History Repeating

"Wait," I said, stopping her mid-rant. "Have you at least spoken with her?"

"No," Caroline retorted a little more than a touch defensively. "I'm mad at her. She needs to make the first move."

I rolled my eyes discreetly, not wanting her to see.

"Caroling, I don't think she's been at herself lately," I explained gently, thinking of the brief glimpse I had gotten of her. She hadn't looked well, and I was concerned. Her face was wan, and she had a constantly pinched sort of expression on her face, her eyes tired and troubled. "Why don't you put your little row behind you and move on?"

"She's a thief, that's why! I gave her my necklace and she refuses to give it back."

"A necklace," I repeated dumbly. "You're in a tiff over an accessory?"

Actually, there was something oddly familiar about that…I couldn't put my finger on it though because I was too preoccupied with the whole Damon-killed-Lexi-and-Stefan-wanted-to-kill-him thing. How Elena managed for multiple seasons, I will never know.

"It's a matter of principle," Caroline uttered a tad tetchily, and I didn't bother being discreet as I rolled my eyes again.

"If principle was what it really came down to, Caroline, you wouldn't be asking for the necklace back at all. Who gives someone a present and asks for it back? Mind you, it's hardly gracious of her to hold on to it, but can you really claim the moral high ground here?"

She frowned at me.

"Just whose side are you on?" She asked petulantly, and I laughed.

"Neither, darling. I love you each far too much to choose!"

She gave me a bit of a funny look and then shook it off, swatting the back of my head lightly as a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. The bell rang somewhere in the background and I said a quick, cheery goodbye and hurried to class.

I noticed Bonnie wasn't there as soon as I walked in and was quite anxious for a few minutes, hardly noticing the absence of the usual substitute we'd had since Tanner's death. She scurried in at the last second which soothed my nerves only a little, and was immediately followed by…oh dear.

"Good morning, everyone…" That man said as he strode to what would henceforth be his desk.

Our new history teacher had arrived, and there was more than a hint of feminine appreciation in my gaze as I watched him slip off his jacket and turn to the board, picking up a piece of chalk as he made his introduction.

"Alrighty," He drawled, and wrote his name on the board. "Alaric Saltzman."

I bet you are, I thought cheekily, pleased to at last have someone safe to ogle.

"It's a mouthful, I know." He excused with a grin. "It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue…"

I watched him clasp his hands together as he spoke and decided fairly certainly that I could manage it. Making his name roll off the tongue, that is. I could definitely manage that.

"Saltzman is of German origins. My family emigrated here in 1755 to Texas; I, however, was born and raised in Boston." He continued, blissfully oblivious to my train of thought. "Now, the name Alaric belongs to a very dead great grandfather I will never be able to thank enough. You'll probably want to pronounce it A-la-ric, but it's A-lar-ic, okay? So you, can call me Ric."

Shame, really, I rather liked Alaric, but if you say so, darling!

"I'm your new history teacher."

I smirked in my seat, glancing over at Bonnie to mouth a smart comment at her and frowning when I realized how terrible she looked. Well, not terrible, she really was a lovely girl, but, oh, you know what I mean! She looked exhausted, as if she'd been up for ages with horrible nightmares or-

Oh.

'Are you alright?' I mouthed to her though I already know the answer. Her eyes catch mine for a brief moment and grow troubled…she looks so very tired. I pity her. Having gotten an opening line out of the way, so to speak, I jump right ahead to voicing, or rather, mouthing my suspicions. 'Nightmares?'

Her eyes widened almost in fright and she looked hurriedly away from me. I frowned. Obviously, that was a yes. Albeit in an oh-my-God-how-did-you-know sort of way.

I was still watching her when she looked back to me, something like sudden realization spreading across her face. She opened her mouth as if she were going to try to communicate her epiphany to me and instead started rummaging through her bag for a pen.

I watched her scribble and scratch out, scribble and scratch out. Finally, she slid the notepad she was writing on to the edge of her desk.

I keep dreaming of this woman and seeing her everywhere. Do you know anything?

