Rosalie stumbled into the boarding house giggling girlishly. She had an oversized jacket on and was holding a bright pink smoothie in her hand. Her giggle was cut short when she bumped into Katherine who was on her way out. Katherine didn't think twice and shoved the girl to the side and went on her way without so much of a word.
"Good morning to you too!" Rosalie called after her, hiccuping and turning around. "Oh!" She was alarmed with the sight of a bloodied and disheveled Damon across her. "What the hell happened to you?"
Damon looked like he was shuddering and truthfully like he had been in the pits of hell. "Where the hell are you coming from?" He grunted at her.
"Hm? Oh! Caroline, Bonnie and I had an impromptu sleepover at Caroline's house! Her mom, by the way, is the sweetest!" Rosalie chuckled and sipped her smoothie. "She's a cop! The sheriff! I love that women today get to hold jobs like that! A sheriff!" She laughed all over again.
Damon's nose crinkled. "You're not drunk—"
Rosalie agreed with him and raised her smoothie to make the point. "Totally not!"
"—which means you're just naturally like this…" Damon thought it might actually be worse than having her be drunk.
Rosalie deadpanned him for his words. "Anyways, I stayed at Caroline's and I didn't have any clothes because I still need to shop so she let me borrow some of hers and while the dress is fine, I don't think this jacket was hers because it looks way too big for her!"
"Yeah, okay, cool it now," Damon raised a hand to stop her before she talked his ears off. "We need to switch gears. How are you at locator spells?" He turned to head up the stairs.
"Locator spells?" Rosalie repeated, her excitement slowly waning. "Why…why would you need that from me?" She hurried to catch up with him upstairs.
"Trouble!" was all Damon said until he strode into Stefan's room. The latter was in the middle of putting some clothes away.
"Where the hell have you been?" Stefan said the moment he felt Damon's presence.
"Yeah, and why are you all bloody?" Rosalie said with a crinkled nose.
"Aw, you know, being held against my will, shot in the head, now I can't find Elena," said Damon dismissively, "How was your evening? Anything out of the ordinary happen?"
"Wait a minute, what do you mean you can't find Elena?" Stefan said, tossing a jacket on his bed. Behind Damon, Rosalie was questioning the same thing.
"I mean, she's not picking up her phone, she's not in her dorm, she's nowhere in this house, which leads me to believe that Dr. Creepy Ken-doll has her somewhere," Damon said, once again leaving his audience very confused.
"What's a Ken-doll?" Rosalie tilted her head.
"Are you talking about the Whitmore bio teacher?" asked Stefan.
"Yeah, the one that operated on vampires during business hours, yeah, that one. Put your hero hair on, Stefan. Let's go get Elena!" Damon rounded on Rosalie abruptly and once again asked for the locator spell.
"I-I don't…I can't do one, Damon," she said just as he had started towards the door for one of Elena's things.
"Excuse me?" He looked back at her in disbelief.
Say something quick before he snaps your head off! Rosalie gulped. "I'm…I'm rusty at that stuff…"
"Rusty?" Damon said incredulously and exchanged glances with his brother. Even Stefan found the excuse rather strange. "Hear that Stefan, we got stuck with the rusty witch. I'm sorry, weren't you the creator of the Other Side? This should be easy-peasy for you."
"I'm, uh, having some trouble alright?" Rosalie pursed her lips nervously.
Unlike Damon who immediately scoffed, Stefan walked over to the witch in concern. "Rose, is everything okay?"
Rosalie felt awful for lying, especially to Stefan who'd been the kindest to her out of everyone in the group. She just wasn't ready to tell them the little peculiar flaw with her magic. "I am," she promised, "it's just after Qetsiyah's death, I'm having a hard time, uh, using my magic. Rusty, you know?"
"Well, Rosie-kins, you better un-rustify yourself and figure it out because if my idea goes south, you will be performing a locator spell one way or another," Damon warned the witch and continued his way out of the room.
"Don't worry," Stefan told her as they went to follow Damon.
"I'll be more worried if we can't find Elena," she said. "Damon, any chance I could be caught up on this matter before you drag me into it? I don't mean to be a downer but I would like to remind you that I just came back to life."
"Sure," Damon flashed her a grin from downstairs, "on the ride there. Let's go!"
"Damon, you just said you don't know where Elena is," said Stefan, "Where are we going?"
"I don't know where Elena is, which means we're gonna have to find us some leverage since the only witch with magic we know of" — Damon shot Rosalie an accusing glance — "is apparently unavailable. We'll be doing this the old fashion way so come on!"
