"You do realize we didn't actually know any of these people, right?" Emma questioned her mother as the two stood in the Mystic Falls church for the memorial service. "And that just two days ago, their little deputy pawns almost shot me?" She added on, not understanding why her mother was so adamant on the fact that they have to be there.

"I work at the hospital, I'm a part of this community. Not showing up is looking like I don't care. How can I ask for trust of my patients then?" Marissa pointed out, but noticed the silent message in Emma's expression. 'And me?' it basically asked. "And as you said, who knows how many people the council involved in their hunt and who might continue it. Avoiding it makes you seem suspicious."

"Well, I hope you don't expect me to cry too." Emma grumbled in a disinterested tone. Not only were the deaths of the council members a good thing for any supernatural creature living in Mystic Falls, but it was also a riddle. Something didn't make sense about it, and Emma didn't like it.

Was it really suicide? Did the humans really get so discouraged from their one loss in the battle against vampires that they just decided to call it quits? That made absolutely no sense. There had to be something else about it that she wasn't seeing. And she didn't like not knowing all the facts.

Sure it could have been one of the vampires who wasn't too thrilled about the idea of being hunted in their own town. But the list of possibilities was short. That night Klaus had left town shortly after Emma had seen him, but not before snapping Rebekah's neck and rendering her useless for the time frame in which the explosion happened. And Kol, who'd told her all about it, spent the night with her. The only other vampire she could think capable of committing mass murder was Damon. But his style was more along the lines of make them dinner, not blow them up.

"Well, at least put in an effort to show some kind of displeasure about it." Marissa scolded her daughter, with a shake of her head. Eyes scanning around the low number of people already gathered inside, she spotted someone in the crowd. "I'm gonna go talk to the Sheriff."

"Since when are you friends with the Sheriff?" Emma questioned in surprise, never having heard her mother even mention talking to Liz Forbes until today.

"For someone in our situation," Marissa said, and by the tone of her voice it wasn't hard for Emma to gather which situation her mother meant; her father, "A Sheriff who knows about vampires is exactly the type of friend I should have. Go find us some seats." Marissa instructed.

"Sure, I'll just jump to the bathroom before that." Emma nodded her head and watched her mother walk away before doing the same herself. She didn't feel like mingling around with all the mourning people, all discussing what had happened for any longer than she absolutely needed to. The bathroom seemed like a good place to give herself some extra time to avoid it.

And it wasn't hard to find. There were enough signs and directions plastered across the walls so that anyone could find whatever room they were looking for. Happy to find the bathroom unoccupied, Emma closed the door behind her. Moving to stand in front of the mirror, she let the water run and turn cold while she fixed some of the stray strands of hair that the soft wind messed up on the walk over.

Her little moment of peace was suddenly disrupted as someone rushed into the bathroom, the door closing behind them with a bang. Emma turned around, coming face to face with a rather terrible looking Elena. The Gilbert's wide eyes took in the brunette standing in front of the mirror, but before she could even decide what to do about it, she rushed to the toilet, basically collapsing beside it as her body started purging out the blood she'd consumed that morning.

"Oh crap." Emma muttered in surprise, really happy that blood didn't make her squeamish as she moved to Elena's side, pulling her hair back. "You're ok, I got your hair, let it out." She said in a gentle tone, knowing her thoughts weren't what Elena would want to hear in that moment. Her thoughts being 'What new hell was this now?!'

"Sorry." Elena muttered once the sickness passed for just a moment, allowing her to get to her feet with some help from the human who was giving her a look which clearly demanded answers.

"What happened to you? Have you been bit by a wolf or something?" Emma questioned, letting Elena take her previous spot by the sink. The Park's eyes scanned over Elena, searching for something, even though, as far as she knew, vomiting up blood wasn't usually a symptom of a werewolf bite.

"I don't-" Elena started to respond, but never got a chance to finish as another wave of nausea hit her and blood violently came out of her mouth, forcing her to puke it out into the sink before more of it splattered around the bathroom surface.

"Fuck." Emma muttered, luckily this new episode didn't last as long as the next, and soon enough Elena was done again. "Well, you ruined both your own dress and my purse." Emma commented as she took in the messy bathroom. That would most certainly need to be cleaned up before more people started arriving for the service.

