Ch. 4 – Family Ties and You're Undead to Me 1x04-05
Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries. Anything you recognize is not mine.
Edit 11/14/2021
Alliana had just finished her chores. Rebekah, Kol, and Henrik all still had to work for a little while longer, so Alliana was by herself. She was walking in the forest, because she couldn't think to do anything else. She loved to wander, especially in the woods, because she always finds amazing things. Amazing by her definition, at least. She was walking further upstream of the river than she normally walked. She followed the river upstream as the land increased its incline. She moved away from the bank of the river to walk to the top of the hill easier. Finally, she reached the top, where the land flattened out more. She looked over at the river and found it to be a waterfall. Realizing it to be the one that her friend spoke of, she was about to step forward to look closer at the waterfall, when she spotted someone else here.
"Hello," Alliana said to announce her presence. The person turned around. She realized the person was Niklaus. He was sitting on a log, slightly hunched over. He just turned back around, ignoring her.
"I am sorry if I have offended you in some way, because it was not my intention," Alliana said.
Niklaus turned back towards her. "You have not offended me."
"Then why do you ignore me? I love to spend time with your siblings, other than Finn and yourself. I have not seen Finn very often, but he always greets me when I do. You, however, ignore me every time I try to talk to you," Alliana replies.
"Then why do you not go back to my siblings?" Niklaus asked as he turns back around.
"They are all busy. So, I decided to take a walk. I then found myself here and now I have decided to talk to you," Alliana replied.
"Why?"
"Because I would like to get to know you."
"Just leave me alone." Niklaus grumbled. Alliana sat down on a rock, close to Niklaus. She sees that Niklaus was sketching. She stayed quiet for a while and watched as Niklaus continued to sketch. She saw it to be a picture of a horse. She could work with this.
"That is a beautiful drawing. Do you like horses?" Alliana asks.
"Yes."
"I love horses, especially the ones that you can find in the wild. They are so beautiful. They are majestic. So gentle and so strong at the same time, wouldn't you agree?"
"Yes, I would." Niklaus smirks down at his paper.
"Do you like to draw?" Alliana continues.
"Yes."
"I think the ability to draw something is truly amazing. You can capture the beauty of something and be able to keep it forever, even if the thing changes."
"Yes, that is what I love about drawing. It helps me escape as well," Niklaus finally looks up at her.
Alliana smiles at him, "See, now I have gotten to know you and spend time with you. I very much enjoy it. You can join us when we play games. I believe Kol cheats. Maybe you can help me outsmart him and catch him."
Niklaus smiles a true genuine smile. "I would like that." Alliana smirks back at him.
"Scum Fell… Scum Bucket…" Jenna says while looking at the TV. Okay….
"Who are you talking to?" I ask.
"Him." Jenna replies.
I look at the television. "The news guy?" I ask.
"Also known as Logan "Scum" Fell." Jenna says. That Logan Fell. "Did your mom ever tell you why I moved from Mystic Falls?"
My mom said she moved away due to bad history with something Fell. I couldn't remember which one. To be fair, I was younger and didn't care about guys and romantic stuff. We are kind of back to that point. Wait…"Oh, no way. You and him?" I look back at the TV. "He is kind of cute," I try to placate my aunt.
"He is not cute. There is nothing cute about him." Jenna turns off the TV. Okay, fair. I look at the box I found in Mom's stuff.
"What are you doing with that?" Jenna asks.
"I went yesterday and got it from the safe deposit box," I reply while cleaning some of the things I found in it. "Mom had told Mrs. Lockwood she would loan it to the Founder's Council for their Heritage Display."
Jenna picks up one of the wedding rings. "Is that Grandma Beth's wedding ring?"
I whip around to see which one. "Originally, it was great-great-grandma Mary's wedding ring," I explain.
I am about to continue describing the history of the ring when Jeremy walks in and takes it out of my hand and asks, "How much do you think this stuff is worth? You know, like on eBay?" He picks up another thing from the box.
"You are not going to find out." I disparage as I take it from him. "This stuff is Mom and Dad's, Gilbert history. You can't just give it away."
"I'm not giving it away," Jeremy defends as he walks into the kitchen.
"It's called a loan, Jeremy," I call to him. Jeremy just rolls his eyes as he opens the refrigerator. The doorbell rings. I can hear Elena coming down the stairs.
"I got it!" Elena calls. I get up from the chair I was sitting and peek at who was at the door. I find Elena and Stefan kissing. There's the answer to that question. Damn, I knew I should've given her my lotion. Maybe that would've stopped this. Especially as she sneaks him up the stairs and into her room.
Oh, come on! I don't want to hear all that.
I check my phone looking for an excuse to avoid the mess.
Yes! Caroline texted about meeting Bonnie at the Grille.
Thank god.
I call to Jenna as I'm heading out the door right as I hear the first giggle. I am both sickened and worried.
I grab a table in time to see my friends walking over already in conversation.
"You're taking Damon to the Founders' Party?" Bonnie complains. "What about me?"
Caroline grabs the chair next to me as she sits, "Take Elena."
I shake my head, "She's already asked Stefan."
"Ok, go by yourself," Caroline states. Wow, Caroline. Maybe a bit too blunt with that suggestion.
"Gee, thanks," Bonnie replies.
I speak up, "Yeah, especially as I am an option. Elena was supposed to go with me but she's with Stefan now." Which sucks cause she actually seemed excited about this party. She came with me to get the stuff out of the safety security box. I was really hoping that with this being the First Founders' Party we were going to after our parents' death that she would want to be with me so we could reminisce about our mom. She loved these parties and all Founders' events.
Caroline perks up immediately as if my suggestion fixes everything. Even without Bonnie agreeing. "Great. Emmy and Bonnie. Elena and Stefan. And me and Damon."
