A.N.: Thank you so much for all the fantastic reviews! I think a few of you had issues with the site, I hope you all got to read the updates.
Dangerous Beauty
28
'Fess Up
Tyler stayed that way for a long time, cuddled by Caroline, crying into Giulia's chest when they managed to get him sat upright, leaning heavily against her. Caroline being the fastest of them, Giulia sent her ahead to the Boarding House to prepare an ice-bath for Tyler, and ensure the shower was scalding. That left Giulia to get some clothes on Tyler and get him to the car. They managed gym-shorts and flip-flops; he hobbled, supported by Giulia, to the car, where she produced and he guzzled down several Gatorades and and power-bars, falling into a doze as Giulia drove them to the Boarding House, lit up like the Moulin Rouge, Damon's music blasting in the great hall. Giulia got a fleeting glimpse of Damon, dancing with his bourbon, and Rose's pretty face, illuminated by the lamplight as she glanced over a bare shoulder.
"We're playing strip-Truth or Dare!" Damon called, his open shirt billowing. "Join us!"
"Not tonight," Giulia called back, guiding Tyler to her room. In all the time they'd been friends, all the time they'd been dating, Giulia's house had creeped Tyler out. Her bedroom was a no-boys-allowed zone, and if Tyler hadn't stayed away by his own choice, Giulia's dad's gun collection would've kept him away.
"So, I met Rose," Caroline announced by way of greeting, glancing over her shoulder as she emptied the last bag of ice into the bathtub.
"Before or after she lost her bra?" Giulia grunted, depositing Tyler on the edge of the tub.
"After," Caroline said breezily, giving Giulia an accusatory look.
"Why are you looking at me like that?!" Giulia blurted. "I can't control Damon's libido. And he's getting bored – it's good he's made a new little friend."
"So, I guess she's back," Caroline sighed. She'd heard Rose's part in Elena's kidnapping and for that, Rose's presence was a sore spot, but it wasn't in Caroline's nature to be unkind. "Is she staying here?"
"Neither Stefan nor Damon have forcibly removed her – yet," Giulia shrugged unconcernedly. If Rose was back and Damon was playing naked drinking-games with her, she didn't have anything to concern herself with except helping lower Tyler into the ice-bath. He was her priority, and Caroline understood that Giulia didn't care about Damon and Rose to gossip and Damon-bash. The only thing she did think was that with Rose's reappearance came Slater's computer-system.
Caroline left the room while Tyler climbed into teh tub; Giulia helped him, then went to get ready for bed herself. Before long, they heard the shower hissing, and a knock on the door. Giulia blinked at Rose, standing in the doorway in her pyjamas and silky robe.
"Is your friend alright?" Rose asked, genuine concern on her face.
"Not really," Giulia said quietly, as Caroline drifted over, her hair already in pigtails for bed. Rose smiled warmly at her.
"Sorry about earlier."
"That's okay," Caroline sighed tiredly, stifling a yawn. "Just don't expect me to reciprocate."
Rose chuckled softly. "I just wanted to check you have everything you need."
"We're good," Giulia said, barely able to keep her eyes open. "Enjoy the party."
Tyler shuffled into the room in a haze of steam, half-asleep. The bruises had disappeared, and the only hint of what he'd just been through was the look in Tyler's eyes. Literally a lost puppy; he didn't seem to know what to do with himself. Caroline was already tucked up in bed; it didn't take any convincing to get Tyler in next to her, and Giulia killed the lights before cuddling up to her new personal space-heater, so different from Elijah's refreshing coolness. Finally, finally, they all started to relax. Tyler's warmth was soothing, and Giulia sighed, cuddling up. She couldn't resist, though, smirking to herself, and said, "Aren't you a lucky boy?!"
"Giulia!" Caroline blurted, and Tyler's laugh rippled through the dark, the sound tinged with pain at the end. They settled in, relaxing in the dark, the warmth. Caroline's little snores created a duet with Tyler's exhausted rumbling. Every time Giulia drifted off, a replay of Tyler transforming drifted into her head, and her body reacted viscerally, a shock going through her, waking her totally. Damon partying in the great hall didn't even register' her friends' snoring didn't bother her. But every time she closed her eyes, Tyler's breaking body jolted through her mind, unsettling her. She knew that beside her, Tyler's sleep came from that complete, marrow-deep physical exhaustion and mental anguish. Caroline was practically purring, practically pasted to Tyler's side, drawn to heat like a lizard basking in the sun.
She saw four a.m., 4:15 a.m., 4:27 a.m., 4:39 a.m. At 5:32 a.m., having lain in bed staring at the ceiling, she squinted in the darkness she realised was a little lighter. The sun was rising.
"Fuck it!" she blurted, tucking the blankets over Tyler, and shuffled downstairs in her black vest and panties, rubbing her face. She was overwrought, emotionally strung out and fidgety, anxious, her mind racing too much to sleep. She knew she'd pay for it later, but she just couldn't settle, couldn't stop replaying Tyler's transformation in her head.
