CHAPTER 48: THE TIES THAT BIND

The Old Witch House

As everything that happened with Caroline's birthday was put behind them (well, Elena was pretty pissy about Stefan attempting to drive her off a bridge, but she digresses), Bonnie convinced the twins that it was time to get back in the game that was surviving (the analogy was a little too Hunger Games for Natalie's taste but she could roll with it).

And that's how they once again ended up in the creepy, dusty old witch house, although, this time they were looking at four coffins. One for each of the dead family members Klaus carried around.

And to add onto that, Bonnie had been plagued by nightmares the last couple of days that she was 100% sure had something to do with the coffins as it involved four coffins and weird Klaus stuff in there, she was creeped out to say the least. "I've been having these dreams for days now. It's like the witches are trying to send me a message."

Natalie let out a sigh. "Dead people are so annoying, which does not count me since I've been reincarnated and come back to life because of a magic ring. I just don't get why you guys kept it from us."

"Stefan thought, if you knew where the coffins were, you'd tell Elena, and Klaus could threaten people to get the information out of her." the witch explained, sending an almost embarrassed looking Elena an apologetic look.

"So, these are the rest of his family?" the doppelganger straightened herself up, even though she knew that Stefan basically implied that she wouldn't be able to stand her ground against Klaus.

Natalie hummed in agreement, walking over to the coffin in the middle, as there were a coffins on each side and one that was ahead of them, which made it seem more important than the others. She slid open the lid of the one in the middle, thinking that seeing another original may or may not help her memory, as long as it wasn't Elijah. It wasn't Elijah, and it didn't help at all. Well, she wouldn't really complain about looking at him, he was handsome for a guy with gray skin and veins sticking out of it, and to be honest, he reminded her a lot of Elijah, not too much of Klaus. And it was that moment that she seriously started wondering how every original turned out so damn good-looking. She raised her eyebrows in approval as she looked down on him, only for Bonnie to send her a weird look, making her lower the lid again.

"Yeah," Bonnie then answered Elena's question. "Elijah and two others." she then walked up to the one who looked so incredibly important, only for her to reveal that it most likely was. "This one...is the one we can't open. We don't know who is in it, or whats in it, only that I think my dream's telling me it'll help us kill Klaus."

"What the hell are you doing?" a voice demanded answers, making the three brunettes turn to look at the person Elena hadn't seen since she yelled at him for almost driving her off a bridge, and who Natalie hadn't seen since she basically told him she hated him. In case you didn't guess that one, it was Stefan.

"I needed them to know about the coffin." the witch responded, her chin up high as to show him that she wasn't scared of whatever consequences her actions would bring if it was Stefan that brought them on.

"And I needed you to keep them out of it, Bonnie." he spat, glaring at her with all his might, as the last thing he wanted was to have the two of them, who never managed to not be the reason something was screwed up.

But Elena was getting really sick of his emotionless attitude, and decided to speak up. "So what are you gonna do, Stefan? Are you gonna kidnap me, so that I won't tell anyone?"

"Don't tempt me, Elena." he snapped at her, then turning back to the dark-skinned witch.

"I think I know who can open the coffin, Stefan. And I need Elena to help me find her. As for Natalie, she walked in on us getting out of their house." Bonnie explained, trying to get him on board with her planning.

"Glad to know I'm wanted." Natalie rolled her eyes at her friend's statement.

Stefan shook his head at her before ignoring her usual Natalie-ness. "Find who? What are you talking about?"

"I couldn't place her face at first. Then I realized..." the witch trailed off, pulling a picture of a young girl and a woman that she showed to Elena.

"Oh my god, Bonnie." Elena gasped softly, gazing at her best friend in shock and worry for what was about to happen.

But Natalie and Stefan, as the two that hadn't grown up with them, only exchanged looks of confusion before Bonnie flipped the picture around so that they could see it. They still didn't really understand anything. "Who's this?"

"It's my mom."

