"How did your good-byes go?" Damon asked Emma as they walked down the stairs together.
"Well..." Emma hesitated but her answer was interrupted by Bon Jovi blasting from the living room.
Damon looked at Emma with a raised eyebrow as they entered the room. Stefan was slumped on the couch with a bottle of bourbon while Lexi was dancing to the song. Lexi ran over and grabbed Emma's hands, pulling her away from Damon and into the middle of the room to dance with her. Emma let out a laugh.
"Damon! Help me celebrate my 17th high school graduation," Damon walked over and turned off the music, "hey, you remember my friend, Lexi, of course?"
Damon crossed his arms, "Lexi back from the dead, goody."
Lexi rushed at Damon and pinned him up against the wall with her hand around his neck, "What's up buzzkill?"
"Stefan, Em, you're just gonna sit there and let her enact her ghostly revenge?" Damon said as he struggled against her hold.
Stefan shook his head and took another drink straight from the bottle, "You reap what you sow buddy."
Emma held out her hand and Stefan handed her the bottle, instead of drinking from it, she put it to the side. Stefan looked at her disappointed.
"Let's be very clear: whatever time I have left here, I sure as hell don't plan on wasting on you. You got me?" Lexi pushed Damon against the wall harder.
Damon nodded as best as he could, "Yeah, I got ya."
Lexi released Damon and walked back over to Stefan.
"So if you and Ric and little Gilbert are all flesh-like and real-seeming, that means something went horribly wrong when Bonnie tried to put that veil up," Damon pointed out, "and here you two are, having dance party USA."
Stefan sat back in his chair, "You're right. How selfish of me to be indulging in these precious moments with my formerly dead best friend. I should be sacrificing my own happiness for the good of others, right? I should be upstairs grooming my hero-hair."
Emma failed at holding back a laugh and it came out more like a snort. Damon rolled his eyes at her.
"Are you drunk?" Damon asked Stefan.
"I don't know mom, am I?" Stefan asked sarcastically.
Emma didn't bother to try and hold back the laugh this time, "Drunk Stefan is awesome."
Lexi nodded in agreement as she picked up the bottle that Emma had taken away, "I should have introduced you guys years ago."
"You're a bad influence," Damon said as he snatched the bottle back away from Lexi.
"Okay...and who was it who brought your brother back to his senses time and time again?" Lexi challenged Damon.
Damon sighed, and took a swig from the bottle, "Well, I guess that's one way to celebrate our supernatural apocalypse. Now, care to hazard any guesses on what the hell went wrong?"
"I really need to give up on having any kind of normal high school experience," Emma said as she took the bottle from Damon and followed his lead, gulping down her own sip before handing it back.
Stefan laughed, "You're immortal now, you can do it all over again. Preferably somewhere that isn't a supernatural hotspot from hell."
"I'm a Phoenix, the hotspot follows me," Emma crossed her arms.
As the doorbell rang everyone but Damon ignored it. He sighed and walked over to the door.
"Uh...Vaughn?" Damon recognized the hunter that had captured him on the island in Nova Scotia.
Vaughn raised a gun in his hand and shot Damon in the shoulder, Damon stepped back and groaned in pain.
Emma shared a concerned look with Stefan before she turned and ran towards the front door, "Damon!"
Vaughn continued to taunt Damon, "Got a little message for you, laddie; straight from the mouth of the witch Qetsiyah."
Emma stopped at the end of the hall, slightly relieved when she saw Damon still standing, but he was nursing his shoulder. He groaned in pain.
Vaughn turned the gun around in his hand, inspecting it, "Yeah, I borrow this from my friend Connor, shoots wood like lead."
"Come on man, I didn't kill you," Damon pointed out.
"No, but you left me in that well on that island, where I starved to death. There I was, all alone on the Other Side, till Qetsiyah found me and reminded me of my supernatural destiny, to cure Silas, and then kill Silas. End of story–" Before Vaughn could finish telling Damon about his supernatural destiny, Stefan had snuck around the house and come up from behind him.
As Vaughn fell, Stefan stood behind him holding his heart. Emma ran to Damon.
"Are you okay?" She looked for a way to help him.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Damon tried to move his arm but he groaned slightly, "just stings like a bitch, probably those damn symbols on it. I'm gonna head upstairs and try to get it out."
