I'm thinking I might jump ahead to the start of the season after a chapter or two more. I'm doing my best to keep up on the story in my mind and get it out, but I do work 40+hrs a week, and just got a new puppy. So far i've been about a chapter ahead when I post i'll try to keep up with that schedule.
Ava zipped up the bag containing clothes enough for a week, to take with her to the Forbes's house. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon, Jenna had already pushed back going a couple times today but had reached a point that if she didn't leave soon she would be late for her meeting. She seemed reluctant to leave them right now. It was understandable, Jenna and Jeremy had both lost so much, and were finding what comfort they could by being together. It appeared that even without her memories they felt comfort just being near "Elana" as they had last night while watching movies. Ava was trying to be as supportive as possible; she hadn't asked if they were okay, she knew they weren't and asking them if they were would only make things worse.
Between the night before and today, Ava had gotten through all the journals, mementos, and the photos. Some memories had allowed themselves to be loosened from the fog, the strongest ones were about Jeremy, a couple about Jenna, Ava thought this might be due to being near them. She had also recovered a couple about Elana's friends. None of the memories were about the parents, and the fog still surrounded the rest of the memories.
Ava had found out the laptop did not have a password on it mainly because it is a family computer, she would need a personal computer. In another one of her past lives she had learned to hack. It may help a bit in this life if she could arrange a couple things in advance, and make the lists she needed to keep things in her head organized, but she would need a secure place to be able to do that. She could create a hidden folder on this computer but if anyone were to stumble upon it they would find out everything that was to come and could expose all her secrets. She had packed the laptop in the bag with her clothes so she would start arranging what she could, she knew she could erase the few movements she made until she was able to get her own computer.
Ava had been able to get Jeremy to go on a walk with her a few hours ago, they had talked about some of the memories that she had been able to recover. He had seemed happier on the walk possibly due to her starting to remember things about him, she had done her best to try and get him to talk about any happy memories he had of them and his parents to try and loosen up more of her memories, it had succeeded with a couple of him and Jenna and even their uncle John but still none of the parents.
She heard a car pull up out front and knew the sheriff had arrived. She grabbed her bag and started making her way to the stairs, Jeremy walked out of his room carrying his own bag as she reached the top stair. He took hers from her hand and started down the stairs ahead of her. They reached the bottom just as the sheriff knocked on the door. Jenna opened it, and everyone exchanged somber greetings.
As Sheriff Liz and Jenna spoke quietly Jeremy loaded their bags into the sheriff's car, then walked back and grabbed Jenna's bag to put it in her car. Ava slowly walked down the porch steps to the sheriff's car, reaching the back door just as Jeremy was retuning to it as well. Jenna Locked the front door to the Gilbert house and walked down the steps to give them both hugs and letting them know she would be back as soon as she could before she got into her car and driving away. They got into the car and the sheriff drove them to her house. She was in uniform and driving a patrol car, so Ava knew she most likely wouldn't be hanging around very long after they arrived at her house.
Ava was somewhat excited to be meeting Caroline, when she had watched the show, she had always felt that Caroline had had some of the best character development she was also excited to see the Forbes's house and finally figure out the layout, it had never made much sense in the show from season to season. She also hoped she could strengthen the friendship between Elana and Caroline over the time she was there. She had gotten one memory of Elana's earlier that had Caroline and Bonnie when they had meet in 1st grade, it had been adorable the interaction between the three of them. So far though that was the only one of Caroline to surface from the fog that is Elana's memories.
She planned to get the vervain jewelry on everyone sooner rather then later. If she keeps Caroline from becoming Daman's walking talking meal/ bed partner maybe she would be more supportive when Elana and Daman get together and go after Stefan sooner. She knew Elana had one memory that had been compelled away, Ava wondered if that would be in the foggy memories or if it wouldn't come back until Elana/Ava was turned into a vampire. She wondered how that was going to work, a memory that was compelled from Elana, Ava knew it had happened due to watching the series but Elana didn't. She also wondered about some theories people had posted about that compulsion, that Damon was unintentionally referring to Stefan. A thought for another day she supposes.
They pulled up to the Forbes house, Ava remembered that Bill Forbes had left Sheriff Liz for a man named Steven and wondered if that had already happened or not. Jeremy had sat in the front seat so he was able to get out of the car with out assistance, but Ava had sat in the back and so had needed to be released from the back of the cruiser. Jeremy grabbed the bags before Ava could even reach for them. She had just turned around to get a real good look at the house when she was suddenly engulfed in a hug, Ava hesitantly hugged back. Her face was surrounded by blond hair, and the form was just slightly taller than her. She knew it had to be Caroline, but she wasn't supposed to really know who Caroline is right now.
