first date
"DID ELENA KNOW ANYTHING?"
"No, she was useless, to absolutely no one's surprise," Athena rolls her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest as she and Damon slow to a stop beside Stefan.
Stefan furrows his brows, looking at his brother questioningly. "Then why did you make me meet you at the school?"
Damon's eyes flash with hostility as he glances around the dimmed hallways, and the tiled floors mopped clean for another few hours. "Elena wasn't helpful, but Jeremy was. Turns out, he wrote a report on the journal, and not-so-innocent Mr. Saltzman wanted to see it."
"Mr. Saltzman," Stefan echoes in disbelief. "Our history teacher?"
Athena nods, slapping her hands down on her tight-clad thighs. "Hence why we're at the school. I say we just go in there and kill him, and take the journal. What's another dead history teacher?"
Damon leans over and flicks her on the forehead, making her bat his hand away with a glare. "I'm not murdering another teacher until I know he has what I want,"
"Well, I think he's weird and I think he's lying about what he knows. Why else would he have followed us the other night at the dance?"
Stefan nods, agreeing with Athena. "What do we do if he has the journal? What does that mean?"
"If he has the journal, then we have to assume knows about vampires, ergo he knows about us," Damon gestures between him and Stefan, and Athena narrows her eyes.
"If he knows about you two, then he most likely knows about vervain, right?"
Stefan's eyes widen, but he nods slowly, silently urging her on.
"And if he thinks you two are vampires, is he assuming I'm one as well? Let's say Damon couldn't compel him because he had vervain somewhere, and he saw me kill that vampire at the dance. I mean, if he thinks we're all vampires, what does he want?"
"How do we know he wants anything?" Stefan tries to reason, though shifts uncomfortably at the thought of them being targeted.
Damon purses his lips and sighs through clenched teeth. "The council. He wants to out us to the Council, most likely."
Athena's eyes widened. "Something he can't do without Jonathan Gilbert's journal to prove you're vampires,"
"Shit," Damon mutters, rolling his eyes frustratedly.
"I say we stick with my plan and just kill him, and take the journal back."
Stefan shakes his head. "If he's with the Council, or somehow trying to attack us, he's got to have some sort of backup plan. He's got to give the journal back to Jeremy eventually, but he'll need it for the Council. He could make copies of it or something."
Athena glances behind her, where she knows the front office is located somewhere down the hallway. "If he used the copier, I can find out. All of the printers are on the school's network, so I can just log onto the secretary's computer and see if any of the printers are active."
"Great, let's go," Damon pushes Athena in the direction of the office, and looks back at Stefan. "You watch out for the teacher."
Athena stumbles, glaring at Damon as she catches her footing once more, her heeled boots echoing quietly in the hallway. "I hate being in school at night, it's so creepy."
"You're weird, you know that?"
"Says the vampire," She grunts as she pushes the door open to the office, immediately walking behind the desk and seating herself in the chair. She turned the monitor on and used the secretary's log-in that almost every student knew at this point. She was never good at remembering passwords, so she had everything on post-it notes, and the entirety of the student body had taken full advantage of her forgetfulness to correct their attendance records or their report cards.
With a few clicks, she sees that the printer in the faculty lounge has been used recently and she groans in annoyance. "Shit, okay. We're going to the faculty lounge."
Athena quickly leads them out of the office and through a handful of twists and turns Damon is unlikely to remember by the end of the night and she bursts into the faculty lounge with little care of her volume.
Her eyes fall to the open locker and the duffel bag on the ground, and she kicks it out of her way as she digs through Mr. Saltzman's locker.
Damon bends down as she begins to pilfer, and his eyes widen as he pulls a handful of wooden stakes out of the bag. "Who is this guy?"
Athena looks at the deadly weapons concernedly. "We left Stefan alone, Damon. What if –"
"He's not," Damon cuts her off, shaking his head. "Don't get in your head about that stuff, it'll distract you. And trust me, Stefan is a lot more capable than he lets on."
She sighs, nodding to herself more than him, and grabs the bundle of still-warm papers from the locker. "I got it," She flicks through them, skimming the hieroglyph-like drawings, and the scribbled words. "Let's go find Stefan."
Damon nods, dropping the stakes back into the bag and zipping it up quickly. He throws it over his shoulder and follows Athena out, the two tracing their steps back to where they left Stefan a few doors down from the history classroom.
Before she runs past Mr. Saltzman's room, Damon pulls her back by her arm, ignoring her surprised yelp. He silences her with a quick motion of his hand, and taps on his ear, letting her know he'd heard something.
