When Jeremy is twenty eight, he gets a call from Katherine. Now, a smart twenty eight year old man would hang up the phone when the psychotic vampire introduces herself, but Jeremy? No, Jeremy does the opposite.
"Where are you?" he asks.
"Hawaii," she answers blithely. "Wanna come see me?"
He tells her he can't take off work—which is true; his boss already thinks he's flakey—and apologizes, mostly sincere. They talk for a little while, and Katherine tells him how Caroline is doing and where Elijah (who gave him all sorts of cool vampire-hunting weapons with which to defend his town when he left) is up to and he gets so comfortable talking with her that when he says goodbye, he invites her to drop in when she's in town.
Three days later and he doesn't even remember extending the invitation.
It is four months later, when he is completely swamped in work at the Grill that she takes him up on it. Late one night there is a knock on his door and a rather casually dressed vampire doppelganger at his front step.
"What the hell are you doing back here?" he asks, rubbing his eyes as if to make sure what he's seeing is truly in front of him. "People here still remember Elena, you know, you can't be seen."
Her right hand moves to her hip. "I'm not stupid, you asshole," she says with a roll of her eyes. "Now, are you going to let me in like you promised or not?"
"Why are you here?" he asks later when they are sitting comfortably next to each other on his leather couch, each holding a glass of whiskey—although Katherine's is more blood than whiskey, but Jeremy is politely pretending not to notice.
"I got bored," she answers. Now it's Jeremy's turn to roll his eyes. He doesn't press, though; Katherine isn't the type to be pressed. She'll tell him when or if she wants to.
Three days later and she's getting ready to leave. "I've got a plane to board in two hours—going to Bulgaria for a little while. Do you want to come?"
Jeremy may only be human, but he knows exactly what revisiting emotional places do to a person—and he knows that it's not always fun to be alone. Her visit is finally making sense. "I told you before," he says, however, "I can't take off work."
Her grin is just as dangerous as he remembers from all those years ago. "I can fix that."