Day 56: Morris Park
It was disappointing that the sheriff's office had been closed for some reason, but many humans rested on Sunday for what they considered good reason. Castiel himself didn't understand the thought behind it. God may have rested on the seventh day, but that didn't meant that the rest of them were allowed that luxury. He'd certainly never followed
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She'd had confirmation now that she wasn't the only one here, that Stefan, Elena, and Damon were somewhere nearby. But that didn't change the fact that someone had tampered with their memories and they now had no idea who she was. Well, maybe Elena, but that was a rather large 'if' especially since she didn't know what Elena would remember. Which meant she'd essentially been knocked back to square one with everyone she knew. What was worse was she wasn't sure how much she should tell them, or how much they needed to know. If they didn't know of Elijah or Klaus, then they didn't know about the curse, or Elena's role in it, but did they need to know here? Were the Originals involved in this or was this something else entirely?
Puzzling through it made her head ache and she sighed, tucking her hands in her pockets as she walked. A flash of motion out of the corner of her eye brought her head up fast enough to catch the splatter of a snowball on a tree. She didn't see where it came from, but that didn't matter, as she spotted the person it was no doubt aimed at. Damon. Of course it was him. He stood there, obviously searching for the person the snowball had come from and not having any look, and the expression on his face had her stifling a laugh.
It felt good to laugh, and her expression brightened at the sight of him, a hint of mischief slipping into her gaze as she eyed him. He had no idea who she was, so she resisted the urge to just tackle him into the nearest snowpile. He'd no doubt take that the wrong way, considering he had no idea he should be sharing her joy in being alive, in being somehow cured. In being able to walk in sunlight. Instead, she decided to aid whoever was sneak-attacking him. He was distracted, so now was the perfect time.
Crouching down, she scooped up a handful of snow, rolling it into a thick snowball. Straightening slowly so she didn't catch his attention, she grinned before sending it flying with perfect aim for the back of his head.
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The decidedly female laugh had registered a split second too late to avoid the projectile of snow aimed at him, but it did register in time for him to expect to see Elena when he spun around, one eyebrow already cocked as he shook off the remnants of snow-
Only that wasn't Elena.
Damon peered at her with a casual curiosity, as if it almost wasn't worth his time to take a moment out to look. Though he was, of course, actually very interested. Let's just say most people didn't throw things at him before they even had a first meeting. And considering he already had one girl approach him out of nowhere thinking he was someone she knew...
At least this one looked like she knew what a hair brush was. She was cute, really. Someone he would've thought about taking home if he'd met her in a bar.
Except what he was thinking about here was who she even was. She couldn't be a local; the locals didn't seem too keen on buddying it up with the crazies set loose in town. (Yeah, wonder why that was.)
He started towards her, his pace unhurried. The little issue of his stalker ghost wasn't forgotten, but in light of new developments, he'd put it on the backburner. There was a smile on his lips that didn't quite reach his eyes.
"A woman who knows how to make an entrance." He stopped in front of her. "You owe me a name, at least."
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"I always make an entrance, for all the good it does me. My name is Rose," she informed him, a faint shadow flicking through her gaze, though she did her best to muster a genuine smile for him.
Before he thought she was a crazy person, she took a step back, tucking her hands in her pockets to keep from fidgeting. "I'm new here," she added, a bit inanely, realizing she didn't have an excuse for throwing a snowball at someone who was supposed to be a complete stranger. Even if he did probably deserve it.
How was she supposed to reintroduce herself to someone like Damon? They'd had a complicated start the first time around, but at least there had been some common ground, a need that had kept her in Mystic Falls, kept her involved in the conflict surrounding the brothers and Elena. Here... Here was another matter entirely and it left her a little off-balance and unsure of what to do about it. Not a feeling she enjoyed.
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Well, well.
Rick seemed familiar with her, which was about the only point she had going in her favor. It was one thing for Alaric to have a month's worth of memories at his disposal; it was another for someone he had never even heard of to have the same. Especially if those memories had to do with him and he had no doubt whatsoever that they did.
But she wasn't lying about knowing them, in any case. And if she'd spoken to Stefan this morning, then Stefan must've already alerted her immediately about their current amnesia problem instead of trying to find out more first. The art of playing it smart tended to elude his brother.
