Sorry for the delay on the update and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter :)
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, I JUST OWN MY CHARACTERS AND THEIR STORY LINES.
"Well, aren't you a cougar?" Eva's voice beamed on Ashley's phone as she was cleaning tables on the Grill while talking to her best friend.
"He's like 9 months younger than me." Ashley pointed out to her best friend who was joking about her date.
"So, are you nervous?" Ashley rolled her eyes at her best friend's question.
"He's the one to be nervous. I'm one hot piece of ass." Ashley pointed out as she walked to the bar sitting on one of the bar stools.
"I just hope you get lucky." Ashley could hear her best friend giggle and she resisted to not roll her eyes.
"Yeah, no one is getting lucky. I haven't even told Ric that I'm going to a date tonight and he gets all protective. Plus, I don't sleep with guys in the first date. I wait for five or six dates." Ashley responded to her best friend's comment.
"Does anyone know about your date expect me and Hanna?" Eva asked and Ashley remembered that Damon eavesdropped on her conversation with Felix. She covered her face with her left hand as she though that Damon had told him the truth.
"Alaric's best friend knows as he eavesdropped on our conversation." Ashley replied to Eva as she rested her head at the bar.
"Is Alaric's best friend named Damon?" Ashley frowned at her best friend's words as how she knew Damon. "Because of what Hanna told me when she ran into you in Chicago, he's gorgeous and totally hot. Plus, you had some flirty banter going on."
"That flirty banter is just witty banter. Although, everyone in this town is hot. It's like some Calvin Klein underwear catalog." Ashley replied to her friend who whistled from the other line.
"I should come visit. Look at the eye candy around there." Ashley chuckled at her words and then she looked up at her manager who was motioning her to go take some orders.
"I have to go, my manager is calling me. Bye!" Ashley said goodbye to her best friend who was in Argentina for now.
"Bye." Ashley hanged up the phone and rushed to Robert with a notebook in her hand.
"No more phone-calls in your shift." He warned her and she mimicked as he walked away from her. She got outside and she looked at the first table to see Jeremy, Elena and her uncle. Something hurt inside her as she saw her uncle with two teenagers acting like a family. She knew that it was wrong for her to hold on something stupid like that as he was their only family left. Yet he was her family too and she hated to see how close he was with them. She shook her feelings and faked a smile at them.
"So, what can I get you all?" Ashley asked taking her pen and notebook. While Elena and Jeremy replied to her, Alaric could see right through that fake smile she often mustered on her face. "How about you Ric?" Her voice was way too casual and he knew that something was wrong.
"Bourbon please." He told his niece and she nodded her head at him. She walked away from them and gt inside the Grill. She told the bartender all of their orders and after a few minutes, he came with them. She walked to their tables and heard them talk.
"Well, Anna said it's like being here with all of us, only we can't see her or hear her. And she can't interact with anyone. She's all alone." She heard Jeremy say and frowned her eyebrows.
"I thought we got rid of the ghosts with handling Matt's sister?" Ashley asked as she placed their drinks in the table. Jeremy looked at the dark-haired woman in front of him.
"There is my other ex Anna." Jeremy replied awkwardly earning a look from Ashley.
"How many girlfriends of yours have died?" Ashley asked with a raised eyebrow and then she realized that she was acting insensitive by Jeremy's hurt look. "Sorry." She murmured an apology.
"Vicki could interact. She blew up my car." Alaric changed the subject and looked at Jeremy.
"It's good, she's dead." Ashley pointed out and everyone looked around. Ashley noticed that other people were sitting and she moved to them leaving her uncle and the Gilbert siblings.
Ashley now was inside behind the bar as she was waiting for her shift to be over and her to get ready. She saw one of the other bartenders walk by her.
"Can you please fill on me for a couple of minutes?" Ashley didn't say anything but only moved to the bar just to see that her uncle was already seated in one of the bar stools with a glass of bourbon.
"You should really stop drinking." She told her uncle as she eyed the bourbon glass in front of him before Alaric replied Damon walked up to them.
"We've got trouble." Damon informed them and they both looked up for a second. "Whiskey." He ordered Ashley and she went to get it for hi and placed it in front of him.
"What kind of trouble?" Alaric and Ashley asked in sync as Damon took a place on the bar stool next to him.
"Remember back when we conspired to kill Uncle werewolf Mason Lockwood?" Damon asked Alaric and Ashley looked at them with a raised eyebrow.
