Hey, everyone! How is everyone doing in these hard times?
I wanted to apologize for disappearing to those who are reading this story but I have been writing new chapters because this specific chapter was the last one I had ready to publish and I wanted to be at least two chapters ahead in my writing.
Also, I binge-watched Outlander, The Great, Love Life and Dickinson and caught up with my TV shows and watched the movie Every Day which I loved and Charlie's Angels which I also liked! Every Day will be my 3rd favorite movie after Matilda and Love, Rosie!
Furthermore, I wrote some new stories that are happening into the Be Somebody Universe and I will upload after this story comes to an end and the second book also finishes. Yeah I have big plans!
I want to thank anyone who is reading and I hope you enjoy this and any other story of mine you read!
With this chapter I suggest listening to:
When We Come Alive by Ruelle
Enjoy!
Be Somebody
Chapter 09: Inner Ropes and Inner Hopes.
Somewhere In Atlanta's woods: Couples Days Ago:
Jeremy shot an arrow at a tree and huffed in approval and he then started to pack his things when his phone rang and he saw it was Ric.
"Hey, Alaric!" Jeremy said smiling and like everything was alright.
"Look, Jeremy, I'm sorry doing this to you, but I need you to talk to you face to face, are you free to FaceTime?" Alaric asked Jeremy with a hopeful tone.
"Sure, in three hours, I'll call you once I'm clean." Jeremy said referring to having a shower.
Couple Hours Later:
Jeremy sat on his bed in his hotel room and waited for Alaric's response.
Alaric's face appeared on his screen.
"What's up, Ric?" Jeremy asked Alaric a little confused.
"So, it's this new student that appeared out of nowhere a week ago and based on the tests we conducted she looks to be a Traveler, like the Petrova bloodline. Yesterday, we went to Elena's and she ran a DNA test on her blood and Nansia's blood and they are related 15.5%. After that, I started looking for legal ways to bring her into the school and this world because she needs to be educated, to prevent her to become a Katherine 2.0. I need you to adopt her, tell the world that you decided to start a family and you decided to adopt her. So, she will be known as Nansia Gilbert, Athanasia Gilbert. So, are you ready to join the supernatural parent club?" Alaric explained and Jeremy looked shocked at his old guardian/friend/father figure.
"You got to be shitting me! How?" Jeremy asked shocked and suddenly Alaric's phone was yanked away and on the screen, it showed a girl with auburn hair and brown-greenish eyes.
"Hi! I don't know how it happened but I've done it before. I tend to dimensionally slash time jump. That is how I ended up here. My roommate, Penelope Park, forge some legal papers in order for me to get a job and because I have the Travelers gene apparently she used the name Gilbert as my last name since you and your sister had something to do with the town's supernatural history. Now, I'm aware how weird and awkward this is, trust me, but if you don't want I can persuade Penelope to change the Gilbert name into the one I had while I was in my dimension's future and my present which was Skorpiti, Nansia Skorpiti." Nansia spoke to Jeremy quickly that made Jeremy's head whiplash.
"Alright! Alright! Give me a couple of days to think about it! Alaric, I don't like being ambushed like that. Nice to meet you Nancy, by the way." Jeremy said smiling with a tight lip smile.
"Nice to meet you too." Nansia said nodding and then she handed the phone to Alaric. She ignored the miss-pronunciation because her name or nickname wasn't the easiest to say or most common. She walked out of the office and went to her dorm to get ready for work.
She had returned to her dorm again after staying with Hope for four days giving space to Penelope. Penelope had come to Hope's room and asked Nansia if she was ready to return to their room because she was ready and Nansia had nodded and both Hope and Penelope helped her move rooms.
"Well, she has the Petrova fire." Jeremy commented to Alaric's awaiting face.
"Yep she does…also she's very sarcastic…like you." Alaric said smirking and Jeremy nodded which a small chuckle.
"Think it over, kid. I'll call you in four days for you final thoughts." Alaric explained to Jeremy who sighed and then bid his goodbye silently agreeing with Alaric.
Which brings us to now…
Atlanta: Salvatore Household: A Day Later:
Elena and Damon were discussing in hushed voices the fact that they wanted to meet Nansia again, get to know her a little more when the doorbell rang.
