ACT THREE; MISSILES FIRED
SCENE THREE; MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION
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"HOW THE HELL DID CONNOR ESCAPE?" Stefan looks between the body of the hybrid, and Salem's unhappy face, hand clenched around the phone in his hand. "Where were you?"

"I wasn't here, obviously," Salem thrusts her hands out, clenching her jaw. "Can we please focus on the fact that there is a headless corpse in my house, and it doesn't belong to anyone I wanted to be headless?"

"Yes, I know, dear, it's a mess," Klaus's eternally patronizing voice echoing through the speaker of the phone makes her roll her eyes as she glares down at the corpse of the hybrid, hands on her hips. "I blame mind-numbing incompetence. But, pointing fingers isn't going to help me– you're gonna help me, Stefan."

Stefan sighs. "Well, he could be anywhere now,"

"Think, Stefan. He took the hybrid's head, which means he wants werewolf toxin."

Salem pinches the bridge of her nose in exhaustion. "Which means he's going to try and kill everyone again. Great."

Klaus hums in grave assent with her words. "Which is a pity, as I'm half the world away digging up a dead hunter. You'll have no access to my blood and therefore the antidote. Nevertheless, his tattoo is our only map to the cure, so your task is quite simple. Find him, catch him, and above all, keep him alive. He's no good to us dead."

Salem huffs a wry laugh. "Yeah, good luck with that,"

"Damon's been looking for him," Stefan says, seemingly catching onto Salem's displaced amusement. "If they cross paths,"

"You need to keep Damon in check."

"It'd be a lot easier if I could just tell him the truth,"

"You trust Damon with the cure?" Klaus asks, a leading tone of incredulity in his voice. "I imagine he prefers Elena the way she is."

Stefan rolls his eyes. "Nice try, Klaus, but I trust Damon a hell of a lot more than I trust you."

"And I trust no one, which is why my sister is lying daggered in a box," Klaus says simply, his words making Stefan's eyes shift to Salem, only to see her face completely blank at the whole conversation. He likes to stay willfully ignorant about whatever they have going on, but he can't avoid such obvious tension when he's right in the middle of it. He knows, though, that they probably enjoy making him uncomfortable. They're both a little insane like that.

"The more who find out about the cure, the more who will go after it. Nations have gone to war over less. You mark my words– tell one soul, and I'll throw the Hunter's Sword in the Mediterranean and we can end this quest right now. Am I understood?"

Salem jerks forward, ripping the phone from Stefan's hand. "Don't worry, Klaus, Damon's not the only one you need to worry about killing Connor. You better hope you find that sword soon, or I might not be so willing to follow orders anymore."

She hangs up without another word and chucks the phone onto the desk, raising her brows as she meets Stefan's eyes. "Get this dead body out of my house."

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Salem meandered into the living room of the Lockwood mansion, raising her brows at the small group gathered there. "Don't worry everyone, I'm here to save the day."

Damon turns to look at her with a frustrated glare. "You took your sweet time getting here, though, didn't you?"

"I couldn't decide if I was going to help or not," Salem shrugged, giving him a sweet smile that he rolled his eyes at. "Can you elaborate further on your text? 'SOS @ GRILL, HELP OR WE'RE NOT FRIENDS',"

"I thought I was pretty self-explanatory," Damon shrugs. "I know how much my friendship means to you."

Salem rolls her eyes at him, and Elena cuts in quickly, glaring. "We don't have time for bickering, that vampire hunter is holding my brother hostage,"

Salem's eyes widened slightly and she stuffed her hands in the pockets of her jacket. "I wondered where he went. Do you guys have any sort of plan, or are we just winging this whole thing?"

Damon looks at her oddly, having been under the impression that Salem thought he'd blown himself up at the hospital like he had been. But, he isn't surprised that she knew he wasn't dead. She's deceptively sneaky, he's come to find.

