A/N: Well, another interesting turn for this story. The possibilities really are quite endless.
Thank you for the reviews. You all rock!
Stefan crumpled the note up in his hand before picking up the rock and hurling it back out the window, breaking even more glass. "You son of a bitch!" he yelled. Quickly, he made a run for the front door and went outside, running around to where the kitchen window was. "Where are you?" he yelled, looking all around, but seeing no one. "If you want her, you're going to have to kill me first!" he yelled as loud as he could. All he was met with was silence.
Stefan made his way back inside, his blood boiling as it pumped rather quickly through his body. He had called the airport – Elena's plane had already taken off for California. She had been checked in and they assured him that she was on the flight.
His next phone call was to Jeremy. Jeremy had gone nuts upon hearing the news and wanted all the information he could get. Unfortunately, Stefan didn't have much to offer him. "Just meet her at baggage claim and take her back to your place. Lock the doors. I don't know if he has followed her over there or not" he explained.
"You really think it is him?" Jeremy asked finally, his voice low and cautious.
Stefan gripped the phone tightly. "I'm not taking any chances" he answered.
"What do I tell her?" Jeremy asked.
"Nothing" Stefan told him. "I'll call her in the morning and explain what happened" he added. "Just keep her safe. I'll talk to you later tonight." With that, he hung up.
Stefan's first text, however, had been to his brother, who came storming through his front door. "What the hell happened?" he asked, his eyes dark with worry.
Stefan held up the crumpled up note for him to read. "Derrick happened" he sighed, taking a seat and running his hands through his hair. He could feel all of the stress and tension building in his neck and shoulders.
"Where's Elena?" Damon asked.
"On her way to California. Jeremy is up to speed on what happened. I'm going to tell Elena tomorrow" Stefan explained. A small string of curse words came out of his mouth from frustration. "Is this all just one big sick joke, or is it really him?" Stefan asked, looking defeated as he turned to look at Damon.
Damon shook his head. "I don't know" he stated. "We should probably go to the police with this. As far as I know, they think he's dead."
"Which gives them little room to believe he could still be alive" Stefan pointed out. "Derrick's shooting was in the paper. The police will just think it's some kid playing a prank on us" he added.
"So what, we just let this go?" Damon asked, clearly frustrated with his little brother.
"No. If he really is alive, we find the SOB and make him dead, like he should have been all along" Stefan said without a hint of hesitancy in his voice.
"And what do you plan to do with Elena in the meantime?" Damon questioned.
That was something that Stefan was still struggling with. On the one hand, he knew that she should be someplace else, away from Mystic Falls. On the other, he didn't trust anyone else to keep her safe but himself. "I want her back here, with me" he stated.
"Okay" Damon nodded, not agreeing with his brother at all. "I'm going to send Katherine and Lily to stay with Zach in New York" he stated. He wasn't going to take any chances. "If he's out there, we'll get him this time" Damon assured him. Because no one messed with their family and got away with it.
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It was early morning when Elena woke up to the sound of her phone buzzing. It was Stefan. "Hello?" she asked sleepily.
His heart clenched tight inside his chest. The last thing he wanted to do was wake her up with news like this. "Hey sleepyhead" Stefan said softly.
"Stefan" she said, her voice still entirely too sleepy. "It's early" she said, yawning. Even earlier for him on the East Coast.
"I know, I'm sorry" he told her quietly. "I just needed to tell you that there was an incident last night, after you left" he stated, cutting to the chase.
Elena sat up in her bed, clutching her phone tighter. "What kind of an incident?" she asked, suddenly worried. "Are you okay?" she asked quickly.
Stefan swallowed slowly. "A rock went through our kitchen window last night, with a note attached to it" he said slowly, yet confidently. He knew she was waiting for him to tell her what it said. "It said" he began nervously. "You should have believed her."
"I knew it" Elena breathed into the phone. "I knew I wasn't crazy" she said again, fighting the urge to not yell at him or accuse him. "It's him, Stefan. It really is him."
The more Stefan dwelled on it, the more he believed it. "I'm so sorry Elena" Stefan said, a lump forming in his throat. "I should have believed you" he told her, fighting back his unshed tears. "But Elena. I need you to come back to Mystic Falls, so I can be with you" he told her, expecting quite the fight over the phone with her. "We're going to take care of it. We will find him. But I need to know that you are safe, with me" he said, almost pleading.
