Chapter Fifty-Four
Like Stefan had said, the firemen did show up. Elena had been called to come to the building anyway because the building had belonged to her father. Stefan had gone with her, and Damon and Rebecca had gone to the boardinghouse. It was because Damon was in desperate need of blood and, with so many officials around, he couldn't just pick a person at random and start feeding from them.
Damon seemed a little restless while he was gulping down the blood he needed to heal.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Rebecca asked.
If Rebecca was being completely honest with herself, she wasn't okay. Damon had almost died that night. She didn't know what she would've done had Damon actually died. She would've been stuck here without him.
"I'm fine, Becca," Damon said. "I'm fine. I promise."
Damon didn't seem fine, though, because he couldn't seem to sit still. He was pacing the length of his room.
"If you're fine then why do you look like a caged animal that needs to get free?"
"I, uh . . ." Damon seemed a little uncomfortable. Rebecca didn't like it. "I have to do something."
Rebecca didn't understand what Damon had to do but whatever it was . . . Damon obviously didn't want to talk about it because he just took off. That was okay because she had something she had to do too.
Damon ended up at the Gilbert residence. Someone had to tell Jeremy about Anna, and seeing as to how Damon was the only one who knew about her, he got stuck with the job. Plus, Damon had needed space to think. Stefan had been calling him and texting him, wondering where he was. Damon guessed that meant that Rebecca hadn't stuck around the boardinghouse and that Stefan wanted to know where everyone was. Other than giving a very brief text back, Damon had ignored his brother.
Stefan had helped save his life that night. Rebecca had helped save him, and so had Bonnie in her own way. Damon had been so sure he'd been going to die, and yet here he was. Trying to do the right thing. What was wrong with him?
He sneaked in the front door and up to Elena's room. Elena wasn't home, but he could hear Jeremy moving around in the next room over. Elena's and Jeremy's rooms were connected by a bathroom, so Damon used that bathroom to get to the teen's room.
Jeremy had been fiddling with one of his dresser drawers but seemed to sense Damon's presence, because he snapped around.
"What're you doin' here?" Jeremy asked breathlessly.
"Anna's dead," Damon said cautiously yet straightforwardly. He never was one for beating around the bush.
"I figured that once they took her away," Jeremy said quietly, sadly.
Damon assumed that meant that Jeremy had been with Anna when the device had gone off. Damon wondered if Jeremy understood what had happened.
"I know you cared about her," Damon said.
"Yeah, I did."
"I saw her killed." Damon didn't really know why he was here talking to Jeremy, but . . . he was. Something had happened that night inside him. Something had changed when he'd seen John stake Anna, when Damon had been helpless to do anything. "I was watching and all I could think about was - I wanted to help her. But I couldn't."
"Why're you telling me all this?" Jeremy asked.
For a few seconds Damon was at a loss for words. Damon didn't usually talk so openly to anyone that wasn't Rebecca, so he really didn't know why he was doing it now.
"I took away your suffering once before. I can do it again." Damon moved further into the room and Jeremy sat on the edge of his bed. "But it's your choice."
Jeremy shook his head. "Look, I know you think you took it away, but it's still there, Even if I can't remember why, I still feel empty. Alone. And making me forget won't fix it. It won't fix what's really wrong."
Vicki had died. Someone that Jeremy had cared about had suddenly been taken away from him and Damon understood how that felt. Jeremy would feel alone and empty if someone he had cared about had died; compulsion couldn't make someone feel genuine emotions, it could only make one think one was feeling an emotion.
"What happened to Vicki should never have happened," Damon admitted. "And I'm sorry for my part in her death."
Jeremy nodded after a few seconds. Damon was being sincere. Damon wasn't sorry for feeding from Vicki. He'd been locked up for days and hadn't had any blood. He hadn't been able to help himself. But he was sorry about the consequences of what had happened because of him feeding from her.
"Anna said that vampires don't have to feel pain. That they can turn it off if they shut out their humanity."
