The road trip to Chicago had began six very slow hours ago. Damon and Elena were sitting in front of the Salvatore vampire's blue Mustang while Emily and Tyler were sitting in the backseat.
The Radkova witch was beginning to feel antsy. Emily wasn't exactly a fan of sitting around and doing nothing. Logically Emily, of course, knew she couldn't make the car move faster without breaking a lot of laws but Emily was beginning to get stuck in her own head with worries from how this trip was going to go.
Emily was so nervous that she had began running her vervain necklace that Stefan gave her so long ago between her fingers. It was a habit that the Gilbert girl had since she was a young kid. Emily would always play with her necklace or ring or whatever she was wearing that day whenever she got too anxious or nervous about something.
The Lockwood werewolf could practically feel Emily's nerves radiating off of her body. Tyler placed his hand onto the Radkova witch's thigh as he softly asked her, "you doing okay?"
Emily flinched for half of a second at the unexpected touch before she relaxed when she saw that it was just Tyler. The Radkova witch shot the werewolf a small smile before she muttered, "yeah, I'm fine."
Tyler immediately furrowed his brows as he stared over at the Gilbert girl. "Are you sure?" The Lockwood werewolf asked, "is there anything I can do?"
Emily softly chuckled as she placed the hand that wasn't playing with her necklace on top of Tyler's that was on her thigh. "I'm okay," the Radkova witch promised before she joked, "I'm just not a fan of road trips."
"Aw, don't be like that, princess!" The Salvatore vampire exclaimed from the driver's seat. Damon smirked as he glanced back at the Radkova witch before he murmured, "we had a fun time in Georgia."
"Oh, yeah. It was so much fun," Emily sarcastically uttered as she rolled her green eyes. "We got into a car accident and then we were whisked away to another state," the Radkova witch reminded the Salvatore vampire. Emily narrowed her gaze as she stared Damon before she continued, "without our permission might I add."
Emily remembered her last road trip and it wasn't pretty. It was right after the Gilbert twins had found the photograph of Katherine and saw how alike the Petrova vampire looked like Elena. It was also during that period when Damon was dead set on freeing Katherine out of the tombs.
It was such a simpler time back then when their biggest issue was dealing with the tomb vampires. Now it felt like hell with them having to deal with the biggest and baddest vampire in the world.
"Woah, woah, woah!" Tyler exclaimed as he tightly squeezed the Radkova witch's knee without really realizing it. "What car accident? When did this happen?" The Lockwood werewolf hurriedly asked in worry for the girl beside him.
Damon completely ignored the werewolf's questions as he reminded the Radkova witch, "I saved your ass. You guys could have been stuck in the police station answering questions." The Salvatore vampire shot Emily a smirk before he added, "instead, we had some fun in a bar."
Elena turned sideways in the passenger seat before she shot the Lockwood werewolf a small smile to let him know that someone had heard his questions. "It was a long time ago," Elena informed him.
Emily slowly nodded her head as she murmured, "yeah, we did." The Radkova witch shot Damon a glare before she sarcastically continued, "and then Lexi's boyfriend tried to kill you. That was so much fun."
Damon carelessly shrugged his shoulders. "When isn't someone trying to kill me?" The Salvatore vampire jokingly asked.
"Hey!" Elena exclaimed as she slapped her boyfriend's upper arm. "Hopefully no one tries to kill you this time," the human girl mumbled as she stared over at Damon with a small frown displayed across her face.
"Hey, we'll be fine," Emily cooed as she tried to dissolve her sister's worries. The Radkova witch used the hand that wasn't playing with her necklace and reach over to squeeze Elena's shoulder in a comforting motion. "I'll keep us safe," Emily vowed. "We just need to find Stefan before Klaus finds out we're in Chicago," the Radkova witch stated.
"I sure hope we find him for your sake, princess," Damon muttered as he glanced over to the Radkova witch, who was leaning in the middle of the two front seats. "It would suck if the last memento of Stefan was that crappy old necklace," the Salvatore vampire stated as he briefly glanced down to the necklace around Emily's neck with a disgusted expression.
