MFHS; Hallway: Matt's talking to Caroline about what I take to be some dancing show. [So You Think You Can Dance. Don't ask. Let's just say maybe I know a TWoP mod who might have banned a few posters from that forum a couple of years ago -- including myherself (and I she totally deserved it). --Barnes] There's a bunch of cute back-n-forth stuff between them that demonstrates how close these two are growing, so I'll just quote my favorite exchange. Matt: "Did you see The Celine Dion Waltz About Cancer?" Caroline: "Those always make me cry." Hee. Tyler gets an eyeful of the budding couple. He doesn't vocalize his shock, but his face screams, BOGGLE?! Elena and Bonnie take it all in, too. E gets kind of prickly, like you do, when an ex- you really like (but don't love, but might sort of kind of want to keep in reserve when you're on the outs with your current squeeze) starts to move on from being incapacitated by his overwhelming love for you. Okay, you would never be like that, Gentle Reader, but some people may have been there in the past. I hear. Bonnie, the voice of sanity (who is only in this scene), points out that Caroline needs someone nice like Matt, rather than a homicidal vampire like Damon. Elena can't argue with that, so she asks Bonnie how she's doing coming to terms with the vampires-are-real crash course she got in "History Repeating." Bonnie's freaked that she came so close to death, thanks to Damon, but she's also grateful that Stefan saved her life. She then asks Elena how things are with Stefan. Elena explains that nothing has changed; he's leaving -- in what she believes is a misguided effort to protect her. When Bonnie says that maybe it's for the best, Elena feigns cluelessness, so Bonnie asks straight out: "What kind of future could you have had with him, even if he stayed?" Just then a big hallway-straddling banner wafts down in front of the girls. It reads: "The Promise of YOUR Future." Elena starts to accuse Bonnie of witching it down in front of them, but Bonnie swears she's innocent. No matter, Elena is already in the mood to stomp off, so she does.

Mossy Manse: As soon as Damon sees She's-the-Sheriff out, Stefan confronts him (violently). Damon warns him off and talks him down, reminding Stefan that he would never be so sloppy as to leave a corpse lying out on the streets. He says, "There's another vampire in town." Stefan says, "That's impossible," which -- why, exactly? Damon says, "Obviously not." He then takes a who cares attitude, until Stefan says that he can't leave town now that this has happened. He wonders how they'll find the vamp. Damon tells him to let the adults handle this stuff. Heh.