•Mystic Falls, Present Day •
Once I was able to regain control of all my urges, Katherine and I went back to Caroline's dorm, while Caroline stayed back and watched the professor to make sure he doesn't bleed out. Because one thing for this university needed was for one of their professors to be found dead in his lab due to someone draining him of his blood. Now that would be a mess to clean up for sure.
When we arrived at the dorm, Katherine was quick to scope out Caroline's mini fridge, and grabbed two blood bags before throwing them at me. "Drink." She ordered before beginning her search for an outfit that fit Elena's personally.
I held up the two blood bags, "I don't think I need two, Katherine. I'm sure-" I stopped talking once she turned back towards me and gave me stink eye. "Okay, I'll drink both." I mumbled and sat down on one of the beds before tearing off the plastic tab and began to drink the blood, all while Katherine went back to her search for an outfit. But as I began to drink the blood, I felt the urge come back, the urge to find a human and basically rip their throat out. I'm assuming, it probably wasn't the best idea to expose me to fresh human blood and then just settle with cold, old, nasty human blood. I clinched the bag, trying to drink all of it at once.
The sound of me crushing the blood bag caught Katherine's attention and she turned back to me again, but with much more caution. "Juliana... Slow down." She mumbled out as she slowly began to take a few steps towards me.
But her words did little to effect me, I just wanted the blood, but I wanted something more than what I was given. Once the first blood bag was empty, I tore off the tab of the second one and began to go to town with it as well.
Until I felt Katherine touch the arm that was holding the blood bag. I looked up at her and once again, I saw a facial expression that I never thought I would see from Katherine, she was afraid of me. "Juliana, slow down." She recited again. Something about her expression clicked with me and I felt the urge slow down, the urge to go a murderous rampage. Instead of chugging down the blood bag as I had before, I began to savor it instead, slowly trying to enjoy it.
Katherine swallowed hard, "Thank you," She mumbled and went back in her search, but not without taking a few glances towards me every now and then.
As I slowly finished off the blood bag, I stared down at the empty bag in my hands. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." I called out and looked up at her and saw she was holding a flowery dress out in front of her in the mirror. Something that looks like something Elena would wore, to show off her innocent side.
Katherine sighed and looked at me through the mirror, "You shouldn't be, I taught you how to react to blood and now as I human, I'm finally paying the price. As the saying goes, karma's a bitch."
"I'll control it, I promise. I was just hungry and-"
Katherine rolled her eyes and turned towards me, "Juliana, enough. I know you were, and I told you that in his office, but you were trying to be strong and hold of the urge and look where it got us." She paused for a minute, thinking about what she was going to say next and slowly walked over to me and threw the dress on the bed next to me and proceeded to reach out and touched the side of my cheek with her hand, tilting my head up to make eye contract with her. "I want you to drink a blood bag once a day for now on."
"I don't think-"
Katherine held up her hand, stopping me from continuing, as she bent down until she was eye level with me. "I want you to drink a blood bag once a day for now on." She repeated. My mouth became instantly dry at her closeness to me, and it only increased as she leaned forward. Of course, my mind went to the best thing, that Katherine was about to kiss me, but that went away when she went past my face and to my ear. But even then, she was so close to me, her lips brushed against my ear and I felt like my heart truly stopped. "I need you at your best, to take care me. Not Ripper Juliana, I need sane Juliana."
Hearing those words made the world stop for me. Hearing her saying she needed me to take care of her, that she needed me, was all I needed. I would do anything to keep her saying those words about me.
I swallowed but nodded, "Okay, I'll do it."
I could feeling her smiling, "Good girl." She mumbled one last time before pulling away and clapped her hands, before reaching over and grabbing the dress she picked out. "Wanna help me become Elena Gilbert?"
~
"Are you sure you don't want me hanging out around the premises while you are at this party? I just want to be there in case something goes wrong." I asked Katherine as she did the final touches to her new 'Elena' hair with the curling iron. Once again, I found it completely eerie how similar they were, but somehow, seeing Katherine dress as Elena just grossed me out. At least I could say I wasn't like the Salvatore brothers who somehow just fell in love with different girl who just happened to have the same face. I feel in love with just Katherine.
