chapter three ─ disturbing behaviour

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AFTER THEIR TRIP TO TENNESSEE, MORRIGAN KNEW that at least for a little while, she had to return to work as normal. She still had things to learn from Lin and things to teach to their younger reapers. She spent the time collecting souls, writing reports, reading other reports and training.

It was anything but dull work and it was certainly work that she enjoyed. She was sure that she'd never tire of ferrying souls to their afterlife, of taking souls to the place they were meant to spend eternity in. And she got to have a lot of interesting talks with a lot of interesting people doing it, so she was never one to complain.

But after a couple of days, she could no longer ignore the messages from her friends. Not only had Caroline been kidnapped by her father and he'd attempted to condition her into not being able to feed any longer, but a trip to Chicago to rescue Stefan had gone very badly. Damon was worried that Elena was going to break and everyone else was worried about how close the two of them were getting. Not to mention now that her status as a reaper had spread amongst the entire group, everyone had lots of questions.

Exiting her room, Morrigan swung two doors down the hall and knocked on the door before entering. Sitting at the desk with an old looking book in her hands was a girl with long brown hair. She looked up when she heard her enter and gave her a smile.

"What do you say, Diana, wanna crash a Mystic Falls Founder's party with me?"

"Why would we do that?" the girl asked.

"They'll have food, probably some attractive people, and you'll get to get out of the house?" Diana looked like she was considering it so Morrigan continued. "Come on, don't you want to meet the people I've been spending all summer with and telling you about?"

Diana rolled her eyes, but set her book aside. "Fine, if you insist."

"Yes, thank you! Ugh, it would have been so boring without you," she said.

"You're just saying that," Diana argued.

"Of course I am," she agreed.

Diana rolled her eyes again, but stood and crossed to the doorway where Morrigan was standing. Together, the two reapers ventured down to the first floor and then to the front door. After briefly telling Lin where they were going, they stepped out the front door and onto the sidewalk near the Lockwood house where the party was happening. 

Morrigan lead the way as they walked up the long driveway and to the front door. Just inside, they were greeted by Carol Lockwood, who approached Morrigan with a smile.

"Morrigan, hello. I'm glad you could make it. Who'd you bring with you?"

"This is my sister, Diana," she introduced. "I heard that Tyler let you in on our group's little secret."

"Uh, yes, he did," Carol agreed, taking a hesitant, half-step back. "He didn't say what you... that you were something as well."

"Don't worry, I'm not a vampire or werewolf," she said. "We're something else. Not at all dangerous to you or anyone really, unless you're dangerous to us. Where is everyone?"

"In th-the backyard," Carol told them.

"Thank you, Carol," Morrigan said with a nod.

The blonde lead Diana through the house, stopping to pick up a drink for the younger girl before they stepped out into the backyard. Diana's eyes went wide at the large expanse of property and Morrigan laughed in agreement, before spotting Damon and Ric in line for food and started towards them.

"There are like ten bowls of chili here," Morrigan said, sidling up next to Damon.

"And I bet they all taste the exact same," Damon agreed, turning towards her. "Morrigan, who's your friend?"

"This is my sister, Diana, and if you so much as look at her in what I may perceive as even slightly the wrong kind of way, I don't care when you're scheduled to die, I will kill you."

Damon looked away from Diana and to Morrigan. She gave him a winning smile and he looked to Ric, who simply shook his head to say he wasn't going to get involved. 

"I'm gonna let you in on a little secret," Damon said, changing the subject. "Founder's parties are just an excuse for the Council to gather in back rooms and plot against vampires."

"Given their history with vampires, can you blame them?"

Ric paused, something clearly on his mind. "Hey, uh, I think you need to take a beat with Elena."

"Excuse me?" Damon questioned.

"Whatever you two have going on, I think it's a bad idea," Ric continued.

"I don't really think it's your problem, Ric."

"It is my problem. I'm supposed to look after her, and this is me doing that."

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"What I think is you need to take a beat."

"As entertaining as this has been to watch, you can't date a high school girl, Damon. And you shouldn't really give off the impression that you want to, either," she told him.

"That's not what I'm doing," he argued.

"Keep telling yourself that," she said, stealing the beer in his hand as she saw the Sheriff approaching. 

"Damon, the mayor just called for the Council meeting," Sheriff Forbes said from behind Ric.

