A/N: Thanks for the lovely responses to OP. Right, so because Homecoming was split into like, two nights with flashbacks or something, god knows, point is Damon is once again sort of recapping what happened earlier in the episode and we pick up with him and Elena making weapons. So, essentially another 'Damon summarises' bit, I'm thinking there might be a few of these in S3! I do not own the Vampire Diaries yadda, yadda, yadda and from now on I am not including this disclaimer. I think we all get the point by now.
Homecoming
"I need something only you can give
'Cause tonight's the night the world begins again"
Oh yes, D-Day is upon us. Homecoming. Rah-Rah Go Team and all that...jazz. Point is, 'Kill Klaus' day has arrived and we're gonna do some Klaus killin'. Ooh yeah it's a good day!
Barbie Klaus is down in the lounge getting girly for homecoming, and waiting for her daddy to wake up and Elena and I are preparing weapons. I'm sorry, Elena is fiddling with weapons. I am preparing wolfsbane grenades.
Stefan made a call to Klaus, who was in Portland, by the way, to tell him that his dear daddy kicked the bucket. Of course we had to find a way around the compulsion that he's sure to use on Stef to garner the truth of the situation so Elena daggered Mikael to make it real.
Watching that happen was both difficult and fascinating. Difficult because every particle of my body was screaming 'danger' and I really wanted to stop it, but also fascinating because she's so brave, so beautiful. And again, this girl would make for one magnificent vampire. It's almost a shame she doesn't want to be one.
Mikael told us that he has a stake, made from the White Oak tree before they burnt it to the ground. See? I knew he had a stake; but much more important we finally have a weapon to kills Klaus with.
Of course Klaus demanded to see Mikael so that part of the plan worked out well, he also asked to talk to Rebekah for confirmation and she held up her end of the deal. And now Klaus is coming back. We kill him at homecoming. Easy. Peasy.
"We can't trust Rebekah not to turn on us" she speaks! And that's obviously what she's been worrying her pretty little head over for the last 20 minutes. "Oh really?" – "Bonnie was right. Rebekah may be mad at Klaus now but he is her brother" yeah, I do have some experience in that field myself. So what'cha gonna do about it?
"Wolfsbane's ready" I tell her as she joins me in the bathroom. "There are too many things that can go wrong with this plan. Too many people that can make it go wrong" hey now who do you think you're talking to?
"Well I am formulating a secret contingency plan" yep, I got backup plans comin' out of my ears. I know I'm normally the crazy, impulsive one but this? This requires precision, planning and think first, second and third before acting.
Elena wants to know my plan but I indicate my head towards the rest of the house, the walls have ears around this place. Ears with hyper-advanced hearing at that.
And Stefan, right on cue. "I need to borrow a tie" get your own! "You have your own ties" –"I'm 164 years old and I'm going to a homecoming dance. I need better ties" nope. You need a better attitude brother. Lighten up; it's a good day!
"You could not go" Elena pipes up but I already got that part covered.
"I'm compelled to protect you, and if I look at your track record at high school dances it's pretty tragic. With my luck you'll go and get yourself murdered by the homecoming queen" he does kinda have a point actually, she really does have a bad track record with school dances.
Hopefully by the time we reach Prom there will be no problems. Hey a man can dream, right? 'Course Stefan doesn't have to be such a dick about it, and I got Elena covered to. Let's just say it's been a busy morning okay?
"Ah!" I tap Elena on the hand when I realise she's started trying to put one of my grenades together. "I know how to do it, Alaric taught me" she insists. "Elena; this thing blows up in our face just remember only one of us heals quickly" and I really don't ever want to go through that whole forcing my blood on her debacle again. Ever.
Stefan comes back with my ties, you know, the one I didn't say he could take. "Please tell me that you have a better plan than wolfsbane grenades?" well wouldn't you like to know? But that is for me to know and you to...well you get the idea.
I pass Elena the now safe to hold wolfsbane while Stefan prattles on about his freedom from Klaus.
"You're the one that we should be worried about. If Klaus asks you one wrong question; the whole thing falls apart" ah 'Lena, don't worry. I got it all figured out.
Elena adds her own touch of excellence to my plan with her own plan to take out Barbie Klaus. She still has the dagger from when she took out Mikael and she goes to dagger Rebekah. Clever girl, deviously, devilishly clever. I'm waiting at the bottom of the stairs just in case Rebekah figures out something is up so I hear their conversation.
"This is my first high school dance" she tells Elena. How is that even possible? You live for 1000 years and never go to high school? Although, truth be told she's not exactly missing out on much anyway.
"I've spent my whole life loving and hating my brother with equal measure. I never thought that I'd be the one to help drive a stake through his heart" oh look, yet another thing I have in common with an Original. Well, the first part at least.
