It has been over five hours now since Scott McCall had pulled his claws out of both Emily and Stefan's necks. The Salvatore vampire was the first one to wake up at the two hour mark. Everyone all figured it was because Stefan was a vampire and he could heal more quickly, so that helped him find his way out of that world much faster than Emily.
Meanwhile, the Gilbert girl hadn't even moved an inch over the past five hours since the true alpha had pulled them out of the past. Everyone was extremely worried for the newest witch - except for Deaton and Scott, since they've already experienced this before. The more the hours go on, the more hope was lost within the Mystic Falls gang and the more they were getting frustrated.
It took the Lockwood werewolf another long hour before he finally broke. "This is all your fault!" Tyler growled as he swiftly approached the true alpha before he roughly grabbed Scott by the collar of his shirt. "You were supposed to bring the real her back, not make her worse!" The Lockwood werewolf snarled in Scott's face.
The true alpha didn't react like everyone nervously thought he would. It was common knowledge that werewolves weren't known for their patience but the Mystic Falls gang was surprised when Scott's breathing didn't even speed up. Scott didn't let what Tyler was yelling at him get to him as the Lockwood werewolf screamed in his face. The true alpha knew everyone in the room were just stressed and worried for Emily, so he didn't let Tyler's anger affect him in any way.
"It's going to work," the McCall werewolf calmly told Tyler as he stared directly into the Lockwood teenager's brown eyes. Scott laid his palm down onto Tyler's shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze before the true alpha murmured, "she just needs more time to pull herself out of it." Scott knew it wasn't much, but he hoped his calmly words could help the worried group around him.
However, it didn't work for Tyler as he swiftly pushed the true alpha's hand off of him before he fiercely glared at Scott. "How much is too much time?" The Lockwood werewolf questioned in frustration as he roughly ran his fingers through his messy brunette hair. Tyler didn't like this. He didn't like not knowing what was going on with his best friend. It was different when she was awake but with Emily still not moving or showing any life in her body, it made Tyler's worry for her so much worse.
"It depends on the person," Deaton calmly told everyone as he moved to stand beside the true alpha. "Emily has gone through a lot of stress and a lot of drastic changes lately," the druid explained as he glanced at each and every worried face in the room, "so it could take her more time to find her way back to this world."
Tyler released a loud scoff as he rolled his brown eyes. "I think you both don't know what the hell you guys are talking about!" The Lockwood werewolf growled as he pointed his finger between the true alpha and the druid, "I think you are talking out of your asses! I think you are just trying to protect yourselves because you know you screwed up somehow!"
While the Lockwood teenager continued to yell at the true alpha and the druid, Stefan had been either standing in front of or kneeling in front of his girlfriend as he watched Emily's every move (which was none). The younger Salvatore just didn't want to miss anything in case the Gilbert girl tried to move or call for help.
Stefan was unbelievably nervous with all the waiting that they were doing. He was probably the most anxious out of everyone since he was with Emily when she got her emotions and memories back. Stefan had seen how much it had affected his girlfriend, so he was afraid that it was taking a toll on her body. He didn't want to say it, but he was afraid that she would never wake again.
The younger Salvatore quickly shook that thought away as fast as it appeared. Stefan released a heavy sigh as he ran his palm down the front of his face out of exhaustion before he focused his green eyes back onto his girlfriend. The younger Salvatore completely ignored the yelling coming from the Lockwood werewolf as he just let his gaze slowly move across Emily's body for any signs of her waking up.
Stefan did that for a good five minutes before the Salvatore vampire's green eyes quickly widened when he noticed Emily's point finger twitch on her lap. Stefan didn't know if he was imagining things or if it actually happened, so he quickly kneeled in front of his girlfriend and stared down at her finger before he whispered, "come on, baby. Do it again."
