Just Enough Rope, Chapter 6

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sigh.  I think I've lost all semblance of control over this story.

Fanfiction.net link:  http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6910203/6/Just_Enough_Rope
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CHAPTER 6

When Elijah entered his classroom that morning, Caroline was already there waiting for him. “Miss Forbes," he greeted her, drawling the 'r' a bit as he set his briefcase down. "You’re out and about early. Not here seeking an extension on your paper, I hope.”

“No, you’re a hard-ass, we get it. Which I will totally forgive, by the way, if you keep doing that ‘Miss Forrrbes’ thing, because hello, hawt! No, actually, since you're a teacher here now and everything, I want to recruit you.”

"Recruit me?"

"For one of the event planning committees. Instead of doing a Harvest Festival, because boring! I was thinking we should do a Ren Faire. And since you're a history teacher, you'd be the perfect faculty advisor for it."

Elijah closed his eyes for a couple of beats. When he opened them, she was still standing there, and still looking at him expectantly. "Surely you jest."

"No, I'm serious! Look, here's what I've got locked in so far." Pulling out a three-ring binder marked 'School Events,' Caroline flipped to the designated tab. "I want to give it the feel of an outdoor market over here, which is where there will be vendor booths, then a stage over here with medieval type entertainment, like dances and plays and stuff, and then..." she pawed through the different pages until she came to another drawing. "I want to have fencing demonstrations and a jousting tournament. That's where you would come in."

Raising an eyebrow at her, he took the notebook from her and flipped through the pages she had included regarding the event. In addition to drawings and diagrams, she had listed out what each component would need, and had organized contact lists, letters of support, cost estimates, a list of paying participants... any number of organizational details. He had seen top level corporate executives with less organizational acumen. "It looks like you've already done quite a lot of work on the project. I'm impressed," he said – and meant it.

"The only thing I need now is a member of the faculty to sign on to oversee, and someone to train the people who want to participate in the fencing and the joust."

"Shouldn't you hire professionals for that demo? You can't be expecting students to do any jousting." He was fairly certain the school board would frown upon the death-by-impalement of its high school students.

"Well, with modifications, sure! I mean, we'll need to plan on safety equipment and measures and stuff, but I think we can do it. Besides," she lowered her voice. "Whenever we have some kind of a school event, it always seems like we get attacked by vampires or something. So it would be really good if you were around." Caroline closed her binder up and slid it back into her backpack, giving him that sweet-yet-steely head cheerleader smile. "Can I sign you up?"

"What are your plans after high school, Caroline?" he asked, apropos of nothing.

"Huh? Um, college, I guess. I mean, that always was the plan...why?"

"We'll have a more detailed discussion regarding your future at another time. For now, yes, I'll sign on for your event."

The girl let out a little squeal and pressed her hands together delightedly. "Thank you so much. This is going to be epic! I knew I could pull this off. Hah! Suck it, Dana!"

"I'm glad I could be of assistance in your game of one-upsmanship," he said drily. Another skill that would serve her well as a vampire.

Caroline set her backpack down at her class desk. "Um, there's something else I kinda wanted to ask you."

“All right.” Elijah leaned against his desk, arms and feet crossed.

She hesitated fractionally, then plunged ahead. “Do you know any women… you know,” she looked around, though they were clearly the only ones in the room. “…vampires?” she finished in a stage whisper.

Elijah’s lips twitched, but he stifled the grin. “I do. Several.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, of course you know some.” She huffed out a sigh. “What I meant was, do you know of anyone I could, you know, talk to? The only other woman vampire I know is Katherine, like as if.”

“What is it you need to talk about?”

Caroline crossed her arms over her chest. “Like, you know. Woman stuff.”

“I…” No, don’t ask for details you don’t want, Elijah.

Too late. “It’s just that things with Matt were all like ‘Mmmm,’ but I was all like ‘Rawr!’, so I had to be all distant and stuff, and then there was everything with Tyler, but then Matt said he loved me, but then Tyler kissed me, and everything was all ’OMG!’ but then he was just all ‘whatevs’ while the werebillies were attacking me, and I was so mad, so when he apologized I was all ‘talk to the hand!’ But then he came back and we talked, and the ritual happened, and Tyler was all like ‘Grrr!’ and I was all ‘No!’ and he totally ran off and didn’t eat anyone, and I think I may kind of like him, but what if I get all like ‘Rawr’ again and he gets all ‘Grrr!’ and…” She heaved an enormous sigh. How she had the breath left to do so, he couldn’t imagine. “I just really need someone to talk to.”

“Okay. Well, I – ”

“I mean, what if I make a mistake and bite him and drink some of his blood? Is that poisonous, like if they bite us? And what about saliva? Because when he kissed me before there wasn't like tongue or anything.”

