Begin Again

Chapter 3

"Um... sorry, but I'm looking for a Dr. Nyki-vist, Niquist...? I don't think I'm saying that correctly," Elena Gilbert stammered out. She had recently taken up her surgical residency in Mystic Falls, Virginia, at the local hospital. She was one of a handful of students selected for her program but she had transferred to remain with her fiancé; Stefan who had moved back to his hometown because of his ailing brother. Elena had found herself lucky, there was a small program at the hospital that would take her, and so she had moved from Richmond to Mystic Falls.

"Nyqvist," a soft, cultured voice said and Elena nearly yelped as she found herself face to face with an elegant woman, wide mouth round face, killer cheek bones, and massive doe brown eyes framed by soft platinum hair cut in a stylish bob. She was a curvy, average woman, about Elena's own height.

"Oh..." Elena said lamely. "Is that...Hungarian or Russian...?"

"No," the woman replied. "I am Dr. Esther Nyqvist, I am your Attending and the Head of the surgical department."

"Whoa," Elena whispered.

"We are not very big, or busy, come," Esther ordered. Elena scrambled to follow then. "We handle about four counties, primarily farmers, you will find we do make house calls and we do not operate like a traditional hospital. You do have residence in town, correct?"

"Yes..." Elena stammered out. She'd bought a house with a small inheritance she had from her Aunt Miranda and Stefan had pitched in; it was a quaint two story simple antebellum house with four bedrooms.

Esther was brisk and almost... German like, in her run down of how the hospital worked, and filled Elena in on her internship.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Davina walked with Bonnie to the Bennett Ancestral grounds, tensing as she felt the rippling magic around her. There was something... rotten, in Davina's opinion about Bonnie's Ancestors, but it was never obvious, or painful, merely this distasteful presence. Part of Davina pondered if that was merely her own aversion to other Ancestors; given she was a New Orleans witch, and Regent, or if it was something else. Pausing she found herself walking up the steps towards a greenhouse. Once they were in, she looked around at the flourishing plants and growing herbs, it didn't look tainted, but Davina felt there was a blight, she was almost tempted to call Monique to confirm what she was sensing and feeling, she didn't know how to feel about this.

"So this feeling of being watched?" Davina started as she shed her jacket, hanging it up. she looked around at the greenhouse, and shivered a little at the unease she felt.

"I just... I know this is ridiculous," she sighed. "I just get this pull, and there's times I wake up with no memory of what's happened, or how I got somewhere, and it feels like Expression."

"Okay," Davina nodded. She started rooting through the herbs, collecting what she needed. "The memories you can't remember aren't missing, they're probably locked away by your mind, let's see if we can do a dream walk to unlock them."

"Thank you," Bonnie whispered.

"Of course, when we figure out what isn't happening then we can figure out what is happening," Davina assured with a soft smile.

"Like at a doctor's office."

"Exactly," Davina chuckled. "I need sage, lavender and chamomile," Davina said.

"Chamomile?"

"You're going to need a tea, dream walking only works if you're asleep," Davina pointed out.

"Ah," Bonnie cuckled. "I knew that, but I was hoping not to go to sleep."

"It's way less painful for someone to enter your mind if you're asleep, if you're awake and fight me, then that'll hurt us both."