Elena woke up the next morning in the best way possible, with her husband's arms encircling her. She missed him so much. She didn't even realize it until yesterday. She'd always felt like something in her life was missing. She just didn't realize what it was until her memories returned to her. There was still a lot to deal with, but she could face it as long as she had Elijah and her son by her side. Her world was almost complete. It could never be totally complete, not without her daughter, but there was, unfortunately, nothing she could do about that. She could only take solace in the fact that her little girl led a good life. She knew that she had because she knew Elijah would have seen to it. He would've made sure she was taken care of, even if it couldn't be by him.
Elena felt her arms around her shift slightly and tighten, indicating that Elijah was waking up. She smiled and placed a hand on top of his. "Good morning."
"Good morning, my love. I almost thought yesterday was a dream for a second," Elijah said as he held his wife close.
"It's not a dream, Elijah. I'm here. We're here," Elena promised.
"I will never allow anything to separate the three of us again," Elijah swore.
"Me either. Speaking of, we've got a lot to deal with today. We need to find a way to explain all of this to Jeremy. He doesn't remember. That old hag took his memories away too," Elena grumbled.
"I don't want Jeremy subjected to Jonas' spell. I saw the pain it caused you. You passed out from it. I don't want our son to go through that," Elijah said.
"Agreed. That's why I went through it first. Even without my memories, I wasn't going to allow him to do it unless I knew it was safe and relatively painless. He'll remember on his own. He's a witch. The spell won't withstand his magic once it's unbound," Elena said.
"It will be unbound?" Elijah asked.
"Yes. His magic is too strong to withstand the block forever. I always knew this was a temporary solution. I just hoped that when the block wore off, he'd be able to protect himself better or that Dahlia wouldn't expect to find him in this time period," Elena said..
"So, she's still alive?" Elijah asked concerned.
"I don't know for sure, but Finn said that she was obsessed with immortality. If Esther could come up with a way to prevent her children from dying, it's reasonable to assume that Dahlia could come up with a way to save her own life," Elena concluded.
Elijah held his wife tightly. "We'll figure out a way to stop her."
Elena actually had a tentative plan. Well, it wasn't exactly a plan, but she had an idea of where to start. Elijah wouldn't like it though. It involved Nik breaking his curse. That was a conversation for another day though.
Elijah soon heard movement from the next room. "Jeremy is awake."
"We should get up then. He's probably going to try to leave," Elena said before pulling herself out of her husband's arms and getting up.
Elijah stood up from the bed and started getting dressed. He noticed Elena smiling at him as he did so, and he smirked at her. "See something you like, Mrs. Mikaelson."
Elena grinned. "Yeah, but I prefer it when you get undressed."
Elijah finished putting his clothes before pulling her up by the hand and moving her close to him. She then kissed her passionately on the lips. He'd wanted to do this last night, but so much was happening.
Elena kissed him back for a minute, but then she pulled away. "We can't, not until I speak to Stefan. I won't be that person."
"Today," Elijah said. He would not share his wife with another man for so much as one more day.
"Today," Elena agreed. "Go downstairs and make sure Jeremy doesn't leave while I get dressed."
Elijah nodded before doing as she asked. He arrived just in time to see his son heading for the back door. His wife's instincts were right on the money. He used his vampire speed to impede his son's movements and block the door.
Jeremy yelped in surprise. He didn't expect Elijah to be there, let alone for him to use vamp speed to get in front of him. "Don't do that, man. You could've given me a heart attack."
"I'm fairly certain the drugs you've been taking have a better chance of that," Elijah said in a slightly stern tone. "Going somewhere?"
"Yeah, I'm going to meet my friends," Jeremy said before making a move to get around Elijah. He couldn't' be around him or Elena right now. It was too weird.
Elijah put a firm hand on his chest to stop him. "That was a rhetorical question. The answer is that you aren't going anyplace."
"You can't stop me from leaving," Jeremy protested.
"I promise you; you will lose that bet," he told him.
