Turning Tables

by purastella

She remembered a time when Elijah made her feel like the most special girl in the world- when just being in his presence made her feel like she was burning from the inside out and only the brush of his fingers against her cheek could keep her from being consumed. A time when he made her feel like she was enough. He was the first man to make her feel loved. But not anymore.

(A/N): Here it is guys, my first one-shot. And it's coming to you while I'm currently being plagued by hardcore jetlag. That's why I was forced to publish this a few days late- I overestimated myself. I thought I could get this up by Christmas Day but I was flying all of Christmas Eve and only got home on Christmas morning. Trans-Pacific travel is the worst guys. So, consider this a general holiday present rather than a Christmas present specifically.

One thing to know before you start reading this one-shot, is that it does have an Original Character named Ravyn in it that comes from my beta Hannbells story Blood Magic Diaries, which is a Vampire Diaries/Bloodline series crossover. This character is being used with permission from Hannbells and, if you have the time, I would suggest reading her story to get a better feel for Ravyn.

Ravyn is a witch from the Bloodlines series but, due to a spell, she was transported to the world of Vampire Diaries. She lives and works in Mystic Falls at the Grill and is close friends with Klaus Mikaelson. Ravyn is sassy and beautiful and I am very grateful that Hannbells gave me permission to use her because I felt that Bella really needed a friend like her for this story.

The writing style for this piece is what I like to call Snapshot Writing. You are given brief glimpses at different scenes that allow you to understand what is happening, but you don't know the entire story. That is deliberate. I want to tell you this part of Elijah and Bella's story, because I have had this idea in my head for awhile and finally found the words to put down for it. The rest of their backstory is left to your imagination, as I don't see myself coming back to this story in the near future.

This begins right after season 4 episode 18, where Elena and Rebekah travel to find Katherine and find out that she's been seeing Elijah. I watched that episode and wondered what would happen if Bella and Elijah had been together and she found out he had been seeing Katherine in secret. I toyed with the idea of trying to incorporate it into Clock Don't Stop, but it didn't fit so then this happened.

Songs that inspired this story are: "Like I Loved You" and "Mercy" by Brett Young, "Disaster" by JoJo, and "Turning Tables" by Adele. Character song for Ravyn is "Natural" by Imagine Dragons.

Thanks go to Hannbells, both for all her help in creating this story and for allowing me to use her character in this. I hope I've done her justice.

Hope you enjoy!

---

Bella never thought she would be the one on the other side of this.

"I can't do this anymore."

She had never thought she'd be in another relationship after Edward but then she'd met Elijah and everything had shifted. She'd thought it'd shifted for the better but apparently not.

"I didn't want to lose you, but I feel like I already have."

Bella didn't even know where she was going at this point, she was just driving until it didn't hurt anymore.

"I don't understand," Elijah said softly, expression blank. Bella used to pride herself on being able to read him as easily as everyone claimed they could read her. Not anymore.

"I thought I could be stronger than this." She turned away from him, placing more clothes into her duffle bag. "But I was just lying to myself- thinking that if I pretended it wasn't happening then everything would stay the same."

This was for the best, Bella reminded herself as tears streamed down her face. It was self-preservation.

"Stop, Isabella," he ordered, appearing in front of her and stilling her hands. "Stop packing for one moment and just… why are you doing this?"

The laugh that was ripped out of her was so pained that Bella was surprised it didn't physically hurt her on the way out. "Why? Why am I doing this?" she repeated. "I think the better question is: why didn't I do this sooner?"

"You're not-"

"How's Katherine doing?" Bella asked. "Or, I'm sorry, Katerina."

Bella had sworn that, after her first epically-failed and so very-unhealthy relationship, that she would never be in an unequal partnership again; would never allow another man to make the decisions for both of them without talking to her first. Despite the fact that he was a thousand-year-old vampire, she'd thought she'd had that with Elijah.

She should have known she was wrong. Poor, stupid, pathetic Isabella Swan, still naively believing in Happily Ever After.

"This doesn't concern you," Elijah almost spat and Bella recoiled. "This isn't about you!"

Bella finally broke. "Why isn't it about me?! Why couldn't you make it about me, just for once?"

Her phone was ringing in the passenger seat, his familiar ringtone mingling in a terrible duet with the song on the radio, and she reached over to turn it off. Elijah had said more than enough.

"The basic fact of our relationship is that I love you more than you love me," Bella told him, her whole body shaking as she pulled her bag off the bed and over her shoulder.

"And look where that love has brought us," he returned, facing away from her and towards the window.

Would she be the villain in this story once Elijah was done telling it? Bella would have snorted at the thought if she wasn't crying so hard. Elijah the Martyr- the man always wanting to be the hero while simultaneously being crushed under the weight of his own sins. I don't deserve forgiveness, he'd once told her.

That one line should have been enough to tell her that this wasn't going to work. Sometimes when people said that, it was because they truly didn't understand how they could be forgiven for their mistakes. The rest of the time though, people said that when they didn't want to be. They didn't want to be forgiven for their past because that would mean they'd have to move on, to let go. And if there was one thing about the Mikaelson family, it was that they could never bring themselves to loosen their grips- on each other or on the innocents they always dragged down with them.

"I wanted to believe that we could make this work," she admitted, standing in the doorway. "In the idea that we could, we could put the pieces back together. But I can't keep doing this."

"Because you don't want to."

"No. Because seeing those," she gestured to the pictures spread out on the bed of Elijah and Katherine kissing, his hands cupping her face in one and around her waist pressing her to him in another, "I feel like none of it was real."

Elijah turned back to her then. "Isabella-"

She remembered a time when Elijah made her feel like the most special girl in the world- when just being in his presence made her feel like she was burning from the inside out and only the brush of his fingers against her cheek could keep her from being consumed. A time when he made her feel like she was enough.

"You were the first person who made me feel loved," she admitted, desperately trying to choke down the sobs pressing in her chest.

"Not now?" he whispered, and the trace of pain there made her want to turn around and take it all back. But she couldn't. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw him with her.

"No. It doesn't feel that way anymore."

---

Elijah didn't know why he was still standing at the window, she wasn't coming back. How ironic, that his proudest achievement had turned into his greatest regret.

"It doesn't feel that way anymore."

She had told him what her relationship with the Cullen boy had been like, how she had been treated like an object, a trophy. How he had used her to further his own tragic hero role- the vampire with no soul in love with his singer.

He was thrown by her bringing up Katherine. "What are you talking about?"

Isabella reached over and pulled out an envelope from beneath her bag and turned it so the contents poured out on the bed. Elijah froze, staring at the numerous images of himself and Katerina.

"How could you do this to me?"

Everything got out of hand, as it always seemed to whenever there was a doppelgänger involved.

"You're really going to abandon me?" Elijah demanded. He knew it was the wrong thing to say but he couldn't think of anything else; his mind had turned chaotic as soon as he saw the proof of his errors.

"What choice do I have?" He could smell her tears, even if her face was turned away so that he couldn't see them.

Turning back around, Elijah stared blankly around the room. Isabella had taken so little with her when she left, only bringing what she had bought herself. Even the bag she'd used was one she'd had before she'd met him.

Anything that could be tied back to him had been left behind.

"Do you regret it?" she asked him. Before he could answer, swear to her that what had happened between him and Katherine meant nothing, she continued, "Do you think your world would have been better without me in it?"

It hurt. The idea that she could ever believe that his life would have been better if he had never known her cut him to the core.

She was his world.

"I love you," Isabella choked out, and the agony in her voice made it sound as though she was admitting some grievous sin. "But I need to let you go."

He had done this, he had ruined them. When Katherine had first contacted him about working together to find the cure, Elijah had decided to wait to tell Isabella what he was doing until he could be sure whether or not Katherine was sincere. He knew how insecure Isabella felt whenever any of the doppelgängers were brought up, she knew his history with both Tatia and Katerina. Elijah didn't want to worry her unless he had to. Before that point they'd had no secrets between them, a refreshing change for both of them.

The more time passed though, the harder it became to admit to Isabella where he would slip away to. He would always be vague when answering her questions about his whereabouts and activities and he wondered when it was exactly that she had stopped asking him about it, at what point she had started pulling away from him, and how he had missed it.

"I will always love you," Elijah whispered.

Her smile was jagged. "Too bad it wasn't enough."

Lifting a glass vase off the bookshelf, Elijah threw it against the wall.

---

Bella felt like she didn't know how to breathe anymore.

"Why her?" she sobbed.

"Isabella," he almost whispered, reaching a hand out to her.

"Why were you with me if you were still in love with her?"

She didn't know how fast she was going. She didn't even know what kind of road she was on- if it was a highway or a backroad or just a really abandoned main street. Bella just needed to get the hell out of dodge as quickly as possible.

"I loved her." Elijah's reminder was a dagger to her chest. "Past tense."

Her laugh was bordering on hysteric. "Doesn't seem so past to me. If past to you is only hours ago then I have to wonder how the hell you're categorizing us."

This was all her fault. She had done this to herself. Elijah had just come out of nowhere and saved her, a true vampire knight-in-shining armor, and she had let herself be swept away. Let herself believe that it would somehow be different this time around.

"I made a mistake!" Bella had never heard Elijah raise his voice before, had never seen him acting this way. Usually he just got very quiet when he was angry or upset but, in this moment, he was acting just like his brother.

"Once is a mistake," she spat at him, drawing on her own anger. Anger was good. Anger was safe. "But judging by the location changes and different outfits, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you've been with her for a while."

"You trust a stranger's word more than mine?"

"More like several thousand words. And just how stupid do you think I am, Elijah? Do you have such a low opinion of me? I knew you were keeping secrets from me but I never thought…" she shook her head, refocusing on packing her things rather than on her lover's suddenly guilty expression. "Apparently all your talk of honor was just that- talk."

Bella didn't know what to do, where to go. Every friend she had now was somehow connected to Elijah and she didn't want to be found. The silver bracelet wrapped around her wrist caught her eye and she knew one person who would help her, no questions asked.

Grabbing her phone, she powered it back on and glanced away from the road for a moment to call the only person who could possibly help.

Something hit the side of the car then and she swerved off the the road. Bella knew she was going to crash.

Time was up.

---

Elijah thoughtlessly wandered around the house, the silence screaming of Isabella, his beloved's, absence. He wandered into the study and his gaze was caught by a book laying on the coffee table in front of the couch.

"Ugh," Isabella groaned, tossing the book aside and glaring at it as it stopped an inch away from falling off the table.

"Something wrong?" he asked, grinning slightly at her pout.

"I just want to read an epic romance," she complained, slumping over on the couch.