Damon looked between Morrigan, Ric and the stolen beer in her hand with contempt, before walking off with the Sheriff and leaving them behind. Ric let out a breath as the vampire walked away and he turned to look at Morrigan who took a swig out of her stolen beer.

"Good on you, man," she told him. "You can't let him push you around, especially when it comes to Elena and Jeremy."

"Thanks, Morrigan," he said. 

"No problem, I'm always more than willing to give Damon shit."

"Yeah, you've made that pretty obvious," he agreed.

Morrigan looked around the party, looking for another familiar face when she noticed the younger Gilbert, Jeremy, walking back into the Lockwood house, looking like he was trying not to be seen. With what Morrigan knew about how he had also come back to life with a spell that Bonnie Bennett did to him, this definitely piqued her interest. She was pretty sure that something was going on.

"Diana, why don't you socialize, I'll be right back. Oh and stay away from the alcohol," Morrigan told her.

"I can have a drink if I want one!" she protested.

"You're not of age, yet."

"I am over a hundred years old, I am well of age."

Morrigan narrowed her eyes at Diana, who simply stood her ground. Eventually, she sighed.

"Fine, but don't drink too much, it's all probably spiked with something."

"Yes, Mom," she mocked.

"Don't say that like it's an insult, Diana," Morrigan told her, walking backwards to keep looking at her. "I practically raised you, young lady, I might as well be your mother."

"Whatever," Diana said, rolling her eyes.

Laughing, Morrigan dropped the beer bottle on a table and hurried towards where she saw Jeremy disappear to. When she reached the top of the stairs, she hurried into the house and looked around, spotting a doorway where she'd seen Jeremy turn.

Approaching it, Morrigan could see through the translucent curtains the figure of Jeremy standing with a girl who's back was turned to her. They were holding up their hands together and looking into each other's eyes. First complication? Morrigan had only seen pictures of Bonnie Bennett, but she knew that this was not Bonnie. And Jeremy really shouldn't be looking at anyone other than his girlfriend the way he was looking at this girl. Second complication? She instantly recognized that the girl was a ghost.

Something was definitely going on with Jeremy and it absolutely was not right. Morrigan burst into the room, causing both of them to look towards her. While they were stunned, she took the opportunity to close the door behind her again.

"You've known that I'm a Reaper for how many days now and you never thought to mention that you're seeing ghosts?" she questioned incredulously, hands on her hips.

"You can see her?"

"You can see me?"

"Of course I can!" she exclaimed, voice rising. She took a deep breath and pinched her nose. "My job is literally to take the spirits of the dead across to the afterlife, I can always see ghosts, whether they have unfinished business keeping them here or not."

"Unfinished business?"

"Nope, not going there with you right now." Morrigan turned to the girl. "Who are you?"

"Anna," she said.

"Alright, Anna, you've clearly been having a rough time with your afterlife experience, and for that, I am so sorry. It is a reaper's job to make sure that you let go of anything preventing you from moving on. Someone clearly failed you and I could not apologize for that enough. But you, Jeremy, you don't get any apologies."

"I didn't-"

"First of all, you've got a girlfriend. Your sister's best friend, which is dangerous enough when you're on good terms, it'll be less so if she finds out you're cheating on her with a ghost."

"I'm not che-"

"Zip it, kid," she snapped at Jeremy. "Anna, I'm sorry to have to do this to you, but you need to go. I need to have words with Jeremy."

Anna opened her mouth to protest but she disappeared with a pop and Jeremy's eyes widened in shock.

"What did you do to her?"

"Nothing bad, promise, we just needed to talk in private. Don't give me that offended look, I know a whole lot more about ghosts than you do. How long have you been seeing ghosts?"

Jeremy sighed. "Since after Bonnie brought me back."

"Who have you told?"

"I told Matt."

"No one else? Not even your sister? Why?"

"It... it's been on and off. And I haven't really heard much from them and I definitely don't understand any of it. It was hard enough to explain to Matt what was going on without sounding like I'd totally lost it."

"And even after news of me being a Reaper went around, you still didn't think to come to me, even if you didn't want to tell your sister yet? Jeremy, I'm not an unreasonable person, I've got plenty of secrets myself that I'm not willing to divulge, not even mentioning the ones I probably don't know about myself."

Morrigan crossed to the table and pulled out two chairs, sitting down at one and waiting expectantly for him to sit in the other. It took a moment, but then he did and she gave him a patient look. She'd had to have serious conversations with the younger Reapers she'd help Lin raise and she was pretty sure that she was getting good at it.

