Life on the Line:

"You all right, El?" Damon asked. Beth just continued to punch the punching bag. Alaric had practically turned their living room in their apartment to a training area. Beth didn't mind though. They usually just stayed over at Elena's house. She changed into her sweats and tank top and got to it. He held the other side of the bag as she punched harder.

"Perfectly, perfect." She replied sarcastically as she hit the bag with a roundhouse. Alaric wanted her to keep up training but he didn't ask her to practice now. She just wanted to let some frustration out. The first day could have gone better and she wanted to just relieve some stress. Damon could tell something happened too. She didn't hit this hard, without having some anger behind it.

"Okay, awesome. Now what really happened?" He asked seriously. Beth just continued to pound into the bag. "Was it Stefan? Did he call you a human blood bag too?"

"Yep!" She confirmed and she gave the bag a hard kick that surprisingly jostled Damon, who was holding it. "And then he threatened Alaric." Beth hit the bag hard enough that it even made Damon stumbled. She finally stopped to take a breather. He understood now. She came in angry and upset, more than Elena. She definitely wasn't keen on helping Stefan in any way. He handed her a water bottle that she took and drank half of it.

"Hey, it's going to be okay. I won't let him hurt Alaric or you. We're actually planning on getting him out of the school." Damon told her with a tone of playfulness. She looked at him with a small smile that only Damon could make show up. "Want to help?"

Beth smiled at him. "What'd you have in mind?"

Nighttime came and everyone was at the bonfire. Damon had Beth find Tyler and send him to the school to talk to the rest of them. Beth was supposed to blend in and keep an eye on Stefan. Beth walked around the woods and saw Damon off to the side. She looked at him, asking if everything was okay. He nodded, and motioned to talk to her later. She knew that it couldn't be that bad or he would have come found her. She walked over to the beer keg and started to fill up a plastic cup. Rebekah walked over to her and grabbed one too. "Do all these parties take place out in the woods?" She asked with a disapproving tone.

Beth was surprised she was talking to her at all. She seemed to be giving her the cold shoulder today, but she wasn't going to make her angry. "Not all of them. Usually just the bonfire school kick off party." She assured her. Beth took a sip of her beer.

"And what do people do at these parties nowadays? It was so much more fun when everyone just danced, especially in the 1920's. Now it seems like they just hang around doing nothing." Rebekah noticed.

"Well, mostly about getting drunk, roasting marshmallows, and of course we have the infamous keg stand where a guy tries to drink as much beer as they can while upside down." Beth told her and Rebekah raised her eyebrows. They obviously didn't do that in the 1920's. "That usually doesn't end well for him."

Rebekah laughed. "Yes, I can't imagine it would."

"Not at all, but I agree. I prefer dancing."

"I'll drink to that." Rebekah clinked her plastic cup to hers and smiled at her. She forgot how easy it was to be friends with Elizabeth. It felt…nice. It had been so long since she had a true friend, other Klaus and almost no girlfriends. She hoped that staying here would be different. That she could have a new life and hopefully a friend.

Beth saw Stefan coming this way and rolled her eyes. "I'll see you later." Rebekah saw him too and nodded. She left before he could stop her. She walked over near the fire that was roaring.

"Fancy meeting you here." She looked up to see Damon grinning at her. "I see your making friends with Barbie Klaus. How'd that go? I'm surprised you're still intact."

Beth rolled her eyes. "Better to be friends than enemies with someone who could snap you like a twig." Beth said and Damon nodded in agreement. Beth looked over and saw Rebekah now standing at the keg with Stefan and Elena. "Where are Tyler and Caroline? I haven't seen them all night."

"Well, Tyler kind of has a hybrid issue." Damon saw the worried look appear on her face. "Don't worry. He's fine. I'll fill you in later but right now we've got to stay focused on the task at hand. Getting sick off of marshmallows." He winked at her and handed her a roasted marshmallow that she gladly took.

xxxxx

An half an hour later, Beth was still at the party. She didn't really have anything to do except hang around. Beth saw that Damon was flirting with Rebekah by the fire while Elena walked off. And as she knew he would, Stefan followed after her, after making sure Beth was safe. Beth turned back to see Damon and Rebekah standing up. They appeared to be in a heated conversation. Suddenly, Beth saw Rebekah stab him with a stick and she quickly looked around to make sure no one saw that. Rebekah walked away and Beth rushed over to him. She quickly pulled out the stick as he groaned. "Are you okay?" She asked worried.

"Awesome." He groaned out as he tried to sit up straight. He looked around and saw no sign of Stefan. "At least it worked for a bit. Elena has her part to deal with now. Come on, we'll go through the woods back to the school. I've had enough of high school parties." She dropped the stick on the ground as he led her away from the party. The woods were quiet and almost eerie. Damon made sure Beth was right in front of him, so as not to lose her. Beth slipped on something slick and Damon caught her before she hit the ground. "Clumsy much, El?" He teased.

