𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐥𝐲, 𝐞. 𝐦𝐢𝐤𝐚𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐨𝐧¹

31. epic as a love story

s3e1: the birthday

It's been almost two months since the ritual. Another school year had ended, and summer has begun. Life hasn't gotten easier though. Brynley and Damon have teamed-up to look for Stefan and Klaus because Klaus was the only person who knew were Elijah was and Damon wanted his brother back.

When she wasn't searching for the hybrid and the Salvatore brother, she was at the Grill, working, or with Matt or Tyler, who has been spending a lot of time with Caroline. Someone else she has been with is Jeremy, because he recently was hired at the Grill, Brynley was the one who conducted the interview for him. When she wasn't with them, she was with her dad, the two have made it a tradition to eat ice cream from the Grill after closing every Sunday night.

Overall, the Fletcher girl was doing anything to distract herself from the fact that she was slowly dying from Elijah being daggered. After a lot of searching in her mother's journals, she managed to find a spell to slow down the process. Bryn had to do the spell daily to keep it up though, but it worked. The nose bleeds were less common and the vomiting blood stopped, and she was running on Advil and pain pills to stop the chest pains.

The spell she did worked for a while when she did it once a day, but it slowly stopped working over time. Brynley now had to do it multiple times a day to keep it up. Anyone could tell that her soulmate being daggered was taking a toll on her. She was paler, there was bags under her eyes, she just looked exhausted. And who could blame her? Her entire body was shutting down. So basically:

It was a very crappy two months.

As for Elijah, Brynley had no choice but to eventually forgive him. She did see him every night in the dream world after all. The two have gotten very close, but nothing has happened between them. Brynley was scared to do anything, and Elijah on the other hand wanted their first kiss to be when he didn't have a dagger in his chest.

It was now the end of June. June 22nd, to be exact, which was also Elena Gilbert's birthday. It was the late morning and Brynley was working at the Grill with Matt.

"Hey Elena, Jeremy's late for his shift here." Brynley spoke through the phone while Matt smiled at her. "Just let him know, please."

"I look forward to the day he actually shows up on time." Matt shook his head and Brynley giggled while she adjusted her apron and Evan Fletcher walked into the Grill.

"Hey kids!" Evan joked.

"Dad, we're gonna be seniors and we're both 18 so we're technically adults." Brynley rambled.

"You're still a kid," Evan corrected. "How are you feeling, blossom?"

"I've only had three nosebleeds today, but the chest pains are getting worst and there's still two hours till I can take more pain pills without risking an overdose." Brynley checked the time on her phone.

"Have Damon said anything about where they are?" Evan asked.

"They've moved to Tennessee, Andie is getting us an address and then we're gonna try again." Brynley sighed and Jeremy walked into the Grill. "Look who decided to show up."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Jeremy smiled before he grabbed an apron and slipped it on.

"Gotta learn time management kid, it's an important life skill." Evan informed and Brynley rolled her eyes slightly.

"Where do you want me?" Jeremy asked Brynley.

"Stockroom, there's boxes to be moved." Brynley pointed and the Gilbert boy walked into the back of the Grill. Brynley walked behind the bar and started to pour drinks to customer while Matt worked as a waiter. Tyler and Caroline walked in and Matt ran to Brynley at the bar.

"Switch sections with me." Matt begged.

"Why?" Brynley questioned.

"Because I don't want to wait on my ex-girlfriend," Matt replied and Brynley gave him a look. "Please? Bestfriend code."

"That's not fair, but fine." Brynley agreed and Matt smiled before he walked behind the bar and Brynley grabbed her notepad. She walked over to the table where Caroline and Tyler sat with a smile. "Hey."

"Hey B." Tyler smiled and Caroline looked at her suspiciously.

"Did Matt make you switch sections?" Caroline accused.

"Maybe." Brynley shrugged.

"He thinks we're dating." Caroline looked at Tyler.

"Shocker." Brynley began to write down Tyler's order, already knowing what he was going to order.

"So does my mother." Tyler admitted.

"What?" Caroline questioned.

"We're together all the time, it's not a leap." Tyler defended and Brynley smirked.

"That's crazy." Caroline shook her head.

"Right," Tyler rolled his eyes and looked at Brynley. "How are you?"

"Okay." Brynley shrugged.

"You're literally dying from your soulmate being daggered," Caroline reminded. "As epic as a love story as that sounds, you are not okay."

"Well, I'm just going to pretend that I am." Brynley mumbled and walked away. She looked down at her phone and saw a text from Damon, letting her know he was outside. Brynley looked at her father. "Damon here's, can I go?"

"Yeah, I've got everything covered here," Evan sighed and Brynley grabbed her bag and took off her apron. "Be careful."

-

Brynley, Alaric, and Damon pulled up to a house in Tennessee. Brynley let out a sigh while Damon's phone started ringing but he ignored it.

"Elena?" The fairy guessed and Damon nodded.

"I don't know why you just don't come clean and tell her where we are." Alaric sighed.

"Because Andie said this was a half lead and I don't want to get her hopes up." Damon shrugged.

"How considerate of you." Brynley joked.

"Yeah, well they're all half leads, and I'm your accomplice. What do you want me to say to her, I'm practically living there." Alaric reminded.

"Still sleeping on the couch?" Damon questioned and the three got out of the car.

"You know, I keep waiting for them to kick me out but they don't. I don't know why, it's not like I'm helping or anything." Alaric nodded.

"They're desperate for a parental figure." Brynley informed and Alaric and Damon gave her a look. "What? It's true. It's quiet."

"Yeah. Too quiet." Damon agreed and three walked up to the house, Damon kicking down the door.

The trio walked into the house to see bloody handprints on the wall. They walked into the living room to see the bodies of two women on the couch.

"Ugh. Vampire for sure." Alaric assumed.

"Gross." Brynley gagged.

"Stefan, for sure." Damon concluded.

"How do you know?" Brynley asked as she looked around the living room and saw a wallet sitting on the shelf.

"It's his signature; there's a reason they call him the ripper. Feeds so hard he blacks out and rips them apart, but then when he's done, he feels remorse. It's the damndest thing," Damon explained while Brynley opened the wallet and grabbed the cash, secretly promising herself to donate some it to charity. "He put the bodies back together."

"Back together?" Alaric questioned and one of the heads fell on the ground, Brynley letting out a small scream. "Definitely Stefan."