What's At Stake, Part Seventeen

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Well, fuck.  I don't know.  I think the Exposition Fairy must have left this under my pillow.  Not where I had intended to go with the next section.  And I am SO not going to have this story finished before the new episode airs on Thursday.
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When Elijah arrived at the Salvatore House to fetch Damon for their trip to the burial ground, Katerina was waiting for him at the end of the walkway. And isn't this just the day for unwanted encounters. He briefly entertained the thought of driving right back down the driveway and texting Damon to meet him elsewhere, but that tactic would likely only postpone the inevitable. He parked and stepped out of the car, closing the door and leaning against it. "Katerina."

She walked toward him, ticking points off on her fingers as she approached. "Okay: You say something acerbic, I come on to you, you push me away in disgust, I come on to you harder, you 'insert-gratuitous-act-of-violence here' and call me a slut, and I go away in pain, yet still somehow pleased that I managed to goad you into reacting." She stopped in front of him, arms crossed. "There. Can we consider the preliminaries dispensed with?"

The corner of his mouth twitched. "I must admit that I would prefer to actually perform the gratuitous act of violence, but as I'm pressed for time, I suppose we can move on."

"Good. I want to talk about Klaus."

"Funny you should mention him. I saw him this morning. At the coffee shop." He smiled evilly. "He can't wait to see you."

She pulled her arms in a little tighter. "I want in, Elijah."

"In?"

"Don't be obtuse. On the plan to kill Klaus. I want in."

"I'm sure you do. The problem, Katerina, is that I can't trust you."

"You aren't exactly on my list of Top 10 favorite people either. Still, I'd like to call for a cease-fire. Let's worry about Klaus first. We can sort the rest out amongst ourselves later."

Elijah stood there, looking at her doubtfully, letting her squirm while he pretended to consider her offer. Truth be told, he had figured that, if he just ignored her, she would come to him and beg to be included. Letting her think it was her idea would make her more likely to actually do what she was told, more or less. "Perhaps..." he said tentatively, then shook his head. "No. I can't chance it."

"Elijah. If you are ever going to believe me about anything, believe that I want Klaus dead, just as much as you do." She rolled her eyes when he didn't answer. "Do you need me to beg?"

He eyed her curiously. "Would you?"

Katerina ground her teeth together. "If I have to."

Damon's exit from the house prevented him from testing that assertion. He shrugged. "I'll consider it."

Damon came down the walkway, juggling a stack of journals as he shrugged into a leather jacket. Katerina looked from Damon to Elijah. “I could come with you,” she offered.

“No,” both Elijah and Damon said in unison.

“Be smart. I could be of some help.”

Damon paused in front of her. “You want to help?”

“Yes! What have I been telling you for the last three weeks?!”

“In that case… The vacuum and duster are in the hall closet. Spruce the place up a little before everyone comes over.” Damon patted the top of her head. “Go be a good little helper, now.”

Katerina swatted his hand and whirled around, storming back into the house. Damon watched her go. “I don’t know about you,” he said, “but I don’t think the house is going to be cleaned when we get back.”

Elijah smirked as he climbed back into the car. “You have seen her room, yes?”

“I try not to.” Damon got in on the passenger side and set the journals on the back seat. Turning back around, he eyeballed the visible portion of the land to which Elijah had laid waste. “Do you have any idea what a landscaper is going to run me?” he complained.

“You can deduct it from what you owe me for the car." Elijah turned around and headed down the driveway, pausing to look at Damon when he reached end. Damon pointed to the left. "Out of curiosity," he said, pulling onto the road, "why did you allow her to stay?”

“Friends close, enemies closer…”

“No other reason?"

"Such as?"

"I had gathered that you once had feelings for her. You're not still carrying that torch?"

“For Katherine? No. Fool me once...” Damon gestured toward the right. "Turn down here."

Elijah did as instructed. "You heard her back there. What are your thoughts?"

"Of letting her in on the fight?" Damon seemed on the verge of some smart-ass reply or other, but stopped to consider, perhaps surprised to be asked for his opinion.

"Mm. Do you believe her?"

"I believe that she wants Klaus dead." He adjusted his seat belt, which had ridden up on the leather. "But do I trust her to stay on plan? Not so much."

"Nor I." Curious to test Damon's personnel analysis skills, Elijah pressed on. "What of the others? Break it down for me."

Damon slanted a glance over at him. "Is this a pop quiz?"

"Perhaps."

