Poison & Wine ~ Chapter XXII

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I walked down the stairs slowly, a yawn escaping my lips.

In Chicago, after Elena and I had our reunion, we headed back to Mystic Falls. It was tiring, and though I slept a majority of the time, a good night's sleep that I've had in says, I fell right asleep once we got home. Unfortunately, though, what Damon had been talking about before was that he'd burnt my clothes up in that house, to cover up Stefan's tracks. So, now I was borrowing Elena's clothes until I got new ones. The only bad thing? I could only fit into a few things of hers. She was two sizes smaller than me.

I walked into the kitchen to see Caroline, Elena, and Bonnie standing over the stove. I rolled my eyes as I moved to the fridge. "I suppose I should go ahead and prepare for a house fire?" I asked as I pulled out a water bottle and turned to them.

"Ha ha," Elena said. "I missed your commentary so much, Andy."

I grinned at her. "Didn't everyone? I'm a very memorable person," I struck a model pose before laughing it off and taking a sip of my drink.

"What's got you in a good mood?" Bonnie asked.

"I, my friends, am going to my therapy session to 'pour out my heart' before I go with Alaric to some training seeing as my werewolf friends are dead now thanks to a certain Original hybrid." I stretched my arms out.

They all stared at me. "What?" Caroline asked.

"Yeah, Klaus basically murdered them all in front of me," I took another sip of water.

"Andy, are you sure you're okay?" Elena asked.

I groaned. "Elena, I'm good. Klaus is out of my life and so is Elijah—" I cringed inwardly. "—and I'm going to live a full, human life. Maybe I'll even have kids… Actually, I take that last part back," I glanced over at the clock. "I gotta go, but I'll see you guys later at the picnic, okay?"

I walked into the office and I knew immediately something was wrong. For one thing, my usual therapist's name, Dr. Ripley, was no longer listed. When I went up to Brenda, the blonde, round secretary, she only just confirmed my fears.

"Dr. Ripley has been relocated. You've been assigned to Dr. Holmes now," She said, her fingers clicking on the keyboard as she spoke. "She's waiting for you in there."

"Why was Dr. Ripley relocated?" I asked.

"Well, she was offered another job in New York, I think," She tapped her chin with her index finger for a long moment. "Dr. Holmes came highly recommended so we grabbed her up while we could." I nodded before sullenly heading toward the office. Of course Dr. Ripley was gone, and now a stranger took her place.

I knocked on the door and heard a faint, "Come in" so I reluctantly turned the doorknob. When I got in, I saw something completely different from what I had been expecting.

A dirty blonde woman with a pixie haircut with green eyes and tan skin. She looked late thirties and was wearing a suit. I didn't know what I expected, but it certainly wasn't this. "Hello, Andrea," She greeted me.

"It's just Andy," I said slowly. "Only one person is allowed to call me Andrea… Or was."

"Well," She stood. "Why don't you come have a seat?" She didn't seem stern, but she certainly wasn't over-friendly like Dr. Ripley. I wasn't sure of her right now. She had brought in new furniture. Instead of the sofa I once had to always lay back on, there were normal seats positioned right in front of the desk. I took a seat.

"I'm Dr. Holmes," She said after a moment. We sat there in a long, awkward silence until she spoke up again.

"Your friend Klaus—"

"Wait, what?" I interrupted. Did she really just say who I think she did?

"Your friend, Klaus, the one who convinced me to come here for you," She said, tilting her head. "He didn't tell you?"

I scoffed, sitting back in the seat and covering my face. Of course it was Klaus, it always was. "He's not my friend, I don't like him."

"And why is that? Because of what he is?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "He compelled you," How else could she know?

She smiled. "No, I can assure you he did not. He has more sense than that."

"Then how do you know?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"There are other people out there, ones that know from birth," She picked up a pen and a notepad. "But, we aren't here to speak about that."

I laughed bitterly. "I don't want to talk about me, especially not to you. Do you really think I'd be freely talking to you when you tell me Klaus is the one who sent you here? That's the last thing I'll do!"

She stared at me a moment before speaking. "I can see where you're coming from, and have been in your position before. If you don't want to talk about yourself, maybe we can talk about your relationships with others."

"Still includes me."

"Yes, it does, but you don't want to go back to that rehab, do you?" She asked.

I stared at her in slight horror. "You wouldn't."

"No, I wouldn't. It's not up to me where you go, but if they catch wind you are refusing to speak in therapy, they'll send you straight back there."

I stared at her a long moment looking away. "I've had... three romantic relationships that have crashed and burnt. I'm a doppelgänger of a dead girl who was connected to two Originals. I'm an alcoholic junky and I have had a poor relationship with my siblings since my parents' deaths. Is that what you wanted to hear? My sad, sob story? You wanna judge me, go ahead. You wanna send me back to that God-awful place that didn't help me whatsoever, go ahead. I'm screwed up, Dr. Holmes. There, now you know all about me."

"Let's start with your first romantic relationship," She said after a long moment. She had obviously been slightly caught off-guard. "When did it start?"

