The Best is Yet to Come

Wait till you're locked in my embrace
Wait till I hold you near
Wait till you see that sunshine place
There aint nothin like it here

The best is yet to come, and wont that be fine
The best is yet to come, come the day that your mine

The wedding is held at midnight, in the middle of the forest where they all seem to have died at least once. He can't put his finger on why, as he watches them converge on the spot, but it seems appropriate. He never quite understood what held them together then, why they were all so fiercely loyal to one another even when they hated each other. Now, five years later, they come together again and it is finally clear. They were knit together by circumstance, shared experiences. Like soldiers of war they had endured and, more then that, survived. For every person that walks into the forest there is someone who does not.

She emerges at midnight but she arrived that morning. He watches from the shadows as she leads a team of workmen and a gaggle of her friends into the forest. They all whisper at first, like there are still things to be afraid of. She 's the first to raise her voice. Someone isn't building a tent right and she practically throttles the man. Elena and Damon exchange a glance and the brunette has to cross the forest floor quickly to keep her friend from shoving the man out of the way to do the job herself.

She's in her element as she oversees the proceedings, despite the fact that the majority of the group is comprised of her ex boyfriends. Two of them are still mooning at her. Stefan at least has the pride to do it while her back is turned. Tyler on the other hand casts her awkward and forlorn looks every time she asks him to do something.

She doesn't let it bother her though, flitting from one task to the next in her linen blouse and well-worn jeans. She snaps and scowls and practically crackles with energy. She is ferocious and determined and fuck has he missed her. He had been positive he could find another like her. There are small towns in Louisiana. They make bossy and neurotic women there too. But no one like Caroline. No one who can burn so hot and be so foolishly brave and make him feel like a nervous boy again just by looking at him the wrong way.

Eventually they finish and disappear, leaving the space for the few free hours between assembly and use. He emerges from the place he's been observing (hiding) to take a closer look at her handy work. Lace and tinsel and twinkle lights are tangled in the tree branches above, crisscrossed and woven together to form a cover over the rows of black wooden chairs and the archway that seems to be made almost entirely of red roses. Flower petals litter everything and there is a trail of them leading to the arch. Candles seem to be the way they're lighting the proceedings and they're grouped together to make a large semi circle surrounding the chairs.

He runs his fingers over the roses placing his hands where she had placed hers. He worries the fabric woven into the chair backs the same way she had. And he is so absorbed in it that he does not hear her coming until she is already next to him.

"What are you doing?" it's half accusation and half curiosity. There is sun on her skin and laughter still in her throat and she can't be that upset about anything today.

He glances up at her, at the way her hair has grown out to nearly her elbows and the glow freedom has given her. She lives in New York City now, in a Manhattan high rise and every night she stands on her balcony, sometimes wearing nothing but a sheet. She is usually grinning, can't seem to stop grinning, and it felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest when he saw it for the very first time.

The hatred has faded from her eyes ever so slightly. It is no longer a reflex but just a habit. He rolls his eyes and pulls the invitation out from his leather jacket. He watches her face as she realizes. He'd required Bonnie's services a few times over the years and had decided to bribe instead of threaten her. He probably financed the majority of this wedding. He felt the least she could do was afford him an invitation and Bonnie had obliged after a few threats aimed at her very human fiancé.

She sighs, turning away to grab her purse from where she'd left it on one of the chairs. She runs a hand through her hair and she is not smiling, but she is not scowling at him either. She's going to walk away without saying another word, she's almost left the clearing when she stops and turns back. She approaches him slowly, getting too close and staring up, "Sit in the back row and try not to kill anyone."

He hesitates before breaking out into a grin, "See you tonight love."

Jeremy Gilbert looks nearly like an adult waiting at the end of the aisle in a tuxedo. Matt Donovan and Stefan stand next to him, looking even more dapper in their matching crimson ties and white orchid boutonnieres. There's a silk tent that sits a few feet away from the participants and that is where the women hide and dress and prepare. He can hear her voice every so often or a peal of laughter. A bit before the ceremony is to start Elena emerges in a robe with her hair half done and he sees a flash of Caroline's bare calf and a delicious red high heel.

Elena slinks down the aisle in bare feet, her hand running over Damon's shoulder as she walks past him to Jeremy. The humans can't hear what she whispers into her brother's ear with tears in her eyes but Klaus can, even from the back row. They embrace for a long time, until Elena's shoulders have stopped shaking and when she pulls away he wipes the rest of her tears with the pads of his thumbs. She hugs the two men who have stood up for her brother then, pressing a quick but firm kiss to each of their cheeks.