He shrugged. "Stefan's all in. Obviously. White knight, shining armor, the whole nine. Bonnie too; although, I'm not sure about this crazy-ass, channeling, ghost whisperer crap. Alaric's solid. Jeremy is a goddamn pain in the ass, but he's got the magical-ring-of-me-not-being-able-to-kill-him, so maybe once Klaus snaps his neck he'll at least trip over him or something. Vampire Barbie's probably good for talking one of Klaus's ears off. Those are the ones I'm sure of." He motioned. "Take a left up here at the crossroad, then you've got about five miles to go."

"You don't include Isobel on that list?" Elijah asked, making the turn.

"Heh. No."

"Just as well I sent her off to Europe, then."

"Good riddance. Speaking of Elena's biologicals, let's hope Uncle Daddy doesn't show up and throw a wrench into the works."

Elijah smiled. "I don't believe that will be an issue."

"Uh, you've met John, right?"

"Saw him again earlier today, in fact. I don't think we need to worry."

Damon narrowed his eyes and gave Elijah a little sideways grin. "What'd you do to him?"

"Let's just say that, biologically speaking, Elena will remain an only child."

"Nice." Damon stretched his legs out, shifting position again. "So I guess that just leaves our little witchy wild card. Who has already, by her own admission, betrayed Klaus. Soooo, why is it that we don't think she's going to betray us too?"

"Oh, she already has," Elijah told him nonchalantly.

"What?"

"Klaus wasn't at all surprised to see me. Which means that she either resurrected me at his behest from the get-go, or she did that on her own, but reported it to Klaus after the fact. I'm inclined to believe it was the latter."

Damon was starting to get that wild look around the eyes. "And you're... okay with this?"

"I counted on it," he assured him.

Damon clapped his hands together. "Alrighty, then. Now we just need someone to kill her. Ooh, I'll do it!" he added, raising his hand.

"No, you won't."

"Why not, exactly?"

Elijah slanted a look over at him. "There's nothing wrong with your mind, Damon. Think it through."

"Look, obviously she's still working for Klaus, which means we need to get rid of her before we go over the details of the big plan and she relays them... after which you'll change them again," Damon nodded, catching on. Then he brightened. "And then we get to kill her!"

"The situation is a little more complicated than that."

"Hmm..." Damon rubbed his chin, pretending to consider. "Nope! Not seeing the complication. She betrays us, we kill her. Nice and simple." Damon gestured toward the right. "Pull off over here. There's an old access road that all but disappears once you reach the tree line. We're pretty much on foot from here."

Elijah pulled all the way off the road and parked, reaching into the back seat for a sketch pad and the camera he had stowed back there. Damon rounded up the journals and set off toward the trees. Elijah checked the batteries for the camera, then caught up to him. "Andie didn't have much of a choice," he said, continuing the conversation.

"Witches can't be compelled, remember? Can't make 'em do something they don't want to."

"Of course you can," he chided. "You just have to know where to apply the pressure."

"She was here. Klaus wasn't. She chose her side."

"Klaus has her son."

Damon stopped in his tracks. "Wait, what?"

"There's nothing wrong with your hearing, either. Andie has a son. Klaus has him squirreled away. He won't hesitate to kill the boy if she steps out of line." Elijah took advantage of the temporary halt and snapped some photos of the pathway into the grounds for reference. "You can't fault the woman for protecting her child."

"Oh, I think I can," Damon assured him. "You, though... I can see why you would hesitate, since that's sort of your thing."

"My 'thing?'"

Damon rolled his eyes and made his little come-on-we're-all-in-on-this smirk. "You know, the caretaking, maternal thing that gets you all hot and bothered? I mean, I'm not judging or anything. Whatever does it for you, man."

No, there was nothing wrong with his mind. Nothing at all. "And upon what are you basing this conclusion?"

"Please. It's so obvious. There's little orphaned Irina, taking care of her brother and sister; then there's the child-inheriting Aunt Jenna, who – whom – you've been flirting with; and now there's Andie, who wants to gift-wrap you and hand you to Klaus, but apparently it's cool because she's a MILF..." He smirked. "Well, actually, I guess she'd be a MIDF. You know, Mother I DID – "

"Damon."

"Hey, it's cool. I'm just saying, you've got a thing for moms." He lost the smirk as another thought occurred to him. “You don’t actually like the kids, do you?”

Elijah considered. “I enjoy them sometimes. I take it you don't?”

“They're... okay, I guess. I mean, I couldn’t eat a whole one by myself or anything." He made a silly-me expression. "Wait, what am I saying? Of course I could.”

