Chapter 8: 162 Candles

November 1, 2009

Dear Diary,

Vicki disappeared again, but Jeremy seems ok…. Like weirdly ok. We're going to the police station to answer some questions. This probably hasn't been easy for Matt and I hope that she comes back soon. I just hope that all of the weirdness kind of just ends and Mystic Falls goes back to the town that nothing weird ever happens in. But we're all going down to the police station to answer some questions, hopefully it helps.

Everyone being up and getting ready at once was… hectic to put it lightly. By the time they were actually headed to the station, they were five minutes later than what they should be. Ellie blamed it completely on Elena, who had stolen her straightener so that she could do her hair first. "We'd have been on time by now if someone had waited their turn." Ellie said sassily as Elena rolled her eyes.

"I wanted to get my hair done." Elena said without guilt.

"You take five million years to do your hair, Elena! I could have straightened your hair and mine in half the time it took for you to do yours." Ellie complained, but her twin just shrugged her shoulders. The teenagers bickered back and forth playfully and Ellie reveled in the normalcy. Sitting at the police station was kind of tiring honestly. The sheriff wanted to talk to all of them individually and after what felt like an eternity, it was Ellie's turn.

Once they got past the basics and started getting to questions about Vicki's latest disappearance, Sheriff Forbes asked, "Where did Vicki say she was going?"

"From what I know, she didn't say, and when I talked to her at the Halloween thing, she didn't mention it to me." Ellie answered.

"Did she tell her brother where she was going?"

"Not that I'm aware of, Matt didn't say anything to me about it." Ellie replied. "Apparently, she told Jeremy to tell Matt that she was leaving again."

"Well is there anyone I can talk to that may know what happened to her prior to leaving town?" Sheriff Forbes questioned.

"Uh… Stefan maybe. Stefan Salvatore. He told Matt at school that he was trying to help Vicki."

"And why would Stefan Salvatore get involved with helping Vicki if they don't really know each other?"

Ellie thought about it for a moment. Why would Stefan be so intent on helping the other Donovan? "I'm not sure, but if I had to guess, probably because of Elena."

"Why would Elena want Stefan to get involved?"

"Maybe she thought that helping Vicki helped Jeremy in some way? I couldn't be sure."

"And what was her behavior like those last few days before she left?" Sheriff Forbes asked as she scribbled down notes.

"It was a weird back and forth. She would be fine one minute and not the next. I think she was on some drugs that were really messing with her." Ellie admitted.

"Any signs of aggression or violence?"

"No not really."

After a pause, Sheriff Forbes asked, "So you believe that Vicki really has left town?"

"Yes." A few questions later and they were finished. She met Jeremy, Jenna, and Elena back in the front of the station and walked out together. "It's too early for an interrogation." Ellie said as she stretched out.

"Agreed." Jenna said as they walked out of the station. Ellie immediately noticed Stefan lingering next to the police cars and glanced back at Elena. Honestly, she wasn't even sure if Stefan and Elena were still together. It was like a constant back and forth with them and even if they weren't they were spending an awful lot of time together it seemed. Since when did Elena not tell her everything about her relationships? She used to tell Ellie everything and now it seemed like Elena was keeping more secrets than her twin was.

"I'll meet you guys at the car." Elena told them.

"Ok." Jenna said and the three continued to the car with Stefan nodding to both Jenna and Ellie as they passed. Ellie watched them over her shoulder as she walked and she couldn't tell if they were arguing or not. Elena looked frustrated and Stefan looked kind of desperate. Did they have a fight? It was a startling realization to suddenly feel so out of the loop with Elena. Their conversation didn't last long, and soon enough Elena was walking away as Stefan watched her dejectedly.

Elena got in the car silently and with the radio playing from the front seat, Ellie could talk to her without really being overheard. "Is everything ok, Elena? Things seemed kinda tense with you and Stefan back there." She questioned.

Her sister fiddled with the strings on her bag as she shrugged. "Yeah, everything is fine. Just a little whatever at the moment." Elena said nonchalantly. If there was anything Ellie would say that her sister wasn't it would be nonchalant.

