CHAPTER 60: MEMORIAL

Mystic Falls Church

After all the vamp-napping going on in town, for some reason, Pastor Young blew up his farmhouse with the rest of the town council in it. It had caused the sheriff and Elena to interrogate Damon, you know, just in case he was reverting to his old ways and going around and killing everyone and it had also called for the return of the Pastor's daughter, April Young. And, of course, when people die, there are funerals and almost everyone in town came to celebrate the lives of the late council, even if they didn't want to be there.

To say that Natalie had been avoiding Stefan and Elena would be pretty much the right thing to say as after Stefan choosing to be with her sister she hadn't spoken a word to him and had been out of the house before Elena even woke up. But she still had to go to a funeral for people she didn't know (thank you, Caroline) and she ended up sitting next to her best blonde vampire friend who was sitting next to her boyfriend who she wouldn't call her friend but she didn't really want him to die.

But Natalie's plans to not speak to Stefan until the day she died was ruined in that moment as he walked up next to the three and looked at Tyler with surprised eyes as he had been the victim of an attack from a new vampire hunter in town. "What are you doing here, Tyler?"

"Being sensitive to the community's loss." the hybrid responded, glancing at the older vampire momentarily.

Stefan frowned (no surprise there) at the thought of him being such an idiot and getting ready to simply die just to go to a funeral. Huh, how ironic is that? "With a hunter out to get you?"

"I'm not letting a hunter stop me from where I'm supposed to be." Tyler responded, because the supernatural had already ruined his life so much but he didn't want it to stop him from paying respects to people who the town has lost.

Caroline then turned to look at her male best friend and spoke up quietly about what she was planning to do. "Also, if he shows his face, I'm gonna kick his ass."

"Right behind you, sister." Natalie volunteered her services as she linked her arm with the blonde, who smiled at her happily at the possibility of a team up between them.

Stefan glanced at her for a moment, and in that moment, she happened to glance at him and he was about to speak to her but then she turned away, refusing to even acknowledge his presence anymore and he completely understood why as he knew that most likely hurt her. He simply nodded once as he walked over to his seat, a while away.

Mayor Carol Lockwood then walked up to the podium. "Before we begin the Mass, we'd like to open the floor to anyone who would like to share a memory about our late friends on the Town Council. I know that April Young wanted to say a few words about her dad. April? April, are you still here, honey?" she got no response and had no choice but to continue. "Is there anyone else who would like to share a recollection or a memory about Pastor Young?" Nobody said anything or moved a muscle for a little while and it was really awkward during that time. But then, somehow, Elena thought it'd be a good idea to just stand up for whatever reason when she hadn't fed in so long. "Come on up, Elena."

The brunette staggered up to the podium, wiping her sweaty palms on her black dress as she wasn't only sweating because she was nervous (which she was) but also because of her smelling a familiar smell and she was ready to rip out the throats of every single human in the building. "I uh – when I talked to April earlier she was kind of nervous about coming up to speak. And now that I'm up here, I'm kind of nervous too." she glanced around the room, not knowing what to say anymore and then she met her sister's eyes and remembered something she once said when her mother died. "The worst day of loving someone is that day that you lose them."

She suddenly tensed as she gripped the sides of the podium, Natalie frowned as she noticed Caroline and Tyler tensing up too, she didn't dare glance at Stefan and Damon, knowing that it probably would end badly. "Do you smell that?" Caroline asked her boyfriend silently, trying to keep it from looking like she was talking.

"Blood."

Back up at the podium, Elena started to breathe heavily and for most people, it could be thought of as her almost crying but the people acquainted with the supernatural knew that it was something more. She started sweating even more as she did her best to stay in control. "I um..."

It started getting worse as she felt the veins start coming out from underneath her eyes and even if it could have been incredibly stupid, Stefan rushed up to the podium, grabbing her in his arms so she could hide her face as he started leading her down to the where him, Damon and Matt were sitting. "It's okay, it's okay. I got you, I got you."

The priest walked to the podium now and spoke up, deciding to not ask for more people to speak. "Please turn to page forty two in your hymn book. Let us join together in a song."

