The Final Chapter

Though Elijah was stronger than Caroline, she caught him off guard when she shoved him out of Stefan's path so he stumbled deeper into the alleyway, leaving the path between Stefan's take and Caroline's heart clear.

"He saved me," Caroline panted as Stefan's arm veered slightly on its trajectory and the white oak stake smashed against the brick wall, shattering into shards and a stump. Stefan's hand burst open and bright red blood rushed out of his tense muscles as confusion and fear raced across his face. Was there enough left of the white oak wood to kill a vampire? Stefan doubted it. But they could make ash and dagger the remaining vampires, that way the bloodlines would be safe but the Originals would no longer be a danger to them. To Elena.

"Stefan he saved me," Caroline panted. "It's over. Elijah isn't here to hurt us. Elena is safe." Somehow Caroline knew that it was important to get these words through to her friend and mentor. "It's over." She glanced towards Finn, uncertain if her words were totally true, she trusted Elijah, but would Finn betray them?

"My brother and I will leave you in peace, we ask only that you hand over the white oak, what's left of it, so that if we desire it we have some hope of either killing ourselves or at least daggering ourselves as we have been before. After all this time it would bring us great satisfaction to finally have some say as to our destiny."

"If you die we die, we can't let you kill yourselves any more than we can kill you," Damon called out, his vampire hearing picking up every word of the interchange though he was positioned in front of Elena's door ready to defend her from Finn who still stood threatening as if he was ready to use her as leverage. The two male vampires had been hanging in the balance since Stefan's arrival and Caroline's interjection had left them somewhat at a loss to the state of affairs between their two parties.

"Then let us make the ash so we can be daggered," Elijah reasoned. "It poses no threat to you but allows us a means to escaping this existence, if we desire it. Finn and I have grown tired of this existence. Now that our troublesome siblings have been disposed of our purpose is gone."

"Save for the question of mother," Finn put in. "She may still have a way to end us."

"If she finds one she will find us. She has the power. And there will be naught that we will do to stop her," Elijah returned but then added with emphasis as he looked into Stefan's troubled eyes, "But we pledge to you that we will not aid her."

"Sounds like you're asking us to take a pretty big risk," Damon argued. "If you're so keen to dagger yourselves, why not let us do the daggering? That way we'll be around if Mummy decides to show up."

"That would endanger our mother," Finn returned the standoff between then all the more heated by the anger and mistrust in his tone and expression.

"Three original bloodlines were wiped out today," Stefan reasoned. "Your mother should be pleased. We will offer her an amnesty is she agrees to stop hunting us."

"What is your word to us?" Finn taunted, glaring at Damon as he threw the words at Stefan.

"Enough. None of us chose this Finn. They came from us. We will leave them be. Mother is powerful, she makes her own choices, she always has," Elijah reasoned.

"Finn?" a female voice called uncertainly through the tension. "Damon called me. I came for you. Why didn't you find me?"

"Sage?" Finn's weight shifted, he stepped away from Damon. "I didn't know…. I didn't think… after so many years…" his voice was soft and uncertain as he took in the familiar angles of her face and in this new, unfamiliar context, the modern clothes, the cascade of flaming hair that created a red halo around her face reminding him of looking up at her as he bedded her.

"You're back," she whispered and both moved in a blur, colliding into each other.

"You called her?" Stefan asked his brother, surprised and angry.

"I figured we might need a little leverage, one way or another. I knew it would either help us out or blow up in our faces. Looks like maybe Mr Sulky might have a reason to live, which is handy for us."

"That it is," Elijah returned. "I think you will find that my brother's position has changed. If he and his lover are united, and it seems they are, you can be assured that you will find him an ally if our mother reappears. He will not leave Sage twice."

"And you Elijah? What will you do?" Elena asked as she stepped out of the car, feeling foolish that she'd been trapped inside this whole time, like some sort of helpless schoolgirl.

"Honestly Elena, I don't know," Elijah returned his troubled eyes meeting her dark ones. With Elena he would be honest. "But I've done you enough harm, and I'll do no more. Keep what's left of the white oak stake. I was resolved knowing that I went to my slumber with my brother at my side, if he lives, than I will too. But I will not trouble you." There was something so sad about his tone, his whole demeanour.

"You don't have to leave, you could have a life here with us," Elena encouraged. "You're almost family," she smiled.

"When he's not trying to kill us," Damon reminded. "Wait – he is just like family," he grinned sardonically.

"I wish it were that easy, to be honest I feel less and less connection to this world. I'll say my goodbyes. Good luck Elena, you deserve peace and happiness. I hope you can find that." The glance he cast at Finn and Sage, locked in an embrace, lips crushing in between mumbled words of explanation, the presence of anyone else forgotten, spoke volumes. Elijah was alone in the world. He would be no ones' third wheel.

