one.
Therese's extended stay in Mystic Falls starts with the fact that there can only be so many times one can avoid picking up the phone before the constant ringing got on someone else's nerves.
In the short twenty-five years she's walked the Earth- or mostly North Virginia, she was sure that no one knew stubborn determination more than Damon Salvatore. While sometimes his resourcefulness was an asset whenever she found herself stagnating, it was times like this that she just found it entirely too annoying.
The problem with knowing someone for most of your life is that, unlike common acquaintances, the chance of reconciling was a lot more likely no matter the fight.
This, she knew for a fact, meant that the both of them were bound to start talking again. It was a problem she abused all too well. A clause to their years-long friendship that Damon knew in way too much detail.
While Damon wouldn't kill her for purely ignoring him for the past few months, Therese still couldn't find it in herself to pick up the phone. She knew him too well- understood right to the bone why he did what he did but she refused to acknowledge that small fact. Even if they weren't biologically related in the slightest, they treated each other like family in the smallest sense.
And normally that meant overlooking the others' quite visible character flaws.
If it was like any of their other disagreements, Therese would've picked up the phone when he started claiming random area codes to spam her landline.
But at the age of twenty-four, Therese is tied to more than just the supernatural world she found herself in. She doesn't have the time or energy to deal with problems that aren't inherently her own; has too many problems of her own before she can even think of adding his mess to the mix. She's fresh out of university and already is saddled with two bubbling angels. Damon knows that.
Damon Salvatore knows that because it was what she screamed at the top of her lungs all those months ago.
It was a statement that was starting to strain on her voice- one that she repeated so many times. Through the phone, through the calm, through the screams, the tears, the silence...
Therese knows that Damon knows the surface of her avoidance.
What he doesn't seem to understand is just why the twins are the core reason why she's currently debating cutting her landline.
First accidentally introduced in high school, Therese knew all there was to know about the supernatural and maybe even more by way of the company she surrounded herself with. At the time, they all could've sworn that Zach was going to die of multiple heart failures because his volatile uncle seemed to be getting along especially well with the meek girl his best friend was now dating. Zach, who was adamant on keeping Therese away from the underbelly Mystic Falls hid beneath the surface, ended up being the one who sealed her fate and from that moment on her life went a whole new course.
Zach Salvatore was also another core reason why Therese carefully booked her appointments and had to resort to sneaking around whenever she dropped by her hometown.
While her boyfriend hid no secrets from her, Zach tried his best to do right by her following his death by constantly making sure she was always far from the nearest supernatural disaster. The Accident had been hard on the both of them; while Zach kept her arms away, Therese was left a mess with the memory of her boyfriend's blood still lingering on her tongue. That first month neither had wanted anything to do with each other. The second month brought comfort and the third was a disaster in itself.
He told her once that looking at the ring sitting on her finger made him sick to his stomach. The Accident spared no casualties- there wasn't a thing in the world that Zach didn't feel bitter about more than everything concerning the death of his best friend and her fiance.
It was why he swore that despite both of their family histories being all too entirely supernatural, Therese would be far removed from it all if he had anything to say about it.
On the cusps of a drunken heart-to-heart, he'd once vowed to his best friend that he'd take care of Therese and their kids if they were to ever have any. Funny how the man who swore up and down that he would never have any ended up fathering two of the cutest babies he's ever laid his eyes on. That ungrateful bastard.
So to Zach Salvatore, Damon and Therese's friendship had always been an absolute nightmare to think about.
She knew this. And it was times like now that she really wished that she listened to Zach about building friendships when drunk beyond belief.
The Accident just seemed to solidify his resolve. The words 'you just don't leave vulnerable pregnant woman around volatile vampires like Uncle Damon' were almost like a mantra that he echoed every day whenever they got together.
His sarcastic comments were something she sorely missed.
The last time they talked was almost more than a year ago.
And it was all entirely Damon's fault.
Therese stared at the vibrating phone, a cheek flattened against the cold surface of the table while the twins decorated the legs of their high chairs with an assortment of pineapple stickers. An unknown number flashing across the touchscreen. The phone kept shaking, the noise hidden behind the drone of the TV while a kids cartoon played in the background.
Therese had been to Mystic Falls plenty of times following Stefan's angry voicemail. All the while avoiding either Salvatore. As the resident teenaged babysitter turned Supernatural Consultant-Mom, she knew all about the drama surrounding the Falls after her departure. If it wasn't Elena calling her about moral dilemmas (none of which she really cared for but as an adult that was familiar with Jenna, she figured stepping up as a guiding figure would probably help in the long run), then it was Caroline texting her about her boy troubles (even though the teen had more experience than she did- she had kids with her first boyfriend after all) or her vampire problems. Sometimes even Bonnie called her for advice on witchcraft of which Therese would pull straws at because her boyfriend had been the witch. She was just the page turner.
