Ch. 13 – The Return and Brave New World 2x01-02
A/N: Welcome back to season 2. We are again officially done with Alliana flashbacks, but I have decided to so some fun extra scenes in season 2. These scenes, or omakes (if that is the correct term, I don't really know), are going to be scenes that I normally would not include due to no need for Emilia in them but I think could have a fun twist to them due to her being part of this story's canon. I included the first one on this story back in the day and I have some future ones almost planned. I am going to try to do this for every chapter, but we'll see how it works out. I hope you guys like the new additions.
Edit: 1/3/2021
Elena finally opens the door right as Katherine flashes away. Elena gasps as she sees me on the ground putting pressure on John's bleeding wound. Which is kind of difficult with just my left hand, seeing as how my other is in a sling.
"Elena! Call 911!" I shout to her. I hear her grab her phone and list our address. I tell her to go check on Jeremy after she tells me that the EMTs are on their way. She runs upstairs and then a few seconds later I hear her start to scream Jeremy's name. Oh no. Oh come on. I can't go to see what is going on until someone gets John. I can't just leave our uncle/father to bleed out. Ugh, still weird and too much to process now.
When the EMTs finally rush in, Stefan slides in the door with them. "Stefan! Can you go check on Elena and Jeremy? They are upstairs in Jer's room. Go quickly!" I tell him. He nods and rushed upstairs. As soon as the EMTs load John into the ambulance, I run upstairs make sure there's no more need for an ambulance tonight. What is this, three times tonight? Elena is the one who tells me that he drank some of Anna's blood and then tried to kill himself, but he is fine. I could kill him for this, or you know smack him. I give him a 'you're in so much trouble' look and tell him that he is going to get a lecture when I get back. But it's going to have to wait. I know he's just doing this because Anna died tonight and he's upset. He's not in the right mind to hear a lecture and actually learn. I leave him in Stefan and Elena's care while I rush downstairs and grab the basket of food I made for the sheriff and Matt. I rush to my car and head to the hospital to wait with them for Caroline.
I find Matt sitting alone in the waiting room. I sit down next to him and put my arm around him, and he leans his head on my shoulder. Poor Matty. I don't think he could handle losing Caroline. Especially after the whole Elena thing, then losing his sister, then his mom leaving him. God these past couple of months have been rough on him.
Ten minutes later, Bonnie joins us, "How's Caroline?" she asks as she walks up to us.
Matt turns to her and tears pop into his eyes, "She's not good, Bon."
Bonnie sits down on Matt's other side, "What happened?"
I can see that Matt is starting to choke up. I rub my hand on his back as I explain to Bonnie what happened. "We were driving and Tyler heard this noise. He got this terrible migraine and lost control of the car."
"A noise?" Bonnie asks. I can see her apprehension on her face. Oh right. The Gilbert device that she said she 'un-spelled' is what caused Tyler to freak out. She is now getting the message that she is the reason why Caroline is hurt. Am I bitter? I didn't have time to be much of anything when this was going down, but now…Let's ask my arm. My throbbing shoulder and wrist say yes.
"We thought Caroline was fine, and then…and then she just wasn't," Matt says, choked up. I pull him into a tight hug. Okay breathe. This is about Caroline and how we all need her to get through this.
Eventually, Matt goes to the bathroom and to talk to the sheriff. I give him a thermos filled with some coffee for him and Sheriff Forbes.
Elena comes rushing in later, "Bonnie, how's Caroline?"
We both get up to greet her. Bonnie answers, "She's weak."
"The doctors don't know if she is going to make it," I say. I can feel my eyes burning from wanting to release tears, but I can't let that happen now. Because as soon as I start crying, I feel like that is when the situation is hopeless, and we aren't there yet.
"What?" Elena asks. Tears start pooling in her eyes. Bonnie and I pull her into a hug. "Is there something you can do?" She asks Bonnie. We all pull back. "Like a spell or something?" Sadly no.
Bonnie and I are both about to answer, when Damon walks up, "She doesn't know how." Way to make yourself sound like a complete asshole, Damon. We all turn to him. "Do you?" I roll my eyes.
"No. I don't," Bonnie admits, sadly.
"No, you don't. It took Emily years to learn a spell like that," Damon replies.
"Oh, well, I can take down a vampire. That spell was pretty easy to learn," Bonnie says. Oh, burn!
Damon just ignores her and turns to Elena. "I can give her some blood." Oh no. Not going to happen.
"No," Elena and I both respond. "No way." Haha. Twin power to the max. Oh bad laughing. Serious moment, focus. We are talking about Damon dosing Caroline. I'm not letting him near her.
"Just enough to heal her. She'll be safe in the hospital, and it'll be out of her system in a day," Damon replies. It almost sounds easy when he puts it like that, but I know better than him about the effects the blood can have on a human body. He only knows the last option, which is turning and a newborn vamp, which does not seem like something we can handle now. "She'll be better, Elena." Why is she the one making the decision? Ugh, Damon and his stupid unrequited affection.
"It's too risky," Elena replies. I wish it were that simple. She doesn't even know the details of what Caroline is going through or her odds for survival without supernatural aid. I wish I could say the same for myself. "I can't agree to that." She's not seeing the whole picture, but to be fair, it's not a good one. When it comes down to it, as much as I don't like vampire blood, I'd rather have our friend being a baby vamp than dead. It's terrible and makes me want to cry, but it's true.
"Do it," I command. Everyone looks at me. "This is Caroline. We cannot let her die." I turn to Damon. "Do it," my voice shakes as I say it one more time. Whatever happens to her is on me now.
"If I do this, what do I get in return?" Damon asks.
I roll my eyes. "Nothing. But you are going to do this anyways," I say.
"And why is that?"
