chapter twenty-one,

waiting for Jeremy to arrive. With her headphones and listening to music, she swung her legs happily as she waited. Killing Mikael—although a small part of her mourned the death of her grandfather—had meant that she was finally free from his torment and desire to see her dead. She'd been so thrilled that night that she'd stayed up the whole time, mostly texting Kaleb who had just moved back to New Orleans. He'd been just as shocked by her actions as Klaus had been, who had hardly been able to speak the entire night.

After a while though, she'd come down from her high and the reality had sunk in that Carrie was dead, too. She was distraught. In truth, Marian had only experienced grief this extreme three—maybe four—times in her life. It completely destroyed her, and had once driven her mad.

Now, she waited for Jeremy. He had texted her earlier asking for them to meet which had taken her by surprise—Marian had convinced herself that Jeremy now hated her after killing their only means of destroying her uncle, and was sure that Elena would never let him see her again. She and Bonnie had spoken twice since that night. The two had agreed that it would be best if they distanced themselves from each other, because—although Bonnie was glad that Marian was finally free from Mikael—she had just killed their only way of getting rid of Klaus for good.

"Hey," Jeremy called, walking up to the bench and sitting beside her with a smile.

"I'm surprised you called. I thought you wouldn't be allowed to see me since I ..." she said.

He shrugged. "Technically, I'm not supposed to be talking to you," he admitted. "But when have I ever followed the rules?" Marian laughed. He looked down, sighing before he looked back up at her, a more serious expression on his face. "But I really do need to talk to you."

"Okay," she said, frowning at his sudden change in mood.

He took a deep breath in. "I'm leaving."

Marian's breath hitched. "What? But you just got here." She was confused.

"I'm going to Denver, Annie." Marian felt her face drop. "I can't be here anymore. Not at least until all this Klaus stuff blows over."

She shook her head. "It's not him anymore, though. It's Stefan. As soon as I get my family back, I'm taking him and leaving," she rushed. "You can't leave."

"The decision's already been made," he told her, looking down.

"When do you leave?" she asked. He didn't answer. "Jer," she pushed. "When do you leave?"

"Tomorrow."

Marian was shocked. She hadn't expected him to be leaving so soon. "Were you going to tell me?" she asked pointedly.

"Annie, please don't start this now," he pleaded, though his words only made her more annoyed. "Be angry at me tomorrow. Just not now." Marian looked down, seeing the sadness in his eyes.

"Okay," she said softly. She laughed to herself. "Tomorrow's not going to be pretty, then."

"I guess not." Marian brought her hand to her back pocket as she felt her phone buzz. "Who is it?" Jeremy asked as she read the message that showed on the screen.

"Nik's just wondering where I am," she said dismissively. "I should probably go soon. Don't want him burning the town to the ground," she mused.

"Yeah," Jeremy said. "Look, I really need to tell you something."

"Jer, you already told me you're leaving," she said.

"No, it's not about that," he said. She raised an eyebrow, noticing how uncomfortable he suddenly looked.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I just—I—" He cut himself off, quickly leaning forward and pressing his lips against hers. For a moment, Marian melted into him. She'd dreamt of him kissing her for years. But quickly, she realised where she was. She frowned, pulling back and pushing him away from her.

She gulped as she stared at him. She'd seen that look in many boys' eyes before, and once she would've loved nothing more than to see him looking at her like that. "Jer—"

"Annie, I really like you," he said, ignoring her.

"Jer, I—"

He ignored her, leaning forward until his lips almost touched hers again. Marian jerked back, a frown on her face. "What are you doing?" she asked, shocked that he'd gone so far as to try and kiss her for a second time.

"I thought—" he tried.

"Jer, you just got out of a relationship two days ago," Marian

"Annie—"

"No," she said sharply, standing. "I—I should go." She felt her eyes growing with pressure, her vision getting blurry. She couldn't believe that any of this was happening; it was all happening too fast—her mother was dead, Mikael was gone forever, Jeremy was leaving, he'd kissed her twice and now he'd told her that he liked her.

"Annie—" he tried again, following after her as she walked away from the bench. "Wait!" he called after her. "Please! Annie, I—I think I love you."

She stopped, her shoulders square. "Do you know how long I've waited to hear you say those words to me?" she asked. "Not Vicky, not Anna, not Bonnie; me. Me." She shook her head in disbelief. She felt overwhelmed. "You don't love me, Jer," she continued. "You love the idea of being in love, of having a girlfriend. But you don't even know what love is."

She began walking again without looking at him, taking deep breaths to try and calm herself down. She felt stupid for wanting to cry, but that was all she wanted to do.

"Is this because of Klaus?" he asked loudly. "You want to hurt me so you don't feel bad about being on 'Team Klaus'—"

Marian cut him off, turning around. She was furious. "There is no 'Team Klaus'," she said. "There's just me trying to get my dad back, and you and your friends trying to look like heroes when you're the real problem here."

