Hello, my lovely readers. We're getting closer and closer to the end of this story where the paternity results will be revealed for all the Mikaelson kids. On with the show…

Chapter 15: Date Night

Liz Forbes really hadn't been on a date in forever. That's why she enlisted the help of her daughter and her friends. Caroline said that she was super busy and couldn't help Liz prepare for her date that evening because she had to prep for her wedding, tomorrow, and, oops, sorry, I should have told you before that I'm getting married—and what do you mean you're going on a date—I thought tonight was "Mommy and Me" time?

Now they were in the Forbes' residence, in Liz' bedroom, the only place not covered in wedding related material. But the magazines lurked just outside the door, threatening to burst inside and take over. "Up or down?" Caroline asked, looking in a mirror and turning from side to side. Yes, Caroline was helping her mother prepare for her date with her future father-in-law by ignoring her mother completely.

"Down," Elena said, scanning the contents of Liz' closet, pulling out a dress and holding it up to her own body. "You know, this isn't so bad? Mind if I borrow it?"

Caroline sneered and turned back to the mirror. "Up. I think."

"Maybe you should shave your head. After all, you're joining a cult after drinking the punch," Bonnie mumbled into a bottle of Jack that Liz had not been able to pry away from her. Well, if you can't beat them, you can join them. Liz held a glass of Jack to steady her nerves.

"Klaus hasn't called me in, like, three hours." Caroline picked up her phone for the fiftieth time in the past hour. "I swear that if he stands me up, and makes me look stupid in front of all my friends, family and the rest of the town, I am going to stick a white oak stake so far up his –"

"Hey, hey! I'm here, you can calm your fuss, Vampire Barbie!" Damon called, standing in the doorway and smirking at the girls.

"More booze! Gimme!" Bonnie leapt from the bed, yanking Damon's bottle of bourbon out of his hand and heading back to Liz' bed, where she sat crossed legged and took a long drink.

"Someone needs to tell her to slow down." Damon pointed at Bonnie who rolled her eyes and held the bottle to her. "What are we doing here?" he asked, glancing at the clothes that Liz had already rejected.

"Planning my wedding," Caroline replied chirpily. "And, before you ask, you won't be sitting on the bride's or the groom's side, I guess you'll have to sit on the roof with the other flying monkeys."

Damon chuckled. "You know, I wouldn't miss your nuptials for the world, Care Bear. I can't wait to see you be announced: Mr. and Mrs. Psychopath. I hear that Siberia is nice this time of year; if you're still trying to figure out where to honeymoon." Damon folded his arms over his chest, smirking at Caroline.

"Hey, come on, guys, cut it out!" Elena cried. "Isn't it bad enough that we have to work for a tyrant? Do we have to tear each other apart on Liz' special day?"

"Liz is getting married? And you didn't invite me?" Damon sat down on the bed beside Liz, causing Bonnie to scramble off the bed and land in a heap on the floor. "You had better not have damaged my bourbon." Damon glared at Bonnie whose middle finger rose over the side of the bed.

"Damon!" Elena cried, going to help Bonnie to her feet and to assess her for injuries.

Damon ignored Elena in favor of berating Liz. "I thought we were pals, Liz? How can you do this to our friendship?"

"You step on your friends, Damon," Alaric said, crawling out from under Liz' bed and startling everyone while he rubbed his sore hand which had Damon's footprint on it.

"Ric, are you the lucky guy taking Liz out?" Damon demanded.

"Were you under the bed the whole time?" Caroline asked.

"Aren't you supposed to be teaching today?" Elena inquired.

"Does anyone else think the room is spinning?" Bonnie asked them before passing out.

"This is a sorry sight," Kol cried, coming in through the window and making everyone jump when he began to bang on the floor with his baseball bat. "Come, Jeremy, move faster, mate!"

Jeremy looked like he'd been hit by a car and fell into the room. "Jeremy?" Elena shouted, coming to kneel beside her brother. "Kol, what did you do to him?"