"Elena, you gave me every single detail of the fight you had with Matt when he so much as suggested that maybe he didn't like the dress you were wearing to the dance and you two weren't even dating yet. So why are you being so hush hush about your relationship with Stefan now?" Ellie asked.

There was an undeniable look of frustration on Elena's face, but still she didn't say a word. "Really, Ellie, it's fine. Don't worry about it." Elena told her but Ellie could tell that something was really bothering Elena.

So despite her urge to pry, she grinned wickedly at her sister and said, "Do I need to kick his ass?"

It startled a laugh out of Elena. "That would be a sight to see. He wouldn't know what hit him." She agreed but Elena still seemed closed off. Whatever was going on with her and Stefan really had Elena bothered, but Ellie didn't know how to fix it. The rest of the ride was filled with the normal chatter, mainly with Jenna telling them about the dumbasses that were super stoned in the middle of campus and how one of them ended up rolling down a hill straight into a group of girls. The teenagers nearly choked on their own laughter at the image. "I'm sure those girls just loved that." Elena replied.

Jenna scoffed at that. "Dear god, I have never heard a group of girls scream so loudly over spilled Starbucks. 'Oh my god! My milk chai skinny latte with five million shots of espresso! I paid twenty dollars for this!'" Her high pitched sorority girl voice was spot on and a new round of laughter erupted from the teens.

"I bet they were cheerleaders." Jeremy said as he gave his sisters a look.

"Hey! I take offense to that." Elena told him as she tossed a scrunchie at him.

"Pft. You're not a cheerleader anymore so you can't get mad." Jeremy retorted as he flicked the hair tie back.

"As the only current cheerleader in the car, I can say with good authority that that would be a very accurate representation of cheerleaders." Ellie confirmed and Jeremy gave Elena a triumphant smirk.

"Told ya."

Elena just glared at him but there wasn't any real heat behind it. "You two just don't like cheerleaders."

"It's a stoner thing." Jenna said sagely. "Even if you stop being a stoner, the dislike of cheerleaders never quite fades away." Jeremy hummed in agreement and let himself relax back into the seat and cranked up the music as he and Jenna sung along in an intentionally obnoxious tone.

"Blah turn off the stoner jams." Ellie groaned as she leaned forward and fought with Jeremy for the control of the radio. Once they got home, Ellie made her way up to her room and flopped down on her bed to read through the books that Grams had given her. Grams being the Occult Studies teacher at the college definitely had its perks. She had given Ellie the book, which focused solely on herbs for her to study. Sheila had explained that there were several things that she had to teach that were incorrect about witches, but keeping people from knowing all the facts kept witches safe. The one that was quite accurate, however, were the herbs that were believed to have magical properties. This book in particular, was completely, one hundred percent, accurate and because of that Grams thought it was important for Ellie to have.

It surprised Ellie to find that she didn't find the book boring, but maybe it was because magic made everything a bit more interesting. However, Grams had originally given her the book because Bonnie was going to be at her house, and Ellie was always impatient to learn more. Grams told her that the easy part with teaching Ellie was that she wasn't insistent with constantly learning new spells, she was eager to learn the history and the uses of herbs as well. The book was currently explaining a useful little herb called acacia. Well, little might be the wrong word. It apparently could grow up anywhere between forty and seventy feet tall and three feet wide. The book explained that acacia was quite handy when used in protection spells and enchantments. As the book went more into detail, Ellie let herself get lost in it.

She stayed cooped up in her room for the majority of the day, devouring the book she'd been given. However, by nightfall she'd returned to the living room where Elena was moping about on the couch, pulling at the strings on the blanket she'd had on her lap. Jenna flopped down next to her and stated, "You're wallowing."

"So are you." Elena replied as Ellie dropped down on the couch next to Jenna.

"My wallow is legitimate. I was dumped." Jenna retorted.

"Yeah. Well, Logan's a jerk." Elena shot back.

"I agree. You never should have given Scum Fell a second chance." Ellie added.

"Neither of you got a brushoff email saying 'I'm leaving town. See ya'." Jenna informed them.

"He dumped you via email? Seriously? The next time I see him I swear to god I'm gonna slap that stupid smirk right off his face." Ellie swore and Jenna gave her a small grin.

