Confused, Elena let Elijah guide her to a seat in his office, waiting until she heard the door close before she spoke. "Why are we talking in here? What's going on, Bon?"

"I don't trust Hayley." Bonnie replied bluntly, folding her arms and leaning against one of the bookshelves. "Something about your illness is starting to seem fishy to me."

"How so?" Elijah probed, his quick interjection effectively stilling any other discourse in the room.

Bonnie sighed, her gaze flitting to the door nervously, even though she knew the room was completely soundproof. "You were all missing for well over twenty-four hours, and, aside from her vision, Elena was completely fine until we entered the hospital. She had no signs of any illness whatsoever."

"You think this is linked to proximity to my brother specifically?" Elijah questioned, his brows drawing into a frown. "Why on Earth would that be the case?"

"The spell I performed to allow Elena to see through your eyes was linked to your Ligatus Animarum, it is impossible for anyone to have more than one bond of that sort, Elena should not be able to see through Klaus's eyes as well as yours."

"Then why the hell can she?" Caroline broke in, pacing the length of Elijah's desk. "And why do you think Hayley is involved?"

"I never said-"

"Oh, please, Bonnie, we've been friends since we were kids, I can read between the damn lines."

Sighing again, Bonnie looked between the members of the room, her gaze settling on Elena and Elijah. "The only way I can think that something like this would be possible is if some serious dark magic was involved. I don't know what exactly, but it's the only remotely plausible explanation."

"You think Hayley is responsible for the spell being placed?" Caroline nodded slowly as she paced. "Why?"

"We've seen the way she looks at Elena, Care, is it really out of the realm of possible that she would do something to hurt her?"

"I don't understand," Elena admitted with a huff, "why do I have to stop taking Klaus's blood? It's been making me better."

"It could be the way the spell is maintained." Bonnie explained, her eyes flitting to Klaus on the other side of the room. "Until I've done some more research, I think you guys just need to hold off, before it goes further than we can reverse."

"Every damn spell needs my blood." Elena pouted, blindly offering her wrist to Elijah so that he could clean off the rest of the blood on her skin, a damp cloth gently brushing over her wrist, held softly in his other hand. "Just once it would be nice if someone else had to open a vein."

Elijah let out a soft laugh, placing the bloodied cloth back into the bowl of warm water Bonnie had brought up. "Need I remind you that you are a vampire, Elena? The blood Bonnie took from you will have already regenerated beneath your healed wrist."

Huffing, Elena rolled her eyes. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Of course not." Elijah agreed softly, a slight edge to his words that suggested to Elena he was smiling, prompting another eyeroll.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's all fun and games until you have to bleed for everyone all the time."

Elijah smiled to himself at Elena's sulking, going to release her wrist when he realised he still had hold of her, looking down at their hands when she grabbed his, lacing their fingers together and squeezing.

"We will find out how to fix this, Elena, I give you my word." He whispered, watching as Elena's eyes flickered from side to side, something he'd grown familiar with as she tried to follow both pictures playing out in her mind. Closing his eyes, he attempted to at least give her a reprieve from having to watch two scenes.

Elena squeezed his hand again, a soft gesture to show her appreciation. "Do you think Bonnie's right? About Hayley?"

"I hope not." Elijah returned softly, adjusting their hands so that he could absently run his thumb over her skin softly. "She still carries Niklaus's child, but an act against you is an act against all of us…it could become a rather difficult situation to navigate."

Elena let out a low breath, leaning against his shoulder and copying him in closing her eyes as she wrapped her arm around his.

"How are you coping?" Elijah asked suddenly, choosing to talk rather than sit in silence. "The last time we were able to talk properly you were struggling to control your emotions and to understand what was real, has it gotten any better?" He elaborated, clearly sensing Elena's confusion.

"I don't really know." Elena murmured, keeping her eyes closed as she spoke. "I guess I haven't really had much time to think about it. I've been a bit busy saving all of your asses." She joked, nudging Elijah softly; relieved when he let out a soft laugh, nudging her back.

"Yes, I suppose that has taken up a large portion of your time." He returned, the jest clear in his voice. "Although I suppose now is as good a time as any to think about it."

Elena let out a soft huff, wracking her brain for words to appease Elijah.

"Honesty," he reminded her softly, clearly understanding her hesitation, "right?"

Resisting the urge to huff again, Elena squeezed his hand instead, swallowing as she tried to put her thoughts into coherent sentences. "If I have half a moment to think then all I feel is grief, sometimes it's so strong and relentless that I feel like I'm being crushed by it. No matter what I do I can't escape it because everywhere I look, I think of something else that reminds me of everything I've lost." She took in a long breath, not sure where the words had come from. "If I think about the possibility that Hayley's done something to hurt us, I'm overcome with so much rage and anger that I could probably kill her without thinking twice about it or feeling any guilt at all."

Admitting that such thoughts crossed her mind was almost a relief, almost because she dreaded Elijah's reaction to such an admission, leaving her with enough of a pit in her stomach to replace the weight off her shoulders.

Surprising Elena, Elijah turned his head, laying a soft kiss on the top of her head, lingering there for a moment before talking. "Thank you for your honesty." He murmured, continuing to lean on her slightly. "Despite what you may think, I am glad you feel that way; it's entirely healthy." He continued, sensing her about to argue. "Regaining your emotions isn't the hardest part, trying to relearn how to control the extremes of emotions you are feeling is harder than anything else. Understanding what you feel is the first step towards controlling it."

