"I'm okay. I mean, I drank an entire bottle of thousand-dollar bourbon and now I'm packing to go on vacation while Alaric gets married. But I'm so..." Abigail threw another t-shirt into her suitcase. "Not okay."
Bonnie guided her back into the living room. "This is where we could use Caroline's optimism..."
"Well, she's not here." Disappointed by the way her voice sounded coming out of her mouth, she sat down on the couch with a sigh. "Which is understandable."
When Elena casted a worried glance in Bonnie's direction, they didn't think she noticed. "We think we know how to cheer you up."
"And how's that?"
"The diner Mom used to take us to finally reopened."
The renovations to the Mystic Falls Diner were hardly noticeable, and definitely not cause enough for it to have been closed for the better part of a year, but they were necessary. A new tile floor to replace the one Abigail slipped on after coming in from the snow every year. New booths to replace the ones that were cracking before all three of the Gilbert siblings had to squeeze into one side of them. Then there was the most obvious, the change that kept the restaurant true to its original form: the decorations. They had not been replaced, only added to, and just like before, they took their time pointing out their favorites.
The booth furthest from the door but closest to the kitchen was the one that they always chose. From necessity at first, Abigail could see that now, but as it became theirs, there was no other place that seemed right. And that was where they were sitting when silence found them.
Abigail turned her head from Bonnie to Elena. "I know about the cure, Elena."
Again, Elena glanced at Bonnie, and, again, they didn't think she noticed. "How do you know about that?"
"Damon called me last night and told me everything, including his plan to take it with you. And then he said..." She couldn't repeat his words, just what she already knew, "That you left the conversation without telling him what you were thinking."
"That's not exactly how it happened..."
It was not a sigh but a sentence that brought their eyes to Bonnie's, "Well, he called me too."
"He did?"
"Quote, 'She stared at me like I was an alien, and then basically teleported out of the room.'"
"Damon Salvatore stands in front of you and tells you that he wants to become a human again, wouldn't you freak out?" She looked between them, each of their expressions the one she was expecting. "I just... I needed some time to process. I mean, I didn't even think it was possible to become a human again."
"But you want to become a human again."
"Yeah! Well, I did. Honestly, it's all just very complicated right now." She took Abigail's hand, drawing her eyes back to hers. "You could take it. You and Alaric-"
"It's too late, Elena. I saw the life I wanted and I let it slip through my fingers. Now I have to live with that. Forever." Abigail squeezed Elena's hand. "But this isn't about me and I think you should take it."
"So do I," Bonnie announced. "Decision made."
"What if I miss the perks?" Elena asked. "Like compelling the owner of a diner to close early for us? Or what if I get sick?"
"Or what if the human-you doesn't love Damon anymore?" At the way they looked at her, she shrugged. "Someone had to say it!"
"That's not going to happen. Being supernatural doesn't change who you are. If anything, it makes you realize who you are." Abigail did not lower her voice, she did not look away, she only said, "So, again, I think you should take it."
Elena's phone rang, the name on the screen the one that had centered their conversation. "Speak of the devil."
She watched Elena walk out of the diner, followed her with her eyes down the street, and then, only once she was out of sight, she turned back to Bonnie. Bonnie had been watching her, the same way she had watched Elena. So, she knew she was going to lean across the table.
"Look," she whispered, "if you want it you have to take it before Damon."
"I know how the cure works."
That place. That place was still there. And there was no fighting it.
"Abigail?"
She shook her head. "Sorry, what?"
"Your phone is ringing."
She disappeared into the kitchen. "If you're calling to check on me from Alaric's bachelor party, you may want to rethink that."
"Well, I'm not there. Honestly, I don't think he is either." She'd only heard Stefan push through his words in the way he was when it came to his brother, his family, and never when what he was going to say was good. "Enzo came to see me."
"Enzo?"
