Unstoppable | The Vampire Diaries

112. Annihilation

Riley caught the tail-end of Caroline's conversation with Stefan as she helped to organize toys into different categories for the toy-drive that Caroline was basically forcing her and Bonnie to help with.

"How are you?" the pregnant vampire asked her boyfriend whilst stroking her bump absent-mindedly, worried about how he was handling Lily's death. After a minute of listening, she rolled her eyes and turned to Riley. "Damon's drunk."

Riley rolled her eyes, expecting absolutely nothing less from her boyfriend. "Tell me something I don't know. Have they found Julian yet?"

Caroline sadly shook her head, before going back to Stefan. "I should go. But I'll call you later."

Riley bit her lip to hide her smile of relief that they hadn't managed to find Julian yet. There was something about their mission that didn't sit right with her.

Together, they walked to where Bonnie was also sorting toys.

"Hey Stefan," the witch mocked Caroline. "Did I mention Bonnie saw me mix a blood bag with a jar of mayonnaise at 2 in the morning?"

Caroline squeaked in outrage. "One, that was marshmallow fluff. Two, I'm feeding for three now, I get cravings."

"Fair," Bonnie nodded. "Why not just tell him?"

"Because he doesn't need to worry about the specifics of my magical pregnancy with Alaric's babies!"

"Words that should probably not be spoken at that volume," Ric said warily, joining them. He threw an amused smirk Caroline's way.

"Don't you guys have one of those baby classes today?" Riley asked curiously. Ric and Caroline were determined to treat the pregnancy as normally as possible... almost as if the person carrying the babies wasn't supernatural.

"Yeah, we do," Caroline answered, grabbing a notepad and other study materials with a grin on her face. Ric raised his eyebrows, but thought it best not to comment. "Can you guys handle all of this on your own?"

Bonnie scoffed. "If you can handle all of this while pregnant, we can handle a fraction of it while not."

Caroline waved, and she and Ric left. Riley looked around at all the work that Caroline had left them to do. There were mountains of toys to sort, and the amount of volunteers was significantly lower than what they needed.

"Do you really think we can handle this?"

Bonnie mirrored her overwhelmed expression. "I don't know, I was bluffing."

The girls laughed and got to work. Both of them together made up exactly half of a Caroline Forbes. Hopefully, half a Caroline was enough.

After over an hour of tireless work, they heard a small, seemingly innocent voice behind them.

"You appear tired."

Turning around, they saw Nora standing nervously, with a board game in her hands. Riley frowned.

"Was that supposed to be an insult? Or a really bad compliment?"

"Neither. Simply an observation," Nora said, holding out the game, which was called 'Sorry!'. "Uh, I have a toy... for a tot. It was a passive aggressive gift for when Mary Louise came crawling back to me, but that hasn't happened, so..."

At that moment, Riley noticed the absence of a huge diamond on Nora's ring finger.

"Wait, you guys broke up?" she asked, trying to sound more sympathetic and less gossipy. "What happened?"

"She sided with Julian," Nora admitted after a moment. "She allowed him to manipulate us, and if it wasn't for her... Lily might still be alive."

"Sorry to hear that," Bonnie cut in, making it clear that she wasn't sorry in the slightest. She took the game from Nora and dropped it in a crate with the other toys. "Okay, you delivered it. Yay, that's the end." Her tone was showered with sarcasm.