Love Is Not Time's Fool

A.N. So . . . this is the end. I haven't yet started part three, but hopefully it'll be soon. Let me know what you think, I'd like to know how you all feel about this chapter and what your thoughts are on what the next part should be.

Epilogue: The Beginning Of Eternity

It was the day that Gabrielle turned nine months old when she took her first steps. It was also that day that her Godmother announced that she was pregnant and her "aunt" made a rather startling conclusion.

The morning started out like any other. Elena awoke in Stefan's arms, roused by the cries of her daughter. She got up, put on her robe, and went to the nursery. Gabby was wide awake, crying. Probably hungry. Elena picked the toddler and her favorite toy up and took her downstairs.

She went into the kitchen only to find one of the other occupants of the Boarding House already awake and drinking a cup of coffee. "Good morning." Elena said cheerfully, setting Gabby down on the floor with her toy.

"If you say so," Katherine sighed. Five months earlier when Stefan and Elena had returned from Tyler's funeral, Katherine was sitting in their living room saying she had nowhere to go and if she promised not to eat or kill anyone – especially Gabby – could she stay. Stefan wanted to kill her on the spot but Elena – who'd seen how she was while they'd been in captivity –allowed it. So for now . . . she was Aunty Katherine.

"Someone's not in a good mood," Elena frowned, going about preparing Gabby's breakfast – graham crackers and milk.

"Your kid cries too much," Katherine sighed, yawning.

"Well . . . if it's too much to handle you could always go back to living in the tomb." Elena teased, shrugging. "I'm sure the dirt misses you."

Katherine gave her a look.

A giggle from the floor made Elena laugh. Gabby was was staring at Katherine and laughing. "Gabs agrees." Elena chuckled.

"That doesn't mean anything," Katherine said. "She always does that when she's around me. Never you. How can she tell us apart?"

"Kids are better judges of character than you think. Besides, I'm her mother," Elena finished making Gabby's breakfast. She went to the closet to get the high chair. When she came back . . . "Stefan!" She yelled.

Katherine scrunched her face, "What the hell are you yelling for?"

Elena leaned the high chair against the island and sped into the hall to get the camera. She sped back and turned on the camera. "Gabby . . . she's walking!"

Stefan appeared seconds later in just his sweats, a smile on his face as he watched his daughter walk across the kitchen floor. "Come here, Gabby!" He said. The little girl grinned from ear to ear, reaching out her arms and headed straight for her daddy. Elena recorded the whole thing, also with a wide smile.

Katherine watched the scene, the same strange feelings she'd been having in the last four months tugging at her insides. She left her coffee cup where it was and used her speed to race upstairs.

Stefan backed up, Gabby still walking toward him. Then he held on to her hands and turned her around. "Walk to momm, Gabby. Go, go on to mommy!"

Elena knelt down to the floor, tears of joy reaching her eyes. She held out one of her hands. "Come to Mommy baby!" Gabby giggled, padding toward her mother. Stefan took the camera from his wife and focused it on them as Gabrielle walked straight into her nother's waiting arms. Elena picked the little girl up and hugged her, kissing the top of her head. "Mommy's so proud of you!"
"And Daddy is too," Stefan stopped the camera and set it down, going over to hug his girls. He kissed Elena on the lips and Gabby's cheeks and hugged them again.

"Um . . . I hate to interrupt the, um, grossness . . ."

Stefan and Elena looked over. Katherine stood in the doorway, the house phone in her hand.

"Bonnie's on the phone," Katherine held out the phone.

Elena handed Gabby to Stefan and went over to take the phone. She held it up to her ear. "Hey Bon, what's up?" Katherine disappeared up the stairs again.

"Elena!" Bonnie squealed, "Guess who's going to be an aunty!"

Elena broke out in a grin, "Oh my god, are you really?"

"I am!" Bonnie squealed again. "Jeremy and I are at the doctor's right now!"
"Bonnie, I'm so happy for you . . ." Elena said. "You know what, you and my brother are coming over for dinner tonight. This is such an amazing day!"

"What else happened?" Bonnie said.

"Gabby took her first step . . ." Elena swelled with maternal pride.

"That's my girl!" Bonnie said. She spoke away from the phone. "Jer – your niece was walking!"

"That's awesome!" Elena heard her brother say . . . she could tell he was smiling.

"Tell me you got it on tape," Bonnie said to Elena.

