A/N: Thanks guys! I'm so glad you're all liking this story! This one is not gonna be great, quite frankly it's mostly filler, but hopefully the next one will be better.

Please review they help me write!

And BrandelynKate you'll all see Damon try to take on a father role, and along with an unknowing Elena taking on a motherly role. But you'll see how their relationship progresses in the next few chapters-even in the whole story. Thanks for your input! I encourage all my readers to do the same!

Chapter 21
Rescue

***Third Person POV***

"Pearl! Open this door I swear to God, I'll bust through and rip your head off!"

He shouted as he slammed his fist against the farmhouse door. Damon had first gone to Elena's to look for Stefan and when it was revealed he wasn't there, he knew exactly where to go. Frederick, the vampire from last, slowly opened the door.

"Pearl's not home." He looked briefly outside. "Hmm, beautiful weather. Not a ray of sun in the sky."

"Where's my brother?"

"Billy?"

In the next second, two other vampires came in, each gripping the arm of a bleeding Stefan.

"You're dead!" Damon hissed as he charged forward but an invisible barrier blocked his entrance to the house prompting Frederick to gloat.

"Whoa! I'm sorry, you haven't been invited in." He paused, his lips almost twitching into a smile then he called, "Miss Gibbons?"

Damon looked on in slight confusion as a middle-aged woman with short dark curls and bite-marks all over her sickly pale skin came in.

"Yes, Frederick honey?" She asked her voice dazed.

"Never let this bad man in."

Miss Gibbons turned to look at Damon, smiling as if all of this was normal. "I'll never let him in."

His eyes, intense and rage-filled, followed the woman as she exited but was brought back by his brother's pain-filled groan.

"145 years left starving in a tomb, thanks to Katherine's infatuation with you and your brother. First few weeks; every single nerve in your body screams with fire, the kind of pain that can drive a person mad. Well, I thought your brother might want to get a taste of that before I killed him. Billy?" The one named Billy took out a stake and stabbed Stefan in the stomach, causing him to scream out even louder than before. "You have a nice day," Frederick said as he closed the door.

Damon returned to the car and told Elena and Katy what had happened. He was just as determined as they were to save Stefan, but what with the circumstances, he had run out of ideas about what to do. Elena on the other hand, had suggested that they go see Alaric.

"And what are the odds this guy will actually want to help us?" Katy asked.

"Zero. But he will." Damon said.

"Why's that?"

"Because, I have faith."

"Seriously, Damon."

"No! I'm being serious." He paused. "He is the kind of guy who likes his limbs intact, right?"

"How original," Elena scowled. "Damon decides to threaten people in order to get his way. As usual."

"When are you going to stop talking about me in the third-person?"

"Like you care."

"Elena, if we're going to work together to get Stefan back, we need to keep a common ground." He stressed, no longer joking. "Or else we can't do this."

Elena didn't want to admit it but it was true. They needed to work together or else it was just going to get worse. So, she nodded and said, "Okay."

Silence broke over the car, something Katy was thankful for, considering how much they had been bickering earlier, that is, until they unexpectedly stopped at the boarding house.

"Why are we stopping here?"

"Out Girlie."

"No! No way! You are not leaving me behind." She argued.

"Katy, I have enough trouble with Elena putting herself in danger, I don't need to worry about two at a time."

"Are you kidding me? I know what I'm dealing with! I grew up with these things! I can take care –"

"Katy, go inside right now." Elena ordered.

"But –"

"Now!" Damon and Elena said at the same time.

Katy looked as if she did not believe what she was seeing and said, "My God. Which one were you dating again?" Directing her question at Elena, who blushed slightly.

"Are you gonna be a pain in the ass or will you get in the damn house?" He said.

"You're not my parent yet!" She held up her hands quickly when Damon started to remove his seatbelt, "Okay fine! I'm out!"

Katy got out of the car quickly as she angrily muttered, "You can't decide how to save Stefan's life but this you agree on!" and the other two drove off instantly when she got inside.

"What was that about?" Elena asked on the way over to the school, "Katy said you weren't her parent 'yet'?"

