Chapter 66: The Rager
November 22, 2010
Since the shooting at the council's funeral, Tyler had been kept in the hospital under Dr. Fell's careful supervision. Mostly, she was having to make sure that no one realized that Tyler wasn't actually hurt at all. In truth, she was a bit of a life saver. She took care of everything and having her work willingly with them was so much easier than having to compel another doctor. Tyler had called Ellie repeatedly, whining about the lack of the things to do. When he got to be too much for her, about two hours in, though sometimes more, she typically reminded him that he did in fact have a girlfriend that he could harass.
Ellie had spent a great deal of her time with Elijah. She felt comfortable in the apartment with him, and in the past few days there were nights that she slept over. It was happening more often as Elena was starting to come home. With Ellie firmly on Stefan's side, Elena and Ellie seemed to be at odds. But the time she spent with Elijah had produced some interesting interactions, such as the other night when the two of them had spent time with Jenna.
He'd come to the house while Elena wasn't there and Jeremy was at work. He'd managed to help Jenna with part of her thesis, much to her delight. Though even if he hadn't, the meal he'd made with Ellie probably would have been enough to win Jenna over. Elijah, unsurprisingly, was quickly becoming a very central figure in her life and she wanted him and Jenna to get along. They'd gotten along with one another well enough before Jenna knew who and what he was, but things were different now and the two of them getting along was incredibly important to Ellie.
Neither Ellie nor Elijah really brought up that they hadn't spoken to Klaus. They didn't even talk about him. He'd hurt Rebekah, probably more than he realized. She hadn't spoken to Rebekah either, but she knew that the blonde had been hurt. Ellie couldn't help but wonder if he even cared. He'd left Ellie a note, explaining that he was going back to Chicago and wished her well. She'd half expected him to make her hold up her deal that she'd made and have her go with him, she didn't know why he didn't. "Ellie, hello… where did you go?" Katherine asked as she snapped her fingers to get the witch's attention.
"Just thinking." Ellie replied.
"About what? Your lover boy?" Katherine asked slyly.
Ellie blushed slightly before throwing a balled up piece of paper at the vampire. Last night had been a girls night at Katherine's with Ellie and Jenna. They'd continued with their workouts, but they'd also started spending more time together in general. Katherine seemed better off for it. Ellie had noticed that Katherine seemed a little bit more free. She seemed happy and the thought that Ellie contributed to that made her feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. "Shut up." Ellie scoffed. After everything that Katherine had been through, she deserved to have happiness.
"So if not Elijah, then what are you thinking about?" Jenna asked her curiously as stood behind Katherine, idly braiding the other girl's hair.
"A lot of things. Klaus being one of them." Ellie admitted.
"Thinking about the boyfriend's brother, how Elena of you." Katherine sassed.
Ellie gave her an unimpressed look. "Not like that, jerk. I mean, there's a chance that my blood would work to turn hybrids, right? I mean it's an untested theory, but it would make sense. If he's so hellbent on his hybrid army, family, whatever he wants to call it, why did he leave instead of taking me with him?" She explained.
"Are you complaining because he didn't kidnap you?" Katherine asked. "That's what it sounds like, right?" She tilted her head back to look at Jenna for confirmation.
"That's kinda what it sounds like." Jenna replied.
"I just mean… it's a little out of character for him, right? I just get curious is all."
Katherine straightened to give her a serious look. "El, listen Klaus is a thousand years old and if his siblings can't even figure out what's going on in that slightly insane head of his, it's doubtful that you're going to manage it. No one knows what Klaus is thinking except for Klaus."
"He's not your responsibility you know." Jenna reminded her gently. "I know you care about him, despite how complicated everything is, but if Klaus doesn't help himself, there's not much you can do for him. And from what you told me about Mikael and Esther, it's a miracle they're all as relatively functional as they are."
Ellie huffed as she rubbed her eyes. "I just feel bad. He's got abandonment issues and what did I do? I abandoned him."
"You didn't abandon him. You're giving him the silent treatment for his shitty treatment of Rebekah, who is also your friend. Listen, Rebekah and I have never gotten along but even I think you were in the right." Katherine assured her. "Hell, if Elena ever tried that with you or Jenna, I'd do a lot more than just throw her into a wall or punch her. She'd be lucky if all I did was snap her neck. I'd have no issue ripping out her spine if I felt the need."
"That's just because you hate her." Ellie replied.
