Title: Give Me A Sign

Summary: So, what if Alaric did pick Jenna up as he promised in 2x14 Crying Wolf so that she could stay with him to avoid John? He did. And it caused a series of shocking revelations, events that went out of control and consequences impossible to deal with that started with Alaric not being careful enough with his secrets. Seeds of doubt planted by John would do its dirty work.

Characters: Jenna/Alaric, Elena, Damon, Stefan, Elijah, John, Jeremy, and probably appearance or at least mentions of the rest of those who I don't have in mind at this point.

Spoilers: Up to 2x14 Crying Wolf

Timeline: Takes a spin-off after 2x14 Crying Wolf

Rated: M for future adult content

Disclaimer: Not mine as always

Author's Note: Well, I am now living in denial ever since 2x21 The Sun Also Rises because I will never ever accept the fact that they had killed Jenna off, and especially – how they did it. So… there is not much that I can do about what they did. But there is no way to have the fanfics taken away from me!

The story will be slightly AU since I was finding the whole sun and moon curse ridiculous from the start. Not going to so much as acknowledge it.

"Give Me A Sign" is a song by Breaking Benjamin, its lyrics sort of clicks with the story, making it a perfect inspiration. And since most of what I've ever written was inspired by music, I got the idea for this fic a few months ago when I've heard it first. Hope you don't mind me using the song name for a title again ;)

And yeah, that means I am working on two stories at the same time. Which probably means that the updates of either of them would be more random but you will have more diversity :)

Chapter 1

~I can feel you falling away

No longer the lost, no longer the same

And I can see you starting to break

I'll keep you alive if you show me the way

Forever - and ever the scars will remain

I'm falling apart, leave me here forever in the dark…

"Give Me A Sign" by Breaking Benjamin~

Jenna awoke with a start, disturbed by the dream she couldn't remember. The moonlight was streaming through the half-open lace curtains forming an intricate pattern of light and shadows on the floor and the one of the walls of the bedroom in Alaric's apartment as the thin fabric swayed lightly in the breeze.

Careful, she slipped from underneath his arm and out of the bed. Shivering in cool air, she spotted one if his shirts draped casually over the back of the chair and pulled it on. Alaric stirred and sighed in his sleep, catching her attention just as she was about to leave the room. Smiling like a fool, which was totally out of her control, Jenna looped her hair around her ears, bent down and brushed her lips lightly against his cheek. "I'll be right back," she mouthed soundlessly, her insides fluttering.

In the kitchen, she leaned against one of the counters, a glass of water in hand and her mind reeling for the reason Jenna couldn't quite put her finger on yet, which bothered her endlessly. As if the answer was actually hovering somewhere very close, yet every time she was reaching out to finally grasp it, it kept slipping away. Was it really just about the dream that left a weird aftertaste? She couldn't recall a thing about it, which was frustrating. Or was there something else? Oddly, finding out what it was seemed to be pretty important.

She took a small sip of cold water and her gaze wandered around the conjoined living room as it trickled slowly down her throat. She liked Ric's place, it was spacious and cozy in a way. Yet, Jenna couldn't help noticing that it lacked some personality and all the things that were normally making one's home… well, home.

Absently, she pushed away from the counter and padded across the room, careful not to run into something not one hundred percent familiar with the place just yet, the hardwood floor cold beneath her feet where it wasn't covered with rugs. Books. He had lots and lots of books – three bookshelves stuffed from the floor to the ceiling.

Yet, he didn't have any silly souvenirs or other useless junk one was normally accumulating over the years, which made Jenna wonder if a little belatedly if it was about him being new to town and just having moved in and still settling, or if he was like that by nature, not a dust-collectors person. Also, it could have been a sign he wanted to have a fresh start leaving every single reminder of the part behind. Was there a way to asking about it without looking tactless or nosey?

She sighed subtly and traced a spine of one of the books on the shelf with her fingertips feeling the texture of the old leather cover against her skin. It was soft and dry, aged and a bit worn. It was a historian thing, Jenna guessed letting a small smile touch her lips. She threw a quick glace over her shoulder at the bedroom door, listening carefully, but everything remained quiet.

