Stefan felt a jolt of shock as Caroline's words hit him. He clutched the phone to his ear, his voice rising in disbelief.

"What?" He couldn't believe what she had just revealed to him. "Do you know why she did it?"

"No." Caroline replied, her voice weary and worried. He could hear the beeping of machines and the murmuring of people in the background. "She's still unconscious in the hospital so my mom hasn't been able to question her yet."

"What about Matt. How's he taking everything?"

"How's he taking everything?" Caroline repeated, her tone dripping with sarcasm. "He's not exactly thrilled about any of this." She sighed, sounding exhausted. "Sorry, It's been a long night. Between this and finding out my secret, he's pretty much in shock and I'm not sure I'm doing much better."

"Do you need me to come to the hospital?" Stefan offered, concerned for his friend, for both his friends really.

"No. Thanks, but I'm gonna take Matt home so he can shower and rest, before we have a talk about everything."

"How much does he know?"

"He knows I'm a vampire, but we haven't had a chance to talk about what that means yet. He did promise to keep it a secret until we can talk about it."

"Do you need some moral support?" Stefan asked, knowing how difficult it could be to have that conversation. Especially when it was with someone you cared about.

"Not right now, but maybe later." Caroline admitted, sounding grateful for his offer. "Tyler's gonna be there. He brought Vicki to the hospital last night and stayed with us while we waited for news. He's gonna go home change and meet us at Matt and Vicki's house."

"Okay. Call me if you need anything." Stefan said softly.

"Thanks Stefan."

Stefan ended the call with a sigh and headed to the den where everyone was gathered to update them on this latest news. When he walked in, he saw Damon was on the phone himself, a frown on his face as he listened to whoever was on the other end of the call. Maya was curled up on her favourite armchair, quietly reading one of the letters Lexi had hand-delivered that morning. There was a pile of unopened ones on the coffee table in front of her. Maggie, Enzo, Lexi, and Lee were gathered on two of the sofa's engaged in quiet conversation, the tone of it seemed pretty casual, so Stefan guessed they were waiting for Damon to finish his phone call before getting into more serious topics of conversation.

"No." Damon said, worry and strain in his voice. "I get it. Just don't invite her in and don't let anyone else invite her in either. I'll be over there as soon as I can."

He listened to whatever the response was before saying goodbye and ending the call. He tossed the phone on the coffee table and rubbed his tables, causing everyone to look up in concern.

"What was that about?" Stefan asked, as he sat down.

"That. Was Jenna." Damon replied, his eyes dark and angry. "Isobel is back in town. She turned up at the Gilbert House last night, wanting to speak to Elena. Who at the very least had enough sense to shut the door in her face."

"What's she doing here?"

"I don't know. That's what I'm hopefully gonna go find out." He looked over at Lexi, "You okay tabling discussions about Pettigrew until the more pressing matter has been dealt with?"

"Sure. It will give me time to catch up with my favourite niece." Lexi said brightly, making Maya laugh.

"I'm your only niece, Aunty Lexi." Maya replied.

"True. Doesn't mean you can't be my favourite." Lexi replied with a wink.

"Speaking of pressing matters." Stefan said before they could get sidetracked. "Caroline just called me."

"What's happened now?" Damon asked, his voice tense. Knowing from Stefan's expression that it wasn't good news.

"Kelly Donovan is in the hospital and also under arrest. She attempted to run Matt and Caroline over last night." Stefan waited for the explosion of shock, anger, and the vase that had been next to Maya, to finish before continuing. "Caroline moved them out of the way so neither of them were hurt, but Matt knows she's a vampire now and because of what happened she hasn't had a chance to properly explain anything to him."

"But she's going to, right?" Damon asked, "Compel him to forget if he doesn't take it well?"

"Yes, and yes." Stefan replied with a quick nod, "I offered her my support and she said she'd call if she needed it. They were still at the hospital, but she was planning on taking him home and letting him rest before giving him the in-depth explanation. He's apparently pretty shook up by it all. It was his mom who attempted to kill them after all."