Standing up from his desk, Elijah walked over to her and glanced at the title of the book. "I believe most people would say that 'Pride and Prejudice' is an epic romance."

"But it's not! I thought so too when I first read it but reading it now, I know it's not. Mr. Darcy might actually love her but she doesn't love him. She finds out he's not a total tool and that Wickham is evil, then she sees how rich he is and is basically like 'let's do this' but she doesn't actually love him!"

She was so passionate in her argument that Elijah couldn't stop himself from leaning down and kissing her, sliding his hand into the hair at the nape of her neck to hold her against him. Isabella froze in shock for a moment before relaxing, shifting slightly so that she could pull him closer to her.

When Elijah finally pulled away, he told her, "Not everyone can be as fortunate as us when it comes to love; I doubt you will ever be able to find a story that will even compare to ours so you'll just have to make do with what you can get."

Isabella gave a husky chuckle. "Way to be arrogant, 'Lijah."

"I would prefer to think of it as being confident," he whispered, pressing his lips to hers again. "Would you like me to prove myself?"

"Always," she moaned.

Elijah immediately turned and left the room. Niklaus had always spoke of the fickleness of humans and their use of words like 'always'. What could creatures with such a short lifespan know about forever?

But Isabella was different. She understood what that word really meant. He was the one who seemingly didn't.

His phone rang then and he almost ripped his pocket in his eagerness to get to it before he realized that it wasn't her ringtone. She had been the one to assign her number its own ringtone so that he'd "know who was calling right from the start".

"What?" he snarled.

"Well now, sounds like someone's in a bad mood," mocked Damon. "And here I was, trying to help your worthless self out."

"You seem to be forgetting to just whom you are speaking to," Elijah sneered. "I'd watch your tone before I decide hunting you down and killing you would be worth the small amount of effort I would need to expend to do so."

"Before you do that, you might want to know what your lover has been up to in your absence."

Elijah froze. "You've heard from Isabella?"

"Sorry," Damon snorted. "I should have been more specific. You might want to know what the whore you've been cheating on Beauty with is up to."

"I could not care less about what Katherine has been doing," he snapped. He hated when Damon referred to Isabella as that. She claimed he was just a friend but Elijah knew how the elder Salvatore brother really felt about his love.

"You might be singing a different tune in a minute here." Damon sighed. "If it wasn't for the fact that I happen to like Bella then I wouldn't bother to even warn you. Katherine seems to have gotten it in her head that if she gets rid of your little human lover then she'll be able to get you wrapped back nice and tight around her little finger. She left not long after you did and it's safe to assume she's coming for Bella's head."

Elijah's true face instantly appeared as he snarled, "How long ago did she leave?"

"She's probably already there. You need to get Bella to safety and you need to do it now."

Elijah ended the call and instantly raced out of the house.

---

She couldn't open her eyes.

She couldn't move her arms.

She opened her to scream but as soon as she did, something poured into her mouth and down her throat.

It burned.

She was being crushed from all sides and there was no escape.

---

Elijah was faster on foot than he would have been if he'd driven around searching.

He'd always been able to track Isabella, recognize her scent even in a crowd of thousands of people or if it had been hours since she was last there. If there were even faint traces of her presence, he could instantly find them and allow them to lead him to her.

She didn't seem to have been thinking as she drove. The path she took was random, chaotic. It sent bolts of agony through him to know that he had made her so desperate, but it comforted him to know that the wild route she had taken would slow Katherine down until he could find her.

That was, until he found himself standing in front of Isabella's wrecked vehicle. The seat was soaked with her blood and he could catch faint traces of Katherine's scent but neither woman was nearby and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't figure out where they went.

Isabella was gone and it was all his fault.

---

Bella didn't know who else to call.

"Yoz," came the witch's greeting. There a loud voice in the background and then Ravyn was shouting, "Screw you, man, I can answer the phone however I want. If you don't like it, then go to another bar! Oh wait, you can't!" Then she was back to talking to Bella again. "Sorry about that."

"R-Ravyn," she whispered, as unable to stop the tremble in her voice as she was the tremors coursing through her.

"Well hello there!" Ravyn's voice instantly changed as she recognized the caller. Bella had always been amused by the way her friend answered the phone- she sounded as though she had done something to annoy the caller and was just anticipating the fit they were going to throw now that she was on the line. Tonight though, tonight her greeting made Bella sag in relief.

Ravyn was safe. Ravyn could help her. Ravyn would know what to do.

"Ravyn." Bella couldn't seem to find any other words.

"Bella? Bella, what's wrong? What's going on?"

"I-I-" she stuttered. What should she tell her? What could she say?

"Breathe," Ravyn ordered. "Just take a deep breath for me, okay?" Bella took a deep breath in and slowly let it out. "One breath at a time."

It took a minute, but Bella finally managed to get her breathing under control. "I need your help."

"Anything."

Ravyn was a beautiful person and nobody deserved her. "I'm transitioning and I need someone to come get me." Short, simple facts. Bella could do that.

"Transitioning as in…" Ravyn trailed off. "Well, damn. What happened? And where the hell is Elijah? I feel like this would be Mr. Protector's moment to shine."

Bella could not do this. "We, we broke up. It's over." Funny how saying that was worse than telling her vampire-hating friend that she was dead.

The other girl was silent for a moment. "I'm missing something, aren't I? There's a middle part there that I didn't get."

The tree bark cracked under her finger tips. "Ravyn, please. I just, I just-"

"Already have Klaus headed your way. Just try and stay put so that you don't mess with the tracking spell. He should be there in under 5 hours, just depends on how much of a speed demon he decides to be."

She sank to her knees. "As long as he doesn't become driving Miss Daisy then we should be good."

"We really need to watch the movie if we're going to be using the reference."

Ravyn stayed on the phone with her for several hours while still manning the bar at the Grill, which led to some interesting conversation twists. Finally, a large SUV turned onto the side road she was hiding near and pulled to a stop. "Bella!" Klaus shouted, stepping out of the vehicle.

"That's my cue," she whispered to her friend, being careful not to squeeze the phone too tightly from nerves. "See you in a bit."

"Yep. Make sure to eat someone before you get here because I'm certainly not letting you tap a vein."

Even though Bella didn't really think that Ravyn would turn her back on her just because she was becoming a vampire, it was comforting to have the confirmation. "A true friend would offer themselves up as a first meal."

Her friend snorted. "No, a dumb friend would. A true friend would help you find the stupidest person in the bar for you to feed on; help you thin the herd as it were."

"If you two are done chatting," interrupted Klaus, appearing behind Bella and making her flinch, "then might I suggest we leave?"

Bella carefully climbed to her feet, groaning slightly in pain at the pins and needles shooting through her limbs after having stayed in one position for too long. "See you in a bit, Ray."

"I'll be counting down the seconds," Ravyn snarked. "Love ya, B."

"Love you too."

"Very touching," Klaus sneered playfully, but his lighthearted attitude quickly disappeared as he took in her appearance. He opened his mouth, seemingly about to ask her what had happened, before his eyes widened and she realized he had figured it out on his own. "Come on, love," he ordered gently, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "Let's get you something to eat before we head home."

Home? Bella wondered. Where was home now?

---

"I need your help."

"Well hello to you too, Elijah," Rebekah sighed. "Whatever can I do for you?"

"Isabella is gone. Katherine took her."

The line was silent for a moment as his sister took in what he was saying. "Have you been feeding Bella your blood?"

"Yes, every day."

"Then we better find her before your blood is out of her system and Katherine kills her." Rebekah instantly turned angry. "I warned you, Elijah. I warned you about climbing into bed with someone like Katherine Pierce but you refused to listen and now she has Bella."

"You think I don't know that this is my fault?!" he roared. "Do you really believe that I don't know that I am to blame for this? That I don't know that, should we not find her in time, Isabella's death will be on my head?"

"She gave up everything for you! She supported you when you tried to go up against Nik, went with you when you decided you could not stay in Mystic Falls for another moment, even though doing so meant leaving behind the girl who was her sister in all but blood and the only family she had left, and you repaid her by letting her live through her greatest fear!"

"I know," he groaned, his hand reaching up to tug uselessly on his hair. "I know what I've done."

"No, you don't," his sister disagreed. "But you will. I'll help you, but know that I'm not doing this for you- I'm doing this for Bella. Because she is more then you will ever deserve and she is the last person in the world who deserves to be at the mercy of a pathetic waste of space like Katherine. And know that when Ravyn and Nik come for you, I will not stand in their way."

---

Bella laid on the bed, staring blankly out the window. She could hear Klaus and Ravyn talking outside the door.

"What the hell happened out there, Klaus?" Ravyn demanded. She probably thought she was being quiet enough for Bella to not be able to hear her but she was wrong.

"I have no idea," he hissed. "She was almost catatonic once we were in the car. I had to find someone for her to feed on and then almost make her drink from him. Nothing I did got a response from her. Her clothes though…"

"She was covered in dirt," Ravyn whispered. "Klaus, tell me she wasn't…" Klaus didn't respond. "Please, Klaus, for the love of god, tell me someone didn't bury my sister alive!"

"Ravyn…"

"No. No no no no no," Ravyn babbled. "That's not what happened."

"Ravyn."

"No!" Bella jumped slightly at Ravyn's shout. "Isn't it bad enough that Elijah broke up with her? Wasn't dying hard enough? What kind of fucking psycho would go so far as to-" her voice broke off.

"What makes you think that Elijah broke up with her?"

"Because she is stupidly in love with him and would never have dumped him."

She made herself get up then and go over to the door. "I did," Bella whispered, pulling the door open.

Ravyn jumped. "B!"

"I broke up with Elijah."

Klaus and Ravyn stared at her in surprise for a moment and Bella was distantly reminded again of what a portrait the two of them painted. The Original Hybrid with his dark blond hair and blue-green eyes, a true European white-boy as her friend put it, and the witch from another world with her pure Moroccan features, all dark hair, tan skin, and large brown eyes. It struck Bella then, how amusing it was that the dark and evil Niklaus Mikaelson was all light features and the beautiful light soul that was Ravyn looked like the human incarnate of a night goddess. She started giggling then before her laughter turned into full-on hysterical sobs.

"Bella!" Ravyn's arms were around her then. "It's okay. You're okay. I've got you."

"Bella." Klaus was beside them, leaning over slightly so that he was eye-level with her and resting a hand on her face. "Can you tell us what happened, love?"

"Klaus, now is not the time!"

"Elijah cheated on me with Katherine," Bella sobbed. "He cheated on me and I left him and she killed me. Why? Why did she do that? She already had him, I was already out of the way."

