CHAPTER NINE
IN THE THICK OF THINGS

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     Rowan fought the urge to cover her ears when Stefan's screams continued. She didn't want to hear him like that, didn't want to hear her friend in pain, but his screams were the only thing telling her where he was. She stopped briefly to listen closely despite the grimace on her face, tilting her head and closing her eyes to focus better. It didn't help that his screams were echoing against the trees. Her brows furrowed as she willed herself to pinpoint his location, trying to ignore the echoes. It wasn't hard to do, once she figured out which sounds to ignore and which one to focus on. Once she figured out his screaming was coming from the east, she twisted on her heel and started running again.

By the time she reached the destination, the screaming had stopped. She had to use the old, rusty well to stop herself, her abdomen digging into the stones. Elena, who had been bending over the opening and shouting desperately for Stefan to respond to her, jumped when Rowan appeared at her side, a small shriek leaving her mouth. Rowan didn't blame her for being jumpy. Rowan was jumpy, too.

"I heard Stefan." Rowan's voice came out as a gasp, thought she was hardly out of breath. Running was nothing to her now, as easy as blinking her eyes or expanding her senses. Elena opened and closed her mouth, like she was trying to find the words to describe what happened but not knowing where to start. Rowan bent down over the well and narrowed her eyes. It was dark, but her eyes adjusted immediately, and she could just make out the shadow of Stefan's body floating on top of the water, face down.

"Elena!" Caroline shouted, and she was suddenly there as well, catching herself on the old stones just like Rowan had. Rowan didn't pay her any attention.

"Stefan's down there," Elena rambled quickly, finally finding her voice, "and the chain is rusted." Rowan glanced down at the chain piled at her feet. She only thought for a moment, but then she was bracing her hands on the edge of the well and preparing to hoist herself over. She stopped when Elena grabbed desperately at her arm, voice rising in panic. "No, no, no, don't! You can't, it's filled with vervain." Rowan immediately recoiled, planting her feet firmly back on the ground and wrinkling her nose. Anxiety was swarming through her stomach. Mind racing, she turned and yanked up the chain. She was surprised when it flew up like it weighed nothing.

She didn't think she would ever get used to her own strength.

"Caroline, help me with this," she ordered, tossing a bit of the chain toward Caroline, who caught it and tossed it over the metal railing stretched out above the well, where a bucket used to be attached. Rowan could vividly remember her and Tyler breaking it off, then both of them burying it in the woods and running away, as if Tyler's parents would've cared that they had broken an old well that no one even cared about anymore. She shook her head and got to work securing the chain, tugging at it to make sure the railing would hold. Elena was already climbing slowly onto the edge of the well and bracing a foot in the loop. Rowan helped her steady herself, her hands falling on Elena's hips as she swayed for a moment, unsteady. After a moment where they all held their breath, Elena sighed and gave them a shaky nod.

Caroline started to lower her slowly. Rowan was about to help her when she heard footsteps and desperate gasps. She twirled on her heel, an excuse prepared at the tip of her tongue. She broke off when she saw that it was Bonnie. She opened her mouth to explain the situation to Bonnie, but stopped when she heard the chain rattle. Elena's small, startled shriek echoing up the well made Rowan twist around and yank on the chain Caroline was still holding. She had briefly forgotten her own strength and speed, lowering Elena down the well so fast that she must have felt like she was falling. The chain jerked to a stop, and Rowan heard Elena's feet hit the side of the well with a thud, loose chunks of stone splashing down in the water. Keeping a tight grip on the chain, Rowan leaned over and looked down. She could see Elena trembling.

"You alright?" Rowan called down. Elena tilted her face up and gave Rowan a shaky smile. It wasn't much, but it was enough to show her that Elena was fine, so she started lowering her down the well again. Caroline, having nothing to do since Rowan had taken charge of the chain, turned toward Bonnie and quickly explained what was happening. All three of the girls crowded around the well a few moments later, waiting with baited breath as Elena pulled the chain around Stefan's unconscious body.

"Elena?" Bonnie asked when they heard nothing but splashing. "What's going on down there?" Rowan peeked down, but the well was deeper than she had originally thought, and the light filtering through the trees didn't quite reach all the way down. At most, all she could see were shadows. Elena's arms were moving, searching through the water. She glanced up when Bonnie spoke.

