A/N: I don't own Vampire Diaries or any of the canon characters, but I wouldn't mind a happy ending with Damon...

Ok guys, I lied. This turned into longer than one chapter, so there will be one more after this one. Enjoy!

"We made it. We really did." He murmured into my hair. We sat like that for a long time, not speaking, just holding each other. I saw Jeremy and Bonnie step back, watching us, looking pretty emotional themselves. Turning my head, I watched Isobel approach Alaric cautiously, and saw him pull her into his embrace. While I felt a little bit of a pang for Jenna's loss, at seeing his face as he held his wife, my own mother, I couldn't help but be happy for them.

Belatedly it occurred to me that Katherine might very well not have survived the ordeal. Lifting my head, I turned in the other direction, only then noticing Stefan bent over her still form. The wooden rod had been removed from her shoulder, but I couldn't tell if she was alive or not until the barest of sounds issued from her lips, too weak for me to understand.

"Ssssh don't talk now, drink." Stefan replied, offering her his wrist. I closed my eyes again at seeing her sink her teeth into his vein, and the look of rapture that covered both of their faces. It was too private a moment to spy on.

"Will she be alright?" I asked softly, turning my face back to Damon's chest.

"If anyone could survive that it's Katherine, she's older than the rest of us put together." He surmised, and I had to agree, she was probably the best person suited for the sacrifice, both because of that and because she'd been the one the curse had originated with.

Only Lexi stood alone, and my heart went out to her as she watched Stefan and Katherine together. She met my eyes only once, giving me a lopsided smile as she wiped the tears rolling down her cheeks with the back of her hand.

"Let's go inside." Damon said softly, placing a kiss on top of my head. With one swift movement, he scooped me up into his arms, carrying me easily to the house. There was more that needed saying, and payment that still needed to be made to the Gypsy for helping us, but for the moment I let him sweep me up to his bedroom to show me just how recovered he was feeling.


It was late the next morning when I woke up. Damon was sacked out asleep and didn't budge when I nudged him, but for once I didn't have to worry if he was at death's door. He was just worn out from being up for most of the night proving to me just how fit he was feeling.

Padding downstairs in my bare feet, I went straight for the basement to retrieve a little A negative refreshment, heading for the microwave to heat it up a bit when I ran into Stefan, emerging from the kitchen with a mug of the same in his hand. "Wow, I didn't even have to ask." I teased, knowing the blood wasn't for me.

"I didn't. Actually it's for Katherine." His eyes rose in the direction of his bedroom.
"She's still in pretty bad shape even after having some of my blood and Lexi's."

So Lexi had let Katherine feed off of her. Interesting. "I can imagine, it's a pretty traumatic thing what you did last night. But at least she's still alive, right?" Moving past him, I pulled down my own mug, filling it from the bag.

Instead of continuing up to Katherine's side, Stefan lingered, hovering by the kitchen door. "Yeah, she's still alive." He repeated softly. "We stayed up all night, talking when she felt up to it. It's… still a lot to wrap my head around, this idea that she's been out there thinking about me all this time."

"Did any of it all come back? You know, any of those feelings you used to have for her?" I prompted him gently.

"I don't know. It was such a long time ago… my memories of the time we spent together are so muddled. I don't know what was real and what was compulsion." He shook his head miserably. "But to think of everything she sacrificed for me… What do I say to that? Um, thanks but no thanks?"

"What are you looking for in a girl, Stefan?" I asked, hopping up to sit on the kitchen counter.

His lips curved into that familiar smile. "The girl of my dreams is kind, smart, brave, generous, sometimes a little rash, beautiful…" He looked up into my eyes and I knew he wasn't talking about generalities.

"Stefan…"

"No, I know. I can see the way you two look at each other, I finally get it." There was acceptance in his voice now, mingled with disappointment.

"I'm sorry things didn't work out between us, but I think if you search your heart, you just might find someone else in there that fits the bill."

"What, Katherine?"

"No, someone a little closer to home." I waited for him to catch up with me, but he just stared back at me blankly. "Lexi?" I prompted, and he continued to stare at me without uttering a single word. "I'm just saying. You guys are already great together."