They crept toward the classroom, and Athena shifted just enough to see Stefan standing before the teacher who was seated in one of the desks that hadn't been knocked over. She slaps Damon's arm and presses herself against the row of lockers, her heart racing in her chest.
"How long have you known about me?" Stefan's calm voice echoes through the room into the hallway and Athena lets out a stressed puff of air at his constant empathizing. If only he'd just punch first and ask questions later– just once.
"I found out just recently," Mr. Saltzman looks Stefan up and down. "What about your brother?"
"You met Damon,"
Athena glares up at the vampire who rolls his eyes, uncaring of whatever impression the teacher had gotten from him.
"Who do you think killed my wife?"
There's hesitation on Stefan's end, but not any shock. The day Damon's behavior surprised him would be the end of the world. "Are you certain it was Damon?"
"I witnessed it."
Athena's jaw drops slightly and she uses the hand that's not clutching the copied pages of the Gilbert journal to slap Damon's arm repeatedly.
The vampire mouths words of disdain, grabbing her wrist in his hand and glaring down at her. "What the hell is your problem?!" His whispered words are alarmed as he stares down at the irate teen.
"My problem," She whispers back, hoping that they go unheard. "Is that you can't even murder people the right way!"
"How do you murder people the right way?" He looks at her in disbelief.
"No witnesses! Or at least compel them for god's sake!" She turns away from him, turning her attention back to Stefan's conversation.
Stefan clears his throat, most likely having overheard their conversation. "If you're here for revenge, this is going to end very badly for you."
"I just want to find out what happened to my wife,"
Athena furrows her eyebrows in confusion as Stefan seems to voice her questions himself. "I thought you just said that Damon–"
"Yeah," Mr. Saltzman interrupts. "I saw him draining the life out of her. He must have heard me coming, he just disappeared. So did her body. They never found her."
Stefan seems to process his words for a moment before he heaves a sigh. "Damon will kill you without blinking if he thinks you're trying to endanger him in some way."
The teacher huffs a small laugh. "I can take care of myself."
"No, you can't," Stefan shakes his head, making the slight grin fall off of the man's face.
Damon scoffs to himself and moves his lips, speaking barely loud enough for even Stefan's enhanced ears to catch.
Hearing his brother, Stefan quickly wraps up his interrogation of the man. "Just, uh, don't make a fool out of yourself trying to make Damon seem like the bad guy. You'd be surprised how many people will come to his defense."
Stefan turns and begins to walk towards the open door, but the teacher stops him.
"Would you?"
The vampire looks over his shoulder. "Would I what?"
"Defend Damon?"
Stefan rests a hand on the doorway, eyes falling to the ground where he can see the tips of Athena's heeled boots on the floor. He knows Damon is beside her, the two waiting with bated breath to make their escape unseen.
Sighing with finality, Stefan nods. "He's my brother, of course, I would."
He hurries out of the classroom and pushes Athena and Damon forward, pushing them away from wandering eyes as they rush out of a side exit into the chilly night air.
"You said you got the journal?" Stefan faces them, nearly breathless.
"He made copies," Athena holds up the bundle of papers, making Stefan furrow his brows briefly.
"You only got the copy?" He shakes his head slightly. "Mr. Saltzman had the original one on his desk, but it was gone. If you don't have it,"
"Who has it?" Damon looks around, irritation flaring in his gaze once more. "I swear to god, as soon as I get my hands on them,"
Athena looks away from Damon, and back to Stefan. "As long as we have the copy, does it matter what happened to the original one?"
Stefan stuffs his hands in his pockets, his breath visible in the cold air surrounding them. "Whoever has the original is trying to open the tomb, too,"
"Or keep it closed," Damon supplies, unhelpfully.
"Well," Athena heaves a sigh, giving Damon a brief glare for his constant pessimism. "I can start to translate some of this nonsense, maybe figure something out besides blind rage, seeing as I'm clearly the brains and beauty of this operation."
Damon scoffs. "If you're the brains, what am I?"
"An asshole,"
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"Have you found anything yet?"
Athena sighed, resting her hands atop her head for a moment, careful not to mess up the crafted updo she'd done when they got back to the boarding house earlier that night. "Jonathan Gilbert was a maniac."
She holds her hands out to the side, her exasperation obvious in her position. "He was terrified of your father, and infatuated with seemingly every woman in Mystic Falls, yet they always managed to be vampires or witches. Does stupidity just run in the Gilbert bloodline? I swear,"
Stefan huffs a laugh, taking a seat on the open part of the cushioned window seat she'd been burrowed in. "Is there anything about the tomb in there?"