Katherine shook her head, "If this is some secret society that doesn't like vampires, and the fact you don't go to school here, would raise some suspicion if you are found lurking around the area. Plus, it's all humans, I can hand myself around humans Juliana."
"Okay, I'm just nervous, especially with your hair this morning, we don't know what's truly wrong with you yet and what if something happens to you while you are there and I can't help you?" I rambled on.
Katherine paused, "Juliana, it's only for an hour at most and I'll be back here in no time. Trust me."
I sighed but nodded, "What should I do until then?"
Katherine smiled and put down the curling iron, "Be a college student for the time being."
I stared at her confused, "What?"
"You like learning, learning new information, so be a college student for the day. It will be good for you."
"Okay."
~
And I did that, I went to a couple of college classes. Of course, it was beyond awkward. I found myself stumbling into a biology class and all of the information they were throwing at me threw me into a loop. I tried to remember the things that I had learn from my years of studying yellow fever, but then again, things were much simpler back then. But while I was confused as hell, the information was so compelling and I was interested. So I stayed for the whole lecture.
Then I went to another lecture, one that involved genetics. By the end of that one, I felt like my head was about to explode but I loved everything that I learned. Katherine was right about one thing, I did love learning and learning stuff from the 20th century made thing more interesting. And seeing the amount of woman who were also studying medicine shocked me too. The only realize I learned so much was because I had to compel a male doctor to teach me everything. Yes, I learned from nurses, but they only did what they were told by the doctors. Doing my own research about Yellow Fever was more of me just learning about the human body than actual virus itself. By the time I actually started learning about the virus, well, Katherine happened.
By the time the second lecture was over, I knew Katherine had to be done with her gathering at the Whitmore House and pretending to be Elena. Assuming she would have gotten food afterwards, I went back to Caroline's dorm and waited for her to arrive. While waiting, I took one of Caroline's notebooks and began writing down all of the information I had learned from the lectures.
I was so involved in writing everything down that I didn't even hear Katherine walk into the room until she glanced over my shoulder and looked down at what I was writing.
"Looks like someone had fun learning today." She announced and she walked into Elena's closet. I nodded by head, but continued writing down my thought process. When Katherine didn't hear a reply from me, she stepped back into the dorm. "Hello? I'm talking to you."
Once again, I simply just nodded, which clearly annoyed here and she came over and took the notebook right under me. "Hey! I was writing in that!"
Finally I glanced up at Katherine, and saw she was reading through my notes. After a few seconds of reading, she handed it back to me and rolled her eyes, "Boring." Then she went back towards the closet and changed out of Elena's dress and something more comfortable for bed.
Deciding it was best to give Katherine my undivided attention, I finished writing down my thoughts before closing the notebook and spinning in the chair until it faced where Katherine walked into. "How was the gathering? Did people believe you were Elena Gilbert?"
Katherine came out wearing a t-shirt and pair of pajamas shorts, and laid down on Elena's bed. "Please, I could have done it in my sleep."
I shook my head, "Did you get something to eat before coming back?"
Katherine paused for a second, deep in her thoughts before nodding her head. "They had food at the gathering, and I had a couple of sandwiches. There is even a couple of sandwiches in my purse."
I tilted my head, curious as to why it took her so long to answer when it something so small. "You had to think about that?" I paused, and thought back to earlier this morning at the diner. Worry filled me as I stood up from the desk chair and walked over to her. "Did something else happen, like at the diner this morning?"
She didn't say anything, but I could tell, something. I sat down right next to her, "Katherine, what happened?"
She sat up in the bed, "I'm handing it. You don't need to worry."
I raised an eyebrow, "Handing it how? Katherine, just tell me what happened."
Katherine sighed, "I lost a tooth, while eating those godforsaken sandwiches, so I went back to Dr. Maxfield. He took some of my blood and he is running some test. I'm going to see him tomorrow and hear what he has to say."
"I'm coming with you."
Katherine was quick to disagree. "No, you're not. While I might trust him with my blood, I don't trust him overall. He is still part of that secret society, which I might add, experiments on vampires, and knowing you, you would be a perfect candidate. So no, you will not be joining me."
"Katherine..." I mumbled out.
