A/N: Thank you for the reviews to the last chapter. You guys still rock! A View To A Kill is another one I wanted to write as a complete chapter if only for the Damon/Klaus parts but it couldn't be done unfortunately. Hope you enjoy all the same.
Catch Me If You Can & A View To A Kill
"They'll keep us apart and they won't stop breaking us down
It could be wrong, but it should have been right
Love is our resistance"
After the phone call that was, we get a message to meet Klaus in a bar in town where he's turned a room full of townsfolk for Jeremy to kill. Yes, fine, all right I went along with the idea, what can I say? It seemed like a good plan at the time, and I've never really been one for thinking things through.
Unfortunately, it does put a bit of a halt to my plan of spending one night being loved by Elena Gilbert. Instead I get to spend the night making sure that younger Gilbert doesn't get himself eaten. The quarterback takes off running to try and avoid becoming a late-night snack and Jeremy is not far behind, off to rescue his friend.
I take off a minute later after a final disapproving glare at Klaus for adding his 'artistic licence' to the damn plan. Yep, 'Lena's gonna kill me. With any luck she won't rescind her declaration of love though, ah, who am I kidding? I'm never that lucky.
What makes it worse, if that's even possible, is that she's coming here, she's on her way here right now and there's a whole lotta new turned vamps on the loose. What sort of holy mess have I created for myself this time?
I come rushing up behind Jeremy and grab his weapon away from him in the second he hesitates, "don't hesitate. You're lucky it was me otherwise you two would be dead"
"You set us up" he declares angrily before grabbing the crossbow back. "I was trying to get this thing over with" again, seemed like a good idea at the time. I tell him to get ready to fight but he seems rather more eager to get back to the house. "Wait you wanna run?" what kinda useless hunter are you Little Gilbert?
"They're gonna kill Matt" oh, right, the quarterback. Fuckery! Elena would not be okay with that. "Fine. Get outta here I'll slow 'em down" they take off running again and I rip the heart out of a vampire who comes tearing after them.
I kill another few on my way back to the house but honestly it's barely even worth my time so I leave the rest for the hunter to deal with. When I get in Elena's arrived and the pissed off look on her face lets me know that the kiddies have filled her in on my bad behaviour.
"What the hell were you thinking?" that I could get back to you sooner rather than later?
"All I asked you to do was teach him how to fight" well don't blame me, blame Klaus, the most impatient man in the history of the world. "He's not the best student in the world"
"What now this is my fault?" yes Jeremy, you're the one who pissed of Klaus, I told you that already.
"Look, I know you're angry but my way was the easiest, fastest, and safest way to complete his mark and get you the cure" why the ever loving fuck everyone is so damn desperate for this cure I'll never understand, all it's gonna do is leave us all with even bigger problems.
"I don't care about the cure Damon, not if it means putting the people that I love in danger" I wonder if I'm still one of those people. I also wonder the hell she expects me to do about it. "Hey, there would have been no danger if he hadn't gone all bleeding heart"
"He killed someone. These were innocent people" she walks over and stands in front of me and as soon as I look in her eyes I know I'm fighting a battle that I've already lost, but that's the story of my life so I keep on fighting anyway.
"The mark grew didn't it?" apparently Elena sees my logic because she sighs and gives up fighting with me. Sadly all this does is serve as a reminder that she probably only sees my logic because of the fucking sire-bond.
"Okay look, we need a plan. There's a group of compelled vampires out there and as soon as the sun goes down they're gonna come after Matt so we have to find a way to protect him" I walks away from her because I can't bear to look at her eyes anymore and know that I've let her down, know that she can't fight back because I used logic against her.
"Yes I know, but there will be no problem when Big Jer and I here go on a hunting expedition. Elena I know, it's tragic, I get it, we also agree that he had to kill them, now we have added incentive, so you take the least most valuable player home, Jeremy and I will finish this" new plan, okay?
