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Bonnie had the last button of her crisp, white blouse done up before Stefan barged into the hotel bathroom without knocking.
"Ready for your first day at work?" he asked playfully.
She shot him a look in the mirror before answering. "Almost."
"Allow me," he offered, grabbing the tie from the counter and faced her towards him, tugging at her collar. Bonnie rolled her eyes.
"It's a clip on."
"And I," Stefan said, attaching the small black tie to her shirt, "am a gentleman." He took a step back and admired his handiwork while Bonnie raised a silent eyebrow at his antics. Satisfied, Stefan clapped his hands on her shoulders and frowned at her expression. "What? No 'thank you'? You need to work on your etiquette if you want to make it in the service industry."
"I can deal with the industry just fine," she said, adjusting her tie slightly in the mirror. "You, on the other hand…"
"Don't hate," Stefan said lightly, hopping up on the counter, swinging his legs and watching her. "Look, if you can learn how to crack a safe in the next thirty minutes you are more than welcome to be Tyler's date to the shindig tonight. But somebody's gotta do recon, and you, my friend, have pulled the short straw."
Bonnie let out an annoyed sigh. "I know," she said and gazed longingly at the garment bag hung on the back of the bathroom door that held Caroline's dress for tonight. "When I work alone I always get to be the one to dress fancy."
"You'll have plenty of time to play dress up, but today-"
"Recon. I know."
Stefan dropped a wallet with her fake ID, rental car keys, and a burner phone loaded with some of his software into her hand. He then gently placed a small ear bud on top. "We'll be in your ear the whole time. Have fun at work," he grinned, shooing her out of the hotel room they'd made their makeshift base.
The Fell Manor buzzed with activity. Wait staff and caterers whizzed around preparing for the fundraiser, with Mrs. Fell being followed around by a gaggle of assistants and party planners. Bonnie went entirely unnoticed, walking briskly through the Manor.
"The safe is upstairs but the floorplan doesn't indicate which room," Stefan's said through her earpiece. "Gotta do this one the old fashioned way."
"The upstairs is off limits." Bonnie looked around carefully before slipping underneath the ribbon brandishing a sign reading No Admittance and jogging up the staircase. The second floor was a maze with more rooms than she could count. "This might be a problem," she whispered as she turned a corner but added a quick, "Nevermind."
A well dressed, beefy guard stood in front of a door that looked exactly like all the others except for the numerical keypad at the handle.
"You're not supposed to be up here," he said, a slight Russian accent coating his words.
"I'm sorry, I must have gotten turned around. Is this not the way to the bathroom?" Bonnie asked airily, looking around. The guard huffed and walked over, taking her firmly by the elbow and guiding her back through the hallways to the staircase. Bonnie slipped her hand into his pocket.
He pointed to the sign at the bottom of the stairs. "No entry," he said gruffly and watched Bonnie walk back down to the first floor before returning to his post.
She looked at the items she swiped from his pocket. "Some change, a mint, and a receipt
for a week's worth of Hungry Man frozen dinners," she listed to Stefan.
"Aw, sad," said his voice in her ear. "Any ID? We have to figure out a way to get him away from that door tonight."
Bonnie walked around a corner before replying to avoid drawing the attention of some of the other workers preparing the manor. "Just a card from the security company he works for. Sergei Pavlova. Can you do something with that?"
Stefan hemmed and hawed from the other side of her earpiece before answering. "Yes. But I need the Fell woman's phone. You still have the burner I gave you, right?" he asked, and proceeded to list a few instructions.
"On it," Bonnie replied, zeroing in on the assistant gripping Mrs. Fell's smartphone as her boss dictated.
Bonnie walked over to the table with all the arrangements from the florist waiting to be placed around the venue and picked up a medium sized vase, before deliberately walking into the assistant, knocking the phone out of her hands.
"I am so sorry," Bonnie apologized at the horrified look on the woman's face. Mrs. Fell turned around, eyeing them with disdain.
"Clean up this mess," she said to Bonnie, turning to her assistant and adding "Cynthia, deal with her and meet me in the ballroom when you're done." She walked away.
