Elena awakened slowly, taking in her surroundings. She was greeted with unruly piles of clothes and semi bares walls. It took her a moment to realize that she was at Mr. Saltzman's house. She didn't even remember falling asleep. The last thing she remembered was that she had a long needed talk with Jeremy. She glanced over to see Jeremy passed out on the other side.
She shook her head and smiled. The smile was short lived when she realized that someone was sitting in the chair in the corner. She almost leapt out of the bed when she saw him.
"Easy. It's just me," Stefan said, getting up to approach Elena.
"Stefan!" she said, jumping into his arms before he made the final distance to the bed. "I was so worried about you. I was even going to go find you when something came up," she ended regretfully.
"I'm glad you decided against it," Stefan murmured as he brought her in for a hug. She nestled deeply in his chest and stood there a moment, glad that he was safe.
"What happened then? You were gone for a really long time," she said, breaking the silence.
"It's kind of a long story. Want to go get breakfast and talk about it?" Stefan asked, kissing her temple.
"Ummm….as long as it's not your version of breakfast," she said teasing him and giving him a peck on the lips. She had missed him in his absence that she was just glad to be around him again.
He laughed at the humor of it and looked down at her appreciatively. "I was thinking pancakes at the diner," he said kissing her back.
She rushed over to her bag and whipped out a hair brush. She swept through a few times and threw it back in her bag. "Almost done," she said. She then took out a leather book from her bag that Stefan recognized as her journal. Grabbing the pen in her bag, she wrote out a note to Jeremy and Alaric explaining where she had gone and left it on the bed.
"Ready," she said, heading back to Stefan.
"Ladies first," he said gesturing to the open window.
She glanced to the closed door and back to where he gestured and shook her head. "Why thank you," she said sarcastically as she climbed out the window.
As they settled in the booth, Elena could hardly think of ordering breakfast when she had a hundred questions on her mind. Stefan solved the situation by ordering for her.
"Thanks," she said appreciatively. "So tell me everything," she said without pause.
"Ok. It's a long one, but wait till the end to really react or go nuts or you might get too worried, alright?" he said as he grasped her hand.
"Alright," she said tentatively. She already felt worried at the fact that he had to warn her already of what was to come.
Through refills of juice and coffee from the waitress and the arrival of pancakes for the both of them, Stefan retold in detail what had happened in the woods. He had just finished the part about Damon staking Frank when Elena dropped her fork, the metal clanking loudly on the porcelain plate.
"He killed him?" she asked stunned. "But why?"
Stefan was half tempted to lie about why he did it. She looked so hurt that Damon had done wrong that the jealousy he had felt by their growing companionship tempted him to tell her he simply acted on impulse. It would certainly make her question Damon. But he couldn't bring himself to lie to her.
"After it was all over and we were out of Katherine's way, he reminded me that Frank worked for Isobel….If he had finally succumbed and told Katherine who he worked for, Isobel probably would have been hunted down and tortured, if not killed," he said, looking at Elena with concern.
She took in a few deep breaths and thought about what Stefan had said. It never really sunk in completely that Isobel was her mother, but him bringing up the fact that her life was threatened really brought the idea home.
"Katherine would have killed my mother?" Elena asked in surprise.
"If she would have found out that she was being spied on by Isobel without her knowledge, most likely," Stefan said, grasping her hand.
"I'm horrified that Frank had to die for her to be safe, but I'm also kind of relieved," she said hesitantly. "It's good to know that you have back up, even as unreliable as Isobel."
Stefan nodded at her, surprised at her constraint. "Me and Damon will really have to go visit her. Obviously Isobel knew what we were up to, so she may be up to something as well."
"I'm coming with you," she told him with certainty.
"I thought you'd say that," he said slowly as the waitress came over to refill their drinks.
"So what happened after Damon…" she said, not ending the sentence in case anyone decided to listen.
"Katherine lunged at him and beat him up a bit, but he talked his way out of it," Stefan explained. "He said that Frank was useless and an utter waste of his time. He even babbled on about how he wasted the time Katherine had to talk to us. She seemed to buy the lie out of sheer vanity," Stefan said, shaking his head.
"Figures," Elena said, sipping her orange juice. "So how did you end up leaving?"
"She said she tired of the whole affair and that she would come to us again at another time, but separately since she said we were, quote, "too much to handle together," he said with a wry smile.
"Why is that a good thing?" Elena asked in response to his smiling.
"Because it makes it that much easier to kill her," he said, sipping his water.
Damon threw the fifth crystal glass to the floor of the boarding house. He felt the need to destroy more, but felt like the glasses in the house had gone through enough damage. As he approached the sixth glass, he grasped it angrily and poured whisky into it. "It's happy hour somewhere," he murmured humorlessly as he downed it in one gulp.
