Disclaimer: I still don't own anything. If I did, a freaking awesome kiss would have been just the beginning...
A/N: I thank you all sooo much for all your encouraging words you wrote in your reviews, especially those I couldn't answer directly!
I'm glad you liked it so far, and I'm happy about the amount of alerts and favs I got for the first chapter!
As for this chapter, it had already been written before 'All my children' had been aired, so it goes different than the show. In the third chapter you will see though, that it was unavoidable (for me at least) to adapt the story in small parts a little to the episode, and this forced me to change the plot I had intended; that's why it took so long, because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to figure out a way that would make me content.
Obviously it worked...
A HUGE thanks to my beta again, who is doing an incredibly good job in the most sensitive way I could imagine!
Enjoy!
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Chapter 2
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Rebekah texts her brother, and despite the early time, it doesn't take Elijah more than a few minutes to knock at the door of the boarding house. Damon lets him in, signaling him with a wave of his hand to join the others in the parlor. With a questioning look he then hands him a tumbler filled with the blood he wanted to drink; when Elijah accepts it, nodding as a thank you, Damon saunters over to the kitchen to fetch a third blood bag, and within a minute all three vampires are sipping their breakfast.
Matt watches Elena, who doesn't even seem to notice the weirdness of someone having a blood bag as breakfast anymore; however, he isn't used to seeing vampires nursing blood at all, and he can't help but feeling disgusted and averting his eyes from them until they are done.
Elijah places his empty tumbler on a table. "You didn't call me here to spend some quality time with me, I presume" he addresses Elena despite knowing that his sister was the one who texted him to come here. Elena instantly suspects that he knows about her betrayal and she feels her stomach quivering.
"There is something I have to tell you…," she starts hesitantly, not quite sure about what reaction to expect from him, and unknowingly she crosses her arms in front of her chest. She has already seen what he can do with his hands, after all. Swallowing she braces herself. "I've made a mistake…I lied to you."
Not for the first time, Elijah surprises her. "I know," he simply says, and after a brief pause an amused smile curls his lips. "You're a terrible liar, Elena. Something else you don't have in common with your doppelganger."
Rebekah cuts in, and her voice barely hides her anger against Elena. "How can you be so nice to her? Haven't you heard her? She lied to you!" she spits out.
Elijah spares his sister only a glance before locking his eyes with Elena. "I know that Mother is up to something, and I know it's nothing good. Why don't you tell us what you know? Let's all have a seat and talk." He calmly gestures toward the couches and armchairs spread all over the room, and everybody does as he suggested; only Rebekah doesn't follow his proposal and remains standing, leaning against a sideboard. Elijah gives his sister a pointed look, but doesn't comment on her refusal.
Instead he addresses Elena again. "I take it Mother didn't just apologize to you," he gives her a half smile, and Elena thinks that Rebekah is right; how can he be so nice to her?
"No." She pauses and slowly shakes her head. "She asked for my help to kill you all…" She holds her breath, but Elijah doesn't seem to be surprised at all. He nods.
"Since she knew about the side effects of turning us into vampires she regretted what she did. She wanted us to survive, to be stronger than the werewolves, not turning us into blood sucking, murderous monsters."
"I'm really sorry to interrupt your friendly chit chat, but what kind of help could she ask you for?" Rebekah pipes in sharply, anger and curiosity mixed in equal measure in her features. Elena prepares for the revelation, but before she can utter a word, Damon cuts in, turning to face her, raising his hand to stop her from talking.
"Don't even say it. It's your blood, am I right? She needs your blood for a spell or something…" he says resigned, and at the sight of her reaction he lets out an unhappy chuckle. "I knew it. We never will get rid of people using you as a human blood bag, will we?"
He pushes himself to his feet, paces over to the liquor table and pours bourbon into a tumbler. He gulps down the half of it, pauses for a moment and then he knocks back the rest. He tightens his grip on the tumbler, and Elena sees his knuckles turning white until the sound of shattering glass startles her out of her momentarily stupor. She wants to go to him, taking some of the tension away from him, but she remains seated. She can't. Not after what happened last night, not before she could fix it.
