Hello! I'm bringing you more updates with the hopes of finishing this fic so I, too, can move on. As always, your reviews will make me happy.

Lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Lucky we're in love in every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

Jason Mraz, "Lucky"

52. LUCKY TO BE COMING HOME.

As it happens, Kai kidnaps Jo and somehow convinces the other two that this is the answer to their own merge dilemma, which results in Alaric, Damon and Stefan meeting him in the woods right where the limit for the anti-magic spell starts working.

Caroline is accompanying her mom to the hospital because she wasn't feeling well in the morning when Elena hurries to find her and tell her this.

"Jo doesn't want them to kill Kai."

"They can't agree to this. You told Bonnie, right? She would never agree to this."

"But Bonnie is still visiting her mom and won't be able to smack some sense into Damon's head either. We should go."

Caroline knows that, too, but she still hesitates and glances at her mom's direction.

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine. Making sure that trio don't do anything stupid is more important."

She sighs and nods. "Call me if you need anything later, I'll be back in a second."

They're all barely made it to the entrance of the hospital when it hits Caroline. This must have happened before. How did they deal with it? Maybe it's the right thing to let Kai live?

"Wait a moment" She tells Elena, grabbing her arm to slow her down. "I need to make a call first."

There's nothing she doesn't know, but she still needs to hear it from someone who's actually seen her future life and what will be the consequences of the choice people made the last time around.

"Is it okay to let the sociopath you will kill his whole family walk free out there? I don't know. That's up to you."

"Silas…"

"For once in his life Damon is right. Of course that guy needs to die. I can count at least five horrible things that will hit close to home for you if he doesn't." He sounds exasperated. "On the other hand... we do need to wait a bit."

"What? 'We'?"

"I've got to go." He hangs up.

"How do we kill him if he can syphon the magic away from us the moment we touch him?" Elena mutters as they run to the location Damon sent them "Alaric won't side with us…"

And they know that, as much as Damon wants to do it, he won't because neither Stefan or Alaric will let him.

"We don't have to touch him." There are many ways to kill people. "My aim is quite good, what about yours?"

Whose brilliant idea was it to chain Kai on the wrong side of the barrier?

Now the very easily-killable siphoner is super-charged with magic, they cannot even see him, and he's giving aneurysms to all of them.

Then there's a bang and a body that falls on the ground with a thud. The pain stops.

"Here's the thing. Some people can have a lot of magic but still suck at using it. What kind of cloaking spell was that?" Silas shakes his head, the gun still in his hand. Caroline has never in her life been happier to see him.

But for a moment there's silence, as if anyone can quite believe what just happened.

"Did you really get him at one go?" Stefan asks, incredulous, at the same time he lends Caroline a hand to help her stand up.

"I'm incredibly talented at everything I try my hands on."

"But it took you too long. I was starting to think this whole plan of yours was a hoax."

"What plan?" Damon is indignant. "You didn't even want to kill him."

"No, I was stalling."

"And now, voilá, no more anti-magic spell." Silas closes the case.

No more anti-magic spell...

"What are we supposed to do now?" Liv asks. "He had to merge…"

"Well, it looks like it's all between you and your coven-nest of madness." Damon ignores the hateful look the girl gives her.

It's really a pity…

"Maybe you can find some other way to avoid the merge." She tells them. "Have you ever tried?"

They don't answer, and Caroline wishes she could say more, but if there was a solution for Lizzie and Jossie… she can't remember that part now.

She turns to look at Silas, who's checking that Kai is dead-dead, and walks towards him.

"I thought killing was not in the 'Finding Peace' playbook."

"This one doesn't weigh on my conscience at all." He frowns. "Well, none of the others did either, so I might be wrong. Either way, this was fun."

If he could just stop talking like a psycho…

"Today just gained you an invitation to Friendsgiving. Maybe even Christmas."

He smirks.

"I don't think Little Bennet will like that."

True there.

"Even if that's the case, thank you."

It's in the same evening that they pack some bags, and drive back to Mystic Falls. Caroline can't believe it. They are actually heading back home.

"What's next?" She asks Stefan.

"I should be asking you that. Are you going to commute to college from here?"

She looks at him, studying his handsome profile as he fixes his gaze on the road ahead. He looks so calm now, it makes her happy.

"I don't know. Tripp Fell and his hunters are still around, probably suspecting every single resident that comes back once they realize the barrier doesn't work anymore. But mom is definitely coming back. I think she put like four boxes in the trunk of her car before we left home."

There's also that. Home.

Nowadays their house in the suburbs of McKinley feels a lot more like home, but that's just because her mom and Stefan were there. For all that she missed Mystic Falls and how glad she is they are no longer facing a sure death for trying to go back to the place where they were born, Caroline doesn't feel the same urgency that she used to feel in the summer.

"We'll figure it out tomorrow then." He smiles at her, his right hand momentarily brushing her hair as he places it behind her ear. "But tonight… I think Damon mentioned a party at the boarding house."

"I can't do that. I'm staying with mom, she wasn't feeling that well this morning, what if she feels sick later…"

"But Liz is going to the party too, as far as I know."

Caroline raises her eyebrows in surprise, then frowns. "Why does she always tell you about things before telling me? This is totally unfair!"

One would think she's his mom.

Stefan chuckles at her dramatic complaint.

Surprisingly, Damon let Bonnie organize most of this improvised party.

"She's competing with Enzo for the best friend title, apparently." Elena points out.

"I'm not competing for anything." Bonnie claims, but she does not deny that she no longer hates the older Salvatore brother.

Talking about siblings, she chokes on her drink when she hears the answer Silas gives to the guests who are curious about the three look-alikes in the house. "Actually, we're triplets. Separated at birth. It's a long, tragic story."

Is he for real?

Besides bourbon and any kind of drink you could name (and Tom is there to display an ability in preparing cocktails that she had apparently just caught a glimpse of during his own housewarming gathering), there's also a not so improvised stage.

Enzo has taken it to himself to showcase the musical abilities that no one could imagine he had.

"I thought about you singing for us, but it doesn't look like he'll give us the chance anytime soon, does it?" Bonnie asks her.

"But he's quite good."

Caroline praises, and her eyes travel across the room. There are many faces back from high school, the ones who haven't left town. Elena is dancing with Damon, and it's all just like old times, but better.

Stefan flashes a smile to her when her gaze falls on him, and he raises his glass up in a gesture she imitates.

"You know what, I'll actually make use of Enzo's skills as a musician now. You should consider it too. Haven't you always wanted to find an affordable guitar teacher, Bon? He owes you."

But before Bonnie can argue against her idea, Caroline is already up in the stage, testing Enzo to know if he's updated with the hits of this century.

"Hey, what the hell Barbie?" Damon complains the second she takes the microphone.

"Shut up. You do you and I do me." She clears her throat. "I'm going to dedicate this song to my boyfriend."

So what if it's cheesy, she doesn't care.

The last time there was a party in this house, he threw her over his shoulder and took her to the dance floor. The girl she was then (and it's funny, it isn't even that long ago) would never believe that Stefan Salvatore could actually love her back.

She sees he's still smiling, eyes completely focused on her.

People clap and tease them when, the second she's done, he's by her side wrapping his arms around her and she kisses him.

Then Jeremy decides it's been enough of romance and puts more upbeat music on the record player.

"You should know this is the first time anyone has dedicated a song to me, I'm flattered."

She grins "As you should be."

"Get a room, you two." Damon scoffs.

Stefan raises an eyebrow. "You heard him."