[4x16; Bring it On]

All of the curtains were drawn in the library, keeping the room dark and safe for Lucy. Without a daylight ring, it was impossible for her to go out during the day and since she couldn't siphon magic anymore and Bonnie was out of sorts, she was stuck in the Boarding House while everyone else had plans.

Today, Stefan would be staying at home with Lucy, helping her adjust to her new life as a vampire, and when the sun set, he was going to teach her to use her new abilities to hunt, defend herself, and use her speed, vision, and hearing to her advantage. Meanwhile, Damon was going to look for Katherine and Caroline and Joel were going to take Elena to school in an attempt to get her humanity back on.

Damon scoffed from his place next to Caroline. "That's the plan?" he asked incredulously, eyes darting between Caroline and Joel. "You're gonna take her back to school?"

"You tried the so-called fun route," Joel spoke, annoyed. "and it didn't exactly work, did it?"

Damon shrugged. "She got a free meal of it."

Lucy shook her head, her mouth starting to water as she remembered the night before when Elena and Damon came home covered in fresh blood. She had to be carried away by Stefan as she started to lose control and when she calmed down, she was able to sip away at a blood bag he retrieved for her. It definitely wasn't the best time for Elena to not have her humanity on; the gang had their hands full with Lucy only days old and Elena going around killing people.

Honestly, Lucy didn't even know why she was sitting in on this little meeting. She didn't give a flying fuck what Elena did as long as she stayed far away from Lucy. Her blood boiled every time she even thought of Elena. The doppelganger couldn't go one day without everything being about herself and Lucy was not in the mood to deal with that when she was adjusting to her new life as a vampire, dealing with her bloodlust, and grieving for Kol and Jeremy. She just wanted one day without Elena but that was never going to happen—this was Elena's world and everyone existed to fulfill her needs.

"Look, do you think I want to play Elena's chaperone?" Joel pressed his lips together and gave Damon a defiant glare. "No, but you're not a student, nor do you work at the school, so I guess it's gonna be me and Caroline. Besides, you have to look for Katherine. Elena needs the cure now more than ever."

God, Lucy was sick of hearing about the cure and how much Elena needed it. Elena didn't deserve the cure more than any other vampire in the world. What was it that made her so special? Was it the constant complaining about being a vampire or was it because she couldn't except the fact that she'd never be human again? Elena had been a vampire for months now and she still needed someone to hold her hand.

Lucy must have been holding onto Stefan's hand too tightly in her anger because he pried her fingers from him and wrapped a supporting arm around her shoulders. She started to calm down as his thumb rubbed circles on the back of her neck. She focused on something else, like the fact that her body lit up like a Christmas tree whenever Stefan touched her.

"Look, I think she'll be fine at school," Caroline sighed, obviously not happy about having to babysit Elena.

"The cheerleading competition is today, though," Stefan spoke up, remembering the bright blue exclamation marks on Lucy's calendar. "There's gonna be a lot of people around."

"And if she messes up our chances for the championship, I'm gonna lose it," Lucy added grumpily.

The hard work she had put into the team's cheer routines all year was gone. She was unable to attend the regional cheer competition because she had close to no experience around humans as of yet. What would usually be disappointment was dialed up to an eleven, which wound up ending with crying in the shower.

"She won't," Caroline assured her.

"Well, school sounds like fun," Elena walked into the library, having overheard their whole conversation. "I've got nothing better to do. In fact, I have an idea…" she turned to Caroline. "Can you get me my old spot back on the cheerleading squad?"

Oh, for crying out loud! Lucy couldn't be at the cheer competition but Elena could? Did whatever God that created her hate her guts or something?

"I mean, technically, yeah, I'm captain," Caroline looked taken aback by the odd request. "but you said you hated cheerleading."

"I did and now I think it would be really fun to jump around and toss people up in the air," Elena said dryly. "It's not like the routines are that hard."

