A/N: Sorry! I know it has taken me forever to get this chapter out but university life has been a little crazy and I literally just haven't been able to find the time or inspiration to write. (going to bed at 5am a few times will do that to you. The only thing I've wanted to do in my free time is sleep) But I finally managed to finish this chapter. My sister has actually started reading my other story as well so she keeps harassing me to update that. Anyway, this is week 7 of 10 so I'll be done with work soon. So I should have time in the holidays to write as my boyfriend will be at his home about 4 hours+, by car, away from me. (Yes, after almost 19 years I managed to get a boyfriend in 6 weeks) (oh and I'm now 19, yay!) So he won't be a distraction. And I plan to follow my true passion and write. I discovered this truth fresher's week but hey, it's only three years then a job so... this chapter is actually a bit longer that most of my previous ones. I plan to have it wrapped up by Chapter 20 but we'll see how it goes. Just to clarify, the '5 years into the future' means 5 years from the present they have come from not the future that they are in, and the future characters are recalling the events, so they're more like memories than just future scenes, and after the flashback is generally the alternative future to the one before the flashback. Also my internet is really dodgy here so it makes updating awkward since I have to move the laptop around just to get a signal. And finally I did put up my random little one shot a while ago so feel free to take a look if you want. So I hope you enjoy it, let me know what you think, and see you at the bottom.

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

So on with the next chapter...

Chapter 16

"That's what we called you about." Elena jumped in and started to guide her towards the kitchen. "We need you to send them home. 30 years ago."

"What?!" The woman exclaimed. Her shock doubled.

"You've done spells with time before. This is why it was so important." Elena explained.

"But, that means... I'll have to work with her." She sounded desperate.

"Maybe that's the point. A chance to do now what you never got the chance to do before." Damon suggested as he came up beside Elena slipping an arm around her.

Caroline watched the whole scene before her with interest. There was something in the way they interacted. The way Elena's body almost imperceptibly relaxed the moment it came into contact with Damon's, almost like every second away was painful. The same seemed to be true for Damon as well. What really intrigued her though was this new person. If she had to guess she would say she was a descendent from Bonnie, given she was only in her 20's possibly even Bonnie's daughter, but it was her reactions that piqued her interest. She seemed so disturbed by Bonnie's presence and then there was the way Damon and Elena acted with her. They were strangely gentle with her suddenly. Like they were coaxing a child.

"I don't know if I can do this." The woman, who usually seemed so strong, now sounded much younger and so vulnerable.

"Yes you can. Because you're strong, just like she was. Just like you were raised to be." Damon assured her. She nodded a little.

"Like we raised you to be. She doesn't even have to know. You don't have to tell her." Elena added.

Stefan and Caroline gasped but it went unnoticed by the others. The implications of Damon and Elena raising Bonnie's, mostly likely, daughter was something they dreaded to think about.

"Do you think that means...?" Caroline whispered. Stefan could only shrug, reluctant to admit that in all likelihood it did mean exactly what Caroline was asking.

"Okay. I think I left the grimiore with all that stuff in here." She said a little shakily. "I'll find it, I think I left it in Stefan's room, so I'll go grab it and see what I can find, let me know when she wakes up." Her tone was obviously an attempt to get down to business but there was still a hint of weakness in it.

"Since Stefan's not been around in a while she tends to stay in his room sometimes when she stays here. We tend to travel and she looks after the boarding house when we do." Elena explained to them after she had left the room.

"Was that...?" Caroline asked for confirmation of what she already knew.

"That's all to come. Now where were we?" Elena turned to Damon at the end. He guided them back to their drinks and poured more into the now empty glasses. Elena repeated the process of taking Damon's glass once he had taken a drink from it before handing him the second glass. He just smirked at her slightly but his eyes only showed the love that was reflected back in hers.

"I believe we were..."

5 Years into the Future-Both Futures

"I think we found a way!" Stefan announced as he walked through the door. It had been about a week since they had found out about Klaus' plan. The moment Caroline and Tyler had found out they had rushed back, they had arrived back a few days ago and everyone had been planning how to beat Klaus ever since. Elena had left them to it. She knew they needed to do this. They had to feel like they had done everything they could, but she also knew that ultimately they would lose, because somehow Klaus was always ten steps ahead, at least.

"Are you sure this is the only way?" Caroline asked, there was a reluctance and nervousness to her tone that raised alarm bells in Elena's head. "Does it have to be you?" She turned to Tyler who walked in just behind her.

"Yes Caroline, I'm the only one who can do this. It would be too dangerous for anyone else to try."

"He's right, we need him to be the one. None of us could even get close. He's a hybrid. He can do it." Damon added.