"You and Damon?" I question. God, is that still happening?
Bonnie adds, "What about your mom? Is she cool with you bringing Damon?"
Caroline rolls her eyes, "And I'm supposed to care why?"
I open my mouth to give a list of reasons I have prepared, but Bonnie jumps in before I can.
"He's older, sexy, danger guy," she says. What?
"Older, sexy danger guy?" Caroline questions sarcastically. "What is that, an official witch Twitter tweet?"
"No more witch jokes, okay?" Bonnie asserts. "That whole Mr. Tanner prediction thing has me freaked."
"Okay," Caroline says backing up.
I clear my throat before I add, "I think what Bonnie means by what she said is that Damon is older and mysterious and that makes him sketchy. I mean it can't be good to have your mom see you around with this guy. How even old is he, Caroline?"
Caroline shrugs without a care, "I don't know."
I sigh, getting tense. "Care, you're not even 17 yet. If he's older than 19, your mom could arrest him." And he's probably way older than 17.
Caroline scoffs, "She wouldn't do that. I'm surprised she would even look long enough to notice."
Bonnie and I sigh. Both of us are familiar with Caroline's gripes with her mom.
Bonnie tries to defend the Sheriff, "Care…"
But Caroline just jumps in, not even listening. "Damon's not dangerous. You know. He just has a lot of issues with his brother. You know, like major deep-rooted drama."
Bonnie looks intrigued.
But I just roll my eyes and mumble, "Why am I not surprised?"
Bonnie just questions, "Like…"
Caroline looks away. But it's in this fake-shy look that she uses all the time before she spills her most interesting gossip. "I'm not really supposed to say anything."
"Caroline Forbes," Bonnie says, smiling knowingly, "When have you ever kept a secret in your life?"
Caroline perks up. My heart drops a bit. This can't be good. "Ok, but you can't tell Elena."
I groan internally as Caroline starts to spill.
The next afternoon, I'm finishing up cleaning the stuff that my mom promised for the party. But I'm really just cleaning the same thing as I remember Mom going on about this stuff. She was the one who really encouraged me, always so supportive of my love of history and really nurtured it. This was our favorite founder's party. She would take me around to look at all the displays since before I could remember. The Historical Society and the Founders Parties were our thing.
I focus back on the real world when the doorbell rings. It must be Mrs. Lockwood coming to pick up the stuff. I grab the stuff and go to the door. I see Jeremy grabbing the door. When he tries to close it, I know it is another Lockwood who was sent, the one that my brother has an issue with, Tyler.
Tyler blocks the door from closing. "I'm here for my mom. I was supposed to pick up a box of stuff," Tyler reveals.
I say, "Right here," as I hand the embellished, antique box to him. "Please be careful."
"Yeah, be careful with it, dick." Jeremy adds.
"Hey! Not now, guys," I interrupt. I lightly smack Jeremy on the arm and give him another look.
"I'm fine. He's just being a punk," Tyler says.
"I got your punk," Jeremy responds defensively.
I push Jeremy away from the door and block him from antagonizing Tyler more, "Look, Tyler, maybe you should go. Tell your mom that we'll see her tonight," I remark. Not that it'll be my favorite thing in the world. I have beef with Carol Lockwood. I turn back around and go back to the kitchen.
It seems Bonnie arrived while I was daydreaming because she is in there with Elena choosing nail polish, "Delicate Flower vs. Naughty Vixen," Bonnie asks.
"Tough call. Can we mix them?" Elena suggests. That's kinda weird because Delicate flower is a light pink and Naughty Vixen a dark red. Very much apt for their completely names. So why bother mixing? Just pick a different shade. We have so many colors.
"Look at you, getting all pretty for your date," I tease my twin. I can't tip her off about my hesitancy with Stefan as much as I want to take her and just run as far as possible.
"You seem happy-ish," Bonnie continues for me.
"I am…ish," Elena replies. Damn, there goes trying to convince her to run. I move to sit next to her at the table. I look at all the nail polish colors. I'm thinking something basic to match my dress for tonight, maybe a nice white. "Tonight is going to be a good night. But don't let that stop you from telling me whatever it is you wanted to tell me as soon as you walked in the door," my sister continues. Oh, please don't.
"What if I tell you in the morning? I don't want to ruin the night," Bonnie says. Same here, Bonnie. She looks at the nail polishes. Good. Don't say anything.
"Bonnie, out with it," Elena demands. She's not going to let this go, is she?
"Okay, but it has to go in the vault, because Caroline will kill me if it gets back to Damon that she squealed," Bonnie starts. Great. Exactly why you shouldn't say anything. Damon could actually kill Caroline. Bonnie continues, "Apparently, Stefan has a very interesting backstory." Elena nods. "Do you know what happened with his ex-girlfriend Katherine?"
"I know they both dated her and that's why they have issues," Elena replies.
Bonnie explains what Caroline told us, "Yeah, they both dated her, only she chose Damon. And that drove Stefan mad, so he did horrible things to try and break them up. He manipulated Katherine. He filled her head with all these lies until finally it worked, and she turned against Damon." Yeah, cause that seems like Stefan. I mean I don't know either of them well but that behavior seems more like Damon than Stefan.
"That sounds like one person's side of the story," Elena comments. A very biased side of the story.
"Meaning Damon's," I continue. "This is what Caroline told us based on what Damon said. This is all incredibly biased."
"I just wanted you to know," Bonnie defends.
Elena takes a moment before she shrugs off the story, "Anyway, his past relationships are none of my business."
"Unless he's a calculating, manipulative liar. That is your business," Bonnie replies. Or potentially something supernatural. I pick up a base coat to start doing my nails.
"Stefan is none of those things," Elena states.
Bonnie interjects, "Yeah, how do you know?"
