A/N: Thank you so much for your beautiful reviews! They make me SO happy :] (But not necessarily less evil, mind you lol)

Disclaimer: TVD belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

Chapter 13

"You've got to be kidding me," Damon said, regarding his car with a frown. Four flat tires seemed a little severe, if not downright pointless. What business could Klaus have in doing that. Damon glanced over his shoulder at Caroline's car and rolled his eyes.

"Looks like you'll need a ride."

Damon blinked a few times before shifting his eyes to Stefan who appeared to his right.

"Livid neighbors?" Stefan's voice was calm and casual, but the layer of brightness on his face with which he had arrived was gone.

"More like livid Klaus," Damon muttered an answer, feeling overwhelmed by the realization that Elena might have actually told Stefan... He had never thought she would've told him so immediately. But when Stefan looked at him, asking how Klaus could have had anything to do with that, as if that was what he was thinking about while looking at him with a piercing glare that seemed to contain all the emotions between anger, fury, sadness, and disappointment, it was clear that Elena had said something more than hello.

Not sure whether to acknowledge the look or ignore it, Damon started telling him about Klaus' visit, but Stefan suddenly cut him off in the middle of the sentence, his voice almost toneless.

"I didn't think you could actually do that. Take advantage of her like that. When she was most vulnerable."

Damon turned toward him, tilting his head to the side. "What?"

"Do you think she won't see through this?" Stefan continued in a low voice. "That she won't realize you made her label her confusion with the meaning it doesn't have?"

"And what would that non-existent meaning be?" Damon asked with a hint of irritation in his voice, narrowing his eyes at him.

Stefan froze and then after looking at him unblinkingly for a few seconds punched him. Damon snorted humorlessly under his breath, straightened up, and returned the punch, shoving Stefan against the car.

"Did you think I'd give up on my feelings for her just because things got better between us?" Damon asked with a grimace. Stefan pushed himself away from the car and looked at him darkly. "Did I take advantage of the situation? Of course I did," Damon said through his teeth. "Did I take advantage of being alone with her? Sure I did," he widened his eyes at Stefan and snorted mirthlessly. "Did you think I wouldn't? Did you think I'd take her bunny hunting, wandering around the woods, and reminiscing on your finest accomplishments?" He exhaled heavily. "But I didn't do anything she didn't want as much as I did," he added on an impulse, despite the predictability of Stefan's reaction to that.

Stefan's fist missed Damon's face and hit his shoulder instead, causing him to took a step back, but it wasn't enough to make him lose his balance. It took another series of mutual blows to send them both to the ground.

"What's going on here?" Caroline's voice resounded from the side of the porch, and a moment later both Caroline and Elena appeared next to them. "What are you doing?"

"Stop it!" Elena exclaimed with a grimace.

Damon staggered to his feet, and after a moment of consideration extended his hand to Stefan, who glanced at it, grabbed a stick laying nearby and plunged it right into Damon's hand. Elena widened her eyes at him. He then got up on his own, wiped the blood off his nose with the back of his hand, and wordlessly glancing at Caroline and Elena walked off toward the other car.

"The tires... are flat," Damon said with a twitch of his nose, pulling the stick out of his hand, and throwing it away.

Elena narrowed her eyes at him, slightly shaking her head. Damon shrugged.

"Well, then," Caroline said, thrusting up her chin. "Elena can ride with us, and you," she lingered on the word in mock-consideration, "can run after the car."

"Caroline," Elena shifted her eyes to her.

"It was a joke, Elena. Revive your sense of humor," Caroline said, and marched away toward her car.

Damon touched his jaw as if checking if it was still in place. "I know, I know," he said with a roll of his eyes when Elena took a step toward him. "Hitting younger siblings, morally wrong, and all that."

"Did you take everything from the trunk?" Elena asked after a pause, seemingly ignoring the former subject.

"No, not yet," Damon said, not sure what to make of it, but he searched his pocket for the keys, and went to open the trunk.

Elena followed Damon, glancing at Stefan and Caroline who were standing next to the other car, talking.

When Damon opened the trunk, Elena caught his arm, and without a warning pushed him behind the car where they wouldn't be seen. She pressed her lips to his, half-kissing him, half-sucking the blood from the cut on his lip.

"And yes, you shouldn't have," she said quietly when she drew back, taking a step toward the trunk, and grabbing the bags.

Damon pulled her back to him and whispered into her ear. "I won't endure several hours without kissing you."

Elena smiled, cradling his face in her hands. "I have an idea," she said, squinting. "Every time I say the word..." she hesitated, trying to think of a word that was ubiquitous enough, yet unsuspicious, "maybe, it will be as if I kissed you. And of course it works the other way around too."

