A/N: Here's the next one. Rue's faceclaim is Logan Browning, if anyone's interested.
Edit: A thanks to Astradeni13 who gave me a better Greek translation! As a writer, it's always good to hear from people with personal experience with a different language.
Laurels – Chapter Two
Okay, so maybe she wasn't as over her feelings of resentment toward Bonnie as she liked to think, Rue thought to herself, trying to push down a smile as Tanner jibed at her sister for a particularly lame answer to one of his questions.
Though, she did feel a little mean for the smile – that meant she was at least half over them, right?
"And what about the younger Miss Bennett?" Tanner turned toward her, the condescension in his tone spelling out the expectation of her failure.
"There were 346 casualties, sir," she stated.
It was an easy question for her to answer, given she had just been brushing up on "Mystic Falls: 1864 edition" in her search for mention of Stefan Salvatore.
"That's correct. Very good."
Seeing the look of surprise on his face was almost insulting – especially since there was also a hint of something that said she'd just ruined his fun by not failing. She felt compelled to add a little lesser known fact to her answer. See what he thought of that.
"Not including the civilian casualties, that is."
His face settled into condescension once more. "You should have stopped while you were ahead, Miss Bennett. There were no civilian casualties in the Battle of Willow Creek."
He twiddled his pen in hand, as self-satisfied as any middle-aged man who got his kicks from putting down the teenagers he was supposed to be teaching.
"Perhaps your advanced placement in this class was a bit premature."
Rue was in the middle of deciding whether Tanner might suffer from popped tires or mysterious bald spots in the near future when someone unexpected spoke up on her behalf.
"Actually, there were 27, sir," Stefan corrected, his face blank.
Tanner's pen-twiddling froze. "And where does this knowledge come from, Mister…?"
"Salvatore."
"Salvatore," he repeated. "Any relation to the original settlers here at Mystic Falls?"
Stefan didn't so much as blink. "Distant."
Rue bit her lip to stop a smirk. Her mouth was being very uncooperative with expressions today.
"Given your connection to the history of this town, one would think you'd be more familiar with the facts regarding one of its most important events," Tanner said, turning to walk behind his desk. "As I said before, there were no civilian casualties in this battle."
"Confederate soldiers, they fired on the church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong," Stefan stated with surety. "It was a night of great loss."
Tanner glanced at Stefan, then to the rest of the class – most of whom were staring back at him expectantly. He swallowed and glanced at the floor.
"The Founder's archives are, uh, stored in civil hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts," Stefan continued. "Mr. Tanner."
Chuckles broke out from the other students, and Rue counted it a successful class when Tanner could only hum in answer before changing the subject. For all that he seemed to disdain teenagers, he was awfully concerned about their opinion of him. Still, she was glad to see her initial impression that Stefan possessed hidden depths of sass had proven true.
She sent him a smile when his eyes flickered toward her, and he nodded in return – not quite smiling back, but something softened with humor around the edges of his inhuman eyes.
Despite school ending on a high note, the impending party somewhat dampened her mood. Big gatherings had never been her thing – particularly not gatherings filled with wasted high schoolers macking on each other. Considering the reason she was even going was to monitor for vampire shenanigans, she was betting this one would be a few degrees worse than usual.
Still, once dusk hit, she stuffed a shoulder bag with her notebook and a couple bottles of non-alcoholic drinks (certainly the only non-booze to be had at the party) and made her way to the Falls. She deliberately got there before people really began to arrive so she could establish her spot for the night.
As the party got into full swing, her bad feeling was soon proven correct, albeit not by the appearance of a blood-drained body – though she supposed the night was still young. Instead, it found her standing there in a dimly lit corner of the clearing, clenching her hand around a brown bottle of cream soda as she overheard Elena and Bonnie joking about the latter being "psychic."
It was one thing for Bonnie to reject all notion of the supernatural existing – almost understandable from a certain perspective. It seemed to be the natural reaction, given the ignorance of most of humanity. But to turn around and make fun at having those very powers, when through her rejection of their existence she had contributed to the estrangement of their sisterhood?
It seemed in very poor taste. Especially since Rue was sure that Bonnie's new running joke was a direct result of Sheila's sincere attempts to inform her of her witchy status.
