The Truth

Elena paced in her empty living room, glancing occasionally at the front door as she waited for Damon to arrive. She had called him immediately after John left to tell him that he had returned, so he should be here any minute. There was so much bouncing around in her head that she had wanted to talk to him about, especially considering she hadn't had the chance to since Rose died.

A part of her felt guilty for discussing this with Damon instead of Stefan, but he hadn't answered her phone calls this morning so it wasn't really her fault… right? Maybe she should have sent him a text explaining the importance of the situation… No. No, he was probably busy with something else right now. Besides, he had always liked John. It was better to talk to Damon about this.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, there was a knock at the door. Glad that she didn't have to be alone with her worries anymore, Elena hurried to open the door.

Damon had barely set a foot inside the house before he was searching the lower floor, completely brushing past Elena. "Where's John?"

"He's not here," she sighed, closing the door before crossing her arms over her chest. "He left. I don't know where he went. He just blew in, announced to Jenna that he's my dad and then took off."

"That's public knowledge now?"

"Apparently. But that's not exactly why I called you over here."

Damon raised a skeptical eyebrow, attempting as he so often did to read Elena's face. "What, you mean there's more to this little house call than deciphering the motives of daddy-not-so-dearest?"

"Yes," Elena answered plainly, choosing to ignore the sarcasm behind Damon's question. "The other day, when I was with Rose – "

"Okay, no," Damon interrupted, rolling his eyes. "We are not talking about Rose. I know you all expect me to have these deep, dark feelings about her dying, but I just don't, okay? If you want to cry over somebody you knew for twenty minutes then be my guest, but don't get mad at me for being the reasonable one."

Elena pressed her lips into a thin line, her arms over her chest squeezing tighter at his assumption that she was going to scold him. Of course she had planned on it later, but for now he was just being obnoxious. "Are you done?"

After taking a moment to scrutinize Elena's posture and ensure she wasn't going to go on a tirade about how he should have more feelings and communication skills, Damon nodded.

"The other day when I was with Rose, she mentioned someone – someone I had never heard of before," Elena explained, glancing over her shoulder when she stepped closer to Damon as if the woman might spear out of thin air when she spoke her name. "She was saying something about being hunted by a woman named Julien."

"So what? Rose and Trevor practically had half the vampires in Europe hunting them."

"This was different," Elena insisted with a vehement shake of her head. "Damon you didn't see her face – she was terrified of this woman. She said that they had betrayed her trust and her family, but the way she said it… I think she's another Original."

Damon's entire body tensed, his eyes widening slightly as he looked down at Elena. "What did she say exactly?"

Elena shook her head once more, tucking the hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ear. "She wasn't making much sense, but she said something about Klaus, Elijah and Julien hunting her, Trevor and Katherine because Katherine was too selfish to die."

"All of this happened because Katherine was selfish? Why am I not surprised?" Damon chuckled humorlessly, running his hands over his face as he released a puff of air, shaking his head in a manner that screamed 'why me?'. "So, great. Now do we not only have to deal with Invisi-Klaus and Zomb-Elijah coming for your blood, but a third mystery Original? Fantastic. I was starting to get bored."

"Can you please be serious?"

"I'm always serious."

Elena gave him a look that clearly showed how much she didn't believe that statement, to which his only response was a shrug. "Whatever. So, what are we supposed to do about this?"

"Considering we have no idea who this Julien chick is, what she looks like, or if she's even still around, my vote would be to do nothing. For now," Damon clarified when Elena narrowed her eyes at him. "As for your daddy issues, we do know who he is, what he looks like, so on and so forth. So why don't we go have a quick chat with Father of the Year?"

"Just a chat?"

"C'mon Elena. I'm the good guy now, remember? You can even come with me, if it makes you feel better."

Elena stood still while Damon inched his way closer to the door, holding his arms out in invitation. It wasn't until he shrugged and pulled the door open that she relented with a sigh, stomping after him. "All right, all right. I'm coming."

"Ric!"

Alaric jumped in his seat, his eyes shooting up from staring lazily at the bubbles in his glass to see Jenna glaring at him. Groaning, he rubbed at his tired eyes that he was having trouble keeping open. "I'm sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night. You were saying something about John and Elena?"

Jenna pursed her lips for a moment before wiping the look completely from her face, stirring her drink with the thin black straw. "I just can't believe it," she sighed. "Elena is my sister's husband's brother's daughter, and her mother is my boyfriend's deceased wife. I mean, you can't make this stuff up."

"Yeah, it's, uh… definitely a little overwhelming."

"I can't believe that they kept it a secret! How is it even possible to keep a secret like that?"

