Chapter 3: The Heart
Each year after Caroline received the Mikaelson check, she and Alaric drove to a bank in Alexandria to deposit it. While of course it would have been easier to do the school's banking in Mystic Falls, and while driving all the way to what was basically Washington DC was a hassle, it was less complicated than dropping a $3 million check off at a small town bank. A bigger city further away was less complicated because no one there really knew or cared about the school and its purpose, and likely had bigger clients and issues to deal with. Mystic Falls was great, but as they all knew, in small towns news travels fast, especially when it has to do with millions of dollars and a "special" school with only a handful of students.
It also meant Caroline could compel the bankers if she needed to.
Compulsion in Mystic Falls was much more difficult now. In the years since the hellfire, vervain had been introduced into the public water supply. Most of the town was still unaware of the existence of supernatural beings, kept in the dark by passable stories about things like gas leaks. There were, however, the older families in Mystic Falls, the ones aware of the town's history - the founding families - that were very aware, especially after the last decade. It was their idea to put vervain in the water, and they kept pressure on city leadership to keep it there. At this point it wasn't really necessary, since Caroline was the only vampire resident remaining, but after the last decade no one was sure when an angry vampire hunting for vengeance would show up on their doorstep. In their minds, better safe than sorry.
"What is Elena talking about in science today?" Caroline yawned as Ric drove them home.
"Hearts," he replied. "And blood, and how all of that stuff works."
"That'll be interesting," she said. "I wonder what she'll say about vampire blood."
"I'm sure she'll talk about the good things," he said reassuringly as Caroline gazed out the window. "At some point one of them is bound to break an arm and need your help."
"We'll see. I just don't want them to be scared when that inevitably happens. And then there's the whole needing human blood to stay alive thing. I don't want the kids to think I'm going to break in and try to eat them in their sleep or something."
"Caroline, it's not exactly a secret that you're a vampire. They all love you and as they get older they'll understand more about how this situation operates. That's part of why we started the school in the first place." He grabbed her hand and squeezed supportively. She and Ric weren't together - that ship had sailed. Caroline had never seen him like that, and Alaric was past it. At one time, both of them had the idea that if they were coparenting, they should probably be married. While he'd had some genuine feelings for her, they were both glad they hadn't gone through with it. Since then, and especially since starting the school, their relationship had improved immensely. They'd been able to start seeing each other as individuals again and enjoy each other's' company without so much stress and baggage.
"You're right," she admitted. "It's just strange sometimes, after Mystic Falls being overrun by vampires that I'm the only one left."
"I won't even pretend to know what that's like," he replied, as they got out of the car.
Inside the school, Elena was still awake after what had turned into a long night at the hospital and was teaching science. Elena handled science, Caroline handled English and drama, Ric taught history and social studies, Jeremy taught art and physical education, which amounted more to self-defense and combat, but they called it PE for the sake of the Virginia Department of Education. They were on the hunt for a math teacher, which Alaric had a good lead on, but it was hard to put a request out for "math teacher for a private school of supernatural children, master's degree and werewolf lineage preferred." A number of the students were werewolves, and while they could all teach everything they knew about wolves, having an actual werewolf teaching at the Salvatore school would be much more valuable, even moreso if they could teach math.
Today they were studying the circulatory system.
"So, what do we know about the heart?" Elena asked.
"It's in your chest," Lizzie said, pointing to her sternum.
"You're right. What else? What IS the heart?"
"It's a muscle," offered Ethan, a 12 year old werewolf. He'd come to them from the mountains in West Virginia, dropped off by an uncle that didn't want anything to do with him after he saw Ethan on a full moon. No one seemed to know where Ethan's parents were, and he was finally starting to open up after completely shutting down upon arrival. Not only was he going through puberty, but he was dealing with starting to turn with no help or guidance to speak of. It had been difficult to say the least.
"Good, Ethan. And what does it do?"
"It pumps blood!"
"Exactly," Elena replied. "It pumps your blood through your body so all of your muscles and organs work properly. What happens if your heart stops working?"
"You'll DIE," Josie said dramatically, eyes wide open.
"But then what about vampires? Their hearts are beating, but aren't they dead?" a student named Annie asked.
"Kind of," Elena answered. "Technically they're UN-dead. Their hearts still work, but their blood is different."
"So does Caroline have different blood?"
"She does! Vampire blood is different because it can heal people. So if you burn yourself on the stove or cut your finger, it can heal you right away instead of having to wait a week for it to heal over."
"How?" Annie asked.