"I think it's over." Elena announced, certainly sounding a bit better as she started to run her hands beneath the water, cleaning the blood off of them and her arms as well.

"Try this." Emma easily slipped off the sweater she'd been wearing, handing it to Elena after plucking her phone and inhaler out of the pockets. God was she grateful they were in there and not in her purse. That thing was definitely getting dumped in the trash.

"It doesn't cover it." Elena announced in a somewhat weepy voice as she realized Emma's sweater didn't cover the blood on her dress. She tried rubbing some of it off, making it less visible, but there was no point.

"Ok, take my phone. Call someone to bring you a replacement, I can go guard the door while we wait, or help you clean this up." Emma announced, handing Elena the phone. She didn't have any of her friend's numbers, but hopefully Elena knew at least one of them by heart.

"Emma." Elena calling her name, made the girl stop moving around and turn back around, worrying another blood vomiting attack was about to come. But instead, she was met with Elena's eyes showing a mix of fear and confusion. "Why are you helping? You don't like me."

"Yeah, well, as someone who's been in a similar position before, it's kinda hard to just be heartless about it." Emma said honestly. She may not like Elena, but in a situation like this, well, Emma was treating her the way she herself would like to be treated. And she could also understand the fear in Elena's eyes, having experienced it before. Somehow, it made her momentarily forget how unlikeable the Gilbert girl could be. "Want help cleaning this up while we wait?"

Elena didn't say anything, but she did nod her head in acceptance. Emma quickly started grabbing some paper towels and soaking them in water. While she did that, Elena finally dialled a number and called whoever's number it was she remembered first. Emma didn't point out the weirdness of it being her vampire boyfriend's brother instead of Stefan himself. She may be helping Elena when it came to whatever this new shitshow was, but she wasn't here for relationship advice.

Emma helped Elena clean up the surfaces and stuff anything ruined by blood into a trash bag they'd pulled out of the bin. Better to make the church cleaning staff look like they were a bit haphazard rather than like they were committing blood sacrifices in the bathroom. Emma was happy that the person Elena called was a vampire, because it made the retrieval of a new dress much faster, and soon enough Damon was calling to announce he was there.

However, nothing in this place could ever go smoothly. Not that any of this was good on its own. But why would the universe present them with one problem without stacking on top of it? This time it was in the form of someone trying to open the door of the bathroom in which they were hiding.

"Is that you at the door?" Elena questioned Damon over the phone, sending Emma an even more panicked look once she got a reply. And judging based on it, it was easy to deduce that the person trying to get inside wasn't Damon.

"Ok, stay in here." Emma said, glancing at herself in the mirror to make she herself had no visible bloodstains before moving to the door while Elena called out someone was in side in an attempt to stop the knob from moving. "I'll go stall."

The Park made her way out of the bathroom quickly, slipping through a barely opened door and coming face to face with a man she didn't recognize. Of course, she was new in town, but by now she'd gotten familiar with many of the faces of its inhabitants. And his was certainly a new one.

"Hi, sorry. My friend had a run in with a scalding cup of coffee, she'll be out shortly." Emma put on her best smile as she apologized to the man who stepped back once she appeared.

"Oh, I'm sure no one would see her out here while she waits." The man said in a reassuring tone, returning Emma's smile. However, she could see it right past it. While his lips smiled, his eyes kept shifting back to the door with an inquisitive look.

"You know how scalding coffee works, right? I don't think a girl in her underwear would be very appropriate for church." Emma let out a small laugh at her own words, but quickly sobered up from it. "Unless... Did you see it happen? Is that why you're here? Oh my god! She's in high school, you perv!"

"No! No! I didn't see anything!" He quickly raised his gloved hands, retreating to a completely different end of the hall while Emma continued to glare at him in disgust. Of course, she had no idea why the guy was so eager to get into the bathroom, but her accusation paired with the volume at which she'd said it was certainly efficient in making him back off. "Take your time." He said, sitting down on the old couch while he waited.

Her stalling techniques worked, because only a few moments later, a familiar voice sounded behind her. "You again." Damon's eyes, however, weren't focused on her, but instead the man himself as he came to stand beside Emma. "Stalking small town funerals?"

