"Look at us." Katherine said despondently. She gestured to the circle she and her friends were sitting in, on her hotel suite floor. "We have a $6000 bottle of wine that none of us can drink. And we're here, at my sisters stupidly extravagant wedding, in Paris, which none of us can go and explore because we must hide from the bride, for the entire weekend. Which, was supposed to be a holiday."

She shrugged her shoulders dejectedly, wrapping her arms around a cushion. "And that barely scratches the surface of the shit storm that is this group." She looked up at Bonnie who was sitting across from her.

"So first, we have Bonnie, ex best friend to the bride, the "wonderful" Elena. You've been in a long-term relationship with Stefan, Elena's ex-boyfriend, for almost a decade, and she's beating you to the alter. Your only invited because Stefan is the grooms brother and she probably wants to rub it in your face. Oh yes and Elena and Stefan's daughter, Ari, whom you love, despite struggling to have children of your own, and have raised for the last decade, while Elena was out slutting it up around the globe, has hit her rebellious teenage years and wants to go live with her birth mother after the honey moon."

Bonnie grimaced. "Jesus that sounds sad when you lay it all out. But you forgot that on top of all that I'm not allowed any alcohol to help survive this ordeal because of all the fertility treatments I'm on."

Katherine nodded. "See? Even worse."

Caroline sighed, crossing her arms over her protruding belly. "God, I hope I'm not next."

Katherine chuckled. "And up next we have Caroline Forbes, who recently, as in less than a pregnancy ago, divorced, from Tyler Lockwood the dick head, and is heavily pregnant with her new fiancé, Klaus's, child. Tyler is of course here, playing the victim to your indiscretions, even though throughout your entire marriage he was cheating on you with various Victoria's Secret model's half his age. And let's not forget that you are technically the only one of us still "friends" with Elena even though she's a total cow and you hate each other. Oh and at least half the guests hate you and think you're a slut, and you can't drink because your cooking up a baby."

Caroline cringed, knowing that unlike Bonnie, she was guilty of making choices that had ended with these consequences. But then she smiled a little because she hated Tyler and Elena and that sucked, but she loved Klaus, he loved her, and he loved her babies, a lot more than Tyler ever had. He didn't even pretend to fight for them during their divorce. "Hey, being pregnant at 40 sucks, but at least I have my girls here, Roxy and Spencer are my everything." She reminded them, her daughters just down the hall, sixteen and nineteen and as gorgeous as anything. She frowned aware that saying that was insensitive to both her friends, but they were both quick to assure her they were happy for her despite their own troubles.

"Ooh despite me and Bonnie's problems, this wedding is hardest for you Katherine." She continued gently, aware of everything her friend had gone through.

"Your ex-husband, Elijah, his young and awful wife Davina, and your sons, Percy and Troy are here at the wedding since Elijah and Elena work together. Your sister is cruel to you, you are hated by most of the guests thanks to your criminal record and because they inappropriately blame you for your girlfriend's death. Even though you spent four years in prison for taking the blame for a crime Rebekah committed and she killed herself while you were there out of guilt. The prison sentence and consequent criminal record lost you custody of your two gorgeous children from your previous marriage. You thought you'd never recover from the guilt and trauma of those experiences, but you've had a few years to heal a little and got your life back on track. Then you came back to town last year and unfortunately met and fell in love with Elena's fiancée, Damon Salvatore."

"And now I'm watching him get married. Oh, and alcohol can't help me because I can't drink it with all the drugs I'm on to avoid the intense depression I've developed as a result to my shitty life."

Katherine clapped sarcastically. "We're a pretty fucking sorry bunch, aren't we?"

"Plus, we're all forty so that sucks too." Bonnie chimed in, making them all laugh a little.

Yes, their lives were shitty, but none of them could be arsed moping about. They had to be able to laugh, to carry on, to stick together, otherwise what was the point in living.

And despite hard times, and difficult lives they all had something to be happy about.