"Was she behind everything else as well?" Maya asked, expression tight and angry. "The car accident, and killing Caroline in the hospital?"

"She's still unconscious so she hasn't been questioned yet, but according to what Caroline said, her mom thinks it's likely."

"Why would she do that?!"

"We don't know. We won't know until the Sheriff, or more likely her deputies given Caroline's involvement, questions her."

Stefan sent a worried glance to Damon, noticing how white Maya's knuckles were getting. All in all, the single vase that had exploded was an easy clean-up and not that much of a slip of Maya's control. But Stefan could tell she was heading for a much bigger display of temper and was hoping Damon would be able to head it off before it got to that point. Damon stood up and moved over to Maya's chair, lifting her up and sitting down on it with her in his arms, holding her tightly and rubbing a soothing hand up and down her arm.

"The important thing right now kiddo is that Caroline is okay. Right Stefan?" Damon said, keeping his tone calm.

"Yeah, Caroline's fine not even a scratch. She was able to get herself and Matt out of the way before the car hit them."

"And Kelly's under arrest, kiddo. She won't be able to harm Caroline or anyone else. But because she's under arrest, you need to leave this to the Sheriff and her deputies."

"I want –"

"I know you do kiddo, so do I. But we need to leave this one up to non-magical justice, okay?"

"How about we go out for a girl's day?" Lexi suggested, "Just you, me, and Maggie. We could go to Richmond, do some shopping, get our nails done?"

Damon shot her a grateful look, as Maya started to relax a little, letting go of her anger and nodding.

"I'd like that."

"Great!" Lexi smiled brilliantly, "We'll leave the boys here to deal with Mystic Falls usual chaos, and go have a fun day out."

Damon, John's body hefted over his shoulder, walked into the living room, and dumped him on the carpet without a care. Eliciting a raised eyebrow from Elijah, a snort of amusement from Enzo, and a shake of the head from Lee.

"I would have much preferred to kill him myself, but thank you." Elijah said calmly, sipping his drink.

Enzo laughed loudly and even Damon couldn't quite supress a vicious grin.

"Sorry to disappoint Elijah, but he's not dead." Damon drawled, amusement colouring his tone. "Well, he is, but it's temporary."

"You fed him your blood?" Elijah raised an eyebrow again, torn between amusement and curiosity.

"Nope." Damon shook his head. "Gilbert's have these rings. Old family heirlooms that protects the wearer from death by a supernatural entity. Give it a while and he'll be back up walking around and irritating the rest of the populace."

"I see."

An anxious looking Jenna hurried in, followed by a much more relaxed Jeremy. She looked at John's body sprawled out on the floor and then looked over at Damon accusingly.

"I thought you said he'd wake up."

"He will, might take a couple of hours though." Damon shrugged and examined the blood that coated his hands and shirt. "I'm gonna go wash up and change my shirt. Back in a moment."

He left the small group behind and headed for his bathroom, washing his hands, and taking off his shirt, dumping it in the wash basket and heading for the closet. He was just pulling out another shirt when his phone rang.

"Stefan? How'd I beat you and Elena back here?... What? I'm on my way."

He quickly pulled the shirt on and buttoned it up as he headed back down to the others.

"Elena's missing." He announced as he entered the room.

"What?!"

"How?!"

"When?!"

Damon held up his hands gesturing for calm.

"That was Stefan. Katherine was impersonating Elena and when he figured it out, she vervained him and tossed him in the bushes. Given that John was clearly killed by a vampire, we gotta assume it was Isobel and Katherine used the distraction to switch places with Elena."

"Why would Isobel take Elena? I thought she was supposed to be helping protect her!" Jenna exclaimed "That's what her and John claimed this morning."

"We need to assume that Isobel is working with Katherine. If Pearl's correct Katherine is looking to strike a deal with Niklaus, a pardon for handing over all the ingredients to break the curse." Damon looked over at Elijah who was looking thoughtful.

Eventually the Original nodded.

"It would be just like Katherine to assume she can strike a deal with my brother."

"So, what, Katherine and Isobela re just going to hand Elena over to the guy who wants to kill her?" Jenna asked, fear in her eyes. "We have to find them. Stop them."

