6
"You don't think he can do it?" Elena asked Eileen. They were both in Elena's car headed to Elena's house where Jeremy, John and Jenna were waiting to meet Eileen.
Elijah had said that Klaus had killed his siblings and thrown them into the sea where he couldn't even reach them but when asked why Klaus would suddenly do that, why it had hurt him so much that he wanted to kill him, he had no answer.
And Elena's twin had made it plenty clear that she didn't think much of it, had said to Elijah's face that he wasn't very convincing. She, Damon and Stefan had piped up with anecdotes of how easily Elijah had killed in front of them, had told her about Trevor, about the werewolves but in the end even they admitted that casual murder of strangers was very different to casual murder of a formerly beloved brother as Eileen pointed out.
"I really truly don't."
"But why? I mean...Stefan once trapped and vervained Damon to keep him from doing harm."
"That's not the same thing as killing Damon. And you saw the way Elijah talked about Klaus, he hates him sure, but he hates him because he used to adore him at some point. That kind of history is hard to shake off, Klaus could easily lie and say something to distract him or turn him to his side. Hell, Elijah could even decide that since Klaus is his only living family now that he might as well go off with him. I think he could kill Klaus but it would have to be a crime of passion or opportunity, not premeditated murder. If he stood to gain something from killing Klaus maybe a planned murder would made sense but for revenge, no."
Elena considered what Eileen was saying and sighed. "Sometimes I wish you wouldn't make as much sense as you did."
"I don't understand why you want so badly to kill Klaus in the first place, sure he has to sacrifice people to break the curse but didn't Damon kill your former history teacher on a whim?And you were trying to convince me that Elijah could kill his brother by pointing out instances of his murders too."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean we're clones of some really old lady, you're dating a guy who once dated and fought said old lady and is currently going through his vegetarian phase-don't think you can just ignore what Elijah said about him being a Ripper-and his brother has admitted to murdering many people just to keep up his bad boy rep while your best friend is hearing the voices of bitter old ancestors and your other best friend accidentally murdered someone because she was hungry. At what point do you, I or any of your circle get to play judge and jury in this situation and decide that Klaus is a freak of nature? It's one thing to fight him knowing that he's coming for you, that's self-preservation but beyond that there's no real moral high ground for any of you to take."
Luckily they'd reached so Elena didn't have to respond to the fact that her twin considered her and her friends to be on the same level as a thousand year old mass murdering psychopath.
They walked to the front door, Eileen following her and Elena stood for a while wondering what she should do. Use her key and just walk in or ring the bell and give them some warning.
This was awkward for more than one reason. Elena spent so much time at the Boarding house, even had her name on the lease now to make into a safehouse, that the house she grew up in felt strange sometimes. And then there was Eileen to consider.
Jeremy and Bonnie had been suspicious, all their run ins with Katherine too fresh on their mind. This little dinner wasn't just Elena introducing her twin to her family but also an attempt to convince Jeremy and by extension Bonnie that Eileen wasn't just leading them on only to leave them high and dry when it came down to it, she wasn't just lulling them into a false sense of security. This was important enough that she'd put her foot down and kept Damon and Stefan away so that they couldn't ruin this.
But that didn't mean that Elena herself wouldn't ruin it.
But Eileen at least understood and even appreciated Jeremy's paranoia. She made an effort, got all dressed up, her hair pulled into a sophisticated braided bun, a pretty sundress with a pineapple print that somehow looked mature and dignified on her and the tupperware her hands were clenched around.
"Your boyfriend's parents must have loved you," Eileen was a neat, mature young woman who reeked of self-respect and dignity.
"The last boyfriend I had was back in middle school and his father lectured me on how to be a be a great trophy wife while his mother got drunk on her Irish coffee but not before offering me a mug of the same." Eileen shrugged. "I used to think my life was fairly strange and that I had a bad handle on social interactions but the last week has made me feel like a truly well-adjusted person who recognises the merit of high standards. Now, let's get this over with, shall we?" She said and rang the bell.
Eileen was uncomfortable. She didn't really do well when it came to meeting new people, not for casual purposes. Introductions were possibly the worst reason to meet people. And this was bound to be particularly excruciating.
Elena's aunt, Jenna, had absolutely no clue about the supernatural world but her brother and her uncle/biological father did. That was going to limit conversations, especially since Elena had said that John was wracked with guilt at not knowing that he had another daughter while her brother was sensible enough to be afraid it was Katherine pretending to be a twin. Talking at these multiple cross purposes was not going to be fun.
