Hello, my lovey readers. Since I finished writing this tale, I will try to update weekly. Try, not promise. Like happens. On with the show…

Chapter 27: Who You're Meant to Be

You would think that more people would stay with their families instead of holing up in a mid-rate hotel for the holiday season, Jackson thought. Picking up a tray, he placed it on his cart, the guys in the kitchen began to sing "Silent Night" and he grinned. He'd been here for two years and he didn't hate his job. Some of the guests were nice and tipped well. Sometimes the head chef would ask him to test a new dish which usually went for twenty to fifty dollars a plate.

Pushing the cart through the swinging door, he made his way to the service elevator, punching a button and going upstairs. He headed down the hall, whistling before stopping in front of a door numbered 27. With a light knock, Jack announced his arrival. No one answered for a couple of minutes and then Stefan Salvatore opened the door.

"Jackson," Stefan greeted him with a smile. "Thanks. Bye!" Stefan rolled the cart inside and closed the door in Jackson's face. Man, did he hate that guy.

Trudging back down the hallway, Jackson went back downstairs and delivered five more meals before his shift ended. He changed in the back room into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Yanking his jacket on, he walked out to the lobby. Amara still had an hour to go. He had talked his girl into taking a position at the hotel for the holidays so they could save money for a trip during the summer. Combining their money would be their best bet on being able to go anywhere nice.

Amara picked up the phone with one hand, typing away with another. Jackson came over to the counter, leaning against it, since no one else was there. He gave her puppy dog eyes, smiling when she paused to blow him a kiss before returning her attention to her work. Happiness was not a strong enough word to describe how he felt when they were together. Total and complete bliss.

"Wow! There are so many of them," Amara whispered to Jack with a grin. She shook her head. "Don't any of these people have families?"

"Probably. But do they like them?" Jack titled his head. "Maybe we should book a room so you can avoid staying with Elena and Kat." His brows lifted as he spoke; his eyes were on the counter. They'd talked about having sex and had done a lot moving toward sex. She'd even gotten a prescription for birth control but they hadn't started having sex yet and he was hoping that maybe they could do that…soonish. Not that he wanted to blow their relationship to hell by making her feel like they had to.

Grinning, Amara stood on tip-toe, pushing herself toward him and kissing him on the lips. "My parents would kill me," she told him, pulling away. "But maybe we could book a room after prom."

Jackson forced himself to not jump up and down like a little kid on Christmas. He loved the emotional intimacy he had with her. Unlike most guys, he didn't mind talking about his feelings and listening to her talk about hers. And he liked to snuggle. But the impulse to take things further had become pretty damned strong.

Rolling her eyes when the phone rang again; Amara picked it up. "Hello, front desk. Yes… Okay… Yes, I will go and see what the problem is. Thank you."

"What's up?" Jackson asked.

Amara sighed. "Someone let their tub run over and it's leaking into the room below. I've got to go up and check on what's going on."

"Could be a scene from The Shinning. You remember the lady in the bathtub?" Jackson watched Amara's nose wrinkle up. "I'll come with. Protect you from the ghosts."

"Okay." Amara put a sign up to let anyone who came in know she would be back in five.

They walked to the service elevator, Jackson holding the door so it didn't close on her. Amara pushed the button and she giggled when he grabbed her and kissed her. "Jack!" she cried, smacking him lightly on the shoulder. "We're here."

Exiting the elevator, Jackson walked alongside Amara. He noted the tray and the remnants of the meal. Something began to nag at him, like he knew who was staying in the room. Amara slipped the key card into the door. "Hello?" she called, loudly to alert anyone inside of the room of her presence. "Hell-o?"

Jackson followed her inside. He saw the bed was still made. A set of papers had been folded on the bed; yet to be placed in envelopes. A pen sat on the nightstand atop the notepad. His attention moved to the water soaking the rug.

Amara frowned. "Is there anyone here?" she called, glancing back at Jackson. She moved toward the bathroom but Jackson walked in front of her, afraid someone might have slit their wrists and not wanting her to see it.

