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crimsonlyinglilly · 24 days

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Familiar Faces - Admissions, dealing and confrontations. Part 2

Summary: Elijah Gilbert has been haunted by dreams of other lives as long as he remembers, but now with the appearance of the Salvatore brother he may finally get some answers.

Sorry, it's been a while and each chapter is getting longer.

Also flash backs always trip me up.

-----

Damon grimaced as he looked at the bodies around him.

“Please try not to kill them.” Elijah had asked.

He looked at the collection of dead Junkies around him, request failed, at least he had only told Elijah he’d try but clearly all the blame for this was on Stefan.

Who had locked him away to stave.

To miss out of Elijah’s life.

Who had lied about Elijah’s death.

Who had killed Elijah in the first place.

And then went to Damon to get him to turn.

Elijah had been dead before he had taken his first taste of human blood and damned himself, although he couldn't stay angry about that now as it gave him a chance to help Elijah in a way he hadn’t during their life.

Fixing his episodes, getting to watch him grow healthy, to get to live a life without waiting for his illness to finally take him.

Still before he could get to that he had a mess to clear up then he could returned to the boarding house, where he’d likely be facing two judgemental little brothers but that was fine since they were alive to be angry at him.

The fire light reflected off his hand reminded him, he called Stefan.

Hello? Stef’s voice greeted him as he picked up

“I want my ring.” He told him still a little angry after the discovery that he had killed Elijah to bother with the niceties.

“Where are you?”

“I'm at the sizzler. I had the buffet.” he explained, moving his torch to light more of the bodies “Where's my ring?”

I don't have it. Where are you? What have you done?

“Noo,” he drawled “what have you done? You're the one that locked me in the basement and starved me, so whatever I've done, whoever I've sucked dry is on you, buddy.”

Even after Elijah asked.

“Thought it was better than feeding from him,” he replied, "unlike someone.” He was pleased to hear a choked sound of guilt or pain either way it was a reaction however Stefan smothered it too soon and returned to lecturing him.

“You're being careless. How many more animal attacks is this town gonna believe, huh?

“I know how to cover my tracks, Stefan.” he snapped back, annoyed, “Where's my ring?”

I'll get it back, but I need time.

“What, did you FedEx it to Rome?! Where is it? I want my ring, Stefan, or I’ll get Elijah to make me a new one”

"Leave him out of this."

“He offered, like the good little brother he is” he taunted, “I could even visit Elena after.”

“I already want you dead. Don't give me another reason to make it happen.” Stefan’s could almost be serious.

“Don't give me another reason to rip you apart.”

Yeah? Is that gonna be before or after you get your ring back?

“Just get it.” he ended the call before he heard anymore of his brother’s voice. He didn’t really want to get Elijah to make him one, Elijah hadn’t sounded particularly happy while talking about his magic earlier and besides it was his ring.

He was almost finished pouring the alcohol over the last corpse when it coughed, he stared until he recognized the girl.

Vicki Donovan.

She passed out again quickly afterwards.

"You're going to have to be more careful." he told the unconscious girl, "Pretty sure Elijah would be pissed at me if you died."

There were pictures of Elijah and Elena with the Donovan boy in the Gilbert living room, Elijah was closer to the age Damon remembered him as in it, the age he died at, that had to mean they were somewhat close to older Donovan.

Vicki Donavan’s luck must suck to place her in his path twice.

Well at least it gave him someone to keep him occupied until Stefan returned his ring, Damon’s pretty sure looking though Elijah’s past lives in his current mood wouldn’t do his self control any good and he was meant to be trying for Elijah.

—-

Stefan stared at his phone, Damon was going to end up back at the house where Zach was alone, he should go back but there was a risk that Damon would keep his threat and come here once he found out Elijah had left.

So he stayed outside the Gilbert house.

He had watched as Elena helped his-their-her- Elijah from the car into the house and was surprised to hear them climb the stairs together when he knew Elijah’s room was on the ground floor.