The door was opened by a sullen looking boy, Jeremy she presumed. He glared at her suspiciously but when he looked at her properly he did seem taken aback.
"You don't look exactly like Elena."
That must have been a comfort. From what she heard, Katherine did look exactly like Elena but with curly hair rather than Elena's pin straight locks. Given that hair straighteners existed that little tidbit wasn't useful in way of a distinguishing characteristics.
"I already knew that." Eileen told the boy and stepped in, judging by the satisfied look on his face she must have passed another test. "Not a vampire either." She guessed, correctly.
The sound of crashes from inside the house kept him from answering and with a wince he led them in, "Come on, Uncle John hasn't been sober for a while now."
"Oh, for heaven's sake," Elena said and rushed towards the crashing sounds leaving Jeremy and Eileen alone. Jeremy walked slowly, clearly wanting to grill her before sitting down to dinner. Considering that the noises of crashing were now accompanied by Elena's yelling Eileen had no problem with that plan.
"So, are you looking at any specific colleges?" Eileen asked for lack of a conversation starter and Jeremy was merciful enough to take it seriously, albeit with an eye roll.
"Still have a year to go. I figured I'd try to see which direction the situation here is going in. I like drawing and art but that's not going to be useful to fight vampires and werewolves."
"I mean when I was looking at the courses NYU offers, Vampire and Werewolf Handling 101 wasn't exactly on the list." Jeremy laughed bitterly and Eileen felt a bit sorry for him. "Maybe you can do crisis management and art? A dual major? I mean, I was planning on doing dance and childhood education, so."
Jeremy shrugged, "Whitmore college has this Occult Studies class, it's actually pretty legit and my girlfriend's grandmother used to teach there. I figured I could take that and something pre-med I guess."
"Yes, but is a degree in it actually necessary? Can't you just sit in on classes?" Eileen made a face, "Actually doing homework in it would be pretty tiring."
"Yeah but I'd get the credits for the class, right?"
"Still, it's not exactly a versatile field." So far Jeremy seemed to be shaping up to be her favourite Gilbert, "So, what kind of art do you do?"
"You know what, you seem pretty cool," Jeremy said and Eileen was confused at the change of topic.
"Erm-"
"So just a heads up, don't get too comfortable."
"I...am not feeling particularly comfortable to begin with."
He snorted, "Yes well, my uncle, your father, has spent the last week in a haze of alcohol. And he let it slip to Jenna about the vampires, werewolves, everything."
"Oh dear," She knew that Elena had wanted to keep her aunt in the dark about this all. On the one hand Eileen had thought that Jenna was probably safer knowing about vampires in this town filled with them with a council of founders who were keeping an eye on it even. But given that she herself was keeping Marlene in the dark about the doppelgänger , the sacrifice bits and the fact that it was a vampires super healing blood that had brought of her coma, it would have been hypocritical for Eileen to object to it all.
"Yeah, Jenna's kind of testing Elena, she even had notes on how she would sort of push Elena into talking about it."
"I KNOW YOUR BOYFRIEND'S A BLOOD SUCKING CREATURE OF THE NIGHT!"
Eileen blinked as Jeremy facepalmed. They entered the dining room to see Elena looking stricken and horrified, near tears but still willing to fight her aunt over this while the man sitting at the table, exhausted took one look at Eileen peering into the room and gulped down what little was left in the bottle of scotch in front of him.
And then the yelling started again.
"There goes the fun family dinner." Jeremy sighed and Eileen cursed under her breath.
"Here," She handed Jeremy the brownies she'd made. Marlene had said that she shouldn't go to anybody's house for the first time empty handed, especially for dinner. But it looked like dinner had been postponed. As Jeremy thanked her and went into the room to add his own two cents ('She deserved to know, you're not her mother Elena, not mine either'), Eileen dialled Damon's phone, "Hey, do you mind picking me up from the Gilbert house?"
Elena was her ride there and she didn't think the town had much in way of cabs.
"Hello Mr Saltzman," The Doppelgänger—the Better Doppelgänger as he called her in his mind to differentiate between her and Elena—said and Klaus found that he was irked by it, irked by being called a name that was so clearly not his. He had possessed many a person in his long lifetime but it had never been this...dull.
It was just waiting, not even anticipation. There wasn't even much Klaus could do to turn them against one another for fun either, they were already at odds with one another. Necessity kept them together and trying but without an enemy to fixate upon properly, they fell apart.
