Trigger Warning: Mature language, general scenes of PTSD
The Return - Part 3
Pain.
Suffering.
Agony.
Torture.
Struggle.
Strain.
Ache.
Hurt.
Grief.
Sorrow.
"Doc!"
Pain.
Suffering.
Agony.
Torture.
Struggle.
Strain.
Ache.
Hurt.
Grief.
Sorrow.
"Doc! You need to stop!"
PAIN.
SUFFERING
AGONY.
TORTURE.
STRUGGLE.
STRAIN.
ACHE.
HURT.
GRIEF.
SORROW.
HE'S DEAD.
HE'S DEAD.
HE'S DEAD!
"AMBER!"
Hands grabbed at her shoulders and Amber let out a pained and startled cry. It echoed throughout the small room she was occupying. Her heart burned. Tears streamed down her face and she just screamed.
Over and over and over and over again.
HE'S DEAD!
HE'S DEAD!
HE'S DEAD!
"Amber, you are killing Victoria!"
Amber let out a wet, breathy gasp as the world started to fade back into view. Things started to make sense; puzzle pieces started to reconnect. Threads that had previously been unraveled were starting to get woven back together again.
She was on the ground, her arms wrapped around her torso as if she was the only thing keeping herself together. Her knees ached. She had fallen down, unable to keep herself standing after Sheriff Forbes had alerted her to the news. The moment that Caroline's mom had revealed to her the news, Amber's legs couldn't support her.
Her eyes burned with tears.
Her heart burned with pain.
EVERYTHING BURNED!
"Amber, I need you to breathe!" came the voice again.
She knew that voice.
The Southern, beautiful, and calming voice that steadied her and anchored her.
The closest thing she had to a brother.
Amber breathed in sharply again and suddenly, she could see Lee. He was there, right in her face. Lee was kneeling down in front of her, holding onto her shoulders with tight fingers. There was a slight burn from how tight he was holding onto her, but she could barely feel it. There was concern etched into every line on his face, and Amber could vaguely sense, past all of the emotions that were drowning her, the faintest inkling of panic radiating off of every pore on Lee.
Whatever was happening was freaking him out.
Bad.
"Amber!"
Amber startled, surprised by Lee's harsh tone. He never used that kind of voice with her. His gaze was stern as he demanded, "Doc, I need you to focus up!"
"H-He's dead," Amber stammered, tears leaking out from the corners of her eyes. She let out another sob as she felt her heart continue to break into two. "Lee, h-he's dead!"
"Doc, I don't know who you're talking about," Lee insisted, shaking his head. He moved his hands from her shoulders and up onto her face, cupping her cheeks. His thumbs moved back and forth on her cheekbones, swiping up the tears before they could descend any farther. "Doc, I don't know who you're talking about, but you're projecting your emotions onto Victoria and it's hurting her. It's hurting her really bad. I need you to breathe and to stop."
Amber heard him, but she also didn't hear him. "J-John killed him," Amber cried, shaking her head back and forth.
Oh, the pain.
It hurt.
It hurt so much.
It hurt so much!
"Doc, you are killing Victoria!" Lee argued, gripping her head tighter to still her head motions, but not too bad that it would hurt Amber. "Amber, Victoria's heart isn't beating. Her body is fighting against her because it doesn't understand your negative emotions. Please, I need you to stop!"
"I-I can't!" Amber sobbed.
"Yes, you can," Lee stated firmly, his posture tensing up. "Amber, I don't want to force you to stop, but right now, you are killing Victoria. If you don't stop, she will die and then expose herself to everyone in this hometown. She will have to leave this town and everyone she's ever known, and that's if you don't break her mind with all the negativity."
"J-John killed him, Lee," Amber bawled, hiccupping as the tears and words spilled out of her. "John killed him!"
"Who is him, Amber?" Lee growled, looking more and more concerned. For her. For himself. For Victoria. "Who did John kill?"
"My dad!" Amber cried. "He killed my dad!"
The words that Sheriff Forbes had spoken to her in the small backroom of the Lockwood Estate still bounced around in the back of her mind.
"I'm sorry, Amber, but during the chaos of last night's festivities, your father was attacked. He stepped in when somebody tried to attack me from behind. He...I'm sorry, Amber, but your father didn't make it."
Another sob tore itself from her throat at the thought.
Lee's face betrayed that of sadness and grief and he murmured, "Oh, Doc. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for your dad...and I'm sorry for this."
One of Lee's hands dropped from her face and landed on her neck. There was a brief pinch, and then everything went black.
Damon just wanted to have a nice day.
One singular, nice day.
A nice day that might involve his favorite Mama Bear, a glass of bourbon, and a long vacation. Maybe to Tahiti...
...well, Victoria's didn't like large bodies of water.
Okay, so maybe not an island for a vacation.
But the answer still stood.
He just wanted a vacation.
But alas...
Life in Mystic Falls freaking sucked.
It was actually Carol Lockwood's call-to-arms, which was directed at Damon, that caught his attention over the crowds of soccer moms and elderly folk gossiping to one another. It was a frantic cry of fear. A cry that screamed 'Someone help!'. It was so unlike Carol that it immediately stood out in Damon's ears.
"DAMON!"
