CHAPTER 49: BRINGING OUT THE DEAD
The Gilbert House
After the interesting day with Bonnie's mother and Klaus being an ass, Natalie and Elena still weren't too happy with each other. They managed to be in the same room without yelling at one another, but they still felt the urge to have their fist planted on their twin's face. And Alaric was noticing the tension between them, and he would have done something about it if he wasn't so damn hungover.
"Morning." Elena greeted him as he walked into the room.
Alaric rubbed his eyes before looking at the counter, only to find that what he was looking for wasn't there. "Thought we had aspirin."
"They're in the vitamins." the doppelganger informed him before looking down at her empty cup of coffee, debating whether or not it would be a good idea to take another cup.
And as Elena was doing that, Natalie's gaze went to an empty bottle whiskey and a glass standing nearby. Adding that with the fact that Alaric seemed totally hungover, she kinda put two and two together. "So... how hungover are you?"
Alaric cringed at the question, knowing that no daughter should ask her father that, but he answered nonetheless, although keeping it cryptic. "Yeah, sorry about that. It was a bit of a weird night."
"I told you you don't have to feel guilty about inviting Meredith over here." Elena told him, knowing that he still had issues with moving on from Jenna, even if her death had been a while ago. But he was never the best at moving on, seeing as he spent two years searching for Isobel before he finally took a chance on the late strawberry blonde.
"But you should feel guilty that I didn't even know anything was going on between you and Meredith before, like, thirty minutes ago when Damon texted me, asking about your dirty, little doctor." Natalie shuddered at the end of her statement, not wanting to imagine her dad in any compromising positions.
"Oh, I know," the vampire hunter (semi-retired) said to his daughter, feeling the guilt of not having told her about his knew love interest. "But I do feel guilty for whiskey dialing her at two in the a.m."
"Oh, no you didn't." the youngest in the room groaned, burying her head in her hands in embarrassment for him, although he wasn't always the smoothest, he was never really did stupid stuff like that before. Mostly because he hadn't had many girlfriends in his adult life (two, to be exact).
"Oh, yes I did."
Elena then decided to be the only one to not be buried in awkward surrounding them to find out what actually happened. "Oh, was she cool about it?"
Alaric once again cringed at himself, making Natalie realized that the answer wasn't really good. "Well, as soon as these aspirin kick in and I remember the conversation, I'll let you know."
Elena nodded sheepishly as the doorbell rang, confusing the people inside as most people were kinda scared of going to the Gilberts as a fair share of people thought the remaining had probably lost it and they didn't want to put their sanity to the test. But they figured it was either a Salvatore, a Forbes, a witch or a hybrid.
They were right, of course, as when they opened the door, they saw Sheriff Liz Forbes outside, holding something behind her back, but she was probably going to show it to them soon enough. "This is an unconventional conversation we're about to have. So I hope you'll protect me on it."
"Of course." Alaric answered, being their guardian and the person that was supposed to be responsible for them, although the first thing was kinda the second thing but that doesn't matter.
"I assume you all heard our medical examiner was murdered the night of the Wickery Bridge fundraiser." Liz said, looking between them, waiting for their answers.
"Yeah. Brian Walters. Why?"
The sheriff brought the thing she had hidden behind her back, showing them a stake that she had in an evidence bag. "We've been investigating. Someone drove this stake through his heart."
Natalie was handed the bag and studied it, as it seemed pretty familiar. But then it hit her why it was familiar; because it was hers. "This is one of ours. More specifically one that my dad and I brought when we came to town."
"That's why I'm here. I haven't told anyone but forensics ran it for prints and found only one clean set." Liz said, but then her gaze went straight to the dangerous brunette known as Natalie Saltzman. "Yours."
"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."
▹▹▹
The Woods
After Damon sending her a cryptic message about them going for a stroll in the woods (she brought a weapon because if a Salvatore invited you into the woods, you should totally be prepared) she met up with him, explaining the whole thing about fingerprints and murders, but it was Damon she was talking about, so the response would be overly Damon-ish.
"So you're the prime suspect, huh?" he smirked at the shorter girl, who rolled her eyes at his attitude.
"Shut up, asshole," she smacked his chest at his attempt to make a real joke out of the situation. "And no, she doesn't think I did. They're just trying to figure out why anyone would want to use my dad and I's weapons to kill the medical examiner. And that anyone isn't me."
