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a/n: You absolutely need to listen to Halestorm's "Here's to Us" while you read. The song plays a huge part in this oneshot. Please listen to it.

It happened pretty damn fast.

The first minute, she and the rest of her friends were standing in a line, facing Esther and her band of demons as they lunged down on them, ready and desperate to take them all out. Never in all of her life did Caroline Forbes think that she would be fighting on the same side as the Originals.

The next minute, she was ripping out the heart of one of those demons, flinging it from her with such force that she didn't even know she had.

And then she didn't know what happened after that.

Elijah was slicing off demon heads right and left, avoiding the many white oak stakes that they had. His foot would grind the stakes into dust. His soul mate whirled into a graceful leap, just like the lioness that she was. Her long hair was tumbling in the wind, and she snapped the neck of a strange kitsune/vampire creature, twisting it's head almost all the way around.

Bonnie stood in the center of the salt circle, chanting away incessantly, blood was already trickling from her nose from the effort. Kol prowled around the circle, silently daring anyone to get near his little witch. Ever so often, a demon creature would be stupid enough to try and seconds later, his heart would be laying yards away in the woods.

Even though he had been turned the year before, Matt still preferred to use the long sword that Elena's brother had taught him to use. His large build neatly covered the tiny frame of the blonde that still had three times the strength of his. Didn't matter, she was the love of his now eternal life.

The second eldest brother of the Originals was there, along with his brand new bride. The thousand year old vampire and the young woman, only five in vampire years, was beside him. Caroline stood back for a moment in the action, watching as Abby drop-kicked a creature, sending it's insides flying. For a split second she thought Finn was going to stop and applaud her but then Abby had to pull the head off of another demon to stop it from sinking it's teeth into Finn's arm.

And she was there too, fighting alongside every one else. Of course, she was the new one in the middle of the Salvatores.

Every move that either brother made was matched by the other, mirrored by her. The three of them moved in such sync, it was the closet thing to a dance that a vampire could do.

And then...

It was over.

Elijah stood there, by the salt circle, the closest to the fire he could get without being burned. Something was in his hands, something bloody and dripping.

Esther's body was at his feet.

"That's for Niklaus," the Original whispered. "And for us."

With the last ounces of Bonnie's strength, the demons disappeared into dust. She fell, kicking the salt circle away. Kol caught her neatly, lifting her up into his arms and cradling her against his chest.

"We're done here," Kol muttered. "It's over."

Caroline blinked and he was gone.

And one by one, people led people away. The brunette disappeared with the eldest Original, both of them wrapped around each other in embraces of grief and comfort. The youngest Original and the youngest vampire left together, both in a desperate attempt to get away from the cause of all of their problems of the past five years. Caroline watched everyone else leave with their soul mates

And then, soft, long fingers slipped through hers. She turned and found herself looking into icy blue eyes that finally held a hint of peace inside of them.

"Let's go home, Caroline."

She let herself be led away from the fields of blood and the stench of death.

As they walked along at the speed of humans, she found her gaze drifting up the skies above them.

The clouds had finally cleared. She could see every star in the sky.

Damon pushed the mug into her hands. "Drink."

"Don't be pushy," she shot back before taking an exhausted sip from the mug. It was a hot toddy with the evident lacings of O positive. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Damon whispered before slipping down onto the porch step beside her. "You want to tell me why we are sitting out here in the freezing cold?"

She let out a tired sigh. "Since when did Damon Salvatore whine about the cold?"

"Ever since I became a big wussy when I married you, Caroline Salvatore. Now shut up."

She managed to crack a weak smile, despite her exhaustion. She leaned her head against his shoulder, taking a long draft from the hot toddy.

Her eyes travel up to the skies once again. Despite it being cold, it really was a beautiful night. She...she was happy.

"You see that star?" she found herself whispering, glimpsing the north star. Her fingers slipped through his and she lifted his hand up. "Close your eyes and make a wish."

She was alarmed to see her husband complying. Damon closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His temple rested against her blond tresses.

And then he kissed her.

"Huh," Caroline smiled. "That was my wish too."

"Where the hell do you think you're going at this time of night?"

Her head shot up and she smiled. "I'm going to the Grille. And it's only seven thirty. Now get dressed. You're going with me."

Damon stared at her for a second before shaking his head. He turned away, running a hand through his raven tresses.

"I must be losing my mind."

"Marriage has mellowed you, brother."

"Shut up, Stefan."

"Caroline, you want to tell me again why we are here?"

"Damon, just shut up for a second," the blonde fired back. Her eyes were on the deejay as he walked up the steps to the stage.

"Caroline, unless you plan on making dinner out that guy, I'd prefer you didn't stare at him."

She couldn't help the grin that crossed her lips at that comment. She leaned towards her dark haired husband and planted a very gentle kiss on his lips to which he happily returned.

"Relax darling," she murmured.

"Well, good evening everybody!" The deejay practically trilled into the mike. "Are you ready for karaoke night?!"

Damon was glaring daggers. "Please tell me you didn't."

Caroline started to laugh. "Don't worry, it's not you."

"Our first volunteer...Caroline Salvatore, come right up!"

She glanced over her shoulder at Damon before beaming. "Me."

Caroline gracefully cantered up to the stage, landing cleanly on her feet. She approached the microphone, finding Damon in the sea of people. Her eyes focused right on him before she began to speak.

"Hey, everybody!" she called. "I have to explain something before I begin this song. You see, my husband and I have gone through a traumatic family experience recently and so I want to sing this song for him. It's a song I've always loved and even though he won't admit it, he loves it too."

