Appreciation: Hi all. Thank you to those who continue to favourite, review and all the lovely support for this story. Individually- Encarasmith, I hope you haven't jinxed me! LOL! I'd hate for this to go down hill after you've said it's the best EE you've read.

I hope that the first person point of view doesn't become annoying with the I's and such. At some point I may switch to Elijah. But I'm hoping to continue with Elena's point of view. Her struggle is part of this. Shall see what happens.

Thanks again everyone!

CHAP 7:

When I roused the next morning my first thought was that the floor wasn't uncomfortable at all. Arching my back, to stretch away the tension in my body I felt a bit restricted. Like I'd rolled around during the night and the blankets had gathered around me. Holding the stretch, my front came into contact with something firm and the bridge of my nose met with something soft. Side of the bed. I thought, sighing contently. Unbelievably happy just to be warm. It took a matter of minutes for me to realise that the bedclothes weren't gathered around me. There was weight in whatever encapsulated my waist. The feeling was so foreign. My eyes closed I titled my head as if my sleepiness hampered my thought processes, as I tried to figure out what was around me. Just when I'd reached a logical conclusion as to what it was, it moved. Shifting around my waist before being joined by a gentle stroke downwards along my spine. Smiling I shivered at the contact, my back curving away from the sensation brought the front of my body into contact with the side of the bed again. Nestling into it more, my nose was reacquainted with the softness again. I found it odd that the side of the bed was so warm. The oddness morphed into alarm when I realised a gentle warm breeze blew onto my face at regular intervals. Connecting my sleepy thoughts with my body I sensed one of my arms strewn out over something firm and warm which moved softly. Rhythmically. Felt that before. Opening one eye I peeked out to see what my morning had brought me.

Elijah. I was met with his lips against the bridge of my nose, and my eyes took in the strong out line of his jaw. Elijah! My closed eye shot open and both widened in shock. I reined control of my arm that had found it's way beneath his shirt. Again? And shot backwards pushing away from him as quickly as I could. Oh my god, what did he do? I thought in horror. Why did I go to sleep? I should have stayed awake! Who knows what he's done while I was sleeping? Horrific thoughts raced through my mind. The only comfort I felt was that I hoped that if he had done anything to me, that I would have woken up because of it. My legs were tangled, but I kept moving away from him. It dawned on me that our legs were tangled. Eyes wide I'd managed to move nearly a metre away, before the bed fell out from under me and I landed with a thump on the floor. Elijah's deep chuckle filled the room. After a quick check of what I was wearing. I found myself to be as fully clothed as I was when I went to sleep. Thank god for small miracles. It seemed unlikely that he would re-dress me if he'd done anything to me. But clothes wouldn't stop him roaming my body with his hands. I pulled the draping bed covers over me again and huffed silently. I needed to keep my distance.

The bed moved and Elijah peered over the edge to look down at me, his chuckle softer and nearly dying away. But his eyes were shining with laughter.

"Good morning, my love." He said it in the most raw and lacking in composure I had heard him speak yet. His sleepiness and humoured state obviously having an affect on him. Scowling I looked up at him, his face a mixture of humour and doting affection. I didn't let the affection sway me.

"What the hell are you playing at?" I seethed

"Not a good morning then?" He said, switching to a diplomatic air.

"No. It is not. Because I'm here. With you. And you took it upon yourself to get far too close during the night!"

"Relax." that just made me explode in anger.

"Relax? How can I damn relax, when you moved me into your bed, when it's very obvious that I don't want to be close to you! And god knows what you did while I was asleep. You sick, twisted-."

"Elena. He said sharply. His features had become blank, then shifted to a frozen cold look. Appearing similar to how he had the previous day, when I'd purposely annoyed him as he tried to tell me that I was not to keep my distance. The thought of his hand on my leg during that conversation was brought to mind. I had no idea why, and I batted it away. It was a restraining hand-leg situation. Not a romantic one. Why did it matter? Despite the explanation he gave at the time about his emotional instability, I froze. Though his features were hard, his eyes told me that my accusations had struck a nerve. Perhaps a few. I couldn't help but look at him in awe. He looked hurt, and a little bit ashamed. His eyes became hooded when he noticed I was staring at him. Effectively shutting me out. "My intentions are only honourable." He began, cool and collected. "I would never-." He chose his words carefully. "Never force myself on you in that way." emphasising that. Looking at him dubiously I wanted to believe him. For my own sake. I felt that he was being honest. I felt it so deeply it scared me. But how would I know unless, or until something happened. "I thought the impression I was giving you, was that of respect. I have enforced you to remain here. However, nothing about this situation has been sexual. Excepting what happened in Mystic Falls before we left. It was obvious from your reactions to our intimacy that you weren't comfortable with the thought of it. I won't force you. I moved you into the bed once you were asleep because I wanted you to be comfortable. I don't mean to transfer any of the blame you're so eager to offload." He paused, smiling gently. "But it was you who turned and snuggled into me. I was hardly going to push you away." Phew. I hoped he was being truthful. Though I didn't like the fact that I'd snuggled into him. I knew for sure that I had. While awake I had thought I was snuggling into the side of the bed. It put me a little at ease. Instead of continuing aggressively I turned things back a notch. Finding it odd that I should feel the need to be considerate.

