Twenty-one

.

I push the door behind me for it to slam closed and I only stop when stepping in the living room. My mouth falls open in disbelief as I take in the two persons standing before me: Damon Salvatore and–

"Bonnie."

The witch's head whips to me, full of surprise, but I stride to her and grab her for a hug. I knew this was going to be a good day.

"Oh my God, you're back!" I shout enthusiastically, as I step back to look at her, "You made it!"

She stares at me with caution and says, "Hi, Andy."

"I can't believe it! When did you come back?"

"Last night," Damon answers for her, since she doesn't stir. "We just thought we would wait a little before announcing the news to everybody."

"Right," I nod before giving her another relieved grin, "I'm just so glad that you're back." I didn't lose her after all. Not that she would ever replace Luke, but it's priceless to finally have some good news in the midst of all this sadness. Besides, once she's settled down, maybe I can ask her to help me on my quest for a reviving spell. It's all going to work out.

Bonnie tilts her head and gives Damon an inquiring glance. That's when it hits me that the two of us have never been here before: we've never stood together in the Salvatores' living room and we've never acknowledged that we're both part of the supernatural world. She has no idea who I am.

Realizing that, I take a cautious step back and drop my arms.

"You… come here?" she finally asks me, arching a brow, before glancing between the vampire and me. "I mean– you know Damon?"

"Right," I say more cautiously, "you never knew."

"She never knew?" Damon asks me with disbelief.

"Mm-mm," I shake my head. "I only told Luke and that was kinda after the Other Side went down, so–"

"Wait, you know about the Other Side?"

Damon places his arm around her shoulder and explains, "Well, Bonnie, meet Andy: sorta-friendly-witch-hunter." Bonnie's eyes widen at the news and she examines me more intently while I arch an amused brow at Damon.

"Sorta?"

He shrugs. "You did kill me once, remember?"

"It happened once. And you started it."

"Of course I started it. One minute you're this drunk, harmless human girl, interrupting a major supernatural deal by accident, and the next, you turn all killing-machine and lie Tyler down in half a second. What did you exp–"

"Did that really happen?" Bonnie asks, skeptical. I open my mouth and Damon brings her closer to him, smiling fondly.

"You've missed a couple things."

"Obviously," Bonnie says, slipping away from Damon's embrace and grabbing her coat. "I'm gonna go see Elena and Caroline. I'd be interested to hear about your story, though. I never had a clue about you."

"Yeah," Damon says lightly, "she's rather good at keeping her secrets, I guess other people are better at spilling them."

Bonnie flashes him a smile and heads out; I wave back and turn to Damon when the door closes behind her. His smile is gone, he looks rather dark and angry. I'm not sure that is a good thing. "What's up with you?"

"I went to dig up my mother's grave this morning."

I lift my brow, completely lost. "You did what?" He heads to the console and pours himself a drink.

"Before Bonnie got her ride back, some weird crap happened in the prison world. According to her, it was collapsing with another one, in 1903…," he trails off and takes a sip.

I fold my arms and listen intently, thinking back of Kai's words about multiple prison worlds: him being magically sick seems to coincide with the worlds colliding. My heartbeat quickens instantly and I'm dying to ask whether she saw Luke. I try to remain calm as I ask, "Did she see anyone in there?"

"Yep."

He then grabs an old video recorder that, I'm guessing, comes from 1994, and presses play. I watch, hoping to see my friend, but I only see the dark walls of a cave and then, as some magical light comes to sweep Bonnie back into our land, I get a glimpse of someone. A woman; wearing a red riding dress fitting the time period. My brow furrows as I think back of what Damon said. "Is that your mother?"

"Yep."

"How's that possible?"

"That's the question. See, my mother died of consumption in 1858, so there is no way in hell she can be alive, looking this young, in some 1903 prison world."

"Okay," I say slowly, "Then who is that?"

Did she have a doppelgänger of something? And even so, what would she be doing in a prison world? I thought these were only for crazy dangerous people, like, Gemini sociopaths and such. Could she have ended up there when dying? But it doesn't really make sense either, seeing that it's a loophole Bonnie's Grams only pulled when the Other Side fell apart.

