AN: i'm gonna update tomorrow too. Don't hate me too much.
Chapter Twenty-five
"C'mon, you wiggle wart," Leah says, holding out the blue cloud pajamas to Grace, who is wrapped in a towel. "Into the pajamas." They had quite a splash fest in the tub tonight, and at this rate, she's going to buy more bubble bath soon.
"Mammaaaaa," Grace whines, pulling the towel over her head.
"Graaaace," Leah mimics, making the pajamas dance.
Her daughter pulls the flannel pajama bottoms on over her underwear and pulls the top over her wet hair. Leah frees the tangled hair from under the neck of the top and towels it dry a little before painstakingly combing through it. Grace can be pretty tender-headed at times.
But she's not the most patient creature, so she fidgets through the whole ordeal and as soon as Leah pulls the comb through the last curl, she's off to parts unknown. Leah pulls the plug to drain the tub and checks her watch. She's still got twenty minutes 'til bedtime; she can play a bit more.
She's on her why to the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea when the doorbell moans its awful racket. Who would be ringing their door at this time of night? She glances out the window but doesn't see anyone in the darkness.
She will berate herself later for not fixing the porch light.
She unlocks the door and her hand turns the knob just as she hears Malachi yell, "Mom, DON'T!"
But a heavy weight slams into the door and swings it open, catching her off guard. She screams as a vervain-laced wooden bullet punches through her stomach. She stumbles, clutching the wound, and he flings her down as his momentum carries him into the house.
Her back hits the floor of the hallway and her head cracks against the linoleum. Galaxies explode behind her eyes.
A face looms above her, and she can recognize it just enough that she yelps from terror as a stake flashes down –
Oh God, help me please –
The wood gores her chest and her vision turns black.
She hears her mother scream. She hears Malachi howl, "Grace, run!"
She feels the depth of his urgency, his utter fright, and it propels her to her feet and out the back door into the cold, dark night.
She doesn't stop to think, doesn't dare contemplate what bogeyman is back there in their small house –Mama said it was our safe house she said it was a new start that no one would hurt us again –she only runs across the back yard, scoots through the gap in the fencing, and keeps moving through the foreign woods out back.
Her small feet slap the wet leaves that coat the ground from the rain that stopped only an hour ago, and she shivers as she gets colder and colder, but she keeps running.
She can't see good. She almost hits several bushes, and trips three or four times, coating her hands and the knees of her blue fuzzy pajamas with dirt that she can't see, but the grime is sticky and cold under her fingers.
She gets up and keeps moving under the crescent moon up above, stumbling up and down inclines and gasping as she steps in puddles of frigid water.
Mama screamed. Ky said to run. This is what she knows.
She's too cold to look behind her. She must keep going, but now she can't stop shaking, and her teeth click together every time she drags the freezing air through her mouth and nose.
The fifth time she falls, she knows she's crying, but her face is so cold she can't feel the water leaking from her eyes. She can't feel her feet. Her fingers hurt. Her chest feels tight and achy –she's got what Ky calls a stitch in her side.
Can't go back. Ky said run. There's something bad. Something bad happened. To Mama. But she doesn't know where she is. She can't see. The trees are tall and big and as she slows to a walk she realizes it's scary here, too. There are weird, creepy noises from whatever is hiding in the dark.
Where do I run to?
Mama said they wouldn't have to run anymore. She said they'd be safe. They were safe because Elijah helped them. Elijah. Elijah helps.
She needs Elijah.
In the end, she can only shiver and keep walking as she sobs and screams, " 'Lijah! 'Lijaaaah!" into the darkness over and over again. " 'Lijah, 'Lijah," she wails.
Someone must come. He must come. She huddles beside a tree and gags. She has cried too hard, but she can't stop.
" 'Lijah, 'Lijah," she moans, wrapping her arms around her tommy and shaking.
"Grace?" a soft, feminine voice calls. She knows that voice. "Is that you?" Soft arms pick her up and cuddle her close, and she clings to this comfort as all her words leave her.
"What is she doing all the way out here?" a man asks.
"I don't know, but something's wrong," the woman says worriedly. "You'd better call Elijah right now."
