Chapter Twenty-Five
The first week of November went by uneventfully. Rebecca was giving Elena the silent treatment - not so much for the way she'd wanted Damon to erase Jeremy's memories, but more for the way Elena was treating her. Rebecca didn't like fighting with Elena, but she couldn't just let her get away with the distrust Elena was still showing her.
She knew it had more to do with her being with Damon than anything else. She knew Elena didn't understand why she was so loyal to the slightly - okay, almost completely - unstable vampire, and she didn't know how to explain it without giving away Damon's history - and she wouldn't do that. Rebecca, in turn, didn't understand why Elena was blaming her for just associating herself with Damon.
Bonnie knew now and she still treated Rebecca the same as she always had. Yes, she was worried because she knew about Damon's vampire-ism and all, but she wasn't blaming Rebecca for hanging with him.
Rebecca had sort of worked things out with Diana, her semi-useful Watcher, and she had Diana researching ghosts and cursed objects, and she'd left out Bonnie's name even though looking back . . . Since Sheila had worked for the Watcher's Council before she'd come back to Mystic Falls . . . Diana probably already knew who she'd been talking about.
Rebecca hung out with Bonnie, Jeremy, and Caroline. Caroline was worried about her, too, but that was because of how messed up her mind was since Damon had fed from her. She was kind of confused because she'd remembered him biting her - not feeding from her, but biting all the same - and she'd remembered liking it, but then she started remembering things in different ways and that was when Rebecca realized that Damon hadn't made her forget the last time; Stefan had, and he'd admitted his compulsion didn't work all the time, not the right way. But Stefan had had to have done it because Damon had been locked up at the time.
Speaking of Damon, he was a part of her day-to-day life now, and he said that Stefan was having a brood fest over Elena since she wasn't with him. Rebecca felt sorry for both Stefan and Elena even though they weren't her favorite people at the moment. Stefan hadn't wanted Elena to find out about him being a vampire - though to be honest, if he'd planned on staying here with her, he would've had to tell her sometime; she was just being realistic - there was no way he would've been able to keep his secret for much longer. And then there was Elena. Rebecca understood that it scared her, what Stefan was. It was a normal reaction that Rebecca herself didn't seem to have.
Damon seemed to be enjoying the fact that Stefan was miserable. Or more to the point . . . Stefan was miserable and Damon wasn't. It was usually the other way around, and Rebecca noticed that Damon liked that the tables had turned. It was childish and petty, but she could see where he was coming from too.
Damon was at her house for dinner. He had even shown up early to help her and her aunt with the cooking - he wanted to make a good impression, of course.
Rebecca had told him he didn't have to, that her aunt liked him well enough already, but other than that Rebecca didn't say anything against it. She didn't mind having him there and she knew that at least some part of Damon wanted her family to accept him and trust him. He wouldn't try so hard if he didn't.
So they'd had dinner and dessert, and now her dad had dragged out a few home videos, which made Rebecca cringe. God, she hadn't watched these in so long she couldn't even remember what was on them. Hopefully nothing embarrassing. And really, couldn't Damon protest? Couldn't he say no? He couldn't possibly be interested in this.
Her mom had managed to get her first few steps on film, and Rebecca laughed when she saw her baby self fall on her diapered butt and get back up instead of sitting there crying about it.
Speaking of walking . . . Chelsea should've been about ready to start, herself. Rebecca hoped she'd get to see it. A couple months ago she got to see everything Chelsea did, and now . . . Rebecca was mostly absent from her life, and she kind of hated herself for it.
"You were the first to walk," her aunt said, "out of you, Elena, and Bonnie."
Damon was captivated. Between baby-Rebecca and his Rebecca, he was very entertained. He liked that Rebecca could laugh at herself; it was a good quality to possess.
"Elena was the first to get into stuff - more accidents than you can imagine. Bonnie was the first to speak unless you count Caroline."
As Damon watched the Rebecca on the film he realized she hadn't changed much. Even when she'd been a baby she'd been a determined person. She'd tried and tried to walk until she'd gotten it right. She was still like that now. She was willing to try and work with the people around her until everything was as close to right as it could get.
He also saw that she'd had a small temper when she'd been younger but that she'd grown out of it for the most part. Sure, she had her outbursts, but . . . she had it under control now.
