Book One: Panacea (A. Saltzman)

Chapter Ten

Diana stands at her locker changing over her books, that whole history class was awkward, there was a reason she wanted out, just being in his class and listening to Alaric talking was distracting enough, but knowing how his hands feel on her, his lips....she couldn't concentrate, couldn't stop thinking about him. Bonnie approaches Diana, her books clutched to her chest.

"Can we talk?" Bonnie asks Diana, she takes a breath and nods before turning to Bonnie. She figured this was coming too.

"Sure" Diana assures her. Bonnie nods and gives her a small smile.

"What are you?" Bonnie asks her, blurts out really. Bonnie cringes at the lack of tact. Diana frowns. "I get this feeling from you, always have, I just thought it was cause you've always been a little weird" Diana smirks a little and nods. "And now, after the other night, there are these flashes...." Bonnie motions to her head.

"It's okay" Diana assures her. "Here" She holds out her hand to Bonnie who looks between that and Diana's face. "It helps, right?" Diana asks her. "When you're reading people, it's easier if you touch them" Bonnie seems surprised but nods in agreement before she then takes Diana's hand in hers. Diana is careful what she lets Bonnie see from her, certain things she wants to keep to herself, specifically her stuff with Alaric. But the powers. Her time in Greece. Her time with Artemis and her hunters. She lets Bonnie see all of it.

"Oh" Bonnie whispers and pulls her hand back. "You're....wow" Diana nods.

"Yeah, so I get what you're going through, Bonnie, that awakening of powers inside of you, I went through it, so if you need to talk to anyone, someone that's not going to judge or cringe or...whatever" Bonnie smiles and softens, grateful. She's been so alone in this. No one but her grandmother understands but Diana does.

"Thank you" Bonnie tells her. "What about Elena? Does she know?" Diana shakes her head.

"And you can't tell her" Diana offers. "Not yet..." Bonnie nods a little. "I just need some time to deal with everything else going on before I sit down and admit this to someone else. I've never actually told anyone that didn't already know...." Bonnie touches her arm and nods.

.............

Jeremy is sitting on the couch in the Gilbert house, sketching in his notebook. The front door opens and Diana walks in, setting her keys in the bowl on the side before she notices Jeremy, he looks up and shows her the sketch.

"Hey, what do you think?" Jeremy asks her, Diana pauses and looks at the sketch.

"Creepy." She whispers staring at the sketch of a vampire.

"You were right about those journals" He tells her. "This one" he looks down at the journal open on the coffee table. "Johnathan Gilbert's from the 1800s. He's kind of a freak show." Diana watches him, sadness in her eyes, because she never wanted them to know about all this stuff, and with Elena, that's two for two. She's not doing a very good job at protecting her family from the supernatural. "He wrote about demons and all of these people getting slaughter and..." Diana swallows a little.

"Yeah, he was a writer...short stories, horror stuff." She explains, it's a big fat lie, and she hates that she has to lie. But it is a good lie to tell, to protect him.

"Oh, he wrote fiction? Figured he was just a lunatic or a drunk." Jeremy teases, Diana snorts and nods, she thought the same thing too the first time Grayson showed her the journal. Diana pulls a book out of her bag and holds it out to Jeremy.

"Well, he was a Gilbert, probably a little bit of both." She counters and he takes the book from her. He raises an eyebrow at the author's name. She nods a little. "I have a few on my bookshelf upstairs, if you want to read them" She offers, knowing that there is no way around this.

"Yeah" he tells her. "I would love to read them" he notes the look on her face. "You okay, Di?" he asks her.

"Yeah" she assures him. "I'm just really tired" she backs up and then heads up the stairs.

.....................

Later, at the high school, a career fair is in full swing. Diana wanders through the tables set up, but she already knows what she wants to do so this is all some formality that she didn't need to attend. She has her heart set on writing, it's something she's done since she was a child, something she's always loved doing. That is her future. A future she intends to see through. With no distracting history teachers or her feelings for said teacher. She feels him when he moves to stand at her side. Alaric. His warmth, his presence crawls over her skin like a blanket. A nice one.

"Can we talk?" Alaric whispers, he's standing close to her, too close, his hand hovering next to hers on the table. Wanting to touch but can't. Not here. Too many people. Too many eyes.

"I don't think that's a good idea" she counters.

"Five minutes" he asks of her, she takes a breath and nods. She can give him five minutes. Nothing bad can happen in five minutes. She turns and follows him out of the classroom and through the halls.

............

When the halls empty and fall silent, Alaric brushes his fingers against Diana's before he threads them together. Holding her hand. She subconsciously smiles at the gesture.