Chapter Forty-Five
Elena came to the boardinghouse after school because Rebecca had left a message on her phone.
"You said Stefan was locked up. Why?" Elena asked.
Rebecca looked at Damon, who had promised to let her handle this. He was keeping his promise so far, but if they didn't hurry it up, he might not worry about what he'd said. He could be impatient sometimes.
"He's locked up because he attacked someone," Rebecca said calmly. Though to be honest, just the mention of Stefan's name brought a surge of rage to Rebecca's whole being. She hadn't been angry yet since she'd been turned, but she was getting angry now.
She was angry because Stefan had attacked her when she'd wanted to help him.
"Stefan attacked someone?" Elena sounded shocked and in disbelief, and Rebecca felt the intense need to roll her eyes.
"He's not perfect, Elena," she snapped.
Elena looked at Rebecca; she must've noticed that Rebecca's tone was a little off.
"Are you okay?"
"Well . . . define okay."
"You seem okay, as in you're up running around," Elena said softly.
"Yeah, well, so am I," Damon said, speaking for the first time since Elena had arrived.
Elena, who was holding Chelsea because the little girl had gravitated to the brunette, was quiet for a while, sorting things out in her head.
"Are you saying . . . that you're . . ."
"I died last night, Elena," Rebecca whispered. "Stefan killed me."
Again Elena was quiet and was looking at her with disbelief.
"Becca . . ." Elena spoke now. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"Well, it happened right after Jeremy left with Jenna."
Rebecca explained to Elena what had happened as best as she could, and she got angry again. Because . . . she had wanted to be friends with Stefan, but now she couldn't. He had killed her and she couldn't be friends with someone who had done that. And . . . she had the urge to go down in the cellar and tear Stefan a new one. It had hurt, damn it!
That was when Rebecca felt her face change, and it was from anger and betrayal and -
Oh, God! Chelsea was right there! Rebecca didn't want to frighten her sister, so she made sure Chelsea couldn't see her face.
"Breathe," she heard Damon whisper; it was only loud enough for her to hear, so she listened.
"Do you need me to leave?" Elena asked, compassion lacing her voice. "I can go downstairs if -"
"No, I'm just . . . upset, and I'm new so I'm feeling everything, only . . . more."
That was the only way she knew to explain it. She'd felt anger as a human, anger that made her want to throw things or hit someone, maybe even make her want to bash someone's head in, but as a vampire - as an angry vampire - she sort of had this mindless need to destroy something, and it didn't matter what.
"Was this what you wanted?" Elena asked. "To become a vampire?"
Rebecca sighed. There was really only one way to put the answer to that question. "Eventually. It wasn't our plan for me to become one so soon, but yes, I told Damon a while back that if it came down to it, I was okay with it. And nobody else knows about me yet, so . . ."
"I won't say a word," Elena promised. She bit her lip before speaking again. "Can I see him? Is he awake, and is it safe?"
"Well, don't go in," Rebecca said. "And don't let him out."
"Right. Says you." There wasn't any malice in Elena's voice, though.
Rebecca knew Elena was talking about her letting Damon out when Stefan had locked him up. That may have been one of the stupider things Rebecca had done, but she wouldn't have changed it for anything, even though it had resulted in her getting bitten.
Elena stood up and handed Chelsea to Rebecca. Rebecca didn't go down to the cellar with her brunette friend because she didn't want to risk hurting Elena by losing control; she knew she would if she saw Stefan.
"Well, at least she's still alive," Damon said. "How're you feeling?"
"Hungry," Rebecca admitted sheepishly. "Angry."
"Stefan," Damon mumbled. "Not too happy with him myself."
Damon went down to the cellar to get Rebecca some blood. When he got back upstairs he put it in a glass so as not to let Chelsea see her drinking from a blood bag. Damon concentrated and tried to place what everyone was doing. Sarah was upstairs; she was still upset about not being able to go outside during the day, but at least she had company by way of Rebecca and Chelsea. And she knew Rebecca a little, so . . .
Then there was Elena, who was trying to talk to Stefan, who wasn't responding. He was probably being melodramatic and feeling guilty about hurting Rebecca, which he should. Stefan had stolen from the blood bank - the local one. Damon hadn't noticed the night before because he'd been preoccupied with making sure Rebecca had been okay, but they had a whole freezer filled with blood bags down in another part of the cellar.
He'd found out why at the Council meeting earlier - Liz had told him that the records had been 'altered', but that the night manager hadn't had any memory of changing them, which meant that Stefan had compelled the manager to forget it had ever happened. He'd been being careful, at least.
