32|ROSE

Gemma sits lazily in the armchair in Caroline's room, sunglasses perched on her nose and her legs outstretched. Her fingers drum against the armrest while she listens to the blonde chatter and she casts her gaze to the corner of the room where her brother stands. "Why am I here?" She asks.

Damon flashes her a wry smile, squinting at her in return. "You're here so that you're not literally, anywhere else. I don't trust you, but I'm not locking you up either. You're not Stefan."

"Um, hello," Caroline chirps, wiggling her fingers at the two. "I was talking."

Gemma stares at her through the dark lens of her glasses, void of emotion. "Tyler Lockwood's death is inevitable, Caroline. I don't know why we're wasting our time listening to this."

The blonde gapes, "why would you say that? Tyler is not going to die."

The raven haired woman lets her head fall back against the chair, letting her eyes slip closed.

"Go on, Caroline," Damon urges.

"Sarah attacked Tyler," she informs the man. "He pushed her away, and she fell and hit her head."

"Does Matt remember anything?"

She hums, "he thinks he blacked out but I think they were both compelled by Katherine. That's why I covered for Tyler and said it was an accident."

"Yeah, I'm with Gem on this one," the eldest Salvatore scoffs, rolling his eyes. "The guy is a tool."

Gemma lifts her head at this, "how hypocritical of you."

"Tyler getting blamed for Sarah's death just opens up questions that he can't answer, and do you really think it's a good idea for him to tell his mother he's a werewolf?"

"Well," Damon shifts. "No."

The blonde nods, "and that werewolf road leads straight to vampire boulevard! I thought I was thinking fast on my feet."

"Nothing can lead anywhere if they're all dead," Gemma reminds the two.

Caroline folds her arms across her chest, furrowing her eyebrows at the idea. It's obvious she thinks it's absurd. "What a good idea," she muses sarcastically. "Except my mother and Tyler's mom are on the council. We'd be killing them, too."

Gemma gazes at her, waiting for the blonde to chime in with another reason they couldn't resort to murder. Seeing her unbothered stare, Caroline huffs and turns her back on the raven haired woman.

"Where is your mom, Caroline?" Damon wonders.

"Leading the search party for Aimee Bradley. They haven't found her body yet."

"Oh, teens today and their underage drinking," Damon smirks. "Tragic. Wait, did you see Tyler's eyes turn yellow?"

"They were more gold with amber highlights," she hums to herself.

"Oh."

"Can he turn into a wolf now?"

"Only on a full moon, but now he has increased strength and who knows what else." In the midst of Damon talking, the blonde pulls out her phone and begins texting, unbothered by his chatter. "I wonder what Mason told him. Does he know about us?" Damon glances up and sees the girl preoccupied and he snaps, "hey! What did you tell him?"

She looks up, eyes wide. "Nothing... really. I don't think he knows much of anything. He seemed really freaked out and honestly, I felt kind of bad for him." She grabs her bag and begins to exit the room, the two siblings following.

"He's got to know something," Damon adds.

"Alright, I'll ask him."

In a swift movement, Damon grabs her by the collar and yanks her back, pressing her against the wall. Gemma pushes her sunglasses into her hair at this, putting her hands on her hips impatiently. "Damon, let's go. I have things to do."

"You can't talk to him, Caroline," the man mutters. "He can't know about us. A bite from a werewolf can kill a vampire, so don't be his friend. Do you understand?"

"I understand," she whispers, wiggling out of his hold. "I'm late for school."

"Right," he sighs. "If you want to drop the hint to your mom that Aimee's body is at the bottom of a ravine with a cracked spine, might save your mom some time."

Caroline blanches at this and Gemma grins, wiggling her fingers at the girl before waltzing out of the house.

-

It's a handful of hours later when Damon and Stefan track Gemma down at The Mystic Grill. She's slumped over the bad nursing a glass of Whiskey, her rings tapping against the glass as she gazes down at the amber colored liquid.

"Gemma," Stefan says stiffly, leaning against the bar on her right side. Damon comes around the left, doing the same and looking down at her with a concerned expression. "Have you seen Elena?"

"Nope," she mutters, not looking his way. "This is where I've been, this is where I'll be. Haven't seen little miss sunshine since the night of the ball."

Stefan curses under his breath and looks over Gemma's head to meet Damon's eyes, his lips pressing into a thin line. "This has Katherine written all over it."

"Katherine's in the tomb," Damon argues. "Trust me; Gemma and I are the ones who locked her in."

"Did you?"