Elijah just shook his head. The brush was growing thicker, crowding the path as they approached the woods. Damon hadn't been joking about it narrowing to almost nothing. He paused to snap some more photos while Damon pushed on ahead. The crunching of their footsteps sounded preternaturally loud to Elijah's ears; the woods were eerily still and silent. There was no rustling under the leaves blanketing the ground to indicate the presence of small animals. No birds called out to warn of their passage, or took startled flight from the limbs overhead. It was as though the trees themselves watched them, waiting.

Damon paused, waiting for Elijah to pull even with him again. “Did you ever have any?" he asked suddenly. "Kids? You know, before?”

Elijah slid the camera back into his pocket. "Speaking of the parent-child relationship, we should discuss Caroline."

"What about her?" Damon asked, letting the unanswered question lie.

"You appear to have been shirking your responsibilities as her sire."

Damon held his hands out. "No. Uh-uh. That was Katherine's mess."

"Oh? I was given to understand that it was your blood that turned her."

"Well, yeah, I suppose, if you want to get technical about it. There was a car accident. She was bleeding internally, and they did surgery, but the doctors told her mother that it was iffy. So, yours truly here – at Bonnie's request, I might add – slipped into her room and gave her a little transfusion to heal her. And that would have been the end of the story, but Katherine overheard Bonnie talking about it, and decided to make Caroline her messenger in one of her twisted little games. Voila, Vampire Barbie."

"Damon, just because it wasn't your intent to sire someone, that doesn't absolve you of your responsibility in the matter. Unless you understand and accept that turning someone is a possible eventuality any time you give them your blood, you have no business giving it." Elijah paused, motioning for Damon to do the same. "There are certain expectations in these situations. I don't think you can be held entirely at fault for not understanding that, given the circumstances – and the perpetrator – of your own siring. Still, you have responsibilities to the girl. You shouldn't be leaving her tutelage up to Stefan." Especially not to Stefan.

Damon bit his lip and gave him a sidelong glance. "Wait, is this... are we having the vampire version of 'The Talk'?" he asked, using air-quotes.

"I suppose, if you will." Elijah started walking again; Damon fell into step.

"Fine. Got it. Next time I try to keep someone from dying, I'll wear a condom. Happy?"

"What exactly is your problem with her? Yes, she can be a bit over-enthusiastic, and does talk a lot, but she isn't a stupid girl. In fact, I think she can be rather insightful, in her own way."

"Okay. Look. We used to date. And by date I mean we – "

"I take your meaning, Damon."

"Right. So, given the past, what with the 'dating' and the chomping and the compelling – which she now remembers – ...let's just say it's a bit awkward." Damon snapped a low-hanging branch out of their way, tossing it off to the side. "I suppose now you're going to lecture me on the compulsion, Dad?"

Elijah shrugged. "If you need to compel a woman to draw her to your bed, that's none of my affair."

Damon stopped, holding a hand palm-down in front of him. "No no no. I don't need to compel a woman to get her into bed."

He shrugged. "To keep her there, then."

"I don't need to compel them for that, either! So not the point."

"If you say so." Elijah stopped suddenly, motioning for Damon to remain still, certain he'd heard something. No other sound came, though; they eventually started walking again. “You should take Caroline out hunting. Now that you know how to close a bite, that's something you could show her.”

"Yeah. Because Damon the Tutor will go over so well."

“You know, you’re clever, you're quick, you're perceptive… With a little work on your impulse control and self-esteem issues, you could have a very bright future.”

Damon gave an incredulous little laugh. “Self-esteem issues? Uh, have you met me? I loooooove me. You have me confused with Stefan again.”

"Do you realize that any time someone tries to pay you a compliment, you deflect it and bring up Stefan?"

Damon broke through the trees and into a large, circular clearing, Elijah following closely on his heels. He didn't need to ask if they had arrived. Every hair on his body suddenly felt as though it were standing on end, almost like he had touched a live wire. Which he supposed he had, metaphorically speaking. Jonas had said there would be power in such a place. He hadn't been lying.

Though no breeze stirred the air, and there were no signs of the wildlife that the woods normally teemed with, Elijah could have sworn her heard muted whispers echo through the clearing, words too indistinct to make out. He walked across the yellowed grass, toward the center of the circle, where a large stone jutted out of the earth, seeing the occasional flicker in his peripheral vision, but when he turned there was nothing there. Elijah took the camera out of his pocket to take some more photos, but when he turned it on, the battery indicator, fully charged just moments before, now showed red, almost completely drained of power. He pocketed it again and turned to look at Damon; the younger vampire looked as creeped out as he felt. It was not a feeling that an almost 1200 year-old vampire was accustomed to.

"We're really gonna do this thing," Damon said grimly.

Elijah opened the sketchpad he'd brought and fished a pencil out of his coat. "Let's start figuring out how."