Petrichor: def. the scent of rain on dry earth
Chapter 15: When Did I Become A Therapist?
There was a witch and two vampires all in a boardinghouse, sitting quietly in front of a fireplace. After dropping Caroline off, Stefan took me back here, presumably because I still looked pretty pissed.
Or maybe they just like my company!
Probably not.
I guessed that Damon would most likely lie about killing Logan Fell, hoping to get further info out of him about Fell's Church and the tomb altogether like in my memories. He'd probably be a very sore loser once he went and found him dead. But, until then, I sat, both brothers giving me major questioning side eye.
I'll admit, I might've gone a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs earlier, but that was just what happened if you provoked a powerful emotional response from any witch, just a little heightened. I'm still not in the best of moods after letting Caroline be taken by that douche nozzle. Just like Bonnie and the car at Sexy Suds, I was very susceptible to my emotions, specifically anger, and was trained in not letting it get the best of me most of the time.
Training for me had started from much younger, and therefore the magic within my body had to be sufficient enough to kickstart my magical puberty, and that had been at a very similar level to where Bonnie is now. I've had a lot of time to work on my emotional control, while Bons has only just begun. Bonnie also has been showing signs of being stronger than she had begun in my memories, but she didn't have near the strength she'd develop in the future, very much a drop in the bucket.
To make a long story short, magic makes your emotions volatile, and the more powerful you are as a witch, the more control it takes not to throw a big ol' witch fit every time you feel something strongly. I, for one, hadn't been that angry since Tyler blew out my candles at my fifth birthday party, or gotten close since Elena asked Matt to Homecoming after Care told her how much she liked him.
The latter was a much more messy affair than the former, with a massive storm suddenly coming to Mystic Falls the day of Homecoming and completely washing everyone out for the evening. Anyway, back to me in the study with two vamps.
Sounds like Clue.
"Wanna tell us what that was all about, Aly Cat?" Damon asks as he crosses his long legs in the chair beside me, "It was very hard to come up with an excuse as to how I had his arm."
I glare playfully at him, "Don't lie, D. You probably just pegged it on the shitty little baby vampire. You probably spun the arm out to make you sound better to the Council."
A small, knowing grin spreads on his darkly handsome face, "True. Now spill the beans."
Stefan parks his cute butt over onto the couch across from us, glancing between me and the fireplace with an unreadable expression, and I sigh.
"Look, I'm a possessive person by nature. I don't like people touching or hurting those I've put under my protection. So, being the bratty teen I am, I threw a bit of a fit over seeing Care Bear hurt. Same thing would've happened if you had touched any of the Fantastic Four."
Damon smirks at the nickname, but Stefan is clearly confused. Asking with his big pretty green eyes for me to explain, I groan, "Ugh, Stef, no need for the puppy dog eyes. It's just the terms of me and D's business arrangement. I help him with something, he doesn't snack on four people."
Forest eyes grow slightly darker at the explanation, "Only four?"
I shrug, not really caring to explain why my list was so tiny. With a small smile, I stand up, "So, am I free to go home now, officers? Or do you need more testimony?"
Suddenly, there's a sharp knock on the door. Ughh, what now? Stefan gets up to answer, and judging by Damon's derisive chuckle, I can guess that once again I've been cornered by my least favorite person in Mystic Falls.
Elena Gilbert strides into the house, clearly a woman on a mission, when her doe eyes narrow harshly at me. She pretty much speed walks over, clearly very angry, and I perk an eyebrow up at Stefan who looks vaguely concerned for the doppelgänger's welfare.
"How could you, Alessia?! Caroline trusted you!" She yells in my face, and I roll my eyes at her dramatics.
"What the hell are you going on about, Elena?" God, she truly did manage to suck the enjoyment out of the room. Profound.
"Aren't you some hot shit witch? How did you not know Caroline was in danger? She's your best friend!"
What?
"Gilbert, I'm pretty sure Bonnie has told you that being a witch doesn't make us all knowing. I didn't know because I'm not an omniscient god."
She crosses her arms, cocky, and clearly thinking that she has a one up on me.
"Bons said she had a vision of the night Mr. Tanner went missing, and that she thought it was a warning."
Idiot.
