The Snow Storm
A/N Elijah drives to Mystic Falls in a blizzard. Along the way, he picks up a stranded woman whom he thinks he knows from somewhere. Elijah, Damon, Stefan
Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. Original characters, such as Caroline Dutton, are mine.
"This was a stupid mistake," Elijah muttered to himself. "I should have postponed this trip for a couple of days, then I could have flown right into Charlottesville and rented a car there."
But he had left New Orleans and flown to a different airport where he had rented a car. The huge weather pattern was causing a raging snowstorm and he was driving in it, heading north to his destination. The storm was heading northeast and covering several states. The road he was on was not an Interstate highway, but rather a lesser one which went right to Mystic Falls, a short way south of Charlottesville, Virginia. Perhaps it did not matter which road he was on. They were all filling with snow and ice.
There was almost no traffic going either way and the vehicles he saw were trucks or SUVs with big tires. He was driving an SUV, but he hadn't looked at the tires. He had one advantage over the humans in other vehicles – he was a vampire and he would not freeze to death if he became stuck on this road. Nor would he die of exposure to carbon monoxide as a few people did when they ran the heater in their vehicle while the exhaust tailpipe was blocked by snow.
He didn't have a deadline by which time he had to be anywhere, therefore he was annoyed at the storm and at himself for not waiting a day or two. Staring through the windshield as the wipers swung back and forth, he found himself overtaking a car. To his surprise he saw it suddenly skid off the road and into deeper snow in a ditch. He did not want to stop to offer assistance, but his conscience made him carefully pull off the road, hoping not to slide into the ditch also. He parked and made his way to the vehicle as a women opened the door and got out.
"Are you alright?" he asked. "I mean, are you injured?"
"No, but look at this! I'm stuck. I wonder if I can get a tow truck to come get me out."
"Possibly, but it is likely that all tow trucks are in use. I can give you a ride. How far are you going?"
"Mystic Falls. It's about five or six miles up the road," the woman said, hugging her coat around her. Her scarf and her blonde hair were blowing in the snowy breeze.
"That is my destination, also. Come with me."
The woman looked hesitant, a worried frown on her face as her teeth chattered in the cold. Should she hop into the car of a man she didn't know? Was it safe?
"I promise I won't bite. I am merely offering you a ride."
"Alright. Thank you," she said as she started to shiver. "Let me get my purse and lock up."
In two minutes they were in Elijah's vehicle and he turned on the heat for her. He carefully pulled back onto the road and continued north.
"My name is Elijah."
"Caroline. Thanks for stopping and helping me."
"It is the least I could do. You might have been stranded for hours." He knew this young woman was not Caroline Forbes, who also lived in Mystic Falls. And yet, he felt he had seen her before. Perhaps he would recall where and when.
He had been driving for five minutes when he lost control of the vehicle. He wasn't going fast, but the SUV suddenly did not want to stay on the road. It turned slightly and slowly slid sideways on the black ice under the thin layer of snow. Elijah swore under his breath as he attempted to steer the vehicle in a way that would keep them on the road, but it was a wasted effort, for it slid to the shoulder and continued on until it ran broadside into some bushes and a slender, leafless tree.
"Damn!" Elijah and Caroline said at the same time.
A/N Because of the blizzards presently in the eastern U.S., the idea for this story occurred to me. Let's see where it goes.