Author's note: Hi everyone!

Thanks for the love, beautiful souls! Your lovely words all mean so much to me – and it feels incredibly validating to know that a story is appreciated, because we writers put our hearts and souls into them. :)


Mid-October 2009

Sheila Bennett felt a disturbance in the air around her – a familiarity. She felt it every time a witch of the Bennett line was nearby. When she was a child, surrounded by a large and loving family, the feeling warmed, embraced, comforted her. She was surrounded by it at all times – so much so that she'd taken it for granted, and when she moved away for college, she was shocked and dismayed that the familiar warmth with which she'd been so acquainted wasn't just a given aspect of existence.

And she suddenly felt quite cold and alone. Her heart constricted even more when she realized that this must be how most people felt comparatively at all times.

Because being around other witches of the Bennett line strengthened her connection to Nature, and it was the Magic itself that embraced her, that loved her, that made her whole.

Over time, she learned to hone her talents, and being surrounded by other Bennett witches became unnecessary for her to feel this bond.

And yet, it was always sweet, recognizable, and treasured.

So it was on this strange night that she felt it again. But the signature was unusual – there was something darker about it, colder.

Something not quite alive.

With a start, she realized what it must have been.

A vampire.

Slowly, cautiously, preparing for an attack, she opened her front door, to find a young lady on the other side, wearing an enigmatic smile.

"Hello, Sheila," the stranger drawled delicately, the honeyed timbre of her voice soft as a Summer song in the crisp Autumn air. "I've been looking forward to meeting you."

"Who are you?" Sheila asked warily, though she knew the query to be false.

Her interlocutor only continued to smile serenely. "You know exactly who I am, Sheila. You've seen me through the scrying fires, and in your dreams. You've caught glimpses of me on the Astral Plane. You learned the legends.

"Aurelia Bennett," Sheila breathed, astounded to see perhaps the most famous living – if one could call it that – member of the Bennett line on her porch.


The girls finally made it to their desired spot. Deep in the forest, Elena, Anna, Bonnie, and Caroline placed started assembling their nighttime picnic for the rest of the night as they prepared to star and Lamia comet gaze – away from the bustle of town square – a trip they made at Anna's insistence.

The blanket was spread; the pillows fluffed; the snacks and precious stolen wine bottle taken out of their picnic basket.

They were giddy to finally spend time together, to catch up, and to gush over everything the year would entail.

Away from the town's lights, the night sky looked absolutely majestic. The expanse of the Milky Way stretched across the expanse of their vision; the dark velvet of the night sky littered with gloriously incandescent light as the stars shone above them. Off-center, toward the eastern horizon, was the breathtaking beauty of the Lamia comet, seemingly frozen in the night, though its relative distance made its apparent velocity misleading due to parallax. It only appeared to not move, because it was so far away, Anna explained. Parallax was how astronomers determined the relative distance of stars.

For Caroline, it was an opportunity to tell the girls about her latest addition to their cheer choreography, even though out of all present, Bonnie was the only other remaining cheerleader. Elena finally quit, feeling a weight lift off her shoulders. Dreamily, she remembered how Damon noticed her morose behavior on the field – how she didn't look happy cheering anymore. She felt so seen…

And then she abruptly stopped herself. In two days' time, they would open the tomb. It didn't matter how seen she felt, because Damon would take his beloved Katherine, and be gone, anyway.

"Elena, are you okay?" Bonnie asked, seeing her friend's facial expression shift.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Elena lied. "Just worried about exams."

"Well, look who's finally taking school seriously again!" Caroline exclaimed. "You've been so 'blah' since May that sometimes I think you're sleepwalking. We're in our Junior year now, and college prep is coming soon – and no school worth their salt is going to care that your grades are slipping because your parents –" she stopped, eyes wide in shock as she took in the admonishing expressions on her friends' faces, and the pained look on Elena's. "I'm sorry!" she cried, considerably more contrite. "I don't know why I said that, but I really care, I promise. I'm just competitive, and I get carried away, and I wanted –"

"I know, Care," Elena finally said, trying desperately to infuse some emotion in her voice that made her sound reassuring instead of the ball of pain she became as soon as her trauma was haphazardly thrown in her face. "I know you meant well."

"Who wants wine?" Anna asked, opening the bottle, and arranging the glasses, knowing from experience that situations like these needed a cheerful distraction, and fast.

"Me!" Bonnie exclaimed, immediately picking up Anna's intention, and holding out her glass.

Once the wine was flowing, the conversation began to sparkle with laughter and the night's mood of merriment and cheer was veritably saved. The comet hung gloriously overhead, a beaming light of hope, of long-awaited reunions, of blossoming love. Soon after, they heard a rustling in the grass and the object of Elena's very own blossoming love approached, all swagger and black leather and a mischievous smirk sultry enough to melt the frostiest exterior.

