Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

From: Klaus

Had to leave. Urgent. Will be back for you soon.

Claire snickered to herself reading the text message as she exited her bathroom into her bedroom. She typed her quick response with ease.

To: Klaus

Come back, don't come back. Not interested.

Just as she pressed the 'send' button Claire looked up to find Amelia standing at her door with a tray of food as if this were a bed and breakfast. In reality, Claire was staying in the King home; the one that Amelia had spent her blood, sweat, and tears over the last few weeks renovating so it was livable and didn't smell like copious amounts of alcohol left over from Jack King. Everything was modernized, totaling well over a hundred grand but probably costing them little to nothing due to the power of compulsion. Amelia walked in with a sunshine-like smile on her face holding out tray of breakfast: pancakes, bacon, fresh fruit, and a full glass of o-negative.

"I thought I'd bring you something to eat. You've been on the road for three months, I'm sure the closest you've come to a real breakfast is a businessman at a gas station." Amelia set the tray down on the desk in the corner just as Claire felt her phone vibrate in her hand. Another text from Klaus.

From: Klaus

See you soon, love.

"Ugh." Claire rolled her eyes and slipped her phone into her pocket, annoyed at the text message. Amelia raised an eyebrow. "It's nothing. Klaus has been texting me. I really can't stand the guy."

Claire walked over to the food tray and grabbed a piece of bacon. As she chewed off the end, she moaned dramatically. "Damn, this is delicious! Who made this? You?"

"You were gone for three months, not three years. I don't cook. I had someone from the Grill drop it off."

"Now that makes more sense."

"Look, I don't want to cause trouble or anything..." the younger sister sighed as she moved away from Claire, who was picking at her breakfast and downing it with a swig of the o-neg glass of blood. Amelia sat down on the bench at the end of the bed and looked back up at her sister seriously. "But I think it's important we talk about the last three months. You're so sure Klaus wouldn't hurt you back at the high school. Why?"

Upon hearing the question, the vampire set down her glass of blood hesitantly. Her response came as a mutter under her breath.

"It's a long story."

The evasion of the question at hand didn't seem to faze her sister. "Try me."

"Look, it's not a big deal. I mean, it might seem like a big deal to you. But I didn't even know about it until a few days ago...so it's not that big of a deal for me..."

"Claire?" Amelia prompted in an attempt to refocus the answer on the question for the second time. Claire lifted her eyes to connect with Amelia's and took a hearty breath before finally speaking.

"Klaus and I were...involved, okay? A fling back in the 1920s. He compelled me to forget about it when he left because...well, for reasons I don't quite understand, really. But I guess he never really moved on from me. Which is understandable, I guess." The beautiful blonde gave her sister a coy smile. "I am sort of irresistible, you know?"

"No!" Amelia jumped up from her seat at the end of the bed with an alarmed look on her face. Claire cocked an eyebrow. "You're telling me this whole time Klaus has been some sort of secret lover of yours?"

She frowned. "I don't know if 'secret lover' is the right word. Unless you'd consider it to be so secret that I didn't even know about it."

"Do you love him?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Amelia! He killed me!" Claire gasped at the abrupt question. The words came out harsher than she intended, so she actively softened her voice. "Besides, if we're going to give credit where credit's due, he basically killed Christopher too. No matter what happened in the past, I can't forgive him for that."

Amelia's eyes widened, shocked. "What are you talking about?"

Claire sighed, realizing she'd forgotten to mention it earlier. She didn't really want to talk about it, but she had no choice for she knew that her sister would spend the whole day nagging her if she didn't confess. Despite her melancholy, she turned around and grabbed a piece of bacon as she explained. "Klaus gave Christopher a spell that he knew would kill him and give me life again. He knew he would give up his life to save my own."

"That's insane!"

"You're telling me," the blonde scoffed as she finished her bacon. Amelia sat back down on the bench as she processed the information that had just been explained to her. But one thing on her mind had been bothering her the whole time.

"Claire?"

She reached for a strawberry. "Hmm?"

"When did Klaus give your memories back to you? About your secret love affair?"

"The night that you came to speak to Stefan in Chicago. Just a bit before Damon showed up." It was impossible to miss Claire's obvious eye roll at the mention of her least favorite Salvatore. Amelia went silent almost immediately with a surprised look on her face. As Claire nibbled on the strawberry, she gave her sister a confused look. "What is it, Amelia?"

She looked up, a coded expression resting upon her features. Amelia began to think about telling Claire what Klaus had also done that night: forced her to forget she loved Damon and replace those feelings with unadulterated hatred. But after a moment or two, she realized that she couldn't do it. No matter what she said, what Claire thought was what Claire believed. There would be no convincing her; that had to come from Damon. Besides, she was done with the Salvatores, anyways. After what had happened with Stefan in Chicago and again at senior prank night, getting involved was not the best strategy for denial. Amelia shook her head.

"Never mind. Um, so, today's the first day of senior year at Mystic Falls High. I was thinking I could go, but since you're back, I could skip..."

Claire watched a gentle smile stretch across her sister's face, but she knew more than anyone that Amelia lived for these kinds of first days. With a small laugh, Claire waved her hand dismissively. "No, don't worry about it. Go. I'll be fine here."

"You sure?"

"Positive." Amelia was already making a beeline for the door. As Claire finished a bite of her bacon and grabbed her o-neg glass from the tray, she added, "Mm, I've got to visit Stefan anyways."

The second she said the name, the younger sister spun around.

"What do you mean 'visit Stefan'?"

"Um...go talk to him? Drop by the boarding house? See how he's doing...?"

An angry expression crossed Amelia's delicate features as the younger, hot-headed sister stormed back into the room with a judgmental tone in her voice. "Claire, Stefan's off the rails. He's a Ripper now. His emotions are off. He's on Klaus's side."