"What kind of a spell?" Elijah draws their attention.
Elena swallows. "A spell to bind all of her children together, so that killing one means killing them all."
"Will you give her your blood then?" Rebekah asks, and her voice doesn't sound as confident as it usually does.
Elena turns her head to gaze at her. "I already did" she admits quietly.
The blonde vampire sucks in a deep breath, and her eyes meet those of her brother. "And all that only to get rid of Klaus…" she says in a tight voice.
From the corner of her eyes Elena sees Damon shifting slightly, and she feels her stomach turning into a knot at the thought of what she hasn't told them yet, and again fear creeps through her veins. She watches him turning to look at Rebekah, and by the look in his eyes Elena can tell that he's worried; she doesn't want to think about what that means. She doesn't even want to see it, so she averts her eyes.
Suddenly she discerns a gush of wind, and she sees Damon standing in front of the couch she's sitting on.
"What aren't you telling us, Elena?" He studies her face warily, and as he sees fear glowing in her eyes for a second, he knows instantly that he's on to something.
"Damon…" She stands up and reaches out for him, but he steps back, raising his hands in a defending gesture to keep her distant. She stands frozen for a second; she knows, she should've expected that after what had happened last night, but she didn't.
"What aren't you telling us?" he asks again, urging this time, and his eyes are flashing with anger.
She looks him straight in the eyes to overcome the insecurity paralyzing her. "Matt noted something that Esther said when I told him what happened. She…maybe she doesn't want to kill only her family. She said that she wanted to undo the evil she created. Strictly speaking it's all vampires…" She trails off, keeping their eyes locked, and now undeniable fear is emanating off of her.
Damon gazes at her, and suddenly he understands why she's so frightened today. He wondered why she was so concerned about the original family all of a sudden, what could have changed her mind overnight after giving the witch her blood to kill them. Certainly not him hooking up with a member of them. Now he knows. She's simply scared to lose even more people in her life. Caroline, Tyler, Stefan and…himself. As much as she hurt him last night, he knows that she doesn't want to lose him. He feels compassion rising for the girl in front of him, at war now with the anger born out of hurt still raging inside. His hand rises to cup her cheek of its own volition, but in the middle of the movement he decides otherwise and lets it slump down again. Maybe that's the problem… He can't. Still, even without touching her he sees her trembling.
"Damon, we can't let that happen…," she whispers, and he thinks that he has never before seen her so close to an emotional breakdown as now, not even after Stefan's stunt on Wickery Bridge. Everything that happened to her always seemed to make her stronger, but now…the thought of losing four people she cares about at once, after having lost so many of them already, nearly breaks her apart.
And for now, the compassions wins; he just wants to be there for her, wants to envelop her trembling body with his arms and hold her tight. But he thinks about last night, recalls the moment she said those words, at the expression her eyes on him held, and he can't. It feels like a cheap payback, but it isn't. To be honest, he has to muster all his strength not to run away; as hurt as he is at the moment, he can't handle her emotions, and he feels terrible about it. He feels as if he fails her. All he is capable of is staying with her, giving her his presence.
"We won't," he whispers back, and then, still holding her gaze, firmly repeats, "We won't."
She sees his internal struggle, and with a sigh she closes her eyes; and she wonders whether he will ever understand that she never thought he'd be caring too much.
(She thinks that all she wishes for right now is for him to understand just how much she cares.)
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The moment Caroline wants to leave the house the door bell rings. She curiously opens the door; who could it be, on a Sunday morning, that early at that?
When she sees who stands on her porch, she curses herself inwardly for not having left ten minutes earlier.
"Good morning" he greets her with his velvety voice, and as much as she hates herself for it, it gives her goose bumps.
"Klaus" she manages to let out. His eyes flicker over her bare arms, and his brows furrow in concern. Caroline vaguely wonders whether he thinks she has goose bumps because she's afraid of him, but she doesn't see any necessity to clear it up.
"Are you heading out?" he asks, and she thinks she sees a trace of disappointment appear in his face.
She nods. "Yes, I am. I have to buy some things for my mom. Sorry," she adds when she realizes that she sounded snippy.