"Did you seriously just say—"

"All right," Damon quickly grabbed Elena's arm before a fight could break out between the Gilbert siblings. "Elena, it would make me very happy if you went to school today. Just, please, for me, no matter what, don't eat anyone. Okay?"

Elena nodded blankly and turned to leave the library. "I'll go get ready."

"I have to, too," Caroline patted Lucy's shoulder and gave her an empathetic smile before turning to Stefan. "Is the guest shower okay?"

Stefan nodded. "All yours."

"Wait," Damon shook his head, confused. "You're here because you need to take a shower?"

"Your house has the only vervain-free showers in town," Joel reminded him.

"Oh, yeah," Damon hummed in realization. "The mayor put vervain in the water supply. So many people to kill…"

"Yeah, and my mom says it's about to get worse," Caroline sighed, giving Damon a pointed look. "So, she could use a little help."

Damon scoffed lightly, annoyed with the huge list of things that needed to be done. "Fine," he agreed sourly. "I'll go after the psychotic doppelganger. JoJo and Blondie, you'll take Elena to school, Stefan can talk to Liz, and Twitch—" he pointed at Lucy, his face softening only a little bit. "You stay here and be good."

Lucy pressed her lips together and turned away from Damon. He had no right to feel bad for her because she was now a vampire and he didn't have the right to talk to her, either. He and Elena literally planned to kill Kol and had manipulated Jeremy into doing the deed himself. Then, as a cherry on top, he told Elena to turn off her humanity. The last thing she wanted or needed was advice for Damon.

"Take it easy, Damon," Stefan said warningly, knowing how Lucy felt.

"Right, sorry," Damon shook his head. "Lucy, if you could call Klaus to see if he has any leads on Katherine, you'd make my life super easier even though I don't deserve it?"

"I'll talk to him," Lucy agreed.

She didn't want to do any favors for Damon but she wanted Katherine found as much as the rest of them did. Katherine knew that they were looking for the cure the whole time everything panned out. She had gotten a tip about what they were doing from that werewolf bitch, Hayley, and had followed them to the island, impersonating Elena and sending Jeremy into the arms of Silas, who drained him dry and snapped his neck. Vampire siblings killing vampire siblings is one thing but Jeremy was only sixteen. He had hardly lived yet and that life he did have was full of tragedy.

She didn't care about getting the cure back; she wanted to see Katherine face-to-face and confront her.

Lucy paced back and forth in Stefan's dark bedroom, slowly sipping on a blood bag while she waited for Klaus to answer his phone. Stefan had gone to talk to Liz about missing blood at the blood bank but before he left, he made sure to tell her that if she drank the blood slowly, her cravings would feel better. He also added that coffee would help but she laughed in his face—she didn't do coffee.

But, as always, Stefan was right. The slower she sipped at the blood, the fuller she became. She still had an itch inside her, the one in her head that was telling her to gulp down the blood and go for another bag and one after that, too, but she held back. It was hard but she was forcing herself to stay in control.

She caught a glance of herself in the mirror on Stefan's wall and turned away, repulsed by the way she looked with her vampire features coming out to play. Luckily, her wait was over; Klaus had answered her phone call.

"Little sister," he greeted her fondly. "How are you fairing? Did you get yourself a daylight ring yet?"

"Not yet," Lucy sighed, setting the blood bag on one of the circular tables so she could focus on her older brother. "Bonnie's still out of it so it looks like I'll be in the dark for a while."

"Hmm," Klaus hummed and she caught a hint of worry in his voice. "And your bloodlust? I suppose Stefan is going to teach you control?"

"That's the plan but Caroline is going to help, too," she sat at the end of Stefan's bed. "I think it's gonna be blood bags and animals for me."

"You don't have to, if you don't want to. You can learn how to eat, snatch, and erase."

