"Jeremy! We're gonna be late!" I called up the stairs to Jeremy, hoping he would hurry down so we could leave for school.
"He down yet?" Elena asked coming up behind me to the front door.
"No," I sighed.
Jenna scrambled toward us, Elena's thermos in hand. She smiled as she held it out to her.
"Forgot this," she said.
"Thanks," Elena took it. She looked to me. "Let's just wait for him in the car."
"Alright," I shrugged, moving away from the bottom of the stairs.
Elena opened the door and started out, only to stop short to avoid bumping in to someone. And that someone was...
"Uncle John?" I said surprised.
He smiled upon seeing us, lowering the hand he was most likely going to knock with.
"Samantha! Elena!" he greeted us.
Elena's face had morphed from "looking forward to the day" to forced happiness.
"Uncle John," she greeted with an unenthusiastic, fake smile. "Hi."
To be perfectly honest, Uncle John...was not the most popular character around. As Dad's only brother, he was always welcome around as family, but neither Dad or Mom ever seemed all too thrilled to see him- similar to my siblings and Aunt Jenna.
And why wouldn't they? Whenever he was around, he often talked down to people and made them feel lesser and frequently criticized people, whether it was subtle or direct.
However, with me he was a bit more complicated. Of course he was still critical and controlling with me like he was with anyone else, but it was never quite to the extent of others and there was always something underlying it. Almost as if he was...afraid of being too rude or pushing me too hard. Like he thought I was glass that would break with too harsh a comment.
It was weird to say the least.
Uncle John then looked to Jenna, who was still behind Elena and me.
"Jenna," he greeted.
"John, you made it," she said with obvious distaste.
"I said I'd be in by noon," he reminded as he entered the house, swiftly walking past Elena who gave me an annoyed eye roll.
"Oh, what you say and what you do are typically two very different things," Jenna said with a slight glare at his back.
Jeremy descended down the stairs then, frown growing on his face when he saw who was here.
"Uncle John, what's up?" he greeted, also none to pleased.
See? Not the most popular guy.
"Hey," Uncle John greeted Jeremy.
Jeremy merely slapped his shoulder in greeting before passing by, walking out the door without a glance back. I followed quickly after him, saying a quick 'see ya later' to Uncle John.
"Jer!" I called after him.
Jeremy stopped halfway to the car before looking back.
"What?" he answered, sounding the slightest bit annoyed.
"I wanted to talk to you," I said a bit taken aback by his tone.
"About what? Vicki? I'm fine, don't worry."
"It's not just about that," I told him, stopping him as he turned back to walk to the car. "It's...about Anna too."
He froze and looked at me weirdly.
"What about Anna?"
Before I could respond, Elena breezed up to us and urged us to hurry to the car. Jeremy sent me one last strange look before following her.
I decided last night. I was tired of the lies, I couldn't take it anymore. It wasn't right and it wasn't fair. So...I needed to tell Jeremy the truth. At least part of it.
~~~~~
"So you want to tell Jeremy the truth?" Chastity asked as she and I walked together through the halls. "About time."
"I'm tired of lying to him," I sighed. "It's too dangerous and he deserves to know so he can make decisions for himself. Especially when it comes to Anna."
"But didn't you say you had a feeling he already knew about her?"
"Yeah, but something tells me she didn't exactly tell him everything- including the part where she used him as leverage to free her mother," I replied. "I mean, I understand she was desperate to get her mother back. Truth be told, I probably would have done anything to get Elena or Jeremy back if they were locked in the tomb but..."
I trailed off. But what? I wasn't any different. If Anna was concealing the truth from Jeremy, it was most likely to protect him. Didn't that sound familiar?
"Having second thoughts?" Chastity asked then.
"No," I shook my head. "Jeremy still deserves to know. We...lied to him about Vicki. Damon compelled him. Isn't that taking his choice away? And I went along with it..."
"Because you wanted to protect him," Chastity reminded me. "You wanted to protect him. You let it happen because...because it seemed like the safer option to hide the truth. Because you didn't think he'd understand or worse, he would think he did understand and he would draw the wrong conclusions, but you of all people know that sometimes...the truth is more dangerous than any lie."