"Yes I did," Elena nodded. "This is me we're talking about – who recorded everything in not only Gabby's life but Zoe and Dillon's too! And now I can with yours!"
"You should have Jenna, Ric, and Caroline over too," Bonnie said.

"Yes, I should," Elena agreed. Then she frowned. "What about―"

"She's doing fine, Elena," Bonnie said. "Yes, Caroline lost her husband. But she's been better lately. She needs to be around her friends. She needs us."

"You're right," Elena said. "It just doesn't feel right that we're so happy and she's . . ."

"I know," Bonnie said. "Oh, Jer and I wanted to talk to you about something. Jeremy and I want to ask Caroline to be the baby's godmother."

"Oh," Elena said.

"It's just, I'm Gabby's godmother and you're both Dillon and Zoe's godmother . . ."

"You don't want her to feel left out," Elena nodded.

"It's not just that," Bonnie said. "Jer and I feel that if she's an important part of the baby's life it'll help her see there's something worth living for . . . you know? We think that the combination of that and helping her focus on Dillon will make her all that much better."

"That actually sounds amazing, Bonnie," Elena said. "I agree 100%"

"So you're okay with this?" Bonnie said.
"I am," Elena nodded.

"Thanks, Elena," Bonnie said. Elena heard a door in the background. "The doctor's here . . . I'll see you later. Around seven?"

"Sounds good," Elena said. "And congratulations . . . give Jer a hug for me."

"Will do," Bonnie said. The two friends hung up.

Elena looked to Stefan, "Did you hear all that?"

Her husband nodded, smiling. "Gabby'll have a cousin."

Gabby, though, didn't seem impressed. The excitement of walking over, the nine-month-old resumed fussing.

"Oh crap," Elena said. "You never ate." She picked the toddler up from Stefan's arms. "Sorry baby, you distracted us with the walking. Let's have breakfast now."

TVDTVDTVDTVD

Meanwhile upstairs, Katherine padded down the hall – bored – deciding to wake Damon and bug him. Either that . . . or convince him to have sex with her. In the five months she'd only been successful with the bugging him part. He was too damn stubborn and too damn proud – and, well, too damn in love with Elena – to do anything with her.

It was really starting to piss her off. And, damnit, she hadn't had sex with anyone in over five years and it was really starting to mess with her. It had just been too damn long.

As she reached Damon's room, however, she found herself out of luck – again. Her vampire hearing picked up the tell-tale moans and groans. She heard Damon's voice utter some intriguingly nasty things and another voice as well – a woman – as well. The woman's voice sound familiar – wait, wasn't it that reporter girl from the news? What was her name? Andie or something like that?

Katherine rolled her eyes, turned on the balls of her bare feet, and sulked to her room. On the way, she saw through a partially closed door as Stefan and Elena stood over the crib in the nursery. Stefan stood behind Elena, his arms wrapped lovingly around her waist. Elena was reaching over the side of the crib, stroking Gabrielle's temple. They were completely wrapped up in their own little world.

Katherine sighed, continuing to her room. After over 500 years, she still had nothing. Before she'd turned, she'd had nothing. No daughter, no more parents, no husband . . . and now she still had nothing. Just too many painful memories.

Stefan had a wife and daughter and Damon had his permanent bachelor ways . . . hell, even Caroline had a son to take care of.

It was all to depressing for Katherine to stand. She'd never really been one to be maudlin . . . but she supposed five years of starvation and dessication would do that.

She was a selfish manipulative bitch – she knew that. It was a survival thing . . . but whatever. It had worked being on the run. It kept her alive. Honestly, if anyone thought they could survive by being nice and wholesome they weren't going too long. She'd like to see Elena run from Klaus for that long – hell, she'd barely made it a year.

She walked into her room and slumped on the bed, sighing. Over the past five months she'd had a lot of time to think about the things that happened when she'd been taken from the tomb. Watched Elena be tortured, holding the baby in her arms, watching Stefan, Elena, and Gabby . . . she felt, different. It was unexplainable. She was feeling things she hadn't felt since she was human. And honestly, it had all started in 1864 with Damon and Stefan.

Before them, men had been nothing to her as a vampire. They were just useful - for blood, for sex, for an escape if Klaus or Elijah was near. But the Salvatore brothers had sparked something in her. It wasn't much . . . but it was a start. Both of them had loved her with all they had. And while it was true she'd only used them in the past . . . it didn't mean she'd never cared about them. The 145 years on the run after faking her death . . . she supposed she started to feel but never paid any attention to it. She knew she at least liked the idea of being in love with Stefan. She'd known that he would love her forever and she liked that.

