Noon approached much more quickly than it normally did. Or at least it seemed to. Meeting a woman she didn't remember, but happened to be her birth mother, the thought filled her with trepidation.

"Breathe, Elena." Elijah cupped her shoulders and drew her against his chest. "You'll be okay. If it helps, when she met with Josh, she talked about how much she wanted you in her life, how much she dreamed of meeting you again."

"What if I'm not enough?"

"You are."

Elena shook her head. "I don't feel like it."

"Because Grayson couldn't get his head out of his dogma enough?" He squeezed her arms gently. "That's a reflection on him, not you, proof who and what he loved more. He loved the Council and everything they stood for more than he loved his own family. But John was able to overcome that same training."

"He didn't give me up because he didn't want me. He sacrificed a life as my father to try to make sure I had the best life possible."

"Exactly."

Unfamiliar high heels clicked on the courtyard paving stones and Elena drew a deep breath.

"I'll be with you the entire time."

"I know." Elena turned and cupped Elijah's cheek. "You're a man of your word."

"Always." Elijah caught her hand, holding it to his face a moment longer. "And forever."

Releasing his grip, he situated her hand into the crook of his elbow.

"How do I look?"

Elijah's eyes trailed up and down her form, from the royal blue sheath dress Rebekah helped her select, to the black flats, and finally over the subtle makeup Sage had applied.

"Well?" Elena fought the urge to fidget under his careful perusal.

"You look lovely as ever."

When Elena entered the sitting room, she found John and an unfamiliar woman sitting on the couch. The dark haired, hazel eyed woman was beautiful, and her entire being radiated confidence. Isobel.

The other vampire stood up slowly, but made no move to approach.

"Hello, Elena."

"Isobel," Elena whispered.

She froze, unable to move or even think as her eyes met the gaze of the woman who'd given birth to her. This was her mother. Both her parents were in the same room she was and they said that they loved her. After shutting herself off for so long to parental love, it felt odd to come face to face to it with it now, though with different people than the ones who raised her.

"Perhaps we should sit down." Elijah's voice managed to break through her shock.

Elena numbly allowed him to guide her to the loveseat while Isobel resumed her place next to John.

"Would you care for a drink?" Elijah asked with a gentle pat on Elena's knee.

"Please."

Inclining his head, Elijah walked over to the drinks cabinet. Taking out two tumblers, he poured out some bourbon and carried them over to the guests.

"Thanks." Isobel lifted a glass and took a sip.

Elijah sat down beside Elena then and crossed his legs, the picture of ease. Though Elena thought she knew him well enough to see a subtle tension in his shoulders and in the set of his jaw. Did he not like them? Or was he worried about stressing her out?

"I'll have to admit, that in all my dreams of finding you, Elena, the home of the Original vampires never featured."

"They're good to me," Elena breathed. She glanced at Elijah and smiled, "Especially Elijah. He's the best."

"I'm- I'm glad."

Elena pressed herself against Elijah, her nerves getting the better of her.

"I am curious how you managed to become a vampire, Isobel," Elijah commented, drawing the attention away from Elena for a moment. "It's usually a bit more difficult than just wanting to be one. Finding us is usually a bit harder than that."

Elena squeezed his hand in thanks. He understood her, knew her better than anyone in her life right now, especially when she needed attention drawn away from her for a moment.

"Two vampire brothers that John was aware of came into town just before Elena disappeared, Damon and Stefan Salvatore. John put me into contact with them, and Damon obliged."

"Damon," Elena said, the name clicking in her head. "You were turned by my creator's best friend/nemesis."

"What do you mean?" Isobel asked, curious.

"Damon was locked up by the Augistines back in the fifties. He and Enzo made plans to escape together, but when the time came, Damon abandoned Enzo." This was okay, reciting facts that had nothing to do with her. No one could pry into her feelings of this, because it didn't really affect her.

"Of course he was." Isobel shook her head. "I was two steps from you this whole time. All I had to do was pry into that jackass's past and I'd have found something to look into, a way to possibly find you."

