[locked to Damon, Caroline, and Jeremy; backdated to the arrivals]

[descendent]

[ Elena Gilbert doesn't wallow. And while this is pretty much soul-destroying and nothing she ever saw coming, she is not going to be focusing on that. Or trying not to. ]

Katherine and Stefan are here.

They arrived together.

I don't know exactly what's going on, but it can't be good and I wanted to give everyone a head's up.

Comments

[breakthelock]

[jrkle;a FWAUGH ;;]

I was just opening my journal to tell you that.

[Worried lil bro is a go.]

Where are you?

[descendent]

Wait, what?

You saw them, too?

[ Worried big sis is also a go. ]

I'm at campus. [ Trying to dig up info fruitlessly. ] I'll be home soon and I'm fine, Jer. Where did you see them?

[breakthelock]

I ran into Katherine.

[:( ;;]

I'm fine, Elena. [And he knows that she is not.]

I'll be waiting for you, okay? So soon.

I saw her uptown. She mentioned Stefan. She can't lie if you ask her a question directly. Guess that's her Rift change. Karma, I guess.

[descendent]

What happened? Are you okay?

[ Augh, why is this happening.

Just the thought of Katherine and Jeremy alone together. ]

You ran into her and something could've happened, Jer. We need to stock up on vervain. [ For other people. ]

Soon.

God, that's something at least, though I can't imagine how angry she must be about it. [ An angry, pissed off Katherine is never a good thing. Especially if Stefan goes AWOL. ]

[ican_takeyou]

Oh.... this isn't good. If they're together? That's definitely not from when I know about things. I mean, I didn't exactly want to share the heap of bad news, Elena, but there's a lot of bad news.

[descendent]

Together. It was really worrying, Caroline. He wasn't the Stefan we know. As far as I know, he took off, and I don't know where he is. Katherine stuck around, but she only knows about Damon being here.

[ A pause as she steels herself inwardly ] It's okay. Just tell me what you know?

[ican_takeyou]

I don't know a lot, but I know that Klaus needed to complete his ritual and he took Tyler and me for the sacrifices, but he had a back-up for the back-up and even when Damon kept messing things up, he just kept coming at us. [She doesn't want to tell her about Jenna...]

Tyler... Tyler bit Damon. He was changing and Damon was trying to protect me. The cure was Klaus' blood and to get it [She pauses then continues.] Stefan had to promise that he'd go with Klaus. As his little killing spree buddy or something. Damon had clippings of these murders. You freaked when you saw them, but then everything else happened and I don't know what could've happened.

I mean, Katherine was trapped at Alaric's apartment.

[descendent]

Jeremy told me about Damon getting bitten, but I had no idea-- [ It takes her a moment to reply as she wraps her head around all this. Jeremy only knew bits and pieces, and he was pulled into this world before anything was ever resolved when it came to Damon and the werewolf bite. She sits down at the foot of her bed, just trying to process. Her blood goes cold and it all makes so much sense now, but it hurts. ]

All Stefan would say was he did something, and I wouldn't want to know. I tried to get it out of him but he wouldn't tell me. No one can find him now.

At Alaric's? [ Another pause, as that's... odd. ] Apparently, she found her way out. They were in a car together, on their way to who knows where. Jeremy ran into Katherine before I could. For some reason, she couldn't lie to him. We think the Rift had something to do with it. She mentioned Stefan did bad things because of Klaus, but I don't know why he was with her instead.

It's bad, Caroline.

[idontgethurt]

[And speaking of people who got to their journals to tell Elena just that. ;; There's worry and pain and guilt and grief and anger. It's all very sickeningly swirling in the pit of his stomach, and he's worried about Elena too. Knowing how Stefan was, knowing how that must have affected her. He reads what Caroline has written on top of that.

Of course he did. Of course, Stefan made a promise to save Damon's life.

Again.]

I know.

I saw them. Talked to Stefan. [And he's going to track down Katherine but not right now, not just yet. That seems like a massively bad idea.]

Are you okay? [He already knows the answer but he asks anyway, and he'll be finding her as soon as he can trust himself to be around someone else. Damon knows how he gets when he feels like this too, what happens.]

[descendent]

[ Elena grows very still at his reply.

It's something she and Jeremy had already theorized, but it's another thing entirely to get confirmation. Damon saw Stefan, talked to him, and she can only imagine how that went. He might've had a better chance of getting answers, at least, but that doesn't change the shock of it.

The hurt. And she knows it hurts. ]

I was wondering if you had already seen either of them.

You know the answer to that, Damon. [ She's past saying I'm fine now after all her talks. ]

Where are you?

[idontgethurt]

[Damon is angry, but that is putting it lightly. The anger always takes over, and it's his initial reaction, what he holds on to even when there is so much else swirling around in his chest.

His jaw locks, and he drinks, and he tries to formulate a plan as to how he can do this.

What he's supposed to do with Stefan, the ripper, running around.]

I saw them together, and I talked to Stefan alone. Haven't bothered talking to the evil slut vampire yet.

[Yes, he does know the answer to that like how she doesn't even have to ask him, because she knows too. It prevents his Rift ability from coming into play.]

The club.

Elena, this is not [the best time, but he knows convincing her of that is useless. He wants to see her anyway, figure out what Stefan said to her.]

[descendent]

[ Despite the fact she takes into account the rest of what he says, Elena doesn't answer Damon over the journals. She has personally experienced firsthand what Damon's like when it's not the best time.

However, a year has come and gone, and Elena believes they're past that point.

More over, she's not scared of Damon when it's not the best time.

With everything that's happened, there's never going to be a best time for it, and they're the ones that had the bomb dropped on them so abruptly without being able to catch their breaths before it's exploded in their faces.

So she makes her way over to the No Name, past the clientele and up to his office. ]

Damon?