"That's very true."
"Is it easier that way?" Jeremy asked.
"Is what easier?" Damon asked, confused.
"Life."
"Life sucks either way, Jeremy. But at least if you're a vampire, you don't have to feel bad about it if you don't want to."
"Is that what you did?"
"I did it for . . . I did it for a very long time," Damon admitted, his voice beginning to shake. "And life was a lot easier."
Damon watched the kid blink a few times and turn away. "Thanks for coming to tell me instead of just letting me keep wondering."
"Yeah," Damon said. "Someone had to do it. Since I was there, it . . . automatically made sense that I should be the one to tell you."
Jeremy nodded. "Well, I appreciate it. It's better than not knowing."
Damon gave him a nod back before leaving the room and the very uncomfortable situation he had gotten himself into.
Meanwhile, Rebecca found herself at Ric's apartment door, knocking. She knew he was in there because she could hear Ric's heartbeat.
When Ric opened the door he seemed surprised to see her there.
"Hi," she said. "May I come in?"
"Sure. Make yourself at home."
Rebecca smiled softly. "Thanks."
Rebecca really was thankful. Ric knew what she was and he still invited her in. Once again he had proven he trusted her by accepting everything about her.
"Um, I came to tell you that I'm really grateful for what you did. You keep saving my life. You know what I am and you still save me. I'm here to thank you."
Ric accepted her thanks with grace but still flushed a bit. Rebecca smiled. She hadn't made many men blush. Human Damon had. She'd yet to affect vampire Damon that way.
"Is your wrist okay? I hope I didn't bite too hard or -"
"My wrist is fine. It doesn't even hurt."
"Really?"
Rebecca hoped that was true because she really hadn't wanted to hurt Ric. It didn't matter if he could come back to life, she didn't hurt her friends. Tonight had been proof that Ric cared about her, probably in a parental way, or a brotherly way.
"Really, I'm fine. You did some weird little trick and it barely even hurt when you were drinking from me."
"Right." Rebecca was the one to blush this time. "Uh, Damon taught me that. I hope that didn't freak you out. A bite can turn sexual when a vampire does that, but I didn't want to hurt you because you've been so nice and you helped me when you didn't have to."
Rebecca realized she was rambling, but she needed him to know that if he'd felt any . . . stirrings . . . that it was completely normal. He shouldn't read much into it because she'd made him feel that way.
"Rebecca! Really, I'm okay with how everything happened. And you don't have to explain, okay?"
Rebecca was going to protest but her phone rang and interrupted her thoughts. The caller ID screen said Elena.
"Yeah?"
"Hey. The fire's out. The story is that the building's old wiring is what caused it."
Rebecca's stomach suddenly had really bad rumblings. John Gilbert, Elena's dad/uncle - or whatever - had died in that fire. No, Rebecca had killed John and pushed him down the stairs into the fire. And nobody knew except for maybe Stefan and Damon - assuming they had heard her conversation. Stefan wouldn't be able to keep this a secret for long, so Elena would know soon and so would Bonnie and Jeremy. They were soon going to hate her.
"I'm glad you're okay. You and Damon," Elena said.
"Yeah, me too," Rebecca said.
"Uh, Jenna called. Jeremy's home. I'm just gonna run over to the school to pick up my dress, my clothes, and the rest of my stuff, and then I'll check on him."
Rebecca nodded and bit her lip. "Anna died, Elena, so stay up with him, okay? He's . . . he keeps losing people he loves. He's - he shouldn't be alone."
Rebecca would've been with Jeremy herself if she hadn't wanted to check on Ric. Maybe she would head over there anyway, after this. She'd said all she needed to say to Ric anyway.
At the Gilbert residence, Damon was on his way out and Elena was on her way in. She had her dress bag in her arms and she had changed into her leather jacket. In fact, she had different clothes on all together - probably so she wouldn't smell like smoke.
"What're you doin' here?" she asked as he closed the door.
