CHAPTER 47: OUR TOWN

Mystic Falls High School

Jeremy Gilbert was going to leave Mystic Falls. Of course, not everyone was all for it, by that I mean Natalie Saltzman that refused to have anything to do with it as she believed that he was old enough to make his own decisions, but Elena just wanted him out because of the danger, so she got Damon to compel him and Alaric to agree. But Natalie understood that she just wanted him protected and she understood that she really wanted to yell at her, but that would be too exhausting as she was really getting tired of being angry at everyone (except for Stefan and Klaus, she still had plenty anger reserved just for them).

On a lighter note, Caroline Forbes was turning to 18. And this was the first birthday of hers that Natalie would be there for, so she really wanted it to be amazing and Caroline approved, which was really hard to do. And that's how she ended up decorating the blond's locker, even if she hadn't shown up yet.

And she didn't seem to notice that witch walking up behind her. "Hey, sorry I'm late, I...I got held up." Bonnie smiled at the seemingly very concentrated brunette, who jumped at her appearance, being so deep into her own work that she wasn't prepared.

"Oh my god, you scared me," Natalie breathed heavily, a smile on her face as her hand was on her chest as if it would steady her breathing. "And it's fine, just got here a few minutes ago myself. What's got you running late?"

The witch spent a second or two to come up with a good excuse as Natalie wasn't supposed to know what she and the Salvatores were doing, so she settled for a half-lie. "I was...working on some new spells. You?"

"Sleeping," Natalie mumbled lowly, ashamed of the fact that she just didn't want to go to school and settled for sleep. "So, I have to tell you something, and you're probably gonna hate it." she changed the subject with.

"What happened?" Bonnie frowned worriedly, hoping that Klaus hadn't struck them again with some awful means of Klaus-ness

"Ehm," Natalie sighed for a moment before actually explaining what was going on. "So, Elena may or may not have totally convinced Damon to compel Jeremy to leave town. Just so you know, I had nothing to do with it so I'd appreciate if you'd not kill me with your witchyness. Elena thought you should know because you never really cleared things up, but I just think you should get a chance to say goodbye. And I'm sorry for breaking this to you this way. I'm usually not good with this stuff."

Bonnie didn't respond with words, allowing her mouth to fly open in shock about the fact that the guy whom she loved and got cheated on by was actually leaving town, and it wasn't even because he wanted it, he thought it was because he wanted it, but it wasn't. Her gaze went to where the Gilbert boy himself was standing by his lockers and debated what she was going to do.

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After the worry for how she was doing after his brother not being able to be slightly nice to her, Damon decided to take a small break at trying to open the locked coffin in the old witch house to check up on her.

"Don't you have anything better to do than stalking me?" Natalie asked the elder Salvatore brother as she spotted him standing outside the school.

He rolled his eyes at her Natalie-ish behavior as he secretly looked for Elena in the crowd after their kiss the other night. "I'm just checking up on you. Since I happen to have great hearing I may have accidentally overheard you and Stefan's conversation the other day."

"Ugh, you heard that?" she groaned, not really wanting anyone to hear about her small breakdown and the lie about her actually starting to hate Stefan.

"Oh, I totally did," he flashed her a quick smirk. "And you're probably hurt from how much of a dick my brother's being. You know, you're like the annoying little sister I never wanted-"

"Oh, gee. Thanks." Natalie cut him off sarcastically and, as always, it was accompanied by an eyeroll.

He closed his eyes momentarily in annoyance. "You didn't let me finish. You're like the annoying little sister I never wanted, but you can't help but love."

He expected her to respond with a thank you or anything even slightly showing that she was grateful for him being so nice and thinking of her as his little sister. That wasn't the case. "Why are you being so sappy? You're not sappy. So stop being sappy, you big, sappy sack of sap!"

"Wow," he rolled his eyes at her behavior. "You'd think a guy would get appreciated for being nice, but when it comes to you then it's all no."

