Who: Jeremy Gilbert, Elena Gilbert and Ezio Auditore What: Jeremy brings Elena to see Ezio When: Backdated: Thursday, January 27th. Afternoon Where: Ezio's Office Rating: Mostly Family Friendly. Mentions of NPC deaths. Status: Complete
When Dr. Auditore suggested that Jeremy and Elena talk to someone together, he’d decided that if he really wanted things fixed between them then that was what they needed to do. Ezio had said he could suggest someone else to them, but then Jeremy would have to rehash everything that he’d told Ezio already and he didn’t want to have to do that. He trusted the older man and thought it’d just be easier if they saw him. So after he left the doctor’s office, Jeremy had gone home, thought over everything then contacted Elena to tell her. Once she’d agreed to go back with him, Jeremy had called up to make another appointment and now here they were, waiting in Dr. Auditore’s waiting room to be called in for their session.
Elena was glad that they were taking this step. She knew that everything that had happened between her and her brother had been adding to her mounting stress, but if they could just start to work at this...maybe things really would get better. She just wanted to repair things with Jeremy, no matter what it took. That was what she had promised him before Christmas, and even though she was engaged, it didn’t have to change.
She sat down beside Jeremy in the waiting room, holding her purse in her lap and looking around. She didn’t know this doctor outside of seeing him pop up on the network a few times, but since it was who her brother chose, she’d try it out.
Ezio was honestly not certain how this would go. He’d made a point of telling Jeremy Gilbert that he was not trained in mediation, but the boy had wanted him anyway. It was a vote of confidence that Ezio would try hard to deserve.
He fixed his tie and went to open the door. “Signor, Signorina Gilbert? Hello, Jeremy. Please come into the office, both of you.”
Jeremy wasn’t sure exactly what he was expecting, but he hoped this would help. He had told Elena before what was bothering him, leaving out the part where he didn’t like being in their house alone since their parents had been killed, but he worried that this would end like the last time, with Elena promising to try and fix things then doing nothing about it. Hearing the doctor call their names, Jeremy got up and headed towards the room he’d been in before, glancing over his shoulder to see if Elena was following him, “Hi, Dr. Auditore.”
When the doctor came out, Elena looked up and stood up from her seat, giving a soft, slightly embarrassed smile and following behind her brother into the man’s office. Elena hadn’t really done the whole therapy thing, but she figured it wouldn’t hurt at all to have someone to talk to that was completely outside of the situation. She did want to fix things, even if it was all a jumbled mess.
She took a seat beside her brother and placed her purse at her feet before sitting up straight in the chair. “Thank you for seeing us.”
The girl looked very ill at ease, and he tried to be extra kind. “Of course. I wanted to do all I could to help Jeremy. I appreciate you coming with him, Signorina Gilbert.”
He turned to Jeremy, offering a hand again, greeting him like a man. “So. Let us get down to business. But before we begin, I must ask one small favour - if either of you disagree with something the other is saying, please raise your hand, or try to get attention in another way besides yelling? Yelling or being hostile does not achieve anything but anger, and this will not help at all.”
Jeremy nodded after shaking Ezio’s hand and glanced over at Elena. The last time they had tried talking about what was going on, they hadn’t yelled so much as Jeremy had been blunt and since finding out about her engagement, Jeremy had only really talked to Elena about it over the Network, because it was probably better for the both of them that way and he really hadn’t wanted to talk about it in person. “Alright.”
Elena nodded her head in agreement, feeling that it was actually probably the best way to go about things. She didn’t like when arguments lead to yelling and harsh words. They were the hardest to take back and forgive. “I...yeah, that’s fine,” she told the doctor, glancing over at her brother and giving a faint smile.
“Okay. Allora.” Ezio nodded, sitting back in his chair. “I will tell the story as it has been told to me, and you both may stop me or change things as necessary.” It seemed most logical for the third party to do most of the speaking - that way neither Jeremy nor Elena could express any bias. “I apologize in advance if I seem cold. I have no intention of being such - but we need to get the basic facts before we delve into the deeper issues.”
“Your parents were killed by someone unknown,” he began. “Jeremy found them, which is a horror in itself. Not long after this, the court appointed you, Miss Elena, and your sister Katherine, as Jeremy’s guardians. Yes?”
Jeremy sat back as Ezio began to speak, glancing at Elena out of the corner of his eye to see what her response would be. The last time he’d seen Ezio, Jeremy had told him pretty much everything that had been happening since their parents had been murdered over the summer except why he was afraid of being in the house alone now. When Ezio finished speaking, Jeremy nodded in response to show that what Ezio had said was what he’d told the man the last time.