John Gilbert had been the one to alert the sheriff. Liz had been informed of other hospital blood banks having the same problem; Damon didn't know if Stefan was responsible for every theft, but . . .
Since Liz knew about the blood being stolen she was upping security at the hospitals and dosing the guards with vervain. That meant Damon was going to have to travel farther when he went to get blood for them. The last thing they needed was to have security guards going missing.
"Did you know Bonnie came home today?" Elena asked as she sat beside Rebecca on the couch. "I tried talking to her in class, but . . ."
"Was she avoiding you?"
"A little. I asked her how she was doing, and her family. She said it's been hard, but they're dealing. She, uh . . . didn't want to come home because of the vampires being out of the tomb. And then -" Elena's voice took on a pissed off sort of tone "- I found out that Bonnie and Caroline have been talking every day, and Bonnie never even answered when I called."
Rebecca didn't say anything, but she did admit to herself that it stung; she'd thought she and Bonnie were closer than that. Bonnie hadn't answered for her, either.
Well, whether Bonnie wanted to talk to her or not, Rebecca needed her necklace spelled. Bonnie was the only witch around now, so she had to help. The Grams thing aside . . . Rebecca had been a good friend. Bonnie owed her.
"I need to talk to her. Do you think she'd answer if I called?"
"Maybe now that she's home," Elena admitted. "Though she didn't seem to want to talk to me."
"Well, I can get her to talk," Damon said.
"Damon, no," Elena was talking like she thought Damon was actually going to listen all of a sudden. "She's mad at all the tombed vampires and you may not be from the tomb, but you are a vampire."
"I'm not scared of her," Damon said firmly. "Besides, I just want to have a civilized conversation with her."
"Civilized? In relation to you? What does that even mean?"
"It means I mean her no harm."
"She might not see it that way."
"Well, that's her problem."
Later that day Elena tried talking to Stefan again. It wasn't working this time, either. Rebecca was sitting upstairs, listening in while also talking to Sarah and taking care of Chelsea. Damon was there too but he was keeping his peace as long as Rebecca was careful with Chelsea.
"Why is Stefan locked up? Aren't vampires supposed to eat people?" Sarah asked; she was nursing a glass of blood herself.
"He doesn't know when enough is enough," Rebecca said, making it clear she had no intention of discussing it further.
Rebecca was trying to focus on what was going on downstairs. She wanted to know what Stefan had to say for himself this time. He always had some excuse that would ingratiate himself to Elena no matter what he did, even if he'd killed one of her friends.
Rebecca knew she let Damon get away with a lot but she wouldn't have forgiven him if he'd killed one of her friends - or that's what she told herself.
What happened, Stefan? Elena's voice was as clear as it would've been had Rebecca been down there with her. You told me you were fine.
Rebecca rolled her eyes. Of course he had said that; he'd said so himself that he didn't want Elena to know about this part of him.
Rebecca was momentarily distracted when she thought again about Bonnie - and that led to other people she wanted to talk to. Jeremy, mostly, because she could be upfront with him. He wouldn't judge her; Bonnie probably would, sad to say.
Bonnie would no longer see Rebecca Stone, friend. She would see Rebecca Stone, vampire and predator. A threat, an enemy. Rebecca had lost one friend already and she'd only been a vampire for a day.
Oh, God, her friends! They were all going to die! They were going to grow old and die. Well . . . being that they lived in Mystic Falls, they might not grow old at all, but they would die.
Technically, she'd thought this through already. She'd come to terms with it before, when she'd talked to Damon about him changing her, but that had been then. It had been a hypothetical conversation. Damon was supposed to have been the one to change her, later in life. It wasn't supposed to have been Stefan; it was never supposed to have been Stefan.
This - Rebecca being turned - was supposed to have been something that was Damon's alone. It was supposed to have happened when they'd both been ready for it. It shouldn't have happened like this.
"Are you okay?" Sarah's voice broke through Rebecca's thoughts.
Rebecca wasn't really okay. Because . . . she was dead - not in-the-ground dead, but she had died. She'd been counting on living another five years at least.
"I'm gonna be fine, Sarah," Rebecca said.
Rebecca still had Elena and Damon and Chelsea. Caroline, too, even though she was still in the dark about everything. Elena could be a judgmental little thing, but she could be a good friend, too. Damon . . . Well, he was Damon and he was hers forever - that was the one thing that had kept her from thinking about everything that was now springing to mind. Chelsea -
Rebecca's heart stopped. What were they going to do about Chelsea? Rebecca, having assumed she would be turned later, had never stopped to think about what would happen to Chelsea if it happened sooner. Assuming the townspeople weren't as stupid as they seemed, would notice that certain citizens weren't aging, which meant they would have to leave. No matter where they went they could only stay for a few years, and that was only if nobody ever suspected anything before that time was up.
