Author's note: This is it, everybody. This is the final chapter. Thank you to everybody who has been reading, a very special thank you to each of you who took the time to comment. I'm sorry if some of you hoped for a different ending - I only ever meant to rewrite season 6 and leave the rest of the storyline untouched.
Damon paced up and down the hallway of Elena's hospital room, equal parts worried, angry and helpless. The helplessness threatened to overwhelm him. He could and did have specific ideas on how to channel the former two emotions, most of them involving Kai as well as very creative ways for him to die, but not being able to do anything to help Elena was almost more than he could take.
A doctor Damon had compelled earlier to figure out what was wrong with Elena came up to talk to him. But all he had to say was basically the same thing all the other doctors and nurses before him had already told Damon: There was physically nothing wrong with Elena.
Damon sent him away. If he were to believe them and this was not a medical problem, then he needed a witch. He pulled out his phone and almost dropped it as it rang in that very same moment.
"Ah," Damon breathed, answering it, "just the person I needed to talk to."
"Damon?" a slightly panicked Bonnie on the other end of the line asked. "How's Elena?"
Damon quickly summed up what four doctors and three nurses had told him.
she added, "he killed Jo. And Liv – she's dead too. Something's wrong with Alaric; he keeps muttering something and he won't let go of Jo's body. I don't know where Tyler is. I don't see Caroline or the kids either. What if Kai has them?"
Damon forced himself to breathe in and out. He should have killed that magic-sucking bastard when he had the chance. "Where is that little psycho now? He still there?"
"No. I don't think so. He knocked me unconscious. I think he took my blood. When I woke up he was chanting a spell."
"What kind of spell?" Damon asked in a threatening voice.
"I'm not sure. Why does he need my blood, Damon?"
"I don't know, Bon-Bon. But I intend to find out. You need to calm down now. Do you see Stefan anywhere?"
"Yes, he's right here."
"Okay. You two come to the hospital. We'll find Kai and we'll kill him. But I don't want to leave Elena alone. Someone needs to stay with her."
"We'll be right there."
Damon hung up and punched the wall closest to him.
Killing Kai didn't have the cathartic effect Damon hoped it would. To be fair, he didn't think anything would feel cathartic short of Elena waking up. But as they had all learned, she wouldn't. At least not for the next 60 to 70 years while Bonnie got to live a full life and grow old.
There had been some concern for Bonnie's wellbeing and some – fucking Donovan, Damon thought – even went so far as to suggest she leave town, lest Damon would feel tempted to end her life prematurely to get his girlfriend back. Damon tried to take offense to the suggestion but honestly, he couldn't be bothered to feel much of anything right now. How could he when the next 60 to 70 years looked as bleak as ever.
The day after the Kai-shaped disaster struck, everyone was sitting in Elena's hospital room. Everyone except Alaric. Jo's funeral was planned for the day after tomorrow and he refused to acknowledge it. Instead he was in full-on research mode, claiming there was a way to bring her back – there had to be, he only had to find it. Caroline had taken over babysitting duty to which Alaric surprisingly didn't object. She was the only other person he allowed near his children which probably had something to do with the fact that because of her quick thinking, Kai hadn't managed to lay his hands on the girls.
"We can't leave her here forever," Caroline said, breaking the silence in the hospital room.
Damon looked up from Elena's bed. He was perched next to her sleeping body, her hand in his, her body tucked into his side.
Matt looked around the room and focused on Bonnie. "Bon, is there really nothing you can do?"
"No," Damon answered the question before Bonnie could. "There isn't."
"It's dangerous, Matt. Kai warned us if we try to tinker with the spell, Elena would die. I'm… I'm just…"
"We are not taking any risks. Is that understood?" Damon flashed up from the bed and stared them all down.
"We can transfer her to one of the rooms in the boarding house," Stefan suggested, getting back to Caroline's previous point.