"I'll take that." Emma announced, grabbing the dress bag from Damon's hands and opening the door to the bathroom again. She didn't open it fully, even though the stranger wouldn't be able to see, but it still was a bit wider than before, allowing Damon and Elena to catch each other's eye and for the former to send the girl a reassuring smile before Emma closed the door again.

"Thank you for keeping him away." Elena breathed out in relief as she took the dress from Emma's hands.

"Don't mention it. Dude gives shady vibes even from a mile away." Emma dismissed with ease, stuffing the last of the bloody paper towels into the trashbag along with her purse. For a moment, she mourned her ruined sweater before doing the same with it too.

"Ok, bags out the window and then we take care of them when we're out of here." She announced, moving to the window and pushing it open. Before dumping the bags, however, she scanned the surroundings, making sure no one would see her doing it. And with her eyes roaming through the area, they caught on to something that made her blood run cold.

"Everything ok?" Elena asked, noticing the sudden shift in Emma's heart beat and making her snap back to reality, brown eyes turning to Elena who was now changed.

"Yeah, yeah, fine." Emma brushed it off, eyes returning to the same spot as before, but this time she saw nothing there. Thinking her mind was playing tricks on her in a moment full of adrenaline, Emma dumped the bags outside before turning back to Elena. "Let's get out of here."

Emma grabbed her phone from Elena's hand and her inhaler from where she'd left it on one of the shelves. The two made their way out of the bathroom, sparing it one last glance and deeming it clean enough for no one to notice anything had happened in the first place.

"I'm so sorry that took so long." Elena apologized to the stranger once the two of them were out of the bathroom and joining Damon's side. Emma didn't drop her act, still regarding him with a suspicious look. Not that she had to try and act too much, she did think he was suspicious.

"No problem." He said simply, the look on Emma's face preventing him from asking any further questions.

"Well, enjoy your stay. We love visitors and the scenery is to die for." Damon sent the man a fake smile before gasping and covering his mouth. The dramatics had Emma rolling her eyes, even though she was resisting a smile at the, obviously, very intentional pun. "Funeral pun. Too soon. Sorry."

"I gotta go, my mum will be wondering where I am." Emma announced, even though she knew Damon and Elena weren't about to linger either. She, however, had no intentions of waiting or walking with them. Instead, she pushed past the strange man and with quick steps headed through the halls.

She didn't go to join the rest of the crowd, which had by now increased, in the church, but headed outside. Even though she was trying to convince herself she was imagining things, she had to check to be sure. Stepping into the fresh air, her eyes searched through every face she could still see lingering outside, ignoring the sight of Damon and Elena rushing off.

But she didn't see anything that would raise alarms in her head again. She simply saw and heard the people of Mystic Falls who were all completely focused on their own conversations and nothing else. For a moment, Emma wondered whether she truly was going crazy.

"Emma." A voice calling her name from behind her made Emma jump into the air in surprise, her heart speeding a mile a minute before she turned and was met with two familiar faces. She let out a small breath, scolding herself for being so on edge as she let out a small string of coughs.

"Everything alright, darling?" Kol regarded her with a questioning look, hand going to her waist as he stood beside her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Emma smiled up at him before her eyes turned to his sister. "Hey, can you please stuff these in your bag? Mine... met an untimely death." Emma said, handing Rebekah the phone and inhaler once the blonde nodded her head in acceptance.

"What happened to your arm?" Kol, who was at first focused on the second object Emma was handing Rebekah alongside her phone, tore his eyes away from it once he noticed the small amount of red liquid on Emma's arm, making him take hold to check it over.

"What?" Emma questioned, confused for a moment before she saw it too. "Oh, it's not mine. Don't worry." She reassured, rubbing it away with her hand and proceeding to show the untouched skin. "Come on, we should head inside, the service will start soon."

While Emma started to do as she said, groaning once she realized her mum would attack her with a thousand questions about where she'd been all this time, she didn't notice the two siblings sharing confused looks over her head. She was acting odd and it wasn't hard for either to notice it. But Emma obviously didn't want to share what it was that had made her so jumpy. After all, how do you say 'I think I hallucinated my father' without sounding like a complete lunatic?