I furrowed my eyebrows as she spoke. Something told me we weren't just talking about Jeremy anymore...
She sighed and shook her head.
"Tell him the truth. Even about me and Bonnie," she encouraged. "If you think that's the right thing to do."
I nodded, watching her suspiciously. Something was wrong with her. But what?
~~~~~
"Hey," Elena said entering my the next day. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Uh...of course," I replied. "What's up?"
She came over and sat on my bed across from me, clearly shaken.
"What's wrong?"
She took a breath.
"Something is wrong with Stefan," she informed me.
I tilted my head in confusion.
"What does that mean?"
She told me about the night before, they were talking in her room and eventually began a make-out session, which was interrupted when Stefan's fangs came out to play. He had thrown himself across her room against the wall with his face still morphed in to that of...well a vampire's.
"What did he say?" I asked when she finished.
"Nothing," she said. "I mean, he apologized and told me he loved me, but he left right after. No explanation whatsoever."
I furrowed my eyebrows in deeper confusion. That wasn't like Stefan at all. Sure, he had always had the lingering fear that he lose control and hurt Elena, but it had never been that bad. As far as I knew, he never...well vamped out with her. He was always in pretty good control of himself.
"Maybe...something you were talking about distracted him," I suggested.
Although she hadn't told me what they were discussing, I didn't want to pry and find out. If she wanted me to know, she would have told me.
"We...I don't think so," she shook her head. "We were talking about...Jeremy."
I immediately straightened up.
"What about Jeremy?"
She opened her mouth to reply, but got cut off by the doorbell. She winced.
"I forgot to mention I resorted to desperate measures for this whole Stefan thing," she said.
She led the way down the stairs to the front door, which she opened to reveal a smirking Damon. I stared in surprise.
"You called him?" I asked my sister.
"You ask, I come. I'm easy like that," he said stepping past Elena in to the house.
I'm sure, I thought shaking my head with the tiniest smile at him.
Elena shushed Damon, gesturing to Jeremy sitting in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal. Now would have been the perfect opportunity for me to talk to him, but now Damon was here and there was a small Stefan issue that needed to be handled.
"Let's go to my room," I whispered to Damon and Elena.
Elena was the first to go up while I led Damon, but he stopped in front of the stairs and looked over at Jeremy.
"No, Sam, I will not go to your bedroom with you," he dramatically said loudly.
I rolled my eyes.
"Elena is going to be in there too," I said just as loud so Jeremy wouldn't try to kill him.
Let's just say my brother could be a little protective when it came to certain types of guys and me.
"Threesome? I didn't know you were in to that stuff," Damon smirked back.
I gaped at him and felt my cheeks heat up.
"You..."
"But to be perfectly honest, I would much prefer it if we didn't have any company," he winked.
I rolled my eyes then and turned my back on him, continuing up the stairs.
"Pervert," I muttered, hearing him chuckle as he followed me up.
Damon let out a sigh upon entering my room and looked around with a smile.
"Just like I remember," he said.
"Stop messing around," Elena ordered, sounding and looking annoyed.
"You've never been in here," I pointed out.
Damon made a face suggesting otherwise and simply shrugged before walking over to my bed and plopping down, picking up the stuffed puppy and holding it to his chest. Despite the fact that my bed was queen sized, Damon's feet would have easily hung over the end of the bed, had he not been sitting up halfway against the headboard.
"Did you two know that your uncle's been kicking it with the Founder's Council?" he asked after making himself at home.
"Wait what?" I said. "Uncle John...knows about vampires?"
I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise...
"Yep," Damon said, popping the 'p'.
"Perfect," Elena said sarcastically. "We'll just add it to the growing list of how everything is falling apart."
Damon squinted at Elena suspiciously then.
"What's up with you?" he asked. "I would expect a call from Sam, not you."
Elena shifted on her feet, placing herself at the foot of my bed. Her face was contorted with worry. What happened with Stefan the night before really bothered her...
"I'm worried about Stefan," she finally declared. "Hey says that everything's okay, but he's clearly struggling."
I watched Damon's face for a reaction and was surprised when I didn't get one. He didn't look the least bit surprised or disturbed.
"How long is it going to take before he's back to normal?" Elena asked.
"Few days, give or take," Damon replied easily.