I give him a fake smile and answer overly sweet, "Because you don't want me to shove a stake so far up your ass that only a surgeon could remove it."
He winces, "Thanks for that, Buffy."
"You'll do it. For Elena," Bonnie says. Or that. Wow, she wasn't even there for the Isobel showdown, and she can see the obvious weakspot Damon has. Yikes.
She walks away to sit in the waiting room. She probably has the right idea, but I want to watch this next conversation. I just remembered that this will be the first time Damon and Elena are seeing each other after their 'kiss.' I should probably tell him that he kissed Katherine, but this will just be so much more fun.
I take a small step back as Damon turns to Elena. "All right, I know this is probably the last thing you want to do right now, but we should talk about what happened tonight." He is making such an awkward face. Yikes, I need popcorn.
"Yeah, one of the tomb vampires got into the house and almost killed John," Elena replies. Is that what she thought happened? I thought she saw Katherine before she flashed away. Well, that just makes this more entertaining.
"What? When?" Damon asks, taken aback in surprise. "What are you talking about? After I left?"
"You were there?" Oh this is good.
"Come on, Elena, you know I was."
"When were you at the house?"
"Really?" Elena gives him a look. "Earlier." She still looks confused. "On the porch, we were talking, all cathartic, feelings exposed." I am so close to laughing out loud it is not funny. Comic relief could not come sooner. As much as I usually despise the teen drama, watching Damon's tiptoe around the elephant is somehow enjoyable. Can I still be considered a friend if I want him to suffer a bit? "Come on, we kissed, Elena."
"I don't have time for this, Damon," Elena says as she starts to walk away.
Damon grabs her arm. "Hey. If you want to forget it happened, fine. But I can't." I chuckle out loud. I'm sorry but this is just so overdramatic. They both turn to me.
Then Jenna comes rushing over, "Elena! I came as soon as I got your message." Damon lets go of Elena's arm as Jenna walks up to us. "How is John?" Oh, right, he's here too.
"Where have you been?" Elena asks. Whoops. Did I forget to tell her?
"At the fire department. I had to fill out a report," Jenna says. "I told you earlier." Jenna must have mentioned that detail to Katherine right as she left to go to the fire department.
"No, you didn't," Elena says.
"Yes, I did," Jenna replies. Okay, this might be a little cruel, especially to Jenna who won't understand anything. But it's like 'Who's on First' humor and now I'm realizing how stupid it is. God, my brain tonight is just all over the place. Eh well, I want to see if Damon figures it out.
They go back and forth a few more times before it finally hits Damon. "Oh, you got to be kidding me."
"Figured it out finally, did you?" I ask with a smirk. Everyone turns to me. "Jenna, can you go check on John's status at the nurses' station over there. I will explain everything later." Jenna nods and walks away from this crazy conversation. As soon as she is far enough away, I start cracking up. Damon just looks annoyed and Elena still looks confused. After a minute of me laughing, I calm down and say, "I think you guys should head back to the house. You are gonna need to check on Stefan." They nod their heads and start heading out. When they are a little farther away, I start to head back towards Bonnie, Matt, and Jenna. I yell at the last minute over my shoulder, "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Katherine is back in town!" They both freeze in shock and I start laughing again.
Elena fills me in on the conversation that went down in my house between Elena and the brothers. Suffice to say, I would have been very entertained. Caroline hasn't woken up yet, so I make sure to give the hiding Damon a call. I see him skulk by at one point in the days that Caroline spends in the hospital. It was only a quick flash, as I spend most of my time taking care of Sheriff Forbes and Matt while they wait on Caroline to wake up. I make it home to just in time to cook more food for Matt and the sheriff, as well as something for the mayor's wake later today. Cause his death happened on Founders' Day too. Apparently, he got caught in the supernatural dog whistle and was killed by a tomb vamp before the office burned down.
I'm hanging out outside Caroline's room when Bonnie stops by. She walks up and greets Matt. "Have you been here all night?" She asks.
"Yeah, with Ems and the sheriff," Matt replies.
"And no one else?" She is asking whether or not Damon held up his promise, but Matty doesn't know that.
"Stefan's brother, Damon stopped by late, night before last," he replies.
"How is Caroline today?" Bonnie asks.
"See for yourself," he replies. They walk up to me and Bonnie gives me a quick hug. Together we walk into Care's room.
She is lying on her bed, wide awake, watching the TV. When we walk in, she gives us a huge smile and says, "'Jersey Shore' is on." Bonnie walks over to her and gives her a big hug. Caroline gasps in pain and says, "Oh careful! I'm still a little sore."
"Sorry," Bonnie says, pulling back from the hug. I walk up to the other side of Caroline's bed and Matt walks up behind Bonnie.
"It's okay," Caroline replies with her big, bright smile. "But they say I'm healing really quick."
"My turn," Matt says as he leans in for a kiss. I pretend-gag at their sweetness and Bonnie laughs. But I'm really happy for them and just really happy that she is okay. I have my best friend back.
"Aww, isn't he cute?" Caroline says. Bonnie starts tearing up in relief. "Why are you crying?"
"We're just really happy that you are okay," I answer.
"Aw, I love you guys," Caroline replies. We get in a big group hug and start laughing. As soon as we break apart, we start shooing Matt away. I think it is time for him to go home and for us to watch over our friend. I give him another hug and send him home to take care of himself. No more food for him from me, today at least.
As soon as he is gone, I turn to other girls and announce, "It's time for Girl Talk." We all laugh. Caroline makes her bed sit up more and Bonnie and I grab seats on her bed. I sit with my feet hanging off the bed on Caroline's left side, while Bonnie lounges at the foot of the bed. I pull out some magazines that I had with me last night and we start to page through them with 'Jersey Shore' on in the background. I pull out some of those cheesy preteen magazines with all those quizzes like 'What should be your red carpet pose?' or 'Who is your celebrity best friend?' We take the quizzes and laugh at our answers. It's a light-hearted way to relieve all the tension from the past couple of days. Of course, 'Who is your future celebrity husband' always gets us talking. It leads to the very obvious topic of guys in general, and what a perfect topic to discuss.
