Through Rivalry Comes Love

Chapter 9

She couldn't move. And nothing ever affected Elena so much that she felt frozen, unable to think or react. But this. This did her in. The only other time she could ever remember feeling this way was when her aunt had taken her into the kitchen and numbly told her that her parents had died in a car accident. She had been 17. Her legs had felt like rock and her chest felt heavy. Nothing had been running through her brain. She simply just felt ... frozen. In time and in place.

Which is how she felt in this exact moment. The vulnerability in his eyes, when they had made contact with hers, hit her fast and hard. Her eyes scanned back to the woman on the ground, wrapped in Stefan's arms and desperately trying to get away from him. Mom. He had called her his mom.

The pain he felt was seeping out of him and she was absorbing it finally. She wanted it to stop. All of it. His pain. The familiar feeling of loss she was experiencing having lost her own mother. It all needed to stop.

Elena forced her eyes to look anywhere but at them. At him. People had slowly gathered to watch and she didn't know whether to get out of there or tell them all to leave. Stefan was clearly blocking them out in his attempt to help the helpless woman before him.

She could just walk away. It would be the easy choice.

But Elena didn't do easy. She never had. She did what was right. Gregory may have wanted her to do wrong for personal gain, but that wasn't who she was. Stefan's voice cut through her thoughts, forcing her to look at him again. "Mom" he kept saying.

Her feet moved at their own accord, towards him and his mother. Stefan's eyes looked fearful as she knelt down beside them. She had no idea what she was doing, but maybe doing something was better than doing nothing. "Mrs. Salvatore?" she asked, softly yet firmly.

Stefan's mother immediately stilled, having heard her name. Her proper name.

"My name is Elena" she said, remembering from her corporate training that introducing yourself was a way to interrupt a crisis. "I'm a friend of Stefan's" she continued, swallowing past the lump in her throat. Because really, what kind of friend was she?

Stefan's mother stared at Elena's feet, her breathing still coming in short pants, but she was no longer screaming or crying.

Stefan stood stalk still, unsure of what to do. Having Elena that close, offering him her help, was unnerving.

"Can I help you in some way?" Elena asked.

His mother shook her head and grabbed ahold of Elena's wrist tightly. Elena was surprised, but did not panic. "I don't want to go back there. I don't want to" she said, continuing to shake her head. "Tell my son not to take me back there. I'm not crazy. They think I'm crazy but I'm not" she said, looking up at Elena finally.

Elena saw the fear and confusion in this woman's eyes and it broke her heart, because she could see it in Stefan's eyes too. Elena nodded. "How about Stefan takes you for a drive? Maybe around the lake?" she suggested.

Something seemed to resonate with his mother and she nodded her head. A smile appeared. "I want to go for a drive. I want to see the lake" she said, letting go of Elena's wrist and pushing Stefan away from her, standing on her own.

She began walking towards Stefan's car and Bonnie got out to help her. But Bonnie's eyes were on Elena and Stefan.

Elena looked nervously at Stefan who looked nervously at her. She wanted to say something, but what, she didn't know. A single tear had slipped from his left eye and she saw it. He stood quickly before Elena could react.

So he left her kneeling where she was and didn't look back once.

XXXX

It was close to five hours later when Elena showed up at his apartment. She told herself to just stay away, but for some reason, she couldn't. She stood at his door, preparing herself to knock.