A.N.: Thank you for the reviews! Alymariet, I can't reply to your lovely messages!
You all know I struggle to find a Face Claim for Giulia that I can remain loyal to; but Gal Gadot is flawless, and comes pretty close, if you gave her blazing ice-blue/grey eyes, and an hourglass figure.
Machiavelli's Daughter
09
Elena Interruptus
"Sorry I'm late."
"That's okay, I made a couple dates while I waited," Giulia said, smiling, as Stefan grinned, leaning down to give her a kiss on the cheek, something he had never done before: Human blood made him more extroverted, more charismatic. Daring.
"You look beautiful," Stefan told her.
"Thank you - new haircut?" Giulia asked, and Stefan grinned; he had adopted the popular fade, his golden hair longer and slightly tousled on top, and he was grinning in a self-satisfied sort of way, as if he had left some pretty girl lounging in bed, thoroughly satisfied. He looked relaxed for the first time in Giulia's memory.
"Uh - yeah. Rebekah strong-armed me into trying out that rockabilly barbershop in Richmond," Stefan said, rolling his eyes.
"Looks like she made it worth your while," Giulia smirked, and Stefan shrugged. So that's how it was. "Are you two…?"
"Me and Rebekah? I mean - I remember her from the Twenties. But unless you count post-traumatic sex, we're not…together," Stefan said, glancing at the waiter who came by to fill their glasses with water. "Bourbon, please, neat. Giulia, are you having another?"
"A glass of the house red, please," Giulia smiled at the waiter, who knew her, and didn't question Stefan's order; the waiter strode off with a nod, leaving them to their menus.
"Wine, huh?"
"I'm a grown-up now. So, tell me about this post-traumatic Original sex you've been having," Giulia chuckled.
"I don't know, Bekah woke up infatuated with me like it was yesterday. Katherine's been keeping her distance, ever since New Mexico… I figured, why not? Bekah's insane in bed."
"You sound so blasé about it."
"It's the blood," Stefan acknowledged, agitated, accepting his drink and taking a healthy swig. "I'd feel a hell of a lot guiltier about it if I didn't know Bekah's using me just as much as I am her: Sex is about the only release we have, dealing with Klaus. He makes the Ripper of Monterrey look like a choirboy."
"I've heard that rumour," Giulia said grimly. "Well…I will say Rebekah's a little more durable than your usual coping-methods… How is it?"
"Uh…well, I can pull myself back, now; I don't…don't tear them apart," Stefan said, his face leaching of colour so briefly she might have imagined it. A muscle ticked in his jaw, one of his few tells; he was more affected than he let on.
"Stefan…that's huge," Giulia told him earnestly, and a ghost of a smile flitted across his face.
"Yeah," he said quietly, gazing down at the menu.
Giulia narrowed her eyes at him, picking up on his body-language, even his phrasing, stunned to realise, "You've not turned off your emotions."
"Like you said ages ago; if I did that, he'd win," Stefan said hollowly. She remembered a few very fraught phone-calls with Stefan in the early days of his servitude. She had been studying for her PhD in psychological profiling: He had made for invaluable experience.
"How long?" she demanded.
"Are we still talking about Rebekah?"
"How long since your last kill?" Giulia asked, frowning at him; Stefan held her eye reluctantly.
"Six years, four months, thirteen days," Stefan said, clearing his throat. "I - I had to. Klaus wasn't getting any better, so I had to. I - taught myself."
"How?" Giulia prompted gently.
"I stopped binging like it was fast-food and started thinking of it as gourmet…to be savoured and experienced…the scent of their skin, their warmth, the tang of sparkling wine, the rhythm of their heartbeats," Stefan said softly, savouring. He swigged his bourbon, leaning back bodily in his chair. "And…"
"And…?"
"And I trained myself to think of it as the precursor to something else…something to let loose all the aggression," Stefan said, barely meeting her eye.
"Katherine."
Stefan cleared his throat, almost blushing. Giulia hid a smirk. "So you feasted; and then you-"
"Are you two ready to order?"