When her sister then proceeded to freak out over a vision she'd had via skin contact with Elena, Rue wasn't in the mood to be sympathetic – though she sent a quick protection spell after her sister anyway. And then the other one she was there to keep an eye on finally appeared, only to walk off with Elena toward the bridge, which was relatively secluded for a crowded, rambunctious teenager party, as well as lit with pseudo-romantic strings of lights. She murmured her listening spell once more, and began to eavesdrop.
As bad nights were wont to do, the night got even worse as it went on. Even as Bonnie returned to the crowd to hang with Caroline and Matt (presumably so Elena could get some alone time with Stefan), Jeremy decided to go off into the woods to follow Vicki and Tyler, who had stumbled away together a little earlier – that would definitely end well.
Rue was left to lean against a tree on the outskirts of the bonfires' light, sipping at her pop and listening to the boring get-to-know-each-other back and forth that Stefan and Elena were having. Well, not so much a back and forth as it was Stefan getting Elena to spill everything through his brooding stare and his (from what Rue could tell) genuine interest. She could see how a pre-date setting wouldn't be the most comfortable place to be telling your love interest about your supernatural thirst for blood.
She could help but smirk when the word passionate was brought up (in relation to Matt and Elena's relationship lacking it – ouch), and Stefan's true face apparently began to show itself, according to Elena's concerned response over his reddening eyes. She couldn't exactly tell for herself, given that his "game face" was what she saw all the time.
He may have been over a century old, but she couldn't help but think being frozen in a teenaged body might have some effect on him if he reacted that easily. A vampire's true face showing was basically the same as a surge of hormones.
Imagine that, a teenage boy getting worked up over talking about romantic passion with the girl he likes.
The hilarity of applying that statement to a centenarian vampire was unfortunately short-lived. She kept a close watch on Stefan as he retreated to a few steps behind the tree line, trying to calm his thirst; he came back out a few minutes later, only to be accosted by a tipsy Caroline.
Knowing what she did of Caroline's feelings of inferiority toward Elena, Rue couldn't imagine her taking it well that the hot new guy had summarily rejected her and then walked over to have another intimate-body-language conversation with said Elena.
Jeremy, who had wandered back toward the main party a few minutes earlier to drink depressively (his Vicki-pursuing had not gone well, then) chose that time to stumble drunkenly into the woods – directly in Elena's field of vision. Of course, that meant Elena had to follow, calling stridently after him.
Rue made to follow as well, somewhat concerned for her friend. An ominous trail of goosebumps crawled up her back, making that concern all the more urgent, and her pace quickened. She caught sight of them just in time to see Jeremy trip and nearly fall onto the still form of Vicki Donovan.
The still, bloody form of Vicki Donovan.
"Vicki…? No," Jeremy mumbled in complete shock. "Oh my God, it's Vicki!"
"Oh my God," Elena stuttered, eyes wide.
Rue strode past her to kneel next to Vicki, pulling her phone out and handing it to Jeremy.
"Call 911, Jeremy," she told him, glancing at the wound, and then stripping off her jacket to press it against the profusely bleeding bite mark on Vicki's neck.
Her friend numbly pressed the buttons, but seemed relieved that he at least had something he could do. His sister was still standing there, hands in her hair and stunned.
"I only know basics, so I'm not sure if it'd be good to move her," Rue continued, keeping her tone as calm as it would go. "Elena, could you go get Matt – discretely?"
"Of course," Elena gasped. She turned and quickly picked her way back through the underbrush.
Rue's eyebrows furrowed as she stared down at the girl she was keeping from bleeding out – unfortunately she had to rely on mundane means, given that Jeremy had gotten a close up look at the wound before she could work a little healing magic. She could feel that it wasn't life-threatening if she kept up the pressure, so she wasn't too worried about it.
She was more worried about how it had happened in the first place. Stefan hadn't escaped her monitoring at any point during the night, so…
"Rue?" Jeremy called, voice soft and near trembling.
She glanced up at him and spotted tears in his eyes as they stared down at Vicki. Oh dear.
