Title: Miles To Home
Summary: For Elena Gilbert life couldn't be more perfect. She has the perfect life, perfect boyfriend, and headed towards the perfect dream job. Everything is going, well, perfectly. There's just one catch… her twin sister Katherine. When Katherine disrupts Elena's perfect life, she runs away to New York. It was the perfect plan… until she has to return home and face everything she ran away from; including her ex-boyfriend Damon. Based off the amazing trailer of the same name by the extremely talented minds and video editing talents of ElePatro (noralsel) and Caro (_LightToMyDark).
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. No profit is being made from this work.
A/N: If you know me you know I hate odd numbers. It's why most (if not all) of my stories end on an even numbered chapter. It's also why I tried to stretch this chapter into two but doing so would just be dragging this ending out unnecessarily. Thank you so much to dobrevdelenaxo on twitter for bringing this story to my attention and suggesting I bring it to life. Another huge thank you to Ele and Caro for trusting me with their creation and putting their editing talents to words. Since this story is over you readers have no more excuses and you should honestly check out the video for this story AND the rest of Ele's amazing creations. I honestly can not thank you enough for letting me try and I hope I did it justice.
And finally, thank all you readers for reading and reviewing and following along with this story. I appreciate every single reviewing who took time to share their thoughts and reaction and let me talk with you about this story and your feelings. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
So without further ado… Here is the conclusion of Miles to Home! Enjoy! See you down below…
"That's the last of it," I breathe, collapsing on Damon's—my couch.
All of my boxes from my family home, New York, and my storage container have all made their way into Damon's loft space. We spent the better part of a week divvying up our things; deciding what worked for us and what we could do without. Somewhere along the way Damon's craftsmanship and love for industrialization mixed in with my country traditionalist and created the space in front of us. It's complete with a new bedroom set and living room furniture lined all over with book cases for all my books and Damon's DVD collection.
And I have to say the place looks pretty amazing; even if it's vacant and bare and full of cardboard boxes.
Damon takes up the seat next to me, handing be a bottle of beer as we both rest our feet up on our new coffee table. Most of the new stuff came right from his pocket and whatever I could get for selling my things and it had me feeling at odds about the whole thing. Damon quelled all my thoughts before it could turn into something bigger. We're building our future together. I'll have plenty of time to make it up to him once I figure out my life.
"Now we just have to get all unpack," he says, throwing his arm around my shoulder and looking like it's the last thing he wants to do.
My head rests against him. He's in track shorts and a faded concert tee, sweaty from helping the moving guys get in the furniture and boxes. It's not like I'm ready for the runway either. My hair is up in a messy bun and I'm in shorts and a tank top, covered in sweat and smelling like cleaning products. We're both exhausted and the thought of unpacking all these boxes and organizing our things sounds like a nightmare.
"Can we just rest a bit first?" I ask, closing my eyes and taking a swig. Then a thought hits me. "When are Caroline and Stefan coming?"
He checks his watch. "In about an hour."
"We'll wait for them," I smile, snuggling closer to Damon. "Caroline is a pro at these things."
I take another sip of the beer and swallow just enjoying this moment with Damon. When we ended things in high school, I never could've imagined that we would find our way back to each other. Everything seemed so broken that the very thought seemed impossible. I had to put miles between us and pretend that he no longer existed but I still couldn't shake him.
And no matter how much time had passed, it seemed Damon couldn't shake me either.
"So, where is this fancy restaurant you're taking me to," I sing, looking up at him. He's been keeping this whole date thing I secret since I strolled back into town for good and we decided to move in together. It's been a long time coming and I feel this tremendous weight over the whole thing. I can tell he feels it too.
Damon smiles down at me, leans forward and brushes his lips against mine. "It's a surprise."
I pout and he takes a sip from his bottle. "You know how much I hate surprises."
He shakes his head. "No, you love surprises. You're just impatient and nosey."