This catches Gemma's attention, her back straightening as she lazily turns to glare at her younger brother. "Did we what, Stefan?"

"Well, I know the hold that Katherine has on you. Both of you."

It takes all of two seconds for Gemma to lunge at Stefan, a muffled groan escaping her lips when he abdomen slams against Damon's arm, the eldest of the three having grabbed her before she could do any damage. She wrestles against his tight grip, her lips pulling into a menacing sneer. "You son of a bitch," she curses.

Damon reaches up with his other hand and covers her mouth, squeezing his arm around her with a painful grip. "Shut up," he hisses. "We're here for a reason."

The woman stills after a long second and rips herself out of her brother's arms, perching herself back onto her stool and downing the rest of her Whiskey. "She's in the tomb, period. You think I'd let her walk free after what she did?"

Stefan doesn't say anything in reply.

"She did say something to us right before we shut her in," Damon says hesitantly. "I thought she was lying."

"What did she say?" Stefan demands.

"Elena's in danger."

"What?" He snaps, "and you two didn't think to ask her to elaborate?"

Gemma shrugs, "didn't really care to. Elena's not my girlfriend. Not my problem."

Damon side eyes her before sighing, "everything Katherine says is a lie. How am I supposed to know if she's going to start spouting out the truth?"

"We have to go talk to her."

"No, no, no," Damon rushes to grab Stefan before he can leave. "Let me tell you how that's going to go. We're going to ask her for help, she's going to negotiate her release which we're going to be dumb enough to give her and she's going to get out and kill us! This is exactly what she wants!"

"I don't really care."

"It's a bad idea, Stefan."

"It's Elena," the boy says simply. He casts Gemma a single, long glance and turns on his heel to leave.

Damon shuffles closer to the female Salvatore, looking down at her expectantly. "Are you going to help him?"

"Why should I?"

"It's Elena," he emphasized. "A week ago, you loved her."

Gemma scoffs out a laugh, "that was a week ago, brother. Today is today, and Willow is dead."

He winces at the mention of the deceased therapist, sighing heavily. "She wouldn't want this, Gemma. When you flip your switch back on, you'll hate that you ever acted like this. You'll hate that you're unraveling all of Willow's hard work."

"Willow doesn't want anything," she rasps. "She's dead. And my switch isn't flipping, not as long as I have a choice."

-

The last thing Gemma remembers before blacking out is staggering out of The Mystic Grill, her head swimming from the countless glasses of Whiskey she'd been served. She'd been shuffling past the alley way when she was jumped, a deafening crack filling the air before her world turned dark.

Several hours later, she awakens in the backseat of Damon's car, and she's furious. Not alerting her siblings of her awareness, she lunges forward and grabs Stefan's seatbelt, wrapping around his neck and pulling against his throat with all her might. He splutters and gasps as she uses her weight as leverage to pull back, the force of the seatbelt beginning to crush his windpipe.

"God—" Damon hisses, pulling over and throwing the car into park. "Damn it, Gemma!" He scrambles to get out of the car, yanking her door open and throwing her onto the ground outside. He pins her to the ground before she can get up, his knee presses against her abdomen. "Calm down."

"You kidnapped me," she seethes. "What do you mean, calm down?"

"We needed your help," he explains. "If I let you go, will you at least hear me out?"

The raven haired woman pauses for a short second before nodding curtly, forcing herself into a upright stance the second he lets her go. "Explain," she demands.

"We found out where Elena is, but Stefan and I aren't strong enough without you. We need you to come with us."

"I'm sure you do," she muses. "It's not like this save Elena mission is supposed to remind me of my humanity or anything."

Damon squints at her, gritting his teeth. "Frankly, I'm getting tired of your attitude. Either get in the car and help us willingly, or I'll stick you with a vervain dart and throw you in the trunk."

"You wouldn't."

"I would," Stefan chimes in from the passenger seat, massaging his bruised neck. "You're not my favorite person right now."

"You're not my favorite person ever," she snaps as she climbs into the backseat once again. "So, I guess that makes us even."

Damon sighs in relief and rounds the car to get back in the drivers seat, shutting his door and starting the ignition. He pulls back onto the highway, but not before meeting his sisters eyes in the rearview mirror. He flashes her a smile but only gets a scowl in return, the woman casting her gaze toward the window.

"Alaric sure likes his weapons," the eldest of the three comments, side eyeing Stefan who's rifling through the duffel bag. Stefan pulls out a medium sized bottle with vervain in it, the herb soaking in whatever liquid Alaric laced it in. "What the hell is that?"

