Once Klaus arrived into town, there was hardly a moment of calm, a moment where Elena and Elijah could steal a moment away. So one evening when Klaus decided to take Stefan out to Richmond for a drink, 'for old times' sake,' Elena grabbed Elijah by his tie and led him up stairs to his room.

"Elena." Elijah's brows furrowed when she closed the door behind them.

"Shh. I've missed you." Elena kissed him and pushed him towards the bed.

Once they were settled on the mattress, he cradled her cheek gently, his fingertips tracing her cheekbones, attempting to keep things tame. This time though, instead of letting him take the lead, Elena undid his tie, tossing it over her shoulder.

Seeming content to let thing go where they would for the moment, Elijah carded his fingers through her locks, sighing against her lips. Taking advantage of his parted lips, Elena slid her tongue into as she undid the buttons of his shirt.

"We can't, Elena. We can't." Even as the words left his mouth, he allowed Elena to remove his jacket.

"I want to feel you." Elena shoved his sleeves down his arms, exposing his broad chest to her wandering, greedy fingers. "Please." Her mouth moved to his throat and she nipped at his jugular lightly with her teeth. "Please."

Unable to withstand her pleas coupled with her teeth on his neck, Elijah tugged her t-shirt over her head, allowing them to take things further than they ever had before. With a smirk at his surrender, Elena ran her hands down his chest, her fingers swirling around his nipples, drawing a soft growl from his lips, and he flipped them over so that he was on top in response.

Now that he was the one in control of their actions, he pinned her hands to the bed above her head, his kisses almost savage in his desperation to release the tension that had been building for so long.

This warrior queen who'd captured his attention and his heart when she came to him for help now lay in his bed, aching for him as much as he did for her. So many centuries for him, and an actual lifetime for her, brought them to this moment and if he hadn't believed in soulmates before, he did now.

"Elijah," Elena sighed when he kissed a trail from her mouth to her neck before finally settling on her clavicle.

"I love you," his lips brushed against her skin with every syllable. "I love you, Elena Gilbert."

"I love you, Elijah."

She attempted to free her hands so she could touch his face, but he wasn't having it, so she settled for sliding her legs up his thighs, cradling his hips between them. When he pressed himself against her, Elena moaned at the feel of his arousal so close to where she needed him. If only she was eighteen already, because she ached to have him inside her, now. As if reading her thoughts, Elijah rocked against her, making her gasp against his lips.

Just then, the bedroom door opened and they both turned towards the sound to find Ryan standing there, his face white and eyes wide as if he was struggling to comprehend what he was seeing.

"Sorry." He shut the door quickly.

"Well, that wasn't exactly how I wanted this to go," Elena sighed as she disentangled herself from Elijah.

"There's nothing quite like getting interrupted by your children, is there?" Elijah sighed. "Though it's probably a good thing, this time, since we do have a promise to keep to your aunt."

"Good for us, not for him. He's been through too much without proper support and this won't help." Elena picked her shirt up off the floor and pulled it over her head.

"Of course. Perhaps you'd better talk to him."

"I'm headed out there now."

Her poor boy. After the trauma he had experienced in regards to sex and Malivore's callousness towards him and it, walking in on them just now probably wasn't doing him any favors and she needed to make sure he didn't get lost in a dark head space.

With the aid of a simple tracking spell, she found Ryan sitting on the edge of the fountain, his head down, elbows braced on his knee, and dark curls obscuring part of his face. As she got closer, Elena saw that he was gasping for breath.

"Ryan?" Elena approached him slowly, then sat down a few inches away. "Ryan, sweetheart, talk to me."

"It's stupid."

"It's not stupid. We should have locked the door or something so you didn't have to see that."

"Right," Ryan spat. "Gotta protect me from-"

"Stop, right there, Ryan Gilbert-Clarke. You're not allowed to talk about yourself like that."

"You don't know what I was going to say," Ryan defended.

"That tone of voice though, it made me think you were going to say something nasty about yourself."

"Well, I am weak, so I deserve it."

"You are not weak."

"Then why did I feel disgusted, seeing the two of you like that?"

Slowly, Elena reached out and placed her hand on his knee as she said, "Because you're my son, and any child, no matter how old they are, gets disturbed at catching their parents in very intimate moments. So, feeling that way is normal."

"It actually is normal to feel grossed out?" Ryan finally raised his head to look at her, confused now.

"I remember when I was younger and whenever I caught my parents kissing, it made me pretend to puke. Yeah, I was happy that they were happy together, but it still didn't make me want to see it, and honestly, I'd still get uncomfortable if they were standing in front of me right now making out."

"I thought I felt that way because of how I feel about, you know, everything like that in general."

"No, sweetheart." Elena draped her arm across his back and rested her cheek against his shoulder. "Some of it might have gotten twisted up in there, sure, but for the most part, your reaction was perfectly normal and understandable."

Ryan sighed, then looked up at her from under his lashes. "Why is everything hitting me so hard?"

"Were you expected to be a man from the moment he gave you life?"

"I'm in a man's body, so what else am I supposed to be?"

"Having the body of a man doesn't automatically make you one. Your brain was still that of a child and now that you're safe and free to express yourself, all those suppressed childish impulses and feelings are making themselves known."

"So, I really am a kid."

