A/N: I really enjoy writing Elijah, partly because the spell and grammar check on my computer calms down when he's narrating, but also because it's so easy to write him as a scheming BAMF. I tried not to make him too vicious in this chapter, but you guys be the judge of that. OMG indeed.

Just a reminder, all the action here takes place immediately after "Know Thy Enemy." This won't have any spoilers for tonight's episode, "The Last Day." And last but not least, thanks to Haku2009 for being my beta and reviewing this chapter.

He arrived upstairs to find Elena already off the phone, and standing a conspicuously obvious distance away from an end table where the dagger was laying. She took a deep breath at the sound of his arrival, and raising her chin she turned to look at him – and then averted her eyes as she realized he was still in a state of undress. Clearing his throat loudly, he captured her attention, although her eyes neither met his own nor traveled lower down his body than his collarbone.

It could have been amusing, but he had seen far more interesting things in his existence than bashful 17-year olds. Thinking this would go a lot easier if he were clothed, he gestured at his own body, and then jabbed a finger at the stairs, conveying his meaning to her. She scampered off to procure some clothes, and perhaps work to control the blush creeping red-hot across her cheeks.

Damon came hurrying into the room, closely followed by Stefan, both of whom showed signs of questioning his ability to order them around. He was counting on it; tests such as the ones he gave the brothers would help to confirm in his mind the level of commitment they were prepared to offer. He didn't necessarily need trustworthy in all senses of the word, but he could do without their opposition.

"Is there anything you had trouble understanding downstairs?" Elijah demanded of them.

"Yeah, you really expect me to go shopping for you? Don't you have like, a personal assistant for that crap?" The way Damon was bristling proved that he had chosen correctly for this task. The vampire was frustrated, but the way he chose to handle it would help decide whether he was too volatile to trust with any important aspects of the plan Elijah was slowly forming.

"Any assistants I do have think I'm dead. So, you will have to do." A playful thought occurred to him. "Or you could loan me something of yours?"

"Like hell!" The reaction was just as he'd hoped. It would never happen anyways. There were many things enemies did not share, and vampires could get quite territorial.

"Damon, are you seriously antagonizing him right now?" Stefan asked in a clipped tone of voice.

Did they always talk about people like this, instead of to them? It was enough to drive any sane being crazy. Not to mention it was rude. Elijah was in a hurry to move on, and he hoped Damon would acquiesce soon.

Impatience was in the air, as Damon bit out, "Fine! I'll go. Don't make yourself at home." In what was meant to be a quiet aside, he muttered, "Stefan, watch him. This is just weird."

Damon blew out of the house, leaving the door quaking in its frame after he passed through, and Elijah finally allowed himself to think of the thirst that was slowly consuming him.

Seeing Stefan's empty hands, Elijah calmly remarked, "I had assumed you kept bags of blood in the basement."

"We do, but we're running low and haven't made a trip out in awhile. There've been…too many things going on." The shadowed look in his eyes made Elijah think he wouldn't be hearing any good news tonight.

"Then, I think the time might be right for another trip, wouldn't you say?"

"Yes, but what about Elena? She can't come, and I don't want to leave her alone."

Something in Stefan's eyes made him decide to be truthful, and explain himself in a way he hadn't done in quite some time. "I'm hoping to have a talk with Elena while you and Damon are gone. I fear she won't be honest if she knows you and Damon are listening. I give you my word, she will come to no harm while with me, and when you return we will discuss how to proceed as a group."

He didn't phrase it as a question, yet Stefan still answered it as such. "Sure, ok. Lemme just tell her-"

Elijah's hand on his arm cut him off. "You worry too much. Go, before I decide it'll be faster for me to go hunting."

Stefan finally left the house, though in a manner much calmer than his brother's. Elijah sighed, wondering how much energy he would allow himself to expend to keep the brothers at peace with each other before he snapped and compelled them to behave, like children. At least Stefan was willing to work with him, so far. Klaus wouldn't have cared, but Elijah had discovered over the years that people were more helpful when they believed there were in a partnership. And when they were left alive.

His thoughts were interrupted by shuffling that marked Elena's approach. By the sounds of it, she had traveled all the way up to the third floor for clothes. A minute later, she was descending the staircase with a cardboard box of assorted styles, which, at first glance, appeared to be from decades past.

Bringing the box over, she said, "Here, these should help. They were packed away upstairs." She sat down and occupied her time by studying the room around her. Surely, she noticed the absence of her favorite brothers? If she didn't, he was not about to point it out. He needed her focused so he could question her.

