A/N: Thanks everyone for your lovely responses to yesterday's chapter! You guys make my day every day. Hope you enjoy The Sacrifice. I own nothing.

Katerina & The Sacrifice

Elena finds out that Klaus is after her and enlists Caroline's help in getting access to Katherine and keeping Stefan distracted.
Elena offers Katherine blood and the Petrova book in exchange for information about Klaus which Katherine provides.
Damon and Rose visit Slater to try and get information about Klaus, Elijah performs a fancy trick with some coins and shatters the windows.
Elena figures out that in order to break the curse a witch is needed as well as a vampire, werewolf, moonstone and of course, herself, the doppelganger.
Stefan comes to find Elena and confronts Katherine about her 'lies'.
Damon vows to save Elena and Elijah uses Slater to make Damon believe he can break the curse if he gets possession of the moonstone.
"I'll be the safest psychotic bitch in town."

The Sacrifice

"Well you forgave and I won't forget
I'll kneel down, know my ground
And I will wait, I will wait for you"

After getting the information from Slater about needing the moonstone Stefan and I decide to pay a morning visit to Katherine in the tomb. I highly doubt we'll get very far but I suppose it's worth a shot.

"Please come in" – "I'd rather poke my eyes out" – "Mmm but they're such pretty eyes" well thanks I always thought so. "We're here for the moonstone" great Stefan, straight to the point. "You get your little witch to hocus-pocus me out of here, you can have whatever you want" yep that's pretty much how I thought this would go down. "So here's the deal, you get me out of here, you get the moonstone and I'll disappear from Mystic Falls forever" yeah, no. That's...not gonna work for us. Okay time for Plan B.

Our next stop: Elena's, which let me tell you, a much more pleasant place to be first thing in the morning. "Why?" she wants to know when Stefan asks her if we can talk to her. "We went to see Katherine" yeah that sums it up nicely.

"You don't believe her do you?" she asks when we've filled her in on the morning's events so far. "No of course not, we just want the moonstone." Stefan tells her that we can break the spell. "No spell, no doppelganger sacrifice ergo you live" all our problems solved with a pretty little bow of your choice and everything.

"How do you guys even know this is gonna work?" – "cause we have a crafty witch on our side" yep we've thought of everything. "Wow I mean it sounds like you guys already have it all planned out" yep we do. So why does she sound so...unhappy about it? Like I said, we've thought of everything. "Yep, we're awesome."

"Except for one thing" no Elena, no things...please! "I don't want you to do it" wait...what? ELENA! Why not? Nothing is going to go wrong. What's she so worried about?

"...before or after he kills everyone that I care about including the two of you?" O-kay. Mind-freeze, brief pause. First of all dammit because I didn't think of everything but much more importantly: I am back on the list of people she cares about? How'd that happen? When'd that happen? Is it wrong that I'm more delighted with this piece of news than I have been at anything in...Uh...decades?

I miss the end of her conversation with Stefan but I am way past worrying about that. There was a time when Elena 'caring' for me was just...no. But now? Now I will take 'care' every fucking day for the rest of forever if that's all she has to offer.

And I get that she's concerned about Klaus killing the people in her life but it's a risk I am willing to take. We'll just kill this Klaus guy before it gets to that, we killed Elijah, and it can't be that much harder surely.

When we leave Elena's I send a message to Bonnie to get her to the house and we come up with a plan. She 'might' be able to lower the spell on the tomb long enough for us to grab the moonstone which...great, although I don't much like that 'might'.

"You wouldn't be under-estimating her would you?" she asks "It's a plan. Is it perfect? What plan is?" Jeremy says he can do it, what with the ring and all but uh...that's not gonna happen. "Gee thanks you sixteen year old child why didn't we think of that?" don't think it didn't cross my mind, but it was only for like, less than a second before I discarded it as one of my worst ideas ever.

