Well the true ending is now here. If you liked the way I left it on the past chapter then by all means stick with that finale but if you love happy endings as much as me then please continue.

This story is a favorite of mine and it's very close to my heart, it's actually one of my favorites and I'm blown away by the response it had, I'm so glad that you all loved it that much. I had a great time writing it and I want to thank all of you for sticking with me until the end.

I also want to thank Lorena (myallconsuminglove) who has been my amazing beta for my last five stories and who I'm saying goodbye with this one as well, it's been amazing working with you my friend.

Stay tune because I'll be uploading my new story this week.

Love you all and please enjoy!

Sam.

"The boy saw the comet and he felt as though his life had meaning. And when it went away, he waited his entire life for it to come back to him. It was more than just a comet because of what it brought to his life: direction, beauty, meaning. There are many who couldn't understand, and sometimes he walked among them. But even in his darkest hours, he knew in his heart that someday it would return to him, and his world would be whole again... And his belief in God and love and art would be re-awakened in his heart.

It's beautiful and heartbreaking; it's an epic love story"

-One Tree Hill-

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Nine years later…

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Elena dropped herself onto the big cream leather couch placed on the west side of her office. The place was small but very cozy; it had beige walls littered with black and white framed pictures of her family, four lamps to give it a warmer feeling, a mahogany desk and an office chair plus two chairs facing each other in the outside of the desk, a bookshelf, file cabinets and a big cream couch.

She removed her shoes and started massaging her feet softly, she had been working all day and now at the age of thirty-six and with three kids at home she no longer had the strength to hold herself up any longer.

Damon and Elena had tried to do the long distance relationship for about a year; she landed a role in a big musical and had to move back to New York fully. It was tough and probably one of the hardest moments of their relationship ever since they found each other again. Once the running of the musical ended Elena decided to drop everything and move with him to North Carolina, being a dancer had been her dream once upon a time but she had changed and so had her dream, so in the winter of 1970 they got married in a lovely and simple ceremony next to a lake, and she got to fulfill another one of her dreams.

Elena sighed and went to lock the door of her little office, she looked at the clock above the door and smiled knowing that Damon must be home already. So she hurried to step out of her dancing clothes and into a sage green cape collared long dress, with an empire waistline and plated collar before locking the office again.

A year after they got married they welcomed their first son into the world. The moment Christopher Salvatore was placed in Elena's arms something healed inside of her; she could almost hear the pieces clicking back together inside her chest. The pain of losing her first child was never going to disappear but having her baby boy in her arms while Damon was beside her had healed her in ways she never imagined.

Two years after Christopher was born Elena fulfilled another dream she didn't even know she had; she opened a ballet academy. And a year after that the twins, Daniel and Lorelei, arrived. It had been hard to juggle a brand new business and two newborns but Damon had supported her every single day and somehow they had managed to make it all work.

Elena released her hair from the bun holding it and shook it a bit so it flowed down her back. Afterwards she started placing all of her things in her bag and trying to remember at what time Stefan and Caroline had told her they were arriving tomorrow. It had been six months since Elena last saw her best friend and brother in law and she was excited to have them in town, especially since they had two children of the same age as the twins and Lizzie was coming too. It was going to be a full house but Elena wouldn't have it any other way.

Ever since the day she left Elena only returned to Mystic Falls once, three years ago when her father got terribly ill. Damon had begged to come with her but she insisted it was better if she did it alone; so she spent his father's last days next to him and saw the regret in his eyes every time he looked at her, he asked for her forgiveness so she gave it to him, her mother did no such thing. When Elena looked at her she saw nothing but the bitter old lady she had become, she pitied her but could never forgive her. So once her father was under the ground she walked away from her childhood home once again but not before walking to the old lady sitting quietly in the living room and whispering how happy she and Damon were and that no matter how hard she tried she wasn't able to keep them apart in the end.

"Mrs. Salvatore?" A soft knock on the door made Elena turn around and watch as her secretary, April, poked her head in with a smile "There's a girl here waiting for you"

"A girl?" Elena asked with a frown while she closed her bag and placed it on top of one of the chairs placed in front of her desk "Did she tell you what she wanted?"

"No, just that she needed to speak with you" April told her softly "Do you want me to tell her to return Monday?"

"No, it's okay. Send her in" Elena answered absently. They were going to present "The Nutcracker" in a few months and her office had already started to fill with girls trying to get the lead role so she guessed it was another one of them. "And you can go home already April"

"Thank you, Mrs. Salvatore" The young girl said with a smile before scurrying behind the door once again.

