You are my Freedom

The Fooled

The next day at a memorial service for Richard Lockwood Katherine tried to make a move on Stefan but he caught on realizing she wasn't Elena... now the gang officially knows she's in town.

Boarding House

Clara is pacing around her and Damon's room, the idea of Katherine being here has enraged her. She wants to find her and squeeze the sides of her head together until there is nothing left of her manipulative self serving brains.

"Look, not that I'm not enjoying watching you trying to start a fire by the friction your pacing feet are making but are you coming to this little pow-wow we're having at Elena's or not?" Damon asks Clara.

Over at the Gilbert Residence

Damon, Stefan, Elena, and Clara are in the kitchen.

"Did she say what she wanted?" Damon asks Stefan, the only one besides Uncle John she's shown her face to.

"No."

Damon shakes his head, "woman certainly knows how to make an entrance."

"She said she was hoping to fool at least one of us, What does that mean?"

Damon smirks, "it means I was too busy having an epic s*x marathon with my wife for her to try and dig her talons into me."

Clara is mortified, "Damon! That's private!"

"Not when you take the marathon to the hospital." Stefan quips.

"Oh god, you heard us?"

"Wait you guys really did it in the hospital while Caroline was fighting for her life?!" Elena asks appalled.

"Aren't we a little bit off-topic now?" Damon asks, "we're supposed to be figuring out what to do about the evil double of Elena."

Elena sighs heavily having had just about all she can handle of this insanity that had become her life.

"Are you alright?" Stefan asks moving closer to her.

Elena shakes her head, "no, I'm not alright. I thought that with all the tomb vampires gone things would get better."

"I know. We all did."

Then Elena has a horrifying thought, "Katherine was in this house, that means she's been invited in, what are we gonna do?"

"Move," Damon suggests earning him an elbow to the ribs by Clara

"Very helpful, thank you," Elena replies sarcastically.

Clara addresses Elena, "Katherine wants you dead; there's zero you can do about it; you would be dead but you're not. Trust me I thought for sure that what her plans for me were but it wasn't... she wanted to break me down and when that failed she tried to sentence me to live forever without the man I love... the only man to refuse her charms, without constant use of compulsion anyway. What I am saying is she clearly she has other plans for you... maybe for all of us."

Stefan nods, "she's right and we need to find out what those other plans are and not provoke her in the process." He says directing that last part to Damon, "she'll try to divide and conquer we can't let her, we have to stand by each other and not give in to whatever mind games she tries to turn us against each other with."

They all accept the truth of that and let it sink in each making a silent promise not to let her make them doubt the others, to stay strong and united.

Elena pipes up with an idea, "John must know something. There has to be a reason why Katherine tried to kill him."

Damon shrugs, "she's Katherine. She loves to play games and you're fooling yourself if you think you're going to find out what she's been up to before she wants you to know."

"No, actually Elena's right, John could know something through Isobel. Your mother, she was in touch with Katherine so maybe we can go to the hospital and get him to talk." Stefan says disagreeing with Damon.

"I've got a better idea."

They all turn to Damon,

"What's that?" Elena asks.

"I'm just gonna ignore the bitch." He grabs Clara's hand and starts to move out of the kitchen to leave, "See you."

"Is that smart?" Elena says turning to Stefan but its Clara that answers her.

"No."

Damon sighs and explains his thinking, "if Katherine thinks she's being ignored it will lure her out, she'll make a move."

"Yeah? And then what?" Stefan asks.

"Stake her, rip her head off, something poetic. We'll see."

"You know how it turns me on when you talk like that... full of heat, confidence, and fortitude, but we can't half-ass this... if we are gonna stand a chance we need a real plan," Clara tells Damon.

They all agree to keep thinking of a way to take Katherine down and Stefan and Elena make their way to the hospital to talk with John.

The next couple days Clara is hard at work trying to outsmart Katherine, she even misses Mayor Lockwood's funeral to keep tinkering with her plans.

When the gang gets back they are all a little worse for wear,

"I take it the evil witch struck again?"

"Yup!" Damon exclaims, "Made a few threats, pretended to be Elena some more, and declared her undying love for Stefan."

"That's not exactly what happened," Stefan says contradicting Damon.

"Well please, all have a seat because I have a plan," Clara says ushering them all into the parlor.

"Really, you do? What is it?" Elena asks.

"First I'm gonna need the deed to this house."

"What?" Damon asks confused.

"Why would you need that?" Stefan follows up equally as perplexed as his brother.

"Because we are going to sign it over to Elena."

"Wait... what?" Elena asks shocked.

