So sorry about the lateness of this! I'm in the middle of exam season so updates may be a bit more sporadic… anyway, thank you again for all your reviews! Always put a smile on my face. Hope you enjoy this chapter
Elena stood on the front porch of the Salvatore Boarding house, leaning against the wall as Stefan loaded their cases into the back of the car. Since the wedding was very last minute, they had settled on heading off to Elena's family cabin for a few days. They were excited to spend the time together and relax from all the chaos.
"Are you sure you're ok with going to the cabin? We could go somewhere exotic if you like." Stefan offered as he walked back over to her.
"The cabin is perfect. Just as long as I am with you." Elena said as she wrapped her arms around Stefan's neck and kissed him.
"Cover your eyes Theo, you don't need to see this nastiness." They heard Katherine say behind them as she appeared at the door with Theo.
"Do you really have to go?" Theo asked sadly as Stefan scooped him up and Elena ran her fingers through his brown locks.
"We'll only be gone for a few days honey and you'll have loads of fun here with Auntie Katherine and Uncle Robbie" Elena assured him.
"Yeah I am crazy fun Theo, you should ask Stefan about the parties we used to have in the backyard with my Barbies and his action men." Katherine said as Stefan laughed.
"Yeah Katherine had no problem taking the heads of my action men and I had no problem cutting the hair off her Barbies." Stefan responded.
Katherine shook her head; "It's amazing that we've stayed friends for this long."
"Ok…" Theo conceded; "Will you bring me back a present?!" he asked excitedly.
Stefan laughed lightly as he set Theo down; "of course we will buddy."
"Thanks!" Theo said as Elena kissed him and he ran back inside.
"So everything that needs to be done this weekend is on the fridge, do not let Robbie give Theo ice cream before bed, he will go crazy and you'll never get him to go to sleep, make sure he brushes his teeth properly, he tries to pull one over on us and not brush them fully so don't let him do the same to you…" Elena rambled.
"Elena! Shut up." Katherine said as Elena pouted; "We will be fine, Theo will not manipulate either of us, we are made of stern stuff. Now go, have fun, do dirty newly married couple things, because the next stage, is the boring stage."
"Call us if you need anything." Stefan said as they walked towards the car.
"OK!" Katherine said with fake enthusiasm.
Stefan and Elena soon took off from the house towards the cabin and Elena wouldn't stop shaking her leg and fidgeting.
"They'll be fine Elena…" Stefan said as he rested a hand on her leg and Elena rested her hand on top of his.
"I know, I know it's just… I don't think I've ever left Theo alone for more than a night and it's harder after everything that happened with Clay I just- I worry, that something like that could happen again." Elena confessed.
"Nothing is going to happen. Clay is behind bars, there is no threat to anyone. They're going to have the best time and we are going to have the best time." Stefan assured her.
"I know… though... the last time we were here… didn't go so well." Elena said as she scrunched up her face.
Stefan laughed; "Yeah I remember… we were going through a phase of fighting and sex being our only forms of communication."
"Uh huh… a huge fight in the thunderstorm. How clique." Elena said as they thought back to their last time at the cabin.
11 years ago
Stefan hovered over Elena by the fire in the cabin, kissing down her jaw and her neck as Elena lifted her head as far back as it would go to give him as much access as possible. Since arriving at the cabin the previous evening, they spent most of their time between lying by the fireplace and lying in bed, exploring every part of each other like it was the first time.
"The fire's dying…" Elena said as Stefan continued to kiss her neck.
"I guess I'll just have to keep you warm then" Stefan joked as Elena laughed and he captured her lips in a searing kiss.
"As wonderful as that sounds, I don't know if I can for round 10 without some fuel… I'm hungry." Elena replied.
"Round 10? Damn… we're in for quite a night." Stefan joked as Elena laughed and pushed him off her.