"A failed and feeble attempt at doing the right thing," he answered.
"Which was . . . ?" Elena asked curiously.
"It's not important," Damon said, remembering Stefan's words about it only counting when he wanted nothing in return. Well, if she didn't know what he'd been doing, he couldn't ask for anything in return.
Damon went to Elena and said, "Let me take this for you."
Elena let him take the dress bag and purse from her arms so they could talk for a while longer. He walked over to the porch bench and sat the stuff down.
"Thank you," Elena said, though she sounded surprised.
"You know, I came to this town not caring about anyone but Rebecca, and tonight I found myself wanting to protect it."
Elena cocked her head and tilted her lips upwards into a small smile.
"How does that happen?" Damon asked. "I'm not a hero, Elena. I don't do good. It's not in me."
"Maybe it is," Elena said softly. "Rebecca seems to think so."
"No. No, that's reserved for my brother and you and Rebecca and Bonnie. She hates me, but she still helped Stefan save me."
Elena crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Why do you sound so surprised?"
"Because she did it for you. Which means that somewhere along the way . . . you decided that I was worth saving. And I wanted to thank you for that."
Elena grinned. "You're welcome."
Damon was fairly certain that Elena was looking at his lips, which meant in a universal language that she was thinking about kissing him. Well, there was only one way he could get out of this without making things awkward, and that was . . . find a reason to leave. He couldn't help but notice that Elena's body had tensed. And she was still looking at his lips. There was definite desire in Elena's eyes.
Elena's breathing grew shallow and her hand came up to grip his jacket to pull him closer. Damon couldn't believe what Elena was doing, and after all that talk about never betraying Rebecca in this way.
"Elena . . ." Damon cupped her face and said as gently as he could, "No."
Elena blinked. "No?"
"No," Damon said, more firmly this time. "I will not let this happen. I'm not going to let you ruin what I have with Rebecca."
Damon heard the door open and saw Jenna standing there, eyes open in shock.
"Hi," Elena said, breathlessly.
"It's late. You should probably come inside," Jenna said, glaring at her niece.
Elena took a deep breath, nodded, looked at Damon, and then got her stuff and went inside. All the while Jenna had been staring at Damon, contemplating. Damon could feel the judgment coming off of her.
"What're you doing?" Damon heard Jenna ask after she had closed the door.
"I . . . don't want to talk about it,:" Elena said.
Damon was at a loss for words. Elena Gilbert, one of Rebecca's friends, had almost kissed him. She would have had he not stopped her. Maybe he and everyone else had been wrong about Elena. She was just like Katherine; she wanted both brothers.
Elena was supposed to be in love with Stefan and yet she'd tried to kiss Damon. Damon wondered if Rebecca knew what a backstabbing little bitch Elena was.
All the recent phone calls and all the playful banter between Elena and himself made sense now. She'd been flirting with him. And the Miss Mystic Fells pageant hadn't been a harmless dance and dinner. It had been a date - it had been a way for Elena to try and get her claws into him.
Damon had made it clear that nothing was going to come between him and Rebecca. Especially not another woman and definitely not another woman who would steal her friend's boyfriend.
Rebecca wound up not going to Elena's house to check on Jeremy. She had wanted to, she had but she'd gotten a very disturbing phone call from Matt Donovan saying that Caroline was in the hospital. Matt and Caroline had been getting rides home from Tyler, and then Tyler had suddenly heard a weird noise that neither Matt nor Caroline could hear.
The Gilbert device, Rebecca thought. It had affected Tyler too. How was that possible? Tyler wasn't a vampire.
Rebecca had dropped everything when she'd heard Matt and Caroline had been in a car crash with Tyler at the wheel. Matt was fine, but Tyler had been unconscious and Caroline had been admitted because she'd fainted. Matt said that most of the damage had been on her side of the car. She was in surgery right now.
Rebecca hadn't left Matt's side since she'd arrived, but she had called Elena and Bonnie and everyone else that would care that Caroline was in the hospital.