Damon smirks down at me and I lightly punch his stomach, pulling away from him. But he's having none of that. Instead, he wraps his arms around me and pulls me in closer. "I just want tonight to be perfect. Can you blame me?"
"It's okay if it isn't perfect," I stress. "I just want to be with you. That's all I need."
It's taken me a long time to realize how impossible perfection is. It used to be something I strived for but now after seeing all the damage it's caused, I can't bear the thought of it. Perfect isn't real. It's not achievable and it creates this belief that you can't fail; and failing is a part of growth.
Damon and I aren't perfect by any means. We fight and argue and make mistakes but we're real. I know where he stands and he knows the same from me. We both know that all those horrible things we may say are because we're fighting for us, fighting to make us work. He's as much into making this work as I am. We're on the same team.
It's what I now know was missing from my relationship with Elijah. I loved him because we were together for so long and it was what I thought I wanted—what my parents wanted for me. He was successful and driven and came from a good family. He was the definition of perfect. There's nothing wrong with that. Some other girl will be lucky to have him. But the connection with me wasn't there. We we're trying to make something work that just didn't. We were checking things off a list. Not living our lives together, figuring things out.
My relationship with Elijah wasn't what I have with Damon. Not by a longshot.
"You, me, and eggplant parmigiana. That's all you're getting from me."
I hitch my legs over his lap. "Is it dinner time yet?" I smile.
"Soon," he whispers, kissing me again.
"You look stunning, if it isn't obvious."
I smile, looking down at myself. I'm wearing a floral navy dress with a cardigan, my hair set in waves with a section of it pulled off to the side with a clip. It's not as if I'm in some expensive ball gown with piles of makeup on my face like all the fancy galas I had to go to with Elijah. This is simple, easy; and yet, I put effort in to look good tonight. But I know Damon and he would find me just as beautiful now as he did earlier today.
A blush creeps along my already rosy cheeks. "Thank you."
He pushes in my chair and walks around the candlelit table to take his own seat. I watch as he takes a sip of his water before my eyes scan the place. It's crowded yet intimate with candles and Christmas lights illuminating the place and I would know it anywhere. It's where Damon and I had our first date.
I should've known the second he brought up eggplant parmigiana.
More than five years later and he still remembered…
You're an eggplant girl, huh?
Is that bad? You don't like eggplant.
Love it. Just taking notes. Mental notes.
For what? Our second date?
I was thinking… five year anniversary.
We we're both awkward and full of nerves but yet that one line from Damon eased all of it. He was so sure of this thing between us even while I was still dealing with his past and fighting about him with my parents. Damon never gave up on us even when he didn't feel I would understand him, he never gave up on us. Even when we both ruined it all.
"I can't believe this place is still here," I say, my eyes landing back on his face.
He's smiling, brilliantly. He's happy and I love every moment of it. "Look at everything we overcame? This place had it easy."
I smile; reaching for the menu even thought I already know what I plan on ordering. He's right. Somehow we got our second chance—our second start. This time we're going to get it right. Universe be damned.
Raising my glass of water, I bring it towards the center of the table and watch as he does the same. Our glasses clink and I meet his eyes and say, "Here's to second chances."
"Here's to us," he amends.
"And never walking away, always being honest.
My eyes hold on to his to show him just how much I mean it. We were kids before but we made some big mistakes, mistakes I made once again when I returned home. Both of us claimed to have grown up in our time apart but it was clear I still had some learning to do. Now with New York and the past behind me I can finally embrace all I was running from before.
"We could be at this all night," he teases, "and I have more than just dinner in mind."
We pull away our glasses, each of us taking a sip; our eyes never leaving each other's face.
Before I can ask him to elaborate on what he has in mind, our waitress comes to the table and we both order our dinner. Damon pairs it with some fancy drink I've never heard of and I let him. She leaves and then it's only the two of us together with nothing but the rest of the night ahead of us. It feels nice not to have a moment loaded with tension for a change.
"So," Damon begins, smiling at me. "What's next?"
I tilt my head at him. "What do you mean?"
