chapter 17 - shacking about

                                    

                                          

Victoria watched as Damon paced back and forth along the fireplace, struggling to comprehend everything. After last night's revelation, she had dodged an explanation with the excuse of needing sleep, and that there were too many ears in the house, so Damon had let her off. Now, the next morning, as both Rebekah and Stefan were in school for some reason, he wasn't letting her off that easy. So she had no choice but to tell him. He knew bits and pieces over the years, but he hadn't pieced it all together as she had been as vague as possible. Even now, she kept it as vague as she could.
He finally stopped pacing and faced her. "So you're telling me, you were shacking up with that asshole and his family?" 
"Well, we weren't shacking-"
"You lived with the man, for decades! This original vampire, freak of nature hybrid, was your best bud! The guy who tried to kill Elena, who kidnapped Stefan and forced him to turn his humanity off!" Damon was still very bewildered, unable to grasp any of it. 
"Okay when you put it like that, you make me sound bad." 
"You should be!" He realised that made no sense. "I mean, you - whatever." He took as breath as he tried to make sense of it all. "When you first found us, you told us stories about your bestie Bex who took you under her wing in New Orleans, and her amazing family who helped you out. You're telling me you're on about that psycho and his sister?" 
"They weren't psychos when I knew them." She tried to defend meekly. "Just on their way to becoming one."
"Tori. Why the hell didn't we - didn't I know about any of this."
"I told you about it all." She once again weakly defended, knowing she in fact did not. 
"Not about the original family of vampires being your besties, you didn't." He was in a sassy mood.
"Okay, i may have missed out a few minor details," she emphasised it with her fingers, "but back then the originals weren't a problem so I didn't see any point in telling you. Besides I hate the guy now, I haven't spoken to them in decades." She defended herself. She hadn't told them exactly who took her in as she knew they would just worry about her. 
He sighed as if he was stressed out. "Okay, forgetting all that crap, right now they are a problem. We need to get Stefan's humanity back and get rid of Klaus and Rebekah so Elena's safe."
"That's not gonna be easy, Damon. They're the strongest vampires in the world, ones of them is half werewolf. We need a plan." 
"I already have one." He smirked. 
"Does this plan involve killing them or just getting them out of this town?" His face faltered slightly and she stood up. "Damon, we can't kill them, even if we wanted to, and I really don't. I get that they're a problem for you, for us, but I don't want them to die." She emphasised the last part so he understood. As angry as she was at Klaus she didn't want him dead. She didn't think she could live with him dead. Besides, Damon's plan must've involved Rebekah and the other Mikaelsons and she never wanted them to get hurt, especially not for Klaus' actions. They were like family to her too. 
"Tori-" He tried to reason.
"No, Damon. We're not killing them. We're getting Stefans humanity back, and we're protecting Elena. Nobody's dying." She finalised. 






She was at the Mystic Grill with Rebekah, who was talking about how she had enrolled into high school. Tori herself would never want to go back, especially after she'd enrolled previously and gone to college. She'd done it all. But she could understand why Rebekah wanted to as she'd never had the chance due to the dagger in her heart. 
"I still cannot believe Nik just left me." 
"Take this for what it is Rebekah, a great reprieve from your bastard brother." Tori smiled and Rebekah just laughed, agreeing. 
"Well how can I argue with that." And she cheered to that. The two had drank nearly half of the bars supply until Rebekah left, needing to be somewhere else, when Tori saw Elena Gilbert walk in. She narrowed her eyes, assessing the doppelgänger. She looked exactly like Katherine, hence the doppelgänger part. But there was a different aura towards this young girl. Something more innocent and sad. 
As Elena and her blonde friend walked up to the bar, next to her, she decided to introduce herself. "Well, hello there. You must be the famous Elena i've heard all about." Tori was slightly tipsy.
Elena's face faltered for a second, her eyes showing panic and fear before she covered it up. Her blonde friend came to her defence asking, "Who are you?" 
"Victoria Salvatore, pleasure i'm sure. I've heard you're quite taken with my brothers." 
Elena stuttered slightly, eyes widening in realisation, before she spoke ignoring Tori's little comment.  "Uh- It's, nice to meet you. Stefan told me a lot about you. I didn't know you were in town." 
"I only arrived yesterday. Seemed like life was becoming quite eventful over here, figured I didn't wanna miss out on all the fun." She said as she tipped back another shot. Okay, she was definitely above tipsy now. 
"Yeah, it's definitely been very hectic." The blonde one spoke.
Her face scrunched up, Tori asked with another drink halfway to her mouth, "And who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Caroline, Stefans friend. Nice to meet you." She held out her hand which Tori just ignored, downing her drink. Caroline seemed to get the hint as she just lowered her hand, before starting to step back.. "Uh, I'll go get us some food Elena." 
Once she left Tori just stared at Elena. This is the girl. The doppelgänger of the one who broke both her brothers' hearts, tore her family apart. The girl who was repeating history, getting entangled with both her brothers. The girl who her brothers were willing to sacrifice everything for, who they had called Tori back to protect. She had yet to decide if she was worth it. 
Elena was clearly slightly weirded out by her staring but didn't say anything. Probably not to make a bad impression on her boyfriend's sister. 
She tucked her hair behind her ear having nothing to do and feeling awkward. Compared to Katherine, Tori could see that she had good intentions. She wasn't evil or playing a game. Maybe she was wrong considering she'd only just met her, but she'd always had very strong instincts about these kind of things, and they'd only sharpened in the past century. 
"You're not like Katherine." Was all she said. 
She could tell Elena was slightly confused about where this was going, but she blew out a breath. "No, I am not." She emphasised the words like she didn't even want to be compared to her. 
"Good." Victoria nodded. She went back to downing her drink. Then stood up and patted Elenas shoulder, "Damon called me here because he wanted my help with Stefan, but also for you. Stefan and Damon are my world, and they both love you, even if one doesn't want to admit it. So that means that I'm part of the keep Elena alive team, because I don't wanna see them hurt. Please be worth it Elena." Then she strutted out, leaving a tip on the counter of the bar and a frozen Elena behind. 





A.N
ok this chapter is short but it's sort of a filler chapter. She needs to be introduced to the town and the characters and stuff before helping in the plot and reuniting with her bae