"We'll have the moules marinière to share, to start," Giulia said, taking the menu from Stefan, who was smirking into his bourbon, "and steak-frites. Served hot. And a bottle of cremant, please."
"As always," Trey, the waiter, smiled, noting down their order.
"I don't get to choose what I eat?"
"Best things on the menu," Giulia said, waving her hand airily. "Anyway, we were talking tantra." He smirked into his bourbon. "I've never actually had hate-sex. Is it worth the while?"
"Got me breaking the habit of an afterlife," Stefan shrugged. "Guess Katherine was doing something right." Giulia shuddered, and Stefan laughed. "It was you who put her on our trail, wasn't it?"
"I asked her to trail you, not nail you," Giulia sniffed, and Stefan laughed, his eyes dancing. It was so rare to see him delighted. And he looked so young when he smiled.
"I guess that was one of the perks of the job," he laughed, and Giulia grimaced, laughing.
"So Katherine's back in the shadows now that Rebekah's awake?" she asked.
"Probably best for everyone," Stefan said unconcernedly. When he was on human-blood, he became far more charismatic, but human blood was crystal-meth to someone like Stefan: And if he shut off his emotions, he was a true monster. With them, he struggled with his conscience, which he drowned with blood. It was a vicious cycle, one that had taken the girl he loathed, and an even worse train-wreck to clean up after, to get him the point where he was a functioning addict.
The fact that he knew to the day the last time he had killed a person when he had fed… She wondered fleetingly if Damon knew yet.
"I don't know…that would be one intense playdate," Giulia smirked, and Stefan actually choked on his bourbon, coughing and spluttering as she laughed richly.
"God, who would you put money on to survive that?" he laughed, wiping his mouth with his napkin. "Jesus, Giulia!"
"Pardon me. I'm just thirsty."
"You in the desert, Giulia?"
"The Mojave Vagina," Giulia said, and laughed again when Stefan grimaced. "You are so cute. You can tell you were born in the sexually-repressed Victorian era! How were you ever going to be a doctor when you blush at basic terms of anatomy?"
"Thank God my bloodlust made sure I never got past pre-med at Harvard," Stefan chuckled.
"Small favours." Giulia gazed at Stefan, lifting her nose to scent the air delicately as their starter arrived, a large dish packed with muscles cooked in white-wine, cream, butter and parsley. A bottle of sparkling white wine was uncorked and poured. Giulia raised her glass to Stefan, who lifted his. "To six years, four months, thirteen days… I hope you're proud of yourself, Stefan, because that is amazing."
"Thanks," he said demurely, touching his glass to hers.
"So…other than taking your diet one day at a time…have you thought what you might do next?" Giulia asked, as they started digging around in the dish for muscles.
"I don't know," Stefan said lightly. "I haven't actually let myself think about it; don't want to set myself up for epic disappointment, I guess."
"Wise. You might want to think about a boys' vacation, you know, make up for Damon being Lexi'd for the last ten years," Giulia teased, and Stefan grinned.
"He really stuck it out with her, huh?"
"And I doubt Lexi was offering hate-sex," Giulia smirked, and Stefan laughed richly.
"I thought he and Rose were…"
"Friends," Giulia clarified. "Rose knows her worth; she's not going to let someone treat her as anything less than the best thing that's ever happened to them."
"I'm surprised she stayed."
"I'm glad she did," Giulia said honestly. "She and Matt became this tiny little family, and she made the Boarding House what it is."
"Not you?"
"I was at school," Giulia said, waving a hand expressively, shrugging. Stefan frowned.
"All the time we were texting and playing Words With Friends…we hardly ever talked about you, what you were getting up to," he said softly. Giulia shrugged.
"That was never our relationship," she said kindly. And it no longer bothered her. Ten years ago, Stefan had left Mystic Falls, after apologising to her for prioritising Elena over everything, including the chance to get to know Giulia, his great-niece through Damon over several generations.
"You still talk to Damon?"
