Elena blinked again as she tried to work through what had made her feel the way she did when she first woke up.
"Are you okay?" Elijah asked.
"I feel good. But I wasn't expecting to wake up like that." Elena exhaled a laugh and shook her head.
"I don't suppose you woke up like that last time, did you?" Elijah brushed her tangled hair out of her face and brushed his thumb across her lower lip.
"I didn't." Elena stretched and twisted her head back and forth to work out the last of the kinks in her joints.
Elijah caught her hand and pressed his lips against her palm. "Did I hurt you?"
"No." Elena smiled and raised herself up on her elbow to kiss him lightly. "How long was I out?"
"About sixteen hours or so. Jenna, Jeremy, and Ryan came in last night. But I didn't think you'd want them to see you dead."
"Thank you. Though speaking of, we probably should take a shower and head downstairs before Jenna decides to barge in, to make sure I survived."
Elijah tilted his head. "Kol's informed her that you're alive."
Suddenly, his nostrils flared and his lips tightened.
"What is it?" Elena
"He's making innuendos."
"He's gonna be insufferable, isn't he?" Elena winced. Kol overhearing them making love was something she knew she'd have to deal with eventually, but to have him hear when she was so beyond out of control, he was going to be terrible.
"Of course he is."
"Since Aunt Jenna is already here, maybe I should get cleaned up and go down and see her. And if Kol says anything else dirty to her, I will help Klaus put him back into the coffin." Elena climbed out of the bed and looked back at the man stretched across the bed.
The shifting sheet revealed his bare chest and he stretched his arms over his head. Elena's breath caught in her throat. He was so perfect and his dark eyes, so intense, yet softened with his smile, regarded her with adoration.
Catching his hand, Elena leaned down and kissed him gently on the lips, before whispering, "I love you."
"I love you." Elijah cradled her jaw. "You've done so much to save my family. How can I ever deserve you?"
"I wouldn't have survived past three months after waking up if it hadn't been for you, so I'd say we're even on that." With one final kiss, Elena headed towards the bathroom.
Turning on the water, Elena held her hand under it as it warmed up. Once she was satisfied with the temperature, she stepped under the spray. As the steaming spray washed away the last twenty-four hours from her skin, Elena tipped her head back and allowed her muscles to relax.
With her eyes closed, she missed the shower door opening and then, Elijah wrapped his arms around her.
"Kol's never going to let us live this down," Elena murmured as she leaned into him.
"Kol doesn't have to listen. And besides, we're just taking a shower," Elijah said as he squeezed body wash onto a sponge.
Elena smiled and picked up the second sponge and poured some body wash into it. Together, they washed each other's bodies, caressing without the intent to arouse, but to comfort.
As they dried off, Elijah said, "I know you were wanting to wait until you graduated, but I was wondering if we could start looking into IVF treatments."
Elena considered for a moment. Elijah had given up on being a father so many centuries ago, so having the opportunity now, it was small wonder he was anxious to get started.
"Okay." She nodded once. "We can start the preliminary blood work and looking into donors. So we can have that taken care of when it's time. You can research doctors, if you want, and we'll discuss them together."
"I don't want to push you before you're ready."
Elena placed his hand against her stomach. "I want a baby with you, and all things considered, I think it's time to start."
It wasn't just for Elijah that she was willing to speed up her timeline. She ached to have her children from her other back and she wanted Ryan to know what it was like to be a proper older brother. It was time to start thinking about herself, what she needed, instead of pushing herself to the back burner and letting her own dreams die.
Elijah smiled widely and hugged her, pressing his cheek to her hair.
"You're going to be a father, Elijah."
"The miracles of modern medicine." His voice cracked and his eyes grew suspiciously wet. "Thank you, Elena. Thank you."
After dressing, they headed down the stairs, Elijah leading the way to where Elena's concerned family members waited.
"Took you long enough," Kol said with a smirk.
"Not another word!" Elena hissed, pointing at him, her anger spiking.
"Oh, thank God." Jenna gasped, running towards her. She flung her arms around Elena and cried. "Don't you ever do that to me again. You're not dying and trusting some five hundred year old potion to bring you back ever again. Do you understand?"
"It won't happen again, I promise."
"You're alright though?"
"I'm perfectly fine. Normal, healthy, nothing wrong with me. I promise."
