AN: Thanks for all the positive feedback on Elena and Bonnie's meeting, I'm glad you guys liked it! Moving on to the next big thing now … hope I'll be able to pull that off too! OK, that's really all I want to say for the moment. Thanks to my wonderful beta, sunshine2006578, who was so quick to get the chapter back to me! And now, let's get on with the story!
Disclaimer: The characters of The Vampire Diaries are the property of L.J. Smith and the people at The CW. I'm just borrowing.
Chapter twenty-five
It was a little after five when Elena left Bonnie's house.
"So everyone survived the meeting?" Damon asked lightly as she got into the car. "Or do you need help hiding the body?" He held out a bag of blood and a straw for her: she had insisted on eating before she saw Jenna and Maddy, to take all the precautions she could.
She rolled her eyes and accepted the bag. "Very funny." She stuck the straw into the plastic and took a long drink.
"I try." He pulled away from the curb. "So Jenna's next?"
Elena nodded, though her eyebrows pulled together in a frown. Seeing Bonnie and being alone with her had made her more confident about actually, physically seeing Jenna and Maddy – she honestly didn't think she'd do anything to hurt either of them, intentionally or unintentionally – and the only problem that remained now was how Jenna would react …
"I texted Rick before, told him that we would be coming over," Damon said, pulling her attention back to the car. "I thought he'd like a heads-up, since he's the one who'll have the upset missus on his hands."
"Good." She had actually thought about that, but had forgotten to mention it.
"Everything's gonna be OK," he continued, reaching out to squeeze her hand. "Jenna's fine with Jeremy, right? So she'll be OK with this too."
"There's a difference," Elena started, "she thought Jeremy was dead for years before she found out the truth, of course she's happy that he's back. This'll be like … I don't know."
"Are you saying that you want to back out?" he wanted to know. "I mean, we haven't booked the tickets to Europe yet: we can leave today and I can pretend like you died over there – I haven't worked much on my acting skills lately, but I'm sure I could pull it off – and then you can come back in, I don't know, a couple of months, and Jenna will be ecstatic."
She let out a sigh. "That might be the worst plan you've ever had."
"I was just trying to get you to see that this is the only option."
"Well, in that case, job well done!"
"Oh, come one. What's the absolutely worst thing that could happen?"
She thought for a moment. Jenna already knew about vampires, and she had become more and more comfortable around Damon, Jeremy and Anna lately, so she probably wouldn't be scared … or not too scared, anyway. She would most likely be mad, maybe even furious, that Elena hadn't told her before going through with it, but Elena could deal with anger – if it got really bad, she would just give Jenna some time to calm down. If she was going to be completely honest with herself, her worst fear was letting her aunt down.
"I just don't want her to be disappointed in me," she said quietly.
"Disappointed?" Damon repeated incredulously. "Are you crazy?"
"What if she thinks I've thrown my future, my life away? It's not a completely unbelievable reaction, you know."
He shook his head. "Then she's the one who's crazy. You still have a future, you can still do everything you could before … or almost everything, at least, but we've already been through that and it's not really her concern, anyway. If anything, you have more of a future now than you did before. I mean, we'll get to experience the whole 21st century, and more. Just imagine the way the world will develop in, say, the next millennia. And we'll be around for that."
She could see it from his point of view, but she wasn't sure Jenna would.
Luckily – or maybe unluckily – she didn't have time to think about it more, because they were at the house. Damon turned the engine off and looked at her.
"This is the last chance to back out," he told her. "Kidding aside, you do have some options here. If you want, I can tell her …"
"No," Elena immediately interrupted him. "I have to be the one to tell her, it'll only make it worse if you do it."
"You know what? Right now, I don't care." He pried her fingers away from the seat, which she only then realized she had been gripping so tightly it had made indentations in the leather. "I haven't seen you like this since … I honestly don't know. And I don't like it. You might be worrying about how Jenna will react, but my top priority is you, and if doing this will make you this upset, then I don't give a damn if Jenna will be madder or disappointed or whatever if I'm the one to tell her."
When he had finished his little speech, Elena couldn't help but smile. Somehow it made her feel more at ease, him pointing out that she really didn't have to do this. "Thank you." She squeezed his hand. "I know you were offering me a way out of this and, even if I'm not going to take it, I do feel better."
He just looked at her for a moment, then shook his head and got out of the car, muttering about 'women'. She followed his example but, after she closed the door, she leaned against the car instead of following him up the path towards the door.
"Well?" He turned around and gave her a questioning look. "If you're so set on doing this, might as well get it over with. It's not like it's gonna get any easier if you put it off another half-hour."
