Just Enough Rope, Chapter 17

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In which Elena gets her Petrova on.  Damn, girl!  Didn’t know you had it in you.  I think it’s safe to say that she is firmly on Team Alaric.

Fanfiction.net link:  http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6910203/17/

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Seriously, as if the fact that she looks just like you isn’t weird enough!  But she walks in with this couple and she's hanging all over them like they're actually her family.”  Jenna kicked her shoes off and tucked her feet under her on the sofa.

Elena stared at her.  "She showed up with parents?"

"Mm-hmm."

"They must be compelled."

Jenna snorted.  "Gee, you think?  Completely scrambled.  Got to be," she said, tucking one of the throw pillows behind her back.  “Why is she even still here?”

“Believe me, I wish I knew.”  Elena grabbed the remote and turned down the volume as a commercial came on, driving the sound up several notches.

“Ooh, flip it to Survivor real quick.”

“Aunt Jenna, our lives ARE an episode of Survivor.  We don’t need to watch it on TV.”

Jenna leaned forward to snag her iced tea off of the coffee table.  “Can we vote Katherine off the island, then?  Because bitch has got to go.”

Elena made a face.  “Yeah, well, good luck with that, since your boyfriend has apparently given her immunity.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s still here, isn’t she?”  Elena shrugged diffidently.

“What's Elijah supposed to do, run her out of town on a rail?”  Speaking of Elijah, where was he, anyway?  It couldn't be taking him that long to pick up ice cream.

“He could.  If he wanted to.”

Jenna shook her head.  "If he could have, she'd be gone.  He has no use for her either."

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure," Elena snotted at her.

And just what the hell was her problem?  "You're in a mood."

"Whatever.  I'm just saying."  Elena boosted the volume back up on the television.

Jenna got up and grabbed the remote, turning the TV off and squaring off with Elena.  “No, actually, you're not saying.  So whatever it is you’re trying to dance around, just spit it out.”

“Fine.  First, Elijah almost blew the sacrifice ritual trying to save Katherine, and now he’s playing along with this whole high school charade. He's twenty times more powerful than she is.  If he wanted to force her out, he could.  God knows she's all about saving her own neck,” she added, her tone making it clear what she thought of that.  “But really, what do you expect, considering.”

"What, Elena?  Considering what?"

“The doppelganger thing?  Me, Katherine, Irina?”

Jenna looked at her blankly.  “I know you're both doppelgangers.  But what does that have to do with it?  And who is Irina?”

Elena raised her eyebrows at her.  “Oh…  You didn't know?  I guess he must have skipped over that part when he gave you the big explanation.”

“Elena…”

“He told you how the doppelganger came about and why, right?  Yes, Katherine and I are doppelgangers.  Irina was the original.”

“And…?”

Her niece looked at her like she was explaining something to a small child.  “And Elijah was in love with her.”

Oh, Elijah had skipped over that part, all right.  “But he can’t stand Katherine,” Jenna defended him, searching her memory for anything he had said about the doppelgangers and how they were created to break the curse.

“Well gee, that wasn’t the impression I got when he was on top of her, trying to rip her clothes off,” Elena said, lifting her hand to examine her fingernails.

What?!  “When did… are you… What the hell are you talking about?”

Elena sighed and faced her.  “Before the ritual, when we all met?  I walked out onto the verandah, and they were going at it.”

“There was kind of a lot going on at the time, Elena.  Are you sure you didn’t misinterpret something?” Jenna asked her, grasping at straws.

“Let’s see…  Katherine was on her back on the patio table, her legs were wrapped around Elijah, his shirt was open, and they were vacuuming each other’s tonsils.  Plus, there was grinding involved.  So... nope, I don’t think I ‘misinterpreted’ anything.”  Elena crossed her arms over her stomach, eyebrows raised, with the ghost of a self-satisfied smile playing around her lips, and shrugged slightly.  "Sorry."

Jenna stared at her niece, wondering how best to forge this new territory.  She and Elena hadn't always seen eye to eye on everything, but she had never acted like this – being snotty and purposely hurtful.  She nodded slowly.  "Yeah.  The resemblance really is uncanny."

"Hey, look, I'm just – "

"I'm sure you have homework," Jenna cut her off.  "Go do it."

"Jenna – "

"Now."

Elena hissed out a sigh and went up to her room, not exactly slamming her door, but closing it harder than strictly necessary.  Agitated – and that had no doubt been the point, hadn't it? – she went into the dining room and started straightening up the academic effluvia littering the table.  Her abstract was printed out and only needed to be bound before she took and turned it in tomorrow.  Jenna picked it up, appreciating the heft of it and the amount of work that it represented.  Flipping over the cover sheet, she looked at the two photos she had inserted into her 'Contents' page.

Her research topic being siblings, she had included a scanned photo of she and Miranda from some long ago Fourth of July celebration.  Miranda was around fourteen in it and budding into womanhood.  She had her long hair in an up-do that Jenna supposed she had considered sleek and grown-up, a look that went well with the weskit-style vest and flared shorts she was wearing in the photo.  Jenna, just five years old at the time, had green stains and bits of grass on her knees, and a big watermelon stain on the front of her striped T-shirt.  She sat on Miranda's lap, crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out at whoever had been snapping the photo.

The other photo was of Elena and Jeremy, taken probably three or four years ago at the lake house.  Jeremy had caught a fish off of the dock and was advancing on Elena with it where she sat sunbathing, while Grayson stood in the background, holding his own fishing pole and laughing at the kids' antics.  Miranda would have been the one behind the camera then.  She wondered suddenly what her own family photos would look like.  And who would be in the background of them.

Elijah's quick knock sounded at the door, and he let himself in, calling out a greeting as he armed the alarm system and carried a large grocery bag down to the kitchen.  Jenna followed him into the kitchen.  "I was beginning to wonder if you'd changed your mind.  Where'd you go?"

"A certain lady sent me on a mission.”  He kissed her temple in passing and set the bag on the counter, removing cartons of ice cream, toppings, whipped cream, and cones from the bag.  "There's Rocky Road, pistachio, and black raspberry.  I wasn't certain which 'situation' we might be having this evening."

Aw!  He knew her ‘situations.’  "Definitely a 'chocolate situation,'" she decided, slipping her arms around his waist and kissing him.  Elena’s insinuations notwithstanding, damn she had missed him.  Her body had really missed him.  She pressed against him more fully, flicking her tongue over his.

Elijah chuckled against her lips.  "In that case," he told her, pressing her against the counter and kissing her more deeply, "there's hot fudge as well."

