Hello everyone,

So here's a oneshot I wrote for Ahvi or Jasper'sGoddessofWar as she's known on here. It was written for a writing contest she held in her fanfiction facebook groups, and I'm happy to report that I won first place by popular vote. The contest was anonymous, the writers only revealed once the contest was over and the votes were tallied.

This is my first Elijah/Bella, and it's inspired by the song Already Gone by Kelly Clarkson. I don't own the song, lyrics, or anything.

After this, I have two other Elijah/Bella oneshots planned, and many other Klaus/Bella and Kol/Bella oneshots as well. I have a multichapter story for Klaus/Bella up and posting currently called The Power of Love, and a oneshot for the same pairing called Salvation, again, already posted. There will be two future Kol/Bella multichapter stories at this stage and another Klaus/Bella. This is growing all the time, however, so that's definitely not all I have planned at this stage.

Anyway. This is not beta'd, but it has been glanced through. I'm just hoping that typos have mostly been cleared however if I've missed any, I am very sorry. I just wanted to post this after so long of having it done and not getting it up. *Shrugs and smiles* I hope you like it and I'd appreciate it if you let me know through a review!

The banner can be found in my FACEBOOK GROUP ncbexie25 Fanfics. Link is on my profile!

:) See you down the bottom... enjoy...

Please don't bother trying to find me, Elijah. I'm already gone.

Eternally,

Isabella.

The young woman released a shaky breath as she signed off her letter, whimpering at the clawing pain in her chest and her throat. Swallowing, she pushed it all back and stood from the desk. Taking the letter, she folded it and put it into the marked envelope before taking one last walk of the Abattoir's halls.

When she felt the pain in her chest lessening, she knew time was drawing near. Her ma—Elijah, she corrected herself, would be here soon. And as much as she loved him, she could not say goodbye to him in person. It would be far more painful than it already was.

In the courtyard, she left the letter on a table, and ran, using her speed to push herself to the limits on her way out of town. She did not care where she was going, she could scarcely think past the pain rising in her chest, her very soul, with every step she took away from him.

Thoughts of the man who had once been her mate only brought her to think of why she was leaving. She gasped for breath as she recalled the young wolf pregnant with Niklaus's child who seemed to have captured the attention of her husband to an all-consuming degree. When his attentions on her had lessened in lieu of the girl—she would not think her name—she knew it was time for her to go.

She had always known that something or someone, rather, would break their bond. She'd never been able to come to terms with what he'd told her; that mating for Original vampires was absolute and final, and above all eternal.

Elijah Mikaelson had simply always been too good a dream to be true and permanent.

From the moment he had saved her from the clutches of Victoria, Bella had known that while something drew her to him, it was fragile, easily broken. She had waited for it, scared and wishing it never would but resigned with its inevitability.

So now, as she ran from her one true home, she could never have imagined her mate's reaction to her disappearance.

Elijah Mikaelson smiled as he walked through the gate and into the courtyard of the Abattoir. "Isabella," he called, breathing in her scent as his smile widened. He looked up to the balcony, expecting to perhaps see her or hear her, but he could not. His smile dampened slightly as he felt a tug in his chest. His mate was not home.

"Elijah," he heard, looking up to the balcony once again to find Niklaus standing there.

"Brother," the older of the two replied flatly. "Not that I am unpleased to see you, but do you perhaps have any idea where my mate might be?"

Niklaus's frown deepened. "I do not. Where have you been?"

"With Hayley," he replied, walking into the square to the table at the other end.

"And?"

"I have it confirmed," Elijah replied, a glower on his face. "As suspected, she has been lying. She is not with child."

"We knew this already. Are you any closer to finding out what she intends to do?"

"Unfortunately, no," he replied, sitting at the table, having just not arrived at it. Seeing the letter with his mate's script on it, he smiled and lifted it, continuing to speak as he turned and opened it. "It seems that she is working with the witches. I fear it has something to do with—"

His speech stopped abruptly as he begun to read the letter, smelling the salt of his mate's tears on the page and seeing the evidence of such smudging the bottom of the page. With a deeply troubled frown on his face, he swallowed and read through the letter, a gasp of pain breaking through his lips at its contents.

Dearest Elijah,

It has taken me quite some time to come to this conclusion, and believe me, my love, it is not something I have come to lightly. But I have noticed that our bond has faded since coming here, your attentions focused on that she-wolf, and less on myself. I can only assume this means that you have come to realize a mistake.

