This is the last official chapter of this story! Of course, I have an epilogue, but it got WAY out of hand. It's currently at 50,000 words! Since it's basically at the length of another story, I will be posting it separate just like my epilogue for Silver Linings. Make sure you keep an eye out for it, it's super cute and mushy :)

Thanks for reading!

As it turned out, Bonnie's dad was the announcer for the graduation ceremony. He called name after name of people Elena had gone to school with since she was in preschool, only to hand them their diploma on stage before letting them pose for a picture.

He called Bonnie's name first out of the group of them graduating, and he hugged her on stage before she got her picture taken.

Then it was Matt's turn, and they shook hands.

Caroline was next, and she beamed the widest smile at him before pulling him into a hug. Maybe if they hadn't known him since they were in diapers they would have been less enthusiastic.

And then it was Elena's turn, the only ones left after her being Tyler and Stefan.

Bonnie's dad called her name and she stood up from her seat as everyone clapped and cheered, and she even heard a whistle that was no doubt from Damon. She stepped onto the stage in her white cap and gown and smiled at Mr. Hopkins, taking her diploma from him while cameras flashed. He smiled warmly at her and gave her a hug just as he had with Caroline and Bonnie before she turned to face the crowd and have her photo taken.

One sweep across the faces with her new vampire senses allowed her to spot all of the faces of those here thanks to Bonnie's spell. She saw Damon with Alaric, Rose, and Jeremy. Vicki was hanging near the back for Matt. She supposed it was probably a little awkward between her and Jeremy anyways now that he was dating Bonnie. In another section of seating Elena spotted Lexi excitedly waving at her and Mason was sitting next to her. Bonnie's grandmother was sitting in a seat next to her mom, even though the woman couldn't see her.

Almost everyone that mattered to them was there in that moment, and that was the most important thing. They would all get one last goodbye with their loved ones, a goodbye that was stolen from all of them.

Except Elena didn't want to say goodbye, and she knew that this time it would hurt worse than the first.

She returned to her seat and waited patiently as Tyler received his diploma as well as Stefan, even if it was more for appearances than education.

And then when everyone had been called, they switched their tassels to the other side before throwing their caps up into the air as high as they could while blasts of confetti went off and the band started playing once again. There were cheers from everyone all around them, and Elena gathered up her cap before running out into the aisle to join Caroline and Bonnie in their own cheers.

Shortly after, Damon joined them with Rose, Ric, and Jeremy, and Elena made sure to hug every last one of them, though Damon got a little something extra in the form of a long kiss. It still felt surreal to call the beautiful man in front of her both inside and out her boyfriend.

But 'boyfriend' felt like it just couldn't justify their relationship. It wasn't able to describe that they were meant for each other. But then again, she wasn't sure there was any word that could describe their relationship and how deep their connection ran.

"Blood and burgers at our house for anyone who wants to come…" Elena offered, as if anyone was going to say no.

Half an hour later, they were all streaming in and out of the Gilbert house as everyone talked to each other and visited while they still had the chance. Ric was outside cooking burgers, grumbling about not even getting a break when he was dead when Elena argued that no other human there knew how to cook aside from Sheila, who definitely wasn't about to waste her limited time with Bonnie.

So Damon, Rose, Elena, and Jeremy sat outside with him as he cooked, and they all talked about the latest things going on in their lives. Ric may have already known a lot of it, but he wasn't going to complain.

When he was finished with all of the cooking, he dragged Elena inside under the guise of having her help him clean up, but she knew better. So when he dumped the dirty dishes in the sink and motioned for her to come onto the front porch with him, she wasn't surprised.

Elena sat down on the swing with her legs crossed beneath her, and Ric took the seat next to her. "What's up?" She asked curiously.

He smiled a little, "You know exactly why we're out here."

She blew out a laugh, "Damon, right?"

He nodded, "Come on, tell me what the hell happened. I know I was a little crazy towards the end there so I don't remember much, but when did you make that choice?"

"The night you killed me." She said teasingly.

He cringed, "Sorry about—"

He didn't get to finished, because she was already laughing, "Don't you dare apologize! You weren't even you, okay? And besides, me dying did get rid of the evil you."

