CHAPTER 46: THE NEW DEAL

A/N: I am very sorry for anyone who even remotely likes Statalie. I am very, very sorry.

The Gilbert House

To say that Natalie missed Scott was an understatement. She refused to get out of her bed at the Gilbert house no matter how much Alaric, Damon, Elena and Jeremy tried to convince her otherwise. She was laid there, maybe picking up a book or putting a sad movie on, which didn't make her feel any better. But after a a day and a half of being completely anti-social it was decided that she needed to come out and play, and there weren't many people that she loved enough so that they could get her out of such a dark spot in her life.

So, Alaric was given the job, which he was also happy about since he had spent way too little time with his daughter after she came back from Chicago. And he walked into her room, where there were some empty bowls that once contained ice cream that seemed to be the main substance Natalie fed on during those two days that her first love had been dead.

Alaric sat down on the corner of her bed, to which she responded with wriggling around and groaning as she didn't want to get interrupted in her wallowing in self-pity. "Hey."

"Hi." she mumbled, taking her covers and pulling them above her head so that she could avoid humanity.

"How you feeling?" the older one of the two asked, grabbing the top of the covers and pulling them down so they barely covered her shoulders.

"How does it look like I'm feeling?" she asked, scrunching her nose up at what she found to not be the most intelligent question she'd been asked in the last week.

"A lot better actually. You were a crying mess when you got home this Friday." he admitted, putting his hand on her shoulder as she started pulling herself up to sit up straight.

She pulled her knees into her chest as she rested her chin in between her knees, her gaze stuck on nothing as she stared blankly ahead. "Do you blame me? I lost him that night. They say it's a broken heart but I hurt in my whole body. And no one gets it so I feel like screaming because I don't have anyone to talk to. I just need to fix it, I can't just stay here and feel broken but I don't know how to fix it."

"Maybe it's not about trying to fix something that's broken. Maybe it's about starting over and creating something better." he advised as he couldn't bear to see this heartbroken look on her face that he had never seen before, not even when they thought they lost Isobel the first time, this was a whole new level of hurt as she always imagined that she could one day bump into him and they'd catch up, but that would never happen as death separated them. Always and forever.

"What could be better? Find a better person to love or a better way of handling it?" she asked, her gaze not moving from that one spot on the wall that for some reason kept her calm, because she knew that the atoms that was created that spot would live forever, something would last forever was exactly what she needed. "But I know who I am and I know what I want and I know what I don't. I don't want to be that girl that cries over the same thing. But,  the only way I can think of that makes me not dishonor him is remembering, and unfortunately, it hurts like a bitch."

"Natalie, look at me," he commanded, but she didn't listen. "You, look at me," he once again commanded and this time she complied. "Sometimes what you really need to do is move on. Scott is gone. He'll never be back. Don't hurt yourself by holding on to him. And don't hurt yourself by completely letting go. Because you loved him, and then he was gone and of course it's not easy. It's not supposed to be. But he would not want you to sit here when you could be out there and living your life. Because no one knows what's going on out there and if there is one person that people can count on, it's you. And they need you. Just because you've lost one person doesn't mean that everyone's gone. Don't lose them too by holding on to him."

"All I want is closure, okay? I didn't get a goodbye." she told her father, and he realized that he still wasn't successful in his mission.

"Sometimes you don't get closure, you just move on," Alaric informed her wisely. "And luckily for you, you have sister down there who's waiting for you so that you can take a run together and you can just think about something else."

"Elena's going for a run?" Natalie asked, her eyes widening as she didn't think that would happen as Elena wasn't really the most athletic person she knew, even if she wasn't the laziest.

"Yeah, I've been taking over her training yesterday, and supposedly I don't criticize her as much as you do." he smiled at her teasingly.

"How are you supposed to get better without some constructive criticism?" Natalie complained at her sister's judgment at her harsh teaching methods. Well, at least she knew she shouldn't be a teacher.

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You know that weird feeling you have when you're outside and you feel as if someone's watching you, but there's no one but the person who came with you around? Because that's how Natalie felt as she kept feeling as if she was being followed on her and Elena's run together, where neither of them dared say a word. Elena was treating her as if she was glass and just a simple word would break her into a thousand pieces, and Natalie just had no idea what to say.

But they didn't know that they both had the feeling that they were being watched in that exact moment, and when two people have the same creepy feeling, it as usually something that one should beware. 

But then the moment when they both felt as if there was someone right there, someone in eyesight and, somehow, they both made the decision to turn around about the same time so that they could witness a strange guy wearing a hoodie running towards them.

And as one do when this happens, the twins exchanged looks of fright before starting to run, hoping they wouldn't have to run really quickly so they'd exhaust themselves quicker than when they're running at a moderate speed. And they both spotted a corner and both also hoped that the other was smart enough to understand that it was a good move to go around it without saying words the creepy stalker possibly could hear.

Luckily, they both were smart enough and ran a little past the corner only to stop so that they could see if the creepy stalker was creepy stalking them. And they both let out sighs of relief as they realized that he was no longer behind them.

That didn't stop him from being in front of them, though. Because as soon as they turned around, Natalie bumped into his chest and really wanted to back to her old habit of punching people, like the homecoming queen or the principle. Those were good times.

"Excuse me. Should have been watching where I was going." he apologized, even if the girls didn't know that it was fake, but Natalie had her suspicions.

