Elowen was walking down the stairs of her house while she was talking to Caroline on the phone.
"Something tells me that leaving Damon in charge of Vampire Amnesia 101 was a bad idea," Elowen was telling Caroline.
"Well, do you know how it's going?" Caroline asked.
"Damon has sent me one, single text. 'So far, so good', but this is Damon we're talking about."
"They've probably devoured a troop of Girl Scouts by now."
"Caroline!"
"I'm kidding! Kind of. Although, it's not uncommon for patients with retrograde amnesia or other traumatic brain injuries to turn volatile."
"Okay, Dr. Forbes, since when do you know so much about amnesia?"
"It's possible I studied up on my chem, biochem, applied microbio, molecular bio, and Grey's Anatomy, the real one and not the television show."
"You did all that for Stefan?"
"Of course I did. I'm also trying to impress Dr. Maxfield. I figured if I could get closed to him i.e, into his biology class, maybe I could figure out why he covered up our roommate's murder by vampire."
"Isn't Veronica in the class, though?"
"Pfft, please. You really think Veronica cares about this?"
"To be fair, she was forced into this stuff."
"So was I! Hello!"
"Yeah, but you didn't have the option to ignore it. She does, and she wants to distance herself as much as she can. Honestly, I think that's why she chose to come to Whitmore."
Caroline sighed. "Okay, I guess I can understand. Anyway, I sorta kinda got myself a study buddy, so I'll get this down in no time."
Elowen quirked an eyebrow as she walked into the kitchen. Sydney was cooking breakfast, Eliana was sitting at the dining table, Binx was on the couch in the living room, and Esmeralda was watching tv.
"Mornin'," Eliana said as she saw Elowen. She waved in acknowledgement, but stayed on the line with Caroline.
"Hi, Dr. Maxfield!" She heard Caroline say. "Are you ready to go, Jesse?"
"Ooh, Jesse?" Elowen teased. "Dr. Maxfield's incredibly hot, funny and miraculously single lab assistant?"
"I'm dragging him to our hometown graveyard bell ringing ceremony."
"As in creepy first date?"
"As in study date."
"How does Veronica feel about this?"
"She doesn't know, so keep your mouth shut."
Elowen laughed. "Don't worry, I won't."
"Will I see you there? You could bring Stefan. I mean, it is ironically called Remembrance Day."
Elowen's smile slipped off of her face. She wasn't planning on going at all. The concept reminded her too much of Josiah and Alaric, and while she had for the most part accepted Alaric's death, she most certainly was not ready to face Josiah's. She cleared her throat.
"I think it depends on how Stefan's handling the whole download of his dark and stormy past."
"Alright. Well, I'll talk to you later."
Elowen hung up. Sydney glanced at her.
"So, we were all planning on going to the bell ringing thing today," she started to say cautiously. "You know, for Jo and Ric. Did you want to come?"
Eliana and Esmeralda both looked over once Sydney asked this. Elowen stood in the middle of the kitchen in silence for a long while. Finally, she opened her mouth.
"I think Damon is bringing Stefan and jogging his memory is top priority. What's for breakfast?"
Esmeralda, Eliana and Sydney all shared sad looks as Elowen dodged the question and Elowen ignored them. Sydney sighed, but forced herself to give a small smile.
"Omelettes," Sydney replied after a beat.
Elowen took a seat at the dining table across from Eliana.
"Cool."
Nobody said anything else as Sydney continued to cook.
xxxx
Elowen walked into The Grill with Esmeralda, Eliana and Sydney. The three of them walked ahead while Elowen hung by the entrance and looked around at everyone there celebrating their lost loved ones. Esmeralda noticed and walked back over. She pointed out Stefan and Damon.
"Look, honey, there they are. Maybe we should all go over and see if that does anything for Stefan's memory?"
Elowen nodded. "Okay," she replied quietly, allowing Esmeralda to lead her over. Eliana and Sydney were already on their way over.
"I have a question," Eliana said as she reached Stefan and Damon. "How are you supposed to cram almost two centuries worth of memories back into Stefan's head?"
Damon rolled his eyes as Stefan looked up at her completely lost.
"I'm not cramming memories into his head," Damon replied. "I'm trying to help him remember. Two different things."
