Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Vampire Diaries, this story is written purely for entertainment purposes, no compensation was received for it, and no infringement of copyright is intended.
Author's Note: This is slightly AU beginning with Stefan's return to Mystic Falls.
It was half past midnight when a knock sounded on the door of the Gilbert house. Grayson woke first, a perpetual light sleeper, and got out of bed already alert.
As he descended the stairs, the knock came again. It was fast and hurried, as if the person on the other side of the door were panicked. As soon as Grayson turned the lock, whoever was on the other side opened it and threw himself across the threshold, letting the door slam shut behind him.
The doctor reached down and roughly rolled over the unexpected visitor so he could see his face.
"Zachary," he sighed, "what brings you waking us up at this hour? Things boring over at the boarding house?"
Grayson heard doors opening from upstairs, and a few moments later was assaulted by questions
"Grayson? Is everything alright?"
"What's going on dad?"
"Dad? Who's that?"
"It's alright," he said, turning and raising his hands in a placating gesture, "it's just Zach. He's probably just excited about something to do with the founder's festival. Miranda, you should probably come down here too. Kids, go back to bed. Nothing to worry about." He smiled up at Elena and Jeremy, who nodded blearily and went back into their respective rooms.
When he heard the doors close, Grayson motioned to the glass double doors in the foyer that led to the formal sitting room, and followed Zach inside.
"Miranda, close the doors please. Now Zach, tell me what this is about. Why are you so panicked?"
"First of all, here." Zach said and pulled a crumpled plant stalk from his jacket pocket and handed it over to Grayson, "for both of you."
Grayson turned the herb over in his hand. There was no mistaking the small purple flowers, or the dry, sweet scent.
"Vervain. Where did you get it? It hasn't grown in Mystic Falls since the Fell's Church tragedy. More importantly," Grayson leaned forward and said intensely, "why do we need it?"
"I got a few fresh cuttings and have been cultivating it in the basement of the boarding house. As for why you'd need it…" Zach trailed off and reached a shaking hand into his jacket pocket again. This time he drew out a small white rectangle of paper, dropping it on the coffee table. Grayson reached to pick it up and Miranda leaned forward to look at it, drawing her dressing gown tighter as she did so.
The caption of the picture looking back at them said "Katherine 1864" but the face staring at them could have belonged to the sixteen year old girl sleeping upstairs.
"What kind of practical joke is this, Zach?" Grayson asked disgusted and threw the photograph back down on the table, "you come here and knock us from our beds in the middle of the night to accuse me of having a vampire living in my house? That's rich, Zach, even for you."
"No no no! You don't understand. I know Elena is human. Okay? I found this picture when I was cleaning the attic room of the boarding house. The one Stefan is staying in right now. Stefan. Salvatore."
"He came back to Mystic Falls?" Miranda asked, her voice turning to ice
Zach nodded violently, then said, "And I think he may be here to find Elena, because as you can see, she's a dead ringer for his girlfriend back from the Civil War. You understand why I ran inside as soon as I got here. If they followed me, I knew I'd be safe as soon as I was over the threshold."
"We have to warn the Council." Miranda said to Grayson, who had begun to pace around the sitting room, coming to rest by the fireplace mantle that was topped with various Gilbert relics, a cigar humidor, and presided over by an old black and white picture of the original Gilbert family that helped found Mystic Falls.
"We have to get Elena out of here. Until we can solve the vampire problem, we can't have the target in the path of danger. Especially when she's our daughter."
"But where would we send her Grayson? My sister is a pothead and frankly, there's something about John that I just don't like."
"What other option is there? My parents are here in Mystic Falls, and yours passed on years ago."
"What about the Bilsons in Colorado?" Miranda suggested their mutual friends who had moved away from Mystic Falls after graduating from high school.
"They have three sons: 18, 16 and 15. I would send Jeremy to live with them, not Elena."
The room fell silent for a moment, then Miranda heaved a sigh and said
"I suppose John is the only logical option then. Where is he these days?"
"San Diego." Grayson said and sighed as well.
"I'll take care of telling the Council the vampires have returned to Mystic Falls. You take care of your family. Grayson, Miranda." Zach nodded to both of them and stood up from the long disused seat. Miranda hadn't held one of her women's club teas in quite some time.
He let himself out the front door and Miranda waited until she heard the click of the latch before she stepped into Grayson's embrace.
"How are we going to tell her? How are we going to tell Jeremy?"
"We'll find the words somehow. She's going to hate us for a while, but I know she'll appreciate it in the end." He replied and Miranda nodded against his chest.
"I'll call John tomorrow," Grayson said, "I'll tell him what's going on. I'm sure he'll have no problem taking Elena in."
"He did always say he felt protective of her. After all, that Isobel girl must have been someone he knew. You could tell by the way he looked at her that she wasn't just some damsel in distress that he randomly brought to the hospital."