Elijah scrubbed a hand over his face. He was beginning to feel marginally sympathetic toward Damon. “I think I know someone I can – ”

“And for that matter, what about other, you know, fluids and stuff? Like if I went – ”

“Caroline.”

“Huh?”

“Stop. Talking.”

“Oh. Okay,” she said, looking chastened.

“I have someone in mind. I’ll put in a call to her. All right?”

“Um, ’kay.”

“Was that all?” Please, Dear God, let that be all.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Elijah began taking out his lesson plan and notes for the day, thinking that perhaps adopting some of Klaus's demeanor might not be a thoroughly bad idea. Surely Klaus had never had to deal with a newborn vampire's sex questions.

The warning bell rang; within a few minutes, students were filing in for their first period class. Elena and Stefan arrived in the first wave. He motioned Elena over as she came through the door. “How is your aunt his morning?” he asked, in a low voice.

Elena shrugged. “She got up and went to class, so I think she’s okay.”

“Good.” He left it at that and let her take her seat.

Matt Donovan, Caroline’s ‘Mmmm’ in question, strode in and walked up to Elena’s desk. “Elena, I can’t believe you never told me!”

Elena darted a quick look at Stefan and at Caroline. “Told you what, Matt?”

“That you have a twin sister! You never even told me you were adopted. Why didn't you say anything?”

Stefan looked over at Elijah with an ‘oh shit!’ expression. “Matt, what… where did you see my… sister?” Elena asked him.

“I walked in and she was trying to open her locker, and I thought it was you, but I couldn't figure out why you had changed lockers. I can’t believe you weren’t going to tell me – here she is.”

Sure enough, Katerina came sauntering through the door, dressed in an outfit straight out of some teen male sex fantasy: plaid microskirt, button-up shirt that was unbuttoned down to there, and thigh-high black leather boots. Her hair was unbound, and framed her face in a riot of curls. She had a notebook and a couple of textbooks carried in one arm. With a wicked glint in her eye, she came up to Elijah's desk and handed him a piece of paper that turned out to be a note from the guidance office, showing ‘Katherine Pierce’ as a transfer student, assigned to his first period history class.

All conversation in the classroom ceased for a moment, the charged silence quickly giving way to heated whispers as the students who were not named Elena, Caroline or Stefan darted looks back and forth between the two doppelgangers. Elena shot him a desperate ‘do something!’ look. Katerina had picked her moment beautifully, however. There was precious damn little he could do about it, given the present circumstance.

Elijah set the paper on his desk and gestured toward the desks. “Take a seat, Miss Pierce.”

Matt motioned toward an empty desk next to his. "Hey Kat, over here."

Katerina smiled at him and moved down the row, pausing next to Elena. “I can't believe we're finally going to the same school, sis!” she told Elena, before moving on to Matt. “Thank you so much for helping me with my locker, Matt. I can't believe I couldn't get the combination right.” she told him sweetly, batting her eyes at him.

At least, Elijah thought morosely, he now knew Katerina’s whereabouts.
~~~~~

“Miss Pierce, perhaps you could remain a few moments to go over the syllabus,” he suggested when the bell rang, signaling the end of first period.

“Of course. Mr. Smith.”

Elena, Stefan and Caroline all shot him looks with various levels of pleading as they left the classroom. Elijah brought up the rear, intending to close the classroom door to have a little chat with his newest pupil.

“You should probably leave that open,” Katerina suggested. “It wouldn’t look good – a male teacher, a female student, behind closed doors… What would people say?”

Elijah shut the door firmly and had her down across the desk a fraction of a second later. “What on earth are you playing at now, Katerina? A high school student? Really?”

“Who's asking? Elijah the Original Vampire, or ‘mild-mannered history teacher Mr. Smith?’” she mocked.

Elijah released her throat with a scowl and took a step back. Katerina sat up, crossing her legs as she perched on the edge of the desk, which inched the tiny skirt up even further. “Why are you here, Katerina?”

She fluffed her hair up, shrugging. “Building a life. You know, now that I’m not running for mine. Isn’t that what I was supposed to be doing?” she asked innocently.

He sighed deeply. “And you thought it best to do that by remaining in Mystic Falls? And going to high school?"

“Where else was I supposed to go?"

"Anywhere but here?"

"I happen to like it here," she said archly. "And if I wanted to stay, there had to be a reason for Elena and I to look alike. The twins separated at birth and adopted out to two families thing seemed like the most logical story to go with. And if I’m supposed to be her twin, then it would be odd if I didn’t go to school, wouldn’t it?”

He supposed he really couldn't argue with the logic, as far as it went. Stepping forward again, he took her chin in his hand, tilting her head up. "Do not mistake my previous leniency for carte blanche to run around causing trouble, Katerina. If you become a problem, I will end you. So, I will expect you to be on your best behavior."

“Well, what fun would that be?” She shot him a coy little sideways glance and hopped down off the desk. “I think I have English next period.”

Elijah caught her arm before she could slip out the door. “I have enough to worry about right now, Katerina, without having to worry about you, too.

She leaned into him, bringing her lips close to his ear. “Then don’t worry.” A second bell rang, indicating the start of second period. Elijah released her as the door swung open and his next class started filing in. One more wicked little glance over her shoulder at him, and she left, causing a male student to walk into the door frame when he turned to stare at her retreating form, as another let out a wolf whistle, setting off what was sure to be a cavalcade of testosterone-driven nonsense throughout the school's male populace.

Elijah shook his head. Absolutely no good could possibly come out of this.

