𝐀𝐁𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 | 𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐄 [𝟑]

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

CHAPTER THIRTEEN | STAY 

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IT WAS A DAY OF CELEBRATION, EVEN AFTER SO MUCH DRAMA AND HEART ACHE. The group of supernaturals gathered at the Mystic Grill to celebrate Jeremy heading off to Art School, after Damon had compelled his principle to let him go. The doppelgänger was determined to try and convince the principle without the need for compulsion, but, Damon being Damon, insisted that it was the only way.

"Well done, Jer!" Riley beamed toward the youngest Gilbert sibling as she watched Damon stride toward Jeremy and place a graduation cap onto his head.

"What?" Immediately realising what this meant, Jeremy blinked in complete and utter amazement. "He was okay with it?"

"Sure." The Salvatore shrugged back at him. "I mean, basically flunking. Missed a hundred days of school, and you can barely spell the word 'cat', but sure. He was fine with you graduating early."

"Fine." Riley scoffed and then saw the young boy's eyebrows furrow. "In the beginning, he was very against it, but—"

"—We helped the process along." Elena let out a sigh and tilted her head with a sad look before she headed to the bar. "I'm gonna get a drink."

Jeremy watched his older sister walk away and immediately turned to Damon and Riley. "She okay?"

"She will be. We all will. Somehow, we'll find a way to move on without you, Jeremy." Damon paused for a moment as a smile grew on Jeremy's face. "Oh, hey. Just did." He grabbed Riley's hand and began to walk away, but then stopped and turned to face the boy once more. "Look under the cap. I jacked a little going-away present from Ric's girlfriend's stash."

Riley's eyes widened as she watched Jeremy pull the cap from his head and he smirked when she saw a small baggie with a joint inside it. "Are you kidding me? You gave him a joint?"

"Sh, you." Damon whispered in his girlfriend's ear and then he turned back to Jeremy. "Hey! Put it away, you idiot. Tell your sister, I'll kill you. Again."

"Good luck, Jeremy." Riley smiled toward the boy and then wandered over to hug him. "I really hope you get the life you deserve."

"Thank you, Riley." Jeremy pulled away from the girl once she retreated back to the Salvatore's side. "Wha— aren't you two staying for the goodbye shots?"

"Sorry, Jer. Being a valuable pillar of the community gets you a ticket out of this kinda thing." Damon smirked toward the boy. "Gotta' go and see a Sheriff, you understand, right?"

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"Not to be blunt, but I think dying gets you a ticket out of work." Damon's tone was serious as he and Riley strode into her office, noticing she was sat at her desk with several files piled up beside her.

"Hey, Liz, how're you feeling?" The strawberry-blonde sincerely asked, her eyes cast over the stack of cases.

The Forbes woman exhaled deeply. "Like I'm not gonna leave this job with unfinished business. I have all these open cases."

"Well. Let me see if I can help you close a couple of them." The Salvatore sat down and grabbed a few folders from her. He opened them and began to scan the pages with his eyes. "This one was me. Me. Also me. Ooh! This one was Stefan's."

"Stefan? Really?" The strawberry-blonde witch gave him a pointed look that turned into the smirk.

"Oh, wait. No. Me. Yeah." Damon agreed and threw the last folder into a box by the edge of Liz's desk until the stack of open cases had completely disappeared.

Liz glanced at the vampire with a light smile. "I always had a sneaking suspicion. What about this one?" She handed him another folder.

"Hang on." Riley's eyes glanced over to the side of the folder when she saw a familiar name printed onto the side. "Gilbert? As in—"

"—Elena's parents." Damon finished for his girlfriend as he turned his eyes back to Liz. "Didn't know there was an open investigation."

"Well, at the time, I was taking care of Elena and Jeremy, and I didn't want to drag them through more heartache. Then, when I was finally ready to reopen the wound, Elena had moved on and you and I had become friends, and I worried that—"

"What, that I was involved?" The Salvatore interrupted Liz with a sad look on his face. "Liz, no. No, I promise you."

The sheriff exhaled deeply then moved her phone to the middle of the desk. "Miranda left me this message two hours before they got in that car, two hours before they drove off that road for no reason."