"I mean… You've changed your whole life, we're living together…what's the plan?"
I sigh, my head falling forward a bit as I stare at my plate and silverware. When I look back up Damon is still watching me, waiting patiently for an answer. I'm just not sure I have the kind of answer he's hoping for. I know I should have a plan by now—I always do, but this time it's just different. I'm different.
"I don't have one," I say, honestly. "Is that bad?"
He shakes his head and I see the compassion in his eyes I so greatly need right now. I've never been this unsure of my future before. It's something I'm not sure I would be able to handle if I didn't know Damon was by my side. He lived a life of uncertainty and came out the otherside to become the man I see before me. For once, I'm relying on him with my future and trusting myself. "No, it's not bad, Elena. You're allowed to be unsure of what comes next."
"It's just," I bite my lip, "well… I lived my whole life all planned out. I knew exactly where I wanted to live and go to school and get married and have children and retire; but now? Now I get to let life just happen to me and it feels kind of amazing."
"I bet it does."
I give him a nervous smile. "Is that okay? I mean with us. I know I want a future with you, Damon. I know that with my whole heart. I just don't know what that future is yet or when it'll all play out. I'm just happy being with you."
Damon reaches across the table and I slide my hand into his. "I just want to live my life with you, Elena. It's all I ever wanted. We'll figure out the rest together or rather we'll just let it happen to us. I don't care either way as long as it means we're together."
"Together," I smile, squeezing his hand.
The waitress comes forward with our wine and we momentarily break apart, thanking her as she places our plates down before leaving us once again. We smile over our dinner and dive in and lose ourselves in idle conversation about our new apartment, my job hunt, and anything else that crosses our minds. It makes dinner flow too quickly for my taste and before long Damon is paying the check and we're strolling out of the restaurant hand in hand.
"Home?" he asks, leading me towards his car.
I smile, squeezing his hand and repeating, "Home."
Several years later…
His body hovers over mine, his faces breaths from my face. We've been at this on and off for hours as we try to clean the house. We keep getting distracted with lingering touches and suggestive words and soon enough my mouth is on his and his hands are all over me, ripping off clothing I've just managed to get back on.
"I'm so close," I moan. "Don't stop."
Damon chuckles and brings his mouth to mine and kisses me hard. He's moving inside of me, trapping me within this moment with him. My hands are digging into his hips as my hips roll against him, wanting to chase this feeling with him and never let it go. Never let him go.
"I have no intention of stopping, baby," he whispers, hitching my leg up against him and changing the angle just enough to make me see stars. They shoot out from the center of my body and have my back arching and cries screaming from my mouth as I climax around him.
He follows me with one last thrust, burying himself inside of me and mumbling how much he loves me and how good this feels over and over again against my neck. We're too exhausted to move. We've spent the better part of the day doing just this and my body is starting to feel the consequences of it. I'm not sure I can even both to clean the rest of this place let alone manage to get off this hardwood floor.
"You're totally cleaning the rest of this place on your own while I nap," I tell him.
Damon shakes his head, pressing kisses against my nose and cheeks. He's pouting, his face crinkling in the most adorable way. "Can't we finish tomorrow? I want to nap with you."
"You're the one who kept doing this to me!" I tease.
I watch as he pulls back, shocked. "What about by the fireplace? In the kitchen? The bathroom sink? I'm not the only one still stuck in the honeymoon phase, Mrs. Salvatore."
The smile that lights up my face at the sound of my new last name is enough to bring out a matching smile from Damon. My left hand slides from his hip, up his chest to rest on his cheek and I take a moment to stare at the diamond ring and matching band that joined it only a month ago.
Of course I'm still in the honeymoon phase. So is Damon. We've been waiting for this for a long time.
Damon proposed at my first book launch. Something that was just as much a celebration for me as it was for him. I never would've written that book without him. Never put that story to paper and worked through everything that weighed me down. I never planned on becoming a writer. I went to school to become a Guidance Counselor or a therapist for kids, but somehow along the way the book became an opportunity and now it was a best seller.