"I'm sorry are you saying that I should leave him here with you?" yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. And I honestly wish that I could say it without the use of a fucking sire-bond but it is what it is so I use it.
"Trust me. I will keep him safe okay?" sire-bond or not she knows I mean it. She nods, she leaves.
Guess it's just me and Little Gilbert left to our own devices again then.
"You really think they went back to the bar?" he asks me as I open the trunk to grab his weapons. There's nowhere else around here for miles that a pile of baby vamps could go during daylight hours, nowhere they could get in anyway, at least all of them being in one place means easy killin'.
"Listen just go in, one at a time, only shoot for the heart, don't hesitate and don't miss" I give him some last minute teacher tips as he loads up on weapons.
"Save the teaching moment Elena's not here" yeah I know that kid, "you don't have to pretend like you give a damn about me" when is he going to get that I'm not fucking pretending? I do, magically, have space in my dark, cold, heart for more than just Elena you know. Granted, I might not show it that often but come on people, have a little faith.
"I'm trying to keep you alive dumbass, come on"
We arrive in an oddly silent and deserted bar where there should be a whole lotta vamps and instead we find only a whole heapa blood on the floor, "something's not right" I point out the obvious to Jeremy and we follow the trail of blood.
Well fuck. There are a whole lotta vamps here, but someone beat us to all the fun and killed them all for us. "Looks like we're gonna have to find us some new vampires" because it was just so easy the first time around. "What the hell happened?" god knows kid.
"I confess" ah shit. Jeremy spins around to face our intruder and killer of the vamps clearly. Kol. My favourite Original.
"I did it, Jeremy, good to see you mate. Sorry about the mess. It was a little crowded when I arrived and I prefer more intimate gatherings. We three need to have a little chat" is that strictly necessary? 'Cause leaving sounds a lot more appealing right this second.
To cut a long story short, Kol doesn't want us to wake Silas, apparently he's one scary dude who's gonna "trigger the end of all time" which sounds a little too 'judgement day' for my tastes but Kol says that he can't sit back and let us raise Silas, which, truth be told, I'm fine with too. I don't wanna raise the guy, I just wanna get the damn cure, give it to the girl I love, not too much to ask is it?
Kol tries to appeal to Jeremy's common sense but unfortunately, for Kol, Little Gilbert is as eager to get the cure for his sister as everyone else seems to be, this of course only leads to a pissed off Original threatening to rip Jeremy's arms off, glad I tagged along for this ride now.
As soon as Kol moves I'm in front of him and running him away from Jeremy, I slam him against the wall and punch him in the face, "Jeremy, run" I manage to get a couple more punches in before I'm subjected to Original strength once more, at least the kid ran.
"Where's Damon Salvatore...let him go and come home"
I'll tell you where Damon Salvatore is, Damon Salvatore is sitting in a fucking bar with a stake millimetres from his heart being compelled by another fucking Original. My days just keep gettin' better.
"Very good darling, now stab yourself a little further" he compels, I fucking stab, dangerously close to my heart.
"If you're gonna kill me, do it like a man" 'cause honestly this is lame. And painful. Painfully lame.
"I don't want to kill you. I just wanted to make sure you can be compelled" it pains me, physically pains me that the pastor blew up all the vervain in town.
"I'm gonna rip out your spleen" when I can move again.
"You ought to be thanking me; I mean you don't really want the cure found. You fancy Elena, I mean, even more now that she's a vampire, admit it" what the fuck, is he a mind-reading Original? Or did he just compel that out of me at a point I missed earlier? God but this is getting boring, and I hurt.
"The last vestige of her humanity is her annoying little brother Jeremy and deep, deep down I bet you want him dead don't you?" well that's the point where you'd be wrong Mr. Know It All.
"Nope" he slaps me on the back a couple of times which does nothing to the wood in my chest and I'd really like out of here now.
