06. We All Go A Little Mad Sometimes

"I can't believe this happened, what am I gonna say to him?" a panicked Elena asked, pacing back and forth in her living room.

"Thanks for not ditching the family ring after it drove Ric crazy?" Damon suggested, having tagged along with Brayden when Elena called him.

Brayden walked over to the coach where a dead Jeremy laid, Elena had accidentally stabbed him in the neck with a knife, after seeing the ring on Jeremy's finger, a confused Brayden turned to Elena.

"Why call me?" Brayden asked, "Why not call Stefan? I know Jeremy's my friend but Stefan deals with these things a lot better then I do".

"I don't wanna talk to him" Elena stated, "He's been lying to me and hiding things from me, he compelled Jeremy to forgot god knows what".

"So when you ask any of us to compel Jeremy that's okay, but when we do it without telling you, that's bad?" Brayden asked, glaring at Elena.

"I compelled Jeremy to protect him" Elena snapped.

"This is how you protect him?!" Brayden snapped back, pointing to Jeremy's dead body, "By stabbing him in the neck?!".

"Like Brayden said, you should have called Stefan" Damon said, before Elena could say anything, "I mean what did you think Brayden was going to do when you told him this, help you clean Jeremy's blood of the kitchen floor?".

"Not my murder, not my job to clean" Brayden stated, just as the front door opened.

"Hey" Stefan greeted, entering the Gilbert house.

"P.s, I called Stefan" Damon told Elena.

"What happened?" Stefan asked, "Why didn't you call me?".

"That's something I'd like to know as well" Brayden said, "Why are you suddenly relying on me for everything Elena? I don't like it".

"Because I trust you Brayden" Elena replied.

Brayden looked at Elena as if she has lost her mind, "Why?" he asked, "I've done nothing but be mean to you and you trust me, are you insane?!".

"Maybe" a frustrated Elena replied, "All I know is that out of the three you, you're the one who I trust, now excuse me, I need to go upstairs and shower, clean all the blood off my hands".

After Elena left, Brayden turned to his equally confused brothers, "So whose booking a room in the mental asylum for her?" he asked, just as Jeremy woke up with a gasp, "Welcome back, baby Gilbert".

"How you feeling?" Stefan asked.

Jeremy looked at the three brothers in confusion, "What happened?" he asked.

"Long story, buy the e-book" Damon simply said.

***

Damon and Brayden stood in the kitchen, with Damon cleaning Jeremy's blood off of the floor and Brayden drinking the bottle of bourbon Alaric had left here.

"Where'd Jeremy go?" Damon asked, as Stefan entered the room after checking on Elena.

"School" Stefan replied, "Bonnie has him volunteering for some occult exhibit".

"That's the cover up, the actual story is that Jeremy didn't want to stay in the same house as his sister who jammed a knife into his neck" Brayden said, just as Stefan's phone started ringing.

"It's Klaus" Stefan informed his brothers.

"Ooh" Damon said, wiping his hands with a kitchen towel, "Time to face the music, pay the piper, dance with the devil".

"You know, I'm glad you two find this amusing" Stefan said, sarcasm evident in his voice.

"Oh I find this hilarious" Brayden said.

"If he finds out I told either of about the cure, he'll kill all three of us" Stefan reminded.

"Quit avoiding him, being shady, shady people get outed" Damon said.

"Damon would know" Brayden said, making Damon slap the back of his head, "Dick!".

Stefan rolled his eyes at his brother, he then looked down at his phone and finally answered Klaus's call, "I don't wanna talk about it".

"Well, I can't imagine why, what with you ruining all my plans for a hybrid-filled future" Klaus said.

"Well, wouldn't have happened if you hadn't sworn me to secrecy" Stefan retorted, exchanging a look with his brothers.

"Well, life's full of ifs Stefan, but let's accentuate the positive, shall we" Klaus said, "The hunter was one of five, we'll find another, it may take centuries, but we've got nothing but time right".

"You're using your calm voice today, who's getting killed?" a skeptical Stefan asked.

"Not you, if that's what you're worried about" Klaus assured, "But I am concerned about your old beloved, have the hallucination started yet?".

Hearing Klaus, the three brothers along at each other in confusion, wondering how Klaus knew about Elena's hallucinations.

"What do you know about them?" Stefan asked.

"I'll tell you, where are you?" Klaus asked.

"I'm at Elena's house" Stefan informed.

"How convenient, so am I" Klaus said, just as he said there was loud knock on the door.

"Yeah, I'm not dealing with him today" Brayden said, walking towards the Gilbert's back door.