Nodding, she pushed herself away from the car and walked up to him, gratefully taking the hand he held out for her.
The front door was open and, as they climbed the steps to the porch, Elena could hear Jenna and Maddy in the kitchen. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to get into the house, she stopped a few steps from the doorway.
"Jenna?" she called into the house.
"We're in here!" Jenna yelled back.
Tentatively, Elena tried to put her hand through the seemingly empty doorway – not really expecting it to work – and met the same invisible barrier she had encountered at Bonnie's earlier.
"That obviously doesn't qualify as an invitation," she muttered to herself.
"Having problems?"
Both Elena and Damon turned to find Alaric behind them, an amused expression on his face.
"Great timing, Rick," Damon noted. "You mind giving us a hand with the whole invitation-thing?"
Alaric didn't answer, his eyes on Elena. "You doing OK?"
She smiled at him, trying to look in control and reassuring. "Yeah, I'm good."
He nodded thoughtfully. "And you're sure you shouldn't wait a little longer before you do this?"
"Hey!" Damon started. "Why don't you give her the benefit of the doubt? She's not gonna …"
But Elena cut him off. "It's OK, Damon, I understand why he's worried." She turned to Alaric. "I would really like to talk to Jenna, I feel like I've already kept her in the dark too long. I would never do anything that would put her or Maddy at risk, I hope you know that, but if you really don't want me here right now, that's your call."
He contemplated her words for a moment. "So you're safe now?" he then asked.
Damon snorted. "She was never unsafe."
Both Alaric and Elena ignored him. "I'm as safe as I'm ever going to be," Elena said. "You have to know that I wouldn't come here without making sure first, and I haven't felt the slightest urge to attack anyone when I've been around people. I mean, does it look like I'm having a hard time not going after you right now? And I was just with Bonnie, if you want you can call her and talk to her."
"They were alone for hours," Damon interjected. "And Sabrina's still walking and talking and being her usual annoying self."
Alaric scrutinized her for another long moment, then nodded. "I believe you. And I agree that you need to talk to Jenna, before she starts suspecting that something's up."
Elena's eyes widened. "Has she said anything?"
"No, no," he hurried to reply, shaking his head. "But … when Jeremy and Anna had left last week, she said something about understanding why Jeremy had made the choice he did back then, even if she was still mad at him for staying away for so long and letting her believe that he was dead, and I sort of got the feeling she wasn't just talking about him."
Elena thought about that for a moment. Could she be so lucky that Jenna would understand, no questions asked? No, probably not. If nothing else, she was sure that Jenna would be mad that she hadn't said anything before it happened.
"What are you doing hanging around out here?"
They all looked up to find Jenna in the doorway, Maddy on her hip.
"We just ran into Rick here," Damon quickly explained. "Got held up."
Elena took the opportunity to take a deep breath and let Jenna and Maddy's scents wash over her. Jenna smelled like … she smelled like home, somehow, homey. And a little lemony with a hint of … she thought it might be pine, or maybe some other kind of wood. It was nice, down to earth and just … Jenna. And Maddy … she still had that baby smell, only a hundred times stronger. She couldn't detect anything else, and wondered if maybe kids didn't have those pheromones Damon had told her about. Either way, there was nothing even remotely appetizing about that smell, it just made her want to bury her face in Maddy's hair and sniff her, like she remembered doing right after her cousin was born.
All this had, of course, only taken a second, and when she stopped focusing on the smells and returned to the present, Jenna was taking a step back from the doorway. "Well, come on in. We can't hang around on the porch all afternoon, and I have food in the oven."
As she said it, the smell of chicken wafted out to where they were standing. "It smells wonderful," Elena noted.
"I think there's enough for you too," Jenna replied. "If you're hungry."
Elena could feel Alaric's eyes on her as she contemplated how to answer Jenna. "Well, we did just eat …" she started.
"… but you wouldn't turn down some of Jenna's chicken anyway, would you?" Damon finished the sentence for her, discreetly elbowing Alaric in the ribs to get him to stop looking at Elena like he was waiting for her to go all crazy on them.
"It does smell heavenly," Elena said.
"Then come on," Jenna concluded. "It'll be done in ten minutes or so."
Rick entered the house first, taking Maddy from Jenna and swinging the little girl up into the air before putting her down on the floor.
Elena knew that she had been invited and would be able to pass the doorway, but Damon still had to wrap an arm around her waist and pull her along into the house. When she was inside, she let out a relieved breath.
"You need to relax," Damon whispered, so quietly that nobody else would hear. "You're so tense I can feel it in your entire body."
