Fic: Rewritten (GG/TVD Crossover) ch 3/?
Title: Rewritten
Author: fading_tales
Pairing: Damon/Blair (Vampire Diaries/Gossip Girl crossover)
Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl or any of their characters.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Thinking back she realizes that maybe things would’ve been different if she didn’t go home that night. Maybe he would’ve grown tired of waiting and left. Maybe then everything would’ve gone according to plan. And maybe, just maybe she wouldn’t have swayed like she did, like she would, like she does every single time he comes stumbling into her life. Then again history has a way of repeating itself and in the end she’s not sure if she wants it rewritten.
A/N: Sorry for the belatedness of this chapter. I’ve been caught up in the wonderful world of tumblr and rpging (a TVD/GG crossover rpg!!! XD And I play Damon ;-D) so I’ve been negligent of this fic. I actually had a majority of it written, but hadn’t had a chance to look it over and tie up some loose threads. So here it is now. I hope you enjoy it! I promise the next chapter will be more timely. In the mean time if you want some more Blamon goodness, check out my tumblr for gifs and graphics with occasional drabbles. =)
chapter 1, 2
Chapter Three: Old Friends
She almost made it back to her normal routine, the thoughts of Damon stubbornly placed in the back recesses of her mind. She preoccupies herself with the prospects of Yale and dancing circles around the whole Chuck thing while trying to calm Serena on her latest boy dramatics. What he told her across the threshold of the limo that night before Damon left had been the last time he’s brought up any topic concerning them in any romantic capacity, but she had expected it. It had been a lapse on his part, born out of petty jealousy towards Damon and probably one too many single malt scotches. After all, he was the one who said they had to wait. That maybe in the future…
She’s being naively optimistic, but she’s hanging on to those words like a promise. Not for the romance of it all, but for the fact that someday in the future all of this role-playing will become real. That all her lies won’t have to be lies anymore. She hopes that someday like the doll that became a real boy, the vampire can one day become a real human. It’s a fairytale, but she always had a soft spot for them.
But until then the illusion of normalcy is a fragile one, made even more delicate when people from her past keeps showing up on her doorstep.
“So you’ve really made yourself at home here haven’t you? If you ask me, I preferred the estate in Cliveden better. Those were the good old days weren’t they?”
Blair doesn’t need to turn around to face her new visitor. She’d recognize that voice anywhere. It is the voice that haunts her dreams still.
She preoccupies herself with rearranging the contents of her vanity table in silence. Only once she finishes arranging her perfume bottles by descending size does she calmly go about shoving her new guest against a wall, her hands wrapping themselves firmly around Katherine Pierce’s throat.
xxx
1891
The plan had been perfect. As far as anyone who mattered was concerned, Katherine Petrova, Katherine Pierce, whatever the name she goes by, was dead. She was rotting away in the tomb underneath a church that had burned down to cinders and ash, never to be opened. After centuries of constantly looking over her shoulder, of being terrified of every shadow at the corner of her eye in case it was him, she was granted a respite. The plan had been perfect.
Almost.
The problem with Katherine’s perfect plan was that she had grown arrogant in its perfection. It made her sloppy, it made her reckless. It’s been nearly thirty years since her assumed death and way too long since her self-exile from the European continent. Most important of all it’s been centuries since she last visited her mother’s grave site and it’s about time she paid her respects. She comes to the conclusion that her fear of Klaus has kept her away from her homeland for long enough. Hubris thoughts, but she didn’t care. She was tired of running, she was tired of hiding. Katerina Petrova was never meant to live in the shadows.
So with these thoughts in mind she finds herself boarding a boat headed across the Atlantic.
xxx
She hasn’t seen her in years. Not since Chicago in 1983 to be precise. And even then the meeting had been coincidence. Then again, nothing is coincidence when Katherine is concerned.
"Your timing is impeccable as always. You only barely missed Damon.”