"Pull him up!" Elena ordered, and then she was back to searching through the water with her arms. Rowan squinted. She made sure Elena was actually standing—the water seemed to come up to her waist—before she started pulling up Stefan. He was significantly heavier than Elena, his muscles combined with his dead weight making Rowan grit her teeth as she pulled. She braced her feet on the ground and got a better grip on the chain. The next tug was easier, and before she knew it, she and Caroline were hauling Stefan out of the well and laying his body gently on the ground. His skin was covered in burns, and he didn't look like he was breathing. As Caroline kneeled over him and tried to wake him up, Rowan kept a hold on the heavy chain to make sure it didn't slip down the well and injure Elena.

"Elena?" she called out after a moment. She was already lowering the chain again.

"Hold on!" Elena shouted up at them. The splashing became more frantic. Rowan could hear her labored breathing. It made her anxious, and she gripped at the rusty chain to keep herself from fidgeting. "I need to find the stone." There was more splashing. Rowan waited impatiently. She really hoped the moonstone was worth it. It didn't seem like it was, from where she was standing. Elena's gasp made Rowan start paying attention again. "I think I found it!"

"Grab the chain," Rowan ordered, bracing her feet on the ground again and waiting to feel the chain dig down with Elena's weight. There were a few tugs, and then the air was pierced with a high-pitched scream. Rowan, Caroline, and Bonnie all crowded around the well, only to see that Elena was thrashing around the bottom of it, as if things were crawling all over her. Rowan gripped the chain harder. "Elena, grab the chain!" Elena did immediately, practically curling her entire body around it as Rowan pulled her up.

Elena clutched to her as they pulled her out of the well, body trembling. Rowan had to peel a snake that was wrapped around her ankle off of her and chunk it back into the well. She had never been afraid of snakes—in fact, she found them cute—but she knew that they made Elena's skin crawl. Elena didn't take the time to recover from the shock of having snakes all over her. She just immediately collapsed at Stefan's side and cradled his burned face. Rowan crouched down on his other side, chewing on her bottom lip.

"Oh my god, Stefan," Elena gasped, shaking his shoulders slightly. Aside from the slight flutter of his eyelashes, he didn't react. Rowan made a sound of worry and sat back on her haunches, looking around her at the trees as if a wild animal would magically appear. She knew he was drinking small doses of Elena's blood to get stronger, but she doubted he'd want to consume human blood now. She was about to get up and go search for a rabbit or a bird when Elena made a small sound of pain.

She looked over just in time to see Elena drop a rock to the ground. Blood bubbled from the small cut. While Caroline quickly turned away from the sight, a hand coming up to cover her nose and mouth, Rowan watched with a focus that would have frightened her if her stomach hadn't given a sudden, hungry lurch. She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek, but she couldn't quite pull her gaze away when Elena pressed the cut to Stefan's mouth.

It didn't take much to clear the burns on Stefan's skin, and then Elena was pulling her hand back and helping him sit up. He groaned in pain when he did, palms pressing against his temples. His face twisted in pain. Rowan, taking a deep breath and shaking the hunger off of her, attempted a grin and gave a light punch to Stefan's shoulder.

"Want me to catch you a bunny?" she asked quietly, earning a small chuckle from Stefan despite the obvious pain he was in. Rowan smiled and hooked a hand under his arm, helping him to his feet. "Let's get you up. Come on."

They all walked in silence for ten minutes after that before Caroline spoke, making her voice sound as cheerful as possible.

"At least we got the moonstone!" she said with a smile. Rowan couldn't help smiling back. For once, she appreciated Caroline's optimism.

"Yeah," she agreed, shoulder bumping into Elena's. "At least we got the moonstone."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"You didn't have to kill him."

Rowan's voice was nothing but a whisper as she stared as the bloodstained white sheet that was wrapped around Mason Lockwood's body. There was a matching pillowcase nearby, even bloodier than the body itself. Rowan had glanced into it despite knowing she shouldn't have, and she had nearly puked when she realized that it was the werewolf's heart. She was now sitting in front of the fireplace, the heat soaking into her back. She barely noticed the discomfort. Her elbows were on her knees. She couldn't stop staring at the body. She didn't feel much for Mason despite growing up with him around. All she could think about now was Tyler.

She would never be able to look him in the eye after this. The thought made her feel ashamed. She was an accomplice to Mason's murder. She knew what Damon was like, knew that Damon was going to go after him in order to get information about the moonstone. It didn't matter that Mason had tried to kill them all, or that he was in league with Katherine Pierce. Tyler didn't know any of that. All he would know was that his uncle was dead and that his friends—Rowan—had known long before he ever would.

