Christmas in Mystic Falls is a nice reunion, Elena asked Elijah to meet her at home before they went to Caroline's party.
Elena's car is already there and so is Jeremy's, he parks next to her and waits a moment. There's only one heartbeat in the house though. Jeremy could have gotten a ride to Caroline's party but the sob that he hears indicates otherwise. The door's open, and he sees Jeremy with a broken neck, head in Elena's lap. Elijah shuts the door and she looks at him for a moment.
"Jeremy was like this when I got here," Elena exhales shakily. She closes her eyes for a minute and the tears stop.
"Elena?" he inquires but Elena looks like she doesn't even see him.
"If he was killed by something supernatural he should have woken up by now. Maybe whoever killed him put the ring on after he died. I'll call 911, say he fell down the stairs. They don't look into that type of thing too much right? I mean I know the autopsy will show he died before either of us got here," Elena says calmly.
"You turned off your emotions," he says and she rolls her eyes at him.
"Unless you wanted a crying mess to death with, this was the better option. Jeremy's the only living relative I had left. Now he's gone too. Just me. Wonder when I'll die," Elena says and reaches for her phone.
"Elena. Turn it back on. The longer you wait, the harder it will be," Elijah warns and Elena sighs.
"Ever consider I might not ever turn it back on? This is so much easier already. I don't want my feelings back because all I do is love and lose people," Elena says as she grabs her phone.
"Elena, stop. Jeremy might come back. Give it a few more minutes," Elijah says and she sets her phone down. Elena looks at him for a long moment before her hand touches his face.
"Do you ever see me? Or am I just a girl with the same face as them? Doesn't it get boring?" Elena taunts. Elijah meets her emotionless eyes.
"You should have turned off your emotions a long, long, long time ago. Saved you a lot of time and effort," Elena informs him and he looks like the Elijah who first met her in that dirty house. Powerful, detached and mysterious.
"That's more like it," Elena says, patting his cheek once before her moves her hand. Elijah catches her wrist.
"Your humanity is a gift, Elena," he begins.
"Then what's my indifference? Is that a gift too? Pretty sure I heard that line in a letter once," Elena says. This wasn't what he had planned, isn't what he thought he'd be doing on Christmas Eve. His grip isn't hard but it's not something she can escape either. There's a sick sound of bone moving that Elijah's heard a few times and Elena's eyes soften. She blinks and she's holding Jeremy tight as he breathes again.
"Elena?" He gasps and Elena cries into his shoulder.
"I thought-I thought I lost you. And kind of lost it. What happened?" Elena asks. She doesn't want to look at Elijah, all those mean things are things she's thought at one point or another but she never meant to say them. She's ruined everything. Jeremy lets go and she looks to Elijah.
"I'm so sorry," she whispers. Losing Jeremy was too much, and she said awful things without a conscience. She ruined everything, ruined Christmas, ruined their relationship. Jeremy's texting Caroline and she looks at Elijah. He doesn't look like he hates her or like he's going to leave when she takes her eyes off him even though she really thinks he should.
They'll need to talk, he thinks, make sure she doesn't think he sees Tatia and Katerina, he's never seen them when he sees her. He needs to remind Elena that what just happened doesn't mean anything, she was distressed and hurt.
"Merry fucking Christmas, huh?" Jeremy asks.