Author's Note: Special thanks to WondaGal who beta-ed this fic for me! Sorry it's all in present-tense, I know it doesn't flow amazingly, I don't know what I was thinking but in the future my fics will probably all be in the past tense. If you see me switch from present to past at some point in this though, it's supposed to be in present so please feel free to tell me. Of course WondaGal and I both went through it a couple times each before I posted it here, so there shouldn't be many problems. Also if you have any other corrections/suggestions/etc. for me please don't hesitate to let me know! This is a oneshot that takes place near the end of the second-to-last episode in season 2, "The Sun Also Rises". Before the funeral. I hope you all like it. Everything is basically canon, this is just supposed to be filling in the gaps. I hope to get inspired to write more for this fandom soon though, it's a fun show to write for since I like pretty much every character, and almost every ship is starting to grow on me lol, I'm very open minded with this show! I might try a multi-chapter TVD fic next time I delve into this fandom! ;) We'll see what inspires me!
Most of my readers are Gilmore Girls fans so I don't expect to get many reviews on this. Please, if you read it and like it, leave me a review! A short little thing is better than nothing! If you don't like it, I want to know why! Also, if you think you know someone who would like this fic, please pass it along. Thank you so much!
Damon Delivers the Bad News
The awful night is over, and dawn is upon Mystic Falls. Damon looks apologetically at Alaric because Jenna didn't live. Damon's holding a lifeless Elena and both his and Jeremy's attention at the moment is focused on if she'll come back to life – and if she does, whether or not she'll still be human. Jeremy doesn't process the new information that his aunt is dead, although he does understand what Damon has just conveyed; Jeremy is not ready to deal with this loss, not yet. It's easier for the time being to put all of his focus on being concerned for his sister. Elena wakes up, and John quietly dies. Jeremy, Damon, and Elena herself are all so relieved that she's not a vampire. Alaric disappeared into the other room before she opened her eyes, and right now he is just struck by the fact that he's now lost two soul mates in only one lifetime, and he's not even sure how that's possible.
Damon feels a little lightheaded but he's not ready to tell anyone that he's been bitten yet. At the moment, he just wants to be happy that Elena gets to stay human, that his rash decision didn't ruin her life. Plus, right now, he is clinging onto the idea that a part of her still cares about him, and if that's true, he can't stand the thought of her having to deal with more of the people whom she cares for dying, not immediately after witnessing Jenna's murder. And well, if she doesn't care whether he lives or dies... he can't even consider that thought, it's too painful a notion.
Jeremy tells Elena about John, and what he's sure has just happened to him. She looks to Damon for confirmation, and Jeremy does too, so he gets up and looks outside for him. Seeing John's body on the ground, his heart breaks a little more, and he turns back to them, solemnly nodding. Elena takes it in. Then Jeremy can't resist asking about Jenna.
"How did it... I mean... was it horrible?" he asks his sister tentatively in a near-whisper. She barely nods once before bursting into tears. Jeremy shuts his eyes tightly and takes a deep breath. "Okay, maybe I don't want to know then," he replies. He gently moves over on the couch and pulls Elena's face into his chest, comforting her. Damon feels like he's intruding on an intimate moment of sibling bonding, so he turns away and leaves the room.
Alaric is standing in the room, staring blankly towards the wall. He doesn't register Damon approaching him, and Damon feels so bad for the guy.
"I'm so sorry about Jenna," he says. Alaric doesn't respond, and Damon's not sure if he heard him. Elena emerges from the room, having temporarily stopped crying. She looks up at Damon pleadingly.
"Can you do me a favor?" she asks, her voice trembling from the effort to restrain her tears. He smiles reassuringly at her and for a brief moment she feels comforted. "Can you please tell Caroline and Matt what happened? I mean... don't tell Matt everything, just that Jenna's..." she trails off weakly.
"Sure," Damon replies, and then he looks behind her at Jeremy for approval from him. Jeremy nods, and Damon turns to Alaric, but the guy is still so distracted by his own thoughts. Damon figures he wouldn't mind, and heads out into the morning light. It feels so wrong, like the sun shouldn't be shining, not when the world is pretty much over.