~~~~~

During the fifth period study hall that he had to baby-sit, Elijah alternated between sending out text messages and watching Katerina as she insured that no male in the room paid attention to anything but her. Marcus and Sophia were still in the area; Sophia agreed to come back to town and meet with Caroline. Elijah thought about warning her just what she was getting into, but afraid that she might change her mind, he opted to keep that information to himself. He sent a few texts to various people keeping an eye on things for him in New York, one to Maya to check on Bonnie's progress, and one to Damon to warn him about the Katerina situation. The handful of text messages he sent to Jenna went unanswered.

When he still hadn't heard back from her by the time he was finished for the day, he called. It rang several times, then kicked over to voicemail. Growing concerned, he waylaid Elena as she came out of her last class of the day. "Have you heard from Jenna at all today?" he asked, walking down the hall with her as she went to her locker.

"No, why?"

"She hasn't responded for a couple of hours. Given everything that's going on..." He gave her a meaningful look.

"Here, I'll try her." Elena took her own phone out and dialed Jenna. Just as it had when he had called, it rang and then went to voicemail. "That's weird," Elena said, pocketing her phone with a frown. "Today is her early day, she's usually done with class by lunch time." She looked past him, down the hall. "Jer!"

Elijah turned to see Jeremy walking toward them. "Hey. So, Katherine: WTF?" he asked as he drew near.

"I'll deal with it," Elijah told him shortly. "Have you heard from your aunt at all today?"

He shook his head. "No. Why, is something wrong?"

"She's not answering her phone," Elena told him.

"You said she was sick last night. Maybe she's taking a nap. Or she's working on her thesis and turned off her phone," Jeremy suggested.

Maybe I'm just getting paranoid, like Klaus. "I'll swing by the house and check on her."

"Do you want us to head home?" Elena asked.

"No. Go on ahead to the hospital. I'll call if there is a problem. It's probably just as you said: she's either sleeping or preoccupied." Or in some kind of trouble from Justin or God knows who else. If I'm being paranoid.

On his way to the parking lot, he called Andie to see if she had heard from Jenna, but struck out there too. If he were brutally honest with himself, the whole lot of them would likely be better off if he just returned to New York until the fallout from Klaus's demise had settled, but he feared that if he left now it would be too little, too late, and he'd only be leaving them unprotected. Busy with his phone and with retrieving his car keys, Elijah didn't look up until he was only a couple of car lengths from his vehicle. When he did, he stopped dead.

Two figures stood flanking the car. The man stood on the passenger side, his powerful arm leaned casually on the roof of his Lexus. At around 6-foot-5, he topped Elijah's height by several inches. His sand brown hair has been chopped into one of those spiky, unkempt hairstyles that were supposed to be stylish. The woman leaned against the driver's side, arms crossed in front of her. Only a few inches shorter than the male, her hair was as long and as red as Elijah remembered it. Both were well-dressed, muscular and athletic. And both were Originals.

Elijah resumed walking, keeping his eyes on both of them, and he perhaps put just a bit more swagger into his step. The woman straightened and walked toward him as he neared the front of his car. He stood his ground, hands hanging loosely at his sides, letting her approach. She stopped mere inches in front of him, looking him up and down appraisingly. He quirked a brow at her (and wasn't it annoying that he had to look up at her to do so) and waited, his peripheral vision trained on the man.

She ended the stand-off first. Closing the distance between them, she grabbed him into a bone-crushing hug and practically lifted him off the ground. "Elijah, you son of a bitch!" She loosened her grasp on him enough to pull back and look him in the eye. "You actually – finally – took that bastard out?"

"I did," he confirmed, which got him squeezed against her once more. He flicked a glance over at the man. "Little help here?" he asked, his voice coming out half-strangled.

"Hilda, let the man breathe," he told her. Hilda released him reluctantly. He drew in a deep breath – which promptly left him in a whoosh when the man snatched him up into a bear-hug. This time, his feet did leave the ground. By several inches.

