29|KILL OR BE KILLED

Gemma sits at a picnic table across from Willow, a cup of coffee from The Grill in hand. The bubbly blonde brought it as a peace offering, claiming their last encounter was awkward and that she wanted things to go back to normal. To be completely honest, Gemma didn't know what she was talking about but she agreed and fell into loose conversation with the blonde.

"I was surprised that you agreed to come today," Willow says, taking a long sip of her coffee. "Even more surprised that you showed up in color."

Gemma rolls her eyes at the blonde's teasing grin, glancing down at her own outfit. It was true, the raven haired woman opted for a more colorful outfit today, but it didn't mean anything. It was just one of the rare days that Gemma felt okay-ish.

"I feel fine today," she shrugs in reply. "Being at a volunteer picnic isn't the highlight of my day, but at least I'm out of the house."

"That's the spirit!" Willow claps her hands, praising the female Salvatore. Gemma gives her a look and she laughs, "seriously, I'm proud of you. You're making progress... slowly."

"Yeah, well, I'm not actively fighting against recovery which is the most important part."

The blonde nods in agreement, "you're absolutely right. Does this newfound enlightenment have anything to do with a certain woman's return to Mystic Falls?"

The Salvatore gives Willow a look, "I don't even want to talk about her. She's proven to be... difficult this time around."

"How so?"

Gemma sighs heavily and decides against keeping things from Willow. Obviously staying true to her nature as a therapist, the blonde wouldn't stop prying. It was better for Gemma to fess up instead of Willow finding out in more inconvenient ways.

"I think she has some sort of vendetta against Elena," Gemma comments. "She's jealous of her."

"Let's get one thing straight," Willow waves her hands. "When you said she resembles Elena... ?"

Gemma kisses her teeth, "they're identical."

Willow scoffs out a laugh, "we're going to revisit this, just to let you know."

"Anyway, she attacked Elena's uncle—" the vampire pauses. "He's actually her dad, but I don't know what she calls him, so—"

"John Gilbert?" Willow raises her eyebrows, shock evident on her face.

"We are getting so off topic here, Willow."

The therapist nods, "right, right. So, about Katherine?"

"I slept with her."

"You are the reason I'm still in business."

Gemma glares at the woman, "are we speaking as friends or as doctor-patient?"

Willow shrugs, "as friends, but I'm still inclined to offer my advice."

"I'm starting to not like your advice."

"Most people don't."

"Okay, so I slept with Katherine after a really bad night—"

"What made it a bad night?"

The female Salvatore swallows thickly, "um, Elena said she didn't want anything to do with me anymore."

Willow glances behind her when Carol Lockwood raises her voice, beginning to make rounds and gather the volunteers up. "Okay," she breathes as she stands from the picnic table. "Schedule a session, you need it. I've got to go, but we'll talk about this soon."

Gemma nods and watches as the woman walks away, a yelp escaping her lips when a hand wraps around her bicep and yanks her out of her seat. She looks up to meet the eyes of her brother, narrowing her eyes at him in anger. "Was that necessary?"

"Yes, because our brother is scheming."

The woman huffs in reply and lets Damon drag her across the lawn where the picnic is going to take place, their sights set on an innocent looking Stefan. Damon immediately jumps the gun when they're within speaking distance of the younger vampire, "what are you doing?" He demands.

"Negotiating peace on the behalf of you two," he says dryly.

"I don't want peace," Damon replies stubbornly.

Gemma makes a face, "considering Mason Lockwood could kill us with his teeth, I'm fine with peace."

Damon looks at her, betrayed. "What happened to you being in?"

"That was before you stabbed the man in the stomach. I thought we were going to talk to him. That was an assassination attempt, Damon!"

"Wow," Stefan muses. "It's opposite day. I never thought I'd see the day where Gemma Salvatore wasn't looking for trouble."

"Can it, super man," she snaps. "Don't think you saved the day just because you two shook hands."

"Right," Damon pipes up. "Do you seriously think that solved all of our problems?"