"Alright, I'm going to say this once, and then you need to get the fuck out of my face before I give you something to be pissed about," I say, standing up to meet her eye level coldly, "Not all witches are gifted in the same areas, it's not a copy paste function that nature spits out. It's a very snowflake experience, there's not one quite like the other. Bonnie's magic is in a trial period to see what she's good at, and that's why she's only ever had one vision. This isn't That's So Raven, I can't see into the future."
Well, that's a complete lie, I just wasn't aware of how late it was.
Elena's eyes are still hard on mine, but I can tell that it's mostly because she's not my biggest fan. Her eyes cut to the left at where Damon is sitting, watching the confrontation with rapt attention and curious amusement.
Whether it's at the current argument, my cold attitude towards Doppelena, or the slight look of embarrassment and anger on the latter's face, I'm unsure.
Well, he's certainly not going to stop a cat fight.
Stefan's hand gently grabs Elena's, slowly pulling her away from my personal bubble that she'd breached.
"I understand you're upset about Caroline, but Alessia is not to blame for this. Logan Fell is the one who tried to hurt her," he says gently, as if she won't understand unless the truth is spoon fed to her. Maybe she wouldn't. In my memories, anytime impactful news wasn't broken in an easy manner to be doppelgänger, she either ignored it or got extremely emotional about it.
And that might be another reason I don't like her very much. She had her strong moments, but they were almost always at the worst possible time. It was like she aspired to be a 'heroine' cliche, forever protected by two handsome brothers while simultaneously throwing herself into harms way to save everyone else, and also having literally everyone else throw themselves into harms way to stop her.
It's not her fault she's the weakest supernatural occurrence out there, but it should've been more important for her to acknowledge that everyone could die for her if she wasn't careful. So is the sway of the charm Petrova doppelgängers carry.
Rolling my eyes, I turn to Damon. I didn't know if Stefan and Elena were going to boink or not, but if they were, I didn't want to be here for it. Who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky and Elena won't find Katherine's picture after all I've done to change things. No offense to her, but it wouldn't be convenient for me time wise. And by 'wouldn't be convenient', I mean she'd annoy me to high heaven with her clone angst.
"Damon, mind giving me a lift? I'm starving."
Standing up and grabbing his keys, he nods, "Yeah, come on, Ally Cat. Let's go get you a milkshake."
YAY!!!!
*
"What the hell are you doing?"
I stop mid-dip of my fry into my chocolate milkshake, looking up into offended blue eyes, "I know you're a vamp and all, but eating isn't a foreign concept to you, right?"
Damon pops a fry in his mouth to spite me, before gesturing to my chocolate dipped French fry, "That is a culinary blasphemy."
Rolling my eyes and laughing, I point the fry at him, "Don't knock it till you try it, D..."
He squints at me and looks at me as if he doesn't know whether I'm trying to poison him or not. I raise a challenging brow at him, which earns me an adorable huff and an eye roll before he bites it straight from my hand.
Wiping a stray drop of milkshake from the corner of his mouth before provocatively licking it from his thumb, I have to try to make sure my poor little teenage heart doesn't burst in my chest. A cocky grin takes it's rightful place on his face, and I feel a pout working on mine.
"Your little ticker is thumping awful hard there, Aly Cat. Don't tell me you have a crush on me?"
"Easy there, D," I reply wryly, dipping another fry and happily noticing that he dips his as well, "After all, we were lovers for like a week. I think I reserve the right to admire."
Damon leans forward, looking intensely into my eyes. I already know I'm blushing so I just glare at him. How dare he mess around with me! The nerve. He grabs my hand as I nervously reach to eat another fry, smirking, "You could do more than admire. Try being lovers for real?"
His large hand runs over mine gently before I yank it away.
"I don't think so, D. You're spoken for, and as cute as you are, I don't need some jealous vampire chick coming to mount me on a pike because I banged her beau."
Damon smirks as if I've issued a challenge, and is about to speak again, when his phone rings. Looking at the I.D. with annoyance, he answers, "Hello?"
His dark brow furrows as he listens to the other end of the call. "Uh... Not following."
A few more moments.
"What?"