"Freshman year," I sighed. Why not just put it all out there? "Elena, my twin sister, and I were drove to school by our mom along with Matt Donovan, Elena's ex. When we got to school, we met up with Matt's best friend, Tyler Lockwood. I, uh, I had all my classes with Tyler, and only one with Elena, so Tyler and I hung around each other a lot. About two months after school started, he told me how he had always had a crush on me, thus ensuing our romance."

"Did you grow up with him?"

"Yeah, Tyler was one of my best friends growing up."

"So at what point did it turn sour?"

"When I caught him doing Matt's sister, Vicki, in his room."

"And you immediately dumped him."

"No, I punched her and then did the same to you and kicked him in the balls before leaving," I laughed. "She had a black eye for the longest time. Always, I get home, doing my best not to cry and Elena comforts me until Tyler shows up at the door, pleading for my mom to let him speak to me. I eventually gave in and talk to him. I forgave him and we got back together, until I caught him three more times with her. The next two times I forgave him, but the third I was tired of it. If I couldn't be enough for him, I didn't think it was worth it. I thought I loved him, you know?"

"Did you?"

"I don't know. I know what loving someone is like, but I don't know what being in love with them is like."

"Did you two ever have sex?"

"No, that's why he went to Vicki. He claimed it was the 'hormones,'" I shook my head. "For two years, I loved that boy. That's my longest relationship to date."

"How did you finally break up with him?"

"Well, my parents' deaths happened, so it drove him away from trying to get back with me. No one knew how to handle me in the state I was in, not even my sister. That's why they were all for sending me to that looney bin/rehab."

"Your sister, you talk about her with slight venom?"

"Because she's Elena Gilbert. Everyone loves her and her perfection. Everyone had been willing to die for her, and no one was thanked. And now with this whole thing with Stefan, she's obsessing with bringing Stefan home. I saw what Stefan did, he killed my friends. I love my sister deeply, but it's comparing us that makes me puzzled. Why am I so screwed up, while she's so perfect?"

I had no clue where all this came from, it just came rushing out before I could stop it. But, I kinda felt relieved. I think all of this had been in the back of my mind at some point.

"I think this is a good stopping point for today," She said, scribbling something down before looking up at me.

I nodded, and stood. "Goodbye, Dr. Holmes."

"Until next time, Andy."

I walked into the building and went to the front desk. "Excuse me," I said to the woman. I had come here to investigate a certain person. After my session, I couldn't help but wonder. I had tried to avoid it the month I was here this summer, but now I was too curious.

"Yes, how can I help you?" She looked up from a magazine at me.

"The man in apartment B-16, has he been here recently? Like, in the past week?" I asked. "Brown hair, hazel-brown eyes, always in suits, and he looks like he's in the age range of twenty-eight to thirty-two?"

"We're not supposed to give out that information,"

I sighed, running a hand through my curls. "I was just wondering, you know? Our mom said she hasn't heard from him in weeks, and he's had a bad streak of dropping off the grid sinking back into his old habits of drug abuse. Sorry for taking up your time." I began to leave when she spoke again.

"You're talking about Elijah Smith, right?"

"Yes," I turned to face her.

"He's not been here in months. He's not checked out, but he had paid for a year here." She explained.

I nodded, feeling like I was punched in the gut. "Thank you."

I turned and walked out, going to my car. I headed home and by the time I got there it was getting to dusk. I sat around sketching, waiting until everyone got home from the Lockwood picnic.

Jeremy came home first, and went upstairs without a single word to me. Alaric entered next, obviously angry, and almost went upstairs but stopped when he saw me starting off into oblivion.

"Andy?" He asked.

I slowly looked over at him. "Yeah?" I asked in a small voice.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I looked down at the paper, and Alaric came over and looked down at him.

Sighing, he came around and sat beside of me. "Elijah?"

I nodded. "I miss him, you know?"

"Yeah, trust me, I know," We sat in a long silence until he spoke up again. "You seem completely different from the beginning of this summer."

"I feel no difference, except for being physically stronger."

"You just look tired."

"Well, sleep doesn't come too easy, considering every time I close my eyes I experience someone else's memories."

"What?" He looked over at me.

"Anastasia, that girl I'm the doppelgänger of," I answered. "I'm pretty sure I see her memories. It started after Elena and I were kidnapped."

"We should talk to Bonnie about this."

"Wouldn't make a difference. That wouldn't put my mind to ease," I no longer wanted to speak about this, so I changed the subject. "Forgot about our training session, huh?"

"Oh, crap, I'm sorry. We'll start tomorrow, I swear."

"It's fine," I closed my sketch book and stood. "I forgot, too. Like you said, we'll start tomorrow. Where's Elena?"

"Dealing with Damon, no doubt."

"What did Damon do?" I sighed.

"Snapped my neck and attempted to kill Bill Forbes."

"Why?"

"Well, I tried to stop him from killing Bill so he snapped my neck, and he was trying to kill Bill because he wants to put vervain in the town's water supply,"

"I'm not going to comment, I'm just going to go my room," I headed towards the stairs.

"Andy?"

"Yeah?"

"Things will get better."

"Something tells me they're gonna get worse."

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The End of Chapter XXII