10. The New Deal

Fae was laying in her bed, staring at the ceiling, in no mood to get out of bed anytime soon. All she could think about was Stefan, she had no idea where he and Brayden had disappeared to, and though Fae was tempted to do a locater spell on the brothers, both her and Caroline knew that it was better that for a few days Stefan and Brayden stay away from Mystic Falls, so no matter how much the two girls miss their respective partners, they let them have their space, for now at least, but that didn't stop any of them from missing Stefan and Brayden immensely.

Fae groaned in annoyance when her phone started ringing, both her and Caroline had told Damon and Kaitlynn not to contact them today, no matter what, but seems like they were not in a mood to listen to them.

"What?" Fae answered, not checking who was calling her.

"Coming to the witches house" the other person on the phone said.

Hearing the voice, Fae quickly shot up in her bed, "Brayden?" she asked shocked.

"Don't ask any questions" Brayden said, "Just come to the witches house, alone".

***

After Brayden's call, Fae rushed to the witches house, wanting to know what Stefan and Brayden were up to now.

Fae entered the witches house, and despite being a vampire and being alive for nearly two hundred years, Fae absolutely hated being in this house because of the creepy vibe she got from the house.

"Hello, Fae" Brayden greeted, appearing behind the heretic, startling her.

"I can't believe you actually called her" Stefan said, walking into the room, clearly not happy with Fae's presence.

"She's the only one who can help us idiot" Brayden snapped, tired of his brother's constant complaining.

"What do you two want from me?" Fae asked confused.

"We want your help" Brayden replied.

"Why did you two save Klaus?" Fae asked, needing answers from the brothers before she decides to help them or not.

"Let me fill you in on a little secret about Klaus" Stefan said, "He kept his family with him at all times, daggered, stored in coffins, and now me and Brayden have them, and we need you to help keep them hidden".

"You two idiots realise that you are just making Klaus angry, right?" Fae asked, wondering if Stefan and Brayden had a death wish.

"We know that" Brayden replied, "But we also know that Klaus only has one weakness, and that is his family, as long as that family is kept away from him, we can ruin Klaus easily".

"No witch has the power to hide four originals at the same time" Fae protested.

"You're a witch, you hate Klaus, I know you can figure something out" Stefan said.

"Whatever you do, under no circumstance are Damon, Kaitlynn or Caroline are to find out what we are up to" Brayden warned.

"She's miserable without you" Fae told Brayden, who didn't need to ask Fae who she was talking about, they both knew exactly who Fae was referring to.

"She'll get over it" Brayden said, turning to leave.

"No, she won't" Fae said, stopping Brayden, "You two are soulmates Brayden, the more you stay away from each other, the more hard it will get, the more pain you two will feel, if you don't want to see her, at least call her, let her know you're okay, otherwise she's going to lose her mind worrying about you".

For a moment Brayden stood there in silence, then without saying anything to Fae or Stefan, he walked out the witches house.

***

In order to force Damon to find his brothers and get his family back, Klaus ended up using Tyler to get Jeremy off of vervain, he then compelled him to take his ring off and step in the middle of the road, and then one of his hybrids attempted to run Jeremy over, but at the last moment Alaric pushed Jeremy out of the way so Klaus's hybrid instead ran Alaric over, luckily he was wearing his ring.

After much pleading from Elena, Damon agreed to find his brothers, which is why Kaitlynn called Fae, asking her to do a locater spell on the brothers, but after finding out what Klaus did to Jeremy, Fae ended up telling Kaitlynn everything Stefan and Brayden told her and where they currently were right now, which is why Damon, Kaitlynn and Caroline were now walking towards the witches house.

"I thought Fae said this place lost its mojo" A confused Damon said, looking at the house infront of him.

"No, she said that the dead witches were angry at Bonnie for bringing Jeremy back, which in turn also made them lose connection with Fae for some reason, but now apparently there's something they want Fae to know, right now Fae's trying to figure out what that thing exactly is" Kaitlynn explained.

"That's why I hate witches, so fickle, and passive-aggressive" Damon complained.

"You hate everyone" Caroline reminded.

"Also true" Damon said.

Caroline rolled her eyes at the older Salvatore and opened the door to the witches house, "Brayden?!" she called out, "Stefan?!".

"Come on, Bray, Stef, olly olly oxen free" Damon sing songed.

As soon as the three vampires stepped in the house, the small amount of sunlight that was peeping in, started burning all three of them, their daylight ring no longer working while they were in the house.

"Really? Still?" Damon snapped, as the vampires rushed to cover.

"What's happening?" Caroline asked confused.

"The witchy spirits aren't a big fan of us" Damon replied, "And they use their juju to screw with our daylight rings".

