for the rest of us death will be a relief

[praevaricatio]

Comments

[recrudesce]

( Tyler gets him towels and some travel toiletries. He doesn't have a phone for Charlie, but he promises to connect him and Waverly if she wants to be, but she's on her way.

After, he goes looking for his mom finding her in the old office. It was his dad's once. The site of where he'd first triggered. He props himself up in the doorway. )

Is everything where you left it?

[mayoralty]

Pretty much.

[She glances over at him with a smile.]

When you were little, I thought you'd take over this office one day. But I understand why you didn't. There are a lot of ghosts in this house.

[recrudesce]

This also wasn't my town to takeover. After Matt... ( He moves into the office, feeling one of the chairs, squeezing it, like it won't be real. ) Something happened to him, and until this woman named Lindsay, he was sheriff. Made it up from Deputy. But, I couldn't... step in like that. And I wasn't meant to be mayor.

[mayoralty]

[Carol nods, because she understands. And it isn't fair that they keep expecting their children to fall into the same roles they've been playing since the founding of this town.]

Do you feel like you are doing what you're meant to be doing?

[She hopes that he's happy doing what he's doing, because that's the important thing.]

[recrudesce]

I feel like I'm doing something. And what I don't feel like that's enough, I have something else to fall back on.

( His ties are great, now, and the Armory does something meaningful, but he also has roots in several packs. )

[mayoralty]

Good.

[She nods before she flashes him a small smile and asks about the thing she really wants to ask about:]

So tell me about Olivia. How long have you been together?

[recrudesce]

( He should call her back. No, she will call him back. She needs to get sober. )

Nineteen years now. Wow. Neither of us are the anniversary type. ( And he hopes that doesn't come off like younger, dick-Tyler. ) We met at Whittemore. She's a witch and she has a big family that keeps getting bigger. She's stubborn, but tough, and really sweet underneath. And she'd do anything for that big family of hers. And we work together, which, some days is really good, and then some weekends I go to West Virginia or to the midwest or north west...

[mayoralty]

[Speak of the devil his phone will buzz with a text: Okay, sober now. Do you want to talk or do you just want me to come?

She's good for either, but she doesn't to intrude if he's chatting with his mom. Which he is.

Carol raises an eyebrow.]

Almost twenty years, and she's your girlfriend still?

[She tries not to sound judgy, but that's a long time for someone to just be your girlfriend, Tyler.]

[recrudesce]

( He goes to answer, but his phone buzzes. He taps out a, You should probably just come here. Maybe bring Luke, see if anything witchy is up.

Now to answer. )

Ten more and she might still be my girlfriend. We're together, it's it. We never needed more.

( He thought about proposing, but there are other things, other things that are Olivia's business and not his to bring up. Maybe the curse lifting will change things, but it will take two if it does. )

[mayoralty]

[Got it. I'll see you in a couple hours. And she will bring her brother, because yeah, this sounds like a magic problem.

Carol nods, because that she understands.]

Any kids?

[She feels like that may have pushed the marriage issue if there were, but just checking.]

[recrudesce]

No. No kids. We talked about them. Once. Things are complicated... in her family line. ( A beat. ) She's a witch.

[mayoralty]

You mentioned that.

[Her being a witch, that is. Carol doesn't know anything about witches, but she knows that life in the supernatural world is complicated.]

As long as you're happy, that's what matters. I'm sure you have your own complications too.

[She would understand if he wasn't too keen to pass on the werewolf end of things.]

[recrudesce]

( Right. His gene, right. Weirdly enough, he's less worried about it because of people who exist like Hope. And, much much much much less, like Klaus. They don't talk. They don't need to talk. But, he's alive and his daughter is a wolf-witch ... vampire now. )

Sorry. I did. And we're happy. We're ... as happy as we can be. And maybe more now. I don't know. But. She's kind of it for me. Marriage or not. Kids or not.

[mayoralty]

That's what's important.

[That he not making the same mistakes that his parents did. Not that she regrets him, not for the world. But maybe trying to make it work with Richard, knowing what she knows now, wasn't her best choice.]

And there's nothing wrong with being unconventional. I know I haven't been that open minded in the past, but you really realize how much didn't actually matter after you die.

[Can they comfortably joke about that yet? She needs them to be comfortable with it.]

