When the curse was fresh upon them, they stood together as a family. It was an unheard of illness—the craving for blood—and they only had each other to turn to.

Klaus was the leader, trying to find the cure, and it was him that learned of Tatia's fate. The night he informs all of them, Rebekah holds the key to their curse in her hands. She doesn't say anything because she is one of the youngest in the family. (Holding the key gives her power, and as a girl, that is hard to come by.) It's not like it is of any use at the moment anyway. They need the doppelganger first.

"That was Tatia's necklace, Bekah" Elijah says as she's leaving. "You took it off when Niklaus talked of finding a cure.

Rebekah turns. "She gave it to me—before…you know. We were friends, brother; surely you wouldn't begrudge me a token of our friendship?" She is telling him without saying the words. He knew anyway, she tells herself. She can trust Elijah, though—more than she can Niklaus, she is sure.

Elijah freezes almost imperceptibly for a moment, and Rebekah watches his eyes, noting the distant look in them. "No, I won't begrudge you that, sister."

"Niklaus cannot know, Elijah," she whispers furtively, glancing back at her half-brother. "Too much is at stake."

"He won't hear it from me."

-x-

Many lifetimes later, Elena Gilbert wears the necklace. She doesn't know it belongs to an ancient ancestor, and Elijah doesn't plan on telling her. He wonders, of course, how Bekah's token ended up with Elena, but the process of possession matters not.

He thinks it's fitting that the trinket gets back to the Petrova's. (And wouldn't it be ironic if she dies with the only real key to breaking Klaus's curse around her neck?)

He keeps silent because it rightfully belongs to her and because Tatia would want it this way. She would appreciate the irony.

The necklace fits the present owner much more than it ever did his sister.

And if Elijah knows one thing, it is that Elena Gilbert is nothing like his sister.