When Elena woke up the next morning, she felt a lot better, at least physically. She was hungry again, but she was no longer insanely tired. She'd slept most of the day and night yesterday, and it helped a lot. She did, of course, still resent the fact that she was trapped in the Mikaelson home with two vampires that had killed her at one point. Elijah being there made it easier, but she was mad at him for making her do this, despite the fact that she knew deep down he was only doing it to help her.

Elena soon heard a knock at the door.

"Come in," Elena said.

Elijah walked in a moment later and shut the door behind him. "Good morning. You look much better today. Did you sleep well?"

Elena nodded. "Considering the fact that I'm locked in house with two people I hate."

Elijah chose to ignore the last comment. He didn't expect Elena to be happy about this arrangement. He didn't even like having to do it, but it was necessary for her own well-being. "Good. I think we should get some blood into you now."

The mention of blood made Elena unbelievably hungry. At the same time, she was still hesitant to drink from Elijah. She felt like she was betraying Stefan every time she did. She didn't really have a choice though.

Elijah rolled up his sleeve. "Please don't fight me."

Elena reluctantly nodded. It never worked when she fought him anyway. He never let her get away, and as soon as she smelled his blood, her resolve disappeared anyway.

Elijah sat down and bit into his arm. He put one arm around Elena and brought the bleeding one to her mouth.

Elena grabbed his arm and started to feed. She drank for a few minutes before she was finally sated enough to stop. "Thank you. Does it hurt you when I do that?"

"That's not something you need to concern yourself with," Elijah told her as he rolled his sleeve back down over the already healed wound.

"So, yes," Elena surmised.

"It's not the most comfortable thing in the world, but I am fine. We will do it like this for another day or two and then I will teach you to feed from humans," Elijah told her.

"I can't do that," Elena said, her voice sounding slightly agitated.

"You can and you will," Elijah said firmly before standing up.

"I'll end up killing someone!" Elena exclaimed.

Elijah sighed. "I'm not going to lie to you, Elena. Yes, you probably will kill at first, and I'm sorry because I know what that will do to you, but it's unavoidable. The vein is the only way you can feed."

"Then I'd rather desiccate," she said.

"That's too bad. I'm not going to allow that," Elijah said.

"I'll fight you," Elena told him. Realistically, she knew it wouldn't work, but she couldn't just give in, not when it came to hurting someone.

"I have no doubt that you will, but you will lose," Elijah warned firmly. "Now, I suggest we worry about this when it becomes necessary."

"Fine. Do I get my phone back?" Elena asked.

"Of course," Elijah said before reaching into his pocket and taking out her phone. He immediately handed it to her. "I only kept it because I didn't want you disturbed yesterday while you were trying to sleep. I always intended to return it.

Elena looked at the front of her phone and saw that she had many missed calls from both Stefan and Damon. It seemed Elijah was right about her possibly being disturbed.

"As I've told you, you're not a prisoner here, Elena. You can speak to anyone you want. Now, I do have to put certain parameters in place for your protection while you're here, but I want you to be as comfortable as possible," Elijah told her.

"What parameters?" Elena asked.

"You're not to leave this house unless I'm with you. You will have full access to the house, but you will only go outside if I'm with you," Elijah told her. He'd already told her that, but it was worth repeating.

"Why? Afraid I'll run?" Elena asked bitterly.

"No. If you were to run, I would catch you. We've already established that. I worry that if you're outside alone and a human comes along, you will not be able to stop yourself from attacking them," Elijah told her.

Elena snorted. "Yet, you've already said you intend for me to feed on humans."

"Yes, but under circumstances that I can control, and not in Mystic Falls," Elijah said.

"Fine. What about my friends? Am I at least allowed to see them?" Elena asked.

"Your non-human friends, yes, although, if it becomes evident that they are inhibiting your progress, I will end the visits. I'm afraid I can't allow any of your human friends or your brother to come here," Elijah said sadly. He hated having to do this, but he wouldn't risk Elena accidentally hurting her brother or one of her human friends. That was something she would truly not be able to come back from.

Elena nodded. "I figured that much already. I wouldn't want to risk hurting them. How long?"

"Until I'm certain you can control yourself and manage your bloodlust on your own," Elijah said.

"But how long will that be? How long was it for you?" Elena asked.

Elijah sighed. "Elena, you have to understand something. There was no one there to help us. We had to figure it out on our own. That is why it took so long."

"How long?" Elena asked again.

"It took us years, but as I said, we were alone in this. You are not," Elijah assured her.

Elena shuddered. The very thought of her being in isolation for years was debilitating. She hated everything about this situation. She wished she hadn't transitioned. "Can you leave me alone for a while?"

"Very well. As I said, you have full access to the house, and if you need anything, either call for me or come find me. One thing I do ask is that if you decide to explore, please do not attack Rebekah again," Elijah said.

