"Andy, um hi?"
"Elena."
"What can I do for you Andy?" Elena moved to sit on the leather couch across from Andy.
"Well how about you explain to me what you are doing here?" "Not that I have to explain myself to you at all, but I've decided to return to the show and the producers agree that it was a good idea.""don't give me that lame bullshit excuse about wanting to be back on the damn show Elena. Why are you really here? Are you here for Damon? Because if you are just move on now because that's not going to happen!""You know I am so fucking sick and tired of everyone telling me what I need to do. I am not some child that can be told what I can and cannot do! I am a grown woman. But just so you are aware I am actually here for the show. I decided I was sick and tired of running away from the things that I want to do and what is important to me. news flash, but I am an actress and acting is what I love to do. and It just so happens that I do love Holland's Secrets! But just so we are clear if I were truly here for Damon how the fuck would you stop me Andy?"
"I knew it! You are here for him! Well let me just tell you Elena. I got rid of you once and I can do it again! You wanna know how I'm going to stop you? Think back to that conversation we had three years ago before you and Damon went to that lake house. Remember what I told you then? It still applies. If you want what's best for Damon then you need to back the hell off! You want to be on the show? That's fine. But you won't be anything more than a coworker to Damon and you best believe I will make sure that not even your characters are lovers." With that Andy grabbed her purse and stormed out of the condo.
"What the hell is she talking about Elena? What conversation?" Elena had forgotten that Caroline was even there during her spat with Andy. She hadn't ever told her the real reason that she had told Damon no all those years ago, well she didn't have a choice now. And her best friend wasn't going to be happy.
"Well? I'm waiting Elena and you best believe I'll know if you're lying!"
"Give me a minute to process Caroline. I'll tell you everything but just give me a minute" Elena moved towards the kitchen to grab a few glasses and the bottle of bourbon from the cabinet.
"Shit this is going to be bad isn't it?" Caroline said under her breath as she saw what Elena was bringing into the living room. She had only seen Elena drink bourbon 2 other times in her life. When her parents had died in high school and when she had left Atlanta 3 years ago.
"You could say that." Elena said pouring them both a glass of the liquor.
"What the hell happened three years ago sweetie?" Caroline asked as she moved to sit next to Elena
"Do you remember that audition I had in New York with Atticus Shane? The one I had to go to alone?""Of course. It was for the movie about the med students who played with death.""Well Damon had suggested that Andy go along with me since I wasn't used to being in the city alone. She agreed, telling him that it would be a nice time for her and I to get to know each other better. As you know we were never really best friends, she didn't like me because I was with Damon and I didn't really like her because I always knew she had a thing for him. Well lets just say that she used this time to show me just why I would never be enough for Damon. She made me realize that the age difference that he always said was nothing was actually a big deal to him. She showed me several emails where he had to decline party invites, meaning that he had made his business relationships suffer because of me. She also showed me where he had even declined jobs because of me. Did you know that he was supposed to play Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades series? Yeah he turned it down because he knew that I was to young and immature to be able to handle him in that kind of movie, not to mention the spotlight that would come with it. She told me that he only settled with me because I was close to home since I was working on the same t.v show as he was and she made me believe it all. I was never good enough for Damon, I was just a little girl trying to be an actress using him to get the spotlight."
It took a few minutes for Caroline to react but once she did Elena knew there was no stopping her.
"THAT BITCH! Elena, why didn't you come to me and tell me this stuff like, um I don't know three years ago? I could have helped you! I could have convinced you that she was wrong! That no matter what she had shown you, Damon wanted to be with you! He loved you more than anything and he would have given you an explanation for those things, but I'm sure that he never did any of that because of you. He probably did it all FOR you!"
"Oh you mean like he gave me the time to explain why I didn't jump at the proposal? Or to try and understand my explanation?"
"Elena he would have. I promise."
"You're wrong. He wouldn't have understood me then and he won't now. It doesn't matter I'm not here for him. I'm here for the show. I just need to find a way to convince Valerie that our characters don't belong together."
"No Elena. You are not going to let that bitch control your life anymore than you already have! This is what we are going to do. You are going to go to work and you are going to go with the script Valerie has already written, which I got today by the way. And you are going to give me time to talk to Damon and work this out."
"No Care! No Damon. He doesn't need to be involved in any of this. Who do you think he is going to believe? His girlfriend or his ex girlfriend who ripped his heart out and her best friend?"
"You forget that Damon and I were friends at one point too Elena. Let me do this. If it doesn't work out then we can come up with a new game plan but I need to do this for you. I won't see you in pain again because of her." And with that Caroline headed straight out of the door leaving Elena to wonder what the hell her best friend was going to do.
Damon still didn't understand how he was feeling after 2 days of being back in Atlanta. He had come home and immediately tried to get in contact with Elena, but Caroline was the ever on guard protector that she always had been. She didn't trust his motives for wanting to talk to Elena so she wasn't going to let him near her. He needed to figure out a way to fix this. Caroline and him had been friends at one point, he wouldn't say best friend but they were as close as he could get to anyone. He did have a reputation of being an asshole and Caroline was not one to put up with his mood swings, which he respected her for.
But none of that helped him now. For now he was stuck sitting alone in his office at his home drinking bourbon alone once again. Letting his thoughts wonder back to that day 4 years ago when he had walked out of the cabin telling himself he would give himself the weekend to cool off and then talk to Elena on Monday about how they would work things out. Now he wondered what would have been different if he had just stayed. Would she have taken a shower or would they have been making love? Would she have had the miscarriage anyways? Or would they be celebrating their child turning 4 this year? Would it have been a little boy with his complexion but with her hair? Or would it have been a little girl with her complexion but his eyes?