I considered this carefully, wracking my brains to figure out what was going on with her. It hit me suddenly and I mimicked her method of communicating, flipping to the first clean page available in my doodling book.

Have you been sleepwalking?

The rattled look on her face told me I'd hit the mark, and instead of waiting for a proper response from her, I wrote her another message. I was pretty sure I knew what was going on with her, but I needed time to be absolutely certain of how to help her without risking messing up the general order of things.

I think I can help. I'll try, but my dreams haven't been very clear. Talk at lunch?

She nodded slowly after a moment, and I turned my attention back towards Alaric.

My classes before lunch passed in a flurry of utter tediousness (I had been over being in 'high school' since the first day I had been forced to attend. I was twenty-three for God's sakes, being forced to return to secondary, or the American equivalent thereof, was torture). Bonnie was quiet when we met up and headed to her car, as if she desperately wanted to say something but didn't know where to start.

She got over it quickly once we were seated at a table outside in the fresh air.

"And then I ended up at the remains of old Fells Church before I woke up back in the woods," she confided in me gravely, and took a moment to process this. The church, it was significant, but how?

Oh, yes. It had been the place where all the vampires had been…yes. I remembered.

"Humor me for a moment." I requested kindly. She nodded, so I continued. "The spirit of your ancestor Emily has been haunting your dreams and wants you to help her with something that obviously centers around the ruins of the Fells Church?"

"Yes…that's…"

"It's alright, Bonnie. Relax." I interrupted, and frowned for a moment. "Has she told you what she wanted specifically, or has she just asked for your help?"

Bonnie didn't look like she was relaxing in the slightest.

"You think it's actually her talking to me? Like, she's haunting me?"

I made a face.

"Calm down, Bonnie. It's alright." I ordered, and waited for her to take a deep breath before expounding on my point. "Yes, I think it's really her. I have my own dreams as you know, and in them I've learned about something called the Other Side. It's where the souls of supernatural beings go to, I think."

Bonnie hesitated and then reached into her shirt to pull out a familiar necklace.

"I…I think she's haunting me, too, and I think she's using this to do it."

She looked as if she were about to cry.

"Hey," I prodded gently, leaning forward so that I could less awkwardly place a hand lightly on her shoulder in a gesture of solidarity. "It's alright, trust me. I admit, I don't have all the answers you need right now. My dreams have been kind of…on the fritz…for a few nights."

My mind flashed back to the episode I'd had with Stefan. That was no lie.

"Taking the necklace off might help, Bonnie, but it might make things worse." I continued, and the suddenly anxiously thoughtful look on her face told me she hadn't thought of it. "Just…trust me when I say that this will resolve itself. I've had dreams of you in the near future, true dreams. So just know that whatever's happening now, it'll be over soon."

Her eyes started watering again and she just seemed so stressed and frightened that her age was pitiably apparent to me. Too young for all this, I thought, and fought to keep a hard expression off my face. I didn't want her to mistakenly think it was for her, when it was really for the whole situation.

"The next time you see her, I think you should agree to help her and ask that she eases up on you. Whatever she wants from you is probably incredibly urgent in her mind, but that doesn't justify terrorizing you like this. What has your Grams said about it?"

"I haven't told her," Bonnie confessed quietly. "She'd want me to embrace it or something, but I just want it to stop."

I sighed heavily. Too damn young.

"I don't think it will until Emily gets what she wants, Bonnie. But," I said warningly when I saw her getting upset again, "I promise that I will help you in any way I can, first and foremost, and I'll see if I can focus my dreams or something to find out more. Secondly…I don't think she wants to hurt you. I mean, it sounds batty and all that, but witches as a general rule look out for their own. And for nature. Her treating you like this is probably a nature thing. But if you agree to help her when the time comes, I'm sure she'll remember that you're her however-many-greats granddaughter and stop tormenting you."

Bonnie loosed a rueful laugh.

"How nice of her," she uttered sarcastically, and I grimaced.

