A/N: Bet y'all thought you'd never see me again...

Of course. Of course Katherine was out. If Elijah's compulsion on me and Damon broke when he died, then she was no longer compelled to stay in the tomb, either. And I had invited her in.

"So I take it Damon's fine?" She asked. "Since he's not the one who used the dagger."

"H-how'd you know about the dagger?" No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't manage to mirror her nonchalance.

"Who do you think got it to him?" Katherine replied.

"You gave him the dagger knowing it could kill him if he used it?"

"No, I gave it to John, who gave it to Damon," She said, as if the distinction detracted from her intent. "And from what I heard I didn't think you'd care much of what happens to Damon."

"There are a lot of emotional stages in between breaking up with someone and wanting them dead." For me, at least. Maybe Katherine only knew blinding love or murderous rage.

"I had to pick one of them. That was the deal to get me out. Would you have rather I signed Stefan's death warrant?" She brought her fingers to her mouth to playfully chew on her nails. "I certainly wouldn't."

"Okay, you need to leave. Now." I said. I didn't know how I felt about Damon. The hours since we last spoke simply weren't enough for me to decide if the fact that he was compelled made up for the fact that he lied to me. But I did know I didn't want him dead.

I ran my hands over my pockets in search of my phone. Damnit. It was sitting on the kitchen counter. After a quick wager of my options, I started to back away from her and towards the kitchen.

"Relax." Katherine followed me. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"You literally held me hostage the last time I saw you." My voice did not come out as the formidable sound I intended, but rather a shrill borderline-squeak.

She rolled her eyes. She actually rolled her eyes at that. "That was for your own good," She said. "You were safe in there."

"Safe?" I stopped next to the counter. "Safe from what? The most homicidal vampire in town was trapped right beside me in that crypt."

She cocked her head to the side. "Elijah didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"Maybe he doesn't know." She traced her finger along the edge of the counter as she walked around me. "But no, he had just as much interest in breaking the curse as I did. He must have read something."

"What doesn't he know?"

"Or I could be wrong," She nudged the dustpan full of glass aside with the tip of her shoe before turning to face me. "But then again, I rarely am."

"Katherine."

"With the way information gets passed down, it's hard to know what's real and what's just the fabling of some bored villager," She continued. "It wasn't until the first time I saw you— well, second, that I finally put two and two together."

"Put what together?"

She grinned, amplifying her usual aura of a cat stalking its prey. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"I don't have time for this, Katherine." I said. My parents would be home within the hour. "If you're not here to hurt me, then talk or leave. Please."

She responded with another eye roll, and an over-dramatic huff. As if I were the one massively inconveniencing her, when she was the one who showed up at my house and committed subterfuge to get inside. She drummed her fingers on the counter as her lips pursed to the side, and I couldn't tell if she was deciding what to say or just if she was going to say it at all.

"So here's the thing, I've spent a lot of time researching Klaus's curse," She finally started, "It's not that I wanted him to break it, per se, but all's well that ends well and it would be really nice if he didn't want revenge on me anymore."

I refused to give Katherine the reaction she paused for. We already knew she wanted to break the curse. We just thought it was a different curse. Big deal.

"The witch that bound his werewolf side, well…she was twisted," She continued. "I'd almost admire her if she hadn't created such a massive inconvenience for me. But she didn't think of herself as cruel, at least not to those she deemed innocent.

"She knew that in making the doppelgänger key to breaking the curse, she was in turn cursing them to a lifetime on the run from Klaus. And in case you couldn't tell, she really didn't want him to break that curse. So she made someone to always be by the doppelgänger's side, who would always protect them," Katherine said. "She made you."

I recoiled to avoid the finger that Katherine had pointed at me, just barely resisting the urge to smack it away. "What are you talking about?"

"Were my words not perfectly clear?"

"I'm sure they were, but I don't speak manipulative skank, so maybe they got lost in translation."

"Every bone in your body, every instinct you have screams at you to protect Elena, to stop Klaus. Trust me, he wants you gone."

"You're crazy," I swerved around her so I could squat down and pick up the dustpan.

"Am I?" She asked, amusement etched all over her face.

"Or lying. Or crazy and lying."

"And you're in denial," Katherine sang out.

"I'm not anything," I dumped the broken glass into the trash can. "Katherine, you can restrain me with one arm without any sign of exertion." She responded with the sort of smile that should never accompany one of Elena's outfits. "I'm not some supernatural bodyguard. I don't care how much of an adrenaline rush I get, I know I'm no match for the oldest vampire alive."

"From what I can tell, your strength is directly proportional to the amount of danger you perceive the doppelgänger to be in. I'm not sure though, it's not like I can ask the witch." Katherine said as I put the dustpan back in the cabinet of cleaning supplies. "But you're probably right. In truth, I don't think she ever expected this game to go on for so long. As I'm sure you know, we vampires get stronger with age, and honey, I don't think you'd stand a chance against Klaus these days."

