Me and the Devil

Before the sun rises over the ocean, kissing waves and sending them to shore, she lays restlessly awake between Bonnie and Rebekah. Elena had expected that they might be late coming back to camp, but it worries her that they hadn't come back at all. She unzips her tent excitedly when she hears footsteps faintly approaching camp. Bonnie stirs and follows her groggily out of the tent, stumbling after her like a ball on a string.

Finn and Kol are the first to walk through the forest, shoulders hanging low and their faces set tense. When they reach her, Finn holds his hands out for Elena and pulls her into a hug. Even as close as they've gotten, this gesture of intimacy is still jarring.

"Is Damon here?" Kol asks, trying to keep the anger from leaking out like an accelerant from a punctured gas tank.

"No, no one has come back yet," Elena's response is muffled. Finn has her pinned to his chest and won't let go.

"Do you have any idea what Damon might want with the cure, Bonnie?"

"I don't know," she replies, but her lips stretch into a quick grimace before settling back into a neutral mask. Her focus is off in the distance as she tries to swallow down a thick, guilty feeling. "He's been…restless lately."

"Where is everyone else, Finn? Where is Jeremy?" She struggles against him and he lets her go, uncomfortable with having to restrain her. When she pulls back and looks past Finn, she sees Elijah approaching and carrying a limp body in his arms. "No. No. Who is that? Is that Galen?" she asks, knowing that their build is too different for it to be the leaner man.

She stumbles back into Finn and Kol moves to help keep her up by her arm as Elijah gets closer. Her legs collapse into a shaking mess beneath her and Finn sets her down gently in the sand. The commotion wakes Rebekah who intuits the situation quickly and rushes to mirror Kol at Elena's other side.

"Please, Elijah." She begs him, but for what exactly? To not come closer? To hurry so she can see? To lie and tell her that this isn't her kid brother?

Elijah sets down Jeremy's body in front of her and takes a knee before them. Her brother's skin is unnaturally translucent, his body drained of blood through a precise slash through his neck. The cut is so clean it's as if the skin parted on its own.

She clings to the front of his shirt, twisting her anguish into the bloody fabric as her body rocks back and forth. Her screams are loud enough for Damon to hear them all the way on the other side of the island, plagued by the dead Hunters in his head. The version of Jeremy in his head taunts him, asking him if he always meant to hurt Elena like this.

As a group, they elect to leave Damon behind with the cure. Their allegiance with the rest of the Brotherhood outside of Jeremy was so tenuous that no one thinks to ask about Galen. The boat ride back to their cars is awkward, Bonnie and Elena keep exchanging glances with a mountain of words building in the space between them. She doesn't know what to say yet, but she hopes they can trek over the peaks when the time comes to talk.

Elijah walks her through what had happened before he lost consciousness and she can't help but blame Damon for her brother's careless, unnecessary death. Any time she looks at Bonnie, she sees Damon and her brother's body.

It's difficult to wade through this anger, especially considering whose baby she's carrying and everything he has done. Drawing clear lines in her moral compass had been so easy when she was younger, but the older she gets the more those lines became smudged. It's easier to hold onto Elijah and her rage than it is to look at her friend. She's afraid of what she'll say if she opens her mouth. Even more afraid that she'll never stop screaming if she tries to say anything. For now, it's better to sit quietly with her thoughts, suffocating the fire burning in her chest.

Finn and Kol corral her into the car before she has a chance to even decide if she wants to talk to Bonnie. Rebekah is in the back seat encouraging her to lay down in her lap, but she spots Elijah cutting off Bonnie's path to the car and she strains to keep them in her line of sight.

"What is he doing?"

"He's explaining to Bonnie what is happening to Damon right now. He's responsible for the death of a Hunter, perhaps more. We are unsure how direct that responsibility has to be."

"For what, Rebekah."

"Right now, Elijah is telling Bonnie about the Hunter's curse. A failsafe of sorts in order to ward off any vampire half-wits who may want to kill one of them." Bonnie's hand shoots up to grab her mouth. "He's probably gotten to the part where the Hunter haunts you until you can't take it anymore. Drives you insane until you take your own life." Her friend crumbles and even in the midst of her conflict, Elena is glad Elijah reaches out to Bonnie with a comforting hand on her shoulder. "He's telling her that it is almost inevitable. Hunters almost always take down their mark with them. Nothing will save him now except when the mantle passes to a new one. Depending on how many are haunting him now, it could be awhile."