"Ha ha," she responded sarcastically, flipping some of her hair over her shoulder so it wouldn't be stuck in front of her face. "Now, I'm gonna do the non-responsible thing and skip school."

Damon's eyes widened in mock anger, and responded with a very Damon-ish answer. "You're gonna skip school? Oh, the nerve of you. I should call Liz and have you arrested."

"Ha ha, Damon. Very funny."

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The Forbes House

After Caroline deciding that it would be perfectly okay to skip school on her birthday, Natalie came up with the brilliant plan to gather Elena, Matt and Bonnie for a little surprise for the birthday girl and gathered at her house and realized that she hadn't spent the whole day at home as she walked in the front door, leaving her keys at the counter as they waited for the perfect time to jump out and surprise her.

"Surprise!" the four yelled out iwth wide smiles, making Caroline jump in surprise. Elena wearing a tiara as Bonnie and Natalie had their hands on a piece of birthday art whilst all of them but Elena were wearing birthday hats

"Happy birthday!" Matt then smiled at his ex-girlfriend, his arms stretched out as the brunette girls laughed at Caroline's reaction.

But Caroline was still kinda frozen as she definitely didn't expect this to happen, looking at her friends weirdly. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Well, since you decided to ditch school and missed the birthday art I had prepared for you, we decided to bring the party to you," Natalie smiled sheepishly as she saw the blond's sceptical look and was beginning to wonder if this was a good idea. "This is the part when you jump in joy and thank us."

"Ignore her." Elena laughed at her twin's words and took the purple, fluffy tiara off of her head before placing it on top of the birthday girl's.

Bonnie then decided to explain further what plan Natalie gathered them for, and they were all really excited for it. "Change into warmer clothes, we are going to the Falls. S'mores, camp fire.."

"Cake," Elena continued, a wide smile on her face at the idea of them having a happy day for once. "Like when we were little."

"Except with tequila!" Matt called out happily, and it was clearly that he had already snuck himself some on the way.

"And me!" Natalie called out lightly, making Caroline let out a laugh at their happy demeanor, but not really knowing how she was supposed to let them down nicely.

She decided to just spout the truth in the kindest way she could, although she appreciated that they did all this and planned it all just so that she could be as happy as possible on her birthday after everything that had happened to her. "Thanks, guys. Really, um, I'm just not feeling my birthday this year."

Bonnie looked as if she couldn't believe her ears as she heard the blonde tell them this. "I'm sorry, what? You've already claimed your birthday as everyone's favorite day of the year."

"Yeah, and now, it's just a reminder that technically, I'm dead," Caroline sighed, trying to ignore all the sympathetic looks that were thrown her way as she didn't need their sympathy, she just wanted to be left alone. "Look, I didn't even like 17. And the only point to being 17 is to get to 18. It's a filler year; I'm stuck in a filler year."

"You're not stuck, Care." Natalie shook her head, a frown on her lips as she didn't even think about how hard it would be for her to celebrate her birthday now that she'd never age again.

"Yeah I am, but it's okay. You know, it's all good, I'll be fine," Caroline said, although it didn't sound convincing at all, it was like she wasn't only trying to convince them, but also herself. "But I just need some time to wallow in it."

But an idea then sprung to Elena's head as she remembered the birthday girl talking about being dead. "Okay, well I think I have another idea." she smirked.

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The Fell Crypt

To say that Elena's idea was pretty morbid was an understatement. She brought them to the Fell crypt without telling them why the hell they were even there, but they were creeped out and started worrying about Elena actually being insane and having to put her in some asylum.

"There it is!" Elena smiled at them, making them respond with weird looks of thinking that she was mad.

Bonnie opened the door and it creaked so much that Natalie full on cringed, Bonnie was just trying to remember the number to the hospital so she could probably get Elena some help. "This is creepy, even for us."

Natalie shrugged at Bonnie's words, not completely agreeing with them. "Actually, I'd say this is pretty normal by our standards, to be honest."