"I'm serious, I'm so hungry…" she said as she grabbed Stefan's shirt and slipped it over her body, throwing Stefan his boxers and sweat pants too.
"Ok fine, I'll go grab some more wood, you can get started on dinner." He said as he slipped his clothes on. "There's a recipe open on my laptop for chicken parmesan if you want to get it up." He said as he kissed her and walked towards the door, grabbing a hoodie on the way past.
"Hm… my favourite" she said as she walked into the kitchen and opened Stefan's laptop that sat on the counter. She opened his browser and found the recipe, smiling at how delicious it sounded. She looked up at the tabs at the top of the page and saw that he had pages open on starting restaurants and opening cafes and sites in New York, she also saw an email from Damon saying that things were going smoothly and opening their own place should happen soon enough.
She heard the door open again as Stefan walked in and placed the wood on the fire; "it's starting to pour outside… did you find the recipe?" he asked.
"Uh… yeah, yeah I found it but uh… are you planning on moving to New York to open a restaurant?" Elena asked.
Stefan looked at her for a second, unsure what to say and unsure how she was feeling about this. "Uh… yeah I would like to someday… but it's just a pipe dream really." Stefan played it off.
"I don't know Stefan, this email from Damon seems to imply that it's pretty much a sure deal." Elena replied.
"You read my emails?"
"You left your email up, I couldn't miss it." Elena said growing agitated as she took Stefan's shirt off and put on her own clothes.
"I don't know what's going to happen Elena, it's not a big deal."
"Of course it's a big deal Stefan, if we're going to be together, we're going to need to talk about our future!" Elena said.
"I just want to enjoy a weekend away with you Elena, we don't need to make this all heavy" Stefan asked.
"Now you're just avoiding, why wouldn't you want to be honest with me about your future?"
"Because I don't want to contemplate the thought of leaving you behind!" He shouted.
Elena sighed; "You can't just assume that's going to happen Stefan when we haven't even discussed it!"
"I know that the school year is ending soon, I know we have a lot to talk about but it scares me."
"It scares me too Stefan, but you never once shared any of this with me. You never once shared your dreams and your hopes, which is something that you should want to do with the person you love."
"What did you want me to say Elena? After high school I'm moving to New York and not looking back? I'm just going to leave you here? Cause that seems to be the decision you're expecting me to make."
"Whether you just leave me behind is not your decision to make!" Elena shouted.
"Of course it's my decision!"
"You seriously think you're the one who has all the control in this relationship? You're deluded Stefan, this is a two way street, we have to talk to each other!" Elena said
"Maybe I just want to save us from the inevitable."
Elena froze and clenched her jaw; "and what is the inevitable for you?" she asked quietly.
"… that we take this year that we had together and then happily end it and move on." Stefan replied.
"… is that what you want?" she asked.
"It doesn't matter what we want…"
"Oh my God you are infuriating!" Elena said as she stormed towards the door, grabbing her coat from the railing.
"Where are you going? There's a storm out there Elena!" Stefan said walking after her.
"I am not going to stand here and listen to you talk like this!" she shouted as she slammed the door behind her.
Stefan groaned before grabbing his coat and running out the door behind her.
Elena hadn't made it far down the lane as Stefan ran to catch up.
"Elena, come on this is ridiculous!"
"I'm ridiculous?! You're the one who essentially just told me that I wasted a year of my life with you!"
"That is not what I said!"
"You expect us to break up Stefan, so what is even the point?!" Elena shouted as she continued to walk.
"Fine, call me a pessimist, but you're made for bigger and better things than me Elena, is that so hard for you to comprehend?"
"NO! That is not why you said that, you said that for you, you said that to save your own skin!" she shouted over the storm as they both stood drenched in the rain. "Clearly you have a problem with commitment, clearly loving me is too damn hard"
"Are you crazy?" Stefan said as he grabbed her arm and spun her around. "Loving you was the easiest thing I have ever done. There was no question in my mind about it, I have no problem committing to you."