"Not good enough at all," Damon muttered against her skin, brushing his lips across her neck and jawline. "But I guess it'll have to do," he added with a sigh and kissed her.

"So Tyler isn't the only one that's being possessed by Klaus?" Jeremy asked, leaning over the table. "Do you know who else is?"

Matt smiled. "If I knew I wouldn't be playing Sherlock Holmes now, would I?"

"But it can be anyone," Jeremy observed with a sigh. "Anyone in town."

"I don't think so. If he just needed a body, he would've been satisfied with one. If he's haunting somebody else, he's doing it for a reason."

Jeremy nodded, glancing around the Grill with thoughtful eyes. "It can be anyone," he repeated. "Including you," he said, looking back at Matt.

"Or you," Matt returned with humor in his eyes, but then their expressions became somber again.

"I don't like that Bonnie isn't telling us what she's doing," Jeremy said after a pause.

"Maybe she's worried about the exact same thing," Matt offered. "Revealing what she's doing to anyone equals revealing everything to Klaus, if we don't know whom he's possessing."

"You're probably right. Still..." Jeremy shook his head. "I don't like that she's at it alone."

"Maybe when Elena gets back she'll get it out of her," Matt said reassuringly.

"Yeah," Jeremy agreed without much conviction in his voice. For some time they just ate in silence. "Why didn't you go with Caroline and Stefan?" Jeremy asked after a pause, looking up at Matt. "She told me she'd asked you to go."

"Yes. A pity trip." Matt smiled briefly, mixing vegetables with his fork. "Not really my kind of thing." Jeremy gave him a questioning look. "And the trip back would probably be even worse."

When they said their goodbyes to Mrs. Flowers, Caroline ushered Elena into the backseat with her.

"Maybe I'll seat in front, then," Damon said, slumping into the passenger's seat.

"Or you can take the free spot in the trunk," Caroline said, shutting the door, while Elena tried very hard to retain an indifferent expression on her face.

Stefan started the engine, and she leaned her head against the window, following the road with her eyes. No one turned on the radio, and they just drove in complete silence for almost two hours. Caroline kept brainstorming with herself, and shifting her eyes between everyone. At last she gave up hope that the mood would change on its own.

"So, Elena," she started, straightening up. "Which blood type is your favorite?" she asked conversationally.

Very slowly, Elena turned her head, giving her a mildly incredulous look. But Caroline looked her straight in the eye, apparently intent on making a casual conversation.

"I don't know," Elena said uncomfortably.

"Every blood bag has a blood type-" Caroline started but then interrupted herself. "Of course. Sorry. No blood bags. Just praying on innocents," she added bitingly, twisting her head to demonstrate she was looking at Damon, who for reasons Caroline didn't want to investigate seemed a little too amused by her words.

"Maybe B?" Elena offered, and Caroline looked at her questioningly.

"Why B?"

"I don't know," Elena shifted in her seat. "Maybe not."

Caroline wrinkled her forehead in confusion while Damon looked very intently out of the window, fighting a smile. Stefan glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.

"OK," Caroline tossed her head right and left, and took a deep breath. "Maybe I'll fill you in on the latest events, then," she said, giving Elena a baffled look when she darted her eyes to her with a somewhat upset expression on her face.

"That's a good idea," Elena said quickly, regaining her composure and snorting inwardly at herself.

She found herself trying to listen to Caroline as intently as possible, but she was becoming repeatedly distracted by other thoughts, by catching Stefan watching her in the car mirror, by the pain in his eyes his gaze leaving splinters in her heart that hurt no matter how much she tried to reason with herself. The feeling that had come over her when she had been talking to him, the sense of guilt, began creeping into her mind again, making the more sense the more she considered the past events. He had a right to feel betrayed, and perhaps she wasn't better than Katherine, after all. She thought she could see a glimpse of this very thought in his gaze every time their eyes fleetingly met in the mirror.

"...turn you back into a human," Caroline concluded a part of the story with a sigh, but it wasn't until Damon turned in his seat and looked at Caroline with his brows furrowed that the words registered in Elena's mind.

She widened her eyes at Caroline. "What did you say?"

"That's hardly the worst part of the story," Stefan observed in a low voice, his eyes fixed on the road.

Elena and Damon looked at each other.

Caroline quickly shifted her gaze between them and rolled her eyes. "Well, at least no one is going to be disappointed by how unlikely to happen that is," she added, squinting.

"Why?" Elena looked at her, wondering why the idea suddenly felt like a threat. But then she reminded herself that even if she became human, she could still turn into a vampire again. The thought stunned her even more. A couple of days ago she had considered it an ultimate nightmare, while now she was plotting how, if need be, she could make it happen again.