"I know. I saw him leave. As always he was predictable. He runs to you the moment things get a bit too tough. Makes keeping tabs on him easy. Although I was surprised that he actually got through the front door this time. Usually he just waits on your doorstep and leaves without saying a world. Coward that he is."
"You are cruel."
"Not any more than you."
"Well I learned from the best,” Blair hisses as she slams Katherine head against the wall for emphasis. The force of the impact makes a sickening crack that echoes in the empty room.
"Ow. That hurts," Katherine snarls.
Katherine gives her a maddening smirk before shoving her against the opposite wall hard enough to send all those neatly aligned perfume bottles on her vanity crashing to the floor.
"But I'm still older and stronger. I am, however, pleased to know that at least you haven't gotten soft from sipping on blood bags."
Blair violently pushes Katherine off her as the older girl laughs.
“Must you be so rough?” Katherine pouts as she attempts to fix her hair in the reflection of the cracked vanity mirror. “I hope you were gentler with the eldest Salvatore. He’s still fragile from my rejection.”
“To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, Katherine?” Blair asks with false sweetness.
“Really, is this how you treat an old friend visiting you?”
"We’re not friends. We are business partners. Don't expect me to welcome you with open arms whenever you show up unannounced. Besides, aren’t you supposed to be dead?”
“I never thought the Salvatore brothers would go through with opening that damned tomb. I mean who in their right mind would?”
“Yes, well next time you plan to perish in a fire, you’ll remember to make sure it’s a more concrete story.”
“I admit that was foresight that I lacked at the time. I had underestimated Damon Salvatore’s devotion.” Katherine pauses to watch Blair’s reaction. “Still haven’t hit that yet? I thought with him crawling to your side you might have helped him lick his wounds.”
Katherine lilts one perfectly manicured eyebrow up quizzically in Blair’s direction. What she gets in return is a silence and cold hard glare.
“You have no idea what you’re missing out,” she singsongs. “If anything, Damon Salvatore knows how to make love to a woman… but I think you remember… even if it was several decades ago. The man knows how to make these things memorable.” She smirks as she trails a light finger down Blair’s cheek only to have it slapped away. “If only he knew how much you’ve done for him,” she sighs dramatically.
“Don’t push me, Katherine. You’ve broken the terms of our deal and I will not hesitate to turn you out on your ass for Klaus to deal with.”
“On the contrary, I did not violate any of your conditions. You wanted to me to play dead. I did. Just because Damon found out that I wasn’t doesn’t mean that I didn’t try. So as far as I’m concerned our deal is still intact.”
“Then you are more delusional than I give you credit for. I told you to stay away from Damon. Playing dead was a consequence, not a condition.”
“Always his protector,” Katherine laughs. “So tell me… how do you think he’d feel if he knew about our little arrangement?”
“Your threats don’t scare me, Katherine.”
“No? It should,” she drawls as she begins to circle the younger vampire. She moves to pick up a photo on Blair desk of Eleanor and Cyrus in Paris.
“They look like nice people,” Katherine comments. “It would be a pity if I killed them.”
Blair merely rolls her eyes. She’s heard it all before. The threats have started to stop sounding so threatening.
“Can we get this whole threatening the life of my family and everyone I love part of the evening over with quickly? I have somewhere to go in an hour.”
Katherine scoffs. “Somebody’s a little full of themselves.”
“I am but a poor imitation of your conceit,” Blair quips.
“Will this little meeting you’re having with Nate Archibald? Hopefully it will be productive in your search. How is your little project going anyways?”
“I’m working on it,” Blair grinds out.
“I think you’ve been indulging in your little role playing game a little too much. I have yet to see much progress. I should’ve known… you always had a tendency to go native when undercover.”
“And you have yet to make any leeway on your end of the bargain either so you have no right to complain. You’ll get what you want when I get what I want.”
“Or I could just kill you.”
“So you’ve said many times,” Blair drawls. “Yet here I stand before you. So are we done here?”
“You know you should be more careful about that tone of yours. I might start to think you don’t like me.”
“Well you can stop wasting time thinking about it, Kat. It’s true. Don’t come back here. When I find something I’ll contact you.”
