[fic] Gravity Hurts (4/9)
Title: Gravity Hurts (4/9)
Author: badboy_fangirl
Characters/Pairings: Jeremy POV; Jeremy + Damon (+ Alaric); Damon/Elena, Stefan/Elena, Jeremy/Bonnie; Elena and Caroline are on hand this round.
Word Count: ~2100
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] | [3]
As Bonnie stands toe to toe with Damon, Jeremy understands what a punk he is. He feels the depth of his punkdom, like all the way to his toes, and he's disgusted with himself in a whole new way. After Ric agrees to go look for Grams, and he and Damon leave Bonnie's house, he sits glumly in the front seat and mentally berates himself.
The car ride is only fifteen minutes long, but about halfway through, he can't stand it anymore and so he says, "I'm a total idiot."
Damon's head jerks in his direction and he smirks a "You'll get no argument from me," his way before he asks, "What, praytell, brought this on?"
"Bonnie. She's totally awesome, and I blew it."
Damon chuckles. "Oh, young love." Jeremy punches his arm and calls him a dick. "Hey, now," Damon says with a bigger laugh. "You are an idiot, I agree, but not in the way you think. Or, rather not only in the way you think. Bonnie totally still cares about you; I bet with the right wooing, you could get her back."
Jeremy can't stop the "Really?" that flies out of his mouth, but then he instantly feels worse for caring about something like that when his sister just died, and came back, as a vampire. (His life is so fucked up, now, there's just no way around it.)
"Really," Damon says, completely serious.
"How?" Jeremy asks after a milli-second of thinking he should put all personal things aside until he knows Elena is okay. He can do both, can't he? Damon's got multiple projects, so Jeremy can just do what he does.
"I would start with a big-ass apology," Damon says, as they pull up in front of the house. Jeremy gives him an oh, really? look and Damon concedes, "If I were you, I'd start with a big-ass apology. Be creative. Buy chocolates and flowers or whatever Bonnie likes. But for now, get outta here. I'm gonna go have a chat with Blondie. I'll be back later, and we can plot your next move."
Jeremy smiles, but Damon waits a beat before he returns it. A grin actually tugs at his mouth as they stare at each other, and Jeremy realizes how little of that has been going on for any of them. "Cool," he says, climbing from the car. "I'll see you later."
"T.T.F.N.," Damon says, waving his hand, his smirk firmly in place.
As he walks up the steps, and the Camaro pulls away from the curb, Jeremy realizes he left his keys inside the house when they took off earlier. He doesn't know if Damon actually has a key (the one they hid under the fake rock out front is missing) or would just be able to do some vampire trick to make it easier to get in, so before he texts him, he decides to walk around back and see if the kitchen door might be unlocked.
Elena is sitting on the back step, all alone.
"Elena?" Jeremy asks, and she looks up at him in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Hey, Jer," she says, her voice tattered. He sits down next to her and she flinches away from him just slightly.
"You worried you're gonna eat me?" he asks, giving her a small smile.
She wraps her arms around herself and grimaces. "Maybe," she says, clenching her teeth. "Where's Damon?"
"He had to run an errand. I locked myself out, and the spare key was missing..." he pauses and she looks a bit sheepish.
Holding up the key so he can see it, she says, "I forgot I'd have to be invited in. So I tried the front door, you know, like a normal person and couldn't get in. So I came around here and cried for an hour, and now you're home."
Jeremy's not so dense he doesn't know that this is the hardest thing in the world for his sister. The choice she made, he's sure had a lot to do with him; he wants it to be easier for her, and that's why he's certain that Damon is the one who should be helping through this. Now is his chance to plead his case. "Would you like to come in, Elena?" he asks.
She nods, and more tears appear in her eyes. He wraps his arm around her and hugs her anyway. Maybe it's dangerous, maybe it's not, but all that matters is his sister needs him. "It's gonna be okay," he says, squeezing her tight.
In the kitchen, Elena finds Ric's stash of bourbon and pours herself a drink. "It helps," she says, gesturing when Jeremy gives her a raised brow. "It helps with the cravings."
