𝐎 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐘𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐅𝐔𝐋
isn't everyone family a little fucked in
AS THEY APPROACHED the Gilbert lake house, Damon and Echo was shocked to see Shane inside the building.
"What the hell is Professor Shadypants doing here?" Damon questioned incredulously.
"I invited him." Bonnie admitted and Damon looked over at her, clearly not pleased with her decision.
Elena sighed and glanced to her sister with nervous eyes. "I hope this goes as planned."
"Me too," Echo stated and grabbed her sister's hand.
Dean — who was standing behind them with Sam and Jack — watched the interaction with a clenched jaw. In his mind, this was some reality warp that gave Echo things to make her want to stay, and he was going to try and convince her that this universe wasn't right for her.
As they looked inside the house where Jeremy and Shane was moving around some furniture for the hypnosis procedures they plan to perform on Jeremy.
Elena bit on her lip as she looked at her brother who was glaring over at them . "This is your house now, Jer." He walked closer to them, and Echo could faintly see her father tense behind her. "You have to invite me in."
Jeremy just stared at Elena, but didn't invite her in.
"Go ahead, Jeremy. Invite her in," Shane coaxed him calmly while Echo glared at him, not trusting him for a minute.
Jeremy continued to stare at Elena and hesitated for a moment longer before saying, "You can come in."
Elena entered the house and stopped in front of Jeremy with big doe eyes. She gently touched his arm and walked past him, setting her bags on a counter. Jeremy looked down at his arm where she touched him and suddenly grabbed the small wooden stake from his waistband and attempted to stake Elena.
Echo reacted quickly and jumped forward, grabbing his wrist harshly, applying enough pressure where it hurt, but didn't do any damage.
"Jeremy!" Bonnie yelled in worry and shock.
Echo twisted Jeremy's arm around and placed it behind his back. "Calm down." When he still attempted to get to Elena, she quickly kicked him in the back of the knee. As he was falling to his knees, Echo yanked the stake away from him, threw it to her uncle, and then placed her brother in a chokehold. "Come on, Jer. I don't want to hurt you, but if you make one more move towards our sister, I will hit you so hard on your head that you will have a huge ass bruise that I will make sure permanently stay there."
Dean snorted at his daughter before she roughly let go of Jeremy, and stood protectively in front of Elena.
When Jeremy stood up fully, he stiffly turned to Echo and Elena before nodding, backing down.
Echo smirked and held out her arms. "Now, seeing as that's over. How about you come and hug your badass sister?"
Jeremy smiled lightly and walked over to Echo, pulling her into a much needed hug. While they hugged, Sam moved Elena closer to him, Dean, and Jack to make sure that if Jeremy did attack, they would protect her.
LATER ON, Shane started up the pendulum of a metronome which ticked slowly back and forth as candles were lit around the room. He tightened some thick leather straps around Jeremy's wrist which tied the Gilbert boy down into a chair.
Jeremy had his eyes shut and appeared to be in a trance while Bonnie and Elena sat next to each other on chairs which were across from Jeremy. Echo was placed behind Elena, while Dean stood behind Jeremy so he would be able to retrain him if needed. Sam and Jack stood closely by Echo and Elena.
"All Jeremy feels when he sees a vampire is a burning desire to kill them, even if consciously he doesn't want to. As in your case—" Shane explained looking at Elena, "it's his subconscious that's calling the shots."
"Persuasion helps reverse your subconscious thoughts," Bonnie explained further which Echo rolled her eyes at. Yes, Echo has gotten over some of the past things Bonnie has done, but now she's treating Elena like she was dumb. If anything, Elena was probably the smartest out of them all, well, except Sam.
Shane nodded in agreement before continuing. "Think of it as kind of a conditioned response, right? See vampire, kill vampire. What I'm doing is creating kind of a middle step. It's like a detour, where his subconscious learns to recognize you as someone he loves, someone he wants to protect. And that gives him a choice. He can choose to take the detour instead of the conditioned response." Then he sat on the table next to Jeremy and looked to Elena. "Okay. Talk to him. He'll listen."