And there he was Jeremy Gilbert staring back at his sister's face.
"Hey, sis!" He said in a tired tone as he mounted the bag on his shoulder looking tired.
"Jeremy! Hi! Come on in!" Elena exclaimed in pleasant surprise.
Once Jeremy had a shower and Elena put his dirty clothes in the washer, the two siblings…well cousins but who cares….sat in the kitchen waiting for Damon to return from dropping Stephanie off at school.
Just as the silence was about to get awkward Damon walked in and everyone breathed in a sigh of relief.
"So, what brings you here?" Damon asked with a smile at the sight of the man before him, he loved Jeremy, he was family.
"It's about this new girl…Nadia…"
"Nansia!" Elena and Damon both corrected him in sync and Jeremy looked a little taken aback.
"Yeah, her, Alaric wants me to adopt her so we can have legal documents and a story to say to the people in Mystic Falls, she's unofficially and only in paper called Nansia Gilbert…I don't know how to feel about this? How should I feel about this? How do you approach this?" Jeremy rambled anxiously and both Elena and Damon looked at him in understanding.
It was a lot to take in.
"You meet her first and try to built a relationship with her. That's what Damon and I want to do too." Elena said smiling kindly as her brother as she sat next to him and rubbed his back soothingly.
"Alright…"
"Why don't you go out at the Mystic Grill and talk? Is that shop still working?" Damon suggested kindly and Jeremy nodded.
"I need time to think, guys, can I crash here for awhile? Chicago had been brutal…" Jeremy said as he rubbed his face with his hands and yawned.
"Of course, the guest room is always ready for ya, go get some rest I'll wake you when lunch is ready." Elena said smiling as she kissed her brother on the cheek and Jeremy nodded too sleepy to say anything as he waved at them while walking upstairs.
The moment they heard the water run Elena jumped and turned to look at her husband with a giddy smile.
"SO? What do you think? Will he adopt Nansia? Should he adopt her?" Elena asked excited and Damon sighed and looked at his wife thinking.
"Honestly, Elena, this girl has gone through so much shit in her life…I mean time travel? I think that Jeremy and everything he went through having someone who can understand him, even a little bit helps so much! But I don't know if that would help…yes, it would give Nansia a legal chance to exist and enjoy life but they will need to show CPS that they are bonding and Jeremy hasn't had a steady home for over sixteen years…" Damon said hesitantly and a little sad as he, in his mind, tried to see how would the whole Jeremy – Nansia thing would go.
Elena looked at him and nodded agreeing with him in some ways.
"But here's the thing, Jeremy just needs a purpose, remember how he did that paper for Ric a few years back about the town's history? I think Nansia is just the thing he needs." Elena said serious and optimistically.
"Alright, let's see how that goes then but remember my words if things go bad." Damon said with a defeated sigh as his phone vibrated and he left Elena alone in the living room.
Damon had opened a bistro bar and he was in the process of putting the final touches to the décor and liquor choices that on the phone was his interior designer. He trusted his project in the hands of Amelia Lawton, the great great great great granddaughter of an old friend he had back in the 1900s by the name Leopold Lawton.
Elena was then called to go back to the hospital with an emergency and she left a note to both of her boys before rushing out.
Jeremy would sleep for about eight hours straight and when he would wake up it would be to the sound of a 10 years old temper tantrum of his niece, Stephanie, because Damon cooked beans and corn with mush potatoes for dinner and she hated beans and refused to eat.
Jeremy walked downstairs and Stephanie jumped in his arms yelling;
"Uncle Jer!"
Jeremy loved Stephanie and vowed to protect her as long as he lived and had asked Damon's and Elena's permission to start training her just in case she learned of the supernatural.
"Steph, would you hang out with me while I eat?" Jeremy asked with a gentle tone as he took the free seat next to his niece as he started to eat and make a "mmm" sound and exchanged a glance with Damon who mouthed a "thank you" as he rubbed his face and continue eating his dinner. Stephanie watched and studied her uncle and grabbed the fork and took some then some more and soon she was eating.
"Where's Elena?" Jeremy asked as he helped Damon undo the table and do the dishes.
