A.N.: A long one… Not that. Another update – three in one week, is that?


Dangerous Beauty

25

Glitter in the Air


They didn't kill Rose. And Damon managed to not sleep with her, which showed good judgement on Rose's part and self-restraint on Damon's.

Giulia received an update next-morning. Damon had invited Rose to stay at the Boarding House, apologising for the state of the upstairs rooms – "Giulia's de-cluttering; she's making a terrible mess" – in exchange for everything Rose knew about the sacrifice and any Originals she'd ever had contact with.

"So Rosemary has joined the game," Elijah said softly, fiddling with the handle of her delicate white bone-china coffee-cup, leaning against the kitchen counter.

"Mm, apparently," Giulia said, flipping a raspberry pancake in the skillet. Breakfast, she smiled, adding the last to a pile with ricotta cheese and shelled pistachios, and local honey rather than maple syrup. Elijah had an insatiable sweet-tooth, and she had figured she should treat him to a home-cooked breakfast after he had been so…obliging while she healed. She was still healing, her bruise was a glorious greenish yellow now, but she was a lot better than she was, and Meredith had even cleared her to go to the gym and do light workouts.

She knew she'd feel fresh as a damn daisy by this time Thursday – it was the full-moon Wednesday-night. As achy as her ribs sometimes still felt, she knew they'd be a paper-cut compared to the full-body crush Tyler would go through then.

"I would have thought she would take her freedom and run with it," Elijah mused.

"Well, seeing as you're dead she doesn't think there's anyone to ensure her freedom," Giulia said, offering Elijah the plate of pancakes and a top-up on his cup of coffee. He gave her a gentle smile, and stole in for a kiss.

"Thank you," he whispered, nuzzling her nose and giving her another, tiny kiss before setting his coffee-cup down and attacking his pancakes with indecent enthusiasm. Breakfast had become her favourite meal – because of what preceded it, and usually because of what followed. Gratitude. "Are you in Richmond today?"

"I have a full day of classes," Giulia nodded. She had caught up from the physical exhaustion affecting her mental productivity, and glad of it. She hated having mental dexterity tempered by being physically drained. She would admit she had felt some twinges when she went for a light jog around the lake this morning, but it was her first since sparring with Tyler at the gym and she knew she had to take it steady or risk hurting herself again. She needed to be at full-capacity but refused to imbibe vampire-blood to cheat her way out of a natural process. She would not cross that line. "I'll probably be holed up in the library until late."

"What would you like when you get home?" Elijah asked, and Giulia smiled warmly.

"Something small."

"As to that, I can make no promises whatsoever," Elijah said, and Giulia smirked, eyeing him up shamelessly.

"Oh, Elijah! I meant food," she clarified, and Elijah's dark eyes twinkled.

"Tonight, then," he smiled, and Giulia nodded, giving him a kiss that gave her a taste of tart raspberries and strong black coffee. She went and finished getting ready, pulling on a simple black dress with a delicate floral pattern and pulled her hair out of its ponytail so waves tumbled around her shoulders, drew on some winged eyeliner and headed out the door with one final, lingering kiss.

The awful thing was, she knew she would miss this. Not the supernatural drama – sharing breakfasts with Elijah. Playing when she woke up snuggled and cosy with him, happy, delighted. She was excited by him, couldn't stop thinking about him when she was apart from him – the dreaded 'L' word whispered through her mind and she batted it away. That was dangerous. She wasn't a girl who wanted that happily-ever-after – but sooner or later things would come to a head and the people she loved would realise she had been literally sleeping with their enemy. Delightedly, and as often as she could.

She hadn't really thought about it – what would come after?

After Elijah. After the sacrifice. After Elijah got what he wanted. After Stefan and Damon decided to leave town. They would leave.

Giulia pulled into the student parking-lot and strode across to her first lecture-theatre, notebook and pens at the ready as she settled into her seat, phone on silent and reading-glasses in place as she skim-read through the text she had highlighted the other day, refreshing her memory.