"Don't worry about it." Elena smiled at him shortly, although Natalie sent her a short glare as she wanted to tell him to worry about it, but guess that wasn't a polite thing to say to strangers, who would have thought?

"Have a nice day." the mystery man smiled at them before continuing on his run.

"There's something wrong about him. I don't like it." Natalie pointed out, to which Elena shook her head at her conspiracy theory, or what could be considered one if you'd count out the fact that she only said that there was something wrong about him.

▹▹▹

The Mystic Grill

Natalie had to convince Elena that it was enough jogging for the day when they've already had the fear of being stalked by some creep. That was usually something that killed the mood, and Natalie was a bigger fan of good moods as she needed to cheer herself up and keep her mind off of Scott. And there they met their favorite witch, Bonnie Bennett, who seemed to be doing as the rest of the population of the town and spending half her time at the hang-out.

"I feel like I'm going crazy. Totally paranoid all the time." Elena told her best friend, looking at her with these crazy eyes of paranoia that both the other girls understood.

"You have a right to be. Klaus is still out there and he knows you tried to kill him." Bonnie nodded, comforting the brunette she'd known since childhood.

"Why hasn't he made a move?" Elena asked, always thinking that Klaus just wants to get everything over with and get what he wants. "There has been no sign of him. Nothing. Just my slow spiral into insanity."

And Bonnie understood exactly how she felt after all of the things she'd been going through the last day and a half. "Join the club. Every time I close my eyes, I have that nightmare. On repeat."

"The same one every time?" Natalie asked, knowing that since Bonnie had these witchy things going on, it might not be something completely natural.

"Yeah! Four coffins, Klaus is in one of them. It's weird." the Bennett witch shook her head, not really wanting it to be witch business because if witch business starts then trouble starts and no one wanted trouble anymore.

"But you're kind of a witch. And witches have these weird premonition things going on or something, right? So how do we know this isn't one of those witch dreams?" Natalie suggested the possibility of something that no one wanted to happen.

"It's just stress. I'll figure it out," and she really hoped that this was right, and then she turned to ask either one of the sisters about one big source of drama in their lives. "And what about Stefan? Has there been any sign of him?"

"No, he's gone. And I don't mean geographically. He betrayed us, even after I asked him not to screw it up." Natalie said sadly, flashing back to that conversation and how she asked him to not screw it up because Scott didn't deserve to get hurt because of his mistakes. Turns out that it would end up that way anyways.

"How is Damon handling it?" Bonnie asked, knowing that he definitely wouldn't be very happy with his little brother's betrayal.

"Damon is...Damon." Elena answered vaguely as this was easily better than saying that he was drinking his sorrows away whilst trying to get Alaric drunk. Thought, saying that he was him was probably the synonym for this.

▹▹▹

After it turned out that Jeremy had no only cheated on his mid-term paper, but he also forgot to mention to any of his family members and to say that Elena was pissed was an understatement. She ran out to find him whilst telling Natalie to stay at the Grill with Damon in case Jeremy stopped by and try to get in contact with him. So, that's what she did.

"Jeremy... when you get this message you're gonna call me back or I'm gonna kick you in a special little place so hard your ghost girlfriends will feel it." Natalie snapped at Jeremy's voicemail.

And Damon was playing darts, and hit the bulls eye just as Natalie finished her message. "You are feisty when you are mad."

"I'm not the one who's mad. Elena is, and if you know Elena, you'd know that bitch is scary, okay? And if Jeremy gets her angry at me because of me not getting in touch with him, then I'm gonna get mad." the huntress informed her friend with a bitter smile.

Damon rolled his eyes at what he thought was her overreacting, as he didn't see this as a big deal. "But why? He lost his job at the Grill. He can survive, Natalie."

"Yeah, but I'm getting worried. Ever since the Bonnie thing he's been moody and refusing to talk to anyone..." she trailed off, trying to come up with more examples with how he's been acting when she realized that she hadn't really spent much time with him lately.

"It's typical teenager." Damon dismissed it.

"Yeah, because all typical teenagers have died, come back to life and realized that he could see ghosts! Not to mention that he's lost everyone that he cares about." Natalie sarcastically agreed, and it wouldn't be a sarcastic Natalie Saltzman comment if it wasn't accompanied by an eye-roll.

"Not everyone. He still has you," he smiled at her before throwing another dart, once again, hitting bulls eye. "And it's good to see you smile again, you know, after that whole crying mess thinf."

"It feels good to smile again. Maybe something like this is the perfect thing to keep me busy so that my mind won't be occupied with what happened." she smiled back slightly, and she could feel it growing more forced by the second.

"Well, it would be my honor to occupy you," he told her before handing her the dart. "Your turn."

"But I suck at this." she complained as she stared at the dart as she found it quite difficult to just throw it without anything but her hands as help.

"How can such a good archer be bad at this?" he waved it off, using hand gestures to prove his point even further.

"I ask myself that every time I try. And no, I'm not trying again because I'm not a good loser." Natalie laughed at her own words, and let him laugh with her, only shortly as the big bad Damon couldn't be seen being a softie around his best friend.

But then, someone had to interrupt their moment of friendship as what would a friendship be in Mystic Falls if not unimportant and interrupted. "Don't mind me."

