Now that she wasn't a vampire, she was basically useless.

Immediately, everyone started demanding for her to go into one of the buildings of Whitmore College to 'rest' while everyone else solved their problem.

"This is ridiculous!" she said sharply. "I can't just go and sit down while you—"

"Mads," said Stefan firmly, "don't argue. You could get hurt."

"But vampire blood still heals me!"

"Maddy," said Damon, holding her shoulders before she could follow after Elena and Caroline, who were going to get the Parker twins while Bonnie looked over the spells Klaus had sent. "Just because you can be healed doesn't mean that you're not in danger."

"What if this is like the cure?" piped up Stefan. "What if you start to age rapidly? What if you immediately get sick, like Katherine did? First thing that happened to her was a sinus infection."

Maddy looked down at the scrape on her knee. "I don't think it'll hurt me to keep active for a bit."

Damon bit into his wrist, offering her more vampire blood to heal. She drank it, but this time, the wound didn't disappear.

"Oh, come on," said Maddy irritably. "Now you don't want to work?!"

"I think I know why," said Meredith, who'd been observing them. "We'd need to run some MRIs and blood tests to be sure but I think it's because I kept you stable long enough for the vampire blood to do something last time. You should have died, Maddy. You would have bled out just like you did when you were human. But I... I intervened and now you're human, and I think the Traveler Magic might have settled into a sort of veil around you. That magic might eventually run out, and then you'll start to rapidly age. In the meantime, it won't allow you to be healed by vampire blood anymore because—"

"— vampires were created by Spirit Magic," Maddy finished. "Right." She huffed in annoyance. "So I'm just expected to sit here and wait?"

"Or," said Stefan, "you could hop on a plane—"

"I can't compel people now!"

"But you still have that Salvatore debit card that'll get you whatever you want, whenever you want. Go to New Orleans right now. See Klaus again while we figure this out. At least if we don't make it out... you get to hug him one last time. There's no more time to argue, Mads, we have to go deal with this right now. If we keep wasting time—"

"What are you gonna do?" asked Maddy worriedly, seeing the determined look in Stefan's eyes.

"A doppelgänger has to die to stop this spell," he said. "If I let someone rip my heart out—"

"No! Stefan, are you crazy?!"

"Mads," said Damon, who seemed to have already discussed this with him while everyone had been bombarding Maddy with questions during the first instant that she'd realized she was human. "We have to stop the spell. Bonnie might find a way to bring Stefan and herself back from the Other Side."

"And if she doesn't?!"

"Then I'll just be dead," said Stefan calmly. "It's okay, Mads, I'm not afraid. This is what needs to be done. You and Damon are all I have. I've already lived. It can't be Elena, it has to be me."

"Stefan, no..."

Stefan pulled her into a hug, though he squeezed so hard that she whimpered a bit as her back cracked. "Hey," said Stefan, drawing back and cupping her face. "It's gonna be okay."

"How can I just sit here and wait for news while you go and sacrifice yourself?" asked Maddy. "The least I can do is help..."

"No," said Stefan. "You need time to relax and take note of the changes you feel in your body, because if there is no 'veil of Traveler Magic' keeping you young, we need to immediately start intervening to keep you from aging and dying. Call Klaus again, ask him to meet you at the airport in NOLA. Stay out of harm's way. We'll update you."

She pulled him into another hug before he could leave. "Please come back to me," she whispered, feeling herself wanting to cry. "Don't be stupid and stay on the Other Side."

"I'll come back, I promise."

He patted Damon's shoulder as he started to walk away. "We'll all be careful," promised Damon. "But you have to be careful, too."

"What if everything goes wrong?" asked Maddy. "You're down a vampire."

"Well... we might not have to be."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm thinking I can call Enzo to help."

"Are you crazy? He could be anywhere in the world right now! And he's not going to help after what he thinks—"

"I'm gonna tell him what happened to you. And then I'm gonna tell him the truth about me. I should have done it the other day when I said I would. Now's the time, okay? Enzo will help us, I know it."

Maddy moved closer to him, hugging him and resting her head on his chest. "Thank you."

"Come on, Lils," said Damon, "did you really think I'd let Enzo hate you forever? You took the heat for me already. I have to own up to what I did. I can't... keep getting away with the things I do wrong. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life and I have to do right by those I've hurt. If something happens—"

Maddy shook her head. "Nothing is gonna happen. You're gonna be fine, you're gonna come back, and we're gonna celebrate defeating the Travelers with some bourbon."