"I bet you'd love to rip his head right off, and I'm gonna give you your wish" nope. No way. No thank you.
Kol lets me go and I need to go see Elena, or Jeremy. Maybe Jeremy first, make sure he's okay, yeah, that sounds about right. I head for Elena's house 'cause hopefully they're both there and it's 'Lena who answers the door. She comes right out and puts her hands on my shoulders, "what happened, are you okay?" not really, better, now that you're touching me though. "Kol happened."
"Thank god you both got away" she says stepping away from me, I reach out to touch her again and then think better of it and pull my hand back. "If Kol had taken Jeremy" oh Jeremy, where is he, "is he here? 'Cause I just wanna talk to him really fast" why do I wanna talk to Jeremy again?
"He's at the Grill, he wanted to check on Matt" Elena explains. "Well I should go apologise to him I was...I was pretty tough on him today" well that doesn't sound like me at all, what the fuck is wrong with me?
Elena offers to drive me to the Grill so we get in the car and head down to find Jeremy, we find the quarterback first. "Don't you ever take a night off?" and where's Jeremy, "he's in the back I think" great, I'll be off then.
Ah, there's Jeremy. And shit. I feel suddenly, murderous. Fuck my life.
"Damon" Elena. Elena's voice stops me dead in my tracks, Elena.
"Are you all right?" no, don't think so baby. "What's going on?" uh, hmm, think I'm gonna try and kill your brother. I walk away from her because I really don't wanna say that out loud but she just follows me through to the back room.
"Damon what is wrong with you?" – "It was Kol, he must have compelled me" not cool Kol, not cool.
"If I find Jeremy, I'm gonna kill him" please help me. I take off into the tunnels because I have to kill him, but I won't kill him.
"Jeremy get outta here you hear me? Don't stop. Kol compelled me there's nothing I can do. You can't hide in here Jer, if I find you you're dead" so please fucking run. Run as fast as you can. Run as far as you can. Just run the fuck away from me because I will. Not. Kill you.
"Jeremy are you listenin' to me? You better run. I am coming to kill you. You need to go now" I can hear him running through the maze that is these tunnels, I can hear him breathing and I can hear his heart thundering furiously in his chest and none of these things are helping me diffuse the urge I have to kill him. This town needs some damn vervain.
"Did you miss the part where I said I was compelled?" why is he standing still? "Don't stop. Seriously? You're being hunted by a vampire and now you're bleeding?" does he want to die?
I find his jacket less than a second later and then he's on top of my back with his arms wrapped around my neck, so I bite him, gets him off of me at least.
"Dumb move Jer, you can't fight me in closed quarters" – "worth a shot" god the kid got quicker, he shoots me twice and I hit the ground. Now would be a good time to run Little Gilbert.
"You're gonna have to shoot me Jeremy" I tell him when he makes no move to leave, "in the heart. I'm not gonna be able to stop myself"I won't kill you so you're gonna have to kill me because I will not ever hurt your sister like that. Again.
"Jeremy you are a hunter, you know you want to. Do it. Do it" I get back to my feet and honestly I probably coulda killed him with all the time he's spent hesitating but I've never fought so hard against anything in my life. When I start to lose the battle, he shoots me.
"Shot me in the head" I pull the bullet out "stupid, idiot, borderline brain-dead moron" where the fuck is he now?
"That was dumb Jeremy. Ah, you shoulda killed me when you had the chance" I follow the blood trail which leads me outside which will lead me to a bleeding Jeremy.
"Damon stop" Elena. I stop.
"Please, I know that you don't wanna hurt Jeremy" I really don't 'Lena, and I really hope you do know that, "so please stop" I turn around to face her. "I can't"
"Yes you can. You're strong enough to resist the compulsion I know that you are" I'm trying Elena.
"Why because Stefan did?" maybe if I keep talking to her for long enough we can do, something, I don't know, all I know is that her voice is the only thing that cuts through the fog in my mind right now, it grounds me and I need it.