Elena shifted in her chair and leaned back, biting into her bottom lip at the mention of their parents’ murder. It was a huge, black spot on their pasts, of course, and Elena wished she could erase the pain as easily as she could erase a wrong answer on a test. But no one had that power, so she nodded in response, letting the doctor continue.
“Since then,” Ezio went on, “you, Miss Elena, have begun to date a man. He allegedly dated your sister Katherine before you, though she is at present nowhere to be found. You spend quite a lot of time with him, including spending some nights away from the house. Is it some or most nights?” He didn’t want to judge the girl; he just needed to know. “The reason I ask is because this very often leaves Jeremy with no recourse if something goes wrong, or at least, I get the impression he feels this way.”
As Ezio spoke, Jeremy glanced over at Elena to see what her reaction would be to the things he’d told the older man. Jeremy had told Elena that he’d gone to see him and they’d talked about some of the stuff that had been going on over the last few months, but he hadn’t really gone into details, knowing that Ezio would do that when they went to see him. He only hoped that Elena wouldn’t get mad about how much detail he’d gone into with Ezio.
Elena let out a deep sigh, gripping at the armrests of the chair. She knew that Jeremy would bring up her relationship and the past that her and her twin sister shared with the same man. Why wouldn’t he? It was a huge part of their current issues.
“Damon didn’t date my sister. They had a drunken one-night-stand and...now she’s run off with some older guy she’s in love with--a businessman--and we haven’t heard from her at all. And I…,” she licked her lips a bit nervously, pushing back some strands of dark brown from her face before she met the doctor’s eyes. “I’m engaged to Damon now. Yeah, I spend a lot of time with him. I guess it’s sorta like an escape for myself. He’s older than me and he--he takes care of me.”
Ezio sighed - he’d been right, of course. “I understand. We shall come back to this. But the other salient point I want to bring up is that the court declared you and Miss Katherine to be Jeremy’s guardians, even though you are but eighteen, and he is seventeen. Is this also correct?” He might petition the court, if he could, to change their guardian to a social worker - no eighteen year old could be this responsible.
So Katherine and Damon might not have dated, but she still slept with Damon who was Elena’s current boyfriend and Jeremy still thought that, that was creepy on many levels. He continued to listen to Ezio and watching Elena as the doctor spoke about the things that Jeremy had told him.
She nodded her head as the doctor continued and she let herself relax slightly in the chair. “That’s correct.” Elena couldn’t help but feel that if Katherine hadn’t have been selfish and ran off with that Mikaelson brother, then things might have stayed together better. But now it was only her and Jeremy and they had to fend for themselves without much help. Elena had thought plenty of times about dropping out of college to get some job to bring in more money, but her fiance had denied her each time. He wanted to take care of Elena, but that didn’t leave anyone to give Jeremy what he needed.
“Thank you for letting me get through the basic facts without interruption.” Ezio inclined his head. “Now. Let me ask you one thing, Miss Elena. When the court asked you to be your brother’s guardian, did they give you a chance to say no?” Because if they did and she hadn’t taken it, well, it made one wonder. She did not come off as being selfish or vain, but to agree to a responsibility voluntarily and then to leave her own brother to essentially fend for himself - that was selfish. If understandably so.
After their parents had died, everything had happened so fast and Jeremy had been in such a dark place that he couldn’t really remember those first few weeks as far as the legal stuff had gone. People had come to the house, that much he could remember. Katherine had put on an act, as usual, but the three of them had been so lost and neither Jenna nor John had been able to step up to help.
“There was no one who wanted to take care of us,” she admitted to the doctor, thinking back on those hard weeks after their parents had died, tears welling up in her eyes. No one had wanted to be exactly what her and siblings needed and maybe that was how things got so far out of hand. Katherine had depended on her boyfriend, and Elena had fallen into the same hole with Damon, leaving Jeremy alone. “And I guess they figured that...since he was so close to his eighteenth birthday, things would be fine.”
Ezio nodded. “This is what I assumed, yes. Miss Elena, Jeremy, let me tell you both something that I think you need to hear.” He looked at them. “Both of you have been selfish. But both of you were acting exactly as most seventeen and eighteen year olds act.” He saw confusion on at least one face, and elaborated. “When faced with a tragedy of unimaginable proportions, seventeen and eighteen year olds will not act the same way that say, a thirty-year old will act. They will think primarily of themselves, as they are intended to at that age. They will want help, and understanding - all completely normal.”
He shook his head. “The first problem with all this was that a court expected an eighteen year old to act with the gravity of a truly grown adult. Miss Elena, you are not superhuman. You are yourself suffering, and to ask you to help mitigate your brother’s suffering is unfair. But it is also unfair to leave him to his own devices when he needs help. So we must find something to help you both.”
