A/N: Here it is. I'm supposed to be sleeping right now as those of you who reviewed may know. I was away on the boat over the weekend and I only got back tonight so I had no internet but I did manage to write this chapter and chapter 6 so you shouldn't have to wait to long for that one. I was shocked by the response last chapter. I was going to say that I would see if I could average about 10 reviews per chapter, then I got nearly 20. Thank you all, it means so much and really inspires me to write. I have this week off for half term holidays so I should have more time to write. So this is the last Stefan future scene. I plan to add my babble to the last chapter tomorrow for anyone who cares to read what I think of it. Here we see the one thing a vampire never has to worry about happening to Elena, how will they respond? I hope you enjoy it, let me know what you think and I'll see you at the bottom.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries or the characters etc.

So on with the next chapter...

Chapter 5

They all braced themselves for the final Stefan scene. Bonnie started to chant again and the scene started to appear slowly.

It was a different room this time, in a different house to the last three scenes, but still very familiar. A woman in her 80s was sat in the bed, she was looking much older now.

"Is that your bedroom?" Caroline asked as she turned to Stefan.

"I think she's in the boarding house." Stefan agreed.

Stefan walked through the door. He headed straight over to Elena and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather be at home? He asked. She just shook her head. "I haven't sold the house yet, we can still go back." He assured her.

"No, I want it gone before I am." She said firmly.

"You still have time, loads of time."

"I'm not going to live forever Stefan." It was obvious he was in denial. "You won't want to see that place after I'm gone and I don't want it being left abandoned."

"Alright, I'll put it up for sale." He relented.

"Good." She nodded.

"She thinks she's dying." Bonnie commented, unsure whether it was true or not.

"I think she is." Elena said what no one else wanted to.

"How's Jeremy?" She asked. Stefan's face clouded over, he looked reluctant to answer, as though she had asked this question before.

"Elena, he's dead, remember?" He reminded her softly. She looked saddened.

"Oh, yes." She whispered as though she remembered although her face gave away that she didn't. "Is he-" She started to ask but Stefan interrupted with his answer before she finished.

"Yes, he knows, he's on his way."

"Good, you'll look after each other." It was supposed to be a statement but it sounded more like a question.

"We always do. Even when we hate each other." Stefan assured her.

"She's starting to forget things."Bonnie commented.

"I don't think she's 'starting' to forget. I think she's been that way for a while." Stefan observed.

"Where'd Caroline go?" She asked confused.

"She went to meet Tyler. She finally found him. She'll be back soon." Stefan explained, his tone weary as though he had had this some conversation many times before.

"Why? Where'd he go?" She sounded even more confused by his answer.

"He's been hiding. Caroline hasn't seen him since long before Klaus."

"Who?"

"No-one." Stefan answered. He didn't seem to want to remind her who Klaus was if she didn't remember.

"I don't think its regular old age that's making her forget." Caroline whispered. It was hard to see her best friend like this. She had seemed lucid at the beginning of the scene but now she was beginning to see why Stefan was so reluctant to sell the house, if she got confused then she might want to be back in it. Still, if she didn't remember Klaus then she may not remember her house, perhaps the boarding house held stronger memories for her. And older ones, she would be more comfortable in there.

"I think you're right." Elena agreed. She glanced over at the only person who hadn't said anything since this scene had appeared. Damon stood watching silently. She wished she could catch his eye to see what he was thinking, if he would let her, but his eyes remained fixed on her older self in the bed.

"Maybe you should get some sleep. You look tired." Stefan suggested his voice had taken on a permanent soft tone with her it seemed.

"I don't want to sleep!" She sounded annoyed, but still tired as though she needed sleep but hated that she did.

"I can fetch Katie." He offered.

"I don't need a carer." She insisted.

"I know, but with Caroline away I wondered if you wanted a female to talk to." He recovered, sounding mildly annoyed that Caroline wasn't there.

"I have you." She said irritably.

"Yes, you do." His soft tone laced with sadness. She looked up and reached a shaking hard for his and held it.

"I'm sorry." She apologised gently, her eyes looking a little more lucid again. "I forget how young you are sometimes. Forever 17."

"I don't feel 17." He admitted.

"But you should. Promise me you'll live when I'm gone."

"I've lived with you."

"No, I want you to really live, not as a human with a limited life span; I want you to enjoy life. Go all over the world, do things you've never done before. Fix things with your brother."

"We already did." He smiled. "And I have enjoyed my life."

"Promise me Stefan. I don't want you spending the rest of your eternal life grieving me. I want you to move on, find a girl, one that will spend eternity with you. The way I didn't."

"I'll try, I always knew you never wanted to be a vampire."

"Promise me." She refused to give in.

"I promise." He finally gave her what she wanted, his face a picture of sadness.

