CHAPTER 23: KATERINA

Salvatore Boarding House

Elena Gilbert and Natalie Saltzman, no matter how close they've gotten, hadn't had a girls' night. Well, until the night before when the two needed to talk, and Elena decided to reveal everything she learned whilst she was kidnapped to Natalie. There was an original vampire named Elijah who wanted her for a sacrifice because apparently she was a Petrova doppelganger. The ones who kidnapped her's names was Rose and Trevor, but the only one still alive was Rose. And as she was there, Damon and Stefan managed to rescue her by killing Elijah. Or so everyone thought. And that led to them wanting to have the most clichè girls' night ever with the Notebook, ice cream, blankets and just being there together. But when they woke up they got a Message from Stefan asking them to come to the Salvatore Boarding House, so that's where they were. And the person opening the door was not the one the two would prefer.

"Hello, Elena, Natalie." Damon greeted from the doorframe.

"Is Stefan here? He called. He said it was important." Elena said rudely.

Damon just ignored her harsh tone. "Right this way."

Then the twins walked into the house and Stefan arrives. "Hey,." he said.

"What is this about?" Natalie asked annoyedly. "And why am I here?"

Then a pixie-haired vampire walked in, someone that Stefan, Damon and Elena all recognized as Rose. The person that kidnapped Elena.

"You!" Elena exclaimed angrily.

"Is anyone gonna tell me who that is?"

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Stefan, Damon, Elena and Rose quickly explained to Natalie who she was, and after 2-3 attempted killings, the five were sitting in the parlor as Rose told them about who really wanted Elena. Someone named Klaus.

"Okay, you have to understand I only know what I've picked up over the years and I don't know what's true and what's not true. It's the problem with all this vampire crap, but Klaus, I know he's real." Rose explained.

"Who is he?" Elena frowned.

"He's one of the originals, he's a legend." Damon said, glancing at her worriedly.

"From the first generation of vampires." Stefan added.

"You mean, like Elijah?" Natalie asked.

"No. Elijah was the Easter bunny compared to Klaus. He's a foot soldier. Klaus is the real deal." Rose said, not helping the fright and worry from either one of the others.

"Klaus is known to be the oldest." Stefan stated, wrongly, although he didn't know that.

Elena's eyes widened in fright. "Okay, so you're saying that the oldest vampire in the history of time is coming after me?"

"Yes." "No." Rose and Stefan said simultaneously.

"We really shouldn't keep them in the same room together." Natalie whispered to Damon, making him snort.

"What they're saying is, I mean if what she's saying is true..." "Which it is." "And you're not saying it so I don't kill you..." "Which I'm not." "Then we're looking at a solid maybe." Damon said, Rose interuppting him ever so often.

"Look, Elijah's dead, right? So no one else even knows that you exist." Stefan broke into Damon and Rose's incredibly non-helping discussion.

"Not that you know of." Rose added.

"Still not helping." Natalie said, giving her a bittersweet smile.

"Look, I've never even met anyone who's laid eyes on him. I mean, we're talking centuries of truth mixed with fiction. We don't know if he's real. For all we know he could just be some sort of stupid bed time story." Stefan tried to reassure his girlfriend.

"He's real and he doesn't give up. If he wants something, he gets it. If you're not afraid of Klaus, then you're an idiot." Rose said annoyedly.

"Alright, we're shaking. You made your point." Damon snapped.

And, as always, Elena made up an incredibly stupid plan in her mind which she would involve Natalie, so she stood up, grabbing her sister's arm.

"Where are you going?" Stefan asked.

"School, we're late." Elena lied.

"Let me grab my stuff, I'll go with you." Stefan said, his need to protect her taking over.

"It's okay, I know where it is." Elena said rudely before dragging Natalie with her.

"I don't even get a say in this?" Natalie asked. "No? Okay then..."