"Then what is it Stefan? Why didn't you share that stuff with me? Why are you so sure we'll end up falling apart?"
"Because… because you deserve to go and find your dreams without me holding you back. You want to make a difference in people's lives, you want to help those who can't help themselves and I don't want you to miss out on all of that because my dreams are different. And I'm scared Elena… I say that it would be best for us to end it but I am so scared at the thought of losing you. I never thought it was possible to love someone as much as I love you. You're the best thing to ever happen to me and I want to reach our dreams together… I just don't know if that's fair." Stefan confessed.
Elena nodded softly as she felt herself become calmer; "You need to stop this self-sabotage Stefan. You are good enough for me, more than good enough, and I love you too, so damn much it hurts! The idea of the future scares me too, but we need to talk about it. I want to hear about your dreams, I want to be a part of it. Let's not think that anything is inevitable, let's take things as they come, let's deal with it together."
Stefan nodded as he looked up at the sky and let the rain pour down his face. Elena smiled as the moonlight hit off him in the most captivating of ways.
"You know we're probably going to get a pneumonia" Stefan said.
Elena smiled; "I would gladly stand out here all night and risk getting a pneumonia if it meant I could hear how much you loved me."
"How much I love you? I could go on all night." Stefan replied as he walked forward, cupping Elena's cheeks in her hands and kissing her with all the passion that was in him.
"I'm sorry that I never gave us the chance to discuss it together." Stefan said shamefully, knowing that he should have listened to Elena.
"It's in the past Stefan, we have moved far and beyond that. Let's have some fun this weekend." Elena replied.
Katherine stood at the kitchen window, watching as Robbie and Theo played together. The bond the uncle and nephew had even melted Katherine's heart at times, though she would never admit that.
She walked back into the living room and began looking through the bookshelves for something to read. She stopped looking when she came across a larger, tattier book, pulling it from the shelves. She smiled when she realised that it was the photo book Stefan used to keep all through high school. She opened the cover and smiled at the first photo of her, Robbie and Stefan. She was in her cheerleading uniform and the boys were in their football jerseys. It was freshman year and they just looked so happy and innocent.
Katherine heard footsteps as Robbie walked into the room.
"Theo's just washing his hands… what's this?" Robbie asked as he looked over her shoulder. "Is that Stefan's photo book? I can't believe he kept it."
"You know what Stefan's like, all these memories are too important to forget." Katherine said as she flipped over to the next page, to more photos of Stefan, Robbie and Katherine and the rest of the jocks in Mystic Falls.
"My God, look how young we look." Robbie said
"Look at this photo of Stefan and Elena… I remember sneaking a snap of this, they look so in love." Katherine commented. It had been taken at the end of year party at an old abandoned house on the edge of town and Stefan and Elena were standing in the corner, out of sight, apart from this photo. Elena was standing with one foot against the wall behind her and was playing with the bottom of her jacket, while Stefan had one hand leaning above her shoulder on the wall and both of them had the biggest smiles plastered across their faces.
"How were people so oblivious to them?"
"People were too wrapped up in themselves to notice anyone else." Robbie replied. "This photo is the strangest thing. They look so happy there, but that night… he was gone."
"Something tells me that this was his way of trying to talk his way out of it. Or at least saying goodbye without saying goodbye. Trying to leave her with some happy memories." Katherine said as she closed the book over.
"Well it worked out in the end for them…" Robbie said as Katherine put the book back in the shelf. "Do you ever think you'll get married?"
Katherine scoffed; "first I have to find someone who can keep up with how high maintenance I am… and someone who can stand me in general."
"You're a harsh critic of yourself" Robbie noted.
"Honesty is the best policy. I think I'm better single anyway, people always let you down. Stefan is probably the only person I have trusted in my life who has ever let me down. One person. Isn't that crazy?" Katherine said shaking her head, finding it quite unbelievable that she would have so few people in her life.
