Title: Ghost of Christmas Eve
Author: Kimmbee4004
Rating: NC-17
WARNING!
Summary: Jeremy gets visitied by Anna's ghost on Christmas Eve and she begs for his help.
Universe: Vampire Diaries
Disclaimer: No Person of Vampire Diaries belong to me blah, blah, this was not written for the pursuit of monetary gain blah, blah, blah.
Authors Note: "I'm still writing 'Rise of the Prince', I just got the idea for this one while I was incompacitated for a few months and thought I would give it a shot. I havn't really written anything non-Soapish so please, tell me what you think.
Timeline: Two months after Episode 3.9 Homecoming
setting: 2104 Maple Street
time: 9:35 PM
"Unbelievable." Jeremy mutters as he sinks back onto the couch.
"It's going to be okay." his sister tells him as she walks into the room and takes the chair across from him.
"How-" he shakes his head in stunned disbelief at her, "-how can 'this' be okay?"
"He's after Stefan now," Elena tells him with a sigh, tired of her brother's attitude. "Bonnie gave Klaus his family's location in order to save our lives."
At the mention of his ex, Jeremy gets up with a grunt. "Cause that's alright?"
Now standing as well, the brunette puts her hands on her hips and glares at her little brother. This is after all, what it all comes down to: not the fact that they basically sold Stefan out for they're lives but the mention of her best friend Bonnie. She can feel her irration boil over to genuine anger as the guilt of her decision and his complete apathy collide. "I did it for you! How many times!" she grits out, "How many times did he try to have you killed since he made you walk in front of that car! Two? Three times?"
"Who's fault is it that the bastard's even alive!" he yells, fed up with her line of bull.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asks shaking her head in confusion.
"It means that if you had just put Stefan on a leash, he wouldn't have been able to save Klaus!" Jeremy rants, his frustion at constantly being on the look out for the next attempt on his life bursting out after two months. "But no, you were too busy putting your heads together and 'daggering' Rebekah to notice that he had his head in Katherine's lap!"
Before she can think, before she even realizes it's happened she feels the sting on her palm and see's the shocked look on her brother's face along with the hand print from where she struck him.
Not saying a word, the youngest Gilbert takes a step backward and walks to the front door.
"Jer?" Elena calls out her voice a strangled squeak, her hand raised as if to stop him. "Jeremy I didn't-" the door shutting cuts off her words. She stares at her hand as it shakes, breathing hard. "I'm sorry."
Walking for what feels like hours, Jeremy blinks when he see's that he's standing in front of the boarding house.
Not bothering to knock he walks in looking for the elder Salvator brother, "Damon?" he calls out tentively, not sure why he's here. Only knowing that he had to get away from his sister. "Are you home? Damon?"
"Sorry, no one by that name is here." a familiar voice greets him from behind with a laugh.
"You." he says in tones of absolute loathing as he slowly turns to face the mirror image of his sister, Katherine.
"Me." she confirms with a mocking smile as she walks up to the teen. "What are you doing here? All by your lonesome."
"Looking for Damon." he answers glibly, looking around and missing the glint in her eyes.
"You really shouldn't be so rude Jeremy," she taps him on the nose playfully, the gesture belied by the stiffness of her smile.
"Why's that?" he asks looking her in the eyes now and freezing when he see's the look in her eyes.
Grabbing the young man by the throat, she slams him into the wall and holds him there. "Do I really need to explain? Really?" she tells him with an arched eyebrow.
"If you were going to kill me you would have done it by now." he tells her calmly, the place inside him where he felt fear was burned out of him weeks ago. Leaving a cold deadness in it's place.
"You really do have a death wish." she chuckles, her good humor restored. "I wonder what Anna has to say about that."
"I havn't seen her since October." he tells her in a biting tone. The words bitter in his mouth.
"You miss your ghostly lover?" she smirks at the look of impotent rage on his face, knowing he can't hurt her.
She's wrong. "At least my lover actually loved me." he sneers as her smile disappears. "Who loves you?"
