Author's note: We've hit Act III. (I write all my stories in three acts.) I think there are about 3 chapters left…maybe 4 – depends on when the next chapter break ends up falling.
Warnings: Mature - adult content, language, violence, Stefan, Bonnie, my favorite trope makes an appearance here
Elena's heels echoed on the tile floor as she walked through the mostly empty Grill. She caught sight of Matt, and he signaled that Jeremy was in the stockroom. She nodded her understanding before walking into the bar and leaning against one of the tallest tables. She absently dragged her fingernail over through the pattern carved in the wood. This is where she was standing when Damon first met Andie. That seemed like ages ago.
"Elena? Is everything okay?" Jeremy placed a box of salt and pepper shakers down on the table with a thud and glanced over her shoulder to make sure his manager was still on the phone. Thankfully, Peter never seemed to notice all the unusual occurrences that happened almost daily in his restaurant.
Jeremy's question snapped her back to the present. "No." Elena shook her head emphatically. "Things are definitely not okay." She took a breath before she let her well-deserved anger get away from her. "Would you like to explain to me why I've just spent the last 45 minutes discussing your 'lack of satisfactory progress' with Mrs. Morgan?"
"Old Lady Morgan? She's a joke – you know that. I seem to remember you using a few choice words to describe her to Mom." Jeremy didn't seem bothered in the slightest as he pulled out two salt shakers and ran a damp cloth over the glass.
"Having a zero on two of your projects due in her class isn't a joke, Jer."
"It's the same project. She just took two grades on it." Jeremy placed a pepper shaker in the center of the table next to them and motioned for Elena to move the lecture to follow him.
Elena rolled her eyes. "All the more reason for you to turn the paper in." She pinched the bridge of her nose between her index finger and thumb. "I had to talk with her for almost an hour. In her classroom. After they'd been dissecting…something." She leaned across the table and whispered conspiratorially. "Do you know how bad formaldehyde smells to a vampire?" She closed her eyes and swallowed thickly. She hadn't eaten anything today, but that didn't keep her stomach from rolling at the mere memory of the smell in the science lab. If Mrs. Morgan ever needed to conference with her again, she was going to have to compel her to think she'd met with the teacher. Elena couldn't handle extended time in that classroom again.
"Sorry." He cringed.
"I just. I just don't want to lose you."
Jeremy's eyes widened in confusion. "Now you really have lost me."
Elena leaned against her hand, leaving her eyes closed. She shook her head slowly before opening her eyes to meet her brother's concerned expression. "Mrs. Morgan apparently has friends in the county child services department. She hinted that since Alaric's gone…I might not be the most suitable guardian." She cringed. "I don't want to have to send you to Aunt Myrtle's, but I can't help but think she might have a point."
"No." Jeremy shook his head insistently. "That summer back in fourth grade was enough." He placed the box of condiments on the tabletop of the booth next to them before sliding on the bench. After Elena followed him, he leaned across and whispered to her. "Listen. I'll work harder. I promise. I've been spending most of my nights reading Jonathon's journals. I thought he might have a clue about Silas….or why you're not like other vampires."
"And?" Elena asked, trying hard to keep any hope from her voice.
Jeremy frowned. "Sorry." He shrugged his shoulders and glanced up at Peter who was standing fewer than 4 tables from them. "That's why I hadn't said anything before. I couldn't find anything. Not about Silas. Nothing about what happens when the Gilbert and Petrova bloodlines converge."
"Hey Gilbert." Peter crossed his arms and glared at the pair. "Do you think I'm paying you to gab with your sister?"
"No. Sorry Peter." Jeremy stood abruptly and picked up the box of supplies. "Won't happen again."
"Let's make sure of that." Peter nodded and turned away from Jeremy and Elena.
"Sorry." Elena couldn't even force a smile. Her day had gone from not great to bad to worse. "I'll let you get back to your job, but…"
"I'll do my homework." Jeremy gave her an encouraging smile.
Elena grabbed her purse from the floor and slid the leather strap onto her shoulder. She waved goodbye to Jeremy and made her way to the front of the restaurant.
