Elena didn't really think Tyler would show up or text her again. His girlfriend, no doubt soon to be ex-girlfriend, was talking about flipping the switch, provoking one of the vampire slayers, and killing herself. Not to mention, he was being blamed blatantly as the one to cause it all in the first place. Like always, Klaus manipulated his words, twisting his sentences and statements to suit his whim. Caroline believed Tyler wasn't coming back because she wasn't worth it. Even in her state of semi-emotionlessness, Elena knew that it wasn't the case. Logic and a decent thought process, a rational one at least, spoke and shouted otherwise. Like most of them, Tyler had lost a lot of people he loved in Mystic Falls, including his entire family or most of them at least. His father died in a car crash on Founder's Day, Damon killed his uncle, and Klaus drowned his mother in the fountain. Not to mention, his entire pack he'd pulled together, was dead, killed entirely by the original hybrid too. He'd been tricked into it by the other werewolf, Hayley, in order to create the next point in the Expression triangle, but none of it mattered to Tyler. He just knew he'd lost everything and everyone in two years time. It was a lot. If anyone should have flipped the switch, with the capability, it should have been him.
Strangely, he never had and even at her prodding and poking, he'd refused to drop to her level of numbness. He said his emotions made him stronger, but Elena knew hers were always going to be the opposite. They made her foolish and weak. She was vulnerable with humanity, subjected to powerful, overwhelming pain, and loss. She'd lost everyone too, including her brother, and he'd been it. The day they buried their aunt and Elena's birth father, Jeremy said he still had her and she hugged him tightly because he was right; they still had each other. As long as she had him, someone still, she could hold on, but Katherine took it all away in a matter of seconds. She hadn't been able to face a life without Jeremy; her vampire characteristics enhancing her compassion, her regret, and remorse. The loss was so much more powerful. When Damon told her to turn it off, it'd been the most free she'd ever been in her entire life. Why would she ever want the chains back on?
Because Jeremy was alive. Not a ghost. Not a figment of her desperate imagination. He was real. He'd come to her apartment here, stood at her doorway, and she'd reached out and touched him. He was warm. He smelled like her brother. Sounded like him. It'd been impossible to hold back the emotions. The burning hot tears brimmed in her eyes, overflowing, and tipping down her pale cheeks in small, sleek rivers. It couldn't be real, but vampires didn't dream. If someone had been playing with her mind, they would have already succeeded. Elena's wall cracked and splintered just a bit under the weight of her brother's gaze; the knowledge he was here and alive before her. His heart beat pounded in her ears. Jeremy. What did she do? How could she react? The weight, the magnitude of everything she'd done in the wake of his death rushed over her like a tidal wave, pushing Elena far underneath its cool waters. Oh God, what had she done?
Tyler's text found her somewhere in her hazy, dark cloud of guilt and pulled her free. She headed there as soon as she could, blurring through the deserted streets, using what she could pick up of his scent, to track him down. The bar was closer than she'd thought to their apartments. It wasn't overly crowded, but the people were pretty thick in the midst of the drinking and hazy cigarette smoke. Her brown eyes scanned the room; his smell was strongest here and then she saw him right at the same time his own eyes found her. For a moment, she was caught by his gaze, prey to predator, but she shook it off, determined to act as if seeing Jeremy hadn't fazed her at all. It was a load of bullshit.
Elena made her way over and took a seat on the open stool beside him. Reaching out, she snagged the glass from his thick fingers and drowned the rest. It burned, scorching her throat and stomach before it finally faded away. Carefully, she put the drink right back, perfectly, in his hand. "Miss me?"