"They won't have gone far." Elijah mused, "They don't have the moonstone."

"I turned Isobel, trained her, taught her some tricks to get by. She will most likely be at the nicest foreclosure in town." Damon told him. "I know where it is."

"I will accompany you. I believe it's time Katerina and I had another little chat."

Caroline wrung her hands anxiously as she paced up and down in front of Matt. This isn't how she'd though she'd end up telling him. She'd envisioned it all so differently in her head. She certainly hadn't imagined it playing out how it had so far. When she had thought about it, she'd assumed they'd be in a good place in their relationship. They'd be a strong couple, able to face anything together. She'd imagined sitting him down and breaking it to him gently, explaining it all. She'd never even considered him finding out the way he did.

That his mom had just tried to run them over and had potentially been behind the other incidents as well just made the whole thing exponentially more difficult.

"Care." Matt's voice was gentle, but Caroline flinched like he'd been screaming at her. "Care." He repeated, softer this time, "Just start from the beginning."

"Okay. Okay." She nodded. "I can do that. The beginning."

"Care. I can't promise I'm gonna be able to understand or accept everything you tell me, but I'm not going to hurt you. I promise."

She choked out a quiet laugh, not quite sure how to tell him that there wasn't much that would hurt her these days.

"Okay. It was the car accident after the Founder's day parade. I was dying, or close to it."

"I remember. You and Vicki both were, the doctors didn't know if either of you were gonna make it, but then you both got better…" Matt trailed off, a look of alarm appearing on his face. "Oh my God! Vicki. Is my sister a vampire as well?"

"No!" Caroline shook her head "no, Matt, no. Vicki's not a vampire. Damon gave us both his blood, that's why we healed so quickly. Because that's what vampire blood does for humans, it heals them."

"Damon? Damon Salvatore? Stefan's brother?"

"Yeah. Damon's a vampire, so is Stefan. They've both been helping me, teaching me since it happened."

"This… This is a lot."

"I know, Matt. I know. Look just let me explain everything. Tell you the whole story."

He nodded.

"Okay, so Damon gave us his blood to help us heal, and that should have been it. But the next night, someone came into my hospital room, and they killed me."

"You… You died?"

Caroline nodded, eyes swimming with tears, it wasn't something she liked to think too much about.

"I did. But I still had Damon's blood in my system, so I woke up again. It's called being in transition, and you can either feed on human blood and complete it, or you can refuse, and you'll just slowly fade away, I guess, but basically, you'd be dead. Completely. Forever." She paused and took a deep breath. "I didn't know any of this. I was alone and I had no clue what was happening to me, and I ended up stealing a blood bag and drinking it, completing the transition."

"Was that my mom too?" He asked, sounding pained. "Was it all my mom? The car accident, killing you in the hospital. I mean what else has she done?"

"I don't know Matt. I don't. My mom's gonna question her and find out."

Matt nodded shakily, anger and hurt swimming in his eyes.

"Tell me the rest." He said after a moment.

"Is that Isobel's?" Stefan asked, referring to the necklace clutched in Elena's hands.

Damon had just explained to everyone what had happened since he and Elijah had left to collect Stefan and go searching for Isobel, Katherine, and Elena. A futile endeavour which had ended when Elena had rung Stefan and told him Isobel had driven them out to Grove Hill Cemetery before killing herself and leaving Elena on her own.

Elena released a shaky breath and nodded.

"I never thought I would feel bad about her being dead, and yet…"

"She was your mother." Stefan said, finishing Elena's sentence when she couldn't.

"Why did they let me go?" Elena asked, looking at Elijah.

"We should assume that Niklaus knows everything John told Isobel. We will have to wait for him to awaken before ascertaining the extent of that. But let us at least assume that he knows that you have no plans to turn yourself into a vampire. He knows that you have people keeping you safe and who those people are and –"

"He knows I'm not gonna run." Elena finished.

"Precisely." Elijah said with a nod, "Now we should also assume that Niklaus is in town or will be very soon and most likely has Katerina. He would not have accepted any deal she offered him, and as Isobel had clearly been compelled, I imagine one of the tasks he gave her was to deliver Katerina, either to himself or whoever he has doing his dirty work for him."

