Author's Note:

Thank you so much for sticking with me! Thanks shoppe69 for your great help, and also for your touching stories!

On it goes with chapter 20. If you can, please let me know what you think.
Yours, Giuna

Chapter 20

They arrived in Mystic Falls at night and decided to sleep in the car. During the long ride, Damon had made some phone calls. Due to a guy who owed him a favor he had managed to organize fake ID's for Elena and himself, but also for Stefan and Caroline. In addition he had talked to Alaric who had found them a place to stay somewhere in New Jersey. Alaric had told him that he would give Damon the exact address personally once the spell was cast.

Damon and Stefan had a serious discussion about what Stefan and Caroline should do to stay hidden from Klaus. They had come to the understanding that it wasn't safe for them to return to the boarding house. Unfortunately, they didn't know if Sheila Bennett would cast the invisible spell over Stefan and Caroline as well, but actually Damon didn't expect her to. He had crossed path with several witches and he had never experienced that they did anything just out of kindness. He was glad, though, that the Bennett witch would help at least him and Elena due to the promise of her ancestor. Nonetheless, Damon would try to convince her to help his brother too. He hated the thought that Stefan had to live his life on a run from Klaus just because he had helped him saving Elena. To be honest, he wanted Stefan and Caroline around. Recently it felt as if the four of them matched pretty well and he didn't want to lose this new bond. Besides, Stefan would be the uncle of his daughter and Damon wanted him to be a part of her life, just like he wanted it for Alaric and Jenna. He needed to find a way to combine their safety with their family and friends. The only question was how?

Actually he had no idea. He wouldn't be able to find Klaus a woman like Elena. If he could, he would just kill him… Of course that was not possible, but what if he could find a way to checkmate him anyway?

"That's the address!" Elena shouted and pointed to a small house on their left.

"You're right!" Damon said relieved and brought the car to a halt. "Let's get out," he told Elena and climbed out of the car, staring at the house. He hoped with all he got that Bonnie Bennett would manage to help them finding the witch.

Hand in hand, Damon and Elena stepped up the porch. Taking a deep breath, Elena rang the bell. It took some time, but then Damon could hear soft footsteps inside the house. When the door opened, a beautiful young black woman stared at them in confusion. Her dark brown eyes gave them a piercing stare as if she expected something bad to happen.

"Yes?" she asked startled, tucking one strand of her brown curls behind her ear.

"Hello. I'm Elena and this is Damon. We're looking for Bonnie Bennett. Is that you?" Elena questioned politely and smiled at the woman in front of her.

"Yes, that's me. But I don't understand… what do you want?" she said puzzled and frowned at the strangers in front of her.

"Look, actually we're searching for a woman called Sheila Bennett and we thought, since you've got the same last name, you might know where we can find her," Damon interrupted the chit chat, coming to the point.

"Sheila Bennett was my grandmother… I'm sorry, but… I can't help you. She is dead," Bonnie explained in a shaky voice while tears watered her eyes.

"What?" Elena blurted out in shock and grabbed Damon's arm for support.

"Fuck!" Damon cursed silently and ran his free hand through his hair. "Do you know that your grandmother was a witch?" Damon asked her straightforwardly, leaving Bonnie dumbfounded.

"Err…," she searched for words, but suddenly she jumped back to shut the door. Elena was faster. Knowing Damon wouldn't be able to block the door with his foot on the threshold she did it herself.

"Please, don't! We need your help!" Elena begged, showing Bonnie how desperate she really was.

"I don't know you. I shouldn't trust you!" Bonnie pointed out, glaring at Elena.

"Maybe you don't know us, but your grandmother knew my mom! She helped my mom with a spell and promised that she would help me too!"

"What are you talking about?" Bonnie demanded, confusion written all over her face again.

"We're talking about Elena being a socia and me being a vampire. Your ancestors promised to help us hiding from other supernatural beings because they had failed to keep another witch circle from inventing a spell which could separate a couple. That caused many deaths and prevented the socia gene from spreading properly," Damon elucidated quickly, causing Bonnie's eyes to widen with every second that passed by.

