The Vampire Diaries 2.0 {1}

Chapter 5: You're Undead to Me

Ava goes to check on Damon and opens the peep hole and Damon says, "Where is my ring?" Ava says, "You won't be needing it anymore." Damon says, "How long have I been here?" Ava says, "Three days." Damon says, "What are you doing?" Ava says, "During the Dark Ages, when a vampire's actions threatened to expose or bring harm upon the entire race they would face judgment. They sought to reeducate them rather than to punish them." Damon says, "You know what will happen if I don't... feed on blood?" Ava says, "You'll grow weaker and weaker. And eventually you won't be able to move or speak. In a week, your skin will desiccate and you'll mummify. A living corpse. Unable to hurt anyone... ever." Damon says, "So what, you're just gonna leave me in the basement... forever?" Ava says, "I've injected you with enough vervain to keep you weak. Once your circulation stops, I'll move you to the family crypt and then 50 years, we can re-evaluate." Damon says, "I'm stronger than you think." Ava says, "You always have been. But you're not stronger than the vervain. And we both know it. I'm sorry. It didn't have to be this way." Ava closes the peep hole and walks away. Ava walks into Zach's study and she says, "He's awake. He's weak, but it's probably best to stay out of the basement. He's Damon, I'm not sure how dangerous he still might be." Zach notices Ava's bag and he says, "Uh, you're going to school?" Ava says, "I came here to live a life. It's about time I get back to that and Elena, if she's still speaking to me." Zach says, "Why haven't you called her?" Ava says, "What am I supposed to do, feed her another lie? I hate lying to her, Zach. I'm not good at it. She already thinks I'm hiding something." Zach says, "What choice do you have? You came back here because you wanted to live as normal a life as you could. You knew this was gonna be a part of it." Ava sighs and walks away. Later, Ava's at school and she walks up to Elena, and she softly says, "Hey." Bonnie says, "Hey, uh, you know, I gotta go. Uh, be somewhere right now." Bonnie walks away and Ava says, "I'm so sorry I haven't called." Elena sighs and says, "No worries. I'll live." Ava says, "I was dealing with Damon." Elena says, "And did you... deal with Damon?" Ava nods and says, "Yes. Yeah." Elena says, "For three days?" Ava says, "You have every right to be upset with me, but can I explain it all to you? Please?" Elena says, "Sure, when?" Ava says, "I gotta be home after school, but the Grill, around 4 o'clock?" Elena nods and says, "Okay." Ava says, "Thanks." Caroline walks up to them and Caroline says, "Ava, where is Damon? He has some serious apologizing to do." Ava looks at Caroline and says, "He's gone, Caroline." Caroline says, "When is he coming back?" Ava says, "He's not coming back. I'm sorry." Ava walks away. Later, Ava walks into her house and she hears Zach grunting and she speeds down to the cellar and finds Damon choking Zach and she gets Damon's hands off of Zach. Zach gasps and Ava squeezes Damon's hands until Damon removes his arm, and he starts coughing. Ava says, "Keep it up, Damon. The more energy you expend, the faster you'll go." Later, Ava's an hour late meeting Elena at the Grill and she overhears Matt say, "I think you should just talk to her." Ava makes herself known and says, "Talk to who? I'm sorry that I'm late." Elena says, "What happened?" Ava says, "I got held up." Elena says, "Is everything okay?" Ava says, "There was this thing with my uncle." Elena says, "And you couldn't call and tell me that you were gonna be an hour late?" Matt says, "Okay, you two have fun." Matt walks away and Ava says, "I'm really sorry. It was unavoidable." Elena says, "What was unavoidable?" Ava looks down not say anything and Elena chuckles and says, "Okay." As Elena goes to walk away, Ava says, "No, uh, Elena, please..." Elena turns around to look at Ava and says, "No, Ava, don't you get it? Every question gets a vague non-answer. What is so awful that you're afraid to tell me?" A male voice looks at Ava and says, "I know you. My God." Ava looks confused at the man, and she says, "I'm sorry?" The man says, "I know you. How can it be?" Ava says, "I think you have the wrong person, sir." The man says, "You haven't aged a day." Ava says, "I'm sorry. Excuse me." Ava looks at Elena and says, "Hey, can I take you home? And we can talk about it? Is that okay?" As they walk out the Grill, Elena points back at the man and says, "Wait, what was that?" Ava says, "I don't know." Elena says, "Right, you don't know, okay, um... I gotta go, Ava." Elena walks away and Ava looks at the man with a sigh. Later, Ava's in Elena's kitchen making dinner, when Elena walks in and says, "Ava? What are you doing here?" Ava says, "I'm making dinner. Jeremy told me that chicken parmesan is one of your favorites, and I happen to be a good cook. The Italian roots demand it. I can even make my own homemade mozzarella. Only tonight, it is, uh, unfortunately store-bought. Sorry." Elena says, "I don't know what you're trying to accomplish." Ava says, "You want to know me, right?" Elena nods and Ava says, "Well, I figure if you're gonna dump me you should at least know who you're dumping. So, let's start with Katherine." Elena says, "Ava--" Ava cuts Elena off and says, "She was the most beautiful girl that I had ever met. She had this perfect olive skin. And she had this laugh. It was ridiculous. I mean, her laugh made you laugh. And she was fun. She knew how to have a good time. But Katherine was also very impatient and entitled and selfish, and, um, impulsive. Enter Damon. He claims that he was with her first. I don't know. I do know that I did some things that... I'm not proud of. And my biggest regret... is not being able to make it right before she died. I miss her, but... I'm no longer crippled by her loss. I'm an avid reader, a huge Fitzgerald fan of "The Great Gatsby," his masterpiece. But I'm no snob, I love some good Grisham. I think "Friends" is the best American television show. Whenever I need a laugh, Joey's my guy." Elena says, "Here, let me." Elena helps with the cooking and Ava says, "As far as music, it's pretty much across the board. Um, Daughtry, Linkin Park, Bon Jovi, Taylor Swift. Oh, and I can't forget my girl Rihanna. I even liked that one Miley song." Elena scoffs and Ava smiles and says, "Easy." Elena smiles and says, "I didn't say anything. Hey, this is for the garlic bread, right? Because I'm not eating garlic unless you agree to too." Ava says, "Are you kidding? I love garlic." As Ava opens the fridge, she hears Elena hiss, and she sees that Elena cut her hand and she's bleeding. Ava says, "You, okay?" Elena grabs a towel and says, "Yeah. I think so." Ava sees that she accidentally got some of Elena's blood on her hands and she looks through the reflection in the window to see her face change and Ava turns around. Elena says, "Your face..." Ava controls her hunger for the blood and feels her face change back and she says, "Yeah, uh... I think I got something in my eye." Ava turns to face Elena and Elena chuckles and says, "Um, I think that my paranoia has turned into full-blown hallucinations." Ava says, "Part of your charm." Ava looks down at Elena's lips, Elena notices and she watches Ava hesitate, so she makes her move and kisses her instead and Ava kisses her back with a smile. Later, Ava checks on Damon and he says, "I bet you're feeling pretty good about yourself, aren't you?" Ava says, "Not particularly." Damon says, "You won. You got the bad guy. Now, nothing could come between you and Elena. Except the truth. The lie will catch up to you, Avangeline. As long as you keep lying to yourself about what you are." Ava says, "The beauty of you in there and me out here... is that I can walk away."