"Giulia, you got a minute?" She glanced over her shoulder at the familiar voice, tucking her things into her backpack. It wasn't surprising Sheila had sought her out; Giulia always sat at the front of her lectures because of her reading-glasses and she usually loitered with Miss Sheila for a chat. They'd just had a lecture on East African voodoo and its links to New Orleans covens. She'd been distracted when Sheila dismissed the class by several texts – Cara, asking her to ask Ashlyn if she had stolen her glitter tie-dye Barbie roller-skates; Kaitlyn from the cheerleading team asking her to referee Caroline while they organised Sarah's memorial; Kelly, inviting her to a jive date; and one from the delivery-company tracking her online shop – and a voicemail from her dad's financial-advisor about their quarterly meeting with the accountant. Joy.

"Always," Giulia smiled. "That was a creepy lecture."

"Wasn't it?" Sheila grinned. "I always enjoy the creepy ones."

"You can tell," Giulia said. "What's up?"

"Just wonderin' if you've made a decision yet," Sheila said, packing away her laptop and briefcase. Giulia let out a sigh.

"I have," she admitted.

"You're leavin' us," Sheila knew.

"Not 'til September," Giulia assured her. "You've got me until June."

"Well, at least I'll have your essays to give as examples."

"Oh, that's not fair; don't fill teh other kids with dread that they'll never produce work like that," Giulia teased, almost completely not serious. Sheila chuckled.

"I'll reserve it for the PhD students," she chuckled. "It's a shame you'll be leaving us, but it's good you're making the leap. Reckon you'll be cowpats in a field in New York, you'll love it." Giulia knew she'd love it. Of the offers she had received after applying, she'd been most excited by the NYU prospectus and course catalogue. She was thinking longer-term about her degree – her future. And she wanted to live and play in New York.

"So, have you told anyone else?"

"Just you," Giulia said quietly. Sheila gave her a look. "Who else would I tell?" Sheila kept her opinion to herself, they'd had this talk before and she knew where Giulia stood on the matter. Giulia had no parents, she hadn't been left to a guardian like Elena and Jeremy. She had bonded with Ric and Jenna, adored Liz, and sort of missed manicures with Carol – but they were not her parents. They were not emotionally invested in her wellbeing any more than being vaguely concerned she ate her veggies and did her homework.

And she didn't want to make a big deal about it. She already got weird looks for attending classes at UV. People seemed unnerved she had been signed off as a graduate halfway through her junior year of high-school so she could become a full-time college-student.

Tell people she had applied and been accepted to Brown, NYU, Columbia and Yale? She had received the last offer from Yale on Saturday and had to really think about her options. She hadn't bothered to apply anywhere in the Midwest and wasn't a 'California girl', that was Caroline's territory, and she couldn't justify flying across the Atlantic for interviews at Oxbridge, but applying there had been a possibility. Without her dad, she was reliant only on her own instincts – and she missed his advice.

He'd be blown away that she'd received four offers for full-rides. Not surprised, but proud of her. The fact that she was considering this – leaving home, leaving the state, leaving Caroline – would stagger him. He'd always feared she'd only go where Caroline got accepted, regardless of her offers, holding herself back rather than risk hurting Caroline's feelings.

Neither of them were the same girls they had been eight months ago.

Giulia didn't have to worry so much about Caroline now. Their relationship wouldn't suffer if Giulia left; Caroline wouldn't crumble. This gave them both a chance to fly. And Caroline would have to learn to go it alone; Giulia wouldn't be around forever.

"It's a good thing, Giulia," Sheila said gently. "People should be able to congratulate you." Giulia just shrugged. "So I've got you 'til June, huh? Guess I'll just have to give my favourite lectures so you don't miss out."

"I'll still be coming back to visit," Giulia assured her. "Your lectures are definitely worth the effort."

"That's sweet of you," Sheila smiled. Her T.A. handed her a note and Sheila sighed as she skimmed it. "I'd best be leavin'. Oh – I did that thing you asked me. And here. Hopefully we won't regret makin' 'em." She handed Giulia a bundle of mismatched bracelets – leather, braided and beaded embroidery-thread, a charm bracelet – and Giulia breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you!" Giulia said earnestly. "I hope you're keeping an account of the favours I owe you."

