A/N: Sorry for the wait. But here's the last chapter. It is at last finished. So much for a short story with only 13 chapters but all the same it's done. I hope you enjoyed it. And i hope you enjoy this last chapter. Thank you all for reading and reviewing to it. And I'm sorry it took so long this last year. I know I've barely written any chapters in the last year, university got in the way and it's starting again in a week. But anyway, it's here now so I'll let you read and see you at the bottom.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries or its characters etc...
So on with the last chapter...
Chapter 20
Bonnie sat staring at her daughter. She felt a connection true enough. But she couldn't attribute it to anything stronger than knowing she was a Bennet witch. All the same she stood and walked over to the girl, who had now dropped the grimoire she was carrying. Taking her hands in her own. It was strange, looking at this girl, this woman, knowing she was her daughter but knowing she had to be nearly 10 years older than her. Again the woman repeated it.
"Mom?" her voice broke a little at the short word. Bonnie could see the little girl inside this woman at that point. She moved to embrace her, though this woman, her daughter, was taller than she.
"Not yet." Bonnie answered softly. "But I will be. And I'm gonna be so proud of you." She whispered, tears filling her own eyes, though she did not let them fall.
After a moment Stefan spoke up.
"Bonnie, we have to get back." He reminded them gently. Caroline nodded, wiping the tears from her own eyes. Elena moved over and laid a hand on the girl's shoulder and she peeled away from her mother and into Elena's arms; the only mother she had ever really known.
"I don't even know your name." Bonnie directed it at her daughter.
"That's probably for the best." Damon interrupted as he came to stand by Elena. "You have to pick her name on your own." Damon tagged on as an explanation. Bonnie nodded in understanding, wiping the tears that refused to fall from her eyes. Caroline moved over and embraced her. Elena released a slightly calmer witch from her arms. "You ready to do the spell?" Damon asked in a soft tone only Stefan could recognise from years so long past they could only be from his childhood. The witch nodded. She moved to pick up the grimoire she had dropped.
"I'm gonna need your help." She told her not-yet-mother. Bonnie nodded numbly. "You're going to need to cast two spells. This first one will take you to your own time Damon and Elena. If we both do the spell together we should have enough power to send you to them." She explained. She then turned the page to another spell and continued. "Then you'll have to use this spell. Again you'll need help. Your future self should already be there to tell you."
"They will also probably tell you about Jeremy. Sometime after I make my choice you'll tell me what you were told here." Elena added.
"This spell will send you all back to your own time." The other witch finally finished. Stefan, Caroline and Bonnie all nodded. The woman fished a piece of paper out of her pocket, "Here's the spell you'll need to use to get home from the other timeline." She passed it to Bonne. "I need to keep the book."
"I guess it's time to go then." Caroline commented hesitantly. "It was great to meet up, or see you, or…" Caroline trailed off not quite sure how to word it.
"You too." Elena responded stepping forward to hug her then Bonnie and Stefan too in turn. Damon just gave them all a nod. Then they all stood back and Bonnie and her daughter began to cast the spell. For a moment after the spell had been cast nothing happened. Then as though they had all just blinked they were somewhere else. They looked at their new surroundings, they were in a house. It wasn't a familiar house but at the same time it wasn't entirely unfamiliar. They appeared to be in a bedroom. They could hear voices downstairs. Caroline looked to check both Stefan and Bonnie were alright. They both seemed confused but healthy. She focused her hearing to the voices downstairs. She could make out the familiar voices of Stefan, Damon, Elena and… Herself?
"I think it worked." Caroline whispered, conscious that they were in a house of vampires who may be able to hear her.
"Then let's head downstairs." Stefan whispered back and started heading to the door. He was somewhat apprehensive to meet his potential future self but he knew they had to go down there if they wanted to get home.
"But what if…" Bonnie started but the two vampires were already out the door and creeping down the stairs. "Alright then." She sighed and followed suit.
Future Bonnie was sat in the kitchen looking at her old grimoires for the first time in decades. She hated it, magic, she had barely cast a spell since Jeremy died. For the longest time her husband didn't even know she was a witch, her son still didn't. She intended to keep it that way. But she couldn't help but he angry at her so called friends, or ex friends she supposed since she had had so little contact with them over the last 20 years or so, for dragging her back into this mess. She wanted out of magic. But for some reason they didn't seem to be able to accept that. So here she was to clean up a mess her past self had apparently made, a mess she didn't even remember happening. She could work it out in her head if she tried. With the information she had she figured there were two timelines, the one in which they had never come to the future, her timeline, and the one that had changed because they had come to the future. The new timeline. Meaning this future would never exist. She hadn't explained this to the others. It was a confusing subject. Because they did exist. They were all here. But because they came to the future what was this future to them would never happen to them, but still continue to exist for those of them that were already living it. This was why you weren't supposed to play with time, she knew that much. But they had. And now she had to find a way to send them back. She sighed as she flipped through the pages she knew would be useless. This kind of spell would take years to create. A commotion in the living room disrupted her thoughts.