Instead of answering, Bonnie just sighed deeply.

"She told you, didn't she?" Elena interrogated, holding on to the last piece of hope.

"Yes, she told me… I just didn't expect you to show up… like… ever! I'm still new to the witch stuff and although my grams wrote down the spell I'm not sure if I can cast it already. I'm sorry!" Bonnie excused herself and looked pretty unhappy.

"Great!" Damon said ironically and clenched his jaw.

"But you will try?" Elena questioned with a thundering heart in her chest. If Bonnie Bennett couldn't cast the spell they were lost.

The young witch took a deep breath, "Fine, I'll try. But give me some time, please. I need to prepare myself. Let's say we'll meet again at 8 tonight, okay?" Bonnie offered, her expression suddenly highly concentrated.

"Thank you, Bonnie!" Elena sighed and closed her eyes in relief.

"Good. We'll be back at 8. I'll bring my brother with me. He is a vampire too, so we can instantly prove if the spell works or not," Damon informed her, without waiting for permission.

"Do that. But your brother stays outside my house. One invited-in vampire is definitively enough!" Bonnie retorted and craned her neck while she drew herself up to her full height.

Damon smirked at the still small woman in front of him, but nodded, "Fair enough."

"I'll see you later then," Bonnie told them and waited for Elena to retract her foot.

"See you later, Bonnie, and thanks again," Elena smiled slightly at the witch and turned to Damon the second the door was closed.

"You were rude!" Elena started to argue, flashing her eyes at him.

"Nah, I just wanted to make sure that she knows with whom she is dealing with. We don't know her and I usually don't trust witches. I get that this is a different situation, but still," Damon stated, pulling her down the porch.

"I want you to behave tonight, okay? Our future depends on her and I don't want her to be mad at us!" Elena pointed out, abruptly stopping in the motion.

Damon sighed and turned around, "Okay. I'll behave!" He replied shortly, although he didn't like the thought. They would be completely at the witch's mercy and he was still glad that he had shown her that she would be wise to not mess with him. On the other hand he needed to calm down Elena. He had forged out a plan he needed to put into action.

Back in the car he started the engine and headed to the motel where Stefan and Caroline waited for them.

"Elena, listen. I'll drop you at the motel, and then I'll drive to the boarding house," he blurted out into the silence.

"What? Why? What do you want there? Damon, you can't go back. What if Klaus is at your house? It had been risky enough to come here!" Elena yelled at him in shock, totally shattered at his idea.

"I thought about it a lot, and I don't like the thought either. But with Klaus on Stefan and Caroline's heels, I won't be able to live my life as if nothing had happened. It wouldn't be fair. They helped us and I can't leave them in the lurch. Besides, we don't know if Greta won't find a way to make us visible for Klaus again…," he explained and looked at her, her face showing the exact emotion which he had expected. Compassion.

"You're right. It wouldn't be fair and I thought about it a lot myself. It's just that I'm afraid that something might happen to you…," Elena phrased, the corner's of her mouth pointing downward.

"I know that. But I'm not stupid, Elena. I hope to find Elijah there. Maybe Klaus left him behind for picking him up later, thinking that we wouldn't come back so he could quickly start the search for Greta," he elucidated his plan further.

"You want the dagger, right?" Elena put one and one together.

"Exactly. And with undaggering Elijah, I hope that he'll give me some of the ash of the ancient white oak tree. See, I believe that I might have a chance to dagger Klaus when Bonnie has cast the spell. Me being invisible would be a very good advantage!"

"That's true. But what makes you so sure that Elijah is going to help you? I mean, Klaus is his brother!" Elena pressed, still not liking his plan, "What if he is turning against you?"

"I don't know. But actually I don't care. Because once I have the ash, I won't need anything else from Elijah. I'm not going to tell him about the invisibility spell. Therefore all I need to accomplish is to find Klaus alone. I'll dagger him and together with Stefan I'll find him a nice place where nobody will find him ever again!" Damon finished his explanation and smirked smugly.

