There sat Cat Valentine in the front row of her best friend Elena's funeral next to her sat Elena's 6 year old daughter, Isabella and next to Isabella sat Isabella's half sister and Cat's daughter Arielle and to Cat's right her boyfriend Daniel, behind her were her parents and Isabella and Arielle's father Beck Oliver who gave her a sad smile although he wasn't in love with Elena he still cared for her. Beck's sister and her boyfriend and their daughter Gracie sat next to Daniel and then Elena's Mother, Father and sister and other family sat in the front of the aisle over.

Cat looked over to see what faces she knew and in the middle of her side she saw Stefan with Cade, Elena's 3 year old son, and close by she saw Rebekah and Caroline, Beck's other two sisters, Cat leaned forwards and said to Kim

"I see Rebekah and Caroline came" Cat said to Kim

Kim turned around to see her sisters "Did Caroline not bring Hope?" Cat asked

"No I guess not but Hope didn't really know Elena very well, all she knew was that Elena was Izzy's mother"

"Oh okay"

"Aunty Cat can I have a hug?" Isabella asked she was almost in tears

When Cat and Daniel who was with Cat at the time had to try to expand that mom isn't going to come home to Isabella it was one of the hardest moments their lives.

"Aunty Cat!" Isabella said as she jumped up and down happily, Beck had just dropped her at home to find Cat there with Daniel and no Elena, But Cat said she would tell him everything later so he left glaring at Daniel, he still didn't like Daniel very much

"What are you doing here Aunty Cat? Where's Mom?" Izzy asked as she stopped bouncing

"uhhh.. well umm.."

"Sweetie me and Aunty Cat have to tell you something" Daniel said speaking up

"okay..." Izzy said following Cat and Daniel into the living room

"okay sweetie something happened with mommy"

"What?"

"well you see last night she was driving home from the supermarket and..."

"And what? Aunty Cat you're scaring me! What happened?!" Isabella said standing up

"while she was driving another car..." Cat said tearing up

"another car hit her car and she.. she didn't make.. make it" Daniel said he was very sad about all this too because him and Elena had become very good friends in the last year of him dating Cat

"What! What do you mean!"

"she's gone sweetie..." Cat said before some new tears fell

And with that Isabella burst into tears and didn't stop for a long time to she cried herself to sleep

"Daniel what's going to happen Elena's parents are like never around same with her sister?"

"Don't worry right now everything will work out" Daniel said rubbing her back

"We are all gathered here today to celebrate the life of Elena Gilbert although it was short it was well lived as she had two beautiful children, a daughter Isabella Taylor Gilbert and son Cade Blake Salvatore, Elena was...

Cat zoned out she was sad and already knew everything about Elena, soon the speaker asked if anyone wanted to read anything for Elena so Cat got up and walked up taking a deep breath

Cat started to speak "Elena the day I met you I knew we were gonna be best friends and then we found out our daughters had the same father which was crazy as I lived in Florida before and you lived in LA but it happened and it brought us even closer, I was there for you when your boyfriend broke up with you, when your Ex was driving you nuts and the day I was called at 9:15pm to be told you had been killed in a car crash, I was a wreak and I still am but I am being strong for your beautiful daughter who I promise to take perfect care of and raise her the way you would and to the day we met again I hope you will be proud" Cat finished wiping tears from her eyes

Cat sat back down and Daniel hugged her and so did Isabella and Arielle came and sat in her lap to give her mom a hug even though that was kinda hard due to her 5 month baby bump, that's right 5 months pregnant

[...]

After the Funeral everyone went to the graveyard to say one last goodbye to Elena and then Cat's parents welcomed everyone back to their house to share stories of Elena

"Hey Cat" Caroline said walking up to her, Cat was standing there with Daniel who had Arielle in his arms and Isabella was standing next to her, Cat finished talking to one of Elena's old friends and turned to Caroline and Rebekah

"Hi" Cat said with a sad smile

"How are you holding up?" Caroline asked

"Alright not great but I have to be strong for her" Cat said pointing to Isabella

"Yes it must be hard" Rebekah said looking down at her niece

Cat nodded then leaned down to Isabella's level "Why don't you and Arielle go find Cade I think he is up on the deck with Stefan"

"okay" Isabella replied and waited for Daniel to put Arielle down before running off

"What's going to happen with Isabella?" Rebekah asked

"Well I talked to Elena's lawyer yesterday and well she left Isabella to me but only if I want her"

"Really wow!" Caroline said

"Yea I know"

"You'd think she'd leave her to our brother" Rebekah said

"I thought that too but her lawyer said Beck gave up his child right and even if Izzy is his child, Elena or the legal guardian has to write her over to him"

"Well I'm not so sure you should do that" Caroline said

"Why not I mean I'm not going to anyway but why?" Cat asked

"Has Beck even come to see Izzy since the accident?" Caroline asked though she basically already knew the answer

"Umm.. no"

"Well he's been drinking and being an ass because he think's he going to get Isabella and he doesn't want her full time" Caroline told her

"Okay well I'm not going to hand her over then at all then" Cat stated

"Good" Rebekah said

"I'll stick to what I said in my speak" Cat said

"Good it is better for Isabella to be with you" Caroline smiled and then hugged Cat

[...]

