[  well, I failed the last class I need to graduate and have to take it over the summer, so, I am, in fact, not graduating college this Saturday. and I'm really sad and this chapter is boring so sorry about that  ]

☽︎

WATCH OVER ELENA.

Damon was dying of a werewolf bite, not that Clementine gave a damn. In fact, she was kind of hoping that she'd meddled enough to where Stefan wouldn't find out the cure for said bite. It's what Damon deserved for his foul treatment of Caroline and Andie.

Rather than worry about the vampire, she was trying to contact a much more important one.

Enzo.

"Hey, Baby Girl," Clementine said, leaving a message. Little did she know he'd destroyed his phone the second Damon tried to call him the first time. "Look, I'm alive. It's hard to explain. But I miss you. I can't imagine how you must be feeling, but just come back home and I'll be there for you no matter what, okay?"

Then she hung up with a sigh, looking at her phone.

"No response?" Bonnie asked, with a frown. She was sitting on the grass with Clem, both waiting on the others for the screening of Gone With the Wind.

"Nope," she mumbled. "I'm worried about him. He's the type to go on a murder rampage when he's upset enough."

"And killing you is enough to make him slaughter a whole town," Bonnie surmised, knowing how much Enzo cared for Clem. "He'll come back home eventually."

"I hope so," she said before brightening up, seeing Jeremy, Elena, and Jenna walking over. Jeremy seemed to be complaining.

"You brought me to see a girl movie," he groaned.

"We had to get out of the house, Jer. This is our three-hour distraction from the fact that I died," Elena insisted while setting out a blanket to sit on. "And Clem loves this movie."

"It's so romantic, Remy," Clem gushed, unknowingly convincing him instantly to stay.

Caroline was a few steps behind them, a basket in her arms. "Hey! There you guys are. Who's hungry?"

"I know I am," Bonnie said, already reaching for a snack.

Jeremy met Clem's eye and shook his head. "Are we really doing this?"

"Yes, we are really doing this. We are going to take a page from Scarlett. We made it through the war," Caroline said, sounding determined. "I know you guys went through hell, and my mom knows I am a vampire, so basically it's like Atlanta has burned. And yet, in spite of everything, we persevere."

"All right," Jeremy gave in, taking a seat next to Clem on the blanket. "What are we eating?

"Something good."

☽

︎

The movie had barely started when Stefan came across them, taking Elena to the side to tell her about Damon being bitten. And of course, Caroline used her super hearing to eavesdrop, so she told the others what was happening.

It sort of made it hard to focus on the movie. And it didn't help that Caroline kept interrupting to talk.

"All this waiting around for news is ruining Scarlett for me," Caroline whispered.

"You not shutting the fuck up is ruining it for me," Jenna said in a playfully mean tone.

Then Jeremy's phone rang, which he quickly answered. Since Clem was leaning her head on his shoulder, she could overhear the conversation.

"Alaric. Hey."

"Tell me you're with Elena and Jenna," he said, sounding worried.

"She went to go see Damon," he explained. "I thought that's where you were?"

"No, he just escaped. I think he's looking for her, and the cops are after him. Listen, he's in bad shape, Jeremy, so if you find her, get her somewhere safe, okay? I'm on my way."

Jeremy sighed as Alaric hung up and quickly explained to the others what was happening in a hushed tone. Bonnie looked at her boyfriend — were they still dating? Things had been tense between them. Nevertheless, she had a frown on her face.

"If Damon is off the rails, there is nothing you can do to stop him," Bonnie said, seeing the determined look in Jeremy's eyes. "Let us take care of it."

"You keep doing this," he snapped. "You left me behind before, and guess what? Elena and Clem still died. Now I'm going to find my sister. You go ahead and you try to stop me."

Jeremy stormed off, and a second later, Clem went after him, promising Bonnie to look after him. They walked around the square, keeping an eye out, only to soon find Damon stumbling around, coughing up blood as he looked around, completely out of it.

"Damon!" Jeremy exclaimed, rushing to him.

But Damon hardly seemed to care he was there. "Where's Elena? I need to see Elena now," he insisted.

"Okay. Let's get you out of here first, all right?"