"Possibly made him into a vampire. Trust me, it'll be an improvement once I get him to stop being such a baby when a truck runs over his leg. You'd think it was his first time." Turning to the rest of the people in the room, Kol spotted Bonnie, passed out. "Ah, there she is, my favorite witch and unable to tell me to go away." Kol moved toward Bonnie when Liz unholstered the gun which she wore every moment of every day, even in the shower.

"Step back, Kol!" Liz warned Kol. "I have a date tonight and I do not feel like cleaning Crazy Vampire Brains off the walls."

"A date with who?" Kol inquired, tapping the bat against his leg with a wide smile.

"Your father," Liz replied smoothly.

"What?" Everyone but Bonnie and Jeremy asked, because they were too busy being passed out, and Caroline, who already knew.

"Are you kidding me?" Damon shouted, pin wheeling his arms in highly dramatic fashion. "Nope! Not gonna happen, sister! You're not going out with that guy! He's crazy! He makes that one," he pointed at Kol, "look sane!"

"It's true. Our father is rather mad," Kol agreed with Damon and everyone paused, except for Jer and Bonnie, to see if the world would stop, because this must be the first sign of the apocalypse.

"As I was saying: Liz, you really, really, really need to not do this. Please, don't make me tie you up and gag you until you come to your senses." Damon got on his knees, holding his hands together and waiting for Liz to agree not to go.

"Damon, this is my life. Not yours," Liz replied. Getting to her feet, she walked over to her closet, removed a blue dress she had never worn before and walked over to her bathroom. "If you'll excuse me, I have to get ready."

Everyone looked at each other, except for Bonnie and Jer, because they were still passed out, and shrugged. Damon had tried. Elena was less worried about Liz going out with Mikael and more worried about the date going sour and Mikael trying to kill them the next day. Kol could care less who his parents dated as long as he didn't end up with another sibling to compete with for attention. Caroline's main concern was where to have the wedding. Outdoors seemed nice but what if it rained?

"We should get these two out of here," Kol suggested. He picked up Bonnie who chose that time to wake up.

"Get off of me!" Bonnie screamed, whacking Kol over the head with the bourbon bottle. Kol fell to his knees, blood pouring down the side of his head.

"What's going on?" Jeremy cried, sitting up suddenly. "Oh, my God! The lights in here are so bright!"

"Ow! Damon, if you step on me one more time!" Alaric shouted, jumping around and holding his foot between his hands.

"This is even worse than Stefan's script," Elena moaned.

Stefan walked into Liz' bedroom. "I thought you said it wasn't that bad!" he cried, looking hurt. "That's why I'm so glad we broke up!"

"What's with the penguin suit, Baby Brother?" Damon inquired, squinting at Stefan.

"Just got married," Stefan replied and Elena flinched, her lower lip trembling before she ran over, banging on the door until Liz opened it.

"You did NOT steal MY wedding thunder that I was stealing from Sage, did you, Stefan?" Caroline looked like she might flip her switch and slaughter everyone in the room, her eyes glowing and her fangs out.

"Actually, Sage and Finn were at the mayor's office when Bekah and I were on our way out," Stefan informed Caroline, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"So, you didn't have a real wedding?" Caroline began to calm by degrees while Bonnie beat Kol with Damon's bourbon bottle. Jeremy looked around, blinking at the lamp light, shielding his eyes and looking at Bonnie's neck longingly. Alaric bounced around on his other foot because Elena had stepped on him on her way to the bathroom. "Okay. Then everything is okay because I will still have the wedding that everyone will remember." Caroline said to herself, closing her eyes and sucking in deep, calming breathes.

Elena's head popped out of the bathroom. "You married Rebekah?" she asked, her eyes red rimmed as she looked at Stefan.

"Yeah. But then she ran away," Stefan announced.

"Ha," Kol cried, freeing the bottle from Bonnie's grasp and throwing it, hitting Alaric in the head and knocking him out.

"If you killed Ric, I'm going to kill you, slowly," Bonnie threatened and she screamed when Jeremy leapt on her, trying to bite her.

"Jeremy, what are you doing?" Elena screamed.