Stefan leaned over to Damon as Esmeralda came into view.
"I think I've had too much to drink. I'm seeing double."
Eliana laughed. "We're identical twins. It just means we look a lot alike."
"Huh." Stefan looked between her, Esmeralda and Elowen. "I see curly hair runs in the family."
"Yeah, and it's a pain in the ass."
Stefan's eyes landed on Elowen. "Elowen, right? You're a lot hotter than I remember you being."
Elowen smirked while Eliana laughed out loud. Sydney covered her mouth to hide a smile and Esmeralda took a deep breath to stop herself from doing anything.
"Very smooth, brother," Damon said. "Very smooth."
Stefan grimaced when the words caught up with him.
"Please tell me I'm better at flirting than that."
"I'd say you were," Elowen replied. "A little cheesy sometimes, but you weren't horrible."
"So you're saying that I used to flirt with you?"
Everyone shared knowing looks, but none of them told Stefan the truth. Elowen shrugged.
"I guess you could say that."
Stefan slowly smiled. "Noted." He looked over at Esmeralda, Eliana and Sydney. "Okay, Damon's mentioned some of your family before. Let me see if I got this." He pointed to Esmeralda. "Sydney," he pointed at Eliana, "Esmeralda," and then he pointed at Sydney, "Eliana. How'd I do?"
"Absolutely terrible," Esmeralda deadpanned. She gestured to herself. "Esmeralda," she pointed at Eliana, "Eliana," then at Sydney. "Sydney."
"Right. That makes you the mom."
"Indeed it does."
Stefan looked to Eliana. "And you're the aunt." He looked at Sydney. "Which leaves the girlfriend. Was that better this time?"
"Much better."
Stefan smiled at the praise. "I think I'm getting the hang of this thing."
Elowen smiled back and the two stared at each other. Sydney cleared her throat loudly to break up the moment. Elowen and Stefan snapped out of it and looked over at her. She pointed over her shoulder.
"Well, we'll be over there somewhere. Have fun."
As her, Esmeralda and Eliana left, Stefan turned to Damon.
"Well, they seem nice."
Damon shrugged. "They're not bad."
"Watch it," Elowen warned.
"I mean… they're the life of the party."
"Nice save."
The bell rang from behind them and Damon took a drink. Elowen pushed thoughts of Josiah to the back of her head and forced herself to smile.
"Okay, where were we?"
xxxx
Angel and Jeremy were both at Angel's apartment, doing push ups shirtless. Adriana walked into the room and let out a small squeak at the sight. She quickly covered her eyes and spun around.
"Guys!"
Angel laughed. "Calm down, Adri. We just went for a run. It's not like we're naked. Don't be a baby."
Slowly, Adriana turned back around. She peeked through her fingers, watching as Angel and Jeremy stood up. Her eyes landed on Jeremy and she felt herself starting to blush. She forced herself to move her hand away from her face and plastered a smile on her lips.
"I was just coming in here to ask if you guys were hungry. I was gonna stop by The Grill."
"Didn't you just go shopping?" Angel asked as he grabbed a towel off the back of the couch and wiped sweat off his forehead.
Adriana sighed. "Last time I cooked, you said you didn't like it."
"Because it was too salty."
Jeremy laughed at them. Adriana looked over at him.
"Honestly, Adriana, I'd be fine with like, cereal or something."
Adriana shook her head. "That's not real food. You're eating a proper meal." She twirled around and left the room, heading for the kitchen. "Give me 30 minutes and I'll have something on the table!"
Jeremy laughed again and looked over at Angel.
"Is she always like this?"
Angel nodded. "She likes to play the mom role when our mom isn't here. I gave up a long time ago."
"At least someone is taking care of you now that I'm dead."
Jeremy looked over and saw Josiah leaning against the couch. He smiled.
"She's hotter than you are, so that's a perk."
"Hey!" Angel chided. "That's my sister you're talking about."
Jeremy threw his hands up. Bonnie appeared next to Josiah.
"At least she can cook," she commented.
Josiah turned to her with his mouth open.
"I can cook!"
"Yeah, maybe toast."
