Antsy

Elena was bored. She had been stuck in Bonnie's house for a full 24 hours and then some. She had brought a book to read and her journal to catch up with, but she was going crazy. She really didn't think of herself as a control freak, but lack of control, or maybe lack of awareness of what was going on, was getting to her. Couldn't she risk a call to someone just to see what was happening? Maybe Bonnie.

She went to Bonnie's back door and opened it, just standing in the doorway. She couldn't risk walking, but she had to leave.

She went to the Bonnie's phone and dialed.

"Mr. Saltzman?" She said when he answered. "I'm kind of stuck at Bonnie's house. Could you give me a ride home?"

She wasn't sure exactly what she would tell him, or what she would do if Katherine happened to see her. But she couldn't just sit there anymore.

Curse the Sun

Katherine could feel the van's movement as it went through the streets of Mystic Falls.

The vampire had pulled the knife away from her, but kept it in his hand as he sat next to her.

"Why hasn't she said anything?" The vampire with the knife asked the other.

"You told her to be quiet. Compulsion."

"I wasn't looking into her eyes. And if what we've heard is true…"

He pulled her head to his and stared into her eyes. It took all the control she could muster not to kill him then. His eyes moved down and found her necklace. He ripped it from her neck.

"Vervain." He said as he threw the necklace aside. Then he stared into her eyes again and asked, "Why are you so quiet?"

"Afraid," Katherine whispered. She didn't really have to pretend to be upset with her necklace gone. She was now subject to sunlight.

"Good. Now sit still and stay quiet." He said as he shoved her back to where she had been.

She wanted to look for the necklace, but knew that fighting the vampires to find it might just rip the van apart, exposing her to the sunlight. So she waited.

Eventually, the van pulled into a garage. Safe from the sun, she decided to keep up her ruse for awhile to see if she could learn who they were and why they had taken her, why they were after Elena.

She continued to be roughly handled as she was pulled from a garage into what was probably used as a living room. She was forced into a chair and "compelled" to stay put. There were windows, but they were covered to keep the sun out. She felt much better with that much protection, and began to assess her kidnappers – 3 vampires and a human.

The human was the owner of the house and, of course, under compulsion.

She did not recognize the vampires. She estimated her odds in a fight to be at best 50/50, especially since she couldn't leave the house. That might work, but she preferred better odds.

She decided that, unless attacked, she would wait until they weren't paying attention to her. And by then, hopefully, she would have figured out their intentions.

The Accessories

It took longer than Elena preferred for Alaric to arrive. He had explained that he had some things to do and it would be mid-afternoon before he would arrive, but she was still annoyed. She did, however, have time to formulate an excuse.

She didn't allow him to knock – she just ran to his car when he arrived.

"So how did you get stuck here without a car?" Alaric asked – slightly confused that, instead of just climbing in and putting on her seatbelt, she was scrunching as much of herself as possible into the floor space by the seat.

"Stefan dropped me off. I was going to clean some, but forgot something so I need to go back home for a minute."

"You know I need you to put your seat belt on."

Elena did manage to grab the seatbelt and pull, it over her and snap it, though its placement was not comfortable – not that any other part of her was comfortable at the moment.

"Are you going to explain yourself" Alaric asked.

"Um, can I just say vampire stuff and leave it at that?"

"OK…" Alaric said slowly as he pulled out of Bonnie's driveway. "Not willing to share?"

"Not yet. But can you wait at my house for a few minutes while I get what I need?"

Alaric nodded, but couldn't help glancing at her as he drove.

When he arrived and parked, Elena asked "Can you go see if I'm there?" She removed the seatbelt, but stayed scrunched down.

Alaric was getting annoyed. "Excuse me?" Then he realized what it must mean.

"Is Katharine here?"

"I don't know, but if she is, I need to stay out here. Would you check for me please?"

"Elena, where's Stefan?"

"I don't know, but don't worry. She's not hurting anyone or anything. She's just pretending to be me for a couple of days. Could you please go check? And if she's not there, go in so I'll know it's safe for me to."

"Elena, if something's going on, you need to tell me."

