She barely made it downstairs in time.
"You okay?" asked Elena with a little laugh as she met her at the base of the stairs, wearing a black lace dress. "You look more stressed than April Young, and I was just with her, helping her decide between a red and blue dress."
"I couldn't really decide what to wear," said Rosalind, having decided on a black sweetheart top dress that stopped above mid-thigh. "You look beautiful."
"So do you," replied Elena, holding out her arm. "Ready?"
Rosalind smiled. "I am." She placed her hand on hers and led her out of the house and into the lawn where the stage had been set up.
"You would have been in this if you lived here," mused Elena. "I bet you would have won. The year before I did it, it wasn't all that impressive. You would have stood out."
"I don't know if I would have done it willingly. My aunt probably would have had to force me into it. I really don't have much to show. I don't do clubs, and I only volunteer when my aunt glares at me and makes me accept."
"But you do so many sports, and you're a natural leader. People look up to you, they trust you. And in the Lockwood family, that seems to be a really good thing. It's interesting how similar you are to your Aunt Carol without being blood related to her, or being raised by her."
"Right?" said Rosalind with a small laugh. "My dad used to tell me that all the time. 'You are just like Carol.'" She smiled. "I think he would have liked to see me do a pageant and win."
Elena squeezed her hand, saying nothing. Rosalind was glad she didn't.
They stood near a table as the event began, with Carol stepping onto the stage to introduce the pageant. "Welcome," she said, "to this season's Miss Mystic Falls." The attendees clapped. "We are so excited to showcase our most outstanding community leaders in the making." The crowd clapped again, except for Elena and Rosalind, who shared a look and made silly faces at the prospect of clapping after every sentence.
"There's Caroline," said Rosalind, seeing the blonde rushing around. She stopped to listen as Caroline snapped at a waiter.
"Hey, why am I bussing your tables?" she said sharply, slamming some champagne glasses onto the tray he was holding. "I said no empty glasses." She then strode over to the orchestra, snapping her fingers at them. "Will you guys pick up the tempo?! This is a pageant, not a funeral."
"Oh god," said Elena with a giggle, having overheard as well. "And look..." Caroline was suddenly putting on a wide smile as she went to the stage to introduce the contestants who were going to walk down the large staircase leading out to the lawn. "With such ease... you'd never know she was mad."
"I almost envy that," admitted Rosalind. "I can try to fake it but when I'm mad, it's really hard to convince anyone that I'm fine. It's easier with other emotions."
"You shouldn't try to pretend you're fine when you're not," said Elena. "It isn't good for you."
"I have to be strong to keep the people I love safe."
"But how will you protect anyone if you don't first take care of yourself?"
Rosalind considered that. "I suppose so."
Caroline began to speak, making them quiet down. "Hi, everyone, I'm Caroline Forbes. As the reigning Miss Mystic Falls, it is my honor to introduce this year's Miss Mystic Court." The orchestra began to play a lively song. "We begin the procession with Valerie Fell, accompanied by Dylan Clark." There was a round of applause for Valerie. "Next, we have Amber Wolvertine accompanied by Hector Lindsay."
"I've lived in this town for quite awhile and I don't recognize any of these kids," said Rosalind.
"They must not be on the cross country team," whispered Elena teasingly.
They sensed someone behind them. "Hey," said Matt. "I don't want to interrupt but I wanted to ask if either of you have seen Jeremy?"
Elena frowned. "He's probably up there with the escorts. April asked him to be hers."
Matt shook his head. "Yeah, Caroline told me to wrangle the escorts. He's not here. Did he tell you about his nightmares?"
The doppelgänger blinked. "What nightmares?"
"The ones where he kills you."
Rosalind's mouth dropped open. "And when did that start happening?"
"Yesterday."
Her jaw tightened. "Crap. Crap. Him killing Chris and awakening himself is probably causing it."
"We'll find him," said Elena, albeit nervously. "But... " she winced, "April's about to get abandoned."
They turned to see the girl making her way down in a pretty blue dress.
"I got this," said Matt, rushing away to prevent April from being embarrassed.
"And finally," Caroline announced, "we have a last minute entry, April Young accompanied by Jeremy Gilbert."
April made her way down the steps with a shy smile on her face. She looked around for Jeremy, initially looking very anxious when she didn't see him, but relaxing as Matt walked up. The crowd clapped as Matt led April out onto the dance floor.
"Shall we dance?" asked Rosalind, pulling Elena toward the back of the crowd.