There was a long pause before she spoke. "I'll take the first flight out this evening" she stated. She heard Stefan sigh with relief. "Please, be careful" Elena told him.
"I will" he assured her. "Call me before you get on the plane and let me know what time you are going to land" he told her. "I love you."
"I love you too, Stefan" she said. He could tell that she had started to cry softly before she hung up and he desperately wanted to call her back. But he settled for a text instead, reminding her that everything was going to be okay.
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"So why are you shipping us off to Zach's?" Katherine questioned as she watched her husband pack Lily's suitcase. He was in a hurry.
"He misses Lily" Damon stated.
Katherine grabbed his arm rather forcefully and stopped him. "Don't lie to me. What is going on?" she demanded.
Damon sighed and sat on Lily's bed, motioning for Katherine to sit down too. "Stefan got a rock through his window last night with a note. He thinks it was … Derrick" he explained.
"Oh not this again" Katherine groaned. "Derrick is dead. I thought you agreed that Elena is crazy and seeing things?" she asked.
Damon shook his head. "I'm not so sure anymore" he said, bringing his hand up to rest against Katherine's cheek. "But I'm not taking any chances with you and Lily" he said softly. Katherine held his gaze for a moment before leaning in and kissing him.
"Okay" she said. Damon was surprised that she didn't put up much of a fight. "I'll finish packing our things" she offered.
"Thank you" Damon said. "Elena will be home late tonight. I'm going to try and convince Stefan to send Elena to New York with you two. We will get security for Zach's house" he added.
The thought of living in the same house with Elena for an unknown amount of time did not sit well with her, but she decided not to comment on it. "Okay" she said.
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Lily hopped off of her swing and picked one of the daisies in her yard. She was excited to be going to New York to see Zach and hoped that Elena would be going too. She really missed her. So much so that when she saw Elena's car pull up along the curb outside of the gate, Lily took off running for it.
Katherine saw Lily running for the gate and went to the door to see what she was doing. "Lily?" Katherine called.
"Mommy, Elena's here!" Lily yelled excitedly as she continued to run for the gate to let Elena in.
Katherine furrowed her brow. Elena's car was sitting outside of their gate, but Elena was still in California. And Stefan had the password to punch into the keypad and let himself in. Something wasn't right. "Lily, stop!" Katherine yelled, taking off out of the house and running across the yard towards Lily. "Stop, Lily, stop!" Katherine continued to yell.
But Lily didn't. She reached the gate and struggled a great deal to open it, but she was able to slide through to greet Elena. "Elena!" Lily screeched, running up to the car. She peered into the driver's window and realized it wasn't Elena. Instinctively, she backed up.
The door opened and a man stepped out. "Hello, Lily. It is finally nice to meet you" he said, smiling down at her.
"Lily!" Katherine screamed as she neared the gate.
Lily turned to run towards her mother and away from the stranger, but he caught her just in time. "Let go of me!" she screamed as he opened the back door and tossed her inside. "Mommy help!" Lily yelled as the door shut on her.
The man jumped inside of the car and switched the child safety locks on so Lily couldn't escape. "Sit down and shut up!" he yelled at her, putting the car into drive. He jumped slightly when a pair of hands banged against the window.
"Let her go!" Katherine demanded, slamming her hands against the window once more. She went to the back door and nearly broke the door handle trying to get the door opened. "Unlock the door Baby" Katherine pleaded, reaming on the door handle once more.
Lily tried but it wouldn't open. "Mommy!" Lily yelled, slamming on the window and bursting into tears as the car sped away.
Katherine became frantic as she watched the car drive off with her daughter. "Lily!" she screamed as tears flooded down her cheeks. She ran after the car for as long as she could before she was out of breath and could do nothing else but collapse onto the pavement.
"Katherine?" she heard as Damon came out of the fence and ran towards her. "What's wrong?" he asked, bending down to her level and examining her. He had heard Katherine screaming from upstairs. "What happened?" he asked, worry filling his eyes.
"Lily" she barely got out before bursting into tears again. "Someone took Lily" she said, sobbing uncontrollably as she collapsed into Damon.
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Stefan came running into the police station, searching frantically for Damon and Katherine. He found them at the end of a long hallway. Katherine was wrapped in a large sweatshirt, tearing apart her paper cup and Damon was pacing. Stefan approached cautiously, willing for this to all be some misunderstanding.