She reached over and grabbed my hand, "Dr. Maxfield's quest is to protect humans, and to destroy vampires. I am a human who is over five-hundred years old, he has not realize to hurt me except to fill his curiously about me and what is happening to me." Katherine paused and stared at me, noticing my concern had not gone away. She sighed, "But if it makes you feel better, you can stand outside of the door and listen in."
"When are we meeting him?"
~
Once again, we were at Dr. Maxfield's office, however, this time, the only one entering his office was Katherine while I patiently sat outside of the room. When Katherine arrived, the first thing that Dr. Maxfield did was take some x-rays of Katherine. Once he printed out the scans, that's when they began talking more serious stuff.
"So, what am I looking at here, hmm? Blood clot? Tumor? What?" Katherine asked, clearly they were looking at the x-ray scans.
"I did a full workup on your blood, Katherine. It's clean." The doctor replied. I rolled my eyes. That was clearly not what Katherine was asking about, but go ahead, piss her off.
"My hair is going gray and my teeth are falling out. I'm not sure what that suggests, but it's not health." Katherine snapped at him.
Then I heard a beep, like for a tape recorder. "Patient is irritable. Unsure if this is a symptom or personality." I swear, if Katherine wasn't human right now, this man would be dead. And to none's shock, within a few seconds of the good doctor making his comments, I heard something slam against the wall, breaking into pieces as it hit the floor.
"Personality. Now tell me exactly what the hell is going on with me."
He was quick to respond, "You're aging."
"What?"
"You said you were turned into a vampire five-hundred years ago, give or take. And now that you're human, let's just say time is catching up with you."
The room went silent for a second and I knew why, Katherine had no idea on how to process this information. She was just starting to enjoy her freedom, especially with being reunited with her long lost daughter, but now? Now, she was dying. And hearing those words from the doctor hit me too. Hearing that Katherine was dying from someone else hurt more than me assuming the worst. My best friend was dying, and there is no way I can stop it. The perks of being human. Growing old.
"Okay. Well, how do we stop it?" Katherine asked. Katherine knew there was no way of stoping it, but just wanted to hear something else. Something in her favor.
"We don't. It's just life running its course. Quicker than normal."
"How much quicker?"
The doctor sighed, "If it continues at this rate, you have a few months. I'm sorry." He answered before walking away and exited his office. I pretending to be reading some magazine in hopes he wouldn't recognized me as he walked pass me. Once he was gone, I quickly ended his office and saw Katherine pacing the floor, thinking of something.
I paused in my tracks, feeling hopeless for her. "Katherine." I called out and she paused, and looked at me, fear in her eyes. "I'm sorry."
I saw her clench her jaw and she shook her head and walked over to me. She stopped right in front of me and reached for something on the table and proceeded to grab my wrist. Then I saw what she had in her hand, a scalpel.
"Woah, what are you doing?" I asked pulling my arm away.
She reached from my arm again but I pulled it away from her. "I refuse to die of old age, Juliana. So you are going to turn me."
I hesitated, "Are you sure?"
Katherine rolled her eyes, and once again grabbed my wrist and slid the scalpel across it and blood began to pool out, she quickly brought my wrist up to her mouth and began to drink it, but within seconds, she began coughing it out. I quickly pulled my wrist away and gathered some towels and handed them to her.
She proceeded to cough the blood she ingested into the paper towels and then wiped her face off. "What is wrong with me!" She screamed out.
"Katherine, it's okay. We will figure something out, for now let's just leave. Okay?" I asked, trying to calm her down. She was reluctant at first but just nodded and followed me out of Dr. Maxfield's office and back towards Caroline's dorm.
Upon doing so, I began to hear voices, in particular, one voice I knew very well that Katherine did not want to see. I quickly turned in front of her, "Actually, let's go get some food, shall we?"
Katherine gave me a weird look before pushing me aside and proceeded to walk the way I didn't want her going. I groaned in frustration but followed behind her. Once Katherine reached the common area of the dorm, she looked to her right and paused in her tracks.
"You're kidding me." Katherine mumbled under her breath, looking around trying to see if there was a way out.
