Not Out of the Woods

Caroline and Jeremy were halfway through their first bottle of bourbon when they got the call. The vampire had already cut the teenager off quite a few shots ago, but it didn't stop her from trying to polish off the rest. Caroline was drilling Jeremy with 20 questions, trying to ascertain his likes, dislikes, and hobbies to ease her earlier sentiment of not knowing him well enough. When the interview took a more intimate turn, the former hunter steered the conversation in a safer, and far less humiliating, direction. They reminisced about Alaric and Jenna, and even Jeremy's parents. Caroline had grown up knowing them and Jeremy secretly was reveling in any stories and sides to his parents he had never known. Caroline told Jeremy of times Elena had gotten in trouble, and Jeremy did the same. This evolved into embarrassing stories of the girl and then a full thirty minutes of Damon-disapproval discussion. But because she was Caroline Forbes, even over an hour, and a quarter of the bottle later, she still managed to switch lanes and bring them back to Jeremy's love life, or whether or not he had one. The teenager flushed and then frowned, side-eying Bonnie's ghost who had been making commentary the entire conversation.

Jeremy opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and then whispered a word of thanks to whoever was listening when the vampire's phone buzzed.

"This better be good, Damon. I was about to squeeze some juicy secrets out of our favorite little Gilbert."

"Elena's been taken."

And just like that, the vampire sobered, setting the cell to speakerphone.

"Elena? Taken by who?"

Jeremy leaned in closer.

"Some juiced up werewolves."

"What, like they're on magical steroids or something?"

"Eh - or something. It's a long and annoying story, but the short version is that it involves a different breed of werewolves that are stronger than the kind Tyler plays fetch with, a do-good doctor, and missy hero pants Elena who can't mind her own business."

"Is Meredith okay?" Jeremy stood, collecting the hidden weapons from the throne against the wall.

"Physically, she's fine. Mentally, I just might have her committed for being so stupid . Matter 'a fact, I'll throw Elena in there too."

"We'll be on the next plane," Caroline disappeared and then reappeared with two bags, handing the suitcase to Jeremy and opening the leather sack. "Did you call Stefan?"

"Oh, why didn't I think of that? Oh wait, I did . Of course I called Stefan! But dear brother isn't taking my calls right now so I'm stuck with you two benchwarmers."

"Gee, thanks," Jeremy started shoving the weapons in the leather bag.

"We won't be able to get there until tomorrow morning," Caroline zipped the satchel. "I'll compel us some tickets on the first flight out. Do not do anything stupid until we do."

"Already tried," came the reply. "They're using magic to hide. Searched all over town with some of the not-evil-but-still-annoying werewolves here, but even their noses were useless."

"We're gonna need Bonnie."

"Tried her too. Voicemail."

"We'll keep trying," Caroline lead the way out the door, not noticing Jeremy glancing behind his shoulder. "You focus on making a plan. And a real plan, Damon. And we'll keep trying Stefan and Bonnie."

"Do we know why they took her?" Jeremy tossed his suitcase and the weapons bag in the back as he slid in the passenger seat.

"One of them thought she was Katherine."

"Shoot! Katherine! I almost forgot." Caroline slammed her door. "We can't just leave her in Mystic Falls unsupervised. Even as a human, who knows what trouble she can cause. I'll have to call my mom."

"Lock her in the Lockwood Cellar for all I care. Just take care of it and get here."

"We're on it," Caroline twisted the key and sighed. "She'll be okay, Damon. She's always okay."

"You better be right, Blondie."

The call ended and Caroline handed the phone to Jeremy before slamming on the gas and peeling out of the driveway.

"How did you know about my bag?" Jeremy squinted at her.

"You were trained by Alaric," she shrugged. "He turned us all into boy scouts. Mine's in my trunk. Last time I was supposed to leave town on short notice, I got caught and dosed with vervain when I stopped at my house for my things. Call my mom and put it on speaker. Then we're going to try Bonnie again. We need her the most to break the cloaking spell."

"We can try," Jeremy glanced in the rearview mirror at the ghost in the back seat, "but I doubt we'll get through."

"Then we'll send her an email. Smoke signals. I don't care. This is Elena . We need her."

"I know," Jeremy looked away from both girls. "I know."

"You live here?" Damon crossed the burnt threshold with a curious cocked brow but no invitation, and no comment.

"No," Derek pushed past him. "But it's away from anyone who could get caught in the crossfire if the Alphas attack, and big enough that we can all crash for the night. Safety in numbers."

"Yeah, you really proved that today with how well you all took down two of them."

"I didn't see you helping much," Derek rounded on him. "In fact, all I saw, was you getting tossed out a window in round one while your girlfriend -"

"While she what ?" Damon slammed the werewolf against the wall.

"While she kicked ass," Isaac mumbled toward Erica.

"You got something to say, pup?"

"Scott told me how she fought." Isaac shoved his hands in his pockets. "Pretty awesome."

"Is she a better fighter because she's younger than you?" Jackson chuckled. "How much longer have you been dead?"

"Actually, the older we are, the stronger we are," Damon turned toward him. "So don't test me."

"Didn't seem that way back there," Erica crossed her arms.

"Do any of you appreciate the fact that I could easily kill you with my bare hands?"

