A Little More than Three Years from the Present
"Stefan, you can't go." Valerie said, as Stefan packed his bag.
"She has Damon and Caroline." He said. "Damon just had to go there after Caroline gave out that message."
"She has them because she wants you!"
"Well, then she's gonna get me." He stated.
"How're you going to get there?" She asked.
"Me." The two friends turned and looked at Aurelia, who walked into the room with a small bag. "I got the blood!"
"Aurelia?" Valerie asked. Aurelia smiled.
"Hello, Val." She said. "As I was saying, I'll be this guy's ride to save my friend and, uh, sister."
"Why are you going with her?" Aurelia raised an eyebrow.
"Unkind." She said. "Take that back."
"Well, she's what I got." Stefan said, earning a scoff.
"Listen, the only reason you're not dead is because of me."
"Look, you're not coming with me because she already has two people who are in trouble because of me." He said. "Aurelia has nothing to lose and she made that clear. She also seems to know a lot about such places."
"Thank you."
!
Present Day
"Mm, how are you doing?" Aurelia asked, drinking from a glass of hot chocolate. "Since Lily's funeral?"
"'Rel, it's been weeks." Aurelia hummed.
"Yes, I noticed from all the Christmas decorations hanging around." She said, looking around.
"How are you?" He asked. She looked at her stomach, lightly rubbing it. "And the kids?"
"We're all good." She replied. "Wait until you see me. I grew way too much these past few weeks. I think I have a pot belly."
"Yeah, well, put on a Santa hat and you'd fit right in Sunbury Street." She laughed. "What are you doing?"
"Helping Caroline out with the Toys for Tots drive." She answered, looking at a few gifts in a crate. "She says that we want 10 more crates than last year's drive."
"And what did you say?"
"I said that we're compelling way too many people." She stated, taking another sip of her hot cocoa. "I miss your hand-made meals for me."
"I'm coming back soon, you know..."
"But you've been gone for over a week!"
"I'd have come back a lot sooner if my travelling companion would actually stick to task instead of stopping by every single bar we pass." Aurelia smiled.
"It's called a pub crawl, Stef!" She heard Damon call. "That's the whole point! Don't be such a Grinch, or you'll get coal in your stocking."
"He does have a point." She said.
"Oh, not you, too. I thought we were sticking together."
"Well, judging by the empty space that my boyfriend is supposed to fill at my side, I don't think we're actually stuck together." She said, hearing chuckles.
"Are you sure you don't need me there?"
"Wants and Needs are two very different things." She said. "Besides, you're doing something far more important by looking for Julian. I can handle myself."
"Of course you can." He said, before she looked at Bonnie.
"Okay, I gotta go now." She stated with a small pout.
"Alright. Leave me with my horrible travelling companion."
"Hang up on him!" Damon called.
"You decided to bring your brother along." She said.
"Fair point." Stefan said. "Okay, go eat something."
"Exactly what I wanted to do." She stated, looking at her swollen stomach. "You know me so well."
"And that makes me an amazing boyfriend, doesn't it?" He asked. "I love you."
"I love you, too." She said. "Be safe." She hung up.
"Hey, Stefan." Bonnie said, walking up to her. "Did I mention that Bonnie and Caroline saw me mix hot sauce and a blood bag in a tub of almond ice cream?" She teased.
"Well, I like almond ice cream." Aurelia defended with a pout. "And I like hot sauce. I thought blood could satiate my hunger..." She then blinked. "But I'm feeding for three now, so..."
"Fair." Bonnie said, before Caroline walked up to them. "Caroline, why won't she tell Stefan about her weird food cravings?"
"No, really." Caroline said. "Why don't you tell him everything?"
"Because I am a headache as it is. I don't want to burden him with the gory details of my magical pregnancy with Ric's babies." Aurelia answered, as Alaric walked towards her and placed a hand on her shoulder, making her jump.
"Words that should not be spoken at that volume." He said, making her let out a sigh of relief as she recognized his voice.
"You scared me." She said. "My hearing's all over the place right now with the commotion here, honestly." She looked around at the several people, before looking at Alaric. "So, did you get your gift for the tots?" She asked, folding her arms. He held up a Barbie doll in a package and a Rubik's cube in another. "Wonderful!"
"I honestly thought you and Caroline were going to kill me." He said, making the two sisters look at him, pretending to be innocent. "Hey, the offer still stands for classes."
"About coaching with pregnancy and birthing?" Caroline asked.
"Yes." He replied.
"Wait, you don't trust me and my ways to handle children?" Aurelia questioned, frowning. Alaric's eyes widened, and he frantically shook his head. "If that's what you think, then just admit it."
