Staring out the window, her teeth gnawing at her fingernails, Elena stares at the Montana sky as Nik drives her closer and closer to her grandparents house. Both excited and anxious, the butterflies in her belly are skittering to Beethoven's fifth, churning it so viciously that it feels like she could puke. Rubbing her clammy palms down her jeans, she blows out a big puff of air.
"Breathe, Elena. They're wonderful people," Nik says, trying to reassure her. "They're probably just as nervous as you are."
"One of the clippings I found was his obituary and it said he was survived by parents. I don't remember if it said a sister too. I suppose it would but I don't remember it. Every once in awhile I'd find myself wondering if they were still alive," she explains. Feeling the beginnings of tears beginning to sting at the back of her eyes, she turns away a minute in hopes to regain her composure. For moment he flashes through her mind but just as quickly she pushes him out. She needs to focus on the here and now and how she's wished for this day for more years than she cares to mention. Not quite prepared for it, she gasps audibly when Nik pulls alongside a curb, stopping the car.
It's a white Cape Cod style house. It is a low, one and a half story house with a moderately steeped, pitched roof with end gables. It's very simple standing there with its central front door surrounded by two multi-paned windows on either side of it. After staring at it for several moments, Elena finally forces herself to step out of the car. Walking around the front, Nik holds the door, pushing it closed as soon as she steps away. Seeing how her hands are trembling, he offers her his. Staring at it for a moment, she breathes deeply and latches on, letting him lead her to the front door. Of his own accord, Nik pushes the doorbell. After what seems like a lifetime, someone finally pulls the door open.
"You are her!" the woman states, bring her hand up to palm Elena's cheek. "Peyton, she's here," the woman says loudly before leading both Elena and Nik into the house. Too stunned to utter a peep, Elena finds herself in the man's strong arms as he pats her back lovingly.
"Evelyn, she looks just like her father," he says, his eyes twinkling as they dart from Elena to his wife and back to Elena again.
"I'm so happy to meet you," Elena blurts out, fully in tears now.
"Don't cry dear. We're so happy to finally meet you. We had no idea where your mother took you after our son died. We wanted to find you, Elena but we didn't even begin to know where to start looking."
"I understand," she adds, finding herself in her grandmother's arms, she just breathes her in, feeling well and truly loved by a family member for the first time in too long ago to count.
"Let's go sit down," Evelyn adds, linking her arm through Elena's and leading her into the living room.
"Where are our manners? How are you, Nik?" Peyton asks, gesturing for him to come into the living room too. "How is your grandmother?"
"She's good. She mentioned that she saw you two in church last week. But listen, why don't I give you three some time to get acquainted? What time should I come back for her?" he asks, his eyes focused on Evelyn.
"We were hoping that Elena would spend the night with us. We got a room ready.."
"I'd like that," she agrees, smiling through her tears.
"When does your plane leave to go back to Alaska?" Peyton asks, taking a seat in the recliner that's adjacent to the couch.
"I have to go back the day after tomorrow. My flight leaves at eleven am out of the Missoula airport."
"And Nik, are you going to be around to take her to the airport?"
"Yes." Turning to Elena and Evelyn, he adds, "I'll be at my grandmother's house. You know how to reach me." With that, he excuses himself, leaving Elena alone with her grandparents.
"I should get going to. I have to pick up Natalie. I'll be back as soon as I can," Peyton says, stooping over to give his wife a kiss on the crown of her head. Taking Elena's hand, he pulls her up, encircling his arms around her.
Feeing so safe and so at home already, Elena hangs on for dear life. As soon as he lets her go, he presses a kiss to her forehead. Evelyn and Elena follow him outside, waving goodbye till he disappears down the block.
"This is your father when he was 22 and joined the smokejumper program. He wanted to be a fireman since he was a little boy. A friend of ours used to take him along with him to hang out at the station. He even got to ride on the firetruck during a parade. Let me find it," she says, picking up another photo album to show Elena. "Here it is. This is him." She points at the young boy. "I think he was about 8 years old at that time." Smiling, she hands Elena the album so she can look at it more closely.
"He was so cute," Elena marvels, smiling through her tears. Brushing her fingertips over the picture, she can't stop her mind from thinking about Damon. His mother has a picture of young Damon and Stefan posing for a Halloween picture. Damon is dressed as a fireman. Her heart hurts to even think about him. She's grateful when her grandmother starts speaking again so she can once more push him out of her mind for a little while.
