XI: From A Dream (When You Came Back To Me)

March 15 / 1997

The air was thick with smoke and shadows. The cloying scent of oudh invaded Reese's nostrils. Witches milled about the arena, carrying ritual objects of varying degrees of importance to the center, where Diane Crowley stood, directing orders. The day was on the periphery of plunging into night; the crowd was restless.

For the first time, Reese shared their inhibitions.

The wait was sickening.

With every minute that ticked by, she was tempted to dart out of the stands and into the warmth of her room.

They were expected to play the fascinated spectators for some mundane Raven festival that celebrated the coming of spring and paid gratitude to the tidings of winter. At least in textbook language. In reality, they had been sitting there for the past two hours. And possibly expected to continue sitting there for god knew how much longer.

"Remind me why we're here again?" Reese muttered.

Azzie smirked at her. "Cultural experience, Reese. You need to appreciate the rich tapestry of Raven traditions."

"Considering our penchant for anything dark and ominous, I'd have thought we'd be beyond," she switched the modulation of her voice to imitate Diane's posh, apathetic one, "embracing the illuminating tidings of Spring like a dog with two tails."

Azzie's eyes narrowed. "That's so far off from what she said."

"Whatever. This is reminding me of one of my high school plays."

"The Witch of Edmonton?"

"The Tempest," Reese replied.

Azzie blinked. "Was it really this bad?"

She was met with a vigorous nod. They stared at each other for a second, unable to help the laughs that came out in snorts.

"Hey, shut up," someone hissed in their general direction.

The source of the admonishment was a boy. Or Raven, would be more suitable. He bore a striking resemblance to Azzie, with the same chestnut hair and doe eyes, though his skin was a few shades darker. He was furrowing his face — a poor crack at a scowl — particularly at Azzie.

"Oh, come on Devvy," Azzie grinned, "I can see you freezing your ass off in that ridiculous get-up."

It was true; he did look ridiculous. He was wearing some sort of old-fashioned cloak that came to his feet, knee-high leather boots and a stereotypical witch's hat that added a good two inches to his height. It was like someone had taken him out of Hogwarts and plopped him in Greece.

"It's not ridiculous," he said, but it was clear he was having a hard time convincing himself of that, never mind the two of them. "I have the most important role for tonight if you haven't realized."

"Yeah, have fun being the unsanitary blood bank. I don't think they've sterilized those daggers since the Middle Ages."

"They only started using them in the Middle Ages."

"Exactly."

"Ok, whatever. Blame me for trying to hold on to some optimism."

"Whatever you'll contract from those daggers can't be much worse than the cold you'll have after this," Reese said, deciding this Devvy character was worthy of a few words. Plus, she was certain he was a —

"Ah," his eyes snapped to her. "You must be Reese Yung. Finally. I've heard plenty about you from this one," he gestured to Azzie. "And others."

Reese arched her brows. "I would say 'all good things I hope', but I doubt it."

"Don't worry, we appreciate your violent outbursts in this family." Azzie laid a hand on her shoulder. "This is my cousin, Devin Crowley."

Reese's eyes immediately shot to Diane, making adjustments to a podium that had been set up. "Wait, does that mean—"

"No," Devin objected, catching on, "God, no. I'm her uncle Leo's son."

"How many of you are there?"

"Enough to make you wonder if the Grandma'am's idea of politics was popping out as many babies as humanly possible," he said casually. "Either way, Auntie Diane was never hard-pressed to marry. She's too good at what she does."

Interesting.

Popping out as many babies as humanly possible?

Sure was a foolproof way of making sure there was always a Crowley around to inherit their seats of power. Considering the rest of the bloodlines had died out, save for Reese, the last Yung witch.

"Don't go saying things you'll regret, Devvy," Azzie warned, fingers tightening around Reese.

Devin shrugged. "Sooner or later she'll be a part of this."

It dawned on Reese that she would be outnumbered when it came to coven politics. She had no family to back her, nor any external support to rely on. Azzie might be her friend, but. . .