"We're actually not sure," Elena replied. "It's hard for scientists to study, because most people don't know vampires exist, kindof like they don't know witches or werewolves exist. But it's probably related to what's called genetics, which we'll talk about later. But first, let's finish the circulatory system," she replied with a smile.
Elena wasn't about to let on that some of the preliminary "research" that had been done on vampire blood were incredibly inhumane and amounted more to draining of blood than studying it.
"Okay everyone, tonight I want everyone to find ONE fact about the human heart and ONE fact about blood that we can talk about in class tomorrow. Now go find Jeremy," she said, shooing everyone out the door. Damon peeked his head in as they left, giving the occasional hello or high five. After over a hundred years of being mostly bitter and violent, it was a strange but awesome feeling to be adored by a bunch of kids.
After all the kids were out and far enough down the hall, Damon swaggered into the room.
"So, Dr. Salvatore," he said, feeling the rush he always felt when he thought about their matching last names. Another strange feeling. "Teach me something." He pulled her in towards him, running his fingers through her hair and kissing her forehead.
"Did you know," she replied, grinning. "That your heart rate increases as you get excited about something?"
He grabbed her hip and pulled her tighter against him, pressing a kiss to her neck.
"Is your heart rate increasing?"
"A little bit," she said, biting her bottom lip.
"Only a little bit? Is that a challenge?"
"Why don't you close the door and find out?" she responded, smirking. Damon picked her up by the hips and set her down on the desk as he slid to stand between her legs.
Just then, a loud "ahem" came from the doorway. There stood Alaric, arms crossed. "Really Damon? Some of us have to share that desk. If memory serves, you live about a hundred feet away."
"Guess I've got homework then," Damon said, arching his eyebrows at Elena as she rolled her eyes, blushing.
"Sorry Ric," she said sheepishly as she pulled Damon out of the room.
After dinner was homework time. Damon headed home, Jeremy went out to find Matt for a drink, and Alaric went to do some reading. Caroline stole a bottle of wine out of the cabinet and headed up to her room.
She wished Bonnie was there to split it with. Hopefully she'd be back soon.
Caroline relaxed into her overstuffed chair, sipped her wine, and thought about last night's dream. About being in her old room, the giddiness of putting the dress back on, and how strange it was that the envelope she'd only received yesterday appeared in the room she grew up in.
She felt a bit silly about it, or maybe superstitious. It was a dream - there was probably nothing in the envelope. Besides, when she pulled out the check and the drawing, she didn't notice anything else still in it. She'd fished her hand around and found nothing. But she still felt the urge to check it again.
Finishing her wine, she set the glass aside and opened the safe. She reached her hand into the envelope and felt something cold, metal. Smooth on one side, rough on the other. She didn't even have to see it to know what it was. It had most certainly not been in the envelope yesterday, and she had no idea how or why it was there today. It had been locked in a safe in her locked room. It was something most of those around her had either seen or paid attention to despite being at the same ball, and something she hadn't kept in her possession. In fact, she had been adamant at one time about getting rid of it.
Caroline gently pulled the bracelet out of the envelope. It wasn't in its original box. Klaus couldn't have sent it, she thought. He wouldn't have been so careless. It was almost as if the bracelet had been picked up off the floor after she tore it off her wrist at the ball and handed back to her years later. But by who?
It was still beautiful. Each segment looked like two hearts touching. She smiled wistfully, remembering the feeling of seeing it the first time. How angry and frustrated she was with Klaus and how annoyed by his presumptuousness, but secretly screaming with excitement inside because she'd received an insanely beautiful ball gown and diamond bracelet. It had been hard to act like she didn't care. It had been REALLY hard to rip the bracelet off, because despite her annoyance, it was an antique diamond bracelet, one of a kind. But she did, and now somehow years later it was back, shiny and sparkly as ever. And since no one was around to ask about it, she closed the clasp around her wrist, curious if she'd dream again tonight.
Hi all! Thanks again to everyone who has read/followed/favorited/reviewed, it means a lot that you've spent time on this story! I have so many places to take this story and am really encouraged to keep writing. When I started writing I thought I wanted to write the story I wanted to read, and so I'm happy to see that others are enjoying it too. Some notes: this is probably going to be a long story, and some chapters will be slower than others. I'm trying to be very descriptive because I want to give the supporting characters a real role in the story, too. And Bonnie will be showing up sooner than later!
Please keep letting me know what you think and asking any questions you might have - your feedback is much appreciated, and thanks again for reading!