But now that she thought about it, she supposed she had never been in love with him or Damon for that matter. Because the truth was that she'd forgotten how to truly love. It seemed, though – as much as she hated to admit it – that her humanity was starting to come back.

And she didn't know what to do.

TVDTVDTVDTVDTVD

"Gabby, no don't―"

The wails echoed through the house. Elena sighed, rushing to her daughter's side. She knelt on the carpeted floor, pulling Gabrielle into her lap as she sat on the floor. Fat tears rolled down the toddler's cheeks and Elena pulled her into a loving hug. "Silly girl . . . it hurts when you fall down."

Gabrielle's bottom lip stuck out, trembling as she cried. "M . . m . ." Gabby sputtered. She wasn't really talking yet, just repeating sounds.

"Mumma's right here, sweetie," Elena stood up, Gabrielle clinging to her torso. The toddler's face was buried in her mother's shoulder.

It was a week after Gabby's first steps. She walked whever she had the chance . . . but she was still clumsy and unbalanced and fell quite frequently.

And yet what surprised Elena and Stefan and even Damon, Katherine, and the others the most was that no matter how many times the small girl fell she never got a bruise or a cut or a scrape of any kind. Sure it hurt a little bit, but there was no mark.

It opened up new questions of Gabrielle's existence. Back when Elena had been pregnant and started displaying vampire quirks, Bonnie had looked into it and told them the baby would be half-vampire. At first they'd worried but when Gabby had been born a normal, healthy baby girl they hadn't thought much of it.

Now that she was a little older they'd begun to discover things. In her nine months of life she'd never bled or bruised and she'd never been sick with anything – not even the croup. No fevers, no earaches, no baby acne. Nothing. Gabby's doctor was amazed which worried Stefan and Elena. They wondered how long it would take before the outside world noticed that Gabrielle Olivia Salvatore was different.

Gabby's cries started to subside as Elena carried her into the living room and set her down in the playpen.

The front door opened and Katherine – carrying multiple shopping bags – walked into the Boarding House. Gabby giggled as Katherine walked through and Elena shook her head, sighing. She found it weird that her daughter found her 500 year old vampire ancestor amusing. Katherine smirked at the tyke, chuckling.

"Where's the boys?" Katherine said.

"Um . . . Stefan's at a meeting with his editor in Atlanta and Damon's out with Andie," Elena said. "Shopping, again?"

Katherine shrugged, setting her bags on the couch. "What else is there to do? When you're not running from a vengeful vampire, your options suddenly become boring."

Elena nodded, shaking her head. They'd explained the presence of an Elena-look-alike- running around town by saying that Katherine was her long-lost twin sister. Not surprisingly, the residents of Mystic Falls didn't think twice about it.

"You know, Katherine," Elena spoke cautiously, not wanting to piss the much older vampire off. "Maybe you should find some kind of job or hobby even." Elena wasn't thinking about the money – between the Gilbert trust fund in her and Jer's names and the extensive Salvatore estate they were set for centuries. Literally. No . . . she was concerned about Katherine's tendency to feed and kill when she was bored. She'd been, well, better the last five months but as long as Katherine was in Mystic Falls Elena wanted it to stay that way.

Instead of getting angry, Katherine raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"

Gabby started playing with her toy piano, banging on the plastic keys. Elena shrugged. "I dunno. It was just a suggestion."

Katherine seemed to ponder this, shrugging. She picked up her bags and sped up the stairs. Elena glanced at Gabby, convinced she was occupied, and dashed upstairs t grab her work briefcase.

When she'd turned, she'd decided to keep her job for a while. She and Stefan and talked about it even before they'd gotten married and they knew their time in Mystic Falls was limited. Soon people would notice that Stefan . . . and now Elena . . . did not look any older. Now Caroline with Dillon and Damon and probably Katherine would follow or go on their own.

She brought her briefcase downstairs and set out her work over the new coffee table and couch.

"Ba-ba . . ." Gabby babbled shouted out, now throwing the block across the playpen.

"Keep singin' Gabs," Elena smiled. "You'll be my little rockstar."

"Gah!" Gaby shouted, giggling.

