"'Faulty gas line leads to tragic explosion at Young farm.'" Lacey read as she slammed the newspaper down in front of Faye, who sat in the kitchen table drinking a cup of warm 'no hallucinations!' tea.The hybrid frowned at the headline of the paper, "You got any idea about this?"

"Is that your subtle way of asking if I did it?" Faye questioned with a raised eyebrow. Lacey gave her a pointed look so she let out a sigh, "I didn't blow up the council."

"Are you sure? You love getting revenge on people who hurt your pack and the Council captured the lot of em', prepared to slice and dice." The older Daniels woman continued on, not entirely convinced.

"I do that love it, that's true." Faye said, "But if I were going to kill them, I wouldn't have blown them all up. I would've done it a lot more bloody and messier, you now that."

The blonde vampire crossed her arms over her chest, "Do you have an alibi?"

"Yes. I was with Tyler in my bedroom." The hybrid mimicked her movements with a smirk on her face, "Honestly, if I was going to question anyone, I'd question Damon."

Lacey nodded her head in agreement, "Sounds like something he would do." She sat down at the table across from her niece and sighed, "Sorry for questioning you like that. When I saw it, I just got a little worried."

"I understand. I would've accused me first too if I were you." Faye gained a smile from Lacey. She then changed the subject, "But in other news, there is only one Mikaelson in Mystic Falls at the moment." Lacey raised her eyebrows in surprise at her words, "Klaus Mikaelson has left the building."

"Really, without you? I thought you were the love of his life." Lacey teased the younger Daniels.

"Hey, no jokes." Faye pointed a threatening finger at the woman, "But he's gone meaning peace can finally rain down on Mystic Falls." She grew a grin on her face, "Tyler and I are gonna celebrate."

Lacey bulked at the mention of any type of relationship, "Please don't remind me that I am alone once again."

Faye had nearly forgotten that the blonde vampire was still sensitive on the subject of love. After Elijah having up and left, she had taken a hard hit. She had once again been separated from the man she had loved for centuries. Lacey moped around the house and didn't have the bright glow she would when Elijah had been around, making her day bright. 

"Elijah's a dick for leaving you, Lace. I swear to god when I see him again I'm going to whoop his ass." Faye grumbled angrily, "But in the mean time, you gotta get out of your funk."

"I much rather stay in my funk than do whatever you have planned for me, thank you." Was the older Daniels' reply.

"I wasn't thinking anything too bad. Maybe just a rebound or getting a job and burying yourself in work." Faye shrugged her shoulders, "Caroline said that's the way to go."

"You told her?" Lacey questioned.

"I didn't know how to help you unless I just found Elijah and chopped off his head, but I can't do that." The hybrid looked down shyly, feeling guilty like she had told a secret that she didn't know she was meant to keep, "I just wanted to get you back to normal."

Her aunt let out a soft sigh and reached across the table to grab her hand. Faye met her gaze and Lacey squeezed her hand, "I appreciate that you're trying, but I can get over a heartbreak the normal way. It isn't the first time a relationship between I and your godfather has ended this way and probably, knowing us, won't be that last."

"I just don't like to see you sad." Faye told the woman, biting her lip. Lacey smiled at her appreciatively, knowing that the girl truly meant it.  "Please, just think about the rebound. In a week or two one of the Salvatores will be on it to and you can sweep em up-"

"And here I thought we were having a moment." Lacey scoffed at Faye who cackled widely at the disgusted look on the blonde's face. Her aunt waved her hand at her, shooing her, "Get out of my house. Make sure your back by one, though. We gotta go to a memorial for the council I still believe you may have blew up."

"I told you, you would've known if I killed them all!"

__

With her back pressed up against the headboard of Tyler's bed, Faye gave into the feverish kiss her boyfriend was giving her, her fingers curled up in his short hair. Celebrating the exit of the bane of their existence from their lives easily meant sex in the minds of the two hormonal hybrids, as did the words "hanging out". There hadn't been a time that Faye could remember them not finding themselves tangled up in between the sheets of a bed of some sorts after their first time. Lust and need for the other were the only thoughts that could run through their heads when they were together, but this time it was much different.

