everyonelives | there are prizes all around you if you're wise enough to see

[Elena gives a small nod at Dean's silent question, because yes. That's exactly what her brother is.]

Yeah. Mexico City.

[Honestly, she doesn't want Jeremy anywhere near this, because she's not sure she trusts the witches involved, but she knows that Jeremy isn't going to like that answer either, so she keeps it to herself.]

I know it's not something you want to leave in the hands of a stranger, but Lucas is a good guy. And he's capable of getting the job done.

( "I heard you the first time, Elena," he says, shifting back again. He brings a leg up to rest on his knee. )

I know we pulled you all into this, but, this Lucas guy seems like he's got the stuff.

( So, the protective older brother/son attitude can be set aside. Glad he was raised right, family sticks up for one another, but they have their marching orders.

Or, the Gilberts don't. )

If Elena says that he's the best one to do this, then I believe her. His life's on the line, too, right?

( "Dad, I got it," he says curtly. "So, in the meantime, mom and dad, they're -- they're alive again?" )

We're sitting right here.

( "They are," Dean says.

Ezra adds, "Pulled from their deaths," wincing because he's not sure why he had to add that. "And unless something happens to Hernandez, not by Lucas', or Elena's parents' hands, they will remain themselves. And alive. Provided they don't, you know, die again." He draws his lips together and takes a step back. He is not the helpful one in this.

And Dean thought he was floundering. "Right. Any other questions?" )

[Miranda has questions, but they're not about this situation. They're more about her family, because she doesn't like the silent conversations that seem to be happening around her awareness.]

Not about this. We understand this well enough.

[She pauses as she glances between Jeremy and Elena.]

But I think we'd like to speak with our children alone, if you don't mind.

( Dean nods, exchanging a look with Sam, giving Elena a quick glance (he's here when she's done).

Ezra pulls himself out of the conversation easily, to find Irina and spend some kid time. Give his brain a break. He introduces himself to Mary.

Within minutes, the four Gilberts are together. Jeremy decided they need beers for this (he needs a beer for this), but he brings four over leaving two in the carton in the fridge.

He takes a seat, reluctantly, trying not to look at his sister because he sees his mother reading their looks.

Grayson turns his beer lightly, studying the label. Of course he doesn't recognize the label. As far as he's concerned, he has questions, but he knows Miranda does, too. )

[Elena also takes one of the beers, taking a bigger swig than she probably should, but she can feel the mounting pressure, of all the things she left unsaid so far, but she takes the seat next to Jeremy, trying to present a united front.

"Okay, I'm aware that we've missed quite a bit, but I think we need a bit more information. So how exactly did we get - here?"

She gestures to the bunker around them and Elena can't help but feel the need to be a bit obtuse.]

Think you might need to be a little more specific, Mom.

[That earns her a mom glare for her trouble, but Miranda rephrases. "Given what Abby said when you were younger I expected that you might ... stumble your way into something like this, but when did this become a bunker in Kansas with the Winchester boys?"]

You say that like Sam and Dean are bad people. They're not.

["Elena - "]

Just want to make sure that's clear. But I'm here, specifically, because my name wound up on a supernatural hit list, and Dean and Sam let me stay here so I would be safe.

["And was this before or after you and Dean became ... involved?"]

After. But not long after.

( Jeremy's ears perk up, squinting, making the connection to Abby Bennett, but not how his mother's involved, or that she'd know. )

Bonnie's mother?

( Grayson looks to his daughter, back to his wife and then to Jeremy.

"So, Dean's a new development," Grayson says. )

John and them skipped town the night -- they were gone come morning. We didn't hear from them in years.

( And Jeremy also wasn't involved, so he doesn't know what to contribute and what not to contribute. He also knows his sister is the one in the hot seat right now.

"So, us finding you with Dean and Sam Winchester, that's a thirty years later coincidence," her dad asks. )

Twenty years.

[Which may not be better, but it doesn't feel as monumentally long.]

And I don't know if I would call it a coincidence, but no. Sam and Dean haven't been with me or us the whole time.

[She then turns on her mother.]

What exactly did Abby tell you, Mom?