"So Bonnie, what kind of guy do you picture yourself falling in love with?" I ask.
She looks up from her magazine. "I don't know. I've always wanted someone like Heath Ledger in 'Ten Things I Hate About You.' Someone who I can joke around with, I guess."
"You definitely need someone who will not only joke around with you, but will fully humiliate himself to impress you," I say, laughing. "I can totally see you with a guy like that. Someone to get you to relax and laugh and bring you out of your shell." Or get down her walls, depending on how you want to see it.
"Oh my god! Yes!" Caroline exclaims. "But with a bad boy edge to him. Grr." We all laugh at such a Caroline-specific comment.
"Caroline would totally get with a Leo DiCaprio or Ryan Gosling. Some guy who is a total romantic and wants to sweep her off her feet and show her the world or something. Treat her like a queen, as she is the reigning Miss Mystic Falls"
"So true," Bonnie says.
"Yes, thank you, my loyal subjects. I have Matt though… but, I would never turn down Ryan Gosling," Caroline says. We all laugh. "What about you, Emmy?"
"I don't know. I'm not really into the whole guy thing right now," I reply as I turn back to my sketchpad. I've been working on this drawing of this tree practically all night.
"Is this about that guy, what's his name?" Caroline asks. I wince as memories flash into my mind and my shoulder radiates phantom pains across my body. Change the topic. "That ended almost a year ago." Stop talking, Caroline.
"Yeah, but it was hard." That's a complete understatement. That was a difficult relationship to get out of. And a harder one to forget. "And I don't want to think about it anymore," I say, more quietly to try to hide the anger and panic. My pencil is digging into my sketchpad, threatening to rip the page.
"Well if you had to pick a guy, what kind of guy would you want?" Caroline asks. Thank god we got off that. Focus. Breathe. Four things you feel. Release the pencil a bit.
"I don't know. Who do you see me with?" I ask.
They think for a second before Bonnie replies, "I can totally picture you with some sweet, little nerd who is almost a smart as you."
"No," Caroline interjects. "She needs someone who is super hot."
"Okay, fine," Bonnie says. "What about this? A super hot, sporty guy, who is like secretly super smart. They could be all cute and smart together, but he could totally protect her from all the bad stuff."
"No," I say. "I don't want a guy to fight my battles for me. I can take care of myself."
"Well then, what do you want?" Bonnie asks.
"I guess," I say. "I want a guy who is respectful and smart, a gentleman," I start. But as I start to think about it, a picture starts to from in my mind of what I would want. "Someone who is cultured, but not arrogant. Someone who will let loose with me, doing crazy adventurous things, but will also be fine relaxing in the sun. Someone who loves their family and would do anything for them and for me. Someone who is strong but doesn't always look it. Someone who lets me fight my own battles but is willing to fight for me if need be. Someone who can protect me when I need help. Someone to help me when I'm broken down. Someone who I can be comfortable with just talking to. Someone who loves me for just being myself." I trail off at the end, realizing how long I just rambled for. Oh jeez.
"That's amazing," Bonnie says after a short moment of silence.
"I feel like you almost described one of those quiet men with a wild side," Caroline says. Always tactful, Caroline. Bonnie and I both turn to her. "What? It's true!" Bonnie and I start laughing. That's one way to break the moment. "The beginning part was totally that guy. A gentleman who will go crazy with you."
"Oh yeah! Like that guy who is all prim and proper when you first meet him, but then in the bedroom he is like totally insane with passion," Bonnie says.
"Prim and proper? Like some guy in a suit?" I ask.
"Oh my god! Yes!" Bonnie and Caroline both exclaim.
"You are totally gonna get with some hot older guy in a suit who is like totally cool and cultured, but is actually a beast between the sheets," Caroline says. I start laughing and they join in.
"Well, I have always liked guys in suits," I say. We start laughing more. I flip through my magazine more until I find the quiz 'Which song should you play on repeat?' This gets us started on the whole 'Baby' by Justin Bieber (Caroline's suggestion) versus 'Only Girl in the World' by Rhianna (Bonnie's). I just follow along in their argument and enjoy my fun time with my best friends, while thinking about my imaginary future man in a suit.
After a few hours of friendly girly fun, Bonnie heads homes to get ready for the wake for Mayor Lockwood. I stick around and wait for Elena and Stefan, who are coming here to the hospital to talk to John before heading to the wake. They think he might know something about Katherine, because of the clear connections between them. What with Isobel and him still in contact and Katherine and Isobel being in contact and Katherine attacking him, removing the Gilbert ring.
When we get to John's room, we stop outside as Stefan asks us, but mainly Elena, "Ready for this?" We both nod and walk in.
John is resting in his bed when we enter. His hand is wrapped around the base of his fingers, which the doctors reattached. I imagine that his stomach is also stitched and wrapped, but it is covered by his hospital gown.
"John?" Elena calls out softly. His eyes flutter open. When his eyes settle on Elena, he jumps back and grabs his call button for the nurses. But before he can press it, Stefan grabs his hand and stops him. "I'm Elena, I'm not Katherine."
"We know she did this to you. We need to know why," I say.
"Where is she?" John asks, looking down and away from us.
"You tell us," Stefan says, crossing his arms.
"I don't know," John replies softly. He pushes himself to sit up straighter, groaning, but Stefan pushes his shoulder to force him to lie back down.
"You're a little too weak to be playing tough guy," Stefan says. "Why don't you just sit back and answer a few questions?"
