[fic] Gravity Hurts 6/9
Title: Gravity Hurts (6/9)
Author: badboy_fangirl
Characters/Pairings: Alaric POV; Jeremy + Damon (+ Alaric); Damon/Elena, Stefan/Elena, Jeremy/Bonnie; Elena and Sheila Bennett are on hand this chapter.
Word Count: ~2900
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] | [4] | [5]
By the time Jeremy and Elena reach Jeremy's bedroom door, Ric is already waiting inside for them. Jeremy's eyes meet his briefly as he leads his sister to the end of his bed. She sits down, and covers her face with her hands. At first Ric thinks she's crying because her shoulders are trembling, but then she lifts her face and laughter bubbles out of her mouth. "This is crazy, isn't it?" she asks, just shaking her head. "Me and Caroline, catfighting in the kitchen, Damon being the voice of reason. You, dragging me up here the way Dad used to. What has happened to me, Jer?"
Jeremy folds his arms over his chest and looks down at her. "You became a vampire," he answers honestly, but Ric can tell with both the pose and the tone of his voice he's trying to remind Elena of Grayson Gilbert, because her smile grows wider at she stares at her brother. "Young lady," Jeremy gracelessly tacks on, his voice deepening ever so slightly. "It's not okay to snack on your friends, or scratch another's eyes out, even if she's fucking annoying." That's when Jeremy starts laughing and he throws his arms up. "Okay, I can't keep it up. Dad could do the disapproval thing even when he didn't feel it. I remember him giving me a lecture about not getting into fights with that douche Jeff Hamilton and then I heard him telling mom how proud he was of of for standing up for myself.
"So, on that note, 'Lena? I'm proud of you. You've been a vampire for a while now, and you haven't killed anyone. You're doing good. But..."
He sits down next to her on the bed, and she scoots over to let him, her smile fading as things grew serious. "Ric and I both think that Damon might be a better...mentor than Stefan."
Elena's brow creases and she repeats the word "Mentor?" like she's never heard it before. "Damon? What?"
Ric finally says, "Just tell her I've seen some of her and Stefan's interaction."
Jeremy nods and repeats Ric's statement.
Elena glances around, looking slightly caught. "Where is he?" she asks. Jeremy points towards the dresser where Ric stands. "Ric?" she asks uncertainly. "I miss you," she says, and the sudden lump in his throat feels like a boulder.
Even though Ric says nothing, Jeremy offers, "He misses you, too."
"I know it's not going well with Stefan," she says, and she reaches for Jeremy's hand, as if drawing strength there. "But do you honestly think it will go any better with Damon?"
"Yes!" Jeremy says emphatically. "Look, Elena," he rushes on before Ric can say anything else. "Damon is difficult, we all know that. I mean, he killed me and Ric, we know. We know exactly what you're dealing with, with him. But he's survived as a vampire without ever living in extremes. Even those times when he seemed pretty crazy--well, Ric says that was mostly an act for Stefan, to annoy his brother. This is stuff Damon told Ric on their many drinking nights. He never ripped people apart and put them back together again."
Elena's eyes cloud with tears, and she shakes her head at her brother. "That wasn't his fault, Jer. Ric," she says plaintively, looking back towards him. "Stefan is a good person, you know that he is!"
"The point is, he's not a good vampire," Ric says. "Tell her that, Jeremy. Tell her she already knows this, I'm not telling her anything she hasn't figured out in the last six months."
Jeremy wraps his arm around his sister and after repeating Ric's words, he adds, "You need to learn how to be a vampire who can handle it. Damon's the one."
Elena doesn't say anything, she just leans her head on Jeremy's shoulder, and though he knows she can't see him, Ric feels like she's looking right at him, waiting for his silent nod of encouragement. "He loves you, Elena. He'll do anything for you. Ask him to teach you."
She starts crying harder after Jeremy relays the message, and Ric says nothing else. She has to get there on her own, one way or another. He and Jeremy have made their case, now they have to hope she'll agree.
