait," Stefan suggested.

"So then you vervained him?" I added.

"No! We vervained him. This guy is an original. Try to make it realistic."

Ripper!Stefan rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine. We vervained him and in the process discovered that he had a dagger."

I caught on. "Which he planned to use on his darling daughter, but instead..."

"We drove it through his heart," Damon finished.

"But what about when he asks to see Mikael's body?" I asked. "We can't magic up another Mikael. This one was already difficult to find."

"Good point!" Damon patted my back gently. "You my brother have been compelled to do what Klaus says. So the idea is to lure him back here and kill him... last thing we need is you getting tripped up and tongue-tied."

"Well, don't look at me. I am just in charge of getting him back here," Stefan defended.

"Klaus is smart. If we tell him that Mikael is dead, he'll want proof," Elena said.

"Then I shall be dead," Mikael spoke up.

"What if he wants to see you in person?" Elena asked him.

"Well that means our plan is working. Klaus will absolutely want to see my body. You lure him here - and I will kill him," Papa Original explained.

"With what? Those daggers won't work on him," Stefan questioned.

"Well, I am in possession of a stake fashioned from the wood of the ancient white oak tree. The one that left these ashes when it burned," Mikael told us.

"Where is it?"

Mikael narrowed his eyes at the ripper. "Not here. The knowing of its location is my insurance policy."

Stefan scoffed. "Against what?"

"You leaving this in my heart." He held up the dagger. "You see, a vampire can´t dagger an Original without dying. So, it falls to either of you."

Elena and I looked at each other. Secretly, I wanted to dagger him. Rebekah told me what a dick he was to his family. Technically, he was the reason Klaus was such an evil person.

I took the dagger from him. "I'll do it."

"Klaus will leave nothing to chance. Especially when it comes to trust."

Present time

"Well, he's here. Come by whenever."

One hour ago

"You know, I'm gonna enjoy this more than I should." I shoved the dagger into his head. "Dick."

Present time

"It´s true. I saw it with my own eyes... That´s not a problem. She's right here."

Stefan handed the phone to Rebekah. "Hello, Nik... It´s true. He´s finally out of our lives for good. I miss you. I´m miserable here." She looked so guilty, leading her brother into a death trap. Which he deserves... "Good. I'll see you then, brother." She hung up the phone and turned to us. "He bought it. He´s coming home."

"Now... was that easy or what?" Damon teased.

Elena rolled her eyes. "Let's just get this over with."

She pulled the dagger out of the Original's chest.

Elena searched through her closet for something to wear as Bonnie and I looked at the cave drawings. The doppelganger sighed. "I hate everything in my closet. I have nothing to wear to Homecoming."

I shrugged. "Don't go. Let's stay home, order pizza and over analyze ancient hieroglyphic thingies with Alaric."

Bonnie nodded. "Sounds good."

"We have to go. Caroline will kill us," Elena reminded.

"Ha!" Bonnie said. "Caroline actually has a date."

Elena sat on the bed with us. "You know that you can talk to me about Jeremy, right?" she said.

I nodded. "You can talk to me too, Bon."

Bonnie shook her head. "I don't need to talk about it. He fell in love with his ghost girlfriend and lied about it. What´s done is done."

"Jeremy hurt you, Bonnie. You have to get it out. We're-" I gestured to Elena and I "-mad at him too."

"You are mad at your little brother. You'll yell at him a little, teach him a life lesson. You can't really be mad like I'm mad."

"Bonnie..." Elena started.

Bonnie cut her off. "And you guys shouldn't have to be. He's your brother. So... no. I can't really talk to you about it."

Damon and I were preparing weapons in his room. "We can't trust Rebekah not to turn on us."

"Oh really?" Damon said sarcastically. "Cause these Original vampires are usually so reliable."

"Klaus may be cruel, sadistic and a sociopath who has done horrible things to her, but at the end of the day, he's still her brother," I told him.

"Her lying, mama-killing, dagger-happy brother," he said. "Wolfsbane is ready."

"There's too many people who can screw this up, Damon. Too many things that can go wrong."

"Well, I am formulating a secret contingency plan."

"Oh? Do tell," I urged.

Damon smirked and wrapped his arms around my waist. "Well, if I told you, then it wouldn't be a secret."

