On Your Marks

Chapter 4:

40 minutes ago

Faith, who had grown up without a droplet of luxury, looked onto the Salvatore boarding house in awe. Although looking at any corner of any Mcdonald's anywhere in the country would instil her with a sense of awe and wonder after the pasty grey scale paint of Stockton. "Saweeet crib," she said as the car eased to a halt.

"Home sweet home," he replied opening the car door. Stepping into the crisp eastern seaboard air allowed the two supernatural beings to hear the blurring music coming from inside the house. Brow furrowed, Faith studied the building further and found various shadows were cast in the windows. She looked at Damon who also wore the same puzzled expression she could imagine was evident on her own face. He'd sprung her from prison, to help hunt down his 500 year old doppelganger ex-girlfriend, who had the cure for vampirism...and to start he'd brought her to a high school kegger?

"I know it's been a while, D but the welcome party is slight overkill," she said.

"Trust me, this wasn't my idea," he replied.

"Let me guess, it's the doin' of your newbie vamp doppelanger emotionless current girlfriend?"

"You catch on fast," he smiled.

"Yeah well you learn to keep up with the times when all there is to look forward to everyday is self-reflection," admitted Faith. The two slammed the doors of the car shut and joined at front.

"When in Rome," Damon replied, gesturing her to the front door.

"Sure, could use the release," she noted as she playfully forced herself into his side before walking towards the boarding house.

Faith went to hunt down the bathroom and Damon, discovering Elena with her face in the whisky cabinet, made for her direction. "Got it!" Elena exclaimed with her head still in the cabinet, her surrounding classmates cheered as she held the bottle high above her head.

"Don't got it," Damon retorted as he swiped the bottle from her hands. He received multiple boo's and jeers from the crowd.

"Oh goody it's the fun police back from sabbatical," Elena opened, "your partners been looking for you for days now. Where ya' been?"

"Let's just say...gathering reinforcements," he replied, his famous smirk spreading across his face.

"That girl you walked in with is your reinforcements?" Elena scowled. "I mean don't get me wrong she's hot but a little...old."

"Getting off topic, you need to clear these people out of here, or I will but I don't think the morgue has that many body bags on hand," he added.

"Is that supposed to be a threat? Go ahead, this parties getting a little blah anyway," she scowled as she grabbed a drink out of the hands of a boy passing by.

"Where's Stefan?" Damon asked.

"Still out with his girlfriend, should be home any minute," she said before taking a gulp of beer. "Ooh! I love this song!" she announced as she disappeared into the maze of drunken teenagers.

Now.

Caroline stepped out of the shower and wrapped her baby pink robe around her. She tied up her hair and slipped her feet into her favourite fuzzy slippers that she'd left there a few weeks ago. She turned off the shower and to her delight the sound of the party rang in her ears. She hurried out the bathroom and down the halls to Damon's bedroom to get changed. She grabbed her bag and pulled out a change of clothes not really party attire but they'll do. Realising she hadn't fed since this morning she'd turned to Damon's chest of draws and pulled out a draw full of blood bags. She tore of the seal and began to feed. Who wants to party on an empty stomach?

Faith entered the room and set her cup down on the side. Checking her surroundings she first noticed the single white female in a pink robe by the cabinet with her back to her. "Sorry, just lookin' for the bathroom," Faith announced. She went to leave the room when Caroline turned around, she hadn't even heard Faith over her hunger and Faith caught her gaze of blood red eyes and thin black veins. Caroline drained the last of the blood bag and suddenly realised she'd been exposed. What could she do? Compel her? No, the mayor put vervain in the water supply? Kill her? Don't be ridiculous. She settled for knocking her out and crossing that bridge when she came to it.

Caroline made for Faith, to which Faith half-smiled.

Stefan found Damon in the kitchen glaring at a few senior class members who's skirts were a little too high and absent a bra. "Hello little brother, drink?" he began.

"Where the hell have you been, Damon?" Stefan snapped.

"Relax Stefan, I told you I was gathering reinforcements to help find Katherine," he replied.

"And this reinforcement is in the form of cheap beer?" Stefan retorted.

"That's a negative," Damon said, gulping the last of his drink.

"What then?" he asked.

"A vampire slayer."

Taken aback by what his brother just said, Stefan leant on one of the cabinets. "You brought a vampire slayer...to mystic falls...which is practically vampire dominated? Besides how did you even get her here? There's only one."

"Let's just say she owes me a favour, and relax, she's on strict no kill orders," Damon smiled. With the aid of vampire hearing, the two brothers suddenly jerked their heads at the sound of a struggle upstairs, breaking furniture and shattering glass. Stefan turned to glare at his brother. "Well she was never one for following the rules."

The brothers set off towards the staircase, dodging vomiting students and flying ash from cigarettes and burst into Damon's bedroom. Caroline picked herself up from the floor after being tossed into a mirror, shards of glass tearing parts of her robe. Caroline's eyes were black as she made another attempt at the vampire slayer, who'd fashioned a stake from Damon's bed post. Faith dodged the attacks and dealt Caroline a series of punches to the stomach. She keeled over and Faith grabbed her from behind, her arm around her neck restraining Caroline. Faith raised her stake and in seconds, Stefan joined the fray. He tore Faith's grip from around Caroline's neck and pushed her in Damon's direction. "Faithy, we said no killing," Damon announced.

"Self defence, blondie attacked me first. Me and blondes don't really jell," Faith said as she tossed the stake to the floor.

"She walked in on me feeding, I couldn't compel her so I- wait why am I even explaining myself, who is this?" Caroline corrected herself angrily as she struggled to get her breath back.

"She's a vampire slayer," Stefan announced, catching Faith's gaze.

"A what?" Caroline asked.

"I'm also a Libra and a swell bowler," Faith added.

"What the hell's she doing here?" she asked.

"I brought her here, we need her to get the cure for Elena," announced Damon as he joined Faith's side. The attention of the four people was caught by the ringing of the door bell. They turned to the threshold and found Elena stood in it, she'd obviously heard and seen everything.

"I'll get it," Elena said as she turned from them all.

"Elena," Damon and Stefan sounded simultaneously as they headed after her, leaving Caroline and Faith in the room. Faith turned her gaze to Caroline, a gaze Caroline deflected.

"I need to change," she said, grabbing her bag and clothes that managed to escape damage from the fight ad heading out the room.

Elena found Liz Forbes at the door in her sheriff uniform with her police car in the driveway. She wore a dazed expression on her face, one that screamed don't be an asswhole I'm not in the mood. "Elena," Liz said as she set eyes on her daughters best friend. "What's goin' on in here?"

"Uh...just some underage drinking and drug use," Elena replied.

"Where's Stefan?" Liz replied rolling her eyes. Caroline had already told her mother about Elena flipping her humanity switch and Liz realised trying to get a sensible answer out of her was futile.

"He's actually upstairs flirting with your daughter," she replied bluntly. "But I think he's actually a good rebound for her because of the whole y'know Tyler thing."

"I'm shutting this down right now," Liz announced as she tried to walk passed Elena and into the house. Elena gripped her by the arm and half swung her back around to face her.

"Liz pleeeeease, why don't you just stay and have a drink?" Elena asked intimidatingly. Stefan and Damon joined the scene and set eyes on Elena's grip on the sheriff.

"Elena," Damon said, "let her go," he ordered.

"Relax guys, either she has a drink," Elena's eyes began to darken, her fangs began to drop and the veins around her eyes filled with black blood, "or I will."