For my purposes, Damon and Elena married in 2018

Oregon 2094

Caroline sat in the silent and dimly lit room, her expression thoughtful as her gaze rested on the lined and weathered face that slept quietly on the pillow before her. In her mind danced memories of the past, moments long gone and the face before her when it had been bright and youthful and beauteous with it. To Caroline, it was no less beautiful now, lined as it was with the story of life. She could still see the essence of what once was, could trace the lines carved by laughter…and those riven by sorrow and loss.

For a moment, her heart panged for the fact that her own countenance would never bear witness to the story of her life, for the loves and losses and joy and pain that had surely traced their canyons and crevices thru her heart, even as they could no longer trace themselves upon her face.

Her gaze shifted to the slowly rising and falling chest, much shallower than it should be, and then, deeper still, the heart whose beat was slower and sluggish and striking terror in her own with each beat that came…and each beat that should but didn't.

Her best friend lay slowly dying before her and the thought filled her with more sorrow than she could have ever imagined.

Had it truly been 76 years since they had danced at Elena and Damon's wedding? Nearly 90 since she, Elena and Bonnie had pledged to be forever friends in 7th grade and swapped those ridiculous friendship bracelets they had made?

She huffed a short laugh even as she wiped the tears that had begun to stream from her eyes.

And now, here Bonnie lay, the last of her friends still upon this earth…only, not for very much longer.

The tears began to fall faster and heavier as that realization began to truly sink in.

She would be alone. Truly alone. All those who had known her, grown with her, stood with her, lived, laughed, loved and grieved, all those whom she in turn had stood with and supported and loved and fought for…would be gone.

And she would still be here.

Her mind cast back over all the beloved faces from her childhood, all those from her youth and after.

Not even her babies still here, lost long ago in The Tragedy. It still hurt to think of it and her mind shied away. She had been imprisoned half a world away, for so long..

She still grieved that she had not been there for so much of their lives, had not even known her babies were gone until several years after. Not even Alaric had been there and while she had been glad Alaric had not lived to lose them, and still was, she also still hurt immeasurably that her babies, for all they were women grown, had not had either of their parents there for them. Even though she and Alaric had grown distant and she had no longer been able to feel toward him the warmth of friendship she once had after so many things that had happened, she knew it would have broken him, after all he had lost before. She could never hate him enough to wish that pain on him. No matter what, he had once been a friend.

Even Hope, the daughter she had adopted, first out of obligation and then out of love, was gone. Her failure to keep her promise to be there for her as well lay as heavy on her heart as her lack for her own children. She pondered for a moment the girl Hope had been and how she had come to love her. As much a warrior as either of her parents, she had fought to the last for what she believed in. Caroline was fiercely proud of the woman Hope had been. Then, carefully, she let herself think of the father who had loved his daughter more than his own life. Only after losing Klaus had Caroline realized how much she had truly cared, her heart breaking a little more with each well thought out and precisely planned legacy he had bequeathed to her, including caring for the daughter he left behind.

She wept softly as she considered each of the loves she had lost. Tyler, her first, grown-up feeling love. She had fought so hard for him, for them, but in the end, it(she?) had not been enough. Their young love had not been able to stand the test of distance and adulthood and their fiery passion and feelings had fizzled until only the friendship remained.

And then, Stefan. She had never expected to feel that way for her friend until suddenly…she did. Losing him the way she did.. it had taken awhile for her to come to terms with the fact that, once again, she had taken a backseat to Elena and her welfare. It had hurt, as much as his death, as much as her wedding being not about her and her happiness and future but about saving the day and Elena once again. Time had helped to mellow her pain and resentment and she had been glad for the day when she realized she could look back on him and their time together and feel once again the soft warmth of the friendship that had been the hallmark of their relationship. Just as she had been glad for the day when she could look at one of her best friends and not feel the shadow of pain and resentment that she had lost her husband so Elena could have hers.

And through it all, twisting in and out and around the ties and paths of her story….Klaus.

In a way, he had managed to keep his word. He had promised to be her last love. When he died, and she began to realize all that she had felt for him and with him, had been love, her heart broke. It had taken her a long, long time to begin to heal from that last, devastating realization and loss.