She felt Ravyn stiffen. "Katherine did this to you? Katherine killed you? And Elijah cheated on you with her?"

"I had to dig myself out of my own grave," Bella told them, desperately trying to gasp in air. "I couldn't see and I tried to scream and then there was dirt in my lungs and it hurt and-"

"Hey!" Ravyn pulled away from her and placed her hands on either side of Bella's face, forcing her to meet her gaze. "Look at me. Focus on me. Just, just concentrate on breathing when I do." Once she was sure that her friend was slightly more calm, Ravyn continued. "Bella, I promise that you are safe here. You need to rest now though." Bella started to interrupt but she stopped her. "I'm going to give you something that'll help you fall asleep. I found a spell that will keep the nightmares away, at least for tonight, that I'll also do. Does that sound okay?"

Bella could only nod. Ravyn led her back to the bed and encouraged her to lay down before disappearing from the room for a minute.

Klaus laid down on the other side of the bed and wrapped an arm around her. "I'll stay with you till you fall asleep," he promised.

She had been right- Ravyn was safe. Bella was safe. Ravyn and Klaus wouldn't let anything happen to her. She had to know though.

"Why did he do it?"

"I don't know," Klaus sighed. "I really don't."

"Do you think-"

"No, Bella. None of this was your fault. My brother was fool for letting you go in favor of a vindictive cunt like Katherine."

Ravyn came back in the room and kneeled down beside Bella, handing her a mug. Bella took it and immediately downed the contents. Her vision instantly turned fuzzy and she placed her head back down on the pillow. "Katherine's still out there," she sleepily murmured.

The last thing she heard was Ravyn swearing, "Not for long."

---

They had been searching for days with no results. There was no sign of either Katherine or Isabella and Elijah felt like he was slowly losing his mind.

"Looking on our own isn't getting us anywhere!" Rebekah groaned, pacing back and forth. "We have no idea where Katherine could have taken her."

"We are not giving up," Elijah growled.

"No, we're not, but we need help."

"Absolutely not."

Rebekah threw her hands up in the air. "For god's sake, Elijah, be reasonable! What's more important to you, finding Bella or your pride?"

"This isn't about pride."

"Then what is it? Is it fear? Are you scared of what the others will do to you once they find out she's gone? Because if so, then you need to get over it. You're only delaying the inevitable at this point- soon enough Damon will tire of calling you and getting no response and go directly to the Grill to see if someone there has any idea of what's going on. And that's only if Ravyn hasn't already figured out that Bella's gone, since I doubt Katherine is letting her keep in touch with anyone if she is still alive."

Elijah jumped to his feet. "Isabella is alive! I can feel it; I would know if she was dead."

"Katherine's had her for days, Elijah. At this point, I almost hope you're wrong and that she is dead because if she's not, she's almost certainly wishing she was."

Hunched over slightly, Elijah tried to push away the agony her words were causing him. Isabella wasn't dead. He would know if she was. And he would know if she were being tortured. The first 12 hours after she had disappeared, Elijah couldn't focus on anything due to the pain rolling through him. It wasn't until it had eased that he realized that it was Isabella's pain and fear that he was feeling, not his own. He could still feel it to some degree- not as cutting as before but still a constant ache shuddering alongside his own. "What do you propose we do then, Rebekah?"

"We need a witch and we need a powerful one."

"Truer words have never been spoken." The two siblings spun around to see Ravyn standing by the doorway to the study. "Unfortunately for you two, it's too little too late."

Niklaus appeared in front of Elijah and he felt a burning pain in his chest. He look down to see a dagger jutting out of his chest, his brother's hand wrapped around the hilt. "Hello, Brother."

---

Bella remembered what had happened to her.

Everything had been a blur at first. She remembered the car crashing and then she remembered waking up in the ground but there was nothing in-between. It wasn't until she was training with Kol that she realized she hadn't died in the car crash like they'd thought.

Kol had arrived not long after her change to stay with Bella while Rayvn and Klaus had disappeared for a few days to take care of some things. She hadn't asked what they were doing.

While his change hadn't been traumatizing in the same way that Bella's had been, Kol had known what it was like to be a lost newborn, feeling like the ground you'd previously been standing on had disappeared. He'd helped Bella regain her footing, taught her how to hunt and how to properly defend herself.

"Nicely done, Little Bit," Kol complimented her after she had successfully thrown him off of her. He had been showing her how to throw an attacker off if they had her pinned down and she was now currently straddling him. "I must say, I do enjoy an attractive woman on top." He winked at her and she laughed.

"This is why Klaus doesn't like me hanging out with you, you know that, right?"

Kol sighed dramatically. "Yes, your friend has turned him into such a stick-in-the-mud. He's all responsible now and emotionally stable."

"Oh, I know, it's the worst." Bella teased.

"Well, just because he's boring doesn't mean we can't have fun."

"Don't make this weird," she warned, hopping to her feet. "Now, what else have you got to show me?"

"Saying things like that and expecting me not to make a comment? What a tease," Kol taunted, popping up. "Don't know why you're getting up though, you'll just be down on your back again in a moment."

Bella wrinkled her nose. "Ugh. Maybe Klaus has a point."

Kol laughed. "Just lay back down. You still need to learn more about throwing a vampire off you if they've got you pinned down."

Laying back down on the floor with a dramatic groan, Bella got herself situated and said, "Alright, I'm good. Come at me."

"And your comfort means the world to me." Kol was suddenly straddling her. "You know how to throw off someone who's on top of you, but what do you do if I do this?" Her hands were suddenly pinned down by her sides.

"Uh… wait for Ravyn to come save me?"

He looked thrown by her answer. "What? No. That's not the answer. That is never the answer."

"Are you sure? Because I feel like life would be much easier if that was a, you know, go to response."

Tightening his hands on her wrists, Kol glared at her. "Focus, Bella. I've got you pinned down. No allies in sight. What are you going to do?"

Bella shifted uncomfortably and then it was like she suddenly in another place. One where she was being held down just like this by Katherine, who was hissing at her that she wasn't going to let one pathetic human get in her way and that by the time she was done with her, she was going to wish she had died at the hands of Victoria. Bella wasn't even sure how she knew about the red-haired Cold One, but it seemed that Katherine was more in the know about her than she was about the vampire.

The memory threw Bella into a panic and she began to desperately try and squirm away from the youngest Original brother. Frowning at her, it took Kol a moment to realize that Bella wasn't mentally there with him. "Little Bit?" he said softly, letting go of her hands but kept her legs pinned down so she didn't do anything reckless. "Bella! I'm right here! You're okay! Focus on me."

She couldn't hear him though, trapped in her own head. Katherine was absolutely right, Bella was wishing at that moment that she had never survived Victoria. Suddenly, Kol was blasted off of her and sent flying across the room. The noise pulled Bella back to the present and she stared around her in confusion, wondering what the hell had happened.

Kol echoed her thoughts. "What the bloody hell was that?"

Bella stared at his balled form before looking down at the glowing ring on her finger. "I told you," she said softly, tiredly. "The answer is, as it seems to always be, wait for Ravyn to come save me."

"I'm sorry, I think you meant 'wait for Ravyn to come kick my ass for being super fucking distracting while she is supposed to be working'." Both Bella and Kol's shoulders hunch in fear at the sound of Ravyn's pissed off tone. "I don't know how the hell I got to be the most responsible one out of our group but I don't like it and it stops right now."

For all Ravyn complained though, it never actually kept her from mothering they're little gang: she kept Kol from going on a killing spree, stopped Klaus from turning another pack of werewolves he had found into hybrids, and made sure Bella never got so drunk on the alcohol the Mikaelson brothers kept on hand that she would lose control.

Despite all that, Bella still couldn't help the numb feeling that had infected her a few days after she had first been changed.

---

Elijah took in a deep, shuddering as the effects of the dagger finally left his system. His eyes snapped open and he glanced around the room. His gaze landed on Niklaus, leaning against the wall across from him with a strangely blank look on his face. "And why exactly was I daggered this time, Niklaus?" he growled, standing up.

"I don't know man," answered Ravyn, stepping out of the shadows. "Maybe it's because your hypocritical sense of morality makes me nauseous. Or maybe it's because none of us really know what you're standing for anymore." She walked towards him and stopped a foot away. "Or maybe, just maybe, it's because you cheated on the most beautiful soul in the world with a fucking whore and karma's a bitch." Rayvn shrugged, giving him a smirk that was eerily similar to his brother's. "Take your pick."

She knew. She knew what had happened. "Have you found Isabella? How long did you keep me daggered?"

Ravyn flicked her wrist and Elijah was slammed into the wall. "No," she growled. "You don't get to ask any questions. You gave up that right the moment you touched that doppelgänger cunt." The dark-haired witch gave a bitter laugh, shaking her head. "I can't believe I trusted you, trusted you with my sister. I thought you would keep her safe, I thought that you would never hurt her, and what did you do?" Her voice raised with every word until she was standing there, shouting at Elijah's stunned form. "Well, Elijah? Do you have any idea what you've done? What your lover did to Bella?"

"I…" Elijah was at a loss for words, for the first time in his too long life.

"Rebekah told us you found the car crash. Said you knew that Katherine ran Bella off the road before taking her. That you called her to help you search for them. You want to know what else she said?" Elijah attempted to stand then but Ravyn twitched her fingers and his leg snapped with sickening crack. "She said that you refused to call anyone else for help, even though you had no fucking clue what you were doing. I looked through her memories, I saw that she tried to get you to call me for help but you refused to pick up the fucking phone. I'm the most powerful witch in this goddamn world and you didn't think it would be a good idea to let me know that MY SISTER WAS GONE?!"

It was clear to Elijah that Ravyn was turning dark, if she hadn't already. He glanced at his brother, wondering if he was concerned about what his partner was turning into, but Klaus was still staring at him impassively. "This was my fault," he growled, willing his leg to heal faster. "I needed to be the one to fix it."

"No arguments there," she snorted. "But the fact that you let your pride come before my sister's life? That's unforgiveable."

"Where is she? Where's Isabella?"

Niklaus finally spoke. "Katherine killed her. Right after she crashed the car, Katherine took Bella and killed her before burying the body."

No. Elijah shook his head frantically, unable to keep the grief from twisting his expression. No. That wasn't possible. She couldn't be dead. Katherine didn't kill her. They were lying.

"You think I'm just here for shits and giggles?" Ravyn asked, and Elijah realized he had been speaking out loud. "You think I'm wasting my time on you because this is my idea of fun? News flash, I have so many other things I could be doing right now other than wasting my time on trash like you."

Elijah frantically started tugging on his bond to Isabella. She wasn't dead, she couldn't be dead. But there was nothing there.

