Elena made her way to the dining room the next morning. She was a bit tired after her late-night talk with Klaus. It had taken her a little time to get back to sleep after that. She had been quite angry at the time, but she was doing better this morning.
When she got to the table, Rebekah and Klaus were there. "Morning, Rebekah, Klaus," she greeted. She meant what she said last night. She needed to find a way to forgive Klaus, and she decided that the first part of that was to try to start getting along with him. She didn't like it, but he was a part of her life now. She had to find a way to make that bearable.
"Morning," Rebekah said.
"Good morning, Elena," Klaus greeted.
Elena helped herself to the array of breakfast foods on the table. She had just started eating when Kol came down. She greeted him good morning and went back to her breakfast.
Elijah was next to make it to the table, wearing his usual suit and tie. He smiled at his siblings before taking his seat.
Elena looked her older brother over for a minute before speaking. "Elijah?"
"Yes, Elena," Elijah asked.
"Do you own a t-shirt?" Elena asked with a smirk.
Both Rebekah and Kol burst out laughing while Klaus grinned. Even Elijah gave a half smile.
"Oh, little sister, you're learning quickly what it means to be a younger sibling," Kol said with a chuckle.
"Elena, I'm glad to see you're becoming comfortable enough to tease your big brother. Just remember that it goes both ways, little one," Elijah said with a smirk.
Elena scowled. "I'm not little."
"You are to me," Elijah said.
Just then, Esther and Finn came into the room, sobering up the rest of the room. "Good morning, my darlings," Esther said.
"Good morning, Mother," the others parroted.
Esther went over to Elena and placed a glass bottle in front of her before sitting next to her. "That's for you, darling. It's to help you with your nightmares."
Elena resisted the urge to scowl. It seemed Finn was up late last night listening as well. "What is it? I've never taken a potion before."
"Consider it more of an herbal supplement. Before modern medicine, herbal supplements were what were used for all ailments. This will merely help clear your mind and keep bad thoughts and memories at a minimum. Take it before you go to bed tonight," Esther said.
"Okay," Elena said, however, she very much doubted she'd take it. She didn't trust anything Esther gave her. She'd rather suffer through nightmares.
"In the future, I'd like you to come to me when you're having problems such as this," Esther said.
Again, that wasn't going to happen. Elena would sooner willingly go to Klaus. She wasn't a fan of his either, but at least he understood what her nightmares were about, and he wasn't responsible for them like Esther was. "Oh, I didn't want to bother anyone. It was late. I didn't even mean for Klaus to hear me."
"It's never a bother, dear. I am your mother. It's my job to be there for you when you need it," Esther said before touching her arm.
To her credit, Elena didn't flinch like she wanted to. "Okay, I'll remember that."
"Good. Now, I'd like to talk with you about your conversation with your brother last night," Esther said.
Elena looked over at Klaus, who looked positively pissed. Apparently, he wasn't a fan of having their private conversation aired for the entire family either.
"Elena, I understand that there is bad blood between you, but the past should stay where it is. I think it would be best for you to try to get along with Niklaus," Esther said.
Elena glared over at Finn. She was no longer able to hold in her ire. "The next time you decide to air a private conversation that doesn't concern you, maybe try airing the entire conversation!"
"Oh, no, I've got a better idea, Elena. How about he just keeps his bloody trap shut before I rip out his tongue?!" Klaus snarled as he glared at Finn.
"That's enough from both of you. Finn has done as I asked. Elena, I know it is frustrating, but I told you that Finn will be reporting to me for now, until you earn some privacy," Esther said.
"First of all, Mother, I fail to see why she should have to earn privacy. Second, I certainly don't need to earn it, especially in my own house! That conversation was my private business as well," Klaus said angrily.
"Niklaus, I believe you and I do have trust issues to work out, don't you? You did murder me. Now, I've forgiven you for that, but trust is another matter," Esther said.
"Oh, I thought we were leaving the past in the past," Klaus said using his mother's words to Elena earlier against her.
"Niklaus," Esther said in a warning tone.
"Okay, I didn't kill anybody," Elena said, directing Esther's attention back to her. "What did I do to lose the right to privacy?"
"You tried to run," Esther told her.
Elena felt herself getting extremely frustrated. She wanted to scream. She hated this woman so much. Of course, she tried to run. Her whole world had been torn apart, and Esther only seemed to want to punish her for it. "I apologized for that. It was a knee-jerk reaction from hearing something I didn't think was possible. I promised I wouldn't do it again."
