everyonelives | hey it's good to be back home again

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hey it's good to be back home again

[It's been a while since Stefan has been back in Mystic Falls, but he wasn't going to miss the twins graduation. He knew that coming home was going to be complicated. He was bringing his girlfriend to meet people. He was bracing himself for Damon's judgement about him dating a vampire slayer the entire ride from the airport.

What he hadn't expected, was getting ambushed at a gas station while filling up his car by a hunter.

According to Damon, there haven't been hunters in Mystic Falls in years. They knew that the school would be a beacon, but they also took precautions for that to protect the kids. Most hunters understood that they were trying to reduce deaths, rather than concentrate them. This isn't to say that Mystic Falls is perfect, but they're doing better than they used to.

Stefan doesn't kill him. He's caught off guard enough that he doesn't immediately go for the kill, and Buffy catches the hunter off guard enough that the guy decides to retreat and regroup rather than push his luck against a slayer and a vampire. This isn't, unfortunately, before he manages to plug Stefan with a few wooden bullets. And those hurt like a mother.]

Gotta love coming home.

[He groans as he sinks back against the car, trying to keep an eye on their surroundings, before glancing down at the bleeding holes in his shirt.]

I liked this shirt.

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( Buffy's good with that. She can also be on Damon patrol. And, if not, there are other, newer people. Sam will probably be back by now, if Damon is. So, she follows Stefan up and leaves Elena and Dean to the hunter.

Upstairs Katherine is snooping in the living room, inspecting Damon's bookshelves, having helped herself to the good scotch that was on the bar cart.

Damon is not back yet. )

[Yep. She and Dean will patch up the hunter and Elena will talk and while they might gain a little ground, she probably won't get any major details.

Stefan, however, will see Katherine browsing, and raise an eyebrow at her curiously.]

Looking for something new?

( Dean will be impressed with how disarming Elena can be, and honest. And how she's not an impartial person. She sees in shades of grey. Dean would go whole hog. Elena is careful. She's human. )

It's been ten years. ( She doesn't turn around, though. ) Honestly? I thought he might have made a shrine to your journals. I didn't exactly bring any reading material to this long weekend.

Oh, no. Those are over at the Salvatore School. Caroline made a joke and thought I wouldn't follow through.

[Not to say he's not still journaling these days, but apparently his journals are good at discouraging young vampires from being careless about how they feed.]

Speaking of, we should probably loop her in at some point. I think she's arriving tomorrow with her vampire protege.

[He means Ryan. Though he has no idea if Ryan's actually coming.]

You're a cautionary tale, now.

( Interesting. Everything else is boring. Ledgers and history. All things that will put her to sleep. )

I'll get right on that.

( She is not Caroline's favorite person. The exact opposite, anyway.

But, Buffy is also here, hello, Katherine.

"He meant me-we." Not you, Katherine. "I'll check with Alaric first." )

Right, we didn't get to do proper introductions.

[He pours glasses for he and Buffy both, before gesturing between the two.]

Buffy, this is Katherine Pierce, the woman who turned me. Katherine, this is Buffy Summers, my girlfriend.

[Also the Slayer, but he has a feeling Katherine already knows that.]

( Years later and it still sting along the edges, some deeper part of Katherine that will always carry a torch for her lover, Stefan. But, she's buried it deep down and started over.

"Stefan always did date high profile."

Or, she'd kept track of everyone because that's what she did. Not that she wasn't high profile enough, even on the run. )

One day, I'll live Harmony's reality show down...

( That, and, she was enemy number one thanks to the government, too. And then all Slayers were. She's had a time and a half. She shakes her head, though, texting Caroline. )

Has Alaric called you?

( Katherine looks from Buffy to Stefan.

"Reality show?"

Classy. )

We all make mistakes sometimes.

[And Caroline is on the plane, but thankfully she's got wi-fi texting, so Buffy's text comes through.