She was hesitating, though. That was good. It meant that whatever she did know, it wasn't enough to make her feel entirely secure. The whole military kidnapping plot probably had a bit to do with that. She'd obviously arrived last night or this morning; they would've run into her before if she'd been here any earlier.
Damon studied her for a moment longer. His expression turned thoughtful, a flicker, before edging back into an easy smile. Potential awkward first meeting forgotten, it seemed to suggest. "Well, I'm sure you got the patented orientation this morning," he said. "Let me guess, plenty of silence, minimal use of more than three words at a time."
Another question: was she human? Or was she one of theirs?
His gaze swept her head to toe, not bothering to hide that he was checking her out, but not making it easy to identify what exactly he was looking at, either-if anything. If it'd been a necklace or a bracelet, he could've missed it. As luck would have it, it was a ring.
So. One of theirs.
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Still, she played along, actually more comfortable now that she had a moment to watch him, to try and guess what he was thinking and how he'd react. Maybe it was bad of her, but she'd enjoyed baiting him from the moment she'd met him, prodding a reaction out of him. She doubted she'd be able to resist it long here, either.
Her lips curved into a faint smile as he spoke to her, the expression genuine as amusement flickered through her gaze. "Spot on. I think I got a grand total of five words from my... guard, escort, whatever she was. It was quite a wake-up call, having that as the first thing to greet you in the morning."
Of course, it was still better than her other option, which could have been not waking up at all. It helped, putting the recent twist of fate in a better perspective.
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Clearly, she wasn't in any rush to tell him who she was. If she knew him in any capacity, he didn't blame her, but she couldn't possibly expect that he wouldn't find out as soon as he ran into his brother which meant she was either working up to it or she genuinely had no idea how to say it.
He could cut to the chase, if he wanted. Sooner or later, he probably would because he wasn't up for playing this charade for very long. Call it impatience, if you liked. He was just tired of the amount of bullshit happening in the shortest amount of space possible.
For now, though...
Damon circled around her and started off down the street with only a glance back (definitely ignoring those goddamn footprints, thank you) to invite her along.
"You never asked my name," he remarked. Of course she wouldn't; she already knew.
She seemed oddly comfortable interacting with him, even with her earlier uncertainty. What was up with that? It wasn't how things went, as far as he was concerned. If she was a vampire, then she knew exactly what and who he was. People didn't make a habit of being friendly with him once those two boxes were checked-and he didn't care to make a habit of being friendly with them, either, but that part was a given, really.
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"No, I didn't. But you're not surprised by this, so you must have spoken to your brother somewhere," she observed casually, turning to glance in a shop window as they passed. "I know who you are, Damon.
Now she turned to look at him, her expression curious, wondering how he'd take this information, and how he'd react to her now that it was out in the open. She'd been half tempted to let him bring it up, but it seemed silly to avoid it, when he gave her an opening. She tended to be blunt when it suited her, and this was hardly the time for subtlety.
Of course, this was hardly telling all of it, but it would do for a start.
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If they were going to be picky about it, Stefan hadn't told him a single thing per se, but he might as well have. Though in truth, Damon would've preferred it if Stefan had shown the slightest interest in alerting him to this if he was going to let Alaric in on it. He supposed it was possible Stefan might've figured that one note did both jobs at once.
Maybe his little brother was finally learning the meaning of efficiency. Who knew.
...Yeah, how about probably not.
Damon slid her a brief look in return, the only sign of acknowledgement. He was by no means settled with whatever was going on here, but he was even less inclined to let anyone in on that fact. Least of all her. He was humoring, with this conversation right now. That was already starting to edge beyond what he was willing to do.
"So I heard," he replied. "It's all very daytime drama. I hope you're not about to tell me we're long lost lovers. I already have enough women in my past."
Well. One, technically. Only one really counted, but he wouldn't say Katherine deserved the benefit of technicalities, did she. Or of anything.
No. Of course not.
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"Your life is daytime drama, Damon Salvatore. Somehow I've just gotten sucked into the supporting cast." Now if she could just avoid werewolves for a while longer, she might actually be able to make a difference. "So tell me your take on this place. I've heard a bit from Stefan, and I rode down here with a girl on the bus who told me a little as well. Have you come across any super-sized fuzzy mammals or is that something particular to your brother's idea of hell?"
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"Mm-hmm."