On the porch, Alaric watches them hug. There is a tenderness there that he has rarely seen in Damon, except when he's with Elena, and that's sort of the point, all the way around.
Elena needs what Damon can teach her and Damon needs what Elena brings out in him. It's not like Ric would be the first one in line to see them together, but he supports that more than he does a Stefan union. Over time he came to understand something very simple: Damon didn't kill because he lost control. He did it to prove something or to accomplish something. Stefan was really the much more dangerous one. He hasn't shared his views on that with Jeremy, though, because too many of his thoughts are already in that kid's head.
Damon's hands comb through her hair and he gently rocks her left and right. Ric's not stupid, and he didn't spend the majority of his time with Damon because he's an ass all the time. He's not; there's this whole part of him that very few people see, and while it feels a bit intrusive spying on them, he needs to know where it's going. Jeremy can't horn in, and Elena didn't voice her thoughts before she left her brother upstairs in his room.
"Thank you," she says now, her voice choked.
"No problem," Damon says, feigning nonchalance while she can't see the emotion all over his face. As soon as she pulls back, he schools his features, but it's not enough. Even Ric can see how unsure his friend is in the face of this possibility. "Want to tell me about the Quarterback?" Damon asks, postponing the inevitable.
Elena shrugs, and drops her arms away from Damon's body, but she doesn't move. They are still standing quite close together as she speaks lowly. "He came over, the day after..." she doesn't add I turned but Ric gets it. "...and offered. At first I said no. And then I didn't. And then he started coming every day, and..." she breaks off, and when she tries dropping her eyes away from Damon's his hand catches her chin and keep their gazes locked. "I practiced on him, and I could stop. He even let me..." She rubs a hand over her neck, right in the primo biting area. "Here. And it was good. I loved it. It's better than a bloodbag, and I didn't want to kill him. But then Stefan walked in and caught us, and..."
She sniffs and grabs at Damon's hand, trying to dislodge him, but he just stands firm, not allowing her to shy away. "And he didn't like it. And I didn't care. Well, I cared-or maybe I should say I understood why it bothers him-but I don't know if I care enough not to do it."
"Why do you think it bothers him?" Damon asks, his voice deceptively soft.
"Because he thinks it's wrong," she answers immediately.
"No," Damon snaps back instantly and Elena's eyes dart away even though he still won't let her actually move her head. "He wants to think it's wrong, but really it pisses him off because that's a guy you used to sleep with and you were doing a very intimate thing with him. Think about it." Damon just watches her for a couple of beats. "Who have you ever shared blood with in the past?"
Finally Elena shoves away from him, using her new-found strength to do so. Ric watches Damon carefully though, and he can see it's still a case of him letting her. He could easily overpower her if he wanted, but for once Damon's using a soft touch. "Elena?" he asks, and she turns her back on him. She doesn't respond so Damon gives a little shrug for no one to see. "I'm saying, you might as well have been fucking the Quarterback. That's what was going through Stefan's mind. But of course he'll cloak it in vampire etiquette so you two never have a real conversation."
Elena turns on him then, all rage and beauty and Damon smiles, as though his goal has been accomplished. (Knowing him, it probably has.) "Don't shoot the messenger," he says, lifting his hands up innocently.
"Why do you have to be like this?" she demands. "I want it to be nice between us, I want to forget how angry I am with you so that I can see if Jeremy is right about all this, but then you have to just be so...ugh, Damon."
Damon smirks. "Hey, remember when you lied and said you like me just how I am?" Then his face falls a little. "Wait. You're so angry with me? What the hell did I do?"
"You compelled me!" she shouts, and Ric leans forward inadvertently. This is the first he's ever heard of this, and he's been privy to many drunken Damon confessions.
"Oh, for fuck's sake," Damon scoffs. "Are we back to that? It doesn't mean anything, Elena. So what, we met the night your parents died. It wasn't like we'd have walked off into the sunset if I let you remember that. I was here for Katherine, remember?"