"Of course," Sheila said, utterly serious. The Bennetts and the Salvatores had been connected since the 1860s by a mutually-beneficial alliance: the Salvatores (Damon) protected the Bennett line and the Bennetts protected the Salvatores. Giulia and Sheila had a far better relationship than just grudging allies: Giulia was firstly human, and Sheila knew she was looking at the bigger picture. Yes, she had fallen out with Bonnie, but Giulia would still do all she could to protect her. She didn't want anyone caught in any Original crosshairs.

Hence, contingencies.

Making Sheila amazing cocktails she'd learned from FaceTime with Kol, so Sheila would grant her some favours. Booze for bracelets – Giulia got the better end of that deal, but Sheila would cash in all those favours for something she desperately needed at some scarily vague future date.

After her final morning class, she exited the stuffy seminar-room, her phone buzzing.

"Font of all knowledge, state your reference, please," Giulia chirped, pushing her reading-glasses on top of her head as she followed the crowd downstairs and out into the courtyard.

"Hey. Meet us for coffee," Damon ordered.

"I'll meet you for lunch." One of the more handsome guys in her class had kept giving her funny looks every time her stomach grumble; she'd forgotten the dried fruit and nuts she usually brought for a mid-morning snack to get her through to the later lunch-hour.

"You will? That was easy. I didn't even have to wheedle," Damon said, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, well, I'm starving. Where am I meeting you?"

"Rose is driving me to some Scandi café by your campus," Damon said, with a long-suffering sigh. He didn't like being a passenger.

"Oh, Slater's? I know it. If you get there before me, please order me an open shrimp and egg sandwich and a semla bun – and a coffee. If he says there are no more buns, tell him it's for Giulia," she said, tugging her backpack on as she hurried across campus.

Slater greeted her with a tray loaded with food – steaming fresh-ground coffee, an open shrimp and sliced hard-boiled egg sandwich with a wedge of lime, gherkins and chips, and an unassuming bun with flavourful cardamom cream. He set the tray down at the table where Damon and Rose sat sipping spiked coffees, and Slater's laptop stood open, whirring softly. He had obviously been working on something for school.

"This is a rare treat. Two Salvatores in one day," Slater said, after he'd given Giulia a kiss on the cheek. "How were classes?"

"Amazing. Miss Sheila's lecture has inspired me to travel to darkest Africa. One wonders how the White Man got away with so much during colonisation with all that hardcore voodoo going on," Giulia said; Slater was a fellow intellectual who got as giddy as she did about research projects – and they enjoyed sharing their academic passions.

"The mind boggles," Damon said drily. "Can we focus? We're talking moonstones."

"God, you've got that bit between your teeth again, have you?" Giulia grumbled, squeezing the lemon over her sandwich. "Do like Etta do; Let it Be."

"I can't," Damon enunciated. "Stefan's already giving it to me about you."

Giulia's eyes widened. "Giving what to you?" She gave him a lecherous smirk; he gave her a withering look. "Damon, I'm not going to help you do something I think is dangerous for us as a collective, not just to safeguard one girl."

"If we can figure out how to render that damn moonstone useless, we can stop the sacrifice," Damon urged.

"And what witch have you ever met who'd screw around with another witch's spells, if they even can? I'd say most witches wouldn't want a thing to do with a spell that would screw up nature's balance," Giulia said. She and Sheila – whom she had let in on the secret – had debated the curse; even if it had been a curse on werewolves and vampires, no witch would risk the repercussions of vampires able to walk in the sun and werewolves able to change at will.

"But witches put the curse in place to begin with," Rose reasoned.

"Because there was no balance," Giulia pointed out. She had to have this argument like she didn't already know it was all a farce, that Slater's computers weren't still running a search for her so she could learn the true nature of a werepire.

"Why would this Klaus guy want Elena any more than just some random?" Damon asked the busy room in general. What Sirius said was true: the busier a place, the less likely they were to be overheard. "What makes him so special?"

"When he wants something, he gets it," Rose said plainly.

"So if he doesn't know about Elena, he won't want to lift the curse," Giulia pointed out.