Damon had been chilling by the refreshments table, nursing some bad off-brand Kool-Aid that he wished was laced with alcohol, when he had heard Carol's screams. Given the direction the scream came from, there was an issue or situation happening in the foyer of the building. He slammed his drink down onto the table hard, not caring if a little red juice spilled over the side. He shoved himself past other guests at the house to try and get to Carol as fast as he could (you know, without alerting the entire town to the fact that he was a vampire). He had to shoulder-check one guy who was blocking the entrance to the foyer when he finally spotted Carol Lockwood on the ground, kneeling over a figure lying prone on the floorboards. Carol's brother-in-law, Mason, was also there, kneeling down on the figure's other side, looking sick to his stomach.
It wasn't until Carol moved that Damon caught a little hint of red hair.
There was only one person in all of Mystic Falls with red hair (surprisingly).
"Victoria," Damon breathed. He rushed to Carol's side and fell to his knees. He hip-bumped her to get her to scooch over, and the woman just let him move her. "What happened?"
"She just collapsed!" Mason stated in distress, looking like he didn't know what he was supposed to do. "And then she started to convulse and she just stopped when Carol called out for you."
Damon turned his gaze down to Victoria and gave her a hard look, studying her frame to see what clues he could take from her. She was on the ground, her eyes rolled up into the back of her head. Her eyelids were just closed enough that Damon could only see a sliver of the white of her eyes. There was foam collected at the corner of her lips and blood was starting to trickle down from her nose.
And her heart...
...her heart wasn't beating.
"Call an ambulance, now!" Damon shouted towards Carol. To Mason, he added, "Anybody who doesn't need to be in the foyer, get them out, now!" before turning his attention back towards his Mama Bear.
Clinically, she was dead. Carol must have noticed it, and it must have been the reason why she had called for Damon's help (besides the fact that Damon was the closest council member in the room; he had no idea where Liz was and Zach was basically a ghost). Logically, Victoria would be fine. She had come back from worse things (and by the looks of it, this was not-so-great on the list of possible deaths). The issue arose, however, with the fact that Carol Lockwood more than likely heard the no heartbeat. If Victoria just bounced back up, like nothing had happened at all, then her secret would be exposed.
That meant that Damon had to get creative and start her heart back up again.
Damon laced his fingers together and positioned his conjoined hands over Victoria's heart, his subconscious directing his every movement. He muttered quickly under his breath, "Not really how I wanted to get to second base, but beggars can't be choosers." He pressed both of his hands down onto her chest and he started to pump his arms up and down in a steady rhythm. It ordered his limbs around like a dictator. There was no room for error. He had to get her heart beating again.
Up.
Down.
Up.
Down.
Come on, Mama Bear. Beat again, damnit.
Up.
Down.
Up.
Down.
Damon was aware of Lexi and Lee's appearances over his shoulder due to the sudden scent of blood (it was so faint no one would notice, but Damon could tell that the two had nipped out of the party for a small bite to eat). Without stopping what he was doing or taking his attention off of Victoria's non-existent heartbeat, he ordered Lexi, "Her heart's not beating. Probably a seizure. No identifying cause, but it's bad. I need Kelly."
"Ambulance is on their way," Carol chimed in from beside Damon.
"I got Kelly," Lexi reassured him, turning around and bolting off.
"And I think I know the identifying cause," Lee's voice cut in, and it sounded, given his footsteps, that he flipped around and raced off to deal with said identifying cause right then.
Up.
Down.
Up.
Down.
Up.
Down.
Up.
Down.
He kept the pattern going, but it didn't seem like it was working alone.
"Shit," Damon breathed under his breath. He glanced down towards Victoria's face and cursed to himself. "Not got I wanted this to go either. Sorry in advance, Baby."
Damon stopped the CPR. He moved his attention to her head. He placed one hand on her forehead and tilted her head back gently. He carefully, and cautiously, tilted her chin upwards. He took his hand off of her forehead and gently pinched her nostrils shut. He took a deep breath and then bent down, sealing her lips with his own.
He exhaled gently, trying his hardest to remember the random CPR classes he had been forced to take when he decided to dabble as a doctor in the nineties. Gently breathe out for a second, check to see if she was breathing. If not, breathe again a couple times, then repeat the chest compressions.
Damon pulled away from Victoria and checked her chest again. Nothing seemed to be working. "Damn it, Baby, you really like making my blood pressure rise, don't you?" Damon grumbled under his breath before taking another breath. He slotted his lips over Victoria's once more and breathed out once more. When that move didn't work either, Damon returned to his chest compressions, trying to block out the sounds of Carol crying, Mason pacing, and all the general hubbub of the guests.
Up.
Down.
Up.
Down.
Up.
Down.
"Victoria!"
Zach.
Finally.
Somebody who could actually help him.
Damon lifted his gaze up from Victoria and towards the entrance of the house, where his great-nephew came skidding into the home. He had been outside? Surely he had come to the party earlier than that. Focus, Damon! Damon chided to himself. No time to delay. He didn't stop his chest compressions as he addressed his great-nephew, "Zach, I need you to take over chest compressions so I can continue the rescue breathing."
