Elena eyed Roman questioningly, "But Stefan said…?".
"He did!", Roman never took his eyes off the vile, "He took one half...I took the other, but unlike him I just haven't gotten around to actually biting the proverbial bullet yet ".
Elena silently mouthed 'oh' as she then left her position at the doorway, approaching Roman's bed, she sat beside him.
"That's what Stefan meant with the whole kids comment isn't it, he wants you to take the cure?".
"Yeah", Roman confirmed, lowering the cure and peering over to Elena, she met his eyes, "But you don't want to?".
Roman appeared to think about his answer for a moment before he shook his head , "No I do, it's just that...I'm kind of afraid of the risk involved".
Elena's eyebrows creased in confusion before a look of realization dawned on her, "Because you would be a werewolf again, you wouldn't have control".
Roman shook his head again, "No, that's not even the problem...well, I guess it is, but my main issue is that I feel, just stuck
between a rock and a hard place. On one hand if I don't take this", Roman holds up the cure once again, "I get to watch as everyone I care about grows old and dies...and that's just the best case scenario given the life we live, but back to the point, on the other hand. I do take the cure and in everyone's head it's easy to imagine growing old with each other, watching the kids play during a summer cookout, you know...the minivan with the white picket fence and all that fairy tale stuff, but what I envision is losing at least half, hell maybe even two third of my strength and my speed, so what that means is I'll be so much less prepared to protect...anyone, against anything. I mean I know Klaus is stronger than me as it stands, but if I was anything less than what I am".
Roman just let the sentence hang, he knew Elena caught his drift, he let the hand with the cure fall into his lap while he peered to Elena, whom while he had been speaking, she put both hands on his shoulder, her fingers entwined to make a resting place for her chin as she just rested on his shoulder, listening to him. Roman had not noticed that she was in that close of proximity, but he didn't mind. "Don't get me wrong. I know Bonnie is strong and powerful, but I've never seen anyone be able to take on the world by themselves...and let's face it once your in this kind of life it doesn't let go, so if I drank that vile right now, that's pretty much what I'd be leaving her to do. Especially with Klaus breathing down our necks. I mean if she used that much magic now like I originally planned...Good lord who knows what that could do to the kid. My point is Elena, no matter how much they want me too...no matter how much I might want to. I don't think I'll ever feel safe enough to take the risk!".
Neither said anything for a minute as Elena took in all Roman had just said, but a thought did finally occur to her.
"But isn't that the point of a risk? that it's not safe".
Roman's head tilted to side a bit in confusion, he knew what she said was right, but that was not exactly what he meant, however rather than correcting her, he continued to let her make her point.
"I mean. I get it, you feel hopeless, like you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't, but Bonnie and Stefan both seem to want to fight for that fairy tale that you mentioned earlier, with you apart of it, so I guess if you're damned either way, you might as well give it a shot!".
Roman smirked at that, weirdly enough, after years worth of conversation with Stefan and Bonnie on the very same subject and getting pretty much nowhere Elena's short statement made all the sense in the world to him, he leaned down to stare directly into her eyes.
"You know...I think I like you!".
Elena smiled at him, which faded as she got lost in his gaze.
'Good lord I love his eyes!'.
Elena felt like she could look into his eyes forever, they made her feel like she was floating on a cloud, which she guessed made sense considering that Roman's irises were almost the exact color of the sky, they were so bright that Elena was sure that if she turned off all the lights, his eyes would glow in the dark. Roman was peering right into her soul, to the point that Elena swore if he wasn't careful, he might just take it. A moment later however, Elena and Roman were broken from their trance with a frantic call from downstairs.
"ROMAN, YOU BETTER GET DOWN HERE!".
Romans head immediately snapped up as he heard Stefan, he didn't hesitate to race downstairs as fast as he could. Elena got up to follow, concern etched on her face.
Roman met Stefan right at the bottom of the stair. Stefan seemed to be panicked.