Her hand squeezes his throat like a vice and drags him to his knees before her as her eyes turn dark red. Looming over him she gazes deeply into his bulging eyes snarling and flashing her fangs. "Would you like to join her? Is that why you came here; to die?"
Face turning red from lack of oxygen he can't speak and honestly wouldn't know what to tell her if he could.
"You may get your wish." she hisses and throws him across the room, his body slamming through a end table and landing in a heap before the fire place.
"Why hasn't he woken up?" the voice seems to come from very far away. All Jeremy can do is wince as he feels like every bone in his body is broken.
"He's coming around now." Damon's voice answers close to Jeremy's head.
"Damon." Jeremy croaks, his voice still sore from Katherine's rough treatment. Opening his eyes he see's the Salvator brother standing next to a very worried Elena.
"Jeremy!" she rushes to his side as he starts to sit up, "Thank god your awake!"
"Get off me!" he rasps angrily, jerking away from her when she tries to help and hisses as his body protests the sudden move.
"Hey!" Damon barks sternly, very displeased to see Jeremy's treatment of Elena. "Take it easy you little punk! She's trying to help you!"
"Got a good dose of her help earlier." he mutters in reply glaring at Elena. Her pain filled eyes avoiding his gaze.
"What happened here Jeremy?" the vampire asks, wanting to move this along so that he doesn't punch the kid into next week on basic princible alone.
"Katherine happened." he answers as he slowly gets to his feet, his voice clearing up.
"Oh my god!" Elena exclaims wide eyed, looking shocked.
"Katherine was here?" Damon asks, now very interested in the procedings. "What did she want?"
"She didn't say." Jeremy shakes his head as he focus on Damon. "She was a little too busy tossing me around."
"Are you sure your okay?" Elena asks anxiously, seeing him wobble on his feet slightly.
"I'm fine Elena." he huffs.
"What exactly did happen?" Damon demands, not satisfied with the youngest Gilbert's answer at all.
"She was here before I got here." he answers honestly, "Whatever she was doing here, I think I interupted her. She came up from behind me. I think she was in the basement."
"What were you doing here?" Damon asks not really caring as he wonders what his former love is up to.
Jeremy shoots his sister a glare before letting out a sigh, "Doesn't matter anymore."
"Well I suggest you get some rest." the dark haired vampire instructs him, "You took a beating and she might decide to play some more so you should keep your eyes pealed."
Nodding in aknowledgement Jeremy heads out of the door with his sister in pusuit.
"Thanks for your help." Elena says over her shoulder and smiles at Damon who smiles back as the siblings leave.
"You really didn't have to come with me." Jeremy tells her in a neutral tone.
"I wanted to." She replies, glancing at him as they walk back home.
"Why?" he acts disinterested, not glancing in her direction.
"Your not going to make this easy are you?" she states it more as a fact then a question.
"Any reason I should?" he asks shooting her a glare.
"I'm sorry Jer." she says queitly, "There - there's no exuse for what I did. I just - what you said. You wern't wrong."
"It was a real jackass thing to say." he admits his eyes softening as he see's how truly tired she is and not just from tonight. But from all the nights since they failed to kill Klaus and maybe even before that. "Maybe I had it coming."
"No you didn't." she tells him with a slight smile and loops her arm through his.
"No I didn't!" he laughs lightly, bumping her hip with his own.
Elena's smile grows wider then dims when she remembers how she found her brother. "Jeremy, what really happened tonight?"
Jeremy lets out a sigh as the moment passes and glances at her, "After she found me at Damon's she wanted to know what I was doing there." he shakes his head in disbelief, "I think I was right. I think I walked in on something and she wanted me out of the way. So she tried to get rid of me."
"That doesn't sound good."
"It wasn't." he agrees his face pained at the memory, "She decided to throw Anna in my face."
"I'm.. sorry." she tells him with a helpless shrug. "I know you miss-"
"No, no you don't." he cuts her off harshly, "You don't get to talk to me about Anna."
