It was night time when a taxi cab pulled up on the curb in front of the Gilbert house. The driver looked at the young girl in the back. "That'll be 190.77."
Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a couple of crippled bills and put them into the waiting hand of the driver.
"Thanks." And with that, she opened the door and got out of the taxi with her backpack.
She looked at the house in front of her. Happy memories entered her mind as her eyes scanned the house. With a quick sigh, the young girl made her way to the porch. Once she reached the door, she suddenly grew nervous.
Will she get in trouble for being here? Well, of course she will, she ran away and traveled a hundred something miles to get here all by herself. Not what an 12 year old should be doing. But it's not like she had a choice. She needed to get out of there. She hated it there so much that she couldn't take it anymore. So, the nervousness quickly drained from her body, not a single care could be found. Raising her small fist, she knocked on the door.
For some time, there was a silence. The young girl rocked back and forth on her feet, waiting patiently for the door to open. Then, the door opened to reveal a tall man with jet black hair with a towel over his shoulder.
The man seemed to be surprised to see someone, a child no less, standing out on the porch. "Leave, little girl, we don't want any girl scout cookies." He began to close the door when the girl shoved her foot in between the door and the wall.
The girl glared at the man. Who did he think he was? This isn't his home. "Excuse me, old man, but this is my home." She pushed the door open more, making the man fall back a little before he regained his balance. She entered the house and the man closed the door behind her.
"Who was it at the door, Damon?" A girl with long brown hair said, making her way to the door from the kitchen. She gasped when she saw the young girl. "E-emma?"
"Elena." Emma breathed out as she gave the older girl a huge hug.
Elena hugged back with a smile. "What are you doing here?"
Jenna seemed to have heard what Elena previously said and came running to where the three were. "Whoa, whoa, Emma? Emma's here?" Her question was confirmed when she saw Emma standing next to Elena.
Emma did a little wave. "Hi."
Jeremy came running in with a huge smile. "Em!"
"Jer!" Emma and Jeremy crushed each other in a hug. When they pulled apart, Damon raised his hand a little.
"Okay, hi, uhh, who is this?" he asked, turning to Elena for an answer.
Elena put her hands in her back pockets. "Damon, this is Emma." She lifted one hand in the direction of Emma. "My little sister."
Damon widened his eyes. "Little sister?" he hissed, leaning toward Elena.
Jenna cleared her throat to have everyone's attention on her. "What are you doing here, young lady?" she said, crossing her arms. Emma looked down at her shoes, the thoughts of getting in trouble coming back.
Jeremy put an arm around Emma's shoulders. "Aw come on, Jenna. Don't be so hard on her."
Emma looked up Jeremy. "It's okay, Jer." Moving her gaze back to Jenna, she said, "I ran away."
"Oh, I think that's kind of obvious. I want to know why you decided to run away. Does Uncle John even know that you're gone?" Jenna asked.
Emma shrugged her shoulders. "He should by now, I left him a note." The girl sighed when she saw the new look her Aunt Jenna gave her. "Okay look, I had to leave. Uncle John is so boring and weird. I couldn't take it anymore. And I really missed Elena and Jer." She looked at her older siblings as she said the last part.
There was the sound of the phone ringing. Everyone could guess who it was. John. Jenna sighed and answered the phone. "Hello, John. Yes she's here." Jenna walked away from everyone and went to the living room, taking the conversation with her.
Jeremy squeezed Emma's shoulder. "Hey, you hungry?" Emma nodded and they made their way to the kitchen. Elena made the move to follow but Damon stopped her by grabbing onto her arm.
"So when were you going to tell Stefan and I about your long lost sister?" he whispered harshly in her ear.
The girl sighed. "There wasn't a right moment for me to bring her up. And, it's not like I was keeping her a secret, Damon. There are tons of pictures of her around the house." She grabbed a picture frame that had the whole family in it; her parents in the middle, Elena and Jeremy on either side of them, and Emma in front of them. "See?"
