A/N: I couldn't stop this idea from developing over the past few weeks. I was trying not to think too far into it but I just couldn't help it. And now I have to type it all out. This is definitely an Elena and Elijah fic. I love the chemistry between them and I really wanted to experiment with it. What would have happened if Elijah and Elena had talked it out a bit more?

Disclaimer: Most or all the lines/quotations are taken straight from the episode "All My Children" 3x15 of The Vampire Diaries for a lot of this chapter - mainly the first scene between Elena and Elijah. Plus, I obviously don't own this TV show/book series.

Prologue:

1:58 p.m.

"I admire you, Elena. You remind me of qualities I valued long before my mother turned us." Something changed in his voice and Elena realised that she probably should have thought twice before immediately agreeing to go with him. But, she reasoned, she had felt that Elijah was someone who she could trust.

"It's not in your nature to be deceitful and yet," he still stood facing away from her but now he pointed in her direction, "when I asked you about your meeting with my mother the other night, you lied to my face."

Elijah turned his head to look at her, just as she cast her eyes downwards and inhaled deeply. She was caught red handed. And by a vampire, no less. But she'd at least give a try at lying again.

"It's not true." She tried to calm herself, trying to steady her voice. Elijah simply looked amused in his simple way of expression. " I told you that all your mother wanted was a new star-" and before she could finish he interrupted her, putting her charade to a stop.

"I can hear your heartbeat… It jumps when you're being dishonest with me." She hadn't been able to easily read his face before but now he looked menacing - the way she remembered him being when they had first officially met. "You lied to me at the ball, you are lying to me now." There was a chilling note in his voice and Elena was almost afraid to guess what he was going to do to her. Surely, she thought, he wouldn't hurt her?

He stepped closer to Elena and looked into her eyes and she couldn't tear her eyes away. Was he trying to compel her? It wouldn't work, though. There had been vervain in the small amount of breakfast that she had managed to eat in her haste to get to the boarding house and in the glass of orange juice she had continuously sipped after she got back home.

His eyes still bore into hers and she thought that she was almost imaging that there was a slight growl in his voice. "Tell me the truth," he forced between his teeth.

Elena swallowed the lump that had lodged itself in her throat and exhaled, giving up on pretending when she couldn't fool him. "I never wanted this to happen." Her breathing increased and she just hoped that she wouldn't regret attempting to lie to him again.

"What, Elena?"

"We were told that whatever was going to be in that coffin was going to kill Klaus. When we found out that it was your mother…I…We didn't know what to think." She shook her head, her anxiety.

"Since her return she says she only wants this family whole again."

"When she asked to see me, I …I thought that maybe she could help. That she would find a way to kill Klaus. It's not just Klaus she wants to kill…" She was regretting telling Elijah this. She regretted being apart of this whole scheme in the first place. She regretted that she couldn't make anyone look at it from her perspective. She couldn't convince anyone that what was going to happen was unfair to some - particularly Elijah.

Realisation lighted up Elijah's dark eyes. He remained calm, as though he had expected Elena to tell him this. And Elijah being Elijah, he must have suspected something like this.

"She wants to kill us all, doesn't she?" He ground his teeth in frustration, scolding himself for not piecing the puzzle together sooner. He could have then prevented it - prevented Elena from giving her blood. But Finn could have then forced it from her anyway… she was almost defenceless, no matter how sneaky she could be with daggers.

"She wants to undo the evil she created," Elijah quoted Esther from the previous night. It pained Elena to hear sadness in his voice. It must be hard, she thought, to know that your mother believed you to be evil.

"I'm so sorry, Elijah," she whispered, afraid of speaking too loud, as if it would ruin the stillness in the air around them. "I wish there was something I could do to help."

She tried to catch his eye but his face was turned to the side and he seemed to be deep in thought. Then he lifted his head.

" You know, one thing I've learned in my time on this earth; be careful what you wish for." And then he looked at her pointedly.

He ground his teeth and made an imitation of snarling and Elena feared that he was going to strike her but then he lifted his leg, bent his knee and stomped on the flat of land just beneath him with his vampire strength.

The earth gave way beneath to reveal the cavern still partly hidden below.

Elena's scream was drowned out by the drone of the earth and rocks falling along with her.

12:34 p.m.

