If there was anything that Lena had sworn by in her hundreds of years as a vampire, it was never to make any promises as even she never knew what could happen. Life was unpredictable at time without adding in the eternal damnation thing. However, she had made a promise over a decade ago and that promise had been never to return to Mystic Falls after she had witnessed an unspeakable horror at the family home of her so-called best friend. After what happened that day back in 1994, Lena had swore to never return and yet here she was, back in the town that she had promised never to return to, at the urging of her best friend. As she stood outside the Salvatore boarding house, Lena couldn't believe that she was actually back here in Mystic Falls. In the decades that she had know the delightful and yet dangerous Damon Salvatore, Lena had visited his family home a few times and with each time, something bad had happened that had always warned Lena against ever coming back again and this time was no different. There was this sinking feeling in the pit of Lena's stomach, and all she wanted to do was turn around and go back to the safety of her own apartment. There was too much history that she shared with this town, too much blood had been shed for Lena to ever feel comfortable in a town that had a rather long history with vampires as well a witches. Even though Lena didn't have as much of a history with Mystic Falls as Damon or Stefan, it still didn't quell the sinking feeling she had in the pit of her stomach. Lena was well aware that bad things tended to happen in Mystic Falls, especially when you added the Salvatore brothers into the mix, which made her even more certain that she shouldn't been here. Even though Damon had called, somewhat begrudgingly asking for her help, Lena was certain that this was the last place on earth that she should be. Did a call for help from her best friend with the promise of alcohol convince Lena that small towns weren't so bad? No. But it would help if Lena spent most of her time drunk, that it would make everything bearable. As she reminded herself that she wasn't here for her, she was here to help Stefan and get him back on the wagon so taking a deep breath Lena walked into the boarding house, crossing the threshold with no problems into the house which looked like it hadn't changed much in the last fifty years when Lena last came to visit. The boarding house reminded Lena of one of those stately homes that never changed, it was sort of like a live in museum but it still had this odd yet quaintly homely feel to it. The house seemed to be the last place where someone like Damon Salvatore would live but this was home for him, Lena knew that both Damon and Stefan were born and raised here in Mystic Falls although their ancestral home and had fallen during the war. But the family had rebuilt on a new part of town and that had become this very boarding house. Putting her bags down in the foyer Lena walked into the living room and she found her best friend Damon Salvatore looking as devastatingly handsome as ever with his dark often wild dark hair and those pale blue eyes that managed to convince Lena do things that she would later regret. Upon the sight of Damon, Lena couldn't help but laugh as he was sitting and drinking a glass of scotch which is pretty much exact same way Lena had left him the last time she had seen him. It was nice to know that something's would never change.
"Hello trouble, it's nice to see a welcome face despite all the trouble that your early phone call has caused me." Lena greeted with a warm smile and she couldn't help but notice that Damon had been caught off by her appearance that he had had smiled, he hadn't had time to react in some aloof manner and give her some smirk. No, this had been a genuine smile and just seeing him made Lena feel all warm inside. She hadn't realized how much she had missed Damon until she had caught sight of him. Lena had few friends, well few that she trusted and could rely on and Damon was one of them. Despite how annoying and troublesome he could be at times, Lena knew that she could always depend on him. The two of them were no saints and they made no apologies for that, together they had been through several rough patches together and Lena knew she could never shake Damon off even if she wanted to.
"For a moment there I was starting to doubt that you were coming Leni." Damon replied in more casual manner as he brushed off his surprise, making his way over to Lena and greeting her with a peck on the cheek and a small wink. Already for Lena it felt like no time hadn't ever passed between the two of them and they were falling back into their old ways.
"Oh, trust me I was tempted not to turn up! Especially after that rude awakening of yours Damon, but me not showing up mean leaving Stefan in your care and I couldn't let that happen. I may be a bitch at times but even I couldn't do something like that to your poor baby brother. I got held up for a little while, I had some dead weight that I had to get rid of if you know what I mean." Lena quipped with a small smile, making a small joke to her former companion who would never again interrupt her when she slept.
