Disclaimer: Rights belong to their respective owners. A/N: Sorry for the delay. Last chapter, I hope you like it. Thank again. R&R x

Coda

4

Stefan glanced at Damon in the passenger seat of Matt's borrowed van. "How on earth did you convince him?" Caroline asked watching Whitmore Hospital grow larger through the front windscreen. "Sale at the hospital..." Stefan muttered under his breath, glancing at an oblivious Damon, who tapped the side of the van with his hand in tune with the radio. "In what? Blood bags?" she hissed. "Huh? What did you say?" Damon asked. Stefan frowned. "Nothing," Stefan parked the van, and hurried after Caroline, following her into the supplies' cupboard.

Damon watched an erratic Stefan throw blankets and medical equipment into a trolley. "What are you doing, man? Are you having some kind of mental break down?" Stefan ran an unsettled hand through his thick hair, thinking of how he'd broken the news to Caroline hours before. "Look, I get it, you're a control freak, you hate breaking the rules, but sometimes you have to." Caroline gave Stefan an incredulous look. "I don't care about the risks, it's my turn to save you. We just need somebody with no morals..." Stefan gripped the trolley, receiving an encouraging nod from Caroline.

He sighed. "You remember the girl I told you about?" Damon nodded. "The one you were hallucinating, yeah?" Stefan wiped his sweaty hands on his pants. "Well, she's real, and her body is upstairs, and they're going to turn off her life-support if we don't do something!" Damon slammed Stefan into the shelves by the folds of his jacket. "Oh my god!" Caroline cried. Stefan shoved Damon off him. "I'm not losing it, she's real. I can see her!" Stefan pressed, as Caroline lowered her hands from her mouth.

"Prove it, how many fingers do I have behind my back?" Damon hid his fingers behind his back. Stefan rubbed his jaw, getting the answers from Caroline. "Three. Two. One. A rock, scissors, paper..." Damon seemed frazzled but refused to give in, until... "He's flipping me off!" She gasped. "Are you flipping her off?" Stefan demanded as Damon opened his mouth in surprise. "Look, even if she is real, are you really going to break her out of her hospital room?" Stefan nodded, that was his plan. "Why?" his brother asked.

Stefan thought of what Caroline meant to him. He'd promised to do everything he could to protect her, and as Damon asked him, all Stefan's emotions fell into place. "Because I love her!" Caroline stared in surprise. "I do, I love you!" Stefan repeated, hoping it was enough to convince Damon to help them. Seconds later they'd burst through the door. "Save your breath," Damon interrupted before Stefan could thank him. "I'm not doing it for you. Someday, I'm going to need help moving a body, and when that time comes, I don't want to hear a word from you!"

"Oh my god!" Damon said as they entered Caroline's room a five minutes later. "What?" Stefan asked, confused. Damon pointed at Caroline. "That's the woman you stood up that night!" Stefan gave his brother a quizzical look. "I was going to meet Caroline?" Stefan asked, catching her raised eyebrow. Damon nodded. "She didn't make it either because she had an accident!" Damon sat down in the chair beside Caroline's bed, giving Stefan a meaningful look. "How did you know her?" Stefan wondered. "I used to date her sister, Elena, in college," his brother explained.

"Wait, he's 'JJ'!" she gasped, catching Stefan's just as amazed expression. "He's JJ? You kissed Elena on her wedding day?" Stefan asked his brother, who sprang from the chair, disconcerted. "What did you call me? Nobody but Elena called me that!" Stefan pointed at a smug Caroline. "I can't believe he tongued my sister!" Caroline made a 'gross' face. Damon raised his head to look at the empty space in front of him. He was unusually quiet, and seemed to accept what Stefan had been saying all along. "She's really here, isn't she?" Damon breathed. Stefan nodded, pleased when Damon took to pushing Caroline's hospital bed and the monitors towards the exit. Voices outside stopped them in their tracks. "Seriously? It's Liam, and he's fifteen minutes early!" she hissed, pulling her head back into the room.

Damon looked to Stefan for instructions. "Stall him," Caroline hissed. Stefan let himself out, introducing himself to Liam under a fake alias and speaking rather quickly. "My team's downstairs and we have a signed order from Dr Bennett, giving us approval to perform more tests. There has been cases where the patient has woken up after a three month coma." Stefan explained. Liam looked suspicious. "Sure, then you won't mind if I just confirm it?" Stefan's palms sweated when Liam pulled out his phone. "Of course not." There was no time, only minutes before Liam found out.

Caroline gasped when Stefan punched Liam, holding the door open so Damon could push Caroline's body into the hall. They skidded down the corridor, hearing Liam calling security. Elena and Elijah rounded the corner with Bonnie and Dr Bennett, horrified to see their most prized employee about to be kidnapped by a lunatic, Stefan thought. "Look out!" Caroline pointed to the lift, and Damon came charging forward. "I've got him," he yelled, tackling a security guard back inside the lift and disappearing behind its big metal doors.