"Oh, come on Amelia. I know you're not fond of Stefan right now but he needs my help."

"No, he needs his brother's help."

"His brother? What's he going to do?" Claire scoffed with complete disgust. "I've never seen Damon do a selfless thing in his entire life! Stefan needs me to help him control his blood thirst with his emotions off. Lexi's not around to do it anymore so I've got to step up. But I've done it before, it'll just be a little bit harder with his emotions gone. I'll make it work."

Before Amelia could get a chance to respond, Claire's phone buzzed from her pocket. Without hesitation, Claire slipped it out and found a text on her phone again, but this time (thankfully) not from Klaus.

From: Stefan

Can you bring a dry cleaner over here? Damon wants the bloodstains out of the carpet and I'm in the mood for some fast food ;)

"God damn it." Claire slipped her phone back into her pocket and rushed over to grab her jacket and her keys. Amelia walked out with Claire as she exited her room and shut the door. "Sorry sis, but duty calls. I need to go help my best friend."

"You signed up for this," Amelia reminded her as they started down the stairs. But as they did, they heard the doorbell ring, three times with extreme impatience. As the two sisters looked at each other, there were three rhythmic raps on the door for entry. The two sisters started down the stairs and the elder reached forward and opened the door to see a third blonde, this one a bit more angsty and brooding than the sisters would ever consider themselves.

"He left me here!" They heard upon opening the door to none other than Klaus's sister. She looked at Claire with a burning anger in her eyes towards their mutual acquaintance. "My brother actually left me here!"

She brushed past Claire and walked into the house carrying shopping bags of clothes by her side. Claire turned around, the door still open with the bright daylight streaming into the modern home. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well then, it really sucks to be you. But why are you in my house?"

"Hold on a second. You're Klaus's sister?" Amelia asked as she stepped into the sunlight to survey the blonde Barbie in their presence. The gracious vampire across from her nodded with ease but ultimately disinterested in the conversation.

"Rebekah. Pleasure, I'm sure." Her eyes flickered back to Claire's. "Which one's my room?"

"What on earth makes you think you're staying here?" Claire propositioned as she stared at Rebekah with indifference in her eyes. "You killed me. Like, four times. You're lucky I don't throw your ass out onto the street right this second!"

"Rude." She looked over Claire's shoulder at Amelia. The younger King said nothing, lacking something to add. Therefore, Rebekah scoffed with an offended scowl sitting on her lips. "Both of you. Fine, I'll see to it myself."

With a sharp, vindictive smile, Rebekah stormed up the stairs with her shopping bags flopping beside her as she went to find a room. Amelia seemed to take her own offense at the words and watched as Rebekah's high heels stomped up their newly hardwood stairs to the second floor to find an empty room in the 5-bedroom home. She waited for Rebekah to get out of earshot before looking at her sister with confusion.

"What the hell did I do?" Amelia hissed.

"Nothing. She's just a bitch by nature!" Claire's voice raised to the top of her lungs as she shouted it through the house to make sure that Rebekah heard what she had to say. When she was done feeling resentful towards the bitchy blonde that had apparently taken over her home, she turned back to Amelia with an annoyed glare. "I really have to leave now."

"To see Stefan," Amelia reminded her, a tone of passive aggressiveness in her voice. Claire rolled her eyes and ignored the comment as she grabbed her belongings, said goodbye to her sister, and slammed the door behind her.

Damon waited patiently as the dial tone rang in his ear while he walked out of his bathroom and into his bedroom where the sunlight showered upon him. Well, "patiently" was one word to describe it. He was already in a terrible mood after he had walked downstairs earlier to find his brother having a party with four to five frat girls, at least two of them dead lying on his hundred-year-old rug. God, he needed this to end.

"What?" He heard the doppelgänger snap in his ear. The bitch one, of course.

"What? What do you mean 'what'? I've been calling you for two days!"

"Odd, that's exactly how long I've been ignoring you."

He ignored it. The phrase 'pick your battles' crossed his mind as he bit back the quip on his lips. "Jeremy Gilbert told me that you found Mikael."

"Eh, sort of. He's a little bit out of commission. He won't eat! And I've tried everything! Gravediggers, mourners, mice, rats, bats! He's just...not interested."

"Well try harder! We need him to kill Klaus so I can de-rippify Stefan before he destroys my house and make Claire love me again before she drives a stake through my heart for...breathing in her direction."

"Now that sounds like something I want to see."

"Shut up, Katherine. Get it done."

He could hear her defeated sigh over the phone as he sat down on his freshly made bed. Yet, there was still a glimmer of optimism in her words. "Fine. I'll give it another shot."

Damon listened as the bitch on the other side of the phone hung up on him to go get their business taken care of. When she was off the phone, he sighed to himself and leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees and his face buried in his hands. He was so distraught that he was starting to come to terms with the fact that this might have been what it was like for Stefan to have to deal with him for all those years.

But just as he was in the middle of his existential crisis, he found himself listening to the door opening and closing beneath him. He rubbed his face with his hands as he looked up, eyebrows knotted together tightly. Then a familiar voice rang through the house.

"Stefan?" Claire called out as she walked into the Salvatore house, shutting the door behind her entrance. The moment she spun around, she found Damon at the base of the stairs, turning around the rail to see her enter the home. Claire stiffened at the sight of him.

"I wasn't expecting you this morning," he confessed, a slightly confused expression upon his features. She shrugged, not bothering to mask her distaste.

"I'm not here for you. I'm here for Stefan. He texted me earlier, told me to bring by a dry cleaner to clean your rug. I figured that would do more harm than good for Ripper Stefan."