"Where every vampire can just walk in while our mother and her freshly awakened heretics seek revenge? I don't think so."
"I can spell the room shut," Bonnie suggested. "She'd be safe in there."
Damon straightened up at that, an idea coming to him. "The safest place for Elena is for everybody to believe her dead. So that's what we're going to do."
"I don't understand," Caroline began.
"I don't think I understand either," Matt piped up.
"The Salvatore tomb. We get a casket and put her there, in the crypt. Bonnie will spell the door shut. She'll be safe there."
"That's not creepy at all," Caroline mumbled.
"Do you have a better suggestion?" Damon exploded in her face. "Anyone? I'm listening. Let's all brainstorm."
Every person in the room tried to avoid Damon's borderline demented stare by looking at their feet.
Caroline was the first to reply. "No. It's actually a good idea."
A few other voices piped up as well.
"Yeah."
"The crypt it is."
"Okay, let's do it."
Damon nodded at nobody in particular. "It's settled then. Tomorrow, after Jo's funeral, we say our goodbyes and that's it."
"I'm going to go call Jeremy. He'll want to be there," Bonnie muttered and slipped out of the room.
"I'll go compel the doctors to sign Elena out and," Caroline paused, looking around and focusing on Matt, "Matt, why don't you go get a chair for Elena so we can bring her home, huh?"
"Save it," Damon said to Matt, moving to the bed and lifting Elena into his arms. "Go talk to the doctors, Blondie. Stefan, bring the car around. We're getting out of here."
With that, he walked out of the room, carrying Elena while the others scrambled to follow.
Damon placed Elena gently on the bed and made sure she was comfortable before he joined her. Sitting down and pulling her head onto his shoulder, he was struck again by her lifeless body. Even in sleep, Elena usually cuddled up to him when he was close. This was wrong. Everything about this was wrong. Damon wished he could kill Kai all over again because once was definitely not enough.
Pushing those feelings of revenge aside, he breathed deep and pulled Elena tighter into his arms. Pressing his lips against her hair, he whispered, "Do you sometimes think back to Nice?" He let his mind wander to a time about half a year ago.
"Hey, Elena?"
"Mmh?" came the muffled reply from the bed where Elena was starfished across, face down in a pillow.
"How is your Catalan?" Damon asked.
"Nonexistent. Why?"
"Just asking."
"Mh-hm," Elena mumbled back and it was testament to how tired she was, otherwise she'd never let this out of the blue question go.
A few days later, Elena walked through the door of the same hotel room to a very different view than the one she had left only a few hours ago to get a haircut.
"What's this?" she asked Damon who was busy checking off things off a list.
He barely looked up when he answered, "It is called a backpack."
"I know what it's called. I meant to say what's it doing here? Why do you have one?"
"Because backpacking without a backpack is stupid?"
"Who's going backpacking?" Elena asked.
"Guess," Damon replied with a big grin.
Elena pursed her lips and frowned, the world making less sense with every passing minute. "Okay," she slowly began, "it does seem a little out of character for you, but let's chalk it up to me missing a few key memories, shall we? Which, however, still leaves the question of why are there two of them?"
"Because there's two of us?"
"You expect me to join you?"
"Uh, yes."
"Uh, no."
"Come on. It'll be fun."
"Oh, excuse me, have we met? Hi. My name is Elena and you, sir, are confusing me with someone who backpacks, hikes, and does all the other outdoorsy stuff."
"I bet you've never even tried it before."
"Stefan took me up to the falls once. I hated every single mile of it."
"Well, what I've planned for us is a little bit more impressive than the Mystic Falls falls. Trust me."
He looked so excited by the prospect, Elena was equal parts suspicious as well as teetering on the edge of giving in. Damn his baby-blue eyes. They always made her weak in the knees. "And where is this hypothetical backpacking trip supposed to happen?" she asked.
"Andorra."
