Whatever It Takes {Two | Alaric Saltzman}

The Ripple

"Good morning, Abigail!" Dr. Garrison stepped all the way into her office. "Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to have you as a part of our faculty; however, I must say I am surprised that you decided to defer your studies a year."

"Yeah, I just..." She would have invited him to sit down but there wasn't space for that, so she stood up. "Over the summer, I realized I'm not ready to tackle a thesis."

He looked out of the muntin window. "I'm very sorry about Liv."

"Thank you." She walked around her desk, leaning against it for support once she was on the same side as him. "It's funny, you know. I met her my first night on campus. Then officially on the first day of one of your classes. We, uh, had this fight toward the end of that academic year about... something that happened in Seattle, I didn't know if we were cut out for friendship after that."

"Ah, a little academic rivalry never hurt anyone." He smiled at her. "But working through that, becoming a stronger team because of it, that doesn't happen often. Which, I think, proves that you were 'cut out' to be friends after all."

"Yes, that's what I'm trying to say." Her voice latched itself to saudade, and, for once, he seemed willing to listen to her personal thoughts instead of academic ones. "It's like that legend: everyone you meet is supposed to bring you a blessing or a lesson. She brought me both. I mean, she literally intertwined my life, brought it back together in ways I never thought it could be. And I don't know if she ever really knew how much she meant to me. Not for the things she did, for just being her."

He had class, she had plenty of work to do, but it wasn't until the halls filled that either one of them moved. It was unlike anything she'd experienced before: the silent exchange that changed the way she saw him. And she knew it had changed the way he saw her too.

Most of the crowd came from Alaric's lecture hall. She had to go that way, running paperwork the task ahead of research, so she pushed through the students who were still discussing the lecture they received. As surprising as it was, as much as she couldn't believe what she was hearing, it was almost what she expected.

"So, the Great Mystic Falls Evacuation Plan isn't going as well as everyone hoped." She stopped next to Bonnie at the front table. "The Heretics have killed ten people this week alone. Two last night."

Alaric held back a laugh. "Well, it's a ghost town. That part worked. Unfortunately for us, ghost towns are like amusement parks for college kids."

"Um..." Bonnie looked between them, settling on Alaric. "Damon told us what you were doing in Europe."

"That I was losing my money and my sanity to a series of con artists?" Alaric retorted. "Don't worry, I'm over it."

"After everything we've experienced, it's okay if you're not." Bonnie took a step toward the door. "I'm actually a little offended you didn't come to me first."

He looked at Abigail, but he called after Bonnie, "Wait, have you ever heard of the Phoenix Stone?"

Bonnie turned around. "The Phoenix Stone?"

On the floor in front of the fireplace in Bonnie and Caroline's dorm room, Abigail, Alaric, and Bonnie sat surrounded by lit candles. All of their eyes were on the Phoenix Stone, a red, round-cut gemstone with several veins of a lighter color within it. And only one of them had never seen it.

"An, uh, an old contact of mine from Duke told me about it. It's supposed to have..." Alaric held it up. "Resuscitative powers. As in it can bring somebody back from the dead."

The look Bonnie gave him was the one he was avoiding; the one Abigail was avoiding. "Where did you find it?

"Well, you remember that night in New York?"