"Drink?"
"I don't think anyone in this house would turn down such an offer right now." Elijah returned dryly, accepting the glass of whiskey that his brother poured him and sitting down in his armchair with a sigh.
Sitting opposite him, Klaus took a sip from his own glass, a similar sigh escaping him. "How is she?"
"Exhausted." Taking a sip of his drink, Elijah ran a hand through his hair. "Whatever happened that night is still affecting her."
"You don't have any ideas?"
Elijah shook his head, tossing back the rest of his glass in one smooth movement. "You should have told me." He said after a few moments of silence, not needing to elaborate for Klaus to know exactly what he was talking about.
"It wasn't for me to tell." He denied softly, meeting his older brother's gaze when he looked up at him. "You know that as much as I do."
Elijah nodded slowly, rolling the glass in his hands. "Thank you." He whispered eventually. "For looking out for her."
"You made her family." Klaus replied simply. "And, she's actually rather pleasant when we're not murdering each other's families."
A startled scoff of laughter escaped Elijah as he shook his head at his brother's words, preparing to speak when Klaus stood from his seat; his more sensitive ears picking up on something Elijah had yet to hear.
"I think there is someone you should meet, brother."
"It's okay. Elena, it's alright." A soft voice murmured, gently touching her temple. "Just breathe, it's okay."
"She's here. She's come back for us." Elena gasped, her voice tinged with fear. "She's here."
"She's not here." The voice returned, gentle despite the fact that it was arguing with her. "I promise, she's gone, Elena."
Shaking her head, Elena finally opened her eyes scrambling up the bed to cower by the headboard as her vision cleared, revealing Elijah sitting on the edge of her bed, concern written allover his face. Cautiously moving closer to her, he reached for her hand, smiling encouragingly as she let him take hold of it.
"It's alright," he whispered, moving closer to her slowly, as though trying not to startle a wounded animal, "you're safe, sweetheart. I promise."
Eyes wide, her gaze searched the room, flicking from corner to corner rapidly, checking any and every spot where someone could possibly be. "She's not here?" She whimpered eventually, a plea for an answer.
"She's not here." Elijah reassured her, kneeling beside her on the bed. "She's not here."
Nodding, Elena managed to keep her composure for a few more seconds before a sob tore from her as she collapsed against Elijah.
"Shhhh." Elijah breathed, readjusting them so smoothly that Elena barely noticed as he led them both on the bed, her lying mostly on his chest as she curled into his side. "It's alright, Elena. You're safe. We're both safe."
They didn't know how long they led there until Elena's sobs gave way; until she calmed down enough to think, to talk. But it didn't matter, time would never matter to him; he would lie with her for hours, for days, if she needed him to. He always would.
"Can you make it stop?" She whispered eventually, waving vaguely at her head. "The dreams. You can manipulate dreams, can't you? Vampires can do that eventually. Can you make them stop?"
"I will have to enter your mind, Elena. As hard as I try, the subconscious is difficult to navigate; I might come across things you would rather I didn't."
"I don't care." Elena whimpered, pushing herself up slightly to look at him. "Please, Elijah."
Looking at her then, at the tear streaks highlighting her cheeks; the despair written on her features; the open and honest plea that she made to him, he didn't think he would ever be able to deny her anything.
Nodding softly, he gestured for her to lie back down, bringing his hand up to her temple. "Close your eyes," he whispered, "try and clear your mind. It's not natural, but if you can try and let me in it will help."
Taking a breath, Elijah closed his eyes, gently feeling out Elena's mind; carefully plotting the path through. Working his way past the natural defences in her brain, Elijah grimaced when he found himself in the middle of what he was worried about. As was often the problem with entering minds that were still awake, the memories that plagued her were too close to the surface to avoid.
He just had to watch his metaphorical step and find a way to relieve the memory as soon as possible.
"Isn't this familiar?" A snide voice remarked, taking a particular glee in their words as images flashed through her brain.
A silver blade. Blood. Blood everywhere. A plea as she stumbled over the threshold in waiting arms. Why was there so much blood? Why? Why was it so much harder to stab someone than it looked? Why was she doing this?
"You were weak then, and you're weak now." Inadu sneered, coming into focus as Elena's memories began to stabilise. "That's all you'll ever be."
"It wasn't weakness." Elena argued. "People can't resist compulsion without vervain. They just can't."
A flash of raven hair. Ice blue eyes; pupils expanding as orders left his lips. A sense of duty washing over her as the words took effect.
"They can. You know they can."
"No."
Feeling the memory falter, Elijah gently pushed at it, easing it out of Elena's immediate mind as she began to take on shape. Slowly, the entire memory drifted away, leaving only Elena and Elijah, the former crouched with her head in her hands.
"I'm sorry." Elijah whispered, striding to her side and taking her in his arms. "I hoped that wouldn't happen."
Clinging onto Elijah, she drew in a deep breath, shaking her head to dismiss the haunting words as best as she could, although she still found herself unable to say anything to Elijah.
"You didn't tell me Damon compelled you." He broached eventually, letting go of her and sitting beside her.
"It didn't seem important." Elena mumbled. "Doesn't change what happened that day."
"And yet it's quite a significant difference." Elijah pointed out softly. "Your actions were not your own."
"They should have been." She snapped. "I should have resisted it."
Elijah let out a soft sigh, pulling Elena more tightly against him and kissing the crown of her head. "You simply must know that isn't possible."
