Set in 2x15


Adjusting to our reality, part 16: From the last time you died...

It had been hours since they met, but Elijah still couldn't figure out what was the deal with the local history teacher.

Truth be told, they had already met once before, but at the time the man was very dead. So you couldn't quite say they were acquainted. Corpses usually didn't talk or present themselves.

Alaric saw the Original looking at his ring with a glint of interest, as he had been doing frequently for the past hours. He couldn't blame him for that. After all, it was a pretty useful ring. But if the hunter had noticed how the vampire was discreetly observing him, it was because he himself had been doing the same. Not because discreetly wasn't so discreet.

Discreet Elijah was discreet, no question about that.

But observant Saltzman was better – or at least as good.

It was easier to kill someone when you were fully aware of your surroundings, so the Saltzmans were usually attentive people. That was at least a skill Ric wasn't angry to have inherited.

When Jenna took a break from speaking – because, really, there was a lot of things to say about Mystics Falls' history, and the teacher was even beginning to wonder if so much information wasn't due to the founders making up some of it to look better in the archives – Elijah and Ric remained alone for a dozen of minutes once again.

An awkward silence took over.

Silence was often awkward those days.

Waiting for Jenna to come back, Ric was looking straight ahead of him, saying nothing. He knew he wasn't in any danger, thanks to the deal Elena had made with the Original, but couldn't help being a little tense. Who wouldn't be, with a thousand-years-old vampire who could easily rip someone's heart out in a flash next to them?

But the immobility he was in got the better of him, and pain began running through his shoulder.

Alaric shouldn't have tried to deny he was in trouble with his body, but go and tell the doctor you're having side effects from the last time you died... It'll be the asylum for you, sir.

The hunter wasn't planning to go to a mental institution anytime soon. And even if he had been, Landyn would never have permitted to see one of her people regarded as insane and locked away without having a say in the matter. You never knew what could be said by a man drugged with sedatives, and she wouldn't want to see the family investigated afterwards.

He reached for the back of his left shoulder, wondering if pressing onto the sore part would be enough to silence the pain.

Apparently not.

"A problem, maybe?"

"Only a bit of pain after being dead for the second time. And since I doubt that's a common occurrence, I can't seem to find any useful data about how to deal with it."

Nothing else was said after that. The silence was thicker than before.

Jenna came back, refreshed and all, and the tour was resumed.

The three of them finally ate at the Grill, where they met with Damon and Andie.

Then came the obviously bad idea of a dinner, proposed by Damon, of course, which could only mean trouble. Ric stared at his friend threateningly, but the vampire was determined to avoid his eyes for unknown reasons. Finally, the dinner was agreed on, and they all went their separate ways.

When he left the Mystic Grill, the Original thought about the way the man had been staring at the younger vampire, like he could have beheaded his friend without hesitation if Damon had said something particularly inappropriate. There was something with this man's eyes, that almost gave him the chills. And he knew he had already felt something similar, centuries ago, but he couldn't remember when or where.

Those eyes, they were worse than those of a vampire who had shut off their humanity.

At least, the said vampire was still able to experience basic, harmless feelings. Harmless for him, of course. Pride, cruelty, satisfaction. It wasn't healthy, for sure, but it was better than nothing.

Nothing was what could be seen in Alaric Saltzman's eyes – or couldn't, for what it mattered.

The teacher finally took his eyes off the Original as he walked away, and gave Jenna his full attention again.

She was so beautiful and looked so happy he couldn't repress a smile, even if he knew he really had to give his shoulder a look before the evening. The pain wasn't much, but it was continuous.

"You're sure you don't want me to help?"

"No one should ever have to deal with my thesis besides myself. It's too much of a challenge to even read my handwriting, and I like when you look at me too much for you to lose your eyes trying."

Jenna smiled and gave him a light kiss before leaving too.

So Alaric was left alone with Damon and the compelled Andie.

"How much should I worry about your plans for this evening?"

Damon put his naive look on, and the teacher guessed these plans were really, really bad news.

"It's nothing more than a dinner. You know, between friends."

"You always have something on your mind when you try to look innocent, which, by the way, is not working at all, just so you know. So, will you share with the class or should I begin by sticking a fork in your hand to see what happens?"

The vampire frowned.

Glanced at the fork dancing between the teacher's fingers.

That sounded really different now that he knew of his best friend being something of a natural born killer. Before, he had probably sensed that the hunter might have carried out his threats if only there were less people around, but he never really believed he would. Now, things were different.

Which didn't mean the vampire thought Alaric would just do it, of course. But he knew the teacher could have if he wanted to, and that was starting to freak him out slightly.

