dizzy lizzie: thanks for the lovely review. So glad you liked the last chapter.
guest: thank you for the review and your opinion. It`s great to hear that you like my story. I always have a hard time leaving stuff out, because I think it`s important for the story. But I`ll try to tune it down. So thank you for the suggestion.
################################
The next morning came way too early for Alaric`s liking. He had barely slept all night and seriously contemplated just calling in sick. In the end he decided against it, knowing it would only serve to worry Elena further and maybe even make her come looking for him.
He also hoped the monotony of a normal school day would take his mind off the newly rediscovered memories. He packed his things and opened the door, already late, but stopped dead in his tracks a second later. Damon was standing in front of his door, hand still poised to knock. For a moment both men just stared at each other.
"You gonna invite me in?" Damon asked finally. Ric stared at him in disbelief. "No." Who did the vampire think he was, showing up here like nothing had happened. "Now get out of my way. I`m late for work." the teacher grumbled and tried to move past him. Damon however didn`t budge. Simply crossed his arms and regarded the other man coolly. "Just forget about work, Ric. I`m here to talk." Alaric sighed in annoyance. He so wasn`t in the mood for these games right now. "But I don`t want to talk." he growled, stepping closer to the vampire, his voice dropping, taking on a menacing edge. "I`ve got a couple of vervain darts in my pocket. I suggest you move before I feel the need to use them on you."
Damon´s eyes widened in surprise. For a second he seemed ready to argue, but the teacher`s glare told him that Ric was deadly serious. Scowling he stepped aside to let Ric pass. The teacher breathed a sigh of relief and hurried to his car. Pushing the speed limits a little, he made it to class just in time.
Usually he liked teaching. He always felt a little proud of himself, when one of his student gave a truly good answer or inquired further about the current subject. But today he found it tedious. He just couldn`t concentrate, his mind was still reeling with all the memories. So much for a diversion. Of course Elena noticed that he was distracted today. He could feel her worried gaze on himself, noticed her sneaking glances at Stefan ever so often, who was looking worse than yesterday. Maybe the girl should worry a little more about her boyfriend, than about her teacher, Ric mused.
He wasn`t really surprised when the two of them lingered after class again. Elena approached him hesitantly, while Stefan hung back. "You forgot this." the girl murmured, handing him his vervain bracelet. Ric took his time putting it on. "Thanks." He was stalling and he suspected Elena knew it. "Are you… okay?" she dared to ask after a while. Alaric nodded and finally met her eyes. "Yeah, I`m okay. Sorry if I worried you. I just… needed some time to myself. It was a lot to take in." he admitted. Understatement of the year.
"So… Damon was telling the truth? You did know him?" Elena prodded. Ric sighed, looked away. Stared off into the distance. "We were friends." He was startled when Stefan snorted at this. He`d almost forgotten about the younger Salvatore. "My brother doesn`t have any friends." Ric had never heard Stefan`s voice sound so cold and detached. It was a little frightening. He frowned at the vampire, noticed that Elena was giving him a weird look as well. "And yet I used to call him my friend."
Another snort and he could see something like pity in Stefan`s eyes. "He was using you. And he probably plans to do it again. Otherwise he wouldn`t have made you remember. Better be careful, Alaric. My brother is dangerous." Stefan warned, exiting the room without a backward glance. Ric looked at Elena, who shrugged in response. "I guess he`s right. Damon is … he`s selfish. He´s good at making you believe he will change for the better. I believed that, too. I felt sorry for him. But the tragic truth is, he has no redeeming qualities. You should be careful." she cautioned. Not exactly what Ric wanted to hear.
He didn`t know what to believe anymore. The memories of his and Damon´s shared past warred with the hatred he had felt for the vampire, with the things he knew about him now. He wondered which Damon was the real one – his friend, who had been there when he needed him, had laughed with him, listened to his problems and offered advice, or the cold, unscrupulous vampire, who stopped at nothing to get what he wanted and didn`t care who got hurt in the process.