He flashes her a wide smile. "Mind my company?" he asks, but he doesn't quite give her an opportunity to say yes, or no for that matter; instead he gently takes her by her elbow and steers her toward his car. When she opens her mouth to protest he cuts her short. "I have to buy some things for my mom too." His eyes sparkle with amusement, but a pleading look lies beneath it.
And despite herself, Caroline feels her lips curling to a smile.
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"So one of us has to be killed after Mother has performed the spell that binds us together." Elijah is as calm as always. Elena wonders how he still can be so composed; he just learned that their own mother wants to kill all of her children, and still he talks about it as calmly as other people talk about what they ate for breakfast. "That would be Finn, I assume. He was up to something with Mother, I saw that."
"Wait, you think he's going to sacrifice himself?" Damon shudders at this thought. Being the sacrificial lamb to save people you love is one thing, and it is definitely not a foreign concept to him anymore; but to die in order to enable your mother to kill your siblings? Damon exchanges a glance with Elena, and he sees his feeling of disgust mirrored in her face.
Rebekah sighs. "Yeah, Finn is…special. He always was…"
Damon turns to Elena again. "Do you know what will happen with your blood?" he asks reluctantly.
"Esther laced the champagne with it…"
"Thus we have come full circle…" Elijah quips, ironically arching his brows.
"And we all drank it already? Great…" Rebekah snorts. "So we're just waiting now to what, explode? Vanish? Decompose?"
They all startle when suddenly Elijah begins to laugh, a sound so unexpected that Damon wonders if the original has, after a thousand years, eventually lost his mind.
It stops as quickly as it began, but still smiling he turns to Elena. "It is a good thing then that you are such a terrible liar."
Elena stares at him for a moment, and then it dawns on her. "You mean…"
He finishes the sentence for her. "I didn't drink it."
"But I saw you drinking…"
"No, you saw me feigning to drink. You were nervous. Of course you had every reason to be nervous in this house; nothing good came to you from my family up to now. But you had already been with my mother. You should have felt relieved if she only apologized." He takes a sip from his bourbon. "But you weren't. You still were nervous, and you watched me very carefully when we were supposed to drink this champagne. When you're around as long as I am, you learn a few things about betrayal." And just now Elena sees, for a split second, a hint of hurt crossing his face, but the next moment it's gone and he smiles again at her and then at his sister. "I didn't drink it. We all are safe for now."
Elena slumps down on the couch she was sitting on before. Relief washes through her veins, and she's grateful for Matt's hand grabbing hers and squeezing it; it keeps her grounded.
She lifts her gaze and meets Damon's; he looks at her and she can almost hear him thinking 'told ya', but he doesn't respond to the smile she casts him. She feels the strong need to talk to him, to try and fix what she has broken. Although her feelings are still a blur, she knows that's what she desperately wishes for, to undo the pain she caused. To explain that she was so caught up in her anger about the need to go behind his back that she was careless with her words. To tell him, that she never meant he cared too much, and even less that he was a liability because of his caring, that in fact she fiercely believes that caring for someone makes people more reliable. She thinks back at that moment, and she can't get rid of the feeling that it sounded like Damon quoted someone when he spat out his answer. She wonders briefly whether Stefan played a role in his brother's reaction to her stupid words, seeing that he was the one with Damon when he came to again. She sighs. Even if so, the one that had said those words had been her, not Stefan.
As if on cue she hears the front door opening, followed by footsteps in the hallway, and seconds later Stefan enters the parlor. He looks surprised at the gathering, but doesn't say a word. He paces to the liquor table and fills a tumbler with bourbon; he takes a sip, saunters over to an armchair and lounges in it. The way he does this makes Elena fidgety; he never acted this way before he became the dick Klaus' compulsion made him, and she hates to see it.
In addition to the annoyance this sight causes, she notices a subtle change in Damon's demeanor; it's always like that now, ever since Stefan came back to Mystic Falls, always when both brothers together are in one room with her; but today it seems to be even worse. And once more Elena wonders what exactly Stefan has said to Damon last night. She searches for Damon's eyes, but he averts them from her.