He first decides to try to find Stefan, to see if he is still alive, and Bonnie, and to find out what has happened to Klaus. If he's going to be giving a whole report to Caroline and Matt, he might as well include information on everything. He figures if Stefan's alive, he's probably home at the boarding house, and so he speeds over, not wanting to waste any time. He walks inside and sure enough his brother is there, still quite sore from whatever Klaus did to him, but healing. Stefan's head perks up.
"Elena's fine," Damon answers his question before he even gets a chance to ask. "And I guess you are too," he adds nonchalantly, refusing to truly admit that he was worried. "Bonnie?" he finishes, still with a tone of indifference.
"She's fine," Stefan answers, "but unfortunately Elijah betrayed us. He and Klaus are still out there," he explains.
"Great," Damon says sarcastically, truly disappointed. He is exhausted, probably mainly because of this stupid werewolf bite, and he can't think about what this piece of news means just yet. "So I'm going to go tell Caroline and Matt everything that happened," he tells Stefan, heading back out the door.
"Matt?" Stefan asks, shocked.
"Oh well Elena just wants him to know Jenna's dead, she didn't want me to tell him everything," Damon explains. "However, he definitely knows about vampires and werewolves now, I don't know how much he knows but he definitely knows more than he should... but he and Caroline might have been killed by Tyler for all I know, they were together running for their lives when I last saw them." Right after he bit me, he adds mentally. He hadn't really realized that they might be dead too until he was saying it aloud to Stefan, but now he was a bit worried. He didn't care about that Matt kid at all but Caroline, he kinda cared about her.
He runs to Caroline's house first, assuming for the time being that they're alive but unsure of where they'll be. He carefully waits outside, listening in order to determine who is in there. He hears Liz's voice and holds back. The Sheriff didn't need to know anything... but who was she talking to this early in the morning?
He then hears Matt's voice. Matt, who somehow knows about vampires and whom he'd last seen with a shotgun. Was he telling Liz about them? He listens closely.
"Yeah, he was trying to kill us, so I shot him. But Caroline still wanted to make sure he'd be okay, to help him... she's definitely still your daughter! She's so sweet and kindhearted and herself, I swear!"
"Wow, but she's okay, and you're okay?" Damon can't see them, he only hears their voices. "And Tyler Lockwood?"
"She said he'd be fine. And that usually he would've locked himself up and wouldn't be a risk, it was just the kidnapping that messed everything up this time."
"Wow. And you said you broke up with her?"
"Yeah," Matt says. "I just... I still love her, and I want you to love her, Mrs. I mean... Sheriff Forbes... but... I just can't handle the secrecy and lies and this whole world anymore. I can't."
Damon sighs. Liz and Matt know everything. Tyler too. Things are getting complicated. And Tyler's okay. A very vindictive, vengeful part of himself wishes he wasn't. He bit me, Damon thinks. If I don't get to live, it's not fair that he will still get to live.
Matt leaves the house and Damon speeds over to the spot directly in front of him, terrifying him. Matt stops dead in his tracks and his eyes go wide. Damon sighs.
"As long as you're not trying to kill me, you have no reason to be scared of me, I swear." And please don't try to kill me, I'll be dead in a few days anyway without your help, he adds to himself.
Matt relaxes a bit, but doesn't seem entirely convinced. "Okay. So... why are you here?" he asks, shifting his eyes back towards the house with Caroline's mom still in it.
"Elena sent me," Damon says solemnly. "Her aunt, Jenna... she's dead. She was murdered tonight. Elena wanted me to let you and Caroline know."
Matt's eyes get a tiny bit teary. "Jenna?" he asks incredulously.
Damon nods heavily.
Matt continues talking, still in disbelief. "She's so sweet, and she's all Elena and Jeremy have... why?"
"Because..." Damon tries to think about why Klaus did this to Jenna. "Because it would be exceptionally cruel... and it was."
Matt doesn't know the appropriate way to respond. "Wow, I... thank you for telling me."
"You're welcome," Damon says simply.
"Oh, well if you want to tell Caroline, she's probably still with Tyler at his house," Matt adds helpfully.