"That," he says, "is the person who is supposed to be in the empty coffin sitting in family mausoleum."

"So it is her."

"That's what I need to figure out." I nod and silence fills the room. I tilt my head.

"Are you– waiting for me to offer my help?" I ask, "Cause, you know I can't really do that."

"Wow. Thank you, for your support, Andy. Really, it means a lot."

"Of course, I wanna help you get to the bottom of this, it's just– it's not even witch business; you're a vampire. I'm even less supposed to be interfering."

"What are you gonna do, then? Crawl back into the shadows and stalk witches around after sunset?"

I give him a look, already flinching, and he rolls his eyes, "Fine. But you might wanna stay anyway. I enlisted one of your witches to help, and this one, I think you'll want to monitor."

I frown, hoping I did not understand this correctly, but then the front door opens, and I can hear an altogether too familiar voice greet loudly, "Hello; anybody home?" I turn around to watch Kai walk up to us and eye me up and down. "Hey, Andy; long time, no see."

"Why did you have to call him?" I complain. "Liv could have helped."

"Liv," Kai says very seriously, "is busy working right now and trying to find meaning to her life without the better half of herself. She's off the table."

"I'm sorry," I snap, "are you trying to sound like a grown-up right now? You want us to take you seriously – is that why you stopped shaving?"

The witch slowly smiles at me and reaches a hand up to brush his chin and cheeks covered in stubble. "I knew you'd noticed. You've been ogling me even more since I have it."

"I don't ogle anyone."

"Yeah, you do. It's actually cute that you're not aware of it."

"I do not," I say more coldly, earning a playful wink from the witch.

"Hm-mm," Damon clears his throat with a wince, "still here; still disgusted."

"Anyway, I'm guessing you asked me to come back here to plan a little trip over to 1903, isn't that right, Damon?"

"Yep."

The vampire is about to elaborate when his phone starts ringing. He decides to take Stefan's call and walks a few feet away from us. I give a sideway glance over at Kai and find him giving me another playful wink. I guess this day just went from great to very long.

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%

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Jessica begins the wrong verse and winces but quickly finds her way back to us. The three of us were in the kitchen, talking and giggling while she was baking cupcakes, when she requested a song and I – surprisingly – accepted. After Bonnie and Damon supposedly died, it always felt weird for me to go to our singing club, knowing she wouldn't show up anymore, so when this school year started, I basically stopped going. I would still grab my guitar and sing along with my suitemates from time to time, but ever since Luke's death, I'd stopped.

Of course, I never told the girls of the exact circumstances of his death but they knew we were close; he'd come here several times and Jess had flirted with him hardcore – which was pretty funny to watch – so they sort of knew how much he meant. And even if they didn't, they saw how I struggled right after his death. I hadn't picked up my guitar since then but it just felt okay today. I don't know, I guess it means I'm moving on with my grief. Maybe.

The song ends and I let the last notes resonate in our tiny kitchen. Tina's eyes are closed; she's grinning. I forgot how peaceful it felt to simply sing along with them. Jess and I share a smile and that is when my phone rings.

Kai Parker. So not used to seeing this name pop up; it can't be good.

"What do you want?"

"Hello to you too. It's funny how I can almost picture your scowl from here."

"Parker."

"Damon called. We're getting mama Salvatore out of 1903; I said I'd get you on my way to Mystic Falls."

"Wait– I thought we weren't doing that."

It is the conclusion we came to when Kai announced Damon he'd done his research about Lilian Salvatore, and turns out she is supposed to be in this prison world, because she's a ripper. Apparently, she turned into a vampire in 1858, faked her death, went to Europe, killed thousands of people, and the Gemini made it their mission to stop her and her crazy crew when she set foot on American soil again. Bottom line is: she's not getting out.

I set my guitar aside and walk away from my suitemates.

"I know, I know," he says, "I was very clear on that. But then, Caroline turned her humanity off and basically blackmailed Stefan into turning his humanity off as well, because apparently he can trigger her feelings back and she didn't want that to happen, and now Damon is looking for a way to trigger his brother's feelings back for a domino effect, with the help of mommy-dearest."