"I'm seeing a number of intriguing possibilities here."  She sucked his lower lip into her mouth, giving it a little nibble.

"Mmm... such as?" Elijah slid his hands underneath her shirt and ran them up her sides, his thumbs brushing over her breasts.

Jenna put a hand to his chest and pushed him back.  "You dish up the ice cream and grab the can of whipped cream, I'll heat the hot fudge."  She gave his groin a friendly pat as she slipped by him.  "Then we'll go upstairs and find out."

~~~~~

Breathing hard, and only semi-coherent, Jenna flopped back onto the bed.  She landed on something cold and hard, and reached underneath her to pull out the can of whipped cream.  She set it on the nightstand, or tried to; it slid off the edge and hit the floor, where it rolled under the bed.  “Oops.”

Elijah draped an arm over her and licked a stray smear of fudge sauce off of her shoulder, making her giggle.

“I’ve never much seen the attraction of ice cream,” he confessed, “but I think I may have gained a new perspective on it.”

Jenna rolled onto her side so she was facing him and took his hand, examining his fingers.  “Sorry I bit you,” she said sheepishly.

“I think I’ll recover.  You did say you had to be quiet,” he teased.

“I know,” she groaned, hiding her face in the pillow.  “It’s your fault.”

“I’ll accept that.”  Elijah tucked her hair back, where it had stuck to her sweat-dampened face.

She turned so she was facing him again.  “I missed you.  Are you okay?”  He hadn’t said anything about Sophia.  Not that she’d given him much opportunity to talk before molesting him, she reflected.

Elijah nodded.  “What about you?  Any other suspicious goings-on at the campus?”

“Nope.  All boringly normal.  And,” she said, merging her fingers with his, “I am turning my abstract in tomorrow.  On time!  Which means I can relax and enjoy our weekend.  That’s if you still want to go somewhere,” she added.  They hadn’t discussed it further, considering.  And they’d certainly broken through the first-time sex barrier already.

Some trace of thought or emotion flitted over his features and was gone before she could identify it.  “What would you think about driving up to DC tomorrow night?  We could stay for the weekend, take in some of the museums… I could point out what they got wrong,” he said, winking at her and grinning a little.  God, he was sexy when he did that.

“That could be fun.  I haven’t been to Washington since my junior class trip.  I’m going to enjoy making out with you way more than I did with Logan Fell.”

“Good to know.  I, uh, have one little thing I need to take care of while we’re there.”

So, not an entirely romantic weekend getaway, then.  “Oh?”

“Hilda and Gareth are staying there.  They had asked me to call a summit with the other Originals.  And, I’d like to ask Hilda to come and participate in the Ren Faire training.  I should meet up with them briefly while we’re there.”

“Yeah, sure.  I’d kind of like to meet her.  In a ‘holy cow she’ll probably scare the crap out of me’ sort of way.”

“It’s considered bad form to interfere with another vampire’s human.  You needn’t worry.  You’ll be perceived as mine and, as such, off-limits to them.”

‘Be perceived as’ his.  Not that she was his.  Down, girl.  Now is not the time to get weird and clingy and needy, Jenna.  “Also good to know.”  Jenna fluffed the pillows up behind her and pulled herself up so she was half-sitting, drawing the sheet over herself as she did so.  “Speaking of vampires and ‘their’ humans, what are you going to do about Katherine?”

Elijah rolled onto his back and put his hands behind his head, frowning.  “I don’t know.”

“She tried to kill me, you know,” Jenna told him, picking at a pulled thread along the edge of the coverlet.

“Elena spoke of it.  I don’t think you need to be concerned.  She’s unlikely to try again.”

“Can’t you force her out of town?  I mean, better safe than sorry, right?”

“I could, yes, but I’d prefer to have her where I can keep an eye on her.”

“Just an eye?” she mumbled under her breath.  But of course he heard it.

Elijah lay there for a moment, regarding her.  “Wouldn’t it just be simpler to come out and say whatever it is you’re trying not to?” he asked at last.

“Fine…  I was just wondering if you’re keeping her here because she reminds you of Irina, and you may have feelings for her because of it.”

He rolled onto his side and propped himself up on an elbow.  “It seems Elena’s been speaking of a lot of things, lately,” he observed, his tone carefully neutral.

“She said you kissed her."  Among other things.  "Why didn’t you tell me?”  Yeah, so much for not getting weird on him.

“Jenna,” he said, raising an eyebrow and giving her that disarming smile of his, “if I’m going to recite every woman I've kissed over the last twelve hundred years, it's going to be a very long conversation."

"You know what I mean.  When you were telling me about the doppelgangers, why didn't you tell me about Irina, and how she was connected to you?"

"Because it was irrelevant at the time."

"And since then?"

Elijah leaned in and kissed her shoulder.  "It's still irrelevant."

"But Katherine and Elena are just like her."

"No.  They look just like her.  There's a difference."

“Okay, but still – ”

A crash sounded downstairs, followed a split second later by the blaring of the alarm.  Elijah was out the door in a blur, telling her to instruct the alarm company not to send anyone, and disappeared down over the stairs.  Jenna got out of bed and grabbed her robe, planning to follow, when the phone on the bedside table rang.  She grabbed it, panicking momentarily as she blanked on the challenge question; once her brain re-engaged, she gave it to them, told them they had it under control and hung up.

Jeremy and Elena were both in the hall when she left her room.  “What’s going on?” Jeremy shouted, over the screeching of the alarm.

“I don’t know!” she shouted back, her voice ringing loud suddenly as the alarm cut off mid-sentence.

“Elijah went down to check,” she told them in a normal voice.  “He’s here,” she added, rather unnecessarily.

“Yeah. We heard,” Elena dead-panned, sharing a look with Jeremy.

Right.  God, she really was the worst aunt ever.  “Is everything okay?” Jenna asked, leaning over the railing and peering down the stairs.

“You have a broken window,” Elijah called up.  “It looks like someone was trying to let him or herself in through the dining room.  The alarm must have caused whoever it was to reconsider.”

“You guys go back to bed,” Jenna told them.  “We’ll take care of this.”

Elena ignored her and started down the stairs as Elijah rounded the corner into the hallway.  “Oh God!”  She did a quick one-eighty, slapping a hand over her eyes.  “Jeez, you couldn’t have put some pants on?”

“Time seemed rather of the essence,” he answered drily.

“Well, this is awkward,” Jeremy supplied helpfully.

At least he wasn’t eating ice cream, she thought inanely.  Jenna huffed out a breath.  “Bed.  Go.  We’ve got this.”

Elena flounced back up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door shut.  Jeremy gave her door a WTF look and shrugged at Jenna before turning and going to back his own room.  Jenna scrubbed a hand over her face and went back into the bedroom to retrieve Elijah’s pants, tossing them down to him.  “You better put something on your feet before you come down,” he warned.  “Broken glass.”

She did so and joined him in the dining room, where he was now half-clothed and picking up the larger pieces of glass.  “Did you get a look at who it was?”

“Not much of one.  Someone in a hooded sweatshirt, fleeing down the street.  I didn’t want to pursue, in case that person was just a lure to draw me out of the house.”

She frowned.  “Draw you out?”

“Another vampire wouldn’t be able to enter,” he reminded her.

Right.  “How would they know you were here?  Another spy?”

“Likely.”  He carried the glass out to the kitchen and threw it away.  “We can vacuum the rest up in the morning.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t go anywhere this weekend,” she said, following him.

“On the contrary, I think a trip to DC may be more imperative than I thought.  The sooner I can pull this summit together, the better.”

“What about the kids?  Should we leave them here?”

He dropped an arm over her shoulders.  “I’ll ask Stefan to stay again.”

“I really don’t think I should be condoning Elena having her boyfriend sleep over.”  Elijah just looked at her, one eyebrow raised.  “I’m an adult!  It’s different!”  The smirk joined the eyebrow.  “Oh, all right!  It’s not like I’m going to win any parenting awards at this point anyway.  At least I don’t need to worry about her getting pregnant,” she added morosely.

Elijah pulled her in and kissed the top of her head.  “Go up and get some sleep.”

“Are you coming up?”

“I think I’ll stay down here.”

“Oh, right.  The alarm won’t work now, will it?  Because of the contact point thingies?”  She was sure the technician had said something about contact point thingies.

He grinned.  “No, the system is still armed.  That was a glass-break alarm that triggered.  The frame is still in place, so the contacts are still functioning.  If anyone tries to come in it will still go off.”

Jenna stared at him blankly.  “Uh… okay.  If you say so.  Come to bed, then.”

“Better safe than sorry.”

“I’d argue with you,” she said, stifling a yawn, “but since my clock is set to go off in about four hours, I think I’ll crash.”  She would sleep better knowing he was keeping watch.  Not that she was going to tell him that.

Elijah kissed her and turned her toward the stairs.  “Get some sleep while you can.  I intend to keep you up quite late tomorrow evening.”

“Oh, I intend to keep you up, too,” she assured him, waggling her eyebrows at him as she went up over the stairs.  It didn’t occur to her until she was drifting off to sleep that they hadn’t really finished their discussion.  And they had resolved nothing about Katherine.

Just Enough Rope, Chapter 16

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Surprise!  Don't look now, but I think I'm getting back into the groove.  At the very least, I'm having fun again.  Something about envisioning Elijah sitting at a school cafeteria table just makes me giggle. 

Fanfiction.net link:  http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6910203/16/

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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Sophia was dead.

Elijah had spent the last three nights at the Salvatore house to help care for her, had in fact spent nearly all of his time when not at school there.  When he had arrived after yesterday’s classes had finished up, it was clear that it was time.  Though both he and Sophia had done all that they could to prepare Marcus for the inevitable, when the time came it had taken both Stefan and Damon to drag him from the house while Elijah did what needed to be done.  The last thing that he, or anyone, could do for her.

While his first period class sweated their way through the pop quiz he had thrown at them, Elijah texted Jenna to let her know that Sophia was gone.  He hadn’t seen Jenna since Sunday, when he had sent her home so he could grade papers and berate himself in private for putting Sophia in the situation that had ultimately killed her.  He’d spoken with her briefly, when she’d called to say she was returning to campus on Tuesday, as Mitchell was no longer in the picture.  He had argued that there were others of his pack out there still, but she had gone back to class anyway.  Privately, he continued to harbor misgivings about the professor’s student paramour, but Jenna had seemed convinced that the girl was just collateral damage.

He glanced down at his phone as the screen lit up.  A text back from Jenna:  “So sorry.  Come over here after school today?” Elijah slid out the phone’s keyboard.  “Committee meeting, then parent-teacher conferences.”  Her response was quick.  “Shit! Forgot. Guess I’ll see you there. Miss you.”

Elijah dropped the phone into his pocket and checked the clock.  “Time’s up.  Pass your papers forward.”

