Disclaimer: I do not own all of the characters in this story, the familiar names belong to the writers and creators of The Vampire Diaries.

Love Unavailable

Chapter 7 – Enlighten Me

Elena had been in her room for a week, she would soon have to go to work. Damon was an understanding boss but that didn't mean he didn't need Elena to do her job. She actually made it out of the bedroom this time. Her hair was tangled and her clothes wrinkled, she was sure she smelt like one of the homeless, but she didn't care. As she ventured out into the kitchen she noticed a note on the counter.

There's leftovers in the refrigerator.

Call if you need me

Beks x

Elena smiled at the note, she could tell that her best friend didn't really know what to do because the message was so short. She opened the refrigerator door and found lots of bowls and plates of leftover food. Clearly the message had been there for days. Still she took a plate of pizza. She reheated it and filled her empty stomach.

After eating she found a change of clothes in her closet and headed to the bathroom. She hadn't seen a mirror in a week and when she gazed upon herself in the mirror she was astounded by how ghastly she looked. She was pale and her eyes were bloodshot. Her hair was just a big ball of tangles and her cheeks looked gaunt. She hadn't been looking after herself but she was hoping to change that.

As she stepped into the hot shower, Elena let out a moan of pleasure. The steaming water hitting her shoulders released the tension that had been the cause of her hibernation. She soaked in the warmth and slowly washed her hair and soon she felt refreshed and ready to face the world.

Elena got out of the shower and wrapped the towel around her. She grabbed the blow dryer from the bathroom counter and attempted to tame her now untangled hair. She got dressed not long after her hair was dry. She was wearing a navy tank top and light blue skinny jeans. She decided make up was needed to hide the shadows in her face and make herself seem more plump and alive.

She heard the front door close and Elena soon called out to the hallway "Bekah!", she didn't hear anything, so instead she decided to have a look. Upon entering the living area she saw Rebekah on the phone. She was whispering goodbye to someone as she sent a small smile over her shoulder to Elena.

Elena waited patiently and not long after was she engulfed in a bone crushing hug. "Oh my god! You're alive! Are you okay?" Rebekah asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm still alive. I could be better, I'm just confused." Elena answered honestly, someone once helped her through her feelings. She thought if she couldn't work everything out on her own then maybe she would have to talk to someone again.

"Do you want to talk about it? I swear anything you say will stay between us. If not then just remember I'm always here okay." Rebekah put a comforting arm on Elena while she waited for the brunette to make a decision. Elena didn't know that the person Rebekah had just hung up on was Elijah.

"I…I think so. I just…I've only ever told one person this and…I trusted them, now I feel like everything was a lie" Elena didn't realise that she had confused Rebekah. Talking about a person as if she thought they knew what she was on about. But Rebekah didn't say anything she let her best friend rant and let out her feelings. She was speaking more now than she had in a week, Rebekah wasn't going to let anything stop that.

"I mean I told him everything that happened to me. Things no one else knows and I believed that he was honest enough with me. But now I find out that he didn't even give me his real name. I mean what the hell! I tell him my boyfriend cheated on me and I lost a baby and he freaking lies about his name! I mean what else did he lie about!" Elena shouted the last sentence out of fury not looking once at Rebekah.

Rebekah was shocked at this revelation, no wonder Elena was upset. Having your fiancé or boyfriend cheat on you was bad enough, but losing a child…that was unbearable pain that she hoped never to experience. She could slap her brother for being so stupid, it may of started out innocently by giving Elena a false name but doing it to a woman who was barely coping, it would be too much.

"You lost a baby..?" Rebekah was gentle when she asked her best friend. She didn't want to scare her off, but it was the first she heard about it. She wanted to know more. Rebekah watched as Elena opened and closed her mouth a few times, struggling to find words. In the end Elena just nodded.

"What happened?"