"Are you serious?" asked Elena, raising a brow.
"Yeah, I'm serious," said Rosalind. "Maybe not the exact same dance they do, 'cause I don't know that one. But..." she held out her hand, then placed the other on Elena's waist. The girl across from her held her shoulder with one hand, and laced their fingers together with the other.
As the music began, they started to dance, both unable to keep from giggling. "Okay, this feels a bit stupid," whispered Rosalind. "But it's fun." She looked over Elena's face. "You are just... so beautiful. You have this gorgeous, captivating soul. And those eyes... your nose... your lips... the gods really took their time making you."
Elena blushed, and hid her face by putting her head against Rosalind's shoulder. The hybrid smiled, looping her hands around her waist instead as Elena wrapped hers around her upper body.
"I wish this moment could last forever," whispered Elena. "I feel so safe here. In your arms. Knowing you care for me. Anyone who's ever been loved by you is lucky."
"I don't know about that," said Rosalind, who didn't want to make it depressing by mentioning how basically all her loved ones were dead. "But I do know I am lucky that you would like to be loved by me. And lucky that I may get your love in return."
Someone snapped their fingers next to them, and they saw Caroline. "As cute as this is," she said sharply, "I want to know what was with that last minute escort change. Where is Jeremy?"
The song ended, which meant Rosalind and Elena would have had to stop dancing soon anyway. Rosalind tried not to be bitter with Caroline. "We're going to find that out now," she said. Elena nodded, and pulled away to call him.
Another figure approached them, and they saw Damon, who looked mildly jealous at the sight of Rosalind and Elena standing so close together. "Do the math," he said. "Emo teen, open bar, it's fine."
"I don't know," said Rosalind. "The bar is within view. We would have seen him. He may like to drink but he made a promise to April, he wouldn't break that."
"Matt said that Jeremy's been having nightmares about killing vampires," mentioned Elena when Jeremy didn't answer her call. "And he's been hiding it from me."
"Relax," said Damon. "I'm sure he's fine."
"I don't know," said Elena. "I have a bad feeling."
"If I'm not worried, you shouldn't be worried. Let it go. I'll go look for him."
"You're not Jeremy's sibling," noted Rosalind. "Of course you're not as worried as she might be. How about this? Elena, if he's been having nightmares about killing you, then you should stay here where there are people. I doubt he'd attack you in broad daylight when he's in the early stages of... whatever is happening to him. Caroline is going to stay, obviously, so you should keep her company. I'll go check your house, The Grill, and the school. Damon—"
"I'll check in the house, then at my place," said Damon. "And I'll do a sweep of the woods."
"Perfect," said Rosalind. "I'll be back to update you if I don't find anything. Keep trying to call him and tell me if he answers."
As soon as she was heading to the Gilbert House, she called Klaus. "Please tell me you didn't take Jeremy on a field trip while you turn those evil people into vampires!"
"Of course not," he said. "I haven't any inclination to babysit. Besides, the point is to make several at a time and then have them stored somewhere for him to kill. Why do you ask?"
"Because he's missing and apparently has been having nightmares of killing Elena. You know, I noticed Stefan wasn't there today. Did you assign him to a task or something?"
"The same task I'm doing."
Rosalind narrowed her eyes. "You're not doing anything, are you? You just made him do it."
"Well, to be fair, I would have done it all myself if you were with me. Doing it alone isn't as fun. I made Stefan do the dirty work instead. I'm painting."
"Of course you are," she said, rolling her eyes.
"How is your date with Elena?"
"It was fine until this happened. It's like the universe doesn't want us to be together."
"Bad timing on Jeremy's behalf. Unless this was done on purpose. Has he any reason to not want you with his sister?"
"Aside from the fact I went batshit insane the day I thought you, Tyler, and Elena died? No, not in the slightest."
"Were you planning to kiss her?"
"I thought it might be nice. She definitely wants to move forward with having a relationship. I worry that even if it would be nicer, it might be too fast. I don't want to fuck it up."
"There isn't anything wrong with kissing. As long as it stays as just kissing for a while. You are a naturally very sexual creature but I'd say you wait on that bit."
"I am planning to. She's a vampire now, if I get carried away and bite her... and then the fact she's still learning what she feels, I don't want to start a relationship like that until she's fully learned to manage her emotions. On top of that, I want to wait to find out whether she's going to be a vampire for the rest of our lives or if she is going to be a human. In either case I want our first time to be special."