"Hmmm," Jeremy says, taking a seat at the kitchen table. He points across from him so she'll join him. "That's interesting. I don't think that's why Damon drinks so much, though," he muses.
A ghost of a smile traipses across Elena's mouth. "No, that's not why Damon drinks."
Jeremy watches his sister intently. "Why do you think he drinks?"
"To forget," she answers, her tone wistful, her eyes diving into the bottom of the glass just before she throws back the final swallow. "That's why he has to keep drinking, because he has to keep forgetting."
Jeremy feels like he's playing chess, like he has to plan each move very carefully to get the best possible positioning before he moves in for the kill. (That's probably the world's worst analogy when sitting across the table from a two-week old vampire.) He takes a breath. "Why are you here?" he asks. "You ready to come home?"
Elena's eyes dart to his and then skitter away and she moves her shoulders in a combination shrug-shudder. "No, probably not. But I needed to get out, get away from the Boarding House. Stefan...and I don't-" She hesitates and Jeremy's eyes are drawn away as he notices Ric standing in the hall. Ric puts a finger to his lips to indicate his presence need not be known.
Elena sighs loudly, and she grabs the whiskey bottle she brought with her to the table. Pouring herself another shot, she finally says, "We just don't see eye to eye on things."
"Like what?" Jeremy asks.
Another deep breath. "Like what's okay and what's not okay."
Just as Jeremy's about to ask what that means, the front door bursts open and Caroline comes tearing into the house. "Elena!" she shouts, and both Jeremy and Elena jump in surprise. Damon is right behind Caroline, and while his expression shows some concern, he doesn't have Caroline's panicked quality.
Elena sets her glass aside, her own face suddenly creased with worry. "What?" she asks. "What is it?"
"What is it?" Caroline demands. "It's you, that's what it is! You can't be alone with Jeremy! Who knows what you'll do to him after what you did to Matt!" Caroline grabs Elena's arm and pulls her to her feet. Jeremy looks at Damon, who is watching this exchange with a mild smirk on his face, openly curious as opposed to appalled.
"What happened to Matt?" Jeremy asks.
Elena's eyes sling-shot between the two boys and then she jerks her arm from Caroline's grasp. "Jeremy was never in any danger from me, were you, Jer?" Jeremy obligingly shakes his head and Caroline looks over at him, her eyes narrowing in on his neck. "And when I drank from Matt, it was because he offered. I really wish Stefan hadn't told you."
"You can't feed on people," Caroline says shrilly, and that's when Damon finally interrupts, coming to stand near the two girls.
"Actually, yes, she can," he says. "She's a vampire, and she can do whatever the hell she wants, and you and my brother are not going to be the vampire police. Leave her alone."
"Damon," Caroline shouts, spinning around to face him. "She didn't do a 'snatch, feed, erase.' She was drinking from our friend. From someone she knows. That's not the same, and you know it. So stop acting like you're all Pro-Elena's-Choices now."
"Shut the fuck up, Caroline," Damon barks. "I never said they weren't poster-kids for the co-dependent, but that's between Matt and Elena. And I'd like to point out, she was sitting here calmly talking to her brother, not looking like a rabid vamp about to tear out his jugular, so why don't you just chill out?"
Caroline rolls her eyes and turns back to focus on Elena. "It's not okay to feed from Matt, I don't care if he signed a contract of agreement! You can't do that. We don't do that."
Elena's eyes narrow, and Jeremy sees a side of her that rarely pops out. "Are you mad because I fed on Matt, or because he let me?" His sister knows the answer to that one, and it's almost like watching her prod Caroline's last nerve with a Taser.
Jeremy's been around vampires for a while now. He's seen some pretty scary shit; he's been killed by one, fed on by others, and now as he sits at his own kitchen table, he watches a girl he's known most of his life vamp out and attack his sister, her own best friend. It's like a car wreck, and he can't tear his eyes away, so as Caroline punches Elena and then promptly goes into girl-mode by grabbing some of her hair, he looks over at Damon, because of the two of them, only one is actually capable of stopping it.