"Wanna keep it down over there?" Jeremy called.

"Why? What are you doing?" Jenna asked as she sat up and turned to look at him.

"Homework." He replied. Ellie and Elena shared a look from where they were slumped down before shooting up to turn and look at him.

"Since when do you do homework?" Elena questioned.

"I gotta finish this. I'm way behind and I have a quiz tomorrow, so…"

He went back to working and a beat of silence passed before Elena said, "What do you think? Alien?"

"Some sort of replicant." Jenna told her.

"Or a shapeshifter." Ellie suggested with a faux-whisper.

"He can hear you." Jeremy sassed before giving them a sarcastic smile.

Ellie found herself grinning before she got out of her seat. "Alright my favorite alien, need any help?"

As she sat at the table, Jeremy looked over to her. "Actually… yeah. I'd really appreciate that."


While Jenna was sitting at the table, greedily drinking her coffee, Ellie went to open the door as someone rang the bell. She opened it up to see Bonnie. "Hey! Come on in." Ellie greeted as she hugged the other witch.

"Hey. Is Elena up?" Bonnie questioned.

"I haven't heard her. She's been moping." Ellie replied as they went up the stairs and headed for Elena's room. Ellie knocked on her sister's door and pushed it open as she asked, "You up?"

"No." Elena told them as she hid under the covers. The door shut behind them as they moved to pull the covers off. "No. No." She whined as she tried to keep them.

"Why haven't you called me back?" Bonnie asked.

"I'm sorry." Elena said although it didn't sound quite genuine.

"Are you gonna stay in there forever?" Bonnie sassed.

"Yep."

Bonnie sighed before telling her, "Move over." The girls both laid down, putting Elena in the middle of them as Bonnie said, "I'm officially worried. What's going on?"

Elena just shook her head. "I'm tired of thinking, of talking, I…"

"Can I get a one line version?" Bonnie suggested. "So I can at least pretend to be helpful."

"Stefan and I broke up."

"I'm so sorry. Are you ok? Right. Stupid question." Bonnie corrected herself as soon as Elena gave her a look. "I know I've been kind of M.I.A. when you needed me the most. I suck."

"You wanna make it up to me? Get my mind off of it." Elena replied.

Bonnie grinned at her, she obviously had something in mind. "Just remember you asked for it." She hopped out of the bed and pushed Elena's open window closed before she grabbed a pair of scissors and sliced Elena's pillow open.

"Hey!" Elena yelped as the feathers spilled onto the bed.

"Be patient." Bonnie said with a grin and Ellie quickly realized what the Bennett witch intended to do. "I need to swear you both to secrecy."

"It's kind of a bad week for that kind of stuff." Elena admitted.

"No. Swear cause I'm not supposed to be showing you this." Bonnie insisted and Ellie was proud of her for that.

"Well, I swear." Ellie said without hesitation. It's not like she wasn't already keeping it a secret.

"Ok. I swear." Elena agreed.

"Ok. There's no windows open, right?" Bonnie questioned.

"Right." The twins replied.

"There's no fan. No air conditioning."

"None. What are you doing?" Elena questioned impatiently.

"Grams just showed me this." Bonnie said. "You're gonna love it." When Elena nodded, Bonnie raised a hand over one of the feathers and it floated up obediently, rising up to their eye level. Elena's jaw dropped open in shock as she watched the feather float up higher and then down again.

"Bonnie, what's going on?" Elena asked as Bonnie grinned and rubbed her hands together before holding them up above the pile of feathers. Several feathers floated up this time before she put her hands back down. A moment later, all the feathers shot up and floated in the air. Elena pushed up until she was on her knees and stared at the feathers in delight.

"It's true, Elena." Bonnie admitted. "Everything my Grams told me. It's impossible, but it's true. I'm a witch."

Elena was nodding along without taking her eyes off the feathers. "I believe you." She agreed and they dissolved into laughter.

Bonnie gave them time to be amazed by the feathers before letting the feathers float back down. "It's weird, huh. After all this time joking about being psychic, I really am a witch." Ellie could see something was bothering the other witch, but she didn't even have to ask before Bonnie continued. "You guys don't think I'm a freak now, do you?"