Natalie took a deep breath as she definitely knew who it was quickly from the accented voice. But she didn't want to see him at all after the last time she saw him he ripped the heart out of her first love's chest. "Klaus... why are you here? Going to kick a puppy? Steal candy from a baby? Or are you here to remind us that we are still not free from the asshole that just seems to love ruining lives?"

"I don't know what you are talking about. I just came down to my local pub to grab a drink with a mate," Klaus responded as the same creepy stalker from her and Elena's run walked up behind him and they noticed Natalie's fingers fidgeting, refusing to stay still so she had to pack them together in a fist, Klaus smirked at the reaction. "Get a round in, would you Tony?"

And as Tony followed Klaus's commands, Damon noticed how uncomfortable and angry Natalie was and understood it perfectly, so he knew he had to take care of the talking. "I'm surprised you stuck around town long enough for happy hour."

"My sister seems to be missing. Need to sort that out." Klaus said, to which Natalie frowned as no one seemed to mention to her that Rebekah was gone, not that it had been the first thing on her mind lately, but still, it would be good to know since Klaus just had more reason to stay in town then.

Damon didn't really seem to be comfortable for a split second before putting his acting pants on and acting like this wasn't a part of his idea. "Cute blonde bombshell, psycho. Shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Truth is I've grown to rather like your little town. Think I might fancy a home here. Oh, I imagine you're wondering how does this is affect you. The answer is: not in the slightest. As long as I get what I want and everyone behaves themselves you can go on living your little lives however you choose. You have my word." the British hybrid promised them, although Natalie could only think about something his brother told her when she heard the last words. That it means nothing unless you live up to it, and she had a feeling he wasn't going to live up to it.

"Really? What more could you want after fulfilling your disgusting murder and evil fantasies by being the cause of the death of people we love?" Natalie spat, and was really happy about letting her anger out, even if this wasn't close to how angry she was at him.

"Well for starters, you can tell me where I might find Stefan." Klaus proposed, standing in a royal-like stance as he gazed upon the two people in front of him.

"Stefan skipped town the second he saved your ass." Damon reminded him, and the bitter tone in his voice revealed that he was less than pleased with his brother's actions..

"Well you see that is a shame," Klaus said before picking up one of the darts and following Damon's path of only bulls-eyes as a way of intimidating them before turning back to look at them, only to see them unfazed. "Your brother stole from me. I need him found so I can take back what's mine."

"I don't know about you, but to me that sounds like a Klaus and Stefan problem." Natalie countered, not wanting anything to do with either of them right now.

Klaus sighed, and took a step forwards, to stand even closer to Natalie. But then Damon stepped in front of her, not wanting Klaus to be able to stand close enough to hurt his best friend. But this reaction only sparked amusement in Klaus. "Well this is me broadening the scope, sweetheart."

▹▹▹

The Gilbert House

Elena couldn't find her little brother so she called Natalie to tell her to come back home, where Alaric was making dinner because Elena couldn't cook to save her life. And there they were planning an intervention so that Jeremy could get his shit together.

"So, you're ready?" Alaric asked the doppelganger who was setting the table as Natalie handed her a stack of plates.

"Vampires, hybrids and originals. No problem. My rebellious brother. I'm worried." Elena admitted, refusing to meet anyone's eyes in fear of a judgmental look for how she thought about her life may have been the way that most people thought of their lives as the opposite of, forgetting family issues and trying not to get killed.

"Proof that you're still human." Alaric nodded in agreement, getting Elena to respond with a small smile as a thanks for his support.

But Natalie didn't really agree with her father's statement. "I don't know, I think most humans might be pretty scared of vampires, hybrids and originals."

Elena gave her a look to show her she was far from amused when the door to the house opened, and there was the man of the hour, Jeremy Gilbert, making the Gilbert girl but on a fake smile so she could greet him happily. "Just in time! We're cooking."

Natalie saw the skeptical look on his face and decided to tell him that the food was, in fact, edible. "Don't worry, Elena didn't cook it."

Jeremy had to suppress a laugh at the glare Elena sent her sister, only to get a shrug in response. But he wasn't about to get yelled at, even if he didn't know what it was about. "Sorry, just passing through."

 "Ah, well I thought we would all stay in, have a meal together like a typical, atypical family." Alaric spoke up, disappointment lacing his town of voice.

Jeremy looked at the faces of his family members and saw that they all had the same kind of fake smiles on their faces and it was easy to see that they were up to something. "Why?"

"Because you're a lying little jackass who forgot to mention to anyone that he got fired. That's why." Natalie let her fake smile fade and rather threw him a bitter smirk to really get the point across about how annoyed she was with his behavior.

"Ahh-" he closed his eyes momentarily as he realized what this was about, and this was not something he would like to talk about, he didn't want no intervention. "Look, can we do this later? I made plans with Tyler. He's right outside."

Alaric was surprised at the fact that the guy that he remembered hearing Natalie talk about the two of them fighting once back in the day and now that Tyler was even more dangerous, it was even harder to believe. "Oh wait! When did you start hanging out with Tyler Lockwood?"

"I don't know," Jeremy shrugged, not seeing how that was a big deal. "Does it matter?"

Elena's eyes widened at her little brother's nonchalant tone of voice at something so potentially harming for him-  "Yeah, Jeremy! It matters. He was sired by Klaus. He's dangerous."

"He can still hear you," the human boy reminded her, an annoyed look on his face at her seemingly not being able to accept that it wasn't his fault that he became sired. "He is right outside. Besides you of all people are gonna lecture me on who I can and can't hang out with?"