"When you give me clothes like you have. Your intentions can easily be miscommunicated. You've already gone on about how you feel about me. How am I to know you wont just take what you can from me?"

"I chose the clothes because of their functionality overall. The fact that they are lingerie really wasn't a choice made by any consideration for you to be giving your body to me. Making love to you without any connection has no appeal for me." Why do I feel insulted? He paused and one of his eyebrows rose in interest, and I realised that my expression must be giving away the insult I felt. His voice deepened and became seductive. "Aside from the pleasure." I scoffed. He cast his interest aside. And his voice became normal again. "If you won't connect with me on a basic level prior." I just looked at him baffled. Words escaped me. And yet Elijah waited patiently, not giving me the chance to look away and defy him. I swallowed, and found my voice. The intensity in his otherwise patient gaze was heavy.

"From my side of this. I can't give you the benefit of the doubt. That you are innocent until proven guilty. To me, you are guilty until proven otherwise. I can't not be suspicious about anything you do. I'm not sorry for that. But I can appreciate what you're saying." I concluded.

"And I can understand and respect that." The intensity that had settled over our conversation lifted, and Elijah smiled down at me. I couldn't help but smile back gently.

"Can you let me out now please?"

"Certainly." He removed the key from around his neck and gave it to me. I couldn't help the feeling of having some control in this situation, despite only being because I could set myself free form the room.

"Thank you." I smiled. Getting up off the floor and heading straight to the door. It was amazing how happy I felt when the door was open. I turned back to face Elijah. Lazily ling in the bed still his hair ruffled and a content look on his face. "Where do you want the key?"

"You can leave it on those draws." I did so and left the room.

I went directly to the kitchen bench and grabbed one of the stools. It seemed the opportune moment to test the windows. Standing at the wall of glass in the lounge area I wondered if any particular location would be guaranteed to break. After a few moments in thought I supposed it wasn't a detail that mattered. It was all glass, there shouldn't be a more weaker patch of it. Plus I had to get this over and done with before Elijah could stop me again. Adjusting my stance so that I was slightly turned from the window to my left. I took hold of the bottom two legs and swung with as much strength as I could muster towards the glass. The metal stool collided with the glass sounding a loud clang and bounced off it. The force of impact shuddered down the legs and into my hands causing me to loose my grip. Metal collided with the tiles and produced an explosive clatter within the silence of the house. I didn't care, I was focused on the window. The undamaged window. There wasn't a crack, or even a chip evident. Picking up the stool again I repeated the process.

But the stool never collided with the glass. Instead, it's impacted Elijah's torso, who had appeared between the approaching stool and window. Practically out of nowhere. I felt the give in his body as the chair struck him. I heard the multiple cracks in his rib cage, and the grunt the pain forced from him. Pain which was evident in every line of his face, and the sharpness of his eyes.

"Oh my god!" I cried releasing the stool as soon as it collided with him and it clattered to the floor once again. Wheezing, Elijah leaned back against the glass. "Are you alright?" I asked worriedly. Closing the space between us. What have I done? "Elijah?" My eyes went wide as I saw the blood seeping into his shirt. His chest was heaving violently. It didn't look like he was inhaling though. Flustered I didn't know what to do. My mind raced. Do I give him first aid? Before I'd chosen a method of action, he bent his knees and slid down the wall until he was sat on the floor. He then turned onto his side and shifted so that he lay on his back, parallel with the wall of glass. His chest continued to heave and it looked as though he was taking breaths some of the time. I didn't know how much air he was getting, but from the wheezing each breath had to be torture. He seemed settled on his back so I moved in and lifted his shirt to see the damage. Feeling anxious. Did I really want to see? Lifting the shirt I was met with a deep gash, where the edge of the seat on the stool must have dug in, but I wasn't really focused on that. The left side of the his rib cage looked odd. As if it was crumpled. You could see there was bone beneath the skin, but it wasn't in the appropriate lines that ran around the side to join onto the sternum. Ignoring the presence of floating ribs because I was unsure what normal was for them. I surveyed his whole ribcage. The whole lower section of his left ribcage looked sunken in. I gently touched the abnormal area and the bone beneath the surface moved beneath the slightest bit of pressure. I recoiled my hand at Elijah's groan. I didn't want to hurt him more. Down on all fours I leaned over him with my arms either side of his body so I could look into his eyes. "Elijah? What do I do? What do you need?" I asked fearful for him. A gurgling came from his mouth.

