[fic] Gravity Hurts (3/9)
Title: Gravity Hurts (3/9)
Author: badboy_fangirl
Characters/Pairings: Alaric POV; Jeremy + Damon (+ Alaric); Damon/Elena, Stefan/Elena; Bonnie shows up for this one.
Word Count: ~2600
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 (for language)
Spoilers: Everything through S3.
Summary: A bromance for the ages.
Author's notes: This fic is derived from this thread of discussion with shipperjunkie.
Previous Chapters: [1] | [2]
The good thing about being a ghost is the speed with which one travels. Vampires think they move fast, but now Alaric knows. Not as fast as ghosts. It took a bit of time to get the hang of it, to realize that just the thought wasn't enough, it had to be a deep desire to be in the place. Generally it had to be connected to a person that would possibly be in the place, so he bounces back and forth between the Gilbert house and the Salvatore Boarding House easily.
Elena, Jeremy, and his feelings for them are powerful enough to make it happen with the barest thought.
But the truth is, Damon is what moves him even faster.
It's fitting; he spent the last six months of his earthly life torn between just hating Damon and hating himself for caring about the douche. But in the end, it had been Damon, by his side, willing to do whatever he wanted, willing to sit quietly with a drink until the moment had passed. Of course, the moment didn't pass then, it came later, but it was still with Damon. He had died in Damon's arms, and the second he was released from his mortal body, he'd been back with Jeremy, and then he'd been on the bridge, watching Stefan dragging Elena's body from beneath the water while Matt sat, coughing up a lung on the river bank.
Then he'd been at the hospital, watching while Damon finally almost killed his brother.
It had been a really bad time to be dead.
Jeremy stepped up though, reaching out to Damon in the best way possible: completely understated. Ric knows Damon well enough to know that he has it in his head that he's kinda sorta taking care of Jeremy, and that's fine. Whatever gets you through the night, you homicidal vampire. Feeling like they'd be okay for a moment, Ric had stayed behind to see what Elena would do. He thought she might go home with Caroline, who offered, of course, but in the end she went with Stefan.
At the Boarding House, Stefan gave her a second bloodbag "to take the edge off." (It hadn't seemed to help with Elena's fidgetiness, though she sucked it down in record time.) Then she told him everything that had happened, including a phone call she'd shared with Damon. As painful as it was to know Damon loved Elena rather pointlessly, it was somehow embarrassing for Ric, even as a eavesdropper, to listen to the recounting of that; he'd been there, on the other end of the line, waiting to take Damon out.
Talk about worst day ever. God, now he actually felt sorry for Damon. (Truthfully, he'd always pitied him some, that was the only way he could tolerate him.)
As Elena finished her narrative, she paused, her fingers pressing against her temples, and then she started crying. These weren't the stalwart tears of the girl who had endured too many things to lose her shit over this, and yet, he watched her crumple onto the floor, resting atop one of Damon's prized Persian rugs, grief ripping her apart.
Watching Stefan awkwardly trying to comfort her was just as difficult to sit through, so he left after that, and decided once he had a little distance that she must have been crying for herself. For the loss of her human life, for the fact that now she was immortal when that was the last thing she wanted.
But then he sat in the Gilbert kitchen and concocted a plan with Jeremy to save Damon, and he remembered. The elder Salvatore makes people feel things they don't want to feel. Things they don't want to admit they feel.
Until they're dead.
Jeremy waits for him, upstairs in his bedroom. When Ric leaves the Boarding House, Damon and Elena are talking in the kitchen, so he beats Damon back to the Gilberts the night they plan Bonnie's downfall. Ric wonders if Jeremy understands that Damon will kill her if he has to; he'd warn Jeremy, but then they'd both be dead, and that's the only truth Ric knows.
Whatever he does, from this side of things, it better preserve Jeremy Gilbert's human life, or what the hell is the point of any of this?
Damon's going to be the better man (drunken Elena-lamentations finally coming true), if it fucking kills him, and Ric will harass him through Jeremy forever if he has to, to make it happen.
If Ric's really lucky, maybe he'll be able to save Bonnie's life too.
He accompanies them to Bonnie's house, in the backseat of Damon's car. Jeremy knows he's there, but he doesn't say anything. It's a little tense as Damon reiterates, "Just remember to act scared. You better sell it, Gilbert. You're one of those people she'll do anything to protect, so she has to believe I'd kill you."
