"Hey Ricky," Frankie called, unlocking the door to the cell at the Salvatore mansion, "I come bearing gifts, you crazy?"

Once they discovered that Alaric's evil alter ego had hidden the white oak stake, the unfortunate executive decision to lock Alaric in until they could locate it occurred. While Alaric agreed readily to it, Frankie was less pleased by the idea and it was only Damon literally trapping her in the apartment that allowed Alaric to spend the night in the cell alone.

"Still me," Alaric replied, "You know you shouldn't be in here. It defeats the point of the whole being locked in a cellar thing."

"Well you still need the basics," she rolled her eyes at him, passing the cup of decaf she'd grabbed for him and dumping the bag she carried to the ground, "Toothbrush, clothes, boring books to help you sleep."

"Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?"

"No?" her face furrowed as she snatched the book he was holding back from his hands, "I grabbed? Oh. . . Damon. Fuck that's funny, I wish I thought of that one."

"At least one of us still has a sense of humour."

"Are you sure you're good?" she asked softly, "I mean you don't need to be kept in here. I told Damon that-"

"No, no," he sighed, rubbing his face with his fist, "This is the right place for me to be. At least until you guys can convince my highly uncooperative alter ego to fess up to where I, or he, hid the white oak stake."

"We looked everywhere," she confessed, collapsing onto the cot beside him, "You, the other you, hid it well."

"What's Klaus gonna do if you can't find it?"

"It's the only thing that'll kill him," here she rolled her eyes, flopping back onto the bed with a roll of her eyes, "so wage war, murder people, you know, Klaus stuff. The paranoid little shit."

"Lets hope it doesn't get to that," he replied sipping his coffee, his face curling into a grimace at the bitter taste of the decaf.

"So did you hear about Damon and Elena's road trip adventure?"

"Why do you say that so gleefully," he asked with a laugh, "It's like you're waiting for me to disapprove."

"I don't know," she laughed out, "Damon and Elena, travelling across the country. Your best mate and surrogate child?"

"I guess I'm just more curious to hear what Stefan says about it."

"Ugh, ever the diplomat," she rolled her eyes, she'd hoped to be able to team up against Damon with him and tease him over the situation, "It was Stefans idea apparently, he thinks she has unresolved feelings for Damon."

"Well I don't think he's wrong."

Her face froze as her phone began to buzz though she shoved it back into her pocket as she caught sight of the name. In the day since they'd killed Finn, inadvertently attempting to kill all of his siblings, Elijah had called her eight times and each time her phone had buzzed she'd pressed it back into her pocket waiting for it to end. She wasn't ready to talk to him, to explain how she'd let her friends kill his brother and attempt to kill him, she didn't want to talk about it and she didn't want to think about it.

"Elijah again?" Alaric asked, his face furrowing in concern.

"He'll get the hint eventually," she rolled her eyes, picking up the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde book and flipping through to the introduction, "There's not exactly much to say."

"It wouldn't hurt to just hear him out."

"Hi Elijah," she said sarcastically, "Sorry my friends tried to murder you and all your siblings and actually murdered your brother. Whoops. Look Ric its fine, it probably wouldn't have worked out between us anyway, he was in love with some middle ages version of me, I don't exactly fit the mould for some passive renaissance woman, at least now he's probably over whatever he thought there could be between us."

"You didn't do anything," Alaric pressed, "You weren't involved, you can't take the blame."

"Don't be ridiculous Ric," she sighed, standing from the bed, "Not stopping Damon and Stefan makes me just as culpable. Shit, you're supposed to be sleeping, not sorting out my guilt. I'm gonna grab Damons whiskey."

Alaric didn't have a chance to respond before Frankie had fled from the room, leaving the door to the cell unlocked behind her, not having the heart to trap her brother in. Stefan was in the living room as she reached the top of the staircase and he was already holding out the whiskey to her, three glasses in his other hand.

"You heard all that didn't you."

"Hmm?" Stefan hummed innocently.