"Well, I'm off, wish me luck, kids," Liz called, oblivious to the chaos in her room and heading out of the house. She got into her Sherriff's squad car and drove to the Mystic Grill. It wasn't a very romantic place to have a first date and it would cause most of the town to gossip about her and the married man she had gone on a date with but Liz didn't care about gossip anymore. Bring it on! Caroline could eat those gossipmongers for all she cared.

"Liz! You look lovely," Mikael greeted her and she jumped back. Some part of her knew he was a vampire since he was the father to a whole family of vampires. Still it's one thing to know something and another to be dealing with it, in your face.

"Thank you, Mikael, you look handsome." Liz examined Mikael in his black suit. It looked like it might have best used back in the twenties but it was okay. He still looked great and she was hungry. It would be nice to have a meal with an adult who didn't work for her.

"How was your day?" Liz asked conversationally.

"It was excellent. I have not had to encounter most of the children who I cannot identify with certainty to be my own blood. And Niklaus has disappeared so I do not have to make any special efforts today; after hunting him like a dog for a thousand years. That is too long a time to try to make up for." Mikael shook his head. "How was your day?"

"I ran into some of your children. One of your children," Liz sometimes forgot who Mikael had fathered, like the Salvatores. Not Mikael's kids, as far as either of them knew anyway.

"Mikael?" a female voice rang out and Mikael groaned before looking up. "What are you doing here?" the woman demanded, looking from Mikael to Liz and back again.

"I am having dinner, Esther," Mikael snapped, giving the woman an irritable look.

Esther glared back at Mikael. "Is this a date, Mikael?" she demanded.

"Is that any of your business?" Mikael snarled.

Esther let out a harsh laugh. "Yes, I am your wife still."

"The divorce papers are in the mail. You should be served any time now!" Mikael looked around. "Where is the blasted waiter when you need to feed? I mean, have your order taken?"

Damon chuckled. He and the others who were there when Liz was preparing for her date had climbed through the Grill's ventilation system to come in through the storage area and had been there for most of the disastrous date.

"Do you think lilies would be nice in the bouquet?" Caroline asked, flipping through a magazine while hiding behind the counter.

"I hate Lily," Damon answered, not thinking.

"You guys can't be back here," Matt pointed out.

"Shut up, Matt!" Damon snapped.

"Make me!" Matt retorted when Jeremy and Kol attacked him, yanking him into the kitchen.

"Looks like we're going to have to serve ourselves," Damon told the others, standing up, preparing drink orders, keeping one eye on Liz and her unfortunate date choice.

Elena continued to glare at Stefan from their hiding place, behind the bar. "You could have told me before you ran off and married Rebekah," she snapped, pouting and kicked toward Stefan but caught Alaric in the shin.

"Why?" Alaric moaned.

"You could have told me you had feelings for Damon?" Stefan kicked toward Elena and Alaric cried out, again.

"Guys, stop kicking Alaric. I need him for when you two piss me off too much. Besides, his groaning is killing my ability to hear Liz, Papa Hybrid and Mama Hybrid show." Damon snapped, glaring at Elena and Stefan.

"That's Bonnie, she's still recovering from Jeremy biting her like that. Oh, and Bonnie, if you and Jer try to get married before me, I will bite you twice as hard," Caroline warned. "Why in the hell is Klaus not answering his phone?" She glared at the screen. "Come on, Bonnie, we need to find out where my fiancé is." Grabbing Bonnie by the arm, Caroline yanked her friend to her feet and began to drag her out of the Grill.

"Caroline, can you give me a ride home, honey?" Liz called from her booth.

"Sorry, mom, don't have time. I have to go find Klaus. You have fun with his dad and mom, let me know if I need to pick up flowers for your funeral." Caroline began to send Klaus an angry text message on her way out the door. She was totally going to kick his ass. On her way to her car, she looked up to find some weirdo, like in the forgettable fifth season on Buffy, stop in front of her and aim a gun in her face. Caroline opened her mouth to cry out when a vervain dart shot her between the eyes. Seriously, didn't they know she was getting married tomorrow and did not have time for this?

Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.

Peace,

Jessica