"Still." He insisted. "I killed my stepdaughter. That's fucked up on some level, it has to be!" She laughed and he pressed, "But come on, tell me what happened. I want to know everything from your point of view, because I've known Damon's practically since we met."

She shrugged, "I don't know, Ric. Damon just sort of…snuck up on me. The night that we thought everyone was going to die forced me to accept what I had always known I felt for him. And since then…everything became real. So real. When I look at him, I don't just see the man I love. I see my entire future with him. I see building a life with him, and unwaveringly loving him forever. I've never seen that with anyone else. And that's how I know that we're supposed to be together. That he was made for me."

Ric smiled, his elbows braced on his knees, "You know he visited me at the cemetery shortly after you returned from killing Silas. He was heartbroken over the devastation killing Shane caused you. But you should have heard him, Elena. He was complaining about everyone grieving their loved ones, rambling about how grief doesn't work because you're always going to miss the person that's gone. But even then he was excited to tell me that you and him were together."

Elena smiled a little to herself before a sad expression crept across her face, "I've been terrible ever since we came back from that island."

Ric shrugged, "Maybe you had an excuse, maybe you didn't. But you're back now, and you've got all the time in the world to make it up to everyone." She nodded and he continued, "But back to Damon. Take care of him, Elena. Make sure you always show him you love him. He needs it more than he leads on."

"I will." She promised, deciding not to comment on the mushy bromance they've got going on. "And as for you, make sure you try to find peace when you go back? Don't keep lingering around and watching us, because your happiness is as important as ours."

He nodded sadly at the thought of going back, "Jenna's actually been trying to convince me to join her ever since she visited me when I first died. She left me the key to move on in the form of a picture of us I keep in my wallet. I hadn't used it yet though because I wasn't happy with how I left things. Now that I've had this, I think I'm going to join her when I get back."

"Tell her I said hi." Elena said thickly, blinking back the tears.

"I will." Ric nodded with an encouraging smile. "Now why don't we get back to the party? I've still got to have a talk with Jeremy that I'm sure he's not going to want to hear about Bonnie."

"Like the conversation I'm sure you had with Damon about me?"

He groaned, "But with Damon it's so easy! All I've gotta say is that I'll haunt him if he fucks up, and he gets it! But Jeremy's still a kid, and that's all kinds of awkward that I don't want to have."

"That's what you get for trying to raise teenagers." She teased, getting to her feet. "Suck it up and be a man, Ric. Talk to him before it's too late."

"Alright, alright! No need to wound my pride any further."

She laughed, "I love you, Ric."

"Love you too, kid." He smiled before kissing the side of her head.

Ric went inside to talk to Jeremy, and Elena headed out back to join Damon and Rose, finding Stefan and Lexi out there as well. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders from where he sat in the chair and kissed his cheek, "Did I miss anything?"

Damon tugged her around to sit in his lap and shook his head, ignoring her question, "Ric is such a sap."

"You listened in!?" She gasped, hitting his chest. "That's so rude you eavesdropper!"

He laughed, capturing her assaulting hands in his own, "Like you wouldn't have told me everything anyways!"

She rolled her eyes but didn't comment, knowing he was right. Maybe she wouldn't have said everything word for word, but she would have made sure he knew how much his best friend loved him.

"You love Ric and you know it. If he wasn't dead, I'd be a little concerned he'd steal you away from me."

"Quiet." He warned, silencing her with a loving kiss.

The rest of the party went by in a blur of trying to make up as much lost time as possible before they lost the chance. The four of them talked for a little while before Jeremy and Ric joined them again, and Matt, Vicki, Caroline, Tyler, and Mason wandered outside to join as well for a little bit. Ric was really the only one Caroline had to catch up with since she didn't really know anyone else and her dad wasn't able to come back. Bonnie and her grams left not much later so they could go back to Bonnie's house and spend some time alone together.

They sat around and drank, talked, and laughed until they all forgot that their time was going to expire. Damon broke out the most expensive bottle of bourbon he had to share it with Ric and Rose, and refused to share it with anyone else.