"I see you brought the good stuff." Damon stated motioning to the bottle of champagne in Lena's hand and she couldn't help but smirk as the only thing her and Damon seemed to like doing was drinking. The two of them were as bad as each other and probably had some kind of drinking problem. They were pretty much functioning alcoholics although Lena had to admit that Damon was the worse of the two of them but since they were dead what did it really matter? It wasn't like all the drinking was going to kill them since they were already dead. Why not indulge in all manners of hedonism if they were immortal and had nothing to lose?
"Naturally but I'm afraid that this isn't for now, we're saving this for later so until then where's the rest of your family? I've been looking forward to meeting the rest of the Salvatore clan so bring on this nephew or a cousin that you've been hiding from me. I want to meet this last living relative of yours and offer him my condolences for being related to you before he meets his untimely demise like the rest of your family." Lena asked as she looked around but there was no sign of anyone, the boarding house was pretty quiet. Perhaps even quite dead if you wanted to go down that road.
"Killed him."
Lena's eyebrow cocked up in amusement, she honestly wasn't that surprised to say the least as the Salvatore brothers did have a history of kill their relative.. They seemed to have this thing about trying to kill each other and it wasn't just the vampire relatives, the human ones were quite bad as well. "You're still killing your relatives? I thought we had talked about that and speaking of killing people we are going to talk about this Lexi thing! Of all the things you've done Damon, killing your brother's best friend on said brother's birthday may just be the lowest thing you have ever done and I have seen you do some pretty despicable things in my time."
"We did talk about it but I couldn't help myself Leni, Stefan went all judgment day on me, drugged me with vervain and locked me in the basement in hopes that my body would desecrate itself enough to turn into a living corpse. I was cranky, weak and not to mention I hadn't fed in days so I couldn't help myself." Damon stated as he drained the rest of his glass and Lena couldn't help but frown, that wasn't a good enough reason to justify killing off another relative but there was nothing Lena could do. What was done was already done and already in the past.
"I suppose not, but then again Stefan must have locked you in the basement for a reason, I don't think you were completely innocent party in all of this. You must be mighty proud of yourself for ending your family's line or are there any more secret Salvatore children out of wedlock that can salvage the Salvatore family?" Lena replied before cursing herself at what she had just said, she had just gone down a dark road in the Salvatore family history. Mentioning something that was supposed to stay in the dark, something that Damon wasn't supposed to know that Lena knew about. A secret about the worst thing that Damon had ever done and what Stefan did to protect somebody very important, which nobody else knew about except for her. Lena took a baited breathe and waited but it seemed like Damon didn't notice the meaning of her underlying comment which was very good. Instead he went about preparing two glasses of scotch and proceeded to hand one over to Lena which she gladly took, it had been a rather long morning and she needed a stiff drink to loosen her up a bit.
"It was just the one, unlike you my family line hasn't managed to survive for the last five hundred years." Damon replied as the two clinked their glass together and Lena forced herself to let out a grim laugh as that wasn't exactly the true. But Damon could never know that, he didn't deserve to know that after what he had done.
"I suppose not anyway my family have nothing to do with this; I'm here to deal with your la famille problems not mine, so how Stefan doing? And whilst we're talking about him, can tell me how on earth your brother managed to fall off the wagon because when I last spoken to Stefan a few months ago he was still feeding on bunnies and generally being the brooding yet happy and optimistic camper that I know him to be…" Lena questioned as Stefan was quite good at remaining 'sober' as she would put it but when he fell off the blood wagon, boy did he fall off pretty hard. How bad it was, Lena was yet to see and it wasn't the damage Stefan had done or the people he had hurt, she was more concerned about how bad this relapse would affect him mentally.
"Yeah… I may have finally gotten round to opening the tomb after a few hiccups, one attempt involved using Emily Bennett possessing her descendent and running thing. You'll find this funny Leni, turns out Katherine was never in there but the other tomb were and they managed to get out and they were pissed to put it lightly. 145 years in a tomb will do that to some and so they kidnapped and tortured Stefan and naturally I went to save him but they did a number on his so his girlfriend fed him her blood and that set everything off." Damon casually said and Lena rolled her eyes as none of this seemed to faze Damon at all but she knew better than to take what he said at face value. Damon had been hung up on Katherine for as long as she had known him, so her not being in the tomb must of stung. A lot. But the two of them would get into that deep emotional stuff later.