He leaned in and kissed me. "Well, aren't you two cozy." We broke apart. I glared at the obnoxious Ripper!Stefan. "I need to borrow a tie."

"You have your own ties," Damon said.

"Hm... I'm a one hundred and sixty two year old vampire and I'm going to a homecoming dance. I need better ties."

"You could do us all a favour and not go," I said, smiling sweetly.

"I'm compelled to protect your bloodbag of a sister. And if I look at you guys' track record at high school dances... it's pretty tragic. With my luck she'll go and get yourself murdered by the Homecoming Queen..."

I wasn't upset when Stefan left, no doubt to look for a better tie. I picked up a wolfsbane grenade and prepared to throw it when Damon snatched it out of my hand. "No!"

"I'm able to do it," I insisted as he put it on the table. "Ric taught me."

"Louise! If this thing blows up in our face... just remember: only one of us heals quickly," Damon said.

Stefan returned. "Ah... please tell me that you have a better plan than wolfsbane grenades?"

"Never you mind, brother. The less you know the better," his elder brother said.

"My freedom from Klaus rests entirely upon you two and Elena executing your plan perfectly. So, excuse me if I'm a bit cynical," Stefan explained..

"You're the one with the biggest chance of screwing this up," I said. "If Klaus asks you one wrong question, whole thing goes boom and we're all-" I dragged my finger across my throat "-dead."

"You do have a reason to worry, but if I look back in our history of epic plan failures, it's usually because one of us let our humanity get in the way. Upon taking odds on how this thing goes down, it's certainly not gonna be me who screws it up. I'll see you at Homecoming. I can't wait."

Then he left again. His back seemed to be my favourite sight these days.

Damon pulled my back into his arms. "Now, where were we..."

"You daggered her?" I exclaimed, walking into Stefan's room with Damon.

Elena was covering Rebekah's body with a blanket. "Yes. While you were having sex with Damon, I decided to be proactive."

I looked at Rebekah's body sadly. "I suppose you're right. She would've ruined the plan."

I probably would have done it myself if Elena hadn't... but Rebekah was looking forward to homecoming. She would have screwed it up last minute. Klaus was her brother after all.

"I feel horrible," Elena said guiltily. "I just daggered someone... and I made her trust me. I betrayed her!"

"It's for the best, I guess," I tried to comfort her. "We can undagger her later, when Klaus is dead."

Elena was panicking. "But she'll be so mad..."

"You'll be fine," I assured her. "No one's gonna hurt you. Which is why you're not going to homecoming."

"Why not?"

"Because when this all goes down, I don't want you getting hurt."

She smiled. "Just because you're fifteen minutes older, doesn't mean you get to act like an authoritarian figure. But fine, I didn't want to go anyway. What about you? Are you going?"

I nodded. "But I'll be fine. Everything's been worked out. Trust me."

"You sure you want to go?" Damon asked. "I'd be more than happy if you'd stay here..."

I rolled my eyes and smiled. "I'll be fine. Quit worrying. You'll meet me there?"

He nodded. "When everything gets sorted out, I'll go to the party."

"It's at the Lockwood mansion." His eyebrows rose. "The high school gym flooded. Tyler planned it at his house."

Damon's eyes widened in realisation. "Or Klaus did."

I walked up to Caroline when I arrived at the Lockwood mansion. "What a party. I don't suppose Tyler did all this..."

"How'd you know?" Caroline exclaimed in shock.

"Damon-" Caroline shot me a look. "What?"

"Can we just not mention Damon for the night?" she asked me. "Every time I think of you two, I-"

"Fine," I relented. "Let's just have a nice night." I looked over to Katherine, who was standing by the punch bowl pretending to be Elena. "Hey, I gotta go talk to Elena."

"Right."

I went over to my sister's evil doppelganger. "Oh, hi, Louise!"

I sent my eyes up to heaven. "I know." She looked shocked, but then nodded. "You know your part?" I whispered.

"Uh-huh," she replied.

Damon arrived soon after me and offered to dance. "Everything's running smoothly, then," Damon said as he twirled me around.

I nodded. "K-Elena-" He smirked. "Is perfectly aware of the KKP."

We nicknamed it the KKP, which stood for 'Kill Klaus Plan.' "He has his hybrids scattered all around the place," Damon told me.