John lays down in defeat. Elena walks over and places the Gilbert ring in his left palm (the hand with fingers not removed).
"Please," Elena says after she places the ring. "Tell us why she is here. What does she want?"
John stays silent.
Stefan sighs before saying, "She'll try again. We can't help you if you don't confide in us."
"In you?" John says, skeptically. Ah right. He is a vampire hater. He did just try to kill Stefan and Damon with the fire in dad's old practice's building. We are going to need a different tactic, most likely less polite.
There's a moment of tense silence before Stefan says, "In your daughters, then." Oh, that elephant in the room. I had almost forgotten it was there. But now it is shining as if it was covered in neon lights and radioactive glitter.
"My daughters should have driven a stake through your heart by now," John replies. Thanks, Dad. Mommy and Daddy sure are a delightful pair.
"I could've, but that would not be getting us answers now. Plus it's a little hard with a sling on" I say, motioning to my injured dominant arm. "So instead of you being disappointed in us right now and us hating you for lying to us our entire lives, why don't you start giving us answers so we can all move on?"
John stares at me for a moment, but I stare back until he finally drops his gaze and sighs. He turns to Stefan. "I haven't spoken with Katherine directly. She never trusted me." Well there is a big surprise. He just seems so trustworthy. I mean with all of those secret plans to harm a bunch of people, who wouldn't want to share secrets with this guy. "Now either kill me or get out. Because I can't stand the sight of you with my daughters." Gotta love a good father daughters chat, especially the part where he won't even talk to us.
"You see the problem with such hatred, it's gonna get you killed," Elena says. Then she leaves the room, storming away like any other angry teenage daughter. Other teenage girls wish they had problems like ours. Or technically, I wish I had other teenage girl problems. I could totally just live with schoolwork stress and maybe some boy problems. But no, I live in freaky supernatural world where there are things like secretive uncle/fathers and the mayor getting killed by an ancient family device.
Stefan starts to walk away and follow her, but he stops. He then rushes to John's side and holds John's mouth open. There are sounds of John struggling, but I don't care. "You may be okay with dying, but I have another plan for you," Stefan says. He grabs his wrist and bites into it, and then forcefully feeds the blood dripping from the wound to John. "You now have my blood in your system," he says, removing his wrist from John's mouth. Stefan wraps his hands around John's head and neck again. "All I have to do is kill you. Now take my advice-Leave town. Elena and Emilia don't want you here. You have about 24 hours before my blood leaves your system. That's enough time to disappear. Or so help me god, I will turn you into a vampire and I will watch you hate yourself more than you already do." Stefan releases John, leaving him gasping. Stefan walks to the doorway before saying over his shoulder, "Clock starts now." He then leaves.
I feel like I should have more issues with what just happened. My father was just attacked by a vampire and force-fed blood and threatened. That happened to me and it wrecked me for days, weeks even. But then again, it's my lying uncle/biological father who hates vampires being threatened by my sister's boyfriend who happens to be a vampire who is only threatening my lying biological father because he just hurt my twin sister and almost killed her vampire boyfriend. So all in all, I'm not that mad. In fact, I basically did the same thing to my vampire biological mother. Only I used a stake to the stomach instead of force-feeding vampire blood. Ah whatever, same difference.
John cleans up the blood that is all over his mouth and stares at me. I think he is staring at me, because he can't believe why I let that happen and why I'm still here. "You know Stefan and I are remarkably similar," I say. "I made a similar threat to Isobel as he did to you. Leave town, don't come back, never hurt my family again, and if you do, I will kill you. Of course, I used a wooden stake through the stomach and he used vampire blood, but that is just semantics." I can see the shock on his face as I tell him this so plainly. "You had to have one daughter follow in your vampire killing footsteps." Yeah and you and your baby mama both picked the wrong fucking one. Breathe, Emilia. Focus. "But unlike you, I know which ones deserve to be killed." I walk to the door to leave and at the last moment I stop, turn around, and give him one last, "Goodbye, John," before leaving.
We all head back to the house, but in separate cars. I shower and change first, because I'm leaving earlier to drop off food that I (really Jenna and I due to the sling) made. Elena is gonna wait to bring Jeremy and Jenna. I walk in through a side door first, closer to the dining room with the other food. Then I head to the front door, where Tyler stands greeting guests. I give him a tight hug, I mean as tight as I can with the sling. We were once close friends, when we were younger. We would all hang out here, because his yard is the largest, and I liked all the antiques in his house. Carol Lockwood once even tolerated me because I was the only one who always complimented her house and asked her about the different stuff. Tyler, Matt, Elena, and I spent so much time together here from when we were infants until we were in middle school. Then Bonnie and Caroline would join us more, and then we broke off into guys and girls. Then Tyler became an ass and we all stopped hanging out with him, except Matt. But that still doesn't mean that we aren't friends or we were friends.
Plus, I obviously know what it's like to lose a parent. Although, I lost both of mine at the same time and I adored my parents. Tyler had a far more contentious relationship with his father. But still, the pain and loss is similar enough.
Just as I let go of him, a black Bronco pulls in front of the house and out steps Uncle Mason. Well shit. He is Tyler's dad's younger brother. He and Jenna used to be really close, because they went to school together and he used to hang out all the time at our house whenever Jenna was home from school at the same time. I spent so much time with him when I was growing up, which led to me calling him Uncle Mason too. I was little and he spent time with my aunt, what else would I call him? I step back, closer to the house as nephew and uncle greet each other.
"So the black sheep returns," Tyler says.
"Tyler?" Mason asks as he climbs the front steps and stands in front of Tyler.
"Yeah," Tyler replies.
"What happened to you?" Mason asks. "In my mind, you are still twelve years old."