Damon looked at the picture and sighed. Okay, maybe it was is fault for not noticing the pictures with the young girl in them, but why would he want to look at the pictures in the first place? He let go of her arm.
"Whatever." He walked into the kitchen with Elena behind him. Jeremy was making a sandwich and Emma was sitting on the island, swinging her legs back and forth. Damon stood a foot away from Emma and held out his hand. "Hello there, pipsqueak, my name is Damon."
So far, Emma was starting to not like him, considering that he called her 'pipsqueak'. Yes she may be small for her age but it's not like she wants someone to point it out. She slowly reached out her hand and shook his. "Hi." When they let go of each others hand, Emma looked at him weirdly. "Are you Elena's boyfriend?"
Damon smirked at the question and saw that Elena had widened her eyes. He leaned closer toward Emma. "She wishes." Elena glared at him. Damon then looked at Jeremy who finished making the sandwich. "Hey, Little-" Damon stopped himself. "Well I guess I can't use that one anymore. Jeremy, let's play some video games."
He nodded. "Sure." Jeremy handed the sandwich to his little sister. He gave a quick hug. "It's nice to have you back, Em."
"Thanks, Jer." Damon and Jeremy went to the living room as Jenna walked into the kitchen with the phone in her hands.
"So what did he say?" Elena asked, standing next to Emma. Emma slowly started to eat her sandwich, watching her aunt.
Jenna sighed. "Well, he's certainly angry to find out that you ran away. He said that he's going to come up and get-"
"No, Jenna!" Emma put down the sandwich. "Don't make me go back there. It doesn't make sense that I have to go live so far away with Uncle John. I want to live here, this is my home and my friends are here and you guys are here. I'm miserable there. Please, Jenna, don't make me go." Emma looked at Jenna with pleading eyes.
Jenna looked at Emma, trying not to break under the girl's stare. She looked at Elena, to try to have some kind of support but saw that Elena had the same pleading look too. Jenna groaned. "Fine." Emma and Elena's eyes lit up. "I'll try to convince John to let you stay."
Emma jumped down from the island and hugged Jenna with a huge smile. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She said, hugging her aunt tighter. Jenna hugged back. Emma let go of Jenna and hugged Elena. She looked in Jeremy's direction and started to make her way there with a skip in her step. "I'm going to go tell Jer!"
Jenna and Elena laughed at the girl's silliness. "I hope the conversation goes smoothly." Jenna said.
"Jer, I get to stay!" Emma said, hugging her brother from behind as he played the video on the couch with Damon.
Jeremy smiled and turned around and hugged her back but when he hugged her, he pulled her over the back of the couch and pulled her in his lap. She giggled at the action. "Awesome, it wasn't the same without you."
Emma let go of his neck and moved around so that Jeremy had his arms on either side of her so that he was able to hold the controller in front of her. "So, who's winning?" she asked, looking at the screen.
"Well, for some reason, Damon is. I thought you said you never played this before." Jeremy said, addressing his last sentence to Damon.
Without taking his eyes, Damon replied. "I'm a fast learner. Quick reflexes."
Jeremy's phone then started ringing. He paused the game, much to Damon's displeasure, and took out his phone only to press ignore on the phone and put it away.
"Who are you dodging?" Damon asked.
Jeremy sighed. "This girl named Anna. She can be, uh, persistent." he said.
Emma smiled. "Jer's got a girlfriend." she said teasingly. Jeremy just rolled his eyes and muttered a 'shut up'.
"Is she hot?" Damon asked.
"Yeah, yeah, but she can be weird."
Damon scoffed. "Hot trumps weird, trust me." Jeremy laughed a little at the comment and the two continued on playing the game with Emma watching. Though as they played, Emma noticed Damon making strange faces which made her look at him weirdly.
"Hey, Jer, I'm gonna go finish my sandwich." Jeremy nodded and quickly moved his arms so that she could get up.