Turning to face Elena, Damon sighs. "I was thinking we each take a different entrance and hit him at the same time."

Elena stands suddenly, letting out a sigh of relief. "Stefan,"

Salem turns to look at Stefan as he walks in behind her, raising her brows at his panicked face.

"Where the hell have you been?"

Stefan wraps an arm around Elena as she runs to his side, ignoring his brother's combative tone. "Coming up with a plan,"

"Oh, wow," Salem drawls. "You really are gonna save the day."

Damon ignores her unhelpful remarks. "We have a plan. The plan is I'm gonna rip Connor's heart out and I'm gonna feed it to him,"

Salem lifts a finger. "I like that plan, personally."

"That's not a plan, we need to be careful," Stefan tells his brother, giving Salem a look, the both of them well aware that she was being purposefully antagonistic knowing Klaus wanted the hunter kept alive. "Connor has Jeremy and who knows how many other hostages."

Damon nods, giving his brother an incredulous look. "Hence the open heart surgery,"

"Damon's right," Elena gives her boyfriend a pleading look. "Connor's strong, but he's not gonna be able to take all of us."

"I called in the hybrids to help, too," Tyler shrugged from behind the couch.

Salem shoots him a grin, giving him a thumbs up. "Great job, Lassie,"

Stefan sighs, glaring at her as Caroline walks in.

"My mom put squad cars blocking the streets," She stops before them all. "They're saying it's a faulty gas main. We're good to go."

"Good," Damon nods. "Great. No cops, no witnesses, no reason to wait around."

Stefan holds out a hand. "Alright, hold on. You're not all going."

"He shot me like nine times," Tyler glares at the memory. "If we're killing him, I want in."

"He's got Jeremy, I'm going."

"Listen, nobody is going anywhere until I figure out what we're walking into,"

Damon steps forward, narrowing his eyes at his brother. "Until you figure it out? Is that where you've been all morning? Out buying bossy pants?"

"He's known for setting traps. We'd be dumb to walk into one, especially if he has werewolf venom."

"Does he?"

Stefan freezes the moment he realizes he's said too much. Salem smirks at the sight and he gives her another glare that she resists laughing at as he turns to look at his worried girlfriend. "He's had it before,"

Damon clenches his jaw, irritation clear on his face and in his voice. "Fine. Fine. You wanna take some time to do recon? You get one hour. But we're gonna need some extra help, so where the hell is the wicked witch of the West?"

Caroline shrugs. "She can't do magic,"

"Really? Well, call her, and tell her Jeremy's life is in danger. Maybe that'll bring her out of retirement."

Damon walks past Stefan, purposefully ramming his shoulder into his brother's, and Caroline follows after him with an apologetic look towards Elena and Stefan. For a moment, the remaining four are silent in his wake, but Stefan clears his throat and looks at Salem.

She looks around the room confusedly and then points at herself. "Oh, you want– me? You want my help?"

Stefan nods, ignoring Elena's confused look at his side. Salem doesn't blame her– she has tried to, or at least championed for her death a few times over the past few months. Self-preservation and all that.

Salem heaves a sigh, though she's already walking past the couple to leave. "Fine. Better hurry up before my generosity expires, though,"

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"You expect me to care about bloody hostages?"

"Well, you should," Stefan stresses to Klaus as he and Salem walk across the blocked-off street in the middle of town. "Damon does. So does Caroline, Tyler, Elena. Salem."

Salem huffs. "I don't care about the hostages, I care about that stupid hunter getting as far away from me as possible– which means putting him six feet under."

Stefan sighs, gesturing to the woman even though Klaus can't see them. "If any of them get to Connor first, then you just wasted a trip to Italy. I can buy us some time, but Damon's antsy, and Salem isn't being as helpful as I know she can be. So, if you want Connor alive, you better get your hybrids on board with my plan."

