[1x18; Under Control]

"No, I'm missing my keys!" Lucy moaned, moving things around on the table in the foyer as she tried to find her keychain. "Jenna, help!"

Lucy was too busy freaking out about her keys that she didn't even notice that Jenna had them in her hand and was holding them out to her.

"Would you stop stressing out?" Elena sighed, taking the keys from Jenna, grabbing Lucy's hand, and firmly setting the keys in them. Lucy gave her a thankful look. "Jeremy," she called, turning toward the stairs. "We have school! Come on!"

"I have too much to do," Lucy complained, picking up the heavy binder full of planning materials. The Founder's Day Kick-off Party was the next night and the Miss Mystic Falls pageant was the week after that so the Planning Committee was spread pretty thin. Mrs. Lockwood was in drill sergeant mode and Lucy was pretty sure she'd been having nightmares about her. "Okay, I'm ready. Jere, we're walking out the door now!"

As Lucy and Elena turned to the door, Jenna picked up the thermos Elena set down and handed it to her. "Don't forget this!" she said hurriedly.

Elena sighed gratefully. "Thank you!"

Lucy opened the door and stopped in her tracks when she saw who was on the other side of the threshold. Her uncle, John Gilbert, was standing in front of them, his hand in the air to knock.

John slowly lowered his fist and smiled at his nieces.

"Elena, Lucy!" he exclaimed.

"Uncle John!" Elena said, far less enthusiastic.

"Hi," Lucy greeted him simply.

She didn't necessarily hate John but she didn't like him, either. He was the asshole of the family who only showed up maybe twice a year. The last time Lucy heard from him was in a birthday card she received; the last time she saw him was at her parents' funeral. He hadn't stepped a foot into town since then—and he only lived twenty minutes away from Whitmore.

John nodded, grin still in place, and looked behind them, where Jenna was scowling. "Jenna."

"John," Jenna said in contempt. "You made it."

"I said I'd be in by noon," John stepped past Lucy and Elena into the house, shrugging off his jacket.

Jenna pursed her lips, annoyed. "Well, what you say and what you do are typically two very different things."

"Uncle John," Jeremy called out as he came down the stairs, backpack slipped over his left shoulder. "What's up?"

"Hey," John watched Jeremy carefully as he patted his shoulder and walked out the door.

Lucy gave her little brother a sympathetic look; it'd been two weeks since Vicki's body was found and her death was ruled an overdose. She felt so guilty for lying to Matt and Jeremy about the whole situation.

"I had some business in town," John turned back to Lucy, Jenna, and Elena. "I thought that a visit was in order."

"How long are you staying?" Lucy asked awkwardly, exchanging a quick look with Elena.

John wasn't the best guest to have over.

John shrugged. "I don't know yet."

"Okay, well, we're gonna go to school," Elena excused herself and Lucy. "See you later."

Lucy gave Jenna an apologetic look (she knew Jenna was the biggest hater of John) and followed Elena out of the house. Today, she'd be driving them to school—hopefully it would go okay.

After fifteen minutes and many complaints about her slow driving, Lucy, Elena, and Jeremy arrived at school. Lucy carefully parked at the back of the student lot where there weren't any cars to run into and shut off the car, quickly getting out.

"Walk to school next time, then!" she huffed at Jeremy, who rolled his eyes.

"At least I'd get there faster!" he retorted, walking away.

Lucy pouted in the direction of his fading figure and looked at Elena for support. Elena laughed softly and nudged her.

"It wasn't that bad," she said truthfully. "You're just starting out, you'll get better."

"Thank you," Lucy smiled gratefully.

"You might want to work on your parking, though," Elena clicked her tongue, looking at Lucy's crooked car. "I think Stefan was lying to you about your parallel parking skills."

Lucy nodded, agreeing, "No doubt."

The two sisters walked into school together but separated so that Elena could check on Matt and see how he was doing. After Lucy requested that Elena gave him her sympathies, she walked off to her locker, not surprised that Stefan wasn't there.

