Coming Home (A Klaus Mikaelson Story)

13. Pool and Booze

I sat there, half listening to Elena, the other half of my mind was focused on Nik... sorry, Klaus. I hadn't realised the truth behind my reasons for keeping his involvement with me a secret until now. I really had been falling for him.

"Jennifer..."

Elena's voice pulled me back out of my thoughts. I looked over at her, she mistook the horror on my face,

"I know how awful it is to hear all this, trust me. It was no better living through it, but we did, and we're still here. We never wanted you to be involved in any of this. Although what we want and what we get never seems to be the same anymore."

I smiled at her and gave her a hug,

"Ain't that the truth." I said, "look, I want to show you something."

I started upstairs, Elena following me. I led her to the bedroom and into the closet. I stood back so she could see all the items that had been hidden behind the wall. She turned to me with surprise on her face, "How did you know this was here?" she asked me.

"When I was at the reading of my parents wills the lawyer gave me a letter my dad had written to me on the day me and mom left here. It briefly explained the truth about this town, it's history with vampires. This..." I waved to the opening in the wall, "... he mentioned this in the letter as well. He said your dad helped him build it."

She nodded, "I wouldn't be surprised. I found something very similar to this in our cabin."

We stood there for a moment, both of us thinking of how far our parents went against vampires, and here we were, friends with them. Noticing the journals again I asked Elena if she wanted to stay a bit longer and help me go through them. she half smiled and nodded. There were six books in total, we grabbed three each and headed back downstairs. I made us coffee and we got stuck in.

For the most, it was stuff I knew already. Stuff about Stefan and Damon, how they turned. Elena had already covered all that. Weapons were mentioned, a dagger with white oak tree ash. Elena had explained that as well. It was almost noon when we put the books down. There was only one left to go through, but it had belonged to my dad, and I wanted to read that one in private.

We stood up stretching, and as we did our stomachs started to growl at us, causing us to laugh. I realised that I hadn't eaten since breakfast yesterday, thanks to that vampire.

Just then Elena's phone beeped with an incoming text message. She quickly read it, then looked up at me with uncertainty on her face,

"The others are at the grill. I'm gonna head over to them." she said.

I could hear the unspoken question in that sentence. I didn't even pause, "Do you mind if I tag along?"

Her face broke out in a large smile, "Of course."

I asked her to wait, I just wanted to grab a shower first. She said she would and went to get herself another coffee. I think she knew that even though I had my own car, I didn't want to arrive on my own.

I didn't really need a shower, but after the last two days I just felt dirty. I scrubbed my skin until it was raw, then got out and threw on some clean clothes. As I put my bracelet back on, my mind drifted to the person who had given it to me. I couldn't think of him as Nik anymore, and I wanted nothing more than to throw it in his face, but until I had something else that had vervain in it I wanted to keep it close. I would probably start drinking it, speaking of which...

I grabbed my duffle bag and filled it with the weapons and vervain from behind the closet wall. Throwing it over my shoulder... ok that is heavy... I made my way downstairs. After locking up the cabin, we each got into our cars and drove back to town. We parked outside the grill and walked to the door. I took a deep breath before walking in.

They were over by the pool tables. All of them were there, of course. Elena went straight to Stefan and gave him a quick kiss. I stood there awkwardly for a second, I didn't know if they would want me here, I had basically implied that they were monsters. Hell, I actually accused Caroline of killing my parents.

"Hey Jenni, ya up for a game of pool?" Jeremy asked, setting up a game. God I loved that boy. He was always so forgiving and friendly. Although I would come to discover that he wasn't the biggest fan of vampires. I smirked at him as I lifted a pool cue,

"Prepare to get your ass kicked Gilbert."

The others laughed and I knew that things would be ok, I saw Caroline watching me and I put the cue down, "Actually Jer," I said, "I'm just gonna go get a round of drinks in first. Caroline, will you give me a hand please?"

Jeremy just nodded and Caroline did too, she followed me to the bar where I ordered a round of drinks and a basket of fries for myself and Elena. We still hadn't eaten. As we waited for the order to come through I turned to Caroline,

"I'm so sorry. It was just too much, my parents dying, finding out about... everything. Then hearing Bonnie make that remark about not knowing about what really happened with mom and dad, but the way I reacted, it was wrong. I've known you practically my whole life. I love the whole group, but you, you were always like a sister to me. I should have known that you didn't have anything to do with it, no matter what you are. Of course you don't know anything about it, you loved my parents and they loved you. I really hope you can forgive me."

Caroline had just stood there throughout my rambling apology speech, towards the end she even looked slightly uncomfortable, and I waited for her response.

She waited for me to pay the barman before speaking.

"Jennifer, you're like a sister to me as well. It's understandable how you reacted, just know that I would never hurt you, none of us would. As for your parent's..."

Her eyes flicked over the group and then back to me, "... I wish I could tell you what happened but I..."

I cut her off, "Look it's ok. I know if you knew anything you would tell me. I just wanted to let you know how sorry I am."

Caroline threw her arms around me and we hugged. We then grabbed our drinks and food and headed back to the group. As I passed Bonnie she stopped me, concern on her face.

"Elena and Damon told us what happened out at your cabin. Are you ok?" she asked.

I looked around me uncomfortably, "Yeah, I'm fine. But there's a chance that it was the same vampire that killed my parents so I really don't want to talk about that today. I'm going to get talking to the council tomorrow but for tonight, I just want to have some fun. It feels like years since I had a good time."

In truth, I just knew that talking about what happened at the cabin would lead to me thinking about Nik. Instead I turned to Jeremy,

"So Jer, ready to be beat?"

He scoffed at me as we started. It was a close game but as I promised I won. As we all took turns playing games the mood defiantly got lighter, although the alcohol helped. I was going to have to be careful, I seemed to be drinking a lot more these days. It was just like old times, I was starting to relax and enjoy myself. I was playing against Damon, who was defiantly flirting with me, and I was leaning in for my final shot when... 

"Hello love."