AN: This set after 4X12; a year or so after Kol's death. I may or may not reference the show after 4X12. Also, I don't own TVD.

CHAPTER 1:IN PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

Miryam Khan sat at the corner table at the Grill and looked towards the bar. He was there. Again. She had been watching him for weeks now. He'd come every day, exactly an hour before noon and stay till the blond barman cut him off. He'd order drinks in pairs, for him and his imaginary best friend. Well, that's what she thought until she compelled the story out of the barman, bar-boy, actually. Apparently, the imaginary-best-friend was once a very-real-best friend who was now a very-dead-best-friend. He was coping. And she got that. She understood death and the grief and the pain that accompanied. And the rage. OH. . The blinding desire to suck every body that comes your way dry, just to make someone feel at least a millionth of that sick sensation that you felt in your undead heart. Drowning in alcohol was the only way to shut off that anger. She knew that only too well. After all, it had barely been a year since Adhiraj.

Adhiraj… Tears that had long dried up threatened to break as she tried in vain to not see their last minutes together at the back of her now clenched shut eyes.

"Hey MudBags… Race you to the kitchen. Loser makes dinner, right?"

"You okay, there, Miss?" She opened her eyes to Bar-boy's blue-eyed face.

"Umm… Yeah… I'm good. Caught some dust in my eye…"

"Heyy! I am in-charge of the cleaning in this place. And, believe you me, it's cleaner than a surgeon's scalpel in here." He pretended to pout. How cute.

"Now, how about I bring you a Platter of Happiness and you don't mention the dust to anyone, least of all my grouch of a manager?"

Miryam smiled in spite of herself. He looked about sixteen; not more than eighteen in any case. More than a decade younger than her; and this was when you didn't count her undead-period. Yet, here he was, trying to cheer her up.

"What's a Platter of Happiness?"

"Oh, well… It is five different types of chocolate in one dish… cake, fudge, mousse, cookie dough… ooh and ice cream… And the best part … It's on the house!"

"Sounds delicious…", she replied through a smile. It reached her eyes and threatened to spill the tears building up there again.

Matt set his tray on the counter and sighed. Her 'Happiness' was going to come out of his pocket. But she seemed so miserable. And this crazy ass town could do with less miserable people. So what if he had to lose a couple of bucks from his rent money... right?

As Matt served her, she asked him something that he never expected to be asked.

"So, ummm... Matt, right? You must be knowing a lot of the townsfolk, right? Any chance, you know a 'Kol Mikaelson'?"

Matt felt an abrupt breeze on his right side and a familiar blue eyed smartass vampire sat down opposite the Indian lady.

"I believe we haven't met. I am Damon Salvatore and you can set that down, right here, Jock." Damon smirked at Miryam and Matt.

" Hi... I am Miryam... So, aren't you going to compel him?", she asked, eyes following Matt, who had set the dessert before her and was now walking back to the bar.

"Who? What?... " Damon was momentarily confused, but she helped by letting her bloodlust surface. "Oh, him? He knows all about us. He's our human 'friend', by which I mean the only human we don't feed from.", he offered as she put away her fangs and veins.

"We? So, there are more of you in Mystic Falls?"

"Well, you obviously know the answer to that one. You wanted to know about Baby Klaus..."

"Who?"

" My turn to ask a question. Or two. What do you want with Kol Mikaelson?"

"A drink. Or two. Maybe even dinner. And afters..." It was Miryam's turn to smirk.

"Ha ha. Very funny. Sorry to put a damper on those wild plans, but he's dead."

The effect that those words had on the doe eyed vampire in front of him would have touched even his undead heart, had he been Stefan or Elijah or any of the other nice vampires. The facade she wore fell away , her wide eyes widened even more and the ghost of her smirk was now resting on a zombified shell of her face, which threatened to crumble to dust with each passing second. But Damon, being Damon, said with all the sensitivity of an African elephant," So now that you know your mission was a dead end from the start, I suggest you look for some vampire ass far away from Mystic Falls. Very, very, very far away."

By now the tears were falling freely. All she wanted was answers. They had told her that Kol was an Original. That he couldn't be killed. That if anybody could tell her why her lover just dropped dead one day, it was him. And now he was dead. Like all those others she had found in her pursuit for answers. And now she would never know why.

"Yeah. You're right. I should go.", she said through tears. Miryam got up and walked out the Mystic Grille leaving Damon to attack her Platter of Happiness with much glee.

Matt watched her walk away. She looked in even more terrible shape than before. Damn Damon. That man had quite the capacity to depress people. And he was eating her Happiness. One that he would be paying for. It was making his blood boil but he wouldn't start a fight with a freak of nature that could kill him with just a blink of the eye. True, he was like a cat with nine lives. Considering the number of times he almost died. Considering the time Katherine compelled him to instigate Tyler, the first time he drowned, the time when Kol crushed his hand, the second time he drowned, the time when Damon tried to drain him, the time at the lake house with that blonde pizza girl, the time in the woods with Jeremy and the newbie-vamps-turned-by-Klaus-for-Jer-to-kill... His luck was going to run out one day. He wasn't going to push it today. So he gritted his teeth and wiped the counter with a new found vengeance.

"Sloppy service, Busboy. You forgot to get me the check."

Matt looked up into the saddest eyes he had ever seen. Miryam smiled the best smile she could smile, at him; and even that was broken in a million different ways.

"Well, the dessert was on the house. And don't know about where you come from, but around here, we don't charge for water."He smiled back at her. She was older, around thirty he guessed. There was a maternal aura about her; that is, if you looked past the extremely sad eyes.

"Well, anyways here's a dollar for your services... And you said your manager's name was... hmmm... Grouch was it?"

"It's Jim. And this is a 500 dollar bill"

"Gah... I'm Indian. I suck at using American money. Keep the change.. Yo Jim! JIII...IIIMMMM!"

Damon appeared beside her.

"I thought you were leaving."

"I am. After I take care of some unfinished business. JIMMY-KIN!"

Jim was approaching. The scowl on his face made him look like a cross between Gollum and the Grinch. Matt was... Well, he was panicking. No one called Jim Jimmy. Especially not Jimmy-kin.

"How can I help you, Miss..."

" You don't need my name. You are going to forget that I was ever here. You are going to be nice to all the kids that work here. You are going to give them a monthly tuition bonus for their school fees. And you are going to treat Matt here like you would your own son." She gave Jim a sweet smile. Jim snapped out of his trance and walked away.

Damon rolled his eyes and Matt just gaped at her. One moment she was breaking apart and the next she was being totally badass. Right now, she was settling back to her earlier depressed self.

Damon opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off."Yeah, yeah, Damon. I'm leaving". she turned to Matt. "Bye, kiddo. Take care of yourself", she said to Matt, making him wonder when was the last time someone realized he was just that, a kid.

And with that, she turned and walked out of the Mystic Grille, away from Mystic Falls, the town that had come to, looking for answers. She got the one answer she didn't want.