A/N: so I re-uploaded chapter 5 since I was told many people didn't get the email alert for it. and now here's the new chapter! let the road trip commence ;)

"I just have a hard time understanding why Lucy would be in Salem," Damon was saying for the umpteenth time. "Are you sure Jeremy found the right location?"

"Quit complaining," Elena said lazily as she leant back against her seat, smiling as the sun's rays warmed her skin. "I offered to drive."

"Yeah, I think once is quite enough," he muttered under his breath, clearly still nursing some wounds from when her no-humanity-self had hijacked his car with Rebekah.

She glanced over at him, trying to hide her amusement. "I already apologized for that."

"And I forgave you," he answered diplomatically, "But that little stunt you pulled has forced me to revoke your car privileges for the foreseeable future."

"Oh please," she rolled her eyes, "As if you'd let anyone drive your car anyway."

"So back to this Salem thing—"

"The Bennett witches used to live in Salem," Elena reminded him, "But they left during the witch trials. Lucy must've gone back for a reason…maybe she thought it was the last place anyone would look."

"If Jeremy could track her down, then I'm not so sure how well hidden she was in the first place."

"Be nice," Elena chastised, "It couldn't hurt to be the slightest bit optimistic in the face of overwhelming odds."

"Okay, you're right," he allowed, "I'll just keep my realistic opinions to myself."

"That would be greatly appreciated," she teased, leaning sideways in her seat so that she could brush her lips against his cheek. "When are we going to stop at a hotel?"

Damon fiddled with the GPS for a second, frowning. "Well, we've been driving for three hours. This says it's another eight hours till we get to Massachusetts."

Elena shifted in her seat, trying to ignore the ache in her gums. Some days were better than others, but so far her cravings seemed to be directly correlated to her stress levels.

And between Katherine's humanity, Stefan's disappearance, Bonnie's death—not to mention Jeremy being unable to go out in public and Caroline on the way to beg Klaus for his help—yeah, Elena was pretty stressed.

"The blood bags are in the cooler," Damon said, correctly interpreting her mood swing. "Do you want me to pull over?"

"Not yet," she shook her head, "I had blood this morning when I woke up. I need to learn how to control the urges better. I mean, you're not thirsty, are you?"

"A vampire is always thirsty," he corrected her, "It's just a matter of when you choose to give into that thirst."

Elena chewed on the inside of her lip, determined to keep her fangs from elongating. "But you never do, not really."

"That's because I drink a lot." He briefly took his eyes off the road to clarify, "Alcohol. It numbs the urges a bit." He reached between them to grab his flask and handed it to Elena. "Here, drink some of this. We'll be at the Pennsylvania border in two hours. We can stop there for the night."

"Okay," she hesitantly put the flask to her lips and tipped her head back to take a swig of the potent liquid. She made a face as it burned her throat. "Maybe I should mix it with some blood?"

"No," Damon said firmly, "Drink that only. You can handle the cravings for two hours, Elena. Just focus on something else, anything else."

"Fine," she grumbled, putting the flask down and reaching for her cell phone. "I'm gonna see how Jeremy is doing."

"Yeah, we're in North Carolina now," Jeremy replied, leaning forward from the backseat so that he could peer at the GPS. "Around Charlotte, I think. We won't be in NOLA for, like, another 12 hours."

"Tell her we're going to stop in Atlanta for the night," Caroline called from the driver's seat, "Because I get cranky when I'm stuck in a car for too long." She tilted her head, her enhanced hearing picking up on the sound of Elena's laughter. Caroline smiled slightly. It had been so long since she'd heard her friend actually sound happy.

"I think my sister's bored," Jeremy informed her once he'd hung up the phone, "She kept asking me a million questions."

"She's with Damon," Caroline waved her hand dismissively, "I'm sure they can find something to do in a car to occupy themselves with." Before Jeremy could complain about her statement, she went on with her rant. "I mean, I'm the one who should be bored! I'm sitting all alone up here in the front while you and your ghost girlfriend are up to god knows what in the back seat!"

Jeremy eyed her as though she'd gone crazy. "You know I can't touch her, right?"

"Huh?"

"I can see ghosts," he emphasized, "I can't physically touch them. They're not corporeal."

"Oh," she frowned, "Well, that doesn't change anything." She met his gaze in the rearview mirror indignantly, "At least you have someone to talk to back there!"

"Okay, I think you don't get how this whole ghost thing actually works," Jeremy suddenly clambered into the passenger seat, leaving Caroline to gape at him in surprise. "What?"

"How'd you do that?" she sputtered, "I didn't think my car was that big! Okay, even I have trouble maneuvering my way within these confines. Like one time, me and Tyler were—"

"TMI," Jeremy practically screeched, and she bit her lip to stifle her laughter. He glared at her, and she quickly averted her eyes back to the road so that he couldn't read the amusement in her expression. "To answer your question," he grunted a second later, "Hunters are more limber than your average human, or did you forget?"

"Oh, right," she realized, turning around to look at him once again. "Well, won't Bonnie be by herself back there now? I thought that was the whole reason you wanted to sit in the backseat in the first place."

