It had been five years since Elena had been in her magical slumber, put there by than other than Kai Parker who was now dead. Shouldn't she be free if the witch that cast the spell was also dead? Her thoughts wandered off as she slept somewhat peacefully over the years, she had noticed that slowly her friends had stopped coming by to visit her, perhaps it got too painful not to hear her voice anymore. She hadn't even seen her younger brother in the last few years, she hoped he was okay and having a normal life.
One day her world came crashing down around Elena and she was suddenly awoken with a bright light in her eyes, clearly the sun was up for the day and illuminated the room she was in. She gasped taking in her first real breath in years and struggled to breathe as she sat up gasping for air and slowly got out of her coffin pushing the lid up and opening it to let herself out. She was weak and it took her a while but she managed as she clawed her way out and gradually got back on her feet. Her knees gave way and she collapsed breathing heavily trying to catch her breath. Hours passed before she looked around not recognizing where she was. She remembered the spell and knew that she was linked to Bonnie's life. If Elena was awake now, it must have meant that Bonnie had passed on. Elena sat down on the cold hard floor and cried just thinking about her friend and wondering how much time had passed. To Elena it felt like days or hours, not years. If Bonnie was truly dead, what else had she missed while she was asleep?
She walked out of the crypt she had been kept in and squinted her eyes a moment adjusting to the sun light she hasn't seen in years. She lifted her hand shielding her eyes and blinked a few times and lowered her hand, tucking her hair behind her ears and began her walk around town. Nothing looked that familiar to her but she was certain that she was still in Mystic Falls. She remembered the layout of her home town and used her memory to walk back to the Salvatore house, something she was the most familiar with. She was hoping that Stefan or Damon , or even both of them, were home and would be happy to see her again and fill in the blanks and gaps in her memory. She walked up to the house and sighed heavily hesitating a moment before knocking three times on the door and waited for someone to answer the door.
It had been hard for Stefan when Elena had been put into the slumber, he had wanted to kill Kai Parker; if Damon hadn't killed him first of course. Elena was the love of Stefan's life, so saying goodbye for now was really hard for him, because he didn't know how he could live without her, she was the reason to why he had become good, he had wanted to be better for her. Stefan had promised Elena that he would try and make a life for himself, and that was what he had tried to do, but something always pulled him back to Mystic Falls, which caused him to help out his friends and his brother. He visited Elena, but every visit became harder so he ended up stopping, but whenever he wanted to visit her, he wrote in his diary about it, so that when she awakened, he would just give his diary to her.
Stefan had of course followed Elena's wished, made a new life for himself, he was currently living in Florida, he wasn't enjoying it much, but Bonnie had called Stefan to tell him that she might have found a way to bring back Elena, and if it worked, she needed Stefan to be there, not for Elena, but for herself. Since Stefan had pressured Bonnie to try and find a way to bring Elena back. So with that Stefan left his life in Florida behind, he would no longer be Markus Johnson, but he would be Stefan Salvatore the moment he set foot in the small town, and he didn't mind if it meant that he could see Elena. So when he came to the boarding house, he saw Bonnie, because she was waiting for him and they talked and she told him that she had casted the spell when she had called him, but she was still waiting to see if it worked, since she believed that it would take some time before waking Elena up from the slumber.
Bonnie had to go home and catch some sleep, and Stefan nodded as he grabbed a book from the bookshelf in the library, and he sat down on the couch. When the door knocked, Stefan didn't know how long time had passed, but he put the book down, and made his way towards the hallway and out to the door. When he opened it, he felt his heart in his throat. "Elena?" he had meant to ask it as a question but it had gotten out as whisper instead and he could feel the tears arriving in his eyes, since he had believed that Bonnie had just given him a false hope.