The teacher forced a smile to his face, not wanting to worry Elena further and promised to be careful. The rest of the day passed rather uneventful. He was mildly surprised when Damon showed up once school was over, strolling into Ric´s classroom just as the last of the students left. Ric quickly packed up his things. "Sorry, if you`re here to talk about Stefan I have to disappoint you. That`s what parent-teacher conferences are for. You`ll have to make an appointment like everybody else." he explained without looking at the vampire. "I`m not here to talk about Stefan and you know it." Damon grumbled.
Ric took out his cell phone, grabbed his bag and pushed past the vampire. "Doesn`t change the fact that I`m busy." He quickly dialled Jenna`s number, glad when she picked up after the second ring. "Hey Jenna, I guess I still owe you a date. How about tonight?" He continued walking, ignoring the pounding of his heart, surprised that Damon didn`t follow him. But he could feel the vampire`s eyes on himself the whole time and knew that they would have to talk about it eventually. There was no way around it. He just wanted to postpone it a little longer.
###
The date with Jenna was fun and it thankfully took Ric`s mind off of his problems for a while. Now that they had cleared things between them and agreed to be just friends he felt a lot more comfortable around her. They had dinner at the Grill and talked about anything that came to mind, getting so engrossed in the conversation that they missed the movie they had agreed on. Jenna shrugged it off and suggested just staying at the Grill for drinks instead.
"So… how are things with Damon?" she asked after a while and Ric stiffened. "Can we please not talk about Damon tonight?" Jenna smiled sympathetically. "That bad, huh? Okay, change of topic. Have you talked to Elena, yet?"
"About Isobel? No, I haven`t. I don`t really know what to say, to be honest." he admitted. "Just tell her what she was like. I`m sure Elena will ask questions if she wants to know more." Yes, he feared she might do that. And what was he supposed to say? Isobel hadn`t exactly been the picture perfect wife. She had been obsessed with her work, especially towards the end. She had left him to become a vampire and he had yet to find out more about that. Remembering his time with Damon had also made him remember those last month before Isobel disappeared. He`d thought about getting a divorce back then. Should he tell Elena that?
"It´s up to you. Like I said, no pressure." Jenna murmured. "I just… have a lot on my mind at the moment." Ric admitted. "Wanna talk about it?" The offer was tempting. He could really use someone to talk to, but Jenna didn`t know about vampires and all that other stuff. And he wanted to keep it that way. "Thanks, but I think that`s something I have to figure out for myself." he said with a shrug. "Okay, but if you want to talk, the offer stands." The teacher smiled at that. "Thank you. I really appreciate it." And he did. He glanced at his watch and sighed. "We should probably call it a night. I`ve got to work tomorrow and I haven´t exactly gotten much sleep last night. Wouldn`t want to fall asleep in class." Jenna agreed with a laugh and they left.
Walking towards his car, Ric mused that it had been a really nice evening and was just about to thank Jenna again, when he caught a sudden movement out of the corner of his eye. A second later something smashed into his side and he was thrown hard against the car. He heard Jenna scream in shock and looked up just in time to see a shadow lunging at him. Unable to escape the attack he tried to fight back. But his attacker was strong. He hissed, knocked the teacher back against the car and sank his fangs into Ric`s neck. The teacher yelled in pain, only now realizing that the guy was a vampire. He fumbled around in his jacket pocket until he got hold of a vervain dart. Jamming it into the vampire`s chest he finally managed to throw him off.
Shakily he got to his feet, found Jenna standing nearby, a horrified look on her face. "Oh my god, Ric! What…?" Her sentence was interrupted by a growl. Before Alaric could react another vampire lunged at him. Once again he was thrown against the side of the car, the air knocked out of his lungs with the force of the impact. For a second his vision blurred.
The vampire let go of him and seemed ready to lunge himself at Jenna, but before he could reach her, a dark figure appeared out of nowhere and pinned him to the nearest wall with a stake. The teacher breathed a sigh of relief when he recognized Damon. They shared a quick look and he nodded his thanks, while he shakily got to his feet. Damon frowned at Jenna, who was trembling and looking about ready to faint. "Get her out of here. I`ve got this."
"Okay. Be careful with that one. The vervain might wear off soon." Ric warned, before gently guiding Jenna to the car and helping her into the passenger seat. He risked another glance at Damon, before driving off.
