A.N.: I surprised myself writing this chapter so quickly, it wasn't where I'd intended to take this chapter but I think it works.
Dangerous Beauty
06
History Lessons
"Look!" Giulia laughed, raising her drink in mocking salute as they blazed down Main Street, the sun burning down, puffing out a lungful of smoke as the song changed to AC/DC's "Back in Black" and Caroline glanced up, beaming, to wiggle her fingers tauntingly before changing gear again, and Giulia's laughter echoed on the air as the powder-blue Camaro rumbled past Bonnie and Elena, staring at them in disbelief. She saw them briefly exchange a 'WTF?' look before Elena started digging into her purse, and they were gone, back toward the Boarding House.
Damon was standing on the front-step waiting for them, bourbon in-hand; the glass shattered as he gasped and rushed forward, gazing at the powder-blue car, gushing, "Thank god you made it back in one piece!" He inspected every panel for damage, not even bothering to give them a disapproving frown at the mound of bags in the backseat.
"We've been gone all weekend, we didn't even leave a note or anything, and you're more worried about your car than your great-granddaughter," Caroline chided angrily, flinging open the driver's door as Giulia slipped out of the passenger seat, sipping her Long Island Iced Tea and sidestepping the broken glass. Waste of good bourbon, she thought, glancing down at the ground.
"Just the very fact that my Camaro was missing was a perfectly good sign that Giulia is still indeed alive and punishing," Damon said, shrugging those shoulders he always kept thrown back so arrogantly.
"So, your Camaro goes missing, you know Giulia's okay because you think she's doing it to get back at you: Giulia moves out of the Boarding House months ago and you don't even notice?" Caroline scowled. Giulia shot her a warning glare, the look hampered by her Statue of Liberty shades. "Even despite what you did to her dad, Giulia's still there for you and Stefan when you need her, and you can't even be bothered to notice she's not lying drunk in a ditch somewhere."
"A – she probably has been drunk in many a ditch the last few months," Damon said smarmily. "B – you moved out?"
"That is exactly my point," Caroline said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Okay, Blondie, who gave you this dose of self-confidence?" Damon asked, with a vicious smile.
"Giulia. Who you used to be super-close with because she's the only person you've met who even has a glimmer of who you really are, and she's the most intellectually-stimulating person you know," Caroline said, with a cocky hair-toss. "Don't you think you owe it to her to actually be the person you let her see you as?"
"Well, I would… She just hasn't been around much lately, I don't know what's happened," Damon shrugged, doing that defensive smooth-talking mixed with a hefty dash of arrogance, deflection and sarcasm.
"You killed her dad. When you tried to kill me," Caroline said sternly. "And you've been sniffing around someone you've no business being interested in."
"What?"
"I've come to view things, recently, as a sort of out-of-tune piano, a demented crossword," Giulia said, finally finding her voice after being stunned by Caroline's brazen attack-strategy before she'd even put on the handbrake. "Six across, five letters; 'undistinctive, tasteless'. First thing that pops into your head."
Damon frowned bemusedly at her, his expression amusingly suspicious. "…Elena?"
"It was actually 'bland', but…you get the idea," Giulia said, smirking lusciously, sipping her straw.
"Well, you two have a tonne of catching up to do," Caroline declared, with the kind of tone that dared them not to 'catch up'; Giulia sensed there might even be a pop-quiz coming up. She fixed Damon with a look: "Now that you've killed Jeremy and successfully ripped the cord with Elena, you've got no excuses, I am gonna go home, get showered, and see my mom. I'll give you…'til two o'clock Saturday, then you better be at the swimming-hole in your bikini –"
"Well, it's just I haven't shaved my legs in a while –" Damon interrupted: Caroline gave him a death-glare.
"Not you," she snapped, then scowled that daring glare at Giulia; "And you better wear sunscreen." Caroline popped the trunk, and started rooting through the backseat, collecting bags. She gathered everything, cast Giulia a secret smile taking some of the things she had bought while Giulia had encouraged Car to snatch-eat-erase down Fifth Avenue flagship stores. She had said she was putting something together for Giulia to commemorate their weekend – not a scrapbook; she'd work on that in the next few months while she scheduled potential summer fun. Gathering up everything she thought was hers, she straightened up, her freshly and gloriously-highlighted hair bouncing over her shoulders. "Ask to see her college essays, you can read them while Giulia burns your Elena-shrine." She shot Giulia grin. "See you later."
