twenty-five. you decided that i was worth saving
Salvatore Boarding House, Stefan and Rosie's Bedroom
Rosie slowly wakes up peacefully in her large king-sized bed in the spacious bedroom, only covered in the thick sheet, which is filled with bright yellow balloons by her two close friends as a surprise after they heard of the engagement the previous night. Bonnie is lying on her right side behind Rosie on the large bed, who is chuckling softly at the sight of her peaceful state. Caroline rushes in from downstairs after making breakfast for Rosie.
"Surprise!" Bonnie and Caroline shouted, alarming and surprising her.
"You guys, what the--" Rosie laughs as she sits up, covering her stark naked body from them with the sheet, looking cute with her messy caramel hair.
"Whoa. Something smells peculiar in here." Bonnie slowly smiles at her.
Rosie fails not to blush in pure embarrassment to be caught naked in bed from having sex with her new fiancé the previous night, "We celebrated."
"Aw." Both much younger women laugh together to congratulate her.
"Well then, good morning, bride-to-be." Caroline joins them on the big bed.
"You are engaged, and we are celebrating." Bonnie giggles, "Today. Now."
"Maybe after you put some clothes on." Her best friend reminded them.
Rosie nods before a succinct sarcastic comment, "Yeah, good idea."
"First, we're going to drink too much champagne, your favourite. And then, we are taking you wedding dress shopping. I know it's a little early, but you're going to try on thousands of dresses before you find the perfect one, so we may as well start now." Caroline talked, "It's going to be perfect!"
The satiated caramel brunette is still processing the environment around her with the numerous balloons, "Look, I love you guys, and this is amazing, but you don't have to put on a happy face for me right now."
"We're not putting it on. We're not, we're happy for you. I promise." Bonnie assured her, ensuring that the wedding is going to be absolutely great.
"You've been waiting for this your whole life. We're happy for you. I swear." Caroline added on, smiling widely, and hands her friend a glass of mimosa.
Bonnie pops open the champagne bottle; the cork hits the wall, that the trio yelled and laugh at together, especially Rosie, who's smiling extra wide.
"Okay, but I promise we are going to find Enzo for you and--"
"First things first, planning your June wedding." Bonnie interrupted her.
Rosie becomes excited, "Oh my God. Yes! The June wedding!"
"The June wedding." Caroline repeated and they laugh again together.
The future bride giggles, "Oh my God, you guys, this is amazing. You're both amazing. Thank you." So much. You're the best friends ever.
"You're welcome." Bonnie replied, smiling in return.
Rosie examines the engagement, crystal white diamond, ring around her little right ring finger with a smile, "I'm getting married!"
"Yay!" The blonde vampire laughs.
****
Bridal Shop
"Let's talk silhouettes. Focus on A-lines and sheaths." Caroline retorted as she is examining and comparing two white wedding dresses in front of the three full length mirrors in the local shop as she turns to the female bridal clerk behind her while Bonnie and Rosie are wandering around closely.
"Yeah, I'm open to trumpets, but easy on the volume." Rosie added on.
"Less dress, more bride." The young female bridal clerk surmised.
"Exactly." The twenty-five-year-old blonde vampire replied, smiling.
"Okay." The bridal clerk grabs the two hangered white wedding dresses just as Bonnie takes a seat on a chair nearby, opposite the three tall mirrors.
"Thank you." The future bride smiles in pursuit, truly grateful for the aid.
"You're welcome. I'll be right back." The young female clerk walks away.
Rosie turns to the twenty-four-year-old witch, who's in her seat, "Now, let's get to work finding you the perfect maid of honor dress. Shall we?"
Bonnie smiles as she slowly stands back up, holding both of the lovely future bride's soft hands, "Aw, I'd be honored to be your...maid of honor. And not just because my main competition is in a coma 'til I die."
"Good. Because we're going to do everything within our power to make sure you and Enzo live happily ever after." Caroline declared in determination.
