Welcome back! I'm sorry about the missing week, I've had a huge project on at work and put in the words of a Yorkshire girl, "I'm bloody knackered."
That does mean another short chapter, but I'm finally finding more time to write.
Thank you for the lovely comments and reviews. I've loved bouncing ideas off people and hearing the reactions to the pregnancy reveal.
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Elena hadn't meant to let her hand idly rest on her stomach as she sat in Liz's office. Realising it had drifted there of its own accord, she darted her hand into her pocket, fiddling with a receipt that could well be weeks old. Anything to keep her fingers occupied.
"I'm sure you can understand why we need the watch, Elena." Liz pushed again.
It wasn't the first time the council had asked for the watch, but they had been more insistent in the past few weeks. The attacks hadn't abated this time, each one driving her anxiety higher. The last body had been left outside of her staff exit.
Elena was now leaving work with a vervain syringe in one hand and a stake up the other sleeve.
The pocket watch was the council's way of identifying the vampire, finding him, eradicating him. More fool them. Whoever this vampire was, Elena was sure not a single council member would survive finding him.
He'd been leaving her notes, texts, voicemails. Each time a different number, a different victim. He called her 'my love', 'beauty'. He kept appearing in the periphery of her vision, blurring out, escaping into the nothingness before she could focus. She was being hunted down; and she could only hope that he wanted her only as prey.
It was the latest message that had pushed her past the brink. She'd been so confident that she could handle this that she hadn't even told Tyler, Zach or Damon. It wasn't the postcard itself, or the almost romantic message. She'd been terrified by the fact it had been left on her bedside table.
He'd been invited in.
Her brain hadn't engaged, hadn't functioned, she'd just found herself in front of the police station. Perhaps Liz would know what to do?
The sheriff had assumed it was a social call; greeting Elena as she often did and hurrying her into the office for coffee. Caroline was not a great communicator, especially not with her mother. As such, Elena had visited Liz a few times when Caroline was out of town to update her on Caroline's location or health. They had exchanged opinions on the new boyfriend, Nicholas, before Liz had directed the discussion back to the compass.
"Jeremy has the pocket watch, I'll ask him to bring it when he comes back for his birthday next week." Elena acquiesced, her lips rising at the corners, before attempting to sip her coffee. She now shuddered at the roll of nausea every time her favourite smell reached her nose. She was already limiting herself to one cup a day of her favourite beverage and hated to consider life without coffee.
She'd have to warn Damon about the compass, but what else could she do?
He was out there.
The first few hours of her shift sailed by uneventfully. If you didn't count having to empty the contents of your stomach every time you tried to sip your juice as eventful, that is. She'd been on high alert the entire shift, flinching at every movement in the aisles, despite the sun glaring through the windows.
A rustle of air bristled the hairs on the back of her neck. He couldn't be here, she tried to reassure herself to no avail.
The shelves spun around her as her head whipped around to search out the source of the movement, every nerve on high alert as her instincts sang to her.
The girl standing at the end of the aisle, smiling sheepishly, was the only potential source of movement. Her features looked familiar as Elena scanned her memories for where she knew the girl from.
She was too young to have gone to school with them. Perhaps, she had been in the grill? It wasn't uncommon for high school students to hang out there- Elena herself had after all.
The girl was still in the aisle. Elena suspected that she was only pretending to be so interested in hair removal creams. She was holding herself with too much confidence for a teenage girl browsing such products.
The ring on her finger caught the light as the girl reached for a tube.
"Anna Zhu!" Elena gasped, unable to control her own voice as the face clicked into place amongst her memories.
She'd only seen the sketches before, the beautiful artwork her ancestor had produced detailing Anna and her mother Pearl. He had mourned them both, the family he had hoped to call his own.
Her heartbeat was catching in her throat as she pulled her hand over her mouth, wishing she could stifle the sound- push the words back in. There was no way that the vampire hadn't heard her.
As her eyes flashed to the storeroom door, she considered if she could make it to her bag and the vervain syringe. She should have known better than to rely on the barrier of sunlight. She was acutely aware of the movement of her ribs, the deep breaths shuddering through her as the vampire turned to her.
Turned to her and smiled.
"Hi," Anna offered as a soft greeting, "I'm sorry if I startled you."
It was as if her customer service instincts took over, or perhaps the hospitality that had been trained into her from a young age. She shook her head dismissing the apology.
"My fault." Elena offered, her voice sounding far more comfortable than she felt. Her hand offered itself to Anna.
The vampire shook her hand awkwardly, her grip lighter than Elena expected. She could practically feel her skin trembling under the touch.
"I've had vervain." She suddenly felt the need to splutter the words out, straightening her spine as she did. She needed to stop acting like a little, scared kid and get a hold of herself. She'd dealt with vampires before.