"Good luck Elijah, I hope you can find something, I know that you're a good man" Elena replied sincerely.

"I wish I believed that," Elijah sighed.

"You saved me," Caroline repeated. And to Elijah's great surprise she stepped towards him and brushed a kiss against his cheek, though she had to stand on tip toe to do it. Elijah smiled a momentary smile.

"I am glad. You are truly one of the best of us I have ever met. I am sorry our paths did not cross in more pleasant circumstances."

That took Caroline completely by surprise. She didn't know what to say, and to her great surprise she found herself saying, "Me too," with a warm smile.

"The demon within is rebellious but you are man enough to master it," Elijah instructed Stefan by way of goodbye. Stefan nodded. It was an oddly fatherly moment, which made him wonder if Elijah was indeed his father, of sorts.

Elijah had made up his mind it was time to go and he moved with vampire speed, he laid a parting hand on Finn's shoulder and his brother nodded briefly at him, they bother understood that if they needed each other they had all the time in the world to find each other. As Elijah passed Damon he whispered something that only Damon heard, "Remember there is more to you than the love of the girl, though she is a very special girl." Damon was shocked, he wasn't sure he agreed. Damon wasn't sure he even liked Elijah, but as long as the original was leaving town Damon was willing to let it go. An instant later Elijah's car started and he drove off.

"Thank you," Sage whispered to Damon and her and Finn turned and left walking off side by side without so much more as a word to any of them. Damon let them walk away; Sage was their best chance that Finn would really leave them alone, as much as it went against his grain to admit it there was no point making threats or ultimatums. Everything that they could say had been said, and after all Elijah had left Stefan the stub of the white oak stake. It appeared that Finn was okay with that too, though Damon wondered if Finn's thinking might change when he wasn't so caught up in his reunion with Sage, still knowing they couldn't kill the Originals, it was the best they could do. Maybe one day with some magic… but for today this had to be enough. They had fought long and hard and the remaining originals were walking out of their lives voluntarily. Finn and Elijah no longer cared the Elena was the doppelganger, so she would be safe.

"It's really over," Caroline breathed and Stefan smiled and nodded. Quietly he was wondering if Elijah wasn't the only brother who should leave town, but he wouldn't confront that decision today, he knew how much pain his last departure had caused and if he left again it wouldn't be sudden, or on a day so heated with emotion. He appreciated what he had done to Elena enough to know that to do it again, even now they were not together, would be cruel, it would rub salt in all those wounds that Damon was finally healing.

Elena stepped into Damon's arms, wrapped her arms around his firm waist and lent against his chest. "It's over," she whispered. "And I get to keep you," she said with some surprise, the relief evident in his voice.

"Oh you're stuck with me," Damon breathed into her hair and then lifted her chin for a kiss. "I'm not going anywhere." They kissed deeply and Elena felt a freedom in her heart and her body that had not been there for a long time. She was happy, she was safe, and she was loved. The three things she thought she had lost when her parents died had slowly come back to her, she had fought for them, she had lost so much, but they were hers. She had a sense of peace and although the grief would always be there, the pain now made her feel stronger not weaker. She was no longer the sad little girl sitting in a graveyard writing in her diary. She was so much more and she had him in part to thank for that.

"I love you Damon," Elena whispered in between kisses. In a moment they would have to break apart and go home and be normal. None of them were really sure how that worked. And none of them really knew how long it would last but they would try.

THE END

A/N: Sorry you had to wait so long for this last chapter, a lot of stuff went on IRL, but also I debating long and hard whether I would release it before or after the final episode of the actual series – mostly because I was waiting to see what happened. Finally I decided, especially after what happened to Alaric last week, that I had veered so far from the show's current path that my only job left was to tell my story, and the rest of this seemed to flow fairly naturally from that point, though it was difficult writing after such a big gap, so I hope that didn't ruin it. Thank you to all the new readers who have come along in the past month, there haven't been many new reviews but there were quite a few hits and that was a lovely surprise. I would love to hear from anyone who has finished this multi-chapter of mine – it's been a lot of words and time invested for someone who has a lot of commitments in real life. I'm taking a little break from fanfic again after this I think (unless the season final gets be writing) but I'm on tumblr (beautifulvampirelove) and will keep fangirling over there. I hope I haven't let anyone down by giving this a fairly conclusive ending; I no longer have time to write but also unlike Julie and Kevin etc. I don't have to keep this going so I wanted to give our characters some happiness; I hope you enjoyed that though in the show too much happiness would get boring pretty fast!