New Orleans, 1942
I walked into the bar with Stefan and Lexi. "It's ok, Stefan. You've come so far. You can do this. It's just Damon." I said to comfort him.
"Just Damon?" He looked at me incredulously.
"Point taken. Sorry." I said.
"No, she's right, Stefan." Lexi said. "He's your brother."
"Ok. Let's do it." He said and walked over to the bar with Lexi and I. Lexi had tracked me down a few days earlier and told me that Stefan needed Damon and I. I was honestly still mad at him for all that happened in the 20s, but Stefan did not even remember it and he wasn't himself then, so I said okay. He tapped Damon on the shoulder and he turned around.
Damon stood up. "You look like some people I used to know."
"Hello, Damon." I said. I hadn't seen him in eighty years. Since right after we turned.
"You here to put a stake in my heart, little sister?"
"No, Damon. I'm here for moral support." I said.
"I'm here to bury the hatchet." Stefan said and offered Damon his hand. "All the three of us have is each other. We shouldn't lose that."
Damon shook his hand and he and Stefan hugged quickly and then Damon hugged me. "I'm sorry for abandoning you, Grace." He whispered in my ear.
I looked into his eyes that were more sincere than I'd ever seen them. "Thank you for that." I whispered back.
"Drinks on me!" Damon said. "Well, I'll just compel the bartender, but you get the general spirit of the offer."
We laughed and sat down at the bar. Three hours later, we started talking about Stefan's upcoming tour in Egypt. "You're finally going to get to see the pyramids." Damon said.
"Well, I don't think I'll do much sightseeing driving ambulances on the front lines, but yeah, Egypt."
Damon suddenly smiled. "Do you think they have room for another driver? I could handle some war if it meant spending some quality time with my little brother."
Stefan replied, "Tell you what, I'll talk to my C.O. I'm gonna get us another round."
I went with Stefan to get the drinks, leaving Lexi and Damon alone. When we got back, I raised my glass to propose a toast. "To family." I said. We all drank and I continued, "Guys, I have an idea. Ten years from whenever this war ends, we meet back home. We go to the local bar, and have actual family time."
Damon and Stefan looked at each other and then at me. "That is a great idea. Let's do it!" Damon said.
We all drank to that and in that moment, I really believed that we would soon be a family again. Some dreams just aren't meant to be, though.
"What?" Elena says. "You have a sister? Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"I'm sorry. Stefan, who is this? A human doppelganger is impossible. The Petrova bloodline died with Katherine." I say.
"Katherine had a baby out of wedlock before she met Klaus." He explains. "Grace, this is Elena. She's my girlfriend."
"Really?" I say. "I've gotta say, Stef. You've sure got a type. A very specific type. Very specific. Oddly specific. Disturbingly specific." I offer Elena my hand as a sign of peace. She stares at it for a few seconds then finally timidly shakes it. "Why didn't you tell her about me? Does anyone in this town know I exist besides you and Damon?"
"Well, no." He answers quietly.
"Good to know. I'm feeling the sibling love now, I really am." I say with heavy sarcasm. "Well, now I know why you asked me to come here."
"You asked her to come here?" Elena is staring Stefan down. "After all that happened? After I asked you for honesty and you agreed? You promised no more lying!"
"She can help, Elena. We had to." Stefan pleads.
"Had to? Really?" I say. That one stung. It was an old wound, being rejected by my brothers, but it still hurt.
"You know I don't mean it like that." Stefan looks from me to Elena. He eventually stops at me and silently pleads for help.
"I have to go find Damon. By the way, why can't I get into my own house?" I ask, changing the subject.
"They put the deed in my name." Elena says.
"Oh, right. That's what you were talking about before." I say, remembering the conversation from when I walked in. "In that case, may I enter my own home?"
Elena doesn't make eye contact with me. "Yes." She says quietly.
"Thank you, Elena. I'm sorry for freaking out when I saw you. Katherine and I aren't exactly on good terms." I said.
"It's okay. It's not like it hasn't happened before." She says with the smallest of smiles on her face.
