Castle Walls

Chapter 5: Departure

"What do you mean I can't invite Jeremy for Thanksgiving?" I am absolutely gobsmacked. And angry. Esther cannot be serious, right?

"I truly regret this, Elena, but your brother has made a less than formidable impression when he last attended our parties. And as you know, this Thanksgiving Dinner is very important for us. That's why we have decided that it would be for the best if your brother was to stay away for the evening. I am very sorry Elena. But look at the good side: he would have been bored by our formal company anyway. He always is." Esther talks in a calm way and makes it sound like she is actually sorry about this. She's not, I know her too well as if I would fall for that. She always plays the understanding good-hearted woman when she is around anyone outside the family. Or when she wants to stop a family member from being rightfully angry, like she does right now.

"I'm not interested in your excuses, Esther! He is my brother! If he isn't coming, then neither am I!" I say to her, loud and clear. I'm too upset to care about being loud right now.

Her expression becomes darker, showing displeasure.
"Don't be foolish, Elena! It's a family event and you have as much duty to this family as every other Mikaelson!" her voice is no longer fake-understanding and calm. Instead, it radiates anger and even menace. My parents-in-law really can be scary when they want to be. But right now, I could not care less.

"You're right! Thanksgiving is a family event! And Jeremy is family! So if you wanna talk about family duty to me, then please explain why I should exclude the only biological family I have left on this family event!?!" I conter.

Esther opens her mouth to respond, but is interrupted by the door opening.
"What's going on here?" my husband enters the room. I turn to him.
"Elijah! You're here! Good! Maybe you can tell your mother that celebrating Thanksgiving with my family happens to be important to me!" I say to him, still upset.

He comes to me. "It's alright, my darling, calm down!" he lays his hand on my shoulder and rubs it slightly, trying to soothe me. I lay my own hand over his and take a deep breath. Elijah turns to Esther.

"Is there a problem, mother? I thought we were going to celebrate Thanksgiving as a family like every year. Was there a change of plans?"

"No. The Thanksgiving celebrations are still going to happen. There is just one detail different and your wife is making a scene over it." she calmly responds. I feel my anger coming back, hard.

"Yes, one detail! The detail that you want me to tell my brother to stay away on Thanksgiving!" I say, seething now.

My husband looks at me, then at his mother.
"Is that true? Why would you ask that of her?" he demands to know.

Esther calmly folds her hands on the table in front of her and explains.
"Jeremy Gilbert is a nice young man, noone could deny that. But he is rather... leisurely oriented in his ways. During the last family events he attended, he was constantly incorrectly dressed and showed a rather rough behaviour. You may remember our last Thanksgiving when he drank too much alcohol and held a very inappropriate speech in front of everyone."

At the memory of that, I momentarily have to giggle. On the concerning party, which was monotone and pretty stiff until Jeremy and Tyler arrived, the two roommates got bored and drank too much of the Thanksgiving Punch. At some point, Jeremy took off his tie, undid the first four buttons of his shirt and stood on the table so everyone could see him. Then he gave a grand speech about why we should all be more like wolfs, how the Punch tasted better when you drank it while walking backwards (at that point he demonstated exactly that, walking through the cranberry sauce in the process) and how good it would be for our skin if we regularly rolled around in mud while being naked. It was literally the best Thanksgiving I ever had! Half of the people in the room were amused, some of them angry or embarrassed and some of them tried to respectfully ignore his drunkenness and start conversations again after the speech. Mikael eventually interfered and interrupted Jeremy. Esther tried to play the incident down and silently urged the rest of the family to do the same. Which we all did. Kind of. Even though I failed miserably and stood in the back with Tyler and Jeremy instead, being in a very good mood for the rest of the evening.

Looking back, I admit his behaviour might have been a little too forward for the occasion, but that does not mean we should exclude him from now on! My opinion about that is very clear.

Unfortunately, Elijah is less sure than me. He looks at me apologetically.
"I don't know, Elena. Maybe it would be for the best. As I recall, he actually was behaving a little inappropriately last time. And does he even wish to come?"

I am only slightly surprised. My parents-in-law raised their son to be obedient and supporting of them. But still, it hurts! My own husband siding with his mother against my brother! I feel my eyes stinging.

"Why don't you ask him whether he has a party with friends planned for Thanksgiving? I believe that would be a refreshment for him, in comparison to our dinners. I am sure he will have a great time with his friends."
Those words come from Mikael. He entered the room while Elijah was speaking go me.

Great! I know exactly what that means. Mikael and Esther have me practically cornered. With both my parents-in-law saying this is for the best and no support from my husband, I have no chance of winning this argument anymore. I know that with certainty.

But, as it is sometimes the case, I have no interest in bowing down now. So, I say: "On second thought, I think you're right. Jeremy should celebrate in Massachusetts with his friends. And I'm sure you guys will have a great Thanksgiving dinner here. But without me, I'll be joining my brother."

"Elena, be reasonable! This is Thanksgiving, you should be with your husband!" Mikael protests.

I refuse to listen to more and just leave the room. My parents-in-law would definitely grill me for hours trying to make me stay if I kept listening.

I go to my bedroom and call Jeremy. He immediately agrees to let me stay with him and Tyler for Thanksgiving and tells me how much he is looking forward to seeing me again. The feeling is definitely mutual, it has been a while since we last saw each other.

As expected, throughout the next two weeks, my in-laws try to persuade me to stay for Thanksgiving. At least Mikael, Esther, Elijah and Finn do. Klaus, Kol and Aurora do not really care while Rebekah and Henrik respect my decision. At some point, my husband begrudgingly accepts that I will not change my mind and accepts the situation too. I am silently still a bit disappointed about his lack of support before, but I do not feel like picking a fight now.

When I put my bags in the back of our car getting ready to leave, Elijah helps me.

"That's the last one, thank you, 'Lijah." I say. We are standing with Rebekah by our car. It is a mild day. I look at my friend and my husband.
"Thank you for helping me, you two! I hope you have a nice Thanksgiving Dinner! I'll call you, I promise!"

"Of course, my darling!" Elijah says and pecks my forehead.

Rebekah interrupts us by pushing my husband to the side in order to give me a crushing hug. "You better call on Thanksgiving too, because I don't know if I can survive this boring evening without a distraction!" she says.

I chuckle and hug her back. "Will do."

With a last glance towards Elijah, I get into the car and drive off towards Massachusetts. I cannot wait to see my brother again.