"I'll help," Emma started to follow him.
Damon stopped her, "I can do it, you have a graduation to get to."
Emma stood dumbfounded next to Stefan as Damon walked up the stairs, "He is okay, right?"
"Yeah," Stefan nodded and shrugged, "his little brother just had to save his ass in front of his girlfriend. His pride is bruised."
Lexi knelt down next to Vaughn's lifeless body, "So, the veil's down until tonight, he dies and goes to the Other Side, and what? Comes back all over again? How long does that take?"
"What, they didn't give you a rulebook over there?" Stefan asked.
Lexi rolled her eyes but laughed.
"I'm gonna go check on Damon," Emma couldn't hide the concern in her voice.
Stefan tried to stop her, "But we need to get to the school. Caroline will kill us if we are late."
"I'll be quick," Emma promised before she bounded up the stairs.
Damon was standing in the bathroom buttoning back up his shirt, the bullet sat on the counter.
"You okay?" Emma asked him as she walked up behind him and he turned to face her.
"I'll be fine babe," Damon assured her, "but you need to be getting to your graduation."
Emma shrugged, "I'll go to the next one."
"Yeah, I don't foresee you doing the whole high school thing again, even a century from now."
Emma noticed a large liquid filled pill on the counter, "What's that?"
"Alaric found it on Silas before we tossed his ass in the quarry, it's the cure," Damon picked it up and showed Emma.
"Elena doesn't have to be a vampire anymore," Emma pointed out.
Damon shook his head, "She won't take it, she is worried about the hunters descending on the good folk of Mystic Falls. I guess there was an incident at the Grill this morning."
Damon suddenly looked like he was uncomfortable and groaned as if he was in pain.
Emma's brow furrowed, "Damon, what's wrong?"
Damon shook his head to dismiss Emma but he wasn't able to speak over his pain. Emma walked up to him and unbuttoned the top few buttons on his shirt. The bullet hole that should have healed over already looked worse than it had to start with.
"Why isn't this healing?" Emma's voice shook slightly.
"Because the bullet was laced with werewolf venom, okay?" Damon finally admitted, "I'm sorry to say this honey, but you hunters can be real dicks."
"Damon..." Emma whispered, her mind clearly going at warp speed to find a solution, "we need to get Klaus, you need his blood."
Damon shook his head, "Klaus would rather see me die. Plus, Klaus is a thousand miles away sipping Hurricanes on Bourbon Street."
"Damon, this will kill you," Emma's voice broke slightly as she predicted the inevitable.
"What about the cure?" Alaric suggested from the doorway.
Emma's eyes brightened for a moment, "If you're human, the venom can't hurt you."
Damon ignored her and pulled away from her hands, "Sounds like Vaughn is awake."
"What the hell!" Emma chased after him, "Damon, wait!"
Damon seemed to take the steps two at a time as he walked down the stairs, Emma was close on his heels. As soon as he saw Vaughn he tossed the cure to him.
"What the hell are you doing?" Stefan looked at his brother, shocked.
"Digging up Silas," Damon started walking to the front door, but turned and looked at the hunter, "you coming, Vaughn, or not?"
"Damon!" Emma yelled after him, but the door closed in her face, she turned around and looked at Alaric, Lexi and Stefan in shock.
"Em? What's wrong?" Stefan looked at her, he hadn't seen her that panicked since the first day Damon lost his memory.
"The bullet was laced with werewolf venom," Alaric told him when he saw that Emma couldn't form the words.
Stefan's eyes widened but he stayed silent.
"I can still catch up with him before he wakes up Silas," Emma started searching her pockets for her motorcycle keys.
"They're not giving it to Silas. Wherever Damon is taking Vaughn right now, it's to stall, because Damon hasn't had time to bury Silas's body yet," Stefan admitted to the group, "and that's all you need to know right now."
"Damon is still dying!" Emma didn't care about the deception, she had always trusted Damon's reasoning for doing something, but to outright ignore the fact that he was dying was a new one for her.
"It was one bullet, and it was only laced. We still have a little bit of time. I will go to New Orleans myself and I will beg Klaus if I have to," Stefan tried to sound confident that his plan would work.
Emma's phone began ringing, when she saw who it was a planned clicked in her head, she held her phone up to show Stefan, "If anyone can get Klaus to come to us, it's Caroline."
