Lucy swung open the door, smiling when she came face-to-face with Stefan. He had texted only minutes before to say that he was on his way to pick her up from Klaus' house and she wanted to leave as quickly as possible so she could see how Alaric was doing.

She had gotten a phone call an hour before from Liz, informing her that Alaric had been taken in for the murders of Bill and the medical examiner. Apparently Dr. Fell had some substantial evidence that proved that Alaric was the murderer. It was all very confusing because Alaric had alibies for Bill and the medical examiner, plus he was stabbed by the murderer as well.

"Good morning," Stefan greeted her as she stepped out of the house and closed the door behind her. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," she told him as they walked to her car. "I'll be great when this link is gone."

Stefan glanced down at her hand where the anti-siphon carving would be, seeing that she had covered it with a large bandage. "I don't blame you," he sighed. "I'm sorry all of this is happening to you, Goofy."

"It's not your fault, Stefan," Lucy replied as they got into her car. "Currently, I'm trying to forget that Elena, Damon, and Joel were planning to kill my other siblings behind my back. I want to focus on Ric."

Stefan nodded as she started her car and pulled out of the driveway. "We can do that," he agreed. "How was your first night at Klaus' house?"

"It was fine. Elijah left early this morning, Rebekah's having lunch with Mrs. Lockwood today, and Nik has been holed up in his art room since breakfast," Lucy listed. "It's surprisingly calm for a family full of drama queens."

Stefan chuckled, enjoying the cute smile on Lucy's face. It was nice to see her like this so soon after what happened to her. He was concerned for her though; he didn't want her to avoid her problems. From his own experience, it didn't help much.

It was twenty minutes later that Lucy and Stefan were escorted to Alaric's cell by Liz. Alaric was already awake, standing at the bars of his cell with an adamant expression.

"I didn't do it," he declared once he saw Liz, Lucy, and Stefan.

"I believe you," Lucy assured him before turning to Liz. "Why was he arrested?"

"I didn't arrest him, I'm detaining him," Liz corrected her and turned back to Alaric. "The cell is for your own good. You were shot and Dr. Fell used vampire blood to heal you."

Alaric huffed in frustration. "Dr. Fell is the one who shot me."

"Because you came at her with a knife."

"Yeah, with a knife that I found hidden in her things."

"What about the fact that he was one of the victims?" Stefan spoke up. "He was almost killed that night."

"Well, Dr. Fell suggested his wounds could have been self-inflicted," Liz told him.

"My God, you think I stabbed myself?" Alaric scoffed in disbelief.

"Look, I think that I don't know what to think," Liz sighed. "I've got nothing except murder weapons from your stash and a respected member of a Founding Family pointing a very long finger."

"Obviously she's setting him up," Lucy spoke in Alaric's defense. "He's being framed."

Liz pursed her lips. "That may be so, but I don't have any proof of that."

"We'll find some then," Stefan shrugged, nodding over at Alaric.

"No, you two have to stay out of this," Liz shook her head and turned to Lucy and Stefan. "If you get involved, it's only gonna make matters worse."

"But—"

"Lucy, I'm serious," Liz warned her. "and pass that along to Damon, would you? Or I'm gonna put all of you in the cell with him."

Lucy sighed heavily and exchanged a look with Stefan; she was absolutely not going to stay out of this.

"Have you checked on Ric yet?" Elena asked Lucy over the phone. "I heard from Caroline that her mom arrested him for the murders."

Lucy rolled her eyes at her sister as she drove to the hospital so she could confront Meredith about what she had accused Alaric of. Elena had gone with Bonnie and Caroline to North Carolina with Abby to help her through her transition and adjust to living as a vampire. Currently, Bonnie wasn't speaking to Lucy but she was all right with Elena, which, admittingly made her upset.

Lucy wasn't the only person they saved when Damon snapped Abby's neck; Elena's life was on the line, too. She guessed that it didn't matter to Bonnie.

The fact that Elena didn't ask if she was all right or apologize for the previous night got on her nerves, too. She knew Alaric's predicament was important, but she wanted a little bit of concern from her older sister. At least Joel had attempted to apologize to her before he went to meet Damon and Stefan at the Grill.

"Yes, I have," Lucy sighed. "Liz wants me to stay out of it."

"And are you?"

"Of course not," Lucy scoffed. "It's Ric, I'm going to do anything I can to make sure he doesn't take the fall for this."

"Well, keep me updated," Elena sighed. "See you later."

