Author's Note: Elena is OOC as is Elijah and for those of you who wanted to know about Elijah's reaction to seeing his dead wife and not be terribly confused as to seeing her there, there's a flashback!
Also, if you haven't read the book The Originals: The Rise, the character of Vivianne Lescheres was Klaus' love interest and the character of Mary-Alice Claire came from The Originals in season 2 and in Kol's webseries The Awakening
Shout out to bulldozed88 and to all that have favorited and followed this story!
Chapter Two: Negotiations and surprises
After an uneventful summer with Bonnie and meeting some of her relatives who took a slight liking to him, Damon had to fix his most casual looking suit in his mirror. He had his hair styled to hit the nape of his neck and as he turned around, he saw Stefan who was barely hanging onto whatever threads of humanity he had of.
The stench of bourbon, blood-he wasn't sure if it was human or animal-vodka and whatever drugs he got from Jeremy Gilbert's packrat room while he was living the simple life in Denver were floating around him in a vomit inducing aroma.
He knew that Caroline was probably in the same boat as Stefan was.
Both had no humanity now but were working on regaining it.
"Get cleaned up or else drink a lot of that perfume you got vampire Barbie for Christmas last year." Damon told him with a cold glint in his ice blue eyes. "We are meeting the Evil Hybrid, his dick brother and whoever else they invited to be there to talk about-as the Original dick says-Exquisite Bianca Gilbert."
Both tried to hide the wince when mentioning her name.
Before, it was no secret that the Salvatores desired her-only for her likeness to Katherine as well as them wanting to make her into said version-but as soon as they met Caroline Forbes-a vampire Katherine created with the use of both Stefan and Damon's blood-and Caroline's best friend Bonnie Bennett-a descendant of Emily who Damon swore to protect her line, they tried to use Bianca for information but it failed epically.
She basically told them that she didn't care if they died in a fiery house fire or if they were close to overdosing on whatever drug would make them get so high, she didn't like them and wanted nothing to do with them.
That, and the slap across their faces worked well.
Daniel just fixed his black suit when he felt a feminine hand in between his shoulder blades, rubbing it in circles.
She knew exactly how to get him in a lust filled haze.
Shaking his head with a small smile, he turned around and caught his girlfriend's hand in his.
It was a wrong move to do as she stood in front of him wearing a soft pink strapless dress that fell to her knees and her hair styled in a playful braid with that one streak of pink in her hair that she got while they were together in Australia towards the end of summer.
In his mind, no one could look as stunning as his doppelganger-his Bianca.
The one person I love and who loves me back he thought as he rested his forehead against hers.
Klaus had to hand it to himself, he had truly outdone himself with setting the stage for the faux negotiations Daniel wanted to play out with their…guests.
The Salvatore brothers were nothing but nuisances that should have been eradicated at least a century ago, if not two centuries.
He would only play nice for his brother but after what they had done to him and his baby sister, even Daniel was in agreement that the two needed to be taught a lesson.
It would be wonderful to hear their screams of mercy he thought with a cold and sadistic smile on his face as he sauntered off into the kitchen.
Elijah watched his wife flitter through the walk-in closet, trying to find something acceptable to wear and so far, she was unimpressed with the clothing options she'd found that would work for this 'family dinner' Klaus wanted to have.
The dresses were either 'too long, too short, slutty looking' or basically 'too much of a ballgown'.
Standing up, he crossed over to her and had his hands on her barely covered hips.
"Do not fret-you will look beautiful," he murmured in her ear. Lifting his right hand, he pulled out a garment bag and passed it over to her. "Try this."
Smiling up at him, she pressed a kiss to his lips and pulled away, taking the bag with her.
If he were to die right then, he'd be happy to.
She was my greatest choice he thought as he went to check on Kol who would be grumbling.
Damon tugged at his sleeves while his eyes flicked over to Stefan who was bored and still slightly drunk. He knew that he was bored, so was he as the negotiations haven't even started yet.
Apparently, the two Original Brothers were waiting for three people and as he looked at Bianca from the corner of his eye, he saw that she seemed happier.