"Yeah, and I've got killer aim...and no qualms about rigging the bouquet toss." Rosie chuckles at the reminder of her favourite flowers, "You ready?"
"Yep." The young witch replied with equal determination.
"Catch!" Someone vamp-speeds in and catches the bouquet in one hand instead and the now-dead bridal clerk in the other, horrifying Rosie, "Damon."
"Damon, what are you-- Run." Caroline mentioned as an ultimatum.
Rosie vamp-speeds herself and Bonnie away, for safety, to hide from Damon somewhere in the bridal shop between piles of white wedding dresses.
Caroline vamp-speeds over to attack him, but Damon, the much older one, easily grabs her by the throat, tightening the hold, "Oh, looks like little brother's getting married, huh? Consider this my RSVP." He throws her to a pile of wedding dresses and begins to search for his target, "Bonnie? You can run, but you can't hide. I can hear your broken little heart beating, Bonnie. Oh, poor Bon Bon. Literally always the bridesmaid. Never the bride."
Rosie and Damon scuffle afterward as she attempts to stab him with a makeshift stake for incapacitation. Caroline recovers and vamp-speeds over to Damon once again, pulling a hanger railing off a rack and impaling Damon's stomach into a cupboard behind him, giving the three girls the chance to escape, out of the bridal shop after Rosie gives him a torn look.
****
Salvatore Boarding House/Forbes Residence (Saltzman Residence)
Rosie is urgently talking to her concerned fiancé on her cell phone as she and her close friends walk into her home through the main front door, "Stefan, if Damon wants her dead, then she's dead, and I can't have that."
"Why is he coming after her? It makes no sense." Stefan is currently pacing back and forth in his close friend's residential living room, frowning.
Minerva, who's been listening to him, sighs tiredly, "Why do you think?"
"It makes perfect sense if it has something to do with Enzo." Rosie spoke.
"None of it makes sense. But we're going to need weapons, lots of them." Caroline sighs and opens the throne near the foyer, "The throne is empty."
"Right. Yeah, sorry, I was child-proofing for your kids, Care. But the crossbows are still in the library. Listen, I'm going to try to track Damon, and with any luck, the drone will lead us back to the queen." Stefan told them.
"And when you find her?" His girlfriend asked in concern, "What's the plan?"
"Minerva and Ric are still working on that part. Your deadline just got moved up. You don't have days. You have hours." Stefan announced to the pair.
Rosie hangs up and Caroline leads the way to the library, where Stefan told them where the crossbows are, which are hidden on one of the top shelves.
"Do you think we can get away with not inviting Damon to the wedding? I mean, even if we do save him?" The blonde mentioned, "Offense, yeah."
"He's going to be my brother-in-law. And, likely, Stefan's best man. Sorry." The future bride spoke defensively, entirely hopeful. We'll get him back.
Caroline sighs in a tired manner of her undying hope for him, "Fine, fine. But he is not sitting at the head table, I'll make sure of it for you." She gets up and turns to her best friend in frustration, "Where is all the ammo?"
Once armed with guns and ammunitions, the trio began to walk down the front hallway, out of the library as Rosie spoke, "I'm starting to consider a destination wedding. Try finding a Mystic Falls venue that hasn't been the site of a horrible atrocity, wherever that is." They halt in the main foyer when they found Sybil sitting in the den, with Minerva's open scrapbook.
"Hi Bonnie. I'm Sybil. So glad to finally meet you. This is really nice work. Minerva, is it? I'm not sure about riding in on the unicorn, but I love this charmeuse and the tiara design is exquisite." She fakes a smile at them.
Rosie fakes a smile at the much older woman in return, "Aw, why, thank you. Except I'm not Minerva. And well, she made that in the sixth grade, so congratulations. You have the fashion sense of an eleven-year-old."
Caroline scoffs and stifles her laugh at Rosie's unpredictable sassiness.
"I just want to know where Bonnie's is." Sybil demanded.
"Scrapbooking's not really my thing. What do you want?"
