A/N: Unfortunately this is as far as I've written so I need to spend a few days finishing the end of S4 but I won't take too long I promise. I hope you enjoy the episode and just a little bit of shameless self-promotion, I'm going to be posting the first chapter of my new multi-chapter Delena fiction in a little while and I'd be the happiest girl in the world if you guys gave it a shot :D

Bring It On

"I know that you were just like me with someone disappointed in you
I've become so numb I can't feel you there
I'm tired of being what you want me to be"

I decide to spend some time with Elena on the roads. It was always one of my favourite things to do when I flipped the switch, a little existentialism, a little reflection, a little star-gazing and a little scaring the beejesus outta folks stupid enough to stop for a mad-man lying in the middle of the road, or, in Elena's care, mad-woman. All in good fun.

Which of course, is why my brother thinks it's a bad idea. I swear that boy has some kind of default immunity to anything that might sound remotely fun. But in all technicalities Elena is my, sorta girlfriend, so I get first shot at trying to help her.

It's actually rather fascinating to watch her getting up to my old tricks, don't think I haven't thought about doing this with her before, 'course in no version of those thoughts had she flipped the switch but fact of the matter is she's still sexy as all hell.

Stefan is all about bringing her humanity back but I still say she needs more time, it's only been a couple days and "worst case scenario I'll invoke the sire-bond and tell her to turn it back on" but we try my way first.

A lady stops for the Elena lying on the road and asks her if she's okay, "I don't feel anything" and then she's got her deadly little fangs deep in the Good Samaritan's neck. As hot as this might be, I said fun, not killing, she's still Elena after all so I tell her to stop when I hear the woman's heart begin to stutter.

"I said that's enough" I say and pull Elena off, "we agreed no killing" Elena reminds me that this is the first person we've come across who's blood doesn't come with a side order of poison and turns back to resume her meal but I pull her away again. "I can't believe you're making me say this, show a little restraint"

She huffs at me and pushes the woman away from her, "I thought this was supposed to be fun" and then she walks away from me. Hmm. Yeah. Maybe my way didn't quite go according to plan. O-kay; time for Plan B.

Apparently, Stefan's idea of a Plan B consists of taking Elena back to school. "Well the fun route didn't exactly pay off did it?" but school will? How? "I dunno, got a free meal out of it."

"Look you think I wanna go to school and play chaperone? You can't go because you're not a student, besides you gotta go look for Katherine, I mean Elena needs this cure now more than ever" yeah that's my Plan B. Cure the humanity right back into her, honestly school is starting to sound a little more appealing.

"Not that anyone asked me" what the hell is Caroline doing at my house? "I think taking her back to school is a great idea" you're right Blondie, no one asked you. "Why are you here?"

"Uh blame it on your fancy water filters. Your house has the only vervain-free showers in town" right, did she even ask?

"Oh yeah, the mayor put vervain in the water supply. So many people to kill" Caroline says it's only gonna get worse and her mom could use some help but apparently I have to "go after the psychotic doppelganger, Stefan, go talk to the sheriff, Blondie, take her to school"

Elena chooses this opportune moment to walk out of our bathroom, completely naked. Girl is a sight to behold. Well hell, if she wants to give me a free show then I am not gonna complain. 'Course it'd be better if she wasn't giving Stefan one at the same time. "What? It's nothing you guys haven't seen before" well I guess she has a point there.

Regardless she wraps her towel around herself, "and as for the uh, going to school idea, got nothing better to do" okay then, I guess we're all on board with Plan B. Stefan clears his throat and turns to look at me, right, sire-bond's turn to play.

"Elena" I begin and walk over to stand in front of her "it would make me very happy if you went to school today. And studied hard, you know get involved in whatever activities and please, for me, no matter what, don't eat anyone, okay?" she appears to consider it for a second and then nods her head, so great on with the day then.

My first stop is Klaus' McMansion armed with a list of his phone records courtesy of my favourite sheriff Liz Forbes. Klaus lets me in and I let him know that I "came up with a list. It's called 'Things You Suck At' number one; finding Katherine, ever. Number two; covering up your secret phone conversations with that little backstabber Hayley" I wave the phone records at him and then put them down on the table, "so where is she and what does she know about Katherine?"

"I should help you? After you lot killed my brother and imprisoned me in the Gilbert living room?" well first of all, if you recall I had nothing to do with that business. I was too busy being locked in my damn cellar to avoid killing well, uh, Jeremy. Moving quickly along.

