Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries / The Originals, or any of the characters, plot-lines, dialogues from the shows or books

However, I do own Catherine Matthews/ my very own Katherine Peirce, her backstory, the storyline, and any additional characters that do not belong to The Vampire Diaries or The Originals. Characters in this story may not have the same opinion as you. These characters are all fictional.

Maybe my day wasn't that bad after all because just before I got stuck with the awkward lunch with Elijah and Jenna, answering even more uncomfortable questions, my phone started ringing. I cut it off quickly saying it was a message notification.

"It's from Caroline. She wants to talk with me in her house over lunch, and she said it is urgent," I wing the lie like every time.

"Oh, I hope everything is alright with her," said Jenna.

"Yeah. Hopefully," I said, fiddling with my phone. "Sorry, I need to cut the meeting short, . I will see you around sometime," and before Elijah could say anything, Damon cut him off.

"I will drop you on the way," said Damon, to which I nodded my head gratefully.

"I will see you at home, Jenna," I said, kissing her cheek and started going along with Damon and Rose. I really hoped Elena kissed Jenna's cheek often; otherwise, I am gonna be in trouble.

As the Olive skinned girl bounded out of the bar, Jenna smiled, touching her cheek where she has been kissed at.

"She seems happy today," murmured the women, which was correctly heard by the Vampire beside her.

"Isn't she always?" asked the Original Vampire nonchalantly.

"Well, she was the most beautiful and sweetest girl. She was full of life, but everything changed when my sister and brother-in-law died in the car crash. Then she came back to normal after she started dating Damon's brother Stefan," said Jenna with a sigh as she took a seat at the now empty table, and Elijah sat opposite to her. "But she seems little secretive sometimes, and in the past few weeks she has been troubled and worried about something, and I don't even remember when was the last time we talked properly. But today she seems in a good mood. She made me a toast and offered to make it up to me by spending the day with me without asking any questions."

"Really?" Elijah asked curiously after hearing the newfound information.

"Mhmm. And now I found out that the weakness of my niece is a puppy dog face, " said Jenna with a smirk on her face.

" Enough about me, tell me, Elijah, do you have a girlfriend?" asked Jenna.

"I am still in the process of pursuing a stubborn woman," said Elijah.

"You are handsome...polite and an excellent conversationalist. Who would not like you?" said the college graduate surprised.

" My ex-girlfriend," said the Vampire in a flat tone, and the human kept quite.

"Tha... that's gonna be hard," said the human in understanding to which the Vampire nodded in agreement. "But don't worry you are better than Damon," she said trying to cheer the guy in front of her

"I take it you don't like him," said Elijah, amused.

"He is a douche, and I will be nice to him when he learns to keep his paws off my niece," said the human with a hiss still not forgetting about the incident she saw on her front porch.

"At least someone agrees with me," said the original under his breath.

"Sorry, did you say something," asked Jenna.

"Nothing Jenna. Shall we order?" He asked, changing the topic.

Damon got his car, and I sat in the back seat as I will be getting off in the middle.

"You are welcome," said Damon sarcastically.

"Thank you, Damon. For being a knight in shining armor," I grumbled equally sarcastic.

I then redialed the number I got a call from. It was the Private Investigator I appointed to find canon Katherine's daughter. I selected two different consultants for two different people as I didn't want any unwanted suspicions. I was expecting a call from the investigator on Hayley's case; instead, I got a call from Nadia's.

"Hello, Katherine speaking," I said.

"Miss. Petrova, I am Alexander Kirk, from the detective agency." The man on the other end said. And yes, I told him my name was Katherine Petrova because in case Nadia Petrova found him snooping and compels him about the Mastermind behind this, she may at least hear him out and come out of hiding to see her dear mother just by hearing the name, Petrova.

"Alexander, tell me you found something useful," I asked, getting straight to the point.

"We found a lead of Miss. Nadia Petrova. I believe she is here in Spain," He spoke.

"We illegally ran a facial recognition of her with the description you gave us. It's just a matter of time before we find her whereabouts. We would've already completed the job, but the woman is fast. She just disappears suddenly. Is your daughter a spy or something because once we were so close to catching her. We got the credit bill details she used from one of the shopping centers here, but when we got the name and address of the card owner, we got to know they don't know anything about her and they don't even remember about the credit card."

"Didn't I tell you to keep your mind off things that appear weird and illogical?" I said, remembering how I compelled him.

"Yes, but you also said not to conceal any sort of information," he said dumbly. Sometimes compulsion sucks if we don't know what to compel exactly.

"Fine. Just let me know if there is anything new," I said with a sigh and cut the call. And rubbed my temples with my fingers.

"Everything alright?" asked Damon looking through the mirror from the front.

"Yeah. Single mother problems," I said.

"You are finding your daughter?" asked Rose.

"Mmhmm," I said with a sigh, "I thought, I now have a better chance of finding her with the improvement in technology and all. Guess I am not that lucky."

" Don't worry. Something is telling me you will find your daughter very soon," said Rose smiling, which I returned.

"Let's hope she is not a heartbreaker like Kitty Kat here," said Damon in a playful tone to which he earned a punch on his arm from me.