"Simple. I want to know what makes you so special. What is it about you that has Enzo and Damon wrapped around those flawlessly manicured little fingers? I mean, I get Enzo. The accent, the star-crossed witch-vampire thing." Sybil sets the scrapbook down on the table and stands up, "No...it's the Damon of it all that has me so stumped. Did you guys ever...you know..."
"No." Bonnie replied as Rosie maintains a blank, poker-faced expression.
"All that time, alone in a prison world. Same day on repeat. What about your best friend Minerva? She was there. Either one of you must've done something to break up the brain-numbing monotony. Admit it." She asked.
"No." Bonnie repeated, strictly firm with her answer. It meant nothing.
The oldest woman in the room frowns, "Seriously? Look, you are gorgeous, and so are you, Rosie. I can admit that, I'm not blind. And neither is Damon. Who, in case you haven't noticed, ladies, is scorching. I mean..." She scoffs, "...you can't spell Damon without 'damn'. Strictly platonic? Really? Wow. Good for you. That doesn't explain how you inspire so much devotion in two men who are supposed to be completely devoted to me, Bonnie. So why don't you three sit down and we'll have a little heart-to-heart? I can make you. But it's excruciatingly painful. And it'll mess up your hair."
****
Forbes Residence (Saltzman Residence)
"There's nothing in the historical records about a weapon like this." Georgie holds up the revealed ancient artifact — being an ancient metal tuning fork.
"A weapon that came from a millenium ago. I wonder why." Minerva spoke up sarcastically, hinting that they're not searching about it well enough.
Alaric sighs tiredly at her bitterness, "Georgie, please tell me there's a 'but'."
"But I have a theory. Okay. So...assuming that the symbol etched into it has a connection to hell, what's the first thing you think of when you think of hell? The devil, right? And what's the most common visual representation of the devil?" The young brunette intern questioned them, smiling.
"Uh, a man in a red suit. Pointy tail. With a pitchfork." The man listed out.
The older woman raises the tuning fork in her left hand, "Ding-ding-ding. Okay, in the medieval tradition, the pitchfork symbolized the separation of the wheat from the chaff. Which was obviously a metaphor for good souls going to heaven and garbage souls going to the big fiery basement."
The younger woman frowns, "Well, shouldn't that have three tines?"
"Not in 2200 B.C. when it was forged. The soil around the Mediterranean was rocky. So their pitchforks only had two." The well-versed intern stated.
"Huh. I see." The twenty-four-year-old banshee nods in understanding.
He nods in pursuit, "Okay, well that's all very interesting, but that doesn't tell us anything about its connection to the sirens, how we'd use it--"
His skeptical intern scoffs in disbelief, taking it more as a joke, "We? Why would we use it? Like this is real? As in some sort of magical weapon?"
Minerva forces a laugh to cover up the unease, "Of course not."
"Come on, Georgie, you know what I mean." Alaric encouraged her.
She averts her curious gaze between the odd pair, "No. Actually, I don't. You sure this is for a book? 'Cause you're treating it like lives are at stake."
Minerva defended her friend, "Worse. Tenure, okay? Now, keep digging."
****
Salvatore Boarding House
Sybil walks over to the mini bar and pours herself a crystal glass of strong bourbon as she began, "So, Bonnie, what's your secret? What did Damon and Enzo see in you?" She sips on the liquor as she watches the trio.
"I have no idea." Bonnie replied from her seat on the couch, arms folded.
She scoffs, "Oh, come on, Bonnie. Surely you can think of something."
"You know, whatever you're trying to do here, it's not going to work. You're not going to get what you want. Something you should know about Bonnie is that she is fiercely loyal and she would do anything for the people she loves." Caroline declared from her seat next to her best friend, arms folded.
Rosie sighs tiredly and rolls her big hazel eyes at this, "Nice, Caroline."