She knew Klaus was wiggling his eyebrows without having to see him. "The lengths you go to for your girl. Rather adorable. Let me guess, candles, rose petals, a spacious bed?"
"Well, what kind of heathen would I be if we did it for the first time in like, a car or some shit? I'm going to be her first sexual experience with a woman. I want a comfortable place to just take my time and make her feel good, introduce her to things. It doesn't make me vanilla to start off that way, if that's what you're going to say."
"Good, you better not be. The poor girl has had Stefan vanilla and Matt Donovan extra vanilla. You're going to be showing her that there is much more to sex than she knows, and it will be rather pathetic if you turn out to be as mediocre as them."
"Your words are so kind, Klaus. Anyway, I'm at the Gilbert House now, I need to see if Jeremy's there. If you hear anything about him, tell me immediately." She hung up and stepped out of the car.
She did a sweep of the house and found nothing. Afterwards, she drove to The Grill and found nothing once again. The school was just as empty.
She was already on her way back to the Lockwood Mansion when she saw Matt was calling her. "Hey," she said. "Did you find him?"
"Get here, fast," he said, sounding out of breath as if he was running. "I just saw Jeremy and he's going after Elena, and she's alone because Caroline is on stage."
Rosalind sped back to the mansion, stopping her car quickly and rushing into the house where she could hear some movement. She found Matt about to enter the room where the commotion was coming from.
They threw open the door and saw Jeremy had stabbed Elena through the throat with a small wooden stake, and was about to kill her.
"Jeremy!" yelled Matt, distracting him.
"Get out of here, Matt," said Jeremy. "Why did you bring her?" He glared at Rosalind.
"Because I'm going to help your sister!" said Rosalind. "Jeremy, the girl you just stabbed through the neck is your sister.You don't want to hurt her."
"That stupid mark on your arm is causing this," agreed Matt. "You don't want to do this."
Jeremy growled. "Shut up!" He threw the stake he was holding at Rosalind, and she managed to catch it before it pierced her in the heart.
She stepped between Jeremy and Elena. "You want to kill her, you'll have to go through me. And a word of warning, that Gilbert Ring will probably not work on you now that you're a Hunter. You can either go with Matt and leave Elena alone or you can suffer at my hands. Your choice."
"Come on," urged Matt. "Jeremy, let's go, please."
Stefan abruptly sped in. "Jeremy, leave," he said sharply.
He remained rooted to the spot. Matt grabbed him, and dragged him out of the room. Rosalind immediately turned, removing the stake from Elena's neck and offering her wrist for her to feed and heal faster. Stefan watched them both strangely.
"What?" demanded Rosalind. "What are you staring at?"
"Nothing," he said quietly.
"How did you even get here? You were M.I.A. and you were supposed to be..." she trailed off. "You were supposed to be turning evil people into vampires. Stefan... did you already have Jeremy kill another vampire?"
"I did," he admitted. "It's what Klaus told me to do, the most efficient way of getting his mark completed in a short amount of time."
"He said he wanted it done all at once. Like, have a bunch of vampires stored somewhere and boom, boom, boom, all dead at the same time."
"Rosalind?" said Elena, her eyes watering even after she healed. "I don't want this anymore. I didn't want to put Jeremy at risk, I didn't think this was going to happen. If getting my humanity back means stripping Jeremy of his, then I don't want the cure. I can't lose my brother, I can't."
The hybrid nodded slowly, though unsure if Klaus would be willing to stop the search after he'd just heard of Elena agreeing to it. "Okay. Okay, it can stop. We'll try to find a different hunter instead. There are five at a time, there must be someone out there that we can get our hands on. Maybe Bonnie knows of Locator Spells to locate all five hunters since we have one of them with us."
Elena nodded. "I... I don't think I can stay at home if Jeremy is thinking of killing me."
"You can stay here," offered Rosalind. "Unless you'd rather I make arrangements for you elsewhere."
Elena gave her a grateful smile. "I think I'll accept to staying here. It feels safer."
Stefan cleared his throat to remind him that he was there. "I'll go update Klaus about the situation, then."
"Thank you," said Rosalind cordially as he left.
Elena moved in that evening. Carol was thrilled to have her stay there, giving Rosalind a knowing smile as she led Elena upstairs.
The doppelgänger chose the room beside Rosalind's. The hybrid helped her organize her clothes and beauty products, which was all she'd brought. She sat on the bed while Elena started to undo the elaborate braid she'd done for the pageant.
