eight. one hundred and sixty-two candles
Salvatore Boarding House
Stefan is safe and soundly asleep, in a serene environment, on the living room vintage couch in which he's blissfully having a dream about an alternate life with Rosie Kartwright; obviously a much better one if only the world would be much kinder for them without any distractions in the way. He wakes up when his book falls from his lap to the carpet floor below, then aroused by a noise somewhere in the spacious, empty room, "Damon?"
He slowly gets up and looks around and he hears further disturbance before he is attacked by a vampire, pinning him to the floor of the foyer, "Lexi?!"
The old three-hundred-and-fifty-year-old female vampire, with long, straight platinum blonde hair and pretty hazel-green eyes, smiles at him, "Hi."
"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked his long lost friend, who he hasn't met or seen since sixty-seven years ago in New Orleans of Louisiana.
Alexia Branson embraces him into a hug, "How could you even ask that?"
"I missed you." Stefan chuckles as he returns the loving gesture, smiling.
"Happy Birthday." His oldest best friend wished him.
They proceed to joke around in Stefan's excessively massive bedroom upstairs on his big queen-sized bed, laughing at a joke she shared.
"Stop. I don't know, some freak shot at me with wooden bullets. I bail in under sixty. And why is a news reporter hunting vampires?" Lexi asked, who has been lurking around the small town of Virginia nearing the precise day of her best friend's birthday — November 1st, therefore knowing her foes.
"I don't know who knows about us. That guy did. There could be others. Do me a favor, while you're here, please be careful." Stefan advised her.
He really doesn't want her to get caught in the crossfire, although the much older vampire seems to only know how to overestimate herself.
"Why stay? I'm headed to New York for the weekend. Bon Jovi in the Garden. 'Wanted dead or alive', it's our theme song. It'll be a blast."
"Do you think he would actually remember us? That was a pretty crazy weekend, huh?" Stefan chuckles as he remembers the old fun days.
"We can make him remember us. Come on! Let's go. I mean, what's keeping you here?" The platinum blonde young woman asked him cluelessly.
"I told you — it's Rosie." He repeated himself, "By the name of Minerva."
"Huh. Well, no wonder I never found her. Let's just hope she's better than the last girl you got all sprung over, or what you think was even real love." Lexi scoffs as she remembers his chestnut brunette vampire ex-girlfriend.
The moment she got all the pieces of the love triangle the Salvatore brothers were entangled in in 1864, no words can actually describe how much she hates Katherine Pierce and decided to help her best friend to search for his real true love — Rosie Kartwright, who's an amnesiac vampire. Stefan scoffs, chuckling as he agrees to his understanding friend's words.
"You didn't even know Katherine." He pointed out as a matter of fact.
"'Cause if I did, I'd kick her ass. Little bitch. Speaking of...where's Damon?" Not that she and her best friend's brother are in any good terms, considering he left her for dead almost three decades ago in New York.
"Inflicting misery somewhere. You going to be okay here alone? 'Cause I got some things I got to take care of." Stefan nods at the wide open door.
"It's not exactly like I can go anywhere. And you and Damon are the only ones with these nifty little daylight rings. I have a mood ring from '75! Trade ya?" Lexi suggested mischievously.
"Doesn't work that way and you know it." Stefan replied.
"Yeah."
"Hey Lex. I'm really glad that you came here." Stefan truly expressed. He feels less alone now that he has his best friend to keep him well company.
"What are we doing for your birthday? It's not everyday a guy turns a hundred and sixty-two years old." Lexi asked him in a playful manner.
Stefan groans, tired to think of any birthday party ideas, "Really?"
"Oh yeah." Lexi nods suggestively, "Come on!"
****
Mystic Falls Police Station, Sheriff Forbes' Office
Sheriff Liz Forbes is questioning Elena, Minerva, Stefan, Matt and Jeremy over their friend's disappearance, "Where did Vicki say she was going?"
After the school Halloween party, Elena, Rosie/Minerva and Stefan are the only ones who know the truth of what actually happened to Vicki Donovan. Once Jeremy knew of the tragic reality, an underaged boy who couldn't handle the grief of losing many people he loves, Elena requested for Damon to compel her poor, undeserving brother to forget about what really happened to her. When it comes to Matt, Elena insisted that he doesn't have to know. The last thing she would want is to hurt him, especially after what happened between them, his mother's poor absence in his life, along with his father. He's had enough pain in his life, she wants what's best for him.
