Season 1 Episode 2 The Night of the Comet (Part 2)
"You're late."
"I know, I know!" I called when I rushed into the Grill. I felt so groggy, still sore and I didn't know why. I must have fallen asleep because when I woke up I was late for work. I didn't know where the guy went who had car trouble. He was gone when I woke up. He didn't leave a note or anything just the phone and phone book on the coffee table. I rushed to put my apron on and get ready for the night. The place was already packed, full of people waiting to see the comet. I knew I had to hustle before we lost customers.
"Come on Robert." I heard Vicki's voice coming from the kitchen. I looked over my shoulder to find Robert and a bandaged Vicki following behind him. "I was attacked."
"You used up all your sick days' sweetie." Robert said. "Take your shift or get lost."
"I can cover for her." I said. Vicki grinned and Robert glared. "Robert she just got out of the hospital. Give her a break."
"There are too many customers." He said and threw Vicki he apron. "Now get moving."
Vicki huffed and I gave her a sympathetic look. She ran an angry hand through her hair and turned when her name was called. It was Jeremy. I didn't stick around to hear their conversation, but I did watch. Vicki had her flirting face on, something I had seen her use on a lot of guys. But something about her using it on Jeremy made my skin crawl.
I knew they had hooked up over the summer. I also could tell that to Jeremy it was more than just sex. To Vicki it was sex and drugs, drugs that Jeremy supplied her. I didn't think that was right, messing with a person's head like that. If she was just going to use him then she shouldn't have gotten him so invested. Once her conversation with Jeremy was over I walked myself over to her.
"Hey thanks for trying to cover for me." She said tying her apron around her waist. "I was just attacked for God's sakes."
"What are you doing with Jeremy?" I asked her, ignoring her last statement. I sounded like a big sister, something I didn't know if I liked or not. Vicki seemed taken aback by my question.
"Just having fun." She replied with a smile.
"Well while you're just 'having fun,' he's falling in love." I told her. Vicki scoffed and walked around me, reaching for a tray.
"He is not in love with me." She said.
"You've got to be careful with him Vick." I said. She turned around to look at me. "He's in a bad place right now."
"Hey, be careful." She said, holding her finger out at me. "You might start sounding like you actually care about them."
I opened my mouth but shut it. She rolled her eyes and pushed past me, going to wait on a table. I huffed and shook my head. I waited on some tables hoping to catch some good tips tonight. I tried not to let what Vicki said get to me, but it did. When did I start caring about what Jeremy did with his life? Or what Elena was doing that night? This was beyond weird even for our situation. But something made me want to protect them, at least Jeremy. I knew what Vicki could do to him, and I didn't want the kid to have any more heart break. Anything like that could break him to the point of unrepair.
I took table 3's drink orders and took it up to the bar. Once I gave it to the bartender I heard someone clear their throat. I looked to my right and who should I see, but the guy who had come to my house earlier. I felt my stomach clench and my face heat up. He waved to me and I smiled. I wasn't going to go and talk to him, but apparently he had other plans.
"Have a nice nap?" He asked me when he slid into the bar seat closest to me. I sighed and bit my bottom lip.
"Yeah it was pretty good." I told him, turning slightly to him. "What happened anyway?"
"You don't remember?" He asked, eyebrows furrowed. "You must have hit your head harder than I thought."
Immediately my hand went to the back of my head. It was tender but there was no knot or anything. Now that he mentioned it, I do remember hitting my head. I was getting the phone book and conked my head on the table.
"You got all dizzy and passed out." He said. "I called the hospital but they said you should be fine."
"So you just left me there?" I asked him. It felt weird to me that he just watched me pass out and still called to have his car towed and left me there. I could have had a concussion or something worse and he just left me there.
"You're ok right?" He asked me, diverting the question. I sighed and nodded. "See I had nothing to worry about."
I opened my mouth a couple times before I finally closed it. He smirked and took a sip of his drink; straight bourbon. I never understood how people could drink the stuff. Alcohol tasted gross, like battery acid. I would prefer something sugary and sweet as opposed to the toxin that he was drinking.
"How's the car?" I asked him. He swallowed his drink before looking back at me. "Is it going to be ok?"
"Oh yeah, it's fine. Just a minor issue." He replied. I nodded and turned to go but he stopped me. "I'm Damon by the way."
"Alex." I said. He smirked and nodded his drink to me. I turned and took my table their drinks. I continued this for a while, even though I could feel eyes on me. I would sometimes sneak a peek and see that it was this Damon guy who was the cause of my uneasiness. He was blatantly staring, and all the while he was smirking. It was actually kind of infuriating, the fact that he could see I was uncomfortable but he had no shame in what he was doing.
"How do you know the guy at the bar?" I turned and Vicki stood behind me. She was looking at Damon whose back was now to us.
