CHAPTER 53: BREAK ON THROUGH

Mystic Falls Hospital

They weren't sure, but if there was any chance of Alaric being insane and murdering people, then Natalie, Meredith and Elena wanted to know. So the three brunettes took him to the hospital, testing some things that Natalie didn't have a clue about half the time.

"So what exactly are you looking for?" the huntress questioned with a frown, looking over at the experienced doctor on her side.

Meredith shrugged, glancing between where Alaric was about to go into the MRI scanner and his worried daughter. "I don't know. A tumor, vascular anomalies, anything physical that might explain his behavior. If it's medical, I can treat it."

"And if it's not?" Elena broke into the conversation, wondering what they might do with him then.

The doctor pursed her lips together for a moment, not really having thought about what she might do if there wasn't any medical explanation. "Well, then we'll deal with that too."

A technician slid Alaric into the machine, getting him ready for a scan. Natalie, unknowingly, sucked in a breath as she closed her eyes at the thought of him having no way of being treated for whatever was going on. "When- when did you start to suspect him?" she breathed, letting the breath out.

Meredith looked at the shorter brunette next to her, knowing that even if the huntress wasn't a fan of her, she still wanted to help her father. "It was after he told me about his ring. I remembered a story my grandmother had told me about Samantha Gilbert and her secret journal. I don't know if you know this, but we Fells are notorious busy-bodies."

"But then, why did you protect him?" Elena asked, suppressing a smirk as she knew all about her feelings for her guardian, she was the one who walked in on their first kiss after all.

"Because I'm a doctor, I don't like to see someone hurt by something they have no control over. And because when he and I first met I felt like...I don't know, I- I just kind of want to help him." she shrugged, not really wanting to answer with anything that would make Natalie dislike her anymore. She had feelings for the girl's father, she had to at least try to be liked. She pressed a button so that she could speak to Alaric with a speaker. "Everything alright in there?"

"Yeah. Yeah, everything's okay." they got an answer, although he sounded weirdly different from before he entered the room.

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The scan was over not too long after and Alaric was so ready to get out of there and went to a hospital room to get ready. Natalie consulted with Doctor Fell as he was doing this and was getting some answers, no matter how few they may be. She needed to know everything about what was happening to him, so that she might have any chance to come up with some miracle idea, even though she seriously doubted she would be able to do it. That definitely wasn't a perk of being a pessimist.

"Meredith says that everything is normal." Natalie informed her father, a tired look on her face, making him wonder how much she'd been sleeping lately. She'd lie if she'd say that she hadn't been kept awake as she kept replaying the scene of her previous death to make some sense out of her thoughts. She still couldn't figure out how that made her feel about Klaus, better or worse. But she knew that she was never able to apologize to Kol, and that was probably a good idea. He didn't seem predictable.

Alaric decided not to comment on it in fear of her murdering him in his sleep. "Yeah, well, everything is normal, because there is nothing wrong with me. I didn't kill Brian Walters, I didn't kill Bill Forbes, and I sure as hell didn't shove a hunting knife into my stomach. Or I did and I've gone insane, just like your ancestor who wore that ring." he said, glancing down at the large ring on his finger.

"So, Elena has this idea that Bonnie, being a Bennett witch, can reverse the damage since the rings were made by a Bennett witch, so they're talking right now. Personally, I'm a little iffy about it. Just because Bonnie is pretty awesome doesn't mean that she should be able to magically fix everything. Pun intended. Seems like optimism just can't seem to stick on me if I'm being honest. Pessimism has always been there for me. But I'm rambling. You know me, rambling is my biggest talent." she rambled, looking at her father with squinted eyes of embarrassment as she knew that she was acting like an idiot.

Alaric just smiled at her in understanding, she had always been awkward, she most likely would never stop. He quickly glanced down, his eyes accidentally landing on the ring again as he eyed it with disgust before taking it off and handing it to his daughter. "Take it. I don't want it any more."

And out of nowhere, Damon barged into the room, his usual cocky smirk placed on his face as his almost creepily blue eyes scoured his surroundings, letting out a noise of disapproval before looking at Alaric, letting out an even worse noise. "You ready to ditch this House of Horrors? Oof, you look terrible."