"What is with the attitude?" Elena asked, looking flabbergasted at how he was speaking to her, and how he seemed to have gone back to the person he was before Vicki Donovan's death. And that wasn't good.

"Yeah, whatever, this is lame. Tyler is waiting." Jeremy rolled his eyes, taking a step towards the door so that he could leave the house.

But Elena didn't want that to happen, so she blocked his way since she was, as always, a protective sister who resorted to controlling what her sibling does, even if she wasn't really sure that she was doing it. "Oh, no no! You're not going anywhere, especially not with Tyler."

Jeremy sighed in annoyance and looked over to Alaric for help as he was the only one who could actually have enough power for him to be allowed to go, since Elena never listened to Natalie. Never. But Alaric wasn't much help either. "I'm with her on this, Jer. Sorry."

And desperate times takes desperate measures as he looked at Natalie, even though he knew that there was only a small chance of her agreeing with him, much less of her persuading Alaric and Elena to let him go. But she wasn't much help either. "No, I'm sorry, but no. And even if I agreed with you, then I wouldn't be able to do much because since when do people listen to my opinion?"

Jeremy glared at each and every one of the people in the room, and even though he wanted nothing more than to go, he had a better idea. "All right, fine. You want me to stay in? Let's all stay in then," then he resorted to yelling so Tyler could hear him.  "Yo, Tyler! Come on in!"

▹▹▹

And when he actually was inside, they couldn't just throw him out because that would really awkward and no one really knew if they'd be able, since he was a hybrid, and hybrids are almost invincible (unless it comes to other hybrids, to which Klaus gladly demonstrated), so he was just sitting there and eating dinner with them.

And when Jeremy handed him a glass of water, he had to show his gratitude, even if it felt really awkward being there when Alaric and Elena was staring at him, and Natalie was plainly giving him the evil eye because she was really emotional, so she was just really angry. "Thanks."

"This is weird." Elena said lowly, but everyone could still hear her, loud and clear. "Klaus has hybrids stalking me and now you're just sitting in our kitchen."

Tyler suddenly felt incredibly awkward as the Gilbert girl stared him down. "Look, maybe I should go."

Jeremy, however, wasn't done proving his point to his family, who deemed Tyler untrustworthy, to which he kinda found Natalie to be a hypocrite, because he heard she had no trouble with trusting the hybrid from homecoming. "Oh, stay. You're not doing anything."

"Unless you have to, you know, check in with your hybrid master." Elena both sarcastically and bitterly said.

Everyone almost thought that he'd get mad, but to everyone's surprise, he just started laughing. "It's not like that, Elena."

"Tell me Tyler...What is the difference between being sired and being compelled?" Alaric asked, actually being interested even if he was also interrogating him to know that the people he cared about would be safe.

"Compulsion-that's just mind control-like hypnosis. And being sired is...it's like faith. You do something because you believe it's the right thing." Tyler said, not realizing all the raised eyebrows he was getting thrown at him, figuratively. 

Because Natalie found some things about that statemnet deeply wrong, and annoying and she knew that it definitely wouldn't help them, at all. "Wait, so you're saying that you believe serving Klaus is the right thing to do? Even after everything he's done to hurt all of us?"

"I don't serve him," Tyler shook his head, finding the idea ridiculous, as you always think that you can do whatever you want when you're being manipulated like this, because you refuse to acknowledge the truth. "Klaus released me from a curse that was ruining my life. I owe him for that."

"What if he asked you to jump off a bridge?" Natalie asked, determined to prove that this was some weird cult logic or something.

"He wouldn't! And even if he did I'd be fine. I'm a hybrid." Tyler tried to avoid answering the question, as he knew what the answer would be, he just didn't want to admit it to himself.

"Okay, so what if he asked you to rip your own heart out?" Natalie tried this time with something a little more deadly that reminded her a little too much of Scott's death.

"Again, he wouldn't." Tyler glared at her for just plainly trying to help him understand that he as a little slave minion for a thousand year old mass-murderer that could easily kill him.

"But what if he did?" the brunette huntress pressured him.

"I don't know! Then I'd rip out my heart!" Tyler yelled, his voice growing in volume very quickly as he glared at Natalie, and Natalie only for her reckless behavior, as everyone knew that werewolves are angry, and vampirism heightens your personality and things like that, so hybrid are really, really angry. "You guys sound like Caroline, getting all freaked out over something you don't understand."

"You're right, Tyler, I don't understand. Klaus has terrorized every single one of us and you're just blindly loyal to him." Elena spat, not really understanding what the sire bond brought with it and the pressure you felt to follow the one who sired you's commands.

"You're over-thinking it. I can still make my own decisions." the hybrid said, but you could hear from his voice that he wasn't only trying to convince them. He was trying to convince himself.

And one quote from one person she knew ran through Natalie's mind. "That doesn't mean anything unless you live up to it." she quoted Elijah Mikaelson himself.

▹▹▹

And only moments after that, Jeremy got a call he went and answered as the twins, Alaric and Tyler were left alone in what could only be described as an uncomfortable silence. And when Jeremy came back from speaking with whoever, Elena was quickly interrogating him on whoever he was speaking to.

"What was that about?" the doppelganger asked her brother with narrowed eyes as she was really concerned about his behavior and she knew that the people he hung out with would always have a huge influence on him.

