"Damon?" Alyssa calls out as she enters the Salvatore boarding house after getting a message from Damon to meet him there, but it is Stefan, the one to greet her.
"He's not here." He tells her to come to meet her at the door.
"He sent out a 911 page." She wasn't sure why. "Told me to meet him here."
"He left a little while ago. Hasn't been back." She walked into the conservatory and poured herself a drink. He follows her. "I'm surprised he called you."
"Me too." She says, taking a sip from her drink. She turns to him. "Any idea what it's about?"
"Damon usually doesn't confide in me until after he's done something that puts us in danger." He says, leaning against the threshold. "You know what the two of you used to do before you compelled him to forget."
"The memories are still there. Only the feelings he had were gone. If only I could forget." She drains the rest of her glass.
"Or you could make him remember."
"What good would that do? He'll still be in love with Elena," she sits her glass down, "only he'll know how I feel, and he'll feel guilty about it because he doesn't feel the same way, and we both know how well Damon deals with guilt. He acts out."
"Kind of like you when you're hurting. Only instead of dealing with it you…."
"Become a psychotic bitch?"
"Distract yourself so you don't have to deal with the pain." He finishes.
"The pain's always there, Stefan. That's how I deal with it. I live with it." She hears the front door open and close and exhales. "About time."
He walks past them in a hurry. Alyssa looks at Stefan before following Damon upstairs to Stefan's room, where he's going through his collection of diaries.
"What's with 911?"
"Rick's in trouble." He says, still looking through the bookshelf. "Liz thinks he has something to do with the council members being murdered all because of that nut job Dr. Fell."
"Sheriff Forbes really can't think he did it. Is he one of the killer's victims? I mean, the guy was practically stabbed to death."
"The doctor suggested to Carol that his wounds could have been self-inflicted."
"Why would he stab himself?"
He looks over his shoulder at them. "That's what I intend to find out."
Without hesitation, she asks, "What do you need me to do?"
"Help dig up clues. Most of the Originals are gone, but now we have a whodunnit in Town." He looks at Stefan when he can't find what he wants. "Hey, do you remember when we returned for Zachariah's funeral?"
Stefan answers, "Vaguely. Why?"
"If memory serves, he wasn't the first Founders' Council member killed that year or even that month."
Alyssa asks, "You think this could be connected?"
"I'm trying to find out if I could remember that year."
Stefan answers, "1912."
Damon eyebrows narrow, "So much for vagueness." He grabs one of the diaries on the shelf and throws it to Alyssa.
"1912. Or as I like to call it: last time Mystic Falls had a serial killer on its hands."
Alyssa opens up the diary and reads it. "It feels strange to be home again after so long away. I thought I would never return. Certainly not for a funeral."
A funeral is taking place outside the Salvatore crypt. Two women approach Stefan.
One of them was Marianna Lockwood, and the other was Samantha Gilbert. Mariana expresses her condolences to Stefan for the loss of his cousin Zachariah. Stefan corrects her and tells her that he's his uncle. He then goes to ask how he died, and Samantha tells him that he was murdered and he wasn't the first.
"Samantha, don't gossip," Marianna warned.
"Why not?" Samantha questioned, "He should know. He's a founding family like us. Be careful, Mr. Salvatore. It's not a good time to be a Founder in this Town."
Samantha and Marianna leave. Stefan looks at a nearby tombstone and sees a crow that flies away.
Damon appears. "Have you been eating the relatives again?"
"Damon."
"It's been a long time, brother."
"It's been almost fifty years. I'm surprised you came."
"And miss the funeral of, what do you call him? Uncle Zachariah?"
"I see you're still mad at me."
"Why would I be mad at you, Stefan? You made me become a vampire, and now I walk the world alone, drinking other people's blood."
"Any chance you took it all out on our nephew Zachariah?"
"If I'm not mistaken, you were the one who killed our family, remember? My father, rest in peace."
"I'm not like that anymore, Damon."
"Well, congratulations, Stefan. But if you'll excuse me, I'd like to live out my eternal existence as far away from you as possible." Damon starts to leave.
"Damon, wait." Damon stops.
"Let's grab a drink and catch up."
Damon turns around.
"I've missed you, brother."
"Sure. Why not?"
Alyssa looks at Stefan, "I thought you and Damon were the only last living Salvatores back then."
Damon answers, "Well, our father knocked up one of the maids during the Civil War. She had a son. But as far as everyone else knew, Stefan and I were dead. The family name had to go somewhere."
"Ignoring that fascinating fact," she says, "what do a medical examiner, Bill Forbes, and Alaric all have in common?"
Stefan answers, "They were all on the Founders' Council."
"But why them? Huh? Brian Walters and Alaric weren't from founding families. If you're going to slaughter council members, go A-list. At least in 1912, they killed Salvatore." Damon asks.