"Like Stefan said, we've no way to tell Klaus doesn't already know about her," Rose said. "Slater's cool, he won't say anything, and obviously I'm not going to. But it's anyone else who might've picked up something and wants to score points."

"But why would anyone need to contact Klaus?" Slater asked. "This curse if it's broken by a vampire will allow all vampires to walk in the sun, and keep werewolves yoked to the moon-cycle. It seems to me the best form of defence to protect your friend is to prevent word of her existence from disseminating."

"And how do we do that?"

"Lock her in a tower until her hair's long enough to shimmy up!" Giulia suggested, quoting Lorelai Gilmore. "By which time Elena will be a haggard old beast no-one would ever associate with the glorious Katerina Petrova."

"Rapunzel. Really? That's your solution?"

"I didn't think Stefan would appreciate her joining a closed nunnery," Giulia said, after swallowing a mouthful of food.

"Can you be serious, please?" Damon asked. It was annoying her that he was being so serious. The last thing he'd been so committed to was opening that damn tomb – the beginning of all their problems!

"I am being serious – I don't think chasing ghosts is a wise course of action," Giulia said earnestly. "I've said it before, the more you dig, the more you expose your back to any number of dangers you can't see coming."

"Good analogy," Slater muttered.

"Thank you," Giulia smiled. She popped the last of her sandwich into her mouth, eyeing her semla bun as she sipped her coffee. "Anyway – you won't get anywhere without the moonstone."

"Elena thinks you have it," Damon said, giving Giulia that intense, no bullshit, cross-me-and-I'll-rip-your-heart-out look that usually made people quake. "Tell me where it is."

A bomb exploded.

Ears ringing, dazed, she was dimly aware of several things: screaming; car-alarms blaring; glitter in the air; something tickling down the neck of her dress; a stinging burn in her right knee; her semla bun glittering with glass; something unyielding gripping her under her arms, pulling her away from the table as she sat dazed, mind trying to process what had overwhelmed her senses.

The sudden and intense gloom made her blink quickly, her ringing ears distorting every echo in a closed multi-storey parking garage. If she had run out of her own accord or been carried, she had no clue.

"Who was behind that?" Damon demanded, as Giulia kind of leaned against a cement pillar, her knee stinging, throbbing a little bit.

"I don't know," Rose blurted in the passenger-seat of her blacked-out SUV. "Where's Slater?"

"Iowa, by now, who the hell knows?" Damon grumbled.

"He's a good guy, he wouldn't betray us," Rose choked – Giulia watched her burned, patchy skin heal itself in a daze.

"Then who did?" Damon growled, and clarity soothed Giulia's jangled nerves from the tips of her fingers to her toes. Elijah.

Son of a bitch!

That bastard had blown up a café window – with her inside!

What had they been talking about? The last thing Damon had said to her – tell him where the moonstone was.

That bastard!

Soothing clarity morphed into cold rage as quickly as Rose's face healed.

He had blown up a café with her inside it – as a warning!

Psychological warfare was a tactic as old as time.

Instead of scaring her, Elijah had just managed to piss her off.

And she'd even made him pancakes this morning.

No more.

She'd heard of being played hot and cold – but this was glacial.

"C'mon, we gotta get out of here before the emergency-services show up," Damon muttered, tucking Rose into the car. He gestured to Giulia, whose leg wobbled, trembling, as she strode forward. She glanced down.

"Are you kidding me?!" she cried indignantly. "Meredith just signed me off as gym-worthy."

"It's superficial," Damon shrugged, tucking her carefully into the car. She kept her right leg outstretched, sitting at an odd angle in the backseat.

"Damon, there is glass impaled in my knee!"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic," Damon chided. "It's hardly bleeding."

"Well, yeah, now, because that glass is stopping the blood-flow – they take that glass out, we'll be in Niagara Falls!" Giulia grumbled, holding her knee and peering a little closer. Damon sighed, shaking his head.

"D'you need the hospital?" Giulia peered at her wound.

"Nah, just drop me off on campus, I can see the campus doctor and head over to my next class," Giulia sighed. She didn't even get to eat her semla bun, and she reflected on it mournfully as Damon drove Rose's SUV toward the UV campus.

