Body & Soul - Klaus Mikaelson

Thirty-Three

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Life is such a fickle thing.

It's hard to come by and so easy to lose. Parents can try for years just to bring one child into the world, just for that life to flaunter the minute it begins to live. Humans are fragile. We're victims to everything that can cut out skin, break our bones, and dig deep into our bodies. We're never truly safe and we're too weak to truly protect ourselves.

Mystic Falls knows that sentiment all too well. Our cemetery is filled with people who couldn't defend themselves against the supernatural or were too weak to even survive the normality of life. Everyone in this town has suffered loss because it's the only constant resident. There have been too many funerals and too many missing people.

My foot thumps hard against the floor as I stare through the glass at Ric. It seems too surreal, everything that Meredith has suggested. How could a ring be affecting Ric so violently? It doesn't even make sense, that ring was meant to save him, not destroy who he was at the core. Ric has always been the one saving us, now it seems we finally have to switch roles.

"What are you looking for?" Elena whispers to Meredith Fell as she taps away at a computer. The doctor has brought us here bright and early under the pretenses of looking for a tumor. It had settled the hospital staff enough to let us into the MRI room long enough to scan Ric and hopefully get some answers.

Meredith sighs heavily. Her eyes flicker to the pair of us, our noses basically pressing against the glass that separates us from Ric. Her eyes are somber ones, that hold no answers. No one truly knows what is happening, "I don't know."

"And how is that supposed to help him?" I quip angrily, my eyes never leaving Ric as another nurse preps him. My anger has been boiling since the minute we arrived. Meredith's lack of answers has been riding on my nerves. I understand all she has is a theory, but I need more than a theory right now. I need answers. I need something that can save him.

The doctor sighs again trying to hold her patience, "I'm looking for anything out of the ordinary. A tumor, vascular anomalies. Anything physical that might explain his behavior. If it's medical, I can treat it."

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Elena glance at me. Her eyes share the same worry and same anxiety that I'm feeling, "And if it's not?"

"Well, then we'll deal with that too." She assures us as the nurse moves Ric into the MRI machine. He looks so uncomfortable on the slab of metal, like a test subject getting ready for treatment. It just seems so wrong.

I lick my lips as I finally turn to face the pair, "When did you suspect him? That it was Ric who was killing all those people?"

Meredith tries a soft soothing smile, "It was after he told me about his ring. I remembered a story my grandmother had told me about Samantha Gilbert and her secret journal. I don't know if you know this but we Fells are notorious busybodies."

"Then why did you protect him?" Elena whispers as if scared for the answer. I have to admit that I am too. Why would Meredith help someone who is possibly working to kill the entire town? Why would that help her? Why is he worth her time?

"Because I'm a doctor," Meredith admits slowly as if she is overthinking her words, "I don't like to see someone hurt by something they have no control over. And because when he and I first met, I felt like, I don't know, I- I just kind of want to help him."

We fade into silence as Ric's vitals quickly rise and then fall to a steady pace. The machine whirls to life and there's nothing more that we can do except wait. Wait for answers, wait for Ric not to kill someone, and wait for Meredith to find anything to help us.