I wore a tight black dress with gold heals and was putting on a gold bracelet and earings when Nik walked into our room.
"I don't understand you need to go to this funeral. They would have killed you when they were alive." He told me walking to our sons crib where he was sitting up.
"Because it's respectful." I told him messing with my makeup.
"Nicole…" he started saying but I stopped him.
"Nik, I'll be okay. No one will try anything at a funeral." I told him. I got up and walked to him and Nikolas. "I love you so much and your worrying shows me how much you care, even if no one believes its possible." I smiled up at him and he just sighed and smiled down at me. He gave me a quick kiss before looking down at Nikolas.
"I just want our family to be safe." He told me.
"We will be." I assured him, nothing will happen to us." I told him before leaving for the church.
When I got to the church, I saw Matt and Elena laying out memorial pamphlets on the rows of benches in the church. I walked by them and walked to the pictures, looking at the people who possible would have hurt my family. I smiled lightly at the thought of their deaths. In the paper it said there was a fire and I couldn't be happier at how they died. I turned and saw a young brunette sitting in the front pew.
"April?" I asked sitting next to her.
"Nicole? Wow, it's been a long time." She told me with a smile. "You look great."
"Especially since I had a kid some time ago." I told her.
"Oh my god, you're a mom?" she asked me with a smile on her face. "Will your kid and boyfriend be coming to the funeral?" she asked me.
"No, I thought it best if Nik and Nikolas stayed at home today." I told her.
"Which one's the baby and which one's the boyfriend?" she asked me.
"Nik is the fiancee and Nikolas is the baby." I told her, my smile growing at her look of shock.
"You're getting married to him?" I turned and saw Elena standing behind me with a look of shock and disgust on her face.
"Excuse me, April. My condolences on your loss. Mind your own business Elena." I told her before standing up and walking away from the two of them.
I went down to the bathroom and saw a black man knocking on the door.
"Sorry, there's someone in here!" I heard Elena call out.
"Well there goes my crowd break." The man turned to me and I smiled at him. He looked down at my locket and smiled stiffly.
"Crowd break?" he asked me.
"Yes. I'm tired of talking to the people up there. Some of them are so arrogant." I said as he turned and looked behind me. I turned and saw Damon with a bag in his hand. "Speak of the devil." I said.
"You again. Stalking small town funerals?" Damon asked the man. Elena opened the bathroom door enough for me to see blood down the front of her dress as she took the bag from Damon,
"Oh, Damon, thank God." She looked out the door to the man with an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry, I – I spilt coffee all over my dress." The man got up, looking suspiciously at her. She looked at Damon who nodded to her before she closed the door to change. The man turned and looked at me with his suspicious gaze.
"We have not met. I'm Connor. Jordan." The man said holding out his hand for us to shake.
"I'm Nicole Gilbert." I told him, taking his hand and shaking it.
"Damon. Germaphobe." He said to Connor. "Everything okay in there?" he asked Elena.
"Yeah, just a minute!" she called to us. The three of us continued to stare at each other. We were all on opposite sides. Something was up with Connor, I just didn't know what it was, Damon was against me and Nik and I was against him.
"So, what brings you to Mystic Falls? Bible salesman?" Damon asked Connor, making the taller man laugh.
"No, actually I'm in environmental clean up." Connor told us.
"Oh." Damon said.
"What kind of environmental clean up?" I asked him.
"Heard you had a bit of a pollution problem." Connor told us.
"Huh, well, I was unaware. I breathe pretty easy." Damon said.
"There are some things I would rather do without but other than that breathing is getting easier." I said as Elena came out of the bathroom.
"I'm so sorry that took so long." Elena said to him.
"No problem." Connor told her.
"Well, enjoy your stay. We love visitors and the scenery is to die for." Damon gasped and put his hand to his mouth. "Funeral pun. Too soon. Sorry." They turned to leave and I watched them go.
"It was nice to meet you Connor." I said to him before turning and leaving myself.
I sat next to Jeremy and Matt inside the church when Elena joined us, looking pale.
"You don't look so good, sister. Perhaps you aren't getting a healthy diet." I said with a smile.
