11. 500 Years Of Solitude

Fae entered her dorm room and immediately shook her head seeing the state of her two best friends, both Caroline and Kaitlynn were laying in their respective beds, with the covers over their heads while the room was pitch dark.

The reason for this was because last night, Damon broke up with Kaitlynn, he didn't want her to defend him everytime a blast from his past comes and reveals to her all the bad things he did, he didn't want her to change herself for him and no matter how much Kaitlynn tried to explain to him that she wasn't changing herself and she would never defend him when he's the wrong, just show the him the right way, Damon didn't listen, too scared that his love would ruin Kaitlynn.

Caroline on the other asked for a few days from Brayden, though no one said it out loud, everyone knew what that meant, as of now Brayden and Caroline's relationship was on a break, Fae gave her boyfriend a proper scolding for interfering in their relationship, it should have been Brayden who told Caroline not Stefan and Fae was afraid that Stefan telling Caroline instead of Brayden just made things worse between the two, it made Caroline think Brayden wasn't going to be honest with her while it made Brayden think Caroline will rather listen to his brother then him.

***

Damon and Brayden sat on the bar at Mystic Grill, the two brothers had spent the whole night here, currently Damon slept with his head on the bar while Brayden continued drinking, he lost count on how many bottles he had gone through but for some reason his body refused to get drunk and forget Caroline, he was starting to develop a theory, that his heartbreak made him immune to alcohol.

"What the hell?" a confused Matt questioned, entering the closed Grill with Jeremy.

Brayden groaned in annoyance and slammed his head on the bar, "There goes my peace".

***

"Okay sleepy heads, time to wake up and welcome the day with huge smiles on our frowning faces!" Fae called out, walking over and opening all the curtains in their dorm.

"Go away!" Caroline said.

"This day can go back to where it came from, I'm not welcoming it" Kaitlynn stated.

"Come on" Fae said, removing Kaitlynn's blanket, "I brought you two breakup breakfast".

Caroline removed her blanket from her face and glared at the Bennett, "Me and Brayden haven't broken up, we're on a break".

"Which basically means you've broken up" Kaitlynn stated, sitting up in her bed.

Caroline also sat up in her bed and looked at the tray of food Fae had placed on her bed, "Are we seriously celebrating our breakups?".

Caroline and Kaitlynn looked at Fae who in turn just shrugged and gave them a sheepish smile.

***

"Damon dumped Kaitlynn" Jeremy informed Matt, "And Caroline dumped Brayden".

"Why?" a confused Matt asked.

"I have no idea" Jeremy admitted.

"Who spends over a century pinning after a girl to dump her?" Matt asked, "And who spends the last five years simping over a girl only to then get dumped by her?".

"We can hear you, dumbass" Damon said, revealing that he is awake.

Brayden lifted his head up and glared at Jeremy, "Caroline didn't dump me, we're on a break".

"Which means you've broken up" Jeremy retorted.

"No it doesn't" Brayden protested.

"Yes it does" Jeremy, Matt and Damon said at the same time.

"I hate my life" Brayden complained, pouring himself another shot.

***

"Come on you guys, cheer up, this isn't the end" Fae said, "It's just a small hurdle".

"Didn't seem like that from Damon's words" Caroline said, "He did say, and I quote, I am a bad person, I am bad for you, and I am choosing to let you go".

"You memorized Kaitlynn's break up?" an amused Fae asked.

"Damon called last night and wouldn't stop repeating it" Caroline defended.

"Funny, Brayden called last night as well" Kaitlynn said, "I don't know how to defend you, is it okay if I take a few days to gather my thoughts?".

"And you've memorized Brayden and Caroline's break up" Fae realised, "Of course".

"Break" Caroline snapped.

"No difference" Kaitlynn snapped back.

"Hey, no snapping at each other" Fae stated, "Instead enjoy this incredible mimosa your best friend made for you two".

Fae handed Caroline and Kaitlynn both a flute of mimosa, something both the girls downed in one go.

***

"So you're sure this is just a break?" Matt asked Brayden.

"How about you mind your own business, bus boy" Brayden snapped, taking another shot.

Jeremy patted Matt shoulder's, "Drunk Brayden is even more meaner then normal Brayden".

"I'm not even drunk" Brayden stated, before downing another drink, just as his phone started ringing, grabbing it he realised Stefan was calling, "Oh look, it's the stupid asshole who couldn't help but interfere in my relationship".

"Are you going to answer that?" Matt asked.