She turned, and vamp-zhoomed away, colourful glossy bags glinting in the sun. Giulia, a little frazzled by Caroline's less-than-subtle tactics, nevertheless glanced at Damon with a quirked eyebrow, mostly hiding her smirk.
"That feeling you're struggling with? That's being discombobulated."
Damon was still frowning after Caroline's now-disappeared form. "How d'you take the batteries out?" Giulia rolled her eyes, but smirked, reaching into the trunk and giving him a stern look to gather everything from the backseat. Pulling a face, he frowned and collected the bags, carrying them into the foyer.
"Anything interesting happen while we were gone?" Giulia asked breezily, carrying her things to the daybed. She had to go through everything – and Caroline was right, they did owe a few handwritten thank-you cards to several people.
"Nope."
"Figures. The two most interesting people in town weren't actually in town," Giulia said, smirking lusciously at Damon. He quirked an eyebrow, looking surprised; he filled himself a new tumbler with bourbon. "So this didn't become the Love Shack while the schoolmarm – meaning me – wasn't here to slut-shame Stelena?"
"Slut-shame – please, they're so vanilla she keeps her bra on during sex," Damon snickered, and Giulia raised her eyebrows. "Back when we were playing that delicious catch-Stef-at-his-own-game game, I woke the two lovebirds. She spent the night but still fell asleep in her padded Victoria's Secret 'PINK' training-bra."
"You're being snarky about Elena."
"Yeah, well, y'know, not everyone's as zen as you are about loved-ones being killed – and hers came back!" Damon declared, pulling a face. "And I don't have an Elena-shrine, BTW."
"In this house? With Stefan living here? That would just be awkward," Giulia said, and Damon nodded. "Any stirrings from the Ghost of Slut-Girlfriends Past?"
"So far, not a murmur," Damon shrugged. "No mysterious disappearances, no sudden deaths, no accidents. I've checked out the most expensive foreclosures in town…"
"Yeah, but, she's not Isobel, Katherine likes to have toys around to play with."
"Isobel compelled two minions – admittedly, really hot ones with naughty lingerie and great card-skills, but still… You're right, though; Katherine's not the type to not be waited on hand and foot but she definitely wouldn't luxuriate in someone's sloppy seconds."
"And a house torn away from someone who couldn't afford one mortgage-payment is sloppy-seconds?"
"She's probably in a spa-hotel somewhere," Damon sighed, sipping his bourbon. He perched on the arm of the settee and fiddled with his tumbler while Giulia went through the numerous boutique-bags and shoeboxes and jewellery pouches and makeup palettes and compacts she had collected with Caroline. She was aware of Damon perched there, trying not to watch her, while she pointedly didn't look his way and fiddled unnecessarily with folding up plastic shopping-bags, flat-packing pretty boutique bags and winding the ribbons around her fingers for Caroline to use in her scrapbooking.
"Ssssssooo," Damon said uncomfortably. "How was New York?"
"Pretty good. Caroline has dirt on you. Seventies hair," Giulia said, glancing at him. "We went to Billy's."
"Vampire Barbie in Billy's?" Damon tutted, sighing. "What is the world coming to? Looks like you didn't just go to Billy's. What did you two get up to?" Giulia gave Damon a sidelong look. And she told him everything – the gorgeous meals, the picnics in the sun, shopping, their spa-afternoon, going to their first opera, drinking Manhattans, Little Shop of Horrors and Sephora-binging, utilising Caroline's compulsion along Fifth Avenue, Caroline perfecting snatch-eat-erase.
"Seems like it did Blondie some good. Very direct," Damon remarked. He glanced at the Armani Exchange bag Giulia was rifling through. "New watch?"
"Yeah. Here," Giulia said, holding one of the leather boxes out to him. Her watch-collection was nothing to Damon's.