The beginning's of a country rock song began over the speakers. The words did pop up on the cue screen but she didn't need them. She knew this song backwards and forwards.

Damon's eyebrows raised when he heard the music before his features softened. A small smirk crossed his lips before it turned into a real smile.

"we could just go home right now
or maybe we could stick around for just one more drink, oh yeah
get another bottle out, let's shoot the breeze
sit back down for just one more drink, oh yeah."

Caroline's eyes darted around the even more cramped bar. She could see her favorite guy take his place behind the bar, the tiny blonde Original at his hip. Matt winked and she returned it.

"we stuck out this far together
put our dreams through the shredder
let's toast, cuz things got better
and everything could change like that
and all these years go by so fast
but nothing lasts forever."

People were getting to their feet, clapping along with the beat of the fast music.

Damon was still seated. It suddenly dawned on Caroline that he had never seen or heard her sing before. Even during their first tumultuous relationship, she had never sung a peep. Even when they had first gotten married, she had never sung a peep.

The door was opening to the Grille and more familiar faces were pouring in. She saw her cocoa skinned friend, flanked by the youngest Mikaelson brother. Seconds later, the two were in each other's arms.

She then saw her favorite face of all, her best friend in the world. Stefan beamed at her and winked, inclining his head towards his elder brother who was still seated in his chair.

But he was smiling.

And she couldn't help but smile back.

"here's to us
here's to love
all the times that we messed up
here's to you, fill the glass
cuz the last few nights have gone too fast
if they give ya hell, tell them forget themselves
here's to us, here's to us!"

Elijah and Elena appeared not far away from the stage. Elijah had his arms wrapped around Elena from behind, his chin resting on top of her head. Elena was yelling and screaming in joy, trying to squirm out of Elijah's grip but of course, he wouldn't let her go. Caroline hoped he would never let her go.

"here's to all that we kissed and to all that we missed
and to the biggest mistakes that we just wouldn't dream
to us breaking out without us breaking down
to whatever's coming our way..."

Then there was her mother, along with her new husband Charles. She had never seen her mother look so proud of her before.

She felt another presence beside her on the stage. A simple joy that had once encouraged her to fight for everything that she wanted, never to let a small town keep her down. Well, she didn't. He had been right, that irritating (irritatingly gorgeous, that is) Original. And when he had been killed, she had felt a piece of her heart breaking away.

Who had picked her up?

Damon.

The thing that she hated to admit was that he had been right.

Those words had been what she had lived by for the past ten years. She had felt herself repeating them to others. Of course, she left Mystic Falls and saw bits of the world that she had always wanted to see. But Mystic Falls, it was her home. Her heart would remain here forever.

Her eyes fell on her husband once again. And he was on his feet, clapping along to the beat of the music. A real smile was on his elegant features, real joy in his eyes.

And she had never felt so much love before than she felt at that moment for this man standing five feet away from her.

here's to us, here's to us!here's to you, fill the glass,
cuz the last few nights have gone too fast
if they give ya hell, tell them forget themselves!
here's to us! oh, here's to us!"

And her eyes never left the man that she loved with every fiber of her being.

"here's to us, here's to love
wish everybody well
here's to us, here's to love
here's to us!here's to us."

"Who knew you were such a shining star? You should have been a musician."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Kind of got a problem there."

"Yeah. Sorry about that."

She slapped his arm before snuggling into his embrace. Damon's arms tightened around her, his chin resting on top of her blond tresses.

"To tell you the truth, Caroline," he murmured. "I had never felt more loved than at that moment."

Her dead heart broke at that moment, feeling slightly guilty. But she raised her chin and caught his eyes, never letting him break her gaze.

"I was always here, Damon," she whispered. "It just took you awhile to realize that."

Damon allowed himself to smile, slipping an arm from around her. He leaned over and picked up the mug of cocoa that had been sitting beside them on the tiny table. He lifted it in the salute of a toast, giving her a playful wink.

"Here's to us."

Caroline grinned, resting her ear against his heart, listening to the steady flow of blood through his vampire veins. The sound of his life.

"Here's to us."

Okay, if you didn't listen to Halestorm's "Here's to Us" while reading, you go back and listen to it right now!

I find this very fluffy even though it's got blood and guts in the beginning. I guess with Caroline, how she proclaims her love is through a song and most likely on the show, when she proclaims her love for Klaus (probably season 5), she will do it through a song. Candice Accola really has a beautiful voice, probably the only one of the girls that can sing. So when this idea was born, it was going to be another Caroline and Stefan oneshot but I thought, what the heck? It was interesting going into the Caroline and Damon field a couple of times and I decided to do it again. I can definitely see something like this happening actually, where Caroline sings and Damon remains planted to the chair and doesn't get up until the very end to cheer her on.

I know it's very cheesy and fluffy but it's still cute. I cannot picture the Originals coming into the Grille to watch Caroline sing, god no, I hope that never happens. But for a moment, just a split moment I can see the vampires all just standing around and remembering being human and what it was like to have loved ones and friends.

Yes, Klaus is dead. *sobs quietly* And yes, the Scooby Gang is not descended from him. Matt was turned by Rebekah, Elena was turned by Elijah and the brothers and Caroline are descended from Elijah's line. Also bits of Finn and Abby, Kol and Bonnie, Matt and Rebekah, Elena and Elijah. My favorites. :)

Okay, I'm done babbling. Go back and listen to "Here's To Us"!

Reviews are much loved. Thanks so much everyone. Have a great and safe weekend.