"Really? Now that is something we can work with. So you would do anything for Damon and Enzo? Like, anything anything? I mean, how far would you really go? What if you had to choose between them?" Sybil chuckles, "Here's the thing, ladies. I need two loyal soldiers, and these two can't seem to cut loose from their ties to the past. It's working my last nerve. So, I realized, I really only need one of them. The other will die and live an eternity of darkness and pain. So...Bonnie gets to choose."
"You're crazy." The younger blonde vampire told her.
"No. I'm just very old, very set in my ways and very annoyed. Choose. Now."
"Now? Ooh, the pressure. You know, I get it. You're jealous. You see a love that you didn't have to siren someone into. A love that isn't all about you. You're threatened. So, naturally you have to destroy it in the most sadistic game you can imagine. Forget it. Not playing." Rosie defended her anxious future maid of honor with a fake but cute smile, "Neither of us are."
"You're no fun. You know what was fun? Ancient Rome." Sybil chuckles, "The Coliseum. Gladiators. Sweaty, oiled-up men hurling themselves at each other. So hot. You'll see what I mean soon enough. In exactly twelve minutes, Damon and Enzo will fight to the death. They don't have a choice. I've willed it so. One of them will lose. So, if you're not going to choose, then I guess we'll just let the boys settle it amongst themselves. Your choice."
Rosie looks on at the oldest woman in pure horror, "You did what?"
****
Forbes Residence (Saltzman Residence)
"Alright, I didn't cut them into star shapes like Seline does, but I've got some really cool square shapes for you." Minerva carries the full plate of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into the living room, only to find the little twins fighting about the tuning fork, making the young woman frown in horror.
"I had it first."
"But I had it first."
"I had it."
"But I had it first."
"Girls. Lizzie...Put that down, right now." Minerva approaches them.
"But Aunt Mini, I had it first." The three-year-old blonde argued.
"I said drop it." The young woman ordered them, strictly assertive.
Lizzie drops the ancient metal fork on the carpet floor; it clatters and reverberates; the twins began screaming as if it is affecting them as they cover their ears, along with Minerva herself, who drops the fragile plate on the floor, who seems to have been affected by the frequency in pursuit.
However, the twenty-four-year-old banshee only covers her ears in agony.
"Aunt Mini, make it stop! Aunt Mini! Auntie!"
"Minerva!" Alaric quickly speed-walks down the main stairs when he hears his daughters' screams; he sighs anxiously when he sees the trio in pain.
"Make it stop, Ric. It hurts." His close friend pleaded desperately.
Alaric picks it up and the reverberating stops before he quickly pulls his two twin daughters into a hug, soothing them, "Shh...You're okay now."
Minerva nods a little and lets out a breath of relief that she's alright now.
Georgie runs downstairs after him, deeply concerned as well, "Oh my God. Are they okay? Did they cut themselves? I'm so sorry I left that out."
"It's okay. You were right about that being a pitchfork. Literally. Emphasis on 'pitch'. It's a tuning fork." Minerva stares at the weapon, now on the table.
****
Bonnie's Cerato
"Why does the car keep making that infernal noise?" Sybil, who's sitting in the back seat of the driven car with Caroline, complained in annoyance.
"Oh, it's reminding you to put your seatbelt on." Rosie replied in an obvious tone as she is sitting in the passenger seat next to the owner/driver.
"Well, you can remind it that I'm immortal." The oldest woman smiles.
"And this is how you choose to spend that gift. You just escaped over two hundred years of captivity. Why aren't you on a beach in Saint-Tropez sirening Channing Tatum to give you foot massages?" Caroline snapped as the vampire in front is sneakily sending Stefan a text about Sybil's plan.
"No offense, but you got to admit that seems a little small for a mythological creature of your stature." Bonnie spoke judgmentally.
"That's only 'cause you don't know what awesomeness awaits you. Now step on it. We don't want to miss round one." This is going to be fun.