"Aurelia, why don't we get you some ice cream?" Bonnie proposed. Aurelia looked at her.
"In December?" She asked. The brunette slowly and nervously nodded. "Of course!"
!
"Oh, this is cute!" Aurelia cooed, looking at an old, porcelain doll that was probably used, but in great shape nonetheless. "We can't keep it with this. It'll break, won't it?" She held the doll up and looked at Bonnie.
"Well, we can hand it to whomever likes fancy dolls, right?" The witch asked. The Heretic smiled, before she looked over to Nora, who was approaching them. "Nora. How unexpected. What are you doing here?"
"Un, I have a toy... for a tot." Nora said, holding up a board game.
"You shouldn't have." Bonnie said.
"I didn't, actually. It was a passive-aggressive gift for when Mary Louise came crawling back to me, but that hasn't happened, so..." Aurelia took it, looking at it for a few moments, as the other two looked at her. "Aurelia, might I say that you're looking adorable?" The blonde looked at her sireling with a sweet smile.
"Thank you." She said.
"Okay, you delivered it." Bonnie chimed it. "Yay!" She feigned cheerful expressions. "That's the end."
"But how will they know that the toy's from me?" Nora asked.
"We can tell them." Aurelia said, as Bonnie gently tugged her to walk with her. Nora followed her.
"And you're still not leaving..." The witch mumbled.
"I want to be more involved." Nora began. "You see, I recently enrolled in classes..." Aurelia heard something shatter, before her head snapped to see a girl looking at the mess she had created on the ground in embarrassment. She bent down to pick up the shards of glass as two other people went to help them, when she hissed in pain.
The blonde's eyes widened as the metallic and captivating smell of blood filling her nostrils. She saw dark red clearly on the girl's fingers. The sight and smell were enough for her to feel her fangs poking her lips. She began to take a step forward, before she felt a hand on her shoulder.
She snapped out of her daze, before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. She fangs retracted and she the breath out through her lips, before opening her eyes and turning to look at Bonnie with a smile. "Yeah?"
"Are you okay?" She asked. Aurelia nodded.
"I'm good." She said. "Where did Nora go?" She asked. Bonnie frowned.
"Weren't you listening? I convinced her to handle the collection booth, which is basically code for the fact that I want her to leave." She stated, looking at her friend in concern.
"Oh, yes." Aurelia quickly said. "Sorry, I was listening, but then that person who dropped her glass drew my attention, and you know, baby-brain, so..." She lied, before looking at Alaric. "One second." She walked to the professor. "Hey again." She said.
"Well, I want to bring up the topic of you thinking that I think that you're not a good mother..." He began to say. "But I don't want you to get mad, so guess what I got?"
"Blood bags?" She asked. He looked at her weirdly, shaking his head.
"Well, Stefan told me you would knit in 1864." He said. "So..." He held up a bag, making her smile. "Am I forgiven?"
"Of course you are." She said. "It was my mood swings." He gave her the bag, and she took a look at it, before glancing back up with him.
"Well, I'm a little out of practice, but I'm sure I can do it again, right?" She asked. "I think I'll knit two hats."
"Wait, you're going to knit for the kids?" He asked. She looked at him as if he was crazy.
"Isn't that why you bought me this?" She questioned. He slowly shook his head. "Well, I thought to make some clothes for your kids, because I won't—" She suddenly took a deep breath, before her hands went to her stomach. "Ah, oh." She said softly, earning a look of concern. "I can feel one moving a little." Alaric looked at her in surprise.
"What?" He asked, slightly astonished. She grinned.
"Well, I'm at the point where I feel all these movements, and their easier to detect because I'm me." She said.
"Would I be able to...?" He trailed off.
"Feel that?" She guessed. "Well, I assume you question is whether or not I'll let you place her hands on my stomach." He shyly nodded. "I doubt you'll feel much, but yeah, sure." She said.
Slowly, his hand went down to her stomach, before he narrowed his eyes slightly. "Oh, I feel something." He said, before she laughed.
"I guess they want to make their presence known in front of their father." She said, before she heard hushed voices only a few feet away from her.
"Isn't he a professor at Whitmore?" She heard a female voice say.
"And isn't she a student?" A male voice was also heard. Aurelia gritted her teeth, her smile turning into a frown.
"What? Is everything okay?" Alaric asked.
"My hearing chooses now to be absolutely perfect." She said.
"What do you wanna bet she's doing really well in his class?" The woman asked.
"Oh, she didn't." Aurelia mumbled, becoming angrier by the second as Alaric looked at her.
