...

Caroline pouted where she sat next to Bonnie on the couch.

Stefan had no right to be so upset with her. After all, it had been his idea to contact Klaus. He had been the one to entertain the idea of having the Original turn her again. She hadn't even really thought about it until he had brought it up! And to bring Valerie here! Ugh. She was so angry that she had a hard time even concentrating on what Alaric was presenting to them all.

Of course she knew the biggest part of it, seeing as she, or rather the twins, had provided the most important information. Katherine was on her way back; with Cade.

They hadn't won that fight yet, after all. Whatever Bonnie had done, it had merely stalled the inevitable.

Caroline sighed. She would have to tell them all. Soon. Now was probably best…

"Guys," she started, feeling uncomfortable. Like she had done something wrong. But… it didn't feel wrong at all.

...

He had toyed with her. Of course. He was Niklaus Mikaelson; how could he not? He had teased her. He had run his fingers over her face, had come real close so that she had felt his breath on her forehead, in her hair.

He'd walked around her, like a lion around his prey; a wolf…

"Caroline Forbes: what is your decision?" he'd asked her one more time; and while it had battled within her, he'd stared at her with his intense eyes.

...

She had to think of the twins. That was most important. She had to be there for them, had to protect them, had to be strong for them. What would they think if she never aged? What would she do if she had to see them die at an old age (and that was if they all were lucky)? Would she be able to live with that?

What about Stefan, who was human now - and not because of Bonnie's blast, but because of the cure?

What about her own shot at happiness?

There was so much to consider. There didn't seem to be a right answer. It was horrible. She was so torn.

But then she looked up again, where Klaus was still standing, waiting, his gaze trained on her. Those hypnotizing mesmerizing eyes…

And she said yes! Or rather, she blurted out an exasperated, "Alright, yes! I want you to turn me! But I want-"

She didn't get much further, though, as he'd already grabbed her in a fierce, ferocious embrace. He'd already shoved her back against the window behind her, where she got a last glimpse of the world with her human senses.

She felt him sniff her, sensually, he ran his hands over her neck, down the clavicle, down… he hoisted her up and the next thing she knew, they had taken their clothes off that were laying in a heap on the floor, just like them, a heap of bare limbs, writhing. There was ecstasy, bliss, there was…

At the climax of it all, she suddenly felt his kiss turn into a bite, felt his sharp teeth penetrate the delicate skin on the left side of her neck, and then nothing for a while.

Until she woke up and he'd already provided her with her first feast as a new vampire. She felt regret then, not because of her decision. Not even because of what amounted to betraying Stefan. But regret for the person Klaus had chosen to be her live meal.

"Caroline," Klaus drew out her name as he held their victim - her victim - roughly by the arms. "This one's not a good person. Just how you like them, morally vile and irredeemable." He laughed.

She rolled her eyes at him, but then grinned and sank her teeth into the struggling human.

And just like that, Caroline Forbes was a vampire again.

...

Nobody really knew what to say when she told them. She'd obviously spared them the details, she just told them about Stefan's inquiry with Klaus and how she'd taken them both up on their offer.

Valerie, of all people, dared question her.

"Caroline. We don't even know what magic is at work here, how you turned human to begin with, and you had to mess with that?" The heretic gave her a look of contempt. "You didn't think this through, did you?"

"I need to be at my best, at my strongest! For my kids!" She told them all, desperate. "I need to know I can keep them safe. So, yes, I did think this through. If this means I messed with Bonnie's magic, and that it might bite me in the ass later down the road, then so be it!"

Valerie didn't say anything else, just very obviously turned toward Stefan. Screw her, Caroline thought.

Stefan didn't really look at either woman. He ran a hand through his hair, over his face, agitatedly. She couldn't blame him. She'd been honest with him, and while she knew he'd known about the danger of bringing Klaus into the mix, he hadn't really thought something like that would happen. He felt betrayed, and rightfully so, she admitted. She didn't know what to make of her feelings anymore. For him, for Klaus. For Alaric and the girls. Somehow she'd managed to turn this into an even bigger mess. If only Stefan had never even brought his stupid idea up!

...

It had grown awfully quiet. Bonnie just stared at Caroline, and it pained her. She didn't really know what her friend was thinking. What any of them were thinking.

Alaric looked over to her, contemplating. Did she see his features grow softer for a moment there? Did she see something like understanding, even appreciation? He nodded to her, a barely visible gesture, before clearing his throat.

"Alright, guys. Let's focus back on, uh, our psychic blast problem. Bonnie and I sat down together and took stock… Um…" He started going through the names, the changes.

