everyonelives | for the rest of us death will be a relief

Hey, Jeremy.

[He sounds so tired, she feels bad. But it needs to be done.]

Are you okay? No grievous bodily harm in storming the castle?

[Let's start there and work their way up to wrangling his mother.]

Almost, but I owe Elijah one, now, I'm guessing. But, yeah, overall I'm okay. Is... everything okay with you?

( It can't be about Elena. )

This isn't about Matt, right, cause he has a temporary phone. I can get you his number.

This is not about Matt and ... no, I think it's pretty safe that I'm in the not okay category.

[Mostly because she can feel herself fucking up left right and center and being a terrible friend even if she's completely across the country from anything that's happening, but she's trying to give herself grace after being thrown a huge curveball.]

Three more returned people showed up in Beacon Hills. One of them was my mom.

[Which is why she is not okay.]

I'm not sure who the second one is but the third was Jenna. And she's a vampire.

Caroline, what's wrong?

( And why is she calling him about it? He knows his sister just went to sleep, she messaged him that. Bonnie's been on the group text. She's around. )

Your - the sheriff? ( And then ) ...Jenna?

Yeah. And she's understandably having a hard time and she's had basically no vampire training, so ... Stiles and my mom are trying to keep her calm, but she wants to talk to you guys, more specifically your mom because I told her that your parents were back too.

[She takes a deep breath.]

I'm going to get a number for people to call her and you're welcome to use it, but you sound exhausted and I think Miranda is the one she really wants to talk to so can you prep your Mom for me? In the sense that Jenna is a vampire, and she's probably going to talk about it so I really need her to be warm, maternal, soothing Miranda Gilbert for a couple hours until I get there and check her vampire issues while she's doing it.

[A pause.]

And I'm probably saying this all wrong but I just ... I really need to get to my mom, and I don't know if I can effectively manage Miranda's feelings right now.

I'll manage my mom's feelings and I really don't think Jenna's going to go telling her she's a vampire, but I'll do my best to field what I can. Does this need to happen now or can I do this when I wake up?

( So many assumptions. He's offended on behalf of several people, but he's also very tired. )

[Yeah, Caroline's batting a thousand tonight. She runs a hand through her hair because Jeremy's right, she doesn't know that Jenna is going to say anything, but speaking as someone who was on the other hand of Miranda's judgement and how much it hurts, she doesn't want Jenna to deal with the same right now.]

Now, please. I just need her to talk to her while we're driving to Beacon Hills. That's going to take a few hours.

Okay, I'll call my mom now.

( He holds the phone against his forehead, then brings it back to his ear. )

I have Jenna handled and it sounds like she has a squad up there with her, so, worry about your mom, okay. She's going to be happy to see you. I have my family. She's yours. I can only imagine how happy she'll be to see you.

( He's not trying to not send her frustration back.

And after hanging up with Caroline, he first calls his girlfriend back. Because he needs a little pep talk and his sister is asleep. As much as Caroline's putting on him, Jenna and his mom and his dad, they are his baggage. So he needs to be the one. )

["Okay. I'm sorry, Jeremy."

She knows she's not doing her best right now, and she'll make it up to him.

Dawn fumbles for her phone when she hears it ringing, perking up as she answers.]

Hey. Everything still okay?

( Yeah, he knows he just called. He's not normally this needy. )

Kind of, Caroline's freaking out because we had three more drops in Beacon Hills. Her mother, someone else, and my aunt Jenna.

It really is raining dead people.

[A pause.]

Sorry, probably insensitive to the poor recently resurrected. I'm not sure I blame Caroline for freaking out. If my mom spontaneously resurrected, I'd probably freak out too. But I think you're calling about Jenna?

Yeah, she uh, wants me to prep my mom and then get her in touch because Jenna asked for her. But, she's worried about Jenna being a vampire and freaking her out. And, she thinks I'm the guy that has to talk her through it and talk Jenna down which means another lie or preempting the truth. And I have to do all this before sleep. ( A beat. ) And I can't remember if Elena told her about Jenna, because she did tell them about Klaus' ritual. I just need, like, a little confidence boost because this is going to be a lot.

( None of them have any of their Bingo cards today. And, still, they wouldn't have seen this coming. )

[Dawn, unfortunately, was not there for those conversations so she can't confirm or deny, but Elena did tell her that Jenna died a vampire for Klaus so Miranda does know that.]

I don't think Caroline is asking anyone to lie.