Blair gives her a casual wave of her hand as she pulls on her coat and stalks off. Katherine stands in the middle of the empty room watching as her silhouette disappears around the corner.
xxx
Katherine has always been a planner, a plotter, a schemer. But she was by no means omnipotent and could not have had the ability to foresee the storm that would capsize her ship. Neither was she aware of the fact that one of the shipmates was a vengeful member of the Lockwood family that had followed her on board. At least not until he poisoned her with vervain two nights before their ship was suppose to reach the English harbor.
But if anything Katherine was a survivor and so she finds herself washed up on English soil while the rest of the members of the ship sunk to the bottom of the dark icy sea.
After days of foraging through the English wilderness to avoid any prying eyes that might belong to Klaus and thereby blowing her fake death cover to kingdom come, she finds herself stumbling into the garden of an estate on the east bank of the River Thames.
It was a desperate move if anything that she even dared approach it, but she hasn’t seen another living soul in weeks. And she was still weak from the vervain poisoning that she seems unable to shake off because she hasn’t properly eaten since she washed ashore a week ago. The moment her feet reached the cobbled road leading to the entrance of the house she had collapsed.
The first night had been a blur of candle light shining in her face, the feeling of a damp washcloth on her forehead and the softness of being in bed for the first time in what seemed like forever.
She wakes up to the rather pesky chattering of a portly middle aged woman, clearly a maid from the look of her plain brown dress and apron. Not necessarily her choice of a good meal, but beggars can’t be choosers and she was starving. Her eyes had already darkened with the hunger, but before she could make a move the door to the room bursts opens.
It was clear by the way the girl walked into the room that she could only be the young miss of the house. The way she held herself had a certain grace and posture to it that suggested she had been raised in the manners of the gentry. A highborn lady, Katherine concludes. She swallows her hunger and decides to wait out on dining on her new benefactor until she can find out what more she can get out of them other than a good meal.
“Oh, she’s awake. Portia, you can leave the water basin there. I’ll take care of it myself.”
Katherine finds herself startled by the sound of the girl’s voice. Despite all the English mannerisms her accent was that of a New Yorker and not an Englishwoman.
The plump maid curtsies and quickly makes her leave.
“To be honest I was quite sure you were dead, but that would have been horribly inconvenient so I’m happy to see you up. I’m afraid your clothes had to be burned. They were in a most horrid state and I doubt you would’ve wanted them back anyways.”
“W-where am I?”
It’s the first time she’s spoken in ages and she finds it difficult to find her voice.
“Cliveden. This is my late mother’s estate. I am the lady of the house for now while my father is in London attending business.”
“Your late mother’s estate?” She echoes.
“Yes. She died a year ago, but the estate is still under her name. Law offices can be awfully slow.”
Katherine takes a moment to process everything. Since the owner of the estate is deceased it explains why she was allowed to enter it without an invitation.
“My gardener found you collapsed in our garden and brought you here,” the girl explains as she hands Katherine a glass of water which Katherine takes eagerly. “May I ask you what brought you here? Despite the terrible condition of your clothing I noticed that they were of quite quality material. Nothing that a servant would be capable of affording….Unless you stole it from your mistress?” The girl wrinkles her nose in distaste. “You’re not a runaway servant are you?”
“No…” Katherine replies cautiously. Stories upon stories are spinning in her head. “My family… they were killed. In a fire. I… I was on my way to my uncle’s. He lives in Banbury. But my carriage was attacked by some highwaymen. I only barely managed to get away.”
“How horrible! Who is your uncle? What is his correspondence? I will send for him right away.”
As the girl stands and turns to call her maid to bring her pen and parchment Katherine clasps her hand.
“No! Please. You cannot let him find out where I am!”
A puzzled expression crosses the girl’s face and she sits back down on the chair besides Katherine’s bed.
“Why ever not?”
