An Elemental Difference - FIRE - Book 2 (Stefan Salvatore)

Chapter 55 - I feel like we're spiraling

A/N: Can anyone spot the foreshadowing for later seasons? Hope you enjoy this one; tears were soaking my face when I wrote it. xoxo

GILBERT HOUSEHOLD

When Aella woke the morning after hearing Tyler's fears to Caroline the night before, she wasn't sure how much more emotion she could take. Stumbling into the kitchen, her body screamed for coffee to fill her veins and pretend she hadn't slept for zero hours. However, any plans to drown herself in coffee and sleep the day away were squished when she saw Elena, still in her clothes from the night before, sitting at the table, face red from the tears she'd shed.

"Hey?" Aella cooed, rushing to the brunette. Sitting down next to Elena, she saw a bracelet held tightly in her hand. "That's pretty."

Elena's response was to let out a sob, "It was my mom's. John gave it to me."

"Miranda?" Aella examined the jewelry. Elena handed it to her, and Aella smiled gently, "Definitely Miranda; Isobel would never wear something so classy."

Elena's tears fell more, "When John said it was my mom's and I automatically thought it was Isobel's...." She looked at Aella despairingly, "Am I already forgetting who my real mom was just because she didn't birth me?"

"No," Aella answered truthfully as she stroked the delicate bracelet. "I think you've had a lot of information pushed at you, and you just got a little confused." She returned it to Elena, "You will never forget them, trust me."

Elena looked at her best friend in a new light, "How do you do it? How do you stop yourself from forgetting them? Their smell, their voice, their hugs. I miss my dad's hugs so much."

Aella painfully swallowed the lump that had suddenly grown in her throat, "I don't forget them because I don't let myself forget them. Some things are harder to remember..." Her eyes glistened as she admitted with a forced smile, "...like hugs. A hug from a mom and a dad is so different than one with Grams, Nate, or you. It's like a blanket that's just been taken out of the dryer on a bitter day, and when it wraps around you as snug as a bug, you smell only their smell...." Aella's eyes, which she hadn't realized she'd closed, lost in the memory, opened. "That feeling is never the same with anyone else."

Elena leaned over and wiped her tears. Aella smiled in thanks and continued, "But then you hear a sound or smell a familiar scent, and it jolts you to a memory you shared with them. Like you're still five years old and playing hide and seek with your dad and grandad, the smell of grandma's apple pie wafting from the kitchen as you hear your mom's bell-like laugh as she plays chess with her brother and he's cheating - he swears he's not, but the whole family knows he is. It's those memories that you never forget. Even twelve years later."

"Thank you for sharing that with me," Elena smiled. The tears on her face were dry, and her smile slight. It wasn't often Aella shared such memories with them all. Her gaze returned to the bracelet, "John told me he wants to protect me... I think this-" she motioned to the bracelet "-was some kind of olive branch."

Aella took the bracelet from Elena, "I think if you - only you - want John in your life-" she attached it to Elena's wrist "-then you do that. He knows as well as I do that he'll never replace Miranda and Grayson. Still, it also means that you could potentially - one day - have one of those snug-as-a-bug cuddles that I could only dream of again."

Elena twirled the bracelet, "I'll think about it."

"And that's fine too," Aella shrugged, standing up, but not before squeezing Elena's shoulder. "Now, coffee. I need a lot of coffee."

Elena watched her friend move over the coffee machine, "You were exhausted last night; I thought you'd have slept like a baby?" Aella's hand froze over the sugar canteen for a split second, but Elena saw it, "Aella?"