text » backdated to the day after the jump

[ex_heightens219]

Alaric Saltzman and Jenna Sommers went home. I know a lot of you were friends of theirs, and they were here for a long time. I'm sorry for your loss.

[ it's short, but elena doesn't really know what else to say. just that hurt to type, and she can't... she just can't. knowing what they're going back to, that jenna is dead and ric is going to go crazy and then die too... she doesn't want that for them, doesn't want to think about it.

for all the tranquility's faults -- and faults is putting it lightly -- she at least had jenna and ric. her family was mostly put back together, and it was safe so long as they didn't try to do anything stupid. now they're gone, and damon doesn't remember anything, and honestly, she just wants to go home. there's nothing here anymore that makes staying worth it. ]

Comments

[unbalancer]

Elena, you don't have to be apologize. We all lose people. [ she squeezes elena's hand, pulls her in for a hug. letting that hug linger longer than it should, she finally pulls back. she then sucks in a breath. this is one thing she's needed. with caroline gone she needs answers. klaus is right, she doesn't trust him. but she trusts elena. maybe more than anyone, even like this. ] I have to ask something. [ stefan didn't even know. ] Do you know anything about my mom?

[ex_heightens219]

[ elena leans into the hug, holding back tears. all she wants to do is hide in her bed and cry for a week, but she has to keep going, right? caroline said so after they lost jenna the first time. atlanta has burned, and they persevere. wonder what caroline would say no. when bonnie pulls back and asks her question, elena sucks in a breath. she hadn't thought the questions would get so pointed, but... well, she can't lie. ] We found her, Bon. She was living with a boy she had taken in after his dad left the two of them. She helped you open the locked coffin, and then... Damon had to turn her into a vampire to keep Rebekah from killing me. Klaus' mother was in that coffin, and she wanted to kill her children, and she was drawing on your and Abby's power to do it. If Abby wasn't alive, she couldn't draw on the Bennett line.

[unbalancer]

[ she listens. they found her. they found her mother. she smiles, if briefly that her mother is who helped her open the final coffin. but, immediately, her face falls. damon. damon salvatore turned her mother into a vampire? because rebekah was going to kill elena. she pictures it. it's not impossible to. damon would cut off his own arm for elena. bonnie would as well. rebekah, klaus, elijah, they had a mother. ] He kept her. [ she says it to herself, realizing klaus killed their mother and then kept her, carted her around along with his other siblings. she drew on their power, their line. she goes cold, jaw setting, mouth forming a thin line.

no wonder klaus wanted her to ask.

on the one hand she can't believe she indulged him. on the other, she had a right to know.

she slides off the bed and walks in the other direction, facing away. of course she gets her mother back only to have that happen. of course. is everyone a vampire in her future? she closes her eyes, breathes in and out, fights tears that want to come forward. ] Damon killed my mother. [ because why wouldn't it be that. she takes another breath. she looks back, exhaling. ] So, my mother left me. Raised someone else as her own. And then died before I could really get to know her? [ it sounds like that's how it went down. ]

You know, I used to think - I used to think you did this. You brought vampires into our lives, you involved yourself with the Salvatores. But, I realized my place in all this. I think I finally realized what that means for the people I love most in life. Anything else I should know? Don't tell me, Damon kills my father.

[ex_heightens219]

[ it wasn't just that abby died -- she stuck around for a little while after that, just a couple days. she pretended she would make things work with bonnie and then disappeared before she could without even waiting to say goodbye. but elena's not about to tell her that. somehow she's fairly certain it would just make things worse.

elena winces at bonnie's next words, but remains quiet. it's nothing she hasn't told herself before -- that everything that came into their lives was her fault. even if she hadn't fallen for the salvatores, she was the doppelganger. klaus would have found her sooner or later, and he would have demanded her blood. no matter what bonnie thinks, it's absolutely true: all of this, everything that they have to deal with, the vampires and the magic and the death... it's all elena's fault. without her, bonnie would never have lost so much.

that question makes her freeze, but she tries to keep the discomfort from showing in her face. she doesn't want to talk about this, please don't make her talk about this... ]

No, Damon never touched your father at all. He became the mayor when Klaus killed Tyler's mom.

[unbalancer]

Tyler told me about his mom. [ she nods to that. klaus wasn't lying. say anything about him but klaus? he doesn't lie. ] He became mayor. [ well, that's pleasant. better than she'd pictured. ] Good. [ great, even. she's proud of him. ] I'm sorry for bringing it up now. And I am sorry about Jenna and Alaric. [ she is. it's not like this isn't what klaus wanted. she still trusts elena. she came right out and told her like she knew she would.

but, not she has to be useful. she has a job in communications. this she can do. she'll do what she's good at. ] I can do a locator spell. We're going to find Caroline.

[ex_heightens219]

[ oh thank god she's not asking any more questions about her dad. granted, if bonnie goes away and comes back she'll be really pissed at elena for not telling her, but... for now, this is better. one piece of traumatizing news at a time. ]

It's okay, just -- why did you ask? Did someone say something to you?

[ oh, bonnie. if only it were that easy. ] I'm not sure that will work... The ship screws with magic and location stuff. But it's worth a shot, I guess. Anything's better than just doing nothing.

[unbalancer]

[ she knows this was a mistake, but she doesn't say his name with any less disdain. ] Klaus. [ she's leaving out that she contacted him. ]

How can a ship screw with magic? It's technology. You don't think it could help?

[ex_heightens219]

Of course it was him. Do you know when he's from? [ god, what if he tells damon about the sire bond, or jeremy's death and elena's subsequent stint without her humanity? elena's been avoiding him thus far, but now she really feels the need to get in touch with klaus and feel him out, find out what he knows. ]

I don't know how, it just... does. It doesn't want us finding each other, so we just... don't. I think it couldn't hurt, so we should do it regardless. If anyone could get magic to work up here Bon, it's you.

[unbalancer]

Sometime after we found my mom? After Damon killed her? And I think sometime after I tried to get rid of him. He didn't flinch at that.

[ bonnie wasn't even feeling him out. she was actually trying to make a truce. ]

Maybe. [ she's not so sure, now. ]