A/N: And here is the end! In all honesty when I started this I neverexpected to finish it, it was just a fun thing to write, a way to express my obsession with the show I guess. :p Thank you everyone that read this, favorited it and added it to your alerts!

Now that all the sappy shit is out of the way… ;D This is all from Elena's point of view, so if you absolutely loathe her I feel the last chapter had a good enough ending that you don't really have to read this (but I hope you do anyway).

Ok finally…

Who You are and What You Could Have Been

Epilogue

After twenty years and two daughters Elena Donovan (née Gilbert) is happy. No vampires, no werewolves (only seeing Stefan and Damon and Caroline and Tyler every few years) and she hadn't seen Klaus or the rest of the Originals since that day in Mystic Falls but she is not stupid, she knows that he has hybrids watching her. She made a game out of her paranoia, watching her neighbors to see if any of them were ageing too well (they weren't), watching if they took too much interest in her family (they didn't).

It had taken her a good five years after leaving Mystic Falls to stop checking over her shoulder for a blond hybrid, though she gave blood religiously every month until her first pregnancy. Then sporadically until she was pregnant again then it just completely dropped off (she started checking over her shoulder again).

She doesn't hide but she doesn't dance on table tops screaming either.

Elena left Mystic Falls the day after Jeremy graduated, having only stuck around for his senior year to give him some semblance of a family. She worked at the Grill for no other reason than to give her something to do and with no big crisis to thwart, her life had turned boring. But she thanks God for that every day.

She went to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, studied journalism, pledged to the Alpha Delta Pi sorority, and did everything she was going to before her parents died. On the outside it was almost like nothing had changed (like those two years hadn't happened) but it had, so much had changed that she was not the same person from before.

Elena started dating Matt again over Christmas break of her freshman year. They were hanging out when she was working at the Grill (becoming friends again) and he took a week off that Christmas to visit her where he asked her out to dinner. She went, not wanting to hurt his feelings, but found that she really missed him, missed her old life.

Elena loves Matt. Not quite the deep powerful love with Stefan or the crazy passionate love with Damon, but he's human. He was there for her when they buried Alaric at sea and when she picked neither of the Salvatore's. He understands that a piece of her will always love them and he never pushed her to forget them and move on.

Matt's sweet and caring, he never forgets an anniversary, buys flowers for no other reason than to say 'I love you', takes her on spur of the moment road trips to watch the sunset at the beach, makes her remember why she fell in love with him during fifth grade.

But he's different now, there's a sadness there that he can't seem to shake (having seen and lost too much).

Matt proposed a month after she graduated and they were married a year later in their backyard. Stefan was there, standing at the back watching as Jeremy walked her down the aisle. Elena knew she made the right choice seeing him as the seventeen year old boy that her seventeen year old self had loved (but it didn't make it any easier). She never would have chosen to be a vampire, she wanted a life, to grow old and have children, things that Stefan could have never given her. He gave her a pained smile, a quick hug and was gone before they cut the cake.

Damon showed up a week later dressed for the wedding , reeking of stale liquor and cheap women. It proved to be a good reminder of just how unstable Damon could be. She put him to bed on the couch and he was gone the moment he was sober enough to walk out the door (upright).

Elena didn't see them again until they found out (from Caroline) that she was pregnant. They both showed up her doorstep (together) and swore to protect her children, grandchildren and so on (making her realize just how much of a blip her life is compared to theirs).

Seeing them together as brothers…she knows she made the right choice.

The thought of having children terrified her, the Petrova curse always in the back of her mind. It was silly and she knew it, (doppelgangers only happen every few hundred years anyway) but the fear was still there. It subsided when they welcomed Miranda Gray into the world and a few years later Jennifer Ann. She was relieved when they looked more like their father than her. Blonde and blue eyed, tall and thin.

They are her life.

VV

"Girls, I'm home," Elena calls as she pushes the door closed with her shoulder, smiling when she hears their voices in the living room. The doorbell rings as she shrugs off her coat and she lays it over the bench just inside the foyer.

She pulls the door open, her smile fading and her eyes widening. "There's my girl."

"Klaus," she breathes. He looks the same (obviously) as he casually leans against the door frame, with an all dimple smile. He looks her over, the curves from two children, the grey hairs at her temples, the crows' feet and smile lines that have never graced the faces of the previous doppelgangers.