Her ability to love again, at least romantically, had never recovered.

She laughed again, ruefully this time as she considered the woman before her. Her partner in crime and in swearing off of love. Thru all her many years, Bonnie had had many lovers, but no loves. Not again. Not after Enzo. The saddest thing was that, Caroline wasn't even really sure Bonnie had loved him as fully as she had always thought her friend was capable of. There had always seemed to be something… missing when she had talked about him. That essential spark that rendered fond love into passionate love. A difference she had realized herself only too late.

Thru the years, she and Bonnie had repaired their friendship from the strains it had taken from the curse that was Mystic Falls. Leaving that place after all the bad had been the best thing either of them had done for themselves. Klaus had once told her that the small town would never be enough to satisfy her and he had been correct. Since then she had traveled the world, seen places she had only ever imagined and realized that, once again damnit, Klaus had been right. Neither she nor Bonnie had wanted to fit themselves back into that same small, stifled mold of small town life again after seeing what all the world in its vastness had to offer.

It was only in these last years they had parted ways, Bonnie to settle down as age began to take its toll on her body. Caroline regretted heartily not spending more time with her friend in these last months and years. Of course, Bonnie being Bonnie, she had not let the truth of her condition out until it was too late, not wanting to burden or distress her friend who, for all her own eternal youthfulness, had not considered the impact of the passing time…nor could she stop it.

Now all Caroline could do was sit with her friend and await the inevitable.

It seemed hours had passed before, as slowly as the dawn rising over the pyramids, Bonnie's tired eyes peeled themselves open.

"Caroline?"

Caroline blurred forward from the window she had been near and hovered near Bonnie's line of sight as she gently grasped the papery, aged hand that rested lightly as a butterfly on the covers.

"Hey there. How you doin?" Caroline cringed as soon as the words left her mouth. God, really, Caroline?

Bonnie's faint smile quirked her mouth, "I'm dying. How'er you?"

Caroline choked a laugh at the (very) old movie line quote, so very apropos to the moment nonetheless.

She rolled her eyes as she tried for levity and scoffed, "Been there, done that."

Bonnie's tired eyes slid to hers and she smiled fully, the expression lighting up her weathered and lined countenance until the vampire could almost see the shade of the vibrant woman she had once been.

"I've been there a time or two myself," she snapped witily back.

Caroline laughed for real this time before quickly sobering as she realized this time, there would be no coming back for the witch in the bed.

As if reading her mind (which she so totally could have been, Caroline wouldn't put it past her), Bonnie sighed and spoke.

"This time, there's no coming back but its OK, Care. It's natures way. It's my time and I'm ready to pass over and see everyone there again."

Caroline's tears overflowed at this. There would be no reunions with loved ones for her. Not for a very, very long time if nature, for her, ran its course.

Considering what she was, maybe not even then.

The hand in hers squeezed gently.

"Oh, Care, I didn't mean it like that, honey.".

Caroline tried to hide her distress but it was no use since the eyes studying her had been doing so for nearly a century and knew her every tell. They blinked at her as they wordlessly spoke that they knew what was on her mind.

Caroline tried to hold back her tears and her words, she really did, but she had never developed that ability to control herself when she got emotional.

Her words spilled out like lava from a volcano, "Its just, why? Why did you have to let yourself get old? You could have stopped it, slowed it down but you didn't you just let yourself get old and now you're going to leave me all alone and.."

Bonnie squeezed her hand and brought her other up laboriously to pat it as well.

"Don't you remember what I told you about being on the Other Side? I was still around, still with you even if you couldn't see me."

"Yes but the Other Side is gone! YOU will be GONE!" Caroline wailed.

Bonnie smiled at her friend as Caroline's distressed dramatics made her think of so many past moments shared. She patted the smooth hand in hers again, making small shushing sounds til the blonde gradually calmed to intermittent sniffles.

Bonnie could feel the energy slowly leaving her body. There were things she needed to say before it was too late and she needed the woman with her to be calm and able to understand. Bonnie had a massive respect for Caroline's, oft overlooked and downplayed, intelligence. She still remembered how, even in the massive shitstorm that had been their high school years, she had endured everything, been chairwoman of pretty much every event, never seemed to study and yet still graduated valedictorian. Caroline was far more intelligent than many ever suspected.