"You might wanna prioritise Klaus, you have much bigger problems. Katherine has the cure, my guess is she's gonna wanna cram it down your throat. You help me find Katherine; I'll get the cure, I'll give it to Elena, everybody wins" everybody except me, but hey, I'm gettin' used to it so just let me talk to the wolf-girl m'kay?

"Can't help you mate. Hayley's off limits. Although I did have a run-in with a vampire who may know where Katerina is, too bad for you I bit half-way through his bloody neck. He probably won't have much time for chit-chat" just, bloody brilliant, at least he gives me a location. Grove Hill, which thankfully is not terrible far from here.

When I leave the house I get a message from Blondie to let me know that Elena has re-joined the cheering squad which makes me both pleased that she's doing what I said and slightly resentful of the fact that I'm too old for high school which I have to say is something I've never felt before.

But I'd do almost anything to see her in a cheering outfit, I'll add it to the fantasy vault and hope that when she's all cured and sire-bond free she'll still love me enough to wear it for me.

I get to Grove Hill and get another message from Blondie telling me that my 'stupid sire-bond is broken' and then Stefan calls me to tell me that Elena decided to snack on the competition.

"What do you mean she fed? I specifically told her no feeding. Sire-bond should make her listen" did I screw up again?

"Yeah that's what I'm saying, the sire-bond isn't working" Blondie did use the word 'broken'. "Think about it Elena's sire-bond stems from her feelings for you" ah shit. Feelings that I just switched off.

"With her humanity off, she has no feelings" yeah Stef, I'm all caught up thanks.

"All I wanted was to break that damn bond, you're telling me this whole time, all she had to do was turn it off? What happens if she turns it back on?" please tell me it doesn't come back.

"I dunno, more importantly where are you right now?" truck stop, Grove Hill, "looking for a dead vampire that might lead to Katherine and the cure" I start walking towards the scent of old blood and tell Stefan to get Elena home, "I'll be there when I can" can't be that hard to do, I'm sure even Stefan can manage Elena for a few hours.

I turn around and come face to face with goldilocks, guess she's back then. She still wants the cure, which, isn't really gonna work for us to be honest, wants Katherine, wants me to help her, she brought a vial of Klaus' blood along for the journey so we can get answers from the dying vampire, if I ever find him that is.

"Fine, follow me. I might know where to look" I may as well have some company on this little joy-ride. I take Rebekah to the hospital because it seems like a logical place to go when dying from a wolf-bite.

I remember being on the wrong side of one of those things, blood is pretty much the primary focus, or at least, it would be for a normal vampire, for me Elena was my primary focus, not much has changed there really. There's a tiny problem at the hospital when we find the blood-bank empty.

"Stefan said the Mystic Fall's hospital had the entire blood-bank raided too" who the heck is stealing all the blood? You know what, never mind, tomorrow's problem.

I make to leave, moving on to Plan D, or E, or god knows, but at least there are plenty of alphabet letters left to get through. Rebekah stops me with a warning that I better not be messing her around, "relax, I wanna find Katherine as much as you do" not least so I can get on with my plan to wring her neck.

"Really, why? I heard your little chat with Stefan, I know Elena's broken the sire-bond, so why would you wanna find the cure? You'll just cure her back to loving your brother. I think you're best off leaving it with me"

I take a second to consider my options, sire-bond's broken, there's a high probability that goldilocks is right, but it's a risk I'm willing to take, 'cause I'm not a completely selfish dick. I follow Rebekah, gonna get that cure, give it to the girl I love.

Stefan lets me know that he got Elena home, had to inject her with vervain to do it but he got her there regardless so at least the residents of Mystic Falls are safe from her lethal little fangs for the time being. Unfortunately the same can't be said of the citizens of Grove Hills and their safety from my fangs.

I bite into a stray nurse's neck and lay out a snack for the dying vampire, and whadd'ya know; my bait works a treat. I run for the vampire and push him against the tree and then I look at him.

"Will?" well, I wasn't really expecting that. "Hey buddy. I think there's something wrong with me" he pulls his jacket back and shows me the bite on his neck, nasty.

"I need help" yeah, 'bout that. Man I hate killing my friends, gotta do it though. "It's okay I know what to do" I do it quickly, just rip his heart right out, takes less than a second. Sorry buddy.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?" stopping you from getting the answers I need. "He was too far gone. I put him out of his misery" yeah, real sorry buddy.

I make my way back home where I've been alerted to the fantastic news that Elena has decided to throw a party and fill my house with teenagers who are probably decimating my alcohol supply. Seriously what is wrong with my brother? How fucking difficult can it be to keep control of a baby-vamp Elena? Still I head back as quickly as possible in case she decided to destroy the house in the process.

