AN: Another request by Siberia21. Chapter forty four.
It's a little tense after he takes her home from the hospital. He's forgotten how fragile she is, and she does all she can to prove she isn't fragile because she doesn't want to be treated like she's glass. They're both relieved and worried when his blood is out of her system. If she dies, for any reason, she's gone. She spends hours writing in her diary, a habit she could never kick. He's just worried, she thinks. But she's in her room and he's in his, having a great moral debate.
The tension grows when the doorbell rings as she's cutting up some fruit, she cuts her hand, and this hurts. A lot. Her breathing quickens, it's so deep that she's horrified. She's frozen, she can't look away from it. He offers his blood in seconds, and she takes it, he's never felt such relief at someone drinking from him. But it's Elena, so there's a first time for everything. He watches the cut disappear as she does. He opens the door, and the person looks at both of them.
"Is everything okay?" Caroline asks, and Elena grins and hugs her, Elijah must have invited her over. He tells Elena happy early, birthday, Caroline and Bonnie are having a party for her in a few days. She smiles and hugs Elijah briefly. Then she goes back to hugging Caroline, who sends him questioning looks from over Elena's shoulder. He tells her in gestures, and she nods. She tells Elena that they're taking her out for some fun, Bonnie is in the car with a surprise. Elena looks at Elijah who just grins at her. If it's fine with him, then-she lets herself get led out of his apartment.
He can't ask Elena to turn. It's her decision. The idea of her dying, either soon or decades from now makes him want to break something. But as a vampire, she can't have children. She can't grow old. Does she want those things? They've never talked about it, because they've never talked about her turning. It's unlikely. Elijah wonders what he'll be like, here in this apartment with his grief. Just a few decades. She might have even less than that, she could die in an accident. Car crash, a fall, an accidental shooting. There's so many ways humans can die.
Caroline can't think of what to call him, other than wrecked. Elena is sleeping when he opens the door for them. She tucks Elena in, taking off her flats. She hands Elijah Elena's phone and he plugs it in to charge. Caroline pulls the covers up. It's not the first time they've done this. There's two deadly immortals watching a human sleeping, knowing they'd do anything to keep her safe. He wonders if her thoughts are near his, and she leaves the room first. He shuts the door, quietly. She follows him to the living room.
"Caroline, I need to ask you something." He begins. She sighs, and sits on Elena's favorite couch. He sits next to her.
"Has Elena ever expressed any interest in becoming a vampire?" The question slips out, and he's glad one of Elena's best friends is a vampire. He's friends with Caroline, she'll be honest.
"Your blood is in her system." She says, and it's not a question. She wants him to explain.
"She cut her hand, deeply when you rang the doorbell. I gave her blood, it wasn't practical to let it heal at a human pace." He informs her and she nods.
"She asked me about it when we were walking to the car. I think she's interested in it." Caroline says, and he relaxes. There's hope.
"Thank goodness." He says, and Caroline nods.
"I don't want to lose her either." She admits.
"It was nice talking to you. I have to go, Bonnie's waiting for me." She excuses herself. She's gone in seconds.
Elena's asking questions, it's a good sign. He sleeps better that night, for the first time since she went to the hospital.
While Caroline had told him of her interest and questions, he wasn't expecting one at breakfast. Three, actually, but he's still in slight shock from the first. She wants to see his vampire face, as she calls it.
It's a personal thing to ask of him, he wonders if she knows that. He hasn't shown it in decades, at least.
But he parts his lips, and closes his eyes, and lets it come. He opens his eyes, staring at her with curiosity.
She traps him against the counter, inches separating them. He wouldn't leave, even if he was sure he could.
It takes her breath away. It's odd to call it beautiful, but that's what it is, he's a beautiful, deadly vampire.
"Does it hurt to vamp out?" She asks. He shakes his head. He blinks for a second, and she's in his space, carefully touching the veins under his eyes. She's gentle, and anyone else would be dead for invading his space and touching him. But Elena's always been an exception.
"It's so odd to see you like this." She admits, and he resists the urge to close his eyes. He wants to see her.
"What's your next question?" He asks, and she stares at his teeth. Or maybe she's just staring at his lips. He wants to kiss her, fangs and all, he refrains. She's human. He shouldn't sway her, even though he so badly wants to.
She asks about bloodlust and how much time it takes to get adjusted. He answers, and she takes her hand off his face a few seconds after his face returns to the human features he was born with. He thinks she rubbed her thumb against his skin, but that train of thought is distracting so he lets it go.
When he asks if she has any other questions, she shakes her head and says she has to go to the library. She moves quickly, out in a minute.
He wonders if he swayed her at all.
It's been two weeks since she invaded his space, and she wants to ask, she wants to ask him so badly, but it doesn't slip out until she has some liquid courage in her system, courtesy of Caroline.
