ALMOST IS NEVER ENOUGH | TVD [4]

VII • MOMMIE DEAREST

seven. mommie dearest

Lockwood Residence

Stefan is in the middle of grabbing several crystal glasses and a decanter of strong bourbon in the spacious kitchen of the large mansion when Damon walks in with a truly puzzled expression, "Is that cornbread I smell?"

The younger vampire brother smiles, "We're hosting Thanksgiving!"

The older regularly smug one snidely stated, "Thanksgiving's tomorrow."

Stefan shrugs, "Well, pre-Thanksgiving. Whatever."

"Whatever happened to taking out Julian? Remember him?" Damon said; his brother immediately twists the faucet of the sink open in order to block their conversation from being heard by his girlfriend, who's just upstairs.

"Hard to forget." The green-eyed vampire replied in an obvious tone.

"Yeah. For someone who killed what would have been your firstborn. You know, I cleared out my entire schedule so we could make that guy count worms...Unless you're too busy baking...and hiding." The older one spoke.

Stefan sighs, "Julian knows that I want him dead, so our next move needs to be smart. We're probably only going to have one more shot at this."

Damon frowns cluelessly at that statement, even more confused, "Not quite following the whole Martha Stewart strategy, to be honest..."

His determined brother smiles, "I am planning on recruiting an ally."

Just then, the doorbell rings, which makes Damon even more confused than ever. Rosie walks out from the stairs into the foyer and frowns in confusion when she opens the door to reveal that Lily is standing on the doorstep with a large Tupperware container in her hands. She smiles awkwardly at her before holding out the container, "I brought cranberries!"

Rosie, puzzled, steps backward so Lily can walk through the foyer into the kitchen. Stefan appears behind her and smiles smugly, causing Damon to gesture toward him and give him a look that says 'Are you kidding me?'

****

Midlothian County Impound

Bonnie, Minerva and Enzo are walking around an old junkyard, where they are walking through rows of old and abandoned cars, some of which are badly smashed up. Minerva has a piece of paper in her hand with the license plate number of Oscar's car as the trio are working on trying to find it.

"Why would a centuries-old vampire with a bunch of witch groupies be so desperate to find anything collecting dust in the Midlothian County impound? Seems a little beneath him." Bonnie skeptically wondered aloud.

Lorenzo casually shrugs, "Well, if Julian wants it, then so do I." He earns the same transparent incredulous look from both ladies and Minerva spoke up.

"Are we talking about Oscar's car, or Lily?" Enzo, knowing that Minerva's got a point, says nothing, which makes her smile smugly, "That's what I thought. You're not doing this to stop a psychopath. You just want the girl."

"Congratulations. You've just unlocked every man's true motivation in life."

"Let me give you some advice. Stop treating Lily like some prize to be won." Bonnie told him the obvious as Minerva contemplates this unnoticeably.

The young banshee scoffs, "You should tell that to Rosie."

Enzo scoffs as well, "Spoken like somebody who's never been fought over."