"She'll be okay," she told him. "She's lost some blood, but I've stopped that for the most part and there's an ambulance on the way. And it should probably get here pretty quick considering this party wasn't exactly kept a secret; they likely had one on reserve just for potential drunken teen shenanigans. I mean, this isn't' quite that – though it involves teens who are drunk – but they'll get here, and fast."
Babbling. She was talking too much.
"She'll be fine," Rue repeated.
Jeremy nodded wordlessly, and a second later Matt and Elena came running toward them.
"Vicki? What the hell? What happened?" Matt near shouted, collapsing onto the ground on Vicki's other side.
"Looked like a bite to me," Rue stated. She didn't say what kind of bite. "I've stopped the bleeding and an ambulance is on the way, Matt," she told him gently.
"What, like an animal?" he asked her in bewilderment, some of the air coming out of his sails as he realized there was nothing further he could do.
"I think only an animal would do something like this," she told him honestly.
An animal of a vampire. One whom she had apparently missed on her magic radar, despite their apparent proximity to the party. Ironically, said miss was probably due to the fact that she had been so focused on observing Stefan. Something to keep in mind - she needed to work on her magical multitasking.
The ambulance came and went, Matt climbing in to ride with his prone sister. The cops showed up too, effectively shutting down the party. Animal control had a van there as well, however little good it would do anyone.
Rue sat on a fallen log, elbows on her knees, glad that she had worn a long-sleeved shirt beneath her jacket, given that said jacket was now balled up in a blood-soaked mess between her feet. Her hands had been rather blood-soaked too, before she had rubbed them together long enough for the red to flake off. Now, the only remainder was settled in around and beneath her fingernails, and the fact that she couldn't shake the smell of iron.
She wasn't sure that she cared for the sensation, whatever her dreams might have indicated. She supposed it might be different regarding her enemies' blood rather than the blood of a girl she was largely indifferent about – but given said enemies' entirely hypothetical existence, she hoped it would be a while before she found out.
Given that Stefan had arrived so recently, and had so soon been followed by another, less scrupulous vampire… Well, the escalation didn't exactly promise good things for her hope of putting off more blood.
Rue blinked. Actually, there was an idea… The other vampire had arrived very shortly after Stefan. Or at least they had made their presence known to those "in the know" immediately after Stefan had established himself in Mystic Falls. Maybe there was a connection there...?
A weight settled on the log next to her. She recognized Jeremy out of the corner of her eye. He had another bottle of beer clenched in his fingers, and a thousand yard stare to go with it.
They sat there in silence for a moment, watching the red and blue lights of the cop cars flashing against the dark canopy of the trees.
"Need a ride home?" she asked.
"Jenna's coming," he replied stolidly.
She gave him a closer look. "…that doesn't look like just a Vicki face. It's got hints of Elena issues."
He snorted. Took another swig of alcohol. He thankfully didn't look mad at her inference, but contemplative.
After another minute, he spoke up. "She's always asking if I'm okay," he stated simply. "But I've read her diary – she hates it when people ask her. She keeps saying stuff about what mom and dad would've wanted, or expected, and then turns around and starts acting like she thinks she's my parent. Like that's what they would've wanted," he scoffed.
Rue mulled over his words. "So what's been bugging you about her is that she's acting like a hypocrite?"
He snorted again. "I guess. I mean she just tried to give me a talk about moving on – like she's done that – and then immediately switched to 'what mom and dad would've wanted.' Am I supposed to move on, or am I supposed to always be thinking about them and what their opinions might have been? It's not like I'll ever know for sure now!"
Rue stayed silent for another moment. She'd lost her parents too, but it had been in an entirely different way – one to some magical issue (according to Grams), and the other because her magic (she herself) had been the issue. And her problems with Bonnie… well, she supposed they stemmed from disapproval like Jeremy-Elena problems tended to – but rather than subject her to constant, somewhat overbearing talks in an attempt to "correct" her behavior, Bonnie seemed to lean toward moody silence and icing her out.
"I don't have a perfect answer for you, Jeremy," she admitted. "I don't know if anyone ever does for things like this. It may sound cliché, but I'm pretty sure your parents just wanted you to be happy."
She turned to face him.
"Jere, I don't think you've been happy lately," she stated.