She bypassed the bar in the great room; Damon and Rose had been paying it a lot of attention last night, and she wanted to be in full possession of all her faculties. She'd hated the handicap of bruised ribs, she didn't need liquor dulling her senses. She was the only mortal in a clusterfuck of supernatural drama. Her sharpest weapon was her mind. She did, however, unload the contents of the icebox she had packed into Caroline's car, going through the walk-in pantry she had never really gone through when she'd moved out. She started to cook, picking up bits learned from Elijah, ideas from breakfasts out, from a nutrition seminar at school the other week. Buttery mushrooms, sausage-gravy, ranch-potatoes, fresh buttermilk biscuits baking in the oven with trays of bacon, sausage and cherry-tomatoes on the vine.
"I'd forgotten what this was like," said a voice, and Giulia started. It was Stefan, hair already coifed for the day.
"What what's like?"
"This. You, in here, cooking," Stefan said, with a half-smile. "So, how did it go last night?" Giulia glanced up, and Stefan's smile faded. "That bad, huh?"
"There are no words," Giulia said honestly.
"So you're making breakfast, huh?"
"Tank's running on fumes," Giulia muttered. Hers, as well as Tyler's. She made Stefan jump when she whacked some thirty-six ounce steaks with her rolling-pin. "Where are you headed?"
"Hunting. Elena's on lockdown, if I don't go to school I don't get to see her," Stefan said, watching her, leaning against the freezer door as she tenderised the steaks. She left them to rest, moving on to her next task, grinding coffee-beans.
"Say it."
"Say what?"
"Whatever it is you're biting your tongue about," Giulia said, glancing over at Stefan. "Purge."
"I just…never thought you'd resort to being petty," Stefan shrugged. Giulia raised her eyebrows, clueless. "Elena. Jenna putting her on mystical house-arrest is typical you."
"I know you haven't had a parent in a while, but this is how it works; you fuck up, you get punished," Giulia told him, frowning. She was too exhausted to put up with his passive-aggressive blame-game. "Jenna's the parent, Stefan – Elena scared her, and she has every right to be upset. All I did was give her Sheila's number."
"And this deal with Elijah, you don't have anything to do with Jenna convincing Elena she should take it?" Stefan asked, and Giulia blinked at him.
"I've been a little out of the loop recently, watching every bone in Tyler's body break and reform into the anatomy of a rage-filled wolf, but could you just fill me in – what deal?" she asked tersely, too tired for veiled accusations and passive-aggressive bitching. Stefan sighed heavily.
"Apparently, Elijah showed up at the Gilbert house, managed to convince Jenna to invite him in; he proposed a deal to her, keeping everyone safe, if Elena went along with the sacrifice," Stefan said, and Giulia raised her eyebrows, mildly interested. That naughty little lush, she thought. He'd had time to propose détente with Jenna Somers, coax Elena into a deal and babysit a werewolf-pup in one night?
"So, we knew Elijah was knocking about," Giulia said fairly. "Fair to assume he'd eventually make contact."
"Yes, but not in the Gilberts' den," Stefan said tersely. "Not with none of us there to protect Jenna."
"Stefan – he's a thousand-year-old Original immune to a lance through the heart," Giulia said. "What on earth do you think you could do to protect Jenna if he'd wanted to hurt her? So did Elena take the deal?"
"Yes," Stefan said, looking like it cost him the world to admit it.
"And you don't like that?"
"I'm surprised you like it," Stefan shot back, and Giulia raised her eyebrows.
"Why wouldn't I? One thing less I have to worry about."
"She's your friend, there's really something more important in your diary than making sure she doesn't get slaughtered on a fiery altar? You stopped Elena handing herself over to Klaus' minions, I thought you'd be more upset she's given up so easily."
"Technically I think they were Elijah's minions," Giulia corrected him thoughtfully. Obviously they'd been very low on the totem-pole not to recognise Elijah's glorious hair and immaculate suit. "Anyway, better the devil you know; aren't you at least a little glad Elena has an Original bodyguard?"
"An Original bodyguard who wants to kill her!" Giulia shrugged.
"So make sure she comes back," she said, unconcernedly. It was the simplest thing to do, and thus would be the last thing the brothers would ever think of. They'd jump through every blazing hoop, chase after every wild goose, climb that impossible mountain, putting smoke on the leash, to protect Elena, overlooking the easiest, most obvious way out of this. And she might as well have been talking to a brick-wall for all the good it did her. And this was the reason she had her own endgame, moving different parts to achieve her goal – and they were her pawns, because they weren't clever enough to play the game for themselves. Stefan was too self-righteous, Damon, too emotional. Together, they'd try to protect Elena, but they would never dare risk her life by putting faith in some spell. She knew what Damon would do – and Stefan would hate him for it: she would ruin their relationship, only now starting to heal.
