Bonnie and Davina were hunched over a pile of candles, pages of paper and chalk, Marcel hovering protectively behind Davina. Several jars of herbs were set aside as Caroline argued with Klaus about where they were performing the spell. Klaus was adamant they were not scrawling chalk marks over his antique rug; Caroline defied him to tell her somewhere in this house that wasn't antique where they could perform the spell. Stefan, Damon and Hayley occupied the couch, watching the pair bicker with amusement.
Aside from Bonnie and Davina, who were fixated on the objects in front of them, everyone in the room turned to face the doorway when Elena and Elijah trailed in behind Rebekah.
"Elena." Caroline breathed, a smile breaking out on her face. "You look better, Elijah." She acknowledged, turning her attention away from the emotionless vampire. "It's nice to see you back on your feet."
"It's certainly preferable." Elijah agreed, sending a soft smile in the blonde's direction.
"Nice of you to tell us Elena was found okay." Damon sneered, glaring at Elijah. "We had to find out from witchy and blondie over here."
"I cannot say you're the first people who come to mind when it involves Elena." Elijah said evenly, raising an eyebrow at the dark-haired vampire. "She's made it rather clear she wants nothing to do with you or Stefan at the current time."
"She's not in her right mind." Damon denied. "As soon as we figure out what's wrong with her, she's coming back to Mystic Falls, with us."
"She's right here." Elena growled, glaring at Damon. "Elijah is right, I'm not going back to Mystic Falls with you."
"The hell you aren't!" Damon snapped, launching up from his seat on the sofa and grabbing Elena by the upper arms. "Turn it on and come home with us." He implored, staring into her eyes.
Elena shook her head, knocking Damon's hands off of her arms. "The sire bond is gone, Damon. So are any feelings I had for you or Stefan."
Damon took a step back like he'd been burned, scoffing when Elijah caught his eye, poised behind Elena, ready to intervene if need be. "So, what, you're with Elijah now? Klaus?"
Elena scoffed, wrinkling her nose at the same time as Klaus did. "Ew, no."
"Not sure I'm worth that reaction." Klaus muttered, folding his arms over his chest with a pout.
"You definitely are." Elena retorted quickly, not even looking at the hybrid. "Elijah and I are not together, but neither are we, Damon. You need to just accept that."
"We need to do the spell now." Davina interrupted, levelling a glare at Damon, daring him to argue with her. "Some of these herbs are on a time constraint, so we need to start."
With Marcel's help, the two witches had moved the furniture and rug around, creating a large, open space on the floor where Bonnie was crouched, writing runes on the wood with a piece of chalk.
"What do you need from us?" Elijah asked, tilting his head to look at what Bonnie was writing, evenly spaced out in a circle.
"Blood from both of you." Davina said firmly, holding out two small bowls for each of them to take. "Then you just need to lie in the circle side-by-side."
Elijah and Elena both nodded, taking their bowls from Davina. Elena lengthened her fangs, biting into her wrist and letting her blood dribble into the bowl, while Elijah took of his suit jacket and unbuttoned the cuffs of his sleeves. He rolled them up slightly before biting into his wrist in a similar fashion to Elena and filling the bowl about halfway.
"How will we know what's going on?" Elena asked, handing her bowl to Davina and sitting where Bonnie gestured for her to.
"Spells like this are normally pretty old-world," Bonnie explained softly as she finished writing on the floor, placing the chalk down and gently brushing the residue off her hands, "but that also means they're usually quite simple, runes generally make themselves known to diagnose the condition."
"We have no idea how complicated your affliction will be," Davina continued, mixing some herbs into the blood in front of her, "so we've added a little clause, the spell will write out a handy diagnosis for us." She shrugged, gesturing to the paper beside her.
"That's pretty neat." Elena laughed softly, lying on her back when Elijah sat beside her and taking in a deep breath.
"As long as it works." Davina smiled, letting out a soft laugh of her own. "This should work better if there's physical contact between the two of you." She murmured, raising an eyebrow at the two vampires led in front of her.