Then he was reminded of the times in the aftermath of Eli’s Episodes when his nightmares would be worse and Damon had snuck Elijah into one of their rooms despite their father’s anger.

So he understood as he watched Elena place Elijah on the bed and cross the room to climb into the other side and cover them, watched as she stared at his sleeping face the way he remembered doing memorising for the time he was sure he would lose him.

Her text arranging a meeting at a café for the next day that had come moments later before she fell asleep was still sitting on his phone screen, behind the notification of the ended call.

As much as he wanted to keep her safe from the knowledge and horrors that came with it she would be safer if she knew more and with whatever was the cause of Elijah’s episodes and memories, likely supernatural she was already involved.

He sent a reply agreeing to her meeting and settled in to watch until sunrise.

By then his brother would be trapped for the day and he’d have the day to plan of what he was going to do.

—-

He finished quickly after that and brought Vicki home with him to find a lack of living teenage brother, he could smell their was only one human in the house, so he dropped the girl on the couch and went to find ‘Uncle Zach’

“Where’s Elijah?” he asked after he found Zach back in the library still going through the papers, he looked exhausted.

“He’s gone home.” the man replied without looking up.

“I thought he was staying.” He said settling against the arch, he was very sure that Elijah had arranged it with his aunt.

“His sister arrived, she found out.” Zach shrugged, still refusing to look up, and Damon realised he was copying parts of Elijah’s notes from one of the older lives.

“Found out?” he asked, eyeing the collection of paper; notes, journals and old photos spread out across the table. “About you-” Zach said finally looking up, the man somehow looked more tired than he had when Damon had left “Vampires and Elijah’s dreams.”

“Huh,” he let out before asking, “didn’t take it well?”

“Well enough, considering,” Zach shrugged, “Elijah agreed to explain to her and they left.”

“And you returned to being the busy little bee.” he mocked, Damon was torn between missing the underlying tension of fear Zach always carried around him or relieved someone was able to deal with Elijah’s past thoughtfully, all Damon saw was the lives Elijah had lived and suffered through while Damon and Stefan were out living their lives.

“We have nothing but Elijah’s notes on this side of the table.” he explained, Damon had to agree with the that, Salvatore side despite its few empty places looked filled compared to the other.

“So look up through the Gilbert records.” he shrugged

“I have, and the Sommers.” The human shook his head, right because Zach had been aware something was wrong with Elijah Gilbert for years. “Miranda wasn’t pregnant.” he added.

He blinked at the news.

“The twins are adopted.” He said as he put the picture together, before asking “So what's your plan?”

For all he wasn’t going to work with Zach, he might as well keep track of what the other was doing, the more information would be useful when Damon found a witch he could trust with this and Elijah.

“I’m going out in the morning to search for more information using some of the names and things EJ managed to write down.” the man explained before wincing as he noticed his slip up.

“Great, I got the house to myself.” he mockingly cheered, Zach looked up with confusion before his eyes moved to Damon’s hands.

“Because your ring.”

“Guessing you don’t know where that brother of mine hid it, do you?” he asked, smiling.

“No-” Zach started,

“And you wouldn’t tell me if you did.” he finished for him as he left the library, he had to hide Miss Vicki so Zach wouldn’t see her and they could party until Stefan returned with his ring.

—

Elena was doing this for Caroline and Vicki who had been hurt, for the people who had died, for Elijah who wouldn’t tell her everything in trying to protect her, for herself because she needed to know so she could protect the people she loved.

Still even knowing what Stefan was, she trusted him, believed him when he said he didn’t want to hurt her, so she left Elijah sleeping in her bed.

Proof he had pushed himself too soon after a episode, otherwise he would have woken up while she was getting ready and left to meet Stefan at the Grill.

She had explained to Jeremy before she left, trusting their little brother would be able to keep Elijah at home and from doing anything too much for him.

