"Wait, so Isobel just showed up? Just out of the blue, on Elena's front doorstep?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah." Stefan nodded.

"What's she doing here?"

"I don't know. That's what I'm going to find out."

"Mind if I tag along?"

Stefan shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sure Elena would appreciate it."

"I don't think that you should tell her that I'm here."Katherine said, as she appeared in front of them.

"What? Why?" Stefan asked.

"It's better if she and John not know that I stayed in town after I got out of the tomb."

"You're the one in cahoots with them." Buffy pointed out. "You made a deal with John that almost got Damon and myself killed."

Katherine rolled her eyes. "I did what I had to, to get out of the tomb. Now I'm reconsidering my alliance."

"What do you know?" Stefan asked knowingly.

"I know that I want Klaus dead, which puts me squarely on team you. Well... maybe just on team Salvatore." Katherine smirked at Buffy. "Because I'm not entirely convinced that Buffy wants to see Klaus dead." Buffy crossed her arms in front of her chest and avoided eye contact with Stefan, choosing to look down at the floor instead. Katherine's grin widened evilly in victory. "Besides, if you all ever need me to swap places with Elena again, the less people who know that I'm here, the better. Think about it, Stefan. Come on. Be smart."

"Tell you what..." Buffy pointed between Stefan and Katherine. "You two call Ric, and let him know that his wife's just showed up on his girlfriend's doorstep. I'm going to go check on Elena and Jenna."

"Ah, this is bad. Between Isobel and Jenna and now Matt, this is disaster bad." Groaned Elena.

"Yeah." Stefan agreed.

"But on the bright side, Ric punched John." Buffy grinned.

"Elena, can you come downstairs, please? I need to talk to you." John said, as he stopped in front of Elena's bedroom door.

"I have nothing to say to you." Elena shook her head.

"Please. It's important. You too, Stefan, Buffy."

As they all descended the stairs, Isobel stepped into the hallway. "I asked John for a do-over." She explained.

Elena turned to John. "You invited her in?"

"She has information about Klaus."

"So does Buffy! We don't need any help from her." Elena hissed as she pointed a finger in Isobel's direction.

"Please, just listen to her, ok?"

"All right." Stefan nodded. "What do you know?"

"Since I was last here, I've been doing everything possible to find Klaus." Isobel started, once they had all sat down at the table. "We knew our best chance was to find him before he could find you."

"Best chance at what?"

"Keeping Elena alive." John answered.

"Klaus has witches cloaking his location. Willow couldn't even find him." Said Buffy.

"Yes. We know that now."

"You don't get to talk, ok?" Elena glared at John. "Not after everything you've done."

"Like Buffy said, nobody knows where Klaus is." Isobel explained. "But there are these rumors that are flying around that a doppelganger exists, and that Buffy has been spotted around here."

"Which means any vampire that wants to get in favor with Klaus will be lining up to capture you." John said.

"I'm not buying any of this." Elena shook her head. "The last time you were here, you made it clear that you didn't give a damn about me. Now all of a sudden I'm supposed to believe that you want to help?"

"Isobel's been helping all along."

"Oh, please." Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Klaus has been obsessed with finding Buffy and Katherine for centuries. All it would take was any one of those 1864 tomb vampires to spread the word around that Katherine was still alive, or that Buffy was living here, and it would bring him straight here to Mystic Falls, where you were bound to be discovered, so we killed them."

"And almost killed Stefan, Damon and Buffy in the process. I wonder what Klaus would have done to you, had you actually killed Buffy." Elena looked pointedly at John.

John nodded nervously. "Yeah."

"I have a safe house that I can take you to."Isobel spoke up. "The deed is in your name. No vampires can get in without your permission, not even me. Let me help you."

"You wanna help?" Elena asked Isobel. "Then get the hell out of my house."

"Do you really think that Isobel's telling the truth that words gotten out about the doppelganger and Buffy?" Elena asked, once they were back at the boarding house.

"Look, I don't trust a word that she says, " Stefan paused. "But I think we'd be stupid to ignore the warning."

Damon nodded in agreement. "Especially considering his little Buffy obsession."

Buffy rolled her eyes and focused on Elena. "You should just stay here. At least for the time being. It's better for us to keep an eye on you."

Stefan scoffed. "What, in the house that any vampire can enter? No. Her house is safer."

"What, you mean her house where John is currently staying and that Isobel now has an open invitation to? Oh, yeah, sure, her house is definitely safer." Buffy sarcastically said.

"Well, then we'll stay there." Damon reasoned.

"So is that the plan? None of you will let me out of your sight again?" Elena asked.

"Let us know when you come up with a better one."