"You're an ass." Natalie commented casually, throwing him a sarcastic smile, although she quicly replaced it with a real one as her dark eyes met his, she really did care about him, so seeing him acting as his normal self made her happy.

"I know." he responded, widening his eyes and smirk at the same time as he put almost too much pressure on the words for her to not roll her eyes once for every word he has ever spoken in his 171 years on Earth.

Alaric shook his head at the two best friends who just couldn't keep themselves in a serious conversation with one another for two minutes. "Let me...let me check outta here."

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The Salvatore Boarding House

As much as Natalie was not prepared for it, she was returning to the dreaded Salvatore boarding house. It's not the house itself, it was more of the fact that Stefan lived there, and their last encounter talk face-to-face didn't end so well, Stefan basically saying that he didn't want to feel, leaving Natalie alone on her doorstep. But Damon assured her that there was nobody home, Stefan left before he did and probably wouldn't be home in a while.

She had found what she was looking for fairly quickly, and as she was about to leave she heard the footsteps in the parlor and was hoping so bad that it wasn't Stefan. But her hopes never really did much for her. "Hi."

"Hey." Stefan greeted, not smiling, not glaring, not really knowing how he was supposed to react to her speaking to him. But he did put down a blood bag he had just drained by pouring it into a glass.

"I, ehm, I'm sorry. I was just picking up a book on Samantha Gilbert. And Damon said no one was home. Otherwise I wouldn't have-" she started gnawing on the inside of her lips as she pulled a strand of dark hair behind her ear just so that she had something for her hands to.

"I just got home." he cut her off, a weird moment of silence following as Natalie once again pulled some hair back, still trying to keep her hands busy.

She sighed, lowering her shoulders, trying to show that she was completely cool and collected, even if that was the farthest thing from what she really was. "So... how are you?" she asked, internally cringing at the sound of her own voice saying those words in the tone of voice she did.

He glanced around the room, trying to keep his eyes anywhere but on Natalie's as he almost stuttered at the start of his sentence, really hating the atmosphere between the two of them. "I'm– I'm okay. Did you get everything you need?"

Natalie plastered on the fakest smile she could and nodded rapidly. "Yeah, totally. Just... yeah." she sighed after uttering the words. Never before had she wanted to crawl into a hole and die than during that conversation.

She turned around as quickly as she could, about to take a step when Stefan cut her off, although she didn't turn to face him, not wanting him to see her facial expression. "You don't have to read that, you know. I can just tell you what happened. Samantha Gilbert was committed to an insane asylum, she tried to give herself a lobotomy with a knitting needle, and bled to death on the floor of her cell. If the same thing is happening to Alaric then there is nothing you can do."

As those last words left his lips, she turned around before she could even grasp what she was doing as an incredulous look crossed her face. "What? Even if some people are content with living a lie as they end up all alone just because they gave up, doesn't mean everyone are. You should take a page out of their book."

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The Gilbert House

Alaric was so convinced that he was most likely screwed anyways that he started giving out information he had never given Natalie before, just in case he didn't come back from whatever was happening.

"Listen, I want you to have this. This is a list of some bank accounts, passwords, where to find my will, and just in case you lose their numbers; how to contact some family, just in case this doesn't go my way." he handed her a pad of paper with the information on it.

"Just so you know, I'm only taking this because I want your passwords and money. But don't be like me, just take a page from the Caroline Forbes handbook. Rainsbows, unicorns and sunshine." she looked at the writing, a smug smirk as she realized she had a whole lot of access.

He gave her a stern look, although he didn't take back the pad of paper because of her comments on just wanting his money. "Natalie, I need to know that you, Elena and Jeremy will be okay."

"I'm gonna be fine, they're gonna be fine, you're gonna be fine. And in the end we'll just be a big, happy, sunshiney family, okay?" she responded sternly, looking at her with a not too threatening look, but still bad enough for him to resist a cringe.

Elena then returned to the kitchen where the two was standing as she was almost finished talking to Bonnie about what they were going to do. "Okay, yeah, I- I'll get Natalie to get it and I'll meet you half-way. Bonnie, I'm so sorry for everything, thank you for doing this." She put the phone down quickly and it seemed as if the witch hung up quickly.