"I still became a vampire. Perhaps the best and worst years of my life. I could've lived it, I mean I survived it."

"You didn't want it. We all knew that."

"Maybe I made a mistake." She wondered aloud.

"No. No regrets now. That was the first rule remember?"

"Yes, that I remember." Her eyes were visibly changing, her lucid moment ending. "Tell me about my life." She requested. He nodded and smiled softly at her. He planted a gently kiss on her forehead as he tucked her into bed like a parent would a child then he sat on the edge of the bed and began his story.

"You live a normal happy life with all the normal problems until you were 17." He started. "Then you met this guy and you fell in love, and you met his brother. They turned your life upside down when you found out they were vampires. You have loads of adventures with them," He started to spin a rose coloured version of her life, leaving out the painful parts. "You risking your life to save everyone and everyone risking their lives to save you. You loved both the brothers. When the time came to make a choice you picked one and lived a long and happy life." He finished as he heard her starting to snore. He smiled sadly down at her then stood up and shook his head slightly before exiting the room. The scene started to fade.

"Well, that's one way to tell the story." Damon finally spoke up.

"He never said any names." Stefan commented unsure whether anyone else had caught it.

"Well obviously you were the one she fell in love with and picked." Caroline pointed out.

"I didn't meet Stefan first." Elena admitted.

"What are you talking about, of course you did." Caroline glossed over it.

"I was the one she picked in that scene, I don't know about in that story." Stefan finally admitted to the train of thought his future self had planted.

"Of course you were Stefan. You just didn't want to upset her with details." Damon assured him.

Elena turned to Damon now.

"Do you seriously believe you don't stand a chance?" Elena asked shocked and somewhat afraid of the answer.

"Let's not go into what I do and do not believe." He evaded taking another drink.

"Alright, how about we have a break before we start Elena's future if she chooses Damon?" Bonnie asked, although it sounded more like a demand, trying to defuse whatever argument was about to start. Everyone must have agreed because Elena headed to the kitchen, Caroline to the basement, Stefan upstairs and Damon out the door. "15 minutes!" Bonnie shouted to the disappearing vampires; their hearing being an advantage for once today.

Bonnie started to clear up to prepare for the next scenes. She would need new herbs and Damon and Elena's blood this time. If any of Stefan's was present on anything it wouldn't work, or at the very least it wouldn't have the desired results. She definitely didn't want to see Elena choosing them both, that wouldn't end well, and the spell was only supposed to work for two people, not vampires, to change any variables was a little risky. She hadn't told them that part. Once it was all set up she checked her watch, they still had 10 minutes so she sat down on the couch to rest while she waited. She began to process what she had seen. She had always preferred Stefan to Damon but not to the degree that Caroline did. Now however she was beginning to wonder. She knew Elena would live a long and normal life with Stefan, yes they had seen some hiccups but they had managed to gather that most of the time they lived in peace. Still Bonnie wondered how content Elena had been with it. She had told them, it wouldn't change how Elena felt, if she loved Damon then she would still love him whether she picked him or Stefan, the same was true for Stefan, it wouldn't change who she loved, only her choice and consequently the life she would lead.

Caroline sat with a blood bag having a break. She wasn't exactly sure how to react. She had been irritated at future Elena. She had Stefan and she couldn't stop bringing up Damon. If she looked at it objectively Caroline could see there were some problems but Elena had gotten the normal life she had always wanted, except she hadn't always wanted it. And she wasn't sure that she had wanted it when she had gotten it either. Still, Caroline refused to believe that Elena didn't belong with Stefan. She wasn't looking forward to watching Elena's future with Damon and although she would never admit it she was afraid it may actually turn out better. One thing she couldn't help but resent was that she had had to give up her own life for Elena, perhaps only 10 years of it, but to Klaus? She didn't even like Klaus, right? She sighed as she finished the bag, it was almost time to go back.

Stefan starting writing in his journal, he needed an unbiased outlet for his thoughts and he always found his journal the best place, no matter how much Damon mocked him for it, to do that. The scenes they had seen were confusing. They talked about how peaceful their life together was, but the scenes they were shown weren't peaceful. Yes, he knew Bonnie had said they were random they could be random flukes or they could be reflective of the life they could have, but he was still curious. The other unsettling fact was that the topic of his brother had come up in every one of the scenes. He couldn't help but wonder whether that was a regular occurrence or whether it just happened that way. He knew there had to be more to it. The way they weren't allowed to even mention his name, unless it was in the heat of an argument of which they rarely had, told him that much but like Bonnie said, it was unpredictable, they may never know what happened. The last scene however was the most troubling. Seeing Elena as an old woman with her memory fading and by the looks of it Alzheimer's was the hardest thing. What really got to him was his own reaction to it. It was obvious he was used to dealing with her like that be he seemed somewhat resigned to how she talked of her life. Almost as though she regretted it but didn't want to admit it. The way when he told her about her life he skipped the names. And Elena's comment. She hadn't met him first. That only veered his thoughts further towards what his future self seemed to think. What he didn't know was if he cared. Damon was always the selfish one, but perhaps this time... Maybe he could have Elena, but if she did choose him would he always be wondering if she really wanted him or whether it was really Damon? In her lucid moment she had asked after his brother he was sure. She hadn't said his name but he was sure that was who they were talking about.