No.

She threw away those thoughts.

Azzie would always be by her side.

She was sure of it.

A gong sounded. Diane was glaring at them. Devin mumbled a few curses under his breath and shuffled off to fulfil his duties for the night.

"I feel sorry for him," Azzie whispered as they watched him bustle about, eager to please the higher-ups. "His sister turned out to prefer the high fashion world over the coven, so now Uncle Leo's pushed all of his great expectations on Devvy. They're making him specialize in Veilwalking."

Wasn't this introduction scene supposed to play out at the beginning of the movie?

"Veilwalking," Reese repeated, "As in, what, contacting the Other Side?"

"More than contacting. Being in it, pretty much. If you get halfway decent at it, there's a one-way ticket to the council right there. It's tricky, but much better than the rest of the options."

"More dangerous than veilwalking?"

"Shadowmancy, Bloodweaving and the likes. We've had like three bloodweavers in our entire history."

Reese knew she'd have to pick a specialization sooner or later. The last two years of training would entirely be focused on that, but she never paid much heed to it. She had no idea the specialization one picked would be considered if they wanted to get into the council.

But knowing the Ravens, and knowing Diane Crowley, they probably had something planned for her.

They'd basically been playing her since she got here.

But what for? Hadn't Diane loved her father too much for revenge?

"Sounds messy," Reese said, because that was all she had left to offer. "And fictional, if I'm being honest. That's dark magic."

"Fictional because it's that rare," Azzie amended. "You shouldn't be surprised."

"Why?"

"Reese."

Another gong sounded, leaving silence in its wake.

The witches gathered around the podium in a semicircle, watching expectantly as Diane stepped up and started speaking into the microphone. "Your attention please."

As if she even needed to ask.

"My fellow Ravens. We gather tonight to celebrate the arrival of spring and give thanks for the tidings of winter. As winter wanes and spring emerges, we stand at the crossroads of life and death. Winter, a season of decline, when our bonds with our counterparts on the other side weaken.

"But fear not, for tonight, we gather not just to acknowledge the inevitable decay but to celebrate the promise of renewal."

Reese froze.

This sounded like it was leading up to something they hadn't expected.

Whispers broke out everywhere, except for that semi-circle of witches, composed almost entirely of Crowleys.

"The cold may dwindle our connections, but with the advent of spring, we renew our strength and resilience." She paused. "You are but students in the eyes of the coven today; such bright, eager faces. You are to witness a glimpse of what the future holds, should you persevere."

There was only one thing definite about their future if they were to join the Coven.

She turned to Azzie. "You didn't say anything about this being a linking ceremony."

"Well, I didn't know." She frowned. "Auntie Diane made the whole thing sound like a bad breakup or something. The spring fest is supposed to just be a sham to maintain some witch glamor."

So, they were initiating Devlin Crowley to the Council today. He did have the most important role, then. But she knew there was more to it than a simple surprise. This wasn't a regular practice; they didn't create links every year.

Just how many Crowleys occupied the positions of power?

They sat through the whole ordeal, not as grand as it was supposed to be. Maybe they were planning to normalize this and keep grabbing onto power. If they dialed down the importance they could get away with it without anyone staring at them twice. A spring ritual was such a perfect cover for it, too.

Once it was over, Reese remembered to ask Azzie what she'd meant earlier about the bloodweaving.

"You really don't know?" Azzie asked.

Reese sighed. "Clearly."

"Your dad, Reese," she said. "He was the last known bloodweaver."

(Looking back it made her scoff. What was she expecting to rely on, the power of love?)

─────────────

Present Day

Yesterday's miserable failure of a spell reminded Reese of the last time she'd been that incompetent. Caught off-guard by the Crowley family, not for the first time either. Even Azzie couldn't help it with dropping that bomb on her about her dad.

Bloodweaver.

How was she supposed to react to that?

As much as it was uncalled for, it was also entirely useless to her. She had no interest in vampiric magic specializations — it fit her dad almost poetically, with his vampire hunter wife — but Reese was no hunter. She only wanted to survive, which is all she would be doing for the foreseeable future. Thank the higher powers specializations weren't ascriptive. 

