The beach, just like the day we had arrived, was cold. The waves crashed gently against the rocks without care, washing back the smaller ones and taking them to the bottom. I watched them move, admiring them, ignoring Elena on the phone with Caroline. The moment we had arrived at the beach, we noticed signs of struggle, which could have meant that Damon did something to Professor Shane or he was taken. We all decided on the latter. 

   "He'll never give up the sword," Rebekah said, referring to Klaus. He was stuck in the Gilbert's living room, all thanks to Bonnie. When I first heard he was alive, it took me a bit by surprise. I was alive, which meant he was also alive, but there was a part of me that didn't believe it.

   "Yeah, but if anyone's going to get him to give it up, it's Caroline," Stefan said.

   "They've been getting too close while I was gone," I hummed, not turning to them. "I should have a long conversation with Klaus." I kicked a rock and watched it ricochet between other rocks and disappear when another wave came.

   "He will never give up the sword, not even for Caroline or Clara," Rebekah continued, emphasizing the never. "He's terrified we'll use it against him to make him mortal, and even if he wasn't, he wouldn't want any of us to derive a moment's worth of happiness from being human."

   "Well, maybe he doesn't have to give it up," Stefan continued. "I mean, Klaus is stuck in Elena's house by Bonnie's spell. He can't go anywhere. There's only so many places you can hide a three-foot piece of metal."

   "I'll find it," Caroline said from the other side of the phone. "Don't worry. Just e-mail me photos of Jeremy's tattoo. I'll find the sword, and I'll call you back."

   "Thank you, Caroline," Elena breathed. She ended the call then turned to look at us. "Caroline's on it. She'll send us the information as soon as she got it." She sighed and took a seat on a fallen log, and looked down at her hands with a depressed look. I rolled my eyes and decided that it would be better to be with Rebekah than Elena. Rebekah had her hand the air, her phone inside her palm as she tried to get reception. 

   "No signal?" I asked, pushing my hands into my pocket as she walked to the edge of the water and back again.

   "Obviously," she responded, annoyed. She turned to me and made a face, her eyes staring past my shoulder. "How can you like her so much, Clara?" She was looking  straight at Elena, who was speaking to Stefan. 

   I glanced back, seeing how Elena laid her hand on top of Stefan's. I sighed, made a face, and turned to the Original with a small smile. "If I'm to be completely honest, I don't like her. She annoys me, but I tolerate her instead of trying to kill her."

   "We already went over that her death was the only way to save my family," Rebekah snapped, glaring at me.

   I shook my head and laid a hand on her shoulder. "I didn't mean it that way, and you know that. What I meant is that I don't like or dislike her, I just tolerate her. I feel indifferent towards Elena, but I do find her very annoying."

   "That is something you and I share, Clara," Rebekah softly said, her voice being carried away with the wind. I watched her, seeing how her eyes travelled across the horizon, as if she were either deep in thought or just remembering. For that single moment, she looked peaceful, and I felt bad for her. Ever since I'd known her, she wanted nothing more but to be human. It was all that she wanted, all that she desired. She had spent a thousand years as a monster; she wanted to get rid of the monster and let the girl be all there was.

   "So..." Rebekah turned her head to me, a small smirk flashing on her lips. The innocence was gone like that. "You and Stefan, huh? I called it, you know, back in the Twenties."

   I let out a sarcastic scoff and rolled my eyes. "That's what you like to think."

   "Don't you remember?" She tilted her head to the side, her smirk widening. "Gloria's. You came back from dancing with him and he went to grab you a drink. I told you that he was smitten with you, maybe had been since he was human, and you waved it off as if it were nothing."

   "Because it was nothing."

   "Oh, please, Clara! You're lying to yourself, he's lying to himself, and it's useless. The two of you have been wanting to sleep with each other since you were human, and you can't deny it. You may have been engaged to his brother, but that didn't stop you from thinking what it would feel like." She smiled and shrugged her shoulders, teasing me. "And you finally gave in to that little thought back then, remember? In the back seat of the car; I found you when we were to leave. Tell me, how was it? Was it as wild as back then?"

