The Miss Mystic Falls Runner-Up and the Frog
part three
...
After Stefan left, Elena found herself breathing a little easier. With everything that was going on, they couldn't just go back to how things had been, but at the same time she didn't know how to be around him when they weren't exactly together.
Thankfully there was this whole frog situation to deal with, so she didn't have to feel weird and awkward (and feel guilty about feeling weird and awkward) for long.
"Okay, I'm going to go upstairs, and work on this," Bonnie said following Stefan's departure.
And then it was just Elena and Caroline. They both looked down at Damon, who was sitting in Elena's hand. She was almost getting used to handling him. She'd never given much thought to what holding a frog would feel like, but she would have assumed they were all slimy and rubbery. Damon-the-frog was just kind of soft, and a bit squishy, but not as gross as she'd first feared.
"So I guess we're on frog-sitting duty," Caroline said after a moment.
"You think we should feed him or something?" Elena said doubtfully.
"Do not look at me, I don't do bugs."
"You can hunt and kill a bunny rabbit but not a few flies?"
"Essentially, yes."
"Big help, Caroline."
"Look, okay, frogs live in like ponds and swamps, right? Maybe he needs water. I could totally do water."
"To drink, or to swim in?"
"Both? Like I'm an expert on frogs suddenly? I don't know."
"Well, okay, it's probably a good idea." Or the best one they had, anyway.
In the kitchen she found the stopper for the sink and filled it with a few inches of water.
Damon gave her what she interpreted as a dubious look with his large eyes as she pulled him away from her sleeve and held him over the sink. "It's your natural environment, probably. Just try it."
She dropped him in the water, and she and Caroline stood there for a few minutes, watching as he paddled around.
Beside her, Caroline twitched.
A few seconds passed and there was another twitch, more noticeable this time.
After that there was a muffled snort, and then Caroline was clapping both hands over her mouth before turning and fleeing the room.
"Caroline!" Elena called, following her friend's hasty retreat.
She found her by the foot of the stairs, leaning on the banister as she laughed so hard she wasn't even making any sound.
It was contagious; Elena found herself smiling as she tried to get Caroline to explain. "What is it? What?" she laughed
"I - hnh - Bonnie - and - he -" was as far as she got.
"Maybe try a whole sentence?"
Caroline swallowed down hard on another giggle fit and tried again. "Bonnie turned him into a frog, Elena. A frog! Like some wicked witch in a kid's story! Oh my god, and he's so cute - with his little feet and his big googly eyes? And it's Damon and it's just killing me not to laugh like every five seconds so I just, I just need a minute, okay? I want to help but there's only so much I can take."
"Caroline -" She couldn't help it, she was laughing in earnest too, now. It was funny. She really did feel bad for Damon, going through this, but that didn't change the fact that it was completely hilarious.
"But we just can't - we shouldn't laugh like this in front of Damon," Caroline added.
"No," she agreed. "That'd be kind of mean."
"Like of course it's all well and good for Stefan to completely crack up about this, god knows the boy could stand to lighten the mood for once - but even Damon won't kill his own brother. Me, on the other hand, he barely tolerates on a good day. And he is going to be so way beyond cranky when he turns back, and I really don't want any of that directed at me."
Elena sobered. It suddenly wasn't so funny any more. "You know Damon wouldn't hurt you, not now."
"I'd rather not risk it. Though I guess it's okay for me, I'm not the one who did this to him."
"He's not going to hurt Bonnie, either," she said firmly. Not if she had anything to say about it, anyway. "We won't let him."
"Right, well, thank god for all of us we've got you around, Elena."
She frowned, not liking what Caroline was implying, but not really knowing how to argue the point, either. She sighed. "We should go check on him."
"Maybe he'll be the first frog in history to drown, and solve all our problems. Or one problem, anyway."
"Caroline."
"On the other hand, I guess this is more entertaining than my Spanish homework."
