Author's note: Only one or two more chapters left to go. Whew.
It was a little over an hour's drive to Alaric and Jo's new house and Elena and Stefan spent the time catching up on the last one and a half years with Elena filling Stefan in on all the adventures they had while traveling through Europe. Damon mostly listened, interjecting a comment here and there, but otherwise concentrating on the drive.
He noticed Elena's hand stray to her leg occasionally to rub at the spot where Damon had left the love bite even though it was hidden by the tights and the hem of her dress. The next time she fidgeted, he reached over and covered her hand with his own. She paused briefly mid-sentence as she was telling Stefan about their wreck diving adventure in Iceland, and turned her palm over to lace her fingers with Damon's.
The rest of the drive Elena spent playing absentmindedly with Damon's fingers. A few minutes before they arrived at their destination, Elena noticed the daylight ring she was still wearing. She held up the hand and stared at it for a second. Then she glanced over at Damon. He looked back and forth between her face and her hand before shrugging and turning his attention back to the road. Elena glanced in the rearview mirror but Stefan's attention was elsewhere as he was staring out the side window. With another glance at Damon, she freed her hand from his grip and finally pulled the ring off her finger, stashing it in Damon's glove compartment. She released a breath and felt the last vestige of her vampire life go. Damon reached for her hand again and squeezed her fingers gently.
He brought it to his lips and kissed her knuckles. A minute later they turned into Ric's driveway.
With a few weeks still to go until Christmas, the weather decided to spoil them all by giving them a sunny and perfect Sunday. The sunroom in Jo's and Ric's new home had even gotten so warm at one point, that they grabbed their chairs to sit outside on the patio overlooking the garden.
Everyone not currently nursing two bubbly one-year-olds was pleasantly buzzed and sharing progressively embarrassing stories of their own childhood that then devolved into drunken escapades stories.
Bonnie was in the middle of retelling an anecdote from their time in Venice, when Caroline suddenly shrieked. Everyone jerked, some in alarm, others – with more sensitive hearing – in pain.
"Caroline," Damon complained, "what the actual f—"
He didn't get to finish however as Caroline was excitedly pointing at Elena's hands. "You… You're not wearing your daylight ring." Her eyes grew comically wide. "How can you sit outside in the sun without your daylight ring?"
Elena instinctively covered her right hand that for the last several years had sported her daylight ring. She opened her mouth to reply, but no sound came out. Helpless, she glanced over at Damon.
Everyone had fallen silent, staring at her. Elena took a deep breath and forced a smile on her face. "I'm not a vampire any more, Care." She looked around at her friends. Alaric smiled at her, looking taken aback but proud, and Jo nodded in support. Bonnie looked overjoyed. Everyone seemed, though surprised, genuinely happy for her and Elena felt marginally better.
"Since when?" Caroline demanded to know.
"Since about five hours ago?" Elena replied with a questioning expression in Damon's direction.
He nodded. "Going more on six, I'd say."
"Are you… okay?" Caroline asked.
Elena grinned at her and nodded. "Better than okay."
Caroline let out another squeal and flew into Elena's arms, hugging her tightly.
"Careful, Carebear," Damon cautioned. "Don't accidentally smother my girlfriend. She's breakable now."
When Caroline let up, Bonnie took her place and whispered into Elena's ear, "I'm so happy for you."
"Thank you, Bonnie."
When Bonnie pulled back, Elena added, "I remember everything again. The compulsion was broken as soon as I became human."
Alaric looked like a weight was taken from his shoulders and Elena knew that he felt relieved because he still blamed himself for his role in the whole forgetting Damon debacle. Now he didn't have to feel guilty anymore. Elena was happy for him too.
Eventually, amid all the congratulations, her eyes slipped over to Stefan who had remained eerily quiet during the whole announcement. He looked sad. Elena knew he was happy for her but she also knew that Stefan was acutely aware of what it meant for his brother. It wouldn't be long now until Damon followed and from then on, the days of Stefan having a brother would be counting down until he'd be left all alone.
