Author's note: Sorry for the unexpected delay. I only thought I was finished with my edits, but now I really am…I think. I'm hoping to have the next three chapters wrapped up prior to Christmas. Keep your fingers crossed.
Happy reading!
Warnings: mild language, alcohol use, Stefan
Rating: Teen
Elena took one step back, then two and three. Before her brain totally registered what she was doing, she'd ducked down a side corridor and found herself halfway to the outdoor courtyard. Trying to be as quiet as she could, she threw open the door and headed for the bench—her bench. Her bench that had been there for all the difficult days in the past. The bench that would be the perfect place for now.
Her breath whirled around her head in a cloud of white smoke while she pressed the keypad with shaking fingertips. The nerve of him. She'd been announced as the celebrity guest for the hospital months ago. No one had whispered a word about him being there. Figures. He probably heard about her trip home from Stefan and decided that he wanted his share of the publicity.
He could be such an ass.
Her manager's face sprung up on the screen of her phone as it rang. He was lucky she'd been practicing her meditation. Otherwise, he was about to get an earful that the kids would be able to hear even in the depths of the radiology department. But that wouldn't have been fair to the kids.
"Elena! How's my favorite client?" David's voice oozed like butter melting on a piece of toast. "Aren't you supposed to be in a press conference right about now?"
She had to give him credit. His voice only had the mildest hint of concern. "Probably."
"Now, Elena…."
Crap! He knew. Otherwise, he wouldn't be using his taming the talent tone to his voice. "You know he's here."
"I saw a mock-up of the poster last week. Wait! Wait! Wait!" He'd been her manager for much too long. He practically screamed into the phone as her finger hovered over the button to end the call. "Damon was a last-minute addition to the event. I knew that if I told you, you'd cancel…and I also know how much helping the hospital means to you. I couldn't let you do that to yourself."
"And this has nothing to do with the movie coming out in February? No PR?"
"Honey, you know me. Everything's about PR, but this time you get to do something you already wanted to do." David paused, and Elena could picture him running his fingers through his dark, curly hair in frustration. "You know I can't leave right now. Maria would kill me if I missed her quinceanera tomorrow, but as soon as it's over, I'll get on the next flight and see what I can do to smooth things out."
"You can make him leave."
"Elena." His voice held the warning tone her high school history teacher liked to use as a threat. "For now, you're an actor. Pretend like you like him. Act."
Easier said than done. Elena gritted her teeth in annoyance. She might be able to act and fool everyone, but who was going to give Damon the same command?
The door to the courtyard thudded open. A heavy, exaggerated sigh carried across the small space. High heels tapped across the cobblestone path. Elena didn't have to turn to recognize the telltale signs that Carol Lockwood was approaching. "Well, here you are."
"I've gotta go." Elena lowered her voice, hoping to end the call before Carol could overhear. No need to give the Mystic Falls gossips any more ammunition. She tapped the red rectangle on the screen of her phone.
Calm. Cool. Collected. If she embarrassed herself in front of the head of the Founder's Council, David would never trust her without a handler again, and Elena hated having someone standing at her elbow every minute of every day. She knew how to work the press.
But Carol wasn't exactly the press.
"Elena." Carol's exasperated tone was just short of a yell. "People are waiting."
Elena slowly pivoted and smoothed her blouse with the palm of her hand. "Sorry. I had to take an important call. I think David forgot about the time zones." If David was going to keep a secret like Damon from her, then he deserved to be tossed under the bus—at least a small toss to let her get her head back on straight.
"Well, you've finished now." Carol circled behind her and herded her in the direction of the door leading back into the hospital as if she thought Elena was about to make a desperate bolt for freedom.
"That I am."
Breathe. Smile.
Elena forced herself back into press tour mode. The official tour for the movie didn't begin until after the holidays, but this would soon be so familiar she could answer questions in her sleep. After traveling through more time zones than she new existed across the United States and most of Europe, she probably would be answering them in her sleep by the end.
Elena stepped through the doorway and the familiar scent of disinfectant mixed with the distinctly child-like blend of apple juice and graham crackers was almost comforting. And it was a good reminder of exactly why she was here. Not for the movie. Not for the press. Her eyes fell on the sketch of the proposed new wing for the hospital.
She was here for the kids.