"She is still at the hospital, she called four hours ago telling me there was a train crash and she's been in and out surgeries and filling ED duties like crazy, she believes she won't be coming home tonight." Damon said with a worried tone.
"Oh! I heard about it on the radio on my way here, it's horrible. The driver had a heart attack while driving they said." Jeremy said seriously.
"Yeah, he was declared dead on the spot by paramedics." Damon said with a sad tone as he dried some dishes.
"I think I might do it." Jeremy said after twelve minutes of silence.
"Do what?" Damon asked while he already knew what Jeremy was referring to.
"Adopt Nansia."
"Jer, you know I love you and that you are my family, but I don't think you are fit to parent a child like Nansia. I don't think anyone can parent a child like her because she's not a child, her eyes look way older than 20 years old…and the horrors she went through. Did Ric tell you her back story?" Damon said serious as he stopped drying the dishes and looked at Jeremy straight in the eyes.
"No. What don't I know?" Jeremy asked on edge and Damon sighed as he pulled a chair and gestured Jeremy to sit opposite him.
And he started explaining what Nansia told him during their meeting dinner.
Unknowingly, little Stephanie had gave up watching the Barbie movie and walked into the kitchen wanting to ask if Uncle Jeremy wanted to play with her new puzzle, Elena, got her.
She overheard everything and she had so many questions but something told her to keep her mouth shut, she turned around and climbed up the stairs going to her room. The moment she pushed the door she saw an older woman standing in the middle of her room.
The woman shushed her as she walked up Stephanie who had frozen on her spot, the woman seemed to be not older than 19 years old with black hair and very familiar blue eyes. She was dressed in a white tank top and brown cargo jeans, she had arrow bag strapped on her right hip while along her waist band she had a gun holder and a gun. A crossbow strapped on her back and various knives strapped on her left leg. She was dressed as if she was coming from a war-zone.
She looked dirty, tired and hurt since she was bleeding from her shoulder. In her hands she had a bandana and a weird looking watch, she also wore a necklace Stephanie had seen her mum wear many times and a bracelet she had seen in her baby pictures, it was her bracelet, grandpa Ric had gotten her on her fifth birthday she had lost it at the park one day while she was on the swing she hadn't dared to tell anything to her parents! The woman's hair was in some part braided and all of them together tied in a ponytail with a few strands escaping the grasp of the hair band.
"Who are you?" Stephanie asked the intruder who shushed her again.
"Where is your diary!?" The woman whispered yelled at Stephanie but as she made a move to walk she collapsed from the blood loss.
"NO! Who are you?" Stephanie said as she grabbed her diary from her desk and the woman reached her but Stephanie pulled back and glared at the pained woman.
"I don't have time for this shit! I'm you! Now give it to me!" The woman growled as she launched at Stephanie who moved away and threw her diary from the window.
"Go and get it, liar!" Stephanie said smirking proudly as the woman groaned in pain and with trouble she stood up.
"Look! I'm you alright! I know that you lost our bracelet five years ago to this day, I went back and got it that is why you can't find it. Also, you have a crush on Matt Sullivan. Don't bother, he's gay." Older Stephanie said in a tired sigh.
Little Stephanie looked shocked as she slowly walked towards the door trying to keep her distance from the older woman who sighed and rolled her eyes.
Stephanie run downstairs yelling for her dad and saying that an evil woman was in her room.
Damon and Jeremy rushed upstairs to see no one but they saw drops of blood and a torn-up bandana in the window.
Terrified Damon and Jeremy looked out of the window into the night and saw nothing while little Stephanie rushed out of the house looking for her diary only not to find it. On the verge of tears she looked out of her window but couldn't see anything. She then looked at her dad who looked at her in confusion and horror.
"Daddy, she took my diary…" Stephanie burst out crying as she rushed to her father's arms.
Jeremy watched terrified and deep in thoughts.
"I think it's time." Jeremy said to Damon with a stern tone and Damon knew he meant that he should start training Stephanie.
Damon nodded and hugged tight his little girl.
Jeremy grabbed his niece and went to finish the Barbie movie to distract her while he let his mind wonder if adopting Nansia would be fine.