The Radkova witch immediately rolled her green eyes at her sister's boyfriend. "The only thing crappy and old is you," Emily mumbled as she slapped Damon's shoulder.
"You do realize you don't have to wear that thing anymore, right?" The Salvatore vampire inquired with a raise of his right eyebrow while he completely ignored Emily's insult. "Compulsion doesn't work on witches," Damon informed the eldest Gilbert sister.
"I know," Emily mumbled as she glanced down to the necklace. "It just makes me feel close to Stefan," the Radkova witch added.
Emily, of course, knew she didn't have to wear the necklace. The only time she had ever taken it off was during her emotionless period before she immediately put it back on. It didn't offer Emily anymore protection against vampires since becoming a witch but it offered Emily comfort. It reminded Emily of the love that she shared with Stefan. It reminded Emily that she had something worth fighting for.
"Well, he could have gotten you something better looking," Damon muttered.
Emily, once again, rolled her green eyes at the Salvatore vampire. The Radkova witch knew it was pointless to keep arguing with Damon, so she ignored him. Instead, Emily leaned forward and looked over to her twin sister as she suddenly thought of something.
"Did you start wearing yours again?" The Radkova witch curiously asked as she began searching Elena's upper body for her vervain necklace.
The Radkova witch remembered when her sister had taken off the vervain necklace when she became a vampire. However, Emily knew since Elena had came back from the other side as human, she would need that protection again from the bad vampires who show up in Mystic Falls.
Elena shook her head before she brought up her left wrist, where a beautiful diamond bracelet laid against her skin. "Dam got me this," Elena informed her twin sister. The human girl flipped her arm around to show the clasp. "There is a tiny hole here to put vervain inside of it," Elena explained.
"At least I know how to give my girl something stylish," Damon cockily exclaimed as he tossed his arm around Elena's shoulder.
The Radkova witch scoffed at the Salvatore vampire before she leaned back in her seat. "It's the thought that counts," Emily mumbled as she defended her boyfriend with her arms crossed over her chest.
The blue Mustang slowly lulled to a silence after that as the supernatural group continued their way to Chicago. The quietness lasted for another thirty minutes before it was broken by the Lockwood werewolf.
"Don't you have any music?" Tyler asked as he leaned forward to wrap his hands around the Salvatore vampire's headrest. "This is boring," the Lockwood werewolf muttered.
"Nope," Damon exclaimed as he didn't even bother glancing back at the teenager. "Sit back and shut up," the Salvatore vampire ordered.
Elena quickly slapped her boyfriend's arm as to silently scold him before she moved her brown gaze back to the Lockwood werewolf. "There should be a CD case on the floorboard," the human girl informed Tyler with a kind smile playing on her lips.
"Thank you, Elena," the Lockwood werewolf murmured before he moved his brown eyes over to the back of Damon's head and glared at the vampire. Tyler knew the vampire couldn't see his annoyance but it was the thought that counted.
The Lockwood werewolf shifted his legs to lean against the door before he moved his brown eyes down to the floor. Tyler leaned down and pushed a backpack to the side but that was it. There was no CD case to be seen. "Hey, Em, do you see the CD case on your side?" Tyler asked as he looked over to the Radkova witch.
"Hold on," Emily murmured before she pushed her right leg against the door and brought her left leg up onto the seat. The Radkova witch moved her gaze down to the floorboard before she spotted the CD holder. Emily leaned down and picked up the black case before she handed it over to the Lockwood werewolf.
Emily went to relax her legs back in their original place. However, Emily quickly spotted something else on the floorboard that looked very familiar to the Gilbert girl.
"Hmm..." Emily mumbled as she leaned down and picked up a leather book. "What's this?" The Radkova witch curiously asked as she brought the item up between the two front seats, so everyone could see it.
Damon glanced over his right shoulder to see what the Radkova witch had before he immediately recognized the book. "That's a gift for you," the Salvatore vampire told Emily before he explained, "it's a little history lesson about Stefan's first experience in Chicago."
