Chapter 5

From the moment he collected them that the morning to their arrival at the doorstep of the boarding house, Elijah and Damon wordlessly fought over Elena. She was seated between them, walked between them, and had to contend with their testosterone-fueled tug of war the entire trip. Few words were exchanged.

In the car on the way to the airport, Damon whispered into her ear, "How do you feel?"

Elena blushed. "Embarrassed, but better."

Damon wrapped his hand tenderly but possessively around the far side of Elena's neck so he could whisper even more softly. "You never need to feel embarrassed with me. Especially about last night."

Elijah, seated on the other side of Elena, raised an eyebrow.

On the plane, Elena leaned her head on Damon's shoulder and actually fell asleep for a few hours, sheer exhaustion beating out her anxiety. Damon took the opportunity to gloat across the aisle in Elijah's direction. "You'll see, Salvatore," Elijah crooned. "Good things come to those who wait."

Elijah had a small limousine waiting for them. "This way, Mr. Mikaelson." Elijah wrapped an arm around Elena's shoulders. Elena didn't resist, but took Damon's hand and squeezed, pulling him along as he reluctantly followed. The ride to Mystic Falls was deathly quiet. They pulled up to the boarding house right behind Bonnie's car; Caroline's was already parked close to the front door.

Lucy opened Bonnie's passenger door and Elijah was beside her immediately, helping her out of the car with a gentlemanly hand and thanking her for coming on such short notice. Bonnie mouthed "Are you okay?" to Elena across the driveway, to which Damon barked, "She's bait, how do you think she is?"

Elena shushed him. "Don't take it out on her. None of this is her fault."

The sting of blame from last night echoed in his ears – his fault. But then she took his hand again and squeezed, and her beautiful brown eyes repeated again her wordless entreaty: trust me.

Damon nodded, squinting flirtatiously to lighten her mood. But the gesture came out hollow. They both knew what was coming: the hurried discussion and execution of a plan, an unpredictable showdown with Klaus… and, to start it off, their fraught reunion with Stefan.

Caroline opened the door and squealed at the sight of Elena, tugging her away from Damon and drawing her into a tight hug. She ushered everyone into the house with a bubbly hospitality that wasn't hers to offer. Inside stood Tyler, Ric, and behind them, facing the fire, Stefan.

Damon knew Elena needed to greet his brother. He knew Stefan needed to hold her. There was no ignoring how much they had missed each other. He forced himself to linger by the door, rifling through junk mail, making it painfully obvious he was not paying attention, so that Elena could go to him. But he heard Stefan's voice, and as soon as she took a few steps in that direction, Damon had to watch.

Elena's body relaxed as she approached Stefan. He opened his arms, wary but somehow still hopeful, and she pressed herself against him. Damon took a slow, steady breath, bracing for the inevitable. She held Stefan in a long embrace, her heartbeat slowing. Damon heard the quiet hum of Stefan's relief, and hers too. Are you okay? I missed you. Me too. Stefan pulled back to look into her eyes and Damon froze, chiding himself for watching this but unable to tear his eyes away. Elena nodded, Stefan smiled, and then she kissed him. Damon swallowed, wanting desperately to look away, or interrupt, but he couldn't. His Elena, finally his after so long, kissing his brother. His heart felt like ice.

He had lied to Stefan. It never got easier. And now it was a thousand times harder. Now that he knew what she was giving him.

The planning went easily – too easily. Bonnie and Lucy were ready to follow Elijah's instructions and only needed a few last ingredients to do their desiccation spell. Caroline and Tyler were excited to help, although Damon was still not certain Tyler had really broken his sire bond. Why wasn't everyone more concerned about that? He filed that away for when he worked out his own supporting, fix-everything-in-the-nick-of-time plan. Elena argued against letting Ric and Jeremy help, for their own safety, but they were adamant. Caroline and Bonnie assured everyone that Ric could be trusted, and that his control over his psychotic alter ego was strengthening steadily, so that now he could suppress it when he felt it begin to overtake him. Of course, this meant they still hadn't found the missing white oak stake, but they were no longer worried that Ric would snap and use it against them. Stefan brooded and nodded uselessly. Elena couldn't look Damon in the eye as she agreed to be handed over to Klaus, just for a split second, so his guard would be down. Then the rest of the gang, including Elijah and Rebekah (who Elijah had to vouch for, since she was nowhere to be found), would grab him. Bonnie and Lucy would do the spell (very quickly, Damon reminded them), that would literally suck all of the moisture from his body until he was nothing but a crisp shell. Tyler was happy to donate chains to the effort, and a hint of a smile crossed Elijah's face when he volunteered an empty coffin.

The only argument came when Elijah insisted he and Rebekah would bring Klaus with them when they left town. Damon couldn't keep quiet about that. "No, no, no, not a chance. You'll just reconstitute Powder Klaus in a fit of brotherly love and we'll have to start all over again. Nope," he argued, "Klaus stays here, with us."