He threw himself over the arm of the couch and replayed the past hour in his head.
Katherine had lunged at him, clawing at his chest and eventually taking a bite out of him in the process. He hit back and struggled in response. It wasn't until Stefan joined the fight that she finally decided to back down. She licked her lips, reveling in the taste of Damon's blood.
"Hmmm. Not bad," she said as though appreciating a glass of wine. "What the hell were you thinking?" she hissed out once everyone had settled down.
"I was thinking, why are we wasting our time with some newbie vampire when we were in the middle of a conversation. Besides, I don't want to clean up after his mess in this town," Damon said, grasping his neck and rubbing it. It had already closed up, but it was still healing.
"What are you playing at?" Katherine asked suspiciously.
"If you haven't noticed, I've decided to help this town out. If we get random killings, they are going to go hunting for vampires again. They don't have time for that when there are werewolves running around," Damon said, frowning at her. "And like I said, he was wasting your time."
"Almost like you're wasting ours," Stefan said angrily.
"Hmm….You know what, there is a lot being wasted here right now. I'm done talking for now. This has been utterly pointless," she said, kicking Frank's body. "Don't think we're done here. Next time we talk, I talk to you on my terms, separately; you're too much to handle together."
She sauntered over to Damon who was still scowling and placed a kiss on his cheek. She approached Stefan in the same way but he stepped away from her.
"We'll see," she said with a sly smile at his rejection. She then disappeared into the woods.
"So do you want to get rid of the body, or shall I little brother," Damon asked after a few moments…..
"I should have punched her in the face," Damon said angrily, getting back to the present.
Deciding that the glass in his hand decided to be broken too, he threw it down to the ground. He laid there a moment before deciding to check his phone. He had three missed calls and a text message from Elena that asked if he was alright. He smiled at that, but shook it off. Instead of texting back, he listened to the voicemail left on his phone.
"Hey, Damon. It's Liz. The werewolf problem is getting stronger. We're going to have a council meeting now if you could make it to the courthouse as soon as possible. Thanks." The message ended and Damon checked the time it was left.
"Missed out on that excitement," he said, putting his phone back in his pocket. Getting up, he decided to go see what the council had come up with in the meantime. He glanced around the room at the shattered glass on the floor and shrugged his shoulders. "Stefan can get his animal friends to help him clean this up" he said smirking as he pictured Stefan as some messed up version of Snow White. He chuckled at that and left the house.
He got into his car, threw the phone on the seat, and sped down the driveway. A few moments later, his phone buzzed with an incoming text. It was another one from Elena. "If you're going to turn all broody like Stefan, we're going to need to talk. Lol. But seriously, as your friend, I'm here for you."
Damon smirked. He didn't think she had it in her to mock Stefan. "I guess I'll make a pitt stop," he said, making up his mind to visit Elena.
Sheriff Forbes rushed home after listening to the various voicemails Caroline had left her. She sped up to the driveway of the house and saw no sign of Matt or Caroline. Her cellphone was in her hands in seconds as she dialed Caroline's number.
"Hello?" came a sleepy reply.
"Caroline? Are you ok? Where are you?" she asked worriedly.
"Mom? You didn't get back to me, so we left. I'm at Matt's house and I was sleeping," she said grumpily.
"Sorry, Caroline. I was in the middle of something. If I would have realized it was you…..What happened?" she asked, getting out of the car and approaching the house.
"We got there and it was all messed up like someone was looking for something. We didn't go in any further just in case someone was still there," she said, yawning.
"They're probably gone by now," Lizz replied. She took her gun out just in case she was wrong. "Listen, I'm home now and I'm going to check it out. I'll call you later and let you know when it's safe."
"Ok, mom," Caroline said sounding tired. "Be careful."
"I will," she said, shutting the phone. Grasping the gun in both hands, she approached the door and entered the house. It was just as Caroline had said; there were papers scattered all over and torn items tossed about haphazardly.
She made a quick progression around the house, noticing that the den, living room, and bedrooms were ransacked. The kitchen was left alone as was the dining room.
"They were definitely looking for something," she said, looking out the back door. She locked it and put her gun away once she knew the house was free from any intruder. "But what were they looking for?"
She sighed thinking about the cleaning task in front of her. Heading to the den, she made a mental list of items that would have drew anyone's attention. She had some police reports in her drawer and a few old bank statements, but she couldn't see what use that could be to someone.
Knowing that she wouldn't find out what was missing until it was cleaned up, she put her gear away and started the long process of going through the wreckage to see what was lost.
I'm more excited for the next chapter, but here's a little filler for now. Review and Enjoy. Cheers.