The Radkova witch was intrigued as she unwrapped the string around the book before she opened the front page. However, Emily quickly stopped what she was doing when she realized why it looked so familiar.
Emily shook her head as she muttered, "I'm not reading this." The Radkova witch closed the book as she stated, "this is Stefan's diary. I'm not going to invade his personal thoughts."
The Salvatore vampire released a tsk. "You need to be prepared for what you're about to see," Damon told the Radkova witch.
Emily lightly shrugged her shoulders. "I've seen Stefan when he's lost," the Radkova witch mentioned as she wrapped the string back around the leather book. "If I can handle all the shit we've gone through in Mystic Falls, I'm sure I can handle what's about to happen next," Emily muttered.
The Radkova witch had no need to read Stefan's diary. Emily knew she would hate it if someone read her private thoughts without her permission, so she didn't want to do that to her boyfriend. The Gilbert girl went to place the leather book back onto the floorboard before Damon suddenly snatched it right out of her hands.
"Hey!" Emily exclaimed before she quickly tried to grab it from the vampire's hands.
Damon ignored the Radkova witch as he swiftly switched the diary to his left hand to keep it out of Emily's reach. The Salvatore vampire opened his brother's diary up with one hand while the other kept control of the steering wheel.
"Ooh, here's a good one," Damon cooed when he stopped on the fifteenth page. "March twelve, nineteen twenty-two," the Salvatore vampire murmured as he began reading Stefan's diary.
"Damon," Elena mumbled in a warning tone. If Emily didn't want to read it, she didn't think any of them should get to read it. It was only fair when Emily was the one dating the younger Salvatore.
Damon briefly cleared his throat before he spoke in a way to imitate his brother's tone of voice, "I've blacked out days. I wake up in strangers' blood in places I don't recognize with women I don't remember."
"Come on, Damon," the Radkova witch begged as she slapped the Salvatore vampire's upper arm. "Stop," Emily commanded before she went back to trying to grab the diary.
Damon, once again, ignored the Radkova witch as he released a loud and exaggerated gasp. "Did you know Stefan wasn't a virgin?" The Salvatore vampire asked like a gossiping teenager.
Emily rolled her green eyes in annoyance at the Salvatore vampire. "You already know that answer," the Radkova witch mumbled, "don't act like you've never heard us before."
It was an embarrassing thought to imagine other people hearing her have sex but it happens. It was hard not to when Damon has enhanced hearing and they all live under one roof together.
The Lockwood werewolf immediately felt awkward at the turn this conversation was heading. The last thing Tyler wanted to do was to hear about Stefan and Emily's sex life. Tyler needed to stop this topic right now, so he quickly pushed the CD he had picked through the opening between the two front seats. "Here," the Lockwood werewolf exclaimed, "put this in."
Elena accepted the CD from the werewolf's hand with a small smile. "Thanks," the human girl murmured before she pushed the disk into the CD player.
The iconic sound of the electric guitar in AC/DC's hit song, Highway to Hell, slowly began to thump throughout the blue Mustang.
"Huh," Damon murmured once he realized that the Lockwood werewolf had picked one of his favorite albums. "I'll give it to you, Lockwood, you can pick music," the Salvatore vampire stated as he briefly glanced back at Tyler.
The Gilbert twins immediately looked at each other at the same time before they giggled when Damon and Tyler began talking about the rock group. It was amusing to Emily and Elena since the vampire and the werewolf never really got along well with one another but it seemed like they found their middle ground.
The Radkova witch found it quite funny that Damon and Tyler were talking like gossiping school girls. Emily wasn't going to interrupt or ruin the moment between the vampire and the werewolf, though. It was the first time in three hours that the duo weren't arguing, so Emily wasn't going to disrupt the peace.
Emily was perfectly fine with the vampire and the werewolf gushing over the rock group. If they don't start belting the songs, then the rest of their road trip to Chicago should be smooth sailing from here on out.