"In a life that comes with vampires, werewolves, doppelgangers and more, you don't have to feel like anything you do means you've lost it. Because unless you don't think you're insane, you're probably not insane. And you have an amazing group of family and friends around you. I don't think there's anything you could tell them that would make them believe you're insane. I've only known them for two months and I know that they'll help you through anything. You should know that, too."

"But it's not just random ghosts that I'm seeing, Morrigan," Jeremy said.

"Okay, so who are they, then?"

"They're... they're my ex-girlfriends."

"They?"

"Anna and Vicki... Matt's sister."

"Okay, so that's why you haven't told Bonnie, but even still, the supernatural aside, do you think that encountering your exes is something that wouldn't happen if you were all just normal?"

"Not if they're dead..."

Morrigan laughed. "Darling, no relationship is easy. They take work, that's what makes them worth it. And being able to work through the skeletons in your closets is how you know that a relationship is meant to last."

"I just don't know how to tell them."

"You start at the beginning."

"You know, you're really good at this for someone who works with the dead."

"I've had a hand in raising many children. It's the kind of thing you get good at. Now, we can't hide in here forever, so I'm going to collect my sister and enjoy the party. You can stay here, or you can figure out how to tell Bonnie what's going on."

She stood and walked over to the door, but before she could open it, Jeremy called out to her.

"Morrigan?"

"Yes, Jeremy?"

"Thank you."

"Always happy to help."

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OUTSIDE ON THE EXPANSIVE BACK LAWN of the Lockwood estate, Morrigan was immediately found by Caroline, Bonnie, Elena, Daisy Blumenthal and Ric. And while they pulled her aside to a quieter part of the party where they wouldn't be overheard, the blonde cast a look around and spotted Diana standing near one of the tables with some teenage boy, a light smile on her face along with the flirtatious look. With a smile of her own, she turned away and let herself be pulled by her friends.

"So we have questions," Caroline said.

"Well, that's an opener if I've ever heard one," Morrigan said.

"When we were leaving Tennessee, you said you were a Reaper," Elena interjected. "But you disappeared before we could ask you about it."

"Ah, I see," Morrigan said, casually stretching out on her chair. "You all want a Q&A. Go ahead."

"Do you have a different form? Like my vamp face?" Caroline asked.

"Or how werewolves turn fully into wolves?" Bonnie added.

"No, my face doesn't change or anything like that. I, physically, don't change at all. But the souls that I reap, well, sometimes they perceive me differently."

"What do you mean?" Ric asked.

"Well, think about it for a moment. Just about every culture in the world has some myth or story about the underworld and the Grim Reaper. And they're all slightly different. So, if a soul has a set way of beliefs or a set way that they believe that person who comes for their soul will look like, that's how they will perceive me."

"So... if they believed in God..."

"They might perceive me as an angel, yes. Or a demon, if they were a bad person."

"How many people have you... Is there a word for collecting souls?" Elena asked.

"Yes. Reap or reaped would be correct. Collect would also work but I don't keep them or anything. And we usually don't refer to them as people, but as Souls, given that they've left their body behind."

"How many Souls have you reaped?"

"That's not a number that you remember. I remember my first and I remember some of the more notable, but I don't have the exact number. I know it's kept somewhere, but I don't know it." Morrigan paused. "This is my job, remember. If you work at a restaurant do you remember every meal you serve or every group you seat at a table?"

"Does it affect you? Collecting Souls?" Caroline asked.

"Not all of them. Some of them. My job is to walk a Soul to their afterlife, whatever that may be. I... talk to them, put them at ease. Dying can be traumatic and you can't find peace when in distress. And it's not a short walk. Sometimes the things I learn get to me more than others."

"Have you collected anyone we know?" Daisy asked.

Morrigan looked over at Daisy. The girl was also new to the friend group, just as Morrigan was, but she was younger, the same age as Elena, Caroline and Bonnie. And the girl was also a nymph, a being that Morrigan had encountered very rarely in her years.

"It's hard to say exactly," she finally said. "I do recall collecting someone by the name of Forbes in Mystic Falls in the 30s and a Gilbert in the 1860s."

"1860s!" the girls exclaimed.

"How old are you, Morrigan?" Ric asked.

"Well, I died in 1702 so I think that would make me–"

"You're 308 years old?" Caroline exclaimed.

