[You are not helping, Gray. And then, as she's trying to process this because again, this truly can't be happening, she remembered a very salient number of books in the series.]
This even happened in books. There was an actual book where they confront the author who was writing the books, and then there was one where they went to fan conventions and then after a certain point Shurley truly lost his mind and declared himself "God" and ...
[She pushes up, sticking her head between the seats.]
Please don't make me do this. I cannot look that man in the eye. Or Mom for that matter. I know things. Things a daughter should not know about her mother's boyfriend!
("I take it these novels are graphic," Damon says, turning his head. Oh, his daughter's head is right there. )
Dad.
( Gray looks to the right, keep him out of this conversation, but as horrified as he is, he's smiling. He's - smiling - and even for a second it feels wrong. He sees himself in the side view mirror - and the facsimile of his father.
He goes quiet.
Damon notices. He can't not.
"Your - Elena - is waiting. She wants to meet you both.")
[When they are done with this day, she wants so many drinks.
But she sighs, dramatically, through her nose, before nodding.]
Okay, okay, fine. But just be aware that I have no poker face, so if this gets awkward, don't say I didn't warn you.
[And with that, she will open the door to slide out of the car and very studiously looks anywhere but the other two adults that are coming towards her.]
( He wants to remind her that if she does recognize Dean and it is this Dean, then he probably won't be surprised. Maybe embarrassed, but. It's not their real mom, right?
He wants to remind her of all of that, but his mom is coming toward him. Her hair is long again and styled different. Or, was always. But, it's her. It's Elena Gilbert.
Damon walks the teens up, until everyone meets in the middle.
Nobody knows what to say. Gray was ready until he wasn't, Stephanie wasn't ready, and Dean's taking Elena's lead. But, he wants to whistle, oh, does he, because, shit these two kids look like Elena and Damon, who's also here. )
[Elena takes a deep breath as she looks over both of them, because wow. It's one thing seeing them in a picture, but it's another seeing them in the flesh.]
Hi.
[She feels the need to introduce herself, but it's one she squashes. She doesn't need to introduce herself when she's their mother.]
How was the trip? Not too crazy?
[Stephanie shrugs, her eyes latched onto a piece of the Impala over her mother's shoulder so that it seems like she's looking at her, but is more really trying to not look at the man next to her. She's resisting the urge to scrutinize every inch of the real person to compare and contrast with the picture she's made in her mind, build on three hundred and twenty seven different book covers and the flowery descriptions.
Honestly just the less she focuses on Dean the better. "It was fine."
("Think the trip over the rainbow was crazy, but the trip here was cake. Got shiny fake new identities and everything. Well. Real-fake. You get it," he says, giving the kids room to breathe to say - well, anything.
His breath catches. She sounds like their mom, too, but he has to set the example. )
Yeah, it wasn't too bad. Pretty easy once we got past security. Hi. Gray. Well. Grayson. Like...
Yeah. He's really excited to meet you, albeit a little confused for obvious reasons. But that's been pretty much a staple since they came back.
[That gets Stephanie to blink and look at her mother directly. "Wait, they're part of this too?"
Elena shakes her head.]
Yes, but also no? They came back as part of a separate thing. But yeah, your grandparents and your Aunt Jenna.
[And Isobel. But that's getting saved for a sidebar conversation with Damon because no one knows the vampire version of Isobel better except for Katherine. And Elena is not having this conversation with Katherine.]
( Quickly, Gray shoots Damon a betrayed look, but then looks to Elena for better context, trying to make sense of it all. )
Yeah, he mentioned aunt Jenna, but not...
("Your grandparents were brought back on a witch hunt. It was about a month ago. Give or take," Damon says, a little sheepish. "You had a lot on your plate, with me and your mom, and she's always been better at breaking news to people." Damon would've ripped the bandaid off. )
So, everyone is just alive here. ( He looks to his sister. ) And we're going to the Lockwood's, so, Tyler Lockwood is alive here, too, or just his mom again?
[Elena blinks in surprise at the question, and the question flies out before she can think better of it:]
Tyler died?
[Which seems to be an answer in and of itself. Something about that doesn't seem fair, but no death is fair, not really. Her eyes drift to Damon because she doesn't want to ask the thing she suspects may be the truth. Instead, she shakes it off and focuses on the information.]
