The Forgotten One- Chapter 23

Episode: The New Deal & Our Town

A/N: I'm trying to give Aria more of an edge, after all she's been through she needs a little oomph and she's a hybrid so she's a little scattered. Kind of re-vamp the character.

To Fanficqueen306: Aria knows that Klaus daggered him, what she doesn't know is where he is. She's also feeling very betrayed because he went back on his word and she thought she could trust him. When Elijah is undaggered it will be very hard for Aria and she will have to confront him. Hope that answers your question!

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"Why do you have no pop tarts?" I yell from my place at the fridge, my head buried in between expensive juices, milk and the best of everything. Except pop tarts.

"Pop tarts?" Klaus asks from behind me, he is sitting at the dining table watching me in amusement like I'm a sitcom or reality TV show.

"Yes, pop tarts."

"Sorry, love but I have no pop tarts to give you. I think you ate the last of the pop tarts I had last night." He glares.

"Whoops." I say sarcastically, I can't believe I'm actually conversing in playful banter with Klaus, Klaus who could kill me in a second, how things change. "You should go shopping." I say and grab a blood bag to sink my teeth into.

"Well, why don't you if you're so desperate?" he asks and looks at me over his newspaper, I had made several jokes already about his grandpa ways, he refused to catch up with the times and start using shortened terms like 'LOL', he read newspapers instead of using a laptop. The list goes on.

"Because if I leave this house then I will ambushed by my 'friends'."

"Why do you say 'friends' like that?"

"Because I'm pissed and holding a grudge. Can't you be your normal, diabolical self and hate them with me. Channel your rage at the world and onto them, I'm sure you've got pent up anger, you haven't killed for like three hours so hate with me."

"Do you want me to go out and kill them?"

"What? No! Jesus, you're crazy." I say and roll my eyes at him and his eagerness to knock their heads from their shoulders, though at the moment I feel like they deserve it. "Hey have you heard from Bex, she hasn't answered my calls." I pause. "Or emails. Or texts. Or Facebook messages, instagram posts, snap chats, kik messages, twitter posts-" he slaps his hand over my mouth to shut me up as I rambled on. I can't help it, I'm worried.

"I'm sure she's fine. Probably at the spa getting a manicure or whatever." He says disinterestedly.

"Careful, Niklaus. You're poking an angry wolf. You will not like me when I'm angry." I warn and slam the empty blood bag onto the dining table.

"Why must you call me that?" He groans, I had taken to calling him Niklaus overnight.

"I'm rebirthing the name. Soon it will not be the name of your parents who were terrible and carry horrible memories, but soon it will merely be a name that a friend calls you, associated with chats about pop tarts and you're lack of worry for your sister." I say and Klaus nods. I'm pretty sure I even saw a light blush dusting his pale cheeks.

"Are you going to come to the Grill with me and a few other hybrids, drink, darts, ambush your sister and Damon and see if they know where my coffins are?"

"Jeez, that sounds fun and all but I'm busy doing anything else at that time so have fun." I say sarcastically and turn on my heels and throw a quick 'tootles' over my shoulder to add icing to the cake of sarcasm, I don't think I've said anything genuine today apart from what I said to Niklaus.

I sneak into my own home and use my new found stealth, all for nothing because as it turns out, nobodies home. I find Smidge licking her paws on my bed, she yips at me and licks my hand. I sit beside her on my bed.