"Good news? Bad news?" Alaric asked, trying not to get his hopes up and therefore get Natalie's hopes up and just screw them both over in the end.

Elena let a small smile on her face as it seemed like they were just about to get hope again, after all the non-medical-ness of the situation. "Bonnie thinks that she can help you with a spell. But she needs something that you wore before you put on the ring. Something personal."

Alaric spend a moment scouring his brain for something that was personal enough for it work. His mind instantly went to something about Jenna, but then again, they didn't share any of that. So then it was Isobel. "Well, there's uh- there's my wedding ring. It's at the loft."

"Great! I'll get it." Natalie offered, having heard Elena say that she was most likely gonna do it anyway, why not live up to some expectations once in a while. Who was she kidding, she loved to exceed expectations.

Alaric was about to stand up before Meredith rushed in, having heard the conversation and pushed him back down on his chair, not finding him going with as a good idea. "I think it's better if you stay here with me."

He smiled up at her for a moment. "Oh, you and your tranquilizers." he then looked at his daughter so that he could explain where it was, as she never really thought about where it was after he stopped wearing it. She didn't even notice. "It's in the dresser by the kitchen. It's in a... an aspirin bottle, probably covered in cobwebs."

"I can just feel the appreciation for our old life just oozing out you." she called out sarcatically as she grabbed her jacket, about to leave.

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The Saltzman Apartment

Natalie still found it weird how little time she had spent in that apartment after Jenna died and both her and Alaric moved into the Gilbert house, and now she was back. She stared at the door for a moment, not even realizing that somebody was walking up behind her.

Stefan walked to stand by her and leaned against the door frame with a casual look on his face. He wasn't even frowning for once. "Missed you at the house. Alaric told me you'd be here."

She glanced up at him startled since she didn't know what he was doing here or that he was there, she was just too caught up in her own mindset that started with the door and somehow ended up with her wondering if vampire-cows could exist. Don't ask. "Well, here I am. Even if I don't get why you're here seeing as I'm pretty sure you don't want to be anywhere near me at the moment."

She grabbed her keys from her pocket and opened the door with a sigh, entering without hesitation this time, allowing him to follow her as she turned on the lights and closed the door behind her as she glanced around the place she once lived. Stefan walked up next to her again, but she turned to look at him from the front. "I'm not trying to hurt you, Natalie. I just can't be who you want me to be right now. I'm not in control."

"I don't want you to be anything but yourself, Stefan. I just want you happy. If you're happy, I'm happy." she smiled for a moment before her eyes met his and they shared the kind of look they hadn't shared since before he left, and that scared him because he didn't want to feel, so he quickly glanced away, and she followed.

He sighed, glancing anywhere but her again before he finally remembered why he even came there in the first place. "I, uh- I did a little more digging on Samantha Gilbert. Founding families were always pretty good about destroying their records, but I found a couple of newspaper articles. It seemed she killed two people while she was in the institution. A nurse and a guard."

"She was a psychopath. Go figure."

Stefan rolled his eyes at her need to comment before he finished what he was about to say. "She was under suicide watch. No personal effects, no jewelry."

"Which means that the violent behavior can still happen without the ring!"

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Natalie quickly found her father's wedding ring, knowing exactly what he was talking about when he was describing the placement of the personal item they needed to keep him from going full-blown Samantha Gilbert on their asses.

As soon as she fished the ring out of the aspirin bottle (which was actually covered in spiderwebs) Stefan spoke up, curious about what she was actually going to do if Elena's plan didn't work. "What if Bonnie's spell doesn't work? What are you gonna do with him?"

"Could you stop talking about him like he's an animal? He's my dad! And I'm just gonna keep searching until I find something, anything, that can help him." she glared at him for his inconsiderate tone of voice, making him glance away from her.

He shrugged as he glanced away, trying to convince her that she wouldn't be able to save everyone just because she put her mind to it- "You don't know how long this has been going on. Might be too late."