"I'm sorry, Bonnie. It's so unfair that you should have to go through all this. I swear, anything you need, anything at all, I'm here. We'll get through this together. I swear it."

All of my efforts at comforting her went to waste because she really did start crying then, scrunched up her face as she sobbed and put her hand on my shoulder.

"You're such a good friend, Lena," she cried, and I felt the barest hint of a smile touch my face. Lena. Not Elena. Leee-nah.

"Together," I promised firmly, and then had a cheeky sort of idea and grinned at the irony. "Always and forever."

She smiled with such grateful affection I found myself smiling too but before we could say anything else, the bell rang and it was time to return to class. I lent her a hanky from my pocket to wipe her eyes with and we went our separate ways.

The rest of school was uneventful and equally unbearably boring as the first half, and I was grateful when it was at last time to leave. I may say with complete and utter honesty that I understand the old adage saved by the bell, because the irritating ringing noise that signaled release was, after an exceptionally trying day, nothing short of the Second Coming.

I had always liked learning, but I found classes unchallenging and hardly worth the effort the first time around. Going through it again as a university student who had earned several scholarly accolades in history and literature in the pursuit of a doctorate was nothing short of cruel and unusual torture.

I had been caught up in my self-pitying ruminations on my way out of school, where I found Stefan waiting for me.

"Stef!" I exclaimed, and hurried over to catch him in a hug. Not that I could have hugged him if he did not wish me to, but I digress. "You skipped class today!"

There was the edge of a whine to my voice which he seemed to note with amusement and he smiled, dropping his hands to rest at my waist even after I released him.

"Did I miss much?" He questioned, perhaps a little wryly, and I suddenly realized that he had.

"You did, actually!" I called out, nearly bursting with excitement as it sunk in. He blinked at my sudden excitement; had I not just left the school scowling and muttering under my breath about maths? I ignored this in favor of twirling away from him in my enthusiasm and dancing around with joy. "He finally came! Our new history teacher!"

I was happy, and then I remembered what had happened and I could literally feel my face fall and my mood drop in sync with one another.

"Stefan, I'm so sorry," I blurted suddenly, and threw my arms around him again. "I'm so, so sorry. Did you…that is, are you alright?"

He sighed more wearily than I had during my heavy conversation with Bonnie.

"Damon is alive," was all he said for a moment, and then brushed a thumb against my cheek, forcing a smile onto his face. I noticed he hadn't answered my question, though I didn't say anything more about it for fear of needlessly upsetting him.

"Tell me about your new teacher, Lena," he ordered lightly, and I frowned at him, but hesitantly nodded.

I didn't know where to start. I mean, I had known, but that was hardly appropriate after…after what happened to Lexi.

"I…" I began, and then grimaced.

"Please," Stefan said quietly, and I realized that he wanted distraction, needed me to be cheerful and silly if only to take his mind off things for a moment. If distraction was the solace I could give him, he would get it.

"His names A-lar-ic, Alaric Saltzman!" I chirped, and then permitted a dreamy expression to settle over my features. "He is also ridiculously attractive and charming and I love him."

Stefan stared at me as if he had forgotten how to speak.

"Are you alright…?" I questioned, wondering if I had misread his desire to have me be as I normally was and offended him with my nonsense.

He shook it off, but there was something stiff about his posture as he nodded.

"I'm fine, Lena. I promise." He assured me, his gaze flickering to the school entrance somewhere behind me.

We stand there in silence for a moment until-

"I won't be coming to school anymore."

My jaw nearly dropped.

"What?"

He cleared his throat awkwardly.

"I'm going to back off and keep my distance. It's the right thing to do." He stated firmly, and seeing my expression seemed to falter. "He killed her, Lena. Anyone else I come in contact with is at risk as long as he's around."

I couldn't figure out how to shut my bloody mouth.

"But…" I began to protest, and then stopped. "That better not be your subtle way of saying we won't be hanging out any more, sir, or I shall be most displeased."

There was a hint of laughter in his eyes at that, which I found to be a positive response. But that too, sadly, faded until he was grave again.

"I don't want you to get hurt," he told me quietly.

