everyonelives | the ground could open, he could still say please

I'll go.

( He holds his hand out for her keys. He likes the out because it also involves Katherine. )

How are you doing with this? I know you and Katherine have history.

I can handle her.

[Katherine did kill her once, but she's human now, and that evens the playing field some. She passes over her keys and gives him a smile.]

We'll be in the library when you get back.

I'll bring back Bonnie and Isaac.

( He leaves Caroline with the library (and Katherine.)

Katherine sits herself down at the table in the library not knowing what she should look for. She guesses Sam or Dean or someone will give her the right book. Allison has joined Sam and the others in the library. )

Alright. We're looking for witch stuff. Colonial witch stuff.

[He moves towards the shelves and starts pulling some of the records related to witchcraft and practicing witches.]

The highest traffic for the witch trials happened in Salem, but they happened throughout the colonies, so we can split this up by area, or some of us can take the colonies while the others dig into what we have on the Inquisition which will take ... a lot longer.

Let's split it up. Bonnie will be back and she'll be another set of eyes. I'll take the Inquisition with Sam and when she and Isaac get here, Bonnie, and everyone else split up the witch trials by colony.

( If she knew what she was looking for, she'd play general for that, too.

Luckily, Dean, who has come into his own as research guy has ideas for what they should look for.

"We're looking for suspicious, brutal, caused deaths. Anything from the trials themselves and accidents out in the woods. It sounds like this Gauntlet is no holds barred. But, it can't have gone undocumented completely."

Better yet, the person wouldn't know they were contributing. )

Well, we can scratch off the hundred witches burned in Mystic Falls in 1790. That was a totally unrelated thing.

[That involved sirens and the Cade and as far as they know totally not related to the Gauntlet. Then she holds up a finger.]

But they were refugees from Salem, so maybe there's something in the Bennett family grimmoire. Their whole coven came down from Massachusetts.

( "You guys really take liberties with your local history," Dean says, equally unsurprised by anything Caroline ever says. It's fine, they'll be besties in no time. )

Do we have it?

Mystic Falls has always been a complicated place.

[You don't get to be the birthplace of vampires without being complicated. But to address Allison's question:]

Here? I don't know. But Ryan went to pick up Bonnie and Isaac, so we can ask her when she gets here.

( "What has Mystic Falls not had," Dean asks. Because by his count, it's up there when it comes to all things super and natural.

Allison nods and Caroline's phone buzzes! )

Variety is the spice of life?

[She glances down at her phone as it rings and her eyebrows go up when she sees the name on the caller ID. She excuses herself and makes her way back to somewhere where she'll have a little more privacy.]

Hey, Stiles.

[She wasn't expecting him to call, but she's glad he did.]

Hey. Caroline.

( How does he do this? He did it with Cora. That was like sending a bullet through the wire. He can do this with Caroline. )

I bailed pretty good. Like in terms of a point system for bailing, I'd be up there. Even the Russian judge would be like, what a great bail!

Maybe, but we all know the Russian judge has it out for us. As far as my personal abandonment scale goes, you don't even make the podium.

[She means that to be comforting, but there's a list. The gold always goes to her dad, first and foremost. Stefan Salvatore, after they lost Bonnie and Damon usually gets silver, and there are much more painful options to fill in for third.

Yes, she was worried about Stiles, but given that there were no bodies dropping, the painful anguish was at a minimum.]

Are you okay?

I went back to work. Buried my head in bureaucracy and then all my friends got doxxed.

( As far as 'okay' goes, he's up there. His friends aren't. )

You're really with Lydia and Allison?

Yep. We're having a good old-fashioned research party. Some kind of crazy witch situation is brewing because the universe has remembered we existed and apparently a decade break is as long as we get. But hey, at least Elena got to finish med school uninterrupted, because if she had to deal with supernatural problems every year and pass her boards she might have snapped and murdered someone.

[Is she just rambling because that seems easier? Maybe. But she's never had trouble holding the chatty end of a conversation.]

But they're good. Promise.

Same. Here. I mean, I need to work on things. And I should. But, I am not tearing off anyone's heads. Or biting any unsuspecting agents. Something worked.

( Enough. )

Crazy to think we would've had to get out, anyway. Except maybe together. Bunker life sounds... studious.

I'm glad some of the lessons stuck.

[For Stiles' benefit more than her own. She's glad that he's managing.]

Are you on your own, or do you have people you can really talk to there?

Really talk to. Yeah, I never really had that after Scott. ( Even with, they didn't really talk about things, they just experienced them and reacted. ) So, talking. That'll help.

Well, I'm here, if you need it.

[She wonders if he might need some of the things she did, in order to better manage moving forward. To not let the speed at which the world throws them into things keep them from hitting the milestones that are important.]

Maybe even in person, once things settle down a little.

Yes, in person. I am very good in person.

( He's actually a babbling mess, usually, or an ADD mess, or a vampire mess, yeah he's a big old mess and he should definitely take her up on her offer. )

My one partner - she's in the know. I should probably figure out how or why, but she helped with Elena and everyone. With you.

Well, tell her thank you from us.

[Because really, everyone got out safe from the heads up that Stiles gave them.]

I might be back in Mystic Falls soon. There's something we need and I'm not sure if Bonnie was able to bring it with her. Maybe while I'm there we can grab a drink. I'll let you know?

Yeah, I could meet you there. And you can thank her in person.

( Buddy system, these days. )

Thanks. For not giving up on me.

Edited 2022-11-28 20:28 (UTC)

Giving up isn't really my style.

[Once you've got her, she's in it for the long haul.]

You'll be okay, Stiles. I know being a vampire is a lot, but we'll figure it out. You're not in this alone. But I'll let you know once I know what the travel situation is.

[And she's very curious to meet this partner of his too. But with that said and done, she makes her way back into the library where she (11), Elena (1 - she's late to the party and still catching up on what they're actually looking for), Mary (20) and Sam (12) are hard at work digging into the witch research.]

( Caroline returns and the group hits the books. Allison and Katherine hit the Men of Letters' version of the jackpot (which doesn't help so much in the now, but gives them more information in the then). In Allison's case, she has been well-versed in research. Katherine happens to be reading the right chapter. She literally flipped through and chose one. )

The Gauntlet, it originates with the coven calling themselves the Colony, right?

( The thirteen Colonies, etc. She double checks. )

This says that the Colony goes back farther. The Colony is a coven that broke off from their original coven. The Knightsbridge coven.

( "Like Bonnie's witch," Katherine says, tilting her book up because she's also found something. "This one says the Knightsbridge coven gave as good as they get and then some. The Colony, Knightsbridge, a few other lesser covens they don't have information on. It involved all of them." She drops her book. "And I used to like a good bloodbath." )

Tell me about it. These Men of Letters guys were really good at reading the obituaries.

[Caroline pushes one of the journals into the middle of the table.]

This one is just pages of names of people who were killed in the process. It's like Ripper Stefan on steriods, and I'm not even sure they actually killed them.

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