Chapter 25: Plan B

March 8, 2010

Ellie had most certainly not slept well. Her dreams were filled with secrets and lies and being burned at the stake. While she didn't think that telling Elena or Bonnie or Caroline the truth about her being witch would end in literal flames, something in her gut was trying to warn her that something was wrong. And no matter how hard she tried to figure out what her instincts were trying to tell her, she was coming up with nothing.

She could have also sworn that she'd heard Stefan in Elena's room with her this morning, but when she knocked on the door, it was Elena by herself. Maybe she'd been on the phone with him or something. Shortly after she arrived at the Lockwood property with Elena and Jenna, she got a call from Caroline. "Hello?"

"Hey, Ellie. Are you going to help with the masquerade set up today at the Lockwood's?" Caroline questioned.

"Yeah, Care. You know that. You were the one that made me promise I'd help out." Ellie reminded her as she stepped out of the way of someone carrying a tall box of lights to hang up. "Are you on your way yet?"

"Uh, about that…" Caroline started and Ellie could hear the regret in her tone. "I… um… I'm not going to be able to make it." She confessed.

"What?" Ellie asked as she stopped walking. "What do you mean you're not coming? You've been talking about how excited you were to help set up this party for weeks. Like literally weeks."

Caroline sighed loudly before replying, "Yeah, yeah, I know. I really want to be there, I do. I'm just not going to be able to make it."

"But why?" Ellie asked. There was no way she was going to let Caroline bail on this when she'd been so excited for it without getting at least some type of explanation.

"Something came up that I have to take care of." Caroline told her.

When she offered no more of an explanation that than, Ellie shot back, "Nope, not good enough. What came up that was so important that you're bailing. You're not the type to back out on your word on a whim." She was tired of not getting any answers from everyone. So now, it was time to push until she got answers. "Care, I'm serious."

"Ok, my mom isn't feeling good." Caroline finally admitted. "And I know I can be a sucky daughter sometimes but I wanted to stay home with her and make sure she has everything she needs. I know she can take care of herself, but I don't remember the last time she got sick and I wanted to do something nice for her for once. Especially since I've been kind of awful lately." She spoke quickly, almost as if she thought her reasoning wouldn't be good enough for Ellie.

"Oh." Ellie said after a moment of surprise. "Caroline, that was literally all you had to say. Taking care of your mom is definitely a good enough reason to miss the set up. Is there anything I can do? I can make her some soup and bring it over later if you'd like. Homemade soup is always better than the crap that comes out of a can."

Her friend laughed softly at the offer. "I'll let you know. She's been sleeping it off for the most part. I'm really sorry that I can't come help though."

"Don't be." Ellie assured her. "While I'm sure it would have ended up looking even more spectacular with your influence, I'm pretty sure Mrs. Lockwood can manage all on her own." They both laughed at that. "We both know she can be pretty scary, especially when things aren't done the way she wants."

"That's true. Just be careful not to overdo it. I wouldn't want you to set back your shoulder healing because you were doing something risky." Caroline warned.

Ellie scoffed and shot back, "Yes mom, I'll be careful."

"We both know I'm right. But I should probably get off her and go check on my mom. It's time for her to eat something." Caroline told her.

"Ok, tell her I hope she feels better soon." Ellie replied.

"I will. Talk to you later."

"Talk to you later." Ellie said before she hung up the call as she headed inside, she bumped into Jenna. "Hey, have you been put to work yet?"

"Not yet, I haven't found Mrs. Lockwood." Jenna replied. "What about you?"

"Nope, I've been outside while I was on the phone with Caroline."

"Is she on her way?" Jenna asked.

With a shake of her head, Ellie explained, "No, Sheriff Forbes is sick and so Caroline is staying home to take care of her."

"That's nice of her." Jenna said and Ellie nodded in agreement. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I'm cooking dinner tonight. Ric's gonna be coming over too."

Ellie snorted slightly. "I think you mean, Ric's going to be cooking while you stand there and look pretty. You'll maybe even chop up a few things. But then again you with a knife could be pretty dangerous."

"Ha ha, you're so funny." Jenna said sarcastically.

Grinning, Ellie asked, "Do you know what he's going to be making then?"

"Not sure."

"I'm sure it'll be delicious though." Ellie said as she tried not to laugh at the way Jenna was glaring at her.

"Jenna." Mrs. Lockwood called as she approached, effectively ending the staring contest between the two of them. "Thanks for helping wrangle the volunteers."

"Of course." Jenna replied sincerely. "It's for a good cause. Plus, I have always been a sucker for the masquerade ball." She confessed.

