Messages
Summary - Fifteen years from now Elena receives a message from an old friend (written mid-season 3).
Disclaimer - not my characters, borrowing them with respect for their creators and the amazing people who bring them to life, no infringement intended. I grovel at the feet of LJ Smith, the CW, Ian and Nina and beg forgiveness for borrowing their toys, I am but a child playing... metaphorically speaking…
Her warm familiar voice came across loud and clear, "Hi, this is Elena, sorry we're not home, please leave me a message and I'll try to get back to you." BEEP.
He could never get over how happy she sounded now. So carefree, so light, so alive. Some might have said normal but she could never be normal to him, she was extraordinary.
And again. "Hi, this is Elena, sorry we're not home, please leave me a message and I'll try to get back to you." BEEP. So proud, so confident. Things must be going well. He could always tell when she was faking it, putting on a brave face for everyone else.
One more, just one more, then it'll have to be enough, this was all so horribly, Stefan of him. Yuck. Next he'd be writing her long and devoted letters. Eww. No it was better this way, Damon would keep his distance, let her be. That's what they'd decided six years ago. In some ways it felt like forever, yet what was six years for someone who'd live for over a hundred? In other ways their days together felt like yesterday.
"Hi, this is Elena, sorry we're not home, please leave me a message and I'll try to get back to you." BEEP.
He sighed and smiled and hung up the receiver of the pay-phone. It was getting harder and harder to find them, all these mobile phones. Next time he'd pay for one of those disposable ones. Not that he dared to hope that she'd try to find him, not after all this time. Their agreement had been clear. All three of them, Elena, Damon and his brother.
Elena Gilbert opened the front door and pushed it open with one foot and an elbow before it could swing back and knock the brown paper grocery bags out of her arms. She struggled inside and dumped the bags, her handbag and keys onto the kitchen bench. She noticed the red flashing light immediately and smiled. She hit the button hopefully. Three hang ups today, no message, as usual, but she smiled anyway. She knew what it meant and it was enough.
"Mummy!" A little female voice called as he ran into the kitchen, colliding with Elena's legs as the six year old buried her head between them, Elena stroked her daughter's long black hair. "Did we get a message today?" The little girl asked, coming up for air.
"None for you Jenna, we'll have to call Aunty Bonnie and see if she wants to bring John over for a visit soon."
"Really? Can I talk on the big phone myself."
"Maybe latter sweetie, for now go wash up for dinner."
"Okay," Jenna agreed and he ran off with equal enthusiasm. Elena smiled to herself, she wondered if her daughter would ever stop running, but her boundless energy was a daily reminder of healthy and perfectly normal she was. Things might not have lasted between her and his Dad, she'd never quite managed to settle into a normal relationship, it was impossible for anyone to live up to her first two loves and Jenna's Dad hadn't liked the mysterious hang ups and the secretive letters but how could she ever explain that they were the only way her old friends, her past loves, could let her know they were still watching, that they still cared, and she loved them for it, both of them. One day maybe she could let them back into her life, when Jenna was grown up and it was safe. By then she wouldn't be the young woman they'd known and desired but it would be nice to actually be in the same room as them again one day. She could wait, as long as her and Jenna stayed safe she had all the time in the world.