"Well, why don't you just ask Ric if his dirty little doctor had access to the weapons." he once again let his signature smirk out as he reused the nickname he already used on her about the founding family member.
"First of all, you're a dick. Second of all, yes, I asked, although not in those words." she responded with a shrug, although she didn't give him a real answer, which he noticed.
"I'm just sayin' first suspects usually the right one. Don't get so defensive."
Natalie rolled his eyes as him stupidly trying to justify his snap judgement on the doctor. "She didn't kill him. I refuse to believe that my dad is incapable of finding a woman who doesn't have anything to do with the supernatural. Plus, my mom had more than enough homicidal tendencies to last him a lifetime, he doesn't any more."
"Who else knows about your secret little slayer stash?" Damon then asked, putting his detective brain on as he wanted to figure out who was killing people in Mystic Falls, that was supposed to be his job.
"It's not much of a secret. It's everywhere, a lot people could have stumbled up on it. That's why I always tell him to be more cautious, but does he listen to me? No." she rambled in a short rant-ish rant, making Damon shake his head in amusement at the huntress.
"It's Klaus. It has to be, he's screwing with us." the vampire finally decided, that being the most probable conclusion he could come up with as the hybrid loved screwing with them.
"It could be Stefan too," Natalie pointed out, making him nod in agreement. "He's really unpredictable lately." Those words brought her back to him telling her that she deserved better, only a few weeks after he basically told her that he didn't care what happened to her.
"Ah, make's me nostalgic for the time when Stefan was a bunny snacking pacifist." the raven-haired male sighed in fake nostalgia, annoying Natalie as usual. But it wasn't really real annoyance, it was more of a friendship annoyance, which is a whole different deal.
"I always liked him like that." she reminded him that not everyone was against the person he was before he left Mystic Falls, because even though Damon never really liked his peaceful ways, Natalie always found this kind of comfort in it. Like, opposites as she was always for doing things the tough way and kicking some ass, Stefan was all for keeping it from getting that far. And that was one of the reasons she fell in love with him.
"Of course you did." Damon teased her, being well-aware of what was happening with his brother and best friend, and he couldn't say he was too much against it as it kept making him think that he didn't have to feel so guilty about his feelings for Elena, but he still was.
Natalie sighed awkwardly, suddenly becoming very interested with the ground before asking the real question she'd been wondering. "Where are we even going?"
"Tea with an old friend." he answered vaguely, only for Natalie to quickly get her answer when a vampire quickly sped to stand in front of them.
"Oh my god, hi!" Natalie greeted, a large smile on her face at the familiar man in front of her. Of course, they didn't get to do so much bonding before he was gone, but out of everyone in his family, he was probably her favorite. Unexpectedly for all them, she walked forth an wrapped her arms around his neck in a friendly embrace that surprised even herself. She didn't start talking again before she pulled away though, and he returned the smile she had already given him. "Your hair looks great, to be honest."
"Thank you, Natalia. Always a pleasure to see you." Elijah greeted his old friend, amused at her surprising actions.
"Elijah. My favorite Original, back from the dead. Clean up nice." Damon interrupted their moment with as much of a compliment as he had ever been able to give.
The original straightened himself up and let his smile fade, pulling something out of his jacket pocket as he looked at the much younger vampire, who was most likely getting ready for some snarky response. "You left something in my jacket pocket."
Damon nodded in recognition of the fact, remembering quite clearly what he did and roughly what he wrote. "Oh, yeah. "Dear Elijah, let's get together, plot the destruction of your brother, XOXO"."
"Gossip Girl," Natalie finished with a giggle at her own joke, only to get not-too-amused looks back from the dark haired vampires. "Just me? Okay..."
"Was I right to undagger you or are we gonna have a problem?" Damon asked the original, ignoring Natalie's wrongly timed comments.
"I'm here, let's talk."
▹▹▹
Mystic Falls Hospital
After that fun reunion, Natalie joined Caroline at the hospital for two reasons.
1. To make sure that her dad's new doctor girlfriend wasn't a complete nutjob
2. To be there waiting for her best friend as moral support as she was talking about her newly injured father (wolf Tyler wasn't the nicest to the people who tortured his girlfriend.)