Damon stumbled and put his arms around Jeremy and Clem's shoulders, both helping hold him up. They walked away from the large crowd outside and headed to the closest place — the Grill, which was nearly empty given the movie night.

As Clem helped Damon into a chair, Jeremy pulled out his phone to call Bonnie and Caroline, letting them know where they were.

"Hey, it's me. I'm with Damon and Clemmy at The Grill—"

Both Damon and Clem heard the door open, spotting Liz with her gun raised. It was then that Clementine remembered what happened in this scene. Jeremy got shot. So, she quickly ran in front of him just as Damon vamp sped away while Liz took the shot.

A burning pain tore through Clem's shoulder, and it was all for nothing as the bullet soared right through her and into Jeremy's chest, who'd been right behind her. Jeremy dropped his phone, looking at a horrified Liz before dropping to the floor.

Despite her pain, Clementine crouched beside Jeremy and put pressure on his wound as Liz joined them.

"C'mon, Remy," she muttered, tears welling in her eyes. Even though it had already happened, that was before when he was just a character on a screen. Not someone she cared about.

"Oh, God. Oh, God," Liz muttered, freaking out a little bit. "I've got a gunshot victim at The Grill. Get the paramedics here."

Jeremy coughed weakly, his eyes falling on Clementine. "You're gonna be fine. It's gonna be okay," she whispered as his eyes fell shut.

Bonnie and Caroline finally made it to the Grill and ran over, horrified by the sight.

"Jeremy!" Bonnie yelled.

"Mom. Mom, what did you do?" Caroline asked her with wide eyes.

"I was aiming for Damon."

"He still has his ring," Caroline said with a relieved sigh.

Clem shook her head. "Liz is human. The ring won't work on him this time. Caroline—"

"I got it," Caroline said, biting her wrist and holding it to Jeremy's mouth. "Come on, Jeremy. Just drink. Go on, Jeremy. Drink."

"What are you doing?" Liz asked in confusion.

"I'm helping him. Jeremy, drink," Caroline begged. "Please. Please. Please."

But Jeremy remained motionless, the blood resting on his lips. He was already dead, and Clementine's heart felt like it was seizing up.

"Bonnie," Alaric shouted, running inside, "what's going on?" Then he saw Jeremy. "Oh, my God."

Bonnie tried to keep her emotions in check. "I know what I need to do. I need you to grab him. T - take him with us.

Liz shook her head. "No, no, no, no. You can't move him. This is a crime scene—"

"Mom, you let them go," Caroline said sharply.

Alaric grabbed Jeremy from Clementine, who wiped the tears from her face, not aware she was smearing Jeremy's blood on her skin. "All right, come here, buddy. I got you. I got you."

Alaric got Jeremy all the way to Bonnie's car, and then he, Bonnie, and Clem went to the witchy house. Bonnie acted quickly, instructing Alaric to lay Jeremy on the floor.

"Is this even possible?" Alaric asked warily. Jeremy was as dead as Clem had been after her neck being snapped.

"There's a spell for it if they'll give me the power to use it," she said.

Clem held her breath and hung back, watching as Bonnie cast the spell. The candles around the room burned brightly, the flames leaping higher and higher as the spell went on. And she could hear voices echoing around them.

"No," Bonnie suddenly said.

"What? What is it?" Alaric asked.

"They're angry at me for coming back here. They don't wanna help."

"Well, they have to!" Clem cried, not ready to lose Jeremy.

"They said there'll be consequences," she muttered, her eyes shut.

"Well, he's just a kid. Tell 'em to shut up!" Alaric ordered.

Bonnie nodded and continued the spell. The whole building shook as blood gushed from her nose. The voices were so loud that it was almost deafening as Bonnie began to cry.

"Emily. Emily! I know you're there. Please help me. I love him!" Bonnie pleaded when her magic wasn't enough.

Suddenly, the voices stopped and the candles went out. Bonnie shouted in defeat, but Clem crawled closer to Jeremy.

"Remy?" she asked, seeing his eyelashes fluttering.

Bonnie gasped and came to Jeremy's other side. "Oh my god."

"Clemmy?" Jeremy asked weakly. "Bonnie? What happened?"

