"I…I don't know what to say…" Caroline said, her mind still reeling from their conversation and the revelations Kaspar had relayed from his dream encounter with his younger brother.
"Don't say anything…think," Kaspar replied, with smirk, "We need that beautiful brain of yours right now because mine's a little foggy after visiting dream land."
"Okay…"Caroline whispered, her eyes narrowing as she focused on the angular grid design she had drawn, per Kaspar's direction, onto the notepad that now sat in front of where they sat side by side on the unmade bed, "Well, all I can think of right now is that this looks really familiar somehow…"
"It does?" Kaspar cocked an eyebrow as he turned to her, then back down the notepad, "How? It's drawn from something Luka drew in the dirt in a dream and the only thing we know for sure…" he turned the notepad at an angle and pointed to a spot marked on the primitive map, "is that this is where he said we'll find the answer to stopping Dominic— "
"Oh!" Caroline shrieked suddenly, her eyes widening as she jumped up and reached quickly into her back jean pocket, pulling out her phone
"Geez, Caroline! You'll give a warlock a heart attack doing that!" Kaspar chided, closing his eyes and clutching his chest with one hand, while grabbing the notepad with the other to keep it from flying off the bed.
"Sorry…" Caroline lamented, with a small smile, then held up her phone, turning it on as she watched Kaspar open his eyes and lower his hand from his chest, "I just remembered where I've seen this layout before."
"Do tell…" Kaspar encouraged
"Well," Caroline relayed as she intently started searching on her phone, her eyes glued to the screen, "When I was a little kid, my Dad worked free-lance for a cartographer in town who specialized in historic maps and when I would go down to his studio after school, waiting for him to take me to dance class, I would spend hours looking through these drawers full of maps from all different eras—"
"And you think that this is a map you've seen of someplace from a different era?" Kaspar asked suddenly
"Not just some place," Caroline said, turning her phone toward the warlock, revealing the Google map she had pulled up on the screen, "Mystic Falls."
"Sweet Baby Jesus!" Kaspar mused as he took the phone from Caroline's hands and studied it with a smirk as he sat it down next to their hand-drawn map.
It was almost a perfect outline match of their angular grid.
"Now, let's see…" Caroline leaned in closer, looking from the current map to the one in front of them, "It looks like this grid pattern in Luka's map is about a fourth of the size of the current town. Of course, we know that the town was founded in 1859..."
"Of course..." Kaspar teased in a mocking voice, but Caroline ignored him, focused on the task at hand
"So that would mean that, if my hunch is correct, it would suggest that the map Luka gave us is of Mystic Falls around that time period," she said, "And therefor, since most of the rest of the town wouldn't have been built yet, we're probably looking for our location to be in the present day historic district. It's the oldest part of town."
"Right. And that's here," Kaspar nodded, widening the phone screen view, then referencing their map again, "So, if we line our maps up, that would mean our target would be …right… there… on…Maple Street."
"Maple Street?" Caroline suddenly interjected in surprise, immediately leaning closer and checking the warlocks coordinates as the Google maps zoned in on a picture of the current standing house in that location.
"Yeah," Kaspar confirmed, sitting back and pointing between the Google screen and their map, "See? You were right. Its location is precisely in the historic district…right there on the far side of Maple Street—"
"Oh, my God..." Caroline scoffed, straightening, her face falling at the familiar picture, "It's Elena's house."
"Elena?" Kaspar asked, curiously
"Yes," Caroline answered, turning toward him, "Elena…the doppelganger."
Kaspar's mouth fell open in shock, "Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure. I should know my own best friend's house, shouldn't I? Especially, since I've had a standing invite there since Kindergarten," Caroline replied, running a nervous hand through her curls and biting her lip, "The only thing I can think of is that the old Gilbert Mansion used to stand there—"
"Wait…" Kaspar interjected, holding up a hand to silence her, "Did you say Gilbert? Elena's last name is Gilbert?"
