By the time Elena reached her house, she was exhausted. And she knew it was about to get worse. Bonnie would tell Caroline as soon as she met her, Caroline would tell Jenna probably, and then she'd tell Stefan, Elena closed her eyes at the thought. Stefan would tell Damon, at which point the two of them would lock her inside her house and then probably do something stupid, like look for more white oak, after they went and yelled at Klaus about it. She sighed at the thought of Klaus finding out the truth from the Salvatores, and shook her head. No matter what happened, she had to be the one to tell him.
With that thought in mind, she sneaked around the house, spying Jeremy asleep in his bed with Bear at the foot end. She didn't waste any time after that, packing her purse with the essentials, a change of clothes, toiletries, her medications - which were a lot, and left the house. She tried not to think about everything else that had happened tonight, Bonnie, Damon, and tried to keep her focus on what she had to do. When she reached his house, she parked her car in the driveway, and walked up to the door, seeing that it was already open.
She frowned as she stopped at the doorstep, wondering if anyone was inside the house. She fished out the stake she kept in every one of her bags and pushed the door open further, walking inside the giant foyer. Klaus had built such a giant house that she was sure she could spend the entire night looking and never find anyone. By some luck though she didn't have to look for long, spying two hybrids who were lying on the floor with their heads cut off. She grimaced as she looked at them, walking into the room their bodies were in.
There was a…contraption of some sort with chains hanging off it and she closed her eyes as she realised that Klaus had obviously kept someone tied up, probably the hunter, if she had to guess. And obviously, he had escaped. She sighed as she looked at the two dead hybrids and wondered what to do. She wasn't going to do Klaus' dirty work for him, especially considering the fact that he had been torturing someone, and that he'd kept it a secret. But they were still people and she wasn't about to sleep in a house that had rotting corpses in it. She still had some of her sanity intact.
Then again, it wasn't as if she hadn't done this before.
She tried not to throw up, again, as she dragged the first body, the guy, by his legs out into the driveway. Ideally, it would've been better if she could drag him into the backyard, but she didn't have the energy, and the house was secluded enough that she knew no one would see the bodies. It was probably one of the more crazy things she had done, but the last thing she wanted to do was sit around and picture everyone's reactions to her news. At least this way, the ache in her shoulders was so prominent that she didn't have to focus on anything else. She went back inside for the woman's body and frowned at the blood trail.
It was his fault, if he knew he was going to end up torturing and maiming and killing, then he shouldn't have gotten Italian marble for the flooring. She dragged the second body outside, her legs weak now, and leaned against the outside of the house.
Bonnie knew.
Not only did Bonnie know, she told Elena, explicitly, that they weren't even friends anymore. She wanted to hate Klaus, but this wasn't on him, it was on her. She was the one who had kept a huge secret from her best friend, even when Bonnie had asked her about it once before. The truth was that in the beginning, Elena hadn't really wanted to acknowledge the connection she had with Klaus. And when she finally had, she didn't know where he stood with it. She remembered those days spent sitting in this very house, the two of them talking about anything and everything, except for their feelings, their bond and the implications it would have on them. It wasn't that she had wanted to ignore it, or that she was ashamed of it, but the fact that neither of them knew what they wanted to do about it. So they plotted, with and against each other, and they talked, sharing stories and secrets and they had sex. So much sex in fact, that they had broken the rules of nature. But they never talked about what was important.
They never talked about what would happen once she went to college, or what would happen when she wanted to stay a human. He needed her blood for the hybrids, but what if he wanted to turn her or she herself wanted to be vampire somewhere down the line. They swept that stuff under the rug, instead focusing on each other.
And it was a lot easier to do that if no one else knew about it. She could hardly express her feelings to herself, she didn't think she could actually try and explain it to anyone else. To explain how she felt when she saw, when she touched him, how the taste of his lips was engraved in her mind. To explain every whispered conversation, every stolen moment, every touch, every look that meant more than her previous relationships had. Part of her didn't even want to share it with anyone, she knew that almost everyone in her life would scoff at her words, at her feelings, and it made her want to protect all those moments, all those emotions that were theirs, to keep them safe from judging eyes and taunts because they meant everything to her.
Because of that, along with her fear, of facing her friends' judgements, of facing how all encompassing her own feelings were, she never said anything. And now, she had lost Bonnie. Bonnie who risked her own life for Elena, who held her when she cried after her parents died, who knew everything about her now wanted nothing to do with her.