A week, actually, was longer than he bothered to keep someone he didn't need or want. What was her deal? She had the ring; she wasn't just any vampire. She had to be on the older side, definitely knew her witches-knew Katherine? She'd come to Mystic Falls for a reason. That wasn't a town that attracted people passing by. Alaric was one of, what, two people, living there with no link to the town, and even that wasn't accurate. Isobel knew John Gilbert knew Katherine.
Accuse him of looking too hard all you wanted. The fact remained, Katherine had come back, so he wasn't exactly chasing after ghosts, now was he.
Of course, the other question was: why drag Rose here?
(Why everyone except Katherine?)
"Some less fuzzy than others. Little tip: your undead tricks aren't as useful as you might think around these parts." He glanced at her briefly, studying. "You came to Mystic Falls," he said. "Why? I mean, I'm assuming it wasn't for the quaint scenery and the constant local history lessons."
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And there he went with the questions. She'd known that was inevitable; Stefan found out what he needed to know but was usually polite about it. Damon got to the point and hit you over the head with it.
"It does have very nice scenery, though," she deflected thoughtfully, giving herself a moment longer to start carefully choosing what she wanted to say. Until she knew what Elena remembered, she didn't want to say too much. Admitting that she'd kidnapped the Salvatores' darling to hand over to her inevitable doom made such a bad first impression,especially since... well, that had all turned out rather badly anyway, hadn't it? A mistake, a gamble - a risky one, and it hadn't paid off, not fully. True she wasn't being hunted by the Originals anymore, but she'd paid with Trevor. Not what she'd had in mind at all.
Although it had brought her to Mystic Falls, and to the Salvatore brothers, and she'd found she genuinely liked them. And Elena, even though the girl's idea of common sense was a sad thing to behold at time. Before the attack by Jules, she'd started to picture herself maybe settling down there for a while. It was nice. It had been a very long time since she'd had a home...
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As for details, she was on her own. She'd find out quick enough once she poked her head out at night. He sure had.
And they were dodging questions already, were they? This was off to a good start. At least try to make it less obvious you had something to hide. Not that there would have ever been a moment where he'd have been in the mood for this, but now definitely wasn't it.
He swung around in front of her, stopping them both in the middle of the sidewalk with zero concern for anyone forced to walk around them. "Let's be clear about something: the only reason why I've humored you for longer than, I don't know, half a second, is because you've been vouched for. Don't waste it."
He wasn't even going to get into the question of since when Rick's word was good enough for him to entertain someone he had less than no reason to trust, but part of it was because Rick hadn't actually been talking to him and the other was that the teacher had no reason to put up with more vampires than he needed to.
Now, if it'd been Stefan who'd said something, this would probably be playing out a whole lot different.
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But then she turned serious again, though her eyes were still warm, her expression softening. "Fine, you want the truth? I came to Mystic Falls to help you. To help Elena. That and I had nowhere else to go. You were up against someone you didn't understand, didn't even know about. Still don't know about, I'm guessing, with how they've meddled with your memories. Although I'm sure this place has thrown a monkey wrench in any plans he might have had, unless he's somehow involved. But this really isn't his style, so I'm doubting that. And I know you don't remember any of this, but I do. And I promised you I'd stay, promised I'd help you with all things Elena. I keep my promises. Whether you believe me or not - and I'm guessing not, knowing you - you can trust me."
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Oh, the heart ripping, though...that, Damon had no trouble believing.
There were two things in her spiel that stood out: the supposed person they were up against, and the fact that Elena needed help. He'd already gotten from Rick that a Klaus was hunting down Elena. Werewolves, Originals, etc, etc. Rose's arrival coincided with Katherine's which coincided with Klaus which coincided with the werewolves. He could buy she wanted to help Elena. What he had a harder time buying was that she'd run all the way to Mystic Falls to help Elena without an agenda of her own.
Until he cleared that up, there was no point in continuing their Q&A session. He wasn't big on digging for information from someone he didn't trust when there was a better option available.
And maybe he didn't like how familiar she was acting with him. It was throwing him off, making him feel even more like he needed all of the cards back in his deck.
He closed what little distance remained between them, and blinked once, contemplative. "Okay," he said simply, before taking a step back to leave. "Though I have to say, for someone who knows me as well as you say you do, you seem very keen on getting into my good graces for the sake of it." He flashed a smile. "Nice meeting you, Rose."
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