"Get out of my way," Jeremy said as he tried to get past him.
"That's enough," Elena said as she made it into the room. She waited for Jermey to turn to her before speaking again. "You're not going anywhere. Sit down," she said as she pointed to the kitchen table.
"No. You can't tell me what to do. I'm out of here," Jeremys said before starting out of the kitchen towards the front door. He barely made it two steps before his arm was seized.
"That's enough of this nonsense. You were told to sit. You will sit," Elijah said before marching his son to the table and gently but firmly pushing him into a chair. He understood that his son did not know him, but there was no time like the present for him to start learning who was in charge. He would not tell his mother no, regardless of whether he knew that was who she was or not.
"Hey! Who do you think you are?!" Jeremy yelled. Elijah couldn't just manhandle him like this. He wasn't his… Well, he supposed he was his father, but he didn't know that. He didn't know him. He couldn't tell him what to do.
"Cut the crap, Jeremy. I told you last night that we were going to talk today. Things are about to change. Consider this the start of that. The way you've been acting lately is done! There will be no more drugs or alcohol. I know you've been upset lately, but that's not an excuse to self-destruct. I've let that go on for too long. It's over," Elena said firmly.
"Screw you, Elena! You can't just tell me…"
"I can and I will! And that's the last time you speak to me that way. The attitude is the next thing that is going to stop. I won't put up with it," Elena said before taking a deep breath and sitting down. She had to calm down a little. She needed to remember that Jermey did not remember that she was his mother. He still saw her as his sister, who he felt he could disrespect at times. She still intended to nip his behavior in the bud, but she also needed to understand where he was coming from. "Look, the last thing I want is for this conversation to become just me yelling at you. There are things we need to talk about, and there will be changes in this family, but you need to understand that you will not be allowed to do whatever you feel like anymore."
Jeremy didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say. Elena was different than she was before. She didn't like his drug habit, but she never acted like this about it. She'd lecture him, but she accepted that she couldn't do anything about it. Things were different now. She was acting like his mother.
"What's going on with Jeremy? You were doing better. What changed?" Elena asked.
"Nothing," Jeremy lied.
"Please don't lie to me. I know something is going on. I've noticed it since Damon killed you. I thought you were mad at me at first, but I'm starting to think it's more complicated than that. It would be understandable if it traumatized you," Elena said.
"It didn't, not exactly," Jeremy said.
"Tell me what it is then," Elena said.
Jeremy shook his head. "You're not going to believe me."
"If you're honest, you do not need to fear not being believed," Elijah said as he took a seat next to Elena.
Jeremy sighed. He wasn't so sure of that, but he couldn't keep this inside anymore. It was freaking him out a little more every day. "You're gonna think I'm nuts. When I died, I ended up someplace. I thought it was a dream at first. The woman I met called it 'The Other Side.' It looked just like the real world, but it felt different. The woman I met looked kind of like Bonnie, but she said her name was Ayana."
Elena and Elijah both looked at each other in shock before turning back to their son, who was looking at his hands as he spoke.
"She called me by a different name, and then she showed me something. It was a memory. You were both there," Jeremy said before finally looking up and pointing to them both. "So was I. She told me I was your son, and that you had somehow sent me into a future life for my protection," Jeremy said.
Elena pinched the bridge of her nose. No wonder Jermey was so freaked out. No wonder he kept avoiding her. He was dealing with an incredible shock, and he'd had to go through it alone. She would like to throttle Ayana. Elena knew she must have done it to help, but that wasn't the way Jeremy should've found out. "She didn't have any business doing that."
Jeremy looked at Elena in shock. "You knew? She said you didn't remember."
"Until yesterday, I didn't. Sheila Bennett altered both our memories. I had a witch remove the spell when I realized my mind had been tampered with," Elena said.
Jeremy nodded. He'd been pretty sure that Bonnie's grandmother had something to do with it when Jenna mentioned her in her story. "That's why you've been so different since last night. It's why you went crazy on Damon."
"Damon's days are numbered. He will never touch you again," Elena promised.