****
"Five minutes. This is so exciting. Oh, come on, what happened to all that sassy backtalk? Oh, right. It's probably easier to talk tough when you had your magic to back it up. What's wrong? Somebody feeling powerless right now? But here's the ray of sunshine. You actually have all the power. Just say the word, and you can decide who gets to live and who gets to spend the rest of eternity in never-ending emotional torment. Oh, you guys know about that, right? They're homicidal monsters. They have done the worst things imaginable. Where do you think they're going to end up? Some cloud-filled afterlife?" Sybil laughs, "No, of course not. They're going to the other place, where all they will know is loneliness and despair forever and ever and ever. What about you, Rosie? What do you think Bonnie should do?" She grabs ahold of the doppelgänger's head, using her telepathy to see into her thoughts, hurting the vampire when Caroline pulls Sybil back.
"Stop! Stop, okay? You're hurting her."
Sybil chuckles, "Oh, you think Stefan is going to swoop in and save Bonnie from having to make such an untenable choice. That's putting a lot of faith in your fiancé. When Damon and Enzo start tearing each other apart, do you really think Stefan is going to let Enzo kill his brother? No. He's going to choose Damon. Aw. Poor Enzo. Nobody's choosing him. You're not even choosing him, Bonnie. Are you just going to sit there and allow Enzo to die?"
"No." Bonnie slams on the brakes, tires screeching, and Sybil goes flying through the front windshield and falls on the road in front of them.
"Oh my God." Rosie gasps and looks at the driver, "You okay?"
"Oh. Yeah." The magically-suppressed young witch replied.
"She's not dead." Caroline stated as a reminder that the woman's immortal.
"Guess now she has to walk." The woman resumes driving, faster this time.
"We'll make it in time." The blonde in the back seat assured them. I hope.
"No, Sybil's right. Stefan's going to protect Damon no matter what. I can't help him. I have no power. She's right. There is no one who can fight for him." Bonnie admitted in horror and great sympathy for her lonely lover.
****
Mystic Falls High School
"Little help over here, brother." Damon called out amidst the violent fight.
Stefan raises a shovel to finish off Enzo, who is on his front on the floor in pain, when a high-pitched piercing scream is heard in the room due to Minerva, who appears at the last moment, causing Stefan to drop the shovel and covers his ears that are in pain, as well as Damon, who falls to his knees on the floor with his painful ears covered and Enzo groans in pain on the floor, weak. Caroline appears in the room as well with her ears covered.
"We can't let you do that." Caroline mentioned once the scream ends.
"Minerva, stay out of this!" Please. You shouldn't be here. Stefan spoke.
"I promised Bonnie." Minerva informed him sadly, "So please, don't."
Damon vamp-speeds behind her and breaks Caroline's neck, her body thuds on the floor; Enzo vamp-speeds behind Stefan and repeats the same action; Damon gives Minerva a warning look, "Don't make me kill you too."
"He's right. Stay out of this." Enzo added on, "Or else."
Minerva backs away with teary eyes as she helplessly watches them continue fighting violently with whatever weapons they could find surrounding them. Damon pushes him onto the metal stairs with a stake in hand, which he uses to try to plunge it into Enzo's heart when Bonnie appears and Minerva spoke up to him, a tear rolling down her left cheek.
"Damon, no. Damon? Please. Please fight through this. For Rosie. I know you can. Please, Damon. He's your friend. Do it for Bonnie. Stop!"
Sybil finally arrives from luring a driver on the road to give her a ride, "He can't. The only one that can stop him is Bonnie. Choose. Now or never."
"Damon! Damon, don't make me do this." Bonnie warned him.
"Sorry, not sorry, Bon." You should just walk out of here with Minerva.
Bonnie cried out eventually, even though reluctant, "I choose Enzo!"
"What?" Damon gasped, his icy blue eyes wide in shock and disbelief.
"Damon? Kindly remove your hand, without the gentleman's heart in it."
Enzo groans in agony, exhausted, as he does what he is told.
"No." Damon turns around to face the female duo, "No. Bonnie, don't do this to me. Rosie, say something. Please, you wouldn't let her do this."
Minerva sighs heavily, "And neither does Rosie. Please forgive me."
