A/N Hope you guys like this episode. Please review as always.
Damon, Stefan and I were in Stefan's room. He was packing stuff for a camping trip in the woods with Elena.
"You're making a big mistake!" Damon told him.
"No, I'm not. If I can get Elena used to animal blood right out of the gate-." Stefan started.
"You're reaching." Damon interrupted.
"Maybe she'll be able to bypass all the things we went through." Stefan finished like Damon hadn't spoken.
"Wrong! The best transition into a vampire I've seen was Beth's. And she had help from a moral, do-good Original vampire and still was a nervous wreck for the next couple years. I remember the break-downs that were caused by just the fact that she was a vampire!" Damon reminded him. I flinched at the memories. Stefan gave Damon a long, hard look. Damon rolled his eyes.
"Better hope she's not a fan of Bambi!" Damon added. He slapped the desk top and made me jump.
"She needs human blood, from the vein!" He went on.
"Oh, come on, you know what happens! Name me a vampire who didn't kill at least one person when they were new!" Stefan said.
"Name me one that went on the bunny diet and didn't kill dozens!"
"If she kills someone, she will crumble! How much pain do you think she could take before she shuts off her emotions?!" Stefan demanded.
"It happens to the best of us, Stefan. We get over it. Give it a hundred years or so!"
"No, I think I'd like her to skip that part, Damon." Damon and Stefan stared each other down.
"Hey!" I yelled, getting in between them. I pushed them away from each other and looked between them.
"What is wrong with you two!? I'm so tired of playing the mediator here! Knock it off!" I cried. I hurried out of the room and down into the living room where Elena was.
"Hey! Beth, are you coming hunting with Stefan and me?" She asked.
"I'm good." I said dryly.
"What did I do?" She asked, confused.
"Do you want me to get you a list?" I asked, glaring at her. She looked utterly shocked.
"Ever since you came here, all you've done is cause them to fight and fight and fight!" I cried, throwing my hand up to motion towards the next floor above us.
"You know I don't mean to do that, I love both of-." I darted closer to her to stare her in the eye. She stopped mid sentence in surprise.
"You know what I think? Anyone who claims to love two boys truly loves neither."
Damon sat at the bar in the Grill. I walked over, saw the seat Alaric used to sit at and sat down on the other side of it. Damon gave me a half smile of mutual understanding.
"I snapped at Elena earlier. Gonna get after me?" I asked, putting my chin in my hands.
"You're in a crappy mood. I'm in a crappy mood. I'll excuse it." He said with a shrug. I nodded.
"Damon?"
"Hmm?"
"I miss Alaric already."
"Me too. Drink with me."
"I'm underage. Physically, anyway."
"Don't care." I took the shot he handed me and drowned it.
The next day, Stefan was pulling wooden bullets out of Tyler. Caroline and I had our back turned so we didn't see, but we could tell when Stefan got a bullet out by the groans.
"Please tell me that was the last one." Caroline complained, looking over her shoulder. I glanced back too. Stefan nodded. We walked back over to them. Caroline sat down next to Tyler on the couch and I sat down on the coffee table next to Stefan. Stefan studied one of the bullets.
"These were specially carved; the length, the width… If you were a normal vampire, you'd be dead." He said.
"This guy knew what he was doing. His gloves must have been steeped in Vervain. He was looking and he didn't hesitate for a second when he found one."
"These etchings…" Stefan mumbled. He touched the bullet with his bare finger and yanked it back when it burned him.
"Are the bullets spelled?" I asked.
"I don't know. They're something."
At the memorial in the church, I sat down next to Jeremy, with Elena and Matt on his other side.
"Before we begin the Mass, we'd like to open the floor to anyone who would like to share a memory about our late friends on the town council. I know that April Young would like to say a few words about her dad. April? April, honey are you still here?" Carol Lockwood asked, looking around from her place at the podium.
"Is there anyone else who would like to share a recollection or a memory about Pastor Young?" She asked. No one moved for a minute. Then Elena stood up.
"Come on up, Elena." Elena walked up to the podium.
"I… Uh… when I talked to April earlier, she was kind of nervous about coming up to speak. And now that I'm up here, I'm kind of nervous too." Elena said. She gripped the sides of the podium.
"The worst day of loving someone is when you lose them." Suddenly, we could all smell blood. Elena tensed. With our vampire hearing, we could hear Damon.
"Nobody move. Don't turn around. It's a trap." Elena was obviously have a hard time.
"I… Um…." Stefan went up to the podium and led her off the stage, back to us. I moved so that Stefan could sit with her as I went back to Damon.
"A trap?" I asked as I sat down next to him.
"Vampire hunter."
"Lovely." I said sarcastically. Tyler walked up to the podium. I stared at him. What was he doing?
"Back in first grade, I was brat who couldn't be bothered with team sports. Didn't care much about anything that didn't effect me. But he was the one who made me understand how important it was to be part of a team; a community. Of giving yourself up for the sake of-." Suddenly there was a gunshot and Tyler fell back. Everyone started screaming and running towards the exit. Damon made his way through the crowd to go after the vampire hunter. I hurried after him to help. By the time I caught up to Damon in the parking lot, he had thrown the vampire hunter to the ground. The hunter shot him with wooden bullets several times. I darted forward and grabbed the gun from him, awarding him a kick in the head just for the heck of it. He grabbed my leg and pulled me to the ground. He was about to stake me when we heard Stefan.
"Damon! Beth!" The vampire hunter jumped in his truck and drove off. Stefan ran over to us as I climbed to my feet. Stefan offered a hand to Damon, who was on the ground, moaning. He took it and Stefan pulled him to his feet, but then punched him in the face so Damon fell back to the ground.
"Stefan!" I protested.
"What was that for?" Damon asked.
"You know what." Stefan growled. He stalked off. I ran over to Damon to help him up and get him back to the boarding house.
That night Caroline, Stefan, Matt, Elena, Jeremy, Bonnie, Damon and I gathered outside the school.
"Stefan what are we doing?" Damon asked. Stefan had some paper lanterns in his hand.
"We finishing the memorial we didn't get to have earlier." He replied. He handed a lantern to Elena before going on.
"We need to start healing, Damon. We've all lost so much, especially recently. I think we're numb to it. We push it away, we make a joke out of it, ignore how we feel. We've never let ourselves grieve." Stefan was right, that was exactly how I felt right now: numb.
"So you're lighting lanterns?" Damon asked.
"Yeah. We need to do this."
"What we need to do is find out who this hunter is and what he knows about the death of the council. We have more important things to be doing right now!" Damon protested.
"Not tonight we don't." Stefan insisted. Damon scoffed. Everyone ignored him.
"This is for my uncle Zach, my friend Lexi and Alaric." Stefan lit his lantern and let it float up. He handed the lighter over to Matt.
"This is for Vicki." Matt lit his and handed the lighter to Caroline.
"This is for my dad… And Tyler's." She handed the lighter to Jeremy, who looked over at Elena.
"This is for our parents, for Vicki, Anna, Jenna, Alaric." He held the lighter out to Damon.
"No way. I'm not doing that." He walked off. Jeremy handed it to Bonnie.
"This is for my Grams." She handed it to me. I looked at Stefan.
"This is for Zach, and Lexi, and Alaric, and Jenna… And heck for Anna even though she tried to steal my boyfriend!" On that note, I released my lantern. I tossed the lighter to Elena.
"This is, um, for my mom and dad, Jenna, everyone that you've all lost, everyone that this town has lost… And for me, I guess."
