AN: I may do a sequel if you guys tell me you want one.
He promises, gives his word in front of the two brothers who love her still-despite her rejection. She signals that whatever comes out of her mouth will be a lie.
She says she won't. Not that night, it's been a really, really long day. They need to talk, she says in rough code. He agrees and she taps and gestures, that she'll meet him in her bedroom in fifteen minutes. He agrees, a barely noticeable conversation without words. Her brother and her former boyfriends, one human and one vampire-they have no idea a second conversation happened in the span of a minute.
"I will leave you alone, but I will be back to try and get my brother, lovely Elena. You know I do not give up. Think it over." He says, and she nods.
"I know." He walks to the front door as she speaks.
"I'll see you tomorrow." She says, suppressing a yawn, and he nods. He opens the door, and wishes her goodnight, and calls her lovely Elena.
She likes the nickname, at least, she thinks it's a nickname. She's never quite sure of anything with Elijah. He's out of the door before she can say anything. It's shut before Matt can blink twice.
She convinces Stefan to leave-he sends a look at Matt that she doesn't understand. Jeremy looks like he's in on whatever they're doing. Matt won't leave, he says Jeremy owes him twenty bucks. Jeremy bets him the debt, if he beats Matt in a video game of the older boy's choice. Matt agrees, and Elena yawns. She tells them that she's going to get ready for bed. She yawns again, hoping Elijah is safe. Alaric is out there. She walks to her room as her anxiety rises just thinking about it. She can fix it. She can fix this one without help from any of her friends. She just needs Elijah.
As she's adjusting her pajama shirt, her eyes close without her permission. She would worry if she could think. She thinks it's Matt, touching her shoulder, but then she knows it's Elijah. He taps his name into her shoulder. He carefully moves her, he asks in a quiet whisper. She gives a weak nod. He moves her in a way that she isn't likely to fall off her bed, and sits and waits. He waits for the humans, Matt and Jeremy open the door after no response to a gentle knock. Elena is the only human in the house who has his trust and loyalty. He's unsure of their motives, but he's not going to let them take her. Matt moves towards her and he raises an eyebrow. Matt stays where he is. Jeremy doesn't know how to deal with Elijah, at all. Usually Elena was the only one he wanted to deal with. He's wondered about that, more than once.
He asks, in a calm voice that gives them both chills, what they did to Elena. Jeremy breaks first and tells him about the sleeping tea. He's defensive, saying that their plan to take Elena from the vampires of Mystic Falls was a good one. Elijah wants to sigh, but refrains, and asks what would happen if Elena was in a car accident on the way to their destination.
Clearly, she could have died in their incapable hands. He does not want the only human in Mystic Falls that he's genuinely fond of to die anytime soon. He asks her brother to wake her. He reminds the humans, that should they think of trying anything, to remember how fast he is. Matt swallows, and Jeremy plays an alarm that makes Elena's eyes open.
She blinks for a few moments before Elijah casually explains what the humans did to her.
She stands, and he listens to her yell. She's angry that they had given her the tea. They had drugged her and Alaric was still out there. They could have been attacked. She tells Matt to get out, and take Jeremy with him. She needs to think and she might just yell even more if they're there. Matt hesitates and she tells them Elijah is leaving right after they are. Assured, he moves Jeremy out of the room and Elijah is still until they're out of the house. He carefully watches her expression, something shifts when he tells her they're gone.
"As long as I am alive, Alaric is too." She says slowly.
"Rebekah and Kol will run with me if you give us Niklaus. Alaric will follow us." He reminds her.
"You've run so much." She says. He shrugs, the action looks odd on him. She's never seen him do that before.
"We've done it before, and we can do it again." He says simply.
"I want to make a deal." She tells him.
He indicates that he's listening, and sits on her window seat.
"I was always planning on giving you Klaus." She confesses. He is glad, she is still his ally through and through. He's not surprised, or if he is, he doesn't show it. His eyes are perhaps, a little softer, after she tells him her plan.
"Are you sure?" Letting her live her human life is worth a few decades of running. He's not sure he's prepared to do what she's asking, but he doesn't want her in the hands of the incapable Salvatores. She knows how to play him, he would accept even if it wasn't for Niklaus's body. Even if she had no leverage, and asked him to teach her. He would accept. He gives her his word that he agrees and will honor their terms. She tells him the coffin is in her basement. He should take his brother to his other siblings as proof, and come back as soon as he can.
He agrees.
He sets him in the living room, Alaric cannot enter their house. He hears shouting outside, and moves. He catches sight of Kol and Rebekah both wrestling Alaric, fighting together to keep him from hurting the other. He sends the fastest text he's ever sent, to Elena that Alaric is currently trying to kill his siblings, he'll be with her when he can.
He helps his siblings, and then Alaric slows.
As Rebekah and Kol let out noises of victory, Elijah feels like his heart has dropped into his stomach.
He tells his siblings where their hybrid brother is, and how he got his body. Rebekah's eyes widen fractionally when she understands how Alaric died. Elena had to as well.
He excuses himself, he has a baby vampire to attend to. He takes appropriate measures.
It's jarring, to see her looking like that. He's sorry she had to die for her guardian turned monster to be defeated. He puts blood bags in her fridge and waits for his brave, code making ally to wake.
finis