A/N: As much as I would have loved to make Down the Rabbit Hole a full chapter it just refused to work as one so I'm afraid it's summarised. Stand By Me was *brilliant* to write though so I hope you enjoy. Also, there will be no Elena's diary for the next lot of chapters, as witnessed she burned her journals to the ground.

Down The Rabbit Hole & Stand By Me

Damon gets captured by Vaughn a member of the five, he ties Damon to a tree and demands answers about his tattoo and purpose in life.

Professor creepy leads Bonnie and Jeremy to the magic well where Bonnie casts the spell on Jeremy's tattoo to unlock the door to Silas and the holy grail.

Vaughn leads Damon through the woods towards the wishing well where he plans to kill Silas and Damon learns that there is only one cure. At the same time the group at home realise the same thing as Klaus helps Caroline and Tyler decipher the Aramaic cryptex. "So it is written...there is only one dose."

Klaus tells Rebekah that there is only one cure and she leads Stefan and Elena to the top of wherever they need to be, when Elena jumps down the mountain Rebekah tells Stefan and then snaps his neck so she can go after the cure. Stefan fills Elena in on the new developments and she accepts that she can't take it, they realise they need to get the cure and use it on Klaus before he murders them all.

Rebekah arrives at the magic well where Vaughn is trying to kill Damon and Damon is trying to get to the cure, Vaughn shoots Rebekah and disappears down the well when Stefan and Elena arrive. The brothers Salvatore send Elena down the wishing well while Stefan stays behind to help. Damon sends Stefan after Elena to help her get the cure and he rescues Rebekah.

Bonnie and Jeremy make their way to Silas's tomb where they find the cure fossilised in his hands and work out that there's not enough to go around. "A newbie hunter and a witch who needs adult supervision, how are we the ones that made it this far?"

Elena is attacked by Katherine who pretends to be her, Vaughn stabs Bonnie and attempts to kill Jeremy but Katherine comes along and knocks him out before feeding Jeremy to Silas and stealing the cure.

Caroline tries to appeal to Klaus' better nature and convince him not to kill Tyler, he grants 'mercy' and a head start. Caroline and Tyler share an emotional goodbye and when he leaves Klaus comes out of the house freed by the broken spell.

Jeremy dies in the end, very sad face.

Stand By Me

"The child was a teacher, a brother and a friend
A fragile little creature, who'd do it all again and again
Peace little brother"

After throwing myself a little pity-party I decide to man the hell up and jump down the wishing well of 'making dreams come true' to go after Stef and Elena. Who could have known that there would only be one goddamn cure? Right now though all I really care about is that we get the damn thing, as long as we have it in our possession we can deal with everything else when we get home.

And right now I really wanna get home. I am more than done with this island. I miss my bed. I miss my fire. I miss my bourbon. I miss my shower. So I make my way down the well to find the kids so we can get the heck away from this creepy ass place.

I find my brother first. My brother who informs me that the cure, that magical little elixir that'll turn the girl I love back into a living, breathing, real human girl, that damn bane of my fucking existence cure that there's only one of, is gone.

How did this happen I hear you ask! "It was Katherine, she must have been following us this whole time"

Katherine. Of course. The cure is gone. Bonnie is gone. Silas is gone. So not only did we lose the cure but apparently we also managed to raise an immortal crazy witch who, from what I can gather, intends to murder the world. Please, please tell me that it can't get any worse.

"Damon, Elena's in there waiting for the Gilbert ring to bring Jeremy back to life" oh yeah, sorry forgot to mention that part in all the other crazy shit goin' on around here. Little Gilbert died, again. I guess Katherine killed him or something; really we might need to keep a better eye on the kid lest he turn all murderous on us like Ric did.

"Okay fine I'll go wait with her" I tell my brother and make a move towards the entrance of the now Silas-free crypt.

"Damon listen to me" Stefan stops me in my tracks with a firm hand, "Jeremy was one of the five. A hunter" fuck no. Fuck no. Oh god it really did get worse.