Bonnie loved her job, she was an esteemed Professor of Occult Studies with a well-paid position at a revered college in Virginia. She loved Stefan, he was wheelchair bound since a terrible car crash several years earlier, he had lost a leg and Bonnie had miscarried the only child they'd ever managed to conceive. But they had a happy and healthy relationship and until recently she had cherished Addy, Stefan's daughter with Elena, and loved raising her. She and Stefan had become huge fitness buffs later in life and both were rocking their rock-hard abs and glorious muscle tone all the way to the bank. Sure, things were hard now but she hoped she could weather the storm like she usually did.

Caroline worked from home, she'd been a mother since she was 21, solely caring for her kids and her house. But when they reached the teen years she began writing fashion columns for local publications until Vogue magazine happened to discover her. Now her love of fashion was used in monthly columns for Vogue itself. The happier she became the worse her marriage got. Tyler hated her success, they split up and she filed for divorce. While they were waiting for the divorce proceedings but were living separately and officially broken up, she met Klaus. They fell in love. She got pregnant. It was a surprise, she felt too old, but she was also excited. Klaus was excited, her daughters were too. Sure, they had a few mother/daughter troubles, who didn't, but they loved their mom. They just didn't love her fiancé. Ultimately things were pretty good, until that damn wedding invite had shown up. Oh well, at least she was still sexy as fuck, her body only improving with age, though her blonde curls were now assisted thanks to a few annoying grey hairs.

Now Katherine. She owned a clothing label, she was one of the top designers in America. But that, and the smoking hot body she'd maintained over the years, was all she had going for her. Except for her two wonderful but busy friends and a loyal staff, she was alone. In love with a man she couldn't have and barely saw her sons. They were 20 and 22, she'd had them young, marrying Elijah at just 17 after they found out she was pregnant. They'd divorced officially on her 21st birthday.

She hoped to see Percy and Troy sometime during this painful wedding weekend, she desperately wanted to see them again, it'd been months since they'd last visited. She'd shared custody of them originally, 50/50 with Elijah because he was a caring father if nothing else. She was 30 when she went to prison. They didn't visit her once. When she was released she wasn't allowed to contact them unless they contacted her. For a year they didn't. During that time, she grieved losing them and couldn't stop wondering if they missed her at all. And then they contacted her. Turns out they'd missed her as much as she had missed them, but they were young and scared to see her after such a long time apart.

She had built their relationship back up slowly and surely. Through supervised visits and ridiculous restrictions form Davina she had earned their love again and loved them so much in return. Thought it was in brief spurts, she had been able to spend real quality time with them. Despite this, she still missed all their growing up and everything a mother is supposed to be there for, and it had created a hole in her heart that could never be filled. Now that they were adults they got along well and she looked forward to the few times she could see them. Thanks to her mental health problems Elijah was still allowed to restrict them from her, until they were 25 and he did so, liberally. Not to be cruel but because he thought very little of her and didn't want her influence in his sons lives.

But they seemed to like her and Troy was extremely interested in her clothing label and had contributed amazing idea's already.

"Elena literally told me the only reason I was invited to this goddamn wedding was because I'm the closest person to a celebrity that she knows."

The girls roared with laughter at this revelation. Katherine kinda was a celebrity. Bitch she was a sought-after designer, who'd designed for Rihanna, Madonna, Dutches Kate, Michelle Obama, Meryl Streep, Kendall Jenner, and Cher to name a few. But she never acted like she was, despite having 10 million followers on Instagram, having guest judged runway shows around the world, owned at fashion week, made millions of dollars, and been included in Vogue's top 10 designers of the last decade.

"Okay enough wallowing, let's get some sleep and gather for a brunch with all the kids in the morning yes?" She suggested, getting to her feet, and giving Caroline a hand up. The three of them had a quick group hug and then Bonnie and Caroline returned to their respective rooms.

Katherine clambered into her bed, feeling a little lighter after their heart to heart and feeling braver about-facing Elena in the morning.

Now if only she was brave enough to face Damon.