~~~~~

Caroline was already in the cafeteria, laying out packets of notes and photos on the designated table, when Elijah arrived there at the end of the school day, in advance of the rest of the committee.  She set the stack down as he approached the table and, much to his surprise, threw her arms around him.  “Uh…”

“Stefan told me.  I’m so sorry!  Are you okay?  You shouldn’t have to be here today.  You don’t need to stay if you don’t want to, I can run the meeting and bring you up to speed later.”

“No, that’s – ” 

“She was so nice and I can’t believe this.  It’s not fair!”

Elijah put his hands on her waist to try and disengage her.  “Things rarely are.  Let’s – ”

“Well well.  Look who’s teacher’s pet,” Katerina said, sauntering into the cafeteria from the hallway.

Caroline let go of him to glare at Katerina.  “Katherine.  Don’t you have a quarterback’s throat to go stick your tongue down or something?”

Katerina held up one of the flyers with which Caroline had peppered the school bulletin boards.  “You called for volunteers, didn’t you?  I’m volunteering.” 

The blond crossed her arms tightly in front of her.  “Why would you do that?”

“Why not?  I’m blending.  And extracurricular activities will look good on my transcript, right?”

“I don’t think your idea of extracurriculars generally show up on a transcript, Katherine.  Leave.”  She turned toward Elijah.  “Make her leave!”

Katerina ignored her, brushing past her to pick up one of the packets Caroline had left on the table.  “Hmm.  Ambitious.  Aren’t you just the little go-getter?”

“Katerina…”  Elijah warned, voice soft, but menace clear.

“Relax.  I want to help.  Besides, I may have just a little expertise to offer, you know.”  She slipped seamlessly into bubbly teenager mode as Matt Donovan entered the cafeteria.  “Matt!  Over here.  I’m so glad you got the afternoon shift off so you could be here.”  She laced her arm through his as he drew near.  “You are going to be so hot in period clothes,” she purred, practically rubbing herself against him like her feline namesake.  “…and with a great, big sword.”

Donovan blushed.  “I don’t know about this, Kat,” he said, glancing between her and Caroline, and looking embarrassed.