"Doesn't matter," Bonnie said breathlessly. "You're okay. You're okay." Then she raised her head to the spirits. "Thank you."

Clem moved backward as Bonnie doted over Jeremy. Something in her stomach twisted at the sight, recalling Bonnie's declaration of love. But she had no right to feel so bitter about it, so she pushed that feeling to the back of her mind, just thankful that Jeremy was alive.

☽︎

Yet again, Clementine found herself in Jeremy's bedroom. He was messing around on his computer, looking up things on resurrections while Clem was flipping through one of his Spider-Man comic books. Her shoulder had an ice pack on it — she didn't want to risk drinking vampire blood and dying with it in her system.

"Hey, Clemmy?" Jeremy suddenly asked. She instantly looked up at him. "I feel... different. Weird."

"Yeah, you were dead," Clem said softly. "It'd be weird if you felt normal. I felt weird both times."

He sighed and nodded. "Clemmy, I know that, well, it didn't really work — you shielding me and stuff — but I don't know how to thank you. That was so brave of you."

"Remy, you can thank me tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that," she said teasingly before shutting the comic book. "Now, I'm getting some ice cream. Ice cream is scientifically proven to help heal gunshot wounds."

She smiled at Jeremy before rolling off the bed, passing Alaric in the hallway as she left his room. Alaric, finished with spending time with Jenna, poked his head in the room, checking up on the recently deceased boy.

"Hey, bud. I'm gonna take off. Need anything?" he asked.

"Uh, no, no. I think I'm good," he said. "Surprised you're not crashing here with Jenna."

"I think she wants to just decompress," he told him. "I'll see you."

"Alaric," Jeremy stopped him, "um, thank you for everything."

"Ah, you can thank me tomorrow," he said before smirking. "And the day after that, and the day after that—"

Jeremy scoffed and threw a pillow at Alaric, who dodged it. "Dude, come on! I knew you were listening."

Alaric snickered and backed away. "And the day after that."

☽︎

Clementine was surprised when her phone rang with a call from Stefan, who, if her calculations were right, was already with Klaus and on the road. But she answered nonetheless.

"Hey, Steffy," she greeted, unaware that Klaus was listening in. "Where are you? Katherine got the cure to your brother."

Stefan seemed to sigh in relief at the confirmation. "Good. That's good," he said. "And, um, I'm with Klaus. That was the price for the cure."

Clementine looked down sadly, hating that Stefan was going to lose all of his progress just to keep Klaus amused. "I'm sorry, Stefan," she whispered.

"Just, uh, I just needed to ask you something."

"Anything," she promised.

"Watch over Elena," he requested.

"Of course," she said without hesitation.

"Be there for her in the way that I can't. You know, she needs you — she loves you."

"I know," Clem said softly.

"No," Stefan said, his voice strained. "She loves you, Clem."

"I love her too, Steffy," she said cluelessly. "I'll watch over her until you come back."

Stefan sighed and shook his head, deciding not to dwell on it. Besides, it was Elena's business, not his. "Thought I'd let you know he daggered Elijah."

"I know that too," she admitted. "Seer, remember?"

"Of course," Stefan said as Klaus rolled his eyes. "Any last words of warning before this trip of ours?"

"Is Klaus there?"

After a second, she heard, "Hello, love. Interesting to learn you're not dead for a second time."

"Don't trust Gloria when you see her," was all Clementine said. "And the thing your sister lost? Katherine's gonna steal it."

"Are you always this cryptic?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Elijah said you were quite straightforward with him and all of his questions."

"Well, Elijah didn't compel my bo — my friend to snap my neck," she said flatly, still bitter that Enzo was missing. "You're lucky I like you or I wouldn't have told you that."

"And why do you like me, love? I'm a monster," he muttered.

"I know things, Klaus," she said softly. "And you aren't the worst monster out there. Trust me. I'll see you when you get back to town."

"Any idea where to start for my werewolf hunt?"

"Try Tennessee."

Then she hung up and looked back up at the stars on Jermey's ceiling. He was so tired that he hadn't even stirred when she took the call.

"Oh, shit," she muttered. "Should've told him about his dad."