She couldn't lose anyone else, she thought as she sighed, she'd tell Klaus first, then she'd tell her family and then Caroline. Then she'd tell Damon and Stefan.
She walked back inside when she was sure her legs could carry her, and towards the general direction of the dining room, finding the kitchen easily. To her surprise, it was fully stocked and she walked into the pantry, rolling her eyes when she easily spotted the can of gasoline. Picking it up, along with a matchbook, she wondered how her life had gotten to this point. She doused the bodies in gasoline, along with their heads, watching them burn as she stepped inside, closing the door behind her. It was easier after that, she was a pro at getting bloodstains out of the floor, especially when it was to try and avoid the memory of her best friend crying inconsolably, because of her.
By the time she was done, it was three in the morning, the fire outside had died down, and she was covered in splotches of blood. She picked up her bag and walked up the stairs, wondering which room to take. Ideally, she wanted to avoid Rebekah's room, not wanting to give the blonde another reason to dislike her, although she hadn't seen her in a while, and any of his other siblings'. It would be awkward.
In the end, it was actually easy to find his bedroom. Belatedly, she realised, it was her first time in his room, and of course, it was the biggest in the house. It was tall, she realised, with an expensive rug around the entirety of the room, a giant king sized bed in the middle with grey covers, and cabinets lined along the wall. She slipped off her shoes outside the door, not wanting to drag in dirt or blood and explored the room. There was a set of windows giving the perfect view of the trees outside, and she was sure that they filled the room with natural light throughout the day, in case he ever wanted to paint here.
Almost as if on cue, she saw the easel on the side opposite the window, blank paper covering it along with a bench covered in various colours and paintbrushes. She barely held herself back from examining them and walked into the en suite instead. The shower looked enticing, and she divested herself off her clothes. She caught sight of herself in the mirror and of course, she looked tired, but her eyes were drawn to her stomach. She wondered what it would be like when she could see a curve where her flat stomach was. The thought both scared and excited her, and as hard as it was going to be to convince her family and her friends, as mad as they would be, she knew she'd be able to handle it as long as she could have this child.
She used one of his giant, fluffy grey towels to dry herself when she got out of the shower, walking into the bedroom and forgoing her bag to reach into one of his cabinets. She found a comfortable black henley which fell down to the middle of her thighs, and drying her hair until she was sure she wouldn't get a fever if she slept with it like that. After that it was hard to stay awake, her lids shutting as she crawled under the covers.
It was when she was almost asleep, surrounded by his scent that she realised why she had really shown up there, why she had really stuck around even after seeing the torture chamber and the dead bodies.
She wanted to feel safe, and the first place she had sought out in her devastated state had been his house.
When she woke up next, it was because of the sun shining on her face, her eyelids twitching as she groaned and buried herself in the pillow, which smelt nothing like her own, all musk with just a hint of something woodsy. The events of the last night came to her mind and she flopped on to her back, thinking of how bad things had gotten with Bonnie.
"Isn't this the perfect sight?" She felt her heart stop for a moment, a blush rising to her cheeks when she opened her eyes to see Klaus looking, no, gazing down at her. The look he was giving her set her skin on fire, the possessiveness and lust clear in his eyes as he raked his eyes over her. He grabbed the top of the covers and pulled them down over her body, his eyes following its path before a heavy hand settled onto her thighs.
"Sorry, I…I needed to talk to you and then…" she trailed off as she bit her lip, feeling awkward about invading his room without asking, his eyes focused on her lips.
"I don't mind it love, but now that I have you here, in my bed, in my clothes, I don't think I'm ever going to let you go." His voice was light, but she knew him well enough to read the undercurrent in it, the promise in it. She hoped he felt the same way when she told him the truth.
"Klaus, we need to talk." His expression changed at her tone and he rubbed a weary hand over his face.
"Is it about the dead hybrids?" He asked, curiosity colouring his voice and she told him about how she'd found their bodies and everything else that followed. "You didn't have to burn their bodies."
"I wasn't going to sleep in here while there were dead bodies in the house, I'm not the clown killer."
"Fine, but dragging bodies in the middle of the night isn't your job sweetheart."
"It's fine, it helped me. The work, I mean."
