Damon wrapped his knuckles lightly on the open glass door of Alaric's office. The man in question was sitting at his desk, his head hung over a pile of documents, propped up by his fists.
"Hey man," Damon called in greeting. Alaric swung his head up as Damon entered. The dark haired man grimaced as he saw the look on Alaric's face. "Geez, you look tired. Rough day?" he asked light-heartedly.
Alaric slowly went red; his teeth ground together as he stared down the young anchor.
"Rough day?" he echoed slowly, beginning to look reminiscent of a cartoon character before steam blew out of its ears.
"You wanna go get a beer?" asked Damon, leaning against a mahogany book case that was located in the corner of his friend's office.
"No, Damon," snapped Alaric, pushing himself to his feet and shuffling the papers in front of him into a neat file. "I do not want to go and get a beer. I want to go home."
He dragged his briefcase from under his desk and shoved the papers inside it before viciously snapping the lid shut.
"Oh..." said Damon, perplexed by his obvious bad mood, "maybe you should go home, you know, get some sleep and all that..."
"You are unbelievable." Alaric spat out venomously.
"Excuse me?" asked Damon, still none the wiser about the cause of this sudden hostility.
"You want to know why I'm so tired Damon!" exclaimed Alaric. "Because I had to spend all afternoon with a crying twenty-six year old girl. I don't like dealing with crying twenty-six year old girls, Damon." he shouted, the sound waves bouncing off his glass windows and echoing around the room.
"I can understand how that could be a bummer Ric," began Damon uncertainly, "but what does that have to do with me?"
"Because youhad to go and tell the entire lot that you slept with the girl, you humiliated her in front of her colleagues!"
"Who, Elena?" Damon frowned; she had seemed so unfazed by it all, the only reason that he had announced it to everyone was to get a rise out of her. "She was crying?" he pressed.
"Yeah, Damon, she was crying...sobbing even. Believe it or not women do not appreciate their dirty laundry being hung out to dry in front of everyone they work with. Especially women like Elena, she is not one of your cheap squeezes from the bar Damon, she is your boss."
"Oh, come on, Ric, lighten up," he urged, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling, "it was just a bit of fun. You used to play along too once, remember?"
"Yes, I do remember," he said shortly, "and I'm not proud of the part I played in bullying young women into quitting their jobs."
Damon snorted and shook his head.
"Don't you think you're being a little dramatic?"
"No, Damon, I don't." he spat. "We live in hard times and I find nothing amusing about putting a girl out on the streets. Do you think they all just walked into other jobs after here? If she leaves," he continued, the conversation returning to Elena, "she won't get another job. Her reputation is ruined thanks to you." he finished quietly, hoping that a quieter approach might sink in better.
"So she can move to a different city. There are other places people can live, Ric." he scoffed sardonically.
"Why should she have to move across the country because of you!" Alaric shouted, the calm approach forgotten, "I cannot believe this is one big joke to you- I had to beg her not to file a harassment law suit against you. If something like this happens again, I'll fill it out for her myself." He yanked his briefcase off the desk and stormed past Damon, pausing as he drew level with him. "We're done here."
He waited for Damon to exit the office in front of him but called him back as he reached the door.
"Oh, and, Damon?" he asked. The young man turned to him and cocked an eyebrow. "I'll expect an apology to the entire staff for your despicable behaviour to appear in my email inbox by Monday, understood?"
Damon nodded curtly before swivelling on his heel and marching out the offices.
2 months earlier
2.45 am. The red flashing light on her alarm flashed its accusatory wake-up call repetitively. She reached over and slammed the palm of her hand onto the top of it, shifting it across her bedside table slightly but never far enough that it edged its way past the thin layer of dust that had accumulated around it.
She threw out an exploratory hand, scrambling across the table's clutter before landing on the cool, chinking metal of her worn out, casio watch. Old and reliable. Plain and dependable. Just like her...except for maybe the old part.
She heard the scraping of a key in her front door and a creaking of the floorboards as it was opened. The door was closed slowly in an attempt to be quiet, but slammed nonetheless on its ancient, rusted hinges. A girl giggled and shushed dramatically before the noise of a tap running and glasses clinking could be heard from the small kitchen space adjacent to the wall of Elena's bedroom.
