AN: Just saying, if Elena is human in canon, they maybe shouldn't have put her in a coffin with limited air? Once she wakes up she'll just suffocate?
Caroline calls him in tears, she's at Bonnie's house. Bonnie is dying, and nothing can save her, not magic or vampires or faith. He hears the request and he puts his phone on speakerphone, and Bonnie speaks.
"I love you, Elena. I'm so sorry." Why she's apologizing, Elijah doesn't know, Caroline requests that he hangs up, and he does. It's a waiting game. He feels her hand twitch in his, and it's an hour until he hears her take deep lungfuls of air, as if she's been starved for air for those forty six years. She blinks and he looks at her with what he hopes is a neutral face, and she opens her mouth and nothing comes out. She clears her throat, and he stands up, and he's being pressed against the wall before he knows what's happening. Elena is hugging him, and she's sobbing.
"Bonnie is dead. Caroline's mom is dead. Who else?" She rasps.
"No one else." He assures her, and her face is in his shoulder, he's wearing gray thank gods, and she tries to say everything at once, wrapping her arms around him tightly. She's shaking as she does. Her legs are a little unsteady. He wraps his arms around her waist as she cries.
"Thank you." She says and her voice is still rough, and he wants to ask but then she tells him.
"I could hear. I could feel. Thank you for keeping me sane, Elijah. I loved all of your stories. Thank you." She keeps crying and he notices her empty IV.
"I'm so sorry you had to waste part of your life to keep your promise." She says, and if she wasn't cemented against him he'd look her in the eyes and shake his head because it was worth it.
"I love you." She says, and he stops breathing.
"I mean, I loved you before I went into a coma." She tells him and takes a breath, he can tell she has more to say so he stays silent.
"I spent the entire coma in love with you and I never got to tell you." She confesses, and he doesn't know how they could be physically closer, she won't let go and she's still shaking.
"I love you too. Before the coma as well." He admits, and his fingers trace patterns on her back as a new wave of tears come out.
"I'm sorry we had to wait so long." She apologizes.
"It's not your fault. Besides, I promised you always and forever." He says, and she's still hugging him.