Warnings: Not much in this one. A little day drinking, mentions of dad issues, and old vampire murders.
Author’s Note: I apologize for the time it has taken to get this first part out. Between getting that damn respiratory virus that was going around, the holidays and my visit to Mexico, writing was just difficult for me. But here it is and I hope you guys enjoy it.
"You've got to be kidding." Damon said as he looked at Elizabeth Forbes.
They had currently been standing in the middle of the Salvatore living room. It had been just hours after the new Mayor had taken over the office. In that time alone things had already been quickly changing. From Officer Forbes' perspective things were about to become interesting with these new found changes. She believed it was better to keep Damon in the loop than him find out later when the Mayor requested a meeting with him.
"He's doing this his way and creating a whole new council. There is nothing that I can do." Liz said as she placed her hands on her hips. "Founding families mean nothing to him in this moment or their status in this town."
"We must still have some kind of pull in this." Damon said trying to think of anything that they could possibly do to keep them all in the loop without having to sit around and wait.
"Unless you are extremely close friends with any of the Y/L/N Family, there is no way to get into any of the council meetings. I, thankfully, have known and been friends with his sister for some time and she trusts me." Liz said with a slight nod. "I'll try to keep you guys as updated as possible, but I have no idea how this is going play out."
"Y/L/N. Besides the obvious, why does that name sound familiar?" Damon asked. While it wasn't a name he had heard on a daily basis until Y/D/N came into town, at that moment it was sticking out in his mind but couldn't quite place where he has heard or seen that last name.
"His daughter was raised here in Mystic Falls. She's been the secretary to the Mayor's office for almost five years now. Mayor Lockwood had been the one to hire her in." Liz informed him. "You may know her name just by looking at some of the paperwork you come across from the office."
"Y/N?" Damon asked with a sigh. He remembered her from the occasional times he had seen her in passing. While he never actually spoke with her or gotten to know the woman, he knew who she was. “Why am I willing to bet anything that she was probably feeding her dad information that he needs to know about this town to make these changes?”
Liz shook her head. "Lets not jump to conclusions. I've known Y/N for a long time and I am certain she knows nothing about the supernatural world. Her Aunt has kept her in the dark for a reason."
"There is only one way to find out for sure." Damon said as he thought for a moment before he grabbed a hold of his jacket.
"Damon." Liz said with a warning tone.
"What?" He said giving her a small smirk. "It’s not like I'm going over there to kill her. Just to talk with her and see what I can possibly get out of her."
Liz sighed as she shook her head slightly. "Don't do anything stupid to draw more attention to yourself."
"I make no promises." Damon called out as he made his way out the door. Just as he was about to reach the door, Stefan and Elena walked in. “Liz has some news for you.” He said walking past them. “And she’ll fill you in on where I’m going.” He said before Stefan could ask.
Y/N had been sitting at the bar of the Mystic Grill. She held a drink in one hand, a pen in the other, while she looked over the pile of paperwork that had been sitting in front of her. Her Y/H/C hair had still been pulled up into a neat bun that she had yet to pull out since she had left the office over an hour ago. The heel of her black pumps tapped against the stool as her leg bounced slightly.
While she was all for her father becoming the Mayor of Mystic Falls, she hated all the paperwork that now needed to be done. All the paperwork that Mayor Lockwood had left unfinished needed to be compiled and on his desk by tomorrow morning. What also made things a bit difficult was her father’s request for specific files that she was going to have to track down. Many of those files were decades old and lost with in the archives.
From the corner of her eye she could see someone walk up to the bar beside her. “The last time I seen someone sitting here working away as hard as you are, he became a drinking buddy of mine.”
Y/N’s head turned slightly to look at the who had been speaking to her. “That position for me has been filled for quite some time.” She said before looking back down at the paperwork in front of her.
She knew exactly who had been speaking to her. Damon Salvatore definitely wasn’t a stranger to the town and she knew that. He was good looking and she was sure as hell he knew that about himself. While she did have a weakness for the man with gorgeous blue eyes, he had never once actually took the time to notice her as she had hoped he would.
Even at one of the recent Founders Party, she had tried speaking with him. Just a way to introduce herself and to try to get to know the man. He had only given her a vague answer before walking off to speak with Elena Gilbert. While Y/N wasn’t a jealous type, she knew when a person only had eyes for someone else. Before she could even try to get to know him, she decided against it.