"Kol kept saying that resurrection has consequences though." Jenna studied Elena's face carefully, as if trying to determine if death had changed her features somehow.
"Whatever the consequences, we'll deal with them. But right now, it seems that they're minimal."
"It took you long enough to come downstairs though," Ryan said as Elena wrapped one arm around his waist and pulled him close.
It was moments like this where he showed just how young he was mentally and emotionally. Her poor boy, a child in a man's body, terrified that his mother was going to leave him.
"It took a while for my brain to catch up that I was alive again. Like booting up a computer, my brain had to cycle itself back up."
"You're sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine, Ryan. I promise."
"Don't do that again." Jeremy whispered. "I can't go through that again. We nearly lost you in the hospital and I can't-"
"I wouldn't have told you I would come back if I didn't think it would happen. Elijah promised and he keeps his promises."
Jeremy nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
"That part's over, I promise. The next time I die, it will be to become a vampire and we've got plans before that happens."
Her brother sniffed, and slowly released his hold on her.
"I'm okay. I promise."
"Where's Klaus? I thought he'd be back here, demanding I give him my blood right away."
"He's still out running. Hayley's watching out for him now," Rebekah replied. "Good to see you're finally awake."
"He's been trapped for a thousand years, I guess it's only natural that he'd want to enjoy being whole. And it's nice to have the curse behind me."
Elijah caught Elena's eye and he raised an eyebrow. She tilted her head to one side in uncertainty when she realized what he was asking. Was it possible that Hope would be coming into existence much sooner than she had the first time around? She couldn't be sure, but having Hayley and Klaus out alone, was a sure recipe for something to happen since Hope was meant to be, with the parents she had before.
After a few hours, Elena's stomach started growling.
"I heard that," Jenna laughed.
"It's time for you to get something to eat," Elijah said as he guided her towards the kitchen.
"And we have things to do, I have to do some final edits on my dissertation and Jeremy has work."
"And I think the library is calling my name," Ryan said as he headed towards his sanctuary.
While Elijah pulled out ingredients, Elena raided the wine cabinet and pulled out a bottle.
"Bottle opener is in the small drawer.
"Thank you."
Making quick work of the stopper, Elena poured herself a glass and sat at the island, watching him.
As Elijah mixed and stirred at the stove, someone said, "So, you're the doppelganger witch."
She hadn't known him well, but she knew that voice.
"You must be Finn." Elena smiled at him.
"And you must be the woman who bargained for our freedom. The question is, why?" Finn's dark eyes, so like Elijah's in shape and color, but haunted by horror that not even Elijah's eyes possessed with all his centuries of experienced.
"You're Elijah's family and I love him. All he wanted was for his family to be reunited, so if Klaus was going to kill me, I may as well get something out of it for him."
"I think there was more, isn't there?"
For being locked in a box for nine hundred years, he was nobody's fool.
"Freya's alive and she wants to come home, but she can't because Dahlia is hunting her. She needs her family united if she's to be set free." She had to give Finn a reason to want to live.
Finn gasped and he rubbed his hand across his face.
"Listen to me, Finn. Your sister, the one your mother told your father was dead because she couldn't bring herself to be honest with him, she's alive. She sleeps for one hundred years, lives for one and she's somewhere in New Orleans now, sleeping."
"She's safe?"
"For now. By the time she wakes up, hopefully, we'll have what we need to free her."
"Whatever it takes, I don't care."
"I've been considering moving to New Orleans sometime late this year or early next," Elijah said. "We'll go together and save her. I'd go now, but we have too many loose ends here that need to be tied off before we can safely leave, and she's safe, for now."
Finn nodded once in in defeat, then asked, "Did you know that she was alive?"
"Yes." Elijah smiled at Elena, though there was no humor in it "Elena told me about the burden you've carried all alone, that our sister was suffering, but to try to protect the rest of us, you kept it a secret."
"How did you find this out?" Finn eyed her suspiciously.
"I have a story, that maybe once I get to know you better, I'll tell you some of it."
"Elijah knows this story?"
"He does. I told him when we first met." Elena lifted the wine glass to her lips.
Finn slid his hands into his pockets and studied the floor.
"While we're tying things off here, we'll find out all we can about Dahlia and how to take her down so Freya can come home," Elena promised. She knew there were things she didn't know about that case, but when they found Freya, she'd find out what it was and how to deal with it then.
