Our Day Will Come

"Dads, if you are able and willing, sit with your legs up and arms out to create a comfortable chair for our moms, okay? Moms, you are going to sit back and relax with one leg straight out and the other crossed over your knee." Their effervescent instructor walks around the room, barefoot and holding a spray bottle she's been spritzing around in circles. The rest of the couples move easily into position, but Elijah is unsure of himself sitting on his mat next to Elena.

"Dad. It's time to support Mom. Now and in the days to come. Life is a journey and she needs you to stand next to her." The teacher comes around and with a gentle hand on Elijah's shoulder, pushes him toward Elena's mat.

"Why can't she refer to us by our names?" he asks and Elena shrugs. "It's a touch degrading that she's reduced us to roles that some of us may not actually be filling."

"Just hurry up and cradle me so we can move on to shavasana and get home."

"This was meant to be relaxing for you."

"I. Am. Trying," she groans out as she brings her leg up, stretching out her hip. "My body is changing every day. It's starting to feel uncomfortable. I'm not sleeping. Oh, right. And an immortal nightmare is likely awake and looking for Amara and could show up in Mystic Falls any day and we still have no idea how to stop him."

"One issue at a time. Change legs. We will take care of the immortal. You need to focus on you."

"How am I supposed to do that, Elijah?" Her voice is clipped and frustrated. She promised her brother she would let them handle this and even though she knows her involvement wouldn't have made a difference, her heart hasn't gotten the message yet. "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for, Elena."

"Agree to disagree." She looks back at him and knows that her frustration is building on so much; her brother, the threat of Silas, her changing body. Most of all, it's something she doesn't want to talk about out loud with anyone at the risk of sounding ungrateful. That as much as she appreciates Elijah stepping in, she still wishes it was Klaus at her back in this class and at her side at the doctor's office.

"What in the bloody hell is this doing here?" Elena can hear Kol yelling from the other side of the door and she exchanges an exasperated look with Elijah before opening the front door. "Oh good! Maybe you two can explain to me why a murderous, power-hungry immortal's desiccated girlfriend is in our foyer?" he asks when he spots them walking in.

"I asked that she be brought back here."

"That explains the who responsible but not the why, Elena." Kol seems so unnatural in this grave demeanor, distinctly lacking his flirtatious mirth.

"I know it doesn't make sense, Kol, but I can feel her. She's scared and hurt and terrified. I needed to bring her here so I could protect her."

"You're right." He pauses for a dramatic flair that is so Klaus it makes her chest hurt. "That makes no sense to me at all. You want to protect what is basically a statue now and put the rest of us at risk?"

"And as a bargaining chip, Kol. If we have the one thing he wants, that puts us in a position to hold it over him. You've said it. He's coming either way. We can either take this chance to stay a step ahead of him or we can run."

"I elect we run. I don't fancy sticking around here waiting for Silas to flay us alive for keeping his lady love from him."

"Stop calling her that!" Kol and Elijah stand stunned, watching Elena storm off to her room upstairs.

"What's her problem?"

"Look, Kol. We will figure out how to handle Silas here. The Bennett witch has some promising theories."

"Ideas won't save us, Elijah."

"Perhaps not, but if you'd rather not stay here-"

"I wouldn't."

Elijah continues as if Kol hadn't interrupted him. "Then might I suggest a trip of sorts. Something that would likely take you far from Mystic Falls."

"What do you have in mind?"

"I want you to find Klaus and convince him to come back. You are more familiar with this danger than any of us and I know Elena. Once she sets her mind to protecting someone, nothing will change it. She'll stay and fight. Klaus needs to come home." Kol leaves that day with a borrowed car, Elijah unwillingly to lend him his but more than willing to compel a car from a stranger.

When her phone rings, Elena scrambles up from bed to reach it on the nightstand. Each time someone calls or texts her, she hopes it's Klaus calling to let her know he's coming home. Every time, she's let down.

"Stefan," she answers, trying and failing to hide the disappointment in her voice.

"Elena. Is there any way Elijah and his siblings could come to the town square? Like, now?"

"Why?"

"I…lost Damon."

"What? How did you lose him? Bonnie said you and Caroline had a handle on him."

"Well, we did and then we didn't. These visions are making him more unpredictable than he was before. Could you just ask them to come down here to help? He doesn't care about dying or getting him hurt and that's making him harder to nail down."

"What makes you think I care?"

"Elena, please."

"Please? He's the reason Jeremy is dead. He's the reason Silas is alive. He's the reason we are all at risk. And for what?"

"I don't know, Elena! But he's my brother. I can't just turn my back on him now."