She'd taken a vampire to bed.
She was Elena Gilbert and she wasn't going to be petrified by a teenage vampire in broad daylight, in her place of work.
Taking a deep breath, she added to her comment, "So you should probably try somebody else if you want a snack." The smirk that followed her words was reminiscent of her cheerleading days.
The girl snorted, a wide grin hitting her face. Her eyes flicked up and down Elena's body, a gesture eerily familiar to the way Damon gazed at her when he thought she wasn't looking. It was as if she was assessing the meal.
"I prefer blondes." Anna winked at her, with a giggle. "Besides, I'm not here for… that." She lavished attention on that last word, the very tone of it suggestive. Elena was left unsure if they were discussing blood or sex, getting the feeling that they were one and the same to the girl in front of her.
Was that how Damon felt?
She briefly wondered if the suggestive notes were from Anna, but her mischievous flirting was so brazen that she had to dismiss the thought. No, he was more subtle.
Elena simply raised an eyebrow, her arms folding in front of her as she left the question unspoken.
"What do you know about my mother?" Anna asked in return.
With a frown, Elena weighed her options. She could be truthful, perhaps getting some answers out of Anna. Or, she could refuse. What is Anna was working with him?
The sparkle of hope in Anna's eyes caught her. There was pain there; it wasn't hidden well, but the hope was so bright that Elena couldn't help but feel her heart reach out to the young face.
"Pearl worked in Mystic Falls, and courted my ancestor, Jonathan Gilbert. She was killed, burnt at Fell's church, when the council rounded up the vampires." She said, softly, as if she were breaking the news for the first time.
Anna nodded in approval, adding in a whisper, "Almost correct."
"Almost?"
"She didn't die."
The poor girl was hoping to find proof her mother was alive. Elena knew the pain that led down that road, the denial. Had she been grieving for the better part of two centuries, never moving past that stage?
What had Damon said about the tomb? Katherine was there, desiccating, because Emily had saved her. He hadn't mentioned the other vampires.
Was it possible?
"The tomb." She whispered, praying Anna would deny it. There were easily two dozen vampires that were supposed to be killed that night.
Her heart sank as Anna nodded, "I want to open it and I need your help."
She shook her head, stepping backwards, "No." There was no way she was going to let a horde of vampires descend on her town. One was bad enough.
Anna met her eye, "She is my mum. Wouldn't you want to help yours?"
By the end of her shift, Elena still hadn't figured out if she'd made the right decision. She'd avoided promising anything, but the act of giving Anna her phone number had given the girl hope. Even she had to admit to herself that she was probably going to help.
It was the eyes. She couldn't resist the hope she saw in her eyes.
Didn't everyone need a little hope?
Instinctively, her hand shielded her stomach again. The small amount of hope she held fluttered there, causing her stomach to roll again as she tried once again to drink her juice. She was going to have to find a new way to ingest vervain if this kept happening.
Checking her pockets for the syringe, and her bag for the stake, Elena let herself out of the staff entrance. Before the accident, she had rarely walked the few blocks home. The few times she had chosen to take the stroll, she had done so with earphones. Walking with music always made her feel alive, the songs connecting her surroundings to her memories. Now, she walked in silence, ears alert to the sound of the street.
She flicked her eyes to the sky in a prayer as she heard his footsteps. A less melodramatic vampire wouldn't have given her the warning, but he did.
Without turning, she knew he was following her. He would be wearing the black hoody he always did.
He'd never been this close before.
She moved without thought, her limbs directing her as she sunk the vervain syringe in his neck.
He fell, right there, on the sidewalk.
Fumbling for her cell, she called the only person that still made her feel safe. When she spoke, explaining what had happened, the words fell out of her mouth as such a pace that they concatenated into a meaningless string of sounds. Luckily, he found her regardless.
"You couldn't have dragged him into the alley?" Damon complained when he arrived moments later.
"Do I look like Buffy?" She said, the snap in her voice slightly harsher than she intended it to be.
He didn't flinch, instead letting his eyes take in the sight of her as he picked up the dead weight by her feet.
"Maybe if you went blonde." He shrugged his shoulders, the playful smirk he almost perpetually wore brightening his features.
"So," he continued, throwing her assailant into his trunk, "any idea who this is?"
She shook her head. She didn't, not really. She knew so much about him; what he wore, his smell, the things he wanted to do to her.
She didn't know his name.
"He's been following me, since before the accident." She revealed quietly, as if the volume would prevent his vampiric hearing from catching her words.
She watched the man in front of her stiffen. As his shoulders squared and his face set, he transformed in front of her. She'd seen the hulk in the movies, and her mind wandered back there. He wasn't turning green or letting his fangs out, but he was clearly a predator.