"Do you have anything that belongs to Katherine?" Bonnie asks and nope, I don't. But Stefan does, her picture. I still don't know why he kept that all these years that he's claimed to 'hate' her but it looks as if his hoarding skills are going to come in useful after all.

Bonnie turns the picture into some kind of magic fairy dust or something that can "incapacitate her for a minute or two, long enough for you to get the stone and get out" well great! Sounds like a solid plan. What could possibly go wrong? Bonnie is being a little less...judgy these days and she's proving exceptionally useful when it comes to helping protect Elena which is all I really need her to do so I might have to come up with a new nickname for her, if she keeps it up that is.

We get to the tomb and Bonnie arrives minus baby Gilbert who is nowhere to be seen and then Rose calls me.

"Not a good time Rose" I'm about to rescue a moonstone from my psychotic ex girlfriend.

"Don't be angry with me" well that's never a good way to start a conversation "You need to get to Richmond immediately" why? "Tell me" now. And she does.

I don't even stop to tell Stefan, I'm just running for the car. Apparently I'm not rescuing a moonstone today; I'm rescuing a sacrificial lamb that goes by the name of Elena Gilbert instead. Fucking...silly girl. What is she playing at?

"What are you doing here?" I ask when I arrive and to say she looks shocked to see me is an understatement. I guess Rose didn't fill her in on that part. "What are you doing here?" hey I asked first missy. "You called him?" she asks Rose when she finally puts in an appearance. No matter. "Come on. We're leaving." Now. Yesterday.

"No" – "I said we're leaving" – "I'm not going with you" ooh sorry lovely but yes you are. Yes. You. Are. She's talking about choices and decisions and I am not listening and I don't care. We need to leave. "You're not listening to me Damon I don't want to be saved" well touch luck honey 'cause you're gonna be.

"Not if it means that Klaus is gonna kill every single person that I love" yeah but we won't let that happen Elena. God this girl, she drives me nuts sometimes. "Get your ass out the door before I throw you over my shoulder and carry you out myself" and I will. We are going even if she is kicking and screaming behind me the whole way home.

I grab hold of her and she tries to slap me, always with the slapping, but I catch her hand and lean ve-ry close to her. It amazes me that even in moments like this, perhaps especially in moments like this, that fire between us still blazes and her eyes still flicker to my lips. Every. Time.

"Don't ever. Do that again" I don't mean the hitting although she probably thinks I do, but no, I can handle that. I mean the stupid idea to 'sacrifice' herself for the 'greater good'. I can't help myself, my eyes rest on her mouth for just a teensy second before I have to walk away from those eyes. Those lips, those thoughts.

Okay "Time to go" I've compelled Alice to forget about everything that happened and now we can finally go home, see if Stefan and Bonnie managed to retrieve the moonstone.

Or. Not.

Who the hell? "We're here to meet the doppelganger" God Dammit. "Thank you for coming" oh no you don't "I will break your arm" I say as I push her behind me, I won't. But she doesn't need to know that. I will rip that pretty little necklace off of her pretty little neck and compel her to sit nice and quietly if she doesn't stop trying to fucking kill herself though.

"There's nothing here for you" I tell goon number 1. There are 3 of them. With Rose's help I think we can take them.

Or. Not.

Heart-snatch...hey! That's my move! Hey...that's...Elijah. Shit. How? Uh...Rose is gone, bloody typical and yeah. I'm gonna die. Fucking hell Elena. "I killed you. You were dead" – "For centuries now" ha fucking ha, you're a funny guy.

Elijah talks to the goons while I try to figure out a way to get us out of this unholy mess but honestly I'm not seeing many options. Not seeing many sharp wooden pointy objects either, no coat-stands to be seen around here. And then Elijah kills goons 1 and 3. Fabulous...I'm guessing it's my turn next then.

But if I'm going to die then I'll die trying to protect her.

Only...he leaves. He's gone. He just...left...huh? Well...that makes no sense.