She'd do anything to avoid that. As much as Elena had once been her friend, Stefan and Damon were family – distant, and hellaciously dysfunctional, but family. They were brothers. Allowing their relationship to heal was her main goal – making sure Damon could help Stefan keep Elena safe, because he loved her, and Damon cared about his baby-bro and always had, was a means to that end. And Elena had once been her friend. She didn't care so much for Elena's friendship anymore, but Giulia wasn't the callous, heartless bitch everyone thought she was. She'd protect Elena because it was the decent thing to do, because they had history – and because she could. So why wouldn't she set herself the challenge?
Stefan gave one of his little annoyed scoffs, the noise he made when he couldn't think of a comeback, and stalked off. "Give the racoons my regards!" she called after him, turning to make batter for pancakes. She was opening a can of pineapple slices, draining the juice into an old blender, when Rose wandered in.
"Good morning," she smiled softly. Her neat eyebrows lowered, her expression concerned as she watched Giulia add sliced peaches, a banana, apple, orange segments and lemon-juice to the blender. "Is your friend alright?"
"Tyler? He's out," Giulia said. Rose frowned concernedly.
"And how are you?" she asked softly. "You look like you haven't slept."
"I haven't." Giulia sighed, glancing around bleary-eyed. "There's coffee percolating if you want some."
"Thank you," Rose said softly, allowing her dodge. "I'm still learning my way around – where do you keep the coffee-cups?" Giulia pointed to the cupboard, and Rose filled two cups. Giulia added two teaspoons of sugar.
"Dark, strong and sweet, hm?" Rose smiled, adding a good measure of half-and-half to hers. She sighed softly. "Giulia, I have to apologise. For the other night, running away…"
"You've been running for five-hundred years," Giulia shrugged it off. "And I had it handled anyway."
"You certainly did," Rose smiled warmly. "It's lovely to see someone live up to their reputation."
"I don't think most people would appreciate gaining the reputation I apparently have," Giulia mused, and Rose chuckled.
"You're part of this world," she said, with a touch of sadness. "That second's hesitation at the sound of your name could just save your life. You're still human… That must be strange, when all your friends are supernatural." Giulia licked her lips, focused on getting any lumps out of the pancake-batter. Rose perched on a bar-stool at the island, hands wrapped around her cup of coffee and pointedly sitting outside of direct sunlight. Giulia reached back and adjusted the blinds to send the shards of early-morning sunlight onto the ceiling. "Damon told me a few things he thought I should know if I'm going to stay here…other than that if I betray him in any way he'll rip my heart out and shove it down my throat." Giulia scoffed, rolling her eyes, and Rose's pretty eyes twinkled. Rose sighed softly, her smile fading.
"I shouldn't have left you. It doesn't matter that you're very capable of defending yourself – you're a seventeen-year-old human. You've got more backbone than is good for you, Giulia Salvatore," Rose declared gently, raising her coffee-cup in a salute.
"It's okay that you don't like conflict," Giulia said quietly, remembering that it had been Rose who had masterminded Elena's abduction – Trevor who carried it out.
"I'm just tired of it," Rose admitted. "It's been a very long time since I've been invested enough to put my neck out there for anyone else. Five centuries on the run, it's not easy to form bonds."
"Cake's not worth the bake," Giulia said quietly. She felt that way about Elena and Bonnie – they had once been her friends, but the effort she been putting in to be their friend wasn't worth what she got out of it. Rose gave her a bitter smile.
"Exactly," she said quietly. She glanced around the island, where Giulia had made a glorious mess only she could sort out.
"I'm sorry about your friend Trevor," Giulia said earnestly. She couldn't imagine losing Caroline, after spending five-hundred years devoted to her. No, she could; and that was why she was working so hard to cover all possibly conceivable bases.
"You could say my freedom is bittersweet," Rose said, sighing softly.
"Do you like it here?" Giulia asked.
"Damon is very entertaining. Your library is one of the finest I've seen in years," Rose smiled. "And I hear Mystic Falls is a lovely little sleepy town."
"And you really want to stay?"
"I'm seriously considering it."
"Not because you've been sleeping with Damon?"
"Not – not entirely because of that," Rose chuckled at her bluntness. "I can't deny there aren't certain perks, but I've always liked to be useful. Helping you and your friends stay out of trouble – although I haven't been successful at all so far… I don't know. I suppose we're both similar in that our worlds have been knocked off-kilter. Trevor was my centre of gravity for centuries. I'm trying to establish a new one."
"Well, I guess you haven't been set fire to in your sleep, so Stefan and Damon don't mind you staying here," Giulia said, and Rose chuckled. "I hate this house, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with it so it's not just a huge money-drain, but you're welcome to stay."
"Thank you," Rose smiled. She frowned gently. "What were you thinking of doing with this place?"
"Nothing that actually binds me to staying here to manage it," Giulia said drily, and Rose chuckled. "I just…don't like being here. I used to love living in the creepiest house in Mystic Falls." But too many of her relatives had met their gruesome ends here; she refused to be another one of the Salvatores wheeled out on a gurney under suspicious circumstances.
"I suppose creepy is only its reputation; it's a very beautiful building," Rose said. "I'm sure the gardens are quite stunning."
