Chapter 81: The Walking Dead
Phoebe had been tight-lipped about her trip, since she returned from New Orleans. She was in such a state that she refused to even discuss it with the two people who already knew about it. She even refused to write about it in her journal.
Whenever anyone would ask about what had happened in New Orleans, she'd only say that the witches there used her to lure Klaus and Elijah to town. And when they asked what made Phoebe help them, she would reply with a simple "blackmail."
In Phoebe's defense, she hadn't lied to them, she'd only omitted certain truths. Truths that she just wasn't ready to reveal...even to herself.
Phoebe stared down her target and focused. She aimed, drew her arm back, and threw the dart. Bullseye, again.
It wasn't for fun that she was throwing darts at the Grill, it was out of frustration. Frustration that she couldn't drink along with the rest of her family and friends. Frustration that she couldn't tell them why she couldn't drink.
"Do you know what happened?" Jenna asked. "She's just so...different."
She was sitting at the bar with Rebekah, watching her niece pretend she could throw something more lethal than a dart right now.
Rebekah wanted to tell her – maybe that would make it easier for Phoebe to get it all out there, if someone else broke the ice, like the witches had done with her brothers. Then she remembered how that had gone. Klaus throwing a tantrum and Elijah unable to even look at Phoebe.
"No idea," she shrugged. "I just assumed this was a side effect of someone flipping their humanity switch back on."
Jenna made a face that said she hadn't thought about that, but it was a good point. She'd never really been through it herself, so she had no idea what it was like. She'd seen Stefan go through it, but that wasn't because of a tragic loss, it was because Klaus had forced him to do it. When he came back from Italy with Phoebe, he was changed, but he wasn't quite like this.
"When are you gonna tell them?" Hayley asked, approaching Phoebe with a soda.
Phoebe looked around the Grill as her friends and family. "Not until after graduation. They deserve to enjoy one last piece of normalcy, before I drop this nuke on them."
"It also doesn't hurt that everyone will be splitting up to travel or go to college, after graduation," said Hayley.
"There is that."
Phoebe put down her glass and threw her last dart at the board. The moment it hit, the power went out. Everyone gathered outside to see either what had knocked out the power or if it was just the Grill that was out. It was the whole town, and the wind had picked up to near hurricane-force.
They all looked at Phoebe – this wasn't the first time they'd seen this kind of weather around her.
"This isn't me," said Phoebe.
No one looked like they believed her.
"Maybe not consciously," said Hayley.
"Not at all. Look, even when I use my powers subconsciously or instinctively, I can tell. I can always feel it when something happens because of my powers. And this?" She gestured to the storm around them. "This isn't me."
"Then what the bloody hell is going on?" said Rebekah.
"I'll call my mom. Maybe she knows," said Caroline, retreating back into the Grill.
Jenna's phone started to ring. It was Stefan. He and Damon suspected Phoebe might be behind the weather, too.
Phoebe took the phone, and followed Caroline inside. "It's not me!"
"I had to ask," said Stefan. "But if this isn't you, then what is it?"
"I don't know, I've been a little out of the loop on things," said Phoebe.
"Maybe so, but whatever's going on here can't be good. We could use your help," said Stefan.
It wasn't that he doubted they could figure it out, hell, he knew it would take more than two minutes to let word spread for more information. But Phoebe had been out of it since she came back from New Orleans, and Stefan was hoping this might remind her that she's still needed by the friends and family she still has left. He was hoping this might get her back to feeling normal, somehow.
For the second time that day, Phoebe's mind flashed back to the vision of her being staked after giving birth. In about eight months, she wouldn't even be alive. She wanted to tell him that they were all going to have to learn to figure things out for themselves soon, that she wouldn't be around forever to do it all for them. But she wasn't even ready to tell them that she was having Klaus Mikaelson's baby, much less – once again – that she was going to die in a few months times.
"I can't get through to my mom," said Caroline returning to the group, as they reentered the Grill.
Phoebe looked around at the darkness. For human eyes, it was too dark to see more than a few inches in front of your face; but for a vampire, she could see the entire layout of the room.
"Where are you right now?" Phoebe asked.
"We're at the hospital. Sheriff Forbes wanted to show us something," Stefan replied. "Why?"
"I'm on my way."
Phoebe returned the phone to Jenna. "I'm gonna go meet up with Stefan and Damon. We'll let you know when we've figured something out."
For everyone else, that was good enough, but for Hayley and Rebekah that was cause for concern. The two shared a look, before Rebekah started to follow Phoebe outside.
"What are you doing?" Phoebe asked.
"We have no idea what's causing all this weather, which probably means it's something really bad," said Rebekah.