"Uh– okay," I say, trying to digest all that, "Still not a good idea."

"I know."

"But you're doing this anyway because…?"

"I have a soft spot for people who accidentally turn all sociopath," he jokes, "and besides… Bonnie agreed to help."

"What? I thought she didn't want to see you. Or talk to you, or– hear about you. Ever again."

"Yeah, but she agreed to meet me anyway; and she's coming to 1903. I kinda made this a condition to me helping along in unleashing another ripper onto this world. So, are you coming?"

"Uh– I guess; yeah. I'll meet you guys over there."

"I told you: we're carpooling. I'm parked outside your dorm."

I frown and lift a curtain: Kai's car is parked right in front of the building. I sigh and end the call.

From the moment I get into the car, I get to hear the beginning, middle and end of his meeting with Bonnie, and how she was so cold to him, considering he was making such an effort into expressing how sorry he was. I do try to remind him that he basically tortured her, back in 1994, but he won't hear it so I stop talking after some time and he finds a way to ramble about something else. This guy doesn't seem to need anyone but himself to hold a conversation.

The only moment he actually says something to me is when I change the radio station, "Don't touch that."

"What do you care, you're not even listening."

"I am; I'm a very good multitasker."

"Alright, can't we just listen to something a little bit more recent than the early nineties?"

"The nineties were pretty good and it keeps me anchored."

"You do realize you're gonna have to move into the present at some point? I mean, now that you're here–"

"I know, just– my car, my rules."

"Luke would always let me choose the music," I argue and that's when he gives in.

"Do what you want," he mutters, his eyes glued to the road.

I have a satisfied smirk and begin searching for a different station. Is it bad that I take advantage of his newfound feelings? Probably. But since that man is the reason for so much grief and pain, I shall not feel guilty about it. He deserves it.

When we get to the Salvatore house, Damon, Elena and Bonnie are here already, all wearing warm coats, all ready to step into a loop of November 1st, 1903. I watch more than I participate to the conversation, observing that Damon is not exactly comfortable with bringing Elena along, and that Kai is constantly trying to get Bonnie's attention by either telling her a joke or something nice. It's kind of pathetic but I guess his brand new feelings are giving him a hard time. I examine his Light from afar, weirdly feeling like it could be Luke, standing right here instead of him, with the exact same Light, and suddenly, it doesn't even feel good anymore, to think that the last emotions left of him are pain and guilt. It's just sad.

I don't know what my face looks like while I'm thinking about this, but when the witch notices my stare, we hold gaze for a moment, and he doesn't smile. I can't believe I lost Luke to that man; I can't believe he gets to live. I finally look away and engage in a conversation with Damon, reminding myself once more that killing him would result in killing Liv, Jo, their dad, and the rest of the coven.

They all get ready for the expedition and I walk up to them, obviously expecting to be tagging along.

"You're not coming with us," the Gemini leader tells me and I slightly cock my head.

"Of course I am. Why else would I be here?"

"Damon said you could come here to babysit me, but you're not part of the expedition."

"You can't expect me to sit here and wait while two of my witches are going into a different world together; especially since one of you is very likely to kill the other."

"Which part of the word 'remorse' didn't you get?" Kai asks me as if I were exceptionally stupid, "you know I wouldn't do that."

"I was not talking about you."

Bonnie gives him her fakest smile and Kai abruptly takes my arm, leading me a few feet away from them, "Look, we appreciate you coming along but I need to do this alone."

"But you're not going alone," I point out, "Damon and Elena–"

"I need to talk to Bonnie, okay? I'm trying to apologize here."

"And– you can't have me around when you do? I'm not going to spy on you; I was giving you a hard time when I said you wouldn't be getting any privacy."

"You're not coming; end of discussion," he decides before going back to the others.

I gape in incomprehension and frown while the two witches hold the ascendant in their hands. What is this? Since when does he get to decide what I do or don't do? Do I tell him where he can and can't go? Damon takes Elena's hand, who is already holding Bonnie's. I react when Kai begins chanting and this bright light invades the living room: I wait for the last second to grab his sleeve and his eyes shoot open. I can already feel the ground disappearing under my feet when he abruptly shrugs me off.