Jeremy answered simply, under mind compulsion, "She didn't."
"Did she tell her brother where she was going?" Liz questioned sternly.
"No, she didn't say anything to me. She told Jeremy to tell me that she was leaving town." Matt informed her the lie which was told by his ex earlier.
"Is there anyone I can talk to that may know what happened to her prior to her leaving town?" Perhaps a close friend? A significant other? A relative?
Elena and Minerva share a feigned clueless expression at the question.
"Stefan Salvatore may know. He came by the house to see her but she wouldn't talk to him." Matt recalled the visit, which his sister refused.
Jeremy looks over at his sister's vampire ex-boyfriend with a suspicious frown with numerously curious questions in mind. Why would he see her?
"What was he doing there?" The woman asked them.
Stefan spoke up as a proclamation for an answer, "I was trying to help her, I knew that Elena was worried about her brother, he was dating Vicki and she had a drug problem, so I tried to help." He nods a little, going along with it.
Jeremy gives his sister an ungrateful 'What the hell?' look of disbelief.
"So you got involved because Elena asked you to?"
"I asked Stefan and my best friend, Minerva, to help. I thought that, by helping Vicki, they were helping my brother." Elena revealed defensively.
"We're just looking out for him." Rosie/Minerva added on for reassurance.
They would all, without a doubt, look out for Jeremy, who's only as young as fifteen years old at this point, and even each other from time to time.
"What was her behavior like those last few days before she left?"
"Up and down, very sketchy, like she was coming down from some major partying." Matt answered in mental recollection of his absentee sister.
"Any signs of aggression or violence?"
Jeremy replied this time, "None that I remember."
All Elena, Rosie/Minerva and Stefan replied with a no.
Liz looks back at the blonde, "So you believe Vicki really has left town?"
All Elena, Matt, Rosie/Minerva and Stefan replied with a yes.
"I'll miss her, but...I think it's for the best." Jeremy nods.
Once the questions are over, Rosie/Minerva and Stefan are waiting in front of the sheriff's office for Elena. Matt leaves the room and walks past them.
Stefan spoke up of the truth, "I was trying to help her, Matt. That's all."
Matt sends a quick glance at Minerva, who only nods at him in agreement, before he walks off without another word. Elena finally comes out the door.
The oldest Gilbert sister turns to Jenna, who has just arrived to pick her teenage relatives up, and Jeremy, "I'll meet you guys at the car."
"Okay." Jenna walks away, after Matt, with her underaged nephew.
Rosie/Minerva asked her best friend in deep concern, "You okay?"
"I don't think the Sheriff suspected anything. Jeremy had no memory at all. All he knew was what Damon made him know." Elena considered aloud.
"Good." Rosie/Minerva nods once with a sigh of relief.
"And thank you." Stefan added on for both significantly knowing girls.
"I can't do this, guys. Every time I look at Matt or Jeremy, all I think is that Vicki is never going to come back. And they'll never know why. Around you, Stefan, people get hurt and people die. I can't, I just...it's just too much..." Elena shakes her head in pure horror at the horrible but actual thought.
"Why don't we go somewhere and talk about it?" Stefan suggested.
"No, Stefan, you have to stay away from us." Elena advised him before she grabs Minerva's right wrist and pulls her away from him to leave together.
Later on, Sheriff Liz Forbes is dealing with paperwork on her desk in the private office and receives a phone call, "Yeah. Send him in." Damon enters the office, "Mister Salvatore, come on in. Could you get the door for me?"
"Sure." Damon shuts the door behind him, leaving them both alone.
"I understand from Mrs. Lockwood that your uncle is out the town."
"Yes, he is. But I spoke with Zach. He filled me in and asked if I could bring this to you." Damon hands the young sheriff the box filled with vervain.
"Vervain." Liz stated out.
"That's all we have at the moment, I hope it's enough." He nods once.
"It's a small circle...Founding families, a few city officials." Liz told him.
"And your deputies, of course, right? Are we any closer?" Damon asked.
"I think our facts are wrong. We've always believed that vampires can only come out in the dark. What if that's changed?" Liz considered the possibility.
The young man feigns a puzzled look, "So is that even possible?"
"We've exhausted every other option. We have to consider the vampire may be walking around during the day. Right in front of us." Liz nods once.
"Hm. So what's the next step?"
"We're now looking at anyone new to town, since the deaths began. Should turn up a suspect or two." The blonde young woman informed him.
"And I, of course, will do anything I can to help."