It was a complete shock to find out that Klaus didn't dagger Daniel-the man did try to kill him-and had also allowed him to take Bianca on a whirlwind trip over Europe, Asia, Australia and other exotic places.
As Damon picked his tumbler up, the sound of someone knocking out the beat to Jingle Bells could be heard and a strange sound came out of Klaus' mouth.
It sounded like a laugh or a chortle. He saw Klaus and Daniel meet eyes and it was Klaus that got up to answer the door.
The door opened and he saw his nephew-wearing something from 1919-fix him a glare as he tapped his foot impatiently and his brother and sister in law smiling warmly at him.
It was a sight that he desired to see in the thousand years that his favorite, never daggered brother, barely had anymore.
"They said that I had to come here," the forever thousand year old teenager groaned out. "I didn't get to level 20 on my game!"
"Are you willing to disappoint me Kol Daniel?" the boy's mother got out in a sickly sweet voice. He gulped and shook his head in the negative.
His mother, no doubt beautiful and mischievous like him, could make even the simplest of punishments become the worst with her words.
Once she was sure that her only son was well reprimanded, Elena Mikaelson turned to her brother in law and he had taken a good look at her.
Her usually braided hair was done in something called a 'waterfall braid' and she was wearing a beautiful lavender colored halter dress that fell to her knees with said brother's leather jacket draped over her.
To keep her nice and warm Klaus thought. Seeing them now, he was thrown into a happier memory of the three of them, making sure that Kol knew that the monsters weren't going to come after him.
If he only knew then that they would become the monsters that monsters fear
Shaking his head of the nostalgia that settled over his mind, he offered them all a warmer smile.
"What a late surprise Elijah," the hybrid said with that same smile on his face before he threw a question at his sister in law. "When did you come back to us Elena?" The questioning voice made her sigh in a highly dramatic manner.
"May we come inside?" She questioned back at him before her eyes began to dance with mischief, just like her son's when he begins plotting the most random acts of chaos.
There's a reason he still hates Silly String and baseball bats.
And the sixties with their free love.
"Unless, of course, today wasn't the date for the negotiations and you are quite busy with someone-I do not judge-waiting for you in your…" she trailed off.
Klaus' brain felt fried by the cackles of electricity and his face heated up.
Elijah couldn't stop chortling in delightful amusement, Kol was between laughing and crying of laughter and Daniel, he could hear, was silently laughing at him.
At least Bianca and the Salvatores didn't hear her.
Elena had a triumphant look in her eyes and he gave up on teasing her to turn red.
She would win every single time.
"Please," he groaned out a little embarrassed, "please come in." He managed to push the door open wider for them.
Elijah, still laughing, walked past him and Kol trailed behind him.
Elena stayed back and whispered once the laugh died in her throat, "thank you for watching out for them." He nodded, still red in the face.
"You're all the family that I want and need." Once she walked in, he followed after her.
Daniel couldn't look his Hybrid brother in the eye without blushing and chuckling softly under his breath at his reddening face.
He sorely missed it when his family was whole and together, though they were still missing two people. His nieces but he then knew that it probably wasn't time for them to come yet.
Since Elena's death, only he and Elijah managed to retain their humanity and that was by a single thread.
The first one to lose their humanity was Fin but Elijah claimed that he lost it when their mother had died. Klaus lost his due to the Hunters Curse in 1114 when he was in a suicidal phase and Elijah managed to help him but in 1722 New Orleans he regained it when he met Vivianne Lescheres only to lose it when she died.
Rebekah, their precious baby sister, had also lost her humanity in 1114 but that was because Alexander-the Hunter she was involved with-had betrayed her and also died because of Niklaus. Before she had met him, she was lively and vivacious, so loving and warm and enjoying what life had to offer. She just exuded such bright innocence until Alexander.
Kol, his only nephew, barely had his emotions either on or off. He kept his right in between losing it or not losing it, even in 1919 New Orleans when he and Mary-Alice Claire were in Dowager Fauline's Cottage that ended up becoming a witch asylum that he managed to escape but Mary-Alice died in there.