"Ok, Smidge, I need some girl time so just sit there and listen to me whine on will ya?" she doesn't respond so I start rambling. "Is it weird that he's become my best friend? He killed my aunt and daggered my boyfriend and to top it all off, killed me. Well to be fair I was going to break up with 'He Who Shall Not Be Named', the jerk, and yes I have taken to Harry Potter references. Caroline hasn't been the best of friends lately, not that I have either, but she has been plotting to kill my friends and getting me involved, it's not cool. And Bex has disappeared without even a text saying 'see ya', Jenna got one, even if it was sent from Liz because he had been turned into a vampire but she just thought he was dead and buried him… anyway I'm rambling. And I haven't been home to see you because I've been actively avoiding like everybody, it's turned into a job and a mission. Bonnie was a judgemental, no fun witch bitch who always threatened to give me an aneurism every time I was around, Elena was my fake sister who resembled bambi and had her damsel in distress routine nailed to a T. Stefan has been funner without emotions but is a no show, disappeared with my maybe-boyfriends coffin which is so not cool. Damon keeps giving me earfuls about how the originals are evil and cannot be trusted blah blah blah. Matt's busy, grieving for his sister and working to pay bills, I once offered to compel him a scholarship and mansion and a Porsche, whatever he wanted and he looked at me like I was an abomination, so I'm not going there again. Tyler is all 'Klaus is amazing, lets kiss Klaus' ass', I wonder if that's what I'm like… no, I was much classier about my sire bond. I hope. And anyway, Caroline is glued to him so no-go. I wish Jenna was here, she always gave the best pep talks and had amazing shoulders to cry on. Or my mom, she just did something that made it all better… god I'm having a chick flick moment." I say and wipe the remnants of tears from my eyes and stand up. Smidge nudges my hand in what I take as a comforting gesture. She licks my fingers and makes a sound of contentment.

"I think if you could talk you would tell me to have a drink?" I ask and she growls as if annoyed. "That's a no?" she barks in agreement. "Therapist?" I ask and she barks. "Therapist it is."

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"I wasn't expecting you today, not that it's not a pleasant surprise. I had no other patients and I was free. What brings you here today?" Marianne asks and slips on her winged glasses and peers at me over the top of them as she scribbles notes down on her massive folder for me, an inch thick, maybe two. I couldn't have that many problems could I?

"My dog." As I say it, I realize how crazy I sound.

"Your dog?" I nod.

"I'll talk and she growls no and barks yes. It's a good system we have." God, I probably sound like a crazy cat lady. But with dogs.

"Sounds very therapeutic." She says and smiles. "I feel like I've been replaced." And she feigns hurt. I laugh.

"You don't think that I'm crazy?"

"I already thought you were crazy, this doesn't surprise me." She teases and I look at her flabbergasted. "I'm kidding. I just had a guy in who has a problem with shoving his girlfriend's shows up his well… you know. Crazier than that is that he calls himself trunk." I laughed, oh Marianne what would I do without you.

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My phone rings and I answer without looking at the caller ID, big mistake.

"Hello?" I ask into the phone.

"How can you be friends with him? He just tried to kill our brother." Elena's whiny voice filters through the speaker. Brother? Kill?

"Can you tell me what you're talking about before you start in on me?" as she told me what happened I clenched my jaw and hung up before speeding to the mansion.

I slap Klaus around the head, "Ow. What the bloody hell was that for?" Klaus whines and rubs the spot that I hit with all my might and force.

"You killed my brother, you jerk." I slap him again this time on the cheek, he barely flinches but winces a little. "You killed my brother. You can't keep doing things like this Niklaus. It's like adding gasoline to fire, soon you're going to go down in flames. My sister and her friends already hate you and have made it their life's mission to kill you, don't encourage them." I storm out and slam the door behind me for dramatic affect.

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"Ric, hey." I say from beside his hospital bed, I had gotten a very vague voicemail from Meredith Fell, she use to babysit me, tried to teach me everything she could about the human anatomy and aneurisms, she would also smuggle me brownies when I was grounded and taught me the best study methods. It hurt that it came from her and not Ric, Elena or Jeremy. "How you feeling?" I ask and he groans.

"Like I got hit by a car." He groans and scrunches his eyes up in pain.

"Good." I say and push him back down when he attempts to sit down. "You're stupid, you know that? Running out in front of a car? Dumb move."

"If I didn't then it would've been Jeremy."

"Maybe a hit to the head might do him and his attitude a little good." I say and smirk, he chuckles lightly. "But seriously, tie him down to a chair or something because I hate hospitals. They remind me of death." As I say this I do realize how dumb I sound.

"You need to come back home. Were falling apart without you. I'm failing, Jeremy he listens to you." I shake my head, I think it's proven that that is wrong.

"You're doing fine." I say and he shakes his head, he has so little self-worth. He views himself as a drunk failure, I don't know where these thoughts have come from, but there toxic. "You are. Better than I could, or Elena could. You've helped Jeremy, Elena and I through so many rough patches in our lives." He blushes lightly and turns his head away. "By the way, I think Meredith has the hots for you. Go get her tiger." I say and laugh, to add dramatic effect I claw the air like a cat. He laughs and I exit.