[She doesn't really ask, because she knows. She knows what Abby sacrificed for her - and then sacrificed even more later - because people were trying to protect Elena. She's saying it because other people in the room don't, and she wants to make her mother say it. Confirm how much her parents have kept from her over the years.

Miranda doesn't like that, however, but she squares her shoulders. "This ... powerful vampire came looking for you. He said you were some kind of doppelganger, and he wanted to take you away. You were three."

Elena nods.]

So you knew that I was a doppelganger and you never told me. I'll just add that to the list along with vampires and the fact that I'm adopted.

[Miranda blinks, surprised at the bitterness in her daughter's voice, along with the one-two punch of vampires and the adoption to boot. "I thought we'd have more time."]

( Even ten years would feel monumentally long and she gets look for her focus on semantics. Forgive him for wanting to make sense of this. These are the two boys he happens to remember last - other than Matt's heart being broken - he assumes, he guesses he doesn't know what transpired after that - but it feels quite clear to him.

What doesn't feel clear to Grayson is Abby's involvement, what she has to do with Elena and why she was run off. Or ran off. As far as he knows, she abandoned her family.

Jeremy furrows his brow, waiting for an answer, too. He grimaces after that, remembering Elena learning she was adopted. And learning it from her journal, among other things. But they've grown past petty sibling squabbles and one-time vampire drama. For the most part.

"Elena," Grayson says, trying to temper Elena. )

And me? You kept Elena in the dark, but you didn't mind when John Gilbert told me all about our family's legacy, wrapping everything in a "story."

( Grayson turns to his youngest.

"I told John you were too young to involve you in anything, you weren't old enough," he fights. )

Right. You made decisions for us. And you were our parents. I guess that was your choice to make.

[Elena squares her shoulders, trying to stand firm on her own terms, rather than letting her slink back into her parents. They look at her and she feels like she's seventeen again, the disappointment permeating, but she needs to remember that she's an adult. She's a doctor. She's done far more good than the damage she did by barreling through everyone's lives as a teenager, bringing in dangerous creatures, even if some of their presences were beyond her control.

Her parents don't get to let her feel like she did everything wrong simply because she wasn't the perfect girl they wanted her to grow up to be.]

But that also means you don't get to judge us on how we handled the reality of the world that you didn't prepare us for.

We did what we thought was right. You were kids. You both were kids

( He doesn't have a strong leg to stand on, and he's taking a dual stance with his wife. But, he doesn't like hearing about Abby's involvement or where that came from. Now is about a united front. They made mistakes. All parents do.

Grayson squares off in response, bristling. )

We're not judging you. We're curious. We've missed twenty-something years in our kids lives. I'm not going to apologize for asking questions about it, or for how we decided to parent you. Now you can feel however you want to about it. We're not taking that away from you. But, don't sit there and act like we were the bad guys. All we wanted was to keep you guys safe. Both of you, Jeremy.

( Jeremy swipes his beer,

"Yeah, bang job you both did. We were a founding family. It was going to catch up to us, both, either way." He emphasizes both, the th sound viscerally dropping on the tip of his tongue. There's more, more that Grayson and his mom couldn't possibly know about, like how he's a Hunter with a capital H, because both he and Elena got to have special genes.

Lucky them. )

[Elena glances to her mother, because it seems like Miranda was judging her, and she's not wrong about that. Miranda's jaw sets as she crosses her arms in front of her chest.

"Where was Jenna in all this? She was supposed to - "]

Jenna is dead. Less then a year after you both.

[Miranda looks as though she's taken a blow to the chest. Part of her had been hoping she'd get to see her sister again after all this time, that Jenna would be able to protect them, but in a lot of ways she knew what she was doing by putting Jenna in charge instead of John. John might have been better at preparing them to be a member of the Founding Family, but Jenna wouldn't lead them into danger.

Elena's face softens some, but she doesn't relent. She glances over to her father.]

John too. He tried, but by the time he got back to town it was way too late.

[By the time he returned Elena's life was already mired in vampires, in Salvatores and the Originals and Katherine were already on their way.]

At the end of the day, all we had were each other. And that didn't always work well either.

[And by we, she mostly meant her.]

