"Miss Gilbert?"

Sheriff Forbes stood on the porch of Grace's home. She had been here dozens of times as the families always had been close. But mostly she had been here to walk her daughter Caroline over when she was younger.

That was the odd thing. Since when did Sheriff Forbes call her ‚Miss Gilbert'? She knew Grace since she was a baby and when she'd been a teenager, she even entrusted her Caroline to watch over her and Elena when she was working late.

Confusion was visible on her face, but deep inside her she knew that something terrible had happened. Her parents and Elena weren't back home from that stupid party. It was odd but Grace had thought that they just had stopped somewhere to grab something to eat.

"Can I come in?"

Grace nodded, barely holding herself together. She made space for Sheriff Forbes to come in and for some minutes, her life moved in slow motion. The young woman already had realized that this would change her whole life, but her mind was still fighting it.

Together with Sheriff Forbes, she sat down in the kitchen and she examined the face of the women she had known for her whole life. Grace always had been good at watching people. Usually people had more than one expression on their faces. Mostly one they wanted the people to see and another expressing what they truly felt or thought. But on the Sherifs face was only one emotion visible: pity. It seemed to be a true feeling, but Grace couldn't decide whether she pitied herself for having to tell a girl that she lost everything or if she pitied that Grace actually lost everything. Maybe a thad bit of both, but Sheriff Forbes was a good person, so she most likely really felt sorry.

"I'm so sorry to tell you...to tell you that your parents died in a car accident."

Strangely Grace was so calm at that moment. She just sat there and stared at the scratched wood of the old dining table. So many happy memories clung to it. Even though she always had found this piece of furniture ugly, it helped her focus.

"Miss Gilbert?...Um, Grace? Grace, are you alright?"

Grace only then realized that she had been staring at one point of the table for minutes now. That must've looked really creepy. A lot of people found Grace creepy and maybe she had to admit that she was. She often reacted differently from what was usual.

But loosing her parents wasn't usual. Of course she wasn't alright.

"Yes, yes. I'm alright...You said my parents. Where's Elena?"

Sheriff Forbes gave her a worried look. She was acting too rational. Grace's head was spinning but her brain always was reliable in panic or stress situations. Asking about her sister was a proper thing to do, though she knew that it was Elena that had called her parents off to pick her up from this party she never was supposed to go. Through the always too loud speaker of their phone, she had heard that Elena had trouble with Matt and that she hadn't had a ride back home. The good parents they were they instantly went to their car to get Elena.

That's why Grace couldn't be mad. It wasn't Elena's fault, of course it wasn't. Accidents happen. In that moment Grace was happy that her mind protected itself by not letting any emotions come to surface. She was now the oldest Gilbert and she needed to take care of things.

"She's at the hospital. It's a miracle, she isn't seriously injured."

Again Grace nodded making an inner checklist about the things she had to do now. She stood up and Sheriff Forbes followed her to the door.

"Grace, if you need any help, just..."

The young woman flashed her a friendly smile and stood straight, but at the same time she wished to punch that look of pity out of the Sheriffs' face. But Grace knew that she meant well and that she was just doing her job.

"No, I'll take care of everything."

Since that moment everyone waited for Grace to break down, like any normal person would. But she never did, at least not to the outside. She never cried, she never screamed, she never blamed Elena or was mean to anyone.

She took care of everything. But when the funeral was done and everything settled, she packed her bags and left Mystic Falls.

...

Grace looked up from the exam in front of her and to the clock. Wow, she had been daydreaming for five minutes. Fortunately she had already been finished with her exam on historical linguistics fifteen minutes ago. Still, she never had been pulled into some kind of flashback like that. Her thoughts had wandered but usually they never went into her past, especially not to that moment. She was a person to look forward.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she leaned back and studied the sheets in front of her. They were written to the edges with her crappy handwriting. Grace had always been more of a person to type, she hated to see her handwriting, but for exams it unfortunately was a requirement. She also hated that she had to write an exam about historical linguistics, she rather would've liked to write a term paper on this broad field of her history studied. Although she wasn't an expert of language, she found it fascinating how the development of a little variant in language become such a big change that today Old English felt like a foreign language. But a term paper on that topic would've been about the development of pidgin languages during times of slavery. Maybe she could write about that in an upcoming seminar.

The professor in front of the mass of people told his students to end their writing and ironically, like always, panic started to spread and the students wrote even faster. Grace just smiled while the sound of pens scraping on paper became louder.

Some minutes later, Grace stood outside the lecturing hall and turned her phone back on. The other students around her were chattering about how hard the exam was and how they were going to fail. Grace was sure that she wouldn't fail. She never did. At beginning of her studies she would not find any friends like in school, but the environment of the university made things easier for Grace. It was okay to work hard, but it was also ok to not study at all, but the good students always were the state-of-the-art. People looked up to her and slowly, but steady, Grace got out of her tight up stereotype. She started to go to parties, she got drunk way too often, she started to laugh, she started to be honest and show emotions. It was a good thing. Grace was happy here, happier than she ever had been.

An unknown number had called her four times during the exam. Grace frowned when the number showed up again. Unknown numbers never were a good sign, but still, she answered the call.

"Miss Gilbert?"

The caller spoke before Grace could say anything. A shiver ran down her spine, a feeling of deja vu crept up. That she just had been thinking about the exact same situation didn't make it any better.

Who had died now?

It wasn't Sheriff's Forbes voice that spoke to her, but still this just felt too familiar for her.
When Grace didn't say anything, the person on the line continued to speak. Self-confident, chatty, Grace noted.

"Miss Gilbert, I'm calling to let you know that Miss Sommers gave up her position as a legal guardian for your siblings. We know that you already have refused to do that on your own, but there's no one else to do that. The next step would be to look for a family to stay at for your brother and your sister, but of course it would be better if they could stay at their home. So I want to ask you to reconsider."

Silence erupted and Graced clutched her phone hard. This was a lot to take in. Jenna had volunteered to be Jeremy's and Elena's legal guardian. Everyone had understood that Grace wasn't ready to do it and they let her go off to university, no one officially blamed her. Grace and Jenna had had their personal problems over the time, as they were only 4 years apart from age and grown up like sisters, but Grace had been grateful that Jenna took the job over. It was strange that she gave it up. Jenna wasn't a person to do that.

"Miss Gilbert, are you still there?"

Grace was ripped out of her thoughts by the busy, but still cheery voice. She had to make a choice, but to be honest, there wasn't one. Of course she couldn't abandon her siblings again. She couldn't allow them to be ripped out of their home, to endure the horrible life of orphans.

"Yes...I mean, yes, I will do it."