"Vickie: deceased..."

Everyone glanced at Matt. But he didn't seem to notice. Poor Matt. Caroline caught Tyler's eye as he was patting his best friend's shoulder. He shook his head.

"Jo: unaccounted for. I…" Ric's voice stumbled and almost broke. She saw him look at her, and she smiled reassuringly. She'd forever remember how he had eventually come over to her the day Jo had run. How he'd just started breaking down in front of her, blaming himself, crying. So lost.

Still staring at her, as if gaining strength through her, Alaric continued.

"She said her arms were growing translucent. But there was nothing there. Anyways. The rest of us is still here, though we have to take Damon's heart attack and Enzo's, um, laceration into consideration. Both injuries seem to be directly correlated to their respective dreams. There is no knowing whether the other two had any similar experiences, similar dreams, before but it seems like a possibility. It almost seems like different planes of existence are starting to…" he was looking for a fitting word, "interact with each other, to influence each other."

"Alright," Caroline piped up, "What about the rest of us, then? Anyone else with any dreams they'd like to share? Bonnie, you saw Grams, right? She told you about Cade. And the girls told me about him and… our favorite adversary we love to hate,"

"Katherine," Damon rolled his eyes.

"Yup yup," Caroline said, resignated. "We also have to take your parents into account, Elena. Aren't they…"

"My mom should be here any second," her friend said, checking her cell phone, and Caroline nodded.

"Right. Okay. So… we still don't quite understand who is affected, and why. Just as we don't know why not all of our dead got resurrected. Ty, you're fine, right?"

"I think so…"

"No weird dreams, no sudden injuries, no sudden urge to… hurt yourself?"

He looked slightly uncomfortable as he shook his head.

"Okay, great!" Carolines voice almost broke with the fake happiness she had put in it. "Stefan, Elena, what about you guys? Anything worth mentioning?"

They both looked at each other, then shook their heads. Stefan stared at Caroline pointedly. She bit the inside of her lower lip.

"Perfect. I'm thinking… - Gosh, is it hot in here? Can we, like, open a window or something?" Everyone stared at her as she fanned herself, but then, thankfully, she saw Stefan get up and walk over to the window. She mouthed a thanks in his direction, but he didn't even acknowledge it. She sighed. There was some work waiting for her.

"Okay, so," she went on, ignoring her relationship problems for the time being. "Bonnie created that blast of magic somehow. And the blast created another plane of existence, right?"

Alaric interrupted her.

"At this point we are more thinking of it as opening a door to another sphere, another place. Hence the brought back people. As far as we know, there's two different things going on here. Possibly three. A portal of sorts may have been opened and some of the dead came back. We still don't know what happened to the place - or places - at the other end of that portal. Whether they're still there. But we are now thinking there must have at least been a connection to Cade's 'hell.' Bonnie's pain and anger was directed at something immediately responsible for how she was feeling, so it's highly likely it was Cade."

Damon looked straight at Alaric, then at Caroline, until his gaze fell on Bonnie.

"Bon Bon. Since this is all tied to you, then, you gotta be the key to making it right again. You somehow 'decided' what happened. We get that you never really liked vampires, so no more vampires. Cool." He looked pointedly over to where Valerie sat, and wiggled his brows at her. She glared at him. "You also wanted certain people back, most prominently our lovable Englishman over there, who had been previously killed by Cade-fueled Ripper Stefan. But also the loved ones of your friends. Well, most of them."

Caroline felt a pang. It still stung, the knowledge that, for some reason, her mom wasn't among the ones resurrected. But like Elena had once told her, so wasn't Aunt Jenna. And others. It was just very random, and it had nothing to do with Caroline.

She heard Bonnie quietly explain, "Well, some of them may have chosen not to return. Like my Grams. We don't know that, either."

Damon frowned. "Okay… So, what else? There's the curse that bound you to Elena, and obviously that's gone, too."

"Right." Bonnie agreed.

"So… why then the dreams now? And people dying again? How does that tie in with all this? Clearly, that's not what Bon would have ever wanted. We know this girl couldn't hurt a mosquito if it tried feeding on her." Damon winked at her. But she wasn't even looking at him. He saw her clinging to Enzo like her life depended on it. All this was getting to her more than she let on, but it was rather obvious to him. And he didn't like it one bit. He heard Ric try to explain something, but he kept looking over to Bonnie.

"We are thinking, Cade - possibly with Katherine's help - is behind this. That he's corrupting what Bonnie created."

They all heard the doorbell then, and Elena jumped up, excusing herself. "I'll get it, unless we are expecting anyone else, it's gotta be my mom."