Matt caught up with her just before she placed her hand on the door. "Hey, Elena." He ducked his head and lowered his voice. "You okay?" The tone of his voice made it clear that he wasn't just making conversation. "I mean, do you need anything?" He fingered his collar and raised his eyebrows to reinforce his question.
Elena paused and then realized what he was asking. "I'm fine, Matt."
"You sure? I mean. You haven't come to visit in a couple of days. Jeremy said he hadn't seen you since Wednesday, at least not at school if you know what I mean."
Elena gripped the strap of her purse tightly. "What? Do y'all seriously discuss whose turn it is?"
"Elena. You rolled a car because you weren't eating enough." He mumbled under his breath. "We just don't want it to happen again."
"I'm fine, Matt. Really." She successfully forced a smile. Matt knew her too well. He wasn't convinced. She tried harder. "The parade's tonight. I'll find someone visiting from out of town. I'm getting the hang of it." Elena reached out and squeezed his hand. "I promise. I'm not trying to starve myself."
"Alright." He didn't look convinced. "But if you have trouble…"
"You'll be the first person I come find. Thank you." Peter was approaching from behind Matt. Elena bowed out the door before she was thrown out for distracting his employees.
Damn it! Elena shivered as the force of the northerly wind blew through her light jacket. She hadn't even thought about feeding for the last two days. She'd been so on edge, blood just didn't sound very appealing. Now that Matt mentioned it, though, her stomach rumbled and she could hardly concentrate on much else.
Her fingers began to tremble as the excitement from the gathering crowd reached her. She was supposed to be at Caroline's house ten minutes ago. The blonde vampire had her outfit already picked out for the Miss Mystic Falls court float, and she'd warned Elena to allow plenty of time to change. Caroline was going to be angry if Elena arrived much later, but she couldn't risk riding on a float in this condition. She might have only been a vampire for six weeks, but she'd learned how to recognize the warning signs when she was dangerously close to losing control.
This moment qualified.
"Excuse me, miss." A middle-aged man pushed his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose as he scurried up the sidewalk. His Boy Scout leader's uniform couldn't have been providing him any more protection from the cold than her jacket. Why wasn't a Boy Scout leader better prepared?
Right now, it didn't matter. "Can I help you?" She pivoted to steer him in the direction of the empty stairwell running alongside the Grill.
"If the boys in my troop could see me now, I'd never live this down." He ran his fingers nervously through his short-cropped red hair. He held his cell phone out to her and she took two steps, backing him toward the alleyway. "I can't seem to find the staging area for the parade."
Elena giggled to set him at ease. "The square can be kind of confusing." She reached out and took hold of the phone, turning it so she could see the map. As soon as they'd cleared the opening leading to the street, she stepped alongside him and pointed at the phone. And then she locked eyes with him. "You're not going to scream."
"That's actually my line."
An explosion of pain seared through her side and explosions of light danced in front of her eyes before everything went completely dark. Her knees struck the pavement as the world around her went silent.
"Finally!" Jeremy sighed in relief as Elena peered through her barely cracked eyelids. Judging from the squeaking couch beneath her, she was no longer in the alley, but she also wasn't at the boardinghouse.
Elena sat up slowly as the room continued to spin around her. "What….happened?" She blinked and wrinkled her nose at the vaguely metallic taste lingering in her mouth. "Why am I at Caroline's house?"
"It was closest." Jeremy answered the second question first. He rocked back on his heels and knelt next to the couch. "As for your first question, did you really fall for the 'I need directions' fake-out? They teach you about that one in elementary school, Elena."
Her memories gradually filtered through the haze blanketing her mind. "I was actually hoping to catch him." Her cheeks flushed pink. "I was hungry."
Jeremy looked at the floor and shook his head. "You're lucky you forgot your phone. I saw it on the table, and I was chasing you down." He nodded to the telephone on the table. "I saw you just as you disappeared around the corner. I'd talked with Matt. I knew you might be…snacking." Elena noticed for the first time that Jeremy's hands were shaking. "I got there just as he hefted you onto his shoulder. Elena, if I hadn't been there…." He let his words trail off, not wanting to complete his thought.