Jeremy laughed again. Angel looked at him, waiting for Jeremy to relay what they were talking about. Jeremy turned to him.
"Bonnie's making fun of Josiah for not being able to cook."
"I take it he didn't inherit that from his mom?"
"Nope."
"Guys, knock it off!" Josiah whined. "I can cook! Really, I can!"
Jeremy shook his head before he remembered something. His face changed as his eyes landed on Bonnie. Bonnie tilted her head.
"What is it?"
"Elowen. Her and her mom couldn't find anything in their grimoires about getting Stefan's memories back, and she asked me to ask you if maybe you knew anything. What am I supposed to tell her?"
Bonnie sighed. "Tell her that there's nothing I can do. I wouldn't even know where to start."
"But she doesn't know that because she doesn't know you're dead. Everyone is waiting for you to help them because that's what you do. You help."
"What happened to you being there for me in my decisions?"
"I want to, Bon, but not like this."
Angel looked at Jeremy, then at the empty space he was talking to, and sighed.
"Bonnie, maybe Jeremy's right. It's been three months. You can't keep up this lie forever."
"I thought you were the one who said you'd rather tell your sisters you moved across the country than that you're dead."
Jeremy relayed this to Angel, who sighed again.
"I've had time to think about it. If I died, they would deserve to know, to have closure, instead of wondering where the hell I went. Your friends deserve that, too."
Jeremy's phone started to go off, preventing the conversation from continuing. He saw that it was Matt and answered.
"Hey."
There was a pause as Matt replied. Jeremy furrowed his eyebrows a second later.
"Yeah. Yeah. What's going on?"
xxxx
Damon and Elowen were sitting at a table by themselves at The Grill.
"So, Mr. So Far So Good, Mr. I Can Handle My Brother, Mr. I Know What I'm Doing-"
Damon cut Elowen off.
"Hey, I never said I know what I'm doing."
"Hmm."
Elowen grabbed her phone, scrolled through her contacts and then put her phone to her ear after pressing call.
"Who are you calling?" Damon asked.
"Bonnie. We keep hitting dead ends with our spell books and Bonnie might know something we don't."
"I'm already on top of it. I've called her about ten times. She hasn't called back." He reached over and grabbed the phone from Elowen. "Look, I say until she does, let's just let Stefan be Stefan. Fun, carefree, drunk Stefan without a hundred years of vampire guilt on his shoulders."
Elowen looked over at Stefan and found him flirting with one of the waitresses. Damon followed her line of sight and sighed.
"You okay?"
She forced herself to smile.
"I'm fine. I can't exactly get mad at him. He doesn't have his memories. Look, that guilt came from a blood addiction that might still be hard wired into his brain."
"You take one philosophy class, now you're the queen of nature versus nurture?"
Elowen glanced at Damon and when she looked back at Stefan, he was gone. She started looking around The Grill.
"Hey. Where'd he go?"
Damon looked around with her.
"You don't see that cute little waitress anywhere, do you?"
Elowen and Damon shared a look before they both scrambled out of their seats to find Stefan. Damon was about to head in the opposite direction when Elowen grabbed his arm.
"Backroom," she said before heading in that direction. Damon ran ahead and when Elowen caught up to them, she found Damon holding Stefan back against the metal shelves in the room. She looked over and saw the waitress standing there, unmoving, with a look of fear in her eyes. Elowen quickly walked over, grabbed her shoulders and cast the compulsion spell.
"Forget what happened here. Go back to work."
The waitress nodded and Elowen let her go. Without a word, the waitress left. Elowen walked over to Damon.
"Maybe we should get him out of here."
Damon nodded. "Agreed."
xxxx
Stefan, Damon and Elowen were walking through the cemetery, which was almost as busy as The Grill, towards the Salvatore mausoleum. Stefan noticed Honoria Fell's tombstone and frowned.
"What kind of name is Honoria Fell?"
"Ssh," Elowen hushed. "You're kind of the one that killed her."
"Oh."
They all made it to the Salvatore mausoleum and entered.
"Hindsight being 20/20, way too much temptation at the bar," Damon said. "If this ripper gene is biological, then we need to minimize human contact until we get your brain all witchy-wooed back to normal, so here it is."
