I hoped dearly this would work. I took a deep breath and called out "Alaric?"

"Yes?" I spun to see him lounging against the

kitchen counter "You called?"

"Thanks for giving me a heart attack...We need to talk."

"About?"

"Why didn't you tell me I could bring you back?" His lips tightened into a thin line. "I know you've been talking to Ayana, and that means you had to've known...Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think it was my place to...You weren't ready yet to use your powers, and if I told you, you would've just kept obsessing over it."

"Well, since I got killed by Klaus and now have an evil-psychotic second personality, I think it's about dâmned time. Now, if I bring you back, are you going to be evil like you were before you died, or are you going to come back normal?"

"Normal is my best guess. I was right before I got turned." I nodded and took another deep breath.

"So...how am I supposed to get you my blood? I'm pretty I can't just splash it in your ghostly mouth."

He laughed. "No, you can't...It's quite a bit more gruesome than that. You need a physical body to give the blood to."

"Physical..?" I realized what he was saying and buried my head in my hands. In a muffled voice I asked "Please...am I really going to have to do that?"

"Afraid so. You can always have the Salvatore brothers do it, I'm sure they'd be glad to." I scoffed.

"Yeah, right. If Damon knew that we'd have to dig up your body to bring you back, he'd never let me do it. He has too much respect for you."

"Well, I guess you'll just have to find a shovel and do it yourself then. Meet you at the cemetery." I made a face and Alaric disappeared, laughing quietly to himself.

I looked around my/his apartment and asked aloud "Now where in the hêll am I gonna get a shovel?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After getting Klaus' DB5 and making a quick stop at the local hardware store for some supplies, I sped over to the cemetery as fast as I could. The sun would be setting soon, and I decided sunset was the best time to do this ritual.

I thoroughly check to make sure the graveyard was empty before I went to Alaric's grave. Someone had left fresh flowers and a fresh bottle of bourbon in front of it, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Well, at least I'll have something to drink when I pop out of the ground."

I moved the items and dug the shovel out of my bag of things. "You're not getting drunk the second you come back to life. I've got clothes here for you so you can get dressed and go see your best friend." Alaric hopped off the nearby gravestone he was perched on.

"Damon? Are you sure he'd want to hear about you digging me up and bringing me back?"

"That's why I didn't tell him about it first. He'll be much more accepting if you just show up, that way he knows it actually worked." I tossed my things to the side and dug the shovel into the ground. "One down, 10,000 more to go. This would be so much easier with one of those giant excavator machines."

"Or a vampire or two with super-strength. But, you're bringing me back to life, so I'm not going to complain." I looked over at him and he laughed again.

It didn't take me nearly as long as I thought to dig all the way down to his casket, only about an hour and a half. I missed sunset though, and it got dark very quickly once the sun went down.

As I was digging, I said "Let's hope this works just as well without the sun shining over us."

"Oh, I think it will. Magic's in the blood, remember?" I made a face and continued to dig, but quickly after that the shovel hit something hard. "Well, that didn't take long at all."

"Maybe not for you, because you're not the one that had to dig." I bent down and brushed some dirt off the casket before I wrenched the lid of it open.

A horrible smell wafted out of it and I had to step back for a moment, and when I looked inside I saw a partially decomposed version of the man sitting a few feet above my head on his own gravestone.

"Well, don't you just look pretty...That'll all heal up when you come back, right? I don't think people will be so welcoming if you look like one of the Evil Dead."

"Ha ha ha, very funny. Your blood will do the healing, thanks to that vampire half. It's nothing to worry about."

"I'm more worried that you know more about this than I do when you can't even talk to people." He made a face and I made one back, and pulled my bag down into the hole I had created. In addition to the shovel, I brought a change of clothes for Alaric, a knife, and several candles. Something told me I'd probably need them, and since I could barely see, I was glad I remembered them.

I laid the candles out around the open hole and lit them with a lighter I'd also bought, and now a dull light shined down into the grave, further illuminating the hollow-looking face of Alaric's body. I shuddered and retrieved the knife.

"So I have to give you my blood...then what? Is there some kind of spell I have to say?"

"No...You just have to concentrate hard on what you're trying to do. It's not regular magic that you're trying to use, it's different."

"Different?" I looked up at him. "What kind of magic then? It's not dark magic is it?"

"No...Look, I don't know all the specifics of it, but it lets you use a lot more power than other kinds of magic. Ayana didn't want to tell me everything...She just said that with Expression, you would be able to cure all the vampires and other creatures, and you wouldn't need any spells to do it."

"Sounds too good to be true...Jeez, could your body stink any more?"

"Just do your ritual and my body won't be decomposing anymore."

I took the knife in my hand and shut my eyes tightly as I slashed the skin of my wrist open. The blood dripped quickly down onto Alaric's body, and I hurriedly put my wrist over his mouth so the blood would run in. I wasn't sure how much it was supposed to be, so I just let it run until the wound healed itself up.

"Okay, so I just concentrate on healing you, right?"

"That's what I was told." Alaric jumped down into the hole as I bent over his rotting corpse and began to concentrate.

The smell and the way my head was swimming made it hard, so I knelt down on the casket and put my hands on Alaric's face and focused on it.

I noticed a change immediately. My heart began to race and it felt like I was slipping from consciousness, but I held on tightly as I continued to focus my hardest on bringing Alaric back.

His rotted skin began to heal before my eyes, nearly causing my to break my concentration. The holes and pits began to fill themselves in and his face regained the fullness his ghostly form had retained, and in the places where his hair had begun to fall out, it was quickly regrowing to its living state.

I wavered as it again became harder to keep myself conscious. I blinked several times and looked up out of the hole, and saw Alaric's ghostly body slowly disappearing.