The doppelgänger chewed on the inside of her cheek. "I'm not sure what to say."
"You chose to do this here at your family's vacation house, right? So, maybe just start by telling him why," Shane advised her softly.
Elena looked at him and nodded. "Every holiday, we came here. This place was family. And when mom and dad died, Jenna made us come here and we thought it was an awful idea, but it was like they were here with us."
Jeremy opened his eyes and looked straight at Elena. It was progress even if he has no emotion on his features.
Bonnie smiled and looked between the siblings. "They would have wanted us to stick together, Jer. To fight for each other, no matter what. The three of us, together no matter what." Elena became silent and Jeremy continued to look at her.
Dean and Sam glanced sadly between the three siblings — though, in Dean's mind, it wasn't suppose to be real. Either way, it was sad to see that Echo has grown into another family, and loves them — real or not.
"Jeremy, how do you feel about Elena right now?" Shane questioned him carefully as Elena looked at her brother eagerly.
"She ruined our lives. She's not even my real sister. She's just the reason that everyone I've ever loved has died. She means nothing to me. I will kill her even if that means I die myself," Jeremy answered coldly, and Elena sucked in a breath.
Echo leaned forward and laid her hand on her sister's shoulder, giving her a look, telling her it wasn't her fault. Because it wasn't. There was nothing else they could do to prevent their lives from going to hell like it did. If anything, it was all Katherine's fucking fault.
Shane rapped his knuckles against the wooden table which brought Jeremy out of his trance who looked between Shane to Elena. "Did it work?"
Nobody responded, which was a response to the boy who then sighed heavily.
MOMENTS LATER, Jeremy was sitting on the sofa by himself, looking through old family photos. Echo was on the chair with Damon, who had his arms wrapped around her, his eyes trained on Jeremy who was also trying not to attack him.
Just then, Bonnie walked into the room with a look of concern causing Jeremy to stand up and look at her. "You okay? Shane wants to try again," she informed him carefully.
Damon scoffed. "Survey says: Ehhh. Professor Shane has been dipping into the magical herbs a little too much; if he thinks using a vampire to suppress the need to kill another one is gonna work on a Hunter. It's like dangling a cheeseburger in front of someone on a master cleanse. Just find someone else to attach your warm and fuzzy detour feelings to." Over the course of Damon's speech, he had glanced at Bonnie numerous times, clearly hinting to Jeremy who he should place his feelings on. "Gee, I wonder who that could be."
Jeremy realized what he was saying and looked over at Bonnie. "You." She glanced at him, slightly shocked. "I feel that way about you." She gave him a small smile and Jeremy couldn't help but grin as well.
Dean groaned. "No chick flick moments!"
Echo laughed seeing as it's been awhile since she's heard that, and she glanced over at her family. Sam was watching Jack who was in the kitchen with Elena, and they were looking through a cookbook, trying to find something Dean could make for them. Dean was just leaving up against the wall, watching them all with narrowed eyes.
"Did you guys find anything?" Echo called out, but before they could answer back, Shane walked in, talking about the cure.
So, Shane sat down, and Elena walked in and sat across from him. Everyone else gathered around so that they could both hear and see what he's going to talk about.
Shane unwrapped an old rock from a cloth and Damon glared at him incredulously. "It's a rock."
"It's not just any rock," Shane argued sternly looking up at him.
"Hm, so is this that silly little wives tale that you told at the occult exhibit?" Damon laid his chin on Echo's head, and she smiled, running her fingers up and down his arms that were wrapped around her.
"Right, long story short: Once upon a time, there was a witch named Silas who loved a girl, who wanted to be with her forever, so he and his best friend, another witch, made an immortality spell and then Silas' best friend witch got jealous and killed Silas' girl before he had a chance to make her immortal," the professor told the story, "Well, cursed to an eternity without his one true love, Silas finds a way to reverse the immortality spell and then before he has the chance to take it, his former friend buries him underground, leaving him and the cure to rot."
"So, it's a cure for immortality?" Elena asked curiously, her eyes wide in shock.