"This sounds dangerous." Elena piped up for the first time since they entered. "No one is dying for me. Not this time, not anymore." She put her foot down.

"That's why Tyler has to be the one to do this." Stefan explained.

"Do what?"

"Klaus is using a witch for this. We just need to stop the witch, but she'll be protected, so Tyler has to be the one to get to her." Damon told her.

"By stop her you mean kill her, don't you?"

"No." Bonnie suddenly spoke up. "If you can bring her to me I can incapacitate her without killing her. No one has to die."

"And if you can't?"

"We do what has to be done." Stefan said heavily.

"When?"

"Nope. Not gonna happen. We know how this works. You ask for a time frame for how long you have to go behind our backs and sacrifice yourself to 'save' everyone. Not happening." Damon's tone sounded light but she could feel the underlying message. She wasn't going to try anything this time. They weren't going to give her the chance. She almost turned to Stefan, knowing that if she tried she could probably get it out of him but she stopped herself. She still hadn't made a decision. She couldn't keep playing with them like this though. Instead she just remained silent.

"Okay." She conceded.

"Caroline should be here with Bonnie soon. I better go out to meet her." Stefan said looking at his watch. Future Elena nodded.

"You're right. I think I can entertain our guests." She smiled at him, he leaned down to kiss her cheek before exiting the room to gather his keys and heading out to meet Caroline. The moment the noise of the car disappeared Elena spoke.

"I still can't believe you're here." She smiled, turning to Damon. "I imagined seeing you again so many times. I just never thought it would be this way."

"This spell was supposed to help me decide." Elena told her future self.

"And did it?" Elena's eyes flicked to Damon briefly at the older woman's question.

"I think so." A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she tried to contain it. The older woman gave her a knowing smile then she stood and approached Damon. She reached for his head, caressing it slightly, her other hand reaching for the necklace still around her neck.

"Stefan's going to be gone a while. Do you think you could fetch something from the boarding house for me? Something he doesn't know about. It's a letter I wrote 25 years ago. I left it in your room. No one's been in there since you left so it should still be there." She explained.

Damon got the distinct feeling this was more about trying to get him out the house so the two Elena's could talk than about a letter she wrote 25 years ago but he obliged all the same.

"I'll take my time." He nodded then moved towards the door, Future Elena released his hand as he moved out of reach. He gently rubbed Elena's arm slightly as he passes and she gave him a smile as he left the house.

"You wanted to talk?" Elena asked her future self once she was sure Damon was out of earshot.

"Yes, but he already knew that, you didn't need to wait. You're both more in tune with each other than you realise." She explained as she led her to sit on the couch.

"What do you mean?" Elena asked confused.

"You'll see. So about your choice. You said you had made a decision?"

"I did."

"Does he know?"

"No one does."

"Then I won't ask. I will however give you some advice, whether you take it is up to you." Elena just nodded a go ahead. "Don't base your decision on fear. Don't over think it. I know it's cliché but follow your heart, because you'll regret it your whole life if you don't. I don't know how this spell works, or what a life with Damon would be like, but I know what a life with Stefan is like. I love Stefan, I honestly do. But I can't tell you I don't wish I could see Damon again, even just one more time, every day since I lost him. Just to tell him even once that I love him. I can't tell you who to pick. I don't know if life with Damon would be better or not, but I do know it wouldn't look like this. Trying to be something we can never be. Trying to be a normal human family. I am happy with my life. Don't doubt that. But I can't deny that I often wish it was something else. Not that I'll ever tell Stefan. It would break him to hear that now." Future Elena finished her monologue. Elena smiled at her and nodded.

"I've seen it." She started. "The spell allowed me to see a life with Stefan, or moments from it, and a life with Damon. I made my choice based on that, mostly. You will see him again you know. It'll be a long wait but you will. I can promise you that." Elena watched her older self's face light up at that. Elena suddenly heard a noise and her whole body went on alert. "He's back." She stated. Her older self just nodded knowing exactly who that he was. Seconds later someone walked through the door.

"Is this what you wanted?" Damon asked holding up a fairly old looking envelope as he walked back into the room.

"It is, thank you." She said softly as she reached for it, her hands shaking ever so slightly as she held it to her. "Perhaps it's time I continue on with the story." She suggested, moving further over on the couch so Damon could take a seat as well. She then rose and walked over to a cupboard across the room and picked something out of it. As she turned Damon and Elena spotted a bottle of what was presumably bourbon and some tumblers. "I figured you'd be ready for refreshments by now." She smirked slightly, though not to the degree they had seen Future Elena do in the other future. They both nodded as Future Elena started to pour them all a drink.