"Well, excuse me if I'm not as laid back as you are!" Elena snapped back.
"Everything's gonna be fine," he told her. She had lost count of how many times he had said that today and, funnily enough, it didn't get any easier believing him the more he said it.
Jenna and Alaric had continued into the kitchen, but Maddy was still in the hallway, looking up at Elena with an expectant expression in her face. When nothing happened, she raised her arms in the air.
"Up, Ena, up!" she demanded, looking almost exasperated, like Elena should have been able to figure out on her own what she wanted.
Instinctively, Elena took a step back. She didn't dare pick Maddy up, afraid that she would hold her too tightly.
Just when the little girl looked like she was about to throw a temper tantrum, Damon swooped her up onto his shoulders. This apparently suited Maddy just fine, because she shrieked with laughter and started pounding him on the head with her little fists.
Elena shot him a brief smile. "Thanks."
"No big. But you're gonna have to get over this fear of unintentionally hurting people soon: it's not gonna happen."
"Maybe not …" seeing the look on his face, she continued, "… OK, probably not, but I'm not going to experiment on her."
He sighed. "Fine."
"Now come on. They're gonna start to wonder what we're doing out here."
Obediently, he followed her into the kitchen where Jenna was checking on the chicken and Alaric had just put the last plate on the table.
"OK, make that fifteen minutes," Jenna announced, closing the oven door.
"Fifteen minutes, that's a long time, isn't it, Maddy?" Damon lifted her off his shoulders and held her upside down in front of him. "You wanna go out on the swings while we're waiting for dinner?"
"Go high!"
"Yep, you can go as high as you want," he told her, lowering his voice to a stage whisper, "I promise I won't tell your mom if you don't."
Jenna rolled her eyes. "Funny."
"Come on, squirt, let's go." Damon put Maddy down on the floor and she immediately took off towards the back door. "Rick, you wanna join us? Make sure I don't corrupt your little girl?"
Catching the real intention behind the words, Alaric immediately nodded. "You have everything under control in here, right?" he asked Jenna.
"Sure, you go outside and play," she replied amusedly. "Let the women handle the dinner."
"Great. Call us when it's done."
When the men and Maddy had disappeared into the back yard, Jenna shook her head. "Well, that was subtle," she noted, shooting Elena a look. "You want to tell me what that was about?"
Letting out a deep sigh, Elena sat down at the kitchen table. "I guess they wanted to give us some privacy, so that we could talk."
"That's what I figured." Jenna glanced at the chicken again, then sat down opposite Elena at the table. "So there's something that we need to talk about?"
Biting her lip, Elena nodded. Part of her wished that Jenna had figured out what was going on and would put her on the spot – somehow, it seemed easier to defend her choice and explain why she had made that decision than actually coming out and saying the words – but, of course, when she wanted it to happen, it didn't.
"I …" she started, but cut herself off and decided to take another approach. "You know that Damon and I … I mean, we're getting married, it's … for real, for life. And … you know what he is, and what that means …"
Jenna sighed. "I know, and I guess I've been waiting for this conversation. But, Elena, you're only twenty-two, you have your whole life ahead of you, I really don't think you should have to think about this already. I mean, Damon isn't pressuring you or anything, is he?"
Elena frowned: apparently, Jenna thought that this was going to be a preparatory conversation. "No, but that's not …"
But Jenna cut her off. "Then I don't see why you have to think about this now. I mean, down the line, sure, I get that it's something for you to consider, but so many things could happen before then. I know that you feel like Damon's the only guy for you right now, but those things don't always last. Trust me, I'm speaking from experience."
Not being able to stand Jenna continuing to convince herself that she might be able to talk her out of this, Elena decided to just dive right in and get it out there. "Jenna, this isn't something I'm thinking about, I'm trying to tell you that I already have."
"You've already thought about it?"
Elena shook her head. "No, that I've already … it's already happened."
For a moment, Jenna looked like she didn't understand, then she closed her eyes and buried her face in her hands. "Oh, Elena …"
"It's not a bad thing, Jenna, I'm still exactly the same," Elena tried to reason. "I mean, you wouldn't even have noticed if I hadn't told you, right?"
Jenna lowered her hands and gave her niece a fierce look. "Do not try to joke about this, it's not funny!"
Elena immediately raised her hands in a surrendering motion. "I know, I know. Sorry."
Jenna didn't seem to hear her. "Don't you understand that I want so much more for you?" she asked, rhetorically, Elena assumed, and got up from the table. "More than this … this … existence, or whatever you want to call it."
