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She’s cold. Her head hurts. She’s hungry. Really hungry.
But Vicki does her best to push those thoughts aside as she runs. The perks, as Damon called them, weren’t so bad. Maybe it would only get better, though she imagines it would be the latter. The brisk air of the night keeps her hair behind her as she does her best to navigate at such a speed ( Read more... )
But Vicki does her best to push those thoughts aside as she runs. The perks, as Damon called them, weren’t so bad. Maybe it would only get better, though she imagines it would be the latter. The brisk air of the night keeps her hair behind her as she does her best to navigate at such a speed ( Read more... )
He stares at her and then glances down at the floor before looking up at her again.
"What? Vicki, you don't know-- You don't know what happened. That's not it at all," he says sa he looks at her. "I've always cared about you. You know that. That's-- It's not something you just get tired of."
Jeremy watches as she looks down at his ring and then he moves forward, resting a hand against her arm.
As gently as possible. There's some intensity to it too. Jeremy's never been known for a lack of emotion, and it's gotten him in trouble at times. He needs to convince her to listen to him, and he knows-- he has heard that emotions run high after the turn.
It's what happened with Caroline. He wishes he could have known about her too. He would have helped.
He knows she's already freaking out, and he doesn't want to make it worse.
"Look I'm not just going to let you get out of my hair. I want to help you. I want to take care of you. I don't want you--" He shakes his head. "You don't even know where we're at. How are you going to find your way to Damon's, Vick?"
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He's telling her she's wrong, she's believing it.
It does get a faint smile to cross her lips, though. Not a happy reassuring one, a more sympathetic one. She wishes she knew what she was sorry about but she just doesn't.
She's confused and can only imagine how much of that is rubbing off on him. Still a little bitter, but happy to see him at the same time. And curious -- very curious about her future. Their future. She looks down to his hand that's on her arm before continuing. Her tone is soft and she hopes itsunreadable.
She isn't sure what she's feeling, but it isn't good.
"Well he always shows up on his own? If I looked long enough I figured he'd find me." She finishes with a somewhat childish shrug. "You'll come see me until I can stay with you?" She hesitantly locks eyes with him
"And one day...you'll tell me what happened?"
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He wishes he could tell her so she'd understand, but he doesn't-- he doesn't want to do it here on the sidewalk as soon as she's fallen into this world. It doesn't seem fair to her.
How does he even begin to tell her everything that happened? How can he say the words to her that she died especially knowing it's at Damon's hands and they'll be going to Damon's apartment. It's so much more complicated than he could ever begin to explain.
Jeremy sucks in a breath that's sharp-- that hurts more than he'd like to admit to.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't-- You shouldn't just wander around. He has blood you can drink," he says quietly. Blood that doesn't result in someone dying. "I'm going to stay with you for the first week at least. I don't know if I trust him completely still. He's impulsive... when he's emotional. I don't even know if he'd say yes."
There's the slightest pause at the question. Almost like he's been hit in the stomach. His hand slides back into his hair.
"I'll tell you as soon as you ask me, whenever you want to know. I just didn't want to say it all out here. On the street..." His hand slides behind his neck as he looks away, biting back some feeling rising up in his throat.
It feels a little like fire, like something's going to burn him up from inside.
"C'mon," Jeremy says gently, keeping one hand on her arm still as he starts off toward Damon's. They're not far, but he still... doesn't know what he'll say when they arrive.
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And she still wants to know exactly how he's feeling; is he happy to see her? It's hard to tell.
"People blood?" The question comes out as a blurt, before he can even finish his sentence. Once he does, she says, "It's better than the other stuff...Stefan gave me this...yeah." She tucks her hair behind her ear. The fact that he'll be staying, even if only for a short time, makes her feel better.
But her attention shifts to him and she can tell her question bothers him. Good, it's another reason to hold off on it.
"Soon. After...this shit fest calms down." She wraps her arm around his, going in the direction of the new place she'd be staying.
Maybe.
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He doesn't spend much time with him. He clears his throat. "Yeah," Jeremy says though he doesn't know what animal or human blood is like. He wanted to be a vampire after losing her, after losing Anna especially.
Jeremy pulls her in close to him because it's... it's habit. He doesn't know how he feels either or what to feel. But he's grateful that she will-- she has the chance to be saved from the fate she suffered back home.