That morning Elena had woken up with the intention to apologise to Damon for what she had said the previous night. She hadn't meant to turn him down so roughly. She had even thought that at that point in their close friendship his words would have made her heart flutter. And they had, but not in the way that she would have liked to admit. And that, she realised, was why she wanted to apologise. For taking slight pleasure in knowing that two males were in love with her, no matter how much the other said he didn't feel anything. And she knew that Damon would know exactly what she was apologising for. He had that way of his for knowing things about her that sometimes even she didn't. But he had been too hurt to think about why she said what she had said then. He thought that it was enough to save Elena and sometimes his brother and then everyone else was collateral damage in his eyes. But Elena felt that she had to abstain from loving him the way he wanted her to so that she could keep the peace. Because it was as though she were the glue that kept everyone together.

But she couldn't help but wonder what life would be like if she wasn't there. She had plenty of time to think about it on her way over to Bonnie's. She could imagine Damon, going through women and their blood; Stefan trying to have a normal teenage life; Bonnie and Caroline back to how they used to be before all this supernatural stuff had changed them; Jeremy possibly still on drugs; and Jenna still managing school and home life. But she had lost Jenna and Jeremy.

She had brought them all together in a way. She had always been the main issue of concern since Mystic Falls became the Vampire Bed and Breakfast. So, if she happened to leave she liked to think that they would still look after each other, even if what tied them together was no longer there. But that, she realised, would have to be a last resort if Damon and Stefan had anything to say about it - which they most certainly did.

So instead of thinking any further about that plan she went into Bonnie's bedroom and told her everything about the dance and the following morning while her best friend practised the spell that Elena had told her Esther had used for privacy.

"Elena, it's Damon. You can't really expect much from him."

Elena sighed for the umpteenth time as she paced around Bonnie's bedroom, seemingly unable to sit herself down for too long. "I know he may have acted this way before but I thought that he'd gotten better. I just thought that he…"

"May have changed after proclaiming his unrequited love for you?" Caroline popped her head into the bedroom and looked amused. "Oh, by the way -this spell kind of sucks. I can still hear you from downstairs."

Bonnie had gotten all the ingredients that Elena had mentioned and nothing was missing so she was betting that Esther had way more voodoo power up her sleeves that she'd care to share with anyone.

"No! I don't think that he would have changed after telling me that he likes me. I just thought that after everything that's happened this past year… Especially with Stefan. I just thought that Damon had put those childish tricks aside when it came to the serious stuff." Elena was looking everywhere but at Caroline and Bonnie, who both had matching looks on their faces. They could see through her flimsy lie and weren't about to take anymore. "When Esther did it she kept it lit - there was a lot more smoke."

Bonnie sighed but didn't push the matter. "Okay, here goes nothing." She moved her arm around, letting the smoke from the sage waft around her. Both girls in the room turned their heads to look expectantly at Caroline.

"Fine," the blonde groaned, "but this is the last time! I want to talk about this in detail - listen carefully and have my input. I don't do well with standing and listening only." She huffed and closed the door as she left again.

"I guess what I'm saying is that I didn't expect him to get into bed with Rebekah of all people. Of all vampires!" Elena waved her arms over her head in exasperation.

Bonnie smiled tightly, still gently waving her arm around. "Damon must have a thing for evil chicks then - I mean, look at Katherine. He must have gotten it on with her when she came back."

Strangely enough, Elena believed that Damon precisely didn't 'get it on' with Katherine when she had made her return a few months ago. If he had she probably would have heard about it from Katherine herself.

"I just find it weird because he's doing practically everything he can to get rid of her family!"

"Damon obviously mixes business with pleasure." For once Elena found pleasure in hearing Bonnie take jabs at Damon, especially as she was currently frustrated with him. Bonnie obviously didn't mind when Elena came over to vent about the vampire.

"He was gloating. Like, standing there in front of me and gloating - like he was super proud of himself."

"Proud of himself from removing the stiffness out of Rebekah or proud of himself for making you jealous?" Bonnie looked up at Elena through her lashes, catching the exact moment that her words sunk in.

"Jealous? No! I told him the exact same thing that I am going to tell you now; I'm not jealous. I'm worried. I can't help but worry about him when he's like this."

Bonnie hummed and nodded her head, understanding how Elena felt. When she had found out that Jeremy wasn't fully loyal to her she had left him but she had never stopped caring about him. "It must be in a handbook or something; Salvatore Men 101: what to do after you've been romantically screwed over." She giggled gently at her own joke.