The box held far too many bright colors and patterns for his taste. He extracted black pants, and quickly slipped them on, briefly imagining the way Elena's face would relax in relief now that he was decent. Now it was time to get to the heart of the matter.

"As I gathered from your attempted explanation downstairs, Klaus has made his presence known by, quote, making people… do things," he deadpanned, buttoning up a black shirt. The material was cheap and scratched his neck, but the discomfort was mild compared to the memories of having the dagger plunged through his chest, so he let it slide. "This is hardly a solid foundation for planning against him. I need to know everything that has-"

Elijah cut himself off as he realized that she didn't seem to have taken in a word he had said. From her stiff, edge-of-her-seat posture on the couch, he could tell she was waiting for something. Perhaps she wanted her Salvatores nearby, just in case he decided to get violent. His need for information made him try to ease some of her nerves.

In an uncharacteristically soft voice, he informed her of the brothers' whereabouts. "Elena, Stefan and Damon are running a few errands for me. I'm not going to hurt you, and I'm not going to kill anyone." Why was he being so accommodating tonight? Perhaps it was a side effect of dying. One more reason not to go through death again. "I want to hear what's been going on from you, without you being interrupted all the time." She looked him straight in the eye for the first time that day, a growing expression of wonder displayed across her face.

"I'm sorry for what I did. It's just this curse… I'm doing things I never thought I'd do. Lying to almost everyone important to me, preparing for my own death, killing someone." She shook her head slowly before continuing, "I'm not Katherine. I don't like hurting people, and I'm sorry I hurt you."

He felt the corner of his mouth involuntarily twitch at her comparison to her doppelganger. "Apology accepted." He crossed one leg as leaned back in the armchair, relaxing slightly, and motioned at her to do the same.

Seeing his relaxed posture and having her apology accepted worked wonders for Elena's mood. She let out a quick giggle, and joked, "I should probably apologize for those clothes, too. I got them from storage upstairs. There's a lot of 60s memorabilia up there I was looking though, because there's a school dance coming up. Um, but you don't care about that. So, do we still have a deal?"

"Which deal might that be?"

"The um, the most recent one," she said, with a "you know" hand motion.

"You mean the one made right after you stabbed yourself? I believe I was coerced into accepting those terms. That deal is void."

"But we can negotiate a new one," she said confidently.

"We will…after I hear about what's happened while I was incapacitated." He prompted her to return to the topic. "Now, what has Klaus done?"

He listened carefully, letting her speak without in to her tale of betrayals and compulsion, and a few things stuck out to him. Firstly, Klaus had apparently acquired the art of finesse sometime in the last few centuries. His usual methodology was straightforward, centered on killing everyone who stood in his way, and taking what he wanted. When his paranoia increased, he began sending vampires and witches out to do his bidding, but the result was still the same. Playing upon peoples' weaknesses and using their relationships against them had always been in Elijah's repertoire, but Klaus had obviously borrowed a few pages.

The other thing Elijah noticed was just how easily the whole lot of them was misled. The Salvatores wouldn't have survived so long if they kept their guard this low, so he assumed that it was Elena's idea to accept help from the likes of Katarina and Isobel.

When she paused in the retelling of her birth mother's death, he noted the tightening of the muscles of her throat and rapid blinking that signaled she was working to keep her emotions in check. Of course, she had proven that she could be as hard as steel when needed, and he knew to never again underestimate her.

Elijah further learned that he was right in suspecting that "Uncle" John played a role in the whole ordeal. What was surprising was finding out that Elena had accepted him into her good graces. Finally breaking his silence, he said to Elena, "When we discussed the protection of your loved ones, John never entered into the equation. What's changed to make you regard him as one now?"

"It's…complicated. The easy answer is that he's the only parent I have left. It would be selfish and petty to deny a relationship with him, when I probably won't make it through the sacrifice."

The day of emotional highs and lows had started to take its toll on her. She was showing signs of fatigue: her eyelids drooped, her voice took on a gravelly quality the longer she talked, and she was slumped on the arm of the couch – a striking comparison to her earlier rigidity. "Is there anything in the kitchen here for some coffee? You look like you could use some," he said. It would provide the perk she needed in order to hash out their new deal, and distract her from the arrival of one of the Salvatores. Whichever one it was had impeccable timing; Elijah could hear the car coming up the drive.