   I stared at her in surprise, unsure on how to answer her sudden words. She was right, though. In the back of my head, I had always thought of Stefan. When I was human, especially then, I used to wonder what it would have been like if it were Stefan instead of Damon, if it would have been the same or the complete opposite. The answer was never given, but I did receive a hint the moment I first kissed him in the Twenties. It wasn't soft, no. We were both high on blood, him having his humanity off and me never thinking straight. It was hot, passionate, filled with blood and bites and touches that burned his skin against mine. If I were to be honest, it was the exact opposite of what I felt with Damon, and I didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

   Rebekah's phone began to ring, the sound echoing between the trees and to the distance. She pressed a button and pushed it to her ear. "Hello?"

   "Hey, it's Caroline," the person said. "We have the translation of Jeremy's tattoo. We're emailing you pictures of the tattoo and instructions now."

   Rebekah pulled away from her phone and nodded. "Got it. Thanks."

   "Actually, it was me," a new voice joined.

   Her eyes didn't widen, as I thought they would since she was surprised. Instead, she leaned her head slightly back and furrowed her brows. "Nik, you helped?"

   "You sound so surprised, little sister."

   "Shouldn't I be?" Rebekah crossed her arms, her lips slightly pursing. "I... You don't want me to be human. You don't want any of us to be human. Why would you help us find the cure?"

   "Maybe I finally realised the longer I stand in the way of what you want, the longer you'll continue to hate me," Klaus said, his voice sounding sincere for once. "Perhaps I want my sister to finally know happiness."

   "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me a hundred times––"

   "No more fooling. No more games. I hope you get to live, and die, as you wish."

   "So do I," Rebekah said after a few moments of silence.

   "There is one more thing, Rebekah," Klaus said. "There is only one dose of the cure. You need to find it first and take it. It's the only way you'll—"

   "Nik. Nik!" She let her hand fall and turned to me with wide eyes. In a blink of an eye, she stood in front of me, and softly said, "You won't speak of this until I say so."

   "I won't speak of this until you say so," I monotonously said. I took a step back and blinked several times, shaking my head. "Why would you do that, Rebekah?"

   "Because you would tell Stefan," she said, swallowing back her tears. "And he would tell Elena, and all of you would agree to stake me and have her take the cure herself." She glanced back at Elena and Stefan, and then glanced back at me. With a shake of her head, she walked past me and straight to the pair.

   We walked across the island, my eyes cast down and mind swimming with questions. I wondered how could she do this to me, thinking that we had been friends. With each step, Stefan kept his eyes on me. He once asked if I was okay and if anything had happened. I forced a smile at him and shook my head, telling him that it was all okay. Even with all the smiles I forced at him, he still appeared as if he didn't believe me.

   "What did Caroline say?" Elena asked as we walked.

   "I don't know," Rebekah replied. "We lost the signal. Come on, this way." We came to stop at the edge of a cliff. It was the quarry, the blue water against the grey rocks. Rebekah held out her phone. "We need to get down and across. Advantage, vampires: all we have to do is jump."

   "Wait, wait!" Elena stopped everyone from moving. "Um... Maybe you should leave the map behind. In case you fall, you don't want anything to happen to the phone."

   "Are we doing this again?" Rebekah countered, glaring at the brunette. "I thought we were a team?"

   "Guys, we don't have time for this!" interrupted Stefan. "Elena, you go first. We'll be right behind you."

   She hesitated. Elena bit her lip in slight annoyance, then took a running leap off the edge of the cliff. After falling the huge distance, she landed on her feet, stumbling only slightly. Stefan was about to jump, but Rebekah threw out her arm and stopped him. She glanced at me, then back at him, and said, "There's something you should know about the cure."

   "What is it?" he asked, glancing at her and then at me. It was right then when he figured out why I was so quiet on the walk here.

   "Nik spoke on the phone when Caroline called," she slowly revealed. "He said there's only one dose."

   "So, you're sure Klaus is telling the truth?" Stefan asked, glancing down at Elena a few times. "There's only one dose of the cure?" Rebekah gently nodded, making him nod and look out the scenery. "Well, I guess that's what happens when you're dumb enough to hold hope."

   "We all were dumb," I spoke up, looking down at my shoes.

   "There's still hope for one of us," Rebekah said. She didn't look at me, but gave Stefan all of her attention. "But even if I felt pity for you, if I wanted to erase your pain so I gave you the cure to take yourself, you'd give it to Elena, wouldn't you?" He didn't reply, tacitly revealing his answer. "That's what I thought. Well, I'm sorry that it couldn't work out the way we all wanted it to." She snapped his neck, his body falling to the ground. She then turned to me.