Still in the air. Why, is something wrong?]

But I think she was referring to you being high profile for being the Slayer.

( Buffy did assume she'd spring for the Wifi.

You could say that. Let's just say it won't be my first graduation that might end in fire.

Katherine shrugs, moving over to the plane bench. Setting her glass down, she opens the piano, testing it out. F note. F note. )

And me being high profile in infamy. The girl who dared run away from Klaus Mikaelson.

( "The Klaus that's ... here?"

Katherine looks up, turning around. )

We've all moved on.

[Ryan may notice that Caroline made the most undignified of squeaks.

WHAT? NO. THERE WILL NOT BE ANY FIRES AT GRADUATION.

She is already offended, beware all hunters who come across her path.]

We have. Oddly enough, having a kid mellowed out Klaus a lot.

( Ryan does look up from the plans he's reading, blinking. He glances over. His eyes say 'Are you alright?' in his quiet Ryan Atwood way.

The plan is for no fires, you're right. We just don't know if that will go through. We have a little situation here.

Not elemental in nature. Hunters.

Also offended? Minutely? Katherine. )

So everyone says. I keep my distance.

( Old, old habits. )

How is Caroline taking the news? She's probably having a coronary.

[Katherine is right, there are a lot of capslock. Telling her while she was on a plane was probably not the best idea.

HUNTERS?!?!?!

She leans back, takes a deep cleansing breath and resumes typing like a normal person.

We land in three hours. One of you pick us up at the airport. I want a full briefing.

Stefan watches this happen over Buffy's shoulder.]

There's definitely a lot of capslock.

( We're at Damon's. With Katherine Pierce.

Buffy's had some ideas before. Telling her now? Not her best. But, Stefan mentioned it and they're all playing catch up, So, now Caroline gets to.

"Three hours."

Taking that on feels right, as she turns to Stefan. Since she ... brought this on.

"Good move worrying her to death 20,000 feet in the air."

But, also, maybe good move, Katherine thinks. Maybe she'll get the worrying out of her system and have just enough energy to side eye her involvement.

The front door opens then, Damon letting Sam in - tall Sam Winchester into his house and closing it behind him. )

Well, he's the tallest person I'm ever met. Elena's car is back home. Sam thinks there's someone surveilling her apartment.

( All news at once here in Damon's boarding house. Where's the alcohol? )

Guess she's crashing here tonight too. Aren't you glad you have a big house.

[And now there's the most epic of eye rolls. Ryan is getting such a show as his seatmate is furiously texting.

Ugh, she is the worst. We will get drinks and commiserate once this whole hunter situation is handled. See you when we land.

She will then pass the texts over to Ryan so that he can see what they'll be dealing with when they land.

In the meantime, Stefan and Sam will just wave at each other.]

She's trying to see if she can get any information out of the hunters. Care needs a ride from the airport in three hours, do we want to send someone by then to check it out?

Aren't I glad you didn't say orange.

( Yeah, yeah, he's magical mystery Mystic Falls HQ. He takes a long, deep sip of his entire glass before pouring himself another.

Please, I'm desperately in need of some girl talk. My lifeline is on another continent.

She's not ... that bad.

She's also not bad, but Buffy isn't usually the slayer who has trouble getting along. As long as everyone's on the same side and not secretly working against them.

Ryan scans the texts, then scrolls up to read them again and looks back over. There's recognition as he hands her phone back.

So, not a good weekend to talk about possible feelings, then. )

I say, send two.

( And yeah, Damon takes another big drink, setting it down and his eyes land on Katherine. )

[Sorry, Ryan. Welcome to Mystic Falls.]

Great. Sounds good.

[To Sam:]

Your brother's downstairs with Elena. They're trying to persuade information out of the hunter since we can't compel him at the moment.

( "He means me,", Katherine says, crossing her eyes. The last thing she wants to see is Elena's dull life here, but, she also knows she's the best bet if someone tries to get the drop on them.