"What do we do now?" Kaitlynn asked.

Caroline sighed, "You two go outside" she said.

Damon shook his head, "Absolutely not" he said.

"Damon, just go outside with Kaitlynn, I'm going to find Brayden and try to put some sense in him" Caroline said.

Kaitlynn looked at Damon, "If anyone can get through to Brayden, it's going to be Caroline, we have to let her try".

Damon looked between Caroline and Kaitlynn, and after a moment nodded, knowing there was no way those two were going to listen to him.

"Be careful" Kaitlynn told Caroline, who nodded in assurance, and with that Damon and Kaitlynn rushed out the house, while Caroline used her speed to run into the basement.

"Dammit!" Caroline yelled, leaning against the wall, trying to catch her breath, she tried to move again, but once again started to burn.

"You really don't learn do you?" Brayden said, suddenly appearing infront of Caroline, blocking the sunlight from reaching her skin, while doing so he ended up trapping Caroline between the wall and himself.

Seeing Brayden standing infront of her, alive and well, caused Caroline to smile, "Thanks for letting me know you are okay" she said sarcastically.

"No problem" Brayden said, equally as sarcastic as his soulmate, "Now, how did you find me?".

"Fae" Caroline simply said.

"Of course" Brayden mumbled, "Stefan was right, Fae could never keep a secret from you and Kaitlynn".

"Brayden, you and Stefan really need to give Klaus his coffins back" Caroline said, getting straight to the point and trying not to let Brayden's closeness effect her.

"Not gonna happen" Brayden said.

"Klaus compelled Jeremy to stand infront of a speeding car" Caroline informed, "Remember Jeremy? Your friend? If you and Stefan don't give him his family back, then Klaus isn't going to stop hurting people till he gets what he wants".

"First of all, I no longer have any friends" Brayden said, "Second of all, I don't really care who dies, all I care about now is ruining Klaus, nothing else matters to me anymore".

"That's not true and you know it!" Caroline yelled.

"It is the truth, Caroline!" Brayden snapped back, "And you need to accept it, stop waiting for me, stop trying to bring me back, stop trying to make me good, because it won't work, not this time, this time you have no effect on me or my actions".

"So this is it?" Caroline asked, tears in her eyes, "You just expect me to give up on you?".

Brayden stared at Caroline for a moment, then said, "Yes, give up Caroline, move on, because that's what I plan on doing".

"Brayden, please" Caroline cried, "Don't push me so far away, that one day, when you realise that your wrong, I will be too far for you to reach".

Brayden sighed, "Just go Caroline, leave and stop coming back".

"If you want me to walk away from you, then you need to take a step back from me first" Caroline whispered, Brayden looked at at her in confusion, she then gestured to how they were standing, with Caroline caged between the wall and Brayden's arms.

Realising their position, Brayden quickly took a step back, but made sure the sunlight didn't reach Caroline, "Go" he pleaded, "Please Caroline, just go".

Caroline looked at Brayden, by now tears were streaming down her face, and without another word, Caroline speeded out of the house, leaving Brayden to himself.

***

"That didn't go over well" Damon commented, as a devested Caroline came out of the house, him and Kaitlynn having heard the whole conversation between Brayden and Caroline.

"Shut up, Damon" Kaitlynn snapped, walking over to her best friend, "Care, you okay?".

Caroline looked at Kaitlynn, the heartbroken look on her face made both Damon and Kaitlynn's heart clench, "No" she cried, "I'm not okay, I think me and Brayden are officially over".

Before Damon or Kaitlynn could say anything to her, Caroline had walked away, wanting to put as much distance between her and Brayden as possible.

"Take her home" Damon said, handing his car keys to Kaitlynn, "You go deal with your best friend, I'm going to deal with my brother".

Kaitlynn nodded and rushed after Caroline while Damon entered the witches house.

After much difficultly and yelling, Damon finally managed to make it to the basement of the witches house.

"Wow" Brayden said, seeing his twin brother, "I was nearly impressed, but I'm sorry to burst your bubble the coffins or Stefan aren't here, so run along brother".

"I don't care about the coffins" Damon snapped, "We need to talk".

"Fine, talk then" Brayden said.

Damon glared at Brayden, "Nothing's ever easy with you, is it?" he asked.

"Nope" Brayden replied.

Damon didn't say anything, he just grabbed Brayden and rushed him out of the house, he threw him on the ground and before he could recover, Damon kicked Brayden so he stayed down, he then ripped a tree branch and stabbed Brayden in the stomach.

"That is for screwing up my plan!" Damon snapped, as Brayden yelled in pain, "You and Stefan stopped me from killing Klaus and then you two steal his family, why? Doesn't make sense", when Brayden stayed quiet, Damon dug the branch deeper into his stomach, "Answer me!".