   "Rebekah, wait!" I called. I held my hands in front of me as I took careful steps back, shaking my head. "Please, just think this through."

   "I am," she said, shaking her head. "I know you, Clara, and I've known you since 1887. You'd pick me over your friendship with them, because you think of me as a sister. Here's the thing, Clara; I also think of you as a sister, which is why I'm doing this, so we can both be happy." She grabbed my head between her hands and twisted it to the side.

   I woke up with a gasp. There were two figures in front of me—Elena and Stefan—staring at me with worried eyes. Stefan moved closer to me, and laid his hands on my shoulders. "Clara," he breathed, as if he had also just woken up, "are you okay?"

   I nodded. "Yeah," I mumbled, rubbing my neck. "I'm... I'm fine. Where's Rebekah?" I glanced around, seeing the blond Original nowhere. I turned back to Elena and Stefan, who stared at me with curiosity. Elena, especially, kept her eyes on me. She looked annoyed more than worried.

   "Clara, you knew there was only one dose?" she then asked, finally voicing what she had been thinking. "I heard you talking to Rebekah after she broke Stefan's neck. You were going to help her get the cure, weren't you?"

   I stared back at her, sighed, then nodded. "She's my friend, Elena," I tried to explain. "I've seen her happiness be taken away so many times, and I thought that maybe this could be her only chance to finally have it." I took a deep breath and looked into her eyes, hoping that she'd take my words to heart, maybe even deeper and go to her brain. "You, more than anyone else in this island, should know the things a friend would sacrifice for another. If Bonnie or Caroline were in that position, you would have done the same.

   "It would have taken time," I continued, "but you would have accepted the person you are. Trust me, it takes a lot of time, sometimes hundreds of years. I mean, I have yet to accept who I am and I'm over a 169 years-old. Just like everyone else here, I held hope to find this cure. I wanted to become human, to have a family and have children, see them grow, and then die. Finally die." I shifted my eyes away from hers, staring behind her. The quarry was still there, big and rocky and beautiful. 

   "I've seen every side of vampirism there is; the good, the bad, the ugly. The power, the misery, the guilt, even the good parts kind of suck, too," I took a deep breath and continued. "And somehow, through all of that, you start to figure out a way to live with the person that you became and start living your life, no matter how miserable it is, because sometimes..." 

   Stefan.

   He was the person that came into mind as my words faded and my thoughts began to reel. I never expected for him to appear in my head as I spoke of something dear, of something so happy as being human once again. But, there he was, right in the back of my head, smiling and holding me and kissing me, and it felt as if every inch of me were on fire. So, I grinned at Elena and softly said, "Sometimes, the miserable life is worth it, just for that small speck of happiness."

   Elena stared at me for several seconds, letting my words sink in. She then nodded, a small smile creeping on her lips. "Maybe this was a blessing in disguise," she said. "Things changed the minute that I went off that bridge. Even if I could be human again, I wouldn't be the person that I was. So, it's about time that I accept the person that I am now and figure out a way to start living the rest of my life."

   "The rest of your life," Stefan repeated, "sired to Damon."

   "I guess we'll have to deal with that when we get home." Her face suddenly changed. "Oh my god... Home. Klaus. Bonnie's spell isn't going to hold him."

   "And after what we did to Kol, if we don't ram that cure down his throat, he'll kill us all," Stefan said as he helped me stand.

   "Pity party over," I said, rubbing my neck. "We have to go."

   We ran across the quarry, looking for what appeared to be a cave. It took us a few minutes, but we found it when we heard Damon groan loudly. Stefan yelled his name, his voice echoing between the rocks. Damon groaned once again, and I hurried to where I heard his voice from. As soon as I got there, I saw Damon leaning against a wooden post with a rope around his neck and a men hurrying down a shaft. The man reached the bottom just as I looked down the edge. I let him go and ran towards Damon, grabbing the rope around his neck only to hiss and pull my hands back. The tips of my fingers were blistered, blood covering them.

   "Vervain," I hissed, looking up at a pained Damon. He looked at me, and groaned once again. I took a deep breath and reached for the ropes again, ignoring the pain that burned my fingers.