"I told you were should have gotten food." I replied once I caught up to her. And to my right, was Caroline and long with Caroline, was Nadia.
"I need to speak with you." Nadia announced.
Caroline turned around and faced Katherine, confused as how the two knew each other. "Um, how do you two know each other?" Caroline asked, glancing between the two woman.
Nadia began to reply first, "Katherine is my-" But then Katherine cut her off and began walking towards the table that Nadia sat at.
"She's my stylist. Ahem. She cuts my hair."
Caroline paused for a moment, then looked at me. I mouthed to her 'Later' which I think she accepted as being good enough as she gathered her stuff. "Okay, whatever." Before walking away.
Katherine walked up to Nadia, "So, what do you want?" Katherine asked and I took a couple of steps towards them but still gave them their space.
Nadia glanced down at the chair in front of her, "Sit. You've been avoiding me."
Katherine, clearly nothing wanting to this close to Nadia after founding out she was dying, rolled her eyes. "I've been a busy girl, doing busy things." Katherine replied and began to turn away from Nadia to get away.
However, the second Katherine turned, Nadia reached out and grabbed Katherine's arm aggressively and her face began to turn vampire. "Sit." I quickly reacted and began to close the gap between us, but the look on Katherine's face said enough as she began to sit in the chair. I backed off a little bit, but I was unsteady. Nadia worried me, especially now knowing Katherine condition, Nadia could have easily hurt her.
Katherine glanced back at me, "Could you get me some chips, please? If I am being force to sit here, at least I could get something to eat. After all, it is lunch time."
I nodded and began to walk to the nearest vending machine and got Katherine a bag of chips. Within a couple of minutes, I had Katherine's bag of chips in my hands and walked back over to the mother-daughter pair and decided to sit down next to Katherine while handing her the chips. She was quick to open the bag and began eating them.
Nadia watched the whole act with a close eye. "You hate junk food. You call it toxic poison." She commented.
Katherine rolled her eyes and grabbed around chip, "Yeah, well, I've decided to live a little." Then she crunched down on the chip. "Now, may I be excused, scary vampire daughter?"
"You've been avoiding me. I don't like it."
"Clearly." Another chip.
Nadia leaned forward in her chair, keep close eye contact with Katherine. "We had a moment, you and I. There was a bond. I felt it. And then, nothing. You abandoned me all over again."
That caught Katherine's attention quickly as she placed down her bag of chips and held up a hand. "Okay, first of all, I never abandoned you. You were snatched out of arms at birth because my father thought I was a knock-up - shameful slut. And second of all, it's been five-hundred years. Do we really have to do this whole mother-daughter bonding thing? Estrangement is much easier, don't you think?"
I knew what Katherine was doing, she was trying to push Nadia away because she didn't want to get too close to her, now knowing she was dying. Had it been any other way, she would embraced this relationship with open arms, but she was doing what she thought was necessary to keep Nadia at arms length. Anything to ensure her heart wouldn't be broken when the time came for Katherine.
But Nadia was Katherine's daughter and she could tell that Katherine was trying to sabotage this relationship before it began. She could tell that Katherine was hiding something, but she didn't know exactly what. And before Nadia could ask another question, Caroline returned. This time on a mission.
"Sorry to interrupt the world's weirdest lunch but you with the doppelgänger blood, duty calls." Caroline paused and looked at me, "And since you are the doppelgänger's body guard, I guess that includes you."
I rolled my eyes and began to sat up while Katherine remained in her seat. Katherine scuffed, "Wonderful. Now that Katherine's a human and fragile everyone thinks that they can just boss her around." Caroline began to reach for Katherine's arm to get up to stand up, but Katherine reacted quicker and pulled her arm away and began to rise from her seat. "Hands off, okay? I'm going."
As Katherine was beginning to follow Caroline, Nadia called out, "We're not done."
Katherine was quick to turn around, "Oh, yes, we are." And continued to exit the dorm. Caroline glanced back and Nadia and gave her small smirk and followed behind Katherine.