[That doesn't seem like it would be productive at the moment.]

I think she just knows that your mom has big feelings about these things, and becoming a vampire also leads to a lot of big feelings so she doesn't want your mom's big feelings to trigger Jenna's even bigger feelings. I think ... she just wants you to prepare her for the version of her sister that she'll be talking to.

Yeah, I know. She could've... put it better.

( But, he does not blame her. )

Anyway, thanks. That's what I needed. I'll call you in the morning. Or, in ten minutes if this doesn't go well.

( Swapping calls, he finds his mom's contact information and places the call, stifling a yawn. )

["I'll be here," she promises before letting him go. She also prepares herself for if Miranda might talk to her as well.

Miranda was reading one of the books she picked up from the bunker library, trying to see if learning more will make her feel less defensive about anything. When Jeremy's name comes up on her screen, she frowns before answering the phone.]

Jeremy? Everything alright?

Hey, mom. Everything's still alright. Nothing's -- Elena's still safe. We got rooms overnight in Baltimore. But, I'm calling cause something -- really weird is happening. And I know your weird quota's pretty high.

( Preface, preface, preface. )

Well, I'm supposed to be building a higher tolerance.

[There's a bit of wryness to it, but she bites back the full sarcasm. She's trying to be better and not just outright reject everything that happens. And Jeremy sounds so tired.]

You sound exhausted. We could talk about this in the morning.

[She's not using that to dodge, she's just being his mom.]

See, I said that, but, Caroline kind of insisted and I also... agree. Cause you're gonna want to hear this. But, something is happening, like I said. There are people who are appearing places. And some of those people were dead. Or missing. But, all of them are connected to us? Everyone we know. And, mom, one of them is aunt Jenna. She's in California and she wants to talk to you.

( He just has to rip the bandaid off, like everyone else would. Yes, he's tired. Yes, it's... not really late. But that means it's even earlier in Beacon Hills. )

[There's a moment of stunned silence after he says it, like it's something else she doesn't quite know how to process. She, unfortunately, is intimately familiar with coming back from the dead. And there's a part of her that aches to talk to Jenna. But there's something else in Jeremy's voice.

Like she's being handled. She's not angry, because she knows she's earned it, but she needs the other shoe to drop.]

Okay. I can do that. Is there something else I should know?

She's from Klaus' ritual. From after. Or, during. I don't know the specifics.

( Only that there's a v-word he's not saying. )

So, she's a vampire. Except, in her case, she's barely been a vampire, so emotions are going to be really important. Hers and yours.

[Something Caroline said had stuck with her, even if she didn't acknowledge it at the time: Liz loved her more than she hated vampires.

Miranda didn't know if there was such a feeling. If her experiences with vampires, who only seemed to cause pain and heartache, could be overwhelmed by love. Miranda has spent so much of her life seeing this as the only option, and she's still trying to recover her equilibrium.

There are few things that she thinks she'd love enough. Elena, Jeremy, maybe. And then there's her sister.

Miranda was eight when Jenna was born. She spent a lot of her teen years taking care of her while her parents worked. Even when Jenna fled town to escape Logan Fell, they spoke every day.

She doesn't know how she feels about Jenna being a vampire. That's something she'll have to unpack another time. But she can hear what Jeremy is trying to ask her, what is needed, and she knows she has to try. If for nothing else, just the urge to hear her sister's voice again.]

So stay calm so she stays calm? That's what you need?

( He's ready to defend her more, that it would still make Jenna, Jenna. That he never gave Jenna a fair shake as a real guardian. He didn't even give Alaric a good shake at being guardian before being sent out of town. He was a kid, yeah, but he failed at being under anyone. But, she gets it, even through the prolonged silence. )

That's what Jenna needs.

( And, Caroline. Kind of. )

I can try.

[She won't promise she'll be perfect or guarantee something she can't give. She and Jenna squabbled like crazy when they were children. But she does want to talk to her sister, and she can at least not bring up vampire things so if they do squabble, it won't be about that.]

Do you have her number?

Yeah, yeah, I'm sending it over now. I'm also real tired, but, if you want to call me back after. I'll answer. If you need me. For anything. Love you.

( And he sends her the number passed from Stiles to Caroline to him. )

Love you too. Go to sleep.

[She will not call if anything goes wrong, but she send him a text with an update and they can talk about it tomorrow. She'll then hang up and pull up he number in the text message. She takes a deep breath, before making the call, placing the phone to her ear as she waits for her sister to answer.]

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