There were no photos anywhere, either. The only picture she'd ever seen in his apartment was the one of Isobel he used to have on his desk by computer. Jenna spotted it instantly the first time she came over. But it had been gone for quite a while now, and she never questioned it.

Isobel.

Her heat gave an uncomfortable leap and her stomach twitched, like a foreboding. They hadn't been talking much about her lately, what with Alaric obviously not being fond of the subject. If anything, Jenna respected it and never pushed. After all, he did make it clear that he had moved on and left the old story in the past. And once he made this point, the rest wasn't as important anymore. Not when she was seeing the way he was looking at her.

Yet, none of it seemed to matter right now. As much as Jenna hated to admit it, what John had told her – what he'd implied – seriously bothered her on more than one level. What did he mean by saying there was more to Isobel's death than she knew? What did Alaric know and wasn't telling her? And why on earth would John make it sound like—

Jenna cut herself off and shook her head in frustration. Why would she even give so much as a thought to what John was saying or thinking? It was John Gilbert, for heaven's sake! The biggest asshole and a jerk of her life – as in, ever! God knew what he'd say or do to inflict misery on someone else just for the hell of it. It would probably make a little more sense if she knew why he would do that of course, but then again him being involved with Isobel at some point in the past was most likely putting him at odds with Alaric by definition. Maybe he had a special pleasure in putting her at odds with Ric, too. She long used to take him being an ass for granted, no reasons needed.

Men. Jenna sighed and rubbed her forehead thoughtfully. She didn't have a single reason not to trust Alaric, and at least a thousand to think twice about each and every word John Gilbert was saying. So why was she even thinking about any of that now? Why would the words of the man she all but despised make her doubt the man she liked?

Okay, scratch that. She didn't just like him, Jenna grimaced to herself. And seriously, what was she, twelve? It was more like she was desperately-and-hopelessly-head-over-heels-and-butterflied-in-the-stomach in love with Alaric Saltzman, in a silly high-school girl kind of crush way… which somehow turned out to be an answer to the question all of a sudden. Being that involved with Ric was making the stakes very high.

Jeez, you're twisted, a small evil voice inside of her head informed Jenna mischievously, and she cringed. Old habits died hard, and her trust issues had been challenged one too many times in the past to just brush it off. Even if John "asshole' Gilbert was involved. She sank down onto the sofa and chewed on her lower lip. She'd ask Alaric. Yes, she'd do just that, first thing in the morning, and it would probably turn out that whatever John was talking about wasn't worth even paying attention to in the first place. Ric wouldn't lie to her, right? Oddly, it was one of the things Jenna was fairly certain of.

Soothed by such a simple solution, she heaved a small sigh of relief, assured more than ever that John's words were nothing but some sort of a sick joke, which – honestly? – she'd never put past him. Which suddenly made her decision to stay with Ric for a while very wise. God help her, but going violent on John was suddenly a bit too tempting for comfort, especially assuming that the place they ran into each other most often was kitchen, which was full of a bunch of dangerous sharp objects. Not that he wouldn't deserve it…

Jenna huffed to herself and was about to head back to bed, but then stilled when she saw something across the room.

Meanwhile, Alaric reached out for her in his sleep, and then pried his eyes open rather unwillingly, squinting and rubbing sleepiness out of them when all his hand found was empty space. "Jen?" He called in a low hoarse voice wondering where she could be, his mind too foggy and still half-asleep. She couldn't have left, that he knew for sure, if only because it would instantly make the whole "Mind if I crash at your place before I killed John in some inhuman torturous way, twice?" pretty pointless.

"Jenna?" He called again when it became obvious that she wasn't hiding under the bed or behind the dresser, then sighed and climbed out of the bed to go and find her. Not that anything could have happened to her in the confines of his apartment but he just wanted to make sure everything was okay just in case it… wasn't. And he honestly couldn't help scowling at himself for being so paranoid. Wasn't it, like, topping the ridiculous?

