Take me to church — Hozier

It seemed in Mystic Falls it was out with one threat, and in with another. Klaus had all but disappeared without word, and the entirety of the castle had died in a fire. Now however, it seemed a new threat was in town after a man professionally hunted Tyler Lockwood inside his own home.

If he was not a hybrid, he would have been dead.

That particular man was lurking outside of the door of newly turned Elena Gilbert, and seeing as she was bored, and couldn't be killed like a normal vampire, Gia took the bait. What was the worst that could happen.

"Can I help you with something?" The hybrid asked with a warming smile, folding her hands behind her back.

"Not unless you can get her out of the bathroom." The man answered, turning away from the door to look in her direction, wearing a smile as he did. "You must be..."

He extended his hand, and seeing as she wore her black laced funeral gloves, Gianina accepted, and shook it firmly.

"Gianina, the friend of the poor girl suffering in the bathroom." The Salvatore woman laughed lazily. "She had a mishap, my brother is coming now to give her a change of clothing, you shouldn't be waiting much longer."

Gia had heard the phone-call between Elena and Damon, she knew the Gilbert girl was having trouble with feeding, and she knew they were keeping this from Stefan.

Seeing as she was Mystic Fall's outsider, she figured she'd use any information she could get to her advantage, and with this, Damon needed to be on her side.

"Oh, you again. Don't tell me you're trying to get with my sister." Damon spoke as he walked into the room with Elena's dress. "Do you like to stalk small town funerals and chat with the grieving ladies."

The Gilbert girl swung open the door, and Damon handed her the dress with a smile, Elena nodding thankfully towards him and Gianina before peaking her head out the door.

"Sorry. I-..I uh spillrd coffee all over my dress." She explained, the man inching closer to see what was in the room.

Elena quickly shut the door before he could see anything suspicious, leaving Damon and Gianina to work as a team, which they tended to be good at every now and again.

"We haven't properly met like I have with your sister. I'm Connor, Jordan." He extended his hand, with his vervain glove which seemed to be his signature move.

"Damon." The Salvatore man introduced. "Germaphobe."

"Yup, won't even hug me on my birthday." Gianina commented, shaking her head to go along with the lie. "If he could remember what day it was, of course."

"My sister, always with the jokes." It was evident Damon was getting annoyed as he laughed dryly, and knocked at the bathroom door. "Everything okay in there?"

"Yeah, just a minute!" Elena shouted back, her voice weak, and frail.

Connor looked at the sibling pair suspiciously, and it seemed as if he was already cautious of them, no doubt thanks to Damon's standoffishness.

"So, what brings you to town, Connor? I'm sure its not the church." Gianina spoke, keeping the man distracted so he wouldn't be suspicious of how long Elena was taking.

"I'm actually in Environmental clean up." The Jordan man answered, eying Damon. "Heard there was a bit of a pollution problem."

It seemed Gia's efforts to keep the vampire thing a secret was for no reason, cause Damon caused the mans suspicions to grow way passed saving.

"Huh, well, I was unaware. I breathe pretty easy." The Salvatore man spoke, Elena finally leaving the bathroom.

If she had taken any longer, thing could have ended in that room very badly.

"I hope you have as good of a day as the circumstances allow, Mr. Jordan." Gia nodded at the man, and was the first to walk away.

If he started to get all stake happy, let it be on Damon for being such a dick.

Gianina was continuing in her effort to better her relationship with Jeremy yet again. She understood everything that vampires had taken from him, and would give him all the time he needed to heal from it. However, she wouldn't give up on their friendship, not when it was so important to her.

She sat between him and Matt in the church pew, waiting for the service to start.

She turned to see Elena come in, Damon, then Stefan not too far behind, and all of them looking tense.

"Hey, you okay?" Matt asked as Elena took the last seat in the pew.

"I'm alright, just a little out of it." The Gilbert girl reassured, nodding her head.

"Hey, April was looking for you. She needed help with her speech or something." Jeremy spoke to his sister.

"Do you know where she is?" Elena asked.

The trio beside her shrugged as Mayor Lockwood began to speak in front of the town.

"This is the time that if anyone wants to speak they can. I know that April Young wanted to say a few words about her dad. Uh, April?" The crowd looked around for her but, still, she was not appearing. "April? You still here, honey? Is there anyone else who would like to share a recollection or memory about pastor young?"

The vampire hunting man of god, no thanks.

Slowly, Elena stood up, surprising them all. Each of the vampires in the room, who were in different rows exchanged worried glances towards each other, not knowing what she was about to do.

"Come on up, Elena." It was a ballsy move to do this with a vampire hunter running loose but, the Gilbert girl made her way up to the stage.

Pale, and weak looking,

"Does your sister look okay to you?" She asked the Gilbert boy, who looked just as concerned.

"I—... I don't know. She doesn't tell me much of anything lately." Jeremy responded with a slight sigh.

Reassuringly, Gianina grabbed his hand, and he accepted, his body relaxing slightly, happy to have his friends support.