Jeremy makes a noise, half laugh, half are you serious? "You did kill me, remember?"
Damon's eyes are trained on the road, and he doesn't look over at his passenger when he says, "Yeah, but I wouldn't do that now."
Ric watches Jeremy's face, sees the softness there as he regards the guy he truly believes can help his sister. Part of him wants to warn Jeremy. It's not easy caring about Damon Salvatore, so be careful, buddy.
"I know you wouldn't," Jeremy says, and Ric thinks maybe he already knows. Then Jeremy asks, "Why are you doing this anyway? I mean, if you're just gonna leave, why not take off already?"
Damon's quiet for a moment, and then he says, "I might not be able to help Elena, Jeremy. She probably won't let me, and as much as I'd like to, there's no forcing her into it. But I can help Caroline, and then she'll owe me. She'll have to stick with Elena, even if Elena gets hard to stick with." Ric waits as the two of them exchange looks, and then Damon continues. "Just when she thinks she's got the hang of this vampire thing, it could go bad. You've seen out of control vampires, you know what it's like. The thing is, Elena will be like Stefan-eternally tormented. She'll need someone around to remind her that it doesn't have to be that way. Caroline can do that."
Jeremy turns his face toward the window, looking out at the passing neighborhood. "Maybe," he says, sounding skeptical.
"Just follow my lead," Damon says as they park in front of Bonnie's house. Ric blinks, and finds himself inside the house first. Bonnie is studying a Grimoire, alone, in her living room and she startles when the knock comes at the door.
Cautiously, she gets up and answers it, and then looks relieved to see Damon, which causes him to smirk. Ric can see the wheels turning in his head just before he utters, "Glad I'm not Klausler, huh?"
She shakes her head at him and then waves him and Jeremy inside. Jeremy's eyes settle on Ric and they exchange a surprised look. "Ask them when Damon got invited in here," Ric says, curiosity getting the better of him. Damon always had his secrets, but Ric's suddenly questioning his own worry for Bonnie's life at the vampire's hands.
Jeremy smiles and looks back and forth between Damon and Bonnie. "Ric wants to know when you first invited Damon in, and so do I for that matter."
Bonnie rolls her eyes. "It was a weak moment, before he killed my mother."
"Turned your mother. I turned her."
"By first killing her," Bonnie snipes.
"Ah. Tomato, tomahto."
Crossing her arms over her chest, she takes a deep, long-suffering breath before saying, "I assume you're here about Klaus's body?" she asks, before doing a double take at Jeremy. "Wait, did you say, Ric wants to know...? Can you see Alaric?"
"He sees him all the time," Damon interjects. "Biggest hanger on, ever."
"Tell him he needs to find my Grams for me," she says, turning to the desk on the far side of room. She grabs a framed photo and looks back at Jeremy. "Where is he?" she asks. Jeremy points and Bonnie spins towards Alaric who examines the photo of Sheila Bennett. "Go find her, Ric. I need her."
"Bonnie," Damon says, his voice losing all snarkiness. "You did a spell to put him in Tyler's body; you must be able to do the spell to restore his real body. It was burned, but not completely. It can't be that much more difficult."
She turns on Damon so quickly he takes a step back. "I don't want to put him back, Damon. I want to permanently immobilize him. That's what you should want me to do! That's what everyone should want me to do, but all Caroline cares about is getting her boyfriend back!"
Damon's brows draw into a sharp point over his nose. "Did you miss the part where Elena became a vampire? We have enough to deal with right now. Let Klaus be Klaus again. He won't be after Elena because she's already dead, and he'll leave us alone once he's got what he wants. Then Tyler will be fine, and Caroline can focus on what matters, which is Elena."
Bonnie pivots away rigidly, setting the photo of her grandmother down on top of the Grimoire she'd been reading when they first arrived. "Of course, all you care about is Elena. Guess what, Damon? I care about Elena, too. I already made her a daylight ring, and Stefan can see to her. In fact, why don't you help him if you're so worried about her? I'm not putting Klaus back without a fight. I won't do it."
Jeremy steps forward. "Bonnie-"
Damon grabs him around the neck, pressing his arm hard against Jeremy's windpipe so he's gasping for air. "Put Klaus back, or else, Bonnie."