“Trust me, you’ll be great.  My knight in shining armor.”

“I’m gonna barf,” Caroline mumbled.  “Can’t you do anything?” she asked Elijah, sotto voce.

Apparently, he couldn’t.  Various students started filing in, including Elena, Jeremy, Tyler and Stefan, the last of whom appeared to be there under duress.  The four of them paused when they caught sight of Katerina, shooting looks at him and Caroline before pursing their lips and joining them at the table.  As everyone came in and found seats, Caroline rallied, making sure everyone had the printed materials and that the laptop and projector she had set up were ready to go before calling the meeting to order.

Elijah sat back and let her work.  The girl was a well-ordered tornado, if such a contradiction were possible.  She had charts, lists, photos, schedules… it looked to him like the only thing left to do was to assign people to various committees to carry out her master battle plan.  She fascinated him, this newborn baby vampire who was somehow more human, not less, as most often happened to those newly made. He found himself looking forward with great relish to what she might accomplish in the future.  In fact, he had a couple of projects in the works that sprang immediately to mind, projects for which a cute, bubbly, contemporary and energetic blond vampire would be perfect.

Caroline pulled up a slide of two armored knights riding full-tilt at one another, lances at the ready.  Clasping her hands in front of her, she gave an enthusiastic little bounce.  “Now, the main attraction of the Faire is of course the jousting tournament.  This will be a Joust a plaisance” – she dashed a glance at Elijah, smiling with satisfaction when he gave her an approving nod – “which means that there will be several elimination contests over the course of the four days of the Faire, with a champion being named on the last day.

“On the first day, the tournament will open with a procession of the judges and contestants, and a formal Invocation,” she said, moving to the next slide which was – God love her – a color-coded flow chart of events.

He let her run down through the stages and the set-up, stepping in only when Caroline brought up the assignment of ‘knights’ to various teams.  “This will be an exhibition only,” he warned, before anyone got overly enthusiastic.  “Professional horsemen and re-enactors will give the demonstration.”

“Actually, there are built-in precautions,” Caroline forged ahead.  “The company that’s coming in uses these fiberglass lances with spring-mounted tips so you don’t have the risk of shattering wood flying around.”  She gave him a significant look.  “Plus, the tips are some kind of a rubber alloy, so most of the impact is absorbed.  They’re just designed to look like the real thing.” Caroline explained, flipping to another slide in her presentation.

“Demonstration only, Miss Forbes.  There is too much involved in an activity of that scope to be taught in the month or so that we have to prepare.  Fake lances notwithstanding, there is a good deal of horsemanship involved, too much to learn within that timeframe.”

“But they’re willing to tutor whoever wants to sign up, and they’re, like, totally safety conscious and everything!” Caroline rushed on. “Besides, it’ll be so much more fun if we’re rooting for people, and the girls can all tie their favors onto their guys’ lances -- ”

“Kinky,” Tyler said behind his hand to Matt, who snickered and elbowed him in turn.

“Hey Caroline, you can tie your favors on my lance any time,” some boy Elijah didn’t know commented, adding a completely superfluous gesture for emphasis.

Tyler smacked him in the shoulder.  “Dude. Not cool.”

“Children,” Elijah drawled.  “Let’s keep this on point, shall we?”  That elicited another giggle from the would-be Casanova, quickly stifled when Elijah turned a hard gaze on him. “Demonstration only, Miss Forbes.  Non-negotiable.”  He shrugged a little apology at her.

“Good.  The whole thing is really sexist, anyway,” a tall brunette put in.  “The girls should be able to participate, just like the guys.  We are going to be able to sign up for the fencing, right?”

 “Dana, that is so not period appropriate,” Caroline told her, aiming her frustration in that direction.  So that was the girl whom Caroline had said could ‘suck it.’

“So?  We may be paying homage to the period, but that doesn’t mean we need to scrap 21^st century sensibilities. I think girls should have a shot to learn.”

“Only the top 10 guys are gonna get to compete anyway,” Tyler pointed out.

“Top 10 according to who?”  Dana shot back.

“To whom,” Elijah corrected, making the girl roll her eyes.  “That would be me.  I’ll be giving the fencing lessons.  And if you like, you and any other women who are interested may join us,” he said, settling the argument.

“You’re just gonna get your butt kicked,” Jeremy told her.  Speaking, no doubt, from his vast amount of experience, and setting off a round of girls vs. boys bickering.  Perhaps he should ask Hilda to come and help him instruct, he thought, smiling to himself.  That would end the age-old argument with a quickness.  In fact, he might do just that.

“Moving on:  Mrs. Rice has volunteered her home ec classes to help with costumes, as long as people purchase their own materials, so we just need someone to work on the designs.  Any takers?” Caroline asked, keeping the agenda flowing.

“I’ll do it,” Katerina offered.  Elena and Stefan turned as one to stare at her.  “What?  Like I’m going to wear something one of you dreams up?  Trust me:  fashion history?  Totally my thing.  Wait 'til you see what I'm going to draw up for you,” she told Matt, snuggling even closer to him on the bench, if that were possible.

"God, just kill me now," Caroline muttered.  "Okay," she chirped, to cover it.  "Kat's in charge of costuming, then.  Food..." 

Elijah tuned out again as Caroline continued to give assignments and get her troops in order, taking the opportunity to send Damon a text and inquire about Marcus.  Damon's terse response:  "Shit-faced & half-way to suicidal."  It didn't surprise him.  He gave it six months before the vampire either killed himself outright or did something stupid enough that someone else did the honors for him.

There was a text waiting for him from Jenna as well.  "Will be there at 6 for PTCs. Come home with me afterward?"  He knew he should.  He had all but ignored her for the last few days, the situation being what it was.  Not that a little distance was necessarily a bad thing.  Let passions cool a bit, that calmer heads might prevail.  No point of either of them jumping into something from which they couldn't extricate themselves without a lot of noise and fuss.  It was for the best, really.  He pocketed his phone.

He missed her too.

Bloody hell.  He took his phone back out.  "I'll be there," he typed, and put it away again.

Elijah cleared his throat as the meeting started to break up, with clumps of students going off in different directions.  “I’d like to congratulate you on the excellent work you’ve done, Miss Forbes.  You’re well-prepared and well-researched.  In fact,” he decided, in a moment’s inspiration, “consider this extra credit.  At the end of the term I will scrap your lowest quiz score.”

Caroline broke out in a delighted grin and clasped her hands under her chin as some of the others started grumbling.  “And if any of you others show the same excellence and dedication in the execution of your various duties, the same will be applied to you.”