“He’s a cruel man, my uncle. He’s...violent and-” Katherine manages to conjure up some real tears by recalling memories of Klaus. “I think he had a hand in the death of my parents. No I am certain of it! Please! You cannot save me from certain death only to send me back into the arms of the grim reaper! For that is my fate should he find me. The bandits were a blessing compared to the fate that awaits me at his hands. Please,” Katherine begs, she’s so convincing she started to believe herself. “Don’t let him find me.”
“Isn’t there anyone else I can send for you?” the girl asks carefully.
Her answer startles her. Not because it was unplanned, but because of the truth that resonated in the words.
“… I have no one.”
The only truth in a web of lies, Katherine thinks bitterly.
The girl gets up from her seat once again and starts pacing the span of the room. For a long while she doesn’t answer. Katherine’s mind once again begins whirling with the usual Katherine scheming and plotting. But all the schemes and all the plans end prematurely with the girl’s next words.
“Then it’s settled. If you have no place to go you can stay here… I suppose.”
She tries to sound nonchalant, but Katherine can sense a sort of excitement in her mismatched New Yorker voice. The girlish tone was an odd juxtaposition to the girl’s otherwise collected bearing.
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes. It’s not like you have anywhere else to go. And I’m the only young lady within a hundred miles. It gets terribly lonely. I don’t know what my father was thinking moving us here. But no matter, you’re here now.”
The smile the other girl gives is so bright that it makes Katherine squint.
“Thank you… for your generosity,” she replies hesitantly unsure of how to handle uncoerced kindness.
The girl flashes yet another smile that rivals the sun and for a second Katherine’s hand instinctually reaches to the daylight pendant that hangs around her neck.
“Brilliant. I’ll have Portia bring over some new clothes immediately.”
The girl gets up to leave, but Katherine calls her back.
“Wait. I should at least know the name of my benefactor. How should I address you, mistress?”
The girl smiles at her. “I’m Blair Waldorf. But just Blair will be fine. We’re friends now after all.”
She clasps Katherine’s hand in hers in an affectionate squeeze.
“I’m very glad to have met you…Blair.” She tests the name on her tongue and finds it oddly pleasing. “I think we will get along quite marvelously.”
Thinking back she’s surprised that given Blair’s propensity for order and cleanliness, she’s surprised she even made it inside the house and not turned away. She was surprised about a lot of things that happened.
They didn’t always hate each other, despite what present evidence suggests. There was a time when the two were inseparable, but that was a long time ago. The only people that could recall their friendship are now nothing but dust and ash. Katherine shakes her head, letting the memories fade back into the background of her mind, as she mounts the steps to the large dark oak door to an Upper East Side townhouse.
xxx
Despite all of her bravado, Katherine’s visit had shaken her much more than she would care to admit. The deal made between the them two had always been one dealt with via the intermediary of one Isobel Flemming. For Katherine to come see Blair in person was in itself a violation of their unspoken agreement. And when Katherine starts changing up the rules, it doesn’t bode well for anyone.
Blair attempts to push such troubling thoughts into the back of her mind as she concentrates on her current task at hand.
Yale.
She could easily compel her way in, but Blair told herself that if she really wanted to move away from her past then she would need to do things the human way. Meaning, the hard way.
Somehow that meant babysitting the daughter of one of the Dean’s friends on a Friday night. It wouldn’t have been so bad had she been the Harry Potter loving little Virgin Mary that her mother claimed her to be instead of the little troublemaking party girl with rebellious teen issues whose sole mission seems to be to make her life miserable.
Finally, she miraculously got the little miscreant to sit still without the use of compulsion only to have the doorbell start ringing.
“Don’t. Move,” Blair warns as she goes to answer it. “It’s probably the pizza I order. When I get back we’re going to have that movie night that I promised your mother. So sit still or I’ll make sure she finds out just what a little deviant you are.”
She opens the door and immediately it’s out of the pot and into the fire. She nearly stumbled backwards at the sight of Katherine leaning against the door frame, her arms folded in front of her. The expression on her face is one of thinly veiled mischief.
