Stefan and I had joined Damon outside of Mystic Falls, getting out of the car, walkiing toward Damon's car. 

Damon was carrying two large containers of gas. "If they so much as even scratched the paint on my car . . . ." 

"Well, just be grateful Sheriff Forbes was able to track down the car after you let them, ah, you know, steal it from you," I told him.

"Remind me to send her some mini-muffins," Damon told me. "Do we really need 10 gallons of gas, or are you making me just lug this around as punishment?" 

"Well, they ditched your car after it ran out of fuel," Stefan told him. "You gotta fill it up. Got a hundred miles before we get to Willoughby." 

"Yeah, well, I don't remember that name from the list of places I got from New York," Damon told us. 

"Oh, the list?" I asked in amusement. "The list they stole from right under your nose, after you let your guard down?"

"They'll be there," Stefan told us. "Sheriff Forbes tracked down the car they stole after yours." 

Damon filled his tank with the gas. "Screw the muffins. I'll get her champagne. If Elena is wherever it may be." 

Stefan smiled. "Willoughby. Creamed corn capital of Pennsylvania. They'll be there. Let's just hope we get to them before they get to the Cure." 

"Ooh, silver lining," Damon told us. "If Rebekah takes the Cure, then she's mortal and we can just kill her right then and there." 

"Ooh, dark dark," Stefan told him. "Elena stays a vamire forever. Look, why don't you just table the revenge fantasies for now, and just keep your eye on the prize. Find Katherine, get the Cure, get out before you get your neck snapped. Again." 

"Believe me, I learned my lesson," Daon told us. "Elena without humanity is a stone-cold bitch, and I won't trust her until we get the old Elena back." 

"Look at that," I told them. "We're finally on the same page about something." 

Damon tilted his head in acknowledgement. "Look at that." 

~~~~

In Willoughby, Damon's car started to chug, smoke blowing from the hood. 

"Oh, what the hell's wrong now?" Damon asked, pulling over to the side of the road, all of us getting out.

I walked around the car, opening the hood, smoke blowing up, making me cough.

Stefan walked toward me. "What do you know about cars? Oh, wait, let me guess. Something your mom taught you."

"Dad," I corrected.

"Your a jack of all trades, aren't you?" Damon asked.

"Just give me some time and we'll be ready to go," I told them.

"I could just fix it," Stefan told me.

"No, you guys need to find the girls," I told them. 

Damon looked around. "Something's not right. Katherine Pierce does not hole up in Hickstown, P.A." 

I walked around the car to the trunk. 

Stefan looked at the car in front of us. "Well, this is definitely the car they stole. We're in the right place." 

Pulling the trunk lid open, I pulled out the tool box. 

"Points to them for their choice of vehicles," Damon told us.

"So let me ask you something," Stefan told him. "What happens when we find Elena? How do we get her back to Mystic Falls? I mean, she's not exactly gonna go quietly, and she has an Original vampire as her bodyguard." 

I walked back to the front of the car, setting the tool box on the roof of the car. 

"We do whatever we have to do," Damon told him. "I don't care if we have to throw Rebekah under a school bus and wrap Elena up in a burlap sack. We do whatever we have to do." 

 "I'm serious," Stefan told him.

"I am, too," Damon told hi. "I don't care what Elena wants right now. She's this close to going off the rails for good and that ain't happening. She's a pain enough as it is." 

I pulled my jean jacket off, tying it around my waist as I spoke. "So what happened to the guy who thought Elena should embrace being a vampire, let the chips fall where they may?" 

"That guy got his neck snapped in New York," Damon told me. "This guy is royally pissed off." 

Damon started walking away.

Stefan looked at me. "Sure you got that?" 

"Yes!" I told him. "Go, already." 

Stefan nodded, turning around and walking away.

~~~~

Working on the car, I only stopped when I heard something behind me, turning around.

No one was there.

I heard something behind me, turning around.

No one was there.

I reached into the car, pulling out a stake, looking around cautiously.

I heard something behind me, turning around, looking at the Original brother right in front of me in surprise. "Elijah." 

Elijah looked at the stake in my hand, slowly wrapping his hand around it, his fingers curling around mine. "I'm sure that's something that you don't need." 

My grip tightened on the stake defiantly, trying to pull it away.

