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Caroline traced a path along the familiar grounds, retracing steps she has long since memorised, not that she could ever forget the final resting place of her husband, his brother, and her best friend. She pushed open the gate and walked inside. A chill running down her spine as it always did when entering the crypt, soon to be replaced by a feeling of warmth and love from visiting her long departed family.
She wrapped her arms around her middle, her heart once again despairing at his passing as she whispered his name brokenly, "Stefan…" a sob escaped her despite a futile attempt to hold it back, this was her day to mourn after all, the one day she allowed herself to break down completely and dwell in what her life could have been with her new husband instead of being a widow the day after they married.
Her infuriating, self-sacrificing, guilt ridden, tender yet vengeful hearted, noble, sweet, and loving, Stefan Salvatore.
Oh how she missed the way he took her into his arms, tucking her head beneath his chin and sighing contently into her hair. She craved to hear the sound of his voice again, the myriad of ways he could express a thousand different emotions with just the saying of her name. She missed the taste of his lips, and the smile in his kiss. She missed threading her fingers through his and strolling in companionable silence through the streets of Mystic Falls. They never had to say a word to each other to be in complete synchronisation with one another.
They fit. In all the ways that truly mattered they fit together. Two truly would have become one if they had had enough time together. Barely a year together after being apart for three years. A drop in the ocean to a creature like her, like them , until one fateful day dear departed Bonnie stuck Stefan with the cure after she watched him kill the man she loved right in front of her eyes.
She didn't blame her. She never did. She probably would have done the exact same thing in her position. She couldn't imagine… actually she could. She remembered watching Tyler's hands tear Stefan's heart out of his chest all those many many years ago. That had torn her heart to shreds and she didn't even realise that she was in love with him back then. So for Bonnie the pain must have been indescribable agony, which it definitely was, as she was in so much pain in that moment that she created a whole new dimension as a consequence.
But enough of the long ago past. In the end they all lived happy, long, fulfilled lives. Bonnie spent years living her life for her , never forgetting Enzo but not letting his memory hold her back either. She spent years travelling before finding the woman who awoke her to a whole new world. Yes, woman , unexpected, but also not really. To Bonnie love was love, no matter the outer shell of the person it was who you were inside that mattered.
Damon and Elena spent the rest of their lives together. Married with an adorable daughter that was a mix of both of them. Theirs was a life full of passion, love, fights, makeups, and togetherness. Having been witness to their entire story from the hurtful beginning to the ultimate blissful end, she could say with complete honesty that they truly did belong together. They made each other happy and that was all that mattered in the end.
She and Alaric ran their school until his peaceful end. He truly excelled in his role as headmaster and it made her wish that he'd never been brought into all this craziness in the beginning as he'd probably have been a respected professor at Duke or somewhere else in the world, far away from all the heartbreak and tragedy that befell him. But he was happy in the end, finding a new love that thankfully stayed alive and actually outlived Ric for once.
She helped with the school until Alaric's death when she passed it onto the worthy successor from the next generation - Ric's son from his third and last marriage - who inherited all of his father's academic brain and fitted into Ric's role as if it had been made for him. Caroline left him to it and stayed a silent partner and investor as she went to follow in Bonnie's footsteps and travel the world to find her own happiness.
She visited every place she had ever once dreamed of, thinking of Stefan in every new idyllic location, imagining his arms wrapped around her as they enjoyed the beautiful landscapes before them. Once she had done that she found herself at a loss.
What to do with the rest of her eternity?
For once in her life she did not have a plan for what to do next. She didn't have lists ready, nor an itinerary planned, no clear direction in which to head except not New Orleans, she had stayed away from that particular black hole for one very good and complicated reason; Klaus. No more needed to be said on that subject matter.
So where was she to go next? Where would the next step on her long journey take her? Where did her heart want to lead her?
She followed her heart and it not unexpectedly lead her straight to her heart's desire. To the resting place of her dearly departed family. A pilgrimage she made every year despite no clear intent on coming here, her feet always seemed to lead her right here anyway.
Stefan Salvatore
Damon Salvatore
Elena Salvatore
Was her heart trying to tell her something? Was it time to add another name to the elegant script that held her lost love? Should she finally give up on her endless journey to nowhere. Should she join her family after centuries of being without them. Was it time to say goodbye ?
Caroline took a moment and gave it serious thought. Did she truly want to take off her ring and meet the sun? Did she want to take that final journey to wherever the people she had loved and lost were hopefully at peace and together? She thought of them all, recalling every detail of their faces as she remembered each of them. Stefan, her mom, Bonnie, Elena, Ric, Matt, Tyler, Damon, Enzo. She missed them all, everyday, and she knew that she would see them all again one day.
Today was not that day.
She gathered herself, not burying her grief but finally letting it go so that she could, not forget them but move on completely for the first time in centuries .
She reached for the necklace that hung around her neck containing her wedding ring. She held in a gasping breath as she clutched it in her hand, feeling that overwhelming grief and heartbreak for one last painful moment, before releasing it all on a sob as she broke the chain from around her neck.
Tears fell down her cheeks as she brought it to her lips and gave it one heartbreakingly tender kiss. She took a step toward the epitaph of her husband and lovingly traced the letters of his name, engraving those unforgettable words on her heart forever, before placing her ring besides Stefan's final resting place.
She closed her eyes and prayed for her family. To be happy, to be at peace, to have each other, not to worry, to live even in death. To wait for her. Just a little while longer.
"I love you, Stefan." She kissed her fingers to her lips before placing them against his name on the stone, "Goodbye."
Caroline stepped backwards, never taking her eyes off his name until she was outside the crypt and could close the doors shut.
She was finally closing the door on her past and was ready to embrace her future. She would see them all again one day. She knew it in her heart. Not today, not tomorrow, maybe not even for a thousand years, but one day she would reunite with everyone she had ever lost and live anew in the afterlife.
One day.
Caroline smiled, and with a lightness to her step that had been missing for a very long time she retraced the familiar path away from the Salvatore crypt to her uncertain but exciting future.
It was time to live.
THE END