▹▹▹

The Gilbert House

After that awkward run-in with Stefan, the three brunettes decided that it was probably time to start looking for the person that Bonnie was so conflicted about. Natalie didn't really know much of the story, she had met Bonnie's dad, like, once, but never her mom and it seemed like there was a reason for it.

"Los Alamitos?" Elena suggested, handing Bonnie the file that had the information about a woman called Abby Bennett Wilson.

"Too old." Bonnie shook her head, leaving Elena to look through some other files.

Meanwhile, Natalie found one that might have been suitable when it came to the picture she was shown. "Honolulu?"

"I wish," Bonnie laughed shortly, sending her brunette friend a smile before looking at all the files spread around on the table. "How many of these are there?"

"A lot," Elena answered, closing her eyes for a moment so that she could focus more on finding Bonnie's mom. "I asked the sheriff's office to pull up every single Abby Bennett in the country."

Bonnie looked down at the floor for a moment as she knew that there was something they just needed to clear the air about but hadn't already. "I know we haven't been able to really- that things had been weird, because of Jeremy, so, thank you for helping me with this. I know you have a lot to deal with."

"There's nothing more important, Bonnie." the doppelganger told her best friend, sending her a warm smile as to remind her that just because Jeremy made a huge mistake, it didn't mean that it would end their friendship.

Bonnie returned the smile, just as brightly before her mind went back to her mother. "It's surreal. Having to track down a woman, who bailed on her own kid."

"Been there, done that." Natalie reminded them jokingly (although seriously at the same time). Bonnie rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless as she bumped the taller girl's shoulder playfully.

"You know, you don't have to, right? Let Stefan obsess over opening up the coffin. It doesn't have to fall on you." Elena told the witch, trying to remind her that she actually had a choice when it came to what she was going to do for her, Damon, Stefan, Natalie and the whole crew.

"The coffin is spell shut. That makes it a witch problem, so it does fall on me. I was bound to see my mother again sooner or later." Bonnie shrugged sadly.

"Sooner," the familiar voice of Damon Salvatore spoke up as he walked through the door, holding a folder in his hands. " Abby Bennett Wilson, Monroe, North Carolina. Born in Mystic Falls Hospital, graduated at Mystic Falls High...blah blah blah. A little compulsion helps sped up the research process."

Bonnie grabbed the folder straight of his hands before looking at the driver's license record. "This is her."

"Yep. Road trip. I call shotgun." the male vampire smirked at the girls.

"Yeah-" Elena started, making his smirk grow. "No."

"Want me to hang out in the back with you?" he suggested, wiggling his eyebrows at her. You would have thought that Bonnie and Natalie would be concerned about him being so flirty with Elena, but they've gotten used to Damon by now.

"You're not coming, Damon."

"Why? I'm the one who found her." he asked, almost seeming outraged at how they somehow thought that nothing bad would happen that they would need him for, of course, he didn't say it out loud, but everyone knew he was thinking it.

"Okay, Damon. Look. Bonnie hasn't seen her mom in over fifteen years. We don't need your snarky commentary narrating the experience." the doppelganger explained, trying to convince him that they didn't need him to stalk them.

It was silent for a moment before Natalie decided to lighten up the mood. "Well, if he's not coming then I'm calling shotgun."

"You're not coming either, Natalie." the older twin informed her, making a frown appear on the younger one's face, accompanied by widened eyes.

"Why not?"

Elena sighed at the fact that she always had to be the one to tell people this after she sent Bonnie a pleading look that was only returned by her suddenly becoming very interested in her shoes. "Because it may become too much, and I'm the only one of us who has ever even met Bonnie's mom, even if we weren't close. And the same thing that goes for Damon kinda goes for you."

"You know what? Screw you, Elena. I'm gonna go check up on Caroline, because I seem to be the only one who cares enough to do so after Tyler may or may not have freaking bit her and she was left to be healed by Klaus." the huntress spat, turning around in a swift moment, holding her palm up as she started walking, only for the palm to get hit by a high five from Damon.

