"Enough, Elijah." Klaus snapped, taking hold of his brother's wrist and dragging him away from the basement where they were desperately trying to get answers from Hayley. "You're needed elsewhere."
"I need answers." Elijah denied, tearing his arm from Klaus' grip. "She is the only one who can provide them."
Grabbing his brother again, Klaus avoided a blow aimed at his head, twisting his arm behind his back and forcing him against the wall. "And people need you." He argued, putting almost all of his effort into holding Elijah still. "Elena needs you, brother."
"She has no want of me." Elijah tried to force himself away from the wall, his eyes darkening when Klaus kept him firmly in place. "Because of Hayley's actions I have all but lost her."
Klaus rolled his eyes, pulling Elijah away from the wall to launch him across the room, intercepting him halfway and slamming him against the adjacent wall. "Don't be so ridiculous!" Eyes yellowing as Elijah glared back at him, he grabbed the front of his brother's shirt, fistfuls of the fabric holding him in place. "I never thought I would be the one defending Elena bloody Gilbert, but that girl is absolutely in love with you, regardless of your damn stupidity!"
"Our family is toxic, simply existing with us will be the death of her."
"You owe this to her." Klaus said firmly, forcing away his hybrid features. "She is up there, terrified and lost, and she needs you, not some cheap imitation who runs at the first sign of trouble." Letting out a scoff, Klaus threw his brother to the floor, straightening his jacket and turning away from him. "She begged me to see you, but I cannot think of anything worse for her now. Get your head on right and then maybe you won't just upset her more."
"I told you he was mad at me." Elena murmured, leaning back into Caroline as the blonde plaited her hair, both of them aware of just how much she was supporting her weight.
"Why would he be mad at you, sweetie?" Caroline asked softly, tying off the bottom of Elena's braid and wrapping her arms around her friend, resting her cheek on the top of her head.
"I'm ruining his family."
The soft mumble painted a frown on the blonde's face, her arms tightening around Elena slightly as she processed the words.
"Now, why on Earth would you say something like that?" A new voice joined the fray, opening Elena's heavy eyes. "I've been alive a long time and I've never heard anything so preposterous."
"Klaus," Elena mumbled, "he's not coming, is he?"
Letting out a soft sigh, Klaus perched on the side of the bed next to the two girls. "Elijah is a fool." He said, gently holding Elena's hand in such a way that she didn't notice the real intent behind his move. "Despite his holier-than-thou appearance, he really is as stupid as the rest of us."
Releasing Elena's arm, his eyes met Caroline's, a brief glance passing between the two of them as Caroline tried to get a read on what Klaus had decided about Elena.
"For now, love, I think we should get some blood in you."
"Does that mean I can get outta bed?" She mumbled, eyes as wide as was possible as she looked up at him.
"Not yet, sweetheart," Klaus and Caroline's eyes met again over Elena's head, the latter's worry easy enough for Klaus to decipher, "after some blood, maybe."
A sudden lurch of movement from Elena stopped Klaus from moving to get the bags of blood as her hand wrapped around his wrist, holding him in place.
"You have to stop with the drugs, Jer, please."
Staring at where Elena held his wrist, Klaus kept his features clear, understanding that the words leaving her mouth were clearly meant for a different time.
"We've already lost our parents, Jenna, even John…I can't lose you too, Jer; I wouldn't survive it."
"I'll stop, Lena, I promise." He said softly, a pointed look in Caroline's direction keeping the bewildered blonde quiet. "We'll be okay."
"What the hell was that?" Caroline hissed, trailing behind Klaus. "She's sick and you're just going along with it?"
"Of course, I am." He said easily, not bothering to turn or pause to acknowledge the woman behind him. "You haven't been around a vampire who's been bitten before have you, love? Not when they've been really, truly sick."
"No, and what?"
"They don't see us, Caroline, not once they're truly sick. No amount of reasoning or talking can make them understand that what they are seeing is not real; all it will do is hurt her more."
Huffing and tossing two blood bags into the microwave to warm through slightly, Klaus finally turned to look at Caroline, folding his arms over his chest as he leant against the counter behind him. Levelling her with an even gaze, he waited as the words sunk in, narrow and determined eyes staring back at him.
"You gave her your blood, she's not infected." She argued, mimicking Klaus as she folded her arms over her chest. "She's not sick, Klaus!"
"Of course, she is!"
Caroline rolled her eyes, scoffing and turning away from Klaus.
"Whoever bound this curse for Hayley is using werewolf venom to keep the curse active, my blood only healed the life-threatening effects, not the mental." Turning to take the bags of blood from the microwave, Klaus shook his head in disbelief. "I thought you would be glad I'm looking after her."
"Why are you?"
"Haven't we already had this conversation, love?"
"Not clearly enough."
Klaus rolled his eyes, turning back to the blonde and raising an eyebrow at her. "What would be clear enough for you, Caroline?"
"Seriously?" Caroline scoffed. "You hated Elena a week ago and now I'm supposed to believe you're happy to sit by her bedside?"
"On the contrary, I never hated her, love. In fact, I always rather admired her; the lengths she would go to to protect her family…Elena has always been a breath of fresh air compared to her ancestors. I harbour no ill will towards your friend, Caroline."
"Because you admire her?"
"Because of Elijah." Klaus denied shortly. "The ferocity with which Elena defends and protects her loved ones is something that my family used to share a long time ago; Elijah more so than any of us. It's a quality that they both harbour in spades and they bring it out in each other."
Caroline tilted her head at him, turning sharply on her heel to follow him as he strode past her. "So, what? You think Elena will fix your family?"