"How do you know so much about this?"

"Klaus killed all five members of the first iteration. But we can't be killed so, he endured."

"For how long?"

"Over fifty years."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"There's nothing for us to do." Rebekah's voice is impassive, but with a note of finality so Elena drops it. They drive back to Virginia and if anyone is talking, Elena has tuned it out completely. Thinking the entire ride back about her brother wrapped in a hotel sheet behind the back seat and how she's going to tell Ric that their ever dwindling family is down to three.

The Gilbert plots are all prematurely accounted for and Elena is stressing over what to do with Jeremy. Elijah, concerned over what too many emotional blows would do to her so close together, solves her problem by compelling Mystic Fall's mortician to cremate her brother with no questions and no records.

She's standing in the basement saying goodbye to Jeremy with Elijah at her side and Ric in front of her, Grace upstairs with Rebekah. "What is it about our family?" she asks.

"Our family or this town." The weight of saying goodbye is taking its toll on Ric's face. His already out of control beard is beginning to gray. "Does it matter either way?"

Afterwards they split his ashes into two ornate urns, one for her and one for Ric. She puts hers on the mantle in the library when she gets home. Rebekah offers to go home with Ric, her eyes twinkling with the chance to spend more time with baby Grace and mischievously to give Elijah time alone with Elena on the drive back to the mansion.

"At what point in your life did it start getting easier to lose loved ones?"

"It never does," he answers honestly. "Every death is heavy on my soul."

"Why does this feel different?"

"It hasn't even been a year since John sacrificed himself for you. And Jenna. So much loss in such quick succession. There's a chance this won't feel real to you for years to come. Added to that the life change of becoming a mother and it's a wonder you are still standing."

"How are you doing with all of this?" He takes his eyes off the road for the briefest minute to shoot her a questioning glance. "You and Jeremy seemed like you were getting along well. Becoming friends? Was I wrong about that?"

"You aren't. I valued his conversation and his perspective. We shared many of the same values, family and honor. You." The street lights flash on Elijah's face and he's careful not to look at her when he drives under them, stealing glimpse of her face in the interim when the car goes dark. "I am shocked and saddened by his death. I had every confidence that we would all leave that island without as much as a minor injury. It isn't too often that I'm wrong and I wish I hadn't been about this. I'm angry that I couldn't protect him and angrier so that you've lost him."

"Thank you, Elijah." She finds his hand on the middle console between them and gives it a small squeeze. When she tries to bring her hand back to rest on her lap, he captures it and holds her there until they get back to the mansion. His thumb rubs along the back of her hand as she watches him, confused.

In the days after Nova Scotia, Elena makes many half-hearted attempts to drive over to the boarding house to see Bonnie. She can't bear to let her friendship with Bonnie ice out again, especially not when she knows better than most what it means to love a vampire. Still, it takes her awhile to make her way to the front door, knocking loudly only once and hoping that Bonnie isn't home right now.

She's taken aback when her friend answers the door, deep bags under her eyes and a vacant expression that makes Elena wonder if Bonnie actually sees her on the front porch. Before she can say a word, Bonnie's face cracks into a wrenching, open mouth cry without the sounds. Out of instinct, Elena closes the gap between them and hugs her like there isn't this discomfort between the two of them. She can't hate Bonnie for what Damon did and she's lost too many people already to pretend otherwise.

"I'm so sorry, Elena. I didn't know what he was planning. I swear. He'd talked about wanting to be human for me, but I didn't think he was serious. I promise. If I had, I would have said something. I thought it was just a nice thing someone says when they love you," she hyperventilates and Elena holds her tighter.

When Bonnie quiets enough to talk and her chest stops heaving, she tells Elena about how Stefan went back to track his brother. The call that woke her up in the middle of the night to tell her how out of it Damon was when he finally found him. "He keeps talking to people who aren't there. Stefan was having some trouble getting him back here so Caroline left to help."

"What are you going to do?" Her voice sounds strange to her, like it isn't even hers.

"I'm not sure yet. Lock him in the cellar? Keep him dry and a little weak for a while? I don't know what to do yet, but I'll feel better once he's back here. I'm sorry, is this weird?"

"A little. A lot. Yeah. I don't really want to talk about him, specifically."

"Right. How are you doing…with all this?"

"I hadn't realized how tough this year had been until Elijah mentioned it. I miss Jeremy of course, but it's all is starting to blur together. Sometimes when I go to sleep, it feels like I'll never wake up. "

"God. Elena. I'm glad you have Elijah. He seems to be very helpful."

