AN: This story is a sequel to my other story Everything and takes place about two years after the events of that story. You might want to read that first, since it goes AU in the season one episode Miss Mystic Falls. After a worried call from Jenna, Elena discovers that Jeremy and Anna have dropped out of college and disappeared without a word. What's happened to them, how will Elena handle it and can Damon help her deal?
Wow, I got so much amazing feedback on the last chapter of Everything – you guys are so amazing! I hope many of you follow me into this new story and I look forward to sharing this adventure with you. As always, a big thanks to my beta, sunshine2006578, who has also helped me out with the title of this story (I suck at titles!).
Disclaimer: The characters of The Vampire Diaries are the property of L.J. Smith and the people at The CW. I'm just borrowing.
Chapter one
"Elena! Hey, Elena, wait up!"
Elena turned at the sound of her name and spotted her friend Alison half-jogging towards her across the lawn, all out of breath.
"Take it easy," she called back, laughing. "Don't give yourself a heart attack!"
Alison stopped in front of her, taking a couple of deep breaths and clutching a stitch in her side. "Are you coming to the party at Delta Kappa tonight?" she asked when she had started breathing somewhat normally again. "It's gonna be totally great. Lots of hot guys, beer and did I mention hot guys? Not that you need any help in that department."
"Sorry, Ali, I can't," Elena replied. "I have plans with Damon."
A smile spread on Alison's face. "Bring him. I'm sure nobody will mind … well, at least none of the girls. And the Delta Kappa boys are always so full of themselves; they could use a reality check. They might be nice to look at, but most of them are the 'I know how hot I am, look at me' type, which, you know, total turnoff."
Elena rolled her eyes; Alison had made the fact that she thought Damon was hot very clear the first time she had met him. At first, Elena had found it a little disconcerting, but now she didn't think much of it, it was just Alison's way; if she thought a guy was good looking, she would say it. Usually out loud and to the guy in question. Some people might find that obnoxious and intrusive, but Elena actually kind of liked it. You never had to wonder where you stood with Alison or what she thought about something since she would always let you know.
She had met Alison Marshall on orientation day, a little over a year ago now, and despite being about as different as two people could get physically – Alison was six inches shorter than Elena, twenty pounds heavier and sported a spiky hairdo that had gone from green via red and turquoise to purple, several piercings and two tattoos – they had immediately hit it off. This year, they had a couple of classes together and were living in the same dorm, though not in the same room. They had agreed that trying to be roommates would just put their friendship in unnecessary danger. While Elena was no neat freak, she had been to Alison's dorm room enough times to know that she would go crazy after just a couple of days if she had to live in the mess that her friend kept, and Alison felt the same way about Elena's tidy room.
"It's our two-year anniversary, and I don't think he'd be too thrilled about spending it at a fraternity kegger," she explained. "Come to think of it, neither would I." The parties at Delta Kappa had a tendency to get out of control. The last one she had let Alison convince her to go to had been shut down by the police, fortunately after she had left.
"Party pooper!" Alison complained, sticking her tongue out and showing off the glittering, red stone adorning it.
"Today, yes." Elena hoisted her book bag up on her shoulder and checked her watch. "And right now I really need to get going, I have less than an hour to get ready before he's picking me up."
"Oh, fine." Alison pouted. "Go spend time with your hot boyfriend, don't think about me."
Elena laughed. "Funny, that was exactly what I was planning on doing!"
"Yeah, yeah. I'll just go to the party all by my lonesome and try to have a good time," Alison said, winking so that Elena knew that she wasn't serious. Besides, Alison always managed to have fun at parties, no matter where she was or who she was with. "See you in class tomorrow, right? As long as you're not too exhausted from all the anniversary sex, of course. In which case, you know, just send me a text, I'd be happy to take notes for you." The smile on her face could only be described as mischievous.
Elena chose to ignore the comment about 'anniversary sex'; Alison's direct ways when it came to her own and everyone else's sex life were something else that she had learned not to think too much about in the past year.
"Bye, Ali."
Continuing on her way, she soon reached the house in Crowell Quad where her dorm room was. Every time she entered the building, she couldn't help but look up at the large clock tower over the entrance and marvel at the fact that she had actually managed to get a room in her favorite building on the entire campus.
