Elena knelt in front of the toilet as her stomach rebelled. Morning sicknesses seemed to be upon her with a vengeance. But if being sick more than she had in her other life was the price she had to pay to get her children back, she would pay it.
Gentle hands smoothing her hair out of her face had her groaning.
"You don't need to see me like this." She attempted to push Elijah away.
"You're my fiance and you're carrying my children." Elijah handed her a glass of water as he spoke.
Elena took it gratefully and rinsed out her mouth, but the terrible aftertaste still remained, so she brushed her teeth quickly.
As she spat out the last of the toothpaste, she felt instantly better.
"I love you," Elijah murmured.
"I love you too." Elena wrapped her arm around his waist and gave him a small hug. "What time is it?"
"Just after six."
"Matt said he'd bring Vickie here before the sun got too high for her to be out, so I'd better get dressed."
"Are you sure you can do it?" His brows furrowed in worry.
"I promise, it's just normal morning sickness. I'm fine now." Elena patted his arm and stepped back.
Elijah tilted his head, listening to something.
"They're here," he said finally.
"Okay. Let me get dressed."
"I'll see you downstairs." Elijah kissed her temple, then left her alone.
Elena dressed quickly, not wanting her friend and his sister to wait any longer than they had to.
When she came down the stairs, Matt greeted her with a smile.
"Hey, Elena."
"Hi, Matt, Vickie."
"I have the ring here." Vickie pulled a small box out of her pocket. "Took me a while, but I finally found one I can see myself wearing for the rest of my life."
"May I?" Elena held out her hand and Vickie gave her the box.
She walked over to the window and opened the curtain, where the early morning sunlight was starting to stream through. Setting the ring down on the accent table beneath the window, she waited for the sun.
As the sunlight touched the ring, Elena whispered the spell that would protect Vickie.
Vickie shifted behind her.
"Easy, Vic," Matt murmured.
"I'm just excited."
"It's ready." Elena picked up the ring and handed it to Vickie.
"Now I can feel more normal." she smiled, examining the ring that would allow her to live the life she wanted. "I promise, Elena, I will not abuse this."
"I know. I trust you."
It was hard to believe that the controlled, happy young vampire standing in front of her was the same one who'd so nearly killed Jeremy what felt like a lifetime ago. This was who she could have been in that other life, if she'd been given a chance.
"Thank you." Matt hugged Elena tightly.
Elena rubbed his back and laughed softly. "You're welcome. Now go. Enjoy the sun."
Matt nodded and then wrapped his arm around Vickie's shoulders.
"So, what do you want to do?"
"Let's just walk around town for a while. I've missed seeing it in the daylight." Vickie said, leading her brother towards the door.
Elena's heart twisted as she watched them go. It was amazing, seeing this girl whose life had been cut so short in her other life, carving out an existence for herself, and being there for Matt in a way that she hadn't been able to be there for him.
"You're crying." Elijah brushed her tears away.
"Because I'm happy." Elena smiled and pressed her lips to his palm. "Matt and Vickie, they've been through so much, and after everything she's done to be able come back into his life without endangering him, now they get a chance to find a new normal."
"They're able to have this because of you."
"No. They're having this chance because the Spirits of Nature decided that I had to fix what I did wrong."
"Still because of you. Because you want to protect the people around you from what you witnessed." Elijah kissed her temple and pulled her closer to him.
Elena tucked her head under his chin.
Moments like this were going to be rare once they went to New Orleans, just the two of them, holding each other, with nothing to worry about for the moment, so she relished it. His arms wrapped more tightly around her and she sighed, content.
That evening, Bonnie, Caroline, and Elena sat in The Grill with a basket of fries in the middle of them. It felt like old times, just the three of them, talking about their lives, even though they'd changed so much since they'd last been able to do this.
"So, New Orleans," Bonnie said after a while.
"Hayley's family is from there so we're going to try to help her find them," Elena replied.
"Vampire central." Caroline was doing a poor job of hiding her excitement.
The Mikaelsons had been telling Caroline all about the city and she could hardly wait to see it for herself.
"Which means it's not safe for werewolves at all, especially a Labonair, and the New Orleans witches are completely crazy right now," Elena added.