"That's two years older than the last time you saw me, Uncle Mason." True. Wow, it's been awhile since I've seen Uncle Mason. I was still an awkward child back then. Times have definitely changed since then. A lot actually and that's not even including the normal changes that happen between age ten and seventeen.
"Get over here," Mason says, pulling Tyler into a hug. Tyler still seems awkward, but he will be fine. It takes a moment, but he does hug Mason back, doing the manly thing and patting him on the back. Oh, I love being right. "Good to see you again," Mason says.
"It's good to see you too," Tyler replies as they release. "Come on inside." I take that as my cue to step back outside for a quick hello.
Right as I step into the light and Mason sees me, he stops. "Oh my god," he says. "Little Emilia Gilbert? Is that you?"
I walk up to him and give a quick wave with my left hand, "Hey Mason, it's good to see you. It's been awhile."
He laughs. "Yeah, back then you were tiny and wore glasses, but now… wow, you look great. What's with the sling?" Yikes, I forgot about that phase. I didn't even need glasses. I just thought they would make me look smarter. Ugh. I was a freak.
"Growing up does that to you. I've changed a lot since I was ten. Plus a car accident gave me the sling, but I'm all good," I reply. In so many ways.
"I can tell. You used to call me Uncle Mason back then."
"Yeah well, I also thought there would be a chance I could go to Hogwarts."
"Ouch" he smiles at me "But still it's great to see you."
"You too," I say. I give him a quick hug, and say, "Sorry you had to come back for this reason and I'm sorry for your loss." He nods his thanks after I release him. "Jenna is coming in a bit, so you two should catch up. I will see you both later."
I walk back into the house, but not before I overhear a quick, "Wow. That was little Emilia Gilbert," from Mason as he and Tyler walk into the house a few seconds after me.
I walk around the party, seeing almost everyone in the town here to pay their respects, which is nice. But I guess when it's the mayor, everyone feels a bit more obligated to show up. I see Bonnie and Damon arguing by a food table. I'm walking over there when Damon starts groaning in pain and I can feel Bonnie doing her magic on him. It then stops and she walks away. He's left with a giant headache that will last a few more moments and a pissed off expression. I walk over to him and grab a strawberry from the table, "Good job, Damon. You pissed off one of the few people in this town that can actually cause you a tremendous amount of pain. And good choice choosing the witch. She may not know a lot now, but who do you think she will want to practice on when she does?" I take a bite of my strawberry as I walk away. I see Bonnie outside talking to Elena, so I start to walk back to the party when my phone buzzes.
'Leaving now. 5 min away' From: Elena
Wait. I turn back towards outside, where Bonnie and Elena were. Oh no, not Elena. Katherine. Crap. I walk briskly (see I can be a lady, Carol) towards where they were standing a moment ago and I walk along the porch, trying to find where they could be. Bonnie can protect herself, but not for very long. I find them right as Katherine flashes to Bonnie's side. Bonnie starts using magic and Katherine starts groaning. Ah, The aneurysm spell. That should hold her for a few more moments while I grab some stuff from my coat. I knew I should have put more stuff on me and less in my coat, but my black attire is not meant for this kind of thing and there's only so much I can do with my dominant arm in a sling. But before I can move farther than just entering the building, Katherine stands up normally. She grabs Bonnie by the neck and forces her into the wall, most likely flashing her fangs. I can't actually see as I'm now standing behind Katherine. Bonnie uses magic to open the doors showing Katherine's vampire face to others. Katherine has to hide the fangs to keep from being spotted, right as I'm about to press a stake to her side. Hey, slings can hold a few things.
Stefan walks into the open doorway and calls for Katherine. He then tells her to leave Bonnie alone.
She drops her hold on Bonnie and I step back. She then follows Stefan further into the house without even a glance to me behind her. Ok, rude. I was totally about to stab her, but whatever. As soon as she is out of sight, I turn and check on Bonnie.
She waves me away by telling me that she is okay, we split up to find Elena and check on her.
I find her on the front porch talking with Damon. Uh oh. They look like they are having an intense conversation, which will probably end in someone getting hurt, my guess is Damon. I mean sucker's bet, but still. I walk up and hear what sounds like the end of the conversation.
"Why is it such a surprise that I would kiss you?" I hear Damon ask.
"That's not a surprise. I'm surprised that you I thought I would kiss you back," Elena replies. Ouch, harsh.
"Now I'm hurt," Damon says as he walks away. That might have been a bit far. As emotionally stunted as he is, Damon actually admitting to feelings is rare, even more so with feelings of hurt. It almost never happens. That's when you know you have gone too far. But like, it's also Damon who goes off a handle any time he's hurt which is often and easily, so toss-up.
"Good job, Elena," I say as I walk up. "If you are going to kick the guy, at least invite me." She is about to respond when Bonnie runs up to us out of breath. She goes on to explain about Katherine. Elena goes running off to find Stefan and her evil twin (haha, it's funny cause I'm the real twin), while Bonnie and I head back to the party.
After the wake winds down and everyone has given their respects, we head home. It's late and we are all heading to bed when I hear noises coming from Elena's room. Normally Stefan and Elena do their business at the Boarding House because it's bigger and there are less people, and I hate that I know that, so it can't be that. I get up and see that Jeremy also heard the noises. It appears aka sounds like Elena is arguing with Damon. She is saying something about "I love Stefan. It is always going to be Stefan." Uh oh.
I open the door and Jeremy asks, "Elena, what's going on in here?" Damon is holding Elena's wrists, but she escapes and waves us away.
"Nothing. It's okay. Just go back to bed," she says. She rubs her hand across her forehead as if she has a headache.
"No, it's not okay, Elena," Damon says. He turns to face Jeremy. "He wants to be a vampire." He lunges towards Jeremy and grabs him before I can stop it.