"No…" he moaned, covering his face with his hands.

"Yes," Ravyn hissed. "Katherine killed her and it's all your fault."

He sat there for a moment, unable to think through the agony forcing its way through him with every beat of his heart. His heart… "My blood," Elijah croaked out, looking up. "She had my blood in her system."

"Yes, yes she did." Elijah realized then that Ravyn wasn't looking heartbroken or as though she was grieving; the only emotion coming from her was rage.

"She's a vampire. She's alright."

"My god, you really are a moron, aren't you?" Ravyn moved to stand directly over him. "I want you to think about everything we've just said. I know it's hard," she mocked, "but logic is key here. Bella had your blood in her system. Katherine killed Bella. And what else did Klaus just tell you?" Elijah was annoyed that she was speaking to him like he was a child and couldn't seem to concentrate on anything past his relief that Isabella was alright. "It's not that fucking difficult, Elijah!" she shouted, making him jump. "Think back to literally one fucking minute ago!"

Elijah focused on what Niklaus had told him. Katherine crashed Isabella's car. She took Isabella and she killed her before- "No," he whispered.

"Ding ding ding, we have a winner! Yes, Elijah," Ravyn hissed. "Your lover buried Bella's body and she had to fucking dig her way out of her own grave."

"That doesn't make any sense," Elijah insisted. "Why would Katherine take the time to bury her body?"

"You think Bella was lying?" Rayvn growled.

"Seems to me that it was the most efficient way for Katherine to get the best of both worlds," Niklaus broke in, finally stepping away from the wall and walking over to them. "If Bella stayed dead, then it would be much more difficult for you to find the body. You'd have no proof she was dead and I imagine Katherine would do her best to make sure you believed that Bella had just left you without word. If you had given Bella your blood, then making Bella wake up having been buried alive would be traumatizing enough to ensure that she wouldn't want to come back to you."

"And lookie at that, it worked!" the witch sneered.

"What do you mean?"

"You did this, Elijah. If you hadn't brought Katherine back into your life, then she would never have gone after Bella. Now, my sister is a fucking mess and it's all your fault."

His leg finally healed, Elijah shot to his feet. "If that's truly what you believe, then why did you undagger me?"

She smirked at him. "I didn't want you daggered in the first place, I wanted to kill you. Klaus didn't though, so daggering you was his compromise. I definitely felt like I was on the losing side of that deal though, so we renegotiated." Stepping away from him then to rejoin his brother, she continued. "I want you to suffer, Elijah, just like my sister is suffering right now. I want you to have to live with the knowledge that she is out there, heartbroken and hating you, and you have only yourself to blame and that you will never, ever see her again. Bella may be hurting right now, but at least she won't be suffering alone.

"And before you start comforting yourself with thoughts of taking your revenge on dear old Katerina Petrova, don't bother- I got there first."

---

Bella was so tired of being scared. She tried not to be, tried to be brave, but nothing seemed to help. Klaus had told her it was because she was a newborn and all her emotions were heightened, which was just what Bella needed, for her hot mess of emotional baggage to get a steroid boost.

It also didn't help that she wasn't consistent. At first, she couldn't bring herself to step outdoors, despite the fact that she was wearing a daylight ring spelled by Ravyn, because the scent of dirt sent her spiraling into a panic attack. Soon though, the walls of the mansion started to feel like they were pressing down on her, burying her, and that had sent her running outside. There was no pattern, no connecting events, that could tell them what Bella would be struggling with that day; it all depended on what her brain decided was going to be the trigger for that particular moment.

Staring down at the ring Ravyn had given her, Bella felt a crippling sense of loss. This wasn't supposed to be the ring that she used once she had turned.

"I have something for you," Elijah told her, smiling down at her.

Bella glared suspiciously up at him from her fetal position on the couch and turned off the television. "More fearsome words have never been spoken."

"So suspicious," he teased, kneeling down beside her. "If I recall, you've never had reason to complain with any of the other gifts I've given you."

"Then your memory must be going in your old age because I have complained plenty of times about your other presents."

"Maybe I just have a very selective memory." He cupped her face and gave her a soft, gentle kiss. "Close your eyes." She sighed but did as she was told. She heard Elijah shift to sit on the low table in front of her and the sound of him pulling something out of his pocket. "Now open them."

She did as instructed and her gaze locked onto the open ring box resting in his palm. Bella immediately sat up, groaning as her head starting spinning. "That was a mistake." She squeezed her eyes closed, praying the dizziness would stop soon.

"Beloved?" His hand was on her cheek again and she could feel the concern radiating off of him.

"I love you, Elijah, but you better not be proposing to me while I'm still recovering from the cold from Hell. I mean, c'mon, a worse time could not have been chosen."

Elijah laughed. "No, I'm not proposing, but it's good to know that your only complaint if I did so at this moment would be because you're not feeling well."

Bella opened her eyes and studied the ring again. It took a moment for her to recognize it but she felt her heart leap in her chest once she had. "Is that a Claddagh ring?"

He moved closer to her so that their legs were pressed against each other and set the box in her hands. "Yes, it is. I saw it and knew it would be perfect for you."

While perfect may not have been the word she would have used, she couldn't deny that she was instantly in love with the ring. The band, hands, and crown seemed to be made of platinum while the heart was made out of lapis lazuli. "It's gorgeous," she whispered, lifting the box up closer to her eyes.

Elijah reached out and took the ring from the box, grasping her right hand and slipping it onto her ring finger. "The hands for friendship, the crown for loyalty, and the heart for love. You hold my heart in your hands, my love," he whispered. "Wear this ring always, to remind you that I will always be with you."

Bella gave a shuddering sob. "I love it. I love you." She leaned forward and kissed him for a moment before pulling back and giving him a bright, teasing smile. "But don't think for a second that I don't know where you got the inspiration for this. What would Klaus say if he knew that his brother was a hardcore Buffy fan?"

Laughing, Elijah pressed his forehead against hers. "He'd be jealous that he didn't think of doing something like this first for Ravyn."

She smiled but didn't correct him. Klaus and Ravyn's relationship was their own business. "Does this make you Angel then and me Buffy?"

"If I was, then this would be far too dangerous for me to do." He pounced on her then, pressing her back into the couch cushions as she shrieked with laughter.

Klaus had caught her staring blankly at the ring the day after she had turned and had taken it from her without a word, just gave her a loving kiss on the forehead as he tugged off the ring and then walked out the door. Ravyn had appeared hours later, after she had finished her shift, with a new ring for Bella. This one was gold, the metal was shaped to look like flames that were surrounding the blue stone with the symbol of air carved into it.

"Remember how I told you that the vampires from my world could each control a certain element?" Ravyn had asked her. "Well, since we've met, I've always wondered what element you would have controlled if you had been a Moroi. Most Moroi were almost embodiments their elements so I tried to match you to one but I couldn't. I see all the elements in you- kind of like the Avatar," she'd teased. "So I wanted to give you something to remind you of that, something that would you remind you just how spectacular you are and the all kinds of amazing you are going to be."

It was a beautiful piece and she was so thankful to Ravyn for everything she had done but she didn't feel spectacular right then. She didn't feel as strong as the ring was supposed to symbolize she was. Right then, all Bella wanted to do was close her eyes and pretend she was in a world where everything still made sense.

---

Now that Elijah knew that Isabella was with Klaus and Ravyn, he headed to Mystic Falls as soon as he was able. He'd given his two visitors a bit of a head start, both in the hopes that it would give them time to calm down and so that he could figure out what he should say once he saw Isabella again. Elijah hoped that Ravyn had just been exaggerating about Isabella's emotional state in order to hurt him but he knew that wasn't her style. Then again, he'd also never believed she would have gone as dark as she had in Connecticut, where he and Isabella had been living, but he was wrong then.

When he got to Mystic Falls, he hesitated on where he should check first. While just showing up at the house would most likely be the most efficient way for him to find Isabella, he also knew it enrage Ravyn if he tried to go behind her back. She had made it brutally clear that she had taken up his mantle of Isabella's protector and while he normally appreciated how vicious the witch could be when it came to looking out for Isabella, he never expected to be on the receiving end of her powers.

The Grill then, he decided. He would see Ravyn first and let her know of his intentions before going to see Isabella. There would never be enough words to describe how sorry he was for hurting her, but he had to try. Parking his car across the street, Elijah got out and headed towards the bar's entrance, only to be stopped by an invisible barrier on the outskirts of the parking lot. He was still for a moment, shocked, before he felt the compelling need to turn around and walk back towards his car. Leaning against the driver's side door, it took Elijah a moment to realize what had happened.

Ravyn had not only put up a barrier to keep him out of the Grill, but she had also added some sort of compulsion spell to it so that he would leave without making a scene. It was both creative and effective and he wondered if she had also used it on the house. Would Niklaus really allow her to ban him from the family mansion?

He left immediately and headed to the house, only to be rebuffed again. Elijah was just about to call Niklaus when Kol appeared beside his car. Stepping out of the vehicle, he nodded in greeting to his younger brother. "Kol."

"Elijah." Kol smirked. "I must say, I am surprised to see you here. I thought you were smarter than that."

"Where's Isabella?"

"Well now, she's really not your concern anymore, is she?"

"Do not test me," he growled. "Ravyn can't keep us separated forever."

His brother laughed. "Oh yes, she can. You've seen how powerful she is, even Mother feared her. Even once she's dead in the ground, Ravyn will still be making sure that the Little Bit is looked after."

Elijah was known for his control, his ability to keep the vampiric instincts inside him leashed was something he had always taken pride in. At that moment though, all Elijah wanted to do was go and kill anyone keeping him away from his mate.

Kol seemed to know what he was thinking. "I was right then, you've mated." He didn't seem surprised. "While I commend you for being able to tell just what a prize Bella is, it probably wasn't the best idea to take her as your mate without first explaining to her just what you were doing."

"You know it's instinct, Kol. It may be rare, but when it does it's almost impossible to stop."

"It's also instinct to never knowingly cause harm to our mates yet you seemed to have no trouble going against that instinct."

He hadn't even realized he had moved until he was pinning Kol to a tree. "I have had enough," he growled. "I have made mistakes that I will forever regret but the only one who both needs to and deserves to hear my apologies are Isabella."

"That's going to be a tab bit difficult," Kol spat, shoving him away, "considering the spell that Ravyn has put into effect."

"Isabella will have to leave the house eventually."

"If I didn't know you as well as I do, I would find that vaguely threatening. As it is, the spell Ravyn used isn't on the house." He smirked again, and Elijah felt a fissure of panic. "It's on Isabella itself. No matter where she goes or what you do, you won't be able to get near her."