Elena thinks about it. I wait for the base coat to dry before picking up the color I chose for tonight and start painting my nails. After we paint our nails, we continue to get ready. Bonnie curls her hair, while Elena and I do our makeup. The phone rings and Elena goes to pick it up. From what I can hear of her side of the conversation, she is talking to someone about something being missing, I think.
"What's wrong?" I ask. I follow her into Jeremy's room, where he is listening to music while on his computer. Elena knocks his headphones off.
"Ah! God, what now?" Jeremy exclaims.
"The pocket watch, where is it?" Elena asks.
"What watch?" Jeremy asks. He tries to untangle himself from the wires of his headphones.
Elena goes to hit him again, "The one you stole from Mom's box. Look, Mrs. Lockwood just called me, freaking out. It was on the list, Jeremy. And she can't find it, and she thinks she's the one who lost it." I roll my eyes. Ugh, Carol Lockwood.
"Maybe she did. Maybe Tyler did it," Jeremy suggests. Ok, so not Carol Lockwood's fault.
I scoff. "Don't even play that card Jeremy. Did you take it?" I ask, calmly. Being the good cop to my sister's more angry, bad cop.
"If I go online, am I going to find it on eBay? Is that how you pay for your pot?" Elena says.
"Elena!" I scold.
"Screw you," Jeremy replies. He gets up and grabs the watch from behind his stereo on his bottom shelf. "I would never sell this, okay?"
"Then why did you take it?" Elena asks.
"Because it's supposed to be mine," Jeremy declares.
I remember this watch now, "Dad says it goes to the firstborn son," I explain.
"His father gave it to him, and now what?" Jeremy says. He hands Elena the watch. He goes back to his computer.
Elena realizes, "He was going to give it to you."
"Yeah," Jeremy sighs.
Elena goes to leave, but I grab the pocket watch from her. I turn back to my brother, "Look, Jere, it's still yours. Mom promised Mrs. Lockwood. What are we supposed to do?" I ask rhetorically.
"Just take it and get out," Jeremy replies.
"I promise to get it back to you," I state. Jeremy puts his headphones back on. I discreetly leave the pocket watch in his room. I go back to Elena's room where to finish getting ready.
Since Bonnie and I are 'dates', so we drive to the party together. We waited until Stefan came to pick up Elena and then followed them, so basically we all arrive together. Including going through the entry processional of greeting the Lockwood's.
Bonnie has to keep me calm as we wait in line. I mean, seriously?! Luckily, Jenna is with us, making jokes, or else I would've gone around the side.
The process starts with Elena and Stefan. Elena is wearing an orange strapless dress. It has multiple shades of colors of red, orange, and pink with these shiny, gold leaf details. Her straight hair clipped into a half-pony. She is wearing the necklace that Stefan gave her. At least she and Stefan are supposed to be the first.
Elena greets Mayor Lockwood, who greets her back with an invitation inside. And then he just walks off. And Carol's not even here either!
All the effort put into looking nice and respectable for Carol and she's not even here. I am wearing a long sleeve, V-neck black dress with little white flowers. My long, medium-brown hair is left down in its natural waves. Like I look actually presentable.
Bonnie smiles at me in the same confusion. She knows that I have issues with Carol, so she just takes me inside without a word. Of course, she wouldn't have had an issue in her light colored, flowery halter dress with some beading on the straps. Her hair is curled and she looks really good.
Damn it. All this time wasted.
Throughout the party I divide my time between hanging out with Bonnie, hanging out with Elena or Jenna, and looking at the exhibits.
I notice Jenna talking with Logan 'Scum' Fell. She and I make faces as she grabs more wine.
I haven't seen too much of Caroline, oddly. She's usually all over these events, planning her way to the Miss Mystic crown.
I finally see her when Elena and I are looking at the registry from the original Founder's Ball with Elena.
Elena is remarking on how many familiar names there were.
"Sheriff William Forbes." Liz Forbes, Caroline's mom is now sheriff.
"Mayor Benjamin Lockwood." Richard Lockwood, Tyler's father, is mayor today. Funny how somethings stay the same.
"Damon Salvatore." What. I looked at the names more carefully. Stefan Salvatore was on there too. That confirms some things.
Damon walks over with Caroline. Ugh, finally. Here she is. "The original Salvatore brothers. Our ancestors. Tragic story, actually." Oh, good. He's here. Now, how do I get Caroline away from him?
"We don't need to bore them with stories of the past," Stefan interjects, joining us again. Double-trouble, which do I focus on first?
"It's not boring, Stefan," Elena responds. "I'd love to hear more about your family."
"I love stories of the past. I find them fascinating," I add. I'm guessing the past is more relevant than Stefan wants to make it seem. And if they are both here, then I can watch them at the same time.
Caroline rolls her eyes, "Well, I'm bored. I want to dance." Crap, now what? "And Damon won't dance with me." Damon shakes his head. "Can I borrow your date, Elena?"
Elena kind of just looks shocked and tries to stammer out an answer.
Stefan cuts in, "I don't really dance."
"Oh, sure he does," Damon interjects. "You should see him. Waltz, the Jitterbug, the Moonwalk. He does it all." Look whose all too eager to get rid of his brother. The passive-aggressiveness is strong tonight.
"You wouldn't mind. Would you, Elena?" Caroline asks. They are working far too well together and it sets of something in my brain.
"It's up to Stefan," my sister replies.
"Well sorry, but I'm not going to take no for an answer," Caroline says. Caroline grabs Stefan's hand and leads him away and the three of us watch them leave. I just hope that staying with Elena doesn't mean putting Caroline in danger.
As soon as they are gone, Damon speaks up, "I want to apologize to you, Elena, for being such a world-class jerk the other night when I tried to kiss you."
"What?! He tried to kiss you and you didn't tell me," I interrupt.