She'd wanted to give Elijah a real thank you for looking after her while she healed.

His balls weren't going to be blue – they'd be freaking indigo by the time she got through with him.

He'd thought their game was intense before – ha!

With three stitches to her knee, Giulia hobbled to her afternoon classes and her evening lecture, eating diner in Miss Sheila's office, a treasure-trove of occult goodies Giulia was slowly making her way through, books and artefacts from long-dead cultures the world had otherwise forgotten. Miss Sheila gave her an icepack for her knee and they chatted about their most recent lecture over an amazing daal, greens, roti and grilled paneer cheese from a small unknown Indian restaurant that, according to notorious lush Miss Sheila, did an amazing bellini with raspberries and lychee. No bellinis, but Miss Sheila did stock her office with a very good mini-bar: her Moscow Mules packed a good wallop, and she made mint juleps teh way her mama taught her – Sheila's daddy was a Louisiana native, a civil rights activist long before Dr King or Malcolm X came to prominence. And, like Sheila, he'd loved his liquor. Half the reason Sheila was a professor of the occult was her father's connections to New Orleans magic.

She gave Miss Sheila a ride home after one too many mint juleps, and picked her up early Tuesday morning. Giulia's knee ached, and she had glared at Elijah so venomously as she combed the remaining glass out of her hair that night, that he had stayed out of her way. He left the house even before she did; they had been acting like an old married couple, lights off, no talking. She was annoyed at him, especially as the warmth of her sheets made her knee throb.

Giulia had a free period after her first morning seminar, and a full schedule until six p.m. She was loaded down with work; she sent Elijah a text to feed Firenze, and crossed campus to reach teh library, intending to blitz through her reading and coursework assignments, as her phone rang.

She didn't recognise the number. "Giulia Salvatore."

"Are you in Richmond?"

"Rose?" Giulia blinked. She guessed Damon had shared her contact-details. "Yes, I'm at school."

"Don't be angry with me," Rose said anxiously.

"Not a good start to the conversation." Giulia paused, the sun beating down on her, unseasonably hot, as Rose told her what was going on. Sadness blossomed like a flower, something cinching in her stomach uncomfortably, and rage simmered under her skin like tiny itchy bubbles. "Just – I'll be there in five."

Slater's studio-loft had taken on a new vibe in the early-evening sunshine Rose was basking in, safe behind double-paned, tempered glass windows, watching the goings-on at the park across the street from Slater's building. Alice gaped at Giulia as she strode over the threshold, and Elena jumped guiltily when she turned and saw Giulia glaring down at her.

"What are you doing here?" Giulia glared.

"What are you doing here?!" Elena blurted, rounding on Rose. "You called her? You said that you understood."

"Let's not start pointing fingers about misleading people, shall we?" Giulia said coolly, and Elena gave her a very nasty look.

"Have you called Damon?" Rose asked.

"I'd rather not. I'm quite capable of physically restraining anyone if need be," Giulia said, eyes on Elena. She glanced at Rose. "Please could you compel Alice, I wrote this down on my way over. And put this on."

"Um…thank you?" Rose said, eyeing the subtle expanding silver chain with a dainty lightning-bolt dangling from it that Giulia offered her.

"Trust me, you'll need it; put it on," Giulia said, giving her a stern look, and Rose shrugged as she slipped the bracelet over her hand, giving Giulia a look; Giulia adjusted the expandable chain so that it fit snugly around Rose's wrist. Rose took Alice by the arm, leading her out of the room as she read the scrap of paper Giulia had given her.

"Why are you here?" Elena grumbled, as Giulia started powering down all Slater's computers. She had seen a pair of Doc Marten-clad feet sticking out of another room, and aside from wrenching the stake out of his chest, refused to dwell. He knew who it was, she'd mourn later; but for the moment, she had things to do, and not a lot of time to do it. And she knew Slater wouldn't mind her commandeering his tech; she actually appreciated what it was capable of, respected all that information in one place – wouldn't abuse it.

"Saving us from your superb selfishness," Giulia said, disconnecting the monitors quickly. "Rose – help me with these, would you? Can you put them in your car?"