"That fits rather conveniently into your narrative." I slammed the cabinet closed a little harder than I needed to.

"Oh sweet Lucy," Katherine replied, "Always looking for lies where there are none yet can't even see the truth when it's right in front of you." She pulled a book out of her (or was it Elena's?) backpack, and set it on the counter. "You're welcome to go through this grimoire I found. See if you come to the same conclusions I did."

I squinted at the uneven ink on the pages. "I can't read that."

Katherine snatched the book back. "Well then I guess you're just going to have to learn Latin. Or trust me. I know which one's quicker."

"When have you ever given me reason to trust you?" I asked.

"I'm here, aren't I?" She replied. "I got out of the tomb, and I didn't run. I'm here to help."

Even if she made a good point, it didn't matter. The front door opened, and all that mattered was minimizing the amount of contact she had with my parents.

"My parents are home. Leave." I whispered.

She shook her head. When a breeze followed my parents into the house, she took a deep inhale before raising an eyebrow and cocking her head. Challenging me. Great. She was already considering their nutritional appeal.

"Honey, we're back." My mom called out as she rounded the corner to the kitchen. "Oh, there you are. Hello, Elena. I didn't know you were here."

Katherine wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "What better way to spend a Sunday than with my little sister?"

"Elena." I hissed.

"What was that?" My mom asked. Thankfully she had already begun to thumb through the pile of mail on the counter and her attention was split.

"Nothing!" I elbowed Katherine in the side while my mom wasn't looking.

"Would you like to stay for dinner, Elena?"

"I would love to—"

"But she can't!" I said. "We. We can't, actually. We're supposed to go see Stefan and Damon."

"Oh?" Mom raised an eyebrow. "I didn't think things were going well with Damon."

"That's why we're going over there," I replied, "To see if we can work things out."

"I see," She said. "Both of you?"

"Yep." I answered quickly. If I could just keep Katherine from getting the chance to talk, maybe we could get through this. "Moral support, you know. And Elena wants to see Stefan."

Katherine smirked at that. I'm sure she did want to see Stefan.

"Well, okay. Peter!" My mom yelled out. "Lucy's leaving. Come say hi. And goodbye."

My dad poked his head into the kitchen. Katherine crossed her arms as she eyed him.

"Hey there kiddo. You're heading out already?" He asked. "I'm starting to think you're avoiding us.

He was kidding, but he wasn't wrong. I had to avoid them. Especially if Katherine insisted on gluing herself to me right now.

She tried to grab my keys but did not put up a fight when I snatched them back and told her she would absolutely not under any circumstances be driving my car. She could deal with my very human, very mindful-of-road-laws driving.

"What did you say your dad does again?" Katherine asked once we pulled out of the garage.

"I didn't." I glared at her. "He's a lawyer."

"Interesting."

"What's interesting?"

"What kind of law requires him to go on business trips?" She asked. Nevermind that I hadn't actually said they'd been on a business trip. She'd had a few years to hone her deductive reasoning skills.

I shrugged. "Corporate. There's some big lawsuit with a medical company and he's gathering statements from people affected by the device malfunction."

"Right." Katherine tutted. "And why would corporate law require him to move to Mystic Falls?"

"I don't know, Katherine." It wasn't so much a requirement as it was an option forced to exist by my father so we could have a life in a town that wasn't haunted for us. Funny how that worked out for us. I didn't care to learn anything beyond my rudimentary knowledge of the legal world, and I didn't care to explain even the rudimentary workings of my family to Katherine.

"You're not much of a conversationalist, are you?" Katherine commented. "You haven't even told your parents that Elena's your sister."

"I've had one or two things on my mind."

"We are actually going to Stefan and Damon's, right?" She asked. "You'll help me convince them I'm here to help? Life will be so much easier if we can all just get along."

I pointedly reached for the radio and turned it up loud enough to inhibit any conversation. On my end, at least. She could still hear me over the radio, I just couldn't hear her. That was all that mattered.

As usual, the front door to the Salvatore manor was unlocked. I had tried knocking, but Katherine didn't even bother.

"Hey boys!" She yelled into the empty foyer.

With a whoosh too fast for my eyes to register, Damon entered the room and pinned Katherine in a chokehold against the front door.

"Damon!" I pushed against his forearm. I may as well have been pushing at a brick wall. She looked so much like Elena. "Damon, stop! What are you doing?"

She overpowered him, and smiled. "Hello to you too, Damon."

"Katherine." He growled.

"What the hell?" I asked. "What if that had been Elena?"

"I knew it wasn't," He said.