"I'm sorry-," Elena starts.
I don't let her finish, "I forgive you, but next time you tell me immediately." No need to hash out sister business in front of Demon- Damon.
"Well, there's no excuse for that," Damon continues as if we never interrupted. "My therapist says I'm…acting out, trying to punish Stefan."
"Oh, sure," I agree sardonically. Cause he definitely sees a therapist. Probably would book a session and wind up draining the poor soul.
"For what?" Elena asks.
I roll my eyes. "10 bucks this is about Katherine again," I murmur to myself.
Damon waves us off, "It's all in the past. I don't even want to bring it up. Let's just say that all the men in the Salvatore family have been cursed with sibling rivalry. And it all started with the original Salvatore brothers," Damon says. "The Salvatore name was practically royalty in this town. Until the war. There was a battle here-"
"The Battle of Willow Creek," I interrupt. Maybe I can keep his focus off my sister for more than 3 seconds.
"Right," Damon agrees reluctantly with me.
I start explaining, "I know a bit about this town's history and your brother mentioned it in class. Confederate soldiers fired on a church with civilians inside. They apparently believed it to be housing weapons inside. There were 27 civilians that died." Well, at least that is how Stefan told the story.
"What the history books left out was, the people that were killed. They weren't there by accident," Damon says. He circles to the other side of me and my sister. He walks to another exhibit. It was a model of a church. I'm guessing that is the church that the civilians were in. "They were believed to be Union sympathizers. So, some of the Founders on the Confederacy side back then wanted them rounded up and burned alive. Stefan and Damon had someone they loved very much in that church. And when they went to rescue them, they were shot. Murdered in cold blood." Hmm, some of the details are off, but the story seems genuine. Union sympathizers, sure. Let's glorify being on the wrong side of the war and make an easy excuse for something weird going on in town.
I hazard what is barely a guess, "I bet it was a woman they wanted to save." Does the name Katherine go through anyone else's brain?
"Doesn't it always come down to the love of a woman?" Damon asks, focusing back on Elena. Damn, we were doing so well.
Elena speaks up, "Look, I'm sorry that you and Stefan have this thing between you, but I can't get in the middle of it, Damon." Good for you, sis. Damon looks down for a second with a slight guilty face. He looks up when Elena continues, "I just…I hope you two can work it out."
"I hope so too," Damon replies. They both go to leave. Elena looks back at me.
"Go ahead. Go find Stefan. I am going to keep looking at all the exhibits," I tell her. Damon and Elena walk off and I follow them with my eyes. Despite the charm, my gut says not to trust him. Although, I guess it would be hard to trust anyone after seeing them suck on your teacher's jugular. I take a moment to look at all the interesting, antique stuff. There are some things from all the Founding Families. Some silverware from the Forbes, some paintings and pictures from the Fells, the whole house is filled with antique things of the Lockwood's. I look one more time at the original registry. I see one more interesting name. Katherine Pierce. Called it.
Bonnie and I are at a table chatting over dessert when Elena comes rushing over. She grabs our hands and pulls us inside. And to one of the sitting room couches. She sits and immediately curls to place her head in her hands and her elbows on her knees. I look back at Bonnie who runs back to our table to grab the cake we were about to share. We definitely need chocolate.
I get Elena to perk up enough so Bonnie can hand her the cake and she takes a bite before she starts to explain.
Apparently, the boys are starting to bring her into their drama. With Stefan now being cagey about his past and defensive over Damon.
Bonnie sighs, "This is my fault. I planted doubt. I'm a doubt-planter."
Elena and I shake out heads.
"It's not your fault, Bonnie," I state.
Elena nods in agreement. Then she eats another bite of cake before she explains, "I just, I fell terrible because I said that I wouldn't get in the middle of it and then that's exactly what I did. I got all snotty."
I'm about to help comfort Elena. I mean it's not like she can stop being involved in their drama when they keep dragging her into it. Although she didn't have to ask about Katherine. Not important. But I'm about to offer some words of wisdom when Carol Lockwood comes over.
"Elena, honey," she greets politely. "There you are." She sits in the chair next to the couch we're sitting on. The chair that is right next to me. And then she finally notices that I'm here too. "Oh, and Emilia. You're here as well." Any warmth she had is gone as she greets me with politeness just barely covering her awkward, almost disdain. Ugh. She actually repositions so she is not as close to me and focuses on Elena, "I noticed the watch still isn't in the collection."
Are you shitting me?
I rush to apologize, "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Lockwood. I swear I had it, polished and ready to be sent to you."
Carol turns to me, her smile turning to ice, "Well, mistakes happen." And then turns back to Elena, "Do you know where it might be?"
Elena looks to me before she answers, "I must have misplaced it somewhere." She pats me on the thigh as she says, "Emilia here was warning me to be careful with everything. You know how much she cares about these Historical Society events. But I was distracted and I must have left it somewhere. Totally my fault."
Carol's smile never leaves her face, but something shifts in her expression. "Well, please let me know if you do find it." She pats Elena on the leg and leaves without another word.
What the hell?
Bonnie scoffs out a derisive laugh as she turns to me, "Oh my god. She really hates you."
I turn to them both. "See! I'm not crazy! She's totally weird around me!"
Elena and Bonnie laugh as they agree.
And we all turn back the cake and take another bite.
Later at the party, I run into Elena and Caroline in the bathroom touching up and talking. And by run, I mean I followed them into the bathroom, because I've been with Elena while also trying to catch up with Caroline.
"So, how are things with Stefan?" Caroline asks as she fluffs her hair.
Elena leans into the mirror to she redo her lip gloss. "Oh, fine. Just fine."
"Really? Well, my radar must be off, because I was getting all sorts of other vibes," Caroline says. She leans forward to also redo her lip gloss. Her scarf moves and I kind of see a mark on her neck.