"You really wanna talk about this now?"

"Why not?"

"How 'bout your boyfriend is being tortured by killer vampires?" He said sarcastically, "Is that good enough for ya?"

"Stop dodging and just tell me."

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because I care about her Damon." She said, "And despite everything, you care too. Now tell me, please."

He looked away from her and back to the road, not saying a word. She sighed with frustration when she took his silence for refusal.

"If you're infinitely wise brain can't tell by now, I offered to adopt Katy."

Elena's eyes widened, while it was obvious from what she'd heard, she couldn't believe it was actually true, "Are you serious? You want to adopt a child?! Damon are you even aware of what it takes to raise a child? Especially a kid as traumatized as Katy?"

"I think Katy might have a few select words about that."

"Can you give her a good life? Will you be there for her? Will you make her go to school? Will you make sure she's working?" she shook her head slightly, "Can you love her? Love her like she's your daughter, and put her before anything you want, and be completely selfless with her?"

"And what makes you think I can't do any of that?" He said, starting to get defensive, "So far in that high-horsed list of yours did you ask how she actually feels about adoption in general?"

"What about how you feel?" Elena countered, "Are you doing this because you love her? Or is she just gonna be here till you get Katherine back?"

Before she could say anything, Damon shrieked the car to a stop in the middle of the road, throwing them both forward. And he replied, practically growling,

"You really think I'd do that to her? That I would just leave if it suited me? Why do you think I left her at the house? I am protecting her Elena! Just like I am trying to protect you, and if I didn't need you to soften up Alaric to help me, you'd be with her! As for being a good parent, I'll admit, even Katy is well aware I was lackluster in the beginning. But I've managed to give her something all along that she clearly didn't get from twelve years with her biological parents!"

"And what's that?!"

His icy glare softened a bit, "Honesty, absolutely no bullshit. And I can give that to her while I protect her."

That was the end of that conversation. While Elena was still not convinced he'd be a good father, she had no retort. And at the moment they needed to get Stefan out, once they did that they could discuss this later.

Much to Elena's distaste, Ric and Damon stuck her in the car while they went off to save Stefan. After a few words were exchanged, Elena was now convinced that while being a 'good' father was off the table, a strict and condescending one was.

So all she did for a while was sit in the car, watching the rain pour, and clutching the vervain dart in her hand nervously. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore and headed straight for the house, breaking into an outside entrance to the basement.

But inside she saw a vampire guarding the door, and when she peeked out from her hiding place he caught sight of her, beginning to come forward. Before he could though, Damon came out of nowhere, stabbing said vampire in the neck with a stake.

He looked her in the eye and asked, "Are you insane?"

Damon may not have been happy with Elena's entrance into the situation, but he sure wouldn't like what would come a minute later.

They got into the room where Stefan was suspended from the ceiling with vervain-soaked rope, shirtless and clearly open wounds. There was also another vampire tied to a chair and held down with stakes in his legs.

"Elena…" Stefan said weakly, "You shouldn't be here…"

"She was supposed to stay in the car." Damon glared, starting towards the other vampire.

"No. No. No." He whispered, "Not him."

"Whatever. Let's get you down."

Suddenly with a crash, Katy came through a small window in the basement that was just barely big enough for her to shimmy through.

"Katy!" Damon shouted.

"Delivery." She said, throwing down a bag of stakes and vervain.

He growled, grabbing the bag and her arm pushing her to Elena, "You are both insane! What part of 'stay' do you not understand?!"

"Not the time for a lecture Damon." Katy said, handing him a stake, "Just grow a pair and kill things!"

"Oh are you gonna get it when this is over." He said, going over to get Stefan down.

"There's vervain on the ropes." Stefan said.

"Elena, pull that."

When she got the ropes undone, Stefan fell to the ground with a grunt. Damon tried to speed things along knowing the other vampires were coming, but Stefan insisted on freeing the other vampire in the basement.

"Can you two get him to the car?"

"Yeah."

"What about you?" Katy asked, concerned.