"I get that but I don't think I can do it, Nik," she sighed sadly, her voice starting to tremble. "That man I killed, he haunts me every time I close my eyes. And that guy was someone's son or brother, maybe he was a husband or a father. I can't—"

"Hey, hey," it wasn't Klaus, the Original hybrid comforting her; it was Niklaus, her big brother. "Feeling guilty is natural, I felt the same way when I turned, but you can't let it take a hold of you forever, Luciana. If you want to drink blood bags and nasty animals, then don't let anyone tell you differently. You may feel out of control at the moment but you still have some control about how you're going to live your life."

Lucy sniffed, wiping away the tears that fell during Klaus' little speech. "Thanks, Nik," she tried to compose herself. "When did you get so philosophical?"

"I had time to pick up a book now and then," Klaus snarked, making her laugh. "Feel better?"

"Yeah, I do," she confirmed even though she was getting whiplash from the rollercoaster ride her emotions were on at the moment. "Listen, Damon wanted me to call you…"

Klaus huffed in displeasure. "What for?"

"He thinks you might know where Katherine could be."

"I'm trying to locate her, yes," Klaus informed her. "Right now, I have nothing but the information that Hayley—"

"Wait, you've talked to Hayley?" Lucy interrupted him, furrowing her eyebrows in irritation.

"I had to rescue her from wandering vampires that Katerina sent to kill her, actually. It was quite the ordeal. Right now, she's resting up and then I'll get information about Katerina's whereabouts from her."

"Nik, she was the one who told Katherine about our plans for the cure," Lucy's voice dropped in anger. "Jeremy's dead because Katherine wanted that cure and now you're harboring the bitch who set it into motion? What the hell?"

"I realize that—"

"Not to mention she turned all of your hybrids against you, betrayed Tyler and left him to face your wrath, and walked away like nothing happened while you slaughtered them all!"

"Luciana, please just calm down for a moment."

"I'm tired of people telling me to calm down, Nik! I can't! I can't do that! Kol and Jeremy are dead, my childhood home is destroyed, I'm stuck in this house, everyone's hovering around me like I'm gonna lose it, Elena's being a bitch as usual, and I can't even help fix things because I don't have the control to be near anyone! I can't calm down!"

"What color is the grass?"

Lucy paused, thrown for a loop by Klaus' random question. What the hell did the color of grass have to do with anything that she just said.

"What color is it, Luciana?"

"…Green."

"And what of the sky?"

"The sky's blue."

"Your favorite hydrangeas?"

Lucy inhaled deeply, her racing heart starting to slow. "White."

She knew what he was doing now. A thousand years before, when she was little and her nerves got the best of her, Klaus would take her aside and ask about the colors around them. He'd point out the mud floor of their hut, the pottery that their mother made, Rebekah's dress, and one of their neighbors' bright red hair. She always calmed down, especially because colors were their thing together.

"What color are Stefan's eyes?"

"Forest green," she answered, no longer on the brink of a panic attack. "Thank you, Nik."

"You're welcome, love," Klaus said humbly. "Listen, the only reason Hayley is in my house is because I need information on Katerina. I haven't forgotten what she did, all right?"

"All right."

"Tell Damon that I found Hayley in Grove Hill and left behind a vampire," he told her. "Granted, I almost bit his head off, so he won't be around much longer."

"I will," Lucy nodded though he couldn't see. "Thanks, Nik. Talk to you later."

"Take care, love."

She had just texted Damon and laid down on the bed to rest when Stefan walked into the room, a to-go coffee cup in his hand. She could smell that it wasn't straight coffee like he had tried to get her to drink before. It was cappuccino and it was her favorite flavor, French vanilla."

"Hi," she greeted him, turning her head so she could see him. He set the steaming cup on one of his many tables and crossed the room to his bed, flopping down beside her.

"Hello, beautiful," Stefan treated her with one of his heart-melting smiles. "How are you feeling?"

"Not good but not bad, either," her eyes darted around his face, focusing on the details that she hadn't noticed while she was human. "I had some blood but I drank it like you told me to."

"That's great," he encouraged her. "and you feel sated for now?"