Therefore, I am removing myself from the equation. I want you to take what you desire, my love, and I feel that is no longer myself. Because of that, it would be wrong of me to stay; someone must go, and as this was your home long before it was mine, it is only right that that someone be me.

Go with her, Elijah. I love you so much and only wish for your happiness. As much as this pains me to admit, I still wish for such even if it is not with myself.

Do not feel guilty, Elijah. This is not your fault; it was inevitable. Fight it as we might have, it would have ended in the same way. While you loved me, no one could have done so better, and I cannot say I have any confidence in the idea that anyone could best you in the future. I always knew, however, that our time would be fleeting in the grand scheme of forever. That we were always meant to say goodbye.

I love you.

Please don't bother trying to find me Elijah. I am already gone.

Eternally,

Isabella.

"Elijah?" He now heard his brother's voice, darkened with concern, much closer, a hand coming to rest upon his shoulder as the elder simply sat and stared at the letter in his hands. "What is it?"

"I—" Unable to even speak the words, he cut off, clenching his eyes closed and thrusting the letter into his brother's hands. Leaping up out of the chair as the pain gave way to anger, he walked away. He would find his mate, and at any cost, he would bring her back. He had always known that Isabella had self-esteem issues. He had never realized just how badly they affected her, however, nor to what extent they would impede on their relationship, on her perceptions of their bond.

And while he hated himself with a passion for not explaining the Hayley situation, he could not wallow in it. He had to act now, to repair the damage he had caused. To find his mate, and convince her beyond all her doubts that she was the only one he wanted. Then he would explain.

He breathed in the air around him deeply, allowing his instincts to the forefront so he could track his mate, but the distance was far too great, meaning she had most likely left town already, and on foot. He had never gone against a desire of hers, but he would not leave her alone. She was his. He was hers.

Already having some idea of where she may have gone, Elijah called a taxi, pulling his phone out of his pocket to book a flight to the one place he was above all else sure she would be, and the one town he'd never thought he would return to.

"How can I help you, Sir?" The last of the introduction from the woman on the phone called him back to focus as he leaned back in the seat.

"Yes, thank you, I would like a ticket on the earliest flight you have to Virginia."

Few hours later, Elijah made his way out of the airport with the intention of following his mate on foot. There were half a dozen places he felt she might have gone to. Knowing what he did about his mate, he knew she would not have been of sound mind when she left, perhaps operating on autopilot, meaning that as she ran away from her mate, the bond would have directed her somewhere same that had some significance to the pair. Because while her mind cried out in rebellion for all reminders, the bond knew that in their separation, it was needed for her—and thus, his—survival.

It would protect her in his stead. At least there was comfort in that.

It did not take long to traverse to his destination. His body was thrumming as he slowed to an eventual stop just outside the house he'd woken up in, the house he had demolished when fighting his brother… the house he had shared so much with his mate in; her healing process, their first kiss, their first time making love with one another—indeed her first time in the arms of another—and so much more.

Elijah sighed. Their love had started with a perfect kiss, and Elijah now suspected that the poison of Victoria's treatment of his mate—which had been enough to warrant death, though Elijah had always regretted not drawing it out—had set in.

If perfection could not keep their love intact, then Elijah would have to use the sheer stubbornness his siblings were more well-known for. That was fine. Elijah would see to it. For Elijah had had his small taste of a life without Isabella since meeting her, and he was quite eager to put it behind him.

He knew Isabella would not be inside. For her to be inside she would need to be of more of a sound mind than Elijah thought she'd be in, consciously making decisions—which would also mean that she would not be in Mystic Falls to begin with.

Instead, he made his way to the back of the house, stopping to let his eyes trail over the backyard in its entirety. His heart pulsed, his body thrummed, and his soul cried when his eyes fell on the slim form of his mate curled up against a tree. Their tree, he quickly identified. It was the tree they had married under just a year after meeting.

He swallowed, tilting his head down as his eyes flickered away before trailing back to her. He never could keep his eyes off her when she was in his presence. So ethereal was her beauty, she was all he ever saw.

He cursed himself anew for ever making her think otherwise.

Slowly and silently, he made his way to her. But at the first step, she looked up at him with unseeing eyes, feeling him beside her—the pain having vanished completely as soon as he'd stepped onto the property.

"Elijah," she whispered hollowly, and it was only with a vampire's advanced hearing that he could hear her, her voice carried by the winds in a faint glow that surrounded him and warmed him. "You came."

