Rated M AN: RAAANT! (think this was for 3x20?) Anyone who has to wait until tomorrow don't worry no spoilers. Elena is a cunting ungrateful bitch. Not at all surprising, like you're mad he didn't let you die… ARE YOU DAMAGED? I understand the concept, if my life came at the price of my friend's mother I wouldn't like it, I would be so broken and angry but I would have no right to direct that anger at the person who chose me. A little resentment maaaybe but no anger. You love me, do I wish you loved me less sure but loving me isn't a crime. Elena grow the fuck up. If you'd listened to him in the first place it would have never happened. You're a dumb bitch. Oh and your gullable as fuck. You don't know where you stand in life so anytime some says something to you it completely changes your view point. PICK A FUCKING SIDE and stand there you dumb bitch. Gawd I hate you. So much. Yu have so much potential. Which you kind of tapped into today so from here on just do better.
Sage doesn't want to leave without him but she understood that there were certain things that needed to be handled alone. Once she had heard the full story, the real story, she had all but demanded they leave immediately. Some might call her a coward but in their world it was survival of the fittest, both physically and emotionally. It was the reason vampires had switches, predators that were ruled by their emotions didn't stay alive very long. In the end they had found a way to compromise. She would give him a few weeks to get his life in order and then he would come find her. If not she was coming back for him and she'd burn down the soul crushing town he called home. It was extreme but so were their kinship. The longing in his eyes as she boarded her plane stole away her doubts. It was clear that he wanted to get out as much as she wanted to save him. And just like that she finally knows what it was, that thing that had made it impossible to leave him alone. It was his restlessness. It was his desire to be free that rivalled her own. Soon enough it would be blood, sex and bourbon just like the good old days.
It was done. Jeremy doesn't really know how he feels about it all. Between the release from compulsion and the recap on everything he's missed, he just wanted to sleep. When he'd agreed to be sent away it had nearly killed him but he trusted Damon. Not only with his sister's life but with his own. And when Damon had called him and told him to pack, he didn't even question it. He promised to come for him, when all the madness was over, when they were safe he said he would come for him. There were few things that Jeremy still trusted in this world but Damon's word was absolute. Standing in front of his house he feels like an intruder. So much had happened while he'd been away, so much had changed. They'd probably been standing there for hours but Damon never said a word. He took his time walking into the house. Slowly moving from room to room trying to reacquaint the person he had been for a few months with the person he had been his whole life. It's overwhelming. He turns on the x-box lets Damon beat him Left 4 Dead.
It breaks her heart how long they've gone without this. Bonnie needed an Abby break and Klaus was bonding with Rebekah so Caroline was free. They'd gone to the drug store and picked up every gossip mag they could find, nail polish in colours they would never normally be caught dead in and more ice cream than should be legal and headed back to the Gilbert house. The entire trip had given her a sense of nostalgia she hadn't been prepared for but it was what she'd come home to that ruined her. She didn't think twice about the lights being on, Alaric visited every now and then to check up on her. She walked in the house that night, and if Caroline hadn't caught her she had no doubt that she would have hit the ground. And she hadn't been wrong, Ric was there. Sitting on the arm of the couch with scotch in hand. What she hadn't been expected was seeing Jeremy next to him controller in hand and Damon walking out of the kitchen arguing about her baby brother's unfair advantage. He'd done it, her brother was home. Bonnie leaves her side instantly but she doesn't even acknowledge anything's changed. She disappears up the stairs while Caroline walks into the kitchen and Elena's officially entered the twilight zone.
They could breathe again. That's the only thing running through her mind as she walks into Elena's bathroom. Under the sink, exactly where they left it practically years ago, is their mani/pedi basket. Further proof that things were finally back to normal. Damon wouldn't have gotten Jeremy unless he was sure, unless he knew they were safe. Maybe not forever, but certainly for a while. They could stay together now, between her power and their collective inability to die they would never have to be separated again. Walking back into the living room she gives Jeremy a shy smile. She doesn't know what will happen next but she isn't scared any more. She can finally take a breath and not worry that it will be her last.
Caroline doesn't even need to pay attention to what she's doing. She could honestly navigate the Gilbert kitchen better than her own. She finds the syrup and spoons exactly where she expected to. With everything that had changed, this would always remain constant. She takes a seat next to Bonnie on the floor. Jeremy looks older, not necessarily due to the amount of time they'd been a part. She supposes they all do. It would only make sense, she hardly feels eighteen, Bonnie has the power of a thousand witches and Elena's birth was predestined. It would be ridiculous for them to look like everyone else around them. Damon looks older than them all, but he carries it well. Carried them well. Because whether he will ever admit it or not he was the head of this family. They were all here, alive, together because of him.