When Caroline's tears had subsided to sniffles, she offered a watery and shaky smile to the woman in the bed. "I am so, so sorry I lost it on you, Bon."

Bonnie offered her a small smile. "Its ok, Care. I know this is hard on you. I'm so sorry for that. But I need you to be the strong woman I know you are for me now. I need you to do something for me."

Caroline sobered quickly at the intense vibe in Bonnie's tone and gently squeezed the hand holding hers.

"Anything you need, just name it."

Bonnie sighed in relief. Caro could always be counted on to be there when it counted.

"I need to you listen."

Caroline stared intently at the shrunken woman in the bed. Her form might have withered with age, but the power she could command with her presence and voice had only grown stronger with time. It had been a long time since Caroline had seen, or been subject to it but now the strength that throbbed behind the intensity of her voice caused her to sober with lightning speed.

Caroline's gaze caught in Bonnie's and she trembled slightly at what she saw there. Wordlessly, she squeezed the hand in hers and nodded for her to proceed.

Bonnie seemed to relax back a bit into the mattress at this and grinned ruefully even as she returned the squeeze on her hand as well as she could.

"First of all, I want you to know just how grateful I am that I have had you as my friend all these years. There's no words that can tell you how much you mean to me. Through every good and sucky thing that has happened you have been a constant and your strength and courage and intelligence and love have been my rock so many times I can't even count. I am proud of the woman you have become and I am so, so proud that you chose to let me be your friend and make my life journey alongside you."

Caroline was weeping again, silently, as she tried to focus on Bonnie and her words.

"I've told you before but just a reminder, I made you executor of my will and pretty much everything that I have is yours to dispose of as you wish, with a few exceptions. All of the 'magic juju', as you so creatively call it, I left instructions to go to another witch friend of mine. I left a letter with her name and number so you can contact her when to come. She and her husband will help with the witchy stuff part of my burial. They can also help with any wards around the house that don't dissolve after my death. I think you will really like Alice and Ian. I met them shortly after I settled here and they have been a help to me and they are both powerful witches. In fact, they have promised to help you with a project I had been working on. My grimiores are going to them, since there are no more Bennett witches left to leave them to." Here Bonnie paused, a look of intense sadness crossing her face.

"I've always known deep down I disappointed my ancestors by not having children and continuing our line. Lucy at least made an attempt, it wasn't her fault she ended up being barren. I just…I didn't want them to be without parents, you know, like I was and I just couldn't contemplate having kids with someone I didn't love and it just…it…" Bonnie's voice wavered as tears began to fill her eyes.

Caroline leaned forward, wrapping an arm around her friend as the frail shoulders shook for a moment in silent grief for what never was. Caroline pressed her cheek against Bonnie's forehead, making shshing sounds as their roles reversed and she became the comforter.

As Caroline held her, Bonnie found it easier to continue her painful narrative thru her tears.

"You're not a witch so you couldn't know but getting old and especially, getting close to death it… thins the veil between worlds for us. Even with the Other Side gone, there is still an Afterworld and sometimes.. we can see and even communicate with our ancestors. I got to see my Grams.." Bonnie's voice wavered before breaking again as she sobbed.

Caroline hugged her closer. "Oh but Bonnie, that's so great! I know you've missed her so much," Bonnie started shaking her head.

"I have, I have missed her, and I was so, so glad to see her and talk with her, for a bit at least. But Caroline, I was right, I was right," the old woman wailed as she cried in her best friends arms. Caroline had already scooted onto the bed as Bonnie had cried and talked, the better to hold and comfort her last, best friend.

"Sshh, ssshh, Bonnie, its ok, it'll be alright but you need to calm down sweetie."

Caroline could see her medical readout had appeared on the screen above her bed, along with a flashing red light to indicate her readings were spiking out of range. Just then, a chime sounded and a hologram nurse appeared beside the bed.

"Ms. Bennett, your readouts are indicating you are experiencing low oxygen and increased heart rate. Do you wish for medication to make you more comfortable?"