Damon was on the outskirts of Mystic Falls. He wiped his mouth and sent the oblivious girl on her way. He knew they would file this under 'self destructive behaviour'. It was perhaps partially true in this case but he needed to get out of the house and get something to eat. She had been ideal. While they all tried to pretend they were still human, or as much as possible, he had no such illusions. He was a vampire and he embraced it. Watching Elena's future with his baby brother hadn't been easy, in fact it had been pretty hard. He hadn't wanted to come back for the last one, he hadn't wanted to come back period but Elena had insisted and she was his weakness. He could see where all this was headed even if she maintained she hadn't chosen yet and that he didn't know how it was going to go. He wasn't stupid, he knew how it worked. He was surprised he hadn't been blamed for all their 'arguments' by Caroline. The last scene had been most disturbing. Seeing Elena in that way, her dying was one of the things he had always tried to avoid and prevent at all cost, it seemed somehow wrong to see her dying naturally of old age anyway. But that was the life she had chosen. She had deteriorated quickly in the last 20 years, she went from seeming younger than her years to older than her years. Perhaps it was just because of the 20 year jump in the two scenes but it had seemed too big a change in that time. He looked at his watch it was time to head back, he didn't fancy making the witch angry, as enjoyable as it was the side effects weren't something he was in the mood to deal with.

Elena was once again stood in the kitchen with a glass of water. She felt a little guilty for how she had gotten Damon back into the boarding house but what she had told him was true. The last couple of scenes had been... enlightening... and confusing. As contradictory as it sounded. From what she could gather Stefan had killed an innocent girl to save Damon. Right now she couldn't see a problem with that. As much as she tried to deny it, as a vampire she saw human life in a different way. She would never like taking a life, but in a life or death situation she wouldn't think twice about snapping someone's neck. When she became human again obviously her sense of morality had changed back. She couldn't help but wonder what her future self had been getting at when she had been questioning Stefan about it. Perhaps it was unusual for Stefan to not try and find an alternative to the girl dying but she had chased after something else from Stefan. Something both he and Damon had understood but she hadn't quite grasped, not yet at least. The last scene had been... difficult, to watch. As a human she had known and accepted that death was a part of life, that growing and old and dying was an inevitability, if you were lucky enough to grow old first. Now though she was looking at an eternity at 18. Never growing old. Suddenly growing old and dying was foreign, it was an idea she was finding increasingly harder to reconcile with. But why had she chosen to be human, and stay human. She had almost expressed regrets. Hinted that she couldn't be a vampire for Stefan but maybe she could have been for some other reason. For someone else maybe? She couldn't be sure. The woman certainly hadn't been very lucid most of the time and Stefan had cut her off from saying or explaining what she was trying to say. The way she had spoken about Damon though, it implied he was doing better, Stefan had said they had already fixed things, she couldn't help but wonder if it was true. She heard the front door open, then steps coming down the stairs and up from basement. Checking her watch she put her glass in the sink and headed back in. It was time for her future with Damon. She couldn't help but feel intrigued.

Okay, I feel in a way that was a sad chapter. Next up we see Damon and Elena's future. I have written the next chapter. There are a few hints in this chapter that potentially set up a continuation of the story instead of just ending it with her choice. See if you can spot them. If anyone has anything they want to see in a Damon and Elena scene let me know. The major details are already worked out but your input on what you want to see them do/say is welcome. You got a little idea of what is going on in all of their heads. Future Elena did start to say something before Stefan stopped her. A little spoiler for a future chapter, it is the last Stefan future scene but it may not be the last scene from that timeline. okay, I think that's sufficient babble for this time of night ( 1:20am).

To my guest reviewers, I don't know how many of you there are or whether you did more than one review but thank you. You may have noticed that Elena was trying to say something and she did imply some things so you can take from that what you will. Yes I know what you mean about Caroline. You never know it may happen. I don't actually have a problem with her but when it comes to Damon she's a totally different person to normal. And thank you, it's here. I think that covered all three of you. Short of copying your reviews on here I can't really differentiate between you any better but hopefully you know if I'm talking to you. Thank you all of you that reviewed.

I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think and what you want to see you Damon and Elena, I have one scene set and one written but the other two are free. And see you in the next chapter. (*smiles*)