"I gathered as much."
"So I'm not letting you go out there alone, in your condition," she insisted.
Phoebe instinctively started looking around to make sure no one heard her.
"I'll be fine," said Phoebe. "I have powers of my own if I need to use them; which I probably won't, because I'm only running over to the hospital."
Rebekah opened her mouth to argue, but Phoebe took off.
"Got something."
Sheriff Forbes laid a map of Mystic Falls down in front of them.
"The power outages originated at three different place in town. The Young Farm, the Lockewood Estate, a blown transformer off old Miller Road," said Liz. She marked the spots on the map, as she listed them.
"Well, these two are locations for Silas massacres," said Phoebe. She pointed as she spoke. "Twelve humans, twelve hybrids."
"Twelve witches," said Damon, pointing to the third location.
Phoebe took the marker from the Sheriff and began connecting the three points to create a triangle.
"It's the expression triangle," Stefan noted. "Bonnie must be doing the spell."
"Told you it wasn't me," Phoebe mumbled.
Damon made a face. "So much for needing a full moon."
"There's something else," said Liz. "One of the power company guys has a daughter who goes to school with Bonnie. He saw her leaving the Young Farm an hour ago. With one of the Gilbert twins."
They all looked confused, at first. Phoebe was at the Grill an hour ago, with Elena, among others. Nevermind their alibies, neither of them would help Bonnie with something like this.
Realization hit all three of them hard.
"Looks like Bonnie Bennett has a new doppelganger friend," said Damon.
Phoebe seethed. Not only was Katherine once again meddling in their lives, but Bonnie was helping her.
"So how do we find them?" Liz asked.
"Well, they must be somewhere in the triangle," said Stefan.
"They'll most likely be right in the middle," said Phoebe.
"And where exactly might that be?"
Mystic Falls High School. Of course it would be the high school. It wasn't like their school was Sunnydale High or anything, but it did seem like bad things happened there a lot.
Their plan was for everyone to split up into pairs, and search the entire school for Katherine and Bonnie. Caroline paired up with Rebekah, Jenna with Damon, and Phoebe with Stefan. The rest of the mortals stayed at the Grill. But even searching the entire school twice yielded no results. That's when they realized that they were looking in the wrong place. Bonnie and Katherine weren't in the school, they were under it.
No sooner had they discovered a new location to search, had the pairings begun to break apart. Damon found out that Jenna wasn't really Jenna, but Silas in disguise. He stabbed Damon with a stake and took off. As for Phoebe and Stefan, once she knew where to find Katherine, she took off without a word.
Phoebe found her target first. She corralled Katherine through the tunnels and back up to the boiler room, like a game of cat and mouse. That's when Phoebe finally attacked.
Bonnie fell to the floor and cried out in pain.
Stefan, Caroline, and Rebekah ran over to her.
"Bonnie! Bonnie, what happened?" said Caroline.
"Katherine," Bonnie groaned in pain. "Find Katherine, we're linked."
"Then unlink her," said Rebekah.
"You two stay with her," said Stefan.
He took off in a blur, having a pretty good idea of what was happening here. The way Phoebe had taken off earlier, the anger in her eyes when she heard Katherine was hanging around again...He had to get to her and tell her that she was killing Bonnie.
Stefan didn't have to look far. He heard them fighting as he neared the end of the tunnels. Despite the 500 year age gap, Phoebe was doing a pretty good job.
Phoebe was about to plunge her hand into Katherine's chest and grab her heart. Stefan had to stop her, that would surely kill Bonnie. He tackled her to the ground, pinning her there.
"Stefan, what are you doing? Let go of me!"
"Thanks for the save, handsome," said Katheine.
Stefan turned back at Katherine. "Get the hell out of here, before I kill you myself."
Phoebe continued to struggle to get free, but he had her pinned good.
Katherine flashed Phoebe a cocky smile, and took off.
Stefan waited a couple of minutes for good measure, to make sure Katherine got away before he released Phoebe.
Phoebe still ran out and down the hallway a ways, as though still hoping to see some glimpse of her.
"Phoebe," Stefan began, following her.
"How could you save her?" Phoebe snapped.
"Bonnie used a spell to link herself to Katherine, so if you killed her, Bonnie would be dead, too," said Stefan.
Phoebe shrugged. "So what? She knew the risks of thinking herself to someone that nearly the entire world would love to kill. And if she didn't, then that's her own stupid fault."
Stefan couldn't believe what he was hearing. Who was this person, because it certainly wasn't Phoebe."
"What happened to you?"
"I lost my best friend," said Phoebe, as though that should be obvious. "And the monster you just let escape is the one that took him from me."