Elijah lost his temper.

---

It had been two months since Bella had died. Klaus, Kol, and Ravyn had been her rocks that entire time, always making sure that at she knew they had her back. She didn't know what she would have done without them.

Well, actually, she had an idea.

Bella was standing in a clearing in the forest, the same clearing Klaus had used for his sacrifice. It had only been a little over two weeks, but Bella didn't know if she could do this anymore.

It was too much.

The emotions were too much. Her senses were too heightened for her to be able to bear. Her nightmares too vivid to be forgotten, even in the light of day. Kol and Ravyn and Klaus were so amazing and they were doing their best but it wasn't enough. That was her fault, she was the one too broken to be helped.

It was three p.m. though, she thought idly. She was pretty sure she'd heard Kol once say that dramatic suicides should either take place at sunrise or sunset for maximum effect. Should she wait then?

"Bella." Ravyn was there. "Bella, what are you doing?"

She turned to look at the only family she had left and the guilty expression seemed to tell Ravyn all she needed to know.

"Oh." The pain in her voice and the sound her swallow seemed to echo in the meadow. "I see." Ravyn watched as Bella looked away from her and down at her ring.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Bella finally asked, unable to stand the silence for a moment longer.

"No, I'm not." Ravyn smirked bitterly at Bella's surprise. "I get it, I almost did the same when I first got to this world. I know what it's like to feel like it's all too much, like you can't bear the thought of taking another breath or feeling your heart beat for even a second longer. I know what it's like to give up hope."

Bella could only stare at her.

"I'm not… I'm not going to stop you. I love you. You're my sister and I love you and I won't force you to stay if what you need is to go." Ravyn started to cry. "No matter what you do, I will always love you. Not gonna lie and say I won't miss you if you go, but I promise I won't resent you if you do. I just need you to be okay, Bella. That's all I've ever wanted. Promise."

'I promise.' Bella had said that to her once, almost a year ago. 'We're family now, Ravyn. You and me. We've got this. I promise.'

Bella was across the clearing and throwing her arms around Ravyn. "You and me," she whispered. "We've got this. We're not alone."

Ravyn hugged her back tightly. "Always and forever. Just, you know, without the whole unhealthy emotional dependency bit."

She was better now. Nowhere close to being fine, but Bella no longer felt like the weight of the world was crushing her.

From her position in Ravyn's study, which was really just a room filled with comfy chairs, fluffy pillows, a large T.V., and all sorts of other comfort items that Ravyn liked to have close by while she was relaxing in here, Bella could hear the sounds of her sister and Klaus arguing downstairs.

"I mean really, Klaus, what the fuck were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that I was bored and she was willing," he snapped. "How the hell was I supposed to know it was possible for her to get pregnant?" Bella's eyes widened.

"It's called using your brain! YOU ARE A WEREWOLF. BASIC BIOLOGY WITH MAGIC, KLAUS. THINK MAN!"

Bella got up and started to head downstairs towards them. "It's a little late for that, don't you think?" she heard him hiss.

Ravyn groaned. "Whatever. Just gag the werewolf and put her in the basement, alright? We've got enough problems going on upstairs."

She appeared in the hallway just in time to see Klaus heading for the basement with a dark-haired girl thrown over her shoulder. "Uh… Ravyn?"

Spinning around towards her, Ravyn smiled brightly. "Hey! What's up?"

"Feels like that should be my line. What, bartending getting a little dull for you? Decided to see what being a kidnapper would be like?"

"You know me, I like to keep busy."

Bella glared at her. "You really want to play this game with me?"

Ravyn shrugged. "Probably."

She groaned. "Why are you keeping a pregnant werewolf in the basement?"

"Because I don't like her face, I don't like her attitude, and I don't like that she was apparently in league with the New Orleans witches in order to get Klaus to come back. But those first two reasons are something you should keep in mind before taking that tone with me."

Jaw dropped, Bella held up her hands. "Whoa, be kind and rewind! What about New Orleans?"

"It's no big deal," Ravyn waved away her concern. "It was promptly handled. However, we will be needing to move here shortly. Though, considering what happened with you earlier, we were already planning on leaving this hellhole for a bit, so that's no big deal."

Bella shifted nervously. "What happened with me earlier?"

"Don't even bother," her sister warned. "Kol already filled us in; guess you really freaked him out."

She winced. "It's really no big deal," Bella whispered.

Ravyn sighed. "Yes, it is. You don't feel safe here and you shouldn't have to try and do all this while also being afraid of who you'll find when you go wandering around outside."

"I know Elena isn't Katherine. I know that, I just… seeing her standing there, it was like I was right back there, sitting in my destroyed car and looking up to see Katherine walking towards me."

"And I would be more concerned if that wasn't the case. You're dealing the best you can, B, and you're doing way better than I did."

Bella laughed tiredly. "Your situation was way different than mine and I've had you to help me. I don't know what I would have done if you weren't here."

"Oh, you definitely would have gone on a straight-up murder spree. Like a Kol-inspired spree of plague proportions."

"I take offense at that," Klaus said, appearing next to them. "My sprees were far worse than anything Kol did."

"That's what you take offense at?" Ravyn asked. "Really? That's your problem?"

Bella just smiled, soaking in the moment.

---

"Considering the state you're in, I suppose we should just be grateful that you left Kol alive."

Elijah turned around and glared at Niklaus. "Come to gloat?"

"No, Brother, I came to inform you that we are leaving Mystic Falls for the time being."

He tensed. "Why? Is something wrong with Isabella? Is she alright?"

Niklaus shrugged. "She's getting better. Tell me, how long has it been since you've visited New Orleans?"

Thrown by the non sequitur, Elijah answered, "Since we were last there as a family. Why?"

"It seems Marcel miraculously survived and has built himself quite the empire."

Elijah glared. "And why is it that you felt the pressing need to inform me of this?"

Ignoring the question, his brother continued. "There are no werewolves allowed in the city and none of the witches are allowed to practice magic without his permission. I only found out about all this because the witches were plotting in order to get me to come back and help them."

"Niklaus," he warned.

"They recruited a werewolf to help them with their plan and she's pregnant. Congratulations, you're going to be an uncle."

His eyes widened. "You got her pregnant?"

"So it would seem." The hybrid rolled his eyes. "As Ravyn put it, it's basic biology plus magic. After all, I was a werewolf first."

"You had the potential to be a werewolf first," Elijah corrected. "If this woman is pregnant with your child, why are you leaving? Are you moving to New Orleans?" He wouldn't put it past his brother to try and take back his empire, despite the risks involved, and if that was his plan then Elijah would do as he had always done and assist him as best he could. Though, his reasons this time had nothing to do with loyalty to his brother or his guilt but everything to do with his mate, who would surely be accompanying him.

"I considered it but Ravyn refused. Instead, we are moving somewhere else for the duration of the pregnancy. Far too many enemies around here for any of our comfort."

"Will Isabella be going with you?"

"Of course, Ravyn wouldn't go anywhere without Isabella. Like I said, she is doing better but it's hard for her to be back in Mystic Falls. A change of scenery will be good for her."

Elijah swallowed down his pride. "I need to see her, Niklaus. I need to see that she's alright."

Niklaus sighed. "No, you don't. She needs space. I don't know why you did what you did, Brother, and I don't think you do either. Until you're able to actually find the words to explain what you were thinking, you need to stay away. Bella is battered and bruised right now, I won't let you break her entirely."

---

"Wait, wait, wait," Bella interrupting, holding up her hands. "Klaus has a son named Marcel? Why hasn't anyone ever mentioned him?"

"They thought he died in the fire," Ravyn explained, continuing to toss her things into boxes.

"Well, that was dumb of them. He's Klaus' son after all."

She snorted. "Oh, that's putting it nicely. This kid is Klaus' child through and through. Apparently the little asshole has turned New Orleans into some sort of vampire kingdom- no werewolves allowed and no magic can be used without express permission."

Bella laughed. "Oh, I bet that bit of information went down real well with you."

"The stupidity actually had me shocked speechless. After setting the dumbass straight, we ran right into the band of witches who had been plotting with the werewolf to get Klaus there. In Hailey's defense, she was only going along with this because she wanted help finding her family." Ravyn looked over at Bella and rolled her eyes in exasperation before continuing. "It seems they thought that using his unborn child as a bargaining chip would be enough to induce Klaus to kill off Marcel for them so that they could use magic freely."

"Does Klaus even want a kid?" Bella asked. "I mean, I've never heard him mentioning a burning need to be a father."

"That's probably because it didn't go so well with Marcel and the whole 'vampires can't have kids' thing. He's not exactly known for his ability to plan ahead you know." Ravyn placed the last of her books in the box and sighed in relief. "Alright, done here. Let's get this out to the truck."

"What's the rush?" Bella asked. "I mean, you guys just announced that we were leaving yesterday and here we are, actually about to leave."

Ravyn sat down next to Bella on the bed. "We want to get out as soon as possible in case someone in New Orleans gets the bright idea to try and retaliate for Klaus refusing to help them. Once we get set up in California, we can get started on finding a surrogate for the baby and then hunkering down for the next 8 months. Plus, it seems Silas has made an appearance and his existence is giving me a headache."

Bella laid back and stared blankly up at the ceiling. "Hailey really doesn't want the baby?"

"Nope. She wants nothing to do with the baby or with Klaus. I know the idea of an abortion made her uncomfortable, but I think she might have tried to go that route if I hadn't offered up an alternative and Klaus hadn't offered her a crap ton of money and some help finding out about her past. She'll come with us to California, we'll find someone else willing to carry the kid to term, do the spell, and then Hailey will go."

"Why don't you do it? Carry the baby, I mean."

"We talked about it," Ravyn admitted softly, slumping back so that they were laying side by side. "But I don't know how carrying the kid will affect me- we've already seen what happens when even a small amount of blood is in my system."

"Makes sense." They were silent for a moment until Bella turned to look the other girl. "They really tried to blackmail him into helping them and Klaus didn't just go on a killing spree?"

"Oh, it was a hot mess there for a second. Klaus tried to make the decision that we were going to move to New Orleans and 'take back the kingdom' but I flat out told him that if he wanted to go that route he was going to go it alone. I mean seriously, if I was going to decide to get involved in a supernatural war or whatever then we would just be staying here and seeing what this Silas dude is about- at least he's interesting! So, Marcel is running New Orleans? Good for him. Silas just made the entire town watch in silence as he murdered the mayor before erasing their memory. That is way more impressive."

Bella smiled at her logic. "I can't believe no one else realized he switched places with Stefan."