Elena went behind her desk and started stacking some papers while she waited for the girl to enter, she was so consumed with her thoughts that she reacted only when the door closed a bit too harshly.

"Sorry, it didn't seem that heavy" A young sweet voice said and when Elena lifted her head all of the air left her body.

The girl was wearing a full skirt printed dress with a round neckline and front button trim. She had a tentative smile on her lips and a small dimple on her left cheek. But what made the air leave Elena's lungs wasn't her ivory skin and reddish cheeks, nor the darkest hair she had ever seen. It was the striking blue eyes that were currently looking at her expectantly, eyes she had only seen from afar once in her life.

"I…-"Elena took a hand to her chest, unable to articulate a single word.

She was tapping her left foot nervously and her hands were resting in front of her, visibly shaking and holding onto a rosary Elena had last seen eighteen years ago. "Umm Mrs. Salvatore" The girl started in a quivering voice "My name is Gabriela Saltzman and… well I am your daughter" Elena's eyes filled with tears and a broken sob got stuck in her throat. She stared at her unable to believe that this was indeed happening after so long. "Please say something" The young girl said while looking at her with fearful eyes.

"They kept your name" Elena whispered in awe as she walked closer to her. Her legs were wobbly and hands shaking as she stepped closer and touched her daughter's cheek softly. "It's really you"

Gabriela seemed startled at the contact and flinched, which made Elena drop her hand with a sad smile "I'm sorry" The young girl apologized with a wince.

"It's okay" Elena reassured and motioned for her to sit. They occupied the chairs facing each other in front of her desk. Elena couldn't stop staring at her in marvel, she looked so different from the last time she saw her and yet everything about her screamed Damon. She was eighteen now, her age when she was forced to give her up.

"How did you find me?" Elena asked in a soft voice. Gabriela was twisting her hands in front of her lap in a nervous gesture, the rosary beads twisted in her hands "Did you always know you were adopted?"

"No" The young girl shook her head and fixated her eyes on the floor as she answered "My mom… she got sick with cancer about three years ago"

"I'm sorry Gabriela"

"Thank you… and you can call me Gaby" Elena nodded in response with a small smile on her face.

"A few weeks after she was diagnosed she took me to her bedroom and opened a small wooden box. It contained my birth certificate and this" She picked up the backpack at her feet and pulled out the pink soft monogramed blanket Elena had wrapped her up in before handing her over to the nuns so long ago.

"Oh my God" Elena took a hand to her mouth to contain the sob that was fighting its way up her throat

Gabriela placed the blanked on her lap and lifted the rosary in the air for Elena to see "I've had this ever since I was a little girl; my mom told me it was yours"

"My best friend gave it to me" Elena managed to say "And I wanted for you to always be safe so I gave it to you"

Gabriela placed the rosary on her lap on top of the blanket and lowered her eyes to see the crystal beads in her hands "I was so angry for so long. Angry at you for leaving, at them for hiding it from me all of that time. But the more I thought about it the more I couldn't stop the desire growing inside me. I wanted to know things about you; I wanted to know if we somehow looked alike"

Her blue eyes pierced hers and Elena almost smiled at her words, she didn't look like her at all, besides her nose and maybe the shape of her face, her little girl was all her father. "And then I felt guilty, because how could I be thinking about you? How could I betray a woman who gave me nothing but love?"

Gabriela's eyes filled with tears and Elena nodded in understanding, wanting to reach out to comfort her but stopping herself before she could make her feel uncomfortable. "She assured me she understood and that they would help me search for you but I couldn't. There were days I wanted to find you and there were days I was too angry at you."

"I'm so sorry" Was all Elena could say.

"My mom died a year ago and after a while I decided to start looking for you. My father hired someone and three months ago I knew where you were" She said softly as she gripped the rosary so hard the beads imprinted themselves on her skin. "I debated a lot whether to come or not… then I read you had a ballet academy. I've danced since I was a little girl" Gaby choked out "I love ballet. I guess I got that from you because my mom didn't dance at all. And I wanted to know, I wanted to know what other things I got from you or my father. "

Elena couldn't help herself anymore and reached her hands to hold hers, instead of moving like she did earlier her daughter gripped her hands and stared straight into her eyes. Her baby blues were filled with tears and the crystal beads of the rosary marking both of their skin "And I wanted to ask you…I want to know. Why did you give me away? Why didn't you want me? You married my father; his name was in the birth certificate. Then why didn't you want to keep me?"