"He's my family. You know more than anyone what one would do to save your family. You did it for Damon." the brunette reminded him, clasping her hands together to keep herself from fidgeting as she noticed how close they somehow ended up during their conversation. It wasn't overly close, but weird enough for being Stefan and Natalie.

"We all know how that ended up." he grumbled, flashing back to all the murders Klaus forced him to commit in hope of bringing back the ripper in him. He didn't like to talk about it, or think about it, but it plagued him, knowing that he fell back into his old habits and was losing everything because of it.

"Well, given the chance, I wouldn't change a thing." she informed him, knowing what she was saying and how much trouble it might cause. He looked up at her, surprise clearly written on his face. By not changing anything it meant that she wouldn't change kissing him that night, telling him she loved him (two and a half times), and even all the stuff he's put her through, just for the life of one of her best friends and his brother to still be there.

Stefan quickly turned away from looking at her and grabbed the first thing he could, which happened to be the handle of a drawer, so he slid it open. But what he found there wasn't so nice. Pictures of Bill Forbes and Brian Walters' dead bodies, newpaper clippings and other things about the murders. Stefan picked up one of the photographs from the drawer. "Pictures of his victims."

Natalie, however, noticed familiar writing of a familiar name on an envelope. Jeremy Gilbert. "Jeremy, if anything happens to me, carry on my work. You have the other ring, let the ring make you strong. The council must be cleansed before the work can begin." she read the letter out loud, trying to ignore how she almost felt sick to her stomach at the thought of her father writing this. She sighed for a moment, contemplating what to do before she suddenly tore the paper up, not wanting Jeremy to have anything to do with this. He wasn't supposed to. "I- I can't be here anymore."

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The Gilbert House

Stefan walked Natalie home, just in case anything was out of the ordinary as he quickly saw that she didn't have any weapons on her and he didn't know just how much she would be able to hold her own without them. She wasn't lucky enough to have any super senses so when Stefan grabbed her arm, signaled for her to be quiet and walked into the kitchen, she wasn't sure what was happening. But she was ready to guess it was Alaric.

And it was just him who walked down the stairs with a towel wrapped around his hand, her quickly noticing that, as he smiled at her cheerfully. "Hey there."

Natalie noticed the weird change in demeanor from the last time she saw him, but she still kept a fake smile on her face. "Hi. Where's Meredith?"

"Oh, she got called into the hospital for a last-minute surgery, but she'll be back later." Alaric responded, still keeping a cheery look on his face as he took another step down the stairs, trying to keep himself from smirking.

Natalie nodded, her fake smile widening as she he walked downwards. Her gaze quickly reverted to his damaged hand, which he was still rubbing with a towel. "What happened?"

He quickly looked down on his hand, as if he just noticed it, being better at acting than he used to be. "Oh, I... I broke a coffee cup and sliced my hand open trying to pick up the pieces. Did Stefan catch up with you?"

"No, I didn't see him." she shrugged, taking a step closer, not standing right next to the door anymore. She was just trying to be ready if she was correct in her assumptions about him not really being him, so that if he happened to attack her, she could kick his ass.

Somehow, Alaric wasn't able to see through her lie and nodded, taking another step down the stairs, his cheery expression starting to fade more and more for each second. "Did you get my ring?"

"Couldn't find it." Natalie lied, feeling the weight of the ring in her pocket as she uttered the words. Even if he may not be her dad, he still looked like him, sounded like him, was weirdly good at acting like him, it just caused the guilt of lying to him to creep up on her anyways.

"I guess I'll just have to go get it." he said, the cheery look on his face being completely gone as he walked down the rest of the stairs, ending up right in front of her.

He looked at the a part of the floor where a knife was, the knife happened to be covered in blood. Natalie followed his gaze to it, and the two exchanged a threatening look. He started running towards it so that he could hurt, and hopefully kill, Natalie. She ran too, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, putting him in a sleeper hold.

Stefan ran out as well, having noticed a few warning signs in the kitchen, including broken glass and blood, and he was about to run out to keep Alaric from hurting Natalie, but then he saw she was handling herself pretty well, even if she was trying not to hurt him.

She lowered him on the floor as he passed out, at least not being able to attack her anymore. She glanced down at his body with a frown as she kept thinking that she just attacked her father, even if it was in self-defense.