"Fine," she answers and hangs up on him before he can ask her what she means by that. The pleading in his voice reminds her of the fights they had when they were together, trying to make it work while she ran from Klaus. His need to help Damon always trumped whatever love he felt for her. No matter what, Stefan would always sacrifice himself for his brother. When she searches the house for Elijah, she reasons that she at least owes Stefan this after everything he did to protect her.

"Wait, what are you doing here?" Stefan asks when she steps out of the passenger seat.

"Me or Elena?" Rebekah asks. "Oh wait, I forgot. The past is in the past. Though that doesn't explain why you care about Elena being here too."

"You should be home. Damon is not in a good headspace right now. You could get hurt."

"You can't just call me and ask for help and then get upset that I decided to come. I want to know why he did what he did, Stefan. I deserve that much at least."

Caroline has worked overtime to clear out the town square of additional bystanders, their forgotten possessions litter the green space making it clear that it was another town event that Damon had ruined tonight. A dozen or so bodies are scattered across the space and even though Stefan is doing his best, Elena can tell he's struggling to suppress his hunger. Even though Bonnie suggested they spread out, Elijah and Rebekah are within her eyesight and Finn has completely refused to leave her side as they walk down the street looking for Damon.

Glass shatters in a store front a block away from Elena and she runs towards the noise with the original siblings at her back. Stefan is panting heavily on the sidewalk while Damon clamors to his feet, pulling shards out of his shoulder.

"You should have left me to die on that island, brother. It's what I deserved."

"Damon…"

"No, Stefan. Let him talk. I'm curious about what he has to say." Elena has Stefan outnumbered. Even with Caroline and Bonnie running to catch up, she still has Finn, Elijah and Rebekah on her side.

"Elena," Damon whispers her name like a prayer. He keeps looking to her and a spot to his right, whispering words she can't quite make out. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know what would happen after I left. I never meant for Jeremy to die too." Damon's head whips around quick to his left, empty space to everyone but him. "Don't act surprised. I was okay with you two dying."

"The apparitions of the hunters are with him," Elijah explains from just behind her.

"Why did you do it, Damon? What could be worth all this?"

"Bonnie," he says without hesitation. "I wanted to take the cure for Bonnie." Elena sees the surprise in Bonnie's eyes and the hurt in Stefan's. The brother who he was always sacrificing his own happiness for willing to sacrifice their forever for his own love. "I'm sorry, Bon Bon. I know you said we could make it work, but I didn't want you to have to make it work. I wanted you to have everything you couldn't have with an undead boyfriend. I didn't think any of this would happen."

In a blonde flash, Rebekah is behind Damon. She's quick, snapping his neck and letting him drop helplessly to the floor. "I'm sorry. Weren't we called out here to handle this situation and not listen to a sad monologue about the star-crossed love between a witch and a vampire? We aren't at your beck and call, Stefan."

Caroline and Stefan load Damon's body into her car and the original siblings wait for Elena in their car. Bonnie and Elena meet in the middle, both still unsure and wary of the other.

"Did you know that he was planning any of that?"

"No, Elena. I swear. We had some conversations about this, me growing old and our relationship, but never about him using the cure. I promise."

"I believe you. Damon's never been one to share in his spur of the moment ideas."

"Are you mad at me?"

"No. I don't think I'll be coming over for Christmas dinner if Damon is there, but no. I'm not mad at you Bonnie."

"I know that what he did was awful and put us all in danger, but I do wish there had been a way for him to human with me. Maybe I wished it so hard, I drove him to do this?"

"I don't know, Bonnie."

"Would you change things with Klaus? If you could, would you make him human?"

"No."

"Really? Why not?"

"Maybe he would have wanted that once, a long time ago. But this is who he is now and that's who I fell in love with. Who am I to change that?"

"You still feel that way, even though he's gone?"

"He won't be gone forever. I just need to wait him out, be more stubborn than he is." When Elijah drives off, Elena looks back to Bonnie as long as she can. In the end, they are just two women who chose to love monsters. She can't fault her friend for that, even if her reticence on saving Damon from the Hunter's Curse puts her squarely against Bonnie.

With Kol's concerns in mind, Elena pays Liv a visit at the Lockwood mansion to ask for her help with Amara. She's surprised, but thankful that the Gemini witch has elected to stick around Mystic Falls with Tyler instead of going back to Portland with the rest of her coven.

"Cloaking? Elena, this is a big ask."

"Can you do it?

"Of course I can. I just want to freak you out." Elena rolls her eyes and pushes her chair back to stand up. "Wait, I actually wanted to talk to you about something."

"Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine, but I wanted to ask how you're doing. Tyler told me what happened in Nova Scotia and…I'm so sorry about Jeremy." Liv's eyes are earnest even if her words sound stilted with untested emotion.

