Note: I do not own TWD or TVD… just having fun.

Chapter Songs

Mat Kearney – Here We Go

Scene: Beginning through to the Grill

Birdy – Skinny Love

Scene: Rose, Jeremy, Maggie, and Damon

Chapter Twenty-five

She shot Elena one last harsh glare before disappearing to head up the stairs to take a shower before leaving. Damon moved to follow after her, but stopped to add one more thing to Elena, "Oh, next time you get into one of your self-righteous modes, before you start making accusations maybe you should stop and ask yourself… Where's Stefan?"

Elena looked as if Damon had visibly slapped her. It was no secret for any vampire in the house that Stefan had left during the night, but to go as far as to suggest Stefan might have been involved in the deaths even Damon knew was a low blow.

He didn't stick around to see her reaction though. He left the kitchen to head up the stairs. He spotted Maggie half frozen at the mid landing of the staircase. The look on her face said that she heard what he said to Elena, he wasn't exactly trying to be quiet. They exchanged a look before continuing to head up the stairs.

Maggie sipped on her coffee as she went back to Damon's room. She walked straight to the bathroom and as she set it down on the counter she heard him closing the bedroom door behind him. "Do you really think Stefan could've done it?" She asked as she went to turn on the shower water, letting it warm up.

Damon moved to take a seat on the bed, not looking towards the bathroom out of respect as Maggie moved about. He shook his head, "No. It's not his style." What Maggie didn't hear, but he knew that Elena heard was that details that Sheriff Forbes had shared with him. The two members of the family that had been drained were the ten and twelve year old children, who were left to turn to walkers. By the time the police had gotten to the scene, what was left of the parents was a bloodied dismembered mess in the master bedroom. The vampire that had done this knew the kind of suffering it would bring to the parents to have their own children turned and going after them.

"What do you mean his style?" Maggie asked as she climbed into the shower.

"Have you ever heard of a ripper?" Damon countered.

Maggie frowned as she started to shampoo her hair quickly. "Uhh… You mean like Jack the Ripper?"

"Not quite, more like the Ripper of Monterey," Damon answered.

Maggie thought for a moment, but the name didn't sound familiar to her. "Never heard of it," She shrugged, mostly to herself.

"That's not surprising. It happened in 1910's… Monterey was a migrant village wiped out a vampire who had a tendency to rip his victims' heads off in his fit of bloodlust," Damon explained frankly, trying not to let describing his brother and the guilt of provoking said incident leak into his voice.

The water shut off and Maggie stepped out to wrap a towel around her as she thought about his words. A few years ago, to hear such a tale would have horrified her more than it did now, but now she had seen similar to worse things and done a few herself if walkers counted.

"What does that have to do with last night?" Maggie asked as she took the time to towel dry her hair a bit.

"The Morrison's still had their heads. Not Stefan's style," Damon turned at this point, catching Maggie's profile and seeing her raised eyebrows when she processed what he said. Admittedly, his eyes lingered a bit on her legs and how short the towel was on her.

"Stefan was the Ripper of Monterey?" Maggie gasped, clearly not thinking that youngest Salvatore had it in him.

"Yep," Damon confirmed.

Maggie gathered up her clothes and came to stand in the doorway of the bathroom, clutching the towel and clothes to her tightly. "Huh, I guess that explains half the reason for all the self-loathing," Maggie commented.

Damon smirked, "What's the other half?"

"Being eternally seventeen," Maggie matched his smirk before adding somewhat seriously, "Mind your eyes before you lose them, Salvatore." She then turned her back on him and went to change in the bathroom.

Not wanting to test her threat, he looked away quickly while still grinning.

After gathering up her dress from last night, Maggie was ready to go, feeling slightly silly to be wearing the wedges with sweatpants but she didn't have a whole lot of other options. She wasn't surprised to see that Elena was nowhere in sight within the house and had wished she seen Elena's reaction to Damon's words.

The car ride was mostly quiet back to Maggie's house. Damon's expression was pulled thoughtfully and Maggie could tell that something was brewing behind his eyes. This is why it wasn't too much of a surprise to her when they pulled up to the house that Damon got out of the car as well.

Maggie hesitated and waited as he walked around from the driver side to stand before her, clutching the dress in her hand and her keys, which were considerably lighter without the Camaro spares. They would have to figure out where Damon's keys disappeared to later.