Elena couldn't hold the sob that tore out of her throat at her words, at the question that had haunted her for eighteen years and the pained look in her daughter's eyes "Oh my sweet child, there is nothing in the world that I would have loved more than to keep you"

"Then why didn't you?"

"I was barely seventeen when I met your father. I loved him dearly but we came from very different worlds, my mother used to say that he came from the wrong side of the tracks" Tears were falling down her cheeks as her memory drifted away to those amazing months with Damon "We loved each other with all of our hearts but it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough because the world was cruel to us. Because we learned too soon what pain was and just how unfair the world really is"

Gaby listened with rapt attention and teary eyes as Elena told her the story of her great love. Of the boy with the blue eyes and wolf tattoo who smiled at her at that small diner, of the boy who limped with every step and wore washed out clothes. Of the things she learned because of him and the lovely moments they spent together. She told him of the way her eyes had opened to the unfairness of the world when she met him, of how she realized how sheltered she had grown up and how different their lives were.

As the minutes trickled by in the clock on the wall she told her about a young broken hearted girl waiting for a blue Camaro to show up in the parking lot of a dance school and the tears she had shed because of him. She told her about the lies her parents told and the awful place she was sent to. She also spoke about the silver linings in her life, like her best friend Caroline and Sister Evelyn who were nothing but kind to her, and she sobbed as she spoke about the day she had to watch as they took her daughter away from her.

And then she told her about finding Damon again and reconnecting with him, about how their lives had changed and how they learned to breathe again, together.

"What are their names?" Gabriela asked when Elena mentioned the three other children she and Damon had.

"Well there's Chris who is seven" Elena said with a smile on her face "And Daniel and Lorelei who are five, they're twins"

"I have three siblings" Gabriela whispered in awe as she stared at her mother "I mean I have four, I have one brother back home"

"I know" Elena said softly

"Of course" Gabriela nodded, remembering the words Elena had told her earlier. About how she and Damon had looked for her but refused to ruin her happiness. She didn't know how to feel about that, a part of her resented them for not staying and another part of her was thankful for letting her enjoy the life she already had. "Do you think I could stay with you? Just for tonight"

"Of course, darling" Elena told her with the brightest smile on her face.

They headed out of the office and climbed into the blue mercury Elena now drove, Gabriela couldn't stop running the rosary in between her hands while she watched the profile of her mother as she drove. A mixture of emotions were swirling inside her, she had thought about this moment for so long, she thought she would scream and shout and demand answers but the minute her eyes had landed on her mother's all of that anger disappeared. She wanted her, her mother actually wanted her and she wasn't expecting to feel this happy because of this revelation.

Elena parked the car behind Damon's blue Camaro which had come out of storage a long time ago. She could see the living room lights on and knew he would be worried about her arriving this late. The kids were probably asleep already and that was for the best, that way they could think about how to break this to them softly.

Elena opened the door softly while Gabriela walked silently behind her, the minute her feet touched the wooden floors of the inside of the house the voice of her husband was heard from the living room "Where were you? I was five seconds from jumping in the car and going to pick you up! I swear you're going to kill me one of-" His rant stopped short when he reached the parlor and saw her standing there with a young girl behind her.

"Damon there's someone I want you to meet" Elena said with a smile and tear stained eyes.

"It can't be" He whispered dumbstruck. Blue eyes met blue as he stared at the daughter that was taken away from him so many years ago.

"I look like you" Gabriela whispered in awe.

There were no more words between them and Elena watched with a joyful and heavy heart how her forty-year-old husband broke down into tears in front of her like a little kid. They hugged, the father and daughter hugged in the parlor, clinging to each other like their life depended on it.

Damon couldn't believe that after so long he was finally holding his baby girl, the one he had desired so much. The one he had imagined in Elena's arms every single night he spent alone trying to find them, the girl he had to give up to another man. She was finally in his arms.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" He whispered as he rocked her in his arms while she cried like an infant "I'm sorry" Gabriela felt like her heart was being ripped open. She wasn't expecting all of the torrent of emotions that meeting her birth parents unleashed inside her.

The three of them moved to the living room and talked for hours, they learned things about each other. She told them about her childhood and how happy it had been and they told her about how wonderful their life had been since they found each other again. As the minutes trickled by they started to know each other and only stopped when their eye lids became too heavy to keep going.

