Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I only own my OCs, "Juliet Jordan Gilbert" and "Ivan Christos" and any other characters or plotlines I make up along the way!
Author's Note: Sorry that this chapter took so long. I've been writing it in chunks because of writer's block and yeah. But it's here!
ENJOY!
Three years from now...
"Stefan, you can't go," Valerie insisted as she followed him into the living room of Stefan's home.
Stefan threw his bag onto the couch before anxiously peeking out through the closed blinds over the window to make sure the mysterious huntress hadn't followed him. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he turned back to Valerie, who looked at him with worry.
"She has Damon and Jules," Stefan said simply.
Valerie sighed. "I know that, but Juliet would never forgive me if I let something happen to you. She's forgiven me for a lot in the past, but this? She'd never forgive me for. I'm finally her friend, Stefan, do you really think she'd forgive me for letting her husband go off into war blind?" She growled. "She has Damon and Jules because she wants you."
Stefan tossed several vervain bombs into his bag. "Well, then she's gonna get me. Oh, and I, uh, burned my Porsche, so I kind of need to borrow your car..."
She sighed again. If he insisted on going... "I'm coming with you."
Stefan immediately shook his head. "No, you're not."
"Stefan..." She started.
Stefan shook his head again. "You said it yourself, Valerie. You're one of her best friends. Do you really think she'd forgive me if I let something happen to you?"
Valerie sighed sadly, knowing that Stefan was right and that she had lost the battle. Juliet would have gone ballistic if anything had happened to either one of them. She lifted her chin. "If anything happens to you or her, I will rain hell down on anyone responsible."
Stefan smiled weakly at her before patting her on the shoulder. "I wouldn't expect anything less." With a final goodbye, he grabbed his bag and went out the door, determined to save his wife and his brother.
Present day...
Too many noises. Why was everything so loud? My ears were ringing as they became bombarded with different kinds of noises.
My eyes flew open, but immediately shut again as the harsh light nearly blinded me. So much brightness. Somebody turn down the sun.
When I felt myself returning to consciousness, my lungs felt like they hadn't received oxygen in three weeks. I took a deep intake of breath as I threw myself forward. The ghost of pain went across my throat, so I lifted my hands to my neck. Relieved that my throat felt fine, I looked down at my sticky clothes and was shocked to see that I was covered in blood. I looked around me and realized that I was in the Mystic Grill, laying on top of the bar, somehow. I was just in the Salvatore boarding house, wasn't I?
Also, my throat was burning like someone had stuck an iron down it. I kept my hand on my throat, trying to soothe the fire that was threatening to obliterate me.
The airs on the back of my neck stood up, and I swung my head to the left (my blood soaked hair thumping on my shoulders as I did so) to see Julian, holding a glass of scotch with the bottle next to him.
"Welcome back to the land of the living," Julian greeted. He lifted a shoulder as he gestured to me up and down. "Well, so to speak." He tilted his glass to me in a toast before downing the drink all at once
I stared at him in shock and confusion. Land of the living? What the hell did he mean? And why was everything still so loud and bright?
"Get the hell away from me," I barely managed as I tried swinging myself off of the bar. I nearly dropped down to the ground as I tried steadying myself on my feet. I took a few staggering steps forward as I lifted my hands to my face, wincing at the pain in my head. "What did you do to me?"
"You're in transition, little one," Julian explained.
"I'm in what?" I tried thundering. I tried spinning on my heels to face Julian, but that just resulted in me tripping over my own two feet and slipping down to the cold, unforgiving floor. I groaned in pain as my head came in contact with the floor. I curled in on myself, liking the floor better than standing up. "Trans...transition means..." I whispered.
Julian was suddenly looming over me, and I flinched. "Transition means vampire."
My heart began hammering, and I frantically shook my head. "But I can't be transitioning!" I croaked. "I didn't even drink vampire blood!"
"But you did," Julian said as he lifted a finger. "Remember? Now that you're transitioning, the memories that have been compelled away should be returning..."
I was making my way to the shed where Valerie was going to tell the story of her and Stefan to her Heretic family. I was originally planning on helping Damon with Julian, but Valerie asked me to be there when she told them, and since I was trying to make nice with Valerie, I agreed.
I was just about to get to the shed when I suddenly felt my vervain necklace being ripped off, and a hand grabbing my upper arm while another hand clamped over my mouth to cover my muffled screaming. I looked over and realized with horror that it was Julian.
"Stop screaming," he compelled, and I was forced to comply. "Now, when I remove my hand, you will not scream, you will not run, you will not move, you will do exactly as I say."
The magic of his compulsion seized my body tightly and I nodded. When Julian removed his hand from my mouth, he smirked. "All right. Now, I have a little plan. It's really a back up plan in case Damon and Stefan try something, since they don't like their new father all that much." Julian reached into his pocket and pulled out a small dagger, holding it up in front of him. "Now, Lily must make a choice-the Salvatores, or her real family. And you're going to help her make that choice. When I snap my fingers the first time, I want you to take this dagger-" he tucked the dagger into my pocket "-and put it to your throat. And if I am forced to snap a second time, then you must cut your own throat with the dagger and die."
Tears of horror had been building up the whole time that Julian was talking. He was compelling me to kill myself. I couldn't believe this! Knowing Julian, I really could die. I mean, I'd nearly died plenty of times in the past, but I'd never actually died.
"Don't be too worried," Julian assured me. He bit into his wrist and slammed the open wound onto my mouth. "Drink," he commanded.
Forced by his compulsion, I swallowed mouthfuls of his disgusting, metallic tasting blood. Tears slipped down my cheeks as I did so, and when he removed his wrist, there were little blood spots on my cheeks that he reached over and wiped off with his fingers. "There. I'm not completely heartless. And think of it this way, Juliet. If you do die, you'll turn and become a part of this family. Now, forget all this happened and go on your merry way, but remember what I told you to do when I snap my fingers."
