A/N: So I know that The Originals comes next in episode order but for the purpose of my story, it'll come after this episode because I can't have Klaus in New Orleans.~J😘😍 P.S. This chapter ended up being a little longer but I had a lot to pack in!
3rd Person P.O.V.
As Jessica lays on a cot, passed out thanks to the magic stealing dose of ketamine mixed with Kol's special powder, the rest of her friends and family, plus Stefan, stand in the parlor of the boarding house discussing her predicament.
"Look, I don't care what you say, Damon. I just roofied my best friend and stole her magic," Caroline says as her actions finally hit her.
"You didn't steal her magic," Vivianne comforts. "Kol's powder won't last forever."
"Yeah and the more you use, the faster her tolerance will build," Meredith adds. "We don't know how much of a tolerance she already has from the little that Kol used."
"So how much time do we have, princess?" Damon asks as Meredith's face twists at the nickname.
"I don't know. A day, give or take."
"Well, are we giving or taking?" Stefan demands.
"I don't know!" Meredith exclaims. "Just hurry up with your plan. I'm going home to get her some new clothes so she can change, you guys figure out a plan." With that, she leaves. Vivianne looks after her, wanting to follow, but decides that Jessica needs her more.
"Great, so we have less than a day to get her humanity back and no plan," Damon sighs.
"Why don't you do what Lexi did with Stefan?" Caroline wonders.
"Lexi starved Stefan and then got inside his head," Vivianne answers. "Even if we did starve Jessica, we still wouldn't be able to get into her mind, which was the purpose of the starving."
"Starving would take too long anyway," Damon inputs. "Jessica tends to stop eating sometimes if she thinks she's gaining weight or whatever. Her body doesn't respond like a normal body would. She's not anorexic but my guess is that if she wasn't part vampire, she might be."
"God, it's like I didn't even know her," Elena says. "I didn't know that she had trouble with emotions or that she wouldn't eat sometimes, hell I just found out this year that she was a genius."
"And why do you think that is?" Vivianne snaps, making Elena flinch. "God forbid, Little Elena feel left out or lesser. She's spent her entire life trying to make you feel better about yourself so she never got a chance to think about herself because every time she did anything, you threw a fit when she did it better. That's probably why you had to fall for her boyfriend, isn't it, because Jessica can't have anything that Elena wants."
Elena, who after turning on her humanity focused on the guilt emotion, leaves the room, not wanting to cry because Vivianne is right. Jessica has always been there for Elena and Elena never returned the favor. "Why did you say that?" Caroline sneers. "We don't have time to fight, we need to help Jessica."
"I'm well aware of that but let's not forget, I don't like any of you. I care about Jessica and Meredith. I started to care for Jeremy but he's dead so it doesn't really matter, no offense Jeremy," she says as he appears with her thoughts.
"None taken, but go easy on Elena. In case you didn't realize, when it comes to people she loves, Jess has a bit of trouble putting herself first," he tells her.
"Fine," she sighs. "But I'm not apologizing."
"You can see Jeremy?" Damon questions as Caroline has an idea.
"Wait, what if we get her to think about Alaric or Jeremy, they might be able to convince her," she suggests. Everyone begins to consider it, when Alaric refutes it.
"Ric says that it won't work because even when she thinks about them, she's found a way to block them out. They can't even reach her now, while she's weak," Vivianne relays.
They all fall back before Elena comes back with an idea. "What if I talk to her? You said it yourself, Vivianne, she's spent her life putting me first because she's my big sister."
Damon starts nodding. "Yeah, we can all take her down memory lane. Eventually, one of us might get a reaction," he adds and everyone agrees. They all take turns visiting a now awake Jessica in the cellar. Elena recalls memories of going to their families lakehouse and the sleepovers they used to have at their house but Jessica pushes it off, saying that taking them to the lakehouse was a way for Grayson to train her to hunt vampires and read the journals and she was woken by her parents at every sleepover to go to council meetings.