It took the Radkova witch another long and agonizing three minutes before the Salvatore vampire saw Emily's finger twitch again. Stefan quickly climbed to his feet before he ordered everyone in the room, "shut up!" Stefan waited until the room grew silent before he carefully placed his palms onto the sides of his girlfriend's cheeks. "Emily? Baby?" The younger Salvatore vampire called out, "can you hear me?"
The room instantly grew tense with silence as everyone nervously watched the unconscious witch before Emily roughly started coughing. It took the Gilbert girl about two minutes of coughing up her guts before she slowly opened her green eyes. Emily's gaze couldn't help but to instantly be filled with tears when she saw everyone she loved - plus two strangers - surrounding her as she remembered all of the bad things that she did to them.
"I'm so, so sorry," the Radkova witch apologized before she released a loud and painful sob. Emily swiftly hid her face into her hands out of shame and embarrassment while her body began to shake from all of the guilt and sadness that she felt towards her loved ones and what she remembered saying and doing to them.
The younger Salvatore instantly pulled Emily up from the metal chair and pulled her into his chest at the sight of her sobbing. "It's okay," Stefan softly murmured as he gently ran his fingers through his girlfriend's platinum blonde hair. "Shhh," the green eyed vampire cooed as Emily loudly sobbed into his chest, "I got you, baby."
Emily just felt so guilty after remembering everything that she did during that period in time between the sacrifice and when she turned off her emotions. If she had the chance to go back and do it all over again, Emily would have never listened to that devil inside of her head when she was mourning over her twin sister in Elena's bedroom. It just caused everyone so much pain and heartbreak.
Emily honestly didn't see how anyone was going to forgive her for all of the terrible things that she had said and done to her loved ones. The Radkova witch just hoped that someway and somehow she could make it up to everyone for each and every horrible thing that she had done to her loved ones.
It took the Radkova witch about ten minutes or so before her sobs slowly came to an end and the first thing she saw after she pulled herself out of Stefan's arms were her family - Jenna, Alaric, and Jeremy - quickly breaking out from the circle of people around her. Emily barely had enough time to gaze lovingly at her family before they instantly pulled her into a group hug.
"I'm so glad you're home," Jenna murmured as she kissed her niece's temple. The new vampire was very thankful that Alaric made her leave earlier to drink from a blood bag a few hours ago or she would have definitely not been able to hug her niece like this and that would have crushed her.
"It's good to have you back, kid," Alaric murmured as he lovingly patted the back of the Radkova witch's head like as he would with his own daughter - and that's how Alaric cared for Emily. He always cared and loved his girlfriend's niece since the moment he met her. Emily was just like a ray of sunshine in all of their lives and he was glad to have the real Emily back home with them.
Jeremy, however unlike his aunt and Alaric, didn't have it in him to say anything. The youngest Gilbert instead pulled Emily into a tight hug as he silently cried against her temple while he hid his face into her blonde hair. Jeremy didn't know what he could even say right now. He was just so relieved to have one of his sisters back after everything that had happened. Jeremy wished Elena was here, too, but he knew that wasn't possible anymore, as bad as he hated to think about it.
Emily instantly wrapped her arms around her brother's back and held him tightly as soon as she felt his familiar comfort and warmth. "It's okay, Jer," the Radkova witch whispered against her little brother's chest. "It's going to be okay," Emily kept repeating in a soft tone as she gently ran her palm against Jeremy's back.
The bittersweet moment between the only living Gilbert siblings lasted for about three minutes before the Sommers' vampire slowly pulled Jeremy out of his sister's arms and brought him towards the back wall to where Alaric was standing as Jenna knew so many other people wanted their chance to welcome Emily back home.
The Lockwood werewolf was the next one to pull Emily into a tight hug as soon as she was free. Tyler instantly sighed in relief once the Radkova witch was finally in his arms. "Thank God you're okay," the Lockwood werewolf murmured against the shell of Emily's ear before he leaned down and placed a soft kiss onto her forehead.
