Emma woke up the next morning with a knot in her stomach, she wasn't ready for what the first part of her day entailed. Without waking up Damon she got out of bed and started the shower and got in just as it started to steam, the hot water made all of her muscles start to relax, she hadn't realized just how tense she was. She heard Damon come into the bathroom and he slid into the shower with her, giving her a quick kiss before stealing the shower head from her. They continued to get ready in silence. Emma pulled on black jeans and a v-neck t-shirt before she finished off her look with her signature leather jacket.
Damon noticed her casual look, "We can stop and get you something else to wear, or there might be something around here."
"Katie would honestly expect nothing less from the punk ass little sister," Emma smiled briefly at the look that Katie had given her when even at their parents funeral Emma wore her leather jacket over the dress she had reluctantly worn, "trust me, it's fine."
Damon shrugged and dressed casual as well, it was just as well, they would be cave diving later anyway.
The ride to the cemetery was as silent as the rest of the morning had been, Damon would ask a question and Emma would either dismiss it or give him as little of an answer as she could. Eventually he stopped asking her anything. Caroline, Matt, Elena, and Bonnie were standing together at the entrance to the graveyard, Alaric was off on his own, trying to hide the fact that he had already started drinking. Caroline had put everything together much better than Emma ever could have, the commemorative wreath that she had commissioned from the florist was covered in bright pink Peonies. Emma wasn't even sure how she got them since they were out of season, she guessed compulsion of some kind was at play.
Emma stayed stoic throughout the memorial, she listened intently to what the pastor was saying as they lowered Katie's casket into the plot. Emma looked up at Alaric, both of them gave the other the same look, they were the only family each of them had left. Caroline had given everyone a white rose and each person took a moment to either pray or think before dropping it on top of the lowered casket.
Alaric and Emma stepped up together, Alaric dropped his rose and immediately. He had stopped caring if anyone saw him drink as he left Emma at the foot of the plot staring down at her sister's grave, Emma felt almost betrayed that he had left her there by herself. Emma's body froze in place and she felt like all of the air had been knocked out of her.
"Ric," Damon growled at Alaric as he walked past him, "Ric, don't leave her up there alone."
Alaric ignored him and continued walking to his car. Damon looked back over to Emma who still hadn't moved, all of their friends were at a loss as to how to help her, Elena was the only one who had even made a single step towards her. They all looked to Damon for help, with a sad sigh he stepped up beside Emma and took her hand. His touch had shocked Emma out of her trance and her hand reflexively opened making her drop the rose, it seemed to move in slow motion as it fell on top of bed of other roses. This was the first emotion Damon had seen from Emma all day, he pulled gently on her hand to pull her away from the grave and she followed his lead.
Caroline frantically shook her head 'no' as the pastor pulled out a tray of dirt for Emma to ceremoniously toss into the grave, but she realized that she had taken it too far and misjudged Emma's emotional density. Damon's shoulders relaxed and he mouthed her a 'thank you' to which she quietly nodded. The pastor was quick to wrap up the funeral after that and dismissed everyone. Emma was hesitant to leave but ultimately with a bit of prodding from Damon she left with him. Everyone said their good-byes and hugged Emma repeatedly. Back in Damon's Camaro she felt like she could breath again once he had the vehicle turned away from the cemetery.
"He just left me there," Emma said quietly.
"I know," Damon replied, he was fuming but trying to hide it, "let's go find out what those drawings are in that cave and get back home."
"Do we have to go to Elena's tonight?"
"We can do anything you want Em, that's the beauty of being with me, I do what I want and I don't care if they forgive me or not."
"That's a lie," Emma called him out, "you were begging for Ric to forgive you yesterday."
"Yeah, well now I don't care. He did something way worse than me trying to kill him."
Damon stopped the car at the edge of the woods and opened the trunk, he pulled out a backpack full of flashlights and batteries and slung it over his shoulder before he reached out for Emma's hand before starting their hike through the woods to the Lockwood cellar.
Emma had been inside the cavern and trying to translate the drawings for thirty minutes before Alaric finally showed up to join her.
"This is something else, now I know why my parents were so eager to work with the Armory, this is next level awesome," Emma commented, seeming to have forgotten Alaric was there.
"Check this out, moon cycle," Alaric pointed his flashlight at something, "a man, and a wolf."
"A werewolf," Emma corrected his translation.
"It's The Lockwood Diaries: Pictionary style," Damon laughed to himself.
"I don't get it, didn't the Lockwood's come in 1840? They are a founding family," Emma pointed her flashlight at something she couldn't translate right away and moved on.
"I don't know, maybe the Lockwood's did, but according to this wall, the wolves have been here a lot longer than that."
Emma let out a gasp at something and made both men jump to check on her, "Ric look; Runic script."
"Vikings?" Both Alaric and Damon said at the same time.
"I guess that bullshit paper you were making me write had something behind it after all," Emma shrugged.
"Names," Ric said as he started working his brain to translate them.
Emma stared at one for a moment, "Niklaus."
"This one is Elijah," Alaric pointed out.
"And Rebekah," Emma pointed to the next one, "Klaus and Rebekah I know but who is Elijah?"
"Their brother, we had a run in with him and Klaus currently has him in a casket with a dagger sticking out of his chest," Damon explained, "that's the only thing that seems to effect them, and even then its just temporary, remove the dagger and up like a freaky zombie they rise."
"This has to be one of Klaus's fakes, we already know he likes to spread fake rumors," Emma looked around.
"Except look at this Em," Alaric pointed his flashlight to another name.
"No way," Emma grabbed the light from him and stepped closer, "Mikael, the original hunter. He would know how to kill Klaus.
