Try {One | Alaric Saltzman}

The New Deal

Abigail tried to keep her attention on Elena and Bonnie as they theorized about Klaus and talked about the nightmares they had been having, but she couldn't tear her eyes from the bar. Alaric was there, grading papers in his usual seat. It had been weeks of this. Weeks of space that neither of them wanted, but only one of them worked to close. At least until now.

Walking toward him felt like the first time, unsure of what exactly was making her ignore the fact that Elena and Bonnie were waiting for her, the group of people from school playing pool, and the door. The door that she thought was begging her to go home a year ago. And it was, she just didn't know it.

"Alaric, can we talk? I... We-"

There was no smile, no soft greeting, just, "This may come as a shock, but I am busy."

"Okay, look, I get it. You're pissed at me. I'm pissed at me." She scanned the restaurant, searching for any new faces before sitting down next to him. "But no matter how much you don't want it to be true, things are different."

He didn't have a chance to respond to her before the bartender came back from the kitchen. "Are you Jeremy Gilbert's sister?"

"Yeah, why?"

"He was supposed to come pick up his final check before we opened, but he never showed." She dropped a brown paper bag and a receipt in front of Alaric. "I worked a double yesterday, it would have been nice to know I could get an extra hour of sleep."

"I'm sorry, what do you mean?"

"He was fired last week."

"Abigail, there's something else." Alaric pushed a paper toward her. "That's his mid-term. Copied it straight off the Internet. Didn't even try to hide it."

"Great." Her eyes fluttered closed as she let out a sigh of defeat. "That's just... great."

"I've got to go to the school." She could hear it in his voice, that he was still upset with her; however, there was something just past it, something that she missed more than anything. "I'll come pick you up in a little while. We'll talk to Jeremy, and then we'll talk to each other."

Abigail watched Damon and Elena throw darts, ignoring their banter completely as she dialed Jeremy's number. He didn't pick up once, but she still left the same message round after round, "Call me as soon as you get this."

The words came out with more aggravation each time, eventually leading her to slam her phone onto the table. "This is unbelievable! He's completely lost it."

Over his shoulder, Damon said, "Careful there, Newbie. Don't want to get too angry and break a table in the middle of the lunch rush."

"I'm not mad. I'm worried."

"No, you're mad. And at a lot more than your little brother." He raised his eyebrows. "Which means somebody is totally getting grounded..."

Elena scoffed. "This is not a joke, Damon."

"He lost his job at the Grill, Elena. He's going to survive."

"You're day drunk," she grumbled. "It's not exactly your most attractive look."

"Hmm." He moved toward her, slowly and deliberately. "What is my most attractive look?"

"I'm not saying you have any attractive looks." She pushed him away. "I'm saying this is my least favorite one..."

"Noted. I'll see if I can make any improvements."

Someone leaned against the table next to Abigail. She thought it was Alaric. And maybe if she hadn't spent so much of her time trying to keep herself from him, she would have realized it wasn't.