He tried to laugh, but doubled over in bed in a fit of coughs. She took no mind and kept going. "Downright ghastly, really, it's quite repulsive."
Alaric seemed to find her unreasonably funny. It seemed blind jokes had become her new niche. "Billie, it's only been four days, I-" "Too soon, then?"
The brief silence allowed her to perfectly picture the history teacher's incredulous expression. She nodded in confirmation with a little cheeky smile. "Yeah, too soon."
She shuffled further into the room on her old man walker, the creaking of its old hinges floating through the room as she sightlessly navigated to a chair in the corner. "Since when did you need a walker?" Ric asked, half afraid it wasn't just one of Billie's jokes.
She laid her hands on the armrests and leaned on the back of the chair. "Since I couldn't figure out where I could steal a wheelchair from." Willa grinned spectacularly, readjusting the sunglasses up the bridge of her nose. "How was your vacation in Mystic Falls?"
He shuffled on his hospital bed. "I'd hardly call it a vacation I was doing my best not to die the whole time." She gestured for him to keep going. "They're almost finished rebuilding the grill." He shared enthusiastically. "No one seemed to question the charred car in the toilets, so that's a plus."
Ric paused for a second before he spoke again. "I saw your aunt... she took pretty good care of me at the hospital. The white coat suits her." He offered the information cautiously, like any second she'd interrupt and say she didn't want to hear it. Billie didn't say a word, her face remaining a blank screen. He took it as a cue to keep going. "I'm also pretty sure she met someone."
That pricked up a smile from the clairvoyant. "You're kidding." She marvelled quietly. "What's he like? What's his name? Do you know if he has a criminal record-" "Billie, how could I possibly know if he has a criminal record?" She didn't deign to respond. "I should also probably mention that the 'he' isn't actually a 'he', but a 'she'."
Billie smacked her lips together triumphantly. "Knew it."
Ric laughed quietly, clutching his side with a slight grimace. "She looked like she was doing pretty well, Bill."
Billie took off her sunglasses, feeling along the edge of the rims to give her hands something to do. Her ears picked up the erratic rhythm of Ric's heart, presumably at the sight of her completely milky white eyes, but she didn't comment on it. Enzo had described them to her in much too vivid detail, so his shock was understandable.
"That's good... that's good, I'm glad." She wished more than anything to have met this mystery woman who had enamoured her aunt, or better yet, to see Georgie in person, but she would take the gossipmongering ex-history teacher for now.
The duo lazed around in Alaric's room for a while spending time together until the door opened to welcome both Salvatore brothers. Damon noticed Billie instantly and with a start.
"Blue? What are you doing in here, you're supposed to be on bedrest." He chastised, crossing his arms sternly. His brother leaned against the threshold silently.
Billie rolled her milky eyes. "I'm a vampire Damon, literally everything else is healed." She felt along the rim of her sunglasses one last time before slotting them over her eyes. "You really shouldn't be so dramatic."
He scoffed with a sarcastic laugh. "Oh, that is so rich coming from you-"
Stefan interjected, palm up to silence them both. "Children, please."
The two stared each other off, one of them smiling ever so slightly as she resorted to imagining the other's expression. Damon sighed and glanced at his brother. "Well, she's not coming."
"What?"
Damon plucked up her walker in one hand and crossed to the other side of the bed, depositing it there for Alaric. "Come on Ric, up and at 'em."
"Wait just a minute, where are you going?"
Damon grinned wickedly to her as he hauled Alaric out of his hospital bed.
⤕
"I don't get it."
"Well I told you didn't I? About a bajillion times and no one thought to think, hey, maybe we should listen to her? Congratulations boys, you've wasted a full day of your lives getting to freakin' Portland, have fun wasting tomorrow getting back."
She paused to chug some Dr. Pepper before continuing. "Not to mention, you're missing Care's Friendsgiving, which means not only have you nothing to show for your misguided escapade, you will also be missing a fantastic meal on top of it all!"
"Billie, don't get snarky." Alaric spoke up from beside Stefan who dutifully held the phone out on speaker.
She scoffed. "I'm blind and bitter, snark is my new superpower."
Ric turned to Stefan with an incredulous look but he only put his hands up like he wasn't involving himself. "Hey, I'm with her on this one, I also said there was nothing here."
"Just because we can't see anything, doesn't mean it doesn't exist." Alaric countered persistently.
Don't go in.
Billie paused, words dying on her lips. Now what the hell was that supposed to mean?
"Not unlike Caroline's feelings for Stefan." The older Salvatore chimed. He pulled out Miss Cuddles, Bonnie's bear and passed it between his hands. The others didn't notice her prolonged silence and Damon began to mock Stefan with the teddy.
Elena called out from inside the dorm. "Billie get in here!"
It took her a second to reply, an antsy feeling growing in her chest, her left leg bobbing up and down and making a low sound against the stairs she perched on. "J-Just one second Elena!"
She spoke back into the phone to interrupt them. "Wait, wait a second guys-"
They didn't answer for a moment and when they did, it was clear they'd found whatever it was her clairvoyance was warning them away from.
think i finally realised why i haven't been able to find a faceclaim for billie and it's because i've been picturing her as myself the entire time i've been writing her and having her react to things the same way that i would react to them to the point that i couldn't imagine her looking like anyone but myself even though i'd described her looking differently. 😭 sounds so vain now that i've said it but oh well 🤪
that being said, this is probably as close as you beautiful people will get to having a faceclaim for billie if you don't already have someone in mind.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