****
Gilbert Residence, Elena's Bedroom
Bonnie comes into her best friend's bedroom upstairs, where the older brunette girl is lying down in her big queen-sized bed alone, "You up?"
"No."
Bonnie walks over and tries to pull the covers off her best friend's head, though Elena refuses to remove the warm blanket off of herself in which she has decided to hide and shut everyone out since she came home from the police station for the interrogation earlier with the rest of her friends.
"Why haven't you or Minerva called me back?" Bonnie questioned her.
"I'm sorry. Minerva's been busy lately. Senior year, remember?" Elena said.
"Oh yeah. Are you going to stay in there forever?" The Bennett girl spoke.
"Yep."
"Move over." Bonnie lies next to her best friend on the bed, "I'm officially worried. What's going on? Besides Minerva finally dumping Tyler."
To say she's surprised over the news about the break up would be an overstatement; she knew, one way or another, that Minerva would leave Tyler eventually once another, much better, guy appears in their life. However, Elena doesn't need to be worried about that when, in her own opinion, she knows that Minerva Devon seems to already have everything.
"I'm tired of thinking...of talking, I--"
"Can I get a one-line version so I can at least pretend to be helpful?"
"Stefan and I broke up." Elena simply revealed.
"I'm so sorry. Are you okay? Right, stupid question. I know I've been kind of MIA when you need me the most. I suck." Bonnie insulted herself.
No, you don't. Honestly, Bonnie Bennett, amongst her trio of best friends, would be the least suck-ish one she knows. She would prefer Bonnie over Caroline and Minerva any day during the times when she needs one most.
"Minerva doesn't need anyone when she broke up with Tyler." Elena stated.
"Yeah, she does. She has her amazing self to help herself through it. Plus, the girl's a genius. Sometimes, I don't even know how she do it." Bonnie shrugs the truth in her own words; she has to admit it to herself that she is envious of her best friend's academic success that she even wishes to be her at some point in her life, and that she even dreamed about it once or twice.
"I know, right? She makes life look so easy sometimes. Anyway, you want to make it up to me. Get my mind off of it." Elena reminded her as a request.
"Just remember you asked for it." Bonnie closes the window and grabs one of the pillows on the bed, which she rips and empties it of the feathers.
The seventeen-year-old chestnut brunette frowns, truly puzzled, "Hey!"
"Be patient." Bonnie advised her.
"Okay."
"I need to swear you to secrecy." Bonnie told her.
"It's kind of a bad week for that kind of stuff."
"Swear, 'cause I'm not supposed to be showing you this."
"Okay, I swear." Elena swore, sitting up on her own bed.
"There's no windows open, right?"
"Right, because you closed it." Elena stated the obvious.
"There's no fan. No air conditioning." Bonnie added on as a reminder.
"None. What are you doing?" Elena asked, frowning.
"Grams just showed me this. You're going to love it. You ready?"
"Bonnie, what's going on?"
Bonnie slowly levitates a feather in front of her best friend, presenting it to her the magic she has within her as a true, certified witch, before she levitates several more; Elena watches on with shock and amazement.
"It's true, Elena. Everything my Grams told me. It's impossible and it's true. I'm a witch." Bonnie revealed, smiling triumphantly at her own magic.
Elena giggles as she watches the feathers around her, "I believe you."
****
Salvatore Boarding House, Stefan's Bedroom
"So this Elena girl. She'll come around. I'm sure of it. Have you had sex yet?" Alexia Branson reminded him of his amazing vampire sex playfully.
"No."
Lexi encouraged her best friend with a wink, "Sex always works. I mean, you'll rock her world so hard with your vamp sex, she'll be yours forever."
"Yeah, but see, this isn't about sex or...or compulsion or any of our other tricks. She has to want to be with me on her own terms." Stefan claimed even when most of the time, all he can think about is his ex-fiancé.
"Wow. That sounded all mature and grown-up." Lexi commented, smiling.
"I'm not getting any older." Stefan shakes his head a little, reminding her.
Lexi opens her suitcase, picks up a blood bag and takes a sip, "Want some?"
"No, thank you." Stefan replied with a cute but sheepish smile.
"Relax. I didn't kill anyone for it. This phlebotomist I went out with a few times, he's my supplier." Lexi sees her best friend's expression, "Oh, don't judge, okay? Listen, I tried the animal diet; lasted three weeks."
"It doesn't matter. 'Cause if I started again...I just don't know if..."
"You could stop." Lexi nods positively.