Damon, who was still busy cleaning up the mess he had made while torturing the werewolf, glanced up at her words with a frown.

"Yes," he said with an exasperated roll of his eyes. "I did." Rowan frowned at him, jaw clenching.

"No," she said, voice firm, "you didn't." Damon heaved a tired sigh and dropped the rag he had been using to scrub the chair down. Rowan had already assumed that it was the chair Mason had been tied to. Damon took a moment to run his hand down his face, closing his eyes as if praying for patience. She wondered how many lectures about morality he had already received that day. If Rowan could wager a guess, it had been Bonnie who went in on him about it. Just a look from her could make anyone feel ashamed of their actions, even if they didn't necessarily feel guilty for them. Rowan knew that firsthand.

"He would have killed me the first chance he got," Damon said through gritted teeth, dropping his hand from his face. Stefan, who was helping Damon clean, let out a small sigh but didn't argue with Damon's logic. Rowan hated that she knew he was right. Mason had already tried to kill her once. He would have done it again. She didn't want to admit that, though, so she decided to try a different tactic instead. She plastered on a sickly-sweet smile and peered up at Damon with an innocent face.

"And that's a bad thing?" she asked, voice just as sweet. Damon's face immediately twisted into a scowl. The rag he was holding was thrown on top of the sheet. Rowan arched an eyebrow.

"Alright, let's look at it this way," Damon said, sounding annoyed. It made Rowan happy to know that she could get under his skin so easily. "He would have gone after Stefan. He would have gone after you, and after Caroline. He was in love with Katherine, who wants Elena out of the picture, which means he was also a danger to Elena. He was a threat." Rowan pressed her lips together and averted her gaze. He was right. He was right, and she hated it. "It's about damn time you got with the program, little red riding hood. We handle the threats that come for us. It's either us or them. The sooner you learn that, the better."

The silence that followed those words was tense and uncomfortable. Rowan pulled her knees to her chest and watched as Stefan and Damon continued to clean. They did it with ease, moving around each other without even glancing up from what they were doing, as if they had done it a thousand times before. Rowan wondered how long it would be before she was that familiar with cleaning blood from the floor. She didn't think it would be long.

"What am I supposed to tell Tyler?" she whispered, setting her chin on top of her knees. "He can tell when I'm lying." Stefan frowned at that, opening his mouth to respond. Damon spoke before he got the chance.

"Either you stop talking to wolf boy," he suggested, making Rowan scowl, "or you get better at lying." He wiped his hands on another rag. "You're a vampire now. Lying is part of the job." Rowan didn't feel like talking after that, so she zoned out and focused on the other sounds in the house instead. She could hear the heater turning on from the basement, could hear the buzzing of the light bulbs. She let her hearing expand further and started when she heard Caroline's distressed voice. She had forgotten that Caroline had gone down to the cellar to visit her mother. She knew she shouldn't listen in on whatever personal conversation they were having, but her ears focused on Caroline's voice regardless of her wants, and she found it hard to focus on anything else.

"Don't. Don't," Caroline begged, sounding upset. Rowan fought the urge to go down to her. She wondered when she had grown so protective over Caroline, wondered when the annoyance turned to genuine affection. Maybe it was their shared experiences. Their petty arguments from before hardly seemed to matter anymore. "We're just starting to get along..."

"This strong," Liz continued, making Rowan realize she had missed something vital in the conversation. That was probably for the best. "This strong, confident person." Rowan felt herself relax at that.

"Oh," Caroline breathed, sounding just as relieved. Shyly, she added, "Thank you." There was a beat of silence. Rowan glanced at Stefan and Damon, wondering if they were listening in as well. They were still cleaning, scrubbing at the floor with bleach. They didn't give a single hint that they were eavesdropping, but Rowan had the distinct feeling that they were. Vampires seemed to be nosy by nature.

"You don't have to take my memories away," Liz continued. Rowan saw Damon's movements slow, saw Stefan hesitate a split second before he continued cleaning, and she knew exactly what the problem was. They couldn't trust Liz. She might promise to protect Caroline, but they couldn't guarantee that she would protect the rest of them. It was a risk none of them were willing to take. "I'll keep your secret. Look, if you're worried about them, just say you compelled me. I won't tell. I cannot do anything to hurt you." Stefan and Damon both stopped at that, tilting their heads. They all waited with bated breath for Caroline's response.

"We never talk like this," Caroline said after a moment of thoughtful silence on her end, tense silence on Rowan's. "Ever. And today meant so much to me." Rowan frowned. She tried not to listen then, but her senses seemed to have a mind of their own, because she kept honing in on the very personal and private moment happening downstairs.