"You killed Tyler's uncle?" Ashley asked but the only response she got was Damon rolling his eyes followed by a snarky comment.
"Get over it, Buffy." He then turned to Alaric to talk to him. "I think he's still a little pissed."
"What do you mean pissed?" Ashley asked and Damon turned to look at her. "Isn't he dead?"
"Well, I kinda had a deja vu. I was tied up with chains in the exact chair where I tortured him and then killed him." Ashley frowned at his words. "What, he pissed me off, he was working with Katherine, he knew where the moonstone was and he tried to kill me and my baby bro." Just then Ashley noticed another figure suddenly appeared next to Damon. He looked slim and had an athletic and muscular thing going around him. He had a short dark brown hair and blue eyes. Ashley was way too shocked at how hot this man was and she kept staring at him until her uncle's voice brought her to her senses.
"Mason." Alaric said and Ashley eyed the ghost in front of her.
"God, I miss whiskey." Mason ignored Alaric taking Damon's glass of whiskey and drinking it. After he was done with that, he smashed the glass in Damon's forehead who let a scream in pain while the Ashley who was behind the bar flinched at it. Damon turned to her and her uncle and spoke.
"Told ya." Ashley and Alaric exchanged worried looks as Damon turned to look at Mason.
Mason was still with the three of them and none of them had said anything. The only noise that was heard was Damon texting to someone.
"I am never going to hear the end of that damn necklace." Damon indicated Damon to Elena's necklace that she used to keep around her neck. Mason looked at Damon who was drinking from a shot glass.
"One of you will pay for this, right? Cheers." Mason downed his shot and the others exchanged looks with each-other.
"Let's get to it. I killed you. You want revenge. Get in line." Damon said to the ghost next to him.
"Actually, I want an apology." The answer of Mason made Ashley and Alaric bust into laughter which made Damon glare at them.
"Good luck with that." Ashley commented and Damon turned to smile at her.
"Don't you have a date, Buffy?" Damon asked Ashley and she gaped at him while Alaric turned to look at her.
"You got a date with someone? Do I know him?" Alaric's protective mode was on and Ashley wanted to kill Damon for what he said while Mason and Damon kept talking, Ashley and Alaric got dragged into their own conversation.
"Yeah, he's kinda in your class." Alaric raised an eyebrow at her. "His name is Felix."
"Felix who?" Alaric asked and Ashley remembered that she didn't get his last name. She turned to smile at him who figured it out that she didn't know his last name.
"Good, you don't know his last name." Alaric used his sarcasm making her roll her eyes at him. She was about to say something but Mason's words made her not speak.
"Meet me at the old Lockwood cellar. Bring a shovel." Mason looked at the Saltzmans and then back at Damon. "Come alone." Ashley and Alaric both raised an eyebrow at Mason.
"What, you're going to bury me alive?" Damon asked the ghost who turned to look at Damon.
"Don't tempt me." He told the raven-haired vampire and he walked away. Damon turned to look at Alaric and his niece.
"Well, somebody's going to have fun." Ashley mused at Damon who smiled at her bitterly. "Vampires, check. Werewolves, check. Hybrids, check. Witches, check. Mediums, check. Ghosts, check. Mystic Falls for a small town has more supernatural creatures than humans." Just then the bartender came and touched Ashley in the shoulder making her turn.
"You can go now." He told her and she smiled at him. She waved at her uncle and his best friend and walked away from them to the changing room. She removed her apron and Mystic Grill shirt. She wore her her simple white shirt and closed her locker. She walked out of the changing room and soon out of the Grill. She walked to the apartment on foot and after a couple of minutes she arrived in her apartment. She decided to take a shower first and walked to her bathroom.
She got out of the shower with a towel wrapped around her. She walked to her bedroom and looked at the clothes that she was going to wear in the date. She was going to wear a white crop top that fitted her tightly around her body with really tight black skinny jeans and with a black leather jacket if it would get cold i the night. She wore her all of her clothes and then moved to her mirror. She started to blow dry her hair and after she was done, she began to curl her hair and after she was done, she moved to the make up.
