Elena laid in her bed and stared at the wall. She made no move to get up. She didn't want to. All she wanted was to disappear from the world. Unfortunately, no one seemed to want to let her, and even if she did, she wasn't sure she could be killed. Regular stakes couldn't kill her, and apparently neither could the sun. She had pretty much known that it wouldn't kill her when she walked outside without her daylight ring, but she'd given it a shot anyway. She decided that even if it wouldn't kill her, she at least deserved to feel the same kind of pain Kol felt when he died.
Elena was actually surprised she was alone at the moment. She doubted it would be for long though. No one had left her alone since Stefan pulled her out of the sun yesterday. Her friends took turns sitting with her all day, despite her asking them to leave her alone. Then it was Elijah and Klaus.
Elena vaguely remembered Elijah and Klaus showing up while she was in the midst of a nightmare. Elijah held her until she cried herself back to sleep. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised that one of her friends had called them. Caroline had wanted to call them that morning. Still, she wished they hadn't. Elijah and Klaus didn't need to be burdened by their brother's murderer.
Elena soon heard a light knock on the door. She didn't have time to answer before the door opened and Elijah walked in. She immediately turned her head away from him.
Elijah wordlessly walked over and took a seat on the edge of the bed. He put a hand on Elena's arm. "Good morning, sweetheart."
Elena didn't respond to him.
"Elena, will you please look at me?" Elijah asked.
Elena shook her head.
"Why not?" Elijah asked.
"You don't need to be here. Just leave, please," Elena begged.
"I'm sorry, but that's not going to happen. I know you probably want to be alone, but that won't be happening for quite a while," Elijah told her firmly.
"No, I don't mean leave the room. Leave Mystic Falls. You shouldn't have to deal with me," Elena told him.
"Look at me," Elijah said. It was no longer a request. To make that clear, he took ahold of her chin and turned her head towards him. "You are not a burden to me. You are not a problem I have to fix. You are my niece, and you are suffering. There is nowhere else I want to be."
"I killed your brother," Elena said miserably.
Elijah sighed. "I know how and why Kol died. I know that he was trying to kill Jeremy, and I have always known there is nothing you wouldn't do to protect him. Kol was not an innocent party, and I have a feeling he would tell you that if he could."
Elena shook her head. "He hates me."
"Elena, Kol is not here to tell you how he feels. You don't know what he would think about any of this," Elijah said.
"He tells me every time I close my eyes," Elena cried.
"You dream about him. Elena that is not Kol. That is your guilt and fear manifesting itself in his image. It's not him," Elijah told her.
"He was my father, and I took his life. Or are you going to tell me it was one of you?" Elena asked.
Elijah couldn't deny that there was a small part of him that wanted to tell her that it could be someone other than Kol, just to take away a small amount of her pain, but in the end, it wouldn't do her any good. All it would do was make him someone she couldn't trust. He would not lie to his niece. "No. Kol is your father. I'm just sorry he can't be here to help you."
"He would hate me. Even if I hadn't killed him, he wouldn't want anything to do with me. I was forced on him. He didn't consent to what they took for him. It's no different than if someone had forced themselves on him," Elena said.
"And it wouldn't be any more your fault then that it is now," Elijah told her.
Just then, Klaus came into the room carrying two blood bags and a large glass. The glass was in case Elena tried to resist. "Good morning, Elena."
Elena eyed the blood bags in his hand. She got the feeling he hadn't brought them for himself or Elijah. Her friends had tried to get her to feed all day yesterday, but she refused. Stefan had tried and she'd thrown it against the wall. This time would be no different. She didn't want to feed. "I'm not drinking that."
"Oh, I beg to differ, love. You will be drinking these one way or another," Klaus told her matter-of-factly.
"Elena, you need to feed. It's not negotiable," Elijah told her firmly. He didn't particularly like the idea of force feeding her, but he was not about to let her desiccate because of her depression.
Elena shook her head in response.
Klaus came over and held out a blood bag. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way."
Elena pushed his hand away in response.
"Very well. Hard way it is," Klaus said before going over to the table across the room. He began emptying the contents of one of the bags.
Elijah stood up and pulled Elena up to a sitting position before getting on the bed next to her. He placed an arm around her and propped her up against his shoulder.