"He's not getting anywhere near her!" Mason suddenly growled, his voice taking on a deadly tone. There was a tick in Mason's jawline as he flipped around to face Zach, and Zach tensed up, like he was ready for a fight. Addressing Zach, Mason spat, "Kelly filled me in."
Filled him in on what?
"I figured she would have," Zach hissed, his eyes looking a little darker than usual for his human face. "Trust Kelly LeBlanc to sneak around behind people's backs."
Sneak around whose back?
"If you go near her," Mason warned, lifting a finger to point it dangerously towards Zach's chest. "I will file for a restraining order."
Restraining order on who now?
What the fuck was going on?
"You have no right to do that!" Zach spat in outrage.
"I am her dad!" Mason shouted.
What the fuck?
"And I am her father!" Zach boomed back with equal volume.
What.
The.
Literal.
Fuck?
"Get the hell out of my house, both of you!" Carol Lockwood suddenly screeched, her voice like molten steel. She gestured for the door. "If you two are going to behave like children while your so-called 'daughter' is dying, then I do not want to see either of you ever again!" She shoved at Damon's shoulder with so much force that he stumbled out of the way. "Out of the way, Damon. You continue the rescue breaths. I got the chest compressions." With that, Carol laced her fingers and started to pound away at Victoria's chest; not as steady as Damon had been doing it, but pretty good given that she had just been a panicking mess a moment before.
Damon just let her do it. There was no point trying to fight back help.
He heard Mason and Zach leave the building, the simmering anger between them beyond ridiculous. He continued the rescue breaths nonetheless, dropping his face down to Victoria's and trying to breathe life into her. In between the kisses of life, he whispered quiet prayers in Italian. If they couldn't save her and bring her heartbeat back naturally, then she was going to be outed. She would have to leave the town, abandon everything that she knew and everyone that she loved.
He wasn't going to let her do that.
He wasn't going to let her go.
Not now.
Not ever.
"Come on, Tori," he heard a voice whisper from behind him. It sounded suspiciously like a teenager's voice who definitely wasn't alive anymore. "Come on, Tori, you just have to breathe. Come on."
"I'm here!" Kelly announced, sliding on her knees like a professional baseball player to Victoria's far side. She planted her hands to stop herself from sliding too far and she twisted around, analyzing Victoria with a critical look. "Damon, I need details."
"I think she had a seizure," Damon gasped as he came up for more oxygen. Stupid body needing human bodily system functions just because I like pie, Damon growled to himself. He paused just long enough to breathe some more into Victoria's lungs, and as he continued to give the download on her condition, he placed his fingers against her pulse to see if any of his and Carol's combined efforts had done anything. So far, nothing. "No clue what brought it on. She had had a fever earlier this morning when she left the hospital, but it broke when she was sleeping."
"Got it," Kelly murmured, her fingers twitching at her side. She whipped her head around and asked in astonishment, "Is that the ambulance?"
Carol's head whipped to the side and her chest compressions faltered as her hands lifted slightly off of Victoria's body. Damon saw the little gears flicking in Kelly's mind and quickly yanked his hands off of Victoria's body.
In that moment that both he and Carol weren't touching Victoria, Kelly's hands darted forward and a small bolt of lightning leapt from the mother's fingertips and into her daughter's chest. Victoria's body flinched as a result of the shock. Kelly's gaze locked onto Damon's and he reached his fingers out, testing her pulse.
Nothing.
He shook his head.
Kelly's teeth gritted together, the moment to try and shock Victoria once more come and gone as Carol returned her attention back towards the teenager.
"The ambulance is here!" Carol announced.
Kelly jumped on the opportunity that Carol presented to her. "I got her compressions. Carol, go meet them outside and lead them here."
"On it!" Carol agreed, nodding her head and jumping to her feet. She raced out of the room and Damon snapped his arms back again as Kelly placed both of her hands onto Victoria's chest.
"Clear!" Kelly hissed before another round of lightning hit Victoria. There was more electricity running through the downed Immortalis' body this time, so her body jerked harder. As soon as Kelly's hands stopped sparking, Damon focused his hearing down onto Victoria.
Still nothing.
"It's not working!" Damon growled, moving to start up the rescue breaths again. "Where are those damned EMTs?"
"Right here."
Damon's head shot up as he watched two EMTs (plus Carol, who was trailing behind them) enter the house. One male, one female. The female walked in carrying a duffle bag while the male stayed busy dragging in the stretcher. His back was turned to Damon, so he couldn't see his face, but Damon would recognize the back of that head until the end of his days (which was never).
"Now is not the time to be playing dress-up, Brother," Damon scoffed, rolling his eyes.
The man stopped pulling the gurney and turned around at Damon's comment.
It was Stefan Salvatore...
...and yet...
...it wasn't.
His hair was flatter than Stefan's. There wasn't as much poof to it. It was a very sensible haircut, if Damon was being honest. There was a lightness and almost (dare Damon say) a bounce to this stranger's step. The haunted look that always lurked in the background of Stefan's green eyes wasn't there in this man's face. And there was that too. This man was a man, not a child, like Stefan was. Sure, Stefan had lived for over a hundred years, and that certainly aged a guy in ways, but this man had an experience that seemed even out of reach from Stefan.
"I can assure you, Brother, that I have all the experience necessary," this Stefan-not-Stefan man explained with a twinge of a Southern accent.
