Elijah took in a breath to steel himself as he watched Vivienne pull Katherine's letter from its envelope and unfold it, scanning her eyes over it before she looked to Elijah.
"Are you sure about this?" Vivienne asked in quiet voice
Elijah couldn't speak, only nod his consent as he leaned back in his chair.
"Alright…" Vivienne said in relenting voice, rolling back her shoulders and sitting up straight before reading it aloud.
"Elijah,
Two hundred years ago, when you were close to catching me outside of Budapest, you referred to me as a 'self-preservationist who cared for nothing and no one but myself'. At the time, I admit that I was proud of those words. They seemed to perfectly describe me, my inner strength, and what I had become in the years and decades since becoming a vampire.
After my family disowned me and your brother tried to kill me, I learned very quickly that the only person I could rely on or trust was myself and have tried to live by that coda ever since.
However, I admit that while it has been a long, rich life full of mischief and adventure, but it has also been a lonely one in the end.
As the years and decades pass me now, I have come to realize something, and it's something that never really occurred to me before we reunited recently. And this revelation is that in my entire life there has really been only one person who has offered assessment, but never judged me—one person who never gave up on me, who believed in, and still believes, in my redemption no matter how many wrongs I commit and how many people I kill—and that's you, Elijah.
You never say in so many words, but it's always been there over the centuries in your actions and the way you have always looked at me when I turn away. You think I never noticed, but I did…"
# # # # # #
"They went this way!" Misha called as he moved quickly ahead of Damon, Rebekah and Kol as they navigated the dense trails through Stephens Woods. They had been out there for nearly an hour, leaving Bonnie, Caroline and a still weak Klaus back at the Mikaelson mansion as they pursued the Blackwell cards in search of the portal.
"Are you sure about this, Misha?" Kol quipped skeptically, "Following the 'haunted tarot cards' to the mystical portal's location? I feel like I'm in a Twilight Zone episode. "
"Newsflash, Kol," Misha shot back over his shoulder as he pushed a tree branch out of the way, "We're in Mystic Falls—home of vampires, werewolves, witches, doppelgangers and demonic vampire hunters…I think we entered the Twilight Zone three exits back. If you're so freaked out, go back home."
"Misha's right," Damon said, looking over to the younger Original, "This is—"
Suddenly, Damon stopped and immediately walked off to the right side of the trail toward a clearing at the center of the wood as his eyes focused on something in the distance.
"Damon?" Rebekah called, slowing her pace as she glanced ahead toward Misha as the warlock continued to move down the trail, not realizing that they had stopped, then back to the older Salvatore brother, "Damon…what is it?" she asked, her voice a little whiney, "We need to keep moving. We don't have time for-"
"It's alright! Go on ahead! Follow Misha and weird witchy cards!" Damon called back to her, his eyes still focused on an object in the distance.
Rebekah furrowed her brow for a moment in question before she took off to follow Misha, leaving her brother and Damon behind her on the trail.
"What is it? What do you see?" Kol whispered as he narrowed his eyes, trying to find what Damon was staring at.
Then he saw it, just as Damon stepped forward into the sunlight and the lush green grass of the clearing.
After several paces, the older Salvatore moved the fallen pine tree branches on the ground in his path to reveal a long mahogany coffin, lying partially open on its side where it had landed in the clearing after being caught up the vortex of the storm Klaus had created to stave off Dominic back in the cemetery.
Stefan's coffin was safe back at the Salvatore crypt. Damon had seen to that before they left.
That meant…
Damon took in a breath and swallowed as he approached the scene, his eyes now scanning over the sight of the upper half of Katherine Pierce's lifeless body lying partway out of the coffin, her arm outstretched on the grass as if reaching out to him.
Damon closed his eyes as the old familiar feelings washed over him.
"I'll help you take her back to the house," Kol said softly, suddenly appearing at his side and placing a sympathetic hand on Damon's shoulder.
"An older gentleman sitting next to me at the counter of this diner in town just asked me if this was a lover letter and I guess it is, of sorts. If anything, it is something that, after five hundred years, I feel I owe you. I guess you could call it a Thank You."
Damon cleared his throat as he opened his eyes and nodded before stepping forward and bending down, coming to the side of Katherine's body as Kol rounded the other side of the coffin. He then gently took her hand in his, studying how they fit together for a moment, before picking up the rest of her arm by the elbow with his other hand and folding it across her chest. Damon then carefully took hold of her torso, watching her dark curly fall across her face as he lifted her body back inside and Kol took hold of the backside of the coffin and turned it upright.
"You've asked me to go to Mystic Falls and be your eyes and ears in this fight, and I promised I would, and for the first time in my life, I intend to keep my promise to you. And I plan on fulfilling it in a completely foolish and Elijah-like way. But, before I do, I wanted to make some things clear."
Then, without ceremony, Damon turned away, trying to hide his emotions as he moved to the head of the coffin and Kol closed the lid.
# # # # # # #
Vivienne paused as she looked up and over to Elijah, where he now sat forward, clasping his hands together and bringing them to a point near his mouth in thought as he listened the words she had spoken.
His expression was unreadable, but she didn't sense any reason for her to stop reading.
So, after another moment, she continued…
"First, you think that you never meant a thing to me. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. I will always remember the first time I met you in 1492, in the great hall of Klaus' castle in Brittany. I turned around and there you were, standing before me. I held my hand out to you and you kissed it, your eyes never leaving mine. I knew then that you were different than any man I had ever met before or ever would meet. It is a memory that has stayed and always will stay with me.
In the months that followed, you made me feel like a guest in your brother's house, not a prisoner—you gave me a home and a family when I didn't have one and I will be forever grateful for the time that I spent with you under that roof…no matter what circumstances it was under. Because, I have never felt that since. Not ever.
Second, I want to apologize for the hurt that I caused you when I betrayed you. You are a true man of honor, Elijah. You always kept your word to me—even when I didn't deserve it—and it has always pained me a little that I couldn't do the same for you in return. It seems in the end, that pesky survival instinct I've always had trumped my affection for you and I'm so sorry. Sorrier than you will ever know.
Third, I've spent more years running from you than being your friend, but I want you to know how much it meant to stop running and how much it meant that you said you wouldn't turn me over to Klaus. And while our recent encounters haven't always been 'pleasant', just know that in my heart, I will always feel the connection we had centuries before—our walks, our dinners, you reading to me and chasing me on the castle grounds. That I will always consider you a friend.
Love is not an easy feeling to put into words, nor is loyalty or trust or joy, but you were the epitome of these to me when I first met you half a millennium ago and you still are. And after all that has happened to you in your thousand years on this earth, you have never lost that 'spark'—that eternal optimism that makes you…well, you.
I admire you for that. It's a rare and precious gift. You see, most people are blessed with this gift early on, before life and circumstance rip it from their souls.
You are one of the few people on this earth, Elijah, that has kept your 'spark' and that has always allowed you to remain optimistic and hopeful of redemption...even for a sweet Bulgarian maiden, turned cold-hearted bitch.
Promise me that you will never lose it. You're a light in the world, when all other lights go out.
My hope is that I may make it through this fight so that one day I may muster the courage to say these words to you face to face, but if I do not—which I'm sure will probably happen as I plan on doing something self-sacrificing and extremely Elijah-like as I mentioned before—I know this letter will get to you and I pray that you will read it and remember me with as much fond remembrance as I have for you.
Take care of yourself, Elijah.
Always and Forever,
Katerina"
Vivienne let out a sigh, her eyes lingering on Katherine's given name signed at the bottom of the page before looking up to Elijah, a tear rolling down her cheek.
But, the chair was empty and he was gone.
# # # # # #
Elijah closed his bedroom door and leaned back clumsily on the wood, taking in deep, shallow breaths as he fought back the flood of emotions that now threatened to push against the damn he had built in his heart and mind for protection centuries ago.
Katerina was the reason he had built them…why he never anyone get close to him and why he never let anyone in. Why he hadn't loved anyone or cared for anyone outside his siblings in almost half of a millennium. That is…until he met Elena.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door behind him and it quickly pulled Elijah back from his emotional turmoil as he turned and, bringing his hand to the knob, slowly opened the door.
His eyes widened as he beheld Katerina standing on the other side of the threshold, her hair woven in curls and pulled back from her face. Her slim figure was draped in the beautiful wine colored dress she wore on the night they had first met at Klaus' birthday party in 1492.
"Elijah…" she whispered with an uncertain smile, her eyes meeting his sympathetically
"Katherina…" he spoke in a low voice, his eyes softening as he looked her up and down in disbelief that she was now standing before him.
"Elijah, it's me," Katerina replied, studying him in sudden confusion, "It's...Elena…Not Katherine."
"Elena?" Elijah whispered, narrowing his eyes as the vision of Katerina soon faded to reveal Elena Gilbert standing in front of him in one of his white t-shirts and her black and white poka-dotted pajama pants, her own face tear-stained and reflected with grief.
"Elena…" he gasped as his internal damn finally broke and he choked out a sob, the tears filling his eyes quickly.
"Oh…Elijah…" Elena whispered again, her face falling as she quickly observed his pain and immediately moved forward, just as he started hyperventilating and collapsed forward.
With vampire speed, she crossed the threshold and caught him in her arms, falling to the hardwood floor in the bedroom as he gripped her tight and started to sob uncontrollably.
"She gone…" Elijah cried, holding the doppelganger close as he buried his head in her shoulder
"I know…" Elena whispered, kissing the top of his head before burying her face there and letting out her own sobs, "I know. He's gone, too…"