Mrs. Lockwood smiled fondly before admitting, "So was Richard." Ellie felt her heart squeeze as a way of sympathy washed over her. The man might have been a bastard that didn't deserve Mrs. Lockwood or Tyler, but there must have been something good in him because Mrs. Lockwood really did love him. And it was clear as day that she missed him. "This was always his favorite party of the year."

"Wait, wait, wait, Tyler!" Matt said from somewhere behind Ellie and Jenna.

It was a small blessing in disguise because the grief disappeared from Mrs. Lockwood's features as she called, "Boys! Be careful with that, it's from the 1800s! Excuse me. Tyler!"

As she moved to leave, Ellie turned to Jenna and said, "I think that's going to be entertaining, so I'm gonna follow them."

"Mom, we got it." Tyler was saying to his mother.

"Go on." Jenna laughed and Ellie moved to do exactly that.

"Tyler make sure that you're careful with this. All of this is irreplaceable." Mrs. Lockwood was telling him as she made sure that he and Matt didn't cause any damage to the table.

He looked irritated as he replied, "Yes mom, I know. We're being careful. I promise. Nothing is going to happen to your precious table." Sarcasm was dripping from his voice and Ellie could tell he was trying hard to not roll his eyes.

"You know, Mrs. Lockwood…" Ellie started and the older woman turned to look at her once the boys had set the table down in place. "I could keep an eye on them, make sure they don't mess anything up or damage something of importance." She said it sweetly, like all she wanted was to be useful, but she could see Matt grinning and shaking his head behind Mrs. Lockwood where she couldn't see.

Mrs. Lockwood smiled gratefully. She clearly didn't trust her son to be careful with such valuable items. "That would be very much appreciated Ellie. Thank you." She told the teen honestly. "Well, with you keeping an eye on them, I should probably go make sure that everyone else is doing what they need to be."

"Of course Mrs. Lockwood, I'll make sure to keep the two of them in line." Ellie promised. With that, Mrs. Lockwood gave her a smile before calling at someone else to tell them that they were putting some candles in the wrong place.

"'I'll make sure to keep the two of them in line.'" Tyler mocked as he made his voice ridiculously high in an attempt to mimic her. "Yeah right."

Ellie rolled her eyes before flipping him off. "Shut up, idiot. You should be thanking me. If it wasn't for me, she'd still be here making sure you didn't damage the table."

"She's right you know." Matt replied and Ellie grinned at his support.

"Ha ha he's on my side." Ellie teased as she stuck her tongue out childishly at Tyler.

Tyler just rolled his eyes at her. "Shut up, Ellie."

"Mmm, I don't think I will." She said as she smiled saccharinely. "Now, get back to work."


The three of them were outside working on hanging the lights as Matt talked about his situation with Caroline. Ellie kept a hand on the ladder as Matt worked and he said, "I just don't know what to do, honestly. She's this amazing girl one minute, and then this raging jealous freak the next."

"Look, you know what I think of Caroline Forbes." Tyler told him. "She's an insecure, neurotic, bitchy little twit." He said harshly.

"Hey!" Matt and Ellie both snapped.

"But the girl's got heart." Tyler added honestly. "She means well. You just gotta take the good with the bad sometimes."

"Yeah." Matt agreed. "I'm gonna go get an extension cord. I'll be right back." Tyler and Ellie nodded as he walked off.

She turned to Tyler and gave him a look. "I adore you and all, but talk about Caroline like that again and I'll kick your ass seven ways to Sunday." She warned him seriously.

"I didn't mean it like that, but yeah I'll be nicer about it." He agreed.

"Hey, man." Jeremy said as he walked over to them.

"Hey." Tyler replied.

Ellie gave her brother a funny look. She hadn't known that he was coming to help today. "Jer, I didn't know you were gonna be here." She said in surprise. "You could've ridden with me and Jenna and Elena."

"Oh, it's fine, I had some stuff I had to do before I came here." He assured her. Turning to Tyler he said, "But hey, I uh did a little research on that stone you showed me."

Tyler shot him a slightly panicked look as he dared a glance at Ellie, but Ellie didn't understand what the problem was. "What? Why?" He asked nervously.

"I don't know. Curiosity, uh boredom." Jeremy offered.

"What'd it say?" Tyler questioned.

"Well, it turns out that it's part of this Aztec legend but I want to make sure it's the same kind of stone. You think I could uh check it out again?" Jeremy asked.

Tyler shook his head. "Nope, gave it to my uncle."

"Why'd you do that?"

"Because I'm done with legends and curses. I don't want anything to do with it, ok?" Tyler told him.

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Jeremy replied with a chuckle. "It's probably just stupid folklore anyways. Forget it."

Ellie made a face. "'Probably'?" Ellie questioned. "You're joking right? Tell me Anna didn't get into your head and has got you thinking that things like vampires exist right?"