Stefan shook his head. "No, that's not it. All of this anger and hatred...You weren't like this before you went to New Orleans. What really happened down there?"
Phoebe wasn't surprised at all that he'd been the one to notice, or even that he was the first to confront her on it. But it still didn't make her any more ready to talk about it.
She shook her head. "I can't..."
"Why not?"
"Because I can't!"
"Phoebe, whatever it is, you can tell me. And whatever reaction you're afraid I"ll have, I promise you , I'll do my best not to overreact."
Phoebe stared into his hazel eyes for a good minute. She couldn't be compelled, but Stefan's eyes had a way of compelling her all their own.
"The witches didn't threaten Hayley to get my help. They linked me to one of their own. If she dies, I die." Phoebe's eyes fell. "And so does my baby."
Stefan didn't know his eyebrows could furrow any further, but they did. He was so confused.
"...But you're a vampire. Vampires can't-"
"The short version is that my body healed itself completely, when I transitioned, including undoing my hysterectomy," said Phoebe. "And because, once again, I'm the Anomaly, this means I can have children."
"I don't understand. This is good news, Phoebe. It's a miracle, and you're treating it like a curse."
"Because when everyone learns who the father is...you're all gonna hate me again."
"Phoebe, none of us have ever hated you. And no matter who the father is, we're still gonna support you in this," Stefan assured her.
Phoebe shook her head again. "No, you won't."
He started to move towards her, but she only backed away further, before turning and flitting away.
Stefan didn't understand. Who could be the father that would make her so scared of their judgment? It couldn't be Klaus, because he was a vampire, too, at least in part. Silas? Maybe he had tricked her into thinking that he was Elijah and then they...
But why would she be afraid of their reaction to her being tricked? Did she think they might want her to end the pregnancy for fear of the monster this child might become? What exactly was she so afraid of?
The weather outside died in an instant. It, once again, reminded everyone of when Phoebe was dying. The veil was down. While Stefan had been talking to Phoebe, everyone else was having their own fair share of interesting events.
Rick appeared to Damon, not long after Silas had taken off. Damon didn't trust his eyes – it could've been Silas again. But Rick proved who he said he was, and the dynamic duo was born again.
Back at the Grill, the group found the real Jenna hiding in the back, obsessively cutting herself. She'd been compelled by Silas, in a way, to do it – it was the only way he'd succeed in making them believe he was Jenna. They managed to snap her out of it, but one problem was quickly followed by another.
Tomb vampires – an enemy they hadn't even thought about in ages – entered the Grill. They, of course, wanted Jeremy and Elena, but killing a werewolf too was just a bonus. That's when their knights in shining armor came.
Three friendly vampires, long since dead, followed the tomb vampires into the Grill. There was a minor skirmish which resulted in the tomb vampires leaving, for now; followed by one awkward and one particularly happy reunion.
Meanwhile, Silas found Bonnie, Caroline, and Rebekah. It wasn't very difficult for him to take the two vampires out so he and Bonnie could talk. He was in the process of trying to make her do what he wanted, when someone attacked him from behind. It was Matt.
With the arrival of Damon and Rick, the three men were able to restrain him, while Bonnie tapped into her dark magic to turn him into stone once again. As he did, he lost his ability to cast illusions and make them see him as someone else – he was returning to his true form. But even then, he refused to let them know his true face, and thus covered it with his hands before completely solidifying. It looked like they'd never know what the devil looked like.
Phoebe was frozen in shock the moment she entered the Grill. Three faces she hadn't seen in forever were mingled in with the others. She saw Jeremy sitting at a table talking to Anna, and Lexi at the bar pouring herself a drink. Elena was talking to someone too: Isobel.
She was admittingly a little disappointed not to see Matt there; but, still, the chance to see her mother again...
Isobel beamed at her other daughter. She'd only just been apologizing to Elena for her past behavior. Anything she'd done to harm her or her loved ones was either out of genuine desire to protect her daughters or because she'd been compelled by Klaus.
Phoebe flitted over to Isobel and Elena. "I can't...I can't believe you're really here."
"I am," said Isobel. "At least, for a little while."
Isobel looked between the two girls. One was happier to see her than the other, but that didn't matter. She loved both of her daughters, and in the limited time she had here, she just needed to work on building even a little bit of a relationship with Elena.
"I've been watching over you both from the Other Side, and I am so proud of the women you've become."
Elena smiled politely. Phoebe's eyes watered slightly as she smiled.
Stefan came in a handful of minutes later, and sat with Lexi at the bar. And a little while after that, Caroline, Rebekah, Rick, Damon, and Matt joined the party.
