Elowen woke the next morning to someone tapping on her window. She groaned and rolled over to see what was making the noise and sat up when she saw who it was.
"Damon?" She pulled the covers off and went over to her window to push it open. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"We have some very important business to discuss. Can I come in?"
Elowen looked uncertain. She chewed on her lip.
"I'm not gonna hurt you, or Josiah or your mom. You can trust me."
Feeling a bit more reassured, she stepped aside. "Get in here and be quiet. I don't wanna get in trouble."
Damon easily slipped through the window and closed it behind him.
"Remind me again why you came here instead of talking to Stefan?" Elowen asked.
"Still not sure I can trust him," was Damon's short reply.
"And you're positive that you can trust me?" Her eyebrows were knitted together in mild confusion.
"Yep." Again, another short answer.
"Why?"
"Enough with the questions." Damon rolled his eyes. "Your brother is best friends with Jeremy Gilbert, so he's on journal duty."
"Hold on." Elowen held her hands up. "Since when was Josiah involved in this?"
"You're helping and he's your brother, ergo…" Damon explained.
"No." Elowen's voice was firm. "I'm not looping him into this without his permission."
"You're really big on consent, aren't you?"
"You aren't?"
Damon shrugged. "I feed on humans without asking."
"Fair point. Look, I'll fish around but I won't ask him unless I really need to."
"Ugh, fine."
"Now, get out of here before my mom catches you. She'll kill me if she finds out I invited you in." Elowen turned and opened the drawer to her dresser, beginning to pull out clothes for the day. She tossed her shirt on the bed and saw Damon was still in the room.
"If Stefan really was planning something and you knew…. You'd tell me, right?" Damon asked, staring at the floor. His confidant facade was gone. It almost felt odd to see him even remotely vulnerable.
Elowen nodded her head without thinking twice. "Of course I would. He hasn't given me any reason to think he's lying and I haven't sensed anything. Now go."
Damon finally exited the way he came and Elowen left to shower.
"Hey," Elowen greeted as she walked into the kitchen. Josiah was seated at the dinner table. "What happened last night? Elena said there was this weird girl bothering Jeremy."
"Oh." Josiah shook his head. "Just some girl we met at the library when I was helping Jeremy with his history report. I guess she has some weird, stalker crush on him and followed him to the dance."
"Well, that's not creepy or anything."
"I know," Josiah snorted. "What's even weirder is, she kept pestering him about this journal he found in his dad's stuff. It belonged to some old ancestor, or whatever."
Elowen perked up a bit and leaned against the counter. She was trying to act as casual as possible. "Wait, really? That's….. Kinda cool, actually. Does he still have it?"
"Nah." He shook his head. "Said he gave it to Mr. Saltzman."
"Oh." She shrugged. "Guess I'll have to ask him to borrow it later." She nonchalantly stated and went on with her routine. She made a mental note to check the school later.
Meet me at the school. Ric has the journal.
Elowen sent a quick text to Stefan before she got in her car. Little did she know, he already knew its whereabouts.
When she arrived, she decided to enter through the band room. Usually, the teacher forgot to lock the outside door and she was in luck. As she neared the history classroom, she realized there were voices coming from it and slowed down.
"... compressed air? Did you make it yourself?"
"Stefan?" Elowen rounded the corner and stepped through the door.
"Elo- What are you doing here?" He asked, eyes widening at the sight of her. She furrowed her eyebrows.
"I texted you. Remember?"
"Uhh, right. Sorry." He lifted the contraption in his hand. "I got distracted."
"What…. Is that?" She asked, taking it from Stefan's hold.
"I dunno. Ask him."
She looked up from the weapon and saw Alaric sitting a few feet away from them. She gestured towards it. "This is yours?"
Slowly, because it wasn't Stefan asking the questions, but Elowen, he nodded. Still, he shot a suspicious look at Stefan. Elowen followed his gaze and quickly shook her head.