Elijah stood as they started filing out and beckoned Katerina to join him over by the windows.  After one more gratuitous PDA with Donovan, she strolled over to him, hitching her hip up on the window ledge and tilting her head at him like she did.  "Mr. Smith?"

He crossed his arms and stared down at her.  Stared her down, until she dropped the smile and the attitude.  "What?" she asked finally.

"What are you doing?"  He saw her roll her eyes, and pressed a finger to her lips before she could voice whatever smart-ass comment was flitting over her face.  "Careful, Katerina,” he warned her in a low voice.  “I want the truth.  I'm in no mood for games."

In an uncharacteristic display of good sense, she merely took his wrist and moved it aside.  "We've had this conversation. You know, life?  Building one?"

"Given your predilection for survival, I would think you’d consider relocating, what with the werewolves on the loose and all."

"Tyler Lockwood?" she scoffed.  "Don't worry, Blondie keeps him on a leash when he has his monthly."

"Actually, I was referring to the pack that's currently running amok.  Neither Damon nor Stefan warned you? They’ve claimed one vampire already, this full moon."

Her brows drew down into a 'V.'  "Who?"

"I doubt you'd know her.  A woman by the name of Sophia."

"I know who she is."  Katerina crossed her arms in front of her.  "No, no one told me."

He pinched his chin between thumb and forefinger, as though thinking.  “That’s right… I guess you haven't exactly endeared yourself to the people here, have you?"

"Oh, I don't know.  Matt Donovan seems to like me just fine."

"Ah, yes, Mr. Donovan.  A former suitor of Elena’s, yes?"

"Your point?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Oh, it’s just that you claim that you want to build a life – your own life – yet here you are, trying to live Elena's."

"Why not?  She's Little Ms. Perfect, isn't she?  That’s how you like your doppelgangers, right?"  She hopped down from the window ledge.  "Gotta run.  I’ll see you in a couple of hours," she tossed over her shoulder playfully.

"Excuse me?"

"Parent teacher conference?  Students and parents?  I'll be here with Mom and Dad."  Katerina blew him a kiss from the doorway and zipped down the empty corridor.

Elijah stared after her.  What?!

~~~~~

By the time Elijah had spoken with his eighteenth set of parents, he was reasonably certain he was going to kill someone before the night was over.  Whether it would be for sustenance or just sheer, damned annoyance, he couldn’t say.  It was little wonder that the nation’s educational system had collectively gone to hell, when the parents were more interested in befriending their children than in parenting them, and more inclined to argue with their teachers over grades than to help their charges achieve better ones.  Were he to issue grades for raising children, there were few whom he had met tonight who would receive a passing one.

One notable exception was Sheriff Forbes, with whom he had just finished speaking.  It had been a pleasure to tell her how impressed he was with her daughter’s thoroughness and dedication.  The Sheriff had left their mini-conference looking pleased, if bemused; he wondered what sort of feedback she usually received regarding her daughter. 

The crowds in the hall were thinning.  Katerina had yet to appear, and Elijah fervently hoped that she had just been yanking his chain earlier.  He spotted Carol Lockwood in the doorway, and pulled out his notes regarding Tyler so he’d have them ready.  “Mayor,” he greeted her as she approached.

“Elijah!”  She grasped his hand in greeting, holding on longer than strictly necessary.  Even after she let go, she stood close.  “I’m hearing a lot of feedback tonight about the new history teacher!”

I can just imagine.  “I fear there may be some disgruntled parents who feel that little Johnny shouldn’t have to do any actual work to pass through school.”

“There always are,” Carol told him, rolling her eyes.  “We are so lucky to have you teaching at our high school.  I’m hoping you have better news for me than Tyler’s math teacher had.”

Elijah gave the mayor his impressions based on the paper and quizzes he had seen so far, and on notes the previous teachers had made.  Carol punctuated the conversation with little touches here and there, giving Elijah the no-doubt correct impression that the discussion of her son’s schoolwork was merely a pretext to talk with him.  He tried to wrap things up as quickly as possible, hoping another parent would appear soon before this got truly embarrassing.  Rather than taking his closing remarks as the dismissal that they obviously were, though, Carol took his elbow and turned him away from the door.

“I hesitate to bring this up,” she told him, leaning in and whispering conspiratorially, “but something came to my attention the other day, and since I have a great deal of respect for you, I feel it only fair…”

“Yes?”  God, what was the woman on about?

“I’ve heard through the grapevine that you and Jenna Sommers have been spending quite a bit of time together, and a certain tidbit of information dropped into my lap at a committee meeting the other day that I think you should be aware of – ”

Elijah took her upper arm and turned her gently but firmly toward the door.  “I don’t believe this is the time or place for specious gossip, Mayor Lockwood, especially with other parents waiting.”  He noted the next in line as they turned, and groaned inwardly, reminding himself belatedly to be careful what he wished for.

As promised (threatened?), Katerina was there, leading some couple into the room.  Carol did a double-take on seeing her.  “My goodness, I had heard that Elena had a twin, but…”

“Hello Mrs. Lockwood,” Katerina said dutifully, introducing herself and her ‘mother and father,’ Dr. & Mrs. Pierce, while Elijah looked on, scrutinizing them surreptitiously.

The man was on the short side, with a slight build and a receding hairline.  He exchanged polite pleasantries with Carol in a soft-spoken and almost shy manner.  The woman, by contrast, was rather plump, blond and rosey-cheeked.  She shook Carol’s hand enthusiastically and prattled on about nothing, while her husband looked on indulgently.  Though both were able to carry on a conversation, they each showed a variety of slight physical tics, and their speech was punctuated by odd pauses and non sequiturs, like a record that periodically skipped a track – all signs of prolonged and wide-spanning compulsion.

Carol excused herself finally, and the two turned toward him.  Elijah shook their hands automatically, glancing sidelong at Katerina, who stood close to the woman, holding onto her arm and occasionally laying her head on her shoulder as they spoke.  Katerina, for her part, played her role to the hilt, not breaking character even when Elijah told ‘Mom and Dad’ that she would do better with her studies if she spent less time flirting with boys. 

The woman let out a hearty laugh.  “That’s our Katherine,” she told him fondly, putting her arm around Katerina’s shoulder.  “As pretty as she is, is it any wonder?”

Katerina somehow managed to blush prettily at that and snuggle against her for a moment.

“Be that at is may,” he told them, “her score on the last quiz was less than stellar.  I’d like for her to come in early tomorrow morning if possible so we can review that module.  We wouldn’t want her to fall behind, would we?”

“Oh, of course not!  We’ll have her here first thing, Mr. Smith, don’t you worry,” the woman assured him.  Elijah tried to catch Katerina’s glance as they prepared to go, but she studiously avoided his gaze, and left with the couple, by all appearances one happy little family unit.

It was horrifying.  Not least because Katerina was playing her role just a little too well.  Elijah pinched the bridge of his nose.  What a tangled, ugly mess.  This was not going to end well.  For anyone.

“Was that…”  Jenna asked, entering the room as he looked up, her thumb pointing backward over her shoulder as she approached him.

“Yes.  I’m afraid so.”

Jenna lowered her voice to a near whisper.  “What the fuck was that?  Who were those people?”

Elijah shook his head.  “I wish I knew.”

Since no one else was in the room, she linked her little finger around his.  “How long before you’re sprung?”

“Fifteen, twenty minutes most likely.”

“I’ll see you at the house, then.”

“So what dastardly piece of gossip about you would Carol Lockwood be falling all over herself to impart?  She came in for a conference regarding Tyler, but I believe that was just a pretext,” he explained, seeing her blank look.

“Oh.  Um… we should probably discuss that later,” she decided, squinting up at him.

“Fair enough.”  He squeezed her hand briefly before he disengaged.  “I may be a bit delayed.  There’s a stop I want to make along the way.”

“Would that stop happen to involve, say, picking up some ice cream?” she asked hopefully.

He smirked.  “I think something might be arranged.  Though I do seem to recall a certain promise you made to your niece…”

Jenna blushed and pushed her hair back.  “Then I guess we better eat it before.”

He dropped his voice down.  “Or… during.”

“And, on that note…”  Blush deepening, Jenna turned and left.

Elijah put away his notes and did some busy work while he waited for the other teachers and staff to vacate the school, something that didn’t take very long once the last of the parents left; it was well past their usual quitting time.  When only a couple of cars remained in the parking lot, he made his way to the office and let himself in.  It took only a moment to locate the file cabinet with the students’ personal information.  Breaking the lock was child’s play.  He found the information card for ‘Katherine Pierce’ and noted the address.  Putting the card back where he had found it, he strode down the corridor and out into the night.