He reflexively gave her a look that screamed "no duh," but she shook her head slightly and gave him a serious look.
"I think you should look at your life, really, carefully look, and learn what's making you unhappy. Then remove that thing, or change it. It'll probably be hard. Being honest with yourself almost always is," she said earnestly. "But I don't think it's about 'moving on' – I think it's about perspective. Learn how to find your happiness again. And if your parents loved you, and I know they did, they'd be happy too."
Jeremy swallowed, and as his eyes began to water again, she turned to face forward to give him the illusion that she hadn't noticed. Instead, she shifted slightly closer, and bumped a companionable shoulder against his.
"…thanks, Rue," he said, voice raw. "For this, and… helping Vicki."
"I got you, man," she replied easily.
"Yeah," he agreed. And much more quickly than she would have expected after seeing Vicki so hurt, a tiny smile curled the corner of his mouth.
"We've probably exceeded your quota of shrink talks for this week, though," she stated. If it wasn't for the gross metallic smell on her hands (that she very much did not want Jeremy's attention directed toward, given whose blood it had been), she might have stroked her chin in mock thoughtfulness. She bumped his shoulder again instead.
"Probably," he said, and nudged her back.
Rue relished the companionable silence while it lasted. She had the unfortunate suspicion that things were only getting started.
The next morning, Rue drove to school alone. Jeremy had texted, making another quick jibe at Elena's "what mom and dad would want" tactic, mentioning that he doubted their dad would have liked that she'd invited some guy into the house and talked with him all night. The text also said that he had something else to do earlier that morning, so he'd make his way to school on his own. Knowing him, it was something to do with Vicki. Honestly, she was glad that he was even planning on showing up to school after what had happened.
History was once again filled with Stefan and Elena making eyes at each other – even mushier ones than before, if that was even possible.
Matt tracked her down after the final bell rang.
"Hey, Rue!" he called, coming to a halt as she turned to face him.
"Matt," she greeted. "How's Vicki doing?"
He gave her a very serious, earnest look. He was good at that, with his pale blue eyes, wholesomely chiseled face, and blond hair. It was like looking at Steve Rogers. "Better than she would have been without you. They're keeping her overnight in case of an infection, but she'll get out tomorrow. The EMTs said that she could have lost a lot more blood than she did."
"So a full recovery in the works, then?" she smiled at him. "That's good. I'm glad a little first aid basics could help."
He clapped a hand on her shoulder. "They did. So thanks."
"You're welcome," she smiled back.
It was a strange feeling to be appreciated, she mused, watching Matt walk off into the crowd, near-gravitating toward Elena.
Rue didn't have a whole lot of time to savor the feeling. She had things that needed doing.
The first stop was the Gilbert house. She gave a perfunctory knock on the door, but given that she had a standing invitation, she walked in without waiting for a response. She heard a great sigh from the kitchen, and peeked inside. Jenna stood there, looking somewhat putout despite the delicious-smelling tacos on the counter before her. She startled somewhat as she noticed Rue standing in the doorway.
"Oh, hey Rue. You just missed Jeremy."
Rue raised an eyebrow at Jenna's tone. It was mostly frustration, but there was also sadness. It was kind of awkward to witness.
"That's okay, I just needed to return something that I borrowed from him. I'll, uh, put it in his room."
"Yeah, that's fine," Jenna said absently, her gaze returning to the back.
Rue took a step in the direction of the stairs, but Jenna's voice stopped her.
"Rue, you're good with Jeremy," she blurted, eyes almost pleading. "Honestly? Probably better than me and Elena combined. Got any tips?"
Rue hesitated. She wasn't exactly one to spout off sage advice to all and sundry, no matter what her recent talks with Jeremy might have indicated. But she supposed that was because most people didn't really talk to her, much less ask her for guidance. If Jenna was asking her, who she only knew as a normal sixteen year old girl, then the woman must have been getting desperate.
"Try to avoid anything that could be taken as overbearing," she finally said, stepping over to the counter. "He comes to me because I'm probably the only one who hasn't been constantly asking him how he's doing or telling him how to grieve."
She paused.
