SLEEP.

Sleep can help you forget about all the bad thoughts. Well, at least until you wake up.

Emilia's hospital room was plain, small, and ugly or in other words, depressing. It had a single bed in the middle with plain walls. There was only one source of light in the room from the light above her. Across the room from her, there was a light switch she couldn't even use because she couldn't reach it. There were no chairs in the room so even if anyone did come, they'd have to sit on the floor or at the foot of her bed. There was no bathroom so she'd probably have to wait thirty minutes before a doctor took her in a wheelchair.

Emilia knew why Meredith took her to this room. It was obvious. Meredith knew that Emilia would need the cheapest room possible so it eased her on financial burden to Emilia's discomfort. The only good thing about the room was that it had a nightstand close to her bed so that she could reach her phone.

Currently, Emilia was fast asleep. She slept on her side using one pillow for her head and another to hug. Hugging that pillow made her feel like someone was actually there.

All of a sudden, in that dark room, the light turned on and then off again. Emilia slowly woke up to that change. She opened her eyes and looked around to see who had done that. She saw nobody in the dark room.

Out of nowhere, a man sped towards her. He bit his wrist and forced it into her mouth. She didn't want the blood whatsoever because she didn't want a chance of turning into a vampire. She didn't drink hoping the man would stop. "Emilia, drink."

She recognized that voice, it was Elijah's voice. Emilia resisted as long as she could but eventually gave in and drank. Emilia didn't respond to him after she drank because she just woke up and was sort of confused. Elijah picked her up and sped to her apartment building. "What the hell was that for Elijah?

"Insurance policy. Now, which one is yours?"

"Second floor, fourth apartment to your right."

Elijah sped upstairs and stopped at the door. "Ok, so Elijah, you're gonna have to let me down so I can unlock my door."

Elijah let her down and Emilia dug into her pocket and grabbed the key to her apartment. She unlocked the door and was about to hop into her apartment but couldn't do it on her own without crutches. Elijah looked to her. "You're going to need my help getting inside."

"Fine, you can come in."

Elijah picks her up and places her on the couch. He then proceeds to remove the cast and fix Emilia up so she could walk again. "You have a nice home, Emilia. Have you lived here all your life?"

"No, only for a little while. This place reminds me of my old not home but a place in Chicago."

"I see. So why did you move away and to here of all places?"

"Is this some interrogation?"

"No. I just heard the doctor in the hospital talking about your mother. I wanted to know if what she said was true."

"It is but I can't do anything about it. At least, not until I turn eighteen."

"Why don't you emancipate yourself?"

"I tried. Sadly, I didn't show that I could financially support myself and I didn't get my mother to sign off on it. After that, I just let that dream die."

"How did you get this apartment then?"

"Well, that just happened to be pure luck that the realtor didn't care. She pulled a couple of strings and well here I am. I think she may have felt bad for me." Elijah visibly saddened. "Well moving on from that depressing subject, what do you like to do for fun when you're not stuck in that black suit all the time."

Elijah chuckled. "Well sometimes for a thrill I'll wear dark blue or even a gray one."

Emilia sarcastically replied. "Exciting. Well now I don't have time to do any hobbies with all the supernatural drama but I used to play football."

"Isn't that a man's sport?"

"Exactly."

Emilia gets up to check her phone, hearing a ring, and Elijah whispers. "My sister would've loved you."

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Well, I really must be off."

"Ok! Are you going to the Historical Society's Tea Party? Jenna's roped me into going."

"Yes. I am." Elijah continues almost talking a bit arrogantly. "Did you know it's being held just for me?"

Emilia sarcastically replies. "Didn't know that you could be arrogant under that tights suit of yours."

Elijah chuckles. "Goodbye, Emilia."

Before Emilia had the chance to say goodbye, Elijah sped away.

Emilia went back to sleep in her own bed. She slept peacefully for the rest of the night and woke in the morning. She got out of bed and realized she needed to put on a dress for this tea party. She walked over to her small closet and looked for a dress. She realized that she had no dresses. She mentally sighed then got out a pair of black jeans and a nice top. She then packed her knife just in case of emergencies.