"It's been a few days."
"Give then, I don't know."
Damon got off my bed and handed me my puppy as he walked by me toward my dresser.
"If he's struggling, we should help him," I said. "What can we do for him?"
"What's the big deal?" he asked me suspiciously. "Why so worried?"
"He's not himself, Damon," Elena answered.
"Well, maybe his problem is is he spent too long not being himself," Damon retorted as he started digging through my underwear drawer.
I sighed when he pulled out a lacy pink bra from Victoria's secret- Chastity's birthday gift to me- and walked over to him, snatching it out of his hand. I put the bra away and shut my drawer.
"You mean with the blood?" I questioned, ignoring the smirk he gave me. "He spent too long avoiding drinking human blood and now...now what?"
"Now he's struggling with blood lust because he didn't bother to control it before," Damon answered. "He spent too long trying to reign it in and fight his nature."
"He's not you," Elena snapped. "Not even close."
"Well he doesn't want to be me," Damon said not the least bit offended. "But that doesn't mean that deep down inside he's not."
He turned his head back to me and it was only then that I realized just how close he was to me. So close that I could feel his body heat radiating on to me. I could see every fleck, every shade of ice and sky blue decorating his eyes and I could see the reflection of my face staring back at me.
I let out a quiet breath I wasn't even aware that I had been holding when he stepped back. My body trembled with the loss of the warmth and my knees buckled, but thankfully didn't give. Elena looked at me, unhappiness clear on her face while I pretended not to notice.
How could someone have so much effect on another person?
~~~~~
I lay on my stomach on my bed, flipping to the next page of 1984 and taking mental notes for English.
I had just started on the next page when I was distracted by Jeremy knocking on the door.
"Hey," he greeted. "Can I...talk to you for second?"
"Yeah," I said sitting up on my bed to make room for him.
He came over and sat on the edge, looking at me with a small smile.
"Where'd you and Elena go off to anyway?" I asked curiously.
"Just went for a walk," he replied. "I uh...she told me."
I felt myself tense and I'm sure it showed.
"Elena...told you? Told you what?" I questioned.
Had she told him about Vicki? About vampires? That she had Damon compel him?
"About how she was adopted," he clarified.
I sighed softly.
"Oh," I said. "Is...that all she told you?"
"Well she also told me that you found out about yours."
I nodded. So she didn't tell him about...alright.
"How are you taking it?" I asked.
"I should be asking you that," he chuckled. "It took me by surprise, yeah, but..."
He seemed to struggle with his words and I looked at him curiously.
"But what?" I asked.
He sighed and smiled a little.
"I just...can't believe Mom and Dad never told you guys."
I gave him a small smile and put a hand on his shoulder.
"I get it," I told him. "They raised us, treated us like their own daughters, and...we are their daughters. It must have been hard to even think about how they would tell us. I know it was for Jenna. Sometimes...the truth is hard."
Boy, was it ever hard.
Jeremy smiled wider and wrapped his arms around me.
"Doesn't mean that you're not my baby sister," he chuckled. "My ridiculously short baby sister."
"Way to ruin a moment."
~~~~~
At the 150th Founder's Anniversary celebration, I stood between Jeremy and Aunt Jenna while Elena went up to Stefan, who was standing at the bar and was clearly not in a sober state of mind. I watched him carefully, noting that he really wasn't acting like himself at all. He was drunk, he was a little wobbly, and he was smirking in a way that made him look more like his brother than ever.
"Well this is a little concerning."
I flinched at the sound of said man's voice from beside me, wondering when Jeremy and Aunt Jenna had moved and he came. He watched with me as Stefan went up to the DJ and spoke to him.
"I thought you were the one who said that we shouldn't be worried," I said to Damon.
The song then switched from the classical tune that had people snoring to something uplifting and easy to dance to. Stefan went out to the dance floor and Kelly sauntered over to him, probably relieved about the change of music and thankful Stefan was responsible.
"That was before I entered an alternate universe where Stefan was fun," Damon replied to me.
Elena walked up to us, glancing back at Stefan dancing with Kelly every couple seconds or so, and leaned to Damon.
"Is he gonna be okay?" she asked him.
"Eventually," Damon shrugged. "One way or another."
