•|•

"What do you mean you're ditching clean up committee?" Isabel asked as she glanced at Caroline who was walking with her. She looked down at the baby strapped to her chest and hands her finger over to her baby to mess with so that Rose wouldn't pull on her hair.

Isabel had tried to find someone to take care of Rose but eventually decided to keep her baby close instead. She could have stayed home and Caroline would have let her but she didn't want to be at the house.

"Klaus called." Tyler informed her. "He's leaving town and wants me to pack up his house."

"I didn't know sire bond equaled being his little maid?" She said sarcastically.

"It doesn't but he still thinks I'm sired to him. It's fine, I'll keep up the act and it will all be over soon. I'm late, I gotta go. I love you," Tyler said quickly when he heard Klaus come back in the mansion.

"Mhm." She couldn't find it in herself to spout out the words which she didn't notice but Caroline did. So as soon as Isabel hung up Care was quick to question it. "Please Care. Leave it alone."

"Oh come on! You two use to be so close I wanted to vomit." She admitted. "What happened?"

"It- it just got complicated." She answered vaguely, she glanced down at Rose and managed a small smile.

Isabel didn't want to admit it out loud; what was wrong. She'd only cry and she didn't want to cry, not anymore. And she wasn't ready to accept the truth yet.

Caroline shut up knowing her werewolf friend really didn't want to be bothered about her love life.

For a bit of their walk, it was silent beside Rose's gurgles. But that silence was disturbed when they both heard a noise. They look at each other with furrowed brows before turning around. Rose stopped making noise, noticing her mother and mother's friend were worried.

Behind them, Alaric rushed past causing them to whip around their blonde hair flinging around as they turn to see what caused the slight drift.

"Hello?" Caroline called out. Neither of the girls had seen the man they had grown close to over the months and the noise confused them.

"Anybody there?!" Izzy called but didn't see or hear anything more.

When Isabel and Caroline decided that they were probably just hearing things they headed toward the cafeteria and upon entering they notice Rebekah, alone, and cleaning up the mess from the dance.

"Where's my brother?" Isabel asked. "Wasn't he suppose to help?"

"He bailed." Rebekah shrugged. "Got called into work at the last minute."

"Of course he did." Isabel sighed. She wanted to see her brother today and maybe hang with him once they were done cleaning but that obviously wasn't happening.

"Are you kidding me?" Caroline exclaimed in frustration.

"So, it's just us then?" Isabel asked sadly. She really hated cleaning up big messes. Even her own.

"Yes, and you're both late." Rebekah retorted with a catty remark. "Clean up committee started at eight o'clock."

"It's like 8:02." Caroline pointed out to the Original with an unamused look on her face.

"Exactly. I managed to turn up on time and I didn't even get to attend the dance that I organized." Rebekah snippily replied before walking past Caroline and Isabel to empty out the trash in her hands.

"I'm sorry about your mom." Caroline broke the momentary silence, turning to look at the older vampire. "I mean I know you like, hated her and everything, but still...I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too...Bekah." Isabel admitted turning as well. Even if her mom wasn't around much and only came for money she still missed her. She still wanted her mother to be there. Just knowing that she's alive and able to visit was better then nothing in her opinion.

"I'm sorry about your teacher," she said trying to be civil with the two girls. "He seemed like a nice guy."

"Yeah. He certainly was." Isabel agreed. Rebekah seemed a bit nicer. More calm. She was glad. She couldn't really deal with a mean Rebekah. Especially if Rose noticed the hostility.

"I'm gonna get started on the gym." Rebekah walked out into the hallway.

The next minute Caroline disappeared and Isabel followed after hearing a loud bang. She came out to see Rebekah take the white oak stake and stab Alaric with it.

Caroline, Isabel, and Rebekah share terrified and confused looks when Alaric took the stake out without dying. When he finally got it out, he realized that they all had made a run for it.

Isabel rushed to her own car and strapped Rose in who was now crying. The little girl reached for her mother desperately but Isabel just gave her a quick kiss to the forehead.

