Whatever It Takes {Two | Alaric Saltzman}

The Lies Will Catch Up to You

It was one of those mornings, the ones where she woke up with so much time before anyone else that she ran out of things to do. So, she went outside. To think, to write, to read, but she hadn't done any of those things. She just stared at her phone.

"Hey, it's Bonnie. Leave a message."

"Hey, it's me..." Abigail looked out onto the Armory's lawn from a flagstone staircase. "I know it's early, but I just wanted to call and remind you that I'm here for you no matter what you need. Just text me or, if you feel like talking, call me. I'd really love to hear your voice. Love you."

Her phone rang as soon as she replaced it with her journal. It wasn't disappointment she felt to read Matt's name, just a sinking feeling. One that only lasted as long as it took for her to slide her finger across the screen.

"What can I do for you, Sheriff?"

"I need your help. Well, I need you and Caroline, but she won't take my calls because I said the things to her that almost tore our friendship apart." They each took a sharp breath through their nose, but only he continued, "We have bigger problems right now than me hurting someone's feelings. People are calling and showing up at the station wanting to report old crimes, disappearances, and cold cases, all involving Stefan. One of them even wondered if he was a vampire."

"What?"

"I've been keeping them in separate rooms, trying to keep everyone quiet for now," he said.

"How could they know those things?" She asked.

"I don't know," he replied. "They said these memories came back a couple days ago."

"Oh, my God." She stood up. "That was when I gave Stefan the cure."

Abigail and Caroline sat across from Matt in his office. He'd pulled the old case files, made a stack of new ones, and had sorted them into categories. They were making a plan, as much of a plan as they could make until they were with each person who had come forward.

"Why didn't this happen when you took the cure?" Caroline asked Abigail.

"Well, most of the people I compelled either lived in Mystic Falls when the Traveler's spell took effect or were killed by me in New York. And I think Henry, Dr. Garrison, was the only person I compelled to forget something of significance. He only mentioned it once, but he was leaving Whitmore because he was sick. I just thought it was because of that..."

Matt looked from stack to stack. "Then what do we do now?"

"We have to redo the compulsion, add on to it."

"I have to redo the compulsion. I have to add on to it," Caroline emphasized. "I'm the only person who can clean up this mess."

They all had individual tasks, but those tasks put Abigail with Matt behind the two-way mirror of the same interrogation room more than once. Caroline entered the room so much like Liz they could hardly recognize her. It was there, of course, the expression that made Caroline, Caroline, and Abigail could see what the strain was doing to her.

"It was about six years ago," the man said, "There was this murderer, lying in a hospital bed, with a bullet wound. I'm supposed to be guarding his room. Then the damnedest thing happened. This intense guy, weird hair, walks right up to me, looks me in the eye, and says, 'Time for a little break.' I'm not supposed to leave my post. But the way he said it..."

Caroline filled in, "It was like you were being compelled to obey."

"Yeah. Something like that." The intensity of his voice was as detectable as it wasn't. "Anyway, I come back. And the murderer vanished. Guess who takes the fall. I lost my badge. I lost my pension. I fell off the wagon."