Hey guys! I'm back with another Alarena fan- fiction! I know that my previous one was pretty tragic but I'm going to try and keep everyone alive this time ;) Hope you like it and do review! I'm up for some constructive criticism. Rated M just in case although I'm not promising much smut in the first few chapters. If you're not an Alarena shipper, don't turn away from the story. I'll try to make it as nice as possible :) My only request is that you read it with a welcoming mind. Cheers!

Sheriff Forbes pressed her palm to her forehead and sniffed as she paced. Caroline, who looked like she would bawl her eyes out if she so much as blinked, made for the door with a brisk step and left the principal's office. Her footsteps could be heard retreating along the corridor and across the hall, until absorbed by distance.

Alaric needed to smoke but was too intimidated to do so in the presence of the principal, Mrs Lockwood, who sat across him, holding a tissue to her nose. Instead, he sat and tried not to fidget.

Sheriff Forbes finally stopped pacing and crossed her arms. "So young," she whispered, thinking about Miranda Gilbert.

Alaric's eyes had glazed over. "Sixteen," he said, thinking about Elena.

After a moment, Mrs Lockwood said, "Perhaps your wife should have come with you?"

Alaric seemed more confused than unsettled by her questions. His mind was concentrating on what would happen when Elena came through the door- he had thought of nothing else since he had learned the news- and he had no idea what Mrs Lockwood was getting at. "Isobel is at Duke," he said by way of explanation.

"I see. I'm simply concerned that perhaps it might have been better for Elena if a woman had come to take her. This is going to be very difficult and a friend of her mother's is perhaps not the best person-"

That was the third perhaps. Alaric looked at her directly, "I'm also a friend of Elena's," he said, "And as of yesterday, her legal guardian as well."

"Oh, you're one of her guardians?"

"The only one."

"I see."

Alaric nodded, and Sheriff Forbes saw in him the raw residue of distress. He seemed to be terrified, and she could hardly blame him.

The sound of footsteps in the corridor drew their eyes to the door. Alaric's heart pounded against his chest. There was a whisper outside, then Elena came in, curious and bright, and then amazed.

"Ric!" she bounded across the room and hugged him as he stood up. She looked younger, more vulnerable than he last remembered her. Her long dark hair which usually fell around her face was tied up in a ponytail. Alaric shivered at Elena's liquid brown eyes- something she had acquired from Miranda- beaming at him. "What on earth are you doing here?"

He looked at Mrs Lockwood, which helped. "I was passing through. Thought I'd look you up."

"Excellent!"

Alaric's thoughts raced but led him nowhere.

"Elena," The sheriff came around to her, "Mr Saltzman has-"

Alaric suddenly realized that he couldn't do it in the choking confines of the office with the principal and the sheriff staring. He had to get out. Get Elena out. "Actually, if it's okay with you, I'll take Elena for a spin."

Sheriff Forbes and Mrs Lockwood nodded.

"Thanks, Mrs Lockwood! I'll get my stuff." Elena ran out of the room.

"A good idea," Mrs Lockwood offered a weak smile, "She might otherwise associate the school with this dreadful news and be reluctant to return."

"Let's have lunch!" Elena leapt into the car, threw her books over the seat and released her hair from the constrains of a hair- band.

"Later."

"But I'm starving!"

"And I need a blast of air. Why don't you show me the way to the falls? I seem to have forgotten." He knew the way all too well and had no clue as to why he felt the urge to lie.

"Oh, alright. But you're buying me lunch afterwards. Because mom is at Dalcrest and I'm cooking."

"That's some threat, I suppose?"

Elena chattered, firing a string of questions at Alaric which apparently needed no replies. What did he think of her school? And Mrs Lockwood? How was Isobel? How long had it been since he came to visit? Didn't she look different? "Turn right," she bounced, "And you still haven't told me what you're doing here."

"I met with some friends. I promised Miranda I'd check in on you." The lies came so easily.