"Of course I did," he replied, stopping in front of her, glancing around before reaching for her hand. Instinct drove her forward, and the Original was pained to see the light in her eyes grow and then dim as she seemed to 'remember' herself, her hand retreated slowly to fall and wrap around her middle.

"You shouldn't have," she said, her voice just a little more firm as she looked away. "I asked you not to."

"You asked me not to under the guise that some part of me wished for you to leave," he insisted, his voice grounded and firm, making her look up at him. "I did not."

Isabella's forehead crumpled and she stood. "Elijah, please—"

He looked into her eyes, cutting her off by stepping forward. She backed against the tree, and he stepped forward again, closing the distance between them and pressing her into the bark. She inhaled sharply when his hands came to rest against the bark of the tree on either side of her body, his eyes sharp, a slight from on his face, his eyes tight as he stared straight into hers. "Isabella… you are my mate. I thought you knew what that meant, but obviously you do not. And therefore I will explain.

"You are the only one for me, my perfect match; the only one to ever complete me and bring my existence to some worth simply because I have you by myself. You are the glue that holds all the pieces of myself together, of my family together, and without you, those pieces crack.

"You are the only woman I desire. Hayley—" he winced when she flinched at the name, her eyes already filled with tears at his words, those tears now spilling down her porcelain cheeks "—is nothing to me. And the reason why I spent so much time with her is because Niklaus and I believe her to be a threat to our family. A threat that we wanted to protect you and Rebekah from. Call it archaic, call it manly or vampire pride, but we see that as our job." He reached up to cup her cheek, still looking into Isabella's eyes, piercing her very soul with his intense gaze. His voice was low and meant only for her as he spoke, "You are so dear to me, Isabella, that I would cease to be if you were taken from me. Can you not understand that?"

Elijah watched as his fragile mate tried to compose herself, looking down and swallowing as the tears cascaded down her lovely rose cheeks. She took a deep breath before closing her eyes only to look up at him, her brown eyes steely and resolved. "Elijah, this is wrong—"

The man hissed, stepping closer, his hand against her cheek now curling around the back of her neck. "This could never be wrong, Isabella. This is right, this is as it is supposed to be."

"Elijah, please," the woman sobbed, "looking at you makes it harder. Can you not understand that? I am quite fine, I have accepted the situation, I—"

"Would you listen to me?" he growled. "You have accepted a situation that has not come to pass and never will! Isabella, how many ways can I tell you this so that you will understand? You are my mate, you are my wife; you mean everything to me. The she-wolf is nothing, I was merely being friendly to try to get her to drop her guard so that I could uncover what exactly she is doing because my need is to protect you and I consider that girl to be a threat. Why is this so hard for you to grasp?"

"Because it never made sense!" she shouted, glaring up at him. Her chocolate eyes were hard and furious, her visage trembling from anger. "It never made sense and it was never going to last. How could it when I will never be whole because of what she did to me? How can this last when there will always be so many other girls who are so much better for you, who can give you more? Why are you doing this? You know I love you, I love you enough to let you go so you can be ha—"

He cut her off, unable to hear anymore as he pushed her against the tree and plundered her mouth in a possessive kiss that left her flying high and senseless. His arms wrapped under her thighs and pulled her up to wrap her legs around him. He would show her how perfect they were together, how complete and utterly whole they were only when with one another. He would blow thoughts of any other woman ever being good enough for him out of the water and show her, ground her in their love—in his love for her.

He pulled away, his forehead against hers as he ripped her panties off her body. They were forgotten the second they left his hand as he looked into her eyes, her hair around her shoulders and her hands on his face. "Call me selfish, Isabella but I love you too much to let you go. How can I be happy with any other, how can any other be perfect to my eyes when you are all that I see?" he whispered.

"Let me go, Elijah!" she cried, beating on his chest.

"I. Love. You, Isabella. I will not let you go, I will never let you go," he growled, kissing her fiercely again. She gasped and he thrust his tongue into her mouth again, and then they were lost in one another. The pull, the need, it was so strong, the bond wrapped around their souls and hearts pulling them toward one another, to claim and to reassure and to bond again to mend the breaks that Hayley had caused. "Even if I have to spend the rest of eternity saving our marriage, our mating from yourself and your insecurities."

