Hey everyone. Updates might start to slow down a bit this week. By that I mean it will probably be only one chapter a day instead of three or four. This is only because I am at work during the day.


3:45PM

Elena rubbed the back of her neck and tapped her pencil against the calculus notebook. Not for the first time that year she wondered why she was taking calculus. She wondered what possible benefit it could have for her future. Staring at the problem in front of her she couldn't think of a single real world situation in which she would use it.

She looked through the corner of her eye to see Miranda playing with a small stuffed elephant beside her. "Ma-ma-ma-ma," she grinned when she gathered Elena's attention.

Elena bit her lip and smiled. Her dark eyes darted to the books spread over the coffee table. Calculus could wait; she only had Miranda for a few days. Elena dropped the pencil into the center of the textbook and slid off the couch onto the floor.

Miranda blinked when Elena took the tiny pink elephant and set it aside. She smiled when Elena lifted her finger and tapped Miranda's nose.

"Boop," Elena laughed when Miranda reached and tapped her cheek. She caught the little hand and kissed it.

"Ma-ma," Miranda babbled.

"Playing with you is much more productive than calculus homework," Elena teased and lifted Miranda to stand on her knees, "at least this way one of is learning something."

Miranda braced her legs and shoved a few fingers in her mouth.

"From what I understand calculus is rather important in the medical field," Elijah took a seat beside her on the floor. He leaned against the couch and tickled Miranda's stomach causing her to giggle.

"It is," Elena nodded reluctantly, "which means I need to take it. I'm just having a little trouble wrapping my mind around it today."

"What seems to be the problem?" He watched Elena gently bounce Miranda up and down.

"I'm terribly distracted," she smiled, "but you have to admit she is a very adorable distraction. Aren't you Miranda?"

"Ma-ma-ma-ba-ba-ga," Miranda babbled incoherently. Elena wasn't sure if she was actually calling her 'mama' or just stringing together sounds.

"She is that," Elijah agreed. He looked at the little girl carefully. "I think she has your nose."

"Just my nose right?" Elena turned Miranda so she was facing Elijah and looked at him. "I'd hate to think I brought another doppelganger into the world so soon."

"I don't think you need to worry about that," he chuckled. "Miranda's eyes are a few shades darker than yours." He couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen her eyes somewhere before. Elijah might have thought the Lockwood boy if he were still human.

"Good," Elena smiled. "Maybe she got her dad's eyes…"

"Maybe," Elijah nodded. He held out his hands and smiled when Miranda reached for him.

"Elijah Mikaelson," Elena placed her hand over her heart in mock outrage, "are you stealing my baby?"

"Yes," his eyebrows lifted slowly, "I most certainly am. I am going to take this little one into the kitchen for something to eat. I'm thinking maybe cereal," Elijah stood up and lifted Miranda into the air.

"And why are you kidnapping my baby," Elena quirked an eyebrow.

"That is the only way a vampire can have a kid," Kol shouted from somewhere down the hall.

"Ignore him," Elijah rolled his eyes. "I'm going to take her now so you can finish your homework."

"This is why you shouldn't have kids in high school," Klaus snickered from the door.

"I didn't have her in high school," Elena sighed and picked up her pencil, "a spell brought her to me in high school."

"We'll be in the kitchen when you're done," Elijah laughed and exited the room.

He stepped into the kitchen and lowered Miranda into the booster seat. A few minutes later he had sat down in a chair in front of her with the cereal.

Miranda's nose crinkled when she smelt the cereal on the spoon. She pressed her lips together and turned her head.

"Come on now, Miranda," Elijah coaxed, "I know you're hungry. I can hear your stomach rumbling." He sighed and thought for a minute before pulling a silly face and making her smile.

Elijah took advantage of her open mouth and slipped the spoon past her lips. He shook with laughter. Miranda's eyes had widened when the cereal hit her tongue.

"What is that?" Rebekah flashed into the kitchen. She froze when she saw her oldest breathing brother with a baby. "Where did that child come from Elijah?"

Elijah peeked at his sister from the corner of his eye. He gave her a slight smile and answered: "She came from the future through the use of some sort of spell."