Ravyn snorted. "I can. Bunch of self-absorbed morons. They also haven't even spoken to Bonnie all summer and no one's finding that suspicious."

"It's sad you know more about their lives than they do."

"What's sad is that they've somehow managed to survive this long with such pathetic self-preservation skills and their utter lack of secrecy. I mean seriously, do they really think no one's going to overhear them when they're talking in a crowded barroom at a normal volume?"

"'Cause if any one of them were halfway intelligent then they wouldn't be hanging out with each other."

---

"You're disgustingly persistent, I'll give you that." Ravyn lounged against a nearby tree and studied Elijah with hooded eyes. "So, why the desperate need to chat?"

"I need your help."

"Yes, thank you, Captain Obvious," she snorted. "You've needed help for a while though and have fought tooth and nail against every hand held out to you except for Bella's. What's with the change of heart?"

Elijah sighed. "It's because of Isabella that I'm reaching out. I know I don't deserve your help," he admitted. "But you may be the only one who can do this."

Ravyn watched him silently for a long moment and Elijah shifted slightly, that small movement the only sign of his discomfort. "As long as the 'this' you're referring to doesn't involve speaking on your behalf then I'm willing to listen. No guarantees after that."

His stared at her in surprise. "I must admit, I hadn't thought you would even allow me to get a word out before you took me down, let alone agree to listen to me."

"I could change my mind, if you'd like? Just turn and leave you to your pointless existence."

"No," he entreated, taking a step towards her, "please don't. I am just having a difficult time understanding."

She sighed, shifting upright. "Last time we spoke, I was not in a good place. Still not, really, but I'm pushing past that for the moment. I have a feeling I know what you're wanting to talk about though, and it's something that's been bothering me too."

"You too?" Elijah echoed.

"Why Katherine?" Ravyn smirked faintly. "That's the question really tugging on you, right? Why Katherine? Why Elena too, for that matter. Because, while you may not have fancied yourself in love with her, there was something pulling at you there, making you want to protect her forever and ever." Elijah was silent. "Well? Am I getting warmer?"

"Yes," he finally admitted. "There's something else at work here. Before Isabella, I couldn't see it, but I now can."

"Can you?" she murmured. "Or, are you hoping there's some other supernatural reason for your betrayal that you can use to pave the way back into my sister's arms?"

"Even should you be able to prove my suspicions right, there's no turning back for us- there's no forgiveness for what I've done." He was grateful that he was able to keep his tone steady and stoic as he spoke.

Ravyn laughed. "Oh, Elijah, you really haven't changed, have you?" She walked closer to him. "Your problem isn't with your lack of control, it's with how rigidly you keep ahold of it. You keep yourself as closed off as you can because nothing in your life has ever gone your way: your brother picks off those you get close to so they could never take you away, your father hunted you because he hated what he made you become, and the few women you could bear to love all left you in one way or another. And then along came Isabella Swan and your whole world shifted.

"I get it, she's one of a kind. But even Bella, with her open and loving nature and her absolute belief in you, wasn't enough to get you to fully open up. You gave her just enough to show that you cared but never the full picture. But see, I don't think you've ever truly shown yourself to anyone since your human days. Something happened, and it made you lock away bits and pieces of yourself, locked them away so deep that you can't even see it anymore. But then, out of nowhere, a crack formed and that crack was Katherine. Something about her starting pressing against your shields and you were left desperately trying to hold back your monster."

Her eyes, her gaze, it was too piercing, too knowing, and Elijah was forced to look away. "How?" he choked out.

"As much as you may try to deny it, you and Klaus are way too similar. You both have the idiotic habit of just pressing down whatever it is you don't want to think about or feel and hoping it goes away. Newsflash, it doesn't. It'll just get bigger and bigger until you can't control it anymore and then, when it comes out, all you'll be able to do is watch the devastation it leaves behind. For you, whatever you're not facing crushed my sister. So, here's what's going to happen- I'm going to help you dig around in your head and find out what's happening up there and then you are going to deal with it. And as crazy as it seems, my helping you and all, know that this whole thing may very well destroy you. If it does, then I'm right and you're garbage not worthy breathing the same air as Bella. But, if you make it to the other side of this with your sanity intact, then that man might just be good enough. So, you willing to take a shot?"

---

"Alright," said one of the movers, placing a box in the room they had decided to designate as the library. "That's the last of them."

"Finally," Bella groaned, falling onto the couch. "More beautiful words have never been spoken."

The guy laughed. "Good luck with getting everything unpacked. Hope you enjoy California."

Bella smiled politely at him. "Thanks. Klaus should be somewhere downstairs if you need to talk to him before you go."

Thankfully, it seemed he was just as tired as she was since he just smiled, nodded at her, and then left. Two of the other guys had been making passes at her all day and Bella was just thankful that Ravyn wasn't there yet because she knew that the witch would have already lost her temper by now. As it was, Bella had just about decided to do the world a favor and off them herself when Klaus had appeared and taken care of the situation.

While Bella had slowly started to thrive in her new immortal life, and revel in the perks that came along with it, she still didn't have a good handle on compulsion. The others had thought that maybe it was because it had never worked on her so she had no past experiences to draw on. Privately, Bella thought it was because she knew she never wanted anyone to have their freedom stripped away from them the way she'd had with the Cullen's and so, subconsciously, that particular power just refused to manifest itself. Either way, she didn't really stress about it.

After sitting there for ten minutes, Bella forced herself to stand up and head downstairs to try and scrounge up a blood bag before going to her room and unpacking. It took her a minute to actually find the kitchen since Klaus had, once again, chosen a house far bigger than it needed to be for only the three of them since Kol had decided to travel a while. He would probably be joining them soon though so that would make four. Five actually, she realized, as she passed a closed door and heard the sound of Haley moving around. But Haley would be leaving soon after they had found a trustworthy surrogate. Who would probably stay at the house with them so it'd still be five. Until the baby came that is.

Maybe Klaus had the right idea after all.

The sound of the hybrid in question cursing caught her ear and Bella headed towards the noise, wondering what had happened to annoy Klaus now. Luckily for her, he was doing something in the kitchen when she found him and she made sure to memorize how to get there. "Whatcha doing?" Bella asked as she walked over to the fridge and pulled out some O positive. Klaus' supernatural network was a wonderful thing when it was working for you.

"Ravyn is ignoring my calls," he snarled.

"Yes, well, Ravyn does that." Guzzling down her blood bag, Bella idly wondered whether a vampire's preferred blood-type said something about them the same way that Renee's new-age self-actualization books said that a person's blood-type imbued them with certain characteristics.

"Have you heard from her?" Klaus demanded.

Bella sighed and pulled out her phone, shooting Ravyn a text. Hey. You still alive?

Seconds later, her phone buzzed with a response. Sorry, but the person you're trying to reach is currently unavailable bc she's doing something fucking important. A second text immediately followed the first. Tell Klaus if he calls me one more time I will reach down the phone line and strangle him.

Klaus had moved so he could read over her shoulder. "Tell her that, in order to do that, she'd have to answer the phone first."

She smirked. Klaus says that you're a sparkly ray of sunshine and he hopes to be allowed to bask in your presence soon.

"That is not what I said!"

"Yeah but, I mean, it's close enough. The vibe is all the same."

"The vibe?! We've only been in California for six hours and already your intelligence has taken a hit. How tragic."

---

Elijah pressed his hands to his head, barely able to hear the sound of Ravyn panting over his own groans. She'd gone into his head and found the reason for him and in doing so she had broken him. Was broken the same as destroyed? It didn't really matter though. Now he had the confirmation for what he had always thought: he wasn't good enough for Isabella. Ravyn was right- he was trash.

"Holy shit." He glanced over to see the witch on her knees by the wall on the other side of the room, palm pressed against the stone as though she could absorb its steadiness. "Holy shit."

"Indeed," he murmured. Looking down at his hands, Elijah was amazed at how clean they looked. With so much blood on them, shouldn't they be stained red by now?

"Elijah?" He continued to stare at his hands. "Fuck. Just fuck." There was a shifting of fabric, footsteps, and then a cool hand turning his face up. "Look at me, Elijah." There was a strange pressing on his mind and he freely allowed her entrance. After all, Ravyn had already seen the worst of him. "Dear god, why?" she hissed as she pulled away from him.

Stepping away from him, Elijah watched as she pulled out her phone. "Pick up, pick up, pick up," she chanted, pressing it to her ear.

"Yes?" came Kol's voice.

"Hey, so, I think I broke your brother."

"Finally pushed Klaus too far?"

"Nope, talking about Elijah."

There was a pause. "What did you do?"

"Look, he called me! Just want you to be aware! He called me, wanted to meet and I, being the magnanimous human being that I am, met with him. I couldn't have expected this! I mean seriously, I knew your mother was fucking bitch, but I had no idea she was this monstrous."

"Ravyn. What did you do?"

She took a deep breath. "I took your advice. I thought about everything, everything I knew about Elijah and what kind of man he was and how much he loved Bella, and you were right- it didn't make any sense." What kind of man he was? But Elijah wasn't a man, he was a monster. "So when he called, I agreed to meet with him because I wanted to get to the bottom of this. Elijah had the same thoughts and wanted me to look inside his head and figured out what was happening and I did." Ravyn took a shuddering breath, almost sounding like she was choking back a sob and Elijah frowned. "Your mother. Your fucking mother. Kol, she cast some sort of spell. She used Tatia in the curse on Klaus and then she cast a spell on Elijah and bound him to them, the doppelgängers. God, the strength of the spell… I almost can't wrap my mind around it. She wanted him to feel connected to the future doppelgängers so that he'd prevent Klaus from sacrificing them and breaking his curse. It didn't work out the way she wanted though because family is the most important thing in his mind, so he didn't want to betray Klaus and his subconscious tried to come up with loopholes. Like with Katherine, he tried to come up with a way for her to survive the sacrifice so he'd be keeping her alive but not hurting his brother. But over the years, the spell got all twisted and even darker and made it so he literally couldn't quit them. Especially Katherine because he already had feelings for her and the spell just fucked everything up." Elijah had never heard Ravyn talk that fast. It was interesting.

"There's more, isn't there? If that was all there was, you wouldn't be panicking. What else did Mother Dearest do?"

"She… 'Noble Elijah'. Remember how she called him that? He's the knight-in-shining armor out of all your siblings. But I guess she was worried about him turning out like Finn or something so she created this door in Elijah's mind that sucked in all his guilt and hid the memories that would hurt him so that he would always be around to stop Klaus." The air was salty with Ravyn's tears and Elijah watched as a single one fell to the floor. He wondered what it was like to feel just enough guilt to cry because his guilt was far too heavy to be lessened by something as simple as tears. "I didn't know, Kol. I swear I didn't know."