"I see you've been very busy recently Damon, anything else that you've neglected to mention that I need to know?" Lena questioned and she watched as Damon took a baited breath. Lena knew what he was doing, inside that twisted little head of Damon's he was debating on what to tell her, so he must have done things that she would not have approved of.
"I'm on the founders council, they all love me and you can't kill anyone whilst you're here. There's a witch whose not my biggest fan at the moment after a small misunderstanding and if you hurt someone and she finds out about you then she'll kill you, she's Emily Bennett's descendent so I wouldn't mess with her. Those Bennett witches really hate vampires…"
"That's good to know, I'll keep that in mind although truth be told I'm not surprised that you've pissed off another witch as that one in Wyoming wanted your head on a stick if I remember correctly." Lena idly commented as she knew there was no way Damon could have come home and not got himself caught up in some kind of trouble. Be it tomb vampires, getting himself on the vampire hating council and pissing off some witch. Lena had to hand it to Damon as he certainly kept life interesting, you could never call Damon boring as he didn't know the meaning of the work boring.
"Ah… Yes, dear old Joanna I rather liked her once you got past freakishly weird mole on her face " Damon said before visibly blanching as he recalled the memory of one of the many antics he and Lena got up during the sixties. It made Lena wonder how on earth the two of them were still alive as they had gotten themselves into some real trouble back in the day.
"Damon, I'm going downstairs to check on Stefan, Oh… I didn't realize that you had company."
A teenage girl with almond skin, brown hair and eyes said as she made her way into the living room or parlour as Damon like to call it. Lena instantly had this weird sense of déjà vu as she knew that face, she had seen a picture of her before, the infamous Katherine Pierce who Lena knew was actually called Katerina Petrova. She was famous, infamous really in the vampire community but rather elusive, many had assumed that Katherine was locked in that tomb but according to Damon not anymore although it did seem like he left some important details out. This did not bode well as Lena knew someone or rather she used to know someone who had some unfinished business with Katerina Petrova…
Lena cocked her head so she could look at Damon. "Anything else you've forgotten to tell me? And this time don't miss anything out Salvatore because you think that I may find them boring and tedious. I came all the way here so the least you could do is tell me everything and preferably with the dash of the truth, other wise I'll grab my bag and leave you here to deal with all the shit load of problems that you called me for help with."
"Did I neglect to mention that Stefan's girlfriend is the exact double of Katherine's and possibly her descendent?" Damon slowly began and Lena let out a rather poorly supressed laugh
"Yeah, you kind of did." Lena slowly replied as she looked the teenager girl over, clearly something was going on here and Dr. Phil would have a field day if he came across any of this. Lena was pretty sure this was what Damon meant when he said she'd want to come to Mystic Falls and now she no longer regretted coming. This was going to be interesting to say the least because this girl wasn't normal. Descendants of a person did not coming out looking like the exact double of that person, Lena would know as she had been keeping an eye on her own family for the last five hundred years. This girl was a Petrova doppelgänger.
"Elena Gilbert this is Evangeline Valcourt, the old friend of mine I told you about whose come to help out with our little Stefan problem and Leni this is Elena Gilbert, Stefan's girlfriend the one who I mentioned in passing." Damon said making introductions and Lena offered a small smile as she had wondered into the last possible thing she wanted to get involve in. These doppelgangers popped up every so often and trouble seemed to always follow them from what Lena had heard, especially in the case of Katerina Petrova.
"Call me Lena, nobody with half a brain has the sense to call me Evangeline anymore!"
"It's nice to meet you Lena, you're the nun right?" Elena questioned, although the second part she said more wearily as it was clear she was taking in Lena's appearance. The blazer, crumpled Aerosmith t-shirt, jeans and the insanely high heels were probably not giving off the best first impression especially the bed hair, when being mistaken for a nun. Lena couldn't help but snort in amusement before turning her attention over to Damon as she knew he had to be the one responsible for this whole nun thing.