Stefan pulls the phone away from his ear and hangs up without waiting for Klaus to respond, and Salem whistles lowly under her breath. "Wow, you are wearing the bossy pants today. You know, if this is how you were all the time, I'd probably like you more."

The vampire rolls his eyes, pocketing his phone. "I don't need you to like me, I need you to be even just the slightest bit helpful. If Klaus decides he doesn't want to listen, I know you have enough pull with his hybrids to get them to help."

He gives her a pleading look and she sighs, crossing her arms over her chest. "Salem, you and I both know that we can't go in there guns blazing. If Connor dies, we'll never be able to find the cure."

"I don't care about the cure," Salem reminds him. "Because if Elena takes the cure and becomes human again, it means my obsessive boyfriend is going to make her into his walking, talking blood bag again. And, you know, as much as you hate Elena being a vampire, you'd hate that even more. So, tell me, Stefan, which is worse? Elena being a weak, mortal human who Klaus can use until she's bled dry and dies for real, or a somewhat capable vampire who you can probably live with forever until the fact that she's in love with your brother becomes too much to bear?"

Stefan looks at her for a long time, stony in his silence, and Salem raises a brow, urging him to say something.

Narrowing his eyes at her, he tilts his head. "Being with Klaus has made you cruel, Salem. How much longer are you going to be able to live with that? Or have you just accepted the fact that he cares more about my girlfriend than he does you?" 

Salem resisted the immediate urge to snap his neck, if only because she'd never hear the end of it.

Instead she just rolls her shoulders back and straightens her spine, gesturing to the town square they're nearing. "Touché, Stefan. I suppose I can be helpful, but just for today," 

"Great," He gives her a fake smile that she mirrors as they come to a stop on the grass, looking at the bar. They both fall silent for a moment, and Salem breaks it with a sigh.

"Nothing but voices,"

Stefan nods in agreement. "Three."

"Jeremy, for one,"

Stefan winces, cursing under his breath. "It's Matt and April Young in there," He pulls his phone back out to call Elena, eyes wide. The girl answers quickly, and Stefan holds the phone between him and Salem, letting her voice echo out.

"What did you find out?"

"We could only make out the voices,"

"How many hostages?" Damon asks.

"Three," Stefan sighs. "But Elena, it's Matt and April Young."

Elena's shock is clear in her voice when she speaks. "What?"

"Those two idiots are like danger magnets," Damon spits and Salem can see the look on his face just by hearing his tone. She almost voices her agreement, but remembers her conceding just a moment ago to Stefan's cry for help.

Elena ignores Damon's comment. "We have to get them out of there,"

"I just need a little more time," Stefan stutters slightly, eyes wide as he looks at Salem.

"Clock's ticking, brother,"

"I could do without the color commentary," Stefan hangs up abruptly, walking forward, prompting Salem to follow after him, walking back to Alaric's apartment.

Salem dutifully ignores the part of her that aches, when she walks past the door to her old apartment that she knows is still empty, and now Alaric's apartment that has surely been gathering dust in the days since his death.

She knows if he were still alive, he'd want her to help with this mess, too, and it's that thought that makes her push away the rest of her stubbornness regarding the ordeal. She could do it for Alaric, if nothing else. 

Stefan walks into the apartment first, eyes already on his brother and Elena. "Did you find the tunnel map?"

"Got it," Damon assures them as Salem closes the door behind her. "It was in his weapons drawer with seven stakes, some weird MacGyver crossbow, and the last vervain in Mystic Falls. So, how about we get this party started?"

"Not yet,"

Stefan's words immediately earn another combative look from Damon, who is far more willing to accept that his brother is hiding something from them than Elena is.

"Klaus is sending one of his men. He'll take the front with Salem, you and I take the tunnels."

Damon's face twisted. "Since when do we team up with Klaus and the Lollipop Guild?"

"Since you became desperate," Salem tilts her head with a smile, barely able to get her barb out before Stefan is on the defense again.