For Alyssa, then why wasn't as important as the who, "Did they ever catch the killer?"
"Nope. Wrote it all off on vampires."
"Not to state the obvious, but maybe it was a vampire," Alyssa says, looking between the brothers.
Stefan looks at Damon. "Yeah, yeah, maybe it was a vampire, Damon."
"Don't think you didn't cross my mind for a second too, brother. But these murders weren't your style, were they? Plus, no other vampires were circulating then."
Stefan corrects him. "Well, there was one other vampire. Remember Sage?"
The look on Damon's face after hearing that name says he remembered her.
"You think this Sage person is this person who was killing all those Founders back then?"
Stefan answers, "Town questioned every grown man in Mystic Falls. Probably never occurred to them that a woman could have done it."
Damon replies, "So, let's just say Sage was killing everyone in 1912. Who the hell is doing it now? It's not that psycho, Dr. Fell. She's a woman. There's no way she could stab three grown men."
"That's a bit sexist," Alyssa says, offended by the comment. "A woman could easily kill a man with the right motivation. I think it's about time I met this Dr. Fell."
Stefan gives her a look he always gets when he disapproves of something.
"Don't worry, Stefan, I'll leave her in one piece. She can't talk if she's dead. However, I have found pain is a great motivator." She smiles and leaves the Salvatore house.
The hospital is the first place she looks for a good doctor. After asking around, she finds her just as she walks in.
"Excuse me, are you Dr. Fell?"
Meridith stops and turns to her. "Yes?"
"Good, I've been looking for you. We need to talk."
"I'm sorry, but I'm due for surgery." She says and starts to walk away.
Alyssa grabs her arm and stops her from leaving. "I'm sorry," her face transfers, and the veins underneath her eyes show, "but I'm going to have to insist." She drags her into the closest room.
"If you don't let me out of here, I'll scream."
"You'll be dead before any sound comes out." She looks at her. "Considering what you're trying to do, Ric," she shuts and locks the door behind them, "you should count yourself lucky."
She looks at her more closely. "I know you. I saw you in the pictures at the Gilbert house when I was there with Rick. You're here to make a case against Rick."
"I don't have to make a case; he didn't do anything."
"How do you know? Sure, you live with him, and he cares for you, but do you know anything about him?"
"I know enough."
She finds some courage and walks closer to her. "Let me tell you what I know. He was arrested for fighting four times before the age of 21. When he was at Duke, his future wife, Isobel, filed a restraining order against him."
"And I'm a hybrid with anger issues and a pension for killing people who come after the people I care about. Get to the point. Fast."
"It shouldn't be a shock to learn that your guardian is a murderer."
"Rick isn't capable."
"You barely know him. How would you know?"
She walks to the door and unlocks it. "Because I am. And I promise you if Rick goes down for this, then Brian won't be the only doctor found dead with a steak through their heart."
She lets her threat hang in the air before leaving. Seeing that she was going to be stuck in surgery, she thought she would take the opportunity to go through her apartment to see what she could find.
She wasn't the only one who had the same idea. Matt and Elena had the same idea as well.
"It looks like we've both connected the dots." She tells Elena as Elena stands there looking at her with shock.
"What are you doing here?" Matt asks.
"Same as you. Checking out the good doctor. She has some skeletons in her closet, and I attend to finding them out." She twists the door handle, breaks it, and walks inside. There are clothes and files everywhere, from the dining room table to the small coffee table in the living room.
"Someone's a slob." She says, shutting the door behind her and walking in.
Matt asks. "Do you think the police have already combed through this place? She handed over everything she had."
"Yeah," she looked around the room before she started to look. "I'm looking for evidence that she didn't hand it over."
"And you're sure it's her we should be investigating?" He asked.
Elena answers, "I know him, Matt. He's innocent. And I know that Meredith's a Fell founding family." Elena looks over at a closet. "Which means…" She walks over to the closet and opens the door. She turns on the light and starts looking through her stuff.
Elena finally finds a hidden panel at the back of the closet. She knocks on it. It's hollow. Matt walks over to her.
Alyssa comes behind them. "Skeletons in the closet. Just like a true founder."
Matt enters the closet and pulls out the panel. He removes a cardboard box, and the two start rifling through the folders.
"Brian Walters. Bill Forbes."
Alyssa takes out one of the folders and shows it to them. "Alaric Saltzman." She starts looking through his files. "She's got everything on him: medical records, old court documents."
Matt pulls out a journal from the box. "What's this?"
Alyssa takes it and opens it up." It's an old Gilbert journal."
Elena looks at Alyssa. "Why is one of our old family journals in her closet?"
She didn't have an answer for that.
