-Nelly-
Flashback 4 months ago:
The three of them were walking down the street the next morning, exploring the familiar empty neighborhood. Nelly was dragging her feet due to tiredness. Damon had woken Nelly up bright and early, forcing her to come with them because she couldn't be trusted yet. She wasn't happy about it, but she didn't protest.
"How many more streets are we gonna wander?" Damon sighed in frustration after they had literally walked around the entire town.
"How many times are you gonna ask me questions I don't have the answers to, hmm?"
Bonnie shot back.
"And how many more pointless arguments can you two have in the span of two hours?"
Nelly asked equally as frustrated causing Bonnie and Damon to glare at her.
"Something's weird about these cars."
Bonnie slowed down after they had arrived to a place Nelly recognized from the day before.
"Yeah they're almost all 20 years old or more and yet they look brand new."
Damon said, sliding his hand down the shiny surface of the hood of the car, Nelly mirroring Damon's actions.
After they continued, they suddenly stopped walking, causing Nelly to crash into Damon's back.
"Watch it kid."
Damon said without looking at her.
"Sorry."
Nelly mumbled, similar to the way she did as a child whenever she was scolded, but then dropped the attitude to ask them:
"What are you guys looking at?"
"That is Elena's not so burned-to-a-crisp house." Damon said, furrowing his brows.
Oh right. Elena is Damon's sweetheart who everyone sacrifices themselves for. Nelly thought to herself, not daring to say it out loud.
When the crew started walking closer to the house, Nelly realized it was the same house she hung out at yesterday.
Damon crouched down and picked up the same newspaper Nelly was reading the day before from the suspiciously fresh and green grass and started reading it.
"Look."
Damon turned around and showed the girls the newspaper.
"Rare solar eclipse expected to be seen across twelve states?"
Bonnie read it out loud, not understanding the point of doing so.
"So cool." Nelly mocked in a bored voice, making Damon annoyed.
"The date, geniuses."
He said firmly. Bonnie furrowed her brows, reading the paper again.
"May 10th 1994."
She said slowly, causing Nelly's eyes to widen in shock.
"So that's why all the clothes were so hideous."
She laughed, but didn't get a reaction out of the two.
"Is that...? Are we...? That's impossible."
Bonnie stuttered, growing more and more confused by the second.
"Clearly, it's not." Damon pointed at the date again, staring at it as if it was written in a foreign language he couldn't understand.
Suddenly the sun disappeared and the shadows grew tenfold, swallowing the entire town inside of them like a warm blanket. The three of them looked up at the eclipse happening right above them, each just as confused as the other.
"I don't think we should be asking where we are..." Damon began. "-We should be asking when we are."
——•<>•——
"Where's any booze in this empty retroville?"
Damon asked, swinging with Nelly on the swing that sat on the porch of Elena's old home.
"It's so weird to be back here. I practically grew up on this porch."
Bonnie said smiling, sitting on the steps and looking around all nostalgic.
Nelly was afraid to speak. She worried that she might accidentally reveal too much information about herself and she didn't want any trouble right now. She only told them she was a vampire, not telling them about her magic thinking it was a good element of surprise incase she ever needed it.
"So what, your girlfriend had a breakdown and burned her entire house down?"
Nelly laughed as she swung a bit faster, finding herself enjoying Damon's company.
"Hey, she was having a hard time."
Bonnie cut her off, warning her not to mock the girl too much.
"Still. That's a little extreme, isn't it?" She scrunched her nose up as she looked at Damon with question marks in her eyes.
"I can't say I agreed with that decision, but I don't blame her for doing it." He said while staring into the distance. His mind was elsewhere for a moment, and then he snapped out of it, clapping his hands.
"Alright, talk me through it."
Damon said to Bonnie, a bit more excitedly than they had expected.
"Before the other side collapsed, my grams said that she made a sacrifice so I could find peace."
Bonnie began, looking at them back and forth, not having the energy to explain everything to Nelly from the start.
"The part where you actually have a theory."
Damon corrected her, not caring about what Bonnie had to say about her grams.
"Well this clearly isn't peace or otherwise I wouldn't be stuck here with you."
Bonnie smiled sarcastically at Damon and Nelly tried to hide the fact that she was smiling.
Obviously it didn't work out for her because Damon nudged her on the arm with his elbow.
"Ouch."
She just said making Damon smile victoriously, which disappeared when she hit him back.
"Rude."
Damon scrunched up his nose.
"She must've... I don't know... sent me somewhere and when I held your hand it took you with me." Bonnie cut them off, thinking deeply about something.
"Aww, you two held hands? So adorable."
Nelly said sarcastically as she leaned her head back and crossed her arms. Regardless of her acting uninterested, she was listening very intently, curious about how it was possible for them to be there without committing a massacre like herself and being sent there by a bunch of witches.
"Well did she happen to whisper a safe word in her last breaths? A clue maybe? A witchy path outta here." Damon leaned forward, questioning the clearly annoyed Bennett-witch.
"No."
She scoffed.
"But if we got here by magic, magic should be able to get us out." She said with a softer tone this time. Nelly felt invisible between their bickering but she was happy to have avoided questions about her past for now.
"And that frown that's not upside down is telling me what?" Damon started again. Bonnie turned around sighing and staring at a candle on the porch.
"Phasmatos incendia"
They waited but nothing happened. It was hard for Nelly to not show off her magic by lighting the candle herself, but she stopped herself anyway and held back.
"Still can't do magic."
Damon said bitterly, slouching back on the swing. "Perfect."