"I already told you, Connor has werewolf venom. We need someone to draw his fire. The hybrids are immune, they're our best shot."

Elena steps forward, confusion clear on her face as Damon voices her thoughts out loud.

"Well, how are you sure that he has werewolf venom? Why is Klaus involved, Stefan? You know, no offense, Salem, but I don't think I need to repeat all the reasons why he can't be trusted with these things."

Stefan turns away, grabbing one of Alaric's weapons. "Stop being paranoid, Damon,"

"Start telling the truth, Stefan," Damon raises his voice slightly, glaring at his brother's back. "Why is Klaus involved? Did he compel you?"

Stefan snaps around to face his brother. "I am telling you the truth. This is the best way to get everyone out."

"Okay, what is with you two?" Elena cuts in, frustration building in her anxious pacing. "We're wasting time."

"You know what? She's right," Damon scoffs. "Screw your plan. I'll kill Connor myself."

Damon steps past his brother and Salem to head to the door and Stefan moves after him in the blink of an eye, stabbing a syringe full of vervain into his back. The vampire groans out in pain, and Elena exclaims in shock.

"Stefan!"

Salem steps back from the mess as Stefan drags Damon's body over to Ric's couch, dropping him onto it with a grunt.

Elena turns, watching her boyfriend helplessly. "Why are you doing this?"

"Damon had the right idea with the tunnels," Stefan says, pulling his brother's phone from his pocket to send the picture of the tunnels to himself. "But I'm not gonna go in there if I can't count on him to do it my way."

"If you can't count on him?" Elena echoes incredulously. "You just vervained him."

"Do you think he cares about April or Matt?" Stefan stresses to his girlfriend, glancing at his unconscious brother. "He'll get Jeremy out for you, and go after Connor no matter who gets hurt."

Elena shakes her head stubbornly. "Then I'm coming with you,"

"You're not coming with me, Elena,"

"You need my help, Stefan–"

"What if Connor attacks you and you have to defend yourself? What if you kill him? The guilt would wreck you,"

Elena throws her hands up exasperatedly. "You don't think I'm afraid of that? Of course, I am, Stefan, I'm barely holding it together. If Jeremy gets hurt–"

"Enough with the lover's quarrel," Salem cuts in, glaring at the both of them. "I've been roped into helping with this mess, and right now nothing productive is going on and your window of my help is closing rapidly. So, I'm gonna go down to the Grill and wait for Dean to get there. If you aren't in the woods digging your little heart out in ten minutes, I'm killing Connor. Don't think I won't."

Salem turns on her heel and slams the door behind her, rolling her eyes as she hurries back down the stairs and outside.

It doesn't take long for Dean to show up, and Salem raises her fingers in a wave he acknowledges with a nod.

He looks around a bit confusedly and presses at the earpiece attached to his head. "There's no sign of anyone,"

"Stefan's going in a different way," She informs him, eyeing him. "Is that Klaus on the phone?"

The hybrid nodded and she pursed her lips, tilting her head. "What's he saying?"

"Stefan's gonna free the hostages, it's up to us to get Connor out alive," Dean says, a hint of wariness in his voice. "Said he likes to ambush."

Dean moves to pull the piece out of his ear and put it in his pocket, and Salem gestures to the door, letting him go first.

"He's right. He's very good at what he does," Salem says, reluctant to admit it if only for their safety. "Be suspicious of everything you see. Assume he's got it attached to something dangerous, alright? I'll try my best to contain the damage, but I can't promise you anything."

Dean gives her a grateful nod and opens the door, the hinges creaking a little. Just as they step into the small foyer and open the second door, music blares over the speakers throughout the restaurant and Salem winces at the sudden burst of noise, Dean doing the same even as he pulls the door open.

He looks up above at the trim, and then down to his feet, and sees a thin, tripwire right at level with his shins. With a short glance around, he finds the large jar of something that it's attached to, and steps over the wire onto the mat.

