A/N: as promised, my annual TVD-how-to-survive-the-hiatus fic ;) for the record, I will be staying away from spoilers about the upcoming season because I already have a storyline planned out. On that note, this fic takes place immediately post 4x23 and will encompass the summer before the characters head off to college. Enjoy!

Damon stood over the spot on the carpet where he'd last seen Alaric, and stared into the distance unseeingly. He held a glass in his hands; how long he'd been holding it, he didn't know.

It was only when he heard a noise at the front door that he finally came back to his senses. He breathed out slowly, closing his eyes. "Goodbye, friend," he said quietly, raising his glass in one last tribute. Then he tossed back the liquid, not feeling any of the burn as it slid down his throat—only the numbness that followed. Nevertheless, he smiled as he placed the glass down. It wasn't a happy smile by any means, but one of acceptance.

His peaceful mood evaporated mere seconds later, however, when Elena appeared in the hallway. Under normal circumstances, he would've been happy to see her. Unfortunately, she also happened to be dragging the body of the absolute last person he wanted to see.

With a thump and a groan, Elena let her doppelganger's body fall to the ground. Letting out a gust of air, she impatiently brushed stray strands of hair out of her face and placed a hand on her hip in annoyance. "A little help would be nice!"

Damon grimaced, "What on earth did you bring her here for? And what the hell happened to you?"

"I had a little run-in with Kol," Elena began.

He made a face and held up a hand to stop her, "Say no more. Just promise me the other guy looks worse."

She opened her mouth, hesitated, then continued, "Well he's back to being a dead nobody on the other side, so…yeah, I guess you could say that."

Damon looked away, momentary sadness flitting across his face. "I know. Alaric disappeared, too. Bonnie must've put the veil back up completely."

Elena stared at him, her eyes widening at the implication. Her hands flew to her mouth, "Oh god, Jeremy!"

Damon winced inwardly, "You never found him to say goodbye?"

She shook her head once, taking a deep shuddering breath as her eyes filled with tears. Damon immediately moved towards her, letting her melt into his embrace. "You got to spend one last day with him," he reminded her, "That's one more day than other people get."

She nodded quickly, wiping away her tears. "No, I know," she said with a muffled voice as she buried her face into his chest. "But I wish I could've said goodbye." After a beat, she raised her head suddenly to look at him. "Did Alaric…did you get to...?"

"Not in so many words," Damon smiled a little, raising his thumb to brush away at the wetness on her cheek. "But he was here for his last moments, and I guess that's the best I could've hoped for."

Elena nodded in understanding, then raised her own hand to her face and squeezed his hand gently. "I'll miss him, too." Then, still holding onto his hand, she led him to where Katherine's body was lying. "So, we kind of have a problem."

"When has this bitch ever not been a problem?" Damon quipped, but his sarcasm faded when he noted the serious expression on Elena's face. "What is it? You snapped her neck, so what? She came after you, I'm sure she deserved it. Don't worry, we'll send her packing when she comes to."

"I, ah, didn't snap her neck."

Damon looked at Elena, then looked back over to Katherine in confusion. The doppelganger lay there, looking for all the world like she was taking a temporary dirt nap. "Vervain?"

"No," Elena bit her lip, looking far more nervous than the situation accounted for.

Damon narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "What are you trying to tell me here, Elena?"

"She was going to kill me," Elena hedged, shifting from foot to foot. "There was no one around to help; I didn't have any choice!"

"Any choice about wh—" He broke off abruptly, putting the pieces together and arriving at a rather horrifying conclusion. "You didn't," he hissed, yanking his hand out of her grasp and blurring around to the other side of Katherine's body so that he could get a better look. "Tell me you didn't, Elena."

She crossed her arms, peeking out at him from underneath her bangs. "I did," she swallowed, "I gave her the cure."

Damon turned away, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. He paced back and forth, along the length of Katherine's body. "Stefan," he said finally, pointing a finger in Elena's direction. "Stefan is going to have a field day with this one." He paused to scowl, "And I'm not telling him!"

Elena pursed her lips, "I offered it to him—he didn't take it!"

That gave Damon pause, and he whirled around to gape at her, "What?"

"Stefan loathes being a vampire…I just thought that, well, if anyone deserved to become human again, it was him."

"And he didn't take it?"

She shook her head, "He said that he did all of this so that the cure would be my choice to take—or not take, as the case may be."

"That's all well and good, Elena, but I highly doubt that Stefan would've wanted Katherine of all people to get it!"

Elena shrugged, not looking particularly worried. "It might not be an ideal situation, but that's just how things turned out and now we have to make the best of it."

"When she wakes up, she's going to be so—"

"Human," Elena interrupted, a flicker of a smug smile flitting across her face. "She's going to be mortal and human, and she's going to get everything she deserves."