"Mmhm, bye."

Lucy quickly hung up the call and threw her phone into the passenger seat, glad that she was done speaking with her sister. She just needed some time to cool off and forgive Elena…it would be easier if she just acknowledged what happened and apologized. Elena wasn't that type of person, though. If something didn't affect her, she didn't care.

Lucy pulled into the parking lot at the hospital and went to the employee's section. According to the sweet nurse who used to work with her dad, Meredith had a surgery in an hour she had to be here for. Luckily, Meredith pulled into her assigned spot just as Lucy was getting out of her car.

Meredith scoffed when she got out of her car and saw Lucy. "I'm due in surgery," she told Lucy. "Whatever case you're gonna make against Alaric, make it quick."

"I don't have a case," Lucy rolled her eyes, staying in place as Meredith continued walking toward the hospital. "Ric didn't do this. He wouldn't."

Meredith stopped walking and turned to face her. "How do you know?" she asked Lucy. "Sure, he's your biological dad, he takes care of you, and you live with him, but do you really know anything about him?"

Lucy narrowed her eyes at the older brunette. "I know what he wants me to know."

"Well, let me tell you what I know," Meredith retorted. "He was arrested for fighting four times before the age of twenty-one—"

"I already knew that."

"Did you know that when he was at Duke, his future wife, Isobel, filed a restraining order against him twice?" Meredith raised her eyebrows. "Although, then she married him, so I guess that says more about her."

Lucy gritted her teeth, angry that Meredith was creating lies to upset her. "You're making that up."

"Am I? How would you know?" Meredith asked rhetorically. "Your father is a borderline alcoholic vampire-hunter and you never even thought to look any deeper."

"Ric didn't kill anyone and you know it."

Meredith scoffed, shaking her head. "You're friends with vampires, Lucy. It shouldn't come as a shock to learn that your father is a murderer."

Lucy shook her head as Meredith walked away, not willing to believe anything that she was saying about Alaric. Meredith may have looked up Alaric's arrest report and his background but she didn't know him like Lucy did. Alaric was innocent and she was going to prove it.

She rounded the back of her car and opened her passenger door, picking up her phone to call Matt.

Lucy smirked in shock as Matt silently unlocked the door to Meredith Fell's apartment, sneaking them in without a key. She was impressed that Matt knew how to do that and she hoped that after this mess was all over and Alaric was declared innocent, he'd teach how to pick locks.

It was an innocent curiosity, of course.

"I'm impressed, Matty," she whispered as they entered the apartment.

Matt chuckled. "I'll add breaking and entering to the list of fun hang-out ideas."

"Good idea," Lucy shut the door behind them as Matt walked over to the table to look through the messy pile of papers that had Lucy cringing. "Okay, I don't know how much longer Meredith's gonna be in surgery, so we need to be fast."

Matt nodded and walked away from the table, peeking into the kitchen. "Don't you think that the police already combed through this place? She handed over everything she had."

"They probably did," Lucy acknowledged as she looked through the pile of papers. "but we have to find the evidence she didn't hand over."

"And you're sure we should be doing this?"

Lucy sighed. "At the moment, yes," she carefully put the papers back how Meredith had them and looked around the living room that was attached to the entrance. "but Ric's innocent and I'm sure Meredith has something lurking around. She's from a Founding Family, which means she bound to have some secrets."

Mainly, Lucy was thinking about how her parents had a secret closet full of vampire-slaying weapons hidden at their lake house. Mrs. Lockwood, Liz, and the Salvatores all had their private stashes as well, so she figured that the Fell family members had some too.

She wandered over to the closet by the front door and opened it, crouching down to shove a box away from the wall. She smirked when she saw a board that seemed out of place in the wall and knocked on it, looking back at Matt with satisfaction.

"Secret closets. Just like any member of a Founding Family."

Matt scoffed in amusement and slid into the closet next to her, carefully opening the hidden compartment. There was only one thing in it; a heavy blue cardboard box. Lucy opened it and narrowed her eyes when she saw that it was full of files and a few random things.

"Brian Walters," she read the first file before moving onto the second one. "Bill Forbes."

Matt pursed his lips and took out the largest file on the box to show her. "Alaric Saltzman."

Lucy sighed angrily and helped Matt heave the box out of the closet and onto the table. She went through Alaric's file while Matt rummaged through the rest of the box to see what he could find.

"She has everything on him," Lucy shook her head, going through the papers. "Medical records, old court documents."