"He's supernatural" if I say it, it makes it real, but I have to say it, because it is real "the ring won't work anymore" Jeremy is dead. Dead. Dead. As in. No coming back from the dead.

"She won't survive this" my poor girl, this will break her, this will destroy her. What the hell am I supposed to do now?

"I'll find Bonnie, you get Elena off this island" she thinks he's going to come back. I need to find me a witch, surely Bonnie can do something, she brought him back to life once before. I have to find her. I have to do this for Elena.

I spend hours searching this godforsaken island and after a while I find myself back where I started, at the campsite. I think I'm just walking in circles and there's no sign of Bonnie anywhere but I can't leave until I find her. I check the tent and then walk back towards the forest that looks like all the other forest I've already walked through but something feels a little, off. There is someone else here.

"Unless you're a blonde, a Bennett witch or a doppelganger, I suggest you steer clear" 'cause I am in one hell of a murderous mood. I walk towards the cabin I nearly killed the creepy professor in, he's also missing but I could care less about him.

"Where is it?" whoa fuck. Jesus do you have'ta sneak up on a guy? It's the blonde. Rebekah, delightful.

"The cure. I know someone has it" yeah, someone, not me goldilocks. "Katherine" I'm going to wring her skinny little neck the next time I see her. "Katherine? The doppelganger?" oh good, you know her. Maybe she can help with the wringing.

"Yeah. Sneaky little bitch must've been spying on us for weeks. She killed Jeremy, or, somebody did" I don't think I've really processed that Little Gilbert is actually dead yet. And if I haven't processed it then I know Elena is still happily living in denial land.

Rebekah makes her best sad face but I don't buy it for a second, "he killed your brother, let's not with the sad face."

"I didn't say I was going to miss him but I'm not heartless, he was Elena's only family" god. Yeah. This should not be happening. What the hell did my girl ever do to deserve this shit? In less than two years. Two. Years. She has lost ever single member of her family. Adoptive or otherwise, this is fucking tragic.

"Good well you can send flowers, after you help me find Bonnie" I hope to god she hasn't blown herself up with all her newfound magic power because I can't let Elena lose her friends as well.

"We need to find Katherine" Rebekah shouts after me as I head for more forest searching.

"If there's one thing that's a guarantee in this miserable little world it's that Katherine Pierce is gone. We need to find Bonnie. Oh, and beware of the immortal Silas, he was asleep in that cave; he's awake now" I head back into the woods and after a couple of minutes Rebekah follows me. With any luck the two of us will have a better chance at finding Bonnie quickly. I gotta find her and get her home to Elena; I hope my brother knows what he's doing.

"Do you think Bonnie is dead?" Rebekah asks after a while of walking in silence, "I never thought I'd say this but, I hope not" better bloody not be dead. It cannot be possible to lose a brother and a best friend in one fell swoop.

"I don't like being out in the open like this" she remembers that she's kinda, invincible, right? I tease her about being scared of Silas but as she points out, it would probably do us all some good to be at least a little scared of the guy, no one even knows what the hell he looks like.

"You're one to talk about being afraid, you're so scared you're twelve-hundred miles from where you're supposed to be" well that's just not true. "Somebody needed to find Bonnie" I volunteered for the job.

"Stefan could have done that. Aren't you Elena's current love? It's so hard to keep track these days, shouldn't you be home comforting her, or are you terrified of being there when she realises that her brother's dea-" whoa there, Vaughn's back. Just what this day needed.

I grab Miss Chatterbox and let her take an arrow in the back for me. "Sorry, better you than me" and then I push her out of the way and catch the second arrow that Mr. Annoying Hunter sends flying at me, and then I run. So does he but I'm a whole lot quicker so I grab him, "just the guy I wanted to see" like, never again, and then I knock him out.