Elena sighs. "Fine." She relents. "Then one of you three bodyguards is gonna have to come with me to the Lockwood luncheon."

"That'd be me." Stefan smiles.

"Not us." Damon motions between Buffy any himself. "We have witch stuff to attend to with Bonnie."

Elena looks at the disbelievingly. "Does that mean that you're taking her to the..."

"Shh..." Damon holds a finger to his lips just as Katherine walks into the room.

"Don't get quiet on my account." Katherine snarks. "If you have a plan to combat the impending vampire doom, please do tell." Everyone keeps quiet and looks away from her. "Seriously, what is the plan to get us out of this mess, hmm?"

"I was thinking that we'd tie you to a stake and leave you in the center of town, as an offering to Klaus. How does that sound?" Buffy smirked.

Katherine sent a glare her way. "I delivered you a moonstone, a werewolf, and the dagger to lure and kill Klaus, and right now all you have is a moonstone. Or so you tell me."

"No, we have it." Damon replied.

"Where is it?"

"It's in a very safe place."

"I've been honest with you. Time to return the favor."

Buffy stepped forward until Katherine and she were mere inches apart. "Let me be honest with you. Don't mistake the fact that I haven't set you on fire in your sleep or ripped your heart out of your chest for trust."

"Fine. Be that way." She grumbled as she walked away.

Buffy turned around to find Damon, Stefan and Elena wearing identical expressions of amusement on their faces. She shrugged nonchalantly.

"Is this the spot Emily Bennett was killed, too?" Jeremy asked.

"Founders thought it was poetic burning her where the other witches burned." Damon answered.

"How do you know where the witches were burned?" Bonnie asked.

" 'Cause I tried to save her. Emily was just my key to getting Katherine back. Before I knew what a nasty little bitch Katherine was."

"Heh." Jeremy laughed.

They stopped in front of an abandoned house. "You're sure this is the right place?" Buffy questioned. Damon nodded and grabbed a hold of her hand, pulling her along with him as he approached the house. He opened the door and walked inside, Buffy, Jeremy and Bonnie entered behind him. Suddenly, Damon and Buffy froze. Buffy grunted and tried to move, but she was stuck.

Damon chuckled. "Whatever witchy prank you're playing, don't. It's not funny."

"I'm not doing anything." Bonnie frowned.

"I can't move."

"Neither can I," Buffy agreed. Suddenly her skin began to burn, as did Damon's.

"Ah!" Damon groaned in pain. "My ring's not working."

Buffy looked at Bonnie. "Do something!"

Bonnie closed her eyes for a moment. Damon and Buffy's skin stopped burning and they found that they were no longer frozen in place. Bonnie opened her eyes. "I don't think the witches like you being here."

"I guess this is the right place." Jeremy quips.

"We're gonna go wait outside." Damon takes Buffy's hand and leads her toward the door.

"My bestfriend is a witch!" Buffy shouts. "A very powerful witch!" Damon pulls her outside. "Stupid vampire hating witches." She grumbled.

Damon smirked at her. "Wanna hurry it up in there?" he shouted. He walked closer to the front door, trying to peer in, when suddenly the door slammed shut in his face. "Screw you, too, Emily. You know, you're on your own in there." Hearing no reply, he shrugged and turned, walking away from the house.
Buffy glanced at the house for a moment before shrugging, and turned to follow Damon.

"It's, Isobel, Damon. It's gotta be." Katherine said, pretending to be Elena.

"Tell him and Buffy that they need to get over here and deal with John's body." Stefan said.

"You know, a please would be nice." Damon smirked into the phone.

"You've got some serious explaining to do to the council." Katherine continued. "Explaining about John being not so dead." As soon as Katherine ended the call, Stefan grabbed her from behind and pushed her into a parked car.

He spun her around, keeping his grip tight on her shoulders. "Where the hell is she? Huh?" he growled.

Katherine pulled a syringe from her pocket and stabbed Stefan in the stomach. "I'm sorry, Stef, but I can't have you following me." She tossed his body into the woods.

Damon and Buffy arrived at the Lockwood mansion. "Hey." Damon greeted Carol, as they walked inside. "How is he?"

"He's dead." Liz answered, matter-of-factly.

"Oh, if we could only be so lucky." Buffy muttered under her breath.

Damon crouched down beside of John's body. He inspected the bite on his neck and checked his hand for the ring. Upon seeing the ring, he dropped John's arm. "He'll be fine in a couple hours."

"What are you talking about? Damon, he's dead." Carol asked incredulously.

"Well..." Damon started, standing up to face them. "Here's the thing. John's ring, it's an old Gilbert family heirloom that protects it's owner from death by a supernatural entity."