“You can always have more than one drinking buddy.” Damon said as he took a seat on the stool next to her.
He watched as her Y/E/C scanned over the documents before her, before placing a ‘sign here’ post it sticker on the page before she continued on reading. The hand that held the glass slowly lifted, bringing the glass up to her lips as she took a drink. “Not interested.” She said once she had swallowed the amber liquid.
Damon had actually frowned at that and Y/N hadn’t missed it. A slight smirk pulled at the corner of her lips as she tried to focus on the paperwork in front of her. While she may have been acting as if she wasn’t at all interested, there was a part of her that had still been interested in the man sitting beside her. She just wasn’t going to give in, for fear that this was just something he was wanting to pass the time.
“Is there something I can help you with, Damon?” She asked, finally looking over at him. She placed the glass down and turned slightly towards him. She watched as his mouth opened slightly and closed soon after when he couldn’t get the words to pass his lips.
This definitely wasn’t what Damon was used to. He was used to women hanging on his every word, without compulsion needed. Of course he knew he could be an ass and just compel her for the information or to even just have her tell her father he needed to be on the council. But the necklace she was currently wearing, he was almost positive that it had vervain hidden with in.
“How about just having a drink or two with someone other than your drinking buddy?” He asked. When he saw her eyebrow raised, he lifted his hands up as if surrendering. “Just until you are done with work. I could really use an outside opinion on a few things.”
Y/N chuckled slightly. “Isn’t that what the bartender is for?”
Damon looked over at Matt and grimaced slightly. “About that, he knows all about the problems. Wouldn’t really help with needing an outsider’s opinion.”
Y/N looked over at the paperwork before looking back at Damon and sighing. “Fine you have until I am done with this stack.” She said as she patted the paperwork in front of her. “And you’re paying for my tab as well.” She said with a grin.
_____
“You’re kidding right?” Y/N asked as she laughed. The paperwork had been finished for quite some time, but the conversations they kept having had made it hard for her to decide it was time to leave.
“Not at all, there are several stories I could tell you about how easily it can be to embarrass my brother.” He said with a slight shake of his head. Damon had been telling her stories of his past that had kept Y/N laughing.
While it was completely off subject from what his ‘problem’ was, Y/N hadn’t seemed to mind. It didn’t hurt that she was slightly buzzed from the alcohol she had been consuming. It made things more interesting.
“That’s still not as bad as falling face first into a crowd at a festival in Richmond all because you were drunk enough to believe you could go crowd surfing.” Y/N said shaking her head with a smile on her face. Her hand absentmindedly reaching up to run her finger along a small scar that rested along her right temple.
“Oh I would have paid to have seen that.” He said giving her a smirk. “Now how exactly did the rebel child become the Mayor’s secretary?” He asked curiously. The whole time he hadn’t brought up her job at the Mayor’s office until now.
The smile she had from laughing fell slightly. “I was having a lot of problems out in Richmond and I when I came home, my Aunt had a job interview lined up for me. Surprisingly, I’ve been great at my job.”
“And how do you feel about your dad becoming Mayor?” Damon was sure that the way she answered this question would give him some of the answers he had been hoping for.
Y/N scoffed. “Not looking forward to it.” She shook her head slightly.
Damon’s eyebrow raised. “I take it the relationship between you isn’t a good one.”
“Nope.” she said popping the ‘p’. She looked down at the empty glass in her hand for a moment. “He was never around. To busy caring for his other family in some other state. But after news reached him that Richard Lockwood had died and that Carol took over, he decided to come here and try to ‘make the town better’.” Her finger ran along the rim of the glass. “Doesn’t help that he’s only been Mayor for a few hours and the mountain of paperwork I have to get to him by tomorrow morning is rather annoying.” She rolled her eyes slightly. “Both Richard and Carol both never gave me this much work in one night.”
There was a slight relief in Damon at her words. Liz had been right. Y/N had no clue about the secrets this town had hiding in its closet. He could see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice that there was nothing off about her previous bosses.
“How can I help to take some of the workload off?” He offered. While it had been mostly for the purpose of wanting to know more about the new Mayor’s plans, he figured it wouldn’t hurt to gain her trust in the process. If she was his possible ticket into the council meetings, he’d help in any way he could.