"And Ryan will be there to help keep you safe," Bonnie confirmed, more for her own sake than to actually need to say anything about it.
"Yes."
"Good. I was worried when I heard you were going down there. But having him along, it makes me feel better." Bonnie grinned.
"As if Ryan or Elijah would be happy with me going down there without someone to protect me. Elijah wants to go, but right now, New Orleans is a powder keg and an Original showing up without some inroads being made, it could set it off."
"He's gonna be a wreck until he can be with you again," Caroline commented.
"I'll do my best to be there for him," Bonnie promised. "Okay, now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about more important things, like our boyfriends, or fiance, in Elena's case."
"Oh, my god, we haven't had a chance to talk about boys in so long!" Caroline sat up, blue eyes sparkling.
"You're getting into a relationship where you're going to end up being a step-mother. Are you ready for that?" Elena grinned.
Klaus and Caroline were exploring this strange situation they found themselves in, falling for each other and exploring the possibilities of a relationship together while he prepared to be a father with another woman.
"You know what? I think I am. Hayley's determined to properly co-parent with Klaus, and I think I could get along with her, as long as I don't try to replace her in the baby's life. She's the girl's mother, so there's no way I'm going to try to take that away from her."
"She might be going to find her family, but from what I remember, her parents are dead and she doesn't have any siblings, so she'll still need a good support system on our end." Elena picked up a fry and popped it into her mouth.
"Hopefully, her pack will accept her and be what she needs from them. Will they?" Caroline raised an eyebrow in Elena's direction.
"I believe so. She's a wolf and she's coming home. And with us there, we'll see to it that she goes home to a safe place." She didn't have much first hand knowledge of what happened with Hayley once she went to New Orleans, but that sense of knowing told her enough to not be worried about Hayley's reception by her pack.
Hope deserved to be born into a world where the city was mostly at peace, surrounded by her entire family. Even though she would never experience the other life, Elena felt that she owed it to the tribrid to make sure she never knew the hell that she'd experienced in the other life, because of the dominoes that Elena herself had set off with some of her decisions.
Elena tried to picture Hope with the twins. Her daughter would probably look very much the same since she resembled Elena so much, but her son was harder to picture. She hoped that the three of them would be best friends and that Hope didn't feel like 'the tribrid freak' having cousins with similar parentage.
"Klaus is terrified," Caroline's voice drew Elena out of her thoughts, "but I've promised him that no matter what, I'll be there beside him, whether as a friend or girlfriend or whatever."
"Becoming a parent is the most terrifying thing a person can do," Elena remarked, her hand going to her belly where Elijah's children grew inside her.
"And he's falling in love with someone while going through that, so he's juggling a lot," Bonnie added.
They went silent for a moment while the waitress set their respective meals in front of them.
Elena's stomach growled and Bonnie shot her an amused glance.
"What can I say?" Elena rubbed her belly again. She wasn't showing yet, so the waitress wouldn't realize what she was silently referring to.
Once the waitress was gone, Caroline sighed.
"I want to be a good girlfriend, and it helps to be able to talk it out. I've been stressing about it so much."
"Bottling it up won't help anyone, and it could make you bitter about the situation, so we'll listen and help in any way we can," Elena assured her.
She took a bite of her burger, chewing quickly. Carrying twins definitely affected her appetite, making her need to eat more.
"Thank you."
"He's different with you, softer, gentler," Elena mused, wiping her lips with a napkin.
"It's not just me." Caroline shook her head, her blonde curls bouncing. "It's the fact that he's finally starting to feel accepted by his family. Not to say that he still doesn't have his moments, but he's been getting better."
"You are good for him though. He wouldn't be nearly so far along on his journey towards becoming the man he would have been if Mikael hadn't destroyed him without you."
If only she'd listened more closely to Elijah the first time around, maybe things would have been so very different. She shook her head to dislodge her thoughts. There was no use bemoaning the way things had been in her other life, not when so much had already changed.
"So, Bonnie, how are things going with Enzo?" Caroline asked suddenly, clearly not ready to have a deeper discussion about Klaus yet.