After a couple more seconds, Damon looks a bit stunned and a bit frustrated as he hangs up his phone, looking up at me.
"Did you bibidi bobodi boo Fell into oblivion?"
I fake a surprised expression, then whisper yell, "What?! No! I thought you killed him?"
He shrugs his shoulders, waving the waiter over and asking for a double shot of bourbon and then turning his attention back to me, "Well, they found the prick properly gutted outside the warehouse he tortured me in. Apparently, there's a shit ton of bodies stacked in there."
That puts a wrinkle of distaste on my nose, but I shrug nonetheless, "Ew. But, good riddance."
He looks at me more urgently, apparently a bit annoyed by my nonchalant attitude.
"No! Not 'good riddance'," he says the last bit with an annoying high pitched voice that I assume is supposed to be me. Rude.
"That means, there's someone else who knows about vampires in this town who isn't part of the Council," he finishes with a sigh and dramatic rub of his forehead. What a drama queen. All you Salvatores are so over the top.
My brows furrow for a moment when I remember what was about to befall Elena once she left the boardinghouse. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't not care about Elena's potential demise by whoever the hell was obsessed with Katherine, especially since Damon has no reason to be out and about since he didn't need to go to Georgia. Ugh. Guess I'll have to fake a 'vision' and get someone to go help her.
"Hey, Day, not that I'm not completely enraptured by your hissy fit over Fell, but I have a bad feeling about something. Mind taking a drive with me to go check it out? I got something special for you if you do."
Damon's handsome face quirks with curiosity before he slaps forty bucks on the table.
"You're lucky I really need a win today."
*
How have I fallen so far? Throwing myself out there to save the fucking doppelgänger. The mighty do fall indeed.
As we pulled up the very long Salvatore driveway, lo and behold, Elena's car completely flipped over and smoking. Damon turns on his high beams, trying to get a closer look, and it reveals, in a very spooky way, the hooded vampire who had been approaching the car.
Oooo, I got chills.
Damon immediately slams on the brakes, jumping out of the car to go and help her, and I watch the shadowy figure speed off under the cover of darkness. I quickly pull out my phone and dial Stefan, who answers on the second ring.
"Alessia? What is it-," I cut him off.
"Shut up, and run down the driveway. We got issues."
*
Elena is placed on the couch gently by Stefan and I glance at the glass of apple juice I've poured myself.
This is quickly getting boring.
Damon was outside trying his best to tidy up the mess Elena's car bits had made, very grumpily, might I add. I've just accepted the fact that I'm not going back to Caroline's tonight. They have a shit ton of rooms in this wannabe mansion, and I'm not trying to get Care in trouble with my dumbass trying to come in at two in the morning.
I quickly shoot her a text to let her know I'm staying and that I'll tell her and Bons what happened later, before turning to face an even more broody than usual Stefan.
"Is it cool if I stay here tonight, Salvatore? You won't even notice I'm here."
He nods resolutely, still looking at the recently blood healed Elena guiltily, and I sigh before flopping onto the middle of the opposite couch.
"I'm gonna take a wild guess and assume Elena found out about KitKat?"
I get another nod in response, Stefan coming over and sitting to my right with a kicked puppy expression.
Poor guy.
"Everything'll be fine Stefan. Elena's a forgiving person to people she likes, and she definitely likes you. Hell, she might even love you," I say giving him a comforting smile and a light punch on the shoulder, "Just explain everything to her once she wakes up and I'm sure everything will be back to daisies."
Green eyes move to look down on the floor, and I hear him exhale out of his nose before looking back up at me, "Things weren't exactly daisies before."
Cue eyebrow raise. I knew that they had been taking things slower, and in my opinion, that was better, but I didn't know that things were not good.
"What do you mean by that? You guys are literally the talk of the town with that 'star-crossed lover' look in your eyes. People at school think you write her poems and shit. Really, you've upped the standards of dating in this town."
He shrugs, "Well, first off, she's been pretty consistently upset with me over the last couple weeks. She was mad that I didn't tell her about Damon, then she was mad about not telling her about Katherine, then she was mad that I didn't want to tell her about the supernatural, and with our track record, she's going to be really angry that I didn't tell her that her and Katherine look identical. Elena's mad that I'm friends with you and Caroline, she's really mad that you and Damon have some sort of business deal, she's angry that you, Caroline, and Bonnie were all in on the supernatural. And to spare you another five minutes, she's not happy about the pace of our relationship either."