"You seem to have a pretty tight schedule…," Elena mused.

"Indeed. But I'll be back in time. You'll see it'll work!" Damon tried to calm her while he parked the car in front of the motel.

"Damon?"

"Yes?"

"You should feed on me first. I'm sure you won't be back within the next 3 hours, am I wrong?" she asked, feeling the tension spreading through her whole body.

"No, you're right…," he confirmed her thought, taking her hand in his. Slowly he raised her wrist, pushing it against his mouth. Closing his eyes, he inhaled her sweet scent and within the blink of an eye, his eyes turned red and dark veins started pulsating underneath them. When he opened his mouth, his canines were already elongated. Staring straight into Elena's eyes, his sharp teeth broke through her delicate skin, opening her vein and filling his mouth with her extraordinary crimson juice.

For the first time since their connection had been sealed, Damon's bite hurt, but Elena didn't move nor did she jerk. She knew it hurt because it was against the rhythm. Damon didn't take too much and after a couple of gulps he released her wrist. While he licked the remains of her blood off his teeth he sliced his tongue and placed an open mouth-kiss over the bite marks, letting his blood dropping into the wound.

"I'm sorry it hurt," he whispered and smiled at her with a pained expression.

"How…?"

"Let's say I know you quite well," Damon answered her unfinished question. He hated that he had to leave her now.

Elena sighed and forced a smile upon her face, "You should go now. But Damon, please be careful. It's not just our lives that are in danger. Never forget that!" She told him seriously and leaned forward to push a kiss on his lips. He responded to the kiss desperately.

"I won't!"

Elena nodded in response, opened the car door and climbed out. Throwing the door shut, she waited until Damon started the engine again, driving away. Elena stood put until she couldn't see his car anymore. When he was out of sight her whole body tensed uncomfortably. She felt horrible without him, especially without knowing the outcome of his plan. Slowly she entered the motel and went back to her room. Lying down on her back, she closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. She felt sick again. Although she thought she would be way too anxious to fall asleep, a strong tiredness crept into her body, pulling her down the spiral to the world of her dreams.

Damon drove through MysticFalls like a maniac, knowing that he didn't have much time to realize his plan. When he arrived at the boarding house he glimpsed at the driveway, checking if there was a car to be seen. It was empty. He decided to park the Camaro nearby, hidden by trees and bushes. Climbing out of the car, he took in his environment. First he concentrated on the sounds which surrounded him, but then he expanded the circuit of his super hearing further and further until he could hear the creak of the wooden beams inside of the boarding house.

Nothing.

Searching the area with his eyes, he found the result of his hearing confirmed. Nobody was there. In vampire speed he closed the distance between his car and the entrance of the boarding house, entering his former home quickly.

Well, so far so good. Step one completed successfully.

Although he knew that nobody was here, he moved carefully forward; too afraid that this might be a trap. Without making any noise, Damon stepped into the living room, but found it in the exact way they had left it a couple of days ago. Only one thing had changed… Elijah was gone.

"Fuck!" Damon cursed when he couldn't see the original, fiercely punching the wall closest to him. Concentrate, Salvatore, he thought after his rage had cooled down. You wouldn't leave your brother ready to hand for anybody either. If Elijah was still here, Klaus may have hidden him somewhere.

Since it was still his own house, Damon knew the perfect place to keep somebody in place. The cell in the basement. He hurried downstairs and sighed with relief when he found Elijah's desiccated body on the ground behind the bars, with the dagger protruding from his chest. There was only one problem. Examining the interlock, he saw that Klaus had installed a different lock. Probably for exactly this case. Of course he had taken the key with him. Taking a deep breath he took the lock and tried to open it with his hands, but it didn't work. Thinking feverishly where the hell Klaus had managed to get a vampire-safe padlock so quickly, he remembered that Stefan had once obtained such a lock to keep Damon inside the cell. If this wasn't Klaus' but Stefan's lock, maybe his brother knew where the keys were.