"Yes, we all know I hate her, but you and Jenna are the closest thing I have to friends, or to family, I have a right to be protective." Katherine told her. "We're friends, remember?"
Both Jenna and Ellie gave her a look of surprise. Katherine, even now, was still relatively reserved on expressing her true feelings. So for her to willing admit that she considered them family was an absolutely huge deal. But she also reminded Ellie of what she'd told Katherine. It seemed like forever ago that Ellie suggested that they could be friends because it would make Elena mad. "She would hate the very thought of it." Ellie confirmed.
They didn't say anything about what Katherine had said, but they were both grinning to themselves. "Oh dear god what are you two grinning about?" Katherine asked.
The two girls shared a look before Ellie replied in a sing-song voice. "You called us your family."
"That's not that big of a deal." Katherine scoffed.
"Yes it is." Jenna replied in the same sing-song voice Ellie had used.
Rolling her eyes, Katherine said, "You two are far too sentimental."
"Aww, Kat, we love you too!" Ellie cried before placing a dramatic kiss to Katherine's cheek.
The vampire wiped it off with an over exaggerated look of disgust. "What else is on your mind so we can get off this stupid topic?" Katherine asked. "Come on, I know there's something other than Klaus, you've been chewing on your lip so hard I'm amazed it hasn't started to bleed."
As Jenna moved to take a seat at the table with them, Ellie looked over at Katherine. "What's blood sharing? Well, I mean, I know what it is but why is it significant?"
Katherine had an odd look on her face. "Where did you hear about blood sharing?" She asked. "Surely not from Elijah."
"No, not from Elijah. It's just…"
"Wait, what's blood sharing?" Jenna asked curiously.
"It's basically where one vampire drinks from another vampire." Katherine supplied. "Now, where did you hear about that?"
"Apparently, Damon had Elena feed from him when she was struggling, and by struggling I mean failing to keep down any animal blood or blood from a blood bag. So he had her feed on him but apparently she couldn't even keep that down." Ellie explained. "And Stefan was pissed off about it but he didn't explain why."
Katherine had a dark look on her face. "Are Elena and Stefan still together?"
"I mean sort of, I think. I haven't really asked, but they're acting like it." Ellie replied. "Why?"
Katherine actually had to take a deep breath to steady herself and to reign in her emotions. "Ellie, blood sharing is just about the most intimate act two vampires can share together. To vampires, blood sharing is more intimate than sex." She explained. "Even with vampires, it's not a common thing unless you're really serious about someone. It's incredibly personal."
Jenna and Ellie's eyes had gone wide in surprise. "No wonder Stefan was pissed off." Jenna commented. "Did Damon know that it was significant like that?"
"I think so. When Damon said it he was like 'oops, did I say that out loud'? And then when Stefan was mad at Elena he said that he knew that what she did didn't mean anything to her, but he knew for a fact that it meant something to Damon." Ellie replied.
"Damon's in love with her, or obsessed with her, whichever way you want to call it, the same way he was in love and obsessed with me." Katherine told them. "Which isn't surprising when she looks like me and he spent over a hundred years in love with me and trying to bring me back."
Ellie had a small look of disgust on her face. "It's just really frustrating to watch Stefan put his emotions aside like they don't matter because she starts to cry about how her life is a never ending funeral and how she's so so sorry." Ellie admitted.
Katherine gave her a look. "She started to cry to get him to stop yelling at her? How pathetic. You and Jeremy and Jenna have lost just as many people as she has and you're not acting like a weak cry baby over it and you definitely don't use it as a way to get out of someone getting mad at you. Hell, you've lost more people than she has. She didn't care about the Martins or Bonnie's Grams. They held no emotional connection with her. Yet here you are, still putting basically everyone's needs ahead of your own." Katherine reminded her. "Honestly, if Stefan was going to fall in love with my lookalike, he could have at least had some taste and picked you. I wouldn't have been nearly as annoyed if he'd at least picked someone with a personality other than a self centered cry baby."
Ellie snorted in amusement. "Oh come on, if Stefan had fallen in love with me, we wouldn't be friends right now because you would hate me for the sole reason that I had Stefan and you didn't." Ellie replied.
"Probably, but at least I wouldn't be so disappointed in him." Katherine told her.
"Well, I'm glad he didn't. I'd rather be your friend instead." Ellie said before adding, "Correction, I'd rather be your family."
Jenna laughed as Katherine groaned. "You two are never going to shut up about that are you?"
"Not a chance in hell. Sorry." Jenna confirmed. "Ellie, do you have to be getting to school?"