"Lexi, I'd never judge you." Stefan truly expressed.
"I'm just jealous of your restraint. I have none. I delight in hedonism. Speaking of which, what are we doing tonight?" His best friend asked.
Damon walks into the room through the open door, "Funny you should ask."
"Well I wasn't asking you."
"There's a party at the Grill. You'll love it. Banquettes, tacky wait staff, all of Stefan's friends." Damon listed out as he folds his long arms.
Stefan piped in, "Yeah, I don't want a birthday party."
"Well, It's not for you. It's a party party. No one's going to know it's your birthday. Caroline's throwing it." Damon pointed out even though he was the one who asked her to do it earlier when he met her on the street.
"Damon, stay away from Caroline."
"We're friends, it's cool. It's important for the town to see us out and about like normal folk. We need to blend." Damon looks at the older vampire's stock of blood, "I prefer mine at 98.6." He leaves them alone once again.
"Let's go." Lexi sees her best friend's reluctant expression, "Please?"
Much later, Lexi is getting out of the shower with only a towel wrapped around her naked body as she goes to speak with her best friend again.
"I'm almost ready."
"I can't believe you actually think that we should go to this thing." He spoke.
"It's not like I'm asking you to run outside midday without your ring. I mean, seriously, it's a party. And it's your birthday." Lexi reminded him.
"A party that Damon wants us to go to, you know? So my question is why? I think he's up to something." Stefan considered aloud in suspicion.
"Who cares? What can he possibly of all those people in a public place?"
"He knows how to keep a low profile, believe me." Stefan nods a little.
"Okay, so he'll behave. Come on. One day a year I get you, one day that you're not brooding and existing in your own head." Lexi encouraged him.
"It's my birthday, yeah?"
"It's my day. And that guy that jump naked in the Trevi fountain and got drunk on the torch of the statue of Liberty, that guy can take a break from all of his worrying for one night and go to a stupid party. So quit your whining--" Lexi hits his butt playfully, "--and go get ready."
Stefan claps his hands together, "Fine."
Meanwhile, Minerva drives up in her white Prius to the mansion itself and quickly parks the car on the front driveway. She knocks on the front door.
Lexi called out from inside, "It's open! Come on in."
Rosie/Minerva walks in through the door and sees Lexi in a towel from the spot she is standing in the foyer. Lexi sees her face and recognizes her instantly, which makes her to immediately stop in her own tracks, truly in shock to finally come face to face with her best friend's former fiancé, and bites her own tongue when she quickly scans her from top to bottom.
"Oh my God! How...uh-- wh-...Who?"
"I'm Minerva. Who are you?" Rosie/Minerva scans her from top to bottom as well, the much older girl unfamiliar to her due to the dissociative amnesia.
She's supposed to know who Alexia Branson is since she knew, before she lost her memories, that Stefan asked her and Damon to aid him search for her; the young woman who always took care of Stefan when he's out of control when he turned for the first time as a greedy, vicious vampire. Despite this, and from what Stefan told her about the memory loss, Lexi conceals her offended expression and turns it into an understanding one.
"Lexi, a friend of Stefan's." Alexia introduced herself in return rather politely.
Friend with benefits much? "Oh. Is he here?" Rosie/Minerva asked, hopeful.
"He's in the shower. Do you want to wait?" Lexi asked her.
"No."
"I'll tell him you stopped by."
"Okay." Rosie/Minerva walks out and rolls her big hazel eyes, as if beginning to reconsider that her best friend's ex-boyfriend is really a player.
****
Devon Residence
Rosie/Minerva opens the main front door to find Stefan on the porch, "Hey."
"Hey. What are you doing here?" Rosie/Minerva asked him, smiling.
"Lexi said that you came by and you seemed upset." Stefan reviewed.
"Right. I'm just tired. Aren't you tired too?" The vampire girl spoke.
"Tired of what?"
"Of having multiple girls on your contact list?" Rosie/Minerva hinted.
"Multiple girls?...Oh no no no no, not like that, she's not exactly a girl--Lexi's just three hundred and fifty years old." Stefan informed her.
"Ah...so she's just like us." Rosie/Minerva nods a little.
"And she's my oldest friend. Nothing romantic. Ever." Stefan assured her.
"Mmhmm, okay, well...she kept staring at me. It was weird."
"Yeah, well, I've talked about you a lot, so...I guess she felt like she knew you. So why'd you come by?" Stefan asked, genuinely curious about her.