"With Klaus being back in town, Maggie, you should really think about moving into the boardinghouse," Damon suggested seriously.

"What? Why?" Maggie blurted out, definitely not expecting that to come from Damon.

"I can't protect you when you live half way across town. At least at the boardinghouse there's me and Stefan," Damon tried to reason with her.

Maggie shook her head quickly, "No way, I'm not leaving my family. I refuse to be afraid of Klaus and give him the satisfaction of cowering in your house."

Damon grinded his teeth a bit before snapping at her, "Oh come on, Maggie listen to yourself. That kind of stubborn pride is going to get you killed. You can't take on an Original."

Maggie scoffed and fired back, "Oh that's rich coming from you, Damon. How do you expect to stop Klaus? Any vampire can go waltzing into the boardinghouse right now, no invitation required. At least I have that much here."

Damon threw his hands in the air in aggravation when he saw that she wasn't going to back down on this. "Fine, stay here! But only if everyone is on vervain and I will be checking up on you," Damon conceded begrudgingly.

"Fine," Maggie snapped back at him and turned her back on him. She didn't like the way he said he would be checking up on her as if she was some troublesome child to be looked after.

She marched down the front walkway briskly to the front door. Behind her she could the slam of a car door before the engine of the Camaro roared to life, quickly taking off afterwards. It wasn't exactly the best way to part, but she wasn't going to let any Original dictate her life any more than it already was.

Maggie got a few questions about where she had been last night, but didn't get receive much teasing or suspicion when her family saw how irate she was after dealing with Damon. It was just as well as far as she was concerned. She had enough to deal with without straightening out assumptions about what happened last night between her and Damon.

To her surprise, she found that Beth wasn't upset with her at all about sending her home early. Apparently Jeremy had gone back to the house for a while and kept her company. Maggie didn't bother asking what exactly they had done, which she knew couldn't have been much with Hershel nearby, but Beth was shy and blushing when she spoke about it. The welcomed distraction only lasted for so long though.

A few hours later, a police officer arrived with a rather large box of vervain. The speediness of the arrival Maggie was willing to bet had everything to do with Damon. That turned into an impromptu family meeting with the Greene's and the Grimes', explaining what vervain was and why they needed to take it. No one seemed particularly upset at the idea that they would no longer be eligible for blood donations. It did raise a lot of questions about why they needed to take it for Maggie's safety. Hershel readily accepted anything that would help keep vampires away. Maggie could tell that he was still having troubles coming to terms with them, similar to the way he had troubles with walkers. Rick asked a few pointed questions about why any vampire would be after her specifically and Maggie skirted over most of the details by saying she accidentally upset one in particular.

True to his word, Damon showed up at the end of his day to see how the vervain went. Maggie explained to him out on the porch how it went, still not extending an invitation to any vampire. She told him how her family took it and how she mostly remained out of the room while they mixed it in with some food. Given her last experience, she wasn't too thrilled about being around the plant. Maggie could tell that he was still upset that she had turned down his offer. What she didn't know was that he was also a little hurt, a part of him had been hoping that she would want to stay with him.

During the next few days, Maggie didn't actually see much of Glenn. He was absent from the family meeting about the vervain, but she found out from Carl later that he was already on it for some reason. Every now and then she saw him coming and going from the house, but he mostly gave her the cold shoulder. She wasn't sure if that still stemmed from their recent break up or if there was something more to it, but she didn't have much energy to dwell on it with everything else that was going on.

The first few times that Damon stopped at the house, his protectiveness might have been endearing to some attention starved teenager. After two days, Maggie was starting to find the way he stopped by two or three times a day as unnecessarily overbearing. It made her glad cell phones weren't around anymore because she didn't know how often he would've called her. Maggie kept herself busy by helping out around the house, making up for all the time she had been away. She also took a few hours here and there to look after baby Judith while Beth and Carl were away at school. Through this, she found she wasn't very good with children, but could struggle her way through it.

When Maggie worked at the Grill, Damon had the tendency to drop by frequently. Sometimes he had Sheriff Forbes in tow with him or Alaric, but she knew what he was really doing. She snapped at him a few times that she didn't need the constant supervision, but of course that never deterred the stubborn vampire.