“Um,” Y/N bit down on her lip for a moment, unsure how to respond to the offer. She had always been one to get her work done on her own, never really needing help. Her eyes moved over to the clock hanging on the wall. Her shoulders sagged slightly as she took in the time and sighed as she looked over at him. “Unless you know someone in Archives that would be willing to let me stay after closing, there really isn’t much.”
A smirk grew on his lips. “Believe me, I can get you all the time you need.” He said as he stood up and pulled out his wallet, placing down a few bills to cover the drinks they had.
“Seriously?” Y/N asked hopeful.
“Seriously.” He said with a nod. “Come on, grab your stuff. As long as we get there before closing, we’ll be fine.”
A smile grew on her lips as she stood up from her seat and collected her things. She really hadn’t expected to be spending hours speaking with Damon. She had almost cursed at herself for not just finishing up her work and heading over to Archives to get the files she had needed hours ago. But with Damon wanting to help, she believed it wasn’t so bad.
It didn’t take long for them to get there and for Damon to compel the employee to let them stay until she had gotten the files they needed. Y/N had been grateful that she even had a chance to do this. She knew her father would be upset if she hadn’t gotten the files for him by tomorrow morning like he wanted them.
“What is it that we are looking for?” Damon asked as he stared at the several aisles of shelves that were filled with boxes.
Placing her bag on one of the tables, she pulled out a sheet of paper that held a long list of old case numbers. Folding it half and carefully tearing it to avoid any of the numbers and letters her father had written, she held one half to Damon.
“Old case files that for some reason my dad wants to look over.” She said as she watched him take the half she offered to him and looked at the numbers.
“He didn’t say why he needed them?” He asked as he began walking down one of the aisle, looking at the numbers written on boxes.
“Something about needing to check if the case files were done correctly.” she said shrugging slightly as she walked over to a different aisle, searching for the ones on her half of the list. “My uncle was a cop here in Mystic Falls before he retired. He used to complain that someone never did the paperwork right. Guess dad just wants to check in on that now that he has the power of being a Mayor.”
That had made Damon suspicious. Even as he found the first file on the list, he knew that Mayor Y/L/N was definitely checking in on things. The file that he currently held in his hand was an old case file for an ‘Animal attack’. While Damon had killed his fair share of people throughout his lifetime, he knew he wasn’t responsible for that death.
Closing the file, he tucked it under his arm and moved on to the next file. He was definitely going to be keeping a close eye on the new Mayor, if he was looking into old case files. He had just found the next one when he heard a gasp leave Y/N’s lips and files drop onto the floor.
“What is it?” He asked turning in the direction she had went to and tried peering over the boxes. When he couldn’t see her right away, he began looking down each aisle until he found her.
Y/N stood in the middle of the aisle, several case files surrounded her on the floor while she held one in her hand. As he walked closer to her, he could see tears flowing down her cheeks as she looked at the file.
“Y/N.” He said softly trying to get her attention.
She looked over at him, her Y/E/C eyes filled with tears as she did. “This is, um, my mom’s case file.” She said as she held up the file. “My Aunt always told me she had been in a horrible accident.”
“What happened to her?” Damon asked as he looked towards the case file. He could see that she was currently looking through the images that were attached to the file.
“The report says it was an animal attack.” Y/N shook her head slightly, trying to process the words she had read. “What animal does this?” She asked as she handed him the file. “I’ve never seen something rip someone’s head off like that.”
Taking the file from her, he looked down at the images, official statements and the reports. If there was one thing that Damon could tell from any kind of ‘Animal attack’ that Mystic Falls could try to cover up, it was the very thing he was looking at in the photographs. This was done by a vampire, no doubt, and he knew exactly what relative of his that had done it.
Here is the Lockwood family’s family photo! I’m thinking about posting more heavily edited shots of this family - less frequent posting, more in-depth story and editing. Any ideas?
he's the reason his adoptive parents are rolling in their graves right now but we love vampire babies nonetheless.... bc why is his storyline actually kind of sickening! ugh can you tell im excited??
{he’s going to be one of many different townies in my brand new rags legacy series…}
I finally got in-game and took a few pictures of this lovely new terrain I downloaded. I’m in the process of populating it and creating my main family, the Lockwoods.
I was going to post actual screenshots of one of the brothers, but my screenshot software apparently reset my shortcuts, so I didn’t get any of the photos saved. Oh, well! It’s (almost) the weekend, so I should be able to post a bit more after the school week ends.
