For some unknown reason, Peachie X is still very nice to me and continues to Beta this story...

Witch's Discussion

Bonnie felt trapped in the middle – again. Angry witches outside, angry, or at least annoyed vampires inside. One group wanted Elena for some reason, the other group would do anything – including use Bonnie – to keep them from Elena. Neither group was on her side.

It did occur to the witch that Elena would be on her side, would try to help her work this out rather than do anything to her to get what they wanted.

She hesitated at the front door, upset at what Damon and Stefan had said, but knowing that they were right. If not for Elena, she would be dead. Still, it didn't make what Heather had said earlier wrong.

"Please stop." Bonnie said as she opened the door. As expected, Heather was on the doorstep, another person beside her.

"What do you think you're doing?" Heather asked angrily as she pulled some of her black hair behind her ear and glared at Bonnie. "Let us in."

"I told you I needed to think about it."

"Do you need vampires inside with you to think?"

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at the other witch. "You had vampires with you. They attacked us."

Heather didn't respond directly to the challenge. "It's not safe for you to be in there with Elena Gilbert."

Bonnie closed her eyes, bit her lip, and rubbed her forehead as she spoke. "You said you understood."

The witch inside the house found the silence all around her a little unnerving as she waited for a response. Finally she lifted her eyes to look at Heather, who then spoke.

"Bring her out, or let us in." Heather's anger was gone, but she spoke firmly.

Bonnie held the other witch's eyes, trying to keep her voice steady. "You need to explain this to me. I'll let you in, no one else."

"You want me to go in there alone with three vampires?"

"They won't hurt you." She interrupted as Heather finished her question. She wanted to avoid another demand to bring Elena out. "You know I can stop them. I promise they won't bother you while you're in here. I need you to explain this to me before I do anything else. Please."

Heather was glaring at her. It slowly softened to a stare as she responded, "No one will be allowed to leave. We have your house surrounded."

It did not take any effort for Bonnie to glare back this time. "This is how you ask for my help?"

"We don't need your help. We're trying to do you a favor. We're giving you a chance. It won't last."

Bonnie scowled, but nodded for Heather to come inside.

The other witch entered hesitantly, glancing around the room inside before turning to hold the door Bonnie was closing behind her. She spoke to another woman on the doorstep.

"Let me know if anything changes."

Bonnie closed the door to the woman outside, who was nodding to Heather. She motioned for the other witch to sit at a table.

Stefan and the other vampire stood next to each other watching from the entrance to a hallway. Stefan hoped that Heather would think Elena was behind them.

Heather stared into Bonnie's eyes as they sat opposite each other at the table. Elena's friend hesitated as long as she thought she could before asking, "Why do you want Elena? What has she done to you?"

Witch's Anger

Marcus didn't like it, but Elena didn't care. She, with Sarah and Alaric at her side, was next to the woman tied to the tree. Marcus stood a little away from them, closer to Jenna than the tree.

Sarah was on the phone, doing as the human girl asked. "Mom, I'm going to send you another picture. Can you tell me if you know her?"

Sarah was fuming as she used her phone to take the picture and pushed the buttons necessary to send it to her mother. "I'm not here to kill witches."

"She'll come back, Sarah." Elena was not really sure how to calm the witch, not really sure about everything that was going on around her. She did agree that she didn't want anyone else to die.

"You don't know what she was going to do." Alaric interjected. "She's here to kill or take Elena."

Sarah turned on the teacher. "Whoever the enemy here is, it's not her! They're inside the building Katherine wants to keep us out of. That's where we need to be, not here torturing …" She stopped talking in exasperation, shook her head and turned to Elena.

"I agree." Elena whispered, then glanced at Marcus to see if he was listening. He was looking at them, his face blank.

Sarah pulled Elena away from Alaric, then turned to face her, their faces almost touching. She closed her eyes and whispered desperately to the other girl. "I want to leave her alone. I want to go to the building and do whatever, but I don't want the vampires near her."

Elena considered what Sarah said as she watched the blonde witch's eyes open again. "You could put a protection spell around her, then we could talk to her."

Sarah looked at Marcus, then at the witch tied to the tree again.

"How long 'till she wakes up, Elena?" Sarah asked, turning towards the human girl.

"I don't know." Elena looked at Alaric, knowing they had moved far enough away that he couldn't hear them. She spoke to him in a normal voice, loud enough for him to hear.

"How long until she's back?"

"Anytime now." He turned and walked back to Jenna, annoyed that Elena and Sarah were keeping him out of their discussion.

Elena watched him as he reached Jenna and Jeremy. She was starting to doubt herself as she watched the teacher say something to her aunt.

"Maybe it wasn't a good idea to let them come with me."

She felt Sarah move next to her. "You didn't 'let' them, Elena. They insisted. I understand why – I could barely bear to leave you when Katherine took me to heal the vampires. They're even closer to you."

Elena turned away from her family to look at the witch tied to the tree again. She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. "People close to me get hurt. Jeremy's only okay because of you. Damon was hit by spells twice. I have no idea what that did to him, but I'm sure he's somewhere trying to find the danger, trying to protect me. How can they stand to even look at me?"

Sarah put her arm around Elena and faced the tree. "Don't beat yourself up. None of this is your fault."

Elena opened her eyes as she felt Sarah's arm fall from her. She watched the witch run to the tree, muttering something and answering her phone at the same time.

She ran towards the tree where the witch was waking up, where Sarah was standing, watching, talking on the phone with one hand, the fingers on the other moving as she maintained a protection spell.

Marcus was cursing when Elena reached the edge of the spell. "She needs to let me in."

"Let Sarah talk to her first, see what she can find out."

"Katherine won't…"

"Sarah works for Katherine," Elena interrupted, tired of hearing about what Katherine would not like. "We can trust her with this."

Witches Left Behind

Damon wanted to hang around, to try to hear what was happening at the Bennett house. He had gotten out before Heather had been invited in, before the various witches and vampires with her had found and taken positions allowing them to watch all the windows and doors of the house.

Though he was curious to know if Bonnie would try to stall Heather and the others, if she even could if she tried, he didn't dwell on it for long. Isobel had told him where Elena was going, but she was no longer responding to his texts. Elena would be in the open, and even though he was sure she would be surrounded by protective vampires and with Sarah, he was done leaving her safety to them. He would find her, make sure she was alright, then find whoever was sending vampires and witches after her.

He turned his back to the house and moved to where Isobel had said she was taking Elena.

Targeted Witches

"Maybe we should have brought Marcus. He could tell us for sure if this is where he was taken."

Katherine paused at Isobel's comment, then shook her head. "One of you two had to stay with Elena. He didn't go inside anyway, he wouldn't be able to tell us much about what is in there."

Isobel turned back to the building before another vampire was suddenly beside them.

"There's nothing to keep us out," He said. "We were able to get in in the back."

"I imagine they know we're here." Katherine said. "You didn't see anyone?"

"No. We were in and out quickly."

Katherine nodded, thought for a minute, then spoke to Isobel. "At least some of them are at the Bennett house. Do we know why?"

"Damon said they thought Elena was there. He and Stefan were trying to convince Bonnie to bluff them, to keep them there."

"I have Bonnie's promise, she'll protect Elena." Katherine said thoughtfully. "Still we need to move while we have the chance. Shall we enter front or back?"

"Or both." Isobel suggested. "Back first, to hopefully distract them. Then front?"

"Or both," Katherine repeated as she considered what Elena's mother said.