Book Three: Ineffable (A. Saltzman)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Alaric crouches next to Diana who is working on the photos she'd taken, he holds out a plate to her, she glances at it and then back at her work. He sighs.

"You need to eat" Alaric scolds a little, Diana hums and grabs the sandwich from the plate and takes a bite. He nods, pleased that she is at least willing to look after herself and not burn herself out with research. He sets the plate down next to her and stands again. Somebody knocks on Alaric's door then opens it letting themselves in. It's Bonnie and she closes the door behind her.

"Hey there!" Bonnie states in greeting.

"Bonnie! Come on in!" Alaric greets.

"Got your message," Bonnie tells him.

"Yeah, great! Uh, I'm sorry the place is such a mess. Diana's obsessed...We both kind of are" Alaric defends slightly. Bonnie moves closer to where Diana is sat on the floor working.

"I brought you the necklace that wouldn't die," Bonnie tells her as she holds up the necklace.

"Ahh, that's great." Diana offers not looking up from her notes, Alaric sees that Bonnie looks unhappy.

"You okay?" He asks her.

"Been better..."

"Listen, Jeremy is an idiot. And I know this with certainty, because I was once a Jeremy. Trust me, we learn" Alaric glances at Diana. "Eventually..." He adds softly, Diana smiles a little.

"So what's going on?" Bonnie asks Diana, she grabs a photo from the floor and stands.

"So, I've been staring at this image all day, wondering why it looked so familiar." She moves to Alaric who holds up the necklace, whose charm is the same shape as the drawing. "I was right." Diana holds up the necklace pendant next to the photo.

"It's the same design." Bonnie agrees.

"So, your Grams said this necklace belonged to the witch that put the hybrid curse on Klaus, right?" Diana asks, Bonnie nods. "Well, this symbol is repeated all across the wall. I've been trying to figure out what it meant. And now I know..." She writes something on a post-it, sticks it to the photo, and shows Bonnie: the post-it says 'witch.'

..............

Alaric, Elena, and Diana are back in the cave with the drawings on the walls, this time Bonnie is with them.

"We, uh, filled in what we could" Diana explains as Alaric sticks post-its to the different symbols. "A Vampire, werewolf, slaughter, mayhem, etc."

"That's the white oak tree that was used in the spell to create the vampires...which means that was when they burned down the tree, destroying the only way that they could be killed."

"Okay. so tree equals weapon, sort of." Diana adds.

"We already knew that." Alaric counters.

"What we are not sure about is this: we've got the witch symbol, and what looks like a bleeding heart. Upside down figures usually signified death, of some kind." Diana rambles slightly.

"Mikael killed the witch by ripping out her heart. But...why is that one connected to the witch's death?" Elena asks.

"We don't know. We haven't gotten that far." Bonnie admits, Diana looks as though she's made a revelation.

"Oh, gods" Diana states staring at the wall. They look at her. "By Hades!" She cheers, Elena and Bonnie stare at her weirdly. She turns to them. "Told you we need a weak spot" Diana offers. "Well, I got it...."

"Okay, spill, Di..." Elena states. "What is it?" She asks.

"Mikael didn't kill the witch" Diana answers and then smirks. "The hybrid did...Klaus did and Rebekah...."

"Doesn't know the real story." Elena clocks on.

"Weak spot!!" Diana sing songs and high fives with Alaric who chuckles a little, he pulls her closer and kisses her as she smiles. Bonnie and Elena share a look. It's nice, seeing them happy, even considering the situation.

...........

Alaric glances to Diana as she gets ready for bed in the bathroom, he smiles softly leaning in the doorway. She hums to herself and smiles seeing his reflection.

"I'll be right there" she assures him and holds up her hair tie to show him, he nods and leans up moving on from the bathroom to their bedroom. He pauses in the doorway. Alaric groans seeing Damon lounging in the bed. Damon smirks at him.

"No" Alaric warns, he's not forgiven Damon yet, and he is not about to share his bed with him again. "Out, get out" He scolds. Diana appears behind Alaric and frowns at his back.

"What's going on?" she asks and then moves to his side. "Uh...Damon! Seriously?" Diana scolds as she touches Alaric's back.

"We got Mikael," Damon tells them.

"What? How?" Alaric asks him.

"No idea. I guess Katherine came through. Plan's in motion. See, I told you I had it. Go ahead. Kick, yell, scream. Sure you've been planning your rant all day."

"I'm not gonna yell at you." Diana answers.

"Why not? I went behind you back. Freed Stefan. And you know what? It backfired. He's an even bigger dick than ever...just now, he's a dick that's on our side.

"I'm not mad. I'm tired. I just...I want to go to bed" Diana counters. "We just want to go to bed"

"You know, I think Mikael's weapon is a stake, 'cause he mentioned something about it..." Damon carries on.

"Well, they must have carved it from the white oak tree before they burned it down," Diana adds.

"So I was right. After all that, the wall lead us to Mikael."

"Lead us to more than just that. I think Elena got Rebekah on our side, too." Diana tells him. Damon sits up.

"Really? What'd she learn from her?" He asks.

"How did Elena word it?" Diana asks herself and then nods. "'That she's just a girl. That she lost her mom too young, and she loves blindly and recklessly, even if it consumes her. And when it's all said and done, there's nothing more important than the bond of family.'" Diana repeats the same words Elena had told her earlier.

"Well, you should tell that to my brother." Damon mumbles.

"I'm not mad at you for letting him out, Damon, and I don't think Elena is either" Damon looks at Diana. "I actually think that you're gonna be the one to save him from himself." Damon stares at her, she shrugs. "It won't be because he loves Elena, it'll be because he loves you. Can we tell you the rest tomorrow?" He nods and smiles softly.

"Sure" he climbs out of their bed. "Thanks, Watchdog" He whispers to her, she gives him a small smile. "And...congrats" He adds, Alaric and Diana look at him. "On getting hitched..." Damon shrugs and then leaves. Diana lets out a breath and looks up at Alaric. He leans closer to her and kisses her softly.