Day 57: Courtyard (Third Shift)

[roseoverture]

The air inside the Institute was getting stifling. It wasn't much different than usual, really, but knowing about all the changes done under the Institute's hood in her absence, Utena could barely stand it. The staff were so stiff, even as they pretended to be the same caring nurses as always. Landel's regurgitated voice recordings crept under her

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[saviored]

It was far too easy to feel trapped inside there and the more trapped he felt, the less promising it was for the general populace. Meaning the first chance he got, he took off outside. The sun was out, but the temperature dipped-he could feel it dip, more than he should've normally been able to.

Damon stepped into the courtyard looking for all the world like he was there for a reason. Which he was. Aimless wandering? Not his thing. He just didn't know what that reason would be until his eyes landed on a familiar figure in the distance.

What was she doing, sunbathing in the middle of winter? If he didn't know better-if it hadn't been for that little ring on her finger-he'd have said she hadn't seen the sun in awhile. Whatever the case, the ring was significant. The only vampires he knew who owned one were the bunch from 1864, and Isobel, who just happened to be connected to Katherine.

You do the math.

But if that was what he was here for-he wasn't announcing it over a goddamn loudspeaker, that was for sure.

He leaned his shoulder against the tree by the bench. "How's the tan going?"

[loyalrose]

She should have known he'd find her. He had a habit of turning up whenever she found herself settling into calmness, just to stir her back up again.

Rose didn't bother opening her eyes; she could already picture his posture to go with that familiar lazy insolence in his voice. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "Brilliantly, thanks for asking." The sun felt so nice that she didn't even feel like making a snarky retort.

Well. Not much of one, anyway.

One hazel eye finally peeked open, giving him a sideways glance. "You seem to have floated through the dangers of nightshift fairly easily," she commented, giving him a once-over, hiding any sign that she might have been concerned about this. "Find anything interesting?"

[saviored]

Nightshift, was that what they were calling it now? Getting official-like, that was nice.

Damon watched her with the same steady gaze. Talking to someone you'd never met you knew you? It was different. Off-kilter. It was rare when he wasn't certain how to handle a person, so when it happened...well. The thing was, he had a feeling he'd have liked her without the retrograde amnesia bullshit. Casually, anyway. It wasn't, in other words, out of the question that she could've gotten as familiar with him as she'd been acting.

Hm. He toyed with that thought for a moment before pushing it aside.

"I hear you did," he replied. "Elena tells me she ran into you. Actually, she remembers you pretty well."

Elena had told him exactly what she remembered, but as if he'd just hand that over to Rose. What was this, an orientation session? He didn't think Elena was lying; that wasn't it. Not about this. But that still wasn't a reason to tell Rose just what he knew. If she had her own version she wanted to spill, now would be a good time.

[loyalrose]

"So would you, if you weren't screwed up in the head," came the dry response. Rose glanced sideways at him, her expression patient and slightly exasperated. Okay, maybe a bit more than 'slightly'. "Looks like not even all powerful doctors or whatever the hell they are could fix that," she added, waving her hand at the building they'd stepped out of. But a faint smile tugged at the corner of her lips and her eyes warmed slightly to take the edge out of her words.

There was no reason for him to know how easily he unsettled her. How much she missed the comfortable banter they'd slipped into before everything had gone horribly wrong. Rose despised the masterminds behind this place for a number of obvious reasons, but that particular one was rooted deepest.

The mention of Elena, however, had her eyes narrowing as she turned to face Damon, leaning forward intently. "What's happened to Elena? When I first saw her last night... I don't know what happened. I've never seen her do something like that before. She had this... fit. It seemed painful and she seemed to be talking to someone who wasn't there, like she was caught in a dream, or a nightmare. She was barely aware of me. And then she just snapped out of it an instant later." And had apologized for Trevor, not that that was really anything Elena had to apologize for.

Her gaze searched Damon's face, a worried frown playing about her lips, warring with a hint of temper. "Is she alright? Does this happen often? And if it does, then why the hell was she alone last night after dark? If something else had come across her in the middle of that, she would have been completely helpless."

[saviored]

If there was a flicker of amusement, it wasn't necessarily friendly. Hey, she wasn't the only one who would've preferred his memory intact. You and me, sweetheart.

His eyes narrowed with hers. Was she seriously getting on his case about leaving Elena on her own? Who was supposed to have stayed inside, by the way. Of course she would've skipped out on her own, anyway. He might as well have asked Stefan to stop eating the local forest population. Either way, he wasn't keen on the insinuation that he'd abandoned Elena without a second thought.

"You wouldn't have. There were complications," he replied, deceptively casual. "On all ends. She was supposed to stay inside, but you try telling Elena to lock her doors and see how well she listens to you."

Maybe next time, he should just put Rick on bodyguard duty. Or maybe not. Knowing them both, that would just end up with Elena convincing her history teacher to let her go.

He studied Rose for a moment. She was worried. Genuinely. He hadn't gone this long without recognizing when someone was or wasn't playing him. Besides, if Elena trusted her-it was worth something. Maybe more than something.

He circled around the bench to lean against the backrest, lounging just over her shoulder.

"Speaking of memories. What was your last?"

[loyalrose]

Rose gave a short, sharp laugh, shaking her head as she pushed herself to her feet, pacing restlessly in front of the bench for a moment. A few lazy snowflakes drifted down around her, but she paid little attention to them. Her lips were drawn into a thin line and her hazel eyes were troubled, uncertain.