"For now," Lucy confirmed. "and I talked to Nik. Apparently he's rescued Hayley from a vampire that Katherine sent to kill her and left him with werewolf venom in his system, so I sent Damon to Grove Hill to see if he could get anything out of him."

"I was only gone for fifteen minutes. How'd you get so much done?" Stefan asked teasingly.

"All right, smarty pants," Lucy rolled her eyes. "What did Liz tell you?"

Stefan sighed heavily, his face dropping. "The entire supply of blood from the hospital was wiped out."

"There's nothing left?" Lucy sat up on her elbows in alarm. "Everything's gone?"

Stefan nodded. "Vanished."

"Ugh," Lucy fell back, jostling the mattress enough that Stefan moved.

"Ugh is the right word," Stefan agreed with her.

They laid on the bed together, side-by-side and facing the ceiling, speaking quietly whenever a thought popped into their head that they wanted to share. Mostly it was Stefan that spoke, telling her different stories, funny or memorable things that have happened to him in his one hundred and sixty-three years. Lucy's favorite story was when he recalled the day that World War II ended and how happy all of the soldiers and medics in his unit were, how relieved they were that they could go home to their families in one piece.

She was so amazed by Stefan and how he could see happiness in dark times. Even when he recalled his ripper days, he would still remember something that made him smile, whether it was a place he traveled to or the things he had seen. Even though his life was filled with sadness and tragedy, he could still see the light at the end of the tunnel. Lucy had always been that way, too, though lately, that part of her was starting to fumble.

Noticing how Lucy's contentment had turned somber, Stefan sat up and gave her a perky smile, dimples and all. "I have an idea."

Lucy was immediately distracted. "The last time you had an idea you broke that mirror."

Stefan's jaw dropped, offended. "That was Joel's idea."

"It was Joel's idea to hang a mirror over my bed?"

A few seconds of silence.

"…you have a point," Stefan finally conceded.

"I know I do, cause you're a perv, Stefan Salvatore," Lucy laughed, reaching over to poke him in the ribs.

Stefan squirmed away from her. "That's not the point," he almost giggled, making Lucy's heart melt in her chest. "How do you feel about finger painting?"

"I love finger painting more than I love you."

"Hey!"

"I can't do it."

"Yeah, you can," Stefan insisted as Lucy faltered once again, too nervous to try to use her new vampire speed. "Come here."

Lucy let him grab her hips and pulled her back to his chest. He leaned his chin on her shoulder and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek before focusing on the trees in front of them. The sun had set, allowing Lucy to leave the house, and they headed deep into the woods surrounding the Boarding House for some more vampire lessons.

"Just relax," Stefan advised her; Lucy listened to him, releasing the tension in all the muscles in her body. "Good. See that tree, the one with the target carved into it?"

The tree in question was hundreds of yards away from where they stood but she could still see the target carved into the trunk. "I see it."

"Run to it."

Lucy sighed and went to turn around but Stefan's firm grip on her stopped her. "It's not that simple, Stefan."

"It is that simple, Lucy. You already know how to run, so don't overthink it. Just run."

"This isn't a Tom Hanks movie."

Stefan squeezed her hips at her avoidance. "Lucy."

Lucy inhale deeply and focused on the tree. As soon as Stefan let go of her hips, she started running toward it. What started as an average human pace increased until her surroundings blurred and she was at the target tree within a second.

She ran her fingers over the carving, amazed, and jumped when she heard Stefan's voice right behind her. "You did it."

She whipped around and beamed up at him. "I did it!"'

Stefan grinned and pulled her into a kiss, simultaneously wrapping his arms around her waist, picking her up, and twirling her around. Lucy giggled into his lips, her stomach blooming with happiness.

Maybe this vampire thing wasn't so bad.

It was only seconds before her back hit the rough bark of the tree, her head tilted back as Stefan pressed open-mouthed kisses down her neck. Her legs were around his hips, her fingers running through his hair, her chest heaving against his.

