Timeline in relation to Endgame [and in their respective order]:

1. Mutualism [Months after Endgame but prior to the last epilogue scene with Skulker]

2. Masks [Same Halloween day Skulker is released in the Endgame Epilogue]

3. Compromise drabbles [Starts same Halloween day Skulker is released in the Endgame Epilogue, Compromise Part 1, right after Masks] Part 5: About two weeks after Part 4.

Compromise Part 5

Almost two weeks had passed since her argument with Vlad in his lab. Then again, she didn't think that could count as an argument, but rather… Vlad simply taking out his anger on her. In all these years, she had tolerated and forgiven Vlad for many things. Honestly, she should be labeled a saint by now for all the messes she had put up with.

The most ironic part of it, though, was that out of all the terrible things he had done to her, it was such a small thing that had just spilt the glass of her patience over.

She had excused him so many times…

Leaving her alone as a teenager right after Viviane's death…. They had been young.

Wanting to push her out of his life again when he had been sick at the hospital and all the other times during the past twenty plus years…. He was scared.

His obsession with Maddie and hate for Jack… They had hurt him.

His thefts and lies… The business world was cruel and corrupted.

His obsession with the younger half-ghost… It was a ghost thing she did not understand.

His hurting Danielle and evil past doings… He was now sorry for it and was making amends.

She had even walked into that lab the next morning after that ghost attacked to tell Vlad that maybe she had overreacted. That although she was upset at how he had all but threatened her and the girls in the presence of that ghost, that she understood why he did.

She had been willing to excuse it!

But when he said all he had to her… When he told her that she was trying to change him into something he wasn't… that she was making him… weak…?

No. She would not excuse that. She was over it. She was done with the insanity that was Vlad Masters.

How foolish of her to have believed that this time things would be different. That his return to Wisconsin and his return into her life had meant a chance to start over. The day he had returned and she had listen to what he told her in that coffee shop, she had felt her hope in him restored. She stupidly thought that this was finally it. That even if they never were in a romantic relationship, that at least, her friend would set a better course in his life and be the man she had dreamed he was back when she had been a silly little girl.

And, yes, he had changed. She would be unfair to deny he had changed in many ways this past year. But it seemed right now that he had changed with everyone else in the world but her.

But it was her fault, too, for being so eager to get romantically involved with him!

She had been alright with being friends. In fact, she had all but put her feelings behind her. She pushed them down as something that would never be… But in the past eight months, his way of looking at her, his words, his lingering touches… It had kept that hidden desire inside her alive.

So, even when her logic had screamed at her to stop, she had not hesitated to say 'yes' when he finally confessed his own feelings for her two months ago. When he had pleaded for her to give him a chance…

Her heart had wanted to believe that this man she had always loved, loved her just as much when he had said those words to her two months ago…

It felt like things had fallen into place. They were finally together…

They were together… until something more important came the man's way.

That was always it.

The same toxic pattern. He wanted her as long as she stayed in the perfect little box he kept her in. And when she dared to step outside of his box, outside of where he wanted her, she was suddenly a threat to him… maybe even a nuisance.

"You! You did this to me!"

Alone in her home's private study, Stephanie sighed and shook her head to dismiss her thoughts. The same thoughts that kept circling in her mind in these past weeks.

But her mind just could not focus tonight. A part of her felt guilty because she could see her daughter and Danielle were distraught over the fact that her and Vlad had fought and pretty much broken things off—or, he did when he told her he was done with her.

But all she could do is just try to not affect the girls by this. Luckily, Carl was around to drive them to and from their separate homes. It made it easier for them to stay close with each other, even if she and Vlad did not.

Stephanie growled in her throat at her swaying mind. She had been staring at the same sentence on a contract she was supposed to be going over for the past thirty minutes and she still could not understand what it said!

She hated contracts. She could never understand half of what they said with their fancy words and hidden messages. Vlad was good at this, though. Back when they worked together, he always took care of reading and combing through contracts, while she handled his presentations. The man hated putting together graphs and PowerPoints. So, he would happily take reading hundreds of pages of boring legal terms and numbers over it.

They had always made a good team.

Too bad it never extended past the work environment.