The Lockwood werewolf and the Radkova witch stood in each other's arms for about three minutes of complete calmness before Caroline's patience snapped. "I want my turn!" The Forbes vampire exclaimed as she pulled Tyler off of her best friend before she and Bonnie quickly pulled Emily into a bone crushing embrace.
The Bennett witch and the Forbes vampire both sighed in unison once they had Emily in their arms after so long. "You're not allowed to ever disappear on us like that again," Caroline mumbled against the Radkova witch's temple. The Forbes vampire pulled away and pointed her finger at Emily before she threatened her best friend, "or I'll kill you myself."
Bonnie swiftly slapped the blonde vampire across her upper arm before she glared at Caroline as she didn't feel like that was the right choice of words that Emily needed to hear right now after everything that she had gone through. The Bennett witch turned to Emily with a soft smile before she assured her best friend, "she's joking."
Emily released a small chuckle before she lightly shrugged her shoulders and mumbled, "it's not like I don't deserve it." Emily remembered every bad thing that she did to her loved ones and friends, so she knew she deserved some type of hatred after all the things that she did to the people who had only been kind and nice to her.
"Hey!" The Forbes vampire scolded her best friend before she exclaimed, "none of that!" Caroline grasped the Radkova witch's face between her cold hands before she assured Emily with a soft smile, "you're back and that's all that matters."
The Gilbert girl lightly nodded her head before she mumbled a quiet, "okay." Emily definitely did hold a hatred to herself for all the horrible things that she did while she wasn't herself but she knew the people around her didn't need to hear that right now when they just got her back.
"We love you, we always did," Bonnie told and reminded the newer witch as she and Caroline placed a soft kiss onto each side of Emily's cheeks before they stepped back to their original place against the wall.
Emily was absolutely nervous when the next person, Damon Salvatore, slowly approached her. Emily tried her best to avoid Damon's gaze when he sluggishly walked up to her as she felt horribly guilty for everything that she had said to him when she wasn't in her right mind. However, Emily couldn't help but loudly gasp when Damon pulled her into a tight embrace.
Emily let out a shaky breath when she felt Damon's cold but comforting arms wrap around her shoulders. The Radkova witch instantly wrapped her arms around Damon's waist when she realized he wasn't mad at her before she ended up frowning when she felt Damon's lower muscles tense and she could feel his back practically pulsing against her palm.
Emily hurriedly pulled back in worry before she quickly inquired as she completely forgot about her previous worry about the older Salvatore being angry at her, "what's wrong? What happened? Are you okay?"
Damon released a light chuckle to not hurt himself before he carelessly waved his hand at the young witch. "It's just a little bite," the older Salvatore muttered as if it was nothing and he wasn't in constant pain.
Emily's green eyes instantly widened when she realized that Damon had gotten bit, and by how frail and hurt the Salvatore vampire looked, Emily knew it was from a werewolf, the worst kind of bites. "Oh, my God," the Radkova witch mumbled before she began scanning Damon's front body for the bite as she wanted to see how bad it was.
However, when Emily was about to walk around Damon's body to see if the bite was on his backside, the Salvatore vampire grabbed ahold of Emily's hand to keep the young witch in her spot. "It's okay," Damon quietly assured the Radkova witch as he lightly ran his thumb against Emily's wrist.
"What?" Emily gasped as she looked at the eldest Salvatore vampire like he was crazy. "No, it's not okay!" The Radkova witch exclaimed as she knew what a bite for a vampire meant. Emily looked around Damon's body once again with her brows furrowed together as she quietly inquired, "what even happened?"
"There was an accident the day of the sacrifice," Bonnie told the Radkova witch from her position against the wall beside Caroline. "We're dealing with it," the Bennett witch tried to assure her best friend as she could tell how worried Emily was for the eldest Salvatore.
Emily glanced around at each face in the room before her green eyes zeroed onto Tyler's crestfallen and guilty looking expression. It didn't take Emily long to guess what really happened after that. The Radkova witch focused back onto Damon with complete worry shining through her green eyes. Emily knew what a werewolf bite meant for a vampire. She had witnessed it with Rose and that scared her.
