Whatever It Takes {Two | Alaric Saltzman}

From Now On

The voices of Alaric, Jeremy, and Tyler floated into the bedroom as Abigail opened her eyes. They weren't what woke her, but they brought a smile to her face. It fixed itself there as she sat up, grew as she walked the few paces in their direction, and solidified when she realized they were talking about all of the things Caroline gave them to do before the baby shower, none of which Abigail or Alaric were allowed to help with.

Wrapping her arms around Alaric, she exclaimed, "Good morning!"

"Hey!" Alaric placed a soft kiss on her lips. "How are you feeling?"

"Better." She did not let go of him when she turned to address their guest. "How did you guys sleep last night?"

Jeremy sighed. "That extra couch isn't nearly as comfortable as the one in the living room."

"Dude, get over it." Tyler playfully punched Jeremy's shoulder. "I really appreciate you guys letting me crash here, but I would really like to get back to my own place."

Once their laughter settled, all of their eyes were on Abigail.

"What is it?"

"He wants to see you," Alaric said.

"No," Jeremy protested. "The last time you saw him, he almost killed you!"

She gripped the fabric of Alaric's shirt. "Jer, he didn't know what he was doing."

"Then who's to say he won't do it again?"

"I don't know." Her voice was as quiet as theirs were when they were trying not to wake her. "But I want to see him, too."

"Well," Tyler started, "from what Alaric told us when we got in, I'm going to need to assess the damage done to my property, so I'll give you a ride."

Abigail followed Tyler into the Lockwood Mansion, silent in his slew of curses targeted at the Salvatore brothers who were in the front hall. Damon was chained to the staircase, he had been since the night he was resurrected, but seeing him that way only evoked a sadness in her. Stefan was on his feet, trying to get a word in with Tyler and failing, but she didn't hear any of it.

It didn't seem Damon did either, not until he added his own sentence into the ones stacking up, "Tyler Lockwoof. Yeah, Stefan, I thought my allergies were acting up."

"I didn't even know you were in town," Stefan said.

"Jeremy and I are here for the baby shower. Although our hosts failed to mention the part about Mystic Falls going to crap." He looked from one of them to the other. "What the hell happened out there?"

"Oh, you know. We had to evacuate. Scary Heretics. Fictional mining fires." Damon smirked. "You weren't CC'd on the memo?"

"I don't think he's talking about the evacuation, Damon," Stefan said.

"So, what is he talking about?" Damon asked. "I know you didn't manage to screw the whole town up all over again while I was on my weekend trip to limbo."

"That's the thing," Stefan sighed out. "You weren't gone for just the weekend. You've been gone for months."

Damon struggled against the chains. "What does that mean?"

Finally, Abigail spoke, "Julian and his vampire friends have taken over the town. Bonnie and Matt-"

"You delegated Deputy Doolittle to patrol the streets with his witchy ride-along?" He looked back to Stefan. "Are you sure Bonnie put the right soul back in your body? I mean, what happened to your hero-hair campaign to protect Mystic Falls?"

Stefan rolled his eyes. "Well, I've been busy trying to raise you from the dead."

"It's called multitasking," he scoffed. "Which you two can go figure out how to do somewhere else while I talk to Abigail."