“Since when did you join the babysitter’s club?” Katherine drawls. She nudges the threshold of the door way with the toe of her black leather boot as if testing the boundaries. “So you decided to stop being a fabulous vampire socialite for this? I think your priorities need to be straightened out.”
Blair quickly glances back to make sure her new charge is staying put before she closes the door behind her. She takes a step across the threshold, forcing Katherine down a few steps so that she would be in a position to tower over the older vampire.
“What are you doing?” Blair whispers harshly. “I’ve put up with a lot, Katherine, but part of the deal was that you left me to do my own thing.”
“Well here’s the thing…” Katherine drawls, her mouth pursed as if in thought as she taps her chin with her finger. “I have a feeling that you aren’t upholding your end of the deal.”
“I told you,” Blair hisses through clenched teeth. “I’m working on it.”
“Then why aren’t you with Nate? And what’s this I hear about a Chuck Bass? I need that Vanderbilt ring, Blair. You’ve had a year to get it the nice way, now time is up. I want that ring.”
“And you’ll get it! In due time. You know that ring can’t be taken forcefully anyways. It has to be freely given. But then again you don’t really know anything about that do you?” Blair huffs. “Now leave! Otherwise our deal is off.”
Without another word Blair turns on her heels and slams the door shut in Katherine’s face.
Blair hasn’t even finished exhaling a sigh of exasperation when she turns around and finds that her fifteen year old protégé in the making had disappeared.
xxx
They run all the way from the village back to the estate, laughing and giggling the entire way.
“Did you see the look on his face?” Katherine laughs. “Oh, you’re a heartbreaker in the making. I bet he’s going to call on you tomorrow,” she teases.
“He’s a butcher’s son!” Blair exclaims.
“A handsome one,” Katherine points out as if that was the answer to everything.
“My father would never allow a dalliance with such a commoner.”
“Ugh! You’re much more fun when you’re not trying to be all prim and proper,” Katherine pouts.
“And you’re a bad influence,” Blair retorts, still trying to catch her breath. Her usual perfectly coiffed hair is in disarray, but she feels more alive than she’s ever felt before. Her cheeks are flushed a pretty pink, the sunset catching the gold in her usually dark brown hair.
“Oh, lighten up. This is the most fun you’ve had. You may act all nice and proper, but I know you enjoyed yourself. You liked having him wrapped around your little finger,” Katherine teases and pinches Blair’s cheeks teasingly. Blair laughs and swats her hand away.”So when are you going to put away the gentle lady act?”
“We can’t all be like you,” Blair chastises good naturedly. In a more solemn tone she adds, “And I have responsibilities. If I am to be the heir to my father’s fortune then I will have to learn accept certain duties.”
Katherine sidles over to the other side of the wall where Blair is leaning against, taking the younger girl’s hand in hers.
“Who needs responsibilities? Who need rules? They’re just things that men created to restrict us women. One day, you and I… we will have the world kneeling at our feet. No more fear, no more hiding in the shadows of powerful men who treat our lives like mere pawns in their games. One day… we’re going to make them fear us.”
Blair smiles at the notion even though she knows that there was no way she would escape the path her father, her status, and her fate has predetermined for her. But at least for now she can revel in the fantasy that Katherine presents.
“I could always count on you to cheer me up, Kat. But what you speak of is mere fantasy. The world doesn’t work like that. Father will be coming back soon and he’ll be expecting me to receive him as a proper lady.”
“I worry that you’ll be taken advantage of.”
Blair’s face brightens. “Oh I wouldn’t worry about that. I have you after all to take care of all the bad men out there hunting for an heiress.”
“You have to learn that the only person you can count on is yourself. I can’t be here to protect you forever you know,” Katherine admonishes.
“Are you planning on going somewhere?”
The younger girl tries to play it off nonchalantly, but Katherine can hear the slight panicked tremor in her voice.
“No,” she answers surprising herself.
That earns her a smile that makes Katherine realize that she likes having a place to belong to. She hasn’t had one in so very long that she forgotten how it was like to have a home, to have a family, to have a sister.