"No, no, he won't hurt you. I promise. He's not like that." She handed over his gun and hesitantly, Alaric took it. Stefan pulled one of the knocked over desks up and sat on top of it. Elowen did the same.
"Considering you're sorta dating my mom….. You better answer this honestly," Elowen started. "Who are you, really?"
"A teacher... And a historian," Alaric added at the end at her pointed look. "When researching Virginia, I made a few…. Discoveries about this town."
"So you show up like Van Helsing?" Elowen raised her eyebrows. "Come on, there's more truth than that."
Alaric sighed. Elowen was much sharper than he had thought. "My wife was a parapsychologist. She spent her life researching paranormal activity in this area. It was her work that led me here."
"Wait, wait." Elowen put out her hand, signaling him to stop. "Your dead wife?"
"How did you know she was- nevermind. Esmeralda told you?"
She hadn't, actually, but Elowen wasn't gonna tell him that, so she nodded and played along with it.
"Lemme guess," Stefan cut in. "A vampire killed her."
Alaric nodded.
"Look, that's not why we're here," Elowen stated. "Where's the Gilbert journal?"
"What do you need it for?"
"Well, what do you need it for? Jeremy's report is done, isn't it?" She shot back. Alaric actually managed a laugh at this.
"It's on my desk."
"No, it's not," Stefan said after giving it a once over.
Confused, Alaric cast a glance at his desk. "Well, it was on my desk."
"How long have you known that the supernatural world is real?" Elowen asked. She was carrying on a normal conversation with Alaric as Stefan searched the room for the journal, just in case.
"Awhile. But I only learned of Stefan recently."
"Oh no….." Elowen mumbled. "Damon was the one that killed your wife, wasn't he?"
Alaric blinked in surprise. "Yeah… how did-"
"Are you sure it was him?" Stefan asked, coming back to where they were sitting before he could finish his thought.
"I witnessed it."
"If you're here for revenge, this won't end well for you."
"I just want to find out what happened to my wife."
"I can help you," Elowen butt in. She was certain that she could use her powers to figure some of it out, but only if she had access to his wife's personal things. "This is gonna sound weird, but you can't question how. But I can do it." She knew she was putting herself at risk of him finding out the truth about her family, but she had a knack for wanting to help even when she shouldn't. It must've been some kind of subconscious way of trying to make up for not being able to help when Luis was around.
Alaric just stared at her. Before he could say anything, Stefan cut in again.
"Look, I really need that journal," he stressed. "Do you have any idea who took it?"
"No. It really was just there. But… I made a copy."
"Let me borrow it," Stefan all but demanded immediately.
Alaric looked uncertain. Elowen leaned forward in her seat. "Mr. Saltzman, please. We wouldn't be asking like this unless we really needed it."
The two stared at one another for a few beats. Finally, he sighed, giving in. "Fine. I'll go get it."
Stefan had took it from Alaric before Elowen could do anything. He told her he'd take it to Damon and left. For once since this search officially started, something told her that he wasn't going to take it to Damon.
She pulled out her phone and dialed Damon's number as she headed back towards the band room.
"Stefan found a copy of the journal. He took it and left," she filled him in once he picked up the phone. "He told me he was taking it to you, but I don't think he's telling the truth."
"Where are you?"
"The high school."
"Okay. Wait there. I'll come to you."
Elowen hung up and walked back to her car. After waiting a couple of minutes, Damon sped up next to her.
"I didn't think you'd actually rat your boyfriend out," he said as he came to a stop. Elowen shrugged.
"Usually, I wouldn't, but the fact that it feels like he's up to something and he didn't fill me in…" she trailed off.
"Where else can we look? There's no way Stefan will let me read anything he finds." Damon changed the subject. Elowen was slightly grateful. If Stefan really was doing something behind her back, she didn't want to think about it. Maybe this was his payback for her lying to him about the tomb.