"What in the world does this mean?" she asked out loud, clearly frustrated at the papers in her hand when she yet again try to focus on them.

"Maybe I can be of assistance?"

The woman jumped in her chair at the sudden voice in her office, and she gasped when she saw a nervous and guilt-ridden Plasmus materialize in front of her.

How long had he been standing there, possibly invisible?

"I apologize… I did not mean to startle you…," he muttered quietly.

Stephanie threw the papers down on her desk and replied with a scoff, "No? What do you think would happen when you suddenly appear out of nowhere inside my private office in the middle of the night?! I know you have no respect for personal boundaries, but you could have at least used the front door!"

"You would not have let me in…," he replied, looking like a kicked puppy.

"Oh, no… I certainly would not have."

The room fell quiet as the woman glared daggers at the older hybrid who had yet to transform back to his human side.

"I… wanted…," the man began, looking completely out of character as he nervously played with his gloved hands. "…to come by sooner, but I thought it was… best to give you some… space. That way, perhaps… we could talk now that we are both… calmer."

"No. I have work to do," she answered coolly. "You should have called first before intruding in my home."

"You would not have answered me."

"No…," she said with an uncaring sigh as she picked up the papers again and looked back at them. "…I would not have."

"Steph… I'm sorry," he said, begged.

"…Get out, Vlad. I told you… I have work to do."

"You have been staring at that contract for thirty minutes," he answered soberly, and instantly regretted it.

Stephanie suddenly stood, furious and sneered, "I said get out! And the next time you enter my house without my permission, I will be sure to have an anti-ghost system up… or a blasted ghost trap!"

Plasmius cringed.

"Alright… There's no need for threats… I'll leave, but… let me help first."

"No."

"Come on, Steph. What harm can it do? You can be angry with me right after. Just let me look at it," Vlad answered as he took a step forward and extended his hand at her.

The woman glared at him for a moment before she sighed sharply. But then looking away, she grabbed the contract and offered it to him.

As soon as he grabbed the contract, the older hybrid turned human. Yet the dark rings had moved fast enough to brush over the woman's fingertips and she almost shuddered.

None the wiser, Vlad sat down on one of the empty chairs, leaned forward to grab a pen on the woman's desk, and began to comb the papers, marking and making small notes as he went.

Stephanie just silently watched him. And for a moment, she felt like they were back at DALV in the man's office. Sometimes she wished she could go back to that dynamic. As painful as it sometimes was… It was easier to be the man's secretary and secret friend than… this.

The woman was sure the man had not picked up a contract in months; and of course, he knew very little of the inner workings of her new business. But he had always said to her that once you read one contract, you have read them all. They all followed the same process and included pretty much the same sections of information, even if the content was entirely different.

"You have a meeting tomorrow on this?"

Stephanie pushed past her thoughts with the man's sudden question. For a moment, she wondered if he had truly been spying on her.

But realizing it was an obvious conclusion on his part, she answered him, "Yes… The investors will be there."

"Cancel it."

"What?"

Vlad looked up at her. "With the investors. Cancel the meeting. You need to meet with your board and legal team, first. This contract is all wrong."

"I cannot cancel this meeting, Vlad. I have been waiting on it for months."

"Look," Vlad said as he stood, placed the papers on the desk for Stephanie to see them. He then leaned forward to point at a section. "The contract is set for two years with no disclosure of costs after. And then…. In section… twelve… It mentions an increase cost of miscellaneous items that your company will have to pay with a five percent interest. First of all, if these investors want a piece of your earnings in exchange for whatever they are offering you, they need to commit to your company for at least ten years to make it worth your while. And this… is a bottomless pit of lost revenue. They need to specify what they mean by miscellaneous items and then have them set a cap with no interest rate. You are already paying them enough with the amount of money they will get back by the earnings from the sells they will get as investors."

Stephanie stared at him. "What if they pull away…? What if they don't agree to those terms?"

"Then, they are not the investors for you," Vlad said plain and simple. "That is why you need to cancel your meeting. They expect you to sign tomorrow. And you cannot. Instead, meet with your board and legal team tomorrow to go over the items I just mentioned… and a few smaller items I will highlight for you to prepare a counteroffer."