When she was human, Stefan's touch would ignite a fire in her belly. Even then, with everything dulled, she was so sensitive to the pleasure his touch brought her. But now, well, she didn't even have words to describe how she felt now. It was an explosion compared to a fire, pure ecstasy running through her veins.

"Oh, Stefan," she whined as his lips nipped at the sensitive spot behind her ear and traveled down, leaving a wet trail down to her cleavage. "Need you."

"You have me," Stefan murmured into soft skin. He grunted when she arched her back, pressing her legging-clad core against the bulge in his jeans. "Fuck, Lucy."

Lucy gasped and leaned forward, burying her head into his neck. She bypassed any kisses, trailing her tongue from his collarbone all the way to his ear, humming at the delicious taste of his skin. "Stefan," she took his earlobe in her teeth and tugged a little, earning herself a lustful moan from his lips. "Let's go home."

She didn't need to ask him twice. While Lucy continued to lick, suck, and nibble on Stefan's neck, he sped them back to the Boarding House. And then he stopped in his tracks.

"What the fuck is going on?" he grumbled angrily.

Lucy peeked out of Stefan's neck, jumped off of his hips, and sighed when she saw that the Boarding House was full of teenagers partying. The music was so loud and the bass was thumping so hard that her senses were going crazy. She smelt so many difference scents, even though they were still a hundred feet away from the house; her mouth started to water and the veins under her eyes started to ripple as she them all in.

"We should leave," Stefan saw her eyes start to redden and grew concerned. "You haven't been around humans yet, Luce."

She hadn't and it was hard to control herself but wasn't that the point of learning to live as a vampire? To have enough control to actually live her life? She had to start somewhere and if Stefan was by her side, she could do it.

"I have to learn sometime, right?" she looked up at him, focusing so her vampire features would go away. Surprisingly, that was one of the easiest things she learned, especially if she thought of the advice Stefan gave Caroline more than a year ago at the school carnival. "Will you help me?"

"Of course, I will, pretty girl," Stefan assured her, staring down at her with a proud smile. "Come on."

Hand in hand, they walked into the Boarding House. Lucy stiffened when the bloodlust hit her full on but she squeezed Stefan's hand and focused on his back which was outlined deliciously in his gray henley.

The party was complete chaos; teenagers they didn't even know and cheerleaders wearing the uniforms from different schools in the region crowded together, drinking, dancing, making out, and having a good time together. Elena—who Lucy guessed was the party planner in question—was dancing on a table with a huge smile on her face, making Lucy remember the times they had partied together before Stefan and Damon moved to Mystic Falls. Caroline and Joel were dancing together, both of them grinning happily as they had a random conversation.

If she focused all of herself on the fun happening around her, she wouldn't think about the blood. She thought about the beat of whatever Top 40 song was booming through the house, Caroline and Joel's happy expressions, and Stefan's hand in hers.

Once Stefan was sure that Lucy would be okay for the moment, he led them through the crowd of drunk and sweaty teenagers to where Caroline and Joel were dancing. They were each greeted with tight hugs by Caroline and after Joel kissed Lucy on the cheek, she watched in amusement as he and Stefan did some weird handshake—you know the one that every guy seems to know.

"This is insane!" Lucy exclaimed as she subconsciously started bouncing to the beat.

"Yeah," Joel nodded in agreement. "but it probably won't last. They'll either drink all the booze and get bored or—"

"Or Damon will come home and kill everyone?" Stefan finished hopefully.

"That's what I was thinking, yeah," Joel chuckled.

"We can't compel them to leave so we're just enjoying ourselves," Caroline chirped. "Let's dance!"

"Maybe that's not such a good idea," Stefan said, his eyes at the door where Elena and Liz were having a confrontation. "Caroline."

Caroline growled when she saw Elena tightly grab Liz and push her at the wall. The four of them went through the crowd as fast as they could without exposing themselves to get to Liz; Caroline got there first, which was no surprise.