"Well, that saves me from doing the math."

"Wait," Bonnie said. "You said you died."

"Yes, yes I did."

"Is that how you became a Reaper?"

"Yes," Morrigan explained. "After dying, Lin made me a proposition. I would be reborn as a Reaper and as his apprentice and one day become the Grim Reaper. I was reborn and Lin has raised me ever since."

"Who's Lin?"

"My boss. The Grim Reaper. He's the one all us regular Reapers report to."

"If you were reborn how do you know what he asked? Do you remember?" Elena asked.

"No, but I've been with Lin when making the offer to others. Like my sister, Diana. Not my biological sister, of course. But I think of all the Reapers as my brothers and sisters. Many of the younger ones I had a hand in raising myself."

"So you've been a Reaper for three centuries? That would make you older than Stefan and Damon."

"Yes, it would."

"When did you collect your first Soul?"

Morrigan smiled. "I was sixteen. Lin had been teaching me the basics of how it would work and what I would need to know for two years. He gave me an easy one. It was an old woman named Mary Ann. She called me an angel but I knew she saw me as myself. She took my hand and as I walked her across she told me how excited she was to see her husband again and all about her kids and grandkids. I will admit that I did cry. We cried together before I said goodbye to her."

"What is the afterlife like?" Daisy asked. "Is it different for supernatural beings?"

"Yes, actually. Unfortunately, supernatural beings are bound by certain rules that predate me by many centuries. They all go to the same place. Humans, however, it depends on their beliefs. If they don't believe in anything, we are allowed to present them with their options and they can pick where they go."

"How many Reapers are there?"

"Oh that is... that's a hard answer. There are many. Hundreds. I don't even know them all personally. Keep in mind how many people there are on Earth and how many die each day. Each one has to have a Reaper walk them across. Bad things happen to Souls that get lost."

"Like what?"

"Terrible things. But they don't concern you, it's nothing to worry about."

"Can you still contact someone you've reaped after you've... finished the job?"

She looked between the hopeful faces of those she sat in front of, all who had lost people near and dear to them. And she sighed.

"No. My job ends once they walk through the door to their afterlife. My job is to protect them, comfort them, ease them on their way across. Beyond that, I have no power. I'm sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear."

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AS THE NIGHT BEGAN TO COME TO A CLOSE, the sky darkened and most of the guests left, Morrigan sent Diana home while she said her goodbyes. She found Elena and Caroline in a room off the main foyer, talking about Elena's necklace.

After the question and answer session about herself, the gang had informed her about the weirdness surrounding the necklace that Stefan had gifted Elena when they first started dating. It had just been a way to get her protected by vervain at that point, but now that Stefan was gone, it meant a whole lot more to her. And apparently, it was doing some strange stuff.

"Did Stefan tell you where he got the necklace?" Caroline asked.

"No, and I never asked," Elena answered. "Hopefully Bonnie will figure it out."

"Bonnie already left to go research with Jeremy?" Morrigan asked.

"While you were terrifying Lucas," Elena said with a laugh.

"Was that the boy flirting with Diana?"

"Yes."

"Then I stand by it."

The two girls laughed as Ric joined them walking towards the door.

"Please tell me it's time to go," he said.

"Beyond," Elena answered. "Where's Damon?"

"Probably off somewhere doing bad things to good people," Caroline answered, earning her a disapproving look from Elena as they stopped walking. "Consider me the honesty police."

The expression on Caroline's face instantly morphed to one of horror when she looked to her left into the room they'd just barely stopped in front of. Immediately, she removed herself from the line of sight out of that room.

"What's the matter?" Elena asked.

"It's my dad," Caroline whispered.

Knowing she wouldn't recognize the man if she looked, Morrigan didn't. But given the expression on Elena's face when she looked...

"Why would he show up here?" Elena asked quietly.

"I don't know. But I can't-"

"I get it," Elena assured her. "I'll call you later."

Caroline turned and disappeared up the stairs to the second floor of the Lockwood house as Morrigan, Elena and Ric stayed where they were standing.

"Okay, what was that all about?" Ric asked.

"Speaking of doing bad things to good people..." Elena said before gesturing for them to follow her.

They followed Elena outside and just as they were going down the front steps, Damon stepped out of the door behind them.

"Wait, Houston, we have a problem."

"Where have you been?" Elena asked.

"Managing Bill Forbes," Damon answered. "Apparently he's impervious to compulsion."