For the record, I didn't stay here because I'm terrified to face Elena, contrary to popular belief I actually understand the girl, I know what needs to be done, and yeah Stefan coulda done it but I also know that my brother is a whole lot better at taking care of distressing situations. Remember when Elena killed Jeremy? I called Stefan. I have a nasty habit of screwing up in these scenarios so no, I'm not scared, I just know what's best for Elena.

I tie hunter-Vaughn up to his own tree and get started on my list of ten things that I'm gonna do to him just 'cause I can. Number two involves a knife in his neck. I've put the pieces of the puzzle together and figured out that he's in cahoots with "my vixen nemesis Miss Katherine Pierce" and now I want some answers.

Rebekah finally comes to join the party, to be fair I didn't even have the decency to pull the arrow out of her back, what? She pissed me off.

"Torture me all you want, you can't kill me the hunters curse will torment you forever" I dig the knife a little deeper into his neck "it'll be worth it".

"He's right" Rebekah says taking a step forward and I suppose it's true. Had a bad enough time with the last lot of hallucinations I got dealt never mind living with them for eternity.

"We can't kill him, but that doesn't mean that we can't tear him apart, piece by piece, nerve by nerve until the pain is so severe that your brain shuts it off to give you one tiny moment of blessed relief" I turn to look at Rebekah, girl sure does know her torture.

"And then we'll heal you and do it again, and again, and again"

"You are creepy" clever, but creepy. "Thank you" okay, well Mr. Hunter, if you don't want all of the above to happen to you then you're gonna need to start talking. He does.

Says he was tracking vampires when Katherine found him, told him she could help him find Silas. She came to him fully loaded with knowledge, apparently she had someone on the inside, a werewolf girl. "Hayley. Tyler Lockwood's little friend. Ah, I knew she was shady. Where'd Katherine find her?"

"New Orleans, that's all I know" well in that case you have ceased to be of use to me. I tell goldilocks to throw him in the well, "if he starves to death it's not our fault. I'm gonna go find Bonnie" I have wasted more than enough bloody time on hunters and getting answers about Katherine.

"We've got a lead on the cure Damon I'm gonna find it" do I look like I give a sweet damn about the cure right now?

"But I suppose you don't mind, you never wanted Elena to be human again anyway" god but I am getting sick of people presuming that they understand me.

"I wanted that cure for her because it's what she wanted. You might think I'm afraid to go back but I'm not. Because I know what she needs she needs me to bring her best friend home" so you go ahead and do what you wanna do, I am going to find Bonnie.

After another while of searching and finding absolutely nothing I head down in the direction of the beach to try and get some cell phone reception so I can call Stef and find out how Elena is doing.

"Did you find her?" hi brother, I'm fine and dandy thanks for asking. "I'm still lookin' how is she?"

"She's losin' it Damon. We can do what we can to delay things sure but we gotta get Jeremy to a morgue before it gets ugly" dammit. I swear to god I've searched this entire island, twice, and I can't find her.

"I can't just leave her behind. I can't...I can't show up without Bonnie"

"I think you have to. At this point the sire-bond is the only thing that's gonna keep Elena together. I can go back to find Bonnie" ah god, fine. Okay. "I'm on my way" I hang up the phone and get another one of those senses that someone else is here.

Bonnie. Where the hell has she been? "I could actually hug you right now" so I do. Thank fuck.

"Where have you been? How'd you find me?" I've looked everywhere!

"Shane led the way. He told me what to do Damon. I know how to bring Jeremy back" oh sweet hallelujah. I take back everything bad I have ever said about witches. I fucking love witches. I tell Bonnie to fill me in on the good news on the plane, we gotta get home, and then I call Stef to let him in on the double-barrelled news, Bonnie's alive and well, Bonnie can bring Jeremy back.

Unfortunately it all goes downhill from there. The whole fucking plane ride home aaall I hear is nonsense about expression triangles, sacrifices, lowering the veil to the Other Side and a whole buncha other stuff I don't entirely understand but bottom line is that she can bring Jer back, along with every other supernatural creature on the Other Side. Yeah, that's not gonna happen.

