AN: Song for this chapter: Everything I'm Not.
I am so sorry I had no idea, you guys aren't getting updates for five days I am so so sorry I had no idea that my schedule got that messed up! I'll miss you all and my computer, but I will be writing! This is the last chapter!
They're matching, Elijah notes, as her hair is straightened and her eyes sad again. Caroline fills them in on Bonnie's life, what she knew from the past few decades as she drives to the church.
Elena wonders if the uneasiness of being in a church fades with time. She asks Caroline, and Jeremy isn't in any condition to go to Bonnie's funeral, and she hasn't heard about Katherine in a while. They sit in the back, and Elena and Caroline cry to the point where Elijah wonders if vampires can cry themselves dehydrated. He did not know Bonnie very well, he knows her coven is in attendance, and he is ready at any moment to take Elena and Caroline and leave.
They follow the rest of the funeral party to the cemetery, and he drives, Caroline is too shaky to drive. He's not sure Elena remembers how to.
They watch Bonnie's coffin being lowered, the words said about death are religious and Elena wants to shout at the man saying them. She had died. Twice. Death was not like that. It was not blinding and comforting light, it was pain and darkness deeper than any ocean. Elijah holds her back, she wants a closer view but he can feel witches approaching. Caroline can too, she straightens her back.
"How dare you come here." One of the witches hisses at them.
"Caroline and Elena have a right to be here. They had been friends with her since they were children." Elijah says calmly.
"You're crimes against nature." Another one says, and the first mutters that she didn't know what Bonnie ever saw in those monsters.
Caroline has her pressed against a mausoleum.
"I don't kill." She warns before continuing.
"But don't you dare talk trash about one of my best friends. You will not like me when I am pissed." She says, and releases the witch before the rest of the coven can react.
"They loved Bonnie as you did. Please do not forget that." Elijah says, his patience being tested.
"Nasty suckers." One of them mutters before they leave.
"I'm sorry." He apologizes. Elena and Caroline came to mourn, not to be degraded.
"I wonder why Bonnie ever hung out with those witch bitches." Caroline says quietly, and then she corrects herself.
"I know why, just why them?" She asks.
"I don't know." Elijah answers honestly.
"She just wanted to fit in. A coven would have been like a family. She didn't really have anyone left after her dad died." Elena says, and Caroline nods, she knows Elena's right but the fact Bonnie stayed away from them for so long had hurt. The old wound would take time to heal.
When they leave, Caroline knows she wants to go with Elena and Elijah for what they're going to do.
"I want to see Jeremy too." She says quietly, and Elena's heart is fragile and mending, and the tears spill out.
"What if he doesn't recognize me?" She cries.
Caroline comforts her as Elijah packs. Her family is shrinking, again.
It's a long drive, and Elena talks to them the same amount, she still hasn't asked Elijah what they're doing-if they're dating or something else.
It's hard to be there, for all of them. The people, all younger by centuries than Elijah call him a young man. He's never been fond of visiting these types of places. They make him overthink.
"Hi I'm looking for Jeremy Gilbert." Elena tells the receptionist.
"Are you a family member?" The receptionist asks.
"Yeah, I'm his-" She stops for a second.
"Granddaughter." She continues. The lie hurts more than a knife ever could. The receptionist nods, and they're led to a room. Jeremy's wrinkled, his hair white.
The receptionist leaves and Elena tries not to break down again.
Elijah closes the door, and then compels him to remember, and to be calm. He knows the girls standing in front of them. Caroline and Elena, he tells the younger Gilbert.
"Elena?" He rasps and he sounds so old that she does cry.
"Bonnie's dead, Jer." She says and tears gather in his aged eyes.
"I'm so sorry I missed out on your life. I'm sorry I wasn't there. I failed, and I'm sorry. I failed at being your big sister." She says, and he shakes his head weakly."You were the best sister I ever could have asked for, Elena." He assures her, and coughs.
"Caroline." He says, after her notices her. They both hug Jeremy, carefully.
"I don't have much time left, 'Lena." He says carefully. She almost doesn't recognize his voice.
"No, don't say that." Elena begs.
"It's okay, I lived my life. I just hope you get to live yours now." He says, and the tears are steady streams down her face.
"Jeremy, please." Elena is begging him.
