Addendum

by SergeantPixie

When Dean shows up to ask Sam to help him find their father, he isn't alone. (aka Elena in season one of Supernatural) SLOW BURN

23. She Sought Death

AN: Emkay I can't look at this anymore so here you go, lmao. I have been editing it this entire time and it's been a bitch every fucking step of the way. Satisfied is not exactly the word for what I'm feeling, but I am definitely done writing this, so! Also, I did up the rating on purpose. Without further ado, here it is! Enjoy!

Addendum

(n.)

A thing to be added; an addition.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Home Redux

aka

She Sought Death

Manning, Colorado: July 2018

"Elena had us arrested for robbing a museum," Sam says calmly from inside a jail cell.

"And she's the one who took the painting from the house and left it in Dean's car," John adds from his place across the cell from him.

"I think she might be a genius," Sam says solemnly, still trying to wrap his mind around the depth of Elena's scheming.

"I'm gonna kick her ass when we catch up to her," Dean says grimly. He's sitting on his own separate bench on another side of the cell.

"Sure, you will," John says wryly. "But first, where did she go?"

Dean looks confused so John elaborates.

"You said you knew where she'd go first, where is that?" he asks.

"To see Jeremy," Dean says immediately. "No matter what, she won't do anything without saying goodbye to him properly. Especially 'cause they had a fight when we were there."

John nods. "Okay. Good. So, we need to work out our phone calls."

"Shouldn't we call a lawyer?" Sam asks. "This is a felony. Elena set us up to take the fall for a felony. I'm pretty sure we need a lawyer."

John shakes his head.

"No, that's a waste of time, I've got a better plan." He looks between his sons.

---

"Klaus Mikaelson? This is John Winchester. We've got a problem."

---

"You've got a much scarier opponent than any of the things we've hunted," Dean is saying into the phone. "You've gotta be on your A-Game, Jer."

"It's just my sister," Jeremy says, bemused.

Dean shakes his head, looking up.

"Yeah, Jeremy, it's your sister who knows everything about you, every single little tell, and won't hesitate to exploit any perceived weakness if she figures out that you might be stalling her so that we can maybe get there in time," Dean reminds him.

"Elena's biggest fear is being the reason that she loses more of the people she cares about, and Alaric just dialed that up to a thousand. She's a fucking timebomb of survivor's guilt and hunter's intuition and it's all being piloted by the single most strategic mind the world has ever seen." Dean shakes his head, agitated. "She strategizes her drink orders, for christ's sake."

Jeremy sighs. "It's not like I don't know she's ruthless. She's always been like that. You should've seen the things she did to the other cheerleaders when they pissed her off." He snorts. "You know she once had me compelled by a vampire because I was upset after my girlfriend died, right?"

Dean absorbs this. "No, no I did not know that."

"Yeah, well, she did. So, I've got this. You just focus on getting here, and maybe have some idea on how to get her to stop taking off," Jeremy says in a rush. "And you know, not having any of us arrested so she can make her getaway again."

---

"Speak."

The voice on the other end of the phone is so familiar but so wrong. It's lower, throatier, and has none of that dulcet kindness that permeates Elena's tone more often than not.

"Katherine?" Sam says, hesitant. "This is uh, this is Sam Winchester. My dad told me to call you."

A pause, then, "Sam Winchester?" She sounds delighted, and that makes him shudder.

"You sound so similar," Sam blurts out without thinking.

"You should see us side by side," she reminds him slyly. "I'm prettier, of course."

"It's freaky," he says, ignoring her boasting.

"Like freaky fun?" she asks. "I like freaky fun."

"No," he says decisively.

"Too bad." He can practically hear her pouting through the phone. "It's been ages since I had brothers to play with."

"I don't think my brother's gonna wanna play with you," Sam says, amused.

"What about you, Sammy?" she asks, tone glittering. "Do you wanna play with me?"

"No," he says again, still decisive. "I want you to help us save Elena."

"What did she get herself into now?" There's a glimmer of very real emotion in her tone now. This is why she is on John's emergency call list: she cares deeply for Elena; Sam can hear it in her voice.

"We saw Alaric, and now she's gone," Sam starts. "And she had us arrested to stop us from coming after her."

Silence, then - "Fuck me," she exhales. "Tell me everything."

---

Back in the cell, Sam decides it's time to talk about the elephant in the room.

"So, Dad, while we wait, why don't you fill us in on what Elena didn't have a chance to tell us before she took off," he says.

John glares. "Now isn't the time, Sam."

Dean chimes in. "Actually, pretty sure this is the perfect time."

"Fine," John concedes. "Why don't you tell me what you've learned, and I'll fill in the blanks the best I can."

---

"Dad," Sam says finally, gathering his courage. "Did you know about Elena's teacher?" he asks.

John goes so still that Sam has his answer without him ever opening his mouth.

"What's he talking about, Dad?" Dean asks, confused.

"Yes," John says, answering Sam's question. "She doesn't like to talk about it. But yes, I knew." He frowns. "How'd you know?"

Sam shifts. "I found the article in the Mystic Falls Courier," he admits. "I found another one saying he was killed by an animal attack?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Vampire," John answers his unasked question.

Sam nods. "At least they're good for something."

John snorts. "Agreed."

"Does anyone want to fill me in on what I'm missing?" Dean asks, tense. "What about Elena's teacher?"

John and Sam stare at each other, willing the other to find the words.

Finally, John finds the words.

"Elena had an abortion," he says. "About a month before her parents' death."

The silence is ringing.

"What's this about an article?" Dean finally asks, his voice hoarse.

Sam takes this one.

"Right after she left with you guys," he starts. "Right before Thanksgiving, an anonymous article was published in the local paper. Detailing the abortion and the way that teacher – he was also the football coach – harassed another girl. That girl later drove Elena to her abortion." Sam hesitates but adds. "She used pseudonyms, but it wasn't hard to figure out it was Elena."

"And he's dead now?" Dean asks, jaw clenched.

"Had his throat ripped out in the parking lot during a football game," John says with some satisfaction.

"Good," Dean says succinctly.

"It was titled Why She Left," Sam adds. "That's why it caught my eye. I realized it lined up with Elena leaving."

"Thanksgiving," Dean says softly. "We were in Florida."

"Florida?" Sam asks.

Dean nods. "Just the two of us. Dad had me training her, an old buddy of his had a gun range and plenty of space to put Elena through her paces."

John narrows his eyes. "That when you met the siren?" he recalls.

Dean nods.

"Siren?" Sam asks.

"Uh, yeah, Dad's buddy was shacking up with one, didn't even know it." Dean hesitates, still unsure how to explain what happened all these years later. "It kinda lost its shit about Elena, said she couldn't resist her."

"She couldn't resist her?" Sam echoes.

Dean nods. "Siren killed the hunter just for insulting Elena."

"Wow," Sam says, stunned. "Is the doppelganger allure that strong?" he asks, fascinated. "I've come across some theories that it's a survival mechanism, but I didn't think it could disrupt the siren's venom."

"The siren said it was like trying to fight against gravity," Dean says. "What's Jupiter compared to the Sun?' That's what it said, according to Elena."

John frowns.

"As the largest planet, Jupiter has the strongest gravitational pull," Sam explains. "But Jupiter is just a planet. The sun is a star. It's much larger, so it's gravitational pull is stronger."

Sam considers this analogy. "Jupiter orbits the Sun too," he points out absentmindedly, just thinking aloud.

Dean surprises him by nodding gravely. "You should've seen the way the siren looked at Elena. Like it feared her – like it worshipped her."

"Did Elena kill the siren the way she killed the shapeshifter and the shritgu?" Sam asks.

"Sort of," Dean says. "The siren knew it would happen; it just couldn't leave her alone. It was like the siren became the victim of the lure of another stronger siren."

"I don't know what's scarier about Elena," Sam says. "The effect she has on people, or the way she's always fifty moves ahead."

"The second one," John says instantly.

"Definitely the second one," Dean agrees.

Sam nods in acceptance. The first one wouldn't mean very much at all if it wasn't for the second.

"How many doppelgangers have there been?" Sam asks.

John frowns. "It's hard to say. Research suggests Elena's bloodline is the only true doppelganger lineage, the rest of them are just very similar – but side by side the flaws would be obvious."

"And you've seen Elena and her doppelganger side by side?" Sam asks.

John works his jaw, but he nods. "You'd never know. Katherine's a fucking vampire but you put her right next to Elena and it's like they're the same person."

For a moment they are silent, contemplating what horrors a vampire that looks just like Elena – that has the same allure and face and absurd laugh – could do to its unsuspecting victims.

"So, is there a number for Elena's bloodline?" Dean asks.

"At least three that we know of," John answers reluctantly. "Including Elena." He hesitates before continuing. "But I think there's more. I think it goes back to ancient times."

"Like how far back are we talking?" Sam asks.

"I'm pretty damn sure that if you tracked the bloodline back far enough, you would find that hers was the face that launched a thousand ships," John answers.

Sam and Dean absorb this for a moment.

"You don't mean…" Sam trails off.

Dean shrugs. "It makes sense to me."

"It does?" Sam asks dumbly.

"If there was ever a girl I could see people going to war for, it would be Elena," Dean says. "So, yeah, it makes perfect sense."

Sam can't argue. He knows this isn't Dean's feelings for Elena coloring his perception of her effect on others. Elena is that magnetic. Elena is the Sun, even Jupiter has to bow to her pull.

---

Brooklyn, New York

Elena takes a deep, steadying breath, then she pushes the buzzer to Jeremy's apartment.

"Yeah?" Jeremy's voice is hesitant.

The sound of his voice is so dear and familiar she has to swallow a lump in her throat before she can answer.

"It's Elena," she says. "Can you buzz me up? It's important."

There is a pause.

In his apartment, Jeremy takes a deep breath, remembers what Dean said. He buzzes her in.

When Elena walks through his door she immediately turns to leave.

"Ah-Ah-Ah, Joan," Damon says. "Not so fast."

Elena narrows her eyes. "Joan?"

"Of Arc," he clarifies. "If you're gonna act like a martyr…"

"Fuck you," Elena spits. A twist of her mouth then, "Not it."

He flinches. She smirks.

"All right," Jeremy says warily. "Now that Damon's established he's still a dick, would you let me explain?"

Elena examines the faces in front of her, ghosts from the past crowded into her brother's home. When she gets to the last she looks away immediately, making him flinch.

"Yeah, I really would like to know why half the population of Mystic Falls is standing in your Brooklyn loft, Jeremy." She cocks her head to the side. "And Katherine," she adds, smiling in bemusement at her doppelganger.

"Missed you too, Gorgeous," Kat answers, winking at her.

"Former residents," Caroline pipes up, throwing a cautious look at Katherine.

"Caroline lives in D.C. and I live in Massachusetts now, Elena," Bonnie continues. "Williamstown."

"Which you would know if you ever bothered to read my emails," Caroline adds.

"No, I read them. I was just generalizing for effect," Elena says. "Congratulations on getting into GW, Caroline. And you too, Bonnie, congrats on Williams."

"So, you just don't have the time to reply?" Caroline persists, sounding hurt.

"Guys, I thought we agreed we wouldn't hound her about this?" Tyler reminds them.

"You're the only one who's even seen her in the past three years, Tyler," Caroline shoots back. "I think the rest of us have a right to be a little perturbed here."

"I didn't see the point in sowing false hope," Elena replies flatly, surprising everyone. That brings the room to a standstill. She takes a deep breath. "Now, what are they all doing here, Jeremy?"

Jeremy looks caught.

Elena sighs. "Dean called you didn't he?" she asks.

"Maybe," Jeremy says after a pause.

"And they called you?" she asks Kat.

"Your boyfriend's brother has a really sexy voice," is Kat's answer.

Elena snorts, shaking her head. "Leave Sam alone," she says automatically.

Katherine pouts. "You're no fun!"

"You are the fun one," Elena says agreeably, sound impossibly fond of her, making more than a few people in the room uncomfortable.

"I really thought they'd be more prudent with their phone calls," Elena says, continuing her previous thought. "They only had three." She narrows her eyes. "Who else did they call?"

"You're quick," Damon observes. "You've always been quick, but did you get quicker while you were out hunting nightmares?"

"I know Dean," Elena replies simply. "And he knows me," she adds. She rolls her eyes, and there's something so tender about the expression on her face that it cuts through more than one heart in the room. "Of course, he knows where I'd go first."

Just then the buzzer for Jeremy's door goes off.

Elena looks at Jeremy. "That's him isn't it?"

Jeremy nods guiltily.

"I cannot believe John called Klaus," she says with a shake of her head.

"Seriously, it's freaky how much of this you're figuring out on your own," Damon says.

Elena shrugs. "The Winchesters are my family. I know them, which is why I'm surprised John actually went to Klaus of all people for help."

"Dean?" Jeremy asks through the intercom.

"You got all the entrances blocked?"

Elena's surprised by how quickly a lump forms in her throat just at the sound of his voice. With a sigh, she sits at one of the stools at the kitchen island.

Jeremy takes note of this immediately.

"We're covered," he tells Dean, then buzzes him up.

"Don't try to run, buttercup," Damon says patronizingly.

Elena rolls her eyes. "There's only one exit," she says archly.

She smiles at him, and he flinches. "Which means the only place to run is…" she cuts herself off. A knock resounds on the door.

"Right into his arms."

Jeremy opens the door and Elena's right; Dean is first through the door. Sam and John trail after him. Elena raises her chin a little, meeting his glare head-on.

"Well, this is awkward," Damon says.

"You're not really a part of this," Sam says.

"And you are?" Dean asks rhetorically.

"She got me arrested too!" Sam reminds him.

"Yes but she didn't-" Dean cuts himself off.

Understanding dawns on Elena's face and she softens even as she rolls her eyes at him.

"I wasn't trying to distract you," she tells him. "I promise," she adds. "I would never-" her voices catches. "I would never do that to you."

"Well, this has been cute," Damon says dryly. "But we do need to get on with the show-"

"Ugh! Shut up, Damon," Caroline cuts him off. "However, unfortunately, Damon is right, we need to explain to Elena and her hunters why we're here."

"Why are you here?" John asks.

"We're here to help," Caroline says. "Well, Bonnie, Tyler, Stefan and I are here to help, I'm not really sure about the other two."

Elena's face twitches imperceptibly at the last name. She's been trying so hard to ignore him.

"Of course I'm here to help," Damon says, genuinely offended.

"I don't have to justify my presence to you, Caroline," Katherine says. "Unlike the rest of you, I've been helping Elena this entire time." She leers. "Little Sammy called me himself."

"Please don't call me that," Sam says, petrified.

"Hmm, you're right," Katherine agrees. "You are so not little, Sammy." She looks him up and down like she's so starving that she doesn't quite know where to start.

"Katherine," Elena says admonishingly. "Behave." Her lip twitches like she wants to smile.

"Anything for you, little sister." The vampire blows a kiss to her doppelganger.

"I'm so uncomfortable right now," Sam admits.

"Yeah, this is really weird," Dean agrees.

"Why?" Elena asks.

"She looks like the porn star version of you," Dean blurts out.

Katherine looks both amused and offended.

Damon laughs so hard he nearly falls over, only increasing Katherine's ire.

Elena's reply is dry as bone. "Well, you would know."

"Hey, I have never denied that you are exactly my type," Dean says without an ounce of shame.

Elena shakes her head, a smile threatening at the corner of her mouth.

"We are very off topic, now," Caroline says, looking between Dean and Elena with amusement.

"Shh," Katherine shushes her. "This is a big moment."

"No, they've gotten here before," Sam tells her. "They just will not move past the incredibly inappropriate public flirting stage into anything serious."

"Mind your own business, Sammy," Dean says, but something in his voice gives them away.

"Wait," Sam says. "Did something actually happen?"

"Oh, something totally happened," Katherine says. "A sister always knows."

"Since when are you two all buddy-buddy?" Damon asks, confused.

"Since she spent two and a half years pretending to be me in order to keep Alaric off my trail," Elena snaps, glaring at him.

"Damon, you're ruining the moment," Jeremy says. "This is literally years in the making."

"So, wait, you two aren't together?" Caroline asks, genuinely confused.

Elena and Dean exchange a long look. Dean finally shrugs and gestures at Elena to answer.

"We haven't had a chance to talk about it yet," she says finally.

"I thought you were dating like this whole time," Caroline says.

"Dean didn't even know he liked me like that until last year," Elena replies.

"Wait, you knew this entire time?" Dean asks. "You knew when I didn't know?"

"Well, yeah," she says, sounding almost shy and very unlike Elena Gilbert.

Dean looks surprised but glances around the room at the other people in the room.

"I think we need to table this conversation for another time," he says finally.

Elena nods in agreement. "And I think I'd like to know why the rest of you are here now."

"Wait, wait, wait," Sam says. "I wanna know what happened."

"That's private, Sammy," Dean replies immediately.

"They kissed," John says, cutting through the bullshit and immediately attracting both Elena and Dean's ire.

"You kissed?" Jeremy asks, ecstatic.

Elena stops glaring at John long enough to reluctantly answer.

"Yes, but that's between us."

"So wait, you finally kissed him," Sam cuts in, ignoring Elena. "And then you had us arrested?"

"I didn't plan to do it like that," she says carefully. "Now can we please get back on track?"

"Yeah, 'cause once again, Sammy: none of your business."

Sam rolls his eyes. "I've had eight months of riding shotgun with the two of you and your unresolved sexual tension, I think I've earned a little dish."

Dean opens his mouth to argue but Elena cuts him off.

"Maybe you have," she says, surprising Dean. "But no one else here has, so it can wait."

Sam lets out a long-suffering sigh but nods in agreement. "Carry on." He gestures at Bonnie and Caroline.

"Right." Bonnie nods. She and Caroline exchange a look. "I can help you," she says simply.

"No, you can't," Elena interrupts before they can even begin. She shakes her head. "No, you can't," she repeats in a quiet, firm voice.

She looks between the two groups, the Winchesters and her brother beside her and her old friends in front of her.

"This was only ever going to end one way," she says firmly. "We've just been fooling ourselves this whole time. There's only ever been one way to stop Alaric."

"That's not an option, Gilbert," Dean says immediately. "Get that idea outta your head, right now."

Elena shakes her head. "I can't run forever, Dean," she says.

"You don't have to," Caroline pipes up.

"Really, Elena," Bonnie adds. "I can help."

"Worst case scenario, we feed her a little vampire blood then…" Damon makes a neck snapping motion.

"Over your dead body," Dean says evenly.

"Agreed," Elena adds, the look on her face making it clear which of them would be wielding the stake.

"Shut up, Damon," Caroline says, rolling her eyes. "Seriously, Stefan, you had to bring him with you?"