She battled the onslaught of that horrific memory lane by climbing out of bed as soon as she woke up.

The farther she ran, those days of wallowing in the past and self-pity grew few and far in between. She had kept busy with menial high school work. Even if that was at its core a way to grasp what she'd lost. At least it had entailed lots of smiling and laughing and weed.

Going back to New Orleans couldn't have been simply a sanative experience, of course. It had to haunt her, stubborn as the Ravens were.

You've got things to do, she told herself. The girl in her bathroom mirror didn't look like she believed that lie. Her pink lips were curled in dissatisfaction and her nose slightly scrunched.

"Whatever," she spat at her reflection. "Stay away from Elena."

(She hadn't decided if it was the Elena problem or the Esther problem yet; it just spurred her on to leave Mystic Falls as soon as possible.)

There was but one hitch in her plans, and he greeted her for the day by delivering non-stop knocks on her door.

"Rise and shine, Dovey," he said, his singsong voice permeating through the door.

She swung it open with a huff. "You do realize it's barely dawn, right?"

"Early bird gets the worm."

"I'm far from a worm."

"Don't flatter yourself."

"What do you want, Damon?"

He smiled at her in his characteristic, unsettling manner; bug-eyed and blue. Was that a vampire thing or a Damon thing? She settled for a 'vampire thing' because it didn't feel nice to give Damon a thing of himself. She didn't do that for a lot of people. And Damon would not be the next exception — the idea felt misplaced.

"Would you believe me if I said I just wanna keep you company while you plot world domination?"

"No," she said flatly.

"Do you want me to say 'please'?"

God, he was extra annoying today. "I'm not in the mood for company, Damon."

He tilted his head, hand resting on the wall outside for either support or flair. "That's your problem. You're never in the mood for company."

"Not for your company," Reese said. "I prefer people who can keep up with me."

At this point, though, with their ever-growing partnership, she was aware that was a straight lie. He could, and he did, which she hated.

"Oh, like Ms Barbie?"

Reese waved her hand irritatedly. "Get to the point, will you?"

"Hey, it's not like I want to be here."

The only reason Damon ever did something he didn't want to do was if Elena asked him to do it.

So there was the answer.

"Whatever. I don't need an Elena-issued therapy session."

"Who said anything about therapy?" Damon smirked in the distinct manner he does when he wants to annoy her and enjoy it. "I was only going to suggest a good old-fashioned witchy traipse through the woods."

"No," Reese frowned. "Don't think I don't know Elena's probably going to be waiting there so she can ask me if I'm doing okay."

"Some people are just nice, Reese."

"I'm not one of them, and neither are you." One thing they could both agree on. "So you understand how irritating nice people are."

"This break-up has made you really cranky," he said, grinning. He used her silence as an urge to continue his poor attack on Reese's supposed love life failures. "Is Original Boyfriend number 1 not coming to comfort you?"

Maybe if he wasn't lying dead in a fancy ditch somewhere. Which Damon knew, of course, but he wouldn't miss out on a chance to antagonize her. Not in a million years.

"Aw, did Reese get dumped?"

Damn the Mikaelsons and her fictional love affairs with them. "At least I don't have to compel lowly news reporters to fuck me."

With that, she slammed the door in his face.

Now, Reese knew she wasn't the most emotionally intelligent person out there.

She hadn't yet processed her parent's death or the part she played in it; she definitely wasn't over her ex-girlfriend or if she ever would be in the foreseeable future; her life before Elijah showed up had been a series of close calls and distractions, both then and here in Mystic Falls; there was absolutely no way the pang in her heart was only another side-effect of her anger at Nik's betrayal; and to top it all off, she had a terrible inkling that Esther had cursed her.

Or something of the like.

Her mechanism had always been never to give herself enough time to think about stuff like this.

But now that summer was here, and the immediate threat of her coven was off her shoulders, time was all she had.