Jesus fucking CHRIST that's a lot to be angry about.
"Weird," I say, a bit shellshocked from the information dump, "Elena's so tiny, I didn't think she could contain so much rage. Oh, but the first half of that could've not happened if you just communicated with her. Like, it'd only been a few days since y'all met, so I get why you didn't at first, but the rest you probably could've let her know."
Stefan nods resolutely, "You're right, I just.. I had no idea how to.."
"Tell her she's literally a copy and paste of your ex? Gee, I wonder why," he turns and glares at me and my snark, clearly saying with his pretty green eyes that I'm being unhelpful at best.
"She's nothing like Katherine. She's sweet, and kind, and loyal."
You're kinda right, but she's just as manipulative, if not moreso, than Katherine. But then again, I'm a bit biased.
Elena stirs slightly on the couch, and I inwardly groan, praying that Damon comes back in soon so I don't have to third wheel with my generation's Romeo and Juliet.
She groans, opening her doe eyes and seeing me and Stefan on the couch. They suddenly widen and she jumps back like we're about to attack her.
"Why am I back here, Stefan? And why is Alessia here?!"
The doppelgänger looks like she's about to have a panic attack, so I wave at her with a grin. Stefan shoots me a disapproving look before raising his hands in mock surrender.
"It's okay, Elena, everything's fine. You were in a car accident, do you remember anything?" He asks gently, and I take the time to note that his voice could be very soothing when he wanted it to be.
"I-I was driving down the driveway," she stutters, and I see the gears turning in her head, "Then someone came out in f-front of my car.."
Vampire douche nozzle.
Her big brown eyes suddenly lock on Stefan fearfully, looking like she's about to bolt, "Did you do that to me, Stefan?"
What the hell?
"No, Elena," I sigh, and I see how deeply hurt he is that Elena thinks he would hurt her, that he would hurt anyone.
Bitch.
"Me and Damon pulled up and found your car flipped over. Some weird shadow-y dude in a hoodie was your perp. Vampire sped away and everything."
Her brown eyes widen, "But why would they do that?"
Probably because you look like his sire.
I shrug my shoulders, glancing back towards the fireplace and thinking. If this has happened, that means Anna is in town and that I need to find her and offer her a deal. Not that I care if baby Gilbert gets emotionally manipulated, but she was just a girl who wanted her mother, and that spoke to my numerous abandonment issues.
Snapping back to the room, I realize Elena is asking me a question and I've completely missed like half of it. I blink, before asking, "What was that? I spaced out."
Doppelena glares at me momentarily before repeating, "Why'd you save me? Don't you hate me?"
Hate's a strong word.
"Had a bad feeling and went with it. I didn't know that it had anything to do with you. Also, I don't actually hate you, Elena. Your presence just annoys me to no end. I have no desire to do anything to hurt you, or want revenge for anything, I just don't like seeing you in my eyeline."
Like a really annoying fly. But, points again to the Bennett bluntness.
She gasps, completely flabbergasted and I don't know whether it's because of the fact that I see her more as an annoying neighbor than an actual enemy, or that I actually genuinely dislike her without any vehemence. Stefan looks like he doesn't know whether to laugh or whether to get offended on behalf of his girlfriend.
So, I don't give them time to add to the conversation.
Standing up, I walk over to the staircase, with a quick, "Goodnight, lovebirds! I'm exhausted."
And then I pick an empty room and pop a squat on the large mattress. Jesus, this place is nice. I wonder if they'd let me and Bons move over here. Taking off my pants and laying down, I sigh.
Things are about to get more busy, ugh.
*
Blinking awake, I lay there stunned as I see that someone has crawled into my bed. Opposing eyes look back at me, and I roll my eyes.
"Damon Salvatore, what the hell are you doing in my bed?"
Beautiful blue eyes flash mischievously.
"Technically, it's mine."
*
A/n: Hi everyone! Sorry for the hold up, the holidays keep me busy. Hope you all enjoy this chapter!
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