Alaric found her in the living room and hesitated uncomfortably in the opening when he saw what she was holding in her hands – a folder too familiar he didn't need to look twice at it to recognize it. His heart sank for a moment and then jumped up and started beating dully somewhere in his throat, making Alaric somewhat dizzy and maybe a little sick.

"Jenna," he started in a quiet voice.

Well, maybe not quiet enough. It startled her, and Jenna span around and dropped the folder she'd been looking through down making the papers and file clippings scatter all over the floor at their feet. It didn't go past Alaric that she also made a step back and away from him as she watched him warily, everything about her tense and on alert now, and his heart ached at the sight. One didn't have to be a genius to know he was in trouble.

"What is this, Ric?" Jenna asked if a little cautiously, her eyes only torn away from him for the barest of moments to swipe the mess on the floor with one quick glance, as if she'd hoped it would magically disappear. Actually, her hope for it to happen was rather obvious. "And why do you have these?"

But before he could even come up with an idea of how to try and explain her findings – right after giving himself a mental kick for not hiding it properly in the first place, Jenna opened her fist and made everything so much more complicated by the second because now he could see what exactly the last question was addressing. A handful of wooden bullets was lying in her palm. Well, of course, Alaric thought sourly. He didn't need to look down at the open drawer to know that she couldn't have possibly missed finding some stakes and vervain darts as well. Not the whole arsenal of course. Explaining compressed-air guns and crossbows would be that much harder, but still! Speak of making their lives just that more exciting, huh? There was no way for him to wiggle out of this mess gracefully.

So, of all the ways for Jenna to learn the truth, this was officially the worst one, ever.

Jenna kept quiet, staring at him wide-eyed and waiting. She didn't mean to pry, she never did. His privacy was what she respected the most. And come to think of it, she wasn't the snooping type in any case. But the cabinet drawer was slightly ajar, which, of course, wasn't a big deal but for some reason she decided she would like it to be closed, and it didn't give in when she pushed it. So, without so much as a second thought, and definitely not intending to go through his stuff or something, she opened it to see if maybe something got stuck there. And boy, had it been the worst decision of her life or what?

God, it wasn't ten minutes ago that she'd thought she'd call John on his crap about Alaric and rub it in his face. And then, just like that, she'd found the weapons at his place, the weird ones. And wait, were these stakes? Which happened moments before she saw the folder on the bottom on the drawer with what was a full file on Isobel's disappearance, and police reports, and a collection of articles on killings and missing people in and around Mystic Falls and the county in the last fifty years or so. And for a brief moment Jenna couldn't help suspecting that she had somehow became a part of a very bad horror movie – and no one bothered to give her a head start on it.

She swallowed hard and took yet another small step backwards, her mind working rather feverishly but not properly enough. She wanted to know the truth. She wanted to know why was he having all of this. And at the same time she wanted to escape. To be somewhere else – far, far away, preferably. And all of these articles he'd have filed up on murders and missing people in the area… Why would he have them? Why would he have all of that, for Christ's sake? It couldn't be true. It wasn't making any sense. It must be a mistake, she thought. It had to be, right?

So they found her body?... Why don't you ask Ric?

"Jenna," his voice was soft and soothing when he spoke, which unfortunately did nothing good to actually sooth her. For some reason it only made everything worse because the bad horror movie feeling was back. "Just let me explain."

Why don't you ask Ric?

"No," she backed away putting just as much distance between them as she possibly could without actually pressing her back to the wall.

"Jenna—"

"This is crazy..." she muttered, not sure if she was addressing anyone in particular.

"Look, it's not what you think."

Is it, ever? She thought bitterly, still having no idea what to make of all of this. Part of her knew that there had to be more to the story, the logical part. Yet, it was just too much to contemplate it right now.

The signs she knew she dismissed were now thrown in her face. The conversation with John. Alaric's… secrecy? She couldn't find a word for it but she could also no longer ignore the feeling of something being off about him and the way he sometimes ended conversations when she entered the room or offered her lamest excuses when he was late or couldn't make it. The way he chose not to meet her eyes. It was like finding the last piece of puzzle to finish the picture, except that the picture was a Picasso type and wasn't making any sense whatsoever.