When she closed the door she saw Alaric's reflection in her car window and tried to roundhouse kick him but he grabbed her leg, twisted it, then smashed her head hard enough into the ground to make her pass out. Alaric easily picked up the unconscious Isabel and hoisted her over his shoulder before quickly grabbing Rose's car seat and walking back towards the school with his flesh smoking and burning off.

The baby's loud wails were the last thing Rebekah heard before Alaric disappeared with the mother and daughter.

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

"Whoever this is, it's not funny."

"Well, who else would it be?" He asked as the distant cries of the baby sounded through the phone.

"Ric?" Elena asked shocked.

"Listen closely, I'm at the school, I have Isabel and her precious little daughter and if you want to keep them alive, I need you to get in your car and come down here right away. If you tell anyone where you are going, I will kill them both." He spat before hanging up.

Isabel was staked down into a desk with pencils in her hands and a cloth dipped with wolfsbane in her mouth. The plant burning her mouth and not allowing her body to heal.

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

At the Gilbert house, the doorbell rung and Jeremy went to answer the door only to see Klaus standing outside with an impatient look on his face.

"What the hell do you want?" Jeremy immediately asked. He seemed to have the confidence to speak up against the hybrid and not sound scared.

"Now is that any way to treat a guest?" Klaus asked, amused with the boy's braveness.

Stefan walked up behind Jeremy as soon as he heard Klaus' voice. "What are you doing here, Klaus?"

"Well, for starters, young Jeremy here could show some manners and invite me inside," Klaus smirked, leaning against the doorframe as he was unable to go past.

Damon walked over to the door as Stefan moved in front of Jeremy in a protective manner.

"Why don't you go up to your room?" Stefan suggested yet it sounded more like an order.

Damon looked at Jeremy who seemed reluctant. "Now."

Jeremy sighed in defeat and walked up the stairs, away from the supernatural trio.

"Hm, poor lad." Klaus feigned sympathy, his smirk dropping. "Loses one questionable father figure only to be replaced by the likes of the two of you."

"Yeah, about that." Damon started. "Something happened."

"Oh, I know all about my mother's invulnerable little creation and that's why I'm here. I'm leaving town, just need to pick up a few road trip necessities. Spare tire, flashlight, doppelgänger." He smirked at the end, waiting for a reaction out of the Salvatore brothers.

"Can't help you there." Damon shrugged off. He clapped Stefan on the shoulder before pulling him back, and shutting the door in Klaus' face. Damon quickly moved into the living room and Stefan rushed towards the stairs.

"Elena!" He yelled.

Outside, Klaus paced on the front porch looking livid. He suddenly stopped and picked up the newspaper by the front door.

Inside, Stefan walked up the stairs and into Alaric's old room where he found Jeremy painting, but Elena still nowhere in sight.

"Where is she?" He asked, worry starting to overtake the youngest Salvatore.

"I don't know, she was just here a few minutes ago," Jeremy told him. The youngest Gilbert wasn't all that worried seeing as he had no idea of the threat.

Stefan quickly walked out of the room and down the stairs where he met up with Damon.

"Where is she?" Damon asked not seeing the girl the two were deeply in love with.

"She's not here." Stefan relayed.

"What do you mean she's not here?" Damon asked, his panic settling in. "Where did she go?"

Bonnie suddenly walked into the living room looking confused. "What's going on?"

Damon looked out the blinds and saw Klaus pacing with the newspaper in his hands and a brooding look on his face.

"Klaus wants in, we have to keep him out." Damon told the other two in the room before checking outside to see Klaus pull back his arm and throw the newspaper at the window with vampire strength.

"Ah, duck!" Damon exclaimed.

The newspaper smashed through the window and flew into the living room. Damon quickly ducked down while Stefan grabbed onto Bonnie so they to could get away from the destruction Klaus caused.

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

Alaric sat at his desk with Isabel still staked down to the chair. While he heard Elena walk inside, Elena signaled Caroline to stay put at the school's door while she walked inside.