Damon was so haunted and in shock at the Stefan-not-Stefan man that he was frozen as the woman and man came over and checked up on Victoria. Moments later, the Stefan-not-Stefan swooped up Victoria off of the floor. Damon only came to his senses again when the Stefan-not-Stefan man set Victoria down on the stretcher and started to give her body another check.
Damon leapt to his feet and took a step forward to come back in contact with Victoria when the female paramedic stepped in his way, a hand held up to stop his movements. Damon turned to glare down at the female in front of him, who held his gaze firmly. "I'm sorry, Sir, but you can't come in the ambulance with us. You'll have to drive to the hospital yourself."
"I'm not leaving her!" Damon spat, turning his glaring eyes onto the smaller woman. "So you can either get out of my way or I will make you get out of my way."
"Vanessa!" the Stefan-not-Stefan called out, making both Damon and the woman turn to look at him (though the woman did roll her eyes before she threw that look over her shoulder). The man in question had his fingers pressed down against Victoria's throat and he didn't bother looking up from the adult-turned-teen as he said, "Let him come."
"Look, I know things might be a little different down in Georgia, but -"
"- Her heart started beating again the moment he verbally threatened you," Stefan-not-Stefan taunted, looking up and giving the female paramedic, Vanessa, a hard look. "She wants him to come, and I am not one to argue with a woman once she sets her mind to something, so he's going to come."
Vanessa's face frowned at that comment, but she just rolled her eyes. "Whatever. She dies, it's going on your record, not mine."
"Done," the Stefan-not-Stefan agreed.
Vanessa raced past the gurney, duffle bag still in hand, and Stefan-not-Stefan snapped his fingers at Damon, pointing to the other side of the gurney. "Get the other side. We can get her out together."
Damon rushed forward and attached himself to the other side of the gurney. Stefan-not-Stefan directed the three of them (Damon was for sure including Victoria in that count) out of the door. If the mysterious lookalike had a comment on Damon's surprising strength when they got her down the stairs without any fuss, he didn't make it. Getting into the ambulance was a piece of cake too, and it was only then that the lookalike commented, "Okay, paramedics around the world could learn a thing or two from you. How much do you bench-press? Ever thought about working in medicine?"
Damon slipped into the back of the ambulance, reaching forward and grabbing Victoria's hand once he found himself a good place to be. It helped steady him, at least. He hoped it steadied her too. "I dabbled with it for a while once. Never made anything of it."
"A shame," the man sniffed as he jumped into the back. He slammed the doors shut with a loud THUD, and a moment later, the siren of the ambulance roared to life. The vehicle jumped forward and started to race down the streets.
Stefan-not-Stefan busied himself with attaching a heart monitor to Victoria's finger (not aware that he had a vampiric heart monitor in the trunk with him), checking Victoria's blood pressure (atrocious, but that was to be expected; when was the last time she had eaten anything?), hooking her up to an IV to help and solve the blood pressure issue, and then hooking up an oxygen mask for her. He ordered Damon to hold it, since he was in the back too, and Damon complied.
"She your girlfriend?"
Damon blinked, and then finally peeled his gaze away from Victoria's face to look at the man who looked eerily like his younger brother. He wasn't looking up at Damon, too busy writing things down on his clipboard and occasionally sneaking a glance at Victoria's vitals.
Damon's brain finally processed the question and he shook his head. "No, not my girlfriend."
"Brother? Cousin? Any blood relation?"
"No to all three."
"Brother-from-another-mother?" the man threw in, finally looking up at Damon with a playfully quirked eyebrow.
"I have no idea what that even means," Damon rasped.
The man shrugged and scribbled something else onto his few sheets of paper. "Found family and all that good stuff." He paused, then looked up into Damon's eyes. His eyes widened, as if knowingly, and he sort of sunk in on himself. "You're in love with her."
Damon scoffed, and shook his head. "No, I'm not."
The lookalike just sighed. "Look, I know I'm just some random guy you've never met before -" never mind the fact that you look identical to my younger brother and I have no idea as to why "- but I've learned a thing or two about love in the few years I've been here on this big old rock. If you ever need to talk about it on this seven minute or less trip, then -"
He was cut off when the machines started to go wild.
The heart monitor's beeps started to become more and more aggressive and Damon sat up straighter, looking towards the machine. "What does that mean?" He didn't recognize the readings, but it had been two decades since he had needed to know what they meant.
"Hell," his companion swore.
Yeah, that didn't bode well.
The man stood up (as much as he could in the small room) and leaned over Victoria, gently patting the sides of her face as he gazed down at her. "C'mon, sweetheart, you can do it. We're almost there. Don't give up just now."
A solid beep.
One long tone.
Flatlining.
"Oh, that's the relationship the two of us are going to have, is it?" the man hissed before clambering up onto Victoria's gurney. He straddled Victoria, interlocking his fingers, and he started the chest compressions. They were hard, precise, and strong. Damon winced when he heard some of the ribs in Victoria's ribcage crack under the strength of this seemingly human guy. Over the sounds of the flatlining, Stefan-not-Stefan shouted, "Vanessa! We need to be at the hospital, now!"
"Going as fast as I can!" Vanessa shouted back, her voice softer than the mystery man's.