"Apparently my grandmother was obsessed with English rose-gardens."
"With good reason," Rose chuckled, and Giulia nodded.
"If I had the time and the inclination I might actually devote some time to restoring them," Giulia said, sighing. "I did think maybe I could turn this place into some kind of destination-restaurant with a huge kitchen-garden, but I don't want to be a chef. And it's Stefan and Damon's home, too; they'll come back occasionally. I don't want to sell it, either."
"Well, keep thinking on it," Rose shrugged delicately. "You'll think of something that will suit you – and give Damon and Stefan a home to come back to when they're tired."
"For the moment, I think I just want to restore it," Giulia said quietly. There were parts of the house that needed a little love and attention, the stables and barns, and she was sure she could do something with the attic once it was cleared out. "Spend some money on the woodwork and redecorate the bedrooms."
"Well, I believe in earning my keep," Rose smiled, "so by all means, put me to work. I'm far better at cleaning than killing."
"You're going to wish you hadn't said that," Giulia promised her sweetly, and Rose chuckled.
"Write up a list of chores and I swear you won't recognise the place," she said, taking up her coffee-cup and slipping off the bar-stool. She tilted her head to one side, looking thoughtful. "I think your friends are stirring."
"Oh, good," Giulia said, and she got to work as Rose drifted out of the room. She set the huge steaks on the griddle, blitzed the contents of the blender, removed the bacon, sausages, ranch-potatoes and tomatoes from the oven with the tray of fresh biscuits, warmed the sausage-gravy, turned the heat up on the mushrooms, separated some chopped fruit into three bowls, scrambled a load of eggs with sautéed bell peppers, cheese, mushrooms and onions, popped several slices of bread in the toaster, grimaced at the contents of a forgotten old strawberry-jam jar in the refrigerator, finding a dusty grape-jelly jar in the pantry – it had been her dad's favourite, but she'd never understood it; like her Italian mother she believed grapes were for Prosecco. She heated another pan on the stove, and started dunking pineapple-rings into the pancake-batter.
Tyler had grown up with an emotionally-distant mother and an abusive-father, but in childhood he'd had a nanny who used to trick him into eating fruit by making a treat that he loved to this day; pancakes with hidden rings of pineapple tucked inside, juicy and sweet and surrounded by fluffy deliciousness. Giulia had made them for their first anniversary, and they would always remind Tyler of childhood memories with his favourite nanny – whom he'd once run away to go and live with after Carol had fired her. He'd made himself a grape-jelly and bologna sandwich, figuring he liked both in his sandwiches, and Giulia's dad had picked him up wandering down the road out of town when Carol had called around in a panic.
Pineapple pancakes, grape-jelly and steaks were some of Tyler's favourite things. Giulia reached for an old serving-dish in one of the cabinets and started piling up Tyler's breakfast. An entire steak, loaded scrambled eggs, ranch-potatoes, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy, mushrooms, tomatoes, pineapple pancakes, a fruit-cup, a dollop of grape jelly in a little dish with triangles of freshly-baked toast, a cup of dark coffee with a ton of sugar and half-and-half and a fresh fruit smoothie to balance out the tray she had to use to carry it all upstairs. Man vs Food, eat your heart out, she thought.
Whether or not Rose had heard Caroline and Tyler stirring, they weren't awake when she shuffled carefully into her old room. She found them, cuddled up in bed, looking so peaceful and so relaxed, so cute, she had the sudden, inexplicable feeling that she was a third-wheel. Which was ridiculous – this was her room; he'd turned into a freaking werewolf last night! There was nothing cutesy or romantic about the fact that Caroline had practically latched onto Tyler like a sloth, absorbing his heat. But she couldn't shake the feeling that she was…intruding. Like this was something very intimate. They had all gone through it together, Giulia would never be able to forget it. But she'd be damned if she ever let Tyler go through it again. If Sheila had seen him last night, she would never have given Giulia the caveat of him transforming once as amends.
But Giulia respected Sheila's demands, her morals as a witch, a witch who was helping her, sometimes unquestioningly. So she'd never tell Tyler this was part of Sheila's deal. He had to go through it once, to respect what it meant to turn into a werewolf, to be truly appreciate of the gift Giulia had engineered for him.
She punted the door shut behind her, and Tyler started with a distinctly canine snuffle. Without even opening his eyes, he sniffed at the air, rising to a sitting-position. Rubbing his eyes, looking as exhausted as she felt – though, she thought bitterly, he'd at least had a few solid hours of complete, blissful unconsciousness – Tyler groaned and focused on her. He blinked, looking staggered.
"Morning," she said, suddenly shy. There was only one time in the entire time they'd been dating that she could remember making Tyler breakfast – his parents had spent the weekend in Richmond, and she'd stayed over; only, Richard and Carol had come home earlier than Tyler expected and Giulia had had to climb out the window. That was at the point in their relationship where Mrs Lockwood had felt they were too young to be allowed closed-doors when Giulia spent time over at Tyler's house – having no idea they'd been having sex for weeks, wherever they could! Backseats of cars, in the woods, on tumble-dryers, sofas in the Mayor's private study.