"Nope" Brayden stated, before throwing his phone on to the wall.

Jeremy and Matt looked at each other, both realising their hands are going to be full with the notorious Salvatore twins today.

***

"I don't want to, but I'm going to have to face reality" Kaitlynn said, "We all know how stubborn Damon is, once he makes his mind about something, it's impossible to get him to reconsider".

"I want to reconsider so badly, but how do you move on from this?" Caroline asked.

"We don't know what happened to them" Kaitlynn pointed out, "I'm not defending Brayden and Damon but you can't defend the Whitmore's either, maybe some of them were innocent, but not all of them".

Caroline looked at Kaitlynn, before she could say anything, Fae's phone ringing caught their attention.

"It's Stefan" Fae informed.

"Answer it" Caroline said.

"Yeah, at least one of us should have a stable relationship" Kaitlynn said.

With a sigh Fae answered her boyfriend's call, "Hey".

"Katherine's dying" Stefan informed, coming straight to the point.

***

After Stefan informed Brayden and Damon about Katherine's worsening condition through Jeremy, the twins came back home to celebrate Katherine's death.

"Rule number one, think of the worst thing Katherine Pierce has ever done to you" Damon said, pouring shots for everyone, "Rule number two, toast to the glory of her impending death, rule number three, if you come across something that's worse, which you will, repeat rules one and two, she pretended to be buried in a tomb for a hundred and forty five years while I waited for her lying ass", Damon downed a shot, he then handed his brother a shot, "Go Bray".

"In 1864, she was the reason as to why my two brothers grew estranged from each other and I was stuck in the middle of them" Brayden said, before downing his drink, he then handed Matt a shot, "Go bus boy".

"Uh--".

"Think on that, little gilbert" Damon handed Jeremy a shot.

"She fed me to Silas and I died" Jeremy said.

"Doozy" Damon said, as Jeremy downed his shot.

"Then she made me crash my car into a pole and left me for dead, again" Jeremy added.

"Double shot" Brayden said, handing Jeremy another shot which he quickly downed.

"My sister's dead because of her" Matt finally said.

"Yes, she is" Damon said, handing Matt a shot, "Because I wouldn't have even been in town to turn Vicki into a murderous vampire if I wasn't trying to get Katherine out of a tomb she wasn't in, group shot".

"Did you guys seriously start without us?" Fae complained, entering the room with Caroline.

"Hey" Caroline greeted Brayden, who simply gave her a nod and downed another shot, it hurt him too much to look at her.

"She sent hunters after Stefan, Damon and Brayden so I can leave Stefan's life for thirty years" Fae said, downing a shot.

"She killed me, although I'm weirdly better off" Caroline said, downing a shot.

"We're going to need more booze" Matt realised, standing up to get them more.

***

"They're talking about me, aren't they?" a weak Katherine asked Stefan, hearing all the noise from downstairs.

"They're reminiscing" Stefan simply said.

"It's fine" Katherine said, looking at her hand, "I'm sure I deserve everything that they're saying, does my hand look wrinkled to you?".

"It looks fine" Stefan assured.

"If I start to sag anywhere, you take a knife and you jam it into my carotid artery immediately, okay?" Katherine said.

"Okay" an amused Stefan said.

"And here I was scared that death would change my sister".

Katherine looked towards the door and smiled seeing her sister, "Katalina".

"Katerina" an emotional Kaitlynn whispered.

"You came" Katherine realised, she was fully expecting for her sister to not show up.

"I wasn't going to let you die alone" Kaitlynn said, walking over to Stefan's bed and laying next to her sister.

"Are you going to stay?" Katherine asked.

"Till the very end" Kaitlynn whispered, hugging her sister while Stefan watched the two sisters with a small smile on his face.

Siblings was such a complicated relationships, at one point you can't stand one another but the moment your siblings is hurt, you can't help but do everything in your power to make them feel even slightly better.

***

"Rumor has it she burned down the entire city of Atlanta once" Damon said.

"That might win" Jeremy said.

"Actually that was me" Kaitlynn informed, entering the room after leaving Stefan with Katherine, "And if you don't cut it out, then I'll burn you guys to the ground as well, I know you guys might hate her, but she is my sister, so stop being so insensitive".

"Come on, Kait" Damon said, "Don't let the sight of a frail Katherine cloud your memoires of the manipulative psycho that she is", Damon held out a shot for Kaitlynn.