Lookalike turned from Victoria and to Damon, though his hands never stopped their steady rhythm. "Threaten her."
Excuse me?
What now?
"Threaten who?" Damon demanded, both immediately intrigued and nervous as hell.
"Threaten Vanessa," the man explained, his eyes moving to check on the heart monitor. Nothing yet. "Little Miss here -"
"- Victoria. Her name is Victoria. LeBlanc -"
"- Well then, Victoria seemed to like it when you threatened her, so threaten her!"
"Okay, okay!" Damon scoffed. He turned his head towards the front of the ambulance as he felt it take a hard right corner, nearly catapulting the man who looked like his brother straight into him. "Vanessa! Your grandmother would be disappointed because of your reckless driving, damnit! Defensive driving is safe driving!"
"Bitch, my grandmother would be disappointed that I'm driving so slow and not recklessly enough!" came Vanessa's sarcastic reply.
Damon just groaned and turned back to the lookalike guy. "I don't see how this is -"
He cut himself off when the little heartrate monitor started to beep again, jumping up and down with a perfect little rhythm. Even through the foggy oxygen mask that Damon was keeping cemented onto Victoria's face, he could barely spot the faintest hint of a smile.
"Well I'll be darned," Stefan-not-Stefan chuckled, glancing towards the monitor. "Would you look at that?" He clambered off of Victoria and took a heavy seat beside the teen, opposite from Damon once more. He leaned forward, dropping his voice low enough that a normal human wouldn't have heard him over the roar of the ambulance's siren, but not too low that Damon couldn't hear him. "Good job, sweetheart. Keep that up until the hospital and I'll be obligated to buy you a gift from the gift shop, huh?"
Which brought up a whole new question in Damon's mind.
Does the Mystic Falls Hospital even have a gift shop?
That question kept him occupied as Vanessa brought them around to the emergency room entrance of the Mystic Falls Hospital. She and Stefan-not-Stefan went into work mode as they laid out all the details they knew about Victoria to the doctors who came to take control of her care. Damon caught eyes with Dr. Nicholson, giving him a nod that the man returned. Damon trusted Dr. Nicholson to watch over Victoria (at least in the area of the hospital). Thankfully, Kelly arrived in her car at the exact same moment that they got to the hospital, so she started spouting out all the other information that the doctors needed for her.
"Tom."
Damon blinked and turned towards the Stefan-not-Stefan guy. The two of them were leaning against the ambulance together. He was standing tall, watching as the doctors and Kelly rolled Victoria into the hospital and out of view (Vanessa had gone to grab herself some coffee, because, and Damon quotes, "Bitch, I was not suspecting to do a run today"). Damon made a confused noise, and the man repeated, "That's my name. Tom. Tom Avery." He stuck out a hand towards Damon, turning his head to look towards Damon.
Damon grabbed Tom's hand firmly and gave it a good handshake. "Damon Salvatore." He let go of Tom's hand and turned his gaze back towards the entrance to the emergency room. "Has anyone ever told you that you look a hell of a lot like my younger brother?"
"You'd be the first," Tom chuckled, shaking his head. "But hey, I'll take it. You seem like a pretty good guy, Damon. Do us all a favor." He reached over and patted Damon's shoulder hard. "Tell her how you feel. The longer you wait, the quicker you'll lose her."
With that, Tom sauntered off towards the hospital, making a beeline in the direction that one sign said was towards the cafeteria. Damon just watched him in silence, not sure how to react to his words.
A moment later, his phone started to buzz and that gave him a slight reprieve from weird comments given to him by suspiciously familiar looking guys. Damon answered it without looking at the caller I.D. and simply stated, "Talk to me."
"It was Amber," Lee said immediately, sounding thoroughly exhausted.
Damon's brow furrowed slightly and he sniffed, "Emotional Barbie? What about her?"
"It was Amber that was causing Victoria pain. She was the one who made Victoria seize," Lee explained tiredly.
Damon's hand gripped the casing of his phone just a little tighter after that. "Well, she better have a good-ass excuse as to why she risked exposing herself and all of us to the good citizens of Mystic Falls -"
"- John Gilbert murdered her father last night."
Damon paused, then closed his eyes slowly and just breathed out, "Shit." He took a moment to center his thoughts and then proceeded to speak as calmly as he could (Victoria would have been proud of him in that moment), "And lemme guess: today was the first time that Liz could find Amber and so she told her."
"Her father was the last person that Amber had in her direct family," Lee said. "Her mom doesn't see her anymore and her dad was kind of her person, you know? It didn't hurt that he was an Empath too. Given what I've been able to learn from details from Sheriff Forbes, Mr. Bradley came to the celebration because Amber begged him to come into town."
"So we're going to have another emotional, guilt-ridden teenager now?" Damon simplified, and Lee made a 'mhmm' noise from over the line. "And because she doesn't have a strong hold on her powers -"
"- She naturally let them go," Lee finished for Damon. "She's only emotionally connected to Victoria because of the bombing at Ms. Gibbons' house. Because of that, her powers were funneled straight into Victoria. Given that her emotional psyche has been shit too, well..."
"No bueno for any of us," Damon grunted, shaking his head. "How did you stop Amber?"
