Ball And Chain

Finn has finally agreed to join them for breakfast and Elena is thrilled that her efforts with him have paid off, despite Klaus sulking at the corner. She's slowly getting used to the way Kol flirts, effortless the way some people accidentally sound sarcastic without intention. She imagines that this has gotten him into trouble in the past and will continue to get him into trouble, especially with Klaus. She's not sure he will ever be able to dismiss it the way she has and there is a stiffness to Elijah's face that tells her how displeased he is with it as well. Rebekah has still not warmed up to her, but Elena is stubborn enough to wait her out.

Despite the enormous hurdles in front of them, it all feels so normal. At least, as normal as Elena can hope to achieve. She's lost so much family and she never expected to gain more. She's dangerously close to thinking she has as she laughs along with some harmless snarky remark Kol has directed at Klaus.

Rebekah's screaming interrupts the calm of the morning as she storms in to the kitchen. "Why the hell do you have my necklace?"

"Excuse you?"

"Excuse me? It's my bloody necklace! I found it amongst your things!"

"What were you doing in my room?"

"Obviously trying to find something suitable to wear. What you gave me was appalling. I figured it was intentional until I raided your closet. Then I realized that dull and boring was just your style."

"That's enough, Rebekah." Klaus gets up suddenly, his chair screeching against the hard wood.

"Not nearly, Nik! Why does she have this?" Rebekah dangles the necklace in front of Elena, just out of reach. It's been so long since she's seen it, all the same it brings up memories she had safely put up on the shelf years ago.

She looks around to the rest of them, feeling out of place at not comprehending the significance of the moment. Finn moves to stand between the two women.

"Oh don't tell me you've fallen for her watered down charms as well, Finn? You boys are all the same, fawning over a pretty face. Well I have news for you, it stops being so pretty when you've seen it a third time."

"Stefan gave me the necklace when we first started dating," she blurted out, trying to move the argument back to the point. "How could I have known, Rebekah? I didn't even know you." She had so many questions, but would save them for later when she could ask Klaus alone.

Elena was surprised to see Rebekah's normally haughty face crack into an emotion so painfully human it almost made Elena want to comfort the girl. It was like the information hit her like a car and she'd been left behind on the road. "You and Stefan?"

"Yeah…do you know him?" But she didn't get an answer because Klaus was so quick to rush his protesting sister out of the room with a flimsy excuse and a pointed look back to Elijah.

"Elena? Would you be so kind as to help me show my brothers how to use their new phones?" She can't help but feel that Elijah is pulling her back from a conversation Klaus isn't ready to have yet.

She spends the rest of the morning and afternoon going over the basics of this century with Kol and Finn. They all agree that driving is better saved for another day and she contemplates signing them up for training courses. Kol takes to it well, insisting that Elena sign him up for his own social media accounts. Finn is more apprehensive, but he's impressed with her ereader so she focuses on the small wins for him.

"May I hold on to this for some time?"

"Of course, Finn. Are you staying in tonight?"

She can see him parsing out her phrasing before he responds. "Yes, I will abstain from congregating this evening."

"Well, I for one wouldn't miss the opportunity to see more than just the outside of this house. Where will you be taking us tonight, lovely Elena?"

"A bastion of culture and high society known simply as the Grille," Klaus answers for her, leaning against the doorframe. He makes even the simplest of clothes look expensive and Elena supposes that has everything to do with the way he carries himself. "Elijah is waiting in the car. If you intend to come, then I suggest you hurry."

"Is Rebekah not coming?" she's hesitant to spend an evening with her after this morning, but politeness dictates she asks.

"I think it better she not join us, not after her emotional display this morning." She nods as if it's a reasonable response about his sister, but she feels so strongly that he is hiding a story from her and if there is anything she hates, it's being kept in the dark. Kol breaks her out of her scheming when he rejoins them. Having only Klaus and Elijah for comparison, he comes back looking like a mini-version of Klaus. She can't blame him. Suits are overly formal and only Elijah has ever managed to pull them off in his everyday life.

"Do you boys want to play pool," she suggests hopefully after seeing the disappointment written all over Kol's face at the Grille.

"I always have time for games," Kol replied, shifting his expression closer to flirtatious amusement. "How shall we chose teams? Young versus old?" he suggests, gesturing between himself and Elena and then to his brothers.

"A great plan, Kol." Elijah takes the opportunity to break the racked balls before Klaus can complain about the teams.

The evening starts out light and playful. Kol asks for her help getting used to the game and she takes her time explaining the rules. She laughs at the awkward way he holds the pool stick and he insists she help with his form. She's leaning down with him, adjusting his elbow when Klaus clears his throat.

"Don't let him fool you, love. This game had been around for nearly four hundred years before I'd put Kol in that box and if he insists on pushing against the line where you are concerned then back in that box he'll go."

Kol winks at her, but his flirting is noticeably tempered for the rest of the evening. Elena is thoroughly outmatched in the game and despite this, Kol carries them through to a victory over "the olds" as he'd started referring to Klaus and Elijah. One way or another, he'd find a way to dig at Klaus.

"Would you care for a drink, darling?" Kol asks, elated in his win.

"Lemonade?"

"You don't wish to celebrate your sweeping triumph, love?" Klaus has a hand at her back and she just barely glimpses Stefan walking in with his brother. She could simply ask Klaus why Rebekah had frozen at the mention of her ex, but she remembered how strangely Klaus acted around him as well. She's not sure he'd give her a straight answer.

"Actually, since we did win…"

"We is a bit generous considering Kol did most of the work," he teases.

"Could you get me some dinner? Nothing too heavy."

