A/N: Thank you for all of the kind reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying the fic, even though it didn't meet its initial deadline. :)
And 'Hi' to honorableoriginal over on tumblr - sorry this is so late!
Chapter title comes from "Give" by Tori Amos.
Elena's not sure what wakes her first: the sound of movement, or the sudden, white-hot burn underneath her skin. Regardless of which one comes first, her hand moves under her pillowcase to the stake as she sits up, but realizes who is missing and that it won't be needed.
She wouldn't...would she?
The door to the basement is slowly being opened, and Elena is taking the stairs two at a time. Her feet barely touch the first floor of the house before she's launching herself at Maggie, grabbing her around the midsection in an awkward tackle.
"No!" the younger girl grunts as they land in a tangle on the floor.
"Don't do this, Maggie!" Elena continues to wrestle with her as her friend tries to crawl towards the front door. Bree stomps up the stairs behind them.
"What the hell is going on?" she demands.
"Let me go!" Maggie shouts, verging on hysterical. "Please let me go, just let me go and I'll go to Klaus, and he'll let my Mom go. Please, Aim, you don't understand."
Yeah, she can't relate at all.
Elena, arms wrapped around Maggie in attempt to keep her from squirming towards the door, lets out a frustrated growl and manages to turn Maggie around, so Bree can help subdue her. She staggers backward until her back is pressed to the door.
"Margaret LaForte," Bree grits out warningly while strong-arming her daughter into a chair in the living room. "You stop it this instant."
Elena, now catching her breath, looks around to see that the lights are flickering, and she knows it's only a manner of time until things start flying and someone gets hurt. Maggie usually has her magic under an incredible amount of control, but this has happened on occasion.
She makes her way over to the LaFortes.
"When I start, you just repeat it with me, okay?" Bree says, purposely vague as to not alert her daughter about what they are about to do.
Together, Bree and Elena chant an incantation that causes the girl to fall into a deep sleep; it's protective, in a way, so the Petrova Fire allows her help and it works quickly. Maggie will be out for hours.
Bree, out of breath, steps back from her daughter and runs both her hands through her hair as she seats herself on the sofa. Elena tries to steady her breathing as she falls onto the cushions beside her.
"Will she be alright?"
Both women whip their heads around to face the foyer to find Elijah pushing himself as close to the threshold of the barrier as possible. In the next instant, they both realize that the door has been knocked in off of its hinges.
"I saw the lights and..." he trails off, and looks down at the door. Elena raises an accusing eyebrow. "I will pay to have that repaired, I assure you," he adds quickly.
"Damn right you will," grouses Bree. "I'll go get the tools."
"I could have someone here to repair this within the hour," promises the vampire, shifting impatiently from one foot to the other. He wants to be invited in, she knows, but it's not her place to do such a thing.
Somewhere upstairs, her alarm clock goes off: six o' clock. They were going to leave at seven. Over Elijah's shoulder, she can see that dawn is starting to dimly light up the wooded neighborhood.
"Bree, it's time to pack, anyway." After a second glance at the doorway (and her friend – is he still her friend? She hopes she can still consider him a friend – standing there), Elena reminds her "Hybrids could get in, invitation or not, though I think we'd be protected from anyone trying to wish us harm." She shrugs. "It couldn't hurt."
Bree thinks that this could be a test to see if Elijah is truly trustworthy; she also made a comment about wondering just how well Elena 'knew' Elijah. "Fine," she sighs. "Elijah Mikaelson, you are invited into my home, God help me."
His step into the house is a smooth one, demonstrating that the Fire has found no reason to prevent him from getting in...not that he knows that part.
"Thank you, Miss LaForte. And once more, may I apologize for-"
His contrition is waved off. "Save it, honey, " the bartender says, bold as brass and more than slightly irked. "If you come through with your promise, I'll let you replace the whole damn house if you want. The garage door hasn't worked in years, in case your repairman is bored and wants something else to do. Aimee, help me get Maggie upstairs to her bed; at least while we pack, we can keep an eye on her."
Elijah offers to help carry the slight girl upstairs, but Bree refuses his help, insisting upon doing it with Elena's help. They get her into the bed and all but burrito her in the blankets; it will take her some time to struggle out of the mess, giving them time to get to her should she try to run again.
If Bree sees Elijah follow Elena into her room while she packs, she makes no comment. As a sign of good faith, Elena keeps the door open.