Damon, being Damon, lets it go on for a couple of minutes. After some screaming, yelling, scratching, hissing, and all around vampire faces come out, he grabs each of them by their throats and steps between them. "As completely arousing as this is," he says in a loud voice to combat their squeals and grunts, "I'm gonna have to break it up." He gives Caroline a hard toss up the hall, shouting, "Off to your corner, Blondie!" When Elena lunges for Caroline, he says, "Not so fast, Petrova Doppelganger," and grabs her around the shoulders, preventing her from getting to her target.
Elena's eyes jerk to his and she shoves him away. "What's that supposed to mean?" she demands. The fact that Caroline accused her of bad behavior and she didn't act guilty at all contrasts greatly with the look on her face as she surveys Damon.
He steps back and gives her a once over, but also uses his peripheral vision to make sure Caroline's not coming back around. He leans in and whispers, "It's very Katherine of you to find an ex-boyfriend to feed on, E-len-a."
The horror splashes across her face instantly, and Jeremy is convinced anew. Damon is the only one who will be able to show her the way to be. His first instinct about this had had to do with the fact that he thought Damon loved Elena in a better way than Stefan (he'd never let her die, that's for damn sure), but it's this moment that shows him something he hadn't quite grasped before. It's not just that Damon loves her; it's that he knows her so well. The inherent understanding between them is just that obvious. Jeremy can see it, like something palpable that stretches between them.
"Elena," he says, standing up from the table. "I need to talk to you, in private."
He marches around the table and grabs his sister by the arm. Damon gives him a little nod, as does Ric as they pass by him in the corridor. Caroline's standing at the front door as they get to the foot of the stairs, crying quietly. "I'm sorry, Elena," she says, sniffing loudly.
"No, I'm sorry, Care," Elena says, rushing into her arms. They hug each other tightly and then Jeremy tugs on Elena's arm, pulling her away.
Damon swears in exasperation behind them, but Jeremy doesn't look back. He just drags his sister upstairs, intent on making her listen to, and accept, the truth.
From the top of the stairs, they hear Caroline mutter, "You're disgusting, you know. As completely arousing as this is... Ugh, so gross."
Damon just laughs, and Jeremy pretends not to notice Elena's lips twitching in response.
...chapter five...
Author: badboy_fangirl
Characters/Pairings: Jeremy POV; Jeremy + Damon (+ Alaric); Damon/Elena, Stefan/Elena, Jeremy/Bonnie; Elena and Caroline are on hand this round.
Word Count: ~2100
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] | [3]
As Bonnie stands toe to toe with Damon, Jeremy understands what a punk he is. He feels the depth of his punkdom, like all the way to his toes, and he's disgusted with himself in a whole new way. After Ric agrees to go look for Grams, and he and Damon leave Bonnie's house, he sits glumly in the front seat and mentally berates himself.
The car ride is only fifteen minutes long, but about halfway through, he can't stand it anymore and so he says, "I'm a total idiot."
Damon's head jerks in his direction and he smirks a "You'll get no argument from me," his way before he asks, "What, praytell, brought this on?"
"Bonnie. She's totally awesome, and I blew it."
Damon chuckles. "Oh, young love." Jeremy punches his arm and calls him a dick. "Hey, now," Damon says with a bigger laugh. "You are an idiot, I agree, but not in the way you think. Or, rather not only in the way you think. Bonnie totally still cares about you; I bet with the right wooing, you could get her back."
Jeremy can't stop the "Really?" that flies out of his mouth, but then he instantly feels worse for caring about something like that when his sister just died, and came back, as a vampire. (His life is so fucked up, now, there's just no way around it.)
"Really," Damon says, completely serious.
"How?" Jeremy asks after a milli-second of thinking he should put all personal things aside until he knows Elena is okay. He can do both, can't he? Damon's got multiple projects, so Jeremy can just do what he does.
"I would start with a big-ass apology," Damon says, as they pull up in front of the house. Jeremy gives him an oh, really? look and Damon concedes, "If I were you, I'd start with a big-ass apology. Be creative. Buy chocolates and flowers or whatever Bonnie likes. But for now, get outta here. I'm gonna go have a chat with Blondie. I'll be back later, and we can plot your next move."
