𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙒𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙔 𝙁𝙊𝙐𝙍
ミ★ ( lion and the lamb, act one ) ★彡

Hazel wasn't sure if Damon's plan to lock Stefan up in the Salvatore Boarding House cellar was going to work, but she has to believe it will—because, who will she be if she doesn't have hope? She stayed down in the cellar, outside of Stefan's small cell all weekend, watching him stay unconscious. She even considered if she gave him too much for him to stay like that for so long with no change. Eventually, he began to hallucinate from the lack of blood. It was hard watching him be in that state and she knows she's the one that locked him up, but she knows it's what's best. Stefan was a danger to himself and others, especially when the town's Council was out looking for vampires. He was an easy target. Hazel knows it would be a lot harder to lose him completely than to watch him be in a cell while he detoxed.

Coming up from the cellar for one of the very few times to get water and food, she sees Damon looking at an object that Pearl had given him while she walked past the living room. He had explained that Pearl and Anna had stopped by to extend the olive branch and by way of an apology, Pearl had given him the object, "Did you ever figure out what that is?" She asks him, running a hand through her hair as she packs her bag to go home. Elena had been blowing up her phone ever since the night of the pageant and Hazel had been avoiding explaining what was going on because she just didn't want to have to explain. But, Elena was starting to get dramatic, and even threatened to call Jenna until she came home.

"Nope." Damon answers her and she sighs, "Whatever it is, it doesn't work."

"Pearl didn't say anything else about it?" She asks, grabbing her used pair of jeans to fold them and place them in her bag.

"She thought she was stealing his vampire compass, but that was a pocket watch." He explains and Hazel nods her head, remembering the one, "That Johnathan Gilbert was a crazy scientist." He then thinks out loud of someone who would know, "Have you spoken to your uncle lately?"

"I've been avoiding him, actually." Hazel tells him with a groan, "He just always has given me the creeps. He stares at Elena and I so weirdly." She whines and he stares at her in amusement. She then shrugs, "That, and I've been here most nights, so no, I haven't spoken to him lately."

"So, you'll be here again tonight?" He asks.

Hazel raised her eyebrow, "Is that a problem?"

Damon turns his head to look at her, "Yes. You're a complete nuisance."

Hazel let out a sarcastic laugh as she places her bag over her shoulder, "Ha ha. See you later." She says, walking out the door.

After de-escalating Elena, Hazel was getting things together to get back to Stefan's house. This time, Elena had decided she was coming with. The younger Gilbert called Damon to check in, "What?" He answered.

"Hazel's just grabbing some clothes and then we'll be right over." Elena told him while she looked over at Hazel frantically packing her bag, eager to get back to Stefan, "How is he?"

"Extra broody." Damon tells her, "He won't eat anything—but, don't tell Hazel that. She'll freak."

"He has to eat." Elena says quietly as she walks into another room so Hazel won't hear. She agrees with him and doesn't want to freak Hazel out by the conversation, "What's his favourite kind of, um..."

"His favourite kind of what?" Damon interrupts her.

Elena lets out a sigh of frustration, "Type of animal blood that he prefers?"

"Ew. Gross."

Elena huffs, "Your joking doesn't help."

"Helps me. Now, hurry up. I can't baby-sit all night. I have things to do." Damon tells her.

Elena smiles sarcastically as she replies, "I would say drop dead, but..."

Damon sarcastically laughs, "Stefan likes... puppy blood." He tells her and Elena's face falls in horror, "Little golden retriever puppies with cute, floppy ears. That's his favourite. You can tell Hazel that, too."

Elena then hangs up on Damon, scoffing at him. She closes her closet door and John is standing behind it. She jumps at him, "Sorry."

"Uncle John. I didn't see you there." Elena replies stiffly.

"I thought we could talk. We haven't had a chance to catch up." He says, entering her room.

"Hazel and I were actually just heading out, so..." Elena tried to make a break for the door to avoid the conversation.

"Well, it won't take long." John replies as he picks up the photo frame of the late Gilbert parents to look at it.

Elena lets out a sigh, "What did you want to talk about?"

John puts the frame down and looks at Elena, "Well... I know you two know."