Everything and everyone seemed to stand still and watch Phoebe and Matt. Phoebe couldn't run to Matt fast enough. He engulfed her in a tight hug as she cried into his shoulder.
"I wish I could say the next day was more chill than the previous, that we all had a peaceful day of graduating and spending what little time we had with our dead loved ones, before they had to go away again. But the truth is, graduation day was just as crazy as the day before."
"Hunters? Really? What's next, tomb vampires?" Damon complained.
He was on the phone with Jenna, who had just told him about Connor Jordan coming back to get the cure and Silas from them. He was all set to blow up the Grill, and countless innocent humans with it, if they didn't comply. Rick had to race over there and stop him.
Damon looked at the bullet wound in his shoulder. Connor wasn't the only hunter to come back to complete his destiny. Vaughn – the hunter he and Rebekah had left on Silas' island to starve to death – had come knocking on Damon's door.
"All we want is the cure and Silas," said Vaughn.
Lexi and Stefan were watching over him, while Damon was on the phone. He may have already been dead, but risking the Hunter's Curse to kill him again was not something any of them wanted to test; so they tied him to a chair.
"Bonnie returned him to stone last night, and we buried him somewhere no one will find him," said Stefan. "You don't have to worry-"
"What is it with you people that makes you so advert to giving Silas the cure and killing him for good?" Vaughn asked. "The cure was meant for Silas, not for one of your friends to become human again."
Damon winced, as he put his phone away.
"How's that shoulder, Damon? Not healed yet?" said Vaughn.
Lexi, Stefan, and Damon shared a look.
Vaughn grinned. "I think you know why that is."
Damon shrugged. "So what? I know a gal who can get me the cure in no time."
"Oh, I don't think your friend Phoebe's gonna be making any calls to her baby daddy anytime soon."
That entire sentence had them all stumped.
"What?"
"Oh, she didn't tell you? Your little friend has a bun in the oven," said Vaughn.
"That's impossible," said Damon. "Phoebe's a vampire, and vampires can't have babies."
"Klaus is the father?"
All eyes turned to Stefan.
"Aye, that he is," said Vaughn.
"Don't tell me you're buying this crap," said Damon.
"She told me herself, Damon," said Stefan. "That's what happened to her in New Orleans. The witches there threatened her baby's life, if she didn't help them get Klaus and Elijah to help them with something. She didn't even know about it, until they told her."
"Yep, saw the whole thing. Due in about…8 months?"
Damon couldn't believe what he was hearing. Phoebe was a vampire. Sure, Klaus may be a hybrid, so there might be a slim possibility of Damon believing that he could father a child. But for Phoebe, Anomaly or not, was a vampire, and vampires couldn't have children.
The front door burst open, and in came Rebekah.
"They've taken Phoebe," she said. "We were picking up our cap and gowns, and-"
"We know." Lexi gestured to Vaughn.
"Did you know about this?" Damon asked her.
Rebekah made a face. "I just told you. I was with her when they took her."
"Not that," said Damon. "About her being pregnant."
Rebekah's expression changed. "She told you?"
Damon still seriously doubted the validity of this, but judging by the reactions of the three people he'd spoken to about it, he couldn't entirely deny it. More than that, he couldn't risk them hurting Phoebe or her baby – if there was one.
"Let's go." Damon freed Vaughn from his restraints, and headed for the door. "I left the cure on Silas, when I buried him, so everyone would stop killing each other over it."
Vaughn seemed suspicious, but still left with him. It seemed they'd chosen the right motivators: death from werewolf venom, and the threat of harming the girl that everyone seemed to care about.
Phoebe's eyes fluttered open, as she began to wake. She lifted her head off of the hard surface it was resting on.
"You're awake," came a man's voice. He had a thick Scottish accent. "I was beginning to think you were going to sleep forever.
Phoebe turned her head towards the voice. His attire reminded Phoebe of when she'd looked into the past and saw Elijah for the first time.
"That's Alexander, my ex."
Now it was coming back to her. This morning, when she and Rebekah were getting their caps and gowns, three hunters came out of nowhere and surrounded them. They took Rebekah down with bullets, but Phoebe was given vervein – a lot of vervein.
"A hidden compartment filled with advanced weaponry. Man has evolved from his days of throwing stones," said Alexander. He was marveling at a simple handgun.
Phoebe started to sit up, but something underneath her shifted. She looked down. Why was she laying on a wooden door?
"I'd be careful, if I were you," Alexander advised.
Her eyes followed the various wires that stretched from underneath the makeshift pressure plate she was on. Each of the six pathways led to a car in the lot.
"Or you can try to outrun the blast, but I seriously doubt you'd make it."