She walked out of her apartment building to see Jenna's car outside. Jenna was in the driver's seat and Andie was in the front seat. Emilia steps inside and greets Jenna. "Hey Emilia! This is my friend Andie!"

Andie greets Emilia. "Hi, I'm Andie. It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

Jenna starts a new conversation. "Emilia I was surprised you asked me to get you from your house. I thought you would've been with all the other girls."

"Wait where were they?"

Jenna pauses to which Andie replies. "Awkward."

Jenna shrugs Andie off and answers Emilia. "Oh, they were at the Forbes House for a girls' night. I remember Stefan asking Elena and I think Bonnie as well to go over there."

"Oh."

The rest of the car ride was filled with silence as they drove to the Lockwood Mansion. Jenna and Andie go to meet the mayor while Emilia just walks off to the side. A little while later, Carol walks up to Emilia. "Hey, your Emilia Page right?"

"Um yeah, why?"

"Well according to what I've heard from the school you are one of their most promising students. I think besides the obvious fashion mistakes that I'm noticing, I can transform you into a well-off lady. So first-off do you have a boyfriend?

"Excuse me?"

"From that reaction, I'm guessing no. Well, you'd make my son look good, I can set you up. You can be a trophy wife"

Emilia tries to walk away horrified by the thought of it. "No, I think I'm ok."

"Nonsense. I'm sure if I tell you about him you'll reconsider he's tall, he's a varsity athlete in several sports like football..."

"Wait did you say football?"

"Oh yeah, and he does..."

"No, I don't care about what other sports he does. Since you seem to want me to meet him so much maybe you could ask if he'd give me a shot at football?"

"Excuse me? That's a man's sport, you're a girl. I thought you could have a future ahead of you. With that attitude, I guess not."

Carol then walked away. Jenna came up to Emilia. "Don't worry about Carol she can be a lot sometimes."

"Noted."

Jenna walks away to do other things and Emilia sees Damon and walks over to him. Emilia is still upset about his actions the previous night, but she thought she'd just give him a chance to make up for it if she had a good excuse. "Damon, what are you doing here?"

Andie walks up to them. "Hi. You came."

"Hi."

"Hi."

They smile each other and Emilia gets the picture. "Seriously you left your friend alone in the hospital for this?"

Damon sees Carol and Elijah and grabs Emilia taking her over to them. "Not the time Red."

"Damon."

"Carol."

Carol looks at Emilia and scoffs. "You know Damon, you should keep better company than her." Before Emilia could defend herself possibly, ok definitely, cursing her out, Elijah walks over taking Carol's attention. "Hi. Elijah, I want you to meet Damon Salvatore. His family is one of Mystic Falls' founding families."

Elijah notices how Carol didn't even introduce Emilia as he heard their conversation from earlier.

Damon greets Elijah. "Mm-hm. Such a pleasure to meet you."

"No. Pleasure's mine. Nice to see you again Emilia. Damon, would you like to continue in the study?"

"I would love too."

Damon walks into the study with Elijah. There's some ruckus but no one seems to notice except Emilia. When Elijah leaves the room, he leaves the party. Damon, Emilia, and Alaric go to the Salvatore House. Emilia goes to the bathroom and comes out hearing. "Yeah. I'd think twice before I'd trust that dagger and some ashes to do the job. You're gonna need more info."

Damon replies. "I'm out of sources." Emilia walks into the room. Emilia mentally chuckles knowing that she knew everything about the dagger.

Emilia walks across the room to the kitchen to pour a glass of water. She walks out of the kitchen back into the living room with a glass of water in her hand. She sees Damon tied to a chair and Alaric dead on the floor. She takes out her knife. There are three werewolves in the room and Emilia was mentally thinking on how to fight.

Suddenly two werewolves start running towards her with super speed from both sides. She sidesteps away from the wolves causing them both to run into each other. The wolves aren't out for long though as they start coming toward her together. Emilia takes out her knife. One wolf tries to punch her and she dodges it cutting his face with the knife. The other wolf tries to sweep her legs but she jumps over them. The first wolf later manages to get a punch on her. Her eyes turn red. "You bitch."

