Whatever It Takes {Two | Alaric Saltzman}

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me

Abigail looked up from her journal and into the kitchen at Alaric who was cursing under his breath. There was burnt toast on the counter, bacon reaching that point on the stove, and eggs still raw in the pan. She couldn't help but laugh at the sight, the sound coming out of her as if she had never laughed before.

He peered into the bedroom. "Are you laughing at me?"

She closed her journal. "No."

"You're lying through your teeth!"

He ran into the room, jumping into bed with a smother of kisses. The weight of his body on top of hers was what she remembered it to be, but it was different, better somehow. So not even his lips meeting hers could muffle her giggles.

"What's so funny?" He asked as his fingers slipped under the hem of her t-shirt. His Duke t-shirt. "Is it the breakfast catastrophe, or the fact that I looked for this shirt every day for almost a year but it was here all along?"

"You should have known I kept it." She played with the hair at the nape of his neck absentmindedly as his lips trailed down her neck. "It's my favorite."

"That's why I was looking for it," he whispered into her ear.

There was only a second, maybe less, before his lips were making their way back to hers, but the smoke detector went off and then her phone rang. There was still a kiss shared before they untangled themselves, their laughs no different than before. And that was why Abigail answered her phone with an over enthusiastic, "Hey!"

"Breaking news," Matt said. "Remember all those people Julian was stockpiling? They disappeared this morning."

Abigail furrowed her eyebrows. "Where did they go?"

"That's what I'm working on." The way he was talking to her was the same as before. Before she turned off her humanity. Before he found out about her and Alaric. Before she was a vampire. Before Elena broke up with him. Before her parents died. And there was only one reason. "Want to help?"

"Actually, I can't," she said. "I'm going to meet with Stefan and Damon."

"Do you know what Caroline is up to?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah, and she can't help either." She took a deep breath. "Because Valerie was right."

"She's really pregnant?"

She chuckled. "Yup."

"Oh, wow." His next question came out slowly, "How are you?"

"You know, Matt, I, uh, I don't really know how to put it into words." A beat later, she added, "It seems like it should be complicated, but it's not complicated at all."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"It is a good thing."

The way he was talking changed completely, like he remembered all of the reasons it ever did. "Then I have something to say."

She shifted uncomfortably. "Go ahead."

"Leave town. Take Alaric, the babies, and your miracle life, and get the hell out before it's too late."

Abigail met Damon, Stefan, and Enzo in the late Mayor Lockwood's study with a question, "So, Lily's on our side?"

"Sure is," Damon droned. "What's the plan?"

"Julian needs to die today," Stefan said. "Everything has to appear to be normal. Julian's not an idiot. If he finds out that Lily turned on him, we're all dead."

Enzo, who had been silent up to that point, moved his eyes from Stefan to Damon. "So, you embed her with a psychopath? Sounds logical."

"Don't look at me!" Damon exclaimed. "I voted to drive a stake through her heart and get rid of this Julian-mama drama once and for all. But, hey, complicated plan A sounds like a happy compromise."