"I'm gonna wage my bets here and call him Papa Original," Damon commented from the entrance.
Both junior archeologist began taking photos of everything and documenting as much as they could before they followed Damon out of the tunnels and back up to the cars. As soon as they were out of the cavern any kinship that Emma had for Alaric dissipated and she changed her attitude, completely ignoring him again. She got into Damon's car without saying anything to either man.
"See you at your place," Damon waved.
"I'm gonna go grab Elena and meet you there."
Damon sped off and rolled his windows down, trying to get Emma to smile.
"Wanna grab a burger from the Grill before we go over to Ric's?" He suggested.
"I'm not hungry," Emma kept looking through the photos on the screen of the digital camera.
Damon scoffed, "Since when are you not hungry? Seriously though, you haven't eaten today."
"Later."
"Emma."
"Damon."
Damon let the subject drop and continued on to Alaric's. Emma looked over to her bike when they pulled up, making a mental note to get her keys from Alaric and bring it over to the Salvatore boarding house so she wouldn't be so reliant on Damon. When Alaric arrived with Elena the four of them went upstairs into his apartment. Damon and Elena began sparing while Emma and Alaric separately tried to translate the rest of their findings.
"Sloppy," Damon teased as he disarmed Elena easily.
"Shut up," she huffed, "I'm new at this."
Damon rolled his eyes, "So, 'Ghost of Christmas Past' Mason Lockwood set up the cave and led us to the weapon that will kill Klaus."
"Wouldn't Mikael have the weapon?" Emma questioned.
"Yes, which means the wall is probably going to lead us to Mikael," Damon sighed as Elena started trying to fight him again, "who we've already found...and lost."
"Found?" Emma said astonished but then frowned, "And lost?"
"Bang, you're dead," Damon disarmed Elena again before turning to Emma, "turns out my psycho ex-girlfriend is a backstabbing bitch, go figure."
"These images at the very least might tell us what that weapon is," Alaric commented.
"Then all we have to do is find out what these mean," Emma picked up one of the printed images.
"Fine," Damon sighed, "fine, if I am going to be as optimistic as the three of you, how do you supposed we do that?"
Elena spoke up, "Well if the story is about the Original family I say we go straight to the source."
"Hard pass," Emma was looking between a book and one of the pictures, "unless we are confronting Klaus, they can all kiss my ass, I'll figure this out."
Damon smiled at her determination but turned to Elena, "Guess you know your job."
Elena pulled off her boxing gloves and grabbed her change of cloths, "I'll go see Rebekah alone then."
She walked out and Damon sat down next to Emma on the couch. Emma decided her eyes needed a break and set down the picture she was working on making notes about before she stretched back.
"I'm gonna go grab a few things from my apartment, I'm gonna run out of cloths," she started to get up.
"Just pack everything up and we can move it to the house," Damon suggested.
"Selling all of it except my stuff," Emma shrugged, "fully furnished, minus a couch, might make it sell quicker anyway."
Emma was out the door of Alaric's apartment and turning the key to hers in just a few steps across the hall, Damon followed her. The bloody mess that Stefan had left for Emma was still there and she avoided looking at it as best as she could. She grabbed a bag from her closet and started packing some of the cloths.
Emma pointed at the hamper, "Can you take those over to Alaric's? I'm going to wash them before we put them in the car."
Damon nodded and did as she asked without saying anything, he was back just as quick as he had left, he continued to watch Emma pack a few more bags of cloths and jewelry. At the end she ended up with three duffle bags and the cloths she had in her hamper. Damon took the bags downstairs and tossed them in the back of the car before he joined Emma and Alaric upstairs, she was already stealing his washing machine and tossing cloths inside. Damon sat down on the couch that he knew she would be coming back to.
"Hey Em," Alaric called out, "do you want to order a pizza or something?"
"Nope," Emma said sharply.
Alaric looked over to Damon who looked shrugged. Emma took her seat next to Damon and started her research again.
"Since your bike is here can you make your own way home?" Damon asked Emma.
"Yeah, where are you off to?" Emma leaned over to him.
"Off to cause some trouble like always," Damon kissed her quickly before he stood up, he looked over to Alaric, "make sure she eats something."
Emma rolled her eyes and turned back to her notes. Alaric stood up and went over to his drawer full of menus and pulled one out for the local pizza place, after Damon was out the door he held it up.
"Last chance, once I put this back I'm not getting up again."
"Fine," Emma called without looking up.
Alaric placed the call and Emma heard him order a pepperoni and mushroom pizza, he hadn't forgotten her favorite after all this time, after the order was placed he came back over to his notes and started studying again. After a couple of hours and two pizzas later but no conversation, Elena knocked on the door and opened it before anyone told her to enter.
"Hey guys," she said, not as perky as normal but still chipper.
Emma barely grunted a hello but Alaric looked up and began conversing with Elena.
"How did it go?" He asked.
"I think she is going to be on our side, she is afraid of him, she will come around," Elena shrugged.
Alaric sat back after sticking a note on a picture that had 'vampire' written on it, "You sure about that? A thousand year old vampire, I'm, sure has learned the art of patience."
"She's a thousand year old vampire who joined the cheerleading squad, different set of rules here Ric. I got this."
"Girl power," Emma muttered but didn't look up from her notes.
"Emma I just got a text from Rebekah saying she wants to talk at the boarding house, wanna come with me?" Elena turned to Emma.
Emma put down her paper and rubbed her eyes, "Yeah I need a break."
"Be careful," Alaric warned the girls, "Em, do you have any weapons on you?"
"I'm far from being an amateur," Emma said as she adjusted her jacket before grabbing her helmet and heading out the door with Elena.