"Are you adjusting well?" Elijah asked as he flipped the omelet carefully.
Elena poured Finn a glass of wine and handed it to him, because he seemed so desperate to look anywhere except for at his brother.
"Your protege was kind enough to try to show us how to use electricity and technology, but I fear that I have quite a lot to catch up on still." A hint of bitterness colored his words and Elijah winced.
"Caroline is a good teacher."
"All it took was a woman to convince you to stand up to Niklaus to free me," Finn said resentfully.
Elena wanted to jump in to defend Elijah, but she knew this was between the brothers, so she held her tongue.
"I'm sorry."
"You're sorry," Finn spat, leaping to his feet. "Did you know that after a few centuries, the effects of the dagger wear off?"
Elijah drew a sharp breath, horror bleeding across his face and a chill spread across Elena's body when she realized what Finn was hinting at.
"I could hear you, but I was trapped, alone, in the dark, unable to breath, unable to speak, being driven mad by the solitude." He started pacing back and forth in an effort to keep himself from lashing out.
"Oh, my god!" Elena whispered.
"You- oh god. What have I done?" Elijah asked in horror.
"Did you leave me trapped so you could be the eldest brother?" Finn accused him, as if not registering how disgusted with himself Elijah was.
"No. No. I swear it. I was trying to keep the peace and I know I failed you, even more than I thought, considering you were awake for centuries." Elijah braced his hands on the counter top and hung his head.
"You felt guilty over helping Mikael bind Klaus's werewolf side, so you felt you had to do anything and everything he asked to make up for that. But instead of helping him, you ended up enabling his bad behavior and now it's time to make things right," Elena said quietly.
"I'm so sorry, Finn. I had no right to leave you in the coffin." Elijah growled in disgust. "I'm a failure of a brother and a hypocrite. Always and forever should mean all my siblings, not just to a select few."
"I can't forgive you, not yet."
"You have every right to be furious with me. But I promise you, I won't let it happen again. You're my brother and I want our family to be whole."
Finn studied Elijah for a long moment, then said, "I believe you."
"And I swear to you, I will do everything in my power to earn your forgiveness."
"Help me save Freya. That will go a long way towards earning it."
"Who's Freya?" Klaus asked as he walked through the door.
Hayley followed closely behind him and Elena fought the urge to make any facial expression. Her hair definitely screamed, 'I just had sex with an Original,' and Elena caught Elijah's eye. Hope would soon be coming into existence!
"The sibling we were told died, she's alive and in terrible danger," Elijah replied as he straightened, pulling himself together in front of someone who wasn't yet family.
"She's a very powerful witch," Elena added, to help tempt Klaus into softening towards Freya.
"However, she's unfortunately, bound to a witch more powerful than our mother, the same witch who has allowed her to live so long," Finn added, with a glance in Elena's direction.
Elena gave a slight nod in agreement. Tag teaming with Finn to tempt Klaus with the idea of gaining access to more power wasn't exactly how she thought their first day as semi-family would go, but if it kept Finn from siding with Esther against his siblings, she'd take it.
"When do we start?"
"Late this year," Elena replied. "It will give us time to finish things here so they're less likely to follow us south."
"If our sister is bound to this witch, I would like an army to face her. My hybrids." Klaus looked over at Elena, one brow raised.
"That's your call. Tyler has already agreed to be the first." Elena shook her head even as she spoke.
"You don't like my plan."
"She's too much like you. She just might turn your army into weapons against you, use them as a way of manipulating us."
"We'll start small. Then go from there. But I will have my hybrids."
"I never said you wouldn't get them. I just think an army wouldn't be a wise decision to face Dahlia. If we had a small number of hybrids who we knew were loyal, without the effects of a sire bond, that would be enough. Do not let her have too many people to play with."
"It's time we prepared for war."
If only he knew how right he was. They still had Cade and the Sirens to deal with, the phoenix stone, and so many other things to change. But that would take skill and cunning, a spy game, if you will. Let Klaus worry about Dahlia, it would keep him out of their way while they figured out how to change the rest of what she'd experienced in her past life.
With the family together, it was time to stand together, to fight, to defend each other, and bring down those who would kill simply for the sake of killing. It was time to bring things one step closer to peace.