(The Stars Were Brightly Shining)
by adlyb
Disclaimer: I own nothing except these words.
Summary: After a one night stand with Klaus, Elena discovers she's not going to be alone for Christmas after all.
Spoilers: Seasons 3 & 4
Rating: R
Warnings: canon typical violence/ teen pregnancy / angst angst angst and Christmas
She takes a few minutes to brush her teeth and wash her sweaty, tear-tracked face and neck before heading downstairs. To compose herself in front of the mirror.
Esther had called her innocent.
Once, she had been.
The grief for that girl, who had had a loving mother, who had been trusting and warm, had rammed into her full force when Esther had attempted to persuade her to trust her.
Now, she knows what Esther does to women with a face like hers.
Knows what it means that Esther had been unable to cross the threshold of Bonnie's spell. Esther may be genuine about not wanting to harm the baby—Elena really does believe that about her—but she'd been lying about what would happen to her.
All too clearly she can imagine what that woman would do if she were to be stupid enough to go to her—she'd kidnap her and watch over her and make it seem like everything is bright and wonderful between them, and as soon as she gives birth, she'd slit her throat. Probably drain her body of blood while she's at it.
She'd murder her, and then she'd take the baby for her own.
So, Elena had let herself cry, because the lie Esther had spun for her had been so pretty.
And because… that soft, safe place… that home… she does want that.
More than anything.
"Guys," she calls, trotting down the stairs, "I've got news—I know what Esther wants with me."
Everyone pauses for just a moment. Matt and Tyler have joined the group, and are busy bickering over Jeremy's Xbox controller.
Gang's all here.
Great.
Before she can continue, Tyler breaks away from Matt for long enough to announce, "I think we ran into that Hunter guy you warned us about."
The news stalls her.
At her silence, Tyler plunges onward. "You said his name's Connor, right? Big, athletic guy, looks like an ex-Navy SEAL? He shook my hand at the Grill—turns out he was wearing vervain gloves. Who does that?"
"You're okay though?"
Tyler shrugs. "Yeah, Matt bashed him over the head with a barstool while I made my escape." He pauses. "Unclear if he still has a job."
Matt punches Tyler in the arm. "If I don't, then you're compelling my boss to change his mind."
"Anyway, that's why we're here—we figured we were all better off playing our odds if we stick together."
"Wait," Caroline interrupts, turning to Elena. "What were you saying about Esther when you came downstairs?"
Quickly, Elena fills them all in on her dream-visit as she heads for the front door.
Peripherally, she notes that the debris has all been swept up while she napped. The whole living room is supernaturally spotless. Even the tree looks full again. She'll have to remember to thank Caroline and Bonnie.
"So Esther thinks you're eager to capitulate," Damon says, heeling her all the way.
The group trails after them.
"What's the play?" he presses, wrapping a hand around her wrist and pausing her at the door. "Don't you dare volunteer as bait."
Elena rolls her eyes. "Obviously not. But—maybe we can steal the cloaking spell idea?" She looks over her shoulder to address the question to Bonnie.
Bonnie nods. "I'll work on it."
"So why are you storming out the door?" Damon prods.
Elena plucks his hand off of her. "I'm not. But—it's time to parlay with Klaus."
"Uh, wouldn't it be better to call him rather than go out there with a target on your back?" Matt asks.
Elena frowns. "What do you mean? He's been brooding out front for hours."
"He's not out there," Tyler informs her.
Elena flings the door open. "What? That doesn't make sense—" She darts onto the porch before Damon or Stefan even realize what she's going to do. Half-expects Klaus to materialize out of thin air and grab her.
Nothing happens.
"Did he say anything?" she demands, whirling on the others as they join her on the porch.
"Because Klaus is such a clear and open communicator," Stefan drawls.
Behind him, Bonnie rubs at her temples. "It reeks of magic out here," she mumbles, distracted.
I have ways to turn my son's attention. Your path will be clear.
"Esther did this," Elena realizes.
Somehow, Esther had drawn him away. Had distracted him.
She scrubs her fingers through her hair, thoughts furiously churning. He'd been determined to wait her out—had made it absolutely, abundantly clear that he would wait here until he could change her mind or nab her, that he had no interest in going after his mother instead—why would he leave after just a few hours?
She tries to get inside his head. What could have speared his interest enough that he would disappear on her? Enough that he would leave his child unguarded? What could he be gambling on?
"Guys," Bonnie calls, her voice trembling. "I feel—weird—I feel—" She swallows rapid, shallow breaths, her chest barely rising and falling as she clutches at the amulet around her throat. "Esther's calling for me."
Stefan and Caroline guide Bonnie back inside, Matt following behind, leaving Elena on the porch with Damon.