"Hey," Tyler blinked, staring at her. "Is that for me and Caroline?"
"Uh…this is for you," Giulia said, offering Tyler the tray. "I thought you'd be…starving." She tilted her head to one side, watching curiously as Tyler scented the air again.
"Did you make pineapple pancakes?" he asked, in mild awe.
"Yup. And there's more, I just couldn't carry it all," Giulia said, and she set the tray in Tyler's lap. "There's grape jelly, too. And I left the stake a little on the rarer side than you'd usually have it."
"No, no, this is great," Tyler said, staring at the enormous serving-platter. "It smells perfect." Giulia raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, well, I'll go get mine and Caroline's breakfasts," Giulia said. Tyler had demolished half the steak and most of the pancakes before she'd returned, laden down with her breakfast and Caroline's, and a plate of fresh pineapple pancakes piled high.
"Hey," Caroline smiled, stretching. She eyed the loaded plate Giulia handed her. "Wow! Is this fresh bread?! Did you – you didn't sleep at all, did you? Giulia?!"
"What?!" She shrugged, drawing the chair out from her old desk, starting on her eggs. She was so tired she barely had an appetite, but she knew if she didn't eat she'd just feel worse, and crash harder, sooner. She didn't start classes until later in the morning and her load was light today. She'd already finished her assignments and was ahead of herself with any reading. "I didn't stay up drinking all night with Damon and Rose!"
"Pancakes are good," Tyler muttered, shoving a loaded forkful of steak, pancake and eggs into his mouth. Giulia's jaw dropped – surely he'd detached his to fit all that in there?! – watching Tyler's serving-platter empty.
"There's more," she said weakly, slinging fresh pancakes at him. Caroline looked a little nauseated watching him, picking daintily at her biscuits and gravy and fruit-cup.
"So I guess you're hungry," Caroline remarked, watching him. Tyler nodded.
"And you ate five power-bars last night," Giulia muttered.
"Why's your plate so loaded?" Tyler asked her. "You ate dinner last night."
"I lost it," Giulia said grimly. Tyler flitted a glance her way
"Shouldn't you be heading to Richmond?" Caroline asked, checking her phone.
"I've got a late class this morning," Giulia said gratefully. She didn't have her first lecture until eleven a.m. "But if you could give me a ride to my car, I'd appreciate it."
"Sure." Caroline nudged Tyler, who winced without her noticing. "Hey, we should get ready for school; we'll be late. I'll go use one of the other thousand bathrooms in this place." Half an hour later, Giulia was diving out of Caroline's car at high-speed so they weren't late for school. If any of their teachers had seen Tyler last night, they would all have been astounded he was standing, let alone racing across the lawn to get inside before the bell. She groaned as she relaxed into the driver's seat, resting arms and head on the steering-wheel. She might've dozed off, the buzz and jingle of her cell-phone startling her.
"Hulluhn?"
"Giulia? It's Jenna. Did I wake you?"
"Am I awake?"
"I'll take that as a yes. Hey, can we meet today? I left a message on your phone last-night; Jeremy told me you were with Tyler. Can we talk over coffee?"
"Coffee is good," Giulia grumbled, checking her watch, and realising there was a hand-print bruise curled around it – from Tyler. She let out a huge yawn, rubbed her face and shook herself a little, trying to wake herself up. "I have a lecture at eleven."
"Yeah, I'm in meetings with my thesis-adviser until noon," Jenna said. "How about we meet at the Grind at 12:15?"
How she'd managed to stay awake for her lecture, she had no idea, let alone having absorbed so much of it; the air-conditioning in the building was broken, and it felt like the height of summer – on top of that, it was an economics lecture, which she could sleep through any day and still know more than the professor. The perfect scenario for her to fall deeply, blissfully asleep. But she didn't. Out of politeness, she never fell asleep in her classes; she was paying for the privilege of being there.
But she could've auditioned for the Walking Dead as an extra; she was conscious but barely functioning. She ordered a double-espresso and made the mistake of sitting on one of the armchairs, resting her head on her hand. She jolted awake when someone touched her knee, coughing and downing her cold espresso. It was 12:47 p.m. by her watch.
"Hey, I'm sorry I'm so late," Jenna apologised, dropping into the armchair with a thankful groan. "I got into an argument with my adviser."
Giulia yawned through her response, waving a hand. A waiter appeared with Jenna's coffee, asking if Giulia needed anything.
"No, thank you," she said. If a double espresso didn't help, the only thing for it was to curl up in her Beetle between her lecture and seminar this afternoon. She sighed, watching Jenna stir brown-sugar into her cappuccino, looking like she wished it were a rich, fruity red wine. "So, am I gonna get a scolding, or are we having a friendly catch-up?" She hadn't gotten stoned with Jeremy for months, to her recollection. Neither was she sleeping with him, or being overtly hostile to Elena. Perhaps Jenna had arranged for a stripper to surprise them at the café, in thanks for Giulia killing those vampires set on delivering Elena to Elijah.