When she arrived at Duke last fall, it had seemed so intimidating. Sure, Damon and Jenna had been with her, but still. She had never lived anywhere but her own house in Mystic Falls, with her family and friends, and moving to a completely new town where she didn't know anyone had been a little scary. Now, she felt right at home and couldn't imagine living anywhere else. No, that wasn't true … Damon's apartment a few blocks from campus – he had moved down to Durham at the end of her first semester at Duke when they had come to the conclusion that neither of them wanted to spend the necessary time commuting to be able to see each other only on weekends – was amazing, and she could definitely see herself living there. He hadn't suggested that she move in yet, knowing that she wanted to get the whole college experience, but she had actually started thinking about it herself. She had lived in the dorms for three semesters soon and had almost come to the decision that she was going to suggest that maybe she could move in with him after the Christmas break. She already spent at least every other night at his place, after all, so it made sense.
Having lived in the dorm for a little over a month now, she was familiar with the building, and didn't need to think about where she was going. Wrapped up in thoughts of what Damon might have planned for tonight – he had refused to give her any clues except for telling her to 'dress up', which she had tried to explain wasn't really helpful at all – she quickly climbed the stairs to the third floor and entered her room, which was located at the end of a hallway. Her roommate, Brittany, wasn't in, and she was grateful; they didn't really get along very well. Brittany was at college for the parties and thought that homework and tests only got in the way of her social life and, while Elena didn't exactly spend every Friday and Saturday night studying, she didn't appreciate it when the party moved into her room at four in the morning. This, of course, was one of the reasons she had stayed at Damon's place a lot since school started.
Gathering her bathroom things, she went to take a shower. That was one thing she wasn't going to miss about living in the dorms, she mused. Communal showers.
When she got back to her room, she saw that she had a missed call on her cell phone. Jenna. She quickly pulled on the dress that she had picked out for the evening – a black, strapless one that was really the only dress she owned that could be called dressy while not giving the impression that she was going to her high school prom – and then called her aunt.
"Hello?" Alaric answered the phone after two rings. Earlier that year, when Jeremy had gone off to college as well, Rick had moved in with Jenna, who had complained that the house was too big and lonely for just one person. They had gotten engaged earlier that summer and were planning on a July wedding next year.
"Rick, hi, it's Elena. Is Jenna there? She called me a little while ago." Multitasking, Elena held her phone to her ear with her shoulder and started on her make-up.
"Hey Elena. Yeah, she's right here, hang on."
"Thanks."
"Elena?" Jenna's voice came over the line after just a moment. "Good, you're there."
The relief in her aunt's voice was obvious and made Elena frown. Was something going on? "What's up? I was in the shower when you called."
"Have you heard from Jeremy?"
"Not in …" Elena thought for a moment, trying to remember the last time she had spoken to her brother, "… a couple of days, why?" It was probably closer to a week but, somehow, she didn't think that mentioning that to Jenna was a good idea.
During his last year of high school, Jeremy had worked a lot on his drawings and had gotten into the Arts program at UCLA. After graduation that spring he and Anna, who had been accepted to the same school, had moved to Los Angeles and, as far as Elena knew, they both loved it there.
"I haven't heard from him since last week and I've tried calling him for a couple of days now, but I can't get a hold of him," Jenna explained, sounding worried.
"He's probably just really busy with school," Elena tried to reason. "The first semester freshman year can be insanely hectic, remember? He'll probably call in a few days and apologize for not picking up when you've called."
"I know, and maybe he will, but it's not that he doesn't pick up the phone. The number's been disconnected."
That brought Elena up short. Why would Jeremy's phone number be disconnected? "Are you sure you're calling the right number?" she asked, even if she was convinced that Jenna would have checked and double-checked that before even considering calling her.
"Of course I'm sure!" Jenna started sounding even more worried.
"OK, sorry." Elena tried to think quickly. "Maybe he lost his phone and had to get a new number and forgot to tell us?" she suggested, though not really believing it herself. Jeremy might not be the kind of person who called every day to check in, but he wouldn't forget something as important as that, Elena was sure of it.
"Maybe …" Jenna agreed doubtfully, sounding like she wanted to believe it but couldn't quite convince herself.
"OK, this is what we're gonna do," Elena said, taking charge of the situation. "I'm going to try to call him too, and if I can't get a hold of him, I'll try Anna, OK?"
"Anna, why didn't I think of that?" Jenna exclaimed. "I should have called her before I bothered you!"