"Oh, shit!" Jackson cried, seeing Genevieve's dyed black hair pooling out, above her head, her body lying, limp in the water that overflowed and ran down the sides of the tub. "Shit! Mara, babe, call 911!" he shouted, moving to the tub and scooping the naked girl out, lying her down on her back and beginning CPR. "Come on, damn it, why didn't you say somethin' before?" he shouted in between breathes, blowing air into Genevieve's lungs.

"We're at the Hudson Hotel on Richard's Street. Room 314. Yes, there's been a… I think she hurt herself. Jack, is she breathing? They need to know if she's breathing!" Amara shouted at him.

"No!" Jack yelled, still pushing up and down and trying to bring Genevieve back.

"We just found her. She was in the bath. I don't know. I don't know. Oh, wait. There's something in the bathroom. Ambien. I don't know how many she took. I work the desk. Okay. I'm calming down. I'm trying to calm down. We go to school together. She's a kid. We're just kids! Why would she do this? Why?" Amara started to cry, sitting down on the wet floor, her skirt becoming soaked but she didn't seem to notice. "Okay. You'll be here soon. They'll be here soon. Sorry. Okay. But you won't hang up?" she let out a sob. "Okay. Okay."

Jackson continued working on Genevieve until the paramedics came and began their own work. He got out of their way. Pulling Amara to her feet, they backed away. Cops came and took their statements. Several hours later they were allowed to leave. Jack's grandmother came to get him and Mara's parents collected her; separating them.

His grandmother made him a cup of tea and Jackson could only stare into space. He tried to save her. What if she was really dead? Like Ollie. Jack's head fell forward and be began to cry, for his brother, for his classmate—he barely knew which—for himself.

"Go to bed, Jack," his grandmother told him, forcing him out of his chair and into his bedroom. He went to bed in his damp clothes, shivering but he couldn't make himself get up to undress.

The next day the news broke that Genevieve had taken her life. People came to the football field behind the school. Jack came and found Amara staring at a giant picture of Genevieve that someone had put up with candles in front of it. Damon stood in front of the memorial, talking to Elena and Klaus. Alaric Saltzman and Jenna Sommers made their way past the high schoolers. They joined Damon and Elena.

Jack walked over to Amara, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her hair. "Hey," he whispered.

"Hey," Amara replied. She turned her head to look into his eyes, her own red rimmed and bloodshot. "I don't think most of these kids even know who she was."

"Did you?" Jack replied. He didn't mean to make her feel bad. It was just an observation. He had never taken the time to have a conversation with the dead girl any more so than any of his friends had.

Caroline came over to them. "Jack," she cried, tears running down her cheeks. He let go of Amara long enough to embrace his best friend and to kiss her forehead. "This is horrible," Caroline said, brushing away tears.

"I know." Jack nodded, keeping an arm around his blonde friend while taking Amara's hand.

Klaus came over to them. "I heard you two found her," he said quietly.

Caroline frowned. "Klaus!" she hissed, smacking him.

Klaus shrugged. "I'm just repeating what I heard. No need to get angry."

"He's right," Jack said, squeezing Caroline's arm.

Bonnie came their way in a short black dress with Enzo. Kol walked behind them Anna and that Kai person who seemed to just show up and ask them weird questions. "I hear that you two found the dead girl," Kai began when his cousin, Liv, came over and grabbed him by the ear, dragging him away and they began to argue.

"That is so weird," Elena Gilbert observed.

"You bet it is," Damon added.

"I heard she left notes for people," Kol told them.

"For who?" Elena asked.

"Does it matter?" Amara snapped, her lower lip wobbling.

"What do you care, you didn't talk to her either," Elena snapped back, glaring at her sister.

Amara started to cry, burying her face in Jack's jacket. "Cool it. For today," Jack suggested to Elena.

Elena sighed, turning to look at Damon, he nodded and she sneered but said nothing. "Should we go?" Damon asked the group, waving toward the larger group who were lighting candles in front of the memorial.

"Whatever," Elena grumbled, stalking after him.

Jackson looked around. Almost everyone he knew had come. He nodded at Luke Parker. The boy had been crying and Jackson thought he knew why. It hit too close to home. Yeah, Oliver's death had been an accident but dead was dead. And neither Ollie nor Genevieve should be dead.