"Right on time." Ric muttered to Isabel who had tears streaming down her face yet she still kept silent so that she didn't scare Rose more.

Elena walked down the hallway, looking around. She heard Rose crying and ran towards the noise. She entered Alaric's classroom only to see Isabel all pinned down with Rose in her car seat crying at the sight of her mother hurt. Rose continued to reach out to her mom but Isabel could do nothing.

"Izzy. Rose..." She turned to Alaric. "Let them go, Alaric!" She yelled angrily. The sight of the duo broke her heart. The baby wasn't even a year old and she had to sit and watch her own mother tortured. "They haven't done anything wrong!"

Alaric pointed towards Isabel. "Free her yourself."

Elena and Alaric stare at each other for a short moment before Elena cautiously walks over to the blonde wolf.

The doppelgänger got down and stroked Isabel's arm soothingly before she started to gently pull the pencil out of one of Isabel's hands, but Alaric came up and slammed the pencil back down into her hand. Isabel held back the scream that desperately wanted to escape and instead whimpered but Rose only wailed louder.

Elena stood back up and yelled, "you said that you would let her go!"

"How many times do I have to tell you, Elena? Stop trusting vampires!" He sneered.

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

"I think you're probably gonna want to let me in!" Klaus yelled.

Klaus walked over to a neighbor's house with a white picket fence. He placed his hands on the fence and looked around with furrowed brows. He noticed a soccer ball and smiled mischievously.

Back in the house, Bonnie, Jeremy, Stefan, and Damon stood in the kitchen, feeling helpless and stranded.

"Elena's car is gone." Stefan informed the group.

"Why wouldn't she tell anyone where she was going?" Bonnie wondered aloud.

Suddenly, the front door burst open and the soccer ball Klaus had grabbed, flew in. Klaus walked up the porch with two fence pickets in his hands looking as if he had enough of the waiting. He hurled one of the pickets into the house and it narrowly missed Damon's head and instead embedded itself in the wall behind him.

"Get down!" Stefan yelled as he grabbed Jeremy and Bonnie and pulled them down with him.

"Missed me!" Damon yelled out childishly.

Damon pulled the picket out of the wall and threw it back at Klaus. The picket just grazed over his shoulder and he just ignored it. Klaus broke the other picket in his hand in two and threw half of it at Damon again, but instead, he hit a picture and broke it.

"Missed me again!" He taunted again.

Klaus aimed the last picket into the house just as Stefan's phone started to ring and he quickly answered it.

"Alaric." He muttered in surprise.

Klaus came back up to the house with a propane tank and a newspaper 'torch', acting like a dog who wanted to go out on a walk yet its owner kept denying him.

Stefan came up to the front door after the phone call. His face mirroring his emotions: worry, panic, and yet he remained calm. "Put it out."

"Come outside and make me," Klaus said, not fully expecting him to do so.

Stefan stepped outside showing he was serious about whatever he had to say.

"Elena's not here. Alaric has her, Isabel, and Rose and he's gonna kill them all unless you turn yourself over to him." Klaus instantly threw down the newspaper and dropped the propane tank at the news of his parabatai and her babe in trouble. "But unfortunately, if Alaric kills you there's a one in four chance that we die too."

Damon walked out with a picket over his shoulder and a calm expression plastered on his face.

"I'll take those odds."

Stefan looked at Damon, annoyed. "And a hundred percent chance that Tyler dies."

"I'm good with that too," Damon replied carelessly.

"You are unbelievable. You may not like him or Isabel very much but they still have a child that needs them. Then again that may not matter much to you either." He took a jab at his brother thinking back to when his 'uncle' and his 'uncles' wife was expecting yet Damon still fed and tried to kill them.

"Why don't we just focus on a way to save my parabatai and her child?" Klaus asked impatiently. "Hm?" He hummed and the two other nodded reluctantly.

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

Klaus and Stefan pace outside the Gilbert home while Damon leaned against the picket fence missing two pieces. Klaus suddenly stopped and turned around when an idea came to mind.