Once she had finished she resituated herself on the couch leaving her own glass untouched as the other two immediately reached for the glasses and took a sip. She smiled slightly thinking of the cravings she used to have and how they always said the alcohol helped somehow. She could no longer remember whether it was true.

"So, where was I?" She started to recall her story again.

5 Years into the Future-Both Futures

She knew tonight was the night they were going through with their plan. It wasn't like they'd told her, it was just that they were all mysteriously busy tonight. Even Jeremy didn't have time. Besides it wasn't like they had any other time to follow through with their plan. Klaus had decreed that the ritual take place tomorrow night. They were running out of time. She hated that she was just staying at home waiting for the news. That she couldn't be involved or that they wouldn't just let this happen. Didn't they know by now that Klaus never gave up, that he always won, that he always had a back up? She sighed and took a large gulp of her bourbon. It stung as it went down. She hated the stuff, what was she still doing drinking it? She placed the empty glass back on the table and pushed herself up out of the chair. She needed to clear her head, to make a choice. She headed towards her bedroom, she had her own since she was at the current moment involved with neither Salvatore brother, to do the one thing that had always helped in the past; writing in her diary.

It was hard to decide at what point their plan switched from working to being doomed. It could have been when they realised the witch wasn't alone. It could have been before that when Bonnie decided she had to stay home and bring the witch to her instead of the other way round. Or it could have been the moment Tyler had to kill her instead as a last resort. The witch in every way seemed to belong to Klaus. Which had meant from the edge of her property no vampire could cross. That was why Tyler as a hybrid had been the only option. The spell the witch had used did not differentiate between which hybrid was passing through. Since Tyler hadn't been around for a while and he was the only other untrusted hybrid, combined with the fact that the witch needed to conserve her strength for tomorrow's spell, meant the need to make it exclusive to Klaus seemed somewhat redundant.

Tyler had reached the house in relative safety. Only a few wooden stakes had hit him but had he been a regular vampire there was no doubt he would have been dead by now. Stefan, Damon and Caroline watched from the sidelines. The tables turned when the witch answered the door. Predictably she was shocked to discover a hybrid that wasn't Klaus on her door step. However before Tyler could speak she had recovered enough to call for back up. The next few seconds went by too quickly for any human to truly comprehend. The witch set one foot outside her house as she turned to her cousin. Tyler grabbed her with inhuman speed ready to make a run for it, before he took more than a step the cousin used her power to bring him to his knees. The pain crumpled him but he held tightly to the witch, almost unconsciously. The cousin seemed to hear something that Tyler in his pain could not, perhaps her cousin screaming. She eased up for a moment. In that second the unmistakable sound of a neck snapping could be heard. Everyone froze as the witch they were after collapsed to the ground, her head at a strange angle to the rest of her body. The vampires reacted fastest, using their supernatural speed to get out of there. They could still hear the cousin shouting a threat to curse Tyler for what he had done. Knowing witches as they did they could be sure it wasn't a bluff.

"So that's why Tyler isn't around? That witch?" Caroline asked as that part of her life started to slide into place.

"Yeah, pretty much." Damon nodded.

"Of course there's a little more to it than just that, but that's the why. The how it where things got messy." Elena added. "But I think I need a little blood refreshment first before we go into that." As both her and Damon headed towards the basement they were disturbed by a noise. There was a groan, followed by an increased heartbeat before a voice made them all jump.

Okay. I hope you liked it, let me know what you think. After this chapter the flashbacks should start to branch off into the different timelines. And you'll start to see how her choice now impacts her choice in the future. They aren't independent events as they may seem right now. We are also seeing how Tyler came to leaving. And the two Elena's finally had their talk. Don't worry she will talk to Damon too. I wonder what she's going to do with that letter, or what's in it. And Caroline and Bonnie are on their way in Stefan and Elena's future. I wonder how they will react.

So, onto the guest reviews. To Guest 1, thank you, I will, and I'm trying to find the time to because I do love this story. To Guest 2, Yeah, me too. They're pretty awesome, te-he. I'm sorry it's been so long. I try to update sooner, it just doesn't always happen and thank you. It means a lot to hear. And to Guest 3, I know, I loved writing that little scene. It really gives you a feel for them day to day in a way the future scenes didn't necessarily do. I'm glad you think so, I quite liked it too. And again, I'm so sorry for the wait, I'm trying to be quicker but settling in to a new place and work load and social life (I didn't have one before, now I go clubbing at least once a week, it's crazy) has taken time. Anyway I'll try to do better next time.

So thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think, and see you in the next chapter. (*smiles*)

(P.S. I know there was no random ideas this time but rest assured they aren't gone for good. te-he. I can imagine half of you cringing at that.)