A/N: thank you again for all the reviews! I've been doing my best to answer all of your questions and theories. hope you enjoy the latest installment!

Ring. One.

Ring. Two.

Ring. Three.

Caroline was just about to hang up, but he finally answered halfway through the fourth ring. "And to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Hi," she cleared her throat, adding unnecessarily, "It's me."

Klaus didn't respond with a sarcastic remark, even though she was fully expecting him to. "You know, you people in Mystic Falls do seem to run into your fair share of werewolf bites. Have you considered perhaps, oh I don't know, leaving?"

The end of his sentence was pointed, and more than a little accusatory. Caroline shifted uncomfortably, "This is my home, Klaus."

"Of course it is." He heaved a disappointed sigh, "Alright then, get on with it. Who is it this time?"

Caroline frowned, puzzled. "Who is...what?"

"Is it Damon again?" he asked her impatiently, "Or, let me guess, it's precious Elena, isn't it?"

"Oh," she drew out the word in sudden realization, "No, no, that's not why I'm calling."

There was a moment of silence before he asked sharply, "Has something happened to you? Because I swear I will hunt down whoever—"

"No," she cut in hastily, "I'm fine. And this isn't about werewolf bites or werewolf venom or anything like that."

"Really?" Klaus sounded cautious, "So you don't need my help with anything?"

She bit her lip, deciding to avoid the question for the time being. "I actually called because I wanted to thank you again…you know, for the gift." There was a longer pause this time, during which Caroline drummed her fingertips nervously against the table in front of her. "Klaus? You still there?"

The change in his demeanor was readily apparent. "I was just waiting for you to drop the act, Caroline. No need for all the pretense." Caroline swallowed, picturing the expression on his face at that exact instant. She shivered.

"I..." she trailed off, wondering if she should push her luck. "Who says I need anything? Maybe I was just calling to—"

"To what?" he challenged, "To hear about how I'm doing in New Orleans?"

Caroline hesitated, not wanting to seem too eager. Instead, she opted for a casually curious tone. "Sure, now that you mention it...Rebekah tells me you've been up to quite a lot over there."

"Oh, did she?" Klaus' voice took on a dangerous edge, "And tell me, what exactly did sister dearest say?"

"Not much," she answered warily, "Why? Is there something that we need to know about?"

"No," he replied shortly, though she thought she detected a hint of relief in his tone as well. "Now this little chat has been fun and all, but I am a busy man and—"

"Wait! I—I do have a question for you."

"Ah yes, I thought you might."

Caroline ignored the smugness in his tone, feeling irritation seep into her shoulders. "You don't always have to be right," she mumbled, not caring if he heard her or not. "It doesn't always have to be a competition."

"Alpha male, remember?"

She sighed, suddenly feeling incredibly tired. She rubbed her neck, trying to ease some of the tension. "Tyler," she said hoarsely, "I need to know where he is."

"You've got to be kidding me," Klaus snapped, "I tell you that he's free to come home, and now you want me to find him for you?"

Caroline laid her head down on the table, pressing the coolness of the metal against her forehead. "I just thought...I wondered if maybe you had been keeping tabs on him. Anything that could give me an idea of where to start looking."

"I already told you that I hadn't wasted any of my time scouring the earth for him," Klaus responded coldly, "So, no, I do not know where lover boy is."

"Fine," she mulled over spilling the beans on Katherine for a second, but ultimately decided not to. "What about Stefan?" she asked instead, "You don't happen to know where he is, do you? Because he's kind of...disappeared on us."

"Disappeared?" Klaus sounded skeptical, "Perhaps he decided to leave his brother and Elena to play out their little love story without an unwanted third party, ever think of that?"

"Yes, but—"

"The easiest answer is usually the right one, love." he cut her off, "And now I really must be going. Good luck with finding Tyler. And I mean that sarcastically, of course."

Click.

Elena yawned, stretching as she turned onto her side and burrowed her face deeper into the fluffy pillows. She felt a fingertip trace her bare shoulder lightly, "Wake up, sleepyhead."

"No," she mumbled, "Go away."

A second later, the blanket covering her disappeared completely. She slowly dredged one eye open, staring down Damon pointedly. "If Jeremy walks in right now, he's going to be scarred for life."

"Jeremy is downstairs," Damon informed her, "And I think the kid has been scarred by plenty of other things, wouldn't you say?"

"Fair enough," Elena allowed, opening her other eye and raising herself on her elbows to look him over. "Why are you already dressed?"

"I thought we could all drive down and visit Bonnie," he answered off-handedly, "You said she's staying at her mother's for the summer, right?"

"Visit Bonnie?" she asked haltingly, a frown marring her features. "Why? Do you miss her already?"

Damon leaned back against the doorway, watching as she languidly swung her legs around to the other side of the bed and got to her feet. "Caroline called," he told her as she reached for the silk bathrobe resting in a heap on the floor. "She finally spoke to Klaus. Needless to say, he was less than helpful in divulging the whereabouts of either Stefan or Tyler."