~~~~~

The house was one of the more upscale in-town homes, a white Greek Revival with a slate walk-way and a small but formal garden in back.  Elijah had toured it during his own property search when he had decided to purchase something in the area.  Recalling the layout, he slipped soundlessly around the right side of the house, toward the back corner where the informal family room was located.  He kept to the shadows, being sure to stay hidden in case someone inside the house glanced outside, or one of the neighbors chose that moment to be nosy.  Peering through a set of half-drawn curtains, he surveyed the scene.

It was nothing he had expected, and everything he had feared.

A large, flat-screen television was turned on, showing what looked like some reality show or other.  The woman was on the couch, knitting and talking, and occasionally gesturing toward the TV.  A large bowl of popcorn sat on the edge of the coffee table, within easy reach of all of them.  The man sat on the edge of a leather chair, gazing at some sort of board game on the ottoman in front of him.  Katerina sat cross-legged on an oversized pillow on the other side, rolling dice.  She moved a piece on the game board, and put her hands up in a victory gesture, making the woman laugh and causing the man to feign outrage.  Katerina sprang lithely to her feet to give him a peck on the cheek, then grabbed the bowl of popcorn and snuggled up to the woman on the couch.

Elijah scrubbed his hands over his face.  Damn it, Katerina.

The man and woman, whose real names Elijah couldn't even guess, may have been compelled within an inch of their lives, but they weren't the only ones for whom the line between reality and illusion had blurred.  As quietly as he had come, Elijah left and returned to his car, to go see Jenna.  And asked himself how closely he was skirting that line, at least when it came to her.

Just Enough Rope, Chapter 15

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

O Hai!  Surprise, I finally got through this #$%@ing chapter.  It will hopefully serve as a course correction and get things back on track here, if only the characters will behave.  Jenna, I'm looking at you.   o_o

Fanfiction.net link:  http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6910203/15/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"Wait.  Your faculty advisor is a werewolf?"  Elena repeated, pausing in the middle of pouring her morning coffee.

“Yep.”  Jenna pushed scrambled eggs around her plate.  They had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now her stomach seemed set to rebel against breakfast, perhaps just on principle.

“Was he the one who attacked Elijah’s friend?” 

“Sophia, yeah.  We’re not sure if he was the one or not.  There were apparently a few of them.  But she was bitten.  Which is apparently a No Good, Very Bad thing for vampires.”

“Yeah, it is.  I’ve seen what happens to a vampire who is dying of a werewolf bite.  Not pretty.”

“Wait, when did you see…  No, you know what?  Nevermind.  I probably don’t want to know.”  Elena added some cream to her coffee and slid onto the stool next to Jenna.  “Eggs?” Jenna said, sliding her plate toward her niece.  “I thought I wanted breakfast, but junior vetoed the idea.”

Elena shook her head and gestured toward her coffee.  “I’m good with this.  I take it you slept here last night?” she asked, indicating the pajamas Jenna was still wearing. 

“Elijah was going to be up all night grading papers.”  Or so he had said.  Jenna privately had her doubts that that was the only reason he hadn't wanted her to stay.

“You usually have an early start on Mondays.  Are you staying home today?”

“Given the situation, Elijah thought it would be wise for me to stay here.”  It didn’t sit entirely well with her to give in on that point; it reeked of running away, with an undertone of being told what to do.  She had wanted to argue, but he had looked so wretched when they left the Salvatore house that she had capitulated and agreed to stay away from campus until he could “deal with” the professor.

“You mean the bombing… did he have something to do with that?”

“We don’t know for sure, but it seems like a good possibility.  Elijah says that it’s not a tactic another vampire is likely to use.”

“Unless… what if the werewolves are working for one of them?”

Jenna frowned.  “Don’t the two species hate each other?  Why would they agree to work for a vampire?”

“They might not have had a choice.”

Great.  Something else to worry about.  “Whatever the case, if I’m stuck at home then I have no excuse not to be working on my abstract.”

“True.”  Elena gave her a sidelong look as she sipped her coffee.  “And you could always take a break, maybe give Alaric a call,” she suggested, oh-so-nonchalantly. 

“Don’t start, Elena.”

“Look, I know it’s not really any of my business – ”

“No, it isn’t.”

“But don’t you think he deserves to know about the baby?”

