07. The Next Time I Hurt Somebody, It Could Be You

Kol sat in the Salvatore kitchen, writing in a diary.

Dear Salvatore Triplets,

I know you guys must be shocked reading this, wondering since when do I write in a diary, but given the situation I'm in, it felt fitting to write to you guys today, because the way things are looking, it seems that this might be my first and last entry to you guys, for me there is no tomorrow, which is why this Christmas I'm going to enjoy the present, I'm going to enjoy today.

Aria and Kol were now in the living room together, both of them were decorating the massive tree Kol had found, after lighting the tree, Aria and Kol looked at each with huge smiles on their faces, both of them wanting this Christmas the best Christmas the triplets ever had, knowing it was possibly the last Christmas they had with Kol.

To save you guys, me and Damon had to make a deal with the literal devil. At midnight, I have to leave you guys, if I never see you guys again, just know that I tried my best, I did everything I could to come back to you guys but it wasn't enough.

"Are we actually doing this?" Aria asked, sitting on the counter of the Salvatore's kitchen and seeing Kol work his magic.

"Yes Ri, we are" Kol said, "This Christmas Eve dinner is something we do every year, this year is not going to be any different, and I figured my last day with you guys should be full of happiness and cheer and not sad and depressing".

Aria sighed, "Fine, but can we stop saying this is your last day with us, because it's not".

"Ri--".

"Don't give me a there's no way out of this deal crap, Kol" Aria warned, "I might not have the solution now, but I will have the solution eventually, I will bring both you and Damon back".

Kol gave Aria a small smile, he then walked over to her and pressed a kiss on her forehead, "If anyone is going to beat the devil, then it's going to be you".

"I hope so" Aria whispered.

"I know so" Kol whispered.

***

After hearing a knock of the door, Aria opened and immediately a huge smile formed on her face seeing Klaus and Caroline with the twins.

"Hey babies" Aria greeted, kneeling down and hugging Hope and Jayden.

"Merry Christmas, Ari!" Hope and Jayden yelled, giving their aunt a tight hug.

"Merry Christmas, mini Mikaelson's" Aria laughed.

"I knew I heard trouble" Kol said, walking over and hugging Jayden and Hope,

"Says the troublemaker himself" Klaus teased.

"I'm not a troublemaker, I just know how have fun" Kol defended.

"Whatever you say, Kol" Caroline said.

"Ari, where's Asher, Alec and Mia?" Jayden asked.

"They're upstairs in their room getting ready" Aria informed.

Without wasting a second, both Hope and Jayden rushed upstairs to greet the triplets.

"Careful!" Caroline warned, seeing her kids run up the stairs, "I swear, those five can't live without each other".

"They're just like their mothers" Aria teased.

Caroline laughed, "Merry Christmas, Aria Connor-Forbes".

"Merry Christmas, Caroline Forbes" Aria chuckled, pulling her sister into a hug.

Kol smiled at the two sisters, he then looked at his brother who also had a fond smile on his face, "I'm not hugging you".

Klaus looked at Kol, "Good, because that would be too weird" he said, as Aria and Caroline broke their hug.

"At least wish each other" Aria said, shaking her head at the brothers.

"Fine" Klaus said, he looked at his brother, "Merry Christmas, Kol".

"Merry Christmas, Nik" Kol said, he then looked at Aria, "Happy?".

"You know brothers hug, right?" Aria said.

"Not us" Kol and Klaus said in unison.

"Liars" Aria and Caroline said in unison.

"Whenever you guys feel emotional, you always hug" Caroline pointed out.

"Exactly" Aria said.

"That's called moment of weakness" Kol said, Klaus nod his head in agreement.

"No it's called brotherly love" Aria teased.

"Gross" Klaus said, making Aria and Caroline laugh.

"Ho! Ho! Ho!".

The group of four looked towards the front door after hearing a familiar voice, and to their shock they saw Damon entering the boarding house, his arm looped with Sybil's.

"Merry Christmas, everyone" Damon greeted, but the group didn't say anything, just looked at him in shock, knowing if Damon and Sybil were here, something was about to go seriously wrong, "Christmas just got merry".

***

"So I messaged Rebekah and Enzo not to come here" Aria informed, entering the kitchen where her sister was preparing the eggnog.