"Know what?" Elena asks innocently.

"It's really silly to keep pretending." He gives her a grin, "What do you think your mother would say if she knew your sister was dating a vampire?"

Elena's face falls to a glare as she retorts, "Which mother?" She raises an eyebrow at John before turning round and leaving to grab Hazel and leave for the Salvatore house.

     When the twins got to the Salvatore home, Hazel went straight down to the cellar to see Stefan. He was in the same position when she left him, and she isn't even sure if he moved. He's awake, at least, only he's staring up at the ceiling.

     "How are you feeling?" She asks him, noticing a recycled plastic water bottle filled with blood was left on the ground beside him, untouched, "Damon says you need to drink that." She says, but he doesn't move beside shaking his head in refusal, "You need it, Stefan. Can't survive without it."

      "I don't want to survive." He mutters, finally looking over at her.

      Hazel's eyes widen in horror at his words. He's suicidal? This can't be happening, "What? Don't say that."

"I'm sorry, Hazel. No more. After what I've done, it has to end." He says, a lone tear falling down his cheek. His voice sounds so weak and tired and Hazel can tell he's close to just giving up, "I just want it over. Now, please leave me alone."

Hazel frowns but obliges and walks upstairs where Elena and Damon were in the living room, "He won't drink. He's starving himself." She tells Damon. She really thought she could help.

"He's just being dramatic. He's not gonna starve himself." Damon assures her. He knows his brother and he's been in this same position before and always bounces back. It's just because he has sweet innocent Hazel as his girlfriend that makes him feel more ashamed—not because of anything she's done, but rather, because he wants to be a good man for her.

"But, why would he say that he is?" Elena asks as Hazel sits down beside her, holding her sister's hand for comfort and placing her head on her shoulder.

"He feels bad about hurting that girl." Damon explains, "It's a very typical Stefan martyr stuff. It will pass."

Hazel looks over at the older Salvatore brother with a sad look on her face, "Will it?" She asks, unsure of his assurances, "Because he seemed to be in a lot of pain."

"Yeah. Well, that will pass, too—once he eats." Damon assures once again.

"I didn't mean physical pain." Hazel corrects.

"I know what you meant." Damon responds before sighing and stands to his feet, "Look, are you two gonna be okay here if I have to run out? I have to go to an errand with the teacher."

Elena raised an eyebrow, "The teacher... Alaric?" She asked, "Are you two friends now?"

"I don't have any friends, Elena."

She seems unsure of his response, and almost offended by it considering the time they've spent together, which makes Hazel wonder how close they had actually gotten behind closed doors, "Right."

Damon then looked at Hazel as he grabbed his leather jacket, "You should, um, you should stay up here. You shouldn't be down there by yourself."

"I'll be fine. He won't hurt me." Hazel insists, "Besides, I have Elena here, too." She says, pointing to her sister, who nodded in agreement.

"Sorry, let me correct myself: you humans shouldn't be down there by yourselves with him." He says, putting his jacket on and Hazel rolls her eyes, "You know... you're very trusting of him, given the circumstances."

"So are you. Otherwise, you wouldn't be leaving." Hazel points out.

"I won't be long." He says, leaving the house.

After a while, Hazel walked back down into the cellar to give it another chance at getting him to snap out of it. She had one last trick up her sleeve that she believed was going to work—maybe it was stupid and reckless, but she's going to blame the adrenaline to save the person she loves. It took Elena a lot of convincing to let her do this, and alone, but she thinks she's the only one that can get through to him. Stefan was sat in a ball on the ground this time, holding his knees up with his arms, "You know, Damon hasn't fed me vervain in a while. I could be at those bars in a flash, and you'd be dead." He says, keeping his head down.

"Yeah, you could... but you won't." She calls his bluff.

Stefan looks up at her, "Please just go away. I don't want you here." He puts his head back down and Hazel reluctantly opens the cell and enters the cellar with him. His eyes widen in alarm, "What are you doing? Get out of here."

"No." Hazel refuses as she closes the door behind her, the two of them now in the cell together:

"You're taking a stupid risk. I could hurt you."

Hazel shrugs, "Then I'm stupid." She says, crouching down to pick up the water bottle and hold it in front of him, "You need to drink this."