"Yeah, I mean, we talk," Giulia sighed. "You two are family, after all. And I own the house: He has to make sure the lawn gets mowed." Stefan gave her a look. She had always been closer to Damon than Stefan, for more reasons than she could quantify. As a teenager she had picked up some of his mannerisms, even some of his more self-destructive defence-mechanisms. She had had to shed those, if she wanted to survive. "I won't ever forget that he killed my dad."
"But you've forgiven him for it?" Stefan frowned wonderingly at her.
Giulia sipped her sparkling-wine, giving herself time to think. Finally, she told Stefan honestly, "It was the healthiest choice for me to make… Something had to give."
"You're an orphan like us, now," Stefan said, with a sad smile; he had killed their father, after all. Damon had forgiven Stefan for it, for the most part; although it helped that their father had shot them both in the back, murdering them, provoking their transition to vampires. Dysfunction ran thick in the Salvatore veins. Giulia finished off the last of the muscles, and sat sipping her wine, casually watching Stefan as they enjoyed a peaceful lull in the conversation. She could hear Stefan's phone pinging on the lowest volume.
"Is that Rebekah?" she asked, and Stefan gave her a guilty smile. "How's she adjusting?"
"Um…she's horrified by modern hemlines," Stefan admitted, and Giulia laughed. "She loves the camera on my phone."
"Is she sending you tit-picks?"
"Sadly, no. She's struggling with Netflix. And she's anxious - and easily bored."
"She's missing her favourite toy," Giulia smiled. "Better be an early night for you, young Mr Salvatore: You've got homework." Stefan grinned.
"I don't know, she's - I remember her, now, from when we were together in the Twenties. She seemed to ooze confidence and sensuality, she knew exactly the power she had over every man in the room - and some of the women. Something's spooked her."
"A dagger plunged into her chest would have that effect."
"No, it's more than that," Stefan said, suddenly sombre. "Giulia… Someone was hunting them. Because Klaus compelled me to forget, I only had bits and pieces, everything out of context - the night I found Elena's necklace, Chicago P.D. raided Gloria's speakeasy firing wooden bullets… Then it all came flooding back, I remembered… The last thing Rebekah said, 'He's here'. But Klaus was in the nightclub drinking with us; she wasn't frightened of him, any more than she usually was. And Klaus was scared, shouting that the two of them had to leave… They were running from someone."
"Mikael," Giulia said softly, thoughtfully, and Stefan frowned. "The most prolific vampire-killer alive…an Original. Their father."
"How do you - Elijah," Stefan said, realising as soon as he started to ask the question.
"Elijah," Giulia nodded, though she had other sources. Stefan hadn't known of Kol, or who he was in connection to the Originals; he wouldn't know that Kol and Giulia were best-friends. "So Rebekah's still reeling from being discovered - and from being daggered. It was a backhanded kindness, Klaus making sure you were around when she woke up… How did she take it, when she realised you had no idea who she was?"
"It's not the first time Klaus has done something similar," Stefan sighed heavily. "He seems to delight in tormenting her."
"She must be feeling so isolated," Giulia said tenderly. "Her world is limited to you and Klaus… That's not healthy."
"It's not so bad, right now; he's still not returned from the National Park."
"Well, Liz hasn't flagged anything from Park Services," Giulia said; they were on red-alert, just in case. They couldn't close the National Park during peak picnic season. She frowned. "Shouldn't you be…cleaning up after him?"
"To be honest, I just needed a break. Chicago was exhausting," Stefan said, as if it was an understatement. "It's easier for him, out in nature. Cities…cities were horrific."
"You did a good job covering the majority of it up," Giulia said kindly. She wasn't just giving him lip-service: It was dangerous to everyone in the supernatural communities to expose themselves to humans.
"It's just the exceptions that'll stay with me," Stefan said, glancing down at his plate as their steak-frites arrived, steaming-hot and fragrant.
"You couldn't be everywhere, all the time, Stefan; that's far too much for anyone to ask, and unfair," Giulia told him. "You did the best you could, and considering everything, I'm mildly impressed. What you've personally accomplished is astonishing. What does Rebekah make of Klaus's transformation?"