"It was nothing." Jeremy dismissed it, because he wasn't really sure what happened either, he just knew he couldn't talk about it.

"I got to go. Umm, thanks for the food offer, but..." Tyler trailed off as he saw both the understanding and still slightly judging eyes on him, as they didn't leave.

"Next time." Alaric smiled at him as he realized how uncomfortable this whole thing must have been for the young hybrid, since they only really considered their viewpoint on how they wanted to keep Jeremy safe, and didn't stop to think about how Tyler felt about being interrogated.

And Tyler didn't hesitate to leave as he quickly pulled himself out of his chair and walked out of the house, not even bothering to bid them goodbye.

"That was illuminating." Alaric muttered, his gaze trained on the chair that the hybrid was once was sitting.

 "So, Tyler Lockwood is a lunatic who has access to our house." Elena sighed, even if Tyler was her friend (who she never speaks to), she didn't want him to come in and ruin everything that she was working for keeping safe.

"Lunatic," Natalie snickered at the irony as she saw Alaric and Elena give her weird looks as they did not get what she meant. "You know, luna, as in lunatic, as in moon and moon and werewolf... just me? Okay..."

Alaric shook of his daughter's failed attempt of a joke before continuing on with the real, serious conversation that was taking place. "I mean this whole sire bond thing is...wild. I don't even think Tyler is fully aware of what little reason lies behind what he's saying. It's this weird cult logic."

"Well, great, that's a wonderful influence for you Jer..." Elena said sarcastically, her voice growing weaker as she turned around and noticed that he wasn't there. "Jeremy?"

Natalie froze as she stared at the spot her relative stood previously, but Alaric was a little quicker on the action side at the moment and turned around to find Jeremy's Gilbert ring lying right in the middle of his plate on the table. "That's his ring."

Natalie then unfroze and picked it up, meanwhile having no idea as to why he'd want to take something that makes him invincible off. But then she remembered Jeremy's phone call, and then her mind drifted to Klaus's broadening the scopes, and knowing he was a huge fan of violence, especially when it came to whoever Natalie cared about, she could only think of one thing. "Oh, no."

He couldn't have stayed in the house as all his attempts of death happening in the house were always failures, so as fast as her legs could carry her, she ran out to the porch with Elena and Alaric both following her in confusion as they had no idea that Klaus was trying so desperately to find Stefan. 

And there they found Jeremy standing in the middle of the road, which usually brought nothing good with it, unless you were a thousand year old Mikaelson hybrid who enjoys murder.

"Jeremy? What is he doing?" Elena asked, a frown on her face as she saw the blank expression on her brother's face from that far away.

And that was suddenly answered when a car went around the corner, and was heading straight in the Gilbert boy's direction and Jeremy doing nothing to move out of it's way which caused some panic to say the least as all three ran to get him off the street, even if two thirds of them would quickly die, for reasons soon explained. "Oh my god! Jeremy! Jeremy move!"

And with a quick and reckless decision that would be the only solution, Alaric ran into the street in a heroic fashion and with his almost fatherly instincts concerning Jeremy as well in this situation, he pushed him out of the car's path, but he wasn't able to get out of it himself, and he got hit. By a car.

Natalie and Elena quickly panicked and they ran as quickly as they could towards the currently dead body of Alaric Saltzman. Natalie's mind just kept going through the huge chance of him not coming back if he, for some reason, wasn't wearing the ring or whoever hit him wasn't a supernatural (which seemed like the more likely reason).

But Natalie still leaned next to his body with short and heavy breaths as she tried to convince herself that it wasn't completely certain that he was dead forever, because this would probably be the worst time in the world for her to lose one of the people she loved most in the whole entire world when that was also the time she needed him the most and he was the only one who seemed to even remotely get what was going on in her mind with everything. And she couldn't lose him. Not after Scott. Not after anyone. "Come on, come on," she muttered to herself as she turned his body around and had to keep herself from panicking as she saw the bruises and blood on his body and rather resorted burying her nails deep in her palm as she picked up his hand, and there, thankfully, there was a ring.

And now there was only one thing left that she needed to know to ensure his survival (or, rather, revival), and that was if the person driving the car was supernatural, if the rules of the ring even worked when a supernatural was the cause, but not really the thing that killed him. Well, maybe it would be basically the same as killing someone with a knife. Even if your hands didn't do it, it was still you.

And luckily, Natalie finally got something for her to actually give a genuine smile that wasn't fake in the least, even if she was totally pissed. The person driving the car was Tony the creepy stalker hybrid. "There I go, bumping into people again."

Natalie was too happy with the fact that her dad was most likely going to return from the dead to even muster up her infamous death-glare towards the hybrid and let Elena send him a slightly less intimidating one.

Jeremy quickly ran over to his female relatives as it finally sunk in what just happened, and he felt way guiltier than he should.

"He'll be fine." Natalie sighed in relief, a large smile on her face as she gripped her father's hand tightly, even if he couldn't respond with his currently dead form. 

Elena nodded at her twin with a small smile before turning to the only one who could actually give her the answers she needed for how the hell this just happened. "Are you alright?" she asked her little brother, although she clearly wanted more information out of him.

But Jeremy didn't seem to clearly grasp what happened yet, his mind not really allowing him to see all the harm that was just caused on his guardian, who he cared about, oh, so much. "I don't understand."