"Typical Damon… I can't believe he told you I was a nun, well then again I'm not too surprised as this is Damon we're talking about and he's kind of obsessed with it seeing as I was disguised as a nun the first time we met in 1938. But in all serious I'm not a nun, the closet thing I get to being religious is when I go to church to eavesdrop on confession. Can't blame him though, I rocked his world that night and have been ever since." Lena said with a wicked smile, which caused Damon to scoff.
"You wish Leni!"
"Why would I? We both know it's the truth, some of us are just in denial over this little fact." Lena teased in a knowing manner, whilst Damon had never been in love with her given his obsession with Katherine, there was a time that he had been infatuated with her. Although Damon liked to pretend otherwise for the sake of his male pride.
"A-are you two involved?" Elena questioned and both Damon and Lena looked at her before bursting out laughing in amusement.
"Involved? That would not be the word that I would use… More like intimately acquainted with each other if I had to describe Damon and I. We used to hook up over the years but it was just a casual thing as he was still in love with Katherine and I have my own issues not to mention he's a bit of baby vampire and I didn't have time to be holding his hand, wiping his nose and teaching him the basics of our way of life. So we decided that we were better as friends and so here we are." Lena admitted as her past with Damon was pretty much an open book as she had nothing to hide, and Damon just rolled his eyes. "But that's not important, all that matters is that I'm here now and I'm going to fix everything so take me to Monsieur Stefan, I have missed him so very much!""
"As you wish Leni…"
There was a part of Lena that thought that Damon was joking when he said that Stefan was locked up in the basement for everyone's safety while they tried to detox him off human blood. As Damon wasn't exactly Mr. Serious but apparently this time he was being serious, probably for one of the few times in his life and now Lena stood in the basement of the boarding house with Damon and Elena. Taking a couple of steps forward Lena looked through the bars on the door and into Stefan's cell. It wasn't the nicest place in the world but it would do for now and as Lena looked into the cell she noticed Stefan in the corner and judging by his breathing pattern it appeared that he was sleeping but he sleep seemed very disturbed as he was thrashing about, probably down to the whole going cold turkey off human blood thing. No doubt this whole ordeal was very unpleasant for him, which made Lena glad that Damon had the sense to call her in instead of tackling this himself. Although Lena had never done this before, she had previous dealings with rippers over the centuries but none of them had been like Stefan and none of them had needed help with dealing with their problem or even want to change. Lena was a bit at a loss of what to do but she was certain that she could do this, Stefan needed a strong and firm, yet gentle hand when it came to dealing with his little problem and Damon wasn't exactly the best person to help him in this situation, given how Damon spent most of his time trying to get his baby brother to give up animal blood and start being a proper vampire, not to mention Damon was the least sympathetic person you could ever come across. Damon was no doubt more upset over the inconvenience Stefan's little problem was causing him than the fact his problem had fallen off the wagon. But that didn't really matter, despite his faults Lena knew that Damon cared for Stefan otherwise she wouldn't be here. If you called him out on it Damon would probably deny it but for Lena actions spoke a whole lot louder than words.
"I'm going to need you to open the door for me Damon, whilst I respect the fact that you put Stefan in here so he wouldn't try to harm anyone else I am not going to talk to him through these bars like he's some animal at the zoo and here for my own entertainment. I want to be able to sit down with Stefan when I talk to him." Lena instructed as just because Stefan happened to be a ripper, it didn't mean that he had to be treated with any less respect. This was not the way to be helping him, locking Stefan up because of what happened wasn't going to fix him or his problem with blood. They needed to deal with this problem face on as locking Stefan up in here for a couple of weeks was only going to get him off the blood, it wasn't going to stop him from going on a bender once he was let out.
"Lena, I don't think that's a good idea given the whole 'withdrawal' Stefan may be pretty volatile, so it's probably if you stay out here." Elena explained and Lena allowed herself to laugh at this, it was nice that Elena was worrying about her safety but there was no need. Stefan wouldn't hurt her. Even if he tried to Lena wasn't afraid to put him down for a couple of hours for his own good.
