Title: Discovering Dodge
Rating: K
Summary: Not all changes are instantaneous. Sometimes you have to grow into them
Pairing: Pre? Damon/Elena
Elena. Elena. Elena.
That's her name, isn't it? Yes. And by the impatient tone it's obviously been said one too many times. She mentally bookmarks her thoughts.
Nothing changes. She's still angled towards him, her head still tilted just so. She doesn't know how he does it. Her breathing, her heartbeat. Nothing changes and yet he knows exactly when she leaves and exactly when she comes back.
He says it's her eyes, that they come alive when she's really there. The fact that they are dead otherwise goes unsaid. She spends weeks in front of the mirror trying to see what he sees. It's just another piece of her only he has access to.
The conversation continues as though she had been paying attention all along. Apparently the troops were getting batty and were planning an escape of sorts. The kind of escape you treat like a time off but the weapon filled trunks, handbags packed with Wiccan herbs and grimores disguised as romantic novels give you away. Just a tad.
They never really stop, but they get close. As close as Damon can get them without risking their lives.
The thought almost takes her away again, so close to where she'd left off that its hard to remain there with him and not retreat back into her own mind.
She's used to relying on Damon, used to knowing that she would live for as long as he was able to keep her alive not one minute longer. Now, it seemed that everyone had taken refuge under her umbrella. & that changed something for her.
She doesn't know what happened, only that some point, between her first bloodbag and the drive home, the world had imploded and rebuilt itself without her. It's taken years but she understands, or is at least on the edge of understanding this new world.
They all move into the Boardinghouse, all except Matt. Matt with his kind eyes and unwavering goodness. He was put on a red eye aimed the hell out of dodge with nothing but the clothes on his back and enough money to forget he'd ever heard the words Mystic Falls. They didn't keep track of him and prayed he wasn't keeping track of them. That like the girls he had learned that there just wasn't a place for him in their world. They learn to taper the remorse with gratitude that at least one of them had gotten out.
It's Meredith who packs up Alaric's loft. She brings over the things she thought they should have and just never leaves. Too jaded to walk back out into a space she can no longer occupy. It's a past she can no longer connect to, so she stays. She is trained, pushed, fortified with a ferocity that should have scared her away but didn't. She was the new beacon, the new manifestation of humanity. She was the human they fought to keep alive. Not because of magic blood, or years of friendship. But because they were so damn tired of losing.
Tyler, who isn't Tyler, he moves in too. It's war for many months. Never ending battles of shame, rage and righteousness. They want to break apart, but they can't. This new world has linked them down to the very marrow of their bones. So after the war there is only an exhausted acceptance. Caroline is never able to truly grieve, halted by the tiny sliver of happiness she felt at Klaus' not death, happiness followed shortly by self-disgust. Damon smiles gleefully, unabashed because the now two year old hybrid is nothing in the grand scheme of their lives. Elena doesn't know how to mourn the loss of a boy whose face she sees every day, whose voice she hears late at night coaxing her best friend into his arms. She has a new respect for Jeremy and his ability to see those who aren't meant to be seen. Respect that is superseded by guilt for her part in stealing one of those people from him
Anna was the last part of his soul that was capable of hope. There was no Anna here, this Jeremy didnt hope. No this Jeremy, he steals his sister's blood while she's away and says goodbye to a past that stole everything from him. The last human breath of Jeremy Gilbert burns the last of their utopian delusions. There is no new or old world, only this now. This is their life. They stop fighting to change it. They simply fight to keep it. Perfect little warriors. Willing to kill, steal and con their way through all obstacles. Even Stefan does his part now, their Ripper in sheep's clothing.
They had failed. More times than she cares to count. They had failed because they hadn't listen, hadn't seen the things they needed to see. The things Damon saw. There was no greater good. There were no boundaries, no ethics, no morals when it came to protecting your own. There was no such thing as no. No line that could not be crossed. If it kept them alive, together, then it was worth whatever price they paid.
She's gone again, he doesn't bother to bring her back. It happened to them all. To every vampire that realized their eating habits weren't the only thing that had changed. When they realized the world is not the way they believed it to be. That it was not about roles and places, boxes and labels. The world was about choice. And the choice was about degrees of selfishness. About what you were willing to do to survive. Willing to do to live by your own terms. About the apologies you would not make.
He picks her up carrying her downstairs into the den where everyone was gathered. His eyes immediately go to the human. Their human. The last shred of humanity they have. Still alive. He sits them down on the couch, her in his lap, cradled in his arms; her safe place. This is where she'll be reborn. He can tell she's close, only a matter of time now.
It's still as night. The human sound asleep on the heath, watched vigilantly by all the creatures that go bump in the night. The only sound is Elena. Light, gasping and overwhelmed as if to take her first breath. But she doesn't breathe. Doesn't pretend to be something she's not. She looks at him, really looks. Not with the half awareness she's been sporting these last few years. No, it's with the precision sharpness of a predator.
At some point, between her first blood bag and the drive home, the world had imploded and rebuilt itself without her. She'd finally caught up.