She sighed; Caroline was home. Lately they were like passing ships in the night, except that it was more usually dawn. One in, one out. She crawled out of bed, hugging her arms around her chest and headed out of her bedroom into the tiny open plan living area.
The blonde spun on her heel at the sound of movement behind her, she smiled shyly at her roommate over the glass of water clutched between her fingers.
"Sorry," she whispered, "did I wake you?"
Elena was relieved to find her alone, her shushing simply due to her drunken state.
"No, I was just getting up." explained Elena, flicking the switch on the kettle and listening to it start to rumble into life. "Good night?" she asked, yawning widely.
"It was great thanks," gushed Caroline, her face lighting up. "We went for a few drinks with the band afterwards. You should have come."
"Maybe next time." lied Elena. Caroline drained the last out of her glass and placed it on the side.
"Big day today, huh?" she asked, watching while Elena carefully poured her first coffee of the day into her usual mug, one sweetener and a drop of milk finishing it off before she lifted it to her lips.
She nodded over the rim and exhaled heavily. "I hope so."
"Well, good luck." Caroline slipped from the kitchen, pausing at the door of her room that stood on the opposite side of the living space to Elena's. "We should celebrate tonight. I'm off to bed...I'll see you tonight?" she asked hopefully.
"Yeah..." Elena answered vaguely.
She waited for Caroline's door to shut before heading back into her own room and beginning the process of getting ready for the day ahead. She scraped her tangled mass of brown curls into a ponytail and buttoned one of a wide selection of plain white, long sleeved blouses over her chest. Finally, she hauled her saggy looking pencil skirt over her legs, noting with disdain the way it clung to her hips in a way it never used to. She glanced down at the half empty cup of coffee on her bedside table, sitting perfectly on top of year's worth of coffee rings. Maybe it was time to cut down on the sweeteners.
Slipping her feet into a pair of battered black loafers and swinging her satchel onto her shoulder, she caught a look at herself in the mirror. Her shoulders slumped as she sighed at her reflection.
"Oh well," she whispered to herself, "this is as good as it's going to get." She forced a smile onto her face she left her room, her clock showing 3.30am as the time.
Most days she revelled in the quietness of the huge, bustling city as she worked her way across town. She took a small delight in the things she saw of it, that not many other people did. She knew the faces of the street cleaners and could spot a girl walking home from a late night hook up from a mile off. The cab drivers knew her by first name, and she could tell you how old each of their children were and what they all wanted to be when they grew up.
Today, however, was different. She had no time to listen for the slow hum of the street sweeper as it made its way along the road, and she didn't listen properly when Donny was telling her about his little girl's latest ballet recital. Her mind was solely fixed on her destination and what lay in store for her once she reached it.
She paid her fare in silence, as if on autopilot and made her way into the building they had stopped in front of. The impressive edifice stood at the top of a steep set of stone stairs. Each morning she would run up them in her sensible shoes and take a large gulping breath of air on her arrival at the top. There was no time for such things this morning, though, as she hurried up them and propelled herself through the revolving glass doors.
"Morning, Elena," the dark skinned security guard greeted her."Good luck for today, honey."
"Thanks, Bert!" she cried as she rushed past him breathlessly and crammed herself into a departing lift.
Scurrying out onto to the top floor, she strode past her usual desk, dumping her bag onto it unceremoniously without stopping. She headed along the smooth length of corridor, the fluorescent strip lights blinking at the end of the hall outside a large, glass paned office.
"Good luck in there, Elena." The shy girl behind the desk raised a hand and gave her a smile. Elena attempted to smile back and smoothed imaginary wrinkles out of her skirt before knocking briskly on the door.
"Come in!" came a deep voice from within, and slowly she turned the handle and let herself in.
"Elena!" greeted Elijah warmly, incredibly chipper for such an early hour. "Please, please, sit down."
He ushered her into a chair in front of his desk and scooted himself back around to the other side and sat down, placing his hands out in front of him, entwining his fingers together.