"Are you ok?" Ava heard from just over her shoulder where Caroline still hugged her.
"Yes," Ava replied calmly. "You must be Caroline."
"You remember me!?" Caroline practically squealed out the question as she pulled back from the hug to look at Ava's face.
"Ahh kind of, they Introduced Sheriff Liz as the mother of one my best friends, and I have one memory of you but its from like 1st grade I think." Ava told her.
"Oh." The one syllable spoke how disappointed she was, her face falling into a full frown.
"That's better then I got when I first saw her Caroline." Jeremy said walking past them following the sheriff towards the front door. "She didn't remember me at all, and I'm her brother."
"The doctor said it would most likely all come back over time." Ava assured her. "I read all my past journals and looked through a photo album to try and get my memories back. I got a couple of them, but most still haven't returned yet."
"Well we will just have to make sure you get all the important ones back." Caroline said, nodding her head with a look of determination settling on her face. Ava gave her a small smile as encouragement, she knew once the blond put her mind to something, she made it happen by sheer force of will. "Wait, if you don't remember anything then you don't know who everyone is, what if you end up talking to the wrong person while your memoryless. We will figure something out to avoid the possible social suicide."
They made their way inside the foyer where Jeremy and Liz were waiting for them. "Elana, I know you don't remember but when you have spent the night in the past you have always stayed in Caroline's room. Would you be ok doing that now? We only have the one spare room, but we do have a pull-out couch." Liz spoke, providing the options in front of her. "Well if that is what I've done in the past I should do it now, maybe it will bring back some more memories." Ava said, she turned to Caroline. "That is as long as its ok with you."
"Of course it is." Caroline assured putting her hand on Ava's arm. Jeremy walked further into the house past an open pair of glass pained doors, he turned right and disappeared from sight. He returned to the hall seconds later and looked to the sheriff for guidance. She walked further down the hallway past a second set of glass pained doors before turning left Jeremy following behind, they heard them start climbing the stairs. Ava followed Caroline into her bedroom, she saw her bag sitting on the bed. Caroline started moving around the room, gathering things, Ava sat on the bed next to her bag watching her with interest, seemingly done getting what she wanted Caroline sat on the bed across from her. "What are you doing?" Ava asked her. "Well until you get all your memories back, we cant have you going around without knowing who your talking to, we don't need you committing unintentional social suicide." She informed her. "We are going to make flash cards."
"Flash cards for my memory?"
"More like flash cards for people." She replied starting to sort through a box of photos. "We will skip me, my mom, Jenna, and Jeremy cause you have already met us and know our names. We don't need to do your parents because they died." Caroline pauses after that looking at Elana. "I'm sorry."
"It's ok, I don't remember them. Its hard for Jeremy though, he lost them and, in a way, lost me too. I can't mourn with him cause I don't remember them, who they were, or what they meant to me. I didn't write about them much, and I had some photos but none that jogged any memories or anything." Ava explained knowing that this version of Caroline was a little more brash and tended to say whatever came to mind.
"Oh, that makes sense in a way." Caroline nodded, she then turned back to the supplies. "Okay, so we will find pictures of all the importance faces, they will go on one side of the card and all the important details go on the other and if you remember anything about them they get a dot on the bottom of the card."
Ava nodded and then looked at her for a moment. "What?" Caroline asked. "I can't remember how I felt about you yet, but I do know I am slightly intimidated by you, and a little bit in awe of you as well." Ava said.
"Really?" Caroline looked at her disbelievingly.
"Yah, I mean I just got here like 10 minutes ago and you already have a well thought out plan for me to find out who everyone I'm going to be seeing is." Caroline looked down at the pictures in front of her but not before Ava saw the pleased smile that crossed her face.
An hour later and they had gone through all the pictures Caroline had and found a few on Caroline's phone that would need to be printed out. The loose photos they had cut down and been glued to the blank flash cards, names put on the other side, and few of the cards already had some details written neatly under the person's name, the only cards with dots on them were Bonnie, Matt, and surprisingly Tyler.
Jeremy knocked on the door, Ava and Caroline both looked up at him. "Hey Jer."Ava greeted. "What are you guys doing?" He asks as he walks into the room, looking at the things scattered around them on the bed.