Caroline nodded and Kaspar immediately straightened
"As in Jonathan Gilbert..." he asked, "The inventor?"
Caroline narrowed her eyes, "You've heard of Jonathan Gilbert?"
"Honey," Kaspar replied in a low voice, "Everyone in the supernatural world who has been around as long as I have and run in the circles I have, has heard of Jonathan Gilbert."
"I see…" Caroline said softly
Kaspar sighed looking down at the map, "Well, if this has anything to do with Jonathan Gilbert, then there is only one person in Mystic Falls who can help us solve the mystery."
"Who?" Caroline asked, genuinely intrigued
"Misha," Kaspar answered in a resolute voice
# # # # #
Kol threw the dish towel expertly over his left shoulder before pouring a bottle of red wine into the marinara sauce in the pan on the stove and stirring it in.
But before he could put the half-empty wine bottle back on the counter, Damon plucked it out of his hand, causing Kol to scoff over his shoulder with a smile as he watched the older Salvatore brother leap up onto the island counter and take a swig.
"What?" Damon chided at the original after he lowered the wine from his lips
"Nothing," Kol shrugged, still stirring his sauce as he adjusted the temperature, "I'm the last person who is going to judge you right now…believe me."
"Good," Damon smirked, closing his eyes lazily as he took another swig before re-opening his eyes and focusing on Kol, his face softening, "Thanks for doing this, by the way..."
Kol turned the flame down on the stove and covered the sauce pan before turning around and facing Damon, pulling the towel off of his shoulder and wiping his hands.
"What are mortal enemies for?" he teased to lighten the moment and Damon gave a sad smile
Suddenly, there was a buzzing noise as Kol's phone started vibrating and ringing where it sat on the kitchen table.
"Could you get that?" the original said, pointing toward the offending device as he threw the towel back over his shoulder, "I need to watch the sauce."
"Sure," Damon said in a low voice, jumping down from the counter, the bottle of wine still in his hand as he moved to the kitchen table and picked up the phone.
He took another swig before looking down at the caller ID.
"It's Klaus…" he scoffed, turning back to Kol with a raised eyebrow
"Nik?" Kol smirked, lifting the lid and looking inside, "Lazy ass. Hit the ignore button. Make him come down here."
Damon took another swig from the wine bottle with one hand while silencing the call with the other and tossing it back on the table.
Seconds later, the phone rang again.
"Seriously?" Damon sighed, eyeing the phone with indignation, stepping forward and hitting the ignore button again.
"I wouldn't ignore him a third time—" Kol chuckled, looking up from the sauce pan
"What makes you think there will be a third time?" Damon asked
Suddenly the phone buzzed again and Damon picked up the phone, his mouth dropping in disbelief as he turned to face Kol
"Told you," Kol smirked
Damon scoffed again as he set the wine bottle on the table and took a seat in one of the chairs before hitting the answer button.
"Diabolical younger brother's phone…" he dead panned, "This is Damon speaking…How may I assist you?"
"Damon?" Caroline's voice sounded, confused, on the other end of the phone
"Barbie?" Damon replied, his eyes narrowing in curiostiy and he immediately looked up to Kol and mouthed 'It's Caroline'.
Kol cocked his head, but still adding ingredients to his sauce, as Damon returned to the conversation.
"What are you doing with Klaus' phone?" he asked
"He left it at the mansion. I found it in his bedroom when I was trying to call him, so I used his contact list to see if I could reach one of the siblings instead," Caroline rambled, "And what exactly are you doing with Kol's phone? Are Klaus, Rebekah and Kol with you? What's happened? Did they find Misha?"
Damon opened his mouth to speak, but, suddenly, couldn't find the words.
She didn't know...
And suddenly, he realized that if he spoke the words-if he admitted it to someone outside the house that Stefan really was dead-it would be real.
Feeling too emotionally overwhelmed, the threat of tears brimming his eyes, Damon instantly lowered the phone from his ear with a trembling hand.