When Elena found out that she was the Salvatore Brothers' ex's doppelganger, the first person she called was Therese- who had already known beforehand.
Therese liked to remember it more as the time she kept herself from screaming "So that's the word!" in the face of a traumatic event.
She found out back in high school.
During one rare moment of Zach having the boarding house to himself, the trio decided that digging through Stefan's old things sounded like a great idea. There might have been a little (a lot) of alcohol involved but the day had been spent with too many incriminating activities that they all swore to pay close attention in the event someone needed an alibi. Not that they were going to do anything criminal in Stefan's room- she didn't even know they were in there until her boyfriend pulled out an old picture of Katherine Pierce and shouted about how Elena would undoubtedly look just like her when she grew up and that Therese had to watch out because "fansan are never good business!".
It wasn't a shocking statement.
Her boyfriend screamed it in the same way a game show host pulled surprise trivia on their guests. He gave her an excited look, pointing at her like he was expecting his girlfriend to be so in sync with his inner thoughts that she'd have no trouble translating his slip ups into common English. Instead, she astounded everyone in the room with her knowledge of Cantonese proverbs and was scoffed at after getting a high five from Zach who operated as positive reinforcement whenever he failed to come to her rescue.
The memory left a bad taste in her mouth and left her checking her phone for an excuse not to think about how she'd never see the both of them again.
Damon's stream of phone calls was beginning to pick up again. Each waiting exactly two rings before hanging up without leaving a voice message.
There was a small part of her that wondered how easily she would've forgiven him if he had been the one who told her instead of Stefan.
Therese wasn't stupid. She knew that he knew where she lived. Almost half a year passed since the two had last spoken to each other, and she figured that was plenty of time for him to drag himself off his pedestal and face her in person like an adult. Instead, his stubbornness won out and now she was left yanking out a gray telephone cord.
The distance increases. Tired eyes examine the empty screen display. Maybe she gave him too much credit. This was Damon Salvatore she was talking about after all.
She can still remember Stefan's words. Remember the ominous message he left at the end of it all. His tone sounding exactly like Zach's that instead of offering her comfort, it only served to rub salt into the open wound.
When she knew him, his humanity switch was turned off. Her life was only spared because she was admittingly an interesting human by virtue of somehow managing to wangle not just his nephew but her powerful witch boyfriend as well. Back then, she wouldn't have dreamt of this as Damon's veiled attempts at apologies.
At first, she thought he was just harassing her.
The last time she saw him told otherwise.
A small hand balled themselves against the ends of her skirt. Forgetting she was still holding the cable that connected to her landline, she reached down and pulled her drooling toddler into her arms. Mireille let out a happy giggle from her place by the highchairs. Watching as her mother and brother settled into each other. Zavier's head squishing into the crook of her neck and Therese blowing raspberries at her daughter. A small tug is all she needs to remind herself of the electric wire still in her fingers before setting it down and making a note to tape it somewhere unreachable later.
Ever since she screamed at the vampire, a large weight began to settle in her chest. The way he stared at her in shock haunted her every time she tried to sleep after a day of ignoring his calls.
She'd hear whispers in town sometimes. How Damon Salvatore was spiraling or how he volunteered at the daycare and destroyed the playset and what not. None of which she really believed. But the weight was there whenever she was seconds from being in the same room as him. The pain would blossom a thousand time over whenever she heard his voice or whenever she saw Elena with Stefan.
Zach never made it to the birth of her twins.
"Zach never got to know you guys," she whispers in a voice she doesn't even realize had been used. "Zach promised and he never came."
The man had promised a lot of things during her pregnancy. One was a demand from Stefan that Therese would never be in Damon's presence any of her three trimesters. Another was that after she had the twins, she'd have the monotonous domesticity that she always dreamed of. She could live life like a TV sitcom housewife without worrying about ever incurring the wrath of a supernatural.
The promises fall short as they do with the Salvatore clan.
Not that she really blames them. Therese knows that Damon can't be controlled. She was a social drinker- she'd never turned down a drink in her life so if Damon showed up with some watered down 'wine' then who was she to refuse? The alcohol may have dwindled after she started showing but the harm was still present. Her monotonous domesticity, along the way, turned into something straight out of Zach's nightmares.
She was so used to the drama. She might have turned apathetic to it all but living life in this dreary backwater town seemed so droll compared to Mystic Falls.
Besides, being the almost wife to her fiance was guaranteed a supernatural presence in her life because he just so happened to call an immortal his great grandma.
The thoughts are all abuzz in her head when Damon finally leaves a voicemail on her cellphone.
"Therese. Please. I. I can't do anything right so please." There is a long pause before a shaky breath is finally drawn and the sound of glass breaking permeate through the speakers. "Just come back."
She doesn't delete the message. Doesn't react. Doesn't even move a muscle other than stepping slightly harder on the accelerator.
And speeds past the 'Welcome to Mystic Falls' sign.