"We would never think you were a freak, Bon." Ellie told her. "Besides, if we did it wouldn't be the witch thing that caused it."

It was enough to get Bonnie to relax and push Ellie with a playful scoff. "No, of course not." Elena assured her as well. "Uh, Bonnie, I just… I don't understand, though. If your Grams asked you to keep all this a secret, why did you tell us?"

The witch didn't even hesitate. "You're my best friend. I can't keep secrets from you." Ellie didn't miss Elena's guilty look, but she didn't know what Elena was keeping from them.

"That just reminded me…. There's something I have to go and do." Elena said as she moved to get ready. "Thank you for being honest with me, Bonnie." Elena gave Bonnie a warm look and before either of the witches realized what she was doing, Elena was out of the room.

"See, if there's a weird one out of all of us, it's her." Ellie said and Bonnie smiled back at her.

"So you really don't think I'm like a freak of nature or anything?" Bonnie asked hesitantly.

Ellie pulled Bonnie's hands into her own and gripped her tightly. "Bonnie, there is absolutely nothing about you that makes you a freak, especially not being a witch." She had the strongest urge to tell that girl that she too was a witch, but she couldn't tell Bonnie without telling Elena first. Elena was her other half, and she owed her that much. "Plus, you probably really could witch juju your way into winning the lottery."

"I'll split the winnings with you." Bonnie said with a serious nod. "But, now that Elena has bailed, I should probably get home so my dad doesn't freak out for me being gone so long."

"Ok, I'll see you later?" Ellie asked as they walked downstairs.

"Yeah. Bye, Ellie."

"Bye, Bon." It was hardly a minute later before her phone rang. "Hello Caroline."

"Soooo….. We're throwing a party." Caroline said as a way of greeting.

"What? When? Where? Why?"

"We're throwing a party and we're doing it tonight at The Grill. Why wouldn't we throw a party? I'm Caroline Forbes, the absolute queen of party throwing, duh." Caroline replied. "But I want the party to be absolutely massive. Like seriously invite everyone you know and don't forget to tweet about it!"

"I shall do so for the Queen commands it." Ellie retorted sarcastically.

"Thank you my favorite Gilbert. I knew I could always count on you! Wear something pretty!"


The party was in full swing by the time that Ellie arrived. Tables had been moved so that there was more room for people and everyone was swaying around and dancing. For such a short notice, Caroline had put together quite the impressive party. She grabbed a drink and quickly spotted Caroline and Damon talking. Before she could even go over, Damon had walked off and headed straight over to an unfamiliar blonde. Ellie grinned when the blonde seemed supremely unimpressed and walked off. The girl walked straight Ellie's way and seemed to stop in confusion. "I'm sorry you just look exactly like this other girl…" She trailed off.

Ellie laughed at that. "That would be my twin sister, Elena. I'm Ellie." She greeted. "And I also see you don't like Damon Salvatore, so I'm open to being best friends with you."

"I'm Lexi, and yes, if you don't like Damon then I like you." The blonde laughed.

"I've never seen you around, so how do you know Damon enough to hate him?" Ellie inquired as the two girls moved to a booth.

"Stefan has been my best friend for like a million years, which unfortunately means I've had to deal with Damon for just as long." Lexi said with a long sigh. "But, being friends with Stefan is worth it."

"He's a really good guy. So I really can't figure out why him and my sister broke up." Ellie agreed.

"They broke up?" Lexi questioned. "I'm sure it's just a fight and they'll get back together soon enough. Stefan is too much of a catch for her to let him go."

"Did you two ever…"

"Oh god, no. He's like a brother to me."

"So did you know Katherine? Damon keeps bringing her up around Elena and I think he's doing that to mess with their relationship." Ellie inquired.

Lexi gave her a look before replying, "No, I wasn't with Stefan then. I was living somewhere else. I'd have kicked that bitch's ass had I ever met her." Lexi replied as her fingers flexed around her cup.

"Isn't it bad to speak ill of the dead?"