"You compelled me to do this to myself," I whispered in disbelief to myself, lifting my hands slowly to cup my throat. The burning must have been the thirst I was feeling, and I was probably so sensitive to my hearing because of the vampire hearing.
But...but I couldn't be in transition. I wasn't ready to be a vampire! I was planning it all out-kill Julian, graduate college, get a teaching job, have a baby with Stefan (somehow) and then become a vampire. I had done none of those things yet!
"Now, you must complete the transition," Julian said as he went back to the bar. He reached under the bar and pulled out a body. The man looked dead, but he could very well just have been unconscious.
I immediately started pushing myself away from the body, even slumped down on the floor. Now that there was a human body with blood pumping through their veins right under my nose, my headaches were working double time. I could feel the torturous feeling of pain as vampire fangs threatened to protrude through my gums, begging to be sunk into the throat of the innocent life. The skin underneath my eyes began crawling, and I tried shaking away the feeling, knowing that I probably had vampire eyes. "Keep that person away from me!"
"Why?" Julian asked as he dragged the body closer to me. I was no match for Julian, as he was strong and I was a weak vampire in transition trying to drag myself away from human blood. "So you can die a slow, painful death?"
"I'd rather die than take someone else's life," I spat at him.
Julian cocked his head to the side and shrugged. "Then you don't have to." With a quick movement of his hands, he grabbed the sides of the man's head and sharply turned his head to the side, snapping his neck and killing him. He dropped the dead body on the floor in front of me, the body hitting the ground with a plopping sound. "There you go. Eat up."
"That's not what I meant!" I hissed, continuing to try and push myself away. I was trying but I was failing. All the blood in my veins were singing at the scent of human blood just ready for the taking.
Julian lifted the man's wrist to his mouth and savagely tore it open and let it flop to the ground in front of me. He wiped the blood from his mouth using the back of his hand and gestured to the wrist.
Now that there was an open wound and blood was flowing freely, I felt a deep hunger in my stomach begin to spread throughout my entire body.
"Do it," Kai's really loud voice said to me. "You need to."
I lost all thought and awareness of my surroundings as my hands and knees moved on their own accord, pulling me towards the bleeding wrist. My hands shook as they reached out and grabbed the man's wrist, and I felt my body become racked with sobs as I shakily lifted his wrist to my mouth. I let my face change, allowing my fangs to slip painfully out of my gums, and I sank my teeth into the wrist.
I'd drunk blood before (vampire blood, at least) and it was disgusting and slimy and incredibly thick, but as a vampire drinking human blood, it was delicious, smooth, and went down my throat with ease. The feeling of the blood hitting my stomach made my skin sing as I greedily latched on to the wrist, gulping mouthful after mouthful. Although my entire body began feeling rejuvenated and the disorientating feeling began ebbing away, tears slipped out of my eyes as I drank the blood of another human, sealing my fate. I was a vampire now. There was no going back for me. I was too weak.
"That's my girl," Julian soothed as he smoothed my hair back while I drank hungrily between sobs. "Welcome to the family."
Caroline Forbes tugged on her elf's hat. She was at Whitmore, organizing the school's Toys for Tots drive. It had been a few weeks since Lily's death and Julian and Juliet's disappearance. Damon and Valerie both said that they watched Juliet die, and that thought alone made Caroline want to stay in bed and never come out. Her best friend was dead. This pain was different from when Bonnie died, and even when Elena was cursed by the Sleeping Beauty spell.
Juliet was the one person that Caroline Forbes loved most in the entire world. In the words of Cristina Yang from Grey's Anatomy, Juliet was Caroline's "person" and vice versa. Every time Caroline thought of a terrible pun that she knew only Jules would appreciate and grabbed her phone to text it to her did she realize that Jules wasn't going to text back.
Juliet had had several brushes with death in the past, but that's all they were: brushes. Caroline always just assumed that Juliet was strong enough to make it out every time. But this time, she didn't.
They didn't even have a body to bury. Julian had stolen Juliet's body in order to spite the Salvatores, no doubt tossing her body into a ditch. Instead, they put a headstone next to Lily's grave in honour of Juliet.
Caroline began spiralling downwards, but Ivan insisted that Caroline not act that way since it was reflected in Alaric's twins. Ivan was strangely not reacting to Juliet's death, and it was concerning Caroline to no end. His sister had just died, and he had not shed a tear yet.
And that was the only reason that Caroline was at the toy drive. She knew that Juliet would want her to keep living her life, so that was what she was trying to do. Ivan was going to come pick her up, and then they two of them would meet Alaric at a birthing class. Caroline was very impressed with Ivan's dedication to the babies. It wasn't even really their babies, but Ivan sure treated them like they were theirs. He rubbed Caroline's swollen ankles, he went out and bought her weird craving foods at 3 am, he would put his head to Caroline's stomach and listen to their heartbeats. She was very thankful that she had an understanding boyfriend like Ivan. She just wished Juliet was there too. That would have made everything perfect.
Caroline zoned back into her conversation on the phone with Stefan. She had set a goal at the Toy Drive, hoping that it would help distract her. "Last year, we filled ten crates. This year, I am aiming for twenty."
"You know, compelling people to donate doesn't actually count as donating..." Stefan said.
Stefan. Poor Stefan, who had become a widower following his wife's death. The poor man had been buried in guilt and grief; guilt over the fact that he should have killed Julian sooner, and grief over the fact that his wife was dead. Stefan, however, decided to focus his grief and guilt into his hatred for Julian for taking Juliet from him. He was now more determined than ever to kill Julian, the man who took away not one, but two happy futures away from him.
Caroline rolled her eyes and instead rubbed her belly, which had grown into a small baby bump. "Wait 'til you see me. I popped this week. I have a pot belly."