I leave the hospital and sit down on a bench outside. I savour the feeling of the air lightly brushing against my skin and blowing my hair across my shoulders, moments like these are rare these days. I never get a moment to relax, not really, there is always something at the back of my mind, even when I'm sleeping.

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Time to face the music. I walk into my bedroom and lay down on my bed, perfection. I sigh and sink into the covers even further and pat Smidge as she curls up beside me and nuzzles into my palm.

"Your back." Elena observes from my doorway.

"Yep." I say and roll over to look at her. "You have that look on your face."

"What look?" she asks and feigns, terribly, innocence.

"The look that says 'something happened and I need to talk about it'." I say and raise a sceptical eyebrow when she shakes her head, after a staring contest she sighs and enters the bedroom, closing the door securely behind her. I rub the spot beside me and she sits cross-legged beside me like a little kid in preschool.

"Damon kissed me."

"Finally." She looks at me shocked, "Perfect combinations are something to be cherished in an imperfect world. And you two together, perfection. You make him want to be better, he gives you freedom and a sense of feeling alive, you've been like a walking zombie for so long and for the first time in a long time, I'm seeing you smile and it's because of him. So I say go for it."

"But Stefan…"

"Is the boring and safe option. Take a risk. Haven't you ever heard of risk and reward?" I ask and she nods. "But if Stefan makes you happy…" I pause and see the cogs in her brain whir. "Personally I'm team Damon but go with your heart and all that mumbo jumbo."

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I had to pick the lock of the sheriff's house to get in because I couldn't find the spare key. Must have forgotten after everything that has happened, it would be weird if I remembered. I walk through the door and start to hang streamers across the living room of Caroline's house.

"What are doing here?" I hear Caroline's voice behind me and I nearly fall off of the ladder I'm on.

"Caroline, hey, what are you doing here?" shit, surprise over.

"I live here." She says and raises a sculpted blond brow.

"It was meant to be a surprise." I sigh and get down from the ladder and grab the big banner I made overnight. It had 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROLINE!' written on it in multi-coloured glitter. Frills hung from it and poppers went off as it unravelled, I grimaced guiltily and she smiles softly. "I wanted to make today special but I've been so preoccupied with stupid crap that shouldn't have come before your b-day." She nods and rushes over and hugs me.

"I'm glad you're here. And I'm sorry but I don't feel like celebrating today."

"You too?" I ask and she nods, I remember my birthday, I didn't want to celebrate because it was a reminder that I'm dead. "That sucks." I say simply and put my work of art down, truthfully it looks like shit really. "Wanna go somewhere we haven't been to since… before all this crap?" I ask already forming an idea in my mind.

"Where?"

"You'll see." I say mysteriously and grab her arm before we vanish.

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I ended up having to put a bandana over Caroline's eyes because she kept on trying to peek whenever I told her to close her eyes.

"Where are we going?" Caroline laughed and tugged at the bandana over her eyes.

"Just wait." I say and then I see it. "Ok, you can take the bandana off." I say and she rips it off and gasps at our old tree house that we haven't been to in forever.

"Oh my god. It's still here. This is amazing." She says shocked. "Let's go." She says and tugs my arm over to the tree. We climb up and sit in the small tree house that neither of us have been to in so long.

"Now the second part of your birthday…" I say and pull out the box that was wrapped in crapply put together baby blue tissue paper that was tearing. She opens it and gasps.

"Is this…" I nod. I remember when we were only twelve and would go to the jewellery store and look at all the pretty diamonds and something one day caught Caroline's attention but we never had enough money. We had so many memories from when we were children, we used to pretend we were twins because we looked so alike, we used to sneak into my aunt Jenna's closet and dress in her clothes, shoes and apply her makeup horrible, we use to make balls of dough and throw it at the ceiling and walls (it drove our mothers crazy).

I had bought the diamond necklace that she had fallen in love with at first sight. It was extravagant and elegant and very Caroline. She put it on with a giddy smile and hugged me. "Thank you, thank you thank you." She said about a thousand times. She turned her attention to the walls and grazed her fingers over the finger painting we had done and passages we had written. Promises to each other.