▹▹▹

The Forbes House

Natalie sat with her blonde best friend on the porch as they were having a little chat after Caroline just came back from a little retail therapy. Of course, Natalie asked how she was doing, to which she responded that she was fine enough. Natalie didn't believe her, but if she wanted space, she'd give her space. And they somehow ended up talking about what happened with her and Klaus when he had to cure her from the bite.

"Wait, tell me again what happened, I just need to be able to visualize it." Natalie commanded the vampire, getting an eye roll in response.

"Fine. I asked him if he was going to kill me and he asked if I thought that low him and I said yes, because, you know... And then we started talking about death and life and stuff, before he started telling me that there's a whole world out there waiting for me, and then he said something about genuine beauty. Then he fed me his blood and gave me a happy birthday. And when I woke up this morning, I found this gorgeous bracelet from him where it said happy birthday and stuff." Caroline explained, still trying to process what happened that night.

After a short pause where Natalie just stared at the floor, she finally spoke up. "I ship it."

"Oh, please, no." Caroline groaned, covering her face with her hands.

"Just think about it. Yes- just, yes." she nodded, a happy, small smile on her face as she was shipping stuff again, and it felt slightly normal, excluding the fact that she was shipping her vampire best friend with her old friend from her past life before she got reincarnated, and he also happened to be an original vampire/werewolf hybrid.

Caroline took her hands off of her face before shaking her head desperately. "This isn't fair! I don't have anyone to ship you with!"

The huntress nodded in agreement, a grimace following. "Remember that one day you shipped me and Tyler?" she asked, recalling back in the days Isobel's return was their biggest worry. Caroline nodded sheepishly in response before meeting her best friend's eyes and they both shuddered in disgust.

They let out a laugh at the thought, as the of the least likely pairings in Mystic Falls could easily have been Natalie and Tyler, even Natalie and Matt seemed more likely, because they had a friendship going on at least, even if they weren't really close.

Caroline got up from the chair she sat on (you know, the outdoorsy kind), making Natalie follow her as they walked inside the house as it wasn't really mid-summer anymore, the best heat was gone.

But when they were actually in the house, they saw a not-so-pleasant surprise waiting for them (well, mostly Caroline, but Natalie was there, so she probably needed to be included). "What are you doing here?"

Tyler got up from the couch as the blonde spoke, straightening himself up as he was trying his best to get ready to do what he thought was best for the girl he loved. "I came to apologize."

And that's when Natalie's best friend instincts and protectiveness kicked in as she narrowed her eyes at him, glaring at him at the same time. "You what? You think that after you freaking bit her and left her to die, you could just give some stupid, half-assed "I'm sorry" and all your problems would be fixed? Well, you know what? Even if she forgives you for this, you should know that whatever you did can't be fixed with "I'm sorry"."

"That's the problem. Klaus told me to do it and I said no. And then... just happened anyway. Like, it was completely out of my control," the hybrid explained, trying to calm the brunette down as he knew she had a knack for shooting people. Then he turned his attention to Caroline to tell her something. "That's why I had your mom call him."

Then, a man, probably not the youngest person ever walked into the room, looking sad or regretful or anything like that. Caroline had basically the same facial expression when she looked at him back.

Everyone seemed to know who it was, except Natalie. "Yeah, I have no idea who that is."

That question was quickly answered with Caroline letting herself say one word, and word only. "Daddy."

"Hi, Caroline." William "Bill" Forbes greeted his daughter, sending Natalie a short smile as she glared at him. She got to hear how he tortured his daughter when she was with Klaus and Stefan in Chicago, to try and fix her. Tyler saved her eventually, but that didn't make what he did any less wrong.

"I thought, since he can resist compulsion, maybe he could teach me to resist the sire bond." the only (part) werewolf in the room explained sheepishly, knowing that she probably wasn't so delighted to see her father again after all he'd done.

"Can you help him?" she asked, straightening herself up.

"I'm gonna try." he nodded.

"Why?"

"Because he made a mistake and now he wants to make good. And I understand that." Bill told his daughter.