"Christ you're a rotten liar," she rolled her eyes and laughed as they made their way back down to the cell, "No wonder that homecoming assassination attempt fell through, you really can't keep a straight face."

"Right," Stefan agreed, "Because you lied so well about getting stoned that time."

"Yeah but I had the added difficulty of being stoned as I tried to lie," she laughed, pouring the whiskey out for the three of them, "You're like dreadfully sober all the time and yet. . . "

"You're high an awful lot for that to be your downfall," Alaric cut in.

"What about I get my bowl and we can all get high? Come on Ric, you know I can knock you out real good."

"Lets give the whiskey a go first," Alaric said, holding his hands up in defeat, "You know Stefan, you didn't need to stay here. It doesn't take much to babysit me while I sit here waiting for a psychotic break."

"Well unfortunately," Stefan said with a grimace as he downed his drink, "we only have a limited amount of time."

"Before what?" asked Frankie.

"Before we have to resort to other methods."

"So you're worried you're going to have to torture me?" Alaric asked, "You don't think Damon could have done that?"

"He's not torturing you, Ric," Frankie snapped, "Don't be ridiculous this isn't what's happening, you just need to switch off and sleep."

"Well this is depressing, isn't it?" Klaus' voice cut through the conversation, loud and less humorous than he normally was, "Fantastic, Francesca you're alive, would you mind terribly answering your bloody phone so my brother stops thinking I've murdered you?"

"Don't be so overdramatic Klaus," she rolled her eyes, "Just tell Elijah I'm fine yourself."

"Believe me I've tried sweetheart, he seems to lack faith in me after you spilled the beans on our road trip. Now, I found this upstairs," here he held out a white oak stake that Damon had left hidden by the fireplace, "by my count, there should be one more."

"Yeah, well it's gonna take a little more time," Stefan gritted out.

"Why?" Klaus' lip curled up in annoyance as he glanced to Alaric, "Because we're waiting for that one to pass out? No thanks, I think I'll just kill him."

"Like hell you will," Frankie growled out, standing up from the cot and standing between Alaric and Klaus.

"Then you won't know the location of the other stake," Stefan reasoned cooly.

"I can live with that."

"Well, I can't," Stefan replied, "When we staked Finn, we discovered that killing an Original vampire killed its entire bloodline. Now, I don't know which one of you I'm descended from, but I'd really rather not find out by dying, so why don't we just find the stake, destroy it, so we can all be safe?"

"So the fate of the entire vampire race depends on you finding a stake?" Klaus asked with a raised brow at Stefan, pointing to Alaric as he continued, "And to get it we need you to pass out. Which means that I feel totally justified doing this."

Frankie realised what Klaus was going to do at the exact moment that he used his speed to race around her and do it, speeding behind her to break Alaric's neck with no effort.

"There, sleeping like a baby," Klaus grinned as she spun to face him furiously.

"I will fucking murder you."

"Not without this," Klaus replied, holding the recovered stake up and waving it in her face mockingly, "Answer your phone before my brother has an aneurism."

-

Frankie wasn't sure if the ring was going faulty, well it certainly was considering it was causing Alaric to become some sociopath, but it definitely seemed to take longer and longer each time he passed out for him to recover. By the time he awoke this time, Stefan had made it nearly all the way through the copy of Moby Dick that Frankie had brought down and she'd fallen asleep, her head on his shoulder where they both sat outside the locked cell.

"Welcome back," Stefan greeted as Alaric gasped into life in the cell. Placing the book to the ground, he felt Frankie groggily stir beside him as she pulled herself up, rubbing her eyes weakly.

"Ric?" she asked.

"What happened?" Alaric asked, "Did I, uh. . . ?"

"No," Stefan replied, standing and walking towards him, "You pretty much laid there dead for half the night, but on the plus side, I did almost finish reading Moby Dick."

"This is stupid," Alaric groaned, "Evil me or whatever you want to call him, he's not gonna make an appearance. Why would he? I mean, the best hiding place is the one where you can't find the person who hid it."

"I know."

"So how do you want to do this?"