He deep inside him knew that if he adopted Nansia it made it easier for her to study and to protect herself from anything supernatural and learn what caused her to appear here. He knew it was the right thing to do yet he was terrified of signing those papers.
In the other side of the town, Elena was working overtime when she saw a girl limping into the ED as blood dripped down her arms. The security saw her as she was heavily armed and tried to keep her from entering the ED but she collapsed on her arms and this words left her mouth before her eyes rolled back to her head.
"Mommy, help me." The girl said before she collapsed on the ED's floor while being held by the security guards, shocking everyone. Elena looked at the girl and got down to action. Several nurses helped her grab the body away from the shocked security guards and laid her in one gurney.
Just as Elena was ready to open the girl's shirt when the girl grabbed clear sign the shot of adrenaline Elena had administered had worked. The girl's hand grasped Elena's and pulled her to ear level and said;
"My name is Stephanie Salvatore, I'm 18 years old and I'm from the future, I sent myself here because I need you to heal me no questions asked, I'm not in danger I just got hurt, mommy. I love you. Also, please tell cousin Nansia that she needs to dig deeper in her genealogical tree! Her twin brother isn't dead…you have to tell her that! She needs to find him! Tell her that…" The girl said before she went into cardiac arrest in a distress tone as she took deep breaths in order to finish her sentence and the reason why she came here in the first place.
Elena looked horrified at the girl that was supposed to be her daughter.
'Dear God!' Elena thought as she tried to stop her from the spasms she was experiencing. A nurse brought the defibrillators and shocked the poor girl while Elena had mechanically started performing CPR to the girl while other nurses and medical staff tried to keep the girl in the place.
Her heart returned to the normal beating rhythm and Elena could check her injuries better now.
The girl had three bullet wounds, one in the shoulder, one in the leg and one that had lodged itself in her rib cage and had grazed a heart artery causing the cardiac arrest by not allowing blood circulation to resume properly.
Elena trying to not show her shock and horror she operated on the future version of her daughter, trying to keep her mind from flashing to whatever future Nansia told her of and all the scenes she made up in her mind hearing the horror stories about the potential future.
Once the girl was shown to be stable Elena went up to the roof of the hospital for a breather and called Damon to tell him what happened and Damon told her what happened, she felt terrified and a little shocked.
But she felt as if she should have expected it but at the same time she didn't want to accept it.
And her mind went back to what future Stephanie had said, she wasn't hurt in a battle yet she was dressed as if she was in one, what hurt her? And Nansia's twin, the one that was supposed to be dead, was alive and the poor girl had no idea and was wrongly blamed for his death all her life.
It wasn't the first time when dead family members came back to life but it didn't mean that she was supposed to get used to it happening!
Elena let the girl rest and went to look to other patients when she returned to the room she found no one but found a letter;
"Thank you mum! I'm safe don't worry.
Love, Stephanie."
That gave some comfort in Elena but also knew not to ask too many questions regarding the future. But she couldn't help her motherly instinct to worry about future Stephanie's physical condition after seeing her injuries, how was she able to slip away from the hospital with that extend of injuries…then her mind had a EUREKA moment;
Was she a vampire? But the bleeding and healing and during the surgery she hadn't seen vampiric healing to take place, it looked humanly normal…
The next morning Elena returned to see Jeremy walking to his car and loading it up.
"You're leaving us, Jer?" Elena asked as she walked up the stairs onto the porch.
"Yeah! It's time for me to go and adopt a daughter I guess." Jeremy said as he threw his duffle bag in the back seat of his car.
"Oh! I thought you would stay for a little while longer." Elena said a little disappointed, she didn't have time to see her brother.
"I'll be back." Jeremy promised his sister as he hugged her goodbye.
After that he climbed into his car and drove all the way to Mystic Falls.
A Day Later:
Jeremy walked up to the school campus and searched for Alaric, he found him in his office as usual.
"You said two days." Jeremy said seriously.
"And? Would you like to adopt her?" Alaric asked equally serious.
"Yes." Jeremy said seriously again and Alaric pulled up the papers and Jeremy signed it.
And like that Nansia became a Gilbert.
Mystic Falls: Mystic Grill: Now:
Nansia was working like always on her shift as always. She was doing the dishes when she saw her boss, Mrs. Margarita (Tina) Lynwood-Fell.