"That's to be expected," Elena glanced over at Damon as she tied the robe around herself with a loose knot. "But what does this have to do with Bonnie?"

"We were thinking she could do a location spell."

Elena hesitated, "Have you talked to Jeremy about this?"

"No, I was waiting for you to come downstairs," Damon shrugged, "What's the big deal? He'll get a chance to see his girlfriend again, and as an added bonus, he gets to leave the house for a bit. We're eventually going to have to figure out something to tell everyone about his miraculous return from beyond the grave." He cocked his head thoughtfully, "Well, now that I think about it, I'm sure Bonnie could come up with a spell to—"

"No."

"What?"

"Jeremy doesn't want to bother Bonnie with all this stuff during the summer, alright?" Elena walked towards Damon and looped her arms around his neck, "I already brought up the idea to him the other night. He said that Bonnie has helped us enough—which is true—and that she deserves this time to herself."

Damon didn't look pleased, "When did he tell you that?"

"The night before last," Elena repeated, "When I went out to find Stefan. I ran into Jeremy at the cemetery, and he came with me down to the quarry. We talked about him being alive again, and I brought up the idea of Bonnie doing some sort of memory spell on the town. That's when he made it clear he was against the idea."

"Jeremy not being able to go out in public is just one of the problems on our short, albeit crucial list." Damon rested his hands on her waist, using his thumbs to stroke her sides gently. "To be honest, I'm not worried about Tyler coming home. He'll be fine. It's Stefan's disappearing act that concerns me. I think something happened to him."

"I know," Elena nodded in agreement, "Even if he decided to leave town, he would've told somebody. I'm worried about him, too, but I think we're going to have to figure this one out without Bonnie."

"But—"

"Hey," she said softly, tightening her grip around him, "We'll get to the bottom of this, I promise. We'll find him." She let her fingers drift upwards from his neck and into his hair, pulling him towards her for a kiss. As their lips met, a sense of urgency overtook them both and they stumbled into the adjoining bathroom, shedding clothes along the way. The robe once again slid past her shoulders and pooled at her feet, joined shortly by the remains of Damon's now-button-less shirt.

He chuckled as Elena switched the shower on and pulled him into the cascading stream. "Keep ripping apart my shirts like that, and I'm going to need to buy a whole new wardrobe."

"And the world loses another black shirt," Elena teased, limbly wrapping her legs around his waist and arching her neck as his fangs elongated. "Don't worry, I think the world will survive just fine."

Jeremy sat in the Salvatore library, his legs stretched out on the table as he flipped through a book laid out on his lap. He didn't look up when two sets of footsteps approached, but grunted in annoyance when someone swiped his feet off the table. "Hey," he grumbled, "I was comfortable."

"I'm sure you were," Damon smiled at him innocently, and then suddenly placed a laptop on the newly freed space in front of him. "Skype is already downloaded. Why don't you go ahead and call Bonnie?"

"W-what?" Jeremy put the book down, tensing as he looked between Damon and his sister with mild alarm. "I told you that she doesn't want to be bothered."

"You also told me that you would keep in touch with her over Skype," Elena reminded him, and he silently cursed her stellar memory. "Come on, Jer, I just want to thank her for bringing you back—"

"And we have a few other things to tell her that I'm sure she'd want to know," Damon added in, not seeing the necessity for false pretenses. "Go ahead," he pointed at the screen, "Tick, tock."

Jeremy didn't move, "Why don't you just text her?"

"I tried," Elena stood up to join Damon, and they both hovered over him suspiciously. "She never responded."

"There you go," he tried to get up, only for Damon to place a heavy hand over his shoulder to keep him in place. "She's busy, that's why she's not answering! How about you guys stop trying to contact her and let her have the peaceful summer that she specifically asked for?"

"Alright, Gilbert," Damon said sternly, "Spill."

"What?"

Elena shook her head, "Don't play dumb. We know you're hiding something. What is it?"

"I..." Jeremy rubbed his neck, looking over towards the other side of the room. "I don't know what you want me to say."

Damon followed his line of sight, but didn't see anything there. "Is there a ghost here?" he demanded, "Who is it? Ric?"

"No," he replied quickly, "There's no one else here. It's just the three of us."

"Jer," Elena sat down next to him and covered his hands with her own. "You haven't lied this badly since Aunt Jenna found out you were smoking pot. Tell us what's going on; we want to help."

"I'm not the one who needs help!" Jeremy exclaimed, groaning a second later when Damon shot him a triumphant smile.

"See, now we're making progress," Damon said encouragingly, "So, I'm guessing the little witch got herself into some trouble and she asked you to keep your mouth shut about it, which you have, so kudos with that. But nothing ever stays secret for long in this town, and it's only a matter of time before we find out what it is. So you can either tell us now, or I'll make you tell us. What's it gonna be, Gilbert?"

Before Jeremy could respond, the front door suddenly opened and closed with a bang. Both vampires turned towards the sound, and Damon grimaced when he heard the tell-tale clicking of high heels against the wooden floor. "Now is not the time, Katherine," he called out loudly, scowling when she entered the library a few seconds later. "What do you want? Not liking your new digs?"