"What is that?" I ask in shock. I try to grab her scarf to see it better when she blocks me.
"Don't!" Caroline cries, but I ignore it. I'm sorry, but I need to make sure. Elena holds her for a second while I move her scarf. There is a bite mark on her neck. No. Not Caroline.
"Oh my god, Caroline, what happened?" Elena asks.
Caroline again pushes us away. "Nothing, okay?!" When she moves, her white knit bolero/shrug/cover slips. I notice another mark on her shoulder hidden as she pulls it back up.
I try to stop her to look in her the eye, "That isn't nothing. Did somebody hurt you?" I ask. I'm gonna kill him. I'm going to rip him apart.
Caroline turns back to the mirror. "No, okay, nothing." She retouches her makeup. "It's just…my mom would kill me." Not if I kill him first.
I pull her bolero away. Another bite mark is revealed, this one on her mid-back above the neckline of her strapless dress. "This is Damon's fault, isn't it?" I declare, not even asking. It has to be. Oh, god. What happened?! There are probably more that we can't see. Please no. Tell me he didn't!
Caroline stands straight up and fixers her cover. "No! Of course not!" Elena goes to pull the bolero away again. Caroline pushes her off and grabs all her makeup. "Just leave me alone, okay, Elena and Emilia?! God!" She walks away. This shouldn't have happened. I should've noticed before.
"Go get Stefan, now!" I growl to my sister. She runs out of the bathroom and I take a minute to calm my shaking hands. I look in the mirror, and just for a split second, but it's all I need to remember why I am doing this. I brush it off the lingering shakiness. Now is not the time. As soon as I'm out of the bathroom, I'm on a warpath. It doesn't take long to spot the fucking spineless parasite.
He wants blood. I'll give him some.
I march over to him, all my previous plans of waiting and being smart go out the window. I'm too angry with his smug attitude. He looks at me and starts to smirk in greeting (Case and point). I rush to him and punch him hard in the nose. He stumbles back, most likely in shock more than pain. But he now has a broken, bleeding nose. "How dare you?!" I yell. He starts to right himself when I push him again, pulling him away from the party. Luckily, there is a door to the backyard, just a few feet away. Another couple of pushes and he's out the door. He stumbles on the turf. "How dare you come to this town and attack my friend. Caroline is my best friend! And you hurt her! I should rip you apart for touching her!" One more shove and a kick to the chest and Damon is on the ground.
I take a moment to check my sleeves. Should I use it? Should I reveal I know what he and his brother are?
I decide otherwise. Keep it human for now. "Better yet, stay away from her entirely! Stay away from her or I will go straight to her mother, the sheriff" I lean down, one of my knees on his chest and my hands on his shoulders, pushing him into the ground, to whisper to him "I'm sure you know all about the powers in this town, being a Salvatore and all. What do you think would happen if I told the sheriff what you did to her beloved daughter?" With that I get off him, give him one last kick, one to where no guy wants to be kicked, and gave him one last reminder, "Stay away from her!"
I walk away from him trying to control my temper. He is lucky I didn't beat the crap out of him more. Lucky that I wasn't more prepared to fight someone like him. I should have been. I needed more time to organize myself. More plans and weapons. I should've been ready. I should have seen the signs. She was different in ways I should have noticed. I should've been better. I swore this wouldn't happen again. I see Elena and Stefan talking out by the fountain. I try to calm my shaking and breathing before I walk up to them, but it is hard. Nothing makes me more uncontrollably angry than something like this. And not just angry. My hands are still shaking. Before I reach them, I notice them in an intense conversation, so I leave them be. I start to walk slowly around the grounds continuing to calm myself down.
I won't let this happen again.
I take the long way as I walk back to the party and spot someone lying in the grass. I rush over and find it to be Caroline, unconscious and bleeding from the neck. I check her pulse before I shake her, "Caroline, wake up!" Luckily, she does wake and is able to slowly sit up. I grab her stuff and slide over next to her. My knee hits something. I pick it up. It is an amber crystal. It was a diamond shape inside a circular, bronze antique setting. It was different, pretty, but not a typical Caroline piece of jewelry. It actually looks more like something Bonnie would have. I put it in Caroline's bag, just in case and I help her get up. She seems fine, which is incredibly lucky. "Hey are you okay? You had me really scared."
Elena comes walking over to us. "Hey, there you guys are. I've been looking everywhere for you guys."
Caroline tries to slow down her breaths to calm herself down, "Caroline, are you okay?" I ask.
Caroline seems to be okay for a second but doesn't stay that way. "Yeah, I'm fine." She fixes her scarf, her hands shaking.
"Caroline, what happened?" My sister asks.
Caroline's breathing starts to speed up. "I'm fine. I'm fine. No." Caroline starts to sob. Oh, Caroline. I'm so sorry.
"Care, you're shaking," I grab her hands.
"I'm fine!" Caroline tries to reassure herself, it's clearly having an opposite effect. I pull her into a tight hug. She starts sobbing into my shoulder. I look over at my twin.
"I'm going to take her home. I might stay with her for a while. Can you tell Jenna and go home with her?" I ask my twin.
"Yeah, sure," she quickly replies. Caroline keeps sobbing. I hold her until she calms down slightly. By the time we get to her house, her sobs have slowed down to mostly silently tears. Every once in a while, she chokes out another sob. I help her into her room and some pajamas, and she falls asleep, with tear tracks still on her face. I stay with her all night, comforting her through every nightmare. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, Caroline…
A few days after the Founders Party, I finally leave my room only to walk into Elena outside the hallway bathroom.
"You don't want to go in there," she tells me.
"Why?" I ask.
"Vicki is in there," she explains.