"Look," Elena says fed up with his obsession with Anna. "I know you loved her but she's gone."
"Because of you!" he returns angry she would even go there. "You told her I would be better off without her so she left."
"I was right!" she announces just as angry as he is, "And she knew I was right. That's why she left!"
"That kind of weak justificational crap is exactly why Stefan stayed gone." he shouts as he rounds on her.
Elena feels as if she has been kicked in the stomach as she stares at her brother, a sick feeling worming through her insides.
Jeremy feels a flash of guilt at the look on his sister's face, but remembering what she said and did to Anna he isn't able to sustain it and leaves her standing in the snow.
Walking into his room he slams the door behind him, seeing the expression on his sister's face in his mind again.
Running his hands over his face he sits on his bed, his eyes fall on his sketch pad and he feels a familiar pain in his chest as he gazes at the smiling face of Anna preserved on paper.
"I miss you so much." he whispers, his fingers tracing the picture with his fingertips.
"Jeremy."
The voice makes him jerk around and he almost falls off the bed when he see's her standing there. "Anna?"
Giving him a wan smile, she looks around quickly as if afraid of being seen. "Jeremy I'm in trouble."
"Trouble." he repeats, his joy at seeing her tempered by the agitation on her face. "What is it what's happening?
"It's bad Jeremy, it's very bad." she swallows hard, looking up at him through long lashes. "Bonnie screwed up, and now it's after me."
"What's after you?" he asks alarmed, looking around instinctively for whatever threatened her.
"Hell." she whispers, "Hell is after me."
"Hell?" he breathes out in shock.
"It - it already took mother." she tells him teary eyed.
"Wha- ho-" he stammers trying to get his mind around what she's saying. "You, you've been around for weeks why would-"
"Because of Bonnie." she tells him quickly, "When she closed the door, the natural order tried to realign and balance itself out again. When that happend, the tomb vampires who were killing the towns folk were dropped into Hell. But it didn't just take them it came after all of us Jeremy."
"My god." he whispers, the horror of what she is saying is mind numbing. "What, what about Vicki?"
"It got her too." she tells him, confirming his fear.
Closing eyes against the truth of her words, Jeremy fights back his tears as he pictures Vicki's smiling face.
"I'm sorry but we don't have time Jeremy." the urgency in her voice forces him to look at her. "We have to hurry."
"What can I do?" he asks, as he chokes his pain to help his love.
"You have to get the necklace back." she tells him after she has his attention.
"Bonnie destroyed it" he tells her but stops when she shakes her head.
"No she didn't Jeremy." Anna says with a small smile, "Bonnie doesn't have that kind of power. The talisman can protect itself. You need to get it away from her, fast."
"That's not going to be easy," he informs her with a grimace. "I'm not her favorite person right now."
"You have to find a way Jer." she pleads, with him desperation in her voice shining through. "This isn't just the normal 'dead' all by myself. This is Hell."
Looking around he see's a picture of him and Elena and nods to himself as the begiinning of a plan comes to him. "I think I know a way."
Anna smiles encouragingly as he grabs his car keys and bounds out of the room.
Feeling drained of any speck of strength, Elena finds herself in front of Damon's door again and knocks. She doesn't have long to wait until the swaggering vampire answers the door.
"Hey there!" Damon grins seeing who his visitor is, until he see's the look on her face and his grin slips. "Are you alright?" he asks leading her inside.
"Not really." she sniffs taking a seat on the same couch Jeremy was laid up on earlier.
"What happened?" he asks, sitting next to the young woman.
"I got into another fight with Jeremy." she answers tonelessly.
"What's he whining about now?" Damon asks with a derisive huff.
"I asked him about what happened with Katherine," she explains resting her face in her hands. "and he told me that she threw Anna in his face."
"Ouch." he winces, remembering the look on Jeremy's face when he told him Anna was killed.