"He had car trouble. He used my phone." I told her. She huffed as if that was not enough information. "Is everything ok?"
She didn't answer me, she just headed out into the crowd of people and eventually up to Damon. I watched their short encounter, eyeing Vicki who in a confused haze walked back to the restrooms. I shrugged, assuming it was nothing, and continued with my work. I had cleared a table and when I looked up, Damon was gone from his seat. I looked around for him but he had disappeared. I figured that he had gone to watch the comet.
It was about an hour when I noticed that I hadn't seen Vicki in a while. So, I started looking around. I went to the bathroom but didn't find her. I went back to the kitchen and she wasn't there either. I even went out in the alley way to see if she was passed out in a drug haze. When I didn't find her there either I got an eerie feeling that something was wrong.
Vicki could have just left, I wouldn't put it past her, but after that argument with Robert I didn't think she would actually do it. Besides when Vicki just left she usually let me or another coworker know so we could pick up the slack. I had a very bad feeling that Vicki wasn't just out because she wanted to. I wondered if I should tell someone, let them know that I hadn't seen Vicki in a while.
"Has anyone seen Vicki?"
I turned around at the question to see Jeremy had entered the Grill. Not too long ago I saw "my group," I guess I should call it, enter the Grill. I had been so busy I hadn't really spoken to them. I grabbed an empty plate from my table and took it to the sink so I could return with information.
"I can't find her." Jeremy said, looking very worried.
"She hasn't been here for like an hour." I told them. "She just disappeared."
"She probably found somebody else to party with." Tyler said, not worried at all for Vicki's safety. He then looked to Jeremy. "Sorry, pill pusher, I guess you've been replaced."
"What's with the pill pusher?" Elena asked. Elena knew Jeremy was doing drugs, but I guess she didn't know that he was handing them out either.
"Ask him." Tyler responded. There was something about Tyler Lockwood that I didn't trust or like for that matter. There was another part who wanted to throw him off a bridge. I'm sure he wasn't a bad person in general, but he acted like such an ass.
"You wanna do this right now?" Jeremy asked Tyler. I could see it in the kid's eyes that he was ready for a fight, and Tyler was going to give him it.
"Are you dealing?" Elena asked. Again Jeremy ignored his sister.
"She's never gonna go for you." Tyler taunted Jeremy. I bit the inside of my cheek, begging Jeremy not to take this any further.
"She already did. Over and over and over again." Jeremy said. I felt my stomach drop. I knew that Jeremy was telling the truth, but Vicki would deny it if anyone ever asked. She felt embarrassed that she had slept, and maybe liked, someone so much younger than her. In turn all she was doing was hurting Jeremy.
"Yeah, right." Tyler obviously didn't believe him. Everyone else around didn't seem to believe him either.
"You slept with Vicki Donovan?" Caroline asked unbelieving. "I mean, Vicki Donovan slept with you?"
"There's no way." Tyler responded, but I could see that the idea had crossed his mind. Vicki slept with a lot of people, it wasn't impossible that she slept with Jeremy.
"He's not lying." I said, all eyes darting to me. "She told me herself."
"Well no one was asking you, bastard." Tyler spat. I set my jaw, not wanting to give him the satisfaction that what he said offended me. I had been called so many things it usually didn't bother me. I had been called a bastard child my whole life, but something about this stung. He was saying this right to my face and there was a part of me that wanted to slink back into my shell and never come back out. There was another part of me that wanted to fight back.
"What did you say?" Jeremy asked, surprisingly pissed at Tyler's words. "Don't you dare call her that."
"Or what Gilbert?" Tyler challenged.
"I'll kick your ass right here, right now." Jeremy replied. I felt my heart skip a beat. Jeremy was defending me. None of the other Gilberts had really defended me, barely claiming me as one of their own. But things were changing and maybe I was on my way to being accepted.
"You know what, how about all of you shut up and help me find my sister?" Matt asked, desperate to find his sister.
"We'll check the back." Bonnie said gesturing to her and Caroline.
"I'll check the square." Matt offered.
"I'll come with you." Jeremy said but was stopped by his sister. I ignored them and went back to the kitchen. I explained everything to Robert and he eventually let me go search for Vicki as well. I probably shouldn't have gone by myself, especially since it was dark, but everyone else was gone and we needed to find Vicki.
Just hoped that we found her. And found her soon.
Stefan looked everywhere for Elena, racking his brain for any sort of explanation he could muster. She had made it clear that she didn't want to continue this, all because of something Damon said. It was so infuriating that after all these years, Damon could still mess up Stefan's life. Stefan wanted normal, he wanted to be human again, he wanted Elena. But Damon couldn't let Stefan be happy, not even for a little while.
"Hey."