I looked down and Alaric's eyes suddenly snapped open and he drug in a ragged breath, and I fell over onto his dirty casket.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Dani...Dani..?" I felt a man's hand brush my forehead, and again someone repeated "Dani..?"

I mumbled "What?"

There was a dry chuckle and someone said "Glad to see you're alive...Can you open your eyes now?"

I felt incredibly tired, but I managed to force my eyes open to see the blurry image of a man. I blinked several times and my vision cleared, and I was face-to-face with Alaric.

"Hey there...So did the ritual work?"

"Yup. I'm 100% alive again...and human, and not evil. Are you okay though?" I weakly rolled over to discover I was laying in the grass beside Alaric's grave, that was now filled in. "While you were out, I shoveled all that dirt back in and changed into the clothes you brought. You looked like you were in a coma or something."

"How long was I out?" I looked up at the sky and saw it was still dark.

"A few hours...It's about midnight now."

"Midnight..?" That meant I was unconscious for at least 6 hours. "Oh great...Everyone's looking for me aren't they?"

He shrugged. "No idea. I can't teleport to check, remember? I have a feeling we'll find out if we go back to my apartment though. Well, it'd be your apartment now." I shook my head and chuckled.

"It's okay, you can have it...It's caused me nothing but trouble." I tried to push myself up off the ground, but my arms were so weak that I dropped back down onto the dirt. "Okay, that sucks..."

"I've got this." Alaric slipped his arms under me and lifted me easily, and started making his way to my car. Unthinkingly, I reached up and touched his hair and face, just to make sure he was real. He chuckled dryly and said "Don't worry, I won't smoke out and drop you."

"Just making sure." I noticed I could hear his heartbeat through his chest too, and the steady whoosh of his dry breathing. I imagined it sounded like that because he hadn't drank anything in quite some time. He put me in the passenger seat and said "I'll stay with you tonight to make sure nothing goes wrong...If you died in your sleep, I know there's a few people that would be really pissed at me."

"Just...Don't let me kill anyone, okay?" Alaric looked worried, but my vision blacked out and I fell unconscious again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Third Person PointOfView)

Alaric decided to take Dani to the Salvatores, since they would be able to take much better care of her than he alone. Also, if something had happened to her because of the magic, he didn't know how to deal with it.

He made it there in no time at all thanks to Dani's fast car, which he knew she had gotten from Klaus. He recognized Klaus' other car in the Salvatore's driveway, along with Stefan's and Bonnie's. They all must've been out looking for Dani, or were about to.

Alaric shut the car off and took Dani out, still having to carry her because she was still unconscious. The door to the Salvatore house opened and Stefan was there, and his eyes widened and his jaw fell slack. He stood unmoving and silent, staring at the reanimated form of his former friend.

Because Stefan had not returned, the others within the house now filed to the large doorway, all stopping at the sight of Alaric. Even Klaus and his three siblings, who had all been called in for the search, were not immune to the shock of Alaric's return.

Alaric made his way with Dani to the doorway and said "Are you gonna let me in or not?" They all moved, and as Alaric passed through the group he looked at all of them, but did not see Damon among them. Unbeknownst to Alaric, Damon had gone to check Dani's apartment before the rest of the party set out.

Alaric laid Dani out on the couch and covered her with a heavy blanket resting on the nearby chair. He looked at the group, which was still silent and staring, and only managed to say "Hi guys...I'm back."

They still did not say a thing. Perhaps the most shocked of the group was Bonnie, who did not believe Dani had the power necessary to cure anyone, let alone raise them from the dead. There was the noise of a car engine outside the house, which was Damon coming home from a fruitless search of Dani's apartment.

Damon entered and saw the group gathered together and remarked "Did I miss something? Hello?"

Stefan turned and managed to reply with "We know where Dani went."

"Oh thank god...If I would've had to go out and search for that girl one more time..." Damon entered the parlor as he said this, and stopped abruptly in the middle of the floor. He took small, slow steps the rest of the way across the room until he was face to face with his best friend, the best friend that had died in his arms, the best friend that he had cried his eyes out over.

"Alaric..? What...what's going on here..?"

"I'm back." Damon stepped up to him and jabbed him in the chest with his fingers, just to make sure he was really confirming Alaric was really there, he embraced his best friend in a tight hug, unable to hold back the tear or two that escaped his eyes. Several tears slid down Alaric's face as well, and he said "I'm happy to see you too buddy."

Damon pulled back and asked "But...how? You were dead! You...you died in my arms!"

Alaric motioned to the unconscious Dani. "It was her. She dug me up and brought me back on her own...She knew you'd be happy to see me, I think."

"Dani..?" Damon went to the sleeping Dani and, surprising everyone else in the room, kissed her forehead. "She brought you back...It was stupid but...Oh jeez, I need a drink."

Alaric chuckled and said "Me too buddy. Still keep the good stuff in the back of your cabinet?"

Damon and Alaric went to Damon's liquor cabinet and fished for a drink, and the others in the room slowly adjusted to the situation and were finally able to talk to each other.

Bonnie exclaimed "I...I didn't think she could actually do it! How..?"

"I guess we were wrong...But what know? We know she can cure people and bring supernaturals back from the dead..." Stefan and Bonnie looked each other in the eyes, both having the same thought at that very same time.

They both looked at Klaus, who had went over to check on Dani, and both thought the same thing. Klaus had caused so much trouble for them and many others during the time he'd been a vampire, and now they had a way to change that. If they could somehow convince Dani to help them, they could cure Klaus and keep him from ever being a problem to them again. The same could be said for all the Originals.

Stefan now thought of the times they had tried to do away with the Originals, and how they had failed each and every time. Dani could make sure they didn't fail again, and that nobody else had to die for Klaus' or the others' fiendish plans.