No words have been exchanged to say as much, but Elena knows that her husband sees her heart softening toward him, and it is strangely comforting to her. With relatively little word on their daughter's whereabouts, aching grief has become commonplace, and they are united in that much, at least. It's almost too much, dealing with the drum of the routine despite it all, and she knows that she would be lost without him.
"I'm giving an exam today, so I should be finished early. I'll take the boys to little league practice after." His voice rings out in the kitchen as he loads his briefcase and scarfs down a slice of toast. Their morning routine has always been chaotic, but since Stefanie's disappearance, the lunacy has only been amplified as they cling awkwardly to the mundane for the sake of their own sanity.
Elena sits in front of their youngest daughter who is happily crunching away at a granola bar at the table, barely noticing the fact that she's beginning to slowly overcome her aversion to food and certainly not celebrating it. She simply runs her hand through her daughter's messy curls and kisses the top of her head as her husband makes his way toward the back door.
"Hey," she interjects, once his hand has already started turning the knob. It's been weeks since their parting words have held anything but rushed plans and reminders, so he expects nothing less. She's already up out of her seat, though, when he turns around, toward him and enveloping him in a hug before he has the chance to question it. "Be safe," she breathes out against his neck, her voice soft like a child's. "I love you."
Once the shock has worn off, he drops his briefcase and pulls her against him, drawing back only for a moment to press a solid kiss against her lips and return the sentiment. "I love you, too." She already knows, of course, they both do, but it's been so long since the words came alive between them that they both settle into it, holding one another's gaze and searching for meaning within each other's eyes even as it refuses to surface.
Time stands still until Grays hops out of her chair and clambers toward the couple, wrapping her pudgy arms around each of their knees in a makeshift group hug and peering up at them with a fresh set of brown eyes that hold none of the pain.
If he didn't feel so utterly wrong at the thought of it, he might smile.
Alaric Saltzman knew there was something off about the little girl who wandered into his school claiming to be a vampire and requesting to be enrolled the moment he saw her. His initial reaction was that she was lying, but then she withstood the test of compulsion, leaving him no choice but to keep her close in hopes of unravelling the peculiarities of the mystery. Of course, Hope had been all too keen to take a stab at cracking her.
"She didn't care about anything in your lair except the stupid car." Exasperation is evident in Hope's voice as she reports back to her headmaster.
"The car?" This kid is full of curveballs.
Hope smoothes her hands over the artifacts in the office, her brow knotted in deep contemplation. "I hate to admit it, but what if we're wrong." She laughs at the absurd simplicity of the thought. "What if she's just the wayward child she says she is and we're wasting all of this time chasing rabbits?"
Alaric's silence is his only reply, admitting wordlessly that there could be truth in Hope's words. Ever since his girls were small and it seemed like the world was out to get them every other day, he's had his guard up, and despite the fact that the school has been a safe haven for nearly ten years, his hypervigilance remains the deepest scar he carries from his early years in Mystic Falls.
As the afternoon sun puddles on the horizon and the students all settle into their evening routines, he's almost convinced himself that becoming unnerved by the tiny, traumatized Sarah Sterling is nothing more than further proof he's losing his mind. His hand finds his chin as he watches the primary school students run and play in the courtyard below his office window and it doesn't take long for him to find the suspect in question.
What kind of evil would send a little girl to breech the walls of his precious school? An unbelievably cunning, chillingly deceptive sociopath who is… obsessed with Damon Salvatore's vintage car?
A wave of ice washes over the headmaster's body as he stammers in place, nearly hitting the floor at the shock of it. Why he didn't think of it earlier, he doesn't know, but it's the only logical explanation.
It takes a while for Elena to get restless, but once it happens, she's a force to be reckoned with. Damon knows it—has experienced it firsthand for nearly the last 20 years of his life—and yet, when he comes through the door on Friday evening a week after their daughter disappeared into thin air, he's unprepared for the fiasco awaiting him.
To the untrained eye, nothing would appear amiss, but Damon can sense something is off as soon as he walks through the back door and hears Eminem blaring from the speaker system in their bedroom. As he ascends the stairs, he silently prepares himself for whatever strung out version of his wife awaits him. In her younger years, she took all of her frustrations out on him. Regardless of who initially did her wrong, she always managed to find a way to turn the tables on Damon, and he typically didn't mind all that much considering it never took long for her physical aggression to turn amorous.
When he swings the door open, though, no lamps (or lips, for that matter) come barreling at his face and Elena simply stands at the foot of the bed folding a pair of footie pajamas from a basket of clean laundry. He'd be tempted to think he was mistaken were it not for her incessantly tapping foot and the way she forcefully exhales, drawing her hand through her untamable mess of curls. "I had a thought," she thunders over the music, not bothering to turn her husband's way.
He doesn't have to ask to know what she means. Walking to the speaker, he shuts the rapper off mid-stanza and returns to her side. "What is it?" He asks, still unsure if he actually wants her to answer. "Well I laid down for a nap this afternoon when I got in from work and my mind started wandering to all of the terrible people we've dealt with in our lives thus far and how, one way or another, we've managed to best most of them."
She dumps the remainder of the laundry out on the bed with unmatched aggression, and as tempted as Damon is to prompt her to continue, he knows she's still processing it all in her own way, so he simply draws his hands up to her shoulders and begins to massage as she folds towels.
"Out of all the people we encountered, Damon, there was only one person hellbent on destroying you and me and our happiness for no particular reason. Katherine and Klaus and even Cade… as horrible as they all were, you could always trace their motivation to some form of justice or restitution, no matter how twisted it had become in their own minds. They were each just going after what they wanted and they were willing to do whatever it took in the process." She pauses for a moment, relaxing back into the simple pressure of Damon's skilled hands and wishing that she could close her eyes and forget the rest, as if somehow allowing the words to pass through her lips would make them come to life.
Turning in Damon's arms to face him full on, she holds his gaze with the ferocity of a mother bear and continues. "Only one person ever hurt us just because he could and I have no doubt he'd do it again if he had the chance…" Sobbing overtakes her before she can finish her sentence, and suddenly she finds herself shaking violently in her husband's arms, tormented by memories and terrorized by fear at the thought of what might lie ahead.
She never says the words, but he hears them all the same.
Kai Parker kidnapped our daughter.
Author's Note: Several of you asked questions this week in your reviews and I wanted to take a moment to entertain your thoughts. As always, I truly appreciate you taking the time to analyze the work and ask thought-provoking questions. First of all, Alaric is a smart man, and I definitely think that he knows something is up with Stefanie. As for his relationship with the Salvatore family, I think I would describe it as distant. Since Damon and Elena are human and choose to live their lives as free of supernatural influence as possible for the sake of their children's safety, it would be difficult to maintain a close relationship, so I'd say that they only see him on rare occasions and have never introduced him to their kids.
As for Stefanie's maturity levels, I completely agree that her age does not excuse her galavanting off and scaring her parents to death. However, I will say that I believe she gets it honestly if you look back at both of her parents' reputations throughout the Vampire Diaries storyline. What united the kind orphan teenager and the sadistic vampire killer in the first place? They are both stubborn, curious martyrs with a tendency to be more than a little inconsiderate of other people when it comes to going after what they want. Like it or not, they're getting a dose of their own medicine.
I hope I've answered your questions and cleared up any misconceptions you might have up to this point! I apologize in advance for leaving you all on such a rotten cliffhanger, but I will be wrapping this story up soon (no more than 2-3 more chapters). Stay tuned for updates!