"Who was that on the phone earlier?" Elena asked her brother with a sad frown, putting her hand on his arm as a comforting action, an action of love and worry for her little brother who clearly wasn't seeing everything clearly.

"It was Klaus."

▹▹▹

The three siblings were able to carry the currently deceased man back into the house so he could have a more comfortable revival instead of maybe not even coming back because of multiple cars deciding to drive down that exact road. And when they were finally able to get him on the couch, Elena's first thought was to call Damon as he was a very close friend of Alaric's and he might want to know.

"How is he?" Damon asked the still slightly panicking Natalie who was sitting at the edge of the couch as she gripped her father's hand tightly so that she could hopefully get some idea of his awakening when it did finally happen.

"Dead. But he has his ring and Klaus's hybrid from the Grill is the one who hit him so he's going to come back. Hopefully." Natalie sighed, not even bothering glancing in the vampire's direction as she was still trying to steady her breaths and convince herself that he wasn't dead.

Damon squeezed her shoulder in comfort before his gaze went to the one who this was actually meant for and he noticed a bare wrist. "Jeremy, why aren't you wearing vervain? Where is your bracelet?"

"I don't know." Jeremy answered, looking down as if he was almost ashamed of himself for this.

Elena frowned, and you could quickly notice that the gears in her head were turning and she was trying to get some guess on how the hell Klaus got Jeremy to not wear his bracelet. And she did. "It was Tyler! It had to have been. That's why he was hanging out with you. To get you off the vervain."

"Klaus is trying to send us a message. He wants us to find Stefan who stole his coffins full of his dead family members." Damon told the Gilberts, trying to figure out how they were supposed to find his crazed brother who seemed to be way out of control.

"Coffins?" Elena asked, remembering someone else talking about the exact same subject the exact same day that Klaus and Stefan had issues about this, and Natalie quickly saw what she meant by it as she finally looked over at her and they shared knowing looks.

"Yep!" Damon said in a way too cheerful manner for the situation. "So all we have to do is find four coffins and voilà! No one else on your family's Christmas list needs to die!"

And for once, someone actually seemed to find something deeply wrong with what was happening, even if they'd gotten used to what nobody should get used to. "Wait- that's your big plan? To steal back four dead originals so this evil hybrid doesn't kill me and everyone else we know?"

"You got a better idea?" Damon asked, getting annoyed with his continuous attempt of making him look stupid because of his plans, mostly because of Jeremy screwing them up, but also with verbal attempts like these.

"Yeah! Let's get the hell outta here! Pack our bags and go!" the young boy nearly-yelled at the much older man, making Natalie jump as she did not expect for him to get so angry and she looked over at him with a sad look as she wanted to speak up and tell him that running doesn't solve anything. For years, her mother ran from her past, which made sure that she didn't get the greatest end, and she died hated.

"Hey, Jeremy calm down." Elena said, being both worried for how her brother was thinking and getting mad at the guy she liked but didn't want to admit that she liked.

"No, no!! I'm not gonna calm down, Elena! This happens every time, no matter what we do! Get on my case about school and work...Who cares? None of us are gonna make it out of this town alive." Jeremy spat, his glare stuck on Damon because he definitely didn't think that he was helping the situation. And then he stormed out, leaving a very awkward silence behind.

After a few moments of nobody speaking, Elena came up with what could be a brilliant yet very stupid idea. "He said he wants his family back..."

And Damon's eyes widened as he realized exactly what she was implying and exactly what it would do and exactly how little Natalie knew about it, but that last thing wasn't really on his mind. "No! No! I know what you're thinking. The answer is no!"

Natalie had no idea what was going on as she was not informed about whatever they were supposed to be talking about. "What are you guys talking about?" she asked, finally getting up from her spot on the edge of the couch to stand by the two "it's complicted" couple.

"If we give him Rebekah..." Elena suggested, only to get cut off by her twin herself.

"Rebekah's daggered?" she asked, as they were all planning on telling her after homecoming but she clearly had some things on her mind that made the confession have to be put on hold.

"Yeah, then Klaus undaggers her first thing she does is kill you! Frying pan, fire. Not an option!" Damon exclaimed, ignoring Natalie's hopeless confusion as she still got no explanation.

Natalie sighed as Damon and Elena had a stare down and finally started asking the question that both her and Elena was really wondering about, because she already just knew Rebekah is daggered, most likely by Elena. "How many coffins did you say there were?"

▹▹▹

The Old Witch House

Four. There were four coffins, to which Elena quickly called Bonnie up and asked her to do a locator spell, only for Bonnie to reveal that she did not need one and she knew where Stefan and the coffins were all along and broke her promise to the currently out of control vampire to help keep her ex-boyfriend safe after Elena revealed Klaus's try at getting Jeremy killed.

And that's how they got the Bennett witch to tell them to go the creepy witch house that no one liked even in the slightest, but everything seemed to happen with that place in mind and Stefan always seemed to have a better relationship with dead witches than most vampires so it wasn't the most surprising thing.

"I thought Bonnie said this place lost all it's mojo." Damon said, looking at the really old and dirty house in disgust, looking at the two people who definitely liked Bonnie better than he did and vice versa. 

"Yeah," Natalie shrugged. "They were pretty pissed about her bringing Jeremy back to life and decided to be little bitches about it and pull a tantrum and storm off. And when they finally want something they come back. Dead people, psh."

