CHAPTER SEVEN: SOMEONE'S BACK
"We have Stefan. Give us Elena and I will assure you that no harm comes to them." Markos said, "You have 6 hours. If you don't comply, you will never see your precious brother again." The line went dead.
Damon dropped the arm that held his phone immediately after Markos ended the call. He turned to look at everyone in the room and then, in a fit of anger, threw is phone across the room, hitting the wall and breaking apart as it fell on the floor.
"God damn it! We just can't catch a break with these travelers can we?" Damon said.
"What do we do now?" Caroline asked, "We haven't been able to get a hold of Elena." She said. She didn't want to bring Elena back here to be sacrificed again for some traveler witchy voodoo sacrifice, but Stefan's life was on the line and she knew how much Elena still cared for Stefan even though she was in love with Damon now.
Suddenly the door slams open and everyone looked to see who had just made a grand entrance.
"Hello gorgeous, what brings you here today?" Enzo said as he approached the bar and poured himself a glass of whiskey.
"Ugh. In case you hadn't noticed, when you so dramatically made a scene to draw attention to you, the travelers took Stefan and they want us to bring Elena to them or else we'll never see him again." She explained as she watched Enzo seat at the armchair, one leg draping over one arm handle.
"Well, you know what you gotta do now don't you?" he asked, "Call Elena and tell her to come back." Enzo said nonchalantly as he sipped from his glass of whiskey.
"Are you insane?! Damon! Please talk some freaking sense into your dear old Augustine pal!" Caroline said as she stood up and paced about. Bonnie and Jeremy were coming over as well as Matt and the witch, Liv. "You can't just offer up Elena to them! It's not right!"
"Hey Caroline, what's up?" Elena said as she answered her cell phone.
"Elena, thank god you finally picked up!" Caroline said on the other line, "What is wrong with you Elena Gilbert? We've been trying to contact your for days and not one single reply?! I mean I know you wanted to get away from all your Damon issues but seriously! Anyway, that's not the point right now. We need you to come back as soon as possible, like within five hours." Caroline said.
"What? Are you serious right now?" Elena said, "What's going on Care?"
"The thing is Elena, the travelers are attempting to take over Mystic Falls but in order to do that; they need doppelganger blood." Caroline said, "Long story short, they took Stefan and they're demanding you in exchange for his safety, otherwise, we'll never see him again."
"What?! Oh my god!" Elena said, "Okay, I'll be there soon. I'll meet you all at the Salvatore house?"
"Okay, Thanks Elena, don't worry we have a plan, just don't get seen by anyone once you get here, head straight to the Salvatore's okay?" Caroline said.
"Alright, see you soon." She said as she hung up the call.
"The Mystic Falls gang, need you again?" said her companion.
"It seems so. Travelers are making their move on Mystic Falls. Elena said. "Stefan's in trouble, I'm going back there to save him, who knows maybe I'll get a little bit of reward from him." She said as she winked and began to pack a few of her things.
"What? Now? I'm coming with you," her companion said.
"No, you're not. You're staying here, where it's safe. You almost got bitten by a wolf, I'm not taking any more chances." Elena replied as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "Besides, I won't take long I'll be back soon."
"Oh please, everyone knows that I have the most interaction with those travelers, you'll need me to get you out of a bind and knowing those people you hang around with, you're going to need me." She said as she stood up and grabbed her bag and keys on the table as well. "Besides, chances are the travelers are going to need your blood as well, you are a doppelganger after all."
"Fine. But you're driving." Elena said as she closed the door of their hotel room.
"The only thing I keep thanking the lord for is that you weren't born to become another Petrova Doppelganger, Nadia." She whispered quietly to herself before following her daughter to the car.
Three hours later:
Elena entered the Salvatore house to find everyone seated in the living room, she noticed an unfamiliar face but decided that it would be un-Elena like to ignore her 'friends' and rudely interrogate the newcomer so with her mind made up, she greeted her friends and her brother while awkwardly greeting Damon.
"I'm sorry but I don't think I've met you." She said finally focusing her attention to the stranger.
"No, haven't my name's Enzo. I'm Damon's 'best Augustine pal' as Blondie here put it." Said Enzo, pointing his thumb over to Caroline who merely rolled her eyes at him.
"Nice to meet you." She replied as she then focused on everyone in the room, "So what happened? What's the plan?"
As the group informed her of the plan, Elena couldn't help but notice something was off with her blonde best friend. No matter, she'll get to that later. She had a lover to save.
Two hours later:
The group had once again gathered in the Salvatore house, having successfully pulled off their plan to save Stefan and prevent the Travelers from taking over the town whilst managing to keep Elena safe.
Caroline and Enzo were playfully arguing with each other, well it really was more of Enzo flirting with her while Caroline sarcastically rebuffs his attempts.
Elena, noticing this, raised an eyebrow toward the two but was only replied by a shrug from Caroline. Sighing she stood up, "Alright, it's getting late, I should probably head back" she said.
"What? No! You just got here! Stay!" Caroline insisted while Bonnie sided with Caroline.
"Yeah 'Lena we haven't seen each other in a long time!" Bonnie chimed.
"I'd love to but I don't really have a place to stay. I can't really crash in here again, you know…" Elena said as she tried to make up an excuse to not stay in Mystic Falls.
"Oh! You can stay with Bonnie and me! We're sleeping over at her house tonight! It'll be like old times, just the three of us, and you're actually here and not on skype!" Caroline said, "Besides, we really need to catch up." She added, more serious and with less enthusiasm, Elena noted.