"But if something happens," Damon insisted, "I want you to know that I never deserved the blessing of getting to be your brother. Of getting to watch you and Stefan grow up into independent and... maybe stubborn and annoying... but overall selfless and caring adults. I still remember holding you both when you were born. I should have been a better brother. I should have taken better care of you. I shouldn't have let there be problems between me and Stefan and I never, ever should have put you in the middle of it. I'm sorry, for everything I ever did wrong. Just know I'm proud of you, Mads. And I love you."

"Oh my god," she said softly, drawing back. "Stefan. I didn't tell Stefan that I love him before he left!"

"I'll tell him for you," promised Damon. "I really have to go now."

She sighed, half-smiling at him. "Go kill Markos for me. I love you too, Damon."

He ran his hand over her head, ruffling her hair before speeding away.

The first thing she did as she walked to the nearby dorms was call Klaus.

"Sorry," she said, "the call got cut off with everyone asking me how I'm feeling. My brothers think I should hop on a plane to New—"

"No," said Klaus immediately. "Love, it isn't safe."

"But I thought—?"

"It was safer when you were a vampire, older than all the vampires here except for Marcel. As a vampire, you could handle yourself. Now? You'll be food to them."

"I still know how to fight. Give me a stake gun and some vervain bombs and I'll be fine. I can just stay in the Compound. Put it under my name and we'll all be protected."

"It's unwise, love. Francesa Correa is the one I am most worried about, and she has guards who are all human. If she thought to hurt you to get to me, they'd bypass any barrier that would normally keep vampires out."

Maddy's heart sank into her chest. "So you don't want me to go? Even though we all might die tonight?"

"I would like more than anything to see you. However, I would never forgive myself if my selfish desire to hold you left you vulnerable to those who seek to weaken me. You are my Achilles heel, love. I am the King of New Orleans now, I cannot afford—"

"—to flash that heel to everyone," she muttered. "Got it."

"Are you cross with me?"

"No. I know you just want to keep me safe. But I hate that I became human at this specific point in time. Everyone was worried and concerned and now apparently I'm the most useless person in this friend group."

"Did you wish for everyone to react in a different way?"

"Maybe," she said, chewing on her lip and trying to fight back more tears. Why the hell was she needing to cry so damn much? "I-I just wish someone had mentioned they were happy for me, or something. But no one expressed any sort of joy. This was a bad thing in everyone's eyes."

"I have to ask one question, love. Do any of them know what you told me? About wanting to be human?"

"For what reason would you wish to be human?" Klaus had asked her in Tuscany.

Maddy pursed her lips. "To be able to have kids again. Maybe become a good mother, like the one I had. I have this fear that if I die as a vampire, I'll never see her again. She's probably in heaven, if that even exists... feeling disappointed. If I were human, I could maybe redeem myself enough to catch a glimpse of her, even if just for a moment."

"I guess not... I didn't exactly mention it to anyone. But like I said, I only wanted to be human if you would be human, too. You and everyone else I care about.

"This needn't be the end. I'm sure there is a way for you to become a vampire again, if you wish. Perhaps if you do truly have a veil of Traveler Magic over you... which I suspect you do, otherwise you would already be aging rapidly... perhaps you can wait until the last possible moment, until it has faded, and then take vampire blood to turn again. Before you even have a chance to age."

"That would be nice. I think I'd like to experience a human lifestyle for a little bit but not forever. I guess this means we can't see each other for a while."

"I will come to visit you, I promise. However, you setting foot in New Orleans is far more risky now."

"Heh... I didn't really mean it that way. Literally every time you come by, we sleep together. But now, you'd snap me in half and I wouldn't come back to life."

"Are you suggesting I don't know how to be gentle?"

"I know that you can be but I also know that you don't prefer it that way."

"It's your choice, love. If you don't wish to sleep together, I will respect that. Whatever makes you feel more comfortable." She could tell that he was worried, and she had a feeling why.

"I'm not saying I'm scared of you, by the way," she said, making sure that was clear. "I love you and you know that I love... being intimate with you. But I just think we should figure out my new biological situation before we do anything. If you break my spine, vampire blood won't heal me. Meredith is offering to run some tests, which would be nice... assuming that everyone survives. I just hope they keep me in the know about what they're up to. I might go crazy if I'm sitting here with no news."