Damon has stood up from his seat in the second row some time during this exchange. Klaus doesn't remember when, he's transfixed. He finally sees what men find so enrapturing about Elena Gilbert as she turns as raw and sincere as an open wound. Her eyes are bright red but she is grinning as she steps away from the altar and lets the other Salvatore brother wrap his arms around her waist. She is grinning and laughing and weeping, looking mad to anyone who doesn't understand the significance of this moment. The deep relief of not just survival, but getting to live in happiness.

Klaus understands. He shouldn't, he has never felt like Elena Gilbert, he has never loved his siblings with such selflessness or clarity nor has he ever lived happily, but he has lived long. Long enough to know that others do. Some lucky few live their lives without borders or walls or distance. Elena has suffered, Elena has lost, but still she reveals herself, still she can display vulnerability to crowds of people without a moment's hesitation. So when Damon leads her back down towards the tent, stopping midway to tilt her chin up and press his lips softly against hers the devotion in his eyes finally makes sense. Elena may be weak where Caroline is fierce, she may follow while Caroline leads, but they do share a certain quality.

His revelation could not be illustrated more clearly then when the flaps of the tent part to reveal her. In nothing but a white slip and complicated looking red heels she reaches out to receive Elena from Damon. She scans her best friend's face for a fraction of a second before realizing the emotions she's feeling aren't of sadness but of joy. Then, in an action that takes only a second but feels as if it occurs in slow motion her own serious face splits open into a twin smile. Caroline wraps her arms around Elena, towering over her thanks to her shoes. Their hair tangles together, a shock of platnium against a chocolate brown backdrop. He watches them (stares) until she notices him, until their eyes meet over Elena's head. She holds his gaze for a moment (forever) before her arm moves and the tent flap falls back into place.

The guests finish arriving a few minutes later. The human relatives and friends are all whispering about the peculiar nature of the time and location. They talk in low tones as only a few candles flicker. Few have noticed him, although Stefan and Damon make sure to acknowledge his presence every so often with glares over their shoulders. Tyler sits a few rows ahead of him and to the right. The biggest condition of his attendance was that he allowed the wayward hybrid to leave unharmed.

And with a few minutes head start, Bonnie had added. He'd obliged with a chuckle. This certainly wasn't about Tyler Lockwood. This was about seeing her one last time, getting her out of his fucking system so he didn't have to traipse to Manhattan every few months and follow her around like a lovesick school boy. He would. He was determined. He would see her still surrounding herself with lesser creatures, choosing them over him at every turn, and he would start to hate her. Just because it hadn't happened yet doesn't mean it wouldn't. He had killed people for much less then he allowed of her, daggered his siblings for turning their backs on him once but stood by as she walked out of his life again and again. He would reach his limit with her. There had to be a limit.

Suddenly flames lick at the candlewicks, and the entire clearing is illuminated with almost blinding clarity. The humans gasp and jolt. Like magic someone whispers, and Klaus smirks. Music begins to play even though there is neither an instrument nor a DJ in sight. Bonnie is just showing off now.

Elena emerges from the tent first in an untraditional white dress and the same heels Caroline was wearing. Her hair falls loosely around her shoulders and she smiles demurely as she begins her march, all traces of her manic episode disappeared. She is a vision, but she is not the one he's looking for.

Elena is halfway down the aisle when the tent flaps separate to reveal Bonnie's second bridesmaid. She wears a dress identical to Elena's but to a much different effect. The white compliments her own ethereal skin, making her seem to glow in the candlelight. She carries a bouquet of blood red rose and her thick hair is pulled up with ruby and onyx pins. He hasn't felt the need to breath in centuries, he's not sure if he recalls how. But he sees her and he remembers. He sees her and he nearly wishes he had breath left to steal.

She doesn't look at him as she passes. She stares straight ahead at her friends, at their future. She has distanced herself but she is still a small town girl, she is still the girl that chooses this life over total abandon and hasn't he always known that she would? Isn't that the kind of loyalty he craves? Doesn't he wish that she would look at him the way she looks at them? Defying reason and logic, despite indisputably better options she returns to them. She loves them regardless of her life and of her own desires and he has never felt that in himself or from anyone else. And for the first time being surrounded by that type of bond, feeling it so powerfully radiating off all of them, he finds himself feeling effected, humbled even.

Bonnie Bennett wears a red wedding dress and walks down the aisle alone despite the presence of both of her parents. Her bouquet erupts and trails down nearly the length of her dress. It is a rich mix of dark greens and deep reds and shocks of white. She doesn't raise her head until she makes it out of the tent, and when she does the music falters for a beat. Jeremy regards her with the smile of a man who knows exactly where he belongs. He has never seen the witch look so timid, so girlish. She might even be blushing.