Noting the absences of Elijah Mikaelson and Hayley Marshall, Jack shook his head. If anyone should be here; it should be Elijah. As far as Jack knew, he was Genevieve's only friend.

Damon stood in front of everyone, folding his hands over his black suit and giving everyone a somber look. He looked like a mortician. "By now, we've all heard that one of our own has taken her life. Not a whole lot of us talked to Genevieve or even acted like she existed."

Elena coughed loudly, giving Damon a look before he continued. "Me included. If I had known… No, I'm not going to lie to you and say I would have helped out. I was too busy with myself and my own problems. We all have problems. Every day. They're big and small and sometimes we think they're not that big a deal and sometimes it feels like they'll suffocate us in our sleep."

Bowing his head, Damon shook it before continuing. "That's why I am taking the pledge to open up the doors of my home this holiday season to anyone who will be alone. Today, we begin the "You are Not Alone" campaign. If you want to, please, sign the sheets that Jenna Sommers and Alaric Saltzman are handing out. Thank you. Good-bye, Genevieve."

Moving away from the memorial, Damon began to talk to his fellow students and gave out hugs. Stefan's voice rang out. "I should have tapped that while I had a chance," he cried out, waving a bottle of bourbon around.

"Shut the hell up, Stefan!" Tom yelled. He and Silas dragged Stefan away from the memorial.

Amara let out a nervous laugh and Jack let out a chuckle. Caroline looked horrified before she let out a laugh. Klaus tried to hold it in before he began to laugh. People stared at them and they moved away from the main group.

Jeremy Gilbert sat in the stands, drinking from a bottle of vodka and crying. Amara walked up the stands and sat beside her brother, wrapping an arm around him and taking the bottle away. Klaus took the bottle and poured its contents into the grass. Jack sat beside Amara with Caroline sitting below them. Bonnie sat beside Caroline with Enzo and Kai came up to join them. He didn't ask them weird questions. Liv and Luke came to sit with their cousin. Damon and Elena joined them. Anna came up the steps, giving Jeremy a look and then moving to sit beside him, she eased his arm up, and around her, snuggling into his embrace.

The sun went down and almost everyone else had left. Katherine Gilbert stayed behind with Jules. They sat at the bottom on the bleachers, Kat lying her head in Jules' lap while the other girl placed her head on top of her girlfriend's. Rebekah Mikaelson and Marcel Gerard came to sit with the main group. Tyler Lockwood and Matt Donavon came, too. Kol had left but came back with Davina Claire, Josh Rouza and that Aiden kid Josh was dating. They sat in the middle of the bleachers. Davina crying quietly into Kol's shoulder; her sobs only partially muffled. Josh looked pale as he held Aiden's hand. It looked like he had officially come out. Good for him.

Elijah Mikaelson and Hayley Marshall came an hour after sunset. They held hands until Elijah got to the memorial. Jack could make out Elijah's shoulder. Shaking then he took out a knife and stabbed the blown up pic of Genevieve.

"Hey!" Damon shouted, getting to his feet. Hayley turned to look up at him, she looked like a ghost, staring at them in the candle light. Elijah began blowing out candles and flinging them across the yard. "Stop that!" Damon shouted. He moved down the bleachers, Klaus, Kol and Rebekah following him.

Elijah screamed when Damon ran toward him. Damon stopped mid-stride, backing up a step as Elijah waved his knife. Hayley looked calm, her arms folded over her chest.

Jack did not know whether to stop him or help him as Elijah went back to destroying the memorial. "You didn't know her!" he shouted. "You didn't care! You didn't care!" he screamed, tossing a candle and it flew through the air.

"Elijah," Klaus called. "Brother, stop this!"

"You didn't care! You didn't care!" Elijah began to bludgeon the pic with his knife, again. "You didn't… You didn't…" Elijah stopped stabbing and dropped his knife, burying his face in the picture. "You didn't care," he moaned.

"Elijah," Hayley whispered, moving to place a hand on his arm.