"Yeah, but she's my friend."

"That's not the worst way to start out you know." I pointed out.

"But what about Katherine?"

The microwave beeped, and I retrieved my mug, pausing as I passed him in the doorway. "If you truly don't love her back, the least you can do is set her free."


"Hey gorgeous, why didn't you wake me?" Damon yawned, coming down the tail end of the stairs in a pair of jeans, his shirt unbuttoned, leaving him looking tousled and sexier than he had any right to be.

"Hey sleepyhead." I presented my lips for the requisite kiss. "I tried to wake you up, but you were dead to the world. Want a little snack?" I offered him the mug.

Damon wrinkled his nose at it, "No thanks, we should go out hunting later, just the two of us." He waggled his brows at me.

"I won't say no to that." It felt like ages since we'd been able to share those simple pleasures, and I couldn't wait to start the rest of our lives together.

"Before the two of you get too far in your plans to murder and plunder, do you mind if we conclude our business together?" Mirella appeared, her bag in hand.

"We weren't planning on actually killing anyone you know." I replied quickly, not wanting her to get the wrong idea about us.

"Yet…" Damon muttered, his eyes wary, and I elbowed him discreetly before he wrapped his arms around me protectively.

"We never did discuss the price for your help with the spell last night." Probably something we should have nailed down ahead of time, but it was too late to worry about it now.

"Oh relax, I'm not looking for your first born or anything." Mirella rolled her eyes at Damon. "But this should cover it." She handed over a folded sheet of paper.

Damon opened the scrap of paper and his eyes bulged. "Are you high? You've gotta be kidding me, there's no way I'm paying you this much."

"How much is your life worth to you? I could always put the curse back on…" Mirella's eyes glittered dangerously.

"Not if I kill you first…" Things were deteriorating rapidly and I grabbed hold of Damon's arms to keep him from doing something foolish.

"I'll pay it." Isobel interrupted from the entryway. We all looked up at her with varying degrees of reaction.

"Works for me, you have the account number." Mirella smiled, shouldering her bag.

"What just like that? You're not even going to haggle?" Damon looked appalled at the notion.

"Just like that. I'll have it to you by Monday, will that suffice?" Isobel nodded at Mirella in passing.

"Yeah, that'll do. Well, it was nice meeting you all. Don't take this the wrong way, but I hope I never see any of you again." With a final smile, Mirella was gone.

"Thank you." I had to say it. If it wasn't for Isobel, we wouldn't have even known how to find a gypsy to lift the curse in the first place. Whatever abandonment issues I had, there was no way not to acknowledge her part in resolving our problems.

Isobel nodded, a faint smile on her lips as she looked back at me. "You don't mind if we have a little girl talk, do you?" She asked Damon.

"Aw, you mean I don't get to stay and braid your hair? Damn…" Damon smirked, pressing a kiss to my temple as he released me. "Don't be too long, we have things to talk about ourselves." He added, heading for the kitchen.

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked as soon as we were alone. She looked nervous, which was a first. Isobel usually looked so composed.

"I wanted… needed you to understand why I did some of the things I did." She began but I cut her off.

"No I get it. I do, really. We all made hard choices to keep the curse from affecting the people we love."

"No, I'm talking about before that, before I knew about curses, or vampires or anything supernatural. I'm talking about when I gave you to the Gilberts to raise."

"Oh, that." I hadn't had much time to dwell on that with everything else going on. I'd had a good life with the Gilberts, and had never suffered from abandonment issues. "It's okay Isobel."

"No, it's not okay. I don't want you to think that it's something I did lightly. Part of me wanted to keep you in the worst way. It was made clear to me that if I wanted to stay in the family I had to put you up for adoption. You have to understand, times were different back then. It wasn't like a girl of sixteen could make enough to support herself and…" She swallowed; her eyes shiny with unshed tears.

