Five Years Later
"Yeah, dad, the flight was fine," Riley assured him. "There's nothing to worry about, I'm fine! You really think Damon would let anything happen to us?" she smiled to herself as she listened to more of her father's anxieties. "Hey, we just pulled up at the school, I have to go," she told him. "I'll get Caroline to call you after I tell her. Okay, bye dad."
She hung up the phone as Damon stopped the car outside the 'Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted'.
"You do realize that your dad's gonna want to come and live with us when he retires, right?" Damon asked his wife, only half-joking.
Riley laughed. "Well, maybe he can have Bonnie's room? She's enjoying Hawaii so much she's thinking about making the move permanent."
Damon raised an eyebrow. "Does Bonnie know you're spying on her?"
Riley's eyes widened innocently. "I'm not spying! We have a psychic connection, remember? I see her having adventures and meeting hot guys, and she sees me teaching the world's future witches how to not set things on fire."
Damon feigned hurt as they got out of the car. "Hey, we have adventures! We went to London last year, remember?"
Riley chuckled. "Oh yeah, the raining city of Enzo's." She wrapped her arms around his neck. "We don't need to travel to have adventures. In fact, if I remember rightly, we went on a pretty huge adventure 18 months ago... and we're about to go on another one."
Damon smiled and nodded, and they kissed. Then he reached into the car and extracted Lorenzo Salvatore from his car seat, passing the half-asleep 18-month-old to his mother.
Riley kissed his cheek, making him laugh, just as a girl of about 11 came up to them, a smile on her face.
"Mrs. Fletcher-Salvatore, you're back!"
Riley smiled down at her, transferring Lorenzo to her other hip. "I'm back! Please tell me you've been practicing?" The girl avoided eye contact, and Riley frowned. "Hope, you have to practice your magic, okay? Otherwise you won't be able to control it."
"I will," Hope Mikaelson promised, as if she was speaking to her nagging mother. "I'll set Lizzie's hair on fire."
"Don't you dare!" Riley warned as Hope skipped back into the building. "Isn't it insane that a human is teaching the tribrid daughter of Klaus Mikaelson how to control her magic?"
Damon shook his head. "Nope, not insane at all. Because my human wife happens to be an awesome supernatural teacher."
They kissed again, before being interrupted by yet another voice.
"Finally!" Caroline said, running towards them and reaching straight for her nephew, who was more than happy to be held. "I missed you so much, Ren," she told him, kissing his cheek repeatedly. "You are so cute, do you know that? The cutest baby in the world!"
"We're here too, Care," Riley reminded her with a laugh.
Caroline giggled, her eyes still on Ren. "I know, I know. How was Colorado?"
"Boring," Damon answered before Riley could. She nudged him in the ribs. "I mean... seeing my father-in-law sheriff-ing a sleepy town in the middle of a snowstorm was the perfect vacation." His voice was dripping with sarcasm, and Caroline laughed, also knowing all about the Colorado snow from the many trips that she'd taken the twins on to see their only living grandparent.
At that moment, Ric exited the school, coming out to greet them.
"Hey," he greeted, hugging Riley. "You're not supposed to be here until next week." He quickly hugged Damon, before taking Ren from Caroline and balancing the toddler on his shoulders. "How's the bar?"
Damon grinned as they got to his second-favorite topic of conversation, the bar that he owned near Whitmore College.
"Jeremy Gilbert's holding down the fort," Damon told him. "Plus I hired a couple of frat boys who are willing to work part time for free drinks."
Caroline rolled her eyes. "Speaking of drinks, one of the kids smuggled in bourbon from his father's liquor cabinet and I had to confiscate it. Wanna come in and have some?"
Riley smiled at Damon, who winked at her.
"Actually... I can't drink right now."
Ric and Caroline looked at each other.
"Wait... you're not saying- are you saying... am I reading too much into this right now, or are you-?"
She cut herself off and Riley took something out of her pocket and handed it to her sister. A scan picture.
Caroline's eyes widened. "You're... again?!"
Damon laughed. "Well, if she's not, then we've been keeping a secret for the last 12 weeks for no reason."
Ric grinned, slapping Damon on the back. "Congratulations!"
Caroline was still staring at the picture. Riley hugged her from behind, also staring at the picture.