Alaric shook his head and shrugged, mentally slapping a hand over his own mouth to keep himself from screaming that he currently held an even bigger secret from her. In his internal shushing, his eyes had managed to drift back to his drink and away from an increasingly irritated Jenna.

"Maybe keeping secrets isn't as hard as I think," Jenna scoffed as she observed Alaric, partly to herself though it was certainly enough to catch his attention. Before he had the chance to apologize yet again, Jenna stood from her seat. "I need to run to the bathroom. Maybe you should actually drink your soda instead of staring at it. It might help you wake up."

"Jenna, I didn't mean to…" His words had grown quiet as she walked away, and were followed by a low groan of annoyance. After seeing Jenna for a total of five minutes over the past week, Alaric had been determined to have a nice lunch with her today, but of course he had screwed it up since he had been up all night researching Original vampires. He hadn't even found anything worthwhile for his troubles.

Alaric massaged his temples, his eyes sliding closed with his head in his hands. It had been a long week, and right now he wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed at his apartment and take a much deserved nap.

That was when he heard it.

That voice – the voice that had haunted his dreams for the past several nights, always accompanied by the most striking eyes he had ever seen and the fuzzy image of a woman he had met in a bar. The voice that had taught him how to see the world in a way he had never seen it before. The voice that had whispered farewell in his ear at the end of a night he couldn't be sure whether or not he had imagined. The voice that slipped through the very same lips that had pressed so softly against his stubbled cheek it had felt like nothing more than the lightest breeze.

The proof that the night in question did in fact exist stood before him when he turned to his left and saw her standing there, so different and yet so similar to how his fuzzy memories had captured her. Her smile was one of her features that he had remembered perfectly – especially how infectious it was. Despite his current mood, he couldn't help but reflect it back to her.

"We really must stop meeting like this, you know."

It hadn't taken very long for Julien to completely deplete Elijah's supply of alcohol. He hadn't exactly stocked up with the consideration that his sister would become a borderline alcohol within the span of a few days, after all. When he had gently suggested that perhaps she pace herself, Julien had taken up the habit of simply leaving the hotel to drink elsewhere. It wasn't as if she was needed in that stuffy living room, anyway.

"I don't want you to worry about anything," Elijah had said to her when she asked how exactly he planned for her to participate in taking down Niklaus. "As of right now, all the pieces are falling into place on their own. Why don't you just take some time to enjoy yourself, hmm?"

Yes, but of course. Julien's only instructions were to enjoy herself. How hard could it be really, with the impending downfall of her family and whatever shreds remained of her fragile humanity?

Julien was not known as the type of person to laze around, with no present or future goals. Which was why the moment she stepped foot inside the Mystic Grill that bright and sunny afternoon to yet again drown her sorrows in alcohol that would be burned out of her system faster than she could drink it and spotted a familiar face among the crowd, the first genuine smile she had worn in days lit up her features.

Apart from a few spared glances, Julien went largely ignored by the crowd in the Grill as she worked her way through messily placed tables and shuffling guests. She took a moment to observe the way Alaric rubbed his hands over his face before dropping them against the table with an audible smack, though why he seemed upset was beyond her. Perhaps she could help him to take his mind off of it, however. It was at least worth a shot. Besides, she had done it once before.

Bending slightly at the waist to ensure she would be heard of the murmurs of the crowd, Julien joked, "We really must stop meeting like this, you know."

Alaric's back straightened reflexively as he turned towards her, and Julien's smile only grew when he offered her one of his own. He stood as he spoke to her, his hand floundering awkwardly in front of himself as he was unsure of what to do with it. "Julien, hi. I didn't expect – I mean, you weren't really supposed to – not that you can't… Hi."

Julien arched her brow in question to his unsure tone, chuckling nervously. She took his hand in hers to spare him the effort of trying to decide whether he should shake hers or not, though her fingers lingered a tad longer around his than they probably should have.

"Hi," she greeted, averting her eyes from his momentarily. "I'm not staying for long, I just saw you sitting here all by yourself and – well, considering what happened the last time I saw you in here alone, I thought I should at least check on you. Make sure you aren't getting yourself into any more trouble."

"Nope, no trouble here," Alaric replied quickly, though his incredibly long and terrifying mental checklist of exactly what might go wrong for him and his friends at any moment seemed to grow longer with each passing minute. "And I'm not alone, Jenna was just… Jenna."

In the blink of an eye Alaric had tugged his hand out of Julien's grip and turned his back on her. The Original vampire lowered her hand to her side as the confusion etched into her features faded into understanding. "You aren't alone," she surmised, taking a small step away from Alaric when he turned back to her. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed… Well, nevermind all that. I just wanted the chance to apologize for my behavior the other night."