Natalie noticed how the two sent one another these sad glances as the awkward silence surrounded them. "Awkward."

▹▹▹

The Old Lockwood Cellar

So, for this fantastically amazing plan to happen, Bill dragged the two girls and the one they both had resentment for at the moment with him to the old Lockwood cellar, where werewolves just loved to transform into bloodthirsty beasts.

"How do you know this is gonna work?" Caroline asked as she and Natalie were standing in a corner as her father helped chain Tyler up.

"That's a process. It took decades, to train myself to resist compulsion. Brain's like a muscle. The more you use it, the more it can do. A sire bond, at its core, is about one thing... gratitude," Bill explained to his daughter before looking at Tyler to get the answer straight from the source on what was supposed to happen. "If you believe you owe Klaus your life, ask yourself why."

"I was cursed. Every full moon I had to change into a wolf. It was torture. Klaus took that away." the hybrid answered, and it kinda made the girls feel stupid as they hadn't even thought about that yet.

Bill interrupted him as he hummed in agreement before finishing his point. "He freed you from your pain and now you feel indebted to him. To break the sire bound you gotta make yourself turn. Own your pain then you'll owe Klaus nothing and you will be free."

"But how can he turn? It's not a full moon." Caroline broke in, since her knowledge on hybrids was slightly limited as most people aware of the supernatural usually forget to tell people who aren't Elena, Elena's twin sister or in love with Elena.

"He's a hybrid," Natalie reminded her, only for Caroline to give her this so what? look. "Which means he can turn at will, a handy perk to have."

"Yeah, but I don't know how to just start." Tyler reminded them, as he wasn't really a master at the whole turning into a rabid wolf thing, he liked not doing that a little bit more, especially considering the pain.

"You're making excuses." Bill spoke up harshly, wanting him to get control over this so that it didn't endanger his daughter more than it already had.

"You don't understand!" Tyler exclaimed after an angry sigh, which werewolves were big fans of letting out. "When I turn, I break every bone in my body."

"You asked for my help. This is the only way. How badly do you want your freedom?" Bill asked, looking at the teen hybrid sternly.

Tyler hesitated for a moment, but then his gaze found it's way over to Caroline, who was staring at him expectantly, and he nodded slightly. "Okay."

"Okay."

▹▹▹

After watching Tyler trying (and failing) at transforming into a whatever wolf-ish creature he was supposed to be, even though he was supposed to be actually able to turn into a wolf, Natalie was kinda doubting his ability to since she hadn't seen him transform since he bit Damon and now it was like he was breaking his bones for entertainment or something.

"I can't. I can't." Tyler groaned in pain after breaking yet another bone.

"Try harder." Bill pressured him, a steely glare pointed towards him in attempt to make him feel a little more willing to do this.

"Can't he just rest for one second?" Caroline broke in, looking at the boy who was groaning on the cold, hard ground.

"We're doing this my way, Caroline. If you can't handle it, you should go. And take your friend with you." the eldest person in the room (well, not born first when it came to the first time of being born, Natalie kinda won that one).

"Ehm, the friend has a name-" Natalie reminded him, but then all the other people sent her annoyed looks, making her grimace sheepishly before completing her sentence. "Which is not important right now."

"He's right, Caroline. Just go. Both of you." Tyler agreed with the blonde's father, only for the girls to exchange looks for a moment, as if they were both thinking about it before shaking their head simultaneously.

"What?! No! Tyler!" the blonde quickly voiced their thoughts.

"Go, Caroline!" he yelled at her finally, but she didn't jump, as she had gotten used to their outbursts after a while, but Natalie jumped, her eyes widening at the loudness. Caroline nodded sadly before grabbing the brunette's hand and leading her out of there.

Once they were outside, Caroline leaned against the wall as Natalie just stood there, not really knowing what she was supposed to do now, which wasn't really a normal feeling to feel if you were involved with the Mystic Falls gang.