"Mom!" Caroline grabbed Elena's arm and threw her away from her mother.

Liz was quick to reassured her that she was okay. "It's fine. I'm fine."

Caroline whipped back around to Elena, her vampire features popping out as she went to lunge at the emotionless doppelganger. Joel quickly grabbed her, making her grunt in frustration.

"Caroline, calm down."

"Calm down?" she glowered at Elena, scoffing. "I'm gonna wring her skinny little neck!"

There was a rush of air as Elena sped out of the house.

"Well, that's just great."

Twenty minutes later, they were still deep in the woods searching for Elena. All four of them had split in different directions to find her.

Lucy was so sick of Elena's dramatics. She was so sick of her life revolving around Elena. It was Elena this, Elena that, and, oh no, Elena's in trouble! We have to save her! And now she's a vampire! We have to cure her! It was exhausting—it was more exhausting than when Lucy had been a human. She didn't have it in her to care about if she was being petty or unattached. Elena had done horrible things to her, things siblings shouldn't do to each other.

Lucy paused for a second, picking up what sounded like Elena and Caroline arguing.

"Elena don't make me fight you! I'm stronger than you and I don't want to hurt you!"

There was a swoop of air, a crunch, and a pained grunt before Elena spoke, "Who's gonna get hurt?"

Lucy immediately took off to where they were fighting, going as fast as she could. As she approached, she heard Elena again.

"Not bad. Not technically good but then again, Alaric didn't train you. You were probably too busy butting into people's business!"

Lucy got there just in time; as Elena went to headbutt Caroline into a tree she ran forward and pushed, sending the doppelganger soaring into the bottom of a nearby tree.

"And you were probably making everything about you," Lucy sneered, hovering protectively in front of Caroline. Elena scrambled to her feet, looking murderous. "You wanna fight? Come on. You're not the only one Alaric trained."

Caroline got to her feet, looking worried. "Lucy…"

"I'm gonna rip your head off," Elena growled at Lucy, eyes flashing.

"Bring it on, bitch."

The sisters crashed into one another, evenly matched since Elena was stronger than her but Lucy was trained better. When Elena tried to grab her throat, she blocked her, backhanding her across the face. When she took a kick to the stomach, she was right back up fighting again.

At one point—after Caroline went to get Stefan and Joel to break up their fight—when she pushed Elena away from her, Elena yelled in frustration, "You think you're so much better than me?"

"Yeah, actually, I do," Lucy spat back at her, catching a fist to her cheek.

"Well, you're not," Elena kicked her ankles, causing her to fall to her knees. "You're weak, Lucy, and you always will be."

"I'm weak?" Lucy asked incredulously, speeding to her feet and grabbing the ends of Elena's hair to throw her away from her. "You're the weak one, Elena. You're the damsel in distress that everyone needs to save. You're the one who shut off your emotions because you couldn't deal with Jeremy's death."

"You couldn't even stop Jeremy's death!" Elena screamed back at her. "You didn't do anything! You just watched him die, unable to do anything because you're a fucking freak of nature!"

Lucy's blood boiled and she screamed in fury. There was nothing she could do about Jeremy's death; she hadn't even known that Jeremy was dead until after she woke up at home, already in transition. She wasn't at fault—she wasn't.

"I hate you!"

"LUCY! ELENA! STOP!" Joel came speeding toward them.

It was too late; Lucy's fury built inside of her until she felt a strange heat flood her body. At once, Elena was unconscious a few feet away from her, her neck snapped. Lucy hadn't even moved a finger.

"Holy shit," Joel breathed, stopping in his tracks when he saw what happened. He turned to Stefan, Damon, and Caroline with wide eyes. "Did you see that?"

Stefan nodded grimly, worried eyes already on Lucy. "She did magic."