"Not when the dead was a manipulative lying little slut." Lexi said harshly before she seemed to remember herself. "Sorry. Sorry. It's just that Katherine was one of the worst people Stefan could have ever fallen for and as much as I don't like Damon, he didn't deserve to be played like that either."

"Played?"

"Stefan and Damon both loved her, but she used them like toys and switched when she got bored." Lexi explained. "They were both foolish to fall for her. Hopefully Elena treats Stefan better, he deserves it."

"Elena really cares about him. Whatever's going on is eating at her. She's constantly moping about, but she won't talk to me about it either." Ellie informed her. "So, what brings you to town exactly?"

"Of course no one knows." Lexi said more to herself than to Ellie. "It's Stefan's birthday and it's the only day of the year I am guaranteed to have him. He can brood any other day of the year, but birthdays are my days."

Ellie's eyes widened in surprise. "Really? Why wouldn't he want anyone to know?"

"Because he likes to be boring but I refuse." Lexi replied with a shrug. "So I'm here to give him the best birthday."

"You seem like a really good friend." Ellie informed her. The blonde laughed at that but Ellie's attention was drawn away to her blonde best friend walking towards Bonnie with purpose. "Um, Lexi, excuse me for just a second. I'll be right back. But if this takes longer than expected, it was really great meeting you Lexi." She slid from her seat and rushed through the crowd to get to them.

The blonde winked conspiratorially at her. "It's nice meeting you too."

"Bonnie!" Caroline called over the music and pulled the girl up from where she was sitting with a couple of the girls from their science class. "Hey, I've been looking for you. I'm totally sorry to do this. I know it's so Indian giver, and I know we're not even supposed to say that anymore, but I need my crystal back."

"Why? You said you hated it." Bonnie questioned.

Caroline seemed to fumble for what to say before she replied, "Then I saw it on you, and I realized how great it is. And I've got, like, three outfits I can coordinate it with, so..."

"I can't give it back to you." Bonnie denied.

Obviously, Caroline had not been prepared for that response. "Ok… uh, well, I didn't want to have to tell you this, but I'm your friend. When you wear it, it makes you look fat. There I said it, but it's because I'm your friend, so…"

"I'm sorry, Caroline, I can't." Bonnie refused as she brought a hand up to the crystal.

"Care what kind of excuse is saying a necklace makes her look fat? That doesn't even make sense." Ellie was completely confused as to why Caroline wanted it so badly and as to why Bonnie refused to return it.

"Well what do you mean that you can't, Bonnie? It's mine." Caroline was getting angry and Ellie had no idea what exactly was happening.

"I thought you said it was Damon's."

"Well, it is."

"So he's the one who really wants it back?" Bonnie suggested.

"No." Caroline tried to deny but it wasn't working. "Maybe… just-" She went to pull it off of Bonnie's neck but pulled her hand back after there was a burning sound. "Ow! Are you wearing polyester?"

Bonnie looked entirely offended. "You were really gonna pull it from my neck? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Caroline just sighed in defeat as Bonnie walked off and a second later, Ellie turned to follow the witch. "Bonnie!" She called. When she caught up with her friend she pulled them close to a corner to talk. "What the hell was that about? Why won't you give it back to her?"

"My ancestor, Emily, she was like a really powerful witch and this was her talisman and Grams told me to not give it back to anyone. Besides, I think it's Damon that wants it. For whatever reason he tried to rip it from my neck at the Halloween thing at school and it burned him as well. It protects me, but I don't know how. I don't have any clue why Damon wants this ugly thing but I can't let him have it." Bonnie explained.

"What? That… god I can't stand him. Ok, well, maybe ease up a little on Caroline. Please?" Ellie pleaded.

Bonnie nodded, looking apologetic. "I was a little harsh wasn't I?"

"Just a bit." After that they fell back into the party and enjoyed themselves. A while later, it was to Ellie's great surprise to see her sister walk in. Elena quickly spotted Stefan and Lexi playing pool and even to Ellie it was surprising and refreshing to see Stefan laughing and smiling and clearly having a good time. "That's it, you're officially a stalker." Ellie said as she stood next to her twin watching the duo.

"I'm not stalking, just observing." Elena's excuse was weak and she knew it.