"Question," Stefan spoke up. He pointed at Elowen. "She's human and very much killable-"
"And also all powerful and can kick your ass," Damon cut him off. "Wen, care to demonstrate?"
Elowen pouted. "I don't wanna hurt him."
"Oh, just do the head thing."
Elowen shrugged. "Okay."
Before Damon could process why she gave in so easily, he grabbed onto his head in pain and sank to his knees.
"Not on me!" Damon groaned. "Wen!"
With an innocent smile, Elowen released the spell. Damon breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at Elowen.
"I'm so gonna get you for that."
"Oh, I'd like to see you try."
Damon stood up and took a step towards Elowen when Stefan stepped in front of her and protectively shielded her behind him. Both Damon and Elowen looked at Stefan in surprise. Elowen placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"He wasn't going to hurt me. Damon would never hurt me. At least not on purpose. Not anymore."
Stefan furrowed his eyebrows and looked down at Elowen from over his shoulder.
"Not anymore?"
"It's a long story."
Stefan looked over at Damon for a moment before he moved out of the way. He cleared his throat.
"Looks like that hurt."
"It does. Like a bitch." Damon looked at Elowen. "Thanks a lot, Wen."
"What? You said do the head thing. You never specified on who," Elowen replied. "And I said that I wasn't gonna hurt Stefan."
Damon narrowed his eyes at Elowen while Stefan looked around the crypt.
"So, is there anybody here I didn't kill?" He asked.
"Well, we've covered our father," Damon responded, walking over to ring the bell. "Uncle Zach, my bad." He rang the bell again. "On the bright side, our mother died of consumption." He rang the bell one last time.
"Oh, good."
Damon's phone buzzed and he pulled it out to see a text from Jeremy.
"I got to go see a man about a witch." He put his phone away. "Party on without me. Brother, for you," he set the bottle of alcohol down, "and this is for you," he handed the bell over to Elowen, who was lighting up some candles, then left. The fire reminded her too much of Josiah and she stared at the flames for a second before snapping out of it when Stefan started talking to her.
"Well, I, uh, I certainly hope your family history was happier than mine."
Elowen stood up and sighed loudly. She looked down at her wrists, where there were faint, thin, horizontal scars marking her skin. She'd learned to live with them, even though they were permanent reminders of her early teenage years, and came to terms with the fact that they would always be there. Silently, she lifted her wrists up for Stefan to see. He took them in his hands and examined them for a moment, his thumbs lightly brushing over them.
"My father was abusive. He's dead now, I killed him, also a long story, don't ask. You used to call these battle scars. I thought it was cliche and kind of stupid, but you were trying to be supportive and sweet, so I let it slide. After everything that's happened since the start of junior year, I thought I'd never experience anything worse than this."
"And then something worse happened."
"Yeah. The only healthy father figure I had died, and then three months ago, I um…" Elowen trailed off, swallowing her sadness down. "... I lost my baby brother."
Stefan's fingers slipped down from Elowen's wrists and into her hands. Elowen looked up at him and Stefan smiled down at her. She tilted her head.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I'm just sitting here wondering how in the world I could forget someone like you. I mean, you're smart, you're pretty, you're funny. Obviously, you're the strongest woman in the world if you managed to figure out a way to get through all that, and you're a witch. How badass is that?"
Elowen slowly smiled back.
"I surround myself with amazing people who help me through it. Like you. You're one of those people."
"So, bonded by death? Please don't tell me that we met in a cemetery."
"God, no. We met… actually, why don't I show you?"
Stefan nodded. "Yeah, sure."
Elowen lightly tugged on Stefan's hands, which were still in hers, and led him out of the Salvatore crypt.
xxxx
Elowen positioned Stefan in front of the men's bathroom and turned him so his back was to her.
"Okay," she said, beginning to explain how they first met. "I magically made your backpack unzip and all of your stuff fell to the ground. I came over and helped you pick everything up."
She crouched down onto the ground and Stefan turned to mimic her movements. She looked over at him.
"Anything?" Elowen asked hopefully.
Stefan shook his head. "No. Sorry."
Elowen sighed, standing up. Stefan did the same.
"Well, it was worth a try. I don't think I ever told you this, but I did the backpack thing on purpose."