"Hazel, get out of here, or you'll regret it." He warns.

"Drink." Hazel orders more forcefully and pushes the water bottle in his face further.

Stefan stands up and knocks the bottle of blood from her hand, his face transforms, "I said get out!" He shouts in her face.

Her heart beat quickens but she knows him well enough now that he's only doing this to scare her—to get her to leave him to wallow in his guilt and shame, no matter how he goes. She stays in her place and says, "No." Stefan's face falls and returns to normal, almost shocked that she refused even though he shouted at her. He backs up and walks to sit on the cot, shaking his head. It should've worked, but they both know he would never do anything to intentionally hurt her. Hazel sits down beside him, "Talk to me, Stefan. Why are you doing this?"

"I'm making the decision I should have made years ago." He tells her, putting his head down.

"What are you talking about?"

He inhales a breath before saying, "You have to feed in order to complete the transition."

She nods her head in understanding, "I know that." She replies, thinking back to Vicki when he told her about the transition process.

He turns her head back to her, "It was a choice I shouldn't have made." He admits, "During the Battle of Willow Creek, after Damon and I were shot and killed and woke up in transition, I went to our father to say goodbye. I wasn't going to complete the transition initially; because I was so devastated that Katherine had been taken away and most likely killed, I didn't want to live without her. In that office, I learned that it was my father that pulled the trigger and killed his own sons." He begins to explain and Hazel's eyes widened that his own father could've done that to them, "We were dead to him the moment we sided with the vampires. We were disgraces to him." He chuckles dryly, "Even though I told him I wasn't going to complete the transition, he attacked me, to try and kill me again himself. But, I didn't know my own strength and pushed him too hard away from me; causing him to accidentally impale himself with a stale. I removed the stake from my father's chest... and when I saw the blood, I couldn't control it. It was like I was in a daze, and all I wanted to do was put the blood on my hands to my mouth. After that, I just wanted more—and I had unintentionally completed my transition."

Hazel hadn't moved as he told his story, "How can you even look at me right now?"

A sympathetic look crossed her face, "You need to be able to talk about these things, Stefan. I need to hear them." She tells him, reaching for his arm, "Come upstairs. We can talk about it more, and we'll keep talking as long as you need."

A small smile crosses his face at her trust and faith in him, "You're so sure I'm ready?"

She's getting to him, he just needs to realise that others are in his corner. Hazel pulls out his daylight ring and places it on the cot next to him, "And when you feel the same way... I'll be upstairs."

Hazel was writing in her journal when Damon returned to the house. He groans, seeing the twins still there, "Ugh. God. You're still here?"

Elena raised an eyebrow. Hazel was stubborn when she put her mind to something, and she really wanted to save Stefan, "Were you expecting anything else?"

"No." Damon replies and picked up Elena's legs and sits down on the couch with a sigh. He places her legs over his lap. Hazel raised an eyebrow at the interaction but stayed silent, writing in her journal about her feelings from what happened in the cellar.

"So, how was the errand?" Elena asks.

"Futile. Although, I think I witnessed the teacher having an existential crisis." Damon says and Elena raised an eyebrow. Damon turns to Hazel, "Has Stefan eaten yet?"

"I thought you didn't care." Hazel pointed out, keeping her head down in her journal.

"Chalk it up to morbid curiosity." Damon shrugged.

"I think he's getting there." Hazel says with a sigh, "But, he's got a lot of guilt that he has to deal with."

"And it probably didn't help that you've spent the last 145 years punishing him for Katherine getting caught." Elena said pointedly.

Damon raised an eyebrow, "This is my fault now?"

"No, it's no one's fault, Damon." Elena backtracked, "I'm just... saying you're not exactly innocent. You've made it your life's mission to make him miserable."

Damon stands to his feet, "Let me ask you a question. In all this important soul-searching and cleansing of the demons of Stefan's past, did you ever manage to get the rest of the story?"

Elena looked at her sister, who put her journal down finally to say, "He said there was more."

Damon scoffed, "Yeah. That's an understatement."