I understood, even appreciated the sentiment to a certain extent, but…

"If that's how you feel, Stef." I returned stiffly, more coldly than I meant to, revealing more hurt than I would have ever liked to. "I'll leave you be, then. If…you need anything or change your mind, give me a ring."

I turned on my heel and walked away.

Sadly, the afternoon, having been already off to a bad start, did not improve. Upon getting to Bonnie's car, I found my favorite witch herself in quite a state.

"What happened?" I asked, and boy did she tell me.

"He's bad news, Elena," she told me sharply and thought it might have been a bit wrong of me, I was glad he had shaken her up a bit even if only because it put some color in her cheeks and fueled her inner fire, so to speak. "He really scared me."

"He's complicated," I offered and then added more sympathetically, "and very, very scary when he fancies it."

There were worse, scarier monsters out there, but she hadn't met any of them yet and I didn't see the need to trouble her with the comparison.

She was quiet for a moment and I considered all she had said of her encounter with the eldest Salvatore brother. "A deal's a deal," Damon had told her to tell Emily. He had made a deal with her to save Katherine. I think.

But this influx of knowledge upset what I thought I knew, and I realized that I was mixing up parts of the timeline subconsciously. Those parts being Bonnie and her troubles with Emily and Bonnie being helped by the dead witches. Which meant, I had no way of knowing for certain whether or not Emily actually meant Bonnie harm.

"I think I was wrong," I said out of the blue, glancing at Bonnie as she drove. "What Damon said about a deal…I've dreamt something about that. He made some sort of deal with your ancestors. It's true."

I frowned, turning over my phone in my hands pensively.

"And if that's true, everything else he said could have at least a grain of truth in it. So I think we have to assume that Emily might be far less benign than I thought she was, at least right now. I won't say that Damon's trustworthy, but I think if you're going to try anything past tossing your necklace in the bin, you should try passing his message along first."

Bonnie was quiet as she contemplated this and out of no where stopped the motor.

"Bonnie?" I questioned as she unbuckled her seatbelt and threw the door open, nearly slamming it shut in her fervor. She strode right to the side of the rode, unfastened the necklace with impatient fingers, and flung it as far as she could possibly manage into a meadow.

I gaped.

"All my problems were because of that thing," she announced as she climbed back into the car, looking like a woman who had been relieved of a terrible burden. She took a deep breath and smiled. "I can't believe I didn't do that sooner."

I laughed a little.

"Brilliant, Bonnie," I congratulated her, though I felt worry creep up on me as I wondered what Emily's ghost might do for retribution.

"Are you doing anything tonight?" I asked her casually, and barreled on before she could answer. "You could spend the night at mine and we could hang out."

She nodded, upbeat.

"Sounds great!"

At the very least, I thought a little anxiously, I would be able to keep an eye on her. It was a surprisingly comforting thought.

When we got to my house, after Bonnie picked up a change of clothes and all that, of course, we lounged about in the living room for a while, chatting about this and that and everything under the sun until I couldn't take it anymore. (Jenna and Jeremy had gone out to eat at the Grill, so it was safe to talk about the supernatural in the open like that).

"Damon won't hurt you," I told her at last, cutting her off mid-sentence as she told me a story about a boy that fainted while watching a video in her health class.

She stiffened.

"Lena…" She started, and I cut her off with a shake of my head.

"He's scary. And quite frankly, if he got desperate enough, he would. But he won't hurt you because I won't let him." I promised, but she still looked skeptical. Yeah, I probably would be as well if some doe-eyed human were the only thing standing between me and the big bad bat.

Inspiration struck.

"I could call Stefan," I offered, my voice a little stronger and less questioningly pathetic than it had been even though I knew Steffy and I had just had a row and were no longer in contact.

The look of raw, unsure hope on Bonnie's face, no matter how hard she tried to hide it, made my decision for me. "I'll call him," I told her resolutely. "He'll help."

Thus it was that when the doorbell rang, it was Stefan waiting on the other side.

To be continued in History Repeating II.