As they began to walk away, I stayed behind for a second and looked at Nadia. I swallowed hard and took a step towards her. "She has her reasons for pushing you away, trust me. But just know, she does love you. When I was still a human and sick, she talked about losing you and how hard it was for her. Especially when she went back after being turned into a vampire. She wanted you more than anything. But you need to give her time. She is human after all now." I explained to her but Nadia only stared at me for a second before nodding. I turned to leave, but stop one last time. "But, don't give up on her, she wants to know you, I know she does."
Then I followed Caroline and Katherine.
~
Upon entering the Salvatore's house, Katherine was quick to make her presence known as Caroline opened the door for her. "The cute one's here." I rolled my eyes and followed behind her as Caroline closed the door behind me.
Caroline was quick to turn to a woman, who I guess was the witch to bring back Bonnie. "She's all yours." And turned walked in the opposite direction, not before pulling me along.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
Caroline turned towards me as she continued to pull me with her. "Last time I checked, you're not a doppelgänger so you are not needed over there. And we need to talk... again."
"Caroline..." I mumbled, but Caroline wasn't taking no for an answer and continued to drag me along, until we reached an empty bedroom and closed the door behind us. Of course, Caroline, being Caroline, kept her back against the door. "You can't be serious. I need to make sure Katherine is okay and safe."
Caroline shook her head. "Katherine is going to be fine, trust me. But we serious need to talk. You need to go back to New York, stop following Katherine like a lost puppy dog."
I glared at her, "I already told you, I'm not leaving Katherine. She needs someone with her because if you haven't notice, she fragile."
Caroline took a step towards me, "Julia, you are only hurting yourself by staying this close with her. I know she's human, and you know the sucky part about humans? They die. How are you going to react when Katherine dies? It could be an accident, or simply by old age, but Katherine will die sooner or later. And then what happens to you?"
I went silence at Caroline's words. While Katherine had been distancing herself from Nadia, to ensure that Nadia wasn't hurt when Katherine died, Katherine was doing the exact opposite to me. She was keep me as close as possible, allowing me once again to grow attached to her. Dependent on her. And since the incident with Silas, I knew when Katherine almost died, I became a loose cannon. The day she actually dies, who knows who I will become.
Caroline reached out and placed her hands on my shoulders, "Go back to your family Julia, before you have to face reality with Katherine."
Just then, the lights thought the Salvatore house went out and I was quick to brush off Caroline and went searching for Katherine.
I found her within seconds and quickly looked her up down for any injuries and found she was free of any besides the cut on her hand, which was clearly used for the spell. I pulled here away from Elena and Damon brought her into the living room where the fireplace was still burning and sat her down in the seat.
"Juliana, I'm fine." Katherine called out to me, but I was still looking over her for any kind of injuries. Katherine grabbed my arm and pulled me down until I was eye level with her. "I'm fine."
I let out a breathe of air I didn't realized I was holding and began to relax a little bit more. I glanced down at her hand. It was still bleeding, despite the cut not being very deep in her hand. And the weirdest part of them all was the fact I wasn't reacting to the blood. The urge for blood wasn't there, rather the urge for Katherine's blood wasn't there. "I'm going to get supplies to fix your hand, okay?"
Katherine nodded and I began my search from some basic medical supplies. I rummage around the house until I came across some gauze and I grabbed the closest alcohol I could find before returning to Katherine. However, I found Caroline with her and I hid in the shadows, I was curious as to what Caroline would tell Katherine.
Caroline walked up next Katherine in the chair, who was still trying to stop the bleeding in her hand. "What are you doing?" Caroline asked.
"Tessa's stupid non-surgical incision won't stop bleeding."
Caroline brought her wrist up to her mouth and bit into it before handing it off to Katherine. "Here. Heal." Having known the effects of what happened last time she tried vampire blood, I expected Katherine to refuse the offer, but she tried again. Only to have the same effects and she began coughing up the blood.
"What's wrong?"
Katherine threw her hands in the air, annoyed that this was happening to her. "Nothing. Just another tragic side effect from taking that cure. Apparently, the universe just doesn't want me to heal from vampire blood. Stupid universe. Find me that damn witch so she can finish that spell!" Katherine cried out and with that, Caroline ran off.
I emerged from the dark and kneeled next to Katherine and began to clean out her hand, only for her to hiss out in pain.
"That hurts you know, a little warning could have been nice."