She crosses her arms over her chest, much like Jeremy had earlier when he was imitating their father. "I'm not talking about that, and you know it. I'm talking about the first time you gave me my necklace back."
Damon's smirk grows more smirky if possible, but Ric can see it all unraveling in his eyes. He holds on to it for five seconds longer and then he just gives up, which startles both Ric and Elena. "Okay, fine. I made a big confession and then I made you forget. It's not like you didn't know I loved you. I only made you forget so you wouldn't have to deal with it."
Elena snorts and rolls her eyes, and she looks so much like Damon that it makes Ric laugh. "Right. What a liar you are, Damon. You made me forget so you wouldn't have to deal with it. Like you don't know what compulsion does? You feel something, but you don't know why you feel it; there's an ache in your soul, but you have no explanation for it. I stood there and got bombarded by your feelings and then I didn't even know what caused my feelings."
Damon looks genuinely confused and he asks with a completely sincere expression, "What are you talking about?"
"Katherine never compelled you to forget something? Never?" she asks sharply.
Damon waves a hand. "No. She just, you know, did it for petty things, like when she wanted me to leave her alone."
"And that didn't leave any lingering feelings? Like maybe doubt about her sincerity? Or some kind of feeling that you were missing something major? Really? You're going to stand there and tell m-"
"Elena," he interrupts, his voice suddenly darker. "She turned both me and my brother into vampires after she promised me it would only be me. I had a pretty good inkling for a long time that it wasn't all kosher. I simply chose to believe that when I rescued her from the tomb, she wouldn't care about Stefan anymore. But what does that matter now?"
A bitter laugh tumbles from Elena's lips. "It's sort of ironic how clearly you see everything with Stefan and me, but how far you have your head up your ass about yourself." She shakes her head, biting her bottom lip. "You threw your feelings on me, didn't let me respond to or absorb anything you'd said, and then you took it away. So I was left with all this...emotion...for you, and no idea what it was about. For all the things you've ever done to hurt me, I don't know. Maybe you really don't get it, Damon, but that was the worst. Making me carry that, without my knowledge. That made me angrier than the blood. Or Bonnie's mom. Or-"
"It only made you madder because you're a vampire now. Everything's heightened. You know what would happen if I killed Jeremy now? You'd fucking murder me, end of story. You're Elena!All-Jacked-Up. You're the kind of girl who feeds on her ex-boyfriend, justifies it to her current boyfriend, and then throws it in her best friend's face. Think about that: all things human!Elena would never have done. So be mad at me, I don't give a flying fuck. As usual, all that really matters is that you're still here, and even though I could wring Stefan's scrawny neck for it, it's still better than you being dead." He swings around like he might walk off the porch, and adds an "I think," layered with deep sarcasm.
Ric has observed Damon and Elena many times, watched the extraordinary ease that is sometimes between them, seen the heat that flares up from time to time, witnessed the disappointment on both sides for various reasons. It's always worried him, this connection, because the one thing he knows for sure is that it's stronger than either Damon or Elena understand. They are bound together in a way that supercedes his brother, her common sense, or any normal relationship.
But after all that, after all the words they just exchanged in hostility, in the absolute solving of nothing, Elena just looks at him and says, "Jeremy wants you to teach me to be a vampire."
Damon glances back over his shoulder at her, sort of sizing her up. There is no surprise on his face, just scrutiny. "Why not, right?" he says flippantly. "You taught me to be human."
Elena takes a breath, not quite a gasp, but something about it shocks her, and she gapes at him just a little. Ric would love to be inside her head, because he sees the moment when it clicks, when she decides, but he wants to know exactly why. "All right," she says, and it appears to be so very simple.
Damon's thoughts mirror his own. "Just like that?" he asks.
"Just like that," Elena confirms.