~ 0 ~
Rosalie had not been to Whitmore College except for the evening of the costume party and even that had been a one-building kind of visit…and in the dark. Now here she was in broad daylight in the middle of a large campus filled with students. Everything seemed so much bigger!
Students were walking past them from both ends. There were others studying or relaxing on the lawn and at tables. Her favorite thing were the different clubs that day — sororities, sports, community helpers!
"Could you please not walk like a damn deer with those bigass eyes of yours?" Damon called from up ahead. Rosalie was walking a significant distance behind them, her dark eyes wide as her head flipped in every direction taking in the sights. "We're trying to be subtle here!"
Rosalie scoffed at him and picked up her pace. "You being subtle is something I would pay to see! It's just all new to me! Everything is brand new to me!"
"Yeah, we get it," Damon said and continued leading the way.
"I've never been to school—"
"We get it," Damon insisted.
Rosalie rolled her eyes and finally caught up to him and Stefan. "So you want to tell me why this great big school is filled with evil professors? Don't recall that being the norm…"
"Just the way the world works," Stefan said with a nonchalant shrug. "Or, I guess, how our world works. So stay close, please."
"I'm not a vampire," Rosalie reminded him.
"Exactly, so you're more expendable than we are," Damon smirked at her and picked up his pace.
Rosalie glared after him. "You know, Stefan, everyday I like your brother less and less."
Stefan nodded. "I know what you mean."
Damon led them into one of the dorm buildings and pointed out their target: a young man by the name of Aaron sitting on a couch with headphones on. He was so focused writing in his notebook that he never noticed Damon plopping down next to him until Damon ripped one of his earphones out.
"Pop quiz," Damon started ever so casually, "so your girlfriend's taken by a mad scientist. Now, do you: A, get a new girlfriend; B, call the police; or C, kill someone close to the mad scientist?"
Aaron was more than frightened and quickly got up to run, only as soon as he made the turn he crashed into Stefan.
"Sit," Stefan ordered him and Damon patted the empty spot on the couch for him to return.
"Wow, talk about a warm greeting," Rosalie mumbled as she came to sit on the couch chair. She sized up Aaron and wondered how the hell this guy could have possibly done to warrant such a hostile interaction.
"Zip it newbie," Damom said while death glaring at Aaron. "Where's Elena?"
"I-I have no idea where Wes took her," Aaron swore, still very much frightened.
"Well, they're not at his lab, so where else could he hide a vampire?" asked Stefan.
Aaron was frantic as he kept looking between the brothers then Rosalie. "I'm sorry. Am I supposed to know who you two are?"
"That's my brother Stefan," Damon was happy to introduce, "but I'd watch your tone with him because he's kind of in the midst of a psychotic break."
Rosalie snorted. "Seriously?"
"And that's Rosalie, we don't really know if we like her yet."
Once again, Rosalie deadpanned Damon.
"Alright, alright, enough with the jokes," Stefan reprimanded Damom but the latter scoffed.
"Oh, I was being dead serious, little brother. You don't think I know about you and Katherine?"
Rosalie's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"
Stefan barely contained his snap. "Oh, I see. You're jealous."
"More like disturbed," Damon corrected. "See?" He side-glanced Aaron. "He's off his rocker, he's losing his mind, teetering on the brink of insanity."
Aaron's mind was spinning with so much information but he settled on the one thing that was the most shocking to him at the moment. "How are you not dead? I shot you."
Damon grinned as he looked around before answering him. "Well, because you went for the head. You got to go for the heart." He smacked the back of Aaron's head. "Go for the heart next time. Now, where's Elena?"
"I have no idea! All that Wes told me was to go about my life as usual."
"And that didn't spark any kind of suspicion for you?" Rosalie raised an eyebrow. "You gave up your friend…willingly…and you never thought to ask where exactly you were sending her to? Yeah, you're not sounding very smart right now…"
"The first thing you say that I can agree with, Rosie!" Damon pointed back at her then set his sights on Aaron again. "We're gonna call Wes, and you're gonna tell him that if he doesn't give us Elena the next experiment that he conducts it's gonna be sewing your arms back on," he lightly whacked Aaron's arm. "Get calling."
Aaron didn't have much of a choice but to comply. He took his cell phone out and dialed Wes, getting straight to the point as soon as the call was picked up. "Do you have Elena?"
Although he didn't put the call on speakerphone, Stefan and Damon heard perfectly. Rosalie, however, was left at a disadvantage trying to piece in the conversation.
"Uh, Stefan and Damon Salvatore are gonna kill me unless you give them Elena…" Aaron's gaze was glued on the seemingly calm Damon who was just waiting to fulfill his threat. "...or he's in front of me imagining what my kidney would taste like."