"Dean, no!" Salem's eyes widen when she sees the jar light up red and she swings the door open, trying to grab Dean's jacket.

Before she can reach him, the bomb goes off and she flinches bodily, encasing herself in magic as the force of it slams her into the wall. She grunts in pain, lifting her head from where she'd shielded it as debris rained down around her.

Through the gaps in the smoke, she sees Dean slowly sitting up, shards of nails and glass sticking out of him from every angle. She dissipates the hue of her magic and slumps down onto the ground, narrowing her eyes as the hunter walks out from behind the bar, and shoots a tortuous contraption that sails straight through Dean's chest.

She looks away and stills herself as he glances in her direction, holding her breath until she can no longer feel his eyes on her.

Opening her eyes just enough to see, she watches as he takes his jacket off, looking at his arm, undoubtedly watching his tattoo grow in the wake of his fresh kill.

She sees Jeremy standing before him with a baffled look on his face, and she wonders what the tattoo looks like with yet another hybrid kill beneath his belt.

For a moment it's silent in the bar other than the music blaring over the speakers, and then Connor's moving like a snake about to strike, grabbing Jeremy in a chokehold and shooting at the bar enough times to make her ears ring.

Connor pushes Jeremy forward and Salem stiffens when she hears another detonator start to tick.

"Connor, you don't have to do this!" Stefan's voice rings out through the chaos, and Jeremy looks up with wide, panicked eyes.

"Stefan,"

Salem shifts amidst the debris, careful not to make any noise as she turns to look at Jeremy's frozen stature, stuck on the mat with the detonators pressed in beneath his feet. If he moves even an inch, it's going to blow. Salem doesn't know how fast her magic could move in order to save him.

"Connor, we can end this right now!" Stefan calls out again, voice echoing. "Just put down the gun and come with me."

"Sure," Connor drawls out, that cocky lilt to his voice setting her nerves on edge. "Come out. I'll hand the gun over."

"Think about this," Stefan turns slightly to look between the slats of the bar, eyeing the positions they're in across the room. "No one has to die. I'll tell you everything you need to know."

"I don't make deals with vampires!" Connor's enraged voice nearly makes her flinch, and she can't help but think that the man, for as deadly as he is, is scared. Scared that a vampire knows why he is the way he is, scared that he's even thought twice about accepting the help, or scared that even if he does kill all of these people, he still won't know what the whole point is. Salem doesn't know, but she knows fear when she sees it, and she knows what to do with it.

"Listen to me, if you die right now, then your whole life, all that killing, it'll all be for nothing. I can give you the truth. Just put down the gun and let Jeremy go."

Salem shifts, laying her fingers on the ground, carving out a space in the splintered floorboards to tap her fingers against quietly. She slides them out against the floor and watches the glimmering yellow strands, no thicker than a spider's web, intertwine with the grains in the wood, trailing a path to Jeremy's feet.

She circles her fingers against the floor, pulling the strands taught, and then ties it off, securing it around the boy's feet without him even realizing it.

Just as she begins to weave a new strand, a new voice rings out.

"Please, don't hurt him!" Elena's hoarse voice echoes through the bar, and Salem lifts her head, eyes falling to the girl standing before Connor, facing down the end of his gun.

Connor moves to point the gun back at Jeremy, face dark with threat. "You come any closer, he's dead."

"Elena, get out of here," Jeremy looks at his sister pleadingly, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

"He's the only family that I have left," She ignores her brother, focusing her pleading on the hunter. "Just– just let him go."

"You hear that?" Connor raises his voice, shouting to Stefan. "Your girl's watching. I will shoot the boy right in front of her! On the count of three– one..."

Salem taps her fingers against the floor a bit harder than before, and she watches Elena's eyes track the sound right to where she lays in the debris, just out of sight of Connor. Elena's eyes widened and Salem gestured to Jeremy, trying to silently convey that she at least wasn't going to let her brother be shot or blown up.

