𝟏• 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂 | 𝐓𝐕𝐃 ✓

THIRTY-TWO [UNEDITED]

He smiled at her melodious laugh as she rested on her elbow next to him. "We could be doing anything, Stefan." She said softly. "You could take me anywhere, but why did you choose to take me here?" She said, looking around at the quarry, as she sat up on the comfortable blanket.

"It's a fond memory of mine." He answered. "We came here on your birthday in 1863. It's where we—"

"Kissed." She completed. "For the first time." A soft smile made itself known on her lips as she looked back at him. "You remembered, didn't you?"

"These are the good moments." He said, delicately caressing her cheek. "The simple ones, the ones that matter." She played with his hair, listening to his words. "These are the moments that keep me from falling apart." Aurelia leant down to meet his lips, closing her eyes.

When she pulled away, she rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat as he slowly and gently ran his hands through her silky hair. "Stefan, this can't last forever." She said softly. "You need to fight by yourself instead of distracting yourself."

"I will." He said. "But let me just spend this time with you." She began to close her eyes when she let out a cough.

Sitting up, she placed a hand on her chest. She coughed a few more times, before she began to choke on something. He looked at her in horror as she began to spit out water.

"Aurelia!"

His eyes opened, and he felt his lungs begging for air. He began to hit the door of the safe again. She was right; distractions wouldn't help him fight.

!

"Damon, I know I said I'd help you find your brother, but I can't dredge this entire quarry." Liz said, looking at the large quarry. "It's enormous."

"I'm aware of that." Damon said. "I mean, clearly, that's why we wanted to dump Silas' body here- because it's big and deep and no one would find him. Now, say I'm Silas, and I want to take over my doppelganger's life. Why wouldn't I wanna dump him in a place that's big and deep and where no one would find him?"

"Damon, I already agreed to hold off on telling anyone about the Mayor's death." Liz said.

"The Mayor, who is Bonnie's father, and who Silas killed." Damon tried to reason.

"I can't devote those kinds of resources to finding one person who may or may not be down there."

"But it's a place to start." Damon said. "And if Stefan's down there, it means he's been drowning over and over again for three months, while I've been with Elena." He said. "Moreover, someone's he's in love with is with his immortal doppelganger, compelled to do God knows what, and whatever else they did during the summer. Do I need to further elaborate the source of my urgency?"

"I'll get some deputies on it."

!

Aurelia folded her legs and she leant back into her seat, waiting for Elena and Caroline to come and explain what the hell she was doing in an Applied Microbiology class, a subject not even meant for freshmen.

"Hey, sorry for dragging you into this." Elena said, taking a seat next to her. Aurelia huffed. "We found out that the professor of this class is the one who wrote down the autopsy repot for Megan. Long story short, he lied about her death and is a part of the cover-up."

"Okay..." She said. "You know, despite move-in day and everything we set up, I feel like I'm forgetting something."

"Morning everyone." The professor said, walking into the class. He was blonde, and seemed to be in his early thirties. "I'm Dr. Maxfield. First name's Wes, but you can call me Dr. Maxfield." Aurelia rolled her eyes are he talked about the history of Whitmore. She knew this; Whitmore was a hospital founded during the American Civil War, and several people died... "Which brings us to microbiology."