enjoy this chapter! school is starting up and all of the prewritten chapters have been posted so i might be taking a little longer now, sorry! i'll try not to wait longer than a week!
also i made a big mistake with the chapters - there's one chapter i just didn't post, right in between baby bennett and pilot. i'm posting it right now, so if anything didn't make sense it's because i was missing a chapter! go back and read that one so it makes more sense.
Chapter 4 - The Night of the Comet
Natalia fidgeted with her fingers as she sat on a log at the bonfire and watched the ambulance drive away. She was paralized when she heard Vicki's scream. She couldn't believe she didn't remember that Vicki would be attacked tonight! How could she be so stupid?
Tyler, Jeremy, Matt, Bonnie and Elena went to the hospital with Vicki but Nattie had to take a heavily drunk Caroline to get some coffee and sober up.
They sat at a table across from each other, Caroline sipping her coffee tiredly. Natalia had a lot on her mind and she hadn't stopped fidgeting with her fingers.
"Are you sober yet?" She asked her blonde best friend.
Caroline took a deep breath. "No." She exhaled.
"Okay. Just let me know when you are so we can drive over to the hospital."
"Sorry that you have to take care of me tonight." Caroline said quietly. "I know you feel bad about Vicki. But it's not your fault. It'shisfault." Caroline said. She refrained from saying Damon's name, knowing he could be listening to their conversation.
"You're right. I know I shouldn't be so hard on myself. I just can't help it sometimes."
Caroline nodded and they fell back into silence. Finger fidgeting and coffee sipping.
After a beat Caroline spoke what was on her mind. "Why didn't he go for me?" Oh dear. Caroline's insecurity talk. Nattie thought this wouldn't happen - that with her help Caroline would be more confident, but apparently not. Another thing she failed at. "You know, how come the guysIwant, never want me? I'm inappropriate, Ialwayssay the wrong thing. And…Elenaalways says the right thing! She doesn't even try! And he just picks her! She's always the one that everyone picks. For everything! And I try…so hard, and… I'm never the one."
"Care." Nattie started softly. "You're one of the best people I've ever met. You're amazing. So is Elena, sure, but just because she shines in her own way doesn't mean you don't shine either. Don't let her light overpower your light, because your light is way too beautiful to be dimmed. You're gorgeous, strong and kind, and if Stefan can't see that, then unlike his jawline, he's not very sharp!"
Caroline chuckled. "Thanks, Nat. I think you sobered me up."
"No need to thank me. I just told the truth. Now let's go check on Vick."
The girls sped to Vicki's hospital room. She was laying in her bed eating what looked like a giant chocolate cake. That was Vicki's favorite.
Grams was sitting beside her arranging a bunch of crystals around Vicki's head. Everyone else was sprawled out around the room. They all looked tired.
A wave of guilt hit Natalia when she saw Vicki's injuries. But she shook it off and slowly approached the Donovan sister.
Vicki beamed when she saw Natalia entering the room. "Nat!"
"Hey, girl. How are you feeling?" She asked, sitting on the hospital bed next to her. Vicki laid her head on Nattie's legs.
"Not bad actually. Grams got me cake in return for letting her do some crystal juju on me." Grams looked up at Natalia and winked before turning her attention back to the crystals. "It was Damon." Vicki recalled suddenly, "The vampire who attacked me."
"I know. I should've seen this coming. Obviously he wanted to make a splash, and I already had a bad feeling-" Nat started but Vicki interrupted her by grabbing her hand.
"Hey. It's not your fault. Don't beat yourself up about it." She said. Everybody nodded in agreement. Natalia sighed.
"Okay, you're right. But I feel like I should at least have a talk with Damon."
"Uh, that doesn't sound like such a good idea, Nat." Tyler protested.
"No, I have to. He messed with Vicki. He needs to know to leave you guys alone." She said.
Everyone else exchanged looks. When Natalia made up her mind, there was no swaying her.
"Okay. But be careful." Grams said. Nattie nodded.
They reluctantly left the hospital after a couple more hours of Vicki time. It was pretty late at night, and the nurses said she needed to rest. Grams' crystals actually helped her a lot, but that had something to do with the fact that they were spelled. Everybody else went back to Grams' house, but Natalia had a different destination in mind.
