a/n: fixed Silas' historical story at the end of the chapter, thank you to the person who pointed it out :)

Damon stood silently, watching for the breaking point of the girl in front of him. But it never came. Tears had filled Caroline's eyes, but she stubbornly refused to let them spill over.

She sat cross-legged on her sofa, staring blankly into space. She didn't move, didn't even blink. Damon opened his mouth to say something, but then thought better of it. He subtly moved closer to her, taking a seat on the far edge of the sofa. She didn't acknowledge his presence in any way and he was left to wonder if she even remembered that he was still in the room.

"Caroline," he said quietly, testing the waters. "Can you look at me?" She seemed to stiffen at the sound of his voice, her shoulders becoming tense. He leaned closer to her, relieved at the slight indication that she could hear him. "I know I'm the last person you'd want to be telling you this news," he went on, keeping his voice at barely a murmur. "I know you wish it was Stefan...hell, I bet you'd even prefer Klaus."

Her head whipped around then, and he immediately pulled away from her, startled at the intensity of her expression. Caroline stared at him for a long moment, and his gaze dropped down to her lap where he could see her hands begin to twist together anxiously.

He cautiously extended his arm towards her, his movements slow even by human standards. When she didn't flinch, he gently placed his hand on top of hers and applied a slight pressure with his fingertips. Her skin was cold, almost freezing. Damon waited, glancing back up to see if her expression had changed at all since he had first told her the news of Bonnie's death.

He had expected the disbelief, the grief, and maybe even a little vengeance and rage. What he hadn't expected was the numbness. Caroline had slipped into an almost catatonic state— the result of one bad news too many. But he was patient. She hadn't flipped the switch, that much was clear. So as long as Caroline was still in there somewhere, he could wait.

At long last, he felt a twitch beneath his hand. He looked down to see Caroline's fingers raise slightly. He began to lift his hand off hers, but paused when she tentatively intertwined their fingers. Damon raised his gaze to meet hers, and she finally blinked.

The tears she'd been holding back spilled onto her cheeks in tiny rivulets, and a small cry escaped her lips. "Oh god," she choked out with a gasp, "She's dead, she's really dead." She instantly withdrew her fingers from his hand, drawing her legs up to her chest and cocooning herself away from him. Damon sighed as she buried her face out of sight, her sobs echoing in the otherwise empty house.

"We want to bring her back," he told her again, because he wasn't entirely sure she had heard him the first time around. "But we need your help, okay? Bonnie needs your help, Caroline."

She raised her head slowly, her eyes red-rimmed and her face tear-stained. "How can I help?" she asked bleakly, "S-she's just one more person who's dead. Just another person who's gone."

Damon shifted closer to her, his voice fierce. "She brought Jeremy back from the dead. She did the impossible. We can do this for her, too." Their eyes locked and he went on forcefully, "We can do the impossible for her. We have to."

Caroline swallowed, lowering her legs to the ground and turning to face him hopefully. "You're right," she whispered, "We have to do this for her. She's done so much for us. She can't die now, not after everything we've been through!" Her voice became stronger, her eyes a little brighter. "And we've all done the impossible before—kept Elena alive after the sacrifice, found a cure for werewolf venom, a cure for vampirism—there has to be something we can do!"

"Now that's what I'm talking about," Damon flashed a grin at her and held out a hand to help her up. "Come on, I left Elena at the boarding house so she could have some time to talk to Bonnie's ghost...with Jeremy interpreting, of course."

"All right, just give me five," she gestured to herself with a roll of the eyes, "Obviously there's no way in hell I'm going out in public looking like this."

"Of course not," Damon wandered towards the liquor cabinet as she blurred upstairs, "Hey, your mom won't mind if I steal some of this bourbon, will she?"

"As long as you replace whatever you take," Caroline yelled back, and he heard the shower go on a second later. He tuned out the sounds of Taylor Swift emanating from upstairs, and focused his attention on the bottle in his hand. He had just finished examining it and pouring himself out a glass, when there was a sudden whirl of wind behind him, accompanied by the swirling scent of vanilla.

"That was fast," he commented, tossing back the contents of the glass and turning around to give Caroline the once-over. "You never got ready this fast when we were dating."

"Very funny," she replied distractedly as she rummaged through her large handbag for her keys. "You driving?"

He nodded, leading the way out of the house and down to the driveway. He opened the passenger door for her, leaning against the edge and eying her critically. "How are you feeling?"

She paused before getting in, and he thought she would brush off his question dismissively. To his surprise, however, she appeared to be mulling the question over. "Better," she answered finally, sliding into her seat. She waited until he had gotten behind the wheel before continuing. "I know how much you hate tears, Damon. So, I guess I should thank you for..." her lips twitched, "Not being a total jerk."

