When Lucy woke, she found herself back in the car still wearing Damon's jacket. She blinked away the sleep. "Where are we?"

Damon glanced over. "Hello, sleeping beauty. We're a couple hours from home."

She groaned as she stretched. "So, what's the plan when we get back?"

He tapped the steering wheel with his thumbs. "Well, I feel like I would have noticed a grimoire tucked amongst the books in our library. I know several of the founder's kept journals, if we can find some from that time maybe it will tell us something about Emily and what happened to her things when they killed her."

"I assume we won't find those just laying around either."

He huffed a laugh. "Probably not, no."

She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her notifications. "Elena gave Caroline a vervain necklace but didn't tell her anything about it. Stefan's not sure if he's happy Elena can keep her mouth shut or angry that she's not warning Caroline."

"What's up with that?" Damon asked.

Lucy arched a brow. "With what?"

"Stefan and Caroline."

She shrugged. "Not sure. They've been spending a lot of time together though. She's an infinitely better choice than Elena. I can't imagine him going much longer without telling her the truth."

"Why don't we just take out an ad in the paper?"

"Stop it. I like Caroline. Compel Elena and Bonnie to forget."

"Wait. Bonnie knows, too?"

"Mm-hmm. Elena told her after the whole possession thing." Lucy put her feet up on the dash. "That makes me, Zach, Bonnie, Elena and Jeremy that know."

Damon reached over and shoved her feet down. "And soon to be Caroline."

Lucy put her feet back up as Damon signaled to take the next exit.

"Feet down or give me back my jacket."

She stuck her tongue out at him but dutifully returned her feet to the floor.

***

Fortunately, Stefan knew precisely where their father's journal was. Damon wasn't sure it would tell them anything, but it was a place to start. And it helped smooth the ruffled feathers from when Damon found out Stefan gave the compass to Elena. It was technically hers anyway, but that was beside the point.

Currently, Lucy was laying on the sofa with her feet on Damon's lap while they took turns reading the journal. It was boring and hard to read so they were sharing their suffering. Stefan appeared in the doorway drawing her attention.

"Where are you off to?" she asked.

"Decade dance." He turned back and forth showing her his outfit for approval.

"Looking sharp, Salvatore. Who are you taking?" She kept her fingers crossed that he would say Caroline.

"I'm escorting Caroline and Elena actually." Lucy frowned and he held up his hands. "Don't ask me. They're the ones that came up with that plan."

"Well, have a good time," she said with a wave and watched him walk away.

He hadn't been gone very long when Damon and Lucy heard a phone ringing that belonged to neither of them. Stefan's cell phone laid on a table on the other side of the library.

Lucy answered it. "Stefan's phone."

"It's Elena. Where is he?"

"On his way to yours. Forgot his phone."

The girl breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. This compass was going nuts but he must be here. Thanks."

"No problem."

Lucy had barely gotten settled when Damon's phone rang. He frowned at the display then answered. "Yeah?" He listened for several beats. "We'll be right there."

He patted Lucy's legs. "Let's go, Williams. Little Miss Elena just got attacked. Grab your gear."

"Of course, she did," Lucy muttered. She equipped her wrist stakes and followed Damon out to his car.

When they arrived at Elena's, Stefan filled them in. Apparently, the Gilberts were in the habit of randomly inviting pizza delivery people into their house and one happened to be the vampire that was after Elena. Lucy wasn't sure how this was her problem exactly, but Stefan wanted their help so she'd give it.

"So let me get this right," Lucy said as she followed Damon to the car so they could head to the dance. "We're going to a high school dance in hopes the vampire will follow Elena there. To a building filled with innocent people."

"Yep," he answered popping the p.

She shook her head. "You're not allowed to come up with the plans anymore."

Lucy stayed close to Damon as they walked into the dance. She suppressed a shudder. This had never been her kind of thing. Too many people with too many expectations. Damon leaned toward her. "Stay close, kitten."

She hummed instead of answering and grabbed onto his hand so they wouldn't get separated. He shifted his hold so their fingers were laced together. He tugged her in one direction while Stefan and Elena went over to meet Caroline and Bonnie.

After a look around the room, they made their way to where Elena stood by herself. "Where'd everyone go?" Lucy asked.

"Dancing," the girl answered, clearly not happy. Her gaze darted down to where Damon still held onto Lucy's hand then back up. Elena smiled slightly and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Damon, would you like to dance?"

"I would love to." He turned his smirk onto Lucy. "Lucy, may I have this dance?"

She laughed and let him lead her onto the floor. "That was mean," she said.

