Author's note: This is it. Last chapter before the epilogue. I want to thank all of y'all who've reviewed so faithfully. I'm afraid I've fallen behind on replies, but I do appreciate reading all the comments from everyone.

Elena walked over the carefully manicured grass between the rows of multicolored stones. Damon stayed close behind, just far away to give her a little private time at the place they'd both spent time through the years.

She hadn't told him what she'd said to Jeremy the day before, and he didn't say anything when she came home and spent the next several hours in her office writing. From time to time, he hovered in the doorway, and he looked away when she placed the four letters she'd written atop her desk. If they needed the letters later, Jon and Isobel would know what to do with them.

Damon moved solemnly around the house. Fixing a loose doorknob here. Winding the old cuckoo clock. Hanging the tiny chandelier they'd hidden away for Emma's birthday above her bed. Neither spent too much time looking in the still-undecorated nursery. Perhaps after tonight was over, Elena would be ready…but not yet. There was still too much at stake.

Without voicing what they were doing, they'd each tied up all their lose ends. Almost.

Elena just had one more to complete.

"Hello, Stefan." She ran her fingers along the cool charcoal stone. She took a deep breath and flinched. A tear hovered at the corner of her eye, and she didn't bother wiping it away. If she broke her focus, she'd likely have more than a single tear to deal with. "I know what I said last week. I'm sorry. I said some things I shouldn't have, but I was beyond angry." She shook her head back and forth. "Honestly, I still am. You shouldn't have taken the risk."

Elena chewed her lip. "But I understand now."

"I wish I'd known what you were planning, but you knew what you were doing. And you knew me too well. You were right. I would have never agreed, not knowing about the future. Still." Elena glanced above her head, watching a single sparrow flutter above her head in the almost-too-blue sky. "Without the help you got from Bonnie, I would never have had the chance to get to know Claire - or Brayden or Nathan or Emma. I wish you could have known them. Especially Claire."

"Damn it, Stefan. You've missed so much. Claire's amazing, and it's so funny how much she's like you." Elena laughed to herself. "She's definitely inherited your ability to brood, but she also has your smile and your laugh, even if we don't hear it too often. I'm not angry anymore. Thank you for giving me the chance to know all my children."

She rested her hand atop the one she had yet to know, the one she wasn't certain she'd ever meet.

Turning to Damon, she fought for a forced smile, "I'm ready now."

The sun hung low in the sky as Elena reached for the water bottle next to her. She fished in her purse until she found her bottle of Tylenol. Glancing at the clock, she frowned. Not long enough since the last dose, but then she looked out the window again - the sky was painted a bronze-pink. She was out of time. From this point on, there'd not be time to stop, no matter how she felt.

Opening the bottle, she poured two pills into her hand and popped them into her mouth. She saw Damon studying her out of the corner of his eye. "I'm fine."

"I know you are." He pulled his car to a stop at the edge of the woods. He wasn't entirely surprised to count the other vehicles and realize they were apparently the last to arrive. He didn't know what Katherine planned to do - only that Isobel said he needed to trust Katherine.

Trust Katherine.

God, those words didn't belong in the same sentence. No matter what she'd planned, killing an Original wasn't an easy task. When Josef realized he'd been tricked - there was no doppelganger in the clearing...they'd be lucky if any of them walked out standing.

And damn it, there was one member of the group who was definitely walke away from this, no matter what he had to do to keep her alive. He'd left a note to explain what he'd done, that he only did what he had to do, and he told her that he'd do it again. She'd find it later. After it was too late for Damon to say he was sorry.

Sorry didn't even begin to describe it. When he'd turned, it was because he couldn't have dreamed of a life spent without Elena. He couldn't watch her grow old and leave him behind.

Now he was about to do the very thing he'd promised he'd never do. He was going to leave her. Someday, she'd understand why.

Damon remembered what had happened to Katherine's family. He was prepared.

He stepped out of the car and retrieved Elena's jacket from the trunk. Opening the door for her, he helped her out, not ignoring how painfully slowly she was moving. At any other time, he'd probably have made her call her doctor by now.