"Little trick I picked up from Lexi back when we first started dating," Lee told him. "There's this fun little nerve on a person's neck that basically causes the person to black out without pain. No harm, and if done correctly, no foul. Lexi's taking Amber back to our house while I go check up on Care-Bear."
"I'll keep an eye on her until you stop by," Damon promised Lee. "See you in a few."
"See you soon, Damon."
Three cracked ribs.
One broken rib.
Irritated muscles surrounding the vocal cords in the throat.
A concussion from when her head collided with the tiled floors after the seizure had started.
In addition to whatever brain damage she had occurred from when she had had the stroke.
A stroke.
Victoria had had a stroke.
She never would have seen that one coming.
Victoria had been in and out of consciousness. She remembered being awake, at least in the sense of her hearing, when the doctor was reading off the list of injuries to Damon, who had managed to compel his way into the room. She fell off quickly after that, but when she awoke again (at least, her hearing), she heard her mother sitting at her bedside, whispering small prayers for her. At one point or another, she thought she heard Zach's voice whispering short comforts from the other side of the door. Even at one point, she thought she heard Pearl's voice talking to her, which was really weird because Victoria hadn't seen Pearl since the fire.
When she woke up, this time with all of her senses intact, Victoria could say that she wasn't that surprised to find herself back into a hospital bed. For a second, she was positive that the events of the last few hours hadn't happened. That the body bag, the weird Mind Vicki moment, and the weird sparks on her hand were all figments of her imagination. That the Mason Lockwood moment had all been a very, very weird fever dream.
Though, she was surprised by one thing when she woke up.
The person who was sitting at her bedside in the complimentary chair.
"S-Stefan?" Victoria rasped, blinking her eyes in disbelief. She glanced around the room tiredly and didn't spot anybody else. "Where's everybody else?"
"I managed to convince Damon to slip on out and grab some grub," Stefan answered, but his voice sounded weird. Almost...Southern? Like he was trying to impersonate Lee, but with his own Stefan-like twist. "He was on you like a hawk, but I managed to twist his arm enough to go and get some food. Meanwhile, we got some gents outside the room, but one of the ladies who was with you when we came to pick you is keeping them out until you feel ready to face them. Don't know who else is in your posse, so I can't be the true judge. Also, is Stefan Damon's younger brother? He mentioned that the two of us have a startling resemblance."
Victoria's forehead crinkled as the confusion started to slip in all around her. She licked her lips and winced as a spike of pain raced through her head. She let out a baby whimper and Stefan (?) scooted his chair closer so he could reach up and place a hand on her forehead.
It was warm.
Remarkably warm.
Too warm.
Stefan's hand could never get that warm, not even with a boatload of coffee (and he had tried once after Elena commented on how chilly it was to cuddle with Stefan in the mornings).
The steady beeping of her heartrate monitor started to pick up, and Stefan (?) picked up on that. He shushed Victoria very gently, his hand on her forehead lifting up to gently brush at her hairline. "Easy there, sweetheart. I'm a friend, I swear. I mean, if that Damon fellow likes me enough to let me watch over you, and let's be honest here, he seems a bit of a control freak when it comes to you, you got to have a little faith in me."
Well, when one puts it that way, how could she argue?
"Don't call me that."
"What? Sweetheart?" Stefan (?) asked, tilting his head to one side. Victoria nodded and her heartrate started to drop, going back to normal. "Is that Damon's nickname for you?"
"He calls me Mama Bear," Victoria corrected, shaking her head. She didn't know what compelled her to add, "My...My mother used to call me sweetheart."
Stefan (?) pulled a face and glanced back towards the door to her little room. Realizing her mistake, she made a verbal noise that drew his attention back to her. "No, no. Not her. That's Kelly, my adopted mom. My biological mom used to call me sweetheart."
"Oh," Stefan (?) sighed, nodding his head. "I see. Sorry for stepping on some toes. You got a different nickname I can call you then?"
"Everybody calls me something different," Victoria whispered. "Damon calls me Mama Bear, most of my high school friends call me Tori, then Stefan's best friend, Lexi, calls me Vee-Bee. Lee calls me Sugar, and then Katherine, my...friend, calls me Ria. My mom, my adopted mom, also calls me baby girl."
"So I get some creativity?" Stefan (?) asked, and Victoria nodded. "Sweet. I'm Tom, by the way. Tom Avery."
Victoria knew she should be startled.
She knew she should be panicking because there was no feasible reason as to why Tom, Tom as in Stefan's exact lookalike and other descendant, should be up in Mystic Falls, Virginia, when he was from Atlanta, Georgia.
But she was too tired to really care enough to react.
"I'm Victoria LeBlanc," Victoria introduced herself and she comically lifted an IV-hooked up arm out to Tom. Tom brought his hand around and gently took his hand in hers, shaking it lightly before placing it back tenderly on her stomach. Even though she knew the answer, she couldn't help but ask, "You from around here?"
"I wish," Tom chuckled, shaking his head. "You look like a good group of people. Nah, I'm actually from farther down south. Georgia, believe it or not."
"Oh, fancy," Victoria giggled weakly.
"You born and raised here?"
"Depends on who you ask," Victoria teased and she giggled again when Tom raised an eyebrow in question. "It's a long, long complicated story, but I'll tell you that I got into a bad car accident last May and went into a coma for a while and got amnesia. Can't remember my direct past, but I do remember things about others from before the accident."
