Denial Is Just a River In Egypt
2
"What?" Caroline snaps as she flings open the front door.
Her boyfriend died yesterday, she's going crazy with grief and exhaustion, and yet she finds the Salvatore brothers rapping on his door at 10 o'clock in the morning. What the hell is wrong with the world?
Damon, impatient as always, purses his lips, ready to say something rude, no doubt, but Stefan beats him to it.
"Hey, Caroline," he starts apologetically. "I'm really sorry we're bothering you, but is Elena, by any chance, here?"
She stares at them for a moment, trying to piece together the picture that's forming before her eyes.
"Oh, no, you didn't…" she mumbles and sighs incredulously.
"Oh, yes, we did," Damon confirms. This characteristic flash of a smile flickers across his face, leaving his eyes as cold as ever, and Caroline can just tell how annoyed he is by having to actually say the words.
"You lost her before she completed the transition?" she clarifies.
"Uh-uh," Damon says absent-mindedly and then he does the weirdest thing – he looks over her shoulder and sniffs. Like sniffs.
Caroline's brow creases. "What are you doing?"
Damon gives her a look as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Stefan actually laughs a bit, albeit mirthlessly.
"We think she nicked a bag of Jeremy's weed," Stefan explains.
"You are joking, right?" Caroline says, looking from one brother to another.
Damon just sways on the balls of his feet like he's killing time waiting for the bus. Stefan appears actually uncomfortable under her scrutinizing gaze, his shoulders hunched and eyes downcast.
"It's true," Stefan finally says, even though he doesn't have to.
Caroline shakes her head. "And you thought she would come here, to the sheriff's house, no less, to smoke pot?" she asks, then raises an eyebrow in confusion. "Elena doesn't smoke pot."
"She does today," Damon announces.
"She's obviously in denial," Stefan reasons.
"Yea, she thinks she's having a killer hangover," Damon adds.
"What?" Caroline cannot believe this. "It's ridiculous!" She thinks for a while. "Although… I guess the symptoms of transitioning do kind of remind you of a hangover."
The so-called investigation of the "mysterious disappearance of Elena Gilbert" leads them to the town square. Mostly because they don't know where else to look.
She's not in Bonnie's house. She or Jeremy would surely let them know if a transitioning vampire in a dire need of blood would show up. Matt's in the hospital, Tyler is…
"So where is she? Where would she go?" Caroline asks helplessly.
Stefan's kind of glad she insisted on coming with them. Caroline's a great friend, of course, who would do anything for Elena, but he thinks it's also good that she's out of the house and not sinking into a deeper state of depression over Tyler. She needs a break.
Damon closes his eyes and fakes going into some sort of trance. "Alright. I'm Elena Gilbert," he states and both Stefan and Caroline stifle a laugh. "And I'm trying to escape the fact that I'm dead. I leave my house and–"
Caroline is on her toes with anticipation and Stefan finds himself leaning closer to his brother. "And?" they both say in unison.
"–and I have the intention of getting high so–"
"Damon hasn't got a clue," Caroline sighs, exasperated.
Stefan chuckles. "She's got you there, brother. You don't really make a good Elena."
Damon ignores their japes. His eyes remain closed as he moves his hands around his head as if he's trying to summon some revelation.
"–so I go to the town square and light up a joint," he concludes, opening his lids to gaze at them with smug satisfaction.
"Now you're just making stuff up," Caroline says.
But instead of replying to her accusation, Damon starts walking towards one of the mighty oak trees with a decisive stride.
Stefan and Caroline jog behind him, yelling questions at him as to where he's going.
Damon slips past the park bench and crouches at the base of the tree. He's hand hovers above the grassy ground until he picks up a butt of a joint, turns around and waves it at them proudly.
"Okay, you smelled that, didn't you?" Stefan says, his hands folded across his chest. "My brother, the narcotics dog."
"Wait, how do you know Elena smoked it?" Caroline argues.
"Well," Damon falters. He rolls the stub between his fingers, examining. "It's not as if I could go all CSI on this, but what I can tell is that… that it's been recently smoked, today, probably not more than an hour or two ago. I mean how many little junkies does this town have running around anyway?"