"Good choice." Damon and Claire stood in silence for a moment before the elder vampire sighed and called out up the stairs, "Stef! You have a visitor!"

No answer. Claire cocked an eyebrow at Damon, who sighed and gave Claire a careless smirk. "Guess he decided to leave and didn't say anything. Classic Stef. Maybe he went to get some gel to fix his new and improved 'evil' hair."

"Funny." She turned on her heel to leave, but instead, she found herself stepping back when Damon flashed in front of her. He could hear the growl from her throat as his fingertips neared her elbow to hold her in place. She jerked her shoulder back, away from him. "What did I tell you, Salvatore? Touch me again and see what happens."

"You can hate me all you want." His fingers froze in their position and the words stung coming off of his tongue. Like he'd taken a sip of his coffee while it was too hot so it burned him. "But in the end, we're both trying to achieve the same goal: help Stefan. Can't we work together on that?"

"I would rather stab myself in both eyes and cut off my hands before I do anything with you."

"Ouch."

"You set yourself up for that one."

"Guess that settles it then." Damon could feel the insides of his chest contracting like she had literally driven a stake through his already shredded heart. He tried to change the subject. "Have you heard from Klaus lately?"

"Is it any of your business?" She bit, but seeing the unwelcoming look on Damon's face, she crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes at him. "Yes, actually. I have. Not to mention that Barbie Klaus showed up this morning at the house, so that was fun."

"What?"

"Klaus's sister, Rebekah. She's invited herself to stay with me and Amelia for the time being." Damon still looked confused, so she clarified, "When Klaus took off to do God knows what with God knows who, he left her behind. She's very angry with him at the moment, so it's gonna be a fun time for me."

She watched him purse his lips for a moment, then speak hesitantly. "Well...what has Klaus been saying to you?"

"Are you fishing for information, Salvatore?"

"Are you withholding this information from me for a reason, sugar?" He watched her gag reflex trigger, and the juvenile inside of him wanted to roll his eyes at how immature she was. She shot him a scowl.

"It's really not my business to share anything. Least of all with you." Damon grimaced while she stepped forward and shoved him aside with a throaty, "move" before opening the door and walking out into the daylight. The blue-eyed vampire was left standing in the middle of the Salvatore foyer in an empty home, the look of disgust on Claire's face fresh in his mind. He sighed, defeated. Did he expect anything less?

Slowly, he took out his phone from his pocket as he made his way over to the foyer to pour himself a much-needed morning cocktail. As he poured himself a great big glass of bourbon, he dialed a number and listened to the dial tone.

Amelia answered with an annoyed, "Yeah?"

"Aren't you a ray of sunshine this morning?" Sarcasm dripped off his words, a consequence of his own annoyed feelings. Her response came as one big breath.

"Forgive me. My ripper ex-boyfriend is helicoptering his ex-girlfriend and just threatened our history teacher in the middle of the hallway. To top it all off, Klaus's evil sister made an appearance as a new student. It's been a super great day so far. Excuse me if I'm not thrilled to answer the phone in the middle of this hell mouth they call a high school!"

Damon knotted his eyebrows and took a sip from his glass. "Slow down, little King. One step at a time. Stefan's at the high school and he's...helicoptering Elena?"

"Yeah. Klaus told him to keep an eye on her and keep her safe. I'm telling you, Damon, he's going crazy!"

"He threatened Alaric?"

"Shoved him right up against a locker."

"And Klaus's sister is enrolled at the high school? What's her name, again?"

"Rebekah. All preppy and cheery, too." He could hear Amelia's annoyed, but defeated breath. "We have got to do something. She's staying at our house. How am I supposed to look at her when her brother is the reason Stefan and Claire are so far gone?"

Damon shrugged. "We have plenty of bedrooms here if you want."

"Yeah, that's perfect. Let me move my stuff out of the house I just renovated to go live with the man my sister despises and my psychopathic ex-boyfriend."

"You have options."

"Not good ones! Look, I've got to go. Meet me at Alaric's later. Elena and I are going over there to train a bit after school ends."

"The Chosen Ones out to kick some vampire ass?"

"Shut up!" Amelia barked, but he could hear the smile in her voice. And then, per usual, she turned serious. "Damon?"

"Yeah."

"We need to do something."

He let out a jagged breath and nodded to himself before hanging up the phone. As he set the piece of technology on the bar top, he raised the glass in his other hand to his lips, paused, and then drank.

A few hours later, Damon found himself leisurely strolling up the stairs to Alaric's apartment, situated on the inconvenient fourth floor. He opened the door with a sigh and walked inside, feeling the fading of the buzz he'd kept strong all morning. He could've carried a flask with him to meet Amelia and Elena like he promised, but somehow he knew it would be "frowned upon".

When he walked in, he found Elena on Alaric's benchpress, sweat dripping down her forehead and grunting like she was giving birth. Amelia stood behind her with her hands underneath the bar trying to keep it straight for her while simultaneously shouting words of encouragement.

"What? Are you gonna benchpress a vampire?" He mocked. Without looking at him, Elena snapped back.

"Do you understand what's happening right now?" Damon could hear the annoyance in her voice. "Stefan called me a human blood bag. He's a completely different person!"

"Damon isn't capable of understanding anything right now," Amelia answered as she watched Damon make his way over to the kitchen and scope out the alcohol that was already in low supply, considering Ric's circumstances. She wrinkled her nose. "That stench is pretty prominent."

He sighed. "You called, I'm here. Never said anything about being sober. So what's your plan, oh Warrior Princess?"