She started to put some conditioner on her face just a little and a little highlighter on the cheeks. She then started to do her eye shadow going for something a little bit darker. After she was done with that she went to her lips and put some red velvet on them. After that, she put some mascara on her eyelashes and she looked at herself in the mirror satisfied with what she was seeing. She then looked down to her feet and remembered that she still didn't decided about her shoes. She sighed getting up from her chair in front of the mirror. She walked to her closet and searched for shoes but she couldn't find any. She then remembered her boots with heel that really looked good. She walked to the a closet that was in the hallway. She opened it and saw two boxes in the top drawer and when had written Ashley's stuff. She jumped to get but she wasn't tall enough. She snorted but she jumped one more time not only dropping her box to the floor but another one. She groaned as she knelt down. She looked at the other box and saw that most things had fallen from it. She started to collect each one of them but she stopped as she saw a photo that she never saw in her life.
The photo was taken in front of her old house in California but there was something unusual about it. In the photo, there was Alaric in his teenage years with a smile across his face, next to him was her mother who looked about 25 and was carrying a baby who wasn't looking at the camera like the rest of them. She was looking at the ground and Ashley knew that it was her from the previous photo she saw. And there was her father with a smile across his face but her father wasn't the odd one. It was the kid that he was carrying that made her frown. It was definitely a boy and he had brown hair. He was wearing a shirt with Popeye on it and it was white combined with a black pants and white sneakers. He was smiling and waving with his hand. Something that really was eerie was that the boy looked a lot like her father. She looked at the photo for a couple of minutes and looked at the clock that it was near time for her date. She closed the box but didn't leave the photo in it, she put it in her jacket's pocket. She got up and put the box in its place and after that, she looked through her box and found her boots and wondered why did she put them there. She put her box in its place and looked at the top drawer. Why didn't they tell her? Was he her older brother?
Ashley sighed and put her boots on, her mind never leaving what she saw a couple of seconds ago. She walked to the door grabbing her phone and keys on the table nearby.
She arrived a little late but either way, she found him waiting outside of the Grill. He was wearing a blue shirt and he had rolled his sleeves. He was wearing blue jeans and white Nike. He spotted her and he smiled at her. He walked over to her checking her out.
"You look beautiful." He complimented her and she smiled. He didn't look at her face
"Eyes are up here." She teased him and he rolled his eyes at her attitude. "So, what are we going to do?"
"Well at first, we're going to eat at the Grill and then join the town in this stupid Illumination Night." He looked at the Town Square and Ashley chuckled at him.
"Let me guess you hate this town events too?" She asked as they walked back inside the Grill and he nodded his head.
"Yeah, it's good that I'm not invited into the Founder's Parties." He replied and she frowned her eyebrows at him.
"Why not? They seem to love them." They sat in one of the tables and he shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, my family is not a founding family. We came here in the 40s while the town was founded in 1800s. To say the truth, the invites have become more frequent with my dad's donation."
"What is your last name?" Ashley asked as a waitress named Wendy walked towards them.
"Reynolds." He replied to her and the waitress asked them for their orders. After they ordered, she turned to look at him
"Like Ryan Reynolds?" She asked and he nodded his head at her.
"Seems like I'm going to be overshadowed by Ryan Reynolds for the rest of my life." He joked and she chuckled at him and he had to say that he loved her smile.
"Well, I'm the most famous Saltzman." She joked and he shook his head.
"You're uncle is the most famous Saltzman as he is a teacher." He pointed out and she rolled her eyes at him. The waitress came with their drinks and told them that the food will come soon. "So, what brought you in a boring town called Mystic Falls?"
"Well, my uncle is living here and I wanted to have a fresh start." Felix raised an eyebrow at her and she continued. "Boyfriend drama." Felix hummed and looked at he.
"You're an only child?" Until that moment, she kept her mid off that photo she found in the apartment and Ashley nodded her head not knowing how to answer it.
"Yeah." She replied with a low voice that Felix didn't notice. "How about you?" She asked as she took a sip from her drink.
"I have five other siblings. Three sisters and two brothers." He replied and Ashley almost choked on her drink at his response. "We just seem to grow like weeds."
"Or your parents are just not too careful." Felix widened his eyes in shock at her response and she smiled at him.
"That's a way to put it and disgust me." He joked and she shrugged her shoulders but a hint of smile appeared on her face. "Where did you live exactly?" He took his drink taking a sip from it
"Suburban L.A." She replied and he was the one to choke now.
"You left L.A for a town like Mystic Falls. Wow, you must really care about your uncle." He commented as he started to drink from hid drink. Ashley just nodded her head and her eyes moved to the pocket that she had left the photo.
Felix and Ashley were now on the Town Square waiting for the lighting ceremony and Ashley was laughing at something that Felix said.