Elijah bristled. "Despite the fact that I have saved your life countless times, and despite the fact that your" - he glanced at Stefan, choosing his words for maximum impact – "beloved Elena trusts me, you continue to demonstrate a disturbing lack of faith. Be smart, Damon. Why would I go to the trouble of tracking you down and enlisting Lucy's help if I didn't intend the solution to be final?"

Elena, who had been seated alone in the center of the large sofa, crossed the room to stand beside Damon. She wrapped her hand around his elbow and his eyes darted almost apologetically to Stefan, who looked away. If they managed to get through this unscathed, they would have to figure this out. "It's in Damon's best interest to keep Klaus safe," Elena began, "just as much as yours. He would never risk wiping out his bloodline with some rash act. But unlike you, Elijah, everyone here is invested in keeping Klaus contained. Trust goes both ways. Unless you trust us to keep him entombed, we won't cooperate with you on this. We'll come up with some other way to remove the threat he holds over us, one you might not endorse." She held his gaze, her head held high.

Damon was impressed.

Elijah was silent as he swirled bourbon in his crystal glass. He turned his eyes to the fireplace and Damon could almost hear the swirl of scheming in his mind. There was no way he was going through with this plan without a safeguard at each step. He couldn't risk it. Not again.

"Agreed," Elijah said. "Midnight."

That gave them two hours. The plan was in motion.

Caroline and Tyler left with Jeremy and Ric to collect the chains and prepare the cave. Elijah left to get Rebekah. Bonnie and Lucy left to find a few supplies and set up for the spell. Elena, Stefan, and Damon were alone.

The first element of the plan was to draw Klaus out. Elena texted Klaus: Tired of running, got away. Pick me up at Tyler's cave, midnight. We can leave tonight if you promise not to harm the people I love. Damon's eyes widened at the obvious set up, sure she had given them all away, but moments later, Klaus texted back: It's a deal, darling. She read it out loud, eyelids heavy, no hint of pride at her small victory, and dropped her phone on the couch. "I need a shower." She shook her head and padded up the stairs. Damon heard her open his door – it didn't creak like Stefan's – and go inside. He smirked at Stefan.

"Are you honestly gloating about this?" Stefan asked, his voice low.

Damon didn't want to admit how broken and upset his brother appeared. He wanted to rail at him for not backing him up himself, for not coming up with anything better than this terrible plan, for letting Elena kiss him right in front of him, again. Stefan's ache was palpable, but he was too fired up to back down. "The shower is a metaphor. Read a book," Damon mocked.

"Dammit, I don't care about which shower she chose," Stefan spat back at him.

He was a live wire, clearly. But Damon wasn't willing to tread lightly. There was too much hurt to repay. "Then what is your problem?"

Stefan turned away to refill his glass. "This plan sucks."

"No thanks to you. You didn't say a word the whole time."

Stefan whirled around, brimming with accusation. "Because I have no idea what to do!"

Damon easily matched his intensity. "Run! We could all run!"

"Forever?" Stefan turned away again, draining his glass in one long gulp.

Damon paced. He was just getting going. This was the conversation he had hoped to have with the rest of the gang. "Okay, or, and I know this is maybe a little too much for you to contemplate, but how about getting our stake back from Ric?"

"As you are well aware, brother," Stefan droned patronizingly, "using it would kill us if Klaus started our bloodline, and we don't know who did."

"But doesn't Jeremy talk to dead people, like the kind who know things about exactly this?"

Stefan's smile was sad and defeated. Damon detected a hint of blame that he had left Stefan to take care of all of this on his own. "He tried to find Rose, but he couldn't contact her."

Damon took a breath. He remembered the beautiful hill from her dream that last day. The warm sun. The clean smell of grass. Of course she had found peace on the other side. He had seen to it. "So that's it?"

Stefan stared into the flames. "That's it."

"Then we have to protect Elena. She can't go." He imagined seeing a last glimpse of her as Klaus whisked her away into the dark. He cringed at the stabbing pain of knowing he would never be able to find her or save her.

"Klaus will take her then for sure. He's been threatening to since you left. You're lucky Rebekah convinced him not to go looking for you."

"Dammit, Stefan!" Damon stopped in front of the fire. It was time. He was simply unwilling to leave the best option off the table. "She needs vampire blood. So she can save herself if – when – this doesn't go well. Any element of this could go wrong and she could be dead in an instant. Too fast to stop it."

Stefan sat down in the deep arm chair and tried to drain his already empty glass. "She doesn't want it. Which you already know."

"She doesn't have to want it," Damon growled.

"You're going to force her? Again? After everything that's happened between you two?"

"Yes, especially after everything. I can't lose her. How can you?"

"I respect her decision," Stefan whispered pointedly.

Damon gritted his teeth. Sometimes Saint Stefan took it too far. "It's a shitty decision."

"Doesn't matter. It's what she wants."

"And what about what I want, what you want?" Damon exploded. "Or do you? I mean, you've got about as much fight in you as a hamster. Am I the only one here who loves her?"