Stefan sighs. "In his defense, you and Bonnie haven't told us anything about your plans."

"Because we only want to say this once," Caroline reminds him. "Keep going, Bonnie."

"Ever since you left I've been looking for a way to stop him," Bonnie continues. "I've been looking for a way to bring you home, Elena." She smiles. "I figured it out."

"You figured out a way to incapacitate him?" John asks, sounding intrigued.

Bonnie shakes her head. "No," she says. "I figured out how to fix him."

Elena's head snaps up. "You mean..?"

Bonnie nods. "I can make him Alaric again."

"You're not saying you can make him human again?" John asks.

Bonnie shakes her head. "No, not human. He'll still be an original vampire, but he won't be his evil alter ego, he'll be the Alaric we remember."

"And you're sure?" John checks. Vampire isn't ideal, but cognizant is better than nothing. At least Elena won't be in direct opposition with him any longer.

Bonnie nods. "The spell is clear. I can do this."

"How did you even know to come?" Elena asks.

"That would be me," Tyler admits. "You sounded freaked when we talked."

"Tyler called Caroline, Damon inserted his ass into the conversation," Jeremy explains. "Then Bonnie called me. They all got the message eventually: Elena needs us."

"Avengers Assemble and all that?" Elena asks teasingly.

Jeremy shrugs. "Sure, as long as I get to be Captain America."

Damon interrupts.

"Yeah, and I'm Tony Stark and Blondie's Black Widow, let's get to the part where we save Alaric, okay?"

"Why do I have to be Black Widow?" Caroline interjects.

"Isn't it obvious?" Damon asks.

"Well, you would know all about brainwashing, wouldn't you, Damon?" is Bonnie's acidic reply.

Elena gives Dean a pained look.

"We could be in Charleston by tomorrow afternoon if we haul ass," Dean tells her.

"Dean, stop trying to get Elena to run away with you," Caroline says disapprovingly. "We need her for the plan."

"If every single conversation dissolves into a fight about which Marvel superhero you want to be, Dean won't have to convince to run away with him. I'll hotwire his fucking car myself." She looks at Damon and adds, "And for the record, Damon, you're a fucking idiot, you're the least qualified person in this apartment to be Tony Stark."

"You're such a nerd," Dean says with abject fondness.

"Don't test me, Clark Kent," Elena retorts swiftly.

"Hey!" he objects immediately.

Elena rolls her eyes. "You're from Kansas, Dean," she reminds him.

"But I'm not a boy scout, or an alien!"

"He does look like that one guy from Smallville, though," Caroline says. "The one who was like a spy or whatever?"

"Oh yeah, he totally does," Elena says, smiling.

"Should I be offended?" Dean asks.

Elena shrugs. "I had a crush on him when I was a kid."

Dean grins. "All right then."

"Could the two of you stop flirting every five seconds," Damon says.

"Trust me, they really can't," Sam replies.

"Sam's right, we don't do that here," Elena says easily, grinning at Dean.

"Kids." John's tone is beyond exhausted.

"It's kind of weird that you consider them both your kids and they're flirting with each other…" Damon smirks.

"I was adopted," Elena says immediately.

"Ever heard of the term father-in-law?" Dean asks seriously.

"All right," Bonnie says abruptly. "This is genuinely so entertaining, but we should probably get back on topic."

Dean and Elena exchange one last fond look and then he shrugs but gestures for Bonnie to continue.

"Okay," Elena says. "Fill us in."

"So, we need to lure Alaric somewhere specific," Bonnie begins. "And then we need to trap him somewhere so I can do some spell work."

"Where do you have in mind Bon-Bon?" Damon asks.

"Magic works best for witches when we have ancestral ties," she admits reluctantly, glancing nervously at Elena.

Elena for her part, does not outwardly react at all.

"You're saying we need to go back to Mystic Falls?" she clarifies.

Bonnie nods, apprehension clear on her face.

"What will you do once he's trapped?" Elena asks.

"I found a spell," Bonnie explains. "It's been hard to translate, but essentially it clears evil intent from someone's psyche."

"That sounds like it would do it," Sam says.

"So, we're going home." Elena and Jeremy exchange an uneasy look. Neither of them has been home since they left.

"Right," Bonnie says.

Dean snorts suddenly so Elena gives him an inquisitive look.

"You remember that thing Sammy said back in Lawrence?" he asks her.

Elena puzzles over this for a moment before a look of realization crosses her face.

"Fuck you," she retorts.

Dean considers this. "I mean, if we live through this, I'd love you to."

"Don't flirt with me right now," she scolds him.

"I never thought I'd hear her say that to you," Sam says to Dean. "Also, what did I say in Lawrence?" he asks.

"About jinxing myself," Elena reminds him.

"Well shit," is Sam's reply.

"So, how are we going to know if Alaric is following us?" Elena asks.

Bonnie shrugs. "He found you the first time."

"After years of her running," John reminds them.

"Yes, Elena has a talent for running," Damon interjects. "Just like Katherine."

"I think the less you say the better," Dean says, addressing him for the first time.

"You know, you are always such a dick to me, and I just don't get it," Damon replies. "We don't even know each other, what's your problem?"

"You don't wanna know the things I know about you," Dean replies coldly.

For a moment Damon looks uncomfortable, eyes darting between Elena and Dean nervously, but then he covers it up with a condescending smirk.

"So, I see you were keeping your pen pal up to date on all the hot goss, Elena." Damon tries, but he can't quite hide how uncomfortable he is with Dean knowing anything about what went down between him and Elena back in the day.

"You know she really wasn't," Dean admits easily. "But when a girl cries because she didn't want to be kissed…" Dean shrugs, glaring Damon down. "It leaves a lasting impression."

Damon stills. If he's honest with himself, Elena might have looked like she was on the verge of tears after telling him she didn't want him to kiss her again, but he hadn't actually thought she cried.

More than one person in the room is glaring at Damon now.

"And here I was thinking it was because I'm a vampire," Damon quips.

Elena closes her eyes.

Dean stills, glancing between Damon and Stefan.

"You didn't know that," Damon realizes.

"He didn't know that," Elena confirms, opening her eyes and bracing herself for Dean's reaction.

"Elena, you said Stefan was complicated, not a fucking vampire," Dean finally says.

Elena winces, remembering how she used to lie to herself about Stefan's problems because she thought he was the best thing to ever happen to her.

"I didn't lie to you," she points out. "Being a vampire is complicated, right Caroline?"

Caroline, as ever, backs her up, more than a little amused by the drama playing out in front of her. Plus, she's never seen anyone who could make Elena Gilbert look that contrite.

"Oh sure," she agrees. "Breaking into blood banks for dinner is a total drag." She can't resist pointing out she's not the kind of vampire who taps a vein.

"Amen to that, sister," Katherine pipes up.

"When have you ever not had it straight from the source?" Damon is immediately skeptical.

"Uh, I just spent two and a half years pretending to be Elena," she reminds him. "I was quite literally banned from drinking from people that entire time."

"Alaric said you never broke character," Elena tells her.

Kat grins. "Duh, I got you, baby sister."

"I think we should talk about de-programming Alaric again," John interrupts.

"Yeah, this conversation is giving me the heebie-jeebies," Dean agrees. "But Elena and I will be talking about her vampire ex another time," he adds.

She sighs. "I know."

"Okay, so, back to how we are going to get Alaric to Mystic Falls," Caroline says, ushering them back on topic.

"I think we just have to hope he's still on Elena's tail at this point," Bonnie admits. "It's not like we can text him."

"I could email him," Sam pipes up.

Everyone turns to look at him.

"Oh yeah, Alaric set up a fake online archive in order to feed information to Sam and Dean," Elena explains casually.

"That's insane," Tyler says.

"Yes," Elena agrees.

"I could pretend I agree with him and say you're heading back home to Mystic Falls," Sam suggests.

"It's not a terrible idea," Katherine pipes up. "But how believable of a traitor will you make?"

Elena and the Winchesters exchange glances.

"I mean, considering our last meeting, I think he'd believe it," Dean says. "Sorry Sammy but it wasn't exactly your best moment."

Sam flushes, thinking about how angry he had been when he thought Elena was going to get in the way of him getting the weapon he needed to kill the demon and avenge Jess and his mother.

"Yeah, it's believable," he says simply, ashamed of his behavior.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Start betraying, Beanstalk," Damon says.

Sam pulls out his phone, sitting down next to Elena while he opens the correspondence between himself and Alaric.

"The Guardian's Archive,'" Bonnie reads over his shoulder. "Weird."

"I looked at it on the plane ride over here," Elena says, "He posted pictures from the caves in Mystic Falls."

"Oh, that is weird," Caroline chimes in.

"It's actually surprisingly legitimate for a phony web archive," Elena admits begrudgingly.

"Shhh," Sam says. "I need to concentrate while I betray you, Elena."

---

While Sam composes his email, Elena and Bonnie talk.

"I'm sorry for what I said at the funeral," Elena says.

Bonnie rolls her eyes, waving her hand. "Please, I've known you my entire life, Elena Gilbert. I Know when you're just trying to push someone away."

"I was trying to protect you," Elena admits. "And Caroline, in the hospital," she adds, knowing the blonde can hear her.

"And yourself," Bonnie reminds her. "Don't lie to me," she continues. "It's what you do, you get all in your head and get scared and you try to keep everyone away so they can't hurt you when they die."

"I don't…" Elena protests weakly.

"No, you really do," Dean interrupts.

"Hey!" she protests.

"You've done it to me like six times this year," he says.

Elena can't really argue here. "It was not…that many times," she argues weakly. "Right, Sam?"

Sam is only half paying attention. "I mean, I really don't know," he says vaguely. "If I count every weird not-fight you guys have had then not quite but I'm sure I missed some." He gestures vaguely. "Aren't you guys always telling me to stay out of this?" he desperately asks.

"Yeah, and you should," Bonnie tells him bluntly. "It's their relationship, not yours."

Sam stares at her in surprise for a moment. "I'm feeling a little intimidated so I'm gonna stop talking and go back to writing now," is his reply.

Flushed, he bows his head to focus on his phone.

Dean raises an amused eyebrow at his brother's face. He recognizes Sam's crush face when he sees it.

"Well said, Bonnie," Dean interjects.

"Thank you, Dean," she replies.

"You two are not allowed to team up on me," Elena says immediately.

"You and Sammy do it to me all the time," Dean reminds her. "It's called payback."

Bonnie cackles while Elena glares at him.

---

After Sam sends the email Bonnie gets into the specific details of the spell work. Afterwards, it's decided only the humans will be staying with Jeremy in his apartment overnight, mostly because the Winchesters don't trust the vampires.

Jeremy courteously gives up his bed to Bonnie, and John takes the couch, leaving Dean, Sam, Jeremy, and Elena to the futons. Dean deliberately rolls his out next to Elena's, but the look he gives her is far from scorching.

She rolls her eyes. "I'm not gonna run."

He nods. "Sure."

"I won't," she insists with a huff. "I agreed to Bonnie's plan."

"Yup," Dean agrees. "I was there."

"You don't trust me?" she asks, sounding hurt.

"With anyone else's safety, no question," he replies bluntly. "But you got a long history of throwing yourselves to the wolves, Elena." He grins at her. "So, consider us permanently attached until your buddy Ric is back to his old self."

She cocks her head to the side. "I thought we already were."

"Were what?" Dean asks, confused.

"Permanently attached," she replies, causing him to stop and look at her.

Dean frowns. "Don't try to distract me."

Elena shakes her head slightly, not breaking their gaze. "I'm not."

"Quit flirting and go to sleep," Sam says in a huff, breaking their gaze.

"Trust Sammy to ruin a moment," Dean mutters under his breath.

"Hey, I gave you so many chances for moments," Sam retorts immediately. "When Elena's former guardian is fixed, then the two of you can have your moment."

No one suggested it, but they all go to sleep in their everyday clothing, ready to be up in an instant if anything goes wrong.

Dean didn't catch any words exchanged between them, but as the others left Elena and Katherine exchanged a meaningful glance, and if Dean had to hazard a guess, he'd say that Elena's vampiric ancestor is probably patrolling the neighborhood, or at least stationed in Jeremy's miniscule lobby.

Their futons are set up in a four-square formation: Sam and Jeremy side-by-side with their heads to Dean and Elena side-by-side.

They all stay up talking for a while, going over Bonnie's plan, with Bonnie sitting on the stairs to Jeremy's loft. Eventually, one by one, they fall asleep, Jeremy falling asleep first, then Bonnie heading up the stairs after a jaw-cracking yawn, and Sam nodding off mid-sentence soon after.

"You two can go to sleep," Elena says lowly, to Dean and John. "I'm not going to leave."

There's a pause and then, "Dean, you take the first watch."

"Yes sir," Dean says succinctly.

Elena sighs. "You're ridiculous, the both of you."

"No, Elena, we just know you," Dean replies.

And he's right, out of everyone, Dean and John are the ones most aware of exactly what Elena is capable of, for better or for worse. They've been her constant companions, her mentors, her family. The three of them had made up each other's' whole world until John disappearing caused Dean to drag Sam back into the mix.

Eventually the silence evens out, leaving just the sounds of the city and Dean breathing beside her. It could be any other night of her life since she left with him and his father.

"I'm not going to run," she whispers. "I promise," she adds. "If there's even a chance that we can save Alaric, I'm in. I mean it."

A moment of silence and then, "I know, 'Lena."

"So why are you keeping watch like I'm going to bolt at any moment?" she asks.

"I just thought you'd want some company," is his answer. "I know you're not going to sleep," he adds. "I'd hate for you to get lonely."

She smiles at the heavy innuendo at the end.

Jeremy stirs and they both hold their breath guiltily.

"Guess going into the stairwell to talk would just put us in Katherine's range, huh?" he hazards a guess. "She's in the lobby, right?"

"Coffee shop across the street," she answers after a moment. "But Jeremy's neighbors keep worse hours than we do, anyone could come across us."

Dean just sighs.

After a moment, Elena sits up and Dean follows.

She can only see a sliver of his face from the lights outside.

They don't speak, but when Elena clasps their hands together and gets to her feet, he knows exactly where they're headed.

In Jeremy's bathroom, Elena hops up onto the sink counter and Dean leans against the counter beside her.

"So…" she says.

"So…" he echoes.

"We kissed," she says.

"Pretty sure you kissed me," he retorts with a smirk.

She nods. "Uh-huh, yeah, I did do that," she agrees. "And then I tried to end the kiss and you kissed me again."

He nods, "Uh-huh, yeah, I did do that," he echoes.

She shakes her head at his antics, smiling fondly at him.

"We kissed and then you had me arrested," he says incredulously.

"I know, I was there," she says, trying to be lighthearted.

He sighs, serious. "You really weren't trying to distract me?"

She shakes her head. "I really wasn't trying to distract you," she promises sincerely.

He watches her lean her head back against the mirror behind her, a strange echo of a moment earlier in the evening when she laid her head on Katherine's shoulder. Everyone in the room held their breath, but Katherine just brushed Elena's curls out of her face and asked Bonnie to explain the spell she's going to use to fix Alaric in more detail.

Anyone else would think it was an unconscious act of affection, except Dean has lived with Elena for nearly three years, he knows her inside and out, he recognizes when a gauntlet is being thrown. Everyone else in Jeremy's loft viewed Katherine as an interloper, an outsider, a threat. In that one moment, Elena declared her allegiance with crystal clarity: the Petrova doppelgangers are on the same side, for better or for worse.

"Okay," he says, a look of concentration on his face. He asks, "So, why did you do it?"

"Have you arrested?" she asks.

"No, kiss me," he clarifies. "I mean, you could've done that pretty much any time you wanted to, why now?"

"Not any time I wanted to," Elena argues. "But…" she trails off, looking at him. She bites her lower lip, looking at him. "You asked me what I wanted to do," she answers finally.

"And that was your answer?" he guesses, smiling a little.

"Sure," she agrees. "But it's not just that." She pauses. "I can't remember the last time someone cared what I wanted to do about all of this." She waves her hand at the door, clearly talking about Alaric, about her life on the run. "They just make decisions and then I have to fight them tooth and nail to get my say." She looks down. "I have to hold a dagger to my throat or stab myself in the stomach or be the only one who knows where the super special Original killing weapon is." She shrugs. "You just asked, like it was up to me," she explains.

"Well, yeah, isn't it?" Dean asks, looking confused.

"See?" She shakes her head, smiling. "How can I not want to kiss you when you say things like that?"

"You've got some really specific kinks, Gilbert," Dean says with a laugh.

"I like it when you call me that, too," she replies with a slow smile.

Dean looks caught. "When did you figure it out?" he asks finally.

"The shapeshifter filled me in," she says.

He winces. "Not an ideal way for you to learn that fun little fact."

She hums in agreement. "I hated it when he said it, but every time you said it after," she bites her lip, dark eyes fixed on him. "It was like you were dragging your fingers down my bare spine."

Dean inhales sharply, nearly choking. "Holy shit, Elena," he breathes.

She just smiles.

"Are we really going to do this here?" he asks her directly. If she's not going to beat around the bush anymore, neither is he.

"We can keep talking if you want," she tells him sincerely. "I always want to talk to you."

"I think we've talked enough," Dean says after a minute.

She sighs. "Thank god." And then she grabs him by his collar and kisses him hard.

He inhales sharply, the taste of her almost too sweet to bear, then he takes her face in his hands, sliding his fingers into her hair which has been threatening to escape her ponytail since he first laid eyes on her that evening. He strokes his fingers through her hair, removing the ponytail holder, mouth still on hers.

She nips his lower lip, teeth sharp but still the sweetest thing Dean's ever felt, and the taste of her when he opens his mouth into hers is sweeter still. She tugs him closer, between her thighs, sliding her hands up under his shirt.

She hums in satisfaction when he presses against her more firmly, molding their bodies together.

He extracts himself enough to ask, "Are you sure this a good idea?"

"I can be quiet," she promises. "Can you?"

He kisses her in response.

"Good," she breathes against his mouth.

One of his hands drops to her hip, rubbing against the fabric of her tank top in a silent question.

Elena nods her consent, and he doesn't waste any time, pinching the fabric between his fingers to pull it up, sliding his hand up along her bare skin – and she's so fucking soft, but Dean feel the muscles flex beneath the silk of her, then her ribcage, and next her spine, just like she imagined, fingers ghosting along the foundation of her body.

She sighs into his mouth, like this is a relief, a thirst quenched after days in the desert. She nips his lower lip again, then his chin, making him laugh, and then his jaw, making him groan.