She looked at the time on her phone and then groaned in annoyance. "Yeah, I should get going. Today's Elena's first day back since everything happened. So this should be interesting."
"Oh, let me know if she starts to lose her shit again!" Katherine said excitedly.
"Will do." Ellie said. "See you guys later."
"Bye!" The two others chimed together.
The ride to school wasn't terribly long and she ended up bumping into Stefan and Elena in the halfway. Seeing Stefan's look of pleading, Ellie asked the other girl, "Elena, are you sure you're ready for this?"
For a moment, Ellie thought that Elena was going to ignore her entirely. "I've made it this far. I'm not bailing on senior year." Elena finally replied, though she didn't look her way. They walked into history and took a seat. Ellie had skipped history multiple times since everything went down, but Rebekah had been kind enough to compel the substitutes into marking her as present. It was undoubtedly part of Rebekah's attempt to make up for killing Elena.
Elena sucked in a sharp breath and Stefan seemed to understand the dilemma. "It's the first time we've been back in Alaric's classroom."
"The first period, and I'm ready to bawl my eyes out." Elena commented.
Rebekah chose that moment to make her appearance. "Morning, everyone!" She called.
Elena sighed heavily. "And just like that, I'm no longer feeling sentimental."
"So, I'm throwing a little anti-curfew party at my new house. Starts at fifth period, goes to whenever. Spread the word. You're welcome to join Elena, if you'd like to bury the hatchet." Rebekah said as she passed Elena a flyer.
"It's a pretty enormous hatchet." Elena replied.
"Well, I'm feeling generous of spirit."
Elena picked up the flyer and said, "New house, huh? Did your brother finally kick you out?"
"He didn't kick me out. I left." Rebekah corrected.
"So you left the only person on earth that actually likes you?" Elena asked cruelly.
Ellie winced. There was no doubt Rebekah was going to do or say something to get at Elena, but then again, Elena brought it on herself. She should know better than to trash talk someone and their family. "Well, your boyfriend liked me once. Actually, a lot more than once. And I'm fairly certain your sister likes me better than she likes you. At least I actually treat her with respect."
Stefan looked to Rebekah and asked, "Why are you still in town, Rebekah? Don't you have anywhere else to go?"
"Well, history's my favorite class. Actually, where is Mr. Saltzman? Oh, that's right. I killed him." Rebekah whispered. Ellie flinched uncomfortably at the mention, but Elena started this fight. Using Alaric to get at her was an unsurprising tactic. Elena threw her pencil at Rebekah, but the blonde caught it and sent it speeding back to Elena. It lodged itself into Elena's shoulder and she yanked it out angrily as the bell rang.
Elena rushed out of the room with Stefan hot on her heels. Ellie sighed and sent a look to Rebekah before following after them. "Just breathe, just breathe. You haven't felt this kind of rage before." Stefan instructed her.
"I hate her." Elena said angrily. "I didn't think I was capable of hate, but I hate her and I hate that I hate her." She was breathing heavily before she froze, looking at something over Stefan's shoulder. "That's the hunter."
They turned to see the hunter talking with one of the teachers as Jeremy stood at his locker a few feet away. "What the hell is he doing here?"
"Jeremy." Elena breathed. "No."
Elena moved towards Jeremy, but Stefan pulled her back. "No, no, no, hey. You get this, ok?" Stefan said as he gestured towards Elena's bloodied hand. "I got that."
"Elena, go get cleaned up, I'll go with Stefan." Ellie added. Elena sighed but didn't stop them as they went after Jeremy and the hunter. "Where did they go?" She whispered as she followed Stefan through the halls.
"They're in there." Stefan replied as they stopped at a door. They stepped forward to the window as Jeremy pushed out of his seat. Ellie could see the hunter talking to Jeremy, but she didn't know what he was saying. Jeremy caught sight of them and nodded to let them know he was ok. "Come on." Stefan said as he pulled her away from the door.
They'd managed to get all the way to lunch before Elena looked like she was on the verge of snapping. She'd dug her nails into her palms so deeply that she'd drawn blood before Stefan suggested, "Why don't we go outside and take a breather?" Honestly, Ellie was only with them because Caroline had dragged her along with the insistence that if Elena snapped, Ellie could use her magic to make sure no one saw anything.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Caroline agreed and as discreetly as possible, they made their way out to the stoner pit. It was convenient that getting stoned made a lot of them hungry, which meant that when they arrived, the pit was completely deserted. Elena immediately started to pace as the three of them watched her a bit worriedly. The blonde sat on the edge of the table while Ellie sat next to her. Stefan took a seat on the bench and propped his arm up on Ellie's leg. "It was a valiant first day effort." Caroline said in an attempt to cheer Elena up. "No one will judge you if you want to go home."