Luckily when I arrive there appears to be little destruction and an abundance of pretty girls, why is this a bad thing again? I grab my bottle of bourbon from a guy walking past, that'll be mine thank you very much, and I take a drink before realising that Rebekah has followed me home.

"Can you please just take a hint and leave me alone?" 'cause honestly I got enough to deal with already.

"What are you hiding? I know you knew that vampire" yep, that I did, "I know a lot of dead people" she's smart enough to work out why I killed him; no access to Katherine equals no cure for goldilocks.

"Do you really want the cure? I mean really?" because honestly why the fuck would she want to be human? Has she met an abundance of happy humans? Because I sure as hell haven't and I been around a long fucking time. Humanity is not all it's cracked up to be, you don't wanna be human. Who the hell would?

"Trust me, losing this cure is the best damn thing that ever happened to you" I turn to go upstairs, see if I can find my brother or Elena when I get yet another message, honestly my phone has not stopped all day 'Elena's AWOL. Need help'. He lost her? Jesus Stefan why is this so difficult?

I find my brother in the woods and we find Elena and Blondie indulging in a little cat-fight, hot as hell. Slight problem, 'Lena's gonna kill Blondie. Stefan pulls her away from Caroline and shoves her into me. "I admit, under any other circumstances this'd be a major turn on" Elena struggles against me but unfortunately for her I'm an awful lot stronger.

"Get her out of here" Stefan tells me, so I run away with Elena and take her back to the house. Once I safely deposit her on the bed I rid my house of the teenagers before going back upstairs.

"How much longer am I supposed to sit here?" she asks as I rake through yet another trunk of junk to find what I'm looking for this time. I should really sort all this shit out into nice little neat organised piles. "Well, I'm not big on goal-setting but let's just imagine a time when you don't want to kill your best friend" sounds reasonable enough, right?

"Are you judging me?" hell no I'm not judging you. She has met me right? I'm just not in the best of moods is all. Killing one of your old friends'll do that to a man. God but I have a shocking history of killing my friends, or, in some cases at least being culpable to their death. An-y-way, moving on.

"How many times have you tried to kill Stefan?" she asks getting off the bed, I turn and give her an exasperated look because she knows fine well that the answer to that question is none. Hell I threaten to kill him all the damn time, and we fight like, well, brothers, but I've never once actually tried to kill him.

I finally find the picture I've been searching for "what is that?" that'd be me and Will sweetheart. I guess it's time to take another road-trip.

"Elena look"

"Don't. Every time someone starts with 'Elena' I get some stupid lecture. Everyone just needs to stop telling me that I need to feel. I do feel Damon. I feel amazing" she lies. I know what it's like to flip the switch and take my word for it, it is far from amazing. It's empty. That's all you feel, just fucking empty.

"You don't wanna be like this" I say standing up and attempting to give it another shot.

"Then how should I be? Should I go back to being the scared little girl who couldn't admit what she wants? Is that how you'd prefer me to go back to being?" god no. That's the last thing I need. I make my way across the room and stand in front of her.

"Look for the longest time you wanted to be with me, but you were scared that I'd find out how awful you are, but it doesn't matter anymore because I don't care" well you have to admire both her logic and her honesty, if nothing else.

"Be honest, you like me better like this" which version? Yeah I like vampire Elena better. But emotionless vampire Elena, no, that was never really my biggest desire. I mean, I'll take her any way and I'll love her all the same, but it'd be kinda good to have the girl who loves me back, well, back.

With that in mind I decline to answer her question and instead offer my road-trip services, ask her if she wants to come with me although even if she doesn't, she is, because clearly I can't leave her here under Stefan's watch as he seems rather incapable of keeping her under control.

She does want to come though so we leave quickly before Stef figures it out and tries to stop me. He phones me not long after we make our escape. "Where the hell are you?" oh dear, he sounds pooped. "Out for a drive, I needed some space. It's not me, it's you"

He says that six other blood-banks have been raided all within thirty miles of Mystic Falls and he thinks Silas is the one doing the stealing, so I'm gonna leave him to deal with that, while I deal with Elena and the cure. I tell him I'll be in touch and hang up.

"He's gonna hate you for that" Elena points out the obvious, "yeah well, emotions are over-rated" and he hates me as much as he loves me so we're all good.

Elena wants to know where I'm taking her and I look at the picture of Will and me again before I tell her, "place every newbie vampire should go at least once in their lives. New York" I turn around to look at her and flash her a smile, "the city that never sleeps"

There's a flash of excitement in Elena's eyes and maybe, just maybe Plan...G, or whatever the hell letter we're on by now, won't turn out to be a complete disaster in the end.