"Or you'll kill Jeremy?" she asks, not looking too concerned. "Right, because you're going to want Elena to hate you forever. Besides, he's got his ring on, even though he should take it off and throw it away!"
"Bonnie-" Jeremy gasps, and Ric laughs because it's comical. Why do all their plans suck so much? Nothing ever goes the way they intend.
"He's not going to kill you, Jeremy." She marches right over and plucks the ring from Jeremy's hand, which is tugging ineffectually on Damon's arm. She stares into Damon's eyes, giving him a run for his money in the smirking department. "Are you, Damon?"
The moment stretches, the tension escalating to a point that Ric knows; there is danger, only because Damon doesn't know what else to do. He's lost, without a plan, and nothing frightens him more than that. He finally lets Jeremy go, shoving him across the room with unneeded velocity. Jeremy crashes into a chair, but rights himself relatively quickly.
"I can't help her," Damon all but shouts. "She chose Stefan, and I have to leave town, and there isn't going to be anyone around to clean up all your messes." Ric feels his throat close off, or the equivalent of that, since his body doesn't feel exactly the same now. It's an odd moment, though, when the emotion coursing through the room is Damon's and yet it's shared by everyone present.
"I don't need you to clean up anything," Bonnie says. She turns back towards Ric. "I need you," she points vaguely towards him, "to find my Grams. And I need you two to convince Stefan, Elena, and Caroline that I'm doing the best I can for everyone, but I'm not doing anything until I've at least tried this." She lifts her chin. "I'm not anyone's performing monkey, do you understand? This is my magic. And no one is going to make me do a spell I don't want to do."
Ric wanders around in the netherworld, asking about Sheila Bennett. It's funny because he doesn't see the people like him as easily as he does the ones in the corporeal world. But when he tries, he does encounter people, though no one he knows. In the beginning, he hoped he might run into Jenna, but Esther had told him that she had never been in this place, so he knows he won't.
He does finally find a guy who has heard of Sheila-She's a witch, right? They usually keep to themselves and don't make it easy to find them-but he tells him he'll ask someone he knows and get back to him.
Feeling like he's done all he can for the moment, he starts to envision Damon and Jeremy back at the Gilbert house, but suddenly feels like he should go check on Elena at the Boarding House. As he pops in there, he finds a level of tension that beats anything that went on between Bonnie and Damon and Jeremy.
"Maybe I'm not like you, Stefan," Elena says, her voice choked with tears. "Maybe I won't be able to repress myself like that. And maybe I shouldn't. You said yourself that that's been one of the biggest mistakes you made-"
"You can't feed on humans, Elena. You. Can't." Stefan paces agitatedly in front of the fire place and Elena stands across the room with her arms wrapped around herself protectively.
"I don't see what the big deal is, if they're willing."
Stefan looks both incredulous and sucker-punched as he stares at her. "You don't see what the big deal is? You don't see what the big deal is?" he repeats, and somehow his voice is quieter, not louder, but his next words crack like thunder. "Who are you? Damon?"
Elena's body jerks like she's been shot and she spins around and walks out of the room. As she hits the doorway, she taps into her vampire speed and disappears up the stairs into the second story of the house.
Alaric watches while Stefan makes a beeline for his brother's bottles of booze. His hand trembles as he pours himself a drink, and he throws back two fingers of bourbon without a pause. He stares into the bottom of the glass, shaking his head morosely, and then he grabs the bottle and settles on the sofa, alone.
This is how it's been, most of the times that Ric's encountered Stefan and Elena alone. They argue far more than they work together cohesively, and their arguments aren't the kind that really accomplish anything. He doesn't invade their privacy enough to know if they have apologetic make-up sessions following these moments, but it worries him more than anything.
He hasn't told Jeremy, or Damon via Jeremy just what his concerns are, and that's mostly because he wishes he could talk to Damon privately. Jeremy has already had too much "grown-up" stuff to endure, Ric really doesn't want to involve him too deeply into something that he can't really do anything to help with anyway.
As he sits with an unknowing but steadily drinking Stefan, he understands that he can't be vague anymore, not if Elena's going to survive this.
When the front door slams, Ric looks around as Stefan zips out of the room faster than he can process it.
That's when he realizes: Elena just left the house for the first time since she became a vampire.