In a flash, Damon looks both smug and terrified all at once, and in any other situation, Ric might find that funny. Right now, with so much hanging in the balance, he just can't find the humor very easily.
Damon closes the space between him and Elena, his hands capturing her face. He tilts her head up to his and says determinedly, "I'm not going to teach you the most humane way to do this, Elena, and we're probably going to fight and hurt each other and, you know, our normal MO, but I won't ever make you feel bad about what you are. This is how it is now, and you are not going to spend eternity apologizing for what you are."
She searches his face, her eyes wide and frightened. Then she slowly nods, swallows loudly and reaches up to take his hands in hers. She squeezes her palms around Damon's knuckles. "Okay," she murmurs.
It shifts then, the spark lighting up just as bright as a string of Christmas lights, and Ric really really hopes they don't start kissing, because he does not want to be around for that.
When that happens, he wants to be long gone. So, with a blink, he leaves the Gilbert porch.
Sheila Bennett approaches him quietly, but he knows who she is before she introduces herself. She reminds him of Bonnie, just the austere look about her, the seriousness in her eyes. "You know my granddaughter?" she asks after they've exchanged names.
"Yes, I was her history teacher. She says she needs your help with a special spell that will permanently disable an Original, but won't kill him. If she kills him, it kills his whole bloodline, which is pretty much every vampire she knows."
Sheila's quiet a moment. "Including her mother?" she asks.
Alaric nods.
"How will we do this?" she asks.
"Jeremy Gilbert is a medium. He can see me, so maybe he'll be able to see you too. Regardless, we can communicate, even if it's tricky, one by one. Bonnie's sure that you can help her."
Sheila gives him one beady squinched eye and says, "I'll listen, but I don't promise to help. That many vampires dead all at once? That sounds like Nature's way of taking care of business."
Ric would be concerned about this attitude if he hadn't ever met Esther, so he just nods compliantly. He believes Bonnie will have the words he couldn't even begin to find to convince this woman to help.
And if she won't, well, then they'll have a whole new fight on their hands.
...chapter seven...
Author: badboy_fangirl
Characters/Pairings: Alaric POV; Jeremy + Damon (+ Alaric); Damon/Elena, Stefan/Elena, Jeremy/Bonnie; Elena and Sheila Bennett are on hand this chapter.
Word Count: ~2900
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] | [4] | [5]
By the time Jeremy and Elena reach Jeremy's bedroom door, Ric is already waiting inside for them. Jeremy's eyes meet his briefly as he leads his sister to the end of his bed. She sits down, and covers her face with her hands. At first Ric thinks she's crying because her shoulders are trembling, but then she lifts her face and laughter bubbles out of her mouth. "This is crazy, isn't it?" she asks, just shaking her head. "Me and Caroline, catfighting in the kitchen, Damon being the voice of reason. You, dragging me up here the way Dad used to. What has happened to me, Jer?"
Jeremy folds his arms over his chest and looks down at her. "You became a vampire," he answers honestly, but Ric can tell with both the pose and the tone of his voice he's trying to remind Elena of Grayson Gilbert, because her smile grows wider at she stares at her brother. "Young lady," Jeremy gracelessly tacks on, his voice deepening ever so slightly. "It's not okay to snack on your friends, or scratch another's eyes out, even if she's fucking annoying." That's when Jeremy starts laughing and he throws his arms up. "Okay, I can't keep it up. Dad could do the disapproval thing even when he didn't feel it. I remember him giving me a lecture about not getting into fights with that douche Jeff Hamilton and then I heard him telling mom how proud he was of of for standing up for myself.
"So, on that note, 'Lena? I'm proud of you. You've been a vampire for a while now, and you haven't killed anyone. You're doing good. But..."
He sits down next to her on the bed, and she scoots over to let him, her smile fading as things grew serious. "Ric and I both think that Damon might be a better...mentor than Stefan."
Elena's brow creases and she repeats the word "Mentor?" like she's never heard it before. "Damon? What?"