"You just get more and more adorable every day, baby girl," Elena bent down to gently pat the tyke's head, kissed her cheek.

Gabby smiled, "Mmm..." She mumbled. She seemed to blab an "m" sound when Elena was around, and Elena loved it. She recognized Elena as someone important in her small life, even if she hadn't quite gotten far enough to "mom" or "mumma" or even "ma" yet. Similarly, when Stefan was around their daughter shouted out a "d" sound.

When Katherine was around, Gabby would just smile or laugh. Sometimes she even reached out her arms as if she wanted "aunty" to pick her up – not that she ever did or would. With Damon she also smiled – frequently. And just like most women around him, starved for his attention. Damon loved it, calling her a little flirt.

Undoubtedly, though, her aunt/godmother Bonnie was Gabby's favorite person besides her mom and dad. She'd even begun to call her "Bon" whenever she was around and Bonnie's maternal hormones were loving every minute of it.

Elena sat down on the couch, her legs crossed, and she grabbed a thick manuscript off the table. She picked up a pen, uncapping it. Then, she started reading, editing as she went.

TVDTVDTVDTVDTVD

"Honey, I'm home," Stefan opened the door, closing it behind him.

"In here," He heard Elena call out.

He also heard Gabby play and shout. "D-d . . ." Gabby giggled.

"Yeah, Daddy's home," Elena chuckled.

Stefan went into the living room, chuckling when he saw Elena's paperwork all over the table and couch. "Working hard?" He chuckled.

She shrugged, smiling as he walked over to her and bent down to kiss her. He moved a couple of papers aside and set down his bag, sitting next to her."How's Victor?" Elena asked of her editor and colleague.

"Good," Stefan told her. gHis wife got a promotion at work."

"She did?" Elena smiled. "That's awesome. He's mentioned that she was in the running for it."

"He asked about Gabs," He said., "Told him she's growing like a weed."

Elena nodded. "She fell again today . . . pretty hard too."

Stefan sighed, wincing, "Not a scratch?"

"Yep," Elena frowned. "Nothing. And she barely cried for two minutes."

He reached over, entwining his fingers with hers. He sighed again. "I know you probably don't wanna hear it, but we may have to move sooner than you want."

"But . . ." Elena sighed. "Bonnie's pregnant and . . . I'm gonna be an aunt . . . and Zoe's growing up . . ."

"I'm sorry, honey," Stefan picked up her hand and kissed it. "Sheriff Forbes has already been too close to figuring it out . . . if there's reports of Gabby falling and breaking for neck only to wake up fine . . . you know how it'll turn out."

Elena nodded, watching Gabby play. "The Council'll kill all of us and take Gabby and Dillon away, I know . . ." Years ago they'd decided to continue to keep Stefan, Damon, Caroline, Tyler, and Bonnie's true identities a secret from the Council – even from Sheriff Forbes and Carol Lockwood. And they'd almost been caught too many times already . . . Elena took a deep breath, sighing. "When?" It wasn't louder than a whisper.

"Um . . . maybe a couple of months," Stefan told her honestly. "A year is definitely too long."

They were quiet for a moment, fingers entwined, as they watched Gabby play.

"We should tell Jenna and Jeremy and the others," Elena sighed. She stretched out laying her head on Stefan's chest. "And we should figure out where we're gonna go . . ."

"We will," Stefan nodded, stroking her cheek.

"Stefan?" She looked up into his eyes.

"Yes, Elena?" He grazed his fingers on her lips.

"Can we come back, to visit?" Elena's voice was small. She knew that when you were a vampire all ties had to be cut with the human world . . . but did that mean she could never see her family again?

"Occasionally," He said. "It would have to be under the radar, though."

She nodded. "I understand." She sighed, feeling tears brim on her eyelids.

"Hey," He rested his hand under her chin, lifting her head up. He wiped her tears away with his thumbs. gI promised you a life, Elena. I intend to keep that promise, for you and Gabrielle."

She sniffled. "You promise?"

"I promise," He bent down and kissed her. "For all eternity . . ."

The End

A.N. And . . . that's the end of the sequel to Fairy Godmother. What did you think? The Salvatore's have to leave Mystic Falls, Elena's a vampire, Gabby's showing supernatural qualities, Damon's not yet over Elena, Tyler's dead, and Katherine's showing her softer side. What will the next chapter of Stefan and Elena's lives bring?