Jeremy scoffed. "If it weren't for you and your family, we wouldn't be in this mess."

Marian frowned, feeling an angry tear fall down her cheek. "You know what, Jer?" she said. "Fuck you." He stood back in shock. "Yeah," she said to herself, laughing. "Fuck you."

...

Marian groaned as Klaus ignored her calls. Without him, she had no way of getting back to his home. She tried calling him again, this time the call ending on the third ring. She was tempted to throw her phone to the ground in frustration, but knew that he'd reprimand her for doing so when she saw him. She was so aggravated with everything that had just happened that she almost didn't see the phone number he sent her as his only response.

Huffing, she clicked on the number, knowing that it would belong to one of his hybrids. "Hello?" someone answered. Marian sighed with relief as she recognised the voice.

"Andrew?" she asked.

"Ambrose," he corrected immediately. "Marian?"

"Yeah," she answered.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Klaus gave me your number," she told him. "I—he was my ride home."

"And you want me to pick you up?" Ambrose asked.

Marian gulped. She never had liked talking to people she barely knew, but she felt better knowing it was someone around her age, or at least looked her age. "If that's okay with you."

She heard shuffling in the background. "Lucky for you, I'm at the Grill. Think you could meet me here?"

Marian looked around. She'd been wandering around the main streets of Mystic Falls, not daring to go back to the park or around the Gilbert's house in case she saw Jeremy again. She wasn't sure what she'd do if she did, but she knew it couldn't be good. "Yeah, I can do that," she said, noticing that she wasn't far from the Grill.

"Okay, I'll see you soon then." Marian scoffed when she realised that he'd hung up on her. She didn't understand why everyone seemed to do that—Damon was the worst offender, almost always hanging up while she was still talking.

"Okay. See you then. Bye," she muttered to herself as she made her way to the Grill. She could already see its glowing lights from where she was. "Imagine if I did that to Elijah. He'd give me an earful and a half." She put her phone back in her pocket. "'That's not proper etiquette, Marian'," she continued. "'How completely and utterly rude. I thought I taught you better'. 'That is not how a lady should act.' It's the twenty-first century, Elijah, I can do what I want."

Marian knew that her sudden anger was unnecessary, but she couldn't help but feel agitated. Too many things had happened in too little time. She was upset about her mother, about her best friend leaving her. She was confused at being both overjoyed and horrified that she'd killed Mikael who—although to her he'd died a thousand years ago and been replaced by a monster driven by hate—was still her grandfather. She'd never killed anyone before him; her family had always been too protective of her to let anyone harmful near her, and she had no desire to bring an end to someone's life.

Taking a deep breath, she entered the Grill. Her eyes wandered around until a tall figure leaning against the bar caught her eye. He stood with a smirk in his face, flirting with the woman who was seated beside him. Ambrose stood up straight when he noticed Marian walking towards him. She looked annoyed.

"What's up?" he asked her.

"Can you take me home?" she muttered. She felt bad for pulling him away from the woman he'd been so invested in, but something about him being happier than her made her even angrier. She wondered why he was there; last she'd heard, he was supposed to be 'holding the fort' as she liked to say. Or maybe—because of everything that had been going on with Stefan's newfound unpredictable behaviour—he'd been reassigned to her. She hoped not; Marian had always hated it when her family didn't think she was capable of protecting herself. She'd just killed a thousand-year-old vampire for Pete's sake.

Ambrose immediately picked up a paper bag and takeaway cup from behind him and stepped towards her. "Yeah, sure," he said without a second thought, not even glancing at the woman beside him who scoffed. "Let's go."

Neither of them spoke as he led her outside and to his car which she recognised from a few days ago. He silently opened the door for her, closing it when she sat down and walking to his side and doing the same. Marian stared ahead as he reached into the back to put the bag on the seat and the cup in the holder between them.

"What's this for?" she muttered. "Dead people don't need food."

"It's for you," he told her. "There wasn't any more food in the kitchen." Marian looked down, hating herself for being so rude to him. Ambrose had done nothing wrong to her, and yet she was taking her anger out on him.

"Thanks."

Ambrose paused for a moment. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked finally. It was obvious that she was in a foul mood. Of course, he knew exactly what had made her this way—Klaus had told her to watch her every mood.

"Not particularly, no," she answered before scoffing. "I suppose he told you to be nice to me."

Ambrose shrugged. "Actually, he only told me to keep an eye on you. I'm just making sure a pretty upset girl is okay." Marian looked up at him, astounded. Had he just called her pretty?

"Pretty as in pretty and upset, or pretty as in very upset?" she quizzed.

"Both?" he answered cheekily. Marian couldn't help but let a laugh escape her lips.

part ii:

tvd s3, e11, ""

wc: