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Elijah was on a bed sweating and trembling as the fever consumed him. even in this state he heard your familiar heartbeat as you enter the room, he manages to opens his eyes to look at you. You fake a small smile, trying your best to not let show how much you are worried, how much you are sad. you hope your eyes are no longer read from the crying and you try your best to not cry again seeing your beloved husband, the man you spent 10 centuries with, looking a step away from death.
‘I saw you.’ He says slowly voice shaking, even talking is taking him a lot of energy at this point ‘I had a dream. I was holding you. You seemed happy’ he smiles at the memory.
You walk to him, taking a sit on the bed next to him, and take his hand in yours. You squeeze his hand gently, before bringing it to you lips and kiss his wedding ring, something he usually does with you. Then you rest your forehead against his as your hand caresses his cheeck, both of yours and his eyes closed.
‘it wasn’t a dream and I was happy’ you smile back at him at the memory of this morning. Probably the last happy memory you will have of him.
it was a morning like any other. you had woken up in his tight embrace like every morning, still happily sore from the activities of the night before. He was looking at you lovingly as you slept, as he always did as rarely you woke up before him.
he held you as you two spoke your worries for the future. little did you know that it would probably be the last time you woke up in his arms. In a thousand years there had been only few occasions were that wasn’t the case. And only the thought that the only thing the future could hold for you were cold sheets and an empty side of the bed made your blood freeze in your veins and your heart break.
‘if niklaus doesn’t make it’ he says seriously, holding the back of your neck and bringing you close as you rest your hand on his cheek
‘he will make it’ you reply immediately, you don’t believe it much yourself but you need to believe that this is not the last moment you will have with the love of your life, or lives as you lived the equivalent of ten lives with elijah
‘listen to me. now you have grieved enough. You promise me If not for yourself than for me. That you will get as far from this place as you can. I want you to be happy’ he says looking at you, his face pale and contorted by pain but serious
‘you can’t seriously ask me that. I will fight for you, for your return every day, I don’t care if it takes me another thousand years’ you tell him caressing his hair, Elijah wants to hold to that familiar intimate sensation as long as he can, but he can’t as he has to make you promise that you will go on, even if without him.
‘y/n, my love, please, listen to me. you gave me the best life. You gave meaning to my eternity and before that to my human life. And I would not change a single moment I spent with you. I know it is hard for you, and I expect it to be. but if Nicklaus doesn’t make it you need to let me go’ he begs you, his hand firm on back of your neck
You shake your head trying to keep the tears from falling ‘when we married more than a thousand year ago. we swore to live, fight for and love each other always and forever until the end of time’ you reply passing again your hand in his hair and trying to avoid his eyes, not sure yourself if to comfort him or yourself
‘maybe this is the end of time, at least of my time’ he whispers, his eyes taking in every single of your features as he speaks, if he is really dying he will hold on for any moment he has left by looking at you, at the woman he loves, the face he could recognize even if blind, even if dead
‘elijah… don’t say that please’ you reply suffocating a sob
‘we need to be realistic my love’ he tells you moving his hand from the back of your neck to your face caressing with his tumb your cheek
‘I’m not breaking my vow as you wouldn’t if the situation was reversed’ you tell him, closing your eyes for a second to stop the tears from falling. Before opening them again to look at him. you don’t want to miss a single moment by not looking at him, because these could be the last moments you will pass looking at his handsome face, the face you woke up and fell asleep looking at for the last thousand years.
Elijah takes a moment to reply. He needs to think as you are right. If the situation was reversed he would not spend a single moment of his immortal life doing something rather than fighting for you. And when he would realize there was no way to bring you back he would probably go straight to Marcel to get himself k!lled too. He would want to be with you alive or dead. It didn’t matter to him, nothing mattered to him if you were dead. His existence started and ended with you.
He finally speaks. ‘when I married you I swore to you to love you and make you happy, always and forever. So I’m not breaking my vow and neither are you. As I want you to find your happiness outside of me, even if it means to let me go.’ He says looking into your eyes, serious but with love and sadness behind them
That’s it. You let out a sob and tears start to silently fall
‘I can’t. I can’t live without you. I don’t want to, I won’t’ you say shaking your head as you break.
Tears threaten to fall form his eyes too, more for you than for himself. He has always hated seeing you cry, having his heart ripped out quite literally hurted less. With the last strength he has left he brings you forward to him, kissing your forehead as you clinge to him your hands resting on his neck and head fearing he will disappear, you are now properly crying. You stay like that for a while before he puts some distance between you two looking at you again with serious and pleading eyes as your cries start to soften.
‘consider it my dying wish, please y/n, I’m begging you. I need to know you will be okay.’ He pleads, his voice almost breaking, he caresses your tear strained cheecks, but as he wipes them more replace them
He always stood up to his words, but not you, if it meant to put his mind at ease you will promise it to him even if you knew you would not follow through with the promise. Life was not a life without elijah. without his smile, his kind words, his promises to cherish you and love you that he always kept. No, you couldn’t live without him. either you found a way to bring him back no matter how long it took you or you would join him on the other side. One way or another you would not spend eternity without him.
‘I promise you eli’ you said a final tear running down your eye. he swept it away with his thumb, he lets out a breath, his mind finally at ease. He must really be suffering if he doesn’t detect your lie, you think, your heart breaking even more.
‘I love you, you are my love and my life’ He says kissing your cheek, lingering his lips there as he tries to memorize this moment, you. As he separates from you, you take an hold on him immediately of his neck and hair before bringing all of him close to you. You two kiss, he has no strength left but he manages to convey all the love and sorrow. As the kiss ends you bring him forward to you, holding him in your embrace, feeling him relax under your touch even if the shaking of the fever continues passing through his body. One of your hands keeps him close to you lying on you, the other passes comforting caresses from his hair, to his neck, to his shoulders and back.
‘I love you too elijah’ you reply as tears start to silently fall again, tears he luckily can’t see as his face is pressed on the crock of your neck, you kiss the top of his head, your hand suiting his arm muscle as he relaxes against your touch. Both of you trying to memorize this familiar sensation of intimacy, love and comfort. A sensation you two shared every waking moment of your eternal lives, which now is threatening to be taken from you forever.
If klaus made it or not it would still take years, potentially decades, for you and Hayley to find a cure for all his siblings. No matter what happened this was the last chance you had to hold him for a long time. You just hoped it was a see you soon and not a goodbye.