And then the instincts kicked in. She didn't have a plan and honestly had no idea how it actually happened, but one moment she was standing and staring at Alaric in the middle of the living room, the wheels in her heads turning fast as she jumped from one theory to another, and the next thing she knew was that she was at the front door and reaching for the car keys on the small table in the hall. All of a sudden it somehow was the smartest thing to do because she really, really needed to get away. She needed to get out of this place and as far away from Alaric as possible. Apparently, to start thinking again, she needed to feel safe, and knowing that she couldn't feel that way around him anymore was the most painful realization she'd ever had in her life.

"Jenna," he made a small step towards her, cautious as if he was dealing with a panicked caged animal, which she, basically, was.

"Stay away from me."

And on that, she was in the outer hallway and running down the stairs, keys clutched tight in her hand and her heart beating so hard she thought it would break her ribs.

Cool air outside did nothing to calm her down either, and when she pushed the button and the car beeped, Jenna didn't pause for a moment before yanking the door open and climbing inside. The fact that she'd taken the wrong keys in the dark and that it was Alaric's car, didn't stop her. Finding out that it was huge and awkward compared to her much smaller one didn't do the job either. Thing was, it was weirdly comforting to know that she was putting a safe distance between herself and Ric as fast as 60 miles per hour went.

Oh god, she was insane. What was she doing? Why did she leave? She had to stay, they had to talk. And there had to be some simple and plain explanation to all of that weirdness, right? It was Alaric! What the hell was she thinking again?

Yet, while some common sense was making its way into her mind with a pace of a snail, a greater part of her was what was indeed pushing her forward.

Jenna's fingers flexed on the steering wheel as her eyes kept darting between the dark asphalt of the road ahead of her and the rearview mirror where she was half-fearing half-expecting to see the headlights of her own car in case Ric decided to follow. Would he? Did she want him to?

"Oh god," she breathed out as she navigated her way down the deserted streets of Mystic Falls until it finally struck her that she was, in fact, driving a practically stolen car and wearing nothing but Alaric's button-up shirt, its sleeves too long and getting in the way since she didn't think of rolling them up from the start and wasn't quite up to stopping and doing it now.

To be honest, Jenna wouldn't have been merely surprised if she ran into the patrol car this very moment, figuratively speaking of course. Explaining why she was driving the car that didn't belong to her, barefoot and half-naked, would be like a cherry on top of her night. It was just bound to happen, wasn't it? What with her bad luck lately. And no, the fact that the car had smelled of Ric's cologne on the inside – the scent she got used to associating with something very good – wasn't helping the matters, not really.

She hit the brakes hard when the Gilberts' house suddenly stepped out of the dark without her even noticing how she managed to get here so fast and all but slammed into the steering wheel on the impact. Was it fast? The time seemed to have a different pace now. She sagged against the back of the seat, almost hyperventilating and fighting to stop thinking before her head actually exploded.

Apparently, finding out that the man she'd been sleeping with for the last few months might have very well been a serial killer of some sort was slightly disturbing, to say the least. When did her life get so complicated, again? And why on earth was "bad luck" a definition of her love life?

Because that's how we roll, baby, Jenna told herself grimly.

On a sigh, she pushed the door open and climbed outside. The sight of the full moon shining high in the pitch black sky made her shiver. Or maybe it was the air that was damn and chilly. She padded across the lawn, wondering what were the odds of finding the spare key underneath one of the flowerpots. Otherwise, she guessed, she'd have to break in somehow since her own key was still lying somewhere in her bag which she didn't think of taking, what with all the hurry. Well, of course, waiting for a few hours outside was always an option. She might even have some fun if someone spotted her and called the police, Jenna added darkly in her mind. In case it happened before she froze to death or something, otherwise the whole buzz would be gone.

Much to her surprise, the key was exactly where it was supposed to be. Endlessly relieved – hey, maybe she didn't actually run out of good luck after all! – she walked inside and locked the door, gasping for air and only now taking note of how the adrenaline rush was making her limbs tremble. It was a miracle she didn't count the trees with the car bumper on her way here. Yet, she was indeed feeling much better now that she was home, and safe, and—

"Jenna?"