Something wasn't right. He wasn't blind. She'd tried to hide it, but he knew things hadn't been exactly right most of the week. If she made it out of this, her first stop was going to be the emergency room. She just didn't know it yet. He offered her jacket to her. "It's getting cold out."

She tugged on the jacket, and her eyes widened in surprise when she felt the surprise he'd tucked into a pocket. "One of Alaric's?"

"Bonnie helped a little." Damon didn't know just how effective the spell she'd cast on the stake might be. Right now, he didn't care. Any tiny edge would give Elena a better chance of getting away when the time came.

"Let's do this." Elena had an edge to her voice that frightened him. She was using her old I'm-a-badass voice. The voice she used just before she slapped him. The voice she used before she took on Katherine. The voice she used before she told Klaus to go to hell. That voice scared him more than the four letters she'd left on her desk.

Josef would never step back out of that clearing. If Katherine's plan didn't work, they weren't going down without a fight. Elena turned and faced Damon. As their eyes met, they knew an unspoken truth - something that neither was willing to voice aloud.

For the first time, he realized Elena didn't plan on making it out of this either.

They were two halves of a single beating heart.

Elena reached for Damon's hand and entwined her fingers with his. Together they stepped into the woods for their meeting with destiny.

Breaking through the edge of the clearing, Elena surveyed the familiar faces already clustered ... waiting.

Katherine.

Jeremy.

Bonnie.

Lucy.

Alaric.

Jackson. She stared at him the longest, wondering what Jenna must be thinking right now. Her nephew was here to face off with an Original vampire. Just the thought threatened to make her ill. He was just a kid, no match for a regular vampire, much less an Original. The implications of that knowledge couldn't be lost on her aunt. She looked between Jackson and his father. "You shouldn't be here."

"It's never been safe to be in Mystic Falls." He spoke with the authority of someone who'd come face to face with death.

A twig snapped and they all turned as one. Josef stepped boldly into the open space at the edge of the woods with an unfamiliar young man at his side.

Of course. Original or not, he wouldn't have come unprepared. Elena looked up at the full moon just above the horizon, to break the curse required a werewolf. Did this man know he was taking his last stroll through the moonlight? Somehow she didn't think so.

"Pleasure to see you again, Damon, Katherine, Elena." Josef nodded to each in turn. "I'm afraid I haven't had the pleasure of meeting the rest of your guests. I didn't expect such a large welcoming committee." He lips pursed with distaste. "I was under the impression that this was to be an agreeable exchange." He glared in Katherine's direction.

Elena had the strange feeling that she was caught up at the showdown at the OK Corral. She cast a guilty look at the rest of her friends...she knew which side was likely about to lose. If Katherine's plan was unsuccessful, Sheriff Forbes was going to have quite a mystery on her hands, and Mystic Falls was going to enter another extended period of mourning.

She really wished she knew what Katherine's plan was. She'd been on the run for years, and now she was convinced she knew how to defeat an Original? Elena wanted to believe Katherine wouldn't lie to them – not now, not about this. But she'd lied to them so many times before. Her heartbeat raced in her chest, and Elena wondered if Damon could even hear it now.

"Since we're on a bit of a schedule..." Josef motioned in the young man's direction. "I believe you have something for me."

Katherine gave a calculated nod. "I believe you're waiting for this?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out the tiny white oval that had been the cause of so many wasted lives.

"You really have the moonstone." Josef's eyes widened and he drew in a quick breath. He held out his hand as he took a step in Elena's direction.

Squaring his shoulders, Damon placed himself between Josef and Elena.

"You can't wait, can you?" Katherine taunted. "So eager to have Perenell back at your side..." She drew Josef's attention away from Damon and Elena. "This is the key." She held up the stone and shook it. "So much attention on this little rock." She dropped it onto the ground next to her. "If a vampire makes the sacrifice, they all get to walk in the sun again. But I know that's of no interest to you. You don't seem to have a problem with the sun."

"I just want my wife back." Josef's voice cut like steel.

Katherine continued as if he'd never spoken. "If a werewolf makes the sacrifice, they regain the power to control their transformations. I'm sure you'd love that." She turned her attention to the young man who was watching the exchange with confusion. "And, you'll receive the werewolf who bit Perenell back as part of the bargain." She gave the man a questioning look. "Does anyone even remember his name?" She waited for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. "No?"