"You mother named one of your sisters Arya because of the character from the book series A Song Of Ice and Fire. Your mom is cool because I happen to love the book series and I'm so excited they're going to make it a TV Show soon. It will air next year." Ashley groaned and he smiled at her.
"You're going to watch the show even through you know what's going to happen?" He asked and she nodded her head at him.
"I can make someone watch it with me and just spoil it." Felix laughed at her and he knew he really liked her from her attitude to her appearance. Just then someone bumped shoulders with Ashley hurting her a little.
"Watch where are you going, buddy." She told the man and he turned to look at the girl that he just bump shoulders with.
"Excuse me." The man raised an eyebrow at the feisty dark-haired girl and she wasn't going to let him do that to her.
"Are you deaf? Because I just said to watch where are you going." She repeated herself with her usual bitchy tune. Felix just stood there amused at her reaction.
"Next time, don't stand in my way and maybe I can watch where am I going." The man snapped at her and Ashley narrowed her eyes at him.
"Really, was I the one to push you?" She asked taking a step forward and Felix decided to step up before something happened.
"Come on Ashley. Let him go." He told her but she didn't budge and neither did the man in front of her.
"You can tell your girl here to keep her mouth shut before it could bring her some trouble." He told Felix and Ashley groaned at the man's words.
"If you want to tell me that, you can say it in my face." The man looked like he wanted to kill her in that moment but Ashley didn't show any sign of fear.
"Robert, come on!" They heard someone call the man's name and he left but he glared at Ashley who didn't mover from her place.
"Aren't you feisty?" Felix commented and Ashley turned to look at him still a little angry at Robert.
"I just hate people like him. Coming in my way." She told him and he laughed a little.
"Well, something was off with him for sure. I've never seen that man in my entire life and this is a small town. Everyone knows everyone." Both of them turned to look into the crowd for the man but didn't found him. Just then they heard Carol Lockwood speaking with a microphone in front of her.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Mr. Fell seems to have been detained, so the history department's very own Mr. Saltzman has agreed to fill in." Ashley raised an eyebrow at the Mayor's words but she ended up applauding with the crow. Alaric walked to the stage and leaned a little to speak. He began to speak and Felix spoke up.
"He's a really nice guy." Ashley turned to look at the boy next to him and she shrugged her shoulders.
"Are you saying that because that you're on a date with his niece?" She asked with a smile and Felix chuckled a little.
"Yeah and that I need an A in his class." He said and Ashley smiled and then she turned her attention to her uncle.
"On behalf of Mystic Falls High School Historical Society, let's light 'em up!" The lanterns that were hanging above everyone's head, Ashley smiled as she looked up but the happy moment was soon ended as a scream was heard. Ashley looked up at a tree and she saw a man covered in blood and probably dead hanging in the tree. She gasped while Felix had an horrified look.
Alaric saw the body of Tobias Fell and he saw his niece and her date he presumed look at it. He rushed to their side and caught Ashley's arms making her almost attack him. She stopped as she saw her uncle right beside her and all she could think was the photo that was in her jacket's pocket.
"Ashley, you two need to go. Something is wrong here." He emphasized the 'wrong' and Ashley completely understood that it was better for her and Felix to go. "Good to see you, Felix."
"You too, ." Felix said with a smile and Ashley took his hand to lead him out of the crowd and they walked away. Felix looked at Ashley confused of the situations.
"What is actually going on?" He asked her and Ashley looked at the road.
"My uncle is just worried that something might happen. He's really protective." She lied to him knowing that there was supernatural involved with what happened to Tobias Fell back there.
"That's gonna be trouble." Felix added and Ashley turned to look at him.
"Gonna be trouble?" She asked as he referred to the future and he was taken back by her question.
"well, I hope there's gonna be a second date and another one after that." He replied a little awkwardly making her chuckle. He scratched the back of his neck and she smiled at him.
"Well, there's gonna be a second date because I happen to like you." She told him and he smiled at her. He was handsome she could give you that. He was tall, dark and handsome. He had dark brown hair that were almost black but his eyes made her more interested. He had blue eyes but as she looked at Felix's eyes, she though about someone who had icy blue eyes. She shook the thought out of her head and smiled at Felix.
"Can you drive me home?" She asked him with a smile and he nodded his head.
Ashley walked to her apartment as her date with Felix was over. She walked to the couch and slumped on it. She kicked off her boots and turned on the T.V.