Matt pulled out an old journal, looking at it in confusion. "What's this?"

Lucy furrowed her eyebrows and took the journal, thinking that it looked familiar. "It's an old Gilbert journal. How the hell did she get this?"

"Why is it in her closet?" Matt added as he continued looking through the box. In an unmarked file, he pulled out a piece of paper. "Didn't you say the medical examiner's time of death was between one and three in the morning?"

Lucy nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

Matt handed her the paper. "Because the county coroner's office says that's wrong."

Just as Lucy started to read the paper, they heard keys jingle outside the front door. Lucy winced and looked back at Matt with wide eyes; he picked up the box and Alaric's file, gesturing for her to hide in the closet.

Lucy did as she was told and Matt squished in there with her and shut the closet just as the door opened and Meredith stepped into her apartment. They listened carefully as she put her things on the table and then walked away. It was only a few minutes until Meredith walked back to the table and picked up her keys.

As the door shut, Lucy opened the closet. To her immense surprise, Meredith was staring right at her and Matt, her arms crossed over her chest with an unpleased look on her face.

"Shit," Lucy whispered before adopting an innocent smile. "Meredith! What a surprise to see you here!"

An hour later, after having to answer questions from the police that Meredith called over, she and Matt were sitting in Liz's office, sheepish looks on their faces. Liz stared at them in disappointment, not very happy with either of them.

"What were you thinking?" she demanded sternly.

"Okay, this is bad—"

Liz cut Lucy off. "Damn right, it's bad, Lucy. You broke the law."

"Yeah but we did find something that clears Alaric, so it's not all broken is it?"

Liz pursed her lips at her. "It's pretty broken."

"But Alaric has an alibi for the Brian Walters murder," Matt pointed out. "he couldn't have killed the guy."

Liz sighed and held up a paper. "You mean this?" Lucy and Matt exchanged looks as she explained, "This happens to be a letter from the county coroner's office correcting the error in the time of death of Brian Walters. Meredith Fell received it today. She brought it to me several hours ago, full of apologies for accusing an innocent man."

"W-Well—" Lucy stammered, trying to think of what to say. This was a huge change of events.

"Why would she have a copy hidden in her closet?" Matt asked, still suspicious.

"I can't ask those questions, Matt, because of the very fact that you two broke into her home to find it," Liz answered, annoyed. "Do you know how much I'm already protecting both of you?"

Lucy sheepishly looked down at her hands, embarrassed and ashamed of her behavior. "We're sorry."

Liz sighed heavily. "Just get out of my office and go home, please," she requested, her tone softening only slightly. "Alaric will be released as soon as the letter is authenticated."

Lucy nodded frantically and stood up, Matt on her heels. They got their belongings back from the deputy at the front desk and left City Hall. They quickly decided that they were going to order food from the Grill before going back to Lucy's house to wait for Alaric to be released.

They were just passing the alleyway next to the Grill when they spotted Joel, Damon, and Stefan surrounding an unconscious girl. Damon was feeding her his blood while Joel held back Stefan, whose face was covered in blood.

Lucy stopped in her tracks, getting Matt's attention, and walked into the alleyway. "What the hell is going on?"

Stefan whipped around, flinching out of Joel's hold, and stared at her in shock. Lucy's eyes went from Stefan to Damon, who was standing up to defuse the situation, and then to the girl. She closed her eyes briefly, disappointed.

It wasn't that Stefan was drinking human blood; she knew that he was having control problems and needed to learn how to stay away from the edge. It's that he was letting Damon—of all people—help him learn control. Damon himself had told her months ago that he had tried teaching Stefan control and it didn't end well.

Was that supposed to change within a century?

"Lucy…"

"Let's just go, Lucy," Matt urged as Stefan breathed her name, reaching for her arm.

She stepped away from him and reached into her purse, pulling out a couple of tissues. She slowly walked toward Stefan, his eyes wide as he focused on her, and shakily handed them to him so he could wipe his face.

"Lucy, come on."

"Are you okay?" she whispered to Stefan as he cleaned his face. Stefan simply nodded, looking ashamed.

"Okay," she sighed. "I'm going to go…"

She turned away from Stefan, Joel, and Damon and walked over to Matt, leading him away from the alley. Their food could wait; Lucy just wanted to go home.

Lucy sat in her living room, having messaged Klaus and Rebekah long ago that she was waiting for Alaric to come home before she went back to stay with them. She flipped through the old Gilbert journal that Matt had stolen from Meredith's house, reading through the beginning.