Elena released a shuddering breath as she felt everything inside her come to life in his presence, having only seen him for brief moments since she practically ran out of the Boarding House a few weeks ago. In that time, she and Anna had successfully stolen his rather impressive collection of designer tees and button downs – mostly sampling all across the spectrum of black and black adjacent – forcing him to make an emergency run to Richmond luxury boutiques and department stores because he 'wouldn't be caught dead looking like It's-a-Hallmark-Christmas movie endgame.' He, in turn, had gotten his revenge by compelling the school staff to rig the sprinklers to go off at the Fall Foliage dance, right as Elena and Anna entered the gym. They, in turn, convinced the Founding Femmes that Damon requested their presence for a 'special conference' in his bedroom, after spiking their drinks with vervain so he wouldn't be able to compel them to leave. Let him deal with the fallout of his own actions, they cackled.

Now it seemed that Damon not only got his original wardrobe returned, since he appeared to be clad in the exact shirt he wore on the night he and Elena danced in the Boarding House's parlor, but he and Anna seemed to make up, as she nodded to him and quickly walked off to speak to him without so much as a 'I'll be back' to her friends. Damon just winked at Elena and walked into a whispering huddle with Anna, lost in an intense discussion.

"What's up with them?" Caroline asked excitedly, gossip-meter up, the only one present out of the loop of the tomb plans.

"They're old family friends, Care – probably family stuff," Elena reasoned, not really wishing to expand on what she assumed the conversation topic would be. The tomb – of course, it was the tomb. What else could it be, she thought sourly.

"Let's leave them be for now and just focus on us," Bonnie said wisely, taking the bottle of wine to pour another round for her friends and grabbing some of their snacks to build the charcuterie board that Anna assembled.

It didn't take long for another nighttime visitor to suddenly interrupt Girl Skygazing Night, when suddenly, Stefan Salvatore appeared. "Hi, ladies. What are you three doing here all by yourselves?" he asked with a tone just broaching concern, but he also didn't seem entirely surprised to see them, so he'd probably been planning his approach for a while.

Caroline positively preened – preened. "Hi, Stefan!" she chirped, grooming her hair. "We're having a little girls' night, watching the stars and the comet."

"Oh, then don't let me interrupt –" he began to say politely.

"No!" Caroline immediately took the bait. "Please stay. We'd love to have you join us. Wouldn't we, girls?" She pointed turned to Elena and Bonnie, daring them to disagree, much to their barely-stifled groans.

"Sure, of course," Elena said dispassionately. "What you doing here, Stefan? Isn't it late for you to be out, too? And so far away from the house. These woods are so full of wild animals, and you're out all alone," she tutted, knowing that he was probably out hunting, and hoping he wasn't actually stalking them, like he apparently tried to do to her over the Summer, if Anna's tales were to be believed.

"Just out for a walk," he replied. "I wanted to catch the comet before it was too late."

"Please join us," Bonnie said diplomatically, though her tone lacked its usual warmth. While Anna was undoubtedly her friend, she was still decidedly uncomfortable around both Salvatores. Something about their auras distinctly unsettled her.

"Thank you, Bonnie, Elena, Caroline," he replied, making his patented intense eye contact with each girl in turn as he took a seat on their blanket.

"You know, that comet," he looked up, looking broody as ever, forehead wrinkles out in full force. "it's been traveling across space for thousands of years. All alone."

"Grams says it's a harbinger of evil," Bonnie winced, knowing what the comet would come to represent within days, and precisely what her grandmother thought of it.

"I think it's just a ball of," he dropped the tone of his voice, affecting a what he likely thught was a sensual timbre, but instead came across as a bit mopey and sad. Or maybe that's what Stefan thought was attractive – and clearly the height of cleverness. It certainly seemed to be working on Caroline. "Snow and ice, trapped on a path that it can't escape. And once every hundred and forty-five years, it gets to come home."

Suddenly, Stefan's attempt at seduction was interrupted by uproarious laughter from Damon and Anna, who finally saw fit to interrupt their hushed huddle and approach the source of their cackling amusement.

"You mean an orbit? Like literally every object in space? Where's Earth coming home to? Jupiter's ass – ?"

"Shut on, Damon!" Stefan interrupted. "You're not wanted here."

"Okay, Stef, I was so wrong. I'm big enough to admit it! You definitely needed to go back to high school," Damon said patronizingly. "Comets aren't born on Earth, Steffie. This isn't their home. It's probably a big, freezing place called the Oort Cloud – probably. – just like mommy and daddy Salvatore's hearts. I'd elaborate, but I don't want you to hurt yourself putting it all together."

"Or the Kuiper belt," Anna added once she was able to restrain her laughter. "That's where comets go shopping for accessories so they come home to Earth looking all stylish."