“I don’t give a shit what he ‘deserves.’  I don’t want to tell him.  I don’t even want to talk to him.”

“Because of Elijah?”

“No, because Ric is a lying son of a bitch who has zero respect for me.”

Elena set her mug down and turned so she was facing Jenna.  “That’s not true, Aunt Jenna.”

“Yes, it is.  And if you weren’t trying to assuage your own guilt with that ‘I was only trying to protect you’ crap, you would understand that.”  Seeing Elena’s stricken expression, Jenna bit her lip and relented.  “Sorry.  I'm sorry.  I’m super pissy this morning.”

"It’s okay.  Can I just say, from the perspective of someone who didn’t know who her biological parents were until she was 17, that it sucks, and is exceedingly unfair to your kid to not know who its father is, especially when that father would be a totally awesome dad?”

“Just so we’re clear, you’re not saying you think John would have been an awesome dad, are you?”

“No!  God, no.  But Alaric?  I think he’d be a great dad.”

Jenna shifted uncomfortably.  “You think so?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Even if I don’t want to be with him?”

“I think you can still work something out about the baby, even if you aren’t together as a couple anymore.”  Elena rose and rinsed her mug out in the sink, reaching into the fridge and tossing an orange and a carton of yogurt from the fridge into her backpack.  “And for the record, I’m not thoroughly convinced that you don’t want to be with him,” she added, heading toward the door.

“I do not want to be with him!”

“The lady doth protest too much…”

“That will be enough Shakespeare, young lady!  What are they teaching you in that school?  When you bother to go, that is.”

“Ric’s number is in the address book on my desk,” Elena said, by way of a parting shot.

Annoyed, Jenna filled the teakettle and put it on the stove as Elena’s car pulled out of the driveway.  Maybe some herbal tea would settle her stomach and calm her down enough to work on her abstract.  She opened the cupboard to get the tea and pushed aside the sprig of wolfsbane Damon had given her before leaving the Salvatore House, ‘just in case.’ 

Was she protesting too much?  God, she didn’t know.  She had to admit that she did miss Alaric from time to time.  It wasn’t as though there hadn’t been a time when she had thought it a possibility that she would marry him, have babies, the picket fence, etc.  Being lied to, having secrets withheld… that hadn’t been a part of the plan.

Elijah hadn’t been part of the plan either.  But if she hadn’t already fallen for him, she was dangerously close to doing so.  He was so much more… mature than anyone else she had dated.  Which only stood to reason, considering.  Was it wrong to want to be with someone who treated her with respect, who told her the truth and trusted her to handle it?  Not that it was all her choice to make.  How could she possibly be more than a passing fancy to him?  She was nothing special, certainly not to a guy who was over a thousand years old, who had been with thousands of women.  Beautiful, sophisticated women.  Women like Sophia.  Jealous?  Who, me?

Jenna sighed deeply.  This train of thought was not helping her mood any.  Once the kettle started whistling, she took it off the stove and poured water over the teabag, carrying the mug with her into the dining room, or, as she had come to refer to it, her war room.  Books and papers were piled on the table, leaving just a small space for her laptop and a beverage.  She poked through a pile of notes while she waited for her laptop to boot up and her tea to steep.  Toward the bottom, she found the sheaf of papers where she had outlined what she knew of the supernatural.

This was all my fault, she thought suddenly.  If she hadn’t been stupid and thought she could turn her humiliation at not having known what was going on under her own nose into some kind of workable thesis, then Mitchell would never have seen that she was onto something, would probably not have met Elijah, and would not have been tailed by Sophia, who had only been there at Elijah’s behest.  If she’d just left well enough alone, everything would have been fine.  But no, she just had to try to be clever, to justify her own cluelessness at having ignored everything going on around her.  Maybe that was the real reason Elijah hadn’t wanted her to stay last night.  Maybe he too had realized that she was to blame.

Disgusted, and angry with herself, Jenna took the stack of papers and, stomping into the next room, tossed them into the fireplace.  Grabbing a few pieces of wood, and the box of long matches from the mantle, she lit the papers on fire and used them to kindle the wood.  That’s about all they’re good for, she thought, bitter.  She returned to the dining room, picking up her tea and sipping at it while she looked through the rest of her notes, discontent with them too.

A knock at the door pulled her attention away from the work she wasn’t doing.  With a glance at the alarm keypad to make sure it wasn’t armed, she cracked the door open.  “Suzanne?”

The normally bubbly redhead stood on the front porch, looking utterly dejected.  She had clearly been crying; her eyes were red and had that glassy look.  With her shoulders slumped forward, she looked like she had lost her last friend in the world, AND had her puppy run over.  “Hey,” she mumbled, her voice sounding thick.  She lifted her shoulders in a little shrug.  And promptly burst into tears.

If she was putting on a performance, if she were some part of the Professor’s werewolf cult or something as she and Elijah had debated, she was a damned good actress.  Jenna went back and forth with herself about asking her to come in or sending her on her way, then decided to compromise.  Stepping out onto the porch, pj’s and all, Jenna pulled the door closed behind her and slid an arm around the girl’s shoulders.  She steered her toward the porch swing and eased her down onto it.  “Okay, Sweetie.  What’s going on?”  And why are you here?

Suzanne lifted her hands up, then sort of let them fall into her lap.  “He dumped me.  No, it’s actually worse than that.  He didn’t even have the decency to tell me he was dumping me.  He just stood me up and took off.”  She knuckled tears off of her cheeks, looking a lot younger than she was.

Jenna felt a jolt in her stomach.  “Are you talking about Richard Mitchell?”

“You knew?” Suzanne asked, sniffling.

“It was kind of obvious,” Jenna told her.  She hoped to be able to leave it at that.

“We were supposed to spend the day together yesterday.  We were going to go hiking around the lake, take a picnic… you know.  And he never showed up.  He didn’t even call.  God, I’m so stupid!” she sobbed.

So Mitchell hadn’t been seen since the other night?  Sophia had killed two werewolves.  Could he have been one of them?  “Are you sure you didn’t just get your signals crossed?  Did you try calling him?”

“All day.  Then I went by his office this morning, and there was an announcement on his door from Dr. Lee, saying that he had left to go overseas and would not be returning for the foreseeable future, and she would be taking on his advisees.  Not even a phone call to say goodbye.”