The writer of the journal was Samantha Gilbert and she was around Lucy's age during 1912. Even though Lucy wasn't biologically related to Samantha, they shared some of the same problems. Boys, academics, and family issues were documented much like Lucy's would if she even had a journal.

The only difference was that Samantha had a dark mind. There were entries where she was so confused about her recent behavior. She documented many blackouts and feelings of rage that Lucy couldn't relate to.

Lucy was distracted when the front door opened; she put the journal to the side as Alaric walked through the door. Jumping up from the couch, she rushed toward him and wrapped him into a tight hug.

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

"Yeah," Alaric assured her, kissing the top of her head. "I'm all right. How about you?"

"I'm fine," Lucy smiled weakly. "Come sit down. I'll make you some coffee."

"I don't know, Luce," Alaric smirked playfully. "you make it awfully weak."

"Ha-ha," Lucy laughed mockingly as she walked into the kitchen, Alaric on her heels. "Do you want decaf or not?"

"No, I'll take the real stuff," Alaric sighed as he sat at the island. "Listen, uh, Liz told me about everything you did today. I appreciate it, Luce, but I don't want you getting in trouble because of me, okay?"

"Ric," Lucy tilted her head and gave him a knowing look. "if I'm gonna get in trouble, it might as well be for you, yeah?"

"Don't say that," Alaric shook his head at her. "I'm supposed to take care of you, right?"

Lucy shrugged and started to make his coffee. "We can take care of each other."

"All right, deal," Alaric agreed. "What were you reading when I came in?"

"An old Gilbert journal," Lucy informed him as the coffee started brewing. "It's from Samantha Gilbert. She was around my age but she seemed unsettled."

"Huh," Alaric clicked his tongue. "Wonder why."

"I have no idea."

Alaric's coffee was made just how he liked it and while he sat in the kitchen to eat some leftovers, Lucy went back into the living room to ready a few more of Samantha Gilbert's journal entries. The more she read, the darker Samantha got. When she mentioned that she was killed by Stefan and Damon Salvatore and she had a magical ring she inherited from Jonathan Gilbert, she started putting things together.

And then the doorbell rang and Alaric let Meredith into the house. Lucy stood from the couch and peeked around the corner into the foyer, trying not to be seen.

"I know what this looks like," Meredith tried to soothe Alaric's glare.

"Yeah, well, I sure as hell don't," Alaric snapped at her. "You shoot me, you have me thrown in jail, and then you have me freed?"

"I did it for you, Ric," Meredith tried to explain as Lucy eavesdropped on their loud conversation. "I forged the coroner's note to clear your name."

"Oh, you know what," Alaric scoffed, shaking his head. "People are right. You are psycho."

Meredith shook his head. "Now that you've been cleared, they'll look somewhere else. They won't look your way again," she pleaded. "Please, you have no reason but I need you to trust me anyway. I can explain."

"Fine," Alaric crossed his arms over his chest. "Go ahead."

Meredith gave him a grateful smile and pulled out a file from her bag, handing it to him. Lucy couldn't see what Alaric was looking at as he turned through the pages, but from the expression on his face, it was nothing good.

Then she started to explain that Alaric was actually the killer and that she was covering for him. Lucy listened carefully as she started to list things that had happened that actually made sense. Alaric's ring was starting to stop working and he had no alibi for any of the murders. He knew that she gave Bill Forbes vampire blood and the medical examiner had been covering up victims of vampires for years.

"Like the sheriff said, the victims were killed with your weapons," Meredith finished.

"Yeah, but I was attacked," Alaric objected.

"With your own knife, a wound that could have been self-inflicted."

"That's impossible," he denied. "I would know if I were killing people."

"Would you?" Meredith raised her eyebrows at him. "Have you had any blackouts, instances of lost time?"

Lucy bit her lip, recalling Samantha's journal entries.

There was a moment of silence. "You're insane."

"No, but I think you might be," Meredith retorted. "You wear a ring that lets you cheat death, Ric. How many times can you die before it changes you? I think you're sick and I want to help you. This had happened before—almost a century ago."

Lucy inhaled sharply, unable to deny the truth that Meredith put right in front of her. She had seen it from Samantha's journal. She had been wrong, it was Alaric that was killing people, whether or not he remembered.

She stepped into the foyer, getting Alaric and Meredith's attention. "Ric," she breathed hesitantly, holding up Samantha's journal. "I think she's right."