She turned to Lucy and Bonnie. "There was a third way to break the spell. Did you know that?" She gave an indulgent smile in their direction. "Like I said before, you witches need to do a better job of recording your history. Thankfully, I spoke with a Bennett witch far before your time."

A self-satisfied look came over her face. "If the doppelganger makes the sacrifice, then the curse is simply broken...and the moonstone is destroyed."

Katherine turned and gave Elena a wicked grin. "She's not the doppelganger."

"What are you saying? Of course she is." Josef lunged in Katherine's direction, but couldn't quite reach her. Elena realized the two witches must have more than one surprise ready for tonight.

"Really, she's not." Katherine laughed as Josef lunged in Elena's direction. "I am." She whipped a knife from her pocket and sliced deeply into her own arm. As the blood dripped over the moonstone, it sizzled and glowed with a golden light. Kept back by the magical barrier, Josef was forced to simply watch and wait.

"I believe I promised you that you'd never see Perenell again. Trust me. I always keep my promises." She stared into Elena's eyes without blinking. "I told you I'd protect Emma." Katherine smiled. "I was once a mother too." She plunged the knife deeply into her chest and dropped to the ground before anyone else even had the chance to realize what was happening.

Josef lunged for Elena, and Damon tried to block his path. Josef batted him through the air as if Damon were no more than a fly.

Elena's scream caught in her throat as Josef took hold of her shoulders. His fangs bared, his face morphed into an inhuman mask as she felt the flesh in her neck began to tear. Not taunting or intimidating now - she realized he fully intended to kill her...and that was his mistake.

As she watched Katherine's chest rise with its final breath, the moonstone dissolved into the earth beneath it.

She remembered one thing from her experience with Elijah. When the sacrifice was complete, the Original is vulnerable. Ignoring the pain coursing through her, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the stake.

Clutching the solid wood in her hand, she lashed out with every ounce of strength she had left. "Go to hell, Josef."

The first thing she heard was a soft beeping sound amid the mechanical whirring in the room. She's obviously in a bed. Not her bed. And definitely not a hotel. Had Damon taken her away for the weekend?

Her memory was muddled. Sluggish.

Elena struggled to open her eyes, but the light burns. Everything burns, really. And she's hot...really, really, really hot.

She smacked her lips together. They're chapped, and she has an odd metallic taste in her mouth. She ran her hand over her forehead, surprised to find it dry. Since she felt like she'd just raced in a marathon, she expected to be covered in sweat.

Why was there a plastic tube running into the back of her hand.

Damn. Everything started coming into focus.

"You're hot because of the magnesium sulfate." Damon ran a washcloth over her cheeks. "That explains why you're thirsty too."

Her eyes finally began to focus, and she was sad to see the deep-set circles under his eyes. He took hold of her hand and leaned over the bed. "Exactly when were you going to tell me about the problems with your blood pressure?"

Elena smacked her lips, and he placed an ice chip in her mouth. "Didn't exactly seem like a high priority."

Damon's jaw tightened - never a good sign. He squeezed her hand more tightly, and his voice seemed strained. "You are always my top priority." He kissed the back of her hand before he wiped her face again. "You almost died, and it had nothing to do with our unwelcome visitor." His voice had moved into lecture-mode. He sounded like he did when he was discussing Nathan waiting until the night before the science project was due to get started.

Kids. They had kids.

Elena's eyes widened in fear as she turned to the monitor at her side.

"Lily's fine. Totally stable. She's not the one who was in trouble." His eyes filled with tears. "We were worried about you." He smoothed her hair out of her face. "You, in your infinite stubbornness, have earned yourself at least a three week stay in this fine establishment." He looked around the room. "So I hope you like the view."

As the fuzziness faded away, she was able to remember what she was doing before she ended up here. She reached for her neck.

"You may have had a run-in with one of the rabid dogs while you were walking in the woods. Exercise is great, but you should have been paying more attention to your surroundings." He looked back at the doorway. Seeing no one, he leaned over the bedrail. "Katherine's gone - so's Josef. By the time all hell had finished breaking lose, the wolf was missing too."

