After Silas had been dealt with, the Mystic Falls gang rejoiced at the ending of another disaster. They lived on in bliss...nothing bad had happened since Silas. Caroline, Bonnie and Elena finished college, and moved back home with their degrees.

Bonnie and Jeremy were the first to move away. After Bonnie had been brought back from the dead, she and Jeremy had been together. A couple years after Bonnie had finished college, Jeremy revealed he had been saving up from the couple of jobs he'd been doing since he dropped out of school, and had enough for a deposit on a dinky apartment in Denver, near the relatives he had. They moved there and as far as Caroline knew they were happy.

Matt went next. He sold his mother's house, hooked up with Rebekah and they went to travel the world together. Caroline knew that the whole 'it was just a summer fling' thing was just an excuse. She had screwed Matt over by falling for his best friend, even though she had tried hard not to, and she was happy that he had finally fallen in love with a blonde who tried her hardest to be worthy of him. In a weird way (it was definitely weird since Rebekah had once tried to kill Matt) Rebekah and Matt were perfect for each other.

Tyler was off in the Appalachian mountains with some werewolf chick from the pack he was helping out. Caroline knew they weren't meant for a happy ending, and she and Tyler had long made their peace with the ending of their relationship.

Damon and Elena left four years after Silas was killed. Elena had wanted to be sure that the town was safe before they left (and by that Caroline knew Elena actually had Stefan in mind). Damon managed to convince her that the city of Paris was calling them, and they moved to the city of love. They were happily starting their next stage of forever in a penthouse apartment over looking the River Seine (even though Caroline knew it should be Stefan, not Damon, but Elena was stubborn). Caroline had even planned their wedding for them. Marriage had been Damon's idea, oddly enough, and as long as Elena was happy, then Caroline was happy to to it. She and Bonnie were bridesmaids, and Stefan had actually been best man. He had moved on from Elena, so it was fine. It was a beautiful, simple ceremony because it was what both the couple had wanted, and Damon had made sure to keep the leash very short with Caroline's crazy planning. Caroline hadn't seen the newly married couple for a couple of years.

Stefan stuck with Caroline longer than everyone else. He was her best friend, and he wanted to stick around for her. They hung out in the Grill, they went clubbing in Atlanta, they went on occasional road trips around the States (avoiding New Orleans completely) but even Stefan left in the end. Too many painful memories marring the good ones. He left ten years after the Silas incident. They still kept in touch, but she didn't see him as often as they liked to. They met up on birthdays and holidays and stuff. He came for Christmas, but she knew he was much happier now that he was free from the shackles of the Stefan-Elena-Damon love triangle and the pressure of being their hero over and over again.

Caroline stuck around, mostly for her mom, but twenty years after Silas was killed, people began to notice that Caroline wasn't ageing. They commented on her youthful complexion, saying she hadn't aged a day since her teens. If she had stayed any longer people might start to get suspicious. Her mother was the one who had made her decision for her. She packed Caroline's bags, and told her that someone asked if she knew that there was something odd about Caroline's non-ageing body, and that she had to leave. Caroline cried. Liz cried.

So when Caroline left Mystic Falls, she drove and drove.

Until she found herself in New Orleans. She found herself a small apartment, and decorated it to her specific tastes, and found herself looking forward to a few years in this new place. She knew that it was only a matter of time before she received a knock on her door, but she found herself looking forward to it.

On her second night in her new apartment, she heard that knock on the door. She had just gotten ready for bed, being that it was nearly two AM and she was going to be offering her services as an event planner the next day, so she almost screamed in frustration as she realised that their first meeting for nearly twenty something years was going to be in her matching baby pink tank top and shorts. She opened the door anyway, since she knew he wouldn't care, and smiled knowingly at the man in front of her.

"Hello, love. Have you missed me?" Klaus beamed at her.

She invited him inside, pressing a kiss to his cheek as he strolled into her apartment, like this was an everyday thing for them.

It was another year before Klaus managed to convince Caroline to move into his big mansion-like house with him, and another year before he convinced her to let him take her around the world.

To keep good on a promise made twenty years ago, he took her to Paris, Rome and Tokyo. And Caroline was never happier than with her Original Hybrid. He had been right all those years ago at a twenties decade dance at her high school. A small town life with a small town boy wouldn't have been enough for her after so many years. If she and Tyler hadn't broken up because of his hatred of Klaus, then she would have broken up with him eventually, because she knew that their chemistry had a time limit, but her chemistry with Klaus? Her love for Klaus and his for her? It would never fizzle out with time.

It was always and forever.