Once we are outside Nik swings me up into his arms, bridal style, and speeds us off to the grill. My laughter drifting into the air.

He stops in an alley way and carefully sets my feet on the ground. He links his hand with mine and we walk out of the alley and into the grill. As the door closes behind us I double check the spell the hide the bump and cover the heartbeat is still in place. I continue on once I'm sure it is.

I feel my phone vibrate so I check it as Nik guides me around tables noticing my attention is elsewhere.

Don't be mad, but I forgot to tell you something. I quit my job at the grill last week. I was struggling balancing school, work and the supernatural world.

As I read Jeremy's text I quickly feel guilty. Even though I had seen him often I hadn't sat him down for a talk like I usually did. I didn't even notice that my baby brother was struggling with everything. He was just a kid after all and was still dealing with his parents death, and Vicky's, I didn't think how hard it would be with everything else since he had taken everything so well.

Don't worry about it Jere-bear. I'm not mad. How about you become an apprentice with me. I've been meaning to look for someone who can help me draw up designs. You get paid weekly, it looks great on your CV for the future and I can help you train and study. You only have to work roughly 10 hours a week. What do you think?

I only have to wait a few seconds before he responds.

That would be awesome. Thanks star. :)

I smile at the nickname and send back a teddy bear emoji before putting my phone back in my pocket. I look up as I feel Nik pull my shoulders back slightly to let me know to stop. I smile as Damon and quickly hug him. He places a kiss on the crown of my head and I take a few darts from his hand before throwing them at the board. Each one sinks into its mark at the centre of the board.

"Don't mind me" Nik speaks up making Elena spin around in shock. I feel her fear increase as her heartbeat speed up. "Klaus"

Damon steps in front of Elena, putting himself between the doppelgänger and original hybrid. "Your going to do this in the grill, in front of everyone. A little beneath you." Damon plays into the part that he said he would. He let me know the other day that he would continue to pretend to be on the scooby gang's side and was trying to keep me in the loop with everything that was going on.

"I don't know what your talking about. I just came to my local pub to grab a drink with a mate." Nik uses his head to motion to Tony who had met us outside. "Get a round, then, would you, Tony?"

Elena sees Tony as he meets her eyes and I bite back a smirk when I hear her heart speed up even more.

"I'm surprised you stuck around for happy our."

"My sisters missing. Need to sort that out."

"Cute, Blonde bombshell, Psycho?" I lean against Damon's side as he says this. "Be nice cub. Bekkah is important to the both of us."

"Sorry Momma wolf. All jokes aside I don't actually know where she is. Last I saw her you two were going upstairs to get ready. I was told she was going to the dance with someone else so Kathrine could go with Matt"

I look into his eyes as he talks and know he's telling the truth. However the more he talks the more Elena tenses. I narrow my eyes at her for a moment to try and figure out why.

That bitch! It finally hits me and I realise what she had done. Other then Damon, Stefan and fake Mikael, she was the only one at the boarding house.

Nik, Elena must have Daggered her. It wouldn't be the first time she has daggered an original.

I tell my mate though our link. His eyes dart to me letting me know h heard and I feel how annoyed and murderous he has become towards the latest Doppelgänger.

"The truth is I've grown to rather like your little town. Thinking I might fancy a home here. I imagine your wondering how does this affect you? The answer is, not in the slightest. As long as I get what I want and everyone behaves themselves you can go on living your little lives how you choose. You have my word." Nik steps forward as he speaks and takes the dart from Damon's hand before stepping up to the board.

"What more could you possibly want?" Elena speaks up, fear lacing her voice as Nik turns his attention to her when he quotes his older brothers favourite words.

"Well for starters you can tell me where I might find Stefan"

"Stefan skipped town the second he saved your ass."

"Well, you see, that is a shame." Nik throws a single dart at the board with enough force that it shakes slightly. The noised makes Elena flinch. "Your brother stole from me. I need him found so I can take back what's mine."

"That sounds like a Klaus-and-Stefan problem." I tilt my head with a smirk at Elena's words. "Are you quoting your boyfriends brother?"

I watch in satisfaction as my sister becomes more flustered. Nik steps closer to Elena in a threatening manor making Damon move to block him. My mate simply chuckles before leaning forward. "Well, this is me broadening the scope, sweetheart."

