CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Calm Down, Dr. Death
After the whole 'destroying an old field' incident, Preston went to the bar Caroline was at. Preston knew Caroline. She knew where she was. And once again, Preston was right. Then she saw Enzo also walking in too.
"A hard-knock life, is it?" Enzo mused.
"Don't walk there. Ugh. I just washed that." Caroline groaned, storming over to the spot Enzo was to clean it again, apparently.
"My apologies, Cinderella. What are you doing?" Enzo asked Caroline.
"Stefan and I had a moment. Things broke in the process. And now I'm returning Scull Bar to the way we found it." Caroline answered.
Preston furrowed her brows, crossing her arms. "That's what you care about?" She wondered, getting a glare from Caroline.
"Uh, the whole point of flipping your humanity switch is you don't care how you leave things." Enzo added.
Caroline sighed. "I go to school here, Enzo. I want to keep going to school here. The second that I draw any suspicions, break-ins, broken property, dead bodies, people will try to interrupt my routine. Then I will end up rotting in a cell somewhere, instead of what I should be doing, which is preparing for my audition tomorrow." She moved over to the bar counter.
"You, Caroline Forbes, vampire without humanity, auditioning for the school play." Enzo scoffed.
Caroline whipped her head around, "musical." She corrected. "And obviously. Duh. I'm a drama major. And what are you two doing here?"
"Got bored." Preston answered simply.
"Find My Phone led me here. It didn't explain why your sticky fingers needed it last night." Enzo responded.
"You're the only one with Sarah Salvatore's phone number." Caroline said.
Preston furrowed her brows once more. "Why would you—"
"Why would you need Sarah's number?" Enzo questioned.
"To use her life as leverage to convince Stefan to shut his humanity switch off too." Caroline explained.
Preston's brows raised as her eyes widened.
"That's both clever and deeply unsettling. Tell me she's still alive." Enzo had the same look on his face as his daughter.
"She's alive. Assuming she survived any infections resulting from Liam's amateur surgery." Caroline smirked.
"Alright, Dr. Death, calm down." Preston said.
"Which means Stefan's humanity is a thing of the past." Enzo stood up from the seat.
"Like I said, I will stop at nothing to maintain my routine. So I suggest that the both of you stay away. Now, if you don't mind. I need to prepare for my audition." Caroline told them, walking away, leaving the bar.
Enzo looked at Preston.
"No." She said, knowing what he was thinking.
"He could help."
"Have I ever mentioned that Alaric fucking Saltzman killed me? Multiple times." Preston said.
"Preston..."
"I'm a hunter—"
"A hunter who cares about Caroline." Enzo replied.
"I'll kill Stefan no problem. I could put him in the cage in Hell." Preston suggested.
—
Unfortunately, they did end up seeing Alaric. Enzo knocked on the door, walking in.
"What are you two doing here?" Alaric questioned.
"Hoping you've got enough vervain to get Blondie and her cohort to the Salvatore cellar without further drama." Enzo answered.
"You do realise I'm a human, right? Up against two vampires without remorse?" Alaric replied.
"If you don't help, Stefan and Caroline will be the least of your problems." Preston threatened.
"I see. Your girl's got a bun in the oven and now you've gone all gun-shy. Vamp hearing." Enzo realised.
"You know, I'd actually like my child to grow up with a father." Alaric said.
"Yeah, granted, a cowardly father. Probably play catch and run from the ball. Or go fishing and flee from the fish." Enzo sassed.
"I have weapons in my apartment." Alaric told him.
Time passed and the trio got their weapons and headed to the college. Preston stuck with her usual weaponry: knife and gun.
"There you are. Definite role model material." Enzo said, referring to Alaric.
"Damon really spent five years in a cell with you without killing himself? And you managed to have a kid with a woman who actually cared about you?" Alaric questioned.
"Ah, a fellow smartass. I can see why you're his drinking buddy. But you're gonna have to knock off the hard stuff while you're breast-feeding, mate." Enzo smirked.
"What are you even doing here? I thought you hated Stefan." Alaric turned around.
"Yeah, I do. In fact I have a whole elaborate revenge scheme against him. But unfortunately, in order to truly hurt someone, they have to care." Enzo responded.
"You want Stefan's humanity back to remind him of how much you two hate each other?" Alaric asked.
"Games are more fun with two players."
"You know, last night an innocent girl had an involuntary splenectomy because you brought her into your life. Now, if that is your idea of fun, you need to take a long look in the mirror, pal." Alaric told Enzo.
Preston felt one of her fingers start to bleed, so she wiped it quickly.
"And what? Reevaluate my flippant disregard for human life?"
"No, just confront your deep, obvious loneliness." Alaric smirked.
"I'm not lonely. I've got my daughter. But yeah, I'm just a sad nobody up to no good, while you're at home ticking off your life milestones. Girl, kid, death. Sounds lovely." Enzo listed as Alaric started to walk away.
The three of them snuck around with their weapons and Alaric saw a bottle drop. "Uh, Enzo, Preston?"
Enzo and Preston furrowed their brows. That's when the father-daughter duo realised what it was. "Bollocks." Enzo whispered, quickly trying to move Preston out of the way, but it didn't really work.
—
Eventually, they all woke up. Enzo had visited the hospital, and Preston chose to go with him. But instead she found Jo on her break. Jo furrowed her brows when she saw the girl with cuts on her face after she had tried to patch Alaric up. Then Jo saw the massive bloodstain in Preston's jeans.
"Where—"
"I have to keep telling people this, but I'm a witch. Long story short, Chuck or God, wanted to make my life miserable because of family issues, and since I'm the only witch in the family, he made it so whenever you or Kai gets hurt, I get hurt." Preston said.
Jo sat down beside Preston on the couch in the waiting room. Preston recalled one of her visions she had from long ago. The one where she saw a group of kids from the future, and she remembered two girls. One with brown hair, the other with blonde hair, then she remembered Enzo bringing up the fact that Jo was pregnant.
"What's going on in that brain of yours?" Jo wondered.
"I don't— I don't actually know." Preston lied.
Preston trying not to say anything to Jo even though she kind of knows what's gonna happen-
Okay, bye!