In the living room there now stood 8 people. And there was total silence, nobody was quite sure how to respond. After a couple of seconds clapping started. Everyone turned to the source; Damon.
"Well done, you managed to suck us all into your little spell." His comment was directed at Bonnie. Elena slapped his arm and glared at him. He folded his arms and remained smirking.
"It wasn't her fault Damon." Stefan immediately jumped to her defence. Before the two brothers could start future Caroline stepped in the middle.
"Okay, enough, god, I forgot how bad you two are when you get in the same room together. It doesn't matter whose fault it is, the fact is we need to get you all home and we have no way of working out how."
"Actually we do." Bonnie piped up. "My…" she started before rethinking, "Well, in the other…" She was lost for words on how to describe it. In the end she decided on the straight forward approach. "It doesn't matter, we have a spell." She finished at last. At her declaration everyone started to speak at once. All with ideas of what this meant and whether it would work. In this commotion Stefan and Caroline pulled their past counter parts into the hall and out of the way.
"We need to talk." Future Caroline told them in an almost threatening voice. They both swallowed.
"What do you know of the future?" Future Stefan asked them, making sure to stay quiet lest they be overheard. At this both Caroline and Stefan looked at each other before looking their future selves in the eye.
"More than you do." Caroline answered back, her tone not giving away from nervous she was.
"Jeremy?" Future Caroline asked, knowing it would be a sure fire way to find out whether they knew.
"Yeah…" Stefan whispered, his voice heavy with sadness. "Yeah, we know about him."
"We know about Bonnie too." Caroline added to see what they knew.
"She just couldn't do magic after that." Future Caroline agreed sadly. Caroline and Stefan shared a look, future Stefan caught it.
"But that's not what you meant." He realised. Caroline looked like a deer in the headlights.
"We know more than you. We know why Damon and Elena can't know who lives or dies in which timeline." Stefan came to her rescue.
"We know Elena can't know." Future Stefan agreed.
"Nor Damon." Caroline persisted. As much as hated it she could see the reason. Sensing she was about to get an argument she began to explain. "If he knows he either tells Elena or hides it from her. Either way it's bad for their relationship." Future Caroline nodded in agreement but Future Stefan did not seem so happy.
"But since past me knows it'll damage my relationship with Elena, Damon's not even around to have a damaged relationship with her." He sounded annoyed, and perhaps in denial too. Caroline reached forward and put a comforting hand on his arm.
"The Elena here, in this timeline, she will always be yours. Nothing will change that. You're right, Damon isn't around. And he won't be for an awful lot of years yet. But in our timeline, with our Elena, she…" Caroline paused, steeling herself to say something she really didn't want to believe. "She's not yours. She's… She's Damon's. She belongs with him." She explained realising it to be true as she remembered the little things they did that showed it so well. She saw her Future self agreeing with her every word, as though she perhaps thought that even in this time it was true. "So he can't know." She continued. "But she will know, after the events we will tell her. When she no longer has to choose." Caroline promised. With that she gave future Stefan's arm a last squeeze and looked at her own Stefan. His jaw was set as though he hated what she had to say but couldn't refute it. She sympathised. Then with a nod they walked back to the others leaving their future selves to figure it out.
When they got back into the room there were two Bonnie's as well. And the room was silent. The older Bonnie seemed to be fuming and the rest were almost cowering from her. The younger Bonnie then spoke up.
"We have to do this spell together, to send us all back." She explained again, holding the piece of heavily creased paper to her older self. The older witch took it and skimmed her eyes over it. Then she nodded and disappeared back into the kitchen with it. Bonnie looked round for a second unsure what to do now before she followed her future self into the kitchen.
"Well, that was intense." Caroline commented, letting everyone know she was back.
"Yeah," Elena agreed with a sigh, her hand moving to rest on her shoulder where Damon currently had his hand in a comforting gesture.
"I guess we say our goodbyes then." Future Elena said after another few moments of silence. Everyone nodded. The good bye seemed a strange one with hugs all round. Damon even receiving one from Both Future Elena and Future Caroline. After that they all headed into the kitchen.
"Ready?" Bonnie asked as she saw them enter.
"I guess" Elena answered for them all. "I'm gonna miss you, kinda." Elena turned to her future self, the one she knew she would never turn into. She hugged the woman again and whispered a heartfelt thank you into her ear before releasing her and returning to her spot next to Damon, noticing both Stefans' eyes on her.
"Alright, everyone going back, over there." Future Bonnie pointed to one side of the room. "Everyone staying over here." She pointed behind her at the other side. Bonnie stood next to her in the middle as they began the spell together. As before at first nothing seemed to happen. Then this time everything blurred and moved. As everything became clear again they found themselves back in the Salvatore boarding house. It all looked exactly as they remembered. Elena about to walk over to Stefan still holding onto Damon's arm. Stefan was stood behind the couch and Caroline and Bonnie were sat on it. Everything exactly as it had been the moment they were whisked away by the spell.
