People Say Goodbye
She had everything planned. Every single detail figured out perfectly, an intricate web of cover stories and truths mixed in. Elena gave it a few days, long enough to make sure Katherine had been telling the truth about Klaus' blood being the cure for a werewolf bite, and then she began the process of saying goodbye to life as she knew it. While it may look easy in movies and on TV, Elena realized just how hard it was to disappear, especially if your face is not your own and you're supposed to have died in a magical ritual. Therefore, she didn't say goodbye completely.
First of all, she had to go to Bonnie, explaining what she intended to do. That went as well as one could expect. As in: not great. But they were best friends, and they'd always support each other, so Bonnie complied to Elena's wishes and cooked her up a few things so that she could stay off of Klaus' radar for as long as possible. The first was a bracelet, fashioned after Katherine's -her daylight one- so that anyone who came into contact with her would sense she was a vampire, and not human. The second was a locator spell blocker, so if a certain vampire -cough, cough, Damon- tried to find her, which he inevitably would, the only witch who could locate her would be Bonnie and there was no way she'd ever give in to Damon, no matter what stunt he pulled, she promised.
The next was a new car, happily provided by Caroline, who likely got it through compulsion-aided channels, as well as a new phone, completely untraceable.
Although she wouldn't be able to touch her inheritance until she officially turned eighteen in a few weeks, Elena luckily had enough money put by to find her travels, although she had no idea just where this crazy plan of hers might lead her. Surprisingly, in all that time, no one cottoned on to her plan who wasn't already in the know, despite how obvious it all was.
Elena was going after Stefan.
She refused to sit back and let Damon take the reins on this one, refused to watch the days go by and let this agonizing worry eat away at her. If she was going to find him, she'd have to do it herself, Klaus and his threats be damned. Stefan would do the same for her, if their roles were reversed. She knew he would; she knew it in her heart, her bones. Elena had lost too many people to let the love of her life go, too.
The time drew nearer to the date she'd picked out, June 2nd. Elena began getting extra gas and spare tires so she wouldn't have to worry about stopping when she got on the road. Shifting her wardrobe into duffel bags, taking only the barest of essentials, which unfortunately didn't include her beloved journal, but she planned to get a notebook on the road, something she could use to help her map out her thoughts as well as serve as a place to record her progress with finding Stefan. She'd already gleaned as much as she could from Damon, having found his little research project fairly easily. It seemed the elder Salvatore hadn't learned from his whole 'Moonstone in the soap dish' debacle when it came to hiding places. His closet? Seriously? Then again, it's not a place Elena would exactly be familiar with, and she might not have peeked in there at all if Damon hadn't fallen asleep on the couch one night and she'd gone looking for a blanket to put over him, so maybe she wasn't giving him enough credit. But she'd found it nonetheless.
It had hardly been two weeks, not time at all, and yet Klaus had managed to leave a pile of bodies in his wake. Figures.
She told Jeremy and Ric the night before over dinner. Her stepfather threatened to chain her to her bed if he had to, but there was no real heat behind it. He knew he couldn't stop her, knew she was smart and kind and brave and would fight to the bitter end for those she cared about, as she had cared for him these last few weeks since Jenna died. At least she promised to call. Jeremy was tight-lipped and stoic, but while she was brushing her teeth he broke down and begged her not to go. Her heart broke in that moment, all over again. She hated to leave him, she hated it, but none of this would have happened if not for her. Klaus wouldn't have happened if not for her, and she knew if she didn't do something to try and assuage this guilt in her chest she'd go mad, and this was the only way how.
"Would you do it for me, Jer?" Elena had asked him, toothpaste still clinging to her cheeks like tears, tears she refused to let fall, lest they crumble her resolve. "Would you do it for Bonnie, if she'd been the one Klaus took?"
"Of course I would. You don't even have to ask that."
"Exactly. It's time I call the shots when it comes to my life. Starting with this."
She tried explaining it all to Matt, but he'd been reluctant to be clued in on her plans, trying to stay out of the supernatural as much as possible. It stung, considering how close they'd been all their lives, but she respected his decision nonetheless.
Saying goodbye to Damon was harder than she thought it'd be. These past few weeks, they had grown closer, their pain over Stefan uniting them like never before. For the first time, his walls were down around her, and Elena mourned the fact that they would go right back up, and grow, once he realized she'd gone.
They had decided to watch a movie, a romance of all things. She sat beside him on the couch, her legs touching his, laughing at the ridiculousness that was eighties fashion.
"I don't think it's that bad," Damon remarked, gesturing to Adam Sandler's pale blue suit as he crooned into the microphone. "I saw worse in my day."
"I bet you loved the eighties," Elena smiled, grabbing some popcorn from the bowl. In truth, her stomach was knotted so tightly that the thought of eating was immensely off-putting, but she had to act normal, like nothing was wrong. It seemed she was always acting.
Damon shook his head. "Nah. The eighties was more Stefan's style. I'm sure he was the first person in line at the cinema to watch The Breakfast Club, the dork."
"Hey, I take offense to that! Breakfast is a classic, and therefore beyond reproach."
Using his vamp speed, he snatched the popcorn away from her, pelting her with stray kernels as he yelled, "So not! I won't stop until you admit it!"
"Well, then, I guess you're gonna run out of popcorn."
Fifteen minutes -and a carpet littered with sugar- later, the two were back on the couch, dusting off their clothes.
Damon broke the silence unexpectedly. "Thank you," he murmured, taking her hand in his.
Elena paused. "For what?" she asked breathlessly.
"For always being able to make me laugh. For not letting me spiral these last few weeks. I don't think I could have done it without. Heck, I know I couldn't. You really are something, you know that?"
God, why did he have to make this so God damn hard?! Why couldn't he have stayed all villain-y and snarky? Why did he have to have such a great heart under all that leather and piercing blue eyes? And why had it taken Stefan leaving to realize what a great friend he was?
Why did her life have to be so hard?
She squeezed back and murmured, equally soft, "I think you're really something too, just so you know. Don't ever forget that."
Those were the words she left him with, the words that swirled in her mind, stuck on repeat, as she placed her bags in her new car, gave Jeremy, Ric, Bonnie and Caroline, Tyler -who wouldn't stop shooting looks at the blonde all night, the blonde who had supposedly started spilling all of Elena's secrets to- and Matt one last hug before she shut the door of her childhood home, the click of the lock seeming to reverberate through her bones, pound in her heart, and within a blink shed started the car and was pulling out of the driveway, making her way into the darkness of the night without looking back.
Yes, she'd had everything figured out, every detail under control. But this was the life of Elena Gilbert, supernatural doppelgänger and magnet of all things magic, so of course nothing was going to go as she'd planned. And maybe, just maybe, that wasn't a bad thing.
Author's Note: Hello, everyone! Welcome to my first foray into a big, multi-chapter Vampire Diaries fic. I got the idea for this while re-watching season three -my favourite- and then I discovered Elejah fic...and I'm now hooked. So I decided to write my own. I'm posting everything I have written so far -tye first three chapters- since Elijah doesn't come into it until chapter three and I didn't think it was fair to make you wait. So, reviews, reviews, REVIEWS! I NEED to know what you think, since I'm kinda in a slump with chapter four and crave motivation.
(Yes, Damon and Elena were watching The Wedding Singer. Why you ask? Because a) It's a GREAT movie, and b) I was watching the episode of The Goldbergs where they have clips from the film and make it seem like they're actually happening in the episode. Barry and Lainey forever!)
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day!
All my love, Temperance Cain