Next, Caroline tries reminding her of when they first met and when that doesn't work, she brings up when she became a vampire but Jessica doesn't react at all. Damon tries to reminisce about all their good memories in their relationship but she quickly stops it by pointing out that he's with Elena and he cheated on her with Katherine. Stefan doesn't even try because Vivianne points out that anger and hate aren't the emotions they are trying to invoke. Vivianne makes an effort but when she doesn't get the reaction she wants, she starts yelling and Damon has to drag her out, reminding her of her previous statement. Meredith comes back and goes to give Jessica her change of clothes.
She pushes them through the holes in the top of the door and Jessica looks at her skeptically. "You're not even trying to convince me and why couldn't you just hand them to me?"
"I'm not trying because most of our memories are crying over ex-boyfriends and any good memory I try you'll just remind me that I pretended to be you. As for the clothes, Damon said I'm not allowed to open the door because even without magic you can overpower us all," Meredith answers and Jessica nods as Meredith goes back upstairs, walking into an argument.
"No, it's too dangerous," Elena denies.
"He'll be fine. We'll give him Jeremy's ring," Damon claims and Meredith figures out what they are talking about.
"You want to give Matt Jeremy's ring and then kill him in front of Jessica?" She queries just to be sure. Damon nods with a smirk and Meredith shuts him down. "It won't work."
"Oh and why not, princess?"
"Because, Jessica already doesn't want to turn her emotions on. Show her something that she won't want to feel, like one of her best friends getting killed, and she'll pull away even more. She won't feel the relief because her emotions won't be close enough to grasp."
Damon takes a deep breath before sighing. "Fine, I know who we can call then," he says, taking out his phone.
"Who?" Stefan asks, seeing the upset look on his brother's face.
"The person who started this," he responds as they pick up the phone. "Klaus, we need your help. It's Jessica," Damon tells him.
"I'll be there soon," comes his immediate response before the dial tone sounds. Before they can process what just happened, Klaus walks into the parlor. "Where is she? What happened?" He demands, worried, something they all catch.
"She's fine," Caroline begins, figuring she'll be the best option to calm him. "She's in the cellar. We've all tried to get her to flip the switch but it hasn't worked. We hoped maybe you could do it."
"I'll try," he says, walking into the cellar and to the door, he's about to open it, when her voice stops him.
"I wouldn't, they'll yell at you," she informs him, sounding weak, yet with her same condescending, cocky tone behind each word. "If you open it, I might escape." She studies him. "Why'd they send you? What'll you talk about, me trying to bring my parents back? Or maybe my obsession with how I would get Damon to fall for me if he was still here when I got back? Cheerleading, Miss Mystic Falls? Maybe the way you got me to fall for you right before you cheated on me, total dick move b.t.dubs.
"Or maybe you can talk about how Rebekah did something similar. Getting me to be her friend, trust her, defend her, right before she kidnapped Jeremy. Or maybe how if I had let you kill Katherine instead of convincing you to let her go, she wouldn't have been alive to kill him and my emotions wouldn't have been so close to the surface and I wouldn't have turned it off," she lists and Klaus watches her, letting everything she said float around his thoughts before he grins.
"Actually love, I don't need to say anything, you've said it all for me. You forget, you may have spent our time in Europe focusing on cheerleading, Miss Mystic, and Damon, but I spent it studying you, listening while you revealed everything about you." He turns and walks up the stairs, leaving Jessica to ponder what he said.
"Did it work?" Care asks anxiously as Klaus enters the parlor. He pours himself a glass of bourbon before answering.
"I didn't convince her to turn it back on and I won't," he says and Damon scoffs, muttering that he should've known before Klaus continues. "I can't. Jessica is special. Not just anything will get her to come back. She has too many bad memories with me, same goes for you lot. That's how she pushes the memories away, by focusing on the reasons she should keep it off. Although, I do believe there was one of you that she didn't have anything to refute," he finishes, looking at Caroline.
"How did you know?" She wonders.
"Because I spent months with her, months where she skyped with you every day and barely stopped talking about the best friend who was more of a sister. In fact, she had a little memory of you two that she said was her favorite, I'm assuming you know it?" She does and she nods. "That's what'll bring her back, you're welcome." Caroline nods again before standing and heading to the cellar. Everyone can't help but listen with their vamp hearing while Vivianne and Meredith move to the stairs to see if it will work.
Caroline moves to the door, opening it before stepping inside. Jessica glances at her before looking up. "Haven't you heard, I'm dangerous."