"Oh okay thanks," Damon replies, resisting the urge to flinch at Tyler's name. His anger at Tyler for biting him was so strong, and he couldn't understand the werewolf transformation process. Could Tyler truly not control himself, even if he tried? Logically, Damon knows that's true. Tyler always locked himself up, Jules had only wanted to bite him but got Rose instead without seeming to consciously realize it, etc. Still, Damon is able to "transform" (so to speak) into his vampire self whenever he wants to, and he can control himself even then, even if it's difficult, and it's extremely difficult for Damon to accept that transforming into a werewolf simply doesn't work the same way.
Damon walks slowly over to the Lockwood manor. He's in no rush to get there. He's dreading seeing yet another person get heartbroken by the news he's delivered, plus he feels weak all over and his arm is tingling. He's not sure if he'd be able to speed even if he tried.
He knocks on the door; three slow knocks. He waits for someone in that huge mansion to answer the door. After a minute, he finds himself face-to-face with Caroline.
"Damon!" she says, surprised. "Why... oh." Any trace of optimism in her voice disappears when she notices his face and remembers what was going on with all of her other friends the previous night. "Did the sacrifice happen even though you saved us?" she asks tentatively. Damon nods solemnly. "Oh my God," she whispers, horror in her tone. She looks up at him. "Elena...?"
"She's okay. Don't worry. We saved her... it's just..."
"Who?" Caroline gasps.
Damon glances behind her, wondering where the werewolf boy is. He takes a deep breath. "Tyler's friend Jules was killed," he remembers, watching Caroline's eyes go wide. He feels no hint of sadness at her death. "And then, well, Jenna was used as the vampire." Caroline tries to comprehend for a few seconds. "What?" she cries, her voice cracking. "But Jenna wasn't... was she?"
Damon shakes his head. "No, they turned her first, just so they could use her."
A few tears escape Caroline's eyes. "Why didn't they just use Katherine?" she asks, angry. At least she would have deserved it," she says bitterly, thinking of everything Katherine had ever done to her, starting with turning her.
Damon feels a sudden twinge of pain in his arm. Without thinking, he grabs it. Luckily, Caroline is too lost in thought to notice. The shock lingering on her face makes Damon feel awful. He blames himself to a certain degree for Jenna's death. By rescuing Caroline and Tyler, he got himself bitten, which was stupid; he didn't even care about Tyler, why did he bother to save him? And then of course without Caroline he should have known Klaus wouldn't just use Katherine. Again stupid, he berates himself.
He gently tries to break Caroline's trance. "Um, I'm gonna go... Stefan and Bonnie are fine by the way, unfortunately so is Klaus... Elijah betrayed us. So... can you tell Tyler everything...?"
Caroline still doesn't seem all the way there. But she nods and glances at Damon for a moment. "Sure," she says, obviously not thrilled by the idea. She goes back inside and sees Tyler on the couch, still naked under his blanket. She smiles. He seems to have fallen back asleep. But then she remembers what she has to tell him and her smile quickly fades. She decides that she does not want to wake him up to tell him that someone he really cared about is dead. However much she hated Jules for helping capture and torture her, she knew Tyler cared about her, and that in some way she helped him in a way that Caroline never could.
She tiptoes past him into his kitchen. She sits down on the table and lets herself start to cry. She feels so awful for Elena. She feels so awful for everyone. She's upset about Matt breaking up with her. She thinks of poor Tyler recovering from a gunshot wound and soon to be grieving. She's terrified of her mother knowing her secret and possibly wanting to kill her when she least expects it. Her empathy, fear, and really all of her emotions are out of control now that she's a vampire.
Damon walks by Elena's house, hoping Stefan will be there comforting her. Sure enough, as he listens while approaching her house, he hears his brother's voice. "I know, I know. I'm so sorry." And he hears the sound of Elena's sobs too. He moves on and goes back home. His arm is hurting, and he gets in his bed- the same bed where Rose died. He hates the thought and tries to push it aside, but he can't. It's haunting him and he isn't sure he'll be able to fall asleep, but just then a wave of exhaustion washes over poor Damon and he drifts into unconsciousness almost immediately.