CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Paul's arms are wrapped around Jay as they sit in the library of the Salvatore Boarding House staring at the low flames in the fireplace. The Quileute boy sighs in relief when Damon turns off the music that Lexi's been dancing to in the living room.

"I think Ric and Jeremy are enjoying those bacon cheeseburgers a little too much." Marie says as she walks into the room where they are. "They're making sounds that I never wanted to hear come out of anyone in your family. Oh, and I brought you one." She holds it out toward Jay.

The little brunette scrunches her nose as she turns her head and buries her face in Paul's bicep — she's sensitive to smells today, so she's now holding her breath. Marie takes the food back out of the room, and Jay closes her eyes as she then turns her head so that she's facing the other way now. Paul takes a deep breath as he rests his cheek against her forehead.

The next person to walk in is Lexi. "I was told that you're putting off decision making, which you know will result in a permanent consequence." The blonde ghost-vampire says as she walks over and sits on the table in front of them. "You need to talk about this."

Jay sighs as she looks at her. "What's there to talk about? I don't wanna be a vampire, but I don't wanna die either. There is no third option, so here I wallow." She says, and Lexi nods.

"Mhm." She sighs. "But you still have to choose...and I know something Damon hasn't gotten the chance to tell you yet." She whispers. "He knows you'll have other plans for it, and he doesn't want it to sway your answer. I, however, believe in having all of the information before a decision is made, so... Rebekah's still a vampire, and Silas stole the cure from her. Then, after Bonnie turned Silas to stone last night, Ric found the cure on the immortal hunk of rock." She tells her.

"Damon has the cure?" Jay sits up, and Paul's arms fall to his sides. "Then we can make Elena take it when we find her, and she'll have her humanity back."

"And that's exactly why Damon didn't want to tell you yet." Stefan says as he walks into the room. "He wants you to turn so that you can take it and be human again."

Jay gets to her feet and turns to look at him. "No. I can't be human again knowing that my sister's out there somewhere, emotionless, doing God only knows what." She argues.

"And she won't want to be human knowing that you gave up your only chance to live a normal life." He argues. "Especially after she learns about...this." He motions between her and Paul.

"Elena turned off her humanity and left me alone. She doesn't get a say anymore, she can live with the decisions that I make." The little brunette tells him. "And I choose to find her and bring back the girl who sacrificed herself so that the rest of us could live. I want the sister that I grew up with back, not the monster that living in this God forsaken town has turned her into."

A gunshot in the front of the house gets everybody's attention, and Paul immediately stands up and moves to Jay's side. Stefan tells them to stay put and then he disappears from the room.

"Oh my God!" Bella yells, and Jay runs from the library with Paul right behind her. They stop in the living room when they see Stefan drop someone's heart onto the carpet.

"What the hell is wrong with this town?" Jake questions, keeping Bella behind him.

"Uh..." Jay glances at him, and then looks between the Salvatore brothers. "Who the hell was that?" She asks.

"Vaughn." Damon tells her. "He's one of the Brotherhood of the Five. He's also a ghost."

"Oh." She nods.

"Lexi told Jay about the cure." Stefan tells him brother.

"Snitch." The blonde shoots him a dirty look.

"We don't have time for games or prolonged decisions." He says as he looks at the little brunette. "You need to choose what you want to do."

"You say it like it's easy." Jay scoffs. "This... This isn't easy, Stefan. I'm fifteen for Christ's sake!"

"So go get a blood bag from downstairs, turn, and then take the damn cure." Damon says as he walks over to her.

"And then do what about that?" She points at the dead-twice-over Hunter on the floor. "I don't think he just popped in to say hello. Something tells me that he's still interested in fulfilling his supernatural destiny to kill a certain pain in the ass immortal."

"So I'll leave him in another well." He argues as he steps forward, and then he flinches.

Her dark eyes narrow as she looks at him. "What was that?" She questions.

"My irritation with the stubborn, pigheadedness that runs in your family."

"Mhm." She nods, and then reaches for the top of his shirt.

Damon grabs her hand and she brings up her other arm and elbows him in the face, causing him to stumble back. She slams her knee into the side of his leg, forcing him down, and then she pulls on the neckline of his shirt to reveal a bullet wound in his shoulder.

"I hate that Ric taught you that." He grumbles as she looks at the red hole in his flesh.

"Your friend here shot you?" She asks, and he nods. "With a bullet laced with werewolf venom?"

"It would appear that way. Hunters are dicks." He knocks her hand away, and she nods.

"Okay." She then turns away from him, and he grabs her arm.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"To beg Klaus to heal you."

"Klaus would rather see me die." He reminds her.

She shrugs. "Well, if he won't, then I guess you'll just have to take the cure. If you're human, then the werewolf venom won't affect you."

"And here I thought you were worried about the Hunters' motives in Mystic Falls."

"After everything that I've lost, Damon, you are going to keep your promise." She says, and his expression softens as he looks down at her. "Even if I have to make you."

—

Jay knocks on the door to Klaus' mansion, and it opens soon after. "The littlest in the Gilbert family. What an unexpected surprise." He says as he looks from her to Paul and Marie. "What are you doing here, and who are your friends?"

"Ghost-witch and wolf-shapeshifter. And we're wondering where exactly your hospitality is. The sun is hurting my eyes, you mind if we come inside?" She asks, and he looks at the sunglasses that she has on.

"By all means." He steps aside, and the three of them walk into the entryway. "What can I do for you?"

"I need you to heal Damon." She says as he closes the door behind them, and he raises his eyebrows. "He was shot with a wooden bullet that was laced with werewolf venom."

"And why should I heal him?"