"And I would like to believe you, darling, but I won't be taking chances for a while. Finn will report to me until further notice," Esther said in a firm tone that booked no room for argument.
Elena was about to lose it when she felt a hand grab onto hers from underneath the table. She turned to the left to see Elijah. His expression was unreadable, but she knew what he was trying to tell her. He wanted her to remain calm.
Elena took a few deep breaths and squeezed her brother's hand before letting go and turning back to Esther. "Fine, but if he's going to be telling you what I say, he should at least tell you everything. I told Klaus last night that I am trying to forgive him. I don't want to hate my own brother. But it's not easy. It's going to take me time to get past what he did. I'm trying though. That's what I said to him."
"I see," Esther said before turning to her oldest son. "Finn, Elena is correct. You need to be clearer in the future."
"My apologies, Mother. I will be sure to tell you everything next time," Finn said.
"It's Elena you should be apologizing to. She's the one you misquoted," Rebekah said.
Esther nodded expectantly at Finn.
"I apologize, Elena. I must have misunderstood," Finn said. It was clear by his voice that he was unhappy about apologizing.
"Yes, that's why you should mind your own business in the future," Klaus grumbled.
"Niklaus," Esther warned.
"May I be excused? I need to get ready for school," Elena told Esther.
"Of course, dear," Esther said.
Elena immediately got up and headed out of the room.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
"I'm going to kill them both!" Klaus roared as he entered Elijah's office. They were alone in the house. Elena and Rebekah were at school, and Finn, Kol, and their mother had all gone out.
"You'll do nothing of the sort," Elijah said. He understood how his brother felt. The ordeal at breakfast had upset him too, but he knew this situation had to be handled delicately.
"This gets worse every day, Elijah," Klaus said.
"I know. I hate it just as much as you do, but we have to handle this the right way. Trying to kill Mother isn't viable. Too much could go wrong. Even if you managed to kill her again, there is every possibility that the Bennett ancestors will be able to bring her back again. We can't risk it. Mother would take Elena and leave. She would have no one to protect her.
"Then we leave, as we talked about," Klaus said.
"Yes, eventually, I think that is our best option, but it comes with complications too. Mother is a powerful witch. She would use magic to find us. We need to find a witch powerful enough to cloak us all from her. However, before we can even do that, we need to gain Mother's trust. Right now, she is waiting for one of us to do something. You didn't help with that this morning," Elijah said.
"You expected me to say nothing as she used our brother to spy on us? That conversation was between me and Elena. It wasn't meant for anyone else!" Klaus snapped. He wasn't an idiot. He knew it was likely that others had heard. Elijah had probably heard it, as Klaus knew he had been awake too, but he hadn't said a word out of respect. That was an unspoken rule in their family. They all heard conversations they weren't supposed to, but they didn't speak of it.
"I don't like it either, Niklaus, but as you noticed, I said nothing. I didn't like it, but I did it because we need to start gaining Mother's trust. We need her to let her guard down," Elijah said. He'd hated saying nothing this morning. He wanted nothing else than to come to his sister's defense, but he was helping her more in the long run by saying nothing and trying to keep her calm instead.
Klaus sighed. "What's your plan exactly?"
"We need to play the long game. We're not going to be able to do anything overnight. It's going to take time to gain Mother's trust. I will start by slowly taking her side during any arguments she has with Elena. You need to as well, although, you may have to take even slower than me, as it would be suspicious if you just suddenly sided with her," Elijah said. He didn't like lying, but he would do what was necessary to help his sister. Right now, his best way to aid her was making his mother think he was on her side.
Klaus huffed in annoyance. He didn't like that plan at all. He was never very good at hiding his feelings, particularly rage and anger.
"I know you don't like it, but it's the best way. If Elena can hide her true feelings to an extent, so can you. In the meantime, we will start preparing to leave Mystic Falls. I will look for a witch and start secretly moving money around. If all goes well, I hope we can leave within a month or two," Elijah told him.
Klaus reluctantly nodded. "Do we tell the others?"
"No. I won't get Elena's hopes up in case something goes wrong. Also, I don't want to risk alerting Mother to what we're doing," Elijah said.
"Finn will need to be daggered before we go, possibly Kol as well," Klaus said. Kol was often a problem the last time they were running. They'd had to dagger him more than once because his activities led their father to them.
Elijah shook his head. "Kol will be fine. The stakes are different this time. He won't put Elena at risk."
"Alright. We'll do it your way," Klaus said before turning and heading out of the room.