"Me, too," Liz whispered.

"I know..." Caroline trailed off, then started again a moment later, her voice stronger. "I know I can trust you—but you're never going to trust them." Rowan closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to her knees. It reminded her too much of when she had to compel her parents, only Caroline's decision was decidedly more selfless than Rowan's had been. She thought so, at least. "I'm going to take you home. You're going to forget that Rowan, Stefan, Damon, and I are vampires and that Elena is involved in any of this."

"I'm going to forget that you, Rowan, Stefan, and Damon are vampires," Liz repeated, voice emotionless now. Empty. "I'm going to forget Elena is involved."

"You'll remember that you got sick with the flu," Caroline continued, voice now thick with tears. "You had a fever, chills and ickiness." Despite the situation, Rowan couldn't help cracking a smile at that. "But I made you soup, and it was really salty." Caroline paused to choke out a laugh. Rowan's arms tightened around her legs. "We bickered. You got better and then your selfish daughter—who loves you, no matter what—went right back to ignoring you, and all is right in the world."

Rowan met Caroline at the door leading down to the basement, back pressed against the wall and arms crossed over her chest. Caroline's eyes were watery. She stopped when she saw Rowan, and her shoulders seemed to deflate.

"Don't say anything," Caroline said, sounding exhausted. Rowan frowned at her, puzzled. "I'm really not in the mood right now, Rowan." Rowan couldn't help the flash of hurt that went through her chest at those words, despite knowing that she had done more than enough to deserve them. She had kicked Caroline while she was down before. That was when they were both humans, of course, but becoming vampires didn't magically erase Rowan's words. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

"I wasn't going to..." she started, then decided that it didn't matter. She stopped, cleared her throat, then tried again. "You did the right thing." Caroline pinned her with a hard stare.

"How do you know?" Caroline demanded. She tried to make herself sound venomous when she said it, but Rowan heard the vulnerability in her voice, heard it trembling slightly on the last word. Rowan chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, then sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

"Haven't you wondered why I'm living here?" Rowan asked. Caroline paused at that. She probably hadn't even realized that Rowan wasn't living at home anymore. She didn't blame her. Caroline had her own problems to deal with. Rowan let out a soft sigh and averted her gaze. "I attacked my mother. It was an accident—she cut her finger and I lost control—but I had to compel both of my parents after that. They think they kicked me out." Caroline's face had gone pale.

"Oh my god," Caroline stammered out, blinking rapidly. "Rowan, I'm so sorry—"

"I didn't tell you that so you'd feel sorry for me," Rowan quickly cut her off, shaking her head. "I'm just trying to make you believe that you did the right thing. It's safer for us if she doesn't know, and it's safer for her. This way she doesn't have to choose, we'll stay safe, and you...you won't lose a mom." Rowan turned to leave after that, a ball forming in her throat. Caroline didn't do anything to stop her, eyes now glued to the carpet at her feet, so Rowan left her there and returned to the living room.

Stefan and Damon had finished scrubbing at any stains of blood on the floor. The chair was set aside, and Mason was now wrapped more firmly inside the sheet. Stefan had found another one, and he was double-wrapping Mason inside of it, looking annoyed now. Probably because Damon wasn't helping him at all anymore. He was scrolling through Mason's phone. Rowan knew he had been planning to text Carol Lockwood an excuse as to why Mason had suddenly disappeared, so she assumed he simply got distracted. He made a sound of surprise when he saw something on Mason's phone, raising his eyes to look at Stefan. Rowan pushed away from the doorway and approached them, curious now, while Stefan slowly straightened from where he was crouched over Mason.

"Last number dialed," Damon revealed, smile turning smug in a way that Rowan didn't like. "I wonder who that could possibly be?" Rowan immediately felt her stomach drop. He won't do it, she thought, frozen as Stefan sucked in a sharp breath. He won't do something that stupid. He won't. Yet when he drew his thumb across the screen and brought it to his ear, she knew that he truly was that stupid. Stefan and Rowan both lurched forward. Damon ducked away from their hands easily, laughing in a way that was almost childish. The success of the day had made him arrogant.

"No, no, no," Stefan repeated desperately. "Don't provoke her!"

"Seriously, dumbass, don't," Rowan added. It almost sounded like she was begging, and she hated that, but she hated the thought of provoking Katherine Pierce even more. Katherine wasn't someone they should underestimate.

