The Dinner Party

*AGE CHANGE FROM 12 to 14; Birthday no longer on Founder's Day*

Emma's head snapped up in an instant when she felt her head fall forward. With groggy eyes, she took a look around and saw the many scattered pages from the notebook she may or may not have taken from one of the desks downstairs. She spent another sleepless night searching every book she had and her phone for anything that could possibly stop the ritual that would kill her sister. Of course, everything led her to a dead end.

Emma let out a long lawn as she tossed the pen in her hand to the side. She carefully moved aside her research materials and got up from the bed. Keeping her pajamas on, she left the bedroom and moved to go down the hall when she bumped into Andy, who seemed to be on her way out from Damon's room.

"Oh, Emma. I didn't know you were here." Andy said, shifting her scarf uncomfortably. "You didn't hear anything la-"

Emma waved her hands frantically in front of her. "Ahh, please don't finish that sentence."

Andy nodded in agreement and pointed towards the stairs. "Well, I'm just going to go wait for Damon downstairs. See you later."

When she was out of sight, Emma silently gagged and made her way towards Damon's room. She pushed to door open and saw Damon on the phone, playing with the special dagger.

"Trust me, Stefan, I'm gonna dot all my T's. I don't want any surprises." he said, nodding his head at Emma. "Yes. Stefan, I've become you. How tragic for both of us." Emma rolled her eyes at his comment and leaned against the door. "Got to run. I've a murder to plan. Busy day." he said, hanging up the phone.

Emma raised an eyebrow. "You're planning a murder?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Yup. Time to bring that annoying Original down." Damon replied, placing the dagger back in it's box.

Emma scoffed and followed Damon as he went downstairs. "Yeah, right. Like you said, he's an Original. How do you expect yourself to kill him by surprise?"

When they entered the living room, Andy was sitting patiently on one of the couches with her legs crossed. Damon shrugged and grabbed his leather jacket that was left on a couch. "That's why I'm coming up with a plan." He put the jacket on and tossed his car keys to Andy. "Warm up the car?" She smiled and happily went out the front door.

Emma sighed and used her index finger to pick at her cast. "Damon, I think that killing Elijah is not a good idea. I mean, you were there last night." she pointed out, recalling how Elijah ripped out all the hearts of the werewolves.

"Yes, I was. Thank you. Now, hurry up and get ready." Damon ordered, pulling out his phone.

Emma's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Why should I?"

"So you can help with the plan?" Damon said, as if it was a known fact.

"Wait. You're actually letting me come along?" she asked, completely shocked. When Damon shook his head 'yes', Emma smiled brightly. "O-okay! I'll be right back." she said, running upstairs to change.

This was a first. Ever since she got involved with the supernatural, she was always pushed aside or restricted from helping out in anyway, even though she ended doing it anyways. But this was new and Emma wasn't even going to question it again. She was totally fine with it.

After she changed, Emma and Damon went to the car and the three of them, yes, Andy was there too, drove to The Grill to meet with Alaric. They sat down at a booth, with Alaric and Emma sitting on one side and Damon and Andy on the other. They ordered food and drinks an quickly went down to business.

"Other than the lecture on the history of Mystic Falls, did you get anything out of Elijah?" Damon asked, hand circling the rim of his glass.

Alaric sighed. "No, it was boring." He gave an annoyed smile. "Of course, Jenna thinks he's charming."

"You sounded jealous. Does he sound a bit jealous?" Damon commented, turning to Andy on his right.

She nodded in agreement. "Kinda do."

Emma quickly took a sip of her water, eyeing the news reporter. "Damon, not to be rude Andy, but I don't think it's wise to have her here? She isn't exactly, you know. . ." she trailed off, unsure how to finish her statement but was hopeful her point was made.

Damon pointed towards the older woman. "Her? She's been compelled not to divulge my secrets. Haven't you?" He put his arm around the woman and puckered his lips as Andy 'hummed' in reply.