"No, it's wet or something." She told him bending down. There were a bunch of leaves and they were wet but it hadn't rained in days. She smelled a familiar scent. "It smells like gas."

"Well, you know those idiots aren't careful with the fire."

"Yeah but Damon…. it's a lot of gas." She commented. He bent down besides her and saw what she meant. No one would be stupid enough to waste this much gas. Suddenly, Damon fell unconscious. Beth saw that something hit him from behind. She half expected Rebekah to be there but there was no one. She felt someone hit her head too. She fell back on Damon. It was a hard hit but it was enough to make her bleed. She looked around and saw there was still no one. She knelt next to him and shook him. "Damon! Day, wake up! Come on, Damon."

The next thing she saw was a fire. It was leading from deeper into the woods, closer to where they were. Beth tried to shake him again. "Please, Damon! Wake up!" She yelled at him. The fire was coming closer and she could feel the heat it was bringing. She stood up and tried to die down the flames but every time she did, they just kept coming back. The fire was coming closer but she wasn't going to leave him. She smacked his face frantically and his eyes started to flutter open. He smelled the fire and quickly grabbed Beth and rushed her out of the way. He ran to the school and grabbed a fire extinguisher.

"Stay here." He commanded as he ran back, leaving her in the hallway to the school. He didn't know what happened but he didn't want to raise any flags by letting the woods burn down. A few minutes later, he ran back. "Okay, what the hell was that?"

"I have no idea. It hit me and then knocked you out. I-I don't know what happened." Beth stuttered out, frantically. He saw that she was still bleeding lightly from the cut on her forehead. Damon pulled her inside one of the bathrooms as she continued to speak. "I tried to put out the flames too but it wasn't working." He wet some paper towel and put it to her bleeding cut and she cringed at the pain.

"Okay, we have to get to Alaric and Elena to see if they're okay. My guess is whatever that was had to do with Klaus." He told her and she nodded. He tossed the bloody paper towel. They walked out of the bathroom and bumped into Bonnie and Matt. "What are you two doing here?"

"What happened to you?" Bonnie asked, about Beth's cut.

"That's what we're trying to figure out. Damon and I got attacked and we have no idea what it was."

"Oh no." Bonnie exclaimed. "It must have been Vicki." Damon and Beth were confused. "Matt gave Vicki a physical foothold in our world. There was a witch on the other side who told her how to but she had to destroy Klaus' way to make hybrids.

"Elena and I."

"Elena's fine!" Bonnie aid quickly seeing the look on Damon's face and knowing he was about to bolt. "I called her to make sure. Vicki tried to kill them in Alaric's car but they're both fine. Just Ric's car is destroyed." Bonnie assured them. Beth let out the breath she was holding. They were okay. That was most important.

"How the hell did this even happen?" Damon asked angrily. Matt looked down guiltily. Damon got angry then and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and shoved up and into a locker. "You just had to bring her back, didn't you? She almost killed El and Elena!"

"Damon let him go!" Beth told him. He was angry and she didn't want him to hurt Matt. "Damon!" He finally let Matt drop to his feet. "It's not his fault. He didn't know Vicki was going to do that." Damon just glared at the quarterback. She turned to Matt, who was being checked on by Bonnie as well. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. I'm sorry about Vic. I didn't know that's why she wanted to come back." Matt felt really bad. If he had known what she was going to do, he wouldn't have let her out. If anything happened to Beth or Elena, he wouldn't have been able to forgive himself. He knew that Damon had a reason to be angry with him.

"It's fine. I understand." She assured him. She shot a glare at Damon, who didn't look the least ashamed. He felt that he deserved what he got. Damon stalked off to find Elena. Beth rolled her eyes at his childlike behavior. He shouldn't be angry at Matt. It was Vicki and now she was gone. He was just upset cause Elena almost got hurt.

"Do you need a ride home?" Bonnie asked.

"Yeah, I'll drive you home if you want." Matt offered. It was the least he could do.

"No I'll be fine. I've got my car. I'll call Alaric to check on him then head home." She told them. She tried not to let how Damon ran off to see Elena bother her too much but she couldn't help it. Right now, she really just needed sometime to herself. "I'll see you guys tomorrow." And with that she left them.

Another downside of being the secret ingredient in making hybrids is people and ghosts wanting to kill you. Yeah, the ghost of Matt's sister tried to kill Elena and I. Damon of course ran off to check on her. I have a cut on my forehead and Alaric freaked out over that. He's making me stay up for a little while, in case I have a concussion. He's been overly worried as usual. I'm just glad he's ok. The only bad thing that happened to him was his car exploding but as long as that was the only causality, we're thankful.

Rebekah was actually….nice today. She got Stefan off my back when he was getting too pushy and she actually talked to me without glaring. I'm not entirely sure if it's an act or not but she seemed like she was genuinely being nice. As always, I'll air on the side of caution. Hopefully, it'll go back to being quasi-normal later. But I'll be careful, just in case for Alaric's sake.

Beth.