Kaitlynn took the shot from Damon's hand, "About five hundred years ago, me and Katherine moved to England, where I met my soulmate, Elijah Mikaelson, but Klaus compelled me to forget him and despite knowing everything, Katherine stayed quiet, she kept me and Elijah away from each other for five hundred years".

"Exactly, bottoms up" Damon said, though he wasn't happy hearing Kaitlynn mention Elijah.

"But you see, she did that because she loves her sister, she wanted me to live and she knew I couldn't do that if I went back to Elijah" Kaitlynn said, "You guys know the vampire Katherine, but I knew the human Katerina Petrova, who just was an innocent girl shunned by her family for having a baby, yes she lies and she manipulates, but everything she did was to survive, so I will have this toast, to my sister, Katerina Petrova, the survivor", Kaitlynn downed her shot.

"Wait to ruin the mood, Kait" Brayden complained, he went to grab another shot, "Wait, why is the bottle still empty?".

Damon grabbed the bottle and stood up, "That's why you never send a busboy to do a man's job" he said, as soon as he turned around the smirk fell from his face, "Nadia, the devil's spawn, hey, Caroline, did you remember to tell Kaitlynn about her niece?".

Caroline faceplamed in response, while Kaitlynn looked at Nadia in shock, "You're Katherine's daughter? As in my niece?!".

"Yeap" Fae confirmed.

"And all of you knew?!" a shocked Kaitlynn asked.

"You were kidnapped and held hostage" Caroline defended, "We forgot to tell you".

"Katherine's upstairs" Fae told Nadia.

"Actually, I'm here to see all of you" Nadia clarified, "I've found a way to save my mother and I need some help".

"Keep on dreaming" Brayden stated, "No one in this house is helping you, and my biased ex-girlfriend number one even knows that if she tried I'm going to snap her neck in half".

"Ex-girlfriend number one?" Caroline asked, "Seriously?".

"Am I wrong?" Brayden asked.

"Do you have any tact?" Kaitlynn asked.

"Hey, ex-girlfriends don't get to team up on me" Brayden stated.

"Get help" Kaitlynn snapped while Caroline simply shook her head.

"You first" Brayden retorted.

"I figured you wouldn't come with me" Nadia told Brayden, "Which is why I found that old safe you spent the summer drowning in and buried it on this property with your friend Matt inside of it", Nadia showed them Matt's Gilbert ring, "Oh, without this".

"And suddenly I see how you're Katherine's daughters" Kaitlynn mumbled.

***

"I figured you two wouldn't be stupid enough to refuse" Nadia said, as her, Kaitlynn and Brayden stepped out of Nadia's car.

"Correction, I did refuse, but your aunt here likes to force me to do things against my will" Brayden said, as the trio started walking in the woods.

"No one can force you to do things against your will" Kaitlynn retorted, she then turned to Nadia, "We're here with you, now tell us where you buried Matt".

"Matt will be freed once you help me get what I need" Nadia stated.

"And what exactly is it that you need?" a confused Brayden asked.

"I need a traveler" Nadia informed, "Katherine was born into a traveler bloodline, she can make herself be a passenger in someone else's body if a traveler teaches her how to do it".

"Oh, like your lover boy Gregor did to Matt" Brayden remembered, "That was before I helped Katherine kill him, wait, remined me again why we're helping you save a mother who killed her own daughter's boyfriend?".

"Gregor was going to kill Katherine, she was just protecting herself" Kaitlynn defended.

"Okay you know what, I'm kind of getting fed up of all this defending" an annoyed Brayden snapped.

"She's my sister" Kaitlynn stated.

"Who you're only defending because she's dying" Brayden snapped, "If she wasn't dying, I'm not so sure you would have remembered you had a sister, Kait".

"We're here" Nadia announced, cutting Kaitlynn and Brayden's argument.

Brayden looked at the run down house infront of her, "Let me guess this straight, me and my currently on the rocks frenemy here are supposed to help you let your mother take over someone else's life?".

"Not just anyone's life, mine" Nadia clarified, both Brayden and Kaitlynn looked at Nadia in shock, they were not expecting that, "I'm going to make her a passenger in my body".

***

Brayden and Kaitlynn followed Nadia into the rundown house.

"This place is disgusting" Brayden said, looking around in disgust.

"Travelers don't have much" Nadia clarified, "They're always on the move, but on the plus side, sometimes their services can be bought", Brayden and Kaitlynn turned around just in time to see a traveler appearing behind them, "I found one who named the right price".

"You brought them" the traveler said.

"Yes Mia, are you ready to make the deal?" Nadia asked.

