[locked to Damon, Caroline, and Jeremy; backdated to the arrivals]

[descendent]

[ Elena Gilbert doesn't wallow. And while this is pretty much soul-destroying and nothing she ever saw coming, she is not going to be focusing on that. Or trying not to. ]

Katherine and Stefan are here.

They arrived together.

I don't know exactly what's going on, but it can't be good and I wanted to give everyone a head's up.

Comments

[idontgethurt]

[And speaking of people who got to their journals to tell Elena just that. ;; There's worry and pain and guilt and grief and anger. It's all very sickeningly swirling in the pit of his stomach, and he's worried about Elena too. Knowing how Stefan was, knowing how that must have affected her. He reads what Caroline has written on top of that.

Of course he did. Of course, Stefan made a promise to save Damon's life.

Again.]

I know.

I saw them. Talked to Stefan. [And he's going to track down Katherine but not right now, not just yet. That seems like a massively bad idea.]

Are you okay? [He already knows the answer but he asks anyway, and he'll be finding her as soon as he can trust himself to be around someone else. Damon knows how he gets when he feels like this too, what happens.]

[descendent]

[ Elena grows very still at his reply.

It's something she and Jeremy had already theorized, but it's another thing entirely to get confirmation. Damon saw Stefan, talked to him, and she can only imagine how that went. He might've had a better chance of getting answers, at least, but that doesn't change the shock of it.

The hurt. And she knows it hurts. ]

I was wondering if you had already seen either of them.

You know the answer to that, Damon. [ She's past saying I'm fine now after all her talks. ]

Where are you?

[idontgethurt]

[Damon is angry, but that is putting it lightly. The anger always takes over, and it's his initial reaction, what he holds on to even when there is so much else swirling around in his chest.

His jaw locks, and he drinks, and he tries to formulate a plan as to how he can do this.

What he's supposed to do with Stefan, the ripper, running around.]

I saw them together, and I talked to Stefan alone. Haven't bothered talking to the evil slut vampire yet.

[Yes, he does know the answer to that like how she doesn't even have to ask him, because she knows too. It prevents his Rift ability from coming into play.]

The club.

Elena, this is not [the best time, but he knows convincing her of that is useless. He wants to see her anyway, figure out what Stefan said to her.]

[descendent]

[ Despite the fact she takes into account the rest of what he says, Elena doesn't answer Damon over the journals. She has personally experienced firsthand what Damon's like when it's not the best time.

However, a year has come and gone, and Elena believes they're past that point.

More over, she's not scared of Damon when it's not the best time.

With everything that's happened, there's never going to be a best time for it, and they're the ones that had the bomb dropped on them so abruptly without being able to catch their breaths before it's exploded in their faces.

So she makes her way over to the No Name, past the clientele and up to his office. ]

Damon?

[idontgethurt]

[Elena has personally experienced it even in Chicago. They have been here a year together which is longer than she had the Salvatore brothers swooping into her life and shaking it up in Mystic Falls.

It is a very long time in Chicago especially.

They have developed their friendship back to what it is today, and Damon trusts Elena completely.

When his brother arrived in the city, he thought he'd be able to completely trust him too but it looks like that flag has sailed for the time being.

Damon turns to look at her when she enters. He has that look in his eyes that she'll be very familiar with.]

Elena, nice of you to stop by. [It's the comment made before he's had time to think, and he sets the glass down.

Walks over to her. Al the smarm and asshole leaves his voice as he looks at her with concern and with that mingling other look of anger and under that hurt] You want a drink?

[descendent]

Let's not do that, Damon. [ Elena stands in the doorway, and she lingers there for several moments.

She wasn't expecting anything other than this, but she still has to steel herself for it. Only days ago, they had no idea they would end up here, for this reason.

She takes the drink from him, figuring she really could use one, but she hasn't taken a sip yet.

Only stares down at it before she lifts her gaze back up at him.

The concern is threaded into her voice. ]

What did he say?

[idontgethurt]

Let's not. [Damon says as if in agreement though it's in the same tone that he'd initially spoken with.

He backs away again, drinking and looking at the fireplace which is roaring.

Damon only looks over at her again at the question.

Which doesn't take him by surprise, but he doesn't know what to say.]

That Klaus made him turn off his emotions and treated him like his little pet for God knows how long.

[Pause and he turns back to her, all of it in his gaze, mostly the anger but all of the rest of it too. Concern's in there as well, but he's so angry.] That he stopped me from killing Klaus.

[descendent]

[ The first part Elena doesn't sound surprised by and had already pieced together by what information she had been given from everyone else, from seeing Stefan herself and talking to him, that detachment that could only really mean one thing. She takes a deep breath and nods. ]

He spent the whole summer with him and apparently you... had newspaper clippings of their murders.

[ They were looking for them and she can only imagine what happened when they found Stefan.

Or Stefan found them.

The last bit does get her surprise. ]

Wait, what? I thought he'd want Klaus dead more than anyone.

[ For taking away his freedom, for...everything. ] It doesn't make any sense.

[idontgethurt]

[It would be easy to know in a moment that Stefan isn't the same Stefan that she fell for anymore. He is not the same. It's the ripper version of him with his emotions still turned off and it takes a tree branch to the gut to get him to admit to anything.]

Trying to track them down.

[That must have been fun.

He can only imagine too.

And he would have tried tracking them down, finding them because he would not be okay with Stefan doing that. Ever. How was he supposed to live with that?]

What always motivates Stefan to do anything? No matter how far gone he is? [Bitter much, Damon?] To save my life.

Again.

[descendent]

[ Elena lets this sink in, her throat closing in on itself tightly, that horrified, sinking feeling swirling around in the pit of her stomach. That's not surprising either, no. Stefan would sacrifice anything for Damon. Elena would've done the same for Jeremy but that still means--it still means Stefan is gone.

It means he can't be trusted.

Which doesn't mean Elena believes he can't be reached. ]

Stefan isn't beyond returning. He loves you, Damon. If there's a chance he can come back, it'll be because of you.

[ Not because of her, and she hears that bitterness so she steps forward. ]

Hey, we'll figure this out. [ She cups his face in her hands to make him look at her. ]

We will get through this.

[idontgethurt]

[Stefan is gone. The Stefan that she knew is gone, and he won't be coming back anytime soon. People don't come back from that the same. The Stefan that she knew before, he' gone.

But he can be reached.

If Damon stuck a branch in his stomach and got him to say the truth, if he bothered saving Damon at all, it means he can still be reached.

And he looks at her, breathing in and then out. He doesn't know that he knows how to react. Because of him. It's always the two of them at the end of the day, and his plan right now amounts to beating the ever loving shit out of him and telling him to get over himself.]

I won't let him be ripper Stefan in Chicago, Elena. [Slight pause.] One way or another.

[When she steps forward, he pauses, and his face turns to her when her hands reach for his face.

There's that brief moment where that bitterness and anger and pain are reflected in his expression before his hands slide over hers, and he nods.]

We will. [It's confirmation that as much as... as much as everything else has changed. Their