"What spell?"

"I do not know," he shook his head. "Miss Bennet is currently working on a way to send her home. Miranda, here, will be with us until Tuesday night."

"She's using the solstice then," Rebekah nodded. "Whose child is she?"

"Mine," Elena crossed her arms. She shuffled from foot to foot in the doorway.

"The Doppelganger Wench?" Rebekah scoffed. "I should have known. Everything centres on her in this town. How do the Salvatores feel about your future as a mother?"

"They don't know," Elena sighed. She had made sure not to mention Miranda to Stefan and Damon. If she mentioned Miranda she would have gone on to say that she was staying with the Originals for a few days.

"I figured," Rebekah nodded. "Stefan might have mentioned that last night."

"Out all night with the youngest Salvabore sister?" Kol asked from beside Elena. He looked down at her. "Isn't he the one that's courting you?"

"Courting?" Elena stifled a giggle at Kol's terminology and nodded. "He was… we were. I'm not seeing Stefan anymore."

"It didn't take him long to recover," Caroline stepped up beside Kol and glared at Rebekah.

"Does that mean you chose Damon then?" Kol crossed his arms. He stepped into the kitchen and leaned against the door.

"No," Elena frowned and shook her head. "I broke things off with both of them."

"Try not to be too upset about Rebekah spending the night with your recent ex Elena. My sweet sister has always been a strumpet." Kol caught the knife Rebekah threw at his head.

"Could you not traumatize my future child?" Elena's eyes glued to the blade half an inch from Kol's nose.

Rebekah crossed her arms and glanced over her shoulder to see that Elijah had turned the baby around. "What are you doing here?"

"Staying for a few days," Elena shrugged. "Klaus wasn't about to let me take Miranda out of the house, and she wasn't about to let me leave without her."

"I am not staying under the same roof as the bitch that stabbed me in the back," Rebekah hissed.

Elena flushed under Rebekah's angry gaze. She gasped when her back was slammed against the floor and looked up into her face. Elena barely got a look at Rebekah's vampire visage before she was torn off of her. Looking up she expected to see Elijah, but was surprised when it was Kol holding his sister's throat.

It made sense she supposed. Kol was closer and so he reached her first. He had been polite enough since the incident at the club, but she hadn't expected him to come to her rescue.

"Rebekah," Elijah spoke softly from his position by the baby chair. "You will not harm her." He moved to help Elena to her feet. "Elena is a guest in this house and you will treat her as such, or you will leave."

"How can you defend her?" Rebekah gasped around Kol's hand. "She stabbed me in the back, and from what Damon told me last night she daggered you too."

"Elena didn't have a choice," Caroline surprised them all by interjecting. "She didn't want to hurt either one of you, but the daggers could only be used by a human."

"She still made the choice to do it," Rebekah spat.

"No," Caroline shook her head. "She didn't. I said she didn't want to hurt you. She didn't have a choice."

Kol caught on to what Caroline was saying first. He turned his head to watch Elena carefully. "You were compelled, weren't you darling?"

"Don't call me darling," Elena struggled to catch her breath. Her eyebrows lowered in concentration. She didn't remember being compelled. All she remembered was Damon somehow persuading her that daggering the Originals was the best option for them. Try as she might she couldn't remember how Damon had managed to do it. "Son of a …" She trailed off when she saw that Elijah had Miranda in his other arm.

"Yup," Caroline nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me that?" She glared at her best friend.

Rebekah watched the exchange carefully. It actually made a lot of sense. She had been getting along really well with Elena. There had been no real sign that the girl was insincere in her actions before the back stabbing.

"I didn't find out until later," Caroline held up her hands in defense. "When I did find out there didn't seem to be any point in telling you. It was done. Plus, could you honestly say you would have believed me?"

"Yes," Elena nodded.

"So less of bitch and more of a victim," Rebekah's face returned to it's human features. "Would you like me to disembowel him?"

"You were trying to kill me less than five minutes ago," Elena frowned and rubbed her throat, "and now you want to avenge the violation of my mind?"

"Girls have to stick together."


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