Jeremy smiles, but Damon waits a beat before he returns it. A grin actually tugs at his mouth as they stare at each other, and Jeremy realizes how little of that has been going on for any of them. "Cool," he says, climbing from the car. "I'll see you later."
"T.T.F.N.," Damon says, waving his hand, his smirk firmly in place.
As he walks up the steps, and the Camaro pulls away from the curb, Jeremy realizes he left his keys inside the house when they took off earlier. He doesn't know if Damon actually has a key (the one they hid under the fake rock out front is missing) or would just be able to do some vampire trick to make it easier to get in, so before he texts him, he decides to walk around back and see if the kitchen door might be unlocked.
Elena is sitting on the back step, all alone.
"Elena?" Jeremy asks, and she looks up at him in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Hey, Jer," she says, her voice tattered. He sits down next to her and she flinches away from him just slightly.
"You worried you're gonna eat me?" he asks, giving her a small smile.
She wraps her arms around herself and grimaces. "Maybe," she says, clenching her teeth. "Where's Damon?"
"He had to run an errand. I locked myself out, and the spare key was missing..." he pauses and she looks a bit sheepish.
Holding up the key so he can see it, she says, "I forgot I'd have to be invited in. So I tried the front door, you know, like a normal person and couldn't get in. So I came around here and cried for an hour, and now you're home."
Jeremy's not so dense he doesn't know that this is the hardest thing in the world for his sister. The choice she made, he's sure had a lot to do with him; he wants it to be easier for her, and that's why he's certain that Damon is the one who should be helping through this. Now is his chance to plead his case. "Would you like to come in, Elena?" he asks.
She nods, and more tears appear in her eyes. He wraps his arm around her and hugs her anyway. Maybe it's dangerous, maybe it's not, but all that matters is his sister needs him. "It's gonna be okay," he says, squeezing her tight.
In the kitchen, Elena finds Ric's stash of bourbon and pours herself a drink. "It helps," she says, gesturing when Jeremy gives her a raised brow. "It helps with the cravings."
"Hmmm," Jeremy says, taking a seat at the kitchen table. He points across from him so she'll join him. "That's interesting. I don't think that's why Damon drinks so much, though," he muses.
A ghost of a smile traipses across Elena's mouth. "No, that's not why Damon drinks."
Jeremy watches his sister intently. "Why do you think he drinks?"
"To forget," she answers, her tone wistful, her eyes diving into the bottom of the glass just before she throws back the final swallow. "That's why he has to keep drinking, because he has to keep forgetting."
Jeremy feels like he's playing chess, like he has to plan each move very carefully to get the best possible positioning before he moves in for the kill. (That's probably the world's worst analogy when sitting across the table from a two-week old vampire.) He takes a breath. "Why are you here?" he asks. "You ready to come home?"
Elena's eyes dart to his and then skitter away and she moves her shoulders in a combination shrug-shudder. "No, probably not. But I needed to get out, get away from the Boarding House. Stefan...and I don't-" She hesitates and Jeremy's eyes are drawn away as he notices Ric standing in the hall. Ric puts a finger to his lips to indicate his presence need not be known.
Elena sighs loudly, and she grabs the whiskey bottle she brought with her to the table. Pouring herself another shot, she finally says, "We just don't see eye to eye on things."
"Like what?" Jeremy asks.
Another deep breath. "Like what's okay and what's not okay."
Just as Jeremy's about to ask what that means, the front door bursts open and Caroline comes tearing into the house. "Elena!" she shouts, and both Jeremy and Elena jump in surprise. Damon is right behind Caroline, and while his expression shows some concern, he doesn't have Caroline's panicked quality.
Elena sets her glass aside, her own face suddenly creased with worry. "What?" she asks. "What is it?"
"What is it?" Caroline demands. "It's you, that's what it is! You can't be alone with Jeremy! Who knows what you'll do to him after what you did to Matt!" Caroline grabs Elena's arm and pulls her to her feet. Jeremy looks at Damon, who is watching this exchange with a mild smirk on his face, openly curious as opposed to appalled.
"What happened to Matt?" Jeremy asks.
