Fire On Fire | The Vampire Diaries [1]

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Ashley got inside scrubbing the floor, after a while Caroline joined her in total silent, suddenly the door opened, Elena walked in with Stefan behind her carrying Jeremy's body.

Ashley and Caroline stood up clueless to what's going and clearly didn't see Jeremy's body, "Hey, you're home. We werr trying to clean the burn mark where Kol--" Ashley stopped in her tracks when her eyes landed on Jeremy's body wrapped in a blanket.

Stefan shook his head a little at the sisters before following Elena upstairs, Ashley and Caroline stood immobile in the kitchen, they stared at each other in shock

Caroline was dumping a bucket of water into the sink while Ashley sat at one of the chairs talking to Stefan, "How long has she been like that?"

Stefan sighed, "Ever since we found his body. She hasn't said anything except that she's waiting for him to wake up."

Caroline put the empty bucket on the floor before turning to Stefan, "But he's not going to wake up. She knows that, right?"

Stefan held a finger up to his lips to silence her, he walks over to the sink running the tap, using the noise to cover their conversation, "Look. Deep down, I think she has to, but we're talking about Elena here. She feels grief more powerfully than anyone else. I think her denial is the one thing protecting her from letting it all in."

"But she can't stay like that forever." Ashley commented.

Stefan nodded, "I know, but I don't want to be the one to break her out of it, not until we know that Bonnie is safe, not until we get Damon over here to, you know--"

Caroline continued, "Use the sire bond to convince her that everything is okay?" Stefan nodded but then Elena joined them in the kitchen, "I'm not in denial." She denied.

Stefan turned off the tap turning to the brunette, "I know that he was supernatural, but did you see? His tattoo is gone. The tattoo had the spell that opened Silas' chamber. Maybe it being gone means that he's fulfilled his supernatural destiny. Maybe he's back to normal. It's possible, right?" Elena explained in despair.

"Elena--"Ashley trailed off, "It's possible, Ashley. There's a chance. It may be miniscule, but it's hope and I'm gonna hold on to that hope with everything that I've got because there's no way that m--" She paused for a second before continuing, "There's absolutely no way that my brother is dead." Elena nodded then shook her head, "I'm not in denial." She stated before leaving.

Ashley, Caroline and Stefan shared a look, "I can't believe after all that, the cure is just gone." Ashley said as she stood on the front porch with Stefan.

"Yeah. I mean, talk about denial. In my head, I was thinking there was no way Elena was gonna stay a vampire forever...And now without any family."

Caroline joined the pair, "Well, we can't think about that right now. We need to make plans, lists. We need a funeral or a cover story, or a funeral and a cover story. I should go tell my mom. I guess she'll know what to do."