They didn't update her. Which was obviously because she wasn't strong enough to do anything about it, and likely because they thought that worrying her would have a negative effect. But it worried her all the same knowing nothing of what was going on, because it led her to assume the absolute worst.

Then, at last, in the early hours of the following morning, the door to the building opened.

Maddy had been so exhausted, she'd passed out on the couch. As a vampire, she could get tired, but sleep wasn't exactly essential. Now it was. And Elena had had to walk in on her with one leg hanging off of the sofa while she breathed heavily, as if having a nightmare.

"Hey," said Elena shakily. "Maddy... wake up."

She sat beside her, shaking her slightly. With a yawn, Maddy sat up. "What is it? Are the Travelers gone?"

"Yeah, they're gone," said Elena weakly. "We did it... we got rid of them."

Maddy rubbed her eyes. "Then why doesn't it sound like you're bringing me good news? What happened? Is Stefan—?"

"Stefan's fine... he's fine. Bonnie found a way to bring people back. Which was necessary since we had to kill Luke to make Liv help us with the spell. And then..." Elena drew a deep breath, stifling a sob.

That's when Maddy knew that someone hadn't made it out alive.

"What happened?" she repeated. "Tell me everything. I need details."

"Um... well... Matt and Jeremy circled Mystic Falls, made us a map of how far the borders reached. Stefan's death kept it from expanding, which is good. Then umm... Sheriff Forbes and Mayor Lockwood helped us lure them into a trap—"

"Oh my god, please don't tell me they—"

"They're fine. A bit beat up because they hit their heads during the explosion, but we brought them here to Whitmore, and Caroline healed them with her blood. She and Tyler are with them now. They met a doctor here, Jo Laughlin, and I guess she walked in while they were giving them blood, but it's apparently fine because Jo's a witch. She knows Meredith, too, so they're working out an agreement to uh... get Jo to give us a hand for the time being while we assess you. Jo might know more than Meredith does."

"What else? There has to be more. Who else died?"

"Well... um Ric came back, that's good... Bonnie didn't make it to Kol, though, so..."

"Elena, what aren't you telling me?"

"Stefan saw Lexi on the Other Side," said Elena, continuing to circle around the biggest problem. "He was begging her to come back, but I guess Lexi found Lee, that boyfriend of hers... they were both from Kol's sireline, so Lee died when Kol did. And I guess Lexi wanted to find peace with him. Her last act was to keep Markos from exiting the Other Side again. Then she went to peace. She told Stefan to tell you that she'd wait for the two of you there."

"Elena," said Maddy more angrily now. "What the hell aren't you saying?"

Elena immediately broke down, bringing her hands up to cover her face. "They didn't make it out," she whispered. "Damon and Bonnie."

"What?" whispered Maddy, going rigid. "But— but why was Damon—?"

"Someone needed to spark the explosion that killed the Travelers. He called Enzo but Enzo didn't answer so he had to do it alone and he just— he didn't make it out. Neither did Bonnie. They're g-gone, Maddy. They..."

Maddy's eyes immediately welled up with tears, and she turned away, starting to cry. Elena brought her into her arms, pulling her into a tight hug.

"This wasn't supposed to happen!" said Maddy as Elena stroked her hair. "Damon wasn't supposed to— he shouldn't have— if I was still a vampire, I could have gone with him!"

"It's not your fault," said Elena firmly, trying to hold back her own tears. "It isn't your fault, Maddy... you couldn't have done anything. Luke made Liv stop the spell, it was killing her."

"I'll kill Luke—"

"No, you won't. Look at yourself, Maddy! You don't have the strength to go up against a witch anymore!"

"I know that's true," said Maddy, pushing Elena away from her. "But I hate that everyone feels the need to rub it in constantly! I get it, I'm weaker now, and I can't do shit when my loved ones are in mortal peril. That's great. That's just fucking great! I can't go to New Orleans, so I have to stay here, knowing that my brother's death and Bonnie's could have been prevented if I'd just moved a little faster, if I'd just broken free of Markos's hold to limit how much time I spent under the Traveler spell. Damn it!"

She kicked a nearby trash can, which normally would have sailed into the wall. But since she was human now, the can merely toppled over, and Maddy was rewarded with a painful throbbing in her toes.

She cursed loudly, and sank to the floor, holding her shirt up to cover her face as she continued to cry angrily, hating every miserable part of the world. If she hadn't lied to Enzo, he might have answered Damon's call. If she hadn't been so slow, she'd still be a vampire and maybe she would have died instead of Damon.

