Lying on the floor, in a puddle of tumbling brunette locks, shiny metallic eyes and deep red lips, she truly looks like an angel. He hears the faint thump of her heart inside her tiny body and he lifts her into his arms and carries her against his chest directly into the sunset.
He doesn't use his speed or unnatural strength, he just carries on walking, walking. Savouring the scent of vanilla and lavender, savouring the texture of her soft brown curls and the sound of her beating heart. He knows he'll protect her no matter what.
He's lived too long putting his family first, and it's like Rebekah said. They're not a family, not really. They're just three individuals who happen to share a bloodline, and with Mikael gone, he can't even protect his sister anymore. There's no one to protect her from. They are truly immortal.
He reaches the cottage he bought years ago. It's just outside of Virginia, and it's small and cosy and made from stone with pink climbing roses that climb the walls and white roses that line the window sills with a big red door with a black knocker. It's their home, even if she wakes and doesn't want it.
He walks past the roaring fire and up the creaky stairs, all the while , listening to the faint beat of her heart as it slowly gets stronger.
He places her on the Egyptian cotton sheets in an all white room, and her head tilts to one side. His fingers find a loose curl and tucks it behind her ears. His hands find her feet (still placed in those tall little shoes she loves to wear) and pull them off her feet.
She makes a sound, a cross between sigh and sleepy moan, and he wishes she never had to wake. He wishes she'll open those big chocolate eyes one last time and go back to sleep, because her shoulders are weighed down with over half a millennia of torture, manipulation and running, and although she is something, a human mind will simply never be able to hold all that.
He makes to exit the room when her fingers find his and pulls him back to the bed. He awkwardly lies against the bed and she snuggles closer to his chest and wraps her other hand inside his jacket.
It's then he realises that half a millennia of manipulation, torture and running will destroy a human mind, even if it is hers. She starts to murmur on his chest and her eyes flutter open and a shriek escapes her mouth.
It's so... so unlike both Katherine and Katarina that he knows she's losing her mind, and he has two options. He could either turn her, right here, right now, and pretend this never happened.
Or... he could compel everything away. He could destroy it all.
Elena, The Salvatore Brothers, the curse, his brother, the lies, the death, the murder, the blood
Him.
His fingers hold her face and she begs him not to, calls him a coward, spits in his face
"You wouldn't dare Elijah! Remember... all the fun we used to have? It doesn't have to change."
But he does. He compels it all away.
He finds a nice village in England, a small, under populated everybody knows everything about everybody type English Village, and he buys her a cottage that mirrors theirs. He finds an elderly woman who he compels to be her mother, a businessman he compels to give her a job, and a blonde airhead he compels to be her friend.
He compels the entire village for her. He compels them to remember that she was a sweet little girl that loved to play games in the play ground but never told anyone the rules. He compels them to remember that she was an intelligent and beautiful little girl with a string of admirers wherever she went.
He watches the village, protects it. Niklaus finds it one day and Elijah stabs him with the white oak dagger. Of course, it does no damage to him, but the anger in Elijah's eyes make him wait for the next doppelganger.
Katherine dies alone, old and happy. Alone, because he ever let anyone get near her. Old, because humans don't stay young and beautiful forever. Happy, because in her old age she told stories of a man she loved centuries ago who always wore suits and who didn't believe in love yet would do anything for her (except deny his brother). She saw him once, she says, and he smiled at her.
She dies, and he finds her head stone. It's elegant and understated (she'd hate it. She'd want bold and dramatic) and he closes his eyes and lies next to her, imaging her not as the old lady, but as Katarina, his Katarina, and pretends he feels her hand inside of his. He closes his eyes and waits until his blood dries in his veins and his body turns to ash, right next to her.
A/N I might do a follow up of this where in Katherine remembers Elijah and why she never married or had children but only if you want me too. Please review (means a lot!) and also please look at my other stories (Klaroline/Kaleijah/Stelena/Jenna/Lexi)