I stop, "Oh. Okay." What I mean is, ugh, gross. I can't believe I promised that I would be okay with this. I join Elena and Jenna in in the kitchen. Jenna is writing something. "Jenna. Are you aware of what's going on upstairs?" I ask her.
"Uh-huh," Jenna replies. She doesn't even look up to respond.
"And you have no objection?" Elena asks.
Jenna looks at us. "He could be craftier about it. At least make an effort to sneak her in and out." Elena sits in the kitchen as I start making breakfast. "Oh, and, uh, just so you know, I won't be home for dinner." Jenna finishes speaking while going back to writing.
"Oh, so you are actually going to do it. You are going to go on a date with Logan," I tease her. I thought she was still stuck on the hate train with him.
Jenna looks to me. "I am going to show up and torture him, yes." We all chuckle. "Elena, have you heard from Stefan?" Jenna asks. I am curious about this as well, especially with what happened with Damon and his disappearance these past few days. Maybe Stefan is stepping up. Or has left town and I don't need to bother.
"Not since he left that very vague message three days ago," Elena replies. She does a bad impression of Stefan's voicemail, "Hi, um, Elena, I, um, have something I have to do. I'll, uh, explain in a few days."
I chuckle into my bowl of cereal. "Have you called him?" I ask. Please say no.
"Nope," my twin replies. "Not going to, either." Well, good for her.
"And you're okay with everything?" Jenna asks.
Elena puts down the carton of milk that she had just poured into her cereal. "No, I'm not okay with any of it. But I'm not going to cry about it, either. You know, I was going to write in my diary this morning, and then I thought, what am I going to write?" Jenna and I just nod and listen to her mini rant. "Honestly, I'm not going to be one of those pathetic girls that whose world stops spinning because of some guy." Elena shoves a spoonful of cereal into her mouth. Again, good for her.
"Okay then," Jenna replies.
"I'll be fine," Elena says as she walks away taking her bowl of cereal. God, I hope this will be the end of things and she will be fine. I finish my cereal and quickly grab all my stuff for school. I shout a hurried good-bye to Jenna before I leave.
Bonnie, Elena, and I are watching Caroline as she describes the Sexy Suds car wash to other girls. She looks as if nothing had happened at all. I guess her usual delegation skills work similar to her apparent gift with compartmentalization.
"Unbelievable. It's like nothing happened," Elena comments.
"She's in denial," Bonnie states. We all just look back at Caroline. It's almost kind of freaky how normal she looks. I am actually a little worried about her and her potential for another breakdown. I know there is actually far more emotion behind her cheerful attitude and not just because I've seen all the breakdowns that have happened since the party. Or I'm pretty sure most of them. Bonnie and I have been switching off times with Caroline to not leave her alone for too long.
Stefan walks up to us, "Hey," he greets.
I stand straighter and move to step in between Elena and Stefan, but Bonnie grabs my arm and starts pulling me.
"Bonnie!" I protest.
But she just talks over me, "Hey, uh, you know, Emmy and I gotta to go, uh, be somewhere. Right now."
I try protesting again but Bonnie is surprisingly strong and pulls me away entirely.
I persuade Bonnie to have us join Caroline, who by chance just happens to make her way over to Stefan and Elena.
"Stefan, where's Damon" she asks. Oh, boy. "He has some serious apologizing to do."
I sigh and gently her arm, "Caroline…"
Stefan answers, "He's gone, Caroline."
Caroline shakes it off, "When's he coming back?"
Stefan stares at her with pity, "He's not coming back."
"Good," I add immediately. Stefan looks at me and I stare him down.
He turn to Caroline and whispers, "I'm sorry," before heading down the hallway.
I share a look with my sister before we turn to Caroline who looks surprisingly sad.
"This is a good thing, Caroline," Elena says. I sigh. It's a little more complicated than you think, Elena.
Caroline shuts down the emotion and pity with a short, "I know that," before plastering a fake smile on her face as she notices another Spirit Squad member and walking away from us.
It's almost the evening before Elena comes home from the Grille. She tells me about how she and Stefan were supposed to meet at the Grille for him to explain in the afternoon, but he showed up over an hour late. The disappointment is radiating from her and as much as I would like for Elena to distance herself from the Salvatore's and their mess, I want her happy. This mopey version of Elena could quickly backslide to depressed, barely-there-to-the-point-of-being-a-ghost Elena that she was over the summer. So even though every part of my body screaming to run the other way, Stefan seems fine enough. He hasn't done anything terrible, unlike his brother. And if he can contain said brother, and continues not to hurt Elena intentionally, then I guess I'll learn to be okay with this. Right now, my sister is sad and I can do something to fix it, so I will.
"Lena, can I borrow your phone for a second?" I ask her. She hands it over and I quickly find Stefan's number and enter it into my phone. I hand her back her phone and she goes into her room. As soon as she is out of earshot, I dial Stefan's number. It rang a few times before Stefan picked up.
"Hello," he answers.
"Stefan, hi. It's Emilia."
"Oh, hi."
"We need to talk." I start. Ugh, I hate myself "Look, I know something is happening between you and Elena. But she likes you, so, I'm going to give you some advice. Elena likes knowing things about people, especially the ones she cares about. She gets very involved in their lives. And she's really determined. It's kind of a family trait. So, she doesn't mix well with secrets. She wants to know and she's not going to stop until she finds out. If you can't deal, then leave her alone."
"Emilia, I-"
I shake my head despite the fact that he can't see it, "I'm not done."
Stefan pauses, "Uh, please continue then."
I sigh, "Look, I don't like you and I certainly don't trust you. Not with whatever shit is going down with your brother. But Elena likes you and you make her happy. So, I'm going to tell you that you are hurting her by not being honest. So, go and tell her about yourself. Show her that she can trust you. Show me that I can trust you to not hurt my sister anymore. Because if you do hurt her, I will beat the crap out of you. Be sure to ask your brother what happened to him when he crossed me," I lower my voice to a more threatening whisper, "And that was me unprepared."
