Sunlit-Smile Says: I couldn't quite get over Rose's death. So here is my goodbye, what I would have wanted to have happen. What I would have done for her, parroted through an impossible Elena.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or anything therein.

Elena did not get to play with Rose. She did not get to laugh with her, share old stories, comfort her, or coddle her. She did not get to give her the gift of a blossoming friendship. She did not get to lie in bed beside the over 500-years-old woman, giggling over movies and eating popcorn. She did not get to be there for her when she cried.

After the tears, writing, and quiet singing of an old lullaby to treat her wounded soul, Elena was still in shambles.

Rose was dead, and Elena could not quite get over it.

So she asked Damon to do something for her – just a little, small something. Something that would change her world; for, after her parent's death, Elena had learned that death was something to be mourned for a long time, but each tear would renew you, and so it should be celebrated as well.

They took Rose's body to a large, open patch of grass in the woods – a clearing, surrounded by trees and penetrated by sun. They buried her body there. It would have been what Rose would have wanted – to be buried in a place where there was sunlight.

Soon after, Elena began to plant flowers…. roses for Rose – all over the place. There were I-miss-you roses, I-cried-for-you roses, roses the colour of peaches, ever-present roses, forget-me-not roses, and just-blooming roses. Roses as far as the eye could see, which Elena watered with her tears as Damon stood by a tree and watched in wonder and slight confusion. In the center of this rose patch, where her body had been burned, was an open spot of grass that was perfect to lie back and read in.

Here, children would play, and promises would be made, and life would be celebrated. Here, Elena and Damon would finish that game of tag that Rose wanted. Here, humanity would live on.

For Rose.