Elijah was stronger, pulling it away from me. 

~~~~~

In an alleyway, I sat on the steps, looking forward in boredom, Elena's unconscious body in front of me, like she had gotten her neck snapped. 

Elijah stood behind me, answering the ringing phone. "Katerina? Where is Katherine? Safe. How long they remain so depends upon you. Oh, Katherine can take care of herself against the two of you. Put her on the phone. Tell me where they are. Do you understand how much my sister despises Katherine? I assure you, Rebekah will end her the moment she ceases to be of use. You listen to me very carefully, Stefan. If anything whatsoever happens to Katherine, I will descend upon the two girls you care about most."

Elijah hung up. 

"You're both idiots," I told him.

"Excuse me?" Elijah asked.

I sighed loudly. "Ugh. What happened to you, Elijah? I mean, you made yourself to be a man of honor, telling me all the family stories of trying to keep your family falling apart, telling me that I was dealing with the same thing in my own family, acting so surprised when I told you exactly how I felt about Stefan and Damon, the first person I'd actually told about that, and yet you've been hooking up with Katherine this entire time?" 

"Well, I supposed this man of honor always shared a connection with Katherine," Elijah told me. "She contacted me when she learned about the Cure. We thought we could be of mutual use to one another." 

"'Mutual use'?" I repeated in amusement. "Please. You fell for her trap just like every other one of those idiots." 

"You underestimate me, Nicola," Elijah told me. "I know who she is. I know what she's done." 

"And you think she's changed?" I asked. I stood in exasperation, scoffing, shaking my head, letting my hands hit my thighs in a bored yet confused gesture. "God! You're an even bigger idiot than I thought." Elijah raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise, slight confusion and amusement. "She's playing you. She lied to you, Elijah." 

"She didn't lie to me about your survival," Elijah told me. "When I left Mystic Falls after everyone learned of your sickness, the night I used your family, threatened Elena . . . I thought that last time I would have seen you was the night of the ball. I thought you would die. I underestimated you." Neither of us spoke for a moment, looking at each other. Elijah looked away from me, looking at Elena. "She also didn't lie to me about Elena's transformation."

"Did she tell you that she killed Jeremy?" I asked. Elijah seemed shocked. "You didn't know?" I scoffed. "Of course you didn't."

 "She lied," Eljah told me.

"I hate to say I told you so, but . . ." I trailed off. I looked up thoughtfully, tilting my head.  "Actually, I'm gonna love saying this." I looked at Elijah. "Duh." 

~~~~

Elijah was pacing now. "She might have lied to me about Elena's brother, but she didn't lie to be about you being a step away from becoming what he had been, did she?" I didn't answer, leaning against the wall, crossing my arms over my chest. "Even if you had activated it, became a Hunter who's urges was to kill vampires so far that it transformed you into a different person, I'm sure you would have found your way back to yourself someday, as as Jeremy had." 

I smiled ruefully, sarcastically. "Just like you hope Katherine will find her way back? You still think that innocent girl you save from Klaus ages ago is in there somewhere?" 

"I'd like to think so, yes," Elijah answered. 

"She's not," I told him. "She's a monster now, Elijah. The sweet peasant girl you fell in love with way back when is dead. And she's not coming back." 

"I'm not a fool, Nicola," Elijah told me. "Of course this has occured to me, but what kind of man would I be if I didn't try to find my Katerina beneath this . . . Katherine facade?" He looked at me significantly. "You seem to have less fear now more than ever. You do realize that I could have killed you hours ago for the things you've said?" 

"I don't care," I told him. "I've been this close to dying before, and it's not what it's cracked up to be. It's overrated. So, go ahead, kill me. It's not gonna change anything." 

"That strength, that compassion you have for the things you believe in . . . " Eljah trailed off. "It continues to impress me." 

I scoffed silently, pushing away from the wall and turning to face him. "'Your compassion and strength are gifts, Nicola. Carry them with you. As I will carry my regret, as you will fight for your life. Always and forever.' I remember reading that in a letter once." 

Elijah smiled a small smile, impressed that I had remembered. "Well, the writer sounds positively gifted. I'm sure he meant what he wrote." 

"I'm sure he did," I told him. "And then I heard about what he had done just before, and I hated him." Elijah looked toward me knowingly. "And it felt good to hold that letter over and open flame and let it burn." 

Elijah pushed away from the wall, walking toward me. "I can hear your heart beat, Nicola." He stepped in front of me, looking down on me. "It rises when you're being dishonest. I heard it rise of the words, 'I hated him', and 'let it burn'." I lowered my gaze, but didn't respond. "So, tell me. . . How close did you come to letting that letter burn?"  I raised my gaze to meet his, not answering. Elijah looked behind me. "You're free to go." 

I turned my head to look over my shoulder, seeing Katherine standing behind me, several yards away, up the stairs of the alleyway. 

I looked at Elijah, walking away without another word, leaving them alone.

~~~~

I stood at Damon's car after dark, finishing the job I had started before I had been "taken" as "leverage" when I knew that Elijah was never really gonna hurt me. 

Damon and Stefan walked toward me.

"Well, look who's still alive and has nothing better to do than finish what she started," Damon told me. 

"He was never gonna hurt me," I told them, closing the hood. 

"You seriously didn't let him get to you, did you?" Damon asked.

"No," I told him. "Told him how I felt, and that was: I never want to see you again. "

"Good for you," Stefan told me. "Are you done?" 

"Start it up," I told them.

Damon walked around the car, opening the driver seat's door, getting in, twisting the keys and revving the car, completely fine. "Ahh. That is music to my ears." 

"Listen, we gotta go talk to Elena," Stefan told me. "Come with?" 

I shook my head. "You go ahead." Stefan tilted his head at me. "I'll be fine." Damon got out of his car, closing the door, looking at me seriously. "Oh, my God, just go already. I'm not going anywhere." 

Stefan and Damon reluctantly walked away toward a diner.

I leaned against the hood of the car, looking down numbly, still thinking about earlier, but so numb that I could barely think at all.