"Nansia, I'm closing up early so when you're done with these come at the front to pay you your first salary." Mrs. Lynwood-Fell said with a small smile and Nansia nodded.
"Sure, Mrs. Lynwood-Fell." Nansia said smiling as she continued to do the dishes.
"It's Mrs. Tina, we discussed that." Mrs. Tina said smiling then she left and walked back to her office.
She continued her job for the following seventeen to twenty minutes and then walked to Mrs. Tina who paid her.
It was around the end of her shift she walked into Mrs. Tina's office to let her know she was off and to say goodbye when Mrs. Tina asked her if she knew anything about computers.
"Yeah…I think I do….how can I help?" Nansia asked confused as she walked over to Mrs. Tina's desk and assessed the situation and she realized that the issue was the computer was working but the screen wasn't opening.
"Um…I'm going to guess that your screen monitor is busted…it seems connected and all but it seems as if it doesn't receive power in order to power up. You either need a new monitor or to get it fixed. Sorry, I can't fix it." Nansia said as she studied the computer's screen and then looked at Mrs. Tina who nodded as she started dialing her son's number.
"Thank you, sweetie! I'll call my son he has a friend who can fix it. See you tomorrow!" Mrs. Tina said as Nansia walked out of the office and waved at her boss.
Nansia took the bus and walked up to the school ground when she saw Lizzie waiting for her in the entrance.
"Hey! You're gonna meet Professor Jeremy today! Sorry, um…how was work?" Lizzie rambled as Nansia chuckled at her child-like excitement.
"Um…it was okay…wait, Professor Jeremy isn't the dude that "adopted" me?" Nansia asked Lizzie as she and her walked through the school's garden all the way to the back entrance of the kitchen.
"Yeah…" Lizzie said unsure of how to answer that.
"What do you know about him?" Nansia asked bluntly and Lizzie grew uncomfortable but Nansia looked at her with a pointed look as she raised her eyebrows and Lizzie gave up holding back and started to explain the entire life story of the infamous Jeremy Gilbert.
Nansia made them a snack while listening and they sat at the barstool and ate it while Lizzie kept talking.
Nansia commented here and there with actions such as;
"Holy shit! And I thought I had a hard life"
And
"WAIT! He died? Like…what the fuck?"
And so on.
One hour later Nansia's head was buzzing and she wanted to sleep but she saw Alaric and Jeremy outside of her shared dorm with Penelope.
"Um…Hi!" Nansia said smiling at the guy that seemed and was just ten years younger than her.
"Hey!" Jeremy said awkwardly as he waved his hand and then shoved it back in its pockets.
"Nansia this is Jeremy, Elena's little brother and the person who "adopted" you. " Alaric introduced them and Nansia smiled kindly while Jeremy studied her face, he pinpoint facial traits both Katherine and Elena shared with this new Petrova blood, it was chilling…similar eye-shape, nose and lips even hair color or was it the lighting in the room?
For a second his mind flashed back to a seven-year-old Elena waking him up during Christmas to watch Santa putting presents down from the tree…it was the identical face he watched…he had to just stretch the facial traits to fit an adult's face.
"Um…Thank you for adopting me, I guess, I really appreciate it. How can I repay you?" Nansia asked Jeremy with a serious and thankful tone that made her sound older than she was.
It was like a slap to Jeremy and he realized what Damon had warned him about…this child in front of him wasn't a child…never really was one.
"You don't have to…we just have to put a great act for the CPS once the paperwork goes through and in general…I would really like to get to know you because we are family even as distant as it is, my sister is somehow some sort of aunt of yours which means I might be something like an uncle…" Jeremy rambled anxiously and Nansia listened to him with a face that showed she was thinking about what he was saying.
"Well…you're wrong…you see I'm related to her through the Petrova side not the Gilbert side. And you are biologically cousins through the Gilbert side…so we aren't really distant relatives but I get your point of view. And I'll gladly play along and I would like to get to know all of you since it's seems I'll be here for a while." Nansia said with a little smug tone that made Jeremy and Alaric be reminded of Katherine's smug and their knowledge of her being a Petrova was once again proven correct.
