IN the Salvatore living room, Damon and Elena were cuddling together on the couch while Valentina sat in the chair adjacent to them, eating from a bag of peach rings with her feet propped up on the coffee table.

Damon raised an eyebrow at his sister, concerned that she had already made her way through half of the bag. "Should you be eating that, Tin?"

"Damon!" Elena scolded him.

"I'm just saying." Damon threw his hands up in defense. "That junk can't be good for them."

"They're fine, Damon. I appreciate your worry but they're good. The doctor said they're healthy at my checkup a few days ago." Valentina assured her brother while rubbing her baby bump in soothing motions. "There's nothing to be worried about. I also don't eat like this often so it's okay."

"You're gonna name the boy Damon, right?" Damon questioned playfully, already knowing what the answer was.

Valentina threw her head back and let out a loud bark of laughter. "Nik would kill me if I proposed that idea." She replied with a wide amused smile then pursed her lips in thought. "We really haven't gone over names yet. The twins thing wasn't something we were expecting. Plus he's been so busy that we haven't had the time to talk about it. But I can swear on my life that my son's name will not be Damon."

Suddenly the door burst open and they all turned to see Silas standing on the platform in the foyer with a large smirk on his face. "Greetings!"

"Oh, good God no..." Valentina groaned under her breath.

Damon glared at him in annoyance and Elena sat up, removing her head from his chest.

"Good morning, frenemies!" Silas greeted the trio and walked down the stairs toward them. He held his hands up and the curtains magically pulled back to expose the sunlight.

Elena glanced around at the windows in disbelief, Damon sunk into his seat, and Valentina pursed her lips in confusion.

The middle Salvatore pointed a finger at the man resembling her brother and held her mouth open for a second before speaking. "Silas. Wow. Does it ever get exhausting being a fucking prick all the time or do you get off on your douchery?"

"Nice to finally meet you, Valentina. Looks like you could benefit from losing a few pounds." Silas snarkily remarked while grinning smugly at her.

"Hey! Knock it off!" Damon raised his voice, coming to his sister's defense.

Valentina smiled back sarcastically and rolled her green eyes with a mocking hum. "Hmmm. Eat a dick."

"Ah. You know, I'm only a few hours into my old life as a witch, but somehow, the sun feels warmer." Silas commented in amazement and walked toward the window, basking in the warm glow of the sun. "Probably because I'm not cursed with having to outlive it anymore."

"What's with the home invasion, Silas?" Damon asked in annoyance, throwing his arm over the back of the couch and turning his body toward him.

"Well Damon, after two thousand years of a miserable existence, I finally get to die." He answered in joy paired with a wicked smile. "We all know that Tessa was a real vengeful bitch. Your doppelgänger, Amara died at her hands, but today, after two thousand years, Amara and I will finally reunite." He explained with a small smile as he spoke directly to Elena.

"Was Tessa actually in the wrong though?" Valentina questioned curiously with a raised eyebrow. "I mean, you did kinda screw her over."

"It would make sense that you side with her," Silas commented, not at all surprised by her response.

"Excuse me?" Valentina remarked in confusion and folded her arms over her chest.

Damon stood up from the couch, breaking up what he assumed would turn into a verbal fight. "Alright. Skip the bullshit, okay? Look." He wrapped an arm around Elena while staring at Silas with a stern look. "My girl here is just trying to have a good day, and there are promises that she's expecting you to keep."

"Oh, you don't think that I keep my promises?" Silas asked in feigned offense.

"Not at all. No." Valentina responded honestly causing him to shrug in a way that indicated she had a point.

"You said that now that you're a witch again, you would bring Bonnie back from the other side." Elena reminded him as she stood up from the couch and slowly approached him.

"I did and I can." He replied dully with a nod of his head.

"And you promised Damon you would do that if he helped you." Elena continued.

"Yeah." He agreed curtly.

"But you're kind of evil," Elena remarked then blinked repeatedly while trying to cover up any hard feelings she may have caused. "No offense."

"None taken." Silas brushed it off easily.