He mouthed something but the movement of his lips was confused by his strained facial features. I went back to his sunken rib cage, it looked different to when I'd last seen it. Placing my fingers where I had before, the bone didn't move, nor did Elijah groan again. Weird. Before my eyes the next rib rose up out of where it had sunk and appeared to lock back in place. I tested the recently healed bone and it seemed as it should. I placed my palm over the remaining sunken area, disregarding the blood. He's healing. I looked on in wonder as the rest of his sunken rib cage rose out of the hollow to meet the palm of my hand and fixed into place. It was amazing. Elijah had stopped wheezing and his chest rose and fell more, so I knew he was breathing better. After the last of his rib cage healed his skin healed over. Mouth open I just stared at the site of the gash. All that remained was a slight scar, but it was for all intensive purposes gone. I heard and felt Elijah cough a few times. The sound similar to that of a chesty cough. I looked to his face and he was watching me.

"You have a habit of touching my chest Miss Gilbert." He whispered, smiling softly and broke out into a coughing fit. I didn't know what to do as he continued to cough and splutter. He unsuccessfully moved as if to turn towards me onto his side, but his body shook and couldn't follow through the movement. I placed a hand on his shoulder and lower back and pulled him towards me. Helping him onto his side where he managed to take a deep rattly breath before another fit took over. I didn't know what to do as the assault on his body continued. Each expel of air showered my legs with blood spatter. All I could think of was that at least one of his lungs must have been punctured and had now healed, but there was still blood sitting in them. Lowering myself down to rest the side of my head on the tiles , my head became level with his own.

Blood sprayed on my face, but I kept my resolve. I had to help him. Somehow. I looked at him, trying to get his attention.

"Elijah? What's going on?" Came my fearful voice. "What can I do?"

"Blood." He managed. Immediately I guided my hair to fall to the right side of my neck, before moving closer to offer him my neck. He shook his head sharply. What? My blood isn't good enough for you? I thought confused. "In the fridge." He clarified. Oh. Leaving him I rushed over to the fridge. I didn't know how much he'd need so I took as much as I could carry. When I reached him he was on all fours spraying bits of blood onto the tiles with each choking breath. He sounded as if his lungs were clearing. I put all the blood bags down on the tiles and kept one in my hand. Looking at it. I found myself unsure of how to open it. I really needed a knife to cut one of the tubes beneath their seal. But I didn't want to leave Elijah again. Instinctively I bit down on one of the tubes and gave a strong tug away from my mouth. It took two two tries, but I made an opening and some blood spurted out onto my collar bone. Eww. I held the blood bag down near Elijah's head for when he was ready. He was still hacking up blood and I didn't know what else to do. Hesitantly I moved my arm over his back and moved my hand above the back of his rib cage. At the last moment I stopped, unsure of wether I should or not. I continued on and began thumping Elijah's back. He took the bag of blood from my hand and bit into it. The pressure causing more blood to spray onto me. Not expecting it I flinched, but that was the only time. He downed blood bag after blood bag, devouring them quickly between bursts of coughing. Each time he bit into one, a stream of blood would shoot my way. The glass wall didn't fare too well either. He seemed to be coming good so I stopped my thumping. There were only three bags left on the floor.

"Do you want more bags?" When he finished the one he was drinking he replied.

"No. Thank you." Elijah sat up and leaned against the window. The lower half of his face was smeared with blood and his hands were coated rich red. The sight didn't disturb me and I made myself look away so I wouldn't be staring. The next bag he drank from he pierced with one of his teeth and drank through the hole. It was a sign that he was alright. He no longer needed to be so aggressive about feeding. We sat in silence as he finished off the bags of blood. So many thoughts ran wild in my mind.

I felt guilty for having hurt him. He shouldn't have got in the way. I'd never imagined myself to hurt another person like I'd just done. Let alone a vampire. They were supposed to heal quickly, and to be strong and not get injured so easily right? How could I have hurt him so badly? Me, a human? Everything that just happened seemed to go so slowly. But I realised that it probably all happened in about five minutes. Elijah looked me over. As if admiring me. When I raised my eye brows he pursed his lips together. "My apologies." Elijah began before I cut him off.

"What were you doing? Why would you jump between glass and the stool? God Elijah. I hurt you! I never thought I'd hurt someone so badly. How could you do that? Why was I able to hurt you? You're a vampire. You're not supposed to break on me! I'm a human and this just happened. I'm not that strong."

"Elena." He said through a breathy chuckle.