"Okay, how about Damon sneaks in and distracts Alaric, while Stefan grabs Elena and carries her to safety while I grab my girls?"

"Huh, that's a great idea." Damon agreed for a split second before saying, "what's to stop me from getting killed instantly?"

"Nothing." Klaus grinned.

"Isabel's in there with Alaric. If I'm not successful neither are you. And don't you have a thing for her? Or did she shoot you down to many times?" Damon taunted again only angering the hybrid. "Have to admit mama wolf can be a bit spicy."

"This isn't really helping too much." Stefan complained.

Bonnie walked out of the house after thinking again and again over a possible solution with Jeremy. "I might have an idea. My mom used a desiccation spell on Mikael that immobilized him for over 15 years. If I can get it, I might be able to use it on Alaric."

"If and might?" Klaus started sarcastically. "Your words inspire such confidence."

"I'll get it." She assured the hybrid. "But even with the spell, we'll need a lot of vampire muscle to take him down. Including yours."

Klaus turned around toward the Salvatores and the Bennett. "Just so we're clear, the sun sets in about eight hours. If we don't succeed in getting Alaric immobilized before then, Elena will be dead, I'll be gone with Isabel and Rose, and the rest of you will be left to fend for yourselves."

He knew if they didn't succeed, whether she liked it or not, he would take Isabel and her child and get them away from this town.

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

Alaric dipped the cloth that was in Isabel's mouth into a beaker of wolfsbane once more. The skin around the werewolf's mouth appeared very bloody and peeling away.

Isabel groaned as Alaric started to walk towards her. "No, no more, please, no more!" She begged desperately.

Elena got up to stop the man from causing anymore harm to her friend. The cries of the baby had settled after Elena held her and rocked her until she was tired but if Alaric kept going with his plans Rose would surely start wailing again. "Alaric stop!"

Alaric pushed Elena back into a seat. "Sit down! This keeps the wolfsbane in her system. It's like inhaling razorblades with every breath." Alaric placed the cloth back in Isabel's mouth. Her skin began smoke and more blood spewed down as she whimpered. She had to do her best to keep quite for her daughter.

Elena touched her friends arm before looking over at Alaric. "Why are you doing this?"

"To make it easier on you when you put her out of her misery." Alaric picked up the white oak stake and walked towards the doppelgänger.

"What?! No!" She protested. "You can't make me."

"Isn't this what you wanted, Elena? For me to teach you how to become a hunter?" Alaric holds out the white oak stake towards her. "Well, here's a savage supernatural being, Elena. Kill her."

"This isn't what I want." She shook her head.

"Of course it is. All those hours you spent training, getting stronger, you could be a hunter, Elena. But you've never actually staked the real deal through the heart." He persistently holds out the stake.

Elena just stared at it in horror, refusing to hurt her friend. Even if they were distant and didn't talk as much as they did before she couldn't ever hurt her. Not when the wolf has been with her ever since she can remember.

Flashback

"Matty has a crush on you!" Little four year old Isabel cried out to Elena as she jumped on the bed. "Matty has a crush on you! Matty has a crush on you!"

"Stop." Elena grumbled playfully, a pink tint to her cheeks. "I don't like him."

"But he likes you," Isabel said, her face dropping. She stopped jumping on the bed in excitement and instead sat down crisscross.

"Izzy." Elena complained, slipping under her bed to keep her warm from the cold. Outside was snowy yet she kept the window open.

"Okay. Okay. But I'm not telling him you don't like him. It's not my job to break his heart."

"Do you wanna play in the snow?" Elena suggested knowing her blonde friend like snow angels and snowmen. "I can help you build a super super super giant snowman. And this time I won't chicken out and go running back inside."

"Okay!" Isabel perked up, happy as a clam. "Let's go." The girl immediately grabbed Elena's hand and started pulling her out the bedroom.

"Wait!" Elena cried out, tugging on her friends arm to stop her. "We need to bundle up! It's so cold. Then we need dad or mom's permission."