"She's…nauseated, breathless with delight, anxious, heartbroken, gloating, usually all at the same time," Stefan said. "She's an emotional girl, Rebekah. But - highly educated. I actually think you'd like her."
"I don't know, there's only room in my life for one perky little befanged blonde," Giulia teased, and Stefan grinned. Giulia smiled. "Maybe I'll make an overture."
"She'd…she probably wouldn't admit it, but she'd appreciate it. To be honest, I - I think she'd just appreciate having friends," Stefan said. "Her whole world was her brother; now she's seen how vulnerable he is, she's kind of…shaken this pathological subservience to him. She's stubborn, and volatile, and sentimental and passionate, but she's…she's also very lonely."
"If I didn't know you better, Stefan, I'd say you quite like Rebekah," she smiled softly.
"I don't know, I guess she's kinda gotten under my skin," Stefan admitted, shrugging. He sighed and cut himself some steak, and Giulia lowered her glass as his body-language changed in an instant, tension radiating from him so strongly, Giulia's spine tingled and she shivered, straightening up; his eyes locked on something over Giulia's shoulder.
"What's wrong?" she asked, not wanting to turn around. She carefully lowered the blocks she kept on her heightened senses, ensuring she wasn't overwhelmed, but the only supernatural creature she scented was Stefan, and she heard nothing out of the ordinary.
Stefan cleared his throat, his eyes following someone. "She's here."
"Rebekah? I don't smell anything…" Vampires had a distinct chemo-signature: It was no wonder werewolves could sniff them out so easily. Even she could, and her senses weren't even at their strongest, not with her blocks, not so far from a full-moon.
"No…" He trailed off, and someone appeared beside their table, a shimmering curtain of mahogany hair and eyelashes hovering over dark eyes sparkling with tears. A tremulous smile. "Elena."
"Stefan," Elena gushed, a maelstrom of emotion playing across her face. Giulia sipped her sparkling-wine, watching the two over the top of her glass. Stefan…didn't rise from his chair; he sat, tense, hunched. "You're back?!"
"Uh…for now, I guess, yeah," he said, clearing his throat awkwardly.
"I mean, you didn't even… I really wish you would've called," Elena said, and Stefan flicked a glance Giulia's way.
"Yeah, I figured a clean break was probably best for everyone," he said, clearing his throat, sipping his wine. Giulia sat, quiet, trying not to draw attention to herself; she really wished Elena hadn't seen Stefan for the first time sharing steak-frites with her. "After everything that happened."
"A clean break?" Elena frowned delicately. "I didn't know if you were alive or -"
"I'm fine," Stefan told her, cutting her off. Stefan on human-blood lacked the patience and tolerance of Sober!Stefan: He was different, more to-the-point, not always hostile but definitely abrasive. "You're here with Matt?"
Giulia bristled, closing her eyes, silently cursing herself, reacting viscerally to the realisation that tonight was their anniversary. She glanced over her shoulder, wishing she had remembered - she had mailed their card only this weekend - and saw Matt, slumped in his chair at another table, looking upset but resigned as he fiddled with the cork of their wine-bottle, his eyes lowered.
Shit, she thought. It wasn't everyday Matt went out for dinner; he had to support his family, and he worked hard. With Grayson's birth and Elena's stubbornly-untreated postpartum depression…Matt did not treat himself to steak-frites every other week. Tonight was special. He had put on his nicest, expensive dark jeans and the powder-blue shirt Rose had bought him on his last birthday, the one he always reserved for more casual Founders parties. He'd shaved, and done something with his hair. He'd made an effort; there was a bottle of sparkling-wine beside their table, just as there was beside Giulia and Stefan's.
Giulia glanced back at Elena, subtly eyeing up the pre-maternity dress Elena could now fit back into; Elena had done her hair and put on the pretty coral-red lipstick Caroline had bought her. Elena had attempted to make more of an effort than she would have if it had been anything but her wedding-anniversary. She was wearing Miranda's gold charm-bracelet, and her dainty gold wedding-ring - all Matt could afford when he proposed four years and two months ago.