"What the hell is going on here?" an extremely confused Kaitlynn asked.

"You gotta be kidding me" Brayden mumbled as realisation drew on him, "The travelers asked for us as their price, didn't they?".

"I'm sorry, but they asked for the soulmates part of Silas and Amara's bloodline, no idea why" Nadia revealed, before Brayden and Kaitlynn could say anything to her, Nadia grabbed Mia and speeded out the house.

Kaitlynn went to follow after them, but before she could, the door shut, and the sun rays the were falling on Kaitlynn, suddenly started burning her, Brayden quickly grabbed her by her elbow and pulled her back, just as a bunch of travelers surrounded them and started chanting.

"They're doing something to our rings" a panicked Kaitlynn informed.

Piece by piece the house started falling apart, eventually causing both Brayden and Kaitlynn to be trapped in one corner of the house while the travelers closed in on them.

***

"Out of all the people in this world, I'm trapped here with you, just great" Brayden snapped.

Kaitlynn glared at Brayden, "You're not exactly a peach either, Brayden Salvatore".

Brayden looked at Kaitlynn in slight confusion, "Why are we fighting again?".

Kaitlynn sighed, "I don't even know".

Brayden and Kaitlynn's conversation was cut short when a traveler walked over to them and placed two buckets infront of them.

"You don't happen to know what they're saying, do you?" Kaitlynn asked.

"You're the five hundred year old vampire" Brayden retorted, "And you come from a traveler bloodline, you should know this language, not me".

"Well, I don't" Kaitlynn stated.

"Brilliant" Brayden mumbled, just as the traveler infront of them pulled out a knife and grabbed Kaitlynn's wrist, Brayden quickly grabbed the travelers wrist, stopping him from doing whatever he was planning to do, but the traveler easily removed Brayden's hand and proceeded to make a cut on Kaitlynn's wrist.

"They want soulmate blood" Kaitlynn realised.

"Yeah but why us two?" a confused Brayden asked, as the traveler cut his wrist, "We're not each other's soulmates".

"That Mia girl said the travelers wanted the soulmates from Silas and Amara's bloodline" Kaitlynn reminded, she then looked down at her bloody wrist, "Bray, we're not healing".

"Great, as if this could get any worse" Brayden stated, really wanting to get out of this place.

***

"I'm so glad my whole claustrophobic phase got cured before I got trapped here" Brayden said.

Kaitlynn chuckled but nonetheless nodded her head in agreement, she then looked at Brayden, "My sister helped you in that".

"No, Caroline helped me in that" Brayden retorted, "Your sister just tried to come inbetween us".

Kaitlynn sighed, "She's dying Brayden, can't you let go of the past?".

"Kaitlynn, I helped her as much as I could, don't expect more from me, because I have nothing more to give to Katherine Pierce" Brayden stated, "She's your sister, you're not going to hate her like the rest of the world, but just because you can look past all her mistakes on her dying bed, doesn't mean everyone else can do the same".

"I just want her to find peace" Kaitlynn whispered.

"We all want peace Kait, but some of us don't deserve it" Brayden said, a distant look on his face.

"Let me guess, someone like you and Damon?" Kaitlynn asked, a knowing look on her face.

"Damon deserves it a whole lot more then I do" Brayden said, "Look, I know he's being a stubborn dickhead, he's pushing you away because he hates himself for whatever he did, but don't give up on him, he needs you much more then he lets on".

"He's the one person in this world, I can't give up on" Kaitlynn said, "It's weird, I gave up on a lot of people, you, Elijah, but the thought of giving up on Damon, it kills me from the inside".

"That's cause you truly love him" Brayden said.

"I truly loved you" Kaitlynn retorted.

Brayden shook his head, "Not like this you didn't, you've never loved anyone the way you've loved Damon".

"Same way you've never loved anyone the way you've loved Caroline" Kaitlynn teased, nudging him with her shoulder.

"Yeah" Brayden whispered, suddenly realising that the chanting had stopped, Brayden looked towards the travelers and realised they had stopped chanting whatever it was they were chanting, he then looked down at his wrist to see it healing.

"All this just for our blood?" an annoyed Kaitlynn asked.

"Seems like it" Brayden said, he slowly put his hand up to the sun ray and realised it no longer burned him, "Alright, let's get out of here before these travelers lose their mind again".

"Couldn't agree more" Kaitlynn said, speeding out of the house with Brayden.

***

Damon, Brayden and Stefan, sat on the steps outside of their house, a glass of bourbon in each of their hands while they did one of Brayden's favorite hobbies, watching the stars in the night sky.