"Why? What happened?" He seemed concerned now, helping her sit up on the bed and she instantly pulled the covers over herself again, shivering slightly. His concern grew and she gave him a reassuring smile.
"Is anyone else in the house?" She didn't want anyone to overhear them and sighed in relief when he shook his head. "Klaus, Bonnie knows about us, and…she was really angry. We had a….fight, that's why I came over."
He looked at her for a moment before he cursed quietly, shifting closer to her. "And given that the witch knows, everyone else will soon?"
She nodded and then let out a sigh. "Yes, but that's not what I'm concerned about," his eyebrows rose as she got out of bed, her bare feet thankful for the warm rug she stepped on. "There's something else, something I haven't told you about," his eyes hardened at her words and she knew she had to tread carefully now, "it's something that Esther told me."
"My mother? What the bloody hell did she say? And when?"
"When she took me to turn Alaric into an original." He looked at her through narrowed eyes, coming to stand in front of her, a guarded expression covering his face.
"What?"
She looked up at him, trying to memorise his features, his eyes that seemed more like calm sea waves, his nose, the curve of his cheeks, his red lips, his neck even. If this was the last time, if he never wanted to see her again, or wanted to have nothing to do with her, then she wanted to have this memory at least, before everything fell apart.
"She took my blood, told me about Alaric becoming a hunter, and then," she bit her lip, looking down and away from his searing gaze, "and then she said I was pregnant."
There was a palpable shift in the room, in the very air around them, and Elena didn't have the guts to look up just yet. He didn't say anything for a long moment and neither did she, the silence between them nearly swallowing her whole. When it stretched on for too long, she finally looked up at him, his piercing gaze focused on her.
"She said," she continued when he didn't say anything, "that it was because you're a hybrid, and I'm a doppelgänger." She swallowed when he still looked at her with the same expression, feeling her heart racing now, "that's why she tried to kill me, she said the….baby couldn't survive." He was still staring at her and she lifted her hand to lay it on his arm when he caught it in his wrist, his grip strong but not painful. Yet.
"It's a mistake," she felt her heart drop to her stomach at his tone, her palms beginning to get clammy, "vampires can't procreate. I've been around for a thousand years," he pulled her towards him, making her look up at him, his hand warm over her chin, "it's impossible."
She swallowed, trying to wet her suddenly dry throat, "you're not just a vampire though, you're a werewolf too. The hybrid. Werewolves can have kids."
"Did someone hurt you? I'll tear out his spine, and then I'll make him suffer in ways even the devil couldn't imagine." He sounded furious and it was reflected in his eyes too; Elena knew for a fact that he meant what he said, but it was as if he hadn't heard what she had said before.
"Think about it, you're a hybrid. The first one, the first of a new species, the laws of nature don't apply to you. You don't burn in the sun, you're not bound to the moon, you're completely different."
"Were you with someone else?" He asked and she ground her teeth, pulling away from his grip, but he latched onto her wrist again and this time, it did hurt. "Tell me!" She flinched away from him as his voice rose, "who were you with? That quarterback? Was it before or after you slept with me hmm? I'll kill him." His face was near hers, his eyes burning with an anger she had never seen before, every word was louder than the last. She felt her heart pounding when he wouldn't let her get away from him, his other hand coming up to grip her arm.
"Klaus, stop it! I didn't sleep with anyone else! You're the only person I've slept with since Stefan!" Desperation bled into her voice as she fought to keep herself calm, and she felt his hold on her loosening slightly.
"You're lying to me, I know it!" She stopped struggling when she heard the desperation in his voice, the vulnerability, and despite his shouting, the anger that had been there just a moment ago seemed to have disappeared.
"I didn't! I didn't sleep with anyone else, how many times do I have to tell you?" She could feel her frustration bleeding into his voice.
"I want to believe you," his hold over her slackened, pain and hurt filling his voice, "I don't think you would lie to me, but my demons-" his voice broke, and she felt her heart clench in her chest despite everything, "they make it hard for me to trust anyone, even you." She felt desperate now, looking for the right words, the right thing to say, the right thing to do.