So after today's escapades I'm probably back off of Elena's list of people that she cares about which...great. I didn't even get a full 24 hours out of that one, but it's worth it. She's home and she's safe. And I'll do whatever I have to do to keep her that way.

"Why do you think he killed those two vampires and just let us go?" I dunno Elena. Kinda grateful though. Also it was 3, he killed 3 vampires. "If I had a dollar for every time some evil vampire surprised me..." well I'd be an even richer man than I already am. I stop her from going in the house.

"What you did today was incredibly stupid" – "Actually the only thing that was stupid was that I got caught" god she's so feisty. Wrong reasons...but I love it all the same. "I don't question why you and Stefan and...everyone else tries so hard to save me. You shouldn't question why I would try to save all of you." Well we do it because we lov- "What?" Jeremy. What is it with this damn porch? "It's Stefan"

Je-sus! My brother's only gone and gotten himself stuck in the tomb with the psycho bitch. Do I really have to hold everybody's hand through everything?

Elena tries to run inside the tomb but I grab her just in time. "Don't you dare" Katherine will eat her alive. Literally. "Stefan's in there Damon. How could you let this happen?" Oh that's right. Of course it's my fucking fault. It always is.

"I was too busy saving you from your crazy kamikaze mission" she's fighting with me and against me and it sucks but she is not getting in there.

"Damon let go of me. Damon" and she's battering futilely at my chest but I'm not letting go until she's calmed down and I know she needs it. She needs to get her rage, her anger, her frustrations out and I am more than willing to be her punching bag if that's what she needs me to be.

"You done?" I ask when she seems to have calmed a little. She moves towards the entrance one more time but I'm faster and the look on my face is obviously enough for her to reconsider and she leaves. Time to deal with my baby bro.

"Of all the idiot plans, Stefan...I'll find a way to get you out" – "I'll handle myself. Bonnie has the moonstone. Work with her, try to figure out how to de-spell it" well this is the best piece of news to come out of this bad, bad situation. At least we got something right.

"Keep Elena away from here" – "Yeah 'cause that'll be easy!" – "Promise me. No matter what happens, you'll protect her" – "Promise" I will protect her. I always do, somehow or another.

Now it's time to go home, I need alcohol. Tomorrow is a brand new day.

Dear Diary,
I found my way to let Damon know that I care about him. I had to let him know. I guess I never really stopped but I was so angry with him...anyway I wanted him to know, how I feel without being...obvious about it. And then I went to Rose to get her to take me to her friend that she and Damon visited.

He had information about the curse and the moonstone so I thought he could help me. I knew Damon and Stefan wouldn't stop trying to get the moonstone and breaking the curse but I can't let them do that. Klaus will kill everyone that I...everyone.

Only, Slater was dead, but his girlfriend Alice was there. I managed to convince her to help us. I told her Rose would turn her and she got us into the computer. I had her call someone named Cody and tell him that we were trying to send a message to Klaus. The doppelganger is alive and she's ready to surrender. I would rather die; be sacrificed over a stupid rock than let any of my friends of family be hurt...or worse.

And then Damon arrived. Rose called him. We were fighting and he was trying to make me leave, and then Elijah arrived and I thought...this is it...I've actually killed him, and I can't save him this time. It's what I was trying to avoid...I was so scared, not for me! For Damon. But then Elijah just...vanished. He left...I have no idea why he did that, why he let Damon live, but God I'm so grateful that he did.

Then when we got home, I think he understood what I was trying to tell him...but then Jeremy came and he told us that Stefan was trapped in the tomb with Katherine! Katherine! And then I tried to get into the tomb which...stupid I know but I wasn't thinking and I was just so...frustrated and angry and...defeated and I was hitting Damon and hitting and hitting and...he just...held me, and..let me do that...it's as if he knew that I needed it. How does he know?

How are we going to get Stefan out of the tomb? I need to get him out.

You know it's funny...I can't remember a time when my life was actually just...simple.
Elena