She'd grown into a trusting, affectionate person that he . . . loved. It was hard for him to think that word because he knew that admitting it to himself was only one step away from admitting it to her. And that - his love - was a vulnerability, a weakness, and he hated feeling weak. If he let himself feel it, his world would start and end with her. It was a very strong hold she had over him and that was another weakness because what if she decided to use it against him?
She was . . .
Not a manipulative little bitch, he reminded himself.
Damon had never told Rebecca and probably never would - she might think it was creepy or weird - but he'd checked up on her from time to time in the history she'd created. At least once a year. He'd had to force himself not to stay in Mystic Falls indefinitely since 1992, the year she'd been born. He hadn't wanted to risk her seeing him and changing her feelings for him at all.
And thinking about her changing history was confusing so he didn't even try to understand everything about it; it gave him a metaphorical headache.
A day after the home video fest, Damon called to invite Rebecca over to the boardinghouse, mostly because he needed her to do something for him. He'd promised to supply the Council with vervain, and seeing as to how he himself couldn't touch it . . . she was the one he'd called to for help.
Zach had been growing it for years and he'd been the one to give it to Stefan to use against Damon. It was probably one of the reasons Damon had killed him. The vervain was being kept in the cellar/dungeon room and was being grown under artificial lights.
"So why're you doing this?" she asked as she began clipping the purple plants and separating them into separate piles.
"To throw suspicion the other way, of course," Damon answered, smirking. "Besides, it's my mess; I told you I'd take care of it."
Rebecca remembered telling Stefan once when he'd been attacking someone that since he'd done it he'd have to clean it up. She wondered if that was why Damon was doing this.
"Right." Rebecca sighed. "Well, I'll help you keep growing it if you want me to. I don't want to have to worry about them suddenly finding out about you and Stefan."
"You're gonna spoil me," Damon teased.
She looked at him, playful amusement in her eyes. "I can stop."
"No, no. I enjoy it. Continue."
"Yeah."
Rebecca had yet to tell Damon about her conversation with Bonnie and Grams. Truth be told . . . she was kind of scared to. She didn't want to overwhelm him with too much all at once.
"Damon, if I tell you something, do you promise not to freak out?"
Damon looked mock-offended. "I do not freak out."
"Mm-hm. Well, it's about us." She saw the flash of vulnerability that he hid a second later, but it made her quick to reassure him. "It's nothing bad, but Grams told me something about our . . . bond, for lack of a better word, and I think it's only fair for you to know everything I do about it."
Damon looked cautious for another second but again he hid it well.
"Okay, do you remember that time I ran into you at the Grill, and when we touched we felt a spark? I know you felt it too because you jerked your hand away."
Damon did remember it, but he had tried not to over-analyze it. He hadn't wanted to make something out of nothing, but now he knew it actually hadn't been nothing.
"Grams said when we met . . . I touched something inside of you, some small piece of what was left of your humanity. We connected somehow. She said it was rare but not unheard of."
Damon watched as Rebecca continued to carefully clip the purple herb. He'd been a little surprised she'd accepted his request so easily - it was the first time he'd actually asked her for help instead of her just giving it. And he wasn't used to things being so easy. He'd grown used to things only being easy when he was compelling someone to do something for him. With her it was different; no compulsion was necessary.
"And then I thought that it made sense in a weird way because I knew when Stefan had locked you up. I didn't know where you were or what was wrong, but I knew you were in trouble. I was asleep, having nightmares, and when I woke up I felt like my heart was being ripped out or being repeatedly stabbed - whatever. Point is it hurt."
And he had known Rebecca was in trouble that night outside the club. It had affected him differently than it had her - he hadn't hurt; he'd just felt empty, like he had no reason to go on anymore. It was what he imagined he would feel if anything actually happened to take her away from him. He'd felt it before in 1864 when she'd been brought back to her time period - he didn't think she'd ever be able to appreciate what that meant because she would never have to go through that with him, or for him.
"Have you heard of something like this before?" she asked.
"Not exactly like it, but close to it. A blood bond between a vampire and a human. It's one of the many ways a vampire can control a human. But from what Shelia said . . . this happened before I fed from you."
"Oh, okay. Well . . . Grams said that our connection is strong, like . . . make us or break us strong. And I needed you to know that before we go any deeper. You deserve to know exactly what you're getting into."