[recrudesce]

I also did die. Came back untriggered and everything.

( They can joke. Joking helps. )

Only thing unconventional about us is probably that we're been together for so long.

[mayoralty]

There's nothing long with longevity.

[She pauses.]

Myself and your father being the exception.

[They could have probably done with a little less longevity, maybe.]

[recrudesce]

You married him. You had me. I know what all that came with.

( He grew up under you two. Because of his dad's... personality and his mother's neglectful love, he got away with a lot. But he knew the town's pressure that was on them. The pressure Matt's mom buckled under completely. Caroline's mom. Even the Gilbert's. Legacy. )

[mayoralty]

Maybe. But I still had choices.

[She still thinks about that day in her apartment, when Bill told her that she had to go back. That she would be safer in Mystic Falls. All the things that Bill knew, all the secrets he kept.]

Sometimes I would think about what could have been if it I hadn't stayed and it was just you and me. We would have much different problems, but one of them wouldn't have been him.

[recrudesce]

Yeah, but, we don't know, do we? And life would be really different.

( He knows why she would think like that, but he can't. He keeps the past in the past. Sometimes thinking about it depresses him more than he'd like. And he can't do anything about it.

If his mom had moved him away, would he have been a nicer person? Had anger issues? He'd still be a werewolf. And that's if his dad would've let it happen, and not hired some lawyer. )

Was it really that bad for you?

[mayoralty]

[She pauses, quietly considering, before shrugging.]

I'm sure there are others out there who had it worse. I certainly never wound up in the hospital.

[Richard at least had that much control of himself.]

But he had a way of chipping away at you until you felt like you had nothing left to offer. And I don't think ever forgave me for almost leaving before we got married.

[recrudesce]

( He wants to get up, to come around, to put a hand on her shoulder. Or lean down and just let her rest against his chest. But, he wasn't raised that way. And if she wants to initiate any affection, he's right there. )

I don't know you almost left. I don't... know timelines or how things line up. Were you pregnant with me, then?

[mayoralty]

[She nods slowly.]

He didn't know until I decided to stay, though, which probably made it worse.

[How to give context for this? The woman she was then feels like a completely different person at times, but she remembers those days so clearly.]

Your grandfather didn't like me. He was trying to get rid of me, so he took the opportunity to introduce me to my first vampire. Told me all about Mystic Falls' sordid history. Naturally, I panicked and headed out of town to my apartment where I was living at the time, until Bill Forbes showed up to talk me into staying. In those few days, I figured out that I was pregnant with you.

[She makes a face.]

At first, I thought absolutely not. I'm not going to have a baby in a town full of vampires. I'm not stupid. But ... Bill had my number. He knew just what buttons to push, even without knowing me very well. He said that if I came back, we'd have resources, we wouldn't struggle. You'd have a legacy to grow into. I found out much later that he knew about the werewolf curse and that was most of the reason why he wanted you in Mystic Falls.

[recrudesce]

First, Bill's a dick. And not just for running off on Caroline and the sheriff. He had no right to say that to you or to drag you back and it only makes him miss him even less. I barely even remember him. ( Kind of a lie. Bill liked him in a way his dad didn't. He liked the kids sticking together. Probably because they were raising the next legacy. ) Second, he knew about the werewolf curse? Dad did, too. Because Mason did. ( He hates that. ) Don't carry that. Cause you weren't equipped or even read in. And I learned, barely and then got taken in by the wrong kind of pack. But, you and dad didn't do that. I did that. And Katherine did that, if you want to blame anyone.

( It's at this moment, he doesn't know if his mother would even recognize Katherine's name, but he and Elena have talked through those events. )

[mayoralty]

Apparently your grandfather turned too.

[But she didn't learn that until much later. Until she was confronted by her son's own situation and she called Bill out for knowing all these years and saying nothing.]

And I don't think I'm looking to blame anyone. We all made the best choices we could with the information we had at the time. It's all ... water long under the bridge. Just a lot of what ifs.

[recrudesce]

And I didn't hold you to any of them. Mom, you did a good job. And I love you. And, we haven't been this sentimental ever, so, just take that to the bank okay.

( He's not great with this and it's veering dangerously toward real, deep feelings he has only skirted along. )