"Okay," he says quietly. "I don't want to push it on you, but..."
She does need to know, deserves to know.
When they get to Damon's apartment, Jeremy knocks on the door, steeling himself for this.
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Or the one night stands coming back for another who he'd sex up again before using compulsion on them to make them forget and then leave.
He glances through the peephole, and okay. Unexpected. For his part, he doesn't look the least bit surprised when he opens up the door, leaning against the frame of it.
"Would you look at what the mangy Rift dragged in."
There's a slight pause.
"What do you want?"
Jeremy looks up at him. "She needs a place to stay, Damon."
"No, no. Absolutely not," Damon says, pressing his elbow into the doorway and moving to shut the door. "I'm not my brother. I don't do the rehabilitating baby vampires thing."
Jeremy moves his foot in front of the door before it can be closed. "Damon. If you want me on your side in the future about things with Elena, this is really in your best interest. I'm going to stay too, and-"
"Woah. Okay. I like my solitude believe it or not. I can have the company I want to as long as I want to and then I get to say goodbye. It's nice, and I would miss it if it went away. Just let her loose on the city streets and nature will take care of itself." He folds his arms across his chest. "You got over it once."
Jeremy wants to punch Damon, and he would. Except he knows how futile it is. He locks his jaw. "Seriously. Would you rather her be at the Tower or at Martha's house where Elena is?"
Damon's face darkens for a moment in that dangerous way that warns someone he could easily snap their necks (has done so before) without regret before he rolls his eyes, taking a step back. "Fine. For the night. Maybe."
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The baby vampire comment makes Vicki ready to jump in - he was the idiot that turned her, wasn't he? But how much of a hypocrite would she be if she blamed him for not taking responsibility for his actions?
You got over it once. she doesn't like that. She doesn't like the comment or how much it seems to get to Jeremy. Being pulled closer to him she grabs onto his hand, letting her own jaw clench.
Damon could take her out in the blink of an eye and she still has some things she wants to ask him. So there's no sense in jumping in.
But Jeremy's a big boy and she's surprised at how well he handles it. Compared to how she would in his shoes, at least.
And this is what the altercation comes to? Vicki smirks, just a little, pulling at Jeremy's arm to get around Damon. "Elena, huh?" It's a whisper, but she knows it's audible to him.
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He will take the blame easily. That's not a problem for him. Damon just feels no guilt about it. He will happily and rightfully admit that he is the one that turned her into a baby vampire in the first place, but he feels no responsibility for it or for her.
Damon has things to do as it is so he'll let them talk in the guest room while he goes and does things. Josef's taken some time off so he's filling in with a lot of the work. "You know where the guest room is." He gestures down the hallway.
Jeremy glances back at Vicki, smiling a little and nodding. "Yeah. Not that his caring about anyone really means anything, because he still does what he wants."
He grabs a blood pack from Damon's refrigerator and pulls her into the extra room while Damon goes to do God's know what. "Here."
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He isn't like Stefan, so the way she sees it there's no real boundaries.
"You never know. Everyone seems to like your sister." It's a mumble with slight resentment. Of course everyone liked Elena - and that everybody included Matt. She remembers the words they spoke before she ended up here and wonders how fresh they are to the other girl, too.
And without any questioning, Vicki allows him to pull her to the room she assumes is the guest room. The cold blood has her attention, and as much as she'd like to focus on other things, she snatches it from his hands like a greedy child.
"...are we together here?" She asks a little blatantly as she sips the blood.
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He turned her because he was bored. He killed her because she was a risk. End of story. And he is gone, upstairs, working on club things at this point so he doesn't care that much about what they do downstairs as long as they're quiet.
Jeremy glances at her, hearing the resentment in her voice. "...are you jealous or something?" Why would she want Damon to like her? It's not like even the people he likes have a walk in the park when it comes to him.
Not that she knows that, but Damon has done plenty to Elena that he never should have... including killing him because she'd hurt his feelings. He looks at the wall as she drinks the blood.
The question almost takes him by surprise. "Were... we ever really officially together back home? I remember there was you and Tyler, and there was me fighting for you, fighting for us." He wants to say yes. He wants to give her anything she needs right now because she's not stable and it's not the time for a conversation like this.
