Surprising Lover (TVDxOC) (Complete)

Best Served Cold

Grace, who has just entered the room, sits beside him on the couch as he sits up quickly.
"[gently] Hey, it's just me."
Stefan looks uncomfortable and slightly guilty about his dream, but tries to cover it up.
"Hey."
"Who's Jacob?"
Stefan plays dumb.
"Who?"
"Jacob. You were yelling his name."
Stefan, still dumbstruck by his dream, tries to shake it off.
"Oh, um... must have been a bad dream."
Grace seems worried, but her voice remains cheerful.
"Oh, probably because you're sleeping on the couch, silly. What are you doing down here?"
Just then, Valerie appears in the doorway behind them, her hair and skin still wet from a shower and a towel wrapped around her body. She has a black bottle in her hand.
"That would be my fault."
When Valerie sees the shocked look on Grace's face at the sight of her and Stefan's horrified expression, Valerie starts to feel awkward and embarrassed.
"I--I just wanted to let you know I used the last of the shampoo."
Grace, obviously overwhelmed by this revelation, tries to remain polite with Stefan's unexpected guest.
"Valerie, I didn't know that you were staying here."
Stefan, looking uncomfortable, interjects quickly.
"Stayed. Past tense. Um, just one night."
Stefan clears his throat in response to this awkward situation.
"[awkwardly] I should go put some clothes on."
Grace's patience is visibly wearing thin, and her tone becomes slightly irritable.
"Yeah. You do that."
"...All right."
"Okay."
Valerie leaves, and Grace turns back to Stefan with an annoyed look.
"Explain."
"Okay. Lily wants to raise Julian from the dead. Valerie tried to scorch his body before she could get her hands on him, and that did not work out so well..."
"[narrows her eyes] Not following how that's our problem."
"[quickly] Okay. If and when Lily welcomes Julian back into his body, he will find out what Valerie did, and he'll come after her."
"[sarcastically] Yeah... Just not connecting those dots."
"Well, maybe you can just trust me that I know what I'm doing."
Grace suddenly gets an idea and runs with it.
"So what you're saying is, Valerie needs to disappear-- new name, new job, a country in a separate hemisphere?"
Stefan, realizing where she's going with this, tries to shut it down.
"No. No."
"Well, you just said that she's in danger. I mean, if I need to drive her to the airport myself, I will do that. Or Caroline could."
As she speaks, she inches closer to Stefan until her arms are wrapped seductively around his neck. Stefan smiles at her.
"Mmhmm."
"[whispers] Unless you have a problem with that..."
Grace starts kissing up his neck and onto his cheek as Stefan chuckles.
"You know, I really like this form of manipulation."
Two two begin kissing until they are again interrupted by Valerie, who looks uncomfortable as she clears her throat.
"Whatever we're doing, we should do it fast. The Phoenix Stone turns people mad, and Julian's soul's been in it for over a hundred years, so anywhere he is, I need to be as far away as possible."

Stefan's getting ready and Grace walks in with a bag.
"Alright I'm heading off."
"Where and why?"
"I'm going to visit some people in New York for the day while you're with your mom and her family."
"I thought you were coming with me."
"No I'm visiting my other family."
"Okay."
"Bye."
"Bye."

Grace walks into the bar from I'd Leave My Happy Home For You.
"Hey Charlie, Camila?"
"Hey Gracie you're back."
"I'm back so how are we doing?"
"We found out there is an apartment above."
"Well we should drink."
"Here's to our family of three starting over."
"To starting over."
"Starting over."