"So I'm just trying to figure out how I can trust that one of your last acts in the world will be to bring my best friend back." Elena finished with her explanation for the mistrust.

"Did you want me to pinky swear?" Silas asked sarcastically as held out his pinky toward her.

"Listen, Elena is trying to have a good day. Just tell her how it's going to go down." Damon demanded impatiently, not at all amused by him.

"I just want to destroy the other side so I don't get stuck in that pit of a purgatory when I finally do kill myself. Before I do that, I'll bring Bonnie back. And being the amazing and incredible and all-powerful witch I am, I can totally do both things. I just have to find the anchor first and destroy it." The former immortal explained quickly.

Elena's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he spoke. "The anchor?"

"It's the object Tessa used to bind the spell when she created the other side. Destroy it: break the spell." Silas explained simply.

"Great. Where is it?" Damon questioned eagerly, holding his hands up in the air at either side.

"New Jersey," Silas responded in displeasure.

"Ew." Valentina grimaced with disgust and her upper lip curled up into a sneer.

Damon gaped at him incredulously. "New Jersey? The supernatural other-world is bound by an object in Snooki's backyard?"

"It's in a stockyard and it's being shipped out. So... We really need to---" Silas suddenly stopped talking, not moving a muscle, almost as though something had disturbed his train of thought.

Jeremy cautiously entered the room carrying a crossbow and aimed it directly at the witch as he glared threateningly at Silas.

"Hello, hunter." Silas greeted him and crossed his arms over his chest. "Banner day for you, huh? Didn't you and the Bennet witch used to..." He clicked his tongue then whistled suggestively.

"Hey, knock it off. Okay?" Elena requested calmly before turning to her brother. "It's okay Jer. We all want the same thing today. Silas dead, Bonnie alive."

"Yeah." Silas agreed softly in an unconvinced manner causing Valentina to narrow her eyes at him.

"AKA, put the damn crossbow down, Pocahontas." Damon snapped in frustration and held his temples in his fingertips.

"We're just supposed to believe that he's going to bring Bonnie back to life out of the goodness of his heart?" Jeremy questioned them in disbelief, snapping their attention back to him.

"No," Valentina answered sternly while shaking her head from side to side in rejection. "That would be stupid."

"Well, I hope not. I mean, I am kind of a monster." Silas replied bluntly and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"Agreed." Valentina snarkily mused with a passive-aggressive smile before grabbing a peach ring from the bag and tossing it in her mouth.

"You know, guys, I'm feeling really ganged up on right now. 'Kay?" Silas complained in a monotonous manner when Jeremy raised the crossbow again and he glanced around at each of them. "I would hate to lose my temper and do something..." He raised his hand to show fire burning away at his fingertips. "...crazy."

Elena and Jeremy both took terrified steps back and Damon positioned himself in from of Valentina. Their reactions caused Silas to laugh quietly as he extinguished the flames.

"Ah. Man, I really love being a witch again. I feel like I'm constantly reinventing myself. I'm like a supernatural Madonna, don't you think? Alright. We gotta get going." Silas said quickly and turned to Jeremy with a stern look. "You grab a crowbar, or four, from the garage."

Jeremy glanced back at him in confusion as they walked past him toward the front door. "What for?"

"Does it matter?" Silas asked in response then stopped walking and pointed a finger between Elena and Valentina. "You two are not going. Men only."

"Are you serious?" Elena questioned in disbelief and looked over to Damon for reassurance. "He's not serious."

"No, he's not serious," Damon replied with a shake of his head.

"Actually, I'm one hundred percent serious." Silas clarified sternly, not any indication that he was joking or being sarcastic. "She's a freaky carbon-copy of my one true love, Amara. You can understand why I don't want to stare at her imposter face all day." He insulted as he gave Damon a pointed expression causing Elena to gape at him in offense.

"That makes no sense," Damon argued in frustration.

"It would make complete sense if you were ever in love with somebody who looked exactly like her," Silas said with a smirk, gesturing toward Elena, then tilted his head at Valentina. "The thoughts in your head... they're all about those parasites in your womb and Klaus. I don't need that pathetically mushy stuff distracting me. Okay? Okay."