Her bedroom here is very similar to her room back home, but lacking in personal mementos: soft colors and floral prints - they're all generic signs of a young woman inhabiting this space. Truth be told, Elena hasn't given much thought to personalizing the room. There are a few photos of their handful of friends from school, but they haven't been placed in specific locations, like her frames in Mystic Falls. Those had been carefully deposited so she could see most of them from her bed.
The last time that Elijah was in her personal space, he had considered her a tool, a means of his brother's destruction. He had walked around the room and inspected her belongings as though she deserved no privacy or consideration. This time, he seems to hover by the door until she gestures to her desk chair (thankful she had retrieved the bra from the back of the seat this morning to put back in its drawer).
She remembers to crack a window when she sees his eyes look irritated; the vervain in the basement ends up making the whole house smell, and she can only imagine what that could do to a vampire.
"Still not the proper time or place, I suspect," he says regretfully, "for that conversation."
Elena shakes her head. "No, no it's not." She wants to tell him so much, but has to focus on Lucy. When this is all over, maybe there will be a little time...
"Does that happen often, those electrical issues?" he asks conversationally as she pulls her dusty suitcase out of the closet. It hasn't been used since she moved in two years ago. Hidden beneath the lining of the suitcase are her photographs and keepsakes from Mystic Falls, and she decides to keep them in there.
"It's only happened maybe once or twice, since I met her," she answers pointedly, while making hasty work of throwing clothing into the bag. "I think it was just stress getting the better of her...she was trying to go find Klaus and I caught her."
What had Maggie been thinking, trying to sneak away like that? Elena pushes down on the clothing in the bag with a little more gusto than necessary. Couldn't Maggie see what Bree, Lucy, and herself were willing to do to keep her safe? Didn't she understand how important she was to her parents, and to her friend? And she knew Maggie well enough to know that she hadn't thought that going to Klaus was some sort of noble choice, or tactically the best, she had probably considered it to be the only way to keep them all-
Elena stops zipping the bag and looks over to him. Elijah's face remains passive, but there is a definite twinkle of humor in his deep brown eyes, and the ghost of a smile at the corner of his mouth.
"You've come to realize who she reminds you of, I take it," he intones.
"It's a bit like looking in a mirror," she admits. A quick glance confirms that the crease at the corner of his mouth pulls a little more.
Shaking her head, she bends down and grabs at the duffel from its place below her bed. It still has most of the same equipment in it from two years ago, but lugging it places isn't as hard, now that she's built up stamina. The few times she's allowed her glamor to drop (it's a spell she can keep up herself, these days, one that both Lucy and Bree have tested and found to be sturdy), she's found her body to be leaner, stronger...a little more hardened. It's satisfying to see the faintest of smile lines forming, and these change to her body, because it means Elena Gilbert no longer looks exactly like Katherine Pierce.
Elijah's eyebrows rise at the sight of the open duffel. "You're a vampire hunter and a witch now? We really do have much to discuss."
Bree calls for Elena's help, and in the instant her back is to him, Elijah takes both bags and exits the room. She says her thanks to the empty room, knowing he'll hear it.
Together, the women wake Maggie, and warn her off from any further attempts to bolt. They've all agreed on a plan and have to stick to it, they rationalize with her, or things could get a lot worse.
Elena scoops up Maggie's bag (packed by Bree, she realizes - meaning she probably overheard their entire conversation through the open bathroom doors) and Bree's and heads down. The hired SUV's driver looks like a high-class SWAT member, and he relieves Elena of the two bags.
Elijah takes the seat next to Bree and spends the car ride discussing plans with her. Maggie is all apologies, and Elena spends most of the ride reassuring the girl she's forgiven, that of course they're still friends. The ride to the airport seems to never end, but finally they pass the main entrance.
Instead, they travel another mile or two along the airport's property line until they reach a second, smaller gate. The driver hands the security guard identification, and after some verification with a computer system as well as a radio request for the gate to be opened, they drive through.
There's a badly paved road they follow that takes them to an aircraft hanger, where a private jet sits waiting, no doubt, for their departure. A handful of people are all walking around intent on finishing preparations; the only exception are a pair of individuals who are standing at the stairs to the jet, and Elena's stomach drops as they approach and she sees who those people are.
Caroline and Bonnie.