With Elena on his arm, Elijah makes the rounds, the two of them mingling with everyone who is anyone in the upper echelons of Reno society. They make a little small talk with a number of guests, laughing and enjoying the finest champagne money can buy.
Elijah points out his parents and mentions in her ear that they'll join them at their table later. Mikael is the president of the Nevada State Bar Association and therefore he's the master of ceremonies for the evening's proceedings, fortunately the boring stuff has concluded. When the band returns from their break and starts to play another number, Elijah bows to his lady earning a giggle as he leads her onto the dance floor.
They've been dancing on and off, circling the room for more than an hour already. No one is more surprised than Elena herself when she realizes that she's having a genuinely good time. Ever since she was a young girl, she's always loved to watch these pompous people come together to sing each others praises, it's all so phony. They fawn over each other with their sophisticated conversations but they're more interested in what they look like rather than the substance of any actual conversation.
Now they will retreat into a cloud of smoke and congratulate each other on being masters of the universe. The 'Titanic' quote always comes to mind when she attends an event like this.
There's no doubt in her mind that if not for Elijah, she'd either have walked out an hour ago or she'd be bored to tears. He's a great companion on so many levels and he's not exactly one of the... thank God, she couldn't tolerate him if he was. Because of his heritage and his name, he is part of their clique but he only socializes with them when his parents demand he attend one of their parties.
When he whispers something in her ear about Mrs. Lockwood's boorishness, she giggles. She's grateful for his sense of humor. To keep themselves entertained, they share private jokes often at the expense of the snobby assholes that are also in attendance.
She's having such a good time in fact that she's able to forget about her legal troubles for a few hours which is something Elijah is grateful for. He snatches two more champagne flutes from the waiter and hands one to Elena.
"Thank you, I feel like a Cinderella tonight, I can't shake the feeling though"
"Do tell."
"You know how it all went south for her at the stroke of midnight," she points out, taking a good sized sip of champagne.
"Don't be ridiculous," he chides her gently.
"I'm such a nerd, I own a prodigious night club but I only get to go to these hoity-toity parties when my lawyer doesn't have his plus one. My love and social lives are pathetic."
"C'mon... you and I are both know that everyone's crazy in love with you. Enzo, certainly. My brother... he would never admit it but I have no doubt... Kai..."
"You?" Elena's testing with a smile.
"Well of course," Elijah admits lightly. "I'm just a little wiser than they are and a little less impatient... I'll wait you out."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Elena adds an annoyed tone for effect.
Elijah gives her a crooked smile and makes a funny face.
"You!" she smacks him with the back of her hand, her eyes shining, appreciating Elijah's teasing. That's exactly what he was hoping for. A happy Elena makes everyone in her orbit relax while a sad Elena...
"Alright old man, put your flute down, you promised me a night of dancing!"
"And what would you call what we've been doing?"
Her smile is luminous when she drags him back onto the dance floor, well, she doesn't really have to put much effort into it. Elijah's quite delighted to oblige her, enjoying the dancing and the atmosphere. That changes drastically when...
"Don't turn around..." Elijah whispers into her ear, a gesture that must look pretty intimate to anyone watching them from afar. He stops spinning her, swaying slowly to the music instead.
"Why? What's going on?" Elena can feel something is wrong from his stiff posture, she trusts him enough though. Following his lead, she shifts and imitates the gesture, leaning closer against him, laying her face on his.
"I can't believe it myself but Detective Salvatore is right over there, looking as if he wants to murder me..."
"You can't be serious!" she pulls away immediately because there's no way...
No... It can't be. When she manages to turn around it becomes patently obvious that Elijah isn't joking. She lets go of him and marches right over to the good detective, Elijah on her heels.
"What are you doing here? Are you following me around the clock?"
Damon gives her what he hopes is a cold stare. "Miss Gilbert, I can assure you that your love life is none of my concern." His scathing look lands on a Elijah when he adds, "Have a good evening."
Without hesitating even a millisecond, he grabs Rose's hand, tugging her away.
In shock, Elena's stands there with her mouth hanging open. When she sees him disappear among the crowd, she turns to Elijah.