"We'll be fine, Damon." I noticed Klaus approach us. "We're not doing anything, remember?"

Klaus smiled at the two of us, but it looked kind of forced. "Mind if I step in, mate?"

"Actually, I do," Damon said, wrapped an around around my waist possessively.

I unwrapped myself from him, annoyed that he was treating me like an object. "Ahem. It's not the nineteen hundreds. Women's rights, remember?"

"So what'll it be, love?" Klaus asked, still grinning. "I am quite the experienced dancer."

"I suppose with a thousand years of experience you ought to be." I looked to Damon. "I'd love to."

Damon's jaw fell a little as Klaus led me away. He clasped my hand in his and we danced. He really was a good dancer. "You look beautiful tonight."

I scoffed. "What game are you playing?" I asked him. "'Cause I really don't like games so lets get to the point."

"No games, love. I assure you," he said. "Perhaps I just want to dance with a pretty lady?"

I noticed Damon scowl a few feet away from us. "You're a thousand year old hybrid who's cunning and calculative as hell and you just want to dance?"

"That's it." He grinned. "Must there always be an ulterior motive?"

"Yes," I said simply. "It wouldn't surprise me if there was."

Klaus sighed. "Though my main reason for asking to dance was the reason I've stated, I also wanted to ask you about the plan you're friends have cooked up for this evening."

I was trying my hardest to keep my heartbeat slow. Damon and I practiced this a few times before. I had been perfecting my liar skills. "We haven't cooked up anything. Mikael is dead. Daggered. I did it myself."

He pulled away and we stopped dancing. "If I find out that you've lied to me, I will not be happy." I resisted the urge to gulp. I couldn't give him any reason to doubt me. "Have a nice night, Louise."

He walked away and I rejoined Damon. "Dick," the Salvatore growled. I got a glimpse of the white oak stake in his jacked. He brought his finger to his lip and I nodded.

Damon held my hand as I went out to the entrance hall. I heard Klaus roaring at Mikael. "No, hey," Damon stopped me, grabbing my arm. "You're not going in there."

"Why not?" I asked, glaring at him.

"You heard Klaus," Damon said. "We can pretend you knew nothing about the plan and you'll be safe. Go to the boarding house."

I shook my head. "No. I'm fine, Damon. I'm not some damsel in distress you have to constantly protect. Let me go."

I struggled beneath his grip. "No, not gonna happen. Go home, Louise. Please."

His eyes were begging with me. The ice broke and they were warm. I could never say no to Damon's warm eyes. "Fine," I relented. "I'll go to the boarding house. Just promise me you'll be safe."

He let go of me. "I promise."

"How did this happen?"

We screwed up. Stefan stopped Damon from killing Klaus, who then killed Mikael. The stake - the one thing that we could use against him - burned with Papa Original.

"We thought of everything, Louise!" Damon exclaimed angrily. "Klaus having hybrids. Mikael turning on us. We brought in Katherine so Elena wasn't in danger. Anything that could have gone wrong we were prepared for!"

"But Stefan wanted Klaus gone. More than any of us... that's what we were counting on."

"We blew it."

I let out a small sigh. The one shot we had... but Damon was taking it worse out of the two of us. "Where's Katherine?"

"She ran for the hills - as usual - the minute things got bad! And who blames her? Klaus would've crushed her. I had him, Louise. I had Klaus! This could have all been over!"

He threw a bottle of scotch into the fireplace, his face twisted in anger. I stood up and rushed over to him. "Hey. Damon! Look at me!" I cupped Damon's face in my hands. "We'll get through this. We always do. Trust me."

"We're never getting Stefan back. You know that, don't you?" Damon said.

"Then we'll let him go," I said, sadness laced in my tone. "We have to let him go."

Damon nodded and his phone wrong. "Not interested in the play by play of our failure right now, Katherine... That`s not very comforting at the moment. You're going back into hiding?... Take care of yourself, Katherine."

"She's gone?" I asked him.

"She's gone," he replied, nodding.

He looked melancholic. I couldn't blame him. The one plan we had to stop the guy who was controlling his brother was stopped by said brother.

And we didn't know where that brother was.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed or favourited this story.

This chapter was the first Klouise romantic scene. What did you think? Still don't know what to call Damon/Louise... Damise?

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