Turned out that the conversation would be very quick as sending the blond to get some information about the doctor whilst asking about her father was a very nice strategy that Caroline suggested, and Natalie agreed with.
"Well, that was fast." Natalie commented as the vampire walked up her with a smile.
Caroline nodded in agreement as she grabbed her phone out of her purse to dial her father's number as she spoke. "Yeah, he's not here. He was already discharged. And she seems perfectly nice by the way... a little intense, maybe. But... I think it's sweet, you wanna make sure Alaric's not dating a total psycho."
"He's my dad," Natalie shrugged as if that everything would make sense because of that, and she knew her best friend understood because she heard that she saved him from Damon whilst Natalie herself was stuck in Chicago with a few good-looking vampires. "I have to look out for him, he always did it for me so I have to return the favor."
Caroline (who had her phone up against her ear) suddenly lowered her hand to be falling down on her side as her heightened hearing picked up a very familiar ringtone. "I hear it."
"Hear what?
"My dad's phone." she answered before walking in a quick pace, but making sure she wasn't using any of those vampire powers to get there faster because she knew that if she'd find something bad she'd have to have Natalie there, so she had to let her keep up.
They quickly found themselves in the medical supply room, trying to navigate between the shelves. Once the pair finally tracked the sound of the phone down they didn't find a pleasant sight. William Forbes' bloody body was leaned against a shelf as a knife was sticking out of his chest. Caroline's eyes widened at the sight, rushing over to him frantically before pulling the knife out. "Dad! Dad? Don't be dead, don't be dead, don't be dead! Oh my god! Daddy!"
Natalie (who was previously just staring at the scene with wide eyes) rushed to wrap her arms around the panicking and crying blonde as her gaze went to the knife before remembering faintly hearing something about Meredith Fell injecting him with Damon's stolen blood to heal him. "Caroline, shh, it's okay. But remember... he had vampire blood in his system."
And as Caroline was letting a wondering noise out, the man woke up with a gasp, making the girls jump in surprise.
▹▹▹
As Caroline and her father was having a heart-felt conversation about the subject of vampirism, Natalie was given the task to call the sheriff with the news of her daughter's father and her own ex-husband's death, only for supernatural causes to bring him back. Once she was done, she knew that Caroline wouldn't even be asking what happened because she'd be too freaked out about the circumstances.
"I called your mom." she informed the blond as she walked into the room they were "given" to keep the transitioning vampire in.
"Thanks." the vampire smiled at her friend shortly before turning over to stare at her father sadly.
Natalie's gaze went to the older man, who was looking at her as if he was expecting questions from her as the last time they met, she wasn't all that shy about asking questions about what he thought about the sire-bond. "Did you see your attacker?"
He shrugged, not really being able to give any useful information on the subject. "I didn't see anything. Tried to sneak out the back exit and someone came up from behind."
But Caroline didn't have the time to look for the person who killed her dad, she just wanted him to live for now, because she loved him and he was trying to make things right. "Look, we'll figure this out, but in the mean time we need to get you some blood."
"I'm not going to drink any blood."
"You kinda have to. You need to drink human blood to complete the transition, without it, you'll die." Natalie explained, thinking that he'd never leave his daughter behind now, but she didn't know what it meant for someone who had spent their lives fighting against something only to become the same thing you fought.
"I understand how it works. And that's what I'm prepared to do. Now get me out of this hospital. I smell blood everywhere."
▹▹▹
The Forbes House
After Elena came to pick some evidence from the crime scene up so she could look at it with Alaric to see if it was comparable to their other weapons, Natalie and Caroline made their way to the blond's house with the transitional vampire so that he could go in the way that he wanted, making peace and being comfortable in a place he once called home.
The two girls sat on the porch silently as the sheriff and her ex-husband spoke inside the house. Natalie turned to her saddened best friend to ask a question about something, or rather someone, who had been gone since he attacked her father. "Have you heard from Tyler yet?"
"No. And I've left messages for him everywhere," the vampire responded, but feeling very uncomfortable with talking about her boyfriend who she felt like abandoned her in a time of need. "So, does Alaric really think that Dr. Fell did it?"
"I don't really know what he thinks. I don't think he does either." she shrugged, her gaze travelling to the ground at the thought of more things that would bring the person in the world she loved the most down, her father.