This was the part she was sure Damon would run away from. She had the ability to hurt him, the ability to break him, and she could do it without ever meaning to. She knew she would never intentionally hurt him - she didn't want to hurt anybody - but she also knew that he was slowly letting her in, letting her see him, know him, and that could be disastrous for him. He was letting her touch a part of him that hadn't been touched in nearly a century and a half. He was giving her the chance to hurt him or heal him, to love him or leave him.
Damon saw all the emotions flicker over her face and wondered what she was worried about; he was here, wasn't he?
"Doesn't change anything, Becca."
She smiled softly and continued clipping the vervain and tying the sprigs together. Damon was relieved, though, that she seemed to know how important this was to him, and how nerve-wracking. It was still hard for him to be open; when he was with her he had to constantly remind himself that Rebecca wasn't like other people. She had never done anything to deserve his distrust.
The next day, since Rebecca was supposed to be studying with Jeremy, Damon had to find another way of entertaining himself. He knew that Stefan, Elena, Jeremy, and Matt had to talk to the sheriff about Vicki - she'd been missing for more than twenty-four hours, so the missing person's report was on record now.
Rebecca was going to meet Jeremy at his house after they were done getting interrogated.
As soon as Damon walked into the boardinghouse he knew he wasn't alone. He heard breathing and an unfamiliar heartbeat. He followed it to Stefan's room and saw Lexi, a vampire he only vaguely knew, sleeping peacefully in Stefan's bed. Her long blond hair was pulled into a braid and was flowing down the side of her body.
Damon smirked and went to lay beside her; he had found his source of entertainment for the day. He made sure he jostled her enough to wake her up, and then when he saw movement he went still, waiting for her to see him.
He saw irritation flash in her eyes and he smirked once again.
"Boo," he whispered.
"Ugh!" she sat up and pointedly looked at anything that wasn't him.
"Hello, Lexi. What an unexpected surprise."
"Unexpected surprise?" Lexi scoffed. "I think the wrong brother went back to high school."
"How long are you here for?"
"Just through Stefan's b-day."
Stefan's birthday? Stefan was not the celebrating his birthday type. Probably because he was technically dead.
"Aw, you mean you didn't come all this way just to see me?"
"That's it, Damon. After a century I finally realized death means nothing without you." She leaned closer and tapped his chin with her finger. "Do me."
Lexi rolled her eyes and sat back up, away from him. Damon found he was enjoying their little spat and loved that he could get a rise out of her. Actually, he loved getting a rise out of everybody.
"Oh, why're you so mean to me?"
"Uh, have you met you? You're not a nice person."
"Well, because I'm a vampire," Damon said. Seeing as to how Lexi was a vampire, she should understand that, yeah?
"But you're only the bad parts."
"So teach me to be good," Damon teased, leaning towards her like he was going to kiss her.
Apparently he took his playing a little too far because he suddenly found himself being held to the bed, her hand at his throat. If he'd actually needed oxygen, he'd have been in trouble. As it was, it was merely uncomfortable.
"I'm older and that means stronger," she warned. "Don't ruin my time with Stefan. Because I'll hurt you, and you know I can do it."
"Yeah."
Damon knew that Lexi meant business and he watched as Lexi let go and walked away. They'd been having such a nice conversation and then she'd had to go and ruin it. And then . . . inspiration it. The Council needed a vampire to blame for the three partiers he'd killed, and Lexi was a vampire, so . . . problem solved.
At the Gilbert residence Rebecca was at the kitchen table with Jeremy. He was doing some English thing; she had to study math because that was her first test. She dreaded it because sometimes her mind would just go blank and she wouldn't be able to remember the equations or the formulas.
Chelsea was with her; now that Rebecca hadn't been able to be with her all the time she just spent as much time with her baby sister as she could.
Elena and Jenna were in the living room sulking or moping or whatever. They were talking about Logan and Stefan. Jenna thought Logan had dumped her - though he was really dead - and Elena was . . . brooding about her decision not to be with Stefan. Rebecca rolled her eyes at that; why was Elena purposely making herself miserable? If being with Stefan would make her happy then she should just be with Stefan - screw the consequences and screw what everyone else thought.
"Wanna keep it down over there?" Jeremy said, obviously becoming distracted by the chit-chat.
"Why? What are you doing?" Jenna asked.
"Homework. I gotta finish this. I'm way behind, and I have a quiz tomorrow, so . . ."
Rebecca caught Elena's gaze and noticed Elena looked concerned.
"What d'you think? Alien?"
"Some sort of replicate?"
"He can hear you," Jeremy said before getting back to work.
Rebecca shrugged when Elena continued to look on, concerned. She'd warned Elena it would happen, that Jeremy would act completely different since Damon had tampered with his memory.
Rebecca felt a little bad because she hated being on the outs with the people she cared about, but she wasn't going to give in on this one. Until Elena gave, Rebecca wouldn't either.
Meanwhile, Damon had gone to the police station to give the vervain to the sheriff. Rebecca had boxed it for him and he only had one of the few he had. The receptionist told the sheriff he was there and he was now seated in her office in front of her desk.
"I understand from Mrs. Lockwood that you're uncle's out of town."
"Yes, he is. Um . . . but I spoke to Zach, and he filled me in and asked if I could bring this to you."
He handed her the box and she opened it.
"Vervain." She picked up on of the bundles and nodded at him.
"It's all we have at the moment. I hope it's enough."
He hated this, standing around like a Good Samaritan, but he needed to get the Council off the trail of vampires, so here he stood.
"It's a small circle," the sheriff said. "Founding families, a few city officials."
"And your deputies, of course, right?" he asked, taking a seat. While he was here he might as well find out all the information he could. It never hurt to be well-informed. "Are we any closer?"
Liz shook her head and Damon was struck by how tired this woman was. It must be exhausting to go on a vampire hunt and not come up with anything.
"I think our facts are wrong. We've always believed that vampires can only come out in the dark. What if that's changed?"
"Is that even possible?" He really hoped she didn't know about the lapis lazuli because a dead or missing sheriff would not be a good thing for him to add to the list of things he needed to cover up.
"We've exhausted ever other option. We have to consider that the vampire might be walking around during the day . . . right in front of us."
Right in front of you, Damon thought wryly.
"Hm. So what's the next step?"
"We're now looking at anyone new to town since the deaths began. Should turn up a suspect or two."
"And I, of course, will do anything I can to help," he said, the perfect tone of complete innocence in his voice.
In his mind he was already working out a plan. One that involved Lexi dying - she really shouldn't have threatened him - and himself walking away scot-free.
Back at Elena's house, Elena had called Bonnie and so Elena, Rebecca, and Bonnie were having a sort of girl's night. Rebecca had been a little reluctant because she didn't want to be around Elena at all if all they were going to do was argue. Elena had been willing to let it go for the night, so there they were.
Problem was . . . All Elena wanted to do was talk about Stefan's and her break up.
"I'm sorry," Bonnie said. "I know I've been kind of MIA when you need me the most. I suck."
"You wanna make it up to me? Get my mind off of it," Elena said.
Bonnie smiled widely and looked at Rebecca mischievously before turning back to Elena. "Just remember you asked for it."
Bonnie went and closed the bedroom door and the bathroom door that joined Elena's and Jeremy's bedrooms. Then she grabbed a pair of scissors and a pillow. Within seconds the feathers from the pillow were all over the bed.
Chelsea grabbed a handful and played with them; she cooed and Rebecca smiled.
"Hey!" Elena complained when she realized exactly what Bonnie had done.
"Be patient."
"O . . . kay."
"I need to swear you to secrecy," Bonnie said.
"It's kind of a bad week for that kind of stuff," Elena said.
Rebecca was tempted to tell Elena it shouldn't be too hard because all they did was keep secrets; if they kept it up they could turn it into a science.
"No, swear, because I'm not supposed to be showing you this."
"Okay, I swear."
"Okay. There's no windows open, right?" Both were closed. "There's no fan, no air conditioning."
"None. What're you doing?"
"Grams just showed me this. You're gonna love it."
Bonnie held her hand over the feathers and began floating one, guiding it with her finger. Rebecca smiled because Bonnie was learning how to control her magic. And Chelsea was fascinated; she grabbed for it and Bonnie brought it out of her reach just to bring it back again.
"Bonnie, what's going on?" Elena asked.