"So I let them talk me into giving you up. Your parents seemed like such good, solid people and I thought I could still watch you grow up, you know? Maybe I could be like your favorite aunt and still share a part of your life." She sniffed. "But my parents shipped me off to live with my grandmother who treated me like the devil's own whore for getting pregnant out of wedlock and I never got to see you except for the odd picture your father sent me. By the time I got my shit together and built a life with Alaric and even thought about contacting you … well then I found out about the curse and there was no way I could expose you to that kind of danger. But I never stopped thinking about you. Never." She reached out to touch my hair, so like her own. "And here you are, all grown up."

It was hard not to cry and I blinked rapidly to keep the tears at bay. There were a lot of things I could say to her. Questioning why she'd never at least tried to see me or told me that she existed after my parents died, but in the end, hadn't we all endured enough pain? Instead I just hugged her. She hugged me back, holding me tight as we cried into each other's hair.

"Everything okay in here?" Damon poked his head in, concern etched on his features.

"Yeah, we're good." I nodded, pulling back to swipe at my eyes with a smile.

"Better than good." Isobel smiled back.

"There's just one thing I need to know." It had been worrying at the back of my mind. "Who was my father?"

"You don't know?" She gasped in astonishment.

"How could I?"

"Oh… sorry. I just thought for sure he would have told you after the funeral." I stared at her blankly until she recovered from her surprise. "It's John. John Gilbert."

"John, as in my uncle John?" I sank down onto the nearest available chair, my legs feeling rubbery. "Uncle John?" I repeated in shock. My relationship with him had never been great. In fact, he was kind of a tool.

"Yes, your uncle John."

"So much for your taste in guys." Damon muttered, moving quickly to my side. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just a little… overwhelmed here for a minute." I clutched hold of his hand, drawing comfort from the simple touch.

"Okay, I think that's enough family reunion time. Isobel, it's been a pleasure as always." Damon said dismissively.

"No, it's okay, I'm fine." I spoke up.

"Actually I should probably get going." Isobel smiled just for me, ignoring Damon for the moment.

"Are you leaving so soon?" There were a ton of questions I still had for her, bits of my life and hers… I wanted to get to know her.

"Yeah, but I'm not going far. I'm meeting Alaric for coffee."

"So you and he are…"

"Technically we're still married." Her smile grew wider.

"Actually technically you're dead, so he's a widower." Damon drawled.

"Damon, always a pleasure." Isobel smirked back at him. "Maybe I could call you next week and we could talk more?" She looked to me, hopeful.

"I'd like that." I smiled in return.

"Now… we have a few things of our own to discuss." Damon turned my face towards his, brushing his lips against mine.


I'd love to tell you that Damon and I lived happily ever after. That nothing ever went wrong again. That we settled into a perfect life together, sharing the house with Stefan and Lexi. That Isobel and Alaric remarried and adopted three children. That Jeremy went to college, majored in business management and set up his own chain of dry cleaning stores. That Bonnie fell for my brother of all people, and they moved in together. That Caroline married Matt and they had seven chubby little blonde children. That Jenna married her high school sweetheart, and started her own family. That 'Aunt Katherine' visited once a year and spoiled all the children rotten while we drank eggnog around the Christmas tree. It would be a happy ending to the tale, wouldn't it?

Yeah, none of that happened.

A/N: Okay don't freak out! The real final chapter will be coming soon and you know I won't leave you guys just hanging, but I couldn't resist one final cliffhanger!

I wanted to give a shout out to a great VD fic I've been following called "The Bounty" by Rambles12. It's an AU Delena fic set back in the 1800's with Damon as a bounty hunter sent after Elena's father who's gone missing. Stefan is formally courting Elena whose family has fallen on hard times with her father gone. The writing is just beautiful and the plot promises plenty of sparks between Damon and Elena as they have to work together to find her father for different purposes. No vampires, but the characterizations are great, and I'm looking forward to see where it's headed. Just thought I'd mention it since people seemed to be interested in some original plots with our beloved characters.

I've no idea what Vampire Diaries fic I'll be writing next. So more than likely I'll just take a shower and see what inspiration strikes (yes, that is where I get my best ideas and where I go when all of my plot bunnies have hopped away) and just go with what captures me at the moment. Seeing as how I've just started writing my latest book (hopefully to be completed by month's end) it'll likely be a week or two before I get started. So just keep an eye out for me in the coming weeks, I'll definitely be back!

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