"Can you believe him? He's absolutely impossible."
Elijah rolls his eyes. "Alright Xena, first let's have another drink, then you, my warrior princess, can kick his ass."
Suddenly, the evening doesn't feel so peaceful anymore.
Flummoxed by what just went down, Rose pulls her arm free. She hoped to have a few words with Mr. Mikaelson but that all went out the window the moment Damon had his little hissy fit.
"What the hell was that?" she asks but continues to follow him to the bar trying to make sense of the...conversation Elijah and his guest were having with Damon.
"What was what?" He stalls, playing dumb as he pushes forward through the crowd.
Having had enough of his dodging, Rose rolls her eyes and stops him with a firm tug on his sleeve. "You know very well what. Who was that woman? "
Damon clenches his teeth. He's in desperate need of a drink. Not only does he not want to answer her questions, he doesn't have any answers to give. What was that? He's supposed to be focused like a laser beam on the fact that Elena could be a killer or at least conspired to commit murder by hiring a goon to do the job for her. She has motive, means and opportunity he needs to put the pieces together so he can make an arrest. Instead of being here, he should be searching for everything there is to find about her.
And what in the hell is going on with him? When he unexpectedly comes face to face with her, when he sees her in the arms of her lawyer all he feels is rage and irrational disappointment that she is indeed involved with that jackass just as Ric suggested. Of course she'd go for such a...
Rose watches his inner turmoil. She's a good judge of character, every lawyer should be and she doesn't exactly like what Damon's attempt at an impassive face gives away.
"Please tell me that she's not the murder suspect you talked about earlier?"
Damon's silence is telling.
"Are you crazy?" Rose lowers her voice. "You know the first rule of police work is not to get involved with...? What if she's guilty?" She's at a loss as to what to say to him about this level of insanity.
Damon finally finds his voice. "Ok, what exactly are you insinuating? That I'm no longer capable of being unbiased? I can assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. I'm perfectly able to do my job. That woman just drives me crazy and her involvement with the... the... him... It's like she's laughing at us, goading us if you will. I can't get anywhere near her, not anymore. The moment I have her alone, her bodyguards, Mikaelson chief among them, interrupts before I can get a word in."
Rose shakes her head. "I think this is all pretty weird. Who are you and where is the real Damon Salvatore? The one I know is rational, keeps his cool and doesn't let anything distract him once he gets a lead. He's never edgy...," she pauses a moment to peruse his stiff posture. "Caught off guard or disconcerted in any way when it comes to his job. Clearly you're none of those things tonight."
"Just stop okay? It's the damn case. It's wicked and there's something evil lurking behind those walls. And I swear she's the key to solving it. I just don't know how everything fits together just yet. There are still too many missing pieces." He swallows back the bourbon the bartender just put in front of him and after a minute he's able to shake of the tension.
"Sorry," he turns back to Rose, "I guess you're right... this one gets to me more than any other case. You may not know it or have witnessed it before but I do get frustrated when someone purposefully complicates things for me..."
"Yeah, 'complication' is Elijah's middle name," Rose relaxes a bit. "I told you I wouldn't want to go up against him..." She throws back her own drink and then offers him a smile. "Come, let's mingle and hopefully we won't run into them again."
Damon finishes another bourbon and follows her through the crowd.
Despite the decidedly unwelcome presence of Detective Salvatore, Elena once again manages to relax, mostly thanks to Elijah. As usual he's blissfully unaffected. Nothing ever seems to shake his steely persona which makes her more than happy that he's on her side. She shudders to imagine what it would be like to have him as an enemy.
"Why do you let him get under your skin? The only power he has is what you give him," he lectures when they're back on the dance floor, swaying together to a waltz.
"I know you're right but seeing him here was so unexpected, it's not fair that I can't catch a break from the madness. I swear I'm a walking, talking bad luck omen. Not only do I have to deal with him all day at the club and then to see him here this evening, I had a momentary lapse of sanity," she adds with a chuckle.
"Think of it this way, Elena. If you have to deal with him, he has to deal with you. And I don't know what you saw but to me, he looked just as frustrated, if not more than you," he winks at her. "Now if I were you, I'd enjoy the fact that you're driving him bat shit crazy."