"I was being metaphorical," Stefan said through gritted teeth. "Shouldn't you two be conspiring? What are you doing here, anyway, Damon?"

"Oh, no, this is so much better," Anna said cheekily. "Please, continue. Pretend we're not here."

"He's run out of cliches for the night. Stef's only got so many cheesy derivative lines in him before he's forced to rely on his backups – the world's most crowded forehead and most product-filled hero-hair," Damon sassed.

The girls were stifling laughter in varying degrees, with Elena perhaps failing the most – the sound of her laughter made Damon's heart lurch. Unwilling to examine the sudden lightness in his very being, the smile – the very genuine physical manifestation of happiness – that rose on his face of its own volition, he instead opted to ignore this entirely and plough ahead with amusing himself.

"Stay away from Flat Earthers, Steffie! Remember, if anyone asks you why there aren't flights between Australia and South America – and, for the record, there are – just say 'no!' Such a handful," Damon tutted, looking at an increasingly amused Anna.

"Why are you here, Damon?" Stefan repeated the question that Damon avoided for the nearly two months than he'd been in town – only this time he pretended he meant the woods specifically.

"Just catching up with an old family friend, Stef," Damon replied, wrapping a playful arm around Anna's shoulders, just to elicit a sharp roll of her eyes, and prompt stepping away from the halfhearted embrace.

"And how do you know so much about Flat Earthers, Damon?" Elena teased, by now having fallen in love with their verbal dance.

He only grinned, abandoning all notions of making fun of Stefan for the moment and sauntering over to his favorite person – in the forest, he quickly corrected himself. Just the forest – just this little, tiny section of the woods, that's all. "I get around," he replied sultrily. "I said they're dangerous for Stef's naive sensibilities, not that they're ugly," he added with a playful roll of his eyes.

"Ooh, is that where you learned that gravity is an attractive force?" Elena retorted wryly with a raise of her eyebrows.

"Someone had to teach them," he purred, moving to take a seat next to her, moving closer, as though to illustrate his point. "I can teach you all about gravity, too."

"Didn't you say that we all have our own gravitational fields?" she replied, crossing her arms across her chest. "I think mine is strong enough that I can resist you just fine!"

"Now you're getting it," he grinned slyly. "And what an attractive gravitation field it is."


Soon after, the women found themselves sitting in Sheila's living room, conversing over a cup of tea and honey cake that Bonnie loved so much that it had become a mainstay of the Bennett household.

"I must be out of my damn mind," Sheila muttered, mostly to herself. "Never in my life before have I allowed a vampire into my home."

"Because you know I'm the protector of our line," the woman who Sheila correctly identified as 'Aurelia Bennett' purred, her eyes dancing with mischief. Centuries as a vampire had given her a dangerous allure that immediately marked her as a predator, a vixen, a femme fatale. And yet there was a softness about her – a wisdom. "Well, one of them, anyway. You may be quite surprised to learn of another in your vicinity," she added with a mysterious chuckle.

"I thought you were just a legend," Sheila admitted honestly, forgoing the other bit of news about a second Bennett protector for the time being.

"No, you didn't," Aurelia smiled. "Not really – you accepted my presence far too quickly. Somehow, you've always known. We Bennett witches are all connected – even those of us who have been untethered from Nature for quite some time," she added with a note of wistfulness that she couldn't quite hide.

"Pardon my bluntness," Sheila said, still not entirely comfortable to be in the presence of her vampiric ancestor, having been taught to fear and hate vampires all her life. "But why are you here?"

"Right to the point, I see. Good. Let's not waste time on niceties. I'm here for the tomb vampires –"

"Absolutely not!" Sheila interrupted in a hot rage. "I will not let you expose this town to –"

"They're coming with me," Aurelia interrupted in turn, considerably more calm. The serenity in her tone held iron, however. This was not a woman to be trifled with, or easily dismissed. "Desiccation – especially that which lasts nearly a century and a half – can be quite traumatic. Combined with the changes to the world around them, they'll have difficulty adapting, maybe vengeful –"

"Exactly –"

"Which is why I'll be taking them to my Wellness Retreat in desiccated form. We'll revive them as soon as we arrive, and your town will be safe from them. I may be a vampire, Sheila, but I am also a healer. I won't let you destroy innocent lives – vampire or not," Aurelia said firmly.

Sheila stayed quiet for several long moments – the entire situation before her baffling. She'd known vampires to abuse witches – to use them for their benefit, threatening their loved ones in exchange for favors. And yet the legend of Aurelia Bennett persisted in her family for centuries – a silent guardian keeping watch over their whole line. "How do you know they won't come back and take their revenge, once you're done with them?"

"I won't let them," Aurelia replied simply, confidently. "I'm older than all of them, and the others who run the Center of Serendipity are quite adept at sensing this sort of ill intent. It's not our first rodeo, Sheila," she winked conspiratorially. "Please. Don't let Bonnie have this on her conscience."