"I don't want to go home." Elena replied immediately. "I want to take the white oak stake and kill her. That's how mad I am. She made me murderous."
"How about we just leave the murdering to Damon?" Stefan asked as he stood up.
"And… and then do what? Ignore her to death?" Elena questioned.
"Look, she's trying to make herself feel better. She knows that everybody hates her, so she's trying to hate harder." Stefan explained. Caroline nudged Ellie to give her a look of warning. Unsurprisingly, she knew Ellie wouldn't take well to Stefan saying that everybody hated Rebekah when she didn't. "Tell you what. Let's just skip the rest of the day, go have some fun. I feel like this day is severely lacking in fun."
Caroline smiled hopefully at her. "Yeah, ok, fine. We'll go to her party and show her that she can't intimidate me. I just have to go home and change first." Elena agreed. She waved goodbye to the girls at the picnic table before walking off.
"Does she seem a little off balance to you guys?" Caroline asked curiously once Elena was gone.
"A little?" Ellie repeated.
"Yeah." Stefan agreed. "She's channeling all her emotions into rage. Makes her feel like she has a purpose."
"Well, it's total garbage. I mean, I'm glad she's not channeling it towards me since we're not exactly on great terms at the moment, but still it's total garbage." Ellie complained. When Caroline made a face, she replied, "What? I'm still Rebekah's friend and they're putting me in the middle of all their drama."
"Rebekah did kill her." Caroline reminded her.
"Because Alaric was trying to kill her whole family. I mean how many times has someone in the group killed someone to protect their family. God Care, some random woman's death is my fault because I saved Jenna. It's not as black and white as Elena would like it to be." Ellie replied. "Had it not been for Alaric, Bekah wouldn't have killed Elena no matter how much she didn't like her."
"And why is that?" Caroline asked.
"Because I'm one of the only real friends she has." Ellie told her. "I mean other than it being a bit… well, a lot more extreme, they've placed me in the middle of their drama the same way I would get put in the middle between you and Elena. Because let's be real, before you turned, Elena wasn't always that great of a friend to you."
When Caroline didn't have a response, Stefan added, "I used to do the same thing she's doing, when I was, you know…"
"Ripper you?" Ellie suggested.
"Yeah. She needs to come to terms with it, confront it, let it in before she can let it go." Stefan explained.
As he picked up his bag, Caroline told him, "You're good at this. You know that? You saved my vampire life. Now you're saving hers. You should write a book, go on 'The View'." Stefan hummed in agreement.
"You could make a vampire talk show, like Dr. Phil or something. Ooh, or you could make a 'vampires for dummies' class." Ellie suggested as she looped her arm through Stefan's.
"Oh my god, yes. I can see it now. You could be on those late night talk shows." Caroline continued. Stefan was grinning at the two of them. "Anyways, Ellie did you ask Elijah about the weird carving thing?"
"No, I forgot to get one of the bullets and then we've just… it isn't necessarily at the top of things I'm thinking about, so it kind of slipped my mind." Ellie replied.
"And what's been at the top of what you're thinking about then?" Caroline asked, her tone clearly suggestive.
"Oh shut up." Ellie huffed. She ignored the grinning blonde in favor of turning to Stefan. "Stef, could you give me one so I can show them. I've been trying to find something about it in the grimoires that Elijah has, but so far nothing. But they might know something, they might be able to help."
Stefan looked reluctant. "I don't know, Ellie."
"Come on, Stef. You hating Klaus is one thing, but Elijah hasn't done anything. Hell, I'd call Kol if you'd rather me go that route. He really hasn't done anything to anyone. Crushing Matt's hand when I fixed it right after, in comparison, is nothing to what Damon has done." Ellie reminded him. "If they're planning on staying here, a vampire hunter in town, while not lethal for them, could be very annoying."
Ellie was giving him a pleading look. "Yeah, ok. After the party I'll get you one of the bullets and you can take it to Elijah." He agreed. "Are you guys headed to the party now."
"Actually, Tyler's out of the hospital today, so I was thinking about going to see him before the party, maybe get him to tag along." Caroline replied. "Do you wanna come with, Ellie?"