"Bonnie said that when she touched me it was the same feeling she got when she was around you, and I told you already-" she broke off when she saw the look he was giving her, as if he was searching for something. She twisted her wrist until she was holding his hand in hers and pulled it up over her breast bone, "listen to my heart. I am pregnant. With your child, and I don't know how it happened, but Esther said it was some sort of loophole." She used her other hand to cup his cheek, silently imploring him to trust her. "Please, I'm telling the truth, I didn't sleep with anyone else, and it's honestly insulting that you would think I did given the fact that I spent half the night defending our relationship and the rest of it cleaning your mess, literally. Why would I do that if I was lying? Why would I even lie to you? To try and convince you, make you believe in something that we both know to be impossible when I could've said anything else?"
He let her go, his eyes shining before he turned around and away from her. She felt unbearable pain in her heart at the thought of him leaving her too, of losing him along with everyone else she already had and looked down at her feet. Her eyes caught the gleaming anklet that had almost turned into a second skin and she bent her knee, balancing herself on one foot as she removed it. He turned around at the sound as she placed her foot down and walked over to him, handing it to him, the vervain burning him slightly.
"What-" he seemed scared all of a sudden and she frowned, wondering what was going on in his head, but plowed on, no matter how much it pained her.
"It's the vervain that you gave me, and I'm not drinking any. It suddenly made me sick one day. Klaus," she could remember that day clearly, when he had first mentioned their deal, "when we started this whole thing, you compelled me to not tell your secrets to anyone. It was part of our deal, remember? Do it again, compel me to tell you the truth about who the father is, that should help you trust me." She felt her eyes burning at the thought of being so vulnerable, so completely at his mercy. He could compel her to do anything, to leave, but she knew that there was a part of him that wanted to believe her, and she felt too much to lose him, so she had to try this. It might be the only thing that would make him believe her. She watched in desperation as his throat worked, and he placed the anklet on a cabinet by the wall. his hands held her face, titling it up so her eyes would meet his.
He was crying. She hadn't really seen it before, in all the time they had been together, but there was a tear tracing its path down his cheek, and she felt her own tears spill. It didn't matter what they did, or how much time had passed between them, they always came to the point where they were unable to trust each other, or rather he was unable to trust her. She had given him all of her trust now, even though every fibre of her being was torn apart over it.
"Tell me…" he trailed off, his voice shaking as she tried to prepare herself for the invasion, for the hollowness this would bring inside of her, for how, whether they admitted it or not, this would ultimately fracture everything they had, whatever they had built together over the last few months. She wondered if this breach of trust would snap the tether that seemed to bind them together, that made them orbit around each other, and she knew she would mourn it, for months, maybe even years.
"Is this -" He seemed unable to find the right words, and part of her wanted to scream. All he had to do was ask her to tell the truth and that would be it. So easy, and she knew he had at least done it thousands of times before, so she wondered why he suddenly found himself bereft of words.
He closed his eyes then, another tear falling, before she saw the blue of his eyes, blazing in intensity, his decision made. "You are no longer bound to keep my secrets." He said the words slowly, purposely, and she stared in confusion.
His voice had been low as her heart stuttered, and she could feel the earlier compulsion lift, his eyes vulnerable now. "Klaus," she didn't know why he was doing this, part of her was scared this meant they were over in some way, but another part, a very small one was suddenly hopeful. When she reached for his hand, he didn't pull away, his eyes reflecting a myriad of emotions as she interlaced their fingers together. "What…"
"I do trust you." She felt the weight of the words settle in the pit of her stomach, almost unable to believe what she had heard. "You loathe being compelled, and I…" he looked away from her and she tried to follow his eyes, "I don't like doing it. So yes, I trust you."
She gulped at his words, the weight of them resting heavily between them, "nobody likes having free their will taken away."
He sighed at her words, "I….I should have noticed it before. Now that I know, I can hear the heartbeat." His hand gestured vaguely around her mid section, that searching look still on his face, and she felt her lips part.
"You can?"
He nodded, still uncharacteristically quiet, still staring at her as though he was seeing her for the first time. "You…smell like me." She blinked at that, looking down to see that she was still wearing his clothes.
"Well yeah, I used your shower, and I'm wearing your clothes."
"No, it's not that, those are superficial, this is something much deeper than that. It's in your skin…and in your blood." She felt heat rising along her chest, her neck, her cheeks flushing at his words, it was suddenly all so real, so-
"So, I guess you're still in shock," she said hesitating a little, his non-reaction making her nervous. His eyes though, his eyes were still focused on her stomach like he was trying to figure something out, his blatant staring making her conscious and she crossed her hands over her mid-section, making him look away. "Do you have any um-" Her phone rang from her bag, which was still at the end of the bed, and she frowned as she walked over to grab it. She could feel his eyes on her even as her back was turned towards him, and she sucked in a sharp breathe when she saw the caller ID.