Faye's mind kept travelling to the reason they were celebrating. Klaus Mikaelson taking his leave hadn't been much of a surprise to her since she had known he was planning on abandoning the small town before he faked his death. A part of her was glad he had, not wanting to see him after he tricked her into making out with him in the body of her boyfriend in which he possessed. Not only that, he faked his death and caused her a hell of a lot of pain through it. She mourned him only to find out he was walking around alive in someone's body.

For some reason though, she couldn't get him out of her head. The morning after the whole Council fiasco, she had woken up to a voicemail from him. She was prepared to delete it, but she decided if he actually left her one after what he had done, it must have been important. It wasn't all what she had expected. He had told her that he had come to say goodbye, but she had been busy reuniting with the one she loved. He wished her luck on her future before the voicemail ended with a long tone. 

She had felt a bit shocked when she had heard it along with Tyler who had been sitting next to her in bed. There was no ulterior motive behind it, no attempt to guilt her into following him to the ends of the Earth. It was just Klaus saying a simple goodbye and telling her he hoped she gets everything she wants in life. She hadn't shown to Tyler that she begun to feel things she didn't understand by the message, but faked an eye roll and tossed her phone aside. Though later throughout the day, she thought about it and didn't know how to feel. It even took her a day to work up the courage to even tell Lacey about his departure.

But at the moment, she knew how she felt and it was guilty for even being happy over the man she used to hate being gone.

"This is wrong." Faye said, pushing Tyler away from her slightly. He looked at her shocked she would have even done so, so she came up with a quick, fake reason to explain to him, "A bunch people just died and we're having sex."

Tyler shrugged, "Grief sex. It's healthy." He tried to go in again to kiss her, but she kept her hand on his bare chest, holding him back.

"It's selfish."

"It's natural." He attempted to assure her, "Besides, if we stopped having sex every time somebody died in this town, we'd explode." 

The joking grin on his face did not help his argument at all when he once again moved to press his lips against hers. Faye pushed him away again and looked at him sternly.

"We need to be more sensitive." She told him. He brushed his hand over her shoulder that was only covered by the slim strap of her bra, "Tyler..."

"Oh, come on." The male hybrid huffed at her scolding him. The two stared each other in the eyes for a moment before Tyler let out a sigh, "I love you." He began, causing Faye to shyly smile at him, "How's that for sensitive?"

Faye replied with a small eye roll, "I love you too." Their laughs both echoed throughout the room as their foreheads came to rest against each others. She stared lovingly into his eyes, forgetting what she had been so worried about before.

It hadn't been long though since the sound of the doorbell downstairs made both of their heads snap towards his doorway. Tyler frowned, "Who the hell is that?" 

Faye listened in closely to the conversation that began downstairs after Tyler's mother opened the door. She shrugged, "I don't really know, but this Connor Jordan is being a real nosy prick."

Tyler got up from his bed and grabbed the shirt Faye had tugged off of him before from the ground, "Stay here, I'm gonna go check it out." He told her before exiting the room, throwing on his shirt as he went down. Faye listened and stayed, but at the first sign of danger she was prepared to attack.

The cry of pain that came from the Lockwood boy was what set her off. She sped hastily around the room to get dressed as gunshots sounded loudly throughout the home. She was finished by the time Carol Lockwood shouted for her son to run and there was a shatter of glass. Faye rushed down the stairs and found the front foyer empty besides Carol standing their in shock, her eyes darting towards the smear of blood now staining the wooden floor.

"I'm going to go find him." Faye said to Carol, knowing Tyler would need her help with the bullets and the man who could still be possibly hunting him down, "Stay here and stay safe."

The woman nodded as Faye marched out the door, following the scent of the hybrid murder on her mind.

__

"Please tell me that's the last one." Faye said worriedly as she paced in front of the couch in what was once her own living room. Stefan leaned over Tyler, expertly pulling out the few bullets that had been lodge in his chest. He had rushed there the moment he was scot-free, knowing the younger Salvatore could help him.

Stefan examined the bullet with the metal prongs he held in her hands, "These were specially carved; the length, the width." He glanced over towards Tyler, "If you were a normal vampire, you'd be dead." The vampire dropped the wooden bullet into a glass of alcohol to clean it off.

"This guy knew what he was doing." Tyler told them both, "His gloves must have been steeped in vervain. He was looking for a vampire and he didn't hesitate for a second when he found one."