Rosalie grimaced.
Aaron ended the call a moment later. "He says to—"
"We heard," Damon stood up from the couch.
"Uh, hello, I didn't?" Rosalie said, following in suit. "Where are we going now?"
"To your first college class," Damon grinned dramatically, "Fair warning, you get docked points for being late so let's go. Oh, and only losers sit in the front row."
"What?" Rosalie turned to Stefan for help. She felt much more clueless than usual and she knew that Damon was getting a kick out of it.
"C'mon," Stefan motioned her to walk with him. "Ignore him."
"Trust me, I'm trying here!" Rosalie muttered. They headed back outside with Aaron leading the way to Wes' classroom.
"You want to give us a little backstory as to how you know one another?" Stefan asked his brother. The hostility between Damon and Aaron was just too much.
"Aaron is Aaron Whitmore, and he comes from a very long line of vampire-probing, blood-testing, organ-removing freaks called Augustine," Damon was happy to explain, throwing glares at Aaron as he spoke.
"And why do you know this?" Steve asked, finding it odd as it didn't sound like something Damon would ever be interested in. However, the answer he received shocked him even more.
"Because I was their test subject in the '50s."
"What do you mean test subject?"
"Meaning I donated my body to science except I was alive and it was against my will."
"Oh my god, you were experimented on?" Rosalie was horrified and for a second she almost forgave Damon for being such an ass. Almost. "Is that why you're such a jerk because they messed up your brain beyond belief?"
Damon rolled his eyes at her. "Funny. I might give you a point for that one."
"Hold on a minute," Stefan came to a slow stop in the middle of the sidewalk, "How do I not know about this?"
'Don't get all guilt-ridden, Stefan, on me. We were on the outs back then, and by the time it was over, you know, it was over…" Damon started to walk away, until Aaron called out to him.
"Why don't you finish the rest of the story, Damon?"
"I don't recall saying that you could talk," Stefan gave Aaron a sharp look, "Did I say that he could talk?"
Damon played along and shrugged. "I don't remember anything."
"I didn't think so."
Rosalie looked between the brothers and shook her head. "Now I can see how you two are related. And on some level, I'm relieved because I was beginning to wonder if one of you was actually adopted. Can we please just go to class now?"
"Okay, you know you're not actually going to a college class right?" Damon raised an eyebrow at her.
"I can pretend," Rosalie retorted. "And let's be honest, between you two's brooding and evil faces," she gestured between the brothers, "I'm probably the only one that can actually slip in undetected."
"With what magic?" sneered Damon who took off right after.
"Whatever it is, it's definitely more magic than you have, Damon!"
Stefan sighed wearily and grabbed Aaron's arm to follow after the two. Rosalie and Damon spent the whole walk to the classroom bickering.
"I'm starting to see why Caroline doesn't fully approve of you," Rosalie spat on their way in the hallway. "Because, oh yeah, she talked about you a lot last night!"
Instead of being offended like Rosalie had intended, Damon snorted. "So you spent your entire evening talking about me? I'm honored."
"Would you two just knock it off already?" Stefan reprimanded them from behind. "Which classroom is it already?" He asked from Aaron. The latter was walking right in front of them searching for the classroom number.
"This one," he stopped and pointed to a door ahead of them.
Rosalie was the closest and therefore reached it first.
"Ah!" Damon smacked her hand off the door handle. "What if it's a trap, dummy?"
Rosalie scoffed and made a gesture to the empty hallway. "I don't suppose there's another evil professor in there waiting for us?"
"It could be a trap," Damon reiterated, although Rosalie suspected it was only to go against her.
"Fine," she whacked his hand away and grabbed the door handle, "then I'll make sure to point out who the vampire in this group is. As far as anyone knows, Stefan here is human."
Damon did not care for her long smile and fought the urge to shove her when they walked into the classroom.
"Oh, evil professor, where are youu?" Rosalie sing-sung, and no longer could Damon control himself. He gave her a hard push to the side.
21051!" Someone called and made the group realize there was a man sitting in the back of the classroom.
"Holy crap, I didn't think that would work…" Rosalie whispered to Stefan behind her.
Damon was frozen in his spot when the man started coming down the steps towards them. "Enzo?"
Stefan noticed the odd way in which his brother had quieted down and lost his grip.
'Enzo' stopped in front of them, more precisely in front of Damon. "It's been a while, mate."
"And who the hell are you?" Stefan cut in since it didn't seem like Damon was going to talk anytime soon.
"Lorenzo, but my friends call me Enzo. Ah. Kidding…" Enzo's sights seemed stuck on Damon for the moment. "I don't have any friends." He offered his hand to Stefan to shake but the latter eyed him up and down, unimpressed.