Caroline starts crying first. He should have predicted it. All signs pointed to her being the sentimental type, the kind of girl that's a sucker for weddings. Yet for some reason he is shocked as the tears begin to weave paths down her cheeks as Jeremy laces his fingers through Bonnie's and the woman wearing long white robes begins to speak over them in low tones. She's quiet about it, graceful even as the tears increase in intensity. She holds her head high and makes no move to wipe them away, they fall from her chin and land on the forest floor.

Elena notices eventually, as she begins to succumb to her own emotions. She laces their fingers together and takes a step closer. Their shoulders press together and the move comes off as nearly insignificant. But these girls are both vampires, they have both had their humanity and their womanhood stolen from them. They will never pledge until death do them part and have to mean it. They will never walk down an aisle picturing a simple life of children underfoot and growing old next to someone. There is joy for this day in both of them, that's undeniable, but when he looks closely he can see the loss too. The revelation that everyone else's life is moving on, and that there's never will.

He would never admit that seeing this gives him hope. Everything ends eventually for a human, and nothing ever does for vampires. Caroline's future is an endless road, one that will eventually not include so many judgmental friends. Eventually her mind will bloom like the roses she holds in her hand and she will come to see that forever can turn anyone into a villain. He shakes his head, this is not the kind of thinking he came here to entertain.

The ceremony is thankfully brief and soon enough Jeremy Gilbert is framing his bride's face with his hands and she is standing on her tiptoes and pulling on his tie. They seem to dissolve into each other, and she lets her beautiful bouquet fall to the ground as she throws her arm over his shoulders. It gets tramples as others descend on them, proving just how uncivilized their band of misfits can be. First Bonnie pulls Elena between them and then Jeremy grabs Matt. Stefan cocks an eyebrow at Damon and grabs Caroline's wrist and despite better judgment and characterization they are laughing and crying and woven into one massive embrace. It's sickening he tells himself, as Caroline squeezes Stefan's hand and lets Matt clean up her mascara with his pocket square. Completely unnatural this love they have for each other, this affection has no place in their world. She is unnatural, a fool for letting herself get so close to such a volatile group of people.

The reception is held at the Lockwood estate, which he believes Matt Donovan still owns. Paper lanterns float suspended in the air and there are trays of food and a large dance floor. There is a full moon overhead and he grins at the irony as he looks up at it. He's sitting alone at a table when he spots her again. She's sandwiched in between Bonnie and Elena on the dance floor, moving in a way he's sure they never taught her when she was crowned Miss Mystic Falls. They're passing a champagne bottle between the three of them and he has never seen her look so wild.

The music slows and Bonnie reaches for Jeremy and Elena eyes search for Damon. He watches Stefan start to cross the dance floor and Tyler look up from his tumbler of dark liquor. He's closer though and doesn't give her room to argue. She's full of good manners despite her surroundings and places a hand on his shoulder to match the one he has on her waist.

She's flushed with alcohol and smells like champagne and rose petals, a contradiction of sweet and sour. It defines her as she stares up at him, her impossibly pretty face screwed into a scowl. "What are you doing?" she repeats, not in the mood to argue but not drunk enough to simply let him get away with it.

"Making you look good on the dance floor love," he answers, smirking as she steps on his foot, "You seem to have lost your rhythm."

She grins acidly, stomping on his foot again. "My rhythm's impeccable," she corrects, "And you know what I meant."

His mood darkens suddenly. He can do what he damn well pleases. Kill and ruin and attend any fucking wedding in this world. She is no one, and she will not question him. He opens his mouth to tell her so, to finally end this once and for all when her disposition changes as well. She glances at him and shakes her head, as if deciding something to herself. "You know what never mind. You're just going to feed me a line of charming bullshit anyway," she steps closer and leans her chin on his shoulder, "We don't have to talk."

He deflates with her proximity, a different kind of passion stirring within him now. She is not exactly as he remembers. She has never stood this close to him before of her own volition. She has never been quite this relaxed in his presence, let alone in his arms. She is not afraid and he doesn't want to ruin it. What he does want to do is keep talking. He's just not sure what he should say.

He decides for painful honesty, spinning her and pulling her back even closer. She looks up at him and pieces of her hair have fallen out of their twist, framing her face and still she is not afraid. "You know why I'm here," he points out, his face blank but his eyes blazing.

She keeps looking at him, and he thinks she's not going to answer him until suddenly her face breaks out into a bittersweet grin, "You know what's funny?"

He wants to scowl at her avoidance, but when she's smiling he can't stop himself from doing the same. "What's funny Caroline?" he replies gamely.