   "You're wasting your time," he groaned. "Just get the cure. Go."

   "We're not gonna leave you," Elena said from behind me.

   I glanced up at Damon, who was staring at her with saddened eyes. At that moment, I realised that he wanted nothing more but to see the girl he loved have her wish of being a human. I glanced back at Elena. "We aren't," I said. "You go ahead. We'll be right behind you."

   "Go," Stefan told her when she hesitated. She looked at us a moment longer, sighed, then jumped down the shaft.

   I turned back to Damon and continued to try and pry the rope from around his neck. With each tug, the ropes dug deeper into his neck and into my fingertips. It burned, and I wanted to cry out, but I didn't want to appear weak, so I held my cries in and continued to try and help him. He must have noticed, because he grabbed my wrist. "Stop," he groaned. "Let Stefan do it."

   "No," I groaned. I wrapped my hands around the rope and pulled it to the sides as hard as I could. The rope snapped, setting Damon free. He fell to his knees, and I did as well. I stared down at my reddened hands, seeing the burns fizzle with the leftover vervain from the ropes. I glanced up at Damon, seeing him stare at nothing breathlessly. He looked tired, weak, like a human who hadn't slept in weeks and survived on nothing more but black coffee.

   "All right, come on," Stefan said, grabbing his brother by the arm. "We have to go."

   "No, it's okay," Damon replied, breathlessly. "I just need a minute. I'm going to slow you down. Go. She only needs one of us."

   "And what?" Stefan asked, staring at his brother in half disbelief and half anger. "You don't care to be that one anymore? You finally decided that it was easier to just walk away?" At his words, I noticed that he still held deep feelings for Elena. A deep conflict that would never be solved because she chose Damon over him. I let out a scoff and licked the side of my lip, trying to say nothing that would make me angry and hurt.

   "There's only one dose of the cure, Stefan," the older brother replied, anger laced in his tone. "She wants to take it, you want her to. I don't. Just do what makes her happy."

   "Things have changed," Stefan said, glancing at me. "It's not that easy anymore."

   "It is right now!" Damon loudly insisted. "Get your ass down that well. Help Elena get the damn thing."

   Stefan stood still, staring at his brother, hesitating. I closed my fists on top of my thighs, ignoring the pain, and shut my eyes. "Go!" I hissed at him, turning to look away. A few seconds after, I heard him jump down that well. I bit my bottom lip tightly and sniffed, feeling my chest hurt. After several deep breaths, after several moments of just silence, I turned to Damon. I bit my wrist and pushed it to his lips. "Go on, drink."

   "Whoa, Clara, this is a bit too personal," he joked. "I get that you still have these unresolved feelings for me, but come on."

   I rolled my eyes and pushed my wrist closer to his lips, just inches away. "You're weak. There's no more blood, Damon, so it's either this or you have to wait till we get back home."

   Damon stared at me for several seconds, his brows furrowed. Slowly, he took hold of my wrist and brought it closer to his mouth. His teeth sank where I bit, and I let out a soft groan as he drank. It was a bit painful, but I pushed through the pain. I was also weak, since I did touch the vervain as well, but he had it wrapped around his neck for god knows how long.

   "Why didn't you go?" I asked when he finished, seeing the bit of colour regained in his face.

   "Needed a siesta," he said, licking the blood on his lips. 

   "You gave up," I noticed, nodding. I took a seat next to him, bringing my knees up to my chest.

   "I didn't give up," he said, bringing a knee up and laying an arm over it. "I just realised... You can't control everything, no matter how hard you try. Let's just say I made peace with that fact."

   I breathed, almost sounding like a scoff. "Peace? You love Elena. You always will. If she becomes human, she may not feel the same way about you." I turned my head to him. "You'll never know peace."

   "We're in the same constitution, aren't we?" he asked, turning his head to look at me. "You love Stefan, but he loves you and Elena. Elena loves him and me. I love Elena and you. Now, we're just stuck in an endless loop."

   "Look at you," I mused, pushing my shoulder against his. "You love me."

   His chest moved, as if he silently laughed. "Don't flatter yourself, Clara."

   "I'll flatter myself all I damn want to," I mused. After a few seconds of collective silence, I decided to speak up. "You have to work at relationships, Damon. You can't just walk out on them every time something goes wrong."