"Like I started to say, he always knew he was going to be a fireman. But when he saw a news story on TV about smokejumpers, that's when he knew what his calling was."
"My mother never would talk about him. I found out quite by accident that John had adopted me and that's when I found the clippings and a couple of pictures of him. I just never dreamed that you would still be alive. I love my mom and dad because they are my parents but sometimes I don't like them very much. And I know that sounds horrible but more often than not, I felt and still feel like an outsider in my own family. My brother Jeremy is a gem but my sister Katherine isn't especially likeable either."
"Oh my dear. I'm so sorry. There hasn't a day gone by that we haven't thought of you since your mother disappeared. I don't know why she did that. I thought we got along well enough with her but I guess she had other feelings about it."
"I missed so much," Elena starts to say, closing her eyes when her grandmother wraps an arm around her shoulder and pulls her close. Suddenly the blare of a car horn demands their attention.
"That must be your grandfather with Natalie and the boys. Her oldest boy is an accountant and the younger one hasn't decided what he wants to be yet. He's fifteen and was a bit of an oops for Nat," Evelyn laughs. Standing up, she laces her fingers with Elena's, leading her outside to meet her aunt. As soon as they step outside, the woman stops in her tracks, a smile widening on her face. Before Elena can blink, she's in the woman's arms.
"Hello, Elena. I'm Natalie. It's so good to finally meet Gray's daughter."
Her tears match Elena's as the two women embrace tightly, holding on long enough to make up for all the time they lost. Stepping back, Natalie looks at her mother. "I had my doubts, Elena about whether you were genuine but my God, you look so much alike... it's almost uncanny," she adds, stepping away to give her mother a hug too. When she lets go of her mom, Evelyn adds, "Connor, you come here and give your grandma a hug." The boy smiles and does what he's told. Breaking apart, she points to Elena, introducing them.
"Hi Connor, I'm Elena. I guess we're cousins."
"Mom said that you live in Alaska?"
"I do. I actually live just a stone's throw away from a little town called North Pole. They have Christmas year around there. My boyf... I mean I have some friends who live there."
"That would be decent," he laughs.
"Neither my older son nor my husband could get away to meet you. But we'll take lots of pictures," Natalie teases, wrapping her arm around Elena, leading her into the house. After they spend the rest of the evening visiting, Elena is shown to a room to sleep for the night. Her grandparents walk inside with her to say goodnight. All around the room are pictures of Grayson along with sports trophies and other things.
"We didn't keep this room a shrine by any means but we didn't want to part with his awards and things. Feel free to look around Elena. We'll see you in the morning," her grandpa says, giving her a hug. As soon as Evelyn drops a kiss to her cheek, holding her close for a few extra seconds, they leave the room. Emotionally exhausted, Elena puts on her pajamas and crawls into the bed. The last thing that crosses her mind before the edges blur is her father's smiling face looking down at her from the picture hanging above the headboard.
"Are you going to skate too, Damon?" Willow asks, dragging him through the doors of the Big Dipper Ice arena in Fairbanks. "You promised."
"I know, Willow but my arm is still pretty sore."
"You're not very nice," she pouts, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly.
"I know that I promised you that I would skate and I will but I have to be careful. And because you want to be swung you around, I invited someone to join us."
"Elena? Did you invite her?"
"No, it's not Elena," he admits sadly, his heart twisting uncomfortably at the mere thought of what he's lost.
"How come she's never with you anymore? I like her."
"I know you do, Will. I did something that hurt her badly so she's not speaking to me right now."
"Why would you be mean to her?"
Although he'd rather do about anything than have to answer her, he takes a breath and looks around a little as they stand in line to pay for their admission fee. When he finally drops his eyes to hers again, he gives her hand a squeeze. "I didn't mean to hurt her, Willow but I did all the same. She's hurt and it's my fault."
"Why don't you just tell her you're sorry?" she asks, looking at him with those big blue eyes that match his own.
Smiling despite himself, he pulls her close. "I've tried. She doesn't want to talk to me right now."
"I'll talk to her for you," she offers enthusiastically.
"She's out of town right now. When she gets back I'm going to try to talk to her again. But if she won't talk to me, I may take you up on that offer," he laughs, pulling out his wallet to pay their fees. Expecting Stefan, he looks around, sighing with relief when he sees him jogging over to where they're standing. "Three tickets, two adults, one seven year old," Damon tells the ticket master. As soon as the man hands them to him, they step out of line and walk into the rink.
