"What are you doing here?" Tyler asked angrily, remembering the last time he ran into Damon and what happened.
"I could ask you the same thing? But I guess I don't really care," Damon said looking bored. "But listen. I actually want to talk to you."
"Excuse me, I don't believe we've met," Rio said suspiciously, not liking the tone Damon was taking with Tyler. "I'm Rio, his brother."
"Damon Salvatore. I'm sure you've met my obnoxious younger brother recently," Damon said shrugging his shoulders.
"Why do you need to talk to me?" Tyler asked nervously.
"Well the last time we talked, our conversation ended abruptly, and quite rudely I may add. I just wanted to finish it up," Damon said gesturing toward the hospital. "In private if you don't mind."
"I'm afraid he's unavailable at the moment," Chloe said, butting in. "We're all heading home and I don't feel like hanging around this hospital one second longer."
"Yeah, but I'm not really interested in how you feel," Damon said briskly at Chloe.
"Don't talk to her like that," Tyler snarled at Damon.
"Easy, Tyler," Rio snapped. "We're leaving," he said angrily at Damon and grabbed Tyler by the shoulder and led him to the car.
"Still touchy I see," Damon mumbled as he headed toward the doors. But before he reached them, they opened up, revealing Jeremy, Stefan, Alaric, and Jenna.
They all stopped, surprised to see Damon there—especially Stefan.
"What are you doing here, Damon?" Stefan asked confused.
"Didn't get my text, little brother?" Damon said shaking his head. "Thought you'd be busy elsewhere by now," he said wagging his eyebrows.
"No matter, I just thought I'd drop by and check on the history teacher, but it looks like he's free," Damon said motioning toward Rick.
"Why would you check on Rick?" Jenna asked, being the only one of them confused. "You're not even a student? And how did you even know he was here?
"Well, I know that my brother speaks highly of him and as he was leaving the house to go assist Jeremy in giving you wonderful people a ride, he told me what happened to him. I came to wish him well and see if Stefan needed any help," Damon said, making things up as he went along and smirking at Jenna.
"Ok…"Jenna said slowly. "You just like popping up randomly, don't you?"
"Random is my middle name…anyways, it seems as if everything's under control," he said, turning to Stefan and giving him a look.
"Yeah, we're all set to go. Do you need a ride, too?" Jeremy asked looking around.
"As much as I would love to join you and sing a rendition of the wheels on the bus, I'm actually heading someplace else," Damon said. "But I need to steal my brother away for a minute if you don't mind."
Jeremy nodded and Jenna and Alaric followed him to the car.
"Why aren't you watching Elena?" Stefan hissed as they got out of earshot. "You said you would help me with keeping her safe."
"I didn't promise to just drop everything I was doing at the last minute because you decide to run some errands," Damon replied back coolly. "Next time something big goes down, how about some warning."
"I'm not going to argue with you here, Damon. I'd like to get back and make sure Elena's safe," Stefan said shaking his head and looking worried.
Damon rolled his eyes and started walking away. Before he got far he turned around. "Oh and Stefan, Elena's a big girl. She can take care of herself."
The front stairs of the house creaked as Elena followed Katherine through the front doors. "Don't you have to be invited in here?" she asked.
"There are no human owners of this house. I don't need one," Katherine murmured looking around. "It's been a long time since I've been in here…"
Elena found it really strange that Katherine actually seemed to show some emotion that was other than hostile. She actually looked nostalgic as she continued to glance around the rooms and drink in the details.
"When was the last time you were here?" Elena asked as she reached out and stroked the dusty banister that led up to a grand staircase that had seen better days.
"When I died," Katherine responded without pause. "I did have quite a life before I changed. I wouldn't say better than the one I have now, but it was fun."
"So this was the house you grew up in?"
"No. I said this was the Pearce mansion…my maiden name was Muriella," Katherine said shaking her head at the shocked look on Elena's face.
"You were married! But you're like, 17," Elena said in surprise.
"You forget that in my time women were getting married as young as 14…" she said. "I find it disgusting these days that they allowed such a thing back then, but then was then and now is now."
"Do Stefan and Damon know that you were married?" Elena asked curiously. "Do they know about this place?"
"The funny thing is no, they don't. I've actually never indulged with anyone where I came from," Katherine said. "You would be the first. Even Emily and Pearl didn't know."
"Then why tell me of all people. I don't understand," Elena said, floored by the fact that no one knew of Katherine's beginnings.
"At the end of the story, you'll understand why," Katherine said with a grin. "Since it'll be a while, let's go in the living room and find you somewhere to sit before you pass out."
"I'm not going to pass out," Elena answered defiantly, but followed Katherine into the next room. She was a tiny bit grateful that she would be able to sit. She wouldn't admit that standing took a lot of effort.