Matt has a question of his own." Didn't you say the medical examiner's time of death was between one and three a.m.?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Because the county coroner's office says that's wrong."
Matt hands Elena the paper, and Alyssa moves to where she can see it.
Suddenly, they hear footsteps approaching.
They put the stuff back in the box, and Matt and Elena hide in the closet.
Alyssa tells them to be quiet and shuts the door behind them just as Meredith enters her apartment.
"It's you. I should have known from the broken lock."
She shrugs, "Guilty."
"I'm calling the sheriff."
"You do know I can stop you." She says, moving away from the closet. "But I won't because I promised Ric I wouldn't. See, that's the kind of guy he is, not the psycho you're making him out to be."
"Evidence speaks for itself."
"You're right; it does. I guess you better make that call."
Liz walks into her office. Alyssa is sitting at her desk.
"What were you thinking?"
"That I couldn't compel her and killing her wouldn't do Rick any good."
She ignores her snide comments. "You broke the law."
"Yes, but I also found something that clears Alaric. It gives him an alibi in the Brian Walters murder."
Liz holds up a piece of paper. "You mean this?" It was a letter from the county office, like the one they found in Meridith's apartment.
"Where'd you get that?"
"Meredith Fell received it today. She brought it to me several hours ago, full of apologies for accusing an innocent man."
"Why would she have a copy hidden in her closet?"
"I can't ask those questions because of the very fact that you broke into her home to find it. Do you know how much I'm already protecting you?"
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to lose anyone else."
Sheriff Forbes sighs. "Just...get out of my office and go home. Please. Alaric will be released as soon as the letter is authenticated. Go." She gets up and leaves her office but sticks around, waiting for Rick to get released.
"Alyssa? What are you doing here?"
"Sheriff Forbes said she was letting you out soon, so I thought I'd hang around. Make sure you get home safe. You know someone did try to kill you, and I wouldn't want to see a repeat performance." She starts to walk down the stairs.
"Umm, Hey, listen, Alyssa." She stops and turns around. "The uh- the Sheriff told me about everything you did today, and while I appreciate it, I don't want you getting in trouble because of me. Okay?"
"Like I haven't been in worse trouble than this."
"That's exactly my point. I'm the one who's supposed to look after you, and I haven't been doing a good job of that."
"Aside from developing superhuman abilities, I doubt that you could."
"No. But I promise Jenna I'd look out for you when I saw her."
"How about we just agree to take care of each other?"
"Deal."
She nods, "Okay."
He follows her down the stairs and to the car.
Stefan enters his room to see Alyssa stretched on his bed, reading a journal.
"I didn't expect to see you."
"I thought you'd like to know Ric is in the clear," Alyssa tells Stefan without looking up from what she was reading. "All without touching a hair on Meridith's head. You'd be proud."
"Now, if you can only learn boundaries." He tries to take the book from her, and she moves it away from his grasp.
"Relax, it's not yours." She says, returning to reading it, and he sits beside her. "It belonged to Johnathan Gilbert, granddaughter Samantha. I found it in Meridith's things while looking to clear Rick. At first, I thought it was Johnathan's cause it reads the writings of a madman. "
"When you left, I started digging through the old family archives from the 1900s."
"What'd you find?" She sits up
"Well, nothing from 1912. They never did arrest anyone for the Founders' murders, But they did get a confession ten years later."
"Who?"
"Johnathan Gilbert's granddaughter, Samantha. They assumed she was crazy. Locked her up in an insane asylum."
"Then what?"
"Trail ends there. I mean, she was a Founder. You know how they like to look out for their own."
Damon walks in on the tail end of the conversation. "That is very weird."
Alyssa looks at him. "Why?"
"Because I'm pretty sure I had already killed her."
"Let's forget that you killed yet another relative of mine. Do you seriously think Samantha Gilbert is still alive, running around Mystic Falls, killing Founders?"
"It's not possible. If she became a vampire, we'd know about it, right?"
"Then she must have had a ring that brought her back to life," she looks between the two. "I mean, she was a Gilbert, right? Those rings were passed on for generations."
"Yeah, but even if she had a ring, she wouldn't be alive today. Doesn't protect her from old age." Damon says.
"Johnathan Gilbert only made two of those rings. Jeremy has one of them and the other's..." says Stefan.
"Alaric's."
"I think he might be right," Alyssa says after rereading the book. "Listen to this. I don't feel like myself. I'm losing time. As though I'm going mad." She puts the book down. "Alaric says he's been having blackouts and losing time. I think this is what's happening to Ric. I think the ring is affecting him."
"Then we just gotta stop him from wearing it," Damon says as the apparent solution, and Alyssa stands up. "Where are you going?"
"To find a way to keep what happened to Samantha from happening to Ric. I told him we'd look out for each other, and that's exactly what I will do."