"For me?" Damon's face lit up, opening the box. His eyebrows rose, impressed. "Sweet." Giulia sighed as her phone-buzzed, a text from Caroline flashing up. I'm home. Are you two talking? She sighed.
"She wants us to fix this in a few days."
"Fix this? I killed your dad." Giulia froze.
After a moment, she said, striving for a light tone, "You've never said it before."
"If you don't say it out-loud it's not real."
"You killed my dad," Giulia said softly.
"I killed your dad," Damon repeated quietly. "I killed Zach. Even before he was your dad, he was my great-great-great grandson. Surely there's some special nub in Hell for that kind of infanticide."
"I don't think there's any rules on that. At least you know you'd see Stefan there – Ripper binges aside, he committed fratricide," Giulia said lightly, folding some of her new clothes. Her evolving style was becoming darker, sleeker, edgy and tough, with immaculate details. The pair of Faberge-embellished black velvet Balmain trousers were an anomaly, and a must.
"Hm. After Dad committed infanticide."
"It's a vicious cycle," Giulia said, glancing up at Damon with a bitter smile.
"I killed your dad," he said, not breaking eye-contact, deflated. "I shouldn't have – but I did. What am I supposed to do with that – you're the only person in the world I'd never want to hurt, and I killed the person you loved the most, the only parent you ever had. And I took him from you."
Giulia swallowed. Damon, the master deflector, had opened up, probably too much booze and not enough people to talk to. She glanced at him. What had happened with her dad was in the past, he hadn't killed Caroline then and she was stronger for it now. "Would you really have staked Caroline?"
"No," Damon said, after a sigh, a moment's thought, a sip of his bourbon. "I saw her with that dead guy – and all I could think of was Stefan, the first time he got high off human blood. Two well-mannered, hyper-achieving, essentially…good people, and we both know how my baby-bro reacted… Guess I'm just jaded about the whole thing. Besides, I didn't have to stake her in the heart to take her down if I'd had to! Through the gut and she's distracted long enough to snap her neck and haul her away from temptation. You don't believe me?"
"You rarely say what you don't mean."
"I shouldn't have killed your dad. But I did… And I've ignored you teh last few months because…I can't stand the thought of you hating me." The raw vulnerability in his voice was so alien, it made Giulia look up. This was him, the Damon she knew, the one she adored more than almost any other person in the world. The side of him he never showed to anyone else, because vulnerability was a liability.
She sighed softly. "I'm more disappointed and hurt than angry. You killed Dad but Stefan put his – our – lives in danger over her. I could never hate you – but you will lose my respect forever if you continue to pursue someone so unworthy of you. Everybody we care aout knows who we are; I wish you didn't feel like you aren't good enough to be yourself." She broke off, and after a moment, mumbled, "You were always my favourite."
"I've had worse pets too," Damon sighed, with a tiny smile, reaching out to flick her braid. He sighed heavily, then. "So… I guess I know your opinion on the whole, me-liking-Elena issue." Giulia pulled a face, folding a pair of leather trousers onto the 'bottoms' pile she was creating out of her shopping haul.
"My opinion – my opinion is that small-town high-school dropout just isn't ever going to be enough for you, and you were never going to think you were good enough if you felt the need to change yourself to be with her," Giulia said. Damon mulled that over, frowning.
"You know Elena's not actually a dropout, right?"
"Yet. How much school has she missed recently?"
"Touché."
"I may disdain it but I can understand why you started getting mushy feelings for her… It's like… You walk into a candy-store, and you notice for the first time in ages that your favourite candy is there. You haven't had it in ages and you used to eat tonnes of it, but somehow you haven't had it in ages and you've forgotten why. So you buy it – same wrapper, it looks exactly the same, even the insides are identical. Exactly as you remembered, and it's gorgeous and nostalgic and all these amazing memories come back," Giulia said, smiling sadly. "And then you eat the candy. It doesn't taste the same, it's not exactly as you remembered it tasting. And then you realise, you ate so much of it that it eventually made you sick, and after all this time your palate has matured, the candy's sickly and you have to spit it out because it's just not right."
