Stefan had came back to town with a newly-turned Ivy because Enzo had turned her. He had asked Caroline to keep an eye on her. 

Ivy had snapped her neck and taken off. 

I was walking through the streets when my phone rang. I answered. "Caroline?" 

"I still haven't found her. Thanks for helping me look." 

"Well, Enzo turned her, when I had thought that he had killed her, so I kind of feel responsible." 

"How is that?" 

"I... it doesn't matter."

"Yeah, you're right," I heard Stefan say from behind me. I turned to face him. "It doesn't matter, and you are kind of responsible."

I hung up on Caroline, pointing at Stefan. "No. I feel kind of responsible because Enzo dragged me and Caroline to your house without telling us where the hell we were going. What the hell took you so long?"

"I got caught up," Stefan answered.

"You got caught up doing what?" I asked.

"Driving half-way out of town," Stefan answered.

I looked at him incredulously. "You were leaving?" 

"I slid Ivy's daylight ring under--" Stefan started.

"No," I told him.

Stefan went on. "--the girls' dorm room door--"

"No, I don't care about some stupid ring, Stefan," I told him. "Were you seriously about to dump your vampire ex-girlfriend onto your best friend's lap, and then just skip town without so much as a hello or a goodbye to me, you sister?" Stefan nodded slightly. I opened my mouth to speak, appalled, angry and shocked, taking a moment to respond. "God, who are you right now?!" 

"I'm someone who's trying to start over," Stefan answered. "And then suddenly, you, Caroline and Enzo show up, and now I have hunters on my trail and a brand new vampire who wants to kill me and everyone else in her path. And that's now how someone starts over, Kaylin."

I took a moment to look away, taking a few deep breaths to calm down. "Why are you here, Stefan, why did you come and find me, why now?" 

"Because I was hoping that you could help Caroline deal with Ivy," Stefan answered. "I was hoping you could help Ivy get a handle on things, get somewhere far away from me, live a good life."

I looked at him skeptically. "Are you asking me to help you with a break up?" 

"I'm just asking you to give her a fresh start," Stefan told me. 

"You mean give you a fresh start," I told him. Stefan didn't answer. "Sorry, Stefan. It's not that easy."

"It was that easy when you gave Alaric the green light to make Elena forget about Damon," Stefan told me.

"Well, you forgot him about him first, buddy," I told him.

"He was my brother," Stefan told me.

"Yeah, and he was mine, too!" I told him. I shook my head. "That's what you keep forgetting, Stefan. I lost them, too. When Lexi found peace, and when Damon went to God knows where, I lost them, too."

"What do you want me to do about that, Kaylin?" Stefan asked. "Damon and Lexi are dead, and so is Bonnie, and there is nothing we can do. I have seen you create a hundred lives for yourself over the last 148 years, so when I finally decide that I want to, why aren't you?" 

"Because there has to be a way to get our brother back, Stefan," I told him. "Hope for getting Damon back is the only thing that is holding me together right now, because Enzo has gone AWOL, and I don't even have a place to call home right now." 

"I don't have that kind of hope," Stefan told me. "Not like you do. Not anymore. Right now, all I want is to get back in my car, and go."

I looked at him, hurt and angry. "No. No, you're just trying to build a lie, Stefan. At least the one thing that I can say about all of the lives that I lived, at least they were fun, at least they were worth living, and at least none of them were lies. Now, if you want to get over this fight, and get over the grief, then I can show you what I have done since I got back here, the thing that kept my home strong, either willingly, or if I have to snap your neck to do so. Or, if not, just say no, and tell me that you never want to see me again, not even in a decade, or ten, or a hundred, and walk back to your car and get the hell out of town and start whatever lie you want to create." 

Stefan looked slightly guilty, starting to walk toward his car. 

I turned after him, snapping his neck, keeping him standing. "You didn't say 'no'." I let his head go, letting his body fall to the sidewalk. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

******

At the cemetery, I opened the gate to the Salvatore mausoleum, pushing a now-alive Stefan inside with a bottle in my hand. 

"You really had to snap my neck to get me here?" Stefan asked.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," I told him, taking a drink from the bottle of bourbon in my hand. "And you also didn't say that you never wanted to see your baby sis again, so I'm taking that as a sign that you wanted me to snap your neck and bring me here."

"Bring me here for what, exactly?" Stefan asked.

I handed him the bottle. "Talk."

"You want me to talk out loud to a... a crypt filled with our dead family?" Stefan asked.

I looked around. "Everyone but Damon. Because wherever he is, it's not here." I looked at Stefan. "I came here the first day that I started to lose hope. And guess what? It made me think about all of the good that Damon had done for us, and all of the bad, and I realized that having the good in our evil brother back was worth more than anything I could have hoped for. It renewed my hope, Stefan. Let's hope that it renews yours too. So... talk." 

Stefan hesitated, nodding. "All right. Well, I gotta say, I'm not doing so great without you." He looked at me. "Without either of you. I keep trying to start over, but... I can't get anywhere. Because I'm lost, Kaylin. I'm lost." 

Stefan stood angrily, throwing the bottle of bourbon toward the wall.

A hand caught it before it shattered.

I stood in disbelief.

Damon looked at Stefan. "So what? Gone a couple of months, you two's relationship goes to hell, and you think it's okay to waste a perfectly good bottle of bourbon?" He took a drink, raising the bottle toward me. "Oh, and, Kay, that was a beautiful speech. Very heartfelt. I loved it." 

Stefan and I looked at him in shock, not quite believing this.

"Damon?" I asked hopefully.

"Yep," Damon answered. "In the flesh." 

Damon smiled.

"How are we seeing you right now?" Stefan asked.

Damon became serious. "Because I'm not dead, Stefan. I mean, this stuff's good, but it's not 'I see dead people' good." He slowly walked toward us, his expression serious. I had tears in my eyes, not sure if this was real, but hoping like hell it was. "It's a hell of a long story, but... I'm back. I'm back." I reached out to touch Damon's shoulder to make sure he was real, smiling in happy shock when I felt the touch. Damon smiled at my reaction. "Yeah, Kaylin." I wrapped my arms around him tightly, starting to cry in relief and joy. Stefan looked as if he was about to cry, wrapping his arms around us. Damon wrapped his arms around either of us. "I'm back." 

Damon was back.