"I can't believe Mrs Lockwood let me out. How's your book going? Mom says you're behind with it?"

"She always says that."

"Do you like dying?"

Alaric swung around. Elena was looking at his cigarette.

"You really do have a death wish, don't you?"

He stubbed it out. "No Elena, I do not have a death wish. I just needed a smoke."

Elena sagged in her seat. Alaric was clearly in a bad mood and he looked awful. This was unusual. Alaric always looked great. Well- cut jackets with jeans and baggy shirts. Usually. She glanced at him. He looked all wrong like he had had a bad night. Elena tried to read his pale blue eyes. They always sparkled when he smiled and looked unbelievably doleful when he didn't- either way, you couldn't dodge the effect, but he was concentrating on the road now and wouldn't look at her.

Alaric longed for Elena's banter to resume. Her silence was like an open door inviting him in, urging him to jump at her like a man with a dagger, inflicting the one horrible wound that was his purpose. He tried to speak but his tongue was thick with grief. He remembered the feeling. It was the same after Grayson died, when he and Miranda had sat around, wordless and gutted and useless, their mouths dry.

He remembered too their desperation when Elena screamed incessantly every night and refused to do anything until her daddy came back and when finally she slept, Miranda lay beside her sobbing so thoroughly that Alaric felt sure he would never live through it. but he had, until now, and this time Alaric had to deal with Elena alone.

"Is everything alright?" Elena asked suddenly.

"Yeah, fine."

Alaric smiled but doubts were creping all around her. "Something to do with mom?"

"God, no."

He said it with such conviction that she relaxed. She directed him down another road and it seemed to Alaric that they were driving around in circles, as in a nightmare, going nowhere. He wanted to say, Look Elena, this isn't some happy excursion we're taking. But it seemed kinder to allow her this snippet of delusion, for these were the last minutes she would know of the security of parental love.

He glanced up at the green hills. He hadn't been to Mystic Falls for a while and on any other day would have been moved by such magnificence.

"Over there!" Elena pointed towards a thin cream line of glistening stream. The grey March day was brightening. Silvers of sunlight slipped through the clouds, casting shadows across the hills. They drove down to the falls and drew to a halt.

"You really like it here, don't you?" Alaric asked, suddenly aware that it was now entirely in his hands whether she stayed in this town or not.

"Duh!"

"Isn't it lonely?"

"Lonely? Okay may be mom is not always around but I'm not a loner like you. I have friends."

The moment had come. They could go no further. He had to speak. Articulate his thoughts. Was this a mistake? Would it have been better in the office? The desolation there was piercing.

"Right," Elena jumped out before he could stop her, "Let's walk. Then I want lunch." She took off her shoes and walked across the dewy grass.

"Elena!" Alaric got out of the car. "Put on your shoes!"

She turned, smiling, a child on the brink of absolute desertion. "Don't be such a party pooper!" she called, running over the rocks and down to the stream.

Elena ran into the water and ran out again even more quickly. "Argh! That's so cold it hurts!"

"Told ya." Alaric followed her across the hard, moist rocks.

She skipped ahead, delirious with unbound joy, but the more she enjoyed it, the harder Alaric's task became. Behind them, low clouds topped a huge mountain which seemed to cradle them in their isolation.

Elena had flitted off again. It was like trying to catch a butterfly in order to clip its wings. "Come on! I want to show you the pink rocks!"

He followed the wet prints of her feet along the rocky path. At the end of the stream, a gathering of low rocks put their heads above the water and as Alaric approached, he saw they were indeed a smoky pink. Elena climbed around.

He had cornered her at last. She must have been speaking but he just caught the end of a sentence, "… but this is my favorite one." She hopped on to a long low rock. "It's completely pink!"

He walked over to the rock and stepped on it. She stood above him, looking down with a weak grin, her long brown hair tossing about her face. "Elena," he said.

"It's like a mermaid."

"Elena," he said again and his heart lurched itself into his mouth.

Good? Crazy? Let me know your views. Xoxo! :*