That was comforting...
~~~~~
I was pulled suddenly from Tina Fell on to the dance floor, feeling myself be twirled first before I was pulled in to Stefan's arms. I let out a surprised, breathless gasp once I made eye contact with him.
"Hey stranger," I greeted with a smile.
"Hey yourself," he said. "Please dance with your sister's alcoholic vampire boyfriend?"
"I don't have much choice in the matter, do I?" I teased, gesturing to how I had already been pulled out to the dance floor.
"No you do not," he grinned, spinning us around again.
I laughed and Stefan twirled me, spinning me out and causing me to bump back in to someone.
I turned immediately with a gasp.
"Oh I'm so sorry," I apologized the guy. "That was totally my fault. I can be pretty clumsy."
It was a big quirk of mine. Honestly, I was amazed I could even have been a cheerleader. I never knew where I found that balance or where it went any other time.
The guy leered down at me. "Then get off the dance floor."
My face dropped at his reply. Alright, there was no need to be so rude.
Suddenly Stefan stepped beside me, glaring at the guy.
"That's no way to talk to a lady," he scolded darkly.
The guy scoffed, "Whatever."
He turned to walk away, but Stefan seized his arm tightly. I jumped at how hard he yanked him back.
"You need to apologize," Stefan said in the tell-tale mesmerizing tone of compulsion.
The guy looked at me, his face expressionless.
"I'm sorry," he said flatly and robotically.
"It's okay," I told him. I looked to Stefan. "It's okay."
Stefan pressed his lips together and nodded shortly, releasing the guy. He took one partial step before Stefan pulled him back again just as harshly as before.
"Stefan," I protested.
"Now say it like you mean it," he instructed the man.
Said man looked to me again and repeated his apology, adding 'really, really' to it but in the same tone as before.
"Now walk away," Stefan said, giving the man a shove.
I stared at him, stunned by his reaction. When he turned back to me, I gave him a small smile.
"You alright?" he asked concerned.
"Yeah," I assured him.
But was he?
~~~~~
Afterwards, I decided to find Damon and Elena. Since Elena would be a bit tricker to track down, I decided to find Damon first since I had a pretty good idea about where he was.
Sure enough, at the bar.
"So your brother's acting a bit...not like his usual self," I said as soon as I was at his side, referring to the fact that Stefan was compelling every other person he came across.
"Haven't noticed," Damon briskly said. "I've been too preoccupied with yours."
I jerked my eyes to his in alarm.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Jeremy's been asking questions about Vicki Donovan's death," he answered quietly.
"He was told it was an overdose," I replied before sighing. "I was afraid this would happen. She was buried."
"Exactly and who would do that, Sheriff?" he mocked Jeremy. He raised his hand and pointed to himself. "I know, I know! Me!"
He turned back to his drink and shrugged.
"I mean I could compel him, but he's wearing vervain," he added.
"No," I instantly said. "I don't even like that he was compelled in the first place."
"If he keeps asking questions..."
"Damon," I sighed. "I understand where Elena was coming from when she asked you to compel him, but honestly...I don't think it was the right thing to do. And I have been wrestling with myself every day since because I feel guilty about taking his choice from him. I can't keep lying to him anymore."
Damon eyed me for a moment.
"Are you willing to take that risk?" he asked. "There's no going back after that. Unless, of course, I compel him again."
I gave him a look and he shrugged.
"He deserves the truth," I said. "It's safer that way. Especially since Anna is still in town and he seems to really like her."
"Are you actually making an big, executive decision here without your sister's consent?" he teased as he reached over to the flower vase.
He pulled out the reddest rose of the bunch and twirled it in his fingers as he inhaled its scent.
"I'm gonna talk to her about it," I replied. "At some point."
"At some point before or after you talk to your brother?"
I didn't reply and he shrugged once more.
"If I do talk to him...tell him everything...would that be okay with you?"
"You're asking me?" he asked surprised.
"It's your secret. Yours and Stefan's."
He hummed.
"It's your choice," he said, handing me the rose. "If you trust him, I can try. But don't say I didn't warn you."
I slowly took the rose from him, holding it delicately in my hand. He stared at me for a bit longer before dropping his hand from the rose and leaving. I let out yet another breath of air I hadn't been aware I was holding.