Damon frowned thoughtfully into the middle-distance. Giulia opened the Montblanc case in which a new fountain-pen for Stefan was tucked, stashing it on the side-table with a few other bits and pieces she had had fun with Caroline picking out for the boys – a red shirt so dark it was almost black for Damon, a copy of The Dirt by Mötley Crüe (for a little perspective on Stefan's continued rehabilitation) – and started stacking her cosmetics, body-butters, perfumes, nail-polishes, on the floor by the daybed, next to the pile of boxes with her new crockery and glassware for the house in them. Several pieces of furniture, her Marilyn Minter and the two staggering hand-crafted chandeliers she had ordered would arrive in the next few weeks. "Have I overloaded your brain?"
"Hm? Oh. No. I'm just really craving liquorice," Damon said, and Giulia chuckled softly at his wink. He sighed. "So… you and Vampire Barbie did a little soul-searching, huh? In between retail-therapy sessions and pedicures."
"We multitasked," Giulia said, shrugging. "Did the soul-searching while we had pedicures and drank Manhattans and cried to 'Nessun Dorma'."
"You saw 'Turandot'? That Puccini's original unfinished version they were performing at the Metropolitan Opera?" Damon asked, and Giulia nodded. "How was it?"
"Staggering. Caroline's…inspired. We talked college visits," Giulia said, biting her lip. "I think she'll go West Coast."
"And you'll hopscotch between the most illustrious schools in the world," Damon said decisively, sipping his bourbon. "College campuses; best place a newbie vamp can be. The sheer number of frat-parties will give her oodles of opportunities to keep her snatch-eat-erase skills honed."
"We talked about doing some college visits," Giulia said, glancing at Damon. "We looked around NYU, Columbia and Juilliard. I think Caroline was inspired by Puccini to pursue a career in the operatic theatre."
"Well, that's unexpected," Damon raised his eyebrows.
"At the very least, take singing lessons," Giulia said, shrugging.
"So, you two had fun," Damon sighed, eyeing everything. "How much stuff did you abscond with?"
"Tonnes," Giulia grimaced. "I'd like to say I feel guilty, but – you see this price-tag?"
"Ouch. So… College visits…college essays. When did you start going to college classes?"
"January. Didn't Stefan tell you? It's called communication," Giulia said, waving her phone in Damon's face.
"Well, do I get to read them?"
"My stuff's all at the house."
"How strong is that tea?" Damon asked, eyeing her Hurricane glass on the coffee-table. "This is your house, little girl."
"I moved out in February."
"Where?" Damon asked incredulously.
"My house," Giulia said pointedly, and Damon's lips parted slightly.
"Ah… Well, what I had it built for," he shrugged. "What're you gonna do with this place?"
"Don't know yet," Giulia said, glancing around the great hall. "Something lucrative."
Damon narrowed his eyes. "Brothel?" Giulia snickered. "So, where'd you get Caroline's daylight-ring? Bonnie? Or Sheila Bennett?"
"After backhanding Bonnie across the parking-lot?" Giulia raised her eyebrows. "Just an acquaintance I made in New York. Found something interesting in Billy's."
"Good place to start, BTW. Snatch-eat-erase crash-courses on offer there nightly," Damon smirked.
"She's so guileless, they're like moths to a flame," Giulia smiled. "You don't have to worry about Ripper tendencies."
"Oh, I know. We'd've known within minutes… Now Caroline just seems…like she always was with you when there was nobody else around. Focused and confident."
"She's taken it in stride," Giulia said, shrugging. "Being a vampire. She hasn't complained or bargained or moped."
"Some people are made for it. She's lucky, though," Damon said, sighing.
"Why?"
"She has you. She has you to connect her to her humanity… When I turned the only thing that might've helped me through the transition would've been Stefan. But he turned. He changed, so… Easier to let Lexi take care of him, how'd I even know how to take care of myself, I didn't realise how much I didn't want it, 'til it was too late. Now I would've give it back for the world."
"I know," Giulia said softly. She frowned, "Why've you stayed here? You know Katherine doesn't want you."
"Ouch! Don't pull your punches."
"I thought you'd decided you were leaving."