Ellie's least favorite Salvatore made his way to them. "Stefan smiles." He said sarcastically. "Alert the media."

"You haven't given him a whole lot of reasons to be happy lately." Elena sassed back.

"Oh, you're right. Poor Stefan." He mocked. "Persecuted throughout eternity by his depraved brother." What the hell did he mean by that? "Does it get tiring being so righteous?"

Elena scoffed at him with distaste. "It flares up in the presence of psychopaths."

"Ouch, well consider this psychopath's feelings hurt."

"Oh my god I literally can not stand to be within a ten foot radius of this asshole for more than five seconds I have got to go." Ellie said as she walked off. This time, it was Bonnie walking towards Caroline with purpose and Ellie followed in case they needed a moderator.

"Caroline-"

"Don't talk to me." Caroline said, her arms folded tightly across her chest.

"Don't do that, let me explain." Bonnie pleaded.

"Well, what is there to explain, Bonnie? Ok, you got what you wanted, yeah, and something that doesn't even belong to you, by the way. And I get called a shallow, useless waste of space."

Anger spread through Ellie's veins like a wildfire as she straightened up and looked at Caroline. "Who the hell said that to you, Caroline?" Ellie asked as she saw the tears in her blonde friend's eyes.

"Well, who do you think?"

"You know that's not true." Bonnie insisted. "Don't let him treat you like that."

"Yeah, as opposed to how one of my supposed best friends treats me." Caroline shot back before walking off. She gave a passing glance to Bonnie before following after Caroline.

"Care! Caroline, wait." Ellie pleaded as she pulled Caroline to a stop. When she saw the tears in her eyes, she could have sworn she felt her heart shatter. "Oh, Caroline." She pulled her into a hug and felt the other girl practically collapse in her arms. "Come on, let's go find somewhere to talk." They ended up sitting on the floor of the supply room as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"What did I do to deserve this, Ellie? I was so so good to him and he just… treats me like crap. Why did I throw this stupid party for him? I just- I want someone to love me and treat me so good and even Bonnie is mean to me. It's always been her and Elena. We always got left out." Caroline whined into Ellie's shoulder as she let her head rest.

"Bonnie's just going through some stuff and Damon, well he's absolutely a piece of shit and you don't deserve to be treated like that. So we shouldn't let him ruin tonight for you." Ellie suggested and the blonde bolted upright.

"You're right." Caroline said with a firm nod. "I shouldn't." Before Ellie could process what was happening, Caroline had disappeared from the room. She just sighed, Caroline on high emotions near alcohol was a very bad thing waiting to happen. Somehow, her friend managed to evade her for quite some time, until Ellie finally managed to spot her stumbling to Matt.

"Whoa, hey." Matt said as Caroline basically fell into him.

"I slim… I'm slipped. I slipped." Caroline said, her eyes wide as she looked at him and the other boy at the table.

"Hammered, huh?" Matt questioned as she laughed lightly.

"Well… a very nice but not handsome bartender was very kind to me tonight. Unlike the rest of the global humanverse." Caroline said drunkenly. "Are those curly fries?"

"Coffee for the drunk girl." Matt told his friend and once the boy slipped out of the booth, Ellie took his place. "She's wasted."

"I'm not surprised." Ellie admitted.

"Bad night, huh?"

"Baddest. Am I shallow?" Caroline asked suddenly.

"Is that a trick question?" Matt replied.

"I don't mean to be." She said sadly. "I… I wanna be deep. I wanna be like... the abyss deep."

Matt sighed and told her, "No offense, Care, but deep's really not your scene."

"That's true." Caroline was honestly just pitiful. "I'm shallow. I am worse than shallow. I'm a kiddie pool."

"You're not a kiddie pool." Matt insisted as Caroline started to hyperventilate, on the verge of breaking down in tears again. "You're not a kiddie pool."

"He's right, Care. I promise." Ellie swore.

"Can I just go home?"

"Yeah." Matt agreed.

"Ok." Caroline said in relief.

"I'll take you home. Come on." Matt said. The three moved out of the booth and the two sober teens were quick to shoot out their hands to catch Caroline when she stumbled. "Hey, you're ok. She's all right. Hold still. Hold still. Alright." Matt ducked his head under her arm and then lifted her up in his arms without a struggle.