With that Nik guides me to the bar so him and Tony could have their drink. I give my brother a thankful kiss on the cheek when he sets a strawberry milkshake in front of me with extra cream.

I didn't feel up to talking all that much so Nik simply pulls me into his side while Tony and him come up with a plan to scare Elena into helping.

"I have something but your not going to like it" Tony turns to me. His expression was sympathetic so I knew he was being serious. I groan in annoyance "What is it?" He then goes on to explaining how he could simply hit Jeremy with his car while Jere pretends to be compelled. Since Jeremy had his ring he wouldn't die.

"As much as I hate your plan. Jeremy might actually find it fun. It worries me how curious he is about how much getting hit with a car will actually hurt." I sigh and text Jeremy to see if he would be okay with the idea. As expected he responded with a 'hell yeah!' I shake my head not knowing what to do about my idiotic brother. I love him more then anything, but even he had his moments where I wanted nothing more then to try and slap some sense into him.

"I gotta go, Jeremy mentioned this morning that Ric and Jemma are making lunch. Apparently I have to go. I'll see you losers later."

I leave out through the back and teleport to Jenna's. I knock on the door to let them know I'm here before stepping inside only to hear Elena talking.

"Vampires, hybrids and originals. No problem. My rebellious brother? I'm worried." I walk into the kitchen to see Elena setting the table. Jenna see me and smiles as she walks over and hug me. "Elena stop worrying, I'm sure Jeremey's fine." I nod agreeing with Jenna before putting my own thoughts out there.

"He is. He's working for me as an apprentice. He gets paid, it works around his school hours. I can help with training and studying plus it will look amazing on his cv and college application. I'm also going to see if the school board will allow it to class as extra credit since he will be learning on the job, If so he might be able to graduate early."

All three of them turn to me, Jenna and Ric looked shocked while Elena simply rolled her eyes and muttered something about me being 'controlling' and 'taking away Jere's choices'.

"Wow. Do you really think the Principle will allow that?" I move to help Jenna with the glasses. "I'm hoping, If not Jeremy can apply through my company to become a student apprentice. It would allow him to get full pay of a normal apprentice but he would only have to work half the hours and the other half would be spend studying under a tutor."

It was Rik's turn to voice his surprise "Your company really does that?"

"Yeah, I have a few. Jere will be helping with my architect company, since he wants to do something containing art. but there are others as well, like my tech company that create video games and apps or my fashion line. I couldn't decide what to do so I did a little of everything and built up from there. I have others running the other two and I focus on Architect since I found my passion in interior design. I can give you the contact info for each and you can give it to students you think could use the extra help. Only if you want though?"

"um, yeah, that would be great actually. I can already think of a few that would benefit. What's the pay like?" I move around the table in tandem with Jenna as we place the glasses in the correct places and answer Ric.

"Well for a full time apprentice it's $13-$16 on hour depending on the company they choose. and if they want to become a beta tester for games and apps then its $50 per game or app that they test out. but for that one they actually have to either record themselves/livestream them playing the game. That's just to ensure that they are actually testing it out and giving honest feedback. If you mention the testing to students though, just make sure to mention that game development takes time so the pay for that one is more like extra cash on the side and not an actual salary."

I help set the rest of the table as I explain everything, While I do this Ric stops chopping up salad and actually listens while Jenna stands to the side stealing food and Elena sat down at the table in a bit of a hump since the attention wasn't on her.

"It's amazing that you do all of that."

"Thank you and Caroline actually works at my fashion company, Interstellar, she bosses around the CEO most of the time, but she has some really innovative ideas" The adult both laugh when I mention Caroline, knowing exacting how the blonde can be when it comes to getting things done a certain way.

"I've never seen Caroline go to work" I turn to Elena when I hear her snarking tone. "That's because a majority of it is done digitally. Allowing students to work from home. She only has to come into one of the office's of stores a few days a month for progress reports and meetings."

Realizing she wasn't going to win any kind of battle with me she backs off and sits back down.

A/N

this wasn't the direction I was planning for this chapter but I kind of started writing and then couldn't stop, so yeah.. this is what happened.

Livvy x