Bonnie didn't answer; she just began adding more feathers to the one already in the air. Elena began smiling, though Rebecca could see the shock there still.
"It's true, Elena. Everything my Grams told me," Bonnie said. "It's impossible, but it's true. I'm a witch."
By that time Elena was crawling around in the middle of the feathers, and Rebecca was swatting them away from her face - she had a feeling Bonnie was doing that on purpose.
"I believe you," Elena said.
"Of course you do," Rebecca said. How could she not; the evidence was in the air.
The three girls laughed and things were okay for a while. Rebecca, Elena, and Bonnie were the Terrific Trio again.
"It's weird, huh? After all this time joking about being psychic . . . I really am a witch. You don't think I'm a freak now, do you?"
"You already know I don't," Rebecca replied.
"I don't think you're a freak," Elena said. "I don't understand, though. If your Grams told you to keep all this a secret, why did you tell me?"
"You're one of my best friends. I can't keep secrets from you."
Elena looked away guiltily and Rebecca took pity on her.
"She knows, Elena. We can all be upfront with each other again. I told her a few days ago. I already knew about her witch stuff, so I figured she deserved to know the rest."
"Becca warned me it was bad but I wanted to know. I didn't like being kept out of the loop, so I asked her to tell me."
"Are you . . . okay?" Elena asked carefully.
"Um . . . freaking out a little. But, yeah, I'm okay. Grams is helping a lot." Bonnie shrugged.
Rebecca smiled and picked up a feather from the pillow. "So, can you . . . conjure up another pillow since you destroyed this one?"
"Ugh! Shut up!" Bonnie magicked about fifty feathers into Rebecca's face; Chelsea thought that was hilarious if the giggle was anything to go by. "It doesn't work that way."
Rebecca laughed a little and threw some of the white fluff at Bonnie in return.
"Okay, so . . . for the remainder of the night how about we don't talk about all the not normal stuff?" Rebecca suggested. "We can have a pig out and movie fest. no horror."
Both Elena and Bonnie seemed to agree with that arrangement.
The next morning Rebecca showered and then took off to the boardinghouse - just because Elena didn't want to have to deal with vampires didn't mean Rebecca had a problem with it. She got there just as Damon was pulling his Camaro into the garage.
She'd brought Chelsea with her because she'd left from Elena's and Chelsea had been with her then. It made more sense than dropping her off at home beforehand. Especially with how weird her aunt and her dad had been acting - seriously, what was up with that?
Damon escorted her inside but she stopped at the entrance - another vampire was here and it wasn't Stefan. Maybe she shouldn't have brought Chelsea.
Damon knew why she had stopped so he said, "It's just Stefan's friend. Come on. Uh, she'd old; she's probably met a few of your kind."
"Hm." She looked at him and then at Chelsea. "Is it okay for her?"
"She'll be safe."
Rebecca and Damon went into the living room and she saw Stefan standing at one end of the room and a beautiful blond girl sitting in a red chair on the other end drinking from a blood bag.
"So, what're we doing tonight?" the girl said.
"Funny you should ask," Damon replied.
"Well, I wasn't asking you."
"There's a party at the Grill, you'll love it. Banquettes, tacky wait staff, all of Stefan's friends."
"Yeah, I don't want a birthday party," Stefan said.
Rebecca raised her eyebrow. How old would he be? She quickly did the math in her head. 162. She imagined a birthday cake with 162 candles on top, and then she imagined it collapsing from the weight.
"It's not for you. It's a party party. No one's going to know it's your birthday. Caroline's throwing it."
"Damon, stay away from Caroline," Stefan said, disapproval coloring his voice.
"We're friends, it's cool," Damon said, though Rebecca thought he had a pretty weird definition of friendship seeing as to how he didn't really care about Caroline at all. "It's important for the town to see us out and about like normal folk. We need to blend."
Damon looked at the blood bag the blond girl was drinking from and turned his nose up at it. "Ugh. I prefer mine at 98.6."
Rebecca rolled her eyes and stepped forward, closer to the blond girl. "Hi, I'm Rebecca. I just thought I'd introduce myself since no one else was polite enough to do it for me."
She looked pointedly at Stefan and Damon. Damon just shrugged but Stefan actually had the dignity to look slightly ashamed.
"Sorry, Rebecca. This is Lexi. Lexi, Rebecca."