"I'm sure you're awfully curious as to why I requested this meeting with you this morning..." he began carefully and she nodded eagerly, clearing her already dry throat. "As you know, recently we had to say goodbye to our executive producer and have been fastidiously trying to fill the unimaginably large gap left behind." She added a single, slow nod to show she was still listening. "I understand that his absence has added a huge amount to your workload and I am reliably informed that you have been acting as a somewhat honorary executive producer, for which I can only thank you."
"Its...I mean- you're welcome..." she garbled nervously.
"With all that taken into consideration I thought that you would want to be informed when we made a decision about his successor."
"Yes..." She edged forward in her seat, her fingers clasped together turning her knuckles white.
"I'm delighted to say that we have finally found someone to fill the post. Have you heard of Katherine Pierce?" he asked innocently.
Elena could hear her heart pounding in her ears and feel the blood rushing to her cheeks. She sat, dumbfounded as the realisation of what had been said crashed over her. No promotion. That was what he was effectively saying. She had spent the last four months doing the job that she had been led to believe was hers for the taking and now it was being handed to someone else.
"Elena?" Her eyes refocused onto his face as he looked upon her with concern. He cleared his throat and continued, "As I was saying, she comes highly recommended and has single handedly turned around ratings and viewer demographics on almost every show she's ever produced."
"I see." replied Elena quietly, no longer really listening.
"That being said, these high flying execs do come at a cost and her wage package is considerably higher than her predecessor's and therefore we've had to make some cut backs..." There goes the free catering, she thought bitterly. "...and after you performed so well in the position we realised that it is actually possible for someone to fill both the assistant and executive producer roles by themselves." She frowned, wait, this wasn't right. He wasn't talking about cutting catering costs, or having the ridiculous crazy animal story segment cut...he was talking about...
"And so it's with great regret Elena that I have to say that your position is no longer one that fits into Good Morning Mystic Falls." He paused to take a dramatic breath and recompose his face to one of sadness. "You have been a real shining star whilst you have worked here and we really wish you the best in all of your endeavours."
Her mouth dropped open and she let out a guttural, choking noise.
"You're...you're firing me?" She couldn't quite believe this was happening. Maybe she would wake up in a second and it would all be a terrible nightmare. Because she had not seen this meeting ending up like this, that was her promotion, her big break...and now she didn't even have a job.
"We're letting you go." he explained calmly, as if this twist of words made this gross injustice better somehow. "You've done nothing wrong, Elena. You're not being fired we have just had a reshuffle of the company and unfortunately we no longer require your services."
"That sounds an awful lot like you're firing me." she shot back bitterly. "I can't believe this." she cried, letting her head fall into her hands and folding herself over.
"I understand that you're upset, Elena..." Elijah stood up awkwardly and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"You understand!" she mocked, raising her head and revealing her mascara stained cheeks. "I put everything into this job, Elijah. How could you do this to me!"
"It's not personal, Elena. It's just business." She snorted and shook her head, wiping at her eyes and trying to regain her composure.
"Well, thanks, I feel somuch better now." She pushed herself to her feet and stood face to face with Elijah. "Goodbye, Elijah," she said coldly before leaving the office, trying her best to keep her dignity intact.
After she had knocked back her fifth consecutive shot of tequila, the aching despair inside of her had started to settle and was being replaced with a warm fuzzy feeling. Across from her Caroline was regarding her with a sympathetic look that seemed to have perpetually fixed itself to her face for the night.
"Oh, sweetie," she lamented, placing her hand on Elena's arm, "something better will come along, I just know it. I mean, you're young, pretty andsmart. Who wouldn't want you to be their producer?"
"Elijah," she scoffed into her mojito. Caroline's face twisted into another sympathetic smile and Elena briefly wondered how many more endearing pep talks she had left in her arsenal.
The guy next to her, Brett...Brad...Brendon...something like that, had been eagerly plying her with drinks the whole night. He was the drummer in the band that Caroline had befriended, in the hope that they would take off and the record company she worked for would sign them, making her extremely rich. Right now he had his hand on her thigh, rubbing his thumb up and down in a way that was making her acutely nauseous. She drained the last of her drink, and before he could open his mouth to offer her another one she slid off the high stool she had been perched on in the middle of the achingly cool bar and grabbed Caroline's hand.