Elena was about to turn around and leave since it had taken awhile for someone to answer the door. She just figured she was too late and no one was here anymore and that it was an abandoned house even though it didn't quite look like it. She stopped short hearing someone call her name. Elena turned around in time to see Stefan in the doorway looking at her and only her. "Stefan?" She asked softly eyebrows raised as tears welled up in her eyes. "Oh thank god!" She said running back towards him and wrapped her arms around him; she was just glad she wasn't alone here and that this could still be home to her that not everything had entirely changed. She hugged him tightly not wanting to let him go, memories came flooding back to her just within seconds of being wrapped up in his arms again, she felt like it had been decades since she had seen him.
Elena knew that Stefan had stopped visiting even though he was the one to visit her the most, it broke her heart the day he didn't show up like she had expected him too. "I'm so happy to see you" she said holding onto him as tightly as humanly possible. She had a feeling she looked like a horrible mess right now but she figured he was more happy to see her alive than to care what she looked like at this moment. She pulled back from him to get a good look at him, she just smiled as she nodded and chuckled a little "I'm glad to see that you haven't changed much. You look exactly the same "she said wiping away tears and licked her lips having a feeling she must have aged some since by the time she went to sleep she was a human again, she had lost her immortality. She reached down for his hands for a moment and just grinned feeling his touch again as proof that she was alive and this was real and not a dream. "How long have I been away? Where's Bonnie?" she asked worried that something horrible had happened and that Bonnie had died and that's why Elena was here now back to the land of the living.
If there was one person Stefan never had expected to see now, it was Elena. Because it hadn't been the first time that Bonnie had tried to bring Elena back, but this was the only one where she didn't fail at all, and Stefan was just happy to see Elena, but when she said his name, he felt the tears run down his face and he felt her arms around him and he hugged her back. "Everyone is still living in Mystic Falls." he whispered to her, wanted her to know that everybody was still living in the city that she called home. "They are just on vacations.." he whispered as he didn't feel like talking with his own voice, he was just enjoying the fact that Elena was there and she was in his arms. Everything they had been through flashed before his eyes and he closed his eyes, not sure if he should keep them up, afraid that it was just a mind trick.
"I'm so happy to see you too Elena, I've waited for this for a long time." He felt hat she was holding on to him as tightly as she could, and it warmed his heart, because it meant that she missed him. "You haven't changed much either Elena." he said before kissed her forehead, before she pulled away and as she asked about Bonnie, he smiled. "She is alive, she just went home to relax a little." Stefan said before pulling his phone out of his pocket and facetimed Bonnie, and when Bonnie answered he smiled a little. "There is somebody here that wants to see you." He said before he turned the phone towards Elena and smiled at Elena, as he wondered how she would reach to seeing Bonnie, since she was afraid that she wouldn't see Bonnie ever again.
Elena was clinging to Stefan for a few moments knowing she belonged right here with Stefan. Something had always told her that she was meant to be a Salvatore; she just wasn't sure how it would happen. Elena couldn't take her eyes off of Stefan, she was so afraid she would never see him again, even if it was more likely that she would see Stefan or Damon before seeing Bonnie. Immortality did that to some people. "It's okay Stefan, I'm here. You can touch me " she said lacing her fingers with his not fully understanding all the attempts Stefan had made to waking up Elena so she could come home finally.
Elena walked around the house for a moment appreciating the mere fact that nothing had changed here and it was just the way she had remembered it. She turned around and walked back over to Stefan seeing him hand her the phone. Elena grinned as tears returned to her eyes seeing Bonnie's face and knowing this wasn't a trick of her imagination. The girls talked for a little while and ended with a promise to see each other real soon as soon as Elena got readjusted. Elena protested that it would be easier to readjust if she had her friends around her but they agreed to give her a few days and Bonnie would pass on the good news to Caroline and Jeremy later on that day. Elena hung up the video chat even though she didn't want to "Okay Bonnie, I'll see you soon. We need a girls day, it feels like years " she said making a slight joke out of it. They giggled and said good bye blowing kisses and hung up. Elena couldn't get the smile off her face for a while , but the smile faded and it turned to tears as she burst out sobbing. She was fine just her emotions were everywhere and she didn't know how to process it yet. She had truly felt like she had died and now she was back.