Elena took another breath, scoffing slightly as she took a firm hold on Elijah's hand. "I hope you feel as ridiculous as I do." She muttered, turning to look at the Original next to her.
He smiled back at her, squeezing her hand softly as his only reply.
"How long is this gonna take?" Damon grimaced, glaring at Caroline when she rolled her eyes at him.
"Hopefully not too long." Bonnie sighed, kneeling beside Elena while Davina knelt next to Elijah. "Rebekah, Klaus, we need you close in case we need to channel you."
The siblings shared a brief look before moving to stand beside the girls, Klaus slightly behind Bonnie and Rebekah by Davina.
"Let's do this." Davina smiled, holding her hands out over the bodies under her for Bonnie to grasp.
Elena had never been in so much pain.
Even the episodes she'd had since she and Elijah had found each other in Willoughby hadn't been this bad.
Her head was going to explode, literally going to just blow up, she was sure of it. She'd never felt so much pressure in her head, it was a thousand times worse than any aneurysm a witch could give her. If she had been able to move, she would have been writhing in agony, she probably would have even been screaming.
Lack of emotions had no bearing now, pain was still very much something she could feel, and by God was she feeling it. Somewhere she wondered if Elijah felt this much pain too; she wondered if either of them looked pained where they lay on the floor.
Every nerve in her body was ablaze. No part of her was untouched by the fire that ravaged her body like a billion needles sinking into her flesh over and over again.
Were they ever going to stop? They had to have been at it all day by now.
Elena didn't want to know what was wrong anymore, she just wanted the pain to stop. She could live with the sickness, if only the pain would go away.
Like something was answering her prayer, she felt the pain in her right hand slowly ease away, pushed at bay by a light pressure on her skin.
Elijah.
He was squeezing her hand. She wasn't really sure if it was a symptom of his own pain, or an attempt to comfort her. Whatever it was, she didn't care, because it was making the pain go away.
She squeezed back, clinging to his hand desperately, an anchor in her storm.
What felt like an eternity later, she could move again. The pain in her body receded and she could breathe, she could think.
She could throw up.
A bucket thrust under into her arms caught the contents of her stomach as she flew into a sitting position.
"Is that supposed to happen?" Caroline's worried voice reached her ears before anyone else's as she continued to vomit.
"We were expecting it." Bonnie reassured her, rubbing Elena's back gently as Rebekah took over for Davina beside Elijah. "Part of the diagnosis was aggravating their symptoms."
"You didn't think to warn anyone?" Rebekah hissed then, glaring at the darker witch over Elijah's back.
"There was no other way to perform the spell." Davina said softly. "If they did anything to suppress the symptoms, even subconsciously, it wouldn't have worked." Gently, she guided Elena's searching hand into Elijah's, both of them grasping at each other instantly, their bodies sagging in relief as the vomiting subsided.
"Did it work?" Rebekah asked, her worry for her brother waning as his body relaxed, and he looked up from the bucket in front of him, turning to Davina and Bonnie with the same question written on his face.
"It better have." Elena muttered, setting her bucket aside and collapsing against Elijah, his arms automatically catching her and holding her to him.
"I have to agree." Elijah grimaced. "That was rather unpleasant, it would be disheartening if it didn't take as intended."
Davina smiled at the pair softly, picking up a piece of paper from beside her, pen scrawled over the pages.
"There's an easy fix." She murmured eventually, everyone in the room waiting for her verdict. "I don't see anyone here being happy with it though."
"What is it?" Elena rasped, her breath coming raggedly.
"Ligatus Animarum." Davina said, fingering the paper in front of her as she looked up at the pair in front of her.
"For those of us who aren't fluent in witch?" Damon snarked, furious with the whole situation in front of him.
"Latin." Davina corrected, glaring at the vampire for a moment before turning back to Elijah and Elena. "Bound Souls." She explained softly, this time, not taking her attention away from Elena and Elijah.