Rosalie looked at all of them and wished she had stayed longer at the sleepover with Caroline and Bonnie. Anything had to be better than this. "Alright, at the risk of getting myself some fangs — like poor Aaron over there — how about we just play nice…?" She extended her hand towards Enzo and introduced herself. "Rosalie."
Enzo grinned and took her hand but instead of just shaking it, he brought her hand up to his lips and kissed it. "Pleasure to meet you."
Rosalie flushed and before she could say anything, Damon leaned over and yanked her hand down. "We don't talk to strangers, Rosie."
Rosalie forgot all about her flush and glared at him. "I talk to you, don't I?"
"Oh, we're strangers now?" Enzo scoffed and nearly laughed in Damon's face.
"Fine," Damon said with a dramatic long sigh, "Enzo's another Augustine vampire. Our cells were next to each other. So, we're here to meet somebody — Wes Maxfield. You know him?"
Enzo seemed even more incredulous than before. "That's your first question for me? Not 'How are you? How'd you survive in that fire I left you to die in?'"
"Uh, does somebody want to tell me what the hell is going on here?" Aaron said, swallowing hard with fear.
"I second that," Rosalie raised her finger.
"I'd love to," Enzo said, stepping back and gesturing towards the seats behind them, "Have a seat. Been waiting seventy years to tell my story."
"Yeah, you know what, we don't really have time for a story…" Damon trailed off as Enzo let out a short laugh.
"Yeah, I don't think he was asking…" Rosalie drew in a breath, "Well, this might be the closest I'll get to a real college class, so…" She was the first one to start towards the seats.
"Ah, really Rosie? You pick now to be obedient?" Damon went right behind her, especially when Stefan threw him a warning look; he recognized the look as a 'you better watch her'. "Where was this when I told you a dozen times to shut up on the drive here?"
"Must have ignored you, which I'm beginning to feel like I'll have to do many times in the future…" Rosalie plopped down on an empty chair in the front row. She noticed Stefan quietly slipping out of the room with Aaron's phone. Aaron was none the wiser.
Enzo hopped onto the professor's desk and cleaned his throat to signal that it was his turn now. "Damon was right. We were cell mates in 1953. We'd been locked in those cells for years, tortured, beaten, humiliated, but we weren't gonna let them break us, no. We decided if we were going to escape, we needed to work together." He paused for a moment just to truly glare at Damon. "We needed each other."
The classroom door opened again and Stefan came in. "Wes isn't sending her," he told the others.
"Tragic," said Enzo dismissively, "Can I continue my story now, please?"
"Doesn't he know we have Aaron?" Damon said, confused. Even Aaron beside him was a little confused given that his life was on the line.
"He doesn't care. He's willing to risk it."
"What?" Aaron rose from his chair, incredulous. "Let me talk to him! He'll listen to me."
"Uuh, guys…" Rosalie's quiet call when unnoticed. She could tell Enzo was getting irritated with them. He hopped off the desk and went straight to the chairs.
"What part of "he doesn't care" are you not registering?" Damon was arguing with Aaron when Enzo ripped off one of the classroom chairs from the floor and threw it out the window.
A heavy silence followed after that as everyone stared at Enzo who was now pleased with their focus. "Where were we? Uh, ah, right. I was telling my story, and you were all politely listening. Huh?" He started heading back to the front of the classroom. "So we came up with a plan to finally escape. I gave Damon my blood ration for a whole year, leaving myself a tiny bit just so that I wouldn't dessicate, so he'd have the strength to escape and save me in the process."
"A whole year of that?" Rosalie cut in, glancing at Damon behind her chair. "I'm surprised you were that patient. There was nothing else you could do to escape that hellhole?"
"Everything was made to keep vampires in," he responded, "Nothing got out."
"So how did you get out?"
"I can answer that," Enzo said, drawing their attention again, "Our plan began perfectly, didn't it?" He sent a sour smile in Damon's direction: the latter remained silent. "Every year, Augustine held a little get together with other Augustine friends and Dr. Whitmore got to show what he'd found in his research."
"That would be you guys?" Rosalie looked between the two in question. "Like a circus show?"
"Pretty much," nodded Enzo. "We were put into cages like animals, weakened from vervain injections, starved. The day of the party, everything went according to plan. Damon got out, fed more and gained the strength he needed to then help me. And there I was waiting in the cage for him to release me, waiting for my friend, my cellmate, the only soul with whom I'd connected with in all those years of captivity…" Any trace of a smile vanished in the next moment as he told what actually ended up happening. "Then a fire starts, burns out of control, but Damon just can't get the damn cage open."