She started pacing the room, not meeting Elena's eyes. Well, Elena thought, it could have been worse. At least she hadn't screamed. And she didn't seem scared or anything.
"I know that this isn't the life you had in mind for me, but you have to understand that it's my choice, and this is what I want. Damon is what I want, and this is the only way I'll get to be with him forever."
"But that's not all there is to life!" Jenna insisted, finally stopping her pacing and facing Elena again. "There's more to life than a guy, don't you see that? And now you've gone and given everything up, everything you could have had, everything you could have done!"
Elena shook her head. "I know that there are things I won't be able to do, won't get to experience, but I have thought about this for a long time, and I'm OK with that."
"How can you be, when you don't even know what you're giving up?"
"What am I giving up?" Elena retorted. "I'll live forever, be young forever. I mean, Damon and I won't grow old together, but we'll have eternity, isn't that better?"
"And what about kids? You won't be able to have any, have you even thought about that?"
"Of course I have! Damon even brought it up before … but, even if I had stayed human, I wouldn't have been able to have kids with the person I would want them with. Can you try to see it from my point of view, please?"
Stubbornly – or so Elena thought, at least – Jenna shook her head.
"Come on, Jenna. I know that Maddy is everything to you, and I love her too, I always will, but if it had been Alaric, would you have been able to walk away from him?"
Looking like all the fight had gone out of her, Jenna slumped down in a chair, slowly shaking her head.
"Do you see what I mean?" Elena asked carefully after a moment.
Reluctantly, Jenna nodded. "I think the reason I'm mad is really that I do, I understand, and I … I think I would do the exact same thing if I had been in your shoes," she admitted. "But I have to be the adult here, and … I was supposed to take care of you guys, you know. And it feels like I've failed."
"No!" Instinctively, Elena reached across the table and took Jenna's hand. She was relieved when her aunt didn't pull away. "Don't think like that. I don't know where Jeremy and I would be if it hadn't been for you taking us in after Mom and Dad died."
"You'd probably still be alive!" But she didn't sound as upset anymore, and Elena hazarded a smile that was returned, if weakly.
"I'm sorry that you have to deal with all of this, it really isn't fair."
Jenna shrugged. "I was starting to get used to it."
"And then I just had to add another worry." Elena sighed. "Sorry."
"You handled it a thousand times better than Jeremy, though," Jenna noted, and Elena couldn't help but laugh.
"Yeah, I'd have to screw up pretty badly to do worse."
"True."
Elena squeezed Jenna's hand carefully, then let it go. "I understand if you want some time to get used to all this, if you don't want to see me for a while or have me around Maddy. We were planning on staying here for maybe a week or two before going to Europe, but we can leave sooner."
Jenna frowned. "No, why would I want that? I want you here for as long as possible before you go out into the world and never come back to this hole-in-the-wall they try to pass off as a town."
"We're not moving to Europe," Elena pointed out. "We'll just be gone for a couple of months."
"I know, I know."
"But we can stay here a little longer, if you want," Elena told her. "I mean, it's not like we're on a schedule or anything, we can leave when we feel like it."
Jenna nodded. "Good."
They sat in silence for a while, then Jenna sighed.
"I wish you would have talked to me before you did this."
The guilt immediately engulfed Elena. "I know, and I'm really sorry about that."
"I mean, I realize that I probably wouldn't have been able to talk you out of it," Jenna continued, "but I would have liked to have been a part of the decision making process. I mean, I'd like to think that I'm the closest thing you have to a parent these days …"
"Of course you are," Elena interjected.
"… and that you can talk to me about everything," Jenna continued. "To be honest, it feels like you don't trust me enough to confide in me."
"No!" Elena exclaimed. "No, that's not it at all, of course I trust you, and I know that I can talk to you about anything. I was going to tell you, actually. Back when we told you everything, remember? But then it felt like I had already put so much on your plate, so I didn't."
"Really?" Jenna sounded doubtful. "You're not just trying to make me feel better?"
"Of course not," Elena assured her. "And you don't have to tell me that I took the coward's way out.
Jenna laughed a little. "Well, as long as you're aware of that!"
Hearing her aunt laugh made Elena let out a relieved breath and start to, if not believe then at least hope that maybe she and Jenna would be able to move on without too many bumps in the road.
As soon as they got outside, Damon claimed one of the lawn chairs and let Alaric entertain Maddy. He didn't have to try very hard to be able to hear the conversation in the kitchen, but he did shut out all other sounds, which was the reason he didn't react until Alaric kicked him in the shins.
"Hey!" he complained, rubbing the spot. Not that it had actually hurt, but still.
"Are you listening to their conversation?" Alaric wanted to know.