"Whenever I see Matt or Elena or Stefan I feel this thing in the pit of my stomach. It's like contentment, like my body knows that these are my people, this is my family. And even though I moved away whenever I see them or hear their voices it's like, it's like coming home." her eyes are glassy now and he worries for a horrible second that her smile will waver and she'll stop talking and start to cry. But then she sucks in a deep breath and continues, "I've always had a bad habit of only holding onto good memories. I want to hate you. I know what you've done, what you still do. But my most vivid memories aren't of the bad things. You're the guy who saved my prom, who saved my life. And when I look at you I feel the same way as I would looking at my best friends."

"Like coming home?" he repeats, wishing he could understand the sentiment. Even when he was a child home was not a place he wished to return to. Home was a place her ran from, a place where he was never safe and always hunted. But he thinks he can grasp the feeling because he gets the same pit in his stomach whenever he looks at her, only it's not contentment. He has never wanted something unselfishly before, never wanted to win on his own merit and not through brutality or manipulation. When he looks at her it's longing, it's desire and it's understanding that this kind of person in unique, that she only occurs once in a thousand years. His decisiveness is wavering. She is like a drug.

She lays her head back on his shoulder, "It doesn't change anything."

He pulls back to look at her and he can't let her deny it, let her take it back. "You thinking of me as your friend?" he muses before adding sarcastically, "No that doesn't change anything."

"It's only because you were nice to me," she argues and when this makes him smile she adds, "Just me. We didn't fit into each others lives then and we don't now."

He dips her before countering, "You're Caroline Forbes. You can fit wherever you want."

She scoffs, "And that's the problem isn't it? I would have to fit in your world because you won't fit in mine. You don't compromise, you don't sacrifice-" she breaks off as her voice is raising and even people with heartbeats are starting to stare.

He rolls his eyes at her but regards her with a rueful smile, "I'm standing in the middle of a wedding where I don't want to be and where I'm obviously not wanted. What kind of sacrifice did you have in mind, love?"

She glares at him but doesn't falter as they spin around the floor. Everyone else simply sways to the music but Klaus and Caroline twirl around them as if they're in some sort of competition only they know about. "Um how about not being a mass murderer bent on world domination?" she exclaims.

"The entire world is pretty broad," he replies with a grin.

She stops dancing. They're on the edge of the floor, standing next to the pond where he once teased her about her Miss. Mystic Falls application. It's the furthest away from the throng of people and the floating lanterns. She takes a step backwards and crosses her arms over her chest, "I could never be with someone who had to feel powerful just to exist. And with you it's pathological, it always comes first."

She looks at him for a long time, and he's at a loss as to what he should say. This is who he is, who he's always been. And unfortunately five years of being hopelessly in love with the perfect girl isn't enough to change that. She turns to walk away, to return to the people who don't make her question her life, who make her brave and better and not so colossally unsure.

She turns her back on him again, and instead of igniting his previous fury it makes him desperate. He catches her wrist. He doesn't know when they'll share space again and this has not gone at all how he planned. There was not supposed to be hope, there was not supposed to be bickering. He was to be done with her, not even more enamored. "Caroline," he begins, wrapping his arm around her waist once more. He hopes he looks remorseful as he parrots her previous words even as he looks away from her and swallows hard, "We don't have to talk."

She blinks and he thinks she might pull away. Her friends surround him and as she used to remind him frequently she has better things to do then waste time with lost causes. But then she shifts her weight from one foot to the other and sighs. She leans in and they dance once more.

Eventually the candles burn out and the lanterns begin to fall from the sky as Bonnie starts to fall asleep on Jeremy's shoulder. When the sun breaks the horizon Caroline clears her throat and lifts her head from his shoulder. "I can't feel my feet," she whispers at she pulls away. She wipes at her eyes, which are dry but red. He releases her. "Goodbye Klaus," she adds without looking at him.

"See you soon Caroline," he replies. She turns away and he lets her. They welcome her back into the fold with wary expressions and, in Damon's case, an outright glare. But then Matt slings an arm over her shoulder and offers her his beer. She slips out of her heels next to him as she smiles at a story Elena is telling about her and Damon's most recent trip to Prague.

He watches her and he imagines it. There had been a time when she considered him an enemy, then an annoyance, now he was her friend. There is more time still, so much more, and they will find each other again. He will make sure of it.

The words Elena had said to her little brother echo in his head as he turns away from her, lifting his head to the rising sun and walking towards the horizon.

See Jer? she'd whispered in his ear, Sooner or later love is always enough.

This was just something stuck in my head that needed to be written down. Please review.