"No, Damon, stop it!" Elena screams. I just search around for anything that can be used as a weapon. And the fraternal-ness of our twin status rears it's head with that kind of reaction.
Damon holds Jeremy head and forces him against the wall. "You want to shut out the pain? It's the easiest thing in the world? The part of you that cares just goes away. All you have to do is flip the switch and snap!" On the word snap, he snaps Jeremy's neck.
No!
Elena and I rush to Jeremy, to his body. Elena grabs hold of his head and starts rocking back and forth, crying. I search for his pulse, not believing that he could be dead. I start to shake him, begging him to wake up. He can't be dead. My little brother can't be dead. This is not happening. He is not dead. I grab his hand, squeezing it as tears pull into my eyes. He can't be gone.
I look down at his finger and see the Gilbert ring. John must have given it to him or something. Wait. The Gilbert ring. It protects people from dying of supernatural causes. He's not dead. I show it to Elena and she sighs in relief. She grabs her phone and calls Stefan, while I cradle his head.
Stefan arrives a minute later. Elena cradles Jeremy's hands while I hold his head. Elena and Stefan have a conversation but I lose the words. I'm too busy thinking about all the ways Damon has to pay for doing this.
I don't care that he did this because he was hurting. I don't care that he is my friend. I don't care that he is Stefan's brother. I don't care. He is going to pay for what he did.
Jeremy wakes up a few minutes later. Stefan checks that he is okay, and I take him back to his room. He keeps repeating that Damon killed him and with each time he says those words, my anger grows. Eventually, Jeremy goes back to sleep and I watch him sleep peacefully for a few more moments, before I head back to my room. I start rounding up some of my tools. I grab various stakes, vervain chains, vervain powders, and other wooden tools. Stefan sees me gathering this stuff up and I know he knows what I am about to do. I turn to leave, but he is there, blocking the door and my exit.
"Don't tell me not to do this, Stefan," I say.
"Please don't," Stefan replies.
"He killed my brother."
"And you are about to kill mine." Damn it! "He is hurting enough already."
"And that makes this okay? He is a vampire. We cannot afford him going off on a killing spree every time he gets his feelings hurt. He was drunk and irresponsible, but the same could be said for some human guy who kills a kid because he drove drunk. The human guy has to face incredible punishment, so does Damon. Damon's is just worse, because he chose this, he chose to kill my brother."
"Jeremy is fine."
"Because of a magical ring, yes. A magical ring that Jeremy should never have to use. But Damon made him use it. And without that ring, my brother would be dead."
"But he is fine."
"This time! What if this happens again? Damon is in love with Elena who loves you. He is going to get hurt. What about the next time when he is drunk and hurt, what will he do then? What if my brother doesn't have his ring or Damon chooses to go after someone else? What happens then, Stefan?"
"There won't be a next time. I will be sure of that. Damon will face consequences for what he did tonight." He gestures to me, "But you will not be killing him for this." He gestures to himself, "I will see that he faces punishment for his actions, but you will not be giving him these punishments." He steps back and sighs, "Do you understand?"
I stare at him in defiance. I am looking for just one reason to ignore Stefan's wishes and go off on my own, but Stefan is sincere and his desperation is palpable. "Fine," I acquiesce. Stefan visibly relaxes. "But he so much as steps a hair out of line, all bets are off." Stefan nods solemnly in relief at my agreement. I give him a squirt bottle with vervain-tainted water. "This will hurt him a bit. He at least deserves that much." Stefan grabs the bottle from my hand, but I clasp it tighter before I let him take it and stare him down as I say, "If this happens again, if he goes after my family again, there will be no stopping me… He gets this one chance only. Next time, I will kill him. Enough of my threats, this time it is a promise." I let go of the bottle but not my gaze, "Be sure to tell him that."
"Thank you, Emilia," Stefan nods.
I shake my head as I sit back down on my bed. "Don't thank me. I'm still thinking up a million ways to hurt him."
"As long as he is alive in the end and I don't have to clean up anything, I don't care."
I snort, which is a best as I can get to laughing here and start putting away my things. "Good night, Stefan."
"Night."
The next day brings the annual carnival. Every year, Mystic Falls High School hosts a carnival to raise money for the school. This year, Caroline was supposed to be in charge (as she does with most events), but because she is in the hospital, Elena takes over. I spend most of the day with Bonnie, helping her with stocking up prizes and building various stands with crappy games, following Elena's orders, all while trying to ignore the fact that I still really want to kill Damon. Well maybe at this point, just seriously maim him as much as I can with my sling. I have always been curious about the extent of vampire healing. For example, if I chop off a vampire's dick, does it grow back? I would've originally tested something like fingers, but what with that just happening with John, I don't think anyone needs a reminder. Sadly for Damon, he seems like a perfect test subject at the moment. Luckily for him, Stefan seems to have talked him into avoiding me and hopefully the rest of my family for now. Also I don't really want to see Damon's, well, anything.
I spend the majority of the carnival with Bonnie, passing time by playing the stupid games and running around trying to fix everything that goes wrong. Suffice to say, we spent a bit more time running around than playing those worthless games trying to win terrible prizes. Everything is going fine until I see Damon holding Jeremy in a headlock.
Oh HELL NO! I grab the stake hidden in my sling and rush over. I can't do much with it and the sore shoulder, but it does give a good hiding spot.
I hear Damon whisper the words, "It's this close for me to end you," into Jeremy's ear
"Let. Go. Of Him," I whisper to Damon. I dig my stake into the small of his back. Luckily, I brought a really sharp stake today. If I apply a bit more pressure, it will slide through his skin easily. It is also covered a bit in a low concentration liquid solution of vervain. It's still painful, but not nearly as bad as a solution that's more concentrated. It's a similar feeling to sticking rubbing alcohol in a cut. It hurts, but it could be a lot worse.