"No, Caroline was right...technically, she's dead," Elena turned to the blonde apologetically as she was getting the cake out of it's cake box thingy."Sorry. But you don't need a birthday, you need a funeral. You need to say goodbye to your old life, so that you can move on with your new one."

Caroline let out a sound of happiness as her gorgeous smile came out. "Okay. Here lies Caroline Forbes..."

"Cheerleader, Miss Mystic Falls, third grade hopscotch champion..." Elena said dramatically as she placed candles on the cake they brought.

"Friend, daughter, overachiever..." Bonnie continued, smiling softly at her friend, forgetting all about thinking Elena was crazy as hell.

Matt then decided to lighten the mood, because that's what Matt does when he's drunk. "Mean girl, sometimes, no offense."

It became quiet for a moment as all gazes turned to Natalie expectantly, expecting her to have the best one even if the others knew her longer as everyone knew that they were the best friends of all of them even with them only knowing one another about a year. "Queen bitch," she started jokingly, the birthday girl letting out a laugh. "Strong, loving, ambitious, deserving of much better than the world gave her. She was only seventeen, and yet she managed to live happily and have things most people could only dream of. Rest in peace, Caroline Forbes. So, amen or cheers or whatever!"

They all smiled and laughed during Natalie's whole speech. Elena brought the finished cake in front of them and they all turned to look at the only one who could light up matches with her mind. "Bonnie?"

Bonnie seemed to just realize that they needed to have lights on the cake as she closed her eyes in concentration for a moment, and just then, it lit up.

Elena pushed the cake in front of the blonde as her sister placed herself next to the birthday girl. "Make a wish, Caroline."

And she did.

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It didn't take long for them to get hammered and full on having a cake-eating contest. Matt was taking a swig of tequila when Elena thought that it was in her drunken place to tell him that she had more need of it, even though Matt definitely didn't have the perfect life, even if Elena had much worse than most of the world. "Ah-ah. I need it more than you do, trust me."

Natalie really wanted to tell her sister off for her rudeness, since when people as adorable as Matt Donovan finally has some fun, you don't take it away. But she didn't for the sole purpose of asking Caroline why she was looking like a deer caught in headlights as she was texting. "Caroline... what are you doing?"

"What? Nothing." she answered, folding her hands in front of her in an attempt of hiding her phone as everyone turned over to look at her suspiciously.

"Okay, you're a bad sober liar. You're an even worse drunk liar." Elena gave her a pointed look before her gaze traveled down to the blonde's hands where she saw the phone.

"I might have texted Tyler..." Caroline hesitated for a moment before answering sheepishly, averting her gaze so she wouldn't have to see their judgmental gazes as she knew that nobody was really happy about Tyler's hybridhood and how he was acting, but she knew he couldn't help it. And she was drunk so she wasn't really fit for making decisions, even if the buzz would soon fade because vampirism.

"Caroline..." Elena trailed off, shaking her head in disappointment at her non-existing ability to stay away from the young hybrid.

"What? I'm delicate." she defended herself, throwing her a slightly apologetic smile, which made Bonnie very annoyed as she believed she had no reason to apologize.

"Give her a break! You can't control what everyone does all the time." the Bennett witch snapped at the doppelganger, the mood instantly dropping as they all stared at her in shock.

After a long and awkward pause, a maybe not-too-sober Natalie spoke up. "Ouch."

"Sorry," she apologized for her outbreak, but not being completely ready to just give up on how she felt about the situation as she had really been wanting to confront Elena the whole day, but the opportunity never came. "I know it's Caroline birthday, funeral or whatever but, I just feel it's really wrong that you compelled Jeremy to leave town."

"I'm doing it to protect him, Bonnie," Elena wasn't about to give up either, defending her control of her little brother, even if it was her control over Damon that made the whole thing happen. Maybe she had some issues with controlling people. "I want to give him a chance to have a quiet normal life."