"Calm down, killer. I'm aware that everybody knows my innocent face is bullshit, for your information. And I'm only planning to kill the thousand-years-old gramps who just left with a stylish dagger and ancient ashes."

Alaric really wished he could do a facepalm with his free hand, but the pain had grown into something so disturbing he didn't wish to know what would happen to his left shoulder if he even tried to lift his arm.

Instead, he only sighed and said goodbye, promising to be there for the dinner.

"Maybe you should follow him."

Damon turned to face Andie.

"If it's about my feelings for him, I won't say a word."

The reporter looked kind of surprised with his answer, but chuckled before he could say anything else. Waiting for her to explain herself made Damon a little impatient.

"So you finally admitted it. Better than nothing. But I was talking about the fact that he's been keeping his left arm from moving too abruptely for hours. You said he died recently, maybe he's not as okay as he wants you to believe he is."

"Alaric wasn't doing anything with his arm. If you're trying to get me to talk to him alone, say it already."

Andie painted an insulted look on her face.

"I'm not, and he wasn't doing anything with his arm because the point of keeping your arm from moving is that it stays still. You were too busy being jealous when you saw him with Jenna that you didn't even notice he wasn't doing well."

Damon grunted. He wasn't jealous. Not at all. He was simply happy that Ric was happy with a decent woman. And a little sad that it wasn't with a decent man. Or more accurately, with a not-at-all-decent man. Or a not-at-all-decent vampire, to be exact. Hell, he was sad that it wasn't His Majesty who was going out with Alaric Saltzman, but seriously, he couldn't do anything about it.

And he'd have noticed if the hunter hadn't been doing well.

He would have noticed. Definitely.

The vampire looked Andie in the eyes.

"You're sure he wasn't doing well?"

Because he had been way too troubled by Jenna and Alaric's kiss to notice anything, because he was jealous as hell, because Andie was right and he didn't want to admit it.

"Certain. Now, go, and stalk him if you have to."

Damon left the Grill, hoping Ric had gone back to his loft.

And the teacher had.

Alaric was bare chested in his bathroom when the vampire looked through the window.

That was some view to see, and Damon really resented the man right now for never having invited him inside. Because of that, the vampire was currently maintening his equilibrium on the windowsill, and hoping that no one would look up and see him. Not only he was acting like a stalker, but he was a stalker who was holding himself to the building's rain gutter.

Ric winced when the sleeve of his shirt finally left his arm.

His right hand explored the back of his shoulder, and then he felt it.

It was like some of the veins on his back were swollen.

It was only when his fingertips came into contact with the damaged part of his skin that he realized what exactly was swollen.

The hunter came closer to the mirror, and turned a bit so he could see the star-shaped scar.

He had no idea what it meant exactly, but it couldn't be good. Two of the eight points were red and bulging, and the veins that ran through the swollen skin were the ones which were bloated.

That was the kind of things that could almost convince him to go and ask Bonnie Bennett for her expertise. But she was far from being an expert, even if she was truly powerful. The young witch was lacking experience, and way too close to Elena and Jeremy.

If only Ric could get in touch with some other witch...

He stayed still for one or two more minutes, thinking, then the teacher went to get ready for the dinner at the boarding house.

He couldn't do anything about it for now.

And it could as well be nothing. After all, after his first death too his shoulder had hurt, even though not as much as this time. In the end, nothing had happened.

Alaric was still alive, and that was good enough for now.

But if Alaric felt this way, it wasn't Damon's case.

When the vampire had set eyes on the scar, he had remembered.

The name in the book was Falkenbach.

When the vampire had sighted the bulging veins coming from the scar, he had frowned.

That coudn't be good.

What the hell it was, he had no idea.

But it couldn't be good.

Damon raced up to the boarding house.

He passed by Stefan who was leaving, and obviously wasn't informed that there was a dinner in the evening in their very house – because he was too busy spending time with Elena, because he would have suspected something and could never help but say the truth to his girlfriend who would at some point have tried to prevent them from killing Elijah, and because Damon hadn't told him about it. Best way not to have a whiny and suicidal doppelganger in the way of the upcoming Original Murder Operation.

It took him almost ten seconds to find the book he had freed from Alaric's custody.

When Stefan was gone for good, Damon began cooking dinner, reading the chapter about the Falkenbachs simultaneaously.

Miraculously, nothing burned or turned to ashes while he was frowning upon the book.

How the Falkenbachs had become the Saltzmans without anyone knowing about it remained a mystery, but people married and women took their husband name's. Ric surely knew about that as well. As he had known since the beginning that the Petrovas chapter wasn't the only one that had caught his wife's interest.

Damon was a bit relieved. What the book said, considering it was accurate of course, added up to his best friend's story.

Ric had been honest the other day.

Still, they'd need to have a serious and long talk one of those days.