"Yeah? Put on a Santa hat, you'd fit right in here," Stefan said as he looked around. He was in Sunbury with Damon, tracking down a lead on Julian. All the residents of the town were celebrating the holidays by drinking and visiting the shops.
Caroline rolled her eyes. "Ha ha, very funny."
"Sure you don't need me over there?" He asked, just to be sure. Stefan knew how much Juliet loved Caroline, and while Caroline was Stefan's best friend too, he knew that Juliet would want the two of them looking after each other in the wake of her death.
"To do what? Come to boring birthing classes?" Caroline snorted. "I've got Ivan for that, thank you very much. And besides, you're chasing after an immortal jerk who basically killed your mother and..." Caroline sucked in a deep breath, not wanting to say her name. Saying her name would make it too real, and even though it was real, it would make it worse. Instead, she exhaled and said. "That's much more important. I can handle this."
All of a sudden, Caroline trailed off and became distracted by a young college boy standing nearby. She became transfixed by the sight of his neck, and nearly started to salivate as she watched his carotid artery throb as his blood pumped through his body.
"Of course you can," Stefan continued. After Caroline didn't answer, he became concerned. "Caroline? You still there?"
Caroline snapped back into attention, realizing that she nearly lost control of her blood lust. She felt guilty over that fact and tried to cover it up by returning to her phone call. "Yes. Here. How are you?" Caroline realized what she had asked, and she immediately began shaking her head. "I'm sorry, that's a stupid question."
"No, no," Stefan assured her. "It's...hard. But I'm dealing. I'm just wondering how she dealt with it when I had died, and then ditched her right after."
"But she knew that she could bring you back," Caroline countered. "For you... for all of us...she's just gone."
Stefan chuckled a little on the other line, and Caroline's eyebrows shot up to her hairline. "Why are you laughing?" She asked.
"I just realized that we were both killed by men named Julian," Stefan revealed. "Me, by that Traveler, and Jules by Lily's Julian."
Caroline couldn't help but shake her head at the coincidence. She changed tactics. "Do you need me to send Ivan down to help you?"
"No, that's fine," Stefan answered. "Though I'd be a lot better if my travelling companion would actually stick to task instead of stopping by every single bar we pass by," Stefan responded.
"It's a pub crawl, Stef! That's the whole point. Don't be such a Grinch, or you'll get coal in your stocking," Caroline overheard Damon's complaints. She rolled her eyes in response.
Caroline then lifted a shoulder. "I just find it so weird. For days after Julie died, I cried my brains out, and all Ivan did was hand me tissues. He hasn't shed a single tear over his sister's death yet. I mean, even Jules had cried when Ivan died, and she'd only known him a day at that point."
"Maybe he's just bottling it all up," Stefan suggested. "That's not good for him. You should talk to him. If there's anyone who can help him at this point, it's you."
Bonnie approached Caroline, who nodded at her only best friend. "And that's my cue. I'll call you later," She said, and the two of them hung up.
"How you holding up?" Bonnie asked Caroline as she stopped in front of her.
"With what? The baby thing or the..." Hesitation. "Other thing?"
Bonnie nodded. "The other thing."
Caroline sighed. "It's just...it's been weeks, and I still can't get over the fact that she's just gone. I mean, I remember when you died-"
"Which time?" Bonnie joked, trying to lighten the mood a bit.
It worked because Caroline's mouth twitched a little in a smile. "The second time, when I was fully aware of the fact that you were dead. I was devastated. I felt like someone had ripped the carpet out from under my feet. But this...I feel like someone ripped my heart out, grabbed the carpet out from under my feet, rolled me up in the carpet like a burrito, and then threw me over the ledge of the grand canyon but throughout the entire thing I wasn't dead; I was still alive."
Bonnie sighed. "I know how you feel. First we lose Elena, now Juliet? It's like the universe has a thing against the Gilberts." She toyed with her fingers. "Out of all of us, I always assumed that Juliet would die last. Mainly because she was so insistent on remaining a human, but she was also smart about keeping herself alive. She always kept herself safe."
"Yeah, well," Caroline crossed her arms, fighting the urge to sniffle which would turn into a sob. "No one's safe when it comes to Julian."
Caroline sat sandwiched between Alaric and Ivan at the pregnancy training class. Caroline had told Ivan that he really didn't have to come, but he had practically insisted on it.
"And what if, no matter how much you plan, your water breaks at home?" The instructor asked the group of pregnant ladies and their husbands.
Caroline raised her hand quickly and when prompted, said, "C.O.A.T. Note the color, odor, amount, and time, keep your birth plan on hand, and call your care provider."
The instructor smiled. "Wow! Someone really dug into that suggested reading list."
Caroline lifted a shoulder. "Well, yeah. I hope everyone did. It's a baby. I mean, each and every one of us are bringing a life into the world. That is a huge responsibility."
"Encouraging words, Caroline, as always. Thank you," The instructor said before she addressed the group. "Okay. Let's pick this back up next time."
Alaric gave Caroline a wary look as everyone stood up and started getting ready to leave. Caroline gave him a look in response. "Don't give me that look."
"What look?" Alaric asked innocently.
"That is a 'Your hormones are making you crazy because you are pregnant'- look, which I will have you know is really just a man's attempt to minimize the gift that our bodies bring into this world," Caroline said.
Alaric gave her a look of exasperation, and in response Caroline turned to Ivan, who lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "It's from A Feminist Guide to Pregnancy, Chapter 3, page 43."
Caroline smiled with pride as she leaned into Ivan's chest. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, she was quickly distracted by a man and a woman's voice by the entrance.
"Isn't he a professor at Whitmore?" the woman asked quietly.
"Yeah, and she's a student," the man responded.
Caroline's face immediately turned into one of anger, and Ivan frowned. "Is everything okay?"
She tried snapping herself out of the hurt. "Yeah. It's just my vamp-hearing is working a little too well lately."