After Elena fed him her blood two weeks earlier, Stefan had been trying to get through his cravings. He hadn't been around lately and since Lucy was so busing planning Founder's Month, they hadn't really seen each other. There were numerous text messages being exchanged, but it wasn't the same as being face-to-face and seeing his adorable dimpled-smile.

Also, it was horrible trying to unlock her locker without his help.

Lucy correctly spun in her combination after the third try and was pulling her history textbook out when Alaric came up to her.

"Hi, Mr. Saltzman," she greeted him with a small smile. "How are you?"

"Actually, I needed to talk to you," Alaric said quietly. Awkwardly wincing, he added, "And, if you want, you can call me Alaric…I mean, when we're not in class. You don't have to, there's no pressure."

To Lucy, it was no big deal. If he wanted her to call him by his name, she would.

"Sure, Alaric," she said, nodding. She shut her locker and followed him to his classroom. "What'd you need to talk about?"

Alaric grabbed a packet of papers from his desk and handed it to her. She looked the cover page over, noticing that it was the paper Jeremy wrote for extra credit.

"I made a copy of a paper Jeremy wrote for me," he informed her. "I think you should take a look at it."

"'Fact or Fiction: The Truth About Vampires in Mystic Falls'," she read with a sigh. "He didn't tell me about his topic."

Alaric sighed. "He was very clear that he didn't think it was real."

"I hope you're right. Otherwise, Elena would throw a fit," Lucy quickly combed through the paper, not reading it, but marveling at how many pages it was. "She doesn't want him knowing about all this."

"Do you?"

"I'm torn," Lucy admitted, handing the paper back to him. "I don't know if he'd be safer if he knew, but I don't think he's safe not knowing either."

"So, what do you think you should do?"

"I don't know," she sighed. "I don't want to lie to Jeremy. There used to be no secrets between us and now I feel like that's all there is," she frowned. "I don't want to lie to him, he needs to know about what's out there so he can be prepared…but he's young…"

"I can't tell you what to do," Alaric stated, smiling sadly at her. "Maybe give it time so you can weigh the pros and cons."

Lucy inhaled deeply; Alaric was right. She had time to decide about what to tell Jeremy. She didn't need to do something right that second.

"I can't believe I'm finger painting right now," Stefan scoffed, facing Lucy. They were sitting on the plastic-covered floor of Lucy's bedroom, jars of finger paint surrounding them. "I'm pretty sure only kids do this, Lucy."

Lucy shook her head, keeping her eyes on the canvas in front of her. "I read that finger painting can help you express your feelings and soothe stress."

"I'm not stressed," Stefan responded, pouting, as he dipped his index finger into the watery black paint. He smeared it on his canvas in no particular pattern and looked over at Lucy's art.

Unsurprisingly, he thought that it was beautiful just like all the other paintings she had done.

Lucy looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"How come your painting is almost drowning in red?" she pointed out, nodding at his canvas. It was true, the color red dominated his art with only a line of black splitting the canvas in two.

Stefan blankly looked at his canvas, not showing his surprise.

"Thinking about blood?" Lucy asked, softening her voice.

Lucy didn't want to antagonize him, she just wanted to help him. She knew that there must have been a reason for his diet of animal blood and from his reaction with killing the vampire who kidnapped him after drinking Elena's blood, she guessed it was about control.

"You're not a therapist," Stefan grumbled, picking up the roll of paper towels that Lucy appointed him at the beginning of their art session and wiping the paint off his hands.

He didn't want to do this anymore.

Lucy wasn't offended by his annoyance. "I know I'm not," she wiped her hands too. "But I know you and I know that you're struggling."

"I'm a little on edge," Stefan admitted. "but I'll be okay. Nothing to worry about."

"All right," Lucy nodded, accepting his answer reluctantly. "I'm here for you, though. Okay?"

Stefan smiled, his annoyance turning into fondness. "Thanks, Luce," he stood up, careful not to get paint on his jeans. "I'm surprised you had time for this."