"If I wanted to die, would you let me? Or would you turn me?" She asks, she's not drunk, just a little tipsy. Her verbal filter isn't as fine. He answers that she would support whatever decision she wanted.
She then asks, to his disbelief, if he'd turn her. Right then.
"Elena, you're buzzed. You might not mean these words in the morning, however true they seem now." He warns. She shakes her head.
"I don't see anything I want from being human." She says truthfully.
"I don't want children. Jeremy doesn't either. The Petrova line ends with us. I can't let another doppelganger be born. She'll be hunted, Elijah. Just like I was. Trapped. I can't let anyone do that to anyone. It's better. I stopped wanting children after I realized they'd never be safe. And I don't want to hang out with Caroline, and have people ask if I'm her mother. I want this. I've wanted this for a while." She confesses. She's not lying, but there's something else she's not telling him. She's making her I'm Trying To Withhold Information Face, as Caroline calls it.
"Why else?" He presses. He knows he should just stop, humans are fragile, if he presses too hard then thing break, but he needs to know.
She shakes her head.
"It's not that relevant." She dismisses.
"Tell me anyway." It's a request and demand in one. She's the only one who gets the requesting tone.
"No it's stupid and personal and you're just going to make fun of me." She tells him, leaning against a wall for support. He frowns, wondering why she would think that.
"When have I ever made fun of you?" He asks. She tries to think, her memories are too scattered to scan through.
"It's going to ruin things if I tell you." She tells him, and she just made it worse because now she has his complete and full attention.
"Tell me, lovely Elena." He repeats, moving closer. She doesn't speak until there's a few inches left, he's not going to cross that barrier. It's the opposite of when she trapped him against his kitchen counter. She blurts it, tired and she wants to confess it.
"I'm in love with you and I don't want to look older than you." She admits and he freezes.
"Elijah?" She asks, reaching a hand out to touch his face. He pulls her closer and kisses her. She gasps and she's pressed against his wall. It's not until he moves his focus to her neck that he confesses his love for her, and she's almost disappointed that he's only biting at her with human teeth, but she stops caring, and they somehow make it to his room.
When the morning comes, she's sprawled on top of him, not that he minds.
"Morning." He drawls, his hands on her waist.
"Morning." She greets, stretching.
He's about to kiss her when she moves, off of him and out of his bed. She apologizes, and pecks him on the cheek. She just need a minute.
She comes back with her phone plugged in, in her room. Her human needs have been dealt with, and she kisses him like it was ages she was gone, like empires and people had fallen in her absence.
After a late breakfast, he tells her that if she does want to be a vampire, he will turn her. She doesn't want it that day, she proposes a week from then. He agrees, although having a smiling Elena on top of him could make him agree to all kind of things, if she felt so inclined.
She asks him to drink from her when they're still in bed, that afternoon. She takes his blood to heal it, and she's tired, and tells him so.
"It's probably just a human thing." She says, yawning. He agrees, but he falls asleep a few minutes afterwards.
When she wakes up, the next morning, she gets out of his bed, and leaves him a note that she's either taking a shower or going out for groceries. He's still sleeping, peaceful when she leaves. She knows she won't need human food for much longer, but her stomach insists on it. She drives, careful as ever to not hit anything, she loves her car too much. But she's trapped when all of the lanes are full and there's a car that doesn't look like it's going to stop, it looks far off but it won't be.
She calls Elijah, she's full of panic and she's going to die.
He answers to hear her swearing and a horrible noise, and he neck breaking.
His heart drops, and he almost considers turning off his emotions when he remembers she had his blood. She'd turn. He puts on a suit in record time, and grabs his car keys. He rushes to where she is, he can see the pile up. He wants to take the heart of the man who killed her, but he was having a heart attack while he was driving. Not his fault. He pretends to struggle with Elena's door, cutting his hands in the process, but he breaks it and opens it.
He rips off her seat belt, and her neck. A few of her ribs too, by the looks of it. She's bloody and she almost looks like she's sleeping. He pockets her phone. A few people try to stop him, but he compels them, saying he's a doctor and he's her partner, and they are not going to try and stop him. She'll be fine, he assures them, and he's compelled every single person who can see her in his passenger seat or saw the accident. He calls someone to take her car to a scrap yard, it's not salvageable. She didn't have anything in it anyway. He drives her home, and he can hear her neck healing as he drives. He carries her, so carefully. He wants to blame himself, but she could have died from anything, human death was so easy to reach.
She wakes up, gasping for air, clinging to him.
"I died again." She says, and he rubs circles on her back as she cries, a mixture of relief and pain, her ribs aren't completely healed yet, but the need to have Elijah close trumps the minor pain.
When she's calmed down, she drinks from a blood bag and he calls Caroline. They're ahead of schedule.