"So we got a skilled vampire hunter on her hands now." Faye threw her hands up in the air angrily, "A council full of shitty ones gets blown up and in return, you get the ones who could actually murder us all."

"Weren't you the one saying we need to be more sensitive, earlier?" Tyler glanced up over at his girlfriend who was still running a hole in the floor. Faye stopped for a second and shot him a glare that could rival one of Lacey's own.

Stefan blantly ignored them both and kept his eyes of the bullet, "These etchings...." He reached into the glass to touch the bullet, only to be burned by it.

"What?" Faye asked, "Is it spelled?"

"I don't know. They're something."

__

Tyler and Faye had gone their separate ways after Stefan had cleaned the male hybrid up. He ordered them both to go about their lives as normal, but Tyler needed to lay low for a while. Faye on the other hand, was supposed to keep from committing murder, something she had a hard time doing.

The strawberry blonde tugged at the sleeve of her black dress she had put on for the memorial she and Lacey were attending. By the time she had arrived home, she had to get ready and leave with her aunt so she could make it on time. Lacey had told her it would be wrong not to attend like she had desired, saying they had to pay their respects to the dead.

"So, there's a new vampire hunter in town." Lacey muttered as they walked up to the church the memorial was being held at, "And he shot Tyler."

"Said his name was Connor Jordan and he came in, tried to kill my boyfriend in front of his mom." Faye told her, keeping her voice quiet enough to the people passing by wouldn't hear, "He's skilled too. Sounds amazing at his side job."

"So, we get rid of a bunch of mildly trained hunters in exchange for one who could possibly kill us all." Lacey stated, pursing her lips.

Fay threw her hands up in the air and sighed, "That's what I said! Like what the hell? When can things actually get good for us in this town?"

"Never probably." The older Daniels replied with a shrug. 

The two continued walking, not quickening their pace at all. Faye did not really want to go inside. She hated funerals and all the tears that were shed. Seeing people sad over the loss of people who's she could have saved somehow or could potentially have a connection with their death was not her thing. Having only been to one or two in her life that she could actually remember, she decided that would be enough, but now it seemed like she would have to add another to her list.

"You know, is this like your first time at a Mystic Falls community event?" Faye asked her aunt, attempting to stall time.

Lacey rolled her eyes, "No." She told her niece, "But I don't really like to go to a lot of them. You see, there is this repeating role of death that plays at these things."

"Then maybe we should turn around and go ho-"

Lacey linked her arm through the hybrid's tightly so she couldn't get away when she spun around, "We're going inside and we're going to pay our respects. Before some of these people tried to kill me, I was friends with them you know."

"Some shitty friends you had, Lace." Faye muttered bitterly, earning a second eye roll from the blonde vampire. 

"Respect the dead, Faye." She scolded the strawberry blonde before beginning to tug her along.

Against her will, Faye was dragged into the church and was forced to walk down the thin aisles between the benches to get to one with enough room for the two. Faye's eyes travelled around the room, seeing a few of her pack mates already there. Elena, Jeremy and Matt were sitting together in one of the middle rows while her eyes then traveled to Caroline and Tyler, who had enough room for the two Daniels woman to sit on their bench. 

The two sitting smiled up at them when they came to sit down, but Faye on the other hand wasn't too happy to see Tyler. 

"What are you doing here?" She asked him, slapping his shoulder. The hybrid looked up at her confusedly, "You're supposed to be laying low in case this hunter comes after you again."

"I'm here, being sensitive, to my community's loss." Tyler narrowed his eyes playfully at her as he dragged out the word she had stressed so much earlier for a cover up. Faye crossed her arms over her chest and Tyler sighed,  "I'm not letting a hunter stop me from where I'm supposed to be. I doubt he'll even show up here. If he does, you can do what you do best and kick his ass."

The smile playing on his lips caused Faye to huff in response, giving in, and slide down into the seat next to him, "You're lucky I love you." She said earning a soft kiss to her temple. Lacey sat down next to them, a small smile on her face at what they had shared.

It wasn't long before Stefan, the ever so protective one, came up questioning Tyler the same as Faye had. Faye had assured him if something did happen, she could handle it and like always, he sighed and went to take his own seat, knowing their was knowing he could do now to get him to leave.