Elena laughs and relaxes even more. When she looks around...
"It looks like your parents are finally free, do you want to say hello to them?"
Elijah nods and leads Elena along the edge of the dance floor right to his parents' VIP table.
"Elijah. Elena." Mikael looks pleased to see them, Elena sits next to Esther and the two women share a hug. "I thought we might see you here," he tells his son. "You, Elena are a surprise but a very pleasant one. I'm glad to see you by the way. How are your troubles with the police going?"
"Ugh, don't ask, uncle. Salvatore is an insufferable asshole, excuse my language. He had a swarm of cops at the club today, there were so many of them in fact that I couldn't leave my office without running into one or more of them. If that wasn't bad enough, that unapologetic pinhead even penetrated the sanctuary of my office. And if I might ask, what is he doing here?"
Elijah pulls a chair out for her, taking one himself while explaining to his parents what the cops have been doing at The Jungle. Esther squeezes Elena's hand, smiling understandingly at the younger woman. "It's horrible that they're being allowed treat her in such a deplorable manner. Can either of you do anything to put a stop to it?" she addresses her son and husband.
"Not much," Mikael answers, "unless they cross a line. If they dot all their I's and cross all of their T's, Elijah or anyone else for that matter could land themselves in a lot of trouble if they try to impede the investigation. And you say Detective Salvatore is here? Is he following you?"
"That's the most logical conclusion. I asked him what the hell he was doing here."
"And did he answer you?"
"No, but why else would he be at an event like this? I hardly think these are the people he spends his free time with."
Elijah disagrees. "He was just as surprised to see us as we were to see him. He has no evidence, he needs to have reasonable cause to put a tail on you. He knows you're not going to go anywhere, not when you have the club to run. You just need to relax and play it cool. You have nothing to hide after all."
Used to their familiar bickering, Elena opens her mouth to add her two cents in rebuttal to Elijah when a smooth deep voice interrupts their conversation.
"May I have this dance?"
As soon as Damon's mind starts working again, he asks Rose for a dance to distract her and with the silence, he hopes to conjure up a plan. While circling around among the guests, he looks for them over Rose's head. It takes him longer than he expected, long enough in fact that he starts to think that they may have left. Suddenly his eyes land on them when they step onto the dance floor and join hands. The very sight makes his stomach churn. He deliberately moves Rose away from them. From what he can gather by the looks on their faces, they seem to be in their own little world. Some time later he sees them leaving the parquet and finally catching them again when they join Mikaelson senior and his wife at their table.
"Rose?" he speaks next to her ear. "Do you know Mikael Mikaelson?"
Rose turns her head to where Damon's looking. "Ah, of course. I've seen him several times and I did meet him once when he was judging our mock trials in law school. Seems your intrepid suspect has not one but two high-powered attorneys at her beckon call..."
Damon grimaces, the thought of facing two of them isn't exactly conducive to relaxation. Time to turn the tables. He asks Rose to take a break and excuses himself for a few minutes. It probably won't take more than that for her to kick his ass and send him on his merry way. He's determined to give it a shot nonetheless.
Miraculously enough, no one in their group notices him as he moves closer. It comes as a great surprise to everyone when he bends over to speak, placing his mouth next to her ear. He allows himself the pleasure of breathing in her mesmerizing scent for a moment before speaking.
"May I have this dance?"
The reaction is immediate. Elijah makes a move to stand up but stops himself even before he feels his father's hand on his forearm. Mikael scrutinizes Damon with suspicion while his wife, sitting next to Elena, looks at him with open disgust. Elena herself is frozen, he has no idea if she's shocked at his question or if it's his close proximity that's caught her off guard.
"Elena?" Elijah looks at her, his features once again controlled.
Elena seems to draw the courage from his calming stare. It's maddening that it's not a surprise that she'd be attracted to a cavalier jackass like him?
Taking a deep breath, Elena finally nods her acceptance and stands up. She's full of surprises tonight. He offers his hand with no expectation of her taking it but he has to hold in a gasp when she latches onto it. He nods to the Mikaelsons and leads Elena to the dance floor.