"Because I love you, because you love me" seriously, we're just, throwing that out there now? Focus Damon, not the point right now, listen to Elena, focus on Elena.
"You'd do anything for me so please, do this for me" anything. Everything. Yes. I do.
All it takes is a single drop of blood for the fog to return ten-fold and the fucking murderous part of me comes back out to play once again. I can't fight this. I'm trying so fucking hard, for her, but I know I'll eventually lose the fight, he's gonna have to kill me.
"I'm sorry Elena" sorry for fucking everything.
"Damon" she shouts after me but I run for the kid. "Jeremy shoot now" credit to him, he does, I dunno whether he was aiming for my heart or my head again but it doesn't matter because my brother, of all people, arrives out of fucking nowhere, "hey brother, long time no see".
Darkness.
I wake up in the cellar, might as well transform this place into my second bedroom considering the amount of time I've spent in the damn place since I came back to this town. "Easy there buddy you lost a lot of blood" god my entire body hurts. "So you bled me out?" I suppose it's the most logical option.
"Yeah I didn't really have much of a choice, Kol's compulsion is still in effect so you need to stay locked up, we don't have any vervain so this was the only way I could weaken you" well don't sound so fucking happy about it Stefan. "You sound real torn up about it. Shouldn't we be going after Kol? Make him de-compel me?" or ya know, just flat out kill him?
"Yeah, yeah sure that sounds easy enough Damon. I'll get right on that" I try to sit up, try to find the energy to fight him but I got nothin' left inside of me.
"Please let me see Elena" I need to know that she forgives me; I need to know that we are okay, that she doesn't hate me for trying to kill her brother, again. I need to know that she still loves me, that we are Damon and Elena and we are okay. I need her to know that I tried to fight, for her.
"Come on, you know you can't do that, with the sire-bond all you have to do is tell her to let you out of here, it's too risky" but I won't, I promise, I mean I really won't. I actually don't really want to be let out to be honest, not when I'm a potential danger to her brother, a danger to her, but I need to see her, please just let me see her. But my brother ignores my silent pleas for help and ignores the desperate plea that I'm sure is shining in my eyes.
"You're really enjoyin' this aren't you?" fuck him.
"It's better for Elena if you stay in here for now, at least until we find the cure" are you fucking kidding me? I'm not staying in here that long. "And then once she's no longer sired and you're no longer compelled, you can both do whatever the hell you want" Stefan leaves and I call after him but he doesn't come back.
Elena is here. I can feel her, even though my body is half-drained of blood and coursing with pain from the after affects of wooden bullets to the head, my body still responds to her in exactly the same way. My fucking soul still acknowledges her presence, knows when the better half of me is nearby, knows when she's coming home.
But I can't get to her. Can't see her. I can barely even fucking move.
Gonna kill my brother. Asshole took my phone and everything.
I spend a while shouting on him until I realise that he's either not coming back or he's not in the house and either way I'm not getting my phone. I sleep.
Dear Diary,
After I told Damon that I loved him he said I could come to him, but unfortunately it didn't turn out to be the reunion I was so desperately looking forward to. No, instead Klaus had turned a bar full of humans into vampires for Jeremy to kill and then compelled them to chase Matt, so Damon sent me away again, told me to bring Matt home.
When I got home Jeremy called to tell me that Kol attacked him and Damon, he got away but Kol still had Damon, so I went to Klaus. I didn't have any choice, I had to do something, it was Damon. I managed to convince Klaus to call his brother and he got him to let Damon go.
But before he did, he compelled Damon to kill Jeremy, I called Stefan for help and when he arrived he snapped Damon's neck, took a little bit too much pleasure, in snapping Damon's neck I think, but at least it got the compulsion problem sorted, temporarily.
I tried to see Damon but Stefan wouldn't let me go to him, he said that I would just end up letting him out, even though I wouldn't, I wouldn't because I know Damon wouldn't have asked me to let him out, it frustrates me, how little people think of Damon.