"Two,"

Elena swallows roughly and looks back at Connor just as Stefan stands from behind the bar, holding his arms up in surrender.

Just as Connor pulls the trigger on Stefan, Elena lunges for him, knocking him out of the path. A stray bullet flies, and Salem sees Jeremy take the hit with a shocked grunt as Elena tackles Connor to the floor, not letting up on attacking him.

Jeremy shifts on the weighted plate, stumbling in shock, and Salem flips herself around just as Stefan grabs him, throwing them over and behind a table as the bomb goes off.

Salem pushes to her feet, ignoring the ringing in her ear as she stalks past the newest mess, right to where Elena's lost her momentum and gotten pinned by Connor.

She swipes a hand and sends him flying off of her, offering a hand to Elena as Stefan grabs Connor and disappears.

Elena stands up with a shaky breath and she looks around, lost in Stefan's abrupt departure.

"Your brother," Salem reminds her, gesturing to where Stefan had shielded him behind an overturned table. "He needs your blood."

Elena pushes her hair out of her face and nods, following after the teacher to where Jeremy is lying limp against the table, panting in pain.

"This is gonna hurt," Salem warns him as she kneels, pinching her fingers together and then spreading them out as she sends threads of her magic into the bullet hole, waiting until she feels the solid bullet encased in her magic before pulling it out. Jeremy, to his credit, doesn't scream.

Elena is quick to bite into her wrist and force the blood down her brother's throat, letting herself only feel relief when he lets out a sigh that is more tired than pained.

For a moment she's fine, and then her eyes drop down to the blood staining his shirt, and she feels her gums start to ache. "I'm sorry," She looks away from her brother, shoulders heaving with guilt and embarrassment.

"It's okay," Jeremy says, looking at his sister. "You don't have to hide it. I know you're not gonna hurt me."

Elena shakes her head, collecting herself. "How did this happen, Jer? Why did Connor come after you?"

Jeremy clenches his jaw, glancing at Salem briefly before looking back towards his sister. "He said I was like him because I could see his tattoo."

Elena's face twists in confusion and she snaps around to look at her brother. "His what?"

"His Hunter's Mark. It's invisible to everyone but me," Jeremy shakes his head slightly. "Stefan and Damon didn't tell you about it?"

"No, we–" Elena shakes her head. "Wait, who else knows about this?"

Jeremy heaves a tired sigh, and Salem tenses slightly, hoping he didn't even look in her direction. "Well, that's the thing. I don't even know. Apparently, I was with Connor all day yesterday but I can't remember. Someone compelled me."

Elena stands up, her lip curling into a snarl. "I think I know who,"

"Elena," Salem is quick to follow the girl as she walks towards the back room. "Elena, I really don't think you want to do this."

"You can't stop me, Salem," Elena huffs, pushing into the room and turning the corner to find the tunnel entrance. "Connor's just going to keep doing this until we're all dead. Are you going to let that happen?"

"You don't understand, Elena," Salem tries, pulling her arm back just before she can enter the tunnel. "It's not just about Connor, it's about the bigger picture. Stefan's trying to help you, you just have to trust him."

"How can I trust him when all he's been doing lately is lying to me?"

Salem falls silent and it's exactly what Elena needs to disappear into the tunnel in a blur. Salem curses under her breath and dips down into it, following the teenager into the dark, slightly damp-smelling tunnel.

"Elena," Salem kept her voice low, knowing that the vampire could hear her easily. "Elena, come on. Don't do anything rash, okay? You don't know what it will do to you,"

It's an otherwise straight shot of a tunnel, Salem knows, but there are a few narrow parts that have her grimacing, heart rate spiking at the tight fit. She doesn't like feeling closed in, especially underground. She might as well be buried alive.

Just as she squeezes through a particularly narrow part of the tunnel, it opens up into a wider space and she sees Elena standing over Connor's body, the man still on the ground, eyes wide open.