"That's cruel."

"It's observant. If you love her, fight for her!" Adrenaline and blood roared in Damon's ears.

Stefan grew maddeningly quiet. "Not about this. This is for her to decide. I won't let you do this to her."

"Why, so you can carve 'Elena Gilbert, Maker of Stupid Decisions' on her tombstone? Christ, Stefan, this is not what love looks like!"

Stefan threw his glass across the room, suddenly enraged. "This is exactly what love looks like, Damon, only you wouldn't recognize it! You're confusing love with lust and control. You just wanted her. It was never about love, admit it. You've never once respected a single decision she's made, or given her the space to be who she needed to be. You've pushed her, taunted her, manipulated her… just like Katherine. You have no idea what love is -"

Damon punched him. It felt good.

"I'm right," Stefan murmured, rubbing his bruised jaw.

It was everything Damon could do not to punch him again, but Stefan was wrong and he needed to tell him so. "You don't know anything about me and Elena. In your wildest nightmares you can't imagine what happened between us while we were gone. What she gave me. What I gave her. What we were for each other. Even if she didn't want to turn, I know she would forgive me. She loves me. And she would see that I did it because I love her."

Damon could see the hurt in Stefan's eyes, even as shook his head at the words. "You're delusional, Damon."

"I will never understand," Damon continued, "how you can let her go. I'll never be able to."

"Because I love her enough to live an entire existence without her if that's what she wants from me," Stefan said.

Damon huffed. "Don't give me that crap. It would kill you if she died tonight. It would kill me."

"I know," Elena said from the top of the stairs. Her hair was dripping wet, leaving dark patches on the shoulders of her shirt. "Stefan will always respect my wishes about this, because of you." Damon watched her as she made her way down the stairs and sat back down in the same spot in the middle of the couch. "He's never turned anyone, never forced anyone to become a vampire. Did you know that? Not since you. He needed you, in that moment, more than he ever had before. He couldn't let you go. It was incredibly selfish of him. You weren't going to transition, not without Katherine, and he couldn't stand the thought of a future without you. So he forced you. He didn't want to lose you. And what did you do? Without a moment's pause to consider why he had done it, you tormented him, hated him, refused to forgive him, for more than a century." She glanced at Stefan, whose face was open and surprised, then at Damon, whose scowl had dissipated a bit. "He learned his lesson."

"Fine, then this doesn't have to have anything to do with him. It's between you and me." Damon's eyes turned dark and pleading as he knelt in front of her. He was willing to take the risk. "You don't have to forgive me. Just as long as you're still alive, Elena."

"Stefan knows how devastating that is. He doesn't want that for you. That's why he won't let you force me either." Elena took Damon's hands in hers, her expression intense and serious. "But you don't have to. I'm ready."

Stefan was at her side in an instant. "No, Elena, don't, I know you don't want this -"

She closed her eyes, smiling faintly. "I'm ready to at least accept that it's a better choice than being a perennial blood bag and danger magnet."

Damon sat beside her, still clutching her hands. Faced with her acquiescence, it was too tragic not to argue. "You don't have to do this."

"I don't want to lose you." She turned to Stefan. "Either of you. I don't know what our future holds, but I can't let you go."

It was the natural prelude to a kiss, but they were paralyzed by the awkwardness and newness of their situation. Elena reached for Stefan's hand and brought it to rest next to Damon's on her lap. Finally, Damon broke the silence with his usual bravado. "Well, since bunnies may not get the job done, Light Roast over here should sit this one out." He wasted no time biting into his wrist.

Stefan was crestfallen. "He's right."

Elena lifted Stefan's wrist up to his mouth. "Both of you. If I die tonight, I want both of you to turn me." She looked back at Damon, who responded with a slow nod. There was no turning back from this if things fell apart tonight. He knew that their bond, even without any siring effect, would be fully equal. The triangle would be inescapable, as long as the three of them lived. But despite what Stefan had said about the way he loved her, despite how desperately he wished to have her entirely to himself, Damon wanted to give her what she needed right now. And the rest they would leave to the future.

As Stefan let his fangs sink into his skin, she took Damon's wrist in her mouth, sucking at the warm, thick blood. Her eyes closed, but his didn't. He watched her, memorizing this moment. He had imagined it, imagined her choosing him – albeit without Stefan sitting beside her - since they had danced together in the sun only a year before. It felt like a lifetime. The fire brightened her olive skin and cast spidery shadows where her eyelashes almost met her cheeks. In his mind, he vowed to be whatever she needed for as long as she allowed him to try. Longer.

She pulled away, her mouth coated in a thin layer of red, and smiled at Damon before closing her eyes and bringing Stefan's wrist to her lips. Stefan didn't watch her. He locked eyes with Damon instead.

(A/N: Sometimes stories take you in directions you don't expect. This one may go in a very strange direction soon. Not sure. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this triangle, Elena turning or not... there's much to be discussed. Thank you all for the reviews, favorites, and alerts - and for reading!)