"You can go, you know? I know you're just here because you're still worried about me, but I'm fine. I promise. If anything goes wrong with my dad and Tyler, I know how to handle it. You probably have something else to handle." Caroline sighed, ushering her best friend to get something else done, as it was usually a good idea to get stuff done.

Natalie furrowed her brows for a moment as she tried to come up with something that she should. "Well, Bonnie and Elena are doing something important. I could totally try to make sure Stefan nor Damon finds out, because that wouldn't end well."

"See! Now get out of here. I'll be fine." the blonde smiled, taking her arms and wrapping it around the brunette in a sweet and friendly gesture, which Natalie returned happily.

"Fine, but if you won't be, I'll kick your ass."

"I'm counting on it."

▹▹▹

The Gilbert House

"Where are you?... You're kidding me, right?... Klaus is getting antsy. He knows that I'm stalling. We need to move faster... Sure, Elena. Whatever you say." he said on the phone, Natalie glaring at him heatedly as he looked in the folder with information about Bonnie's mom. He then hung up, and looked over at the brunette. "Looks like we're going on a road trip."

"You're an ass, Stefan." she spat, shaking her head at him just barging into the house and refusing to listen to her about him not stalking Elena and Bonnie.

"And I don't care, Natalie."

▹▹▹

Abby's House

To say it was an awkward car ride would be an understatement. It was quiet, because neither of them knew if it'd be acceptable to turn on the radio or not, well, actually neither of them knew if it was acceptable to even move through the awkwardness as their last meetings had been less than friendly, and Stefan did have to keep up his facade on not caring about anything but revenge. And then they finally ended up at the address that the file had Abby registered at.

And then they saw Bonnie walk into the house with who they recognized as her mother from the file and Elena was left outside with a small smile at Bonnie reconnecting with her mother.

But then, Stefan decided to speak up, and what he said would make sense if you knew that Elena told him that her and Bonnie was at the Gilbert family's lakehouse. "Hi, Elena. Nice lake house."

"I was forced to come here!"

▹▹▹

To say that Elena was annoyed was a huge understatement. She was annoyed with Stefan for not being able to leave her alone, she was annoyed with Klaus for being the reason this was happening, she was annoyed with Natalie for letting it happen, she was annoyed with Bonnie for not being there to throw him into a wall, but most of all, she was annoyed with herself for leaving the folder out for anyone to see.

"So, what did you think, I wouldn't find out?" Stefan asked the doppelganger annoyedly.

"Honestly, I didn't care." she retorted, trying to convince him that she didn't really care what he did anymore (even though she very much did).

Stefan sighed, trying to hold back his annoyance at the girl right in front of him, as Natalie tried not to speak up so that she'd ruin their little lover's spat. "This is exactly why I didn't want you in the loop, Elena."

"Yeah, because now you can't do whatever you want." she smirked for a short second at her being able to have some comebacks, but the smirk quickly faded as she noticed his expression grow angry.

"Dammit!" he exclaimed loudly, kicking a chair straight in half, making the brunette girls that were with him jump in surprise at the loudness of his voice.

But someone noticed the outburst, and that someone was a handsome dark-skinned guy who stalked towards them, not looking very pleased with Stefan. "Hey! Everything all right out here?"

Elena's eyes widened as she saw him come, and she knew that Stefan wasn't at his best at the moment, and decided to try to usher him back inside. "Hey, Jamie, go back inside, okay? Please, trust me, it's better off for you there."

"I don't think so." he shook his head, looking at Stefan in a weird way that kinda made Natalie want to get him out of there.

"Listen to her, he's not in a good mood, and when he's not in a good mood, you die. So you should probably leave. Bye!" she smiled brightly (although fakely) at the guy who seemed to be around their age, maybe slightly older.

"I don't think so." he shook his head once again.

But then Stefan was getting pretty sick of his refusal to listen to the girls and decided to go with a different approach. So he sped towards Jamie and wrapped his fist around his neck and squeezed it. "Go back upstairs, before I tear your damn throat out. Do you understand me?" he compelled him.