"I finished everything that had to be done tonight," Lucy explained, following him into the bathroom so they could wash their hands. "Besides, I missed you."

Lucy started to feel embarrassed by her confession, cheeks warming up. She couldn't believe she said that. However, as Stefan turned on the faucet, he beamed at her.

"I missed you, too," he told her, washing off the paint before adding soap to scrub under his fingernails. Lucy felt her stomach twist pleasantly at his words. "Damon's been annoying lately."

Lucy scoffed. "When isn't Damon annoying?"

"True."

"Oh, guess what," when Stefan was finished, Lucy took his place at the sink. "Apparently, Jeremy wrote his extra credit paper on vampires."

Stefan raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

She nodded. "Do you think he's starting to remember Halloween?"

"Damon took away those memories for good," Stefan assured her. "You don't have to worry about that…why don't you just ask him if he knows?"

"I would," Lucy dried her hands. "But Elena would flip if I told him. And if I ask him about vampires, I just know my big mouth will end up spilling everything."

Stefan hummed thoughtfully, wondering if he should talk to Elena about this. He thought she would want to know if Jeremy was on the brink of figuring out that vampires existed.

"I hate lying to him," Lucy sighed, walking back into her room. "We used to never have secrets and now I haven't even told him I'm adopted or that Alaric is my biological father."

Stefan gave her a sympathetic smile and grabbed her shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "Maybe you should tell him," he suggested. "I'm sorry that you have to lie to him."

Lucy shook her head. "It's not your fault," she smiled sadly. "I'm a siphoner. Eventually, I would have ended up falling into all of this somehow."

"I need your help."

Jeremy looked away from his computer to face Lucy who had barged into his room without knocking. Her hair was halfway pinned, the bottom half of her hair did into curvy waves, and she had one of her dressing gowns on but there was no trace of makeup on her face.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to heading out soon?" he asked.

"Yes!" Lucy exclaimed, mentally running over the list of things she had yet to do; getting dressed and putting on makeup was priority number one. "That's why I need your help. Come on."

Jeremy sighed and followed his sister out of his room and into hers. It looked like a tornado passed through, the room was so uncharacteristically messy. He sighed; how was he supposed to help her with fashion?

"I've gone through my formal and semi-formal dresses and narrowed it down, but I don't know which one to pick," Lucy explained, frustration leaking into her tone. She held up two dresses and showed them to Jeremy. "Which one?"

Honestly, Jeremy couldn't care less. "The pink one."

Lucy nodded and carefully hung up the other choice, deciding to wear that for the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. "Thanks, Jerebear."

"You're welcome."

Jeremy was just about to leave the room when Lucy blurted out, "I'm adopted."

She winced; she couldn't believe that she just sprung that on him. She'd been thinking about what Stefan said the night before and had decided that she was going to tell him soon. Not this soon…and not like that.

"I know," Jeremy turned back around. "Elena told me. She told me about Mr. Saltzman, too."

"What, she did?" Lucy pouted, a little annoyed; that wasn't for Elena to share. She wanted to tell Jeremy on her own. "I was going to tell you, Jeremy. I swear. I've just—I've been busy and I was afraid of what you were going to say."

Jeremy sighed and shoved a dress aside on Lucy's bed, sitting in the cleared spot. "I don't feel any differently about you. You're still my sister."

Lucy felt her eyes sting; she blinked rapidly to ward off her tears. "You're still my brother," she promised. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Jeremy said quickly, not used to proclaiming his feelings so outwardly to his siblings. Two special talks in one day was a little much; thank God Joel was stuck at Whitmore. He stood up and started edging back toward the door. "You should get ready."

"I can take a hint," Lucy laughed. "Go on, I'll see you at the party."

As Jeremy shut her door, Lucy couldn't help but think that the whole conversation went more smoothly than she thought it would. When she imagined it in her head, there was crying and hugging…but she was dramatic and at least there were promises of love.