Ric finally says, "Just tell her I've seen some of her and Stefan's interaction."
Jeremy nods and repeats Ric's statement.
Elena glances around, looking slightly caught. "Where is he?" she asks. Jeremy points towards the dresser where Ric stands. "Ric?" she asks uncertainly. "I miss you," she says, and the sudden lump in his throat feels like a boulder.
Even though Ric says nothing, Jeremy offers, "He misses you, too."
"I know it's not going well with Stefan," she says, and she reaches for Jeremy's hand, as if drawing strength there. "But do you honestly think it will go any better with Damon?"
"Yes!" Jeremy says emphatically. "Look, Elena," he rushes on before Ric can say anything else. "Damon is difficult, we all know that. I mean, he killed me and Ric, we know. We know exactly what you're dealing with, with him. But he's survived as a vampire without ever living in extremes. Even those times when he seemed pretty crazy--well, Ric says that was mostly an act for Stefan, to annoy his brother. This is stuff Damon told Ric on their many drinking nights. He never ripped people apart and put them back together again."
Elena's eyes cloud with tears, and she shakes her head at her brother. "That wasn't his fault, Jer. Ric," she says plaintively, looking back towards him. "Stefan is a good person, you know that he is!"
"The point is, he's not a good vampire," Ric says. "Tell her that, Jeremy. Tell her she already knows this, I'm not telling her anything she hasn't figured out in the last six months."
Jeremy wraps his arm around his sister and after repeating Ric's words, he adds, "You need to learn how to be a vampire who can handle it. Damon's the one."
Elena doesn't say anything, she just leans her head on Jeremy's shoulder, and though he knows she can't see him, Ric feels like she's looking right at him, waiting for his silent nod of encouragement. "He loves you, Elena. He'll do anything for you. Ask him to teach you."
She starts crying harder after Jeremy relays the message, and Ric says nothing else. She has to get there on her own, one way or another. He and Jeremy have made their case, now they have to hope she'll agree.
On the porch, Alaric watches them hug. There is a tenderness there that he has rarely seen in Damon, except when he's with Elena, and that's sort of the point, all the way around.
Elena needs what Damon can teach her and Damon needs what Elena brings out in him. It's not like Ric would be the first one in line to see them together, but he supports that more than he does a Stefan union. Over time he came to understand something very simple: Damon didn't kill because he lost control. He did it to prove something or to accomplish something. Stefan was really the much more dangerous one. He hasn't shared his views on that with Jeremy, though, because too many of his thoughts are already in that kid's head.
Damon's hands comb through her hair and he gently rocks her left and right. Ric's not stupid, and he didn't spend the majority of his time with Damon because he's an ass all the time. He's not; there's this whole part of him that very few people see, and while it feels a bit intrusive spying on them, he needs to know where it's going. Jeremy can't horn in, and Elena didn't voice her thoughts before she left her brother upstairs in his room.
"Thank you," she says now, her voice choked.
"No problem," Damon says, feigning nonchalance while she can't see the emotion all over his face. As soon as she pulls back, he schools his features, but it's not enough. Even Ric can see how unsure his friend is in the face of this possibility. "Want to tell me about the Quarterback?" Damon asks, postponing the inevitable.
Elena shrugs, and drops her arms away from Damon's body, but she doesn't move. They are still standing quite close together as she speaks lowly. "He came over, the day after..." she doesn't add I turned but Ric gets it. "...and offered. At first I said no. And then I didn't. And then he started coming every day, and..." she breaks off, and when she tries dropping her eyes away from Damon's his hand catches her chin and keep their gazes locked. "I practiced on him, and I could stop. He even let me..." She rubs a hand over her neck, right in the primo biting area. "Here. And it was good. I loved it. It's better than a bloodbag, and I didn't want to kill him. But then Stefan walked in and caught us, and..."