Giving up her last memory could complicate things even more than they already were. If he didn't remember her, he didn't know about Klaus or Elijah or the curse and Elena's role in it. On one hand, it could be important for him to know - again - but on the other, the longer she stayed here, the more she doubted the Originals had anything to do with this place.

Finally she came to a stop in front of the bench, turning to face him, searching his face for a moment before sighing. "My last memory will mean little to you, considering you don't remember anything since the time we met. Whether you believe me or not, I promised I'd stay on to help you, to help Elena, and I keep my promises, when I can."

She paused a moment before turning her back to him and sliding the right shoulder of her coat off. One hand tugged aside the collar of the strange shirt she'd woken up with, revealing a slim, pale shoulder. And one nasty scar marring the skin, obviously recently healed and still tender.

"This is part of my last memory."

[saviored]

She'd said that already. What she wasn't offering was her motives, though he supposed he could gather as much from Elena. The way she specified helping him before adding Elena? Didn't got unnoticed, and it didn't exactly require a mind reader, either, to know that it bothered her that he didn't remember who she was.

Obviously, that wasn't what bothered him. Who the hell cared what had her crying to sleep every night. What did bother him was the reason behind it. Because of course he could figure that out. Soul searching wasn't his favorite past time the way it was Stefan's, but that didn't mean he hadn't gone over a century without knowing a few things about himself. That was the problem with having an infinite number of decades on your hands.

This would be so much easier if she just wanted a stake in his heart like everyone else.

Yeah. Tell me about it, he thought his eyes fell on the scar on her shoulder. It was large, fresh, and sure as hell not supposed to be there on a vampire. He frowned, genuine for once-not so much out of concern as out of realization. He knew, even before he asked, thanks to Rick's moment of concern about a week ago and his mini lecture on werewolves. Rose clearly wasn't dead and Rick hadn't mentioned a word about that, so either Rose had been bitten even after Rick could remember (more than possible, at this point) or the entire thing was, in fact, just bullshit.

And if Rose had the answer, she was taking her sweet time saying.

"You know, I'd like to buy what you're selling, seeing as how that would make my life easier, but you keep leaving me with cliffhangers and no story. This isn't Friday the 13th, honey."

[loyalrose]

Rose rolled her eyes heavenwards, an expression of patient exasperation on her face - one that was becoming familiar in the time since she'd met Damon.

"And that's why this is my last memory," she muttered under her breath before turning to face him once more. Her gaze narrowed and she jabbed his shoulder with a single finger. "You don't make friends easily. I would say this is common knowledge, but the point is, you confronted a werewolf who showed up in Mystic Falls. Unsurprisingly, you got her hackles up and she came after you. I happened to be in the way. For a short while, it looked as if the curse was just a legend and the wound was healing. Turns out its not. Everything you heard about a werewolf bite - its true. Might be handy to remember that the next time you pick a fight with someone who's bite is worse than their bark."

Still feeling restless and frustrated, unsure if she could ever reclaim that strange companionship they'd fallen into without any foundation for it now, she began to pace in front of the bench again. Her arms crossed protectively over her chest as she straightened her coat once more, though the move was more an absent habit than any reaction to the temperature. "As for why I stayed to begin with... I don't even know where to start. How much do you know about the Originals?"

[saviored]

Oh, great. This was going well.

"If it is true," he said, "then how you are here?" Vampires got a one-shot deal when it came to coming back from the dead. Do it again and you were screwed. No second chances. So either she was insinuating she'd died without it being true or she'd let the fact that there'd been a cure go unsaid.

More to the point, why hadn't she said something sooner? Don't get him wrong, it was nice that she hadn't immediately gone for the throat for nearly getting her killed (which was easy enough to believe; if there was a werewolf in town, of course he wouldn't just leave it alone), but it made very little sense, too. What did she care?

And why did he care? Whatever. That was why she shouldn't have been hanging around him in the first place. If she got caught in the crossfire, that was her problem for getting involved.

Right.

Suddenly, her reaction and the conversation were both dipping into territory he knew he didn't want to deal with. That he already was dealing with on and off for awhile now. Ever since he'd turned, in all honesty-but that wasn't a discussion for today. Or any day.

Moving onto the Originals: good plan.

While Rose paced, Damon stayed where he was. He brushed a bit of snow off the edge of the bench without looking away from her. "First of our kind, all-powerful legend, big bad Klaus, blah blah blah. I know they're interested in the curse...and I know you are." His eyes narrowed. "Tell me something, where does Elena fit into it?"

[loyalrose]

"You tell me," Rose sighed, stopping her anxious pacing to sink back down on the edge of the bench once more, holding her hands up in a sign of confusion. "I don't know. I was dying, and quickly. The last thing I remember was you carrying me home. Your home," she amended, not sure what he'd think about the fact that she'd been starting to consider the place a possible haven for herself as well. Home wasn't something she'd had in a very long time, and she'd been afraid to start hoping... And then everything had gone to hell in a handbasket anyway.

"When I woke up, I was here, and the bite looked like this. The pain was gone, the bloodlust was gone. And I had this," she added, thinking it might be important to tell him this. She held up her hand, wiggling her fingers to indicate the ring now on her finger. "If you know how to fill in the pieces in between, I'd appreciate it, but that's all I've got."

Moving on to the real topic at hand - the reason this had all started, even if they were currently waylaid by this strange little field trip, Rose fought off the strong sense of déjà vu.

"Elena's the doppleganger. The Petrova doppleganger," Rose explained quietly, looking up at him and meeting his gaze. "It's her blood that's the key to breaking the curse."