Jeremy smiled and nodded.
"True, so…want to go at the Grill to eat something?" Jeremy asked a little hesitant.
"We can't, Mrs. Tina closed up early due to some errands she has to run…I work there." Nansia said with a small shrug and a kind smile.
"Alright, we can go for hot chocolate somewhere else in town. You know to get to know each other." Jeremy pressed on and Nansia nodded.
"Alright, give me an hour to have a bath and get out of these work clothes and I'll meet you at the school's entrance." Nansia said as she unlocked her dorm and pushed the door only to hear the sound of a thud and a groan.
Nansia, Jeremy and Alaric came face to face with a Penelope and MG holding their foreheads together and Kaleb and Hope laughing their asses off from the beds.
"We swear we were NOT eavesdropping…we were assembling a puzzle!" MG defended themselves and Nansia saw the puzzle on the floor and started laughing.
"Alright…maybe we were multitasking…" MG said as he rubbed his forehead.
"MG, Penelope, go to the kitchen and put some melted butter on your forehead to stop from bruising." Nansia advised them wisely as she put her things on her desk in the side of room.
"How do you know that?" Jeremy asked a little taken aback.
"I raised my little sister, she has a tendency of walking in on trees, doors and street lights regularly. To the point, I was worried about her eyesight and her legs' stability and ability to walk turned out she was always getting distracted and soon was diagnosed with short attention spam and dyslexia." Nansia said smiling fondly of her sister's memory.
Jeremy smiled too feeling guilty for already knowing pretty much everything about her from Damon. Or so he thought.
Both of her roommate and her friend went to the kitchen while Hope and Kaleb left her be and so did Jeremy and Alaric.
She had a shower, got dressed and then did a little homework while she waited for the hour mark.
Jeremy was also very anxiously moving around his dorm, unpacking his clothes, putting them in the washer, having a shower and getting dressed and resting a little bit. He then asked from Alaric to give him Nansia's file to read upon her to try to get to know his adopted daughter and see if he could find a topic that would work as a conversation starter.
"You can't be serious! She's a werewolf too? How?" Jeremy exclaimed and looked at Alaric.
"She's a hybrid…a werewitch of sorts. The Petrova Bloodline around the 1500s joined the Andnov pack in order to be safe from Klaus, their descendents were either born werewolves or witches or other times they were born blessed with both and because they were witches they could control their shifting and their curse wasn't triggered by killing an innocent, it was triggered by an intense emotional trauma. Nansia had many of those yet she hasn't turned to a wolf…not entirely…she told me that she has seen her eyes change colors between yellow, blue and green…they turn blue when she's about to use magic. They turn green when she gets those migraines or headaches or is about to dimension jump…the yellow eyes were only shown briefly after she was severely hurt. She started to notice she healed faster than normal but not too much to cause weird-out looks from others. The werewolf thing started to be shown more recently…Jed told me she fell while running…she didn't see the cliff and fell. She broke her legs and hands but within two hours she was healed but during those two hours Jed saw how her eyes were flickering between yellow and her normal ones. Then she shown Penelope her claws…She managed to shift only her hand and eyes! I asked her if she could command her wolf to come out she told me no because she's not ready yet. So, my guess is that her wolf will come out once she's comfortable and has accepted what she is." Alaric explained to Jeremy who nodded before letting the file down and rubbing his face with his hands.
"Man…how do I do this? How did you do it with us, Ric?" Jeremy asked tiredly and Alaric laughed as he stood up and hugged him.
"I listened and watched what you and Elena needed and tried to give it to you." Alaric said with a small smile and Jeremy nodded having an idea for a conversation starter.
His watched beeped with the reminder that he should go and meet Nansia.
He bid his goodbye to Alaric and walked to the entrance of the school and waited for ten minutes until Nansia rushed to him apologizing for her lateness and saying how she was finishing some homework.
The newly formed family went to a diner in a town over Mystic Falls but the way there was a comfortable silence while Nansia looked outside in wonder.
Nansia was still surprised and in a state of awe that she was somewhere else other than Greece she always thought she'd be trapped in that country and never have enough money to leave. Also she was pretty scared to leave her sister with their parents. Her step-dad was very caring and visible tried to keep his temper in recent years but she has seen his temper up close and personal when she was little and she knows not to play with his temper but she knows that now he might be very kind and caring especially towards her sister, his true daughter.