Stefan had come to see her once Elena had gone to see Jenna and Jeremy. The two siblings embraced, holding one another tightly, as if afraid the other would fade away just like Damon had.

"Where's his body?" asked Maddy shakily. "We need to find his body."

"There isn't a body," said Stefan sadly. "His car... his body... it was all barbecued when he crashed into the grill."

"Are you kidding me?" she said unsteadily. "There— there's no—? How are we supposed to bury him? How are we supposed to fill up that space beside our mother? Oh my god... I think I'm gonna pass out..."

Stefan quickly guided her to the couch. "Sit down... Mads, when was the last time you drank any water?"

"I... I don't know."

"You have to start drinking that constantly now, you're human, and you need it."

"I need to call Enzo, that's what I need to do."

"I called him already. Left a voicemail explaining everything. I told him the truth, too. Damon asked me to. I'm sure he'll be here soon." He ran his tongue over his lips. "I have to go, Mads. I can't stay here."

"What are you talking about?" she asked. "Where would you go?"

"Anywhere but here."

"But didn't Elena tell you? This new Dr. Jo and Meredith are gonna run tests on me. And Klaus doesn't want me to go to New Orleans, so I have to stay here."

"Then stay here. But I can't be here. I don't feel like I can remain sane if I stay. Already I feel like relapsing... like going to the nearest person and ripping out a chunk of their throat. I need a clean slate. I need... something normal, something different. I can't be here."

"You can't just leave!" she insisted, more tears sparkling in her eyes.

"Yes, I do," he said, and it was clear he wasn't asking for permission. "Because I look at you right now and all I can think about is feeding on you. You're human now, Mads! You can't help me anymore! I am this close—" he held his fingertips so that they had less than a centimeter of space between them, "from attacking you and killing you. All I can smell is blood. All I can hear is your heart beating louder than it has in one hundred forty-seven years. I can't be here, not until I grieve and calm down and learn to control my hunger again. I feel empty and angry, because I should have waited behind for Damon and I didn't. You'll be fine here, Maddy, you won't be alone. But I need to go. If I hurt you, I'll never forgive myself."

"I'm not gonna be fine here!" she pleaded. "I just lost a brother and now you're telling me I'm gonna lose another one?"

"You'll have Enzo. And Elena. Ric is back, and maybe you'll get to know Jo and maybe you two can be friends—"

"It's not the same! Stefan, please..." She gulped when she realized there was no changing his mind. "Fine. Fine... if you really think that this is what you need to be mentally okay, then go. Do whatever is best for you. Just know that this isn't what's best for me. I'm human, Stefan. I'm human and I'm terrified. Damon's dead; what if I'm next? I don't know what's gonna happen to me in the near future. I need you to be here with me."

"I can't be," said Stefan with a pained expression. "I can't. I'll kill you... It's not safe."

Maddy's voice cracked, "Can you at least promise that you'll call?"

"I'll call you whenever you want, I promise. But I can't stand beside you day after day because one day, I'll just snap. You have his eyes, Maddy. If I have to see them every day, I'll remember that I failed to bring him back. And I'll remember that he's dead. The emotions will overwhelm me and you'll be dead soon after."

The woman looked away, rubbing her arms and nodding. "Fine. Alright. Go, Stefan. Just go."

"Maddy... I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. It's for your health. Just go."

She couldn't help but feel angry. Minutes ago she'd received news that Damon was gone. She'd believed that he and Stefan would be the ones at her side while she learned about her new human body. Now, they were both gone.

She was in an MRI machine an hour later. She hadn't been able to tolerate all the people telling her they were sorry for her loss. She'd gone to meet Jo, who seemed rather nice. She and Meredith had put her through just about every test they could.

No one was there waiting with her. Enzo hadn't come back yet. Elena was with Caroline, considering they were all that Bonnie had left. They hadn't been able to contact her father. Jenna was with Alaric. Jeremy was with Matt and Tyler trying to help Liz and Carol back into town so that they could assess what they needed to be done to repair it. Stefan had already left.

"Just stay still," said Jo as they pulled her out of the MRI machine and into the hallway leading to patient examination rooms. "We're going to get this footage looked at immediately. So far, the results from your blood tests are all normal... like a normal human with no health problems whatsoever."

"And what about that test you did for my nerves?" asked Maddy. "And the one for my bones?"

"Nerves are in perfect condition, and so are your bones. Nothing brittle in them at all."

