Book Two: Aquiver (A. Saltzman)

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Diana stands in front of her bedroom mirror wearing a black dress. Her eyes are all red and puffy from crying all night. She slides a pair of black sunglasses over her eyes and takes a breath as she looks over her outfit. She nods a little. Because given her mood, this is as good as it is going to get. She looks down at her hand and then curls her fingers into her palm.

...............

Derek, Damon, and Stefan are waiting downstairs in funeral attire. Derek tugs on his tie, he's always hated the way they feel on his throat.

"Urgh" Derek complains.

"Stop fussing" Damon grumbles, Derek stops and shoots Damon a look.

"We all set?" Stefan asks Damon.

"Yeah. Plenty of room with the Gilbert family plot and I compelled two of the gravediggers to do the dirty work." Damon glances at Stefan. "How's she doing?"

"She lost the only parents she had. She's in shock." Stefan glances at the stairs as Diana makes her way down to them. Damon walks over to meet her at the bottom, she passes him instead and heads outside, Damon lets out a breath and follows her.

...............

Diana leans against her jeep, her eyes on a patch of flowers across the garden. Damon leans next to her and crosses his arms over his chest.

"You okay, Watchdog?" Damon asks, she nods. "Sure?" he whispers to her.

"What do you think?" she counters and then pauses. "You seen him?" she asks him, he nods.

"Yeah, I popped in on him last night" Damon answers. "He was a wreck...drunk wreck"

"Lucky him," She tells him. "I can't even do that" she touches her stomach. He hums a little.

"Why did you do it?" he asks her as he turns to her. "Why did you...? Why?" 

"Just beat him to it" She mumbles. "That's the way it was heading"

"He wasn't going to ditch you, stupid" Damon tells her, she looks at him. "He wanted to work through it with you...like a real grown-up couple" Diana looks away from him. "You can't let it end like this" he scolds her.

"Why do you care so much?"

"Because you're both my friends" He answers. "And I don't want to have to go through the drama of picking sides" she raises an eyebrow. "Fix this" he scolds her. Her eyes flicker to his arm where his werewolf bite is. He pulls it behind his back.

"You want to die mending this, huh?" she asks him, he huffs. "Mind reader" She reminds him.

"It's one of my to-dos," he tells her with a shrug.

"Problem is...It's not going to work if he doesn't trust me, Damon" She points out and then climbs into her jeep. Damon sighs and shakes his head.

................

Elena is placing her earrings in. She looks at the pictures surrounding the frame of her mirror, which include one of her parents and one of Jenna. Jeremy walks into the doorway and raps his knuckles against the wall. He enters the room as Elena finishes putting her earrings in.

"I'm almost ready." She tells Jeremy.

"Yeah, take your time." Elena exhales. "John wanted me to give you this." Jeremy hands her the letter and she takes it. "And this." Jeremy retrieves the magical ring from his pocket and hands it to Elena. Elena hesitantly takes it and looks up at Jeremy. Jeremy starts to leave the room.

"Jeremy..." Jeremy turns back and looks at Elena. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that you've lost so many people.

"I still have you and Diana" He counters. Elena smiles at him and places her head on his shoulder. He wraps his arms around her in a warm embrace. They pull apart and look at each other for a moment before Jeremy leaves the room and goes downstairs. Elena tries to maintain her composure as she walks over to her window seat and sits down. She opens up the letter and starts to read it.

............

Diana climbs out of her jeep as she parks at the cemetery. Alaric is climbing out of his own car a little way downs from her. Diana glances at him. Damon wasn't wrong. Alaric looks like hell. He actually looks how she feels. He runs his fingers through his hair and looks across at her. She closes her jeep door and takes a shaky breath. Neither is taking this all that well. He walks towards her. Diana doesn't want to deal with this right now, not today.

"Diana" Alaric states when he reaches the back of her jeep, she looks at him. "Can we please talk about this?" He asks her, his voice shifting with his emotions, because he is going to try and do whatever he can to change her mind. Diana touches her stomach and then looks out over the cemetery.

"Not today" She counters. "Tomorrow" he nods. He can give her that. 

.............

Stefan, Elena, Damon, Bonnie, Caroline, Alaric, Diana, Derek, and Jeremy walk across the cemetery together.

.............

Stefan has his hand in the small of Elena's back and leads her to the gravesites of Jenna and John. Elena has four roses clutched in her hands. She kneels down and places two roses on a grave plot before moving back. Diana rubs two coins together between her fingers before she steps forward.

"What's that for?" Jeremy asks her quietly.

"To pay the ferryman" Diana answers. She takes a breath and sets the coins down, one on each grave plot before moving back to Derek's side, he threads his fingers with hers. She leans against his arm, wrapping her free hand around his bicep. Derek sets his head against hers.

..............

Teary-eyed, Elena approaches her parent's graves. She looks down at the tombstone, kneels, and places the remaining two roses on their graves. She begins to cry now. Damon starts to walk away. Elena looks up at him and stands, still crying.

.............

Damon is standing some distance away from the rest of the group. Stefan approaches him.

"We're going to head back to the house," Stefan tells him.

"I think I'll skip the coffee and tea cakes." Damon offers.

"Damon, she needs us right now. All of us."

"And then what's the plan, Stefan? The curse is broken. How does one go about killing an all-powerful wolf vamp and his two-faced older brother?" Damon asks.

"I have no idea." Damon turns around to look at Stefan.

"We need to get an idea. Fast."

"I'm not going to let Elena lose anybody else."

"I wouldn't make any promises, brother."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Stefan asks him.

"Tyler Lockwood bit me." Damon pulls up his sleeve and shows Stefan the bite, which has gotten even worse. Stefan walks over to him with a look of anguish on his face. "It's actually more of a nip, really, but there it is." Stefan takes Damon's arm and examines the bite.

"We'll find something. A cure."

"There's no cure, Stefan." Damon and Stefan look off across the graveyard, presumably towards Elena. Stefan looks back at Damon.

"We kept Elena human, right? We found the way when there was no way. Hey." Damon turns his head and faces Stefan. "I will do this."

"You want to do something for me?" Damon asks. "Keep this from Elena. Last thing she needs is another grave to mourn." Damon grips Stefan's shoulder, gingerly, and walks away. Stefan watches him as he leaves, his left-hand fidgeting. The look on his face filled with torment.