Andy kissed Damon's waiting lips. "My lips are sealed."

Emma and Alaric shared uncomfortable looks.

"I just need the right opportunity." Damon continued, trying to think. Just then, Jenna and Elijah walked in the restaurant. "Ah, there's Jenna with her new boyfriend." Alaric glanced over his shoulder to see the two walk in their direction. "Hi." Damon said, waving them over.

"Hey, guys." Jenna greeted.

"So, I hear you two had quite a meeting of historical minds today." Damon said.

Jenna adjusted her bag on her shoulder. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Alaric let out a chuckle. "Well, as much as I'd love to continue this, I've got papers to grade." he lied, pulling out his wallet and tossing some money on the table.

"No, you know what? We should continue this." Andy suggested, resting a hand on Damon's. "Let's have a dinner party."

"Ooh, my girl. Full of good ideas." Damon said, loving the idea. "I'll be happy to host. Say tonight. Maybe?" Elijah cocked his head to the side.

"It's good for me. Jenna?" Andy asked.

Alaric stood to the left of Elijah with his arms behind his back, clearly not pleased with the conversation. Jenna had started to answer, but Alaric was quick to interrupt her.

"I don't know if tonight works-"

"I'm free." Jenna replied, smiling in triumph.

Elijah smirked. "It'd be a pleasure."

"Great." Damon said.

Emma, sensing a little bit of the awkwardness in the air, lifted her hand up. "I'm free to go as well."

"Uhh, Em, I think this is more of an adult type of dinner." Jenna explained, lightly patting her arm.

Everyone else nodded in agreement. "Yeah, sorry, pipsqueak, we're going crazy tonight." Damon said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Emma scoffed, crossing her arms in anger. It was so good to be apart of everything. She had it and then it slipped through her fingers. After the party's time and place was established, Jenna took Emma home so that she could get ready. Jeremy was home but when he heard that Jenna was leaving and Emma was staying home, he made the young girl stay in her room because he was going to have someone over and didn't want her in the way. She really felt the sibling love when he shoved her into her room. Jenna had left sometime later, and to pass the time, Emma watched random YouTube videos. A video she was trying to watch took forever to load.

"Promise me."

Emma's head turned quickly behind her, hearing what sounded like Elena's voice in her room. It certainly didn't come from the video she wanted to watch, but it couldn't have been Elena. She was up at the cabin with Stefan. Emma turned back to her laptop.

"Promise me you won't harm anyone that I love."

Emma turned again to the sound of the voice, only this time, she found herself standing on a dirt road in the middle of the the woods. It was night and the sound of crickets filled the air.

"What?" she whispered, looking from side to side. She spun around to look behind her to see her family cabin, porch lights on and Stefan's car parked on the side.

She saw the front door broken down with Elena standing at the arch with a knife in her hand. There was a man on the porch, facing Elena.

"Elena?" she called out, walking towards the cabin. Elena didn't hear or acknowledge her, only seeing the man.

"Even if they've harmed you." Elena said to the man, holding out the knife.

Emma saw the man shake his head. "I'm sorry, Elena." The voice was Elijah. "I'm going to have to call your bluff."

Elena's expression changed, and also the direction the knife was pointing. Emma wasn't liking the way things were going. She walked closer to the two, her left foot barely touching the first step of the porch when Elena stabbed herself in the stomach with the knife.

Emma's eyes widened as both Elijah and the girl yelled, "NO!"

Suddenly, the front door of the cabin was fixed and slammed shut. Emma shot forward, passing Elijah and grabbing the door handle.

"Elena!" she shouted, opening the door.

Only, when the door opened, Emma was met with the hallway of her home. Looking behind her, instead of seeing the dirt road and trees, she saw her bedroom. She had a vision. And a very unique one at that. Even though it was new, it still showed the girl the danger that was going to happen. She needed to go warn Damon before Elijah got to the boarding house. The only question was, how was she going to get there? Jeremy couldn't take her, with whoever is over at the Gilbert house. Alaric picked up Jenna to go to the dinner. . . which means Jenna's car is still in the driveway.

