Grace was beyond exhausted when she arrived home this day. Fortunately, the hybrid bite had completely healed, but the conversation with Nik left her torn. She was mad at him, seriously mad for daggering Rebekah, killing Carol and thinking that low of his own brother. But on the other hand, he was so caring and protective towards her that it made her heart melt.
Still, she fell asleep in her torn dress, not even noticing that Elijah joined her shortly after. The thoughts only came back when she woke, held tightly by her love. Sunlight was already shining brightly into the bedroom.
"Have I missed any more deaths while I slept?"
She groaned, burying her face in his clothed chest. He must've been up already, his shirt smelled freshly washed. Elijah's fingers lightly combed her straight hair.
"No, but a new mayor was found. Bonnie Bennetts' father. I hope that won't be a problem. A service is being held at the school's gym, where he'll be introduced."
Grace looked up again, finding him staring out of the window deep in thought.
"I really tried. I begged him to let Carol live. But he did it anyway."
Sighing, she interlaced their fingers.
"That's what my brother does, Grace. I have seen him spiraling like that a hundred times now, but I'm truly ashamed that you had to experience it that way. It's my task to protect you, even from him and I failed."
His eyes darkened and Grace immediately sat up with a frown. Sometimes he just let himself sink into that darkness when he thought that he did something wrong. Did he really think that low of himself? It would be a long way for Grace to help him out of that self loathing.
"No, Elijah, I'm a grown woman. I can make my own decisions. I can handle this, really. Maybe I do seem quite fragile, but I got quite the thick skull."
She smiled lightly, to which Elijah cupped her cheeks with his hand.
"You're the strongest person I ever met, Miss Gilbert."
His words touched her deeply and made her heart clench in a delicate way. Grace leaned down and kissed him longingly.
"I need to shower...wanna join?"
She mumbled while grinning mischievously. The Original vampire didn't waste a second and sped to the bathroom carrying her. He helped her out of the ripped dress, while Grace undid the buttons of his shirt. Undressing always had something elegant, teasing with him, but now they were quite in a rush. Their lips never parted when he led her to the shower, Grace desperately awaiting the feeling of the warm water rinsing all the dirt and blood down from her body, while she could still touch Elijah's skin.
But when he turned on the handle, there was no amazing feeling of warm water on her skin. Just pure pain as if the water was acid. It probably was, but in the form of vervain. Grace knew what kind of damage this wretched plant left. She let out a scream of surprise as her usually fair skin literally etched away. Fortunately, Elijah was more resilient and was quick enough to rush them both out from under the water. They crashed into the opposite wall, quickly grabbing towels to get rid of the vervain water.
"What the hell..."
Grace said in panic as she watched the wounds on her arms slowly close. When she looked up, she saw that Elijah's handsome face was full of terrible burn wounds, but they were healing more quickly than hers.
"Someone must've put vervain in the water system..."
His eyes scanned the still running shower and he quickly reached over to turn off the handle, burning his forearm with it.
"Well, that's what I call a massive turn off."
She said through gritted teeth, while she wrapped a fresh towel around her bare body. Her skin has healed, but it was still bright red. The Originals had hell of an advantage with healing more quickly.
"My worries about the new mayor seemed to have approved. It's clever, about also a desperate call for Niklaus to kill all the locals."
Sighing, he shook his head. How much Grace hated this town. It only grew day by day. There never would be any true peace here, not if the humans tried stunts like this.
"Lake house. Now."
The young vampire walked over to the dressing room and put some clothes on. Her anger added up to new dimensions and she was just sick of Mystic Falls.
"Your brother and Damon are there. I don't think you're safe under one roof with a vampire hunter."
Grace didn't bother looking up and already grabbed some clothes to take with her.
"You're there protecting me. Anyways, I need to learn how to fight. A hybrid and both my siblings can take me out way too easily. I don't trust Damon with helping Jeremy train properly. You're the best teacher I can imagine and Jer will be a good partner."
Elijah just lifted his brows, but handed her a bag to store the clothes in.
"No, I honestly just want to get out of this crap town again. Come on, I'm also sick of Nik and Rebekah's bickering, they'll survive some more days without us."
Chuckling, he took some suits out of the wardrobe and handed them to her.
"I seriously doubt that."
...
Grace looked out of the car's window as the landscape flew by. When she spared a short look at Elijah, she noticed that they were about to pass a place that made Grace's world shift on its axis.
"Can you stop for a minute? I want to show you something."
The Original looked confused, but fulfilled her wish. The huge car stopped on the side of the road and Grace hopped out of it, followed by Elijah shortly after. She had never visited this place after the tragic event that happened here. Grace simply couldn't.