"Thank goodness" Caroline said, "Enzo cannot be around Sybil".

"That's exactly why I stopped Enzo and Rebekah from coming here" Aria said, "Care, what the hell do Damon and Sybil want from us now?".

"To ruin Christmas, I don't know" Caroline replied, "But they promised to leave the triplets alone so don't worry about them".

"I'm a mother Care, all I do is worry" Aria retorted.

Caroline laughed, "Yeah, I finally understand what Mom and Amelia Mom meant when they used to say that we will only understand a mother's worry once we are mother's ourselves".

Aria chuckled, "Yeah" she whispered, she then looked at Caroline, "What if we use the tuning fork to force Sybil to leave?".

"We can't, Sybil stole that" Caroline reminded.

"Then we need to get it back" Aria realised.

"From where Aria?" Caroline asked, "It could be anywhere, hell it could even be in the trunk of her car right now".

Aria shook her head, "No, there's no way Sybil will keep a weapon near her that makes her vulnerable, it's probably at the place she's staying".

"Which we have no idea is where" Caroline added.

Aria's eyes landed on the bottle of bourbon, she then looked at her sister with a cheeky smile, "We can find it though" she said, grabbing the bottle and pouring a large amount of bourbon into Sybil's glass, while Caroline looked on amused.

***

Aria walked into the living room with a tray of eggnog in her hands, she handed Sybil the one she spiked with bourbon.

"Caroline's special eggnog" Aria informed, as Sybil took the eggnog from her hand, she then turned to Damon and handed him a glass.

"Don't worry, I didn't have time to poison it" Caroline told Damon, after seeing his slightly disgusted look.

"Well, you already poisoned the bourbon with milk and cinnamon, so" Damon said.

"Nik's with the kids, he's gonna try and keep them busy, keyword here is try" Kol informed, entering the living room.

"You don't have to hide them" Damon assured, as Aria sat next to him, "I'm honoring the deal, we work for Cade, munchkins go unharmed"

Aria looked at Damon, "For someone who believes those triplets mean nothing to him, you sure as hell did a lot to keep them safe".

Damon looked at Aria, "Don't do that" he warned.

"Don't do what?" Aria asked.

"Don't look at me with those eyes" Damon snapped.

Aria chuckled, "Why Damon?" she asked, "Are my eyes causing that humanity switch to come on?".

"You just don't give up, do you?" Damon asked.

"No" Aria replied, "I don't know how to".

"I sure hope the triplets don't get your stubbornness" Damon said.

"Too late" Aria whispered, "They definitely have my stubbornness".

"Can confirm" Caroline said.

Damon shook his head at the two sisters, he then turned to Kol, "Kol, why don't you come with me and we'll go get some of my family's old tree ornaments, huh?", Aria looked at Kol and immediately shook her head, something told her this wasn't going to end well, "Oh, come on Kol" Damon said, seeing Aria's interaction with Kol, "I'll tell you why I'm here".

Kol sighed, but nonetheless nodded his head and walked away with Damon while Aria face palmed, frustrated that neither Damon or Kol never listened to her.

***

"So, are you going to tell me what you're doing here or not?" a frustrated Kol asked, as the duo stood in Damon and Aria's room.

"I'm getting ornaments for the tree, Kol" Damon replied, opening a drawer and taking out old ornaments.

"At midnight, I'll join you and Cade for eternity, but till then, I want to be left alone" Kol snapped.

"Sure, anything you want, brother" Damon said.

"Thank you" Kol said, he turned to leave but Damon suddenly came behind him and staked him through the chest with a wooden stake, causing Kol to groan in pain and then fall to the floor, temporarily dead.

Suddenly, Kol gasped and woke up, looking around he felt extremely weird, though it was the Salvatore boarding house, something about it seemed weird, he looked to his side where the wooden stake Damon used to kill him with was, but to his confusion there was no blood on the stake.

A confused Kol stood up from the bed and walked downstairs, only to see the living room completely empty, no Aria, no Sybil, no Caroline, he looked around when a black shadow caught his eye.

"Mr. Mikaelson".

Kol looked towards the fireplace and saw Cade standing there.

"I've been waiting for you" Cade told Kol.

"Where the bloody hell are we?" a confused Kol asked.

Cade looked around, "Just behind the veil" he informed.