It was terribly boring and he wasn't even getting much in way of information. Certainly, finding Elijah awake had been something but it was Elijah, after all. The better doppelgänger was right, his brother lacked conviction and Klaus already knew how to weaken his conviction even further. Right now his brother was inside watching the children fight, making his snide little remarks to confound them further as more of their family history was revealed. The minute that was done, he was going back to his body, this weak little human shell was getting itchy. A compulsion on the man and he wouldn't even act any different. He could even compel the man to report to him every day and et voila, an instant spy.
(Although he did have a little bit of fun when the Bad Doppelgänger's aunt called 'Alaric' to yell at him at great length while he put all the blame her niece instead.)
"Call me Ric."
"Mr Saltzman, you're the ex-boyfriend of my twin's aunt, her history teacher and my birth mother's ex-husband. I don't that qualifies for first name basis."
"Ah well, if being intimate with your birth mother doesn't qualify for first name basis, then I suppose I'll be Mr Saltzman for eternity."
She smiled, a small innocuous little thing, at that before the sounds of yelling began filtering from the house again. "Are they always like this?" She asked, her shoulder shrugged in the direction of the Salvatore Boarding house in which the children were all fighting.
"Do you really want to know the answer?" Klaus deflected. He was almost certain this was their norm but Eileen was smarter than they gave her credit for and retaining ambiguity seemed ideal for now. After all, he didn't really know if they were 'always like this'.
She scrunched her nose but didn't say anything for a long while, choosing to look up at the sky instead. "How long until the full moon?" She finally asked and he followed her sight to the waning moon.
"Twenty days," Technically 19 days 5 hours and 35 minutes. Klaus knew when the full moon would be down to the second; felt it in his bones, a sort of moon sense, could feel it rise even if he couldn't see it. That rush of energy as his body desperately wanted to transform, held back by his curse like lead chains, like being tied to a stake once again and having a part of his body, mind and soul pushed down by a curse again. He had lived it for every full moon for a thousand years.
"Fuck." She said, soft and hard, her voice holding all the frustration he hadn't let himself express and he turned to her in surprise.
Klaus didn't think he'd heard curse before, how strange. Wasn't this generation supposed to be free with their language?
What was it that frustrated her though? Was she regretting it, offering herself up as a sacrifice already? Was he counting down the days sadly? Did he need to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn't run off?
"Living in this town for that long is going to get old really fast." Her mouth twisted and his snort surfside her, "What's so funny?"
"Figured you might be getting cold feet."
"Oh no, my honour's on stake here. Not getting cold feet because of that. If anything, coming here has just solidified my decision."
"Why?"
When she looked at him, there was so much feeling on that face, so much confusion and puzzlement, so much pity it was as if she was on stage again. That was the only time she truly came alive before. "No one here is happy." She said softly, leaning in closer. "It's like the town is in this form of stasis, no one seems to be moving on. And I figure being the clone of some ancient lady, I'd get sucked into this supernatural sort of life at some point anyway so I'm just kind of glad to have an expiry date. At least then I won't be angsting all over the place." She paused then, suddenly with a very thoughtful look and Klaus found himself actually waiting with bated breath to hear what she was thinking over so carefully.
"Unless...is this just a small town thing? Do these sorts of places with less than ten thousand residents get like this?" She asked him earnestly and he couldn't help the laughter.
"You've never been out of the city have you?"
"Never. There are so many insects here but none of them are cockroaches! It's very strange." She was actually frowning in confusion, utterly befuddled and Klaus laughed again.
"So have you decided how you'll be hiding your death by exsanguination? Still going with a car crash?"
She brightened up almost immediately. He really wanted to remind her that it was her death they were talking about, the glee was a bit misplaced. "No, I'm going with something much more sensible. So I figure we'll say Elena and her friends took me out hiking and a loose rock fell on me, killing me instantly. Dropping an actual rock on me should do the trick, enough disfiguration that the bite on the neck will be sort of lost in the mess but the rest of my body will be enough for a proper identification and Damon and Stefan or whoever can compel the morgue or whoever's conducting the autopsy to not realise that I was drained of blood before the whole head smashing thing happened."
"Please darling, do try to curb your enthusiasm," The words had barely left his mouth when Elijah came out of the house, speeding out of it with a vigour Klaus hadn't seen since Tatia, picking 'Alaric' up by the neck and proceeding to fly into the woods nearby.
In this body, strengthened as he was with spells, Klaus could only hold on to his brother, the shouts of the Mystic Falls gang falling out of earshot far too quickly and in the deep of the woods, Elijah threw him down onto the forest floor. "Possession, brother, really?"
And Klaus could only laugh. Of course he saw through his disguise. He knew there was a reason why Elijah was his favourite "Well you know what they say, old dogs, new tricks and all that."
6