"You didn't bother me, Aunt Jenna, don't be silly. And, please, try not to worry. I'm sure there's just some sort of misunderstanding or something. I'll call you as soon as I know anything, OK?"
"OK, sweetie," Jenna replied, sounding relieved. "Thank you."
"Of course. I'll talk to you soon."
Abandoning her not even half-done make-up, Elena found Jeremy's number in her phonebook and called it. But, just like Jenna had said, she only got a recorded message telling her that the number had been disconnected at the subscriber's request. Hanging up, she called Anna instead. When the same message started playing again, she felt her insides turn to ice.
Both Jeremy and Anna's phones being disconnected couldn't be a coincidence, but she instinctively shied away from the first explanation that insisted on popping up in her mind. No. There had to be some other reason, something else going on.
She sat down at her desk and turned her computer on, impatiently tapping her fingers against the wood as the machine buzzed to life. When she could finally open an internet browser, she quickly found the UCLA website and a number to the Administrations' office there.
"UCLA Administrations' office, how may I help you?" a bored voice, which Elena wasn't sure if it belonged to a man or a woman, greeted her.
"Yes, hi, my name is Elena Gilbert. My brother, Jeremy Gilbert, is a student at UCLA, and I can't get a hold of him or his girlfriend. I'm starting to worry that something might have happened to them, and I was hoping that you might be able to help me."
There was a long sigh. "He's probably just really busy or something, I'm sure you know what college life is like. And we have better things to do than help family members contact students just because they're not answering the phone."
"You don't understand!" Elena exclaimed, getting up and starting to pace the room, unable to stand still. "My aunt's been trying to call him for days, and both his and his girlfriend's phones have been disconnected."
Another, if possible even more bored, sigh came over the line. "Maybe they couldn't pay the bills and were too embarrassed to call home for money or something. Anyway, I can't help you. Goodbye."
"Wait!" Elena yelled, being rewarded with a third sigh. "Do you want me to call the police and tell them that you've neglected to report two of your students missing? Because I will. And I'm sure the school doesn't want a bunch of cops running around campus. Can't be good for your reputation."
Her threat hit home. "What do you want me to do?" the person asked, now sounding more annoyed than bored.
"Can you just send someone over to their dorm rooms to make sure they're OK? My aunt and I both live on the East Coast, or we would come there ourselves."
"Fine, I'll ask the RA in their building to check up on them. What did you say that their names were again?"
"Jeremy Gilbert and Anna Johnson."
There were clicking sounds in the background for a moment, then the person came back on the line. "Are you trying to be funny? Is this some sort of prank call?"
Elena frowned. "What? No, of course not!"
"Because both these students dropped out last week. It's not that uncommon, you know, that freshmen can't handle the pressure of being in college. And since someone else was paying your brother's tuition, that person was notified." The voice was defensive now. "Those are the rules, we have to notify the one who pays the tuition when someone drops out, even if the student is over eighteen."
Feeling like her legs couldn't carry her anymore, Elena dropped down on her bed. "Thank you," she said weakly, hanging up the phone and letting it fall to the bed.
She had known that this would happen, eventually. Really, she had. Ever since she had found that vial of blood in Jeremy's drawer almost two and a half years ago. But it wasn't something she had thought would happen this soon. And also, she had expected some sort of heads-up. She had thought that Jeremy would talk to her before he made this decision. But maybe he had been worried that she wouldn't understand, that she'd try to stop him.
Desperately needing some sort of assurance that went beyond the bored man or woman in the Administrations' office, she flipped through her phonebook, hands trembling, looking for another number. She was about to hit 'Call' when there was a knock on the door.
Slightly disoriented after the disturbing conversation, she got up from the bed and went to open the door. When she saw Damon in the hallway she couldn't for the life of her remember why he was there.
He was wearing his usual smile-slash-smirk when she opened the door, but when he saw the expression on her face, he frowned.
"What's wrong?" he asked, leading her into the room and closing the door behind them. "I mean, the dress looks amazing, but even I can see that those slippers don't really go with it. Unless you're trying to make some sort of fashion statement, which I would totally support."
Absentmindedly, Elena glanced down at her feet and realized that she was still wearing her pink, fluffy slippers.
"Jenna just called," she started, voice shaking a little. "She said that Jeremy's phone has been disconnected, so I offered to try to call him. I guess I thought that maybe she had messed the number up or something. But it has, Anna's too. So I called the Administrations' office at UCLA, and they both dropped out of school last week."