"Uh-oh." He said, before she furrowed her eyebrows together.
"No, it's fine." She assured. "They're just finding it hard to understand that it's not the 1700s anymore, and that now, families come with all shapes and sizes." She said. "I'm gonna explain it to them, and I'm probably gonna get a drink while I do." She continued. "I may be a woman that's pregnant with the children of a man who looks older than me, although he isn't. I may be pregnant with your kids, but I have a boyfriend that I love dearly and our lives are super-weird, so they shouldn't speak until they have all the facts."
"How is she not ashamed of herself right now?" Those words made her snap as she spun around, facing the two people she heard bitching about her.
"Because we live in a world where people are more accepting that you two idiots." She said. "You do know that because of you and people like you, many women can't help but feel insecure, right?" The two stared at her. "And you think that I'm doing well in his class because of the reason for this?" She gestured to her stomach. "No, I'm doing well because I'm a 402-year-old vampire who's seen most things that haven even been written down." She hissed, making them looked at her as if she was crazy. "Oh, I see. You think I'm mental, don't you?" She asked. "Well..." She parted her lips as she felt her fangs, before her eyes turned red and her black veins swelled up beneath them. "Who's crazy now?" They looked at her in certain fear, before she smirked. "Scram. And don't think of doing something like this again!"
"Aurelia?" Alaric asked. "We should go."
"No one saw me, Alaric." Aurelia said.
"You're coming with me, and it's happening now, 'Lia."
!
"I was one second away from making every single blood vessel in their bodies pop!" Aurelia exclaimed, placing her hands on her head as she began to regret her decision to threaten them.
"They were jerks. They deserved it." Alaric said reassuringly, before he held a blood bag out, making her sigh in relief before she took it.
"Ugh, I've needed this all day." She said, before taking a glass and pouring the blood into it. She took a sip.
"You and me, both." He said, taking a swig from a bottle of bourbon, making her frown. "What?"
"I really wanna drink some." She said, before closing her eyes. "Well, I went off alcohol for years at a stretch." She added. "I can do it now, right?"
"Right." She took another sip, before letting out a breath.
"God, I'm so moody, it makes me sick." She mumbled, before he kept down his bottle of bourbon. "What if the babies are tired of me doing this?" Her eyes then widened. "What if they're uncomfortable in a womb like mine?!"
"Aurelia, you're doing great." He said. "And you haven't mothered kids in almost four centuries!"
"So?!"
"You're doing a wonderful job with my kids." He said. "You're absolutely perfect—"
"Stop it." She said with a scowl.
"But you are!" He protested. "I mean, do you realize how happy I am? Pregnancy is definitely not an easy thing to handle, but you've done it so well!" She growled.
"STOP!" She shouted, before pinning him to a wall in anger. "Stop saying that!" She suddenly realized what his was doing, before pulling away from him almost instantly. "Oh my God. Ric, I'm so sorry. I-I..." She sighed. "I should leave."
!
Aurelia took a deep breath, holding the flowers in her hand as she walked towards Liz's grave, slowly trudging through the thin layer of snow while snowflakes landed on her head and in her hair.
"I just realized that this is gonna be my first Christmas without you." She heard Caroline's voice. She looked up, spotting her sister sitting by her mother's grave.
She walked forward a little, until she could hear her properly.
"I have some news, by the way." The younger vampire said. "Aurelia's pregnant! And she nearly six months along, which means her bump is super cute! I think I'll spare you the details, because I am honestly tired of hearing and saying those words over and over again, and so is she." A sigh. "As wrong as it is to feel what I do, I feel jealous. It's not that I want to be human again or anything. I mean, 'Lia's a vampire, and she has twins. It's just... I sort of wish it was me who got pregnant, because of two reasons: One is that she's already been pregnant and I don't want her to go through that pain again, and two is that I wanted kids." She saw her wipe a tear away. "You know, I used to picture us having this conversation. It looked different, obviously. I was human, and you were alive. I still thought of it three years ago, around when I met 'Lia. After that, I imagined her being the excited sister and the aunt that would spoil the kids. But she's pregnant. And the kids are her responsibility. I just want her to feel comfortable, because she's been through so much as a person. I wanna help her in any way I can. But I have no idea how to. I just wish you were here so that we could sit on the kitchen counter while you burn dinner and ask you a million questions." She finished, near tears. "God, I miss you. The both of us do, you know?"
"We do." Aurelia said, catching her attention.
"Lia, I didn't know you were coming." She said. "I'm sorry." Aurelia smiled as Caroline stood up. "I just—"
"I understand how you feel." She said. "You do know that there was a gap of 385 years between both pregnancies, right?" Caroline smiled, before Aurelia pulled her into a hug.
