"Are you going to tell me why you kept me locked in this goddamn basement for another three months after you unlinked me and your little girlfriend at any point soon?" Hayley asked, glaring at me as I walked into the dark room, closing the door behind me.
"Well, seeing as Elena is pregnant and wanted nothing to do with your death, I thought that it would be best to reserve this for when she's out of the house for an extended amount of time." I explained softly, flicking the light switch in the corner of the room and watching with some satisfaction as Hayley shied away from the light, wincing.
"Besides," I continued, "I find I'm need of a way to…relieve some stress." I shrugged, watching as Hayley swallowed, watching me with apprehension before smirking.
"Is this your way of asking to sleep with me again? Because I seem to remember vividly that you enjoyed it."
I raised an eyebrow at her, smirking as her falsified confidence waned with each moment I said nothing.
"Oh, on the contrary, Hayley." I said when I felt I'd left the silence for long enough. "I was remembering how satisfying it was to feel your ankle crush under my foot."
The desired fear, flooded Hayley's features and her hands pulled at the chains holding them up as I stalked closer to her.
"Elijah, please, just kill me and get it over with."
"After what you did?" I scoffed. "A quick death would be too kind."
ooOoo
"Busy morning brother?" Niklaus asked as I entered the kitchen, drawing Kol and Rebekah's eyes to my form also.
Rebekah looked slightly horrified at the blood on my shirt, face and arms where I had rolled up my sleeves, while Kol and Klaus both looked torn between impressed and concerned, probably for my mental stability.
"Does this mean the bitch is finally dead?" Kol asked after a moment.
"Not yet." I replied, walking to the coffee machine and turning it on. "Despite her status as part wolf, she doesn't heal very quickly, and apparently doesn't deal well with pain." I murmured, preparing a mug for my drink. "I thought it best to give her body some time to recuperate, I don't want to kill her too quickly." I surmised, turning to face my siblings with a smile.
Kol and Klaus had apparently both settled on being impressed, while Rebekah looked less horrified and slightly more worried.
"This sudden urge to beat the living daylights out of Hayley doesn't happen to have anything to do with the fact that Elena could give birth any day now does it?" Rebekah asked, quirking an eyebrow.
I shrugged. "Perhaps, I just thought it best to relieve some tension and torturing the wretched woman in our basement seemed like the perfect solution." I quipped, turning to fill my cup when the coffee machine finished.
When my siblings didn't say anything in response, I took my coffee and left the room, perhaps a shower would leave enough time for Hayley to heal enough? The stench of werewolf was driving me insane.
"He's losing it." I heard Rebekah mutter. "Our brother has finally gone insane."
ooOoo
"Feeling better?" I asked, smirking at Hayley's groan as she came to.
"Elijah, please…"
"Please what?" I asked, spinning a blade lightly on the small table in the corner. "Please let you go? Please put you out of the misery that is your pathetic life?"
"Stop torturing me, please." She mumbled, gasping for breath ever so slightly. "Please."
"You don't deserve my mercy." I said, crouching beside her and forcing her head up to look at me. "You nearly tore my family apart. You nearly killed the child that Elena carries! I owe you nothing; you don't deserve a thing from me!"
A tear slipped down Hayley's cheek and she shook her head, bottom lip beginning to tremble. "Please."
I dropped her chin and moved away from her, ignoring the sound as she began to sob.
"I fell in love with you, you know." Hayley whispered, through her cries. "I really did. After…after I… I had hoped we might be together."
"Perhaps." I allowed, I had been rather enamoured with the brunette at first. "But any chance of that was destroyed when what you had done was revealed to us, Hayley."
"I'm sorry. Honestly I am, when I heard about your family, the lengths you all go to for each other, I thought I could exploit that and I did. But then I spent time with you all, nearly four months and I fell in love, and I realised that your family wasn't so bad."
"If this is some sort of ploy to receive a shred of mercy from me, then you're wasting your time." I snapped. "You seem to forget that I punish you not only for your transgressions against my siblings and I."
"I'm not forgetting." Hayley denied. "And this isn't some attempt at earning what little forgiveness I can. I just figured if you're gonna kill me you might as well know the truth about how I felt…how I still feel."
"Elijah!"
I looked towards the door at the sound of Kol's voice and glanced back at Hayley for a moment before blurring upstairs.
"Kol?" I asked, walking into the hall to see what my brother wanted.
"Elijah?" I heard Elena ask and turned to face her automatically. "What happened?"
"Elena? I thought you and Bonnie were staying at Caroline's?" I asked.
"I changed my mind." She said simply, eyes trained on my bloodied shirt. Despite my shower, I'd put on the same shirt from before, not wanting to ruin another one. "What happened?" She asked again, refusing to let me distract her.
"Hayley." I answered after a moment of debate.
"She's dead?" Elena asked, raising an eyebrow.
I shook my head slowly. "I wasn't expecting you to be home so soon." I said softly, stepping closer to hear slightly.
"So you decided to torture her?" She asked, frowning at me.
"I don't have to explain my actions to you, Elena."
"I wasn't asking you to." She said softly, her brow furrowed as she looked at me. "Why are you being so defensive?"
I let out a soft sigh. "I'm sorry. I just, I thought you'd be mad."
Elena shook her head slowly. "I guess I'm kinda mad you didn't tell me, but I can't begrudge you wanting to hurt her." She shrugged.
"Your opinion's changed a lot in the last couple of months." I noted, raising an eyebrow at her.
"I overreacted last time." Elena nodded. "Hormones." She shrugged slightly. "I get why you want to hurt her for what she did."