"It is." Elena argued, pulling out of his arms angrily to glare at him. "People can resist compulsion without vervain; I've seen it. Caroline's own father could resist compulsion on his own!"
Watching as she got to her feet and paced away from him, Elijah remained crouched, glancing around as the scenery changed the more she walked. The empty black giving way to green forests and a rushing stream; the image slowly becoming clear to him as their home town.
"I'm going to do something I don't like to make a habit of." He said softly, continuing to watch Elena pace back and forth, her hand running through her hair repeatedly, unable to leave any lasting impression, as was the nature of the dreamscape. "I'm going to make some assumptions."
Elena paused in her aggravated pacing, turning slowly to look at him with a frown on her face.
"I'm reasonably secure in the assumption that Caroline's father was much older than you." He starting, standing as he spoke and raising an eyebrow when Elena didn't answer.
She nodded after a moment, confused, but willing to allow this line of conversation.
"Now, I am aware that as a member of the Forbes family, he would likely have been involved in the Mystic Falls council; geared to remove all vampires from the town."
It wasn't a question, but Elena nodded anyway.
"As with most secret societies, I would assume that Mr Forbes would have likely been informed of the existence of vampires on, or soon after, his eighteenth birthday."
Elena shrugged, wrapping her arms around her midsection protectively.
"Would you not agree?" Elijah probed.
"My parents were dead when I turned eighteen. Caroline had already died and become a vampire so there was no need for Liz to tell her. I have no idea."
Looking upon her sympathetically, Elijah refused to allow himself to be swayed away from the topic. She was deflecting, using the care she knew he held for her to throw him off course; a smart defensive strategy, and nearly effective.
"Would you not agree?" He repeated instead, putting his hands into his pockets, resisting any temptation to fiddle or reach out to her. She needed this.
"It…would make sense." She muttered, hesitantly, refusing to meet his even gaze.
"As such, Mr Forbes would have likely had decades to perfect the art of resisting a vampire's compulsion; is that a reasonable assumption?"
"That's di-"
"Is that a reasonable assumption." Elijah cut off her protests, weak, surely even to her own ears.
Gritting her teeth, Elena glared at the ground beneath his feet. "Yes."
"How old were you that night, Elena?"
The abrupt change in topic was enough to throw Elena off and she reacted, startled; her gaze flitting up to him in a brief second. "What?"
He shrugged. "It's a simple question, how old were you?"
Elena huffed, folding her arms more angrily as he stepped closer to her. "Seventeen." She muttered eventually.
"How long had you known about vampires?"
"I-I don't know." She mumbled, stumbling backwards as Elijah walked towards her again. "A year, maybe?"
"Yet you feel you should have mastered a technique that likely took Mr Forbes decades?"
"I don't-I-" Flustered, Elena glared at him when he took another step forward, backing her against a tree. "I should have been able to do something. I let him use me to hurt you; I should have been able to do something to stop it."
Stepping closer; bringing their bodies together softly, Elijah took her face in his hands, his thumbs stroking over her cheekbones as she looked up at him. "Were you on vervain, Elena?"
She shook her head slightly, not wanting to remove his hands from where they held her. "I wore my necklace back then, I didn't think-" She cut herself off abruptly, casting her gaze to the floor in a harsh jolt of her eyes.
"Final assumption then," Elijah murmured, "based on your knowledge at the time you thought few vampires would be able to detect vervain in the necklace you wore; the only vampires that knew you wore it were ones you trusted. You thought they wouldn't break your trust by compelling you."
"I should have-"
"No." Elijah said firmly, making her jump slightly. "At the time you did everything you thought was right; you had no reason to believe the Salvatore's would betray your trust in such a way."
A tear rolled down Elena's cheek, slow in its descent and loving wiped away by Elijah.
"I hold nothing against you for that night, Elena, nothing. You were manipulated and used, and you rectified the mistake rather quickly. I could never judge you for having your free will taken from you."
Elena shook her head slightly, closing her eyes as she tried to summon the right words to convey what she was thinking. "You said you admired my bravery, for daggering you to protect my family, but those actions weren't my own."
"You are still one of the bravest people I've ever met, Elena Gilbert, nothing and no one can, or will, ever change that."
godric777: Thank you :)
qvnthesia(ch48): She is, out poor Elena :( She'll get there! Thank you!
HisSecretLover18: Thank you so much! I'm so excited to have him back to write with! Hope you enjoyed!
yellowbessie: Awh that's so sweet, thank you so much! :D God I agree, I enjoy angst, but I think most of the time I write angst it's just so I get to put them back together again! I love it so much, it's such a Klaus way of going about things and I'm glad you enjoy it too! Awh, I hope it resonating with you like that will help you to put things across if you go back to see them, I hope you find a solution soon!
Melissa Laforte: Thank you so much! I'm glad you loved it! There will definitely be some heavy Elejah coming through in the next couple of chapters, I hope it lives up to expectations!
WoolFan: Thank you! I hope you enjoyed!
Guest: Yes! I'm so relieved you love it; I'm having so much fun writing them like this at the moment! They're back! And I've got plenty of Elejah on it's way for you all!
Guest: Yay! Love the chefs kisses as always! I hope you enjoy all the Elejah moments!
I'm not totally sure about this chapter, but I hope you guys enjoy!
I've been travelling a lot for work and Glastonbury the last few weeks, hence all the delays, but I'm back to normal now so I'm hoping I'll be able to get some more regular updates for you guys!
I can't wait to hear from you all!
Until next time,
~ I x