Tom's face betrayed sympathy and he cooed gently, "Sorry to hear that. Sounds like you haven't exactly had an easy life."
Yeah, and I haven't even told you about the visage of my dead friend who shows up in my mind and all the times I've died in the last three to four months.
"Yeah, it hasn't been easy," Victoria finished lamely. "What brings you up from Georgia?"
"Believe it or not, I came up for some training," Tom explained, shifting slightly in his seat so he could recline more. His hand transferred from Victoria's forehead to her hand at her side, where he gently rested it above hers. "Sort of like a little workshop. I had just arrived at the hospital, got my partner for the workshop, and we had just got our radios hooked up to the required frequency for some practice runs when the call for an EMT at the Mayor's house came in. We were the ones who were the most ready so we swung around and picked you up." He got a little sparkle in his eye that made Victoria grin. Tom maybe had a decade on Stefan when it came to physical age, but he was much more boyish than his lookalike and it made Victoria feel like a kid again. "GPS is a marvelous thing."
"Talk about timing," Victoria laughed. "Well, I'm glad you guys were around."
You're a monster!
Victoria paused and the smile and joy on her face slowly drained off, but she tried to play it off like she was tired by yawning.
Tom, however, caught on to it immediately and gave her hand a squeeze, giving her a really parental look. "Hey there. Stay in the present here, Red. Don't go down to the dark."
The words fell from Victoria's mouth before she could fully stop them, and the way her voice cracked revealed just how broken she felt inside. "It's really hard not to."
"I know," Tom consoled, his thumb gently starting to rub back and forth on the back of her hand. "But think of things this way, okay? Life is only beautiful because of death. We wouldn't have light if it wasn't for dark, and we don't have wins unless we have losses. What's happened to you makes you...well, you. So things may suck right now, but things will always seem greener on the other side of the pasture. Your job is to make your pasture greener. Things can't grow if you don't water them -"
"- Diamonds only arise under extreme pressure?" Victoria finished for him.
Tom chuckled. "We can go with that. Ain't never seen diamonds in real life, though. Think they're really as shiny as they seem?"
"Oh, they are for sure," Victoria and a new voice both agreed at the same time.
A head that looked remarkably like Elena's popped in from the hallway, but it was the sparkle in her dark eyes that really told Victoria who she was looking at.
Katherine.
Tom sat up in his seat at the arrival of a new person and Victoria didn't miss the way that his eyes roamed over her frame (in his defense, he was trying to be subtle, but there was no way that Katherine missed that). "Red, who's this?"
"Tom, meet Katherine," Victoria said, giving Katherine a hard stare that she hoped read 'Don't hurt him or I will personally kill you'. "Kat, meet Tom, the paramedic who took me to the hospital."
"Pleasure," Katherine drawled, openly giving him a look that read 'seduction'. "It's so rare to see such familiar looking faces in these parts."
"Well, maybe I've just got that kind of face," Tom laughed, and a charming grin came to his lips.
"Maybe," Katherine purred. "Do you mind if I steal Ria for a few moments? I know the thing that'll get her to her feet quick is some girly gossip and she's missed a lot."
Victoria groaned and lifted her head off of her pillow just to give Katherine another look. "How long have I been here?"
"Well, considering the sky is now dark," Katherine began, only to be interrupted by Victoria's groan of frustration.
A whole day.
She had missed an entire day.
She had missed a day because she had been trapped in a body bag, then sleeping from a fever, sleeping in Damon's arms, then being partially dead (after she hit the ground at the party, she could have sworn to have woken up in her place of peace, but the area never really solidified for her).
Season 2 sucked.
"Hey, easy now, Red," Tom chided, gently swatting her hand. "Remember our discussion from seconds ago?"
"Positivity, blah, blah, blah," Victoria whined, sighing. "Yeah, I remember."
"Then put it to practice," Tom warned her. "Here." He pulled a tiny slip of paper from his pocket and passed it over to her, making sure she had it gripped tightly in her hands. "This is my number. You need some positive reinforcement, you call me, capiche?"
"Capiche."
He gave her hand a final squeeze before pushing himself up and out of his chair. He walked around Victoria's bed and carefully sidled past Katherine. "I'll leave you two to it then. I'm gonna stop by the gift shop and get you a little gift that'll remind you to stay positive -"
"- or else?"
"Sure, or else," Tom laughed. "I'll see you later, ladies."
He walked out of the room and Katherine and Victoria were silent for a solid minute before Katherine gasped, "Holy shit. Did you see those arms? McDreamy has nothing on him, I swear."
"Why are you here, Katherine?" Victoria demanded, ignoring her previous statement to just jump straight to the topic at hand.
Katherine's playful demeanor dropped and she strode forward, planting her hands on her hips. "You know why I'm here, Ria."
And she did.
Victoria knew.
But damn it all, she had been trying to prevent it.
Couldn't really do much of that if she was lying in a hospital bed of her own.
"Please don't do it," Victoria whispered, her voice cracking as tears suddenly sprung to her eyes. Her heart was breaking right before her eyes and there was nothing she could do to stop it. "Please, Katherine, I am begging you. Please don't do it."