"Hush," she says chidingly in his ear, then she kisses his earlobe and runs her thumb along the shell of his ear as her mouth follows the column of his throat, driving him closer to the edge, verging on too much and still not enough. He lets out a desperate pant, one hand still tangled in her hair, the other spanning the base of her spine.

He feels it twist beneath his fingers as she brushes aside his shirt to sink her teeth into his collarbone.

"I never would've guessed you were a biter," he says distractedly.

"You don't like it?" she asks breathlessly against his skin.

"No, no, that's not it," he assures her hastily.

"I swear to god, Dean, if you make a vampire joke right now," she threatens.

He laughs. "Well now I don't gotta," he teases.

She leans up to capture his lips with her own again, biting his lower lip harder this time, making him groan.

"Fuck," he says.

"That's the plan," she reminds him.

He drags his fingers along the waistband of her jeans.

"Don't tease," she says archly.

"I think you've earned a little teasing, Gilbert," he reminds her.

"You were playing too," she retorts. "You're just mad 'cause I won."

"Who kissed who first?" he questions her, eyes sparkling.

"Hmmm I think I wasted enough time not kissing you," she says and then she kisses him again as if to prove her point.

He melts into her mouth, sliding his fingers down into her panties where she's soaked for him. She lets out a whimper at the contact, angling her hips for easier access.

She sucks on his lower lip. "Please," she says into his mouth, then slides her tongue into his mouth and he doesn't hesitate, two fingers in until he's knuckles deep. She gasps into his mouth, lips curling up in delight.

She digs her fingernails into the back of his neck, and he shudders. It's hitting him hard, the unreality of this moment: Elena Gilbert's tongue in his mouth, Elena Gilbert's fingernails in his neck, being knuckle deep in Elena Gilbert. It's like the best dream he's ever had and he's a little scared he'll wake up at any minute but also he doesn't want to rush any of it. He wants this imprinted into the backs of his eyelids, so he has something to think about in case he's about to wake up in a jail cell with his dad and his little brother. Or worse, he's about to wake up in bed beside Elena Gilbert and she never kissed him at all. He's trying not to be dramatic, but he thinks he might die if that's the case.

"Dean?" Elena asks, and he realizes he's come to a complete standstill.

For a moment, he just looks at her: wild hair, swollen lips, pupils blown so wide her eyes look black.

"This is really happening?" he asks seriously. "This isn't a dream?"

Elena looks incredulous, but something in his expression must convey the depth of his concern because she softens. She slides one leg over his hip, pulling him closer, furthering the points of contact as much as she can.

"This is really happening," she promises, sealing it with a kiss. "Now move your fingers before I cry and do it myself," she continues, completely serious. She bucks her hips in emphasis.

He laughs and obliges. "Anything for you, Gilbert."

She clenches around him, whimpering.

"You really do like that, don't you?" he marvels.

"Yes," she sighs, and she kisses him again.

He feels her thighs tremble against his hips as he crooks his fingers ever so slightly, marveling at the silk of her.

"I want you in me," she sighs into his mouth.

"Now?" he asks.

She nods.

"Condom?" he asks.

"Top left drawer at the back," she instructs, raising her hips to wriggle her jeans and panties off.

"Of all the times for you to not be wearing shorts," he mutters, digging through the drawer. Triumphantly he pulls out a condom. "Why in the hell do you know where your baby brother keeps his condoms?" he asks distractedly.

Elena rolls her eyes. "We used to share a bathroom, that's where our dad put them," she says.

"Right, Dr. Gilbert was probably big on safe sex," Dean says.

Elena nods, distracted by his belt buckle.

There's a few moments of fumbling but when Dean looks up Elena is leaned back against the mirror, pupils blown wide as she watches him.

He kisses her again, wonders if he'll ever get used to the feeling – wonders if they'll have enough time to get used to each other like this – but then she's guiding him inside of her and his brain pretty much turns to mush and oozes out of his ears.

She whimpers into his mouth then whispers, "Fuck," low and dirty and desperate against his lips. Her tongue flicks out, then her teeth sink into his lower lip as he finds the rhythm.

After a moment she seems to realize she can't be quiet anymore because she shoves his shirt aside and sinks her teeth into his shoulder, making him convulse. He traces his fingers up her spine again, making her arch into him. It's surreal, doing all the things he tried so hard not think about again and again: next to her in bed at night, her riding shotgun in his car, watching her on the dance floor, her, mid-hunt, gun in hand, a thousand moments where he told himself not to go there – don't even think about it, Winchester, it's never gonna be happen – and now she licks his burning shoulder lazily, hooks her knee around his hips to pull him deeper into her, he groans and she swallows it with her mouth, moving her hips in tauntingly slow circles.

"Don't tease," Dean rasps.

"Can't be a tease when you're inside me," Elena insists, gasping a little as he maneuvers her bra out of the way to get his mouth on her breasts.

"Hmm," he mumbles against her skin. "Get Shakira on the phone because your hips are proof that you're lying."

Elena snorts.

He peels down the other straps, freeing both of her breasts. He looks between them contentedly. "I've had dreams about you," he tells them, making her laugh.

"You really never shut the fuck up, do you?" she asks affectionately.

He looks up at her, eyes dark as indigo, and she catches her breath. "You could make me, if you really tried." He licks her nipple, feeling her body jump, taking it into his mouth.

"Is that a challenge?" she asks.

"Well, I know how seriously you take a challenge, Gilbert," Dean says, shifting his hips. His eyes roll back in his head as he feels her tighten around him.

Her fingers trace the bitemark she left on his shoulder, sliding up his neck and then to the back of his head. She guides his head back down to her breasts.

"As much as I love spending time with my new best friends," Dean says. "It's gonna take more than them to get me to shut up."

Elena pouts. "You replaced me that easily?"

"Well, I've been ignoring them for so long, I'm starting to feel bad," he replies.

"I guess you should make it up to them," Elena agrees with a sigh.

Dean is very enthusiastic in his apologies to his new friends. Elena clutches the back of his head, letting her own fall back against the glass as he swirls his tongue around her nipple. Raising one of his hands to play with her other nipple he kisses his way up her neck, following the perfect line of her jaw to her mouth.

He's not sure if he'll ever get enough of kissing her – touching her, fucking her – but he has every intention of finding out.

He feels her thigh shake against his hip, so he increases the speed of his thrusts, and drops his hand from her breast to between her thighs, thumb on her clit, other hand on her hips.

"You're so close," he says against her mouth. "Just let go, I'm right here, 'Lena." His words are hot air on her tongue and her eyes roll back in her head, body straining.

"That's it," he encourages her, kissing her cheek. "Good girl, Gilbert."

Elena's body tenses at his words, arching into her release.

He grins against her cheek, satisfied. "Shoulda known that would do it."

She sighs his name in his ear, exasperated and fond all at once.

"I don't think me calling you Winchester is gonna have quite the same effect on you," she says, lightly biting his ear.

"Nah, everything about you does it for me, Gilbert," he assures her. "You could probably say just about anything."

"Kumquats," she says immediately, voice low and dirty.

He snorts. "The first syllable is cum, 'Lena," he says. "Try harder."

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," she follows up immediately in her phone sex operator voice.

Dean bursts into laughter and Elena claps a hand over his mouth, snickering under her breath.

She wraps herself all the way around him and they giggle helplessly for a moment, trying hard to be quiet and failing.

He licks her hand, so she removes it, wiping his saliva on his cheek.

"Elena Gilbert, be nice to me," he says, scolding.

She grins. "Okay," she agrees, and she kisses him, rocking her hips and sliding her hand under his shirt, ghosting her fingertips up his back.

"Better," he says against her mouth. "Much better."

She rubs her nose against his then buries her face in his shoulder, nipping the corded muscle through his shirt. She raises her mouth to his ear.

"Dean, honey," she rasps. "You're inside me," she reminds him. "You can let go, I'm right here with you."

And that's all it takes for him to cum. "Fuck," he utters like a prayer.

She kisses the skin just below his ear, petting his back. He kisses her neck in response, right on Klaus' bitemark, making her shiver.

He turns to face her, kissing her again – just because he can.

She puts one hand on his jaw, thumb rubbing against his cheek affectionately as she returns his kiss.

"That's not exactly how I pictured that going," he says finally.

She snorts. "You pictured it?"

"So, fucking much," he admits easily. "I tried not to – but mostly I just failed." He shrugs. "You never did?"

"I worked religiously not to," she answers honestly.

He kisses under her jaw, thumb working over her hipbone.

She bites her lower lip, grinning. "You'll have to tell me some time," she says. "Or show me."

"Oh sure," he agrees easily. "I love a good show and tell."

She leans her forehead against his. "I'm looking forward to it."

---

Elena falls asleep in the curve of Dean's body, the first time she's ever allowed herself the indulgence. When John wakes up to switch off keeping watch with Dean he raises an eyebrow at their position but says nothing. He's quick to realize that Elena probably has no plans to run – as wrapped up in Dean as she is there's no way she can move without him knowing it – but he stays awake anyway, ever vigilant.

Dean falls asleep with his face buried in Elena's hair, the way he's woken up a hundred times on accident and never once fell asleep on purpose – until now.

In the morning Katherine is the first to arrive, a barista trailing after her with stacked trays of coffee and bags full of pastries.

"Delivery," she says cheerfully.

Elena is relieved to discover after a brief examination of the barista that he wasn't under compulsion – Katherine just flirted with him a little, so she didn't have to carry anything. Elena makes sure he's tipped very well before sending him on his way.

"Oh, thank god," she says after surveying Dean and Elena. "I was worried I was going to have to seduce him for you, Cupcake," she says to Elena.

Elena snickers and throws a piece of her muffin at her, Katherine grabs it, stuffing it into her mouth shamelessly.

"I'm not into fangs," Dean says immediately.

"Don't knock it 'til you try it, pretty boy," Katherine replies with a wink, licking the muffin crumbs from her lips.

"Kat," Elena says warningly, eyes twinkling.

Katherine raises her hands. "I'm just trying to say that I'm happy you sealed the deal, that's all."

"They did?" Sam asks cluelessly.

"Uh yeah, Elena is glowing," Katherine points out. "I mean, we always glow, but she's basically a celestial body at this point."

Jeremy figures it out immediately. "In my bathroom!?"

Elena rolls her eyes. "Relax, Jeremy," she says placatingly. "I wiped everything down."

Before he can open his mouth she adds. "And I took out the trash."

He frowns. "Fine, whatever, I'm happy for you?" Like any true little brother, he still looks mildly disturbed.

"I don't remember you being this much of a procrastinator, Elena," Bonnie says, bemused.

"Shut the fuck up," Elena replies immediately.

"Thank god," Sam says with a sigh. "I could not take much more of that."

"You're telling me," Dean replies.

"Dean!" Elena says, shocked.

He shrugs unrepentant.

"I can't wait to see the look on Damon's face when he realizes," Katherine says gleefully.

"Can we focus on the task ahead of us?" John asks patronizingly, a pained look on his face. His discomfort is clear.

"Uh no," Katherine replies. "It's breakfast, Johnny Boy, nothing goes better with breakfast than gossip."

"Do not call me that," John says with an exasperated sigh.

"Sir, yes, sir," Katherine says in her most perfect Elena voice.

"Kat," Elena says chidingly.

Katherine pouts but subsides.

Stefan, Damon, and Caroline all arrive together, Caroline sliding in beside Bonnie who wastes no time pointing out the change between Dean and Elena.

It's a subtle thing really, any outsider looking at them would make the same conclusion everyone has always made about Dean and Elena: they look like the perfect couple. Now that it's true, very little has changed. But now Dean absentmindedly slides his hand down Elena's back every once in a while, her leaning into him. Or they'll catch each other's eye and get caught there, and the look is just south of scorching.

At one point Elena absentmindedly tugs her hair elastic off Dean's wrist and ties her hair up, only to realize that everyone else has stopped to watch her do this like it's the most intimate thing in the world. She rolls her eyes and asks Caroline about her classes at G.W. and everyone resumes their previous activity. Dean tries not to look too smug and utterly fails and Damon wonders if he has any chance of getting close enough to snap his neck.

Tyler is the last to arrive. His isolation from the rest of the Mystic Falls group is clear and just like with Katherine the night before, Elena goes out of her way to draw him in and make her loyalties clear. She gets up and gives him a hug when he arrives and fixes his coffee the way he's taken it since sophomore year of high school.

With everyone together, they go over the plan one last time.

---

In Route to Charlottesville, Virginia

"Remind me why we're taking the train to Virginia?" Dean asks.

"It's the slowest route," Elena says, leaning against him in their seats.

"Right." Dean nods. "Giving Alaric ample opportunity to catch up."

"Exactly."

Elena's thumb drifts down Dean's hand to swipe across his wrist. He glances at her, catching her staring at his mouth. He smiles, leaning down to kiss her, just like she hoped.

"You know, you can kiss me too, Gilbert," he reminds her.

"I know," she says, kissing him to prove it. "I just like that you always know what I want." Her low, sweet voice sends shivers down his spine.

"We got an audience, 'Lena," he reminds her.

"They're not paying us any mind," she says, eyes glued to him.

"You are dangerous," he says with a laugh, and then he kisses her again.

"Exactly what I want," she says breathlessly when they part.

"I've been to the bathroom already," Dean reminds her. "We won't fit."

She pouts. "I guess you'll just have to find another way to distract me from the fact that I'm going home for the first time in nearly three years."

"You didn't distract me when we went to Lawrence," he points out with a frown. "Mostly you just made Wizard of Oz jokes."

"You wanna sing me a verse from "Take Me Home, Country Roads"?" Elena suggests.

"Isn't that about West Virginia?"

She shakes her head, exasperated. "They don't even call them the Blue Ridge Mountains in West Virginia! And the Shenandoah is barely in West Virginia."

"You learn something new every day."

"So?" she asks.

"I'm saving my voice," he demurs.

"What do you want to talk about then?" she asks.

"Tell me about New Orleans," he requests.

"What do you want to know?" she asks.

"I know you said you were just babysitting, but why were you so freaked when you got back?"

"Klaus and I have a deal," she says carefully. "We re-negotiated while I was there, and I was kind of upset about it." Seeing the look on his face she hastens to add, "It's not that bad really. I was mostly mad at you about Cassie – that's why I was upset at first."

"At first?" he prompts.

"You know the day when Hope got ahold of Klaus' phone, and she called me?"

He nods. "And Sam overheard."

"Right, well Katherine called after; she told me she'd lost Alaric. He wasn't following her anymore – for the first time in years he was unaccounted for."

"Well fuck," Dean replies succinctly.

"My sentiments exactly." She chews on her lip for a moment. "I'm sorry," she says finally. "I know I was awful to be around, and I couldn't even tell you why."

He sighs. "I get it, but I'd rather know," he says. "If your ex-guardian is on your tail because you've got the only weapon to destroy an entire race of monsters, I wanna know, but yeah, I get it. You promised my dad and I get it."

"I guess I didn't want you caught up in my mess," she admits.

He tangles his fingers into her hair, distractedly petting her while he tries to figure out how to tell her how much he wants her mess.

"Your problems are my problems, Elena," he says finally.

"That's deeply fucked up, Dean," she says after a moment. "Romantic," she adds with a smile. "But fucked up."

He shrugs. "I never claimed to be normal about you." Then he adds, "And you did just readily walk into a barn full of vampires to get a weapon for my family's decades long vendetta against the demon that murdered my mother, so you can't exactly be accused of being normal about me either."

She bites her lower lip and nods. "I guess your problems are my problems, too."
"We couldn't've gotten the Colt without your quick draw, and Dad knows it."

She frowns. "Is that why he came along? He thinks he owes me?"

"No," Dean refutes immediately. "He's here because he loves you like you're his own pain-in-the-ass daughter, and if you wanna end this and save Alaric, he's gonna help you."

She smiles at that. "Anything else you wanna know?" she asks, leaning her head against his shoulder.

He looks down at her, knowing she'd answer pretty much anything he could think of feels good. He's had these unanswered questions about her for so long and now the doors open and if he really wants to know all he has to do is ask.

He angles his head to whisper in her ear, "What color are your underwear?"

She laughs out loud.

He grins, pleased with himself.

She lifts her head, pressing their cheeks together while she whispers her reply, "I'm not wearing any." She presses a kiss to his neck, feeling the rapid beating of his heart beneath her mouth.

He freezes and she tries hard not to laugh at the disbelieving look on his face, but a few giggles escape anyway.

"You weren't supposed to answer that!" he finally says. "Why not?" he asks immediately after.

"I didn't bring anything except my purse and the stake," she reminds him, amused by how he glances around the train, a calculating look on his face.

Eventually a look of defeat crosses his face: there's no way they won't get caught.

"I should've brought your stuff," he says finally.

"It's fine," she replies. "Your car probably got impounded, didn't it?" she asks, wincing in regret.

"When you had me arrested for robbery?" He nods. "Yeah, it did." He hastens to add "Don't worry about it, Klaus said he'd take care of it when he sprung us."

Suddenly she looks thoughtful. "How did you get here so quickly? I had a six-hour head start."

"Klaus lent us the jet," he says.

"You got on a plane for me?" she asks, looking incredibly touched.

"Course I got on a plane for you," he replies like it's no big deal and he didn't almost have a panic attack the last time he boarded a plane.

She kisses him. "Thank you," she says after a moment. "And I am sorry for getting the Impala impounded, she deserved better than that."

He nods seriously. "Damn right she does, you better remember that next time you wanna go on a suicide mission."

"I promise," she says lightly. "I won't get between you and your car again."

He shrugs. "It's an easy choice," he says. "But if that impound lot damaged my car at all, all bets are off," he adds, deadly serious.

She nods in agreement. "Oh, we'll sic Kat on them, I promise."

"Good."

Dean raises the armrest between them and pulls Elena into his lap. Amused, she wraps her arms around his neck, leaning down to press their foreheads together.

"I thought we were gonna behave?"

He shrugs, rubbing his hands against her sides. "You were too far away."

She smiles and kisses him.

"What are we doing when we get to Charlottesville?" Dean asks as she pulls away.

"It's about an hour drive to Mystic Falls from there," Elena replies. "We could probably take a bus instead of renting a car, extend the trip a little?"

He runs his fingers through her hair, enjoying having her so close.

"The point is to go slow so Alaric can catch up, so that's probably a good idea."

---

Mystic Falls, Virginia

"Home sweet home," Dean says as Elena unlocks the front door to her childhood home.

"Funny," she replies dryly. She hesitates but steps through the threshold, Dean at her heels.

"It smells surprisingly not musty," Dean observes.

Elena nods like it's a given. "Klaus hired a cleaning service."

"He tell you he was going to do that?" Dean asks.

She shakes her head. "No, but I knew he would when we called."

"You really get him," Dean says carefully.

"Don't say it like that," Elena replies immediately.