"I'm just glad I got to see you both one last time." He says, and thanks Caroline.
"I'm sorry I didn't appreciate you as much as I should have." He says.
"No, Jeremy, it's okay." Caroline assures him, and her tears begin too.
"Elijah." Jeremy rasps, and he's next to Elena in a flash.
"You two better take care of my sister." He warns weakly.
"We will." Elijah assures him.
"You better." Jeremy says, and then he coughs for a moment.
"I love you." He says, and Caroline feels like she's been staked, he says it like Elena did before she slipped into her coma.
"We love you too." Elena assures him, taking his wrinkled hand in hers. Then the heat leaves his hand and Elena looks around at her companions, and her body heaves with sobs as his heart stops. They have to leave, and it's a hundred miles before Elena can say anything other than tears.
"Is Matt okay?" She asks. Caroline nods.
"We still have a few decades." She tells Elena.
"Can we go back? I want to help plan his funeral. Are they on vervain?" She asks. Elijah shakes his head.
"Then turn the car around." She requests.
She compels Jeremy's wife and children to know who she is, but not to talk about her. She'll ask Elijah to wipe the memories of her away later, but she makes them bury him in Mystic Falls, where everyone else is.
Jeremy, John, Jenna, her parents, Alaric, Caroline's parents, Bonnie's family- they're all there.
She decides on his headstone.
Here lies Jeremy Gilbert, gifted athlete, loving father, husband and brother.
She wears black for his funeral, she wouldn't mind being swallowed by the darkness for a while-something that alarms Elijah and Caroline. She cries at the funeral service, and leaves flowers on his grave. She asks his family, she can't refer to them as hers, she doesn't know them-she asks him what he was like, and Caroline tells her, once they've talked to her and had their memories erased-that she has the recordings of Jeremy. She has his entire life in digital files. They stay in Mystic Falls after she puts flowers on everyone's graves, Caroline sits and talks to her parents. Elena sits by her parents too, like so long ago. She tells them a summary of her life, and that she misses them. It's been really hard without them. And she continues at each headstone, telling her family what they missed, what she thinks would make them proud. She checks on her house, Jeremy refused to touch it. It's still in fairly good shape, Elijah asks if she wants him to rebuild it, exactly as it was. No, she shakes her head. Then it wouldn't be the same house. She vows to return in a year and clean it out. She'll tear it down when it's so old that it isn't worth fixing, and build another house there. Maybe someday they'll come back to Mystic Falls, she says, and he likes that she doesn't see a foreseeable end to their being together.
They drive back to Caroline's apartment, she needs to move back to Paris, she says, but she gives Elena boxes of her things and copies of Jeremy. Elena hugs her, and they promise to keep in touch. They have forever, after all. They go to New Orleans for a while, and Elena asks him what he wants her to call their relationship. They've kissed a few times and they love each other but-
"You could call me your husband." He offers, as he gets down on one knee. Rebekah is sure that bats hundred of miles away can hear Elena's shrieking.
"Yes! Yes, a thousand times over, yes!" She says and he picks her up and smiles. He's happier than he's ever remembered being in his very long life. She's still healing-he sits with her and watches all of Jeremy's recordings, it's okay to cry, she tells herself. It's okay.
Their wedding is quiet, Caroline and the Mikaelsons are make up most of the attendees, and it's okay. Steps, Elena tells herself as she walks down the aisle. Klaus shrugs after Elena tells him Caroline isn't interested. He backs off, to their surprise. Not long after, they buy a house in England, much to Caroline's excitement, and they have a place of their own, for their own things.
They visit Mystic Falls every few years, their first trip is just cleaning. Elena donates several things to the Mystic Falls Historical Society, and she knows, one day the house will come down. It's okay. She sees Stefan, now a lawyer for vampires only, it was Elijah's advice, he admits to Elena, and introduces her to a girl he's been with for a few decades. She looks nothing like Elena, and she wishes them well. Damon runs a bourbon empire, he tells her when she sees him on a street one day. He looks happy. She's glad he found happiness too.
She sees Caroline frequently, and they visit Matt every few weeks after a decline in his health. He dies too, and it's okay. Everyone dies and everything has a time to die.
But as she looks at Caroline and Elijah, she knows hers won't be for a very long time.
finis