This time, the woman talked loudly enough so that Alaric and Ivan could hear as well. "What do you want to bet she's doing really well in his class?"
"And what about the other guy with her?" the man asked. "Is he the cover up father?"
Ivan tried ignoring the man's words as he focused on Caroline, who was now downright furious. "Care, don't let them get to you."
"No. It's okay," Caroline tried assuring them. "They're just having a difficult time with the subtle realities of the 21st century, where families come in all shapes and sizes."
All of a sudden, Caroline's vampire face and fangs came out, but she didn't notice it as she started walking towards the couple. "I think I should explain it to them..."
Alaric and Ivan shared looks of panic as they both went after Caroline. "Caroline!" Both men said.
"...That I have a boyfriend, and while you may not be the father..." She went on, spinning around to point at Ivan, then turning back to lunge at them.
Ivan came in front of Caroline so that he was blocking her. "Caroline, Caroline, Caroline, Caroline! Your eyes! Your eyes!" He pointed at his own eyes in emphasis.
Caroline, horrified, realizes that she was vamped-out and immediately stopped herself, causing her human face to return. Mortified, Caroline tried her best to downplay the situation. "It's just the... hormones," She assured them as she pushed past Ivan and out the door.
Alaric and Ivan again shared worried looks as they followed Caroline out the door.
No matter how much I wanted to tear Julian limb from limb, I couldn't. Something inside of me just wouldn't let me. That, and Kai had insisted on me not hurting him, and for some stupid reason I listened.
For the past couple of weeks, Julian had gone around and wrecked havoc on innocent humans, and though I tried to restrain myself, sometimes I joined in. I hadn't exactly been taught control, and as a newbie vamp, it was hard.
It also seemed like I had retained some ability to use magic, like the Heretics. I had no idea if this made me a Heretic, but whatever I was was worrying. Julian even used this to his advantage, having me cloak us sometimes to keep people from following us and although I didn't want to, I always did.
I couldn't even get to a phone to try and call someone because a) Julian never let me out of his sight and b) he told me not to, and frustratingly I felt obliged to comply.
Julian's most recent stop on his reign of terror had been on a group of people dressed up as Santas which he had left in a bar in Sunbury, the most recent place that we were trying to take refuge in.
With my new vampire hearing, I could hear Stefan and Damon's voices from inside the bar and felt myself become filled with glee. Julian had gone inside to confront he boys and had instructed me and the other group of vampires he had recently turned to stay outside until he instructed us to come inside.
"Well, it was. But, uh, now... These have been dark days for me," I heard Julian say, and that was our signal to start pouring into the room from various entrances. I came in from the back door, and I felt myself become filled with happiness at the sight of my husband, whose eyes had grown to twice their side as he saw me walk in and stand next to Julian.
"Juliet?" He said and made the mistake of stepping forward to try and get to me.
I felt Kai's presence next to me as I lifted my hand and used magic to keep him from getting closer to us. I felt horrible, but Julian had told me to do it and I couldn't say no.
Julian stared smugly at the two brothers who both looked like someone had just stabbed them with the sword that Julian was holding in his hand. "Then, I remember what my old life looked like," Julian went on. "And, I... I realized... I mean, it was a good life. I was surrounded by the people that I cared about- my friends. Two, two. Heh, heh, heh. Raphael, here, I met in Florence in the 1600s."
He wrapped his arm around Raphael's shoulders. "He was a painter- terrible painter, though- but a painter."
Julian clappd Raphael on the shoulder as the vampire nodded in agreement with Julian's assessment of his artistic talents. Julian then walked over to a woman on his right and squeezed her shoulders affectionately. "Oh, Dirty Robin, I found in a convent in Massachusetts in, uh, 1802, was it? Hmmm. She loved those nuns."
Julian then pointed toward the two men standing behind Stefan and Damon, who politely turned to see who they were dealing with. "Seth over there, I rescued you from a claim-jumper in California during the Gold Rush, and Xi Nguyen, I met you last week, actually, in Portland."
Julian patted me on the back. "And you both know Juliet. I had her kill herself some weeks ago only to bring her back as a vampire. See, I'm not completely evil." He smirked. "Now, I know you two have been following me for quite some time, right? I hope it wasn't for nefarious reasons."
Stefan smiled coldly. "Well, that depends. Is killing you nefarious?"
Damon started panicking a little ."All right, guys. Listen... I'm sure we all miss Lily. Well, most of you. You guys in particular. But I'm sure, wherever she is, she's looking up and thinking, 'I wish those boys wouldn't fight...'"
"I'm not going anywhere," Stefan said firmly.
Julian smiled. "Good."
Damon sighed. "Fine. Plan B- booze-soaked flammable costumes."
Damon threw a lit lighter at Julian and the other vampires (including me) and it immediately set the bodies of the dead Santas ablaze, revealing that Damon and Stefan had soaked them in alcohol before we came.
I lifted my arms to cover myself from the flames, and I felt a hand on my lower arm and I was suddenly vamp sped out of the bar.
Ivan cradled a blood bag for Caroline in one hand while holding a beer for himself in his other hand. The two of them and Alaric were back at Alaric's apartment where they could rest a bit and hang out.
Caroline sighed furiously. "Ohhh, I was two seconds away from tearing their heads off!"
Ivan handed her the blood bag with a smile as he said, "Well they were awful people. They would have deserved it."
Caroline pressed a kiss to Ivan's lips as she took the blood bag from his hands. She ripped the top of the blood bag off and took a huge gulp of it, moaning in relief. The blood thing used to freak Ivan out, but he got over it pretty fast. "Oh, I've needed this all day!"
"Yeah, you and me both," Alaric said as he came in and crashed down on the couch, a beer in his own hands. Ivan settled down next to him.