"Mason." All three of them went still when Katherine picked up the phone, their ears tuning into her voice immediately. A shiver went down Rowan's spine. It was the first time she had heard Katherine's voice since she was turned. It occurred to her that Elena's face and voice should have bothered her, too—they were identical—but they couldn't have been more different to Rowan. Elena was softer. "You should have been here an hour ago."

"Wrong boy toy," Damon said, still sounding smug. Rowan bowed her head and reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose, already feeling a migraine coming along. Damon still had a hand raised to push the two of them away, and Stefan smacked it out of the air in annoyance as he turned away, scowling. Rowan would have laughed at him and made a comment about his pout if she hadn't felt just as annoyed.

"Damon," Katherine said after a beat of stunned silence. "For once, you've surprised me. I assume Mason is with you." Katherine's voice had gone flat by the last sentence, utterly unimpressed.

"He's right beside me!" Damon said enthusiastically. "Although his heart's across the room." More silence welcomed his words, and this time they could all tell that it wasn't because of shock. Rowan and Stefan both straightened slightly, sharing an alarmed look. Damon didn't seem to sense the danger, but then, out of all three of them, he was the one on the receiving end of Katherine's ire the least.

Stefan had been forced to stay in a relationship with her through compulsion and was being terrorized by her now. Rowan had been forced to turn in one of the most traumatic ways imaginable. Personally, she didn't think Damon's heart being broken compared, especially since he had snapped Jeremy's neck not even an hour afterward without even knowing he was wearing his magical ring. Any sympathy Rowan had for Damon flew out the window when she heard how he acted afterward.

Being in pain didn't give him the right to bring pain to others. Rowan had learned that lesson the hard way. She wondered when Damon would.

"You shouldn't have," Katherine said calmly, after a pause that made dread fill Rowan's stomach.

"I've had a very busy day today," Damon continued casually. Maybe the reason he underestimated Katherine so much was because he thought he knew her so well. Rowan didn't think anyone did. "I killed a werewolf, found a moonstone—hey, did you know that he hid the moonstone in the bottom of a well full of vervain? I guess he didn't trust you very much, though he did love you. Poor guy." Damon clicked his tongue. Rowan's eyes rolled to the ceiling, keeping them on the light fixture above her head. "Hey, where are you? Because, you know, I can bring him over. Last goodbyes and all that."

"You have no idea what you've just done," Katherine said bluntly. The amusement in her voice was what made Damon's smile waver, though it didn't leave his face. Rowan reached up to rub at her temples.

"Did I put a kink in your masterplan?" Damon asked, faking sympathy. "I'm so sorry."

"Do you honestly believe I don't have a plan B?" Katherine asked, sounding even more amused. Damon finally had the good sense to lose his smile. "And if that fails, a plan C, then a plan D, and—you know how the alphabet works, don't you?" Damon didn't respond. Katherine gave a little huff. "Send my love to Stefan." She hung up after that, and Damon slowly brought the phone away from his ear, his jaw clenched in renewed anger. Stefan was glaring at him. Rowan didn't bother. She just planted her hands on her hips and gave Damon an annoyed look.

"I'm curious," she said slowly, after Damon had crushed Mason's phone and threw it into the fire and started to help Stefan with the body. "Do you ever actually use your brain? Like, ever?" Damon didn't respond, which was just as well. Rowan was too busy wondering what consequences they would have to face for provoking Katherine Pierce to hold a conversation anyway.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

In the end, it wasn't any of them that had to face the consequences. It was Jenna.

Rowan arrived at the hospital as quickly as possible, only to find that Elena wasn't there. Jeremy was, though, as well as Matt, Caroline, Bonnie, and Tyler. Rowan avoided him in particular, veering away from where he was talking to Matt and Caroline with guilt eating at her insides. She avoided Bonnie as well, who was trying to nap uncomfortably in a chair. She went to Jeremy instead, who was slouching in a chair with tearstains on his cheeks. She plucked a tissue box from a small table as she walked, and when she plopped down beside him, she offered the box without a word. Jeremy took one with a small mumble.

"It was Katherine," he whispered after a moment, when his cheeks were dry. Rowan tucked her hands between her knees.

"I know," she whispered. "Where's Elena?" As she asked it, she found that she was no longer worried about Jenna. Elena wouldn't have left Jeremy's side if she wasn't positive that Jenna would make it.