Stefan sat on the floor of the cellar, leaving his back against the stone wall outside of the cell that Lucy was in. He listened with wet eyes and a lump in his throat as she screamed in fear and frustration, the chair that they brought in for her hitting the walls at an impressive speed. She wasn't even moving her body; somehow, she had magic and it was out of control at the moment.

It broke his heart to listen to her struggle but he couldn't help her with this. She wouldn't let him—or her magic wouldn't let him; anyone that even got a foot near her was flung away. Only Caroline was able to get near her, which was how she got in the cell. Caroline and Joel couldn't bare to see Lucy in so much pain and Damon was watching over Elena, so he was left alone.

He had tried to soothe her, speaking to her in a calm voice through the slotted bars but she wouldn't listen. She'd sob and then cry out for Kol, telling Stefan that she needed her brother to help her.

So, Stefan called Klaus and told him what was going on.

He appeared not long after the call ended. "What's she doing in a cell?" the Original demanded as he stormed past Stefan to look through the slots to see Lucy on the floor, knees to her chest as she stared at a wall with wet eyes. "Are you out of your mind?"

"We did it so she couldn't hurt herself or anyone else," Stefan explained, getting to his feet. "She was out of control for a while there," Klaus pressed his lips together unhappily but nodded, nonetheless. "How does she even have magic?"

"I assume it's because of her siphoner genes," Klaus told him. "When she was human, she could absorb magic. Now that's she's a vampire…"

"She has an endless supply of magic," Stefan realized. "Have you ever heard of anyone like her?"

"No," Klaus shook his head. "Siphoners are rare already. I doubt many of them even had run-ins with vampires."

"What do we do?"

"We help her," Klaus unlocked the cell door. "I'm guessing that's why she wants Kol. He was an expert in all things magical."

Lucy looked up as Klaus stepped into the cell. "Nik," she breathed shakily as he sat on the floor with her and wrapped her in his arms. "I don't know what's happening. I-I have—I can do-and—I need Kol and he's gone. He's gone, Nik."

"Shh, love," Klaus whispered into her hair as she fell into sobs again. There were tears in his eyes, causing Stefan's to sting in response. There was nothing like the love of a sibling and seeing Klaus and Lucy so close was something special. "I know, I know. It's okay."

Stefan swallowed the lump in his throat and crossed his arms over his chest. It hurt him to see how broken Lucy seemed. She hadn't caught a break since their senior year started and he honestly didn't know how this hadn't happened earlier. He was in love with one of the strongest women he knew.

"We're gonna help you," Klaus assured Lucy after a couple of minutes, his tone so firm no one would dare argue with him. "You'll learn to control your magic, I promise you."

Lucy's cries had softened until she was just taking in shuddering breaths. "How?"

"You're gonna practice," Klaus pulled away so he could look at her face. "And I have just the spell you can start with."

Lucy gave him a curious look as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of aged paper and a small box.

"This," he handed her the paper first; she opened it to see that the spell for daylight rings was written on it in their mother's handwriting. "it's from Mother's grimoire. You can keep it. I'll give you the whole book once I make copies."

"Wow," Lucy touched her fingertips to the fragile paper. "Thank you, Nik."

"Well, unlike me, Elijah, and Rebekah, you can actually use it," Klaus waved her off before handing her the box. "and this is something Stefan and I collaborated on."

Lucy looked between her brother and her boyfriend. "You guys got me a gift together?" Stefan nodded with a slight smile; he had called Klaus on the way back from Nova Scotia; they emailed pictures of daylight rings back and forth while he was on the plane. "Has the world ended?"

"Just open the box before I take it back," Klaus snipped at her playfully.

The ring they got her was beautiful and all she could ask for in terms of a daylight ring. The lapis lazuli stone was perfectly round, with two tiny diamonds on either side of it, and the band was made of platinum so it wouldn't wear out anytime soon.

"It's beautiful," she whispered before looking up, giving the boys a grateful smile. "Thank you so much."

When Klaus and Stefan exchanged proud looks, Lucy knew that it was the closest she'd ever get to see their friendship.