"Let's dance." she said shortly, dragging her friend away from the dark haired guitarist that she had been intensely chatting with.
Caroline wasn't entirely sure what had gotten into her usually shy and retiring friend, other than a whole lot of tequila, but she wasn't complaining as Elena led her out onto the busy dance floor and they began dancing carelessly. Soon enough the various members of the band had joined them and Elena was uncomfortably trying to fend off the advances of her dedicated drummer without offending him. She quickly excused herself and headed back over towards the bar.
She squeezed into the jammed bar area, placing her elbows onto the wooden surface and waiting patiently to be served. Someone shoved in next to her and she stumbled slightly, falling into the person standing next to her before regaining her balance.
"Sorry!" she chirped, placing her hand onto the person's arm. He turned around and her breath caught in her throat. She would know those blue eyes anywhere; she had recorded every single breaking news bulletin for the last four years just so she could watch those eyes and the way that mouth crept upwards into a smirk. She realised that she was staring and cleared her throat, her cheeks flushing instantly.
"No problem," he replied, failing to turn back to speak to the friend he had been standing with, but setting his eyes firmly upon her. "You look lost," he observed, his lips creeping upwards again and setting her heart racing.
"S-sorry?" she stammered, nervously brushing her hair out of her face.
"You look lost," he repeated, "you don't strike me as the kind of person who comes to these sorts of places very often."
She wondered how he had read her so quickly before realising that it was probably glaringly obvious that she was not a person who normally frequented hip and cool bars like some kind of groupie.
"Well, I'm not really, I suppose." she answered, trying to force as much confidence into her voice as possible. For her entire TV career it had been her dream to come face to face with Damon Salvatore and now it was happening, although in slightly less dignified circumstances than she would have liked, it was still happening. She couldn't mess this up. "I normally work pretty crazy hours but..." she trailed off, why was she telling him this? He wasn't interested in her little sob story. Think of something witty to say! She urged herself.
"But what?" he pressed, raising two fingers to the bartender and pointing to the bar in front of them. Moments later two drinks appeared and he pushed one towards her.
She picked up the drink, not caring what was in it, and took a lengthy gulp of it; grateful for the warm, fuzzy feeling that returned to her. "But...I got fired today." she answered regretfully, immediately taking another sip of her drink and staring into its depths.
"That sucks," he said shortly, downing his drink in a single mouthful and placing it back on the bar.
"Yeah..." she answered, as if it was the first time she had realised it, "it does."
"So what will you do now?" he asked. "Besides getting drunk of course?"
She was struck by the fact that he actually seemed genuinely interested in her life and what she was saying. This was someone who was partly responsible for her career choice and also, she was ashamed to admit, the leading male in most of her late night fantasies. Other people had world famous actors, she had Mystic Fall's best news reporter.
"Erm..." What was she going to do now? She had spent the day clearing out her desk, sobbing into her duvet, crying on Caroline's shoulder and consuming copious amounts of alcohol whilst being groped by a drummer. She hadn't really taken much time to think about what her next career move would be? Did she even want to work in television anymore? Or had her latest experience put her off it altogether?
"Elena!" Caroline's blonde curls appeared through the crowd, followed closely by her guitarist friend whose wrist seemed to be held in Caroline's vice grip. "There you are!" She launched herself at her friend, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and giggling childishly. "I thought I'd lost you." She pried herself away from Elena and turned around to where Damon was watching them both with wide eyes. "Oh hey!" she greeted brightly, "you're that guy off the news." she said obviously, poking a finger in his direction.
He simply raised an eyebrow and Elena felt her cheeks brighten once more with embarrassment as Caroline continued drunkenly, "Did you know that Elena works on the news? Well...not just the news there's like other stuff as well like talking and cooking...but she got fired today! Who would fire someone like Elena, she's like...beautiful, don't you think she's beautiful!" she cried, waving her hands around animatedly and stroking a hand through Elena's hair.