"Because nearly everyone that I've lost has been at the hands of someone in your family, so I'm asking you to save someone for a change."

"Everyone?" He chuckles. "I think that's a little dramatic, love."

"Before you came to Mystic Falls, you compelled a vampire named Isobel to trick Katherine so that you could kidnap her, then Isobel was compelled to take off her daylight necklace so that she'd burn to death in the sun — she was my biological mother, and I watched her die. Then you got here and you kidnapped Caroline and Tyler so that you could kill them, but Marie and I saved them. She was killed by one of the witches working for you — I watched my best friend die." She looks at Marie, who sighs. "You then kidnapped my adoptive mother and turned her into a vampire so that you could sacrifice her and Elena, and I was in the woods that night; I saw you kill them. After Isobel and my mother died, I lost any and all chance of ever finding my biological father...

"In order for Elena to come back after you sacrificed her, her biological father had Bonnie cast a spell that allowed him to trade his life for hers. After she woke up, he collapsed while he and I were talking, and he died. Then you took Stefan and you compelled him to flip his switch — I trust you remember what a dick he was to everyone, including me and my siblings... And your insane mother turned Ric into a monster, and I lost the only father-figure that I'd ever had. And let's not forget how you used Tyler and your hybrids to go after Jeremy to try and kill him, but they killed Ric instead and then continued to terrorize us. Then Rebekah ran Elena and Matt off of Wickery Bridge, and my sister died. She came back in transition, and is now an emotionless vampire because you had Stefan turn my brother into a Hunter, which put him on that island in Nova Scotia. Rebekah used him to wake Silas and now Jeremy is dead, and I have no family left.

"And then, last night, Kol made us flip our car. After beating the crap out of me, he snapped my neck. So now I'm in transition, and I'm asking— No, I am begging you, Klaus... Please, do not let another person that I love, and that I consider family die on me." She says as she looks up into his eyes. "You keep saying that you're not a total monster. Prove it. Save him for me. Please."

"Well, how could I not after that moving speech?" Klaus says. "Where is he?"

"Probably not where I left him." She shakes her head. "The veil's down, and Mystic Falls is crawling with ghosts. The Hunters that want to kill Silas are terrorizing the town. Connor blew up the grill again, and Vaughn was threatening Damon this afternoon."

"Then I guess I'd better find him, and you'd better find a human to snack on."

"Shut up, you hybrid dick." She mutters as she starts for the door, and he chuckles at her comment.

—

Ric runs down to the basement of the Boarding House when he hears Jay screaming out in pain, and he finds her on the floor with a blood bag in front of her. He quickly moves it to the side as he kneels down next to her; she's got her hand over her mouth as she continues to groan. Her fangs are coming in, and it hurts as they push their way through her gums for the first time.

"Hey, kid..." He rubs her back, trying to comfort her. "Why are you down here all alone?"

"I had to slip away from Paul. He hasn't left my side since I woke up this morning, but I didn't want to turn in front of him." The little brunette tells him, and he sighs as she sits back to lean against the cooler that she pulled the blood bag from.

"You were always going to turn. You haven't been putting off making a decision." He realizes, and she shakes her head. "Why didn't you just tell him what you wanted?"

"Honestly?" She sighs, almost ashamed to admit this. "What if he sees me as a vampire, and the imprint bond is gone? What if he ends up imprinting on someone else now?"

"I don't think soulmates can be traded just because life gets tough."

"This isn't just tough, Ric... I'm dead."

"You're still you, Jay." He says as he scoots closer to her. "It's not like when I turned. You still have everything that made you who you are. You're just more you now. What's not to love about that?"

"The part where I have to drink blood to survive now." She wipes a tear from her cheek. "Ric, he hates all vampires. I mean, you should've seen how angry he was when I told him that I was friends with vampires. Now I am one..." She shakes her head, and he reaches out and takes her hand in his.

"I did see." He tells her. "And then I saw how angry he was with himself for upsetting you. And I saw him while you were crying after Damon told you about Jeremy and Elena. He cares more about you than he does most anything."

"Yeah, because he imprinted." Jay argues. "How many times did he tell me that he didn't want to feel what he feels for me?"

"You'll work through it." He says. "All relationships take work...and communication."

"You should listen to him." They both look up when they hear a voice that neither of them expected to ever hear again. "He was always better at relationships than I was." Isobel says.

"What are you..." Jay's eyebrows furrow as she looks at the raven-haired woman.

"Being dead, there's no humanity switch. Just a lot of watching how my mistakes have shaped far too much of your life. I wanted to try and fix one, and I would've been here sooner, but I wanted to find him first. I can tell you your father's name, if you want to find him yourself." She offers.

"I-I..." She shakes her head as she looks down, not knowing what she wants to do.

"Or I can tell Damon, and you can decide later." Isobel says. "You can have more time to choose what you want to do, but at least this way you'll always have the option."

"You told me once that I should hope I never meet him." The teenager says as she looks back up at her, tears in her dark brown eyes.

"I know, but as you've said a few times, I was a bitch." She sighs. "It's your choice, Jay. Do you want me to tell Damon?"

"Yes." She nods. "I want the option, even if I never do anything with it."

"You should say goodbye to Jeremy before Bonnie puts the veil back up." Ric says as he stands, and then holds his hand out to Jay. "And then you should probably ask her to make you a daylight ring." He adds, and she nods as he then helps her to his feet.

"I never imagined you two as family." Isobel says as she looks between the two of them. "But I can see it now. You would've been a great father."

"He is a good father, even dead. Too bad you were never half the parent that his ghost is." Jay walks past the ghost of her vampire birth mother.