Stefan had to take Caroline to the Whitmore Medical Center because she had been starting to desiccate.

Stefan, Valerie and Caroline were in Caroline's room. 

I was watching from outside the window.

Valerie was shocked when she saw that Caroline's had was desiccating. "Well, that's not good."

Caroline was bordering on hysterical, looking at Valerie incredulously. "Yeah, duh. That's why we called you. Can't you just be witchy and fix it?"

Valerie looked at her sympathetically, gesturing to Caroline's bell. "May I?"

Caroline nodded.

Valerie held her hand just inches away from Caroline's baby bump. Her hand glowed red as she started to siphon whatever was happening to Caroline. Caroline's hand started to return to its normal color. After a moment, there was a zapping sound. Valerie reflexively jerked her hand away as if she had just been shocked.

Stefan frowned in concern. "What did you just do?" 

"I didn't do anything," Valerie answered in alarm.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Stefan asked.

Valerie looked at them in shock. "I think these babies are sipons... like me."

Caroline was stunned. "What?"

"And, I'm afraid they might be feeding off your blood," Valerie told her. "As in, they're literally siphoning the vampire magic out of your body."

Caroline, Valerie, Stefan and I were horrified by this revelation.

       ~~~~~~~        

Stefan and I were standing outside of Caroline's room, watching Valerie and Caroline when I brought him coffee.

Valerie fixed a bracelet around Caroline's wrist. 

Caroline looked at the bracelet curiously. "What is it?"

"It's a talisman spelled with magic," Valerie answered. "I'm hoping the babies will pull from it instead of you."

"And if they don't?" Caroline asked in a panic. "They still have to bake in there a little bit longer. And I haven't even done the thank you notes from the baby shower yet."

Valerie smiled reassuringly. "If it doesn't work, I'll find something stronger. I won't let anything bad happen, I promise."

"Thank you," Caroline told her.

Valerie nodded. "My pleasure."

"No, really," Caroline told her. "You know, we're not meant to like each other, you and I, which makes what you're doing all that much nicer."

Valerie and Caroline smiled small smiles.

I turned to Stefan. "Maybe the two women in your life can get along after all."

Stefan smirked sarcastically. "Don't even start."

I smiled a small smile, handing him one of the coffees I was holding. "Better start getting used to the coffee. Doctor asked her to stay for observation."

"Well, the desiccation hasn't come back," Stefan told me. "Valerie thinks the babies have been siphoning very slowly for a long time. Caroline just didn't realize it."

"Try not to worry," I told him. "It does't do any good."

Stefan gave me a look. "And this is coming from you."

I smiled a small smile. "Shut up." Valerie walked out of Caroline's hospital room, walking toward us. "Hey."

"Hi," Valerie told us. "Have either of you spoken to Damon today?"

I frowned in concern. "No. He hasn't been returning our calls. Why? Have you?"

Valerie looked uneasy. "I saw him... earlier at the Mystic Grill. He seemed to be very intent on getting under Julian's skin. He made quite a show of decapitating one of his men."

I looked away in exasperated annoyance, remembering what Julian had told me the day before.

That if Stefan or Damon killed another one of his men, Julian would find me, rip out my intestines and feed them to the brothers.

Stefan looked between Valerie and me in horror, worried. "What? Why would he do that? Julian warned us to stay away from his friends."

"Seemed like he had a bit of a death wish to me," Valerie answered.

I looked between them.

       ~~~~~~~        

I told Stefan to stay back at the medical center for Caroline, and that I would go looking for Damon.

I found where the vampires were fighting and killing each other for sport, walking through the crowd.

Julian and Damon were arguing. 

"I want to go again," Damon told him.

"I'm afraid I've grown bored of this game," Julian told him.

"Who's next?" Damon asked. "Huh? Who's next?" 

Julian paused for a moment, answering. "I am." The crowd started to cheer excitedly in anticipation. "You want to fight again? Then you fight me next."

The crowd went wild.

I walked toward Damon. "Damon! Damon!" Damon turned to face me. "What the hell's going on?"

"You made a wrong turn, Nikki," Damon told me. "This isn't some hell-survivor support group, so we don't need your counseling guidance."

Julian was clearly losing his patience, looking at Damon intensely. "Are you in or out?"

Damon turned to go into the ring with Julian.

I grabbed his arm to stop him, turning him to face me. "Hey. Do not get into that ring. Leave with me now. Whatever's going on, we will figure it out."

Julian looked at Damon irritably. "Are you in or are you out?"

Damon looked from Julian to me. "I'm in."

Damon turned around, walking toward the ring.

I watched him go in confusion.

       ~~~~~~~        

Damon and I were standing nearby the ring.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked worriedly. "This guy's got three hundred years on you."

"Then it should be a good fight," Damon told me, trying to go join Julian in the ring.

I stepped in his way. "Hey. That stone is still messing with your head, Damon. Let me help you."

"There's nothing to get through, Nicola," Damon told me. "This is what I deserve."

I frowned in confusion. "Deserve? What are you talking about? What do you deserve, huh?"

"You don't get it," Damon told me. "I've destroyed you like I've destroyed everything good I've ever touched."

I realized that I was missing something, trying to get Damon to talk to me. "Something happened to you. Tell me. Tell me what happened to you, Damon."

Julian called out to his men from the ring. "Will someone please escort Nicola off the premises?"

Two of Julian's strongest vampires appeared, grabbing me by the arms to pull me away.