"I hate witches. So fickle...Passive-aggressive..." Damon muttered bitterly, recalling some not too friendly memories of him and witches together.

Elena rolled her eyes at their obvious dislike for witches (although Natalie just wasn't a fan of dead people, only vampires sometimes (if they were nice)) as they entered the house and she had to continue on with their real mission. "Stefan?"

"Come on, Stef. Olly olly oxen free," Damon called out teasingly, but when he actually walked into the light that shone through the windows, he didn't exactly get the best treatment as the sun began to burn him as if he wasn't wearing a daylight ring. "Aaah. Ow. Ugh." he quickly used his vampire speed to rush into a shadowy corner as he knew that most of the building had windows without any curtains. "Really? Still?"

"What?" Elena asked, getting annoyed at what she didn't notice was happening.

"Witchy spirits aren't a big fan. And they use their juju to screw with my daylight ring!" Damon said the last part louder than the first to prove his anger and annoyance at the dead bitches with and without the "W".

"Then wait outside." Natalie told him as she didn't have time for Damon to figure out some way to get through.

"We can't just leave there." Elena said as if Damon being alone for two seconds would have disastrous consequences.

Natalie closed her eyes for a moment as she had to keep herself from lashing out at Elena's obvious hesitation of seeing the other half of another one of her "it's complicated" relationships and decided that if Elena was going to be a coward when it came to him, Natalie couldn't. "Then stay with him."

"Natalie...!" Damon called after her, but to no avail as she kept stalking forwards, a determined look on her face to finally get the younger Salvatore to come to his senses.

So, she had to walk down a seriously creaky flight of stairs with cobwebs basically everywhere and Natalie wasn't too fond of spiders as they always found themselves living places for free, lucky bastards. But, of course, she couldn't let herself get distracted with these small things as she was about to get some awkward and maybe not so well-ending conversation done. "Stefan?"

It didn't even take a second before she got her response. "Go away! You shouldn't be here, Natalie."

"Bonnie said you were here." the huntress said as the vampire walked out of the shadows, trying to keep as much of an unemotional look on his face as possible as he came face to face with her for the first time since right before he got her first love killed by screwing it up. Exactly what she told him not to do.

"Well, Bonnie sucks at keeping secrets." Stefan sighed, internally cursing at the dark-skinned witch who never seemed to fail at messing up evil plans, usually on purpose because she was more of a fan of nice and good plans.

"Yeah, and you suck at not screwing plans up. I told you not to get Scott killed, and what do you do? Oh, you get Scott killed." the brunette glared at the person she had a "it's complicated" relationship with, which seemed to be an awfully popular trend in Mystic Falls.

Stefan shook his head at her obvious attempt at guilt-tripping him. "I never agreed to your whole "oh, let's give him some humanity by letting Natalie keep her pet dog" plan."

"I'm sorry for actually giving a crap about how guilty you'll finally feel when you turn it back on. I'm sorry for actually being the only one who thinks about the aftermath." she said as calmly as possible, a glare forming on her face as she heard the very unflattering way he spoke of Scott.

"Then don't give a crap. Turn around and leave me to whatever I want to do." he told her, as she had no idea why he was refusing to feel. It wasn't about Damon, or even Elena. It was about her. And he knew that if he let himself feel, nothing of what he would be feeling would be good.

"I can't. Because, for some reason, you seem to forget that whatever you do, also affects everyone else. Because everything revolves around the Salvatore brothers and you seem to forget that." she smiled bitterly at him as she was only getting angrier and angrier with every word he seemed to say.

"You're forgetting that it's not my fault that Klaus is here. He would have left long ago with Elena if it wasn't for his old best friend not being able to let go." he countered as he didn't want to have all the blame on himself as that wouldn't really help with his reason as to why feeling sucks for Stefan Salvatore.

And that was the final straw for Natalie. After all this time, she didn't expect for him to push the blame on her for something she doesn't know how happened or why or how she could ever begin to change what would happen because of it. It almost seemed like Klaus changed his opinion on her really quickly as he went from I'm going to get your memories back to I'm gonna kill your first love and your brother... oops your dad instead. "You wanna blame me?" she yelled, her eyebrows scrunched together in anger. "Well, I am not the one running around, getting everyone killed."

"No, you're just the one lying to everybody about something that could easily help us." he took a step closer to her as a glare formed on his face on her refusal to admit her mistakes.

"And you're the one who doesn't want to save us. Because you could easily do that if you'd just give Klaus his family back." she glared even harder back, and he would actually have to stop himself from the slight cringe of fear that Natalie's death glare mixed with the knowledge of what she was capable of.

Stefan finally shook his head at her not giving up. Whether it was on him or just this conversation, he just wanted her to be a quitter for once in her life. "Stop talking, Natalie. I'm not giving Klaus anything."

"Why not?!" she finally exploded, screaming at him as her hands went up to dig her nails into her scalp as a way to relieve her of the agony and anger she had built up ever since that night he left with Klaus. "Who's gonna have to die for you to finally give it up? Caroline? Damon? Elena? Me? Because he'll kill all of us just so he can get those coffins." at this stage of her anger she was standing right in front of him, her fist hitting his chest with every name she said and when she finally just almost drummed at his chest in anger.

