Wayward Hearts- Book 4

Part 45

"Ugh," Damon complained as he was greeted by Elijah on the other side of the door after answering it, "aren't you supposed to be in New Orleans, keeping an eye on your crazy ass family?"

Elijah smirked amused, "Relax, I'm only here to see the fruits of my labor. Then, I'm right back to being a thousand miles away."

Damon looked at him confused.

Caroline walked up behind Elijah, holding a large silver box, she looked at Damon, "You need to leave."

"Last I checked, this was my damn house," Damon scoffed at her.

"Fine," Caroline pushed past Damon and into the house, Elijah followed her lead, "is Emma up in your room?"

"Yes?" Damon wasn't sure he wanted to unleash Caroline's craziness on Emma this early in the morning.

Before he could protest she was already at the stairs and headed up with Elijah.

She paused and looked down at Damon threateningly, "Don't you dare come upstairs. The groom is not supposed to see the dress and if you ruin this reveal for me, I'll kill you."

Damon put his hands up in defeat before walking back into the library and plopping down at the piano, not pleased to be being bossed around in his own house.

Caroline continued to lead the charge to the bedroom. She was just about to barge into the room when Elijah stopped her, he knocked politely before she could protest.

Emma opened the door with her toothbrush sticking out of her mouth and toothpaste covering her lips, her hair was still a mess and she was only wearing one of Damon's shirts over her panties. She rolled her eyes at Caroline, but as soon as she saw Elijah her expression changed to one of horror. Elijah chuckled as she slammed the door on them.

Caroline huffed but shoved the door open again just in time to see Emma retreating to the bathroom with a pair of jeans in her hands.

"I- We have a surprise for you," Caroline called out happily as she set the box on the bed.

"You could have called!" Emma yelled from the bathroom, "And why is Elijah here? And why the hell is he in my room!"

"I'm only here to see your reaction darling," Elijah assured her, "and my apologies for catching you indecent. It was Caroline's idea to bombard you."

"Of course it was," Emma muttered under her breath.

Elijah chuckled slightly as Caroline scrunched her face, displeased at the lack of appreciation being shown.

Emma came back from the bathroom, her face cleaned and her jeans on but still wearing Damon's shirt, "Why are you here anyway?"

"This!" Caroline excitedly motioned towards the box, "But first..."

Caroline grabbed Emma's arm and pulled her back into the bathroom. Before Emma could stop her, Caroline was pulling a brush through Emma's hair and pinning it in several places, leaving most of her curls loose.

"Luckily, you are gorgeous without makeup," Caroline smiled as she looked over her handiwork.

"What are you two up to?" Emma walked back over to the bed where Caroline had placed the box, tied with a bow.

Elijah smiled, encouragingly, at Emma, he motioned towards the box, "Open it."

Emma looked back at Elijah, skeptical. She stepped over to the box and gently pulled on the bow that was, in her opinion, over kill.

As she lifted the lid, she could see the faintly off white fabric inside. When she saw the lace of the dress, the lid slipped from her hand and hit the floor. She couldn't grab the dress fast enough.

"Oh my god," Emma whispered as she carefully lifted the dress from its box, "how...?"

The dress was an exact replica of her mother's and grandmother's wedding dress. The laced pattern was the same that she remembered from seeing it in pictures and the one time her mother let her put it on when she was eight. At that time, the dress had fallen to just above her ankles, she had laughed with her sister when she didn't understand why her grandmother didn't want the traditional flowing dress instead of the knee length dress she had worn, but now, she couldn't imagine a more perfect style.

"Caroline found a photo of your mother wearing it when she wed your father," Elijah began to explain, "and I found an amazing dress maker that could replicate it down to the last stitch."

"This is too much," Emma was overwhelmed with every emotion she could imagine.

"No," Elijah stepped closer to Emma and put a gentle hand on her cheek, "too much would have been never seeing the look on your face when you saw this dress."

Emma's shoulders relaxed and she smiled softly at Elijah, her heart ready to burst at his words. The amount of love for her pouring off of him in that moment was intense.

"Why can't you marry him!" Caroline exclaimed.

Emma and Elijah were ejected from the moment took a step away from each other. Elijah cleared his throat but continued smiling.

"Because," Emma sighed but smiled back at Elijah before looking at Caroline, "that would mean that Damon would be released onto all of you single women, and I'm pretty sure you don't want that."

Caroline couldn't help but shudder as she was reminded of her brief tryst with her frenemy, "Yup, you're right. You can have him."

Emma quickly changed the subject, "I know you are dying to see me in this."

Caroline smiled widely, "Yes!"

Caroline took the dress from Emma and pulled her into the large walk in closet to change. Emma stepped into the dress and Caroline used her precise and careful fingers to button every single one of the twenty-five buttons that ran down the back of the dress. She adjusted the lace sleeves that stopped just before they reached Emma's wrist. She fluffed the knee length skirt slightly. Caroline opened the closet door and stepped out ahead of Emma, proud of her work.

Elijah smiled widely as Emma stepped out. She looked more beautiful than he would have ever been able to put into words. She no longer reminded him of his Alice, now, she seemed like her own person. He knew he had made the right decision to let Alice go and help Emma regain her life.

Emma turned and looked at herself in the floor length mirror, her hands flew up to cover her mouth as she gasped. After nearly three years since the death of her parents, she had forgotten just how much she looked like her mother. Seeing herself in the dress that was identical to the one she had seen photos of her mother in, brought up flooding emotions.

Suddenly a strong feeling of warmth overcame her, she looked around the room confused for a moment before he recognized the energy. She couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from exactly, but she knew who it was. Alaric, being there for her the only way he could. She turned back to the mirror with a small smile on her face, neither Caroline nor Elijah any wiser to the extra person in the room.

Caroline was the first to notice the tears that lightly fell from Emma's eyes, "Oh my god, you look so pretty!"

"No," Elijah corrected her as he handed a cloth handkerchief to Emma, "she looks beautiful, stunning, perfect. Pretty is not even in the vocabulary."