Elena noticed Stefan quietly slip away into the garden while she was busy answering her friends' many questions. She was about to excuse herself and follow him when she was stopped by Damon. He laid a hand on her shoulder and whispered in her ear, "I got this. You stay here, with your friends, okay?"
She squeezed his hand in reply and watched out of the corner of her eye as Damon walked out into the garden after Stefan.
"So, does that mean you're back for good?" Stefan asked as soon as he heard footsteps behind him. He didn't bother turning around.
"Yep," Damon replied. "Sorry. Everything happened sort of fast."
Stefan didn't reply. There really was not much left to say.
"I was going to talk to you before taking the cure myself," Damon continued into the silence.
"Yeah?" Stefan asked, finally turning around and looking at Damon. "And when will that be?"
"Soon-ish? Not sure. I want to marry her first."
Stefan did a double-take. "You've proposed already?" Damon wasn't sure if it was surprise or genuine shock he was hearing in Stefan's voice.
"No. Not yet. But I'm going to."
Stefan studied Damon for a long time. "Mh-hm," he finally said.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You're not going to take the cure."
Damon scoffed. "Yes, I am."
"You're already making excuses and plans to push it off."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Damon replied.
"You two have been in Prague, Amsterdam, Paris, Venice and a dozen other romantic cities together. You could have proposed in any of those places if you wanted to. If it's really only the wedding that makes you want to wait, you'd already be planning the whole thing. Instead you're making excuses by setting pointless goals."
"Pointless goa—" Damon visibly collected himself in order to not to explode into his brother's face. "Stefan, don't make me hit you."
"Thanks, brother," Stefan said and had the audacity to smile. "Looks like I won't be losing you anytime soon."
"I want to wait until after the wedding because when I vow to love her for all eternity, I want to mean actual eternity and not just the span of a human life," Damon called after him as Stefan was about to walk away.
He halted in his tracks, then turned around and stared at Damon for the longest time. "You actually mean that," Stefan stated with wonder in his voice. "Does Elena know?"
"That I want to marry her or that I want to do it while I'm still a vampire?"
"Both."
"Yes, she knows. You think I'd make a decision like that without talking it over with her first?"
"Honestly?" Stefan said, "I don't know. I haven't seen you two in over a year and I distinctly remember your relationship suffering from a lack of communication in the past. Repeatedly."
"Yeah, well. I learned from my mistakes."
"Damon Salvatore wanting to tie the knot. I think now I've seen everything," Stefan muttered.
Damon huffed out a laugh. "Wait till we make an uncle out of you."
Stefan's mouth dropped open and he was about to reply when a high-pitched scream cut through the air. They both vampire-sped back to the house, arriving just in time to see Kai materialize out of thin air behind Jo, holding a bloody knife.
A second later all hell broke loose. Amid Jo's cries and Alaric's pleading to hold on, Caroline vampire-rushed inside, presumably to take care of the twins who had been put down for a nap, Bonnie and Liv were muttering incantations and directing surges of power at Kai who kept dodging them by turning invisible. The chaos culminated in a massive explosion as a ripple-like wave erupted from Kai's palms, shards of glass and wood from the obliterated sunroom flying about, followed by a deathly and unnatural silence.
Damon flew to where he'd seen Elena last but she wasn't there. He yelled her name over and over and searched frantically through the debris of broken glass, wood, and patio furniture until he spotted a slip of yellow dress. Flinging the heavy metal frame of a table off of her, he turned her limp body over and inspected her for injuries. She was bloody all over from tiny cuts on her face and arms but he didn't see any major wounds. Quickly biting into his own wrist, he pressed it to her mouth. Nothing.
"Stefan!" he yelled in full-on panic mode. "Stefan. She won't drink," he explained when he felt his brother sink down next to him.
"Even if she could, your blood won't heal her, remember?"
"What do I do? Stefan, what do I do?" Damon was quickly losing his mind and with it all ability to think.
"Take her to the hospital. Now!"
Damon was off before Stefan had even finished the sentence.
Author's note: On a scale of one to ten - how much do you hate me now?