But then he caught her wrist, done with this conversation as the last thing he wanted to think about was his friend, brother, girlfriend (it's complicated) and Natalie (it's also complicated) dead. "Not really my problem."

She responded by ripped her wrists out of his grip harshly. And he actually thought that she had gone crazy as she let out a quick, bitter laugh. "You know what? Thank you."

"For what?" he asked as he had seen no reason for her to be even remotely grateful for whatever he'd done for a while now.

"For finally giving me a reason to hate you."

▹▹▹

The Gilbert House

Natalie returned to the Gilbert house, fuming, with her twin sister following behind as Damon stayed at the creepy witch house to confront his brother, although she would not guess that would go very well after what her confrontation with him did.

And let's say she was surprised about the fact that her dad was up and walking by the time she came home as she almost forgot with her mind being on the asshat named Stefan. And she really wanted to be there when he woke up, but that seemed highly unrealistic. "Hey, Dad. When'd you come back?"

"Oh, just a few minutes ago," Alaric answered, but you could see he wasn't exactly all too well as he was holding his chest and groaning, something Natalie noticed quite quickly. "How is Jeremy?"

"Hating me. Hating life. Hating the fact that we can't even have a family dinner without somebody dying before dessert," and only after her short rant did she notice that Alaric didn't look very good- "Are you okay?"

And only moments after her asking the question did, Alaric answer it. But not with words. A violent cough emitted as he held his hand up to cover his mouth, as one do when this happen, only to discover that there weren't just germs coming out, there was blood.

Of course, the Gilbert twins ran as quickly as they could towards him so that he could actually get some help for whatever was happening. "Oh my god." they both muttered, although not simultaneously.

"Something's wrong! The ring!" Alaric said, trying to walk, but ending up falling to the ground, groaning at the pain that suddenly came and no one really knew why came.

▹▹▹

It didn't take long for the paramedics to show up with the very panicked voice of Elena who was at the same trying to comfort Natalie who still felt the same way as she did earlier in that same day, when she thought she lost him. Which was not good at all.

"What happened?" one of them asked Elena who opened the door as Natalie refused to leave Alaric's side, squeezing his hand tightly just as she had done so many times that day.

"He got hit by a car and...he's coughing up blood." she answered, worry in her voice as she wanted nothing more than to never lose another parental figure.

The paramedics ran past her to kneel next to the father-daughter duo as they began shining lights in his eyes and other medical stuff. "Get his vitals." "Pulse pretty weak. Looks like internal bleeding. We gotta get him outta here." "Let's move."

And they were about to get everything fixed up, if it wasn't for the creepy stalker known as Tony. "Let's not and say we did. Why don't you two meet us at the hospital?"

"What?" Elena breathed, looking Tony in confusion, not understanding why he would do something like this.

The paramedics started answering to his command, which Natalie didn't understand as Tony was only standing in the door frame and the paramedics were inside the house, a little too far away from compulsion closeness. But that didn't stop them from picking up their bags and acting almost as if Alaric wasn't there. "No, no! What the hell are you doing? You have to help him." Natalie yelled at the desperately, her gaze moving with them.

"You can still save his life, Natalie. Here, take my blood." he smirked, handing his wrist out to the poor girl, only for him to not be able to push his wrist through, because vampire. "I can't get in. You're gonna have to invite me."

Elena was clearly noticing that Natalie was in condition to speak back as she started full-on hyperventilating as she looked at the hybrid as she knew it would only cause pain but it could save her dad. Her dad, who might be dying. And the thought of him dying just... she couldn't handle it now. She couldn't handle it ever. "No. Why are you doing this?"

"Klaus asked for his family. You didn't deliver." he answered, very monotonously.

And that's when Alaric seemed to spring back to life, and Natalie tried to calm her breathing, knowing how to handle this. Clinically... and unemotionally. And no matter how much Elena wanted to run back there, she knew that Natalie had to cover that, and she'd cover Tony. "Hey, Dad, look at me. I'm right here."

"He's gonna die. Might want to invite me in, Elena." he said, way too indifferently as Elena glared at him with a grimace that showed her internal struggle.

But not even a moment after he uttered those words, an arrow hit his head. Yes, his head. And his body fell towards the porch, although still alive as it would take more to kill a hybrid. Natalie saw what happened, but Elena had the weird habit of saying the names of people who did things as they did it, and she'd take that as a reliable source. "Jeremy."

"He's not dead yet." he told his sister, walking into the house with a determined, yet angry look as he strode into the kitchen, grabbing av very lethal weapon, one that Elena noticed as he came back.

"What are you doing?" Elena asked, not even wanting to see him holding something like that.

That question was quickly answered as, with one swift move, Jeremy chopped the hybrid's head of with a meat cleaver. "Now he's dead."

▹▹▹

A/N: Yes, I know there's more in this episode but this is already way too long and I didn't know how to add Natalie into the Jeremy compulsion, leave town thing. But it happened, believe me.

So, I want to know what you guys think of the way I write canon characters. Are they really OOC? Just be as harsh as your opinions take you because as Natalie said, constructive criticism.

Also, do any of you guys actually see Datalie as something that could happen, like romantically? Because originally they were going to hate each other, then I was like "Why not be friends?" and now they're one of my two Natalie BROTPs (tied with Naroline) and I just want you guys to know that they're not going to happen because I see them as kinda like siblings (in-law ;)).

Votes and comments are greatly appreciated.