"It was bad" Brayden informed his brothers, "Silas really screwed with my head".

"And Caroline pulled you out of it" Damon teased, taking a sip of his drink, "Only to then push you into another hole by breaking your heart".

"Caroline didn't break my heart" Brayden snapped, "You broke Kaitlynn's heart".

"Doesn't matter who did what" Stefan said, ending an argument before it could even begin, "What matters is that you two need to fix this".

"You don't get to give me relationship advice Stefan, especially since your blabber mouth is the reason me and Caroline are in this stupid break in the first place" Brayden retorted.

Stefan sighed, "I thought I was doing the right thing".

"The right thing would have been to not interfere" Brayden retorted.

"And I realise that" Stefan assured.

"You mean Fae made you realise that" Damon retorted.

"Yeah" Stefan whispered, "Either way I am sorry Brayden, and I really hope you and Caroline, and Damon and Kaitlynn, you all fix things, those two are the best things that ever happened to you guys".

"Don't you think we know that?" Damon asked, "I can't live without her".

Brayden stared at his drink, "She's my life".

"But when you think about it, we're not better than Katherine" Damon continued, "Kaitlynn will be happier without me", both Brayden and Stefan looked at Damon, "What? I'm being selfless, don't give me that look".

"We're not giving you a look" Stefan defended.

"It's just you and selfless, don't usually go together in one sentence" Brayden teased.

"Katherine freaking Pierce has a selfless moment, I'm not allowed to?" Damon asked.

"You are" Brayden replied, "But letting go of Kaitlynn, that isn't you being selfless Damon, that's you being afraid".

"I'm not afraid, Brayden" Damon snapped.

"Yes you are" Brayden stated, "You're afraid eventually you're going to hurt her, you're so scared of the future, you're forgetting to live in the present".

"Fine" Damon said, "When I get Kaitlynn back and the whole universe freaks out because the fated soulmates are torn apart, just remember, you, you're the one who pep talked me out of doing the right thing for the universe and all mankind, Bray".

"Screw the universe" Brayden stated, "I don't want your girlfriend Damon, I want mine, I want Caroline".

"So you'll take her back once she wants this break to be over?" a curious Stefan asked.

"It's not me who has to take her back, she's the one who has to take me back" Brayden replied, "The balls in her court, it always has been".

Stefan gave Brayden a small smile and after patting his shoulder, the three brothers went back to star watching in silence, all three lost in their own thoughts.

***

"Have we really gone through four bottles of bourbon today?" Stefan asked, entering the living room where everyone was, Matt, Jeremy, Caroline, Fae and even Tyler, Kaitlynn was upstairs with Katherine, wanting to be there for her sister's last moments.

"Can someone tell these idiots to lay off the booze" both Jeremy and Fae heard Alaric say.

"Holy shit" Fae whispered, as Stefan sat next to her.

"Alaric?!" an excited Jeremy called out, turning around to face his former history teacher and guardian.

"Ric's here?" Damon asked.

"Where the hell have you been?" Jeremy asked Alaric, "I thought you bailed on us to go find peace or something".

"Do you honestly think I'd leave Damon in charge and never look back?" Alaric teased.

"He's talking about me, isn't he?" Damon asked, seeing the smiles on Jeremy and Fae's faces.

"Just giving you the highest praise there is" Fae teased.

"He says you're a dick" Jeremy said, making everyone laugh.

"Something everyone in this room agrees on" Brayden said, sitting on the armrest of the couch that Caroline was sitting on.

Damon looked in the direction Jeremy and Fae were looking in, "Cheers, buddy".

"Cheers" Alaric whispered.

A smiling Fae turned to the front again, but her smile immediately went away, "Katherine" she whispered.

"Ding, dong, does that mean the witch is dead?" Damon asked.

"Are we finally free of her?" Brayden asked, not knowing that Katherine had another plan up her sleeve, they weren't free of the former Pierce vampire just yet.

***

Presenting 5x11 of They Don't Know About Us!

How was the chapter?

Thoughts on Kaitlynn and Damon's break up?

Thoughts on Brayden and Kaitlynn arguing about Katherine?

Thoughts on the travelers trapping Brayden and Kaitlynn for their blood?

Thoughts on the Salvatore's brothers talk?

p.s. just wanted to clarify, Klaus and Caroline didn't sleep together in this episode, that was the original plan, but I just can't bring myself to do that to Brayden >.<