I chuckle under my breath and start to walk out of the classroom. When my back is turned to the rest of the room, I mouth to Nik, "Later," and give him a serious look. Once I get to my car I decide to drive home and take a shower. I'd driven all night and felt gross. And, I needed the warm water to work out the knots in every single one of my muscles. Seeing Nik again, even in some strangers body, was messing with my head. No, the problem was I couldn't get him out of my head. All of the things that had happened between him and me. I'd spent the past decade trying to get him out of my head, unsuccessfully it would seem.
As I drive home, I try to focus all my thoughts on driving. I eventually reached the boarding house, after twenty minutes of only thinking about Nik. I grab my stuff from the car and walk to the entrance of my home. I can get through the door this time and call out Damon's name. No answer, so I walk to my room. It looks the exact same as I'd left it over fifteen years ago. Nothing had changed, down to the book I'd been reading at the time on the bedside table. The only change in the room was a change of sheets on the bed, obviously done recently. Probably right after I agreed to come back.
I throw my bags at the foot of the bed and walk into the bathroom. No towels, shampoo, conditioner, soap, or anything else really. Damon's bathroom is the best in the house… I think and decide to go for it. Damon's bedroom is easily the nicest in the house. It fit him. His shower was also amazing. He'd made some improvements since I'd last been here. There was now multiple jets and new tiling. It was honestly the best shower I'd had in years. Damon's shampoo was quite fancy, as was his conditioner. I made a mental note to make fun of him for that later.
I stay in the shower until the hot water runs out, but the pit in my stomach is as big as ever. I turn the water off, get out, and grab a towel. The only one Damon has is wet, so I use it to wipe off the excess water and search around in Damon's room for a t-shirt. I find one, throw it on and walk to my room. As I walk, I hear voices coming from the living room. Remembering what I'm wearing, I go grab some pants from my room.
"Damon?" I say as I come into the living room. In the room are Elena, Stefan, Damon, and Bonnie. Everyone turns towards me, and I see Damon. "Hi." I say timidly.
"Grace." He says. He runs up to me, picks me up and twirls me around. "Hey, little sis. Are you wearing my shirt?" He chuckles. Just then, the door opens and "Alaric" walks in.
"Well, the only towel in your bathroom was wet. Is something wrong? You guys seem tense." I say when Damon puts me down.
"Klaus made his first move." Damon says, then turns to 'Alaric'."I'm gonna need you to put me and Grace down as a chaperones for tonight's dance."
"What did he do? Somebody catch me up, please." I say.
Elena says, "Today at lunch, our friend came up to us and said that a super hot guy named Klaus wanted me to save him the last dance." I should win an Oscar for not laughing at that and giving away that I know Klaus. He owes me big for not coming right out with what I know.
"Alright, so what's the plan?" I say.
"Me. I'm the plan." Bonnie speaks up. "He has no idea how much power I can channel. If you can find him, I can kill him."
"How will we do that?" Stefan asks. "Katherine had a point. We don't even know what he looks like." I'm about to say that I know Klaus and reveal everything when 'Alaric' catches my eye and
"Wait. Katherine? She's in Mystic Falls?" I say.
"Well, yes. We think. Klaus took her." Bonnie says.
"Alright, then. Well, we can add handle dopplebitch to the to-do list. First, where's Elijah?" I say. "You mentioned him when you called me. He hasn't returned my calls for a while." I wasn't worried about something really bad happening to Elijah, obviously. He's an Original, and is much more than capable of taking care of himself. But, the fact that he was not returning my calls was worrisome.
They all look away from me, except Nik. "How well do you know Elijah?" Stefan asks.
"Very well. He's my best friend. Why?" I ask, put off by the way Stefan asks the question.
"Before we tell you where he is, you have to promise not to do something stupid." Damon says.
"That depends on your definition of stupid, big brother." I spit back. "What did you do?"
Elena says. "He's an Original. We can't trust him."
"You didn't." I say, horrified. "You did not dagger Elijah. Please tell me you did not do something so extraordinarily foolish."
"We had to." Damon says unapologetically. "Like Elena said. He can't be trusted."
"The incompetency in this room is astounding. Elijah is a noble man. The most honorable person you will ever meet. Where was he staying?" I ask.