But I get it. And what Elena is going to do is the right thing to do. Because if it were me and someone was trying to kill my brother? Yeah, you'd have to take me out too. Family is family. No matter what.
Doesn't mean I feel bad for Rebekah. Klaus has to die. It's the only way to protect my family, but I get it all the same.
I hear Barbie Klaus's desperate gasp for air and Elena's heartfelt apology "I'm so sorry; I can't leave anything to chance either" and then I come and cover Rebekah up. Elena did good.
"In the back? Harsh" I tease her because she's clearly upset with herself.
"It had to be done. Rebekah was never gonna be completely on our side" well you don't have to explain yourself to me honey. "Hey I'm not judging you. It was very Katherine of you" – "Not the way to make me feel better about myself, Damon" –"It was a compliment. Sort of."
Well it's the truth, and with Elena, with us, it's always the truth. If nothing else, we tell each other the truth. And it was a very Katherine-esque thing to do. Completely valid reasons but it doesn't negate the truth.
"Stefan's right" she huffs "someone's gonna let their humanity get in the way and screw this whole thing up and it's probably gonna be me" and now we approach the part of my plan that she's probably not gonna be too thrilled about.
"We need a better plan" she says after a brief who's-who of who we trust and who we don't. "Oh I know what to do, you're just not gonna like it" – "Why not?"
"Because when this all goes down I don't want you having any part of it" yeah. This bit. The bit where she has to stay home and miss her homecoming dance. The bit where Katherine comes in. Honestly, sometimes, okay, very infrequently I love doppelganger hijinks.
"What does that mean?" she asks, but I have a better question. A much more important one.
"Do you trust me?" – "Yes"
Amazing, what one little word can do to a man's heart. She trusts me. She trusts me. She trusts me. With no hesitation. And that's really all that matters.
"Then you have nothing to worry about" I send Elena on home with a promise that I'll come pick her up as soon as it's over, and that went a lot better than I expected.
Now it's time to begin executing the rest of my plan. I need to get the stake from Mikael, Klaus is at the Lockwood mansion and I'm the only available one who can enter the house.
"Change of plan" Stefan says as he comes rushing in, "he wants your body delivered to his doorstep" he tells Mikael. "He's certainly not gonna come here, hope your plan didn't depend on that" nope. Definitely did not. Everything is coming together nicely.
"Didn't depend on that" – "But you do have a plan right?" oh brother, yeah I got a plan all right. "Just doesn't involve you."
Mikael is eating my brother. What the fuck? I said take him out, not eat him!
"You couldn't just break his neck?" – "Well it certainly occurred to me" o-kay. Next time I'll take my own damn brother out. I grab my weapons bag and head out after Mikael and while he goes to reconnect with his long-lost son, I head for the main entrance.
"Invite only, vampire" fucking hybrids. Who needs them? Oh that's right, no one.
"Here's my RSVP. Hybrid" ye-ep ripped his heart out and. Dead. Next!
I grab Lockwolf as he's coming down the stairs and direct him to an empty room, informing him that the hybrids don't exactly make for a great first impression. "Whatever move you're making Klaus is gonna be ready for you. He'll kill everyone at this party if he has to" nope, not if he doesn't get the chance to. "Tell someone who cares."
I grab his neck so I can snap it and put him out of his misery for the night but he starts trying to bite me. No thank you! So I shove him away from me and into the wall. Yep. He needs to die now. Sorry Blondie.
Or. Not.
Fuck! Burning. Burning in my brain. "Bonnie" Jesus witch! "What the hell is wrong with you? You weren't supposed to witchy migraine me" - "You weren't supposed to kill Tyler" but he tried to eat me. Again! I mean, I let it go the first time but seriously, how many free passes am I supposed to give out around here?
I reach down to grab the White Oak stake "What is that? Oh my god is that the-"– "Shhh!" god it's not like we're in a house full of supernatural creatures or anything!
Okay. Tyler's out of it now. Katherine's with Mikael. Stefan's down. And I am ready. Plan's pulling together perfectly. I move closer to the front door where Klaus and Mikael are reuniting. Klaus has hybrids surrounding the house, honestly where did he find them all? And then Mikael brings out Katherine.
I have to keep reminding myself that it's not Elena as they casually discuss killing her. Klaus tells Mikael to go ahead and kill her, well, 'tells' isn't really the right word to use here. Screams, would be more appropriate really. And Mikael does. Kill her. Katherine. Not Elena. Only not even Mikael knows that part. And now? Well when I'm done killing Klaus, let's just say I wouldn't mind facing off with Papa Original afterwards.
Enter Damon. Killing Katherine was the distraction that I needed to get an edge on Klaus and I only have one clear shot at this. So I run for him and stake him. And I missed. Fuck I missed. Seriously that shit was bad! And I'm usually perfect, with my aim, I mean. But I've got him on the ground so I yank it back out and now I'm going to kill hi-
Stefan? What the fuck? "What are you doing?"