Elena's eyebrows came together, her eyes watching Bonnie carefully. "What do you mean, romantically screwed over? Is there something you know but aren't telling me?"

Bonnie heaved a great sigh and looked Elena straight in the eye. "Elena, you can't deny that Damon does this sort of thing every time you turn him down. Everyone's noticed it by now."

The door swung open again and Caroline came inside at vampire speed. She dropped herself down on a pillow next to the bed, fearful of sitting down near Bonnie and all the herbs and candles around her.

"Okay, first of all - this privacy spell is totally not working. Second, Elena you better spill what happened last night to make Damon sleep with Barbie Klaus. And don't try to lie your way out! I'll be able to tell." Caroline smiled proudly at herself.

Elena had wondered when this would come up. There was no use in trying to hide anything from her best friends. So, she stopped pacing around and plopped down on the floor and looked her friends in the eyes.

"He may have said something that took me back and I may have responded in a way he did not expect…" she said softly, still looking the two girls in the eyes.

"And this certain something may or may not have been…that he likes you?" Caroline arched her eyebrows and smirked. If Damon got any tough love from any females, she would feel like congratulating them for it.

As though her witchy instinct told her that there was more Bonnie didn't join Caroline in the high five that was sent her way. She continued to look at Elena, prompting her gently but firmly to go on.

"He… he said that he loves me." Elena said quietly. Bonnie had to strain to hear correctly without asking her friend to repeat. Caroline immediately jumped to her feet and stared at Elena with wide eyes.

"He what?" The blonde looked between the two girls, her mouth hanging open. "Damon, the vampire gigolo, said that he loves you?"

Elena wrung her wrists, trying to make herself feel at ease but failing. She was just as confused as Caroline seemed to be and she felt like putting all the blame for it on Damon. If he hadn't jumped the gun on those words she wouldn't have said anything, he wouldn't have slept with Rebekah and maybe things would look just a little more right in the world. As much as the world can look normal with supernatural beings everywhere.

Bonnie broke the silence. "What did you say after he told you?"

"I didn't even think. I just blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. And it was the stupidest thing I think I have ever said," Elena groaned.

"Stupidest thing, like you regret not saying the L word back, or stupidest thing, like you regret what happened afterwards?" After casting a suspicious glance at Elena, Caroline added, "I assume you didn't say the L word. I would think that Damon would be yelling from the rooftops if that had happened."

Elena rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless. "I didn't say that I loved him back. Instead I may as well have ripped out his intestines. I…said that maybe him loving me was the problem…"

She needn't have looked up to know her friends' expressions. Bonnie looked smug, happy that Damon got stung so badly, and Caroline wore an expressions in between proud and guilty.

"After what he's done to you and Stefan, I think he deserved that," Bonnie said, casting aside the sage she had held onto and blowing out the candles. She believed that Damon deserved any and every misfortune that came his way.

"He just made a few mistakes in the past - you can't always judge him by that!" Elena crossed her arms over her chest and frowned.

"Elena, you can't just ignore the facts! He had been selfish to jump out of the way of a bullet when he would have been able to heal from it much faster than Jeremy ever could have. He'd killed Ric for his own selfish reasons. He'd made Ric miserable for years after making him think that Isobel - your mother - had died. He selfishly put his life before that of Lexi's. He abused Caroline - drank from her, made her feel horrible, compelled her to do God knows what, and he may as well have raped her! There seem to be too many 'selfish's to count. Damon will always continue doing these kinds of things, that's how he lives, that's how he will always live." Bonnie ground her teeth together, frustrated that Elena chose to ignore simple facts sometimes. Damon had changed something in her when Stefan had left Mystic Falls, because when the brothers had first showed up she had showed her dislike towards the older brother almost proudly. But, of course, that had been when she was under the impression that Damon had taken Katherine away from Stefan.

Elena looked up sharply at Bonnie. She stood up and frowned at her best friend. "You're one to talk about that, Bonnie. Before you found out the extent of your power you were a superficial teenager who thought that her grams should be stuffed into a home. You changed. You are now one of the strongest people that I have ever met - but you used to be weak. You used to cry when a boy so much as didn't glance at you, or a girl looked at you the wrong way. So how can you judge Damon? He can change, too." Elena realised that she had held her breath and almost heaved in her next load of oxygen.

Bonnie and Caroline were now looking at Elena as if she had grown two heads in the last minute.