Damon could feel his brother's gaze on him the more Enzo went on.
"…he looks me in the eye as if he doesn't even recognize me, turns around, saves himself, leaving me to die."
"Wow, that is horrible," Rosalie blurted and looked at Damon, "You are horrible."
Damon did his best not to let the shame become too evident on his face. "This coming from the woman who practically dessicated a human for 2000 years!"
"Ah! That's — it wasn't — " Rosalie splattered, flushing. "Amara had it coming for lying to everyone and it wasn't just her, okay. We got her and Silas! Neither one was very innocent."
"Cut it out you two," Stefan interrupted them, even more annoyed with Enzo as the latter seemed to take amusement in what he caused. "Clearly you didn't die," he told Enzo, implying it was high time to get over it.
Enzo smiled wryly in his direction. "No. Unfortunately I lived. I was spared by one of the scientists so I could spend another fifty years on a table being opened and closed. Happy ending, right?" He slid off the desk now that he was done with his story. "Now that we've all been acquainted, I'm gonna find something to wet my whistle."
"What's—?" Rosalie barely started to ask when Damon politely told her to shut up.
"You didn't tell us about him," Stefan remarked, drawing Damon's annoyance.
"It was the 1950s. I'm supposed to remember every moment of my life? Do you want to kill Aaron, or should I?"
"Woah! We are not going to kill him!" Rosalie exclaimed, getting up from her seat. Aaron jumped from his and backtracked from the group. "Damon, I really think you should deal with that guy instead," she pointed behind her where Enzo had left. "Because if you really shared the cell with him for 5 years, I know damn well you have to be fazed at least a little bit."
Damon ignored them both and turned to Aaron. "All good then, I will do it!"
Aaron backtracked even faster from them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on, hold on, hold on!" He nearly tripped in the aisle of chairs and held onto the back of another chair. "Wes gave me a bunch of files on my family history. They're in my dorm, okay? Maybe there's something in there you need, a name, I mean, another lab."
"Hm, that's a timely revelation," Damon remarked and this time both Rosalie and Stefan agreed with him.
"Yeah. Well, you know, he's not gonna help me, why should I help him?" Aaron retorted and straightened himself up but the moment he did, Damon was on him.
"I don't like you, I don't like your family, I don't like you messing up my relationship!" Damon backtracked him down the row of chairs. "If you're lying, I'm gonna take my thumbs, and I'm gonna gouge out your sad little eyes out of your sad little head!"
"Ah. It's frightening what you can find on campus these days…" Enzo said as he walked back into the classroom holding a bottle of alcohol.
"Ooh, you meant to get a drink…" Rosalie nodded to herself and made a mental note of the new saying. She was terribly behind on the slang. "Sorry, I just recently came back to life 4 months ago and I'm trying to learn as many metaphors as I can. It's not easy." Enzo gave her a strange, yet bemused glance.
"Okay, well we're gonna go with plan B," Stefan announced, "Let's go." He pointed Aaron to lead the way, under threat of course.
"Damon's not," called Enzo. He was pouring himself a drink at the desk. "Damon's staying right here. He knows all my secrets, so he knows how ornery I can get when I don't get my way."
Damon pressed his lips together and decided it was for the best if he humored his old pal. "Call me if you find anything, kill him if you don't."
"Well if you kill him, then we're really not gonna get anywhere," Rosalie said, letting out a tired sigh. Aaron seemed just as lost as they were, maybe even more. "Wouldn't happen to know where we could find Elena Gilbert could you? Kind of tall, brunette, really nice eyes?" She had her best kind smile plastered on her face when Enzo looked her way.
"Nice try," he pointed at her with his drink, "But 1) I don't care about Elena Gilbert, 2) I don't even know where she is anymore — or do I? — and 3) I don't care." He saluted everyone with his glass and drank again.
"Rosalie, let's just go," Stefan said, eyes glued on Aaron as the human scurried around Damon to get out.
"Actually, I think I'll stay," Rosalie announced, crossing her arms and glancing back at Damon.
"Talk about horrible ideas," he said with a frown. "Do you want to be sent back to the Other Side already? I'm sure Silas would love to give you a welcome back."
Rosalie deadpanned him for a moment before speaking to Stefan again. "I may not be at my best with my magic but I think Damon's gonna need the assistance if his friend over there—"
"That's a very loose label, love," Enzo made sure to call out before taking a drink from his glass.
"—decides to kick his ass for leaving him behind." Rosalie waited for about half a minute before looking over at Damon again. "Which, let's be honest, you would totally deserve."
"Who's side are you on!?" Damon groaned.