...chapter four...
Author: badboy_fangirl
Characters/Pairings: Alaric POV; Jeremy + Damon (+ Alaric); Damon/Elena, Stefan/Elena; Bonnie shows up for this one.
Word Count: ~2600
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 (for language)
Spoilers: Everything through S3.
Summary: A bromance for the ages.
Author's notes: This fic is derived from this thread of discussion with shipperjunkie.
Previous Chapters: [1] | [2]
The good thing about being a ghost is the speed with which one travels. Vampires think they move fast, but now Alaric knows. Not as fast as ghosts. It took a bit of time to get the hang of it, to realize that just the thought wasn't enough, it had to be a deep desire to be in the place. Generally it had to be connected to a person that would possibly be in the place, so he bounces back and forth between the Gilbert house and the Salvatore Boarding House easily.
Elena, Jeremy, and his feelings for them are powerful enough to make it happen with the barest thought.
But the truth is, Damon is what moves him even faster.
It's fitting; he spent the last six months of his earthly life torn between just hating Damon and hating himself for caring about the douche. But in the end, it had been Damon, by his side, willing to do whatever he wanted, willing to sit quietly with a drink until the moment had passed. Of course, the moment didn't pass then, it came later, but it was still with Damon. He had died in Damon's arms, and the second he was released from his mortal body, he'd been back with Jeremy, and then he'd been on the bridge, watching Stefan dragging Elena's body from beneath the water while Matt sat, coughing up a lung on the river bank.
Then he'd been at the hospital, watching while Damon finally almost killed his brother.
It had been a really bad time to be dead.
Jeremy stepped up though, reaching out to Damon in the best way possible: completely understated. Ric knows Damon well enough to know that he has it in his head that he's kinda sorta taking care of Jeremy, and that's fine. Whatever gets you through the night, you homicidal vampire. Feeling like they'd be okay for a moment, Ric had stayed behind to see what Elena would do. He thought she might go home with Caroline, who offered, of course, but in the end she went with Stefan.
At the Boarding House, Stefan gave her a second bloodbag "to take the edge off." (It hadn't seemed to help with Elena's fidgetiness, though she sucked it down in record time.) Then she told him everything that had happened, including a phone call she'd shared with Damon. As painful as it was to know Damon loved Elena rather pointlessly, it was somehow embarrassing for Ric, even as a eavesdropper, to listen to the recounting of that; he'd been there, on the other end of the line, waiting to take Damon out.
Talk about worst day ever. God, now he actually felt sorry for Damon. (Truthfully, he'd always pitied him some, that was the only way he could tolerate him.)
As Elena finished her narrative, she paused, her fingers pressing against her temples, and then she started crying. These weren't the stalwart tears of the girl who had endured too many things to lose her shit over this, and yet, he watched her crumple onto the floor, resting atop one of Damon's prized Persian rugs, grief ripping her apart.
Watching Stefan awkwardly trying to comfort her was just as difficult to sit through, so he left after that, and decided once he had a little distance that she must have been crying for herself. For the loss of her human life, for the fact that now she was immortal when that was the last thing she wanted.
But then he sat in the Gilbert kitchen and concocted a plan with Jeremy to save Damon, and he remembered. The elder Salvatore makes people feel things they don't want to feel. Things they don't want to admit they feel.
Until they're dead.
Jeremy waits for him, upstairs in his bedroom. When Ric leaves the Boarding House, Damon and Elena are talking in the kitchen, so he beats Damon back to the Gilberts the night they plan Bonnie's downfall. Ric wonders if Jeremy understands that Damon will kill her if he has to; he'd warn Jeremy, but then they'd both be dead, and that's the only truth Ric knows.
Whatever he does, from this side of things, it better preserve Jeremy Gilbert's human life, or what the hell is the point of any of this?
Damon's going to be the better man (drunken Elena-lamentations finally coming true), if it fucking kills him, and Ric will harass him through Jeremy forever if he has to, to make it happen.
If Ric's really lucky, maybe he'll be able to save Bonnie's life too.
He accompanies them to Bonnie's house, in the backseat of Damon's car. Jeremy knows he's there, but he doesn't say anything. It's a little tense as Damon reiterates, "Just remember to act scared. You better sell it, Gilbert. You're one of those people she'll do anything to protect, so she has to believe I'd kill you."