"I tried, I really did." she groans, turning to face him. "He didn't want to hear it. Jeremy still blames me for Anna leaving. I told him it was for the best and Anna agreed with me. He just can't seem to accept it."
"I bet that didn't go over to well." Damon whistles slightly, knowing what's coming next won't be good but even he is shocked by Elena's reply.
"He told me that Stefan didn't come back because of me." Elena says it with more than a hint of questioning in her eyes.
"It's not true." he replies instantly, taking her by the shoulders and holding her gaze with his own. "Stefan left because he couldn't handle what he has done. To you, to all the people he has killed and tortured on Klaus's orders. That's why he won't let himself feel anything. He knows that the weight of it all could crush him completely."
Seeing that he really believed his words, Elena leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Thank you." she whispers into his neck making him shiver.
"Your welcome." he whispers back, stroking her hair.
Taking a deep breath, Jeremy hits the speed dial on his phone for the fourth time.
A slight click announces that the line has been picked up. "I told you Jeremy I don't want to talk to you!" Bonnie's voice answers, annoyed that he won't take the hint.
"It's not about me!" he chimes in before she can hang up again, "It's about Elena."
"What about her?" she asks coldly, not wanting to speak to him at all.
"We had a fight and I think she might do something stupid." he tells her, improvising as he goes along. "Damon level stupid."
"What could that have been that bad!" she asks incredulous.
"It was that bad." he deadpans, wanting to get this over with. "She hasn't come back and it's been over an hour. You do the math."
"I'll check it out." she states with a shake of her head he can't see then hanging up. "Dammit Elena." Bonnie curses as she rushes out the door worried for her friend.
Watching from his car as his ex-girlfriend leaves, Jeremy turns to Anna and shares a smile. "It worked." they say at the same time.
Laughing, they wait until the witch is out of sight before getting out of the car. Walking up to the door, Jeremy reaches into the light fixture above the doorway and pulls out the emergency key hidden there.
"You'll have to go in by yourself from here." Anna tells him anxiously as he opens the door.
"What? Why?" he asks confused as he turns to stare at her.
"Because Bonnie's grandmother watches over the house," she explains nervously, eyeing the door. "I can't go in there."
"Alright," he accepts that, having met the woman himself a time or two. "I can get it myself."
"Be careful." she cautions him as he walks inside.
Moving quickly, he goes upstairs to Bonnie's room. Knowing she keeps her witchcraft parephenalia in a box under her bed it's the first place he looks, but comes up empty.
"Come on." he mutters to himself, "Where did you put it?"
He goes over to the dresser and starts searching through the drawers when something collides with his shoulder.
"Ah!" he cries out as he gets hit on his stomach by a book. Eyes flashing around he doesn't see anyone but he does see a book start to move on the shelf and dunks out of the way when it comes flying at him.
"Damn." he mumbles doing his best to keep an eye out for flying objects as he renews his search of the dresser. Frustrated he shuts the last drawer and as he does he gets blasted in the back of his head dropping him to his knees next to the dresser. Hands moving to the back of his head he winces at the bump forming. Putting his hand on the wall he goes to push himself up when he see's a glint behind the dresser. Smiling he reaches behing it and pulls out the necklace.
"Thanks for the help." he calls out and narrowly ducks out of the way before he gets beamed in the head again. Taking hold of his prize he leaves as quickly as he can.
"Did you get it?" Anna asks the moment he comes out.
"No problem." he smiles holding it up for her in his left hand and rubbing the back of his head with his other hand.
Smiling in response, Anna jumps as a car goes by and shoots Jeremy an anxious look. "We need to hurry."
Smile fading, he nods solemly. "Okay." and with that they hurry back to his car and drive away.
"No Caroline I don't know what the fight was about." Bonnie tells her blonde friend with a sigh, feeling as if she has had this conversation before. Of course with Caroline that's most likely true. She has a tendancy to go over and over any piece of gossip until even you would start to doubt if it's true, even if you were there at the time!