"Who's who flash cards." Caroline informed him.
"Mr. Tanner?" Jeremy questioned as he picked up the card.
"When she finally goes back to school, she has to know what teachers to avoid if she can. Don't want her to get in trouble just cause he's jerk and Elana didn't remember to keep her distance." Caroline explained, "That goes in this plie, teachers and people only seen at school." she pointed as Jeremy put the card down.
"Wait, do I have to go to school?" Ava asked, stopping to look at them. "I mean I was in a serious car accident and almost died and can't remember anything, plus our parents died. I think that we should get a free pass through the end of the school year, it's only a week or two, right?" Jeremy seemed to be contemplating what she said, looking like he was leaning on her side with what she said.
Caroline suddenly jumped, "How do you know its only a couple more weeks?" she asked. They were both suddenly looking at her hopefully.
"I have no idea, I was just thinking it was so unfair to make us go back to school with everything going on, and it came out." She tried to explain it away. She knew the reason she knew was she had seen the death date on the gravestone in the first episode, and most schools let out for the summer around end of May beginning of June. They both seemed to accept her explanation, Caroline gave a small shrug and looked back to the flash cards, Jeremy also looked back at the cards. They stayed in Caroline's room continuing to work on them for another hour.
Ava finished gluing the last available picture to the card in front of her. Handing it to Caroline to be put in the correct pile. She sat up stretching a little to relax the muscles in her neck and back from leaning over while working on the cards. Jeremy suddenly looked up at her movement. "You need your meds?" He asked looking like he was ready to bolt from the room to get them if she said yes. Ava gave him a small smile shaking her head no. "Just too long sitting in the same position." She assured him. "I am starting to feel like I could eat soon though." Ava glanced around the room looking for a clock, finding none on the walls she looked back at him. "What time is it?" She asked him.
"Just about five thirty." Caroline said making her phone light up next to her.
I am going to need a new phone, and maybe a clock for my room too, Ava thought. "So what are we gonna eat for dinner?" She asks looking between them.
"Liz left bout twenty minutes after we got here and didn't say anything about when she would be back." Jeremy shrugged.
"Of course she didn't." Caroline sighed. "We can order pizza, she probably left some money somewhere." She got up and headed for the door to look. They followed her out and into the kitchen, where there was indeed some money and a note on the fridge under a magnet. Caroline took the money throwing away the note without really looking at it, indicating without words that this was a regular occurrence. "What type of pizza should we order?" Ava asked. Jeremy shrugs his shoulders. "What ever you guys want." She knew he only ate because he knew he should and only seemed to think about his stomach when she mentioned hers, but she wasn't just eating to make sure he ate, she was still healing and this body needed the energy the food provided. "How about a supreme?" Ava suggested looking to Caroline for her input. She just nodded her head and pulled out her phone to dial the pizza place.
As they waited for the pizza to arrive the moved to the living room and started watching a movie. Instead of the three of them sitting on the couch or in the chairs positioned around the room, them moved the couch back a bit and set up a nest of sorts in front of it with their backs to the couch seats, blankets and pillows surrounding them for comfort. Ava sat in the middle with Caroline to her left, ready to jump up the second the pizza arrived, and Jeremy to her right. She leaned over just slightly and placed her head on his shoulder.
All the movies that they had watched so far had been ones she had seen before, so it gave her time to organize her thoughts and make her mental lists. She started to think of everything she would need in the next couple months, a phone, a personal computer, some vervain, and some jewelry to put it in, she would also need to do some clothes and shoe shopping. There was a knock at the door interrupting her thoughts. Caroline got up to go get and pay for the pizza, Jeremy reached over pausing the movie before helping Ava up, they followed Caroline into the kitchen to grab a slice and a drink before returning to the living room floor. As they resumed the movie, Ava also resumed thinking about the things to come and the changes she wanted to make.