Damon drops his hold of Jeremy and holds up his hands as if he was being arrested. Jeremy drops back and away from Damon when he is released.
"I suggest you tell your punk brother not to go making threats against me that he can't follow through with," Damon says.
I jab my stake just the slightest bit into his skin. Damon bends backwards awkwardly in reaction to the pain, so I pull his head down so I can whisper in his ear. "And I suggest you start finding ways to avoid my family. He only threatened you because you killed him. And make no mistake, no matter what my brother said to you, you cannot hurt him, because if you do, I will turn whatever small threat you were likely about to say to him seem like a pleasant dream." Damon stays silent, so I jab my stake a little further into his body. "Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal," Damon replies. I remove my stake from Damon and he groans in relief, sagging forwards. I grab Jeremy and we walk away. I check to see that Jeremy has his ring before looking back at Damon. He is standing, brushing off his shirt, trying to reclaim some of his dignity. It must sting getting his ass whipped by a girl. He is just lucky I can't kill him in a crowded area. But give me an empty room and Stefan officially becomes the last Salvatore.
As soon as Jeremy and I are out of Damon's eye sight, we stop and I slap Jeremy on the back of the head.
"Ow," Jeremy says. "What was that for?" He asks, holding the back of his head.
"That was for threatening a temperamental 150 year old vampire," I say. "You could've been killed."
"I had my ring, he couldn't do anything," Jeremy says.
I roll my eyes. "That ring does not make you invincible. If you haven't noticed, it is not permanently stuck to your body. It can be taken off, which leaves you vulnerable. So Damon can still kill you. You are lucky I was there or who know what could have happened to you."
"I'm sorry, Emmy."
"Don't you Emmy me right now," I say. "You are still in trouble."
"Sorry," Jeremy says sheepishly.
"Yeah yeah. Now run along. We will discuss this more later. For now, just avoid all thoughts of the supernatural and try to be a normal teenage kid."
Jeremy chuckles as he runs off. I take some deep breaths before I head the other direction to go look for Bonnie again. And to avoid Elena, so she can't make me do more work.
Unfortunately, I find Damon again first. He is with Stefan in the high school staring at a stand and talking. I walk closer to find them looking at the arm-wrestling station with Mason and Tyler battling it out.
Tyler should obviously be the winner. He is a tank. Well triple letter varsity athlete, but same difference really. But no, Mason wins, slamming Tyler's hand down and Tyler having to accept defeat. Tyler stands and declares Mason the champion. He asks for another challenger to face Mason, when Damon volunteers Stefan. This should be interesting. It should be an easy win for Stefan if he uses his vampire strength. Mason is strong, sure, but that doesn't mean he can compete with a 150 year old vampire. But when they start to wrestle, it's a standstill. Stefan's smirk that was originally on his face starts to slip. I can tell when he actually starts to use his strength, but still Mason's arm doesn't move. Eventually Stefan lets his arm slip and Mason takes him down. That's interesting.
When Stefan walks back to Damon, Damon says, "You didn't put in any effort at all."
Stefan stops for a second before saying, "Yeah, actually, I did." Well damn. I guess some more of the local legends may be true. I might need to do more research before I confirm. But some things are starting to connect and make sense.
Mason's strength. Tyler's reaction to the Gilbert device. His anger issues, especially around the full moon. His eyes after the crash, animal-like eyes. No, wolf-like.
I guess the 'Lockwood's are werewolves' theory isn't so far off. Holy crap.
I walk closer to Stefan and Damon discussing what just went down. Damon asks, "What is up with that family?" as I hide behind a close corner. Oh so much. "If they are not vampires, what are they?" Wouldn't you like to know, ass.
"Oh, uh, maybe they're, uh, Ninja Turtles," Stefan says. Nice.
"You're not funny," Damon replies. True, but that was a good response.
"Or no, zombies. Werewolves," Stefan continues. It's right in front of their faces and they don't even see it.
"No comedic timing at all," Damon replies. I chuckle quietly and walk away. Damon probably has some stupid plan to help them figure something out. I don't need to be part of that.
Later Elena informs me that they had a meeting about Caroline. Katherine killed her and she turned. Oh, no, poor Caroline. This is all my fault. She is just getting to a good place in her life and this could tear it all done so quickly. I rush off looking for her immediately. I grab my purse from my locker while I'm looking around. You never know what I will need.
I find Caroline with Damon. Crap, I cannot escape seeing him. But now he is crossing a line. He is holding Caroline, but raising his arm slowly to position the stake in his hand to stab her. Luckily, I have a small stake shooting crossbow hidden in my purse, as in both small crossbow and small stakes, but you know, handy. Especially as I need more one-handed weapons. This stupid injury is creating a lot of issues. Damon is almost in position to stab her when I shoot. It hits his arm and forces him to drop his stake and let go of Caroline. God, that was a lucky shot, especially for doing this with my non-dominant hand.
Stefan and Elena arrive moments later. Stefan runs to separate Damon from Caroline a bit more and Elena runs to grab Caroline.
Caroline pushes Elena away shouting, "Get away from me! You killed me!"
I run over to Caroline while Elena tries to explain, "no, no, no. That wasn't me. You know that. That was Katherine."
Caroline freaks out again, "No! Then why does she look like you?!" She starts holding herself, so I run over and place my hand on her arm. Oh hon, no one is ready for that answer yet. "Why did she do this to me?" I pull her into a hug.
Elena turns to Stefan. "Stefan, we got to get her inside." She needs to be cleaned up and have everything explained to her. She is probably so confused. Who knows how much Damon told her and how much she just started to remember.
"It's all right, Caroline. Come with me," Stefan says facing Damon at first and then turning to grab Caroline by her hand. I walk with them to help explain.
"She will die. It's only a matter of time," Damon says smugly with his arms crossed, as if he doesn't have a care in the world.