Frankie's blood ran cold as she pictured Stefan's fist slamming into her brothers face. She knew what their plan was if knocking him out didn't produce her brother's alter ego and she couldn't stand by and watch them try and fulfil it.

"Stop it," Frankie cut in as Alaric stood to face Stefan, "You're being ridiculous this cannot be the only way."

"I don't think we have much choice in the matter, Frank," Alaric sighed, tugging the ring from his finger and pressing it to her hand.

"Wait, wait, wait," both Stefan and Frankie stuttered out together in surprise.

"You need that ring," Frankie said, doing her best to press it back into his hand.

"No, what I need is hope that my alter ego doesn't have a death wish. So, I'm taking bets that my dark side has a sense of self preservation. So, lets see if he defends himself against death."

"You've lost it," Frankie said, noticing Stefans face darkening in the way it often did during the summertime when he and Klaus had to track down leads, "Stefan you can't actually be considering this. You've got supernatural strength and speed, Ric can barely run a mile. You'll kill him."

Stefan looked towards her, she could see the guilt hiding behind the stony expression that covered his face and she knew what was going to happen regardless of her protests. Holding her hands up in defeat, Frankie shot both boys a glare before storming from the basement.

The living room where she was escaping to so she could ignore the sounds of her brother being beaten senseless and hopefully scroll mindlessly on instagram was occupied and she let out an audible groan as she realised this.

"Rebekah," she grinned, her eyes sliding over Klaus as though he wasn't even there, causing him to roll his eyes in annoyance.

"Francesca," Rebekah replied, a little less warmly than she would often greet her, watching curiously as Frankie flopped lazily onto the couch, "Hello."

"It's Frankie now, remember dear sister," Klaus told her with a grin, "Wouldn't want to incur her wrath."

"Of course," Rebekah replied her voice turning bratty in a moment as though she remembered herself, "I know that."

"Klaus the only reason you incur my wrath is because you're an asshole. Rebekah is the most tolerable Mikaelson member so she needn't worry."

Klaus rolled his eyes again before both he and Rebekah froze, clearly listening in to Stefan and Alaric with their supernatural hearing, both locked eyes at whatever they heard. As though speaking without words, Klaus and Rebekah seemed to discuss their next move and agree silently, nodding her head, Rebekah slipped from the room leaving Klaus and Frankie alone.

"Why won't you answer Elijah's calls?" Klaus asked her curiously, "He's quite worried about you."

"Stop playing matchmaker Klaus," she tugged her phone from her pocket and pulled up instagram, pointedly ignoring him, "There's no need for him to worry about me, I'm not avoiding Elijah I've just been busy."

"Busy trying to kill us."

"I've been busy working so I can make enough money to move somewhere new now I'm not threatened into living in this hellhole of a town that you forced me to stay at. Not all of us are ancient millionaire vampires who can compel all the wealth in the world, some of us have to work. Besides, what the Salvatores do with their immortality is their business, I had no part in their suicide attempt."

Klaus looked particularly unconvinced but he dropped the matter as Rebekah returned with Alaric beside her, his arm clutched tightly in her fist as blood dripped from his nose while his lips curled up into a snarl.

"A little gratuitous don't you think, Stefan?" Klaus asked, speeding over and landing his hands on Frankie's shoulder to press her into her seat before she had the chance to rush towards him in concern, "I would've been more gentle."

"I'm gonna take him to the caves," Rebekah informed them, "You're gonna go inside and fetch me the stake and if you think you're gonna hide, you're wrong."

"Rebekah, don't you dare hurt him," Frankie growled out, shooting Klaus an angry glare as his grip prevented her from following.

Rebekah didn't reply though she shot her a short nod, speeding from the house with Alaric and leaving Frankie alone with Stefan and Klaus. A few more moments passed while both Stefan and Frankie shot glares at Klaus before eventually his grip eased and Frankie was able to stand.

"Fuck this," she rolled her eyes at the two men in the room, the tension rolling off them in waves that infuriated her, "I'm going home, call me when my brother is back."