Grace relaxes into the arms that hold her. Elijah will help.
She is safe.
He is back with the Latin manuscript and a finger of scotch when his phone rings. He has forgotten to put it back on silent. It's from Klaus, and he considers ignoring it. But Klaus hardly calls to chat about the weather, and he'll certainly complain about it later if he ignores it.
"Hello, Niklaus."
"Elijah, something's happened," Klaus says without any preamble. "We found Leah's little tyke wandering around in the woods screaming your name."
He's on his feet inwardly cursing himself in all ten languages he knows, and strains his brain to remember any other vulgar phrases he may have picked up on over the years. "Where are you?" he demands.
"We've brought her back to Caroline's house. The girl's got a hold like a monkey, and I don't know where she lives."
He had followed up the lead Ky had given him –searched all of Main Street for a man fitting the description Ky had given him, tried to pinpoint any scent of vervain that seemed out of the ordinary –even asked a few people. Then he called an agency and put them on the task of discovering the whereabouts of Frank McCann to see if he was in the immediate vicinity of Mystic Falls.
He shouldn't have let it come to chance, he should have followed up further, he should have told Leah …he grinds his teeth and pushes all that away.
"Stay there," he says, moving even as the words leave his mouth.
Her door is open. Didn't the neighbors see anything? Didn't they notice?
His heart stops at the sight of her lying prone on the floor in a puddle of blood, skewered through the chest with a wooden stake.
Her face is ashy pale. Elijah drops to his knees beside her and yanks the stake out, hands shaking. It might have punctured her heart –she might not be coming back –
But he can see the organ through the gaping hole, and he releases a shuddering breath. The stake missed it by a mere inch.
Leah will wake up. She has to wake up.
He examines her for other injuries and finds the hole in her abdomen. He gently rolls her over, checking for an exit wound as well as any splinters that could be hiding in either laceration.
The stomach lesion looks oddly cauterized, and as he touches the jagged flesh, his fingers burn. Vervain.
"Leah, wake up," he whispers, gently picking her up and cradling her in his arms. He's fairly sure what happened –she was attacked, Grace ran –but where was Malachi?
He feels her body twitch, and hope wells up as he takes a deep breath. "Leah," he says again, relief and urgency fighting for control in his voice. She spasms repeatedly as her wounds try to knit themselves back together.
Elijah bites deep into his wrist and holds it to her lips, dripping the blood into her mouth. She will heal faster with blood –and his is the best she could have. "Come back," he whispers, kissing her hair. "Come back."
She swallows, and her eyes snap open. She cries out and clutches her chest as ribs snap back into place and muscles reattach.
"It's all right, I've got you, I'm here," he says over and over as she thrashes in his arms before realizing where she is and what has happened.
"Elijah?" she whimpers. "It –it was him –"
"I know," he says, guilt piercing him like a lance.
"Where's Grace? Where's Ky?" she says, trying to look over his shoulder.
"Caroline has Grace. She's safe."
"Where's Ky, Elijah?" She grips his suit in desperation. "Where's Ky?!"
He cups her cheek and looks her in the eye. "I'm going to find him, Leah."
"You swear?" she says as the tears spill from her murky green eyes. "Swear to me, Elijah!"
"I swear," he promises. "I need to get you to Caroline's, and then I will find him."
She's trembling as he picks her up. She buries her head in his shoulder and he blurs away, running to Caroline's house, her new refuge now that her home has been compromised.
Klaus answers the door and lets Elijah carry Leah into the house. "She'll need this," he says, holding out a blanket. "To cover the bloodstains."
Elijah sets Leah down on the couch and she draws the blanket around her with fumbling fingers just in time.
Grace flies out of Caroline's kitchen, clad in a similar blanket and an oversized T-shirt, saying "Mama, Mama!" over and over again. Leah starts to cry and rocks Grace, holding her close like she thought she never would again.
"Stay here," Elijah tells Klaus. "I'm going to find Malachi."
"You sure you don't want any help?" Klaus asks, his eyes glinting.
"No," Elijah says shortly. He blurs out of the house.
This is his promise to keep.