"Like what?" Dean's tone is still careful.

"Like it means something it doesn't. Your dad knew Klaus was going to do that. And Jeremy and –" she cuts herself off. "And Stefan," she continues steadily. "That's just how he is. It's not some super-secret code between us. That's just who he is: he takes care of shit no one else would even think of." She rolls her eyes. "Product of being alive for a thousand years."

Dean sighs. "Okay," he says in a much more relaxed tone. "Sorry for freaking out over nothing." He frowns. "But we are gonna have to talk about him sooner rather than later," he reminds her gently.

"I know," she says softly. "Just know this wasn't some weird power move, it's just Klaus."

"He literally owns your life. You worship the ground his kid walks on," Dean points out. "Everything he does is a power move." He stops at the look on Elena's face. "Later," he promises.

"Thank you," she says, stepping into his arms, burying her face in his neck. She inhales deeply, trying to focus on Dean and not the familiar smell of home and the way it makes her eyes and throat burn with unshed tears.

Dean rubs her back comfortingly.

After a moment she pulls out of his embrace, kissing his cheek.

"Let's see if there's any food in the fridge, I'm starving."

"Fridge is full, Darling," a voice calls from the open front door.

Dean swings around, gun aimed, heart pounding.

In the doorway stands Klaus, flanked by Rebekah and Marcel.

"That's a bit of an overreaction, I think," Rebekah drawls.

Elena rolls her eyes.

Dean lowers his gun.

"Hi Marcel," she says, ignoring the Mikaelson siblings.

"Hey Sweets," he replies. "Got an invite for an old friend?"

Dean is staring at him oddly.

"I believe Rebekah and I qualify as much older friends," Klaus argues. "Where's our invites?"

Elena gives him a disbelieving look. Raising her fingers, she counts off, "You murdered me, and Rebekah attempted to murder me, I don't think we can really say you're my old friends."

She smiles at Marcel. "Marcel, please come in."

Marcel looks at Rebekah who nods in understanding, he steps over the threshold and walks down the hallway to hug Elena.

"You're never not in a bundle of trouble, huh, girl?" he murmurs in her ear, sounding affectionate and exasperated.

"Such is the life of a hunter," she replies.

They pull apart, Dean looking between them.

"She's the friend you were talking about," Dean realizes abruptly.

Marcel grins at him. "Nice to see you again, Dean," he says amiably. "Glad to see you're taking good care of our girl, here."

Elena gives him a hard look. "You said you didn't talk to him!" she reminds him accusingly.

He shrugs. "I lied," he admits easily. Before she can berate him, he continues. "I just wanted to make sure the guy watching your back knew what he was fucking doing, that's all, I promise."

She sighs, deflating a little. "Well that saves one introduction," she says begrudgingly.

"Elena," Klaus singsongs from the door. "Let us the fuck in." He looks at Rebekah then shrugs. "Or just let me in, I understand if you feel the need to leave Bex at the door."

Elena looks at Dean, who still has his gun in hand and is clearly not at all comfortable with the vampire who has his arm slung over her shoulders.

He looks back, seeing the question in her eyes. He holsters his gun.

"It's your house, Gilbert," he says evenly.

She nods.

"Come in, Klaus, Rebekah," she says finally.

In a flash the Originals have joined them inside.

Elena looks between the two of them.

"I will sign this house over to someone else in a heartbeat if you abuse this privilege," she tells them bluntly.

"Your threat is noted and appreciated," Klaus says glibly.

"Don't worry, E, he knows you're serious," Marcel says. "And so does Bekah, right?"

Rebekah nods. "Thank you for inviting me in, Elena," she says politely. "I promise to behave."

Elena nods begrudgingly.

"Dean: Klaus and Rebekah Mikaelson," she says. "Klaus, Rebekah: Dean Winchester."

"Nice to be properly introduced," Klaus says.

"I've heard some very interesting things about you, Dean." Rebekah raises an eyebrow.

"It's all true," Dean says immediately. "Or none of it is. Depends on who you ask."

The corner of Elena's mouth quirks up, exactly like Dean intended.

Den hesitates, then addresses Klaus. "Thanks for all your help."

Klaus nods. "Of course," he replies simply. He gestures at Elena. "She's a slippery one, much worse than Katerina ever was."

Elena frowns. "Hey, I'm your favorite, don't forget that."

"Quite right," he agrees. "But at least Katerina is predictable: Save her own hide at any cost. Can't recall the last time she framed the man she loves for robbery so she could run off and sacrifice herself for the greater good."

"Well, you're out of the loop, because she did that last week," Elena says dryly, skipping past all of the complicated parts of Klaus' statement.

Dean shakes his head with a smile. "That mouth."

Elena's eyebrow raises imperceptibly, and Dean's eyes start to do that thing that has always made her weak in the knees – not that she's ever acknowledged it before now.

"All right, break it up, kids," Marcel says, clapping his hands together. To Dean he says. "Took you long enough."

Elena looks away first, the tiniest smirk on her face.

"Well, that answers that question," Klaus says quietly. "When are the rest of your entourage appearing?" he asks briskly.

"They should all be here by morning," Elena answers, trying not to feel guilty for finally having what she wants.

"Right, well you can fill us in on this scheme of Bonnie's to revive the more genial side of Mr. Saltzman's personality," Rebekah says.

"Over dinner for our weary travelers," Marcel suggests.

Elena nods. "Great idea."

Dean slides his hand across Elena's waist to settle at the small of her back, following her lead towards the kitchen, and it's nice – not at all possessive or needy, just comforting and warm like his touch has always been to her – a safe haven.

---

Later, Dean follows Elena up to her childhood bedroom. She flops on her bed, then grabs a pillow and inhales deeply.

"How did he know the exact detergent my mom used my entire childhood?" she asks incredulously. "He's never even been in the house until today."

Dean shrugs. "Stalkers like to know all kinds of things about their victims."

Elena rolls her eyes. "Very funny."

"Not really," he says.

"Play nice," she requests. "At least until this is over."
"When this is over he owns your entire life," Dean replies, very serious.

"We'll see," Elena says vaguely. "Now come over here, you're too far away."

Dean comes to the end of her bed. "What does that mean, 'we'll see'?"

She bites her lip. "With Klaus there's always room for negotiations," she says finally.

"Really?" he asks, skeptical.

She nods. "Really," she says earnestly. "Now come here."

But she doesn't wait, she bounces up on her knees to throw her arms around his neck and drags him down into bed with her.

Flat on her back, she wraps her legs around his waist, leaning up to brush his nose with hers.

"Hi," she whispers.

"Hi," he whispers back, kissing her cheeks.

He settles himself between her thighs, forearms bracketing her head. She slips her hands up his shirt, lightly trailing her fingers over his skin.

She leans up to kiss him, but he pulls back slightly.

"What?" she asks, confused.

"Are any of your fangy friends close enough to listen in?" he asks.

She shakes her head. "No, they went back to the Mikaelson mansion for the night," she says. "And Marcel promised to keep them occupied and out of our hair."

Dean nods. "Okay, keep going."

Elena rolls her eyes, pinching his side lightly before raising her head to kiss him for a second time. This time he meets her halfway.

When Elena gets tired of being under Dean she slyly flips them, making him laugh.

"Good job," he tells her, rubbing lazy circles into her hipbones.

"Thanks, I had a great teacher." She winks at him, sitting up to peel her shirt off.

Dean sighs. "Baby."

Elena smiles sweetly. "You're gonna have to say it every other minute to make up for all the times you didn't call me baby," she tells him seriously.

"I called you it once," he replies. "After the manticore."

"Hmm," Elena considers this. "Doesn't count, I was too busy dying to hear."

Dean huffs out a laugh.

"Right, that sucked," he says. "Don't do that again," he adds seriously.

Elena draws a cross over her heart in reply.

---

When Dean wakes the next morning there's a note on Elena's pillow addressed to him. Ten minutes later he's dressed and heading down the stairs with the note in his pocket in search of a certain blonde vampire.

He finds her in the kitchen, drinking coffee with Bonnie and Jeremy.

"Caroline, you got a moment?" he asks.

She puts down her cup. "You ready to go?" she asks expectantly.

"Elena tell you already?"

She nods. "We had breakfast together before she headed out."

He frowns. "She didn't go out there alone, did she?" he asks, a knot of concern growing in his stomach.

She shakes her head hastily.

"No, of course not, Katherine went with her."

He lets out the breath he's been holding. "Good, let's go."

He follows her out the front door.

"Have you ever done this before?" she asks, curious.

"Once," he says shortly. "Klaus helped rescue Sammy and I from some demons last month."

Caroline nods. "Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be," he replies with a sigh.

"It's better if you close your eyes," she advises.

He complies. For a moment nothing happens and then she grabs his forearms.

He feels the wind on his face and his feet leave the ground, her iron grip on his arms, and suddenly he is stumbling in the grass on top of a mountain overlooking the town.

Elena reaches out and grabs him, holding him steady while he regains his bearings.

"Hi," she says to him. "Thanks Care," she says to Caroline.

"Hi," he replies. "Yeah, thank you, Caroline," he adds.

Caroline smiles at them, shrugging casually. "No problem," she says easily. "Katherine's gonna take you back?" she asks.

Elena nods. "Yeah, she's got us covered."

With that, Caroline disappears as quickly as she brought him there.

Dean glances around surreptitiously.

"Katherine's still here." Elena catches on quickly. "She's just giving us the illusion of privacy."

"Well, isn't that kind of her," he says, trying not to sound too resentful.

He understands in theory the appeal of having a five-hundred-year-old super-strong, super-fast, super-hearing vampire in rescuing distance, he just resents the implication that either of them needs rescuing.

As if she can read his mind, Elena's next words are on that very subject.

"I know we look out for each other, and we're good at it," she says. "But we have no idea when Alaric could show up, or what he's going to do, and Kat can hear him coming."

"Shouldn't we be more worried about her than us?" Dean asks. "You're the only person he's not going to hurt, and I'm a human, and a hunter at that. She's a vampire, she's the one he wants to kill."

She nods. "Which is why she's within our hearing distance too," she says. "And the truth is Dean, we don't know what Alaric is willing to do. He might not want to hurt humans, but if he thought hurting you or threatening you would make me give him the White Oak Stake, I think he'd make an exception."

Dean nods begrudgingly.

"So why exactly are we here?" he asks.

Elena takes a deep breath. "Stefan took me here before the sacrifice," she admits.

"He did?" Dean asks.

She nods. "He brought me here because Damon gave me his blood against my will."

"Everything you tell me about him just makes me hate him more."

"Yeah, that's Damon," Elena agrees dryly.

She looks out over the horizon. "Stefan brought me here so I could tell him the truth: that I didn't want to be vampire. I wanted to grow up and decide if I wanted to have kids. I wanted to have a life."

She looks at him. He looks back at her.

"All right, lay it on me," he says.

"I love you," she says.

"Oh, that," he replies. "Yeah, I love you, too, Gilbert." He looks at her. "You didn't have to bring me up here to tell me that. I promise I'm not so much of commitment-phobe that you saying it freaks me out." He smiles. "It's actually kinda nice," he confesses.

She laughs. "I know, Dean. I just want to say it before I say the other thing."

"Okay." He holds his breath.

"This could end very badly," she says. "I want it to be a happy ending. I want to save Ric and then help you and Sam and your dad kill that demon. But anything could happen." She looks at him steadily. "I'll do whatever it takes to make sure this ends here, Dean," she tells him. "I'm not going to run anymore. This ends one way or the other."

He exhales. "Yeah, I figured you were gonna say that."

"I'm going to fight like hell for him," she says. "But I won't let him hurt anyone else. I won't see him make his threat a reality."

"I understand," he says. "Can I say something too?"

She nods. "Of course."

"I'm gonna be with you for every minute of this," he promises. "We're partners, Elena, you're not gonna be alone."

She smiles at him, lower lip trembling. "We're partners," she agrees.

She steps into his arms, burying her face in his chest for a long moment.

He kisses her hair, her cheek, the shell of her ear, until she turns her face to him and kisses him full on the mouth.

After a moment she steps back.

"Time to go?" he asks.

She nods, but her eyes are on the horizon again and without thinking, he takes a breath, holds it, and waits for her to say whatever else is on her mind.

It doesn't take her long.

"I don't want to die," she confesses, still looking at the horizon. She's never said that out loud before.

---

"You know I'm beginning to think you're avoiding me," Dean says to his father.

John is in Grayson Gilbert's study, the site of the first argument he ever had with Elena. He still remembers vividly what it was like to realize that protecting John Gilbert's orphaned teenage daughter was not going to be an easy job. How determined she was to see to everyone else's safety. Looking back, he should've known then exactly what kind of woman she would become, but John has always had tunnel vision.

"I wasn't sure if you wanted to talk to me," John says. "Unless it was interrogating me about Elena's past, that is."

Dean shakes his head. "No, Elena will tell me anything I want to know now."

"Right," John replies tightly.

"Don't get mad at her for being honest with me," Dean says. "I'll never understand why you kept me out of the loop, Elena needs all the support she can get, especially after you left, and she had no one to talk to about all this."

"I did it to protect you," is John's response. "I'm not sure if that was the right choice, but you really don't understand how deep this goes."

Dean shakes his head. "I was always in this. If you didn't want me in this, you should've never introduced me to Elena."

John stays quiet.

"Stop it," Dean orders.

"Stop what?" John asks.

"Stop thinking what you're thinking," Dean retorts angrily. "I will never regret knowing her."

"You say that now," John replies with a shake of his head.

"And I mean it."

"Let's put this behind us for now," John says instead of continuing to argue. "You're upset with me, and I understand that. I can't take back the choices I made, so we have to move on from here."

Dean sighs. "Yeah, I'm still upset with you," he admits. "But I need to know you're in this, Dad. You can't fuck this up because you've got your eye on a different game."

John narrows his eyes, but Dean doesn't back down.

"I'm in this," John says shortly.

"Good," Dean replies, matching his tone.

He moves like he's going to leave the room, but John stops him.

"Just be careful, son," John says.

Dean sighs. "Look, if this is because you think I'll hurt her–" Dean starts before John cuts him off.

"No, Dean," John says with a shake of his head. "Elena's not the one I'm worried about." He exhales. "I'm more worried about what she could do to you."

Dean looks confused.

"Dad, you know Elena, she'd never hurt someone on purpose."

John shakes his head. "She would," he says firmly. "Don't lie to yourself about that."

Dean looks mutinous but John continues. "Under the right circumstances, that girl could do just about anything."

And Dean can't argue with that.

"You're right in a sense, she'd probably never hurt you on purpose, not unless she thought she didn't have a choice."

Here John pauses, and Dean waits, wondering what his father will say next.

John, for his part, chooses his words carefully.

"I don't just know Elena, I know her bloodline," he explains. "I know half the men who loved those girls died bloody," he says. "Or worse," he adds. "Those girls met dark ends too or went darker than pitch."

Inadvertently, cold, monstrous Katherine crosses Dean's mind.

John nods like he knows exactly what Dean is thinking.

"She might not be able to help hurting you," he reminds him. "Tragedy is in her blood."

Elena's own fear of becoming Katherine is at the forefront of Dean's mind. Elena knows exactly what it would look like, going bad.

"I know you care about her, and I know she cares about you too," John assures him. "But it's not all roses with a girl like her," he tells him. "I'm more concerned about what happens when destiny catches up with the two of you."

Dean considers his father's word, but really he has no answers for him, only a question.

"Has it ever been roses for any of us?"

---

"Elena, I was hoping to get a moment with you," Stefan says, tone stiff and formal.

She stares at the wall behind him.

"I just, would like a moment to clear the air," he tries again.

Dean steps forward, putting a hand on her back.

"I really don't think she wants to hear what you have to say." Dean's voice is low and tense.

"I can understand that," Stefan tries to sound patient. "But I just need a moment." He glances at Dean. "Alone," he adds.

"No," Elena says, startingly him with the fierceness of her response. "If you want to talk to me, Dean is staying," she tells him bluntly. "I don't want to be alone with you."

"Elena, please," Stefan tries to appeal to her, but she is unmoved.

She shakes her head. "You know, Dean is the first person who ever taught me that I don't have to be polite and hear everyone out. I'm choosing to give you the time of day right now, but not without Dean."

Finally, Stefan nods.

"I guess I understand that," he concedes reluctantly.

Elena crosses her arm, leaning against Dean while she waits, but Stefan doesn't say anything.

"Well?" Elena is impatient. "What do you want to say to me?"

Stefan sighs. "I'm not really sure where to begin," he admits eventually. "I've thought about what I would say if I ever saw you again for years. Tried to come up with explanations, wrote pages upon pages of apologies in my journal but…"

"You're not sorry Matt is dead," Elena cuts him off, her tone accusatory.

"No," Stefan contradicts her immediately. "I'm not sorry you're alive, Elena," he corrects. "Maybe it wasn't my choice to make, but I don't regret it. And knowing that you're the kind of woman who protects people, I wouldn't take it back if I could," he admits freely.

Elena glares hard at the wall, still not looking at him.

"But saving you did result in Matt's death," he concedes. "I will always regret that I couldn't save you both, that I wasn't strong enough," he confesses painfully. "Matt didn't deserve to be a casualty of all of this."

Stefan lapses into silence.

Elena is still staring at the wall past him.

"Is that all?" she asks finally.

"Yes," Stefan says. "That's all."

"Okay," Elena replies. "You can go now."

"That's it?" Stefan asks, surprised.

"Yes," Elena tells him. "I heard you out," she points out. "I don't have anything to say to you," she admits. "I don't even know why you're here."

"I'm here to help you," Stefan replies, a tad incredulous.

"That's nice," Dean interrupts. "But Elena told you to go, so, go."

Stefan glances between the two of them. Elena is still looking past him, leaning against Dean who is glaring at him head on.

"Okay," he says softly, leaving the room as quietly as he entered it.

---

Sam finds Elena in the study with his dad and brother.

"Hey," he greets them. "I was wondering where you all went."

"Can't even say ya'll in the heart of Virginia," Elena says with a shake of her head.

Sam laughs. "Yeah, guess not."

"You need something, Sammy?" John asks.

"Yeah, uh, Alaric replied," he explains. "He wants me to bring Elena and the White Oak Stake to the tomb?" he hesitates here. "He says he has Rebekah?"

"What?" Elena demands.

---

"You know, if you really wanted to strike a chord within Elena, you probably should've kidnapped a Mikaelson she cares about," Rebekah tells Alaric huffily. "She hasn't been able to look me in the eyes for years."

"Since you killed Matt Donovan," Alaric agrees with a nod.