Jenna was standing in the doorway, her cheeks as red as her hair. Her nostrils flared as Carol approached. She clearly hadn't been informed of the additional celebrity guest either. Just as Elena passed by, Jenna started to say something, but Elena held up a single finger. "I know. We'll talk about it later."
The Mystic Falls gossips would be an annoyance, but if the press got wind of any ill-will between Damon and Elena, it would disastrous.
"I'm so sorry." Elena spoke to no one in particular as she entered the room. "I had to take a phone call. I hope I didn't cause too much of a delay." She glanced up at the clock. The press conference wasn't scheduled to start for ten more minutes. No need for Carol to have been freaking out.
Damon was standing across the room, encircled by the majority of the women in the room, doing what Damon did best—charming their socks off. He inclined his head to the side and gave his standard, effortless laugh. Whatever the white-haired woman with the bun had told him was obviously the most amusing thing he'd ever heard.
Jerk.
None of them knew he was only half-listening. He was probably running lines in his head for his next project while pretending to be engaging them in conversation. What was his next project anyway? Elena felt a telltale line furrow her brow as she tried to think about any announcements with his name attached in Variety, but she wasn't coming up with any. She must have blocked it out.
"Careful. Can't afford to make that a permanent addition to that pretty face." He'd disentangled himself from his admirers and had come to stand beside her at the table set up for the press conference.
"Why, Damon, was that a compliment?"
"Nope. Just at your age, you can't be too careful. Once you hit thirty…."
"I'm sure you'd know. For me, I still have five years before I have to worry about hitting thirty."
"Oh, that's right. I keep forgetting you're a baby."
"Baby? Didn't seem like I was a baby that night in your shower. Or has your memory started to fail you?"
"Damon. Elena." Carol forced a smile that hinted that their conversation wasn't overly private and stood between them like a referee in a fight. "Why don't you take your seats, and we'll get started?"
Damon smiled like the bad kid in class who always got away with murder just because he could charm the teacher into thinking that the other student was to blame. At this point in time, that made Elena the guilty party in Carol's eyes, and it showed when she introduced the two celebrities.
Carol gave a fake-indulgent smile to the crowd. "First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for coming out on such a lovely Sunday afternoon. I'm certain you have last minute spending to do." She inserted an artificial laugh. "But, even shopping in our wonderful town square won't benefit the town as much as the news you can spread about our yearly fundraiser for the children's hospital."
"This year's goal toward the new cancer wing was so lofty, a single celebrity guest wouldn't do." Carol looked back and forth between Elena and Damon. "We were beyond fortunate when we heard that our very own Damon Salvatore would be coming home to spend the Christmas holidays with his brother, Stefan." She motioned in Stefan's direction. "And, of course, the hospital's financial director didn't have to work too hard to persuade his brother to attend."
Carol didn't even fully look at Elena when making the next section of introductions. "And, Elena Gilbert really doesn't need much of an introduction. She returned home for a few weeks before starting the press tour for her new movie. I'm sure she was more than happy to have an audience to chat with about it, isn't that right, Elena?"
"Actually, I was originally scheduled to still be in Paris right now, but when Jenna contacted me about the fundraiser, I was more than happy to be a part of the kickoff for the new wing. The hospital means a great deal…"
"I'm sure it does." Carol snapped and quickly mellowed in response to a tsking sound from Damon. She turned back to the assembled guests. "But we're here for you, the members of the Mystic Falls-area media. Do you have any questions for the guests?"
Asking members of the press if they have questions is similar to asking piranha if they're hungry. All the assembled media might have fit in a room not too much larger than a typical hospital room, but they were as enthusiastic as the press corps Elena once faced at Cannes.
"What's your next project?"
"We heard there was some trouble on the set. Tell us about that."
"Are you expecting an Oscar nomination?"
All the questions blurred together. They might resemble a traditional press corps from the volume, but they hadn't quite learned press conference etiquette.
Elena stood and pointed at a familiar smiling face. "Matt Donovan, why don't you start the questions?"
"I heard this was a difficult film to shoot. Would you like to tell us about it? Nice haircut, by the way." He inclined his head to her…and he winked. If he and Caroline didn't already have three kids with a fourth on the way, she'd have sworn he was flirting.
"Thank you. Yes, it was a difficult film." Elena fought the urge to shake her head. He knew very well that it was a hard shoot. She'd told him herself when she was chatting with Caroline via speakerphone. "And cutting my hair was part of the deal."
