The Apprentice (The Originals/The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

 When she was finally out of the tunnels, Annette looked at her phone and realized Mikael had been trying to call her. When she called him back, he picked up on the first ring.

 "I'm alive," she said before he could say anything. "I just heard your message, and I wouldn't be able to forgive myself for leaving you in the lurch by getting myself consumed by hellfire. It's a long story, but the important thing is that Katherine Pierce is dead, for good this time. Are you still in Mystic Falls?"

 "Annette, I have been sitting in a car with Caroline and Alaric in the middle of nowhere for the last five minutes, waiting to hear from you. Are you sure you're all right?" 

 Annette was surprised at the sound of his voice. It seemed so small and quivering, and that just wasn't like him.

 "I'm going to be fine," she said. "And Damon's with me. Look, can you tell Alaric to drive back to Mystic Falls? I think you'd better all get here."

 Annette and Damon walked to Salvatore Boardinghouse together as midnight approached.

 "What am I supposed to tell Caroline?" Damon asked. "They literally just got married, and he had to go be a martyr, no matter how much I tried to get rid of him."

 "You can tell her he died a hero's death, which he did. He helped to save this town, Damon. And what are you going to do now? You're human again."

 "Yeah." He sighed. "I'll have to give that some thought. Guess I'll have to cut down on the bourbon if I want to live longer."

 "I think that's them," Annette said, spotting a pair of headlights coming up the road. "Why don't you get inside? Caroline should sit down for this." 

 The moment the car pulled up, Caroline burst out and asked her, "Where is he?"

 She nodded toward the house. "You'd best go inside." 

 Mikael slowly climbed out of passenger seat as Alaric took Josie and Lizzie out. She waved to him from where she was standing by the front door. But he didn't run to her right away, as she thought he might.

 "I had such a horrible feeling about this day," he said. "I thought it was just that I didn't want to come back to Mystic Falls, or the entire state of Virginia. But now I think it was because there was a chance you could have died tonight. Matt Donovan told me that you said you were going to go help out with getting rid of Katherine, and that you had wanted to get of Mystic Falls with the others as quickly as I could."

 "With the fact that I've saved you more than once, did you really think I'd want you to stay?" she asked. "And since I did stick around, I can say I saw Katherine Pierce get destroyed by hellfire."

 He smiled a little at that. "That must have been fun."

 "I suppose it was. But Stefan-"

 "Is dead. Caroline already figured it out. They had already said goodbye. I met her under the bell tower, she near tears, and she wanted me to go with her to the Armory."

 It was then that Annette remembered something. "Elena. Katherine had Elena Gilbert's body in the boiler room at the high school. The boundary spell might be gone now that Katherine's dead. We should go get her."

 "No, wait." Mikael took her by the hand. "Someone else can do it." He pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her. "I don't want you to go anywhere."

 "Then I won't," she whispered, resting her head against his chest.

~~~~~~ 

 They ended up sticking around Mystic Falls longer than they originally thought they would. They stayed for Stefan's funeral, and were there to see Elena and Damon reunited. Of course, Caroline had been wrecked at the news of new husband's death, but she knew he died saving their home. 

 Annette immediately began to notice a change in Mikael. He seemed afraid to let her out of his sight for any longer than a few minutes. After that night, she really couldn't blame him, though. She thought back to the time Klaus nearly succeeded in killing him, and when Seline had kidnapped him. Both times she had a burst of fear, and a sudden desire to rescue him and make everything all right again. That must have been what he felt while she was down in those tunnels, the possibility of being destroyed by hellfire very real.

 Caroline, meanwhile, had told them of her new plans for the boardinghouse. Rather than a boardinghouse, she was converting it to a boarding school, for children like Josie and Lizzie.

 "I think it'll be good for them," she said. "They'll be with kids like them, and those other kids can feel at home here."

 It was great, Annette thought, but she realized that meant she and Mikael would have to find someplace else to stay.

 Then, at some point, somehow, something happened in her mind, a sudden thought that seemed to come practically out of nowhere. It was something she had to go see Elena and Damon about.

 "You still have the cure in your blood system, don't you?" Annette asked.

 Damon shrugged. "Probably. Why?"

 "I need to ask something of you, then."