Fumbling his cell phone out of the pocket of his leather jacket, he called his brother.

It ringed a couple of times and Damon paced from wall to wall, trying to stay patient.

Finally, Stefan answered the call, "Damon! What the hell are you doing? Elena just told us about your stupid plan!" he yelled into the phone angrily.

"I'm trying to save your ass! And now is definitely not the right time to discuss that! Listen, Stefan-"

"No, I won't listen because you're coming back to the motel! Now! You'll not risk your life and the lives of your family to save me and Caroline!"

"I don't risk anything. If I weren't sure about my safety for only one second, I would be outta here, but right now nothing can harm me or my family. The only thing that could is your pighead. So shut up and listen! Do you remember the padlock you managed to get when you were overprotective of my wellbeing?" Damon asked sarcastically and waited impatiently.

"Err… Yes, I do. Why?"

"Because I think Klaus has used it on the cell in the basement to keep Elijah safe. Do you remember if there was a second key to it?" Damon shot, hating that he lost time through this inconvenience.

"Yes, there was a second one. I left it in my room. Top drawer of the dresser somewhere between my socks," Stefan informed Damon straightaway.

"Thank God!" Damon replied relieved and turned around, "I have to hurry, Stefan, I'll call you back," Damon bowed out and blurred upstairs, failing to hear Stefan's complaints.

Reaching the door of Stefan's room, he pushed it open and marched inside with his eyes firmly on the dresser. Harshly, he opened the top drawer and started to search through it. After a few moments of wildly rummaging and throwing pairs of socks through the air, Damon's fingers finally caught hold of something cool and grabbed at it. He had found the small key!

Without wasting another second, Damon vamp speeded back to the cell and chanced it. It blocked. Fuck! Maybe it wasn't the right key anyway. He gave it another shot and tried it with some more force, when suddenly the key slid into the lock. Heavily breathing, Damon turned the key around and removed the padlock from the interlock, hastily opening it.

"It's your lucky day today, Elijah," Damon told the original while he hovered above him. Staring down at the petrified body, he closed his right hand around the ancient dagger and pulled it out of Elijah's chest. Hiding it inside of his jacket, he plopped to the ground next to Elijah and waited for the original to wake up.

After a minute Damon became restless and stood up again, pacing up and down the cell. He was truly relieved that he had found Elijah here, but he knew it wouldn't be easy to convince him of telling where to find the ash he needed so badly. Elena had been right, Elijah and Klaus where brothers. What if his honor didn't go so deep? What if he wouldn't be as grateful for his reanimation as Damon thought he would? Tearing on his hair, he turned around quickly when Elijah suddenly began to groan.

Slowly moving on the ground, Elijah raised his torso and steadied himself on his elbows.

"Damon?" he asked disbelievingly when he spotted Damon right in front of him.

"Yes, it's me. Surprised?" he questioned and cocked his head to the side.

"Actually I am! I didn't expect to ever see you again. My brother's plan must have failed. What happened?" Elijah desired to know and stood up, knocking off the dust from his suit.

"The outline is that Elena had already been pregnant and the spell couldn't be cast. We managed to run, but decided to come back to save you. Klaus will come after Elena again and, well, I can't let him do that-"

"Those are unexpected news," Elijah mused, ultimately realizing his brother's intentions. "And you thought by pulling the dagger out of me, I would owe you, right?" Elijah put one and one together and grinned at Damon, repositioning his tie.

"Yes that's exactly what I thought. You have always been a man of honor, and I counted on that. Did I make a mistake?" Damon demanded and narrowed his eyes at the original.

"No, you didn't. But you have to understand that I won't do everything in return!" Elijah pointed out and gave Damon a piercing glance.

"And you don't have to. All I want from you is some of the ash of the ancient white oak tree…," Damon told him and smirked deviously.