"Does Damon know?" Elena cringed at the thought of what he'd say if he'd heard how close she'd come to getting caught. She'd promised him that she'd be careful, and she'd barely succeeded in convincing all her friends that she didn't need a babysitter when simply walking around town. She could only imagine his response when he heard about the Boy Scout leader.
Jeremy nodded stiffly. "He's who's taking care of the – issue." For the first time, Elena noticed the blood spattered all over Jeremy's clothes. She must have made a face. "He knew who you were. What you were. I didn't have a choice."
Elena fought back tears as she studied her brother's face. He'd killed to save her. Again.
"Jeremy, I'm so sorry." Elena stared into his troubled brown eyes, disturbed at the hardness she saw there. He'd seen too much…experienced too much darkness in his life. God, he was just 16. He deserved a normal life. All of them did. Well, maybe Elena didn't. She was born to be the center of all this turmoil.
Bonnie quietly approached from the kitchen and placed her hand on Jeremy's shoulder. "You can get back to work. We've got this. Caroline's on her way back too."
"You sure?" Jeremy looked up in mild surprise.
"Trust me. No one's getting through that door who isn't supposed to be here." Bonnie squeezed Jeremy's shoulder and waited for him to stand.
"I probably should go. Damon compelled Peter to think that I'm out running deliveries, but now that the parade's over – "
"Go." Elena nodded encouragingly. "I'll be fine." Jeremy slowly stood. Thankfully, he didn't say anything about the fact that she hadn't made an effort to stand. The room was still spinning slowly. She had a new appreciation for Stefan and Damon's efforts to build a tolerance for vervain.
The door closed with a click, and Bonnie came back into the room. "How are you really feeling?" Bonnie wasn't looking at her like Mystic Falls' resident witch, she studied her with the tenderness of a concerned best friend.
"Like hell, actually." Elena gave sitting up a second attempt and wished that she hadn't. Her ears started to ring, and her stomach lurched in disapproval.
Bonnie took a seat on the couch next to her. "How long has it been since you fed?"
Elena bit down on her lip – well aware that her answer was going to be met with disapproval. "Three days."
"Three days?" Bonnie shot to her feet in anger. "Elena. We've talked about this."
"I know. I know." Elena took hold of Bonnie's arm and tugged her back down on the couch. "But I hate always having to use Matt and Jeremy like that, and I haven't found anyone new in town – until tonight."
"And we all see how well that went down." Bonnie rolled her eyes and pulled her legs up on the couch. She stared at Elena for several minutes before finally arriving at some apparently difficult decision. Her fingers looped around the cuff of her blouse, and she extended her arm to Elena. "Here."
It took Elena a moment to realize what Bonnie intended. "What?" Elena shifted back on the couch, trying to ignore the blue lines running just beneath the surface of Bonnie's dark skin. "No. I can't."
"Elena." Bonnie's voice was even and calm. "A hunter was looking for you tonight. We can't risk grabbing someone random. So, unless you want me to call Matt or Jeremy…." She stared pointedly at her wrist.
Elena still hesitated. She wasn't just a little hungry. She was starving. Even now, looking at the barely-pulsing vein in Bonnie's wrist, she was fighting to stay in control. "Maybe we should wait for –" The door opened again, and the sound of jingle bells proceeded Caroline's entrance into the room.
"What are you waiting on?" Caroline removed a jingle-bell necklace and dropped onto the couch alongside Elena. She rolled her eyes at Bonnie and Elena's questioning expressions. "I got stuck on elf-duty after the parade. Apparently a stomach bug is going around the middle school. I ran into Jeremy while he was passing out hot chocolate. You feeling better?"
Elena nodded but her sign of agreement was interrupted by Bonnie's words. "We were just discussing the fact that she hasn't fed in three days."
"Elena!" Caroline chided.
"I know." Elena really didn't want to get the lecture a third time today. "Matt and Bonnie have already yelled at me. I don't need another one from you." Elena leaned her elbows on her knees and rubbed her temples. She hadn't realized just how badly her head was hurting. "Is the headache still from the vervain?"
"Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry." Caroline scooted next to Elena on the couch. "You probably don't need us in lecture-mode right now." She wrapped her arm around Elena's shoulder and gave her a gentle squeeze. "But you do probably need to eat. It'll help you get your strength back."
"That's – what we were talking about when you walked in." Bonnie looked down at her sleeve pulled up above her elbow.
"Ahh." Caroline nodded. "So that's why you were saying you might need to wait, but Bonnie can always stop you with a headache."
"Not sure if I could handle one worse than what I already have." Elena closed her eyes and wished that aspirin worked on vampires.
Someone tapped on Elena's knee. "Elena." Bonnie frowned. "Come on, you'll feel better." She looked away from Elena as if she were preparing to get blood drawn in a doctor's office.
Elena glanced hesitantly in Caroline's direction before she let her vampire nature come to the surface. She barely allowed her fangs to pierce the skin of Bonnie's wrist, and the blood slowly trickled into her mouth. She swallowed two mouthfuls gratefully until –
"Elena?" Caroline jumped up in surprise as Elena bolted from the room and made a mad dash for the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before the meager contents of her stomach revisited her. "Elena!" Caroline couldn't have sounded more surprised if her father had walked through the front door.
Elena sat back on her heels and wiped her face with a handful of toilet paper. "Sorry. I guess witch is off the menu too."
"That does it." Bonnie spoke from the doorway of the small bathroom. "We can't wait for Lucy any longer. I'm going to see if I can contact Grams."
"Is that a good idea?" Elena turned and looked up at Bonnie from her position on the floor of the bathroom.
"Something's not right. Damon bit me without any problems. We have to know what's going on."
"Time to break out the candles." Caroline sped into the kitchen. "Probably want to wrap this up before my mom gets home from crowd patrol."
The girls sat on the floor, forming an all-too-familiar triangle. Lit candles formed a circle in the middle of the open space between them. Caroline and Elena sat waiting. Bonnie had been softly murmuring to herself for the better part of twenty minutes.
"Think she's okay?" Caroline spoke in a stage whisper.
"No nosebleed. That has to be a good sign." Elena studied her friend's face with growing alarm. With each passing minute, the crease between her eyebrows grew deeper and Bonnie seemed more troubled.
But all Caroline and Elena could do was wait.
"No." Bonnie was arguing with whomever she'd contacted. "You can't." Bonnie shook her head and raised her voice. "She's…."
The random words and fragments of sentences just made Elena more alarmed. Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she looked down just in time to see a message from Damon. Two more bodies had been discovered on the edge of town. He'd be by later to pick her up. She quickly keyed in an answer. The more time the better. He didn't need to watch this.
"But Grams…" Bonnie reached out as if she were trying to take hold of someone's hand. "It's already done. I understand." Bonnie woke from her trance and didn't quite meet Elena's eyes.
"So?" Caroline spoke when Elena couldn't form the words.
"Grams found one of the witches involved in the original doppleganger spell."
"And?" Caroline barely let Bonnie take a breath.
"Maybe we should go sit on the couch."
"Witches are really careful with their spell work, especially for the important spells." Bonnie fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat. "Every spell always has a way to undo it."
"Right." Elena nodded. "Like with the tomb and the Gilbert device."
Bonnie nodded wordlessly. "Vampires were created with the blood of the original Petrova." She glanced at Elena for confirmation. "In order to undo the spell that created vampires, a witch would need the blood of a Petrova."
"Right." Elena had been down this road before. She might as well have been born with a birthmark shaped like an X on her back – all spells lead to here.
"You're the last Petrova."
"I know. Isobel told me." Elena shifted in discomfort in her seat, not liking the direction this conversation was going.
"The witches…." Bonnie looked between Caroline and Elena. "They're really protective of their spell work. The witch who created the dopplegangers, she was one of the most powerful witches in history."
"And?" Elena didn't understand how this was related to the fact that now she was even having trouble swallowing blood fresh from the vein.