"This is ridiculous." Elena breathed out with a humorless laugh. "We're bringing my best friend back from the dead. I'm going."

Silas was visibly annoyed as he sighed loudly and raised an arm, summoning an arrow from Jeremy's set and launching it into the air. The arrow flew over to Elena's leg, where it pierced her skin and dug deep into her flesh causing the Gilbert vampire to sink to the hardwood floor while yelling in pain.

"Whoa!" Valentina yelled loudly out of surprise with her hands held up in the air in surrender. "What the fuck?"

"Hey!" Damon scolded him, ran over to Elena, and helped her pull the arrow out from her thigh.

"The next one goes in the heart," Silas warned everyone with an annoyed scowl. "Now hurry up. I only have until sundown before Tessa tries to stop me." He pointed out before turning on his heels and walking out of the house.

Everyone exchanged looks of uncertainty side once they were sure Elena was alright, Jeremy and Damon followed the witch out of the house.

Elena, having healed completely, paced around the living room floor anxiously while tapping her phone against the palm of her hand. Valentina watched for a moment before writing out a text to her husband.

I miss you <3. I hope everything's okay. - V

Elena finally stopped in place and started typing in a number on the virtual keypad of her phone. She raised the device to her ear, nibbled anxiously on her fingernails, and waited for the recipient to answer as the ringing continued.

"Stefan's phone." Qetsiyah picked up after a moment with a taunting tone in her voice.

Elena furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Valentina with confusion swirling around in her dark brown eyes. "Who's this?"

"Uncanny. Your doppelgänger voice is exactly like Amara's. So whiny." Qetsiyah commented snarkily.

"Tessa." Elena mused in realization before it was slowly replaced with anger. "Where's Stefan?" She asked the witch after putting the phone on speaker so Valentina could hear.

"He's here. Well, not "here here." He hopped in the shower. Between us girls, he works up quite the sweat, but I guess you know that." Qetsyiah teased deeply earning a disgusted groan from Valentina. "May I leave him a message?"

Elena nodded to herself and clenched her jaw. "Yeah. Remind him that you're a crazy bitch."

"Ooooo." Valentina sucked the air from her top teeth and wrinkled her nose up. "That was bad."

"I would, but I think that's maybe his type," Qetsiyah commented smugly then hung up the phone before Elena could speak any further.

"Oh, my God!" Elena groaned in frustration, pulled the phone away from her face, and gaped at Valentina in disbelief. "Can you believe this? How could he?"

"Well, technically, he's a grown-ass man who's allowed to make his own choices. So..." Valentina defended her younger brother without hesitation.

Elena scoffed incredulously while shaking her head in rejection and dialing Damon's number. "He's with Tessa. Why does he keep going back to her?" She vented to her significant other, hoping to get more of a reaction from him than she did from Valentina.

"Look. Who knows? Amnesia Stef's a fickle little--" Damon began to brush it off but was cut off when Silas spoke loudly in the background.

"Wait. You didn't tell Elena what we did to Stefan?" Silas' voice carried from the receiver.

"Tell me what?" Elena asked cautiously as Valentina raised her chin and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well, Silas needed his psychic juju to get into Tessa's head and the only way to temporarily reactivate his abilities was to break Stefan's neck..." Damon hesitated to finish his explanation, trying to find a way to avoid it but ultimately telling the truth."...a couple times."

"Oh. I knew that already." Valentina acknowledged simply with a wave of her hand in dismissal. "Yeah. He's pretty pissed off about that."

"As if he didn't hate us enough." Elena snapped at him, closed her eyes, and took in a deep breath. "Damon, oh, God." She placed a hand on her forehead before throwing it up in the air. "I'm going over there."

"Don't---" Valentina started to talk her out of that choice only to be interrupted.

"She should, really. Tessa's bad business." Silas mused sarcastically from beside him.