Stefan turned and there stood Matt, looking very scared and utterly worried. Stefan hoped that Matt hadn't seen him earlier in the hospital when he had tried to compel Vicki. Stefan's compulsion wasn't as strong as Damon's so if Matt found out he didn't know if he could make him forget what he was.
"Hey." Stefan replied, trying to act as cool as possible.
"Have you seen my sister?" Matt asked, sounding very desperate. Stefan hadn't seen Vicki since the hospital and he had been too focused on Elena to really look for her.
"No, sorry." Stefan replied. Matt's shoulders sank.
"I can't find her. She's missing." Matt told him. That worried Stefan, because when people went missing, Damon was the most probable cause for the disappearance.
"I'll keep an eye out for her." Stefan agreed and turned to go but Matt stopped him.
"Hey. I saw you at the hospital yesterday." Matt said. Stefan's stomach fell. He hadn't planned on Matt actually seeing him. He could deny it but then he would have to come up with where he actually was. Stefan wasn't the best at lying, so he went with half-truths.
"Did you?" Stefan asked, sounding curious to what Matt had to say.
"What were you doing there?" Matt countered. Stefan knew that Matt didn't trust, or like him. He didn't really care, the only opinion that mattered was Elena's. But Stefan couldn't let his guard down or he could be exposed.
"Visiting." Stefan answered. It was vague but still made sense as to why he would be there. Who he was visiting? He hadn't quite figured that out yet.
"Visiting?" Matt said, not believing it for a second. "You know, Elena and I, we've known each other for a long time. We might not be together right now, but I look out for her. And I'll always look out for her."
Stefan nodded at Matt's noble speech. Stefan could understand Matt's concerns. He obviously still had feelings for Elena and Stefan couldn't blame him. She was beautiful, intelligent, kind, and very funny. Elena was a good girl, Stefan just wasn't as good of a guy as he led on.
Suddenly, a scream off in the distance caught Stefan's attention. This scream was followed by Damon's voice. He looked up and perched on the edge of a very tall building was Damon who was barely hanging on to Vicki at all. Stefan's anger spiked. Damon didn't care about human life, but Stefan did and his brother needed to be stopped.
Stefan excused himself before quickly making his way to where his brother had kidnapped the injured girl. With vampire speed and agility he jumped up and was in front of them in a second.
"Not bad. Have you been eating bunnies?" Damon taunted.
"Let her go." Stefan replied, sternly.
"Shhh." Damon cooed to Vicki who was desperately trying to stay up. "Really? Ok."
"No!" Vicki cried when Damon pulled her, almost letting her fall. He chuckled before tossing the poor girl to Stefan. Stefan was on the offensive, not taking to time to console Vicki.
"I don't need her to be dead, but…" Damon said looking down from the frightened girl to his brother. "You might."
Damon then crouched down looking Vicki in the eye. She was terrified, something he reveled in. She didn't taste as good as Alex, but it was still fun to mess around with human's minds and emotions. He got a sick pleasure out of it.
"What attacked you the other night?" He asked Vicki.
"I don't know. An animal." She answered. Damon tsked.
"Are you sure about that? Think. Think about it." Damon told her. "Think really hard. What attacked you?"
"A vampire." Vicki murmured after a moment of realization. Stefan's jaw clenched, his compulsion didn't work as well as he had hoped. Vicki remembered and Damon wasn't going to make her forget.
"Who did this to you?" Damon asked.
"You did!" Vicki wailed.
"Wrong." Damon responded.
"Don't." Stefan begged. Damon picked Vicki up and held her close enough so that he could look into her eyes.
"It was Stefan." Damon told her. "Stefan Salvatore did this to you."
"Stefan Salvatore did this to me." Vicki repeated.
"He's a vampire. A vicious, murderous monster." Damon told her. Vicki believed every word. Stefan swallowed.
"Please, Damon. Please don't do this." Stefan begged. He couldn't reverse this, he wasn't strong enough. Damon knew that, and Damon was going to use that.
"If you couldn't fix it before, I don't know what you can do now." Damon said and then ripped off Vicki's bandage, exposing her injury. He then effortlessly tossed her to Stefan who smelled Vicki's blood. He fought his urge hard, Damon could see that. So he taunted him.
"Ugh! Your choice of lifestyle has made you weak. A couple of vampire parlor tricks is nothing compared to the power that you could have, that you now need." Damon said, smirking when Stefan's face changed. "But you can change that. Human blood gives you that."
Stefan wanted so bad to feed from Vicki. But once Stefan started he wouldn't be able to stop. He had changed the way he fed so that he wouldn't kill anymore. He didn't want to kill, but right now Vicki was so exposed and he felt his mouth watering at the scent of her blood. In a fit of anger and strong will he threw Vicki away from him.
"You have two choices. You can feed and make her forget. Or you can let her run, screaming "vampire" through the town square." Damon offered him.
"That's what this is about? You want to expose me?" Stefan asked.