Bonnie stared at Elena without blinking. "She won't let the Petrova line end."
"But Elena died in the wreck. No more Petrovas." Caroline glared at Bonnie.
"She did, but she hasn't fully transitioned – which is why her diet is so limited. She's still a little human...and mostly vampire."
"We kind of guessed that." Elena felt like the conversation was going in circles. They were no closer to knowing the answer to what was wrong with her than before – even if they now knew why.
A troubled silence blanketed the room. Bonnie seemed more ill-at-ease than Elena had ever seen her.
"So will she ever transition or is she just stuck?" Once again, Caroline voiced the question that Elena couldn't.
Bonnie bit down on the inside of her cheek and frowned. "The Petrova line has to continue. Once it does, she'll be able to complete the transition." She spoke in memorized monotone. "That's all they said."
"It has to continue? But Elena's the last…." Caroline repeated, her eyes growing wide. She shot to her feet and ran up the stairs. Rumbles and clanks from overhead hinted that she was digging through her bathroom cabinets. "Elena, can you come here for a minute?" Caroline beckoned from the top of the stairs.
Elena slowly stood to her feet. Whatever Caroline needed her to do upstairs couldn't make the day any weirder. She'd had to have a parent-teacher conference, she'd been vervained, and her brother killed someone. Now she'd just learned that the witches had cursed her to this life of kind-of-vampire existence. She continued up the stairs, and the uncertain expression on Caroline's face made her strongly question her earlier thoughts. Maybe the day could get worse.
"Elena. I think you might need to do something." Caroline kept one hand behind her back.
"If it involves eating slugs or making a deal with a witch, the answer is no."
"Nothing like that." Caroline pulled a white metallic object from her pocket.
Elena stepped backwards and almost fell down the stairs. "No."
Caroline caught hold of Elena's wrist. "For a vampire, your reflexes suck."
Drawn by the conversation, Bonnie followed Elena up the stairs. She noticed what Caroline had in her hand. "It makes sense." She nodded in agreement. "But why do you have – "
Caroline placed the pregnancy test in Elena's hand. "Matt and I had a little scare once. It was a long time ago." She looked Elena in the eye and pointed to the bathroom.
"Caroline, vampire's can't…."
"Trust me. I know that." Caroline chuckled to herself. "But name one rule that doesn't have a witchy loophole. You're normally the loophole. Go pee on the stick, Elena, or I'll figure out a way to make you."
Elena rolled her eyes and faked bravery that she didn't feel. "This is insane." Caroline's answer was a soft shove between Elena's shoulder blades.
"This isn't Forks. Bella and Edward don't live here." Elena sat on the couch and tried to stop the trembling threatening to overtake her entire body.
"No, this is Mystic Falls where we constantly live an existence a hell of a lot more insane than anything Twilight could have dreamed up. Here." Caroline pressed a mug into Elena's hand. "It's peppermint. Maybe it'll help your stomach."
Bonnie hadn't met Elena's eyes since she'd stepped out of the bathroom. Elena's face had been so white the other girls hadn't needed to ask what the result was, but she showed the results to Caroline just to verify that she wasn't dreaming.
Of course, the last few minutes would quite likely fall under the category of nightmare….maybe.
Bonnie and Caroline watched as Elena took a tentative sip. Minty. Sweet. Warm. And surprisingly non-nausea-inducing. She took a longer drink. Memories of when she was little and her mother made too-sweet tea when she had a cold washed over her, and uninvited tears filled her eyes. "It's good." She took a shaky breath. "Really." Simply finding something that didn't send her speeding for the bathroom was worth the embarrassment of having two friends standing just outside the closed door listening to her take the test.
"My mom said it cures anything. I guess morning sickness counts." Caroline laughed from the kitchen.
"Damon." Bonnie looked up in surprise.
"I knocked. I guess y'all were….occupied." Damon's jaw muscles were clenched as he stood frozen behind the recliner. Shock, surprise, sadness, and finally betrayal washed over his face. He stared at Elena for an instant before turning on his heel and walking from the house.