"No, actually I think that the first chance Mason Lockwood gets, he's going to drive a stake through all of hearts, all because you took it upon yourself to try and kill him. So, thank you Damon, because we don't have enough problems." He gives his siblings one last look of disdain before trotting off.

Gemma frowns as she watches him go, "he's unusually pessimistic today."

Damon scoffs, "aren't we all?"

He shuffles away in the opposite direction of Stefan, leaving Gemma torn between the two. She pinches the bridge of her nose in exhaustion. Guess a good day just isn't in the cards for her.

.....

Alarm bells start ringing in Gemma's head when she sees Mason and Damon alone together, especially alone in front of a child. The last thing they need is a vampire-werewolf fight breaking out in front of the local youth. She fastens her pace to reach them before too many words are exchanged, flashing a bright smile to the Lockwood. "Mason," she greets. "Working hard today?"

"Doing my part," he says stiffly.

Gemma can only assume he hasn't forgiven them for the silver knife in the stomach by the tone of his voice.

"I heard you talked to Stefan," Damon chimes in, his voice smug.

"Nice guy," Mason nods.

"Yeah, a lot nicer than me."

"Nice is overrated."

"That's what I thought," Damon laughs mockingly.

Mason turns toward him with an unknown look in his eye, nodding with a small smile. "You guys have a good day."

Gemma waits until the Lockwood is out of earshot before she turns to her brother with a look of disapproval, "can you not go one hour without ruining a good thing?"

"Please tell me that you three were just bonding," Stefan says as he makes his entrance.

"I was getting to that if you'd stop interrupting me," Gemma says overly chipper. "Speaking of bonding, what's with the faux relationship drama?"

Stefan tenses, "what are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on, Stefan. I've been pretending my whole life... you don't think I know a fake fight when I see one? You were fighting over me. That's a thing of the past. We've all moved on."

"Have you?" Stefan snides.

"Can we drop this, please?" Damon snaps, pulling Gemma closer to him by the shoulder. "We have more important things to worry about."

"Would you like some lemonade?"

Gemma turns at the sound of a sweet, young voice. Her eyes meet those of a little girl, offering a cup of lemonade with a wide smile. "Sure," she grins softly as she takes the cup. She takes a long sip and instantly regrets it. Her mouth and throat burn like she's downed boiling water, blood filling her mouth as the vervain in the lemonade rips at her skin.

"What's wrong?" Damon worries, grabbing her shoulders.

"Vervain," she chokes out.

Stefan leads her over to a lone picnic table and hands her a bottle of water, watching tensely as she takes a long sip to drown out the vervain. She breathes slowly as to not strain her throat, a pained groan escaping her lips.

"I'm going to kill him," Damon hisses.

"Listen to me!" Stefan yanks him back, his voice rough.

"I'm not listening to any more of your give peace a chance crap!" Damon snaps, "he's dead."

"Okay," Stefan relents. "I don't like it. He's making threats. He could expose us. We need to put him down."

"Alright," the eldest of the three says. "Let's do it."

.....

Gemma should've never listened to her brothers. She doesn't know why she did, because any time she's taken them at their word, something has seriously gone wrong. She can count on both hands and feet how many times they've gotten her into a situation where her life is at stake.

All because of Mason Lockwood. They should've killed him the minute he walked into town; and now because they didn't, Gemma and her siblings lay helpless on the floor of the Lockwood cellar. Stefan's unconscious and Damon's just now stirring awake, but Gemma's been quite aware for a few minutes now.

Sheriff Forbes doesn't waste time in shooting a bullet into Damon's leg when he opens his eyes, his pained scream ringing out through the air. "This is how it's going to work," the Sheriff begins. "Answer me and you don't get shot, understand? How many of you are there?"

"Liz, please," he begs.

She shoots him again with no mercy, her face stoic. "How did you fool us? How do you walk in the sun?" He doesn't answer and she turns her wrath toward Gemma and shoots her in the abdomen, not blinking an eye whenever the woman lets out a blood curdling scream. "I will drag this out painfully."