"Do you regret becoming a vampire?" Elena had to know. Being surrounded by vampires who'd lived for centuries made her feel small sometimes, but talking to her mother, who'd turned after she did, it gave her a strength she didn't know she had.

"It led me back to you, so no." Isobel smiled. "And now, I'll have decades, centuries to be a mother to you."

"You don't have to make up for anything, I swear."

"It's not about making things up to you, it's about being what I should have been all along." She held up her hand, her lips curling into a small smile. "I won't hover. But I'll always be there for you, for however long I live."

"That'd be nice." Elena rested her head on Elijah's shoulder.

Isobel studied her for a long moment, long enough that Elena fought the urge to squirm.

"Doppleganger or not, you do look like us," Isobel said finally. "Don't you think so, John?"

"Yes, we do look like family."

Elena found herself smiling at that. To be able to reclaim her face, at least a little, by having her parents see bits of themselves in her features, it felt nice.

"So, what were you before you became a vampire?"

"I was a professor, at Duke University. I taught Comparative Folklore." Isobel's face softened as she spoke, lost in her memories. "I was married and while I loved my husband and enjoyed my career, my first priority was you, and when you went missing, my focus became finding you, no matter what I had to give up."

"Becoming a vampire is kind of permanent though."

"It was worth it. Because if I hadn't become a vampire, I never would have heard where you were."

Elijah ran his hand slowly up and down Elena's back, soothing away the tension she didn't realize that had formed between her shoulder blades.

"I didn't realize how spoiled I was about seeing able to see you until you were no longer skating." Isobel's hands flexed, as though she wanted to reach across the coffee table. "I was so proud of you when you took to the ice. It gave me a way to connect to you without intruding on your life. I even went to several of your meets and cheered as loudly as I could."

"Skating made me happy," Elena said. "You saw me at my happiest."

"I know. I could see it, how you lit up on the ice." Isobel's eyes shown with unshed tears. "You were spectacular."

"Thanks."

"Watching you, it was torture though, because I couldn't tell anyone that you were my daughter and that I was so proud of the woman blossoming in front of us."

"I'm not her anymore, though, am I?" Elena shrank in on herself a little.

"That doesn't mean you can't become who you were meant to be. Vampire or not, you're still you and even though one dream was forced to die, that doesn't mean you can't be you. You just have to find a new dream, a new place for yourself."

"I'm working on that and Elijah's been great about helping me."

Elena looked up at him and smiled. How different her life was now that she was free, being protected by one of the strongest vampires in the world and his equally powerful family. How many people could claim that? Not many.

"I'm glad you've got friends." Isobel raised an eyebrow when Elena pressed her cheek against Elijah's chest for a moment. "Healing like this needs a strong support system."

"I try my best," Elijah said. "Elena's a gentle soul and it makes it easy to want to help her heal.

"What the-?" Isobel's face froze and her eyes went wide with shock.

"What's wrong?" Elena tightened her grip on Elijah's arm.

"Are you," Isobel looked from Elena to John to Elijah, then Elena again, "are you pregnant? Don't lie to me, Elena. I can hear the heartbeat."

Elena looked up at Elijah, shaking her head, her anxiety spiking. This wasn't something she wanted to talk about, not with someone she'd just met. How could she explain this?

Please. Please. Don't make me explain this. This wasn't supposed to come up yet. Please.

"Elena?" John slid forward in his seat. "What happened?"

"After-" She brought her hand to her mouth and fought back a sob. "I can't. I can't."

Brows furrowing, Elijah wrapped his arm around her, drawing her close. Digging her fingers into his jacket, Elena pressed her face against his throat, inhaling his scent. Warmth, blood, safe, protection, Elijah.

"Breathe, Elena. You're safe, I swear it." Elijah kissed her forehead. "You're safe."

Talking about what Davenport did to her ripped her open, especially after the recent upheavals John and Isobel brought into her life. Their arrival into her life had ripped her foundations out from under her. Why did Isobel have to notice things? No. This couldn't be happening. Not now.

"Tell me, what did my brother do to you?" John pleaded.