Elena chuckled awkwardly and extracted Caroline's from her head and pulled it down to her side, squeezing it in hope that her friend would get the message and stop talking. She smiled apologetically and lowered her eyes.
"Yeah, I do." answered Damon. Colour rushed to her cheeks, she looked up at him from underneath her eyelashes and was nearly bowled over by the intensity in his eyes.
"Anyways, it was really great meeting you news guy but I have to steal Elena away right now because we are going to a club." said Caroline. She grinned widely at him.
Elena quickly downed her drink and deposited her glass on the bar, smiling shyly at him and muttering a thanks before she let her friend pull her away.
She followed Caroline out of the bar, trying not to feel disappointed. What had she hoped would happen anyway? That he would come home with her and play out all of her fantasies in one single night? No matter how drunk she was, she knew she wasn't that kind of girl. Therefore, the best case scenario would have been that she would have talked to him for a while, until she said something awkward or embarrassing and he left. In a way, Caroline had probably saved her from causing herself unnecessary embarrassment.
After the initial horror of waking up with a throbbing hangover, Elena settled herself in her small bedroom with a mug of tea next to her. She perched her laptop atop her bent knees and put the morning news on in the background. She opened her résumé and began fastidiously updating it and making herself sound as desirable for employment as possible. She sent off several copies to various television networks with a cover letter explaining her recent employment history and the lengths to which she had gone for her job.
The following morning after almost twenty fours of radio silence she decided to take it upon herself to begin contacting the networks.
"Hello! Yes, hi, my name is Elena Gilbert, I sent you my resume yesterday and I wondered if you had received it...you did...fantastic...no positions, right I understand. Thank you for your time." After the fifth phone call, all ending the exact same way, she slumped into the couch in the living room, automatically turning the news on and staring blankly at the screen.
It had always been her childhood dream to work on a television show, in particular a morning news show. Growing up it had been something that had united her family, no matter how busy her father was with his medical practice he always made time to sit with his daughter and watch the morning news over their first cups of coffee, hers decaf - although she was unaware of it.
Her mother would walk in and ruffle both their hair as she passed them on her way to make them pancakes for breakfast. The memories of those mornings are what put her through college, her first few jobs as a runner on poorly run, low budget talk shows, and the years of working her way up to an assistant producer.
The shrill ringing of her phone snapped her out of her reverie and she glanced down at the unknown number. Composing herself and putting on her best phone voice she pressed answer.
"Elena Gilbert speaking."
"Hello, Miss Gilbert, my name is Alaric Saltzman from-"
"Rise and Shine!" she answered for him enthusiastically before realising that she had cut across him. "Sorry." she said, clearing her throat formally and waiting for him to continue.
"Ahem, yes, from Rise and Shine. I received your resume and I was wondering if you would like to come in and have a chat with us tomorrow." he explained.
"Yes, absolutely yes!" she screeched, forgetting herself momentarily. "I mean- that would be lovely thank you."
He chuckled lightly down the phone. "Wonderful. I'll have my secretary e-mail you the details. I look forward to meeting you Miss Gilbert."
"Thank you, and you." she finished sensibly. She ended the call and punched her hands into the air, squealing in delight and wriggling around so much on the couch that Caroline came out of her room to see what was going on.
"Are you alright?" she asked, "I thought you were having a seizure or something." The blonde looked incredulously at her best friend who was now on the couch jumping up and down, creaking its ancient springs ominously.
"I got an interview at Rise and Shine!" she cried joyfully, narrowly avoiding the ceiling as she continued to bounce up and down.
"Well, why didn't you say so!" Caroline rushed over and was pulled up by Elena. The pair jumped up and down together holding hands and whooping loudly until their elderly neighbour below banged on the ceiling with her broom.
"Oops, noise police." giggled Caroline, flopping down next to Elena and catching her breath.
"I have to get a suit." Elena realised worriedly.
"Honey, I am all over it." Caroline pulled her hand and instructed her to get ready and the two left the apartment together arm-in-arm.
So that's it, my new story. I'm not sure if I'll be continuing with Young, wild and free. I've kinda lost interest in it.
Please let me know what you think of this :)
xxx