The third day, Maggie stepped outside, dressed in jeans and a casual top, ready to head down to the Grill for the morning shift. She gritted her teeth a bit when she saw Damon leaning against his car in front of her house with a smug smirk on his face.

"Seriously? This is getting ridiculous, Damon. I can walk just fine to the Grill," Maggie growled at him as she marched down the front walk.

"Nice to see you too," Damon answered calmly, used to her feisty behavior by this point. "There's actually a reason for me picking you up this morning."

"I don't recall you ever asking to," Maggie bit back sarcastically.

"You can't say no if never given the chance," Damon said cheekily as he went to open the passenger door for Maggie assertively. "Actually… I know Jeremy is working today and I need your help to see if he can reach Rose."

Maggie hesitated, biting in the inside of her cheek while debating being stubborn and walking anyway. At the mention of Rose, her curiosity got the best of her. It wasn't that she particularly cared about this ancestor, but she wanted to get some answers too.

"Fine, but this is only because of Jeremy," She gave in and climbed into the passenger seat.

She shot a glare at the triumphant smirk on his face as he slide into the driver seat before they took off in the direction of downtown.

It was the tail end of the morning food serving when Damon pulled into a parking spot nearby the Grill. Maggie didn't say much in the car, partly because she was still annoyed with Damon and also because there was still a lack of coffee in the house. Seeing as her family was a Founding family and rather new to Mystic Falls, they didn't get all of the same supply luxurious as some of the other families.

Stepping inside the Grill, Maggie spotted Matt starting the cleanup process and she was quick to go over and help him. She didn't pay Damon much attention as he slide into his usual bar stool, even though nothing was being served, and watched her work. Occasionally he threw in one of his typical snarky comments, which she would fire right back at him but she didn't let him distract her.

Once the cleanup was taken care of, Maggie relieved Matt and he took off quickly afterwards. Not too long after he left, Alaric and Meredith arrived carrying a couple of boxes. It took her a bit to realize it was the same boxes they had brought last time just after her confrontation with Kol. Apparently they decided today was a good day to actually get the research done they had been putting off on.

Maggie disappeared into the store room while they went through the boxes. She was gone for a while to take inventory of supplies, marking what was low and needed to be replaced in the next supply run. About an hour or so later, she emerged from the back room to find the three pushed together two tables and papers were sprawled over them.

Finally her curiosity got the best of her and she paused to her work to approach them. "What are you guys trying to find?" She asked, pulling out a chair, but not touching any of the papers. Her arms ached a bit from lifting boxes so she could use the break.

"Trying to find anything about undead creatures or spells related to them," Alaric was the one to answer her. "Besides vampires, obviously," He added an afterthought.

Maggie nodded in silence a moment, "You mean like the walkers?"

Meredith was the one to chime in this time, "Exactly. We're trying to find any explanation for what caused the outbreak."

Maggie looked at the books, which were old and dusty, some with water stains in the binding. There were grimories and journals among the stacks of binders. "And what is all of this?" Maggie waved a hand towards it.

"Some of my ex-wife's supernatural research from her apartment in Princeton," Alaric said with a sigh and a little edge to his voice. Damon who had been uncharacteristically quiet with his nose in a journal added on with a smirk, "Which he didn't know she had."

"Thanks, Damon, I could always use another reminder of how little I really knew her," Alaric muttered dryly.

"Anytime," Damon grinned and looked up briefly to catch a glare from the school teacher.

Maggie raised an eyebrow, but left it alone. Usually the term 'ex' was for a good reason and that was enough for her to care to know about. Instead, she shrugged her shoulders and announced bluntly, "Well, you're not going to find anything in there."

"Whoa, speak for yourself, Negative Nancy," Damon chided without looking from the page he was reading.

Maggie's words caused Alaric to look up at her though and even Meredith hesitated a bit, peeking out of the corner of her eye. "Wait… what do you mean?" Alaric inquired.

"I mean there's nothing supernatural about it. You're not going to find it in some spellbook," Maggie stated. This time it caused Meredith and even Damon to stop what they were doing. They stared at her silence and Maggie looked to each face, varying from shades of curiosity to disbelief.

"What? You really don't know?" Maggie found it hard to believe a town with doctors really was still unsure about what was happening. But then again, the hospital was a long way from fully functioning and never had been equipped for that kind of testing and neurology.

