[She doesn't want to make an assumption about what he and Damon have talked about, or what their experience has been so far. Damon is complicated but Damon is also going to therapy. There could be a lot of layers to this cake.]
Damon Salvatore, the vampire, and even uncle Stefan, the things that people have written about them, the stories they passed down. I get it, they were vampires, but, they were brutal. Not that anyone will tell me what a ripper even is.
( It's the one bone of contention. He didn't need to know everything. There was no reason to tarnish his family's legacy. Their aunt Caroline isn't a widow in this world, though, he thinks. )
[Elena swallows and nods, because she knows. This is a cognitive dissonance she knows well. It's one she had to learn to deal with as more and more of the people around her became supernatural and or revealed to be vampires, and she had to come to terms with the blood on their hands - the blood on her own hands - in order to make it through the day.
You can't love someone without loving all of them. You can't just pick and choose the pieces you don't like. But how to explain it to someone who's always known the human Damon, who's never known Stefan.]
Vampires are ... complicated. Their emotions are heightened and they're always hungry. Some handle that better than others. You drink a lot to ward off the hunger, and you learn how to balance your emotions and sometimes when those emotions are too much you ... turn them off for a little while. None of those choices are right or wrong they're just how you survive.
[This part, at least, she can speak to from personal experience. She was a vampire for a little while. Not as long Stefan or Damon or Caroline have been, but long enough to know what it feels like.]
It can take some time to manage. To learn how to feed without killing someone. To know when to pull back before you go too far. Then there are some that just ... never manage to balance it. Some who feed and can't stop, who feed so violently that they tear the people they're feeding on apart. That's what a ripper is.
[She's not sure which is better or worse. The kind who can't find the control and spiral as a result into chaos, or the ones that do have control but kill anyway. They're both dangerous, in their own way, but the latter feels more intensely personal.]
Your dad wasn't a ripper. But he ... he wasn't always a good guy either. He changed a lot from when I met him to now. There were times when I hated him and there were times when I loved him more than anyone. He's still impulsive, sometimes, and he doesn't always make the perfect choice, and I won't tell you how to feel about who he is here. You'll have to figure out whether or not you can trust him on your own. But if it counts for anything, I trust him with my life.
( He knows the woman next to him speaks from experience, that she's dealt with vampires longer than her kids have, that maybe this is a balm on his thoughts that have been running for two years now, about what his dad was, who he was. )
Uncle Stefan's --
( Because, that's the context he remembers about 'Ripper' and what few of the books he could get his hands on. He'd made an excuse to his aunt Josie, in town for some alumni thing at the Salvatore school, he returned the books after everything, with his mother in tow.
She only promised to answer a few questions and 'Ripper,' didn't count. )
I do. I trust him. He's -- I don't see anything I read, or, or I was told. He's just - flippant and impatient, but, it's like he means well. And maybe he's mellowed out.
Stefan's come a long way. He's worked really hard on his blood issues, so he's not as on a hair trigger as he used to be.
[The idea that there's a Damon out there who isn't flippant and impatient seems off base to Elena, but she's never known Damon as a human. Maybe snark is something that he can let go of.
Part of her isn't sure what she'd do with that.]
He ... tries.
[She doesn't know whether or not Damon is listening, but there's an edge of fondness to it.]
But he does mean well for the most part. I know it's probably weird to have your dad and I in different places than we are in your world, but Damon's still an important part of my life. Just not ... in the same way.
( Oh no, his father still has a sarcastic streak a mild wide, but the one here, he thought might be more -- he doesn't even know. He's a vampire, but not the worst parts.
He nods, though, de-tensing about his uncle. )
That's better than what it could be. Knowing you have someone else, Dean, was an adjustment. But, he's cool.
( Enough. He guesses. He's trying. )
Can I ask how it happened? You're, like, living with him, right?
Yeah. So we actually met when we were kids. He and Sam came to Mystic Falls before my parents died and were actually here a while. Dean wasn't in school with us, but there's only so much you can do in Mystic Falls, so we wound up spending time together a lot.
[She thinks about the night she stumbled across Dean bloody on the side of the road - probably a vampire, now that she looks back on it. And the night her parents died, where he offered to take her home, and maybe she should have taken him up on it, but didn't for reasons that feel silly now.]
He and Sam left town after Mom and Dad died, and then ... everything else happened, but earlier this year, hunters were targeting graduation at the Salvatore School. He and Sam helped us figure out what was going on and Dean and I reconnected. Then, later, I wound up on this supernatural hit list and all my information was up online so I needed to leave town. The bunker in Kansas was safe, so that's where we went and ... I really liked it there. So I decided to stay. See what happened.