How much of himself must he hold back, around feeble humans like herself?
The anger was radiating off him, the air palpable with the haze of it. She winced as he opened his mouth to speak before shaking his head and thinking better of it. He attempted a few more times, before demanding she get in the car with an almost bark.
Trees whizzed by at an almost unfathomable speed as he took them to the boarding house. She'd realised where they were heading when he turned out of town, and her heartbeat hadn't steadied since.
Facing an unknown vampire assailant had left her feeling calmer than she was now. Zach would inevitably be at the boarding house.
Zach Salvatore, the man she would forever be tied to. She'd been avoiding him since their last encounter, using Tyler to make excuses for her at the council meetings despite their urgency. It hadn't been long, not even two weeks, but it felt like a lifetime had passed since the last time her eyes had met his.
She'd been in a whirlpool then, drowning in the knowledge of her life was going to change. Now she was free-floating, accepting the fact that she was unable to control the direction she was moving. It was freeing, to let herself hover.
Soon, she would have to dive in.
The town was too small to be able to keep a pregnancy from him, a child. Plus, what right did she have to do that?
He hadn't been perfect, but neither had she. She'd chosen to listen to his suggestions, to make herself unhappy by keeping it a secret. If she had been braver, then perhaps their life would have turned in another direction. With the support of her friends, they could have weathered the storms.
It could have been true love.
She had to tell him that they were now inexorably linked. It might be that was what they needed to pull them out of the shadows, to pull them back to that place they had once been. The lightness, happiness, that had once consumed her when she thought of him.
The other option was too hard to contemplate. She was sure he wouldn't treat a child the way he had treated her, with the derision she had seen on his face. He wouldn't sneer at his own flesh and blood, belittle them, or ridicule them.
Would he?
The squeal of brakes drew her back to reality as Damon swung his car around the boarding house drive. He really was driving like a man possessed.
"Stay," he bit, as he flung open the door and trunk before disappearing faster than her eyes could track.
She indulged herself in an opulent eye roll at his command. She wondered how many Salvatores would treat her like a dog, a pet, someone they could force to obey them. Hopefully, the youngest never would.
Damon returned moments later, a frown upon his face as he opened her car door.
Before she could exit, her legs swinging to touch the ground, he was on his knees before her, inspecting her. His hands reached up to cup her face.
She was about to launch a full-frontal verbal assault, her tongue laced with cutting insults in response to his treatment of her. She didn't need any more misogynistic pricks bossing her around, making her feel small and worthless.
His face caused her to pause.
He wasn't bossing her around because he could. He was terrified.
"Why didn't you tell me?" He begged to know.
She shrugged, pretending she didn't care. "I had other things to think about."
He swallowed, nodding, as his eyes settled on her stomach. His hands were still on her face, his thumb rubbing against her cheek. The moment was soft, perfectly intimate. She felt herself wishing, for a moment, that the Salvatore knelt before her so humbly was the one that could reproduce.
"I was trying to give you space to decide." He said carefully, his eyes not meeting hers, "but I would have been there. I would have helped."
She nodded, the next word coming without her consent, "Why?"
Something about her question had shaken him from the moment, his eyes glazing over as they shot back to hers. He had stood, stepped back, pulling away physically only a short distance but emotionally it felt like a mile.
As she had watched his transformation from flirt to monster, she now watched his shields grow around him as his eyes dulled. She wondered which side of Damon was the true one, the one she could trust in.
Fury welled in her, as she stood out of the car and glared at him. The question had been easy enough.
He could have told her it was out of friendship. Hell, he could have said it was out of family loyalty as she was technically carrying his family- however distantly removed. He could have simply shrugged and told her he was bored.
Instead, he did this.
He did the same damn thing Zach did when she'd mentioned any kind of emotion. She wasn't falling for that trick again.
"Why?" She demanded once more, stepping towards him.
"I don't know." He grumbled.
"Why?"
He shrugged, this time daring to raise an eyebrow at her and send her his magnificent smirk.
If she hadn't been running on enough adrenaline to fuel an army, she might have responded. Her knees might have weakened, her resolve softening at his lips. As it was, it just stoked her anger. She could see the smirk for the shield it was.
"Why?"
He shook his head, but she was closer now and she reached out to touch his face.
"Why?"
"Because I give a damn about you, Elena. I don't want you to die." His voice was exasperated, as if the thought of not wanting somebody to die was overwhelming to him.
She simply watched, her hand still cupping his jaw as she watched the myriad of emotions flick across his eyes.
"You made me care," he whispered, before disappearing inside.
She didn't give a passing thought to the other resident of the boarding house as she followed Damon inside, calling his name.