I rolled my eyes, "Had I given you a warning, you would have complained before hand. At least now, I only have to hear it once." I took the gauze and wrapped it tightly around her hand to stop the bleeding. "If the bleeding doesn't stop soon, we probably need to get stitches."
Katherine sighed annoyed, "Of course, we will. Being human has been the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I don't do fragile, Juliana." She glanced down at her hand, checking over it, and began to stand up. "Now, help me find that damn witch. I refuse to be human much longer than I have to."
I nodded, "We should split up, but she couldn't have gone far." Katherine nodded and began to walk in the opposite direction as me.
~
By the time Katherine found the witch, her death was already sealed. Katherine called out to me, but I knew there was nothing I could do. She was bleeding too much. Of course, this resulted in Katherine cussing me out, saying I had ruined her one chance at slowing down the aging. I tried to apologize profusely, but that wasn't enough for her. She grew angry at me and shoved me away before abruptly stormed away from the dead witch.
Then I followed Katherine, which brought us back to Caroline's dorm. Only to find that Katherine had basically been evicted, especially since Bonnie was back from the dead.
"I'll just get my stuff." Katherine replied to Caroline after being told she was kicked out as I watched from the doorway.
"Thank you. For what you did today--" Caroline started.
"Enough." Katherine interrupted. "I had killed you. Don't forget." Caroline glanced back at me and tried to make myself seem smaller after hearing those words. "We still hate each other, okay?"
Caroline returned her focus to Katherine. "Yes, you did. And, yes, we do."
Even though those words were exchanged, I could tell, that deep down, those two somehow were thankful to each other. Because we all knew that Caroline was better as a vampire than she was as human, and she knew it. But Katherine, she was thankful for Caroline because she knew that once she was dead, Caroline would be the to look out for me. She was basically handing the torch to Caroline.
Then Katherine began looking around for her bag, only to found it wasn't in the same place she put it last. "Where the hell is my bag?"
Out of no where, Nadia showed up next to me and I took a step back. This wasn't going to be pretty, especially with me and Caroline as bystanders. "Already packed." Nadia announced and Katherine frozen in her place at the sound of her voice. Now with the witch dead, Katherine had no way of out running death and now she had to face the reality of telling her daughter the truth of what was happening to her. If that even.
Katherine turned around and faced Nadia. "You again?"
"I'm leaving, Katherine. I'm heading back to Prague. And I'd really like it if you came with me. We can go to Bulgaria. Retrace our lives." Nadia continued and just by the look on Katherine's face I could tell that Nadia was about to have her heartbroken by her mother. Katherine was going to do everything in her power to push Nadia far away, to shield her from Katherine's upcoming death.
"I don't know what kind of twisted fantasy you have about us but that's all it is. A fantasy." Katherine chuckled and continued to shove the knife deeper into the wound. "I would rather rip my own heart out than do more mother-daughter bonding with you. And I'm human now, so it wouldn't really be that easy. I don't want to know you."
Then Caroline spoke up, rather, it was more aimed at me. "Mother-daughter? She's your...?" I gave Caroline a small nod and that was enough for her let out a small gasp and turned around to try and give them more privacy, but that was nearly impossible in the small room.
Katherine began to approach Nadia. "I'm doing you a favor, Nadia. Okay?" I swallowed hard, because I could tell Katherine was holding back her emotions. She wanted Nadia to hate her, but in all honesty, she wanted be with her. She wanted the mother-daughter bond, but she didn't want Nadia getting attached. "I can't be there for you. So take a good look because you are never gonna see me again." Katherine finished before taking her bag out of Nadia's hands and walking away. Walking away her daughter.
Nadia then turned to me but I couldn't look her in the eyes. "I'm sorry." I mumbled out before following Katherine.
_____________________________________________________
guys, I promise, im going to finish this story. I promise. it just takes so much time writing these, but I will finish. I don't know when, and I don't know how, but I will finish this story.
on a side note, your girl graduated college and moved to a different city for her job sooooo, call me fancy. (actually, lowkey, I moved closer to the real life mystic falls, sooo you can bet your girl is going to the clock tower soon. pretty sure you can guess what city I moved to.)
okay, I'm done now.