"Well, if you're turning this place into a brothel I want a piece of that action. Maybe I'm curious about the Lockwoods. Maybe I want to help my baby-bro protect the girl he loves from all the things that go bump in the night. Maybe I just don't have anything better to do."
"Speaking of… Tyler and his mom and mystery uncle are heading out of town to a spa retreat for a couple days," Giulia said, glancing at Damon, a small smile growing larger as excitement filled her. "I could borrow Stefan's ring and we could activate the Wonder Twin superpowers again."
"Ooh. What're we doing?"
"Well – I'm suspicious of the Lockwoods, too. Not Tyler and Carol specifically, they're oblivious to most things," Giulia mused. "But Mason came into town the same time as Katherine made her debut, George Lockwood was head of the Founders' Council in 1864 and – look at this –" She tapped quickly at her phone, going through her saved photos, bringing up one she had downloaded from Facebook specifically. She brought it up on her screen and showed Damon, whose jaw dropped slightly as his eyes narrowed.
"You've gotta be kidding – he's an aimless surfer!"
"I don't think she particularly cares about what his favourite things are to do during his free time, just as long as he knows how to use her favourite parts to make her free time more enjoyable," Giulia said, smirking. Damon wrinkled his nose at the picture, muttering something about "surfer…" He looked up at her, glaring with that intense, purposeful look he got sometimes.
"So what do we do? Besides kill him."
"You're not going to kill him. We just have to neutralise any threat he might pose. I'll plant the seed, then we'll reap a reward," Giulia said, holding her palms out, giving him a measured expression. "He's just being used by her, just like she used you all those years ago; all we have to figure out is why, and to what end. Help him see her for what she is."
"So…your goal in this is to find out about Mason Lockwood and why Katherine's trussed up like a South Beach body-shot waitress at Spring Break, you're not in the least bit curious why the Gilbert device affected Tyler and his dad? Come on, your head's not buried in the sand, you dated the guy!"
"I could very well be asking why it affected me; but I'm not, so…" Giulia said, giving Damon such a pointed, accusing look he started to squirm despite his smile. For whatever reason she had reacted to the Gilbert device, she knew at the heart of it the cause was linked to Damon. Either because he had done something to her recently and she didn't know because he'd tampered with her vervain – or something had happened to her when she was little, when he was the one helping her dad get her through infancy after the death of her mother. "Makes sense, though."
"What does?" Damon asked, his tone sharp, almost suspicious.
"Whatever they are – in 1864 didn't George Lockwood spearhead the Council?"
"His father only cared to show off his money, but George was different. Brutal bastard. He fought for the Confederacy, but he didn't need to be on a battleground to kill people; he had slaves for that," Damon said grimly; Giulia knew Damon's political leanings. "The town archives don't breathe a hint of it but he was the most sadistic slave-owner for a hundred miles… I saw piles of them in pieces once," Damon breathed, his eyes faraway and haunted. "Never got that image out of my head. Strange fruit… He couldn't understand why I objected to slavery. Or using little kids in the mills. And I tell you what, for the five kids he put in his long-suffering wife, he forced another dozen on maids and debutantes. Have to say, didn't put any effort whatsoever to stop Stef butchering him." Damon ruminated on memories as he stared into the middle-distance, sipping his scotch. Then he blinked, and frowned at her. "Giulia…you don't even look shocked."
"Different time," was all she said, quietly.
"Yeah. It wasn't all Jo March and cotillions," Damon sighed.
"Josephine March was after your time."
"She was during what would've been during my natural life-time," Damon smiled. "So. What do we do? Can't search the town archives, they'll just glorify the Lockwood family… The original Lockwood plantation burned down – guilty – in 1864 – well, I had to cover Stefan's tracks after he killed George, his parents and all the slaves! Got his wife and five kids out, though. Me. The bad-guy. Saved babies from a burning-house."
"After you first set the fire," Giulia smirked.
"Details."
"Well, like I mentioned, they're going on a spa-retreat for a couple of days," Giulia said. "You've been invited into the house, we just have to make sure to compel any of the staff who might be there."
"What're we looking for?"