Damon cleared his throat, "And by deserve, you mean…?"

She scoffed, her gaze becoming steely. "Katherine said she was jealous of my life; she said that I had everything she ever wanted—well, let's just see what she thinks of my life now that she's human!"

"So, this is payback," Damon surmised, studying Elena's expression. "I thought so."

"Karma has a funny way of coming around," she responded flippantly. "And yes, Damon, I will break the news to Stefan myself. Where is he?"

"Out dumping Silas' body into the quarry," he answered, following her to the door. "And just where do you think you're going?"

"To look for Stefan," she said matter-of-factly, looking as though the answer should've been obvious. "Let's go."

"But what about Klaus-bait back there?"

Elena stopped on the threshold, turning to look at Damon in bewilderment. "What are you talking about?"

He raised an eyebrow, wondering if she was playing the naïve card or if the thought actually hadn't occurred to her. "Katherine is the human-doppelganger now, Elena. Klaus is going to want her blood to make hybrids now."

Realization washed over her features, but then her expression hardened. "So she'll finally know what it felt like to be a human blood bag. Good."

"Elena—"

She heaved a sigh, "Calm down, Damon. What Klaus doesn't know won't hurt him."

"What if he's still in town?"

"I doubt it. He's probably halfway back to New Orleans by now. What else could he possibly have left to do in Mystic Falls? Caroline's entire family is here; she can hardly sit around and entertain him."

"Someone should still stay with her until she wakes up," Damon insisted, "I don't want to leave a human, and let's just say it, an extremely volatile Katherine alone in my house."

"Fine," Elena threw her hands into the air in exasperation, "You can stay here and I'll go find Stefan."

She had already reached the car when he called after her, "By the way…Stefan knows."

Elena paused, not turning around to face him. "Knows what?'

"He overheard," Damon replied slowly, staring at her tensed back. "Vampire hearing and all that."

"And?"

Damon shoved his hands in his pockets, glancing over his shoulder when he heard a moan coming from the living room. "And he'll live," he said in answer to Elena's unspoken question. "I think sleeping beauty is about to wake up. You should go; it would probably be best if you weren't the first face she sees."

Elena rolled her eyes as she got into the car and started the engine. "Then make sure she doesn't look into the mirror!" she called out to Damon, flashing him a grin as she sped away down the street.

She'd had every intention of heading straight for the quarry to find Stefan, but fifteen minutes later, she found herself at the cemetery instead. Elena reached out with trembling fingers to touch Jeremy's headstone. "I wish we could've said goodbye," she whispered, "But Damon's right. I had one day with you, one final day. That's more than I could've asked for."

Elena knelt down, smiling sadly at the engraving in front of her. "I'm glad you and Alaric have each other. Even if I can't be there with you, you'll always have family." She was just getting to her feet, when she saw it: the corner of an envelope sticking out from under some leaves.

With shaking hands, she pulled it out and brushed off the dirt to see her name scrawled across the front—Jeremy's handwriting.

Dear Elena,
I promised you today would be a day of no tears,
and I wanted to keep that promise.
It's your graduation day, and I couldn't be more proud of you.
Forgive me for not saying goodbye,
but I didn't want that to be your last memory of me.
Thank you for always being the strongest person I know, sis.
I love you, and I'll always be watching over you.
-Jeremy

She didn't know when she had started crying, and she paid no heed as her tears fell onto the letter that she clutched against her stomach, sobbing uncontrollably. "I...I love you too, Jer," she managed to gasp out as she curled onto the ground, "I love you, too."

"Elena, don't cry."

She stilled and slowly rose onto her knees again. Now she was hearing voices. That was just great.

"Elena?"

Her brother's voice, to be specific.

"Don't freak out."

It was funny, she could almost even feel someone's hand on her shoulder. She supposed she was long past due for a mental breakdown, but really, this wasn't something she wanted to deal with right now.

"Elena, can you please turn around and look at me?" The grip on her shoulder tightened, until she was eventually forced to rise to her feet and face the direction of the voice.

"Look," she said determinately to the person that looked like Jeremy, "I don't know what kind of mind game this is, but I don't want any part of it, understand?"

Jeremy held onto both of her arms now, crouching down slightly so he could peer into her eyes. "It's me, Elena. Bonnie—" He choked on her name, but then cleared his throat, hoping Elena hadn't heard the catch in his voice. "Bonnie did a spell to bring me back. That's what she was trying to do before, but then the veil stayed open and she couldn't close it, but now..."

Elena met his gaze, and he could already see the skepticism vanishing. "Now?" she breathed out hopefully, her fingers digging into his arms, as though trying to test if he was real or not. "It...it worked?"

"It worked," Jeremy confirmed, grinning as Elena rushed into his arms and enveloped him in a hug. "I'm here," he whispered, "I'm back."