"I'm not your mom, Giulia; I can't scold you," Jenna said fairly. She eyed Giulia, barely able to keep her eyes open. "Can't say I wasn't pissed and terrified Elijah showed up on my porch, talking about you. Why didn't you ever say anything about it?"
"So I'm sleeping with him, it's nobody's business but ours," Giulia shrugged.
"Wait – you're sleeping with –! With Elijah?!"
"Crap!" Giulia grimaced. "Did Elijah not tell you that?"
"No, Elijah did not tell me that! Why wouldn't you tell me that?!"
"I just did tell you that!" Giulia blurted, a little more awake. Oops. "Suddenly regretting the sleep-deprivation. This is what happens when I become a slave to my friends!" She sighed heavily, shaking her head.
"You've been sleeping with –?!"
"Yes!" Giulia cried, suddenly feeling very flushed. "If he didn't 'fess up to you about that, what did he tell you?"
"The Sun and Moon Curse. It's a fake."
"Oh. That. That makes more sense," Giulia nodded.
"He did mention you two met months ago," Jenna said carefully. "Just after your dad was killed."
"Mm." The first of many Lost Weekends that had cemented Giulia's lifestyle as a dedicated hedonist. "So. He told you about the curse."
"Yeah," Jenna said, sighing. "Suddenly, my family? Not so dysfunctional."
"One thing I'll say for all this supernatural crap; it really puts things in perspective," Giulia sighed.
"Just sucks that a terrifyingly elegant stranger had to tell me what's going on," Jenna said, mild accusation in her tone. Giulia hadn't felt guilty about keeping the truth from people in the past; she wasn't going to start now.
"Yes, I'm annoyed at him about that," Giulia said honestly. He'd changed the game – their game.
"You know, when you told me about Elena being in danger, I thought… I don't even know what I thought, all I know is that I was scared and overwhelmed. And pissed," Jenna sighed, cradling her coffee-cup. "And now that I know why Elijah wants to lure Klaus out by using Elena…it makes me just so incredibly…sad. That this is what he has to resort to, to see his family again. I can't even imagine. And…it makes it a lot harder to think that Stefan and Damon will do anything to stop him. If they even knew…"
"Are you going to tell them about the curse?"
"Do you not want me to?" Jenna asked succinctly. Her features were sharpening, the…parent in her shining through.
"Not particularly."
"Why not?" Jenna asked, her tone fair.
"Because, they'll want to activate the WonderTwin rings of superpower! They'll get ideas and they'll just mess everything up, and then I'll have to be the one to untangle everything and set things to rights," Giulia yawned. "And there are too many things at stake for me to let them interfere with all their half-assed grand schemes. They're not as clever as they like to think they are."
"Whereas you are?"
"Yes." Jenna rolled her eyes, looking half-amused, half-annoyed.
So Elijah had told Jenna the secret – and Giulia, in her befuddled, sleep-deprived, full-moon-PTSD state, had blurted another. Well, she supposed it had to come out sooner or later, and she was fairly certain Sheila knew already – she was tactful enough not to bring it up, but witches got vibes and she and Sheila had hugged and touched hands often enough Sheila could get a reading off her. She'd rather people didn't know about her and Elijah – she felt uncomfortable, agitated that Jenna knew, that she had messed up, that she knew the secret. But Elijah had told Jenna they knew each other; he had already crossed the line.
"Elijah did tell me you know about the curse, and that you've been working for months to protect Elena," Jenna said softly.
Giulia shrugged. "Elena's not my primary concern – Elijah told you a werewolf and a vampire have to die in the ritual too?" she said, glancing at Jenna, who nodded sombrely. "I'm not protecting Elena. I'm protecting Caroline – and now Tyler."
"Katherine turned Caroline, and triggered Tyler's werewolf-curse so they could be sacrificed along with Elena," Jenna said softly, realisation seeming to dawn. "How can you protect everybody by yourself? You haven't made a deal with Elijah, too, have you?" Giulia chuckled.
"Not quite, but there is certain give-and-take," she said, and Jenna's eyebrows rose.
"Oh – ew! I mean… Really!" Jenna gave her a disapproving look, and Giulia gave her a lascivious grin. "Be serious."
"No, I haven't made a deal with Elijah. We're…playing a game," Giulia shrugged. Jenna stared at her.
"This…this is a game to you?"
"Why shouldn't it be? A hundred moving puzzle-pieces, bonuses, handicaps," Giulia said fairly. "Elijah's got his endgame, I have mine; sometimes the means to the different ends are similar. We both know the truth about the curse, so while Elijah's plotting to reunite his family by drawing Klaus out with the sacrifice, I'm trying to keep everyone alive despite it." She couldn't truthfully say she didn't care what state they were all in afterward – turning Elena into a vampire was the easy way out of the predicament, and Giulia loved a challenge. Sadly, preserving Elena's life wasn't as difficult as she'd hoped it would be; Sheila had a relatively simple spell ready for her.