Amelia removed her hand from the bar and Elena put the weights back on their bench while sitting up to face the Salvatore beside her. Partially out of breath, the doppelgänger answered, "I want to lock Stefan up. At least until this Mikael guy comes, kills Klaus, and the compulsion breaks."

Damon frowned. "Compulsion or not, Stefan's high on human blood. Okay? A lot of it."

"I've got him off of it before," Elena pointed out. He rolled his eyes.

"This is different! It's not a stint in rehab, Elena. His humanity's gone. Light's out. No one's home!"

"Damon I told you earlier that we've got to do something." The dark-haired Salvatore looked to Claire's sister, who stepped forward as she put her hair up into a ponytail and subsequently crossed her arms over her chest. "Stefan was not...Stefan today. And he'll never be Stefan again unless we lock him up and keep him somewhere where he can't do any harm to anyone until we can kill Klaus and break the compulsion. Think about how badly this is going to hurt him when he comes out of this."

"He's gone through it before. He'll go through it again." Damon shrugged. "Besides, Claire will never let us lock him up. We all know her better than that."

Elena and Amelia exchanged a glance. Elena lifted herself from the benchpress slowly. "Damon, if we can't convince her to go along with us..."

Damon watched as Elena trailed off, and for a moment, he was bewildered. He looked at the human in front of him that was trying to get the words out, but couldn't. Amelia avoided his gaze as well, and it was only then that he realized what they were trying to say. He put the small, nearly empty bottle of bourbon down on the counter and turned at them, furious.

"Please tell me you are not suggesting that we lock her up, too." His voice was deep and dark. He looked at the blonde next to the human. "Amelia, that's your sister you're talking about! She's done nothing wrong. She's not even under Klaus's anti-humanity compulsion!"

Amelia lifted her eyes with a defeated sigh, slapping her hands to her sides. "What do you want us to do, Damon? Claire hates you now and she barely has any emotional ties to anyone else here except for me and I don't think that's enough. Her only loyalty is to Stefan, which is where her loyalties have always been! If we lock him up, you and I both know very well that she won't agree with it."

"Maybe I'm wrong." Damon said in utter denial, turning his attention to Elena now to find some sort of human empathy within her. "Y-You remember what happened last time he fell off the wagon. She agreed to it before. Maybe if we talk to her she'll understand."

"Damon, when she locked him up the first time, she knew it was the right thing because she didn't want him off the rails. This is different. Who knows what she thinks is the 'right thing' now that Klaus is controlling her?" He watched the hope fade from her eyes. "What makes you think that when Stefan's locked up and doesn't communicate with Klaus about how I'm doing that he's not going to compel her into doing his dirty work instead? She's too much of a liability. We don't know who she's loyal to at this point."

"Bullshit!" The two Gilberts could see Damon's blue eyes light up with an alcohol-induced fire. "We're not locking her up, end of discussion!"

Amelia put her hand out forcefully. "We're...we're not deciding anything right now about Claire. We can get to that later. All that's for sure is that we need to do something about Stefan, ASAP. He's causing too much trouble for everyone right now. One step at a time, right?"

"Doesn't seem like I have much of a choice now, do I?"

"No. You don't," Elena said bluntly as she tightened up her ponytail. He gave a pointed stare towards her, but before the conversation could continue after its halt, all persons inside turned their attention to the opening door behind them. In walked Claire with her sunglasses still on and two paper bags in her hands. She wore a small smile on her face as she lifted one of her hands and pushed her sunglasses up to her head, revealing her blue eyes. Her skin was clear and flushed, lightly shimmering from the midday sun.

"Guess who brought pastries!" she bellowed as she kicked the door closed and walked into the room. "I was bored and there was this super cute guy at the bakery that gave me two chocolate croissants for free. And a bit of his blood too, but that's another story."

They watched as she walked forward with an absent-minded giggle under her breath. She set the pastry bags on the kitchen counter and lifted her eyes, only to find everyone staring at her in silence. Damon with a pining gaze, Amelia with a bewildered expression, and Elena with a guilt-ridden purse of her lips. Claire frowned.

"Who died?" she inquired, leaning on the counter. Her sister snapped out of her confused look to shake her head defensively.

"No one. Thanks for the pastries, sis, but Elena and I have some training to do. Come on." Amelia ushered Elena out as fast as she could, knowing Elena would give the whole plan away with the guilty look she wore upon her very human face. They jogged out of the apartment together, not noticing Claire's displeased expression as the door slammed and left her and Damon alone. She exhaled and opened the pastry bag for herself.

"So that's what I get for trying to do something nice." As she took a bite of the chocolate pastry, she found herself speaking aloud, not realizing that it was the man that she hated on the receiving end of her rant. "I just don't understand. Elena hasn't talked to me once since I came back and Amelia's been...different. I know no one's exactly ready to braid their hair with me yet but it's not like I'm under Klaus's compulsion."

It took everything in him not to turn around and prove her wrong right then and there. Nevertheless, he ignored his dark side and instead sat down on the benchpress and put his hands together in a shrug.

"I guess they don't see it that way. You spent three months with him, Claire. They have a right not to trust you."

She continued to eat her chocolate croissant as she watched Damon lean back on the benchpress and start to lift it, lifting the weights as if they were feathers to him. Her eating slowed down a bit and she could feel her heart do something strange as she watched him. It seemed to beat a little faster, her palms sweating as a result. She could see the outlines of his muscles through his shirt and his biceps curling around the benchpress. The muscles in his arms flexed as he lifted the bench up and down, one hand at a time. For about three seconds, she was lost in an utter trance and ultimately confused about everything.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," Damon quipped as he pressed the weights, turning his head to the side with a small smirk. She scowled at him and dusted her hands free of the remnants of her chocolate croissant. She began to move out from behind the counter.