Elena realised that this was her queue to leave. She cleared her throat and stepped towards the door.

"I'm sorry," she said gently before closing the door behind her and walking to her car.

It looked like it would be her and the TV set for the rest of the day at this rate. Maybe, she thought, she could even crack her school books open and start studying - the supernatural world was not going to make her fall behind in her school work.

1:25 p.m.

Elena sighed and shut her history textbook. She had gotten home about half an hour ago and had decided to try and get her history essay over with. Now that seemed like a distant thought and all she felt like doing was curling up in bed and turning on the TV or writing an entry in her diary. But it seemed as though she was all out of thoughts on what to write about - she seemed to have almost every detail down about everything that had happened recently.

A knock from downstairs made Elena heave herself up from her desk and shuffle out of her room and down the stairs. She put her hand on the doorknob and twisted. Upon opening the door a smile appeared on her face. On the porch of her house stood Elijah, his usual expression worn on his face.

"Elena."

"Elijah," she breathed.

Elijah smiled tightly, and then stepped slightly closer towards the door.

"I was hoping that you would grace me with your presence. I wanted to visit the land where my family used to live once. If you are free from both Salvatore brothers…"

Elena felt a light blush creep up her neck and tinge her cheeks. Talking about the Salvatore men was not going to lead her anywhere good.

"Um, sure, I'm free. Let me just grab my phone."

And so she ran upstairs, made a grab for her phone which sat near her forgotten history textbook and ran back downstairs, putting her coat on in a swift motion. She exited her house, locked the door and saw that Elijah was already waiting by a brand new car.

"Are we going far?" Was all she thought to ask as Elijah opened the passenger door for her and ran back around to the driver's side. She wanted to ask why he was asking her to accompany him on his journey - he had all those siblings after all - but she couldn't bring herself to ask the question.

"Just someplace nearby. If there is a specific time you wish to return home at, just say so." Elijah, started the car and the car began to roll slowly away before he put more pressure on the gas pedal and they were flying down the street.

Elena sighed and relaxed back into her seat. "No, no, it's fine. I actually had nothing to do at home," but study.

Elijah turned to look at her, unafraid of the speed he was going at, and gave her his usual tight-lipped smile before returning his eyes on the road. It was as though to say, oh, well, it wouldn't matter anyway.

2:19 p.m.

Elena kept her eyes shut as the smoke cleared. She kept her hand at her face, hoping to escape inhaling too much of the dust all around her that the avalanche had caused. She couldn't remember how long the fall had been but her body ached, a painful reminder that it wasn't an easy landing - far from it.

It appeared that a rock - one of the bigger ones - had fallen and caught her foot. It now lay wedged between two rocks, her ankle at an awkward angle.

As the dust cleared Elena opened her eyes and squinted. There was little light coming through from overhead and she could barely make out any shapes. Just blurry shapes. For a while she worried that maybe her sight was fading in and out, that she was losing consciousness, that she would pass out in this underground cave and never wake up. But how many times had she felt that same feeling before?

A rustle of clothing caught her attention and she stilled so that she could hear better. But there was no more sounds. Not even the tiny scampering mice or rats could be heard.

As Elena breathed a sigh of relief, as though she thought she was safe, the clearing of a throat made a scream lodge itself in her throat, catching her between gasping for air and projecting her voice in a shrill cry. For a second she found it hard to swallow and blink without letting tears run down her cheeks.

"Apologies for this inconvenience, but I had to take matters into my own hands." Elijah's voice filled the cavern, echoing slightly as he chuckled humourlessly.

"Why are you doing this?" Elena's voice came out hoarse, anxious. She couldn't picture a time when she had felt safe around Elijah, sure that he would not harm her or put her in harm's way. Now she felt like backing up to a wall and trembling in fear for what awaited her.

"This is what you may call my bargaining chip. I will need it if I am to persuade your Salvatore henchmen to put a nip in the bud of this plan my mother has concocted."

Elena tried to focus her vision, hoping to see something a bit more clearly. A rough shape of human form stood some steps away from her, close enough to reach out and touch her. She edged backwards, using her hands - dirty and cut - to push her body back.

As she pushed away from more force her foot got hooked between the two rocks, and she felt a painful tugging from her ankle, as though her bones were being pulled apart. A groan escaped her lips and her eyes became blurry again, tears stinging the backs of her eyes.