They went back into the kitchen and stood over the sink again to see Damon performing a melancholy breaststroke from one side to the other.
Elena pressed her lips together, stifling a giggle. Caroline nudged her. Together they turned away.
"Not helping."
"No."
...
"So if Bonnie's the wicked witch," Caroline said a few minutes later as they sat in the kitchen, still waiting for Bonnie, "I guess it's a shame Damon doesn't have a fairy godmother. Or a princess to kiss. Elena! You should totally kiss him, so many fairytales can't all be wrong."
"You know, normally I'd say, 'no that's silly', but I think we passed the point of silly a while ago."
"No, wait. Hang on, you can't kiss him."
"Well, I really doubt it would work, anyway."
Caroline waved a hand. "No, I mean - the movie, don't you remember? We saw it together opening weekend. When Tiana kisses the frog, she gets turned into a frog, too!"
"Yeah, I don't think that will happen."
"Nothing will happen," Bonnie said. They both looked over as she entered the room. "This is real life, not a fairytale, guys. It's my spell, a kiss won't work to reverse it, even if you were a princess, Elena. Sorry, it's not going to be quite that easy."
"Tell me you can do something, though," Elena said.
She held out a notepad she'd been using to organise her thoughts. "Okay, look, I'm pretty sure these are the words I spoke: 'pri-'"
"Hey!" Caroline yelped, cutting her off before she got more than a syllable out. "Don't just go saying it, Bonnie, jeez."
"They're just words, Caroline. You have to direct the power to make it work. You have to have the power in the first place."
"Whatever. Let's just not risk it, okay?"
"Fine. I'm just saying, I think I'm ready to try."
Elena jumped out of her chair. "That's great, where should we do it?"
"Somewhere with enough space for him to get a lot bigger, suddenly."
"How about the backyard?"
"We were outside when we did the first spell, so that might actually help."
"Did you hear that?" Elena said, leaning over the sink and reaching in to pick Damon up out of the water. "Bonnie's ready to try the reversal spell." Frog in hand, she lead the way to the back door.
She glanced back at Bonnie, who was following more slowly. She looked kind of anxious. "Bonnie?" Elena prompted.
"No, I'm ready. It's not that complicated. I did it, I can undo it. Shouldn't be a problem."
...
It didn't work.
Three times Bonnie tried, each time with no result at all other than Damon growing more visibly agitated and Bonnie becoming increasingly baffled by what was - or rather, wasn't - happening.
It wasn't her powers - as a test, she easily made a bunch of dead leaves hover in mid-air with her mind. But the spell to return Damon to his normal self just wasn't working.
Bonnie didn't seem to have any answers and was getting frustrated and upset after a while.
Damon didn't seem to be doing much better - although there were no sudden leaps at anyone's jugulars, which somehow made it worse. If he wasn't even lashing out he had to be feeling pretty hopeless by now.
"It's okay," Elena said finally, knowing they weren't getting anywhere. "Look, Jenna will be home soon, so... I don't think we'll get this fixed tonight. Why don't you guys go home? We'll try again tomorrow. I mean, maybe you're just tired, Bonnie, you've been doing a lot of magic lately."
She nodded reluctantly. "I'll work some more on the spell tonight - go over everything. Maybe there's something I missed."
"And I'll..." Caroline shrugged. "I'll be rooting for you? There's really not much for me to do in this situation."
"Sorry," Bonnie tossed Damon's way, nervously, as they all got to their feet.
Elena picked him up to take him back inside, pausing to drop him back in the sink as they passed by the kitchen. "Don't worry, it's just for one night," she told him before making her way through to the living room where Caroline was gathering her things together.
She saw the two girls out, and had just returned to pick up her own homework stuff which was still strewn around the couch and coffee table when the front door opened again. This time, it was Jenna and Jeremy coming in.
"Hey," Jenna greeted her, "We just saw Caroline and Bonnie leaving."
"Uh, yeah, study session," she said.
"What do you feel like for dinner?" her aunt continued, as she made her way into the kitchen.