"You're right." Grayson sighed again, looking at their most recent family Christmas card picture framed on the mantle underneath the original Gilbert family, then glanced down at the lapis lazuli ring on the third finger of his right hand.
"Why didn't we get out?"
"Hm?" Miranda asked, confused, looking up at him. Fine lines of age were appearing around her eyes, but he still saw her as he had twenty years ago, at the height of her college years. He had been in his last years of medical school and knew her because their younger siblings, Jenna and John, were in the same grade, just beginning Mystic Falls High School. Neither of them had stayed local for college, and for the life of him, Grayson couldn't remember what had made him move back and become the resident head doctor in the sleepy southern town he was born in and had hated growing up.
"Why didn't we get the Hell out of this town? Why didn't we stay in Massachusetts? Settled down there, in Boston. A big city with no family run councils, no vampires, no big history that we're part of, and have to put on a dog and pony show every now and then to remind the other people living here that our ancestors were here first. I hate it, Miranda. I hate all of it. And I hate the vampires even more than that."
"People are born here. And they come back to die here. Not a lot happens in between, and even if it does, it's all related back to the vampires so no one ever knows. Come on, let's get back to bed. We have a difficult day ahead of us tomorrow."
Zach had been looking over his shoulder the entire way back to the boarding house. The childhood stories of Mystic Falls about monsters in the night weren't just tales of the boogeyman to frighten the kids. When he finally passed through the door and closed it, he let out a small breath of relief.
"What have you done, Zach?" Stefan said from behind him, and the human turned to see him standing with his arms crossed over his chest, waiting expectantly for an answer.
"I just went over to see Miranda and Grayson Gilbert." He shrugged, trying to be as honest as possible without revealing his actual purpose. He was a descendent of Giuseppe Salvatore's younger brother, making Stefan a distant great-uncle, despite the apparent reversed age difference. He knew the stories of Mystic Falls, and well knew the vampire lore.
"After midnight, you just… dropped in? On the Gilberts? For a social call?"
"It was to do with founding family business." Again, not entirely a lie; Stefan was part of the original Salvatore family.
"You reek of vervain. Did you tell them that I was a vampire?"
"I…" Zach stuttered, and in a flash, Stefan was face to face with him. No contact, no violence, but having a 162 year old vampire standing a mere three inches away was enough to frighten anyone, even without the bubbling black veins around his reddened eyes.
"Did you tell them?" Stefan asked again. His voice held a note of venom, but Zach could tell Stefan wasn't even attempting a compulsion, because he knew about the vervain.
"Yes. I did. I told them I would take care of telling the council, but I came back here with the idea that I would go tomorrow. I don't believe I'll be getting that chance."
"Well, you're right about that," Stefan said and wandered away a few feet down the hall, "but I'm not going to kill you. I just can't have the whole town screaming vampire, especially since you didn't speak to me long enough when I got here for me to tell you that I've totally sworn off human blood and I'm not a threat to anyone. I just wanted to get to know a girl whose face I remember from a distant dream."
"Forgive me Stefan. The last I'd heard about you was that you'd gone off the rails again."
"I'm afraid I'll have to keep you locked up down here for the time being, until I'm sure that you haven't told the council, and that Miranda and Grayson Gilbert aren't going to reveal the secret either. Give me the keys."
Zach hung his head, and reached into his pants pocket. He pulled out the key ring that held all of the matches to the locks on the dungeon doors.
"I really am sorry, Stefan. It's just… I grew up hearing the stories of the intrepid Salvatore brothers. I came back here when my father died to take care of things, and got roped into caring for this old house. I just wanted to protect my home."
"Yeah, well, if you wanted to cry vampire to the council, you've got the wrong brother. Now come on." Stefan stepped to the wall and allowed Zach to pass in front of him down to the cellar.
"How long are you going to keep me down here?" Zach asked as Stefan closed the steel door, looking at the vampire through the small window covered by bars.
"I don't know yet. You betrayed my trust. I know it's too late for me to enroll in this year at Mystic Falls High, so I'll be staying here the summer. Maybe sometime then."
Zach closed his eyes as the door clanged shut and watched Stefan walk away. The only light came from the torches on the walls. He had a sick feeling inside him that after about three days or so, when Stefan knew the vervain was out of his system, he would compel him to forget that he'd ever gone to see the Gilberts, or that he'd intended to reveal Stefan to the council.
These thoughts plagued him as he sat down on the stone floor, leaning against one of the roughly hewn walls. He closed his eyes and saw the flickering light of the torches through his eyelids. There hadn't been a vampire in Mystic Falls in twenty years, and now it was only a matter of time before Stefan snapped again. He just prayed he wouldn't be alive to see it.