NA: This goes off from the show once again because I stopped watching after about episode 5. I couldn't and not even our beloved Bonnie could keep me attached to the show. So this chapter is a filler until I get the flow going again. It will tackle some things I feel the show should have a long fucking time ago.
"There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship."
-Thomas Aquinas
The Grave of Vicki Donovan
2013
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Her footsteps are soft as they crunch against the grass. The wind is alive, playing with her hair and causing the skirt of her dress to dance. Walking amongst the tombstones always brought bitter memories. From her birth, she had been reminded of the death on her hands. The cryptic stones only served as a bitter reminder as well. Her mother had been laid to rest in a small meadow, near a lake. Her father visited many times during the nights while she slept and when she was seven, he took her to see her mother one last time before he sent her to live with her godfather.
She paused when she found him, bend over a grave, his head bowed. She wasn't close enough but if she had to guess, he was crying. Her uncle always cried when he came to visit his sister.
Rhea waited until the shaking started to cease and walked towards him. No words were spoken as she sat down and smiled at the grave. "Hello Auntie Vicki," she greeted. The wind answered for her, giving her the hello her aunt could not. "You don't know me, and I'm sure that wherever you are, you're wondering right now, what could I possibly do for you."
Matt glanced at the child out the corner of his eye but said nothing as she continued to speak. "My name is Rhea. Yes, I know it's a bit odd to say so if you'd like, you can call me Rae. Uncle Mattie calls me that and so does Auntie Sarah. You don't know her yet, but uncle Mattie does."
Auntie Sarah, as in Sarah Salvatore? What in the world could she be doing in Rhea's life?
"You'd like her, Auntie Sarah that is. She's very sweet and she keeps Uncle Matt in check when he's being mean," Rhea said with a soft sigh and then pulled her knees up to her chest. "I wish she could help him now. He isn't being very nice."
Matt frowned. He was always nice to Rhea.
"Uncle Mattie, he's be mean to my mom. You remember her, don't you? Bonnie Bennett? I suppose I should have said my last name as well, then you'd know." Rhea blushed and Matt couldn't help but see Bonnie. The small laugh that escaped her made him curious. "Uncle Mattie - my Uncle Mattie from fifteen years from now - he said once that he wished you were with him. Said you'd knock him off his butt for being so mean to my mom for things she can't control."
He blinked.
"He always said if there was a time he could take back when my mom was around, he's take back the year he graduated from the police academy." Rhea said with a soft sigh. "He said he was so mean to my mom."
She was still talking, but she wasn't here. She was in a memory of her own.
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The Grave of Vicki Donovan
2026
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Matt rubbed the back of his head as he stared down at his sister's grave. He could feel her glaring at him right now; the invisible barrier of the Other Side being the other thing keeping her from materializing in front of him and kicking his ass.
"You're stupid Mattie!" she was screaming at him. "What the hell were you thinking bringing a kid here? Is she yours!?"
"Uncle Matt," he looked down at Rhea. A few months sigh of eight years old, his niece really did look like his best friend. But there was Bael in her too. The way her eyes were filled with wonder, or how she blinked twice and then pouted when she tried to understand. That was the Bael Mikaelson in her. But the hue of her eyes, the way her little heart shaped face was cocked to the side, her lips puckered out as she frowned up at him. That was Bonnie coming in loud and clear. "Why are we at a grave?"
"Well kiddo, I never got a chance to let you meet your Auntie Vicki," he said with a sad smile.
Rhea peered down at the grave. "Auntie Vicki?"
"Yup, she's my older sister."
Rhea's eyes widened. "Really?"
"Yup." Matt said with a small smile. He saw the question before it formed in her head. "She died when she was eighteen."
Rhea looked at the grave. "I'm sorry your life was cut so short."
Vicki smiled. Sweet kid, she mused. Reminded her of the Bennett girl Matt was always hanging around. Matt snickered at the little girl and ruffled her hair, messing up the curls her auntie had done earlier that morning ("Matthew Donovan, mess up my goddaughter's hair and I will kill you myself.") "Auntie Sarah isn't going to be happy you did that," Rhea said to him.
"Oh yea? Well your Auntie can be mad at me all she wants but she can't go through her threat." Matt grinned. "You're my first priority, remember?"
Rhea giggled. "I remember," she paused and looked at the grave again. "Uncle Mattie, did my mom like Vicki?"
Matt hummed. "You know, I don't really know. Your mom, she did mention that she felt horrible that my sister died. She comforted me when I found out. Took me to a rock climbing place and said we'd hang upside down until the oxygen left our brains and when we regained ourselves, we'd do it again until I wanted to talk about it."
Vicki blinked. So that was Bonnie's kid? Then where the hell was Bonnie?
Rhea smiled. "You and mom had a great friendship."
"It wasn't so great actually," Matt said. He twirled his wedding ring and sighed. "If there was one year I could do over; or take back the words I said, it would be when I graduated from the police academy."
"Why?"
"I was horrible to your mom. Treated her like everything was her fault when really, she did what she had to do to survive. She had been tormented by a madman who was hurt his feelings weren't returned. And I treated her like she was the cause of it all when really, she had no control over it or the blood sucking vampire witches that were released. I feel horrible for all of that and even your aunt Sarah hated me for a bit because of it."
"Auntie hated you?"
"We had just started dating, right around the time your mom and dad were having a problem with their relationship. She told me to mend my relationship with your mom because we went way back. I'd know your mom since I was six and we were thick as thieves. Now that's gone."
Rhea bit her lip.
"I don't blame you, kiddo. You were the last greatest thing your mom did." Matt said and bent down, hugging her. "She loved you enough to give up her life for you to live and she's loving you even know in the afterlife. Don't forget that, okay? None of this was your fault, just like how none of the Heretics were your mom's."
"But you wish you could have told her?"
"Everyday," he said and kissed her forehead. "Let's talk to Auntie Vicki some more and then I'll take you home and make some chili fries, okay?"
"Okay."
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Grave of Vicki Donovan
2013
:::
"Rhea," she turned to Matt. "You okay there, kiddo?"
She looked at the grave and then looked back at her uncle. "You should talk to mom," she said. "It isn't her fault the Heretics were unleashed and you know it. Trying to place the blame on her is only going to hurt you in the long run. Auntie Sarah knew that, that's why she's mad at you now."
She knew about Sarah?
"Talk to my mom," Rhea said with a sigh. "Before it's too late."
"What do you mean?" Matt asked.
"Just do it, please?" she asked. "If not for Aunt Sarah or for yourself, do it for me and my mom."
Matt looked into her eyes. Green like Bonnie's, even the way she pressed the please out of her mouth, the way she gritted her teeth and looked like she wanted to stomp her foot. She was Bonnie's daughter; she was his goddaughter. She was family.
Just like Bonnie was.
He sighed and nodded. "Okay, I'll talk to her."
Rhea smiled and hugged him. "Thank you Uncle Matt."
He hugged her back. "You're welcome kiddo."
She looked up at him. "Can we get some chili fries?"
He laughed and hoisted her up onto his shoulders. "You're definitely Bon's kid."
She turned back towards the grave as they left. A woman stood there, no older than eighteen but Rhea knew who she was from the photos her uncle kept. She waved at the child and when Rhea blinked again, she was gone.
So that was her Auntie Vicki.