Emma went downstairs and turned to go to the kitchen when she saw the many candles that were placed around the living room. In front of the fireplace sat Jeremy and Bonnie. They both snapped their heads in her direction.

"Emma." Jeremy began, glaring at his sister. "I told you not to come down."

"Uh, sorry, I was just going to- what's going on here?" she asked, kind of stuck on the fact that the someone who was over was Bonnie.

Bonnie let out a short laugh. "I was just showing Jeremy some magic."

With all these candles? Emma thought in her head. "Okay, well, I was hungry. So, I'll be really quick." she said, pointing towards the kitchen.

Walking away, she went straight to the key holder that was on a wall and grabbed Jenna's car keys. It was a very very risky plan but what else was she supposed to do? Grabbing a granola bar, to keep up with appearances, she went back upstairs to her room and closed her bedroom door. Emma put the bar in her back pocket, since it did make her a little hungry, and opened her window. Peering down at the side of her house, she swung her left leg over and made sure her foot was on the roof before she ducked under the window and swung her other leg over. She used the wall for support as she sat on the roof and slowly slid to the edge. Emma grabbed the edge with both hands and looked over it to see a fairly big and thick bush below. She sighed, glancing quickly back to her window before she rolled off the roof. Now, she thought she would land somewhat good on the bush, but what she didn't expect was to bounce off the bush and land on the not so soft ground on her back.

Emma let out multiple coughs, trying to catch her breath from the landing. She groaned, rolling on her side and getting up slowly. As she stood, she winced from the piercing pain on her back. She brushed off the leaves on her arms and went to Jenna's car. Getting inside, she started it and put it in drive, remembering everything Jenna and everyone else who drove did. The hard part now was the actual driving. She did her best driving in her lane and not driving way too fast for a cop to pull her over, though she did get honked at for accidentally cutting off people.

Finally, she arrived at the boarding house, coming to an unpleasant jerked stop. She jumped out the car and burst through the front door. Emma had no idea where Damon was, so she ran to the dining room.

"Damon!" she yelled, only to stop abruptly upon seeing Jenna, Andy, Alaric, John, Damon and Elijah sitting at the long dining table.

"Emma?" Jenna asked sternly, setting her wine glass down. She saw the car keys in Emma's hand, only making her shock turn into anger. "Emma, why are the keys to my car in you hand?"

Emma's eyes were wide from seeing Elijah here instead of by the cabin. She shook her head and looked at the keys and then to Jenna.