~~~~~
I found Jeremy sitting by himself in one of the rooms, staring at the blazing fire in the fireplace.
"Hey," I greeted him.
"Hey," he responded without looking at me.
I stepped further in to the room, sitting slowly in the arm chair beside the sofa he was on.
"I uh...I heard you and the Sheriff had a talk about Vicki."
"Elena already covered it," he said, clearly bothered by whatever she said. "She thinks Vicki ODed. But...I feel like she knows something else and isn't saying anything to me."
He finally tore his eyes away from the fire and looked at me intently.
"What about you?" he asked. "What do you think?"
He was testing me. He already had an idea of what happened and he suspected Elena and I both knew, he just wanted to see if I would tell him the truth.
With a sigh, I decided to honor my word. Enough was enough.
"We should talk," I told him.
~~~~~
I told him everything. From the first attack on Vicki to everything happening now. He knew about Vicki being turned, her attacking him and Elena, Stefan killing her to save them, Damon compelling him so he wouldn't remember what happened, the tomb vampires, Chastity and Bonnie being witches, Isobel, Alaric, Anna, Pearl...Katherine and Elizabeth. Everything.
Once everything was out in the open, the sick knotted feeling left my stomach and weight lifted off my shoulders. I felt like I could really breathe, but there was still the anticipation of how he would react. Would he be angry at me for keeping this all from him for so long? For going so long knowing that Damon compelled his memories away?
He stayed quiet for so long with a blank look on his face as he stared down at the ground. I knew it was a lot to process, hell I was still processing a lot of it to this day.
Finally he looked up at me in anger.
"Elena lied to me," he stated. "She told me that if she knew anything else, she would tell me. She lied to me."
"Jeremy, she just wanted to protect you," I defended. "I know what she did was wrong, but she only did it because-"
"It was wrong because it wasn't her choice to make," he snapped. "It should have been mine. She took that from me. She lied to me about Vicki, she covered it up, and she-"
He stood up abruptly and stormed out. I immediately jumped up and rushed after him.
"Jeremy!" I called.
He breezed through the dance floor and I struggled through the crowds of people after him, stopping when I lost him in the front. I sighed in regret and looked at the people around me. They all were looking in one direction, so out of curiosity I followed their gazes.
I gasped at the sight. Shattered glass, a knocked over table, and Elena trying to clean up a bleeding Matt. Rushing over, I called to them.
"Elena!" I said. "Matt, what happened?"
"Sam," Elena said.
"I'm fine," Matt insisted as I scanned over his face.
"You're bleeding, you're not fine," I said finding a napkin and wiping some of the blood off his face gently.
"Considering what just happened, the blood is the last thing bothering me," he mumbled.
"Matt," I whispered. "What happened?"
Elena looked at me and I could tell by her face that whatever happened had something to do with Kelly. I let out a sigh and continued helping her clean Matt's face. I really hoped this time would be different with her.
~~~~~
"Mind if I steal you for a second."
It wasn't a question and Damon didn't even wait for a response before he steered me from the hall where I was waiting for Elena to return from grabbing her jacket so I could tell her about my talk with Jeremy. He led me in to the room where an audience of people stood before the mayor and Uncle John, who was preparing to ring the old bell brought in.
"What are we doing?" I asked.
Damon stopped us, putting me beside Alaric and placing his hands on his shoulder.
"I want you both to do me a favor," he said. "Look at him."
"Look at who exactly?" Alaric drawled.
"Town's favorite son. Notice the ring?"
I squinted and looked at my uncle's right hand where a familiar silver ring rested on his ring finger...
"Oh, that looks like mine," Alaric noticed, clearly not understanding where Damon was going.
"Yeah, and that would be a big coincidence if he didn't just come back from the dead five minutes ago," Damon whispered urgently.
"Came back from the- you-"
I didn't even finish my sentence. Of course Damon killed Uncle John. Uncle John was Uncle John and Damon was Damon. Impulsive and has no problems with killing people who piss him off, which Uncle John surely did. That didn't make it okay, however.
"Where the hell did you get that ring, Rick?" Damon asked.
"Isobel, my wife," Alaric answered.