Emma had just made it to the kitchen when she heard Elena say, "-about my birth parents." She stopped in her tracks and the smile she had before vanished.
"What?"
Jenna and Elena turned their heads toward the eleven year old, surprised that she heard that. "Em, -"
"Is it true?" Emma asked, looking from the two.
Jenna nodded. "Yeah, it's true."
Emma looked behind her, at Jeremy, and then at her now adoptive sister. "Does Jeremy know?"
Elena took a deep breath. "He will. When the time is right." Elena noticed that Emma was a little down. "Hey come here." She opened her arms and Emma walked into them. The two sister's hug was interrupted by the door bell. "That's Stefan." Elena patted Emma's shoulder and let go of her. Emma followed behind Elena but stopped when she was at the base of the stairs.
Damon and Elena both made it to the door. Elena opened the door and revealed a tall guy with brown hair. He looked at Elena and Damon with a weird expression.
Damon was staring at the guy with anticipation. "Well?"
The guy opened his mouth to respond when his gaze landed on Emma, surprised to see her there. "Uhh, let's talk outside."
Elena turned to her sister. "Hey, Em, how about you go to the kitchen and eat that sandwich." Emma stayed where she was before nodding and joining Jenna in the kitchen. The trio exited the house, moving their conversation to the porch.
"Who took it?" Damon asked, leading them to the side of the house.
Stefan walked right behind him. "I don't know." he replied.
"You know what?" Damon stopped and turned to face the couple. "It was that teacher. There's something really off about him."
"No he doesn't know anything. Somebody got to him right before me." Stefan said.
Damon stared at his brother. "Who else knew it was there." Stefan turned to his right and looked through the window where he saw Jeremy and Emma sitting on the couch, their focus's on the TV. Damon followed his gaze to the middle Gilbert and then made his way back to the house.
Elena was quick to stop him. "No. Damon, leave him out of it."
"Why? What's the big deal?" he responded, still walking towards the door. When he entered the door he turned his head to his brother, heading towards the direction of the young Gilberts. "Did you know Elena has a younger sister?"
Stefan nodded. "Yeah, there are pictures everywhere."
Damon rolled his eyes. "I noticed." Of course his little brother noticed. "So," he said, finally making it into the living room, Elena and Stefan stopping behind him. He sat on the arm of the couch. Jeremy still looked at the screen but Emma turned her head to his direction. "I heard you found a really cool journal from back in the day."
Jeremy made a weird look. "Who else did you show it to?" Damon said.
"Huh-?"
"Don't ask questions, just spill." Damon demanded, trying to remain calm.
Jeremy looked at Damon, chuckling a little. "You're kidding me, right?"
Elena sighed. "Jer, did you tell anyone other than Mr. Saltzman about Jonathan Gilbert's journal?"
"Why is everybody so obsessed with that thing?" Jeremy asked, getting weirded out.
"Who else did you tell?" Elena asked back.
"Mmm. just that girl, Anna." he said.
"Your girlfriend?" Emma asked.
Jeremy rolled his eyes and nodded. "Yeah." Damon seemed to have remembered too.
Stefan was confused at this. "Wait, who is Anna?"
Damon looked at his brother. "That's what I want to find out." A phone began ringing when Damon asked, "How do you know her?" Elena walked away to go answer it.
"I just know her." Jeremy said, getting a little defensive. "She wants me to meet her at The Grill tonight."
"Perfect." Damon looked back at Stefan. "I'll drive." Patting Jeremy's shoulder, Damon said. "Come on."
"Okay." Jeremy said, a little confused.
Emma stood up. "Wait, can I go?"
"Sure." Jeremy said as Damon said, "No."
Jeremy gave Damon a weird look. "Why can't she come?"
Damon tried to find words. "Well, umm-"
Stefan stepped in. "Of course she can come but Damon thought that she would want to stay home and unpack." Emma shrugged.