I drive Bonnie directly to Elena's house where Blondie is waiting outside for us and give them a second to reunite before asking Caroline to get Stefan for me. "They said that she knows what to do" yeah, that's not what I asked. "Caroline. I need to talk to my brother" now please. "What's wrong?" jesus god, just...argh! I flicker my eyes towards Bonnie and Caroline gets my brother.

"She's out of her mind Stefan. The nutty professor's got her totally brainwashed" I tell Stefan everything I think I understand about what Bonnie's trying to achieve here, yep, girl has gone mad.

"I mean the whole flight back home all she could talk about was how she's the one that can drop the veil between this side and the Other Side" if she does that then there will be no Other Side, we'll all just be left with a whole buncha pissed off dead folks.

"Three massacres, three hotspots and the witch spell of the century and every supernatural being over there is back with a vengeance" Kol was right, that really is hell on earth. We have to stop this craziness.

Stefan and I walk back into the house as Elena picks up the phone, "Jeremy can't come to the phone right now he's not...I'm sorry. He's dead" impeccable timing Damon, as ever. Elena walks right out past us and I guess Bonnie filled the rest of the gang in on all the crazy. We tell Matt to take her home and then I head up the stairs after Elena.

"Elena" I need to figure out how to help her, with all the crazy I haven't managed to get that far yet. "He's dead" she says when she turns to face me, tears spilling down her cheeks, "he's dead. Damon he's dead and he's been dead this entire time but I..." you had hope Elena, sometimes that's okay, even when it hurts.

She turns back to look at her brother and then back to me, "I can smell him. How long has he smelled like that?" god I wish I was somewhat useful, I can't let her lose it, I can't lose her.

"Hey talk to me, I can help you"

"How, how are you gonna help me?" well that's a good question sweetheart. "How? He's...okay we...we have to take care of his body, bring him downstairs" huh? No that's, and she's leaving. "Just carry him down please" o-kay then. Where's my damn brother?

I carry Jeremy down and Elena tells me to put his body on the couch and then she starts pouring lighter fluid, or something, all over the place.

"We need a cover story right? You think I didn't hear you guys talking earlier? Well what are we gonna say? Animal attack? Tumble down the stairs? No. We burn the house down with him inside of it" this is probably not a good idea. I mean, yes, in theory it works, and countless times I've considered making the suggestion myself, but she doesn't have to do this.

Stefan tells her to stop but she just gets mad at him. "I don't wanna live here anymore. I don't want these sketches. I don't want this x-box" she kicks the x-box and turns to grab Ric's bourbon out of the cupboard.

"Not gonna need this bourbon anymore, Alaric's not here to drink it. I mean, unless you guys are willing to bring back every supernatural creature on the Other Side to get him back. Would you?" she comes to talk directly to me.

"I know you want your drinking buddy back, would you Damon?" no sweetheart I wouldn't.

"Because I wouldn't, I don't know, I mean does that make me a bad person...I have no idea" she takes Jer's ring off and throws it at me; "he's not gonna need that anymore" and walks over to the fire place.

"Elena stop it you're scaring me" Caroline shouts at her. You can always leave Blondie, she deserves to have a fucking breakdown, god knows it's been a long time coming.

"What else are we supposed to do with the body Caroline? I mean there's not...there's no room in the Gilbert family plot" she throws the picture frame she's holding and the bottle of bourbon to the ground where they both shatter on impact.

"Jenna and, and John took the last spots" and then she lights a match. Maybe we should all just fucking burn together because it couldn't possibly hurt any more than watching her go through this.

Stefan tries again to tell her to stop but she's still not having any of it.