Damon's head snapped up in surprise. His eyes widened at the mention of why she'd cut her hair. Elena hadn't wanted to do it, but the wig always looked fake. By the second week of rehearsal in the wind, never-ending mist, and hours spent standing at attention, she gladly agreed to a haircut that left her with little more than a shaved head.
"This was such an important story…such an emotionally vulnerable role, I didn't mind." Elena fell into her well-rehearsed speech of describing the filming experience of Rose Under Fire. "I hadn't anticipated how much recreating the story of the women in the concentration came affected me…affected all of us, really."
The director was a stickler for accuracy. Filmed in a desolate area of northern Germany, not too far from the shadow of where the real camp once existed, the actors' access to cell phones, internet, and any contact with the world outside their filming camp was restricted. Few whispers made it back to Hollywood about the treatment of the actresses, and only after three fainted during a single scene did the assistant director step in and hint that the director was taking the realism a bit too far.
Elena still had trouble sleeping. And speaking about the experience was still a bit iffy, hence, she fell back on the description David had helped her craft.
"I was lucky enough to see one of the preliminary screenings." A reporter that Elena recognized from Los Angeles stood to his feet. "Do you expect an Oscar nomination?"
Elena ran her fingers through her hair, twirling the tip just above her shoulder. "I don't think anyone really expects a nomination."
"But you deserve one."
Elena felt her cheeks flush pink. "Well, thank you." She made a mental note to find out who he was. If he flew out to Mystic Falls to be one of the first people to hear about the movie, then he deserved an invitation to the red carpet at the premiere. She'd make sure that David sent him one.
As the press conference continued on, Elena realized something. Carol may have presented Damon as the favored son, and the women from the Women's League treated him as the most famous person in the room, but none of the questions were directed at him.
When Elena was on the second round of questions, she snuck a glance in his direction. His shoulders were tense. His jaw muscles were taut. His annoyance couldn't have been more clear.
Great. The corner of one lip drew up in a smile. Maybe he'd leave.
"Not so high, Brenna." Elena stuffed her hands in her pockets to keep herself from marching to the swing set and slowing the little girl's ascent into space. After getting home from the press conference, Brenna had almost knocked her over in enthusiasm about a promised trip to the park.
Elena thought she'd be doing Ric and Jenna a favor by taking the boisterous five-year-old out for the afternoon, but she didn't know just how much she needed the chance to relax at the park after the press conference.
"I'm careful." Brenna smiled down, her tiny pigtails blowing in the breeze. As she reached the top of the arc on the swing, she lifted slightly from the seat, and Elena's heart skipped a beat.
"I can see that."
Damn. Elena saw something else. Well, someone. Someone much less appealing. What was Damon doing here?
"Didn't expect to see you here." Elena crossed her hands in front of her chest and tried to decide if she should just tell Brenna they were finished at the park.
"The park or Mystic Falls?" Damon raised an eyebrow. His question set a record for the number of words he'd spoken to her since their disastrous last interaction…or lack of interaction.
"Both. Either." Elena figured it wouldn't help to hide her annoyance.
"Jenna didn't tell you?"
"Jenna didn't know either. Carol apparently didn't think I'd bring in that much interest alone. Guess the press conference showed her she was wrong." Elena flinched. That last sentence was sharper than she'd intended.
"Ouch." Damon took a half-step back. "Thanks for the reminder. If Matt hadn't asked me what I was hoping Santa would bring me, I wouldn't have had a single question."
Elena turned back to Brenna. "Five more minutes." She held up a hand to signal the number of minutes. "I promised Jenna we'd be back soon. We're going to a movie tonight."
"Leaving." Damon stuffed his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. He gave an angry laugh. "Figures."
"What?"
"You're leaving." He smirked. "That's what you do best."
"Seriously?" The sharp tone of Elena's voice made Brenna stop mid-swing. Elena could hear her niece's tennis shoes dragging through the wood chips below the swing. "I'm the one who leaves. That's really kind of ironic coming from you."
"What are you talking about?"
"Aunt Elena?" Brenna's fingers closed around Elena's hand. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing sweetheart." Elena patted the back of the still-thinner-than-it-should-have-been hand. "Everything's fine."
She turned back to Damon. "What am I talking about?" She rolled her eyes. "Think about it."