"This is hell?" Kol asked, really unimpressed, "Hell is the Salvatore Boarding House's living room, seriously?".

"If this were hell, you would know it" Cade retorted, sitting down on a chair, "Think of this as a waiting room, lucky for you, I'm sending you back".

"Even if you didn't send me, a wooden stake to my heart, doesn't kill me, it just temporarily makes me useless" Kol retorted.

"I know that" Cade said, "But you seem to forget that I'm the devil, I can keep you here for as long as I want, so let's discuss our partnership, then we can all go our merry way".

"What more is there to discuss?" a confused Kol asked, "For the rest of eternity, Damon and I grab the bad guys and in return you keep our names out of hell, seems pretty straightforward to me".

"Surely, you must have questions" Cade said.

"Fine, here's a question for you, what's it going to take to get me out of this deal?" Kol asked, "I know I used to be the psychotic maniac, but I'm not that person anymore".

"Actually Kol, you are exactly that person" Cade retorted, "And I'm here to tell you how".

***

"Mm, this is going to be a killer dinner" Sybil taunted, standing in the kitchen with Aria and Caroline, "Are the other guests on the way?".

"Let's hope so" an annoyed Caroline said, with a fake smile on her face.

"Goody" Sybil said, as Aria handed a glass of wine, "I can't wait, I haven't had a Christmas Eve dinner in, ever".

Caroline took a deep breath, in order to stop herself from snapping at Sybil, she then grabbed a knife and fork and started carving the turkey.

"Here, here, here, let me help" Sybil said, taking the knife and fork from Caroline's hand, who after giving her a fake laugh, stepped away from the turkey and let Sybil carve the turkey.

"So, what's your favorite part about Mystic Falls so far?" Caroline asked, as Aria watched Sybil rip the turkey apart with her hands.

"Huge houses with big pools" Sybil replied, as Caroline poured herself another glass of wine, this was torture for her, "You know I love the water, and it's not like I have to pay the mortgage or anything".

Aria looked at Sybil in confusion, "It's hard to find houses like that here".

"Actually, there's a little neighborhood outside of Grove Hill called the Pond Estates" Sybil informed, "Weirdly though, there's no pond", Caroline once gave fake laughed, while Aria had to stop herself from laughing for real at her sister's state, "I know, right? Anyways, it's filled with rich, sleazy men that'll give up their whole house for a song, get it?".

Caroline once again fake laughed, "That's hilarious".

"Excuse me, I have to go check on the triplets" Aria said, quickly rushing out the kitchen, as soon as she was out of Sybil's sight, she pulled her phone out and messaged Rebekah about Pond Estates.

***

After realising Damon and Kol were still not back, Aria decided to check up on them.

"Kol!" Aria called out, walking into Kol's room, "Kol, where are--", Aria gasped in shock seeing Kol's desiccated body laying on the floor, she quickly rushed over to the original and immediately removed the wooden stake still in his heart, she knew he wasn't dead but that doesn't mean the scene infront of her didn't terrify her.

"Relax, he's not Damon".

Aria turned around and came face to face with Damon.

"You did this?" Aria asked, glaring at her soulmate.

"Guilty" Damon simply said.

Aria suddenly speeded over to Damon and held him in a chock hold against the wall, "Why?" she asked.

"Why such an overreaction, Aria?" Damon asked, smiling at the tribrid, "We both know he will back, big man requested a meeting, so I just organised it".

Aria shook her head, she then stepped back from Damon and ran her hand in her hair, feeling extremely frustrated with everything that was happening, after giving Aria one last glance, Damon left the room.

***

Aria walked into the living room and immediately an annoyed groan came out of her seeing Sybil messing with the tree her and Kol put up.

"Do you like these ornaments?" a curious Sybil asked.

"Nope, not at all, it's definitely not like I picked them myself" Aria said sarcastically, grabbing a bottle of wine and drinking directly from it.

"Surprise!".

Aria looked towards the voice who just yelled and immediately a huge smile formed on her face seeing Kai, "Kai!" she yelled, running over to the siphoner and pulling him into a hug, after breaking the hug she looked at Kai in confusion, "Wait, I thought you said, you weren't going to make it this christmas".

"I wasn't but then I also didn't want to hear your lecture on how holidays are special and we need to spend it with our friends and family, blah, blah, blah" Kai said, his eyes then landed on Sybil, who was giving Kai a curious look, "Oooo, who's she?".