"I-uh...I just came by to say hi." Rosie/Minerva claimed, smiling tightly.
"Okay..."
"And to tell you that I can't." Rosie/Minerva begun rather reluctantly.
"You, can't?" Stefan repeated, truly puzzled by those words.
"Yeah. Stefan, I can't, and that's the problem. I'm keeping all these secrets from everyone. I can't even tell my...mom. Do you know how hard that is? It's like I need to talk to someone, but the only person I can talk to is you... and...I don't even know anymore." Rosie/Minerva shakes her head tiredly.
She's tired to think, honestly, at this point since Vicki Donovan's death, and the vampire right in front of her nods slowly in quick understanding.
"I want you to know that I will always be here for you. You can come to me about anything, okay?" Stefan advised her for warm reassurance.
Rosie/Minerva nods, "Well, thank you for coming by then."
"Hey, do you need a ride to the Grill tonight?" Stefan brought up.
"You're going to Caroline's party. I see." Rosie/Minerva figured, chuckling.
"Lexi's dragging me and...it's my birthday." Stefan smiles at this.
"Ooh. Happy birthday." Rosie/Minerva wished him, smiling a little.
"Thank you."
"Actually, I—I think I'm going to stay in tonight." She considered.
"Oh. Well, have a...have a good night." Stefan walks off from the porch.
****
Mystic Grill Restaurant
People, most of them are the local townsfolks, are having fun around the ongoing party. Caroline walks up to Bonnie, who is standing by an empty, unoccupied small table for two people, "Bonnie, I've been looking for you. I'm totally sorry to do this. I know it's so Indian giver and I know we're not even supposed to say that anymore, but I need my crystal back."
More like Damon needs the amber crystal back, for selfish purposes, and the current party is not even Caroline's idea to begin with. It's always Damon.
"Why? You said you hated it." Bonnie recalled, suspicious of her request.
Caroline did say that when she gave it to her best friend for her Halloween costume, which was a witch, because the amber crystal is viewed as old and ugly and that no one would ever wear it, though Damon still wants it.
"Then I saw it on you and I realize how great it is, and I've got three outfits I can coordinate it with, so..." The older Forbes girl trailed off for a yes reply.
"I can't give it back to you." Bonnie articulated; being that the crystal originally belonged to her distant maternal ancestor — Emily Bennett, thanks to her Grams for clarifying it through their historical family records when she was told, after the public school party, that it burned Damon.
"Well, I didn't want to tell you this but I'm your friend, when you wear it, it makes you look fat. There I said it, but it's because I'm your friend so..."
"I'm sorry, Caroline, I can't." Bonnie shakes her head in persistence.
"What do you mean you can't? Bonnie, it's mine." Caroline claimed.
"I thought you said it was Damon's." Bonnie recalled as a reminder.
"It is."
"So he's the one who really wants it back." Bonnie figured it out.
"No. Maybe, just..." Caroline tries to snatch the crystal off of her best friend, but it shocks her, burning her hand instead, "Are you wearing polyester?"
Bonnie frowns at her, "You were really going to pull it from my neck. What the hell is wrong with you?" She speed-walks away from her immediately.
Caroline stomps her right foot on the floor as she watches her best friend go, along with the required amber crystal, "Damn it." She looks away.
Stefan just arrived at the restaurant when Matt is about to walk past him.
"Matt, just hear me out, please. I was just trying to help Vicki. I went through something similar once, I'm really sorry." He nods a little to convince him.
Actually, no words can describe how sincere he feels at this moment on about Vicki Donovan's permanent death, wishing that he could turn back time to prevent the demise in any way he could. Matt shakes his head.
"Don't be. It's not the first time she's run off. Turns out Vicki's just like our mother; I can't count on either of them. Thanks for trying." The blonde teen scoffs at the mention of his uselessly pathetic family of total nobodies.
Meanwhile, Damon runs into Caroline at the busy bar again, "Where is it?"
"Bonnie won't give it to me." Caroline reported the actual truth in a whine.
Honestly, she doesn't know why anyone would want to be attached to an old and ugly amber crystal. If she was in Bonnie's position, she wouldn't hesitate to throw the old crystal away for good, because it's useless to her. Damon frowns at this undesirable outcome and rolls his icy blue eyes.
"So rip it off her neck." Damon concluded the obvious solution.
"I tried. It shocked me."
Just like how it shocked, or burned, Damon when he touched the crystal. "Damn it! Why does it do that? I need that crystal." The young man said.
