"Are you still human?" is the first thing he asks her when he sees her.
"Are you?" she retorts, sitting on the bar stool next to him.
Tyler laughs bitterly before taking another swig of his bottle and Elena almost smirks. Having grown up together, they learned long ago exactly how to hurt each other.
When the bartender comes over, she orders a soda and Tyler laughs again, this time almost fondly. "Still can't hold your liquor, Gilbert?" he asks. "You must still be human."
"Not everything changes," she replies with a shrug, giving him a knowing look. They've never talked about it—ever—but there's a lot of shared history between the two of them.
Tyler doesn't answer, still determined to pretend nothing has ever happened between them. Truth be told, Elena doesn't really mind. Better to leave the past in the past, and all of that shit. Instead, they drink, not really looking at each other, but not looking away either.
"Why are you here?" he asks after a while.
"Wanted to find you," she answers. He waits for a more complete answer, but after a few moments, he looks in her eyes and recognizes the look on her face. They've been here before.
He remembers her tears and the screaming and the objects breaking as she threw them against the wall. He remembers holding her and telling her that it'll be alright. And then he remembers what he thought that day. Why him? Why not Matt?
Suddenly sobering, he stands up and grabs hold of her arm. She doesn't even protest as he drags her from the bar. "Who's left?" he demands, when they're outside. It's dark and quiet, and nobody sees them.
Elena just shakes her head, and he knows.
"I'm—I'm sorry," he says, and suddenly, he starts to feel what he suspects she's been feeling for a while.
Elena takes one look at him and starts crying. "I am too. I know how you felt about Caroline…and she felt the same, she did. She missed you, but I think—I think she knew…what was going to happen. I think that's why she never went after you. She had a box, under her bed; she tracked you; that's how I found you."
He hadn't heard Caroline's name in over three years and now…. "She's dead?"
Elena nods. "They all are—even Matt. Everyone in that town that I cared about, everyone who cared about me, they all died to protect me."
Tyler doesn't know what to feel. It's Elena's fault. They died for her. And yet he knows—he knows that, had he been there, he'd of done the same thing. They don't talk about it, they never have, but that doesn't mean it was never there.
"I shouldn't have come," she says, pulling away from him. "You didn't need to hear that. You hate me now and you should. It's my fault."
Tyler shakes his head and grabs for her again. "It's not your fault, Elena. They all made the choice; you can't blame yourself for that." He says the words and he even believes them, but he can see that she doesn't.
"I just…I came to say goodbye. You're the last one left—the only one who knows—and I wanted to say goodbye before…."
She doesn't finish, but she doesn't really have to. "You're not going to die on me now, Gilbert," he says, bringing his hand to her face to caress her cheek. She lets him. "We may be the only ones left, but that doesn't mean it has to be over."
Elena starts to sob now and Tyler's fairly sure this is the first time she's actually allowed herself to cry since everything happened. He pulls her to him and holds her and feels a strong sense of déjà vu.
Somehow, he always knew it would end up like this.