The goodbye was no less painful than the first time. Rose was the first to have to go, and she hugged both Damon and Elena before disappearing. Then Vicki left, and she hugged Matt and made him promise not to forget her before giving Jeremy a quick hug and disappearing. Mason was next, and one terrible joke about Damon killing him and a manly hug with Tyler later, he was gone too. Lexi hugged Stefan tightly for a few long moments then gave Elena a wink before she left.

And then there was Ric, and damn, was that goodbye a bitch. Elena bawled her eyes out, and because Elena was sobbing, Caroline was sobbing. And there no consoling them, especially when Jeremy even shed a few tears. Damon held them all back even if he wanted to let go, because someone around here had to be strong. So he clapped Ric on the shoulder before saying screw it and giving him a hug.

Ric had to practically pry Elena off of him so Jeremy could hug him, and then he left too, and they were all alone again.

It was heartbreaking, but worth it.

The group of them hung around the house a little longer until it got dark outside, and they slowly started separating and going to their respective homes. Tyler left to literally leave the state to get back to the pack he was helping. Caroline went home to be with her mom. Matt went home too, as did Stefan, and when Bonnie texted Jeremy to say that she was going to come back over so she didn't have to spend the night alone Elena felt considerably less guilty about wanting to spend the night with Damon in his bed.

And that was exactly where she found herself an hour later. Dressed in Damon's shirt and a pair of panties, sitting in the center of his gigantic bed while he stripped down to his boxers and said, "So I've got my own graduation gift for you."

"You do?" She questioned, not really surprised he got her something.

"Mhm." He pulled open his closet doors and dug around in the drawers before finding the book and box he had spent the past couple weeks since prom putting together. He climbed into bed with her and turned on the other bedside lamp to allow for as much light as possible so she could see every last detail without straining her eyes. He set the book on her lap and started, "When we were at prom, I realized that I know pretty much all there is to know about your past, pictures included. I've seen your baby pictures, pictures of the day Jeremy was born, even all of your birthdays. But you've never seen pictures of me from when I was human. And I may have lied to you a little when we were at your lake house and you asked about my baby pictures. I told you I didn't have anything from when I was human, but I just didn't want to show it to you yet. But I'm ready now, so if you want, I put everything that I kept from my human life in that book and in this box."

"Really?" She asked hopefully, smiling widely at him while she fingered the edge of the thick cover.

"Yeah, really." He laughed softly then kissed her temple. "Open it."

The first picture she saw was an old black and white, grainy photo of a baby sitting in a woman's lap, dressed in old fashioned clothing. She grinned, "You're a baby here. You were such a chubby baby, oh my god." All he could do was laugh, then she asked, "Is that your mom?"

He nodded, "In her prime. One perfect child and a husband that hadn't started hitting her yet."

"Your father hit her?" Elena gasped.

Damon shrugged, "It wasn't that uncommon back in that time. My father wasn't a good man, if I hadn't made that clear by now. I was all too happy to abandon him when I turned."

"How did she die?"

"Consumption." He answered simply. "I was seventeen. Stefan was ten. I was supposed to give the eulogy, but I couldn't do it…it didn't seem like anything I could say was enough to show much my mother meant to me."

She looked up at him lovingly, "I like seeing this side of you."

He raised a brow, "What, disheartened and miserable? You see that everyday."

She rolled her eyes a little, "No, I meant a mother's son. Don't feel like you have to hide that part of you. Everyone has a mother. Some better than others. But losing them and missing them isn't something to be ashamed of."

And just like that, he fell for her a little more. "Keep looking." He said gently, letting her know he didn't want to talk about it anymore.

So she turned the page, only to come face to face with younger versions of Damon and Stefan posing for a family portrait with their parents. Stefan was probably around two and sitting in their mother's lap while Damon was standing in front of their father, whose hand was on his shoulder.

Flipping to the next page, she saw a photo of Damon dressed in his civil war uniform, looking pretty much the same as he did now. "Sometimes I forget that you're a veteran." She commented, admiring the way his curly hair peeked out from his hat.

