Unstoppable | The Vampire Diaries

111. Mother Figures*

Three Years From Now*

Riley and Ric stood outside the KQBC News Station, where Caroline worked as a producer, waiting for any sort of information about what was happening inside.

"She has Caroline and Damon," Ric stated. "What do we do?"

Riley raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, I could always go in, guns blazing, rescue Caroline and leave Damon to rot," she suggested sarcastically, knowing that whatever was waiting inside the building was way beyond her capabilities. "Although you'll have to go home and explain to the twins why their favorite auntie isn't at the wedding..."

Ric sighed, clenching his hands into tight fists. "I just feel so useless, y'know? I should be able to do... something."

Riley put a sympathetic hand on his arm. "You're engaged to a vampire," she reminded him. "Occasional danger comes with the territory."

"Well, it shouldn't," Ric argued. "I have kids to think about now. We moved so that we wouldn't have to deal with all of this."

Riley was silent. Sometimes she envied her sister and almost-brother-in-law. Over the last three years, they'd had a practically vampire-free life, filled with PTA meetings and bake sales. The only things they'd had to worry about were whose turn it was to take the night-shift and which one of them would read the girls a bedtime story. Meanwhile, as much as Riley had tried to move on from her vampire-filled past, something always pulled her back.

"Anyway, Stefan's coming soon," Ric offered. "Maybe he has a plan."

Riley nodded. "Right, Stefan." After a pause, she gave him a smirk. "Think he's gonna bring Valerie?"

Ric rolled his eyes. "Would you please stop bringing her up? Especially in front of Caroline."

Riley held up her hands in mock-surrender. "It's not my fault that I keep up to date with my friends' lives. Or... ex-friends. I don't really know what Stefan is these days."

"He's our one shot at saving my fiancée," Ric answered dryly. "After that, he's out of our lives for good. Just like his brother."

Present Day

"Julian needs to die today," Stefan announced. "He's not an idiot. If he finds out what we're planning, or that Lily turned on him, we're all dead." The previous day, Stefan and Damon had managed to convince Lily that Julian was not the man she thought he was. Now, like the rest of them, she also wanted him dead.

Enzo frowned. "So you embed Lily with a psychopath? Sounds... logical."

"Almost as logical as your weird infatuation with her," Riley rebutted, wondering why Enzo felt so attached to Lily and her family. As it turned out, he was only attached to the mother of Heretics. "Lily bought him back to life, she can deal with the consequences."

"Exactly," Damon agreed. "I voted to drive a stake through her heart and get rid of this Julian-mama drama once and for all."

Julian had convinced the Heretics to link his life to Lily's, making sure that if anything happened to him, it also happened to her. Lily had agreed because she knew that, while Stefan and Enzo hated Julian, they'd never do anything to hurt her. And by extension, Damon wouldn't do anything to hurt Stefan. She thought she was keeping her family safe - but now she knew that it was just a further example of Julian's manipulation.

Riley raise her eyebrows at Damon, then turned to Stefan. "OK, so what's the actual plan? Y'know, the one where your mom doesn't end up dead at the end of the night."