“You must promise, Kat. You must promise not to leave me on my own.”
She has always been Katerina or Katherine. Always been the selfish one, the manipulative one. That’s just who Katerina and who Katherine is. She didn’t know how to be any different because to be anything else would mean death. She always had to be ten steps ahead, be ruthless, be cruel. All in the name of survival. But here she is cast into a whole different role. For the moment at least she did not have to be anything other than… Kat. And she’s finding that she likes being simply Kat very, very much.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
At the time she had meant every word.
xxx
She mounts the stairs, her hand fisted around the note scrawled with a familiar handwriting. As Blair reaches the top, a blast of icy New York winter wind whips her hair from her face as she opens the door. After a long night of chasing she’s finally found her rebellious protégé at the edge of the roof of the Empire hotel. To be precise she was dangling from it and Katherine’s hand around her neck as the only anchor to solid ground.
“Blair! Please! Please help me! She’s crazy!”
“Katherine,” Blair says, training her expression to be calm and unfazed. “What are you doing? Let her go.”
“You know, I always thought you were an Oxford girl.”
“Let her go, Katherine. She’s just a little girl. She doesn’t even have anything to do with this. I barely even know her.”
“And yet here you are lobbying for her life. You’ve gone softer than I thought.”
“You’ll only be drawing attention to yourself if you kill her. You wouldn’t want Klaus to find you now would you?”
“True… but I’ve done riskier things for less.” To emphasize her point, Katherine dangles the girl just a little further out over the edge.
“Please, please,” the girl sobs. “I’ll do anything you want! Please! Don’t kill me! Please!” She turns to look at Blair, mouthing the words over and over, mascara smudged tears streaming down her face. “Don’t let her kill me, please!”
“Fine! What is it that you want?” Blair snaps.
“Now that’s what I like to hear. I need you in Mystic Falls.”
“What about Nate’s ring?”
“The ring is a dead end. I have better things for you to do.”
“And what is that exactly?”
“Help the Salvatore brothers with their werewolf thing. You should be able to provide some good insight… point them in the right direction.”
“You mean in the wrong one?”
“Not at all. The werewolves are good to me if they’re in control. They need to know that us vampires are in charge.”
“Fine. Whatever.”
“That was easier than I thought.”
“How does one please you exactly, Katherine? I say no and you don’t like it. I say yes and you still aren’t happy. What do you want?”
“Give me your word that you won’t double cross me.”
“I give you my word,” Blair promises. “So let the poor girl go.”
Katherine seems finally satisfied, a wicked smile splitting her face, and so she lowers the poor weeping girl to the floor.
Blair releases the breath she didn’t know she was holding and begins to move towards the huddled sobbing figure, but Katherine’s hand is quicker and before she can even blink, Katherine snaps the girl’s neck.
“No!”
Blair rushes to the crumpled body, but she knows without even taking her pulse that it was too late.
“This is just a demonstration,” Katherine whispers in her ear. “You cross me in any way and next time it won’t be some random Yale donor’s daughter. Next time it’ll be your precious Serena or Nate. Or maybe it might even be Chuck Bass. So think twice before you start plotting whatever it is you’re plotting against me.”
“Hate you,” Blair rasps. Her voice is low and raw with rage.
“I know,” Katherine replies.
She turns her back on Blair so that when she’s walking away no one can see her swallowing her guilt, swallowing her regret and the angry tears that are burning behind her eyes.
They used to be friends… But that was a long, long time ago.
A/N #2: OMG, I just won’t shut up, another Author’s Note?! Anyways… Just in case anyone was interested in how I developed Blair’s history, it is based very loosely on the real historical Waldorf-Astor family. I have taken liberties with time lines and a million other things to fit the story, but Cliveden is a real place William Waldorf Astor bought it in 1893 after he moved from New York to Great Britain due to a family feud with his aunt over the family’s status in high society. <- Basically I stole all that from Wikipedia so head over there if you care to find out more.