Too late, Elena realised what was about to happen.
There was a yelp of surprise from Jenna. Elena was already moving before Jenna came hurrying out around the counter. "Elena? Why is there a frog in the kitchen sink?"
Elena opened her mouth and paused. Why was there a frog in the kitchen sink? "Because... of a school project. Biology."
Jenna obviously wasn't convinced, but then a knowing look crossed her face and she winked exaggeratedly. "Oh, you know I had a project like that in tenth grade science - just please don't get suspended for liberating future dissection specimens like I did. By which of course I mean, don't get caught. Way to have principles, Elena." She smiled proudly. "But maybe you could move the little guy to the bathroom?"
"Um, sure. Don't worry, it's just for tonight. I was thinking I'd find somewhere nice along the river to let him go tomorrow."
"Okay, well I'm going to start dinner. I'm thinking it's a mac-and-cheese kind of night, just warning you. Although, actually, I might clean the sink, first."
"Sorry." She hurried over to retrieve Damon, carrying the dripping amphibian in both hands as she headed for the stairs.
She ran right into Jeremy.
He eyed her suspiciously. "Frog liberation?"
"Can I explain later? Kind of busy here."
"Yeah, looks like he's trying to make a getaway."
Damon was struggling in her hands and she hurried up the stairs, into her room, and deposited him on the bed. "What? What's wrong?" she demanded, as if he could answer.
"I know this is frustrating for you, but don't worry, okay? Bonnie will fix the spell, and you'll be back to normal in no time." She didn't know why she felt such a need to reassure him. She'd felt oddly protective ever since first seeing him like this. She didn't want to question it too much, simply adding, "You have to know we won't leave you like this."
The frog just sat there on her bedspread. He looked depressed, she thought. Or maybe hungry?
"All right. Why don't l open the window, maybe you could try and catch a moth or something." She just shrugged when he eyeballed her indignantly, and went to open the window. "You drink blood, don't even try to tell me you're too picky for a bug or two."
She turned back, facing the room. She'd left her books in the living room, and didn't feel like going all the way back downstairs for them. But she had a report to work on for English and all she needed for that was her laptop, which was charging on the floor. She grabbed it and sat with one leg tucked under her on the window seat, laptop open in front of her, and got to work.
Belatedly she looked up. "I have homework to do," she told Damon. "You'll just have to entertain yourself, sorry."
Somehow she managed to concentrate on what she was doing - English was her favourite subject, so that helped - and it was some time later that she looked up briefly and realised the frog was nowhere in sight.
"Damon?" she called, checking behind her and down on the floor beside her. She shook her head before returning to her work, muttering, "You better not be in my underwear draw again."
Suddenly the frog landed on her leg, making her jump. As if she needed more proof that he was, indeed, Damon Salvatore, there it was.
"Did you need something?" she asked dryly, as he crawled to her knee and then flopped to the seat in front of her. He made his way forward until he was climbing onto the laptop.
She sat back, hands away from the keyboard, as she realised what he was doing. He was typing. It was a slow, laborious process, as he worked to hit one key correctly at a time without landing on any others. Eventually he managed to relay a simple message.
th is s7ux
'This sucks', she interpreted. She sighed. "I know, I'm sorry."
"Elena! Come down, dinner's ready!" Jenna suddenly yelled from the bottom of the stairs.
"I have to go," she said reluctantly. "But you can keep using my laptop, I'll be back in a little while. And seriously think about the insect thing - just don't fall out the window. Or get picked off by an owl or something."
Half an hour later when she returned from eating dinner and helping clean up afterward, he had a new message waiting for her on the screen, this time in carefully written, bold capslock:
I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DIDN'T EVEN TRY KISSING ME.
"What? Damon, this isn't a Disney movie," she told him, retaking her seat. He continued to regard her with his huge, judging, frog eyes. She sighed. What would it hurt? "Fine, whatever, but it won't work."