"His!" Rosalie pointed a thumb at Enzo. "You were a horrible cellmate! At least when Qetsiyah stabbed me, she still helped me in the end."
"Oh, wow, the standards are really high there, Rose," Damon said sarcastically, "You want to help? Get the damn locator spell going already!"
"I guarantee you that no spell is going to let you find Elena before Wes really gets into her," Enzo said, flashing Damon a smirk.
"Go, Stefan!" Rosalie ushered him towards the door. "I'll be fine!"
For fear of what Enzo said, Stefan decided to grab Aaron and leave. He did, however, give Damon another 'watch her' kind of look before making it out.
Rosalie heard the door close behind them and then looked between the two vampires left in the room. The awkwardness and tension was off the roof. "So…exactly what kind of classroom is this anyways?"
Damon couldn't take it and walked away from her. "Oh, just get out already!"
Rosalie rolled her eyes so hard it almost hurt her.
"Now then, Damon, don't be so rude," Enzo set his glass down on the desk. "Did your years of freedom really not teach you how to readjust into the world? I wouldn't know, right…"
"He's just pissed because everything that could go wrong today is," Rosalie said, leaning back on the desk of a chair. "Elena's gone, his girlfriend—"
"Oh, he knows, Rosalie!" exclaimed Damon. "Because I'm sure he's already met her!"
"I have," Enzo was happy to confirm. He poured more alcohol into the glass then held it out specifically to Rosalie. "I won't bite."
"You promise?" Rosalie smiled dryly at his joke. "I don't drink, actually, I much prefer those iced coffees they sell now. They're delicious! Back in my time, coffee didn't even exist."
"Really?" Enzo mused over her words. "Where exactly are you from again?" He saw Damon pulling a leg over the chair that would lead to the front row Rosalie was standing by. "C'mon mate, just making some chit chat here, no need to get nervous."
"Yeah, well, for some reason my brother likes her so…you know…gotta make sure you don't eat her." Damon was now standing beside Rosalie, ignoring the woman's flat look on him.
"Oh, I have my plans set for someone else," Enzo said, looking directly at Damon and took a big swig of his glass.
"Would it really kill you to just apologize?" Rosalie whispered-hissed to Damon. She was beginning to think this was all just a long distraction until Enzo got the jump on them.
"Stay out of it, Rosie," Damon said then spoke to Enzo, "What do you want, huh? You want me to feel guilty? I couldn't save you. Now, where's Elena?"
Enzo seemed like he had something to say but instead he began to grunt in pain. Even the drink he had taken was stuck in his throat as he coughed and leaned on the table for support.
"Wasn't me!" Rosalie raised her hands in front of her, alarmed.
"What's wrong with you?" Damon asked him, confused.
"Wes injected me with poison that will stop my heart," Enzo managed to explain. He was trying to push through the pain in his chest. "I'll desiccate if I don't return for the antidote."
"All the more reason to tell me where he is!" Damon exclaimed. "Look. You get the antidote, I'll save my girlfriend, we'll kill Wes together!" But Enzo basically ignored the proposition.
"Did you even think about it after you left, the experiments, the cell, or did you just go out and live your merry life to its fullest?" Once he was strong enough again, he walked towards Damon.
Damon, in turn, subtly pushed Rosalie to the side just as Enzo came to face him. "Look at me. If you go back, we go back together. We finish this for good. Come on." He offered his hand to Enzo to seal the deal.
Enzo took it but instead of shaking on it, he used his grip to pull Damon closer to him. "You're not gonna see your girl again, Damon" — Rosalie winced as she heard Damon's bones crack — "because I want the antidote, and Wes told me not to come back until you were dead." Enzo then grabbed Damon's neck with his other hand and threw him out the window.
Rosalie's eyes widened, her hands clapping to her mouth.
"I would stay right where you are, sweetheart," Enzo warned her before jumping out the window himself.
"…like hell…" Rosalie mumbled and dashed out of the classroom. If Enzo really did plan on killing Damon, she would have to suck it up and use her magic to help.
The only problem was making her way out of the building. If she hadn't been arguing with Damon so much, maybe she would've remembered what hallways they used to get back downstairs. She finally ran out the entrance doors and looked for the two vampires. How nobody noticed such a crash — Damon had landed on a car and totaled it — was beyond her. The new world was just so clueless.
She found Damon and Enzo not too far from the entrance fighting with each other. Of course when she grew closer, she saw it was really more of a one-sided fight as Enzo kept punching Damon across the face and the latter was just letting it happen.
He does feel guilty, Rosalie concluded. Well, it meant that somewhere in there, Damon did have a heart.