"But you're my friend," he croaks.

"Our friendship was a lie," she snaps. "Answer me and I'll kill you fast." Damon still remains silent and she huffs in frustration, turning toward her deputies with a stern shake of her head. "He's not going to tell us anything. Kill them both."

Gemma fades in and out of consciousness, only regaining full vision when one of the deputies stand over her with a menacing stare. Her head rolls to the side and she meets Damon's eyes, her lips turning down into a frown.

"Let's do this," Liz says. "Each with a stake in the heart, then burn all of them." The sound of the door creaking open stops her in her tracks and she nods toward one of her deputies, "check it out."

When her deputy reaches the entrance of the door, Elena bursts through and hits him with a plank. His body falls limp and the Gilbert rushes over to the Salvatore siblings, standing in front of their bodies with a protective stance.

"Elena! What are you doing?" The Sheriff exclaims, her eyes wide.

"You can't kill them," she cries. "I'm not going to let you!"

The door slams shut on its own and the Sheriff and her deputies begin to panic, one of the men drawing his gun. "What was that?"

"Who else is with you?" Liz demands.

Caroline circles around at vamp speed, closes on one of the deputies and bites his neck, the man screaming out in pain. The other deputy fires at her, but only shoots the first deputy as she uses him as a human shield. When he stops shooting, Caroline rushes from behind and knocks him to the ground. She then stands in all her glory and peers up at her mom, blood coating her mouth. "Hi, mom," she says softly.

.....

After a riveting, note the sarcasm, conversation with Liz Forbes and Damon, Gemma's officially wiped out for the day. If it weren't for the two teenagers in her foyer, she's sure she would've crashed by now but someone's got to be the responsible adult. She shuffles into the foyer and flashes the two girls a smile whenever their conversation dies out at the sight of her, her eyes flicking between the blonde and the brunette. "Can I take either of you home?"

Elena shakes her head while Caroline shifts uncomfortably, tears welling in her eyes as she peers up at Gemma. "I can't go home."

Elena sends Gemma a knowing look and the raven haired woman takes the hint. Caroline is to be handled with care.

"Why not?" The Salvatore questions.

"Because I'm scared," she whispers in reply.

Gemma feels her stomach coil at the frightened look in both Elena and Caroline's eyes, and she feels so much guilt. They were teenagers and their lives were being taken from them, and there was nothing Gemma could do about it.

"Why are you scared?" Elena wonders.

Gemma sees the hesitance on Caroline's face and she moves forward, sitting on the arm of the couch in front of the blonde. "Caroline, talk to me. It's okay."

"Katherine's going to be there and she's going to want me to tell her everything that happened today," she breathes out in a panic. "She told me I had to spy on Elena and report back to her."

Gemma grits her teeth, not saying a word.

"I know," Elena murmurs. "I've been so mad at you, but then I tried to put myself in your position so that I could understand why you would do this to me and to Stefan because he's been such a friend to you."

"Who did she threaten?" The female Salvatore questions, folding her arms across her chest.

"Matt," Caroline cries out. "She threatened Matt, and I'm so scared of her, Gemma! I am so scared of her."

"You should be, Caroline. We all should be," Elena nearly grumbles.

Gemma gives her a look of disapproval. The Gilbert wasn't wrong but it's really not what her friend needed to hear right now and they both know it.

"Why is she doing this? What does she want?"

"That's the million dollar question."

"You can stay here," Gemma tells Caroline. "You can take my room, I'll sleep on the couch."

Caroline furrows her eyebrows, "no, no, I can't—"

"Yes, you can," the woman cuts her off. "Take my room, use my pajama's. It'll be okay, Caroline."

She turns on her heel and attempts to go upstairs to ready her room for Caroline, but she's stopped when Elena grabs her arm and tugs her back. She faces the brunette with an expectant look, curious.

"What you're doing for Caroline..." Elena trails off, "this is the Gemma I want."

Gemma stills and her breath leaves her. All she can do is nod and watch the girl walk away.

.....

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