"We should head back inside too," he suggests. "You're a sitting duck out here."
She stares inside, watching as Matt helps Bonnie down onto the sofa and Caroline hovers over her.
There's something very, very wrong here.
Klaus hadn't been distracted.
He'd been ensnared.
And all the while, she'd been upstairs, asleep and oblivious.
"All the pieces are moving into place," Elena says, feeling like there is a great weight pressing down on her chest, seizing all of the air from her lungs. "Somehow, Esther lured Klaus away, or took him by force—and she's going to kill him."
Damon holds his hands up in the time-out gesture. "Slow down, what's the problem?"
Elena barrels past him to stand amongst the group. "You all see it, right? The Hunter's in town, Esther's here with the stake, and now she's calling for Bonnie… she's going to kill Klaus tonight. To get him out of the way…" So she can steal her baby.
Their baby.
"Elena, calm down," Caroline orders, coming around to put her arm around her. "You're jumping to conclusions—we don't know what it means that Esther is calling for Bonnie, just like we don't actually know what it means that Klaus has vamoosed— it's not like Esther could drag him anywhere against his will, right? So why would he willingly walk into her trap?" She tries to get her to sit down, but Elena refuses.
Could Esther capture him against his will? What if Bonnie's not the only witch she's recruited? What then?
Stefan supplies the answer to Caroline's question. "To spring it." He has a thousand yard stare when he answers. Like he's understanding Klaus the way she understands him. Like he can never unlearn the knowledge of his character.
"Does he even have enough info to think of that?" Caroline argues. "We haven't exactly shared anything with him recently…"
"He was acting all disinterested in the journal the other morning," Elena says, very slowly, putting the pieces together as she speaks. "Which I just chalked up to him not caring that there was a death threat hanging over him… But what if I was wrong? What if he just didn't want me looking into it? To keep me out of it?" To protect me? "He already knows about the Hunters. About the cure, and that his mother has the stake. He had access to the journal, too. What if he put all of this together days ago?" God, was it really yesterday that they'd been curled in his bed together, reading through that journal? He'd been eager to distract her, to make it impossible for her to focus, but had been willing enough to let her leave… so he could investigate on his own. Only for him to be completely distracted by the revelation that her child is also his. Distracted, maybe, thrown off his game— at the time when losing his focus would be most dangerous to him. He'd be vulnerable, emotionally and mentally erratic—easy to rile. Easy to lure into a trap.
"What, you think he's decided that if you won't come out, he's going to handle the problem with his witch bitch of a mother himself?" Damon asks.
"I think that's exactly the sort of thing he would do," she says. And he'd do it thinking it was his own idea. Just like how he'd been lured into ritually sacrificing all of his hybrids. His rage and volatility make him too easy to manipulate. Anyone who knows him can predict him.
And who knows him better than his own mother?
The weight on her chest becomes a mountain. The certainty that Klaus has fallen into Esther's clutches—that he's in danger—bears down on her. Smothers her.
And alongside that certainty, a seething guilt rages through her, sweeping away all of her other fears about him. It's like the week before, when she had thought she had lost him at the Winter Wonderland festival, but times a million.
It's her fault that Klaus had been so distracted—her fault that he'd become such easy prey. If she'd just found a way to work this out with him—if she'd just stayed with him—
No. She can't think like that. She couldn't have done it. Not the way he wanted to.
"So, what, are we totally fucked?" Tyler asks the group at large.
"Since Klaus is in fact our vamp-daddy?" Damon asks. "Pretty much."
Stefan groans like he's already dying. "I told you not to ever say that again."
Elena ignores them all. Turns inward.
A creeping awareness rises up inside of her. That feeling she's been trying to stomp down, that certainty that she'd grasped merely a week ago when she thought she'd lost him forever—she'd let it dissipate like mist between her fingers this past week, but she grasps it now. Now, at the moment when Klaus is so close to being stolen from her.
She swallows hard.
Who knows Klaus better than his own mother?
She does.
She's always been the girl capable of salvaging victory in the face of certain doom.
These three realizations settle upon her like a crown—heavy, so heavy, but a reminder as well. Of who she is. Of what she is capable.
She casts an appraising eye over the group assembled in her home. Her friends. Her family. If Klaus dies, she'll lose almost all of them within the hour.
Elena has always been willing to throw herself between her beloveds and the abyss.
"No one's fucked," she declares. Her heart pounds, her breath saws, and she swears she can feel her very blood pulsing through her veins.
"Oh?" Damon asks. "How do you figure?"
She throws him her wildest, most determined grin. "Because we're going to save Klaus."
A/N: Thanks for reading!