"Vlad, I need these investors for my business to take off."

"And they know that, and want to take advantage," Vlad challenged back. "Steph, you know how this works. They are not going to walk away from this. This benefits them, too. But they know your company is just starting, so they are trying to take advantage of that. Make them believe you have other options waiting for you, and they will happily agree to any terms you want. Trust me on this."

The woman sighed before she reached over to her cell phone on her desk and dialed a number.

She glanced at the man across from her as she waited for her secretary to pick up. He had gone back to reading through more of the contract's pages, though stayed standing and just leaned down against her desk to write.

"Veronica, hi," Stephanie said when her employee finally answered. "I am sorry for calling you this late. I was reading over the investor contact… I need you to cancel the meeting…. Yes. Yes, I know it took months too… I need you to schedule a board meeting first thing tomorrow instead. And have legal join. We will decide on a reschedule date then… Right… Okay, thank you… You, too…"

She hung up and saw Vlad smiling softly at her.

She tensed. "What?"

Vlad shook his head, though the smile stayed on his lips as he focused back on the papers. He wanted to tell her how gorgeous she looked as her own boss… how proud he was of her. But he knew now was not the time…

A good fifteen minutes later, and Vlad was done. He sat back on the chair, rolling out the kink in his neck from looking down at the contract for too long.

Stephanie grabbed the papers back off the desk and skimmed through his notes quickly. Yeah, this was definitely the businessman she knew…

"Thank you…," she muttered quietly though she kept her eyes lowered to the papers. She felt the pain in her heart surface, threatening to spill over as it knotted her throat.

"You're welcome, my dear…," he replied softly. He hesitated, clearly wanting to say more. But he could see the woman was growing upset by the second. Why did he keep hurting her?

He suddenly remembered their conversation on Halloween night as they drove to the party just two weeks ago…

"I don't want to hurt you…. I have hurt you enough," he quietly replied. "…I have the bad habit of… destroying everything I touch."

"You are touching me now, and nothing is happening," she reminded him. "You won't break me, Vlad. You should know that by now…"

She was wrong. He had broken her so many times he wondered how the woman always managed to pick up the pieces… Or maybe she did not pick them all up. Maybe over all these years, he had been chipping away at her heart… destroying it… until one day it would be so shattered, she would no longer be able to pick up the pieces.

Let her go…

How many times had he said that to himself? He had been telling himself those same words since he had been a boy.

He really should just let her go. Leave her life like he had been determined to do so after Dazzler had harmed her and almost hurt Annabelle. Even if reality had been altered and he had this… chance, it did not mean he had to continue to drag her into the mess that was his life.

"I said I would go…," Vlad said sadly as he stood and turned into Plasmius.

"You can go, Vlad… Just stop coming back," she answered quietly.

The older hybrid paused and looked back at her. It sounded like a clear dismissal… But it was said with more meaning than that.

"Maybe… that would be the best thing I could do for you…," he answered hesitantly.

She huffed, but there was no amusement in her voice as she retorted, "No, that's simply all you know how to do when it comes to… us. So, if you want to leave again, Vlad, just go. But this is the last time."

She stared tiredly at him as she added sadly, "I… I cannot do this with you anymore. I know what I said to you in the limo the night we went to the Halloween masquerade. But you know what I realized in these past two weeks? I realized how… insane it is for me to think I can keep grasping at something that just continues to slip right through my fingers…"

She lowered her gaze as she soberly said, "I'm sorry if my intention to hold onto you… threatens you. My intention has never been to make you weak… or change you… or keep you from who you are… But if that is how you feel around me, then, maybe the best thing I can do for you is let you go."

Vlad lowered his own gaze because he could not bring himself to continue to see Stephanie so heartbroken.

And yet, all he could think about was back before the timeline got altered… when she had confessed her love to him… And when he had realized too late what she meant to him.

He had asked her to let him go.

But not because he wanted to leave her, but because he knew it was the best thing he could do for her and her daughter under those circumstances. And maybe the truth was that that had not changed, even with the timeline being altered.

Too bad he did not have the strength of heart to let them go a second time. Selfish or not, he didn't want to let go… Not ever again.