Jeremy makes a noise, half laugh, half are you serious? "You did kill me, remember?"
Damon's eyes are trained on the road, and he doesn't look over at his passenger when he says, "Yeah, but I wouldn't do that now."
Ric watches Jeremy's face, sees the softness there as he regards the guy he truly believes can help his sister. Part of him wants to warn Jeremy. It's not easy caring about Damon Salvatore, so be careful, buddy.
"I know you wouldn't," Jeremy says, and Ric thinks maybe he already knows. Then Jeremy asks, "Why are you doing this anyway? I mean, if you're just gonna leave, why not take off already?"
Damon's quiet for a moment, and then he says, "I might not be able to help Elena, Jeremy. She probably won't let me, and as much as I'd like to, there's no forcing her into it. But I can help Caroline, and then she'll owe me. She'll have to stick with Elena, even if Elena gets hard to stick with." Ric waits as the two of them exchange looks, and then Damon continues. "Just when she thinks she's got the hang of this vampire thing, it could go bad. You've seen out of control vampires, you know what it's like. The thing is, Elena will be like Stefan-eternally tormented. She'll need someone around to remind her that it doesn't have to be that way. Caroline can do that."
Jeremy turns his face toward the window, looking out at the passing neighborhood. "Maybe," he says, sounding skeptical.
"Just follow my lead," Damon says as they park in front of Bonnie's house. Ric blinks, and finds himself inside the house first. Bonnie is studying a Grimoire, alone, in her living room and she startles when the knock comes at the door.
Cautiously, she gets up and answers it, and then looks relieved to see Damon, which causes him to smirk. Ric can see the wheels turning in his head just before he utters, "Glad I'm not Klausler, huh?"
She shakes her head at him and then waves him and Jeremy inside. Jeremy's eyes settle on Ric and they exchange a surprised look. "Ask them when Damon got invited in here," Ric says, curiosity getting the better of him. Damon always had his secrets, but Ric's suddenly questioning his own worry for Bonnie's life at the vampire's hands.
Jeremy smiles and looks back and forth between Damon and Bonnie. "Ric wants to know when you first invited Damon in, and so do I for that matter."
Bonnie rolls her eyes. "It was a weak moment, before he killed my mother."
"Turned your mother. I turned her."
"By first killing her," Bonnie snipes.
"Ah. Tomato, tomahto."
Crossing her arms over her chest, she takes a deep, long-suffering breath before saying, "I assume you're here about Klaus's body?" she asks, before doing a double take at Jeremy. "Wait, did you say, Ric wants to know...? Can you see Alaric?"
"He sees him all the time," Damon interjects. "Biggest hanger on, ever."
"Tell him he needs to find my Grams for me," she says, turning to the desk on the far side of room. She grabs a framed photo and looks back at Jeremy. "Where is he?" she asks. Jeremy points and Bonnie spins towards Alaric who examines the photo of Sheila Bennett. "Go find her, Ric. I need her."
"Bonnie," Damon says, his voice losing all snarkiness. "You did a spell to put him in Tyler's body; you must be able to do the spell to restore his real body. It was burned, but not completely. It can't be that much more difficult."
She turns on Damon so quickly he takes a step back. "I don't want to put him back, Damon. I want to permanently immobilize him. That's what you should want me to do! That's what everyone should want me to do, but all Caroline cares about is getting her boyfriend back!"
Damon's brows draw into a sharp point over his nose. "Did you miss the part where Elena became a vampire? We have enough to deal with right now. Let Klaus be Klaus again. He won't be after Elena because she's already dead, and he'll leave us alone once he's got what he wants. Then Tyler will be fine, and Caroline can focus on what matters, which is Elena."
Bonnie pivots away rigidly, setting the photo of her grandmother down on top of the Grimoire she'd been reading when they first arrived. "Of course, all you care about is Elena. Guess what, Damon? I care about Elena, too. I already made her a daylight ring, and Stefan can see to her. In fact, why don't you help him if you're so worried about her? I'm not putting Klaus back without a fight. I won't do it."
Jeremy steps forward. "Bonnie-"
Damon grabs him around the neck, pressing his arm hard against Jeremy's windpipe so he's gasping for air. "Put Klaus back, or else, Bonnie."