"Apologize? You don't have anything to be sorry for."

"Yes, I do. It was irresponsible for me to keep you out so late when you had someone waiting for you at home. Not to mention the kiss, which again, I do apologize for profusely. I'd had quite a bit to drink that night – we both did – but that's no excuse for me being so inconsiderate."

Alaric shook his head as Julien opened and closed her mouth, the words on the tip of her tongue struggling to come out. He wanted to tell her that he had long since forgiven her, not that he thought there was anything to forgive. He wasn't given the chance, however, when he felt a hand press against his lower back.

Julien had seen her first, her eyes drifting to the strawberry blonde woman when she laid a hand on Alaric. Even if Alaric didn't stutter her name nervously, waving his hand between the newcomer and herself distractedly, Julien would have known instantly who she was.

One again, Julien saved Alaric from his own clumsiness by stepping forward and flashing the woman her best and brightest smile as she offered her hand. "You must be Jenna! Alaric has told me so much about you. I must say, you are even lovelier than his words had suggested."

Jenna looked skeptically between Alaric and the woman she had never met before accepting her handshake with a polite smile. "Uh, yeah… I'm so sorry, I don't think he's ever mentioned you."

"No, I wouldn't imagine so," Julien answered with practiced ease. This wasn't exactly how she had hoped her second encounter with Alaric would go, and she certainly wasn't in any mood to play games at the moment. "Julien. Wonderful to meet you. I really only popped in to say hello, I can't stay all that long."

"That would probably be for the best," Alaric agreed with a frantic nod of his head, though his words were drowned out by Jenna's when she proclaimed, "Nonsense! I never get to meet any of Ric's friends. I was seriously starting to doubt he even had any."

While Julien and Alaric shared a look, both at a bit of a loss as to how they should handle this, Jenna glanced towards the entrance of the Grill and managed to inadvertently save them from replying when she sighed. "Oh my god."

John Gilbert sauntered up to the three with his hands stuffed in his pockets and a nervous grin pulled tightly across his lips. "Hey, Jenna. Alaric…" He trailed off when his eyes landed on the third member of the group, his eyebrows furrowing. "I'm sorry, and you are?"

"Just leaving," Julien answered hastily, offering a polite smile as she took a step back. "It was nice to meet you Jenna, truly. Nice to see you again, Alaric."

"Oh, do you really have to leave so soon, Julien?" Jenna asked, reaching forward to lay a hand on her arm. "You just got here, and I can already tell you would be much more pleasant company than some people."

John ignored the clear jibe at his expense, instead focusing on the name Jenna had just said. "Julien," he repeated in question, his eyes narrowing slightly. He had heard that name before, and not under the best of circumstances. "That's an… interesting name."

"It's Viking," Alaric chimed in, as if to remind the others that he was still there – though truthfully now he wished he was anywhere but. The largest response he got was an odd look from Jenna, to which he only shrugged with an incoherent mumble.

"John, buddy! How you been?"

"Oh dear god," Julien muttered under her breath, massaging her forehead as even more people joined the ever-growing group of misfits standing in the middle of the Mystic Grill. She honestly had only wanted to say hello to Alaric before returning to the spot in the woods she had visited days ago to meditate in, but somehow she had been roped into introducing herself to seemingly the entire town.

"I've been all right, Damon," John greeted the dark-haired newcomer with a tense smile. "It's good to see you."

"Good to know." Damon patted his shoulder roughly before turning to the one person he didn't recognize. "My, my, my. And who might this lovely lady be?"

Julien lowered her hand back to her side to answer him, but froze when she saw the girl standing next to him. Not wanting to give away her surprise, she covered her mouth and coughed to buy herself some time.

"I guess introductions are due all around," Jenna answered in her place. "This is John, Damon, and Elena. Guys, this is Alaric's friend Julien."

There were no words to describe the wave of tension that descended upon the room like a tidal wave. Muscles tensed and glares locked. For one, singular moment, the silence was so thick the world's sharpest knife would have been unable to slice through it. And not a single one of them was unaware of it.

It was Julien who finally worked up the courage to speak, her tone as pleasant as her eyes were full of spite. "An absolute pleasure to meet each and every one of you, but I really must be on my way. I'm sure we'll see each other again very soon."

They all watched as she turned on her heel and walked out of the Mystic Grill, each step radiating confidence. It was a completely different tone than their first impression of her – as if she had suddenly developed a new personality. To the three who knew what she truly was, it was almost intimidating to know that she was there, that she knew who they were, and that she didn't seem at all afraid of them.

Damon was the second to speak, gripping Alaric's wrist and dragging him towards the back as he said, "We need to talk."