She gulped as she answered the phone, sitting down on the bed. "Caroline?" She braced herself for her friends berating or an upset tirade, but what she got was neither.
"Elena, thank God, where are you?"
Her eyes widened in surprise at the vampires urgent tone, "um, I'm out, is everything okay?"
"Don't go to the Grill, okay." She said instead of answering Elena's question.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"It's that vampire hunter," Klaus' eyes locked with her as he heard Caroline talk, no doubt wondering where the hunter was, "he's taken hostages at the Grill, and he won't let them go unless Stefan and Damon go to him."
"Hostages?" There was a sinking feeling in her stomach at the word, "who?"
"Uh….Matt, April and….Jeremy."
"I'll be right there," she hung up, looking through her bag for her clothes when Klaus was suddenly in front of her.
"You're not going anywhere," his voice sounded hard as if he was bracing himself for a fight and she scoffed at his words.
"My brother is being held hostage by a psychotic hunter who had bombs in his trailer, who by the way, broke out of captivity last night by killing two of your hybrids. And now you're telling me I can't go save him. Why did you even have that hunter here?" She heard his phone ring then, Stefan's name flashing across the screen, and she frowned, "why is Stefan calling you?"
"Love, it's a long story-"
"Affecting my brother."
"Just stay here." He said, indignation rising within her.
"No, Jeremy is-"
"I'll save him, but you need to stay here, where it's safe." He sounded and desperate and she frowned.
"No, my brother's in danger-" his phone continued to ring and she groaned, "just pick it up!" He did and she pulled out her clothes. He tugged at her wrist as she tried walking to the washroom and she shook her head dropping her clothes on the bed. He was strategising with Stefan, about keeping the hunter alive, and she looked at him through narrowed eyes before pulling the shirt over her head. His eyes widened as she quickly dressed herself, and she could hear the strain in his voice.
She didn't even care, her brother was in danger and she wasn't going to sit on the sidelines.
He took hold of her hand again as he hung up the phone and she shrugged, "he's my brother Klaus, I'm not just going to sit here-"
"I told you that I'll protect him."
"You seem more interested in saving that hunter." She couldn't keep the accusation out of her voice, "what do you want from him?"
"I'll tell you, just please, stay here."
"No, you've been hiding something from me and I'm-"
"He's dangerous, and I will save your brother, but I can't do that if I'm worried about you and…" he sounded a little….helpless actually, like he was at his wits end as his hand roamed in the vicinity of her stomach, "and that."
"That!? Are you kidding me!"
"Oh, bloody hell, I mean the babies."
"That's better, the bab- wait," she registered what he had said in his frustration, "what do you mean babies?"
"It's why I was staring before, I'm almost certain I could hear two heartbeats other than yours, but they're so fleeting that I can't be certain whether it's just one or not."
"Okay," twins. She was going to die, she wouldn't survive labour, she was sure of it now. Her reality seemed to collapse around her yet again, but she had to compartmentalise, "okay, what if I stay with Caroline? Neither of us will go in but I need to be around Klaus, I'll go crazy worrying about Jeremy."
"Fine," he ground out, not looking happy about it, but he sounded frustrated as his eyes flashed in anger, the rims of his eyes flashing gold for a second, "but if you put yourself in harms way, I will get a strong leash-"
"Seriously Klaus, I won't okay, I won't put myself in danger," twins, she couldn't risk them, she was responsible for them after all, and seeing his reaction, she was pretty sure he felt the same, "I promise. Now can we go please, we need to get there before that guy kills my brother."
"Wait, one last thing," she stared in the empty space he had been a moment ago for a couple seconds before he was back in front of her, a bracelet in hand, along with her anklet, "your vervain and this," he held up the delicate bracelet, made of gold littered with six beads made of what looked like crushed rubies and diamonds. "It's spelled to suppress magic, Kol had it made for someone or the other a long time ago, it should help keep…your, well keep it a secret from any nefarious elements."
"Fine, but when this is all over, you and I have a lot to discuss."
A/N - Thank you for all the reviews! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.