"It's all true. You're really my mother? He's my father?" Jeremy asked. He'd worked out that it was true, but hearing it out loud from someone else made it real.
"Yes, it's true. I know it's a lot for you," Elena said.
Jeremy nodded. "You… You still feel like my sister."
"I know. I probably will for a while. That's okay. I know it's a lot to adjust to, but the three of us will get through it. No matter what, we're a family," Elena said.
Jeremy looked at Elijah, his father. "Damon said that you plan to hand Elena over to Klaus. Is that true?"
"No one is going to hurt your mother. I will not allow anyone to harm either one of you. You have my word," Elijah assured him.
"Jeremy, Klaus is your uncle. You don't have to be afraid of him," Elena told him.
"My uncle? He's your brother?" Jeremy asked surprised.
Elena shook her head. "He's your father's brother, but he's as good as mine too. He's my friend," Elena told him.
"He was your friend, dear. I told you, he's changed," Elijah said. He wished his wife would be a little more wary of Niklaus. She remembered him before he'd become what he was now. He was dangerous, especially to her. Honestly, Elijah would like nothing more than to whisk Elena and Jermey away right now.
"He wants to sacrifice you," Jeremy said to his sis… to his mother. That was going to be very weird for a while.
"He wants to sacrifice a doppelganger. He doesn't know that it's me. He thinks what everyone else does, that I'm merely a descendant of the woman he loves. He just wants to undo a wrong that was done to him. It's a long story, but he's not the bad guy," Elena explained. She certainly didn't condone her friend attempting to murder an innocent person, but she could understand his desperation.
"Um, Ayana said that I was a witch, like Bonnie. Is that true?" Jeremy asked.
"Yes. We both have magical roots. My family comes from witches, and your mother is what is called a Traveler," Elijah said.
"Yeah, I remember something about that being mentioned in the memory that Ayana showed me. What does it mean to be a Traveler?" Jeremy asked.
"We're named that because of our most prominent ability, which is to take over the bodies of other people. It's an ability my immediate family used only in the most dire of circumstances," Elena said. She had been taught that taking over someone else's body was barbaric, and that was something she agreed with. She only ever used it in an emergency situation.
"Is that how we ended up in the future?" Jeremy asked.
"Yes and no. Traveler magic is what allowed us to ascertain where we'd end up, but we're not possessing anyone. It's more like our souls combined. You are Jeremy Gilbert and Jarik Mikaelson," Elena explained.
"So, you're my sister and my mother?" Jeremy asked. That was really weird. He didn't know how to begin to process that.
"Let's just stick with me being your mother. I think that will make it easier. I know it's hard. You're really confused, and probably overwhelmed, but we're going to get through it," Elena promised.
"What happens now?" Jeremy asked. It was the biggest question now. Elena had said things were going to change. He wanted to know how.
"Well, we don't have it all figured out yet. This all came out yesterday. We're all going to need to process it all, but the three of us are a family. Whatever happens, we will get through it together," Elena told him.
"Does that mean you two are going to be together?" Jeremy wondered.
Elijah smiled and took his wife's hand. "Absolutely."
"What about Stefan?" he asked.
Elena sighed. "I will always care for Stefan. A piece of me even loves him, but it's nothing compared to what I feel for Elijah. The two of you are my life. You mean everything to me. I will hate breaking Stefan's heart, but I can't go back to the way things were."
Jeremy nodded. He wasn't bothered by it. Stefan was okay, but Jeremy wasn't his biggest fan. He could basically take or leave him. "Can I have some time alone? I need to think."
"Of course you can, but you're not allowed to leave this house," Elena said firmly. She didn't trust that he wouldn't go do something destructive. They still needed to have a bigger talk about the drugs, but she wanted to give her son a chance to digest what they'd just discussed.
"Am I grounded?" Jeremy asked,
"Call it a need for supervision right now. We don't think you should be by yourself right now," Elijah said.
Jeremy nodded almost numbly before getting up and leaving the room.