"Liz, it's Miranda Gilbert. I have something urgent to talk to you about. Please call me back as soon as you can."

"Wait, so you think that there's a reason they drive off of Wickery Bridge that night?" Riley raised an eyebrow when she saw the look on Liz's face. "Something supernatural?"

"Well, they were a founding family." Liz carried on, which almost confirmed Riley's theory. "There's a lot of history there, you know?"

"Yeah." Damon breathed out slowly. "You know, this would be real fun if I had some—"

"—top right-hand drawer." Liz cut him off, immediately knowing what he was referring to.

Damon raised an eyebrow and pulled a bottle of bourbon from the top drawer of Liz's desk. "Well, look at that. This is why you are a terrible Sheriff."

"No. I'm a terrible Sheriff because one of my best friends is the perp in half my open cases." She snapped back toward the Salvatore with an unamused look. He then extended the bottle to her but she waved it off. "Not until I finish this."

"I'll take a sip," Riley smirked and pushed herself over the desk to snatch the bottle from Damon's hold. She took a sip of the bourbon and then handed it back to him with a loving grin once he had examined how much she drank "Oops, sorry."

"Can I ask you something about that night?" Liz finally turned back around to face the vampire. "You saw Elena, and Stefan pulled her out of the car."

"Yeah." He mused. "Stefan, always a one-upper."

"So, you both just happened to be in town the night her parents died." The Sheriff pointed out with a suspicious look. "Why?"

Damon shifted awkwardly. "Well, believe it or not, Liz. I once had a mommy, too. She died around that day. In the years that my emotions were on, I would stop by and leave flowers at her grave."

Riley let a small sigh escape her lips as Damon spoke of his mother. She had never really heard him talk about her to anyone. All Riley knew was that the woman died when he and Stefan were very young. She tried to get both Salvatore's to open up about their childhood, but it was a no-go zone with them.

"You never talk about her," Riley whispered to him in a comforting tone while her hand pressed onto his.

"Not much to say. She died, old-timey disease. Consumption."

Liz sent Damon a look once she closed the file that was in her grasp. "Why do I feel like you're leaving something out?"

"Tell you, what? Why don't we use your investigative instincts to solve this?" The Salvatore motioned for both the females to come closer. "Come here. Check this out. Alright, so why were the Gilbert's taking Wickery Bridge when Old Miller Road was clearly ten minutes faster? And, why are there no skid marks at the scene of the accident? And, why was the trunk full of luggage as if they were going out of town?"

"How strange." Riley examined the file in front of Damon and then looked up at the two of them. "Clearly something happened. We just need to find out what it was." The witch then turned to her boyfriend. "Call Elena. Maybe she can shed some light." The little witch watched Damon comply as he dialed Elena's number and pressed his phone to his ear.

"What, Damon? I'm bonding with my brother." The doppelgänger answered the phone with an irritated tone of voice.

"I want to run something by you. Is there a chance you can get to the Sheriff's office?" The Salvatore questioned the Gilbert girl as he watched Riley examine a few more files.

"I'm not so sure it's a good idea to be around the Sheriff right now. Jeremy and I smoked your going-away present."

Damon paused in shock and then turned to Riley. "Are you stoned?"

"She's not, is she?" The strawberry-blonde witch let a small scoff escape her lips.

"No." Elena giggled."I'm lightly buzzed."

"Ah, okay. Well, you need some eye drops, a squirt of perfume and half a pizza. This is important."

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Once Elena had arrived at the Sheriff's office, she was greeted with a hand-full of questions about the night that her parents' car went off of Wickery Bridge. Riley made sure that they were careful when they asked her, they didn't want to hash up any bad memories.

"Honestly, I don't remember why we took that route home, and I had no idea that there was luggage in the trunk."

Liz turned back to the brunette vampire while she sat behind her desk. "What about the skid marks? Any reason your dad would just drive off the road like he was trying to avoid something without braking?"

"I was texting with Bonnie when it happened," Elena admitted and then saw the faces change in the room. "Embarrassing, I know."

"What about the voicemail?" Riley suddenly asked.