"Are you seriously leaving?" Damon asked, as Stefan went to talk to Klaus.

"Yeap, I'm done with problem solving for one day" Brayden said, using the backdoor to walk out of the house.

***

"So I leave the Gilbert house to get rid of Elena's problems and you two decide to bring them to my house?" an annoyed Brayden asked, as he, Damon, Stefan and Fae stood in the Salvatore's living room.

"We need yours and Fae's help" Damon stated.

"I can't believe you two lost her" Fae said, shaking her head at the two brothers.

"Right?" Brayden said, "Useless people".

"Okay, lost is a very strong word" Damon defended, "We just technically don't know where she is".

"I'm more worried about what Klaus said about this hunter's curse" Stefan said.

"Are we really not gonna question how Klaus seems to know everything?" Fae asked.

"He's been alive for a billion years, if he didn't know things then that would be concerning" Brayden said.

"He said it was a witch's curse" Stefan told Fae, hoping she would know what to do.

"I don't know what this curse is, I can't break it without knowing it" Fae stated.

"Well luckily for you, we seem to know someone who knows everything" Brayden said, getting his phone out and texting someone.

"Who you texting?" Damon asked curiously.

"Jeremy" Brayden informed.

"Jeremy knows about this curse?" Fae asked confused.

"No, Jeremy knows Shane" Brayden retorted.

"And whose Shane?" Stefan asked, never having heard this name before.

"He is professor creepy, came across him when I went to Whitmore" Shane informed.

"And how exactly is this professor creepy going to help?" Damon asked curiously.

"Well, according to my spy little Gilbert, professor creepy has been helping Bonnie with her magic, and he seems to know everything, so my guess, he'll about this as well" Brayden said, "So Damon, you and I are going to him, while Stefan and Fae, figure out a way to get Jeremy's sister back".

"Why is he always in charge?" Damon complained, as Brayden walked out of the room.

"Because he's smarter then you" Fae teased, "But don't tell him I said that".

***

"Right where I knew he would have left it" Damon stated, pulling Alaric's bourbon out of the drawer in his desk.

"Where's Bonnie and professor creepy?" an annoyed Brayden asked.

"Have some patience" Damon said, taking a swig out of the bourbon.

"You are the last person on this planet who gets to tell me to have patience" Brayden stated, just Bonnie and Shane entered the room.

"Shane, this is Brayden and Damon, they are kind of experts on this stuff too" Bonnie introduced.

"I was in your class once, very weird experience" Brayden told Shane.

"That's right, I remember you" Shane recalled, "What's your guys specialty?".

"The origin of the species" Damon replied.

"Ah, Darwin would arm-wrestle you for that distinction" Shane said.

"Who said anything about those species?" Brayden asked, making realisation cross Shane's face.

"You guys are into the monster stuff, all right, awesome" Shane said.

"We were kind of hoping that you might have stumbled upon this at some point" Damon said, taking a piece of paper out of his pocket and showing Shane, it was the drawing Jeremy made of Connor's drawing when Klaus had kidnapped him.

Shane looked at the drawing in shock, "This is the hunter's mark, where did you get this?" he asked.

Brayden shrugged, "We're psychics we dream about stuff like this, anyways, what do you know about the hunter's curse?".

"Why, you got a dead hunter in the trunk of your car or something?" Shane asked, looking down at the drawing in fascination.

"Metaphorically speaking" Damon replied.

Shane sighed, "Legend says that if a hunter is killed by that which it hunts then that person will be cursed to walk the earth in torment until".

"Until?" Bonnie asked.

"Until a new hunter is awakened and their legacy is passed on" Shana finished, "They're called potentials, listen, I have a bunch of research on it, why don't I go grab it for you?".

"That'd be great, thanks" Damon said.

After Professor Shane left, Brayden pulled his phone out and dialed someone.

"How are we supposed to find a potential hunter?" Bonnie asked.

"We don't need to find one, we already have one" Brayden informed, just as Jeremy picked up, "Jer, time for your hunter to come out and play".

***

"Come again?!" a shocked Brayden asked into the phone, while he was waiting for Jeremy to arrive he received a call from Kaitlynn.

"Look Brayden, don't be mad--".

"What do you mean don't be mad?!" Brayden snapped, "You literally just told me that Caroline is at the bar with Klaus".

"She's just distracting him Brayden" Kaitlynn said.

"By telling him that we're having trouble?!" Brayden asked, "Whose stupid idea was this?".

"Not mine" Kaitlynn defended, "It was Fae and Stefan's, they need Klaus distracted while they got Elena".

"I'm going to murder them, I'm going to murder everyone!" Brayden yelled.