"Uhh."

~~~~♡~~~~  

Jenna had taken Emma to the side and, boy, did she get it. If anyone ever thought Jenna wasn't the type of parent to yell at their kids, well, would be wrong. The final decision was that Emma was grounded for 2 weeks for stealing the car and driving it illegally. It would have been longer if Emma hadn't smooth talked Jenna since she had quite to drink. The two walked back into the dining room after their discussion.

"Well, I think it's time to go." Jenna announced, arms on her hips.

Andy stood up, glass in hand. "No, just stay for dessert. Please?" she pleaded, doing the puppy eyes.

Damon stood as well. "Yes, stay. Emma can just sit in the living room while we finish up." he suggested with a smile on his face.

Jenna bit her lip, looking from Emma to Elijah to Alaric. "Okay, we'll stay a little bit longer."

Andy cheered and clapped her hands, careful not to spill her wine. "I think it's time for the gentlemen to take their drinks in the study."

"I have to say the food was almost as wonderful as the company." Elijah commented, tossing his napkin onto his plate.

"I like you."

Elijah and Damon walked off to the study, leaving Alaric behind. Jenna gathered some plates and shoved them into John's hands.

"Here you are, gentleman, make yourself useful." she said. Emma tried to walk after Damon and Elijah, but was stopped by Jenna. "No, no, no. As part of your punishment, you have to help with dishes."

Emma groaned and took some plates to the kitchen so she could quickly get to Damon and tell him about what she saw. After she set the stuff in the sink, she made it back into the dining room to see Alaric and John having a not so pleasant conversation.

"-about your dead wife." John said, causing Alaric to grab him by the collar.

"You son of a bitch."

Emma ran forward and pushed herself between the men to keep them from killing each other. "Guys, please. Not here."

"She's right. There's no need for violence." John said, glaring at Alaric. "All I want is my ring back." He narrowed his eyes before walking off to the kitchen.

Emma watched him leave, but turned her attention to Alaric. "Ric, I have to tell you something."

Alaric looked at her but clearly wasn't focused on her completely. "What is it?"

"Okay, so before coming here, I had a vision." she said, making Alaric focus on her more. "Damon's plan to kill Elijah is not going to work."

"What happened?"

Emma shrugged. "I don't know exactly what happens here but-"

Alaric's phone began to rang. When he answered, he was very confused. "Slow down. Slow down. Stefan?"

"What is he saying?" she whispered, eager to know what was happening. By the look on Alaric's face, Emma knew it was nothing good.

"We need to stop Damon." Alaric said, hanging up the phone and going to the study just as Andy came out of the kitchen.

Emma followed him, beckoning Andy to come as well. The three of them burst in the study just as Damon picked up the dagger.

"Gentlemen, we forgot about dessert." Alaric announced, pointing to the dining room.

Andy called for Elijah, who handed Damon his drink. Damon was pissed, glaring at Emma and Alaric as they stood next to him. Damon slapped Alaric on the shoulder and made faces to find out what was going on. Alaric pointed to the dagger and started to write something down on a paper. It read, 'The dagger with kill you if you use it.' Damon snarled and Emma tried her best to keep him calm. Made it back to the dining room where Andy was asking Elijah questions. Alaric was asked to get Andy's notepad as Damon sat at the end of the table and Emma sat next to Elijah.

"Elijah, did John tell you he's Elena's uncle/father?" Damon questioned, hands folded together.

"Yes, I'm well aware of that." Elijah said.

"Of course, she hates him, so there's absolutely no need to keep him on the endangered species list."

"Damon." Emma warned, shaking her head in disappointment. Sure, she hated John as much as the next person but she doesn't want him dead.

"Ric, it's in the front pocket on the- you know what? Excuse me." Andy said, getting up to help Alaric.

John set his coffee mug down. "What I'd like to know, Elijah, is how do you intend on killing Klaus?"

"There's a few things we should probably get clear right now." Elijah began, Emma sensing anger in his tone. "I allow you to live solely to keep an eye on Elena. I allow Elena to remain in her house living her life with her friends as she does as a courtesy. If you become a liability, I'll take her away from you and you'll never see her again." he threatened, twirling a fork in his hand.

Emma unconsciously scooted away from Elijah on her seat, not having enjoyed his speech. Andy had waked back into the room.

"Okay, my first question is when you got here in Mystic-"

All of a sudden, Elijah screamed in pain as Alaric stabbed the dagger through Elijah's chair and his chest. Emma jumped out of her chair as Elijah groaned and struggled to breath at the same time his face turned gray. Alaric the dagger out and slammed it onto the table.