Emma grabbed her bag with her cap and gown in it and headed for the door, answering her phone and assuring Caroline that she was on her way just as her and Stefan reached his car. He sped down the road towards the school. As soon as they walked up Caroline was already on her phone, talking to Klaus's voicemail.
"Klaus, now is not the time to decide that you are over me. I'm gonna call you every ten minutes until you get your ass here to save Damon's life," she hung up angrily and turned to Emma, "I'm trying my best."
Emma nodded, grateful that she was willing to help. Matt came running up to the group with Bonnie and Elena.
"Here!" He said as if Caroline was taking attendance.
"Where have you been?" Caroline demanded an answer.
"Oh, you know, making plans for the summer, dodging death by vampire hunter," Matt shrugged.
Emma smirked at Matt, "You mean, making super romantic plans with a certain Original."
"Shut up," Matt teased her back, "like you and Damon don't have an epic summer already planned out?"
Emma's face fell before he even finished his sentence. Caroline was quick to pick the mood back up before anyone could bombard Emma with questions.
"I can't believe it. We're actually all here. We are all here together!" Caroline noticed Bonnie sniffling, "Bonnie Bennett, are you crying?"
"It's our last hurrah before you guys go off to college," Bonnie forced a smile.
Caroline corrected her, "Before we go to college, you too Emma."
"I...kinda sorta missed the deadline. You know, being an emotionless bitch," Elena looked down at her feet.
"Well, the perks of being a vampire, we can go wherever we wanna go. We can choose our own roommates, we could get a triple room!" Caroline was already clearly making plans for how their room would be set up.
Bonnie wiped away a tear, "I'm just happy we're all here."
"Aw," Caroline looked like she was trying to stop herself from tearing up, "group hug!"
Both Emma and Stefan took a step back as everyone took a step in.
"I don't...hug," Stefan looked terrified of the idea.
Caroline rolled her eyes and grabbed Stefan while Matt grabbed Emma and pulled them into the hug.
"Get over yourself," Caroline teased him.
They quickly found their spots in the line just as the new Mayor, Rudy Hopkins, started the ceremony. He took an extra second to congratulate his daughter Bonnie. Emma looked at Bonnie confused when she noticed the witch seemed overly choked up about the moment. She decided to write it off as just an emotional day.
Finally Emma's name was called, she hadn't expected anyone to cheer for her, but she glanced out into the crowd when she heard her name. Damon and Alaric were in the stands with the rest of the families cheering her on. Emma smirked and turned her attention back to the line as the Mayor handed her a certificate. Once the ceremony was done Emma rushed over to see Alaric. The worry in his eyes was evident.
"What's wrong?" Emma's voice was cautious.
"Uh, whatever time Damon had...got cut in half," Alaric wasn't sure how to deliver the news.
"What? Why?" Emma's heart started pounding in her chest.
"Vaughn managed to shoot him again. We are past the point of Hail Mary calls Em. I can force feed him the damn thing or we can stand here and watch him die."
Emma took a couple of steps away from Alaric before she took off running, looking for Caroline. She spotted her on the ground clutching her head in pain, the witch she killed was taking out her revenge. Emma moved her legs as fast as she could to get to Caroline. Just before she reached Caroline, something red went flying through the air and the witch was suddenly headless, her body fell to the ground. Emma stopped running.
"There are plenty more of these to go around," Klaus bent down to pick up another graduation cap, "who's next? I can do this all day."
The rest of the coven was quick to disperse, leaderless, they weren't willing to take on the king of the hybrids.
"Klaus," Emma greeted him breathless.
Klaus turned to Emma, "I believe you are in need of this."
He handed her a small vial of his blood. Emma felt like she could finally breathe as she held it in her hand.
"Thank you," Emma turned and ran off to find Damon.
As she ran up to Alaric, she spotted Damon next to him, looking pale and sickly. As soon Damon saw her, he could see the happiness in her eyes. She shoved the vial into his hand with a huge grin on her face. Damon breathed a sigh of relief and quickly drank the blood, not caring about who saw. He dropped the vial onto the ground and grabbed Emma, pulling her into his chest.
"Thank you," he whispered.
"You need to thank your favorite blonde," Emma took a deep breath.