Chapter Text
"Marcel's here." Elena said softly, turning her head in the direction of the door and tilting her head as she heard Marcel quietly talking with another man. "He won't be very happy that you've been talking to me." She raised an eyebrow at the young girl in front of her as she sighed and walked back to stand in front of her easel.
"Marcel doesn't control me." Davina murmured, picking up a piece of charcoal and starting, or continuing, to sketch.
"He cares about you," Elena said, tilting her head at Davina, "does that not worry you?"
"Why would it?"
"He's a vampire, we're selfish creatures, Davina."
"Marcel wouldn't hurt me." Davina said firmly, narrowing her eyes at Elena as she resisted the urge to send a wave of pain in the doppelganger's direction.
"I've been where you are, Davina," Elena muttered, "don't make the same mistakes I did."
The two girls shared a look for a few moments before Marcel opened the door, interrupting the slightly tense atmosphere between the brunettes.
"Elena!" Marcel grinned at her, shutting the door behind him. "Glad to see you're up!"
Elena raised an eyebrow at him, pursing her lips slightly as she frowned at the man in front of her. "So, you did approach me because I'm a doppelganger."
Marcel shrugged. "That's not the only reason." He rolled his eyes as he folded his arms over his chest. "Imagine my surprise when I found out the Mikaelsons were back in my city, carting the doppelganger around with them nonetheless."
"They're not carting me around." Elena bit, her eyes narrow as she tried to assess exactly what he wanted. "I'm here of my own volition."
"With the man who killed you?" Marcel asked, raising a pointed eyebrow. "I know about the requirements for the sun and the moon curse; I assume that's how you were turned."
"No." Elena sighed, rolling her eyes internally, not thrilled with having the explain everything again. "He killed me to break his curse, but I survived with the help of magic." She shrugged, smiling when he looked slightly stunned at her blasé attitude. "I died a few years later, thanks to Rebekah's intervention."
"Two of them killed you, and yet you're here with them?" Marcel asked in disbelief. "Are you compelled?"
Elena laughed, shaking her head. "Don't be ridiculous. If I was under compulsion, I wouldn't be able to leave their sight."
Marcel inclined his head in agreement, raising an eyebrow at her. "Why are you here, Elena? This city is mine; I won't allow a coup."
"Oh, please." Elena scoffed. "I don't care about your damn city. I need something, and I think you and Davina might be just the help I'm after."
"If you think I'll let you use Davina for your own ends, you've got another think coming."
"I don't want to use her, I want her help, and I can help her in return."
"Help me with what?" Davina asked softly, interrupting the tense conversation between Elena and Marcel.
"Do you really think that the witches would just let their magic fade away as a consequence for the Harvest not being repeated?" Elena asked, raising an eyebrow at Davina and Marcel. "I've had a decent bit of experience with witches, and they love their consequences, they wouldn't let anyone off with just a slap on the wrist, especially a Harvest girl responsible for the ritual failing."
"Are you threatening her?" Marcel growled, the veins under his eyes appearing as he glared at Elena.
"I'm telling her the truth." Elena snapped. "She deserves to know."
"Marcel?" Davina asked softly, turning to him with wide eyes.
"I don't know what she's talking about, D, I promise."
"Of course, he doesn't." Elena rolled her eyes. "You're all too hampered by your silly emotions to think clearly! Did you seriously think you could just steal her away from the Harvest without any repercussions?"
"I see you two have been talking." Marcel sighed, deflecting the question smoothly. "Thought I told you she was dangerous, D."
"I'm no more dangerous than I'm sure you are, Marcel." Elena quipped. "By now, you should know that witches are nasty business, more-so when you cross them."
"Marcel." Davina interrupted softly as he went to snap at Elena again, gently placing a hand on his arm. "What do you need my help for?" She asked, turning her attention to Elena.
Her eyes flitted between the pair in front of her as she weighed her options, admitting she was sick gave them leverage on her, and she didn't have anything concrete to hold over them, nor did she trust them yet. But, she had to gain their trust somehow, lying to them wouldn't help that, and, would they really care enough to harm Elena? Especially if she didn't reveal Elijah was also ill.