Clothes were pulled and pushed off their bodies until they were bare and wrapped around one another again, this time with no barriers in between. Looking into one another's eyes for a brief moment, they read one another, and Elijah only hoped that Isabella was finally coming to see the truth. "You are mine, Isabella, but never doubt that I am utterly yours, and that I will follow you to the ends of the earth if I have to. You are never gone from me and I will always find you. I will never give up on you, on us, on this; I will run after you however many times, never growing weary, never growing tired, because you are worth everything to me."

She sobbed at his words, and once again harder as he entered her slowly. But the slow was not for long as their lips met once again, Isabella clinging to him, pressing into him almost with a need to go through his skin and become a part of him. Elijah clung just as fiercely to her as he plundered her body, loved her with passion and fire and need in a way he never had a woman before, and he knew he never would to any other woman again.

"Tell me," Elijah growled, holding her head against the tree to make her look at him. "Look me in the eyes and tell me that this could ever be wrong, that this does not feel right, Isabella. Tell me."

"I—" she tried. "I can't," she whispered.

"Tell me that I do not love you, that I will not come after you every single time your insecurities take over you and cause you to leave me. Tell me that I will not bring you into my arms, plunder your heart, your soul, your blood, and your body again until you are well aware of just how loved and needed and vital you are to me."

"I can't," she sobbed, arching her back as he hit that sweet spot inside her that made her see stars. "Elijah!" she screamed, her body bowing into me, and his arm only curled around her waist tighter.

"Tell me that you are mine," he whispered, his head now buried in her neck, his lips grazing her skin, a smile curving his lips as she writhed against him but all the while burrowed closer, shivering as his breath fanned against her skin.

"I am," she whispered, clutching him to her. "I am yours. Everything of me is yours just as everything of you is mine."

"Yes," he whispered, and then he was more; thrusting harder, faster, driving into her with a determination, an end goal for her mindless pleasure. When he felt her tightening around him, her breathing stop as she choked on his name, moaning loudly, he growled, his visage changing as his fangs grazed her neck, drawing blood only to bite down into her neck and draw her blood into his body.

Isabella was of enough mind to clench the wrist he had raised to her face, encouraging a blood sharing. She used the wrist in her hand as momentum to thrust herself forward, more onto his cock and bringing her face to his neck as she seized around him. And then her teeth were embedded in his skin, marking him as hers and taking his blood into her body as he took hers into his and she felt him deep inside her, joining her in completion as he growled her name into her neck.

They slumped against one another, but he did not pull from her. Instead, once their breathing had calmed, he merely leaned back to place his forehead once again upon hers, his eyes open and beseeching hers. His voice was hoarse as he spoke in a low, passionate whisper. "I will not ask you to never leave me again because I know there will be times when your insecurities overcome you past the point where it is feasible that you would stay. All I ask is that you never ask me to let you go again because I never will. I will always follow you, Isabella, because we are mates and if there is one thing you can be sure of in this life, it is that I will love you until that white oak stake sets me alight."

Isabella was quiet for some time until she looked up into his eyes again and nodded. "Victoria's torture will always have an effect on me, Elijah. That year with her will never fade from me entirely… but I can promise you that I will try. And if I ever feel insecure but brave enough to come to you for reassurance I will. And I will always accept it," she smirked wryly, "especially if this is how you choose to convince me."

Elijah chuckled and pressed his lips to hers again, softer now. "Good, beloved. I am glad."

"Thank you," she whispered, "for coming after me. For… putting up with me. For finding me and saving me."

"You are everything to me," he whispered, his fingers brushing her brown mane from her face. "You have been since my eyes first fell upon you. I love you, Isabella."

She smiled, tears in her eyes, and this time they were of joy. "I love you, too. Now let's go home."

He smiled. "Not yet. For now, I would like to spend some time alone here in this house with my lovely wife in solitude."

"We have no clothes," she whispered.

"We have no need of them," he whispered back, and they shared another soft laugh as they raced into the house.

Elijah sighed with content as he settled back into the lounge chair with his mate in his arms. It has most certainly been a close call and not one he wished to experience again, though he was prepared with the knowledge that at some point he would have to. Just as the two of them would have to return to the madness in New Orleans.

But right now that could wait. Right now they could be gone to the world, together.

This was how it was supposed to be, how it would remain.

Forever.

I hope everyone liked that! Please visit my profile for more crossovers as mentioned above and for the link to my Facebook group for the banner as well as sneak peeks to stories currently posting and soon to be posted. :) Thank you for reading.

Please review,

ncbexie25