Shane nodded before explaining further, "Human blood is the life force of an immortal. No more immortality, no more need to feed on blood. You dig up Silas and you've got your cure."
Then Elena, Echo, and Damon looked at Shane, still soaking in this new information.
Then, Shane set the drawing of the Hunter's mark that Jeremy took from Connor's tattoo on the table and began telling them what each part of the mark mean. "This is the mark of the Brotherhood of the Five." He pointed to the part of the tattoo on the hand, "And up the arm, you have the murder of a girl by a witch. The symbols in the vines are your map, which obviously, you no longer need. When this mark is complete, it will contain the spell that we need to dig up Silas."
"And where'd you say he was buried? Oh, I forgot, you didn't," Damon commented with a sarcastic smirk.
"You've threatened to kill me, what, like three times already this week," Shane commented incredulously. He then glanced at Echo. "And so did your little girlfriend."
"I'll show you little," Echo spat out with a glare that had Dean whooping.
Shane sighed. "The location is how I'm gonna survive your bad moods."
"And what's in it for you? If not the cure, then what?" Damon questioned him suspiciously.
"I'm in this for Silas, all right?" Shane snapped in irritation, "Up until this point he's only been myth."
"So, write a thesis," Damon snarled at him.
"Would you rather be the guy who writes about Noah's Ark or the one who sails it down the Hudson River?" Shane questioned then stood up and folded the paper with the Hunter's mark drawing.
Damon held his hand out for the drawing and Shane placed the drawing into his open hand. "I'm not buying it."
"You don't have to buy anything," Shane said before turning to Elena, "You just have to believe that I can fix your brother. And when his Hunter's mark is complete, I'm gonna take you to the cure." He went to walk out of the room, but Echo said something that made him stop.
"We don't trust you nor do we want you here because we know you're not who you say you are," she said and everyone turned to her and Damon with raised brows.
Shane sighed as he turned to them. "I see we're back to the false accusation part of our relationship."
Elena looked at Echo and Damon in question. "What is he talking about?"
Shane sighed heavily. "Damon and Echo discovered that I was in contact with Pastor Young prior to the explosion at the Young farm." Shane walked back into the room over towards Elena, talking directly to her, "And the Pastor was severely depressed. He had lost his wife to cancer and he sought me out for a little supernatural assistance. I tried to help but he was too far gone. I just — I never expected that he would take eleven innocents with him."
Jeremy and Bonnie suddenly entered the room causing the others to all look at them.
"Elena," Jeremy called out, but Damon and Echo stepped forward upon seeing the stake in his hand. He held his hand up when he saw that Dean, Sam, and Jack protectively move towards Elena. "It's okay. I think we've got this."
Bonnie walked towards Elena with a calm facial expression. "Elena, don't move, okay? No matter what." Elena then noticed the stake in Jeremy's hand and grew nervous.
"Jeremy, remember the detour. Choose the right path," Shane advised him softly and Jeremy nodded and started to walk towards Elena.
However, Damon intercepted him, blocking his way so Jeremy looked over at Bonnie, who smiled at him. He looked down at the stake, before holding it up for Damon to take. The Salvatore took it from him and moved aside to let him walk over to Elena.
Echo smiled up at her boyfriend and grabbed his hand.
Jeremy stopped right in front of Elena and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. Elena sighed and wrapped her arms around him in return and smiled in relief.
"Oh, thank god," Echo breathed out and stepped forward. "Can I enter this sibling hug?"
Jeremy glanced back at her and held out his arm which she quickly walked into. She wrapped one arm around him while the other wrapped around Elena.
Dean and Sam glanced to each other, frowning slightly. They were happy, of course, that Echo had people she loved and cared for, but it only made their much needed conversation harder to start.
Echo suddenly laughed loudly as Jeremy started tickling her side. She slapped him on the arm and jumped on Elena's back, shouting, "protect me, baby vamp!"
Jack giggled as he watched them and Elena met his eyes. "Come join us," she said, waving him over with one hand seeing as the other one was holding Echo up.
Jack looked to Sam and Dean who nodded at him. He smiled widely and joined with the Gilbert siblings in a game of tag.