Sheila huffed at the mention of Bonnie's conscience. While she allowed that Aurelia perhaps gave some credence to her granddaughter's feelings, her very intuition burned with the feeling that there was more to this story. "Why are you really here, Aurelia?"

"Pearl Zhu was my friend. I was too late to save her in eighteen sixty-four, and I'd like to make up for that now," she said quickly – a little too quickly for Sheila's liking. There was more to this.

"So, what do you need from me?" Sheila asked.

"At best, I'd like you to help," Aurelia replied. "At the very least, to stay out of our way. Emily's spell requires a Bennett witch, and Bonnie will cast it, but she'll have the witches that accompanied me to help her. She'll be perfectly safe – they'll be providing the brunt of the power."

Sheila narrowed her eyes. "She didn't tell me she was still planning to pursue this nonsense after I expressly forbid it."

Aurelia smiled surreptitiously over her teacup, before taking a sip of the delicate jasmine brew. "Your granddaughter appears to be a lot more rebellious than you've realized. Perhaps she's got more of me in her than you'd care to admit."

"That's what I was afraid of," Sheila scoffed. "Fine, I'll help you – if only to ensure Bonnie's safe. At least this way, we know those vampires will be out of this town, and no one will ever be able to unleash them onto Mystic Falls ever again."

"Excellent," Aurelia preened, waiting for the silence to settle between the two as they finished their pieces of cake. "You may ask, you know. It's not a secret," she teased, assessing precisely what Sheila's query must have been.

"Why did you turn?"

Now it was Aurelia's turn to be shocked, for she was sure Sheila would inquire about the identity of the Bennetts' other protector. "I had my reasons," she sighed.

"Which were?"

"Complicated."

"You really are a barrel of forthcoming information, aren't you?"

"I did it for love, Sheila. And that's all I'll say. There's not a day that I don't miss magic – my connection to Nature – and yet I don't regret it."

"Well, you have protected us, so despite my reservations, I'm grateful."

"There's someone else you should be grateful to, as well. Damon Salvatore – he promised Emily he would protect the Bennett family line in exchange for Katherine Pierce's safety, and he's kept his end of the bargain.

"That asshole? Him?" Sheila sputtered in indignant shock.

Aurelia laughed, for the first time all evening, uproariously. Releasing an outright guffaw, she nodded, struggling to catch her breath. "Yes, him," she finally answered, then sobered. "I thought for sure you'd ask me for the other protector's identity."

Sheila smiled, her own cheekiness mirroring that of Aurelia's, the resemblance between the two more notable than ever. "I knew you'd tell me, anyway."

"Bennett cleverness," Aurelia remarked, as Sheila got up to produce two tumblers and a bottle of bourbon for what became a night of family bonding.


Stefan continued to sulk while being comforted by Caroline as he and Damon bantered into the evening, with occasional flirty exchanges between Elena and the Salvatore that was quickly becoming the biggest pain in Anna's ass. Opening the tomb couldn't come soon enough. Maybe explaining Katherine's absence would cause a bit of a hiccup, but she wagered that Damon would react much like Noah and chase any lead Pearl would generously bestow about Backstabbing Incarnate's whereabouts, and leave Mystic Falls posthaste.

Maybe they'd even take Stefan with them.

Bonnie looked like she was done with all four of them. Good for her, Anna thought. Maybe she'd need to get to know the Bennett witch, who was clearly more than deserving of her company.

The idea had hardly begun to permeate when her phone buzzed with the telltale sound of a text message. Her undead heart skipped a beat when she read it, and she couldn't keep the glee from her voice as she turned to Damon.

"The day after tomorrow! It's happening. Everyone is in. Everyone! Aurelia did it."

And just like that, the energy in the forest shifted. Stefan looked intrigued; Caroline, confused; Bonnie, surprised; Elena, crestfallen; but it was Damon who surprised Anna the most. She expected him to be ecstatic. Instead, he looked to be forcing a smile that couldn't quite reach his eyes, not nearly the picture of bliss she imagined.

What was going on?


Sorry, I've needed to have Damon make fun of Stefan's ball-of-cliches comet speech for ages. Ages. It's ridiculous. And thanks to Damon correctly quoting the velocity formula to Galen Vaughn in S4, I think it's fair to assume that he's more scientifically adept than Steffie and wouldn't say such derivative nonsense. :D

Well, that's that! Tomb-opening, next chapter! Sorry for the delay on this, folks, but we had other factors that needed to be developed. :D

Bonnie and her Grams are in a much better place for opening the tomb here than in canon, because they not only have Emily's crystal, but they also have the assistance of the witches who accompanied Aurelia. So, just to ease some worries. ;)

Thank you all for being utterly delightful.

Much love, all! :D