"Isobel," I repeated. "As in...Elena's birth mother who...apparently gave birth to her under my Dad's medical care?"
"Their father, the esteemed Dr. Grayson Gilbert- John's brother?" Damon added.
"You think John knew Isobel?" Alaric asked, now as intrigued as I was.
"I think John knows a lot of things," Damon answered.
Great.
~~~~~
Third POV
After sending Sam home with Elena and Jenna, Alaric and Damon followed John outside to confront him after- of course- promising to tell Sam about the outcome and after Damon promised not to try to kill him again.
"Goin' somewhere? Hmm?" Damon asked John as soon as they were outside.
"Never like to be the last one to leave a party. It's too desperate," John replied haughtily. "You here to kill me again?"
He looked at Damon flatly.
"Or are you gonna let Mr. Saltzman do your dirty work?"
"Okay, you obviously know who I am," Alaric said when John looked at him.
They stopped, Alaric and Damon standing on either side of John while he stood with his hands in his pockets, feeling and looking completely unthreatened.
"I do," he confirmed. "Alaric Saltzman, the high school history teacher with a secret."
"Sure know a lot for someone who just got to town," Damon drawled while Alaric looked slightly taken aback that John knew who he was.
John smirked and stepped between the vampire and hunter/history teacher.
"More than you can imagine, Damon," he said, passing by the two. "My knowledge of this town goes beyond anything that you-" he looked from Damon to Alaric "-or you or the council knows. So if you were planning on some clever high-speed, snatch-ring, vamp kill move, know that if I die everything I know goes to the council. Including the fascinating little tale of the original Salvatore brothers and their present-day return to Mystic Falls."
While Damon stared in annoyed wonder at John, Alaric stepped forward and demanded, "How'd you get that ring?"
"I inherited one. My brother Gray, the other," he began, holding up his hand with the ring. "This is his. And I wouldn't have given mine to Isobel had I known she'd hand it over to another guy."
"So you did know her?" Damon smirked knowingly.
"Who do you think sent her your way when she wanted to become a vampire?" John retorted.
"You sent her?"
"Guilty," John cheekily said. "Why, did you think someone else sent her?"
Damon shrugged so John continued.
"Maybe Elizabeth Pierce?"
The name sent Damon reeling and instant hatred filled him, but he didn't show it.
"How do you know about Elizabeth?" Damon asked.
"How do I know anything, Damon?" John deflected.
"What do you want?"
"So many questions," John shook his head.
"And one more, if you know about Isobel then you know she's Elena's birth mother," Damon started.
John made a cocky face proving Damon right. "Your point?"
"She's only Elena's birth mother," Damon went on. "What about Sam?"
"What of her?"
"Who are her birth parents?"
John merely looked from Damon to Alaric.
"It was a pleasure meeting you, Rick. I heard a lot about you."
With that, he left the two men behind more confused and stunned than ever.
~~~~~
Sam's POV
Back at home, I made my way up to Jeremy's room to check on him. He was sitting at his desk, his back facing me, when I came to his room. I hesitated in the doorway.
"Jer," I called.
He whirled around in his chair and sighed.
"Hey," he greeted quietly.
"Are you...how are you?"
He looked down.
"Processing. Still," he said. "I read Elena's diary. Got everything from her perspective."
I looked at him in surprise. That was a total invasion of privacy, but...I understood why he did it.
"And?"
He looked back up at me.
"And I'm pissed," he admitted angrily. "I'm pissed she did this. I'm pissed she kept it from me and lied about it all. I'm pissed she covered up Vicki. I'm pissed at her and...you told me the truth, but I'm still pissed you kept it from me in the first place."
It hurt that he was so angry at me, but I completely deserved it. I lied to him and I hid things from him. I didn't blame him for being angry. That didn't make it hurt any less.
"What can I do?" I asked. "To make this better for you?"
"I just...I need time," he said. "Just give me time."
"Okay," I nodded. "Just...know that I really am sorry, Jeremy. For everything."
"Yeah," he sighed, sounding less angry. "I know you are, Sam."
Backing out of his room, I turned and walked toward mine. I wanted to tell Elena, let her know Jeremy knew everything, but I could hear Stefan and her talking in her room and decided to leave it for tomorrow.