Elena doesn't feel guilty. Not really. She and Elijah have been allies for longer than they've known Freya. She tells Elijah everything his older sister says for a few months.
Freya is a gifted witch, and they eventually trust her. Whenever Jeremy visits, she performs the spell Bonnie found.
Sometimes Finn and Sage return and she spends time with Finn especially.
Elijah finds new things to entertain her with, different shows, theories, books.
Elena has weeks where she just sleeps and Caroline takes Elijah out for cupcakes.
When it's Elena's birthday, Caroline cries, and thinks she sees something change in Elena's appearance but shakes it off. Elena cries a little too, she wonders how many birthdays she'll have stuck in her own head. She misses everything. She misses alarm clocks and shopping. she misses candles and perfume. Anything and everything. She even misses birthday candles, as stupid as she knows that sounds, she tells Elijah.
Time moves on and it's Christmas before she knows it. It's not snowing in New Orleans, but Elijah tells her he has something to show her in his mind.
A few things, he'll correct himself later.
Snow. It's the best Christmas gift ever, and she makes a snow fort, has a snowball war with Elijah. She feels the sensation of being cold for the first time in a long time. She makes snow angels as Elijah watches, until she convinces him, with some effort, to join her. He gets a snowball in his face after she tells him he has the hang of it.
There's another battle in their snowball war, and when Elena admits defeat, they move on to making snowpeople. Elena makes a snow mermaid and a few other people. Elijah gives one of his carefully perfected snowmen his tie, and Elena gives the one next to it plastic fangs. He laughs. Then there's a memory of warmth, hot chocolate by a fire and she can almost forget.
"Thank you for the Christmas presents." She tells him before moving to give him a hug. He wraps his arms around her, and he tells her that the memories weren't her present. She pulls back and asks what her gift is. He tells her to close her eyes. So she does.
"The twenty four ice cream place?" She asks. It's almost exactly how she remembers it.
"I bought it for you. It'll be there when you wake up." He tells her and tears burn in her eyes as she hugs him.
They don't move for a long time.