Like he was able to smell her weakness, his eyes lit up and he pulled her down on the bed to show her pictures on his phone. She didn't want to admit it, but the views of mountains and lakes did look incredible. She closed her eyes, ready to give in.
As she was about to let herself fall backwards on the bed in a sign of surrender, her arm hit something round and squishy.
"Damon?" she asked, apprehension filling her voice. "What's this?"
"A tent and two sleeping bags?"
Elena closed her eyes and groaned.
"You were so mad at me. Day one I think you were expecting me to yell 'gotcha' and tell you it was all a prank. By day two you were convinced I had an ulterior motive and were expecting an organized surprise around every bend, a romantic picnic or dinner at an extremely remote restaurant. By day three you realized I wasn't kidding. You said you hated me and that you would leave me for a hot tub once we were back in civilization. Day four you refused to walk anymore and I had to come up with incentives to keep you going. I don't think you spoke a single word to me on day five."
Damon paused, remembering. "You hated it; every single second of every day. Except the nights under the stars. Those were your favorite. No matter how mad at me you were, you always went to sleep with your head on my shoulder."
Leaning in close, he whispered into Elena's ear, "I guess I can admit it now: I did have an ulterior motive. The hiking part? I hated it too, but I had something planned for your birthday, well both our birthdays, I should say. Remember the week after that, in Nice? The one we spent cruising on a private yacht? You only said yes to it because you were in need of some serious R&R. You would have never let me pamper and spoil you like that if I hadn't put you through your own personal hell beforehand.
"And Nice – Nice was magical. We spent the days lazing about, lying in the sun, staring at the blue sky, taking a swim in the blue water. I told you vampires don't get a tan, but you were set on proving me wrong. I couldn't take my eyes off you. You might think it had something to do with that ridiculously hot white swimsuit you were wearing but that was only part of it.
"Elena, I had to live 175 years to realize what life was really about. I've never felt more alive than during those days on the French Riviera or any other day that I got to spend with you. Just holding your hand, taking you to bed, laughing with you. And that's why I can't do this without you, baby. I can't go back to being this shell of a person. I just can't. Okay? My life is not meant to be lived without you."
He opened his eyes, concentrating on upholding the illusion that he projected into Elena's sleeping mind.
"Damon," she whispered in awe, materializing next to him and taking in their surroundings. "What is this place?"
"You don't recognize it?"
Elena looked around, spinning in a circle. They were on an open balcony overlooking a caldera of blue water. The sun was setting on the horizon and above them, hundreds of twinkling lights illuminated the stone floor and the countless potted plants around them. Then her eyes widened. "Is that our villa in—"
"Greece," Damon confirmed. "I might have embellished it a little. For our last dance."
Elena frowned. "Our last dance?"
Instead of answering, he pulled her into his arms and she fit inside them so naturally, like they were made for this, for each other. "God, I love dancing with you," Damon breathed in her ear as he moved her into a spin.
She let him lead her easily, but pulled back a little to look him in the face. "Damon?" she asked, while they continued to waltz. "Last dance?"
"Let's not talk about it now."
"You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?"
"Like what?" Damon challenged.
"Like take yourself out of the equation while I'm… asleep."
Damon sighed deeply. "Elena."
"No, Damon. You can't. Whatever you're thinking of doing, you can't."
"What am I thinking of doing?"
"I don't know. But it must be something stupid. Because I know this face and it's your 'I'm about to do something incredibly idiotic' face. Promise me, Damon."
"Promise you what?"
"That you're not thinking what I think you're thinking. You're not going to starve yourself and desiccate to make the time go faster or pull a Stefan and leave town or worse."
Damon shrugged, not willing to admit that that was exactly what had been on his mind.
"You can't, Damon. Our friends need you."
Damon rolled his eyes. "Okay, first, they're mostly your friends. And second, no, they don't."
"Yes, they do. Remember how everyone drifted apart when you and Bonnie were trapped in the prison world."