There was a flicker of an emotion Ellie couldn't place that flashed across her brother's features. But it disappeared as quickly as it came. He laughed again, this time sounding more forced and faked. "No, I don't think things like vampires exist. That stuff only exists in movies." He replied.

"And books and comics but yeah." Ellie agreed.

"Well, I have to go see where Jenna went, but I'll see you guys later." Jeremy said before he walked off.

She turned to Tyler once Jeremy was gone. "What was that about?"

"Nothing, really, I just found some old family heirloom thing and showed your brother. I guess he thought it was interesting enough to do some digging." Tyler shrugged in response.

Nodding along as she placed the candles where they needed to go she commented, "Yeah that makes sense I guess. I probably influenced him because of my mythology phase."

"You say that as if you aren't still in your mythology phase." Tyler shot back. "You and I both know that you know you still read anything you can get your hands on."

It was her turn to roll her eyes at him. "And what about it? Mythology is very interesting."

"Yeah, ok. Whatever you say." He told her.

Some time later she found herself standing with Matt and Elena as they sorted through masks and other accessories. "So where's Caroline? This is like… her thing. I can't believe she's not here." Matt asked.

"She had something else to do." Elena told him.

Matt looked like he didn't really want to ask, but he did. "Is she seeing someone?"

"Matt, come on." Elena said in surprise. When his expression didn't change, she softly replied, "No, she's not."

Stefan walked up and Elena stared at him in surprise, but before anything could be said between the two of them, Tyler walked in and asked, "Has anyone seen Mason?"

"He, uh, he took off. Said he wasn't sure when he'd be back." Stefan offered up.

"So weird." Tyler said, more to himself than anyone else, before he walked off to see if his uncle was somewhere else.

A phone dinged and Ellie looked to see Stefan pulling his phone from his pocket. Elena noticed too and made a move to go to him, but he just walked away. What was going on there? Elena huffed in frustration and began shoving things into a box roughly. "I'm not even going to ask." Matt told her.

It wasn't even a minute later before Elena looked at the direction Stefan had disappeared in and told them, "I'll be right back." Matt gave her a thumbs up as she ran off.

"Since Elena was, you know, totally unhelpful when you asked, no Caroline isn't seeing anyone. I promise you. I talked to her earlier and she said that Sheriff Forbes wasn't feeling too well and that she was staying home to help take care of her." Ellie explained and she watched as Matt sagged a bit in relief.

"Oh." He said in response. He didn't seem to know what else to say. "That's nice of her."

"She can be nice on the occasion." Ellie joked. "She's just not always the best at expressing it." Not knowing what else to say, she left it at that and the two of them fell back into an easy rhythm of working.


The day of preparation at the Lockwood's went by smoothly after Elena had disappeared. It was strange though that everyone seemed to have vanished except for Ellie, Matt, and Tyler. Dealing with Tyler's frustration and annoyance at being unable to find his uncle hadn't been fun, but Ellie and Matt had managed it.

Matt had dropped Ellie off at home when he'd needed to leave to head to work, and once again the Gilbert witch had made her way to the house in the woods to visit Emily and the others. If she kept it up, her shoulder was going to feel brand new sooner rather than later. Even now, the pain in her shoulder was hardly anything more than a memory at this point. By the time she arrived home once again, Alaric had already arrived and was making preparations for dinner. "Hey Ellie." He greeted her warmly. "Are you eating dinner tonight?" He asked.

"Definitely. I'm starving." She informed him. "I'm gonna go get changed and then I'll be down to help." Alaric gave her a bright smile and a nod before she headed up to her room. Really it was such an odd sensation to have him around like this. Although it definitely wasn't a bad thing. She absolutely adored the way he made Jenna so insanely happy, and he was a great person. She just didn't necessarily know how to act with the knowledge that he was the husband of her biological mother.

She definitely wanted to bond with him though. Even if her birth mother was gone, it would be nice to have some sort of relationship with him. But what would that make him? Some sort of father figure? That would be nice. She shook her head to clear her thoughts as she changed. The sound of heavy footsteps told her that Jeremy was home. Once she changed, she knocked on his door. "Yeah?" He asked.

"Hey, Alaric's making dinner, are you gonna eat?" She asked.

"Nah, I'm not really hungry."

"Ok, I'll try and make sure we have enough leftovers for you to eat later though. If you're not hungry right now, you'll probably be hungry at the most inconvenient time." Ellie said.

He laughed a bit in agreement. "Yeah, you're probably right. Thanks."

Ellie took a moment to look at her little brother and really look at him. Something was wrong. "Are you ok?" She asked softly. "You look kind of upset."

"No, everything's fine. I was probably out in the sun too long." Jeremy replied.

