[locked to Damon, Caroline, and Jeremy; backdated to the arrivals]
[ Elena Gilbert doesn't wallow. And while this is pretty much soul-destroying and nothing she ever saw coming, she is not going to be focusing on that. Or trying not to. ]
Katherine and Stefan are here.
They arrived together.
I don't know exactly what's going on, but it can't be good and I wanted to give everyone a head's up.
Katherine and Stefan are here.
They arrived together.
I don't know exactly what's going on, but it can't be good and I wanted to give everyone a head's up.
I was just opening my journal to tell you that.
[Worried lil bro is a go.]
Where are you?
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You saw them, too?
[ Worried big sis is also a go. ]
I'm at campus. [ Trying to dig up info fruitlessly. ] I'll be home soon and I'm fine, Jer. Where did you see them?
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[:( ;;]
I'm fine, Elena. [And he knows that she is not.]
I'll be waiting for you, okay? So soon.
I saw her uptown. She mentioned Stefan. She can't lie if you ask her a question directly. Guess that's her Rift change. Karma, I guess.
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[ Augh, why is this happening.
Just the thought of Katherine and Jeremy alone together. ]
You ran into her and something could've happened, Jer. We need to stock up on vervain. [ For other people. ]
Soon.
God, that's something at least, though I can't imagine how angry she must be about it. [ An angry, pissed off Katherine is never a good thing. Especially if Stefan goes AWOL. ]
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So he's going to be this honest with her. ;;] She tried to pretend she was you but she couldn't lie so she got pissed, yeah, thought I was doing it to her somehow.
She figured out pretty fast that I wasn't. I told her Damon was here too. I didn't tell her about Caroline, because I figured she should know Katherine was here before Katherine knew about her. I don't know. She knows we go to schools but not which ones and not that they're not the same.
I know. We'll stock up on vervain. I'm already looking into it so you don't have to worry about that.
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I didn't tell her about Caroline for the same reason.
[ Elena takes the rest in, but she's already decided to go home as it is. Stefan went somewhere else, and -- it's not Stefan, not as Elena knows him. Of all the things she could've prepared for, she didn't prepare for this. She'd waited and hoped to one day see him, but she never thought--
Never thought it'd be like this, and she's so worried about Stefan, worried about everything.
It's only twenty minutes later she's stepping in through the front door. She tosses her bag onto the nearby couch and continues stepping through. ]
Jeremy? [ She wants to see with her own two eyes he's in one piece, he's okay. ]
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Okay, that's good.
[Jeremy is waiting. He's been in the kitchen, sharpening a stake. It seems more necessary to have it around if more vampires from their world or just... in general are falling through.
He drops it when he sees her though, and he knows. Jeremy didn't see Stefan, but he saw Katherine and saw what she said about how he'd done bad, how it was Klaus fault.
When he sees her, he steps forward and brings her into a hug, because he knows Elena. He knows that she is not okay.]
Yeah, I'm here.
[Slight pause.] I'm fine. [He's bruised from being thrown against a car, but he's fine and it's nothing in comparison to getting his ass kicked by Carter.]
What about you? [It's said with that underlying knowing, knowing that she's not okay.]
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Not for the first time.
Her breath hitches a little at the sight of him, sight of that stake.
Another reminder of how much their lives have changed, what he has to deal with, what no seventeen year old should have to deal with. ]
Good. What are you doing?
[ Elena shakes her head at the question, eyes darker and weary as she rests her head on his shoulder.
Words don't come. The good part is, neither does the I'm fine.
She accepts the hug, much like she did when Jenna was in the hospital, wrapping her arms around him tightly, knowing things are not okay, she is not okay, even if she can't vocalize it, even if she will always feel the need to protect him from it first. ]
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Jeremy looks sideways at her, sensing how her breath hitches, sensing her trepidation in this moment.
He looks at her almost plainly as he shakes his head. There's nothing to worry about. It'd be more worrying if he was doing nothing. They're preparing this way. But he knows she worries regardless.]
Getting stakes ready, in case we need them.
[Jeremy did not expect an answer, hardly expected on as honest as this one so he'll take her shaking his head ( ... )
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Whatever he says, Elena knows Damon loves his brother and vice-versa.