"How?"

"Because I'm already here." Elena said from the steps. Great.

"Oh, this is going to be fun." Katherine said, her eyes traveling to where Stefan stood, right behind Elena.

"What are you wearing?" Elena asked. "Did you break into my— nevermind, I don't want to know."

"This is disturbing." Damon muttered.

I had to agree. "Katherine, go change into something, anything else."

Katherine shrugged, and traipsed up the stairs, stopping at eye level with Elena. "She's mad at you by the way." She nodded towards me. Elena avoided my eye.

On the next step, she placed a hand on Stefan's arm. He immediately smacked it away. She laughed.

Elena waited until Katherine was out of sight, though far from out of mind, to address me. "Lucy, can we talk?"

"Now you want to talk?" I replied. "You sure didn't seem interested in talking to me when you made a plan with Elijah to turn yourself over to Klaus."

"Okay, we get it," said Damon. "There's a lot of conversations that need to be had here, but first and foremost why are you with Katherine?"

"She showed up at my house pretending to be Elena," I said.

"And you believed her?" Elena asked.

"What does she want?" Stefan asked. "What did she say to you?"

"Nothing worth repeating." Not now, at least.

"Right, because none of it's true." Damon spat out.

"Aù contraire, Mr. Salvatore." Katherine reemerged wearing a gray checked flannel and a pair of jeans much too large for her frame. "Maybe she doesn't want to repeat it because she knows it is true."

Elena gawked at Katherine. If I could recognize the shirt as Stefan's, Elena certainly could tell that Katherine was wearing his clothes.

"What?" Katherine shrugged. "You told me to change. Now what'd I miss?"

"The part where we hear one good reason why we shouldn't snap your neck and lock you in the cellar next to Elijah— oh wait, that didn't happen."

"Now now, Damon," Katherine replied, "That's no way to speak to someone who's help you so desperately need."

"I don't need your help with anything," Damon said, "Elijah's already dead."

"I know Elijah's dead," Katherine said, "I didn't think the compulsion broke by sheer luck."

"Not to mention you're the one who gave John the dagger," I muttered.

"Oh yeah, that." Katherine smiled. "Damon, you might still have a chance with her. She wasn't too happy when she found out I knew using the dagger could kill you."

As it turned out, Damon wasn't too happy about it either. He tackled Katherine down the stairs, barely giving Stefan time to pull Elena out of the warpath. One of the obnoxiously ornate plates displayed along the stairwell wasn't as lucky, and it teetered dangerously on its mounting after the two of them trampled past.

"Enough!" Stefan yelled.

"Get the hell out of my house." Damon growled down at Katherine, his hands still firmly around her neck.

"Fine, I know where I'm not wanted." Katherine eased out of his chokehold. "Maybe I'll take Lucy's mom up on her offer for dinner. Though I'm not sure being dinner is what she had in mind."

"If you're actually here to help, you can start by not threatening the people that I care about." I said. "Now apologize to Damon."

"What?"

"Apologize to Damon for nearly getting him killed."

"Fine." Katherine huffed. "Damon, I'm sorry I almost got you killed. I was getting stir crazy in that tomb, I would've done anything to get out." She said, "If it's any consolation, I'm glad you're not dead. Now do I get an apology for the two times you tried to choke me today?"

"No." The four of us replied in unison.

"Well, you all enjoy your time sitting around waiting for Klaus to show up," Katherine said, "Too bad none of you even know what he looks like or you'd at least know when to run."

"Klaus isn't coming." I said. "Elijah never got in contact with him. He has no idea Elena even exists."

"Right." Katherine nodded. "And how long do you think that will last now that Elijah's not around to kill any of Klaus's minions that come within fifty miles of here?" She asked.

Damon stepped in between her and the front door. "Why don't you tell us what you know and we can see if you've earned that apology?"

"It's all in here." Katherine pulled the book out of the backpack she had discarded by the front door.

Damon skimmed the pages for all of two seconds before slamming it shut. "Do you have anything that isn't in Latin?"

"Let me see that," said Stefan.

"You can read Latin?" I asked.

"Dead language, dead man." Stefan didn't look up from the book. "Seemed fitting." The line between his eyebrows sank deeper into his forehead. "Katherine, where did you find this book?"

"What does it say?" Elena peered over Stefan's shoulder.

"Sacrificium et custos," Stefan murmured, "The sacrifice and the guardian. The wolf side of the…double beast man was imprisoned with the sacrifice of a girl from a mystical bloodline. The witch didn't know she had a sister, a twin; the twin was so distressed at the death of her sister that she took her own life. Eventually, the first girl would be reborn, as magic would not allow any curse without also creating a way to undo it. But the witch harnessed the energy from the death of the second girl and ensured that the sacrifice would always be born with her twin, her watcher."