"I was four months pregnant, one day I came home from college and I saw him taking another woman into our apartment. They were practically stripping on the street, they never knew I was there. I packed my things and stayed at a friends house. That night I started bleeding, I got…I got tak-en to the hospi-tal…but it was ttto-oo late. There was no heart beat. The doctors…the-y said that..er..their was nothing they could do."

Elena had tears streaming down her face. And Rebekah broke the distance and wrapped her arms around her. She wouldn't understand the amount of pain she was in. But she hoped that talking about it would be a little easier.

"I told Jackson about the baby and then left, later I found myself in Italy. I needed the space. I broke up with Jackson and just needed to think. That's when I met your brother. He was charming and fun, he made me laugh when I thought I wouldn't do such a thing ever again. He was what I needed, but now…he lied and I don't know how to feel. Everything that I thought was fixed seemed to come undone."

Elena sniffed and continued to hug Rebekah. The blonde did the best she could by shushing her and just giving a listening ear. It was hard for her to keep her own emotions in check.

"He was going to tell you Elena. He told me. But he said that you didn't turn up at your usual meeting point, so he didn't get a chance to admit the truth." Rebekah thought she would add in that little piece of information.

"I had to leave. I got a call…my..my par-rents they got in an accident and" Rebekah stopped her, answering it herself "It was the night you lost your parents…oh Elena!" If it was even possible she hugged Elena tighter and just let her cry it out. At least she knew that Elena didn't just abandon Elijah. She left for a reason. Maybe now he will understand and back off.

"Come on babe, come back to bed." A female voice came from behind the still form that sat on the couch.

When she didn't get a response she made her way towards the troubled man. She ignored the scenery as she tiptoed in the dark and placed herself next to the unmoving man.

"What's going on in that head of yours? You've been distant ever since you saw your sister."

She was met with silence, if she didn't hear him breathing she would have thought that he was either dead or a ghost. He hadn't moved since she arrived home from her photo shoot. He had barely spoken a word to her and although she knew something was bothering him, she knew that he wouldn't reveal anything until he was ready.

She huffed in irritation when he refused to acknowledge her. She had been living with this gorgeous man for six months now and she finally felt like her relationship was getting somewhere, until something like this happens. Although she didn't know what happened, seeing as he had told her nothing. The only facts she knew was that after his visit to see his now independent sister, he had changed.

"Fine stay here in the dark. I'm going to bed, I have a meeting with my agent in the morning." She shook her head as she watched her boyfriend blink aimlessly at a blank area in the room. She slowly got up and headed to bed.

.

Elijah couldn't speak, and he definitely didn't want to speak to the woman laying in his bed. The couple of a year and a half had met at a charity fundraiser, Hayley Marshall was a model and she worked with some the of top brand names.

It wasn't love at first sight or fate, it was purely sexual at the beginning. He had been with a woman named Katherine Pierce when she left him for someone else. He was healing a broken heart while in Italy. It was there that he met Elena and after she left so abruptly he kept away from women. Thinking that Elena didn't feel the same he tried to get over her after a while, sleeping his way around to forget the face that healed him. She mended his broken heart and he could truly feel a pull towards the brunette with olive skin.

He wasn't superstitious or a believer in faith and God, but for some reason everything inside him told Elijah that she was his. The time they spent with each other was only brief but it was enough to fall for a woman that he hardly knew. When he met Hayley he didn't feel the sparks but she was the first person to help him forget the anonymous woman he met in Italy.

Now years later and he has been pulled back into the whirlwind he calls his life. The mysterious woman had entered back into his life and for some unknown reason she hated him. He wanted to fix it but a warning from his sister told him to keep away and he did. Lost in his thoughts, Elijah constantly replays the days he spent in Italy with her and practicing the words that he will say to her when he finally gets an opportunity to speak to Elena.

He barely noticed his girlfriend, to be honest he had almost forgot he was with someone until she entered into their shared apartment. He wouldn't tell her the feelings he had for Elena, no woman would like their boyfriend falling or having feelings for someone else. So he sat in the dark stewing in memories and speeches, hoping that enough time would pass that he would get to see Elena's beautiful face again.