Lexi smiled and nodded Rebecca's way. "Forgive them. They're only men. They haven't changed much since the dawn of time."
Rebecca grinned. "Probably not. They like to sleep, eat, and have sex. Maybe not in that order."
"Uh, on behalf of my gender, hey!" Damon groaned.
"Yes, let's not jump to conclusions," Stefan said, siding with his brother for once.
"She didn't jump," Lexi defended. "She took a tiny step and there conclusions were."
Rebecca liked Lexi. She'd only been in Lexi's presence for all of five minutes but Rebecca knew they'd be good friends if Lexi stuck around long enough.
Damon, who was watching this friendship in the making, decided he should distract Rebecca from getting any closer to Lexi. Rebecca would already be torn up over the fact that someone she knew - someone else she knew - had to die; Damon didn't want her to feel any more pain than was strictly necessary.
He felt a small jolt of guilt at the thought of killing one of Stefan's friends but he quickly killed that thought with the fact that Stefan deserved every ounce of misery he got.
Before Rebecca even got upstairs her phone vibrated and she got a text from Caroline about the party, asking her to come. Rebecca couldn't; she still had to study for her stupid math test.
"So you compelled her to throw this party, huh?"
"Um . . . no. I compelled her to shut up and then I -" Damon cut himself off. "Yes - and she's not any more ditzy than she already was."
She snickered a few times and shook her head. "As long as she doesn't suspect anything."
"She'll think she thought of it. So, are you going?"
"I can't. I have to go to John Tyler to take my test tomorrow so I'm studying tonight. I can't believe they're making me drive an hour-and-a-half just to take a test."
"Do you need a ride?"
"Um . . . I already have one, but if you're not busy . . . I wouldn't be opposed to you taking me instead. I'm gonna be up there a while, though, you might get bored."
"I'm sure I can find something to do."
"Okay. If you want." Rebecca shrugged.
Damon frowned a little and it caught her off guard. "Why do you always do that?"
"Do what?"
"If you want. Or in my case, if I want. Do you not have an opinion at all?"
"Uh . . ."
Apparently the fact that she was agreeable was upsetting to him. Which was just weird; things were supposed to be good when they went smoothly.
"If I felt strongly against something I would tell you," she said. "But I happen to be okay with you taking me there tomorrow. Also, I figured you wouldn't have asked if you wanted me to disagree."
Rebecca shook her head, trying to understand what exactly Damon wanted her to do. Did he want to argue?
"Anyway, I came over today because I wanted to see you since I didn't get to yesterday. I -" She broke off, not wanting to bore him with her teenage small talk.
"You what?"
"Um . . . I kind of worked things out with Elena. We've agreed to disagree, and we've moved on."
"Oh, you've moved on. She, however, will go back to not talking to you the next time you do something she doesn't agree with."
"That's . . . not true." She sounded unsure to her own ears, so she knew Damon had heard it.
"Isn't it?" he asked, though it was more of a statement really. "It wasn't you who did anything wrong, yet she treated you like a pariah. That's not much of a friendship if you ask me."
Rebecca tried to find something to say in Elena's defense but she couldn't. She couldn't because it was true. Elena treated her differently because of the Slayer thing and she would probably always treat her differently.
"You're just trying to stir up trouble," she accused.
"Well, is there trouble to be stirred up?"
She glared at him only semi-playfully. What was he doing? "Stop it. You're trying to confuse me. i know that Elena and I don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but we've been friends our whole lives. I can't just . . . walk away from that."
Since Damon was obviously in a weird mood Rebecca decided not to stay too long. She said good-bye to all three vampires and left to go home. She would talk to Damon later, when he was in a less confusing mood, or when he decided to explain what his mood had been about.
Okay, so here's the story. I got my computer to work, and it worked for about a week. Yup - I'm about to give up on it. Pull the plug and buy a new one. I've got to. Things keep disappearing from the thing. Files and such that I need for the computer to work. I don't know how they disappear on their own but they do. Anyway, my cousin is living with me for now and she has a laptop so I'll still be able to update at least once a week, I think. Just letting you know that if I don't update for a while, that would be why. I'm not sure how long she's going to be living with me, but as long as she does I will have a working computer, so . . . yeah.
Hope you enjoyed. Leave a review please!