She threw herself on her too-expensive couch and switched on her too-expensive tv and flipped through the channels. She landed on the first reality show and then promptly threw the remote at the kitchen counter. 

Oh, how she loved the open-floor plan.

There was a burning sensation in her throat that made her face twitch.

No, god, no no no no no no no no she was not going to cry because of Damon Salvatore.

She was supposed to be impervious.

She was supposed to be unbreachable.

She was supposed to be cold and calculated and mean and unpredictable and entirely apathetic to the occupants of this miserable vampire-infested town.

But all she could think of was Azzie and her warm hands and her mirthful glimmer and fuck it, she missed Azzie so much and for some reason that propelled her thoughts to Caroline because she was a loser who'd gone and fucked up the only friendship she had worth keeping.

And Elijah.

And stupid Devvy.

And Nik, even after everything he'd done.

And, and, and, and, and —

There was no end to the list of people she missed, was there? How did she end up like this after being so careful about who she let in? She'd dedicated her life to keeping these people alive and she'd ended up estranged from them. Wasn't that just pathetic?

She picked up her phone and stared at the chats between her and 'Elijah'. What she'd give to talk to him right now. She wondered what prissy words of advice he would confer on her: It seems to me, Reese, that you are but encouraging your own misery. Friendship does not entail repeated murder. Or betrayal. Or compulsion.

Fifteen minutes of staring and blurry eyes later, she clicked on the contacts app. Dialled in that number she knew by heart. Hands shaking, she pressed the phone to her ear.

Two rings. And then, "Reese?"

"Hey," she said. Her voice was scratchy. Her throat was constricted. But no, she would not be crying on account of Damon Salvatore's jabs. She was better than that. "Can we meet?"

If she was going to cry, she'd rather it be because of Caroline.

─────────────

"You look awful," was how Caroline greeted her. She was sitting on the bench outside the Grill. The sun bestowed all its glory on her, golden hair shining like a halo around her face. Her skin bore a healthy glow. "For some reason, that doesn't make me feel better."

"Well, I haven't been able to sleep." Reese took the seat beside her, squinting, so she could only just make out Caroline's apprehensive face. "You've stolen my sleep. Congratulations."

"You owe it to me after everything you've done."

"I know. Can I give you an explanation?"

"Of why you look awful?"

She has been hearing that too much lately.

"That. And. . .," she trailed off.

"Go on," Caroline encouraged, shedding her gloomy disposition. "I want to hear you say it."

"Care." A pause. "I'm so sorry."

There. She said it. Why had the pain in her chest not dissipated then?

Caroline smiled, but it seemed forced. This was not anything three words could fix. "I'll accept your apology. But I need more than just this."

"I know," Reese said. "I'll explain everything to you — the truth this time."

She'd prefer not to do it in the open, especially near the Grill. There were too many vampires. But she wasn't going to push Caroline in any way, so she pressed her thumb and her index together and assigned a tiny chunk of her attention to ensuring they weren't overheard.

"I just don't know where to start."

Caroline didn't hiss, shout, throw a fit, or run away. She merely nodded. With those distrusting eyes boring holes into her. They were a thousand times worse than screaming. "From the beginning," she answered. "I want to know about more than just the past seven years."

Well, Reese — here's a testament to your true love.

She started with mom and dad:

Nam Duri, Gemini siphoner, under the influence of the Original witch, had abandoned her coven and started on a reckless journey of vampire hunting and power-crazed Expression magic. Her victims were usually found drained of their magic down to the last dregs. She quickly elevated from a loose cannon to a legitimate threat, and the Geminis discarded centuries of animosity with the Ravens to enlist their help in hunting her.

Then came Harry Yung, the freshly chosen leader of the Ravens, also orphaned at a young age. Nobody had bothered to look into the reason why his family members had been dropping like flies, so he did the best he could by rising through the ranks as swiftly as the wind. He'd been at the forefront of the hunt for Nam Duri. He got pretty close, too — till he fell in love with her.