She held out her hand, and once he had crawled on eagerly she brought him up near her face. "If I turn into a frog too, I'm going to kill you," she told him. And then she lightly pecked his cold little head.
She quickly deposited him on the floor, and waited to see if anything happened.
It didn't.
After a moment, Damon hopped back up to side of her leg, crawling from there up to the seat and back to the keyboard. Instead of starting a new message he pressed on the backspace button until most of the previous line was erased so that it just read, 'I CAN'T BELIEVE'. Then he started typing again.
She watched, fascinated, to see what he was writing this time. Eventually the new message read:
I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT WORKED
She frowned. "It didn't work."
ORLY, Damon typed.
"What -" she paused. Her jaw dropped. "Did you just do that to get me to kiss you?"
She didn't know how a frog managed to smirk, but manage it, he did.
"That's it, you're going in the bathroom."
...
She tried to get back to her homework but was finding it difficult to concentrate.
The truth was, she was a little worried about the situation. What if Bonnie couldn't reverse the spell? Damon couldn't live as a frog forever, it was too cruel. Maybe for now he was as much his old, irritating self as ever, but that wouldn't last.
What were they going to do if they really couldn't turn him back?
She had no answers. She was kind of feeling a little bad about locking Damon in the bathroom, however. Although it was easier to finish her report without Damon hogging the keyboard.
Some time later there was a commotion from the other side of the bathroom door. Jeremy was in there, by the sound of it. She was just getting up when the door handle rattled and then he knocked.
"Elena, your crazy frog just attacked me! I need to pee, man, it's late and I shouldn't have to deal with this."
She unlocked the door and opened it to find Jeremy looking annoyed, with Damon hanging off the front of his t-shirt.
"Fine, I'll take him. Sorry."
She didn't even have to reach out, Damon just crossed the distance between her and Jeremy with a nonchalant leap. He quickly tangled himself in her hair, apparently his favourite thing to do now.
Jeremy's eyes narrowed. "It's not a normal frog, is it?"
"Um, not really."
"Do I need to know about this?"
Damon bit her ear. Wincing, she yanked him out of her hair. "How about once it's over I'll tell you and we'll really laugh about it." She gave Damon a pointed stare, daring him to bite her again.
Jeremy sighed. "Whatever."
When they were alone again, Elena put Damon back down on the window seat and straightened, hands on her hips.
"I know you're upset," she said, "But there's really not much we can do tonight. I'm going to go to bed, okay?"
But he was already back at the laptop, starting a new message. The process took a while so she went to grab pyjamas and took her turn in the bathroom after Jeremy was done.
The words on the screen when she came back over to look were surprising.
I KNOW Y SPELL DIDNT WORK
She stared at him. "You do? Wait, is that why you bugged Jeremy, so he'd bring you in here?"
He was already typing again. He was actually getting faster as he had more practice at it, and it wasn't long before she read:
WITCH IS AFRAID
"'Witch is afraid?'" she repeated. "Bonnie's afraid? Why do you think that?
OF ME
"She's afraid of you." She thought back to her conversation with Caroline and understood what he was saying. "She's afraid of what you'll do when you're back to normal again?" His small head bobbed up and down for yes. "But what does that have to do with the spell? Unless... Oh." Slowly she reached out and moved him off the keyboard so she could close the laptop. "It's okay, I understand. And you know what you need to do, right?"
He nodded once more. Then he moved close to her hand and bit lightly at her thumb. She didn't know if that was meant to seem as affectionate as it did, or if he was merely trying to prompt her into action right then and there, she wasn't sure.
"Tomorrow, okay? A cranky, sleep-deprived witch is not your friend right now. I'm going to go to sleep." She went to turn down the covers and climbed in.
She checked quickly for Damon again but saw he hadn't moved from his spot on the window seat, watching her.
She turned off the light.
"Good night, Damon," she said.
It was a strange thing, but she felt oddly comforted knowing he was there watching over her, even now.