"You okay?" Matt asked her worriedly and she nodded in reply.
"Hey, April was looking for you two. She wanted help with her speech." Jeremy told us.
"Where is she?" Elena asked as we both looked for her.
"I don't know." He told us.
"Before we begin the Mass, we'd like to open the floor to anyone who would like to share a memory about our late friends on the Town Council. I know that April Young wanted to say a few words about her dad. April? April, are you still here, honey?" Carol asked and we all looked for her. "Is there anyone else who would like to share a recollection or a memory about Pastor Young?" No one got up for a moment until Elena stood up. "Come on up, Elena." I rolled my eyes at her as I waited for my perfect sister's speech.
"I uh – when I talked to April earlier she was kind of nervous about coming up to speak. And now that I'm up here, I'm kind of nervous too." Elena said, holding both sides of the podium. "The worst day of loving someone is the day that you lose them." Suddenly she started to breath heavily, causing me to look at her strangely. "I um…" Stefan went up to the podium and wrapped his arm around her before leading her off the stage and back to her seat. The priest went to the podium so he'd be able to be heard better.
"Please turn to page forty two in your hymn book. Let us join together in a song." He told us. We all stood up and began to sing together.
"The blood. Stefan, the blood, I can smell it. There's so much." I heard Elena whisper.
"It's alright; just remember what we talked about. Focus, push back, come on you can do this." Stefan told her.
"What's wrong with her?" Matt asked.
"She's hungry. She hasn't fed." Stefan told us and I smirked as I sang. She couldn't cut it as a human and now she couldn't last a week as a vampire. My day had gotten a whole lot better.
"So, get her out of here." Matt told him.
"I can't. There's somebody watching us." Stefan told us. "You do that, Damon, and you risk exposing all of us." Now a death threat from Damon I suppose.
"Stefan, I'm losing it." Elena told him.
"Don't do it, Damon. Please." Stefan begged.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Elena, feed from me." Matt offered. I gave him a shocked look at his suggestion. "It's okay, everyone will think you're upset. Just feed from me." Stefan looked at Matt then Elena before handing his girlfriend over to him. "It's okay. You'll be okay." Elena moved Matt's collar and began to drink from him. After a while, Elena stopped drinking and her face went back to normal.
"Thank you." She whispered before pulling away from Matt and going back to Stefan, wiping the blood from her mouth as Matt hid the wound. Suddenly Tyler moved up the aisle to the podium.
"The blood. I can still smell it. It's got to be April. We have to help her." Elena tried to leave, but Stefan stopped her.
"Elena, we can't risk it." He told her.
"Then I'm gonna do it!" Elena continued to try to push past Stefan. Suddenly, Tyler spoke from the podium.
"Excuse me. I just wanted to say a few words about Pastor Young." He said.
"What do we do?" Elena asked as we sat back down.
"Back in first grade, I was a brat who couldn't be bothered with team sports. Didn't care much about anything that didn't affect me. But he was the one who made me understand how important it is to be part of a team; a community. Of giving yourself up for the sake of…" Suddenly Tyler was shot, making him fall to the floor. Everybody started to scream, ducking into the aisles, and rushing out of the church. I made my way out with the crowd, pushing them out of my way as I went.
"You'll never believe what happened today at the funeral." I told Nik as I walked into the room he and Nikolas were in.
"What happened? Are you alright?" he asked me.
"I'm fine but Tyler was shot in front of the whole town. Someone new to town is shooting the supernatural community and he started with the Hybrids. I don't like it." I told him.
"Don't worry. We'll be safe." He told me.
"Elena can't drink from anything other than human. Eventually she will lose control and kill someone; I want to be there to see her break." I told him with a smirk on my lips.
"I do believe you are becoming more and more black hearted by the day." Nik told me with a smirk.
"I learned from the best." I told him before kissing him. "Back to the problems at hand. The new guy in town, his name's Conner and I think he knows Elena's a vampire. Damon as well which means he won't be far behind to you me and Nikolas." I said. "He needs to be removed from the picture."
"Perhaps just this once, Damon and I can come to an understanding and you and I can use him to get to Conner and kill him." Nik suggested and I smirked at him.
"I like it."