"We can still have a good future as vampires," Rosalind tried to say helpfully. "You can still have kids, via surrogacy or adoption. There are so many kids in foster homes and orphanages who would love to be raised by someone as wonderful as you. You can still be a doctor. And then you'll have decades and centuries to watch medicine develop, to help it be more efficient. I think you can be cut out for vampirism in the long run. You just have to believe it's possible. I believe in you, Elena. And I want you to be happy. All I ask is that you be honest about what's working, what isn't. I'll do everything in my power to help you."
She stepped away from the mirror, her hair wavy. "Thank you," she said. "For always believing in me. For helping me believe in myself."
"Of course," said Rosalind. "Always." She got to her feet. "I'll let you get some sleep."
"Can you stay?" asked Elena. "Please, like the night of the Decade Dance."
Rosalind nodded. "Let me just get into my pajamas."
She came back and found Elena already comfortable under the blankets. Rosalind crawled on top of them, and did as she'd done before, stroking her hair and helping her fall asleep. This time, she allowed herself to drift off instead of remaining vigilant all night.
The following day was uneventful. She and Elena trained in the morning. Elena went to school, and Rosalind went to the mansion to check on the hybrids, who seemed unnaturally nervous. She figured recent events had them a tad paranoid.
Elena had had a girls night with Caroline and Bonnie at her house after Jeremy and Matt decided they were going to spend time at the Gilbert Lake House until Jeremy got his vampire-killing urges under control. Rosalind wished them well, having been saddled with a swim meet to supervise.
The first of December came the day after that. Rosalind went to see Klaus in the morning, and found him painting a snowflake with some dark streaks over it.
"Poor innocent snowflake caught in a blizzard of despair and loneliness," said Rosalind, tilting her head at the canvas. "You do realize it's a Winter Wonderland charity event. Like pretty cute things for sick children?"
Klaus made a face. "This is an expression of postmodernism. I'm donating it, I can make it look however I want."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night. Are you actually going to stay for the event?"
"I am. Are you going?"
"Yeah. Elena and Bonnie are going to the Lake House with Professor Shane, he thinks he can help them get Jeremy back to normal. I would have gone, but they thought it best to limit it to only one vampire. Also, I apparently make too many snarky comments that Jeremy won't like."
Klaus shrugged, motioning toward a carving knife by a block of wood. "You ought to carve a snowman for the event."
Rosalind snorted. "Yeah, uh, no, I'm not donating anything I create. Just Lockwood money."
The doors of the art room opened, revealing Stefan. "Klaus," he said tightly, "I was under the impression you were going to handle finding another Hunter."
"We all have to pitch in there," said Klaus. "It is not my fault Rosalind's girlfriend has more of a conscience than all of us put together. The problem will not be solved anytime soon. I can take one day to paint for charity. I don't see you bringing anything to the table."
"If Bonnie and Shane's plan works today, Jeremy won't want to kill his own sister. He might agree to killing vampires so long as she's safe. Considering you're the one that knows all about the Brotherhood of the Five, I would think you'd make yourself useful and offer help."
Rosalind shot him a nasty look. "Who the hell do you think gave us the idea to try and use magic to reverse this? Klaus mentioned it to me, I told Elena, she told Bonnie, Bonnie told Shane."
"Precisely," said Klaus, still swiping his paintbrush over the canvas. "I have contributed quite a bit. I retrieved the Hunter's sword from Italy which we'll use to decipher the map hidden in the Hunter's mark. I feel perfectly justified doing a little charity work."
Stefan hummed. "Or maybe you're lying about having found the sword."
"Why would I lie to you, Stefan?" said Klaus, going over to a vault in the other room. "We're in this together." He popped open the vault and extracted the sword. "The hilt acts as a cipher which we'll use to decode the marks on Jeremy's tattoo when he's killed enough vampires to complete it. In the meantime," he set it back in the vault and locked it, "I will keep it here."
He opted to bring it with him once he and Rosalind left for the event. He left it in his car, covered in a tarp he'd used to keep the paint from staining the floor of the car.
In all honesty, the event was boring for Rosalind. She and Klaus walked around, scrutinizing what other people had brought as donations. They ate lunch in The Grill where everything was set up, sharing some fries that Klaus unceremoniously drenched in ketchup despite Rosalind's insistence she preferred dipping.
"You know," she said as they walked outside with the sky darkening overhead, "I was thinking about more ways we can innovate with the hybrids. Maybe you can teach me about fighting styles from different cultures and parts of the world, then we can teach it to them. Have them be well-rounded. They really like the training but I feel like we're running out of things to teach them."