Rebekah grimaces. If she had to make a list of regrets, Matt Donovan's death would be higher than she liked to admit. It burns her even now, the ways she has ruined Elena Gilbert.

"I see, it was never me you wanted," Rebekah realizes. "You were going for Nik."

"Well, he is the progenitor of Katherine's bloodline," Alaric points out.

"And Elena loves his child," Rebekah points out because she can.

Alaric sneers. "She's a bleeding heart," he admits.

"She's a fucking warrior," Rebekah contradicts. "She's killed monsters that would keep me up at night."

"A feat unto itself," Alaric agrees.

Rebekah can see a glimmer of pride in his eyes.

"Don't stand there looking prideful, she did all of that in spite of you," she reminds him. "In spite of me too, and my brothers as well," she adds before he can. "Whatever Elena Gilbert has done, whatever she's made of, it's to her own credit. And maybe those bloody Winchesters she loves so much helped her along the way, but you know they wouldn't have done it if she hadn't made them take her seriously."

Alaric narrows his eyes. "You believe in her," he realizes, sounding disbelieving and disgusted.

"Yes," Rebekah admits readily. "I believe she's the hero of this story, not me, not Klaus, and certainly not you."

"She won't be rescuing you," Alaric says assuredly.

"I'm quite good at rescuing myself," Rebekah replies dryly.

"We'll see," Alaric says softly.

---

"He has bloody werewolves on his side." Klaus is disgusted.

Still dripping in the blood of the wolves he slaughtered, he is furious over Rebekah's abduction. Everyone is gathered in the Mikaelson's Mystic Falls mansion, reassessing their plans now that Alaric is no longer a one-man operation.

"What do you expect?" Tyler counters. "You're running around the country, turning every pack you find into hybrids whether they like it or not," he reminds him. "Some of them are bound to disagree with you, Alaric is offering them a solution – a permanent one."

Elena shrugs. "He has a point, Klaus," she says. "He was bound to win over some allies – especially since your mother is still helping him."

"Don't speak of her," Klaus spits. "As we speak her daughter is being tortured by that monster because of her interference."

"She was probably going for you," John Winchester pipes up.

Everyone turns to look at him.

"Elena and Rebekah aren't exactly the best of friends," he reminds everyone.

"You're not?" Dean asks in undertone.

"She killed Matt," Elena says stiffly.

"Oh," is Dean's reply.

"Plus, Klaus is the progenitor of the bloodline of at least one of your friends, if not all of them," John adds. "Even without the personal connection, he makes more sense."

"So, what happened?" Sam asks.

"They weren't expecting Marcel," Elena realizes. "They thought it would just be Klaus and Rebekah; the third vampire threw them off."

"It helped that Bonnie was here," Klaus admits begrudgingly.

Bonnie had been taking the time to go over the spell with Klaus, since his vast knowledge offered her an opportunity to discuss the more technical side of magic, a rare treat.

"Bonnie kicked ass," Caroline agrees, grinning at her friend.

Bonnie gives her a small half smile.

"Alaric still got Rebekah, though," she points out, unwilling to get too big-headed over her powers.

Marcel is still recovering from having his neck broken by one of the werewolves.

"Well, all the wolves seem to be dead," Dean says.

"Hmm, they'll be rising soon," Klaus says nonchalantly. "And then the real fun will begin." He grins.

The whole room stills.

Elena closes her eyes. "You gave them your blood," she realizes.

"Yes, Sweetheart, I did," he answers without an ounce of shame. "And it will be your turn next," he reminds her.

"Like hell," Dean retorts instantly.

"Dean," Elena says, voice quiet. "That's not how this works," she tells him as gently as she can, avoiding his gaze.

"Elena," Dean replies, taken aback. "You're just gonna let them dig in?"

"Don't be stupid," Klaus interjects. "I would never let any of them bite her." He sounds disgusted – but there is a much more worrisome note of possession underneath it.

"It's part of our deal," Elena reminds Dean, her tone calm and even.

"Yes, Elena and I will take this to a more private location, no need to excite the boys." Klaus throws a dark look at the Salvatores.

"Katherine's going with you," Dean announces suddenly.

Everyone turns to look at him.

"Seriously?" Elena asks, surprised at his choice.

Dean shrugs. "You trust her, and she hates him, so yeah."

Katherine looks uncomfortable, but nods shortly. "You do realize he could rip my heart out in a second, right?"

"I do," Dean replies. "I'm not so much worried about him hurting her as I am about them being alone together," he admits freely.

"Only one day and you're already in possessive boyfriend mode," Katherine says. "I've never been a passion killer before."

"You all realize we are going into another room so Klaus can hook me up to a blood bag, not bite me, right?" Elena checks.

"Katherine's still going with you," Dean says stubbornly.

"Okay," Elena agrees. "I'm gonna need some juice or something after," she adds.

"And cookies?" Dean asks, trying to remember what people get when they donate blood.

"Cookies would be nice," she says.

"Pineapple juice and ginger snaps," Klaus adds.

"I know that," Dean replies, trying not to sound too offended and failing utterly miserably.

But Elena says, "He knows that," at the same time which completely takes the sting away.

"Should Elena be giving blood right now?" Sam is concerned.

"Sammy, just don't," John says, sounding bone tired.

"Why don't you two worry about getting Elena cookies and juice," Marcel suggests. "The rest of us can figure out how to rescue Rebekah."

"I should probably stay for that conversation," Sam reminds him.

"Right, our inside man," Marcel agrees.

"Dad?" Dean asks. "You think we're gonna be able to find pineapple juice in this Podunk town?"

"Try the Mexican grocer's," Damon pipes up.

Everyone stares at him. He shrugs. "I make a wicked piña colada," he says smugly.

"Got it," Dean says shortly.

His jaw tightens as John follows him outside.

"You're welcome," Damon calls after him sarcastically.

Dean rolls his eyes.

He doesn't want to think about Elena in a room with two vampires having her blood drawn. It doesn't matter if she swears to Mars and back that they'd never attack her. It goes against his every instinct to let this happen, and here he is, leaving the compound to drive Elena's peppy little Mini Cooper to the Mexican grocery store with his dad riding shotgun and their obligate vampire escort, Caroline, in the backseat.

---

"You know, under the circumstances," Klaus says, adjusting the rubber tube going into Elena's arm, making sure the blood flowing out has a clear path. "You seem surprisingly happy," he points out.

"I don't hate Rebekah that much, Klaus," Elena replies, surprised.

"Not what I meant," Klaus says with a roll of his eyes.

Elena nods. "Oh, you were talking about Dean."

"Precisely."

"Are you really gonna give me a hard time about my love life while your sister is being tortured?" Elena asks, exasperated.

"Well, we're certainly going to be better off once I have a new army of hybrids stolen from Alaric's ranks," Klaus counters quickly.

"But they didn't want this," Elena says softly. "That's why they teamed up with him in the first place."

"You are remarkably compassionate for a hunter," is Klaus' reply.

"I think that's the first time you've ever admitted that I am a hunter."

"From what I hear, you're quite the talented one at that – which brings us back to the question of your compassion."

"Which brings us back to the fact that you're turning a bunch of wolves who hated the idea of this so much they teamed up with a man hellbent on making vampires extinct," Elena counters.

"You said it yourself," Klaus points out. "It's a good tactical advantage."

Elena huffs, leaning back against the couch.

"I honestly didn't imagine your conversations would be this boring," Katherine observes.

"I do live to entertain you, Katerina," Klaus says glibly.

"I'm just saying." Katherine raises her hands defensively. "Elena just got a new boyfriend for the first time since Stefan, how are you handling it?"

Elena groans in frustration. "Not now, Kat," she begs.

"I saw it coming from a mile away," Klaus answers. "Further," he adds, remembering how quickly he ascertained the depth of Elena's feelings for the hunter.

"Doesn't mean you're enjoying this," is Katherine's argument.

"Kat, please," Elena says.

"I'll behave," Katherine promises with a roll of her eyes.

I'm not sure you're capable of that," Klaus says snidely.

"Neither are you!" Katherine retorts.

"Can we please just focus on Rebekah and Alaric and the unwilling hybrids that are about to wake up in transition in any minute and will die terrible deaths if you don't feed them my blood?"

"If you insist, Sweetheart."

There are a few moments of silence and then Katherine can no longer resist.

"She's not your sweetheart."

Elena puts a pillow over her face and screams into it.

---

"Are you sure you feel all right, Elena?" Dean asks again, worried.

"You're such a boyfriend," Katherine is amused.

"Ignore her," Elena tells him. "I'm fine," she adds. "I had my juice and cookies and I'm ready to talk about rescuing Rebekah now."

She looks at the rest of the group. "So what's the plan?"

"Right, well it seems like Sam will be the one with the easiest time getting in," Marcel admits begrudgingly. "He can pretend he has the White Oak Stake and pretty much just stroll right in. So he's gonna lead the charge, keep Alaric distracted while Klaus and I get Rebekah out."

"And I'm going with Sam," John cuts in. There is no way in hell he's leaving the safety of his son up to vampires. "Alaric will believe that I agree with him over Elena." Because he does, he and Elena have always been at odds about her protecting vampires. Elena has always held the advantage by being willing to do the unthinkable at the slightest provocation.

"Is it a good idea for Klaus to be right where Alaric wants him?" Elena questions.

"The other vamps and your hunters will be outside as backup," Marcel continues.

"And I'll be here," Elena realizes.

"You did just give blood, Elena," Dean reminds her.

Elena sighs and nods. "Right." She doesn't sound pleased, but she isn't arguing as much as anyone expected.

"What kind of weird voodoo powers do you have over her?" Damon asks immediately. "She's never not argued in favor of her doing something incredibly stupid."

Elena rolls her eyes. "Right, it's not like Dean isn't the main person who trained me as a hunter, it's not like I haven't trusted him with my life every single day for the last two years and eight months. And it's not like I do the same for him." She shakes her head. "No, it can't be any of that, it has to be voodoo."

She looks directly at Damon. "I trust him, in a way I never trusted you because you never treated me like your equal." She looks at all of them. "None of you did," she adds bluntly. "I was just some girl you needed to protect. Well, I'm not a kid anymore. And I've killed things that would give most of you nightmares. So, if the person in the room who can attest to that better than any of you says I should sit this one out, then I agree with him."

"You don't know what gives me nightmares," Damon replies childishly.

"Hey, you can talk to her like that when you turn a shapeshifter into literal goo," Dean cuts in bluntly. "She's right, you don't know what she's capable of, I do." Dean grins. "And it's pretty fucking spectacular."

Elena smiles at him.

"You guys are so gross," Sam says with affection. "This is awesome."

"Shut up, Sammy," Dean replies gruffly.

There is silence and then Caroline asks Elena in wonder and disgust, "You turned a shapeshifter into goo?"

"Yes," Elena answers honestly.

"Gross," Caroline replies. "Tell me literally everything."

Elena laughs. "Later, Care," she promises.

---

Elena cocks her head to the side. They're in the front entryway, the hunting party formed to go storm the tombs and rescue the princess – or the dragon, depending on who you ask.

"What is it?" Dean asks immediately.

"I don't…." she trails off. "Know," she finishes after a moment, her head still angled to the side, like she's listening.

"Do you hear something?" Sam asks.

"That's a dumb question, how could she hear something we can't?" Damon points out. He adds in a theatrical whisper, "I don't know if anybody told you, but some of us are vampires."

Sam rolls his eyes. He's starting to wonder if Damon is the one Elena wished she could feed dead man's blood to, because he can't exactly blame her.

Elena shakes her head, still feeling a tickle of awareness just behind her.

"You should probably get going," she says.

Katherine slides in beside her, the only one who is supposed to stay behind with her, at Elena's request.

Dean tucks her hair behind her ear, kissing her on her cheek. "I'll see you soon, okay?" he murmurs against her skin.

She nods, leaning into him.

Suddenly the whispering is louder. Elena acts purely on reflex, grabbing Dean by the collar of his jacket, pulling him out the door and down the stairs with her until they are on solid ground, past the threshold.

"Elena, what the hell?" Katherine asks, bemused. "We're supposed to stay here." She takes a step forward like she means to retrieve her doppelganger herself, but to everyone's surprise and horror, she cannot. An invisible barrier seems to be preventing her.

"You can't be serious," Caroline says loudly, trying desperately to leave the Mikaelson manor, but she can't. None of them can.

None of them can reach Dean or Elena, just past the invisible barrier.

"I wonder whose handy work this is?" Klaus asks dryly, glowering.

"Your mother did this at the decade dance," Stefan recalls suddenly.

He nods grimly.

"I bet Elena could come back in if she wanted, but not Dean," Marcel guesses.

"I bet Sam could come out if he wanted," Elena counters. "You're supposed to betray me, remember?"

Sam, realizing she is right, takes a step forward. He walks right past Katherine and down the steps to stand beside Dean and Elena.

"What about Dad?" Dean asks. "Alaric seemed pretty sure you were on his side."

But this is where their luck runs out, Esther made it possible for Elena and Sam to leave, and Dean is only free of the trap because of Elena's quick thinking.

"So I guess the fate of our kind rests on the backs of two hunters and a recent blood donor," Damon says dryly.

"Three hunters," Marcel corrects him. "And I like those odds," he adds. "I'm president of the Elena Gilbert fan club, remember?"

"I'd fight you on that one if we had time," Dean says distractedly.

"I have time," Jeremy pipes up, annoyed that he is also stuck behind the barrier.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Klaus asks. "Go rescue my sister."

Elena nods, she sees how tense he is. "Don't worry, we're not bringing the White Oak Stake," she tells him. "There's no way for him to kill her without it."

Klaus relaxes a fraction of an inch.

"Don't get killed," Katherine tells her, shrugging. "I'd hate to take the easy way out after all of this effort." There's a tense line around her mouth, telling Elena exactly how much Katherine doesn't want her to die.

"Look out for John, okay?" Elena requests.

"I can look out for myself," John says crossly.

Katherine nods. "Yeah, I'll keep an eye on him," she agrees, knowing that John Winchester probably despises everyone he is trapped in the mansion with the exception of maybe Bonnie and Jeremy.

"And Klaus, please remember that I will be very upset if anything happens to Katherine," Elena reminds him before they leave.

"Really?" Damon asks in disbelief, but Elena ignores him.

Klaus rolls his eyes. "The terms of our truce are still in place," he agrees.

"I'll see if I can get us out of here," Bonnie adds.

With that, Elena, Dean, and Sam take their leave.

"Where did you hide the White Oak Stake this time?" Sam asks on the way to the car. "In Dean's car was really smart."

She grins. "Nice try, Sam."

Sam raises his hands. "I'm curious, sue me."

He looks over at his brother, mouthing "Do you know?"

Dean shakes his head. Elena doesn't trust any of them to know where the White Oak Stake is. And in any other circumstance, Elena not trusting him would kill him. But right now? Yeah, he kinda gets it. Because the deaths of all vampires? That doesn't sound like a disaster to him, he just knows better than to tell Elena that.

But if he's honest, he still feels sick to his stomach when he thinks about that barn full of dead vampires. So, he'll keep reminding himself of that: the rows of bodies and the sickly-sweet smell of decaying flesh. Alaric's pointed message: he is willing to kill every individual vampire if he has to, and he will start with the one's Elena loves.

And maybe, Caroline and Tyler don't seem so bad, and yeah, he still can't look at Katherine without being struck by a deep sense of wrongness, but Elena loves her – Elena calls her sister and was ready to die to make sure she could live. And Elena hates Rebekah Mikaelson, but now she wants to rescue her. So Dean's gonna help her, because she's Elena and if she loves them they can't be all bad, and if she hates them and still wants to rescue them then, well, she's got her reasons.

"So where exactly is this tomb?" Dean asks Elena, getting into the driver's seat of her tiny little car.

She's already in the backseat, and Sam's knees are basically folded to his chin in the front seat, presenting a truly hilarious image that in any other circumstance would end up as his phone's lockscreen for at least a week.

"It's out by the old churchyard," she answers. "Past Wickery Bridge," she adds.

---

By the time Bonnie manages to break through Esther's spell keep them all captive, Elena, Dean, and Sam have returned with an uninjured but deeply annoyed Rebekah.

"Well, there goes our thunder," Klaus remarks, joining in Marcel in fussing over Rebekah.

John Winchester runs a tense but critical eye over Dean, Sam, and Elena, relaxing a fraction of an inch when he finds them no worse for wear than to be expected.

"Alaric got away before we could get a head shot," Elena tells Bonnie grimly.

She sighs, disappointed but unsurprised. "It's all right," she says. "We'll find another way to grab him."

"How?" Damon asks. "Now that he presumably knows Gigantor double-crossed him."

Sam rolls his eyes at the nickname but nods reluctantly. "Yeah, it's pretty clear which side I'm on now."

"We'll just have to regroup," says Caroline.

Without discussing it, they form a loose circle in the Mikaelsons' front lawn, none of them particularly thrilled at the idea of returning to the mansion where they were so recently trapped.

"Did he have more wolves at his disposal?" Klaus asks.

Elena nods reluctantly. "Not many," she tells him. "But they're dead now," she says shortly.

"Completely dead," Dean adds.

Klaus shrugs. "Their loss, really."

"How are the new hybrids?" Elena asks, voice halting.

"Obedient as ever," Klaus replies.

"So where do we think Ric went?" Damon asks.

"I don't think chasing him down is the ideal plan," Bonnie pipes up. "I think it's better to let him come to us."

"So now we wait?" Sam asks.

Elena nods grimly. "So now we wait," she agrees.

---

Everything goes wrong in the blink of an eye.

The next day everyone is tensed, waiting for Alaric to make another move. But he never shows. Hours pass where nothing happens, everyone orbiting Elena, waiting for something to happen.

Finally, unable to take the tension, Elena drags Dean out for a walk. Katherine has finally had enough of playing the third wheel, so Caroline is the one shadowing them when everything goes to hell.

Elena leads Dean through the woods of her childhood. They've been carefully avoiding the general population since arriving, knowing that it's best if she interacts with as few people as possible.

One moment Elena is telling Dean a story about a water tower Tyler drunkenly climbed in high school and the next Caroline appears, frantic.

"No one knows where Katherine went, Elena," she says, worried.

Dean and Elena exchange a tense look.

"Okay, he's back," Elena says evenly. "And he has Katherine."

"Where would he go?" Dean asks.

"The high school?" Caroline suggests. "That's where he took me when he kidnapped me."

Elena shakes her head. "The tomb," she answers.

Caroline is skeptical. "Again?"

Elena nods. "He wants me to come to him, remember?"

"Why would you associate the tomb with him?" Dean asks.

"It's where he died," Elena explains. "And it's where Katherine was trapped for months."

"There is no single story about this town that is normal," Dean observes.