She didn't believe him in the slightest. Instead of pushing, she just nodded and reminded him, "Ok, but if you decide that it's something else and you wanna talk, I'm here if you need me." As she headed for the kitchen, Elena was making her way up the stairs, probably to change the same way Ellie had. Once Ellie was in the kitchen, she grinned at Jenna who was staring at Alaric as he worked. "Oh, Jer said he wasn't hungry so he's probably not going to eat right now. I did tell him that I'd try to make sure he had some to eat later though."

"That's nice of you." Jenna said as she moved to help Alaric.

"I'm a saint, I know." Ellie shot back as she moved to get stuff ready for a salad.

The three of them worked together with ease until it was time to take the food out of the oven. "I'm going behind you guys so be careful." Alaric told them as he moved the dish to the table. Ellie moved once he was past them to grab the butter for the bread. "Ellie can you grab the cups?"

"Yeah."

Jenna moved to answer the phone as Ellie walked past her. She had just finished putting the cups in place when Elena appeared. "Where's Jeremy?"

"Oh, he went straight up to his room." Alaric told her.

"He said he wasn't hungry." Ellie added.

"Who's she talking to?" Elena asked.

Ellie shrugged as Alaric replied, "I don't know. Everything go ok today?"

"There were a few hiccups, but yeah." Elena confirmed.

"Of course, I understand." Jenna said to whoever was on the phone as she made her way over to the others. "Elena, it's for you."

"Who is it?" Elena asked as she took the phone from her aunt. Jenna didn't respond, but instead she walked off back to the kitchen. "Hello?" Elena stepped away from Ellie and Alaric to talk to whoever it was.

"Well, while she does that, I'm going to run to the bathroom really quick." Ellie said to Alaric before heading up the stairs to go to the bathroom.

She had just finished drying off her hands when she heard Elena's panicked scream. Ellie slung the bathroom door open at the same time that Jeremy slung his bedroom door open. "What the hell was that?" He asked worriedly.

"I don't know." Ellie replied. The siblings wasted no time in running down the stairs to the kitchen to see Elena and Alaric dropped down next to Jenna as blood pooled up around the blood. "Jenna!" Ellie screamed. "What the hell happened?"

Elena looked up at her twin with terrified eyes. "I don't know. Ellie, call 911! Now!" Elena begged. "Ellie hurry!" The call for help was just as much of a blur as the ride to the hospital. She held onto Jeremy's hand like her life depended on it. Seeing Jenna the way she was felt like a punch to gut. Her breath was caught in her throat and she was struggling to breathe, but with Elena on the verge of tears and Jeremy so pale she thought he might pass out, now wasn't the time to break. She was the oldest and it was her job to hold it together until they were alright. One moment at a time. She just had to hold it together for a little while longer.


Author's Note:

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review and let me know what you thought and if you have any questions! Guys we are so close to Katherine and Elijah, like the next chapter or so. I'm so excited for you guys to finally see Ellie first interactions with the two of them!

To Aryabloodlust: The fact that you count down to the next chapter literally made my heart swell with happiness to know that you enjoy it that much! I hope you liked this chapter! Also, if I'm remembering correctly, Katherine will be making her first appearance in the next chapter!

To Oz: Honestly though. Like she made the decision to be with vampires and continued to put herself at risk, so she can't act like she was entirely innocent. Ellie's definitely going to have some things to say about Elena's actions.

To Koinaka: If I'm honest, I wanted the readers to be bothered by her not knowing. I really wanted to put emphasis on how dangerous Elena's decisions to keep things from everyone, even when they're involved. In the show, Elena's decisions got so many people killed, and so I wanted that frustration and danger to come through in Ellie. Ignorance is definitely dangerous and deadly where the Originals are involved. Also, I didn't even think to have her be the one to channel them since she already has a relationship with them! That's a very very good idea. I'll just have to see which way the story takes itself.

To DarkAngelmi818: When it comes to Elena just keeping Stefan and Bonnie's secrets, I absolutely agree, those weren't her secrets to tell. I never got frustrated at her for keeping those secrets. But some of the decisions Elena made just made me so angry. The fact that she continued to forgive Damon for things like manipulating Caroline, murdering her birth mother, murdering Alaric and Jeremy, and everything never really made sense to me. I could understand eventually forgiving him but not getting with him. And she liked to blame other people for her problems, like blaming Katherine when it wasn't all Katherine's fault or Klaus'. And in the story I'm trying to keep her actions kind of in line with what I actually think Elena would do without changing her original personality too much. But hopefully I can develop her in a way that Julie didn't, I just don't know how far down the line it's going to be for Elena to evolve. I don't entirely hate Elena, but she's definitely not my favorite either. This also isn't meant to be like a bash Elena fic, I hope it doesn't come across that way. But I do agree that there was a lot of lazy writing on Julie's part. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

-Madame Magic

Posted: 8/1/20