I just wanted to see him with my own eyes, to make sure he is safe, protected, to let him know that I understand, that I know he fought for me, fought for my brother.
I need him to know that I know he would rather die than hurt me; I need him to know that I don't blame him, hate him. That I love him.
Damon tried to convince Jer to kill him just to be sure that he wouldn't kill my brother, and Jeremy could have killed him easily, probably wanted to kill him, in some parts of himself what with the hunters instincts taking over, but he didn't. He didn't kill Damon, for me.
Because intrinsically, both of the men in my life, these two men that I love more than anything in the entire world, both understand that without one of them I will surely become nothing. I don't know how I could possibly go on without my brother as equally as I don't know how I could live without Damon, and for that they are each willing to die so I never have to face the pain of knowing.
Damon, willing to die so I don't face the heartache of losing my very last remaining family member, the main reason I chose this life for myself, the final link to my humanity, to the girl I was, the keeper of my memories, my parents, my childhood.
And Jeremy, willing to risk his life, so I don't have to face the crippling, life-sucking disease that would surely be the death of me from losing Damon. The light in my darkness, the man who makes me feel, the man who captured my heart and soul and freed them all at the same time. The man who brings me to life.
And I am simply left wondering what the hell I ever did to get so damn lucky as to deserve either one of them.
Elena
A View To A Kill
Stefan sleeps with Rebekah and tries to sneak out on her the morning after only to be caught by Klaus who is looking for her dagger in order to put Kol down. Rebekah refuses to give it up and Klaus appeals to Stefan for help, "we'll all be on our merry way to a human Elena".
Elena, Jeremy and Bonnie come up with a plan to kill Kol, Elena gets burned with vervain in the water after Bonnie's dad the new mayor, dumps vervain into the town's water supply. Kol comes after Bonnie at the school but she bursts a lot of balloons and probably some blood vessels in Kol's brain before running away.
Stefan tube feeds Damon blood and brings Klaus to babysit him while refusing to speak to him. "He's still pissed at me for sleeping with Elena". Klaus fills Damon in on Stefan's between the sheets activities with Rebekah. Stefan leaves and Elena calls to inform him of the plan to kill Kol.
Elena fakes peace with Kol 'in the name of Silas' and they have a nice chat about what Kol knows, his feelings on raising Silas, music, the modern age and religion. Stefan takes Rebekah to the cancelled dance as a ruse to get her dagger but let's his morals be his guide as he refuses to let Matt dagger her.
Klaus and Damon villain-bond and Damon gives Klaus some valuable lessons and advice on being the guy everyone loves to hate, "If you're gonna be bad be bad with a purpose, otherwise you're just not worth forgiving". Klaus calls Damon out on his 'inability' to fight Kol's compulsion and his fears about what will happen when Elena gets cured. "Personally I don't see a fairytale ending for you. All I see, is Stefan and Elena, I think you see the same thing" Damon busts himself out of the cellar when Klaus leaves to track down/save his brother.
Jeremy comes searching for Bonnie, her mom appears and sends Jeremy away. Abby witch-roofies Bonnie, again, but she wakes up quickly and takes Abby down with witch-pain "I belong to myself"
Kol returns to the Gilbert house intent on getting rid of Jeremy's hunters mark. After some kick-ass fighting Elena gets free, Jeremy gets the stake and Kol dies in the end. Sad face.
Klaus watches everything happen from the front door and gets ma-ad and then Bonnie arrives and traps him in the living room with a spell that will hold him for a few days.
The gang congregate at the Salvatore house where Damon and Elena reunite with a hug, Damon and Stefan reunite with a punch to the face courtesy of Damon's fist after Stefan effectively accuses him of taking advantage of Elena and their fight is disrupted as they watch Jeremy hulk out and complete the hunters mark.
"Here we go"