He knows that this isn't healthy thinking and that nothing he does now can change the past and it still doesn't excuse her for leaving him or for denying his proposal. However, he can't help but to think that if he had only stayed that day that they would have faced everything together and that they would still be together now.
He is startled from his thoughts by his phone ringing. Its a number he doesn't know but he answers anyways in hope that it will be Elena.
"Hello?" "Damon? Damon Salvatore?" "Yes, who is this?" "Jeremy. Jeremy Gilbert." "Wow. Its been awhile man. What are you doing calling me? Does your sister know you are calling me?" "She doesn't but Caroline called me and told me a little bit about what has happened over the past week and I thought I should give you a call and let you know just what will happened if my sister comes back to Mystic Falls in the same state that she did four years ago.""Well thanks for the call after all this time, but I assure you that you don't have anything to worry about from me. Your sister and I both have made it obvious to each other that our future does not include our personal lives, it will be strictly professional with us while she is here." "Somehow I doubt that. Caroline tells me that you have been calling her almost on repeat the past few days to try and talk to my sister and you have made it clear that it has nothing to do with work. So there's your first lie. Don't try it again. Tell me what you want to talk to my sister about Damon." "Not that it is any of your business little Gilbert, but I need to talk to her about a letter that she wrote me a few years ago. I hadn't read it until recently so I didn't know some of the details that led up to her leaving and I would like to speak to her about them now. But I can assure you that I have no plans of being with your sister again. Our history is far too complicated for that." "Thank you for finally being honest with me. Good bye Damon."
Damon pulled his phone from his ear, staring at it in shock. Did little Gilbert just force him to spill his guts and then hang up on him? What the hell was that about? There was no way that Jeremy had come up with that plan on his own. No that had Caroline Forbes written all over it. He was going to get to the bottom of this and he was finally going to talk to Elena and get some damn answers. He was done waiting around for her to come to him. He had done it long enough.
"So he finally read the letter?""I guess so. He said that it had given him some insight into why Elena had left him and now he needed to talk to her about it.""Well I guess he's going to be waiting on that one for awhile. She doesn't talk to anyone about the miscarriage. It was hard as hell for her to even write the letter to him in the first place."" Did she know that he had never read it? Maybe that's why she doesn't talk about it with anyone. Maybe she thinks he has known all this time and just never cared to talk to her about it.""That could possibly be it. I know in the beginning when she would talk about it she blamed herself for losing the baby, saying that she let herself get to stressed out and that's what caused it. So I'm sure its not to far off to assume that she thinks that he knows and blames her for losing the baby and that its the reason why he hasn't ever reached out to her in all these years. Hell the reason why he avoided her like the plague is more like it.""Well you need to find out. And if that's what it is Caroline then you need to get her to talk to Damon and work some of this shit out.""I know Jeremy, believe me I know. I will work on it, I swear I will.""Okay. Call me next week with an update. If I don't hear from you I will be coming to Atlanta." "Okay Jeremy I will."
Caroline sat her phone down on the table next to her while reclining further into the sofa. What was she going to do? She knew there was no way in hell Elena was going to voluntarily talk to Damon about the miscarriage. Hell as far as Elena was concerned her and Damon had nothing to talk about outside of work and the show. She needed to come up with some sort of plan to get the two of them alone, so that Elena had no other option than to talk to Damon.
They needed to work their crap out. Everyone knew it. They both had said they didn't need to talk about the past in order to move forward with the show and filming, but they did. Their personal problems were going to effect their acting and even though they didn't want to admit it but they both knew it was true. She had promised Elena she wouldn't get involved but there was no other option for her at this point, was there?
She grabbed her phone and dialed the only person she knew of who could help. Even though she knew it wouldn't be easy to get them to agree.
"Hello? Who is this?"
"Bonnie, its Caroline. Don't hang up! Just listen to me." "You've got five minutes. No more. Start talking."
"Okay. As much as I know you don't want to help me I need your help. I need to get Damon and Elena both to the same place so that they can talk things through before filming starts." "Why the hell would I help you and by proxy help Elena? Especially if it has anything to do with getting Elena anywhere close to Damon?"
"Because its what Damon wants. He's been calling me to try and get me to get Elena to talk to him. But after their last encounter Elena doesn't want anything to do with talking to him. She tried and he shot her down, so she doesn't feel like he is going to do anything other than talk her out of being on the show." "Well yeah that's what he should be doing. She doesn't deserve to be on the show any longer and she doesn't deserve to be apart of his life either."
"Look I know you have your own personal opinions on the matters of Damon and Elena's relationship, but this is something that Damon wants and something that they need to do in order to be able to work together. Them working together effects all of our lives, so if you could just put aside your own feelings to help me with this that would be great." Caroline said getting a little short with Bonnie. She knew that Elena had not only hurt Damon when she left, but she had hurt Bonnie as well and that sucked for both of them. However, right now all Caroline cared about was making sure that things went smoothly on set between everyone.
"Whatever. If Damon is on board with talking to Elena why do you need my help?" "Because Elena is not on board and she is not going to agree to meet with him. But I am sure that I could get her to agree to meet with you." "With me? Why would that be okay?" "Because she still values your friendship. Believe it or not"
"Fine. Tell her to meet me at the studio tomorrow at 3 and I'll make sure Damon is there too. But that does not mean I am willing to talk to her. This is for Damon plain and simple."
"Thank you! I totally understand. But thank you!" Caroline was finally able to relax. Hopefully by this time tomorrow at least one of the relationships would be salvaged. Maybe even two. If she knew Damon, there is no way he would let Bonnie skip out on talking to Elena.