Jasmine woke with a groan as the muttering of voices from downstairs wouldn't silence. Reluctantly, she walked down the steps, ready to snap at whoever dared to wake her up at such an ungodly hour. Once she reached the end of the hall, she rolled her eyes when she noticed Elena and Stefan sitting side by side by the lit fire place.

"I took it from Damon," she rolled her eyes at the mention of the raven haired vampire, "who took it from Logan, who must have taken it from you."

Elena grabs the pocket watch and opens it up, but looks confused when she notices the contents inside, "what happened to it?"

Sighing, Jasmine entered the living room with a smile on her face. She quickly sat in front of the couple, a glass of bourbon instantly in her hand, "well, it's not just a watch. It's more of a... vampire radar."

"What do you mean?" Elena's head tilted to her side as if trying to grasp the concept of such an invention.

Stefan looked at Jasmine before grabbing the pocket watch and demonstrating how the device worked. The needle whirled around a couple times before pointing back and forth between the two vampires. Elena looked up at Stefan with shock written on her face.

"Why did my father have it?"

Seemingly growing bored, Jasmine stood after placing her glass on the table and walked towards the fire place, watching the embers escape towards the chimney, "your family—pardon, the Gilberts were one of the founding families and back in 1864, they were among those who sought to eradicate the vampires. That pocket watch was used to expose us."

Ignoring the slight glare she received from the doppelganger when she mentioned her knowledge of the adoption, Jasmine stood still for a couple moments, remembering the few friends she made that she thought were burned alive that night. Knowing they were sort of alive gave her another reason to want to open up the tomb. She couldn't stand the fact that they were down there, desiccated and suffering.

Sighing, she turned around to face the couple, but mentally gagged when she noticed their locked lips.

"I'd appreciate it if you kept the swapping of saliva to a minimum, thanks."

Stefan chuckled as he pulled away from Elena, causing the doppelganger to pout. Eventually, Elena announced she must get going if she wanted enough time to get ready for the 50s dance tonight. Once she was out of sight, Jasmine turned to Stefan with an unamused expression etched on her features.

"What?"

"There's a bloody dance tonight and you didn't bother to tell me?"

Stefan smiled at her before shrugging, "it slipped my mind, I'm sorry."

He walked back towards the living room and invited her to sit next to him. Settling herself down, she reached for her slightly forgotten glass of bourbon. She always welcomed the minor burn that scratched at her throat as the liquid made its way down. She noticed Stefan being uncharacteristically quiet, so she turned towards him with a frown.

"You know you can talk to me, Stef."

He let out a deep sigh before clasping her hand gently in his, "I know, Jas. I just hope you know that you can tell me anything."

Looking him in the eyes, she refused to let her lie be noticed, "what are you going on about?"

"I know something is bothering you, Jasmine. If you're not ready to talk about it for some reason, then fine, we won't talk. Just... just, please, don't shut me out."

Smiling, she placed a hand on the side of his face and ran her thumb across his cheek, "I'm not shutting you out, promise. It's nothing I can't handle. Trust me, if it was serious, you'd be the first to know."

Stefan gave her a small smile as he leaned into her touch. He knew—he always knew when something bothered her, no matter how hard she tried to conceal it, he always knew. They've known each other since 1862, they were each other's best friends and he was certain that they were each other's soul mates.

Another sigh escaped each of their lips as she removed her hand.

"Why don't you come with Elena and me? I'm sure she won't mind." Giving him a nod, she walked back up the stairs and back into her bedroom to prepare for the night as well.

▪▪▪▪

Once she settled on an outfit, she was quick on applying her make up and styling her hair. She missed the fifties. Honestly, she missed every decade that past by her, especially the fashion and the music. She tried to keep as many clothing and records as possible, but she was running out of places of where to store them and lugging them around with her wasn't exactly an option.

Smiling, she walked out of the room and towards Stefan's. As she was about to announce that she was ready, she noticed he wasn't in his room. Frowning, she settled in one spot and heard him talking to Damon in the library.

"Read it. I have. Nowhere in it does it say anything about Katherine, or the tomb, or how to open it."

Damon retrieved the book and flipped through the pages himself before muttering, "I'm not surprised. Man could barely spell his own name."

"I'm really sorry that it won't be any help with your diabolical plan, the sequel," Though, sarcasm was heavily laced in his voice when he announced his supposed apology, he sounded sincere when he turned to his brother, once more, "you know, I could help you."

Jasmine smiled at the Salvatore brothers. She knew there was a chance that all of this was probably just an act, but she couldn't help the feeling that overtook her whenever the two brothers seemed to throw their hatred aside and accept each other.

"That's really nice of you, Stefan. We would actually really appreciate it."

Both Salvatore brothers looked toward her and stared at her in awe for a couple seconds. The beauty that is Jasmine Lillian Saunders never seemed to fail to knock the wind out of their lungs.

Clearing his throat, Damon gestured to his brother, "I don't know. It seems a little unnatural."