Phoebe began to feel afraid. It wasn't the normal concerning fear that she felt in times like this, the kind that she usually shrugged off and found a way out of whatever predicament she was in. This was real, genuine fear; the kind she hadn't experienced since the night Klaus compelled Stefan to kill Elena if Phoebe didn't find out what he wanted to know.
But why? Why was this so terrifying to her? Phoebe realized where one of her hands was place: on her stomach. Her instinctual fear of harm towards her child; not that she wouldn't make it, but that her child wouldn't. It seemed she did care about this baby afterall.
She had a pretty good idea why they were doing this, but that didn't matter. It didn't matter if they promised to let her go, once they got what they wanted. Once they had it, they were going to kill Phoebe.
The Hunters were created to kill Silas, but they were all natural haters of vampires – it was their instinct to kill them on sight. They may not be quite as judgy as witches, but they certainly weren't going to let a pregnant vampire live, when they could so easily rid the world of such an abomination.
Phoebe lowered herself back down onto her stomach, and began examining the device underneath the door. She didn't know a thing about explosive devices. What wires should she cut, what parts could she sabotage, etc. For once, her intellect failed her.
She began to fantasize about someone coming to her rescue…about Elijah coming to her rescue. She could see him appearing out of nowhere and exchanging some banter with Alexander. He would demand Phoebe be freed, and when Alexander didn't comply, Elijah would kill him and take Phoebe anyway.
But Elijah wasn't coming, and it did her no good to wish that he would come. She needed to pull herself together, and save herself. But how?
Smoke began to emit from Phoebe's hands. She lifted one up to examine it, but nothing was there. She looked down at where it had been resting on the door. There was a perfect handprint in ice.
Her eyes darted over to her other hand, which was still pressed against the door. The frosty substance was beginning to spread outwards from her hand all through the door, and down the wires towards the cars. Everything was beginning to ice over.
Phoebe looked over at Alexander. He was busy marveling at more weapons, he hadn't noticed.
She wasn't exactly sure how this was going to help her, but she guessed that maybe the ice would at least slow down the explosion somehow so she could escape the blast. Maybe the electrical current wouldn't be able to travel through as fast? Maybe it would stop the hinges from the clamps from closing on the wires?
Her heart pounded in her chest. She normally wouldn't doubt her instincts and would deem this an acceptable risk; but with her baby in danger, too…? But she didn't have any other choice, she had to make a run for it while she had the chance.
Phoebe closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay, kid. Let's do this."
Phoebe stumbled through the door of the boarding house. She wasn't sure why she'd come here instead of her family's house, but it's where her feet took her.
"Phoebe!"
"Oh, my god."
Phoebe's head and various small parts of her body were bleeding. It wasn't too bad, and she was healing, but it definitely looked like she'd survived some kind of explosion.
"I'm good," said Phoebe. She was still trying to catch her breath.
"You're not 'good', Phoebe, you're bleeding," Matt argued. He and Hayley had come over not long after Damon had left with Vaughn to form a plan.
"I'm healing."
Hayley helped her over to the couch, and sat her down. "What happened?"
"I don't really know. One minute I was laying on this makeshift pressure plate, trying to think of a way to get off of it without dying; and the next my hands were freezing the entire thing," said Phoebe. "I don't really know how it happened, but it stalled the explosion long enough for me to outrun the blast."
"Well we were working on a plan to come and rescue you, but it looks like my niece or nephew has learned how to tap into mummy's powers," said Rebekah.
Phoebe shot her a look.
"Oh, don't worry, love, they already know."
Phoebe knew Hayley and Stefan knew, and she wasn't all that concerned with Lexi knowing, but Matt?
"I've been watching out for you," said Matt.
Phoebe hadn't thought about it, but that made sense.
"So what have I missed?" Phoebe asked.
They gave her the cliffnotes version on Connor's threat to the Grill, and Vaughn shooting Damon with a lace bullet. Stefan also added how Vaughn had told them about the father of Phoebe's baby.
Phoebe was silent for a moment. Part of her hated that Stefan and Damon had to find out that way, but another part of her was relieved. She had no idea how to break the news at all to Damon, and she certainly wasn't looking forward to telling Stefan that the man he hates most in all the world was the father of her child.
"Okay, I, uh…I have some of Klaus' blood hidden away for emergencies. I'll go get a vial, and then we can go find Damon and-"
"We aren't going to do anything. You are going to your graduation, while the rest of us worry about the hunters," said Matt.
Phoebe made a face. "You're kidding, right?"
"Nope."
"Graduation is not-"
"Something you should miss."
"My parents didn't care about me graduating, but yours did and still do. All four of them," said Hayley. "And so does Elijah."