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By The Fell's Church Ruins

And Elena's stupid plan involved her being alone and talking to Katherine about Klaus, seeing as she's the only one who has any idea of who he is. And to do that she needed to keep Stefan occupied, and as much as she hated it, Natalie was the only one who could do it.

"Tell everyone I wasn't feeling well and I went home from school." Elena commanded Natalie.

"I can't believe I'm actually agreeing to this. I'm the worst sister ever." Natalie declared.

"And keep Stefan busy. I don't want him to know what I'm up to." Elena ignored Natalie's words.

"And what if I run out of things to say to him?" the huntress asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Caroline is always full of gossip, maybe she's full of supernatural gossip now, so she might know something you can say." Elena shrugged.

Natalie tilted her head in agreement, having been the first person Caroline ran to as she told Tyler about her being a vampire after his turning. "But Stefan will probably see right through me."

Elena turned to her, a fully serious look on her face. "Natalie, as my sister, do you promise or not?"

Natalie groaned. "Why did you have to break out the sister code? Fine, I promise."

"Okay." Elena breathed in relief as she got Natalie onboard with her plan.

"Why don't you want Stefan to know anyways?" the younger twin asked with a frown.

"Because he would never be okay with me doing this."

And with that Natalie and Elena walked down under the church ruins.

"Are you really sure that you want to do this? She's deadly, and I speak from experience." Natalie said.

"Yes, I'm sure. She's the only one who knows the truth about Klaus. The only one who can tell me how to stop him."

"But you're asking for the truth from a psychotic bitch, that's probably not gonna work out very well." Natalie retorted.

Elena turned to her with pleading eyes. "I can't just sit back and wait. I have to know, Natalie. Please."

"Fine, help me with the tomb door, that shit's heavy."

Elena smiled in response as the two gathered their strenght and managed to push the door open.

"Katherine?" Elena called out, getting no response, so she turned to Natalie. "I'll be okay from here."

Then they heard a noise and out of the shadows came a sickly looking Katherine Pierce. "Hello Elena. You come to watch me wither away?" Katherine asked rhetorically before turning to Natalie, reusing her own Words from the masquerade. "Goodbye, Natalie."

Natalie glared at the Elena look alike hatefully. And Elena noticed, deciding to reassure her. "As long as I stay on this side of the door, she can't hurt me. Please."

Natalie gave her a short nod before turning to Katherine.

"And Kat, if you'd crawl back to hell that would be great. You already look like you'd fit right in."

And with that, Natalie walked away.

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Mystic Falls High School

Natalie had spent 30 minutes trying to find Stefan before realizing the obviousness of him being at school, so she ran there as quickly as she could and probably had way too much relief in her voice when she finally found him.

"Stefan!"

"Hey." he greeted, smiling warmly at her.

"Hey," she greeted back. "Uh, I need to talk to you. Where are you going?"

Stefan shrugged. "Well, Elena went home sick; I just want to go check up on her."

"Well, she's kind of what I wanted to talk about, seeing as she's really stubborn sometimes and probably won't really let us protect her from Klaus so we probably need to talk about that and stuff." Natalie rambled awkwardly.

"Probably a good idea, Yeah." Stefan agreed.

"Talk over food?" Natalie asked, a smile gracing her face.

His response was a simple nod, accomplanied by a smile.

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Mystic Grill

And as Natalie dragged Stefan with her to the Grill, ordering food that would take some time to finish her thoughts might be going to the fact that it might count as their kind of first date. But then she remembered why she was doing this and who she was doing it for and, once again, the guilt are her up inside.

"So, what did you have in mind for protecting Elena?" Stefan asked her.

"I don't know, that's kind of why I asked you to come." Natalie lied with an awkward shrug.

Stefan smiled fondly at her. "It's not going to be easy protecting her. She's just as stubborn as you."

"I don't get how you can compare us, we're completely different." Natalie stated, tilting her head to the side.

"There are huge differences between you, and yes, sometimes you're better then Elena, and sometimes she's better then you."