Katherine saw him first and stood abruptly. As soon as he reached her, she hauled off and smacked him as hard as she could across his face. "You brought that little bitch into our lives and now my daughter is gone!" Katherine screamed at him, hitting him, shoving him, doing whatever she could to make her pain go away. And Stefan stood there and took it.
Before Damon could intervene, a police officer had grabbed her and subdued her against the wall, threatening to handcuff her if she didn't settle down. "Let her go" Stefan told the police officer calmly, though he was visibly shaken up. The police officer slowly let Katherine go and she turned around to look at Stefan, but this time, with fear and helplessness in her eyes.
She took three steps towards Stefan until she was in his arms and sobbing. "He took my baby" she cried, holding onto Stefan as if her life depended on it. "That son of a bitch took my baby."
Stefan held her and looked at Damon who had clearly been crying as well. He looked like a wreck. They all did. "Did you tell the police, about the note?" Stefan asked Damon.
He nodded solemnly. "I told them about Derrick. I don't think they believed me, but their main focus right now is to find Lily" he said, struggling to get her name out, like it was absolutely absurd that he would be saying such a thing. His sweet, baby girl, being held captive and her fate unknown. It was too much to deal with.
He continued to hold on to Katherine, but he looked right at Damon. "We'll get her back" Stefan told him, told them all. Derrick did not get to get away with this.
Damon nodded as his phone rang out. He picked it up without hesitation. "Salvatore" he bit into the phone. "Yes. Good. Thank you for getting on this so quickly. I want the SOB found. My daughter is your first priority, but he does not get to get away. Do you understand?" Damon asked. "Good. Keep him alive when you find him. Because I am going to tear the skin off of his body, inch by inch, until he slowly and painfully bleeds to death."
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Elena got off the plane, not being able to help but feel sad that her trip to see Jeremy and Bonnie had been cut short. But Stefan wanted her at home with him and she just couldn't say no. To be honest, she wanted to be at home with him too, to make sure nothing happened to him. If Derrick really was out there, which he was, she didn't know what a man capable of faking his own death might also be capable of.
Stefan was waiting for her and he looked like a wreck. Was he really so worried now? "Hi" she mumbled nervously, stepping into his arms and hugging him tight.
He held her tight as well, fearing that if he let her go, she would disappear too. "Let's go home" he said, his voice barely above a whisper. He let go of her finally and took her bag and her hand as they left. He was careful to scan the airport as they went to the parking garage, though he doubted that Derrick would be nearby. Not when he now had … Lily.
Stefan held it together all the way home. They were both quiet and he was thankful for that. When they finally did get back home, he again looked around as he ushered her inside and locked up the house.
Elena went into the kitchen to examine the window, leaving Stefan in the living area. He had taped it up for the night. She examined the note on the counter. It was Derrick's writing, most definitely. She went back to the living area to tell Stefan this. When he looked up at her, he was crying. Really, crying. "Stefan?" she asked, standing stalk still.
"He took her" Stefan forced out, his voice full of pain and defeat.
Elena froze, even more than she already had. But somehow, slowly, she shook her head from side to side. She could tell, just by looking at him, by hearing his voice, who he was talking about. "No" she whispered. No, it was not true. It was a mistake. Not, Lily.
Stefan swayed forward some, feeling lightheaded. He grabbed for the chair and slowly lowered himself onto the floor. "He took my … Lily. He took her" he said, beginning to sob in a way that he hadn't in quite some time. But the thought of what Derrick might do to Lily, what he was doing to her, scared the shit out of him.
"No" Elena mumbled, her lip beginning to quiver as she began to cry. "No" she cried softly, shaking her head and walking towards him. She sank into his lap, burying her head into his neck and cried harder. "It's all my fault" she cried against him. "It's all my fault."
Stefan gathered up all the strength he could to shake his head. "No" he whispered, wrapping his arms around her. "Don't say that" he told her. "He did this, all on his own. It's his fault" he said with a hint of anger making an appearance.
"I'm so … sorry" Elena said, her voice catching in her throat as her sobs took over. As he held her, all she could concentrate on was how much this was her fault. How Lily would have never been taken in the first place if Elena had just stayed with Derrick. She would have never led him to Mystic Falls, and would have never led him into Stefan's life. It was all her fault.
And she had to fix it.
A/N: Comments? Freak outs? Tell me what you thought of this update!