Elena's eyes sling-shot between the two boys and then she jerks her arm from Caroline's grasp. "Jeremy was never in any danger from me, were you, Jer?" Jeremy obligingly shakes his head and Caroline looks over at him, her eyes narrowing in on his neck. "And when I drank from Matt, it was because he offered. I really wish Stefan hadn't told you."
"You can't feed on people," Caroline says shrilly, and that's when Damon finally interrupts, coming to stand near the two girls.
"Actually, yes, she can," he says. "She's a vampire, and she can do whatever the hell she wants, and you and my brother are not going to be the vampire police. Leave her alone."
"Damon," Caroline shouts, spinning around to face him. "She didn't do a 'snatch, feed, erase.' She was drinking from our friend. From someone she knows. That's not the same, and you know it. So stop acting like you're all Pro-Elena's-Choices now."
"Shut the fuck up, Caroline," Damon barks. "I never said they weren't poster-kids for the co-dependent, but that's between Matt and Elena. And I'd like to point out, she was sitting here calmly talking to her brother, not looking like a rabid vamp about to tear out his jugular, so why don't you just chill out?"
Caroline rolls her eyes and turns back to focus on Elena. "It's not okay to feed from Matt, I don't care if he signed a contract of agreement! You can't do that. We don't do that."
Elena's eyes narrow, and Jeremy sees a side of her that rarely pops out. "Are you mad because I fed on Matt, or because he let me?" His sister knows the answer to that one, and it's almost like watching her prod Caroline's last nerve with a Taser.
Jeremy's been around vampires for a while now. He's seen some pretty scary shit; he's been killed by one, fed on by others, and now as he sits at his own kitchen table, he watches a girl he's known most of his life vamp out and attack his sister, her own best friend. It's like a car wreck, and he can't tear his eyes away, so as Caroline punches Elena and then promptly goes into girl-mode by grabbing some of her hair, he looks over at Damon, because of the two of them, only one is actually capable of stopping it.
Damon, being Damon, lets it go on for a couple of minutes. After some screaming, yelling, scratching, hissing, and all around vampire faces come out, he grabs each of them by their throats and steps between them. "As completely arousing as this is," he says in a loud voice to combat their squeals and grunts, "I'm gonna have to break it up." He gives Caroline a hard toss up the hall, shouting, "Off to your corner, Blondie!" When Elena lunges for Caroline, he says, "Not so fast, Petrova Doppelganger," and grabs her around the shoulders, preventing her from getting to her target.
Elena's eyes jerk to his and she shoves him away. "What's that supposed to mean?" she demands. The fact that Caroline accused her of bad behavior and she didn't act guilty at all contrasts greatly with the look on her face as she surveys Damon.
He steps back and gives her a once over, but also uses his peripheral vision to make sure Caroline's not coming back around. He leans in and whispers, "It's very Katherine of you to find an ex-boyfriend to feed on, E-len-a."
The horror splashes across her face instantly, and Jeremy is convinced anew. Damon is the only one who will be able to show her the way to be. His first instinct about this had had to do with the fact that he thought Damon loved Elena in a better way than Stefan (he'd never let her die, that's for damn sure), but it's this moment that shows him something he hadn't quite grasped before. It's not just that Damon loves her; it's that he knows her so well. The inherent understanding between them is just that obvious. Jeremy can see it, like something palpable that stretches between them.
"Elena," he says, standing up from the table. "I need to talk to you, in private."
He marches around the table and grabs his sister by the arm. Damon gives him a little nod, as does Ric as they pass by him in the corridor. Caroline's standing at the front door as they get to the foot of the stairs, crying quietly. "I'm sorry, Elena," she says, sniffing loudly.
"No, I'm sorry, Care," Elena says, rushing into her arms. They hug each other tightly and then Jeremy tugs on Elena's arm, pulling her away.
Damon swears in exasperation behind them, but Jeremy doesn't look back. He just drags his sister upstairs, intent on making her listen to, and accept, the truth.
From the top of the stairs, they hear Caroline mutter, "You're disgusting, you know. As completely arousing as this is... Ugh, so gross."
Damon just laughs, and Jeremy pretends not to notice Elena's lips twitching in response.
...chapter five...