Stefan clears his throat, "Okay, I will. I mean, uh, I will try not to hurt her"
"By the way, my sister's favorite food is Chicken Parmesan. I'm sure you can handle that, Salvatore," I say.
"Yes," Stefan agrees.
"And one more thing," I hastily add before he can hang up. "If your brother comes anywhere near Caroline again, it's not just him who will be on the ground bleeding. Your brother, you contain him. Or else, I'm coming after both of you."
A few hours later, I am waiting for a knock on the door. I open it to find Stefan there. I point to the kitchen. "Kitchen's that way. Leave some leftovers for me." He nods in acknowledgement. I head upstairs and I sneak a peek at my twin in her room. She is hugging her teddy bear on her bed. I sneak past her room to poke my head in Jeremy's room. He is chilling on his computer with Vicki there too. Oh, okay. Can Vicki go home already?
"Jere, I need you to do something," I tell him.
He looks over to me, then to Vicki and shrugs, "Sure."
"I need you to get Elena to go downstairs. Stefan is down there cooking for her. Don't tell her that he is here. I want it to be a surprise," I tell him.
He shrugs again and replies, "Sure. No problem." He gets up and goes to Elena's room. I see her head downstairs a minute later. I give Jeremy a high five when he walks back to his room and I head to mine. I genuinely hope this goes well, surprisingly. The things I do for my sister; let's hope I'm making the right choice in letting this guy in.
The next day, Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, Matt, and I are at the car wash. There are a lot of girls in bikinis and shorts and shirtless guys. Trust Caroline to recruit all the hot people in the school. Speaking of the blonde, she is wearing a pink spotted print ruffled bikini that has a string in the middle that tied around her neck with shorts. Bonnie is wearing a greenish brown halter bikini with pretty stitching that had zigzags and light plaid shorts. Matt is wearing a black wife-beater and black plaid swim trunks. Elena is wearing a purple and black bikini but is covering it with a red shirt over a white tank top and black shorts. I am wearing a teal halter bikini with light green stripes covering it with a teal tank-top and jean shorts. It's Caroline's clothes. She wouldn't let me wear any of my one-pieces or more conservative tops. I plan to keep my tank-top on the whole time.
I am washing cars with Bonnie and Matt with Caroline explaining to Elena how to work the money. Which meant that she was telling her not to give "any freebies or pay you later's. That type of thing". Stefan walks up to them. He takes off his hoodie, while Elena struggles to take off her red shirt. He helps her and they kiss. Well, my plan worked. I'm kinda regretting it now.
I notice that Matt slows down washing the car to watch them, "Nuh-uh. None of that tortured pining stuff," I say to him.
He turns back to washing the car. "I'm just observing," he says.
"Yeah, sure you were," I say sarcastically.
Another car drives up. Bonnie calls out to Tiki, another girl on the cheerleading squad. "Tiki! This one's yours."
She walks over and gives the car a look. "Why do I always get the homely ones?" She asks as she grabs something to wash the car with. The owner gets out of the car. "Just to be clear, your car's a P.O.S. I mean, we can still wash it, but it's still a P.O.S."
"You don't have to be rude," Bonnie says to her.
"Rude is uglying up the road with that junker," Tiki replies. What a bitch. The owner of the car throws the keys in the car and walks away. Tiki leans down into the bucket of water to grab something to wash the car with. She grabs a hose to fill up the bucket with water. I see Bonnie go very still, watching Tiki. Bonnie goes in almost a trance. I walk over to her to snap her out of it, when the water in Tiki's bucket explodes. Everyone flinches backwards away from Tiki and the hose that was spraying all over. Tiki was squealing and Bonnie and I just smirk at her. Haha (witch) karma. Matt rushes over to Tiki, helps her turn off the hose, and hands her a towel. She is soaked.
"Wet and wild, Tik," Matt says to her. Bonnie and I share a smile at seeing Tiki's miserable and annoyed face at being soaked.
I turn to Bonnie and slyly ask, "Bonnie, that wasn't you, was it?" I know it was. The trance felt a little too familiar. We both turn back to washing the car.
"How could it have been?" She replies.
"Maybe you really are a witch" I tell her. She is, I have no questions about it, but she still doesn't believe it yet. Can't blame her when her only resource into her powers is Grams aka Sheila Bennett; I love her, but ever since Bonnie's mom left, she's been drinking far too much to be believable. I've heard some stories about Grams's past to prove how tragic how low she has sunk. "Has anything else strange happened to you that you could have done with your special witch powers?" I ask her. She pauses for a second and it's clear that something else did happen. She then goes back to washing the car without saying anything.
Bonnie and I keep washing cars together, at least until Caroline yells at me for not taking off my top, then I get put on money duty. I see Jenna talking with Logan Fell, the news guy. They look like they are getting along well, from what I can tell. Elena and Stefan are washing cars together, talking and laughing. At one point, Caroline sends me to get more supplies and when I come back, I see Elena talking to an old man, who I think is Tiki's grandfather.
I walk over to Elena and ask her what was going on. But she waves me off and moves to talk to Stefan for a few minutes before I follow her to talk with Jenna. Hold on, what is going on?
Logan Fell walks over and greets us before I get the chance to ask, "Hi. Elena and Emilia, right? I think I met you two once when you guys were nine." He shakes both of our hands.
"Your emotional maturity level when we were together," Jenna says. The Sommer wit strikes again.
Logan turns to her. "Ouch. Here I thought we were making progress."
Elena cuts in. "Is he enough in your good graces that I can ask him for a favor?" She asks Jenna. A favor?
Logan turns to Jenna. "If I do her a favor, will I get back in your good graces?"