Elena and Matt hadn't had a long engagement: Two months to save up, and they got married in the backyard of the Gilbert family home, with a barbecue after. From what Matt had alluded to, they had started trying for a baby on their wedding-night. It hadn't happened until Grayson. Elena's postpartum had affected the joy that carried Elena through her entire pregnancy; after working so hard, and being so excited for motherhood…Elena couldn't even hold her son.
"It's…our anniversary."
"Happy anniversary. Where's Grayson tonight - that's your son's name, right?" Stefan glanced at Giulia for confirmation, and Giulia watched him carefully, before nodding.
"Yeah…Grayson." Elena barely glanced at Giulia: She was still gazing at Stefan as if she didn't dare take her eyes off him.
"Well, congratulations… I know you wanted kids," Stefan said, with a smile, and Giulia gave him a warning look over the top of her glass. Stefan glanced over Giulia's shoulder. "Looks like your food's arrived. Have a good night!"
Elena stared down at him, bemused: She wasn't used to being brushed off by anyone - least of all Stefan. "I'm gonna give you…my new cell number," Elena said, after a hesitation; she knew very well that Stefan had dismissed her. Elena held out her hand for Stefan's phone; with a deep sigh, and a glance at Giulia, Stefan dug his phone out of his pocket, unlocking it, handing it to Elena. She saved her contact details. "I'd love to meet and catch up."
"Uh, yeah," Stefan said, glancing up at Elena with a noncommittal smile as he took his phone back. "We should do that."
Giulia didn't take it personally when Elena went back to her table without even acknowledging Giulia had been sat a foot from her: That was where things were between them, now. Giulia had a strong friendship with Matt, whom she supported emotionally, and whose son - Giulia's godson, shared with Rose - she looked after when Matt needed to work and hadn't trusted Elena to look after him. Elena was struggling, and knew it; and she also knew that Matt had told Giulia how bad things were.
Giulia had seen more enthusiasm from Elena in the last two minutes than she had in the last three months.
Elena had made the effort to get dressed and come out to dinner with her husband; but it was Stefan she had lit up for. And that worried Giulia.
"No-one told her I was back," Stefan said, glancing over Giulia's shoulder.
"No," Giulia cleared her throat delicately. "I didn't think it fair to ask Matt to tell her that you're back in town, so if you speak to her…don't let on that Matt found out at the festival."
"Yeah, that's fair," Stefan said, clearing his throat. "She doesn't know about Klaus."
"She doesn't. And I'm hopeful…her contact with vampires is kept to a minimum," Giulia said, giving Stefan a stern look. He nodded slowly.
He asked in an undertone, "What's going on?"
"Elena…has postpartum." Realisation struck Stefan: He had studied pre-med, after all. Several times. And he hadn't been under a rock; even a vampire would know what that implied.
"She's crying…" he said softly, her voice slightly hoarse, his eyes on something over Giulia's shoulder. His expression flickered to something close to remorse. "How bad is it?"
After a protracted, horrendous delivery, Giulia had learned how to be a mother on the job, hitting the ground running; she believed she was flourishing as a person as she embraced motherhood and everything it meant to have the privilege of Zita in her life. Elena's delivery had been fuss-free; rejecting her child, rejecting motherhood, purely out of the fear of failure, Elena had been struggling ever since.
Giulia wasn't unsympathetic; but Elena wasn't in it alone.
"She won't hold Grayson… Everything is manageable, but she has to want to ask for help," Giulia said, summing up the state of Elena's mental and emotional health. Stefan's reappearance… Giulia wasn't happy that Elena looked delighted for the first time in three months, on her wedding-anniversary, at the sight of her high-school boyfriend, unchanging and on edge, and clearly dismissive.
"So me returning, it's…"
"Poor timing. I didn't know they'd be here tonight, honestly - I took it for granted that Elena wouldn't want to do anything for their anniversary," Giulia said quietly.
"It looks like Matt's wishing they'd stayed home," Stefan sighed. "What's with Elena blanking you?"