"Don't flatter yourself, Salvatore. If I wanted to see a hot guy working out I would go to a real gym, not watch you and your pathetic bench pressing to 45 pounds."

He chuckled and put the press back down on the bar and lifted himself up from the bench with a shrug. "Surprisingly, Buffy managed to get up to 60 pounds. Looks like someone's determined to fight back against your evil boyfriend and my brother, his henchman."

"Klaus is not my boyfriend." Damon watched as a hardened look came across Claire's face. He frowned.

"He seems to think so."

"He can think whatever the hell he wants." Suddenly, she shot him a smug smile. "So can you, for that matter. Don't think I don't see what this is. You're trying to pull whatever you pulled on me last night. It's not going to work. Make a move on me again and I promise I'll end you. And enjoy it, too."

He didn't know why, but she sounded not nearly as serious as she'd sounded the night before or earlier this morning. It was only then when he'd realized that by some force of nature they had gotten closer to each other than before. It wasn't enough to feel her breathing, but it was enough for him to reach out and, in one swift movement, capture her wrist and spin her around towards him so her back was to his chest. He used all of his strength to keep her in his hold, even as she struggled to get out. His lips were at her ear.

"You could have me on the floor in seconds and yet I'm still standing upright. Strange." He could feel her struggling relax a bit, and that's when he knew his plan was working. His fingers rested on her waist with his arm draped across her chest. Her breathing was even, but there was a silent reserve in her breaths. "You say you hate me, but we both know the truth. There's a thin line between love and hate, you know."

At this point, she stopped struggling. Instead, she turned her cheek so that their faces were centimeters apart and just whispered quietly, "Trust me. I know."

And then, all of a sudden, he was thrown to the other side of the room to the brick overlay, where his body smashed into the wall and created a nice Damon-shaped dent near the lamp in the corner. Damon landed on his behind on the floor, an ache in his back. He groaned as he looked up to find powder from the crushed brick floating all around his head. Alaric was definitely going to have a cow over that.

"Ow," Damon muttered. She was a lot stronger than he remembered.

A smile played on Claire's lips as she walked over and grabbed the rest of the pastries she'd brought and simply skipped out of the room as if nothing had happened, completely unfazed.

Hours later, Damon sat on the ledge by the window in Alaric's classroom, his head reeling. He was quite bored with the shenanigans that Elena and Amelia had concocted to vervain Stefan and lock him up, but he was in no place to argue with him. As difficult as he knew it would be, maybe the best thing for everyone would be to keep Stefan restrained for a while so he didn't go full-on Ripper on them. All he could think about, though, was how they were going to keep everything from Claire. He could already hear her feisty, mom-like questions in his ears asking where Stefan was until she would finally pull the answer out of him.

"I'll lure Stefan away from the bonfire. Then, when he's distracted—"

Alaric interrupted Elena's planning. "I'll shoot him."

Damon sighed. "Can't Bonnie just ju-ju him or something?"

"I'm trying to keep Bonnie out of this. I don't trust that Stefan won't hurt her," Elena explained as she straightened up and turned her head over to one of the blondes by the door. "Caroline, are you covered?"

"Yes! I will make sure that the old Forbes jail cell is prepped and ready."

"And I'll be ready with Alaric so I can transport him from the school to the jail cell," Amelia agreed, glancing over at Caroline quickly. "Shoot me a text with the address, please?"

"Got it." She already had her phone out, in hand.

"We're forgetting a key player here. Rebekah?" Damon reminded them from his corner of the room, his eyebrows knotted at their disgustingly simple plan. It wouldn't go that easy and he knew it. "Wherever Stefan goes, the blonde ponytail tends to follow."

Elena turned around with a shrug. "Which is why it's your job to keep her away."

"How?! She's an Original! Last time I checked, we're out of daggers."

"So then preoccupy her with your charm." Damon could see the small smile tug at the end of Elena's lips. He narrowed his eyes at her, but she laughed under her breath and turned away.

"Might have better luck finding the dagger," Alaric mumbled sarcastically. Damon frowned.

"Are you ever not going to be mad at me, Ric?"

"Doubtful."

"And Claire?" He looked around the room matter-of-factly. "Hmm? If I'm distracting lady Klaus, who's distracting Claire?"

"Well, it wouldn't exactly be the first time you juggled two women at once," Amelia pointed out with a teasing smile on her lips. Damon scowled at her, but said nothing as he realized what she said was technically accurate. "Caroline and I are going to switch off on distracting her."

"Sorry I'm late." A new voice appeared in the small history classroom, and all eyes turned to watch Tyler Lockwood saunter into the room with a newfound confidence within him. His new hybrid life seemed to be sitting well with him, although that's not exactly what Damon heard from Elena earlier. Seems he had a bit of a blood incident in the morning.

"We need you to raid your mom's vervain supply. Enough to keep Stefan down for a while," Elena explained. Tyler raised his eyebrows.

"You can't do that to Stefan."

Caroline glared at him, her arms crossed over her chest. A confused look crossed her delicate features. "Why not?"

"Trust me, Tyler, it's in his best interest." Caroline agreed with Elena's reasoning, but Tyler quickly shook his head against the idea.

"It's not in Klaus's," he argued simply, cocking his head with a small shrug. Everyone looked at him with bewilderment, wondering where the hell his loyalties had gone. Caroline took a small step back from her boyfriend with a scoff deep in her throat.

"But Klaus is the bad guy, Tyler. You know, why are you acting like some freaky...hybrid...slave minion?"

"Uh oh." Damon singsonged from his corner of the room as he jumped off the windowsill and took a cautious step forward.

"What?" Alaric inquired, but Damon didn't get a chance to answer. Tyler turned to Caroline with extreme seriousness in his eyes, his hands angrily shoved into his pockets.