Seeing as she has no valid excuse to give them, she reluctantly nodded and said, "Okay, great, I'll stay but I'm really tired already so can we just go now?" She said.
The two girls happily stood up and said good-bye to the others that were present and went out the door followed by Elena.
As the girls arrived at Bonnie's they began to unpack and do girly things, much later into the evening, the girls finally got to talk seriously.
"So, what have I missed? I'm really sorry I didn't contact you more. I just got so caught up that I got so distracted." Elena said although that was far from what the truth was.
"It's fine. Just don't do that again okay? We promised we'd stick together, remember?" Caroline said as she ate her apple.
"Okay, I promise! So tell me everything I've missed!" she said.
Bonnie and Caroline looked at each other as if to converse where they should begin, once they mentally agreed upon where, Caroline looked at Elena and patted down a place in the couch, signaling for her to sit and said, "You better sit down for this."
By the time Bonnie and Caroline relay to Elena everything that had happened since they returned to Mystic Falls, the food Bonnie had ordered had arrived and were already cold.
"So let me get this straight, When you had sex with Klaus, it triggered an ancient…power, for lack of a better word, in you and caused you to turn back into human form and get pregnant?" Elena summarized, "Wow. I certainly never expected that." She said.
"Pretty much. Although I don't think any of us particularly did expect this to happen." Caroline said.
"So what are you planning to do now? You are going to keep it, right? Are you going to tell Klaus?" Elena asked.
Bonnie stood up and grabbed the box of pizza that had remained untouched through out their whole conversation, "I'm going to get these warmed up. I'm starving, how many slices do each of…. Never mind, I'll just heat all of these up." Bonnie said as she realized Caroline would probably be eating most of the slices anyway.
Nodding and thanking Bonnie, Caroline turned back to her conversation with Elena, "I honestly don't know what I'm going to do. I mean of course I'm obviously keeping it, I would probably never get a chance to become a mother if my gifts were never activated. I just hate that it was Klaus that had to get me all preggers." Caroline said, "I mean, I don't really know if I should tell him, you know? We went through so much trouble to get him to leave us alone and if he finds out about this, who knows what he'll do? He'll probably never leave us alone!"
"But he is the father, and when it all comes down to, he still technically has the right to know. Right?" Elena asked.
"Ugh, please don't remind me. If he cold murder and torture weren't his hobby, I probably would tell him, without a doubt. But I just.. He's hurt and killed so many of our friends and loved ones. How can I look past that?" Caroline said.
"Well, I have no idea, but I figured, if we're living an immortal life, wouldn't you get tired of holding a grudge and preventing yourself from moving on?" Elena asked, "I mean yes, he did a lot of bad, awful, terrible things but is it worth it to hold that grudge against him say, a hundred years from now? We all know people change over time, and since we're not likely to die of natural causes anytime soon, it's going to be hard to keep hating him and not giving him a chance to redeem himself, don't you think?"
Caroline didn't have a response for that so instead, she said, "You know what, I don't really want to talk about this anymore. I want to hear about you. You've been gone months now and you still haven't told us anything! What have you been doing?" Caroline asked.
Bonnie came back with the pizza and then joined in on the conversation. "There you go, pizza! I also made some salad cause we've been eating take out way too much. Oh here's your honey, Care." She said as she sat down on the floor where she placed the food and the other two soon followed.
"Well, there's nothing really to tell, I've just been taking time for myself, I went around Virginia, Philadelphia and Maryland. I just had to see what other things were out there for me. I've always only just known Mystic Falls." Elena said. The girls continued talking until Caroline felt too tired and went to sleep.
Elena Gilbert hated being back here in Mystic Falls, lying on a makeshift bed with two of her supposed best friends asleep beside her. Sighing, she stood up, grabbed her phone and went outside.
Ever since her supposed death, Katherine Pierce had decided to finally let go of everything that had to do with the Salvatore brothers. Sure she still loves Stefan, in fact she feels that a part of her always will but she realized that she is no longer in love with him. In fact she was never really sure if she was truly in love with him. She never felt the way she did when she met Elijah all those years ago in England, yes she felt Stefan's love for her and she adored him but, at the very back of her mind, her subconscious knew that she was yearning to be with someone else. That's probably why she ended up playing both the Salvatore brothers.
Now that she had a second chance at living (even though she was in her doppelganger's body now) and now that she finally met the daughter she's searched for so long ago, she wanted to start anew. But she just couldn't do that if she kept pretending to be someone else every time the Mystic Falls gang needed her, rather Elena's body.
Sighing, she thought back to everything that she found out today. Vampire Barbie was no longer a vampire but an elemental being, not only that but she's also pregnant with Big Bad Klaus' unborn child! Suddenly, an idea formed in her head. She might have just found a way to finally earn her freedom and maybe, just maybe, get her true love back.
AN: How was it? To be really honest, I don't think Elena will be a part of this story. I only need one doppelganger and between the two of them, I'd definitely choose Katherine. I mean we already have Caroline who's just as compassionate and loyal and protective of her loved ones just like Elena is so who really needs her? Plus I'm getting real tired of the Damon-Elena-Stefan love triangle. There are so many available characters to pair them up with! Anyway, hope you guys like this chapter!
Have any of you watched The Originals' episode today 1x21? I HAVE NO WORDS! amazing! Now if only Caroline can cross over...