"No, but let's hear your theory," Damon had a bit of an arrogant tone to his voice.

"It's not a theory," Maggie corrected him harshly. She let out a sigh before launching into her explanation, "Before we met half of our group, they had gone to the CDC."

"Impossible, the closest center in D.C. blew up right after the outbreak," Damon cut into her impatiently.

"They went to the CDC in Atlanta. They were there until it blew up," Maggie's clarification managed to silence any further interruptions from Damon. So she went on, "I wasn't there, but Rick told us about it afterwards. The disease is viral, everyone is a carrier, which you already know. Whether you die naturally or get bit and get some sort of second infection, when you die only the brain stem is reanimated. They're no longer human after that. Memories, experiences, any part that made them who they were are gone."

"There's no magic to it. If you don't believe me, ask Rick or Daryl. They were there and saw the test results," Maggie added finally.

"Well that's a rather bleak way of looking at it," Damon muttered after a long silence in the group. Meredith gazed off into nothing while considering Maggie's explanation and Alaric's head was just bowed a little somberly.

Before Maggie could feel too terrible about dashing any hope, the front door of the Grill opened and Jeremy stepped inside. Perking up at the new company, Maggie stood up from the table.

"Hey, how's it going?" Jeremy greeted everyone, receiving a nod from Alaric and a small smile from Meredith.

"About time you got here," Damon grumbled slightly, picking up the feet he had perched up on the table to stand up as well.

Jeremy shook his head but didn't indulge Damon. Before he could say anything else, he was suddenly caught in a hug from Maggie. "Uhhh… I missed you too?" Jeremy stumbled slightly, returning the hug carefully.

"Thank you for looking after Beth the other night," Maggie whispered appreciatively to him. Jeremy relaxed and gave her a squeeze before letting her go.

"Sure, no problem. She's actually pretty cool," Jeremy rubbed the back of his neck anxiously as Maggie stepped back from him.

"Sounds like Gilbert has a crush," Damon teased as he approached the two.

"Cut it out, Damon," Jeremy snapped at him quickly. Maggie tried not to grin and further embarrass him.

"So touchy," Damon's eyebrows rose tauntingly. Jeremy turned from him with an aggravated sigh, choosing to walk away towards the bar counter instead.

Maggie and Damon followed after him. Damon was the first to take a seat at his usual spot. "We actually need you to try contacting Rose again," Damon said seriously as Jeremy moved behind the counter, looking to pick up where Maggie left off.

"I'm not some psychic hotline you can call on whenever you want, Damon," Jeremy grumbled while Maggie moved to take a seat next to Damon. "Besides, how do you know it'll even work this time?"

Damon smirked and threw a lazy arm around Maggie's shoulder, "That's what we have Maggie here for."

Maggie startled slightly at the gesture and gave him an odd look, not necessarily leaning into him or leaning away.

Jeremy shook his head before conceding, "Alright, fine." He stopped what he was doing to come stand directly in front of the two. His eyes were fixated on Maggie and she shifted slightly uncomfortably under the look he was giving her. Damon dropped his arm from her, leaning his forearms on the counter and flickering between the two anxiously.

The silence was uncomfortable for Maggie as she looked back and forth between the two, wondering if she was supposed to be doing something.

"Your family name is Leavey, right?" Jeremy finally spoke.

Maggie blinked in surprise before nodding slowly, "Yeah, some of my distant family."

"She's here," Jeremy announced, his eyes leaving Maggie's face and lingering on the empty seat next to Damon.

Damon sat more upright on his bar stool. Maggie leaned forward with a controlled expression, watching Damon's reaction closely. He looked unsure of himself of what to do and his eyes moved about reflexively, even though he knew that he wouldn't be able to see Rose.

"How is she?" He asked, looking to Jeremy, unsure if he should address her directly or not.

Jeremy looked to Damon's right for a moment, apparently listening to whatever it was that she was saying. "She says not to worry, that she's fine and happy. There are others with her and Trevor," He relayed the message.

For Jeremy, he had to take a small step back when Rose first appeared. She showed up sitting on the other side of Damon, almost matching the same posture as Maggie. It was completely surreal seeing two women, who looked alike in so many ways at either arm of Damon. He also noticed the differences though. Rose's hair was slightly longer with a feathery flair. She had rounder cheeks and a warmth that radiated from her skin and smile. Maggie was the opposite. Her stare was blank, if not a little cold, while her expression remained steeled. She was much tenser while she watched them with a calculating gaze.