"You opened the door," his brother breathed. "Elijah, is he…?"

"He's alive but he's," Ravyn paused, seeming to struggle for words. "I broke him," she finally whispered. "I don't know what to do. Kol, what do I do?"

"I'm on my way," was all Kol said before hanging up.

Why though? Why was Kol coming? He shouldn't come. He shouldn't want to go anywhere near him. All Elijah did was harm those who came close to him. Just look at Niklaus- Elijah hurt him by his refusal to stand by him and Niklaus had become the monster of the supernatural world. He had helped lock Kol and Finn away because they thought differently than the rest of them. Rebekah had been forced to remain alone, isolated from all but her siblings, because he had helped keep her that way. And Isabella, the only light in his life, had been destroyed because of him.

"I'm sorry, Elijah. I'm so sorry."

---

"What the hell are you doing?"

Bella giggled at the confusion in Ravyn's voice. "I'm lying in the grass. It's itchy though, did you know that? Did you know that grass is itchy? It's okay though, because the stars are pretty."

"Oh my god. Are you high right now? You better not be high right now." She appeared above her, staring down at Bella in exasperation. "I didn't even know vampires could get high."

It took a moment for Bella to be able to focus on Ravyn, but once she had the buzzed feeling she was reveling in immediately went away. "Oh crap. What'd you do?"

"What do you mean what did I do? What did you do?"

"You have 'I fucked up and now I have to admit it' face. And that is not a good face for you. You don't generally have that face. For other people when they have 'I fucked up' face, it means that they fucked up. For you, it means 'I fucked up and couldn't hide it'. Usually, when you mess up, you fix it yourself or cover it up and then you come back all 'hey ya'll, guess what I did today'. And all that means that, when you do have 'I fucked up' face, it means you fucked up so bad you, the most powerful witch in this world, could not find a way to properly fix things and that thought makes me very uncomfortable. I don't like that idea. I don't like trying to imagine a fuck up by you that is on such a scale, you actually think Klaus or I helping couldn't make things worse. Like, making things worse is what we're known for."

Ravyn blinked at her. "You know me too well. I think we should see other people."

"My god," declared Klaus, walking up behind them. "Ravyn actually being the one to end a relationship. I never thought I'd see the day. I for sure thought she'd be one to just kill the other person and make it look like an accident rather than actually having a heartfelt conversation willingly." He met the dark-haired witch's gaze. "Fuck. What did you do?"

"I hate you both."

"Preemptive strike? Did you do something you think we're going to hate you for?"

Bella stared between the two, the stars glittering over their heads.

"I can't believe you got her fucking high, Klaus. I mean, my god. Who raised you?!"

"Don't even bother trying to deflect, Ravyn. Bella is fine, she just needed a little something to take the edge off and we were curious as to what would happen. Now, what happened?

Her silence scared both Bella and Klaus. "Ravyn," Klaus started, moving to stand in front of her. "What's going on? Where were you?"

She sighed. "I was with Elijah."

Bella's heart dropped. Elijah? Why would Ravyn be visiting Elijah? "Why?" Klaus echoed her thoughts. "What did he want?" Ravyn was silent and Klaus swore. "Damnit Ravyn, what did you do?"

"You were right, okay?" Ravyn exploded. "You were both right, it didn't make sense. None of it made sense! Elijah cheating on Bella like that… it didn't fit. And considering how clearly I've displayed my hatred of the man, that has to show just how suspicious I thought all this was. So, when he called me, I agreed to meet with him. He said he wanted me to figure out what was going on in his head, that there was something else at play. So I did and…" she trailed off, taking a deep breath.

"Where is he?" Klaus demanded.

"With Kol. I fucked up, Klaus," she admitted. "I thought that I was helping but something went wrong, there was another spell and unravelling the one tying him to Katherine broke the other one and now Elijah is… he's not okay."

"There was a spell tying him to Katherine?" Bella whispered.

Ravyn turned to face her. "Yeah, there was. It was a truly fucked-up piece of magic, forcibly binding Elijah to the Petrova bloodline."

Bella sat in silence for a moment, taking it all in. "What do you need?"

"I need you to talk to Elijah. His mind is not… it's not okay and you might be the only person able to reach him in the state he's in now. I don't want to use more magic on him if I don't have to so I need for us to try and do this a different way."

Klaus glanced at Bella, unsure as to whether or not he should push her to help Elijah or reassure her that it was okay to say no. He cared about Bella, she was almost family to him at this point, but Elijah was his brother. He loved Elijah and the idea that he could be lost to him almost sent him into a blind panic.

He needn't have worried. "Tell me what to do on the way," Bella told her friend, pushing herself to her feet.

---

"I'm vividly remembering just why we daggered Finn," Kol snarled, glowering at Elijah. "This is getting to be utterly ridiculous."

Elijah just continued to stare passively at him. How did Kol do it? he found himself wondering. How did he continue to live with such blood-soaked hands?

Kol thrust the blood bag in his hands in front of Elijah again. "You can either drink this willingly, or I will hold you down and pour it down your throat," he threatened. "Your choice."

If Elijah didn't start feeding soon, he would desiccate. Was desiccating similar to the effects of being daggered? When he was daggered, it was as though he was floating in nothing. But desiccating would probably be far more painful, since the gnawing hunger would always be there. That sounded much more fitting for him.

"As you wish," Kol cheered, shifting his stance slightly.

The sound of a car pulling into the driveway stopped him and they both quietly listened to the noises coming from outside.

"I've got it from here." Isabella was here. She couldn't be here though, not when he was. Elijah's presence would just taint her, cover her in his red.

"You sure? Probably couldn't hurt to have backup." Why had Ravyn brought her here? Ravyn was supposed to keep Isabella safe- protect her the way Elijah hadn't.

"It's fine. You need to be getting back; Klaus is probably seconds away from killing Haley and you need to find a surrogate sooner rather than later." Niklaus was going to be a father. What a strange concept, his violent younger brother being the only one among them able to bring life into this world.

"You're not wrong."

Kol zipped out of the room then and Elijah heard the front door open. "About time, I was starting to lose my mind."

"How is he?" How so very like Isabella, to be concerned for someone who had hurt her so badly. She was so very kind, her heart so gentle, and Elijah had deluded himself into believing he could be a worthy protector of it.

"He won't eat." Kol sounded so frustrated. Elijah thought it must be exhausting for him, having to lower himself to helping one of the siblings most responsible for his suffering.

"Are you sure my being here is going to help? I don't want to make things worse…" What an amusing image, Isabella being the villain in the story instead of Elijah.

"You may be the only one who can reach him now. I should warn you though, the breaking of our Mother's spell has caused him to remember the worst of his sins from over a thousand years of life and his control is… shattered. He won't be the Elijah you know."

"Okay, I know I fucked up here in a spectacular manner, and I get that we can't leave Elijah like this, but this sounds way to dangerous. What if something goes wrong?" Why was Ravyn insisting she was in the wrong? She was not the monster here- she was just the one to unveil the truth.

"Elijah won't hurt me." Isabella sounded so sure and it hurt, hurt in a way nothing else did.

"Pretty sure I've heard that before."

"And you, out of all of us, are well aware of how none of this was his fault." Kol, his valiant defender. It must be bitingly cold in hell right now.

"That's enough. Ravyn, you need to get back. I've got this, okay? Trust me." Isabella, standing strong once more. Elijah could sense her fear though. What was it she was really scared of at the moment? Was it him? Had her long-absent sense of self-preservation finally return to her and was warning her away from the wolf in sheepskin? That was wrong though, Niklaus was the wolf. Elijah was the hunter.

"Fine. But I swear to God, Kol, if anything happens to her, I'll be fucking you up next."

"Well of course, you've already ruined my other siblings; wouldn't want to leave me feeling left out."

There were footsteps coming towards him and he assumed it was Kol, coming to try and force him to eat and make himself presentable.

"Hello, Elijah."

His head snapped up. "Isabella."

---

He looked terrible.

That was all Bella could think as she stared at the love of her life. He sat on the floor in the corner of the room, next to a large window, in a state of total disarray. His dress pants were covered in creases, as was his white dress shirt, and he had his knees pulled up to his chest with has arms resting on top of them.

When she had come into the room, he had been staring at his family ring and she'd felt a spark of panic, wondering if he was considering taking it off.

Ravyn had said that he was in a bad way but this? This was not what she had expected.

She couldn't stop herself from walking into the room and going to his side, leaning against the wall and sliding down next to him. They sat there in silence for several minutes, listening to Ravyn and Kol argue outside about things that really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things but seemed vitally important to the two hotheads. Bella finally let out a bitter laugh. "How did we get here, Elijah? How did things end up like this?"

"I did as I always do, what I will forever do. I broke us."

"That would be nice and simple, wouldn't it?" Elijah's brows furrowed and she continued. "Everything would be so much easier if you could just be put in the monster box and me in the princess box. We can't though, we can't let ourselves make it simple. Because you aren't a monster, Elijah; you aren't the villain in this story and neither am I."

"I hurt you," he whispered. "I broke your heart."

"And how is yours doing, Elijah? Is your heart whole and intact right now?" Bella turned her head to stare directly at him, eyes scanning his face and cataloguing every detail: the shadows under his eyes, the bristly skin covering his cheeks, lip, and jaw, and his disheveled hair. "Looking at you right now, you don't look like a monster. You look tired and sad and like someone ripped your heart right out of your chest."

"That would be fitting, would it not?" He refused to look at her. "Considering how many people I've done that to, would it not be something like justice for the same thing to happen to me?"

"Justice?" Bella laughed again. "For God's sake, haven't you had enough of justice and honor? Being so just and good is what got you into this mess, it's why Esther chose you for her spell. What is it you want, Elijah? Ignore your stupid code of honor for one minute and be honest with me: what is it you want to do right now?"

Elijah's control snapped. What did he want? What he wanted was to go back. Back to a time when it was just he and Isabella in their house in Connecticut with the large windows in every room so that she could have the most amount of sunlight. Back to when there was laughter and love and the biggest concern he'd had to deal with on a regular basis was Isabella getting lost and somehow ending up in a neighboring state. But he, more than anyone, knew that there was no going back.

He was a selfish creature though, and if Isabella wanted to see the version of him that didn't cling to his principles then fine.

Twisting towards her, Elijah wrapped his hands around her wrists and pinned her to the floor, pressing his body down against her own and kissing her.