She waits until Klaus joins his brothers at the bar and then swiftly walks into the back where she had seen Stefan disappear with Damon. It might be the first time she's been alone with them since she was a teenager. She considers how much approaching them to conspire reminds her of that time, especially with the way they look at her. She never knows if it's because of her or Katherine, but all four have an unorthodox, complicated history with each other that it doesn't seem to matter anymore.

"Please. Sit." Both men have made a move to stand for her, but she doesn't have time for it. "Stefan, do you remember the necklace you gave me?"

"Yes, of course. What about it?"

"Klaus's sister says it belonged, well belongs, to her. Do you remember where you got it from?"

His mouth crinkles as he shakes his head to the side. "No, it was just something I'd always had. I'm not sure where it came from."

"So, you didn't get it from Rebekah?"

"How could I have?"

"If Stefan knew the Original family, he'd remember, Elena. Who knows, maybe if he had then you wouldn't have needed to hide away in the first place?" Damon's arm is relaxed over Stefan's chair, but what is meant to appear relaxed looks defensive to Elena.

"No, you're right. I guess I'm just looking for something that isn't there."

"Precisely, what is it you are looking for, Elena?" Klaus's smile tells her she's caught, but she has to wonder how caught she actually is. He couldn't have been there too long. Damon would have definitely said something smart sooner.

"I wanted to ask Stefan about Amara. If there was a reason she couldn't be kept at the boarding house," she hopes it will sound good enough and is relieved that it seems to be as Klaus's expression lights up.

"What a wonderful idea." He's keen to get rid of Amara given how Elena still responds to her. "Feel free to come by any time tomorrow to pick her up."

Klaus leads her back to his brothers by the hand and his squeeze is just a little too tight to be comfortable. He stops them just short of the table and whirls her around to face him. "Now. What were you actually doing with them?"

"I told you. I went to talk to them about taking back the statue."

"I don't believe you. You've been nothing but obsessed with it since your friends dropped it off. You told me no more lies, Elena. You promised."

"We both made that promise, but I guess we can't help ourselves." She doesn't have to say it because it's implied – she knows Klaus is keeping a truth hidden from her as well.

They both refuse to look away until he breaks eye contact. It's petty, but she feels like she won. He caught her in a lie, but it's rewarding to confront him with his own. "Come. Finish your dinner. My interest in this place has diminished."

Klaus knows she's lying to him about her conversation with the Salvatores, but he's willing to drop it for two reasons. It's a good excuse to get the statue out of his home and out of Elena's head. And his omission is so much bigger than whatever she's hiding. He'll drop anything if it means keeping this secret from her.

The little blue box mocks her every time she reaches into her purse to fish out her keys from the bottom of the bag. She's been able to ignore it so far. The one benefit to her tumultuous life in Mystic Falls was that she could push smaller, yet annoying thoughts aside more easily.

In the late afternoon, when Klaus is occupied in his studio, she sits alone in their bathroom holding the box almost reverently. She's chugged one of the fancy water bottles Elijah insists on keeping stocked in the fridge and is fidgeting nervously, scrolling through the same three apps on her phone until she's psyched herself up enough.

After she's read the instructions, she's finally ready with her arm between her legs. Just as she's peeing on the stick, Rebekah walks in on her. She scrambles to cover herself, regretting not having locked the door even though she hadn't expected anyone but Klaus to even be in their room.

"What on earth are you doing?" Rebekah asks, clearly disgusted. "Are you…peeing on yourself? Is this what people do now?"

"God! No. No, that's not what I'm doing." Elena is waiting for Rebekah to leave, but it's obvious from the way she leans against the doorframe that she's waiting for an explanation. "It's a pregnancy test," she mutters.

"A what?" With her inhuman hearing, she's heard her, but delights in making Elena repeat herself.

"An at home pregnancy test. You pee on the stick and it tests your hormones to give you an idea if you might be pregnant." She puts the cap back on the test, setting it on the counter before she shimmies her jeans back up.

"You think you might be?" Curiosity seems to be dragging Rebekah into the bathroom like a stalking cat and the thin stick is flailing bird.

"It's possible? I mean, probably. Yeah, it seems likely." She's willing to say everything but yes. "Please don't tell Klaus? I wanted to tell him first, but only once I actually knew if I was."

"Are you implying the child is my brother's? That's absurd."

"It couldn't be anyone else's though. I haven't…you know."

"Fornicated with anyone besides Nik?" she smiles as Elena blushes. "I suppose stranger things have happened. Our existence isn't exactly normal." She pauses for a second and it almost seems like she's actually seeing Elena as her own person and not a reflection of Tatia. "Alright, I won't tell him. I promise."

"Thanks. I appreciate it." She's not sure why, but Rebekah hesitates at the door like she doesn't want to leave yet. "Hey uh – what were you doing in here anywhere?"

"Oh well. I like using your conditioner so I come in here sometimes to grab some."

"Rebekah! That's such an invasion. You can't just come in here and take my things without asking." She never had this issue with Jeremy and Jenna could always afford to buy what she needed. She's mid-sentence into a lecture when Rebekah interrupts her.

"What do two lines mean on this thing?" she asks, peering over the counter.

"What? Hold on. Let me see." She holds her hand out for Rebekah to give her the stick. "Two means…pregnant."

"Well…isn't this exciting," Rebekah taps out the words with her fingertips on the counter. Elena has stumbled to sit back on the toilet, her head in her hands. She can't hear Rebekah, but she can feel her presence still in the bathroom. Her gaze bores a hole into the back of her head where she's hiding her anxious thoughts.

How the hell did this happen?

A/N: I mean, we all know HOW it happened. I'm so excited to get to the next chapter since it features Rebekah more heavily and I adore her. Also, don't worry - I haven't forgotten about the big dinner. It's coming. I just like to take my time.