"Anything," Giulia shrugged. "You know, I've never read the Lockwood journals, I've read all the Founders' diaries but Mayor Lockwood thought they'd been burned when – when you lit up the old antebellum plantation-house."
"George's family were all money no class," Damon sighed, shaking his head. "I got the good stuff out, though – jewellery, paintings, a couple daguerreotypes…"
"It sounds like you took a lot of time clearing out the house of valuables the owners would appreciate before you burned it down," Giulia said softly, and Damon gave her a wan smile.
"I liked Maria – George's wife. Sweet girl. Amazing ear for music," he sighed, looking sad. "The night Stefan killed George…I was with him. When I was a human I had my suspicions about how he treated her…the night Stefan went for him, we waited outside the house… He visited her, that night…and I knew."
"You didn't just like her," Giulia said softly, and Damon gave her a tired smile. He sighed, gazing into the distance.
"If I hadn't married Alice, it would've been her," he said quietly. He sighed. "I compelled her to forget what she'd seen, to not breathe a word that Stefan and I were still alive… I compelled her to be free of George in her heart and live happily. I made sure she and her children would be okay… And then we screwed – and screwed and screwed!" Giulia laughed, shaking her head. Of course. "What?! I was grieving – she'd just lost her husband."
"Yeah, I'm sure you selflessly offered yourself up to help her get through such a difficult time," Giulia smirked. Damon shrugged, sipping his bourbon.
"You know, she was the first person I ever…enjoyed and fed on and lived with."
"I thought Sage taught you that."
"Maria was different – I wanted her, I wanted to be with her and look after her," Damon said, frowning thoughtfully. "She knew how it felt to be betrayed by the person she loved, even though they were cruel to her."
"George didn't betray her."
"He died. Left her with five children, house burned down…and there was still a war going on," Damon said softly. "During the carnage with the vampires, a great deal of the slaves in town mutinied, they made their escape north. Half the Lockwood slaves made the journey…they left Maria and her children vulnerable." Damon sighed. "I had my own issues with dealing with the transition. For that brief time it still hadn't really sunk in that that couldn't be my life. Alice, Katherine, George, they were all gone, I was changed but I was still myself…Stefan was off the rails but… For a heartbeat I thought things could just move on… Plus, she was so good in bed after we got used to each other, there's no way I wanted to give that up!"
"What happened?" Giulia asked, smiling. It sounded to her like Damon had loved Maria Lockwood. Even if he didn't realise it himself, Giulia believed love wasn't mutually exclusive, she believed someone could love many times, sometimes at the same time, and each love was unique and exquisite. His love for Maria Lockwood may not have been what his love for Katherine's was, but they were two different women, just as Alice Salvatore had been a different woman before any whisper of Katherine Pierce had been heard of in Mystic Falls. Damon had loved them all.
"Emily Bennett thought she was in danger, she found me – told me about the tomb, made me swear to protect her family…they came for her," Damon said tonelessly. "I couldn't stop them… They burned her alive, and I didn't get there in time…"
"And that was that. My anger at Stefan returned, a hundred times worse – he was better off, under Lexi's influence," Damon shrugged. "I hated that. Hated him – hated the thought that Katherine was desiccating slowly and painfully in a crypt, hated that Emily hadn't told me – I hated that I'd have to wait so long to see her again."
"When did Maria die?" Giulia asked quietly. Damon sighed.
"1902. Ten years before I came back to Mystic Falls for the first time since I left it after we turned," Damon said sadly. "Zachariah had been given a lifetime's worth of letters Maria had written – to me. But never posted."
"Did you read them?" Giulia asked. Damon nodded mutely.
"Yeah. I had no idea she was such a talented poetess. It's something we used to talk about in bed…poetry, literature," Damon said, with a sad smile, as Giulia rolled her eyes. "I had her letters bound into a book…it's in the library. I'll find it for you."
"I thought we could go and look through the old plantation ruins," Giulia spoke up, as Damon sauntered toward the library. He returned with a leather-bound book, handing it to her.
"Right now? Can't. Waiting for Little Gilbert," Damon shrugged. Giulia's eyebrows quirked dramatically, her expression intense. "Simmer down."