"No. Just let Stefan have his space. It's like you said, he's already mad enough." Damon argued sternly.

"Oh! Look who understands space now." Valentina remarked mockingly paired with a sarcastic laugh at his expense. "Convenient."

"Sounds like he's more mad at you. Maybe he and I can find some common ground." Elena replied angrily then quickly hung up the phone. She let out an annoyed groan, threw her hands up, and walked toward the front door.

"Elena! Stop." Valentina attempted to get the stubborn vampire from leaving but Elena refused to listen and continued with her plan.

"You might not care, Val, but I do so I'm going with or without you. You can't stop me." Elena snapped causing the Mikaelson wife to scoff loudly.

"Stop being stupid for once in your life. Do you have an actual plan? Have you considered that this could potentially be a trap and Tessa lied about Stefan being over there? And if he is, what exactly are you gonna do about it?" Valentina interrogated as she pulled herself out of her chair. "It's not that I don't care, Elena. It's that I try to respect my brothers' choices regardless of how stupid they are because I would want the same thing in return."

"Well, if you care so much where have you been the whole summer?! Stefan was drowning and you didn't even notice." Elena emotionally accused while glaring back at Valentina.

"Not to be that bitch but neither did you. No one did. I assumed he was somewhere secluded and didn't want to speak to anyone after what you and Damon did to him." Valentina explained bitterly.

Elena's face turned red with both embarrassment and anger. Her face scrunched up into a scowl. "Do you even care that he lost his memories? You've been far too calm about all of this. You don't seem all that concerned for Stefan."

"I do care about Stefan's well-being which is why I'm not up his ass like you and Damon. You can't make choices for him or tell him what to do just because he doesn't have his memories. He's still capable of thinking for himself. We don't know when, or if, he's getting those memories back so in order for him to learn, he needs to make choices for himself. I care, Elena. I care a lot. I'm trying to give my little brother the space that he needs to process all his shit." Valentina said softly in genuinity. "You want to know why he hates you and Damon right now? Because you two don't know when to stop fucking pushing. Do you think he wants to be coddled or babied? No. He just wants to figure out who he is and he can't do that with everyone telling him who he's supposed to be."

"Even if it means sleeping with Tessa or never speaking to any of us again?" Elena questioned incredulously, not backing down from her rescue mission.

"Yes," Valentina answered bluntly with a curt nod of her head. "I don't approve of every choice my brothers make but it's not my place to dictate that for them. If Stefan wants to sleep with Tessa or write us off then that's his choice to make. You can't let people make their own choices and you can't accept that you don't know what's best. My advice? Leave him alone like he asked you to."

"You can't stop me from going over there, Val. I'm sorry." Elena apologized while opening the front door.

"Okay." Valentina agreed oddly causing the doppelgänger to give her a confused look. "But when Stefan gets pissed off, I don't want to hear it."

"Oh." Elena mused softly then let out an awkward laugh. "For a second there I thought you were going to offer to come with."

"Nah. You're on your own." Valentina waved a hand in farewell and started backing away from her.

"Wait. You're really not coming with me?" Elena asked in confusion.

"Nope," Valentina responded bluntly as she grabbed her candy. "Have fun. Hey! Try not to get yourself killed."

Elena waited for a moment, contemplating what Valentina had said, then shook her head and stormed out of the house. When she was completely gone, Valentina sighed heavily in frustration and pulled out her phone to send Damon a quick text.

While she was alone, Valentina used the time to call Klaus and fill him in on everything. At the very mention of Silas, he tried to convince her to return to Mystic Falls but she reassured him that she was okay.

"Today is day three, my sweet. When do you intend on returning home?" He asked curiously, trying to hide his desperation. "The house is miserably quiet without you."

Sighing heavily, she pursed her lips and thought about it for a brief second. "Probably tomorrow night. Stefan hasn't made any progress on getting his memory back so me being here isn't really a necessity and as much as it pains me to say---" She said playfully with a wide smirk. "I miss my husband terribly."

Klaus' chuckles were like music to her ears and she sat down on the couch with a giddy smile. They remained on the phone for the next few hours, talking about anything and everything.