Everyone turned their attention to the front of the room where a podium stood, surrounded by pictures of the fallen council member, when Carol Lockwood tapped the microphone to get exactly that. 

"Before we begin the Mass, we'd like to open the floor to anyone who would like to share a memory about our late friends on the Town Council." She said to everyone in the room, "I know that April Young wanted to say a few words about her dad." She looked out into the crowd for the said girl who hadn't come forward at the mention of her name, "April? April, are you still here, honey?"

There was no response, seeming to sadden the mayor of the small town. She let out a sigh before continuing on, "Is there anyone else who would like to share a recollection or a memory about Pastor Young?" Carol asked the crowd.

No one stood up to go say anything. Faye waited patiently to see if anyone would and to her surprise, Elena got up. She stumbled a bit, worrying Faye and noticeably, the two blonde vampires she sat with.

"Come on up, Elena." 

Carol waved the girl forward and Elena slowly began to walk up to the podium. Faye would have continued to watch her, if it wasn't for the door of the church opening and the scent of bourbon and death hitting her harshly. Her head turned towards the entrance to see Damon Salvatore walking in and dipping his fingers into the bowl of holy water. He formed a cross with his fingers, touching his forehead, chest and shoulders. Faye rolled her eyes, knowing he would walk in fashionably late and do something stupidly ironic.

Damon sat down next to Stefan and instantly they began bickering over Elena, like always. It was a shock to Faye to hear that Elena had been rejecting all sources of blood. It certainly wasn't normal for a vampire and she didn't know what they could do to fix it. The hybrid looked towards the doppelganger turned vampire who had finally made her way to the podium and gripped the sides of it tightly.

"I uh – when I talked to April earlier she was kind of nervous about coming up to speak. And now that I'm up here, I'm kind of nervous too." Elena rambled on to the crowd of people willing to listen, "The worst day of loving someone is the day that you lose them."

She suddenly stopped, freezing up. Faye knew exactly why once the smell of blood in the room became prominent to her and the sound of it dripping on the floor became the only thing she could hear. Faye stiffened, along with Lacey who had obviously smelt it to. Caroline leaned over towards Tyler with a worried look.

"Do you smell that?" She asked him.

"Blood."

All eyes were kept on Elena who was breathing heavily, seconds from flipping out and going full vampire. 

"Nobody move." Lacey ordered, in which they all heard through their vampire hearing, "Don't turn around, it's a trap."

"The hunter's here." Faye stated the obvious, knowing that Tyler's faith that he would fail.

Elena stood still at the podium, trying to stay in control, "I um..." 

The veins under her eyes began to show through, alerting the Daniels pack who stood in the crowds. Stefan rushed to help, moving to the podium to grab Elena. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and shushed her as if she was becoming to upset by the whole scene. They walked together back to the row she had been sitting in with Matt.

The priest at the ceremony took Elena's place at the podium instead, "Please turn to page forty two in your hymn book. Let us join together in a song." 

Everyone in the room stood up and began to sing, with the exception of the few who were worried about the hunter. Faye bit her lip, keeping her anger in. A part of her wanted to rush and find the man who was threatening the lives of her pack members, but she knew she had to stay put. Causing a scene in this place wouldn't be great.

"The blood. Stefan, the blood, I can smell it. There's so much." Faye heard Elena say. Maybe she wouldn't have to worry about herself causing so much of a scene than the Gilbert girl.

Stefan went to calm Elena, reminding her of how to get the hunger under control. IT was then when Matt decided to ask about the situation and giving the idiotic response to take her out of there when he heard what was going on.

"I'm gonna go rip his head off now." Damon said through clenched teeth.

"You do that, Damon, and you risk exposing all of us." Stefan responded.

"Well, I think the risk will be slightly diminished when I, you know, rip his head off."

"Damon..." Faye jumped into the conversation, scolding him. He glanced over her way, giving her a "come on" look. She shook her head slightly at him.

"Stefan, I'm losing it." Elena interjected.

Damon huffed loudly, "You have ten seconds before I go old fashioned on the new guy."

"Damon, don't, please." Faye tried to get him to stop without having to tackle him to the ground. She knew how much he wanted to do it, she understood, but it couldn't happen at the moment.

