Caroline waited on the front porch, hearing the approach of footsteps inside, and glanced at Stefan beside her. He had his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, and gave her a little half-smile.

Bonnie opened the front door and smiled to see her friends there. "Caroline! Stefan!" She turned her head, and called, "Jer! Look who's come!"

Caroline smiled at Bonnie, who had straightened her hair again, but was wearing it chin-length now. "Hey! I saw your status update and I could barely believe it. I didn't even know you were pregnant."

"I totally failed at updating there for awhile, I was tired and grumpy, and you know how it is," Bonnie started, and shrugged.

Caroline swallowed, and bit her lip, because she didn't know how it was and she never would, but then she found her smile again. "Well, once we saw that the next Gilbert was here, we had to come check it out."

"Sure. Of course." She held the door open.

Caroline froze, awkward, feeling the barrier was still there.

Stefan put up a hand that stopped at the threshold as if there was a pane of glass there. "Bonnie. It's a new house," he explained.

She started. "Oh! Right! Sorry." Then she said deliberately, "Caroline, Stefan, please come in."

"Thank you," Caroline grinned, stepping across now that the way was open. "I thought you were afraid we were gonna do something horrible for a moment there."

"Of course not!" Bonnie declared staunchly, and closed the door behind them. She hugged her friends, one after the other. Then she looked at Caroline and shook her head. "You look exactly the same."

"You... look great!" Caroline exclaimed, and it was true. But it was also true that Bonnie didn't look exactly the same anymore. She looked like a woman not far from thirty who'd just had a baby.

Jeremy came into sight at the other end of the front hall, still the same smile, but a more mature look in his face as well. The small bundle in his arms added to the look, and Caroline let out an embarrassing squeal when she saw the little face.

"Oh! Can I -?" Caroline asked eagerly.

"Sure," Jeremy transferred the baby to her arms. She was so tiny, Caroline could barely feel her weight. She was sleeping, and she had a bit of black fuzz on her head, and the tiniest fingers in fists.

"She's so precious," Caroline breathed in awe and brushed a finger on the downy cheek. "I can't believe it."

"This is Sheila Elena Gilbert," Jeremy introduced.

Caroline saw how Stefan's gaze snapped up to Jeremy's at the name. The two men stared at each other, and Stefan swallowed hard and nodded a little in approval or acceptance.

Inwardly Caroline winced. She'd spent the last few years pulling Stefan out of his dark moods, and hopefully this wouldn't put him back down. "Here, look at her," she said brightly, holding little Sheila up for him to see. "She's so cute, Bonnie, I just want to eat her up." Then she realized what she'd said. "Um, figuratively, I mean, of course!"

Bonnie laughed. "I know, it's okay."

"Plus she'd give you a migraine if you tried it," Jeremy reminded them, but not maliciously. "Come on in, see the house. Can I get you both a drink?"

After the visit, not wanting to intrude too long, Caroline hugged Bonnie again and kissed baby Sheila.

"Don't be a stranger," Bonnie wished her.

"We'll see you soon," Caroline promised, and she meant it. Stefan shook Jeremy's hand, pulling him into a rough hug, and then they left.

Caroline sighed when they got out to the street. "Bonnie's gotten older, I ... I don't like it," she declared, almost pouting. "It's not fair. I'm going to get carded for the rest of... forever, unless I compel the bartender - which happens all the time - and my best friend has a baby."

Stefan glanced at her, pacing beside her. "This is new to me, too," he offered.

She frowned at him, curious. "Really?"

"They know," he explained, glancing back at the house. "Always before I'd have to leave before anyone could start getting suspicious. So we can come back."

"We will," Caroline promised.

Sheila Elena Gilbert was in kindergarten when they managed to get back to Mystic Falls. She also had a little brother, and Caroline felt terribly guilty for not even knowing the pair had another child who was at least three years old.

Instead of going up to the family at the park, Caroline hung back and watched. When Stefan made a move, she held him back with a hand on his arm. "No, let's not bother them," she murmured. "They look happy."

"Caroline -"

She turned to him, embarrassed by the tears in her eyes. "How can I admit that I didn't even know they'd had another baby? I ... forgot. I didn't think about them when we were in Russia. What kind of friend am I?" she demanded angrily.

"Hey," he pulled her into a hug, just as he'd done in the past when the cravings had been too strong or she'd made mistakes. "It's okay." He smoothed her hair with one hand. "We have to live differently, Caroline. That's how we keep going."

She sniffled. "Well, it's stupid! And I'm an awful friend."

His voice was still soothing, but a little bit amused, too. "You'll be a worse friend if you don't say hello."

"Fine." She wiped her face with her hands and looked Stefan in the face. "Do I look okay?"

He rubbed the last tear stain from her cheek. "You look fine. C'mon, let's say hi."

They were both there for Sheila's graduation from high school, to listen to her give the commencement speech.

Bonnie and Jeremy were down in the audience, with Johnny and Jenna, and none of them knew their vampire friends were there.

"They're older," Caroline murmured, when she saw them. "I mean, I knew they would be, it's been long enough, but Jeremy's finally stopped looking like he keeps a painting of himself in the closet to age for him."

Stefan smiled. "He's lost his hair, Caroline."

She waved a hand airily. "There's no need to be mean. He could fix that if he wanted. Should we go say hello?" she asked, more doubtfully. What would Bonnie think now? She was watching her daughter graduate, and her old friend looked like she could still be walking across that stage herself.

"No," Stefan said after a moment. "We're their past, but they've moved on. I think we should let them be."

They watched the rest of the ceremony, which hadn't changed as much as Caroline had thought it might in the last twenty years. Tradition still lingered in some places.

They applauded with everyone else and then exited early, making their way out beyond the celebrating families and into the familiar woods.

She stopped in the middle of a clearing, feeling the sun on her skin as she turned the ring that Bonnie had made for her long ago. But it didn't feel long ago. It only felt long ago when she looked at her aging friends.

"Stefan, are we standing still?" she asked. "If they've moved on, are we the same?"

He frowned, thinking about it and then shook his head. "No. We change, too. But not as fast, and only as much as we want to."

She heaved a sigh, thinking about children she would never have. Funny how getting old was something her younger self would've hated, and yet now that it wasn't going to happen, she thought she might not mind. But that didn't mean there weren't also compensations.

"I want to go to Egypt," she announced. "Let's go see something older than you."

He rolled his eyes and gave a long-suffering sigh, but he was smiling as they turned away and headed back the way they'd come.