Jenna was silent, obviously trying to process what had happened. "Are you okay?" Ric asked after a while. That seemed to snap her out of her trance and she shook her head wildly. "No. No, I`m not okay! What the hell just happened? Did… did Damon just kill…? And what was that?!" she asked, her voice rising, taking o a shrill edge.
Ric sighed. It had been stupid to try and keep her out of this. She deserved to know the truth. "That was a vampire. Well, two vampires. And yes, Damon killed him." he answered, surprising himself with how calm he sounded. Jenna looked at him like he`d lost his mind. "Vampires? Are you serious?" she asked. But then her eyes drifted to the wound on his neck. It was throbbing and Ric could feel a trickle of blood that had leaked down his chest. But he had been lucky. The wound wasn`t deep. His jacket had been in the way, preventing the vampire from doing real damage. "I promise, I`ll explain everything. If you want me to." the teacher offered.
They reached the Gilbert home and he parked in the driveway, half-turning to look at Jenna. She hesitated for a second, but then she nodded. "Come inside. We`ll get you patched up and then you can start explaining." He followed her into the bathroom, where she cleaned and inspected the wound. It really wasn`t deep and had already stopped bleeding, so Jenna covered it with a bandage. Once that was taken care of they moved to the kitchen. Jenna made coffee, before sitting down to talk.
Over the next two hours Alaric told her everything. Starting with Isobel`s research and her death, to him trying to find the vampire who killed her, moving to Mystic Falls and learning about the vampires there. He talked about Damon, his failed attempt to kill the vampire, their shared past he only now remembered. About the tomb-vampires and their history concerning this town, about the founder´s council and Jonathan Gilbert`s journal. When he finally fell silent Jenna just sat there for long moments, staring off into space.
"How much does Elena know?" she asked after a while. "Pretty much everything. Except the details of mine and Damon´s friendship." Yes, he had told Jenna about that too and it had even coaxed a knowing smile out of her. "And Jeremy?" Ric shrugged. "I`m not sure. You remember the paper I asked him to write? His topic was: fact or fiction - The truth about vampires in Mystic Falls. He made it very clear that he didn't think it was real, but… I just don´t know." He had wanted to mention it to Elena, but with all that had been happening lately he just forgot.
"Wow, that means you all knew and kept me in the dark." Jenna mumbled. "We did it to protect you. All this… supernatural stuff is just crazy. Once you let that into your life it rules you. Believe me, I know what I`m talking about." Sometimes Ric felt he would be better off not knowing anything. "I don`t need protection, Ric. I`m old enough to look after myself." she scoffed. "I`m sorry, Jenna. I should have told you sooner, but…. You were so untouched from all this chaos. I wanted to keep it that way." the teacher murmured. "Elena slipped you vervain, by the way. So you don´t have to be afraid of getting compelled."
She frowned at him. "That´s why she got me that tea? And… wait a second, she told me never to invite Logan Fell into the house. Does that mean he´s a….?" Ric grimaced at the mention of her ex. Obviously he had to make yet another confession. "Yeah, he was a vampire. I think Damon killed him, as far as I know, but someone had slipped him vampire blood, so he turned." At least that was what Elena had told him. "You don`t need to worry about him anymore though. I… I staked him." he admitted quietly, unsure how she would take those news.
"Wow. I guess I should thank you then." she said with a wry smile. Ric chuckled, glad she was handling it all so well. Both of them looked to the door when they heard approaching footsteps. Elena appeared in the doorway and blinked at them. "Sorry, am I interrupting?" she asked, smiling slightly. "Not really. We were just talking about vampires." Jenna answered calmly. Ric found it almost comical to watch how Elena`s eyes widened and her mouth opened and closed several times, with no sound coming out. "Were you planning on telling me anytime soon?" Jenna asked. Ric took that as his cue to leave. It was way past midnight already and he really needed to get some sleep.
Returning to his apartment he stripped down to his underwear and collapsed onto the bed, falling asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow. He dreamt of blue eyes and hands all over his body and woke up feeling tired and sore.