Klaus grabs the stake from the ground and clearly has much better aim than I do because he takes out Papa Original in one fell swoop. Stefan is still holding me down, "what the hell did you do?" – "He's earned his freedom" what?
I don't care. I am so far gone from that house, and Klaus. Who's probably gonna kill me now.
Where did I go wrong? What did I mess up this time? How did I mess up this time? What the fuck just happened?
I head over and pick up Elena, partly because I promised her I would come for her and partly because I need to. I need her right now. So I pick her up and drive her back to the house with me in silence.
I need about 10 drinks before I can even begin to explain this night. "How did this happen?" she asks when I have explained, or, tried to anyway.
"I thought of everything Elena. Klaus having hybrids, Mikael turning on us, we brought in Katherine so you weren't in danger. Anything that could have gone wrong we were prepared for" I had backup plans for my backup plans. I've never been so damn prepared for anything in my entire life. Except for my own damn brother. That? No. That I was not prepared for.
"I don't understand, Stefan wanted Klaus dead more than anything. That's what we were counting on" yeah well apparently my brother is a much better liar than I ever gave him credit for. "We blew it."
"Where's Katherine?" gone. A hundred miles and probably an entire continent gone soon enough. "She ran for the hills like usual, the minute things got bad. And who blames her? Klaus would have crushed her" we should all be so clever. He will come for all of us now.
"I had him, Elena. I had Klaus. This could have all been over" I turn and throw my bottle into the fireplace. What is fucking wrong with me? How could I mess this up? I mean, aside from my initial atrocious aim of course.
"Hey, Damon, hey" Elena reaches out to me but I shrug her off "hey listen to me" she demands and grabs my arm, and then her hands, her hands are on my face and I'm stuck. Trapped by the never-ending depths of her eyes and the reassuring weight of her hands on me, calming me, soothing me, burning me.
"We'll survive this. We always survive" and her sincerity shines in her eyes and drips on her words and I believe her. "Trust me" I do. I always have. Okay. Yes. We will be okay. And I do, feel calmer now. We will be okay.
My brother on the other hand? "We're never getting Stefan back; you know that, don't you?" – "Then we'll let him go. Okay? We'll have to let him go" okay who are you and what have you done with Elena? Is she serious? But her hands are still on me and it burns in an oh-so nice way and she sounds serious so I nod and give her a little smile.
And then my phone rings. Why does this always happen? Will there ever come a time when I can be alone in a room with Elena without being interrupted? Elena takes her hands off of me and moves away so I can take the call.
"Not interested in a play-by-play of our failure right now Katherine" she says she's calling to say goodbye and tells me that I had a good plan, which I know but does nothing to comfort me right now.
This was not a good day. This was so much of the very worst kind of days. This has been a no good, very bad day. But at least I have Elena. She is the light in an otherwise atrociously bleak night.
Dear Diary,
Today was supposed to be the day that Klaus died. Why is it that nothing can ever go to plan, for once, in our lives?
Everything started off well enough, I had to dagger Mikael to make Klaus believe that he was dead and draw him back to Mystic Falls. Damon came up with a brilliant plan, honestly I was really proud of him, despite the fact that it failed; it was still a pretty damn brilliant plan. And it wasn't Damon's fault that it failed.
I also daggered Rebekah because I knew that we couldn't trust her, we had to kill Klaus, it was our only chance and he is still her brother. So I did it, I daggered her, for the greater good. But it was horrible and I feel terribly, terribly guilty for doing it and it was all for nothing anyway!
Damon asked me today if I trust him, and I replied with no hesitation, yes; I do trust him. I trust him more than anyone really. Which is kind of crazy no matter which way you look at it but it's the truth. That's when he told me that I had to miss the dance, I think he was worried that I was going to be upset about that but Stefan kind of had a point when he made his observation about my track record at high school dances. It is quite bad, and it's just a dance that I didn't have a date for anyway, I really didn't care that much. Besides, there's always prom.
Anyway, Damon brought in Katherine to play me and everything went according to plan, until Damon was about to kill Klaus and then Stefan stopped him. Stefan! It is Stefan's fault that Klaus is still alive, and probably going to come and kill us all. Why would he do that? How could he betray us like that? Damon said that we are never getting him back and I said that we have to let him go. We at least have to start the process, because the Stefan we know, love, is really gone now.
Damon was so upset tonight, and I knew, that it was my turn. My turn to be strong for Damon instead of the other way around, because he was angry and vulnerable, and scared, and Damon doesn't handle that well. But I forced him to listen to me, I told him to trust me, that we would survive this. And we will. I don't know how but I know that we will. Together.
Elena