"Gareth," he choked out, "put me down, you big idiot."

The huge man set him down, but not without giving him several manly-hug-back-thumps that set his teeth jarring. Elijah straightened his jacket and tried to gather the shreds of his dignity. Which Hilda promptly shattered again by laying a big kiss on him. "Oh for Christ sake, woman, let him be," Gareth told her. "I think this deserves a celebratory drink, Elijah. I assume there's someplace to get one in his backwater hell hole?"

Elijah glanced at his watch. "I... all right. A quick one."

~~~~~

It was early; consequently, the Grill was sparsely populated. Elijah appropriated a corner table, going around in back so he was facing out toward the rest of the room. Matt Donovan waved as he walked through and headed toward the kitchen to start his shift. Gareth went to the bar and came back with three glasses and a bottle of what was likely the best scotch available in Mystic Falls – outside of Elijah's personal collection at home, of course. "To Klaus: May the bastard's soul writhe in hell," he said, raising his glass. Elijah and Hilda did likewise, all of them draining the first glass in a couple of swallows.

"Have you heard from any of the others?" Hilda asked, pouring herself a second glass.

Elijah held his out for a refill. "Sebastian sent his lapdog to confirm."

"Which one?" Gareth asked. "He's got three or four on a string."

"Justin."

Hilda made a face. "No one else?"

"Just the two of you so far."

Gareth leaned forward on his elbows. "You need to think about calling a summit, Elijah. The sooner the better."

"A summit?" Elijah asked, frowning. "What for?"

"There are issues that need to be discussed. Hell, that have needed to be discussed for decades now, except Klaus would hear nothing of it," Hilda pointed out.

"Klaus may have been crazy as a shit-house rat, Elijah, but he wasn't wrong about everything," Gareth added. "There are decisions to be made about how we're going to handle things now that he's not hovering over us all."

The outside door opened, and Katerina strolled in, glancing his way briefly before going over to the bar to greet Matt.

Gareth looked around to see what had caught Elijah's attention, and did a double-take. "Is that...?"

"Mmm. Katerina. The first doppelganger."

Hilda snorted into her glass. "And she's still alive... why?"

Elijah took a swallow of scotch. "A question I ask myself on a continual basis." Katerina had pulled herself up onto a barstool and ordered a drink (soda presumably, given her cover story) so she could flirt with Matt while he performed, or tried to perform, his duties. The young Mr. Donovan was obviously buying absolutely everything she was selling.

"Oh no. Don't tell me she finally got to you, too," Hilda said, following his gaze.

"No. She hasn't." Had she? He didn't think so. And yet, when he had finally had the golden opportunity to be rid of her forever, he had blown his own carefully laid plans. And rather than running her out of town on a rail when she had pulled her stunt that morning, he had reluctantly gone along with it. Lovely. Yet another thing to worry about.

Hilda set her glass aside and leaned forward, mirroring Gareth. "Is it true that you've agreed to set the witches up with their own compound?" she asked, her voice low.

"It is." Elijah wasn't surprised to be questioned on this point; he had known that it wouldn't be a popular move in some circles.

"Was that smart?"

"I like to think so. You don't agree?"

Gareth took the conversational baton from Hilda, making Elijah wonder suddenly just how 'together' they were. It would make sense, he supposed. Present personal circumstances notwithstanding, he had always maintained that vampires were better off with one another than going the human route. "I think it's dangerous to let them convene and learn from one another and not keep some kind of a rein on them," he said.

"You're clinging to the old way of thinking, Gareth. Keep them enslaved, and sooner or later they were going to build up enough power to throw off the yoke, and we can't have that. It's in our best interest to work with them, show them that they are better off allying with us than being at odds."

Hilda shook her head, scowling. "I don't like it. You should have maintained control over them. They can't be dealt with as equals."

"They're too powerful not to be dealt with as equals." He finished his drink and checked his phone. Still no word from Jenna. "I gave them my word. I will honor it."

"And the summit?"

"I'll consider it." Elijah rose. "I have matters I need to attend to, but it's good to see you both. It's been a long time."

"Too long," Gareth agreed, standing and clasping his hand.

"Will the two of you be remaining here in town?"

"We'll be in D.C. for the next little while." Hilda reached into her pocket and gave him a slip of paper with their cell numbers on it, and hugged him again. "Call us when you've set something up."

He didn't bother to correct her 'when' with an 'if.' Bidding them goodbye, he cast a last glance over at the bar, where Matt was leaning on his elbows and telling Katerina some story or other while she looked at him with rapt attention. Elijah added 'slip vervain to Matt Donovan' to his mental to-do list and exited the premises, hoping fervently that Jenna would be at the house when he got there.