( the pit in his stomach, lodged their since they began their car ride, drops. the first of many, he assumes. a lot can happen in twenty years. and a lot of people can die.

Jeremy sets his beer back down, because that does hit. He was there. He lived through it. Through Jenna being brought into the vampire crazy - to her being taken. Thanks to Klaus. He digs in his heels, grounding himself against the chair, knowing they were going to go into uncomfortable territory and bad memories. Before they get to the good ones. If they make it. )

What was John too late for. What actually happened. Tell us real things, Elena. Tell us what we didn't prepare you well enough for.

( Tell them how they failed as parents. )

[Elena glances towards Jeremy briefly, before reaching for his free hand and taking a deep breath.]

The man who rescued me that night? The one you told to save me? He was a vampire. His name was Stefan Salvatore, and I fell in love with him.

[And it all tumbles out of her from there. The entombed vampires beneath the ruins of the church who had been starving for a hundred and forty-five years. The Originals, and Katherine, and what being the Petrova doppelganger actually means. Losing Jenna, losing John, doing her best to survive Klaus wanting to use her as a doppelganger blood bag.

It's all bloody and gruesome, but it was her life - their life - and she stops just shy of her own time as a vampire, because she doesn't know how her parents will handle that just yet.

This is enough, for now.

Miranda, for her part, doesn't have many questions. She simply pales as she sinks back down into the seat that she had previously stood from. She had thought she understood when Abby tried to explain to her all those years ago, thought she knew what was best for her children, but ... she really knew nothing at all, did she?]

( Salvatore. As in Zach Salvatore. But, that's the last connection he can make because he remembers vividly telling the, apparent vampire to save his daughter first. To go around to the passenger side and save his daughter.

And she fell in love with him.

He keeps her hand in his, squeezes when it gets too much, looks at his wife when he hears something he doesn't like (which is all of it, for that matter), and takes long, labored breaths as she details her life after their deaths.

Jeremy stays silent, lets Elena tell the story. She can steer it. In a lot of ways, it was hers. The Salvatore's, Isobel. Once she finishes, Jeremy knows he needs to contribute something.

"Vampires were coming whether or not you prepared us," he makes it clear, because as much as he can understand Elena's righteous anger, he needs to make it clear, their parents didn't do this.

"We lost friends," he says, stops before he says the word, lovers. "I learned about Elena's life, and eventually, I couldn't keep from being involved. I was with Bonnie for a little while. And, we got back together for a period of time, too. Vampires, witches, you name it, they were in our lives whether we liked it or not."

John sacrificed himself for Elena. And Jenna lost her life because of some... Original.

He turns to his wife. )

And Abby, you enlisted her help because another -- Original -- was after Elena? When she was three?

[Miranda blinks when the attention is thrown back on her and she blinks before nodding.]

I knew the Bennetts were witches. Abby told me when she realized I knew about vampires. I didn't really understand what it meant, not really, I just saw the little things. The tea, the charms ... all of that.

Then this man named Mikael came to town. Said that he was looking a little girl. That a woman had been traced here who's bloodline traces back to this woman named Katerina Petrova. When I realized he meant Isobel, I tried to get him to look elsewhere, but then I realized he was a vampire, and I went to Abby for help.

[Miranda finally reaches for one of the beers, taking a long sip. She had never been a beer person, but needs must.]

I didn't realize what I was asking her to sacrifice. I didn't know that this Mikael was a ... what did you call it? An Original? But when Abby came back without her magic and with a warning that I needed to keep you hidden I just ... I thought the less you knew, the less you could give yourself away.

[She didn't realize that Elena's face would be all the calling card she needed. Elena was too young for her to see how much of a carbon copy of Katherine Pierce Elena would be.]

She chained him up in a graveyard, trapped him, and starved him, right?

( Jeremy was kidnapped for his part in that, because of his own meddling and Bonnie's interference in his life.

'Why didn't you tell me,' sits at the forefront of her husband's mind but it's not for now, not for this mixed company. It's for when they inevitable retire to the bedroom they were given for however long they need.

Bonnie's mom is not Jeremy's plight to take up, but, he does wonder why they didn't involve her grandmother, Sheila. And how she got away with it under their dad's nose.