"Our relationship never recovered from everything that happened the year you were home," Giulia said, shrugging. "Combined with that, Matt works closely with Caroline and me on our renovation projects, he started his own construction-company after getting a lot of experience at the Boarding House… And then Grayson was born. Matt's had a few meltdowns at my house. I know what's going on; she's on the offensive…"
"Why would Matt have a meltdown in front of you?" Stefan asked curiously.
"Well, he moved into the Boarding House after you left, with Rose…he stayed there until he saved for the deposit for the loft," Giulia said, shrugging delicately. "Whenever I came back stateside I'd visit, he'd be there… He'd email me his assignments to proofread, and he'd tell me about his life. We became friends, in spite of the time-zones. He asked me to be Grayson's godmother, with Rose."
"That's a kind gesture," Stefan said, and Giulia nodded.
"I don't think Elena can stand it," she said honestly. "Matt's needed our support to get through looking after the two of them." Stefan sighed heavily, looking grim.
"This wasn't what I imagined when I thought about coming home," he said miserably. "I just… Whenever I thought about it, seeing everyone again...you were all happy, she was happy."
"She was," Giulia said quietly. "She was delighted, for this exciting new thing to happen… Damon and I only ever compelled Elena to accept that you had left: Everything else… She had to work through her grief, and move on… I know it's not something you want to hear, but she did. She moved on. She built a life for herself. And she's been happy, with Matt. She was so excited for Grayson to be born."
"Is there no way to coax her into accepting help?" Giulia gave Stefan a thoughtful look; he picked up on her hesitation to answer, correctly reading her silence. "You…don't think I should get involved."
"I think Elena's not seventeen anymore. She has a husband, and a son she's struggling to bond with; I don't think now's the appropriate time for her to get obsessional about you," Giulia said fairly. And they both knew, when it came to Stefan, there was something compulsive about Elena's bond with him, something unhealthy - dangerous. "Does Klaus know we're still alive?"
Stefan sighed heavily. "No. But he believes the ritual went wrong."
"So seeing us…"
"I mean, you have the benefit that he can't just slaughter you and expect any kind of positive outcome," Stefan sighed, wincing, making eye-contact and warning her, "Not that he'd be beneath that, if he lost control… He'd rip through you."
"He'd try," Giulia said darkly.
"I'm stronger than him," Stefan admitted quietly. "I don't know if it's because he's constantly at war with his own instincts, but - it's like he doesn't have the time or mental capacity to actually engage in a physical fight with me. I can fight him off; but Rebekah cleaned the floor with him….and that infuriated him. He wants to know why he's so much weaker."
"So he came back to Mystic Falls for answers?"
"He says all magic leaves traces; if he can grab hold of a witch to do his bidding, he can go to the quarry and force them to do a reading, figure out what the hell went wrong," Stefan said. "At least, that's what he raged about before we left Chicago… Rebekah lost her necklace."
"The necklace you gave to Elena."
"Yeah…she lost it, the day Rose kidnapped her," Stefan said, and Giulia nodded. Elena had lost the necklace: Elijah had ripped it from her neck, recognising it instantly as the pendant his sister Rebekah had worn draped around her throat for a thousand years. Their mother's pendant.
"Why would he need her necklace?"
"He wants to contact the Original witch," Stefan said, shrugging. "I don't know. Half what Klaus says is cryptic; otherwise he just rants and raves and I've learned to tune it out. But he wanted the necklace. Rebekah's heartbroken it's lost."
If she didn't know how valuable it was, Giulia might consider returning the pendant to its owner.
"The Original witch?"
"Whoever put the curse on him - his mother, I guess; that's right, isn't it? He wants to know why he's…turned into what he is."
"Epic karmic payback."
"I suggested that." Giulia smiled grimly, accepting the bill.
"Have they left yet?" she asked, and Stefan flicked his eyes over her shoulder.
"Still on dessert."
"I'll have a glass of Armagnac, please, thank you," Giulia smiled at their waiter. She didn't want to walk out past Elena and Matt's table, didn't want to suffer the awkward pause and uncomfortable small-talk - or worse, rush past without acknowledging them. Better to sit, and enjoy a drink, talking with her great-great-several-times-removed great-uncle.