"Promise to always be BFF's." I read out loud, that was the first promise.

"Promise to always go to Maxine's dress shop before Laci's." Caroline read and we both laughed, still a tradition we upheld.

"Promise to NEVER wear blue with orange." I read out next, oh god, our little brains certainly knew us well, and we hadn't changed that much really. We were just a few years older with better hair and no acne. Oh, and we drank blood to survive, but that's all just details.

"Promise to never break the girl code and date ex-boyfriends." Caroline read and we nodded, we had never broken that.

"Promise that whenever we fight, we always make up. ALWAYS." I read and we smiled.

"Hey what's this?" Caroline asked and pointed at a bunch of directions.

"Directions."

"Where to?"

"I don't remember." I say.

"Well, let's go and find out." Caroline says and stand up, brushing off her pants.

"Alright then. I think we're gonna need a shovel."

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Left at the stream. Go straight until you find the spook tree, turn right until you get to the old stump. Stomp. We completed the instructions and started to dig where we are meant to.

"Hey I think I hit something." Caroline says all excited and energised.

"What is it?" I ask and come over to sit beside her as she pulls out a silver box.

"A box." Caroline is surprised, I can tell that she's also a little disappointed, I think she was expecting gold or treasure.

We take the lid off and now I remember. "Our time capsule." I breathe out and Caroline squeals. We had to make one for school when we were eight, our teachers made us wait ten years and now it's been ten so this is the perfect time. I pull out a picture of the two of us, nearly identical, Caroline had her hair in pigtails and I had mine in braids and we were grinning at the camera. Caroline pulled out the next item, it was two charm bracelets, we had gotten them for our birthdays, the charms dangled and clanked together, next was the necklaces we used to have, mine was a ruby A and hers was a pearl C. then I pulled out the letters we wrote to ourselves.

To me in the future,

I really really really REALLY hope that when I'm reading this I'm married to Johnny Depp. If not then Leonardo Decaprio would do. And if I'm not still BFF's with Caroline then I'm really mad at me. This whole writing to yourself thing is hard so don't judge the fact that we sound crazy. Also if Elena is still mad at me for stealing her journal and hiding it then you can tell her that I hid it in her floorboards, genius. If she hasn't found it then I'm ashamed to say that were related, and if I've caved then I'm ashamed at you. Also I think Jeremy is stealing from our candy stash. Now onto the deep, meaningful stuff, don't be friends with Bonnie, continue to tease Jeremy (it's what big sis's are for), bribe aunt Jenna into giving us ice cream, ask mom to make me those choc chip pancakes of her, ask dad to teach us how to hot wire a car because I feel as though it might come in handy one day.

PS. Everybody knows I'm awesome so don't let them forget it.

From me in the past (or the now (whatever))

I laughed and nearly cried at the same time. Mini me was a smart ass.

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After laughing at the minds of our younger selves we decided to go back to hers and eat ice cream while watching the notebook- it's a classic. The chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams is legendary. we walked through her backdoor and were startled when all of a sudden Elena, Matt, and Bonnie jump out with balloons, party hats, and a terribly done up sign they all yell surprise scaring us, even though were vampires were not immune to surprise.

"Happy birthday!" Matt yells after

"What are you guys doing here?" Caroline asks looking like a deer in head lights.

"Well you blew off school and missed our work of birthday art, so..." my annoying sister says with her stupid doe eyes and whore lips. Yeah, I'm still VERY mad about the whole Mikael thing. Why is she always trying to kill my friends? Just because I'm more awesome. I mean I know we had a heart to heart, well my version at least, but it is so not forgive and forget.

"Change into warmer clothes, we are going to the fall. S'mores, camp fire." Bonnie demands and for once I actually agree with her.

"Cake! Like when we were little." The she devil says. And now the idea doesn't sound too good. Worst idea I've ever heard.

"Except for the tequila!" Matt says sings, and now it sounds like a good idea again. God to go or not to go? Pros and cons. Pros: make Caroline happy, tequila, cake. Cons: Elena, Bonnie.

"Thanks, guys. Really, I'm just not feeling my birthday this year." Caroline says and I look at her sympathetically. Crap feelings.