Damon glanced over at her, and their gazes met for a split second. "Yeah, well," he cleared his throat, "Dealing with crying women has always been Stefan's specialty, not mine."

"Yeah," she agreed, her eyes dancing with amusement, "I guess you'll just have to take on the 'bearer of bad news' role until we find Stefan again."

He tensed, his hands tightening on the steering wheel.

Her smile faded, "Damon?"

"Yeah, about Stefan...there's something you should know..."

Elena and Jeremy jumped as the door swung open, bouncing violently off the wall. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU THINK SILAS IS IMPERSONATING STEFAN?"

"Caroline," Jeremy interjected hastily when he saw the annoyed look on Damon's face. "You're finally here...do you...er, does she know?" He directed this last question towards Damon, who nodded curtly in affirmation. "Good," Jeremy went on, obviously relieved. "Well, Bonnie is here," he pointed vaguely behind him, "She's been waiting to talk to you." Then he fumbled over his words, clearly realizing the mistake. "I mean, she's been wanting to see you."

Caroline glared, crossing her arms and flicking her gaze between the three people currently standing in the room, as if deciding which of them would be on the receiving end of her wrath first. After a few moments, she abruptly closed her eyes and sucked in a deep (albeit unnecessary) breath of air.

"Counting to ten in her head," Elena murmured to Damon and Jeremy, both of whom looked baffled. "It's one of her stress-reducing exercises. She used to do it a lot during cheerleading practices."

"Okay," Caroline eventually said, re-opening her eyes and relaxing her stance into a significantly calmer demeanor. "First things first. Where's Bonnie?"

"Right here," Jeremy took her arm and led her over to the armchair in the corner of the room. "She's sitting here. What would you like to say to her?"

Damon discreetly gestured to Elena, indicating for her to follow him into the library. She trailed in behind him after a few seconds, looking confused. "What's up?" she asked curiously as he shut the door behind them. "How'd she take the news?"

"I just thought we could give them some privacy," Damon explained in response to her unasked question. Then he hesitated, choosing his words carefully, "Well, I suppose she took the news as well as could be expected given the present circumstances."

Elena studied his expression warily, "What do you mean?"

"I'm worried about her," he admitted, running a hand through his hair. "Tyler, Klaus, Stefan, Matt, now Bonnie...these people were her support system, Elena. She really has no one left to turn to."

"She has m—"

"No," Damon interrupted, "Don't say she has you."

Elena's mouth dropped open in surprise, and she shot him an offended look. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she snapped defensively, "Caroline is one of my oldest friends, of course she can count on me!"

He raised an eyebrow at her indignation. "The two of you have been falling apart ever since you became a vampire, maybe even before that. You can pretend you didn't see it happening, you can blame it on your differences over the sire bond, and you can even blame it on the things you said and did when your switch was flipped. But when it comes down to it, you have to admit—when was the last time either of you thought of each other as best friends?"

"Fine," Elena flung out her arms in exasperation, "What do you want me to do? Apologize for trying to kill her? Apologize for dropping her at the cheerleading competition? Apologize for every horrible thing I said to her when my humanity was off? Fine, I can do all those things! But—"

"But it doesn't change the way things are now," Damon cut off her tirade, "I know you think I don't understand, but I do. Stefan is the one who stood by her through her transition, even when I wanted to kill her. He's the one that has shaped her into the person she is now. She sees him differently than you ever did. You might have been in love with him, but she views him as her mentor, her savior. I can understand why her loyalty went to him, instead of to you." He grimaced, "And now she's about one step away from flipping her own switch, and we really don't have the time for that."

"Okay," Elena replied guardedly, noting the unusual concern in his voice. "I get it, trust me, I do. But what do you want me to do about it? We don't know where Tyler is, Matt could very well be halfway across the world by now, Klaus is in New Orleans, Stefan is god knows where, and we're already trying to figure out a way to deal with the Bonnie situation. What more can we do?"

"I've been thinking," Damon started, "About why Silas is so eager to help Katherine become a vampire again." He paused, "Then I realized, it isn't that he wants to help her, exactly. He just wants to find the witch." He looked over at Elena meaningfully, "Lucy. As in, Bonnie's distant cousin. As in..."

"A Bennett witch," Elena realized, her eyes widening at the implication. "Silas is still on the hunt for someone to reunite him with the woman he loved."

"Gold star for my girl," Damon swiftly pressed a kiss to her temple, at the same time drawing her close enough so that he could whisper in her ear and not be overheard by anyone in the next room. "I think we need to go after them. But at the same time we need to find someone to help Bonnie."

Elena glanced up at him, frowning as she considered his words. "Agreed," she said slowly, "What were you thinking?"

