A quietness takes over, and in the quietness Elena lifts herself up, using her thumbs to gently wipe away the tears that slip down his face. Never mind that her own cheeks are wet. She pays no mind to them as she lovingly catches the wetness of his own cheeks in her palms. She shakes her head and leans in to press her forehead against his neck, her arms sliding further around him. She swallows back a sound. "I know why you did," she whispers softly.

Without his telling her, Elena knows why.

She is failing to understand her own ability to walk away from him. To let him walk away from her, but that's just -- it's like he said. It was the sad reality of it, regardless of whether it makes sense to her or not. "As impossible as it would've been, I know why. I couldn't leave Jeremy. You couldn't leave your brothers. I get it, Ethan," she says, even as the thickness in her voice threatens to stifle it altogether, wobbly with the strength of the grief at something she never really lost.

So why does it feel like she did? Like they both did?