Phoebe's eyes fell in sadness. A moment later, she looked up at Matt.
Matt smiled. "I can't go, everyone thinks I'm dead."
"I know."
"I was never going to graduate anyways," he said. "Between supernatural drama and work, I was failing nearly every class. But that's okay. Graduating and going away to college was always what you were meant to do, not me."
Phoebe gave a sarcastic snort of laughter, and gestured to her stomach. "Yeah, well, I don't think I'll be going to college anytime soon."
"And that's okay. But you can still graduate high school, right now, and you should," said Matt.
Phoebe sat there thinking it over.
"Do it for Rebekah," said Hayley. "You haven't let her miss a normal high school experience, yet."
Phoebe smiled. "Okay. Okay, I'll go."
It was an ocean of red gowns at the high school. If people were zipping up already, then they were barely here in time. That fact was made more evident by the sound of Caroline in the distance leaving another voice mail urging them to hurry up and get there.
Phoebe noticed Stefan just arriving, too. He wasn't a girl or nearly blown up this morning, but he still had to go with Matt and Lexi to get the vial of Klaus' blood for them to take to Damon, while they all graduated.
"You guys go on ahead," said Phoebe. "I'll just be a minute."
Phoebe was already walking towards Stefan, before they could argue how urgent it was to get in line.
"Hey," Phoebe greeted him.
"Hey."
"Can we talk?"
Stefan could tell what it was she wanted to talk about. He looked down, as he fiddled with his graduation cap.
"You know, I've been trying to wrap my head around all of this, and figure out how this is even possible. But I realized that no matter how well I understand it, my feelings about this whole situation aren't going to change."
"Stefan…"
He looked up into her brown eyes. "It's no secret I hate Klaus, but the only stronger than my hatred of him is my love for you."
Phoebe was taken aback. This was not what she was expecting from him at all, at least not this early into it.
"You're my best friend, Phoebe, and I'd be a terrible friend if I judged you for sleeping with Klaus, instead of celebrating the miracle that you've been given," said Stefan. "I'm really happy you. You're gonna make a great mom."
Phoebe opened her mouth to speak, but she didn't know what to say – nothing seemed appropriate. So, instead of words, she pulled him into a tight hug. "Thank you."
When Stefan felt her grip loosen, he pulled away and smiled at her. "Now, let's go graduate."
Phoebe returned his smile and nodded.
"What took you so long?" Caroline complained, when they arrived.
"Sorry, Stefan was having a bad hair day," Phoebe teased.
Stefan cracked an involuntary smile.
Caroline looked around at them all. Elena, Phoebe, Stefan, Bonnie, Caroline, and even Rebekah. All they were missing were Tyler and Matt.
"I can't believe it, we're actually all here," said Caroline. "Well, almost all of us."
"You doubted we would be?" said Elena.
"Yeah, I'm more amazed that we all ended up being friends," said Phoebe. "Or at least, ended up getting along better."
"I can still remember you and Caroline hating each other," said Bonnie.
Rebekah looked surprised. They seemed to care about each other so much, it was hard to believe that they once hated each other.
"Why did you guys hate each other so much?" Stefan asked.
"Caroline was always mean to me," said Phoebe.
"That's not true," said Elena.
"Actually, I was," said Caroline. "But that was because you called yourself shy, but acted more like you were too good to be bothered to socialize with the rest of us. I thought you thought you were better than everyone else."
Phoebe made a face. "I never thought I was better than anyone. I just didn't want to form any more attachments than I already had with people; because I knew I was gonna die. That's why I was so eager to go to college. I was going to use it as a way to distance myself from everyone."
Everyone looked surprised and saddened by the information.
"So what made you two become friends?" Rebekah asked.
"We were both in the hospital, when Katherine killed her. She didn't know about vampires yet, so she had no idea what was happening to her."
"So you took pity on her."
"Basically," Caroline confirmed.
"It also helped that you became a lot more tolerable, when you became a vampire," Phoebe joked.
They all laughed.
Bonnie started to tear up.
"Bonnie Bennett, are you crying?"
"It's our last hurrah, before you guys go off to college," said Bonnie.
"Before we go off to college," Caroline corrected.
Phoebe, Stefan, and Rebekah glanced at each other.
"What?" Caroline had noticed the look.
"Uh, I'm not going," said Stefan. "I only went to high school to get close to Elena."
Elena blushed.
"Same. I think after this, I'm done pretending to be a teenager. At least for now," said Rebekah.
"Phoebe?"
"I missed my deadline for applications," she lied. "You know, cause the whole no humanity thing."
Caroline shrugged. "The perks of being a vampire – we can go wherever we want to go! We can choose our own roommates, we could—we could get a quadruple room!"