"A very reluctant maybe to both," Jenna replies.
Logan turns back to my twin. "Done. Wait. One condition." He turns to Jenna, "Dinner, tonight, your house."
Jenna looks to the both of us. Elena urges her with her eyes as I stare noncommittally. I don't know if I trust this Logan guy. "Fine. But you're eating leftovers," she says as she turns to Logan.
I over at him, "At least the leftovers might be good." They should be. I don't know though, since I didn't get to eat whatever Stefan made.
Logan chuckles. "What do you need?" He asks my sister.
"Do you have access to old new stories, say, fifties?" Elena asks.
"Yeah, at the station. Between the archives and the internet, we pretty much have everything."
"I have this report that is way past due. It'd be a lifesaver." That's a total lie. We may not take all the same classes, but we share history and we don't have any reports due. What's the game here?
"Heading there now," Logan says.
Elena smiles. "Let's go."
"I'll come with," I interject. Logan walks away and we turn to Jenna.
Elena tells her, "If anyone asks, you don't know where we went. We don't want Caroline after us if she knows we left." We quickly grab our stuff. I see Elena look over at Stefan washing another car. I nudge her to get her attention and we leave.
Logan, Elena, and I are at the news station. Logan is explaining how to work everything. Not my first time looking through archives, but I'll let him teach Elena. He gets a phone call and leaves us, but not before he asks us to put in a good word for him with Jenna.
After he leaves, I finally get the chance to ask what this is all about.
"An incident from 1953, at the Salvatore Boarding Hose, if it even happened," Elena replies.
Huh, "Why, may I ask?"
"Yesterday, at the Grille, this man came up to Stefan and me and said he knew him. Stefan said that he must have been mistaking him for someone else. When I talked to the man today, he told me about this incident in 1953." So that explains the thing with Tiki's grandfather. And I guess this means that Elena is figuring out some things about the mysterious Salvatore's.
Elena looks up a couple searches but can't find anything. I try one more search and we find and watch a video of an old newsreel from 1953, about an animal attack at the Salvatore Boarding House that ended in the death of Joseph Salvatore. In the background, we see a shadow of a person that looked very familiar. When Elena pauses the video, we get a closer look at the person; we can see it is definitely Stefan.
My heart drops. I don't want to tell her about this. I turn to Elena and straightforwardly ask, "So, how do you explain Stefan looking the same now as he apparently did in the 1950's?"
"I don't know." Well, I'm sure you're about to figure it out.
I'm feeling like it's far too late to keep her out of anything now.
We drive home in silence. I follow her into her room and sit on her bed while she starts to pace.
"Lena, talk to me. We can figure this out."
"Okay. I'm not a believer. You know this. But how can I deny what is right in front of me?" Elena says.
She paces as she goes through the list of things she's noticed. "Someone who never grows old, which is why he still looks the same as he did in the 1950's."
I add, "and why his name was on the original guest registry list." Hey, she's already this far. "There was no former Stefan Salvatore. It was always him."
"Someone who never gets hurt," Elena continues.
I realize what she's talking about, "His hand. Jeremy didn't actually miss it; Stefan's hand just healed."
"Someone who can change in ways that can't be explained. His eyes darken in a way that can't be explained." I didn't know that happened, but that is a huge clue. Well on top of our already large clues. She adds, "Girls bitten."
I interrupt, "Caroline had bite marks all over her body." I shudder as I think about her bleeding out on the ground.
Elena nods before she continues. "The animal attacks, their bodies are drained of blood. Like Vicki in the woods on the night of the bonfire. Matt said she said that a vampire attacked her."
She stops. And mouths the word to herself. There it is.
"Lia," she frets, "What if…"
I sigh, "it looks like you've got it figured out."
Elena shakes her head. "No, that's not possible."
I pull her onto her bed with me, "It's okay, Lena. It'll all be okay."
"It can't be real," she whispers.
I just shush her and pull her into a hug.
Welcome to the world of the supernatural. It only gets worse from here.
We spend a few minutes in silence as Elena's head spins and spins between disbelief and surety.
"It can't be real," she says again.
I sigh, "But it is."
Elena sits up, her eyebrows scrunched in confusion. "How are you so sure?"
I blank in panic. My heart stutters as I try to think of a way to explain.
"I, uh, saw something," I start. C'mon. You can do this. Make up something. "It was dark and I wasn't sure how to explain." No, wait. I know. "But I'm now pretty sure I saw Damon kill Mr. Tanner."
Elena gasps, "What?"
No, yes. Here we go. "The night of the pep rally, I was looking for Jeremy behind the lockers. I just saw it really quickly, but I know it was Damon. He had his mouth on Mr. Tanner's neck. And when he lifted his head, he was dripping blood. Tanner just dropped to the ground." I take a shaky breath, I'm not sure how fake it is. Or really, how not fake it is, "They found his body not that much later in the same spot."
Elena gets up and starts pacing again. I fear she is going to ask more questions, but she just paces silently.
Elena finally pauses. I guess she's made a decision. "If we are going to confirm this, we need to go straight to the source." Yeah, cause that's totally a thing to do right now. Confront the vampires.
"Stefan," I realize. Oh, come on. You're just going to run straight into the vampire's mouth!
But I can tell there's no going back as Elena starts to run around grabbing things, like her keys. So, I run to my room and grab some of my stuff before she grabs my hand and starts pulling me to the car.
"Let's go," she demands.
We drive over, meaning I do, and Elena rushes out of the car when we arrive at the house. I barely had put the car in park, but Elena is determined.
I make it to the front door in time to see Elena knock on the door.
Stefan opens it immediately.
We look at him and Elena asks, "What are you?"
It's time you knew, Elena.
A/N: Ok, new scene and some edits to the final moments of this chapter.