"Because," Caroline drew a deep breath, "it requires a sacrifice."

"Of course," Damon said with a small, crooked smile, returning his gaze to the road.

"I think you're forgetting it's Klaus who wants it to happen," Caroline observed dryly, glaring at his profile. "A sacrifice makes no difference to him."

"What kind of sacrifice?" Elena asked, beginning to realize that what she thought was over, was still in motion. It was so hard to believe after those two days that seemed more like a dream now. Her eyes skimmed over Damon's shoulder, his neck, his hair. She thought that if she could touch him now, feel his lips on her skin, his arms around her, the dream would go on.

"You'd have to kill someone, and then the spell would seal the re-transition," Caroline said barely above a whisper. "Or whatever it's called."

Elena stared at her in silence.

"Please," Damon said with a mirthless snort.

"Bonnie is working on how to..." Caroline trailed off, remembering she didn't know what exactly Bonnie was doing. "On how to solve this... She's going to find a way around this."

"Around what?" Elena asked, shaking her head in disbelief. "The transition? The sacrifice? Klaus?"

"Everything!" Caroline said at a loss for a better answer. "Anything," she added with less certainty in her voice, when Damon looked at her over his shoulder.

Wordlessly, Stefan pulled into a gas station that appeared to their right, and the conversation came to a halt.

Elena looked around, surprised for a moment that it was already dusk, but then she remembered that after Klaus' attack in the morning they had been unconscious for several hours.

"I'm tired," Elena said in an almost thoughtful tone when Stefan got out of the car to fill up the gas tank. She looked up at the heavy clouds in the sky, wondering why she was feeling tired all of a sudden. Tired. Exhausted. Drained.

"Me too," Caroline said with a sigh, the words making her realize what she had been promptly ignoring for several days now.

"I'll go get some travel pillows," Damon said, getting out of the car as well, and heading toward the store. Stefan watched him over the roof, his face expressionless.

"Look at that," Caroline muttered sarcastically. "A monster and a gentleman."

Elena shot her an irritated look, and then jumped out of the car, taking a few steps away from it, feeling Stefan's eyes follow her, and hearing Caroline's footsteps behind her.

"Elena!" Caroline caught up with her, grabbing her arm. "I'm sorry. I… It's just…" She huffed in exasperation. "You know this isn't going anywhere," Caroline said, looking at Elena as if she actually expected the confirmation. Elena averted her eyes from her, and made to walk off. "And what about Stefan?" Caroline pressed, following her.

"I assure you I feel guilty enough without being reminded that I should," Elena said with a humorless snort, wrapping her arms around herself and turning toward Caroline.

"I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. I'm trying to understand," Caroline said defensively.

"Understand what, Caroline? Why I love Damon?" she asked, the words sending hot shivers up her spine and she had to dig her toes into her shoes to keep herself from running to him. The idea echoed in her head like a bell, like the sound of a ticking clock. She should run to him. She should. "I love him because I love him. What is a correct explanation for this? I love him. I like him. I want him. Maybe I could tell you why I like him, but I can't tell you why I love him, Caroline. Don't ask me that."

"Elena-" Caroline made to walk after her, but she stopped her with her hand.

"I need to... freshen up," Elena abstractly waved her hand. "I'll be right back," she said, heading across the parking lot toward the back entrance to the store.

Caroline looked up to the sky with a stifled huff. She shook her head in frustration, and marched back to the car.

It started out with a twinge of cold.

Elena could recall that moment very well later on. It was a twinge of cold, somewhere near her heart, a sharp pain, as if someone stabbed her with an icicle. Then it spread further and further, like a flood. It slowed down her steps, and she found herself almost gasping for air. It was hard to breathe, and when she looked around she couldn't see much except her immediate surrounding, the darkness, and the echoing thought that no one was going to come, that she was alone - and that thought was most visible sight of all.

But that was also the one thought she could prove wrong. She tried to fight it, remind herself it wasn't true. If there was something that wasn't true, it was this. She wasn't alone. But somehow, despite succeeding at holding on to that thought, the swarm of other thoughts attacked her with a swishing sound she could almost hear. She nearly lost her balance, trying to put a stop to all those thoughts, all those words swirling angrily in her head. "Whatever drives you most insane." Elena stumbled, and put her face in her hands, trying to calm her breathing.

Everything was OK. Nothing was happening. She felt tired, she felt guilty, she was hungry... and she was guilty... she felt guilty... There was really no reason... it was all in her head. She slid her hands off her face, and looked around, trying to remember the way back to the car. She suddenly realized she had wandered off in the opposite direction, and the store was now further away than a few moments ago. For a while she stared at the ground, trying to figure if she was still walking or standing in one place. The ground was moving under her feet, as if she was standing on a spinning wheel, and she fought a hundred impressions that she was about to fall down.