"There's nothing here for me anymore Stefan, every inch of this house is filled with memories of the people I love that have died. My mom, my dad, Jeremy, and, and Jenna, Alaric, John, even John, I mean they're all dead. Everyone is dead so, what am I supposed...I mean how am I gonna...I can't even...the, there's nothing left for me anymore" the match burns her and I rush over and catch it before we do all go up in flames.

"Elena I need you to calm down"

"No no I can't I can't I can't" she falls to her knees, clutching her stomach in the way that you do when you're trying to hold all the pieces of yourself together. I did that too recently, on the night I nearly threw up everything that was left inside of me after sending her away but this, this is so much worse and I feel utterly helpless but the only thing that can help her, is me.

"No it hurts it hurts just make it stop please make it stop it hurts" I will baby, I will.

"Damon help her" I will.

I know what my brother wants me to do, but I've never been one for doing what people want, I'll do what she needs me to do. I sink to my knees beside her and pull her into my chest.

"I can help you. I want you to let me help you" I push her back gently and make her look at me and stroke her hair back off her face, "it's okay I can help you"

"How?" she asks like she believes me, and she does because for once the sire-bond is actually gonna prove to me a good thing. I mentally say goodbye to 'humanity Elena' for a little while and then, then I help her.

"Turn it off"

"What?" Stefan takes a step towards me but my eyes don't leave Elena's face and I wave him away with my hand. This is what she needs. This is what is right.

"Just turn it off. Everything will go away, that's all you have to do. It's what I want you to do" I touch her face gently, "just turn it off" and I watch as she flips the switch.

We send Caroline home and my brother hauls my ass outside to lecture me or something. I know he's pissed off but it was the only way. I wasn't gonna use the sire-bond to tell her that everything is just fuckin' peachy and she's gonna be fine because it would have been a lie. And I don't lie to Elena, well not often and only if it's for her benefit.

Using the sire-bond like that would have been all kindsa wrong and it would have been taking advantage and I won't do that to Elena. Turning it off was the best thing for her, she needs time to deal and I try to explain all of this, in less words, to my brother but he doesn't really get it. Not that I expected him to.

"It was a mistake" no it was the best choice out of only two options Stefan.

"It wasn't and you know it. This is the only way she's gonna survive. We'll help her, keep an eye on her, when she's ready I'll use the sire-bond to bring her back"

"Her humanity Damon it was all she had left" yeah he's just not seeing the bigger picture here "it means nothing when you don't have anyone to care about Stefan" her entire family is dead.

"She had you"

"She lost her brother" not her boyfriend, "I'm not enough, not this time" because I was enough, when she lost her boyfriend and I lost my brother, for a while, only mine wasn't dead and I'm not stupid enough, or conceited enough to believe that I've miraculously become the one thing she needs to keep going, to find a way through to the pain of losing her brother.

And I'm too selfish to let her go, I'm too selfish to watch her self-destruct and I'm too selfish to see her in this much pain, we'll bring it back, we'll bring her back, but first she needs some time.

"Listen Damon uh, I know that you and I we've been through some bad spots lately, especially when it comes to her"

"Yeah well, guess none of that matters anymore" we can figure everything out when she comes back to us.

"Well I just uh, I want you to know that um..."

"I know Stefan" love you too brother. I pat him on the shoulder a couple times and then we head back inside to see our girl.

We find her burning another match, "Elena don't do this, we can find another cover story" but she disagrees. Stefan makes a valiant effort at reminding that when it burns it's gone but she just says she won't want to come back and this time when she drops the match I don't catch it and we walk out and leave her house to burn behind us.

It burns to the ground, consuming the ghosts, the flames spreading, crackling, hot and taking with it every inch of Elena's previous life. The only thing that remains are the clothes she's wearing now and if I know Elena like I think I know Elena, those will be going up in flames soon enough as well.

The flames take with them her diaries, her photographs, her teddy bear, I'm gonna miss that little thing, the rose in her underwear drawer, all the little notes, the mementos, everything the fire consumes. The fire consumes her brother's body.

Rest in peace Little Gilbert.