"I'm sorry, what? You've already claimed your birthday as everyone's favorite day of the year." Bonnie says in disbelief.

"Yeah, and now, it's just a reminder that technically, I'm dead." She waits a second before resuming her talk. "Look, I didn't even like 17. And the only point to being 17 is to get to 18. It's a filler year; I'm stuck in a filler year." Caroline says and if I didn't know Caroline then I would have thought she wasn't about to cry, but I do and I know she's cracking.

"You're not stuck, Caroline." Elena says and I nod, finally she's doing something other than being a nuisance.

"Yeah I am, but its okay. You know, it's all good, I'll be fine. But I just need some time to wallow in it." Caroline lies.

"Pity parties always end in hanging yourself in your closet with a fifty dollar Chanel knock off scarf.

"Okay, well I think I have another idea." Elena says with a devious glint in her eyes.

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We arrive at an old, falling apart crypt that is decorated with webs and vines, deep in the woods, surrounded by trees and leaves. Dead leaves crunch underneath my leather boots. "Are you trying to take my position of BFF?" I ask jokingly to Elena. On my way inside web catches in my hair and gets stuck in my lip gloss, I sputter and make weird flicking motions with my hands looking like a fish out of water until the wind floats the web away. "Gross." I mumble under my breath and duck so that no web can get me.

"This is creepy, even for us." Bonnie says as we look around the Salvatore crypt. I know the world I live in is basically people dying but graveyards and crypts still creep me out.

"Amen to that." I say to Bonnie and grimace as I see names printed onto the wall, there are bodies behind that… ew.

"No, Caroline was right... technically, she's dead. Sorry. But you don't need a birthday, you need a funeral. You need to say goodbye to your old life, so that you can move on with your new one." Elena says and I nod, wow that's a good idea. It's exactly what Caroline needs.

"Okay. Here lies Caroline Forbes—" Caroline starts and Elena takes over.

"-Cheerleader, Miss Mystic Falls, third grade hopscotch champion..." I laugh and Elena sticks candles into Caroline's birthday cake with each word she speaks.

"...friend, daughter, overachiever..." Bonnie says.

"My blonde bestie and personal shopper, tequila supplier, great shoulders and had a smile that could light up a room. Still does." I say and Caroline beams. "And a hard-ass." I add on and she glares playfully.

"...Mean girl, sometimes, no offense." Matt says.

"Ah, none taken." Caroline says.

"She was 17, and she had a really good life. So rest in peace, so that she can move forward. That's what you really need. What we all really need." Elena pauses, "Amen, or cheers or whatever. Bonnie?" Bonnie takes that as her signal to light the candles with her witchy juju.

"Nice! Okay, make a wish." Elena says and hold the cake out towards Caroline who in return closes her eyes and waits a beat before blowing out the candles.

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We were all digging into the cake and sipping tequila. Matt takes the bottle of tequila from Bonnie, but Elena snatches it from his hand and drinks.

"Ah-ah. I need it more than you do, trust me. Caroline, what are you doing?" Elena says, not quite sure how that made sense… Matt had more crap to deal with in my opinion. Crappy friends, being dragged into the supernatural because of previously mentioned crappy friends, dead sister also because of crappy friends, absent mother who actually slept with one of those crappy friends, dumped by crappy friends, I could go on but it making me feel like a crappy friend. Although I would love to speak up, I don't. I'm trying to filter. Marianne thinks it would be best to keep a leash on my pie hole that always opens at the wrong time.

Caroline stops texting and tries to act natural, she's a terrible actress. "What? Nothing." Such a little liar. She gives the gals from pretty little liars a run for their money. Except for the fact that she sucks at it.

"Okay, you're a bad sober liar; you're an even worse drunk liar." Elena says and I nod along to her words.

"Amen to that." I say and raise my cake.

"I might have texted Tyler." Caroline says ashamedly.

"Caroline..." Elena trails off in that judgmental way. Seriously? What is the beef with Tyler? So what if he's sired to Klaus? It's not like Klaus is gonna make him do something stupid. Right?

"What? I'm delicate." Caroline defended her harmless actions. I think Elena is forgetting that Tyler is our friend.