Brayden glared at Damon, "I told you last night, by saving Klaus, I saved you!", Brayden kicked Damon away from him.

"What?" Damon asked, laying on the floor in shock, as Brayden removed the branch from his stomach, "No, no way, you didn't do this for me".

"Of course I did it for you, who else would I save Klaus for?!" Brayden snapped, "Klaus has always been one step ahead of you Damon, last night was the same thing, he had ordered his hybrids to rip you apart if anything happened to him".

"When are you gonna get it through your head?" Damon asked, annoyed with his brother, which is why he once again stabbed him with a branch, "Stop saving me!".

"I'll stop saving you when you learn to give up on me!" Brayden snapped, taking the branch out of his stomach and standing up

"I can't give up on you Brayden, you know this!" Damon said, shoving his twin.

Brayden, having enough of Damon hurting him, ended up punching his brother in the face, "And I can't let you die! And Klaus knew that, he knew my weakness Damon, it wasn't Stefan, it wasn't Caroline, it was you! Klaus used my weakness to his aid, and that's exactly what I'm going to do, I'm going to use his weakness to take his everything, and no one, I mean no one is going to stop me".

***

After their fight, Damon had walked away from Brayden in order to clear his head, when he returned it was night fall and Stefan had joined Brayden.

"You know what I can't figure out?" Damon said, "Both of your switch is off, so why would you save me? Tell me brothers, is the switch on or off?".

"Do you have somewhere you need to be Damon?" Stefan asked, not answering Damon's question.

"Oh, deflection" Damon realised, "It's not gonna work on me, I invented that".

"Whatever I wanted to say to you, I already said, now I'm done, we're done" Brayden said.

"I'm not Caroline, Brayden" Damon snapped, "You're not going to get rid of me by just saying that you're done, you and I are stuck with each other for the rest of eternity, you know that, so without wasting my precious time, and just tell me why did you save me if your humanity is still off? You guys owe me that".

"We don't owe you anything" Stefan retorted.

"Fine" Damon said, knowing that his brothers were way too stubborn to admit anything to him, "Next question, why'd you two steal the coffins?".

"Because Klaus' family is one weakness we can use against him" Stefan replied.

"Use against him to do what?" Damon asked confused, "None of you are gonna kill him, you know how I know? Because there was only one way to kill him and you two blew that to save me".

Brayden smirked, "That's where you are wrong, brother" he said, "No one, not even us vampires get to live forever, someday death will catch up to us, same way, death will catch up to Klaus as well, it's just a matter of time".

"Fair enough" Damon said, "But whatever you two are doing, I want in".

"We don't need your help" Stefan stated.

"Really, last I checked you two were hiding in a haunted house" Damon reminded.

"This is mine and Stefan's battle Damon, you can get lost" Brayden said, walking away from his brother.

"You go after Klaus, you have to be cutthroat and devious" Damon said, "Something you are Bray, but Stefan isn't, I'm so much better at that than him", Brayden and Stefan exchanged a look, both of them still not sure whether involving Damon was a good idea or not, "Come on, brothers, what do you say? If you're gonna keep saving my life at least make it for a good reason".

"You want in, huh?" Stefan asked.

"Yeah" Damon replied.

"Only on one condition" Brayden said, "It will just be us three in this, the girls stay out of it, including Kaitlynn".

"Deal" Damon said.

"Follow us then" Brayden said, walking back into the witches house.

"I'm not so welcome in there" Damon reminded.

"Once upon a time, I wasn't so welcome in here either" Brayden retorted, "Things change once you have the same agenda as the dead witches, so just come on in, something tells me they won't kick you out this time".

Damon hesitated for a moment, but nonetheless followed his brothers into the witches house, realising his brother was right, this time the witches didn't try to kick him out.

"Have a look" Stefan said, showing Damon the empty room.

"What?" Damon asked, "Klaus is allergic to dust?".

"Look closer" Brayden said.

Damon looked back at the empty room and to his shock, this time the room was full of four closed coffins.

"Witch spirits hate Klaus as much as we do" Stefan informed Damon, "They're using their powers to hide the coffins".

"So even if he comes in the house--" Damon started.

"He won't be able to see the coffins" Brayden finished.

***

"This is it" Fae realised, looking at the closed coffin infront of her in shock, "This is the coffin that keeps coming in my dreams", Fae tried to open it but failed.

"Don't bother, won't open" Stefan informed.

Fae stared at the coffin, she then closed her eyes and put her hand over it, "It's spelled" she realised, opening her eyes and looking at Stefan in shock, "This coffin has been shut with a spell".

"Meaning whatever's in there should probably stay in there" Stefan realised.