She suddenly feels old.

"So you do remember me." He gives her a coy smile as if they are old friends. "Can we come in?" It is only then that she notices the woman standing beside Klaus, their hands loosely clasped.

"You're here to turn her?"

"Not quite."

Elena frowns when she feels a tapping on her shoulder. "Excuse me," a deep voice says from behind her. A tall handsome young man slides between her and the door to stand next to Klaus and the woman. Her eyes widen in horror when he winks at Miranda and Jennifer who had followed him from the living room.

"Beautiful girls," Klaus says smiling at them.

"What do you want?" Elena asks, her tone harsh as she closes the door to block the girls from view.

"Just a small donation, love."

Elena gropes around the table behind the door for the white oak stake but the boy holds it up before slipping it in the inside pocket of his jacket. "This was not part of our deal, Klaus," she hisses.

"Come now, love that deal is over twenty years old now and you haven't been keeping up your end of the bargain. I believe it's time to make a new one."

VV

Elena watches the woman with Klaus as they sit in the back of a commandeered blood donation van while Klaus and the boy burn the stake. She is quite plain really (nothing like Caroline).

She has to be compelled, she reasons, no one could really love Klaus.

"I'm not compelled if that's what you're thinking." Kelsea glances up from the magazine she is reading, a small smirk on her lips.

"How can you be with Klaus knowing what he is capable of? Did he tell you what he did to me? My friends? He killed me, my Aunt Jenna, he turned Tyler into a Hybrid, Bonnie's mother and Alaric were turned into a vampires because of him, he stalked Caroline..." she trails off hoping the girl will see reason, gives names to make them real to her.

"I love him." Elena scoffs, crossing her arms over her chest as she shakes her head in disbelief. "Your one to talk, you loved Stefan Salvatore knowing what he had done."

"How-"

"Nik likes to reminisce. The twenties are still his favorite."

"Well that is-"

"Completely the same thing," Kelsea finishes for her. "Nik does not hide who he is or sugar coat what he does. He took me in, was in the room letting me break his hand as I gave birth to Henry, gave me and Henry a life neither of us could have ever had. I was on WIC when I met Nik, living with my drunken mother, no friends, no job, Henry's father had already split. Then I met Nik in a grocery store and everything changed. He gave me a home and a family, a crazy dysfunctional family, but a true family. I'm grateful and I fell in love with him. Nothing will change that."

Elena studies the woman in front of her and tries another tactic, mother to mother. "Why are you allowing Klaus to turn your son into a monster?"

"I love my son and this is what he wants. It was his choice," she pauses and catches Elena's eye. "Aren't we all monsters on the inside?"

The door opens before Elena can reply and Klaus walks in, Henry on his heels.

"How are my girls?"

Kelsea smiles as Henry sits next to her, throwing his arms over the back of her chair and stretching out as if he is not going to die in minutes, hours, days (whenever it may be).

Klaus checks the nearly full bag and crouches beside her. His fingers are warm and gentle as he holds her wrist to pull out the needle. He pats her arm and smiles. Elena jerks her hand out of his grip and yanks the sleeve of her shirt down, shifting back away from him. He grins.

"Don't be mean." Kelsea pushes Klaus out of the way and holds out her hand to help Elena up. When she doesn't take it, she turns back to Klaus, pulling him to her by his belt buckle.

"Do it while I take her home." It takes Elena a moment to realize what she is talking about and her eyes widen in horror. She kisses Klaus, hugs Henry tightly, and holds her hand out to Elena again, looking at her expectantly.

Elena takes her hand, stumbling a bit as she stands. "I'd offer you my blood but I know you won't take it." Kelsea smiles kindly as she leads her out of the van. "Hold tight."

They are on her front lawn in seconds. As Elena untangles herself from Kelsea she realized she is too old for this shit and staggers away from her towards the porch. She watches her for a moment, wanting to ask so many questions to try and understand.

The familiar rumble of a truck alerts her that Matt is on his way home (only a few seconds). Kelsea gives her a knowing smile when she hears it too and speeds away before she is seen.

She hears a whispered 'thank you' on the breeze just as Matt pulls the truck in the driveway.

Now Elena is upset.