"So, Katherine's dead?" Elena asked, looking quite relieved at the thought.

Maya scowled at her, she was sympathetic, but only up to a point. Out of the two doppelgangers, she liked Katherine better.

"I doubt that. Not Niklaus' style. Death would be too easy for her after what she did."

Before anyone could question that statement, John heaved and gasped in a few breaths as he sat up. Elijah sped over and lifted him up by his collar and tossed him into an armchair. John gaped at him, completely taken aback by his presence, presumably still believing that Elijah was daggered and tucked away.

"E…Elijah?"

"We require some answers from you Mr Gilbert. Since I am already considerably angry about your actions towards me, I suggest you not try my patience."

"I swear I had no idea what she was gonna do. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

He's words were aimed at Elena, who stared back at him, before turning her head away. John instantly deflated and turned his head back towards Elijah.

"What do you want to know?" He asked woodenly.

"So, after I hurt you in the woods, I made you forget and I promised myself I would stay away from you, but I-I couldn't...'Cause I love you. I do. I love you, Matt, so much." Caroline's voice trembled as she poured out her heart to him. "And I really wish you'd say something."

"What do you want me to say Care?"

"Something. Anything. Tell me you're okay with this. Or tell me you're not. Just please tell me something!" Caroline begged, her eyes swimming with tears.

She could see the hurt and confusion in Matt's eyes and she wished she could erase it, go back to being how they had before everything had gone wrong. She didn't want to wipe his memory again though, didn't want to compel this away, because she was still hopeful that he could accept her for what she was now.

"All my friends are liars." Matt's voice was soft, but Caroline still flinched at the accusation.

"No, Matt. No. That's not true."

"Yes, it is! You're a vampire. Stefan's a vampire. Tyler's a werewolf. Bonnie's a witch. Elena's a doppelganger. You've all known about this for months and kept me in the dark."

"I haven't." Caroline said gently, "I've known for just over a month, before that I was just as in the dark as you were. Everyone was just trying to protect us, that's all."

"Yeah, well it didn't work, did it?"

"No." Caroline sunk down onto the sofa next to him, relieved when he didn't flinch away. "No, it didn't. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before now, I just… I needed –"

"Time to wrap your head around things." Matt suggested.

"Yeah. I needed time."

"Okay. Well, that's what I need to, Care. I need time. Between this and my mom… it's just too much to deal with at once."

"What can I do?"

"Give me some time. I won't tell anyone what you told me I promise. But please, give me some time."

"Okay." Caroline hated how small her voice sounded. "What about us? As a couple?"

"That's part of what I need the time to figure out. Please accept that."

"I do. I will. Just please don't be angry at everyone. We only wanted to protect you. This world, there are things… sometimes it's easier, better. If you don't know."

Katherine came to slowly, her head still aching from the witch taking her down. She turned her head towards the voice she could hear and saw the witch who'd knocked her out. He was standing in front of a guy who was sitting in a chair that was facing away from her. There was a glass vase on either side of the chair, on half filled with blood, the other empty and knocked over on its side. The witch had a hand on either side of the person who was sitting in the chair's head and was chanting in a low voice.

She started to push herself up into a seated position. Looking around and trying to figure out where she was as she did so. A glance down showed the vervain-filled necklace she'd stolen from Elena was missing.

The witch stopped chanting and the guy who'd been sitting in the chair, pulled something off of each arm as she watched and stood up slowly. The witch gave him a low bow. A servant to a master.

He turned his head in her direction as she pushed herself to her feet. She was shocked to recognise him.

"Alaric?"

The smile that crossed his face made her incredibly uneasy and she raced towards the door, pulling it open and attempting to leave. It was like hitting an invisible wall. As if she'd been attempting to enter a home without invitation instead of leaving one. She turned around to face Alaric, who she could hear slowly approaching her.

"Zdravei, Katerina."

He took her face in his hands as terror ricocheted through her.

"I have missed you."

"Klaus."