I struggled, but didn't give much fight, because I knew that I needed to call for backup. I looked at Damon. "I'm not just gonna walk away and let you fight this guy to the death."

"Doesn't look like you have much say in the matter," Damon told me drolly.

The vampires pulled me away from the crowd.

"Don't do this, Damon," I told him. "Don't do this!"

"Godspeed, Nikki," Damon told me.

The vampires escorted me out, leaving Damon to fight Julian alone.

       ~~~~~~~        

I called Stefan for help.

Valerie was also coming to help.

We got back to the ring where Damon was on the ground and Julian was above him.

Damon looked devastated, groaning in pain. "Go ahead. Rip my heat out."

"You know, it's not that I wouldn't love to do it, but..." Julian trailed off. "Are you sure?"

Damon couldn't even bear to look Julian in the eyes. "Do it."

Julian pinned Damon down by the neck, putting his hand over his chest, preparing to rip his heart out.

The crowd began to cheer enthusiastically.

Julian started to plunge his hand into Damon's chest, but before he could fully break the skin, he was suddenly overwhelmed by a pain infliction spell that caused him to yell in pain and grab his head in his hands. 

Valerie uncloaked us from the cloaking spell so they could see us. 

I punched Julian in the face, kicking him flat on his back in the ring.

Stefan turned to look at Damon with an incredulous and horrified look.

The others in the crowd looked worried, but didn't intervene out of fear for what would happen to them.

I looked at Damon desperately. "Listen to me. If you let Julian rip your heart out, Stefan and I will kill him and then every single person here will instantly rip both our heads off. But you don't care, do you? Your life doesn't matter, and neither do ours, do they?"

Stefan held his hand toward Damon. "Come on, brother. Come on."

Damon reluctantly took Stefan's hand, letting him help him up.

Damon, Stefan and I walked away.

Valerie followed us, releasing Julian from her pain infliction spell.

Julian finally recovered enough to stand, furiously shouting to the crowd. "If they come back, kill them!"

Stefan, Damon, Valerie and I walked out, leaving.

       ~~~~~~~        

Stefan, Damon and I were walking in the Town Square.

Damon was walking away from us.

Stefan and I followed him, frustrated and worried.

"Hey," I told him. "Where are you going?"

"Nowhere in particular," Damon answered. "I don't have a destination."

"So, you don't have anything to say about what happened back there?" Stefan asked. "Huh?" He hit Damon on the arm. Damon turned to face us. "Huh?"

Damon sighed. "You're right, Stefan. Giving Julian the satisfaction of ripping my heart out would have been a mistake. Thanks for the intervention."

Damon turned around, walking away.

I followed him in frustration. "That's it?"

Damon continued walking. "That's it?"

I stopped walking in exasperation. "You're just gonna walk away? You're gonna flip your switch?"

Stefan caught up to me.

Damon turned to face us, scoffing, his voice filled with self-loathing. "Flip my switch? I'm not gonna flip my switch, Nikki. I want to feel pain. I want to feel every miserable moment of this miserable life."

Stefan and I were both horrified and extremely concerned by Damon's self-destructive attitude.

I started to plead with him to get him to talk to us. "I got through something exactly like this, remember? When Kai gave me the hex, and all I could see was every horrible thing that you and Stefan have ever done to me, or every horrible thing that has happened to me because of you and Stefan. It literally caused me physical and emotional agony. It nearly made me lose my damn mind, and I still have nightmares about it. I didn't come out of that nearly as unscathed as I led you all to believe, but I got through that. You can get through this. But first, you have to tell us what this is about. What did you do?"

Stefan and Damon were both shocked and horrified by the confession, but it worked.

It got Damon to open up.

"I killed her," Damon told us. "I killed Elena."

We looked at Damon in confusion.

"What do you mean... what do you mean, you killed Elena?" Stefan asked.

"It was all Henry's idea," Damon told us. "He told me I needed to free my true self, so I kidnapped Tyler and made him take me to her coffin. I lost control. I beat Tyler's head in the ground again and again and again until he didn't look like he was alive. I burned Elena to ashes. And I left Tyler for dead." Stefan and I were both in shocked, horrified, overwhelmed with this confession, tears in both of our eyes. I felt so disconcerted that I felt as if I was going to get sick. "So, go ahead. Stand by me. Tell me you'll never walk away. Go ahead, Nicola, come on. Do it, Stefan. Do it!"

Stefan snapped, punching Damon in the face repeatedly, over and over and over and over again, looking as if he wasn't going to stop, until he finally did, when Damon was on the ground and bleeding underneath him.

Damon stayed there on the ground, bleeding, not surprised, and not angry, knowing that he deserved this.

Stefan turned to look at me.

I didn't know what to do, looking away.

Stefan walked away, leaving.

I looked at Damon on the ground for a moment, walking away, leaving.

       ~~~~~~~    

Flash Forward - 2016 

I got to the news station where the huntress after me had Stefan, Damon and Sarah, pulling Tyler's car to a stop outside, getting out. I heard someone approaching me from behind, turning around.

Matt walked toward me.

I looked at him in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"Stefan, Damon and Sarah are still inside," Matt told me. "I managed to disable security cameras so no one can see out here, but I'm worried the ones on the roof are on a different circuit."

Matt looked up at the nearby roof.

I turned to follow his gaze.

Matt took advantage of the distraction to inject a vervain syringe into my neck, making me fall unconscious.