"All I appreciate ," Erica stepped into his space, "is that you hurt our Alpha so he was weakened for the fight, while you were taking a nap out on the pavement. I appreciate that I have claw marks on my chest that apparently are taking forever to heal. That while you were busy arguing, your girlfriend was making sure me and Isaac had weapons and that the only reason I'm here right now is because I had to set off one of those wolfsbane grenades in my own face to get the she-bitch Alpha off of me! And now I get to look like Frankenstein until my burns heal - the burns I have because we had to set fire to my face to get rid of wolfsbane. And my best friend is missing . Taken by a pack of Alphas who have spent almost an entire month tormenting us. A pack of Alphas that we can't beat on our own. So we need your friends' help. And the only reason we need you is because we need them . Even if they are all as useless and arrogant as you, a few extra vampires can't hurt."

"And a hunter," Damon rolled his eyes, ignoring her speech. "No way I wasn't going to be able to persuade Little Gilbert not to come when it's his sister's life on the line. I thought about having Caroline compel him, but then I'd have to waste my breath trying to persuade her -"

"You're bringing a hunter ," Erica's fangs descended, " here ?"

" Please . I'm more of a danger to you than Jeremy ever could be. Trust me. All he wants, all I want, is to get Elena back, and then we'll all be out of this mutt infested town."

"And why do I get the feeling that you'd do anything to save her?" Erica refused to back down. " Including sacrificing Boyd, or any of us."

"To get my girlfriend back?" Damon leaned against the wall. "I'd sacrifice all of you. In a heartbeat. I'd kill you myself."

"But he won't."

The pack turned in unison toward the door, crouching and tensing at the stranger's presence.

"Heel, pups," Damon waved his hands, "he comes in peace."

"And we're supposed to trust you ?" Erica glanced from the man on the porch to the vampire. "After what you just said?"

"He won't hurt any one of you," the intruder continued. "I won't let him. And Elena would never forgive you, brother."

"Brother?" Isaac mirrored Erica's earlier double take.

"Got your message," Stefan leaned against the threshold.

"And you what ?" Damon furrowed his forehead. " Teleported here?"

"I was here. Well, about two hours south of here."

"Of all the places, Stefan. California? Really?"

"Didn't feel like leaving the country just yet. And it was the furthest away I could get without doing that."

"Furthest from what?" Isaac crossed his arms.

Damon's brow flattened as he glanced away from his younger brother. Stefan interrupted the silence with an extension of his hand toward Derek, who had drawn closer to him, conveniently placing himself between the stranger and the teenagers.

"I'm Stefan. I - apologize - for anything my brother's said, or done to cause - well, just for anything he's said or done entirely."

"Derek," the werewolf took his hand. "Come in. This was my family's home, so we're using it as a safe house."

Stefan crossed the threshold at the invitation and Damon smirked.

"Is everyone from your pack here?" Stefan scanned the teenagers' weary and worn faces.

"Scott's not in our pack," Isaac shuffled, staring at the floorboards.

"I'm still here to help," Scott shook his head.

"Are there any more werewolves in town?" Stefan leaned against the burnt out banister.

"Besides us and the Alphas," Derek sighed, "just my uncle. He won't help us. But he's not a threat either."

"Right now," Scott muttered. "Listen, I need to go back to the hospital."

"What? Are you crazy?" Derek turned toward the Beta. "We said we'd stick together."

"I don't think they're after me," Scott moved for the door. "Earlier today in the parking lot, they were targeting Boyd, Jackson and Isaac. It was like I was in the way. And then later, they didn't want either of us. They wanted them. They're targeting your pack. Anyone that you turned. I think they picked Boyd just out of revenge or something because he managed to hurt the big one. And it sounds like that woman was obviously targeting Erica."

"If they're only after us, then why go to the hospital now?" Erica questioned, not quite hiding the fear in her voice at the revelation.

"Stiles. He's alone and defenseless. It's obvious they've been watching us, following us. Our scent is all over his room. What if they go there, looking for one of you? Or what if they try to use him to get to you guys? They may not be after him, but that doesn't mean they won't use him or hurt him. Besides, I - I need be there with him."

"Now that we know what happened, we don't need to worry about him turning into anything," Isaac reasoned.

"I know - it's just - his dad texted me earlier. He's awake now, but he's not out of the woods. His fever spiked to 105. He woke up and started hallucinating. He didn't know where he was. And then, when he figured it out, he started freaking out."

"Why?" Derek ignored the worry in his chest. "He was fine before. In pain, but mostly fine."

"Because - because of his mom. The confusion. Hallucinations. It's like what happened - when she got sick. Before she died." Scott bowed his head. "I'm just gonna sneak in and make sure he's okay. I'll camp out in his room overnight and be back here in the morning when the Sheriff comes to sit with him. I may or may not have loaded Stiles' dad's gun with wolfsbane bullets the other day in case he's there alone."

"That sounds safe," Isaac hunched his arms up around his chest.

"You still shouldn't go alone," Derek shook his head.

Scott was about to argue when his phone buzzed from his back pocket.

"Hey, mom, I was just -"

"Scott, you need to get here, now ."

Her panic put all the wolves at attention.

"Mom? What's going on?"

"It's Stiles - he's dying."

A/N: Uh oh. Did you really think Stiles was okay? Now what's wrong?