Damon was currently sitting in the living room drinking a glass of bourbon. Most would consider it way too early to be drinking, but he never cared too much about what anyone thought. Last night utterly sucked and it didn't seem like it would get better anytime soon. The girl he loved and her brother were living with a vampire that literally murdered her about six months earlier, and it was because of his brother, who was still chained up downstairs.

Damon soon heard the front door open. He didn't bother to get and see who it was. Whoever it was would make their way to living room soon enough on their own. He just sat there and took another large gulp of his drink.

Sure enough, Alaric made his way to living room moments later, and he didn't look happy. "What the hell is going on?"

"Good to see you too, Ric. Well, I'm currently getting drunk and contemplating whether or I should unchain my traitorous brother from the basement or let him suffer. I'm leaning towards the second option at the moment," Damon said. He was in no hurry to release Stefan. He was pissed at Stefan. His brother had just ruined Elena's life. He put her in a position she should never have to be in.

"I just spoke with Elena and Jeremy," Alaric said.

"I'm sure that went great," Damon said sarcastically before standing up to go get himself another drink.

"What the hell is happening, Damon. First, Elena goes missing for twenty-four hours. Then yesterday I got a voicemail from Jeremy saying that they were fine and going to live with Klaus! Those two things don't even belong in the same sentence! I tried calling him back, but he didn't answer. I finally got through this morning, but they wouldn't tell me anything. Then Klaus got on the phone and invited me for dinner!" Alaric said. Honestly, he was almost ready to believe he'd lost his mind because none of these events seemed possible.

Damon poured two drinks and held one out to his friend. "You're going to need that."

Alaric took it and took a large sip of it. "What is going on? Elena said I should ask you or one of her other friends. Whatever it is, she wouldn't talk about it."

"Don't hold it against her. She's been through hell. Stefan kidnapped her. That's why she disappeared for a day," Damon told him.

"What? Why would he do that?" Alaric asked. That did explain why Damon said Stefan was chained up in the basement though. Damon was clearly trying to contain him.

"To get to Klaus. It turns out Klaus and Elena are from the same family line, and Stefan thought he could use Elena as leverage to hurt Klaus. He wasn't totally wrong, but it did blow up in his face," Damon told him.

Alaric shook his head in disbelief. "That's not possible."

"Apparently it is. It seems that a thousand years ago, Klaus or Elijah impregnated the original doppelganger. Many, many years later Elena was born," Damon said before finishing his drink and pouring another.

"You're sure?" Alaric asked in shock.

"Unfortunately, yes. Stefan got his hands on a piece of paper from Elena's. It looked like some sort of family tree. Klaus and Elijah's names were on it. Elena's apparently known for a while," Damon said.

Alaric took in Damon's words for a few moments before speaking. "She must have gotten it from Isobel's things. I gave them to her a while back. I never imagined there was anything like that in there."

"Anyway, Klaus wasn't too happy to find out that Stefan had kidnapped a member of his line. He intended to drain Stefan of the vervain in his system and compel her location out of him. He didn't get very far though. See, Stefan made the mistake of trapping Elena with Klaus' daggered siblings, which Stefan was also using for leverage. Elena revived Elijah," Damon explained.

"She's always been smart. She woke up the one person that could get her out of there," Alaric said before finishing off his drink.

"Yeah, but she pretty much traded one kidnapper for another. Klaus and Elijah insisted that she and Jeremy go live with them, and because she was afraid of Stefan, she didn't even try to fight them," Damon said. Of course, he knew it probably wouldn't have done her any good. She couldn't fight three originals.

"Damn it! No, I'm not going to let this happen!" Alaric practically yelled. He was responsible for those kids. He'd made a promise to himself that he would protect them after Jenna died. He couldn't relinquish them to her murderer.

"Well, if you've got a way to stop it, I'm more than happy to hear it. Otherwise, I say we get drunk until we figure it out," Damon said before pouring himself yet another drink.

Alaric held out his own glass expectantly.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Hours later, Damon found himself heading for the basement. Ric had left a few hours ago, and Damon had slept off the alcohol. He decided it was time he dealt with Stefan. One thing he'd determined was that he was not going to let his brother continue to hide behind dimmed emotions. He was going to make him deal with what he'd done.

Stefan looked up when he heard his brother enter the room. "It's about time. It has to have been at least a day."

"Not quite. Maybe eighteen hours, which means you've been here less time than you had Elena locked up," Damon said.

"I didn't chain her up or try to drain her dry," Stefan countered.