She liked Felix a lot and he was a really nice guy who could make her laugh. Yet she hated in that moment that she was looking at him, she thought of someone else. Maybe it was the blue eyes but she doubted herself of why did she think of the raven-haired vampire as she looked at her date. She decided to shake it off and watch T.V. But that wasn't the only thing that bugged her. It was the photo that she had inside her pocket that was making her question everything in her life.
Who was the boy in that photo? Was he her brother? Why didn't anyone mention him to her? Why didn't her mother tell? Why never found any photo of him until now? What happened to him? Did he die with her father in that car accident? Was that really what happened to her father? Or was it just a lie?
It had been an hour since Ashley came back from her dead and sh couldn't take it anymore. She had to go find out what really happened to the boy she presumed. She picked up the phone and dialed her uncle's number.
"Hello?" He asked but Ashley didn't have any time for greetings. She was in a hurry and really wasn't in the mood.
"Where are you?" She asked him as got up from the couch and looked for the shoes she just kicked. She took one and wore it and then found the other one.
"Heading to the the Lockwood cellars." He replied and Ashley knew exactly where he was. When she went to jog with her uncle one time, he told her the place before staring to jog again. Ashley hanged up the phone and she walked out of the apartment. She didn't have a car but she didn't mind running a little although she had heels on. Alaric called while she ran towards the Lockwood cellar but she didn't answer. After a couple of minutes, she walked to Lockwood cellar and descended the stairs just to find Alaric and Damon there.
"I knew you would come." Alaric said to her and she shrugged her shoulders while Damon eyes the girl looking at what she was wearing.
"What is going on?" Ashley asked and Alaric turned his flashlight on and she saw a hole in the wall.
"Me and Mason found this secret tunnel." Damon replied and Alaric got in there. Damon motioned to Ashley to follow her uncle which she did. Damon was the last one to enter. As they walked further, Damon's eyes moved to Ashley's back as the jeans she was wearing showed her back perfectly. Damon looked away as he felt guilty of looking at his best friend's niece like that. Yet he looked at her again but this time he was looking curious she was looking at the walls that surrounded them. Just then they arrived the place that he couldn't reach anymore and he looked as Ashley and Alaric stepped further while he was stuck out. Ashley turned to look at him at why he was stopping.
"I can't go past it." Damon informed her and she gave him a look that he couldn't read before she reached her phone and turned her flashlight on. "So was Mason screwing with me, or is there something in there?" Ashley and Alaric looked around the room with their flashlights as Damon looked at them. "Ric. Ric? Buffy?" Ashley was speechless as she saw symbols and drawings surround the walls as she had never seen those things before.
"I found something." Alaric spoke up as Ashley took a step forward to look at the drawings.
"What is it?" Damon asked as he tried to look but he couldn't.
"I have no idea..." Alaric trailed off as he kept staring at the drawings in front of him.
Ashley had waited for Damon to leave the apartment for her to question Alaric about the photo. Damon didn't stay long and Ashley walked to look at Alaric.
"Have any idea what the drawings are?" Ashley asked as she walked towards her uncle who shook his head and turned to look at her. "You probably have some idea about something." Alaric frowned at his niece and Ashley pulled something from her jacket pocket. "Can you please shed me some light on this photo?" Ashley showed Alaric the picture and Alaric stood there totally unprepared and speechless. He knew that she would have found about it but not right now. He looked up at his niece who looked nothing but angry at him. "Hmm?" Alaric gulped down as he stared at his niece who crossed her arms.
Sorry for the late update but I really didn't have the time and I really hope you enjoy it. Thank you fro your favorites and follows too. Next chapter, Ashley will learn the truth and there are gonna be some Dashley (Damon and Ashley. I think that's their ship name.) moments ;). Felix is played by Brant Daugherty. He plays Noel Kahn in Pretty Little Liars for the people who watch the show. He is way more a decent person that Noel who in the show is kinda neutral.
NicoleR85: I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter and I hope you enjoy this chapter too.
galwidanatitud: Yeah and it won't be the last time either that she will make him analyze that. We found out a little about Felix this episode and we will find more on the next ones to come.
BrittStar1199: There is not much Damon and Ashley in this chapter but the other one will be full with them with their banter.
ThisIsMeAndYou: They aren't going to be friends but they will tolerate each-other for the sake of the people around them. But there is gonna be a little rivalry but is not all centered on who gets Damon.
I hope you guys all enjoy this chapter and the other one will be updated the next Saturday.