"I can do that later. I wanna go to see if Bonnie and Caroline are there." Emma and Jeremy both walked out of the house with Damon as Stefan went up stairs. He just made it to Elena's room when she got off her phone.
Elena looked at him. "Where's Damon?"
"He left to track down Jeremy's friend, Anna, see if there was anything there."
Elena started to get worried "Aren't you gonna go with him? If he gets to the journal before we do, then-" Stefan stopped her from talking when he pulled out a thick packet of paper.
"Doesn't matter."
"What is that?" Elena asked, looking at it.
"It's a copy of it." Stefan began to open the pages.
"How did you get it?"
Stefan smiled. "Well, Mr. Saltzman made a copy and was kind enough to loan it to me."
Elena didn't seem to buy that. "He did?"
Stefan rolled his eyes. "Not exactly, but," he smiled again at Elena. "I got it."
Elena breathed out a laugh at that. With the copy of the journal, Elena and Stefan will be able to find the location of the grimoire before Damon is able to find it.
"So," Stefan said, breaking Elena from her train of thought. "You have a little sister?"
Elena smiled. "Yeah. After our parents died, Emma was sent to go live with our Uncle John, much to her discomfort. She just got here tonight, apparently, she ran away."
Stefan laughed. "Wow, she must have really hated living there."
Elena laughed with him. "I don't blame her. No one really likes Uncle John. You and Emma would get along just well, though." She moved to her window seat. "Let's find the grimoire."
Damon, Jeremy, and Emma walked into The Grill, looking for Anna. Damon turned to the two. "I'm going over there." He pointed to a random direction. "Bye."
That left Jeremy and Emma standing by themselves. Then a short girl with curly hair walked in and smiled at Jeremy.
"I knew you couldn't stay away from me." Jeremy looked at her and smiled back.
"Well, I kinda miss my daily dose of cute stalker chick."
"Oh, funny." Anna looked down at Emma. "Who's this?"
Jeremy looked down at Emma and then back at Anna. "Oh this is my little sister, Emma. Emma, this is Anna." Emma did a little wave at Anna, a little shy. Jeremy pointed to the Foosball table. "Let's play."
From a distance, Damon had been watching the scene at a table. He recognized Anna, from back in 1864.
As Emma looked around, she saw Bonnie with some guy she never saw before. "Jer, can I go say hi to Bonnie?" she asked. Jeremy nodded and Emma walked over.
"Bon!" Emma said, catching the witch's attention.
"Oh my gosh, Emma!" Bonnie got up from her seat and brought the girl into a tight hug. "What are you doing here?"she asked when they pulled apart.
Emma avoided eye contact with Bonnie. "I may or may not have ran away." Bonnie's mouth fell open.
"You what?"
"I know, I know. You should have seen Jenna's reaction when she heard I was at the front door." Emma said, smiling at the memory. "But I am here to stay."
Bonnie brought the girl into another hug. "Good, I missed you so much." When they broke apart again, Ben cleared his throat. "Oh, Ben, this is Emma, Elena's little sister."
Ben had a surprised look on his face but he still got up and reached out to shake Emma's hand. "Hi, Emma."
Emma shook it. "Hi. Well I'm gonna go back to Jer. Bye Bonnie. Ben." And she left the two. When she got back to where Jeremy and Anna were, Anna was gone. "Jer," Emma leaned against the Foosball table. "where's Anna?"
Jeremy shrugged. "She said she had to go. She's be back soon." He looked from the table to Emma. "Wanna play a round before going home?" Emma smiled.
"Be prepared to loose." Jeremy laughed and the game began.
Elena and Stefan arrived to where the Salvatore's father was buried. "Why isn't you father buried in your family's tomb?" Elena said, shining the flashlight at the tombstone.
Stefan walked over to the front of the grave with a torch. "It wasn't built until well after he died."
"Are you the grimoire's in there with him?" she asked.