Caroline was gulping the blood down greedily, but her eyes widened quickly and she pulled the bag away from her lips. "Do you think this is okay for the babies?" She asked the two of them.
Alaric and Ivan shared looks of exasperation. "Caroline..." Alaric started.
"I'm serious! What if blood is like alcohol? What if it's bad for them?" Caroline said worriedly as she dropped the blood bag onto the coffee table.
Ivan stood up and walked over to her. "Caroline, if it's good for you, how is it bad for them?"
"I don't know, but you don't know either, because there's no studies on this!" Caroline panicked. She gestured at Alaric. "There's no books, there's..."
Alaric stood up as well and walked over ot Caroline, trying to help Ivan comfort her, but she was only becoming more agitated. "Look, Caroline, you're doing a great job."
Caroline groaned as she turned her back to the boys, trying her best to keep from losing control. "Would you stop saying that?"
"But you are!" Alaric insisted. "I mean, do you realize how happy you've made me? I mean, this is a miracle. You've turned my life around-"
Just then, Caroline finally snapped and vamped out before turning around to face Alaric. "I said, stop!" She vamp-sped toward him and shoved him against the wall in a choke-hold.
"Caroline!" Ivan spoke out, grabbing Caroline by the shoulders and pulling her away from Alaric. She instantly came back to herself and was horrified to realize what she had done.
"Are you okay?" Ivan asked as he cupped her cheeks. "Are you okay?"
Caroline shook her head in disbelief for a second until she finally spoke, "I... have to go." And with that, she vamp sped out of the room before Ivan or Alaric could stop her.
I felt myself stop outside in an alley on the Sunbury streets, and once we had stopped, Stefan clutched me to his chest and I hugged him back as tightly as possible. "You're alive!" He sobbed into my shoulder. "I can't believe you're alive! We all thought you were dead!"
"I thought I was dead too!" I cried. I pulled away as I held on tightly to his shirt. "Julian made me do awful things and he was the one that turned me into a vampire. He compelled me to drink his blood and then forget that I did it only to have me kill myself later and turn."
"But you were using magic," He said. "How were you using magic if you're a vampire? Does that make you a Heretic?"
"I don't know," I told him. "All I know is that I knew you would find me."
He pulled me back into his chest and hugged me tightly. "Thank God," He muttered into my hair as I clutched at him.
We pulled away as Damon came up to us. "I can't believe it," He said as he pulled me into a hug, and I gratefully hugged him back.
"Trust me, we can't either," I told him as I pulled away.
Stefan nodded. "Okay, now that we've got Jules back, we re-load, we figure out a way to separate him from his friends..."
"We do no such thing!" Damon countered. "We get in the car, and we go home with your wife who isn't so dead after all."
"What? What are you talking about? He's building a small army back there. He's obviously up to something," Stefan countered.
Damon scoffed. "He's getting wasted with his friends! You're delusional. Trust me. That? That is a hornets' nest, and take it from an expert- you do not want to kick it."
"You of all people should not be the one to give up! You're the reason he's alive and she isn't," Stefan argued.
"What kind of backwards-ass logic is that?" Damon asked.
I wanted to say something, but the brothers didn't exactly give me the opportunity to cut in.
"Because we would have killed Julian the minute he showed up into our lives, but no. You wanted to punish Lily with a long-con, didn't you?" Stefan said.
Damon rolled his eyes. "She punished herself with a short stake."
"Huh. You know, for weeks, I've been watching you. I've been trying to catch even the slightest bit of regret on your face," Stefan began.
"Regret for what, Stefan?" Damon asked in an exasperated tone.
"She was dying, Damon! How difficult would it have been to say something nice?" Stefan asked.
"Well, I didn't want to lie to the woman," Damon answered.
"All she wanted was forgiveness, and you practically spat in her face!" Stefan exclaimed.
"She didn't deserve my forgiveness," Damon responded.
"What, because she made some mistakes? Or is it because she didn't choose poor you over Valerie?" Stefan mocked.
Damon smiled coldly. "Giving her a hall pass, like always. Her little angel."
"You acted like a spoiled little brat," Stefan retorted. "A coward. You had a chance to make things right, and you still do."
I finally cut in, stepping in between the brothers. "Alright, enough!" I pointed at Stefan. "Stefan, low blow." I spun around and pointed at Damon. "Damon, chill out."
"Forget him, Jules, we don't need him," Stefan insisted as he grabbed my hand. "Let's go."
He had just started to drag me off, but I stuck my heels in the dirt. "Wait, when did I agree to this?"
"What do you mean?" Stefan asked.
I growled. "I mean I just spent the last few weeks with that horrible tyrant who, by the way, killed me! And no matter how much I want to kill him or hurt him I can't. It's like I'm sired to him-not in the romantic way-but the way that Tyler was sired Klaus. I do everything that Julian tells me to do and there is no way in hell that I'm voluntarily going back to him."
"But Jules-" Stefan started.
"But nothing!" I cut him off. "You are talking about taking me back to a man who turned me into a vampire! Who took away the only thing in life that I had ever wanted-babies!" My stupid hormones and feelings were all over the place because of my transition, and I started crying. "I just want to go home. See my brother, see Caroline, see Bonnie, tell them that I'm alive and not dead!"
"I can take you home," Damon said, and I looked over my shoulder to see him holding out his hand to me. "If you want to go home, I'll take you."
I looked between Stefan and Damon, and Stefan still looked determined to go after Julian. I didn't want to go anywhere near Julian. I'd rather die (again) first. And though it killed me to choose Damon over Stefan, I put my hand in Damon's as I told Stefan, "When you're ready to come home, please do so."
Damon nodded his head at Stefan. "Road trip's over, brother. You want to go back and risk it? Go for it. We're going home." With that, Damon tugged on my hand, and I finally tore my gaze away from a disappointed Stefan and followed him.