"Bonnie's not here right now," he told her, and hastily held up a hand to stem her questions when she opened her mouth. "Jeez, will you let me explain!?" Caroline obediently pretended to zipper her mouth closed, and gestured for him to continue. "I can only see ghosts when I'm actively thinking about them, and if they want to make contact. The only other way is if some other magic lets them appear in our realm, but that's pretty powerful stuff."

"So it has to work both ways," Caroline said slowly, her brow wrinkling as she attempted to understand the mechanics of it all. "That's why you're not seeing ghosts everywhere you look."

"Right. They're up to their own thing over there on the other side. Usually they just want to watch over their loved ones in peace; see what they're up to."

Caroline's expression sobered, "That sounds...lonely."

"Yeah," Jeremy glanced back at her and they shared a meaningful look, "It is."

"We need to get her out of there," she said with renewed resolve, inadvertently pressing harder on the gas pedal. "She doesn't deserve this."

"She has her Grams," Jeremy stared ahead unseeingly, "And they found each other, which is good. A lot of the time, the ghosts are up there by themselves. They have nobody to turn to. Nobody to share their pain with."

"That's..." her voice was choked and she had to swallow hard before speaking again. "That's awful."

"And everyone on the other side is still there because they feel like they have unfinished business," he went on quickly, perhaps wanting Caroline to focus on something else. "Revenge is usually a big reason."

"Like Kol."

"Sure."

Caroline frowned, "But what about Lexi? She doesn't want revenge on anyone. She seemed pretty down to earth when she came to see Stefan."

"It's not always about revenge. Sometimes they feel like they have to make penance for their crimes as a human...and other times, they just want a chance to watch over the people they left behind; see them grow up, become who they were meant to be."

And even though he didn't voice it, she knew they were both thinking of Alaric.

Katherine swiped a hand over her forehead, reeling in disgust at the sweat now dripping down her arm. "How do humans do it?" she gritted her teeth, yanking down the sun visor and peering at her reflection in faint horror. "Look at my hair! It's all frizzy and gross and...Stefan, are you even listening to me!?"

Silas glanced over at her with a bored expression. Her incessant whining was getting on his last nerve. If he didn't need to keep her around for information, then she would've long since been dead. "It's the humidity," he offered dully as they passed a sign that proclaimed 'Hartford, Connecticut'. "Your body is just acclimating to the weather changes, as would any human's."

She clenched her hands into fists, digging her nails into her palms tightly enough to draw blood. Silas whipped his head around at the scent, but she didn't notice. "Ugh, I hate this! I'm going to kill Elena for doing this to me, mark my words. That little bitch is going to get what she deserves!"

"We'll be in Salem in a couple hours," he said roughly, focusing on driving and not on the heady scent of blood filling the car. "I'll book you a session at a luxury spa once we get there, all right?"

Katherine frowned, scrunching her hair up in a messy bun and holding it away from her neck. It was only late May, and the heat was already unbearable. She shuddered to think of making it through the rest of the summer as a human. "I thought you wanted to find Lucy as soon as possible. Will we have time to stop at a spa?"

"I'll track her down in the meantime," Silas responded casually, "It'll take some time to find out where exactly she's been staying."

She nodded absently, closing her eyes and turning up the AC in the car. "You must be glad to leave Mystic Falls behind," she murmured sleepily, "I don't know why it took you so long."

"I guess I just needed a push in the right direction."

Katherine's eyes popped open. "And I was that reason?" she asked flirtatiously, twisting in her seat to slide her hand down Stefan's arm. "You know, we could always stop in a hotel somewhere...just think about it, this is probably your one and only chance to have me as a human..."

Silas glanced down at her disinterestedly. "I meant Lexi," he told her, "It was Lexi who convinced me to leave. You were just..." he shrugged, "A convenient excuse."

She immediately pulled her hand away, recoiling as though she'd been slapped. "What did you just say to me?"

He didn't need to look at her to scrutinize her expression. He'd already had ample time to enter her mind, to see her memories—her weaknesses. "Don't act so surprised, Katherine. You've already had your fun pitting me against my brother for the better part of a century. Now that you've moved on to Elijah, I don't owe you anything."

"But—"

"We're not friends," Silas went on, barely listening to her. "We're not lovers, and we're certainly not partners in crime. We have a common goal, and that is the only reason fate has brought us together at this point in time. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Stefan?" Katherine was staring at him now, her eyes narrowed. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

He didn't care. Keeping up the charade of the good guy with the misguided moral compass was wearing thin. "You don't get it, do you?" Silas said to her, "I'm free." He rolled down the windows and stepped on the gas pedal, revving the engine up to almost 100. Katherine gave a small gasp as she clutched onto her seat, but he ignored her. "You're right, you know. Leaving Mystic Falls was the best decision I ever made. Freeing myself of Damon, Elena, and every other burden I was forced to carry on my shoulders. I'm done with it now, and I'm never turning back."

Katherine swallowed, biting back the words bubbling at her lips. Despite the heat she'd been complaining about earlier, she suddenly felt a chill. Her mouth felt too dry, her ears were ringing, and she could feel blood rushing to her extremities. As she looked back into the mirror on the sun visor, she saw her skin become paler, her pupils becoming dilated.

"Say it out loud," he said unexpectedly, "Whatever you're thinking. You can't hide it from me."

If she'd been unsure before, his words were the final confirmation she needed. Katherine's heart beat wildly in her chest as she slowly turned to face him, "Silas."