Natalie's eyes widened in slight offense (and maybe just a little jealousy). "How is she better then me again?"

"Well, for one, she never tried to kill me." Stefan teased.

Natalie smiled, cringing in embarrasment as she leaned her head down in her arms. "Yeah, sorry about that."

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After Stefan and Natalie had basically discussed nothing that would help, seeing as Natalie was just trying to keep him occupied.

"Well, if that's all then I better go check up on Elena." Stefan smiled sadly at the brunette girl.

Natalie's eyes widened. "No!"

"Why?" Stefan asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Because, ehm... Caroline told Tyler that she's a vampire." Natalie blurted out.

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"You're mad at her, right?" Natalie asked as the pair sat in silence for the past minute.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I am a little mad. I mean, she put herself at risk. If Damon finds out..." Stefan responded.

"But he's not going to, because I know you're not going to tell him. Stefan, why are you protecting Caroline? I mean, I know she's your friend and she deserves it, but I don't know. Why?"

Stefan looked at her with his signature frown. "I don't know. I guess she... she reminds me of someone. My best friend, Lexi."

"You have a friend?" Natalie asked in shock.

"You say that with such a discouraging amount of surprise, Natalie." Stefan teased.

"Right, sorry," she said, before realization hit her. "She's the best friend that you lost right? The one that died?"

"Yeah, uhm, I'll tell you about her some other time." Stefan smiled sadly.

"Wait...!" Natalie called out as he stood up, ready to leave.

And that's when Stefan had enough. "No, no, no, Natalie, you have two seconds to come clean."

"What do you mean?" Natalie asked, feigning confusion.

"I'd believe the whole innocent act a little bit better if I didn't know how good hunters are at lying and providing distractions," he retorted, making Natalie look down. "Where is Elena?

Natalie took a deep breath before sighing. "I can't tell you."

Stefan's eyes widened in anger. "You can't tell me? Are you kidding me?"

"I'm sorry but I... I can't tell you." Natalie snapped.

"Natalie! Elena was kidnapped, she could have been killed and you're seriously not gonna tell me where she is?" Stefan asked rhetorically.

"Do you seriously think that I would let her put herself in danger?"

"Put herself in danger where? What do you...?" he asked, before realization hit him. "She's with Damon, isn't she?"

Natalie facial expression hardened at those words. "You think I would willingly let Elena go of with Damon after he killed me?"

"Then where...where is she? Listen, if you're my friend like you've been pretending to be all day, then you'll tell me where she is." Stefan rambled angrily, not realizing the hurt on Natalie's face that he caused after saying she was pretending to be his friend. Because she wasn't. Since she couldn't act on her romantic feelings for him she'd have to act on her friendly ones.

"I'm not pretending to be your friend, Stefan. But if that's what you think, then you're clearly not mine. But Elena's my sister, and I'm not going to betray her for you." Natalie snapped.

Stefan realized the effect that his words had on Natalie a little too late, but his focus was Elena, and he had to ignore whatever he felt for Natalie to keep Elena safe.

So, he just left her there.

And the effect it had on Natalie was something she didn't expect. She expected to feel hurt if something like that happened, where he left her alone for Elena but she didn't think that she'd want to go home, grab ice cream, watch some cheesy movie and cry. But then there was the fact that there was only two People that she knew of that was familiar with her feelings for Stefan, herself and Bonnie. Although Caroline, Damon, Jeremy and even Elena herself noticed. The only one who didn't was Stefan. But the hurt rushed through her, like if a hurricane just hit.

So, she decided to turn the hurt into anger.

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A/N: Second chapter for the weekend with lots of Statalie, although it didn't end on a happy note. And just to be clear, there probably won't be more then 3 chapters or less written this weekend, which makes me slightly sad because from this point on badass Natalie will be back because she's been gone for way too long.

Votes and comments are greatly appreaciated.