"He should be able to choose how he wants to live it, you're taking his choices away." she glared at her, the bitterness in her voice evident, showing that even after he hurt her she still cared about him and definitely didn't condone this.

Elena soon realized what the witch might actually do, and wanting her brother safe and happy, she couldn't just let her do it. "Bonnie, you can't tell him."

"Why? Are you gonna compel me not to?" Bonnie snapped, and Elena suddenly was speechless as she didn't think her own best friend would blow up on her like that and frowned in hurt as she looked down on the floor.

Matt and Natalie exchanged awkward looks because of the situation and she poked his side as a sign of him having to speak up. But he shook his head at her as Bonnie was powerful and Elena was plain scary. She poked his side again, a sterner look on her face, to which he shook his head even more desperately than before. The third time she poked him, he finally gave in. "...You know, you guys are ruining a perfect funeral."

"I'm sorry," Bonnie sighed as she realized she might have reacted a bit too harshly and maybe a little judgmentally. "I'm just gonna go sleep it off or something. Happy birthday." she said the last part to Caroline, obviously.

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It didn't take long after that for the reason that Elena reacted judgingly and Bonnie reacted to her judgmental nature. Tyler walked into the tomb as awkwardly as he could and everyone went quiet after their happiness as they tried to forget that their best friend left, and not very happily..

"Sorry," he told them, his eyes on Caroline who had her head on Natalie's lap after their giggling fit. "I didn't mean to crash the party."

Matt looked at his old best friend coldly as after everything that he'd done (mostly to Caroline) and he didn't want him to hurt her again."So don't."

Caroline threw him a dirty look at his cold voice as she pulled herself up, Natalie helping her up. "No, it's-it's okay. Hi."

"Can I talk to you for a sec? It's kind of important." he asked her, although he wasn't really too sure as to why he came other than to wish her happy birthday and maybe he just wanted to prove to himself that he wasn't Klaus's slave.

Caroline bit her lip as she nodded, although she was slightly hesitant, but the large amount of alcohol she'd consumed during the night was a big help for her to not even bother with the fact that he hurt her and was acting like a freaky hybrid slave-minion. She walked outside with him and tried to resist the urge to grab his hand like she'd do before the homecoming disaster.

Natalie, Elena and Matt were all left behind and the huntress noticed the sad look on the male half of the old blonde power-couple as he saw his ex leave with the guy who was a major factor in their last break up. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I want her to be happy, you know?" he shrugged, his gaze trained on the brunette firmly, a sad and soft smile in his face, which she returned as he grabbed the bottle of tequila from Elena's hand and taking a swig. "It's what I want for all of you guys, in the middle of this crazy life you got stuck living."

"You think we're stuck?" Natalie asked, a frown on her lips as she never really got to asking him how he felt about the supernatural world and how it wasn't only affecting them, but also him.

"I'd say it's attached itself to you all pretty tight, yeah." he shrugged, not really knowing what more he was supposed to say and they wouldn't know how to respond as they knew that it was the truth and they couldn't argue with him on it.

Elena then sighed as she realized that they were probably still being kinda mad at her for the whole Jeremy thing and decided to speak up about it. "Bonnie is right, you know, I have no business messing in Jeremy's head. I just don't know what else to do. He is in danger here. I can't lose anyone else that I love."

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The Forbes House

After the three thought that Caroline was gone for a while too long, they decided to split up, Matt and Elena going together and Natalie going with nobody. Fair deal, right? But she didn't have to get her head smashed against the wall like Matt did or have to be threatened to be driven off of a bridge like Elena did. 

But she found Caroline hallucinating and going crazy and muttering about how she couldn't believe Tyler would do this to her. Natalie put the pieces of the puzzle together when she saw the bite on her neck and started planning a hybrid murder.

She dragged the blond with her to her house where the sheriff panicked and helped Natalie get her into her bedroom as they were both trying to reassure one another that Caroline would be fine, although they knew that there was only one cure for a werewolf/hybrid bite.