"I'll do anything to get you out of this town, even release Katherine." Well, so much for the bonding time.

"What about the other twenty-six vampires?"

Stefan immediately shook his and crossed his arms, "no, no, no. They can't come. They have to stay put, but Katherine, I would consider that."

Damon squinted his eyes at his brother and smirked, unable to accept his help, "what are you doing? Hmm? What's your angle?"

Shaking her head, Jasmine frowned at the raven haired Salvatore, "does there have to be an angle, Damon? We could use the help. We haven't exactly gotten any further to finding it."

Stefan looked at his brother, once more, "see, that's your problem, Damon. You apply all of your shortcomings to everybody else. If history's any indication, there's only one liar among us."

With that, Stefan retrieved his keys and told Jasmine he'd meet her at the dance after he picked up Elena. She hugged him as he left, then turned towards Damon, who had returned to reading his father's journal.

"What are you thinking about, Damon?"

Damon sighed as he ran his hand down his face, stressed, "I just want to see her again, Jasmine. That's all I want. I spent the last hundred and forty-five years looking for a way to open that damn tomb and when it was finally time Emily destroyed the damn crystal! The only thing that kept me from seeing Katherine, she destroyed it!"

He sat down on the chair behind the desk and ran his hands through his hair, "I just want to hold her and be with her. Now, Stefan wants to help and I don't know if I can trust him. He hates Katherine and he hates me, so why would he now care about me getting what I want?"

Jasmine kneeled down in front of him and grabbed his shoulders, "maybe because he still cares about you, Damon. You guys may fight and wreck havoc in each other's lives, but you're all the family you both have got. Maybe this is all an act, but, like I said before, we need all the help we can get."

She caressed his face and smiled up at him, "but either way, he can help us figure out where Emily hid her grimoire. It will lead us to Katherine."

Damon took a deep breath and sighed, nodding his head, "you're right. Okay, well—"

The sound of ringing interrupted them both as they looked at their phones. Noticing it wasn't theirs, they furrowed their eyebrows and searched for the origin of the sound. Seeing a cell phone perched on the edge of the table, Jasmine grabbed it and answered it.

"Stefan's phone. What do you want?" Jasmine giggled when Damon lightly smacked her arm.

"Where is he?"

Rolling her eyes, Jasmine mouthed 'Elena' towards Damon, who smirked, "do I look like his damn babysitter? Last I saw him, he said he was going to pick you up, so shouldn't you know where he is?"

She could feel Elena's glare through the phone, "alright, I guess he's here since the compass keeps spinning. Bye."

Jasmine rolled her eyes and hung up the phone and looked at an amused Damon. "What?"

"She really gets under your skin, doesn't she?

Shrugging, she grabbed his hand and led him towards the front door and towards his car, "she's like those worms or insects that literally crawl into your skin, but, unfortunately, I can't get her surgically removed."

Damon's laughter boomed throughout the driveway as he opened the door for her, "your references are getting weirder by the year."

She smiled at him, loving the smile he now sported contrast to his recent behavior that made her think a frown was permanently etched on his lips. Damon groaned when his phone began ringing, "what?"

"I need you to meet me at Elena's house. Now."

Without a reply, Damon ended the call and started towards Elena's house.

▪▪▪▪

Elena, Stefan, Damon, and to her dismay, Jasmine were all standing around the living room. Turns out, when Elena called for Stefan because she was freaked from the spinning compass, it was actually Noah, the vampire who is stalking Elena, inside the house.

"How'd he even get in?"

Jasmine rolled her eyes as she stared at the coffee table, "he was obviously invited inside, Damon." Turning to look at Elena, she smirked, "you should really be careful about who you invite into your house."

Stefan gave his best friend an annoyed glance before looking at Damon, "he posed as a pizza delivery guy last night."

Damon chuckled, "well, he gets points for that. Did he say what he wanted?"

With a scoff, Elena glared at him as she flailed her arms into the air, "no, he was too busy trying to kill me."

Stefan wrapped an arm around Elena in an attempt to comfort her, which worked, before looking back to his brother, "and you have no idea who this is?"

Damon shook his head, then rolled his eyes when Stefan looked at him unconvincingly, "don't look at me like that. I told you we had company."

Elena's expression resembled one of fear when she looked up at her boyfriend, "do you think there's more than one?"

"We don't know."

"Most likely."

Everyone looked at Jasmine as she threw her hands in the air, "what? There's a possibility that there's two or more of them. We have to be prepared for that." She stood up and looked at the small group, "look, we don't know if he was any friends with him, but what we do know is that he's here and he's threatening Elena's safety and who knows what he'll do. He could expose us."

Stefan nodded and looked down at Elena, "he could hurt Elena."

"Yeah, that was implied, too."

Chuckling softly, Stefan and Damon looked at each other before looking towards their best friend, "he's been invited in, Jas."

"Then, tonight he takes his last breath."