He knows it's a mistake the moment he takes her in his arms.
Dancing with Damon Salvatore is so very different from what she expected. Elena was prepared for a stiff performance but her body reacts to his touch so naturally that it feels like a second skin to relax in his arms. He leads her surely but gently, at first they don't even talk as they're adjusting to the new reality, one where they don't fight, don't have prejudices and if wonders never cease, actually feel comfortable around each other.
Maybe if they were voiceless, they'd actually work.
Elena looks everywhere but at him, she catches Elijah's eyes for a moment but just as quickly her dancing partner turns her around so she can't see him to read his lips. Damn him!
Eventually, it's her who starts and stops the conversation.
"No questions?" she lets herself be heard.
Damon looks down at her but she avoids his eyes. He actually wishes she wouldn't have spoken. Now he'll have to start working.
"Do you have anything to tell me Miss Gilbert?"
"No, but you always seem to have a million questions..."
"It comes with the territory." His voice comes a tone deeper this time and Elena shivers. What new tactic is this?
She shoots him a look and their eyes finally meet. He catches her off guard and is rewarded with the most genuine face he's ever seen on her. She's luminous. He experiences the sensation of falling into the murky depths of her eyes. For the first time in his life, he understands how Alice must have felt when she tumbled through the looking glass.
As if struck by lightning, he's suddenly hit with the intense belief that they can't lie. It's not possible that this woman would plot and scheme to murder her brother, that the order of his death would ever come out of her mouth.
Then she withdraws her gaze again and he knows with certainty that when she looks back at him, she'll once again be the ice princess. Dangerous. Deadly. Beautiful. And then his rational mind will know her guilt is the only thing that makes sense.
"You know," she directs her words somewhere over his shoulder, "I know you don't like me but aren't you supposed to be impartial? I know for a fact that you haven't found one single piece of evidence that connects me to Jeremy's murder."
"Fair enough. But it doesn't mean there isn't one waiting to be found. My gut instinct is telling me your relationship with him is the key to all of it."
"And your gut is telling you what? That I stole the club, all the money and everything else of value and then I murdered him?"
Damon has to admit it does sound a bit far fetched when she sums it up like that. "No, but I'm sure you have not one... but many willing accomplices ready and able to do whatever you ask of them. I've been to your place, Miss Gilbert, I've seen how they all jump at your command. You can deny it all you want but you have everyone of them wrapped around your little finger." Did he really just say that? To her?
Elena suddenly stops them in their tracks, nearly causing a collision with another couple. "What is that supposed to mean? That I'm a mob boss with my own version of the mafia to do my dirty work? A Godmother? Unbelievable!"
Damon almost chuckles. She's so cute when her feathers are ruffled! Still... "No, of course not, it's just that all your men seem to bend over backwards to please you. Tell me though, why the lawyer?"
"What about Elijah? And just what exactly are you insinuating?"
"You two seem so... professional at the club, I didn't exactly think he was your type."
"Seriously?"
Damon looks skeptical as he quirks a brow at her.
"Even if he and I were involved, how is that any of your business detective? So I'm not supposed to go out with an attractive guy but you can parade your girlfriend around, who's obviously a lawyer too or you wouldn't be here. It's a Bar Association event, you need to be one or with one. Where is she anyway? She's fine with you conducting an interrogation while you're supposed to be on a date with her?"
"Rose's not my..." he starts but decides to keep the emotions in check and after he glances around, people are already starting to look in their direction, he gently takes her in his arms again and pushes her to move. It shouldn't feel so natural. To his surprise she follows his lead and relaxes immediately as soon as they start dancing again.
They don't speak another word for the rest of the song. When the music stops, he lowers his lips to her ear shell once again.
"I really only wanted a dance. And you're very wrong... I do like you too much... And that might be a fucking problem."
Huge thanks to each and everyone of you. You're all the best.
Thank you Eva, I don't know where I'd be without you.
Chapter title: 'Waking Lions' by Pop Evil.
My plan is to post "Renegade" on Friday barring anything unforeseen like FF or internet issues. It's huge...ish ;)
Have a safe and wonderful day, thank you all again.