FOREVER AND EVER AFTER - A STEFAN SALVATORE LOVE STORY

CHAPTER - 70 : DINNER AND NEGOTIATIONS

AT THE McLEAN RESIDENCE:

After doing some prenatal yoga poses, Venice went downstairs, into the kitchen where she found Ric groaning while rummaging through the cabinets.

"Morning" Venice greeted him while pulling out a jar of cold orange juice from the refrigerator."Thought we had aspirin" Ric groaned, still rummaging through the cabinets."They're in the vitamins" Venice told him.

She noticed a nearly empty bottle of whiskey and an empty glass next to it on the kitchen counter when she was pouring some juice into the glass for herself and sighed.

"You're hungover" She stated."Yeah, sorry about that. It was a bit of a weird night" Ric slightly groaned and took some aspirin.Facing him, Venice said "I told you you don't have to feel guilty about inviting Meredith over here" while taking a sip from her glass of juice."Oh I know. And I thank you for that. But I do feel guilty for whiskey dialing her at two in the a.m." Ric told her."No you didn't" Venice said with slightly wide eyes, as if Ric did something forbidden."Oh, yes I did" Ric said, looking at her sheepishly."Oh, was she cool about it?" Venice asked, genuinely curious about what happened."Well, as soon as these aspirin kick in and I remember the conversation, I'll let you know" Ric said and Venice immediately let out a laugh and Ric joined her.

Just then, the doorbell rang making Venice look at its direction. When she opened the door, she saw Sheriff Forbes waiting outside, holding a plastic evidence bag. 

"Sheriff Forbes, hi. Is everything okay?" Venice asked her, walking out to the porch when she noticed Liz looking slightly glum.

Ric too walked out to the porch, looking at Liz quizzically.

"This is an unconventional conversation we're about to have. So I hope you'll protect me on it" Liz said when Ric stood beside Venice."Of course" Ric said while Venice nodded her head."I assume you both heard our medical examiner was murdered the night of the Wickery Bridge fundraiser" Liz said."Yeah. Brian Walters. Why?" Ric asked."We've been investigating. Someone drove this stake through his heart" Liz said, holding up the plastic evidence bag which has got a stake in it, in front of them.

Ric took it from her and stared at it, as if he's examining it.

"That's one of ours" Ric said, looking at Liz and Liz nodded in response.

"I mean this is one of a set from your parents' lake house" Ric said, looking at Venice.

Venice frowned hearing it.

"That's why I'm here. I haven't told anyone but forensics ran it for prints and found only one clean set" Liz told them and the two of them looked at her.

"Yours" Liz said looking at Venice, making Venice's eyes widen.

"What?" Venice asked in disbelief.

*****

Damon was walking through a meadow and talking to Venice and Ric on the phone.

"So you're the prime suspect, huh?" Damon asked."She doesn't think that I did it" Venice snapped at him.
"Ooh... Why you're being snappy today?" Damon asked.
Venice could practically hear the smirk on his face when he asked so.
"Because a dumb friend of mine decided to undagger a suit wearing original" she snapped at him.
"Well, I'm just hoping that he'll work with us" Damon said.
While Venice and Elena went to meet Abby, with Bonnie and things went downhill, Bonnie texted Damon to move the coffins. Seeing that he didn't have much time, with some compulsion, Damon moved the coffin that's spell shut, into the old Lockwood cellar cave, where no vampire can enter and undaggered Elijah.
"I still can't believe you undaggered Elijah" Venice muttered, taking a seat by the dining table, putting the phone on speaker.
"Well, wish me luck. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that Elijah will agree to help us plotting Klaus's destruction" Damon said and Venice sighed.
"Don't you think that you and your brother have gone too far into "Plot destruction of Klaus" phase?" Venice asked in exasperation.
She's definitely not into killing Klaus. Yes, he's an asshole and made hers and the lives of the ones that are close to her miserable, but she wouldn't wish death upon anyone. And she can't help but think how stupid Damon and the others are, thinking that Elijah, who happened to be Klaus's brother, will help them in destroying Klaus. She could already see the plan backfiring right on their faces.
"He's my brother now? I thought he's your boyfriend who's now a baby dada" Damon said and Venice immediately groaned.
"Oh, BTW, he's getting more possessive of you, ya know. He fought me last night, thinking that I'm stealing you from him" Damon told, making Venice's eyes widen in disbelief.
"What?"
"You heard me. He punched me on my face and if you haven't noticed yet, there's quite a fan following for this face. I'm lucky that I could heal immediately" Damon said, making Venice roll her eyes.
"Yeah? Then tell him to act up to his responsibilities instead of being an A grade asshole" Venice said, making Damon snort.
"Yikes. Someone's being snarky now. Angry pregnant alert!" Damon tried to lighten the mood.
"Well, you're not the one who's carrying this magical miracle baby. So, shut up" Venice snapped back.
"Okay. Leaving Stefan's asshole behavior aside for now, tell me what else did the Sheriff told you" Damon demanded.
" She's just trying to find out why somebody used one of my family weapons to kill a council member" Venice told him while Ric walked into the kitchen with a bag filled with all the weapons."Well why don't you just ask Ric if his dirty little doctor had access to the weapons" Damon asked while Ric placed the bag on the table and started unpacking it."You're on speaker phone, dick" Ric told him, making Venice stifle her laughter."I'm just sayin' first suspects usually the right one. Don't get so defensive" Damon told him."Brian Walters was killed days ago, alright? I didn't show Meredith this stuff until last night!" Ric said."It wasn't Meredith" Venice said, getting more comfortable in her seat."But Brian Walters was her ex-boyfriend and Ric saw them fighting that night" Damon said."It's not Meredith! Okay?" Venice said, leaning closer to the phone, as if she's telling that straight to Damon's face.
She then looked at Ric and said " I refuse to believe that your luck with women is that tragic.""Who else knows about your secret little slayer stash?" Damon asked Ric." Who doesn't? Got weapons everywhere, here, the school, my loft, your car" Ric went on."It's Klaus. It has to be, he's screwing with us" Damon said."What if it was Stefan? He was crazy that night. And you know he was trying to get underneath Klaus's skin, he was capable of pretty much anything" Venice said with a sigh."Ahh, make's me nostalgic for the time when Stefan was a bunny snacking pacifist, anyway got to go, you'll know more later" Damon said and before he can hang up, Ric asked him "Hey, where are you?""Tea with an old friend" Damon replied and hung up.
*****