"What?"

"Let me speak."

"Oh."

"I'm sorry for putting you through that-."

"You're sorry? Why did you jump in front of the glass in the first place?" I exclaimed.

"Will you let me speak?" I quietened down, a little embarrassed but not sure why. "Anyone would think you were worried about me." He smiled appreciatively.

"I-." I started before he shushed me with a look.

"I wasn't going to stop you by grabbing hold of the stool once you'd started to swing it. The force you put into it would surely rip your arm out of it's socket if I did. Being a vampire I just figured I'd take the impact and grab the stool then. Hopefully saving it from any damage."

"Being a vampire, you shouldn't have been injured so thoroughly by a human. And I think you can put your own safety in front of a stool." I pointed out bluntly.

"No. But that's because I haven't drunk the enough blood since you woke yesterday. " I looked at him and considered this.

"You drank at dinner."

"Yes. But I need a lot more than that if my vampire abilities are to be at their best. I have an originally human body. A vampire's bones still break, and we can suffer all the injuries a human can. However healing is often instant due to our blood. As you saw, I healed fast in comparison to a human. But by vampire standards I healed slowly.

"How much blood do you need?"

"The human body depending on size and gender contains about five litres of blood. So to function at a vampire standard I need that amount. But we can live on less than that. One litre and below, but our abilities will be reduced. I didn't know how you felt about me drinking blood around you until I did so last night. But even so, I didn't want to over do it. It's not exactly the norm for you."

"Neither is my current surroundings, predicament or company."

"True."

"So, if you'd have kept your blood intake at the right level, you wouldn't have been hurt so easily? And you would have healed quicker?"

"Yes. I didn't think you were going to be violent. Or that I'd be subjected to any attacks, so I didn't see the harm in reducing my intake of blood for now."

"Were you aware of what was going to happen when I hit you? "

"Yes."

"So you willingly did so anyway. You Idiot." He chuckled. Glad he's taking all of this so lightly. I gave him a stern look, but couldn't maintain it and ended up smiling a little. He seemed alright with what had just happened. So I supposed I shouldn't dwell on it. He's old enough to know what he should and should not do. "From now on, drink. As much as you want. Who cares if I'm not completely fine with it. Though like I said last night, I'm not bothered by it. And you can probably get into the habit of putting yourself before a piece of furniture in the future. You could have waited until I was bringing the stool away from the window for another swing at it."

"Yes, but if I can avoid replacing one of Michael's designer furnishings then I will. While I've had time to accumulate great wealth, I didn't do so to give money to eccentric allies."

"So are you alright now?"

"Yes." He said with certainty. "Thank you. That couldn't have been easy, staying with me just now."

"What can I say? It was simple, and yet it wasn't. I was hardly going to run off and leave you to sort yourself out. But at the same time I had no idea what I could possibly do to help. It's just not me not to care."

"No. I don't suppose it is. Still, not everyone can handle having blood sprayed on them."

"I don't know if I'm handling it. I'm just blind sighting myself to what's on me."

"I think you should get cleaned up then." He stood and offered me his hand. I took it and he pulled me up to stand next to him. I tried to ignore the feeling that his hand and mine fit so perfectly together. "Come. I'll show you where your clothes are kept." He released my hand.

"Hang on." I darted over to the kitchen and washed my hands with some dish washing liquid before looking in the pantry. Setting my eyes on a packet of biscuits I opened them and grabbed three to munch on before showering. I was used to eating food as soon as I woke. Not feeding vampires. "Alright." Elijah walked back to the bedroom and I followed. I felt like we were at a truce. At least for the moment.

"Elena?" He queried as I took a bite of a biscuit.

"Yeah?"

"You've got some blood across your mouth." He turned and indicated on himself. "You may want to remove that before eating. It's not to everyone's liking." He finished cheekily. But was doing me a favour.

"Thanks." When he turned to continue to the room I looked for a clean spot on my nighty and met it halfway by bending over, and lifted the hem up to rub at my mouth. Before catching up to him. Elijah stopped in front of the carved drawers and opened the top most draw and turned to me. I gestured at my mouth.

"Gone?" He inspected my lips. Taking far too long.

"Yes." Inside the draw were identically styled nightys to what I was wearing, as well as underwear to match in a variation of colours. There was another black set, navy, maroon, and dark green. All these clothes and non of them cover me up. I thought dully. I've set this draw aside for your things. "Now. You clean yourself up. I'll go clean up my mess." I chuckled a little. To which Elijah raised his eyes brows in question.

"Nothing." He cocked his head to the side as if to say It's not nothing. "You're a house-trained male. They're rare." I smiled coyly. Hoping he wouldn't take my humour the wrong way.

"Indeed I am." He stated proudly.