AN: I know it's been forever, but I always have an open elejah tab in the browser that is in my brain. I cannot promise consistent updates because my schedule and workload between school and work is insane. But I did manage this chapter and I have more updates I'm working on cleaning up to post. I missed posting. I hope you're all well!
Thursday still looms in the distance, but she still meets Caroline for dinner at her house. It's nice to have time to catch up, just the two of them.
"I can't believe you didn't tell me," Caroline begins as she opens the door. She lets Elena in and locks the door before Elena responds. The house looks exactly how it did when they left for college. Sheriff Forbes isn't the most avid interior decorator anyway and it's nice to keep things the same. Elena can think of many times they've moved furniture or snuck out of this house. Caroline invited them over a million times to have sleepovers, study, and she still knows it like the back of her hand.
"Hi to you too," Elena replies. It's a lot to take in and she knows that, no matter what Caroline says, she won't fault her for it. It took her a while to accept the existence of vampires, of her doppelganger status, and that her new drinking buddy was a vampire. It took longer for her to wrap her head around the fact Elijah is her soulmate. It still takes her by surprise sometimes, she looks at him and remembers all over again that he's hers. She, in turn, is his soulmate.
Based on his reaction, immortals don't get more soulmates than everyone else, it's only her, he's only had her. It's reassuring on some level to know she doesn't need to measure up to someone else, there isn't a ghost residing in his heart, no memories to compete with. She remembers they're standing in Caroline's entryway and she needs to reply when the front door shuts.
"The supernatural part wasn't mine to tell. Even if I did, would you have believed me?" Elena asks. Caroline's eyes meet hers and Elena holds the stare until Caroline blinks. It smells like garlic and Elena wants to laugh at that, they're talking about vampires with garlic in the air.
"No," Caroline admits. She takes a deep breath.
"I don't think I would have. I would have thought it was a joke. And a shitty joke at that," Caroline sighs. Elena watches the anger drain out of her.
"I missed you so much. This is all crazy. Even though Klaus and I talked about it all for hours. And oh my god," Caroline stops in her tracks to stare at Elena. She glances down at herself, wondering what caught Caroline's attention, she's wearing clothes, she can't see a bug or anything else, so she waits.
"What?" Elena asks. They were almost to the kitchen and she didn't forget something in there based on the fact she's staring at Elena and not the room behind her.
"You died. Or almost died. Klaus told me about the ritual. And I know this is coming from me and not him, but he told me that he would have waited for the next doppelganger if he had known. About you and Elijah being soulmates," Caroline tells her.
Next doppelganger. The words send a shiver through Elena. She straightens her back unconsciously at that. She doesn't want to tell Caroline Klaus didn't nearly kill her, he did kill her, according to Elijah and her heartbeat. When they had their nightlong heart to heart, he mentioned that and that he asked the Martins to take care of her before he disappeared to follow Klaus. It still stung but neither of them knew about their status then either.
"There won't be another Petrova doppelganger, not five hundred years from now or ever," Elena says firmly. Caroline raises an eyebrow.
"Because you can't have kids with Elijah," Caroline realizes. Elena gives her a small nod in return. That's not the only reason.
"Well, Jeremy could continue it right, he could carry the Gilbert line," Caroline says. Elena's eyes widen.
"I didn't tell you. Oh my god. Jeremy met his soulmate. Her name is Anna and she's a vampire. We have a lot to talk about," Elena begins.
"You're killing me here. You're literally killing me. I cannot believe you didn't call me immediately. Remember that time in high school when we thought Jeremy and Bonnie were soulmates?" Caroline laughs and Elena laughs with her. She's thankful to have her, someone else to understand the insanity of being a soulmate to one of the oldest people on the planet and still be human. A shiver runs through her at an irrational thought, if she turned into a vampire and Caroline didn't, she'd have to live without Caroline. Life without Caroline. She's never known that life, the grief of losing one of her closest friends tears through her mind and her heart aches at it. The opposite could happen too, Caroline could turn for Klaus and Elena could die human, leaving her supernatural friends behind. Shit, did she tell Caroline that Bonnie could be a witch yet? There's too much to say on an empty stomach.
"Wait did I ever tell you how I met Elijah?" Elena asks. Caroline rolls her eyes as she leads the way into the kitchen.
"I'm beginning to think you didn't tell me anything, considering all of the brand new information you've dropped since you parked in my driveway," Caroline accuses. A laugh bubbles out of Elena at that.
"When I moved back, I thought I was in for a normal summer. I was kidnapped by vampires when I went for a run and that's how I met Elijah. They called him because they thought he was still with Klaus, and that he'd want to know about the next doppelganger. He was the one who told me vampires were real and we came up with a plan to kill Klaus. Klaus daggered him and the witches that helped Elijah and I helped me find Elijah's body. I undaggered him and Elijah undaggered the rest of his siblings. Then their parents tried to kill them all so I worked with Elijah to stop that. He asked how I was doing and I was going to tell him I was fine, and the truth came out. And, I panicked and tried to run away from him. He asked why and I told him. And he let me run away. We didn't talk for a week and I regret that, but my head was such a mess," Elena tells her honestly as the oven beeps.
"And your heart," Caroline adds knowingly as she puts on oven mitts.
"And my heart," Elena agrees. She's not sure what she would have done had their roles been reversed, if Elijah had understood, and run away from her. He's consistently wanted her company, even when they were just she's not sure if she'd say friends, but she'd like to think they were closer than acquaintances then.
"I found out about Jeremy and Anna after we went to breakfast the day after you met Klaus. I found her in his room and she introduced herself. I told her about Klaus, Elijah, and you. We had a fun time explaining that to Jeremy. I haven't told Jenna and Alaric that he's a vampire yet, let alone one of the first," Elena sighs as Caroline pulls a dish out of the oven.
"I haven't told my mom either. I realized the Council hunts vampires like this week. Same boat here," Caroline comments. Elena doesn't want to think about it, Alaric trying to stake Elijah, her throwing herself in front of the immortal man who is her soulmate. Elijah can handle himself, she knows that with her gut, despite the fact she hasn't seen much of it in person. Tonight with Caroline makes her want to talk to him, it's so strange to miss him even though they've texted off and on all day. She just saw him yesterday.
"Also, Elijah mentioned a prominent line of witches has the last name of Bennett. Bonnie could be a witch," Elena tells her and Caroline turns off the oven.
"Have you mentioned this to her?" Caroline asks, biting her lip. Elena laughs and Caroline turns to look at her fully.
"Yeah, I'm not doing that over text. That's like telling her right now all of this, that our soulmates are vampires and there's nothing suspicious in the water here, promise. She might not be a witch either, it could just be a coincidence. Plus if those texts get into the wrong hands-" Elena trails off. Caroline sighs.
"Yeah. I hate keeping this from her. Maybe we'll do a girls trip soon. We should definitely update her in person when we can. And I didn't plan to stay in Mystic Falls, but Klaus is here. I don't know what the plan is, if he has one, or if we're just taking it as it goes. Obviously, we can't stay in Mystic Falls too long, people will notice he's not aging, plus we have the Council of vampire hunters, it's just another thing we need to talk about," Caroline tells her and Elena watches her move to work on dinner.
"I have an interview Thursday. A few hours away from Mystic Falls, an editorial job. If I get it, Elijah said he'd move too. So I'm hoping that's our plan, stay in a city where people aren't going to notice us as they would here," Elena admits. Caroline nods at that.
"I'll have dinner ready in a few, then we can get into more of this," Caroline promises.
"Sounds good," Elena tells her. While she likes talking with Elijah about all of this, it's so nice to talk to Caroline, to understand and be understood.