"She also wants to help as much as she can," Jeremy continued, pausing with a frown as he listened further to Rose. "But she's having some troubles with her memories, not everything has come back to her yet."

"That might have something to do with them being suppressed for five hundred years," Damon muttered, the sarcastic tone in his voice was much more subdued than Maggie had ever heard it before. It had even taken Elena a while to remember the things she was compelled to forget after she turned and those memories were only a few years ago, never mind centuries.

"She agrees," Jeremy nodded, "But what she can remember… she didn't know anything about the sacrifice until the night of and her father didn't tell her what was going on."

Damon frowned since that wasn't really helping him and he tried not to think about what he would do to her father if he was still around. He opened his mouth to ask Jeremy another question, but was silenced by a raised hand as the young Gilbert furrowed his brows, listening to more.

"She heard you talking at the boardinghouse…" He started to repeat, but then his eyebrows rose and he interrupted himself, "That's insane!"

"Hey," Damon snipped a bit, getting anxious over what he and Maggie couldn't hear. "Don't forget about the peanut gallery here."

Jeremy blinked a few times before looking back at Damon, "Right, sorry. She says that Elena was right, her father was a hunter, but he didn't go after vampires. He went after werewolves."

Damon raised an eyebrow, "Seriously? That couldn't have ended well…"

Maggie didn't pretend to know exactly what that meant, but she was willing to bet a human taking on a supernatural creature with a pack mentality probably wasn't the wisest decision to make.

Jeremy let out a disbelieving sigh, "It didn't… on a full moon too. Anyway, all she knows right now is that Elijah often went to him to obtain werewolf venom."

"And what about who turned her?" Damon pressed for more details, trying not to let his emotions distract him.

There was another silence while Jeremy listened to Rose's explanation and more confusion flashed through his expression.

"She says her mother brought her the vampire blood and it came from a Mary Porter," Jeremy replied slowly.

Damon's lip curled slightly in discomfort, looking down at the wood of the counter muttering, "Oh, Scary Mary."

"But now, she's not so sure… for some reason. She says she'll have to find someone and get back to us. That's all she has for now," Jeremy frowned slightly, confused by Rose's explanation that her memories were still a bit jumbled from the compulsion and she would have to attempt to find her mother.

"Jeremy, there's one thing," Rose spoke in a gentle tone, knowing that Maggie and Damon couldn't hear her, but looking at them thoughtfully.

"Damon is good for Maggie," Rose declared, gazing affectionately at Damon and not sparing a glance at her doppelganger. There was a hint of caution in her voice but she continued, "But Elena is better for him. She makes him a better person and he challenges her."

Rose then looked directly at Jeremy and he was stunned by the slightly fearful look in her eyes as she warned him, "I've been watching for the last three months. There's a darkness to Maggie that will draw Damon in and I don't think he's enough to save her."

Jeremy stared at her stunned silence, hearing what she was saying, but unsure whether to believe it or not. He never liked the idea of Damon being around his sister and further disapproved at the idea of them being together. But it also alarmed him what Rose had to say about Maggie. He knew that she was tough and cut from a different fabric than everyone else, but he had a hard time to believe the woman that cried and hugged him over his near death could be so dark.

"What did she say?" Damon asked sharply, noticing the disturbed expression on the youth.

Jeremy startled from his slight trance and shifted uncomfortably before clearing his throat. He gave hesitantly, "She's been watching over Maggie the past three months."

Maggie stiffened noticeably at her mention. Her expression hardened considerably at the prospect of this ghost watching over her. It rubbed her the wrong way immediately, thinking of all the hardships she faced and the people she lost. How a stranger had the audacity to say they were watching over her while she suffered so much she didn't like.

"She misses you and Elena," Jeremy said pointedly while looking at Damon.

Author's Note: There we go! The long awaited arrival of Rose. Reactions to her? Shocked, surprised? What do you think about her still shipping Delena?

Review Responses

Nethra: Haha thanks for that mental image! I'm now thinking of the TVD cast chanting "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" Don't worry about sounding cold, I'm actually in the same position. I would save my family any day over strangers.