But then Stefan caught a familiar scent and sucked a breath in, looking at Natalie with almost panicked eyes as he was afraid to lose control. "Natalie, I need you to come upstairs with me. I'm gonna need your help."

She nodded, although being confused on what was happening as she didn't get an answer on why, seeing the look on his face as he rushed towards the stairs, she rushed after him, knowing that it had to be important.

As soon as they managed to get upstairs, Stefan followed the smell towards the bathroom, and seeing that it was locked, he smashed it open, his vampire strength helping immensely. Once it was opened they found Meredith on the floor with blood seeping out of her stomach, Alaric obviously having stabbed her.

Natalie noticed veins starting to appear under Stefan's eyes as they turned red, and was really hoping that he wouldn't lose control and start feeding on the doctor. She grabbed his hand, trying to allow him to have some kind of thing to hold on to. He looked over at her with the red eyes fading, a sad look at his almost lack of control on his face.

The two lowered themselves on their knees next to Meredith as Stefan once again glanced at Natalie with questioning eyes, gaining a nod in encouragement as he tightened his grip on her hand before raising his other hand up towards his lips and bit into his wrist, feeding Meredith his blood. Allowing her to heal.

His eyes met Natalie's again and as he saw the small smile on her face from him being able to control himself, mixed with the scent of blood, he noticed that everything he didn't want was right there. Natalie feeling like she needed to be proud of him not tearing someone apart and him actually wanting to it. So he got up, releasing the grip on Natalie's hand as he walked out of the room.

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The Mikaelson Mansion

She lowered herself on the park bench, knowing that he was right next to her. They didn't talk at first, they didn't even look at each other. They just sat there, feeling the other's presence. She didn't know why she wanted to talk to him, or why he wasn't against talking to her. But she was okay with him being there.

But then he finally got sick of it, looking at her with confused eyes. "Why did you want to talk to me?"

She frowned, meeting his gaze with a shrug as she gnawed on the inside of her lip, not knowing the answer to the question herself. She didn't expect for him to come and meet her so they could talk. She thought that they might just talk on the phone. But then he came. "I don't know. A lot has been going on and I... I just don't know. My dad's insane, I remembered something from my previous life as I learned that I hadn't only had two. And I only texted you and you just showed up in town. It's weird. But I guess I needed someone to talk to that wouldn't really have room to judge after breaking Matt's hand on his family's ball."

Kol rolled his eyes at her bringing that up. He was just itching to kill that night. But he still didn't think that she could judge him after shoving a dagger in his chest because he was flirting with her. They flirted a lot a thousand years ago. Maybe she just never noticed. "I thought you were the one who told me to take a hint."

She sighed, not really knowing what to do now, seeing as he was speaking the truth. She daggered him, rejected him, was an over all bitch to him. She didn't deserve to sit here with him and talk to him, no matter how much she wanted to.

But she was Natalie freaking Saltzman, she could be bold, reckless and completely idiotic when it came to people she liked. Her gaze drifting to his lips in hesitation, because just like last time she kissed someone, it would have serious consequences. But she ignored every instinct she had that told her not. "Yeah? Well, take this one."

And with that she grabbed his cheeks and pulled his face towards his, their lips meeting quickly. At first he was surprised, not really expecting her to make the move on him, but he didn't complain. He lowered her on the park bench before she had to catch her breath, her gaze still on him as she for once in this time, just did something out of pure enjoyment and pleasure. Especially pleasure.

He sped them away from the park bench, their lips smashing together once again as her back was against the wall of the Mikaelson mansion, his hands messing up her updo, allowing her hair to fall freely on her shoulders.

Then he sped her somewhere else, which may or may not have been his room.

Okay, it was.

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A/N: I ain't writing no smut. In my mind I'm an innocent child, don't take that away from me. So, there was a Katalie ending. YAY! Just so you know, this will cause some issues for Statalie, which may or may not turn out pretty awesome.

And if you're wondering why Natalie is a pessimist whilst doing basically anything to save everyone is that she is one of my favorite types of characters. Determined pessimists. She won't give up even when she believes she can't do it.

Votes and comments are greatly appreciated.