Caroline shakes her head. "Not to me. Do you remember the first time we hung out?" She questions and Jessica stays silent so Caroline continues. "I had invited you to a sleepover but when you were there, you could hear my parents fighting. I didn't know they were going to get a divorce but you did because even at three, you understood things like that. I was mortified when you left the next morning but before you left, you asked if I could spend the night at your house and our parents agreed so I went home with you. I was so happy that you didn't seem to care about my parents. As soon as we got there, you took me upstairs to Elena's room. You knocked and dragged me in when she told you to come in. You introduced us and told me to tell Elena about what had happened.
"Even at three, you were so commanding that I couldn't help but listen. I spilled everything and Elena comforted me and told me that everything would be okay. Eventually, your parents came to get Elena because they were going to pick up Bonnie. Elena said she'd be back and when I turned around, you were gone. I wandered around upstairs until I found your room. When I walked in, you were laying in your bed and I asked why you left and you turned to me and do you remember what you said?" Silence.
"You said, that you liked me and that's why you introduced me to Elena because you thought I'd be better off being her friend. You said that you weren't good at emotions but Elena had too many. She was good at comforting people, she did it for Bonnie a lot so you thought I should be friends with them instead because you were a freak with no emotions and I said-"
"You said that I wasn't a freak and you didn't want to be friends with Elena or Bonnie if it meant that you couldn't be friends with me, so I said that you hadn't met Bonnie yet and you said it didn't matter and it didn't matter how comforting Elena was, you'd choose me. Then you said you'd help me with my emotions," Jessica finishes and looks at Caroline with tears in her eyes. "You said that anytime I had trouble feeling, you would be there to explain it and help me understand and feel it. Thank you," she tells her before hugging her best friend. Soon, Meredith and Vivianne enter, joining the hug as Vivianne says that she's glad to have her back because she hates her friends, making them all laugh.
Soon, Elena enters and everyone leaves them alone. "I heard what you told her," Elena says. "I never knew how much you kept from me to protect me. I'm so sorry I made you feel like you had to hide so you didn't outshine me. I never wanted that," she swears and Jessica laughs.
"It's not your fault, it's mine. And I'm sorry for almost killing you, that was kind of messed up," she admits and Elena laughs.
"Just kind of?" The sisters laugh and hug each other tightly.
Upstairs, Damon, who is listening, smiles until he sees Klaus and realizes that it is just the two of them in the parlor. "What do you want?"
"To talk to you," Klaus responds before sighing. "Jessica told me once that I didn't understand love because love is when you want happiness for someone even if it causes you misery. I've never been good at that, even with my siblings, but Jessica is different."
"She makes you want to be better," Damon supplies and he nods.
"Yes, and as much as I hate to admit it, I don't think I'll ever make her as happy as you do. I see the way you look at her, even with Elena, you never take your eyes off her. You love her still, which is why you need to fight for her but to do that, you need to know something. When Jessica and I were...together, it was the night after Jeremy died. I had found her in the woods the previous night where she had a revelation given to her by Nature and while we were together, she accidentally showed it to me."
"And what was this revelation?" Damon asks sarcastically, thinking Klaus is playing him.
"That she and Jessica Carter are not simply doppelgängers, but rather one and the same," he reveals, shocking Damon. "As we saw when she saw years in Silas' life in mere minutes, time works differently when she visits the past. She has a choice whether to be seen or not and her time as Jessica Carter was lived during dreams when she was a child and like most things from your early life, you forget about them until reminded. Even with a photographic memory, she didn't believe the dreams real so she pushed them away."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I loved Jessica very much at many different periods in my life, but after she left me, she found you and as I relived the memories of Jessica Carter, I saw how much you both loved each other and I believe Jessica deserves that. As much as I loathe to admit it, you are better for her than I will ever be and she deserves the best. So fight for her mate, don't let her push you away," he finishes before speeding home. When he arrives, he sees a letter from Katerina saying that a New Orleans witch named Jane-Anne Deveraux is plotting against him so he sets course for New Orleans as Damon thinks over what he's said and decides to take his advice and fight for Jessica.
(I think the song fits Jessica and Caroline well)