Later on in the car, my gaze remained on the window, twisting my wedding rings around on my finger as Damon drove towards home. I just wanted to be home, and I couldn't wait to see the look on Ivan and Caroline and Bonnie's faces when I told them I wasn't dead. After being together for so long, it felt weird to be apart from them. Plus, Christmas was coming up, and I wasn't about to miss Christmas with them when I had never missed one in the past.
I heard Damon sigh. "I'm sorry," He finally said.
That caused me to look over at him in confusion. "Why?" I asked.
Damon's grip on the steering wheel tightened. "I knew what Julian was capable of. I shouldn't've let you be in the room that night. I should've had Lily kill me first before she had the chance to hesitate and have you killed."
I smiled at my brother-in-law. "Don't blame yourself. Julian is just a monster and no matter how much I want him dead, I can't kill him. And I think that's the cruellest torture of all."
Damon couldn't help but chuckle. "When did you get so morbid?"
I managed to crack a smile. "Right after I slit my own throat open." I shook my head. "Besides, you're the one who agreed to take me home, not Stefan. So in a weird way, you're the one respecting my decision."
"I don't blame you for wanting to be away from that son of a bitch," Damon answered.
"I just can't believe Stefan won't see it my way," I told him. "I know that he wants Julian dead because of what happened to their baby, and I know this sounds selfish, but I have just been turned into a vampire, the one thing that I never wanted to be, at least so soon. His concern should be me, right now." I sighed as I lifted my hands to my forehead. "And that just sounded so unbelievably selfish. God, I'm an awful person."
"You are not," Damon tried assuring me. "You're a wonderful person who just had something awful happen to her. You're right, as your husband, Stefan should be comforting you, and he failed to do that."
I sighed again as I dropped my hands. "When he comes back to Mystic Falls, I'll apologize."
"You might not be there to do it," I heard from the back seat, and I looked behind me to see Kai sitting there.
"What is it?" Damon asked as he quickly glanced to the back before looking back to the road.
"What do you mean?" I asked Kai out loud, not noticing that I had done so.
"Jules, what's going on?" Damon demanded.
Kai shrugged a little. "This." He reached out and grabbed my arm, and at the contact, I began feeling that same burning sensation as I had the last time Kai had touched me at Wickery Bridge. I began screaming, and my screams and pain drowned out Damon's cries of my name. I lost my vision a lot faster this time than I had the last time, and I shut my eyes tightly trying to fight it off. When I opened them again, there was nothing but darkness. I closed them again, and this time when I tried to open them, I found that I couldn't. The pull of unconsciousness became too great and I passed out.
When Kai opened his eyes, he looked down to see that instead of seeing his own hands, he saw feminine ones, and an engagement ring and wedding band sat on his ring finger of his left hand. The nails were painted a dark pink, but they were chipped here or there and there were dried flecks of blood underneath the fingernails. He balled his hands into fists then flexed his fingers again.
"Jules!" He heard, and he looked over to see Damon Salvatore beside him, having pulled the car over and going over to his side of the car, opening the door and cradling Kai's face in his hands. Or rather, Juliet's face. "What's wrong? Why were you screaming? Are you okay?"
"I'm...fine," Kai tested out his voice. He was worried that it would sound like his own, but it still sounded like Juliet's. Good. Nothing to tip Damon off. "I had just the worst headache all of a sudden. Probably...a side effect? Of the vampirism?" He offered, hoping that Damon would buy it.
Damon turned out to be even stupider than Kai thought, because he really did buy it. "If you're sure..." Damon hesitated.
Kai quickly nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Damon slowly let go of his face as he got out of Kai's side of the car and back into the driver's seat. Kai straightened up in his own seat, smoothing his hands over Juliet's jeans, relishing in the feeling of being able to physically touch things on his own.
However, he began feeling a pulsing headache at the back of his mind, and he knew it was Juliet trying to unconsciously fight her way back in control of her own body. Kai immediately began fighting back against the headache, squeezing his eyes shut firmly.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Damon asked one final time as he got back on the road.
Kai's eyes snapped open as he swung his head to look at Damon. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. I just...I want to see Caroline," Kai said as he looked back to the front, staring at the windshield. "I want to see Caroline and see how the babies are."
Damon rolled his eyes. "I still can't believe those babies are still alive."
Kai could feel rage building up inside of him. "Trust me, neither can I."
Caroline carried two bouquets of flowers as she approached the Mystic Falls cemetery. In one hand held sunflowers, in the other, orchids. She had two stops to make.
She came to a stop in front of the Salvatore section of the cemetery. Stefan and Damon's names were there, along with their father's, because back in 1864 everyone had assumed that they all had died. Lily's name was now there as well, and beside it was a headstone that read: "Here lies Juliet Jordan Gilbert-Salvatore. Gone, but never forgotten".
A generic saying, but Juliet would have thought it was funny. They also included Juliet's last name before she had married because they knew it would have been important to her.
Caroline laid down the orchids on the snow covered ground. She sat down on the little bench that was beside it as she huffed. "Hey, Jules. I wish I could just pick up my phone and call you and tell you all this stuff, but because I clearly can't, I have to settle for this." She sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you died in pain and by yourself and I'm sorry that we don't even have a body to properly bury." She looked down at her hands. "I wish you were here for this whole weird pregnancy thing. You would have known exactly what to do, with how baby crazy you were. I can't believe I'm not going to get to see you have babies of your own. I promise, that if I get to name one of these babies and if one of them is a girl, her name will be Juliet. And if I don't, I'll fight for the baby to have the middle name Juliet. And you'll still be the godmother, though it'll probably have to be honorary and only if Alaric is cool with it, but I don't see him objecting to it."
"Ivan hasn't reacted to your death at all. It's like all he can think about are the babies. I want to talk to him about it, but I don't even like talking with Bonnie about you being gone. It's different than Elena being gone, or even Bonnie dying. In both cases, I knew I'd see them again. In yours...you were just a human. There was no way you could have survived the thing that took you down."