"We both know that somewhere deep down, there's still some part of you left. We couldn't have stripped it all away. You're...obnoxiously too stubborn to let that happen. We know our friend is still in there, and we're going to have to live with that. I just can't let him die. I choose Enzo." Bonnie said.
"Oof, I'm getting all weepy. So touching. So raw." The malevolent siren said.
No. "I know where I'm going when I die." Damon walks toward his master, "You can't send me there. I'll fight every one of you. Mark my words."
Bonnie pulls Minerva with her as Enzo pulls the pair of best friends behind him to protect them as he glares at his master who spoke, "Hmm. So Bonnie can't live without Enzo. And clearly, Stefan and Rosie can't live without Damon. But nobody's bothered to ask me what I want. You're the only one that's truly committed around here, Damon. You're an asset. Enzo's nothing but a burden. So...I guess my only real problem is with you, Bonnie. You chose wrong. Which is why I'm going to have Damon kill you."
"What?" Lorenzo asked, frowning in horror and disbelief of her orders.
Sybil laughs sadistically, "Damon kills Bonnie, I'll kill you, Rosie can do whatever she wants with Stefan, and then we can all get on with our lives. Unless...you give me what I want. Turn off your humanity, pledge your loyalty to me, and then we can all go home happy. Pinkie swear. Easy."
"Don't trust her." Bonnie advised to her torn vampire boyfriend.
"Sorry, love. I'm not seeing many other options."
"Enzo. Don't." Please. Stay with me. Bonnie pleaded desperately.
"Yes, Enzo, do. You know you want to. Come on, this is mercy. You've seen what happens when you die. What if your precious Bonnie is due the same fate? Save yourself. Save your one true love. Do it. Now." Sybil demanded.
Enzo turns around to face his torn girlfriend, "Bonnie, Bonnie..."
"What are you doing?"
"...if anyone can pull me back from the precipice, it's you. I know you can."
Bonnie shakes her head in denial as she cries pathetically, "No. No. No, no."
I love you. Remember that. Enzo kisses her before he turns off his humanity switch for her, whose tear rolls down her left cheek as she looks up at his now emotionless eyes after he opens them back and lets go of her. He turns around and walks past Sybil to join Damon by his side as her minions.
"Finally. Now, was that so hard? Oh, one last thing, would you mind if I took back my promise to spare Bonnie's life?" The malevolent woman spoke.
"No objections here." Enzo replied with a cold smile.
Sybil softly gasps, "You're the best. Bonnie, I'm going to count down from ten, and then I'm going to let Damon finish what he started. Ten. Nine. Enzo, you sure you don't mind if Damon rips your girlfriend to shreds?"
"No."
The woman gasps softly, "Eight. So much for your indomitable love. Seven. Looks like Enzo's not going to help you. Six. Pretty sure Minerva, Stefan, Rosie and Caroline won't be much help either. And anyway, what can a banshee do? Five. Bonnie, you really should be running now. Four."
"Bonnie, run. Now. Now!" Minerva told her in alarm, who finally starts to run; the young banshee runs after her as quick as she can and the duo make it out of the building, Minerva helping Bonnie to run as quick as they can, "Come on. Faster. I know you can." They are about to reach her parked Cerato when Damon suddenly appears in front of them, "Damon, no--"
Damon grabs Bonnie and roughly slams her against another parked car's passenger door when Rosie quickly gets out of the Cerato, speed-walking towards her best friend, "Damon, stop! Please. This isn't you!" I know you.
Damon slowly backs away from Bonnie, "You've got one last decision to make, Bonnie. It's a multiple choice. Neck snap, heart rip, or just good, old-fashioned tear your throat out?" Alaric finally arrives and plows right into his vampire best friend with his car, sending him flying through the air.
"I don't know who you are, but--"
Alaric uses the metal tuning fork against Sybil; high-pitched vibrating tones echoes throughout, causing Sybil, and Minerva as well, to double over in pain. Enzo attempts to vamp-speed towards Alaric, though Stefan has recovered from his neck snap and counters Enzo, snapping his neck in the process. Sybil is on the ground, still yelling in agony due to the frequency.