Caroline cried out. "Stefan?!" He saw her breathing apparatus had disappeared, guards were everywhere, and her friends and family raced towards them. His breathing grew rapid, and heard their panicked shouts. "Stop! What are you doing?" Elena yelled. "Who is that man?" Bonnie turned to her dad. "Step away from the body," Elijah warned, raising his hands. "It's happening!" Caroline's spirit was fading with her body. Stefan looked at the machine monitors and clutched her hand. "Be strong! No, stay with me!"

Scared he would lose her, Stefan bent over and kissed Caroline, head spinning from the chaos around him. Seconds later he felt like he'd been run over by a bus. Pinned beneath five security guards. The lift opened, and Damon was hauled from it by the scruff of his collar, the breathing apparatus in Damon's apologetic hands. Elena stared at Damon, and then back to Stefan and her sister, lying helpless in her hospital bed. "It's ok," Elena moved forward, and the guards looked at Dr Bennett, releasing him on his approval. Stefan caressed Caroline's cheek, praying for a miracle.

"Come back to me," he whispered, squeezing her hand. When the machine began to beep, Elena turned to Elijah, hugging him with a shout of joy. She raced over to Caroline's hospital bed, her hair falling across her face. "I can't believe we almost let you go!" Elena cried, as Caroline blinked beneath the bright lights. "I think I bumped my head?" Caroline apologized, turning her head to see Stefan give her a relieved smile. "It's me, Stefan," he murmured. She gave him a confused look, and slipped her hand from his grip. "I'm sorry, I don't.."

Elena curled her hair behind her ear. "Honey, it's Stefan, don't you remember Stefan?" Caroline shook her head, and Stefan felt like somebody had punched him. His breath caught in his lungs, and he didn't like the look she was giving him, like they were strangers. "The apartment, the rooftop, the garden...?" he whispered, trying to jog her memories. Caroline frowned, and Stefan reached for her hand again. She flinched, giving Elena a panicked look. "Honey, you don't remember him at all?" Elena turned to Elijah who came to stand beside her, equally as confused.

Stefan accepted her decision, backing away, and watched Caroline reunite with Bonnie. Damon wrapped his arm around Stefan's neck. "I'm sorry, man." Stefan blinked back tears, and took a deep breath, knowing he'd made the right decision to let her be. "Bourbon?" he asked, patting Stefan on his chest, and giving Elena one last look over his shoulder, before entering the lift together.


Caroline stood on the pavement, pushing coins into the ticket machine, when she happened to look into a bookshop window, and saw the owner staring back at her. He grinned, giving her a thumbs up. Confused, but not wanting to be impolite, she waved back, and took her ticket. She had a vague feeling she'd been inside the shop before. Elena met her outside her apartment in shorts and a t-shirt, Zoe and Lily were somewhere inside, colouring in, and Elijah was doing the heavy lifting.

Elena pulled her suitcase inside, flinging her cardigan on the back of the red couch. "Did you move something?" she asked, thinking the apartment looked different. "We rented it for a month, but apart from that, everything's where you left it," Elena replied, opening one of the boxes on the coffee table. Caroline returned to the couch, where Elijah and Elena sat, resting before unpacking things. Elijah picked up the newspaper and read the headlines, putting his arm around Elena.

Caroline moved a few books left behind on the coffee table, glancing at the titles. "Previous owner must have been a spiritual kind of person," Elena noted. Caroline agreed, distracted by a coffee stain. She got up from the couch, stopped to view Lily and Zoe's drawings, and found herself accessing the roof. The strange man from the hospital was watering a bird's bath in the middle of a garden full of wisteria and roses. He saw her standing there, and put down the watering can.

"Hi, uh, don't worry, I'm leaving. I just wanted you to have your garden," he murmured. Caroline stared at her surroundings, watching Stefan pour the rest of the water on the rose bushes. "How did you get up here?" she asked, suspicious. "Spare key beneath the fire extinguisher," he smiled, then sighed after noticing the look on her face. "Look the last thing I want to do is to scare you," he said, putting down the watering can and heading towards the exit.

"Wait..." she called out, making his heart skip a beat. "Yeah?" he asked, smiling. "The key, I need the key back," she whispered, holding out her hand. Stefan nodded, pulling it from his jacket pocket. "How do I know you?" Caroline asked, wracking her mind. "From your dreams..." he said, placing the key inside her palm, but purposefully brushing her hand, hoping she'd remember.

"All I can remember doing when I was alive was working, working, working, and trying so hard, but for what?" Caroline spun on the spot, standing in the middle of the apartment, annoyed at herself. Stefan put down his car keys. "You saved lives," he reminded her. "You were a Doctor!" She frowned. "I never thought I wouldn't have time-" Stefan interrupted her. "There's still time," he glanced at his watch, they had a day before her life-support would be switched off.