“You said you would explain everything. That's why I asked you to meet me here. When you Google "vampire" you get a world of fiction. What's the reality?” She starts facing Stefan in a well lit public place. She might trust him despite herself but she wasn’t a complete fool.

she‘d get information on vampires and then Elijah’s problems.

“I can tell you whatever you wanna know.” he replies, it’s a start.

—

“Elena...Give me today. I will answer any questions that you have, and when it's over, you can decide for yourself what you wanna do with what you know. It'll be your choice.” Stefan had said and she had followed him off alone.

Maybe she wasn’t being as safe as she should be a voice that sounded a lot like her twin sighed at her from her mind.

—-

“What’s up with your hand?” Liz asked as she noticed the bandage wrapped around Logan’s hand, it was a nice distraction from the likely mess she was going to see when she uncovered the bodies.

“Gilbert’s hell beast.” he told her as he held his hand up, pulling the sleeve down to reveal more bandages around his arm

“What?” She asked flatly, however understanding slowly dawned on her.

While the Gilbert children had stayed with her after Grayson and Miranda’s deaths, Elijah had gone back to the house repeatedly to check and feed his cats.

When she had asked why he hadn’t brought them with him, Jeremy and Caroline had laughed, which had been a relief as it was the first laugh she had seen from the youngest, while Elena and apologised that they couldn’t do that to her or her house.

Caroline had later explained that one of Elijah's cats was half feral to anyone that wasn’t Elijah.

“While I was searching the house for the watch, I opened one of the downstairs rooms and this black and white beast attached itself to me.” he explained,

“You didn’t hurt it.” She asked, she remember Miranda telling her that the cats had become a help to Elijah during his episodes; the last thing he needed was losing one of them so soon after his parents.

“No.” he snapped, apparently annoyed by her concern, “it let go as soon as I started to take it out of the room and I shut the door. Thankfully the watch wasn’t in that room.”

“You got it.” she asked.

“Yes” he told her and she felt herself calm slightly.

“Good.” she said hopefully they could track down the monster and deal with it before anymore people got hurt. She missed Grayson, he had more experience with these things.

—-

Elijah is woken up by a knock at the door, it takes him a moment of disorientation as he sat up to find himself in his sister’s room instead of his own, before his mind catches up with everything that had happened since he had left for the Salvatore boarding house the day before.

The fact he was waking up alone in Elena’s room with the sun already up hit him.

“Where’s-” he blinked at a concerned look on Jeremy’s face as he stood hoovering in the doorway, his mug in his hands. “Are you okay, Jeremy?”

He’d worry about Elena later, he knows she would understand putting Jeremy first.

Jeremy snorted but took the question as permission to enter and hand him the mug.

The tea is a little too pale for his taste but given both his siblings and aunt prefer coffee he’d take any attempt.

“You always do that, push yourself then worry over us instead of taking care of yourself.” he complained as he sat heavily on the bed, leaning against Elijah’s legs.

“One day I'll learn my lesson.” he joked, it failed to lift the frown from brother’s face, “what’s the time?” he sighed.

“Just after noon.”

“And no one woke me.”

“Why, you got a meeting?” Jeremey shot back, “the fact you slept this late clearly means you needed it.”

He bit back a comment about it being his health to worry about since that never worked, instead turned it back to Jeremy.

“So what’s bothering you enough to bring me tea?” he asked,

“Can’t I just be worried over my idiot brother?” his brother shot back with a speck of guilt that likely would have been missed if he was any else but his siblings.

“Not with tea you can’t.” he told him, with a reassuring smile, after several moment of silence he added ”So are you going to tell me what’s bothering you? and where’s Vicki th-” he started since she had mostly been at Jeremy’s side since he had woken up from the episode.

“Have you touched dad’s watch?” The unexpected question interrupted him.