"Yeah it's unbelievable… it's also kinda tragic." Robbie replied.
"People always leave. I have always been alone. My parents would rather throw money at me then spend time with me, girls hate me cause I have a bit of gumption and boys think I'm worth nothing more than a one night stand. It's a tragic truth, sure, but there are bigger fish to fry in life." Katherine said. "I'll get started on lunch" she finished as she left the room, leaving Robbie alone with his thoughts.
He never thought he would see the day that he felt bad for Katherine Pierce. She always had this strong, bitchy front on. She was resilient, but it was a coping mechanism. She'd been hurt enough in her life time to know when to guard her heart. Robbie was now realising that maybe there was much more to Katherine than he originally thought.
Stefan and Elena had almost made it to the lake house and Elena was getting restless. She hated long car journeys and Stefan hated long car journeys with Elena. She fidgeted and no matter what Stefan said or did, he couldn't distract her for long enough.
"You're like a toddler when we have to go somewhere out of town you know." Stefan commented as Elena stopped tapping her nail against the door.
"What?"
"You can't sit still, you get so impatient."
"It's the excitement…"
"No, you hate sitting down doing nothing, it's impatience." Stefan insisted.
Elena glared at him; "You're lucky I love you otherwise I would smack you right now."
Before Stefan could reply, the car started making a chugging noise and slowing down. As Stefan and Elena's faces grew concerned.
"No, no, no, we can't stop now!" Elena exclaimed as the car came to a standstill.
"I don't think the car is giving us much other choice babe" Stefan replied as they unbuckled their seatbelts.
"Well fix it Mr 'I-want-to-run-a-body-shop- with-my-best-friend.'" Elena said, agitated that their journey was being prolonged.
Stefan rolled his eyes at Elena's demands before getting out of the car to inspect the damage.
15 minutes later, Stefan was hard at work trying to fix things when Elena got out of the car and began pacing behind him, not saying anything, but every now and again looking over his shoulder. A few minutes had passed and Stefan had had enough of her loitering. He sighed and put his tools down before turning around to face her with his hands on his hips.
"Are you done loitering?" He asked.
"Are you done fixing the car?" she replied.
"What you think I'm just standing here, pretending to fix the car?"
"I don't know, maybe you're just trying to bug me." Elena said with a shrug.
"Elena trust me, I want to get this car journey over with just as much as you do." Stefan insisted.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Elena said, frustrated that Stefan was growing frustrated with her.
"Elena don't pick a fight over something that's not there." Stefan said firmly.
"God, all of our trips away to the lake house are doomed, aren't they? Ever since that first fight, we're not going to be able to do anything else." Elena said running a hand across her forehead.
"Is that what all this frustration is about?" Stefan asked, wiping his hands and walking towards her. "Us fighting on holiday?"
Elena sighed and she lent against the side of the car; "ever since we brought up our last time here, I just can't stop thinking about the fights we used to have, especially before we were together. They were epic, you could write plays about our fights and we've been living in this blissful stage for the past while and I don't want anything to ruin that…" she confessed.
"Elena… we were kids back then, we didn't know what we wanted, we didn't know what it truly meant to be in love. Things are different now and I'm not saying we're going to fight but you can't just expect that of us either." Stefan said walking towards her and trapping her with his hands on either side of the door. "You frustrate the hell out of me Elena, you know you do, I'm pretty sure you do it deliberately… but I want you to frustrate the hell out of me, you wouldn't be you if you didn't and I wouldn't be me if I didn't wind you up every now and again. But we are not going to fight on our honeymoon." He insisted as he lent her forehead against hers.
"Ok… we should probably get this car going, it looks like it's about to rain." Elena said as Stefan looked up at the grey clouds.
"You know what? Rain is exactly what we need." Stefan said as he took her hand and led her away from the car.