   "Wrong?" he scoffed. "Clara, she is sired to me."

   "Being sired doesn't mean you feel differently about someone," I mumbled quietly, laying my head on top of his shoulder. "The bond affects how you act, not how you feel." 

   "How would you know that?"

   "I think you have forgotten that I spent more than half of my life with Original vampires that turned many, many into vampires," I said, letting out a chuckle. "To be honest, I think Elena does love you, she just didn't admit it because she was human. Now that she turned, it pushed itself forward and she can't hide them anymore." 

   "Look at you," he mused. "You love me."

   I rolled my eyes and let out a small laugh, turning my head to a dead Rebekah. She laid on her front, small stakes protruding from her chest. I pushed myself to her with a small groan, and began to pluck out the small stakes one by one. When I pulled out the last one, she coughed and turned herself on her back, panting. 

   "Took you long enough," she breathed.

   "We needed a heart to heart talk," Damon mused. 

   "Yeah," she sighed, standing, "whatever." She was gone by the next time I blinked, disappeared, leaving behind the marks of her boots.

   Minutes later, Stefan came back. His eyes were wide with surprise, confusion. He walked up to us, slowly, then stopped. "Jeremy's dead," he simply said. 

   "What?" Damon asked, standing. "How did this happen?"

   "It was Katherine," Stefan divulged, glancing around as if he were making sure that she wasn't around anymore. "She must have been following us the whole time."

   "She must have been the one that save Jeremy from the hatchet," I noted, taking a stand next to the brothers. "Okay, um, what about the cure? Or Silas?"

   "If there was anything in there at all, it's all gone," he told us, shaking his head. 

   "You're saying a 2,000 year-old immortal just walked away?" I asked in disbelief. "How?"

   "Blood," he nodded. 

   "Where the hell is Bonnie?" Damon asked, glancing around.

   Stefan shrugged his shoulder. "I have no idea," he said. "She went looking for Jeremy last night. She never came back." He glanced around, then looked at the two of us. "Elena is in there waiting for the Gilbert ring to bring Jeremy back to life."

   "Okay, fine, I'll wait with her." Damon began to walk towards the entrance, but was stopped when Stefan pushed his arm in front of him.

   "Damon, listen to me. Jeremy was one of the Five, a hunter."

   "He's supernatural," I realised, shaking my head. "The ring wont work anymore."

   Damon stayed quiet for a while. "She wont survive this," he said. "We'll find Bonnie, you get Elena off this island." He turned and walked out of the cave. 

   I was about to follow him, but I was stopped when Stefan took a hold of my arm. His hold on my hand was strong and warm. I was afraid that if I moved it would be gone. But, I knew I had to turn. Slowly, I turned my head and arched a brow, feigning a smile. "Yeah?"

   "Be careful," he said after a few seconds of silence. 

   I smiled. "Aren't I always?"

   "Hmm, no," he smiled, shaking his head. "You're careful less than half of the time."

   I grinned, genuinely this time. "That's what makes it fun, Stefan. The thrill of not knowing what will happen." 

   "Clara, do I need to remind you the incident with werewolves?" he asked, raising a brow. "You took the blame for killing Mason Lockwood, and then were tortured by his pack. Do you call that being careful?"

   "Okay, that was me doing the exact opposite of careful," I admitted, making a face.

   "Exactly," he chuckled. He took a step forward and laid his hands on my cheeks, making me look up into his eyes. Green. Even in the darkness, the green in them were so full of life. "So, just this once, be, uh, be careful."

   "I don't make promises," I softly said, my voice carried away by the cave.

   Once again, he chuckled and nodded. "I know," he smiled. It was quick, but he leaned down and pecked my lips before turning and walking back deeper into the cave, to Elena. I stood still, my fingers against my lips. Even if it was a simple peck, fast, I could still feel it. With a small smile, I walked out the cave and joined a waiting Damon. He looked at me strangely, a raised brow.

   "Are you done fantasizing about kissing him?" he teased, the corner of his lips quirking upwards.

   I let my hand fall and made a face, pulling the side of my lip up and half-glaring at him. He chuckled, then gestured for me to follow with his head. "Come on, Clara. Let's just find Bonnie and get out of this island as fast as possible."