Rebecca even called Damon - she didn't get him, she got voice-mail - and left a message. Damon wouldn't care so much for Caroline's sake as he would for Liz's - for some reason, Damon genuinely cared for Sheriff Forbes.
Tyler was finally released because he was okay - the impact had just knocked him out.
"Hey," Tyler said, sitting down by Matt. "I'm so sorry. Look, I don't even know what happened."
"It's okay, man," Matt said, understanding coating his voice.
Matt's voice was thick because he'd been crying; he even had remnants of tears on his face. It made Rebecca's heart ache.
"She'll be alright," Matt said.
Tyler nodded, but looked down guiltily.
"Hey," Rebecca said, getting up and kneeling down in front of Tyler. "This isn't your fault. None of it, okay?"
This was Bonnie's fault. She never should have lied about taking that damn spell off of the device. Because she had Damon had almost died, Anna had died, and Caroline was in the hospital.
And again the question became how had Tyler heard the vampire device - it was supposed to have been a weapon against vampires yet it appeared to have affected Tyler the same way.
The noise and the brain-piercing pain.
Suddenly Liz came out from the Emergency Room and Matt stood up. Rebecca did too.
"What's happening? Is she alright?" Matt asked.
"Uh . . . there was some internal bleeding. She's still in surgery."
"What else did they say? Is she gonna be okay?"
"They're gonna do everything they can," Liz said.
Rebecca had never seen Matt or Liz so shaken up. Tyler was refusing to look up; he still felt guilty. Matt sat down, defeated. Rebecca sat beside him. She felt awful.
She grabbed one of Matt's hands and one of Tyler's hands. They both needed her right now. Even if Rebecca hadn't had much use for Tyler, he didn't deserve to be alone in this.
"Tyler, have you talked to your mom?" Liz asked.
"I left her a message telling her I was here."
"You need to call her."
Tyler's eyes narrowed. "What is it?"
"It's your dad," Liz said, her voice breaking.
Rebecca felt Tyler's hand tighten on hers. She saw him nod and move to get up.
Of course, Rebecca thought. If Tyler had been affected, then Mayor Lockwood would've been too.
Add it to the growing list of things that had gone wrong because Bonnie had lied.
"Becca!" a female voice said. Speaking of the witch . . . here she was. "Oh, my God. I came as soon as I got your message."
Rebecca kind of regretted calling her now that she knew this was Bonnie's fault. Bonnie had come in with Stefan. Stefan, who had helped save Damon. That almost made Rebecca like him again.
"Hey, uh, Elena's not here yet," she said for Stefan's benefit.
"Can we talk?" Bonnie asked her, and Rebecca wanted to say no.
Rebecca didn't know if she'd be able to stay in control of herself if she talked to Bonnie. The witch had pissed her off.
"Um . . . sure," Rebecca said.
Bonnie led Stefan and Rebecca outside of the hospital.
"What, Bonnie?"
Bonnie didn't seem surprised by the attitude, which was good because Rebecca didn't feel like apologizing for it.
"You and Elena are my best friends, and because of that I couldn't let you guys or Damon die in that fire," Bonnie said.
"We're very grateful," Stefan said. "I hope you know that."
"I do," Bonnie admitted. "But I hope you know that things have to change. Damon has to change."
Change what now? Rebecca wondered.
"We both want the same thing," Stefan said.
"Change what?" Rebecca still wanted to know.
"We both wanna protect the people we care about," Bonnie said. "The difference is, for you, Damon is one of them."
"Bonnie -" Rebecca started, only to be cut off.
"You saw what I was able to do tonight," Bonnie said. "I know who I am now, and if Damon spills so much as one drop of innocent blood . . . I'll take him down. Even if I have to take you with him."
Rebecca couldn't help it. She growled at the girl that used to be one of her best friends. Stefan had to grab her shoulders to keep her from going toward the witch.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Stefan said.
"Let's hope it doesn't."