Everyone in the room started standing up and singing, except for Damon, Stefan, Elena and Matt but that was their own problem. But without anyone thinking it might happen, Tyler rushed towards the podium quickly, and Natalie and Caroline exchanged looks of worry. "Excuse me. I just wanted to say a few words about Pastor Young." he said, which caused everyone to stop singing and sit down once again. "Back in first grade, I was a brat who couldn't be bothered with team sports. Didn't care much about anything that didn't affect me. But he was the one who made me understand how important it is to be part of a team; a community. Of giving yourself up for the sake of-"

He then was cut off by a bullet penetrating his skin as screams filled the room, every person who wasn't familiar with the supernatural went tried to hide or run because of the fear that they might get shot too. Natalie, Caroline, Elena and Stefan quickly rushed towards him as Caroline ripped the bullet out and the Gilbert twins stood on each side of the Salvatore vampire.

Tyler coughed as he felt himself starting to heal as he glared up at the ceiling in anger. "I'm gonna kill that bastard."

"Damon's way ahead of you. Stay here, I have to help him." Stefan commanded and was about to leave when Elena grabbed his hand, stopping him from leaving.

"What about April?" the doppelganger asked, her mind drifting to the young girl that she once babysat and now she had to try to find a way to save her life, or anything like that because she cared about her and just wanted her to be safe.

Caroline looked up at them, about to let her know that she got it all under control as usual. "I got it. Go."

Stefan nodded and ran to help get the hunter and hopefully save the lives of plenty of people that he cared about because they were all either vampires or closely linked to vampires. But then Elena got a weird look on her face and for some reason, she just left and then Caroline remembered the smell of blood and she looked at Natalie questioningly, getting a nod in return and the blonde left to go after the elder twin.

Carol sighed as she looked down on her son, who was just on the floor, even as he was healing as hybrids, and normal vampires as well for that matter, do."I have to call an ambulance."

"No, he's a hybrid! He'll be fine." Natalie disagreed, wondering what the doctors would think if a boy who got shot suddenly healed magically, you know, unless Meredith Fell got her hands on the situation, as she probably would.

Carol disagreed with the teenager, looking at her as if she was completely crazy and shook her head. "The whole town just watched him get shot. I'm calling an ambulance."

With that, she walked away to borrow somebody's phone or something. Natalie just glanced down and met Tyler's gaze and shrugged indifferently.

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Mystic Falls High School

Caroline and Bonnie had, for some reason, been very eager at dragging Natalie with them to the high school, and they had gotten their way, of course, since both of them were badass warrior queens and she couldn't beat both of them at the same time, just apart, maybe.

The three, Stefan, Elena, Matt and Jeremy sat on picnic tables outside of the school, even if Natalie still hadn't been told what they were doing there yet. But then Damon walked up to them, looking very confused himself. "Stefan, what are we doing?"

Stefan revealed some paper lanterns that he had brought with him and sent his brother a short smile. "We're finishing the memorial we didn't get to have earlier. We need to start healing, Damon. We've all lost so much, especially recently. I think we're numb to it. We push it away, we make a joke out of it, ignore how we feel. We've never just let ourselves grieve."

Damon narrowed his eyes at his younger brother, looking at him as if he was out of his mind for a moment. "So, you're lighting lanterns?"

Stefan shrugged, finding that to be the best way to phrase what they were doing at the moment. "Yeah. Yeah, we need to do this."

Damon disagreed with his brother once again, feeling as if he was just trying to ignore everything that was going on and really wanted to just end everything so he could get the hell out of town, like he he and Stefan agreed. "What we need to do is find out who this hunter is and what he knows about the death of the Council. We have more important things to be doing right now than this."

"Not tonight, we don't." Stefan disagreed, lighting his lantern and handing the lighter to Matt. "This is for my uncle Zach and my friend Lexi and for Alaric."

Matt looked at the lantern sadly and lit it as there was one person that stuck out when he thought about people he'd lost and he had never really gotten to let go of. "This is for Vicki."

Caroline was the next one to get the lighter and lit her lantern, just as everyone else did and sighed for a moment as she knew Tyler wasn't there so she'd have to say goodbye for him. "This is for my dad. And Tyler's."

Jeremy got up and grabbed the lighter out of the blonde's hand before lighting his lantern, looking at Elena sadly. "This is for our parents. For Vicki. Anna. Jenna. And Alaric."