Lucy quickly got dressed in the dusty-rose, off-the-shoulder dress that Jeremy picked out, slathered some flattering make-up on, and headed out, traveling to the Founder's Day Kick-off party. She arrived on time, twenty minutes before they were letting in guests, and found Mrs. Lockwood like she was told to.

"Lucy, honey, there you are," Mrs. Lockwood greeted her fondly with a kiss on the cheek. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you, Mrs. Lockwood," Lucy said gratefully. "You look amazing. That dress is fantastic."

She wasn't lying; the dress was a good choice for a woman Mrs. Lockwood's age.

Mrs. Lockwood laughed modestly. "You're too sweet," she sobered up, looking at the dainty watch on her wrist. "The doors open soon, so I want you at your station in five minutes."

"Yes, ma'am."

"You'll be in the room with the bar and deejay," Mrs. Lockwood informed her. "You'll be switching off with Lisa Fell after an hour so you can enjoy the rest of the party."

Lucy smiled and nodded. "Sounds good. I'll just go now, then."

"Fantastic," Mrs. Lockwood grinned and handed her a list of approved music. "Give his to the deejay?"

Lucy left Mrs. Lockwood and entered the room where the bar, deejay, and dance floor was set up. It was a large room filled with nice fairy lights that Lucy and the others spent the morning putting up around the hall. The deejay was already at his station, so Lucy walked over and handed him the list.

"Mrs. Lockwood wants only the music listed here to be played," she told him politely. "No requests, no buyouts."

"Got it," the deejay nodded and set the paper down on his table, looking over the list one by one.

Satisfied that the music was taken care of, Lucy walked over to the bar and ordered a shirley temple with extra cherries, waiting for the party to start.

At seven on the dot, the doors were opened and the guests were let in, each one of them greeted by Mayor Lockwood. Mrs. Lockwood flittered about, telling people about the buffet menu and drink selection. Light, wistful music heavily featuring the piano started playing but no one danced.

Lucy wasn't surprised, it wasn't exactly dancing music.

Half an hour after the party started, Lucy still had yet to see any of friends, except for Tyler who snuck a bottle of whiskey from the bar with a sly wink. When Kelly Donovan went over to the deejay, she walked over to, just to make sure the music stayed the same.

"Oh, hey, Lucy," Kelly greeted her, the smell of alcohol wafting from her breath. "I was just asking him to change the stuffy music."

"Sorry, Mrs. Donovan," Lucy said apologetically. "Mrs. Lockwood is pretty strict about the music list."

Kelly scoffed. "Figures."

As Kelly walked away, Lucy rolled her eyes and made her way back to the bar. Surprisingly, Stefan was there, holding a full glass of whiskey and chatting with Elena.

"I need to see some ID," she teased, poking him on the shoulder before turning to Elena. "Hi, Lena. You look great."

Elena was stunning in a modest black dress and Stefan looked very handsome in the black suit he was wearing, which infuriated her. How could he pull off anything? He wasn't even wearing a tie!

"Oh, hey," Stefan grinned lazily, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pressing his lips against her cheek for a sloppy kiss. "You look beautiful."

Lucy flushed, shocked with his actions. She quickly made eye contact with Elena, who's eyes narrowed, and looked away, clearing her throat.

"Uh, thank you," she saw the way his eyes were slightly glazed. "Stefan, are you drunk?"

"Yeah," he nodded, chuckling. "I know it's weird but it's really helping me. The alcohol takes the edge off."

Elena laughed, shrugging off Stefan's affectionate actions with her sister off. "You're totally that drunken high school guy at parties that sneaks booze."

Stefan grinned. "I totally am, yeah."

"As long as you're not skinny dipping in the fountain out front," Lucy quipped, remembering how Lexi told her about his drunken escapades in the Trevi Fountain.

"Oh, ha-ha," Stefan laughed sarcastically, rolling his eyes at her.

"How worried do I need to be?" Elena interjected, subtly looking between Stefan and Lucy. She knew they were close but she was starting to feel left out when she was around them. That wasn't good.