Caroline nodded, but looking distracted as she stared at her best friend's facial expression and noticing that she clearly felt things about this, but didn't feel like she could talk about it. But real best friend were there so that you could, and they would never judge you. Natalie was her best and more open self after Caroline came into the picture. The Natalie that was now sitting by her was only there because of her. There was no Natalie without Caroline. "What about you?"
The brunette frowned in surprise at getting asked this particular question, thinking that her opinion would easily be ignored because she wasn't the person that would be most affected by this, even if the way that her father felt influenced her, even if it was something she didn't notice. "I think... that he doesn't deserve any of this. You know, every woman he ever loved has been stuck in the middle of the supernatural and now the girl he likes is a possible murderer. I wish that for once, he could just be happy."
The blonde vampire sighed as her hand went to grab the slightly older female's so they'd both get the support they both needed at the moment. "My mom's in there sitting with my dad. And I don't think they've been in the same room this long since I was ten years old. Is there any chance that Tyler did it? If Klaus was trying to mess with you and he's sired to Klaus. And, I mean, he does everything that he's told."
"He would never. Besides, I'm not sure if Klaus would go as far as to be the reason for the death of a person someone he knows cares about, even if only slightly. He knows that feeling too well." Natalie answered, as Klaus killed his mother and Natalia and it broke his siblings, and after the things he heard that he said to Caroline, she knew he wasn't about to go out of his way to make her life miserable at first.
"I can't just let my father die. You know, I'm...I'm gonna force him to feed." the female vampire finally decided, not wanting to lose her father, not even after everything that happened.
Natalie, however, just squeezed her hand as she knew that it wasn't the blond's place to take that choice away from someone, not even her own father. "You can't do that, Caroline. You didn't get a choice, neither did Stefan or Damon or any of the vampires we know, do you really want to take that away from your own father?"
At this, the tears finally welled up in Caroline's eyes at the thought of this becoming real and if she was going to be the good person that he raised her to be, she wouldn't have any way of stopping it. "I hated him so much for what he did to me. So much. Now all I want to do is save his life."
"Well, he's your dad, he raised you. You'll always want to protect him. He was there through every aspect of your childhood, sticking with you when things got rough and protecting you, you want to do the same thing." Natalie sighed, knowing exactly how she felt as this whole statement could very well apply to her relationship with her late mother if you switched "he/him" to "she/her".
"What was the hardest part for you? Losing a parent?" Caroline asked, wanting to prepare herself for the way that it would feel when he was finally gone and it would really hit her.
"There was a time, as you know, when my mom was dead to me, and to everyone because that's what we thought she was. But then she came back and I tried to tell myself to hate her, but I couldn't. And when she died it hit me. Hard. I remember telling Elena that there was only one person that could hurt you over and over and you'd still love them, your mom. But I was wrong. Your dad has that impact on you too. And I think the hardest part was knowing that I'd never see her again, even though I knew the probability was low, now it was confirmed." she explained, and seeing Caroline only getting sadder at her explanation, she scooted closer to the blonde as she wrapped her arm around her shoulders as the vampire leaned her head on her best friend's shoulder as a lone tear was allowed down her cheek.
But then, the moment was interrupted by someone walking up to them. He had heard the news about what had happened, since Natalie texted him, and even though him and Caroline were broken up, didn't mean that he cared for her any less. "Hey." Matt said.
"Hey." Caroline responded, lifting her head from the other female's shoulder to look up at her ex-boyfriend. She finally got up to walk straight into his arms, and when he finally wrapped his arms around her back, she let the tears roll down her cheeks as she cried onto his shoulder.
▹▹▹
The Gilbert House
After Caroline told them that she needed to say goodbye to her father, Matt volunteered to walk Natalie home as he knew that it probably wasn't the best experience to relive something that seemed way to much like her own relationship with her mother, and it's very similar end.
"Thanks for walking me home." Natalie showed her gratitude for the blond boy's kindness as she sent him a small smile.
He didn't bother to say that you're welcome as he would rather find out how she felt about this whole ordeal. "Are you doing okay? This has to bring up a lot for you."
"I'm fine, Matt. I'm not the person in the world who has lost the most, and I'm not gonna pretend that I am." she shook her head with a shrug, trying to act as if she was perfectly fine with the way things in her life was playing out.