Elena accompanied her daughter to the guest room and learned that her father didn't want her to go by herself but decided to give her the freedom to choose. That she only could stay a week and even thought it made her deeply sad to know this, Elena understood where her father was coming from. So she promised to reach out to him so they could get to know him as well and maybe in the future get all together.

The next day was a whirlwind of chaos and people as Caroline and Stefan arrived. Gabriela had grown up in a rather small family so she wasn't used to having so many people around, it was more than a little overwhelming but she had never been one to back down from a challenge.

She got to meet her three siblings who were more than a bit confused at the beginning but welcomed her with love and tenderness in spite of not fully understanding the situation, they were so lovely and beautiful. Both Daniel and Chris looked a lot like Damon and Lola, how everyone called her, was the spitting image of Elena and had her father wrapped around her tiny finger. Gaby was amazed at how quickly she could get attached to people she hadn't met until yesterday.

There was also Caroline and Stefan with their two boys, George and Robert, and their daughter Lizzie. They were the nicest of people and treated her like they knew her for years rather than hours. Gaby could see how close everyone was and she felt an immense desire to be a part of it.

They were currently all sitting around a big rectangular table placed in the backyard. The sun was shining in the sky and the birds chirping happily around them. Elena and Caroline were finishing placing the food on the table while Damon and Stefan listened with rapt attention to Lola's story of how she found a bird's nest a few hours ago.

"We are all set" Elena said with a small smile as she took a seat on the chair next to Damon. "Anybody wants to say grace?" Her eyes travelled the length of the table and for a minute Gaby was scared she was going to ask her to do it.

"Lizzie?" Damon asked with a raised eye brow as his eyes rested on his niece.

"Fine, I'll do it" The girl rolled her eyes in fake annoyance before placing both hands together in front of her chest "Dear God we want to say thank you today for the food you bring us and because we are all healthy and together. We also want to thank you because you helped Lola save the birds" The little girl smiled and nodded as her cousin winked at her "We also want to thank you because mom married a nice man like Stefan and Auntie Ellie chose Damon and not-"

"Liam with the funny face" Her parents and her Aunt and Uncle echoed the words she repeated in at least one family meal per year.

"But isn't it hilarious that you are now seeing his son?" Stefan asked her daughter with glee all over his face.

"Jackson looks like his mom" Lizzie answered quickly

Caroline chuckled "I actually think Liam was really cute"

"Don't interrupt me please, I also want to thank God for bringing Gaby here today" Lizzie gave her a sincere smile and Gaby knew they were going to get along well "And that is all. Amen."

"Amen." They all whispered and proceeded with their meal.

The minutes trickled by and the food and drinks flowed, they shared stories and laughs. They joked and sang and as Damon held Elena's hand underneath the table she looked at him with tears in her eyes before raking her eyes along the whole table, where for the first time all of their children were sitting together. Her eyes caught Lizzie's who winked at her before mouthing "I told you" with the biggest smile on her face.

Later that day when the entire house was sleeping Damon was sitting on the big comfy couch placed in front of the fireplace of the living room as he watched Elena dance around the room while 'Your song' by Elton John sounded softly in the background.

She had danced for him more times than he could count ever since they got back together nine years ago but he never stopped being amazed at how beautiful and graceful she was, when he looked at her he still couldn't believe someone like her had chosen to be with him.

She was perfect, and she was his.

"…How wonderful life is while you're in this world…" He echoed the words of the song softly as his eyes filled with tears at seeing her dance for him one more time. Damon stared at her unable to believe he had gotten everything he ever dreamed in life, his four children were sleeping under the same roof tonight and he was watching the love of his life dance for him, life couldn't get better than that.

He stood up as the song changed to the Rolling Stones song 'Wild horses' and she gave him the sweetest of smiles "Would you dance with me doll?" He extended his hand and she took it without hesitation.

"Of course darling" He took her in his arms and they started swaying gently to the soft tune of the music. Her head instantly went to rest on his chest "I love you"

"I love you too" He answered "You're my girl. You'll always be my girl" He told her before dipping his head and placing a gentle kiss onto her lips, she smiled into the kiss before he released her mouth and her head went back to rest on his chest. The fire crackled in the fireplace as they swayed slowly in front of it, their eyes closed and smiles on their lips.

Unbeknown to them, a teenage girl was looking at their dancing forms from where she sat at the top of the stairs. A smile gracing her lips as her crystal blue eyes brimmed with tears.

THE END

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