"Elena?" Davina prompted softly, dragging her back out of her thoughts.
"I'm sick." Elena drawled, pursing her lips slightly as she let out a soft sigh. "I don't know why, or how to fix it."
"That's why you're in New Orleans." Marcel surmised, frowning only a split-second later. "Why are you with the Originals? A vampire doppelganger is useless to Klaus."
Elena shrugged. "I guess Elijah's fascinated by me," she quipped, rolling her eyes, "I think he's just trying to keep an eye on me; he was more fond of my humanity than he is this new me."
"You're with Elijah?" Davina blurted, her eyes wide with shock.
Elena laughed. "In his dreams maybe. He's just fun to play with at the moment." She shrugged when Marcel rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, Marcel, don't tell me you haven't had an emotionless stint before."
"The switch doesn't work after a certain point, Elena." Marcel said firmly.
"That's basically a yes." Elena pointed out, pretending not to notice as Davina smothered a soft giggle, reminding her that she really was just a teenage girl stood in front of her. "Elijah's already told me it stops existing, but that doesn't mean I'm going to turn it back on now."
Marcel shrugged.
"That's it?" Elena asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm kinda used to people giving me the spiel that I'll regret this and I should turn my humanity back on before it's too late."
"You're not my responsibility, Elena, as long as you don't leave a trail of bodies in my city, I don't care about your humanity."
"I don't have my emotions, but I can see how much you care about Davina, Marcel, I want to help you help her." Elena said earnestly. "I know a Bennett witch who can help figure out what's going to happen, and Elijah can provide grimoires to help."
"I don't trust the Mikaelsons." Marcel refuted quickly, shaking his head.
"She's sixteen, Marcel, they won't hurt her."
"I am here, you know." Davina laughed softly, pulling the attention of the vampires to herself as they nearly started arguing again. "Don't I get a say?"
"D…"
"Let her talk, Marcel." Elena said firmly, focussing her attention on Davina. "What do you want, Davina?"
"I need to learn to control my magic." Davina decided, raising her chin as if daring Marcel to argue with her. "I need to." She repeated, turning from Marcel to Elena. "Can I trust you?"
"I don't hurt kids." Elena shrugged, letting out a soft sigh when Davina raised an expectant eyebrow. "You deserve the chance I didn't get, Davina, if I can trust you; you can trust me."
"Where the hell could she be?" Caroline huffed, flicking a strand of hair out of her face.
"She could have just left the city." Klaus offered, shrugging when the two blondes turned to face him. "Her emotions are off, she might've just decided that she didn't want to be here anymore."
"She wouldn't leave." Curiously, Rebekah was the fastest to argue with Klaus. "They're sick, Nik, she came here for answers, and…"
"And what, Rebekah?"
"She and Elijah seem to feel better when they're around each other." Rebekah sighed, shaking her head slightly. "She wouldn't go without finding out why, emotions be damned."
"They feel better when they're together?" Caroline asked curiously, tilting her head at Rebekah. "They told you that?"
Rebekah sighed again. "Not in so many words, but Elena had a few…attacks when we were in Willoughby; when Elijah got to her, she recovered quite quickly. If you're watching closely enough, you can see their physical symptoms fade away with their proximity. It's quite interesting really, I've never seen anything like it."
"Okay," Caroline huffed, holding her hand out slightly placatingly, "I'm just gonna go ahead and say it, because you two don't seem to have clocked it, that sounds like something out of a cheesy romance novel." She rolled her eyes when both of the Originals turned to face her, their eyebrows furrowed. "You know, when two people are fated to be together, and they can't be without each other without feeling physical pain?"
The Originals exchanged amused glances before they both scoffed. "That's crazy." Klaus laughed, shaking his head. "Absolutely bonkers."
"It's a cliché for a reason." Caroline snarked, pulling her phone out of her back pocket as it started to ring. "Hey, Bon, what's up?"
