elena gilbert

Under her gaze was the last place he wanted to be, but there was a comfort in seeing her eyes. Not that he could read them, not as he was now. There was a sense to the curves of her face, like an ancient text. Dead and gone, but familiar. It made sense to him but it brought him no good will. He offered a quick, sheepish grin at her comment about Caroline. Well, both of the comments that pertained to the blonde. “I can handle midnight,” he added offhandedly, in a poor attempt to sound playful. It only spoke of his very real concerns about Bonnie’s curfew. It had been so long since they hadn’t spent every waking moment with one another, that it almost felt unnatural to have her out of his sight. It was good for them, though, and he was happy she was out with a friend… It just drove him a little stir crazy. Snapping back to reality, it took him a moment to process (and ultimately understand) Elena’s question. His lips part, about to answer, but it took him an additional second before he made out, “No. Nothing.” It wasn’t that he was oblivious to the implications. He simply didn’t know how to, or if he should, proceed. It left him frozen in place, looking at the human almost.. expectantly.

“We’re doing good,” he offered, though he wasn’t exactly sure where it had come from. Was it an attempt to get her off their back, or was he genuinely trying to soothe her concerns?  It was difficult to tell, and he only hoped that it would be just as indistinct for her as it was for him. He couldn’t have her leaving her with the wrong impression, whichever it ended up being. Her next comment was anything but complicated. Their meaning was straight and to the point, like a knife to the sternum. It wasn’t just their relationship – the one that he had forgotten, the one that was seeping into his nightmares, one confusing scene at a time – but also the one she shared with Bonnie. It was because of the ex-witch’s love for the Gilbert that started it all. The door shut behind him and he’s stepping further into the house. It was only after he observed her take in their surroundings did it click that she harbored her own memories of this place. Memories she created with Bonnie, cherished. It stung. “Caroline abducted her.” It was a simply delivered explanation, as he knew Elena would be able to resonate with it.

It didn’t matter who it was. Hearing the knock on the door told him only one thing, and one thing alone – that it wasn’t Bonnie. No, the ex-witch would have entered at her own leisure. This was her home, first and foremost, and they had both become quite comfortable in their coming and going. His advance toward the door was poised. Each step more confident than the last. Swinging the front door open, he was greeted with the very face that haunted his dreams and twisted his stomach in a million knots. Yet as he stood there on the opposite side of the door’s threshold, he gazed upon the mother of his children with an unreadable expression – hardening in an attempt to cloak the uncertainty in his eyes. Out of anyone who could have been behind the door, this wasn’t the worst scenario. The only threat here was to his own sanity. “Bonnie’s actually not in right now,” he began, as if that would be Elena’s only reason for being at their doorstep, in full hospital uniform. He knew better than that though – and so he chose to start over before but she had a chance to take what he said at face value. “But.. you want to talk to me too, don’t you.” It wasn’t a question. After what felt like hours, Kai stepped aside, inviting her in with a soft nod. He didn’t know what this visit would entail, he just knew it didn’t feel right leaving her on the doorstep.

After years of struggling and fighting, Elena Parker had thought she’d finally earned her happy ending. She had a career she enjoyed, a husband and children she loved, and everything was going the way she’d hoped it would. She was growing old and grey, and getting to live her life just the way she was meant to. She should have known it would all come crashing down on her sooner or later, and, sure enough, her entire life had been turned upside down in the span of a single night, and she’d found herself struggling to cope with it all. Her husband didn’t remember marrying her, their children, or anything else from the past thirty years. It’d been a hard blow to take, and to find out that he wasn’t the only one didn’t make it any easier. What was even harder was seeing her husband fall in love with someone else, her best friend no less, but she was helpless to stop it. She wanted him to love her, she wanted him to come home and for their life to pick up just where they’d left off, but it became obviously clear that that wasn’t going to happen, and it was selfish of her to expect him to feel the same way she did, so she did the only thing she thought she could do, and she gave him space.

As hard as it had been for her, she knew things hadn’t been easy on the man she’d married either. Giving him space had been working well, it gave her some time to think and process what was happening, and it’d made the pill slightly easier to swallow. Sleeping alone didn’t get any easier though, and more nights than not she found herself tossing and turning until she finally found a restless sleep. He seemed happy though, and her kids were okay, and honestly, at the time, that had been enough for her. That was, until the costume party. Her husband and best friend had disappeared, and the rumors had flown freely throughout Mystic Falls. They’d run off to elope, they were finding a way to make the spell permanent, all sorts of things, and it’d be a lie if the doppelganger said it hadn’t gotten to her. Then they’d shown up a month later just as suddenly as they’d disappeared, and it became more than apparent that they hadn’t run off for a trip of leisure or love, but they had in fact endured something far more sinister. Once again, at a loss for what to do, she’d given them space, and given them time to adjust and heal. She gave them as much time as she could before she found herself on their doorstep after work, stethoscope still wrapped around her neck as her mind was elsewhere when she knocked on the door. When the door opened, she didn’t even process who had answered before she found herself speaking.

“A few days on an adventure that’s leading us god knows where, with a guy who literally popped up out of nothing, to save our best friend.” Her expression was expectant, meeting Elena’s gaze. “Please tell me we’re taking your car.” Caroline always did find the backseat more comfortable in her friend’s SUV.