Epilogue
Elijah watched everything around him shift until he was sitting in his den and there was a fire lit. He sat in his favorite chair, holding a glass of brandy. The fire popped and danced. Elijah looked around and found Damon sitting on the edge of the small wooden coffee table near his chair.
Damon turned hard blue eyes on him. "You're dreaming. And I'm really here." His words were terse and he leaned forward slightly as he spoke, his head cocked to one side.
"What can I do for you, Damon?" Elijah was vaguely surprised to find Damon invading his dreams. He wouldn't have thought the younger vampire had the strength for such a task considering their differences in age and strength. The only explanation would be that this was Damon's gift. As Elijah's gift was tracking and Elena's was with manipulating magic.
"I want to show you something."
Elijah had no memory of walking up the steps to the bedroom he shared with Elena. The room was dark as he stepped in behind Damon. Elena was on the floor of their room, folded on her knees. Moonlight cast from the windows flowed over her, illuminating her in the midst of deep shadows. She was frozen.
"This is what I found the night you left her." With his words, the scene unfroze.
Elena's entire body shook with sobs. A wail came from her chest and filled the room with agony. She raised her eyes to the closet he had emptied, covered her mouth like she was trying to stop it. But the same lament filled the room again, just as loudly.
Elijah's heart quaked in his chest at the sound she made and his stomach turned painfully.
He watched another version of Damon come into the room, speaking softly to her. He picked her up, held her to his chest and turned from the room with a dark scowl on his face.
"She was still burning up with fever from the bite. Klaus' blood hadn't completed its work. But Elena insisted she had to see you, had to apologize for the fight you had." He lifted a hand at the empty closet, an eyebrow raised. "Elena found this instead."
Elijah found himself back in the seat in his living room with the fire popping again. Dark fury now filled the room. Damon had taken his place again on the coffee table's edge.
He leaned forward where he was seated and narrowed his blue eyes on Elijah.
"For some damnable reason, you are essential to her." Damon turned and looked at the fire. "I'll never understand it." He stood and took a step toward the fire, his back turned.
"She nearly gave her life for yours. That's not something I understand either." Elijah pointed out, putting to words the thing that still chewed at him about the whole affair.
Damon laughed and it was a bitter sound. "That one's easy. She would've done the same for any one of us she considers family."
Damon stood and stepped close. He leaned down, putting one hand on either side of Elijah's chair.
"Your brother is still wandering around somewhere. And your whole family is a nightmare." Damon leaned in close. "I suggest you find a way to handle family squabbles that doesn't involve causing Elena pain like that again." He stood, taking a step back. The wall with the fireplace fell away.
Damon spread his arms wide with another step and said, "Or we will find a way to end you." The space where the wall was opened up and people stood behind Damon. Jeremy, Ric, Bonnie with her eyes glowing and power popping from the ends of her hair, Caroline, Jack, Milla, Stefan. They all stood watching him, some with crossed arms, all wearing hard expressions.
Elijah understood they weren't really there. He also had a flash of what felt like insight.
"It was you." Elijah's eyes swept Damon. "The lost shipments. The deleted accounts." Elijah's eyes narrowed.
He watched a flash of something in Damon's eyes before it was gone. The onlookers faded and the fireplace appeared again. Damon crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head.
"I heard about that. No, I can't take credit for it. But I'd like to shake their hand. That was amazing. Think of the implications. You had three options." Damon ticked them off on his fingers with a warm smile. "Die quietly – my personal favorite. Kill and lose her respect – a close second. Or confront her. Either way it would be resolved. And Elena wins."
Elijah stood, moved close to Damon. When Elijah was within a breath of him, he said, through gritted teeth, "You think you've known and loved her longer and that gives you authority of some sort. But you haven't even gotten warm yet." His voice deepened with the last sentence, Elijah's fury also making itself known.
"The company, the business I left her…..I considered it hers already. I started it six decades ago because I knew her well enough then to know she'd never want one of us that took innocent lives."
Damon's eyes went wide as Elijah watched that sink in. Elena was only in her early thirties. She hadn't been alive for sixty years.
He poked a single finger into Damon's chest. "How many innocents did you kill in that first year you knew her?" Elijah's eyes swept Damon with disdain. "And you wonder why she didn't choose you?" He shook his head. "Do you know her at all?"
Damon's eyes flashed to red and he moved in just as close to Elijah, just as angry, just as threatening.
"Your love did this to her." There was an echo of Elena again, the voice of heartrending agony. "You left her an open, gaping wound! So I suggest you DO. IT. BETTER!"
Elijah woke to the echoing slam of a distant door. Probably the sound of Damon leaving his dreamscape with his usual flash.
That sound though, it echoed in his head. The agony in that cry haunted him; just as it must've haunted Salvatore. He really couldn't blame Damon for his outrage, for feeling the need to threaten him. Elijah would've taken apart anyone that hurt her that much, no matter the reason.
He didn't like Damon Salvatore. He never would. But now he respected him.
Elijah rolled over and pulled her sleeping form into his arms, holding her close. He pressed his lips to her eyes and her forehead.
After a moment, she stirred and warm brown eyes looked at him.
"Not sleeping again?" She laid a warm hand on his face.
"Monsters traipsing through my dreams." He told her with a smile.
"Well, that's new. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, little one. I just wanted to tell you that none of what happened was ever your fault. And I'm so very sorry that I caused you pain." He pulled her close and up over his chest. "I can't tell you how sorry I am."
"It's okay sweetheart. Long gone, now." She smiled up at him dreamily.
It wasn't though. He'd be hearing that agonized cry in his head for years to come. Like a child, all he had focused on the night he walked away was how much it was hurting him. He'd not considered what it might cost her. It had never occurred to him that he even had the power to hurt her so much. Fool.
A final thought occurred to him.
"Elena," She leaned up to meet his eyes. "Did you tell anyone about the missing shipments? About what happened that brought me here on Halloween?"
She smiled, still sleepy and rested her head back against his shoulder. "No. You know I don't really talk about us."
Elijah's eyes narrowed as he absorbed that.