Her thoughts stopped when the car pulled to a parking lot of a diner.
"Here we are!" Jeremy exclaimed theatrically and tried to break the awkward situation.
Nansia laughed at him and they both of them entered the diner and sit at the free table at the back.
Once they order burgers and Coca-Cola when Jeremy takes a deep breath and said;
"So, how was your childhood? I want to know everything, good or bad, then I'll share mine. So what do you say?" Jeremy said smiling and Nansia's mouth closed and opened in shock of his request.
"Um…my childhood was…weird…" Nansia hesitantly started saying and Jeremy let a chuckle and cut her off and said with humor in his tone;
"Trust me, I'm the king of weird childhoods…okay maybe Hope's and the twins' childhoods might come second but they were supernatural from the beginning but imagine one day you are going to bed knowing that vampires, witches, werewolves, doublegangers and hybrids were just myths and bed-time horror stories and the next my sister is a doubleganger and trapped in a vampiric love triangle, my frienemy is a werewolf, my ex-girlfriend slash my sister's best friend is a witch, my sister's best friend is a vampire and we are getting hunted by Hope's dad and I could see dead people after dying a couple of times."
"Okay, you win! My life was nothing like yours…" Nansia said in defeat as she raised her hands up in surrender and Jeremy laughed at her tone of voice and her hand gesture.
"Come on, I wasn't trying to make you feel that your childhood wasn't big deal…come on, share." Jeremy said with a kind smile.
"Well, I started getting abused at home and blamed for my twin brother's death. I was bullied in school since I started going to school, beat up at school…when I was six I was stabbed in the shoulder while in a fight, our principal had a gun in his drawer and I saw it which made me feel as if I was in danger, I moved around a lot because my step-dad was in the Army, I was bullied some more, tried to commit suicide, I was abused some more, almost raped…I fought my attacker's head-butted him unconscious and when he threatened to rape my classmate Maria I threw him down the stairs and broke his hands and when I saw him couple years ago I was in my first year of college he tried to make me go on a date with him but I sucker-punched him and kneed him in the nuts, I was thrown into the depth of depression and self-destructiveness, tried to commit suicide again my sister stopped me, I was abused some more. Then I lost my internet best friend in a terrorist attack and I psychically teleported myself to 2149 and I spent 130 years in total fighting for our planet yet we failed. I was cryogenically frozen for the 125 years of the 130 years, I returned once I was woken up by my friends' son and my grand-niece, I was 15 years old again…I lived my life trying to prevent the future I saw from happening, I tried to prevent my cousins from doing what they were meant to do but I couldn't, it was a set point in time…Whatever I do earth dies...Then when I finally accept that I'll die I was trying to make most of it by making my dreams come true….then I'm here. Nice story?" Nansia said with a semi-sarcastic semi-serious tone trying to downplay the situation.
Jeremy was shocked and Nansia looked ashamed of herself as she looked at her plate after she saw how his face changed throughout her storytelling.
"I'm sorry you went through that, Nansia, but your life got you here, you are safe here with us. This school it's good for someone like you." Jeremy said in a genuine tone.
"I'm glad I ended up here but I know for a fact that I'm not safe, whatever is going on with the monsters no one is telling me about; and the chance I might disappear from here at any moment, it's drives me insane because no matter who I meet and get attached to or what I achieve it would be for nothing if one day another headache or psychic meltdown happens and disappear for good leaving behind loved ones." Nansia said with a sad tone and then she looked at Jeremy's thoughtful face.
"How about if we find a way to ground you here?" Jeremy asked hopeful and Nansia just sighed as she took a bite from her burger.
"It might work…let me guess…you'll ask Professor Bennett?" Nansia asked a little sarcastically and Jeremy nodded as he drank from his Coca Cola.
"We used to date when I was…sixteen years old…agh…lifetime away! Hey, we said for hot chocolate and now we are eating burgers and Coca Cola…ha!" Jeremy said with a nostalgic tone at first then looked down at their order and he let out a loud laugh making Nansia jump at the sudden turn of his mood and she looked a little terrified of him.