"I don't know," Stefan shrugs. "It's a vervain bomb or a grenade launcher, or something like that."

"Weird," he comments.

"Hey, how much further is it?"

"About eighty miles."

"Who do you think took her?"

"Someone from Katherine's past," Damon informs him. "She said she was running from someone. They got the wrong girl."

"Thank you both for helping me," Stefan glances over at his shoulder to meet Gemma's eyes.

The woman scoffs, folding her arms over her chest. "Let's not do this," she says. "Appealing to my better nature right now won't get you brownie points. I'm here, aren't I?"

"Come on, Gemma," the youngest of them goads. "We both know that you being in this car has nothing to do with me anyway."

"The elephant in the room lets out a mighty roar," Damon drawls, keeping his eyes on the road.

"It doesn't have to be an elephant," Stefan says. "Let's talk about it, Gemma."

"There's nothing to talk about," she mutters.

"That's not true. I mean, are you in this car because you want to help your little brother save the girl he loves? Or is it because you love her too? I mean, come on, express yourself."

"I'm in this car because I, for one, don't appreciate getting knocked out and locked in a trunk." She smiles wryly, "but keep it up, Stefan. I'll kill her before any of Katherine's enemies can."

"No," he grins. "You see, that's the beauty of it. You won't."

It's merely an hour or so later when Stefan sits up straighter in his seat, glancing down at the map in his lap. "We're getting close," he announces. "Jeremy said there's an access road just past mile marker six."

Damon nods and glances over his shoulder, "hand me a blood bag, will you?"

Gemma does as told, opening one for herself as well. Damon rips it open with his teeth and begins drinking his blood bag, side eyeing Stefan with a smirk. "If you want some, just ask."

"I want some," he says.

The raven haired woman scoffs out a laugh, "yeah, because that worked out so well the first fifty times you tried it."

Damon snickers, "that's so sweet. You're going to be all big and strong and save your girl, but don't worry. We've got your back. It'll be fine."

"I'm not joking," he scowls. "I've been drinking a little every day. I'm slowly increasing my intake and building up my strength."

Damon hesitantly gives him the blood bag, eyeing his with an unidentifiable emotion. "Does Elena know you're drinking blood?"

"I've been drinking hers."

"Hm, how romantic," he grabs the blood bag from Stefan's hands. "Since we're road trip bonding, remember the days when all you lived for was blood? You were the guy who ripped someone apart just for the fun of it."

"You mean when I was more like you

"Yes, Stefan, exactly. Back when you put blood into me so I could be a big, bad vampire."

"You're still whining about that?" Gemma mutters under her breath, sinking down into her chair. "It's been almost two hundred years."

Damon glares at her over his shoulder, then returns to taunting their younger sibling. "I wonder if Elena would be so quick to open her vein to that guy. By the way, what happened to that guy? He was a hoot."

"I guess he found something else to live for."

"Yeah, well, that something else is going to be dead if you guys don't shut up and pay attention to the road," the female Salvatore grumbles. "Too much talking for my taste."

-

Gemma doesn't know how she and her brothers snuck into the mansion without being heard by the older vampires. They came in through the windows of the upper floor, the woman looking around in disdain at the dusty atmosphere. "Looks abandoned," she notes.

Damon nods in agreement and shuffles over to an accent table that has an antique lamp sitting on it. He reaches out and pushes it over, smirking when the air falls silent from downstairs.

"What is that?" A man drawls in a thick accent.

"I don't know." Whoever it is that took Elena sounds panicked. It gives Gemma a sick sense of satisfaction.

"Who else is in this house?"

"I don't know."

Stefan meets the eyes of his two siblings, glancing between them as he gives a curt nod. Go time.

Gemma uses her supernatural speed to zip around the house, her brothers doing the same but in the opposite direction. They didn't think they had much of an advantage in strength, so confusion the vampire was better suited to their plan.

"Rose," the man growls.

"I don't know who it is."

"Up here," Stefan calls, zipping up to the top of the stairs. He moves before the man can grab him, giving Damon his opening.

"Down here!" Damon yells. The man turns to the sound of his voice and Stefan shoots a small stake into his hand, using the air compressed weapon Alaric gave them. The three siblings quickly make their way to the upper room while the man is distracted, Stefan rushing to Elena and Damon doing the same to the unknown woman. Gemma thought he'd be more upset with the woman who kidnapped Elena, but it doesn't seem that way.

Gemma glances over her shoulder when the man's footsteps echo through the house. She signals for them to be quiet.