"All he told me was that they had a fight and that he thinks she went to Damon's." the carmel skinned witch states pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Did you try to call her cell phone?" the blonde vampire asks patiently.
"Of course I did!" Bonnie replies feeling slightly insulted by the question itself.
"And..?"
"And I didn't get an answer!" Bonnie snipes back, "Do you think I came all the way out here if she did answer!"
"What about," there's a brief pause before the blonde continues, "did you try the home phone."
"I'm sure Jeremy would have called if she showed up there." the witch grits out, any mention of Jeremy tends to screw her temper to a fever pitch.
"It was just a suggestion." came the hurt reply.
"Sorry." Bonnie pushes her anger at her ex down, not wanting to offend Caroline anymore then she has. "I just don't want to talk to him."
"I understand." comes the simple reply.
Bonnie smiles, because Caroline probably does. She has a scary intuitive streak when it comes to her friends. Of course, that streak is turned on it's head when it comes to boys. "I know you do. Look, I'm almost at Damon's now. I'll call you when I know anything."
"Bet your ass you will." Caroline grins.
"Goodbye Caroline." Bonnie chuckles, closing up her phone.
"We got it." Jeremy says as they return to his home. "Now what do we do with it?"
"First we need to put it in something." Anna tells him looking around, "Something airtight."
"I have something that should work." he tells her going up the stairs to his room.
Anna watches with a grin as he pulls out a small brown box made of plastic but painted to look like wood. "Isn't that what you kept your stash in?"
"Yeah." he chuckles running his thumb over the surface. "It used to be the box that held a watch my dad meant to give me but it was taken away. All I was left with is the box, but it's sealed on the inside so moisture couldn't get in."
"The piece of the Gilbert device." Anna mutters to herself giving her head a shake. "It'll work."
Opening the box Jeremy puts the necklace inside. "Now what?"
"Now I need you to bleed a little into the box on top of the talisman." she says seriously.
"Why?" he questions not knowing how to take this new instruction.
"Because you drank my blood before." she tells him her lips quirking into a smile. "That created a link between us and when you bleed onto the talisman it will anchor me to you so that I won't get sucked under."
Seeing the look of trepidation on his face she tries another tact. "If you do this it will be like it was before, better! We'll be able to touch again anytime we want!"
"I'll do it." he tells her with a smile, unable to deny her anything.
Taking a pocket knife out of his jeans he cuts his hand a little and lets the blood drip onto it. "That's good." she tells him with a brilliant smile, reaching out she snaps the box shut.
Jeremy looks at her in wonder as she runs her hands up his arms to his shoulder and twines her arms behind his head, pressing herself against him.
"What about the box?" he gets out right before she kisses him.
"Because of the blood." she explains rubbing her nose against his slowly. "It's the reason we need the box to be airtight. If not Damon or Caroline could sniff it out."
"Good call." he mumbles bending down and kissing the girl he loves.
"Mmmm." Anna moans lightly, putting her hands on his chest, she pushes him away and onto the bed.
Blinking in shock, he smiles when she climbs on top of him. "I'm really going to like being able to touch you anytime."
"Thanks again." Elena smiles taking a sip from the steaming mug of hot chocolate he gave her.
"It was no trouble." he can't seem to keep from grinning as she is pressed into his side on the couch with her legs curled under her.
"I didn't mean for the chocolate." she chuckles softly, gazing at him warmly.
"I know." he states brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear and leaning closer, his eyes moving to her lips and back to her eyes.
"What the Hell is this!" a voice calls out, destroying the mood.
Jumping in her seat, Elena loses her grip on her beverage and it ends up all over Damon.
"AHH!" he yells hopping off the couch and holding the front of his shirt away from his chest as he turns an incredulous gaze from a sheepish looking Elena.
"I-I'm soo sorry!" she tries not to laugh at the expression on his face, but it slips out anyway; causing him to shake his head in bemusement.
Of course that lasts only until the witch reaches them.