"She left when Jenna came out of surgery. The doctor said Jenna would make a full recovery—said she was lucky—and Elena left. I think she's going to talk to Stefan. She said she wouldn't be long, so she should be back soon." Jeremy sniffed. He didn't ask how Rowan knew they were at the hospital. Word spread fast in small towns, especially in a group of friends.

"Have you eaten anything?" Rowan asked, changing the subject. Jeremy shook his head, reaching up to pull his hood over his head. He always tried to hide under a hood when he was feeling vulnerable. Rowan had learned that years ago. "She's going to be fine, Jer. She wouldn't want you to stop taking care of yourself. I can drive you home, make you something."

She had never been close to Jeremy. Elena was where their similarities ended, but she found it was easy to fall into a more responsible role with him now. In her mind, he would always be a kid, even when he was trying desperately to prove that he wasn't.

"No, thanks," Jeremy said, slinking down further in his chair. "I'll get something from the vending machines. I want to be here when she wakes up." Rowan sighed, but let him with a shrug. She settled into the chair beside him and spent the rest of the time in silence, leaning her head back against the wall. She wanted to wait as well. She couldn't help feeling like she was responsible somehow. Maybe she should have tried harder to get the phone out of Damon's hand.

Elena arrived fifteen minutes later, and the second Rowan saw the look on her face, she turned toward Jeremy.

"Why don't you go get some coffee, Jer?" she said. Jeremy shifted and shot her a frown. Rowan arched an eyebrow. Jeremy looked at his sister, saw her bloodshot eyes and flushed cheeks, and immediately climbed to his feet to leave. He squeezed Elena's shoulder as he passed her, and Elena managed to give him a reassuring smile before she was collapsing in the seat beside Rowan. Rowan immediately angled her entire body toward her, reaching for one of her hands. Their fingers linked together naturally.

"I broke up with Stefan," Elena whispered, using her other hand to rub at her eyes. Her mascara was smeared around them. "For real this time. We tried to sneak around, but no one knew Katherine had gotten to Jenna. She made her—she—" Elena stopped and put a hand over her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut. After a few moments of her trying to compose herself, Elena took a deep breath and continued. "She won. Katherine won."

"She didn't win," Rowan said immediately, leaning closer. Elena leaned into her and pressed her face into Rowan's shoulder, choking back a sob. Their fingers were still linked, so Rowan used her other arm to hug her, pressing her cheek against Elena's hair. "She just...hasn't lost yet. She will, though. Eventually, she will, because she doesn't get to win, Elena. She'll fuck up eventually, make the wrong decision, underestimate the wrong person, and then she'll lose. You can't give up, Elena, because if you do, then she actually does win." Elena shook her head.

"I'm afraid," she whispered. "I'm so afraid. She's going to try to take everyone away. It's not enough to just hurt me. I could live with that. I'll let her hurt me if she left everyone else alone, but she won't." Rowan stiffened at those words, frowning to herself, but Elena didn't notice. "She'll hurt everyone and—and—"

"You can't give up, Elena. You can't." Rowan's voice cracked. She was starting to feel dread again. Elena admitting that she would sacrifice herself just to keep the rest of them safe made her incredibly wary. She didn't want anything to happen to Elena. Just the thought made anxiety curl inside of her stomach. "Promise me that you won't offer yourself up to her. Promise me, Elena." Elena pulled away at the tone of Rowan's voice and stared at her, eyes watery again. She sniffed a little and blinked slowly.

"I—I promise not to offer myself up to Katherine," Elena said slowly. Rowan let herself relax. Elena had never broken a promise to Rowan before. She studied Elena's face, then offered a soft smile and squeezed her hand.

"By the way," she said slowly, "Katherine isn't going to take me away from you." Elena let out a low laugh.

"Promise?" she asked weakly. Rowan let out a small huff.

"Promise."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Rowan and Elena's love is so soft and gentle and I'm such a mess for it. On another note, I'm currently sitting with cramped legs because my puppy is sleeping and I don't want to wake her by stretching out my legs. Worth it.

So I have a question, and I really need a answer because it's keeping me from planning forward into season three even though I'm pretty sure I've made up my mind. People asked if I would put Henrik (from Black Magic and Blue) into this story, and at the time I said no, but now I want to add him? The Mikaelson family doesn't seem like, well, the Mikaelson family without him. I've been writing for him for so long that it doesn't feel right. And, like, here's the thing. Originally, Henrik was going to be a darker, more erratic character than he turned out to be. Now, instead of anti-hero!Henrik, I finally have a chance to write villain!Henrik and I really want to take it. Would any of you mind if I did?