A tiny fridge, a smaller microwave and a large HD TV hanging like a painting on the wall across from the bed provided Elena with true luxury, while a dresser in distressed white with freshly-painted lavender, gold and turquoise filigree accents held her clothes.
Battery operated pillar candles cast flickering, cheery light here and there, since burning real candles in dorm rooms was forbidden. The scent of lavender-vanilla potpourri filled the air.
“Oh, my God,” Elena said, choking up as she looked around. “All of you did this. How am I supposed to thank you?”
“By staying healthy,” Matt suggested.
“By keeping out of trouble,” Caroline added.
“Caroline, you come sit down right now,” Elena said, and the pregnant girl obeyed by taking the comfortable lounge chair in the corner. Bonnie perched on one side of the bed and Elena insisted on Meredith sitting at the desk, while she and the boys stood.
“It’s beautiful,” Elena continued, “and I’m going to think about you fondly whenever I see it. Bless you all.”
“We had fun,” Meredith said simply, and Bonnie smiled, flushed with pleasure.
Elena, still smiling, regarded her new and improved bed.
“I’m going to sleep right in the middle,” she said. “Just like at home.”
“No you’re not,” Damon said, hoping to get this issue over with as little fuss as possible. “Because you only get one side. I’m moving in and I’ll be on the other.”
“You what?” Elena said, staring. Then she added vehemently, “You can’t. You can’t do that.”
“Watch me.”
“You can’t just move in with me! I made a solemn promise to my Aunt Judith!”
“Elena, we all talked about this,” Meredith put in quietly. “You can’t be alone. One of us has to be with you in case—well, you know why. I’d do it, but I hate to leave Bonnie on her own while she’s having these weird trance-things.”
“They scare me,” Bonnie added sadly, in a very small voice.
“They scare me, too, and I don’t want you to leave her, Meredith,” Elena said. “But the rest of it is just impossible. You can’t vote me into having guy sleeping on my bed. I told Aunt Judith—”
“The hell with Aunt Judith.” Damon said it with no particular emphasis, but it stopped Matt and Caroline, who were ready to jump into the conversation. “Elena, I really don’t want to upset her, but you’re over eighteen. And I’m moving in for one reason: to protect you. To make sure that what happened to you before never happens again. All right?”
“No, damn it! It’s not all right at all. Nobody says to me: ‘Oh, we’ve already discussed things and we’re putting a guy in bed with you.’ That’s not anybody else’s decision to make.” Elena was incandescent in fury.
Damon took her by the shoulders, forcing her to look him in the eye. He didn’t want to have to Influence Elena—in fact, he preferred not to Influence anyone in front of Bonnie, who seemed to be picking up on channels of telepathy. But if plain sense didn’t work he was going to have to use Power.
“Look, the point is that you can’t be by yourself, and I’m not going to let Meredith abandon Bonnie, either. Don’t you realize”—he tightened his grip just slightly—“you still don’t know how you lost that blood! You were attacked somehow. I am not leaving you alone.”
Damon himself wasn’t sure why he was so adamant about this subject, since he knew exactly how Elena had lost her blood. Still, from the very beginning, when he’d asked Meredith to find a new bed to put in Elena’s room, he’d felt in his bones that he needed to watch over her at night. The voice from Bonnie’s trances had specifically threatened Elena’s life. That might mean much or little. Bonnie could have succumbed to all sorts of psychic influences that her mind would interpret as anathema. But somehow, Damon couldn’t just ignore those warnings.
Elena was winding up for a scathing reply when she stopped midway through and thought. Damon could see it in her face. She looked long and hard at Bonnie and then slowly, slowly, began to relax. Finally she seemed to rein in her temper.
“We’ll talk about this later. Caroline, do you want Matt sleeping in your room?”
“Me?” The auburn-haired girl looked awkward, while Matt just blinked rapidly. “No. I think that I can—um, take care of myself.”
“That’s what I thought, too,” Elena said with half of a wry smile. “I guess, though, that I’m the one in the crosshairs.”
Damon allowed himself to feel relief and satisfaction, although he knew that at least half of Elena’s sudden about-face was due to her not wanting to discuss their personal business in front of even her closest friends.
You think you’re stubborn, he mused, as Elena turned to talk about the wonders of her room to Bonnie. But you haven’t even begun to guess at how stubborn I am. I’ve had centuries to perfect what was a pretty damn stubborn attitude from the beginning.
If I have to, I’ll Influence you to agree with me. I probably should have done that in the beginning. I seem to remember promising I wouldn’t, but I believe that promise also had a time limit that ran out.
* * *