"Why are you being like this? I'm so good to you and I'd do anything. It's just some stupid necklace." Caroline expressed, almost in frustration.
"No, you are the only stupid thing here. And shallow. And useless." Damon walks away from her and sees Lexi dancing while Stefan isn't on his way out of the local restaurant alone. He hears a sound and follows; there is a young couple hiding in a secluded location, where they are kissing each other.
"Did you hear something?" She asked him.
"No, it's cool. There's no one coming down here."
Damon shows up and bites the boy's neck in front of her. The girl starts screaming in pure horror and fright, then looks into Damon's mesmerizing icy blue eyes and stops. Inside, Stefan is playing pool with Lexi. He makes a good move and smiles triumphantly. Rosie/Minerva arrives at the local party anyway and spots Stefan having a great time with Lexi, making her smile.
Damon comes up behind her, "Stefan smiles. Alert the media."
"You haven't given him a lot of reasons to be happy lately." Minerva stated. All he ever does for his brother through selfish purposes is for only misery.
"Oh, you're right. Poor Stefan persecuted throughout eternity by his depraved brother; does it get tiring being so righteous, Rosie?" Damon said.
Rosie/Minerva scoffs, "You don't get to call me that. Not around my friends."
"No? Well, it's just like what I told Stefan — the lies will catch up to you."
"One day, perhaps, but that day is not today. And to answer your rhetorical question, it flares up in the presence of psychopaths." She spat playfully.
"Ouch! Well, consider this psychopath's feelings get hurt." Damon replied.
"What did you do to Elena's brother?" Minerva questioned suspiciously.
"I'm going to need a less vague question."
"When you did what you did to Jeremy's memory of Vicki, what else did you do to him? Elena tells me everything, okay? She doesn't keep secrets from me. I mean, she better not keep secrets from me, or else." Minerva spoke.
"That's cute. She asked me to take away her brother's memory of fangs and all the bad stuff. She wanted me to take away his suffering." He shrugs.
More like she wanted him to turn her brother into a better person.
"But he's acting different. I saw it. He seems okay with everything and a little too okay. I mean, he's studying; he's not doing drugs; he's not drinking; are you sure you didn't do something else?" Rosie/Minerva questioned.
"Minerva, I took away the suffering."
Bonnie walks into Caroline around the restaurant and stops her, "Caroline."
"Don't talk to me." She is about to walk past her, but her path is blocked.
"Don't do that, let me explain."
"What is there to explain, Bonnie? You got what you wanted...and something that doesn't even belong to you, by the way, and, I get called a shallow, useless waste of space." Caroline listed out miserably.
"Who said that to you?" Bonnie asked, frowning in pure shock.
"Who do you think?" Caroline snapped angrily at her best friend.
"You know that's not true. Don't let him treat you like that." Bonnie advised.
"As opposed to how my best friend treats me." Caroline walks off.
Outside, a police officer is patrolling in his car when he hears the same frightened girl from earlier, whimpering alone in fear, and goes to investigate. He finds the teenage boy's body in a pool of blood on the ground not too far from the girl herself. Inside the Grill, Lexi is at the bar.
"Two shots of tequila." Lexi sees Rosie/Minerva from afar, "Make that three."
"I need to see some ID." The young male bartender, named Sean, asked.
Lexi effortlessly compels him, staring him in the eyes, "No, you don't."
"That'll be—"
"Free!"
"On the house."
"Thanks!" Lexi walks away with the three shot glasses of tequila and goes over to Rosie/Minerva, "Oh! The famous Minerva. Or should I say...Rosie?"
Rosie/Minerva playfully gasps dramatically back at her, "The towel girl."
"I've been called worse. Here." Alexia offers her one shot of strong tequila, which the younger vampires takes from her rather awkwardly, smiling.
She laughs slightly, "You may call me Minerva."
"Right. Because of the whole memory loss thing, right? That sucks."
"Mmhm. You know, I've never seen Stefan drunk. He always seem so... What's the word?" Rosie/Minerva asked her with an adorable smile.
"Uptight?" Lexi figured.
Rosie/Minerva nods, "Exactly."
"Yeah."
"But not with you. I wish I can say I'm pretty jealous." Her smile only grows.
"Oh. Well that's the benefit of knowing someone for over a hundred years. You can just be yourself." The friendly platinum blonde vampire shrugs.
Rosie/Minerva scoffs, "Yeah, he can't be himself with me. I know it."