She sniffs and grabs at Damon's hand, trying to dislodge him, but he just stands firm, not allowing her to shy away. "And he didn't like it. And I didn't care. Well, I cared-or maybe I should say I understood why it bothers him-but I don't know if I care enough not to do it."
"Why do you think it bothers him?" Damon asks, his voice deceptively soft.
"Because he thinks it's wrong," she answers immediately.
"No," Damon snaps back instantly and Elena's eyes dart away even though he still won't let her actually move her head. "He wants to think it's wrong, but really it pisses him off because that's a guy you used to sleep with and you were doing a very intimate thing with him. Think about it." Damon just watches her for a couple of beats. "Who have you ever shared blood with in the past?"
Finally Elena shoves away from him, using her new-found strength to do so. Ric watches Damon carefully though, and he can see it's still a case of him letting her. He could easily overpower her if he wanted, but for once Damon's using a soft touch. "Elena?" he asks, and she turns her back on him. She doesn't respond so Damon gives a little shrug for no one to see. "I'm saying, you might as well have been fucking the Quarterback. That's what was going through Stefan's mind. But of course he'll cloak it in vampire etiquette so you two never have a real conversation."
Elena turns on him then, all rage and beauty and Damon smiles, as though his goal has been accomplished. (Knowing him, it probably has.) "Don't shoot the messenger," he says, lifting his hands up innocently.
"Why do you have to be like this?" she demands. "I want it to be nice between us, I want to forget how angry I am with you so that I can see if Jeremy is right about all this, but then you have to just be so...ugh, Damon."
Damon smirks. "Hey, remember when you lied and said you like me just how I am?" Then his face falls a little. "Wait. You're so angry with me? What the hell did I do?"
"You compelled me!" she shouts, and Ric leans forward inadvertently. This is the first he's ever heard of this, and he's been privy to many drunken Damon confessions.
"Oh, for fuck's sake," Damon scoffs. "Are we back to that? It doesn't mean anything, Elena. So what, we met the night your parents died. It wasn't like we'd have walked off into the sunset if I let you remember that. I was here for Katherine, remember?"
She crosses her arms over her chest, much like Jeremy had earlier when he was imitating their father. "I'm not talking about that, and you know it. I'm talking about the first time you gave me my necklace back."
Damon's smirk grows more smirky if possible, but Ric can see it all unraveling in his eyes. He holds on to it for five seconds longer and then he just gives up, which startles both Ric and Elena. "Okay, fine. I made a big confession and then I made you forget. It's not like you didn't know I loved you. I only made you forget so you wouldn't have to deal with it."
Elena snorts and rolls her eyes, and she looks so much like Damon that it makes Ric laugh. "Right. What a liar you are, Damon. You made me forget so you wouldn't have to deal with it. Like you don't know what compulsion does? You feel something, but you don't know why you feel it; there's an ache in your soul, but you have no explanation for it. I stood there and got bombarded by your feelings and then I didn't even know what caused my feelings."
Damon looks genuinely confused and he asks with a completely sincere expression, "What are you talking about?"
"Katherine never compelled you to forget something? Never?" she asks sharply.
Damon waves a hand. "No. She just, you know, did it for petty things, like when she wanted me to leave her alone."
"And that didn't leave any lingering feelings? Like maybe doubt about her sincerity? Or some kind of feeling that you were missing something major? Really? You're going to stand there and tell m-"
"Elena," he interrupts, his voice suddenly darker. "She turned both me and my brother into vampires after she promised me it would only be me. I had a pretty good inkling for a long time that it wasn't all kosher. I simply chose to believe that when I rescued her from the tomb, she wouldn't care about Stefan anymore. But what does that matter now?"
