Wayward Hearts Book 3- Summer

Part 12

"Find a proper witch and get me to Emma!" Damon yelled in frustration.

Sam shook his head, "If that was an option we would already be doing it."

A sharp gasp caught everyone's attention. All eyes turned towards Emma.

"Finally," Dean let out a breath that he had been holding.

Emma sat up and took several deep breathes as if her life depended on it.

"Emma?" Damon asked as he sat on the edge of the bed, hope in his eyes.

"The cake was pink," Emma answered the question from earlier.

"Yeah, I'm gonna need you to do better than that," Dean said as he stepped closer with his arms crossed.

Emma smirked, "When you get scared, you hum 'Some Kind of Monster' by Metallica."

Dean's brows furrowed, "I never get scared."

Emma rolled her eyes, "Am I me or not?"

"You had me scared Emmy," Dean finally uncrossed his arms and pulled Emma in for a hug.

"I thought you never got scared," she teased him.

"Shut up," Dean let out a sigh of relief and gave Emma another tight squeeze before he let her go.

Emma stood and looked at Damon, unsure of how to apologize for everything she had done leading up to Alice taking over her mind. The uncertainty left her mind the moment he stepped to her pulled her into his arms, quickly locking her lips in a passionate kiss.

"Damon, I'm so sorry," Emma managed to say in-between kisses.

"That wasn't you Em. You have nothing to apologize for," Damon pulled away for moment, "besides, I've forgiven people for a lot worse. Do you have any idea how many times Stefan has tried to kill me? Even Alaric."

"I saw him," Emma's voice cracked for a moment, "I saw Alaric. He helped me find you."

Damon smiled and pulled Emma into his chest in a tight hug.

Emma stepped out onto the wrap around porch of the plantation house. Elijah faced away from her, staring off at the nearby bayou.

"Thank you," Emma almost whispered.

Elijah turned around with a smile, "Whatever for?"

"You could have just left me in purgatory and ran off with Alice."

"Alice had her time, this is your life Emma."

"But don't you miss her?"

Elijah shrugged, "Maybe once upon a time. Death made her bitter, the Alice that I loved never would have conspired with my mother. She never would have taken someone else's chance at life."

"It seems like you may have moved on anyway," Emma elbowed Elijah slightly and smirked up at him, "Haley is really pretty."

Elijah cleared his throat uncomfortably, "Yes, well, this is...complicated."

Emma shrugged, "So un-complicate it. You deserve to be happy too. If you are sacrificing your own happiness, then you better have a damn good reason."

"Thank you Emma," Elijah smirked before pulled Emma into his side for a soft hug, "you're heading back to Mystic Falls soon."

"Yeah," Emma said quietly, "don't be a stranger."

"Never," Elijah bent down and quickly kissed Emma's cheek.

Emma hugged Elijah one more time and left to say goodbye to the rest of her crew.

Everyone was out by the cars, Dean leaned against his Impala while talking to Damon. Sam was the only one who looked up when they heard Emma's boots against the wood of the steps.

"Hey Em, you ready?" Sam asked as he stepped over to her.

Emma nodded, "Yeah, the mosquitos here are insane."

"You're dating the worlds largest mosquito," Dean snickered.

"Ass," Damon glared at Dean.

Dean ignored him, "Let's go get a beer before we hit the road."

Emma shrugged, "May as well, this is my last day of freedom before Caroline starts blowing up my phone about starting college."

"I think you should go," Sam smiled.

Emma rolled her eyes, "And learn what exactly? I could probably teach their archeology department head a few things. It's not like I'm meant for the corporate world anyway, and I don't have any desire to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or whatever else. I hunt the stuff that goes bump in the night. They don't exactly have classes for that."

Dean laughed as he got in his car, "She has a point."

At Rousseau's Bar Dean grabbed a high top table and ordered himself, Emma, and Sam a beer, while Damon ordered a bourbon, from the bartender whose name tag read 'Cami'. Emma enjoyed the live jazz music from the band in the corner of the room, behind her the men kept up idle chit chat about the pain of having siblings.

"Earth to Emmy," Dean teased her.

"What? Sorry," Emma turned back in her seat to face the rest of the group.

"What was that thing that you used to do to Katie to drive her nuts?" Dean asked.

Emma smirked, "Which thing? Everything I did drove her crazy."

Sam laughed to himself before sharing what he thought was so funny, "I remember one summer we came over to your house and you stood just on the edge of the threshold to her room. Every time Katie tried to get you in trouble for being in her room you would just yell that you weren't in her room."

"Oh," Dean chimed in, "remember how scared Katie was of frog? Emmy would catch one and throw it in Katie's room before closing the door, leaving Katie to try and find a way out."

"And you would always come to her rescue," Emma smiled before taking a sip of her beer and then retreating back into her own head.

Damon seemed to pick up on Emma's weird mood, he put a hand on her arm gently, "Hey, are you okay?"

Emma nodded, "Yeah, I think so."

Everyone assumed that it was the talk of family and Katie that had put Emma in a mood and they were quick to change the subject.

Emma kept her real feelings buried for the time being. She could feel something was off, she just wasn't sure what it was. Since she had awoken, she felt as if something was always looking over her shoulder, spying on her. It wasn't anything malevolent, there was a light to it, but Emma could feel it.