Elijah continued to sob. No one had ever seen Elijah cry. It made them all just stand and stare at him. "Don't touch me," he whimpered, trying to push Hayley away, turning his face toward her; his eyeliner had spread down his cheeks. "It's my fault," he muttered. "She wanted to talk to me. Why didn't I let her talk to me?"

"Elijah, this is not your fault," Hayley snapped, yanking him into a hug. "She was treated like crap by a lot of people. Me, too. I treated her like crap."

"She shoved you down the staircase," Elijah said, pulling back and staring at Hayley.

"And?" Hayley shook her head. "And I lived."

Elijah looked at the snow covered grass. "We should go."

The group went to Damon's house. "There are many rooms at the lodge," Damon told them, leading the way. They split up for the car ride there.

When they arrived, they found that many of the MF Highers had decided to take Damon up on his open invitation. So many so that Damon had lost his bedroom.

"Great. Looks like I'm sleeping in the great room tonight." Damon looked unhappy.

"Sleepover," Elena cried. "Who wants popcorn? Damon's making it."

"Of course I am." Damon sighed, trudging out of the room.

Klaus poured himself a drink. Alaric sat down on a couch. Caroline glanced at Klaus who waved for her to come to him. Bonnie and Enzo sat down in a chair. Some of the other kids went in search of extra blankets and pillows. Maybe a sleeping bag or twenty.

When the house had settled down, Jackson laid down on a makeshift bed and waited to see where Amara was planning to sleep. She glanced at him. "I don't want to be alone tonight," he told her.

"Me, too," Amara climbed under the blanket and pressed her body to his. The furthest thing from his mind that night was sex. Maybe one day they'd go there but not tonight. Tonight he just wanted to feel her warmth and listen to her steady breathing; signaling her life flowing through her.

"Don't ever leave me. If you're sad, let me be sad with you. If you're afraid, let be brave for both of us. If you're lonely, let me know because I will always be there for you," Jack whispered into her ear.

"I love you, Jack," Amara whispered, kissing him.

"I love you, too, Mara," Jack replied, nuzzling into her.

When they woke up the next morning, several people were up, while others still slept. Caroline leaned against the counter in Klaus' shirt while Klaus sat in his jeans, on a stool, eating waffles that Damon was making. Alaric held a cup of coffee. "Good morning," he greeted Jack and Amara.

"It's too early," Elena moaned, walking into the room and stretching, showing them her lack of underwear under Damon's long-sleeved shirt.

"Lena, please, it's breakfast time," Alaric complained, covering his eyes.

Elena rolled her eyes, snagging Alaric's coffee, walked away, kissing Damon on the cheek before turning him around and kissing him on the lips.

"I'm eating here," Klaus cried. "Take it somewhere else." Caroline came over and kissed Klaus who stopped complaining and pulled her into his lap.

Davina came in with Kol and an exhausted looking Elijah and Hayley. Damon handed Davina a plate and a waffle. Kol placed a hand on Davina's shoulder and Damon wacked him with a wooden spoon.

"What was that for, mate?" Kol demanded, rubbing his hand.

Damon eyed him. "Let her enjoy the food, and go sit, over there," he pointed at the end of the counter while Davina went to sit beside Klaus and Caroline.

Elijah glowered at the food. "You have anything to make me forget the last two days?"

"No, take this," Damon shoved a waffle at Elijah. "On second thought- if you want to forget your troubles—I have like thirty hungry students in my house, help me cook." Elijah didn't argue and Hayley began to fill glasses with orange juice and milk and mugs with coffee as students came in and out of the kitchen.

"I think maybe we're helping," Damon said to Elena.

Jack glanced at Amara. He could see that what they'd seen would forever mark her. But he knew that the only thing that might come from it was that they would try to be better, to not overlook people, even the quietest of their peers. And today they were part of an effort to save just one person. That had to mean something, he hoped—and he also realized that he wanted to become a paramedic—which was a step up from having no idea what to do after he graduated next year.

The next chapter ends a little lighter, just a little.

Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.

Guest: Thank you! I love Haylijah, too! There will be more of them in the future. Chapter 28 is Hayley's narrative and Haylijah centric. They will still appear in other characters' stories as we finish up!

Peace,

Jessica