No, Tyler isn't one of the returned. He and his partner, Liv, work for the Armory.
( A recent revelation of who did it, not one that needs to be rehashed here and now as he looks back at his sister.
He doesn't ask who Liv is, because that won't help either. He doesn't know what's going to help.
He takes off his sunglasses, a little vulnerability shining look. )
Look, I don't begrudge you for wanting a DNA test and I'm here and I'm taking it, Steph, too, but we don't need it. Because we were raised by you. You're a doctor. And dad runs a bar. And you've reconstituted the historical society in honor of our grandmother. And we have this life.
Yeah, but that's not my life, and it's not Damon's either. And that's not going to be your lives if you wind up staying longer than this week. If Barry doesn't know how to send you back right away, you could be here a while.
[It's a hard thing to say, but she has a lot of questions and Barry said that he could probably determine what secondary Earth they are from. He didn't say that he'd be able to put them back.]
And forgive me for saying so, but I've been through too much to just take things at face value anymore. So while I'm sure this hurts, I need this for my own peace of mind. And I hope you can forgive me for that.
[A beat.]
It's not that I don't want it to be true. I just need to be sure.
[A bit of anxious worry crosses Stephanie's face. "Do you really think we'll be stuck here?"
Elena looks over at her, her face softening as she shakes her head.]
I don't know. I have a lot of questions for Barry when he gets here, but he hasn't made any promises about putting anyone back. Just that we'd be able to have more information.
[Elena watches him go and feels her heart sink a bit, but she doesn't move to follow him just yet. She doesn't think she's the one who's going to be able to comfort him.
Stephanie's head drops because come on, Gray. She will go be annoyed-slash-try to help in a minute but she will, at least, answer Dean's questions.]
Books. Well, they tried to make a show out of it, but it was really bad and only lasted like ... five episodes. They got this guy Stephen Amell to play Dean and he was just ... so serious all the time. Like none of the actual charm Dean had in the books, and the guy they got to play Sam was shorter than Dean so none of the height jokes would land and they had like no budget, probably because they spent it all paying Stephen Amell to be a terrible Dean and ... it was bad. It was just really bad.
[A beat, before she looks awkwardly at him again.]
Thought they'd cancelled it cause of Bugs. Guess I should be... grateful it wasn't a Jensen Ackles, but that at least got to season 6. ( Not the time to make this about himself, he shakes that off. ) Do me a favor, keep all of that to yourself. I don't care and, we have bigger things, you got that?
( A beat. )
But, if you have any questions later - let's just focus on this.
Oh, trust me. I was going to do my best not to say any of it, but Mom made Gray implode so thanks for that.
[It was a little sharper than it needed to be. She's not going to say she also isn't hurt by the fact that their mom felt the need to point out that she's not actually their mom too. But she also knows that Gray had been sitting on a powder keg since they got here, but with that, she's going to follow her brother into the clinic.
Elena watches them go jaw set and worried, but she'll wait for Stephanie to get to the door before following after, trying to give them some time.
When Stephanie finds her brother, she promptly goes up and pinches the side of his arm, hard.]
Thanks for throwing me under the bus, asshole. I get that you're pissed, but that wasn't cool.
( Her brother lets the door close on his sister, who has to catch it, but then inside the clinic, feels that pinch.
He's already put his sunglasses back on by the time she catches up to him. )
It pisses me off, too. That she's not with dad, that dad's macking on some New Orleans chick. ( Even though he'd kept it under hat. ) I'm sorry, okay. I forgot how closely mom holds her convictions. She wouldn't be her if she didn't -- just say all that. It just sucks.
Okay. You're allowed to be pissed. Not allowed to make me the collateral damage. If we're going to make it through this, we're going to have to stick together.
[Stephanie deflates some, and she turns to lean against the nearby wall, keeping her attention on her brother.]
I don't think she said it to be mean. I think she was trying to remind us that she found out we existed basically two days ago, so she's not going to feel everything for us that our mom does. And maybe she's right. We don't know what her life has been like. It's not like the only thing that's different is that she and Dad broke up, but different people lived. Different people died.