"I wasn't home that night," Elena spoke as she shook her head. She then stopped and fixed her eyes onto Liz. "You really think there's something up with my parents' crash?"

"I don't know, but given the way this town works, I wouldn't be surprised." Liz soon stopped talking when she noticed the look of sadness of Elena's face. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Elena. I know I should've brought this up sooner, but in those first few weeks after your parents died, I—"

"—No. You took care of Jeremy and I. I remember. Poor Jenna was trying and failing, but you let us stay at your place. You took us to school, made us dinner." Elena smiled.

"Wait." Damon held his hand up in an attempt to pause the conversation. "You cook?"

"You really tried." Elena let out a small laugh. "I'll see if Jeremy knows anything." After that, Elena nodded to the rest of the group and swiftly left the Sheriff's office.

Damon exhaled then pulled the strawberry-blonde witch into his embrace. The two held each other for a moment, but that soon stopped when they saw Liz's body sway as if she were close to falling. "Oh, hey. Are you okay?"

"Yup. Yup. I'm good." She answered back to the couple just as Damon dismissed himself from the room once his phone began to ring.

"Liz. It's okay to say that you're not okay, you know that, right?" Riley jumped up from her seat and helped to keep Liz steady.

"I appreciate the sympathy and all, but I am fine, Riley." Liz stared at the witch with a sure nod. "I promise."

"So, the message was a joke." Damon wandered back in and slid his phone into his pocket as he looked toward the Forbes woman. "Miranda wanted you to bust Jeremy for smoking pot."

"Okay. That makes sense." Riley took a breath then her eyebrows furrowed. "But, what about the route they took? And, the lack of skid marks?"

"There was a storm the day before," Damon spoke. "Jeremy's dad was planning a secret trip to their lake house, and the storm rained them out."

"The storm," Liz repeated in sudden realization. "The storm that dropped a power line across Old Miller Road, explaining why they took Wickery Bridge which had a drainage issue before it's renovation, meaning the road was probably still slick."

"Slick roads." The Salvatore vampire nodded. "No skid marks."

"The storm, that was the reason. Mystery solved." She then closed the file with a loud sigh. "Would you mind calling Caroline and telling her she can surprise me tomorrow? I'm not really feeling up to it tonight."

"Absolutely." Damon agreed. "I'll go get the car."

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Damon and Riley had taken Liz back home, though it was clear that her condition was deteriorating. Once Riley had helped her change out of her clothes, Damon tucked her into bed. Riley sat on an empty chair on the other side of the room and watched as the Salvatore cared for the woman as if she were his mother. Damon didn't care about a lot of people, but Riley knew that Liz was definitely one of those few.

The witch headed downstairs to grab Liz the glass of water that she had asked for. A single tear slipped down her cheeks as she let the water run from the tap for a moment before she filled the glass. But, when she heard Damon frantically calling Liz's name, she completely dropped the glass and ran up the staircase. It was then that they knew they needed to get her to a hospital.

Riley didn't waste any time in calling Caroline, who burst through the hospital doors in an instant with Stefan by her side. "Where is she? Elizabeth Forbes, what room's she in?" She yelled toward the receptionist in a desperate panic.

"Care." Riley's soft voice called her name as she and Damon walked over.

"She fell asleep," Damon explained through a depressed tone. "I couldn't wake her up. They said she slipped into a coma. They said they can make her comfortable."

"She's not comfortable, she's dying!" Caroline yelled back at him and walked inside her mother's hospital room in an attempt to say goodbye.

"Tyler, you might want to head back to Mystic Falls. Caroline's mom isn't doing too hot, I'll call you with updates." Stefan finished leaving the Lockwood boy a voicemail and then he headed over to Riley and Damon. "What'd the doctor say?"

Damon held onto Riley's hand tightly as he peered through the window. "Oh, she's stable, but, you know."

Stefan nodded knowingly. "How much longer?"

Riley's eyes flickered up to the younger Salvatore. "Not long enough. Apparently there's DNR on her files, so."

Damon immediately let go of Riley's hand and headed toward the door, he clearly appeared too overwhelmed to listen to anything more. "I'm gonna get some air."

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