"What about that girl that was asking Jeremy about the journal at the dance? If we find her…"
"We find the journal," Damon finished. "Sounds like a plan."
The two piled in the car, Damon in the driver's seat as Elowen texted Josiah.
Hey. Where are u at?
The Grill w Jeremy. That girl pestered him again and I came as backup
Elowen showed Damon the text and he started up the car, heading in the direction of The Grill.
Elowen sat waiting in her car in front of a motel room. When they arrived at The Grill, Damon discovered that he knew Anna (the girl) back in 1864. He had gone in to 'talk' to her and Elowen really didn't wanna be there if things got ugly. After a couple of minutes, Damon exited the motel room.
"Did you find out anything?" She asked as Damon restarted the car.
"Yep. We get to pay a visit to my dear old dad."
"Y'know, there was a time when I trusted Stefan more than anyone," Damon told her as they walked through the woods.
"I'm sure there was a time when he felt the same." She shrugged. "Things change after 145 years."
Damon cast her a glance. "So what's up with the sudden change of attitude? You used to be so…. Evasive with me. You were damn good at it, too."
Elowen shrugged. "I don't really know," she answered uncertainly. "Something in the back of my head is telling me to trust you, after our trip to Atlanta….." She trailed off. "Everything after our game of pool is really fuzzy. I know Lee almost killed you. And I got to see Binx."
"Yeah," Damon snorted. "That dog hated me."
"He has really good judge of character."
Damon rolled his eyes, but there was no malice behind it. Elowen was lost in thought as she tried her hardest to remember what had conspired that night.
"Stefan said….. I told you about my dad…." She slowly came to a stop. Her eyes flickered up to Damon, who was looking down at her. "You told me…. That your dad was the same. Right? You opened up. We bonded."
The two of them stared down one another for a few moments. A smile started to creep onto Elowen's face.
"Oh my god. You care about me. That's why you trust me!"
Instead of answering, Damon's head shot up as if he heard something. The next second, he sped off and disappeared into the trees. Elowen scoffed and started trekking behind him.
"Well that wasn't fair," she muttered to herself.
Damon had actually heard Stefan and Elena up ahead.
"Well, what do you know?"
The two of them, startled, whipped around. Damon couldn't stop his upper lip from curling into a snarl. Elowen had been right. As usual.
Stefan jumped up with Emily's grimoire in his hands. Elena was holding Esperanza's.
"I can't let you bring her back. I'm sorry."
"So am I," Damon sneered. "For thinking even for a second that I could trust you. Not that I did in the first place."
"Oh, you're not capable of trust," Stefan said scornfully. "The fact that you're here alone means you were going to do this by yourself."
Damon shook his head. "You're wrong, brother. I didn't come alone. I brought someone that I can actually put my trust in."
Elowen had caught up to Damon at this point. "Can you at least warn me when you do that..." Her voice broke off as she came out from behind Damon and saw Stefan standing there. Her eyes trailed to Elena standing a few feet behind him and she scoffed in disbelief.
"I knew it. I fucking knew it," she spat. "It's one thing to lie to me, but to go behind my back and get her involved?"
"Elowen…. You don't understand-" Stefan tried to explain, but Elowen cut him off.
"No, I understand well enough!" She yelled. "You can't just allow Damon this one sliver of happiness out of childish pettiness! If you let him have Katherine, you'll never have to see him again! Is that not what you wanted? Or is it just not enough for you?" She put her hands up. "Y'know what? Don't answer that. I believe one of those belongs to me."
Esperanza's grimoire ripped itself from Elena's hold and flew into Elowen's arms. She looked up at nothing in particular in surprise. Had that been Esperanza? If so, it didn't make much sense. She went through all that trouble to destroy the crystals. Perhaps she just wanted her grimoire in the right hands.
Elowen shot a glance to Damon, beginning to take a few steps backwards. "Do what you have to." She told him, then spun around and walked back the way she came, ignoring Stefan's cries for her to come back.