[She swallows a bit.]
If it was the other way around, and this Mom showed up in our world, wouldn't we be needing her to prove it somehow? That she was Elena Gilbert and not just another doppelganger? It's not our fault and it sucks and I know you thought those books were stupid but every time Sam or Dean came back from the dead, they tested them to make sure they really were who they said they were. Because their world is dangerous and people could steal their faces and for all she knows we could be magical sleeper agents who are out to kill her.
I know. And - seriously, you got hit in the wreckage, that's my bad. I'll apologize for Dean-Dad.
( He turns, anyway, leaning with her as the three others approach the desk to check everyone in.
He has quibbles, of course they'd question their mom - if she ended up in theirs. He doesn't think they're stupid. He read one or two. Here or there. Especially on the vacations he forgot his books. But he's not an expert. )
We're not back from the dead, we're from over the rainbow. And, yeah, fine, we could also be brainwashed or -- shapeshifting liars. But, Dad took to it pretty well, didn't he. And that was dad.
I know it's not about us. And I don't - want to know why they broke up. But, it's obvious and it's looking us straight in and eye and still has fangs. Uncle Stefan wasn't turned human so he couldn't turn dad human.
[It's his name. It works for him. Annoying nicknames can come organically. It should be something that irritates him rather than wigging them out.
She also considers Gray's assessment of things, and she doesn't know if it's that simple, of their dad just remaining a vampire. She has a feeling her dad being a vampire is a consequence of their breakup, not the cause.
But she nods.]
So maybe, we just get this test done, and you can talk to New Mom, and who knows. Maybe by the time we're done you two will be back to being two annoying peas in a pod.
[Because she knows that that is what's really at the bottom of this. Gray misses their shorthand, misses their understanding of each other, misses all the things they had in common. She has a feeling that this Elena values some of those things too. They can probably make it work.]
Yeah, well, you decided to do the dramatic storm-off so one of us had to be the reasonable one.
[But she looks up at Dean, and because she can't help but ask:]
How much of it was actually real? Like ... he had to make some of that shit up right? There was over three hundred books and in some of them he really jumped the shark.
( hmm, well, he does want to bond with elena's kids. )
I didn't read 'em, but Chuck's real, for the record. And he was who you think he was. I don't know, did Paris Hilton attack us with an axe? We were in an episode of Scooby Doo. One alternate world... Went to the past, the future, the Bad Place... any of that ringing a bell?
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After tipping his head to see if she's peeking an eye through her fingers, he turns to his - their - dad. )
So, I think Dean Winchester is one of the main characters in this series she's, like, obsessed with.
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This even happened in books. There was an actual book where they confront the author who was writing the books, and then there was one where they went to fan conventions and then after a certain point Shurley truly lost his mind and declared himself "God" and ...
[She pushes up, sticking her head between the seats.]
Please don't make me do this. I cannot look that man in the eye. Or Mom for that matter. I know things. Things a daughter should not know about her mother's boyfriend!
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( "I take it these novels are graphic," Damon says, turning his head. Oh, his daughter's head is right there. )
Dad.
( Gray looks to the right, keep him out of this conversation, but as horrified as he is, he's smiling. He's - smiling - and even for a second it feels wrong. He sees himself in the side view mirror - and the facsimile of his father.
He goes quiet.
Damon notices. He can't not.
"Your - Elena - is waiting. She wants to meet you both." )
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But she sighs, dramatically, through her nose, before nodding.]
Okay, okay, fine. But just be aware that I have no poker face, so if this gets awkward, don't say I didn't warn you.
[And with that, she will open the door to slide out of the car and very studiously looks anywhere but the other two adults that are coming towards her.]
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He wants to remind her of all of that, but his mom is coming toward him. Her hair is long again and styled different. Or, was always. But, it's her. It's Elena Gilbert.
Damon walks the teens up, until everyone meets in the middle.
Nobody knows what to say. Gray was ready until he wasn't, Stephanie wasn't ready, and Dean's taking Elena's lead. But, he wants to whistle, oh, does he, because, shit these two kids look like Elena and Damon, who's also here. )
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Hi.
