Book Three: Ineffable (A. Saltzman)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Damon sits on Diana's couch, staring into the fireplace across from him. Their plan failed. Stefan turned on them at the last moment. Mikael was killed. And Klaus is still alive and running around. Diana knows that part of her wanted it to fail, just to prove that they still needed her, but she didn't actually want it to fail, she wanted Klaus stopped. She wanted him dead.

"How did this happen?" Diana asks as she paces the living room floor.

"We thought of everything, Watchdog" He points out. "Klaus having hybrids. Mikael turning on us. We brought in Katherine so Elena wasn't in danger. Anything that could have gone wrong we were prepared"

"I don't understand. Stefan wanted Klaus dead. More than anything. That's what we were counting on." She mumbles to herself.

"We blew it," Damon admits.

"Where's Katherine now?" She asks him.

"She ran for the hills like usual, the minute things got bad. And who blames her?! Klaus would've crushed her. I had him, Diana" Damon tells her. "I had Klaus! This could have all been over!!!" Diana sighs and closes her eyes. Damon watches her. "I'm sorry" He whispers, she looks at him. "I know how much getting Klaus means to you and to Ric" She nods a little and shrugs.

"We'll keep trying" She assures him. "This isn't over..." She moves towards where he sits. "We'll come up with something else...." he gives her a look because he doesn't believe that.

"Diana" he starts.

"We'll figure this out" She stops him from arguing with her. "He does not get to win" She warns. "Not after what he's done" Damon nods a little. His phone then rings. He answers it.

"Not interested in the play-by-play of our failure right now, Katherine," Damon states into the phone.

"I'm just calling to say goodbye. I don't know what to tell you. You had a good plan, Damon. And that's high praise coming from me."

"That's not very comforting at the moment. You're going back into hiding?"

"At least my life is not boring. Goodbye, Damon."

"Take care of yourself, Katherine." Damon hangs up and sighs. Diana sits next to him on the couch.

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

Diana sits at her laptop as she writes away, she's been getting a lot of writing done since she put herself on the sidelines. She's actually really liking writing about the events in her life, even in a fictional way.

"We need to talk about Jeremy" Alaric admits as he sits at the dining table with Diana who types away. She hums a little. "Diana" she stops and looks at him, sensing his tone.

"What he's done now?" she asks as she closes her laptop to give him her full attention.

"Failing my class" he answers, she frowns.

"I thought he was doing better" He nods in agreement.

"He was" He agrees. "But everything that's been going on..." She sighs and leans back in her seat. "I'm going to talk to him about it today, see if I can't....push him a little" She nods.

"Thank you" She offers.

"He's a good kid, Diana, I know that, anyone would be shaken by everything that's gone on...." he stands and moves around the table, she smiles up at him. He leans on the table as he kisses her. "I'll see you later" he whispers against her lips. She nods and opens her laptop again. Alaric watches her softly before he grabs his jacket and heads out of the apartment.

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

Damon and Alaric are sitting at the Grill bar. Damon has lots of different alcohol bottles in front of him. Alaric is reading something.