End

Elena looked at her friend after the short memory and her heart tugged at what Alaric was trying to make her do.

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

Elena sat in the desk next to Isabel as Alaric paced in front of them after Elena continually refused the stake.

"Why are you doing this?" Elena asked.

"Because you need me." Alaric pointed out. "Because you're an eighteen-year-old girl without parents or guidance or any sense of right and wrong anymore."

"Look at you. How is this right?! She's a mother! An innocent mother with a few months old baby!"

Alaric pointed to Isabel with the stake. "She's a murderer. She killed someone and activated her wretched curse. Now how is that right? Listen, Elena, your parents led the council. It was their life's mission to keep this town safe. They weren't dead six months before you undid it all."

"You don't know anything about them." Elena spat, getting defensive at the mention of her deceased parents.

"Why, am I wrong?" He asked. "Do you actually think that they'd be proud of you?" Alaric kneeled down in front of Elena. "If you don't side with the humans, you're just as bad as them. Now kill her." Alaric handed her the stake. "Or I'll do it for you and I'll make it hurt. Get up." Alaric grabbed Elena's arm and pulled her out of her seat. He placed her in front of Isabel and forced the stake into her hand. Isabel stared Elena in the eyes with tears in her own.

Alaric pulled away and watched Elena stand there with the stake in her hand for a moment before she turned around and tried to stab Alaric but he grabbed her wrist before she could. "I thought I taught you better than that."

"You did." Elena broke the second beaker filled with vervain over Alaric's head causing him scream in pain as his flesh started to burn.

Elena released Isabel and grabbed Rose, handing her to her mom. The baby desperately clung to her mom, still crying. "Get help! Go!"

Isabel took no time in rushing out of the room, Elena right behind her. Isabel managed to get out, but Alaric blocked Elena from going any further.

Isabel got out into the hallway and turned around only to realize Elena was not with her. She continued to walk backwards while cradling a crying Rose when suddenly Klaus grabbed her from behind. He covered her mouth, so no one can hear her scream.

Rose's dark watery eyes wondered up behind her mother to see the hybrid. She calmed down slightly feeling safer with the hybrid around.

Klaus whispered, "shhh. It's okay, it's okay, Bel. It's me." He took his hand off of her mouth. "It's okay, you're safe. You're both safe. We'll save Elena. You go straight home. You stay inside, do you understand?" He turned Isabel around so that she is facing him. "Do you understand me?" He asked looking into her dim blue eyes the usual brightness he saw faded with the torture of hearing her baby cry out for her constantly and not being able to do anything about it. She looked exhausted and hurt. He wiped the blood of her chin and gave her a small smile.

Isabel took comfort in his touch before she said, "thank you...Nik."

They look at each other for a moment, before Klaus leaned in and gave her a sweet tender kiss on the cheek. As soon as he pulled back he rushed away with Isabel looking after him.

When Klaus was out of sight she looked down at a worn-out Rose. She gave her baby kisses all over the face as she walked fown the hall. "It's okay little firecracker. It's okay. Mommy is safe my sweet baby girl."

As soon as she was outside she made a run for the Lockwood mansion with Caroline behind her to make sure the two were safe and taken care of while the boys did their business.

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

"Tyler?" A refreshed Isabel asked over the phone as she dried her hair. Caroline had left a few minutes ago to get themselves some food for a sleepover. "C- can you com-"

"I'm sorry Isabel." He apologized. "I can't talk right now."

"But Ty-"

The phone line goes dead.

Isabel plopped down on her bed and a few seconds later she started to cry. At first it's her fanning her face to stop the tears but then she's laying down on her bed clutching a pillow while she sobbed loudly.

Suddenly she gasped and screamed, "NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIK!" As she clutched her body tightly -bruises surely forming even if they would soon fade- before passing out.

Meanwhile, Klaus' body was desiccating back in the Mikaelson Mansion with the help of Bonnie's spell which caused Isabel's pain; the link between the two parabatai's being magic and the spell put on Klaus messing with it.