Elijah was not easily startled, but when Julien came storming into their hotel room with the door slammed behind herself and her bag thrown haphazardly onto the island counter before she tangled her fingers into her hair, he couldn't help but jump a bit from his seat on the couch.

"Should I ask what happened, or…?"

"I saw him."

"Him… who?"

If looks could kill, Elijah would have been buried six hundred feet below the ground when she shot him a glare so fierce he couldn't help but wonder if it was truly his kind and gentle sister standing before him. "That moronic, sniveling, sad little excuse for a man. Damon Salvatore." She said his name with such disgust, her face visibly crumpled as if she had been sprayed with a skunk.

Elijah slowly pushed himself to his feet, thousands of tiny gears turning in his head. "Did he know who you were?"

"One can only hope," she scoffed, kicking her shoes off so hard they landed with a thump against the wall on the other side of the room. "That way he'll know exactly who is ripping his spine out through his mouth."

"Julien."

"How could he have possibly recognized me, Elijah? Of course, he didn't! But do you have any idea the amount of restraint it took for me to not pluck those shifty little eyes right out of their sockets the moment his cursed name slithered out from that Sommers woman's lips? I'll tell you – too much!"

"Wait, slow down," Elijah pleaded, walking forward to cup his sister's shoulders between his large hands. "What Sommers woman?"

"Jenna, obviously. Do keep up, Elijah, it will very difficult to rant about a terrible experience if you're not going to bother to listen to what it is I'm saying."

Elijah took a moment to close his eyes and collect himself before speaking again, taking a few deep breaths for good measure. "Julien, I need you to listen very carefully to what I am saying to you. I understand your thirst for the Salvatore's blood – I really and truly do – but it is imperative that you leave him alive. Is that clear?"

"If it wasn't, do you think his head wouldn't be adorning a lovely spike in my bedroom right at this very moment? Honestly, Elijah, what do you take me for – some type of petulant child?"

"Of course not, dear sister," he sighed, relieved. "So, you met Damon and Jenna. Were there any other unexpected visitors on your trip outside today?"

Julien once again ran her hands through her hair, shaking her head vehemently as she moved around Elijah towards the refrigerator. "I don't even know where to begin. All I wanted was a nice relaxing day in the woods after all this – this – this nastiness invading my life, and what do I get? Some infant vampire smirking at me, a pouting doppelganger, and some man with the constant sulk on his face as if he is about to lose his lunch! Do we have any vodka left?"

"I'm afraid you finished off the last of it during your night on the balcony."

"Well I can't very well make a bloody mary without any vodka," she grumbled, slamming the door and crossing her arms over her chest. "I swear, I haven't felt this emotional since that incident with the de Martels. I should never have come to this damned city."

Elijah waited patiently for Julien to cease her rambling before joining her in the kitchen. He wanted to ask her more about her meeting with Damon and the doppelganger, but decided now was not the time to press her. "Nobody is keeping you here, 'Lien. You are free to leave any time you choose. I only ask that you stay away from Niklaus until this dispute is resolved."

"No," Julien sighed, lifting her eyes to meet Elijah's as she dropped her arms. "I agreed to help you resolve this, and I will. I've been acting like a child, and I apologize. It is just… very difficult for me to allow somebody who harmed you to continue their meaningless life."

"The Salvatores' time will come," he assured her, to which she nodded firmly. "I'll even let you kill them."

For the first time since she had come storming into the room, Julien chuckled as a small smile lifted her lips. "You say that as if you have any choice in the matter."

Elijah only smiled in response, tucking a loose strand of Julien's hair behind her ear before pulling her into a hug. She immediately returned the gesture, pressing a kiss to his cheek before laying her head on his shoulder. "All those who have harmed our family will face justice," he murmured reassuringly against the top of her head. "I swear it. There is no force in the universe greater than you and I."

If Elijah could have seen Julien's face, he would have seen the flicker of doubt that crossed her delicate features – the remorse in her eyes and the sadness in her frown. There was no doubt in the world that she loved her little Eli more than her own life… but did she love him enough to betray her poor, abused Niklaus? She had promised to side with him, but when that time came, would she truly be able to uphold her end of the bargain?

No matter her convictions either way – no matter how strongly she insisted to both Elijah and herself that she would always take his side – somewhere deep inside, Julien knew the truth.

A little shorter than usual, but I really wanted to get something out for you guys.

Next chapter we'll see some more interaction between Julien and the Mystic Falls gang, as well as the reunion with Alaric when he actually knows who she is. I hope you're all as excited as I am! Stay tuned, and let me know what you think of the story so far in a review down below.