"Thanks for coming, Stefan," Damon adds, hoping to have at least some conversation with his brother.
"You're welcome. I can't stay mad at you forever. I was worried when you got hurt, brother. I'm really glad you're okay. As far as Elena goes, It took me awhile to get over it but once I pulled my head out of my ass, I realized that Elena never looked at me the way she looks at you. I know you two are on the outs right now but don't give up without a fight, Damon. Besides, I'm seeing a girl named Lexie. She's great."
"That really means a lot to me, Stefan. Thank you and you have to know that I want you to be happy too."
"Are you guys coming? I want to skate," Willow interrupts, taking each of their hands and pulling them over to the skate rental part of the rink. Once they have their skates on, Willow takes Stefan's hand and then the two of them skate out onto the rink, intermingling with all the other kids. Because Damon still has some staples from his skin graft, he doesn't want to get knocked over and split some of them. As such, he stays along the rim so he has something to grab onto if he loses his balance. Almost toppling over, he sits down on the bleacher for a few minutes. Feeling his phone vibrate, he pulls it out of his pocket. Not recognizing the phone number, he answers. "Hello?"
"Mr. Salvatore, This is Isobel Gilbert. I would like to know where my daughter is. She's not answering her phone."
"How did you get my number?
"I called Fort Wainwright. The girl that answered gave me this number."
Dropping his head onto his forearm, Damon knows he's going to have to have a word with whomever gave out his personal phone number. That's not supposed to happen. Lifting the phone back to his mouth, he adds, "I would like for you to lose my phone number. And as far as Elena is concerned, I don't know where she is. All I know is that she asked to have a few days off for personal reasons."
"You're her boyfriend. Surely she talks to you?"
"We're not together anymore, Mrs. Gilbert and even if we were, I don't like the way you treat her so I wouldn't tell you even if I did know," he tells her then clicks off the phone, thinking that the woman has some chutzpah. Staring at the phone, he wants to try to call her but he knows she'll just hang up on him so like the complete sap that he is, he just stares at her picture. Lost in thought, he startles when Willow and Stefan surround him and pull him out further onto the ice, each taking an arm. Stefan is especially cautious cause he knows he has Damon's bad arm. With their help, Damon doesn't fall on ass and make a fool of himself. Needing to sit down for a minute cause his strength hasn't returned entirely, he sits on one of the bleachers and watches his brother and sister. The only thing that would make this day more perfect is to have her here.
Getting up the next morning, Elena dresses and goes downstairs. Finding a note from her grandfather that they ran over to the store to get some fresh breakfast rolls she smiles. Realizing that Natalie and Connor must have gone along, she pulls out one of the photo albums that her grandmother showed her. When she sees one of him in his smokejumper outfit, she stares at it. In her mind the picture of her father morphs into that of Damon. Feeling tears begin to well up, she closes the book. As she's about to put it back in the bookcase, her phone rings. Seeing that it's her mother... again..., she doesn't answer. There is no way is she going to let the woman ruin this for her. Walking over to the mantle, she picks up another photo of what looks like her dad as a young man. Wiping her eyes, she startles when she feels a hand on her shoulder.
"Elena, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that something is bothering you. Do you want to talk about it?"
"I'd like that."
"Let's you and I go for a walk. There's a park not far from here where your dad and aunt Natalie would play together as children. I'm just going to leave a note for Peyton to tell him where we're going."
"Thanks grandma."
"You're welcome, child. I'll be right back. Within a couple of minutes, Evelyn pulls open the front door, gesturing for Elena to go out first. As soon as they're on the sidewalk, grandma entwines their fingers and they walk down the sidewalk towards the small city park. As they walk, Evelyn points out landmarks and where her dad's friends used to live. "That house right over there," she says, pointing to a two story yellow house with a big front porch that extends the length of the front. "That's Madelyn Mikaelson's house, where Mikael, Mordechai and their sister Marita grew up. You can see Nik's car in the driveway."
"That's a nice looking home."
"Yes, it's very nice," she adds as they keep walking. As soon as they get to the park, they stop to get some ice cream and then walk over to sit down on one of the benches. Taking a lick of her ice cream, Elena stares at the children that are playing on the baseball field.
"Talk to me, Elena."
"The man I love hurt me badly, grandma," Elena admits, trying to talk past the thickness in her throat.
"What did he do?"