"Against my will, might I add. I deserted the war, remember? My father was the one that wanted me to enlist. I didn't believe in the cause for the fight, so I left."

She looked up at him adoringly, "Even back then you weren't afraid to speak your mind and do what you thought was best."

He gave her a pointed look, "More like I didn't want to get killed in war so I ditched. Selfish. But thanks for trying."

"It wasn't selfish of you for wanting to live, Damon." She told him before turning the page.

There weren't many more photos, but most of them were of Damon as a child with his brother. There were a few newspaper articles that he saved as well, including he and his brother's obituaries, as morbid as it was.

And then she got to the shoebox, which she was most excited about. Damon wrapped an arm around her shoulders as she lifted the lid off and got her first look inside. The first thing that grabbed her attention was a stuffed bear that looked as old as it was, if not older. It was missing fur in places yet miraculously had both eyes still intact.

"So this is why you've taken a liking to Mr. Teddy…"

"That's what you named the bear in your room?" He asked incredulously.

She raised a brow, "What's your bear's name?" If she didn't know any better, she would have said that Damon was blushing. Big bad Damon Salvatore, blushing. She grinned widely and nudged his ribs with her elbow, "Come on, what was it?"

"You can't laugh."

"Okay, I promise no laughing. It can't get any worse than Mr. Teddy or Bonnie's bear Ms. Cuddles."

Damon shook his head, as if he couldn't believe he was about to tell her this, "His name is Snuggles."

Elena just smiled brightly in return, mostly at the fact that he was sharing this part of him with her with no reservations. She leaned up to kiss his cheek before moving on to the next object in the box.

It was a small jewelry box, and when Elena opened it, she came face to face with the most expensive looking pair of diamond and sapphire earrings she'd ever seen.

"Those were a gift from my father to my mother for their first anniversary. He was always one to go big or go home."

"Jesus, Damon, these look like they're worth more than everything I own combined!"

Damon shrugged, "Nowadays, in that condition, they probably are."

She blew out a laugh before closing the box and picking up the next item. An envelope filled with money that was no longer in circulation because of how old it was. She then looked at another picture of Damon and his mother that was framed in a detailed silver frame that opened and closed. The last thing in the box was a pair of gold cufflinks with the Salvatore family crest engraved on them.

After putting everything back in the box, Elena set it along with the book on the nightstand and moved to straddle Damon's lap, but not in a sexual way. She held his face between her hands and looked into his mesmerizing blue eyes, "I love you. Thank you for showing all of this to me, Damon, it means a lot to me to get to know every moment of your past and who you were over the years."

"You know who I'll always be?" He asked after a moment, his hands gently stroking her thighs.

"Hm?"

"A man in love with Elena Gilbert. A man that can't get enough of her, and would sooner drive a stake through his heart than lose her."

She smiled warmly, "Okay, Shakespeare, I think that's enough mushy reminiscing for tonight."

He chuckled, "I couldn't agree more."

And just like that, they crawled beneath the sheets to lose themselves in the other. That was always how it had been when they were together—the rest of the world seemed to fall away until they were the only two left. Even in the midst of doppelganger hijinks and hybrid mischief, they always had each other to depend on when all else seemed lost.

Damon was Elena's rock. He kept her standing when she wanted to break. He made her laugh when she was about to cry, and he loved her unconditionally even when she was in love with someone else. He made her question her life, and challenge her existence. He made her think about the world in a way that she'd never seen before.

And to Damon…well, Elena was his everything. Without her, he wouldn't know happiness. He wouldn't know what it meant to be fulfilled. To have purpose. She made him glad that he was alive, which was a feat in and of itself considering he hadn't cared if he lived or died since turning. She gave him his relationship with his brother back, and she mended his broken heart by piecing together every last shard that was destroyed by every person he'd ever loved.

And together, they were each other's perfect match. Destined to be together since they met. Their souls were intertwined so deeply that even in death they couldn't be separated. Their bond was unbreakable; their understanding had evolved into a connection so intense that they could communicate just by one simple look.

There was never any doubt in either of their minds that they weren't meant to be.

Because if either of them had chosen differently, then they never would have gotten their chance at the life they always deserved.