He dug his spoon into the ice cream cup he'd gotten. "Perhaps. A lot of it incorporates weapons. We'd need to acquire those first."
"I've always wanted to learn how to sword fight. Maybe you can use the Hunter's sword to teach me."
Klaus smirked. "You are absurd if you think that I'd teach you with that sword. It's far too special."
"Well, what about fighting in wolf form?" she asked, feeling that she was at the point where it was safe enough to pitch the idea to him. "I think it could be useful. How many times have you ever turned? Just twice?"
He nodded. "It was quite painful the first time. Thrilling the second. But I do not feel I need to turn. And... I don't always feel a connection with my wolf side. I lived as a vampire for a thousand years. It's still new to me. The heightened strength is wonderful, however... I do not always know what to do with the parts I now have as a hybrid. All those thing, I might have learned from my biological father if he hadn't abandoned me."
"I can try to help you," she offered. "I grew up with a wolf pack without knowing what they were, I know a lot about that. Jules told me everything when I found out the truth. We could connect more with our wolf heritage. How about one day, we go into the mountains somewhere, just you and me, and we turn and just run around together?"
He frowned. "You would be willing to go through the pain of turning to help me?"
"Yes," she said without hesitation. "It saddens me that the most important part of you is something you don't feel a real connection with. Your father and mother denied that to you when they lied to everyone about your true parentage. It's never too late to learn about what it means to be a wolf. I think it would help you understand the hybrids more. And it would be healthy for you to run around and just... get all that stress out. You're my best friend, Klaus, I'd go through that pain if it meant you might be happier when you think about your wolf heritage. We could just go out there and have fun."
"Assuming my wolf doesn't pin yours down for a different kind of fun."
"You just had to make that sexual, didn't you?"
He blushed. "It is easier to respond with an inappropriate comment than with something... soft. But I will admit, I am thankful that you would like to help me that way. I don't even know what to say, love."
"You don't have to say anything. I'm glad to do it. Maybe if we enjoy it, we can do it with the hybrids. We can all turn at will. Imagine how powerful we'd be if just... in the middle of battle, we could turn into our wolf forms and absolutely decimate someone? It'd be amazing."
Her phone buzzed, and she glanced down at the screen. "Oh, hey. Looks like we don't need Jeremy to complete that map after all. Shane knows where to find the cure; he's been there before."
Klaus raised a brow. "Really? How curious. Why on Earth would he have gone to that location, of all places?"
"I have no idea. Uh, nevermind, she sent another text, he wants the guy, Silas, that the cure is buried with. Historian's curiosity."
Hayley suddenly walked up to them. "Rosalind," she said calmly. "Your aunt is looking for you. I think she's drunk and needs to go home."
"Oh," said Rosalind, furrowing her brows and handing the rest of her ice cream to Klaus. "I'll find you later."
She located her aunt on a bench, drinking a glass of champagne. "Ooh, yeah," said Rosalind, seeing she stumbled when she stood up. "You need to go home. Come on."
"I'm waiting for Tyler," Carol slurred slightly as Rosalind led her to the car. "Did you see him?"
"I didn't even know Tyler was here," said Rosalind, getting her into the car then stepping in to drive them home. "Did he promise you he'd do something and then he didn't?"
"Oh, no, dear," said Carol, leaning back in the seat. "He's being so noble... he's going to let Klaus jump into his body to be buried in concrete and free the hybrids. But my baby boy won't graduate."
Rosalind nearly slammed on the brakes. "What do you mean? Where did you hear that?"
"He told me. The hybrids all broke their sire bonds, and they will truly be free when Klaus is gone. You didn't know?"
She started to panic. "No, I didn't know. Okay... okay... shit... here's what's gonna happen. I'm going to get you home and to your bed and I'm going to find him. Here." She handed her phone over. "Try to call him."
Carol tried, but Tyler didn't answer. Rosalind wasn't sure whether she should have her call Klaus to warn him. She wasn't sure she fully understood what Tyler was planning. Or where the idea even came from.
She rushed her aunt to her room, and was exiting the house when Tyler walked up to her. "Tyler!" shrieked Rosalind. "What the hell was your mom going on about with you putting Klaus in your fucking body?"
"Rosalind," he said shakily. "I don't have long. I need to run."
.
A/N: Happy 400 pages! Comment for more :)