"I would be lying if I said no." He shrugged, not turning back to face her. "Elijah is the glue that holds our family together, and Elena is the love and compassion that he needs and desires."
Stopping outside of Elena's room, Klaus turned to face Caroline, his free hand resting on the doorknob as he raised an eyebrow. "Was there anything else?"
Shaking her head, she watched as he pushed the door open; the pair of them remaining stalk still as confusion hit them.
Why on earth was the room empty?
"How the bloody hell does this keep happening?" Rebekah exclaimed, shaking her head in absolute disbelief. "I didn't think it was possible to lose a person so many times!"
"We haven't lost her."
"What the bloody hell would you call it then, Nik?"
"Not lost." The hybrid shrugged, ignoring his sister's frustrated roll of her eyes. "She could barely stand, she can't have gone far."
"Your words fill me with such hope, Niklaus." Elijah bit, pacing the length of the room.
Klaus let out a scoff, shaking his head. "Perhaps if you hadn't been too busy self-destructing then this never would have happened."
"This is my fault?"
"Who would you rather blame? You are supposed to be the one looking after her; protecting her, instead you're down here wallowing in your own damn misery!"
"Wallowing? You are far too self-absorbed to ever pay any attention to the bigger picture, Niklaus! There is justice to be had here."
"Justice for who?" Rebekah interjected, pausing the brawl before it could begin. "No-one is dead, Elijah!"
"Elena is missing!"
"Because of you!" Klaus jumped back in. "Not because of Hayley, or her witch, or the Salvatores, because you weren't with her when you should have been!"
"Who are we rooting for?" A soft voice queried, whispering in Caroline's ear at the edge of the fray.
"Klaus." She mumbled automatically, wondering when it became the case that there was even a doubt over whether they were on Klaus or Elijah's side. Never had she thought it would be a question in any of their minds, let alone that Elena would be the one voicing it. Wait… "Elena?"
Throwing her arms around her dark-haired friend, Caroline squeezed her tightly, pulling away after a moment and holding her by the shoulders as she stared her in the eye.
"Where the hell have you been?"
"I had to toss Jer's room," Elena sighed, rolling her eyes, "you know what he's like at the moment, Care."
Meeting Klaus's eye, Caroline let out a soft huff of breath, nodding and plastering a sympathetic smile on her face. "Yeah, I know, sweetie."
Elena offered a pained smile back at her friend, lasting only briefly before a confused and glazed look took over her features, loitering on her face for a few seconds.
Blinking rapidly, Elena tilted her head at Caroline, frowning slightly as she registered the room around her. "How did I get down here?" She asked, her hands coming up to hold Caroline's arms. "What's going on?"
"It's okay, Elena," Klaus interjected softly, taking note of the panic on Caroline's face as the blonde tried desperately to figure out how to respond, "the venom loitering in your system has just had you a bit out of it."
Elena nodded slowly, doe eyes flitting around the room, seeing and yet barely registering any of the bodies watching her. "I can't have your blood though; it'll still make it all worse?"
Klaus nodded, at a loss for anything else to say to the broken doppelganger in front of him.
"Can I have some blood?"
"As long as you don't wander off this time." Klaus smiled, disappearing to reheat the blood quickly.
Just as he did so, Elena's eyes finally managed to focus on Elijah. Quickly, her eyes flitted away again as she noted the anger carved into his features.
"Elena…"
"Here we go, love, drink up."
Accepting the first bag of blood from Klaus, Elena downed it quickly, glad when some of the fogginess in her brain lifted at least a little bit. Sipping at the second bag much more slowly, Elena used the opportunity to try and think of what on Earth she could say to Elijah, being all too aware of just how mad he was with her.
"Elena!" Bonnie rushed into the room, Davina and Marcel close behind her. "You're finally up and about!"
"Hey, Bon." She smiled, offering soft nods to the pair behind her. "Has she told you anything yet?"
"She's pretty reluctant to talk," Bonnie shrugged, "we don't want to use too much magic on her in case it hurts the baby, but we don't have many options left."
"Someone has to know something!" Caroline huffed, folding her arms over her chest in the same way a sulking child would. "Someone in this damn city has to have heard, or seen something, anything!"
"There might be someone D can talk to." Elena mused softly, still leisurely sipping at her blood. "They've already reached out before."
"Kol." Davina breathed, nodding softly. "If anyone knows something, it must be the ghost."
HisSecretLover18: Thank you so much! I'm still debating splitting this into multiple stories, so I'm not sure about in this story itself, but I am definitely interested in introducing Hope!
lauramorgenstern: Oh hunny, its so bad! Ahh I'm so glad you loved it! There had to be a reason for Elena to know Elijah's necklace so well after all! The costuming was sooo on point! Hmmm, we might find out at some point... It's so much fun to write, I'm so glad you're enjoying it! This whole situation is finally giving me a chance to branch out and explore Elena's relationships with the other siblings and it's so fun! They absolutely are!
wazman: Ooooh, interesting idea for sure! Thank you so much!
Guest: I really do hate Hayley, I was never on board with her in TO so writing her in this is so refreshing to get it all out! The brothers Mikaelson are extremely protective, even though Elijah is being a bit whack at the moment! Kol will be back soon...
94HarleyQuinn25: No worries at all, we all know the struggle! I'm glad you're back though! So many questions, hopefully we'll all get some answers soon!
Guest: Babies make everything so difficult...
I'm not even going to lie to y'all, I really hated writing this chapter, it just feels so messy and broken to me, but I wanted to get something out and move onto more interesting ground...
Review and let me know what you all think and I might just get back quicker!
Until next time
~ I x