Try {One | Alaric Saltzman}

Stand by Me

Whatever wall that remained between Abigail and the rest of the world crumbled as soon as they crossed the Mystic Falls city line. There was nothing left to separate her from her memories, her feelings, or what she had been running from. So, she did what she had done before, she put all of her energy into her family. Into Elena.

Elena did what she had before, too. She shut her out. But Abigail wasn't sure if she could help it this time.

Laughing as he asked, "You're not adopted too, are you?"

She let out a short laugh as she closed her textbook. "No, I don't think so."

"Yeah," Elena said, sitting down on the other side of her. "I'm the only one with the distinction."

"So," Abigail dropped the book onto the coffee table. "Mr. Saltzman said you've been doing great in history now."

"Yeah, yeah he's really been helping me out." He nodded. "He gave me some extra credit and stuff."

A moment later, she said, "He loved your vampire paper."

"He thought I had a clever angle."

"What drew you to that subject matter?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Boredom or maybe I'm just as nuts as the long line of Gilbert crazies."

"Gilberts aren't crazy," Elena sang.

Dryly, he said, "Easy for you to say, you're not one."

She reached across Abigail to hit him on the shoulder, ensuing a game of tag that lasted longer than the conversation.

"Oh, my God! Abigail..." Caroline ran onto the front porch. "Wh-"

"Come on." Elena waved Stefan forward. "Let's get Jeremy upstairs."

Caroline stared at Abigail with glazed eyes, eventually landing on the question, "And how long has she been like that?"

"Since we found his body." Abigail bit the inside of her cheek, cutting into the same spot over and over again. "She hasn't said anything except that she's waiting for him to wake up. But h-he's not going to wake up."

Caroline wrapped her arms around her. "I'm so sorry, Abigail."

"I-we..." She pulled away. "She's in denial, so I don't know what to do. We can't break her out of it, not until we know that Bonnie is safe, not until we get Damon over here to-"

"Use the sire bond to convince her that everything is okay?"

Elena joined them in the kitchen. "I'm not in denial. I know that he was supernatural, but did you see? His tattoo is gone. The tattoo had the spell that opened Silas' chamber. Maybe it being gone means that he's fulfilled his supernatural destiny. Maybe he's back to normal." She looked to Stefan. "It's possible, right?"

Abigail took a step toward her. "Elena-"

"There's a chance. It may be miniscule, but it's hope and I'm gonna hold on to that hope with everything that I've got because there's no way that-" She paused. "There's absolutely no way that our brother is dead."

As she turned out of the room, the picture hanging on the middle of the wall drew Abigail forward. It was from the lake house. Abigail squinting against the sun. Elena looking over her shoulder. Jeremy holding up his red cast. They all hated it, begged their mom to take it down, but, now, all Abigail wanted was to thank her dad for taking it.

"That was taken just after Jeremy broke his arm diving off of the dock."

Alaric walked back to the island, picking up a few dishes along the way. "How'd your parents react to that one?"