"He is. They all are," she answers, cutting Bonnie short before she has a chance to say anything else. "Stefan and Care are on their way back now?" Bonnie nods and Elena unconsciously mimics her friend. "I should probably get back home then. Can I ask for a favor? Can I send Elijah and Finn over to take back Amara?"

"Why do you want her back?"

"I can't explain it really, but I don't want to let Silas get a hold of her. It might sound stupid, but I care about her and I have this gut feeling. I won't let him have her."

"We need to figure out how to deal with him." A flash of crackling heat sparks in her green eyes, Bennett magic.

"Yeah. One thing at a time."

"Elena? Thanks. For coming over. For not hating me."

"You're my oldest friend, Bonnie. I don't know that I'll ever forgive Damon, but I won't lose you because of him." Between the visit and her excitement for her first doctor appointment tomorrow, Elena goes to bed early. She's ready to put this day behind her and focus on her baby. Right after she figures out how to kill an immortal.

"You didn't have to come, Elijah." She sets the magazine down and checks her phone again for the time.

"And have you come alone? Besides, I wanted to be here to support you."

"Mrs. Gilbert?"

"Finally," she whispers back to Elijah who follows her past the door and down the hall to the examination room. She smiles when he takes a seat in the corner, holding on to her purse for her as she hops on the high table.

"I hope this doctor was the right choice." Elena is about to tell him not to worry when the door opens and their nurse brings in Dr. Davis.

"Mrs. Gilbert, I understand you are in here today because you might be pregnant."

"Well, I took those tests and they all came back positive. So, yeah."

"We'll confirm here and if you are then determine about how long along you are. Mr. Gilbert, how are you feeling about potentially being a father?"

"Actually, I'm the brother of said potential father here for moral support in his absence."

"Will he be joining us for future appointments if needed?"

"Probably not," Elena cuts Elijah off before he has a chance to respond. It's irritating how the doctor keeps referring to the pregnancy as a possibility when it finally feels real to her and even more irritating that he keeps directing these questions to Elijah.

After the appointment is over and the pregnancy professionally confirmed, she vents to Elijah in the parking lot. "I get that I should have come in sooner. Obviously, under normal circumstances I would have but I can't exactly defend myself. What am I supposed to say? I didn't think I could get pregnant because the father is technically dead. I've been fighting against an ancient supernatural group of basically witches who don't want to be called witches and locked them away in a different dimension. Who is he to judge me for not coming in sooner?"

"Would you like to find a new doctor? It isn't too late?"

"Maybe? I don't know. I'm stressed."

"Entirely understandable."

"Thank you, for being in there with me. Though I think now the whole office must be gossiping about us. The man taking his brother's knocked up…whatever in for her appointment. I wonder what stories they are making up about us as we speak."

"Nothing half as interesting as the truth." She settles into the passenger seat, contemplating the merits and hassles of finding a new doctor at this stage, deciding to bear through it in favor of focusing on Silas.

The phone rings and rings and even though she knows he won't pick up, there's still something about the tone leading to voicemail that makes her stomach sink. She smiles at his voice (This is Klaus) and how she can hear her own faint in the background encouraging him to continue (I do not enjoy this, Elena…I've obviously not answered your call for one reason or another. Leave a brief, but interesting message if you'd like me to return said call). Her laughter closes out the message before the second tone.

"Klaus. There's a lot going on. Too much to say over a voicemail. Call me back or…just come home? You don't get to be the one who leaves. You are not the one who was wronged. I didn't do anything." She hesitates over ending the call and rushes through the words as pathetic as they make her feel. "I still love you."

The desperate anger in her voice might have changed his mind about coming home if he was still in Virginia, but Klaus had been covering great distances in the Appalachian Mountains since he left and he was closer than ever to finding the pack of werewolves he'd been trailing.

Travelling in the woods alone, he was angry at himself for not forcing Stefan or Elijah to come along with him. When he'd overheard Ray Sutton mentioning werewolves in a hushed tone in a bar outside of Chattanooga, he hadn't considered how arduous it would be to trek after them in the mountains.

Even in the depths of his stubborn belief that the child could not be his, he saves every voicemail and text from her, scrolling through and listening to them repetitively. He can hear her rush over her words and spends the rest of the night trying to decipher what it could mean. Mulling over the word still like a sculptor with a bit of clay.

A/N: Thanks for reading!