"Elena." Bonnie sputters looking between her best friend and her frenemy Damon Salvator, "What is wrong with you?"
"Um... Nothing?" she answers glibly, chuckling under her breath when her gaze lands back on Damon.
"No nothing at all." he states in mock outrage, "She was just scalding me, thats all."
"Right..." Bonnie shakes her head wide eyed at the two of them. "When he called me I couldn't believe it. That you would do something so stupid but-"
"Who called you?" Elena cuts in annoyance plain on her face, crossing her arms over her chest as she regards her friend.
"Jeremy." Bonnie says the name as if dragging it out is a personal affront.
"Jeremy called you?" Elena asks confused, and glancing at an equally confused Damon.
"Yeah, he said he was worried about you." Bonnie explains her tone drifting to uncertainity as she takes in their expressions.
"What did he say to you?" Damon wants to know his brow knotted in frustration at having his time with Elena interupted.
"Jeremy told me that he and Elena had a fight and that she hadn't come back," Bonnie relates what her cheating ex told her to them, "and that it had been over an hour and he thought you might do something stupid." she finishes with a meaningful glare at the vampire.
"Wait wait wait!" Elena holds up her hands, to stop the flood of information. "He said that it had been over an hour?" at Bonnie's confirming nod, she shakes her head in denial. "We had a fight but it was barely half an hour ago. Are you sure that's what he said."
"Yeah!" the witch confirms gesturing emphaticaly, "He was very specific!"
"Why would he lie about that?" Elena asks herself as much a them, turning to Damon questioningly.
"And why would he call Bonnie at all?" he asks glancing over at the perplexed witch, "He would have better luck calling blondie. At least she wouldn't hang up on him."
"I did hang up on him but he called back more than three times." Bonnie informs them, not understanding why he went to her at all. "I called Caroline to find out if she heard anything from you but she didn't know anything about it."
"Are you sure it was Jeremy?" Elena is at a loss, none of it makes sense to her. Not after they're argument.
"Yes, I'm sure it was him." she confirms frustrated with the situation and determined to get to the bottom of it. "Elena, what was your fight about?"
Giving Bonnie a worried look she bites her bottom lip, "It was about what happened with Anna."
"Anna." Bonnie's voice goes cold and hard at the ghost's name. "What about her?"
"How I told her that it would be better for Jeremy if she left him alone." Elena confides watching her friend carefully, knowing how much the subject of Anna pains her.
"Huh," Bonnie glares at nothing in particular. "it figures. It always goes back to her."
"It sounds like he wanted you out of the way." Damon states his observation.
"What?" Elena asks turning her attention back to him. Her expression of bewilderment mirrored by Bonnie's own.
"I think he wanted you here." he explains his reasoning. "and he wanted you here pretty bad."
"Where do you get that from?" Bonnie doesn't quite get it, more to the point she doesn't want to. The moment she realized that nothing was going on between Elena and Damon she had a feeling something was off and now that feeling has turned into a hot nail scratching at her insides.
"His story doesn't hold up for one." Damon goes slowly, sorting through all the facts. "He had to know that the moment you got here you would realize that he was lying to you. And the fact that he used Elena shows just how desperate he was to get rid of you if it meant using his own sister like that."
Shivering uncontrolably, Bonnie clutches her purse and bolts for the door.
Elena jumps up to go after her and stops at the door, "You coming?"
"Oh yeah." he replies immediatly grabbing his coat and heading out with her.
"Mmmm..." Anna purrs as she lays her head on Jeremy's well muscled chest. "I really needed that."
Jeremy runs his hand through her hair, loving the sheer feeling of her.
She lets out a sigh and pushes herself up to a sitting position, her gaze pausing to her right on the box before returning to him. "You have no idea what you've done for me." she tells him as she stares into his glassy eyes, looking to her left she smiles into the mirror revealing not Anna's image but Katherine's.
"I would do anything for you." he tells her regaining her attention and smiling back at her.
"And you will." Katherine tells him as she leans down and kisses him slowly.