"What's he going to do? Jump me? I appreciate the concern Elena but I am five hundred and eighty two years old whilst Stefan is one hundred and sixty two. I have just over four hundred years on him and with age comes strength when it comes to being a vampire. Even with all that human blood Stefan has been drinking, I'll be perfectly fine given the way I live my life and my diet. But thank you nonetheless." Lena said in a warm manner before turning to Damon and motioning for him to open the door to the cell and with a bemused roll of his eyes Damon ignored the look of disapproval from Elena and opened the cell door as he did, Stefan started to stir.
"As you wish Leni…"
"I need you to leave and Damon and do I need to explain to you yet again that when I say this I mean you needed to be far away from this house? I want you out of eavesdropping range so why don't you go get me something to eat, perhaps something greasy. I must have had something funny last night…" Lena quipped.
"You owe me for this Leni." Damon began and Lena couldn't help but laugh as she pushed a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear as that was a funny thing for Damon to say.
"Me? I owe you for this? That's funny Damon as you're the one who called me and asked me to come all this way to help Stefan. Not to mention you owe me for plenty of other things that I have done for you over the years which I won't bring up as we have company with us and one of them is too young to be hearing of such wicked things but nice try Damon. Now au revoir… " Lena said with a bright smile shooing away Damon and Elena away, once the two of them had left Lena stood in the spot where she standing for a few minutes before proceeding to walk into the cell and look at Stefan's sleeping form. "You can stop pretending to be asleep now, as we both know that you're very much awake Stefan Salvatore. Don't worry, Damon and Elena are very much gone. It's just us now…"
Slowly Stefan sat from the small bed in the cell and looked at Lena with tired eyes, in the however many years that Lena had known him she had never seen Stefan look so much older than his years. This was not a man who was a 162 years old but in the body of a seventeen year old body. His green eyes looked weary and all too familiar to her and just looking into them made Lena's heart ache. Stefan was such a good person and he didn't deserves have to be struggling with something like this everyday. "Hello Leni…"
"Bonjour Stefan, it's been a while hasn't it old friend? I guess I'm to blame for that given how unpredictable I tend to be with my visits but never mind that's in the past. As ever it is very good to see you mon ami!" Lena quipped from the doorway in an attempt to keep the mood rather light and somewhat upbeat.
"You didn't just stop by for a visit, did you? I know you hate small towns with every fibre of that French passion of yours so what did Damon say to you Leni to get you to come back to Mystic Falls?" Stefan questioned and Lena offered him a small smile as she walked in further to the cell and proceeded to sit down next to Stefan. Despite the door to the cell was left open, there was no way Stefan was getting out of here as he would have to get past her and that wasn't happening anytime soon.
"You are correct Stefan, I do very much hate small towns and I did not just drop by unexpectedly. Damon called me in the very early hours of this morning and he told me what happened and asked if I would come down to help and several hours later here I am. My bags are upstairs, your brother has updated me with most of what has been going on in this freaky little town of yours and I've stored away my champagne for a later day. But right now I am all yours Stefan, so let's start talking about why the two of us are down here." Lena prompted with a small nudge, giving Stefan a reassuring smile as she needed Stefan to know that it was okay and that she wasn't here to judge him.
"There's nothing to explain Leni, you know that I lost control again and I almost killed someone. An innocent girl who did nothing wrong but being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I have been fighting this for so long but it's not working, I'm becoming the thing that I feared worse; the true monster inside of me." Stefan wearily stated and Lena sighed, this was typical Stefan behaviour as whilst Damon had no sense of real remorse most of the time his brother on the other hand did. Stefan was always plagued by the things he had done ever since he had become a vampire. It often made him think the worst of himself.
"You are not a monster Stefan, that's just the guilt talking."
"Really? Then what about what happened in Mexico? Before we even met Leni, you knew me by my reputation, by what I had done in Monterrey. How can you seriously tell me that I'm not a monster after what I did there? What I did everywhere else before Lexi came and found me and fixed me again and again." Stefan questioned and for a moment Lena didn't know what to say as Stefan was right. Few vampires knew of Stefan by name but rather by legacy or his vast killings back in the early 20th century. His darkest days as Lena liked to refer to that time period in his life as.