"Elijah, please, you can't do this," she moaned, her voice still raspy and now a whine rearing it's head.

"Why? Because it does not suit you? Well, Elena, I regret to say this but it seems as though this is your fault. I do believe that my mother never forced your blood out from you… And you never told me at the party, never gave me a shred of crucial information."

"I'm sorry!" Elena squeezed her eyes shut and cried. The throbbing in her ankle increased as she shuffled, causing more pain to run up the rest of her leg. "I never meant for this to happen! I tried to undo this but I can't do anything about it anymore!"

"Well, think of it this way: you have made bargains before to save the lives of your family and friends, made a bargaining chip out of your own life. So I believe that you are accustomed with this great need to protect the people you care about."

"Elijah! How can you protect your family when no one looks out for anyone else in it but themselves? You wanted Klaus dead!" She tried reasoning. Her foot began to grow numb, squeezed too tightly by the large rocks. Her groans began to reside but she couldn't stop the stinging in her eyes.

"We must forgive past mistakes. You always forgive everyone, just look at Damon for an example. No matter what they have done, this is the reason why I have tried to hunt Klaus down for so long. I wanted to gather our family, so that we could try to trust each other again."

"But why do you have to hurt me to keep your family safe? Do you think by doing this you'll stop your mother from killing you all? She doesn't care about me."

"Oh, dear Elena, I have no notion to harm you. The fall was just a little accident that I may or may not have let happen as a slight punishment for your deceiving me. As for my mother; I know she doesn't need you anymore. But the Salvatores and the rest of your friends wouldn't want you dead. So they will just have to do a little job for me and if they do as they are told, you'll be back at home, as safe as you were before."

"Klaus wouldn't allow you to kill me." Elena's tears fell down her face, into her mouth so that she could taste the saltiness of them. Another taste, a bitter one told her that she must have bitten her lip or tongue. She coughed, feeling like her lungs were being clawed out of her, and she could just make out a few dark patches on the floor. The rest of the blood dribbled down her chin as she continued to moan and cry.

"Klaus also doesn't want to die. It's a hard bargain for him, I presume, but if the choice would have to be made, he would choose his life. I believe he has enough bags of your blood stored away to last him a while," Elijah chuckled, taking a few steps towards Elena again.

"Elijah…please. I thought we had… an understanding… ."

"And we do. I sincerely understand what it is like to have your family threatened, and the feeling that you seem to not be able of letting go; the feeling that you have to protect them at all costs. That is why I am giving the Salvatores a chance to save you and in turn your other friends."

Elena coughed again, heaving and begging for the pain to go away. The pain in her ankle throbbed and she felt like it was being torn off. "Please.." she sobbed, dragging her fingers down her face in agony. Pain in her shoulder began to register from her fall and she knew that somewhere she was bleeding.

"You ask my of mercy now. This could all have been avoided had you trusted me. And I had been a fool in thinking that you actually trusted me by now. After all, I had saved your life countless times. And those of your friends. This is quite the poor return of favour."

"Elijah, just…please…let me go…I beg you!"

A brief whoosh and a loud crack. Elena tried to wipe away her tears, accidentally spreading the dirt of her hands around and in her eyes. She squeezed them shut and tried to open them again. A hand roughly grabbed her sweaty face and tucked it upwards.

"Be quiet already with this moaning. Your. Own. Fault. Have I not told you enough times? For once, Elena, I will have to go to dangerous extremes to have this problem that you've caused fixed. And now you cannot bargain with your own life. But don't worry, I have no doubts that the Salvatores won't rescue you."

There was a rustling sound and then Elijah let go of her face, and let her whimper in pain. He could hear the chattering of her teeth, the quick beating of her heart, her blood rushing through her blood, slowly clotting the cuts. He could smell the freshly spilled blood. It was seeping out of her back, by her shoulder blade, but it didn't demand urgent care. She would still live until the evening.

"Now, I have to take my leave, to see to it that the Salvatores carry out my orders. In the mean time, I thought it a wonderful idea for you to spend some quality "girl-time" with none other than my dear sister."

More rustling of clothing material and Elena made out the faint sound of slow footsteps.

"My, my, how the mighty have fallen. Hello there, Elena," Rebekah stepped out from behind Elijah and smirked, a dangerous glint in her eyes.

Wow, this was uncharacteristically long…I hope you enjoyed it!