"Let her talk." Stefan hissed, grabbing Damon when he went to start talking again. Damon wrenched his arm from Stefan's grasp, ignoring the looks from other people around him.
"Davina?" Elena prompted softly, her breathing evening out as she and Elijah remained in contact.
"Pretty much everyone has a soul bond," she started softly, "they're generally not recognised unless both parties are vampires, even then it can be hard to recognise. In this case, the bond has taken matters into its own hands, because Elena's emotions are off."
"Taken matters into its own hands how?" Elena bit, her body tensing.
"The sickness is meant to bring both members of the pair together, so long as they're aware of each other. The symptoms wane when you're in each other's company to try and keep you together-"
"They haven't always,"" Rebekah interrupted, "Elena's had some of her worst episodes when they've been together."
Davina nodded. "Anger, resentment, disgust…pretty much any negative emotion aimed at one of the pair by the other causes the sickness to act up. It's supposed to promote positive emotions, in the hope of getting the emotionless counterpart to turn their emotions back on."
"Some stupid spell is trying to Pavlov us into liking each other?" Elena hissed, tearing herself from Elijah's arms and shooting to her feet.
"That's not exactly-"
"That is exactly what you said!" Elena snapped, interrupting Davina, causing Marcel to step closer to the pair in a silent warning to Elena. "This is ridiculous." She scoffed, ghosting from the room before anyone could say anything else.
Elijah quickly stood to follow Elena, shrugging off the hand that Hayley put on his arm to pause him.
"You should let her go." Hayley murmured, pretty much to Elijah's back as he disappeared without sparing her a glance.
"Elena."
She shook her head, refusing to turn to look at Elijah, focusing on the soft ripples of the water in front of her.
"You were right," she scoffed, shaking her head again, "there was something else at play."
Elijah let out a soft sigh, stepping closer to Elena. "Do you really believe that's all this is?"
"You said it!" Elena cried, incredulous as she spun to face Elijah. He was still without his jacket, and his shirt was unusually ragged for him, she pushed the thoughts away with a sharp shake of her head. "You said something was wrong!"
"I meant in my mind." Elijah denied, slipping his hands into his pockets. "I could feel something…new; I didn't understand what was going on, or what to do about it."
"What to do about the fact that we're being pushed together like a pair of dolls?" Elena laughed, turning her back on Elijah.
"Is that really how you see this?" Elijah breathed, trying his hardest to keep the pain seeping from his voice. "You honestly think that we're just pawns to a spell?"
"You don't?" She retorted, growling when she felt the beginnings of a headache. "We can't even argue without this damn bond getting in the way!"
Elijah sighed again, saying nothing for a few moments before slipping off his shoes and socks, rolling up the bottoms of his slacks like he had the day before, and sitting on the edge of the pool. He slid his feet into the cool water, glad for the calming sensation.
"We always seem to find ourselves out here, don't we?" He murmured softly, looking up at Elena and holding a hand out in her direction. "Join me?"
"I'm wearing jeans." Elena denied, folding her arms over her chest as she looked down at him.
Elijah said nothing, keeping his hand extended in a clear offer, his eyebrow raised slightly as Elena pursed her lips. She huffed after a moment, slipping off her stilettos and sitting to fold up her jeans as much as she could.
Hesitantly, she slid to sit beside Elijah, dangling her feet in the water and cringing slightly as she felt the water soak through the denim of her jeans.
"What-" Elena cut off with surprise as Elijah put a finger over her parted lips.
"Just, take a moment." Elijah said softly, slowly removing his hand from Elena's lips. "Humour me." He murmured at her raised eyebrow. "Please."
She sighed, turning away from Elijah to look at her feet, kicking them softly in the water. They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments, the sounds of Damon and Caroline arguing fading into background noise.
"This pool, out here, I view this area as a symbol of our honesty to each other." Elijah said softly, surprising Elena when she turned to look at him and saw his feet mimicking her actions as he looked at them. "Our conversations out here, we're always honest with each other; I value that."