"What if I don't want you to let me go…? What if I don't want to let you go?" Vlad answered almost desperately.

"You say that now… And then you change your mind again a month later." Stephanie shook her head before she finally looked back at him.

"Vlad, even you must see how… unhealthy our relationship is. Maybe… "

She picked up the contract for emphasis as she added soberly, "…this… is all we were meant to be."

Vlad stared at the contract with a frown. Is that really the only time she believed they were functional? When they were working on business deals?

"You cannot truly believe that…," he muttered.

"What else besides business dealings have we ever accomplished together? We barely work as friends, let alone romantically," she argued.

"We've been friends since we were children!" he argued, this time slightly offended. What was she talking about?!

"Vlad… friends trust each other. Friends share things with each other… Do you remember what we did after you got out of that hospital room? We wished each other luck and were determined to part ways. I was about to start a life with Eric, and you had your own plans involving the Fentons. The only reason we didn't part ways was because of what Eric did to me… You stayed out of obligation. Not friendship, because our friendship died in Florida. And we both knew it."

"Obligation?" he repeated back, frustrated and hurt. "I stayed because I cared about you! I always have even if my heart and mind were not in a good place! Yes, our friendship was strained because you reminded me of my past in Florida and I was dealing with powers I could barely control! But you stayed, too! And do not dare tell me it was out of obligation or some promise you made to my sibling! You cared, too! And we rekindled our friendship in those past twenty years!

"How, Vlad? How when even when we remained together, we did everything possible to assure no one ever saw us as anything more than boss and employee! And the few times we did see each other outside of work, you never wanted to talk about the few things we had in common."

"And now…," she continued with more favor, "Even now that we were finally trying to be something more than acquaintances… the only thing we talk about is our work!"

"We certainly do not just talk about our work," Plasmius scowled. "We talk about…"

"Please don't say the Packers," Stephanie cut him off with a sharp sigh.

Plasmius just stared at her completely in disbelief. And he knew he was barely checking his growing anger as he finally said, "Stephanie, I refuse to believe that after all these years of knowing each other that this is truly what you think of our relationship…. Yes, we worked very well together. But I have always considered you my friend. And you know exactly why we could not broadcast that when I had DALV and VladCo! I know there were things, like the Fentons, that I did not like to talk with you about; but you cannot tell me all we have ever had in common is board meetings and contracts! Especially now! … We talk about plenty of things! So, explain to me right now, what do we not talk about?!"

"You, Vlad! You!" She exclaimed. "Are you this blind?! You say you don't want me to let you go, but what exactly am I holding onto? A half of you? Because the other half is 'none of my business'? Because your other half 'I make you weak?!' "It's too dangerous for me?!"

"Do you still not see what the problem here is?" she asked, almost desperate. "You want to hold onto me as Vlad Masters, but all you do as Vlad Plasmius is push me away! And I cannot be with only half of someone, anymore than you can split yourself down the middle! I…" She looked him over, specifically she looked over at Plasmius and said soberly, "I don't know you."

Vlad instantly felt his heart flutter and he unconsciously took a step away. He realized at that moment, she was right. She was absolutely right.

He wanted her with him so badly. She was his partner… his friend… as Masters. But as Plasmius… She was a liability… a weakness. And most of the time they argued it was directly or indirectly tied to his ghost half.

Because she kept moving closer… kept wanting to grasp his other half too.

But…the thought of her knowing Plasmius…

It frightened him.

Stephanie sighed when she saw him move away… getting ready to… run. She hated it. She had been watching him do that almost all her life.

"I love you, Vlad. You know that by now… And because I love you, I want all of you. And I don't care how selfish that may sound, but I am done getting breadcrumbs from you. You don't get to love me only as Vlad Masters. Do you understand?"

"Stephanie…," Vlad began, unsure.

"This conversation is over," Stephanie cut him off suddenly. "It's late and I have given you more than enough of my time right now. Leave. Figure out what you want because I already know what I want."

Vlad looked at her for a tense moment… Then without any further words he suddenly vanished in a puff of pink smoke, leaving the woman alone again in her private office.

Awww Vladdy... Love how dysfunctional these two are.