"Or you'll kill Jeremy?" she asks, not looking too concerned. "Right, because you're going to want Elena to hate you forever. Besides, he's got his ring on, even though he should take it off and throw it away!"
"Bonnie-" Jeremy gasps, and Ric laughs because it's comical. Why do all their plans suck so much? Nothing ever goes the way they intend.
"He's not going to kill you, Jeremy." She marches right over and plucks the ring from Jeremy's hand, which is tugging ineffectually on Damon's arm. She stares into Damon's eyes, giving him a run for his money in the smirking department. "Are you, Damon?"
The moment stretches, the tension escalating to a point that Ric knows; there is danger, only because Damon doesn't know what else to do. He's lost, without a plan, and nothing frightens him more than that. He finally lets Jeremy go, shoving him across the room with unneeded velocity. Jeremy crashes into a chair, but rights himself relatively quickly.
"I can't help her," Damon all but shouts. "She chose Stefan, and I have to leave town, and there isn't going to be anyone around to clean up all your messes." Ric feels his throat close off, or the equivalent of that, since his body doesn't feel exactly the same now. It's an odd moment, though, when the emotion coursing through the room is Damon's and yet it's shared by everyone present.
"I don't need you to clean up anything," Bonnie says. She turns back towards Ric. "I need you," she points vaguely towards him, "to find my Grams. And I need you two to convince Stefan, Elena, and Caroline that I'm doing the best I can for everyone, but I'm not doing anything until I've at least tried this." She lifts her chin. "I'm not anyone's performing monkey, do you understand? This is my magic. And no one is going to make me do a spell I don't want to do."
Ric wanders around in the netherworld, asking about Sheila Bennett. It's funny because he doesn't see the people like him as easily as he does the ones in the corporeal world. But when he tries, he does encounter people, though no one he knows. In the beginning, he hoped he might run into Jenna, but Esther had told him that she had never been in this place, so he knows he won't.
He does finally find a guy who has heard of Sheila-She's a witch, right? They usually keep to themselves and don't make it easy to find them-but he tells him he'll ask someone he knows and get back to him.
Feeling like he's done all he can for the moment, he starts to envision Damon and Jeremy back at the Gilbert house, but suddenly feels like he should go check on Elena at the Boarding House. As he pops in there, he finds a level of tension that beats anything that went on between Bonnie and Damon and Jeremy.
"Maybe I'm not like you, Stefan," Elena says, her voice choked with tears. "Maybe I won't be able to repress myself like that. And maybe I shouldn't. You said yourself that that's been one of the biggest mistakes you made-"
"You can't feed on humans, Elena. You. Can't." Stefan paces agitatedly in front of the fire place and Elena stands across the room with her arms wrapped around herself protectively.
"I don't see what the big deal is, if they're willing."
Stefan looks both incredulous and sucker-punched as he stares at her. "You don't see what the big deal is? You don't see what the big deal is?" he repeats, and somehow his voice is quieter, not louder, but his next words crack like thunder. "Who are you? Damon?"
Elena's body jerks like she's been shot and she spins around and walks out of the room. As she hits the doorway, she taps into her vampire speed and disappears up the stairs into the second story of the house.
Alaric watches while Stefan makes a beeline for his brother's bottles of booze. His hand trembles as he pours himself a drink, and he throws back two fingers of bourbon without a pause. He stares into the bottom of the glass, shaking his head morosely, and then he grabs the bottle and settles on the sofa, alone.
This is how it's been, most of the times that Ric's encountered Stefan and Elena alone. They argue far more than they work together cohesively, and their arguments aren't the kind that really accomplish anything. He doesn't invade their privacy enough to know if they have apologetic make-up sessions following these moments, but it worries him more than anything.
He hasn't told Jeremy, or Damon via Jeremy just what his concerns are, and that's mostly because he wishes he could talk to Damon privately. Jeremy has already had too much "grown-up" stuff to endure, Ric really doesn't want to involve him too deeply into something that he can't really do anything to help with anyway.
As he sits with an unknowing but steadily drinking Stefan, he understands that he can't be vague anymore, not if Elena's going to survive this.
When the front door slams, Ric looks around as Stefan zips out of the room faster than he can process it.
That's when he realizes: Elena just left the house for the first time since she became a vampire.
...chapter four...