Bonnie and Phoebe kept their mouths shut. Both had secrets that prevented them from going to college with everyone else, but neither of them wanted to spoil the day with their secret.
After the ceremony, all the other normal graduates scattered off with their various relatives whom had come to see them. The small group of supernatural friends gathered behind the bleachers.
Stefan got a call from Lexi informing him of their success in finding Damon in time to heal him. He'd hardly ended the call, when he felt a sudden splitting pain in his head. Caroline, Phoebe, and Rebekah were down, too. Elena and Bonnie were the only ones not in pain.
"Remember us, Caroline?" said a woman.
She was the witch Caroline had killed to save Bonnie – they were the witches that had died in the third Silas sacrifice.
Phoebe tried summoning her powers to use them in some way to help them, but nothing was happening. Maybe it was because the witches were using their aneurysm trick, which was keeping her from thinking clearly?
A graduation cap went whizzing by, and the lead witch's head fell from her shoulders. The pain stopped, and they all looked up to see who had saved them.
"There are plenty more of these to go around," said Klaus. "I can do this all day."
The witches all exchanged uneasy looks, before backing off and leaving.
"Klaus."
"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" Rebekah asked.
"I invited him," said Phoebe. "I thought your brothers should be here for your graduation."
"So where's Elijah?" Elena asked.
Klaus looked at Phoebe when he answered. "The witches wouldn't let us both leave at the same time. They were worried we would try to back out of our deal."
"So why are you here instead of Elijah?" Bonnie asked.
Klaus shifted awkwardly. She still hadn't told them.
Phoebe took a deep breath, walked to Klaus' side, and looked at her friends and sister. "…Because I'm pregnant."
"What?"
"And Klaus is the father," Phoebe finished.
"How is that even possible, you're both vampires," Caroline argued.
It was getting tiresome hearing that and having to explain the whole thing over and over again.
"I'll explain it all later," said Phoebe.
"Phoebe," Elena began to argue.
"I don't want to have to explain this all right now, just to have to do it again later tonight when word spreads to everyone else," said Phoebe. "I'd rather everyone just gather in one place, so I can tell everyone at once."
As much as they all wanted to know now, they had to admit they understood her reasoning.
"Why don't we all meet back at my place," said Stefan. "We can call everyone else to meet us there."
There were multiple nodded responses, as Elena and Caroline took out their phones to call everyone over to the boarding house for another group meeting.
Phoebe thanked Stefan for his support with a look. He smiled and nodded back.
"I suspect you won't want me there when you tell them," said Klaus.
"It might go over a little smoother," said Phoebe. Her tone sounded apologetic.
Klaus nodded in understanding. "Then let me add this now. As proof that I've moved on from Mystic Falls entirely, and have new priorities in life; tell them I've rescinded Tyler Lockwood's banishment. He's free to come home to dear Caroline."
Phoebe smiled. "I'm sure Caroline will be happy to hear that."
"Run along, then. I'll keep an eye on my brother," said Rebekah.
Phoebe took after her friends, hoping all the while that she wouldn't lose her nerve. Not that she really could now, she'd already told most of them. All they'd be missing now is an explanation of how this had happened. The hard part was done, so if that's all she had left to do, she could do it. Then why was she still so nervous?
Everyone had responded about as well as she'd expected. Shock, denial, repulsion, confusion, etc. Oddly, the most confusing part for some of them wasn't how she'd gotten pregnant; it was how she could sleep with Klaus when she was still sired to Elijah.
Phoebe had explained it the same way she had explained it to Hayley back in New Orleans. It wasn't out of love for Klaus that they'd slept together, it was a shared moment. A moment where he helped her realize that she wasn't as broken as she thought she was.
Unlike when she gathered them all to tell them that she was dying, there were no immediate acceptances. Everyone needed a lot more time to process this than they'd needed for the other, which was understandable. More than that, though, they all only had so much time left with their lost loved ones, and Phoebe wanted them to make sure to enjoy what little time they had left saying goodbye, not monopolize everyone's time to focus on her.
After the meeting, Phoebe headed for Rebekah's. She wanted to tell Klaus how it all went, before he returned to New Orleans. She was about halfway there, when she went flying into someone's car.
Phoebe propped herself up to see who it was. She'd been suspecting to see Finn there or Jules or some other dead supernatural person she'd screwed over. But instead, she saw someone very much alive.
"Katherine. What are you-"
"Would you believe I'm having a bad day?"
Katherine picked her up and tossed her across the street into someone else's car. Clearly she didn't know Klaus was in town, or she'd be long gone.
She picked Phoebe up and held her by the throat. "It started when Bonnie denied me my Silas-like immortality."