But, like Grayson, he's not bringing it up now. )

A lot happened in the two years after the accident. And more after Elena's graduation.

( And then his. )

It was never just Mikael, or just Katherine. There was always someone or something. After Elena, after Stefan, Damon... All of us at one point.

["So it never stopped?"

Miranda would think that after a certain point, they would run out of things trying to kill them, but apparently not.

Elena shrugs.]

I got through med school and my residency without any vampire mishaps. So ... that was something, I guess.

[She doesn't know if she should get into the school, given that she hasn't mentioned that Caroline is a vampire yet, but ... they'll get there.]

This current round of problems is the first I've had in a long time. I can't speak for Jeremy.

[Especially considering he's dating Buffy's sister and she knows trouble tends to follow Buffy like a bad penny.]

For a few years, it didn't stop.

( He confirms the stretch he was involved in. )

But, I moved away, Elena - ( It's his turn to stop short now. ) Things quieted way down in Mystic Falls for a long time.

( And it was something. And then she mentions him and he shoots her a look. Thanks, sis. )

I don't -- I don't have those problems anymore. I'm living in the Northwest. And, I do well for myself. And - ( well, he's going to have to rip the bandaid off, right? ) I went into hunting. I don't have problems, I work jobs and I help people. And I own an art gallery. And I'm in love with an amazing girl. I'm okay, guys.

[They had missed so much. They both had grown up, built their own lives, and moved on. That's what she would have wanted for them in the end. She just wished that it also hadn't come with what was clearly so much pain.]

And this ... girlfriend? She knows about all of this?

She does. She - her sister's - it's a long story, but her sister lived a life like ours and so did she.

( It's kind of great they found each other. It really works.

"And a supernatural hit list brought you back into the Winchester's orbit," Grayson asks. "And our of the medical field?"

Have both of his kids taken up this life? )

I'm still a doctor. I'm working at the ED at Lawrence Memorial.

[Elena doesn't give up her life just because the supernatural is supernaturaling.]

I'm here still because I want to be with Dean, but I'm not hunting the way Jeremy is.

[It's not her life. She's just using her skills where they're most needed.]

You see the coincidence. That you happen to be in a relationship with Dean Winchester, when the last we remembered, we had him and his brother under our roof. And you happen to have reconnected, enough that you moved here to Kansas to practice medicine and help him burn witches bodies.

( Which still sounds like hunting.

"Dad, Elena isn't drawn into all of this, she's dragged. It's how it's always been. But, it's also who she is, and I'm proud when she can help. When she stands up for people. And sees them as people."

Like vampires, even though it did take him a few years. He looks to his sister. Neither parent has even touched on Elena falling in love with one. )

It's a lot to process.

[Jeremy gets a grateful look from his sister for that, because she appreciates him standing up for her as she tries to stand up for herself. But she also senses that they've unloaded a lot on them and maybe they should take a break.]

It's been a long day. Maybe we should take a break and talk more when you've had some time to adjust?

[Miranda desperately wants out of this conversation, even though she knows she's walking into another landmine once her children leave her alone with her husband, so she nods. A break would be good.]

I'm not going anywhere until all this is sorted out.

( He pulls himself out of his chair, one leg at a time. He puts a hand on his mom's shoulder and leans down, kissing her cheek. )

I need a shower - and, if possible a change of clothes.

( But, he catches up to Dean as he's leaving the kitchen, donut-in-mouth, exchanging pleasantries, a shake and then ducks in after Sam next. Can he borrow something for the night?

Grayson sits, not really knowing what to do with his hands, but nods, agreeing they've gone pretty far today.

"Love you," he says, once Elena gets up herself. )

Love you too, Dad.

[Elena steps away, feeling some of the tension she's been holding in her shoulders ease. Some of the harder things are out of the way, and while she doesn't know how it will land when they really get back to what she said at the start. That there was a vampire, and she loved him. Still loved him, even if not in quite the same way.

She catches sight of Dean near the kitchen and she meets him halfway, sliding her arms around his waist as she leans into him.]

Thank you, if I haven't said it already.

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