"Bray--".

Without hearing anything else, Brayden hanged up on Kaitlynn and threw his phone against the wall, smashing it into pieces.

"What did that phone did to you?" an amused Jeremy asked, entering the room with Bonnie.

Brayden looked at Jeremy, "I hate you, I hate your sister, and I especially hate that asshole of a hybrid!".

Jeremy looked at Damon, "What's going on?" he asked confused.

"Klaus is with Caroline" Damon informed, shaking his head at his brother.

"And suddenly it all makes sense" Jeremy mumbled, realising Brayden was jealous.

***

"All right now that Brayden's jealously is out of the way, lets down to business shall we?" Damon said.

"We figured out how to help Elena, you need to kill a vampire" Bonnie informed Jeremy.

"Great, give me a stake, I'll kill Damon right now" Jeremy said.

"Easy, Van Helsing, we'll get you one, don't worry" Damon said.

"Before you do this, you need to know what you're getting yourself into" Bonnie said, handing Jeremy the file Shane gave them on hunters, just as Damon's phone started calling.

"You can rest easy, brother" Damon said, answering his once he saw Stefan was calling, "We figured out how to solve our little Elena problem".

"Yeah, well, now we have a bigger one" Stefan informed, "And where the hell is Brayden, why is his phone switched off?".

"That's because our brother smashed his phone" Damon informed, glancing at his twin, who was sitting on top of a table, resisting the urge to find Caroline and drag her away from Klaus.

"What, why?" Stefan asked confused.

"Klaus and Caroline" Damon simply said,

"Right" Stefan said, understanding what happened, "Can you pass him the phone, I need to talk to him, it's urgent".

Damon handed the phone over to Brayden, "Stefan wants to talk to you".

"This is not the time, Stefan" Brayden warned.

"I lost Elena" Stefan informed.

Brayden groaned in annoyance, "How the hell did you manage to lose her again?!".

"She's in bad shape, I tried to help her but she attacked me" Stefan defended, "Listen, she said that she trusts you the most out of us three, maybe if you go look for her, she'll listen to you, she'll calm down, and I'll help Damon with whatever needs to be done to end this".

***

After much looking, Brayden ended up finding Elena on Wickery Bridge, talking to an hallucination of her mother.

"Elena" Brayden called out.

A panicked Elena quickly turned around and looked at Brayden, "Brayden?" a confused Elena asked, having trouble knowing what's real and what's not, she turned around to face her mom but she was no longer there, she looked at Brayden again, "How did you find me?".

"It's not rocket science Elena" Brayden said, taking small steps towards her, "This is where you were ready to die, twice, I figured if you were die it would be here".

"You were right, Brayden" Elena said, "Vampires kill people, and Stefan was right too, I can't live with myself".

Brayden sighed, "I'm not a therapist Elena, I don't know how to help you, all I can say is if you die here tonight, you will be Jeremy all alone, he already lost his parents, then Jenna and Ric, and now he's going to lose, do you even realise what that's going to do to him?".

Elena looked at Brayden, a hazy look on her face, it was clear she didn't hear a word Brayden had said, she just simply nodded her head and watched as the sun slowly started to come up.

Elena's gaze fell on her hand, causing Brayden to look as well, and to his shock, her daylight ring was missing, "Where the hell is your ring, Elena?" he asked.

"I threw it" Elena admitted.

"Oh god, we need to go, now Elena!" Brayden stated, "The sun is going to come up and you will burn, and this time, you won't come back", Brayden watched as Elena looked between Brayden and to her side, like she wasn't just listening to Brayden but also to someone else, "Dammit Elena, whoever is speaking to you right now isn't real! I'm real and I'm telling you to start walking".

Elena looked at Brayden, and suddenly she felt the curse lift, she looked at Brayden who had sense the change in her, "He's gone" she whispered.

"Okay, that means Jeremy's the new hunter and we need to get you inside" Brayden said.

Elena nodded, but before her or Brayden could move, Elena looked down at her hand as it started to burn, she looked at Brayden in a panic, not knowing what to do, "Brayden?".

Brayden looked at Elena then at the sunrise, "Dammit, I really liked this jacket" he mumbled, before speeding over to Elena, he grabbed her and jumped into the water.

***

"You're welcome" Brayden said, entering Elena's room and seeing her looking at her daylight ring in confusion, "I was feeling generous so I got that back for you, but owe because I just ruined my favorite jacket for you".

"What are you doing here?" Elena asked confused, not expecting to see Brayden when she wakes up.

"How you feeling?" Brayden asked, ignoring Elena's question, he went and sat on the edge of Elena's bed.