She knew that she couldn't do much moving around this summer, not with Stefan and possibly even Damon watching her, so all her movements would have to be done remotely. She already knew she wanted to build the relationship between her and Jeremy, make it stronger and when the vampire stuff starts to happen tell him right away instead of hiding it. She wants to build up her and Caroline's relationship as well, try to make them closer, definitely try and avoid Damon using her like he did in the show. She did want her to be a little more confident not the fake confidence she showed the world. As for Bonnie, she wished she could push Shelia to talk to her sooner to start training and teaching her now all the witchy things rather than in the fall when she possibly wouldn't be here long enough to do much teaching. Maybe she will send an anonymous letter to Shelia warning her that the time is now to start, that the future involves Bonnie to much to leave her that untrained. Ava knew Elana and Matt's time as a couple was over, she would use the diagnosis of the amnesia to return them to friends before the start of the school year. As for Vicki, the question was did she try and prevent Jeremy and her from spending time together? She couldn't be with Jer everyday every moment and he would start to feel suffocated if she tried, and she wouldn't be the buzz kill that Elana tried to be in the show. She would be there for him, with out judging, and try and subtly steer him away from Vicki. As bad as it sounds she felt like maybe she could keep Jer out of the woods during the back to school bonfire after he interrupts Vicki and Tyler, maybe she will die of blood loss after Damon feeds off her. It would avoid a lot of the drama that was to come because of her. Vicki being turned, the Halloween drama at school, and she would die human instead of vampire which means she wouldn't go to the other side she would die and pass on. Which means she wouldn't cause as much drama when she is on the other side trying to get back.
She was torn when it comes to the Lockwoods, Ava wants to try and save Mason, he had seemed like a good guy and it had been obvious that her hadn't trusted Kathrine when he put the moonstone in the well filled with vervain water. If she saved him Tyler wouldn't become a werewolf so soon, although she was pretty sure that when Klaus comes to town he would find a way to turn him and make him a hybrid. The relationship between Tyler and Caroline might be different then though, and she wasn't sure if it would be bad or good different. Then comes Jenna, Ava wasn't sure what to do there, if she saves Jenna somehow then that's one more family member they get to keep. With out Jenna they bond more with Alaric and when he does move on he ends up with Joe and gets his girls. Would that happen if Jenna doesn't die? Would he end up with Jenna instead?
Ava was still having a hard time referring to herself as Elana. It had been much easier in past lives, but she had also had full access to all the memories of the people whose lives she had taken over. She had also had a small voice in the back of her mind pointing out what the character would have done, helping Ava to blend into the role better. But with so few memories yet recovered, and no small voice to help, she was having a harder time of it. She was doing the best she could to respond to Elana's name, and refer to herself as Elana, but it was hard. She was so worried that she would say or do something that the Elana of before would never have done and they would know that she wasn't really her anymore. The amnesia diagnosis was going to be a big help and a big fall back for awhile. She was hoping the fog would lift soon so she could have access to all the memories, and that when the last of the fog dissipated that Elana's voice would be there to help guide her through the moral high ground she had always stood on. Ava was grateful that Caroline had thought of the who's who flash cards, she now had some faces to go with the names mentioned in the journal's and hopped that seeing the faces and reading the facts would help loosen more of Elana's memories.
Two hours and two and a half movies later the sheriff comes home. She walks in and looks around the room, taking in the empty pizza box on the coffee table in front of them, the movie playing on the tv. Caroline and Ava resting with their backs against the couch, Ava's head resting on Caroline's shoulder and Jeremy's head in Ava's lap her finger running through his hair just as they had been the night before at the Gilbert house.
"Hey guys," The sheriff started. "does anybody need anything?"
"Were good, thanks though." Ava responded then turned back to the tv screen, Jeremy had never looked away from the tv, Caroline had only glanced at her mother when she had walked in but hadn't said anything.
"Okay, well don't stay up to late you all have school tomorrow." Liz said as she turned to head up the stairs.
"Wait, are you sure we have to go to school tomorrow? I mean the school year is almost over and with everything going on I just don't know if we could handle that right now." Ave stopped her. Liz stopped and turned back to them, Jeremy had lifted his head up to look at her, and Caroline had paused the movie looking at her too.
Liz sighed looking at the three of them. "A couple days, even a week is understandable, but there is still almost three weeks left of the school year. You both missed today and Caroline missed half the day to be here when you got here. Caroline you do have to go to school, but you two can miss a couple more days. Caroline please bring Elana and Jeremy's homework home that way they don't get behind." They nod in response knowing that it is probably the best they are going to get.
Caroline turns to Ava, "Speaking of school, what do you want me to tell everyone, like if they ask to come see you or anything?" she asks.
"I have no idea. I mean the truth I guess. I'm willing to see a couple people to try and see if they bring any memories back but I would like a day or two before anyone comes over." Ava responded knowing she would like some time to come up with her strategy for dealing with at least two of the people she knew were going to want to come see her. Caroline nods, "Okay." she says. She grabs the remote and pushes play to start the movie back up. They all settle back into their places and resume watching the movie.