And he was standing at the Forbes' doorstep.

Natalie saw him, and she resisted the urge to glare at him because she knew that this was one of the only times she would be completely and irrevocably dependent on him and what he chose to do. She walked over to open the door. "Hello, Klaus."

"Hello, love," he greeted back, not being able to move into the house without being invited in. "Tyler came to see me. Poor boy, he seemed quiet distressed. He said Caroline had a terrible accident."

"Just tell me what you want," she said, shaking her head at his deception. "What do you want from me so that you'll heal her?"

Klaus raised an eyebrow at her in question, not knowing where she might have gotten that idea from. "What makes you think I want anything from you? Besides, we were friends once, and friends don't manipulate friends."

Natalie snorted, a bitter smile on her face as if the thought of being his friend amused her. "Let's see, you killed Jenna, you killed Elena, killing John in the process, you turned Tyler and made him your minion, you made Stefan turn off his humanity. And then you top all that by killing Scott. And you want to be friends?"

"I told you I didn't want anything from you, love. But I can't do anything if I can't even go inside the house." he reminded her, making her debate whether or not she should tell Liz to invite him in, even if it's the only thing that could save her best friend's life, she didn't want to put Liz at risk.

"Just- just heal her, okay?" she pleaded, a look on her face that actually showed some of the vulnerability she had when it came to Caroline, and Klaus noticed. "I'll do anything as long as you promise to heal her."

"I promise."

"Good," Natalie sighed, before opening her mouth to call out for Liz, only to close it again as she had to think it through just one more time, and that's when she remembered that it was Caroline they were talking about. Her best friend, her biggest supporter and probably one of the most amazing vampire beings to ever live. "Sheriff Forbes! Invite him in."

The short haired sheriff walked into the room and she saw Klaus there, and even though she knew that Natalie most likely had done some negotiating, she knew she had to know what he wanted from her, even if he didn't want anything from Natalie. " I know how this game works. You want something in return."

"Just your support." Klaus offered, letting her think it through for a moment.

"Come in."

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The Next Day

The Gilbert House

Jeremy was about to leave Mystic Falls behind. He was standing with his bags on the porch as Alaric sat in the car and waited to drop him off at the airport. They were falling a little behind and it may or may not have had a lot to do with the strong grip a brunette had on him.

"You're gonna have to let me go, eventually, Natalie." Jeremy groaned from how tight her grip on him was, although he hugged her back because he knew that he'd miss her a lot whilst gone.

"Never!" Natalie exclaimed, burying her face in his shirt as even though she knew that this would be best for him when it came to him being safe, she didn't want him to go.

Elena rolled her eyes, since she was sending him away to keep him safe, and if Natalie choked him to death, or rather, hugged him to death, it kinda wouldn't be the most effective thing ever. She used her new found strength to try to rip Natalie off of their brother, and was able to do it, only because Natalie started to release him. "Be safe, okay?"

"Yeah, okay, all right. Alaric's waiting." Jeremy smiled at his sisters softly as he was about to grab his bags and leave when another brunette head entered their property. More exclusively, his brunette ex-girlfriend who also happened to be a witch who brought him back to life once.

"Good, you haven't left yet." Bonnie smiled in relief at the brunette boy.

He was confused to say the least of her being there as he convinced himself that she hated him, and she had every reason to after he cheated on her with someone was a ghost. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to say goodbye." she told him before surprising him by wrapping her arms around him one last time before he left them behind. He savored the feeling he got when they embraced before letting go and smiling at all of them one last time before walking away.

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A/N: Sorry for the late update but school, life, writer's block. They all kinda ruined it. Plus, I have no idea how to write next to chapter except one line that I need to squeeze in that'll be brought up later. So, please tell me what you think should happen next chapter (the one where Bonnie meets her mom) because I hate the episode and it's hard to fit Natalie into it. But the line is Statalie so, they need scenes.

Votes and comments are greatly appreciated.