"What?" Bonnie says.
"Where was he living? Where are his things?" I repeat myself.
"Why?" Damon asks.
"Because he had a spell to let the doppelganger survive the sacrifice. He got it for Katherine before she ran. Never even got a chance to tell her about it." I explain. "If Elijah was here for you Elena, and it would be absurd if he would be here for any other reason, he obviously had it with him."
Elena breaks into a smile. "That means everything is going to be okay." She says. "Nobody will die for me."
"How do you know this?" Damon asks. "How is an Original your best friend?"
"That is a long story for another time." I say. "For now, we need a plan for the dance tonight."
"So you're not going to try and undagger him?" Damon says.
"What? No." I respond. "He's going to be so pissed at you when he does get undaggered, though. I'll undagger him when I have time to calm him down so he won't hurt you."
They seem surprised by my response. They probably thought I would undagger Elijah right away. "So what are we going to do about Klaus tonight at the dance?" 'Alaric' asks.
"We have to find him first." Damon responds.
I chime in. "We look for the person we don't recognize and then use Bonnie. Are you sure you can handle channeling that much power? Do you have someone or something to channel?" I didn't know a ton about witches, but I knew that a single witch couldn't do it on their own, no matter how powerful. It would kill them, without channeling other witches or a powerful element.
"I have the power. I can kill. I know I can." Bonnie seems very determined to kill Klaus. I could tell she was one of those annoying witch elitists who thought t that they could do no wrong as long as their backward-ass ancestors thought it was okay and that vampires were always without question evil and that no vampire could ever have feelings or deserve to live. They condemned vampires without a second glance. Not all witches were like that, to be fair. I'd met some of Nik's witches and they weren't like that. But, this Bonnie girl was. Hm, she looks like Emily Bennet... I think.
"Are you a Bennet witch?" I ask.
"Yes, I am." She says without looking at me.
"Alright, so tonight when we find Klaus, we kill him." Damon says. "And we have the spell Elijah has as a backup."
"Ok." We all say, and I share a look at the fake history teacher standing next to me.
Chicago, 1922
A few nights after the confrontation with Stefan, I went back to Gloria's. I went back because Nik asked me to and because deep down I was secretly hoping that Stefan would apologize. But, his humanity was off. He wasn't the brother I knew anymore.
When I walk into the bar and a slow song was playing. I saw Rebekah and Stefan on the dance floor, looking very happy. Nik looked on from a booth and I saw a small smile form on his lips. I walked over to his booth and another small smile formed on his lips when he sees me. He motioned for me to sit down and I did.
"I didn't think you were going to come back." He said.
"I wasn't." I replied. "But he's family." I looked over at Stefan twirling on the dance floor.
"I understand what that's like, love." Nik said. He looked over at me and into my eyes. I looked back and saw so much depth. "I know what it's like to have family treat you like you're nothing."
"Really? So who was it with you? Sibling or parent?" I replied.
"Parent." He said, almost reluctantly.
"You don't have to talk about it." I said and relief is plain in his features. He was definitely worried I would push too hard into the subject, but that was not what either of us needed at that moment.
At that moment, we both heard it. The Chicago police were about to invade the speakeasy. Nik looked angry and finished his drink in one sip. I could not understand what he was angry about. It was not like the police could have done anything to us. "Time to go." He said. "Get out of here, love. It's not safe for vampires."
The way he said it made it seem like he was the vampire in danger more than vampires in general. "Is this about you?" I asked. He looked shocked then enraged that I'd guessed correctly. "It's okay." I said. "Just find Rebekah and get out. And please protect Stefan. I'll stall them for you."
"What?" He said. He looked at me like I'd just grown giant elephant ears or something.
"Just go, Nik!" I yelled as I was walking away. I walked up to a random person, and gave him the knife I had with me at all times. "Go stab the first police officer you find." I compelled him.
I ran to the bar and reached over and grabbed the first bottle of alcohol I could find. I luckily saw a bow of matches that someone had left on the counter and pour the alcohol on the bar and set it on fire. It would burn quickly and not do any real damage to the stone counter of the bar. I looked around to see people running out of the place everywhere, but no Nik, Stefan, or Rebekah in sight. I joined the throng of people running from the building and blended in with the crowd.