"Where are we going?" Elena said as they started to run lightly. A few minutes later, they had made it to the spot Stefan wanted to bring her and stopped and looked around them. "This is the end of the lane leading to the lake house…" Elena said with a confused look.
"This is the spot that I finally managed to catch up to you after we had that fight about our future." Stefan said, and as if he had planned the weather, the skies opened and the heavens began to pour. "We got the worst colds from standing out her arguing!" Stefan shouted over the storm.
"And are you trying to condemn us to the same fate now?!" Elena replied.
"You said you could stand here all night if it meant hearing how much I loved you… and I also seem to recall a bucket list that you made when you were 11 years old that involved dancing in the rain." Stefan said taking her hand and spinning her around before ending with his arm around her waist, her arm on his shoulder and their other hands intertwined.
"I'm going to regret showing you that list aren't I?" Elena asked with a giggle.
"Probably…" he replied with a smirk.
"So, tell me Mr Salvatore, why do you love me?" Elena teased as they danced lightly in the rain.
"Well Mrs Salvatore, I don't really know where to begin. You have a secret love for teenage TV dramas and get so attached to the characters. You quote Shakespeare though I don't think I've ever actually seen you read anything other than a legal document or a children's bed time story. You love football but you tried to hide it from me and Robbie cause you didn't want to buy into our guy chat, you wanted to play it cool and not give me the satisfaction of loving something as much as I did when we were kids." Stefan joked as Elena rolled her eyes; "You have the biggest heart and you are always willing to help people. You have the most beautiful mind that challenges me and makes me want to be better. You frustrate the hell out of me… but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love you Elena. Always have always will." Stefan said.
Elena smiled brightly as the rain ran down their faces; "That was pretty good." She said quietly as he lent in to kiss her in the rain, like he had all those years ago.
The weekend had flown by and back at the Salvatore house, Katherine, Robbie and Theo were awaiting Elena and Stefan's return. They had managed to live in relative harmony for the weekend, but Katherine's words about always being alone and trusting no one kept ringing in Robbie's head. It saddened him that anyone should feel that way, even someone like Katherine.
Katherine was lying in bed, reading her magazine when Robbie walked into the room and lounged beside her. She looked at him with the side of her eyes as he didn't say anything, rather just played with the bottom of his t-shirt. Eventually she gave in and put her magazine down and looked at him.
"Anything I can help you with Robbie?" Katherine asked.
"What you said the other day…" he began.
"Yeah you're going to have to be a little less vague, I talk a lot." Katherine responded.
"About Stefan being the only person you can trust… you can trust me too." Robbie told her, finally looking her in the eye. "I just… I wanted you to know that. You have more people than you think Katherine. You can trust me."
Katherine merely nodded her head, unsure what to say. The doorbell rang and Katherine took that as her saving grace, not liking her moment of vulnerability. "I'll go get that." She said as she quickly departed from the room.
She bounced downstairs and opened the door to a rather glamourous, but stern looking woman, who was eyeing Katherine up and down. Katherine decided to return the favour and eyed her in typical Katherine fashion.
The woman had on a straight black dress with what looked like very expensive black heels, a white shawl over her shoulders, her hair pinned up and dark shades covering her eyes.
"Uh… can I help you?" Katherine asked.
"Yes, I was told that this was where I could find Elena Browning." The lady said as she peered over Katherine's shoulder and into the house.
"It's Elena Salvatore now and she's not here right now." Katherine said, not liking this lady one bit.
"Yes, I did hear she had remarried… When will she be back?" the lady asked, continuing to look past Katherine into the house.
"Sometime this afternoon." Katherine replied.
"Well then I'll wait for her." The lady said as she pushed passed Katherine into the house.
"Uh… I don't remember inviting you in lady." Katherine said as she turned the woman around, who had finally taken off her sunglasses.
"Oh, how rude of me not to introduce myself. I'm Eleanor Browning, Elena's… well, ex mother in law. Now where is my grandson?"
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