Kalaric (Kat/Ric)

Doppelganger In Need

Summary: Set in S5. Pretend that Ric was brought back when Jeremy was in the S4 finale. Ric's trying to get back to semi-normalcy when he runs across an injured and human Katherine. Will he help her, despite the past? Will she be okay?

It was a dismal night, as she drove Damon's car, still in nothing but a blue robe. She had to keep going. Damon had tried to get her to go back to the boarding house, but she hadn't, knowing it was a trap. Silas wouldn't have left by now. She felt somewhat betrayed by him, but knew there had to be a good reason behind trying to hand her over on a silver platter.

Suddenly, as she drove, a vampire appeared in the road, causing her to get into an accident.

Meanwhile, Alaric Saltzman was finishing a drink at the Grille. He was trying to get back to normal after being brought back to life a while back. At least, as normal as he could. He was still cautious though, keeping weapons always close by. Especially, when he knew that Silas was still out there.

After finishing his drink, he left, going to his car to go home.

As she lay inside the car in pain, she blurrily saw the vampire approaching at a human pace. As she did, she knew she was pretty injured. She could feel blood on either side of her head, her vision was starting to go gray, and she could feel glass around her. She felt weak too, so she assumed she was losing blood somewhere, but she could barely move from the pain.

After a few minutes of driving, he stopped half way from a wrecked car. When he did, a vampire fled. Then, knowing he had to help whoever it was, he got out to investigate. Then, once knelt in front of the wrecked car, he saw a very familiar someone.

"Katherine?" he said, before looking at her injuries. He could tell that she was starting to go under. She was pale from a heavily bleeding leg artery and had a lot of cuts from the glass. Having dated a doctor, he knew he had to do something, so he gently pulled her out of the wreckage, before using an old shirt from his car to apply pressure to her leg artery. "Stay with me, Katherine," he encouraged her. He then took his jacket off and used it to tie around her leg artery wound, before gently pulled her into his arms and heading to his car. Then, once he was there, he gently sat her in the passenger's seat, before getting in and driving towards the hospital.

A few hours later, after the surgery was finished and she was in the recovery room, though she'd been horrible as a vampire, he felt like he should stay, so he did. He went to the room she was in to make sure she was okay. He knew there was a chance, after all, of her enemies or any enemy finding her and doing whatever they wanted to her while she was like this. And he knew that even Katherine didn't deserve that.

When she woke, she saw that she was unfortunately in the hospital, but thankfully alive. Like Damon, she'd always hated hospitals. She knew she was pretty lucky, though. If it hadn't been for Alaric, she was pretty sure she'd be dead by now.

She turned her head to see that he was seated on her bedside, which was something that she never thought she'd witness in her life, human or vampire. After all, she was one of his least favorite people. She'd been the one to set Jenna up to being turned into a vampire by Klaus a few years ago, after all. She wasn't sure if he was over that or not, though. He'd been dead for a while. Now, he was back because of her favorite witch bloodline.

"I don't normally say this, but thanks. You saved me, even though you could've just left me," she said.

"Well, decent humans normally look out for others. What happened?" he replied, wanting to know.

"I was trying to run. Damon saved me when Silas came after me earlier tonight. He got me out of the boarding house, but then he tried handing me over to him, so I tried to run. Then some vampire came out of nowhere," she explained. "I'm pretty sure he had a good reason to try doing that, so I'm not too mad at him. I'm just a little betrayed, but I guess that's what happens when I put my life in the hands of a vampire that doesn't like the vampire version of me," she added.

Ric wasn't happy about what Damon had tried to do to her, considering if Silas was after her, the good guys needed to want Katherine more than Silas. Plus, Katherine was only a human now. One that he was sure probably was quite fearful of enemies finding out about her transformation into a human. He knew Katherine had one other choice to make, though. He was willing to do it. It didn't matter if it peeved off Damon or not. Ric was a protector. Right now, that's what she needed. Protection.

"Well, you don't have to go back to the boarding house if you don't want to. You don't need Damon to protect you. I'll do it. I'll stay here until you're free to leave. Then you can stay with me and I'll protect you. I'll give you anything you need," he replied.

She was shocked at him wanting to protect her, but she took the offer anyway. After all, unlike Damon, Ric didn't normally have an ulterior motive.

"Thanks. I'd be delighted," she told him.

He rested a hand on one of hers.

"Great," he commented, glad that she'd accepted his protection and help.

In the end, he kept his word to help and protect her, as well as let her stay with him. They even, over some time, developed a relationship with one another.