"No" Aria said, grabbing the back of Kai's jacket and not letting him walk towards Sybil, "She's Sybil".

"Ah, the siren who has Damon under her control" Kai remembered.

"For someone who hasn't been in town, you sure as hell know a lot" Damon said, entering the living room.

"I have this one to thank for that" Kai said, pointing to Aria, "She's keep updated in all the emails she sends, oh by the way, hi Damon", Kai turned to Aria, "Where's the little gremlins and everyone else?".

"Well, Damon's right there as you can see" Aria pointed, "Rebekah and Enzo aren't coming, Caroline and Klaus are hiding, the triplets and twins are somewhere annoying Alaric, oh and did I mention that Kol's dead, merry christmas!".

"So you're telling me I should have stayed on that cruise ship?" Kai asked.

"That's exactly what I'm telling you" Aria confirmed, taking another swig out of the wine bottle.

***

"Let's make sure we all get back to the spirit of christmas" Caroline said, standing near the three with gifts in her hands, "At the heart of it is forgiveness, Kai, here you go".

"Yes! The main thing I came for" Kai said, eagerly taking the present from Caroline's hand.

"And here we thought you came to visit us" Klaus said sarcastically.

"In your dreams, puppy" Kai simply said, tearing into his gift, while Caroline and Aria laughed.

"Yeap, still hate the nickname and you" Klaus stated, glaring at Kai.

"Love you too" Kai teased.

"Nik" Aria called out, before Klaus could attack Kai, "Here, this is from me, to you, my first best friend, ever".

Klaus smiled at Aria, he then side hugged, "Thank you Ari".

"Anytime, Nik" Aria smiled.

Caroline looked at Sybil, "Our mother taught me to always be prepared for anything" she said, handing Sybil a gift box.

"Thank you" Sybil said, taking the gift from Caroline's hands.

Caroline gave Sybil a fake smile, she then looked at Aria and gave her a small nod, letting her know it was time for her to give Damon his present, something both the sisters knew if this didn't bring Damon back, then neither of them know what would.

Aria took a deep breath, she walked over to the christmas tree and picked up Damon's present, it was small but it had a lot of meaning to it.

"Damon" Aria said, turning to face the oldest Salvatore, "This is for you, there's two things in here, one is something very special to us, that I once thought was lost, but thanks to Kai, I found it again, I just never wore it after you left because it hurt too much, the second thing in here is the remainder of the day we both received the biggest happiness of our lives, so take this and just keep it safe, not for you, but for my Damon, for the Damon who loved me and his kids like no other, the Damon I will wait for forever".

Damon grabbed the small gift from Aria's hand, he then stared at the tribrid for a moment, her words creating unknown feelings in his heart.

"Damon" Sybil called out, after seeing Damon lost in his world.

"That bitch is never going to let Damon come back to Aria" an annoyed Caroline whispered to Klaus, as Sybil's voice once again stopped Damon from remembering his family.

"Something tells me after Damon sees what Ari gave him, nothing will stop him from coming back to her" Klaus whispered back.

Damon cleared his throat and stood up and walked over to the christmas tree, "Anyway, I'm sure you're all asking yourselves why I barged in tonight, relax, I come bearing a gift, now, unfortunately, I'm only gonna be able to give it to the most despicably evil person in the room, and that's gonna be a tough decision, but tonight, one lucky little elf is gonna get an all expense paid, one-way trip, straight to hell, meaning, I'm gonna kill one of you", everyone in the room looked at Damon in shock, "Let's eat".

***

"It's really quiet simple" Damon said, as the group now sat in the dinning table, eat dinner while at the same time keeping an eye for Damon's attack, "I assess the evil in people, so if they are wicked, immoral, corrupt, foul, nefarious, et cetera, I kill them".

An annoyed Caroline slammed a dish on to the table, "These are the au gratin potatoes, Kol made them, they're a Mikaelson recipe".

"Hey, where the hell is Ric?" a curious Damon, "What was he, reading the dictionary to those kids?".

"Don't even think about" Aria warned, slamming a dish near Damon, "You're not killing Ric, or anyone else of that matter, if you're here, then you're going to sit here quietly and stuff your face with delicious food cooked by Kol and Nik".