Salem lets out a quiet sigh, and Elena snaps around to face her, blood dripping down her chin as tears well up in her eyes.

Salem steps forward carefully, giving Elena a sympathetic look. "It's alright, Elena. You were defending Jeremy," She steps past the vampire, reaching for Connor. "We need to hide his body, alright? We have to get rid of it."

She nods, shoulders shaking with sobs as she helps Salem pick the man up from the dirt floor and walk his corpse back through the tunnels.

She watches the girl break down more and more as they get back into the Grill, and she motions for the girl to pause as she wraps her magic around the bombs rigged to the back door, propping it open gently. "His truck," She says, picking his arms back up. "We'll take it out to the woods, and we'll get it done, alright?"

Elena nods again, and Salem can't help but feel bad for her and the seemingly unending tears spilling from her eyes. It seems like Elena herself isn't even aware of them as they streak through the blood drying on her chin.

It's easy to get Connor's body into the back of the truck and get the keys out of his pocket with the streets still blocked off, and she hurries to the driver's seat, eyeing Elena out of the corner of her eye as the girl slumps into the passenger seat, crying silently.

─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────

It doesn't take long for Stefan and Damon to show up, and Salem immediately sets her shovel aside to meet their gazes.

"Elena,"

The girl startles, turning to look at her boyfriend.

Stefan looks down at Connor's body at her feet, and Elena follows his gaze, breath stalling in her chest the longer she stares at it.

"I need to bury him," She nods, saying the words to herself more than anything. "I killed him. I should– I should bury him."

Stefan looks at Salem, who simply shakes her head as the girl goes back to shoveling dirt out of the ground. He shares a concerned look with his brother, the three of them watching Elena continue to quietly sob as she digs the grave.

Stefan finally steps forward, reaching for her. "Hey. Hey, come on–"

Elena pushes him away from her, yelling. "Don't! I– I heard you talking to him. Making some secret deal with Klaus? You said you were gonna protect Jeremy," She looks back down at Connor, voice breaking. "Keep me from this."

Elena's chest heaves with the emotions bubbling up inside of her, hands shake with it. "You said that I could trust you, Stefan."

Stefan looks away from her, ashamed.

"Elena, it's complicated,"

"No, it's not complicated, Damon. You wanna know why? Because– because he's dead now," Elena shakes her head, voice nearly a whimper. "You told me to kill him... so I did."

For all he's worth, Salem can see the guilt in Damon's eyes. It doesn't do anything to assuage Elena's, though.

"Oh," The girl stutters out, like it just hit her, the reality of what she did. "I– I killed someone. I killed some–"

Elena cuts herself off as a sob rips from her chest, and she presses a hand into her stomach like it'll stop the tsunami of guilt and fear and everything else crashing into her.

The three of them watch as Elena sobs, knowing they can do nothing to ease the feelings that have been pounding around in her brain since she was turned.

─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────

Klaus gets home in the early hours of the next day, and Salem's waiting for him on the couch with a bottle of bourbon in her hand.

He eyes her flat look, the emptiness behind her colorful eyes and the bags beneath them that grow larger with every passing day. She looks lifeless compared to when he met her. He tries to ignore what that means.

He sees the way her hand clenches and unclenches around the bottle, and he steps into the room warily.

He opens his mouth to say something, to break the silence they find themselves in more and more these days, but she beats him to it.

"Dean is dead," Her voice is hoarse and he wonders if she's been crying again because it wouldn't be the first time he's come home to her tears. "So is Connor."

Unfortunately, her words distract him from any concerns he could have about her. "What?"

"Elena killed him," She finally drags her eyes off the spot on the floor she'd been focusing on, blinking slowly.

Klaus clenches his jaw, and Salem sees his anger clear as day as he walks over to her and grabs the bottle of bourbon from her hand, taking a swig off it.