"And the CT scan you did on my head?"

"Your brain is fine. The only odd thing is the magic I sense. I um... don't have my magic, for reasons... but I can sense a bit on you. It's faint, like what you'd expect from the Travelers. Which means you do have a sort of veil over you. It's what's keeping you from aging."

"How long is that going to last?"

"We'll see what the MRI shows before making any diagnosis. It might show a pattern of brain activity that could pinpoint a magical signature. If that doesn't show anything, I'll have to evaluate you constantly. We're talking once a week kind of checkups. There's only so much magic that can linger to shield you from the aging. My prognosis right now, without the MRI, is that you have at most two years before it starts to diminish. The timeline could be shortened significantly if you were to be channeled for a spell, or something like that."

Maddy drew a deep breath. "Okay. That's... worrisome but two years is enough time to be human. I am surprised it's so lengthy. How is it possible that I could be granted two years to be mortal?"

"It could have to do with the fact that you're descended from Silas," said Jo. "Meredith filled me in on everything. I knew some of it, from before I abandoned my magic. Your brother is Silas's doppelgänger, which means you're all descended from a Traveler line. A major one, at that. You likely have a dormant or recessive witch gene, which is allowing the spell to latch on properly."

"Great, if only being part Traveler was useful before. What symptoms of aging should I look out for?"

"Well, that's hard to say, because now that your strength has diminished so much, you can expect more muscle fatigue and general weakness. Your teeth will feel more brittle. You'll need to start seeing a dentist and a gynecologist again. If you have excessive toothaches or if you notice grey hairs and wrinkles, that's when we need to examine you immediately. If you want to turn back into a vampire, it needs to be timed to exactly when the last of the Traveler Magic exits your body. If there is even a drop of it still hovering over you, the vampire blood will be useless, and snapping your neck will kill you for good. But if we wait a second too long, then you'll age so fast that even if you do turn, you'll look like a grandmother."

"No pressure whatsoever," muttered Maddy as they entered one of the exam rooms, closing the door behind them. "So... is it time for a full body checkup? We've done the tests but not other examinations."

"I need some details about any procedures you may have had done before you turned. Or any that happened afterward?"

"Um... there was a time that I was trapped with the Augustine Society. I was experimented on and the doctor managed to remove one of my fallopian tubes and kept my body from healing afterward."

Jo frowned. "Really? Your blood tests don't show abnormal hormone levels that could appear in women who have only one tube. Let's take a look."

She brought over an ultrasound machine. The instant the wand touched over Maddy's stomach, she whimpered.

"That hurts," she said. "Don't press so hard."

"I'm not. I think you're just not used to pain anymore. As a vampire, you developed a tolerance for it because you knew you'd just heal up. Now, your body is more fragile and it can't heal as easily."

Maddy's lip quivered as Jo conducted her examination. At last, the doctor sighed.

"Well, you are missing a fallopian tube," said Jo. "I'm assuming the hormone levels are being balanced out by the spell, or maybe the vampire blood that your brother gave you helped a bit."

Thinking about Damon caused her eyes to well up with tears. Maddy turned on her side, covering her face and stifling a sob.

"I'm sorry," said Jo immediately. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

"No, it's not your fault," whispered Maddy. "I have tried... to just suck it up and go through all these tests... but the truth is I'm angry. I'm angry and hurt because I'm alone here. My boyfriend couldn't come because he's dealing with some moonlight ring situation that might get out of hand and he's trying so hard to make New Orleans safe so that we can have a home there together. My older brother is dead. My younger brother almost couldn't fight the urge to feed on me, so he left, and my littlest brother... I lied to him and now he might never show his face again. This isn't fair. This wasn't supposed to happen. Bonnie and Damon weren't supposed to die."

Jo placed her arm around her shoulders, holding her while she started to cry again.

There was a light knock on the door after Maddy had let out almost every last tear she had to give. The woman brought her hands up to conceal her puffy eyes while Jo got to her feet, likely thinking it was a nurse or doctor inquiring about what they were up to.

"You can't be in here, sir," said Jo sharply when she opened the door, and didn't see one of her colleagues standing out in the hallway. "This area is for patients only."

"I'm looking for a patient," came a familiar male voice. "Madeleine Salvatore."

Maddy sat up immediately. "Enzo," she said, sitting up immediately. "Oh my god—"

He rushed forward to hug her, caressing the back of her head lovingly.