"Please, I just told you a very normal one," Elena reminds him.

Dean nods, too worried to even snicker over the memory of Tyler's drunken antics.

"Caroline, get Bonnie," Elena says. "Dean and I are going to the tomb; we'll stall as long as we can."

Caroline nods then disappears.

Dean and Elena each pull out their phones, Dean to call his dad and Elena to call Klaus.

---

Stefan Salvatore has many regrets in his one hundred and seventy-one years on this Earth. If there was a list: Meeting Katherine Pierce, drinking his father's blood, and forcing Damon to complete his change would be at the top of it.

But despite everything, and as guilty as he feels, he's never regretted saving Elena Gilbert. Even knowing it made her hate him could not make him regret his actions that night. He is sorry every day that he lacked the strength to save Matt, but he'll never be sorry that he picked Elena. And everything she's done since only makes him more certain of that choice. They'll never know what kind of man Matt Donovan might have been, but Elena Gilbert is a hero, he knows this.

He can't take credit for any of it, of course, but he is still proud of her. He is still glad he saved her life so she could go out into the world and protect people. With as much pain and suffering as Stefan has caused in his one hundred and fifty-four years of vampirism, he knows he can never make up for it, but there is a certain balance in knowing that choosing to save Elena Gilbert's life (twice) led to more lives being saved by her actions.

As he approaches the tomb, he is not thinking of Elena Gilbert, but her predecessor. Katherine Pierce has four more centuries of pain and suffering to her name than Stefan, but she does not deserve to die here, to die for the evil alter-ego of a good man who became the ultimate weapon in Esther Mikaelson's vendetta against the monsters she created – against the children she once nurtured.

Silently, Stefan creeps into the tomb. He's expecting monologuing, he's expecting torture, he is not expecting the dreadful silence permeating the ruins. Concentrating hard, Stefan can hear the crickets singing outside, the wind moving through the trees. From the inside of the tomb all he can hear is the buzzing of insects, the quiet breathing of a waiting man, and the wet, painful panting of a dying girl.

Alaric Saltzman sits in the same place he died nearly three years before. Across the room, Katherine lays on the ground, shuddering around the stake in her stomach.

"Hello Stefan," Alaric says without looking at him.

"Go away, Stefan," Katherine grits out between her teeth. Her face drawn in pain, she shudders, fingers plucking at the protruding stake like she wants to rip it from her gut.

When she shifts, Stefan sees the jagged, bloodstained holes in her shirt where the stake entered again and again and understands why she doesn't pull it out this time.

"Alaric, be reasonable," Stefan says, trying to sound calm.

"Stefan, leave!" Katherine insists.

"Let him stay," Alaric argues. "Stefan, speak your piece," he invites. "Tell me about being reasonable." He sneers. "You of all vampires, would know about being reasonable."

Stefan flinches.

"To tell you the truth, I never got what Elena saw in you," Alaric says. "Even before I knew you were a ripper."

"I don't know either," Stefan confesses.

"Well, I'm sure your immortality just played well with her abandonment issues," Alaric suggests.

"It's a possibility," Stefan admits stiffly. He's never considered that before.

"Considering her current choice in men, I think she's over that."

Stefan nods rigidly. Everyday Elena and her hunter run the risk of losing each other, all in the name of protecting other people. They are heroes for the moment, but at any moment, their story could end in tragedy. Elena has well and truly embraced her mortality.

"How does it feel?" Alaric asks. "Knowing he's so much better than you?"

Stefan tries not to think about Elena's hunter. He stares at Katherine, he can see she's gray around the edges, and he knows the stake is scraping against her heart with every labored breath.

"He trained her too," Alaric adds. "He made her the perfect hunter," he says, admiration lacing his voice. "You should see their track record. I've been gathering evidence, hearing stories all over the country – that's what I've been doing since I got back."

"You put off your plans to murder us all to track Elena's kill count?" Katherine asks snidely.

"Not deliberately," Alaric explains. "It started out as tracking her – but the stories, the stories were so good. I've never been prouder of her."

He looks at Stefan again. "But really, Dean deserves the lion's share of the credit. He took a scared little victim, and he made her a hero."

Alaric stares hard at him. "What did you ever do for her?"

"He saved her life," Katherine argues. "Many times."

"He endangered it as many more," Alaric counters calmly. "Dean made sure she could save herself."

"What do you want me to say?" Stefan asks. "He's the better man? We all know that."

"I don't want you to say anything," Alaric says pleasantly. "I want you to die."

Katherine snorts. "You're really making a solid argument for your morality there, professor," she says snidely.

"Your very existence is immoral," Alaric responds with calm certainty.

Katherine grins. "And I'm damn proud of it."

"Are you?" Alaric asks. "I think you had fun being Elena – being the better version of you for once."

Katherine rolls her eyes. "I fucked my way across South America, Ric," she says dryly. "And not for the first time," she adds. "I wasn't saving babies from building fires or rescuing kittens from trees," she continues. "I was acting."

"Oh, make no mistake: You will never be half the woman she is," Alaric says easily. "But God, Katherine, wasn't it nice to not leave a trail of burning bridges in your wake?" he prompts. "Wasn't it nice, knowing everyone liked you, that they all think of you fondly."

"No," Katherine says, her teeth clenched in pain. "They remember Elena."

"And that just keeps you up at night," Alaric says. "Knowing that even Stefan here prefers her to you. He's probably imagining she's the one he's failing to rescue at this very moment."

Katherine shrugs. "It's not personal, I wish she was here right now, too."

"Hmm, dreaming impossible dreams," Alaric replies. "She won't be rescuing you tonight, Katherine. You've reached the end of the road."

Katherine gives him a feline grin. "Never count a Petrova out."

"I know better than to underestimate her," Alaric agrees. "But make no mistake, you will die tonight Katherine Pierce, one way or the other."

"You're not going to kill her," says Stefan assuredly. "You need her for leverage, because you know Elena will never willingly give you the White Oak Stake."

Alaric nods in agreement. "Not yet."

"He's getting cocky," Katherine tells Stefan. "He thinks it doesn't matter if he stakes us now or later because once he has the stake he can start hunting Originals." She glances at Alaric. "Am I right?"

"I think two hostages is redundant," is Alaric's reply.

Katherine's eyes widen in understanding. "Stefan, run," she shrieks.

But it's too late, Alaric already has Stefan in his grasp. Stefan struggles against him, rabbit fear pulsing through him as he realizes for the first time what it means to be an Original: Stefan's strength is no match for Alaric's despite the century and a half longer that he's been a vampire. Here, at the end, all that time means nothing; Alaric is the stronger predator.

As Katherine looks on in horror, in one smooth strike, his former teacher buries a stake in his chest. One hundred and fifty-four years later, Stefan Salvatore dies for Katherine Pierce for the second, and final time.

---

"Hello again, Ric," Elena says from the entrance of the tomb.

He smiles at her. "Hello again, Elena."

Dean at her back, Elena approaches. Hovering between the two vampires, Elena glances at the sad, gray form on the ground.

Elena is unmoved by the sight of her ex-boyfriend's body, more focused on her doppelganger.

"Kat," she says. "I'm so sorry, I never should've let you come here, I should've made you leave."

Katherine scoffs, her fingers wrapped tight around the stake in her stomach.

"Leave you?" she asks incredulously. "Never."

There is great irony layered into her voice. Katherine is always leaving someone, often Elena so she can pretend to be her.

"What a touching reunion." Alaric sounds bemused.

"You know how sisters are," Dean says boldly. "They hate each other's guts until their backs are against the wall."

"I never hated you," Katherine tells Elena. "I thought you were boring, that wasn't worth hating."

Elena smiles and replies, "I never hated you. I was just scared of becoming you."

"This is all very touching," Alaric interrupts. "But Elena, I think it's about time you hand over the stake."

"I didn't bring it with me," she answers. "I hid it somewhere new."

"You wouldn't risk Katherine's life," is Alaric's reply.

"You're going to kill her either way," Elena says. "I'm not helping you." She crosses her arms with finality.

Alaric turns incredulous eyes on Dean. "You're just going along with this?" he asks him. "All of your training and you're happy to defend vampires?"

"Against a vampire who is trying to kill them all," Dean points out. "I dunno. It's complicated, but I do know one thing: I'm always on Elena's side. No matter what."

"She could be great," Alaric argues. "You could make her great, if she could just control that damned bleeding heart."

"She is great," Dean says with finality.

"The more you talk, hunter, the more I like you," Katherine says.

"You're making me blush, Carmilla," he replies dryly.

"You remembered my pre-Dracula vampire literature rant," Elena says, smiling at Dean.

"I remember all your rants, 'Lena," Dean says.

"If you're not going to give me the stake, Elena," Alaric interrupts. "There are going to be consequences."

Alaric stands with his back to Katherine, facing down Dean and Elena.

Elena uncrosses her arms over her chest, waving her hand. "You have no leverage, Alaric," she replies bluntly. "You're threatening to kill Katherine so I'll give you the stake so you can kill the Originals which will kill all the vampires, Katherine included. You have to know I won't give it to you." She shakes her head.

Katherine is breathing unevenly, eyes shut tight like she is bracing herself for impact.

"I am not asking anymore, Elena," Alaric says coldly. "I am telling."

Behind his back, Katherine pulls the stake out of her stomach without making a sound.

She shrugs. "And I'm still saying no. I'm not a kid anymore, Alaric," she reminds him, then adds, "And even when I was, you never ordered me to do anything. This is not the real you."

Katherine rises to her feet, stake in hand. She glances down at Stefan's desiccated body.

"But this is the better version of me," Alaric replies. "Vampires are a blight that need to be wiped off the face of this Earth." He glances at Dean. "And your mentor agrees."

With vampiric agility, Katherine twirls the stake in her hands.

"I don't tell Elena what to do, ever," Dean says flatly.

Elena looks over at the spot where Katherine was lying.

"I'm getting very tired of this vampire fetish of yours, Elena," Alaric says with contempt. "It's stopping you from achieving all you can," he insists. "But more importantly, it's spreading." He slams his fist on his open palm. "They are abominations, I will destroy them all, with or without you."

Katherine appears directly behind him and drives her stake directly into his heart, right through his spine.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Elena says, replying to Alaric's last words.

"Shut the fuck up," Katherine tells him with derision as his body hits the ground.

Pulling out her phone, Elena presses call.

"Bonnie? We've got him."

---

"Caroline can stay," Bonnie says. "Katherine you can go."

Caroline nods but Katherine looks at Elena first. Elena nods at her predecessor.

"Don't have too much fun without me," Katherine says, squeezing Elena's hand as she leaves.

"All right, what do you need us to do?" Dean asks.

Jeremy and Elena look to Bonnie, waiting for instruction.

"We need to lay him supine first," Bonnie says, reading from her grimoire. "And remove the stake," she adds.

"Supine?" Dean questions.

"On his back," Elena answers.

Dean removes the stake from Alaric's back, then the two of them roll his stiff body onto his back.

Jeremy opens Bonnie's backpack, pulling out a bundle of vervaine.

"We're going to create a circle of vervaine around him," Bonnie explains. "It should immobilize him, in case he wakes up before the ritual is done."

"And how soon is that gonna happen?" Dean asks.

"He should stay unconscious the whole time," Bonnie answers.

"How will we know if he's Alaric again?" is Jeremy's question.

"We'll know," Caroline answers. "Wait, is that why I'm here?" she asks, sounding shrill.

"No," Elena says with a shake of her head. "If you want you can leave before he wakes up," she adds.

"No, it's fine, I'll stay," Caroline insists. "I just don't want him to try to torture me again." She smiles ruefully at Elena. "I bet you don't spend a lot of time rescuing vampires now, do you?"

Elena smiles back her and shrugs. "Please, I just rescued Rebekah Mikaelson," she reminds her. "I can make another exception for you."

Bonnie and Jeremy have completed the circle around Alaric while Dean, Elena, and Caroline have arranged the candles.

"All right, what next?" Dean asks. "Light 'em up?" He gestures to the candles.

Bonnie smiles. "Not exactly," she says and suddenly the room is full of flickering candlelight.

"Cool," Dean says, impressed.

"Thank you," Bonnie says with a smile. "I am going to recite the spell now," she explains.

Bonnie sits at Alaric's head. "This could take a while," she warns them.

The others move out of the way, settling in against the wall, far away from the puddle of Katherine's blood. Silently, on either side of her, Elena's friends take her hands. She squeezes each hand gratefully, smiling at Caroline and leaning into Dean's side. Elena tries not to hold her breath and fails.

Bonnie begins.

---

The first thing Alaric Saltzman sees when he opens his eyes is Elena Gilbert. She is leaning over him with a guarded expression on her face, ponytail sliding over her shoulder to brush across his face. He blinks.

"Alaric?" she asks hesitantly.

He glances around at their surroundings, taking in the faces surrounding them. Dean at Elena's back, an identical expression on his face. Jeremy Gilbert looks wary but hopeful. Caroline Forbes as far away from him as she physically can get without leaving the tomb. Bonnie Bennett with her grimoire in hand, looking drained.

"Elena?" he replies hoarsely. "What happened?"

"How do you feel?" she asks, ignoring his question.

"Confused," he replies. "What happened? Why are we in the tomb?" he addresses Dean. "What are you doing here?"

"You don't know why I'm here?" Dean asks.

Alaric shakes his head "No, I'm sorry." He looks at Elena again. "I don't understand what's going on."

"What's the last thing you remember?" Elena asks him, still ignoring his questions.

He frowns, concentrating. "Uh, it was the decade dance, I came here to…" he trails off. "I came here to die," he says slowly. "Oh god, what have I done?"

Silently, Dean reaches out a hand, helping Alaric up, Elena looking warily on.

"It's July 2018, Ric," Elena says finally. "Are you saying you don't remember anything since October 2015?"

"I missed your birthday?" Alaric asks stupidly.

Elena nods slowly. "A few of them."

He looks away. "And Jeremy? You're in college now?"

"Pratt Institute," Elena answers. "In Brooklyn."

"I just finished my first year," Jeremy adds.

"And you?" he asks Elena, emotional.

"I didn't…" she trails off. "I'm a hunter, Ric," she says finally. "Like you." She cants her head towards Dean. "He trained me. And John Winchester, too."

"You are?" he croaks. "That's…" he trails off, devastation clear in his gaze. "That's great, Elena," he says gently.

She nods like she knows exactly why he's so devastated. No one had really wanted this life for her, no one except Elena herself. And even then, Elena wanted it as a means of control, a way to decide her own fate. If there had been any other choice that allowed her the level of freedom that came with hunting, she might've picked something else.

"Um, so…" He closes his eyes. "What have I been doing for all this time?" he asks warily.

The rest of them exchange looks.

"You were looking for me," Elena says finally. "You were…like the way you were before, the way the ring made you," she explains.

"Right," he says tightly, nodding to show he understands what she meant. "Why was I looking for you?" he asks.

"Because I have the White Oak Stake," she says finally.

"Here?" he asks, confused.

She shakes her head. "No, I hid it," she explains.

"So, I followed you for years to try to get the stake to…" he trails off.

"Actually, you followed Katherine who was pretending to be me," she says.

His eyes widen. "Oh," he says dumbly. "Since when is Katherine on your side?" he asks finally.

"I think she's on the side of whoever's going to stop the destruction of all vampire kind," Elena answers diplomatically. "So, mine by default."

"I was going to destroy all vampire kind?" Alaric asks, eyes wide at the breadth of his evil alter ego's ambitions.

"You didn't," Dean offers somewhat lamely.

"Because Elena had Katherine lead me on a wild goose chase," Alaric summarizes.

"At one point Elena even pretended to be Katherine to see if you were following her instead," Dean says.

Elena nods. "Yes I did," she states simply, unashamed by the complexity of her misdirection.

"I always knew you'd be good at this," Alaric tells her sincerely.

"Really, always?" she asks skeptically.

"Oh sure, you blew me out of the water, following us into the house to save Stefan," Alaric says, oblivious.

Caroline stifled gasp does not go unnoticed by Alaric.

"What is it?" he asks.

He looks at each of them and they avoid his gaze.

"Okay," he says slowly. "What did I do?"

Elena sighs, then meets his gaze head on.

"Alaric," she begins. "Earlier tonight, you killed Stefan."

---

Gathered at the Gilbert house, the absence of the Salvatore brothers is strangely pointed, despite the fact that neither Gilbert sibling wanted them there in the first place.

Alaric is ill at ease with everyone around him, constantly ruminating on how he might have wronged them since his dark passenger took the wheel.

"Hey, 'Lena," Tyler asks suddenly. "Where in the hell did you put the White Oak Stake?" He shrugs. "Just curious," he adds for the benefits of the suspicious glances being exchanged between the hunters.

Marcel and the Original siblings have retired to the Mikaelson manor, intent on returning to New Orleans as soon as possible.

Elena slides her hand under her hair, moving her ponytail over her shoulder.

"Oh, somewhere no one would think to go – not again," she answers vaguely.

"Well, that leaves basically the entire town," Caroline points out.

"It could still be in the tomb," Jeremy adds.

"Or remember the creepy well on the Lockwood property?" Bonnie chimes in.

Elena smiles vaguely, not commenting.

"I'm sure wherever it is none of us will think of it," Dean says, knowing Elena has no intention of confirming or denying anything.

"Alaric, are you all right?" Elena asks him, noticing he is staring vaguely at the wall.

He smiles at her. "Yeah, Elena, I'm fine," he assures her. "I'm just tired," he adds. "I think I might turn in early." He hesitates.

"Katherine's gone, you can have the spare room," Elena offers, realizing his dilemma.

Alaric nods gratefully, rising to his feet and climbing the stairs like he has lived a hundred lives since the last time he set foot on them. Everyone watches him go.

"Well, I think Bon and I are gonna go now," Caroline says brightly. "Elena, let's catch up before you take off, yeah?"

Elena nods, standing up to see the girls out, Tyler trails after them, deep in thought as he goes.

"I guess you'll be leaving tomorrow?" Jeremy asks.

Dean nods. "You're going to see Bobby soon, right?"

"Got my ticket for later this week," Jeremy confirms.

Elena comes back from walking her friends out.

"It's probably time we all turn in," John says.

"That's a good idea," Elena agrees.

The rest of them climb the stairs, leaving Sam to the couch in the living room. He sighs, leaning back against the cushions.

Elena is safe, Alaric has been cured, tomorrow he can focus on the demon again.

---

"Wake up, Dean," Sam says.

"Jesus Christ," Dean mutters, sitting up in the pitch-black room. "What the hell do you want, Sammy?"

"Alaric's gone," Sam replies immediately. "I had one of those dreams I sometimes have and when I checked he was gone."

