Unstoppable | The Vampire Diaries

44. Breaking Dad

Leaves crunched underneath their feet as Riley and Damon made their way through the woods.

"Sure you wanna do this?" Damon asked.

Riley nodded, then faltered and shook her head. "I don't know. He betrayed us, Damon. Maybe we should have left the dagger in him."

"We need him," Damon reminded her. "He might be able to shed some light on the weapon in the coffin."

They kept walking, until they came across someone wearing a suit, with their back to them.

"Elijah, my favorite Original, back from the dead. Clean up nice!" Damon greeted him in a jovial voice. Elijah turned around and immediately spotted Riley, the words falling from his mind. Damon looked back and forth between the two, raising an eyebrow. "Fletch, you remember Elijah, the guy who betrayed your trust."

She nodded, trying not to look into his eyes.

Elijah cleared his throat. "Damon, you left something in my jacket pocket."

"Oh yeah," Damon said sarcastically. "We need your help. Was I right to un-dagger you, or are we gonna have a problem?"

Elijah sighed, looking at Riley. "I'm here. I want to make amends. Let's talk."

"Well, complete and utter betrayal is a hard thing to come back from," Riley spoke for the first time.

"I'm s-" Elijah started, before she cut him off.

"I really can't hear an apology right now. Because it won't change what you did. And it won't change the fact that Klaus has been making our lives hell since then," she said.

"It wasn't my intention to upset you," he said apologetically.

"You know what, Damon? I don't want to do this," she said, turning around and walking back the way they came.

"Huh," she heard Damon say. "You know, she forgave Stefan for biting her... twice. You really messed up."

***

"So you're not over the betrayal after all?" Caroline asked.

Riley rolled her eyes. "No, I'm not. And I don't want to talk about it. How's your dad?"

"Well, according to Meredith Fell, he's angry that she used vampire blood to heal him," she said. Caroline's father had come back to town to help Tyler deal with his sire bond to Klaus. Apparently, Tyler had turned and lost control, attacking Bill Forbes in the process. "Then he discharged himself."

"Ooh, what's the new doc like?" Riley asked with a grin, lowering her voice in case Dr. Fell just happened to be walking through the hospital hallways. "I hear Ric has his eye on her."

Caroline frowned. "Where did you hear that?"

"Um, I spent the morning with Damon, where do you think?" The oldest Salvatore loved gossip as much as a group of teenage girls.

The girls laughed while Caroline began to call her father. After a few seconds, she drew the phone away from her ear.

"What's wrong?" Riley asked.

"I can hear it," she replied, her voice distant as she walked through the hospital and into a supply room, listening to the noise of the ringing phone. Riley followed, flicking the light on. They both jumped when they saw Bill Forbes sitting on the ground covered in blood, with a knife sticking out of his stomach.

"Don't be dead," Caroline pleaded under her breath while she knelt beside him. "Don't be dead, please don't be dead."

She pulled the knife out of him and dropped it to the floor. "Is he dead? He can't be dead!" she said hysterically.