Jeremy noticed that and looked apologetically towards her.
"Sorry, I just found it funny…" Jeremy said in an apologetic tone.
"Trust me I know how ironic life can be…when I was little..around what…eight or nine even ten I really wished I could experience life with a big group of friends and having adventures and dramas between us. Fast forward to my nineteen to twenty year old self who just wants to disappear from the face of the earth and see who actually looks for me and cares. Because now that I had experienced the big friends group for half a decade I'm tired, so tired! Because in the end, by the time we were five years after we graduated High School we stopped talking and it was debatable if only five of us were still talking out of the eleven people we used to be. Although I'm more close with one specific person and then in college I met two people out of the thousands I crossed paths with…the first person we stopped talking two months later, the second person in a year after the graduation of the 4th semester she got defensive at me for having a family with a fatherly figure and a mother who attempts to be a mum in the eyes of others even though she knew how truly fucked up my home life was. She stopped talking to me completely. Ended up being alone and never going out, meaning that going from nothing to having everything to having nothing again exhausted me and made me bitter. I learned that it's a waste of time and mental endurance to worry about who is going to stay by my side and who wouldn't. Whoever wants to they are welcomed to stay in return for my friendship and trust I want the same thing, if you are planning to fuck with me then do that and leave, my mental health is so down that it can't go further, the only further it can go is committing suicide but I'm too selfish to even attempt and succeed in that because fuck it I have goals and things I want to do, places is I want to visit and I want to be at my sister's wedding, at my parents' funerals, at my sister's labor and every other milestone and if people want to be by my side when all of this happens then okay…yay! If they don't then fine!" Nansia rambled annoyed and a little hurt which made Jeremy realize how truly sensitive she was as a person and how hurt she's been before.
"Look, Nansia, being this sensitive won't do you any good here. Mystic Falls it's a town that is full of danger…"
"No shit! Jeremy, you can't begin to imagine how life it was back in my dimension…not saying that all my life had been hell but there were crazy HUMAN people doing crazy shit, that made everyone tense hence to become defensive and cruel to one another to an unimaginable extent. I sit back and watch all of you interact at school and I have this constant thought; "this wouldn't happen in the corridors if the school was build in my dimension" you would probably have way more fights and at least six car accident deaths per year and at least three suicides per year!" Nansia exclaimed angrily and Jeremy's eyes furrowed and then looked angry.
"Nansia, I get it! I get that your life was hard but if you keep behaving like this, you will cause the same problems you left behind, so stop it! You are not back home, you are somewhere different and you must adapt. Or else you'll be left behind and even die. You must start trusting people and befriending at least some people who will care enough to keep you safe and you in return to care enough to keep them safe. I'm sorry to say this, Nansia but you must attend sessions with Emma, you need them." Jeremy said seriously and with an emphasis in his words.
That made Nansia shut up and look shocked at him.
Was she at fault?
Was her behavior keeping her behind? Was her fear keeping her behind?
What Jeremy said was similar with Penelope's speech…
Maybe they were right…
"Alright, I'm sorry I jump on you, didn't mean it." Nansia said with a guilty look.
"No, you did, Nansia and that is what worries me because you can't keep this mindset of "this is temporary", because it might not be and your choices and behavior might have a long-lasting effect. You need to be careful." Jeremy said serious and in a parental wise tone.
Nansia looked at him deep in thoughts but she knew he was right, in the amount of times she had moved because of the Greek Army she knew it was temporary and she did made an effort to blend in which caused her to be bullied and when she moved again she decided to be the total opposite and see where it took her. It took her to turbulent friendships and loneliness in crowds, forcefully drinking and going to parties in the shake of being a normal Americanized Teenager in Greece.
"Okay, I'll try…now…favorite movies and music?" Nansia asked with a sigh of defeat and she tried to change the subject as she tried to make peace with it in her mind.
And just like that, the two of them started talking for more normal stuff and the conversation flew quicker and more pleasantly.
So? What do you think? Will Jeremy and Nansia pull of this family thing? Will Nansia finally start allowing people close and realize that this is probably and most likely permanent?
I can't wait to read your reviews!
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