As Aria walked away, Damon suddenly slammed the table with a knife, causing everyone to look at him in vary, wondering what he was up to now.

"What?" Damon asked, seeing everyone's looks, "Was just breaking some bread".

"Why the bloody hell are you doing all this?" a confused Klaus asked.

"It's kind of his job" Sybil replied.

"It's his job to kill innocent people?" Kai asked, "Where was this job when I was insane?", Aria hit the back of Kai's head, "Ow!".

"Shut up and eat this" Aria said, putting the potatoes on Kai's plate.

"Potatoes, yum" Kai said, digging into his food, while Aria shook her head at him, when suddenly her phone started ringing, taking it out of her pocket she realised it was Rebekah, she looked towards her sisters and stealthily showed her the phone, in return Caroline nodded her head in understanding.

"Go" Caroline mouthed, "I've got this".

Aria gave Caroline a grateful smile, she then walked out of the dinning room after seeing Damon and Sybil busy with Caroline, and after making sure she was at a distance where neither of them could hear her, she accepted Rebekah's call.

"Rebekah?" Aria said into the phone.

"Don't hang up" Seline said from the other side, "Rebekah and Enzo are here with me, they're in no danger".

"We're fine Aria" Aria heard Rebekah say, "Seline just wanted to talk to you, she refused to give us the weapon without talking to you".

"What the hell is left for you to say to me?" a confused Aria asked Seline.

"Your children need my help" Seline informed.

"No, what my children need is to be far away from you" Aria retorted, "I'm never letting you near them again Seline".

"You have to" Seline argued, "I need to fix what I started, I was giving them training, preparing them for Cade, that left a psychic imprint, if I don't remove that imprint, they will always be linked to me, they must be showing signs of it by now".

"You're lying" Aria stated, refusing to believe Seline, "That's all you sirens know to do, now, I listened to your bullshit so now give Rebekah and Enzo the weapon".

"Aria, I'm not who you think I am" Seline said, desperately trying to get Aria to believe her, "I have been trying to escape for years".

"Then do everyone a favor Seline, go and drop dead" Aria said, hanging up on Seline, she refused to let Seline anywhere near her kids, she already nearly lost them once, she wasn't going to risk a second time.

***

Aria was in the kitchen when Sybil walked in, but before she could start her taunting, the triplets entering the kitchen caught her attention.

"Hey, guys" Aria greeted, looking at Sybil and giving her a warning through her eyes, warning her not to come near her kids, in return Sybil simply gave her a smirk.

"Mom, where's Seline?" Asher asked, immediately causing Aria to frown and Sybil's smirk to get even bigger.

"Seline?" a confused Aria asked, wondering why her kids were asking about Seline.

"We miss Seline, mom" Alec said, "Can you call her and ask her to come back?".

"There's still so many stories about Cade that Seline hasn't told us" Mia added.

"Hold up, Seline has been telling you stories about Cade?" a shocked Aria asked.

"Mia!" Alec scolded, "Seline made us promise not to tell mom about those stories".

A sheepish look came on Mia's face, "I forgot" she mumbled.

"Oh, this is good" Sybil laughed.

"Not now!" Aria snapped at Sybil, she then turned to her kids, "Guys, Seline isn't coming back".

"Don't joke mom, Seline promised to never leave us" Asher said, refusing to believe that Seline was gone.

"Buddy I--".

Before Aria could say anything, Enzo and Rebekah barged into the kitchen through the back door, Enzo banged the fork Seline gave to him on the counter, causing Sybil to yell in pain and fall to the floor but to Enzo, Rebekah and Aria's shock, the triplets also started yelling in pain.

"Mom, it hurts!" Mia cried, holding her head and falling to the ground.

"Enzo, stop the fork!" Aria demanded, quickly kneeling down and checking on her children, both Sybil and Seline's words running through her head, Sybil's words about that fork harming her children, and Seline's words about the triplets being tied to her.

With Rebekah, Enzo, and Aria distracted with the triplets, Damon took the opportunity to speed into the kitchen, he quickly picked Sybil up in his arms and rushed away.

***

"This is taking too much of my already short time" an annoyed Kol snapped.

"I suppose" Cade said, "Especially considering I have forever with you".

"And what if I refuse to be your slave forever?" Kol asked.