Elena walked in and took in a large room with long, open windows framed by heavily dusted curtains that were drawn to the side. One side of the room held a fireplace complimented by two moldy, moth-eaten arm chairs. In the center of the room were two sofa's in patterns of yellow and blue. The floor itself was all wood, which groaned in protest under Elena's feet as she walked.
"I'd light a fire, but I'm not that considerate," Katherine said as she paced the room, looking at it in the same manner she had the entryway. "And just so you're clear, just because I'm going to tell you my story doesn't mean I care for your well-being. I'm have full intentions of killing you one day," she said with a snarl.
"Likewise," Elena said defensively, brushing off one of the armchairs and sitting in it. She felt a little better that Katherine said one day and not today, but that didn't necessarily mean anything when it came to Katherine.
Slowly, Katherine made her way over to Elena and took a seat across from her in the armchair. For Elena, it felt eerie because here both of them were sitting face to face across two armchairs, a mirror of each other. She guessed it was good that Katherine didn't light a fire because then it would have been really creepy.
Katherine smiled, sensing the same eerie tension Elena felt, but crossed her legs and put her head back on the chair. The dirtiness of it didn't seem to faze her.
Elena was about to ask her a question when Katherine decided to start talking.
"I'm not going to bore you too much with details of my life before marriage. I'm going to tell you the bits and pieces that were important and that led up to the person you see in front of you today," Katherine said smoothly, and then she laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"It's just that my story starts the same as my last one," she said with a wink. "It all began with two men…"
Bonnie looked on distractedly as Caroline tried on her millionth skirt of the day. "How about this one?" she asked Bonnie.
"I liked the blue one better," Bonnie said quickly.
"Yeah, I think I liked that one better too. Are you bored? You so look like you want to bolt from the room," Caroline said commenting on Bonnie's distant look.
"No, of course not. Sorry, I've just been distracted lately and just worried about some things," she said honestly.
"What are you worried about?" Caroline asked confused.
"I don't know, random things I guess. You getting hurt, Elena and her family getting hurt. The wolf attacks…there's just so much going on," Bonnie said sadly.
"Well the important thing is that Elena and I are just fine. And my mom is looking into the wolf thing. She'll take care of it. It's what she does best," Caroline said smiling. "So stop worrying so much and try to have a little fun, alright?"
Bonnie sighed and tried to agree. "You're right…I guess I'll go try on that cute set of capri's over there. They might make my ass look great," she said with a laugh.
"Bonnie, any pair of pants make your ass look great," Caroline said rolling her eyes.
Bonnie grinned and grabbed the pair, heading to the dressing room. She tried them on and admired herself in the mirror. "Nice," she said. Before she took them off, she rifled through her purse, looking for her chap stick. Her hands grazed over a pair of earrings left in there when suddenly her vision dimmed and an image hit her.
"I'm here to make sure history doesn't repeat itself," came Katherine's voice in the vision, her fangs extracted.
Elena looked on alarmed, and backed away from the dusty room she was in. "It won't," she replied carefully.
"That's why I'm here," Katherine said with a smile. "And now you know why I brought you here," she said walking closer.
The vision ended and Bonnie slumped against the dressing room stool. "What was that?" Bonnie said gasping. "Elena!" she said in alarm.
Caroline responded from the booth next door, "She here?" she asked in confusion.
Ignoring Caroline, Bonnie dialed Elena's number, worried about what she saw.
"Come on, come on," she said as the phone continued to ring. "Damn it," she said as it went to voicemail.
She tried again by calling the house but again came up at a dead end.
"What are you doing in there, Bonnie? Are the jeans not fitting? I could get you another size," she added helpfully.
"No, it's not that. I just, hold on," she told Caroline as she scrolled through her phone. She didn't really know who else to call. She didn't have Jeremy or Stefan's number for that matter. Then a thought occurred to her. She didn't like it, but it was worth a shot.
Getting out of the capri's, she got dressed in a hurry and bounded out of the room, nearly knocking Caroline over.
"What's your deal, Bonnie? You're starting to freak me out here," Caroline said, taking in Bonnie's wide eyes.
"I need to use your phone," she said urgently.
"What's wrong with yours?" Caroline asked as she dug through her purse to find it.
"Nothing. I just need to call someone and you have the number," Bonnie said impatiently.
"And who would that be?" she asked curiously.
Caroline handed Bonnie the phone and immediately she began scrolling through, hoping the number was still in there.
"Damon," she said, both in response to Caroline's question and the relief she felt at seeing the number still there.
Hope you like the direction I'm going so far. Don't forget to review Please. Cheers.