Stefan got up and walked over to where the shovels were. "As sure as I could be."
Elena sighed. "Great." She looked around, feeling uneasy.
"Elena." Elena looked at Stefan who was holding the shovels. "I can do this on my own."
"And I said I would do whatever I can to help." she shot back.
"I know, and I appreciate that, but-"
"This town is my home, Stefan. My friends and family are here. You're here. I don't want that tomb opened anymore than you do." Elena said, determined. Stefan stood there, letting everything she just said set. Finally he nodded and held out the shovel to her. She grabbed it, giving him a look. The two positioned themselves on either side of the grave and Stefan stared down at it. "I'm sorry that you have to do this." Elena said, clenching the shovels handle.
Stefan looked up, lost in thought, but shook his head and began digging, Elena starting after him. They continued to dig, and dig and dig. As the pile of dirt began to rise, Elena got out of the forming hole and held the flashlight down, giving Stefan more light. Elena leaned against the shovel, sighing somewhat dreamily.
Stefan stabbed the shovel to the ground, out of breath. "What?"
Elena spread her arms out. "Not many girls can say they've done this."
Stefan said nothing, looking down at her comment and resumed digging. Only to hear a 'thud'. He looked up at Elena, who had her mouth slightly opened. He used the end of the shovel to scrape away the thin layer of dirt to reveal the top of the casket. Tossing the shovel aside, Stefan got to his knees and opened to top of the casket.
"Is that it?" Elena asked, moving the light to help Stefan. Stefan opened to top all the way to expose a skeleton of Giuseppe Salvatore, hugging the grimoire close to his chest. Elena gasped when Stefan held it up. She kneeled down as Stefan began to open the book.
"Well, what do you know?"
The couple jumped when they heard a voice behind them. Elena flashed the light into the trees to find Damon standing there, holding Emma by the arm and looking very pissed. "This is an interesting turn of events."
"Emma." Elena gasped out, scared for her sister.
"Elena, help." Emma said, tears fall down her face.
Stefan got out of the hole and stood between Damon and Elena. "Let her go, Damon. I know you want it, but I'm sorry."
Damon stared at his brother. "So am I." Stefan's face fell a bit. "For think for even a second to trust you."
"Oh, you're not capable of trust." Stefan said, gaining anger. "The fact that you're here means that you read the journal and you were planning on doing this yourself."
Damon made a face. "Of course I was going to do it by myself, because the only one I can count on is me!" he said. His grip on Emma's arm tighten, making her gasp out in pain. "You made sure of that many years ago, Stefan. But you," Damon moved his stare to Elena, who was staring at her little sister. "you had me fooled."
Elena stared at Damon, seeing his hurt expression. She tried to think of something to say, but looked down, feeling guilty.
"So what are you going to do now?" Damon demanded. "Because if you try and destroy that," Damon brought Emma closer to him. "I will rip her heart out."
Stefan shook his head. "You won't kill her."
Damon's eyebrows shot up. He pulled Emma to his chest, putting his arm around her throat. Emma struggled against his hold on her but it was no use.
"Help." she was able to get out.
"I actually can do one better." Damon lifted his arm and pulled down his sleeve and bit into his wrist. He then put his wrist up to Emma's throat, forcing her to swallow his blood. "Give me the book, Stefan. Or I'm snapping her neck and you're girlfriend will have a vampire sister." Emma's eyes widened at that and continued to struggle.
"Emma!" Elena yelled, stepping closer only to stop when Damon gave her a look that showed he really would do that to her little sister.
Stefan walked a little closer. "Let her go first."
Damon ripped his wrist off of Emma's mouth. At this point, the young girl was sobbing, beyond scared. "Drop it."
Stefan shook his head. "I'm not going to give this to you until she is standing next to us."
"Problem is, I no longer trust that you'll give it back." Damon moved his other hand to hold the side of Emma's head.