Now all the kids at Mystic Falls High that I work with don't let me hear the end of it.
Neither does Damon.
Only where the kids tease, Damon is full of pride that somehow despite completely changing my life plan I found the one place I was meant to be unexpectedly. Just like he did. I'm just happy that I found my footing and I feel happy and secure in what I'm doing. It's the one thing that was missing from medical school. I didn't feel half as passionate about becoming a doctor as I do for all those kids I help. I only wish I had realized it before Dr. Laughlin had to pull me into her office.
Before Damon and I loss so much time. But we have more than made up for that.
"So," Damon says, kissing down my neck. "Nap now? Clean tomorrow?"
It's tempting—so tempting. "We're never going to be ready for the party tomorrow."
"It's just our friends. Family. They don't care." His thumb his rubbing circles against my shoulder. "Plus, it's clean. Just not spotless."
Just as I'm about to object, the sound of the front door opening halts us both. We're naked; clothes strewn about around us, the only mess in this otherwise clean house—as Damon would say. That one sound has us both jumping up and throwing on our t-shirts and shorts, just as we hear our names being called from downstairs.
"Coming!" I yell, sliding into my sneakers before barreling down the stairs. As I jog down the steps, I throw my hair up in a high ponytail just as I take notice of Stefan, Caroline, their daughter Lexi, Katherine, and Nadia. I throw on a nervous smile, looking behind me to see Damon fixing up his hair as he follows behind me. "What are you guys doing here?"
Stefan holds up a paper bag with the Grille's logo on it. "Didn't you hear? We deliver."
"Good thinking, brother! We're starved!"
Caroline is smirking, her eyes shifting knowingly between the two of us. "I bet you two worked up an appetite."
"Yeah… Cleaning," I try.
She shakes her head and I hear my sister laugh, pulling Nadia into the house. Nadia walks right up to Damon who just shakes his head and holds his fist out for her to bump. She does and he asks her about school and her friends and being the little five year old she is, she rambles on in her adorable way. I give a quick kiss to everyone and tell them to follow along, even grabbing Lexi from Caroline's arms as I lead the way.
We all gather around our dining room table and Stefan passes around our dinner as Damon tries to find some paper plates and make sure everyone has something to drink. I eat with Lexie on my lap, feeding her some formula as my family settles in around me.
"This place looks amazing," Katherine says, cutting up Nadia's dinner.
I smile, thinking back to the moment we first saw it. We had been living in the loft for years and with our wedding coming up we knew it was time to move on. A lot of our milestones happened there and we did a lot of growing up and growing together within those walls but we needed a home of our own to start a family in. From the moment we saw this place with it's wrap around porch and Jack and Jill bathroom much like Katherine and I had growing up, I knew it was perfect.
And it is. It's perfect for us. It's close enough to the Grille that Damon can run over if there's an emergency and within walking distance of the school for me and our future kids. It closed right before our wedding but with that wedding and our honeymoon we haven't been able to get much done until now. Finally, with all our furniture in and with our own little touches of paint and décor, it's finally looking like our home.
"Thanks," I smile, looking over at Damon.
We did this. Together.
"How's Marcel?" I ask my sister and watch as her face lights up.
I should've known from the moment I saw that awkward hug between them at her custody hearing that there was more going on than meets the eye. Katherine and Marcel bonding in more way than one and it wasn't long after he left that he called her up and asked if it was okay to see her in a less professional setting. Now they were in a pretty serious relationship and Katherine even found herself a job as a social worker with Marcel's help.
Needless to say he picked her up in all the ways Nik had put her down. Thankfully Nik has lightened up over the years and the both of them have been kicking butt at the whole co-parenting thing to the point where it no longer affects Nadia and they can talk and compromise and work together like adults. Which is all Katherine ever wanted.
Nadia lives with Katherine during the school year and Nik and Katherine switch off holidays and weekends. It works for them and their daughter and to see how far they've come just really makes me happy I didn't miss being a part of it because of my own pride or my parents stupidity.