"Three, two, one. Bye." He went to leave, but the sound of Matt Donovan's voice stopped him.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Elena, feed from me." Matt proposed the idea. Faye glanced over at him with an incredulous expression as he continued to speak "It's okay, everyone will think you're upset. Just feed from me."

Elena glanced up for Stefan and he gave her the go ahead. She moved into Matt's arms and buried her face in his neck. He whispered reassurances that she would be okay. Faye smelt Matt's blood the minute Elena sank her fangs into his throat. Some of the tension she had went away, allowing her shoulders to go back to their normal position. One problem had been taken care of while the other was hanging in the midst with the possibility of death in most ways it could turn out.

The brunette finished feeding, moving away from Matt. She muttered a thank you and wiped the excess blood from her lips while he went to cover up his wound. 

Faye had been so focused on watching them, she hadn't noticed Tyler had gotten up until he went to move past her, his body brushing against hers. She watched him confusedly wondering what the hell he was doing. The sounds of Elena fighting against Stefan to go save the girl who owned the blood used to trap them played faintly in the background as Tyler made his way to the podium. Faye knew that the hunter was watching and if Tyler showed his face directly to him, something bad could happen.

"Excuse me." The Lockwood boy got everyone's attention and the music playing slowed to a stop, "I just wanted to say a few words about Pastor Young."

"What do we do?" Elena asked, but no one responded.

Everyone one sat back down in their seats to allow Tyler the chance to speak, "Back in first grade, I was a brat who couldn't be bothered with team sports. Didn't care much about anything that didn't affect me. But he was the one who made me understand how important it is to be part of a team; a community. Of giving yourself up for the sake of-"

It all happened so fast. The sound of a gun went off through the room and a bullet flew through the air in the direction of Tyler. It hit him straight in the chest, causing him to spin around and collapse to the floor in pain. 

"Tyler!" Faye shouted immediately after she saw what happened. She had been forced to duck by Lacey when the gun went off and hadn't had the chance to really see what was going on. She got up and rushed to the front of the room at a normal speed, hoping not to show the hunter she was a hybrid herself. 

Carol had already been by her son when Faye arrived, gasping in shock. The strawberry blonde crouched down next to her boyfriend and her hand immediately went to wrap around the large wooden bullet that stuck out of his chest. She tore it out easily and tossed it aside, not caring if it would be used as evidence in a case later.

"I'm gonna kill that bastard." Tyler coughed out.

"Damon's way ahead of you." Stefan said, standing next to Elena who had come up also, "Stay here, I have to help him." He went to leave, but his girlfriend grabbed his arm.

"What about April?" She asked.

"Caroline and I can take care of it." Lacey butted in, finally arriving up next to Faye with the other blonde by her side.

"Go." Caroline told the younger Salvatore, waving her hand. Stefan let out a sigh before turning the other direction and taking his leave.

Carol Lockwood let out a worried sigh, "I have to call an ambulance."

Faye shook her head at the woman, "He's fine, you don't have to." 

"The whole town just watched him get shot." Lacey contradicted her. She knew what she was doing, having been around for four hundred years and having to go through loads of covering up the real truth. She looked towards Carol, "Call an ambulance."

The mayor nodded and rushed off to go find a phone to use to dial 911. Faye was too focused on Tyler too notice the disappearance of one of the girls from their group, but Caroline had.

"Elena." Caroline moved to leave and go find her, but Lacey stopped her.

"I can handle her just a bit better than you can in case she gets too out of control. Stay here." 

The strict tone the older woman used made Caroline stay put. When Lacey left, the younger blonde turned to look at Faye.

"How come your aunt is literally the only one calm in this situation and getting everything done?" She asked.

"She's Lacey motherfucking Daniels."

__

Tyler had been picked up by the EMTs and taken to the hospital for an overnight stay. They had to make it look like he was injured or the town would start questioning everything they knew about life. Faye didn't go with him despite how much she wanted to, it being family only and it would be much better if she would be home tonight and could have the ability to patrol for the hunter in her wolf form. The church was closed down for investigation and everyone went elsewhere to calm their nerves.

"It kind of sucks that the memorial didn't go very well." Faye said she plopped down on the couch next to Lacey who had already kicked off the heels she wore. They had gotten home a few minutes before after giving their statements to the police and everything, "Though I was against the idea, it would be a little nice to have some actual time to mourn instead of getting kidnapped before you can."