"Why are you waiting for Jeremy?"
"Well, because I called him to come over here, when he finally answered his phone. Jenna's screening my calls to the house, and Elena's blocked me."
"I thought Stelena had agreed not to tell Jenna about your snap-happy mantrum."
"Oh, they haven't told her; Jenna just doesn't like me because she knows I tried to kiss Elena."
"Even though it was actually Katherine whose throat you tried to cram your tongue down."
"See, you get the distinction – Stefan is so sensitive about the whole situation."
"I see the finer points: you kissed Katherine. Jeremy came back."
"And you're not mad. So…as long as there's no irreparable damage, you don't really mind what I get up to?" Damon frowned, a tiny smirk lingering on his lips. "I'm gonna file that away for later."
"Don't push it. Why did you ask Jeremy over here?" Giulia asked.
"Well, he's just so cute those brown eyes, I thought – d'you think he'd ever go out with me? Not like a date but –" The doorbell rang, and Giulia rolled her eyes as Damon smirked; she went to answer the door.
"Hey, Jem, you're just in time, Damon was waxing lyrical about your eyes," Giulia said, glancing over her shoulder at Damon. "I think he's drunk but he either wants to ask you out on a date or – " Damon made retching noises – "or he's invited you over here to kill you? Again." Damon mouthed 'apologise' to her, mid-retch. "I mean, I don't mind if you're branching out, trying something new, a little experiment–"
"If I upchuck the blood-bag I just fed on all over the Persian," Damon called, "it's coming out of your allowance."
"This is my house!" Giulia called back, guiding a perplexed and slightly nervous Jeremy into the hall. "You're just the homicidal squatter." Damon reached for something by the bar as Jeremy sank onto the sofa, eyeing the shopping-bags in surprise. He sauntered over, presenting a brown-leather journal to Jeremy.
"What's this?"
"Stole it from Stefan's stash. Alright, I know you've been hard on Elena about this whole thing – hey, I'm not judging, I'm the last person to call you out on punishing siblings," Damon said, holding his hands palms-out defensively as Jeremy frowned. "I also know you read one of Jonathan Gilbert's journals, and John…got into your head about some kind of messed-up family legacy and this warped responsibility and this hatred you're supposed to inherit with that ring." Jeremy glanced at the clunky Victorian onyx-set ring on his finger.
"Where's he going with this?" he asked Giulia, who shrugged.
"No talking in class," she said, as Damon snapped his fingers in front of Jeremy's face, looking annoyed.
"Before I turned into a vampire, I was a Founding Son, just like you. From what Giulia's told me, your dad was okay. My dad was like John Gilbert – a huge dick no-one liked, and his kids lost respect for him. Back then, this town was run on the blood of slaves, it's a part of their own legacy the Founders delight in ignoring. Not exactly P.C. but that's the way the world works. It was the way of life back then, it was like two separate realities, the genteel lawn-parties, and brutalising slaves. I mean, Jonathan was a little different, he'd been educated in England, he was always a little whacked out – he liked the opium!" Giulia snickered, smirking at Jeremy, who smiled slightly; there were definite similarities in the Gilbert descendent. "As slave-owners went, Jonathan was one of the best, he valued human-life. He saw the real natural order: animals, humans, vampires. Colour didn't matter to him… He was actually one of the most influential people in my life at that time. Suggested books to read, poets, saved his newspapers for me, tried to convince my father to send me to college in Europe. It's because of Jonathan Gilbert I had the views I did, the politics – I left the Confederacy a few months before Jonathan Gilbert rounded up all the vampires in town. When we went to save the woman we both loved, my father shot me, and Stefan, in the back."
"Your father killed you?"
