Originally finished on 19 July, I edited this story in November 2017 to get rid of quite a few all too glaring spelling mistakes and other editing flaws. It had been my first story after a long time away from fanfiction and my first time writing and posting from my phone.

I'm currently entertaining the idea of adding one more chapter to this, but we shall see.

Anyways.

This is my attempt at "fixing" what TVD did wrong in season 8, (in my opinion) namely: allowing Bonnie to lose her love yet again and not giving us a better and more convincing storyline for Elena's return, and a more heartfelt reunion with Damon.

I hope you'll enjoy this.

...

Spoiler alert:

I love Bonenzo. So there'll be a very happy ending for them here, if also a few more struggles on the way.

And Delena: since we didn't get the proposal we all wanted, you can find one here (chapter 22, and a wedding in chapter 26.)

As for Caroline... she'll find happiness, too.

...

It's always somehow, unfailingly, about love.

...

...

...

Bonnie was in the middle of extracting the cure from Elena's blood, talking with Enzo, when the sudden lack of a reply, a sudden heavy silence reached her and she immediately knew something was off. She raised her head, frowning.

Yet she still wasn't prepared for what was unfolding in front of her eyes.

Enzo... That look on his face, a mixture of pained agony and sheer surprise. And behind him: Stefan, who had ripped her love's heart straight out of his chest. Who had ripped her heart out.

The next few seconds passed in a blur of fog and clarity, until she found herself by Enzo's side. No no no no no, she thought as she wrapped her arms around him. Her face scrunched up with agony at seeing him like that, lifeless, yet beautiful under the gray veins of death. This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not when they both had finally found each other, had found happiness. No.

She had been robbed of even the mercy of a few parting words, one last "I love you."

A wail started building up inside of her, so primal and raw that she couldn't control it anymore. Her pain was so immense, too immense to be contained, and it found its way out in one giant wave, a powerful burst of magic with unknown proportions, as if she was a bomb, detonating in a blast that obliterated the world around it and left the bomb broken and in pieces.

...

Stefan woke up from blackness slowly. As he looked around him and memory came back, he scrambled to his feet, in shock.

Oh god, no. He hadn't just killed Enzo. Please no. It couldn't be true.

He felt himself crumple inwardly and he realized that whatever had happened, it had switched his humanity back on.

Then he felt it. Something was different. He felt different. The hellish bond to Cade was severed. How was that even possible? But there was more than that...

Confused and broken, he stumbled forward, where he saw Bonnie draped over Enzo's still form. His heart ached for her. What had he done? He was ready to fall on his knees, to give up there and then. But then...

...

Bonnie barely noticed much of anything, definitely not the Salvatore who had gotten up behind her back and now stood watching her with pain and remorse.

She had buried her head against Enzo's chest. Eyes squeezed shut, she was hugging him close to her, forestalling the inevitable. She was not ready to let him go. She was just not ready yet. (She would never be...)

How was she supposed to go on? She had lost so much. She had fought so often. She had always been there for everyone, and done everything to save them. Now she had done - or rather, thought - one half selfish thing, sharing a human life with her love, and this is how fate paid her back?

By killing the man she loved and robbing her of everything? That is what she got?

Anger started mixing in with grief, when suddenly a hand touched her cheek softly, smoothing away a strand of rogue hair. A thumb gently wiped away the trace her tears had left. She startled and opened her eyes to see... Enzo looking up at her, worry marring his features.

She forced herself to look away, swallowing hard as she did. She knew it had to be some happy dream world or a different sphere where Enzo was still with her. Maybe she had lost it completely now. Maybe his death had been the last straw, the one thing she couldn't come back from. It had broken her beyond repair.

She almost didn't mind. She wanted him here! Now. She needed him. If she couldn't be happy in the real world, maybe she could just stay in this beautiful place her mind had created-

"Don't cry, love," she heard him say and it felt so real that she looked up to his face again, sighing, half expecting…

...

With a start she sat up straight. "Enzo?!" she gasped, the word getting choked at the end. This couldn't be real, she knew it, and yet... This wasn't some sort of other dimension. It was unlike anything she'd ever experienced; it was not like the Other Side, not like when she had been dead, or in a dream state like before she had become the huntress.

He looked up to her, a little confused maybe, an expression of pain still on his face, but no trace of gray, no trace of death. Enzo was alive.

He was alive and he was here. With Bonnie.

As he slowly propped himself up on his arms, she hugged him so fiercely he almost fell back over, and she heard him give a soft chuckle.

"Easy now, love," he soothed, but the way he wrapped his arms around her, spoke a different tune, mirroring her own fierce desperation.

She was clawing her fingers into his back, kissing him gently, then ever more passionately. "Enzo," she breathed, "I thought I'd lost you."

Her face was a pained frown; then a small smile slowly replaced that expression and more tears welled in her eyes. This couldn't be real.

But it was.

"I'm sorry, love. I didn't mean to make you cry," Enzo rasped. He moved an arm to cup her face in his hand and saw her smile widen.

"Always the perfect gentlemen. Even after just coming back from the dead, you have an apology for me." She smiled wistfully. They both knew it hadn't always been like that. They had had their fair share of not so friendly encounters in the past, after all. Then she sobered again quickly. "You didn't do anything, Enzo," she informed him, anger in her voice, "Stefan did. But you came back to me! You came back."

For a glorious blissful moment, there was just the two of them, bathing in each other's love, kissing and clinging to each other like their lives depended on it.

...

Until they were interrupted by a shaky voice calling, "Bonnie?"

At almost the exact same moment as Stefan, Bonnie gasped out a name.

"Elena!"

To say they all were shocked to see each other was an understatement.

Stefan was quickest to recover, and he rushed over to a slightly forlorn looking Elena, hugging her tightly. But he knew to let go before Bonnie could get there. He knew to stay away from her for a while longer, after what he had just done. She wouldn't want him here, or anywhere. He was sure of that.

Only then did it dawn on him what he had just seen. Enzo was alive? He frowned over to the other man, completely in shock. How was that possible? He had just killed him, there was no denying that. He looked down onto his hand, Enzo's blood still staining it red. When he looked back up, the other man was back on his feet, Bonnie by his side.

"Enzo?" Stefan whispered, disbelievingly, "But... I killed you! - Bonnie? What the hell is going on here?"

Elena gently touched his arm then, giving him a sympathetic look, then she walked over to her best friend who had started running toward her.

"Elena!" Bonnie cried, finally embracing her friend again, "I was so sure I'd never see you alive again! I…" Her voice wavered.

"So did I," Elena said as Bonnie stepped away to assess her, never letting go of her arm. Briefly, Bonnie looked over her shoulder to the doorway, making sure that Enzo hadn't somehow vanished.

She didn't trust whatever was going on. She had no idea just what that even was, but she knew she didn't want to lose these people again.

"How?" She wondered aloud, "I don't understand…"

...

But this was only the first sign that something big had happened, something uncontrollable, something to unravel her whole life. Something to unravel all of their lives.