"Excuse me," he clears his throat. "To whom it may concern, you're making a great mistake of you think that you can beat me. You can't. Do you hear that?" He grabs something wooden, breaking it in half and causing the Salvatore's to grimace in anticipation. "I repeat, you cannot beat me. So, I want the girl. I'm going to count to three or heads will roll. Do we understand each other?"

Gemma reaches down in her jacket pocket and pulls out the vervain bomb, shoving it into Elena's hands. Stefan protests with a heavy flare but the raven haired woman ignores signaling for Elena to go confront the man. She shakes her head in denial with wide eyes and Gemma scowls, grabbing the young brunette and shoving her into clear view of the elder.

"I'll— I'll come with you," she blurts, holding the bomb behind her. "Just please don't hurt my friends. They just wanted to help me out."

He uses his super speed to get up the stairs faster, standing face to face with the girl; stake in hand. "What game are you playing with me?"

She throws the bomb in his face and his skin immediately burns. He doesn't stay injured for long, a menacing look coming across his face as his skin heals rapidly. He tries to lunge toward Elena but Stefan gets in the way, shooting him with the compressed air gun again. The vampire staggers but remains in his path, intent on Elena. Stefan throws the gun and grabs the vampire, throwing both himself and the man down the stairs.

Gemma follows them down the stairs, driving a stake into the man's back whenever he tries to tackle Stefan. The vampire turns on his heel and pins Gemma to the wall, thrusting his hand into her chest and wrapping his fingers around her heart. She freezes in place, her eyes watching the man expectantly. Her death couldn't come fast enough, when Damon takes his stake and finished the job, jabbing it into the man's heart from behind. He tenses and his skin begins to turn gray, his knees buckling as he falls to the floor.

Gemma clutches her chest in pain, inhaling and exhaling slowly as to ease the ache.

Rose rushes down stairs to see the sight, hesitating for a long second before scurrying out of the house. Damon tries to follow her but Elena stops him, her thick voice floating down the stairs. "Just let her go."

Gemma turns to the sound of her voice, watching as the Gilbert smiles widely with tears in her eyes. She rushes down the stairs into Stefan's arms, sniffling as the boy holds her tightly and murmurs comforting words to her. Elena peeks over the boy's shoulder and meets Gemma's eyes, mouthing a soft thank you to her. The female Salvatore watches her for a second longer before turning on her heel and retreating out of the house.

Later, when the trio exit the house to leave, Gemma is nowhere to be found.

-

Gemma lounges on the couch with a glass of Whiskey when Damon arrives, Stefan not far behind him.

"Elena's at home," Damon fills her in, unasked. He moves toward their Whiskey table and pours himself a glass, turning to Gemma with an expectant look.

"Why are you two here?" She asks, gazing into the fireplace. "I assumed you'd be catering to her."

"Because she wanted to be with Jeremy," Stefan explains.

"Here," Damon hands their younger brother a glass as well. It's well deserved after what the three siblings endured today.

"Thanks," he smiles tightly in return. "Listen, what Rose

told Elena about the curse."

"I know, we'll keep her safe."

Gemma groans silently and stands up from the couch, throwing her remaining Whiskey into the fire before putting her glass on the table. She turns to leave the living room but Stefan stops her, a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You know, the only way we're going to be able to do that is with you. And if we're not fighting each other. I let Katherine come between us, Gem. All of us. If I let that happen with Elena, we're not going to be able to protect her."

"It's funny it takes Elena being in danger for you to admit that," Gemma muses. She turns to look at Damon, raising her eyebrows in faux amusement. "You didn't think that was genuine, did you? If Elena weren't in trouble, he'd never be admitting to any of this."

"Hey," Stefan emphasizes, grabbing Gemma's shoulders and forcing her to meet his eyes. "I'm serious. I've owed you two this conversation for a while, especially you, Gem."

"What conversation?"

"I'm sorry. For being the guy who made you both turn one hundred and forty five years ago. For using your best friend to do it."

Gemma stiffens, staring at him and Damon takes it upon himself to pardon their younger brother. "Enough, Stef. It's late, don't need to rehash that."

"You know what? I've never said it out loud, but I guess I need to say it and you need to hear it. I'm sorry. What I did was selfish. The way I treated you, Gemma, was childish and cruel. I was jealous and too smitten with Katherine. I forced you both to turn because I didn't want to be alone. I need my brother and my sister."

Gemma remains unmoved, staring at her brother blankly. He smiles sadly and squeezes her tightly one more time, letting her go and disappearing upstairs.

-

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