That was no life for a kid and definitely not for a baby. She might have to give Chelsea up. Damon might have to give Chelsea up, and Damon wasn't good at giving up things he cared about.
It would make him act very distant with her if she even mentioned it, but she would have to mention it if she wanted to do what was best for Chelsea. And breaking her away from them slowly would be best, which meant that Chelsea not living with them but still seeing them was best. And hopefully . . . hopefully Chelsea would be old enough to understand that her big sister had to leave when the time came.
But . . . Who could she leave Chelsea with other than Robert or Tina, neither of whom Rebecca really wanted to be responsible for Chelsea. Robert because he could barely take care of his own self, let alone a baby he didn't really care for, Tina because Tina was going to have a baby of her own and Rebecca didn't want Chelsea to become second best just because she wasn't really Tina's baby.
Well . . . Rebecca didn't want to give Chelsea away and Damon wouldn't want to give her away . . . so . . . why not have a trial run? Just to see if they could do it. See if they could play house with Damon, Chelsea and herself - Stefan and Elena too, by default. There was no doubt they could keep Chelsea safe, but there was no way Chelsea would grow up normal if they kept her.
The only thing Rebecca could think after reviewing everything she'd just thought about was . . . So what? She loved Chelsea and Damon loved Chelsea, so . . . they could try to make it work.
Possibly.
By the time night fell Rebecca was just about to go stir crazy. She'd been cooped up all day because of the sun, so when the sun went down she went outside. Damon was still inside so she didn't worry about Elena's or Chelsea's safety. They were both safe with him.
"Damon," she said, knowing he'd hear her no matter what part of the house he was in. "I'm going to see Bonnie. I won't be long, I promise."
"Be safe," she heard in return.
Then she took off.
It was amazing being able to move with vampire speed. She knew that to human eyes she would be a blur - that's how fast she was going. She also knew that if she weren't a vampire she would think everything she was passing was a blur, but it wasn't to her. She was so . . . exhilarated; it was liberating. The speed she could get used to. And even though it was dark and she was in a wooded area, she could see as clear as day. The only thing that would have made it better was if she'd been running alongside Damon. She'd have to suggest that sometime when the drama died down, if it ever did.
Pretty soon she was at Bonnie's even though she'd had to slow down when she reached town. She could tell that Bonnie wasn't alone by the two heartbeats that were coming from inside the house. Caroline was there too, if the car parked in the driveway was anything to go by.
Well . . . there went the talking-to-Bonnie plan. It didn't change her mind, though, about visiting. Maybe if Bonnie saw she still acted the same then Bonnie wouldn't have any qualms about helping her. So Rebecca knocked on the door.
When Bonnie opened the door all the witch said was, "Hey."
"Hey," Rebecca replied back, though she was sure Bonnie owed her more than that. "Elena told me you were back."
"Yeah. Just got back today. Uh . . . what're you doin' here?"
"Well, you never answered when I called, so I thought I'd try the direct approach." Rebecca chose to ignore the slight hint of anger she was feeling.
To Bonnie's credit, she did look guilty. "I'm sorry, I just needed a break. With Grams' death and everything . . ."
"Right. I get that."
"I just had so much to deal with after Grams' funeral and, honestly, after Elena told me the tomb spell failed I didn't really wanna come back. I understand why Elena told me; she wanted me to know about it before I came back, but I just . . . shouldn't know."
Bonnie just shouldn't know? Rebecca didn't understand that - the whole willful ignorance thing. But that had been Bonnie's M.O. since she'd learned about vampires, so . . .
All of a sudden Rebecca realized she wasn't really ready for Bonnie to know about her being a vampire. Bonnie wasn't happy knowing about the other vampires in town, so she wasn't going to add anymore drama into the witch's life. She could wait a few days.
"Bonnie!" Caroline's voice called from upstairs. "Help needed!"
"Help?" Rebecca asked. "For what?"
"The Founder's Court. Miss Mystic Falls. Elena and Caroline are both on it."
Rebecca was surprised, not because of Elena and Caroline both being on the list, but because Elena hadn't mentioned it. They had signed up back before Elena's parents had died - Elena's mom had even been Miss Mystic Falls in her day - so it surprised her that Elena hadn't been excited about it. Though it probably had something to do with Stefan being locked up. For Elena to even be in the running she would need an escort and hers was not available.
"Did you want to help? We're talking about the dress Care is going to wear."
"Um . . not tonight. I should go."
"You just got here."