"Enzo, look at me!" she heard Damon yell and realized Enzo had stopped fighting. Gray veins were running up his arms.
"Bloody poison!" Enzo grunted as he fell to his knees, Damon still holding him.
"Where is he? Where's Elena? Tell me where she is!" Damon said desperately as the veins crept up Enzo's face.
"Or what?! You never see her again? It might be good for you to know what it's like to miss someone for the next sixty years!"
"Enzo, look at me. Hey! Enzo! Where is she? Where is she!?"
But Enzo desiccated completely before he said another word.
Damon groaned, frustrated, and looked over at Rosalie running up to them. "Fix him!" he ordered her.
"But I—"
"Rosalie, fucking fix him!"
"I can't!" Rosalie exclaimed.
"WHY NOT!?"
"Because he's not poisoned with magic!" Rosalie argued. "This is science and I don't know a thing about that! He needs the antidote that Wes guy has!"
"The lab…" Damon said suddenly.
"What?"
"Wes had another lab here!"
"What, on campus?"
"No, at Disneyland — yes here!"
"What's Disneyland?"
Damon couldn't possibly glare harder at Rosalie. His eye nearly twitched. Stefan owed him big time for leaving her with him.
~ 0 ~
Rosalie was sentenced to wait outside the lab for her safety and for Damon's sanity. Even if he didn't believe her, she was sorry for being so clueless…and useless.
She sat at the bottom of the staircase talking to Caroline and Bonnie through the three-way that Caroline showed her last night. "Maybe I'm just more of a load than I thought. And a useless load at that," Rosalie said after recounting the day to the girls.
"Nu-uh!" snapped Caroline. "You are forbidden to feel like that, especially because of Damon Salvatore of all people. Now that guy seriously has no business saying anything!"
"Caroline, calm down," Bonnie said, "It's not actually about Damon, if you haven't noticed. Rosalie's just feeling the pressure of adjusting to the new world. But Rose, it's literally only day two. You have to take it slowly."
Rosalie sighed. "That's easier said than done. On the Other Side, all I did was just watch. I watched the world go by but never learned how to go along with it. Now I'm actually in this world and I have no idea what to do."
"It's fine. Stefan found Elena and she's safe," reminded Bonnie. "Now you have to go home and rest too."
"Hm, you know, after being dead for 2000 years, I'm not all that sleepy. Besides, Katherine is staying over and she sort of doesn't like me…"
Both Caroline and Bonnie scoffed at that.
"She's lucky she got to stay there," Caroline huffed. "But don't worry, none of us like her either. See? You're fitting in perfectly already."
"Yeah, I think that's probably about the only thing Damon and I can agree on…"
"Rosalie, you can come stay with us in our dorm if you want," Bonnie offered. "We only have 3 beds but we can work something out!"
Rosalie thanked them for the offer but she felt like she shouldn't ruin their sleep just because of her existential crisis. "It's fine. I'll be fine. I'm not going to let 2000 years get me down, you know? I have to figure this world out on my own."
"Yeah, but you're definitely not alone," Caroline said.
"I know, and I thank you guys for it. I just meant that I have to learn about the world. I'm not dead anymore, Qetsiyah isn't here anymore, so…I have to figure it out." A noise upstairs startled her and her first instinct was to hang up and rush up the stairs. She was only halfway up when Enzo was coming down, but she still froze nervously.
"No need to worry, he's alive," Enzo all but muttered with disdain. "Not that he ever cared if I wasn't…"
Rosalie stayed in her spot while he walked around her, still muttering to himself. She recognized the ire with which he spoke and sympathized. "You know, for all the teasing I did, I think he really does feel guilty about what he did," she turned on the step and looked down where Enzo had stopped, "But, you know, you are right to be mad."
"What?" He said, mildly interested in her point.
"I meant that…that you're right to be mad — you have a right to be mad.." Rosalie cleared her throat, trying to ease her nerves as Enzo turned completely around. "I think this is a very good example that humans can be just as monstrous as what they believe vampires are."
"Well, as far as humans go, I think Augustine is about the most inhumane a human could get," Enzo said.
"I'm sorry," Rosalie said and wished there was more that could be done for his sake. "I can't imagine what that must have been like…"
"To give you a bit of an idea, it makes you feel like you're less than any living creature. I couldn't even hang onto the most basic thing of mine which was my name. I was a number to them," he said, jaw clenched with rightful anger, "12144."
"I'm sorry, I'm very sorry…"
He felt her honesty from his spot and gave her an acknowledging nod. At least she tried, unlike everyone else.