"Sam. Would you like to come with me tomorrow to Elena's?"

Buffy would point out that Elena doesn't know this plan but her glass is looking better than all of this. )

Persuade him? With what?

Edited 2020-11-09 03:27 (UTC)

My radical compassion powers.

[Look who's joined the party. She's coming up the stairs with Dean probably not far behind her.]

Which didn't work. He's pretty heavily indoctrinated. Why are we sending Sam and Katherine to my house?

["We think someone might be watching your place."

Elena groans.]

No. I'm not staying here in this mad house.

( Dean flanks her, just in case, gives her a head start and makes sure that hunter is good and ziptied tight. )

Then you're staying at Caroline's, or Bonnie's.

( Back him up, brother.

"Maybe they think I'd be better at defending myself if they make a real move. And Sam's one hell of a shot, right?" Man, he is tall.

"Maybe," Buffy asks. "We let Elena decide. But, for what it's worth. They're right. It's not safe to be home right now. Damon has, like, seven bedrooms. We could even leave three between you and anyone else?" )

[Stefan's face is sympathetic, but it's pretty clear he agrees with Damon. Elena glances between the two of them and gestures to the hunter behind her.]

Dean could sleep in my guest room? Then I wouldn't be alone and you'd have one less person in your house.

[Why is that an option? Maybe she's just desperate to not feel like she's reliving high school. Also she can defend herself just fine, Katherine.]

( He inhales, exchanging a look with his brother. )

If she has a couch, Sam will crash there, I'll take the guest room and you can get your good night's sleep.

( Which he knows, right now, is all relative. )

But you pack a bag tomorrow morning. If Sam's right, all eyes are on you right now because all eyes are on - us? ( He looks back at Sam, again. ) You think they clocked her at the gas station or the bar?

( And them?

Damon's not thrilled Elena's on anyone's radar. )

We drive you over, in one car. And one of us goes to the hospital with you for your shift. Maybe, we can get the drop on whoever is surveilling her. Add to our collection. A vampire should stay behind.

( "I open tomorrow." )

And I close at the hospital.

[She doesn't like the modified plan, but if it means she gets to sleep in her own bed tonight, then she'll live. She also doesn't think that she can have people stalking her at the hospital, but whatever. Fine. Maybe they'll get something out of the hunter tomorrow and this will all be over.

She gives Sam a sympathetic look because well ...]

My couch isn't that big. Are you sure you're going to be comfortable?

[Sam makes a face. "I'll make it work."

Elena takes a deep breath and nods.]

Then we'll pick up Care and Ryan from the airport on the way and drop them off. We can fill her in while we do.

[Stefan raises his glass. "Then I guess I'm on hunter duty."]

I'll take the couch, then. Sam get's the guest room.

( Dean interrupts. Sam's slept on worse, it's true. But, he's not about to give Sam an uncomfortable night's sleep.

(He also knows he and Sam will hardly sleep. Once Elena goes down, they'll work on a schedule.)

"And I'll stay with you, then," Buffy says. "Except, I told the girls..."

"I'll stay," Katherine says. "I'll stay here with Stefan. I speak hunter. Damian can tag along with you tomorrow. With one person in the waiting room drawing attention, two of you could flush out whoever has their eye on my descendant."

A plan comes together, but from all different voices. )

Whoever Care and Ryan are, we'll pick em up. You'll all be cozy in the backseat.

Great. So is there anything else we need to cover tonight, or are we all on the same page?

[Because it really has been a long day and she just wants to crash into bed.

Stefan nods. "I'm good. Damon?"]

This all works for me.

( This way he has three less guests. But he's still stuck with Katherine. And the way she talks. 'My descendant.' Yeah, yeah. )

Everybody, to your corners. And, Elena. Get some sleep.

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braveandstupid - 2020-11-09 04:47 (UTC) - Expand

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