"I know. I was, um . . . I came here to talk to you about something, but I just can't . . . right now."
This awkward tension between them made Rebecca think of how hard it had been to talk to her friends back when she'd first become a Slayer. She was going to have to go through the same thing again.
When Rebecca got home - the boardinghouse was her home now - she went straight down to the cellar. She wanted to talk to Stefan. Luckily, Elena had gone home already, though Rebecca was sure she was coming back because of Stefan. When Rebecca reached the locked door she had a strange sense of deja vu. She'd once come down here to rescue Damon. This time, however, she wasn't rescuing anybody, and she didn't stop outside the door; she unlocked it and went on in.
Stefan was laying on a cot that Damon had provided; it was more than Stefan had provided for Damon when he'd been locked up. Stefan didn't move or speak. He looked zoned out.
"I know you know I'm here, Stefan." He still didn't do anything; he didn't respond in any way. "You ruin everything, Stefan. Everything you touch . . ."
That got his attention. He looked at her then, really looked, so she knew the vervain was out of his system. He could focus when he had to.
"You came to me for help," Rebecca said, moving closer. "And then you killed me. Do you even know that? Are you yourself enough to grasp that?"
"Becca . . ."
"Don't call me that." She took a deep breath to calm down and spoke again. "I'm a vampire now, obviously. And I'm still me. Can you tell?"
"Yes, and you're angry. I understand that."
"Well, I'm glad you understand that it's me who's here. It's me who -"
She didn't finish her sentence. She ran to him, grabbed him up, and bit as hard as she could right where he'd bitten her. All her pent up frustration was put into that bite and she knew it probably hurt, but at that moment she didn't care. She really didn't.
Stefan didn't scream, but she could feel him fight against her; it didn't matter because she was stronger than him.
The bite lasted maybe ten seconds, but not because Rebecca let go. Damon had come in and pried her away from Stefan.
Damon shoved Rebecca against the wall hard enough to jar her into reality, back into herself. She fought for a few seconds until she realized it was him that was holding her in place.
"Damon?"
"It's okay," he said softly, soothingly. "You're okay."
Stefan, however, was on the floor with blood dripping from the wounds on his neck. Rebecca had really gotten him. Stefan would heal and he'd be find. Rebecca had just gotten her first taste of how it felt to lose control. He thought she would've done so sooner, but she'd lasted a full day. Damon wasn't aware that the reason she'd lost control was because everything had hit her at once and not being about to confide in Bonnie for fear of being judged had been the last straw.
Rebecca had chosen to blame Stefan, which Damon was okay with. It was something he understood completely since he'd spent the majority of his time blaming Stefan for his life, too. Suddenly, Damon was leading a bloody Rebecca out of the cellar. Damon knew that Rebecca wasn't happy with being a vampire, not right now. She had hidden it well, had avoided thinking about it until now, but Damon had been listening and knew that Rebecca hadn't wanted to turn by Stefan's hand. Sure, it had been his blood that had changed her, but it had been Stefan's doing.
"I'm not sorry," Rebecca whispered.
Damon noticed that Rebecca was trembling and he figured if she cleaned herself up she would feel better. He didn't want Chelsea seeing her sister that way even if the little girl wouldn't know what it meant - he didn't think, but Chelsea was a perceptive little thing. He didn't want Sarah to see Rebecca like this either because both he and Rebecca had gotten on her about controlling herself. It would be . . . bad . . . for Sarah to think Rebecca was hypocritical, especially about this.
When they reached their room - it really was their room; Rebecca had her own drawers and even some of her girly things that had previously been in her other room at Robert's house. Damon thought it completely messed up the flow of the room, but he would share because it was her - he sat her on the bed and went to get something to clean her with. It was the second time in the same amount of days that he'd had to wash blood off of her.
"I wanted you to be the one to do it," she said softly.
He stopped suddenly and looked at her. Rebecca was focused on the tan sheet and was beginning to pull at a thread that was loose.
"Stefan takes everything away from you, Damon, and it's not fair."
"Wait, you're mad because he took this away from me?" Damon asked. He didn't know what to feel about that because he'd thought she was mad for her, not him.
"No, he took this away from us. I was supposed to say it was okay and then you were supposed to be the one to do it." Up until then Rebecca had been speaking quietly, but when she next opened her mouth her words came out in a yell. "I was supposed to be okay with it!"
Then the tears came - or more tears than were already there - and Rebecca covered her mouth and looked at Damon with wide eyes. She looked like she thought she'd said something wrong.
"Becca . . ." He gathered her in his arms and grabbed the hand that was over her mouth. He didn't want her barricading the words in; she needed to let them out. "Tell me."