"Er – yes," Rose sighed. Giulia got the impression Rose would do exactly what she asked without question – she knew she was in trouble. And though she was more than twice Damon's age, it was far safer to ask Giulia for help than admit she'd already screwed up. Not her fault; she'd discovered how manipulative Elena could be already. She'd used a guilt-trip and an excuse of wanting information to get to Slater, where she had coaxed a password from Alice on the promise of being turned, and used Slater's connections to contact one of Elijah's acquaintances – and offer herself up on a silver platter.

"My selfishness? I'm trying to save all of you."

"Stupidity, then."

Rose loaded herself up with towers of computers, darting off. Giulia turned to Elena with a dangerous glare as soon as she was gone.

"Rose spent half a millennium running from the Originals because of Katherine," she said icily. She didn't know Rose at all, but she had great style and a calm demeanour. She had balls of solid steel and believed in, above all things, loyalty and friendship. "I won't let her spend the next few centuries on the run from Stefan and Damon on account of you."

"So you're here to get Rose out of trouble, not to stop me from giving myself up."

"Mostly. But I'll still break your knees before I let you run off on a suicide-mission," Giulia said sharply, looping cables around her arm and tucking them into her backpack.

"You know this Cody guy is on his way over."

"I heard," Giulia said unconcernedly. "Let's just hope Rose will be a dear and shield you if the boogie-man comes a-knockin'."

Elena jumped a mile as the front-doors banged open, Slater's security-chains rattling as the doors ricocheted off the walls.

"Oh, what fresh hell is this?" Giulia sighed, turning around.

"We're here for the doppelgänger," Head Thug declared. There were three of them, unremarkable guys in their late-twenties to early-thirties, dressed the same as every other guy on the street.

"Thank you for coming," Elena spoke up, starting forward. Giulia caught her by the elbow, hard enough to leave marks.

"Yes, thank you. I'm the one who called you," Giulia said. She wasn't. He wouldn't notice. He didn't look particularly sharp. And she put on such a tone of irreverent authority that he wouldn't question her. She turned to Elena and gave her a glacial look. "Sit down." Elena sat, looking...frightened. "I assume you've made necessary arrangements to get us to Klaus." She gave the Thugs an imperious look.

Thugs Two and Three frowned, looking confused.

"Klaus? We're gonna deliver the doppelgänger to Elijah," Head Thug said. Obviously Rose hadn't said a word to anyone about Elijah being killed by Damon – just as Giulia had guessed.

"By we, you of course mean me. I, after all, discovered her; I shall be the one to cash in all those favours with the Originals," Giulia said coolly, levelling him with a flawless, marble-like expression that dared him to contradict her. She was glad she had made a little more effort with her outfit this morning; there was nothing that ruined the effect of complete authority like a slobbish appearance. The two lesser Thugs glanced at each other as Giulia swung her keychain around her finger, completely confident and relaxed. "Does no-one else know what the plan is?"

"No, we came straight over as soon as the sun set," Head Thug said confusedly. Giulia turned that flawless look on him, and she swore he quailed. She sighed heavily, and clicked the lap-timer in her pocket. All three started wailing, writhing on the floor, clutching their heads.

Whipping the stake from her backpack, Giulia pounced, killing Head Thug before he knew what was happening. Two swiped out at her, starting to recover his wits; she dodged and shoved upward with her bloody stake, the soft flesh of his unguarded stomach giving way, the stake driving through his hear from below. Three gasped and crumpled to the floor before he could really find his feet.

Giulia blinked.

She stared at the bloody heart being proffered casually in the palm of someone's hand like a gift.

A heartbeat, and Giulia frowned up at Elijah from the desiccating heap at her feet as Elena gasped.

"He still counts as mine!"

Elijah gave her a smirk, eyes warm, the heart tumbling gently from his hand. He was gone before it had stopped rolling across the floor.

It was a few seconds before anyone moved.

Then Giulia realised Rose was gone. She hadn't even see her flee – she must have used the shady fire-escape. Didn't blame her at all, but it left Giulia in quite a predicament. She turned to Elena and sighed heavily.