Bonnie stayed sat for a moment as she fought off the dizziness that came with the exertion from the spell. She then cast her eyes on the cause of it all and rushed over to get rid of it. Caroline followed to help her, and to use it as an excuse to leave the others to talk.
Elena let go of Damon. She still needed to talk to Stefan but the look in his eye told her this would considerably easier than it would have been before their little trip.
"Stefan." Elena started, turning her back completely to Damon and walking over to him. "I need to talk to you first." She reiterated her original statement.
"I know Elena, but I don't think you do." His response was contradictory but she understood his meaning. All the same she grabbed his arm and lead him into the corridor before the parlour.
"I know you found out some stuff in the future. I don't know what but right now I don't need to. I learnt some things too. And while it made things clearer it didn't change my mind. I love you Stefan, you know that. But I'm not in love with you many more. And I can't change that. The me in that future. She loved you too. And she never regretted a day of her life with you, she told me so. But she regretted the choice she made. And I don't want to make the same mistakes. I mean, you saw the future too right? I have to follow my heart on this one. And I mean, it all turned out pretty good in the end right? Given enough time." There were a few stray tears running down her cheeks now, letting Stefan down like this was one of the hardest things she had had to do. She braced herself for the fight she knew must have been coming, the fight she had seen coming right before the spell went wrong. But it wasn't there.
"I know that Elena." He sighed, wiping her tears away. "You may have been in our future but I was in yours. I'm not gonna say it's okay. Because it isn't. Not yet. But I think it maybe will be. Because I saw the way you looked at him in that future. Like you were each others world. And I saw that missing while I was in the other. And I heard what Caroline said. That in that timeline you were mine. But in this one you belong with him. And as much as I don't want to believe it…" He paused as a lump built in his throat as he realised he had truly lost Elena and had to let her go. "I know it's true, I saw it." For a moment she looked at him with tears in her eyes, then she launched herself at him for a hug.
"You know he won't believe this until the sire bond is proved to be gone right?" She whispered tearfully. Stefan pulled back and nodded.
"Oh I know, you have a battle on your hands there Elena." He agreed as he wiped her tears away. "So you better start it now." He added nodding his head in the direction of his brother, who had just polished off another bottle. He watched her nod and walk away over to Damon. He watched her put her hand on his brother's arm to get his attention before he had to look away. He couldn't watch ot listen to what Elena would do or say to Damon, not yet. So instead he turned to see Caroline coming out of the Kitchen. She walked over to him and enveloped him in a hug.
"Let's get out of here." She suggested as they fled the house.
Elena wasn't sure whether or not Damon had listened in. Even if he had she wasn't sure he would believe what he heard. Or whether he had heard it all. She laid a gentle hand on his arm. She felt him tense.
"Damon?" She said his name softly. He turned and she found herself frozen.
"What Elena?" For a moment she was lost for words, then she blurted out the only thing she could think of.
"I love you." She said it fast and he wasn't sure he had heard it right. "I'm in love with you." She repeated, emphasizing what she meant. His lack of response spurred her to continue. "I know you probably don't believe me, and I know you'll think it's the sire bond and that the moment we break I will run back to Stefan but I won't. I know that. The future showed me that. In that future it was true that I didn't have any regrets about the life I shared with Stefan, but I did regret choosing him over you. And I won't make that same mistake again. It's you that I want. Now you may not believe me now, but I'm not gonna change my mind so I'll be here. When you're ready to accept it." She finished her little speech. Damon remained quiet. His eyes scrutinising her. Analysing her words. Then without any words in response he grabbed her and pulled her in for a kiss.
Okay, so I hope you enjoyed it. This is the end. I normally hate stories that end with a kiss but I felt it was the right way to end it, after all we already know what happens next as it is set within season 4 so it continues as the series does and then picks up 5 years later and we know how that turns out from the last 18 chapters so I felt any further would be prolonging it for the sake of prolonging it. I hope it cleared up how everything worked with future Bonnie. i appreciate it's a complicated concept but basically the Stefan and Elena timeline would only have happened if they hadn't done the spell to see the future so they don't remember it. But because they saw the future the Damon and Elena future happens so they remember it. Elena only chooses Stefan in 5 years time if she hadn't even chosen Damon. But because of this spell she does and again does at the end of season 4 and therefore isn't too scared to choose him in 5 years. I hope that cleared up any confusion as I won't be able to respond to any people that are confuse that aren't members that review or pm me so I figured I'm explain here. So, to any guest reviewers that may review to this chapter that I obviously can't respond to, thank you, I hope you enjoyed it. And to everyone else, thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think, And maybe I'll see you in another story. (*smiles*)