A blush colors her cheeks at the mention of her boyfriend. "He's good. He's sorry he couldn't make it but he had some work back in New York to finish up. Nadia and I are heading up there next week to meet up with him to see the tree."
I can easily guess what that work in New York is but I don't voice it. It doesn't need to be said. Marcel in New York means Elijah and it took a while but now the thought of him doesn't fill me with guilt and sadness. We didn't work and even though I made mistakes, I'm happy to know he's moved up within the board and found love with a New York socialite I met a time or two while I was there named Hayley Marshall-Kenner. From what I remember of her, the two seem like they're perfect for each other.
"And what about you two?" Caroline teases, bringing the attention back to me and Damon. "All these bedrooms… This is place is going to feel pretty empty."
"Well…" Damons says, eyes alight with mischief. "We were going to wait until the party to tell you…"
I cover my mouth with a smile and shake my head and three pairs of eyes go back and forth between my new husband and I. Following Damon's lead, I nervously start to say, "Well… we're…."
Six mouths drop open in shock and anticipation. Caroline and Katherine are practically ready to jump out of their seats and tackle me. I grab hold tight of Lexi to protect her just in case.
"We're… getting a dog!" Damon yells, wiggling his eyebrows and laughing hard.
Caroline throws her napkin down on the table. "That was a mean trick!"
I shrug. "That's what you get for rushing us."
"With the way you two are, I expected a shot gun wedding."
"It was a shot gun wedding," Damon says and I cock my head at him curious. "Grayson had a gun to my head trying to stop the whole thing."
With a sigh, I grab a bite of my burger. Katherine is looking at both of us with sadness in her eyes. We all know too well how my parents are. There was no way that Damon and I getting married was going to go down easy. They fought it every second of the way to the point where I almost didn't even want them there. In the end, I walked down the aisle by myself and my parents stayed put in their seats watching the last thing they ever wanted for their daughter happen right in front of them.
It was part of the reason Damon and I omitted the liner where the preacher asks if anyone has any reasons for two people to not get married. My parents didn't need the bait.
They're trying but letting go of the dreams they had for Katherine and myself have been a little hard to shake. They've met Nadia and love her like I always knew they would and have even come around on my career choice once I hit the best seller list. I'm not sure they're ever going to be the parents Katherine and I want, but we're not the daughter they expected either.
"I'm just happy you two finally found your way despite everything life threw at you," Stefan says, honestly.
I watch as Caroline reaches over and squeezes his hand as she leans forward and kisses him. Katherine kisses the top of Nadia's head and my niece smiles bright, completely unaware of everything her mother did to get her.
Damon and I share a look ourselves. It was a long journey getting here but we made it; and our story is just beginning. We want to fill this house up with kids and a life with highs and lows but lots of love. We want to give our children the childhood neither one of us had. Our children will know they're loved and have the faith to follow their own dreams wherever it leads them, no matter who they become. We just want them happy.
It seems like we're miles and miles away from the people we were, the life that we had with all its secrets and strife. Yet those kids who had their lives in front of them and thought things had to be perfect and that mean hiding away from all the imperfection, are a part of us and our road to here. That road was just a journey and those miles were bringing us miles to home.
I smile while I look at my husband and I mouth to him, "I love you."
Damon's eyes close like he's absorbing the feeling. When they open, they're bright. "I love you, too," he mouths back.
A/N: The end! There it is! Feel free to share your thoughts with me in the reviews (:
As for what's next for me… I'm working on a little something but I'm not sure if it'll get posted or not. The next story I want to work on I want to have vampires in it because I kind of miss all the fun and danger (and yes angst!) that comes along with that. The one I'm working on would be post Season 7 and my version of what happens next. So, hopefully I'll see you all again if that story makes it on here….
If not you can find me over on twitter and tumblr (on the same username) where I'm always willing to talk! Thank you again! See ya real soon x