"No," Emily whispered as she shook her head in denial with tears clouding her green eyes. The Radkova witch didn't think she could watch Damon die like that after she just lost her twin sister and her biological father. It was all just too much.
Damon shot the Radkova witch a small, sad smile. "I'll be fine. I always am," the eldest Salvatore vampire muttered as he tried to assure Emily that she didn't have to worry about him.
"I'm so sorry," Emily whispered as she stared up at the injured vampire. The platinum blonde witch felt a sense of guilt from the fact that everyone had been so focused on getting her back to her normal self when they could have been trying to help find Damon a cure for the werewolf bite all this time.
The blue eyed Salvatore shakily brought his hand up to Emily's face and lightly rubbed his rough thumb across her cheek as he muttered, "don't be." Damon leaned down and placed a gentle kiss onto Emily's forehead before he told her with a small smile, "it's good to have you back, princess."
The Radkova witch instantly wrapped her arms around Damon's waist when she felt Damon's soft and comforting touch. "I'm sorry for everything I said and did to you," Emily mumbled against the eldest Salvatore's chest. Emily felt so much guilt for each person in the room and for everything she did while she wasn't herself but Emily was especially guilty for the things that she did to Damon. He didn't deserve any of that - especially when he had been grieving over the same death that she did.
"Don't apologize," Damon murmured softly into the Radkova witch's ear before he took a step back and released a small and amused chuckle. "What you did was baby work, princess," the eldest Salvatore vampire muttered with a smirk playing on his lips. "If you ever need some real fun when you're emotionless, I can teach you the way," Damon proudly promised the young witch.
"Damon!" The younger Salvatore vampire quickly scolded his brother with a hard glare.
Damon released a small chuckle as to not trigger his werewolf bite to flare up before he assured his brother as he raised his hands in innocence, "I was just playing around." The blue eyed vampire focused back onto Emily with a small smile. Damon lightly bumped the young witch's chin with the side of his knuckles before he murmured, "welcome home, princess."
After Damon slowly made his way back to his seat by Tyler, the next set of people that walked up to Emily was two people that she didn't recognize at all. She figured they were who helped bring her back but that was all Emily knew about them.
"We've briefly met when you were still not yourself," the older man began as he and the younger man walked up to Emily. "My name is Deaton," the older man introduced himself before he pointed to the person beside him and uttered, "and this is Scott." The elder man shot Emily a small and kind smile before he continued, "I'm a druid, like a guidance to the supernatural world, and Scott is a true alpha, the more purest and strongest form of a werewolf."
Emily shook the hands of both the druid and werewolf with a small and polite smile on her face. "It's nice to meet you when I'm actually sane," the Radkova witch lightly joked before she quickly apologized, "and I'm sorry if I was rude or did something to either of you." Emily could only imagine what she did to the new comers, who were only trying to help her.
Deaton waved his hand as to wave off the young witch's apology. "It's completely fine," the druid assured Emily before he joked as a certain Hale came to mind, "I've dealt with a whole lot worse."
Emily slightly nodded her head before she praised the duo, "well, thank you so much for coming to help." The Radkova witch quickly furrowed her brows when she realized that she didn't know how far they had traveled to help her. "Where are you guys from, anyway?" Emily curiously wondered.
"It was no issue at all when it was to help out a Radkova witch," Deaton murmured with a wide grin before he answered Emily's previous question as he stated, "we're from Beacon Hills, California."
The blonde witch instantly furrowed her brows when she heard Deaton uttered where they are from. "Why does that sound so familiar?" Emily puzzledly inquired. Emily knew she had heard of that place but she just couldn't place where she knew it from.
"That might have something to do with my best friend," the true alpha told Emily with a small chuckle. "Do you happen to remember meeting a Stiles a few years ago at a fair?" Scott asked the Radkova witch.