The Ravens tried to accept her, but a siphon just couldn't fit in. So when the council voted to give her over to the Geminis, he stepped down.

Love did to her parents what it did to everyone — blinded them.

The two of them together abandoned their covens, their pursuits of power, their families, and settled down to live the good, suburban life. Reese found it difficult to see how a creepy mansion in the middle of a forest would help in that, but like mom said, "You can take the witch out of the Ravens, but you can't take the Raven out of the witch."

Life was good. It seemed like they'd gotten their happy ending. Unfortunately, their daughter demanded just as much power as they had at her age.

To be fair, it was easy to cover the part about New Orleans. She'd told the story enough times to free herself of her emotions while reciting it. The Ravens had found her detachment to the story cause for concern.

Caroline, on the other hand, cried with shock when she heard Reese had friends. "You mean, you had witchy friends that convinced you to break rules and. . . party?"

"Don't sound so shocked," Reese said, taken slightly aback. "You're also my friend who tries to get me to break rules and party."

"I know . . . I just didn't think you'd have had more friends."

Wow, how flattering. "Eh, it's not like we've stayed in touch. I'll admit, I resent them. Just a tiny bit."

"In my expert opinion, it wasn't completely your fault."

"Thanks." And she was right. But the burden was still her's to bear. "Anyway, after that, Marcel handed me over to Diane. And I ended up in Mykonos, with the Ravens."

"Magic school, right?"

"Basically." Reese hesitated. "But the most pivotal part wasn't the training, or the soul-crushing guilt, or even the grief. I . . . well, there was this girl." She paused. Not a soul in Mystic Falls knew about Az. "Her name was Azalea. Azzie. She was Diane's niece."

She couldn't believe she was actually doing this.

" . . . my ex-girlfriend," Reese finally confessed. Her voice sounded to her in a whisper, drowned out by the noise of her thoughts. "If you ask me, this whole thing has always just been about me and her. The Ravens are a powerful coven, and the cost of that power is steep. By accident of birth and circumstance, Azzie and I had to pay for it."

She supposed their love was never meant to last. They were forced to give it up.

Caroline's reaction to her story once she delved into everything Crowley and Azalea was nothing short of endearing. She still cared. "So, what I'm getting from this is that Esther is both the cause of our Original problems and responsible for ruining not just yours but also your mother's life?"

Reese shrugged. "It's easy to play the blame game. I've done a lot of questionable things. I still do a lot of questionable things. I don't know — it's just how my life has always been."

Esther made sure of that, but when the Mikaelson brothers dropped into her life, that's when it became the norm.

Either way, she was going to give Caroline enough to keep her satisfied. She touched up on the Viper murders but graciously left out the coven politics (perhaps because she herself was unable to wrap her head around them even now); led their conversation toward Elijah and Klaus and prayed they'd stay far away from the fire.

And it worked to the extent she wanted it to. The moment Reese took Nik's name, Caroline's curiosity peaked and she couldn't help but comment on it.

"Right, so before you try to deny it," Caroline cut her off in the middle of stabbing Elijah in the back, "You do have something going on with Klaus, don't you?"

"No, I don't."

Caroline gave her a pointed look.

"It's the truth," Reese assured. "We've never even kissed."

"It looked like you really wanted to, though."

Heavens, she would really have to indulge this, wouldn't she? How pathetic. Oh, how pathetic. "It's . . . complicated."

"I understand that," Caroline said. She nodded while she spoke, validating her own musings. "You were on the run from your coven, your ex you still had feelings for was being mind-controlled to kill everyone, and two very hot and very old vampires were trying to play ally with you."

She blinked, astounded at the sheer simplicity of it when worded like that. "Sure. I didn't exactly have time to work through why I was attracted to him when Azzie needed my help."

(Still somehow protecting him; trying to convince Elijah to lay off. Though he hadn't needed much protection from the Scooby gang. It's the thought that counts, right?)

"And then you ended up here. How?"