She found him at a bar near the outskirts of town. She had a feeling he would be there - I mean, where else would Damon Salvatore be at 12:30 AM? Besides in a random woman's bed.
She tapped on his leather clad shoulder and waited for him to face her with her hands held behind her back. She'd be lying if she said he didn't frighten her - he was a reckless vampire with no sense of right and wrong at the moment. But she had to do this.
He didn't answer, he just kept sipping his drink quietly. It was creepy.
"Excuse me." She said when he didn't turn to face her.
"What do you want?" He asked, clearly annoyed.
"I'd like to have a chat. Is that okay, Damon?" She replied, a bit more confident now that he wasn't silent.
"How do you know my name?" He questioned.
"Irrelevant." She answered, sitting on the stool next to him and folding her hands neatly in her lap. He turned to face her.I've caught his attention.
"Are you even old enough to be in a bar anyways? You definitely don't look like it." He asked. She recognized that he was trying to bait her. Trying to get her to react and break the stoic facade that she had.
"Nope. I'm seventeen."
"Huh." He said as if he was expecting a different answer. His blue eyes landed on her again after he took a sip of his drink. "You act a lot older than you are."
"That's because I am a lot older than I am." She replied simply.
He paused for a moment and then decided to ignore that last statement because he was much too tired to comprehend it. "So, do you want an autograph or something? Why are you talking to me?"
"I'm a seer."
His eyebrows shot up. "A seer?"
"Yes. I've had visions of your entire life, which is why I know your name. Along with everything else about you."
"You're bluffing." He said after thinking for a pause.
She sighed. "I can prove it."
"Be my guest." He smirked. He didn't know what this chick wanted, but he wasn't buying any of this seer BS.
"Let's see. In 1994, you killed Gale, Zach's girlfriend, and took their child along with her." His smirk dropped. "In the 50's, Whitmore used you as a science experiment with your ex-friend Enzo, who you left to die in a fire."
He sat quietly with a tick in his jaw.
"Do you want me to continue?" She asked, breaking the silence.
"No. You're a seer." He admitted with a scowl. "So what do you want?"
"I want to make a deal." She responded.
"A deal?"
"Yep. I'll open the tomb for Katherine."
He suddenly gained a boost of energy. "You can do that?
She nodded.
"In exchange for what?"
"All I ask in return is that you put seven people on your 'do not bite list' and protect them from danger." He tilted his head as if to tell her to continue. "Sheila Bennett, Caroline Forbes, Tyler Lockwood, Jeremy Gilbert, Elena Gilbert, Vicki Donovan and Matt Donovan. Also don't kill or hurt anyone under eighteen years old and all of the relationships that you have need to be consensual. No compelling or forcing a girlfriend."
He thought for a moment. "That doesn't sound horrible. But didn't I just bite Vicki Donovan earlier tonight?"
"You did. And you're on thin ice for that one, buddy."
"Does she know about my… supernatural nature?"
"Everybody on my list of people knows about the supernatural."
"Oh. So even Stefan's little girlfriend?"
"Her name is Elena. And yes, she knows as well." Natalia scoffed.
Damon chuckled, clearly amused. "Well, there goes Steffy-pie's chance at a normal human life."
She rolled her eyes. "Do you have any questions?"
"A few, actually. For one, why did you have visions of me, specifically?"
She let out a short laugh. "Don't flatter yourself. You're one among many."
"Like who?"
"Well, that you know of, Stefan, Katherine and the Original vampires."
"Wow." He said, stunned.
"Wow indeed."
"Okay, question number two. Why do Katherine and Elena look so much alike?"
"Ah, that's a question I should answer with your brother around. Another time."
Damon groaned dramatically. Nattie giggled at his theatrics.
"Wow, you have the ability to laugh. Who knew?" He snarked. She rolled her eyes.
"Give me your phone." She ordered.
"Why do you need my phone?"
"Just give it."
"Fine, bossy." He said, handing her the phone. "Here you go."
She put her number in. "Okay, text me when you want to start talking about the tomb. Or if you have any questions."
He nodded.
"And remember my conditions," She continued, "Nobody on my list, nobody under eighteen and only consensual relations."