After they hung up, Valentina held the phone to her chest with her eyes closed. She shot forward when she heard a bang at the front door. She stood up from her seat and grabbed one of the fire pokers before hesitantly walking into the foyer. She adjusted the weapon in her hand while gripping the door handle.

She threw the door open with the poker ready to strike whoever it could be but she lowered it when she noticed Stefan lying unconscious on the doorstep. She dropped the poker in the umbrella stand then rushed to check him over for any obvious wounds.

Valentina didn't see any blood or foreign objects in his body so she walked around to stand at his head before squatting down, positioning her arms under his armpits, and using the downward momentum of the platform stairs to drag him into the living room. She set him on the floor with a loud grunt, stood up straight on her feet, and took a moment to catch her breath with her hands resting on the back of her hips. "God, you are heavy as fuck." She said to his unconscious body.

"Okay." She breathed out, readying herself to try again. "Almost done. Just have to get him on the couch. I can do this. I just have to lift this grown-ass man by myself while trying not to throw my back out. How hard can that be?"

Damon returned home in time to see his pregnant sister attempting to hoist their little brother onto the couch. He immediately ran over and grabbed Stefan by the torso, taking most of the weight off of her. Once Stefan's body was set on the couch, Damon turned toward her with an incredulous expression. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I found him on the porch. I couldn't just leave him there." She argued breathlessly.

"Here," Damon said in displeasure while walking back over to the door, grabbing something from the table then aggressively handing her a coffee cup containing an unknown liquid. "Drink this."

"What is it?" She asked curiously, raising the cup to her nose so she could smell it.

"It's a Chai latte with almond milk." He grumbled under his breath.

Valentina beamed happily, set the cup down on the coffee table, and threw her arms around him. "Thank you."

"Yeah. Yeah." He acted like it was an inconvenience but hugged her back without hesitation. "Now shut up before I take it back. If I catch you doing stupid shit like this again, I'm calling Klaus."

She gasped loudly and backed away from him with an offended look. "You wouldn't dare."

"No. I would." He remarked sternly. "As much as I would hate it, I would call Klaus if I needed to. Especially because you're too fucking stubborn to listen or let people do things for you. Not everything has to be a fight."

"Everyone does everything for me at home. I just wanna be independent. To show everyone that I can do things for myself." She explained with a deep frown. "I feel coddled and smothered. I mean Rebekah's been talking about putting me on some strict diet while constantly reminding me to remember how lucky I am. Nik literally doesn't let me leave the house. Ever." She groaned in frustration then sat down next to Stefan with a loud sigh. "But I know why he does it. He's terrified something will happen to me, to us---" She gestured at the babies in her womb. "And rightfully so. I got attacked by vampires while getting fries the other day. The witches are out to kill me. New Orleans is not a safe place for me right now. So I understand why he's so protective and strict about the rules but convincing him to let me come here was a struggle. I feel like no one trusts me to be able to make choices for myself. Like I'm incompetent. Being pregnant doesn't make me stupid."

"I just wanna be seen as a person outside of these babies. I feel reduced to being just their mother and they're not even here yet." She whispered emotionally and immediately wiped the tears away before he could see them fall.

"Tin---" He started.

She let out a water laugh then ran her tongue along the corner of her lips. "It's fine. I'm just being dramatic and ungrateful. Maybe a bit over-emotional. It's probably all the hormones. Everything's fine." She brushed it off, giving him her best fake smile so as to not worry him. "You're right. Not everything needs to be a fight. I need to let go of my pride and let people help me. I can't do everything myself. Everyone's just trying to protect me and keep me safe so I need to let them."

Damon opened his mouth to speak again but was cut off by Stefan sitting forward with a loud gasp. They both turned to look at him with concern, asking him questions rapidly which just sounded like noise to him.

He threw his legs off the couch and rose to his feet with a wave of his hand. Stefan staggered at first then fixed his balance and looked at his siblings with a face of recognition. "I remember. I remember all of it."

---
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