'Cause I know that time has numbered my days
and I'll go along with everything you say
But I'll ride home laughing, look at me now
the walls of my town, they come crumbling down

Babel - Mumford & Sons

Elijah had to will himself to urge her inside a while later. While he hated to be the one to disrupt something so uncommonly peaceful, his feeling of unease refused to plague him over being even the slightest bit unprepared for the situation at hand.

"Who takes care of this place?" Elena asked mid-awe as she paused at the opening of the large doors of the ancient dwelling. Elijah closed them securely behind them once she stepped through, gesturing for her to follow as he passed.

The first thing she noticed was the sheer size of the manor. The expanse of at least three stories were clearly visible, obstructed only by thin banisters. A pair of glossy staircases curved tastefully up to them around either side of the entry way, perfectly framing the aged statue of an upset angel that claimed the center. Long, flowing hair parted around the base of her wings and clung to her thin face pressed distraughtly into the palm of one of her hands. Elena was left to wonder what could have cause such a thing.

The white stone walls were bare around her, though it almost seemed right due to the house itself being a work of art.

She walked on to find that the entrance opened up into a large sitting area that would have easily held her entire home with plenty of square footage to spare. Further inspecting would have intricately been carried out if Elijah hadn't already made his way past it to the next room as if its grandeur was nothing more than a waste of space. She ended up following him into one of the most elegant marble kitchens she'd ever seen.

"The owners," he replied with his back to her as he fussed with something on the counter in front of him. "I only acquire it when necessary." He turned a few moments later to throw an empty blood bag into the garbage can before facing her; a newly poured glass of blood held leisurely in his hand.

"So they knew we were coming?" She asked curiously as she eyed the dark liquid that stained the sides of the fine crystal.

"Of course, and I took the necessary precautions to be sure that no one else would," he replied evenly, answering her next question before she had the chance to ask it. He took a sip from the glass. "Would you like something to drink?"

Compulsion. She didn't know why, but the entire concept of it still unnerved her. More-so than watching an Original drink human blood from a cup.

"Is there tea?" She replied with a nod, deciding to try and shake it off by making her way to the large wooden dinner table that sat just beyond the opening of the kitchen. It was set for four, with chairs large enough for her to curl her legs under her on the soft, cushioned material.

She watched Elijah thoughtfully for a moment as he put the tea kettle on in reply to her request. "Do you do that a lot?"

Though her questions had a habit of catching him off guard, he had been expecting something close to this particular one since the topic arose.

"A lot is a matter of perspective," he offered half-ruefully as he ambled over to claim the seat across from her. "I do not take altering minds lightly, though I will carry out that which needs to be done without hesitation. As I have for centuries."

"For your benefit," she supplied gently, trying to correct him without coming off as accusing. She couldn't help but to think of her compelled friends and family and how they were left completely clueless.

He surprised her by agreeing with a shallow nod. "And more often than not, for theirs. The owners of this house are hundreds of miles away from here by now. With Klaus running free in Mystic Falls the farther away, the better."

The harsh truths behind his answer didn't fail to catch her off guard.

She didn't reply right away but instead watched as his features fell in the stretch of silence. "But I am no saint." He took a large pull from his drink, nearly draining it of its contents. His tongue dipped across his bottom lip to wipe it clean as if the shameful memories would disappear with the last remnants of blood.

He was a vampire. An old one. And there was a time when he was young and restless - and thirsty for much more than just blood. He had experienced what was claimed to be the best parts of being a vampire by abusing his powers. Just as any young vampire was expect to do. Had he known it would later weigh so heavily upon him, he would have thought twice about such excursions.

Though unlike most – unlike his own brother – he could never 'flip the switch'. For him, it had never even existed. He had to remember the one emotion that mattered most. The fury that fueled him; that led him to where he was right at this moment.

Elena watched on as he mentally thumbed through memories in his mind. Reading signs of trouble on the tense planes of his face and knowing her questions had put them there was unsettling enough. She leaned her elbows on the table top.

"When I was young, I used to draw huge detailed murals on the living room wall with crayons," she reminisced innocently, using the spread of her hands to emphasize just how big they were while smiling fondly at the memory of a time long ago when her family was whole. "My parents would get upset so I would stay out of trouble by blaming it all on Jeremy..." Her smile grew to touch her eyes. "He was just a cute little toddler back then, but he was the artist of the family from the very beginning."

The corners of Elijah's lips turned up just barely at her 'confession'. "Such a horrendous deed," he mockingly tisked, taking note of her effort as it effectively pulled him from his reverie. He also could see the love she held for the boy simply by viewing her expression.

She smirked at him. "He got me back of course... he always did," her face sobered some when she met his eyes, "but we've all done things we regret, Elijah."

He couldn't help but scoff quietly at that. "I can assure you my list of mishaps is much different than your own," he offered with a bit of vigor as he rose to tend to the increasingly insistent whistle of the tea pot.