Elena groaned before making an abortive move to get away from him, but he wasn't having it. He held her firmly. "Let go! I'm not doing this."
"Yes, you are. It isn't up for discussion," Elijah said sternly.
Klaus came back over with a glass of blood in one hand and the other blood bag in the other. He placed the full blood bag on the end table next to the bed and got on the bed on other side of his niece. She was essentially sandwiched between him and Elijah. He placed a hand on the back of her neck to keep her still and brought the glass to her lips. "Okay, down the hatch, sweetheart.
Elena tried to move away, but both Klaus and Elijah were holding her firmly. Plus, she was weak from the lack of blood. She then moved her hand up push the glass away, but found her hands firmly seized by Elijah. She had nowhere to go.
"Elena, you are going to feed. We can sit here all day if you want, but it's happening," Elijah told her.
Elena was only able to resist another second or two. The aroma of the blood took over and her instincts took over. She opened her mouth to accept the blood.
"That's a good girl," Klaus said as he tilted the glass up. Soon she'd emptied it. He put the glass aside and picked up the other blood bag from the table. "We've got one more. Do you think we can do it the easy way this time?"
Elena reluctantly nodded. She knew she wasn't going to have a choice in the matter. Her uncles had made it perfectly clear that they could and would force her. Once Elijah released her hands, she took the blood bag from Klaus and opened it. She started drinking right away. Having blood in her made her feel physically better, although she didn't want or deserve to feel better. When she was done, she tossed the empty blood bag into Klaus' lap. "Happy."
"Satisfied would be the better word. We won't be happy until you're well again. Now, just so we're clear, refusing to feed is not an option. You will eat," Elijah said kindly, yet firmly.
"Whatever," was Elena's only response.
"We need to have a little talk now, about what happens next," Elijah said.
"You should go home now. You don't need to be here. The others shouldn't have called you," Elena said.
"No, they should've called sooner," Klaus said. He'd spoken to Caroline. She had known that Elena was his niece for more than a month. He wasn't too happy about that. "And we will be returning to New Orleans, but you are coming with us."
"Why?" Elena asked.
"Because your place is with us, your family," Klaus told her.
"And because I think being here is only hurting you. You need to be away from all the bad memories of this town.
"Oh, what memories would those be? The memories of the so-called love that my so-called father gave me to keep up his experiment? Or is it the memory of killing my actual father? I'll carry those memories anywhere. But fine. I don't care where I am," Elena said. It didn't matter whether or not she was in Mystic Falls or New Orleans. She could properly hate herself wherever she was. She didn't really want to be around Klaus and Elijah when she knew they were only doing this because they felt obligated to look after her, but she didn't have a fight in her.
Elijah sighed. He wasn't too happy about how easily she gave in. A year ago, she would've fought them tooth in nail. Grayson Gilbert had taken so much from her. His actions had destroyed her spirit. He had broken her down until she was a shell of who she used to be. It was frankly too bad he was already dead. Elijah would love nothing more than to take him a part little by little until he wished for death the way Elena did. "I do have some good news for you. Jeremy is going to come with us."
Elena shook her head. "No, don't make him do that. He hasn't done anything wrong."
"Neither of you have done anything wrong, Elena. This isn't a punishment. And no one is forcing Jeremy to come. He wants to. He wants to be with you, but he knows it's best for you to come with us. I asked him to come, and he agreed almost immediately," Elijah said.
"But his life is here," she said.
"His life is with you. That's what he wants. Now, as I told you earlier, we're going to be keeping a close eye on you for a while. You won't have a lot of time by yourself. We need to be sure you're safe," Elijah told her.
"Speaking of which," Klaus started before pointing to the daylight ring on his niece's finger. "If that comes off again, I will superglue it to your finger. Do you understand?"
Elena just shrugged in response.
Elijah soon felt his phone vibrate. He saw that it was Rebekah began to gently untangle himself from his niece. "It's Rebekah. Sit with her please, Niklaus,"
"He doesn't have to," Elena said before laying down.
Klaus stretched out and made himself comfortable on the bed next to his niece. "I do what I want, love. If I want to sit with my niece, I will."
Elena didn't say anything in response. She just shut her eyes.