"And watch you and Tyler make out? No offense, but pass." Ellie replied. "Besides, with Elena in rage mode, Stefan's probably going to need back up to keep her from doing something stupid, like trying to kill Rebekah in front of everything. I'll probably go ahead and go to the party."
Caroline nodded. "Ok, have fun."
The three of them separated as they reached their cars. By the time Ellie arrived at the party, there was already a surprisingly large group there. Obviously, no one had taken to the idea of a curfew very well, despite several of them having watched Tyler get shot. She found the blonde in the kitchen, pouring herself a drink. "Rebekah!"
"Ellie, you came!" Rebekah said in surprise as she passed her drink to the witch. It was the first time they'd really talked since Elena turned.
"I figured I should." Ellie admitted. "Elena is planning on coming I think, and I don't want to risk her trying to kill you in the middle of a party. Someone has to keep the peace and I don't know if Stefan can manage it on his own."
"You and Elijah really are made for each other. You take care of everyone. Come on, drink, relax a bit, you deserve it." Rebekah insisted. When Ellie looked hesitant, Rebekah added, "Come on, live a little. Nothing bad is going to happen." Ellie downed the contents of the cup in one go. "Atta girl!" She encouraged. With a bit of hesitation, she asked, "Would you like to come socialize with me?" Ellie nodded in agreement and let Rebekah lead her around the room. They'd been chatting away with one of the girls in their class when Ellie spotted Stefan and Elena arrive.
She and Stefan shared a look of understanding. The longer they could keep Rebekah unaware of Elena's presence, the longer they could keep something bad from happening. Once Elena walked off, Ellie made her way over to Stefan. "Where did she go?" She asked curiously.
"She went to talk to April Young." Stefan replied.
"On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it?"
"Her rage at the moment is teetering on the edge of deadly." He admitted. "I'll keep an eye on her, don't worry. But I'm going to need something stronger than beer to deal with this."
"If she's anything like Klaus, she's going to keep the good stuff on the very top shelf to the right of the stove." Ellie informed him.
"Thanks."
As he walked off, Rebekah appeared. "So my least favorite doppelgänger is here. Well, let's go find her shall we?"
"Bekah, please don't do anything bad." Ellie whined slightly as she allowed Rebekah to pull her along.
"She has the audacity to come to my house after her attitude. She is very much not welcomed here." Rebekah replied.
They caught the sound of Elena saying, "So you… you don't think that it was an accident?"
"I know there's no investigation, that everyone's calling it an accident but the shooting at the church, it just feels like…"
"Like something wicked this way comes. I know, right?" Rebekah supplied for April as she and Ellie walked into the room. "It's like this town's cursed or something."
Elena looked tense as she told April, "Hey, April, why don't you go look around the house, and I'll find you in a little bit." April agreed easily and left the three girls alone in the kitchen.
Once she was gone, Rebekah asked, "Did I forget to uninvite you?"
"Did you blow up her dad's house to get revenge on the council?" Elena asked angrily.
Rebekah looked offended. "I don't give a damn about some dodgy middle aged council. You come into my house, throw around false accusations, and then you have the nerve to drink my beer?" The blonde snatched the cup out of Elena's hand and downed it.
Ellie startled when she started to hear something sizzling. "My ring." Elena gasped. She rushed over and hid in a corner out of the sunlight. "Give it back." She demanded.
"Get it yourself." Rebekah sassed as she tossed the ring into the drain and turned on the garbage disposal.
"No!" Elena cried as she tried to move forward but jerked back as the sun burnt her skin.
"Rebekah!" Ellie yelped. Rebekah just shrugged and walked off. Ellie quickly turned the disposal off at the same time Elena rushed forward, shoving her hand down the drain. Her skin started sizzling immediately, but she quickly pulled out her and put it back on. As her skin returned to normal, Ellie watched as she panted heavily. "Elena…"
Elena ignored her in favor of rushing to her bag and pulling out the white oak stake. Ellie felt a surge of panic until Stefan blocked Elena's path. "Damon give that to you?" He asked her curiously as Ellie walked to stand next to him.
"Yes, reluctantly." Elena admitted. "Stefan, she's… she's not gonna stop. She's just gonna keep pushing and pushing."