Bonnie slid her hand in her apron's pocket where she kept the burner and as per Stefan's instructions, successfully cloned Mrs. Fell's phone.
The assistant dug through the flowers from the arrangement and pulled it from the broken pieces of the vase. "I'm supposed to fire you but it was an honest mistake. Make yourself scarce," she warned Bonnie, before quickly walking away to catch up to her employer.
"Nice work," Stefan said. "Now go do actual work until the party, Caroline and Tyler are on their way."
Bonnie frowned down at the mess she was responsible for on the carpet, and with a resigned sigh began to tidy it up.
Tyler offered his arm to Caroline, escorting her up the steps leading to the Fell Manor. He handed the security guard the invitation that Stefan had procured for them and crossed the threshold into the party with the other guests.
"We're in," he said quietly, glancing around. Caroline deftly lifted two flutes of champagne from a server walking by, and handed one to Tyler.
"Awesome," Stefan said in their ears, adding a low voice "We're in. I've always wanted to say that. So badass."
Tyler and Caroline exchanged looks. "Now would be a good time for that call, Bonnie," Caroline suggested.
Bonnie slipped into an empty bathroom and dialled security guard Sergei's number from the burner phone. "Mrs. Fell, how can I help you?"
"This is Cynthia," Bonnie said, altering her voice slightly. "There's an incident at the west entrance and you're needed there right away."
"No," he told her gruffly. "I am not leaving my post."
"Do you want to be the one to explain to Mrs. Fell that you let these party crashers into her event because you couldn't be bothered to come downstairs? Because I would not want to be that person, Sergei," Bonnie eyed herself in the mirror and adjusted her clip on tie.
After a beat Sergei answered. "Fine. On my way."
Bonnie ended the call. "Alright guys, you've got ten, maybe fifteen, minutes. You ready for this?"
"Always." Caroline grinned eagerly. Tyler stood at the bottom of the stairs, watching the guests and staff for anything out of the ordinary as she walked up the steps confidently before following. No one seemed to notice.
When they arrived at the keypad, Caroline studied it carefully while Tyler kept a lookout. "The 2, 5, 6, and 8 buttons are worn. This lock model uses 4 or 5 number codes," she told Stefan.
"Already on it," he said and began listing every possible combination from his computer for her to try.
Two minutes and several wrong combinations in, Bonnie's phone started blinking, an angry red notification popping up on the screen. "We've got a problem," she said into her earpiece.
"What's wrong?" Tyler asked.
Bonnie walked briskly to the staircase just as Mrs. Fell reached the top of them. "Fell's got an alert on the door, she's on her way. Get out of there. Now," she warned.
"There's not enough time," Tyler said as Caroline input more numbers. The keypad blinked green and she turned the handle.
"Tyler, get out of there," Stefan told them anxiously.
"I've got it," Caroline said.
"She's going to find you in there," Bonnie said nervously.
"She won't," Caroline assured her. Then they went silent.
"Care? Tyler?" Bonnie asked, her heartbeat pulsing in her ears. "Stefan, I'm pulling the fire alarm."
The messy, wet sound of lips meeting filled their earpieces.
"Are they-"
"No way." Stefan started laughing.
"Sergei, what in God's name is-" Mrs. Fell rounded the corner to find Tyler and Caroline pressed up against the wall. "Oh! This area is off limits. Please rejoin the festivities downstairs," she requested with a fake smile plastered on her face.
"Right, sorry," Tyler apologized breathlessly and Caroline giggled.
"We'll be right there," she added and Mrs. Fell smiled at her stiffly, pressing a phone against her ear and turning away. "Cynthia, where the hell is Sergei?"
As soon as the host was out of sight, Tyler stepped back and Caroline smoothed out her dress before slipping into the room.
Art and sculptures sat in storage with white sheets draped over them and a large safe sat in the corner of the room. Caroline beelined for it.
"Talk to me, beautiful," she whispered, placing her ear against the door and closing her eyes as she manipulated the lock.