"She's a very stupid little girl," Klaus growls out as the bitter taste of the liquor melts into his chest like a fire. Relishes in the way it feels for the split second before it fades.

"He attacked her brother and her friends. She was going to do it no matter what," Salem said easily, looking away from him to look off into the distance again. "She couldn't have known. Stefan endangered all of us because you won't let us tell the truth, and because you know he's so desperate for Elena to be human again, he's going to do anything you say."

"Salem, I–"

"We're not having a conversation," She cuts him off firmly. "I'm talking. You run away, you keep secrets, you get people killed, Klaus. Your hybrids, most of all, it seems. You know, I wouldn't believe that you cared for them by the way you treat them, but then again– you say you care about me, so I guess that's just how you show it, huh?"

She stands abruptly, stepping into his space as he looks down at her with wide eyes, shocked at the vitriol that's suddenly burning behind her eyes. "If you want Elena to be human again so you can make more of your sires, then you need to figure it out on your own because I'm done helping you."

"What are you going to do, then?"

She shrugs, scoffing. "I don't know, but I am not going to continue to torture Elena just because you think your hybrids are all you need. She's a vampire now, Klaus, and all anyone's done since she got turned is make her feel horrible about it, including her boyfriend. So now she's just killed someone for the first time– for good reason, too– and she can't speak three words without crying over it. She's just a little girl, Klaus. She's terrified and now she's immortal, and for once she can actually defend herself and not be used by people like you, and you want to take it all away from her. Stefan wants to take it away because she liked him more when she was human. It's– it's selfish and it's ridiculous."

Salem steps past him, shaking her head incredulously as she goes to leave, Klaus following closely after her. "I mean, Damon's the only one who doesn't want her to be human again, and that's only because he's being just as selfish as everyone else. Do you have any idea what it feels like to be in that position?"

She whips around to face him, startling him, and points an accusing finger at him. "I know what it feels like. I know what it feels like to only be used for what you can do for other people. Do you wanna know why I know what that feels like, Klaus? Do you want to know why I know how lonely Elena is right now? Or how she feels like everything that's going wrong is her fault because she isn't what people need her to be? Do you?"

Klaus swallows roughly, but his voice is quiet when he speaks. "Why?"

She steps back into his space, lip curling in a snarl as she shoves at his chest. "Because of you."

He resists the urge to flinch away from her words, instead watching her falter before his very eyes. All of that anger falling out of her, shattering at their feet like glass. Klaus realizes he's dropped the bottle of bourbon he didn't even realize he was still carrying with him.

She doesn't have shoes on, so he picks her up out of the sticky, sharp mess, ignoring her noise of surprise as he carries her over to the stairs and sits her down carefully. He doesn't want to drop her and let her break, either.

He knows he should clean up the mess but instead, he drops onto the stairs beside her and looks at her, refusing to break the silence he's maintained.

He sees her now, in all of her glory. He sees the glint in her eye no longer as unmasked confidence, but instead a tear that she never lets fall in front of him. He sees the scared, lonely girl that she says Elena is, born a shallow birth, written into the stars as a weapon by her creators.

He wants to tell her that it's all going to be okay, even if it isn't. He wants to tell her that one day she won't have to face the fate her mother left for her and that the only person she can unwaveringly trust in this world is him. He wants her to look at him and only him, because every time she looks, he'll already be looking back at her. 

He wants to tell her that he loves her. But he doesn't.

Instead, he takes her hand in his, intertwining their fingers together and resting them where their legs touch on the stairs. She doesn't say anything, doesn't lash out at him any further, but instead lays her head on his shoulder and lets him pretend that they're not two lit fuses about to reach the end of their matches.

It's a comfort for both of them in this moment, even if they know it's all pretend. 

─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────

author's note; how miserable am I going to make them, you ask? well... we are only in the beginning of season four... I've got plenty of time to make it worse

edited and published; 12.26.23.

- liz