After about half an hour, most of the people had run far away. The fire had long been put out and there are people inside assessing the damage done to the bar. The man I had compelled had created quite a stir. And quite a distraction. Nobody had been hurt, but the man who had tried to stab the police office had been arrested. I walked back into the bar out of curiosity. I saw the necklace I had noticed Rebekah wearing lying on the floor. Steps come up from behind me, and I turned around to see who it was.
I saw a well-dressed man in probably his fifties standing in front of me. "Hello, miss. Chicago PD."
"Hello. How can I help you?" I said as politely as I could. Something about this man irritated me.
"Have you seen these two people?" He said and showed me a drawing of Nik and Rebekah.
"Never seen them before in my life." I lied as smoothly as I could.
"You sure?" He replied. "Look again."
I looked down at the paper and pretended to study it. "I guess they look like these two people I would see in here a few times. Haven't seen them in a few days though."
He thought over my answer for a minute. "Fine. How about you, kid? Seen these two?" He turned to someone standing behind me, and I turned around and saw Stefan.
"Never seen them before in my life." He said with the utmost confidence. I could always tell when Stefan was lying. And he was not. He really believed he had never seen those people before in his life.
"Alright." The police officer said and then left.
Stefan turned to me. "What are you doing here, Grace?"
"I'm checking up on you. It's seems I arrived in Chicago just in time." I lied because the police officer was still in earshot. "What are you doing with your humanity off?" I said as I led Stefan away from the other people in the bar. I looked up just in time to see something I was truly not expecting. Katherine Pierce was standing in the doorway. She motioned for me to follow her, while Stefan was looking in a different direction and never saw her.
After the meeting with the local Scooby gang, I go up to my room and dry my hair. I look like Damon. I have black hair and blue eyes. My hair was long for a long time, but now it's about shoulder length, a few inches longer maybe since it's grown out. I was 21 when I became a vampire, so that is the age I will look for the rest of my life. I walk upstairs to Stefan's room. which has a door that leads up to the attic where all my stuff from the 60s is.
"Your relatives were such packrats." I hear Elena say. "Okay, so what do you think? Twiggy or Sexy Hippie?"
"Sexy hippie, for sure." I say when I walk into the room. Elena looks embarrassed that I caught her going through my stuff. "You can borrow anything you want from there, Elena. Although, don't judge me too harshly. Some of that stuff was in style back then."
Elena laughs and I can almost sense her thawing to me. Although, I don't know why I was trying to get her to like me. Shouldn't it be the other way around? "Thanks. Wait. I think I remember seeing something that I thought would be perfect for you. One second." She rifles through the box and pulls out my favorite dress from back then.
"That is actually what I was coming up here to get. You have a great eye for fashion, Elena. Thanks." I walk over and take the dress from her. I turn to Stefan and say, "You look very dapper, Stefan."
"Why, thank you very much, Grace." He says. "But I'm not dancing with you tonight. Ask Damon."
I smile because he saw right through my act. "One dance. You're not getting out of it this time, little brother."
"Not going to happen, Grace." He says back determinedly.
"If Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones comes on, Stefan, I will not take no for an answer." I say and then walk out of the room before he protests. I run into Damon on the way down. "You'll dance with me won't you, Damon?"
"Of course, little sis." He says and then takes my hands and starts dancing with me right there. "And that's why I'm the fun brother." He says, obviously so Stefan will here.
About a half hour later, I insist on taking my own car to the dance. I said I needed to go to the drug store to buy toothpaste, deoderant, shampoo, etc for my bathroom to cover up where I was actually going. I looked up Alaric Saltzman's address on the internet and drove there. I go up to the apartment and knock on the door. The door opens a second later and I see 'Alaric' open it. "Hello, Nik." I say.
"Hello, Grace. Please come in." He says and invites me in with a hand gesture. "We need to talk about..."
"I know." I cut him off before he can finish his sentence. I step further into the apartment.