"Patience: A minor form of despair disguised as a virtue." ~Ambrose Bierce
Vampires, witches, and werewolves? This something that Ashleigh had seriously not expected to be informed of from this town. Elena told her everything. She wasn't sure if it was something that she wanted to hear but it made the headache go away. Elena saw the look of relief on her friends face. "Now it's your turn."
Ashleigh took in a deep breath and began to speak. "Ever since I was little, probably about five is when I noticed it, I started to see things. It wasn't things it was events. I could see things before they would ever happen. If it was something bad I couldn't stop it. If I tried something even worse would happen. That's why at camp I was such a loner. I didn't want to talk to people because once I shook their hand or gave them a hug I would see things. I saw the fire. I knew it was going to happen."
She took another deep breath and continued. "After the fire it all stopped. I had relief for a few months. I touched Damon at the hospital and it all hit me again. Everything came back. I was told that I am physic. I thought I was a witch but I don't have all that stuff like you said Bonnie does. I just see things."
Elena no longer ignored anything that was ever told to her about anything. The supernatural wasn't something that was uncommon in this town. "I promise Ash. You won't be any weirder than what the rest of our group can be. Look we both have had a terrible night I think some sleep would do us both good."
Ashleigh nodded her head in agreement and she looked down at her bandaged arm. "We both are going to feel shitty in the morning." Elena smiled and left Ashleigh's room.
Ashleigh turned down the comforter and sheet set to the bed and hurriedly slipped in. She closed her eyes and lay there. The bed for comfortable but she was not falling asleep anytime soon. She began counting sheep inside her head hoping it would help her drift off.
"One...two...three." Her eyes flew open at the sound of a familiar male voice that had been in her hospital room earlier.
Damon's weight was on the other side of the bed. It was a little weird that he somehow found a way to read her thoughts. She figured that it was some vampire thing.
"Look, vampires aren't like the ones from that Twilight movie bullshit. We don't sparkle and we don't read your thoughts. For some reason I can read yours now. When you tried to electrocute me at the hospital it started there." He had positioned himself his side and had a bent arm propping his head up to look at her.
"Your eyes are this weird chilling green color. Sometimes they are dark. Sometimes they are very light. It all depends on your mood. Your brother's eyes only get dark when he talks about you. Elena's eyes will always stay light. I had a friend….he had eyes like yours. I fell in love with him. Six times to be exact. I'm not going to bore you with those details though."
"Please and thank you." Damon said with a smirk on his face. "He was one of us you know. He compelled you into falling for him. Did he ever bite you? Just for a taste? No, I can tell he didn't. Christopher was picky with his meat."
Ashleigh sat up and looked at him. "You knew Chris?"
Damon shared a couple of stories with her of a friend that they both had shared at one point. She stared at her hands as she listened to old memories. Memories that she was never told about. Memories that she didn't exist in because she was only twenty-three. Memories that were centuries before her time.
"I loved him Damon." She said this thinking of this Chris that turned out to be someone different than she had believed.
He rolled her eyes and sat up in the bed with her. "No you didn't. He told you that you loved him that's why you think that you loved him."
She took a little offense to that statement. "Why are you even talking to me? We've only known each other for a day and you are making me give in to telling you very personal information."
"Correction, you gave it up freely. It was boring anyway considering I already knew about everything. Here's the thing, I said I knew Chris. I knew him very well. I know you very well too, but you will never remember me."
Ashleigh quickly turned her head to face him. Her face grew pale and thoughts raced through her head. Damon was not a familiar face. How could she not know him? She stopped thinking when she realized that he could still read her thoughts.
"I made you forget all those memories a long time ago. Actually, more like a few months ago." His face began to grow more relaxed.
"Why?"
Damon knew that the explanations Ashleigh would find out in the future would not be easy for her. He wasn't sure if it would be safe for her to find out the truth about anything that she had no memory or the memories that he was told to put in her head. "I had to protect you. Some things that you remember are what Chris told me to tell you. Some of them are what I came up with."
Ashleigh shook her head and fell back on the bed. Her head began to ache again and she closed her eyes. It seemed as though Damon was leaving out details. Soon he was going to learn that she had no patience when she didn't have answers. That is if he didn't already know this.
Damon awoke to the feeling of long strands of hair on his face. He opened his eyes and realized that he had fallen asleep in Ashleigh's bed. Glancing over at a digital clock on the nightstand he realized he only dozed off for an hour. It was five in the morning and the sun would be up within another hour. He slid off the bed with ease and stood up. Ashleigh looked like she was lying in an awkward position. He noticed that she was barely on the bed. It could have been her subconscious fear of lying in the same bed as a vampire. He gently grabbed her and pulled her to the center of the bed. She would have more questions needing answers when she woke up. Deep inside he knew that he should have erased every memory she had of the few things he told her but he wanted her to know the truth.