"If you're accepting advice, please take mine. I have some experience in the matter of being put away somewhere — The Other Side. That's the supernatural purgatory for all of, er, us non-humans. But recently, I was freed so…that anger you feel about being imprisoned against your will, yeah I get that. I didn't exactly die of natural causes, someone killed me, and trust me, I had a lot of time to stew in my own anger. I was furious about everything and with everyone but I promise you that it doesn't last forever."
"So what exactly did you do to get over it?" Enzo asked. "Because I doubt you woke up one day and decided to get past it."
"I didn't," agreed Rosalie. "But Time is literally all you have on the Other Side. You can't feel or be seen or heard in that place so I just watched. I watched the world go by, the people…And then with time, I stopped being angry."
Until I was brought back from the dead to finish a revenge plot. He didn't need to know that. In fact, she suspected he had not heard anyone speak to him kindly and about his feelings. He didn't need to hear her whole story, just the parts that would validate his situation.
"So yeah, I just…I just wanted you to know that you're right to be mad and that it's not right that no one understands that but also…don't waste time being angry. Trust me, this new world is so nice…lots of things to try." Her smile then was very genuine as she thought of the things she got to do lately. Sleepovers and random smoothies were just the beginning of her new reality.
"Hm…" Enzo seemed to ponder for a moment, a moment that lasted long enough for Rosalie to panic thinking she'd earned his ire as well. "So in this new world, what would you recommend I try first?"
Rosalie was pleasantly surprised with the response. "Um…the food!" she exclaimed. "Definitely the food! It's way better than what it used to be! The desserts are to die for—"
"Rosalie!" Damon shouted from upstairs, no doubt having heard her yapping on.
Rosalie sighed. "And that would be my ride calling. I know that I'm no one to you but just try and listen to what I said, okay? Take care." She waved at Enzo and finished her way up the stairs. By the time she looked down, he was already gone.
~0~
The ride back to the boarding house was surprisingly quiet and Rosalie honestly didn't feel like pushing Damon's buttons anymore. Today was probably enough for him.
She saw Elena in the living room almost as soon as they stepped in and hurried to see her. "Thank goodness you're okay!"
Elena hugged her back and thanked her. "These aren't your clothes…"
Rosalie flushed and told her that they were Caroline's. "We had a sleepover yesterday…"
"Okay," chuckled Elena, "we are definitely going shopping tomorrow. Promise."
"It's okay," Rosalie said and backtracked. She noticed that Damon wasn't exactly the joyful boyfriend he should have been seeing that his girlfriend was free and okay. "Have a goodnight." She rushed up the stairs, getting the feeling that things were going to get very awkward.
She crossed the hallway intending on heading straight to her bedroom when Stefan called her, albeit in his usual quiet voice. He stood beside his bedroom doorway when she turned around.
"Uh oh, why do I get the feeling I'm in trouble?" She could read on his face that something was on his mind.
"How was the rest of your day?" he asked her instead.
"Umm…good…" She replied, bringing her arms behind her back, "I mean, Damon has some manner issues but nothing significant. I actually think I should apologize for being so hard on him today…"
"Mm…and that was it?" Stefan asked, now eyeing her as if looking for something. It took Rosalie a few seconds to realize he was trying to make sure she wasn't hurt.
"Nobody harmed me, Stefan," she assured him.
"I know Damon wouldn't, but his cellmate on the other hand…"
"Enzo wasn't looking to kill us, Stefan, he was angry and hurt," Rosalie walked up to him, "And truthfully, after what Damon did, I'd be mad too. I mean, you were mad at him for leaving you in that safe in the quarry for four months. Damon left Enzo for dead. You heard him — Damon left him in a cage to burn alive and because of that, he spent the next 60 years being continuously tortured. That is grounds for a justifiable argument, don't you think?"
Stefan looked away but the corners of his mouth were curling upwards. "That's one way to think about it…" He met her gaze and his smile became full-fledged upon seeing her nervous face. "And around here, we all pretty much think the same way."
"So is this good or bad?" Rosalie tilted her head, her hair swishing with her. "Because Damon wasn't too happy with me."
"Yeah, well Damon's hardly happy with anyone who isn't Elena. I wouldn't pay much attention to that."
Rosalie chuckled lightly. "Got it. I'm okay, Stefan, promise. There's no scratch on me."
Stefan smiled at her. "Good. But next time, let's try not to stick around the spot where the fight is gonna break out, okay?"
"Okay," Rosalie nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight." She left him to go to her room, hoping to rest but neither she nor Stefan knew that a few hours later, they would both be woken up by a loud rumble on the stairs.
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Author's Note:
As always, I have AO3/Wattpad accounts under "noblecrescent" and a tumblr account under "saiilorstars" if you'd like to follow :)