Jeremy already knew this, for the most part and he was curious as to how Elena would respond to what Ezio was saying. Yes, he knew that he’d been selfish in a sense, but he’d also felt that Elena should have been spending more time around instead of all her time with Damon, “I know I’ve been an ass to Elena in more ways than one over the last few months, but it doesn’t help to have Damon, of all people, telling me that if I don’t start liking him, you’re going to abandon me completely.” He had started out addressing Ezio, but halfway through, he’d turned his attention to Elena, “He’s told me that I’m the reason you’re never at the house. That you don’t want to be around me.” His dislike of Damon wasn’t a secret, but maybe now Elena would understand a little more, the reason why.
Elena knew that she was being selfish, at least deep inside of herself. She felt torn between Damon and Jeremy, the two of them never getting along, but both of them needing her attention. She’d become lost along the way, pulling away and focusing on the one person that took care of her more than anyone. It hadn’t been right, but in the end, Elena was still just a girl that had lost her parents and needed someone to help her through her life. Damon had made it easy, especially since he always just offered.
“I wish Damon wouldn’t say those things, Jeremy. He’s just...sometimes he’s not always the nicest person,” she admitted, her focus going off towards a wall so she didn’t have to look at either of them. “He has his own issues. I know.”
“Miss Elena, I will not tell you what to do, but I will say this: a man who truly loves you would make an effort to get along with your family. It does not appear as if he has ever tried. Though please correct me if I am wrong.” Ezio was starting to get a headache. “Just ... think about this. That is all I would ask you to do.”
“Jeremy, that does go for you, though, as well - if you have made a good faith effort to get along with this Damon, that is all you can do. But even if you cannot get along, you have two choices if your sister remains with him.” He looked at the young man. “You can either reconcile to being civil, or you can lose your sister.”
Jeremy knew that Ezio wasn’t going to sugarcoat things and he appreciated that, even if he didn’t want to think about losing Elena. He was still turned towards Elena, watching her as she looked in the opposite direction, “Elena, you’re all I’ve got left and I don’t want to lose you. I know I can be difficult sometimes, but I miss you and I don’t want to be alone in that house. I don’t…” Jeremy paused. He was about to reveal the one thing he hadn’t told anyone yet, not even Stiles or Myrcella, “...I’m afraid of being alone there.”
Slowly, Elena looked back towards her brother, cocking her head and giving a soft smile. She reached out with her hand to take his own, wrapping her fingers around him and squeezing. She’d been so blind. Hurting her brother was the last thing she ever wanted to do. Especially for the sake of a guy. She couldn’t stop the tears that shone in her eyes, the girl sniffling. “I’m sorry, Jeremy. I’m so sorry! We’re gonna fix this. I’m going to talk with Damon, and I’m not going to let him waver on this. I love you both so much, I don’t want to have to choose.” Though Elena knew that if it really came down to it, she’d never be able to walk away from her brother. He was family, he was forever.
Ezio was glad that at least there seemed to be some kind of breakthrough. “Something I would also like to do, with your permission - both of you. I would like to see if I can write a letter to the court, or something of this type, and see if we can get a different guardian appointed. A social worker, to check in on you from time to time. That way at least Miss Elena does not have the legal burden on her back - because while you can comfort each other, as I think family should, you should not feel responsible for all his well being. Does that make any sense?”
Jeremy squeezed Elena’s hand back, feeling like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders with his revelation to Elena.”I want to fix this. I mean, I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t.” Jeremy smiled at Elena then glanced at Ezio as he spoke, considering his words, “I’d be up for it if Elena is.” He looked back at his sister, “And if you don’t think that means you don’t have to be around.” He was afraid that if there was a social worker involved, Elena would figure that Jeremy didn’t need her.
Elena thought it was the best course of action since there was no one else to step in. Things had been hard for the both of them, not only because of Elena’s relationship and an inner urge to distance herself from that pain she had, but because Jeremy was going to be finishing up high school and she was off in her first year of college. There was a lot of stress. “I think it’d be good,” she told the doctor, glancing at him for a moment and giving a nod. “It’d help a lot with things. And I wouldn’t just...leave you, Jer,” she said as she looked back at her only brother. “You’re the only brother I have.”
Ezio smiled. “Ecco. In that case, I will begin that process immediately. If either of you reconsider, please just telephone me, but I will not stop unless I hear from both of you.” He looked first at Jeremy, then Elena. “You need to present a united front, if I may say so. You are stronger together than apart. Please keep that in mind in general - you are family, and most of the time, family is your greatest strength.”