Wait, so, he - passed through. ( He bets there's no novel about that adventure. For the good of his eyes and mind. ) You've seen, now. It's been a while. Is it better than home?
[She pauses, trying not to blurt it out the way she had at her father. Tries not to think about how much the bunker has become home over the last few months versus the apartment she left behind.]
Being here was really ... lonely. I had the Saltzmans, but none of my friends stuck around. Uncle Jeremy was out in Portland at his gallery or doing the hunter thing. They all went out to build other lives and we still talked but it wasn't the same as them being here. It wasn't a reason to stay. And one of my other closest friends had just been revealed to be a witch plant from a coven that wanted to use me as the doppelganger, so I guess ... I was feeling a little disenchanted with Mystic Falls. I didn't feel like there was much waiting for me back in Mystic Falls beyond my job and my ghosts. I wanted to be somewhere new where I could be someone new.
[Damon was there but Damon was complicated, so she isn't going to dig too deeply into that. And the new person wasn't really literal so much as spending time with people who didn't know her baggage just by looking at her.]
He is. He's already in town, actually. His girlfriend, Dawn, is coming in with Mom and Dad. Dawn's sister Buffy is also Stefan's girlfriend and those things happened completely independently of each other, some how.
[She tips her head back to the rest of the group with a smile.]
C'mon. I can fill you in on the rest at lunch. Stephanie should probably hear some of this too.
[They will head back to the group, and then round everyone up to head to the Grille. Ben will appear on the phone and he and Dean will break off to talk while the rest of them head inside.
Elena will wait until they're at a table before she glances over at the curious expression on Damon's face.]
What?
[There's no tone, but more that she doesn't want to assume the question before it's asked.]
Like ... he called after taking a DNA test. There's other, more complicated layers there, but that was the basics. When you called, I was flying back from Michigan.
[She smirks.]
I'm not sure that's usually one of the metrics.
[Whether or not someone is made for each other. In fact, surprise kids usually mean the opposite.]
( There's an apology in his tone as he looks at the new - new?? menu. He looks up past Elena as the new owner happens to be fucking into the back. He narrows his eyes. )
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( It's just the nitty gritty specifics. )
But, dad here's not -- what I thought he'd be.
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[She doesn't want to make an assumption about what he and Damon have talked about, or what their experience has been so far. Damon is complicated but Damon is also going to therapy. There could be a lot of layers to this cake.]
Because he's a vampire still?
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( It's the one bone of contention. He didn't need to know everything. There was no reason to tarnish his family's legacy. Their aunt Caroline isn't a widow in this world, though, he thinks. )
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You can't love someone without loving all of them. You can't just pick and choose the pieces you don't like. But how to explain it to someone who's always known the human Damon, who's never known Stefan.]
Vampires are ... complicated. Their emotions are heightened and they're always hungry. Some handle that better than others. You drink a lot to ward off the hunger, and you learn how to balance your emotions and sometimes when those emotions are too much you ... turn them off for a little while. None of those choices are right or wrong they're just how you survive.
[This part, at least, she can speak to from personal experience. She was a vampire for a little while. Not as long Stefan or Damon or Caroline have been, but long enough to know what it feels like.]
It can take some time to manage. To learn how to feed without killing someone. To know when to pull back before you go too far. Then there are some that just ... never manage to balance it. Some who feed and can't stop, who feed so violently that they tear the people they're feeding on apart. That's what a ripper is.
[She's not sure which is better or worse. The kind who can't find the control and spiral as a result into chaos, or the ones that do have control but kill anyway. They're both dangerous, in their own way, but the latter feels more intensely personal.]
Your dad wasn't a ripper. But he ... he wasn't always a good guy either. He changed a lot from when I met him to now. There were times when I hated him and there were times when I loved him more than anyone. He's still impulsive, sometimes, and he doesn't always make the perfect choice, and I won't tell you how to feel about who he is here. You'll have to figure out whether or not you can trust him on your own. But if it counts for anything, I trust him with my life.
[And she'd also trust him with theirs.]
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Uncle Stefan's --
( Because, that's the context he remembers about 'Ripper' and what few of the books he could get his hands on. He'd made an excuse to his aunt Josie, in town for some alumni thing at the Salvatore school, he returned the books after everything, with his mother in tow.
She only promised to answer a few questions and 'Ripper,' didn't count. )
I do. I trust him. He's -- I don't see anything I read, or, or I was told. He's just - flippant and impatient, but, it's like he means well. And maybe he's mellowed out.