Dean fumbles for a light.

The other side of the bed is empty.

"Sammy, where's Elena?" Dean asks.

"She's not here, and I checked every room for Alaric already, no one else is awake."

Dean is out of the bed, crossing the room to put on his shoes.

"Where would they go?" Dean asks. "Where would he take her?"

"I think I know," Sam says hesitantly. "At least, in my dream I could see that bridge we crossed to get here in the background?" he explains.

"Wickery Bridge?" Dean's face is enough to tell Sam that the bridge is not insignificant.

"Yeah," Sam says with a nod. "And I think Caroline's with them, I know she went home but she was there in my dream."

Dean goes over to Elena's side of the bed, grabbing her phone. He quickly finds Caroline's contact and calls her it rings a few times, but Dean hangs up before it goes to voicemail.

"We're going now, tell me about the dream on the way there," Dean says.

"Should I wake Dad?" Sam asks.

Dean shakes his head. "No time," he says shortly, grabbing the back of Sam's jacket, he drags him out of Elena's room and down the stairs, heading for the Impala.

---

Dean parks on the side of the road and they exit the car as quietly as they can.

"Thank god," a familiar voice says in hushed tones.

They swing around to find Bonnie Bennett behind them.

"How did you…" Sam starts to ask.

"I had a dream," Bonnie explains quickly.

"Psychic dreams are very popular tonight," Dean says wryly. "Do you know where they are exactly?" he asks, getting right down to business.

"Someone needs to go save Tyler," Bonnie cuts him off. "Alaric threw him down a well full of vervaine…" she winces. "And snakes," she adds. "So, you know, bad for vampire-werewolf hybrids and humans alike."

"The well where everyone thinks Elena hid the White Oak Stake," Dean realizes.

"That was a misdirection?" Sam is surprised.

"What else would it be?" Dean asks, still more focused on Elena than the stupid stake everyone is so obsessed with getting from her.

"That is classic Elena," Bonnie agrees.

Without further discussion, Dean hands over the keys to Sam. There is no world where he is not the one going after Elena.

"Where's the well?" Sam asks.

Bonnie tells him, shaking.

In a moment he is in the driver's seat, driving away.

"You need a weapon?" Dean asks her. "Or are you just gonna…" he waves his hands at his head to indicate some kind of supernatural power.

She shakes her head. "Fuck that, he has my best friends, give me a gun," she requests.

Dean pulls a gun out of the back of his waistband.

"You're not even gonna ask if I can shoot?" Bonnie checks, surprised.

Dean shakes his head. "Elena said Caroline's mom used to take all of you to the gun range."

Bonnie nods. "Yeah, that's right."

Dean points to the gun. "That's Elena's," he tells her. "You be careful with it." He grimaces. "A hunter's only as good as her weapons."

Bonnie nods. "I'll make sure to get it back to her."

---

They creep through the underbrush. The night is black, and Dean's heart is pounding so loud he can't hear anything else. He just keeps moving forward, praying that he gets there in time.

They follow a path down a hill, near the shore of the lake. When they hear the rise and fall of two voices, Bonnie fists her hand into Dean's jacket, tugging on him hard.

He turns his head slightly, nodding to let her know he hears them too. Down the hill they creep, then they inch in between two red maple trees growing close together.

Dean peers around the corner of the tree. His grip on his gun tightens. Caroline and Elena are bound on the ground, Caroline freely bleeding where her wrists and ankles are bound together. Elena looks better, glaring defiantly at Alaric as she argues with him.

"Just give me the stake, Elena," Alaric demands impatiently.

"What part of 'it's not here' do you not understand?" Elena fires back.

Alaric grabs her by her bound wrists, dragging her to her feet.

"I am beginning to lose my patience, Elena," he hisses into her face. The veins around his blood-pooled eyes stand out.

"Bite me," she spits.

He snarls, releasing her in one moment and backhanding her in the next. She falls over in a crumpled heap, hands touching her bound ankles. She stays down, her shoulders rising and falling with the effort to recover from the force of the blow.

"Elena!" Caroline cries. "Let her go, Alaric!" she yells.

"Not until she gives me the stake," he says.

"She's not going to do that, you idiot," Caroline argues. "You can threaten us all you want; Elena will never let you kill us all."

"I'm getting tired of hearing you speak," Alaric remarks.

Before Caroline can retort, he yanks her up by her hair, grasping her chin and snapping her neck, letting her go just as quickly. Her body hits the ground with a hard thud.

Dean feels Bonnie's hand unwind from his jacket. She grasps Elena's gun with both hands.

"Wait," he mouths back at her. She nods grimly.

"Now," Alaric begins calmly. "Elena, be reasonable."

Elena stays where she is. "How is any of this reasonable, Alaric?" she asks wearily.

"How is protecting monsters reasonable?" Alaric argues incredulously.

"They're my friends," she replies simply.

"How many vampires have you killed?" he asks suddenly. "How many have you hunted."

Elena answers begrudgingly. "A few."

Seven, Dean thinks.

"Did you ever hesitate to kill any of them?" he asks.

Not even for a second, Dean thinks.

"No," Elena replies.

"Why not?" he asks.

"Hesitation is what kills hunters," Elena recites.

This isn't anything Dean has ever said to her. This must be from one of Alaric's lessons.

"Exactly," Alaric agrees.

"This is different," Elena says. She looks at Caroline's still form.

"They're no different just because you know them," Alaric insists.

"Caroline is different," Elena counters.

"But Klaus? Katherine? Rebekah?" Alaric veers in another direction. "You can't tell me Damon is different."

Elena stills.

"Tell me, Elena," Alaric insists. "Tell me Damon Salvatore is a different breed of monster. Tell me he's worthy of your mercy. Tell me what he did to Caroline wasn't exactly the same as what that football coach did to you."

"It's not the same," Elena says faintly.

"Why not?" Alaric demands.

"If Damon did what he did to Caroline to another girl now… now I would have to hunt him," Elena agrees. "But Tanner belonged in jail. I hated him. But him having his throat ripped out in the parking lot wasn't justice, it was just bloodlust. I don't sleep any better at night knowing he's dead."

"You might sleep better knowing Damon is dead," Alaric suggests.

"But not Caroline, or Klaus, or Katherine, or Tyler, or Elijah, or even Rebekah," Elena replies.

"I am so sick of this debate," Alaric snarls, pacing.

"Imagine how I feel," Elena says dryly.

"Give me the fucking stake, Elena," Alaric demands.

"Never," Elena says simply.

Coming to a stop, he stares at her for a long moment before he speaks again.

"I told you Elena," Alaric sneers. "If I have to kill every vampire individually, I'll do it," he reminds her. "Why not start now?"

A stake appears in his hand, too fast for the human eye to see, dragging Caroline's unconscious body up to him by her bound wrists. Bonnie and Dean surge forward, bursting from their hiding spot.

In the split second it takes for all of this to occur, Elena rolls onto her back, revealing the butterfly knife clenched in her bound fists. Without hesitation, she drives it down into her jugular.

"No!" Bonnie screams.

"Elena!" Dean yells.

Alaric drops Caroline's body and the stake, moving in a blur towards Elena to prevent her from removing the knife from her throat and bleeding out. Elena kicks out with her bound feet, sending Alaric sprawling. In the same moment, Elena rolls away from him. A moment later Alaric is on his feet, hauling her up and grabbing her by her bound hands but he is too late.

Gleaming between Elena's bound fists is the butterfly knife. Blood pours forth from her throat like a fountain, spilling down her front and over Alaric's hands, staining them both.

"No," Alaric breathes, even as his body begins to desiccate.

Elena Gilbert smiles at him and then she dies.

"NO!" Dean lunges for Elena, discarding his gun.

Bonnie is right behind him, grasping his arm to drag him and Elena's body away from Alaric.

"Dean we have to move," she begs, distraught. "Alaric's going to start burning any second now!"

Dean, in his grief, does not hear her. So, pushing and shoving and dragging with all her might, tiny woman that she is, Bonnie is able to get him and Elena's body away from Alaric before he ignites. Once they're at a safe distance, she collapses and they go down with her.

"Elena, wake up," Dean says urgently. He strokes her still face.

Silent tears slide down Bonnie's face.

"C'mon, Gilbert," he whispers. "Baby, please."

Alaric Saltzman's body burns a safe distance away from them, Caroline Forbes is still bound and unconscious, and Elena Gilbert's heart does not beat.

"She's gone, Dean," Bonnie says, throat tight with emotion. There is a shiver at the edge of her awareness, like someone is standing just outside her peripheral vision. She ignores it.

"There's gotta be something we can do," he insists. "Some spell, or whatever."

"It won't end well," Bonnie explains reluctantly. "It never ends well."

The feeling grows stronger, like someone has bent over to whisper in her ear, but for the life of her she cannot turn to look and see who's there.

Until this moment, Dean's eyes have been fixed on Elena's face. Now, they flicker up to meet Bonnie's gaze. They stare at each other for a moment in perfect understanding.

Dean takes the butterfly knife from Elena's stiff grasp, using it to cut the bindings around her wrists and ankles. Then he tucks the knife into his pocket.

"Help me carry her," he requests desperately.

Bonnie nods quickly.

Dean slips his arms under Elena's shoulders as Bonnie grasps her ankles. Together they carry her dead weight down to the lake side. Dean only briefly hesitates before stepping backwards into the cold lake where Elena lost so much.

Bonnie feels the water fill her shoes, then her bare legs – she didn't have time to change out of her pajamas when she woke from her dream. Dean keeps walking deeper into the lake, stopping only when he sees the water is up to Bonnie's chest.

Elena's head is resting on his shoulder. He lets out a shaky breath, looking at Bonnie grimly. She nods quickly, too afraid to hesitate.

Lovingly, Dean raises one hand to cradle Elena's cheek, kissing the top of her head. He maneuvers her head down off his shoulder with a gentleness that makes Bonnie's throat ache. He supports the back of her neck, holding her head above the water. Bonnie lets go first, dropping Elena's legs to swim to her other side, opposite Dean.

"Let her go," she says hoarsely.

"Are you sure?" he asks.

"Aren't you?" she retorts.

He holds his breath, then lets go. Elena sinks below the water immediately. The bugs hum, the crickets sing, and Bonnie exhales shakily. Dean finally releases his breath.

"How long is this gonna take?" he finally asks, anxious.

"I have no idea," Bonnie whispers back.

The night hums around them, Dean's breaths are shallow, like he can't bear the thought of breathing when Elena isn't.

Idly, Bonnie wonders how long he has been in love with Elena – did it happen at first sight? The way it so often did when her oldest friend was involved; did it only take one look in that graveyard for Dean to know he would soon be head over heels? Or was it gradual, like sliding into a hot bath, a process not without pain, but infinitely worth it.

Before Bonnie can do something stupid – like open her mouth and ask that question at this particular moment – Elena begins to move under the water.

"Elena!" Dean cries.

Her hands come up first, like she is clawing her way out, and Dean lunges downward, one hand below her back and the other behind her head, pulling her out from under the water and into the humid night air.

Elena splutters, flailing for only a moment before she realizes who is holding her. She spins in Dean's grip, throwing herself fully into his embrace.

"Dean?" she murmurs.

He wraps himself around her as she clings desperately to him.

"I've got you, Baby," he replies.

Shaking, the two of them hold each other.

"Elena, thank god!" Bonnie says, voice raw with emotion.

"Bonnie?" she asks in a small voice.

"I'm here," she says.

Elena extracts one of her arms to reach backwards for Bonnie and she hurriedly moves forward to take it. Elena's hand trembles, her entire body shakes, like her soul is vibrating inside of her.

"What happened?" Elena asks softly. "I don't understand what happened."

---

In the driveway of the Mikaelsons' Mystic Falls mansion, Rebekah opens the driver's side of her car door.

"Leaving so soon?" Elena calls as she comes up the driveway.

Rebekah turns to look at her.

"Not just yet," Rebekah answers. "You here to see Nik?" she asks.

Elena nods. "Yeah, we've got stuff to talk about."

"You mean about how you promised you'd stop hunting once Alaric was taken care of and now that he's gone you're here to persuade my brother to let you keep hunting," Rebekah summarizes.

"Pretty much," Elena agrees shamelessly.

"Don't manipulate him to do it," Rebekah requests suddenly. "I know how it works with you Petrovas," she goes on. "One pretty smile from one of you and all good sense goes out the window, and as extraordinary as Nik is, he's just as likely to fall for it."

Elena opens her mouth, but Rebekah shakes her head.

"Please let me finish," she begs. "I've kept my mouth shut because of our history. You hate me and you have the right to do it – I know it – and I suppose your history with Klaus is even worse. Maybe you do have the right to walk all over his heart while you drive off into the sunset with your hunter, but please. He's my brother. You've been better to us than we deserve, I know, you are so good to Hope. But please, just, think of his heart, just this once."

Elena waits until Rebekah nods. "Go on, tell me to go to hell, you're quite good at it, I know."

"I love Dean," Elena says simply. "If he can't stop hunting, neither can I," she explains. "He's my partner – before anything else, he's my partner. If he's still in this, so am I," she continues. "I will do anything to have his back right now because demon hunting is not a solitary sport, he needs me – and he's always been there for me when I needed him, I could never do less by him." Her face softens the tiniest bit.

"But I don't want to hurt him," she says, and Rebekah recognizes that the 'him' she is talking about has changed. "I'll do my very best," she promises solemnly.

"That's about as much as I can ask for," Rebekah says after a moment. "Well, go on in," she says finally.

"Rebekah?" Elena calls, surprising her.

"Yes?" she asks.

"I forgive you," Elena replies, stealing the air from Rebekah's lungs.

"You do?" she asks distantly.

Elena nods. "You didn't have to help us," she explains. "So, thank you," she says. "And I forgive you. I promise to stop pretending you don't exist." She frowns. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at you without thinking of him," she confesses. "But I don't hate you, not anymore."

"Oh," Rebekah says dumbly. "You're welcome," she says finally. "Though I suppose I should be thanking you," she continues after a moment. "After all, you're the one who kept Alaric from destroying us all for years."

Elena shrugs. "That's what hunters do," she reminds her with a quiet smile.

Rebekah shakes her head. "No, it isn't," she argues. "You're much better than the rest of them, even if you don't realize it." She hesitates, then adds, "I hope your boyfriend learns from you."

Marcel appears then, and the three of them say their goodbyes, Marcel extracting a promise from Elena to meet up next time she's in New Orleans. The two vampires get in the car.

"Bye Marcel," Elena calls.

"See ya, 'Lena," he answers.

"Goodbye Rebekah," Elena says.

"Goodbye Elena," she replies.

---

"Hello Elena," Klaus says.

"How much did you hear?" she asks, cutting straight to the point.

"It was very kind of you to forgive Rebekah," he says by way of answering.

Elena shrugs. "She earned it."

"Do you really expect me to let you to continue to put yourself at risk like this?" Klaus asks, moving to the next topic without hesitation.

"No," she says honestly. "But it's my life," she continues. "And I get to decide how I live it."

"The mortality rate for hunters speaks for itself," Klaus counters.

Elena doesn't have a reply for that one.

"I'm not very happy with you right now, Elena," he reminds her. "That little stunt at Wickery Bridge wasn't your finest moment."

"I'm alive, aren't I?" she asks rhetorically.

"Only because of Bonnie," he retorts. "And who knows what the consequences will be for that one."

Elena keeps silent. Dean, Elena, and Bonnie had agreed not to tell anyone the exact circumstances of Elena's resurrection. Mostly because none of them can explain it to each other, let alone anyone else.

"You know I can't leave him," Elena finally whispers.

"I'm not asking you to," he retorts. "He can come with you and live in my spare bedroom for all I care."

"He's not going to do that," Elena replies, frantic. "You know he's not going to do that."

Klaus shrugs. "We had a deal, Elena," is his only reply.

"Can we please just, talk about this when it's over?" Elena asks desperately. "Just let me help them kill the demon, and then we can revisit the whole retirement thing," she says.

"Right, because it's not over for you if it isn't over for him," Klaus replies, echoing her words to Rebekah.

Elena nods. "It's the truth."

"I only have so much of an edge over demons, Elena," Klaus says, agitated. "I can't promise none of them will come after you."

"I never asked you to make that promise," she points out. "If I can't hunt a demon with a full team behind me, I'm not a very good hunter, now am I?"

Klaus' jaw clenches in agitation the way it always does when Elena reminds him of what she is.

"That's beside the point," he snaps. "I thought we agreed that once you didn't have Alaric on your tail you would stop hunting," he counters.

"I didn't realize we would be this close to finding the demon that killed Dean's mother when we made that agreement," she explains. "If we can just end this together, please."

He shakes his head. "You've risked your life for long enough," he says with finality.

Elena sighs. "I didn't want to have to do this," she says, her voice surprisingly soft.

"Do what?" he asks, immediately on guard.

"Remind you which of us is in possession of the White Oak Stake," she says clearly.

He freezes.

"Do you really think it's wise to threaten me?" he asks.

"I'm not threatening," Elena says immediately. "I would never ever want to be the person who deprives Hope of any of her family, especially not her father," she reminds him. "But I do want you to recognize that I am not something you own. I am a person who can make her own decisions. I choose to keep the White Oak Stake out of the hands of people who would use it against you, just like I'm choosing to go help Dean and John and Sam hunt down the demon that killed people they love."

Elena's words seem to echo through the space between them.

"I see we are at an impasse," Klaus says at last.

"I think we can get past it," she replies.

"Perhaps," he agrees finally. "With conditions."

---

When Elena gets home, Tyler is waiting for her.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey," she replies. "Wanna take a walk?" she asks, sensing that he wants privacy.

He nods, grateful. They start to walk, heading towards the woods Elena and Dean had been walking in only the day before.

"So, what's up?" she asks him finally.

"I just wanted to apologize," he tells her seriously.

"For what?" she asks, surprised.

"For going after the White Oak Stake," he says.

"Oh." She is surprised. "Ty, I'm just sorry you thought it was there," she says finally. "I'm not mad," she tells him sincerely.

"You're not?" he checks, surprised.

"Look, I know how you feel about Klaus, I should've known you'd try to find it. I just wish I'd found some way to make it clear it wasn't there so Alaric couldn't have thrown you down it. That had to be painful."

Tyler winces. "Yeah, thank Sam again for me."

"I will," she nods. "Is that all?" she asks him.

"Yeah," he says. "I was just afraid you thought I betrayed you for Alaric or something."

Elena shakes her head. "I know you, Tyler. You're the reason we're all here," she adds. "You're the reason this is finally over, so thank you."

The two of them hug before parting ways, Tyler to leave Mystic Falls, and Elena to return to her house where Bonnie and Caroline are waiting to kidnap her for a girl's night.