Then he let him go, allowing Jamie to walk back into the house as Elena stared at him with disbelieving eyes as Natalie was only thinking how weird it was that she found this totally normal behavior for Stefan, because it usually wasn't. "I don't think you've realized how bad you've gotten!"

"It's the way it has to be, Elena."

Elena looked like she didn't know what to say, so Natalie stepped up, hoping that it would only help Elena understand the situation more. "I get it. Out-villain the villain? How's that working out for you?"

Stefan looked like he was about to answer with some smart-ass response, but he closed his mouth when he noticed Jamie coming back, only this time he was carrying a shotgun.

"You're not supposed to be here." he said, looking at Stefan with this dazed look that was usual for someone who had been compelled.

"Jamie, what are you doing?" Elena asked cautiously, looking at him with worried eyes before gazing at her sister and her... Stefan.

"What I was told. He's not supposed to be here." he responded, still kinda monotonously, which was never a good sign when he was almost raised by a witch.

Stefan then connected the dots, the monotone voice, the dazed look, the things that he was saying. "Elena, he's compelled."

Natalie was the first one to notice that Jamie raised the shotgun, aiming it at Stefan. "Oh my god." she wasn't far away, but it would take a really quick runner to be able to run in front of him before the bullet hit. Luckily (not really), she was. And since Jamie didn't seem to be a good aim, it hit her right in the thigh. She let out a groaning/grunting sound that made it all quickly become very real for Stefan and Elena.

"Natalie!" Stefan exclaimed, trying to lean down next to the huntress who shoving herself up against a column that was holding the roof of the barn up. But after Jamie realized his mistake, he now shot at the vampire.

▹▹▹

After seconds of Stefan rolling around and groaning, whilst Natalie was trying to apply pressure to her wound without seeing it. It was one thing to see it on somebody else, but seeing it on yourself was just so unreal, and she didn't want unreal. The pain already felt unreal, she didn't want to match the feeling with an image.

Meanwhile, Jamie was tying Elena up to a pole next to the one Natalie was leaning up against with shallow breaths. "Why are you doing this?"

"Stop moving." he commanded her, as he was trying to make the best knot possible to keep Elena there and not running off to get help.

Elena refused to stay quiet as she glanced between two of the people she cared most about in the world, who were both on the ground with bullets somewhere in their bodies. "Jamie, let me go. Jamie, they need help!"

She could've sworn she saw a glimpse of guilt on his face, but it disappeared as quickly as it came as Bonnie's mother called out his name. "Jamie!"

"Bonnie?" she asked, seeing the older Bennett carrying Bonnie and putting her in her car as Jamie helped her after he ran towards the car. "Bonnie!"

▹▹▹

It took minutes for anything to get started, and Natalie had almost convinced herself to look at the wound so she could get the bullet out. But during that time, the only sounds that could be heard were Stefan groaning or grunting, and Natalie whispering to herself that it's okay whilst taking shallow breaths. They were almost convinced that Elena wasn't doing anything, but then she spoke up, taking them by surprise. "I've almost got it." she said, trying to cut the rope with a loose nail from the column.

But, unfortunately, it was in that moment that Jamie decided to return to the scene, only to give them a bit of information that none of them cared about. "Abby hasn't called yet."

Elena knew that it most likely wouldn't help, but she hoped that it would at least make him see sense, although it turned out that it wouldn't end that way. "Jamie, please, just let us go."

And to her surprise, Jamie quickly cocked the gun, although not really aiming at anyone. No! Please don't do anything. Look, I don't know why I shot him, I don't know why I'm holding this gun, but if you move or do anything, I'ma shoot him again."

Elena's eyes widened, as she knew that if he got shot one more time in the chest, he would most likely die. But, at the same time, she quickly noted that he didn't mention Natalie at all. "Okay, I won't. Who gave you that gun?"

"A man came by earlier today, he gave me a wooden buckshot and told me if anyone got in our way, I'm supposed to shoot him." he said, although he didn't really seem sure, as if the thought had been blurred out and he had to focus all of his attention on it.