"You drink coffee?" She looked puzzled for some reason. Elijah considered why she could possibly be confused; he thought she and Stefan were close. Hadn't he told her anything about vampirism?

"Of course. You know that vampires can eat and drink regularly, yes?"

"Wha- yeah, I know! I just didn't know what you liked to eat. I guess I really could use some coffee, huh? I'll be right back." She started to walk away, then whirled around once she was halfway across the room. "I'm so sorry! I didn't ask if you wanted any."

He smiled at the previously frightened girl, the doppelganger sacrifice, who was now worried that she had offended him by not offering a cup of coffee.

"Thank you. I'll take a cup; black, please."

She made it to the kitchen this time, and Elijah wandered to the entranceway to meet Damon. He doubted the more responsible Stefan would fishtail into the driveway, blaring classic rock through the stereo system. A wicked grin spread over Elijah's face as Damon came through the door with a shopping bag from a local discount store and stopped dead in his tracks, obviously taking in Elijah's fully clothed appearance.

The grin stretched even wider as Damon's mouth narrowed into a hard line. "You didn't expect me to remain naked while you were out, did you?"

Damon positively exploded, "Then what the hell did I go shopping for?" He shoved the shopping bag into Elijah's chest hard enough to crush a human's ribs.

Damon was suddenly pressed up against the wall by his throat, the motion too fast even for his vampire senses to notice. Elijah's grin vanished from his face. He leaned close to Damon's ear and growled, "You went shopping because I told you to. You are in no position to question me, Damon. As I've said before, you will remain alive so long as you prove useful to me."

Elijah released his neck and roughly threw him towards the sitting area as he ordered, "Have a seat. Stefan will be right back, and we will assess the situation once John Gilbert arrives."

The younger vampire still showed signs of hesitation, and protested, "St. Stefan left Elena here alone with you? Where is she? What did you do to her?" He made to zoom into Elijah's personal space again.

Elijah thought it wise to make his point unequivocally now, so he could prevent being questioned again in the future. Further interruptions would prove to be tedious and only serve to delay their agenda. His agenda.

Without warning, his foot connected with Damon's kneecap, shattering the patella and twisting the ligaments uselessly out of place. Damon groaned and collapsed onto the couch. "I believe I told you to sit down," Elijah remarked coldly. He continued in a bored voice, "Trust me, I will not tolerate your disrespect. If it continues… let's just say that you will be reacquainted with your dear flamethrower. Do you understand me?"

Damon glared at Elijah, but remained quiet. His glare turned sullen when Elena came and delivered Elijah's coffee before curling up on the couch and giving Damon a warm smile.

"What's the matter with you?" she directed at Damon between sips of the steaming drink.

"Ah, just waiting on dear Stefan. We could get started without him!"

Elijah smiled to himself in pleasure as Damon shifted on the couch, trying to get the weight off his knee. He knew no force on earth could make a vampire – especially one as temperamental as Damon – admit to an injury and show weakness.

Damon must have been too busy hiding the pain from his knee to notice the sounds of two distinct engines pull up to the house. "No need," Elijah informed them. "Stefan has returned, and John Gilbert is just behind him. They'll be joining us shortly."

"Good, I want to know how John fits into all this," Elena said, emerging once again above the rim of her coffee mug. Elijah rose to refill her mug, earning a little smile of pleasure from Elena, and a look of suspicion from Damon.

He was not gone for long, and when he returned, Stefan was waiting in the living room with four bags of blood on the table. Handing the ceramic mug off to Elena, he picked up a bag and began to drink. Years of caution had taught him never to appear too eager for anything, lest it be used as leverage against him, but he reasoned that dying could constitute an exception, and he quickly downed the bag.

The idle chitchat was broken up by the arrival of John Gilbert, as he called into the house for Elena. She answered, "We're in the living room, John!"

"What's the big emergency, Elena?" Whatever John was expecting, the look on his face made it plain that it most assuredly was not meeting a revived Elijah sitting calmly in the midst of those who had killed him.

Elijah regarded the man with a nod and said, "John," by way of greeting. John could only stand in the doorway, dumbstruck. It wasn't the usual reaction Elijah received from those who knew his true nature, but there was something amusing about a grown man gaping at him like a bad cartoon character.

Damon broke the small silence. "Hey Gilbert. Nice of you to show up." Turning to the rest of the group, he said, with a hint of his usual swagger, "So, can we get this party started?"