Bonnie huffed a faint laugh thru her tears and, with a deep breath and a visible effort, calmed herself enough to answer the nurse.

"No thank you, Terra. I will be fine."

"As you know, Ms. Bennett, you have a DNR order in place. I, however, do not wish to enact it yet."

Bonnie laughed louder at that and glanced over to the hologram.

"Trust me, I don't want you to enact it either. I just got a bit emotional talking with my friend but its better now."

The nurse looked between the two and then looked at Bonnie with a small, but kind, smile.

"I understand. Even so, if you should need it, don't hesitate to chime me and ask for medication. Keeping you comfortable is what I am here for."

Bonnie offered her a watery smile. "Thank you dear. I will, I promise."

The hologram nodded and disappeared.

Bonnie sighed and looked over at her friend, who was now lying in the bed beside her.

"Now it's my turn to apologize for losing it on you."

Caroline shook her head against the pillow and squeezed the hand she still held. "You know you don't ever have to apologize to me for anything. You are my friend, Bonnie, and I will always, for as long as you need me, be here for you. I love you."

"I know, Care. I've always known. And I love you too," Bonnie took a deep breath and squeezed back.

"Before I kinda lost it, I told you I had seen my Grams."

"I remember."

"We talked, for a bit. Grams was…Grams," she huffed sadly. "I messed up, Caroline. I messed up so bad. Things…so many things were supposed to be different…"

Caroline frowned, unsure what her friend was trying to say. "Wait, Bon, are you saying your Grams, who hadn't spoken to you in decades gets a chance to speak to you and she blesses you out? What the hell? Are you sure it was your Gram? Not some freaky…I don't know, Silas wannabe or demon or something?"

Bonnie shook her head. "No, Care. Trust me, I know. It was her. Call it a witch thing or whatever but I knew, I know, it was her. And what she told me…" Bonnie's chin wobbled dangerously for a moment before she regained control.

"It was me, Care. It was always me. It was Grams too. We are witches, supposed to be the servants of nature. Bennett witches and I was one of the most powerful in the line since Qetsiyah. I was the lynchpin, the determining factor on so many things, things that should have happened that didn't, things that did happen that never were supposed to. Grams failed by trying to protect me from my heritage instead of instructing me and helping grow my power and then I failed. I failed my ancestors and I failed you and so, so many others." By now, the tears were silently running down the lines and crevasses of Bonnie aged cheeks.

"Bonnie…" Care whispered helplessly, unsure how to aid or address what her friend was saying.

"I've done so many things Care, so many that I shouldn't have. I let anger and resentment and bitterness cloud my judgement so many times, especially in Mystic Falls. I was given so many chances to change the flow of events and every time, every time, I messed it up and sent it in the worst possible direction. So much of the bad that happened there, shouldn't have, if I had just…"

Caroline had sat up during Bonnie's self-chastising speech, her indignation at Bonnie's words eventually overflowing.

"STOP! Bonnie, just…no. Why would you think that? Bad stuff happens. ALL. THE. TIME. It's not always someone's fault!"

Bonnie grabbed her hand, projecting an intensity and authority so great that it stopped Caroline's rant in its tracks.

"It was mine. I was the one, the protector, appointed for that time and place, and because of me, things and events that should have been, were not. Even my own life and destiny was screwed up," her eyes filled with tears once again. "I had a destiny and a love and a purpose so much bigger than myself and because I was blind, I missed it." She sobbed, raising a shaking hand to her mouth as her other shook in Caroline's hand. She swallowed hard, clenching her hand and her eyes as she sought control. Caroline watched, frozen, as her friend seemed to exert some superhuman control over her obvious grief and calmed.

Bonnie opened her eyes and looked at her again.

"It's too late for me to fix it. I'm too old and the magic would kill me if I tried. But you," Bonnie smiled at her best, oldest and most loved friend, "You can Care. The spirits showed me. You are the one who can put things the way they should have been."

Caroline tried to hide her concern as her friend spoke but she began shaking her head at her last words.

"Bonnie, I have no idea what you are talking about. Fix what? Put what where? You can't fix the past, Bon."

"Actually, Caroline, you can."