As Good As You've Been to This World
Klaus races out of the car before Elijah has even had a chance to park in the driveway. He breaks the front door off its hinges and pauses just long enough to frantically search out Elena among the fallen Five. She isn't there and so he follows the trail of red droplets down the hallway where it puddles in front of the downstairs bathroom. The porcelain lid is smashed among other debris.
He looks around, but there is no indication of what might have happened next so he strains to listen for any sign of life. He launches himself up the stairs, two at a time and without any grace at the sound of a heartbeat. The first few rooms he checks are undisturbed, but he flinches when he sees the open door to his brother's study. A pool of blood smeared on the floor fade into desperate handprints leading to the bedroom and his hope battles against his imagination.
Elena is trembling against his brother's bed, using one foot to shove Markos's shoulder off her trapped leg. The way she looks up at him, her brown eyes lost in white, shatters him. He'd left her behind again, open and vulnerable to her enemies.
"Love?" he tentatively walks toward her, afraid to scare her further.
"I killed him," her voice is stilted and hushed, like she's sharing a terrible secret. As if she isn't talking to a man with his fair share of bodies littering his life. As if she hasn't killed before as well. Something about this feels different. In the past, she'd only ever been risking her own life.
"That you certainly did. Brava." He's been kneeling next to her, checking the cut on her neck and gash on her leg, but it's this statement that gets her attention.
"How can you be so cavalier? He almost killed me."
"But he didn't. Death must be infatuated with you, allowing you to escape him so often."
"No, he didn't. I killed him. Before he could kill me," she repeats herself, still shell-shocked. She wonders why this feels so different from her vampire kills. A stake to the heart and ashen skin are not nearly as personal as fighting for air, clamoring for life in the sharp edge of broken glass. Not nearly as intimate as washing herself in his blood, his life covering her completely.
"You wanted war Elena," he reminds her. "It gets messy unfortunately."
"But it's over now." He nods a confirmation and for the second time in so few days, he's back in the bathroom washing the evidence of his failure off her body.
The days that follow are both too loud and too quiet. Klaus has kept himself busy directing contractors to fix all the damage caused by Markos. Elijah keeps sneaking in and out of rooms, trying to corner his brother regarding the issue of their siblings. It's a dance that entertains her. Jeremy has apologized so many times, she's lost count. It would annoy her, but it keeps him hanging around and she misses him. She's caught him and Elijah in conspiratorial huddles, too distracted to notice her. She strains to eavesdrop, but only manages phrases like "penchant for dramatics", "schemers" and "well-fitted for each other". When they inevitably catch her, she can't help but feel like they've been gossiping.
Caroline and Bonnie come by one afternoon, hauling a coffin-like box in the back of a truck. Elijah and Klaus easily carry it inside, dragging it downstairs to the basement. Meanwhile, the girls sit around the kitchen table, drinks warming their hands as they catch up.
She recounts to their shared horror what happened to her after Markos escaped the cave system.
"Oh my god! Elena! You could have been seriously hurt. I mean, you're only human. You're kind of like the most vulnerable out of us all." Caroline's eyes were impossibly wide through the story and she'd had to stop several times to answer questions.
"But she's fine," Bonnie chimes in, "She always finds a way." She's so tired of having to find ways to survive, but Bonnie's confidence in her makes her feel proud in herself as well. They still haven't talked about Elena's desire to leave Mystic Falls, but moments like these makes it easy to see a life here.
Bonnie and Caroline share in telling her how it all went with the rest of the Travelers. "So, they are in their own prison world? They are fine." Elena has to confirm that the rest of her plan went well.
"Yeah, I think so. Ava was looking for you. She was so young, Elena. She reminded me of us at that age."
"They just wanted a home. I don't think there is anything wrong with that."
Caroline scoffs. "Ah no except for the whole kill-everyone-but-us-and-take-away-all-magic-but-ours plan. That sucked."
"I didn't say I agreed with the method, but I can empathize with the motivation." Caroline's extravagant flair for phrasing and story-telling never fail to make the other women laugh.
Elena's smile grew when Bonnie told her about Liv and the rest of the Gemini helping to open the wooden box. Bonnie had Damon and that was great, but there were needs even he couldn't fill. She was missing a magical bond, a sisterhood and Elena hoped that Liv would be willing to stick around longer, especially since it looked like her and Bonnie might actually be getting along.
"Wait? That's Amara down there? Why can't she just stay at the boarding house?"
"We just all think it's a better idea if she's kept here until we can figure out what to do next." Bonnie, ever the diplomatic one, shifted her eyes to Caroline and Elena understood. Their friend needed a break from any doppelgänger drama, perceived or otherwise. She deserved Stefan's undivided attention even if Elena didn't think that would ever be possible with Damon around.
"So, Care, it sounds like you and Stefan are in a good place?"
"Yeah! Who knew that having someone else take over my body and literally threaten my life would be the kick in the pants he needed?"
It felt good to laugh again, feeling like the danger was firmly in the past. The only thing that weighed on her mind was the box buried at the bottom of her purse. She knew she needed to unearth it sooner or later, but for today all Elena wanted was to sit around this table with her closest friends and listen to Caroline gush about Stefan like they were all back in high school again.
Bringing the stone body of her forbearer into their home hadn't bothered Klaus until Elena started disappearing from their bed. He'd been waking up alone, finding her in different rooms like she'd gotten too tired to make it back to their bed from wherever she had ventured. Finally, he finds her sitting with her legs crossed in front of Amara. She seems so small like this, in the dark huddling in on herself. He turns on a light and she looks over to him like she's been woken up, the cloudy haze of sleep dispelling.