Bella immediately noted how this was different than any other moment they had shared. Elijah had always been so gentle with her, always remembering how delicate her human body was compared to his own. This was harsher than any time before, a string of danger weaving its way around them. Despite that edge, which should have made her nervous, Bella felt truly alive in a way she hadn't since Katherine had crashed her car. This was real and raw and everything she hadn't known she'd needed since she'd woken up to a world of empty hopes and panic attacks.

She wasn't pushing him away. Elijah had been so sure that Isabella would pull away from him, would leave and not look back, but she wasn't. She wasn't even trying to make him let go of her arms, just arching her back so that her chest was pressed more firmly against his own and twining their legs together.

Elijah pulled away, staring down at Isabella's flushed face. "Why aren't you stopping me?"

Bella's heart broke at the lost look on his face. "Because I don't want to stop you. I didn't stay away because I didn't love you anymore, Elijah- I stayed away because I felt like I shouldn't. I felt like I was still that girl Edward left in the woods who allowed herself to get so attached to a guy that she wasn't able to function on her own when he was gone. I felt weak and pathetic because I knew that, if I saw you again, I wouldn't be able to leave but I knew I couldn't stay."

He winced at even the hint that he was like the Cullen boy in any way. "You shouldn't have come here," Elijah murmured. "It's not safe."

"I'm not leaving- I'm not walking away. Everything's not okay right now, we're not okay, but we deserve the chance to try and get there. We can't start doing that till you're better though."

"Better?" It was his turn to laugh bitterly. "There is no better, it's just me. This is who I am, what I've always been just beneath the surface, locked behind a door."

She smiled softly at him. "A monster wouldn't be trying to talk me into leaving even as he desperately tries to hold me to him."

"Always so optimistic," Elijah whispered, a small flash of hope flaring in his chest. "Always believing there's a chance."

Using her still-new-to-her vampire strength, Bella flipped them over so that she was straddling Elijah. Leaning over him so that her hair fell around them like a curtain, Bella smiled shyly at him. "There's always hope for us, Elijah. Always."

---

It took less than a month for Kol to drag both Elijah and Bella back to Ravyn and Klaus in California, declaring that he couldn't handle dealing with both of their damaged selves at the same time and that, since this was mostly Ravyn's fault, she should have to be the one to fix them. Ravyn had given a rather violent response to that declaration but was more than happy to have Bella back.

It also took less than a month for Bella and Elijah to have their first fight since they had… reconciled? Decided to try again? Were stupid enough to think they could make things work? Bella honestly didn't know at this point.

She gaped at the carnage around them. "What the hell, Elijah?!" Bella finally choked out once she found her voice again.

He didn't look at her, just stared down at his blood-soaked hands blankly.

They had stopped to feed on their way back to Klaus' house in a relatively large college town an hour or two out of Kansas City. Bella had lured a drunken frat-boy outside that she had caught attempting to slip a roofie into a pretty red-head's drink. When they had gotten to the alley behind the bar though, two other guys had appeared and shoved Bella into a wall, momentarily stunning her. Before she could regain her bearings and retaliate appropriately, Elijah had shown up and dealt with things in his own bloody way.

The brick walls were covered in blood. The bodies were in pieces, scattered across the asphalt and three hearts lay near Bella's feet.

"Elijah," she snapped, moving to stand in front of him.

He finally looked up at her and she was stunned by the rage in his eyes. "They touched you."

It took her a second to respond. "Yes, but I could have handled them on my own- I didn't need you to save me."

There was a hint of confusion in his eyes now. "I… Did you really expect me to just stand and do nothing as they hurt you? Do you believe me so emotionless as to be uncaring towards those who would think to harm you?"

"I expect you to believe in me, believe in the fact that I can take care of myself!"

"Yes, because you proved so well in the past just how capable you were of protecting yourself," Elijah snorted before freezing, eyes wide. "Isabella-"

"Fuck you, Elijah!" Bella was almost vibrating with anger at that point. "Fuck you. I can't believe you're bringing up Katherine and Victoria right now, especially when one of those incidents was your fault!"

"I didn't-"

"And it's because of Katherine that I learned how to protect myself. After Victoria, I was stupid enough to think that you would be able to protect me until I was able to do it myself. I trusted you and it got me killed. It's thanks to you that I learned how to save myself because I trusted you and look where it got me!"

Elijah stumbled back a step, trembling slightly.

And that was when Kol found them.

Kol hadn't bothered to ask what had happened, just shoved them into the car and dropped them off at the hotel they had booked for the night before going back to clean up the scene. They had left the next day and driven nonstop to California.

Bella was glad to be back in the haven Klaus had found for them. It was so different from the East Coast, with its more relaxed atmosphere and wide-open spaces. There were no reminders here, not to her time in Virginia and Connecticut or even to before then when she moved around the West with her semi-nomadic mother. It was a fresh start for all of them.

Klaus and Ravyn had even managed to find a surrogate while they were away. Her name was Abigail, she was 25 years old, and had an older brother that was a vampire so she wasn't ignorant of all things supernatural but was ignorant as to just who Klaus Mikaelson was. She wasn't stupid though, so Bella figured that Abigail had to be aware that there was something extra going on here and was just smart enough to know to keep her mouth shut.

She and Elijah weren't talking though. In fact, Elijah was now going out of his way to avoid everyone there and Bella didn't know what to do. In order for them to get to a better place, to find their footing again, they needed to spend time together but it hurt. It hurt to be close to each other without actually being able to be to be together. To stand next to him without feeling the weight of his palm on the small of her back or absorbing his warmth by leaning against his chest. Most of all, it hurt to look at him and almost be able to see the splintered fragments that was all that remained of the trust that was once between them.

"Still pining, I see," Klaus commented, coming up behind Bella as she stood in the library by the window, staring down at Elijah's reclined form in the backyard.

"You would know, what with being the leading expert in it," she snarked with no real heat.

"I pined after women I knew I could never be with," he responded gently, and her head spun with how much the hybrid had changed in the past year. Kol was right- Klaus was all well-adjusted and less defensive. It was kind of creepy.

"At least there's been some progress," Bella sighed. "He can now meet my gaze without looking like I'm ripping out his entrails." His pained eyes had been replaced by nauseating emptiness but beggars can't be choosers and all that.

"You know why this is so hard for him, don't you?" Klaus asked. "Kol informed you?"

Bella nodded silently. Mates. She and Elijah were mated. After the Cullen's had left, she'd thought the concepts of mates was just something they had made up in order to manipulate her further into their web. Ravyn, suprisngly enough, had been the one to set her straight and explain just what being mated to a vampire entailed and how very rare it was for one to find theirs.

Mates meant forever.

"It's not the Disney-promoted crapfest we've all been subjected to," she'd scoffed, throwing back a vodka shot. Bella still wasn't entirely sure if it was okay for Ravyn to be drinking on the job but since no one had said anything, she assumed that it was fine. "It's not all, 'you meet, you kiss, and then live happily ever after with a wave of a wand or a twittering bird or whatever'. Just because two vampires, or a vampire and a human also I guess, are mated doesn't necessarily mean it'll work out. It's still a relationship like any other. They both have to work for it. The only difference is that, if they can't make it work, then they're probably going to die alone. If you can't make it work with your perfect complement, then how the hell are you going to find happiness with anyone else?"

This wasn't like the movies, Bella had to remind herself. It wasn't always going to be all happy with them.

That fact was oddly reassuring to Bella, the knowledge that mated couples were just like any other couples, except without that looming fear that you were going to get tired of each other. At least, she didn't worry about ever getting over Elijah. She didn't know about him though, because he wouldn't fucking talk to her.

Klaus sighed. "My brother is a Mikaelson, love, and we're as stubborn as they come. If you really do want to make it work with him, you're going to have to be the pursuer this time." She turned to look at him and he gave her a roguish smirk. "Fair is fair, considering all the work he did catching you in the beginning."

Bella pondered that for a moment before smiling. Elijah had been the one to doggedly pursue her when they'd first met. She was still so wary of others after Forks and out of nowhere, a ridiculously handsome man had appeared in front of her and attempted to charm her with every conversation they had. Bella had been so confused at first; Ravyn had thought they were the most amusing thing she'd ever seen.

"I don't know if I can be as charming as he was, but I can certainly be as tenacious." At the moment, it was Bella's hesitancy that was holding them back the most. If she really wanted them to work and find a way past all the pain they had caused each other, then she had to be the one to take those first steps.

"That's the spirit, love. Now, get the hell out of my house until you've managed to wipe that stupid look off my dear older brother's face."

---

Isabella appeared in front of him, feet planted firmly shoulder-width apart. "You can't dodge me forever."

Elijah forced himself to keep a blank expression. "I have no idea what you mean."

"C'mon now, don't make this into a cliché kind of conversation. You know what I'm talking about, I know why you're hiding from me, and we both know how this ends."

Unable to stop himself, Elijah's brow rose slightly. "My apologies, but I seem to have missed that announcement. How does this end?" He was tense, remembering their argument. She was going to end this, them. She was going to walk away and he couldn't blame her for that. Isabella was absolutely right, she had died and it was his fault. He had proven that she couldn't rely on him, that she couldn't trust him to be there when she needed him, and she deserved better than that. Isabella deserved only the best, and that wasn't him.

Sinking to the ground next to him, Isabella took his hand. "It ends with us talking, talking a lot. Probably you more than me, since you're a thousand years old and have more to say. We'll be doing this in baby steps so that we'll always be on the same page. There will be dates and fights and making up. There'll be a moment where you're kissing me goodnight outside my door and we'll realize that neither of us want you to go and moments when you'll be afraid to stay because you think you're not good enough. Ravyn will tease us about the reversal of roles this time around, and the reversal of our fears, while Klaus will stare at us apprehensively because he won't know who to be more worried about.

"We're not walking off into the sunset yet, but I'll be damned if we don't get there eventually. Because I love you, Elijah, I always have and I always will. You hurt me, trying to write that off won't help either of us, but you also showed me a love greater than I could ever imagine and saved my life too many times to count. It doesn't matter how badly you think of yourself because I will always see you as better than me. Example one: you waited a thousand years to find me and never backed down all those times I rejected you, but I refuse to wait even a second longer for you and our future."

The smile she gave him, so shy still even in the face of such a bold speech, broke the barriers he had attempted to erect in order to keep himself from her and hope flooded through him again. "Do I not get a say in this?" he gently teased, grinning softly.

She beamed back at him. "Nope. Sorry, but I'm running this now and the power has definitely gone to my head. You might as well just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride."

Elijah laughed for the first time in months. It wasn't all better, wasn't all fixed, but it was a step in the right direction and that was more than enough.

---

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