"As angry as it still makes me, I do know there was no malice in it. He's a fellow smokejumper but he has more rank than me. I told him about my dad and for whatever reason, it scared him. From what my superior said, he was afraid I was in the job for the wrong reasons and that I could get hurt. I love him for being concerned about my safety but he had no right to go over my head to get me benched. He's the only one I've ever told about my real dad and what did he do but use the information against me."
"Oh sweetheart. Sometimes men do crazy things when they're in love. It sounds like his heart was in the right place but his methods were all wrong. Am I right?"
"I guess you could say that," she adds, using a napkin to wipe her eyes. When she feels her grandmother's arm extend around her shoulders, she lays her head against the woman's arm. Even though they only met just yesterday, Elena feels so at home with this woman. The love she feels for her grandparents is just exploding inside of her.
"Do you still love him?"
"Of course I still love him but I don't know if I can trust him again. We can't have a relationship without that."
"That's true. I can't tell you what to do, Elena but if you still love this boy, I think you owe it to yourself to hear his side of the story. It's sounds like all that you know is through your superior rather than him."
"That is true."
"You have a right to be upset and I'm sure he very well knows that by now but if you do love him, think long and hard before they close that door for good."
"Thanks grandma. It feels good to talk about it."
"Elena, you don't know how good it feels to be able to talk to you and give you advice and hold my granddaughter in my arms. Thank you for giving me this gift," she says, pressing a kiss to the top of Elena's head. Closing her eyes, Elena breathes her in, trying to imprint a memory in her mind of her grandmother smelling like peppermint and Chanel perfume.
Walking down the same sidewalk, this time with her granddad, they stop when they reach the local coffee shop. Pulling the door open, he asks her what she wants and then points a table out to her. Nodding she walks away, sitting down before anyone else snatches it. Within minutes, Peyton hands the iced caramel macchiato to her while he sits down and takes a long pull from his drink. "It's just coffee. I don't like all the fancy stuff," he laughs, setting it down.
"Do you want to taste mine? It's good."
"No, Elena. I prefer my coffee black. I just wanted to be able to spend a little time alone with you before you have to go back," he explains. With his heart full of joy at finally getting to meet her, he smiles before taking a drink from his cup. After a few moments of comfortable silence, Peyton mentions, "Your dad knew he wanted to be a fireman from the time he was old enough to walk. Why did you choose it?"
"My best friend's mom was head of the volunteer fire department in my little home town. She would take us down to the fire station once in awhile and show us around. After she took the job as fire chief in Anchorage, they moved away so I wasn't around it as much. I don't know, it really wasn't until I found his pictures and stuff that I really thought about it seriously. I researched and talked to the head of the Fort Wainwright program. This is not a profession that I chose lightly. And I promise you that if I didn't love my job, I would be doing something else. I want my father to be proud of me from wherever he is but I'd like to think that he'd still be proud whether I was a smokejumper or not."
"I know he would have, Elena. Don't ever doubt that," he reassures, laying his hand gently atop hers.
"As I'm sure you know, smokejumpers only work during the summer months so during the off season, I work as an EMT and I love it too, it's just that I don't know, grandpa, there's something about being in the thick of things when you're fighting a fire. The adrenaline pumps and it's such a good feeling when we're the victors. I had a big falling out with my now ex boyfriend because he was afraid that I was in the profession for the wrong reasons and I know he was worried about my safety but he had a responsibility to talk to me about it before having me benched. Like I said to you, I did my research before I went into this."
"I believe you, sweetheart. Just take care okay? I don't want to lose another family member to a fire."
"I will, you have my word," she says, leaning over to press a kiss to his cheek. With the heavy stuff out of the way, the two of them spend the rest of the afternoon walking around the town with Peyton showing her his favorite places and the things he used to enjoy doing with her father when he was a boy.
Although her visit with her grandparents, aunt and cousin was beyond anything she could have hoped for, she's back in Fairbanks and on her way to the work. There's barely two weeks left of the smokejumper season and although she loves being out in the field fighting fires and saving forests, she hopes they don't have anymore to deal with. It takes many years to replenish a forest after a fire. The massive 1988 Yellowstone fire that burned out of control for so long, burning thousands and thousands of acres will take a century for the park to look as it was. She hates seeing fire scared swathes on the beautiful landscape of Alaska. Pulling into the parking lot, she gets out of her car, pulls out her bag and looks around before zeroing in on his car.