"That had nothing to do with me," Damon protested.
"It had everything to do with you. It's group psychology." Elena stopped dancing to lecture him. "Even in tightly knit groups there's one element that acts as the glue. You're the glue, Damon. Whether you like it or not. Without you, Stefan will fall apart. Without Stefan, Caroline will spiral. Without Caroline holding everyone together, everyone will go their own way and as we've seen before, it leads to nowhere good. You're the pin that, if removed, will make the dominoes collapse. You can't leave," she implored.
"I don't know what to do without you, Elena. I can't be good without you."
Elena bit her lip hard to stop herself from crying. "Yes, you can. Because whether I'm here or not, it doesn't change the fact that I love you. And I trust you. And I know you're better than you pretend to be."
"I'll miss your eternal optimism. Even though it is, as previously stated, super annoying."
Elena laughed out loud at that and Damon took her in, looked his fill for one last time for who knew how many years. Then he pulled her into his arms again and swayed to the music. "Things will be incredibly dull without you around," Damon mused. "Maybe I'll take up knitting. Adopt some cats."
Elena smiled and buried her fingers in his hair. She held his face as she implored, "I want you to live your life. Continue doing what we began in Europe – enjoy your last years as a vampire. Only now it will be decades. Do everything you wanted to do. Be happy. Just… do me a favor?"
"Anything."
"You can date. But… Don't fall in love with anyone else, okay?"
"You're ridiculous. Like I could ever."
Elena believed him but they were talking a long time here and she simply needed to make sure. "Just don't."
"You're the only woman I will ever want. And I would wait for you till the end of time."
"It's not gonna be quite that long," Elena replied. "Take care of Bonnie for me? And Stefan? And check in on Matt occasionally, okay?"
"What about Blondie?"
Elena chuckled. "Out of everyone in our group, I think Caroline can handle herself. But if you wouldn't mind, you can take her out for a drink every once in a while. I think she'd like that."
Damon nodded his consent and Elena smiled and snuggled deeper into his arms, laying her head on his shoulder as they continued to slowly move to the music. She tried to take in every little detail to remember it for the years to come – the way Damon's arms felt around her, the way his breath moved her hair, the sound of his heart in her ear, his scent, his warmth, his love. She breathed deeply, feeling it was time to say goodbye.
Finishing the dance, Damon stepped back and said, "The next time we dance like this will be at our wedding."
Elena grinned at him. "Promise?"
"I promise."
Hand in hand they walked towards the edge of the light, both knowing instinctively that they had to let go once they reached it.
"Hey, Salvatore," Elena called just before their connection broke. "Just because my answer is going to be yes, doesn't mean you get out of staging a real proposal for me. Got it?"
Now it was Damon's turn to grin. "Would you prefer a private, romantic something or a big, flashy party?" he asked.
Elena thought for a moment. "Surprise me."
"I will," Damon promised.
Because Damon couldn't stomach the thought, Caroline and Stefan were the ones to go out shopping for a casket. Everyone lined up in the parlor to say goodbye to Elena, while Damon stood off to the side, watching the proceedings with a critical and detached composure.
Having just laid to rest Jo, everyone was in their funeral getup which made the whole thing particularly morbid in Damon's eyes. His mind kept flashing through all his favorite memories of Elena and of them together. He couldn't believe that for the next however many decades, memories were all he would have.
Stepping up to the casket, he bent down to place a soft kiss on Elena's forehead. "I am going to miss you," he whispered. He let his eyes travel across her sleeping face one more time before straightening up and closing the lid.
**FIN**
Final notes: Yes, this story is done and done. But, I do have some of the sequel already written. It basically chronicles Elena's and Damon's lives from the moment Elena wakes up and follows them as they try and build a (human) life for themselves. If enough people are interested in reading it, I could be persuaded to finish said sequel.
In the next "chapter", I will post a sneak peek from the sequel. (As soon as I've decided which part to post.)