Tyler looked away awkwardly.
"Time's up, folks. Fell and Sergei know they've been had. Get out. For real this time," Bonnie warned in their earpieces as Caroline pulled the door open and her eyes sparkled like the jewelry the safe held.
"Just the one piece," Stefan reminded her.
Caroline pouted. "But they're all so pretty."
"And they all belong to other people. Get the necklace and vamoose," he said.
"Fine." She pulled the amber necklace from the safe and shut the door, spinning the lock.
Tyler nodded towards the door. "Let's go."
Sergei was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs. "I knew it," he said, grabbing Tyler's arm. Tyler easily broke his grip and elbowed him in the face, bouncing his head against the wall. As the security guard slumped to the ground, Tyler tugged at Caroline's elbow and they were out the door.
Bonnie sat in the rental car at the circular driveway, waiting for them to climb in. "Did I hear you knock Sergei out?" she asked Tyler, speeding away from the manor.
Tyler shrugged. "Poor Sergei," Stefan said through their earpieces. "Should I send him a month's supply of frozen dinners or would that be insulting?" he asked through, what Bonnie assumed, was a mouth full of Cheetos.
"So?" Bonnie looked over at Caroline in the passenger seat as she held up the necklace. The amber crystal shaped like a diamond was set in iron and hung from a thin chain. "It doesn't look like anything special."
"It's not. At least not to us," Stefan answered. "I'm almost done at the hotel, meet you at our rendezvous."
He was waiting for them at the diner they agreed on just outside of town, halfway through a greasy grilled cheese. Caroline and Tyler joined him right away, but Bonnie hovered around the cash register, looking at the kitschy merchandise. She pulled a postcard from the wire rack and gazed down at the picture of the clock tower in the middle of town with Welcome to Mystic Falls! printed on the bottom in large font. Leaving some change on counter, she brought the postcard with her to the table.
"So wait, you're telling me we're not even fencing this thing?" Caroline asked, eating fries off of Stefan's plate.
He shook his head. "It has sentimental value, we're just returning it to its rightful owners."
"Sentiment is for suckers," Bonnie said and grabbed a few fries for herself.
"Shocker, Bonnie's against feeling things." Stefan rolled his eyes. "The Fells stole the necklace for the Founder's Council exhibit. Legally there was nothing the family could do to get it back so I thought we could step in while Bonnie decides if we're going after the White Oak Diamond or not."
"I kinda like playing Robin Hood," Caroline said, evading Stefan's attempts to slap her hand away from his plate.
"I'm happy as long as I get to punch somebody," Tyler added.
Stefan frowned. "Aw, Sergei. Poor, lonely Sergei was just doing his job."
"What's that?" Caroline asked. She watched as Bonnie turned the postcard over in her hands absentmindedly.
"Do you think I should get him a cat?" Stefan asked Tyler.
"Just a postcard I picked up," Bonnie answered.
"Did you get a souvenir from our first job?" Stefan placed a hand over his heart emotionally. "'Sentiment is for suckers' my ass, you big ol' softie," he teased.
Bonnie rolled her eyes. "As if."
"Mystic Falls has a nice ring to it," Caroline said thoughtfully.
"Oo oo! Our crew needs a name," Stefan piped up, grabbing the postcard from Bonnie. "The Mystic Falls Crew," he said, gesturing in the air dramatically.
"Lame," Tyler said.
Bonnie agreed. "I second that."
"No, it's cute! And meaningful," Caroline defended and Stefan pointed at her excitedly.
"Forbes knows what's up."
Bonnie exchanged looks with Tyler, who shrugged. She held her hands up in defeat. "Fine, but you won't catch me using it."
"Yes!" Stefan said, and he high fived Caroline. "Alright MFC, rollout."
Climbing out of the booth, Stefan settled his bill and followed the others out of the diner. Bonnie hung back from a moment and stared at the postcard he'd left behind. Making sure he wasn't looking, Bonnie slipped it into her back pocket before joining them at the car for the long trip back to her apartment.