Katherine leaves her a note before she makes herself scarce. Klaus would kill me if he ever found out I told you, but I cannot bear to leave him like that for all eternity—I owe him more than that, it reads. Elijah was killed with a dagger by Klaus. I don't know where he is, but I assume somewhere above ground in or around Mystic Falls.
Elena burns the letter.
-x-
She has Damon help her locate him because he is the only one left to help. Both Caroline and Tyler are firmly stuck in the middle of a very Romeo and Juliet like feud between Caroline's mother and Tyler's, Bonnie refuses to help any vampire—especially one who deliberately betrayed them—and Stefan's off the grid. So Damon becomes her only avenue for help, and he does so, protesting all along the way.
They reach a place with large storage lockers for rent twenty three miles out of town, and Elena decides to check it out. One of the lockers reads K666, and Elena knows it's the one.
There's definitely something to be said about subtlety and irony, but Damon doesn't even make the joke.
-x-
The lock is broken easily, and she is pushing the door up and looking around with a flashlight almost immediately. She sees what she is looking for, but does not quite believe her eyes.
"Well," Damon says, regaining his ability to speak first, "I don't know what I was expecting, but this is a bit…anticlimactic."
It's also creepy, but Elena doesn't say so because this is Klaus's work, and creepy is to be expected.
She opens the newest looking coffin and stares at Elijah's body and breathes a sigh of relief. She found him.
She pulls out the dagger and asks Damon to go. He is reluctant to leave her alone with Elijah, but Elena tells him she'll call in two hours.
She paces as she waits, knowing this time how long this will take.
-x-
When the color comes back to his face and his eyes open, Elena is holding out two blood bags which are taken from her grasp within seconds. The first is gone in seconds, but the second is sipped slowly in the almost same fashion as one would sip wine.
"We should really stop meeting like this," Elena says casually, "I'm tired of pulling daggers out of you."
Elijah just glares up at her.
When he is done with the second blood bag, Elena helps him to sit up.
He takes in his surroundings with a look of anger.
"Not quite what you expected when you asked to be reunited with your family; is it?" Elena says, unable to help herself. She hasn't forgotten the reason behind his betrayal of her, and a part of her appreciates the irony in Klaus's betrayal of him. She continues unabashedly, ignoring the glare he's giving her, "I don't know why you're surprised—you did much the same thing to poor Trevor, if you recall."
"It would be in your best interest, Elena Gilbert," Elijah says quietly, exercising the control she knows he has mastered so very well, "to shut up and let me think for a moment."
-x-
Elena watches quietly from atop Elijah's now closed, empty coffin as he pulls out the older coffins of his relatives. She watches as he pulls the daggers out of each one.
"I didn't bring enough blood bags for all of them," she whispers quietly, thinking aloud.
Elijah looks up at her in alarm, and Elena realizes that in his eagerness to get his family back, he forgot there was a human with him. He moves quickly to stand protectively in front of her and they both watch anxiously for the other Originals to come back to life.
When she realizes it's taking longer for them to come back to life than it took for Elijah both times, she says, "Maybe it takes longer when they've been like this longer."
Elijah glances back at her. She puts a hand on his shoulder.
"I should be thanking you, Elena," he whispers after another moment of silence, "for it was ultimately you who helped me free my family."
"Me and Damon," she cannot help but interject.
Elijah nods in acknowledgement and continues, "And I know I owe you an apology for betraying you the night of the sacrifice—Klaus is alive because of me."
It is her turn to nod, tears in her eyes. "He has Stefan," she whispers. "He started feeding him human blood in exchange for the werewolf cure for Damon, and demanded Stefan's services as payment."
Elijah doesn't ask what services; he knows his brother well.
-x-
When Elena calls Damon to assure him she's alive and well, she asks Damon to come back with a van. He doesn't ask questions, just says he's on his way.
Damon arrives with what Elena assumes is a stolen van before any of Elijah's family awakens. He looks around and assesses the situation. "I let you come here with the intention of waking up one Original, Elena," he cries exasperatedly. "I did not give you permission to wake them all."
Neither Elena nor Elijah points out that Elena did, in fact, only wake one Original herself. Instead, Elena says, "Klaus betrayed them all, Damon—they'll help us destroy him and get Stefan back."
No one argues with her on that.
-x-
In the end, after a few more hours of waiting, Damon is driving a van full or newly awakened Originals back to the boarding house with Elena in her own car with Elijah.
They pull up to the boarding house before Damon so they can prepare for their guests with many blood bags readily available upon their arrival.
"By the way," Elena says before unlocking the passenger side door, "You owe me threefold now, I hope you know."
The look of gratitude and adoration he allows to grace his features for a moment tells her that he does, indeed, know how much he owes to her.
"We will get Stefan back, and we will kill Klaus," he says as they walk inside. "After that, I'll only owe you once more."
She smiles teasingly. "Unless you get stabbed by another dagger and I have to rescue you yet again."