"Stefan give it to him." Elena said, crying.
"Damon, you just did the one thing that ensure's that I will." Damon stared at Stefan, but didn't let go of Emma. He nodded toward the ground, still demanding the grimoire to be handed over first. "Okay." Stefan carefully held the book out and put it on the ground.
Damon looked at Elena, seeing her teared filled face, regretting doing what he had to do. He slowly released his arm around Emma's throat. Stefan held out his hand, beckoning Emma to come to him. Emma stepped on foot away from Damon, unsure that he was going to grab her again and then burst into a run into Elena's waiting arms. The girls held each other tightly, crying hard. Stefan came up to them and guided them away, leaving Damon alone with the grimoire.
"Oh my gosh, Emma. Are you okay?" Elena asked as they walked. Emma nodded. "How did he get you?"
"He got me when I got home with Jer. One second I was going up the stairs, then next I'm in the forest with him holding my arm, watching you two." Emma said, her voice a little hoarse. She looked up to her sister. "Elena, what's going on?" she asked.
Elena looked over to Stefan, not knowing what to say. "Come on," she squeezed Emma. "let's get you home." The three continued walking until they made it to the Gilbert house. Before Jenna or Jeremy could see Emma's blood stained face, Elena rushed them up the stairs to the bathroom. Elena grabbed a toothbrush and gave it to Emma. "Here, brush your teeth."
Emma nodded and reached out with her shaky hands for the toothbrush. She grabbed it and put toothpaste on it. As she brought the brush to her teeth, she saw her reflection and a new wave of tears came. But she didn't stop, just kept brushing to get the taste of the blood out of her mouth.
Elena looked away from her sister and stood next to Stefan, who watched them. He put an arm around her, squeezing her shoulder. "Don't worry, she'll be fine. That was just a small amount of blood. It should pass out of her system by tomorrow." Elena nodded. Stefan stared at his shoes.
"Are you okay?" Elena asked, looking at him with a worried expression.
Stefan continued to rub her shoulder. "Damon was right. This is, uh, this is my fault. I put my faith in my brother but Damon put his faith in me, and I destroyed that."
Elena put her hands on his chest. "You didn't do anything wrong. Don't forget that."
Stefan nodded. "Okay." Emma came out of the bathroom dazed, with her mouth and face free from the blood. She looked up at Stefan and Elena, still shaking.
Elena walked up to her and held her face. "Are you okay?"
Emma shook her head but instantly regretted it, considering how much her head was pounding. "My head hurts." She sounded worse than before. Elena brought Emma into another hug.
"I'll get you an aspirin." Stefan said and went down stairs. Elena nodded and guided her sister to Elena's bed. They sat down with Emma sitting in between Elena's legs.
"Em," Elena said, "everything's going to okay. I'm going to make sure he doesn't hurt you again." Emma slightly nodded and silently cried into Elena's shoulder, tonight's events playing in her head. Elena gently moved them so that they were laying down, backs to the door.
Stefan made it down the stairs and walked into the kitchen where Jenna was working on the dinning table.
"You know you're not staying the night, right?" she said, twirling her pen in her hand.
Stefan leaned against the door frame. "Don't worry, Emma's with us, we're just going to hang out for a little while."
Jenna smiled. "You're lucky I like you. Keep the door open."
"You got it. Hey, do you have any aspirin?" he asked.
"Yeah." Jenna got out of her seat and went to one of the cabinets. At the same time, Jeremy entered the room.
"Oh, hey, Stefan." He said, upon seeing the said man at the door frame. Then he had a confused look on his face. "Where'd she go?"
Jenna turned from the cabinet. "She went to the bathroom."
"Where'd who go?" Stefan asked.
"He has a friend over." Jenna replied.
Jeremy looked at Stefan. "Anna."
A look of realization came on Stefan's face. He turned from his spot and ran upstairs to Elena's room. But when he got there, he saw that the room was empty, and the window open.