Not only was he thankful, but so was Kol, when Elijah had asked and negotiated with Klaus to not dagger his son.
"He is my only reason for not shutting it off. If you do dagger him, you will end up regretting it brother. Always and forever."
Those words still haunted him to this day.
As soon as he saw each of his family members walk in, he smiled and stood up, walking over towards Elena and placing a kiss on her cheek.
"I am very glad to see you have returned to the land of the living." He smiled at her in a way that made him look years younger.
She nodded and he gave his twin brother and nephew each a manly hug before returning to his seat but the glance he saw Stefan give his twin made him curious.
"I saw you the same time as Damon as we were burying Jules and Greta." The 163 year old immortal teen said with his eyes glazed and the stench barely covered up. "You were also in Chicago with Gloria-" Damon, it appears, had rudely cut his brother off by glowering at Elena.
Damon couldn't believe it. Katherine was there and trying to pull off being someone she isn't.
Not this time.
"Katherine," he glowered with a growl before he stood up and rushed her.
Which fell through as the woman held her hand out and his brain felt like it was being boiled and fried-just like his blood.
Falling to his knees, he saw that his brother was also down for the count as the male look alike snapped his neck like a twig.
"What a legacy you have here Nikky," the girl drawled in cold amusement. "I've never been so insulted in my life! Comparing me to that…that thing!" she was definitely furious but her fury ended as the look alike held her in his arms.
"Sadly they are of my line," Klaus drawled through Damon's hazy mind. "I can tell you that I truly careless about what will happen to them –one for insulting you in such a way sister and the other for just breathing and breaking Rebekah's heart over again." Damon blearily saw everyone looking at him and Stefan with looks of dark amusement on their faces, even the witch bitch who was frying his brain who could be Katherine's twin had that look.
He didn't dare look at Bianca-who was best friends with Barbie Klaus.
The witch muttered something and his body felt like he was under so much weight.
He fell into the dark oblivion of sleep after seeing that.
"It took me three hours to make Elijah believe I was real and not a hallucination." Elena explained as she told them about coming back. "He just kept up but as more and more people saw me-in the clothes I wore when I was killed in-he finally believed me."
He had the good grace to blush as the memory flooded into his mind…
She was back.
Every fiber in his body wanted to believe that she was back but after a thousand years, his demons coming up and around him, she couldn't be.
It would be impossible.
She looked real enough, even in the dress she died in with the tear in it still covered in blood.
"You are still my beautiful hallucination," he whispered sadly. "I want to believe that you are real…you aren't."
"I am real Elijah Mikaelson!" She shouted at him, anger coloring her cheeks red. "I am real and I can prove it." With that, she looked around for something sharp and when she did find it, he was walking away from the waterfall.
Though she was small and petite-even after three children-she could still keep up with him as his strides happen to be longer than hers as well as more powerful.
He wasn't sure how much time passed as he exited the woods with Elena and getting into town but as soon as people were seeing her, they were stopping and pointing her out until a man asked, "you hurt miss?"
Turning, he saw an elderly man was looking at her in a kind, grandfatherly way. The second his hands touched hers, he could feel the blood pumping through and the sound of her heartbeat skipping a beat as it always did whenever he touched her in every way he could imagine.
She really was back with him. His eyes turned towards the man and once making sure no one noticed, he compelled him to get back into his car and drive home where his wife-as the wedding band on his finger was an indication-waited for him.
Flashing her to his townhouse, he couldn't stop peppering kisses along her neck and throat, trailing them up to the shell of her ear, allowing her sweet scent to overpower him.
He was never letting her go and he was glad that Kol still thrived in New Orleans.
Bianca sighed happily. It was adorable, seeing how happy the man was. Daniel had left to go undagger his siblings and as he returned with the daggers, he placed each one on the coffee table.
One by one they appeared.
Rebekah, in that red dress she didn't get to wear to prom thanks to Bonnie frying her brain and daggering her.
The second brother in something a pirate would wear but as his eyes met Elena's, he paled and she said darkly the words that would make any of them shiver.
"You killed me."