"Give her a break! You can't control what everyone does all the time." Bonnie snaps at Caroline, I swallow my cake and loo at Bonnie shocked. She never usually snaps at Elena she saves it for Damon. And occasionally me. Depends.

"Wow." Elena says and I can see she's shocked as well. Guess she wasn't expecting that. Maybe Bonnie's had a mental break. Finally.

"Ouch, Bon." Matt speaks a second after her outburst, breaking the awkward silence thankfully.

"Sorry, I know its Caroline birthday, funeral or whatever but, I just feel it's really wrong that you compelled Jeremy to leave town." Bonnie says. Wait. A. second.

"What?" I ask totally confused. "Leave town?" I screech and it grates on my throat.

Elena ignores me and continues to justify what she did to Bonnie and leaving me too fume. "I'm doing it to protect him, Bonnie. I want to give him a chance to have a quiet normal life." She says and my draw drops. What a cop out.

"He should be able to choose how he wants to live it, you're taking his choices away." I nod along to Bonnie's words, who knew. I'm actually agreeing with the she-witch-bitch.

"Bonnie, you can't tell him." Elena pleads, and here I thought we were having a fight free day. And worse was that this is Caroline's funeral.

"Why? Are you gonna compel me not to?" Bonnie snaps.

"She may not. But I can and unlike her you can't compel me." I say smugly.

"Don't Aria." Elena pleads and widens her doe eyes dramatically. "He needs a chance at a normal life."

"I agree. He should. But of his own free will." I say and Bonnie nods and we stand shoulder to shoulder, we were actually ganging up on Elena. Ha. Never thought I would see the day.

"He would never leave." Elena says.

"It's not like anywhere he goes he would have a normal life. I'm a hybrid, you're a doppelganger. Trouble and death follows us around. He would never escape that. At least he would still have his free will. Get Damon to uncompel him. Make him take it back." I yell and everybody flinches. I know my eyes are gold with snaking veins.

"You know, you guys are ruining a perfect funeral." Matt says and I nearly growl at him before reigning in my inner beast. I retract the veins and the gold dissipates and my usual blue replace them.

"I'm sorry." Bonnie apologizes.

"Well I'm not." I say and glare even harder at Elena.

"I'm just gonna go sleep it off or something. Happy birthday." She says to Caroline who was sitting quietly and leaves.

"Sorry Caroline." I apologize specifically only to Caroline and give her a hug and leave.

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The next morning, I was standing with Elena and Jeremy in the foyer. Elena hugs Jeremy, "You guys are gonna have to let me go, eventually." Jeremy says to us.

"Be safe, okay?" Elena says.

"Yeah, okay, alright. Alaric is waiting." Jeremy says as Bonnie arrives.

"Good, you haven't left yet." Bonnie says to Jeremy.

"What are you doing here?" Jeremy asks.

"I came to say goodbye." Bonnie says and they hug, Jeremy grabs his bags and looks at us all before walking outside. I had refused to say goodbye, adamant that we would see each other again so there was no need.

"wait." I yelled and rushed after him. This was Mystic Falls, life could change on a dime.

"Yeah?"

"Goodbye." I say and hug him. I let him go and open the door of Alaric's car. Jeremy throws his stuff in and turns back around.

"Don't miss me too much." He teases.

"Trust me, I'm planning on replacing you with a more handsome brother the second you pull out of the drive way." I say and smile. He smiles and kisses my forehead. "But seriously… don't get into too much trouble."

"Your version of trouble? Remind me. Its very shady." He smiles as he teases me. I punch his bicep.

"Stay away from guys with accents, their trouble." I say and he laughs.

"Yet half of your friends are British." He says with a raised eyebrow, I laugh and he sits in the passenger seat.

"Stay safe. Because if you die, I'll kill you." I say seriously and he laughs. I close the door for him and watch as the car drives away, I had to convince myself that it was for the best, we should have done this a long time ago, sent Jenna with him. Maybe she would still be alive. I sigh and turn back around to go back inside and sleep. Sleep, my best friend.

A/N: ok so I know this took forever, but I'm in year nine which means study and drama. Hope you guys can understand, shit gets in the way unfortunately. I have plans for the next chapter, I'm pretty sure it will be the episode where Elijah comes back, it will be WAY more interesting then this boring chapter.