"It wasn't him," Elijah said. "He was dead when it happened. Science has an interesting way of interfering with magic, even if it can't undo it completely."

"You got pregnant in that lab," Isobel said, rage twisting her face up.

This wasn't part of the plan, talking about how she got pregnant wasn't what she wanted from this meeting. Now that people she wasn't ready to know knew what happened to her, it left her feeling completely exposed. She needed to get away, to escape to hide.

"Yes," Elijah agreed. "The resulting pregnancy caused ripples among the spirits of nature, one of them being my sister, Freya, having visions. That's how we found Elena and that's all you need to know about it, all Elena can handle people knowing."

"I need to lie down," Elena found herself saying.

She stood up, but swayed on her feet. She couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't breathe.

"Elena?"

Elijah cupped her elbow, turning her towards him, but she couldn't respond. Her brain couldn't comprehend anything and she had no desire to try.

"Is she in shock?" Isobel asked.

"She is. Elena, I'm hoping you can hear me, because I'm going to pick you up and carry you upstairs." He examined her face carefully, then scooped her into his arms.

"What happened to her in that lab?" Isobel asked from somewhere far away.

"They won't go into detail," John replied, his voice strangled. "I didn't even know she was pregnant."

Once Elijah laid her on her bed, Elena curled up beneath the blankets and wrapped her arms around her pillow. Nothing registered, nothing except for her need to hide. Don't let anyone hurt her, don't feel. Nothing mattered. Nothing except find safety.

Exhaling heavily, Elijah tucked the blankets more snugly around her shoulders and sat down beside her, watching her.

What could he do? She carried his child, but talking about how she got pregnant traumatized her to the point where she shut down. Was he asking too much of her by wanting her to carry the evidence of her rape to term?

He thought she was healing, that she started to even love the baby, his baby. But this shutdown, it made him question everything. Did this mean losing his child? The thought of losing the baby that shouldn't exist, it ripped at his heart and his throat tightened, but seeing Elena so broken, was it worth it? His child though. He couldn't lose his baby. Not his little girl!

Elijah ran his hand up and down her arm, wishing he could do more to help her, to take some of the pain from her. It wasn't fair.

He never should have suggested this. He shouldn't have gone with them to rescue her so she'd never know how he felt about the baby. The only reason she went through with this in the first place was because of him. If he hadn't been there, the baby Elena carried would have only been a thought that'd cloud his thoughts once in a while, not someone real that he would mourn for the rest of his life.

Was he hearing his baby's last heartbeats? Would he forever bear the scar of hearing his child, but never getting the chance to hold her? With every beat, another dream he'd constructed around his daughter faded. Her first smile, her first words, first steps, it all felt like too much to ask of the woman carrying her.

Elena deserved more than this, more than being coerced to go through with something forced on her in a lab. He couldn't do this to her. As much as he ached for his child, Elena meant too much to him now to ask this of her. Even considering asking her to continue with the pregnancy, it felt so selfish, so cruel of him.

As he thought this through, he realized something. He wouldn't just be losing his baby, he'd be forced to let her go too, because if she terminated the pregnancy, he couldn't bear to be near her. He wouldn't be able to look at her and not think of his daughter's heartbeat in her womb. A thousand years after the dream dying, only to have it come back and slip through his fingers, it was a punch in the gut that he would never fully recover from.

He'd take care of her, make sure she had everything she ever wanted or needed, just for trying. But he'd never be able to be near her again and that felt like another dream dying. He hadn't admitted it until now, but he'd been falling in love with her.

Just being near her made him happy, and he'd enjoyed watching her slowly blossom and he'd let her in. After everything, after all the pain he'd been through already, he'd let her in and it was all over now. His dreams of fatherhood and having Elena in his life, they would be left unfulfilled, wisps of smoke he thought he could capture, only for them to fade in his grasp.

Elijah's heart shattered, even though he knew it was the only thing he could do. When she finally rode out this wave of pain, and was able to speak again, he'd give her an out and he would say goodbye.

With her parents in her life, she could heal and blossom without him. When she woke up, she would do the right thing. It was time to set Elena free.