"You and I should go after Katherine. We need to convince her that her traveling companion isn't who he says he is." Damon began pacing back and forth as he continued, "And if I know her at all—which, okay, I guess I don't really know her that well—but I know that she cares about Stefan. She'll want to get him back. Maybe she can even get the truth out of Silas."

"This is all based on a theory," Elena reminded him, "We don't know for sure that Silas has taken over Stefan's body. Don't we need to be sure before we try to convince Katherine? I mean, it sounds pretty far-fetched, even to me. I know that he was acting weird when he dropped by earlier, but wouldn't Katherine have been able to tell the difference between the real-Stefan and an imposter?"

"Katherine is human now," Damon responded thoughtfully, "And she's only concerned with becoming a vampire again. Maybe she was too oblivious to how he was acting, to realize that it wasn't really him." He suddenly looked at Elena sharply, "You believe me, don't you? That it wasn't Stefan?"

She nodded quickly, "Yes, of course I do. I trust that you know your brother better than anyone. If you say that it wasn't really him, then we owe it to Stefan to find out what happened to him."

"So, it's settled then. We'll have to do some old fashioned research to find out Lucy's last known address, since we can't do a locator spell right now. But if Katherine found a way to track her down, then so can we."

Elena tilted her head, "And while we're doing that...you want Caroline to, what, exactly?"

Damon didn't answer immediately. "Klaus left town to deal with some witches, right?"

"Not Bennett witches," she pointed out. "The ones in New Orleans probably have no idea who Bonnie even is. They have no reason to help us or to even get involved."

He shrugged, "Klaus can be convincing. And I'm sure if Caroline asks nicely—"

"I'm not sure how she's going to feel about asking Klaus for another favor," Elena interrupted, "Didn't she say the two of them got into it over the phone?"

He smiled grimly, "I know her. She'll do whatever it takes to bring Bonnie back. Even if she has to make a deal with the devil himself." Damon stepped closer to Elena and cupped her face gently. "Hey," he said softly, "Stop looking so worried. If Klaus' witches refuse to help, then we'll still have Lucy. I just don't want to take any chances by following only one lead."

Elena raised her eyebrows, impressed. "Well, look at you, being all rational and level-headed." She wrapped her arms around his waist and smiled up at him, "I think I like this new you."

"You love this new me," he corrected, his lips lifting in a half grin as she brushed a light kiss against his cheek. Her lips trailed down to his neck, and he closed his eyes blissfully. "Have I mentioned lately how much I'm in love with you?"

"I love the new you, the old you, all of you," Elena mumbled in response, her lips parting as his mouth slanted over hers, giving her a long, lingering kiss. Her expression was dazed when he eventually pulled away, and it took her several moments to gather her bearings. "Shall we run the plan past the others?" she asked, her voice coming out somewhat breathlessly. "It'll probably take some convincing."

He took a second to control the directions of his thoughts away from what he wanted to do to Elena, back to the more important situation at hand. Before she could walk away, however, he grabbed her wrist and hauled her back towards him so that she slammed into the hard contours of his body. "We haven't christened this room yet," he breathed into her ear, smirking in satisfaction when she shivered involuntarily. He kept her close, his fingertips ghosting over her bare arms. "When this is all over, I'm going to have you right here on this table...then against that bookshelf over there...and then on this—"

Elena shoved him away, her cheeks flushing irresistibly. "Shh," she hissed, even though he had kept his voice low enough for even enhanced vampire hearing. "Come on," she said impatiently, even as her lips threatened to tug upwards. "Let's go tell them what we've come up with."

She opened the library door, but stopped short when she saw Caroline and Jeremy both standing close by. "We heard the whole plan," Caroline told her before she could speak, "And you don't have to worry. I'll do it."

Damon moved forward, "You'll go down to New Orleans? You'll try to convince Klaus and his witches to help bring Bonnie back?"

"Me and Bonnie will go with her," Jeremy put in, "So she won't be alone. Besides, as a ghost, Bonnie will be able to see and hear things that we can't."

"That's a great idea, Jer," Elena turned to look at Caroline, "You'll keep him safe?"

"Of course," their eyes met briefly, the old threads of friendship sputtering back to life. Caroline's gaze grew serious, "With my life."

"Well, hopefully it doesn't come to that," Damon interrupted. "Klaus will protect you from the witches...and if nothing else, at least Elijah is down there. He'll make sure nothing happens to you two."

Elena shot him a surprised look, "I thought you hated Elijah."

"But you don't."

"No, I don't," she agreed, "What does that have to do with anything?"

He shrugged, "Nothing at all." Before she could press the issue, he turned away from her with a hint of a smile. "Now, who's ready for a road trip?"