Georgie is not far away, viewing the events unfolding before her in shock and disbelief, in her own car. Caroline arrives and knocks the incapacitated Sybil out by kicking her and Damon recovers from the accident as well.
Stefan rushes over to Rosie and the couple embrace lovingly, shushing her who's gasping and hiccuping from her cry, "It's okay. It's okay. It's over."
Bonnie rushes over to Minerva, who's alright now, "Hey, are you okay?" The young banshee can only nod a little in response from the incapacitation.
"Damon, it's over. You're free now." Caroline assured him in initial relief.
"I wish that were the case, Blondie, but my work with her is just getting started." Damon frowns as he looks at how close Rosie and Stefan are.
"What work? What does she want with you? What now?" Caroline asked.
"Applesauce penguin, of course." Damon opens the door of his Camaro and gets in after looking at Stefan and Rosie, who are comforting each other.
****
The Armory Headquarters
Sybil is now locked in a fortified holding glass cellar while Stefan and Bonnie are closely watching her through the glass when the former spoke, "Maybe now we'll get some answers. You sure you can handle Enzo?"
"I'll be fine." I hope. Bonnie replied in a stone cold tone without eye contact.
"You know, if you need my help with getting him to the cabin--"
"I said I'll be fine."
Stefan nods once after staring sympathetically at his close friend, "Okay."
"If it were up to you, you would have picked Damon." The woman predicted.
The young man sighs in a tired manner, guilty, "Yes."
"And so would Rosie. You would've done it knowing that Enzo was the one fighting Sybil. The one risking his life to help us." Bonnie pointed out.
"Yes."
"Let me ask you something. What has Damon done? Besides give up." Bonnie walks away hopelessly, with Rosie coming over to comfort her lover.
"Oh, she doesn't mean that. She's just upset. Caroline's going to go stay with Bonnie tonight. She needs her. This has all been a lot for her."
"I hated myself being on the opposite side of the fight today." He expressed.
She scoffs, "I hated the entire unnecessary fight. She ruined my day."
"Yeah, mine too. But I had to engage in it." He shakes his head a little.
"Because you want to stand up for your brother, like you always do."
"I know. I know what I had to do. But I hated it. I hate all this." So much.
Rosie sighs as she nears him until they're merely inches, "I hate it too. But hear this, I know that if anyone can bring Damon back from the edge, it's you. I believe you can." She wraps her arms around his neck intimately.
Stefan frowns, struggling to hold on to hope, "Why me?"
"Because you're his brother, and he's stuck with you whether he likes it or not." She shakes her head slowly, "Not me. Not Elena. It's you."
The young man stares longingly at his lover as he contemplates that.
****
Mystic Grill Restaurant
Stefan is writing in his journal at the main local bar when Isaac shows up not too far from him, sliding him a glass of bourbon after Stefan just finished the last one with only one gulp, "Looks like you could use that."
The much older vampire sends his frenemy a quick glance, "Thanks. Just trying to figure out a fresh new way to deliver the same bad news."
He fakes a smile, "Well, I think your engagement would qualify as good news. I'm pretty sure I forgot to say congratulations, or I just don't care."
"Thanks. Though I'm not sure today's how I wanted to spend the first day of it. Not to mention my best man just tried to take out a good chunk of the wedding party." Stefan scoffs in disbelief as he stares at the empty glass.
"Here you go." The male bartender serves Isaac a glass of bourbon as well.
"You can leave the bottle. Thanks. You know, I never had a brother. Uh, Damon was the closest thing. And I have to believe that if you have gotten him back before, there has got to be a way to do it again." Isaac shrugs.
"I don't know. This is different. I've never seen him like this before. I really hoped that when we put Sybil down, it'd break whatever control she had over him. That he'd go back to being whatever Damon's version of normal is again. But somehow, some way, she still has ahold of him."