"My mom turned him in 1903. Apparently, they were on a boat together back to New York and he was sick, so she took pity on him." He paused for himself, but she was glad he did. "She has a bit of a Ripper-thing going on. That little stunt Damon pulled with the Ascendant put her in a blood tizzy."
Bonnie's voice followed the sound of the bell over the door ringing throughout the otherwise quiet restaurant, "Sorry! We're closed."
"Oh, sorry." The voice was one that Abigail knew, one that pulled her attention from one conversation to another. "This is the closest place to my hotel. I'm craving a hamburger. This baby is not okay with the vegetarian thing."
"Abigail, are you listening to me?" Stefan asked. "We need to find her. She's-"
She pulled her phone from her ear. "I have to go."
"Listen-"
"Here," Abigail said as she stepped out of the kitchen with a brown paper bag. "I, uh, I put some extra ketchup in there. Just in case tomatoes are one of the vegetables the baby is okay with."
Jo's expression softened all at once. "Thank you."
The bell above the door rang again, but instead of a quick apology, Bonnie only got out, "Oh, my God."
"Good evening." Lily's expression was as still as it was menacing, and it was trained on Bonnie. "I was out for a walk, and I saw Miss Bennett through the window, and I thought, 'I know her. That young lady ruined my life.'"
Jo tilted her head to the side. "Who is this?"
Abigail reached out for Jo, shielding her body with her own. "Lily Salvatore."
"Be careful." Lily looked past Abigail. "Bonnie destroyed something very dear to me, and now all I feel is insatiable hunger."
Bonnie side-stepped in their direction. "I didn't do it to spite you, Lily. I did it to keep Kai trapped."
It wasn't a laugh that passed Lily's lips, it wasn't even close, but that was the only thing that it resembled. "Surely there's another way to rescue my friends?"
"There is no other way, and, even if I could help, I wouldn't." She knew she would lunge for her, she probably knew it before Lily knew it was what she would do, so she was prepared with a spell. "Now, let it go, and get out."
"Your mistake."
Lily took the silverware off the nearest table, throwing the fork at Bonnie and the knife at Abigail. Only Bonnie fell to the ground, but Abigail was incapacitated for long enough for her to push Jo against the wall. And there was only time to know that she couldn't choose between them.
"No!" Abigail pulled the fork from Bonnie's neck, prepared to give her blood as soon as she did. "She's pregnant!"
"Twins." Lily stopped in her tracks, looking from Abigail to Jo. "Good luck to you."
Lily was gone faster than she appeared, but the terror she'd created did not go with her.
Abigail was the only one to move, even if it was only from Bonnie's left side to her right. "Jo..."
"No, no. Don't. I heard what she said. Twins. Which means I'm number one on Kai's Most Wanted list." Jo helped get Bonnie to her feet. "Congratulations, you have been bumped to number two. So, thank you for destroying that stupid Ascendant and I hope you meant what you said, that there's no way to get out of that prison world."
"I promise," Bonnie rasped. "He's not getting out."
Abigail pushed them to the door. "You guys need to get somewhere safe."
Bonnie gasped. "Abigail, you need to find Elena and Damon."
"I-I know." She nodded carefully, but there was no way to hide the way her voice wavered. "Go."
It wasn't until Abigail made it to the loft that Damon answered one of her calls. "Better be good, future sister-in-law. Elena and I are having a moment."
Desperately gasping for air, she pulled open the closet. "Damon, do not take that cure."
"Seriously? You were the only person who didn't try to talk me out of it and now you are?" He scoffed. "What the hell's up with that?"
"Lily got away, so it's a really bad time to be a human."
"What's going on?"
She sped to the windows, catching sight of them outside of the Grill. "We have to lock her up."
"What is she saying? I..." Elena looked up at the loft's windows. "I can't hear anymore."