She started sniffling and shivered. If she wanted to visit her mother's grave too, she had to wrap it up. "Again, I'm sorry that I wasn't there to save you. I'm sorry that I didn't do the one thing that I was supposed to as your person. I didn't protect you. I didn't take care of you. And I'll never forgive myself for it."
Caroline reached down and tinkered with the locket bracelet that Juliet had gotten her for Christmas the year before. She opened the locket that had a picture of the two of them and ran her finger over the picture. The two of them as freshman, not knowing the horrible events that were awaiting them in high school. Neither one of them could have forseen dying at such a young age, but in Caroline's case, she was still alive, albeit undead. Juliet was dead permanently. The smile in the photo made Caroline's eyes well up-Juliet was ready to take on whatever a mundane life was going to throw at her. Unfortunately, her life wasn't like that.
She closed the locket and stood up, wiping at her tears. "Merry Christmas, Jules," She whispered as she turned away, covering her mouth to contain her sobs as she made her way to her mother's grave. Once she got there, she laid the flowers she had bought for her mother down.
Caroline sat down in front of the grave. "Hi, Mom," She started. "I just realized that this is going to be my first Christmas without you. That sucks. I still got you something. Two somethings actually. I will spare you the details of how, because honestly? I am sick of talking about it. But it's happening." Caroline drew a deep breath. "I'm pregnant. I used to picture us having this conversation. It looked different, obviously. I was a human carrying my own children, and you... were... you were alive. I know they're not mine... But they're still my responsibility, you know? And I want to... I have to do this right. And I have no idea what I'm doing. And all I want to do is just sit on our kitchen counter while you burn our dinner and ask you a million questions."
Caroline's eyes became filled with tears again as she paused for a moment, before sighing loudly. "God, I miss you."
"You're not the only one," She heard, and she looked behind her to see Ivan walking towards her, flowers in his hands. He laid them down next to the one's Caroline had brought and sat down next to Caroline.
"How did you know where to find me?" She asked.
"This is your first Christmas without your mother," Ivan commented as he put one arm around Caroline, tugging her close to him. "Where else were you going to be?"
Caroline smiled as she buried her face into his shoulder. "Can I ask you something?"
He nodded. "Shoot."
"Why are you so concerned about these babies?" She asked as she lifted her head. "They're not yours-they're not even mine, technically. Why do you care so much? I mean, you could have just walked away the moment you found out about them, but you didn't. You let yourself feel awkward and weird around Alaric because of the babies. Why do you care?"
Ivan took a deep breath in but didn't say anything. After a couple minutes of silence, he said, "My sister's dead."
"Ivan," Caroline started, her voice a gentle whisper.
"My sister is dead," He went on, ignoring Caroline. "And I can't find the will to live anymore. I don't want to get up to go to school. I don't want to go to work. I don't want to walk around being Ivan, the boy who was a twin brother until he lost his twin sister. I don't see why I'm still alive and she's not. I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for Juliet. I know Bonnie was the one who brought me back, but Bonnie wouldn't have brought me back if it weren't for me being Juliet's brother. And I couldn't cry over her being dead because the moment I cried would be the moment it was all real for me." The whole time he was staring at Liz's grave, but then he looked over at Caroline. "Caroline, you are the only family I have anymore. And when I decided I was going to love you, I decided I'd love every part of you. And those babies are a part of you, and I'm going to love them just as much as I love you. You're all..." Ivan sniffled, feeling the overwhelming urge to cry wash over him, and Caroline's heart ached as she saw tears brimming his eyes and slipping down his cheeks. "You're all I have and..." He cut himself off, burying his face in his hands as he finally let himself cry and mourn his sister's death.
Caroline wrapped her arms around her boyfriend and held him to her, feeling her entire body shaking with his sobs. She joined in with him as she began crying, putting her head on his shoulder as the two of them wept in their grief.
Kai opened the passenger side door when the car came to a stop in front of the Salvatore boarding house. He got out of the car, Juliet's boots loudly hitting the ground as he stood up. "Where's Caroline?" He asked as he looked over at Damon, who was getting out of his side of the car.
"How the hell am I supposed to know?" He responded. "It's Christmas and her mother's dead. Maybe she's visiting her."
Of course, Kai thought to himself as he walked behind Damon and into the boarding house. There was just one thing he needed to grab before he went and saw Caroline.
Now that Juliet was a vampire, her vampire hearing was a great help to Kai as he stomped through the cemetery. All he had to do was listen for the sounds of people crying and he would find Caroline.
It didn't take too long, either. He heard a man and a woman crying, and when he vamp sped towards the sound of the crying, he saw a brown haired man and a blonde woman, the two of them holding each other as they cried in front of a grave. Kai rolled his eyes at the pathetic sight.
He rolled his shoulders back as he reached into Juliet's jacket pocket and pulled out a hunting knife soaked in vervain. Thanks to supernatural creatures crawling about Mystic Falls so frequently in the past, the Salvatores had kept their armoury up to date with weapons that impressed even Kai.
The knife gleamed in the moonlight as he took very small, quiet steps towards Caroline, who still had her back to Kai. Kai began feeling the familiar headache of Juliet trying to win her body back, and he began shooting her down as well as he could as crept.
Those stupid babies. They should have stayed dead the first time. Like jeez, how many kids was Kai supposed to kill until he was the sole leader of the Gemini coven?
The headache began building even more, and he stopped as he lifted one hand to his head, massaging the skull. He began walking away and was now behind Caroline. He brought the knife back as far as possible as he prepared to drive the blade through Caroline's back and through to her uterus.
Just as he moved to drive the blade forward, the headache blinded him, and everything he saw was black as he stumbled and crashed down on to the ground.