"How?" Elena's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "I don't understand."

"Lucy helped her." He gave a ghost of a smile. "When she saw that I was human, Katherine knew it was possible. She'd never had the curse lifted, she'd just become a vampire to keep from being sacrificed. Unlike you," he inclined his head to Elena, "she was still a doppelganger."

"She died."

Damon's voice grew softer, and a serious expression hovered around his eyes. "She knew what she was doing. I guess Katherine finally found something more important than staying alive."

"I didn't know she had it in her."

"Neither did I."

A soft knock came from the doorway. Damon turned and smiled. "Someone's here to see you...a few someones, actually." He waved toward the doorway.

"Remember what I said." Jon's voice came from the hallway.

"Your mother needs to rest." Isobel prompted. Elena realized just how much time her parents were spending together lately. She didn't see that coming, just like she hadn't seen Katherine actually keeping her word.

"We know." Brayden sounded bored. "Be really quiet. Don't make any extra noise. Just say hi and leave."

Elena laughed as Brayden and Claire came in first. "Hi Mom." Claire carried in a cluster of balloons. "Dad said you needed a few decorations since you're going to be here a while."

"Thank you." Elena tried to push up on the bed.

"Nope. No exertion. That means none. You'll be lucky if they let you out of that bed to pee." Damon shook his head. "Let me help." He pushed a button and raised her head up a few more inches. "You two can come in too."

Nathan carried in a stuffed sea turtle. "We brought you a souvenir." He pursed his lips. "Claire named him George."

"I think he looks like a George." Claire gave her brother a playful shove on the shoulder.

"He can be George." Elena turned to Emma as she was trying to hoist herself up on the foot of the bed. She had a faint hint of red across her nose. "Someone forgot her sunscreen."

"Someone wriggled too much when we were trying to put it on to get a good coat. Just like someone else I remember." Jon came to stand behind Emma, giving Elena a pointed look.

Emma held out a framed picture that Elena didn't recognize. Clearly sunset, the four children stood in a tight knot at sunset. A wave crashed behind them - frozen in time. "Miss Isobel took it." Emma pressed it into Elena's hand. "Do you like it?"

"I think it's a beautiful picture. Did you have a good time?"

"The best! We saw turtles and sea gulls and starfish. Brayden got bit by a crab. Claire stood up on a boogie board. And guess what?" Emma gushed away.

"I don't know, what?"

"I can swim now." She turned and beamed at John standing in the doorway. "Uncle Jon taught me."

"Not in the ocean." He took a vase of roses from Isobel and carried to Elena's bedside table. "We had a heated swimming pool at the hotel."

"It was awesome! The hot tub changed colors at night." Brayden came to stand along Elena's bedside. "We have to go back there sometime. One of the lifeguards said there are even nights when the sea turtles are nesting."

"Sounds amazing."

"It really was. We had a good time." Claire gave a hesitant smile.

John stepped closer and patted Elena's shoulder. "We should let your mom get some rest."

"But she just woke up!" Brayden complained.

"I know that." John looked down at him. "But you remember what we talked about."

"The rules." Emma was using her bossy little sister voice.

"You're going to be alright, though, right, Mom?" Claire asked.

Damon came to stand behind Claire. "Your mom's going to be fine. But she's going to need to stay here a few more weeks."

"Weeks?" Emma's eyes opened wide.

"Weeks." Damon nodded. "Your little sister's not quite ready yet."

"Will she have to stay till Lily comes?" Claire looked up at the fetal monitor.

"Let's just take that one day at a time." Damon hoisted Emma off the bed. "For now, can y'all be good for Uncle Jon and Miss Isobel for one more night?"

"We can." Nathan looked pointedly at Brayden.

"Okay guys, let's go." Jon herded the family out of the room.

Already fighting a losing battle with her eyelids, Elena ran a hand over her belly. "So we're going with Lily?"

"For now at least." He crossed the room and closed the blinds. Walking back to her side, he pulled a chair up next to the bed.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

Damon gave a long sigh. "Just close your eyes. Just get some more rest. Your doctor's wanting you to make it five more weeks. And then we'll have five at home."