All This Time

Chapter 5

Chapter Five

"What are you doing?!" Elena choked.

"Funny. I was about to ask you the same question," said Katherine. "Senior Prom 2011? I was wondering how the next doppelgänger was here a century and a half early."

Elena's eyes widened. "It was an act?"

"You catch on quickly. I figured the best way to learn the truth about you was to get inside your head, and to do that, I needed you to drop your guard. Now, unless you want me to put a stake through your heart, you're going to tell me why you're here."

"There is no why," said Elena, trying fruitlessly to tug Katherine's hands away from her throat. "I came here by mistake."

"You expect me to believe that?" Katherine scoffed. "How does someone travel through time by mistake?"

By having a crazy ancestor who didn't put warning labels on his inventions, Elena thought. Aloud, she said, "Look, if it was up to me, I'd be back in my time already, but Emily said she can't send me back yet. Just because Ilook like you doesn't mean I always have some diabolical plan up my sleeve like you do. All I want is to go home."

Katherine raised her eyebrows and her grip loosened enough that Elena finally succeeded in breaking free, and she immediately put as much distance between them as she could without leaving the room. Katherine followed her movement her with narrowed eyes. "Your presence here might be a mistake, but I know what I saw in that dream. I'm not sure how you managed to get both Salvatore brothers wrapped around your little finger in your time, but I have no intention of letting you try it here."

"God, could you be more like a spoiled child?" said Elena. She was playing with serious fire here, she knew, but her courage had risen a great deal in the last few moments, along with her annoyance. She wasn't some little girl Katherine could push around anymore, she was a vampire, and she didn't have to take crap from anyone. "You're, what, three hundred and fifty? Jealousy is a little beneath you, don't you think?"

If looks could kill, Elena would be dead, but she plunged on, meeting Katherine's icy glare with one of her own. "Maybe if you had stopped playing games with Damon and Stefan long enough to pick one of them, they wouldn't both be wrapped around my little finger in 2010. Trying to hold onto both of them is why you lost both of them." A bitter taste filled her mouth, and she looked down. "It's why I'm losing both of them," she finished quietly.

Katherine took a while to reply, and when she did, it was with a surprising lack of hostility. "Stefan said you chose him," she observed, "and yet you were searching for Damon."

"I was in love with Stefan," Elena admitted, deciding that continued honesty was her best bet, "but everything's different now. I'm not with him anymore, and I thought I was falling in love with Damon instead, but they're convinced it's all because of the stupid sire bond. For all I know, they could be right. And even if they aren't, it doesn't matter what I feel for Damon, because he'll never believe it's real." She offered Katherine a pained smile. "So you see? I'll have enough Salvatore love triangle drama to deal with when I get home; I don't need any more of it here."

Katherine watched her silently for a long time, before she stood up a little straighter and said, "If you'll excuse me, I must speak with Emily. I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow morning." On that enigmatic note, she left the room.

~*~

The next morning at breakfast, Elena half-expected Katherine to lunge across the table and attack her whenever they made eye contact, but she never did. She was strangely quiet and thoughtful through most of the meal, and Elena caught herself wondering more than once whether Katherine had actually taken her words to heart, but that didn't seem likely. She was probably just still making up her mind about how best to get rid of her.