Hazel gets up and goes towards Damon before he can leave the room, "Then tell me, Damon." She asks gently, "Because he's letting himself drown in so much guilt he can't even admit out loud what is causing this."

Damon sighed as he tells the story, going to make himself a drink and sit down if he was going to think back to those times, "On the night we woke up in transition, I was under the impression that Stefan and I were in agreement of dying and not completing the transition. However, he later returned to the quarry with a human girl and he was able to compel her. I soon realised that he had fed and turned, he said he didn't mean to but he was glad he did—our father was dying, and the blood was too strong. He needed it. He had to have it. The bodily response was incredible for him and he felt so powerful. He was trying to convince me to turn with him." He explains, "I didn't want it. There was no world out there without Katherine for me. But, he forced me to feed—he didn't want to be alone." Hazel and Elena's eyes were wide. This was where the guilt was stemming from, "From the moment Stefan had his first taste of human blood, he was a different person. I suppose I should thank him; it's been a hell of a ride."

Hazel shakes her head in realisation as Damon finishes his drink, "Oh, my God. He said he wanted to die. That's why he won't feed. Now I understand why, but..."

Damon shrugs as he pours himself another, "His choice. If he's stupid enough to make it, so be it."

Hazel's eyes narrow onto him as her head snaps to face him, "Don't do that. Okay? Don't pretend like you don't care." She says as she begins to walk downstairs to the cellar to talk to him again, ignoring both Elena and Damon's questions about where she was going. When she gets down there, Stefan is gone but his ring was still on the cot.

Without hesitation, Hazel picks it up and runs out of the cell to the quarry, where she knew in her heart that was where he would be.

Stefan was at the quarry when Hazel approached him, "Stefan..." She called to him and he turned around to face her, "Damon told me the rest of the story. I thought I might find you here."

"I should have died that night, just like I had chosen. I should have let Damon die, too." He says as he closes his eyes weakly. He's pale from not feeding and he's barely holding on.

"But, you didn't." Hazel takes a step forward, "And if you die now, it's not gonna change what happened."

"Every single person that's been hurt... every single life that's been lost, it's because of me."

He's holding so much guilt and he needs to know that he's not the only one. Everyone has guilt about something, "The night that my parents died... Elena and I blew off family night so that we could go to some party." She scowled, "We ended up getting stranded after Elena and Matt had a fight, and they had to come pick us up. That's why we ended up in the car at Wickery Bridge. And that's why they died." She says, "Our actions are what set things in motion. I carry that with me every day because I literally died and came back, but they didn't. I have to live with that."

     He nods before putting his head down, "I made a choice, Hazel. Because of that choice, a lot of people were hurt."

      "You also made a choice to stop; to reject the person that the blood made you." She reminded him, taking another step forward, "You made a choice to be good, Stefan."

      Stefan shakes his head, "No. Please don't do that."

      "That's the person who has put himself in harms way to save me multiple times, even if you got hurt." She keeps going while walking forward.

     "Please. Don't make this all okay." He begs.

     "That's the person who saved my life." She keeps getting closer and closer. She's not backing down.

      "You don't understand, Hazel."

      "Then tell me." She pleads.

      "It hurts me." He confesses, "It hurts me, knowing what I've done, and that pain... that pain is with me all the time. And every day, I think that if I just... if I just give myself over to the blood, I can make that pain stop. It would be that easy, and every day, I fight that. And I am so terrified that one day, I'm not gonna want to fight that anymore, Hazel. And the next time I hurt somebody... it could be you."

      Hazel shakes her head, "There will be no next time. You wouldn't hurt me."

      "You don't know that."

      "Maybe I don't." She shrugs and holds up his daylight ring, "But, what I do know. Is that you can take this, throw it in the quarry, and let the sun rise. Or you could take this ring and put it on and keep fighting." She places the ring in his hand and leans forward to kiss him, before pulling away, "I love you, but it's your choice."

      Hazel then walks away. Hoping that she got through to him. Stefan looks down at the ring and back up to her, "Hazel!" He calls out and she stops walking a small hopeful smile on her face before she hides it and turns around to watch Stefan put on his ring.

     He then runs over to her and grabs her by the face and kisses her passionately. He'll live for her, and he'll continue to fight for her. Always.