“No, last I saw it you had it.” he had agreed with Elena at giving it to Jeremy over a pointless show at the Lockwood's, it was theirs and he wanted Jeremy to have it, Dad had always planned on passing it to Jeremy, Elijah had had enough talks about it trying to reassure dad he understood “Have you lost it?”

“No i-” Jeremy cut himself off with an angry look. “No i left it in my room.”

“Then who's been in your room?” he asked

“Vicki.” Jeremy sighed before adding more slightly hesitantly “and Aunt Jenna’s guy”

“The slimeball- er Logan right?” he corrected himself before adding with slightly more concern “Why was he in your room?”

That at least managed to put a smile on his brother’s face which Elijah would take as a win, even if he wasn’t sure why.

“He wasn’t. I don’t know,” Jeremy replied shrugging “I found him walking around up here last night. After he accidently walked into your room.” Jeremy explained,

“My room?” he blinked, suddenly worried he would find it a mess.

“Luci left marks.” Jeremy smirked, Luci had gotten used to Aunt Jenna quickly compared to everyone else but there was a reason he had to stay in Elijah room when he wasn't home, he attacked everyone other than family otherwise and he only listened to Elijah.

Jeremy spoke again before Elijah could ask “I checked on him, he’s alright.” he might be a large beast happy to use teeth and claws but he was still a cat and he forgot that made him the smaller fighter.

The smirk vanished when Jeremy suddenly asked

“You don’t think Vicki would have taken it.”

“No.” he shook his head, he refused the thought they had known her since they were kids, she wouldn’t steal something that important from them and he’s sure her feelings for Jeremy were real.

Another part of him knew how desperate someone could get for a fix, but Vicki wasn’t that far gone, she still had other ways to get her supply.

Vicki still saw beyond the drugs, Elijah remembered getting to the point where all he cared about was his next fix, to escape the nightmares and the real world.

Remembered where that had ended.

That wasn’t Vicki.

But Logan Fell, a member of the foundering families, who had already been oddly interested in the watch.

Mrs Lockwood should have left it as soon as Elena apologised for not finding it but instead she had asked Elijah at the party itself, had called to follow up on it afterwards when there wasn’t a need for it. The founding Council had to know the watch belonged to the firstborn sons of the Gilbert family, it wouldn’t be a stretch for them to think he had kept it back.

And it was just poor luck that Jeremy’s room, both had the watch and didn’t have a fearsome beast protecting it.

Elijah frowned the watch coming to his mind clearly, why were they so persistent, he wondered if Zach knew but for all the Salvatore were a founding family, he remembered being there for it, Zach wasn’t part of the current council.

Why?

Great, a mystery that didn’t involve him, he could solve it without the risk of facing existential dread.

---

He had managed to get down stairs without Jeremy hovering, after downing the lukewarm tea and released Luci and Kit to feed them smiling at their loud complaints a at being unjustly confined, Luci had apparently cleaned himself of any evidence of the suspected mauling.

He left them to feed, while he went through his dad’s phone book to find Zach’s mobile number something he hadn’t thought to get yesterday too excited by the chance of solving his- everything, of speaking to all out loud and being believed, they were right he had to admit he had pushed himself to far, but he hadn’t done it on purpose he had truly forgotten it, in the rush of being believed.

He found the number and quickly added it into his phone, under Brother- Zach, before calling he had something he needed to ask, another thing beside his health he had forgotten in the rush of being believed.

He wanted to keep the details of his life before EJ hidden, he didn’t didn’t really want the details of that life and what he had done as Elias, he wanted others to know even less.

----

Zach is ignoring his instincts screaming at him for leaving Damon unwatched since he had returned last night, Damon should have been enraged at them for locking him up to starve, for taking his ring and yet he had been polite for Damon, strangely so. It wasn’t until after he had left the night before that Zach had noticed they had a conversation with any threat in it at all.

It seemed Damon meant his word when he promised Elijah not to harm him, it was strange to think that he could be trusted at all when the only thing Zach had known of Damon is entire life was that he brought death and dread in his wake, but he had seen the photos the way Damon had looked at his brothers in the few of them, the way tiny Sickly Elijah leaned into him like he was the sun in them.