"Well, if you want to kill her, I'm not going to stop you." Stefan replied and Ellie's hand shot out to grab a fistful of his shirt. He had his hands behind his back, and squeezed her hand in reassurance. "But, see, here's what'll happen. It'll feel really good for about ten seconds, and then after that, tens and thousands of vampires all over the world will start to die. Every vampire she ever turned will die. See, rage is a really powerful feeling, but guilt… take it from me, it'll destroy you. So you can either go after her or you can get on the back of my motorcycle and we can get the hell out of here."
Ellie was nearly overwhelmed with relief when Elena passed the white oak stake to Stefan. She followed them out to the front, but stopped next to Rebekah as Stefan and Elena went down the stairs. "Leaving so soon?" Rebekah called.
"No." Elena replied. "Not just yet. I never got a drink." She passed Stefan her bag before walking over to the keg. She flipped up into a keg stand and everyone immediately started to cheer as they chanted for her to chug. Rebekah looked royally pissed as Elena let herself down. "Now, I'm ready to go."
Once they were gone, Ellie had expected Rebekah to make some sort of comment. Instead, Rebekah looked sick. "Bekah, are you ok?" The blonde didn't respond, instead, she lost her balance slightly and propped against the railing for support. "Bekah?" Rebekah righted herself before walking inside.
Rebekah stopped at a mirror and Ellie watched as red veins flared through her face. "What in the hell?" Rebekah asked. She stumbled, and the empty cup slipped out of her hand and onto the floor.
Ellie shot forward, catching Rebekah as she groaned lowly. "Rebekah, what the hell is going on?" All of her former hesitation at being around Rebekah after what she'd done disappeared in an instant as her concern took over. Rebekah looked sickly as Ellie kept a tight hold on her.
"I don't know." Rebekah whined quietly. "What's happening to me?"
"Come on, let's get you up to your room." Ellie insisted as she wrapped Rebekah's arm over her shoulder. They made their way upstairs slowly and Ellie managed to sit Rebekah at her vanity. "Oh god." Ellie gasped. The same red veins that had flashed through Rebekah's face had appeared on her hands. "Listen to me, Rebekah look at me." The blonde's eyes were wide as she looked at Ellie. "Listen, I'm going to go call Elijah. Ok, we'll figure out what's happening to you."
"Ok." Rebekah said slowly. "I'll just sit here." She dropped her head into her arms as Ellie practically ran out of the room. She ran downstairs and out into the backyard so that she wouldn't be overheard.
Once she was far enough away from the large group of people, she quickly dialed Elijah. "Hello, Eleanor, is everything ok? I thought you were with Rebekah."
"I am. Elijah, something's wrong. Something's happening to Rebekah."
"What are you talking about?"
"She was fine one minute and then she was out of it and there were these weird red veins that flashed across her face and by the time I got her up to her room, there were red veins running up her hand. I don't know what's happening to her." Ellie explained in a rush.
"I'll be there soon. Stay close to Rebekah. We don't know what's happening." Elijah instructed.
Ellie returned to Rebekah's room to find the other girl standing, but shaking in her spot. "Rebekah?"
"I thought I killed him." Rebekah whispered in horror.
"Killed him? Killed who?" Ellie asked worriedly.
"Matt. Matt, he was here and he was… I killed him." Rebekah replied as she stared at her hands.
Ellie moved to her and carefully took her hands. "Rebekah, Matt's not here. I haven't seen him and you definitely didn't kill him." She assured her. "Listen, Elijah is on his way and we're going to figure this out, ok? Everything is going to be fine." Rebekah nodded as Ellie talked. "Why don't you lay down and try to get some rest, ok?"
"Ok." Rebekah agreed as she allowed Ellie to lead her to the bed.
"Sit down, let me take off your shoes." Ellie instructed. Once she pulled off the heels that Rebekah had been wearing, the blonde tiredly pulled the covers up. She fell asleep almost instantly and Ellie set out to try and make sure nothing bad happened at the party. She walked straight into Elijah as she turned a corner. "Elijah!"
"Where is she?" He asked worriedly.
"Up in her room. I don't know what's wrong with her." Ellie replied. When they got to Rebekah's room they spotted the way she looked to be in pain.
Elijah went over and felt her forehead. "She's burning up. What happened?"
"I don't know. Everything else at the party has seemed normal, but then she just got really sick out of nowhere." Ellie told him. Her phone started to ring, cutting off whatever it was that Elijah was about to say. "Stefan?" Ellie asked as she answered the phone.
"Ellie, I need you to try and reach Klaus. That hunter, he got some of Tyler's venom. He put in the beer." Stefan explained hurriedly.