Elena quickly nodded, but then she glanced at where Natalie finally looked at the wound, only for her to gasp in surprise at how bad it looked, blood surrounding it, and she could see a wooden bullet in there. "Why'd you hurt her? He's never shown any sign of wanting her to get physically hurt, so why'd you hurt her?"

"I wasn't supposed to." he admitted, looking at Natalie with more guilt than he had shown that whole night.

"Well," Natalie sighed, having to catch her breath for a moment after all her almost-hyperventilating. "You're doing a hell of a good job at it." she pointed out sarcastically, almost making Elena glare at her for cracking a joke when she had a bullet buried in her thigh.

"What about me? What did he say about me?" Elena asked, hoping to find something, anything, that could help them in the situation.

"I'm not supposed to hurt you."

"Are you sure? Because these ropes are so tight, that it is hurting me." she groaned, making Natalie almost roll her eyes at how she was complaining when she had a bullet in her thigh, she didn't say anything though, and she didn't know that Elena was acting, but it still didn't make her a happy camper.

Jamie suddenly got this weirdly concerned look on his face at those words, as if Klaus would kill him for hurting Elena, when he got the same orders for Natalie and she got shot. But when he got close enough to her, the doppelganger finally released her wrists from their containment before grabbing the shotgun and hitting Jamie with the butt of it. And then she quickly rushed over to Natalie, as she knew that she was the human one.

"What can I do to help?" she asked, looking at her younger sister worriedly, grimacing as she looked at the wound.

But Natalie didn't really care about her own wound at the moment. Because when she glanced at Stefan she knew that it must have been even worse for him as he wasn't even able to sit up. "Help Stefan first. He looks like he's about to die. I'll survive this."

"You're human!" she exclaimed, shaking her head at her desperately trying to get the attention away from her, although Elena knew she was hurting more than she was letting on. Natalie opened her mouth to protest against Elena helping her, but then she was already putting her fingers into her wound, making Natalie let out a short grunting noise in surprise at the coldness being out into the where the bullet was. It took a little digging for Elena to get a good grip (which may or may not have really hurt) before she pulled it out. And the sudden movement made Natalie suddenly really sleepy, or, at least, her eyes were convinced of the fact.

▹▹▹

Natalie's eyesight was fuzzy. She could see that Elena was leaning over Stefan, and her hearing seemed to be fine as well, as Stefan letting out a scream was easily heard. But when she started seeing a bit more normally, she noticed that Elena didn't have her jacket on anymore, and then she glanced down at her thigh, where she noticed that the exact same jacket was wrapped around her thigh with bloodstains she guessed came from herself.

"You've changed. Something is different about you. You're stronger. Tougher." she heard Stefan say, and she was guessing that the scream was from Elena getting one of the last bullets out.

"You're not the only one who changed, Stefan. We all had to." Elena shook of the way he spoke about her, although, she knew that there weren't a lot of people who had to change themselves, train up themselves, because of what happened to him.

"It's good though."

Elena took a glance at his face, and she knew that it was now or never. "There's something I have to tell you. And it's not because I feel guilty, that it happened. It's because I feel guilty, that you don't know," she ripped the last bullet out of his chest. "I kissed Damon. There. All done."

They stayed silent for a moment as she studied his way-too-upset-for-having-no-humanity facial expression, and that's when the guilt of what she actually did came to her mind, now that she saw that Stefan got upset. So she stood up, and decided to walk away, because she knew he'd talk to her afterwards.

Stefan pushed himself up into a sitting position before dragging himself next to Natalie as he saw her now open eyes. "Hey."

"Hi." she responded, although it kinda sounded like she breathed the word, but it wasn't her intention.

"You know that your leg isn't magically going to become good again without help from something that could actually magically heal you." he said, and she knew that he was talking about feeding her his blood, but she didn't want that. Vampire blood had a foul taste, not that she was a fan of tasting blood in particular.