"Well not yet. The first step was him telling you. The rest comes with time."
"Hmm. You seem so sure." Rosie/Minerva read her through observation.
"The love of my life was human. He went through, what I imagine Elena's going through: denial, anger, et cetera. But at the end of the day, love really did conquer all." Lexi indicates to her tequila, "Are you going to drink that?"
"Go for it."
Lexi takes the drink and drinks it in one gulp only as Rosie/Minerva watches her closely and spoke the truth, "Who said I love Stefan?"
"Well, you did say you're pretty jealous." Lexi shrugs, smiling suggestively.
"I just want to be friends with him, and he just broke up with my friend." Minerva informed her, "Elena. So I see you two have a lot to talk about."
"Yeah. Elena...No wonder she's not here tonight." Lexi concluded.
"Yeah. I'm scared." Rosie/Minerva simply expressed.
"But you're here...'cause you're, like you said, his friend. And--"
"You made it sound like you don't believe me." Rosie/Minerva noticed.
"No. I do. It's just that, I get it, okay? I mean, what's not to love?" They look over at Stefan, who is still playing pool with a friendly, attractive teenage guy, "Listen. Take it from someone who's been around a long time. When it's real, you can't walk away. You'd understand." She nods a little, smiling.
"It was really nice meeting you, Lexi." Rosie/Minerva nods in pursuit, smiling in return at her new friend, and laughs as Lexi drinks the last tequila.
Lexi returns to the pool table where Stefan is playing, "Yep, I drank yours, sorry."
Stefan smiles, truly grateful for her support and aid, "Thank you."
Lexi understands that he has been eavesdropping on the conversation, "You weren't supposed to be listening." She sees his face, "I was feeling epic, whatever." She rolls her pretty hazel-green eyes playfully and laughs slightly.
Rosie/Minerva rejoins them at the pool table with a big smile, "Hi!"
Stefan turns around to face her, smiling in return, "Hey, you came."
"Yeah, I couldn't miss your birthday, you know." Her smile only grows, which he returns, "And anyway, aren't you a little old for birthday parties?"
Stefan scoffs in ridicule, "A hundred and sixty-two years too old, yeah."
Meanwhile, Caroline stumbles into a small table for two where Matt is talking to a friend and he looks up at her in her sudden presence, "Oh hey!"
"I slim---I'm slipped. I slipped."
"Hammered, huh?" Matt stifles his own laugh.
"Well...a very nice but not handsome bartender was very kind to me tonight. Unlike the rest of the global universe. Are those curly fries?" She mentioned.
Matt turns to his friend, "Coffee for the drunk girl." His friend gets up and walks over to the bar and the drunk one sits in his place, "Bad night, huh?"
"Baddest. Am I shallow?" Caroline asked him rather miserably.
Matt scoffs in disbelief at the closed-off question, "Is that a trick question?"
"I don't mean to be. I want to be deep. I want to be, like...the abyss deep."
"No offense, Care, but deep's really not your scene." Matt told her.
"That's true. I'm shallow, I am worst than shallow, I'm a kiddie pool!"
"You're not a kiddie pool. You're not a kiddie pool." Matt assured her.
"Can I just go home okay?"
"I'll take you, come on. You're okay." Matt lifts her up, "She's still alright; Hold still, Hold still." Once outside, he runs into Sheriff Liz Forbes.
"What happened, is she okay?" Liz asked about her daughter in concern.
"Like you care." Caroline spoke while being carried in her friend's arms.
"She's drunk?"
"As a skunk." Caroline replied.
"Are they serving you in there?"
Matt spoke up, "I'll take her home. It's on my way. I haven't been drinking."
"I would appreciate that, Matt, thank you." Liz turns to her one and only beloved daughter strictly, "You and I will discuss this later."
"Can't wait." Caroline leaves with her loyal though lonely friend.
The Sheriff turns back to the officers, "Don't let anybody else leave."
By the main busy bar inside, Alexia walks up to her best friend's mischievous brother with a few drinks, "Alright, the shots are a bribe. I need you to answer a question: What are you really doing in Mystic Falls?"
Definitely something that's not good, for his own selfish purposes only.
"Have you tried The Brittle? It wins award." Damon brought up as a joke.
"Cut the crap."
"Okay, I have a diabolical master plan." The young man begun.
"What is it?" Lexi questioned suspiciously.
"If I told you, it wouldn't be very diabolical, now would it?"