~~~~~~

 Mikael was sitting on the front step of the soon-to-be boarding school when Annette returned.

 "Have we been officially kicked out?" she asked.

 "Not in so many words," he said, "But I think we'll definitely have to leave soon. Where did you go?"

 "I had to go see Damon and Elena about something." She held up a bottle. "I had to get this."

 "What is it?"

 "Their blood, which contains the cure."

 Mikael looked confused. "Why would you take that from them?"

 "Because we might need it someday. Think about it, Mikael. One day, we're going to get bored of being vampires. We might even grow tired of each other, and I never want that to happen. So, when the day finally comes that we're tired of being vampires, we can drink this, and have a human life together."

 Mikael closed his eyes and sighed. "Wow. You really thought of everything, didn't you?"

 "Of course I did," Annette replied. "This wasn't a life either of us ever truly wanted. If you got the chance to go back and do things over again, wouldn't you do them differently?"

 "Of course I would."

 "Well, that's exactly what I mean. Let's take in the rest of the joys of being vampires, and when we can't take it anymore, we'll split the contents of this bottle, settle down, and live a ordinary human life."

 "Have you thought about what we'll be doing with that human life?" Mikael asked.

 "Not yet. I think I'd want to do something with books. But not a librarian, because I couldn't stay in just one place."

 "Travelling librarian?"

 "No. I was thinking of travelling booksellers."

 He stared at her as if she had just gone insane. "You want to be travelling booksellers? Are you serious?"

 "Well, why not?" Annette asked. "We've done much more difficult things in the past. I think we would do well. So, what do you think? Of my ideas?"

 "I think you're right," he answered. "Eventually, we're going to get tired of immortal life. Being human again would probably take the rest of my human life to get used to, but I could do it."

 "Well, we're not doing it today," Annette pointed out. "It could take years to happen, but it probably will happen. When the time comes, I think we should just be honest about how we feel. If one of us thinks it's time, we need to tell the other and decide what to do then."

 "You're right," he said again. "You're right about everything. Keep the bottle. I know I'll want to drink it someday. You know, for centuries I forgot what it was like to have feelings, real feelings. But you, Annette," he took her hands in his, "You changed something. I think you changed me."

 "You changed me, too," she replied. "The day I asked you to teach me to kill vampires, I was grieving, and I was angry and hurt. But you taught me to fight, and you took me with you on your journeys. And, somewhere in that time, we began to move away from grief and anger, and work towards something much better."

 They both smiled, and leaned in to kiss each other at the same time. It was the perfect setting, with sun beaming down on them against a cloudless sky, and not one sign of bad weather ahead.

 "You know we're stuck with each other, don't you?" Annette asked.

 "No, it's more like you're stuck with me." Mikael slowly ran his fingers though some strands of her hair. "Now that I have you, I could never bring myself to let go of you."

 "Well, that's good, because I'm not letting you go, either. Now, come on. We have packing to do. Haven't you heard? The boardinghouse is shutting down, and it's being replaced with a boarding school."

 "Wait, Annette," Mikael said as Annette began to return inside. "When we do eventually take the cure, I think we should come back here, to Mystic Falls. It used to be my home, and it's still something of a home, I suppose. At least it still feels like one."

 Annette smiled and nodded. "Yes. Yes, I think we should come back."

 Mikael nodded back, and followed her inside.

 It did seem that they were quite stuck with each other.


~~~~~~

 A/N: To everyone who is still reading this book, congratulations, because you've reached the end. To me, this was the ending I needed. I guess a sequel is possible, but it's not something I've given any serious thought. This just seemed to be the right place to end the story. 

 When I first started this book, I wasn't sure if anyone would actually read it, since Mikael isn't a well-liked character in the fandom. But 'The Apprentice' has gotten reads, votes, and comments, and has been added to more reading lists than I can count. So, thank you to everyone who gave Annette and Mikael a chance. I'm grateful to all of you for giving their story a chance.