"You know, I don't want to spend my last night crying or fighting my fate..." she whispered. Stefan walked up to her. "Ok, what do you want to do? You want to fly to Paris and climb the Eiffel tower? You want to dance in Hawaii, I'll make it happen." She seemed grateful for his enthusiasm, looking at her feet. "I want to try something," she began, walking down the hall, with Stefan following her. "Anything, I promised you I'd help you." Stefan watched her lie down on his bed, taking up one side.

He lay beside her. "You make me nervous," he admitted. She made a face. "Me?" He chuckled. "Yeah, but you also make everything easier, I could tell you anything," she smiled. "I want you to know, when you touched my hand before, I felt it, and I think if you could really touch me, I might wake up from all this." He placed his hand against hers, pleased to see the sparkle of gold, as though it were a sign, that they completed each other.

"It wasn't a dream!" Caroline whispered, remembering how they met. An abundance of emotions burst through her chest when Stefan gripped her hand. He grinned, pulling her waist towards him, and kissed her, he'd waited long enough. She returned his fervent kisses, smiling against him and catching her breath. "I love you," she whispered, pressing her head against his. "I love you too," he said, placing tender kisses against her flushed cheeks.


Matt Donovan put the 'closed' sign on the front of his bookshop, picking up a snow globe. "Riotous," he tore his gaze from the entwined figures, standing in a garden overlooking the Mystic Fall's clock tower when the door opened, and a woman walked inside. She smiled, her eyes lit up when she saw him all fancy. "Are you ready?" she asked, smiling when he kissed her in greeting. "Yes, did you get the cranberries, Elena asked for?" Matt asked, switching off the lights and locking the door. "Yes," Rebekah said, showing him a brown paper bag, and fixing his blue tie.

When they arrived to Elena and Elijah's, the most amazing smell wafted from the kitchen. "Mmm gravy," Matt grinned. Seconds later they heard Caroline's laugh, followed by children singing Christmas songs. Elijah welcomed them inside. "Rebekah? I thought you were still in Paris?" Rebekah hugged her brother. "Starting over. Have you met my boyfriend, Matt?" she asked, pulling apart.

Elijah and Matt shook hands, and Elijah put the cranberries on the kitchen counter. "For the stuffing," he winked at Caroline, who peeled pistachios into a glass bowl. "Stefan, more champagne glasses, my sister is crashing our party," he said as Stefan stopped mid in his tracks, remembering Rebekah clearly. Rebekah blinked, giving him an awkward hello. Matt looked straight at Caroline. "Spirit girl," he grinned. "So where's your brother, Stefan?" The door bell rang, and more guests arrived. Zoe and Lily took over shelling pistachios, whilst Caroline helped Stefan set the table.

"What is Rebekah doing here with Matt?" she hissed. "I think they're dating," Stefan replied, as Caroline frowned, unimpressed. Damon and Bonnie arrived at the same time. Caroline greeted both with hugs. Elijah poured the champagne, handing glasses around. "So, have you two been introduced?" he asked, checking with Elena, who curled her hair behind her ear, shaking her head.

Stefan wrapped his arm around Caroline's waist. "Is it me, or did Elena set them up together?" Caroline smiled, glad in a way, and sipped her champagne. Elena grounded the pistachios and cranberries into the stuffing, and put it and the turkey into the oven. Caroline reluctantly pulled herself from Stefan's grip to help Elena in the kitchen. "We're just waiting on Jeremy," Elena said, wiping her hands on the dish cloth. "Thank you for hosting this, sis," Caroline said, appreciative. "Especially after everything I put you through."

Elena sighed. "You're welcome. I'm just happy we got you back." Bonnie joined them, putting down her champagne glass. "Why do I get the feeling you're setting me up with this Damon guy?" Caroline giggled. "Because we are," Elena smirked. Bonnie sighed, rubbing her neck. "Jeremy wanted to bring his new girlfriend with him," Elena made a face. "So I thought, it's only fair you had a date too." Bonnie eyed Damon, as Jeremy and April entered, holding hands. Zoe and Lily screamed, jumping on their favourite uncle.

April clung to Jeremy, giving Caroline half a smile. Bonnie squared her shoulders, and went to join Stefan and Damon's conversation, giving her ex a forced smile. "Well, this will be interesting," Caroline said as Elijah passed by with the appetisers. "Indeed," he smiled. She picked up her champagne glass, smiling when her engagement ring glittered beneath the glow of the halogens. Stefan didn't seem to me engaged in his brother's conversation, and grinned at her from his spot near the table. Caroline beamed back, excited to be starting a new chapter in her life, and hopefully a family of her own.

A/N: I hope you liked the alternate ending, reviews welcome. Squee, not long til season 7 starts! Are you excited? Please point out any typos, if you see them. x