The trepidation coils in her belly, and she's grateful when he steps toward her and away from the stake.
They've talked about it, and it shows how she's not in the best frame of mind as she doesn't get on his case like she would've any other time, though she's clearly not thrilled with it, either. ]
They fell through together.
[ Elena tightens her hold on him too, not wanting him to see her face in the exact moment it nearly crumples. For over a year, she hadn't seen him, had wondered about him, and--and she hadn't crossed off the possibility of his ending up here, but she'd never dreamed it would be like this.
Why would she have expected any different?They're a lot farther ( ... )
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He didn't run into Stefan, but he knows it is not the same Stefan that he knew, the one his sister fell for. He's different. Katherine said he'd done 'bad things'. Because of Klaus. Jeremy can guess from what little he knew before he fell through, from what Caroline mentioned.
No, Jeremy didn't think she'd be thrilled about it, and he doesn't really want her to know his plans, his need to be a hunter instead of just a self defensive sort.
Not right now in the face of all this. It's less important.]
That's what... Katherine mentioned. They were in her car.
[It's said quietly and carefully. He didn't see Stefan, but he knows already before he saw Elena that he wasn't the same, that everything's ( ... )
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Elena acutely felt how different Stefan was. They were standing in front of each other, and there was nothing. There was no affection, there was no feeling. There was no love. She'd never had Stefan look at her the way he looked at her today.
Like he was seeing right through her.
Elena will be terrified and totally against this once she finds out, okay. ;;
Because it's her bb brother. 8( ]
Did she mention anything else?
... I know, that's one possibility that came to mind. I can't know for sure until I talk to either one of them, but Damon isn't answering his phone, and I don't know where Stefan went.
[ The look in his eye, the balled up fist--it scared her. Worries her. She doesn't know where this is going, but she knows it's bad ( ... )
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Jeremy never saw Stefan, and Katherine was acting like Katherine. She was a little less violent than usual because she has nothing to run from here, not in the way she did back home. There's no angle to be played. It's something too. He's trying to look at the silver linings. It's not really his strong suit.
He can only imagine how painful it was though for her if his sister isnt' with Stefan now, it means that it was... bad, terrible even.
FWAH, Elena. ;; He doesn't want her terrified. ;;
It's just what he has to do. 8(] No, not really. I asked her what she'd do here and she said try to make the best of it. She was pretending to be you again, but... I figured it out after a second. [And she'll likely try to do that again and again so they have to prepare ( ... )
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Elena doesn't like Katherine, that much has been made obvious. What she did to Jenna is still fresh in her mind, only exacerbated by what she finds out later from Jeremy himself. But there's a part of her that also sympathizes with her--that knows once upon a time, Katherine was just a girl.
Who lost her family too young.
And she also knows Katherine cares, in her own way, about Stefan.
Elena can't help it. She wants a better life for Jeremy, more for him, and she always will. :'(]
Katherine trying to make the best of things isn't necessarily reassuring for the rest of us, but... no Klaus. She wants him out of the picture as much as any of us. For longer than any of us. [ And Elena shakes her head at Katherine pretending to be ( ... )
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Jeremy doesn't like her, largely because of what she's done to their family, the fact that she drank some of his blood, and how all of this affects Elena. He realizes it's actually not Katherine's fault that she looks exactly like Elena and that the Salvatore brothers were drawn to his sister for that.
But he hates it and he wants more for her.
Like Elena will always want more and better for him, it's helpless. It's part of being family, the only family that they have left, and that would be true in Chicago or in Mystic Falls.]
No, it's not, but I was thinking that... yeah, without Klaus here, it takes away the motivation she had to do a lot of what she... did to us. she's helped before too, but... [But she can't ( ... )
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Elena does believe more of him now, but she can't help that worry, knowing if Damon sees her, Katherine will know which buttons to push if she's bored.
It's going to hurt whether Damon acknowledges that it does or it doesn't.
It hurts now, just thinking about it, thrown back to that moment when she saw them walking towards the car together, partners-in-crime.
Different. Completely different to what she left behind. ]
But Katherine will always look out for Katherine first. That means we can't trust her, and I don't want her help.
[ Katherine will choose her own survival above all. If there's anything she cares about, it's Stefan, and the rest of them are not on her radar unless they can be of use ( ... )
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