"Well everyone's is different," she reasoned, ambling to follow him into the kitchen, determined to not let him get away. She grabbed a glass cup down from the cabinet before leaning her hip against the island. "Everyone carries some form of regret whether they admit to it or not. What we choose to take from it is what matters."

While he was grateful for her attempts at consolation, he was sure there was none to be found over such a topic. He thought it over for a moment before prodding gently. He found he had to. "And what have you learned?" He quirked an eyebrow at her.

Elena's eyes rested on her cup. "Well from similar instances, I learned that family is meant to be protected. Cherished. Not ridiculed... Even if they are the younger sibling… But in general, my faults have taught me a lot of things." Elena fiddled with the curved handle for a moment before she looked back up at him. "What about yours?"

He had to think it over for a moment as he made his way over to carefully pour the steaming water into the cup she held, all the while trying to figure out how such far-straying paths could lead to such similar destinations.

The soft click of the cell phone light turning on just before it sounded in Elena's back pocket caused all other thoughts to disperse.

When it rang, she froze just long enough for Elijah to remove the cup of hot liquid from her hands and set it on the island. She reached for the phone, glancing at the name on the screen before looking up to find Elijah's taught expression. If he was trying to hide his anxiety, he was failing.

Jonas

Though that was the name that flashed on the screen, it was not who she expected to hear on the other end.

"Hello? Luka?"

A few seconds of silence passed and she was just about to repeat herself.

"Hello Elena...What a pleasant surprise."

It wasn't Luka. It was not who she expected at all.

Before she could comprehend what was happening, the phone vanished and almost instantly reappeared pressed firmly to Elijah's ear, her own empty hand still held awkwardly in the air at the side of her head. She was stuck, wide-eyed, knowing exactly who's unfamiliar voice that had been based on Elijah's reaction alone.

It should have been unfamiliar, but it startlingly was not.

Elijah's form went rigid a mere foot from her. She could feel it more than she could see it, though when he spoke his voice completely went against his tense stature; calm, businesslike. "What has become of the Martins?"

Her close proximity allowed her to hear the menacing voice that replied from the speaker.

"That depends on which of them you speak of. Some are just fine, while others were not so fortunate. Care to guess who's at fault?"

Elijah's jaw flexed. "Do not play games with me Niklaus."

Elena almost shivered at the dark chuckle that just barely rumbled through the speaker. "Oh big brother, this is no game. If that were the case, I'd be winning and my dear doppelganger would not still be in your possession."

Elena swallowed the lump of sickness that formed in her throat at the same time Elijah's simmering eyes found hers. It was easy to see he was equally disgusted by the show of arrogance; if not more so.

A mere seconds later, as if a switch had been flipped, she watched as his features change completely. To nothing. A hollow mask. "I claim nothing. What is yours is yours, brother. I merely hope for the chance to right my past wrongs..."

Elijah had told her step by step of exactly how his plan was going to go. How he was falsely after 'repentance'. He had scrutinizingly explained each and every minuscule detail without fail to her. Even making sure to put emphasis on the part that played out right before her eyes…

It did absolutely nothing to make his words to Klaus any less repulsive. And just like that, she couldn't hear any more.

Her legs started moving on their own accord as she hurriedly made her way back through the house. The rooms spun around her on the way. When she made it to the grass of the front lawn, she fell to her knees and heaved. Her stomach twisted in knots, attempting to rid itself of any contents but its emptiness only caused her ribs to throb and her throat to burn.

She tried to take deep breaths. In the nose, out the mouth her mother would tell her when she wasn't feeling well, but it did nothing to stop the world from shaking before her eyes. She clenched them shut, wrapping her arms in a tight hold around her sore midsection.

She felt more weak than she had ever felt in her entire life. A time would come in the not-so-far future where she would have to deal with Klaus face to face and she couldn't even handle a few words of preparations. Lies. She had to remember that they were all lies.

The thought of Elijah still inside making them was enough to make another wave of sickness tighten her gut. She pressed her forehead into one hand, using the other to forcefully push her hair away from her face as she attempted to breathe through it. Breathe... breathe.

Only after a few long minutes did she calm down enough to sense anything around her, including his presence.

Elijah looked down at her from the porch steps, watching as she listlessly pushed back off her knees to sit, defeated, in the grass, her face still hidden from view in her palms. An upset angel.

He wanted desperately to crouch beside her. To tuck the runaway strands of hair behind her ear. To fix it. But the thought of how wrong it would be to attempt to repair anything he'd knowledgeably broken kept him standing, still as stone, at a distance. Something he knew he should have been doing the entire time with his family's honor in the balance.

But when she finally looked up at him, her face void of tears or angst or any emotion whatsoever, it was easy for him to remember what mattered the most to him. What should have pulled him to his knees at her side as soon as he found her that way. What should have been the end to every bit of this, right from the beginning. What made him instantly regret every syllable he had just uttered to his bastard brother. So much so that her distant words shook him to the very core of his being.

"I need you to make me forget."

*Waves sheepishly*

I've missed each and every one of you!

More to come in a much more acceptable time frame! ;)