"They're going really well." Bonnie's entire face lit up. "I didn't think it was possible to feel this way about someone. I think I'm actually in love with him, kinda like how you feel about Elijah, Elena. Except maybe not quite that intense, but still, it's incredible."
"Love is love." Elena shrugged. "No two people are alike, which means no two relationships are alike, so it's comparing apples to oranges, in my opinion."
"Very true."
A boy in an out of town letterman jacket made a good shot at the pool table and his teammate cheered loudly while their opponents booed, drawing the girls' attention for a moment. The boy who just made the shot winked at them and Elena rolled her eyes.
"As long as you're cared for and you feel fulfilled with what you have with him, just let yourself be happy."
"Elena the mom friend strikes again with words of wisdom we all needed to hear," Caroline teased, but the sheen in her eyes revealed what she was really feeling.
"I just want y'all to be happy."
"Giving advice, but letting us make our own decisions is the best thing you can do for us, and what you've been doing," Caroline said.
Hayley and Tyler walked in, taking a booth across the restaurant. Hayley waved a little when she saw them and the three returned the gesture.
"The two of you are making plans to live in New Orleans and I'm not leaving Grams, so you'd better come back to visit me," Bonnie sighed. Seeing Hayley in person reminded Bonnie that they were soon going their separate ways.
"And you'd better visit us too."
"As if I'd miss out on the opportunity to see supernatural central, and with tour guides who know what's what." Bonnie smiled widely. "With Mom coming around more, I'll be able to visit y'all more often."
"How are things with her?" Caroline asked. With their now shared experiences with their mothers, they'd grown closer.
"Better. We're working on trying to do that thing so we can help Freya and we're actually growing closer."
"That's great."
"How about you?"
"He's finally worked through the whole 'not all vampires are bad' thing and she's acting like my mom again."
"Oh, Caroline! I'm so happy for you!" Elena reached across the table and squeezed her hand.
"My dad and I still have a long ways to go, but considering my mom fully accepts me and loves me and tells me how proud she is of me for becoming the sort of woman she knew I could be, it makes it easier. I can wait on my dad. I mean, I have forever."
"Hey."
Elena looked up to find the pool table boy standing at her elbow.
"I saw you watching me."
"You were being loud. Kinda hard to ignore that." Elena pursed her lips, completely irritated.
"Why don't you join me?"
"Why don't you leave me alone?" Elena raised her left hand, playing with her engagement ring.
"That's some nice bling."
"Thanks. My fiance gave it to me."
"You're too young to be engaged. You should date around. Have fun"
"Maybe I don't want to."
"Teen marriages never last."
"Then it's a good thing he's not a teenager. Now, leave me alone," Elena snapped.
"Hey, Pete." Tyler tapped him on the shoulder. "Elena doesn't want your attention. And believe me, her fiance isn't someone you want to piss off. So, walk away."
"What are you going to do about it, Lockwood?" Pete attempted to push his chest against Tyler.
Tyler didn't so much as move as a soft growl ripped from between the hybrid's teeth and Pete took a step back, his eyes going wide with fear.
"Walk. Away," Tyler snarled.
Pete glanced at Elena and she raised an eyebrow. Completely deflated, Pete slunk back to his friends and they started laughing at him.
"Thanks, Tyler."
"Anytime." He looked at the floor.
"What's wrong?" Elena asked, suddenly concerned.
"You're taking Hayley to New Orleans." He stuck his hands into his back pockets and chewed on one cheek.
"Yes."
"I'd ask to go along, but not sure that her pack would like a hybrid showing up. It'll be hard enough with her pregnant by the Original hybrid and I don't want to make things worse for her." Tyler winced at whatever thoughts were going through his head.
"We'll make sure she's taken care of, Tyler. Between me, Elena, and Ryan, Hayley will be protected," Caroline promised.
"Good. She's been a great friend and it sucks that I can't return that favor."
"Knowing that she's got an ally in you is more than enough right now, considering that your presence could start a fight."
"If she needs anything, and I can be there, I will be." Inclining his head, Tyler returned to his table.
"We are about to head into a war zone," Caroline whispered.
"We really are."