Not many people cared about little Jeremy Gilbert with Elena as his sister.

"I, uh, when I talked to April earlier she was kind of nervous about coming up to speak and... now that i'm up here i'm kind of nervous too." The new vampire explained with a chuckle, pausing for a moment. "The worst day of loving someone, is the day that you... lose them."

The smell of blood entered Gia's nostrils and it was only then she realized she hadn't been drinking as much as she should have. Her body was the one tense now, and she narrowed in her ears to hear what was happening. The pitter patter of blood spilling behind her made her mouth dry, the girl licking her lips.

"Nobody move, don't turn around. It's a trap." Damon spoke to the group, everyone doing much better at containing themselves than Elena who was now heavily breathing on stage.

"I—..uhm.." just in time, Stefan made it on stage to remove her, and slowly brought her down the aisle.

Everyone stood to sing together as Elena and Stefan joined them in their pew.

"What is wrong with her?" Matt questioned.

"She's hungry, she hasn't fed." Stefan explained, holding onto a shaking Elena.

"So get her out of here." The Donavan boy reasoned as the whole church sang.

"If he could, he would. There's a hunter watching, my guess from above and he's already suspicious enough about her." Gianina let in a gulp, the smell of blood still enticing her but, not enough for her to go crazy over it.

"I'm going to go rip his head off now." Damon spoke from a pew not too far away.

"Cause that's always the answer." Gianina rolled her eyes, and stood straighter in place.

"If you do that, Damon, you risk exposing us all, especially Elena." Stefan tried to reason.

"Well, I think that risk will be slightly diminished when I you know, rip his head off." The eldest Salvatore said with a shrug.

"Stefan, I am losing it." Everyone continued to look forward, trying not to raise any suspicions but, Elena was getting worse every moment she tried to hold herself back.

"Elena, feed from me. It's okay, everyone with think you're upset just, feed from me." Matt spoke, trying to both stop Damon from killing anyone, and make up for Elena turning in the first place.

Anything for a doppelgänger.

As Elena finished feeding, and the song ended, Tyler walked passed them all and straight to the front. Considering the hunter knew he was a vampire, this was incredibly surprising, and even bolder than what Elena had done. What Gia couldn't understand was why he was doing it.

Still, they all sat to listen.

"I'd like to say a few words about Pastor Young." He spoke into the microphone as he made it up the stage. "Back in first grade, I was a brat who couldn't be bothered with team sports. Didn't care much about anything that didn't affect me. But he was the one who made me understand how important it is to be apart of a team... a community. Of giving yourself up for the sake of—"

A gun shot went off, and Tyler went flying backwards, some woman in the crowd letting off a loud shriek. Elena, Caroline, Gianina, and Mayor Lockwood all ran to the stage to make sure that Tyler was okay. When she reached it, Care was pulling the stake out of Tyler's chest.

"I'm gonna kill that bastard." He spoke in between pants hurt but, obviously okay.

This hunter was going to be a bigger pain in the ass than they thought.

Gianina could tell who it was by the soft knock on her door. She took her time answering, dreading that there would be some negative news that wasn't able to be delivered over the phone. Finally, she made her way open, placed her hand on the doorknob, and once it was unlocked, she swung it open.

"Hello, brother." She breathed out, her expression plain as she looked down at his hands where he was holding a lantern. "What are you doing here?"

"Come with me." Stefan grabbed his sisters hand with a smile and began to drag her down the hall. Gia shut the door before she was pulled down the stairs, the girl certainly confused.

Living right by the towns square had its perks, it was absolutely beautiful, especially at night in front of the clock tower.

"What are we doing?" Gianina questioned with furrowed brows, her brother stopping in front of a bench.

"I realized tonight, while I was with my friends doing this, that something was missing." Stefan let out a sigh as he set everything in his hands down. "You are my sister, and I know I don't act like it much but, whenever I need it you're there and i'll never be able to thank you enough for that."

"Stefan—" her brother interrupted the girl but, all she could think about was the fact that earlier in the day, she didn't say anything to him about Elena's blood problem.

"We lit lanterns in the name of people who we lost but haven't grieved yet, and I realized that all those years ago when we turned and Katherine supposedly died, you lost the old you. We both did, and so much happened we didn't get to mourn ourselves the right way." Stefan handed his sister, and took one of his own. "I'm hoping that we can both heal from everything that had happened, and move forward from all the fights we've had."

Gianina smiled to herself and looked at the lantern in her hand, since she returned to Mystic Falls, this is all she wanted, from either of her brothers.

"Give me that damn lighter." Gia spoke with a smile and a laugh, Stefan doing the same as he handed one to her.

They both lit it with separate lighters, and together, the siblings let their lanterns fly above the clocktower, letting go of their past.

Two Salvatores united.

Authors note:
Hey! I'm sorry if this was a boring chapter, things won't be too interesting until they start looking for the cure.

Opinions on Stefan and Gia getting closer?

Hope you enjoyed!