"Nik and I got rid of his mother eventually." Reese nearly died doing it, and he deemed her important enough to save. That decision of his disconcerted her to this day. She was a terrible person for it. "That didn't change that the coven's magic was weaker than ever before. But I just . . . I couldn't deal with it anymore."

"So much for a break."

"What a joke." Three years was a long enough break. "But it was fun while it lasted."

"Yeah, 'cause you met me." Caroline smiled her genuine smile this time — crinkly blue eyes and dimples. "Is Azzie . . ."

"She's alive." Reese gave her a tight smile. "Probably cursing my name."

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

Reese was not too apprehensive of her reaction. She'd given the truth as best as her conscience allowed her to. Caroline wasn't stupid; she knew it wouldn't be pretty. It was tragic at points but Reese wasn't a saint either. And if she was going to continue their fight, she'd have run off by now.

"You should've told me all of this before," Caroline said finally. "I feel like I understand you better. Obviously, you still shouldn't have compelled me — which, by the way, how'd you even manage that?"

"It's just something Elijah helped me learn." A successful mingling of vampire and witch. Hm. Maybe she was interested in vampiric magic. It was a fragile thing, she was sure. "I'm not a pro — it's very difficult to try it with older vampires, even Raven vampires."

"But I was an easy target?"

"No," Reese said too quickly. "There's a lot of factors contributing to it. I mean, you did trust me at some base level, right? That's probably what made it easier."

"Right."

She hesitated, before going for another apology, "Care—"

"Don't," Caroline didn't let her finish. "I don't need to hear you say I'm sorry. If you want me to trust you again, you'll have to earn it."

"I'll do whatever you want," Reese said, and she sounded covetous while saying it.

─────────────

The plan to have a girl's night ended up providing Reese with the perfect opportunity to explore her suspicions regarding the Elena/Esther problem. Not only that — it also made Caroline happy by providing her with the perfect opportunity to give Reese a makeover and help her from the depths of her sleep-deprived, stress-induced huckery. In theory, the situation was a win-win.

In practice, Reese was quite unable to test her speculations. This was because of two reasons:

1) Caroline hogged her the moment she crossed the threshold and entered Forbes territory. She vamped down the stairs, grabbed Reese's arm, and vamped back to her room. She all but ordered Reese to lay down on the bed and then busied herself collecting skin care products from her vanity.

2) Whatever Esther had done to her during their brief time together in the chambre de chasse was strong enough to overpower logic.

Which was the more dire one of the two problems.

They created a strange scene: Reese lying with her back on the bed, fists clenched and body stiff as a board; Caroline hunched over her head, berating her to smoothen out her knitted face akin to a disgruntled scowl; Elena crisscrossed beside them, prattling on about Damon's endless void of faults.

"I just think he should stop acting like nothing's wrong." Elena's voice grated on her nerves; on her bones. "He obviously loves Stefan — which is a good thing — but he doesn't want to acknowledge that. Maybe it's some weird vampire thing."

Caroline pressed her thumb on the space between Reese's neatly plucked brows. She hummed, kissing her teeth. "The old ones always have a thing, I wouldn't be surprised — Reese, can you relax?"

"I am relaxed," Reese gritted out.

"Your fists are literally clenched."

"I need to pee." Blatant lie. And everyone in the room knew it.

Elena and Caroline exchanged a look. They conversed silently for a couple of moments. For better or for worse, Elena opened her mouth. "I didn't mean to offend you, Reese."

"What?" Reese retorted, because she was too busy keeping the flood of magic in check. Her fingers tingled and her back itched to let it out.

"I wasn't thinking before speaking," Elena added.

"She's sorry she called you a psychopath," Caroline explained. She began to massage Reese's temples, which did little to soothe her turmoil. "I wouldn't say it was uncalled for, though."

"Not the first time I've been called it either," Reese said, hoping they'd drop the subject. And the notion of talking at all so she could figure out why she wanted to set the walls on fire every time Elena spoke. "You know what actually relaxes me these days?"

"What?"

"Meditation."