"I was supposed to be okay with it when it happened because I was supposed to be older," she admitted softly.
Then she was crying - sobbing - harder than he'd ever seen her cry before. God, she was hurting so much he could almost feel it himself. He hurt with her.
"I can't go outside during the day. Bonnie will hate me when she finds out I'm a vampire now, and she's the only one I know who can help me with that; Caroline and Matt are completely in the dark, so I can't be around them yet because that could end horribly wrong. And it's all wrong because my friends were supposed to know about me and they weren't supposed to care because they're my friends! Bonnie's not supposed to care, Damon!"
Rebecca's voice had changed throughout her whole rant - if that was the right word; Damon wasn't sure. But Damon had been listening very attentively. Contrary to popular belief, he was a very good listener. And if he cared enough - which, in this instance was the case - he was a patient listener.
Rebecca could hide things when she wanted to even though she preferred to be completely honest with him because of their relationship. But Damon had learned that her rants could explain away certain moods she'd been having; this one explained why she'd attacked Stefan - other than the obvious reason. Damon didn't really know what to say, though by nature he wanted to make light of the situation. He couldn't do that with her because this was something serious that was bothering her and he didn't know how to make it better. He knew it was her new magnified emotions thing making her act this way and that it would level out once she got used to it. She would learn how to control what she felt or how much she felt, but it would take time. Sadly, he couldn't teach her that because she didn't deal with things the same way he did. Mostly, he avoided or distracted himself in some way; Rebecca actually liked solving her problems.
Back to Rebecca's voice. She'd sounded sad at first, when she'd talked about Bonnie hating her now - Damon wondered what had happened to make her think that. She'd sounded at least semi-rational when she'd spoken of Blondie and her boyfriend; then the last part about Bonnie not supposing to care had been yelled, almost desperately, and Damon had decided to forget about cleaning her off now. Because what she needed now more than anything else was comfort. What she needed was someone who didn't care that she'd turned. She needed him right now more than she ever had. She needed every part of her human life that would still have her.
Elena, Chelsea, and himself.
He spent the majority of the next hour coaxing Rebecca into a fitful sleep. Rebecca had said something about Chelsea and then not being able to keep her, but he'd chosen to ignore it. This was not the time to go into that. They could talk about it later when Rebecca was more herself.
Elena came back about an hour later - it was around eight o'clock now and Damon was sure Rebecca would be out for a few hours, at least, so he left her there on the bed - he'd cleaned her off after she'd calmed down.
Elena didn't look like she was in the highest of spirits herself. Her friend was a vampire, her boyfriend was locked up in a makeshift prison for being a nutcase, and her other friend wasn't talking to her; there wasn't much to be happy about, Damon guessed.
But apparently Damon was deciding to care now so he asked just to make sure there was nothing else wrong. Something was always happening to Elena.
"My mom was really into this Founder's Day stuff and Miss Mystic Falls is coming up," Elena said, her tone soft and wistful; she was remembering her mother, Damon assumed. "I signed up so long ago I'd almost forgotten about it. They posted the list today and I'm on it, but I have no one to go with. And I kind of wanted to do this for her."
"Oh." Damon didn't know why she was telling him this. "You could have any number of guys at school. Ask one of them," Damon said, as if the answer was obvious; to him it was.
"Damon!" Elena reproved. "This was really important to my mother. She believed in community, family, honor, loyalty. It was the legacy she left for me."
"And I care why?" he asked, not seeing what he had to do with anything she'd just said.
"You care because I want you to take me. As . . . friends, obviously." Though Elena had said the word 'friends' with a certain hint of uncertainty.
"No," he said automatically. "Sorry, spoken for."
"Damon! Rebecca can't go, and you're already invited. It would be a huge favor. I'd ask Matt if he weren't already with Caroline. Besides, Rebecca won't care. For some reason that I personally don't get, she trusts you. And even if she didn't, I'm her friend. I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that."
Damon saw the pleading look in Elena's chocolate brown eyes and hated himself for giving in so easily.
"Fine, but I need a favor in return."
"Okay," she was hesitant, he noticed.
"While you're here don't mention the vampire thing to Rebecca unless she talks about it first. She's . . . a little touchy, okay? But spend time with her. Help her know it's okay."
"Why? What'd she say?"
"Nothing worth repeating," he said. "Meaning she said a lot, but I don't want you to know because I don't know if she wants you to know. She'll tell you when she's ready."
That being said he urged her to tell him what exactly being her escort would entail. Basically, all he had to do was show up and dance with her. He could do that; that was easy.
Okay, so this was pretty much a filler chapter. It sets things in motion for the next few chapters.
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