The wolves look at Emilia scared because her eyes turned red, but that fear doesn't last long because another wolf speeds behind her and stabs her in the shoulder. Emilia curls down in pain. The wolf who stabbed her places her on the floor next to Damon. Jules enters the room. "Hello. Nice to see you guys again."

Emilia stays quiet while the wolf who stabbed her attaches a wooden spiked metal collar around Damon's neck. He walks in front of Damon. "I saw this movie once, some torture porn flick. Anyway, they had this collar device that was really cool, so I just modified it some with some wooden nails, and when I pull..."

The wolf pulls the ends of the chains forward. The wooden spikes insert themselves in Damon's neck and Damon groans in pain. Jules speaks up from the corner. "So I hear you have the moonstone."

Damon laughs. "Oh, if you only knew the irony of this moment right now. Let me tell you how this is gonna go. You're gonna torture me, I don't talk, someone loses a heart. Last time, it was your boy Mason."

Jules inches closer to Damon. "This time, it'll be you."

Stevie pulls the chain again. Jules brings out a shotgun and leans against it as she talks to Damon. "You know what the great thing about buckshot is? It scatters through the body. Maximum damage."

Jules lifts the shotgun and points it at Damon. "Where's the moonstone?"

"Get over it, honey. You're never gonna get it."

Emilia is hunched over on the floor in pain. Damon is watching but is too weak to do anything. Jules grabs a knife and walks over to Emilia. "Look, kid. You don't have to die. Just tell me where the moonstone is?"

Emilia barely gets out. "I don't know."

Jules inches closer. "I'll say it one last time. Where is it?"

Emilia's eyes turn red and she headbutts Jules making Jules back up. Emilia screams. "I don't know!"

Jules is about to come for Emilia with a knife, but Elijah interrupts holding the moonstone. "You looking for this?" Emilia lets go of a breath that she didn't know she was holding.

Elijah, leaning against a banister, twirls the moonstone in his hand. Everyone turns to look at him. Elijah walks down the stairs and places the moonstone on an end table. He backs away. "Go ahead take it."

One of the werewolves uses his wolf speed to rush towards the moonstone, but Elijah, being quicker, plunges his hand into the wolf's chest and rips out his heart. The wolf falls down onto the couch, dead. Two other wolves rush at Elijah and Elijah, without any effort, plunges his arms into their chests and rips out their hearts as well. Jules wolf-speeds out of the house before she is killed. Elijah walks over to the wolf who stabbed Emilia, who crouches down and pulls his jacket over his face in fear. Elijah pulls him up from the ground. "What about you, sweetheart, hmm? Do you want to take a shot? Yes? No? Yes? Did you stab her?"

The wolf doesn't respond and Elijah rips out his heart. "I thought so."

Elijah goes to Emilia and pulls the knife out of her back and heals her quickly. He places Emilia on the couch. Elijah looks to Damon. "Where's the girl."

Damon looks around and responds. "I don't know."

"It doesn't matter." Elijah removes the chains strapping Damon down into the chair. "You realize this is the third time I've saved your life now?"

Damon doesn't respond. Elijah turns around, grabs the moonstone, and walks out of the house. Emilia sits up and Damon looks at her. "Nice headbutt Red."

"Thanks." Emilia looks at the clock and sees that it says 12:03 and sighs. "Well, that's a great way to start my birthday."

Damon grabs a new bottle of bourbon out of a liquor cabinet handing it to her. "Birthday drink for a new adult?"

Emilia denies. "No thanks and I still got to wait one more year to be an adult."

"Well, that sucks." Damon takes a swig of his bourbon.

"Did you really leave me at the hospital to go fuck Andie Starr?"

"Not really...? You said I could leave when I saw the blood..."

Emilia interrupts him. "You could leave the room not leave the hospital and leave me all alone!"

"That was unclear to me."

Emilia's eyes turned red. "Seriously! That was unclear to you! What's unclear about needing someone to be there in their time of need! Do you know how I felt? I felt completely alone!"

"Sorry about that Red, but I found something that's going to change the game."

Emilia feared this. Emilia knew that there was only one thing that could change the game and who it would've come from. "What?"

"We found a dagger and white oak ash that can neutralize an original."