"Is that what you want me to say Stefan? That you're a hideous monster who only causes destruction wherever he goes? That he deserves to be locked away in a cell like this because he can't be controlled? I could say that to you but what difference would it make for me to say that when I know it's not true. Right now, right in front of me I don't see a monster but rather I see a man. The most beautiful man I have ever known, a man whose kindness and compassion knows no bounds but has his struggles. Yes you have done some bad things and yes I did know of the infamous ripper of Monterrey but back then I didn't know the man behind it at the time, however I do now. They may share the same body but they are very two different people." Lena told Stefan in a firm manner before taking a moment to pause before continuing. "There's light and darkness in all of us Stefan and we can be swayed to either side but we can make the final choice and we can fight for that choice and that is what all of this is about. This is you fighting to be the person you want to be. The person I know you to be. I know you Stefan Salvatore and I know your heart and you are a good man, the best man I have ever know and I say that knowing who you are and what you have done. So you will listen to me when I saw I will do whatever I can to help you, getting you back on the 'wagon' as we call it may not be easy but they said third time's the charm."
"No."
Lena laughed as she hadn't been expecting to hear that. "No? Would you care to explain?"
"There's nothing anyone can do Leni, no matter how hard I try I can't control it and then I do something like this, I'm a bad person and people die around me at my hand…"
"Stefan you may have done some terrible things in your time and no one is denying that but that does not make you a bad person? No it doesn't. It makes you human or as human as vampires get. We weren't born like this, all of this happened after we became vampires and yes we hold some responsibility for it but we have to remember that the vampirism is what made us into predators in the first place. It changes our physiology, our mentality… Everyone does something terrible at one point in their life. No on is perfect… Take me for example, I killed my husband's mistress by draining every single drop of blood from her body, then proceeding to cut her heart out and leave it on my husband's desk."
"You've told me this before Leni…" Stefan said and Lena patted Stefan's leg, she had told this story to Stefan many times before but he needed to hear it again. Stefan needed to be reminded that it was okay to make a mistake at times and regret it but not let it dictate your life. You had to learn from them and move on, no matter how much things hurt.
"I know I have and it was a terrible thing for me to do because that woman Marie, could have been there for my family and filled the whole in their heart from my 'death' but I killed her because I was angry about the fact my husband had been cheating on me. It is one of the worst things I have ever done and since then I haven't exactly been a saint… Anyway my point is that will all do bad stuff, some more than others but what makes you different from most Stefan is that you care. Despite being a ripper, you care and show so much remorse for what you have done that stops you being a monster. You have a heart, the sweetest and most gentle heart I know and there is no way you could be a monster with a heart like that. I will admit that I couldn't believe that you were the ripper of Monterrey when I first met you because, you were the kindest man that I have ever come across in all my years. That is the man I know you to be Stefan Salvatore. You are not a monster, you will never be a monster to me."
"Leni–" Stefan began.
"Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Lena interrupted, before Stefan could write himself off.
"Are you quoting Samuel Beckett to me?" Stefan wearily laughed, Lena nodded and gave Stefan a bright smile as it was nice to see some sort of positive emotion on him.
"It seems rather appropriate in our situation, but my point is Stefan you never stop trying to control your blood thirst. Yes, you fell of the wagon but you haven't fallen as hard as you have before. You're getting there Stefan, slowly but surely and if it takes another thirty years of you falling on and off the wagon for you to kick it completely then so be it, I'll stay with you for as long as it takes. I'll be here for you as long as it takes." Lena assured Stefan as she felt that it was important for Stefan to know that he wasn't alone. Whilst Lena wasn't a ripper, she had some experience with them and she cared about Stefan, she could see that this was tearing him up and she wanted to help him. Since her immediate family had passed away a long time ago, Stefan and Damon were the closest thing she had to family.
"Leni… I know you and I know that you don't like staying in the same place for too long, especially small towns. In fact you've made it a rule never to stay in the same place for more than five years and move on you don't come back for at least another sixty years." Stefan stated and Lena bit her lip as that was very much true. Small towns and herself didn't go well together and that dated back to a time where she spent a lot of time with one of the oldest vampires in existence, a man who was mad, bad and dangerous to know and at one point was the love of Evangeline Valcourt's life.
"But this time I have a real reason to stay."