"And you're okay with it?"
Elena shrugged again. "Not really, but I don't wanna fight with you, Elijah."
I nodded slowly and we stood in silence for a few moments before I remembered that she hadn't answered my question.
"Why aren't you at Caroline's?"
Elena looked at the ground and I raised an eyebrow.
"I changed my mind." She shrugged, still not looking at me, and going to walk past me.
I gently took hold of her arm, keeping her from moving and frowned when she refused to look at me. "Elena? What happened?"
"It's nothing." She shrugged, her heart skipping a beat.
"I disagree." I said simply. "If you can't even look at me as you lie to me, it's obviously something."
I felt my frown deepen when I heard her sniffle slightly and smelt the beginnings of her tears.
"Elena, what happened?" I asked again, surprised when she turned and buried her face in my shoulder without a word.|
Kol reappeared in the hallway, Rebekah and Niklaus behind him. They all frowned at me and I shrugged slightly, running a hand through Elena's hair.
"I just figured I'd stop in the store and grab some cookies, I didn't think…" She trailed off, sniffling and I frowned.
"Elena, did someone say something to you?" I asked softly, already thinking of the various ways I could hurt whoever had upset Elena so much.
"Just that if my parents were still alive they would be so disappointed, and what was I thinking getting pregnant when I've only just left high school." She said, trying to sound nonchalant, but I could hear the tremors in her voice; hear the pitch raise slightly as she got more upset. "I grew up with these people! Where do they get off on making me feel bad?"
I swallowed the growl that tried to escape from my throat, running my fingers through Elena's hair both to offer her some comfort and to try and calm myself down so that I wouldn't go and slit the throats of every stupid person in this goddamn town. Rebekah caught my eye after a moment and raised an eyebrow at me.
I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly before nodding in response and watching as Rebekah relaxed at the action.
Elena's attempted composure cracked a moment later and she began sobbing into the crook of my neck, her hands clutching at my shoulders.
"Shh...it's okay. Elena, its okay." I murmured softly, turning my head to place a light kiss to the top of her head. She didn't seem to hear me, just kept crying into my shoulder.
"Kol," I said quietly after a moment, "can you call Caroline, and Miss Bennett if they're not already together, and let them know what happened?" Kol nodded immediately, taking his phone from his pocket. "I'm going to take Elena upstairs." All three of my siblings nodded that time and I moved to gently pick Elena up, cradling her in my arms easily despite the size of her stomach.
Her arms tightened around my neck, clinging to me as I carried her upstairs to our room. I could vaguely hear the sound of Kol trying to get Caroline to calm down over the phone as I opened the door to our bedroom.
"Why did they say that, Elijah?" Elena sobbed, holding on to me as I sat on the bed and carefully shifted to lie back, Elena nestled into my side. "How can people be so cruel?"
"I don't know." I admitted quietly, running my fingers through her hair.
ooOoo
"Caroline, darling, you need to calm down." I said, holding my phone slightly away from my ear as she continued to rant at a pitch that, quite frankly, hurt my ears.
"How the hell am I supposed to calm down, Kol?" Caroline screeched. "Elena said she would be here nearly a half hour ago!"
"Darling, if you would let me get a word in, I would tell you that Elena is here."
"She's what?" Caroline practically screamed, making me wince. "You didn't think to tell me this?"
"You didn't give me a chance, gorgeous. Elena got back here about ten minutes ago, apparently she decided to stop and buy some cookies for you guys, and one of the lesser people of this godforsaken town decided to have some…choice words with Elena. She's rather distraught at the moment."
"What did they say?" Caroline asked, her voice tight.
"Something about her parents being disappointed in her if they were still alive and something about wondering what the hell she was thinking getting pregnant at her age." I explained softly, listening as Caroline sucked in a harsh breath and hearing the soft murmur of her repeating to Bonnie what I had just said.
"Is there anything you want us to do? Do you want us to come over or…"
"She's with Elijah." I confirmed softly, knowing that this would reassure Caroline at the least, and quite possibly Bonnie, I think our family was finally starting to grow on her.
"Let us know if you need anything from us." Caroline said quietly.
"I will." I said, glancing at Rebekah when she walked into the lounge.
"And, Kol?"
"Yes, darling?"
"Thank you." She said sincerely, hanging up a moment later.
"You're welcome." I murmured to myself, locking my phone and putting it in my pocket.
"What's up with you two?" Rebekah asked, lounging in the armchair with her legs over the side.
"What do you mean?" I asked innocently, taking a drink from the corner of the room.
"Oh, come on, Kol!" Rebekah laughed. "Just admit that you like the girl!"
"I don't know what you're talking about." I denied, making her laugh again.
"Kol!" The desperate cry–no, scream of my name had Rebekah and I freezing for a split second before we sped up to Elijah and Elena's room.
Elena was curled up in Elijah's arms, clutching at her stomach in agony. Elijah looked up at us, eyes wide and panicked just as Klaus appeared in the doorway behind us.
"Get Pamela, and someone call Meredith Fell, something's wrong."
ooOoo
A/N: I know this is a bit of a shorter chapter, but I felt like this was the place to end it. This story is quickly drawing to a close, probably only two or three more chapters to go! And I'm pretty excited to write them up, especially seeing as I actually have a plan worked out for once!
By the way, if it wasn't clear, this last bit was from Kol's POV and the rest was all Elijah!
Please review and tell me what you think and what you hope happens! Or even review just to yell at me for the cliffy, I love hearing from you guys!