He looked at Natalie and was about to hand her the lighter before she shook her head, glaring at him for even thinking that she'd be on board with that stupid idea that she hated so much she actually felt like punching Stefan for thinking of it. "I'm not not doing this. If you guys want to go and forget people who gave you so much to remember, fine by me. But, unlike you it seems, I actually cherish my memories and I don't want to act as if those memories were never a reality."

Everyone (but Damon) opened their mouths to stop her from walking away, to tell her that they weren't trying to forget everyone, they were just getting ready for it to not take over their lives in such a drastic way that it had before. But she was gone before they could stop her.

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Mystic Falls Cemetery

She dried her sweaty palms on her jeans as she sighed, her gaze solely on that big rock that was actually just a rock with a carving but she saw his name and that more than she needed. Of course, she'd prefer him being there so he could comfort her in the way that dads do.

"I just can't believe that they're willing to forget about everyone that easily and then just justify it by saying they're moving on!" she said the last words in a mocking fashion as she scrunched her nose up in distaste for their way of coping. "Well, guess what? I don't want to move on. I know that if you were here you'd just tell me how it makes them feel better and blah blah blah, but it won't last. A minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year? It doesn't matter. Because the moment you hear that person's name it just all comes crashing down again."

She sighed as she allowed her head to fall down into her hands as she rested her elbows on her thighs as she tried to keep herself from crying as she didn't know how many times she might be able to do this. How many times she'd get to talk to her deceased father, even if she wasn't sure he was even there on the other side. "And then it hits you that no matter how many times you think about them hugging you or being there with you, they're still just memories. And that's all you have left. Memories, pictures and a stupid, ugly rock with the wrong birthday on it!" she exclaimed as she looked at the stone.

ALARIC J. SALTZMAN
HE WAS LOVED
FEBRUARY 4, 1976-

She couldn't even see the rest because it was carved in such a sloppy fashion that it made her just want to hit the person who did it whilst crying her ass off. That would probably look very amusing. She pulled her head up so that only her chin was rested in her hands as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she tried to keep the tears away. "So thank you, by the way. Because you left me alone when you were the only person who could help me through so much and now you're just leaving me behind with my abandonment issues, which have not gotten better recently, you know, considering everything going on, and the sadness and the anger and a whole lot of idiots who don't know what to do with themselves. So thanks."

What she didn't know was that he was sitting right behind her, listening to her every word the whole time. "Yeah, I miss you too, Nat."

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She didn't even know how long she stayed just staring at the stupid rock, but she knew that it was definitely longer than five minutes. But she was just refusing to take her gaze off of it, and the only time she didn't look at it was when she was blinking. And even though she noticed someone sitting next to her, didn't mean that she looked up at them.

"What are you doing here?" she asked silently, still not even looking up from the tombstone, her hands clasped together as she gripped onto herself tightly.

Stefan sighed and glanced at her blank expression and he knew that he hadn't really been the nicest towards her lately, but he felt just as strongly for Elena as he did for her but Natalie was the strongest person he knew and he knew that she would be able to deal with it, Elena wouldn't. "We have to learn to become friends again, Natalie. And friends are there for each other when the other is hurting. I know that you think letting go means forgetting, but that's not always the case. Sometimes letting go means that you're accepting that it happened and you're getting ready for something new. So, I'm leaving you a lantern and a lighter. If you want to let go tonight or not, that's completely up to you. Just know you have the option."

He glanced at her for another moment, but she still didn't move her gaze. He sighed and let the lantern and the lighter take the place he was sitting on as he started walking. "Stefan?" she called out, even without turning around. But after a few moments of him staring at her, she did and sent him a small smile. "Thank you."

He smiled at her for a moment, before allowing her to be alone with her decision. She grabbed the lighter and the lantern from next to her and glanced between them before deciding to light it. "Mom. Jenna. John. Scott. Dad. This one's for you."

And with that, she let the lantern fly towards the sky, her gaze following it as a large smile graced her face it felt as if that one lantern didn't just travel up towards the sky, but it brought a huge weight on her shoulders with her.

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A/N: Wow, miikaelson and argxntbites, I guess I am the mean one, huh? I'm such a Statalie tease, to be honest. But right now they're just trying to act as if they're just friends, but they're not kidding anyone. They're so in love.

And next chapter is just the best team ever teaming up (AKA Natalie, Damon and Klaus). Yeah.

Votes and comments are greatly appreciated.