"I suddenly become patient enough to wait for those kids in the kitchen to come of age" Cade replied, knowing all to well that Kol will never put the triplets life at risk.

"I have another suggestion for you" Kol said, "I have a way in which this job will get done much faster".

"Faster?" a curious Cade asked, "How?".

"Everyone is right, Ri's love has changed me, I'm not the psychotic maniac anymore because of her, but if I become that person again, the person I was before Ri came back to my life" Kol said, "Things would get done so much faster, once my humanity is off, I wouldn't care about anyone, neither Ri, nor the triplets or anyone else, nothing will hold me back from doing the job".

"You'd turn your humanity off?" a skeptic Cade asked.

"Not for free" Kol replied, "We both know, no one can do what I can do, I'm the reason rippers exist, they come from me, I'm the first ripper in history, I will do what you want me to do, but only for a short amount of time, after that you will promise to let both me and Damon go".

Cade looked at Kol for a moment, "One year" he finally said, "Although the beast I've been seeing for the past thousand years, that beast will never tire of this work, I predict that, after a year with me, you won't want to leave".

"This time it's different, this time I have people waiting for people to come back to them, there's people I want to come back to" Kol said.

"That's what makes our wager worthwhile" Cade said, "We will finally find out, what is more important to the psychotic Mikaelson, his family or his bloodlust?".

***

"How's your head?" Damon asked Sybil, as they walked down the footpath where carolers were busying singing Silent Night.

"Aside from the wine, it's okay" Sybil replied.

"Good" Damon said.

"You saved me tonight" Sybil teased, lopping her arm with Damon's, "It was instinct", Damon and Sybil stopped walking, "Something 's happening", Sybil placed her hand on Damon's chest, "In there", Damon placed his hand over Sybil's, "I didn't know you had one of those".

"Mm, must be the holidays" Damon teased.

"Oh, well then, is that my christmas present in your jacket?" a curious Sybil asked.

Damon pulled the present Aria gave him out of his jacket and handed it over to Sybil.

Sybil let out a fake excited gasp, "Damon" she whispered, opening the present and seeing a bracelet alongside a sonography photo, "The bracelet is beautiful, but what's with the sonography photo?".

Damon grabbed the picture and for a second just stared at it, he then turned it around and read what was written behind it.

The first time we saw our dream become a reality
-D. S & A. C. F.

Reading the note, Damon suddenly remembered the late afternoon in his bedroom, when Aria was pregnant and they were looking at the first sonography photographs of the triplets, Aria was sitting in between Damon's legs when she wrote this.

Damon then remembered the time he found out about him becoming a father to triplets.

"You both are having triplets".

"Damon", "We're going to have triplets, Ria".

"I'm going to have three grandchildren".

"We're going to be the best parents ever", "I hope so", "I know so".

Damon's eyes then landed on the bracelet, a bracelet Sybil had now worn, a bracelet that once belonged to his first love, but now belonged to his true love.

"Aria, I want you to have this".

"Damon I can't take this, Natalie gave that to you, that's your last memory of her, I can't take that from you".

"Aria I don't need a piece of jewellery to remember Natalie, also if Natalie was here, she would want me to give this to you".

"I knew what that bracelet meant to Damon, he told me that he didn't need a bracelet to remember Natalie, that my safety was more important, he didn't show it but it hurt him to give me the last thing that he had of Natalie, but he still gave it to me, to make sure no harm came upon me, at that time, Damon was known as the selfish brother, but that moment, made me realise how selfless he really was, and that moment, is when I fell for Damon Salvatore".

Damon looked at Sybil who was busy admiring the bracelet to realise what the bracelet and the sonography photo had done to Damon, before she could realise it, Damon shoved his hand into her chest and ripped her heart out, before she could fall to the floor, he grabbed her and placed her on the bench, after taking the bracelet off her hand, Damon placed Sybil's heart by her side and walked away.

Aria's attempt had worked, Damon Salvatore was finally making his way to Aria Connor.

***

Aria sat on the edge of Kol's bed, patiently waiting for him to wake up, but the longer he took, the more dread filled her heart realising the triplets time with Kol was coming to an end.

Suddenly Kol woke up with a gasp.

"Oh thank god" Aria said, rushing over to Kol as he slowly sat up, "That took you way too long then usual".