He sighed. "Okay. And remembermyconditions. You answer my questions as long as they won't negatively affect the future, and you open that damn tomb."
"Alright." She stuck out her hand for him to shake.
"Before we shake, you have to tell me your name."
She paused for a second. She knew that once he knew her name he would know a lot of other things about her. Some things that she didn't necessarily want him to know. She was afraid that once he found out Katherine wasn't in the tomb he would go after Bonnie or something. She swallowed and then spoke. "Natalia Bennett."
He laughed breathily. "Bennett." He muttered. He reached out his hand to meet hers.
They shook hands firmly. "Pleasure doing business with you, Salvatore."
"Right back at you, Bennett."
The next morning in class, they were all running late because of their late night. Bonnie, Elena and Nattie were late for Mr. Tanner's class, which was bad news for them.
"Ms. Bennett, Ms. Bennett #2, Ms. Gilbert. You are all outstandingly late." Mr. Tanner bitched.
"Sorry, my cat died." Natalia said apathetically. She took a seat at the desk in front of Stefan who nodded to her in greeting.
"Yeah, I was there." Elena said.
"Me too. Really traumatic." Bonnie agreed. Their excuses were getting more and more half-assed.
Mr. Tanner sighed and got back to the lesson.
After class, Nattie snuck off again to the hospital. Vicki was asleep and she didn't want to wake her, so she stood outside her room and waited for Stefan to get there.
He strutted down the hospital halls, stopping when he saw Natalia outside of Vicki's room.
"Wow. You're everywhere, huh." He remarked.
"Yep." She popped the 'p'.
"Shouldn't you be in school?"
"Shouldn't you?"
He raised his eyebrows and she smirked.
"Stefan, there's no need to compel Vicki."
"What do you mean?"
"She knows that it was Damon. She's known about vampires for a while." Nat explained.
"And she won't tell anybody?" He asked.
"She won't tell a soul."
He sighed. "Okay. Thanks for telling me. I'll go back to school."
"You do that."
He turned to leave and Natalia entered Vicki's hospital room. She stroked her friend's face.
"I'm so sorry, Vick. I won't let anything like this happen again." She whispered.
"So then what?" Caroline asked Elena eagerly.
"So then nothing." Elena replied. Caroline made a loud scoff noise. Bonnie and Nat exchanged amused looks.
"You're telling me that you twotalkedall night? No sloppy first kiss or touchy feely of any kind?" The blonde practically shouted.
"Nope. We didn't go there."
"Not even a handshake?" Caroline exclaimed. If you weren't listening to the conversation, you'd think Caroline just received horrible news about a family member dying or something. She looked absolutely distraught. "I mean, Elena, we are your friends! You're supposed to share the smut!"
"We just talked for hours." Elena shrugged.
"What is with the blockage? It's easy, boy likes girl, girl likes boy-"
"Boy likes boy, girl likes girl." Nattie added.
Caroline pointed to her in agreement, "All of it adds up to sex, Elena!"
"Profound." Elena said. She got up from the table.
"Where are you going?" Bonnie inquired.
"Care's right. It's easy. If I sit here long enough, I'll talk myself out of doing what I started the day saying I would do."
"Are you saying you started the day off saying you'd have sex with Stefan?" Natalia asked.
"Same." Bonnie and Caroline said idly at the same time.
"Bon, Care, what the hell?" Elena asked. "And that's not what I meant, Nat. I'll be back later."
Bonnie and Elena walked side by side as they gave out programs for the night of the comet. Caroline made it a competition - whoever gave out the most pamphlets won, Nattie and Caroline VS. Elena and Bonnie. Elena and Bonnie were definitely going to lose.
"Night of the comet! Would you like a program?" Bonnie asked random passers by. She turned to Elena. "He didn't call, huh?"
"Or text. But I realized that we never even exchanged that stuff. We've never gotten to the texting part." Elena sighed.
"That's an important milestone in any relationship."
"Isn't it? I don't know. Nat made it out to seem like we would be soulmates and stuff, but wouldn't I leave him for his brother, anyway?"
"Elena, that's not you. That's a completely different version of you. It's like Natalia always says, 'you have complete control over the person you will be'. If you like Stefan, then you like him, but if you like someone else, that's who you like! It's your choice."