Very abruptly she turned around, glancing right and left with frantic eyes. She didn't think she could be feeling that thirsty after several hours. How much time exactly?... She couldn't remember, but it didn't matter. She wasn't hungry. She swallowed hard, and her throat was dry, but she wasn't sure what to make of it. She thought of blood, but the idea didn't do anything to her, didn't scare her, didn't soothe her. It was a good a sign. It had to be a good sign.

"What about... what about..." the words reverberated in her head in Caroline's voice at first, then in no one's voice, in a voice, soundlessly... They pulsated in her veins, under her eyes, on the back of her head... She just wanted the sensation gone. She didn't want to feel guilty. Didn't have a reason to feel guilty. "Don't you see? I did this. I did all of this! This is all my fault! Nothing bad would've ever happened if it wasn't for me!" Now it was her own voice, but it changed again, into the words, into the soundless meaning that bit down on the edge of her mind, remained there like a claw, like a thousand of claws pinching her entire body, until it hurt everywhere, until she couldn't remember what she was thinking about. There was only that feeling, that sense of something terrible, something cold, something evil. It was all her fault. She was hurting everyone. She was causing everyone pain. "If I caused so much damage as a human I can only cause more damage as a vampire." The truth of the words hit her like a gust of cold wind. She grimaced, closing and opening her eyes, trying to clear her head. She knew these were only half-truths- No... it was the truth, but... there were some answers to these... answers? Different words... countering what she was saying... what she was feeling right now... Elena.

Elena. For a second everything was swept away and she could draw a steady breath, but then the thoughts fell over her again and she stifled a groan under the pressure of a sudden headache, sudden pain in her chest, in her throat, in her veins.

She just wanted the pain to go away. How could she make the pain go away? The pain was driving her insane. She couldn't decide if it was hunger or guilt... or was one caused by the other? or did they both exist together, tangled together like a cord... A cord that was wrapping itself around her tighter and tighter and tighter, until she couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't remember-

"Oh, I'm sorry!"

She didn't know what had happened. For a moment... one... two... three... four moments she couldn't understand what had happened. But then she looked up and in a flash she knew, without even thinking about it, without recalling anything. It was so ordinary, a moment like thousands of other moments. She could almost feel all such similar moments from the past clash with a hissing sound, shards of memories blank like her mind was when she caught the man's gaze.

She didn't know why all the details registered in her mind so well. His smile when he apologized for bumping into her. His eyes when he said something about buying the wrong coffee flavor. His lips when he tilted his head to the side asking if she was OK.

She didn't know how she could see in the dim lights of the lanterns that he had a green sweater and brown shoes. She might have very well imagined the colors. Maybe she imagined his face too. Maybe it never happened. Maybe it wasn't true.

He offered her his coffee, said something about aspirin, asked if she wanted to call someone. He didn't seem alarmed by the look in her eyes, maybe because the tears blurred her expression, and she just looked like a moderately sad, average girl in an average, empty parking lot.

It began to drizzle.

She knew it made no sense, that there was no connection between the sense of guilt and the stranger in a green sweater. She knew. And she couldn't understand how it could so completely not matter that she knew. The pain was stronger, the urge to quench the pain was stronger, everything was stronger than her. In that one moment she understood. It was a trap. It was a dead-end road. It was an abyss with nothing to keep her from plummeting down into the darkness.

She hadn't drowned. She hadn't died. It was only now that she was dying. It was only now that she was going to die. "Here lies Elena Gilbert."

The stranger's eyes were like mirrors, or maybe it was just her feverish imagination playing tricks on her, for she could suddenly see in his eyes her fangs protruding out of her mouth. The mirrors widened and widened, but she didn't look into them anymore.

She thought it so very odd that she could hear him scream, while it was her who was screaming, with every pore of her body, every vein, every strand of her hair, every drop of blood entering her system.

"Here lies Elena Gilbert." She stared down at what didn't look like anything she had seen before. She was shaking and soon lost her balance and fell to her knees. Rain, blood, and tears were dripping off her face and she held her hands in the air as if she didn't know what to do with them, as if they didn't belong to her.

She could hear the sound of the rain, she could hear cars passing by in the distance. Everything was real and dark and empty. There was no reason for anything anymore. There was no her anymore. "Here lies Elena Gilbert." There were only lifeless eyes staring up at her, a pool of blood, and the excruciating pain of the realization that the girl she thought she was - was dead.