"You don't think the best thing is to kill this Klaus guy?"
"That's Elijah's angle… But I don't think he's prepared to really go through with it," Giulia mused. If Elijah hadn't killed his younger-brother after a thousand years, he wasn't going to do it now. Not with so much at stake, not knowing what he did about his brother's tactics –: and Giulia had guessed what Elijah had known deep-down for years, that Klaus would never give up control over his family by feeding their corpses to the seas. Elijah couldn't risk not finding them by killing Klaus. "The boys want to kill Klaus only because it's the most obvious solution."
"But it's not the only one," Jenna said softly.
"No." And Giulia was a dynamic thinker. She'd never settle for the obvious.
"I'm sorry – I just can't stop coming back to this; Elijah told me you met on Halloween," Jenna grimaced uncomfortably. Giulia sighed, rolling her eyes. "How long have you been…?"
"A couple months," Giulia shrugged, eyeing the empty espresso-cup mournfully. She heaved a sigh, avoiding Jenna's eye. It wasn't that she felt guilty, she just…regretted she had spilled the secret. Her own secret. She knew she couldn't have kept her and Elijah in a little box forever. She'd just…never expected the lid to be lifted off it quite so soon – she'd hoped to keep him to herself just a little longer. But the doppelgänger was in active play, Elijah had outed himself to Jenna, and Giulia had blabbed due to sleep-deprivation. She pinched the bridge of her nose, rubbing her exhausted eyes. Jenna frowned at her.
"What's going on, Giulia?" she asked quietly.
"I don't know." Giulia stared at her, wide- and bleary-eyed. Jenna knew the secret. How did she go about explaining things when she couldn't admit them, even to herself? She tried, and probably failed, to explain to Jenna about her and Elijah…about their relationship, and keeping it separate from what they both had to do because of the curse.
"Things don't stay separate, Giulia," Jenna said kindly. "Real life is messy and complicated, and…amazing."
"I know," Giulia said hoarsely. "I just…wanted something…something private, something special and wonderful that…that they couldn't ruin. And I've gone and told you and spoiled it." She could feel herself getting worked up – whether it was exhaustion from last night, overextending herself the last few weeks with school, Elijah, everything else, or the fact that this was the first time she'd been called up on Elijah… She was exhausted, befuddled, she wanted her bed but she couldn't stop thinking about Tyler's transformation, she was upset that she was more disappointed by Elijah than upset about Slater being dead, she was devastated from last night, nauseous about it, worked herself up into a state just thinking about it, eyes burning unbearably, throat tight, nose stinging ominously, and her fingers started to tremble, the upset building as she noticed those bruises on her hands again where Tyler had clutched them. Elijah had stayed in there with him, talking to him for hours. Her eyes burned, and she sniffed, staring hard at her crumpled napkin rather than let tears fall.
"It's not spoiled because I know," Jenna said softly. "Giulia – the year you've had, it's…it's amazing that you've even let someone in, let alone fallen in love."
"I'm not in love," Giulia protested, her voice breaking. "I can't be."
Jenna looked like she thought Giulia was being absurd. "Why not?"
"Because it's ridiculous."
"It doesn't have to make sense, Giulia," Jenna half-laughed. "Isn't that half the fun? Because it's thrilling and unlikely and he's unexpected?"
"It's ridiculous because he's a thousand-year-old Viking vampire. And after this sacrifice…everything will change," Giulia sniffed. She hadn't said a word about this to anyone, especially not Elijah – who could she talk to about it? Nobody knew, because she didn't want anyone to have any input. "I just don't see anything in it."
"And that's why you wanted to keep it secret?" Jenna asked sadly. "Because you know it won't last?"
"I don't want anyone's opinions on me and Elijah," Giulia said, working herself up again. Damn Tyler, she thought. "I…I'm enjoying myself too much with him to let anyone spoil it. And then afterwards, when he leaves, I don't need the…the looks of pity and smug self-righteousness they'll give me, like it was inevitable, like I deserve to hurt because…because they think I'm a heartless bitch and I got what was coming to me, because no-one could ever lo– …No-one would ever want to be with me."
For a moment, Jenna didn't speak; she looked too afraid to, in case Giulia burst into tears. But she looked appalled, and Giulia was reminded not for the first time that Jenna was a parent. And a very good one. "You mean Elena and Bonnie, and your other friends," she said softly.
"And I don't need Damon and Stefan not caring that I'm…that I'm in love with a thousand-year-old vampire who'll leave when he gets what he wants, because he will," Giulia blurted hoarsely, her voice breaking, as she sniffed, forcing her hand under her eyes. "If he succeeds or he ends up being killed, he'll be gone… He won't need me anymore."
Jenna's expression blossomed into something that was both delicate and fierce. "That is not true, honey. I can say, with complete honesty, I could live a thousand years and never meet anyone as special as you. You're too weird." Giulia choked a laugh.