"No, you just locked her in a room with a bunch of coffins and treated her as nothing more than a weapon to hurt Klaus," he said.

"You would've done the same if it weren't Elena," Stefan said.

"Maybe, but it was Elena," Damon said. His brother wasn't completely wrong. If the motivation was right, he might have done the same thing if it weren't Elena. He certainly would've hidden the coffins if he thought it could help him defeat Klaus. The fact of the matter was though that it was Elena, and he would never hurt her like that. There was a time when Stefan wouldn't have either. "I also wouldn't have been as stupid about it. You didn't even know what you wanted. You didn't have a reason for it other than to get under Klaus' skin. If you're going to do something stupid, brother, you should at least have a good reason. You ruined Elena's life for nothing."

"You're being dramatic," Stefan said.

"Is that right? Elena and Jeremy went home with three originals last night. They're living in the same house as Klaus!" Damon snarled.

That surprised Stefan. He recalled Klaus telling Elena she had to go with him, but surely Damon would've stopped him. "Why would she do that?"

"Because you didn't give her a damned choice!" Damon yelled. He was furious with Stefan. He didn't think he'd ever been this angry with his brother, and he included when Stefan forced him to transition and their rivalry over Katherine. "You gave Klaus power over her when you told him they were related! You made sure that he would do whatever he had to do to hang onto her! She didn't even fight him, Stefan! Do you know why? Because you made her feel unsafe in her own home! Do you know how screwed up that is?! She thinks she needs Klaus to protect her from you!"

Stefan pushed down the guilt that threatened to consume him. It wasn't his fault. Elena created the situation when she hid the truth from them. "Elena caused this all to happen. If she had said something sooner…"

"Shut up!" Damon bellowed. He wasn't going to listen to his brother try to blame Elena again. "Do you have any idea what you've done to her? I'm not just talking about forcing her to go to the originals. You betrayed her! She loved you more than anything! She would've done anything to help you! No, she did do everything to help you! She never gave up on you when you went off with Klaus, and even when he forced you to turn your humanity off!"

Stefan began to think about Elena coming after him while he was away with Klaus. He thought about how she believed he wouldn't hurt her even after Klaus shut off his humanity. How she chained him up in the basement and did everything she could to get him to turn it back on. He pushed it all down again, but it was harder this time. It was getting he HeHe arder not to let his feelings in the more his brother spoke.

"You were the reason she was willing to go through with the plan to kill Klaus. She didn't want to, even after everything he did. She didn't say so, but I saw the guilt on her face. Still, she was willing to do it to free you from him," Damon said. He didn't realize it at the time, but he knew now that that was because of the connection she had to Klaus. She didn't want to kill someone who was technically family. That was why she felt so much guilt for daggering Rebekah too.

"Stop it, Damon," Stefan said.

Damon could see that he was starting to get to Stefan. His brother was starting to be affected by the reminder of the past. "No. That's just everything she did for you recently. She literally fed you her blood to save you! And when it caused you to lose control, she brought you back from it!"

"Stop," Stefan pleaded as the memories came flooding back, and with them, the love he felt for Elena. He loved her so much. He would've done anything to protect her.

Damon didn't stop. He was almost there and he had no intention of stopping until he got there. He wanted Stefan to feel everything he was trying to keep at bay, both because Stefan was dangerous like this and also because Damon wanted to make him suffer for what he did to Elena. "And you thanked her for all of that by holding her hostage and then essentially handing her over to Klaus. You've become the abusive boyfriend that she has to protected from!"

Next, Stefan replayed kidnapping Elena. He replayed her begging him not to do and later telling him she'd never forgive him for it. He remembered just yesterday all three originals standing between her and him as if he was a threat to her. Because he was. He had become the danger to her, instead of the person keeping her safe from the danger. "Oh, God. Elena."

Damon nodded in satisfaction before reaching up and removing his brother's chains.

Stefan collapsed into a heap on the floor. He didn't even try to get up. All the work he'd done to keep himself from feeling anything but hatred for Klaus had been for nothing. As soon as he let his feelings for Elena back in, it was over, and all he could feel was guilt for what he did to her.

Damon watched his brother fall apart, but he couldn't feel an ounce of pity for him. He'd chosen to do what he did. He dimmed his emotions, but they were still there. He knew it was wrong to hurt Elena. "Let me be clear on something, little brother. You're going to pull yourself together and deal with the things you've done. You're not going to touch your humanity switch. If you even think of turning it off again, I will put you out of your misery myself!" With that, he walked out of the room and left his brother to deal with his guilt alone.