"Ouch women. That hurt" he whined

"You were mean," I answered with a flat tone rolling my eyes.

"So, where do you want to go? I am sure you don't want to go to blondie's house." Said, Damon

"Yeah. Caroline can be talkative," said Rose agreeing with Damon.

"Very," I said, agreeing.

"Want to crash at my place?" asked Damon.

"Yeah, but I should go to Gilbert's house after an hour or two," I told them.

"You were really going to play video games with little Gilbert?" asked Damon, shocked.

"Yeah," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"Fine. Then to Salvatore's house, it is," said Damon turning the direction of the car.

"So I heard the Private Investigator saying he ran a facial recognition of Nadia" Rose started saying, "So did you two already know each other or what?"

"We don't know each other per se, but we know how we look like." I said, "Nadia has been looking for me ever since she knew I was her birth mother, and she even turned into a Vampire to find me. I thought she was living a normal human life, but then one day, I heard a word about this matter, so I started searching for her. In that process, I got a hold of her painting, which I gave to the investigator," I lied.

I mean, I was the one who drew her, with the little talent I had and never had I thought I would sketch a cannon fodder artist from a TV show. I don't even know if she would look the same or not. Sure everyone has the same faces as their respected actors, but who is to say she is not any different.

"Ladies, your lunch is here," Damon said, pouring the blood from blood bags into a glass and handing it over to Rose and me. I was absolutely disgusted about the blood concept in the show, but now when I am drinking it here, it felt like heaven.

"Now, don't think I forgot about the dinner thing you planned with Elijah," I said, looking at Damon. "Tell me, what are you planning exactly?"

"Why are you assuming that I planned something?" Damon said, cockily raising his eyebrows.

"Please tell me you are not doing anything reckless," I said instead sternly.

"I am not doing anything reckless," he said flatly, causing me to sigh. I looked at Rose, and she just shrugged her shoulders.

"He is an original, Damon. He absolutely doesn't like you, so don't give him any more reason to finish you. When I say finish you, you will be dead and not like Vampire dead, I mean dead, dead." I said.

"Are you worried about me, Katherine?" he said, smirking a bit.

"I am serious, Damon. So tell me why this Dinner party?" I asked

"It's just a fact-finding mission, nothing harmless," Damon said with the most innocent expression he could muster. I looked at for one more minute pointedly but then shrugged it off.

John is not here. They wouldn't know anything about the dagger, and even if they did, Rose is scared of Elijah, she wouldn't have agreed with Damon's plan if it leads to their death. No matter how annoying and charming Elijah looked, he still needs to be alive. There is a higher chance of surviving Klaus with Elijah by their side.

After spending an hour at the Boarding house and talking with them, I got up to leave.

Damon Salvatore released a long breath he didn't know he was holding when he heard his ex-girlfriend leave the premises and is far away from his hearing range.

"Why didn't you tell her?" Rose asked, standing beside him.

"What would you want me to say? You heard her. She is going to think we are doing something stupid or reckless," said the Older Salvatore.

"Well, that's because we are doing something that is both stupid and reckless. Are you sure you want to believe John Gilbert? From what I was heard, he tried to kill you and your brother once," said Rose hating the plan. "What if he is trying to do that again? Did you see how afraid he was of Katherine? He doesn't even want her to know he was here."

"John pissed Katherine off. He knows, once Katherine gets a word that he is snooping behind her back, it's his end. But he is desperate to help his daughter. Also, according to Johnathan Gilbert's diary, which Elena peeked through and Stefan heard from, the dagger does work. It just needs to stay put in one place and should be used by humans. So I should convince Alaric and conceal the information from both the doppelgangers and everything goes perfectly well." said Damon in an 'I-know-what-I-am-doing' tone.

"And you don't think both of them will be pissed at you brothers, for hiding this information?" asked Rose.

"We can deal with that later," said Damon nonchalantly.

"I still don't understand why I am agreeing with you to go on this suicide mission?" grumbled Rose.

"Because you are tired of running and you know it's the right thing to do. From what we heard, Elijah and Klaus are brothers. I don't personally think Elijah can kill his brother. Trust me, I have said the same dialogue for a century and a half now," said Damon "Dealing with two originals at a time is troublesome. We will leave Klaus to Bonnie. The witch said she will convince the Martin's to work with us once Elijah is out of the picture. Hopefully, they will help us for the sake of their daughter."

Damon Salvatore is determined to execute the plan of his flawlessly, and he is not taking any chances of screwing it up.

I waited outside the Gilbert house and rang the bell. I heard the sounds of footsteps and waited for the door to Open.

"Katherine, you came," said the Gilbert boy.

"Don't shout," I said, entering the house, " I did promise to come, remember?"

"Yes, you did. Now come on, I have already set up the game. You play Road Rash, right?" He asked walking up the stairs

"I used to play before," I said. Because I played it when I was young, but as I grew up, I started playing call of duty and Fortnite. Damn! 2010. "But don't worry, I can beat you with my quick reflexes."

"Really? Something tells me, I am going to be in leading," he said, cockily opening his bedroom door.

"We will see," I said.

And then we started playing...