Elena glared at him. "So, now I'm expected to be nice to the person who did this to me?"

"No, I don't expect you to be nice to her. If you want to express your anger, go ahead. She deserves it. I simply would prefer not to have to break up another fight," Elijah said.

"Then maybe you shouldn't force me to live with her," Elena countered.

Elijah sighed before leaving the room. He decided to give her some space for now.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Klaus opened his front door and smiled when he came face to face with Caroline. "Caroline, how lovely to see you."

"Yeah, don't even start your games with me, Klaus," Caroline said as she pushed her way past him. "Where is my best friend?"

Klaus rolled his eyes before closing the door behind her. Of course, the Salvatore's first attempt to interfere would be to use Caroline. "I see you've spoken to the Salvatore idiots."

"You had no right kidnapping her, Klaus. Where is she?" Caroline demanded to know.

"I didn't kidnap her. Elijah did. Elena is fine, love. In fact, she's arguably better than she was a couple of days ago, now that she's not being starved," Klaus told her.

"What the hell are you talking about? Elena wasn't being starved. I spoke to her almost every day. She was doing better. She said she was able to take the donated blood better now," Caroline said.

Klaus sighed. "She likely told you that so you wouldn't worry, love. Elena can't drink from blood bags. She can't keep it down. No Original can, at least not at first. Rebekah and Elijah can now, but it took them centuries, and from what I understand, it's still very unpleasant."

"Well, that's an interesting fun fact, but what does it have to do with Elena?" Caroline asked.

Klaus looked at her incredulously. It seemed Caroline was missing a key piece of information. He didn't know why he was surprised. "Bloody hell! I see those idiots haven't told you anything. Elena is an original. That's why she can't feed from blood bags."

Caroline looked at him in disbelief. "What? No, that's not possible. She wasn't turned by the immortality spell. She was turned with Damon's blood."

Klaus shook his head. "She was turned with Elijah's blood. She's a doppelganger, which means all the components used to create an Original are in her blood stream. She's one of us. She was starving, Caroline. She wouldn't drink from the vein, and her wannabe boyfriends wouldn't do what needed to be done to make sure she was fed."

Caroline pinched the bridge of her nose. She was going to kill them. She was going to kill both Salvatore brothers. They hadn't told her any of this. They just said that the Originals had kidnapped Elena. They never mentioned that she hadn't been feeding or that she was now an Original. She expected something like this from Damon, but Stefan should know better. "Where's Elena. I want to see her.

"Caroline?"

Caroline turned just in time to see Elena come downstairs. "Elena!"

Elena rushed over and hugged her friend.

"I'll leave the two of you alone," Klaus said before leaving the room.

"Are you okay?" Caroline asked once they broke the hug.

"Yeah. I'm not exactly happy to be here, but I'm fine," Elena assured her.

"Are you really? Because you told me you were find before, and apparently you were starving yourself," Caroline said.

Elena grimaced. "I didn't want to worry you."

Caroline took Elena's hand and led her to the living room, where they both sat down on one of the couches. "Apparently, I should've worried. Have you fed since Matt let you feed on him?"

"Not until yesterday when I started feeding off of Elijah. It's the only way I can feed right now. Stefan's going to be upset. I saw his face the first time I had to do it," Elena said.

"Screw Stefan! You need to do what you have to do to eat. Elena, you can't be starving yourself," Caroline said. She was seriously pissed at Stefan. She expected Damon to be stupid, but Stefan should be better than this. It shouldn't matter to him how Elena got the blood she needed, and he should not have let her go as long as she did without feeding.

"I can't feed on people! I'll hurt someone," Elena said.

Caroline sighed. "Elena, I've been there. I know how awful it is to hurt someone, but it's how you learn. It's how you make sure you don't hurt a lot more people."

"You sound a lot like Elijah. He's made it clear he's not going to give me a choice in the matter. He's going to force me to feed off of humans," Elena said bitterly.

"I'm sorry, but Elijah's right. You have to get through this somehow. If feeding directly from a living human is the only way for you, you have to do it," Caroline said.

"I hate the whole thing," Elena said.

"I know, but it will get better. How are you being treated here? They're not hurting you, right?" Caroline asked. She needed to know if her friend was okay, or if she did need to be rescued, as Stefan and Damon indicated.

"No. Rebekah and I got into it yesterday, but I started that," Elena said.

Caroline laughed. "Oh my God! That's great! Please tell me you at least got a couple of good hits in."

Elena gave her friend a small smile. "I managed to bite her before Elijah and Klaus pulled us apart."

Caroline let out a loud laugh. "Tell me everything!"

Elena did as her friend asked. They just sat there talking for a while. It was the most relaxed she felt since her transition.