"You rescue, I'll distract." Just as she was about to protest, he pushed her to Stefan and Elena, "Go."

"Come on, it's right over here."

The girls helped Stefan into the car, then got in themselves, only to find the ignition was ripped off. Elena looked scared and said, "Stefan…"

Just then Frederick crashed through the car window and ripped Stefan out, punching him over and over again.

"This is for Beth-Anne." Frederick hissed, stabbing him with a stake. Katy, having gotten out of the car first, leapt on his back trying to stake him. He threw her off and continued, "And this is for the tomb."

He took out the stake and stabbed him in the chest, just as Elena stabbed him with a vervain dart. He fell to the ground with Stefan, who was instantly held close by a crying Elena.

"Stefan…" She whispered, pulling the stake out, but he didn't respond. "Stefan?"

Katy looked on in shock, her own eyes starting to glaze over in fright.

"Katy get Damon!" the girl nodded, grabbing something from the car and ran off, "Stefan… No, Stefan."

Back at the house, Damon and Alaric were killing most of the vampires inside. But neither could find Frederick, so they started outside, only to see more vampires waiting.

"How many of those vervain darts do you have left?"

"One."

Damon sighed, "Not gonna be enough."

Suddenly they heard a shot blast inside, and ran in to see what it was. Katy was surrounded by four vampires, holding one of Alaric's stake guns. One vampire got shot in the shoulder, and since the pressure from the gun firing kept throwing her back she just wacked two of the vampires with it.

Then she threw it aside, took her vervain polished switchblade out and starting swiping at one vampire-who looked amused by her efforts and dodged the swipes. One vampire came up behind her, grabbed her shoulders and tried to bite her neck; Katy took her switchblade, stabbed him in the face, pulled it out while grabbing one of the hands around her shoulders and sliced across the wrist freeing her.

Damon took this time to stab the vampire she tried to confront with the vervain dart, while Alaric shot the others with the gun.

"Katy what the hell are you doing here?" Alaric asked.

Katy, out of breath and shaking from the adrenaline rush, gave him a look and managed to get out, "S-Saving your ass." She then turned to Damon, "Stefan…"

She couldn't get much further then that before having to take in a few more breaths, but Damon didn't need her to finish knowing what she was going to say. He only nodded and held her up since her shaking body didn't have the strength to.

"So, what you said to get me to do this, about my wife." Alaric said as they stared at the door, "It was a lie, wasn't it?"

"Yep."

"Stop." They heard Pearl's voice outside, "What's going on here?"

She came inside shortly after with Anna, both of them looking at the massacre around them. Pearl looked up at Katy and the guys, slightly horrified, asking, "What did you do?"

"Me?" Damon growled, "Your merry little band of vampires spent the day torturing my brother."

"Trust me." She said, "The parties responsible for this will be dealt with."

"Our little arrangement doesn't work unless you learn to control them."

"This wasn't supposed to happen."

"Well, it did." He said, starting to walk out with Alaric and Katy, "If I had a good side… Not a way to get on it."

"You okay?" Damon asked Katy once they got home.

"Yeah I guess-"

"Good." He said, pushing her onto the couch, "Next time I give you an order, you will accept it, no questions asked! I don't care if you've accepted my offer yet or ever will, you will do exactly as I say when I say!"

He turned to glare at her, "I wasn't dropping you off here for my health Katy! I am trying to protect you, and I can't do that if you throw yourself in danger!"

Before they could continue, Damon heard something in the next room, and started going in, "Stay there."

When he got inside he saw Stefan, covered in blood and surrounded by blood bags, one of which he had been drinking when Damon came in. He stopped to look at his brother, who only got a disturbed look on his face and stood there in silence.

Damon's expression turned stone-cold and he rushed back into the room where Katy was, pushing her forcefully outside, "Get in the car."

"What? Why-"

"No questions!" He ordered, opening the passengers' seat door, "Get. In. The Car. Now!"

She got in without another word, and he drove off-speeding mind you- to Elena's house, and just left her there once he saw she was inside, going back home.