Walking up to the tree line, she found what she was looking for. A small, wooden cross, partly taken back by nature by now. Weeds and plants were covering the ground around it, making it fit perfectly into the surrounding woods, as if it belonged here.
"We never really had the exes-talk...here's mine."
Elijah's lips parted in surprise as he looked down to the small memorial. The name 'Jean' was carved into the weather worn wood. His eyes adverted to Grace, whose eyes were clouded. She was revealing a lot by doing this and Elijah's own, hidden pain creeped up. He wasn't sure what to do. At this moment she looked so fragile that he was afraid to break her.
"He's the reason why I can't say it to you, Elijah. Why I can't express my feelings in those three words that I so want to say, but I'm afraid to."
The color of his dark eyes literally melted right in front of her and he pulled her closer to him, knowing that she needed his comfort. They both stared down onto the memorial now, but Elijah stood in silence because he knew that she would continue talking if she wanted to.
"I was in the lake house with my parents, you know, they hated him. Of course. He was way too old and it caused this big fight with Jenna. But then, suddenly, my parents allowed him to join me there when they and my siblings left back for home. I called him and for the first time ever he said that he loved me. Then he went on his way. Two hours later my mum called me and told me that he died in a car accident. Crashed into a tree. Isn't this ridiculous?"
She shook her head as a tear escaped her eye. Elijah stroked it away with his thumb. Never before had she shown that much trust in him. They never had talked about it and for Grace this must be something she had locked away years ago.
"Did you love him?"
It should've been uncomfortable, but it wasn't. The were closer than ever. She just admitted that she loved him deeply, they never had been more sure of their feelings for each other.
"I thought so. At this point of my life I was very naive, I mean, I was sixteen, and I simply depended on him. I needed him like a drug, he could do everything he want to me. He never hurt me physically or something...but it was mentally abusive. Jean used me, I was more of a project to him. He wanted to break my will. But I didn't see that. So no, I didn't really love him. It's not comparable to what I feel for you. I could live without you...it just wouldn't make that much sense."
Smiling, she squeezed his hand. Elijah tensed a bit when he heard what she had lived through in this relationship. Grace had experienced a lot of violence since she belonged to him, too, and he would never forgive himself for the countless enemies that were now threatening her life, but never would he hurt her this way.
"You know, what's funny? The sacrifice took place in this woods, you remember? The girl that was stupid enough to let herself be taken advantage of died here. I may be not properly sane and I think my degree of paranoia and fear is quite disorderly, but I left it all behind. Still, I'm afraid of telling you that I love you, because I fear that you'll disappear out of my live afterwards. Isn't this ridiculous?"
Elijah shook his head and felt all the darkness having a tight hold on his undead heart. It was his time to trust her. To tell her that she wasn't ridiculous. That they again were so similar.
"It isn't, Grace. I feel the same. Over my thousand years of lifetime, before I met you, I experienced love twice. The first time I was still human...The second time it destroyed me. To both women I said 'I love you' and they were taken from me shortly after. I swore to myself that I would never love again. My whole existence told me that I don't deserve it. But then you decided to come into my life. You made me break that vow."
Warmth flooded Grace's body and she leaned her head on his shoulder. She had been afraid to tell Elijah about this dark chapter of her life, but now she saw that it was the best decision. They were mutually dysfunctional in expressing their feelings, but now they both knew why. Grace understood how much it took of him to tell her about the women he lost. He lived for a thousand years, he survived so much, but experience seeing someone he loved die made his heart turn to stone. When he thought that Grace died it was even worse, because she had made his dead heart turn back to live again. It felt like it was ripped out of his chest when she died in his arms. Which made it all the more reason to protect her. He wouldn't survive loosing her.
"Maybe it's a curse placed on us. Maybe that's why we're perfect for each other."
She whispered and simply allowed herself to enjoy his presence.
"You aren't cursed. You also aren't a curse placed on me. Grace, you're too pure to ever be something aside from my redemption. What I'm questioning myself is if I deserve it. Be sure that I desire it above all."
His fingers lifted her chin and their lips brushed the slightest. So many emotions passed between them in this moment.
"You do deserve it. We both do."
Grace took one last glance at Jean's memorial before she joined Elijah in walking back to the car. It was actually quite ironic that her first boyfriend brought her even closer to the man she loved. Jean was probably cursing violently from wherever he was. The thought made Grace smile. Even though it was such a sensitive topic for both Elijah and Grace they found trust in each other and it made them feel like nothing could stand in their way from now on.