"What did I miss?" Stefan drawls, and Elena gets even more annoyed at his tone. She tries again to catch Damon's eyes, but they are transfixed on his brother. "You knew," Damon asserts quietly, and she sees the hurt boiling in his body again. "You knew already what Mama Original did." He turns to her then, and betrayal is written all over his face.
Stefan looks up to his older brother and a lazy smile appears on his face. "Of course I did. Someone had to bring her home after all. What I don't understand though…" he trails off and looks to Rebekah and Elijah.
"Of course not. Because you don't know all of it," Elena cuts in, her eyes never leaving the blue ones of the older brother still staring at her. "Matt just figured it out this morning, and we went straight to Damon to fill him in." This is the closest to an apology she gets out with the room full of people watching her. His eyes soften a little before eventually he breaks away.
Elijah chimes in at this point, telling Stefan everything they know. The younger Salvatore lets out a snort at hearing the newest revelation and turns to Elena.
"Wow, great job, Elena. How could you miss this?" he asks reproachfully.
Elena feels anger rising up in her throat. "What?" she snaps back. "How could you miss it? I told you the exact same thing I told Matt, so you had the same opportunity to figure it out as he had!" She glares at him, but he glances back completely unfazed; his coldness fuels her anger even more, until she suddenly gets it why he's behaving like a dick again. He let her see too much last night; now he has to push her away again. (It works.) She takes a step back and turns toward Elijah. "What are we supposed to do now?"
Gazing around, the Original takes his time. Without saying a word he paces over to the liquor table and refills his meanwhile empty glass with bourbon. After taking a sip he remains standing there, silently, obviously contemplating the situation. With his back still turned toward the others, he starts to speak after a while, and now Elena can hear the sadness in his soft voice. "It seems like a good idea to me to find out if Mother already knows that one of us was only feigning. Maybe she does because she already killed one and the others weren't so kind to magically die…" He swallows. It's rare that Elijah actually has to make an effort to suppress his feelings, and sarcasm usually isn't his piece of cake either, so Elena gets an idea how much pain he's feeling about his mother's deadly betrayal.
"But maybe," he eventually goes on and turns to them, "something happened while casting the spell; or something didn't happen that should have. And we really should know that."
Rebekah looks at him questioningly. "We can't quite go to her and ask her, can we?"
"Of course not," he brushes her off, eliciting a sisterly glare. But before they can start to bicker, Stefan chimes in.
"Elena could."
Five heads turn to him and their faces express different feelings from interest to determination to fury, reaching the edge of hatred.
"Yeah, why not? I could do that." Elena, despite being afraid of meeting Esther again, is glad to be able to help; it's an attempt to make amends for the betrayal she committed on Elijah, and also a way to help keeping her loved ones save.
"Absolutely not." It's Damon of course who intervenes now. He shrugs off Rebekah's hand on his arm trying to placate him, although he knows that in a way, the blonde vampire is right. But he also knows that he is, too. He knows he's being overprotective again, and Elena hates it. However, he can not stand aside and watch them planning another suicide mission. He can't think of any reason to even contemplate doing something stupid like that, and he's not willing to go with it. (He thinks that he has nothing left to lose anyway.) He shoots his brother a glare before turning to Elena. "You're not going into the lion's den once again! Esther thinks she doesn't need you anymore; if she gets suspicious or, I don't know, bored, she kills you without blinking. Geez, Elena, she wants to kill her own children!" Shooting a killer glance at her, he repeats fiercely, "Absolutely not."
Elena stares at him, and she forgets her wish to fix what she broke last night. He's not even trying to understand her, that's all she's seeing right now.
"You're doing it again!" she snarls at him, flashing him an angry glance. He glares back, and suddenly something snaps in him. He grabs her upper arm, draws her up from the couch and almost violently steers her out of the parlor toward the front door. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Matt stirring, but Rebekah snatches his arm and holds him back, and it's almost as if he can feel the fragile bond between himself and the blonde getting a little stronger for a split second.
His grip around Elena's arm doesn't loosen until he has dragged her through the door and out of earshot; he doesn't need an audience.
When it feels as if they are far enough away, he forcefully turns her to face him, then he lets her go with a sudden movement, as if she's burning him. She's shooting daggers at him, but she remains quiet. She doesn't have to wait for long.