Fae nodded, "But you and Brayden aren't going to let that happen, right?".

"Right" Stefan replied.

Fae sighed, "Look, I don't know if whoever is in this coffin is dangerous or not, all I know is that the witches wanted me to find this coffin, they led me to it because of a reason, whatever is inside it, might be the answer to all our problems, but you need to realise that it could lead to a whole set of other problems".

"I know that" Stefan assured, "But we have to take the risk".

"I know" Fae whispered, looking at the closed coffin.

***

Damon entered the boarding house and saw Kaitlynn waiting for him by the fire place, a glass of bourbon in her hand.

"Hey" Kaitlynn greeted, a small smile forming on her face after seeing Damon.

"Hey" Damon greeted, walking over to Kaitlynn.

"Drink?" Kaitlynn asked, handing her glass over to Damon.

"Yes, please" Damon replied, downing the bourbon.

"That bad, huh?" Kaitlynn asked.

"Yeap" Damon replied, "How's Caroline?".

"She's devasted" Kaitlynn replied, "After sobbing for hours, she finally fell asleep in my bed".

Damon nodded, he stared at the fire infront of him, "Brayden and Stefan didn't screw us over" he revealed after a moment of silence, "They screwed us over, but they had a good reason".

"Which is what?" Kaitlynn asked confused.

"They saved Klaus to save me" Damon revealed, "And then they stole the coffins to get even".

Kaitlynn chuckled, "I told you there was more to the story".

"Yeah, you did" Damon whispered.

"Well, I'm going to go shower and then go to bed, I was waiting for you to show up in one piece and now that you are here, I can go to bed peacefully" Kaitlynn said, turning to leave.

Before Kaitlynn could leave, Damon grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards him, shocking her.

"Damon--".

"Do you love Elijah?" Damon asked.

"What?" Kaitlynn asked shocked.

"I asked, do you still love Elijah?" Damon asked.

"Damon, why are you asking me this?" Kaitlynn asked confused.

"Because I need to know if I have a chance" Damon admitted, "Right now, Stefan and Brayden have the coffins, but if or when Klaus get his hands on the coffins, then he will wake his family up, which includes Elijah, so I need to know, if he comes back, will you go back to him?".

"I--I don't know" Kaitlynn admitted, "Elijah was my soulmate, but our bond broke, clearly it wasn't strong enough to last, but I think there's still a lot me and Elijah need to talk about, I don't know if I will go back to him, but I know I still have a lot of questions for him".

Damon nodded in understanding, "What do you feel about me, Kaitlynn?" he then asked.

Kaitlynn looked at Damon wide eyed, "I--I--I don't know what to say" she whispered.

"That's okay" Damon whispered, closing the distance between him and Kaitlynn, "Because I know you feel it, the connection between us, you feel it, you know that you and I can never be just friends, but I also know before I pursue you, you need to close some chapters in your life, and that's okay, I can wait, especially after knowing that I effect you as much as you effect me".

"How do you know you effect me?" Kaitlynn whispered.

Damon rubbed his thumb on Kaitlynn's bottom lip, "Because of the goosebumps on your skin whenever I touch you, your erratic breathing whenever I come near you, and the clear desire in your eyes when you see me".

"I'm not ready for this Damon" Kaitlynn whispered.

"I know" Damon assured, "But you should know, in 1864 the only reason I let go of you was because I was competing against my twin brother, this time I'm not competing against him, so time I don't plan on letting you go".

After taking Kaitlynn in for one more moment, Damon turned to leave, but he suddenly stopped and faced Kaitlynn again.

"I need to do this tonight, otherwise I'm going to lose my mind" Damon said.

Kaitlynn looked at Damon in confusion, but her confusion was immediately cleared when Damon closed the distance between them and smashed his lips on to hers, and to both Damon and Kaitlynn's shock, Kaitlynn ended up kissing Damon back.

After a moment, the two vampires separated and Damon smiled at Kaitlynn, "By kissing me back you answered all my questions" he said, Kaitlynn didn't say anything, she was too shocked to get anything out of her mouth, so Damon simply placed a kiss on her forehead and finally stepped away from Kaitlynn, "Good night, Kait".

Once Damon had walked away, Kaitlynn sat down on the couch, she touched her lips in shock, and unknowingly a small smile formed on her face, even though she hadn't realised it yet, it was quiet obvious that Damon Salvatore was starting to make a special place for himself in Kaitlynn Pierce's heart.

***

Presenting 3x10 of The Vampire Diaries . . .

How was the chapter?

Thoughts on Brayden and Stefan calling Fae for help in hiding Klaus's coffins?

Thoughts on Brayden and Caroline officially calling it quits?

Thoughts on Damon kissing Kaitlynn?