"So how have you been Isabella?" Stefan asked

"okay, not that great" Isabella said as she cuddled her brother

"and what about you Arielle?"

"Good, sad about Aunty Elena though"

"Stefan will I still get to see Cade?"

"Of course sweetie just ask I'm guessing Aunty Cat to call and I'll bring him round anytime or you can come over"

"Okay" Isabella smiled but it quickly faded, Isabella thought smiling was bad at the moment like she shouldn't because then people would think she wasn't sad about her mom

"it's okay to smile Isabella" Stefan said

"No it's not"

"Yes it is, I know she's gone and you're very sad about it but it's okay to smile to remember things about her or if you're happy about something, your mom wouldn't want you to be sad she would want you to be happy"

"But then people think I'm bad for not being sad"

"Isabella everybody knows how sad you are but it's okay to smile" Stefan said, Isabella thought about it for a second she was still worried but then she looked up and smiled her beautiful smile

"There's that beautiful smile everybody loves" Stefan smiled "and see nobody minds"

Isabella looked and saw that nobody was mad at her but even some of them were smiling

"How come other people are smiling?"

"Maybe catching up with each other or sharing memories" Stefan said

"oh.."

"Mommy!" Arielle said she didn't really care what Izzy and Stefan were talking about so she had been playing with Cade till she saw her mom

"Hey sweetie having fun, Hi Stefan" Cat smiled

"Hi Cat looking pregnant" he said with a smile

She sighed "uhh.. yes, so how have you been"

"Sad I wasn't in love with her but she's Cade's mother or was.."

"Yea it's been hard" Cat said

"Aunty Cat have you seen Daddy anywhere?" Isabella asked with a hopeful smile, she hadn't seen her father since the day he dropped her home and everything went bad

"No sweetie I haven't why don't you and Ari see if you can find him while I go talk to Aunty Kim" Cat said as she saw her other best friend wave to her

"Okay we will go search for him" Isabella said grabbing Arielle's hand and running off

Cat smiled at least Arielle and Isabella love each other it makes things so much more easier well as easy as things can be

"Hey Cat haven't really been able to talk" said Kim

"Yea lots of people keep coming up asking if I'm okay, asking about Izzy or sharing memories"

"yea same with me and remember if you ever need a little break send Izzy to me or both" Kim said smiling

"Kim every time we talk you say that"

"I know cause I want you to know that" Kim said

"I get it and I most likely will send them to you sometimes"

Kim and Cat continued to chat to of course Elena's mother Miranda walked up to her, Miranda had been really mean to her after she found out her daughter left her granddaughter to her best friend and been hoping to threaten Cat into giving her the right to be Isabella's guardian

"Hi Kim, Cat.." Miranda said and Kim gave Cat a look

Cat sighed bored of Miranda "Hi Miranda"

"Thought about it anymore?"

"Yes.."

"and?!"

"No Elena left Izzy to me so I'm keeping her, if Elena wanted you to be Izzy's guardian she would have left Izzy to you"

"Well Elena never really thought straight so it doesn't matter.."

"How Could you say that about your daughter only a week after her death!" Kim said shocked "Elena clearly left Isabella to Cat because she didn't want Isabella to travel around the country like you do" Kim snapped she had never snapped at Miranda before because Miranda was like a second mother to her after all the crap that happened with her family

"I'm Isabella's grandmother she should be with me and her grandfather"

"And leave her brother and sister, her father and her friends?" Kim said waiting for an answer

"She needs to be around people who were closest with Elena!"

"So you agree living with Cat is a good idea" Kim said twisting her words

"No! I was Elena's mother!"

"Cat was Elena's best friend, Beck was her boyfriend same with Stefan, Cade was her son, i'm her Aunt we were all much closer to Elena than you, Grayson and Tori were" Kim said while Cat stood there watching things play out

Miranda looked at Kim she was mad and didn't know what to say

"Cat and staying here is the better choice and you know it" Kim said linking arms with Cat and walking off.