"But he's not breathing. He has no pulse."

"He will be. Trust me." Damon picked John's body up and started to drag him out of the room.

"We're gonna need a cover story." Buffy stated."Epileptic fit, alcohol binge, banana peel, whatever works. Right now we just need to get him out of here."

Once they arrived back at the boarding house, Damon carelessly tossed John's body to the ground. "I need to go clean up." He said to Buffy, motioning to the blood on his hands and shirt.

Buffy nodded. "Go ahead. I'll wait for him to wake up." Once he was upstairs, Buffy's cell phone started ringing. She glanced at the screen before answering. "Stefan? How'd we beat you and Elena home?" She listened for a moment. "What?" She immediately raced upstairs. She rushed past Damon and entered his bathroom. She dug through the soap bowl. "No, no!"

"Buffy? What's going on?" Damon questioned.

She knocked the bowl onto the floor and growled in frustration. "She took it. That conniving little bitch!"

"What's going on?"

"Katherine has the moonstone, and Elena's missing. She played us."

"Think this is the house?" Stefan asked once Damon stopped the car.

"Better be." Damon said. "It's the nicest foreclosure in town."

"Swear to God if she's not here..."

"Don't be such a pessimist."

"Would you two stop bickering?" Buffy walked past them and into the house.

"I got upstairs." Stefan said, running up the stairs. He ran back down a moment later.

"This is Isobel's stuff." Damon gestured to the luggage by the front door. "It's definitely the right place."

"Where are they?"

"I don't know, Stefan."

"They're obviously not here." Buffy turned towards the door. "Let's keep looking."

"Why did they let me go?" Elena asked.

"Well, anything that John told Isobel we have to assume that Klaus knows, right?" Stefan voiced out loud.

"That's a verified given." Buffy said in agreement.

"So he knows that you're not gonna turn yourself into a vampire."

"And he knows that you have all three of us keeping you safe."

"He knows I'm not gonna run." Elena gasped, her eyes widening in realization.

"He knows that I'm here." Buffy whispered, more to herself that anyone else.

"Which is why we need to take some precautions." Damon said, entering the room. " 'Cause we got played. All of us." He hands Elena a stack of papers.

"What's this?" She looks up at him in confusion.

"It's the deed to our house."

"It's in Zach's name." Stefan explained. "As soon as you sign it, it'll be in your name."

"You're giving me your house?"

"Isobel had the right idea with the safe house. You'll just stay here till it's all over. That way, you can control who gets invited in and who doesn't."
"Although I'll be super pissed if you lock me out." Damon joked.

Suddenly, John gasps and sits up. Damon rushes him and pins him to the wall. "I swear I had no idea what she was gonna do." John explained. "I'm sorry." He looks over at Elena and Buffy. "I'm so, so sorry."

"Damon, let him go." Elena demands. "He and I need to talk."

Elena had asked for some space, so that she and John could talk. Damon poured himself a drink. "Hey, Bonnie said the spell worked. She's locked and loaded."

"At least something went right today." Stefan sighed. "Hmm. Katherine has no idea that Bonnie got her powers back."

"Mm hmm." Damon hummed in agreement.

"And Isobel had no idea what you, Buffy and Jeremy took Bonnie to do today."

"Uh-huh." Damon cast a curious glance at Buffy, who hadn't said a word since before John woke up.

"We're the only ones who know."

"That literally makes Bonnie our secret weapon."

Buffy ran a hand through her hair. "I need some air." She rushed outside.

Damon frowned and followed her out. "Buffy..."

"He knows I'm here, Damon. He knows where I am, and I have no freaking clue where he is." She growled, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Hey..." Damon walked up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder, turning her around to face him. "I won't let anything happen to you. Not if I can help it."

"Damon," She sighed. "I'm not worried about myself."

"Then what are you worried about?"

"You have no idea what he's capable of, what he'll do to you and Stefan if you get in his way."

"I can handle myself." He cupped her cheek, trailing his thumb along her bottom lip. "We'll stop him, Buffy. Bonnie is ready, Willow is only a phone call away if Bonnie needs back up. We'll keep Elena alive. I won't let him take you."

"Damon..." Buffy looked up at him, her eyes searching his.

"Don't give up on me." Damon leaned in and kissed her. This kiss was different than any of the other kisses they've shared. This kiss was slow, unhurried, as if they had all of the time in the world. It was so painfully sweet, Damon poured every ounce of emotion that he was afraid to say out loud into in. When they finally broke apart, Damon rested his forehead against hers. Keeping his eyes closed, he whispered, "Don't give up on me."