"Fair point," Stefan nods and looks at Caroline for agreement.
She scans the surroundings with a determined expression on her face. "Alright, guys!" she begins, smiling brightly, and anyone could tell she has a plan forming in her head. "Let's say that Elena was here, smoking weed. What's her next step?" Before they can answer, she holds out a finger for silence. "A rhetorical question. She would get the munchies and head to the Grill for food! Right?"
Damon gives her an appraising look, shaking his head mockingly and smirking. "Oh, Blondie, who would have pegged you for a stoner?"
"I just watch a lot of TV and–"
This time it's Damon holding up a hand to stop her rambling. "That, my friend, was a rhetorical question, so no need to cook up feeble excuses."
"Elena, you know. Medium height, straight brown hair," Caroline explains to the bartender who's puzzled by the sudden invasion of questions. "Has she been here today?"
"Probably ordered too much food for her size," Damon throws in.
The bartender nods. "Yeah, I recognize Elena. You're all kind of regulars around here." He wipes the counter as if to deliberately draw this out painfully slowly. "She must have left like forty minutes ago. Must have been in a hurry, because she forgot to pay her bill." He eyes them expectantly.
Damon snorts and Stefan sighs resignedly. "Sure, I'll take care of it," the latter says. "What did she order?"
The bartender shuffles through his papers and pulls out a receipt. "A bacon-cheese burger, chilly-cheese fries, buffalo chicken wings, two pieces of apple pie with vanilla ice cream and three Bloody Mary's," he recites in a droning voice.
"One hell of a munchies if you ask me," Damon mutters.
"Nobody asked," Stefan retorts under his breath and smirks at his brother's annoyed expression.
"Three Bloody Mary's?" Caroline says, clearly angered by the barkeep's ignorance. "You do know she's underage?"
"Excuse me?" the man responds. "To my knowledge, she is not."
"Did you ask for her ID?" Caroline presses.
The bartender's gaze swipes over each of them as he smiles sheepishly. "Uh, I…"
Damon turns around guiltily, aiming his back at the barkeep as he regards both Caroline and Stefan warily. "So yeah, there was this time, we were playing pool here, and I may have compelled the staff to think Elena is twenty-one."
"Why would you need to do that when you were playing pool?" Stefan says, his eyebrow quirked.
"Alright, alright, playing pool and drinking. There you have it! Big bad Damon is a terrible influence on young girls!" Damon cries, throwing his hands in the air.
"Tell me something I don't know," Caroline sighs, clearly annoyed. "You know, whatever, doesn't matter. So where do we go next?"
"No, no," Damon says sweetly and swags his index finger at her. "Where would Elena go next?"
Caroline rolls her eyes.
It is past 9 o'clock in the evening as the band of three finds themselves in the Salvatore boarding house.
Stefan is pacing the floor, clearly agitated, Damon is sipping his third glass of bourbon, and Caroline is sitting on the couch, chewing her lip as she goes through her phone.
"This is bad," she whispers, scrolling her contacts in hope of finding someone she hasn't called yet to inquire about Elena's whereabouts. "This is really, really bad."
"Elena never wanted to be like this," Stefan mutters, his eyes on the amber liquid he swirls around in his tumbler. "In the end it is her choice if she doesn't…"
"Shut up, you two," Damon growls from the armchair, "you're acting hopeless! We will find her and we will get her to come around!"
"Damon, Stefan is right. In the end it is her choice," Caroline inserts miserably. She cannot lose her best friend, she just can't. But she might anyway. She can't do this... She's Caroline, she's stronger than that. "You know, guys, it's pointless to speculate. There might not even be anything to worry about, Elena might be feeding on some innocent bystander as we speak!"
Just when Damon is about to retort, his phone goes off. He gives a quick glance at the caller ID before he answers with an exasperated sigh.
"You know, you're about the last person I want to hear from right now."
In the next part we'll actually see Elijah, too. Anyway, all comments are welcome, as always.