"And I want you to let yourself be one. Let yourself think and feel and be. Let yourself grow up properly and don't judge yourself for needing to do this."

"I really couldn't have asked for a better mother." Ryan leaned his head over so that his cheek rested against the top of her hair.

"I swear, when I get my hands on the one who created you, I am going to do more than just kill him. I'm gonna make him pay for making you feel like perfectly normal human reactions to things made you weak."

"Get in line."

"I'm your mother. It's my job to protect you." Elena brushed her fingers through his curls.

Her beautiful, broken boy. Since it was her blood that gave him life, much like with a vampire, if she were to die, it would kill him too. With that knowledge, the loss of heaven didn't seem so terrible. Of course, she'd like to return one day, but not for a very long time, at least until the idea of her death meant his as well no longer felt selfish. He deserved to live life to the fullest, to have everything she could ever want for him, but for that to happen, she would have to stay alive.

As she mulled over the choices before her, she realized something. Maybe becoming a vampire wasn't such a bad thing after all, with the right sort of life already in place before transitioning. She'd have Elijah and Ryan, and whatever children she might have once she went through with in vitro. Being a vampire didn't mean she couldn't go to medical school or whatever else she might want to do this time around. Her life could be just as full, if not more so, as a vampire than as a human witch.

Yes, she'd miss the magic once she turned, but why would she need all this power once she'd destroyed the things that wrecked Hope's life? Why would she need to be a witch after those wars were won? They were the reason she'd been given magic in the first place, so it only seemed right to give it up after they were defeated.

"I wonder what sort of life I would have had if you were my mother from the start," Ryan's voice cut through her musings.

"It would have been much better than what you lived before I found you, I promise you that." In an effort to keep him from sinking any further into the thoughts clouding up his mind now, Elena asked, "What did you need anyway?"

"I was just wondering if I could borrow some car keys so I could go into town. Jeremy said something about meeting at The Grill for a few rounds of pool."

"That's something we'll need to discuss later, getting you a car of your own so you don't have to keep borrowing keys from people." Elena stood up. "Come on. I'll drive you. I think it'd be better if I left for a while anyway."

"Because you're not eighteen yet and clearly need a chaperon to make sure you behave." Ryan's lips curled into a teasing smirk as he unfolded himself from the bench to tower over her.

"Shut up." Elena elbowed him lightly. "Don't you dare tell Aunt Jenna about this."

"I'd sooner forget that I ever saw it, so don't worry. My lips are sealed." Ryan's face scrunched up. "I'll just have to get into the habit of knocking, won't I?"

"That would probably be for the best."

After sending a text to Elijah, telling him where she was going, Elena led the way out to her car.

"How long will it take for my mental age to catch up to my body's age?" Ryan asked after a long moment of silence.

"Everyone ages differently, so I'd say just take it one day at a time and don't rush yourself or feel like you have to be at a point by a set time. Even people who haven't been what you have can take longer to mature than others."

"So, just go with the flow and let myself be?"

"Pretty much."

Ryan shook his head slowly. "I was hoping to be able to plan around this, but I guess not."

"Growing up isn't something you can plan around very well, even for human children. You can make guesses, but at the end of the day, just let yourself be and you'll find that life works better that way."

"Once thing I've been meaning to ask, but it never seemed like the right time."

"Go ahead."

"Do we need anyone else to take down Malivore?"

"No. If we were to bring anyone else in, they would be non-essential and simply get in the way."

"I suppose once the curse is lifted, I'll be needing to head out and search for the keys."

"Triad will have most of them."

"So, I find anything I remember being used in the spell that dissolved Malivore and bring them to you."

"That should work. Then, I'll figure out which ones contain black magic and we'll go from there."

They pulled into The Grill by this point and exited the car together.

When they entered the building, Elena was surprised to see Damon and Alaric sitting at the bar together. Though why she would be surprised, she wasn't sure. They'd been pretty tight last time around too. Maybe she wasn't as instrumental in keeping them together as she'd first believed.

Looks like Caroline was wrong about one thing. It's not always about me.

As she made her way over to where Matt was polishing glasses, another thought struck her. What was Alaric doing here? Last she heard he and Jenna had a thing planned for tonight? She'd definitely have to talk to her aunt about that when she got home.

Hayley gave a small wave from where she was sitting across from Tyler. Judging by their body language, their conversation seemed intense, because once Hayley acknowledged her, she turned back to Tyler, her brows furrowing.

"Elena!" Matt grinned when he saw her.

"How's it going?" Elena asked, sliding into the bar stool across from him.

"Vicky's doing great. Her sponsor and I have had some intense conversations about, you know, everything, including what really happened to her. That took some time to work through." Matt pulled a face and shook his head.

"So you know… everything?"

"Yeah, about you, Bonnie, Caroline, and everyone else."

"How are you?" Elena caught his eye.

"You know, you're the first person to ask me that." Matt braced his hands on the counter. "I'll let you know when I figure it out."

"If you need to talk about it all, you can always come to me, you know that."

"Yeah, thank you, Elena. For everything you've done."

"You're my friend. It's what friends do for each other."

Matt relaxed more and then the conversation flowed. This was was where they were meant to be, best friends, with few secrets between them. Yes, there were things she wouldn't tell him, but those were things he didn't need to suffer through since that life would never happen to him. And with that, another piece of the puzzle in her head slotted into place.