"You've always valued honesty." Elena shrugged, looking back at her feet when it was clear Elijah wasn't going to turn to face her. "That's nothing new."
"So have you." Elijah pointed out gently, thinking carefully about his words.
"Honesty makes the world go round." Elena quipped.
"That is does." Elijah agreed, his head bobbing slightly. "Talk to me, Elena, help me understand."
"What is there to understand, Elijah? Our actions were not our own, we've been being manipulated by some bond this whole time!"
"You didn't believe that when we were in my study."
Elena scoffed at Elijah's words, pulling her feet from the pool and attempting to storm away, Elijah's hand grabbing her wrist and pulling her down to stop her from walking away. The sudden movement catching her off guard and making her fall in the pool.
She stood in the water, brushing her soaked hair out of her face and spluttering before glaring at Elijah. "What the hell was that for?"
Elijah's mouth opened slightly, snapping shut again shortly after as he tried to decide between abject horror and regret, or amusement. The sight of Elena drenched through, her clothes clinging to her form as she glared at him, trying to come off as threatening, won out over his mortification over the accident and he let out a soft chuckle.
"My apologies, Elena, I did not intend for that to happen." He managed eventually, smothering a smile.
"Yeah, you seem real sincere." Elena bit out, hands on her hips as she glared at the man in front of her.
Elijah shrugged slightly. "Perhaps it's a cosmic evening of the score."
She narrowed her eyes at him, not at all amused. "So, you did do it on purpose." She crowed, victorious.
"I did not." Elijah denied, frowning at Elena.
"Get in the water."
"What?" Elijah scoffed, shaking his head.
"If you want to talk, I will not be the only one soaked to the bone, get in the water."
Elijah sighed, pursing his lips for a second before letting out another sigh and sliding into the water. "Are you happy now?"
"Ecstatic." Elena bit, grinning falsely at him.
"You were ready to embrace your emotions an hour ago," Elijah reminded her, approaching her slowly, "what changed, Elena?"
"I'm through being manipulated." Elena spat, torn between her instinct to move closer to Elijah and her brain telling her to run away, ending up rooted in the same spot.
"I'm not manipulating you." Elijah murmured, his brow furrowed with genuine confusion.
"My whole life is a cosmic fuckup of manipulation!" Elena said, gesturing emphatically at the sky. "Starting with my doppelganger status and ending with being here in this pool with you!"
"You don't think you've made a single decision to lead you here?" Elijah asked, thoroughly confused by what Elena meant. "Not one?"
"I'm the doppelganger, Elijah, I don't get choices."
Elijah shook his head, bringing his hand up to Elena's cheek. "You always have a choice where I'm involved, Elena, I give you my word."
She let out a low breath, looking away from Elijah's steady gaze as his other hand came up to cup her other cheek. He gently turned her face back around to look in his direction, her eyes remaining focussed on his chest.
"Elena, what I feel for you…it's not the result of a spell, or a manipulation, its real." He said softly, leaning forward to capture Elena's lips in a soft kiss.
midnight-writer97: You're so welcome! I'm so glad you enjoyed it…the Originals just can't get enough of interrupting… XD I really love the idea of something between Marcel and Elena, I'm not sure what yet though ;) Was their diagnosis what you thought it would be?!
Teehee52: Thank you soooo much! I'm so glad my cliffy had the desired effect!
Guest: The emotions are fighting their way back! Elijah will be there for her as long as she lets him! The freedom from the Salvatores is definitely something that'll be sticking around, and that's a big part of her standing up for herself too! Yay, I'm glad you like it!
Guest: Thank you so much!
HisSecretLover18: You hoped right! We'll have to wait and see about the blood… Thank you so much!
I'm trying to get a few chapters ahead so that it's easier to post now I'm back at work, but as soon as I finish one I want to post it for you all! I just can't wait to get your reactions and hear from all of you!
Well? Elena and Elijah have bound souls! What's next for their relationship? Where do you think they might go from here?
Until next time,
~ I x