When Daphne returns home to Mystic Falls after her final year at Hogwarts, finding it infested with vampires was not what she expected, let alone that her sister is in a relationship with one. Learning to readapt to the muggle world, keeping her mag...
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Daphne pulls a cigarette case from her bag and opens it up. Damon gives her a side-eye, he's not sure he wants that to go on in his car. It'll stink the whole place out. She winds down the window and gives him a look, seemingly knowing exactly what he's thinking. With a click of her fingers, a flame erupts from the tip of her index finger and she uses this to light a cigarette she places between her lips.
"Okay, so Jeremy explained that you and Stefan are like, and I quote, as old as sliced bread" Damon snorts a little. "I assume he was...." She shrugs a little. "I don't know...when was sliced bread invented?"
"Can sliced bread be invented?" Elena offers. "Isn't it just a thing...."
"1928" Damon points out. They both look at him.
"You just knew that off the top of your head?" Daphne teases a little as she sets her cigarette between her lips.
"I'm a fountain of knowledge" He offers and winks at her.
"They're older" Elena offers with a smile. "1800s or something" Daphne hums in acknowledgement and glances out the window. Jeremy threw a lot of information at her when he filled her in. She's still working through it all in her mind. Organising the facts and working out how she actually feels about things. She doesn't want to just pick an emotion without coming at it all from all angles. She needs to analyse everything. To make sure she has the right information and the right mind space.
...........
Daphne sketches away in a sketchpad resting against her knees. Charcoal on her fingers. She's being rather cagey about whatever she is drawing. Neither Elena nor Damon having been allowed to take a peak yet. Damon drums his fingers on the steering wheel, following the beat of the song on the radio.
"I sure hope we find him" Damon starts. "'Cause it would suck if the last memento of Stefan was that crappy old necklace" Damon comments, Elena looks down and then touches her vervain necklace.
"It's an antique, Damon. Like you" Elena counters.
"Oooo" Daphne teases with a smirk. Damon reaches over and opens the glove compartment where he pulls out an old leather journal and holds it out to Elena in the back.
"Read this," He tells her. "Paints a pretty little picture of Stefan's first experience in Chicago"
"It's Stefan's diary. I'm not going to invade his private thoughts" Elena argues.
"You need to be prepared for what you're about to see" Damon counters and gives her a look before looking back at the road. He shakes the journal a little.
"I've seen Stefan in his darkest periods. I can handle it" Elena stops him, pushing at the journal. Damon pulls his hand back and opens it up, resting it on the steering wheel.
"Here's one. March 12, 1922" He starts. Then changes his voice to mock Stefan. "I've blacked out days. I wake up in strangers' blood. In places I don't recognize. With women I don't remember." He gasps and looks at Elena in the rearview mirror. "I'm shocked! Stefan's not a virgin?" Elena reaches over and takes the diary from his hands.
"Eyes on the road, grandma" Elena scolds him. Daphne smirks and chuckles a little.
"Jeez, the sass on you two" Damon comments. "Fine...Back to my game." He looks at Daphne. "Tell me if you see a Florida plate" Daphne hums and goes back to her sketch as Elena opens Stefan's journal. Damon's eyes linger on Daphne as she sticks her tongue out to concentrate on whatever it is that she is drawing.
.......
In an apartment building in Chicago, Elena, Daphne and Damon walk through a corridor heading towards a far apartment. It's disgusting here. Damp. Dark. Decaying. Needs some TLC, a lot of TLC. Daphne pulls her jacket closer to her and peers around, wrinkling her nose.
"Stefan could live anywhere in Chicago and he chose this?" Elena asks, shifting closer to her sister. Sensing that this place might not be the most secure and safe place in the city. Daphne runs her finger over the wainscoting along the wall and then pulls a disgusted face at the dust that comes off of it. She rubs her fingers together to remove it.
"There used to be an all-girls high school around the corner, but it shut down for attendance issues." Damon answers and holds out his hand to them, motioning for them to join him.
"Weird" Daphne counters with a smirk. Damon gives her an amused look.
"If you're trying to scare me into giving up and going back, it's not going to work" Elena argues giving Damon a dirty look. Damon puts his index finger to his lips in a motion to keep quiet.
"Shh," He then moves to take the lock off of the door by force. Daphne stops him with a hand on his arm.
"Before you go ruining a perfectly nice lock" She motions for him to move out of the way. He raises an eyebrow but does as he is told. Daphne pulls out her wand and aims it at the lock. "Alohomora" She casts. The lock clicks as it opens and she gives Damon a very smug look. Damon snorts a little and then pushes open the door.
"Well...Here we are" He offers as the three of them head inside of the apartment. It is just as neglected as the rest of the building. "Stefan's second personality home" Daphne closes the door behind them as Damon and Elena move deeper inside to look around. But it is very clear that Stefan isn't here, in fact, no one has been here in a very long time.
"He obviously hasn't been here in a long time" Daphne points out as she wrinkles her nose.
"Tour is not over yet" Damon counters and goes toward a wall shelf panel next to the refrigerator, puts his hand to the edge of the panel and pulls. The panel swivels open to reveal a dark back room. Damon motions to it, walks inside, and pulls a light cord. The light reveals there's a lot of alcohol on shelves against the back wall.
"Stefan hid his alcohol. What a monster" Elena points out dryly. Damon nods for her to try again as Daphne shifts closer to them. Elena sighs a little but does lean closer.
"Look harder" She gets closer and sees a list of names.
"It's a list of names" She points out.
"Mm-hmm" Damon agrees and waits for the shoe to drop. Daphne gets it. It's a victim list. A way to recognise what he's done. The number of lives he's taken. The people that he's hurt. It's a psychological way of working through something like that. Elena lets out a breath.
"These are all of his victims" She realises, he hums and nods. Elena stares at the wall of names, processing just how many there are up there. Daphne turns to Damon.
"So...What were you doing in the 1920s? Paving the way for women's liberation? Gatsby-Esque parties? Flapper orgies?" Daphne teases with a smirk.
"I was around" He answers, taking her arms in his hands. "Chicago's a big city. Stefan was a cocky ripper douche. But I could avoid him and still indulge in a few Daisy Buchanans of my own" He wiggles his eyebrows at her, she smirks back at him. The two of them share a look. To find Stefan they need to leave Elena here, alone.
"Where are you two going?" Elena asks them when she notices that they are starting to leave.
"His old stomping ground" Damon answers.
"I'm coming with you" Elena argues and goes to follow them. Daphne turns to her.
"No" She warns. "I need you to stay here....look around, see if you can't find anything that might....tell us where else he could be, can you do that?" Elena glances at Damon and then back at Daphne. She knows what her sister is trying to do. Elena nods a little.
"Okay," Elena whispers. "Because it is you asking" She points out.
"We'll be back when we find him" Damon adds and motions for Daphne. She hums and touches Elena's arm before she leaves with Damon.