"Of course I am. And you're distracting me."
Alaric shook his head, as if disapproving, but still sat down in another chair, pulling a slightly reluctant Maddy into his lap. "How's it going?"
"Well, your missus had a bit of a fit at first, but now she's calmed down and they're talking. Seems like it won't be as bad as Elena was afraid of."
Alaric nodded thoughtfully. "I think Jenna was waiting for this to happen, though maybe only on a subconscious level."
"Yeah, she said something along those lines before."
"I wonder what it'll be like," Alaric mused out loud, "thirty years from now, when Jenna and I are getting old and you guys are still as young as ever."
Damon laughed. "Maybe you'll be begging me to turn you."
Alaric laughed too. "It's not completely unimaginable, but … no, I don't think so."
"Your loss."
"That's the last box," Stefan announced late on Monday afternoon, setting the box in question down on the table in the large living room at the boarding house.
"Thank God!" Jeremy exclaimed, slumping down on the couch. "I thought they would never end!"
"There weren't that many boxes," Elena objected.
"There were enough."
"Come on, Jere, stop complaining," Anna piped in. "You're supposed to be strong, remember?"
"Was I complaining about them being heavy?" Jeremy asked rhetorically. "No, I was complaining about there being, like, a million of them."
"And that's not an exaggeration at all," Damon noted. "You are the worst mover ever."
"Maybe that's because I'm not one."
"OK, before this turns into a full blown fight, I think we're going to call it a day," Anna announced, shooting Jeremy a look.
"Thanks for all the help, guys," Elena said. "We wouldn't have been able to get it done as quickly without you."
"Oh, you definitely wouldn't." Jeremy winked at her. "So, see you tomorrow, Gilbert movie night?"
Elena smiled. "Absolutely."
"OK. Night, all."
He and Anna left, passing Abby in the hallway.
"This house is pretty cool," she said when she came into the room. "If my sense of directions wasn't as good as it is, I might even get lost."
"Yeah, it is big," Elena agreed. "You guys aren't going back down to Durham tonight, are you?"
Stefan shook his head. "No, we checked out of the hotel before we left."
"Do you want to stay here?" Elena offered. "I mean, it's technically your house, so you're the one who should be inviting me to stay, but …"
Stefan laughed. "No, that's OK. This is your place now, really. And we were actually thinking about catching the late flight back to San Francisco."
Abby nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I'm starting to get a little homesick, actually."
"Of course." Elena shook her head. "You guys have already been here much longer than you needed to, you should go home."
"And she says that in the least please-leave-us-alone way as possible," Damon piped in with a smirk. Elena elbowed him in the ribs.
"We've had a lot of fun here, really," Abby said. "But you're doing great, so I think it's time we leave you to get on with your lives on your own. Besides, you won't be here for that long, either. Europe calls."
Elena smiled. "It does. I'm really looking forward to it."
"Maybe we'll catch up with you somewhere on the road?" Abby suggested. "I haven't been over there in a few decades." She gave Stefan a questioning look.
"Yeah, that sounds good." He nodded. "But for now, we're going to leave you to yourself: we can talk about Europe later."
"You're sure you don't want to stay here tonight?" Damon wondered. "I mean, kidding aside, you don't actually have to leave right this minute."
"No, I know. But … like Abby said, it's time to head back home."
Elena liked the way he talked about San Francisco as home: it was new, something post-Abby, she thought. It was nice to know that he had found a place, a person, to call home.
When they were alone, Elena let out a deep breath.
"Tired?" Damon asked.
"A little, I guess," she replied. "It's been a long day."
"It has."
"But it feels good to be here. I mean, I liked the apartment, but this …"
"… is home," he finished the sentence for her.
She nodded, smiling a little. "Yeah, it is."
They might be leaving for the trip of her life in only a few weeks, and she wasn't sure they would ever be able to come back to Mystic Falls for real – after all, Damon had already lived there for six years, people were bound to start realizing he wasn't aging soon – but she knew that it would always be her home. No matter where life brought her and no matter what it had in store for her in the very long future that lay ahead of her, this would always be the place where she had grown up. The place where her life had started, both literally and metaphorically.
AN: OK, guys, how did you like Jenna's reaction? I didn't want her to completely freak out – I mean, she would be stupid not to realize that this was something that was coming – but she couldn't be all 'oh, well, OK, no problem' either. I hope this was a nice middle road. And, now, we've pretty much reached the end of the road. I'll probably post a short, one-shot epilogue, but this is really as far as I was planning on going with this story. Please let me know what you thought of this chapter and if you're interested in the epilogue!