"Klaus made me who I am, Caroline. I owe him everything."

Amelia threw her eyes at Damon with alarm as a gasp escaped her mouth. "No! You don't think it's possible? It can't be."

"Seems pretty possible to me. This is bad, Blondie. Very, very bad."

"Okay, can we cool it on the commentary? Please?" Caroline shouted as she whipped around at the two annoying elder vampires.

"What is going on?" Elena inquired while keeping her eyes on Tyler, trying to search for some sort of reason that he could be acting this way. Damon discreetly picked up a vervain dart from Alaric's desk beside him and grasped it firmly in his hand. Tyler sighed and held up his hands in defense.

"I'm just gonna go..." he trailed off and turned on his heel to leave the room full of angry and confused friends of his. Before he could make it two steps out the door, Damon was at his back in a flash, sticking the vervain dart into his neck. Tyler fell to the ground with a grunt, unconscious.

"What are you doing?!" Caroline exclaimed as she brushed past Damon and knelt down on the floor to make sure her boyfriend was okay. Amelia sighed and rubbed her forehead exhaustedly.

"He's been sired."

"What?" Alaric asked, confused. Damon turned around calmly.

"Sired," he repeated. "He feels loyal to Klaus because Klaus's blood created him."

"Loyal how?" This time the question was from Elena. Amelia answered, stepping closer to Damon to look over his shoulder and make sure no extended damage was done to the hybrid before them.

"Basically Tyler would do anything to be accepted by his 'master'. In this case, Klaus. It's extremely rare in vampires, but hybrids are a whole new territory for us. Maybe a sire bond is common amongst them."

Caroline looked up at the other vampires with a hopeful gleam in her eye. "So how do I fix him?"

"Get a new boyfriend." Damon cocked a grin at her as he said the witty one-liner. Amelia reached out and slapped his shoulder.

"Damon, be nice!" she scolded as she rolled her eyes. Her attention turned to Caroline. "Look, since it's rare to have a sire bond as a vampire, I don't really know much. We'll figure it out later but for right now, you need to take him home and keep him away from here as long as possible. Make sure he doesn't try to warn Klaus about what we're doing, either."

Caroline nodded and looked down at Tyler as she prepared to take him away from the high school. Amelia sighed and looked up at Damon, who seemed thoroughly uninterested in the series of events before them. She knew that was about to change.

"So, it looks like you do need to juggle more than one woman, after all," she mused under her breath, and she swore she saw Damon with a bit of a vengeful smile on his lips.

Rebekah Mikaelson found herself extremely displeased with the pathetic excuse of a party these high school kids were throwing. Somehow, she felt a bit juvenile if she were to go after any number of the cute high school boys, but at the same time she really wanted to go after one of those said cute high school boys. Specifically Tyler or Stefan, although Stefan has clearly shown her that he has no interest anymore, what with all of his attention now focused on Elena. Albeit most of that attention was mandated by her brother, but still.

She found herself at some point standing around the keg fiddling with the tap to try and get her night's worth of beer. However, for some reason it wasn't working for her. In a flash she felt the red solo cup being snatched out of her hand and a no-humanity Stefan Salvatore by her side.

"You alright there?" he questioned, but with a smile on his lips that proved he could care less. Rebekah glared at him while he filled his cup.

"I thought Tyler would be here."

"You're into Tyler now, huh? That's kinda fickle..."

"When you're willing to give me the time of day again, we'll talk." He handed her the cup of beer he filled, to which she accepted without acknowledgement. He smiled. "Until then, a girl has needs."

"Yeah, well, you're not going to find any keepers here." Stefan and Rebekah looked behind them to find Claire approaching, sandwiching herself between the blonde Mikaelson and the broody Salvatore. They watched her eyes drift around the forest with a disgusted frown on her lips. "Is it me or do you both feel like you could get arrested being here? I feel old. Do you feel old?"

She specifically directed herself towards Stefan, who quickly filled a solo cup for her and passed it into her hands. "That's because you haven't had a drink yet."

"Right!" Claire gasped as she brought the cup to her lips and downed it faster than a human could breathe. As Stefan and Rebekah watched her chug it down, there was another voice added into the mix.

"Excuse me." Elena pushed past the crowded teenagers to get to the beer keg that Claire, Rebekah, and Stefan were standing at. They all shifted their attention to her and watched as she started to fill her own cup.

"Elena, hi." Stefan looked down at her hands as she filled her cup. The human girl did not respond, which peaked his curiosity. "What are you doing?"

"I'm having fun, Stefan. You have a problem with that?" she propositioned. Claire chuckled to herself but found it oddly out of character for the doppelgänger. Stefan cocked his head as Elena lifted the cup to her lips in a challenging manner and drank as much as she could, which was damn near impressive for one tiny human girl.

"All right, take it easy," he instructed condescendingly, but the doppelgänger did not stop. "We both know you're kind of a lightweight..."

She chuckled bitterly as she finished her drink and promptly poured herself more. Elena threw a displeased look at him. "Really? You think I'm going to let a blood addict tell me how to drink?"

Elena walked away with a bit of attitude in her hips, putting on a damn good show for the three vampires on the opposition. When she was gone, Claire and Rebekah shared a coy look before Claire turned to her embarrassed best friend and laughed under her breath.

"You know, I used to think she was all bark no bite." Claire put her hand on Stefan's shoulder and frowned sarcastically. "But damn that girl's got one hell of a bite. Watch out, kid. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to drink. Shout if you need me."

With that, the older vampire sauntered off into the forest to find her own nook to spend the rest of her night, as she was tasked with the wonderful task of babysitting her best friend and ex-lover's sister. Rebekah made her rounds with the high school teenagers, going through each of them just as fast as Claire went through her drinks.