Realization dawned on Ellie. "Elena…"
"She's already starting to hallucinate. I've called Klaus probably ten times and he hasn't responded." Stefan replied.
"Wait, Klaus left for Chicago. Stefan, there's no way he's going to make it back in time." Ellie said as she started to panic.
"No, no, no. I talked to Caroline earlier, apparently Klaus came back into town to protect Tyler from the hunter." Stefan assured her.
"I'll call him. Where are you guys?"
"We're at the boarding house." Stefan replied.
"I'm on my way. I'll try and see if I can ease the pain until Klaus can help her." Ellie told him before hanging up. She turned to see Rebekah's face contort in pain. "At least it won't kill her, but Elena…"
"Go. I'll watch over Rebekah until the venom works itself out of her system." Elijah assured her. "But what of this hunter?"
"I meant to ask you about it, but I just got distracted with everything else. I'll fill you in on everything once Elena's ok, I promise." Ellie replied.
"Breathe, Eleanor." He reminded her. "Klaus will heal Elena. She will be fine." He kissed her quickly. "Go, Rebekah will be fine."
"I'll see you later." Ellie replied. As she rushed to her car, she called Klaus.
"I thought you didn't want to speak to me." He said as he answered the phone. "What do you want?"
"Elena's dying. She needs your blood to heal her." Ellie replied.
"And why should that be of any concern to me? She's a vampire now, she's of no use to me."
"Damn it, Klaus. Why do you always have to be such a dick? Are you physically incapable of doing something decent because your friend asks you to?" Her mind was racing. If Klaus refused to heal Elena, would Ellie be able to save her on her own?
"We're friends are we? Last time I saw you, you threw me into a wall."
"Because you were treating Rebekah like shit and you deserved it."
"You're not particularly helping your case, love." He reminded her.
Ellie's foot pressed down a little too hard on the gas in her annoyance and she had to take a deep breath to calm herself. "When was the last time I ever asked you for anything, Klaus?" She asked. "You have lost siblings before. Even if you didn't act like you cared about Finn's death, I know you did. I have lost too many people Klaus, for once just do this for me."
"Trying to play to my sympathy, little witch?" He questioned.
"Trying to play to the part of you that actually gives a damn about me. We both know you do or you'd have killed me a long time ago." Ellie replied before hanging up abruptly.
She arrived at the same time Klaus did, and he looked more than a little irritated. "Are we really not above hanging up on each other?" He questioned.
"We would be if you weren't acting like a dick all the time." She snapped.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't turn around right now and leave Elena to die." He hissed.
"Because your friend is asking you too. Last time I checked, you don't seem to have many of those left. You keep pushing people away. If you keep it up you'll have no one left." She told him. "Klaus, please."
She looked tired, and the conflict he felt didn't help anything. The wolf in him was furious that she would try to emotionally manipulate him into doing what she wanted. The human in him reminded him of the loss of Henrik. The memory of his little brother, still so crystal clear in his mind, was what had him caving. Of course, if this hunter was who he thought he was, then there may be use for Elena still. Klaus looked her over before nodding. "Well alright then. I suppose, for you, I'll save the damsel in distress."
They made their way up to Stefan's bedroom. "You came." He said in surprise as he noticed them.
"I did. And for future reference, one voicemail is just as effective as nine." Klaus told him. Elena let out a whine of pain that caught his attention. "What's wrong, love?"
"She has werewolf venom in her system. You know you're the only one that can heal her, Klaus. Please." Stefan replied.
"And what would you have done if I were no longer here?" Klaus asked. "Hmm? If you and your friends had succeeded in ridding the world of me? Let's play that game for a moment, shall we?"
"Whatever you want from me-"
"I don't want anything from you!" Klaus shouted before he walked over towards Elena. "Her, on the other hand… if you had told me a few hours ago, I wouldn't have cared a lick about her dying. But as it turns out you may be of use to me after all." Klaus told her as he bit into his wrist before bringing it up to her mouth. "There we go." Klaus said as Elena brought her hands up to hold onto his wrist.
It wasn't long before he pulled his wrist away. "Thank you." Stefan said tightly.
Klaus didn't look impressed. "Well, if that's all, I do believe I'll be going. I'll be sure to see you later." He directed that last statement towards Ellie, but she rolled her eyes.
Elena, in her exhaustion, had fallen asleep in Stefan's bed. "Stef, are you ok?" Ellie asked worriedly.
"Yeah. I'm just… do you think Caroline could come over?" He replied.