"Thanks." Liv was the last person Elena had expected to check in with her.

"It's just that I have a brother too. A twin, actually. And if anything ever happened to him, I think I would be lost."

"You find ways to get through it."

"No, I think I would actually lose it if Luke died. I don't know how much Tyler told you about me." Liv continues when Elena vaguely shakes her head. "Every coven has a unique blend of magic. Bennett witches are generally solitary witches, but that's because they can afford to be. They are pretty powerful on their own, but don't tell Bonnie I said that."

"And Gemini?"

"We have this tradition. Had I guess? There are a lot of us and we draw power from each other, but the survival of the coven is entirely dependent on the leader."

"That's a lot of pressure."

"Yeah, if the leader dies then so does the coven. Which is why the leader has to be exceptionally powerful."

"Are you bragging?"

"I wish." Liv's gaze wonders and she looks so sad that Elena reaches out across the table to her, but Liv brushes off the gesture. "Twins run in my family. In the whole coven. And when a set turns twenty-two, we have to perform the Merge. A test of willpower essentially. Whichever twin is more powerful absorbs the other twin, like babies sometimes do in utero."

"Shit, Liv. So, the other twin dies?"

"No, I've heard it described like the weaker twin lives on within the stronger twin."

"Wait. You didn't do this with your brother?"

"No, our dad really wanted us to, but we couldn't. When we were kids, it seemed like we were pretty evenly matched, but after we turned eighteen, Luke's power really manifested."

"How are you here then?"

"He sacrificed himself for me. I knew if we went through with it that Luke would win. He did too."

"You said if something ever happened to him though?"

"Luke is smart. He found a way to satisfy our coven, but keep us both alive. He tied our lives together. I would lead the coven first and, when I die, he would wake up and lead. I draw on his power while I lead. But he doesn't need me to draw on. He's enough on his own."

"You never get to see him though."

"I can see him, but I can't talk to him. I've heard that a merged twin can feel their other half inside them, like their spirit is with them. Sometimes, I wonder if I would feel less lonely all the time if I had just merged with Luke. Oh, don't get me wrong. I love Tyler and he makes me feel wonderful, but nothing really fills in that hole. Luke wasn't just my brother, we were together all the time. I'm glad he found a way for us both to live, but I miss him still. And I don't want to even try imagining what you are going through right now." The way Liv looks at her nearly unravels the cord holding her heart together. "If you need to talk or whatever, I'm here for you."

"Thanks, Liv. I appreciate it. Maybe one day?"

She isn't in danger, but she still tries to leave Tyler's house like she is. She hadn't anticipated Liv getting emotional on her and her own grief is threatening to spill over. She had thought she could trust Liv of all people to keep the conversation to the business at hand.

His name sounds strange squeaking out of her mouth when she runs headlong into Tyler. His hands hold her steady so she won't fall over.

"Why are you in such a rush to get out of here, 'Lena?"

"I need to get home, Ty." He can see the tears shimmering in her eyes and has the good manners not to mention them. Instead, he holds her close in a hug to let her hide them while they fall. His chin on her head is his apology for not going to the island with them. His low hushes are his wishes that he could have done something to save Jeremy. Their friendship is an old one that doesn't need words. He tells her about his regret in the simple hug he gives her while he lets her cry there in the hallway.

When she's done, she wipes her cheeks down the best she can and looks up at Tyler. "Thank you." He nods back at her, knowing she means more than just the hug.

In the car, on the drive back to the mansion, she gives Klaus a call and knows by now that it will go straight to voicemail. "Today was tough and I need you. I don't like admitting that, but I don't want to raise our kid alone. I know Elijah and the others will be here, but it isn't the same. You've had long enough to think about it. It's time to come home. The longer you stay away, the worse coming back will be."

Klaus is sitting in a clearing, surrounded by a handful of werewolves he's hoping will wake up soon as hybrids in transition, when he turns on his phone to see another voicemail from Elena. His fist squeezes tight and releases, he's using the pressure to focus on so he can hold back his tears.

She needs you, fool.

She's wrong though. He hasn't had enough time to think about it. He can't believe her because it would mean that he would be someone's father. His insecurities scold him. Any child of his, he reasons, is better off without him. And if she's right about the baby, it would mean she is also better off without him. And that's a haunting truth he will always try to outrun.

The first wolf stirs awake and he pockets his phone to check on her.

A/N: Silas makes his first real appearance next chapter. So excited to get to that because I have OPINIONS on the Silas/Amara relationship. I don't think I'll dive too deep into that, but might make a post about it on tumblr. Again, strong opinions on it. I loved Rebekah's sassiness here and Tyler's surprising tenderness.