"He didn't understand what John Gilbert doesn't get, but what Giulia tells me your dad would've; that you're young, but your opinions matter. Nobody sees the world the same way – that journal you read, it was written before Origin of Species was widely available, when this country was torn apart by war; Jonathan was a slave-owner, his friends raped and brutalised and humiliated human-beings because they believed skin-colour made them less than humans. Jonathan was a good man, he was; but he also didn't have the benefit of a modern scientific education, he was an opiate-user, he was the political radical of this town. He was a product of his time; you are a product of yours." Damon pointed to the blank leather journal he had handed Jeremy. "I think successive generations of Gilberts should hear from an ancestor who's young and compassionate, and has known loss and suffering – and who's taken it easy on the narcotics recently. I'd want you to tell future Gilberts I'll meet that it's okay to see things differently than your parents, because every experience is unique…" Damon shrugged, then narrowed his eyes at Jeremy, pulling a face. "Maybe…we should've done this when you weren't stoned, Giulia can record it on her phone."
"No, I'm not – I'm not stoned," Jeremy half-laughed, looking unsettled, surprised and strangely relaxed. "Just thinking."
"Oh. Kinda the same facial expression," Damon grimaced. "There's pens in the study – not Stefan's Montblanc, he'll stab you in the hand with it if he catches you ruining the nib." Jeremy trailed into Giulia's father's study; she folded her arms loosely over her stomach, a gentle smirk highlighting her cheekbones as she watched Damon.
"What?"
"You old softie."
"Shut up," Damon rolled his eyes. "Stefan gave me a lecture the other day about 'doing the right thing', it just kept nagging me. So; the right thing," he said, gesturing toward the study. "Now I'm not strong-arming Little Gilbert into making nice with Elena, I'm telling him it's okay to be different from his family."
"It's strange to think one day you'll meet Jeremy's descendants."
"Rate he goes through girlfriends, it's strange that he doesn't already have descendants."
"Well, he might, you keep killing his girlfriends."
"Where is Anna, anyway? Kind of been waiting for her to pop up unexpectedly like some titchy goth portent of doom."
"She is in Brisbane, with Pearl."
"Australia?" Damon pulled a face, and Giulia shrugged.
"Mm. Yo, Necrophilus, you hungry? I've been craving guac and I am one Jem short of a real fiesta," she called. "I thought we could eat on the patio at El Toro." Jeremy reappeared, giving her a look.
"That is not a good nickname."
"It seemed nicer than 'Corpse Jockey'."
"Okay – wow," Jeremy blushed.
"Oh, speaking of girlfriends – Ashlyn forgot to put this in the mail for you," Giulia said, rifling in her purse for the large brown envelope. "Apparently there's some programme for high-school kids at NYU over the summer?"
"Yeah," Jeremy smiled. "It, uh, it's a hundred dollars for registration and accommodation for six weeks, and I'd have to buy supplies, but it looks really cool."
"Six weeks in New York in the summer?" Damon smirked. "You'd have a great time. With tasty Ashlyn, too? A real, live lushy little witchling." Giulia's eyes popped, and she elbowed him. Jeremy gave a soft chuckle.
"I know Ashlyn's a witch," he said, and Giulia relaxed. "I–" Jeremy blushed, glancing at Giulia. "I kind of went off on one about you guys, she told me she knew the secret. She told me she's a witch."
"Oh," Giulia said. Ashlyn had failed to mention that – but she was glad. One more person Jeremy could talk to about all of this, and one more person Ashlyn could.
"So – Mexican. Grab your diary, Little Gilbert. I can talk you through the alphabet on the drive over," Damon said, downing the last of his bourbon and holding his hands out for his keys. Giulia smirked as Jeremy rolled his eyes, and dropped the keys into his open palm.
"You know Caroline's decided to start a diary too," she said, calling shotgun; Jeremy climbed into the back of the Camaro, looking impressed by the old car and excited he got to take a ride in it at all. "She's writing it because she can't tell her mother anything. Kind of depressing, really."
"Oh, Giulia, um, Jenna wants to talk to you, by the way," Jeremy spoke up from the backseat.
"Oh?"
"Something about family-night." Giulia twisted in her seat, giving Jeremy the absurd kind of expression that statement deserved. Family-night?
A.N.: To Ruapehu82, I hope this chapter sort of exhibits that Damon's coming back to the person I'd written him as in the beginning of Drunken Binges. He was always there, he just had to kick the Elena-habit first and acknowledge what he'd done to Giulia. But now, the glorious duo are being drawn back together.