Katherine smiled smugly, "As much as you'd like me to be miserable, Damon, the truth is...well, the Mikealsen house has definitely met my expectations. In more ways than one, if you know what I mean."

Elena straightened, looking faintly interested, "What do you mean? Is Elijah back?"

"No, not Elijah," her doppelganger replied, turning to gesture to someone standing out in the living room, "I did find someone else, though."

"Who did you..." Damon trailed off in shock as his brother walked into the room, "Stefan?"

"Damon," he acknowledged, "Elena." His gaze lingered on Jeremy curiously, "Katherine told me that you were back. I didn't believe it till now, though." Something flickered in his expression, "Amazing what that witch could do, isn't it?"

Elena stood up slowly, her eyebrows drawn together as she studied Stefan. "We were worried about you," she said finally, "Where have you been?"

"Hold on a second," Damon interrupted, narrowing his eyes. "What do you mean by 'that witch'? I've never heard you refer to Bonnie by anything other than her name before. Leave the nicknames to me, brother. I'm better at it."

Silas folded his hands behind his back, smiling slightly. "As you wish, Damon. Though you won't be needing to think of nicknames for her anymore." He paused, considering, "Well, except for what you plan to write on her gravestone, of course."

Jeremy stood up abruptly, the book falling off his lap and landing on the ground with a loud thud.

"What?" Elena looked horrified, "Why would you say such a thing, Stefan?"

Silas ignored them both, his gaze fixed on Damon. "I was thinking 'loving daughter, friend, witch,' had a nice ring to it, what do you think?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Damon hissed, looking over at Katherine furiously. "Where's Bonnie? Did you do something to her?"

Katherine raised an eyebrow, "Me? Do something to her? But I'm just a pathetic, weak human. What could I have possibly done to a Bennett witch?"

Elena blurred forward suddenly, fury etched across her face as she grabbed Katherine's throat and slammed her into the nearest wall. "Where's Bonnie?" she shouted, "What have you done with her?"

"S-Stefan," Katherine choked out, "Told me she was dead."

Damon's head snapped back around to look at his brother, "Is this true?"

"Silas wasn't in the trunk when I took his body out to the quarry. He came to me in the form of Elena...explained that the spell that turned him into stone had worn off, which meant that the witch who had cast the spell was dead."

"My god," Elena breathed, tears filling her eyes as she turned around to look at Jeremy. "You...you knew?"

Jeremy stared at the ground guiltily, "The magic to bring me back...it was too much. She asked me to keep it a secret from you guys for the summer. She wanted you to be happy after graduation, and not to worry about something that you had no control over."

"Bullshit," Damon swore, his eyes flashing with anger. "Where is she? Is she in here right now?"

Jeremy pointed silently to a corner of the room.

Damon stormed forward, staring at the wall determinately. "Listen here, you moron. Did you think we were just going to sit back and let you be dead?"

"She says—"

"I'm not done," he growled, ignoring Jeremy's offer of ghost-interpretation. "We're going to find some witches, and we're going to fix this. Got it?"

"She says there's nothing you can do, what's done is done."

Elena shakily walked over to the corner, as if in a trance. "Bonnie?" she whispered tearfully, "You're...no, you can't be dead. You just can't!"

"Here come the waterworks," Katherine rolled her eyes, holding her hand out to Stefan. "Come on, you said that you wanted them to know the truth before we left. Now they know, so we can leave."

Damon blurred ahead of them to the front door, blocking their exit. "And just where do you two think you're going?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Katherine crossed her arms, "We're going to find Lucy. You might remember her from that little Masquerade Ball where you two foolishly tried to kill me?"

He blinked, taken aback, "You're volunteering to go find this witch to help Bonnie?"

She snorted, "Of course not. I'm going to find her so that she can help me become a vampire again. And Stefan is coming with me. He was planning on leaving town anyway, isn't that right?"

Damon looked over at Stefan, who nodded seriously. "Yes, I want you and Elena to be very happy together. I wouldn't want to stick around and be in the way of that."

"But," he sputtered, "What about Silas? He's on the loose again!"

"I wouldn't worry about that," Stefan said dismissively, "Without Bonnie to help him reunite with his lover, he has no reason to stay in Mystic Falls. He's probably halfway across the world by now, hunting down a different witch to help him."

Damon grabbed his brother's arm angrily, "And you're not even going to stay to help us find a witch to bring Bonnie back?"

Stefan stepped out of his grasp, shrugging. "I'm helping Katherine, and you're helping Elena. Isn't this what you've always wanted?"

"That's not—"

"Everything is as it should be, brother." He reached out to clasp Damon's shoulder, "I hope you find what you're looking for." Damon didn't respond, watching stonily as Stefan and Katherine got into an expensive-looking car sitting in the driveway. Elena appeared at his shoulder as the car pulled into the street, driving away into the distance.

"Damon?"

"Don't worry," he slid an arm around her, pulling her into his embrace. "I know my brother. That sure as hell wasn't him."