Stefan quirked an eyebrow. "You must've been really eager to meet me."
Elowen laughed. "No, I was trying to stop you from bumping into Elena."
"Elena," Stefan repeated. "The doppelganger, right?"
"One of them, yes."
"Right. There's also Katherine, my ex girlfriend from hell. Tell me, why were you trying to stop me from meeting Elena?"
"I had this premonition where you caught her alone in the cemetery and at the time, I thought you were killing people in town, and I thought that maybe you would hurt her or something."
"Did I? Hurt her, I mean."
Elowen shook her head. "No, I stopped you two from meeting in the cemetery all together."
The double doors from behind them opened and a couple of football players entered the hallway. One of them had a cut on his forehead that was bleeding and Elowen acted quickly before it could get to Stefan.
"I want to show you something. Come on."
"Yeah, sure."
Elowen grabbed Stefan's hand. "Come on."
She led him outside and stopped in front of the Mystic Falls Timberwolves logo. She turned to Stefan.
"Close your eyes."
"You close your eyes."
Elowen grinned. "Come on, Stefan. Trust me."
"Alright."
Stefan closed his eyes. He felt warmth radiate beside him for a moment as a golden light engulfed Elowen and she teleported to the roof of the school.
"Alright, you can open them!"
Stefan opened his eyes and saw her on the roof.
"How the hell did you get up there?" He asked.
Elowen smirked. "Magic."
She lifted one of her hands and the tips of her fingers turned a bright, ice blue. She snapped them and a small flurry of snow poofed into the air and flittered to the ground.
"That is so cool," Stefan said in awe.
Elowen spread her arms. "The view's great! Come on up."
"How?"
"Jump. You once said it feels like pushing off with every ounce of strength that you have."
"Okay."
Stefan did as she said and kicked off of the ground. He soared up and onto the roof.
"Alright, well, I have to admit that was, uh… that was actually pretty amazing."
Elowen smiled. "I've only heard stories. You've never done that with me."
"You mean we dated and I never once whooshed you up anywhere?"
A look for surprise crossed Elowen's face.
"Damon told you about us?"
Stefan chuckled. "No. I may have amnesia, but I'm not an idiot. I'm a 164 year old vampire who went back to high school, so I'm guessing that had something to do with you?"
"Ah, no, actually. It was because of Elena."
"Ouch. I went back to high school to pine after someone only to not even end up with her? Who does that?"
"You."
They both laughed.
"Well, I take it me ripping people's heads off might have been a little bit of a turn off?"
"Actually… we were still together before you lost your memories."
Stefan's eyebrows shot up. "Oh."
"And for the record, you're one of the most compassionate people I've ever met. You hated the idea of hurting anyone. The guilt would overwhelm you. You were always in control."
"And I didn't bore you to death?"
Elowen smiled. "Never. You're a lot more interesting than you think."
Stefan smiled back, only for his smile to slowly slip.
"Something tells me that becoming a vampire to be with me was never going to happen."
Elowen's smile turned sad. She shook her head.
"No. We've talked about it many, many times in full detail, and the answer has always been the same. The last time we talked about it… you took me to this waterfall. It was beautiful, but I was too busy crying to really take it in." Elowen looked up at Stefan. "Do you wanna see it?"
Stefan nodded. "Sure."
Elowen smirked. "See you down there."
She walked to the edge of the roof and promptly jumped off, causing Stefan to run forward to try and grab her, but he missed. A gold light swallowed her figure midair and she reappeared safely on the grass down below. She turned back towards Stefan and bowed. Stefan shook his head and cupped his hands around his mouth to yell down at her.
"Pull something like that again and you're gonna give me a heart attack!"
Elowen smirked. "You're going to learn very fast that I'm very difficult to kill. Trust me, you've tried. Are we leaving or what?"
Stefan sighed, but jumped off the roof. He landed beside her. She turned around and started walking towards her car.
"Onward!"
Stefan chuckled, following her. "You're crazy."
"Maybe, but you used to love me for it."
She shot a grin at Stefan from over her shoulder before reaching her car and climbing into the driver's seat. As she started the engine, Stefan got in the passenger's seat and she set off for the waterfall.