When I came to, my face was wet and my head was cold. There were hands on my face, and when I opened my eyes, I looked up to see Caroline and Ivan standing above me, the both of them with tears streaming down their faces. They broke out into huge smiles when they saw my eyes open, and they both lifted me up gently as they hugged me to them tightly. Their constant flow of questions was too much for me to comprehend at the moment, so I just sat there and let them hug me.
What the hell happened? The last thing that I remembered was blacking out in Damon's car while it was still daylight, and now I was in the middle of Mystic Falls cemetery at night.
My mind finally cleared enough for me to explain to Caroline and Ivan that Julian had turned me into a vampire. That made the two of them vomit out sympathies for me before hugging me to them again. I let them, but my eyes caught the shine of a hunting knife about one foot away from where I was laying down.
What the hell was going on?
Caroline and Ivan both wanted to follow me to the boarding house, but I convinced the two of them to go home and get some rest. With Caroline being pregnant and all, I didn't want to hurt her or distress her and the babies.
I saw Stefan's car in the driveway, and I steeled myself for my apology. I opened the door and walked in, speaking as I followed his scent (ew) to the parlor. "Listen, I'm sorry that I went with Damon today, but you have to understand, the last few weeks have been-"
I cut myself off when I got into the parlor and saw a distraught Stefan kneeling over Damon's motionless body, gaping in horror.
I felt my stomach fall to my feet as I breathed, "Damon, oh my God," and I ran over to where he was. I dropped down to the ground and put my hands on his face, though he didn't respond. He was dead. "What happened? What happened?" I asked frantically as I looked up.
"You two were right," Stefan said numbly. "You two wanted me to let it go. I should have let it go. I couldn't..."
I felt rage built up in me. "Julian," I hissed. "I should have guessed." I looked back down at Damon's face, and a tear slipped down my nose and on to his cheek. "I promised Elena I'd look out for him," I whispered. "I promised her."
"The Phoenix sword," Stefan said. "He was stabbed using the Phoenix sword."
I felt a smaller glimmer of hope. "Okay, so that means that we can bring him back. His soul's still alive, if we can just lead his soul into his body he'll come back." I reached into my jacket and pulled out my cell phone. "I'm calling Bonnie."
Several attempts later, I growled as I lowered my phone. "She's not picking up. I'm gonna call Valerie," I told him as I opened my contact list.
Stefan still hadn't said anything, so I looked up and over at him. "Stefan?" I tried.
"He's not gonna make it in there," Stefan shook his head.
I sighed. "Stefan, think of all the horrible things that have happened to us in the past couple of years. If he can make it through all of that, he can make it through this."
"That stone is punishment for every bad thing you've ever done. This is Damon. I don't even want to know what he's going through," Stefan said.
"Stefan, this is Damon we're talking about," I insisted. "He can make it. He can survive this. And if anything, he has us to help him."
Just then, I heard a weird noise behind me, and I spun around to see Nora, who must have been cloaked for God knows how long. She held the Phoenix sword in her hands and was staring at Stefan. "Even if he can, he'll be different... Just like you," She said.
Before Stefan and I could say or do anything, she vamp sped forward towards Stefan and stabbed him in the heart with the sword, and I screamed his name. "STEFAN!"
He grabbed the hilt of the sword and fell backward against the nearby armchair. I pushed Nora out of the way as I vamp sped towards Stefan. I put one hand on top of his on the hilt of the sword as I used my other hand to cradle his neck and make him face me. "Stefan," I whispered as I watched the life drain out of his eyes, and I looked down at the Phoenix stone as it glowed, showing that his soul was no longer in his body, but in the stone.
And now he was going to go through his own personal hell, and I couldn't help him.
TBC...
Holy shit long chapter!
REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!
Review Responses...
RHatch89: Thank you!
grapejuice101: I KNOW! After two and a half seasons of writing. Here's an update!
GoingClassic: Thank you! Here's the next chapter!
lijahsgirl: Ooh yeah, sorry about that. I think I've always known that the one thing Juliet would want was children but she'd never have them herself. I don't think I ever planned on her actually having children, too, at least not herself. Everyone in TVD had something precious ripped from them (Elena's humanity, Damon's love for Katherine, Stefan's love for Elena, Caroline's mother, Tyler's hybrid status allowing him to control his werewolf changes) and that Juliet needed something precious ripped from her too, and nothing was more precious to her than the ability to have children. It was the only reason she was still a human at that point.
WickedlyMinx: She's definitely not human anymore (she never was, she was always a witch but it never showed until the Traveler storyline). It's hard to describe what's up with Juliet without giving away too many details because there are still some that are being kept tightly under wraps, but what happened with Kai in this chapter is definitely a clue as to what's going on. And here's more!
Guest 1: That's fine if you don't like the direction that it's going in, and I completely understand if you choose not to read anymore. But in my mind, she's been a human for a very long time now (keep in mind that I've only written two and a half seasons but Juliet still has seasons 1-4 events in her life as a human) and I wanted her to be changed into a vampire before the flashforwards, and I felt like this was an appropriate time to do so. Again, completely understand if you choose to stop reading.
LMarie99: I KNOW POOR JULES I'M LITERALLY SO AWFUL SOMEONE TAKE THESE CHARACTERS AWAY FROM ME I AM UNDESERVING.
adela: Thank you!
Guest 2: I know right?
bboopd16: Thank you! This chapter was nice and long, too! Hope you enjoyed it!
Kris: Thanks! Here's an update!
Next chapter...
Hell Is Other People...
DAMON'S PERSONAL HELL- After finding himself on the wrong end of Julian's plan to avenge Lily's death, Damon awakens to find himself trapped inside the Phoenix stone, tormented by a traumatic experience from his time in the Civil War and forced to face his darkest demon in order to get out. On the outside, Bonnie is in a race against the clock to get Damon out before the effects of the Phoenix stone take over and leave him changed forever.