She shrugs a bit, looking down at a slip of paper in her lap. "There's something about Emily's grimoire in this one. 'The Fell family believed it should be I, not them, who protected the witch's spell book. But I feared she would haunt me from the hereafter. They mocked my fear, but it was Giuseppe Salvatore who removed my fear. He told me he would protect the secret of the spell book. He said he would carry it to his grave.'"
Stefan's eyes widen and he slips the paper from Athena's hands, re-reading the passage for himself as his brain processes the words. "Carry it to his grave," He repeated, mind drifting off to a memory from long ago.
"Stefan? What is it?"
"My father," Stefan mutters. "He always said he'd carry his real secrets to his grave, he'd never write them down in one of his journals."
Athena shakes her head, dark brows furrowing. "What does that mean?"
"I know where the grimoire is," He sighs, pushing himself to his feet. "Get dressed, we have to go."
"What?! Where? Is– is there a dress code, at least? Stefan, you're being vague again!"
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"Why isn't your dad buried in the Salvatore tomb in town?" Athena grumbles, crossing her arms over her chest as she stifles another shiver from the cold air. Apparently, the dress code for a trek through the woods in the middle of the night is a stolen sweater, black sweatpants, and a pair of boots she hasn't worn in nearly six months. "Why is he buried in the middle of the woods, instead of somewhere much more convenient for grave-digging?"
Stefan heaves a sigh, shaking his head. "The tomb wasn't built yet, first of all. And second, what aspect of grave-digging in any sense is convenient for you?"
"I don't know, but I know it's not the kind that I have to walk through the woods for," Athena huffs, rolling up the loose fabric of Stefan's sweater in her hands to preserve her body temperature. "Do you think grave-digging will look good on a college application?"
"Athena," He sets a lit torch into an old fixture, providing a bit of warmth she happily leaches from.
"Just thinking out loud here. You know– this would be a red flag to any other girl," She cocks a hip, mocking Stefan's deeper voice. "Hey, let's go dig up my dead dad and then kiss in the firelight. Perfect first date."
Stefan sighs, holding up the two shovels. "Your commentary is not helpful, you're aware of that, right?"
"I never said I'd be helpful doing this part. I said I was the brains and the beauty– not the brawn. It's my job to stand here and look pretty."
He shakes his head, smiling at her with fond exasperation lit up by the orange flames. "You're doing great."
──────
"Well, this looks cozy," Damon's voice echoes through the trees, and Athena startles, the flashlight in her hand shooting up as she fixes a glare on him.
"Asshole,"
He smirks, unperturbed as he approaches them. "Do you remember Annabelle, Stefan? Pearl's daughter?"
The vampire's eyebrows furrow for a moment before he nods. "She was young, quiet. I never really paid much attention to her,"
"Yeah, well me neither," Damon sighs, glancing down at the dirt-covered coffin buried six feet into the ground. Knowing his father had rotted in there satisfies his dark heart in a way he'll never say out loud. "Turns out that was a mistake. Pearl is in the tomb, and Anna wants her out."
Stefan's eyes widen, but he shakes his head. "We can't trust her, Damon. If she gets Pearl out first–"
"I know, I know," He waves his brother's concerns off easily. "But, you know, just because she's a vampire doesn't mean she's lost all of that childish hope."
Athena eyes him warily. "What'd you promise her?"
"I promised her safety and reassured her that she'd get her mother back. I don't care if it actually happens, I just needed her to work with me a bit," Damon holds up the journal in his hands and the duo standing on the other side of the grave breathe a sigh of relief. "So, was I right to assume the old man was buried with the grimoire?"
Stefan nods, holding up the spell book.
"Great, then let's get out of here," Damon heaves a sigh. "I promised myself a long time ago I'd never visit his grave, and this is cutting it close."
Athena and Stefan share a look but begin the trek back into town, talking amongst themselves aimlessly as Damon lingers beside his father's grave for a moment longer.
He smirks down at the coffin engraved with a large 'S' and huffs a smug laugh. "Oh, Dad," Damon kicks a pile of dirt down onto the coffin, covering the initial entirely. "Eat dirt."
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author's note; uhhhh btw jensen ackles plays alaric in my TVD stories because matt davis is human garbage <3 also i hate the abrupt ending to this chapter but i was so tired of writing this episode, like DAMN my fingers are cramping
originally published; 11.25.20.
edited: 11.28.23.
- liz