Damon did not follow her eyes. "Apparently, Mama Salvatore is-"
"I'm sorry, but I won't be imprisoned again." The sound of Lily's voice broke the eye contact of the sisters, bringing them to the realization that she'd snapped Damon's neck. "I didn't have to turn into this person. I kept her at bay for so long, but my sons? They ruined everything."
Elena ran into the Grill.
Lily followed her.
Abigail screamed, "No!"
By the time Stefan caught up with Abigail, only two things were clear. "Elena got to the tunnels. Lily is still in there."
"You should be with her." He looked down at Damon. "We will deal with our mother."
"I stopped by the loft." She dropped two vervain darts into his hand. "He didn't tell you about the cure, did he?"
"No, he didn't."
Abigail found Elena standing in front of the Salvatore Boarding House fireplace. "Elena!"
She ran into her arms. "Abigail!"
"They got her. They got Lily." Abigail was holding her with the kind of gentleness that she'd always wanted to master, the kind of gentleness that was effortless. "You're human."
"I'm human." Elena's brown eyes met her blue ones. "I remember now, Abigail. Everything. I remember every moment. It's like a million tiny, little pieces of my heart have fallen back into place. I remember the moment that we met, the moment that we fell in love... How much I didn't want to love him, but it was like I was being swept up into a current. I-I was consumed by it."
"Oh, my God!"
"So, Damon can't take the cure."
"What?"
"I remember everything," she repeated. "Every conversation. Including the one we had on the island where he said he couldn't think of anything more miserable on earth than being human. I'm not going to take the life he wants from him."
She pulled her back into her arms, understanding flowing between them in a way that did not have an answer. "I have to go. I'm taking the red-eye out of here."
The tears in Elena's eyes were already making their way down her cheeks. "I know."
"Don't worry." She wiped her tears away. "I'll be back before you know it."
"I know," Elena laughed out. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
The apartment door Abigail found herself in front of was not one she'd been to before. The early summer heat was so different from the late winter chill, holding her in her place under flickering lights for much longer. Still, she knocked.
Alaric opened the door, casting his shadow next to hers in the outdoor hallway. "Tell me you're here because you changed your mind."
"I'm not going to do that." Shaking her head, she took her bottom lip between her teeth. "I made my choice."
"You know, that's what Isobel told me. That it was her choice, her mistake. That she would regret it forever. That it hurt when she thought about what she gave up. That it was easier to let me go." He took a step outside, but it was not a step that was meant to bring them closer. "She ran away because she would rather be a vampire than be married to me. And now you're doing the same thing."
"Don't you dare compare me to Isobel!" Her index finger was extended toward him, she had taken far more than one step, and the only thing that differentiated her voice from his was the opposite of what she wanted it to be. "This choice is not one I want to make. It is one I have to make. And it's not because I don't love you. It's because I do."
Letting out a breath, he closed his eyes. "Did you ever stop to think that I would make the same choice for you? That I would give up everything I wanted for you?"
"No."
"Why not?"
Her shoulders slumped, taking her expression along with them. "Because I can't give you anything."
"Then what are you doing here?"
He didn't sound mad, not anymore, and the question he asked was one she had an answer to; however, her formed response had to be changed. But it wasn't hard to do. Not for him.
"Liv and Luke lived their entire lives with the knowledge that they had a duty to their coven. That one of them was born to die. So, even if Kai never gets out, Gemini will try to take the twins from you. It's the only way to strip him of his power." The space between them was no longer filled with tension, there was no room for it, not when the way she was looking at him was the way it was. Not when the way he was looking at her was the same. "You and Jo, you have to get married and go. She and the babies, they are your life now. And you have to keep them safe."
"Abigail, wait!"
She turned to face him even though she promised herself that she wouldn't. "Yes?"
"You gave me everything." When he wrapped his arms around her, she let him. "I will never forget that. And neither should you."
She wanted to tell him she loved him, to say it out right, those three words. She wanted to say them more than she wanted to walk away. And as he whispered them to her, she did.