"It's this town, it's messed up. None of us should have to live this way." the Donovan boy shook his head at seeing one of the only humans left of his friend (because, technically, she was only a supernatural adjacent) suppressing her sadness because even all that she had lost was not the most that the someone had lost in that godforsaken town.
Natalie hummed in agreement as she opened the door to go inside, and there she found her sister hanging her jacket on a coat rack, she didn't know where she'd been, and if she was being honest, she didn't really want to know. "Elena? When'd you get home?"
"A minute ago," Elena shrugged before smiling at Matt in greeting before turning to flick the light switch, only to find the light wasn't getting lighting up. "That's weird."
"Electricity must be out." Matt shrugged as he started following the doppelganger into the kitchen, where she was looking for a flashlight, making Natalie follow them too.
Elena finally found two flashlights, handing one of them to Matt and keeping another for herself. "Here. I think I have some candles over there." She walked over to another part of the kitchen to search for those candles when she found something she didn't expect. A puddle of blood. "Oh my god!"
"What the hell?" Matt asked as Natalie walked up next to him, repeating the same words he said, just a little louder, and more panicked.
Natalie grabbed Matt's wrist to guide the light coming from the flashlight into the hallway, where they only found more blood, only this time it was in the form of bloody hand prints. She exchanged looks with her male friend before grabbed a knife each and they started following the trail of blood that was leading them up the stairs with Elena following closely behind. But when they actually got up, it was even worse than they knew. Alaric was lying there, in a pool of his own blood as he was trying his best to fight for his own survival as a knife was planted in his stomach.
"Oh my god, Dad!" Natalie exclaimed, rushing towards her father faster than she could ever remember rushing towards anyone. Elena followed behind her as well, but she was trying to do something about it as, unlike Natalie, she wasn't trying to keep herself from having a complete break-down, so she was about to pull the knife out. "Don't- Don't do that. He's lost too much blood." the younger twin stuttered as she tried to steady her breathing.
"I'm gonna call 911." Matt told the girls as he looked at his favorite teacher lying on the floor, dying, and he needed something to be done about this. Not for himself, not even for Alaric, but for Natalie as he knew that losing her dad could be the last straw for her, and she could finally have that melt-down that would have been expected of her a long time ago.
Elena grabbed Alaric's face as he looked at her with clouded eyes, almost as if he wasn't there anymore, but he was. "Ric, look at me. Who did this to you?"
"I don't know."
"Oh my God, there's a lot of blood, Matt!" the doppelganger exclaimed to her friend who was trying to get a hold of the emergency number so that this could all be fixed as quickly as possible, but he wasn't sure if that would happen.
She froze for a moment as she heard a rapid change in her guardian's breathing and as he was beginning to talk, she knew that it was probably really important for her to listen. "You have to kill me. Elena, you- you have to kill me."
The doppelganger's eyes widened at the sound of this, not ever thinking about killing him, but then the realization came to her as he picked his hand up and noticing that the Gilbert resurrection ring was still on his finger. "Wait, wait, wait, Matt, hang up, hang up. He's right. If he dies a supernatural death, then he'll come back to life and he'll be healed."
"But, how do you know who did this is supernatural?" Matt broke in as he complied to his ex-girlfriend's wishes and hung up, but he still wasn't too sure of where this was going.
Elena sighed, picking up one of the knives that Matt and Natalie brought upstairs with them and bringing it to right over Alaric's chest. "That's what he's saying, we don't but...I'm the doppelgänger.That makes me supernatural."
"Elena, stop!" Natalie finally exclaimed, completely wide eyes at seeing her twin sister holding a knife over her father's chest, ready to kill him. She knew that a lot of stuff had happened in their family, but this was pushing it. "This is messed up! Even for us!"
"He's dying, Natalie!" Elena snapped, shoving the knife into Alaric's chest as Natalie let out a sob at the sight of another one of her father's deaths.
▹▹▹
After a few minutes of Alaric being dead (and Natalie not even taking her gaze off of him), Matt walked back to the scene as Elena spoke with Sheriff Forbes on the phone to discuss Meredith and how they knew that she wasn't responsible for this, and she did have an iron-tight alibi.
"He's still out?" he asked, placing himself on his knees next to the girl who didn't even glance up at him as he spoke.