"No! I want you to remember who you are!" Damon answered. Stefan stood up straight looking his older brother in the eye.
"Why? So what, so I'll feed? So I'll kill? So I'll remember what it's like to be brothers again? You know what, let her go." Stefan said, much to Damon's surprise. "Let her tell everyone that vampires have returned to Mystic Falls. Let them chain me up, and let them drive a stake through my heart, because at least I'll be free of you."
Damon was at first shocked by Stefan's little speech, but then again Stefan was always one for the dramatics. Damon laughed out loud before he crouched down to the injured girl on the floor. He then whispered in her ear, compelling her to forget any of this ever happened.
"What happened? Where am I?" Vicki asked, clueless on what had happened to her. "Oh, I ripped my stitches open."
"You ok?" Stefan asked.
"I took some pills, man. I'm good." Vicki responded and then pulled herself up to leave. Stefan looked back to Damon who looked very self-satisfied.
"It's good to be home. Think I might stay a while." Damon said. "This town could use a bit of a wake-up call, don't you think?"
"What are you up to, Damon?" Stefan asked. If he wasn't here to expose Stefan, then why was Damon sticking around at all?
"That's for me to know and for you to…dot dot dot. Give Elena my best." Damon said. "I'll give Alex yours."
"Alex?" Stefan asked but Damon was gone. What did Damon want with Alex? That is the second time he has mentioned her before. Stefan then realized that there wasn't just one Gilbert he had to protect.
Vicki had finally returned, saying that she was in a drug haze and Stefan had found her. Robert had told me to go home. He didn't want anything else happening to his waitresses. I believed that was more selfish then it sounded. After I made sure that Vicki was going to be alright I called my mom but I got no answer.
"Everything ok?" Elena asked when she approached me. I sighed, flipping the phone closed.
"Mom's not answering." I told her. "Looks like I'm walking."
I grabbed my bag and was about to head out when Elena caught my arm. I turned around glaring at her hand and she let me go.
"Do you want a ride?" She offered. I opened my mouth to say 'No it's fine,' but I said something I didn't even expect. I was tired and if that animal was still loose, I didn't want to be it's next meal.
"Sure." I replied. A big grin found itself on Elena's face, and I found myself smiling too. She led me out to the parking lot where her big SUV sat. I had that same feeling of being watch but when I turned around there was no one there. I climbed into the car and closed the door.
"Tonight was crazy huh?" Elena said once the car was on. Her radio was playing some of the top music at the time but she turned it down so it was just background music.
"Yeah." I replied. I had never expected today to end with a missing person's case. "I'm just glad she's alright."
"Me too." Elena replied. "I don't know what Matt would have done if he lost his sister."
I nodded. We were silent for a little while and I found myself looking over at Elena. She looked confused, not her usual happy self. I didn't know if I should just leave it or speak. The old me would have stayed silent, but the new friendlier me should probably ask what's bothering her.
"You ok?" I asked her. She nodded but the look on her face told me otherwise. "Come on. Spill your guts."
"It's just… Stefan." She said. "He was acting really weird today and… I don't know if I'm ready for all of this."
I bit my bottom lip. I wasn't the one to be asking for relationship advice, but I did have something. I shuffled through my bag, looking for my sketch pad. Once I had it I flipped to the page I was looking for. I didn't say anything until we were parked in front of my house.
"Here." I said and handed her the drawing. "I drew this on the first day of school."
Elena took it gingerly and let her dark eyes roll over it. She didn't smile, she didn't make much of a facial expression at all. She just took it in. I barely showed anyone my art work, but I think at the time Elena needed it.
"This is beautiful." She murmured still looking at the page. I felt my face blush a little. The drawing hadn't been touched since I got caught with it in class. It wasn't to my perfect standards yet, so to hear it was beautiful was an ego boost for me.
"See how you two are looking at one another." I said catching her attention. "I wanted to capture that pure attraction into a picture. I wanted to draw something that meant something."
She looked up at me and I smiled.
"I think you're ready." I told her. She bit her bottom lip.
"I'm… I'm scared." She admitted. I never knew Elena Gilbert to be scared of anything. She was so confident and strong, to hear that she was openly afraid of a new relationship was weird but good to hear. It showed me that Elena was not perfect, but she was ok with that. She was human, just like I was.
"Sometimes we have to do the stuff that scares us the most." I told her. She nodded. I took the handle in my hand and pulled. I stepped out of the car and was about to shut the door when she stopped me.
"Wait here's your picture." She said handing it to me. The old me would have taken it back, so that I could finish it and add it to my portfolio. But the new me didn't want to work on it. It was perfect as is.
"You keep it." I told her. She cracked a smile at me and I returned it. With that I shut the door and headed to my house. She drove away after I had the door open and was inside.
That was by far the weirdest night I had ever had.