"You don't look like you're having much fun," taunted a voice in the shadows. Claire looked over her shoulder, but she didn't need to because she already knew who it was. Hence, she had her eye roll all ready to go when Damon Salvatore stepped behind her, a hand leaning on the tree she had braced herself against. "I could fix that, you know."

"Round two already? My, my, you just really want an ass-kicking tonight, don't you?" Claire tsked. Damon couldn't help but smile—even though she had been wiped of all their good memories, she was still the same Claire to the core.

"About that." Damon circled her and she straightened away from him, as a magnet repels its opposite. "When did you get so strong? I thought 'the strongest blood comes from the King' was, like, a metaphor or something?"

"Well, it's not." She looked away, almost annoyed. "I've spent the whole summer as a protégé for the all-mighty hybrid dick. Learned a few tricks along the way." Claire took a brief moment to pause before a smile spread across her lips and she looked back at Damon with that same teasing look in her eyes as before. "Want me to show you again?"

"I think I'll pass on that one, thanks."

As much as he wanted to stay with her longer, Damon was slightly afraid that she would kick his ass if he bothered her more. Instead, he decided to do something more productive with his time. As he was already charged with distracting both the older blonde vampires out of place at the high school kegger, he thought he might try to kill two birds with one stone. With a smirk to his blonde beauty, he turned away from her and walked twenty feet to the left, where he found the other blonde vampire sitting at the fire pit throwing a stick with a marshmallow into the flames with disenchantment.

Without a word, he came to sit down next to her. Rebekah, confused, scoffed under her breath.

"What? No friends your own age?"

"Like you can talk." He leaned closer to her as she brought her marshmallow from the fire and blew on the flammable food, revealing a charred snack. Rebekah was clearly displeased.

"Is this supposed to be fun? I've been through ten of these."

"No, you're just looking at it all wrong." He grabbed the stick in her hand and brought it towards him, leaning his body closer to hers while he did so. From a distance, Claire watched the two out of the corner of her eye—curious, but not curious enough to do anything about it. It was like watching a train wreck in the distance.

"Look, it's a little rough on the outside. But on the inside..." Damon continued, pulling the charred coat off the gooey marshmallow and bringing it to Rebekah's lips. "Yum."

After the Original vampire tasted the gooey goodness and moaned in agreement, Damon brought his fingers to his lips and sucked off the rest of the goo from when he touched the burnt snack. Damon wasn't exactly sure what he was doing, but he could tell that this tactic of his was getting both the blondes under his watch to be distracted in some sort. The one next to him was gazing into his eyes with pure lust—no surprise there—and the other one, he could tell, was gazing in their direction without breaking a beat.

It was true, Claire was watching them from a distance. She wasn't sure whether it was because she was just so disgusted by Damon that she couldn't help but watch his utter fail or whether it was because she could feel something inside of her told her this wasn't right and that she had to continue to watch—and maybe even put an end to. But why would that be? To ruin Damon's chances at getting laid so he would be miserable? That was the most sensical thought that came to her mind at that time. Yet, it didn't feel right.

Then, she heard a voice that snapped her out of whatever trance she was in.

"Hello, sister!" Amelia watched as Claire jumped, surprised at hearing the sound of her sister's voice. As Claire straightened and cleared her throat, Amelia knotted her eyebrows together in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing. This party is lame."

Amelia took a moment and looked to their left, where she found Damon and Rebekah obviously flirting and getting too close for comfort on the bench in front of the fire. Amelia tried not to smile as she looked back at Claire.

"You were watching Damon and Rebekah?"

She was reluctant to answer, but eventually she replied. "Yeah, well, he's shameless. Girl's been in Mystic Falls for five minutes. He has absolutely no standards."

Amelia leaned against the tree behind her. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous."

Of course, Amelia did know better; and she knew it was true. The memories that Klaus took away from her sister didn't mean that there weren't residual feelings for Damon left in Claire; it just meant that she couldn't make sense of them. Claire laughed nonchalantly.

"Don't be ridiculous, Amelia. I've hated Damon Salvatore since we were kids, you remember that!"

Amelia didn't want to say anything. She knew she shouldn't say anything, that was really the case. But it all came out of her mouth so fast she didn't really have time to take it back before it escaped her lips.

"No. No, actually, I don't remember that. In fact, I remember a very different version of that story."

The second the words were out of her mouth, she regretted it. Claire locked eyes with her sister, trying to find some sort of irony in the sentence she just said. Her mind was moving at a thousand paces per second as she tried to figure out what that meant.

"Amelia, what—?"

"Nothing. Nothing! Forget it!" Amelia hurried off before there was anything else to say. As she scurried in a different direction, Claire was fortunate enough just to catch the latter part of Damon and Rebekah's conversation, one that ended with the blonde vampire thrusting the wooden stick into his abdomen. At first, Claire chuckled as she watched Rebekah walk away from her adversary and Damon double over in pain. But on second look, Claire's smile dropped and she felt a strange emotion overcome her, another one that she couldn't explain.

As it turned out, all the flirting and marshmallow tasting turned out to be one of Damon Salvatore's grant distraction tactics, as Claire found out while she was leaving the high school party that Elena, Amelia, Alaric, and Damon had tried to vervain and capture Stefan. She realized very quickly that she was a horrible babysitter, but since she didn't particularly agree with how Stefan's humanity was turned off and how Stefan was reacting to his humanity being turned off, she wasn't very bothered by it.

What did bother her was Damon thinking he could get away with pulling a fast one on her. For some reason, she could never let Damon Salvatore have the upper hand.