"Gt rid of him before Jenna comes back with dessert." he told Damon, walking away while breathing heavily. Though, he did come back to help Damon carry Elijah down to the cellar. When they came back, Emma took the opportunity to finally speak to Damon.

"I have something important to tell you." she said.

Damon sighed as he started to pour himself another glass of bourbon. "Spill."

"I don't think that your plan will work well." she admitted, crossing her arms.

"You were just here, right?" Damon said, repeating what Emma had said earlier this morning. "He's dead and there's nothing he can do now."

Emma scoffed. "I have a vision of him with Elena at the cabin. Not dead."

Damon set his glass down and rose his eyebrows in confusion. "Excuse me? Are you saying he's not dead again?"

"Well, I saw trying to tell you that but you were so focused on killing him and then things went south when Alaric said you couldn't kill him."

"Wait." Damon interrupted, raising a finger. "What was he wearing?"

"Who?"

"Elijah. In your vision."

Emma thought for a moment. "Umm, I think exactly what. . . he's wearing. . . now." she finished, realizing something that Damon must have realized because they both ran down to the cellar and saw the cell door wide open. And Elijah gone.

Damon's phone rang and he answered with a sigh. "Right on time, Stefan." He put the call on speaker.

"Damon, he won't stay dead if the dagger doesn't remain in his chest." Stefan frantically warned.

"Kind of too late to tell me that, little brother. He's gone." Damon explained.

"Stefan!" Emma said. "You have to protect Elena. Elijah is on his way over to you guys."

"And I'll be there as fast as I can." Damon said, hanging up and going the the front of the house with the dagger in his hand. "I'll be back."

Emma nodded and went to the living room. She managed to avoid Jenna so that she didn't have to leave. It took an hour for Damon to come back with Stefan, Elena, and Elijah's dead body. The two vampires took him back down to the cellar with the dagger still in his chest. Elena and Emma followed behind and watched at they set him down. Stefan came over and wrapped his arm around Elena's shoulders. Damon began searching Elijah and found the moonstone in his jacket pocket.

"What do we have here?" he said, holding the stone up. "A little moonstone bar of soap. I'll hold on to this."

"So that's it?" Emma asked, looking up to everyone else.

"As long as we keep the dagger in there, then he stays dead." Elena said, staring down at Elijah. "Okay, well, goodnight." As Elena started to walk away, she stopped and turned back to them. "You know, you guys want me to fight, fine, I'll fight. But if we're gonna do this, you can't keep anything from me anymore. From this moment on, we're doing it my way."

The brother's nodded and Emma nodded, seeing as she kind of planned stuff with Damon behind Elena's back. Elena left and Emma went with her.

"And Em?" Elena continued when it was just the two of them. "If you get a vision of anything, you need to tell to me. I want to help you."

Emma nodded again. "I will. I promise." The girls held each other as they went upstairs to sleep, Elena going to Stefan's room and Emma going to the room she slept in last night.

Sitting on her bed, squishing some of her research paper, she pulled out her phone to see she got a text message. Opening the text, she saw that it was sent two days ago from Jared. She had no idea how she missed it and she quickly read it, only to be disappointed in what he wrote.

"If you didn't want to hang out, you should have just said it to my face instead of leading me on like this." he said in the text.

Emma tried to reply, but each time she pressed the send button, her phone kept showing the notification that he was no longer receiving texts from her. She groaned when she realized that she missed her date with Jared and now he hated her for it. If only she could explain to him what's been going on without scaring him away. She tossed her phone to the side and laid down in her bed, actually happy that school was tomorrow so she could speak to him, face to face.

~~~~♡~~~~  

And done. I hope you like the chapter, it was actually really fun and different to write. I kind of got a different vibe from it as I wrote in her vision because of the new way she saw it. I was watching the new episode of Teen Wolf on Sunday and saw how Lydia was transported to the school in her mind, even though she was still in Scott's house and I thought it would be really cool that something like that happened to Emma when she had a vision. I'm not sure I'm going to have her do this every time she has a vision, but please expect more of this type of vision in the future.

So I would like to thank you guys for waiting for this update and again hope you liked it as much as I did. And I have to say that I start school in less than two weeks so updating will be a bit of a struggle. I'm going to be a senior so I have a bunch of AP classes and college to focus on (ewww). Please be patient. :)

Anyways, I'll see you next time!<3