"Well, that's a first," Morrigan said.

"How?" Ric asked.

"I have no idea. But he threatened to out me. Don't get me started on the irony of that."

"What'd you do to him?" Elena asked. "How do you know compulsion doesn't work?"

"That's not the most important piece of information I mentioned, Elena."

"Well, what does he want?" Ric asked.

"He wants to control the Council. He says it's been compromised."

"It has!"

"He wants to put vervain in the town's water supply."

"Maybe it's not a bad idea," Elena said. "I mean, it will help you keep yourself in control now that Stefan's not here to-"

"To what?" Damon asked, stepping in front of them and sounding offended. "To keep me in check? Make me behave? Should have killed him this morning."

"He's Caroline's dad, Damon."

"Yeah, when I kill him she'll have one more parent than we do," Damon snapped back.

"What the fuck?" Morrigan exclaimed.

"Oh, what, is the Reaper upset about me talking about killing people?"

"I'm upset that you seem to have so little disregard for the people you care about and who care about you. And that you are being so flippant about the trauma of those around you as if it doesn't matter."

"What are you, my therapist?"

"No, but you certainly need one. A good one. Who's on vervain."

Damon made to brush past them and go back to the house, clearly still agitated. Ric stepped in front of him, blocking his path. Damon's upset expression morphed into one of anger.

"You are repeatedly killing my buzz today, Ric. Step aside."

"Yeah, it's not gonna happen," he countered, pushing the vampire back with a hand on his chest.

Morrigan's hand balled up into a fist when she saw the expression on Damon's face. The barely disguised anger covered by a facade of aloofness as he looked down and then back up at Ric.

"Your temporary funeral."

Quicker than Morrigan could react, Damon lashed out and snapped Ric's neck. The man fell to the ground as Elena cried out and turned to Damon.

"What is wrong with you?" she exclaimed.

She didn't know if he was planning to answer or not, but before he could have gotten the chance, Morrigan punched him right across the face. She used his shock to her advantage and punched him again, causing him to stagger back, where she kicked up at him, right where it really hurts, sending him down to his knees. She kicked him once more so he was on his back and pressed the heel of her boot down on his throat.

"You need to get a grip, Damon Salvatore!" she snapped at him. "Your anger is severely misplaced and misguided and if you don't start looking at yourself and reevaluating your behaviour then you will end up alone and lonely because you pushed away all the people that could have cared about you by not giving them the respect and care they deserve. And when the day comes that it is finally time for you to pass on, someone might just let you wander the Earth in pain for the rest of eternity because clearly, that is what you want."

"Morrigan, let him go," Elena said.

"No," she refused, pressing down a little harder on his throat. "I will let him go when I see the realization in his eyes that he is slowly driving everyone away from him and he needs to better himself. I have put up with that behaviour all summer long without doing anything and honestly, it's grown stale."

Anger hardened in Damon's eyes and he snarled at her, gripping her ankle harder and shoving her backwards with more strength than she thought he had at that moment. Morrigan flew back, landing heavily on the grass and groaning as the pain rolled through her.

Sitting up, she saw Damon walking towards the house and was a little surprised by the growl that came out of her. Damon had a way of getting on her nerves as no one else did. And one of these days she was going to beat him to a pulp, she knew it.

Giving herself a moment to stop her head from swimming from the impact, Morrigan pushed herself to her feet to see Elena on the phone with someone. It wasn't a long conversation as by the time that the blonde got over to her, she was already hanging up the phone.

"Caroline is going to go intercept Damon, but I'm going to go, too, just to make sure everything is alright. Will you keep an eye on Ric?" Elena asked her.

"Yeah. But as soon as Damon comes out of there, I'm leaving. If he comes close enough to me right now, I'm going to kill. Whether it's his time or not."

Elena looked shocked for a moment but then sighed and nodded. She hurried back over to the front door as Morrigan sat down again next to Ric's body. With a sigh of her own, she looked over at him.

"We sure do know how to pick our friends, don't we Ricster?"

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an. ahhh it's finally here! Guys you would not believe the trouble I had figuring out this chapter and where Morrigan would be. But thanks to dunbonnet and daniellawrites02 for helping me figure it out and asking me questions for the Q&A! If you guys have more, be sure to leave them and I will do my best to address them! The next chapter will be tomorrow as I have had it finished for ages and trust me, it's a good one. Can't wait for you guys to see it! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!