She was always called in to clean up the mess, to correct the mistakes. Pulling out her phone, she made a few calls, moved Slater's body, and silently fumed as she drove back to campus with Elena in the passenger-seat.

"Aren't you taking me back to Mystic Falls?" Elena prompted, following her out of the car as if she couldn't believe Giulia wasn't racing down the freeway to fling her at Stefan and Damon. Giulia gave her a look that stopped Elena from daring to ask any more questions for at least a good hour and a half. She followed silently to the library, where Giulia signed her in as a guest and sat her down at a table she had booked downstairs. The lower level of the library always had a soft buzz, a good, pleasant atmosphere of kids researching, typing their papers, using the private rooms for group-assignments; Giulia knew quite a few people studying there, and while she read, highlighting her textbooks with colour-coordinated annotations, typing rapid-fire on her laptop inserting references, images and footnotes to essays before sending them to the printer, she had a few chats with kids in her classes. It was nearly May; party-season was fast approaching before everyone buckled down to study for finals. She was invited to a few parties – which she and Caroline would be attending for a Tap'n'Sip buffet – rescheduled a study-session for a group project and made a note of the next Social Committee meeting when she ran into the president, who congratulated her on her team's score for the ongoing city-wide Treasure Hunt, before taking the information a classmate had printed off about amazing things to do in and around San Francisco, their hometown.

Elena looked superbly bored and annoyed for the four hours Giulia kept her sat at their table – Giulia didn't allow her reading material or her phone to keep herself entertained. Giulia wanted to punish her; no amount of huffing, nasty looks or grumbling tummies softened her to leave the library any earlier than she wanted to, until she had finished her reading and proofread the final few paragraphs of her two one-hundred-page theses she had been working on for weeks, ready to take to Staples in the morning to have printed and professionally bound.

She wouldn't say it aloud, but as much as it was beneficial to Giulia to stay in the library, it was also good for Elena, too. Whether those idiots had told the truth about no-one knowing where they had been going, or why, they had to be especially careful. In a crowded building with too many people to collectively compel with any real finesse, and too many to kill to stay under the radar, was as good a place as any. And it meant her study schedule wasn't completely railroaded; she needed to keep tomorrow-night free, and she didn't want to spend all weekend up to her eyeballs in textbooks because she had to play catch-up.

It was actually dark when they left the library. Elena looked more tired and grumpy than Giulia, who had actually been doing work! Giulia kept an eye out as they crossed campus, but everything was fine; Elena grumbled again, but looked unnerved when Giulia stopped outside a bleak-looking building. Damon had compelled the manager and one of the workers at the Mystic Falls crematorium to do whatever Giulia asked of them; she had made a call earlier in the afternoon asking them to collect four bodies, and wanted to check on the progress, instructing them to contact her when Slater was ready for collection. She wanted the other ashes disposed of at landfill, but Slater…he was her friend. And he deserved all his PhDs and Masters acknowledged on his gravestone after his name.

Only after she had checked on Slater did she park her Beetle outside the white, perfect, sad house and frog-march Elena to the door. The windows on the ground-floor were amber; and an irate Jenna met them at the door in her pyjamas, white-lipped. Ric, bleary-eyed and rumpled behind her, blinked at them.

"Where were you?!"

It was nearly two hours passed Elena's curfew. Oops. Well, at least Elena couldn't be considered as a flight-risk after Jenna grounded her skinny ass. Ever since Giulia had outed everything to Jenna, she had been a hardass about Jeremy and Elena being accountable. She didn't want the supernatural drama seeping into every aspect of their lives; curfew was strictly enforced, Jenna had grounded Jeremy for not turning in some homework assignments, and if they forgot to tell her they were staying out after school, they were in deep shit. Jenna worried. She'd chuckled exhaustedly after Elena had received her first grounding when she hadn't told Jenna she was staying the night with Stefan, telling Giulia that she worried about Jeremy and Elena once for herself, and twice more for Miranda and Grayson.

"Giulia?" Ric frowned, looking more bemused than angry.

"Elena will explain," Giulia said lightly. "Goodnight."


A.N.: What's next, you ask? Tyler. Because we've already seen Elena's OMG reaction to Elijah being alive.