A bitter laugh tumbles from Elena's lips. "It's sort of ironic how clearly you see everything with Stefan and me, but how far you have your head up your ass about yourself." She shakes her head, biting her bottom lip. "You threw your feelings on me, didn't let me respond to or absorb anything you'd said, and then you took it away. So I was left with all this...emotion...for you, and no idea what it was about. For all the things you've ever done to hurt me, I don't know. Maybe you really don't get it, Damon, but that was the worst. Making me carry that, without my knowledge. That made me angrier than the blood. Or Bonnie's mom. Or-"
"It only made you madder because you're a vampire now. Everything's heightened. You know what would happen if I killed Jeremy now? You'd fucking murder me, end of story. You're Elena!All-Jacked-Up. You're the kind of girl who feeds on her ex-boyfriend, justifies it to her current boyfriend, and then throws it in her best friend's face. Think about that: all things human!Elena would never have done. So be mad at me, I don't give a flying fuck. As usual, all that really matters is that you're still here, and even though I could wring Stefan's scrawny neck for it, it's still better than you being dead." He swings around like he might walk off the porch, and adds an "I think," layered with deep sarcasm.
Ric has observed Damon and Elena many times, watched the extraordinary ease that is sometimes between them, seen the heat that flares up from time to time, witnessed the disappointment on both sides for various reasons. It's always worried him, this connection, because the one thing he knows for sure is that it's stronger than either Damon or Elena understand. They are bound together in a way that supercedes his brother, her common sense, or any normal relationship.
But after all that, after all the words they just exchanged in hostility, in the absolute solving of nothing, Elena just looks at him and says, "Jeremy wants you to teach me to be a vampire."
Damon glances back over his shoulder at her, sort of sizing her up. There is no surprise on his face, just scrutiny. "Why not, right?" he says flippantly. "You taught me to be human."
Elena takes a breath, not quite a gasp, but something about it shocks her, and she gapes at him just a little. Ric would love to be inside her head, because he sees the moment when it clicks, when she decides, but he wants to know exactly why. "All right," she says, and it appears to be so very simple.
Damon's thoughts mirror his own. "Just like that?" he asks.
"Just like that," Elena confirms.
In a flash, Damon looks both smug and terrified all at once, and in any other situation, Ric might find that funny. Right now, with so much hanging in the balance, he just can't find the humor very easily.
Damon closes the space between him and Elena, his hands capturing her face. He tilts her head up to his and says determinedly, "I'm not going to teach you the most humane way to do this, Elena, and we're probably going to fight and hurt each other and, you know, our normal MO, but I won't ever make you feel bad about what you are. This is how it is now, and you are not going to spend eternity apologizing for what you are."
She searches his face, her eyes wide and frightened. Then she slowly nods, swallows loudly and reaches up to take his hands in hers. She squeezes her palms around Damon's knuckles. "Okay," she murmurs.
It shifts then, the spark lighting up just as bright as a string of Christmas lights, and Ric really really hopes they don't start kissing, because he does not want to be around for that.
When that happens, he wants to be long gone. So, with a blink, he leaves the Gilbert porch.
Sheila Bennett approaches him quietly, but he knows who she is before she introduces herself. She reminds him of Bonnie, just the austere look about her, the seriousness in her eyes. "You know my granddaughter?" she asks after they've exchanged names.
"Yes, I was her history teacher. She says she needs your help with a special spell that will permanently disable an Original, but won't kill him. If she kills him, it kills his whole bloodline, which is pretty much every vampire she knows."
Sheila's quiet a moment. "Including her mother?" she asks.
Alaric nods.
"How will we do this?" she asks.
"Jeremy Gilbert is a medium. He can see me, so maybe he'll be able to see you too. Regardless, we can communicate, even if it's tricky, one by one. Bonnie's sure that you can help her."
Sheila gives him one beady squinched eye and says, "I'll listen, but I don't promise to help. That many vampires dead all at once? That sounds like Nature's way of taking care of business."
Ric would be concerned about this attitude if he hadn't ever met Esther, so he just nods compliantly. He believes Bonnie will have the words he couldn't even begin to find to convince this woman to help.
And if she won't, well, then they'll have a whole new fight on their hands.
...chapter seven...