Suddenly, Sheriff Liz Forbes comes in with the whimpering, frightened girl from earlier, "Look around, let me know if you see anything."
Rosie/Minerva notices their suspicious presence from the pool table and senses something wrong as she watches the girl point to the bar where Damon and Lexi are sitting. Sheriff Forbes walks over and injects Lexi with vervain right in front of the feigned-innocent Damon, who acts shocked.
Damon spoke up in feigned shock, "What are you doing?!"
"Thank you for the vervain; now if you'll excuse me."
Both Rosie/Minerva and Stefan could clearly see what's happening.
"Oh my God." Rosie/Minerva blurted in genuine surprise, frowning.
"No." Stefan tries to leave the restaurant immediately, "Excuse me, sorry."
"Stefan..." Rosie/Minerva called out as she follows after him, concerned.
A middle-aged male police officer blocks his path, "Can't go out this way."
Outside, the officers and Sheriff are taking Lexi to the police cruiser when she throws the officers off of her with extraordinary strength. Sheriff Liz Forbes shoots her with wooden bullets, but Lexi is too strong. Out of nowhere, Damon appears and stakes her. Stefan sees and pulls Minerva out of sight from the scene, though a loud, high-pitched scream emits from her throat as they watch Lexi die; Stefan and Damon cover their ears in pure agony as Lexi falls to the ground, dead, and that's when the scream ends.
Stefan turns to the horrified caramel brunette in surprise, "Oh my God."
Damon, who is also truly surprised, sees them from afar though he chose to turn to the Sheriff first, who asked him in pure confusion, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Are you?" Damon replied, frowning in pure horror.
The young Sheriff nods, "Thank you. Get her in the car quickly."
"Alright." Damon does as he's told.
Back inside the restaurant, Sheriff Liz Forbes arrests the barman as well and takes him to the police cruiser, "Lady, I checked everyone's IDs."
"Yeah, apparently you didn't." Liz sees Damon, who's aiding her to catch the potentially dangerous culprit, "Pretty handy with that stake."
"It's just...reflex. I guess the adrenaline kicked in." Damon replied.
"This nightmare is finally over."
"Yeah, call a lucky break with that witness, without her, you wouldn't have been able to ID the vampire." Damon proclaimed.
"We're lucky. Well thank you again."
"You're welcome."
Outside, Stefan is walking away down the dark road in anger and horror while Rosie/Minerva follows after him in concern, "Stefan! Stefan, stop!"
She knows how much this devastates him; to watch in horror as his own brother murdered his best friend, the most loyal one after all this time. If she is in his position, she would hate Damon Salvatore as well, though he is still a brother to him, vampire or not-- malevolent or not, and they stay together. Although, he wants nothing more but to find his responsible brother, confront him and hurt him in return for what he did to his dead best friend.
"He killed her! He killed Zach; he killed Tanner; he turned Vicki; I have to kill him!" Stefan concluded their one and only, though wrong, solution.
Rosie/Minerva shakes her head in horror, "No. No, you can't do that!"
He turns around to face her, "Why are you trying to save him?! Rosie, he's never going to change! Don't you see that?! He's never going to change!"
I promise you an eternity of misery...
"I'm not trying to save him, I'm trying to save you! You have no idea what this will do to you, please, Stefan. You're not thinking straight." She pleaded.
He shakes his head in denial, "Everywhere I've been, pain and death follow; Damon follows me. No more." Stefan shakes his head once again.
"No. Stefan, please. Don't do it. It won't make you feel any better. Please just-just talk to me; let me be here for you. Talk to me." Rosie offered.
"No. Elena was right for you to stay away from me." Stefan leaves her.
****
Salvatore Boarding House, Damon's Bedroom
Damon is drinking from a fresh crystal glass of strong bourbon inside his own massive bedroom when Stefan arrives, "Told you I'd take care of it."
Now thanks to him, Stefan, Damon and Rosie/Minerva's reputation are safe. Stefan quickly runs in the room and roughly attacks him, furious. The two vampire brothers are fighting until Stefan pins Damon against the wall.
"Come on, I did this for you. To get them off our trail." Damon told him.
"You never do anything for anyone but yourself." Stefan violently stabs a sharp stake inside of his brother in retaliation, fury raging inside of him.
Damon is truly shocked of his attack and groans in agony, "You missed!"
"No. You saved her life. You saved mine. I'm sparing yours. We're even. And now we're done." Stefan storms out of the massive room as his weakened, selfish vampire brother falls to the floor and pulls out the bloody stake.