You Don't Know What I'd Do For You (Love you like oxygen)

twenty-seven

*A/N* Okay, everybody, the fluff has arrived, at long last, so, sound the alarms, this is not a drill! Unfortunately, this will probably be the last chapter for a while as I will be out of the country for a few weeks. No real trigger warnings that I could think of for this one. Also, if you got a whole ton of notifications for this story, I do apologize, it was just me renaming all of the chapters of my books because I thought it looked better as words rather than numbers, leave me alone. Now, please enjoy!

Elijah's coma lasted three days, the entire time, the Mikaelsons took shifts constantly watching him, sitting steadfast by his bedside, terrified that their brother would wake up and be all alone. His wounds healed slowly through the help of blood and magic until he almost looked to be in a peaceful sleep, with nothing but the huge gaps in his teeth to give away the recent events. Klaus and Rebekah had told Hayley everything that they had witnessed, the she-wolf had listened quietly to every word, her lips pressed in a tight line as bright fire raged behind her hazel eyes. Freya had cloaked the barn as well as set up strong boundary spells around the area until the bodies of their parents could be retrieved and Esther and Mikael could meet their agonizing ends. Marcel had been flitting all about the city, desperately trying to stay busy so that his worry was kept at bay, afraid he would go mad otherwise. Finn mostly stuck to his assigned room in the compound, other than when it was his turn to watch over Elijah, unable to handle the glares his siblings shot his way as the guilt gnawed away at him. Kol was going insane, paralyzed with the inability to do anything but hover helplessly over his older brother's body. The entire house seemed just about ready to erupt at the drop of a pin, all of them at each others throats, ready to snap as the tension ratcheted itself up more and more every passing day. None of them found sleep even when it wasn't their shift to be on watch, they paced the halls restlessly, every sound and feeling was like a cheese grater to their already frayed nerves.

The day that Elijah woke up, Freya had been keeping vigil over her little brother's bed, and the sound of her voice calling out that he was stirring was like the first drops of rain in a desert. All feuds, old and new, were cast aside as the Mikaelsons rushed to Elijah's room. Rebekah wept silently as she held her brother's hand like a lifeline, Klaus right behind her as Kol stood by Freya. Finn, Hayley, and Marcel stood at the foot of the bed, not entirely sure if they belonged, but holding their breath all the same as Elijah's eyes, now healed and returned to their usual soft brown, fluttered open. His brow furrowed at the sight of them all surrounding his bed as he slowly pushed himself up from laying down.

"You've been out for a long while," Marcel offered once Elijah seemed less disoriented, trying to fill the awkward silence and provide an explanation to abate the other vampire's confusion.

"You had us worried," Freya agreed as she and Rebekah helped their brother to sit up.

Elijah just nodded, seeming lost and not wanting to meet their eyes. His gaze looked sad and far away, staring blankly at the sheets, looking at something that only he could see. Unsure of what to do, Kol gave his brother a reassuring smile before putting a hand on Freya's shoulders and giving a meaningful look to Klaus, "We just wanted to make sure you were alright, we'll leave you to get settled," he said, leading his older sister away as the rest of the family followed behind, all saying quiet goodbyes on their way out, wanting to give Elijah all the time and space he needed.

Only Rebekah stayed behind, seeming unable to bring herself to walk away, so she stayed perched tensely on the edge of the bed, still holding his hand tightly in hers. "Elijah-" she started but was forced to stop as her tears started anew and she furiously swept them from her face.

His arms pulled her close and wrapped around her, his hands were shaky as they wiped the moisture from her cheeks and tucked hair behind her ears, but his smile was sure and steady. Her chin settled on his shoulder, her arms clutching him to her with all the strength of her relief at seeing him awake again. Neither of them spoke, they didn't need words, they never had, Elijah knew, he always knew. He could read all of them like a book, knew exactly what was on their mind before they even said a thing, it was one of the biggest reasons why he was always weighed down by burdens that were never his. Elijah carried every weight, even if they never shared it with him, his heart felt every woe, even if it had never been spoken. He struggled through all the hardships, he fought every battle, he winced at all the wounds, and bore every scar. Often, it pained Rebekah, but in times like these, it was comforting to know that he understood, even if she hadn't explained it.

"I'm sorry," she finally managed to whisper, "I didn't know...about Mikael."

He pulled back to look at her, warm brown meeting watery blue, both hands cupping her face as he rested his forehead against hers and eyes that had been tired for centuries slipped shut. "It's okay," he repeated over and over as her crying faded to a silent ache in her chest, "It's okay."

But his reassurance did not lessen her pain, because of course it was okay, with Elijah, it was always okay. No matter what it was his family had done or said, it was always okay, always alright, always perfectly fine. It was comforting in equal parts as it was terrifying to know just how unconditional his love was, just how steady, irrevocable, and unwavering. There was no depth he would not follow them down into to pull them back out again, no request that he would deny, no sin that he wouldn't forgive, no end to the faith that he still had in them even when they proved him wrong and let him down time and time again.

It was a dangerous thing, for one's heart to know no limits, but Elijah knew that danger well and he welcomed it with open arms over and over. He would always be ready to give up his eternity for any one of them, always had been, and Rebekah knew that he always would be. That had been his unspoken part of their vow, family above all, always and forever. He hadn't sworn it to gods, hadn't promised it to the stars, he had promised it to them, all of them, each in turn. Finn and Freya, Klaus and Kol, her and Henrik, Marcel and Davina, Hayley and Hope. He upheld it every day, and would, until the end of their forever, and then for forever after that.

*A/N* Okay, that's that, definitely not as long as I wanted it to be, but I would rather you guys have this than nothing. I will be making some pretty major edits in terms of formatting to this story on ao3, so get ready for the notification emails because I am 100% going to crash your computer. For this story, I was kind for planning to do a fluffy chapter similar to this with each of Elijah's family members and then kind of a time skip to a year in the future so that we can see how it all went to end it all off. We are so close, guys, I'm super excited, thank you so much for hanging on during this total roller coaster of a book, your patience is greatly appreciated. I promise that the future chapters will be much better than this one, hopefully my writer's block will be better after I take a break during my vacation and then when I get back we can start with a fresher brain lmao. Let me know if you have any requests for the fluff pairing in the next chapter, I was thinking Klaus, but I'm also really excited for Finn because him and Elijah need some serious work, Hayley would be really fun too though because she is fully ready to put Mikael through a paper shredder, idk, let me know. Anyways, that's it, bye, see you in a few weeks!

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