Stefan and Damon run into the room, surprised. Damon sees Elena lying on the ground and rushes over to help her.
When Klaus has been completely neutralized, he takes his hand out of his chest, and Tyler lays Klaus down on the ground.
Alyssa looks at Elena. "We should get her home before the sun sets."
Damon takes Elena's hand and walks her out of the house. Tyler and Klaus follow. Alyssa stares at Klaus' body momentarily and then walks out.
Stefan, Elena, Alyssa, and Damon leave the car and walk towards the house. When they get on the porch, Alyssa turns to them.
"You guys should go take care of Klaus.' I'll stay with her."
They both look at Elena, concerned.
"Go, I'll be fine. I have a little headache, " she lies.
"Yeah, but the sun's about to go down, and Ric can terrorize the streets any minute.
"Yeah, but he can't hurt me," Elena says. "It's you two that we should be worrying about."
"Nah, he won't be able to find us."
Elena opens the front door and goes in.
"I'll uh – I'll call you when we get back," Stefan says to Elena.
He and Damon start to leave, and Elena begins to speak. "I know it's selfish."
They stop and turn around.
"know it seems like I'm stringing you both along." Alyssa chooses that time to let them be alone and walks inside.
She hears laughter from the kitchen and sees Jeremy, Caroline, Matt, Tyler, and Bonnie with cups and drinks. She pours herself one and downs it before pouring herself another one. She's on her third when Elena walks in.
"What are you guys doing here?"
Caroline answers. "Welcome to our victory party!"
"What victory? We failed. Alaric's still out there."
"We know, but we've been trying to get rid of Klaus forever, and Caroline convinced us to enjoy it for a night."
Matt says, "You know, to be honest, I'm a little pissed none of you let me help you take down Original Brother number two." Matt puts his arm around Tyler.
"Yeah, he would have taken you to the hospital, bro," Tyler responded.
Matt replies, "Please, I'm more stealth than that. I'm like a ninja."
Jeremy scoffs, "Yeah, you wish."
Caroline comes up to Elena and hands her a shot of tequila. "Here. You need this."
Elena takes the shot and looks at Caroline quizzically. "I heard. And you know that you'll have to choose sooner or later?"
"I know."
Caroline rubs Elena's arm. Tyler walks over to them.
Tyler to Elena, "Hey, give me your hand."
Tyler pours salt on Elena's hand.
"Thank you for standing up to Klaus like that."
"Let's just say it's been a long time coming."
Caroline agrees. "Way too long." Caroline wraps her arm around Tyler. "All right, let's drink!"
Elena walks over to Jeremy. "I do not condone this, by the way."
"You survived, Klaus. All right, make an exception; you can go back to being responsible tomorrow."
"Okay."
She raises her shot glass to her mouth but stops.
"Hang on. Do you guys hear that?" They all remain silent for a moment, listening for something. Tyler continues, "That is the sound of a Klaus-free life."
They all laugh. Well, everyone except for Alyssa.
Elena raises her shot glass, "To a Klaus-free life." The others raise their glasses, too. "And to all of you. My family." They all clink their glasses together, say cheers, and drink.
Alyssa wasn't in a celebratory mood and didn't want to stick around. She tried slipping away unnoticed, but Elena saw her and called her out, getting everyone's attention so much for sneaking out unnoticed.
"Yeah, you should stay and drink with us," Caroline said. "I mean, you're the reason Klaus is finally out of our lives. If anyone deserves a drink, it's you."
She came back and took a shot, "There, I had a drink. Now I'm going to go."
"That's it, you're not going to stay and celebrate with us," Elena asked.
She didn't see much and didn't want to ruin their good mood. "No, but you guys have fun."
"Is this about what Klaus said about your feelings for Stefan?"
"No."
"Is it true?"
"It's Klaus. You know he loves to play mind games."
"Then stay."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
She didn't want to argue with Elena before her friends, especially since they were so happy about Klaus being gone, "just let it go."
"No. Klaus is finally out of our lives. I thought you'd be happier about that."
"Seriously, Elena, let it go. "If she told her the real reason she couldn't stay, she'd be doing the one thing she promised Jeremy she wouldn't do, which was to put him in the middle.
Jeremy tried to convince her to let her go. He knew his sister well enough to know that it was for a good reason it was for a good cause if she needed to walk away from a conflict,. But Elena couldn't let it go; she needed to find out.
Alyssa looked at Jeremy, "I've tried." He saw that she had done it, but enough was enough. It took everything she had not to hit her physically. "I'm sorry." She looked at a confused Elena. But I'm done protecting her feelings. I'm done indulging her. I can't stay, Elena, because I can't stand the sight of you."
Elena was taken aback.
"Everything about you repulses me. Your winning little voice, your damsel in distress routine, the way everyone comes to your rescue despite their lives being easier if you were dead." She backed her up against the island counter. "I think that's what I hate about you the most." She said in a thoughtful tone.
She reached behind Elena causing her to flinch and Alyssa smiled pulling back the bottle of tequila."Vicky, Shelia, Mason, Anna, Caroline, Jenna, John, Rick, me, we have all died as a byproduct of you being born, and yet we all rush to come to your rescue."
She gave her a shot, "Though had I known protecting you would have cost me losing everyone who ever loved or cared about me, I would have seriously rethought my decision." She sat the bottle down. "But we're here now, so no use crying over spilled blood, to which I have spilled much of it during my time with Klaus hunting wolves for his hybrid army. Some of whom could have been my blood, all to save your entitled, und,eserving ass."
She held up her glass, "But that's not what we're here for. We are here to toast Klaus' demise and the people who sacrificed to make that happen." She looked at Elena, "That would be everyone but you. But you are the reason I'll continue to kill and spill innocent blood until we all are okay with you dying. Cross your fingers. That will be soon. Cheers."
She sat down her glass without drinking it.
"Was that necessary?" Matt asked.
"She asked," she replied, walking away.