"Damon?" Kol inquired, noticing the silence in the conversation and turning toward the older Salvatore, whose face was now ashen and completely blank as he slowly rose from his chair, dropping the phone onto the table before stumbling out of the room, taking the wine bottle with him.
"Damon!" Kol called after him in a concerned voice, then turned back to the stove, immediately turning the sauce down before quickly moving to the table to pick up the phone and bring it to his ear, "'Diabolical younger brother' speaking."
"Kol, what's going on?" Caroline asked, her voice now nervous and a little upset, "What was that all about? Is Damon okay?"
"Actually…" Kol sighed, "He's not."
# # # # #
"Kol's cooking Italian for Damon downstairs," Misha said softly as he watched Klaus lower a still sleeping Rebekah onto the bed in one of the guest rooms upstairs
"So he's left his room?" Klaus smirked as he propped Rebekah's head up gently on one of the pillows, then stroked her cheek softly before pulling his hand back and straightening, "That's a good sign."
"Maybe we should eat, too?" Misha offered, "Nothing make someone hungrier than grief..."
"No thanks," Klaus said in a low voice, rounding the end of the bed, avoiding eye contact with the warlock, "I'm glad he's helping Damon, but I've eaten my brother's cooking for more than five centuries, I think I'll pass tonight and just go sit with Stefan awhile longer—"
"Nik," Misha sighed, grabbing hold of Klaus' arm as he passed him and made his way toward the door, causing the original to stop and turn back to face him, "Don't do that to yourself."
"Well, I don't know what else to do, Misha," Klaus said, his eyes mirroring the sadness in his voice, "Nothing is certain right now. We don't know where Dominic is, what he really wants, or even how to stop him—if we can stop him—"
"Nik—"
"No!" Klaus said harshly, pulling his arm out of Misha's grasp and walking toward the door again, "Mourning my friend…that's what I know how to do right now…the only thing I know how to do right now!"
"Niklaus, wait..." Misha sighed, following him out the door and into the hallway.
But suddenly, they both stopped in their tracks as they watched Damon Salvatore climb the last stair like a zombie and b-line straight for his room, slamming the door behind him.
"I wonder what that is about?" Klaus mused in an even tone, turning back to Misha "Kol's cooking isn't that horrible."
Seconds later, with the aide of vampire speed, Kol appeared before them in the hallway, holding out his phone to Misha.
"It's Kaspar. He needs to speak with you," Kol said, his face mirroring the serious tone in his voice
At the original's words, Misha quickly took the phone into his hands, turning and walking back to the end of the hall as he answered the phone, leaving Kol and Klaus still facing each other.
Klaus gave a quick look over his shoulder toward Misha, then without a word, stepped forward to make his way back to Stefan's room.
But, immediately, he found Kol blocking his path.
"I talked to Caroline," Kol said, his eyes locking with his brother's, "I told her what happened. She and Kaspar are on their way. Apparently, they have something enlightening to share with us, well, regarding our little 'vampire hunter on the loose' issue…"
Klaus didn't speak, he just nodded, then moved forward again to pass Kol, but the younger original blocked his path again.
"Something else, Kol?" Klaus scoffed, clearly agitated
"Yeah. Well, it's just that…Caroline…" he said, shrugging nervously, "She—she asked me to give you something."
There was another moment of awkward silence before Klaus raised an eyebrow, studying his brother curiously.
"And?" he inquired in an impatient voice, "What is it?"
Kol inhaled deeply, straightening himself in preparation, as he took unsure step toward his brother that caused Klaus to flinch slightly at the proximity.
Then they stared at each other for a moment before Kol finally reached out and wrapped his arms around the older original and pulled him into an embrace.
Klaus stood in shock for a moment, still surprised by his brother's actions, before he finally closed his eyes and exhaled, a small smile crossing his face as he brought his own arms tightly around Kol, returning his embrace...something he hadn't felt in centuries.