Damon walked out of his bathroom into his bedroom, only to find a suave Claire King poking around in his things while she waited for him. As soon as she was aware of his presence, she turned to him and watched him stop in his tracks.

"What are you doing here?" His heart sped up, mainly because he hadn't seen her in his room since before Klaus took her away. Damon's heart gave a little tug at the memory, but she was clearly displeased at him in the present day. She ignored his question and simply asked him one of her own.

"Distracting me by flirting with Rebekah? That was your tactic?"

He sighed. "It worked, didn't it?"

"It was like a train-wreck, just couldn't tear my eyes away." An amused smile overcame Claire's lips. "She did give a very satisfying show, though."

Damon walked over to the bed and put a clean towel down that he had carried from the bathroom before turning to her with a raised eyebrow. "If I didn't know any better, I would say you were jealous."

Truth was, whether or not he knew any better, all he could do was hope. Claire turned around at him, but instead of one of her quips, he found her leaning against his dresser with pursed lips, contemplating something.

"You know that's the second time I've been accused of that tonight?"

"Oh yeah?"

"And I'm starting to wonder if it's true," she admitted. Damon froze for a moment, not believing his ears. Claire looked up at the corner of his room and he waited, patiently, for her to continue her train of thought. "Amelia said something to me. I reminded her about how much we hated each other when we were children, and how much I despise you now, and she said she knew a 'different version' of that story."

He remained still, but his eyes wandered across the room to search for something to say. "What version do you think that is?"

Claire shrugged. "I'm not sure. All I know for sure is that I hate you."

Ouch. It was getting easier to hear, though, he'll admit. Her actions spoke louder than her words, and he knew that she felt something for him that went beyond the mask of hatred Klaus disguised her in.

"Maybe that'll pass," Damon suggested hopefully. Again, he was expecting some sort of quip from Claire, but what he got instead surprised him. She walked forward so that she was only a few steps away from him and locked her ocean blue eyes with his.

"Maybe."

She gave him a small smile, one that let him know she wasn't quite sure what to do yet. If he had a beating heart, he was sure it would've stopped right then and there. Swiftly, Claire walked out of the room and left him to himself, to think about all the ways he could turn that "maybe" into a "yes."

Wow...so I don't really know what to say because it's literally been 2 years since I've updated this last. And I don't really know how that happened, honestly. All I can say is I'm sorry for not updating sooner...I can't promise the next one will be quicker, but I'll work on it!

Thanks for reading! Please review :)

NicoleR85: Thank you! Sorry for the wait, but hope you enjoyed the chapter :)

grapejuice101: Thanks, haha I sort of disappeared again but I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Adela: Thanks! Yeah, it was definitely a sad chapter but hopefully things get better soon...

WickedlyMinx: Aw, thanks! Hope you enjoyed it :)

Tvd2014: It's going to be a slow breaking of the compulsion, so it'll be a while. But you can already see she has feelings she can't explain, but even if someone told her that she loved Damon she (a) wouldn't believe them and (b) wouldn't care anyways, because she thinks she hates them. Hopefully Damon will find some ways to break that thought process in the next few chapters.

guest: I don't think Claire is like Katherine, but I definitely think she shares some of the same qualities at times. She can be selfish and manipulative, like it or not. And yeah, she did have a fight with Damon that broke their engagement, but then she lied to Christopher about having feelings for Damon and never told Damon about their unborn child which was kind of rude. I think it just depends on the circumstance, and remember that Katherine was a human once, too, and she wasn't all that bad (albeit I would say she is definitely worse than Claire!). Thanks for your review :)

guest: He definitely doesn't have a right to be angry, that's why Claire was so annoyed with him!

guest: Because I'm really evil...

WickedlyMinx: Get some sleep! Thanks for reading :)

Anna.B: Thanks so much for your review, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter! Sorry for the wait on the update, but here it is :)

klandgraf2007: Sorry for the wait on this chapter, I know I sort of disappeared for a while! Hope you enjoyed the chapter :)

slexieotpforever: Thanks for your review! No worries at all, I love to get some constructive criticism and will try to make more sense of the OCs and maybe cut back a little bit. The Elena/Stefan/Amelia thing will all be coming to a head soon, especially with him having his humanity off. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chpater!

maliabitesthings: Thank you! Hopefully they will soon. Here's the update :)

Guest: Here's the update :)

val: Thanks for your review. I'm sorry you're not liking the story, and I completely understand what you're saying about Damon and Claire but that's all a part of their growth (Claire is clearly adverse to love, the only reason she ever treated Christopher differently was because she wasn't really in love with him, but forced to) because Claire is learning what it means to be in love. Maybe in the future you will see her fighting for Damon, but Damon's kind of always known how she is when it comes to love and he's accepted it. Also, if you read the story again I'm sure you'll find that Claire really does care about Damon and it shows, so it's not all that one-sided as it might seem. Anyways, thanks for your opinion I will keep it in mind!

BlueBloodsSVUOrder: It wouldn't be much of a fanfiction if they were together already, but soon I promise! Sorry for the wait on this, I realize it's been over a year since you left this review. Here's the chapter, hope you enjoyed it!

Guest: See, I've watched TVD a lot and even though they say 1864 for some reason when it comes to the actual mapping of when things happened it seems like they actually died in 1865? So I just put in 1865 because it's more technical with the timeline, but I know that they say 1864. Thanks for reviewing!

BeccaSo: So sorry to keep you waiting! Here's the chapter, hope you enjoyed it!

vanichand250197: Here's the update! Thanks so much :)

Kara70: Thanks so much! Here's the update :)

Thenchick: Yes...I realize you wrote this like a few months ago and I'm sorry it took so long but here's the update! Hope you enjoyed it :)