He ventured back to his own home where he was met by his brother Stefan. "Isn't it a school night for you little brother?" He asked with a smirk on his face.
Stefan gave a silent laugh and said, "I figured you were up to no good as usual Damon."
Damon rolled his eyes because he knew would the conversation would end up leading to. "Before you accuse me of any wrong doings; I did nothing at all. Our new friend and I just had an all night one on one."
Stefan crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. "I know. I was waiting outside in case you decided to pull one of your old tricks."
"Glad to know you still have faith in me brother."
"I remembered something interesting during your talk with Ashleigh. She has blood ties to the Founding Families. We knew her ancestors then, Edward and Annabelle Primm."
Damon thought for a moment and nodded his head. "Yes, I recall them being there. Edward was the local doctor. I remember him treating you when you caught the flu that one time."
"Because of Ashleigh's ties to Mystic Falls you know now that she will be a target each time someone or a group goes after the Founding Families. As far as I know she's the only existing person with ties to the Primm's. She has just started getting settled but I know that the Primm's home is still up. A few years ago a family started renovating it but they passed on before it was finished. I think it would be best if Ashleigh didn't live with Elena. At least at the other place it would be safe for both of them to go especially against any uninvited guests."
Stefan's idea seemed like a good one. Damon would talk to Mayor Lockwood and see if she knew if the property was available. He walked passed his brother with an unspoken agreement that he understood the plan and ventured off to his room to be alone.
At ten o'clock in the morning Ashleigh had her head resting on her arms at the counter in the kitchen of the Gilbert house. Her body was sore in places that she didn't realize could be sore. The stitched up laceration to her arm felt numb. She would be glad to have those out so she could start at her new job which was postponed for another week while her arm healed. She was alone in the house. Elena had refused to miss school, against Stefan's wishes of course. Ashleigh remembered her senior year. She wasn't quite set on going to school as much as Elena was. Of course she didn't have friends like Elena did either.
"You look rough."
She slowly lifted her head and focused her eyes on Damon. "You are seriously not someone I would want to see right now."
He smirked and sat down on a stool next to her. "Good morning to you too. Is that how you great people in the south?"
"Bite me. Well not really, that was not an invitation." She said forgetting that she was talking to a vampire.
"Relax, Elena wants me to baby sit you today. Tend to your needs. Rub your feet. Yeah the last two were a lie. I'm just babysitting.
Ashleigh rolled her eyes and put her head back down. She was tired and without trying began to fall back asleep. She began to taste a copper bitter taste in her mouth. She opened her eyes and realized Damon had her with her mouth on his wrist. He was holding her hair keeping her from moving and she was drinking her blood. She struggled for a moment and managed to push him away causing her to fall backwards.
"What the hell are you doing?" She had screamed at him. She was coughing. The taste was foul and unpleasant.
"Just calm down. How are you feeling right now?" He asked her.
She was outraged. She tried to think of something nasty to say to him. Words were not forming in her head at the moment. She then noticed that she felt…normal.
"You can thank me later. Go change your clothes. You need to look presentable when you talk to the Mayor today."
She rolled her eyes and picked herself up off the kitchen floor. Although she wasn't sure why she listened to what he told her and went upstairs to change.
"Why are we going to see the Mayor?" She asked when she returned downstairs.
"She wants to meet another council member."
Ashleigh had a confused look on her face. Damon directed her outside to his car and proceeded to explain. The two traveled to the Lockwood mansion and had lunch with Mayor Lockwood. She was shocked to learn that her parents lived in Mystic Falls. They never discussed anything about the past with her. She was even more shocked to learn that she was possibly inheriting her own house. After the hospitality from the mayor the pair was back in Damon's car. Ashleigh was silent as he kept talking about what was about to be a sudden big step for her.
"We may have a way to help you out if you're worried about the money part of this. It shouldn't take long to finish the old place up." He said.
"I'm not worried about any money. I have the money to put anywhere I want, but I can't do this. Not right now." She said, the car pulled over to the shoulder of the road and stopped.
"You would be stupid not to do this! If the wrong person finds out that you're in this town and you're not protected by anything you are done! This is your best option if you're going to live here Ashleigh!" Damon was getting angry at Ashleigh's hesitation.
"You think that you know everything about me don't you? You don't know a damn thing about me Damon. When I got here and touched you in the hospital. Everything came back! I remember everything now. I remember things that you don't even know about. For two years I have been dealing with this vampire, werewolf, and supernatural crap! I can take care of myself. Another thing that you need to learn for yourself is that you and everyone else with have to be patient. I hesitate at making decisions because I am afraid of being hurt. Chris made you take that away from me but now that is back. I am me again. Until you can deal with that, leave me alone. And I can take myself home from here." Ashleigh opened the car door and pulled herself out of the passenger seat.