"I… yeah sure. Is everything ok?"
"I just wanted to talk to her about something. To both of you actually." He admitted. He sent a quick text before he led Ellie downstairs. "Thank you for getting him here by the way. Had it just been me asking, there's a good chance he would have told me to fuck off."
Ellie shrugged. "I don't know if me asking is why he came. I want to know what the hell he meant when he said that she might have use after all."
"I'm sure we'll find out. Would you like a drink?" He asked as he poured himself a glass.
"Yeah." She agreed. He passed the glass to her before pouring one for himself. Ellie was, admittedly, concerned as she watched Stefan get lost in his own thoughts. She wanted to ask what was bugging him, but figured it would be better to wait for Caroline.
Luckily, she didn't have to wait long before Caroline made her appearance. "Hey." Caroline called as she walked in.
"Hey, thanks for coming." Stefan said as he took a seat.
"Not everyday I get summoned by a Salvatore. So what's up?" Caroline replied.
He sighed heavily before he asked, "Do you remember what you were like before you turned?"
"You mean an insecure control freak?" Caroline asked as she took a seat next to Ellie. "Yeah."
Stefan chuckled lightly before saying, "You grew into yourself when you became a vampire. You changed. And Elena, she's changing, too. And I want her to be able to enjoy it without all the guilt and shame that I went through. And there was a moment today when she did. And when I'm with her, every bone in my body tells me to join her, to enjoy it. But I know that if I do, even a little, that I risk becoming him, the Ripper. I love her, and I don't want to hold her back."
"But you don't know how to be around her and still resist that urge." Caroline said in understanding.
"Damon promised he'd help me stay off the edge, but, uh, he and I, we're not in a very good place right now, not when it comes to her." Stefan explained. A small part of Ellie, the part most like Katherine, whispered that it was Elena's fault that they were fighting. "I just thought you're so good at it, at being a vampire."
Caroline laughed slightly before she explained, "Because of you, Stefan. I'm good at it because of you."
Stefan smiled softly at her before looking at Ellie. "And you, Ellie, god after everything we've been through. It was you that got me through the no humanity phase. Even in my darkest moments, you didn't give up on me. Even when you had every right to hate me, there was a part of me that knew you wouldn't abandon me. I… I honestly haven't felt like that since, since Lexi. She was the one to always be there to pull me back, and when I lost her, I didn't know what I was going to do. And then when we were gone, you never looked at me differently after what I'd had to do."
"Stefan, I told you. You're stuck with me." Ellie told him gently. "You did just as much for me as I hope I did for you."
Caroline smiled at the interaction before saying, "Come to me whenever you want, and I won't let you lose control."
"Same here. After everything you've done for us, let us look out for you for once, Stef." Ellie added. "We won't let the Ripper take control of you."
Caroline nodded in agreement. "Thank you guys, really. It means a lot to me." He told them.
"It's what friends are for." Ellie assured him.
Author's Note:
As always, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review and let me know your thoughts! Also, is there anything you guys would really like to see whether in the main story or in a one shot? I always love getting to see what you guys are thinking.
To Gwenaria1: I assure you I'm not sick of it lol. It's always really reassuring to hear! I'm always glad to give insight to what's going on, and the occasional commentary from someone else's perspective always helps. And no problem! I love answering questions for you guys!
To Guest: There definitely will not be any form of a love triangle. I promise you that. I also like the idea of having a healthy development for once.
To brigitm28: He really is so gentlemanly. She definitely does deserve to be a little selfish for once. Katherine is really so much fun to write. Elena as a vampire is definitely horrible. I think it's funny that before, Elena refrained from killing Rebekah because she didn't want to kill her entire line but then turns around and kills Kol's. Like what? I haven't really had any time to work on that one.
To Guest(2): I've never written a sexy scene so we'll see how that turns out. I most likely won't kill off Stefan I like him too much.
To flawsome4ever: Thank you so much!
To Traveler Lovegood: Hayley and Elijah won't have a romantic relationship. I have no intention of doing a love triangle. I do still plan for Hope to be born, there's just going to be some changes that affect some stuff. But no matter what, Ellie won't get pregnant with Klaus' child because that would be a break in Elijah's trust in Ellie, plus Ellie sees Klaus kind of like a frustrating big brother sometimes.
To Whataboringlife: I can neither confirm nor deny his saving, but either way, he will come back eventually even if he does die.
-Madame Magic
Posted: 4/24/21