"It doesn't make sense," she coughed, rubbing her eyes and succeeding only in smearing her mascara, stinging her eyes. "He's had I don't know how many girlfriends in the past, what's he…what's he doing with me?"
"Because you are extraordinary," Jenna said softly. "He's not the only one who can see it; just some people aren't the best at appreciating it. Tell me about him. About you…"
"Why do you want to know about…us?" Giulia asked, regretting that she looked at Jenna only with suspicion. Fleetingly, it occurred to her that Elijah might've put her up to this – but Jenna smelled of that rosy-lavender perfume from the vervain flowers Giulia cultivated. She hadn't been compelled to dig.
"The only Elijah I know is the one who showed up on my porch telling me why my niece is integral in a blood-curse, strong-arming me into accepting a deal to keep everyone safe if we agree to let Elena sacrifice herself… Maybe if I could see things…see him from your perspective, I wouldn't be so anxious about trusting him… The fact he wants to save his daughter, that just makes he afraid there's nothing he won't do…" Jenna admitted honestly. There was that to consider, and as a parent herself, Jenna's perspective was invaluable because she could appreciate Elijah's struggle; Stefan and Damon couldn't, they never would. Even Damon had never truly been a parent; his son had been in effect orphaned since early infancy. Jenna sighed, watching her carefully with that motherly expression she must have learned from her ultra-maternal older-sister Miranda. "And because he's that important to you, you've kept him secret from everyone – even Caroline… How did you fall in love with Elijah?"
Giulia licked her dry lips. "Slowly…and then, all at once," she admitted on a solemn whisper. Quicker and easier than falling asleep, she thought. Today, so poignant.
"Tell me about it," Jenna smiled encouragingly. "The first time you met him…"
"I was going commando," Giulia said, and Jenna blurted a laugh, surprised, shooting her an inquisitive, elated smile. "Yeah, I went with Stefan's friend Lexi to New York and I didn't have anything with me, not even a toothbrush. We rolled up to this penthouse and the most fabulous vampire on the Upper-East Side took me to one side and put me in a little red suede dress…"
"Red dress, always classic," Jenna beamed. "Red's your colour."
"Thank you," Giulia smiled bashfully. "And…Elijah just…walked through the front-door while I was slaughtering the others at poker." Jenna chuckled. "We all went out dancing, and…we danced together. There was liquor involved, and Rocky Horror. And then I was invited to their winter solstice celebration, and…things sort of progressed from there…" She told Jenna a little more, not giving away any intimate details of Elijah's life or things she wanted to keep private, just between her and Elijah, but… It was strange, and delightful, to be able to talk about Elijah to someone else – to…gush. To just be able to tell someone else how splendid he was. To tell someone else how sweet, how thoughtful he was, how sassy and ironic and talented…and how glad she was that she got to enjoy him. Jenna giggled softly when she told her that Elijah appreciated her lust for the Eleventh Doctor; that he was an insanely gifted pianist; that he was a wonderful cook; Giulia loved his sense of humour, and how flirty he could be. Dancing with him was like nothing she had ever experienced, and probably never would again. She…loved dancing with him – being with him.
She was in love with Elijah.
Giulia swallowed, asking quietly, "Are you going to tell Stefan and Damon?" Jenna watched her for a minute, then sighed. She shook her head.
"I don't think that that would be a good idea," she said. "I…think for now, it's best we just…let the boys keep doing what they're doing. Just…keep me in the loop, okay?" Giulia nodded mutely, biting the inside of her cheek.
"Hey, Giulia?" Jenna said, as they gathered their things; they both had afternoon-classes to get to. "Just…be careful, okay?" Giulia stared after her as Jenna dashed off to a seminar, thinking hard.
All she really wanted to do was go home, curl up under her duvet and cry. She was in love with Elijah Mikaelson. There was no going back from that, no getting over it. Only accepting that her world was forever altered because of it.
She survived her afternoon lessons, barely. Luckily she had finished her assignments and reading in preparation for Tyler's transformation; she had to stop on her drive home, pulling onto the side of the road, to jog up and down, trying to wake herself up. She had the windows rolled down for the cooler evening breeze and the stereo cranked up until it was almost painful, and she managed to get home without colliding with anything or breaking any laws. Exhausted, relieved, she tumbled out of her car and shuffled to the front-door.
Half-asleep, she shuffled over the threshold, dazed and heavy-eyed. She wanted her bed.
That prickling sensation feathered up and down her spine, and she shivered, standing up a little straighter, eyes straining in the dim interior of the house, no lights on, the sun starting to set behind some ominous clouds that had drawn in for the evening.
She glanced around, and yelled.
She'd thought it was a stranger standing behind her. Clammy-looking pale skin, dotted with sweat, bloodshot, unfocused dark eyes, almost panting for air, his shirt untucked and cuffs and top button undone. Sudden concern flared through her, pushing aside any residual annoyance or disappointment – something was wrong.
"Elijah?"
A.N.: So…I'm exhausted so I have to start writing the next chapter tomorrow! I hope you liked this one.