She couldn't believe it. Emilia was conflicted. Should she tell her newfound friend about the imminent threat? Should she prove her loyalty to the Save Elena Squad and help them and at the same time do what Klaus wanted? She didn't want to betray Elijah and she knew that he'd be devastated if she did. She didn't know what to do.

Currently, Emilia sat in her apartment about to call Klaus. She dialed his number and he answered quickly. "Why did you give them a dagger? Why would you do that to Elijah? We were going to make a deal with him! No one had to be harmed!"

"Well I thought about it Em and I decided to do it my way."

"I've been here for weeks. If you had just listened everything would've happened easily. No collateral damage. Why didn't you listen to me?"

"It's not that I don't trust you. I just know how to make sure things get done. And that's my way."

Emilia scoffs and rolls her eyes. "Wow."

"By the way why didn't you call last night Em?"

"Sorry I was in the hospital." Emilia paused for a moment should she tell Klaus about the debt and everything that happened or should she just keep it to herself. If she told Klaus he'd easily pay it off for her but then it's another thing she owes him. In the end, Emilia didn't tell him.

"Oh my god, are you ok Em?"

"Yea. Thanks for caring, but I'm fine now. A little vampire blood and I was good to go."

"Glad to hear it. How's the doppelgänger and the moonstone?"

"Well, the doppelgänger is fine. She's at a lakehouse with her boyfriend, Stefan Salvatore. And the moonstone is with Elijah."

"Oh yes, I remember that rippah from the '20s. Sounds great! Got to run!"

Emilia sighed. Nobody would know that it was her birthday today, not that she had told anyone. It was just sad to see that once again nobody really cared for her. Hell, she at least Klaus would at least say it to her. During the time she had been with Klaus, every time it was one of his sibling's birthdays he'd do something special even though they were all daggered. He'd always make sure to celebrate even though he was alone.

Nonetheless, Emilia went to sleep in her small twin bed. Later that morning, she woke up refreshed. She got out of bed, put on a comfortable outfit, and checked her phone. She saw a text from Jenna telling her that she was coming to pick Emilia up around eight. She looked at the clock and saw that it was already eight. She grabbed her bag and put her textbook in it for later. She ran downstairs and hopped into Jenna's car.

Jenna then drove Emilia to the historical sight. Then, they got out of the car. Jenna was explaining to Emilia the history behind the site when Elijah walked over looking at Jenna. "Hello. Shall we start the tour?"

"Sure." Jenna walked a couple of steps. "The old Fell property actually starts beyond that fence."

"Ah, the Fells. One of the Founding Families."

Emilia piped in. "Why do you say it like that?"

"My research showed me that this area was actually settled almost two full centuries earlier. It was a migration of townsfolk from the northeast, um, it was Salem, to be precise."

"Massachusetts? As in the witch trials?"

"Which means the ever-lauded founding families...didn't actually found anything."

Emilia responded. "Well, I bet it was the men who made a big deal about being founders back in 1860. Men are very territorial."

"Yes, they are."

Alaric walks over to them and Jenna introduces him to Elijah. "Elijah, this is my friend, Alaric Saltzman."

"Yeah, I got your message about walking Elijah here through the old property lines. I thought I would tag along. You know being a history buff and all. Where to next?"

"I'm pretty curious about the freed slave property owners. Some say, you know, the descendants of the slaves are the true keepers of American history."

"Well, I only brought the surveys. I got that list in the car. Emilia will you help me out."

"Sure." Emilia and Jenna walk to the car and get out the surveys. Jenna and Alaric lead Elijah through the rest of the tour of Old Mystic Falls. Emilia had to admit that learning about the history of Mystic Falls was very interesting. She liked walking around the sites and learning everything.

After the tour, Alaric left for the grill. Jenna and Elijah proceeded to talk about the rest of Elijah's research. Emilia slightly dozed off during their conversation, instead deciding to walk around the Fell property. Emilia helped Jenna load the surveys into the car. Emilia, Jenna, and Elijah made their way into the Grill. Jenna and Elijah walk over to Damon's table. Emilia sits at a table nearby so she could hear their conversation and get started on some homework. After a minute or so, Alaric sits down at Emilia's table, starting to grade some papers. She hears Andie say in the background, "No, you know what? We should continue this.