“I’m going to make us some tea,” Jenna said, giving her shoulder a squeeze as she got up.  She put the kettle on the stove again when she back inside, mulling things over.  She didn’t think Suzanne was faking it – she wasn’t really discreet enough to be that good a liar.  But if Mitchell were indeed dead, who had passed along the information about him going ‘overseas?’  Oh God, that means Professor Lee is my advisor now. She somehow found the idea of the tiny professor way scarier than a werewolf.  

While she waited for the water, Jenna took out a package of cookies and put some on a plate, assembling everything onto a tray, including a box of tissues.  When she got the tea, she grabbed the wolfsbane as well, figuring this counted as a ‘just in case.’  She crumpled some of the dried herb into one of the teacups. Once the water boiled, she poured it into the two teacups and went back out to the porch. 

Suzanne was drying her eyes on the sleeves of her hooded sweatshirt.  Jenna didn’t think she had seen her in anything so casual and shape-concealing before.  “Here, I found some cookies too.  I figured some chocolate therapy might be in order,” she said, handing Suzanne the cup with the wolfsbane in it.

Wrapping her hands around the cup for warmth, the redhead took a sip of the tea.  “Mmm, this is good.  What is it, blackberry?”

Jenna let out the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding when Suzanne took a bigger swallow of the tea.  “Yeah, it’s herbal.”

Suzanne helped herself to a cookie.  “I didn’t think you ever drank anything but coffee.”

“Usually, no.  But my stomach has been touchy lately.”

“You weren’t feeling great last week either.  Are you okay?”  Surprisingly, she seemed genuinely concerned.

“Actually…”  What the hell?  She might as well get used to saying it.  It would become obvious before too long anyhow.  “I’m pregnant.”

The redhead choked on the cookie she was eating, coughing and sputtering as she stared at Jenna, wide-eyed.  “Holy shit!” she croaked out at last.

“Yeah, that’s kind of what I said.”

“Wow, that’s…  I…  uh… Wow.”

“Yeah.”

Suzanne washed down the cookie with the rest of her tea.  “Would it be really tacky and Maury Povich of me to ask who’s the baby daddy?”

“Kinda.  But it’s Ric’s.”

“Oops.”

“Mm.”

“Does your current boyfriend know?  He was hunky, by the way.”

“Yes, he knows.”  Before I did.  “I didn’t think you got much of a look at him, the way you took off the other night.”

Suzanne ducked her head down, looking sheepish, and maybe a little ashamed.  “Richard and I were kind of in the middle of something before we got to the mixer.  I was a little distracted.  Then there was some kind of explosion in the parking lot or something, so I guess I’m glad I left early.  Were you still there when that happened?”

“You could say that,” she answered, not wanting to derail the conversation with an explanation of that debacle.  “I could tell you two had been, erm, a little busy before you showed up,” Jenna teased, making her blush.  “So, how long were you two…” Fucking?  “Seeing each other?”

“Since the first of the summer semester, when I was working that clinical trial with him.”  She reached for another cookie.  “Christ, I’m dumb.  I should have realized, the first time he…”  Suzanne broke off, obviously having said more than she intended to.

“The first time he what?”

“Nothing.  It’s nothing.”  She brushed the back of her hand over her eyes when fresh tears threatened, and blew out a breath.  “Anyway… I thought you were supposed to be at the lab this morning.  I checked there first, but they said you didn’t show.  Morning sickness?”

“Yeah,” she answered, leaving it at that.  “I’m never sure if things are going to stay where I put them.”

“So what are you going to do?  About your thesis and stuff?  Can you get another extension?”

That was a goddamned good question, wasn’t it?  “I don’t know.  I’m not sure I even dare to ask Professor Lee,” she said, shuddering at the thought. “Besides, it’s got to be easier to work on a thesis while preggars than once I have an infant, right?”  Oh God.  She was going to have an infant.  A tiny, helpless infant.  A tiny, helpless infant who would be depending on her for literally everything…

“Are you okay?” Suzanne asked, looking concerned.  “You just went really pale.  Do you need to hurl?”

“No, I’m all right.  Just had a little reality cramp, that’s all.”

The redhead stood, brushing cookie crumbs off of her ample chest.  “I have a class in an hour; I should go.  I’m sorry to just drop by out of the blue and have a freak-out on you.”

“No, it’s fine.  Stop by any time,” Jenna assured her, feeling a pang of guilt that the girl was leaving there thinking her boyfriend had left her without a second glance when he was, in fact, almost certainly dead.  But it wasn’t as though Jenna could tell her that.

“Are you coming to campus tomorrow?”

With Mitchell out of the way, there was no reason not to, was there?  “Yeah.  I should be there.”

“Great.  I’ll see you then.  Thanks for the tea and sympathy.”

“Anytime.”

Jenna watched her drive off, then carried the tray back inside.  Retrieving her cell phone from the counter, she sent Elijah a text message:  “MITCHELL ‘OUT OF COUNTRY,’ NOT COMING BACK. PROBABLY DEAD. SUZANNE NOT A WW, JUST SEEMINGLY JILTED GF.”  She doubted he’d check his messages until at least lunch, but perhaps it would be some small consolation to him.  She pressed send, and noticed that she had a voice message.  She listened to it while she put the leftover cookies away.

“Shit!!”  The message was from Carol, reminding her that they had a lunch meeting to go over last minute details for the shelter opening and dedication. Jenna glanced at the clock on the microwave.  No time for a shower.  She ran upstairs and threw on a blouse and the only clean pair of slacks she could find, noting as she strained to button them that they were suddenly a lot tighter than they had been.  She went into Elena’s room and stood in front of her full-length mirror, side-to.  With her stomach straining at the waistband of the fitted slacks, she could see the beginning of a baby bump.

Jenna drifted backward until her legs came up against Elena’s bed, and she folded herself down onto it as a second, harder reality cramp hit her.  Jesus.  This was real.  She was pregnant.  She was going to have a baby.  Her baby.  Hers – and Alaric’s.  Right now, inside of her body, she and he together were making a human.  A person.  Whether she wanted it or not (and she was pretty sure she didn’t), he was, quite literally, a part of her now.

She didn’t even realize she was crying until she heard her breath hitch on a sob.  Taking a few deep breaths and damning her hormones, she wiped her eyes on the back of her hand and stood, smoothing her blouse down over the slacks.  She would have to leave it untucked.  And do some laundry.  And eventually go shopping for some – gulp – maternity clothes.  Jenna turned to leave Elena's room, and spotted the address book on her desk.  She picked it up, running her hand over the cover for a moment before she sighed, and opened it to the S's.  Grabbing a pen and notepad, she scribbled down the number that Elena had written in for Alaric.

Just in case.