"yeah, maybe so," Stefan says. Wait what. "But it's not going to happen tonight." That's better.
"Oh, yeah it is," Damon says. Oh no. I see him start to move, so I grab that stake from my jacket sleeve and step in front of Caroline right as Damon flashes in front of her with a stake raised. He stops short as soon as he feels my sharp stake against his unprotected stomach.
"You have already felt the pain of this stake being stuck in your skin tonight. Do you really want to try it again?" I ask.
Elena, who is standing to the side, walks over to our standstill and says, "Damon, she is my friend." They stare into each other's for a few tense seconds.
Damon hands drop and he steps back a half step. I drop my stake in response. He turns to face Elena. "Whatever happens, it's on you."
"We got to get her cleaned up," Elena says. We start to walk towards the bathrooms when we spot Bonnie.
"Caroline?" Bonnie asks. Oh no. No, no, no. Bonnie hates vampires. This can't end well. "You're not. You can't be." She walks over and grabs Caroline's arm. Witchy reading powers equals confirmed suspicions. I would think the blood on and around her mouth would do that too.
Poor Caroline still looks confused. "Bonnie?" Caroline asks. Bonnie backs away slowly while shaking her head. Caroline tries to explain, but I don't think she understands herself. I think she just sees that Bonnie is upset with her. Bonnie runs to look at the body behind us on the truck. Oh no, Caroline killed someone. Shit, this is all my fault. Elena pushes us slightly and we take that as our sign to leave. Elena stays behind; she must want to talk to Bonnie. I would stay to, but Caroline needs me more right now. She knows Stefan, but it might be better if I'm there.
As soon as we walk into the bathroom, Caroline stands over the sink crying, "She hates me. Bonnie hates me."
I rub my hands on her back, trying to comfort her and calm her down. "No, no, no. She doesn't hate you. She is just in shock, we all are."
Stefan grabs some paper towels and wets them. He hands one to me and pulls Caroline to face us, "It's all right. Come here." We start wiping the blood off of her face.
"What- What am I gonna do about Ma-"Caroline starts to say her boyfriend's name but can't finish due to the crying.
"Sh. One thing at a time. Let's just get this blood cleaned off," Stefan says. Caroline calms down enough so that she can take a towel and start cleaning off her hands. Stefan starts wetting another towel, while I keep wiping blood off her face.
Caroline starts crying again, "I'm a murderer. I'm a monster."
"Sh sh sh," I try to soothe. "You're not a monster. You just made a mistake. You didn't know what you were doing. You didn't know what was going on."
"Listen to me, Caroline," Stefan says. "Your emotions are heightened right now. It's part of the transformation. It's completely normal, I promise you, all right?"
Caroline nods in response, but then her vampire face and fangs start to appear. She is facing the mirror, so she sees this and freaks out, "Ah. Why does this keep happening to my face?" She covers her face with her hands. "I'm hideous."
I pull her hands from her face as Stefan grabs her face forcing her to look at him. He shows her his vampire face and I step back. I just realize the danger I am in. There is no reason for me, a human, to be around two vampires with their fangs out, especially if one is an uncontrolled baby vampire. Even if they are both my friends. Plus double jeopardy, I'm injured and can't defend myself.
Well, Caroline is more important than my safety. It's my fault she is like this. So, I move closer.
He lets his face turn to normal again and says, "You see that. When you feel the blood rush in, you tell yourself that you're gonna get through it, that you're strong enough." Caroline starts to shake her head. "yes, yes. No matter how good it feels to give yourself over to it, you fight it. You bury it." I can't help but feel that this might not be the best advice in the long run. Caroline is the kind of person to hold everything down until it all explodes. Usually her explosions are loud and dramatic, and that is not good when she is a vampire. "That's the only way you are gonna survive this thing." After that they start to breathe until Caroline calms down enough.
"Why did Katherine do this to me?" Caroline asks.
"We don't know," Stefan says. Caroline looks down sadly.
"Hey, I," I start. "we-" I correct. "-promise you that we will not let anything happen to you." I pull Caroline into a hug, which Stefan joins.
Then we go back to cleaning up and Stefan starts to explain everything. At some point I feel that special tingling feeling which means that Bonnie is using magic, but I keep helping Caroline. Hopefully Elena will be able to stop whatever is going on. Or help if it is against Damon.
Eventually we head back outside to find Bonnie rushing away, Damon on the ground and a few small fires around him. I see a hose with water still running and a line of water which connects to the small fires sill around and burning. Bonnie must have used her magic to ignite the fire and, from the look of Damon's clothes, used it to burn Damon. I laugh as I walk past him. Fucking karma. I keep walking with Caroline to my car to take her home.
Luckily, the sheriff is home and can let Caroline inside, or else this night would be even more complicated. As I'm driving home, I can feel the guilt welling up in me. This is my fault. Caroline is a vampire because of me. I said she should be healed with vampire blood. This is all my fault.
This is my doing.
Elena is there to greet me with a hug and I fold into her arms.
God, could everything be more complicated?
Omake:
Damon sits on the couch in the living room of the Boarding House, staring at Jeremy who stands in the hallway between the living room and the front door. He holds in one hand a glass of bourbon and in the other the stake that Jeremy made and brought to kill him.
"Wait," Damon says. "My father hated vampires, too."
Jeremy stops, "He did?"
"Same reason your dad did. Only, it was 1864." Damon holds up the stake. "People knew how to whittle." Jeremy chuckles. "Did you do this?"
"Yeah, I tried. It's- It's a little harder than it looks," Jeremy replies.
"Huh. You could always ask your sister for help," Damon says.
Jeremy chuckles, but then stops. "Wait what?" Damon just starts chuckling.
A/N: Minor edits continued.
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