"It was, wasn't it?" He shrugged. Once the song was over, they moved to the side of the dancefloor to scan the crowd again.

"Do we even know what we're looking for?" she asked after a moment.

"Creepy vampire."

She elbowed his side. "Found him. I win."

"Not funny," he grumbled.

She grinned. "We keep having this conversation. I told you, I'm hilarious."

A man with brownish-blond hair wearing a letterman's jacket approached them. "Hey, I don't recognize you. How'd you get roped into chaperoning?"

Damon just looked at him, not interested in idle chitchat with a stranger.

"Oh, sorry," the man said holding out a hand. "Alaric Saltzman, new history teacher."

Damon shook his hand followed by Lucy. "Damon Salvatore, Lucy Williams," the vampire introduced them.

"Salvatore? As in Stefan?" Alaric asked.

"That's my little brother. I'm his guardian. Hence the chaperoning."

"He's a smart kid."

Lucy looked the man over. Everything he said had a hint of insincerity. What was he up to?

"That's our Stefan." Damon said sounding pretty insincere himself. She rolled her eyes. These two would get along great.

The teacher shoved his hands in his pockets. "So, you always lived here?"

"Off and on. We traveled a lot." Damon may have been answering the other man's questions but his focus remained on the crowd in the gym.

"Oh yeah. Where? Around the states?"

And that was enough for Damon. He made it a practice of not sharing too much of his personal life and distrusted anyone that pushed for information.

Obviously unsettled by the look he was getting, Alaric backpedaled. "Sorry. I'm so nosey. Just ignore me. It was nice meeting you."

They watched him walk away and Lucy leaned into Damon's side so she could talk without being overheard. "I don't trust him."

Damon hummed. "Yeah, me either."

A beat went by before she spoke again. "Damon?"

"Yes, kitten?"

"Are the lyrics of this song literally 'it's a slow dance'?"

He chuckled. "Yep." He grasped her hand and pulled her to a different part of the floor to dance while they continued to look for the vampire.

They were in the midst of quiet conversation when Stefan interrupted them. "Have you seen Elena?"

Damon looked frantically around the room. "She was just here. What the hell?"

"We need to find her," Stefan said. "Lucy, you stay with Caroline."

Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. She watched the brothers hurry from the gym before she found the blonde. "Hey Caroline.

"Lucy, it's so good to see you." The girl seemed genuinely happy, making Lucy smile.

"Listen, the boys and I have to take care of something real quick but we'll be right back. Stay in the gym, okay? One of my asshole exes is running around and he's bad news." Lucy didn't wait for a response before following in the direction the brothers went.

She hurried through the maze of hallways blocked by locked doors and discovered they were in the cafeteria. Rather than announcing her presence, she stayed in the hallway to keep watch. She crossed her arms and leaned against the doors.

Grunts of pain carried from inside and she flinched. She didn't know what they were doing to the creepy vampire but it sounded unpleasant. A sound caught her attention and she looked over to find the new history teacher making his way down the hall.

He gave her an uneasy smile. "Lucy, right?"

"Last I checked. Alaric?"

"Call me Ric." He tried to look past her through the window and the door and she shifted her stance to block his view. "What are you doing here? Kind of a long way from the dance."

"Needed a break. Too many people." She kept her gaze locked on him as he leaned on the wall across from her.

A particularly pain-filled groan sounded and he straightened. "Did you hear that?"

"Nope."

His gaze ran over her but it didn't faze her. She'd hate for Damon to have to kill Ric here but she didn't trust the teacher. They'd have to keep an eye on him regardless.

A loud cry came from the room behind her and she bit the inside of her lip to keep from reacting.

"Someone just yelled in pain," he said taking a step in her direction.

"No, they didn't."

He laughed in disbelief. "Yes, they did. I heard it."

"I think you're hearing things. There was no yell." She kept her voice and her expression as neutral as possible.

He took another step forward. "I think I better check that room."

Lucy straightened, moving one hand behind her leg. She dropped the stake into it and fingered the weapon. She'd never killed a human before but she'd do what was necessary to protect her boys even if nausea already rolled in her belly from the thought. "There's nothing in that room you need to worry about, teacher. Trust me."

There must have been something in her expression that warned him off. He stared at her a moment longer before nodding. "Okay." As he walked away down the hall, she breathed a sigh of relief and tucked her stake back into place.

Just as he disappeared from view, the doors behind her opened making her jump. She spun around to find Damon looking her over. "Oh, hey, Luce. Where've you been? We found the vampire."

Stupid Salvatore.