"Oh, no, you don't need to be worried," Stefan said confidently. "It's just until, um, the cravings go away. Listen, I think we should enjoy it while it lasts," he held out his hand to Elena. "Would you like to dance with me?"

Elena raised her eyebrows. "You hate dancing. I usually have to beg you."

"No, no, you have to beg sober me," Stefan corrected her, making Lucy stifle a laugh. "The drunk me, there's no begging necessary."

Elena looked at the dance floor before pointing out, "There's no one dancing."

"That's because they need something better to dance to," Stefan said matter-of-factly.

"No can do, Broody," Lucy spoke up. "Mrs. Lockwood has complete control over the music choices and I'm not getting into trouble because you—"

Stefan just winked at her and walked over to the deejay, compelling him to change the song. A faster song with a nice dance-beat started playing, making people nod their heads and head onto the dance floor.

"—I can't believe he just did that," Lucy grumbled, unknowingly tapping her foot to the beat. As Stefan walked back over to him, a satisfied smirk on his lips, she frowned. "Stefan, I'm going to get—"

Stefan grabbed her arm and twirled her around, making her spin onto the dance floor. Despite her worries about Mrs. Lockwood, she giggled and turned around, bopping in time to the music with Stefan. Together they danced, enjoying the company of one another.

"I'm gonna get in trouble!" she exclaimed, twisting her hips side-to-side.

"Shh!" Stefan grabbed her hand and spun her around, grabbing her hips to synchronize their movements. "Just enjoy the moment!"

Lucy nodded and briefly thought about how much she enjoyed the warmth of his hands on her before shaking the thoughts away and focusing on the music.

Across the room, Elena watched them dance with wide eyes. She didn't notice Damon come up to her until he spoke.

"Have I entered an alternate universe where Stefan is fun?" he asked, sipping on his drink.

Elena kept her eyes on her boyfriend, who was twirling Lucy around with a huge grin on his face, and asked, "Is he going to be okay?"

Damon cocked his head thoughtfully. "Eventually," he confirmed. "One way or another."

A Paramore song played loudly through the hall as Lucy sipped at her glass of cola and picked at her small plate of finger foods. After Stefan went off to dance with Elena, she handed off her duties to Lisa Fell and went swiftly to the buffet. She found herself a bare place to sit and had been there for the past couple of minutes, enjoying the peace of being by herself.

"Lucy!"

Lucy turned to Jeremy as he walked into the room, noticing how stressed and angry he looked. It was a stark contrast to how he was before she left the house and it worried her.

"What's up, Jere?" she asked. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay," Jeremy sat down on the couch next to her. "No one is trying to figure out what happened to Vicki. They all believe that she OD'd but I think that somebody killed her. Why else would she be buried?"

Lucy bit her lip, her stomach flipping from the weight of her guilt. She had to tell him; he deserved the truth about the situation of Vicki's death. If Elena was going to mad at her, so be it. She shouldn't have had Damon compel away his memories.

So, she told him everything. She kept her voice quiet so no one would overhear and told him how vampires existed and how Damon turned Vicki into a vampire and that was why so was so messed up that one day. She told him how Vicki attacked him, Lucy, and Elena on Halloween so Stefan had to kill her to protect them. And then, with tears in her eyes, she explained how Elena asked Damon to compel his memories of that night away from him.

It wasn't hard to see that Jeremy was very upset but he listened through the whole thing, eyes glistening when he learned how Vicki died. He bristled about being compelled to forget and got up to leave.

"I'm sorry, Jeremy," Lucy whispered, grabbing his hand before he walked away. "I'm so sorry."

Jeremy ripped his hand from her grasp. "I have to leave."

He walked out of the room without another word. Lucy's heart broke for her brother and the fact that he was so angry with her, but she didn't blame him. None of this was his fault and if he needed time to accept everything that happened, she'd give him it. She would want time if she was in his situation.