Elijah scoffed and looked at Damon, tilting his head to the side as if he was considering something. Now it was him who narrowed his eyes and he opened his mouth to say something, but after less then a second he shut it again.

"Well, I guess that's fair enough. I've got some of it at our mansion, securely locked away of course. Take me there, and I'll give it to you," Elijah suggested and pursed his lips. Showing Damon his disapproval, he sighed heavily.

"Just like that? No attempts to convince me otherwise?" Damon mistrusted him and raised an eyebrow.

"No, Damon. You said it yourself. I'm a man of honor and I don't want to owe you anything. I'll give you the ash and you can do with it whatever you want. To be honest, I don't think that you'll have a chance to use it on Klaus anyway," Elijah told him straight.

"Hm," Damon hummed and looked to the ground. Well, luckily Elijah didn't know anything about the spell that would give him the advantage to defeat Klaus once and for all!

"He hung up! He just hung up on me!" Stefan became exasperated with his brother.

"He has to hurry. He can't risk running out of time. Besides, there would have been nothing you could have said to stop him from at least trying to find a way you two can live a normal life!" Elena told Stefan and sat down on the couch in Caroline's and Stefan's room.

She hadn't slept well, at best half an hour. Her pregnancy hormones might have made her much more tired, but they weren't able to keep her from worrying about Damon. Actually, quite the contrary was the case. She was hypersensitive to her emotions and when she woke up, the thought of being alone and waiting for Damon to come back had been unbearable. So she had left the room she shared with Damon to seek some company. She had filled them in on Damon's plan, and the second she had finished Damon had called.

Now Stefan was pacing through the room, driving his hands through his hair every now and then.

"What was he thinking? We talked about all this and decided that it would be best for Care and me to disappear for a while. What changed his mind?" he verbalized the inconsistencies swirling inside his mind.

"He didn't tell me specifically what brought this up, but I guess that it has something to do with him being a father in the near future. I'm almost sure that he wants our daughter to have a real family. Not just parents but also uncles and aunts," Elena shared her thoughts and smiled slightly at Caroline and Stefan, silently hoping that this wish wasn't going to destroy everything.

Caroline sighed and smiled back at Elena. "He really did a 180!" Caroline stated appreciatively.

"Indeed," Stefan agreed and plopped to the bed next to Caroline. "Is there anything we can do to help him?" Stefan asked seriously, but Elena shook her head instantly. "No, I don't think so. At least not now. He just wants to get the ash for the dagger from Elijah. I have no idea if he already has a plan how to dagger Klaus with it, only that he wants to use his invisibility as an advantage," Elena elucidated and stared out of the window. It was already getting dark outside.

"What time is it?" she asked, although she had her phone in the back pocket of her jeans.

"It's almost 5," Stefan informed her, glimpsing at his watch.

Damon and Elijah arrived at the Mikaelson mansion within half an hour. Relieved that Elena had made him feed on her, Damon stared at his watch. Normally he would have feed on her by now.

"What are you thinking about, Damon?" Elijah interrogated while he opened the front door.

"Nothing! I just want this over with!" Damon told him sincerely and stepped inside the mansion right behind Elijah.

"I see. Well, then I would suggest you wait here and I get what you desire!" The original stated and headed upstairs.

"Fine!" Damon breathed more to himself and viewed around. The lobby looked like it had years ago, with its impressive white winding staircases which lead up on both sides of the hall to the first floor where the bedrooms of the siblings were. The ceiling was about 8 meters high and in the centre of it flaunted a crystal chandelier. Damon never understood how the brightness of this home fitted its owners.

Only after a couple of minutes, Elijah reappeared at the right staircase. Very slowly and with one hand gliding over the banister, he came down. In his right hand he held a crystal vial. Closing the distance between himself and Damon, he held it out to him.

"So, Damon. This is what you asked for. I consider us as even now," Elijah stated when Damon took the vial from the original.

"That we are," Damon confirmed and nodded. Without saying anything else, Damon vamp speeded away, unduly delighted that his plan had worked out so easily.