"That's the head," she announced, pointing at it. "Those are the legs. And according to Bonnie... she's a girl."
Caroline turned to look at her. "Bonnie knows?! How is that possible?"
Riley shrugged. "Bonnie and I have a psychic link, and it turns out that she has a psychic link to Ren and the baby too. She knows that it's a girl, she knows that they're both witches... and she knows that you're both gonna be awesome godmothers, just like you are to Ren."
"Wow," Caroline said, hugging her sister tightly. "So let me guess... you already have a name picked out?"
Riley laughed, nodding. "Of course. We already have a Lorenzo Stefan Salvatore, so we thought we'd add his partner in crime – Alexia Ciara Salvatore."
Caroline nodded, smiling brightly. "Lexi Salvatore. That's perfect!"
They hugged again.
"Oh my God, we have to throw a baby shower!" Caroline said suddenly. "It'll be perfect. I can get the witch kids to make decorations, and we can have it right here! Lizzie and Josie will be so excited!" Riley and Damon raised an eyebrow at each other, both having predicted this exact reaction. "Do you think Bonnie will be back in time?"
As if on cue, a car drove quickly down the street and parked expertly in front of the school. In a hurry, Bonnie rolled down her window.
"Get in!" she called.
"Bon?" Damon asked. "What the hell?"
"I have everything I need," she told them quickly. "And I think you should be there when I do it."
Riley frowned. "When you do what?"
"What do you think?" Bonnie grinned. "I'm gonna wake Elena."
***
"What do you think it's gonna be like?" Damon asked Riley. They watched Bonnie stand over Elena's open coffin, chanting. During her travels, she'd always been searching for a way to bring her best friend back to life, and Hawaii happened to have the answer.
"I think it's gonna be like she never left," Riley told him honestly, glancing at Ren playing in the grass at their feet. "I mean, it's been ten years since we last saw her, she's missed so much. But she's still gonna be the Elena that we know and love."
Damon sighed, sliding to the ground, where Ren automatically climbed onto his lap. "Do you think... she wishes that it was Stefan that survived, instead of me?"
Riley sat on the ground beside them, laying her head on his shoulder. "I don't know. But what I do know is that she's gonna be so happy to see you. She's gonna be happy that you're happy. And... she's gonna miss Stefan with her whole heart, just like we do."
Just as she spoke those words, Elena gasped, sitting up. She looked around at all of them with wide eyes, not trusting herself to believe that this was real.
Bonnie touched her arm. "I finally figured this 'witch' thing out."
"I'm awake?" she asked breathlessly. "I'm really awake?"
Caroline smiled. "Welcome back."
She jumped out of the coffin and hugged her and Bonnie. Then she looked over at Damon, Riley and Ren, slowly walking towards her. She knew that time had passed, but she had no idea how much she'd missed.
She looked at Riley first, her eyes teary.
"You guys got together?" she asked Riley, a smile on her face. "And you have a baby?"
Riley nodded, pulling Elena into a hug. "I can't believe you're back."
"Me either." She sniffed, turning her gaze on Damon. "Wow, married with a baby. I never thought I'd see this side of you."
Damon smiled. "I didn't think this side of me existed. But I'm glad you get to see it."
Elena nodded, reaching up and stroking Ren's hand.
"Elena, meet Ren Salvatore, your godson."
"Godson?" Elena asked in disbelief. Then Damon handed the toddler to her, and she hugged him tightly. "Hi Ren. I'm your aunty Elena."
Suddenly, they all got the weirdest feeling that, finally, everything was right in the world. Elena was back.
And just like that, life could go on. Caroline and Alaric continued to run the Salvatore School, Matt was the Sheriff of Mystic Falls, Bonnie went back to her adventures, Elena went back to college so that she could finally become a doctor, and Riley and Damon became 100% responsible for a little girl who was their entire world, completing their perfect family of four.
Since moving to Mystic Falls, Riley had gone through a lot more than the average human. Hell, she'd gone through a lot more than the average non-human. But despite everything: the vampires, the witches, the werewolves, the hybrids, the Original vampires, the hunters, the psychics, the Sirens and the literal devil, she'd come out the other side stronger than ever. She was unstoppable. Thanks to everyone that she'd met along the way...
She survived.