He’s not thinking about how things could have changed if Damon had visited in his childhood before EJ had been sent away, maybe he could have helped Elijah before he was locked away.

None of that mattered now, EJ killed himself to escape the hospital Zach had left him in and now somehow Elijah was remembered and didn’t hate him.

So he ignored his instincts to watch his vampiric ancestor and decided to also take part in the unspoken truce.

Damon was Stefan’s issue to deal with, Zach was going to work on helping his own cousin-brother-former brother, EJ.

He paused slightly as his phone rang suddenly, taking in the unknown number before he answered, sending an apologetic look towards the people around him that had jumped at the sudden noise.

“Zach?” Came a hesitant voice.

“Elijah.” he answered and smothered the memory of the first time Elijah had called him from the hospital back when he was a child that still wondered when he could come home, before Elijah had re-made himself EJ, bright, carefree and confident.

“Where are you?” Elijah asked

“At the public library, i was checking some thing i noticed from one of you older- lives” he answered, confused, if Elijah was at the house Damon would have told him unless Elijah didn’t trust Damon which would make Zach slightly more comfortable, but he didn’t think that was true given the way the pair had looked at each other.

“What do you mean?”

“You mentioned Bulgarian, Irish and Italian immigrants,” he explained looking back at his notes “i’m looking to find any places many of them could be found matching the dates we worked out.”

“Found anything?”

“A few places.” he replied but it was only the basics he didn’t want to get Elijah hopes up until he was sure they led to anything, “Why did you call?

Elijah hesitated, Zach could almost hear him biting his lip, unlike the many times before the hesitation wasn’t accompanied by the sound of EJ fiddling with the patient uniform. No doubt because his current clothes are aren’t the cheap hospital clothes. He remembered Elijah’s joy at the oversized jumpers he used to give him on his last few birthdays and Christmases.

“EJ” he called softly with a sigh,

“Can you hide my life before EJ?”

“Why?” he asked, talking over the lump in his throat, what was bad enough for him to ask that. He had read the earliest memories from the Elijah’s notes, unconnected massacres and bloodbath, yet the life before EJ he wanted to keep hidden Elijah’s own words ‘it was too much as a kid’ and ‘Tortured to death by a vampire with a grudge.’ said completely without the horror it should have had.

I don’t want to think about it and i don’t want anyone to read it and see-

“If we don’t then how can we see if it helps.” he hated saying the words, even more when he heard the angry hiss as Elijah let out his breath. He couldn’t deny he also wanted to know why the little boy that used to follow him around the house as a child was apparently doomed before he was born, as much as he was going to regret it he wanted to know if there truly was nothing he could have done.

There was also the fact that if the vampire that had tortured him to death knew his first life-

“Just you.” Elijah voice pulled him out of his thought before they could go too far “You deserve a right to it as it affected you- your life with a mentally unstable-

“Elijah. It wasn’t your fault.” he told him, cutting the boy off before blamed himself anymore.

Nothing he’d read so far could be blamed on Elijah, just circumstances pushing him, like the orderly in the hospital. Elijah was always going to be the little boy that reached for his hand and insisted in sharing his presents, who had mistaken Mason Lockwood for a girl when they were introduced during the few founding family Elijah had gone to.

“Maybe you can say that after you read what i was like in that life. Sorry i-

“I’ll lock it away once I get back, so no one else can read it and no matter what I read, it won't be your fault, none of this is.” he explained and ignored how much the final words echoed the ones he once told a shocked traumatised pre-teen EJ, after he realised what he had done to the orderly.

It hadn’t helped then either.

#fanfiction #elijah mikaelson #the originals #fic #tvd fanfiction #au- familiar faces #the vampire diaries #the vampire dairies au #damon salvatore #elena gilbert #zach salvatore

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