Walking into the building, she sees him standing against the wall, his arm still in a sling. Good morning, Ric, Mr. Salvatore," she remarks, walking past them without saying another word. Dropping his chin to his chest, he just walks away and back to his office. Throughout the next couple of days, she only acknowledges him formally, no smile, no frown. She'll reply if he asks her something but is the utmost professional answering politely but matter of factly. Nor does she initiate any conversation with him and it's killing Damon inside. Although he can see the emotions warring in her eyes when he finds himself looking at her from afar or just passing her in the hallway, he doesn't know how to fix it for her.
Never before has he ever even considered leaving the program or at least the Fort Wainwright smoke jumpers but he doesn't want to cause anymore pain. He could probably start to work for Liz like Stefan did but then he'd see her when she works as an EMT. With that out of the question too, Damon knows that he could find a group to join if he moved to the continental US but his house and family are here. Maybe he could go back to school and work for the forest service or something like that. But who is he kidding, he chides himself. He was born to be a smokejumper and he also knows that he could never leave his beloved Alaska. Needing to get some work done, Damon gets up to fill himself a cup of coffee and then closes his door so he doesn't keep getting distracted by the sight of her.
"Hey Elena, did you have a good time?" Rebekah asks, throwing her hair behind her shoulder when she plops down next to her on the picnic table outside.
"I had a great time, Bek. I got to meet your grandma. She's great and boy does Nik jump when she snaps her fingers," Elena laughs, her whole body shaking.
"She's a great lady," Rebekah muses, shaking her head. "Elena, how long are you going to act like you don't care in front of Damon?"
"Damon and I are through," Elena lies, hoping Rebekah doesn't pick up on the almost imperceptible crack in her voice when her grandma's words echo inside of her head. The ones about really examining how she feels and that she should let him explain what was going on inside of his own head when he had her pulled from the mission. Despite her grandma's lingering voice, she can't quite make herself approach him yet.
"If you're done with him, you won't mind if I put the moves on him right?" Rebekah asks, knowing full well that the girls heart still lies with Damon.
"Have at it," Elena says without missing a beat. Suddenly feeling the urge to bolt, she quickly puts on her running shoes and hurries outside without saying another word to her friend.
After a long week, Damon finds himself at Matt's bar on Friday night. Picking up his tumbler full of bourbon, he takes a sip, tightening his jaw at the burn when it goes down. This bourbon is more potent than his usual stuff. Wanting to get good and drunk, Damon orders a shot of Patron too.
"Damon, I don't think you want to mix bourbon and Tequila?" Matt mentions, wiping the bar top with his rag.
"I want to get drunk, Matt."
"Yeah but the combination of those two is likely to land you back in the hospital," Matt adds firmly, staring at him.
"Give me something then, anything then," he starts to say when he feels a hand on his shoulder. Looking up, he drops his head onto his forearm when he sees Rebekah taking a seat beside him.
"Hello boss," she smiles that luminescent smile of hers.
"Rebekah, how are you?" Damon slurs, a goofy drunken smile on his face.
Throwing back his shot of vodka, he signals Matt, gesturing for him to give Rebekah a drink. Sliding a shot glass in front of both of them, they clink the glass together then swallow it down. Wanting still more, Damon slides his empty glass to Callie when Matt steps out from behind the bar. Even though no matter what he does, he can't get the hurt out of his heart, he can at least dull it for a little while so he orders another and another and another. When Rebekah leans in telling him something funny, he breaks out into raucous laughter. Because Rebekah can hold her alcohol, she still knows exactly what she's doing. When she sees Elena walk in with Caroline and Brady through the mirror that hangs behind the bar, she leans over and pulls Damon earlobe into her mouth.
Hoping to get a reaction out of Elena, she starts trailing her mouth down the slope of his jaw. Opening her eyes, Rebekah sees Matt's mouth agape. Thinking he's pretty cute, she gives him a wink. Groaning, Damon spins around and when he does, his blue eyes meet her fiery brown ones.
Huge, huge thanks to Eva. I do the writing but she gives me bullet points and we go from there. We chat back and forth about how we think something should go. I love her dearly.
Big, big thanks to all of you for the wonderful reviews. You are all the best. Thank you.
Chapter title: 'Pictures of You' by The Cure.
I did post the final part of "Over the Rainbow". ICEM will update next.
Reviews are love.
Be safe and have a phenomenal evening and tomorrow. I'm off to work, we'll see you next time.