She shook her head against the column, taking a deep breath before speaking up. "Just- Just take me to a hospital or something and I'll be fine. I don't want to risk becoming a vampire. That's the last thing I want."

"Natalie," he started, making her turn to look at him, their eyes meeting. "I know you, and I know that you don't like being in the sidelines. But if you think about it, if you don't want to not help then you should drink my blood, because you can't help with a cast on your leg."

"Fine." she sighed, and Stefan moved closer to her as he sat right next to her. She breathed in and out as she tried to prepare herself for the taste she hadn't felt in a while. He nodded at her slightly before lifting his wrist to his mouth and letting his fangs penetrate his skin as veins appeared underneath his eyes. He put his wrist over Natalie's mouth so she could drink it, and she wasn't very pleased with the taste, but she knew he was right. She could never be able to help from a hospital bed or anything like it.

As soon as his wrist was out of her mouth, and she swallowed enough to heal her, they were back at where they were at the car ride. Afraid to speak, afraid to even move. But Natalie didn't know when they'd be able to leave then, so she knew that they had to talk. "I'm sorry. For telling you that I hate you. Because I don't."

"Why not? You should." he said, trying to hide the surprise at the fact that still after everything, even Scott, she was still able to not hate him.

"I know. And I've tried, trust me. But I haven't been able to, I don't know why." she responded, lifting her legs up towards her chest and discovering that her leg hadn't been completely healed yet as she let out a quiet groan.

"You and me," he started, making her look at him as she tilted her head, this being and interesting start of a statement when it came to everything that had happened. "We've been through more together in just a little more than a year than most people do during their whole lives. But it's not a life unless you live it. And you deserve to live yours better than how you've been lately. You deserve better than me."

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After Natalie and Stefan had a talk, Stefan and Elena got to talk about whatever happened with her and Damon, only for Stefan to tell her that she was better than the both of them, which was infuriatingly similar to what he said to Natalie. But after all that, Natalie and Elena sat in the elder sister's car in silence as they were going to pick up Bonnie.

As much as Natalie hated fighting with her sister, especially about boys since they shouldn't be deciding what was going on in their lives or sibling relationships. Of course, it may seem like Natalie's life was revolving around Stefan at the moment but that was only because he was the reason Klaus was hellbent on killing people, which Natalie wasn't a huge fan of. "Why did you kiss Damon?"

Elena turned to her sister for a moment before forcing her gaze back on the road. "I'm sorry?"

"I'm just wondering about why now. Why right now? Why did you kiss him right when Stefan was on the verge to getting his humanity back? You could have kissed him any other time than right now, but he is the reason that stuff is going wrong, and that's only because his humanity's off. And right when I saw in his eyes that he was so close to coming back, you went and screwed it up." she said, fiddling with the bloodied jacket Elena borrowed her for her thigh.

"I didn't screw anything up, Natalie. It happened at the time he didn't seem to come back any time soon. So don't judge me because of Damon when you're the one who has feelings for Stefan and lied to me about it." the doppelganger retorted, and she would be glaring at her sister if it wasn't for the fact that she didn't want to drive them off of the road.

"Wow," Natalie scoffed, rolling her eyes at her reaction. "Because you never lied to anyone about having feelings for Damon, right? The hypocrisy is real."

"I don't have feelings for Damon."

"Oh, Elena, we've come way too far for you to deny it now. You're lying to yourself which is hurting everyone more. But I don't want to talk about this now. I just want to pick up Bonnie, go home, and sleep this off."

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A/N: For centuries I have lived without updating. Hiding without internet, going to school. I am a writer, and I haven't been updating my story. Sorry about though. Thank you for all the help with this chapter, it was hell to write. Plus, I have an Elena fic which I needed to update so...

And miikaelson ... IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING. Next chapter, after you have waiting centuries (aka start of season 2/end of season 1) and it's happening. I am so freaking excited, and I know that you are too, and I'm just ready. Just yes.

Votes and comments are greatly appreciated.