"It feels useless," Elena exhaled, "controlling anything I feel seems like a far away dream."

"And yet, you have not acted on your impulse to attack Hayley," Elijah pointed out softly, "nor have you succumbed to the grief you feel."

Scoffing, Elena shook her head, pulling away from Elijah slightly and opening her eyes again, frowning for a moment when she was greeted by the sight of Caroline glaring, her brain catching up again a moment later. "I haven't had the chance," she argued, "if I had…"

"Would you really have acted on anything you feel?" Elijah returned, allowing her to pull away as far as she wanted, their hands still remaining clasped even though she no longer leant on him or hugged his arm. "Can you honestly say you have no control whatsoever over how you act on your feelings?"

"No." Elena admitted in a soft whisper, closing her eyes again; whatever argument Klaus and Caroline were having felt too personal for her to watch. "But I'm scared."

"Aren't we all? Every one of us lives in fear of something, whether of our own mortality or someone we care about. Even of ourselves and our abilities. Fear is a fact of life, Elena, mortal or immortal, human or supernatural. All of us must face fear day in and day out; it does not have to control any of us."

A knock at the door to Elijah's study interrupted any reply Elena could have possibly been able to construct. Before she could stand to answer the door, Elena found herself succumbing to a new fit of coughing, vaguely present enough to release Elijah's hand. He was back by her side in a second, rubbing her back softly as her fit slowed; the coughing eventually stopping and instead being replaced by a head so cloudy that she may as well have downed several litres of vodka.

"We found Marcel." Soft words carried themselves to her, despite the fuzziness coating her brain. "He's fine, just disabled out of the picture, I guess he wasn't part of Celeste's plan."

"What about Elena?" Elijah asked quickly, finding himself holding her against him so that she wouldn't pitch forward off of the couch.

"I figured it out," Bonnie said, her voice tight, "but you're not going to like it."

Blinking the sleep from her eyes, Elena let out a soft huff of breath as she woke up, bringing her hand up to rub her eye, confused when she realised she was nestled up to another body on a bed. Frowning she sat up gingerly, moving as cautiously as she could.

Just as soon as she was upright enough to realise she'd been cuddling Elijah, he opened his eyes, offering a soft smile. Gently, he reached forward and took her hand, moving slowly as if not to spook her. "It's alright, Elena, it's Elijah. Please forgive the intrusion," he murmured softly, running his thumb along the back of her hand, "you were not well, and given Bonnie's revelations we thought it best to get you out of the plantation house. I tried to put you to bed, but you wouldn't let go of me."

"Elijah, I know it's you…" Elena murmured, frowning at him for a moment. "Elijah, I can see. Oh my god, I can see you." How her brain had been so slow to catch up she wasn't sure, but she could definitely see Elijah, and she definitely hadn't been able to the last time she'd been awake.

Of its own accord, one of her hands had come up to cup the side of Elijah's face, his hand coming up to settle over hers as a soft smile graced his features. "Hello there."

Elena smiled, accepting Elijah's small movement to place a soft kiss on the palm she held to his face; the movement feeling more natural than either of them cared to admit.

"I don't understand," she whispered, shaking her head softly, "what happened? I thought I heard Bonnie say she figured everything out, but that's all I remember."

Face darkening at the reminder, Elijah closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath to calm himself and squeezing Elena's hand slightly where it still rested. "Someone managed to place a dark curse on you, we're not yet sure who or when, but it appears that they used werewolf venom to embed the spell inside of you. Niklaus's blood cured any ill effects of the werewolf venom itself, but in doing so it allowed the spell to take hold."

"What spell?" Elena prompted softly, her undead heart nearly ceasing to beat at all at the anger in Elijah's voice; the only conclusion she could draw being that she was dying.

"It is designed to create the illusion of Ligatus Animarum with a soul other than the one whom they are really bound to."

"What?" Elena breathed, feeling Elijah's jaw tick under her hand.

"Someone," Elijah bit, "is trying to shroud our bond by creating one to Niklaus. That's why you were not sick when you were apart, and why his blood quelled your symptoms."

Swallowing thickly, Elena gaped, Elijah's eyes boring into her as she tried to think through what he'd revealed. "How do we make it stop?" She muttered eventually, watching as a disguised relief passed through Elijah's features.

"Miss Bennett is working on that now, at the present time all we can determine is that keeping a distance between yourself and Niklaus will stop you from becoming ill, and it will prevent the spell from rooting itself any further."

Elena bit her lip, her head bobbing vaguely as she absorbed Elijah's words. "Is Hayley responsible?"

"We don't know." Elijah admitted eventually, a soft sigh escaping him. "It is not outside the realm of possibility though."

"What do we do?" Elena murmured, dropping her gaze to the bedspread covering Elijah's legs.

"We do nothing at the moment, aside from making sure you are well."

HisSecretLover18: Thank you so much! We didn't have to wait long for an explanation! Bonnie really doesn't take kindly to people hurting her friends.

lauramorgenstern: The drama and confrontations might have to wait a little bit, but somehow I doubt any of you will be complaining when you read what's coming instead...

Guest: Hayley is definitely not getting any redemption in this story, there's plenty to come where she's concerned.

Thank you guys for your lovely reviews as always! I wanted to get this chapter up nice and quickly, and I'm already halfway through chapter 33...

Reviews make me happy, and happiness makes me post more, so the quicker you want to find out what's coming, the more you need to review! Trust me, you don't want to wait for what I've written...

Until next time

~ I x