"You will invite the three of us in and that is it, this place will be safe from all other vampires, Katherine won't be able to get you in here," Clara explains.

"But what about Jeremy and Jenna?" Elena asks.

Clara takes a seat next to Elena knowing this next part will be hard on her.

"Jenna and Jeremy will be compelled to leave, get far away from here. I know it's not what you want but Jeremy is struggling here and he needs a fresh start and deserves to have it far away from all this danger and craziness and Jenna will be there to take care of him, it'll be for the best.

Elena your greatest weakness is the people you love... Katherine will sniff that out immediately and won't be above using Jenna and Jeremy against you. I know you didn't want any more lies but this will be the best thing you can do to, to give them a safe normal life."

"she has point," Stefan says agreeing with his sister-in-law.

Elena shakes her head, "no, no, I promised him I wouldn't ever have one of you compel him again, I can't... Jenna and Jeremy, their the only family I have left. I can't send them away."

Stefan sighs, "you might have to, Clara is right Katherine won't think twice about hurting either of them if it means getting what she wants."

"But we don't even know what she wants yet, no I won't do it."

Elena gets up and storms out not hearing the rest of Clara's plan.

Later that night,

Damon walks into the living room and pours himself a drink. He starts to walk out but stops. Sensing the devil herself has decided to drop by.

"Very brave of you to come here."

He turns his head. Katherine is sitting on the couch.

"I wanted to say goodbye. Where's the Mrs's I'll say tootaloo to her too."

"Even more brave of you to mention my wife in my presence, what happened to secret evil diabolical plan you no doubt came to town with, Leaving so soon?"

Katherine shrugs, "I know where I'm not wanted."

"Quite sure that's one thing you've never known...Don't pout. It's not attractive on a woman your age."

Katherine scoffs, "ouch."

Damon drinks his drink and starts to walk out of the room. Katherine superspeeds in front of him stopping him in his tracks.

"What, no goodbye kiss?"

Damon thinks about it for half a second, "why don't I kill you instead? Guarantee you wouldn't have to compel me to want to do that."

Damon can see the anger in her eyes over that last comment,

"What are you doing here?" He asks hoping she'll drop the bullshit for once and just be straight with him.

"Nostalgia, curiosity, et cetera. How's married life, still everything you remembered it being?"

Damon smirks, "even better actually and FYI I'm better at the enigmatic one-liners, Katherine. So I ask again, What are you up to?"

"Trust me, Damon, when I'm up to something, you'll know it. Come on. Kiss me... or kill me. Which will it be, Damon? We both know that you're only capable of one."

She inches closer towards his lips. He turns and walks away. She rushes in front of him again and grabs him by the throat. She pushes him down to the floor and lies on top of him.

"Grind all you want on me you still won't get it to stand and salute you."

Katherine growls and he tosses her off of him,

"My sweet, innocent Damon," Katherine says patronizingly,

Clara comes down having heard the commotion,

"Actually he's mine and he's anything but sweet, especially in the bedroom although we rarely limit ourselves to it, shame you'll never get the full Damon Salvatore experience, but I am sure Stefan was a least polite, that can be hot... no?"

Damon chuckles, "God I love you."

Katherine scowls "whatever."

Katherine takes her exit and leaves the sickeningly happy couple alone again.

"grind on you all she wants?" Clara asks not amused.

"figure of speech?"

Clara growls and attacks Damon needing to re-mark her territory a bit. She super speeds and slams him against the opposite wall. Damon meets her fevered kisses and hooks her leg over his hip to feel her wetness against his jeans. They continue kissing and humping, Damon knocks books off a nearby table and pushes Clara down onto it. He continues kissing down her neck. Clara pushes Damon off and pins him to the floor right where Katherine had previously and rips off his clothes sinking down onto him and riding them both to heaven and back.

The Hospital

Furious over being humiliated by people she considers so beneath her Katherine has decided to teach them what happens when she is denied,

.

.

.

Caroline is in bed, sleeping. She wakes up and sees Katherine.

"Elena?"

"Hey, Caroline," Katherine says trying to sound sweet and innocent.

"What are you doing here?"

Katherine drops the act, "my name is Katherine. I was hoping you could give the Salvatore brothers a message for me."

Caroline seeing the face of her friend morph into something foreign and sinister starts to panic, "what are you talking about? What message?"

She leans forward like a predator over its prey, "game on."

"What?"

Katherine smirks at Caroline's confusion and quickly grabs one of the pillows behind her holding it over her face and smothering her.

Caroline screams and struggles until she dies. Katherine takes the pillow off and places it next to Caroline then she casually walks out of the room.