"I don't have a choice, Ria," Katherine replied, her words firm but her tone much softer and gentler than it had been. "You know that."
"I-I'll stop you," Victoria dared, trying to push herself up onto her elbows.
Katherine just stepped forward and pressed hard on her sternum. Victoria's limbs couldn't support her and she flopped back down onto the bed with a grunt. Katherine leaned forward and shook her head. "I doused your blankets with wyrmwood."
"Z-Zach will stop you then."
"He's suddenly been called away by Elena who swore that she saw Katherine outside of her house just minutes ago. Damon too. He didn't want to leave you, but blessed Tom was watching over you, so there was no need to worry."
"Lee won't let you hurt her," Victoria swore.
Katherine just laughed. "Please, Ria. He's as much a threat to me as an ant is to a cat. I'm not worried about sweet Alexander."
"Please, Katherine," Victoria begged. In a desperate attempt, she reached up and grabbed Katherine's arm with both of her arms and held on. She tried to hold on as best as she could. "I'm begging you. Pick somebody, anybody else. Don't kill her. It will haunt her for years."
"Everyone has their own demons they need to fight, Ria," Katherine murmured, a look of regret in her eyes. "It's not my fault that mine just so happen to be from the devil himself." Katherine took her free hand and reached up and gently brushed the tears from Victoria's cheeks. "I don't want to do this, Ria, but this is the best option that I've come up with. For me, for Care-Bear, and for you. Oh, and for Kelly."
"For Kelly -?" Victoria started, her forehead crinkling.
Katherine met her gaze and there was a sparkle in her eyes that wasn't there before. A chill raced down Victoria's spine when she realized what that sparkle was.
Compulsion.
And she wasn't wearing her anklet or necklace.
She hadn't had them on when she had gotten into the body bag.
"You will fall into a deep sleep. Your body will heal, because it has nothing better to do. You will not wake up until Caroline Forbes reaches you and calls out your name. Once she does, this compulsion will break," Katherine ordered, and Victoria could already feel her eyelids becoming heavier and heavier. "I'm sorry, Ria. I truly am. I'm just trying to save your lives."
A/N: That moment when Tom Avery just randomly shows up waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay earlier than you ever planned for him to show up...so yeah. He's here now too XD. I'm so excited for the next chapter! It's one of my personal favorites (maybe cuz it is reaaaaally angsty). I've had to rewrite so many of these chapters because they've been little pains in the behinds, but I will say that I am so grateful that I wrote these out ahead. I got sick again (whoo) and it's so nice to just write these author notes and not have to plan a whole chapter out. My show's going pretty good too, although a lot of people just chit-chat instead of focusing, which is really annoying.
TO CLARIFY FOR EVERYONE!: Mason is not Victoria's biological father. Zach is not Victoria's biological father. She was adopted as a baby from the side of the road and her biological parents have not come into play...just yet.
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Onto reviews!:
BrookeWorm3: Welp, sorry XD. Victoria will definitely come into her powers more this season. We got two new powers of hers from later Season 1 that we need to discuss more (the weird premonition thing she got when she touched Vicki's hand through the mirror in Miss Mystic Falls Part 4 and the window teleportation in the Season 1 Finale). All paternal things will be explained in time.
Child of Dreams: IDK.
DBZFAN45: Yeaaaaah, as Victoria states in the end of this chapter, Season 2 sucks for her. Victoria really needs a vacation. Hell, all of them do. I will just say, you are very close with your idea of Victoria being a neutrel evil, but I will say this: which Victoria? Was that person in the mirror really Mind Vicki or somebody else? You really could play a bingo board with how many supernaturals are in Mystic Falls. Just wait until the hybrids, original vampires, werewolves, and all that lovely jazz strolls up.
kafo521: Hey kafo! It's been a while! Thank you! I'm happy to answer! 1. Mason is one of the "dads" who helped raise her (remember in the Season 1 Finale that Zach mentions that Kelly broke up with him when Victoria was just shy of 14, so hypothetically, Mason could have started Kelly around when Victoria was 14 to now); he is not her biological father. Her bio dad will actually come into play in a much later chapter. 2. She was having relations with both of them at a similar time, but not at the same time. There was at least a few months of separation between her and Zach before she started dating Zach. 3. There is a moment way back when Tyler is talking to Victoria and mentions that he had everything "explained" to him. It will get explained later, but Kelly basically told everyone to keep comments about Mason being her "dad" out of their mouths because of amnesia reasons (back before Kelly realized that Victoria was a Wanderer like herself). 4. No, Victoria killing people won't trigger a werewolf curse because there is no blood between herself and Mason, so she is free of that. 5. No, not necessarily. It'll make sense way later, but for now, Katherine likes Victoria for her own personal reasons that will eventually come into play. 6. IDK, you guys would have to tell me XD. I'm so honored that people would say that this story is addictive, because there are times when I'm like, "I can see it" and others when I'm just like "Ummmmmmmm...sure?". Thank you so much!
Well, I'm going to go work on the next few chapters now, maybe dabble in some other stories that really need to have another chapter posted, and whatnot. Until next time, my lovelies, on the 17th!
Until next time,
Stay healthy and stay safe!
BecomingFearless1F