---

"And that is how you kill a wendigo," Elena finishes.

"You're such a badass now," Caroline says admiringly.

Bonnie nods in agreement. "If I was Dean I would've jumped you the moment you decided to turn bug spray into a flamethrower, you're insane."

Elena laughs. "Thanks Bon," she says.

The three of them are piled on Bonnie's bed, having one last sleepover before Elena and the Winchesters head out the next day.

"Tell me about your girlfriend, Caroline," Elena requests, moving the focus off of herself.

Caroline blushes a little. "What's there to tell? She's a witch, just like Bonnie, and she goes to Georgetown, of all places." She shudders dramatically.

Dating a girl from her rival college is about the peak of her drama now, and it's kind of nice. She almost feels like a normal girl – as long as she's not breaking into blood banks or trying to coordinate her outfits around her daylight ring.

"I can't believe it," Elena comments.

"What, that I'm gay?" Caroline asks, trying to be defensive.

"No, that I somehow never noticed," Elena answers.

Bonnie snorts.

"What?" Elena asks.

Bonnie shakes her head while Caroline glares at her.

"Nothing," Bonnie says hastily. "Uh, hey, I found one of my ancestors' grimoires at Williams," she tells Elena, trying to get the attention off of Caroline.

"Really?" Elena asks, immediately intrigued. "It's not really fair for them to have in their collection, is it?" she points out with a frown.

Bonnie shakes her head. "Oh no, it wasn't in their Library, I found it in a hidden place in the museum. I don't think anyone else even knew it was there. They have all of these reading lounges," she explains. "I was studying there one day, and I just knew where it was."

Caroline and Elena gape at her in astonishment.

"That is so cool," Elena says finally.

Caroline nods in fervent agreement.

Bonnie grins. "I know right? I love college."

"Have you made any friends?" Elena asks, glancing between them hesitantly.

"A few," Bonnie says vaguely.

"Yeah, same," Caroline agrees.

After a moment of awkward silence, Bonnie asks the same to Elena.

Elena hesitates. "Not really? It's really just been Dean and Sam," she tells them. "Hunting isn't like college; extracurricular socializing is a little complicated." She grimaces. "Not that it isn't difficult for either of you since…" she trails off.

"I'm a witch and Caroline's dead?" Bonnie offers bluntly.

"Right," Elena says.

"But you have Sam and Dean?" Bonnie prompts her.

Elena nods. "Dean's my best friend," she admits easily.

"And you're friends with Sam even though he's chronically nosy?" is Caroline's contribution.

Elena laughs and nods.

They've all been trying so hard to keep the peace, but Caroline can't keep it in anymore. She's been dying to talk about this for years at this point.

"Well, you were always a better friend than either of us suspected," Caroline says bitchily.

"So you wanna talk about Lucy now." Elena is resigned.

"It's just weird that we never knew," Caroline says stiffly.

Elena looks at Bonnie who looks down.

"It is a little weird," Bonnie admits. "I mean, I didn't even think you liked Tanner," she says.

"I didn't," Elena replies bluntly. "I don't even think he liked me," she adds honestly. "Lucy was there, she saw. I could never explain it."

She looks between them.

"It wasn't personal, I just didn't know how to talk about it," she tells them the truth. "I still don't really know how to talk about it."

"But you wrote about it," Caroline says hesitantly.

Elena nods. "When I left I realized it was…unresolved for me. The only way to get over it was to put it out there."

"So you're over it?" Bonnie asks.

"It's always going to be a defining moment in my life," she says carefully. "But no, it doesn't haunt me like it used to."

For a long moment the three of them are quiet.

"At least Damon is good for something," Bonnie says finally.

"He doesn't deserve credit for that," Elena disagrees, surprising Caroline. "He didn't do it for anyone but himself. Tanner was just at the wrong place at the right time."

"You still haven't forgiven him for what he said when you were in the hospital, have you?"

Elena shakes her head. "Caroline, I've hunted a lot of vampires just like Damon." She looks at her. "None of us are the girls we were back then, but especially not me."

"Right, Miss Badass Hunter Babe," Bonnie says, trying to lighten the mood.

"You're so much hotter than Buffy," Caroline adds, making Elena laugh.

"I dunno, I think it's a close call," Elena disagrees. "Sarah Michelle Gellar's really cute."

"Yeah but you're hotter," Caroline insists with a giggle.

Bonnie nods in agreement. "For sure."

Elena laughs again.

"We're still friends, right?" Caroline asks.

"That depends," Elena replies. "Have you forgiven me for leaving like I did?"

Bonnie and Caroline both nod.

"Of course we do," Caroline insists.

"That was never in question, Elena," Bonnie agrees.

"Okay, we're still friends," Elena replies.

"Group hug!" Caroline shouts with a bounce, throwing her arms around Elena and Bonnie.

Elena slips an arm around Caroline's waist, and one around Bonnie's shoulders.

"I really missed you both," she says into Caroline's hair.

"We are very missable," Caroline agrees.

"Sooo," Bonnie starts. "Tell us about Dean."

"And not as a friend!" Caroline adds. "We don't care that you're besties; he's your boyfriend now, dish!"

"Oh god," Elena replies with a laugh. She pulls back. "I don't even know where to begin."

"When did you first know that you liked him?" Caroline asks promptly.

"Wickery Bridge," Elena answers honestly.

"Oh of course it had to be dramatic," Bonnie says with a sigh.

"Well, come on," Caroline says. "Tell us everything."

Elena shrugs. "He's great," she says simply, feeling shy now that she finally does have a chance to gush over Dean.

She glances at her phone, seeing she has a message from Dean, she reaches over to read it but quick as a wink Caroline has it in her grasp.

"Nope, no boys," Caroline says.

"Don't be ridiculous, Caroline," Elena replies, rolling her eyes fondly. "What if he needs something?"

"Oh sure," Bonnie chimes in cheekily. "I'm sure he desperately needs to ask you what color underwear you're wearing right now."

"Don't be silly, Bonnie," Elena says sweetly. "He already knows that."

Bonnie makes a face as Caroline cackles in glee.

"Anyway," Elena continues. "I meant, maybe he's looking for something in the kitchen and can't find it." She reaches for her phone again, but Caroline is too quick for her.

"You really do not spend a lot of time apart, do you?" Caroline asks, amused.

Elena reluctantly nods.

"Fine," Caroline sighs. "I'll check." She hangs upside down on Bonnie's bed with Elena's phone in her face. She opens the text. After a moment she sighs. "Ugh, he wants to know where the kitchen tongs are, dammit, that's totally legit."

Elena tackles Caroline, grabbing her phone and rolling off of Caroline and onto her feet in one motion that is so smooth Caroline is left blinking and confused.

"What just happened?" Bonnie asks.

"Elena?" Caroline chimes in.

Elena is already waiting for Dean to answer his phone.

"You're barbecuing without me!" she says before he can speak. "I hate you; I'm leaving you for Bonnie."

"No, you're not, you're obsessed with me," Dean says with a laugh. "And you can come over for dinner if you want," he continues. "You're the one who banned me from your sleepover, I didn't ban you from your house."

"Caroline banned you!" Elena argues. "I would never ban you, I'm obsessed with you," she reminds him. "And your barbecue, because you're an amazing cook and really sexy and I love you."

Dean laughs. "I already said you could come back; you don't have to butter me up."

"I know, I'm just excited now, we're coming back right now!"

"Elena, but what about the-"

She cuts him off. "Oh, they're in the bottom right drawer across from the sink!"

She hangs up and bounces. "We're going to my house for dinner," she informs the girls eagerly.

"I thought we were ordering pizza," Caroline says mildly.

"If you think pizza is better than Dean's barbecue you're insane," Elena replies matter of factly. "If I hated him I would marry him for his barbecue."

"High praise," Bonnie says.

"Yes, now get up, we're going now."

Laughingly, Bonnie and Caroline get up and get their clothes in order and find their shoes and follow Elena out the door.

---

Dean is still manning the grill, Sam and John are in the kitchen 'discussing' how best to mash potatoes and Caroline and Bonnie are deep in conversation about where they want to go for spring break, so Jeremy figures now is good a time as any to make his case to Elena.

"So," he starts, sitting next to his sister on the patio. "The four of you are heading out first thing tomorrow?" he asks.

"You're not coming with us, Jer," Elena says, cutting straight to the chase.

He sighs, immediately annoyed. "I don't have school for weeks, Elena," he argues.

"You're not ready," she replies.

"Bobby's trained me," he counters.

"You've never been on a hunt," she reminds him.

"Neither had you when you killed that siren," he says.

"I didn't kill that siren," Elena says. "She died because of a weird doppelganger thing; it wasn't anything I did. My first real hunt wasn't for another six months, and it certainly wasn't a demon."

"I can handle this, Elena," he says insistently.

She reaches out a hand, framing his face. "Jer, I'm saying no," she says gently. "This isn't about you," she continues before he can argue. "This is about John and Dean and Sam finishing this. This is 20 years in the making, and they can't spend all of their time worrying about you instead."

Jeremy deflates.

"Look, I'll come see you after," she says. "You don't have much time before school starts, and that is your first priority, no arguments, but we can talk about this."

"Talk about me going on an actual hunt?" he clarifies.

She nods reluctantly. "I can't promise it will be anything exciting, a poltergeist maybe, but we'll have a conversation."

"Good enough for me."

---

"So, you're coming with us tomorrow, right?" Dean asks Elena.

They're sitting knee to knee at the picnic table.

She nods. "Yup, I'm coming with you."

"How'd you get Klaus to agree?" Sam asks.

She shrugs. "I just said it wasn't over for me if it wasn't over for you."

John stares at her hard. She rolls her eyes. "I did not make a new deal, John."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Cross my heart," she says, making the childish gesture.

John sighs. "All right," he says reluctantly. "We could use the backup."

"So, first thing?" Sam asks.

John nods.

"Where are we even going?" Elena asks.

"Back to Colorado," John answers. "That's where the cars are."

"So we're flying?" Elena clarifies.

John nods.

"Don't worry," Sam cuts in. "I made sure you and Dean are next to each other when I booked the tickets."

Elena looks at Dean, concerned. "Do you want me to ask Bonnie if she knows some kind of a spell to help?"

He shakes his head vehemently. "Nope, no magic. Just keep me distracted."

"I can do that," Elena says with a grin.

"And on that note," Sam cuts in. "Dad and I will be on the other end of the plane from you."

"That's not actually what I meant," Dean replies, deeply amused.

Elena snickers. "It could work though."

"Get your head out of the gutter and back on the hunt," John orders shortly.

Elena straightens, giving him a two-fingered salute. "Sir, yes, sir," she says mockingly.

"Brat," John calls her with a deep sigh.

She grins.

"So," Sam starts. "Tomorrow."

"Let's just get it done," John says.

"Let's get it done," Dean agrees.

---

Everyone has trickled off to bed, even Bonnie and Caroline are face down on the couch when Dean finds Elena on top of the picnic bench in her backyard.

He climbs up beside her, sliding an arm around her waist.

"You crashing here or you taking the dynamic duo back to Bonnie's for your super special girly sleepover?" he asks, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

She tilts her head back, kissing him on the mouth.

"Hmm, back to Bonnie's. I'll wake them up in a minute," Elena says.

"What are you thinking about?" Dean asks, playing with her loose curls.

"Coach Tanner," Elena says finally.

Dean stills. "Is that, uh…the teacher?" he asks finally.

She nods. "I can tell you're really upset about it," she starts.

"We don't have to talk about it, Elena," Dean interrupts. "Fuck my feelings, just do what's right for you."

She smiles, touching his cheek.

"It wasn't me," she tells him.

He cocks his head to the side.

"I've only ever told Klaus this before," she explains. "But I was the other girl, not the one he got pregnant."

"Why did you let everyone think it was you, then?" Dean asks finally.

"Because she didn't want anyone to know," she says. "Think about the other girl in the story; she was the perennial good girl, she went to church every Sunday with her parents and went to an Ivy League college after skipping two grades – she was the first person in her family to go to college, ever." She shakes her head. "She didn't want anyone to know," she repeats.

"But why tell the story at all?" he asks.

"Before my parents' died we agreed I would say it was me so that he would be punished," Elena says. "We didn't want him to get away with it. When my parents died she said I didn't have to, and she left town. I tried to forget, but…" She shrugs. "When I came back to school he went after me hard, tried to humiliate me at every turn, and then he was dead – Damon killed him."

She pauses for a long time.

"But I couldn't forget what he did, or how scared she was," she continues finally. "And then when we were in Florida…a lot of stuff came up," she explains. "Stuff about men and the way they looked at me even when I was just a kid and how I tried to control it by dressing a certain way or straightening my hair or even encouraging it because I thought I could take back my power or whatever but…" She gestures lightly. "Well, you've seen them. It really doesn't matter what I do."

"What made you think of it, in Florida?" he asks.

"You, mostly," she confesses.

"Me?" he asks, confused.

She nods. "You were so careful with me," she says. "You always asked if you touch could me, and what I had to say seemed to matter to you. And you trained me without even questioning it."

"Well yeah, of course," Dean says, still confused.

Elena looks at him, wondering if he will ever understand what it meant to her that he was so careful with her.

"Anyway, I guess I thought I was gonna be a hunter I should start acting like it," she says, redirecting. "I knew I wanted to protect people, so I thought that was as good a place as any to start. Telling the truth about Coach Tanner and protecting my friend."

"You're some kinda something, Gilbert," Dean says.

She kisses him. "I really love when you call me that," she says sweetly.

He kisses her again. "Go wake up your friends before I keep you."

She nods, kissing him one more time before she slides off the picnic table to go wake her slumbering friends.

AN: Chapter title from A Little Death by The Neighbourhood.

Right, so there it is lmao.

Notes/References:

The story of Elena's abortion that is actually the other girl's abortion is the subject of this week's outtake. It's both my favorite and the longest, but there's a lot of touchy subject matter in it so I promise you don't actually have to read it if you don't want to. However, the story of the siren is also in that outtake!

So, personally, I ascribe to the a Petrova doppelgänger is born every 500 years theory, I just like it. But if you know the actual timeline, you know that Tatia destroys that, since the Originals were alive approximately 483 years before Katherine, so sadly the timeline is off. I like to ignore that, tbh. If you're wondering why I'm bringing this up, John cites a theory about Helen of Troy being a Petrova doppelganger, and the battle of Troy would've been roughly 1183 BC - which is before Amara was even alive…just a little hint that my headcanons about the Petrova bloodline don't necessarily align with canon. Don't worry, I do plan on exploring them in other verses! And Helen isn't the only infamous woman in history that I headcanon as a Petrova! But more on that another time.

Elena is Dean's type! It's canon! coughbustybrunettescough

I kind of like that Elena is the only one who knows exactly when Dean's feelings for her changed. In the Manticore we found out when he realized he was in love with her, but not the exact moment it happened. Only Elena knows that one, and I don't know if she'll share.

For those not in the know, Jensen Ackles played Jason in Smallville…where his love interest looked an awful lot like Nina actually, lmao.

Sammy did tell you! Elena was always going to have to go back to Mystic Falls, hence why the chapter is called Home Redux, since the Lawrence episode is called Home!

At the end of the last chapter Dean only asked which of Elena's friends are vampires, and Elena doesn't include Stefan and Damon anymore so that's a nasty little surprise for Dean!

I confess I am very curious about Sam/Bonnie but I don't really have space to explore them with what's left of this story, so maybe in another verse! Let me know if that appeals to any of you. I have a different Sam/TVD female ship that I've been dying to write for awhile (sorry, it is not Caroline, who is always a lesbian to me) but I'm not opposed to writing Sam/Bonnie now that they've occurred to me and if any of you are interested!

Yeah, I was 100% setting up the bathroom as the place Dean and Elena go to be alone as a pre-requisite to their first time being bathroom sex, lmao. I have zero shame. Also I hope I made you laugh at least once, I truly believe good sex should involve a little silliness. Plus, Dean really loves how fucking funny Elena is, of course it's a turn on!

I do not know why the show always uses Richmond as the closest big city when it's literally on the map in canon that Mystic Falls is closer to Charlottesville, it will forever bug me.

It is a very popular debate if the song is actually about Virginia or West Virginia, as Virginian, Elena would obviously be on that side. I think the writers have made it pretty clear they were kinda just fucking around about back roads on a road trip, but I digress.

Yeah, John has always been more afraid of what Elena could do to Dean than what Dean could do to Elena. And really, logically, who can blame him? She is after all, the girl he followed into Klaus' mansion that night. Elena is always that girl, and knowing your son is in love with that girl would be pretty fucking scary. I don't agree with his choices, I just get it.

If you are disappointed by the lack of Damon and Elena interacting in this chapter, don't worry, it's in the next chapter!

Actually, Hope Mikaelson is President of the Elena Gilbert fan club. Dean is Vice-President. Jeremy is the secretary. And Marcel can be treasurer.

Dean's not into genocide, he's just been raised in a really weird way. It's gonna take awhile to outgrow that kind of thinking. As much as the barn was the big, dramatic Alaric reveal, it was also a bit of a wake up call for Dean and Sam, who have been raised to only view supernatural creatures as pure evil. Seeing evil done to them is the first step to de-programming. Step two, of course, is introducing them to charming vampires such as Caroline Forbes, lol. Elena's status as a line-blurring supernatural entity helps too.

I simply could not resist the symmetry of Stefan dying for Katherine twice.

I know a lot of you were convinced this could only end badly - and you were right in a sense, Elena's death was unavoidable. But I've always had her mysterious resurrection up my sleeve! Now I wonder how Dean and Bonnie knew to carry her into the water? It does have to do with my take on the Petrova lore, and there will be a few more crumbs before the end of the story! Don't worry though, I will be fully exploring my Petrova lore in so many other Deanlena verses!

Literally my oldest headcanon for this show is that Caroline is a lesbian who is in love with Elena - who is utterly oblivious. This headcanon was formed in the pilot, and I will never shut up about it, thank you for asking!

Williams College Museum of Art does have reading lounges on the upper levels! I visited the museum one semester in college for the Art History students biannual museum trip. I did spend a little time reading in one of the lounges, it was very cozy, and I adore imagining Bonnie there!

I just have a longstanding headcanon that Dean can cook, and him being good at barbecuing makes even more sense since there are literally grills in public parks!

In the last chapter there's a throwaway line in the Brooklyn section about Elena visiting with an old friend from school, that friend was Lucy, the other girl from Elena's article, the one that Tanner actually abused.

All right, we'll wrap up the loose ends in Mystic Falls in the next chapter and then it's back to demon hunting!

Thoughts? Questions? Please leave a review!

xoxo

-Pixie