Surprising Lover (TVDxOC) (Complete)

Age of Innocence

Grace is sitting on Stefan's bed in his old bedroom, where she's continuing to read his journal.
"[voiceover] Valerie was like a breath of fresh air. I'd been suffocating, and hadn't even realized it..."
Grace's reading is interrupted by an music box, which appears on the nightstand next to her, playing a quiet song as the ballerina inside spins around. The music box then disappears, causing Grace to frown in confusion until the music box pops onto the desk. It then disappears again and reappears in front of Grace on the bed. Before Grace can even process this, the box explodes like a bomb with such intensity that Grace is thrown off of the bed. She tumbles onto the floor and is covered by a shower of splintered wood as the sound of two women giggling in the next room is heard. Grace groans in annoyance and sighs.
"[shouts] UGH! Thanks, Nora and Mary Louise! Real classy."
She props herself onto her elbows and lowers her voice.
"I hate you both."
Just then, a cell phone on the floor begins to buzz, and Grace, both confused and excited, scampers over to answer it. It's Stefan.
"Hello?"
"[confused] Grace?"
"[relieved] Stefan!?"
"How are you on my phone right now?"
"You must have dropped it when you got threshold-vacuumed out of here yesterday."
"[worried] How are you? Are you okay?"
"Well, I'm spelled into your room by a menagerie of mean girls, but other than that..."
"[sighs] I know. I'm still trying to figure out a way to get into the house."
"I'll be fine. Just keep Damon from killing any more Heretics."
"I will. Lily's only keeping you there to turn me against Damon. I'll convince her that I hate his guts, and she'll have made her point."
Caroline frowns, clearly uncomfortable with the subject she's about to bring up, but she's also too curious not to ask him about it.
"Who's Valerie Tulle? You wrote about her in your journal from 1863. She must have found a copy in the prison world."
"[stunned] Are you talking about one of the Heretics?"
"Yeah. Dirty-blonde hair, blue eyes? She's one of my new psycho housemates..."
Suddenly, Valerie appears behind her and squeezes the hand Grace is using to hold the phone so tightly it's broken and she's forced to drop it on the floor, even as Valerie is burned by the vervain in Grace's skin.
"[moans] UGH!"
"[concerned] Grace?"
"Dirty-blonde hair, blue eyes, psycho. Summarized me to a tee!"
Valerie kicks Grace's head so hard that she is knocked out, and she crumples in a heap on the floor.

Grace finally comes to after being knocked out and moans in pain.
"Ohhh...."
Valerie, who is standing in front of where she's laying on the floor, holds up Stefan's journal. When Grace sees her, she sits up quickly.
"How do you have this?"
"[hesitates] Nora gave it to me. What was the deal with you and Stefan?"
Valerie sits in a nearby chair and smirks at her.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
Grace, unable to resist her curiosity, switches to mean-girl tactics.
"[sarcastically] You know what? You're right. I'm already in enough pain. The last thing I need to think about is some girl who batted her eyelashes at Stefan, like, a million years ago."
"[amused] "Some girl?" I wasn't just some girl to him, Grace. I was the first love of Stefan's life."

Grace and Valerie are still sitting in Stefan's room, where Valerie continues to tell her story.
"I was lying. I wasn't prepared for how taken I was with him. He was gorgeous and sweet..."
Grace scoffs and interrupts her.
"And that's when you compelled him to write all those nice things about you in his journal. Spoiler! I've heard this story before, when a sweet, little orphan girl named Katherine Pierce waltzed into his life."
"[rolls her eyes] I suppose that would have been easier had I actually had the ability to compel people. I wasn't a vampire back then. I was just a witch, rejected from her coven for being an abomination of nature because I had no power of my own. The only magic I had was contained in an amulet, to be siphoned in times of need."
"I gave you my blood at this time though."