Suddenly, the older vampire yelped, holding her stomach as she squeezed her eyes shut in pain. Caroline pulled away from her, looking down at her stomach with wide eyes. "Aurelia?! Are you okay?!" Aurelia let out a breath, unable to answer as Caroline quickly seated her on a bench. "Aurelia, tell me what's happening."
"It's- it's—" Aurelia sighed in relief, her face holding a little discomfort as her labored breaths even. "I'm okay."
"No, you're not." Caroline argued. "What just happened?"
"I don't know. It's happened a few times, though."
"What? And you never told me?!"
"Well, I'm a vampire. Maybe those Braxton Hicks' contractions hurt." She said. Caroline shook her head.
"When did this start?" She asked.
"When I first told Stefan that I was pregnant." Aurelia answered honestly. "It's been happening once a day since."
"It's been weeks, Aurelia!" The younger blonde exclaimed. "Did this happen in front of him?" The Heretic shook her head.
"Please, don't tell him." She said in desperation. "He's already worried about me, and I don't want it to worsen, okay?" Caroline sighed and hesitantly nodded.
"But I'm taking you to the Boarding House right now, okay?"
!
"Stefan?" Aurelia asked, walking into the library. She looked around for him, having heard shuffling noises from the room. Her eyes finally landed on his figure, before she smiled. "Stef—" She gasped, her hand flying to her mouth as she saw a motionless Damon on the ground, blood all over his face. "Oh my God!"
Stefan turned around to look at her, revealing his tear-stained cheeks and red eyes, which turned wide with worry as he looked at her. "Aurelia!" She walked towards him and Damon's body.
"W-What...?" She was even more horrified when she saw a blood stain on his shirt. "Oh my God." She muttered over and over again as she took a shaky breath and slowly walked towards her friend.
"Aurelia, don't." He said, proceeding to gently pull her towards him. She raised her hand up, telling him to stop before she lifted Damon's shirt up to reveal a wound in the shape of a cross, which was healing slowly. "'Rel?"
"S-Stefan, that's the-the P-Phoenix Sword's mark." She said in horror, scrambling backwards. He helped her up, cradling her shaking body. "Where's the Sword?"
"Julian, uh, he stabbed Damon with the completed sword." He answered numbly, seeming to know what she knew. "How did you know?"
"Stefan, he's trapped in that stone." She said, not hearing his question. He guiltily looked down at his brother. "We need to get him out."
"Damon wanted me to let it go." He said. "I should've let it go. Valerie and I knocked Mary Louise out, and sent the picture to Julian, which made him come here. I couldn't—" Aurelia looked at him.
"Lily was your mother." She said, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. "It's okay. Julian was the reason she died, and it's only normal to find it hard to move on." She then pulled him into a hug. "It's okay, but we should figure out a way to save your brother."
"How?"
"Bonnie brought Oscar and Jo back. With my help, I'm sure she can put the right soul in Damon's body."
!
"She's not answering." Aurelia said, looking at her phone. "We should call Valerie." She waited for an answer, but she didn't get any. She turned to look at Stefan in concern. "Stefan?"
"He's not gonna make it in there." Stefan said. Aurelia looked at Damon, realizing that Stefan was only half-right.
"He will, Stefan. He's Damon, and getting out will be hard, but he will survive it." She said, placing her hand on his shoulder.
"That stone is punishment for every bad thing you've ever done, Aurelia." He said. "This is Damon. I don't even want to know what he's going through." He closed his eyes, making her cup his cheeks.
"Hey, he can do it." She said. "And in the meantime, I promise you that I will get him out."
Suddenly she blinked, the feeling of magic usage detectable to her. She looked around. "What?" He asked.
"I can sense—" Her eyes widened as she saw Nora appear out of nowhere, a familiar sword in her hands. It had a sharp blade with an end shaped as a cross. The handle carried the Phoenix Stone.
"Hello." Nora said. "You know, even if Damon can get out, he'll be different..." She trailed off, looking at Stefan. "Just like you." She suddenly sped to him, stabbing him with the sword in the heart.
Aurelia let out a cry of horror as she saw the stone glow, absorbing his soul into his as he groaned in pain. "Stefan!" She yelled, as he closed his eyes and fell to the ground.
She ran to him, kneeling over him. She pulled the sword out, throwing it to the ground before she took his hand and cupped his cheek, tears streaming down her face as she looked at his dead body. When she couldn't keep it in anymore, she screamed through her tears.
"STEFAN!"
~