"Yeah, I was in a meeting with the devil" Kol informed.

"Yeah, Damon told me" Aria said.

"Where is Damon, by the way?" a curious Kol asked.

"He left" Aria replied, "Everyone left, though Kai is still here, but he's currently sleeping the jet lag off, now are you going to me what happened with Cade or not?".

Kol sighed, "Me and Cade made another deal" he informed, "I just have to serve Cade for a year".

Aria looked at Kol in confusion, "There's nothing beneficial in that deal for Cade, why will he agree to this?" she asked.

"Because the what and how are very beneficial for him" Kol clarified.

"And what exactly is that what and how of this deal?" Aria asked, having a feeling she wasn't going to like this at all.

"I can't say it right now" Kol whispered, "Ri, I only have seven minute, I need to see them".

Aria sighed but nonetheless nodded her head in understanding, "They're in their room, playing with Hope and Jayden, they both wanted a sleepover".

Kol quickly got out of bed and rushed towards the triplets room, without letting his presence known to anyone, Kol stood at the door and with teary eyes watch Mia and Hope colour in the coloring books Klaus got them, while Alec, Asher and Jayden were on the other side of the room, playing with their action figures.

Aria walked over to Kol, she placed a comforting hand on Kol's shoulder, knowing leaving the triplets wasn't easy for him.

"They will be right here waiting for you" Aria whispered, with tears in her eyes, "Come back soon".

"As soon as I can" Kol promised, giving the triplets one last glance before walking away.

Aria watched Kol walk further and further away from her and the triplets, after he was out of her sight, an emotional Aria slid down the wall and after covering her mouth with her hand, started crying, realising she has officially lost both Damon and Kol, and that the triplets were now left with no father figure in their life.

***

Kol walked the dark streets of Mystic Falls when suddenly Damon pulled up next to him in his car.

"Hop in" Damon demanded.

"Where's the third musketeer?" Kol asked, realising Sybil was missing.

"Three's a crowd" Damon simply said, he then with his head gestured for Kol to sit.

Kol nodded and sat in the passenger seat and Damon drove off.

"You're gonna wanna get under the hood and flip that humanity switch, Kol" Damon said, glancing at an emotional Kol, "Won't be so painful".

"Not just yet" Kol whispered.

"Suit yourself, Ebenezer" Damon said, he then let out a sigh, "A Salvatore and Mikaelson back on the road again, we need a theme song or something".

As Damon turned the radio on, Kol's eyes landed on the leaving Mystic Falls sign, he then closed his eyes and the next time he opened it, a sinister smirk formed on his face.

"There he is" Damon observed, "The psychotic maniac, merry christmas brother, merry christmas".

***

Aria sat infront of the fireplace, glancing at the fire with tears streaming down her face, when suddenly there was a knock on the front door, after wiping her tears Aria quickly stood up and opened the door, only to see Seline on the other side.

"Hey" Seline whispered, giving Aria a small smile, her red eyes showing how much pain she was in.

"I called you here for them, not you" Aria said, getting straight to the point, "With Damon and Kol gone, they're all I have left, I can't risk anything when it comes to them".

"I understand" Seline said.

Aria nodded her head, she then looked towards the stairs, "Guys!" she yelled, "Seline is here to see you!".

"Seline!" Aria heard the excited triplets yell, before rushing down the stairs.

"Be careful" Aria warned, seeing the triplets run down the stairs and towards Seline and give her a tight hug.

"Hey, I missed you guys" Seline said, kneeling infront of the triplets, "So we are gonna play a little game, and then you won't remember me, but that's okay, cause you have so many people that love you".

Aria looked at Seline in shock, she didn't expect her to make the triplets forget her existence, "Seline, you don't have to make them forget".

"It's for their own good that they don't remember me" an emotional Seline whispered, she then grabbed the triplets hands and closed her eyes and started humming.

Aria stood back and just watched the scene, without Damon and Kol now gone it was up to her to keep her children safe and she was going to do everything in her power to make sure they always remained safe.

***

Presenting 8x07 of Cold Hearted!

How was the chapter?

Thoughts on the group celebrating Christmas together?

Thoughts on Kai returning?

Thoughts on Kol's new deal with Cade?

Thoughts on Aria's bracelet and the triplets first sonography photo causing Damon to rip out Sybil's heart?