"You're right. I want to give it a chance with Stefan. I know he was just acting weird because Damon was trying to pollute my mind."
Bonnie chuckled and the girls continued to hand out pamphlets.
Vicki was let out of the hospital but the group wasn't letting her do anything without help. She complained but Natalia knew she loved it. It was the night of the comet and they were all in a booth at the Grill. They were debating on which Star Wars movies were the best.
Elena was in the bathroom when Stefan approached them.
"Has anyone seen Elena?" He asked. Vicki (who was kinda drunk) looked completely entranced by his beauty.
"Who needs Boringlena when you can have m-" Vicki started but Natalia kicked her from under the table. "Ow! What was that for?"
"She's in the bathroom." Matt replied. Stefan nodded in appreciation, his eyes dancing with amusement.
"I'll try to catch her later. Thanks." He turned around and started walking.
"Wait!" Nat called, stopping him in his tracks.
"Damn, why are you screaming?" Tyler whined while he ate his cheesy fries.
Stefan turned around. "What's up?"
"I'm gonna give you Elena's cell phone number and her email. She's big on texting, and you can tell her I said so." Nattie said, writing Elena's phone number and email on a napkin.
She gave it to him and their hands touched. Instead of freaking out like on the show, she hid her reaction pretty well. She was used to the feel of death when she touched vampires, mostly because Enzo was big on high fives. It was kind of ridiculous, actually.
"Thank you." He smiled.
"No problem." She replied quietly. They held eye contact for a second and then he walked away.
When he left they all turned to Vicki.
"Boringlena?" Jeremy asked her with raised brows.
"What? He's hot! I have to eliminate the competition, even if I love the competition like a sister."
They all shook their heads.
When they got outside and lit the candles, Stefan pulled Elena away to have their moment. As Natalia watched them talk with a smile on her face, Damon grabbed her arm and forcefully dragged her away from her spot.
"Hey, I was watching them!" She exclaimed.
"Like a creep." He remarked.
"Oh, you're one to talk." She muttered. "Now, what do you want?"
He put a hand over his heart. "Natalia, you wound me! I don't want anything except to watch the comet with my new business partner."
"Yeah, right. What do you really want?"
"I need a favor." He admitted.
"Damon, I'm already unleashing Katherine the Evil from the tomb, I'm doing enough for you as it is."
"Please?"
She sighed. "Tell me what it is before I agree."
"You said that all of my relationships have to be consensual, yes?"
"Yes, that's what I said."
"But it doesn't have to appear that way."
"I'm not following."
"I really want to get under Stefan's skin. I'm sure you've collected that much."
She nodded.
"And he hates it when I use humans like yourself as puppets. So, I was thinking that I could convince him that I'm using you as a blood bag. It'll kill him." Damon explained.
Natalia scoffed in amusement. "Damon, you're forgetting that I'm a witch and Stefan knows that. You can't compel me and there's no way you could manipulate me, since I'm so much stronger than you. He wouldn't believe that at all."
"First of all, you're a weakling compared to me, second of all, the fact that you're a witch is the part that will bother Stefan the most. He won't be able to blame this on compulsion or manipulation, and it will drive him crazy that he won't be able to make me out as the bad guy."
"But you are the bad guy."
"Stefan doesn't need to know that."
"Damon, I'm not going to fake date you just to annoy your brother. Also, I don't like you. Anything that will remotely help you that won't get me anything in return, I don't support."
Damon sighed. "Think about it. This could be good for you too."
"How in the hell could it be good for me?"
"Well, besides the privilege of being in a relationship - even if it is fake - with me, you'll be saving somebody else from being in the position of fake dating me."
"Ah, ah, ah. I said all relationships have to be consensual. There's no way you can get somebody to fake date you without compulsion."
"I don't need compulsion, I have persuasion."
She rolled her eyes at his cockiness. "The answer is no. There's no good reason for me to do that to Stefan. I'm sorry."
She walked over to her friends. Damon smirked. He would change her mind. Like he said, he had the gift of persuasion. Damon strutted away, whistling happily.
thanks for reading! still pondering the end pairing. can you tell i'm not good at decisions? i didn't really know how to end this chapter but i hope you liked it!
again go check out the chapter i forgot to put in! it's chapter 3 i believe!