[She feels the need to introduce herself, but it's one she squashes. She doesn't need to introduce herself when she's their mother.]
How was the trip? Not too crazy?
[Stephanie shrugs, her eyes latched onto a piece of the Impala over her mother's shoulder so that it seems like she's looking at her, but is more really trying to not look at the man next to her. She's resisting the urge to scrutinize every inch of the real person to compare and contrast with the picture she's made in her mind, build on three hundred and twenty seven different book covers and the flowery descriptions.
Honestly just the less she focuses on Dean the better. "It was fine."
Elena nods, before looking over to Gray.]
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His breath catches. She sounds like their mom, too, but he has to set the example. )
Yeah, it wasn't too bad. Pretty easy once we got past security. Hi. Gray. Well. Grayson. Like...
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[That gets Stephanie to blink and look at her mother directly. "Wait, they're part of this too?"
Elena shakes her head.]
Yes, but also no? They came back as part of a separate thing. But yeah, your grandparents and your Aunt Jenna.
[And Isobel. But that's getting saved for a sidebar conversation with Damon because no one knows the vampire version of Isobel better except for Katherine. And Elena is not having this conversation with Katherine.]
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( Quickly, Gray shoots Damon a betrayed look, but then looks to Elena for better context, trying to make sense of it all. )
Yeah, he mentioned aunt Jenna, but not...
( "Your grandparents were brought back on a witch hunt. It was about a month ago. Give or take," Damon says, a little sheepish. "You had a lot on your plate, with me and your mom, and she's always been better at breaking news to people." Damon would've ripped the bandaid off. )
So, everyone is just alive here. ( He looks to his sister. ) And we're going to the Lockwood's, so, Tyler Lockwood is alive here, too, or just his mom again?
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Tyler died?
[Which seems to be an answer in and of itself. Something about that doesn't seem fair, but no death is fair, not really. Her eyes drift to Damon because she doesn't want to ask the thing she suspects may be the truth. Instead, she shakes it off and focuses on the information.]
No, Tyler isn't one of the returned. He and his partner, Liv, work for the Armory.
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He doesn't ask who Liv is, because that won't help either. He doesn't know what's going to help.
He takes off his sunglasses, a little vulnerability shining look. )
Look, I don't begrudge you for wanting a DNA test and I'm here and I'm taking it, Steph, too, but we don't need it. Because we were raised by you. You're a doctor. And dad runs a bar. And you've reconstituted the historical society in honor of our grandmother. And we have this life.
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[It's a hard thing to say, but she has a lot of questions and Barry said that he could probably determine what secondary Earth they are from. He didn't say that he'd be able to put them back.]
And forgive me for saying so, but I've been through too much to just take things at face value anymore. So while I'm sure this hurts, I need this for my own peace of mind. And I hope you can forgive me for that.
[A beat.]
It's not that I don't want it to be true. I just need to be sure.
[A bit of anxious worry crosses Stephanie's face. "Do you really think we'll be stuck here?"
Elena looks over at her, her face softening as she shakes her head.]
I don't know. I have a lot of questions for Barry when he gets here, but he hasn't made any promises about putting anyone back. Just that we'd be able to have more information.
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( He's been holding his sister together because of it. )
Well. When we're yours, then I guess we'll all sit down to a nice family dinner. Plus, your fictional boyfriend.
( He slaps his sunglasses on and stalks past all the adults towards the front doors of the clinic.
Dean just - blinks - looks at Damon, who doesn't own that outburst - and then looks down at Steph. With a sigh. He says this, calmly.
"Book or show." )
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Stephanie's head drops because come on, Gray. She will go be annoyed-slash-try to help in a minute but she will, at least, answer Dean's questions.]
Books. Well, they tried to make a show out of it, but it was really bad and only lasted like ... five episodes. They got this guy Stephen Amell to play Dean and he was just ... so serious all the time. Like none of the actual charm Dean had in the books, and the guy they got to play Sam was shorter than Dean so none of the height jokes would land and they had like no budget, probably because they spent it all paying Stephen Amell to be a terrible Dean and ... it was bad. It was just really bad.
[A beat, before she looks awkwardly at him again.]
But yeah, I've read the books.
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( A beat. )
But, if you have any questions later - let's just focus on this.