Because he doesn't know. His relationship with Vicki was different than what he had with Anna and what he had with Bonnie. They were each so different, and he slips his arms across his chest letting out a breath.
"You were gone. You disappeared."
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She sits on the bed, her face changing a little before going back to normal. It was enough to hold her over - for now, at least. Curiously, she cocks her head at him.
"I thought we were. You were the only guy I was seeing...we both know Tyler wasn't worth much." She crosses her legs and plays with the bag before tossing it aside. She pats the spot beside her.
"I told you, Jer, I was on my way to see you. It was only a few days."
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He really doesn't want to have to explain it considering everything she's been through recently and then the fact that she's here now.
In another universe. Unaware of most of what's happened since-- since she never would have lived it if she'd stayed in Mystic Falls anyway. Damon dealt with that, and he winces, looking down at his shoes.
"You did see me again. You shouldn't have," he says quietly, and he knows that when she went to see him that's when she died. "You were gone for months and months and months. I didn't remember what happened, because Damon forced me to forget it. I just thought you'd disappeared."
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Maybe it was something he didn't want after all. But she takes in what he says the best she can.
"What'd he force you to forget?" Because the question has been eating at her for some time. She looks up, no longer with a smirk or a smile, just serious. It was bothering him, too. And part of her felt like she wasn't ready to hear it but she knows she has to.
Out of anticipation she chews at her lip running all the possibilities through her mind. Again her questions are building up.
But what else is worth asking?
"Did you find someone else?"
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Tyler became a werewolf, and he got wrapped up ine verything as well.
He swallows back something painful at the question, and he doesn't want to look at her, but he has to. He's not the same kid that would sell drugs to people for attention, to fill the void inside of him, that lonely feeling that only went away temporarily.
For short spurts of time.
The second question doesn't bother him as much as the first, and he hardly thinks the second one will matter when she gets the answer to the first question.
"You died, Vick," Jeremy says quietly, lifting his gaze up to look at her finally, closing the door though that wouldn't stop her if she just ran right out of the room, out of the apartment right now. "I don't mean become a vampire because I know that's already happened. I mean as a vampire... you die. You don't... come back."
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It's something she doesn't really want to explain.
All she knew was at the end of the day, Jeremy was the one who was there for her. He was the one that took care of her and looked out for her and she pushed it all away for so long. Maybe it's biting her in the ass now.
As much as she'd like to think about a way to prove this to him, her thoughts are put on hold to that statement. Her muscles visibly tense and she let's her feet slip to the floor, crossing her arms and squeezing them.
She died. He forgot.
Why does it surprise her so much? As much as she doesn't want to care it hurts. Even if Damon made him do it, he just forgot about her. And that means he probably moved on, too. Which he should have - he's entitled to that much; finding someone worth wasting his time with.
But it all just hurt.
Her eyes soften before she masks them to be emotionless. The door clicking sets something off, but she isn't sure what that is, either. She's still sitting, staring at him, and wondering what to do.
"Just move." As much as, in her mind, he hurt her just now, she really doesn't want to bring harm to him. She wants it to work itself out - for him to say that he missed her and wants to be with her...
She just knows not to get her hopes up.
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She could fling him to the side without trying.
But he still remains in front of the door.
He doesn't move at all. He knows that it is hurting her, and he hates this. Jeremy hates that he has to say something that is painful to her, and he hates it because he half knows what she's thinking even though she's not saying any of it out loud.
Jeremy looks up at her when she speaks.
"Why, Vicki? After I told you that, I'm not just... I'm not going to leave," Jeremy says quietly as he looks up at her. "I know this is hard for you, and I know-- I can't imagine what you're going through right now, and I'm so sorry for that, but I won't leave and I can't explain anything unless you talk to me, tell me what you're thinking."
Not that there's any explanation that will make it all hurt less.
He knows that too, and he hates it.
He hates it more than he can say.
Jeremy swallows something back. "You died, and I didn't know-- and I searched for you a long time and then they found your-- I didn't just give up or give in in one day, months have gone by, and I--" He closes his eyes, folding his arms across his chest. "I lost you, and I grew up, and things changed. And they changed again. They never stopped changing back home. I missed you so much for so long, and I loved you."
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