"My head's clear" Elena informed, "I can remember everything but not like I lived it, like it was a really bad dream", Elena looked at Brayden, "You saved me, thank you".

"Didn't do it for you" Brayden simply said.

"I know" Elena said, "But still if it wasn't for you--".

"Stop" Brayden interrupted, "Just forget it, if you want to repay me, pay for that jacket it was really expense".

Elena chuckled, she then looked at Brayden, "You didn't answer my question, what are you doing here?".

Brayden sighed, "I think the world might be ending".

"What?" Elena asked, not knowing what Brayden was on about.

"I'm here to make sure you're okay" Brayden said, feeling weird about it himself.

Elena smiled at Brayden, "Why?" she asked.

"I'm kind of delaying going home" Brayden admitted.

"And why's that?" a confused Elena asked.

"In exchange for Jeremy to kill one of his hybrids, Klaus asked Caroline on a date" Brayden informed, "And I know Caroline is home at home waiting for me, but I just need to calm down before I see her".

"Well, you can stay here as long as you want" Elena said.

Brayden simply gave Elena a small smile, he didn't know what he was doing, all he knows is that he is mad right now and if he talked to Caroline right now he feared he would end up hurting her something he didn't want to do, no matter how angry and hurt he felt.

***

After spending some time at the Gilberts first with Elena then with Jeremy, Brayden finally made it home, entering the boarding house he immediately saw Damon, Stefan, Fae and Kaitlynn, Caroline no where to be seen.

"Bray--".

Ignoring Fae, Brayden simply walked upstairs.

"She didn't agree willingly Bray!" Damon yelled.

"Don't care!" Brayden yelled back, entering his room and slamming the door shut.

"Brayden?".

Brayden turned around and saw his girlfriend sitting on his bed, seeing Brayden she immediately stood up.

"A date with Klaus, huh?" Brayden asked, his tone bitter.

"I didn't have a choice" Caroline defended.

"Let me ask you something Caroline, if I was to go on a date with Kol, while in a relationship with you, how would you feel?" Brayden asked, "Wouldn't you get angry, or feel hurt and jealous?".

"I just wanted to help my friend" Caroline whispered.

"And you did that, congrats Caroline" Brayden said sarcastically, "I hope you and Klaus have a great day at the Miss Mystic Falls, an event by the way I was looking forward to going with you, hoping to recreate history, but clearly you don't want to, so enjoy with Klaus, who knows you might see there with my own date".

"Brayden, come on, don't be like this" Caroline pleaded.

"Right, it's just stupid old Brayden being an insecure idiot, right?" Brayden asked.

"Stop putting words in my mouth" Caroline snapped.

Brayden sighed, "Caroline just go, I don't want to fight with you" he said, walking into his bathroom.

Caroline sighed, with teary eyes she left the room, hoping tomorrow Brayden has calmed down and they could talk, Klaus had created problems in their relationship before and she didn't want him to do it again.

***

Stefan and Fae sat together on the Salvatore's porch.

"A cure?" Fae asked shocked, "Are you being serious right now, or is this a horrible joke?".

"I would never joke about this, Fae" Stefan said.

"Stefan, if Klaus asked you to not to tell anyone, then why are you telling me this?" a confused Fae asked.

"Because screw Klaus and his secrets" Stefan said, "We all want the same thing, we just have to work together for it".

Fae looked at Stefan, "I can really be human again?".

Stefan looked at Fae, "We both can".

Fae smiled, "We can have our own human family, we can be normal people, without the bloodlust, the urge to kill?".

"Yeah Fae, you and I can have it all" Stefan said, also smiling.

Fae sighed, she put her shoulder on Stefan's shoulder, "I like having my magic, but I hate being a vampire, I never wanted to live forever Stefan, I want to grow old with my soulmate, watch my kids grow, watch their kids grow, to some people this life might sound boring, but after being alive for nearly two hundred years, I think I need a little boring in my life".

"So do I" Stefan whispered, placing a kiss on top of Fae's head.

Fae slightly lifted her head and looked at Stefan, "So what I'm getting out of this conversation is that soon you and I are going to turn human?".

"Yeap" Stefan confirmed, "So Miss Fae Bennett, ready to be human with me?".

Fae smiled, "Of course Stefan Salvatore, it's a dream I've been dreaming of since the moment I fell in love with you".

Stefan smiled, he leaned forward and placed a kiss on Fae's lips, "I love you".

"And I love you" Fae whispered, placing her lips back on to Stefan's.

***

Presenting 4x06 of They Don't Know About Us!

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