She whirled around, that close to a heart attack for the second time this night, and it was only then that Jenna noticed what she probably had to pay attention to from the start. Well, in case she wasn't distracted by, say, a million of other things.

The lights were on in the hall – which could have meant a lot of different things, hadn't it been for Stefan and Elena that were standing in the narrow corridor leading to the kitchen. She must have interrupted a conversation of some sort, Jenna noted if a little vaguely, going back once again to her totally fucked up luck.

And then she suddenly became very well aware of what they were seeing, their quizzical looks and arched eyebrows speaking volumes. The realization made color rise up her cheeks.

"Stefan…. Elena…" She started for lack of better words, and trailed off clearing her throat. "Shouldn't—shouldn't you be at the lake house?" And save me a life-time worth f embarrassment?

"Something came up," Elena began automatically, but then cut herself off and frowned. "What happened?" Her gaze traveled up and down her aunt's outfit, which Jenna would prefer to be a little more subtle.

Now that was a very good question, Jenna all but cringed inwardly. And it would be kinda really awesome if someone stepped out and explained it to her as well.

"Um… nothing," she faked the lamest of unconvincing smiles.

Coming up with something remotely decent was just too much of an effort when her entire world had been turned upside down and totally crashed not an hour ago, and for once in her life she had absolutely no idea what to do about it.

In the grand scheme of things, running into Elena while being dressed in Alaric's shirt – again, speak of being a role model here – was probably the least of her problems. She'd think about explaining that sometime soon. Maybe. Not that she actually needed to. But it definitely seemed like the right thing to do, parentally speaking. Sometime soon, though, did not mean now. Jenna shot a quick glance up the stairs. Yes, responsible and mature adult that she was, she really needed to scram, fast.

"I—I've got to—I'll see you in the morning."

Puzzled, Elena turned to Stefan.

"No idea," he said quickly, putting his hands up.

"I have to go and talk to her." The high-pitched shrill of her phone stopped her in her tracks though. "Alaric," she began warningly after hitting the answer button.

"Elena, thank god," he breathed out with obvious relief. "You home? I was trying the landline but no one was answering."

"Yes, we just got back—"

"Is Jenna there?"

Boy, he sounded frantic. "Yes, what's—"

"Is she okay?" Alaric didn't let her finish.

"Y—yes," Elena said again, somewhat reluctant. As far as okay went in that situation at least. "What happened?"

"God… you sure she is fine?" He pressed on, ignoring her again.

"Yes. What's going on, Ric?" She demanded firmly at last.

There was a pause on the line that seemed to be thick and heavy and last forever. Still frowning, Elena looked up again, craning her neck as much as she could to see the door to Jenna's room and listening intensely. No sound came from behind it though, so she returned her full attention to the phone, waiting.

At last Alaric heaved a long exasperated sigh, and in her mind Elena imagined him shrinking like a balloon without air. "I'm sorry, Elena, she—Jenna found something at my place."

It took a few moments for the meaning of his words to kick in. "Wait..." she straightened up, her frown deepening momentarily as she met Stefan's eyes, knowing he could listen to both sides of the conversation. "Something like—?"

"Yes," he called back even though it was quite unnecessary. She already knew what it was about, didn't she? "She freaked out, and… Look, I'll come over now. I'll be there in ten minutes and I'll talk to her, and—"

"No," Elena pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling the weight of the world downing on her shoulders. It was like letting a genie out of the bottle. Except that it was an evil genie. "Maybe it's better if she cools down a little first." And maybe decide that it was nothing, she thought hopelessly, knowing that it wouldn't work with Jenna. "What was there?"

"My notes, vervain darks, stakes. I can't even begin to imagine what she must have thought about all of that." Alaric paused again. "It can't go on like that, Elena," He said in a tired voice in the end. "We have to tell her everything."

To be continued…

Okay… What do you think?

Part of me wanted something like that to happen on the show so, so bad! I can imagine how much fun it would've been to watch it :)

Can I please move to some alternate universe where the producers didn't make this stupid mistake and found a way to save Jenna? Please?