"Also, if you are going to talk to him anyway, really avoid telling him to do something that you aren't doing yourself. Hypocrisy's something of a sore point."
Jenna grimaced. "Like leading into a non-drug spiel by telling him I did them myself?"
Rue raised her eyebrows. "That might do it, yeah."
"I was aiming more for an 'I know what you're going through' kind of thing," Jenna sighed, slumping against the countertop. She nudged the paper bag full of Mexican toward Rue. "Have a taco."
Rue shrugged, took a seat on one of the stools, and grabbed one. "That might've worked. You're pretty chill, and you have a legitimate position of authority in his life, so I think he'd respond to you better than Elena at least."
"Any ideas why he bailed mid-sentence, then?" Jenna sighed, dunking some tortilla chips into her tub of guacamole.
Rue shrugged again, swallowing a bite of taco. "It could have been anything. Maybe something you said struck a tired chord. Maybe the timing was off after what happened last night. Maybe he just had something urgent to do."
"Yeah… Vicki Donovan, huh?" Jenna squinted at her chip. "What's up with them?"
Rue gave her a blank face and took a bite of her taco in favor of answering.
"Not gonna answer that one, huh? I get it," Jenna said.
Rue glanced the other woman over, noting her still-dejected posture. "Why the sudden intervention, anyway, Jenna?"
Jenna looked up, giving a self-deprecating smile. "Had a parent-teacher conference with one Mr. Tanner this morning."
Rue wrinkled her nose. "I'd take your own counsel over his," she told her. "I don't know why he's even a teacher. He mostly just likes being able to condescend to someone."
"Yeah, I got that impression. He started off by calling me Miranda's 'kid' sister."
"Sounds like Tanner," Rue agreed. She stuffed the rest of her taco in her mouth and pushed off from the stool. "I've got some other errands to run today, so I'm just gonna go finish up here…"
"What?" Jenna looked up with a confused blink, like she'd forgotten why Rue had come over in the first place. "Oh yeah, of course! Don't let me keep you – you're really easy to talk to, you know?"
Rue hadn't really known that, no. As she'd thought before, not that many people talked with her.
"Ever thought of going into psych?"
Instead of answering the first question, which seemed rhetorical anyway, she gave a smile. "Psychology is one of the more interesting subjects, so I guess it's a possibility. See you later then, Jenna."
Jenna smiled back. "Of course. Thanks, well, thanks for the perspective."
Rue climbed the stairs and went straight for Jeremy's room. Technically, she hadn't been lying when she'd told Jenna she was returning a borrowed object, but that wasn't the main reason she'd come to the Gilbert house. She pulled out the CD she'd been loaned and placed it on Jeremy's desk. Then she made sure the curtain and door were both shut, and took out a few other things – a candle, a small chunk of amber, and her own personal grimoire.
She flipped open the magical book to the correct page and double checked the spell. With a glance from her, the candle lit itself. She cupped the amber in her hands, holding it over the candle's flame and focusing intently on the goal of her spell: to protect the room and its occupant, not only physically, but by transforming the negativity surrounding him into positive energy. She'd been thinking about doing something similar for a while, but finding out that Elena had invited a boy into the Gilbert house – a boy who could only be Stefan, the vampire…
Well, she'd decided to give Jeremy a little extra protection – especially given her ominous feeling of impending danger-escalation. And maybe it would help along his healing process a bit. The spell wouldn't alter his mind or anything, just encourage what good he was already open to.
"Άσε το κεχριμπαρένιο φως να φυλάει αυτό το μέρος," she whispered, and then repeated herself in her first language. "Let amber light guard this place."
Rue separated her hands and the amber fell onto the fire. Instead of embedding itself in the gooey wax, the fossilized resin hovered in the flame for a moment, lit up from the inside – like the sun shining through clear honey. Then it seemed to melt, transforming into glowing wisps of energy, which whisked around the room and sank into every inch of it.
The glow seemed to sink into her as well – though that could have been the usual sense of giddy satisfaction that swept through her every time she successfully performed magic.
Rue left the Gilbert household with a smile on her face. As her car rolled down the road, it slipped from her lips. Things had the potential to go badly at her next stop.
She was going to a vampire's house, after all.