"No one is in danger. I promise. Would you please go check for me?"

Alaric did so reluctantly. Elena poked her head up a couple times before she saw that he had gone inside.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she finally straightened up and left the car, stretching as she walked to the door. She had to wait long enough for it not to seem odd to Jenna that Alaric had not seen her as he came in.

She felt relief as she entered her home.

"Elena," Jenna said as she entered, "someone found your purse and brought it over."

"My purse?"

"Yes. You don't need to worry, though. Your wallet's there – that's how they knew where to bring it. Your cell phone's there too. I don't think anything was taken."

"Where did they find it?"

"They didn't say. Did you not know you'd lost it?"

"No. Thanks." She took the purse and went upstairs without speaking to Alaric.

She knew she worried too much sometimes. Everything was probably OK. Katherine had probably dropped her stuff while making out with Stefan or something.

She decided to call Stefan. It was a risk, if she was with him, he might figure it all out. But Katherine needed to know that she'd lost the phone and purse. Maybe she could disguise her voice to sound like a stranger. She called.

He didn't answer.

Should she call Damon?

Things Are Not as They Seem

The van with two vampires had just left the house - the human was dead, body dumped in the garage. Although it was several hours before sunset, Katherine decided to move. She now knew what was happening, and with only one vampire left, she could easily take him out. Hopefully the house would have a phone she could use.

She had just gotten out of the chair when a window crashed in. She froze, ready to move out of the light if it was too close. Then she saw Damon going straight for the startled vampire.

She watched as Damon pulled the other vampire into the sunlight flowing through the broken window. He was not protected and between the sun and Damon, was soon gone – in a rather noisy and messy fashion.

Damon rushed to Katherine.

"Are you all right?"

She nodded. "Why did you come?"

Damon pointed at the mess on the floor. "Do you really need to ask?"

"No," she said. "I mean how did you know I needed help?"

"I told you where I'd be if there's something trying to hurt you. I'm just sorry I couldn't get to you sooner, but I could tell you were OK."

"You're not at full strength yet. One vampire would have been hard, but three…"

"Easy with the sun though." Damon interrupted. "Let's get you out of here before they come back."

"No! They took my necklace."

Damon was startled at her reaction. "The vervain? Elena, you don't need to worry about it. I won't do anything…"

"Damon, I can't go into the sunlight without the necklace."

"What? Why not?" Damon did not understand.

Katherine sighed. "Damon, think about it. I cannot go into the sun without the necklace. It's what protects me."

Damon wasn't that dense. He understood now. "Katherine."

She nodded.

"Where's Elena?"

"If she's being good, she's at Bonnie's house."

"What are the chances of that?" Damon said as he realized what Katherine had called the person she usually referred to as "the witch".

"If they see her, she is in danger. Is there a phone here?" she asked, moving across the room trying to avoid the light.

"Use this," Damon said, giving her his cell phone.

"We'll need a phone book unless you have the Bennett number in here."

Katherine sat on the couch as Damon retrieved the book. He came back with it open and gave her the number.

"Have you been pretending to be Elena?" Damon asked.

Katherine looked at him briefly before nodding slightly as she listened to the ringing.

"How long?"

"Long enough to know that 'things are not as they seem'."

Damon winced and shook his head.

"We'll work that out later." Katherine said. "Right now, we need to find her."

At that point, Damon's phone rang showing a call from Elena. Katherine answered.

"Elena. Are you OK?"

"Yeah, Sure." Elena said, recognizing Katherine's voice. "But why are you at Damon's phone. Did you know you dropped my purse?"

"There's been an incident. Where are you?"

"Home," Elena replied.

"Are you in your bedroom?"

"Yes."

"Do you see a small blue box on your desk that is not yours?"

Elena looked. It was there.

"Yes. What's going on?"

"I may need you to bring it to me. But for now, please stay there. Don't invite anyone in. There are a couple of rather hostile vampires out there that might cause you harm."

"They're after me?" Elena asked, starting to get worried.

"Not you directly, though you are actually part of their plan. Their true target is Damon."