"Now do you believe me?" Katherine asked me.

"You could've written that yourself," I said. But some part of me knew she didn't.

"I'm still not seeing what any of this has to do with us needing your help." Damon said.

"Because," Katherine said, "His first move isn't going to be to sacrifice Elena at an Altar of Fire." She locked eyes with me. "The first thing he's going to do is kill you. He won't make the same mistake twice; he's going to get rid of anything and anyone who he thinks will stand in his way of completing the ritual. But he doesn't know that any of you know anything. We can still get the jump on him."

"Okay, first of all, there is no 'we'," Damon said. "There's us, and then there's you. Which brings me to my second point. You've given us a lot to think about here, and I think we'd rather discuss it amongst ears we trust. I think it's time for you to head off to wherever you're planning on staying in town."

"You're telling me I can't stay here?" Katherine batted her eyelashes. "God knows you have the room for it."

I scoffed and Elena muttered "Like hell."

"You're not staying here, Katherine." Stefan said with a hand on Elena's shoulder. Like a Black Lab restraining a Yorkie from attacking a German Shepard.

Katherine pouted. "That's what you say now. But once you all discuss this and realize how much sense it makes, I promise you'll want me around. You have no idea what you're dealing with."

"Why don't you find your way out, Katherine." Stefan suggested.

She sighed but looped her way around the foyer towards the front door, giving me a finger waggle wave before ducking outside, taking Stefan's clothes with her. Damon held his hand up, indicating he was listening for her footsteps to get far enough away before we spoke.

"Maybe it's not the worst idea," I said, after thinking about it for a moment. "Her staying here," I clarified when everyone looked at me. "Keep your enemies close, and all of that. Plus, she's right about none of us knowing what Klaus looks like."

"What's she gonna do, draw us a picture?" Damon asked.

I inhaled harshly as my fists found the ends of my sweatshirt sleeves clutched tightly. For a girl with the same stature as Elena, Katherine sure managed to do a lot of buffering when she was in the room. Suddenly it was just me and Damon standing on the same floor, with Stefan and Elena still standing on the stairs.

Any other day prior to this month Damon and I would have been standing as close to each other as Stefan and Elena were.

Stefan gently put his hands on Elena's arm. "We can give you guys a minute."

"Are you serious?" Elena replied. "We all need to talk about this."

"Sure." I didn't have the wherewithal to start another argument about how she picks and chooses when to talk about things. "And we will. But it doesn't matter that much anyways."

"Of course it matters," Elena said.

I shrugged. "No, actually, it doesn't. Klaus is a problem whether he wants to kill one or both of us. We already knew that."

I nodded my head to indicate that he should follow me, and he did. I walked up the stairs, past a very bewildered, cross-armed Elena and a furrow-browed Stefan, both who kept their eyes glued to me.

"Whatever this is about, make sure it's not too private," Damon said after I brought us into his bedroom and closed the door. "He can probably still hear us if he tries."

"Forgive me for at least wanting the illusion of a private conversation."

I had gotten used to the lack of privacy. Unless they were each in their bedrooms, which were on separate floors and opposite sides of the house, each of them could at least make out a few words if they really honed in.

"Look, I know…I know I owe you a conversation, after last night—"

"You don't owe me anything," He said.

"I do," I whispered back. "I just don't know what to say."

"You pulled me aside to talk…to tell me that you're not ready to talk?" He asked.

I laughed but it came out a little choked. We could thank Stefan for that one.

"I just…I need time to sit with my choices before I make any more. Because I've made a lot of the wrong ones lately." I said. "I need to know that I actually trust you, not just that I miss you."

"You're worried about trusting me but you're not worried about trusting Katherine?" Damon asked with wide eyes and a half-upturned lip.

"I don't trust her," I said. "But she's right. Klaus could be here any day now without Elijah around to hold him at bay, and we have no clue what he looks like. What else do I have but her?"

"You have me." He took a step closer to me.

"Don't." I shook my head. "Damon, you don't have to do that. I haven't been fair to you."

He had no idea of the ways in which I hadn't been fair to him. It wasn't the time to tell him about my brief albeit weighted dalliances with Elijah. Maybe it never would be; maybe I'd take that secret to my grave. No matter the dishonest circumstances under which our brief albeit weighted dalliance took place, the point still stood that it took all of five seconds after having my heart broken by Damon for me to open up to Elijah. What did it say about me if it only took me another five seconds for me to run back to Damon after learning of Elijah's betrayal.

"My love for you is not contingent on you loving me," Damon replied. "Even if you never forgive me for lying to you, even if you never feel you can trust me again, I'll protect both of you. Whatever it takes."

I couldn't tell him that his willingness to do whatever it takes might have been what scared me most of all.