"It's Mystic Falls, everything bad always happens here." Lacey added with a sigh, "You know, just being there surrounded by all the grief, it got me remembering to back then..."

"When I-"

"You did nothing." Lacey immediately cut Faye off before she could say anything more, "Irene killed your parents, not you."

Faye bit her lip and looked towards the ground. She didn't blame herself any longer for it, but there was guilt that still flowed through her that would come up at moments.

"But, as I was saying." Lacey continued, "It reminded me of when your parents died and I had to mourn. I didn't really have to time because I was so obsessed with finding you in the beginning and with all the guilt setting in after I finally began to lose hope, I didn't get to mourn or heal much then either."

"I don't see where you're going with this, aunt of mine." 

Lacey sighed, the corner of her lips turning up at her niece's impatience, "Maybe it's time we get to mourn with no interruptions. Just for the night." She slid Faye her own phone with a text from Stefan on the screen, "Stefan's asking us to come to the school for a healing session. Wanna go?"

"You know you could've just started with that instead of your full on sob story." Faye said, raising her eyebrow at her aunt and taking the phone from her, "And how did you even get into my phone?"

"Your password is 1234." Lacey stood up and held out her hand to her niece, "You coming or not?"

Faye gave her a small smile before slowly slipping her hand into her aunts, ready to get the chance to heal.

__

Faye sat on a picnic table outside of the school next to Lacey, waiting for the rest of the people Stefan invited to arrive. Caroline, Elena, Jeremy and Matt were already there, sitting down around the area they were in. A lantern sat in the strawberry blonde's hand along with Lacey's, waiting to be lit.

Damon and Bonnie arrived last, walking up to the group with confusion marred on their face. The elder Salvatore had been the one to speak of it though, "Stefan, what are we doing?"

"We're finishing the memorial we didn't get to have earlier." Stefan said as he handed Elena a lantern, "We need to start healing, Damon. We've all lost so much, especially recently. I think we're numb to it. We push it away, we make a joke out of it, ignore how we feel. We've never just let ourselves grieve."

"So you're lighting lanterns?"

Stefan nodded, "Yeah. Yeah, we need to do this."

"What we need to do is find out who this hunter is and what he knows about the death of the Council. We have more important things to be doing right now than this." Damon's eyes darted over to where Lacey sat, "Aunt Lacey, don't tell me you're in on this? I know you like to get things done."

"Not tonight, Damon." The woman replied in a soft voice.

A scoff came from the vampire. Stefan took center stage and spoke up, lighter and lantern in hand.

"This is for my uncle Zach and my friend Lexi and for Alaric." He lit his lantern and let it go into the sky, watching it fly away. He passed the lighter to Matt.

The list went on and on, MAtt letting one go for his sister and Caroline letting one go for her and Tyler's dad since he wasn't here to do it himself. Jeremy let one go for the family he lost and his few lovers that had passed along the way. Damon had left during that part, having enough of it. Elena let one go for everyone mostly and herself. The lighter was passed down to Lacey to light her own.

"This is for my brother Charlie and his wife Amelia." Lacey lit the lantern and pushed it into the air before handing it to Faye.

The hybrid took in a deep breathe before speaking, "This is for my mom, my dad, Jenna, Alaric..." She hadn't even expected the tear to fall down her cheek as she spoke, "Everyone that I had to kill. I'm sorry." Faye lit the lantern and let it go into the night sky, watching it float away from her. Lacey wrapped her arm around her niece's shoulder's as they watched the lanterns together.

It felt good to finally get the chance to mourn.

__

A/N:  I UPDATED! Did you know I've never written this episode before? So, sorry if it sucks. I really liked writing Lacey more into the life of the Mystic Falls gang. I just really enjoy her strong, determined character and love her a lot. What do you guys think of her? Favorite scene in this chapter and what not? 

Next chapter: Klaus returns, something that most of you guys have been waiting to happen (not klaye sex or kiss soz), and THIS CHAPTER IS JUST GONNA KILL ME OKAY

REMEMBER I NEED TEN COMMENTS THAT DON'T INCLUDE THE WORD "UPDATE" OR ANYTHING LIKE IT FOR ME TO DO EXACTLY THAT.

- Karina