"Elena…"

Elena whimpered, her eyes rolling beneath her eyelids as Elijah's voice pulled her slowly out of sleep.

"Elena…"

After a few moments, her chocolate irises finally opened and she turned where she was lying back in her seat to see him smiling sweetly at her.

She also noticed that the car had stopped on the side of the otherwise desolate and semi-dawn highway.

"Mmmm..where are we?" she asked, blinking, finding herself moving underneath his jacket—he must have thrown it over her when she fell asleep to keep her warm, "what time is it?"

"We're about an hour outside Mystic Falls—" Elijah reported as she tried to sit up and he took her elbow gently to help her.

Yikes! Can you say electricity much!

Elena closed her eyes to keep her sudden feelings from showing.

Was it always going to be like that when they touched?

Elijah must have felt the overwhelming connection himself because she noticed that he had immediately pulled back, a similar expression on his face.

"I—I'm sorry to wake you," Elijah said, trying to continue, ignoring how their connection had suddenly made him feel as well, "But I just realized that the sun will be up soon—"

"Oh, my God!" Elena exclaimed, pulling herself the rest of the way up and rubbing her eyes, somehow, suddenly processing that she was now a creature of the night, "I didn't realize—"

"Elena, wait..." Elijah said, holding up his hands, trying to get her to calm down, then continued in a calm voice, "That's why I woke you. I—well, I have something for you…"

Elena's eyes narrowed in curiosity as she stilled and watched Elijah lower his hands, then unfasten his seat belt and turn on his side in the seat, producing a small black box from his front blue jean pocket.

Elena continued to watch him intently as he removed the box lid and held it out to her across the dash between them.

"A daylight ring?" she asked in a stunned whisper as her eyes fell upon the ring. It held a ruby stone, set into a flat, gold, antique looking band, "How?—"

"Misha spelled it for me," Elijah interjected, their gaze now meeting, "After you told me about your decision to turn. I deduced with all the drama that was going on, it might be difficult for the Salvatores to have one made for you," then he smirked as he shrugged nervously, "I hope you like it—"

"It's beautiful, Elijah, really…" Elena said, then immediately, her eyes moved down to the ring again and hesitation suddenly entered her mind as she took in the idea of how old the ring looked…

"Wait…" she whispered as she suddenly realized whose ring it had once been. It seemed to be a sixth sense that told her, "No. I—I couldn't—"

As soon as he saw the expression on her face, Elijah sat forward, knowing immediately what she was thinking.

"Elena, it's alright—" he tried to reassure her

"But, this was Liliya's ring?" Elena replied

"Yes—" Elijah confessed

Elena sat back in the seat, eying the ring sadly, "You can't give it to me, Elijah. I couldn't take it, it wouldn't be right… You gave it to her."

"Elena, Misha's been holding on to this for me in safe keeping for centuries," Elijah whispered, smirking with fond reverence at the ring, "When I told him I needed a daylight ring for you, he spelled this one. He thought it was a good idea… so did Liliya. When I talked to her, she said that the ring didn't deserve to be in its box forever. She said it would mean a lot to her for you to have it."

Elena took a measured breath as she looked from Liliya's ring, then back to Elijah, still considering.

"I know it would also mean a lot to me…" Elijah encouraged softly, his eyes moving back to her, "Please, Elena? Just for now…to protect you? And later on, if you decide you really can't wear it or if it doesn't fit, I'll take you to a jewelry store in the next town and you can pick out another and we'll find some voodoo priestess to spell it for us," he then brought his free hand to his chest, forming a criss-cross motion over the left side before holding it up in solemn oath, "Cross my heart."

Elena smirked at this and rolled her eyes before finally nodding her consent and shrugging his jacket from where it lay over her forearms, removed her right hand from underneath it.

Elijah smiled and carefully removed the ring from its box, then took her offered hand gently in his.

Elena closed her eyes at the contact.

Well, there was the answer to her question…There will always be sparks between their skin.

She opened her eyes as she felt the coolness of the gold on her finger and watched Elijah slide it all the way on.

She had to say that it was beautiful…and wearing it felt…familiar, somehow…

And to her amazement, it fit her finger perfectly.

# # # # # #

"Shut the front door!" Rebekah laughed in disbelief, eying the still stunned Salvatore Brothers who now stood in the kitchen of the Mikaelson Mansion with Elena's note in hand.

They had caught Kol, Rebekah, Misha and Kaspar sitting around the kitchen table, partaking in hangover food after their little victory party.

"Well, this is an interesting turn of events…" Kol mused before scooping a spoonful of peanut butter out of the jar and handing the spoon to Kaspar, then scooping out a spoonful for himself.

"I should say so," Damon replied, "she just left with him out of the blue."

"From what you said she wrote in the letter, she didn't seem to have a choice…" Misha said, now standing in front of the open pantry, popping the top off a tube of BBQ Pringles, "She wants to learn to be a vampire and she doesn't think she'll be able to learn what she needs to from you and Stefan."

"Oh! Those are Nik's favorite," Rebekah interrupted, looking over her shoulder and pointing to the chips in Misha's hand, "Eat the cheesy ones first."

"It also sounds like it's certainly not 'out of the blue'," Kaspar pointed out between licks on his spoon, "She seems to have thought about her decision carefully—made it before she turned."

"You're not helping," Stefan said

"Yeah, what do you know about any of this?" Damon shot back at the warlock, "You've been in Mystic Falls for like ten seconds!"

"Oh, but I know the history...you forget that I was there a thousand years ago, my friend" Kaspar said, taking the Cheesy Pringles from Misha as the older warlock returned to the table, "And the history doesn't lie."

"Kaspar's right. You're both delusional if you think that this whole situation hasn't been building up to something like this," Kol added

"What do you mean?" Damon scoffed, eying the younger original

"Oh, please…" Rebekah rolled her eyes as she took her own spoonful of peanut butter from the jar, "He means that surely Nik told you the story of the original Petrova doppelganger—"

"Yeah, when we had that uncomfortable dinner with him," Damon answered, turning to his brother at his side, "Tatia, right?"

"It was a lie," Stefan interjected, "Klaus tried to tell me the true story before Esther arrived. He thought I deserved to know what really happened since our relationship with Elena mirrored that of the triangle between him and Elijah and Liliya."

Damon raised an eyebrow, "Liliya? Who's Liliya?"

"The real original Petrova doppleganger," Kol answered, "There wasn't a feud-if that's what my diabolical brother told you. For Liliya, it was always Elijah. They were once betrothed and he was completely in love with her. They were destined to be together-what the Nordic people called 'skrevet i stjernene' or couples 'written in the stars'. Today, I suppose you could call them soul-mates. Therefor, it's only natural that there is something between Elena and Elijah—a connection-where she would be drawn to him and him to her."

"That's why she was always so worried about him…why she kept asking for him…trusted him…" Damon realized, sighing in defeat

"And here I was worried she would run away with you," Stefan smirked sadly, shooting Damon a look out of the corner of his eye

"And now you're both standing here with a 'Dear John' letter in your hands," Rebekah said, shaking her head in disbelief

"Don't you mean 'Dear Damon' letter?" Kol corrected with a smirk

"Oooh! Nice one!" Kaspar laughed, winking at Kol