"Yeah," Natalie responded monotonously before she finally tore her gaze away from her father's dead body and looked her friend in the eyes. "Will you stay, please? Just until he wakes up?"
"Of course." Matt responded, giving her a reassuring smile that for some reason only sparked tears in her eyes. The reason was actually the sympathy he was showing her, assuring her that this wasn't just some messed up dream, this was a messed up reality.
"I'm sorry for coming off so needy, I just... I don't wanna lose anyone else. Especially not him. God, I don't know what I'd do if I ever lost him." she said as the though of her father, the one person in this world who had been there with her through everything, being gone, deceased, was enough to make her want to curl up into a ball and stay like that for hours, but she just let a lone tear fall down her face as Matt wrapped his arm around her shoulder and she allowed herself to lean into his chest for comfort.
▹▹▹
The Mystic Grill
After what happened with her father, after he woke up, she allowed herself to get out of that house of an hour just to get her mind off of it, so she went to the only place people seem to go during anything at all in Mystic Falls, The Grill.
Once she was there, she just sat at a table, sipping her coke because the bartender refused to serve her alcohol because she wasn't old enough, but she'd object, she was born over a thousand years ago, thank you very much. But after a while of actually being there, she started to notice the feeling of being watched. It was almost kind of familiar, like a melody stuck in your head but you just can't figure out which song it is.
So, after a while, she just decided to leave to get that weird feeling out, and Alaric, Matt and Elena might have finished cleaning the blood off of everywhere, so it was about time to return.
But once she was actually outside, she heard footsteps behind her, and finally, she pulled out a knife and turned around to face the stalker with an intimidating look and a knife. "What the hell do you want?"
"Relax, darling," a voice said from right in front of her, where a handsome man was smirking at her. He seemed very familiar, she just couldn't see from where. "I just couldn't help myself from noticing how ravishing you look tonight."
"And I couldn't help myself from noticing how creepy you act tonight, mysterious stalker," Natalie retorted with a sarcastic grimace as the man's smirk only grew more. "Now, I'm gonna ask again, what the hell do you want?"
"You." he simply answered, as if the answer was the most obvious thing in the whole entire world. He waiting too long the last time, she even had time to die, but this time, he would not make the same mistake.
"Well, let me know how that works out for you." she scrunched her nose up at him with a sarcastic tone of voice, which he naturally chose to ignore.
"You definitely will." he responded, no trace of sarcasm or joke in his voice or face as he looked down on her, making her actually study his features for the first time after those two minutes of him creeping her out.
She noticed the way his facial features reminded her a lot of someone she already knew, but then she noticed the way that the face was an exact replica of the face in the coffin she looked at as Stefan confronted Bonnie about telling her and Elena about the coffins. "Well, I guess I'll see you around, Original Boy."
He frowned in surprise at her actually being able to see who he was after he was told that she had no memories of her past life, which, of course, made him feel very obligated to going on a murder spree. "I'm Kol."
"I have suspicion you already know my name." she smirked before turning around and walking away.
So this was the Original that wanted to be more than friends.
▹▹▹
A/N: I'm sorry for not updating in 5 billion years but I have no real excuse other than me being a lazy bitch. But next chapter is chapter 50, and my favorite episode, so it'll be as amazing as I can make it. So, a lot of people probably guessed that Kol/Natalie would happen, to which you were correct. YAY, YOU! But now, I'm probably going to have to argue with some people about that choice, so I'm just gonna shut that down right now with reasons why I chose this.
1. miikaelson (aka the captain of the Katalie ship) would seriously find me and kill me if I suddenly decided to make this not happen.
2. I did think about making Klaus her other love interest, but then it'd have to replace Klaroline and one of my favorite Klaroline scenes happen at the same time as a huge turning point that was not originally in the show, but is all Natalie (spoilers galore).
3. Kol doesn't have a love interest in TVD, since his first love interest is in TO (Kolvina forever omf), so I'll be able to write this whole new relationship with him where you guys can't just know all the time what will happen because it's the same as another relationship. Also, I really like creating this as something on my own.
4. To the people who will be all like "But this is a Stefan fic, you can't have more love interests, blah, blah, blah", I'm gonna tell you something; Katalie will cause progression in Statalie (which will make you guys very happy, I promise, I love it).
Votes and comments are greatly appreciated.