She could tell that he immediately realized what must have happened and wanted to tell him that no, Jeremy wouldn't do that, not without talking to her first. But the words wouldn't come, because, somewhere, she knew what was going on and also because if she said it out loud, it would be true. And she didn't want it to be.
"It'll be OK," he said, pulling her into an embrace.
"I knew that this was going to happen," she mumbled against his shoulder, hugging him back as hard as she could. "But I didn't think it would be so soon, not now. I haven't had time to prepare myself for something like this."
"Shh, it'll be OK," he repeated, rubbing her back in soothing motions.
"Why wouldn't he talk to me before he did this?" Elena asked, pulling away from him. "Did he think that I wouldn't understand? How could he think that, of course I would!"
Damon shook his head, not knowing how Jeremy had been thinking. "Maybe he was just worried that you'd try to talk him out of it?" he suggested. "I mean, the one time that you two talked about it, you made it pretty clear what you thought."
Would she have tried to get him to reconsider? Elena couldn't be sure. Yes, she understood why Jeremy would want this, but would she still have tried to convince him to put it off, just for a couple of years? He was only eighteen, after all, so maybe.
"It's been a long time since we talked about it, things are different now, I know that. He could have talked to me," she insisted.
"I know." Damon nodded.
Something else occurred to Elena. "What am I going to tell Jenna?" she asked, giving him a pleading look.
Damon looked like he had hoped that this question wouldn't come up.
"He's obviously made the decision to stay away after the … transformation," he said, thinking out loud. "I mean, if he just didn't want you to know until after, he would have called you or something by now, if it's been a week."
Elena nodded, biting her lip. "I can't tell her the truth … can I?"
"That's really not my decision."
"No, I can't tell her the truth." She thought for a moment. "Can I just tell her that I've talked to Jeremy and that everything is fine, but that he's really busy right now?"
"And how long do you think you'll be able to keep that charade up?" he questioned dryly. "Thanksgiving? Christmas? Sooner or later, she'll figure out that something's going on, she's not stupid. Or did you want me to call her and impersonate Jeremy or something? I mean, I suppose I could try, but …"
"So what then?" Elena interrupted him, the sarcasm in his voice telling her that he wasn't really serious. "Do I just tell her that he's disappeared, that he's missing?"
Damon took her hand in his, squeezing it. "Maybe that's for the best. A clean break for Jenna. At least it seems like Jeremy thought so."
"I don't know if I can." She shook her head, tears in her eyes. "I mean, she'll call the police, have them search for him."
He hesitated for a moment, not sure if it was a good idea to say what he was thinking. "Anna's not some rookie, she's been around even longer than I have," he then said. "I'm sure she knows how to cover her tracks when she wants to. I doubt they'll be found if they don't want to be."
She just stared at him for a moment. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?" she snapped.
"That's the way it is," he insisted. "I'm sorry if you think that I'm too harsh on you, but …"
"No, don't apologize," she interrupted him, slumping down on the bed. "I'm sorry, this isn't your fault and I'm taking it out on you."
"That's OK," he told her, wiping away a lone tear that had escaped and was making its way down her cheek. "Take it out on me all you want. Yell, throw things, hit me, whatever you want. I can take it. Come on. Take your best shot." He raised his hands in front of his face in a boxer pose and Elena couldn't help but smile, if only for a moment.
"How could he do something like this, how could he just … disappear?"
"I don't know." Damon sat down next to her on the bed, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer, kissing the top of her head. "I don't know. Maybe he thought it was the best way."
"There has to be a better way," she insisted.
"He obviously didn't think so."
"There has to be a better way," she repeated, and he realized that they weren't talking about Jeremy and Anna anymore.
"I'm sure there is," he assured her, trying to hide the overwhelming elation he felt at hearing her say something like that. "Don't worry, we'll find it."
"Thank you."
AN: Well, there it is, the first chapter. What did you think? I know, not that much Damon-y comments, but I figured with Elena upset like that he'd probably try to be a bit more serious than he usually is. Don't worry, there'll be more Damon to be had in the rest of this story. I was originally planning on this being a one-shot, with pretty much this chapter - Elena's conversation with Jenna, finding out about Jeremy and then Elena and Damon's talk - and have it be a sort of prologue to the second sequel I'm thinking about, but then I started writing and, as usual, the story got away with me. So, if you guys liked it, let me know and I'll keep going!