Alaric doesn't know how they do it. How they were capable of living on the edge of death and then coming together for nights like these. Between the sounds of machine guns and blood splatter someone's ordering pizza and spoons hit plastic as ice cream is devoured at an alarming rate. Less than a year ago the youngest among them were killing to survive and pushing themselves further than anyone could ask. Less than a year ago none of them new exactly where they fit in life. And the oldest among them doubted whether he fit at all. If he still believed in God, he would take this as a sign. This was where they fit. The outside world be damned, they were meant to be together. The logistics of it were irrelevant.
Family. It's what they are, it's who they are and it was the only thing that mattered. When someone asked her of her place in this world she could finally answer with something other than what she was. She wasn't Elena Gilbert the daughter of Miranda and Grayson, John and Isobel, Alaric and Jenna. She wasn't Elena Gilbert the second doppelganger. Or Elena Gilbert head cheerleader and queen bee of Mystic Falls High. No, she was Elena Gilbert, an integral member of an amazing family. That was her identity. She leaves her place by the door and finally joins the bliss surrounding her. On the floor, back against her brother's legs and finally able breathe.
He stays as long as he can. The hours blend together until the sun is about to rise and he can't stretch out the time any longer. There are certain moments in life that make you rethink every single thing you've believed in. Not too long ago his brother had told him that to be a better villain you needed to be smarter. Back then he'd laughed, because to him, to beat the villain you needed to be a better villain. Now he's laughing at his own stupidity. Damon won the same way he always did. Damon had the stakes, the treaty with Klaus, the love of all those around him and he'd never become a monster. He never out hurt, out killed or out tortured his enemy. He simply out planned. Step by step he set up the board exactly the way he needed it, pushed you to move exactly the way he needed you too. It was magnificent really. It was over. As cliché as it sounds, at the end all you can really do is go back to the beginning. And his beginning was somewhere in Europe, he just needed to find her.
Everything was different. Jeremy could feel it. There were new lines of what could or could not be done in the name of the cause. Hell, there was a new cause. And a new dynamic. No one was fighting for an identity, simply looking for a role to play. They were a well old machine at this point, everyone in their right place. The first time he'd considered becoming a vampire it had been for Vicki; to have a switch and block out the hurt. Then it had been for Anna, to have a part of her forever. Now he's considering it to keep this feeling, to be a part of this family until the end. With Bonnie and Caroline already passed out in the spare room and Ric already gone to wherever it was he lived now, he excuses him and gives his sister a chance to finally follow her heart.
She almost doesn't want to break the spell of the night. Almost. It creeped up on her so slowly that she was sure she was imagining it. The hope in her heart creating a feeling that just wasn't there. But she took a chance, one she's not sure was worth it. When she'd looked up over Bonnie's shoulders his eyes had been on her. The same eyes that she had gone so long without were finally focused where she needed them to be. But even through the renewed love, the flicker of hope, she knew. As she was walking him by the hand she could accept that her decisions had brought them here. She can see the knowing look in his eyes, the honesty that he had never abandoned. Even in this, where it would be better to lie, he wouldn't, not even for her. It was back on. And this was goodbye. Stay with me.
He knew she would notice. But he couldn't have kept it off. If this was their last night together he wouldn't deny her anything. He should leave, but he needed this even more than she did. He doesn't think of the amount of time he's spent in this room with her, on this bed. He doesn't think about anything but the feeling of finally having her in his arms again. They fall back on a routine that had once been the highlight of their nights. Without the words he already knows how she feels but he listens anyway. He could listen to her forever, and he rejoices a but when she says the same. He tells her about Sage, how much they care about each other, how much they do to protect each other. She laughs when he tells her they would make good friends. She isn't wrong for thinking Sage would rather kill her but under different circumstances he knows the two could have grown on each other. They talk about Stefan in a way they've never been able to before. It's the first time she says his brother's name and he doesn't wasn't to kill himself. There is an air of finality to it all, one that he knows she accepts. So instead of being racked with guilt or doubt or false hope he is content. Content to watch her breathing even out and listen to the sounds she doesn't know she makes in her sleep.