"So why wake Rebekah? Surely Klaus would have no qualms about just ripping the pendant from around her desiccated neck if that's all he wanted," Giulia said.
"When he realised the necklace was gone, he pulled the dagger out of Rebekah's chest so Gloria could use her to find the pendant," Stefan shrugged. "Guess Rebekah wore it for a thousand years; that leaves an impression."
"It's here," Giulia said; it wasn't a question.
"The necklace? That's what Gloria said," Stefan said grimly. He gave Giulia a defeated smile. "I tried to stop her… Maybe Rose knows where the pendant is."
"Rose?"
"Elena lost it in the house Rose was squatting in," Stefan said. "Maybe she picked it up."
"More likely Elijah took it," Giulia said. "Rebekah wore it for a thousand years."
"That's right," Stefan said, snapping his fingers quietly. "He'd know it was hers. Maybe he hid it somewhere before Klaus daggered him."
"Does it matter? Klaus won't find a witch in this town to help him," Giulia said certainly. And she had made precautions so that mortals could not be brutalised into helping the supernatural creatures who called Mystic Falls their haven, their home.
"I warned him of that, too," Stefan said. "I'm sure once he pulls his shit together, he'll remember he ordered me to 'acquire a witch…by any means necessary'." He mocked Klaus's accented, furious, maniacal, arrogant tone.
"You look like you're straining yourself to find one," Giulia said.
"Well, I've made sure Sheila's okay," Stefan shrugged. "Bonnie has no magic, you told me. I don't think Bonnie's daughter is up for trying out a séance."
"We still don't know if Penelope has powers yet," Giulia said. "The way Sheila stripped Bonnie of her magic…they're not sure if Penelope will still inherit the gift."
"On the one hand, that's the end of their heritage," Stefan mused. "On the other, it must seem quite liberating. Bonnie's little girl never has to endure what she did."
"Danger is, of course, that the Bennetts are such a famous family of witches, Penelope may be drawn in, in the worst way, later on," Giulia sighed heavily. "The Bennetts will cross that bridge if they come to it."
"And what about you?" Stefan asked. "What're you going to tell your daughter about us?"
"I haven't decided yet," Giulia said honestly. She chuckled fondly. "Little children have no concept of age. To her, I'm the same age as Liz Forbes or Ruth and J.D.'s fifteen-year-old babysitter… We've got a few years before she realises Caroline's not ageing."
"What about your husband? Does he know the big bad family secret?" Stefan asked, and Giulia smiled to herself as she sipped her Armagnac.
"He knows," she said ambiguously, knowing he meant Enzo; she meant Fabian, and he knew more about their family than he would ever let on, even to her. Especially when it affected her.
Her husband hoarded his precognition like a miser with gold coins.
Fabian believed there were some things they were better off not knowing about their fates. He would know.
Giulia had just wanted to share in his, whatever his future, his fate, held.
She was a dead-zone to his visions. He could only see her fate through seeking her out in how she affected other peoples' lives: And when they were close, he could see nothing at all. The absence of visions had at first been blissful; until it had become dangerous. Fabian had relied too heavily on his visions to predict things, shape events and affect how the future unfolded.
They had fallen in love.
But he had needed the visions more than he wanted to be without them.
He had wanted the visions more than he had loved Giulia.
That was a terrible thing to know; but they did love each other. Just not enough.
There were few men like Fabian: Giulia had been privileged to share her life with him for three gorgeous years. He regretted that he could not afford to give her longer.
Fabian had chosen his visions of the future he was too debilitated to enjoy.
But Giulia got Zita.
A.N.: She knows. Elena knows! And suffering postpartum. For lovers of Elena/sympathisers…I'm not a fan (I've always found Katherine much more charismatic), but I hope it keeps with Elena's character what I'm doing to her in my story. Postpartum and Stefan's return, combining to create something very dangerous, very confused, full of guilt and the desire not to feel guilty, delighted and feeling guilty for being delighted about the 'wrong' things…