"Something's wrong with Elijah." Bonnie blurted, the sound of retching hitting the ears of all of the vampires at the same time. "I don't know what to do, Care."
"We'll be right there." Caroline reassured her, hanging up the phone and racing after the two siblings who'd already disappeared.
"Elijah!" Rebekah cried, darting to her brother's side, Bonnie barely having time to move out of the way of the blonde vampire. "Nik, he needs blood!"
"He just started coughing up blood!" Hayley fretted from the other side of Elijah. "We didn't know what to do!"
"Just breathe, Elijah, it's okay." Rebekah soothed, helping Elijah sit up and helping Klaus feed the blood bag to him gently. "We've got you."
Elijah guzzled what blood he could around his coughs, collapsing against Rebekah with a shuddering frame.
"Bekah." Elijah breathed, loath at the weakness he was showing, but unable to do anything about it.
"I'm here, Lijah." Rebekah murmured, her hand absently running through Elijah's hair.
"Did you find her?" He rasped, oblivious to the looks shared between his siblings and Caroline over the top of his head. "Elena? Is she here?"
"We couldn't find her, Elijah, I'm sorry."
"I…I need her here, Bekah." Elijah panted, clinging to Rebekah's arm. "I-" Elijah broke off, spluttering again as he hacked up some of the blood he'd managed to drink.
"Nik, what do we do?" Rebekah turned to her brother, only fretting more when she saw the panic she felt mirrored in his features.
"Can you help him?" Surprising everyone in the room, Klaus turned to Bonnie, raising an eyebrow at her when she hesitated. "Bonnie?"
"I thought you said magic was banned." Bonnie blurted, trying her best to ignore the shock of Klaus actually using her name.
"To hell with Marcel's rules." Klaus hissed. "Can you help him?"
"I need to channel both of you." Bonnie nodded, rushing to the group of Originals; laying a hand on Elijah's back and holding out her other arm for Klaus and Rebekah, both of whom grabbed her without a second thought.
Just as Bonnie went to start muttering a spell, the front door flew open, a blur of motion moving Bonnie away from Elijah and removing Hayley from Elijah's side that was unoccupied by the siblings. Bonnie and Hayley instinctively moved to attack whatever presence had moved them before they registered Elena taking Elijah from Rebekah's arms. Rebekah released her brother easily, a look of understanding passing between her and Elena.
"I got you." Elena murmured, one arm encircling Elijah as the other ran through his tousled hair.
"Elena?" Elijah gasped, leaning into the brunette as his spluttering turned into heavy wheezing as he took in as much air as he could.
"I'd be a bit worried if you still thought I was Katherine." Elena quipped, smiling when she heard Elijah scoff slightly.
"I never have." He whispered, closing his eyes in relief at being able to breathe again as he leant against Elena.
"Where the bloody hell have you been?" Rebekah muttered, only taking her eyes from Elijah when she was satisfied that any danger seemed to have passed.
"Finding answers." Elena shrugged.
"Is that what just dragged us around the room?" Bonnie asked, raising a pointed eyebrow as she folded her arms over her chest and looked at Elena.
Elena laughed slightly. "That's the one. You guys can come in." She called, raising her voice in the direction of the door.
"Marcellus." Klaus gasped, barely registering Davina stood behind him. "You brought him here?" He snapped, turning on Elena.
"Play nice." Elena warned, absently helping Elijah sit up more as she glared at Klaus. "You don't want to pick a fight right now."
"Who are you to tell me what to do?" Klaus bellowed, advancing on Elena with eyes gleaming. "You need to learn your place." He snarled, flashing fangs and yellow eyes at Elena, who only sighed, rolling her eyes.
Before Klaus could launch himself at Elena, he found himself collapsing to the floor with a pained cry as the bones in his legs snapped.
"It's not me." Bonnie said quickly when Rebekah turned to her, eyes ablaze.
"D doesn't like it when people try to hurt her friends." Marcel said softly, reminding the others in the room of the young girl's presence.
"I warned you to play nice." Elena tutted, smirking at Klaus when he glared at her.