"Of course, because Katherine Pierce can't be happy with good old vampire-caliber immortality," Phoebe rasped, trying to get free.
She kicked Katherine's knee backwards. Katherine's grip loosened enough for Phoebe to get free. She tore the dented car door from the car and hit Katherine with it. Katherine stumbled back into the street.
"I deserved it," said Katherine, getting to her feet. "I never had a graduation or a prom or, you know, a life."
"That was your own fault," said Phoebe. "You're the one that got knocked up and shipped off to England where Klaus found you."
"And you're the one that stayed in dreamland too long and got your daddy killed," Katherine shot back.
Phoebe's rage flared, and she charged at Katherine. Counter to what Elijah had taught her, she attacked in anger, making her vulnerable enough for the 500 year old vampire to get the upper hand.
She tried to fight back with her powers but, like earlier, they wouldn't work. Why weren't they working anymore?
Katherine pinned her to the ground. "You turned everyone against me."
"I just opened their eyes to what a manipulative bitch you were," Phoebe shot back.
"I have nothing and no one left."
"Sounds like a personal problem."
Katherine plunged her hand into Phoebe's chest and grabbed her heart.
"My personal problem's about to become your personal problem," said Katherine. "Bonnie will be putting up the veil soon, which means all the dead supernatural creatures will be going back to watching us from the Other Side, all alone. And you're going to join them."
Katherine yelped in surprise as she was yanked off of Phoebe by her hair. Her eyes widened in terror when she realized who it was.
"Hello, Katarina."
It took Phoebe a few minutes to recover from having just had someone's hand in her chest. When she was finally able to sit up she saw Klaus holding both hands around Katherine's throat.
"I think it's finally time I make good on that promise to kill you." His eyes glowed their werewolf gold. "I think a slow death filled with pain and misery suits you best."
Klaus was about to bite her, when the unthinkable happened: Phoebe stopped him.
"Wait," said Phoebe. "Don't kill her."
Both Klaus and Katherine looked at her in surprise.
"She was about to kill you, love. You and the baby," Klaus argued.
"Baby?"
"I know. And I agree a slow agonizing death is what she deserves."
Phoebe walked closer to them, as she began fishing something out of her pocket. Stefan had given it to her earlier, on her way out of the boarding house. He'd told her that she was the best person to trust with its fate.
She held it up for them both to see. "I think I haven't a better way of doing it than a hybrid bite."
Katherine started to struggle. "No. No!"
Klaus' face looked wicked, as he forced Katherine's mouth open.
"Have a nice human life, Katherine," said Phoebe.
Phoebe shoved the cure into her mouth, then Klaus slammed her jaw shut. It sounded like glass breaking in her mouth, and it looked like what came out of her mouth after she'd swallowed the liquid inside.
Klaus let her unconscious body fall to the ground, and looked at Phoebe. "Are you alright?"
Phoebe nodded. "Thanks for saving me...again."
"Anytime." He looked back down at Katherine. "I thought your plan was to try and replicate the cure for your friends."
"With everything that's happened over this stupid thing, I just want it gone," said Phoebe. "I've never seen vampirism as a thing to be cured. And I know Stefan and some of the others would like to be human again, but…as long as this thing exists, everyone is going to keep fighting over it. And I don't even want to imagine what the witches in New Orleans would do when they found out about it."
Klaus couldn't argue with any of her logic. He'd wanted it destroyed in the first place, so no one could use it against him.
"I wonder how she'll fair with her charms now," said Klaus. "I doubt she'll be able to manipulate men so easily as a human."
"I guess we'll see."
I'm sorry for the long wait on this chapter, guys. For some reason, every time I sat down to work on it I just couldn't get into it. Every time I thought about working on it, I'd drag my heels. I'm not sure what it was that just made me not want to write it. Whatever the reason, it's done and posted now!
I'm happy to see so many of you supportive/intrigued with Phoebe being Hope's mother. Speaking of, I will be changing Hope's name to be more fitting of the change. Hope made sense with the original storyline (albeit a little underwhelming of a reveal); but with Phoebe changing up the story, I feel the name should be changed. I'll be honest, though, I'm having a little trouble picking the right one. So any suggestions would be welcome!
I likely won't have another chapter out for a few weeks, because I need to go over my notes for TVD S5/TO S1 and make sure everything is right. I've also recently been inspired by a review from PandoraMorgenstern to make some new changes, which require me to look a lot deeper in to make sure they can work.
Don't forget to make your baby name suggestions, if you have any. And if there are any other interesting plot changes you'd like to see, let me know; because whether I do them or not, I love to read them and they most of the time force me to think and inspire new ideas.