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[It was a little sharper than it needed to be. She's not going to say she also isn't hurt by the fact that their mom felt the need to point out that she's not actually their mom too. But she also knows that Gray had been sitting on a powder keg since they got here, but with that, she's going to follow her brother into the clinic.
Elena watches them go jaw set and worried, but she'll wait for Stephanie to get to the door before following after, trying to give them some time.
When Stephanie finds her brother, she promptly goes up and pinches the side of his arm, hard.]
Thanks for throwing me under the bus, asshole. I get that you're pissed, but that wasn't cool.
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He's already put his sunglasses back on by the time she catches up to him. )
It pisses me off, too. That she's not with dad, that dad's macking on some New Orleans chick. ( Even though he'd kept it under hat. ) I'm sorry, okay. I forgot how closely mom holds her convictions. She wouldn't be her if she didn't -- just say all that. It just sucks.
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[Stephanie deflates some, and she turns to lean against the nearby wall, keeping her attention on her brother.]
I don't think she said it to be mean. I think she was trying to remind us that she found out we existed basically two days ago, so she's not going to feel everything for us that our mom does. And maybe she's right. We don't know what her life has been like. It's not like the only thing that's different is that she and Dad broke up, but different people lived. Different people died.
[She swallows a bit.]
If it was the other way around, and this Mom showed up in our world, wouldn't we be needing her to prove it somehow? That she was Elena Gilbert and not just another doppelganger? It's not our fault and it sucks and I know you thought those books were stupid but every time Sam or Dean came back from the dead, they tested them to make sure they really were who they said they were. Because their world is dangerous and people could steal their faces and for all she knows we could be magical sleeper agents who are out to kill her.
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( He turns, anyway, leaning with her as the three others approach the desk to check everyone in.
He has quibbles, of course they'd question their mom - if she ended up in theirs. He doesn't think they're stupid. He read one or two. Here or there. Especially on the vacations he forgot his books. But he's not an expert. )
We're not back from the dead, we're from over the rainbow. And, yeah, fine, we could also be brainwashed or -- shapeshifting liars. But, Dad took to it pretty well, didn't he. And that was dad.
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[Ew, nope nope nope.
But at the second point, Stephanie shrugs.]
We also don't know why her and dad broke up. Maybe it wasn't amicable. Maybe it's not about us.
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( Does that make it better? Worse? )
I know it's not about us. And I don't - want to know why they broke up. But, it's obvious and it's looking us straight in and eye and still has fangs. Uncle Stefan wasn't turned human so he couldn't turn dad human.
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[It's his name. It works for him. Annoying nicknames can come organically. It should be something that irritates him rather than wigging them out.
She also considers Gray's assessment of things, and she doesn't know if it's that simple, of their dad just remaining a vampire. She has a feeling her dad being a vampire is a consequence of their breakup, not the cause.
But she nods.]
So maybe, we just get this test done, and you can talk to New Mom, and who knows. Maybe by the time we're done you two will be back to being two annoying peas in a pod.
[Because she knows that that is what's really at the bottom of this. Gray misses their shorthand, misses their understanding of each other, misses all the things they had in common. She has a feeling that this Elena values some of those things too. They can probably make it work.]
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( Yeah, maybe it isn't that easy. He shoves her lightly, leaning his head back on the wall. )
I hate it when you're right.
( Because he's always the right one.
Dean leaves Elena and Damon with paperwork and he rejoins the kids.
"Your -- Elena and Damon are signing you in. It won't be long." he says.
Gray can feel his sister bore holes into his side with her eye sockets, so he looks at - just - Dean. )
Sorry. For before. And calling you fictional.
( "Not the worst thing I've been called to my face," he admits with a shrug. "And, some people think I am." )
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[But she looks up at Dean, and because she can't help but ask:]
How much of it was actually real? Like ... he had to make some of that shit up right? There was over three hundred books and in some of them he really jumped the shark.
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I didn't read 'em, but Chuck's real, for the record. And he was who you think he was. I don't know, did Paris Hilton attack us with an axe? We were in an episode of Scooby Doo. One alternate world... Went to the past, the future, the Bad Place... any of that ringing a bell?
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