"What am I doing again, Elena?" He fumes, and she thinks that it's been a long time since she has seen him so angry. That doesn't sooth her angry feelings though.
"You're disrespecting me again!" she shouts at him, involuntarily stepping closer to him.
"What, I'm disrespecting you because I'm trying to hold you back from jumping into a suicide mission? Because I care too much? You were the one who taught me to care, hell, who forced me to care, no matter what it cost me and if I even wanted to. And all of a sudden I'm the one being a liability because I care too much?"
"I never said you were a liability. I'm just saying you're not respecting my decisions! I know exactly what I'm doing, and I know the risk. But you won't let me do what I feel I have to do; you don't even hear me out! You're just playing the white knight again!"
"Because you're making stupid decisions that inevitably put you in mortal danger!" he shoots back, and the rage pushes him forward, closer to her. He can feel the heat emanating off of her now. "And why would I even hear you out? Would you ever change your mind? Would you even have considered changing your mind yesterday?"
"Of course not!" she snaps, curling her hands to fists. "It had to be done, Damon, and I was the only one who could do it. She wanted to see me, just me."
"And look where your stubbornness has gotten us. Rebekah…"
"The evil blood slut" she can't help but spit out.
He stares at her incredulously. "It's about Rebekah now?"
She feels her blood flooding her cheeks, and according to his narrowing eyes he sees it instantly.
He lets out an angry laughter. "What, you're jealous, Elena?"
"No," she answers a little too quickly, "of course not. It didn't take you long to jump into her arms after her being un-daggered, though…"
In a flash, he has her pinned against the next tree, bracing his hands on both her sides. "This is about me having sex with Rebekah, Elena?" he glares at her, and then his face changes; he leans in, bringing his lips to her ears. "If you want me to have sex with you, all you have to do is ask" he murmurs seductively, yet the lingering violence never leaves him completely. She knows he can hear her heartbeat picking up the pace. He pulls back a little, just enough to watch her face, observing her reaction, and for a second she can see a shiver of delight in his eyes at what he detects, but it's gone before she can be sure about it. "But other than Rebekah, you can't have that without me loving you, I'm sorry for that problem" he says hoarsely, his eyes scanning her face; suddenly he pushes himself back, letting her go, taking a few steps back to put some space between them again.
She breathes in deeply, not sure if she feels relieved or disappointed now.
When Damon speaks again, his voice is back to normal as is his facial expression. "What is your problem with me having sex with Rebekah?"
"I don't have any problem with it," Elena answers not completely honest, and she adds quietly, "Not with you having sex with her…"
His eyes narrow a fraction, nearly imperceptibly, as he studies her face. "She's not an evil blood slut, you know? She gave me more last night than just angry sex." He doesn't know why he feels the need to explain himself, but he surely didn't expect her reaction to his revelation. He sees tears springing to her eyes before she chokes them back, and something else, a feeling he can't quite decipher, but its hotness proves the calmness of her words a lie.
"That's what makes it a problem for me."
His breath catches in his throat, and his face falls. He stares at her for a moment, biting on his bottom lip, not knowing how to react as hope and anger are at war inside of him. Only for a brief moment, though; the hope fades away quickly. He knows it's pointless, he has learned his lesson. "What, suddenly I'm allowed to care again?" he asks, his calm voice contradicting the turmoil in his eyes. She opens her mouth to object, but he doesn't let her. "Don't do that," he says, "I can't handle it anymore. And I don't want to." He swallows hard. "Stop playing games. I'm done with being played. Leave me alone, Elena." And with these words he turns around and storms off, leaving her behind, utterly confused and…hurt.
And while her eyes follow him as he disappears into the wood, she thinks that this certainly wasn't the right way to fix what she has broken last night. It feels more as if she stomped on the pieces, turning them unfixable.
(She feels pieces of her heart falling away bit by bit.)
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So, that's it for today. All that talking...I hope it wasn't boring. But it had to be done.
If you had wished for more Delena, sorry...But fear not...it will come. One day...:-)
As usual, don't forget to push the blue button below...