Rebecca felt her face start to change - her jaw ached as she fought to keep her canines at their normal length.
"You wanna talk innocent blood?" Rebecca seethed. "Caroline is in there right now because of you. That stupid device went off and Tyler Lockwood heard it; that's why they had a car crash. This is your fault."
Bonnie's face was open with shock. "What?"
"Yeah, so before you sit there and started judging us, you should take a closer look at yourself. Why did you lie, Bonnie?"
Bonnie couldn't say anything except for, "Grams wouldn't have done it, so I couldn't either."
Stefan still had Rebecca by the shoulders. "This is getting us nowhere. Bonnie, Rebecca . . . Caroline needs you both. Whatever happened, that's the important thing. Now I'm gonna call Elena and see what's keeping her. You guys -"
"Bonnie can go. I need to cool off first."
Rebecca stayed with Stefan while he talked to Elena. The brunette had lost her stuff. Her dress, her clothes, her purse.
"I looked everywhere. Someone definitely took my stuff. I just gotta check on Jeremy before I come to the hospital."
"We'll be waiting."
"Okay. I love you, Stefan."
"Love you too, Elena."
When Stefan was done talking to Elena, he looked at Rebecca. "You okay?"
Rebecca shrugged minutely. "I don't know. I feel like I should be doing something, I just don't know what. Everybody inside is upset, which makes me upset, which I already am because Caroline is in there and she could die and -"
For the first time ever, she accepted a hug from Stefan Salvatore. Rebecca felt her eyes fill with tears. Everything was just so messed up on a monumental level. Bonnie had lied, Rebecca had killed someone, and Caroline was in surgery. Tyler was obviously something supernatural - what, Rebecca didn't know. The biggest thing of all, though, was:
"Stefan, I . . . I killed someone. I killed John. After . . . after we got Damon out I went for him and . . ."
Guilt and shame filled Rebecca's entire being. She'd thought getting rid of John Gilbert would be liberating, but it wasn't. No, she no longer had to worry about him messing with Chelsea, but . . . but now she had to worry about herself. She was a vampire and she had killed someone.
"Please don't tell Elena," Rebecca cried. "I need to tell her myself.
Rebecca saw Stefan look at her with disappointment in his eyes.
"Don't look at me like that. You knew it was going to happen. If I hadn't done it, Damon would have. It was my sister he messed with," Rebecca swallowed thickly. "For what it's worth, I am sorry I killed someone. But I'm not sorry he's dead."
Rebecca moved away from Stefan's embrace, sorely missing Damon. Where was he? He needed to get here soon, she needed him.
Back inside Tyler was upset - more so than before.
"What now?" she asked gently. "What happened?"
"My dad," Tyler stated. "He's dead. I don't even - it happened tonight. In the fire."
"What?"
God, Rebecca couldn't take much more. She needed Damon with her. Now.
What if something had happened to him?
"I need to go," Tyler said.
Everyone understood. He needed to be with his mother.
Bonnie was off to the side with Matt, and she looked Rebecca's way. Rebecca ignored the witch's pleading look. Rebecca had no time for Bonnie right now.
Rebecca swallowed back a few sobs that wanted to escape. If she could just cry or scream or . . . bite someone . . . she would feel better.
There was still no news about Caroline, and neither Elena nor Damon were here yet. Which wasn't good because Damon would know what to do; he always knew what to do.
What was taking them so long? And why did Rebecca have the feeling that something other than the obvious was wrong?
Okay, here's the final chapter of Season One. So does anyone have any idea what I should call the second season?
Here's the game plan for my stories. I'm still going to update vampire diaries. I've got to figure out a name for the second season first, but I'm also going to be writing Supernatural again, so I'll be updating both. I'm not sure how many of you are Supernatural fans and how many have read my story for that, but I'm going to rewrite it - I know I'm on the third season of it, but I can't write if first person anymore, my brain won't work that way anymore - and will be redoing the chapters slowly but surely.
Love you guys!