While she left the room, the conversation went on without her, though she could still hear them go on and on.

She closed her eyes. Katherine was back. She'd have to face that bitch again. Elena sighed, composing herself a little before opening the front door. She was expecting her mom's apologetic face, expecting her to present her with fancy little cupcakes for the occasion. She already knew it was gonna get awkward to try and explain all that magic-y stuff to her.

She wasn't at all prepared, however, for both of her parents showing up. Not after she'd implored her mom not to tell her dad. But here he was, one arm gallantly draped around his beautiful wife, a handsome smile on his face. They looked so gorgeous together, so happy, like the perfect couple, her beautiful parents.

"Hello, sweetheart. Your mom said you all are having a little get together for Damon."

Elena froze. All she could do was stand there and stare.

Her dad didn't seem to notice as he gave her a hug, as if they'd never even had that awkward last encounter. She shrugged her way out of it, staring at him.

"Dad. I don't think you're welcome here. I'm sorry."

His expression darkened. "Excuse me? Is that you talking, Elena, or that boyfriend of yours? It's not still because of our little… talk, is it?"

Miranda looked uncomfortably from her husband to her daughter, "Elena, sweetie, I'm sorry, I thought… we will just stay in the background, alright?"

Elena did not know what to do. Call for Damon? Was there any way to elegantly solve this issue without ostracizing her dad completely?

"Dad," she tried again, urgently now. "Our 'little talk' showed me what you really think of vampires. That," she looked to her mom briefly, "you're not just a hunter to protect the innocent. I still don't know how to deal with what we talked about, and I don't want mom in the crossfire there. But what I do know is, that we have guests here that used to be vampires - or are, and for them, I'll have to ask you to leave. They wouldn't tolerate your presence. Please don't make me choose a side."

Her dad's brow furrowed. "We're choosing sides now, sweetie? What is this, a war?"

"Elena?"

She didn't see him yet, just heard his voice behind her, but she was so relieved.

"Damon…"

"What's keeping you- Oh, hello, Papa Gilbert!" He almost yelled it, not very inconspicuously. It was a simple, yet effective way of letting everyone know they had a hunter in the house. Elena wasn't sure she liked his approach and she gave him a sideways glance.

She still hoped they could avoid another encounter between her dad and Enzo. But now that Damon had basically tipped his friend off to who was standing a mere few feet from him, she was sure there was no escaping that.

Unless Bonnie could persuade Enzo to secretly leave…

...

Enzo had been slouching on the couch, trying to keep track of everyone's theories instead of falling asleep, when he heard Damon's voice call out from somewhere in the hallway. He was so horribly sleep deprived that, for a moment, he was sure he'd imagined it. Surely, no one had been stupid enough to invite Grayson Gilbert over to this meetup.

He tensed anyway. It was like a reflex. He sat up straighter and ran a hand over his forehead, telling himself to keep it together. His lack of sleep was really starting to take a toll. The constant underlying pain throbbing in his arm didn't help matters, either. The pain wasn't even bad, not by his standards, anyway. But it never stopped and it was starting to seriously wear on him.

Even when tortured, he had usually had breaks, if short, from the pain here and there, because they'd allow his body to heal before continuing with the next round of whatever horrors they'd had in store for him.

Now the pain was always there. He also couldn't freakin' sleep anymore, because if he did, the past was back, and with it the sudden danger of it affecting his life, and with that, Bonnie. He needed to be strong for her.

She was looking at him now, concerned, and he tried to smile for her, but found that he couldn't, because it was then that he heard the voice again. That handsome if cold voice.

He swallowed, then hung his head, contemplating.

"Enzo," he heard Bonnie whisper, urgently, "let's go."

He pulled himself up, tall, his face blank. He felt her hand on his cheek. He felt so much. And then, nothing.

…

Geez. This one was tough to write! I hope it isn't too convoluted. Hopefully the next one will be easier again.

Thank you for your kind feedback, as always. You don't even know how awesome you are. You always make my day. :)

Shadowdancer: ya, Miranda is a bit of the other side of the coin, so to speak. We shall see how things will go for the poor Gilbert family. And Katherine... she's definitely a great villain, isn't she? She's more multi-faceted, too. Because as much as I enjoyed Kai, he was, in a way, rather one dimensional. (Though, of course, it's easy enough to change that in fanfic...)

Anna: I'm the same. I saw "Valerie" first on SN (I was so late catching up with TVD) so my view was already tainted from the start. lol: We shall see what "fate" has in store for Stefan and the women in his life...

Guest: you don't know how far just a few kind words go, so thanks for the encouragement. :)