"What are you doing down here, sweetheart?" he asks cautiously, taking a seat on the ground with her.
"I-I keep hearing her, Klaus. In my head," she sees the concern in his eyes. "You don't believe me? I can hear her screaming. Not always, but more than I'd like. She's in pain."
"You can't possibly know that, Elena. She's just a statue right now and you aren't psychic."
"I know, but still I can." She hasn't once looked at Klaus since he turned on the lights and distracted her. He feels an urgent need for her attention communicated through his hands on her chin. At first, she pulls back from him but with enough effort he peels her eyes away from Amara.
"It doesn't bode well to let someone into your head," he asserts, his eyes his boring into her own.
"You've done it," she counters.
"That's not the same. I was bringing you back to yourself." To me.
"Is it not?" She whispers in distant way, like she's already sucked back into Amara. He sits next to her patiently as the minutes drag on until her hand finds its way into his. "It's too cold down here."
"Let's go upstairs then. We can go back to bed or sit in front of a fire for a bit?" He's straining to hold back the desperation in his voice. She feels so distant and he worries he'll never catch up to her.
"She shouldn't be down here either. Would you move her in the morning? Somewhere warm with sunlight?"
He assures her that he will. He'll say anything to get her to her feet, walking back upstairs. Once he has her on the couch with a fire going, the warmth seems to bring her back to him fully. He's pulled her into his lap, her head on his shoulder and a hand stroking down her back.
"I've been thinking about them, Silas and Amara. I dreamt about them, when Stefan and I were having those shared visions."
"Dark times for those of us unfortunate enough to love either of you." After finding her that way in the basement, her eye roll was now a comfort to him.
"In one of those dreams, I wasn't me. I was her, Amara. Markos told the story like a completely underhanded betrayal. A manipulation. He said Silas loved Amara and maybe that's true, but I don't think it was the kind of love that anyone actually wants." She shifted in his arms so she could look at him. "It's like he coveted her. He had Qetsiyah, but she was just as powerful as he was. He couldn't control her."
"But he could control Amara?"
"She was just a handmaiden. She didn't have any power. I think he liked that," she shudders, remembering the dream. "What was she supposed to do?"
"You don't think there was mutual love between the original pair?"
"She loved him, I'm sure of that. I just mean, when there is a power imbalance in a relationship like that – Can it be real love? Silas was obsessed with her. Lying and stealing immortality so they'd never be parted?"
"Surely true love would mean always wanting to be at each other's side?" Klaus felt like she was leading him out to thin ice, he was wary he'd fall in soon.
"She doesn't want this, Klaus. I have to wake her up." She nestles back into him, not waiting for a response because she doesn't need an answer.
Klaus only has that night to mull over her stranger behavior and her seemingly sudden obsession with Amara. The next morning, he does as she requests and places Amara in front of one of the front windows. He watches slightly off-put as she arranges flowers on a table next to Amara as if she could actually appreciate them in this state. Elijah confronts him when he's distracted enough with the sight not to notice his brother.
"It's been long enough, Niklaus. You've stalled me at every turn and Elena is finally safe enough to wake up our family. You have no more excuses." Of course, this grabs her attention.
"Is it time? I get to meet the rest of your family?"
"Don't sound too excited, sweetheart. The rest of my family aren't nearly as interesting as I am."
"But you are going to do it, right?" Elijah looks at him expectedly and Elena is so terribly excited that he falters under the weight of their combined attentions.
"Yes! Fine. Alright." It's almost worth it to see her beam at him like he's a good man. "But Elena should stay with Ric."
"No, absolutely not. There are three of them and three of us. I'm going to be there. I want to wake them up at the same time. All of them," she insists stalwartly.
"Have you gone mad? It is a horrendously awful idea to wake them all up at the same time. Even discounting how angry they will be, are you really game for catching up three vampires to the perks of this century?"
"I will be there for them every step of the way, Niklaus. I will watch over our siblings and give them anything they need to thrive in this world."
"Klaus, it will be fine. Things have settled down finally and Elijah is right. We can all help them adjust."
"What about your promise to Jeremy?"
"I can multi-task."
"What about your niece?"
"Ric is getting better and he has help."
"What about-"
"Enough stalling! There are no more reasons to wait other than the one you aren't sharing." With that outburst, Elijah turns and leaves the room to walk upstairs.
"It's a band-aid. Rip it off." She reaches out and grabs a hold of his hand, leading him upstairs. They deliberate for some time about who should un-dagger who. They both decide Elena should deal with Finn, a strange face being better than either brother. Elijah handles Kol, who respects him the most. Which leaves Rebekah to Klaus.
"Ready?" Elena yells out from Finn's bedroom, her hand gripping the dagger. She hears their affirmation and it seems silly, but it's important to her that they do it at the same time. She grunts as she tries to pull out the dagger, but it's wedged tight into Finn's chest. She gives it a hearty yank and it loosens up enough that she can tug it out with another generous effort.
She looks down at his face, pushing some of his hair back. He would have needed a haircut if they'd woken him up a few years ago, but now his long locks were in fashion. She smiled as she thought about explaining what a man bun was to a person who had been closed off from the world for centuries.
She hears the gasping from the other rooms.
"Bloody hell!"
"Where's the wanker, Elijah?"
She only just notices the color beginning to return to Finn's face before the yelling escalates into a chiming crash. "I'll be right back," she assures him, feeling silly for the sentiment that he can't even hear yet. She's had fights with Jeremy, but those pale in comparison to what she walks in on.
A/N: I've done a rough draft of the next chapter and it is just - chaotic at this point. I still can't decide if that's good or bad. Thanks for reading!