"Stefan what's wrong?".
Stefan pointed toward the back of the house, "We have a bit of a situation out on the deck!".
Roman's eyebrows creased, "Situation?".
Stefan just sighed in frustration and just took off, marching to the back of the house. Roman hesitated for a moment, just to look over at Elena, who had just reached the bottom of the stars, he gave her worried look one of his own, before they both followed Stefan.
When they reached the door to the deck, Stefan stopped, he put out his arm in front of Elena, signaling her to stop as well, but he nodded his head at Roman, to go outside. Roman took a second to take a look through the glass of the door, all he saw was Bonnie, who seemed to be in a standoff with something. Roman carefully made his way out the door, on to the deck. Once he got past Bonnie to see what was wrong, the sight made his blood boil instantly.
"Klaus!".
Klaus stood on the other end of the deck, about fifteen feet away, he stayed with his eyes locked on Bonnie.
"Hello mate, would you mind getting Bonnie to stand down? I'm just here to talk".
Roman put a hand on Bonnie's shoulder, "Bon, it may not be safe".
Bonnie looked to Roman, she could see in his eyes that he wasn't just referring to her, but also her baby, she knew he was right, so she slowly backed up and went back into the house. Roman now turned to Klaus.
"Just to talk huh?".
Klaus went to answer, but his eyes went wide as he caught a face through the fully visible glass door behind Roman.
"So it's true then. Rebekah told me, but seeing the doppelganger with my own eyes".
Roman couldn't hear anything Klaus said after that, when Klaus noticed Elena all Roman could hear were his own word echoing in his head.
'I need to get him before he gets us!', 'I'm going to look Klaus dead in his eyes and I'm gonna punch him right in his damn face!'.
Roman fangs appeared, his eyes turned yellow, he was getting ready to attack. Klaus went into defense mode, his tone full of warning.
"Wait now you just hold on a second!".
Roman didn't listen, instead he rushed at Klaus at full speed. Klaus gave on more warning.
"STOP!".
Roman once again ignored him, tackling Klaus right through the wooden banister of the deck, shattering it, they hit the sand below with a thud, wrestling around for the upper hand, Klaus got Roman in head lock, whispering , pleading to him.
"I don't want to hurt you...just listen to me!".
Once again falling on deaf ears. Roman escaped the headlock, in speed that surprised even Klaus, grabbing a broken piece of wood from the deck, he stabbed Klaus right through the back. Klaus let out a yell of pain. Roman then launched Klaus through the air, he crash landed about ten feet later. Roman went to advance on Klaus again, but was stopped, when all of the sudden a hand grasped his throat and sped him in to one of the beams that held up the deck, but not with enough force to break it, he was surprised to find Rebekah as the culprit, she looked dead into his eyes, compelling him.
"STOP!, LISTEN TO HIM DAMMIT!".
A moment later, Roman features returned to normal as he calmed down, when Rebekah was sure her compulsion had worked she let go of Roman's throat, when she did. Roman began to walk calmly up to Klaus, but before he could he noticed all around the beachfront, were loads of people, and considering, it was a private section of the beach, that was unusual, not to mention the fact that they were all staring at the scene in front of them not blinking an eye. Roman met Klaus in the middle of the beach, Klaus who by this point had recovered from Romans onslaught, spoke up first.
"So, are you ready to hear me out?".
Roman peered all around him, at all of the men, women and even children, before answering, "What is this?".
Klaus's eyebrows rose, "This", His arms spread out wide, "Is my family...Your family!".
Roman's face contorted, he was dumbstruck, "What in the hell are you talking about?".
Klaus' voice got very stern as he got closer to Roman, "What I am talking about is that I am not the bad guy,your brain has been screwed with!" Klaus turned up to look and Stefan, Bonnie and Elena, who were all looking on with concern, "All of yours have been too!".
Klaus' gaze went back to Roman.
"You see I am here to tell you the truth...I am here to tell you who you really are!".