Sighing, Lucy got up and walked out of the room, her appetite lost. As she threw away her plate, Matt walked up to her with a smile. She forced herself to return the favor, pushing away her emotions about Vicki.

"Hey, Matty," she greeted him, wrapping him up into a one-armed hug. "How are you?"

Matt laughed and squeezed her. "Who knew I've been missing all the fun at the Founder's parties?"

"I enjoy them but they're not always this lively," Lucy admitted, walking with him through the house.

"Is it bad that I'm enjoying myself?" Matt asked guiltily, thinking about Vicki. It didn't feel right to be having fun while Vicki was laying in a grave.

"No," Lucy shook her head and gave him a comforting smile. "It's great that you're having fun. It helps with the healing."

Matt's lips ticked up sadly and Lucy couldn't resist pulling him into another hug. Matt deserved the world and it sucked that he had such a bad time of things.

"I need some air," Matt sighed, squeezing Lucy again and feeling grateful that he had such a great friend in her. He pulled away and smiled at her. "Will you come with me?"

"Of course," Lucy agreed.

"Cool," they both started walking through the house, intending to find the porch. "You haven't seen my mom, have you?"

"No, not in a while."

They walked out onto the porch and Lucy froze, seeing Kelly Donovan and Tyler making out right in front of them. It was so gross; Tyler was a minor, for crying out loud.

"Oh, my God."

Matt spotted his mother and best friend embracing and ran toward them, looking furious. He grabbed Tyler and forcefully pulled him away from Kelly. "What the fuck are you doing, man?"

"Matt!" Kelly scolded him.

Matt wasn't having any of it. "Mom!"

"Woah, dude, calm down," Tyler attempted to soothe Matt, hands raised defensively.

Lucy rushed forward as Matt swung his fist, socking Tyler in the eye. "Matt!"

Tyler swayed from the force of the hit but righted himself, harshly pushing Matt away from him. Matt flinched away, running into Kelly and making her fall into a table covered in champagne glasses. Neither of the boys noticed Kelly's predicament, they started throwing fists, punching each other where ever they could.

"Stop!" Lucy shouted at Matt and Tyler. "Matt, Tyler, stop!"

Tyler nabbed the upper hand and rolled onto Matt, straddling his torso to keep him down. He landed hit after hit to Matt's face, blood dripping everywhere.

"Tyler, you're hurting him!" Lucy yelled angrily. "Tyler, get off of him!"

She stepped forward to try to help Matt but was stopped when Alaric arrived and pulled her out of the way. He grabbed Tyler's arm and attempted to pull him away from Matt, Tyler fighting him the whole time.

"Tyler!" Alaric shouted, finally pulling him off of Matt and pushing him up against the wall. Tyler still fought to get back to Matt but Alaric held firm. "Tyler, stop! What the hell is wrong with you?"

Lucy rushed over to Matt and helped him to his feet as Mayor Lockwood came running onto the porch. He went straight to Tyler and took him from Alaric, ushering him back into the house.

He turned to the people watching and announced, "Everything is fine! Come on everybody, let's get back to the party! Let's go have a good time!"

Lucy shook her head and held onto Matt, bringing him back into the house. "Are you okay?" she asked as she pulled him into a bathroom and observed his injuries. There were several cuts on his face and his nose was gushing blood. "You look horrible."

"Did you see where she went?" Matt asked, spitting blood into the sink; Lucy's stomach jerked violently but she inhaled deeply, trying to get rid of her nausea.

Lucy shook her head and grabbed a towel, wetting it. "Put your head up," she tilted Matt's chin upward and started to dab at his cuts with the towel. "I don't know where your mom went."

"I have to find her."

"Let me clean you up, okay?" Lucy made her voice low and soothing, trying to calm him down. "Just breathe."

After she finished cleaning Matt's injuries, including the ones on his hands, she drove him home. He was drunk and beat up and he didn't need to be behind the wheel of a vehicle. Lucy didn't mind missing the official start of the Founder's Day celebration, it was just some stupid speech that Mayor Lockwood was going to give, anyway.