That word rendered them temporarily silent. Reese took in a rattling breath and screwed her eyes shut.

For the first time, the stars and the planets have aligned, for after this disastrous sleepover she would have no choice but to feed her fears and run the fuck away from Mystic Falls. She physically couldn't be around Elena for more than ten minutes. Then the timer buzzed and Esther's cool voice started whispering in her head: stab, burn, punch, push, and every other word that could align with murder in the respective situation.

And maybe she should experiment at least three times, but already the second time was overwhelming. It was taking every ounce of willpower not to pounce on Elena.

No, she couldn't kill Elena.

Not if it was for Esther.

"Okay, maybe you do need to go to the bathroom," Caroline said.

Reese opened her eyes to flickering lights and Care's questioning gaze. "I forgot where it is."

That incited a laugh from Elena. How incredulous. Forgetting where the bathroom was in the house she'd frequented for three years? Was it a poor joke? Or had the toll of the supernatural — in particular Klaus — really been that heavy? Reese's mystery was getting less captivating and more ridiculous. Losing that danger to them.

But it got the message across to the vampire that was supposed to receive it.

Caroline smiled, grasped her arm and led her to the bathroom. She locked both of them in and once she was confident their voices wouldn't carry to the bedroom, hissed, "What the hell is going with you? I can hear your heart beating like crazy."

"I'm cursed," Reese replied plainly.

"Reese," Caroline sighed. "I'm not asking you for weepy prose. I'm serious — are you sick or something?"

"Or something."

She raised her eyebrows, encouraging her to elaborate further.

"I can't stay in a room with Elena without wanting to strangle her," Reese continued. "Never thought I'd be confessing to lack of self-control. Wow."

"You can't be that mad about the psychopath comment."

"I'm not."

"Is that why the lights were flickering?"

"Yes. Lack of self-control." Fuck you, Esther. She cursed Esther ten times a day. She had no problem making it eleven. "In any case, I can't be here until I can get myself under check."

Caroline's mouth morphed into an almost cartoonish frown, perfectly upside down. "So that's it? You're just gonna leave again?"

"This time I genuinely don't have a choice."

"Where are you even gonna go?"

The magical black market. "Grandma's house."

"You have a grandma?"

"Last time I checked." Which was ten years ago — god knows if she was still alive. "Mom's side."

"Oh." Caroline evidently didn't know what to make of this new information. "What's she like?"

Hell if she knew, they'd never even met.

"Grandma-like. Sweet enough but set in her ways." To be safe, she added, "She's always trying to fatten me up."

That mediocre excuse somehow worked, and Caroline agreed to cover for her. She returned to the bedroom and answered Elena's questions with, "Reese is really sick. She thinks it might be the drugs Klaus gave her." And before Elena could respond to that, she answered her oncoming doubts. "She'll be fine. She just needs to rest. I'm going to drop her home — be back in a minute."

Outside Reese's apartment, she told Caroline, "Impressive with the lying. You're getting better."

"Reese, you better not go silent."

Holding up her pinky, Reese said, "Promise."

She didn't have to pack her bags. They'd been left untouched the whole time she was being held hostage. Her Dodge Viper was practically begging to be carted off on a country-wide road trip. She was all set, really.

Lo and Behold, Reese Yung now had summer plans, too. 

Author's Note: 

Having lovely flashbacks to those all-nighters I used to pull when I couldn't tear myself away from this story. Anyway, there's a lot of AU stuff about to commence, including but not limited to a very interesting magical black market, Gemini-Raven history, ReeseAzzie history, and maybe, just MAYBE Reese's grandma.

I wasn't going to drop that bomb so early but it felt like something Reese would weave into her lies. 

Next chapter we finally jump into Reese enjoying herself for some time before everything goes to shit. And who knows, maybe Klaus will show up too. 

Also, the Crowleys referring to their grandmother as Grandma'am was inspired by TBOSAS Tigris and Snow because it just fits in with them as a really important grand (dysfunctional) family.

Unedited, ofc. Consistency? Idk her.