"Here, I'll help you get her to your truck." Ellie told him as she led the way through the crowd before pushing open the door for Matt to get through easily. When they got outside, there were several police cars around, unfortunately for Caroline, that included her mother's.

Sheriff Forbes saw them almost immediately and rushed over to them. "What happened? Is she ok?" She asked worriedly.

"Like you care." Caroline retorted but her eyes were closing sleepily.

"She's drunk?"

"As a skunk."

"Are they serving you in there?" Sheriff Forbes had taken on a slightly dangerous tone. There was a reason she made a good sheriff.

"Uh, I'll take her home." Matt said instead of answering the question. "It's on my way back. I haven't been drinking."

"I would appreciate that Matt, thank you. You and I will discuss this later." Sheriff Forbes warned her daughter.

"Mmm, can't wait." Caroline said and once Sheriff Forbes signaled that they could go they quickly went to Matt's truck. "She doesn't care." Caroline slurred. "She's too busy chef… cher... sheriffing to care."

Once Matt sat her down in the truck, Ellie helped adjust her and her dress before buckling her. "Yes she does, Care. She's your mom, she loves you." Ellie reminded her.

"She doesn't act like it. She's always just disappointed in me."

"You're drunk, Care. It's making your head all fuzzy, just go home and get some sleep." Ellie told her as she rummaged through the blonde's purse to pull out a small set of keys. Finding the right one she handed it to Matt. "That's her house key. In her kitchen the aspirin is in the cabinet over the toaster and the cups are in the one on the right of that. Make sure to set some out for her in the morning please."

"Of course." Matt said.

Ellie pressed a kiss to Caroline's hairline. "Get home safe, Care. I love you."

"Love you too, Ellie." She said softly as she shifted under the jacket that Ellie had placed over her. Ellie nodded to the jock before shutting the door and heading back inside The Grill. However, she could have sworn she heard gunshots, and that put her on edge.

A few moments later, Sheriff Forbes came back into The Grill and announced, "All right, that party's over. Clear out." As the music was cut she walked over to the bartender. "You're under arrest for illegally serving minors." She told him as she went through all the regular things that happened during an arrest.

After he was handcuffed, she started leading him out the door. "Lady, I checked everyone's ID." He told her.

"Yeah, apparently you didn't." She informed him as she handed him off to a deputy. The night had ended abruptly, and Ellie felt that the events that had taken place left an icky feeling on her skin. Elena and Stefan were nowhere to be found, neither was Bonnie. Matt and Caroline had left and the pretty Lexi had disappeared as well. All she wanted was for things to get better, but she was beginning to get a feeling that that wasn't going to happen.


Author's Note:

Hey guys I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review and let me know what you thought! Your reviews mean the absolute world to me.

To Sting3 who commented on chapters 2-5: I'm glad you're enjoying the story and Ellie's character. I hope you liked this chapter.

To Mimi: Lol I'm glad you enjoyed Ellie putting Elena in her place. It's probably not going to be the last time they fight.

To Oz: Agreed. I honestly can't imagine any other reaction from her other than being pissed. How she's going to handle that anger is still yet to be decided, but there's no doubt that she's going to be more than a little upset at all the crap Elena's pulled. But don't worry, Ellie isn't afraid to be blunt and honest with Elena, so it's more than likely that they're going to fight again.

To Guest: I will definitely keep them in mind for who should take Ellie's side, if any of them do. But is there any reason in particular that you think the four of them should be on her side?

To RiRi: I haven't considered Stefan or Damon falling for Ellie to be honest. I'm not sure if that's a route I would explore. And in any case, I think it's pretty clear that Ellie really can't stand to be around Damon. Seeing Stefan and Damon get put in their place would definitely be very satisfying and I'll think about how that could come about. And agreed, it's no secret that Ellie really loves the people that she's close to, and she's also very protective. It's going to be very interesting to write how that's going to go when she finds out the people she loves have been getting hurt because of Elena and the Salvatores.

-Madame Magic

Posted: 3/25/20