Stiles... Stiles... Stiles, Emily thought about that name in her mind for a few seconds before her green eyes widened in surprise when she remembered why she recognized that location. "You know Stiles!?" The Radkova witch asked with a gasp. Emily knew about Beacon Hills because Stiles had told her that's where he was from when she and Elena hung out with him all night at a fair. Emily had been so disappointed when she had lost Stiles' phone number and they never got the chance to talk again.
Scott nodded his head with a wide and amused grin playing on his tan face. "Stiles has been my best friend since we were kids," the true alpha told Emily.
"Wow, small world," Emily muttered with a light chuckle. It was weird how it all came to be a full circle of meeting Stiles years ago in California to now meeting Scott all the way in Virginia and the fact that they were both intertwined into the supernatural world. "Tell Stiles I said hello when you go back," Emily told the true alpha. Emily had really enjoyed hanging out with Stiles all those years ago, so it would nice to catch up with him someday.
Scott nodded his head in agreement before he promised with a wide grin, "I will."
The Radkova witch focused her gaze back onto the druid after her small moment with Scott. "So am I in the clear now?" Emily inquired with her brows slightly furrowed in worry, "there's no possible way that this could be reversed and I could go back to being an emotionless psycho, right?" Emily was concerned because she didn't want to be like that again when she did such horrible things to her loved ones and the people around her.
Deaton shot the Radkova witch a soft smile before he promised her, "you're fine. Making you relive everything that happened and what you did afterwards pulled you out of your emotionless state, so there's no way that you'll go back to that unless you listen to that voice in your mind again." The druid released a small chuckle before he uttered, "but I do advise that you don't do that. I'm not sure if we'll be able to pull you out of it a second time."
Emily released her own chuckle before she assured the druid, "oh, trust me. I plan on never doing that ever again." Emily quite liked her emotions and she would gladly take the bad ones as well if it meant not hurting her loved ones ever again.
The Radkova witch slowly scanned each face in the room from her brother and aunt to her history teacher and best friends to the Salvatore brothers and the Beacon Hills residents. "I'm sorry for any pain, torment, or stress that I may have caused any of you," Emily apologized to each of her loved ones before she murmured, "I hope I'll be able to slowly gain your trust back and make up for everything I did."
The younger Salvatore vampire instantly walked up to his girlfriend from her guilt-ridden words and wrapped her tightly into his arms. Stefan placed a soft kiss on the top of her blonde hair before he lifted her head up by her chin, so Emily was looking into his serious green eyes. "Hey, no one hates you, baby," Stefan softly murmured, "we all just want you to heal from this and find that happiness again." Stefan placed a soft kiss onto Emily's lips before he murmured, "the only thing we all care about is that you're back."
The Radkova witch stared up at her boyfriend and she could tell that Stefan was being truthful but Emily was still worried about what everyone else thought. Emily turned in Stefan's embrace and looked out to her loved ones before she quietly asked, "is that true?"
There was instantly a series of nods and murmurs of 'yeah', 'yes,' and 'of course's' throughout the small room before Caroline and Bonnie quickly pulled their best friend into a tight hug. "We could never hate you," the Bennett witch assured Emily before the Forbes vampire murmured, "you had no control over what happened. It wasn't your fault."
Emily released a heavy sigh of relief into her best friends' embrace. It was nice to know that everyone didn't hate her guts like she had expected they would. Emily still felt so guilty but she felt like that wouldn't go away any time soon when she cares so much for her family and friends and it pained her to know that she hurt them in someway.
Emily honestly didn't think that she deserved any of their forgiveness - especially with how horribly she treated them and acted when they were just trying to save her. Emily just hoped that she could find it in her to forgive herself some day for everything that she did when she didn't have control over her emotions or her actions.
However, as Emily looked at each calm and smiling face around the room, Emily knew that she would be okay when she had her loved ones there to help her through this rough time in her life. Emily didn't like depending on people when that was her job but Emily knew that these people around her would get her through it and that was all that mattered at the moment.