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[The idea that there's a Damon out there who isn't flippant and impatient seems off base to Elena, but she's never known Damon as a human. Maybe snark is something that he can let go of.
Part of her isn't sure what she'd do with that.]
He ... tries.
[She doesn't know whether or not Damon is listening, but there's an edge of fondness to it.]
But he does mean well for the most part. I know it's probably weird to have your dad and I in different places than we are in your world, but Damon's still an important part of my life. Just not ... in the same way.
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He nods, though, de-tensing about his uncle. )
That's better than what it could be. Knowing you have someone else, Dean, was an adjustment. But, he's cool.
( Enough. He guesses. He's trying. )
Can I ask how it happened? You're, like, living with him, right?
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[She thinks about the night she stumbled across Dean bloody on the side of the road - probably a vampire, now that she looks back on it. And the night her parents died, where he offered to take her home, and maybe she should have taken him up on it, but didn't for reasons that feel silly now.]
He and Sam left town after Mom and Dad died, and then ... everything else happened, but earlier this year, hunters were targeting graduation at the Salvatore School. He and Sam helped us figure out what was going on and Dean and I reconnected. Then, later, I wound up on this supernatural hit list and all my information was up online so I needed to leave town. The bunker in Kansas was safe, so that's where we went and ... I really liked it there. So I decided to stay. See what happened.
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[She pauses, trying not to blurt it out the way she had at her father. Tries not to think about how much the bunker has become home over the last few months versus the apartment she left behind.]
Being here was really ... lonely. I had the Saltzmans, but none of my friends stuck around. Uncle Jeremy was out in Portland at his gallery or doing the hunter thing. They all went out to build other lives and we still talked but it wasn't the same as them being here. It wasn't a reason to stay. And one of my other closest friends had just been revealed to be a witch plant from a coven that wanted to use me as the doppelganger, so I guess ... I was feeling a little disenchanted with Mystic Falls. I didn't feel like there was much waiting for me back in Mystic Falls beyond my job and my ghosts. I wanted to be somewhere new where I could be someone new.
[Damon was there but Damon was complicated, so she isn't going to dig too deeply into that. And the new person wasn't really literal so much as spending time with people who didn't know her baggage just by looking at her.]
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( It may hurt, but at the same time, he understands. He actually understands and he didn't think he could. )
Is uncle Jeremy coming to Christmas?
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[She tips her head back to the rest of the group with a smile.]
C'mon. I can fill you in on the rest at lunch. Stephanie should probably hear some of this too.
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( He doesn't think he did. What are the odds, though?
He nods, though, because this is already a lot of information. He hadn't mean to stumble into all of it. )
Yeah, yeah, let's get back. I'm hungry. Thanks. For... answering.
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[They will head back to the group, and then round everyone up to head to the Grille. Ben will appear on the phone and he and Dean will break off to talk while the rest of them head inside.
Elena will wait until they're at a table before she glances over at the curious expression on Damon's face.]
What?
[There's no tone, but more that she doesn't want to assume the question before it's asked.]
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( Because, last he checked, Dean was the perennial bachelor that got his shit together. )
With Dean?
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[Before she can elaborate further, Stephanie's head slides into view from next to her father. "Braedan?"
Elena holds up a finger. Not stern, just protective.]
Get it out now before they get back, because Dean may be used to this stuff but Ben is not.
["Heard." She pulls back away again, and there's a muttered: "I knew it" as she turns back to her menu.
Elena sighs, but turns her attention back to Damon.]
It's a recent discovery. Not his existence but the fact that he is Dean's son. We found out at Thanksgiving.
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( Damon, having heard the exchanges at the hospital realizes that Stephanie has probably read all about Ben Braeden. )
So, you both have surprise kids. You really are MFEO.
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[She smirks.]
I'm not sure that's usually one of the metrics.
[Whether or not someone is made for each other. In fact, surprise kids usually mean the opposite.]
But it's definitely been a wild ride.
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( There's an apology in his tone as he looks at the new - new?? menu. He looks up past Elena as the new owner happens to be fucking into the back. He narrows his eyes. )
Soap Operas usually are.
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Is the new owner going against the grain?
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( He doesn't miss the pictures on the menu, though. It does look... more modern. Less small town. )
Prices went up, too.
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[She glances down at her own menu.]
But things are good in New Orleans, though?
[Because she does still care and she does want him to be happy.]
Haven't pissed off Klaus enough to have him come calling yet?
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( But, New Orleans has been good. )
The kids found me with someone.
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[Which is a good sign, in her opinion.]
Someone special?
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( And they only know their first names. )
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