And she had a really good life
Caroline centric, AU
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
I wrote this on paper on night. It's strongly AU based on to what happens next after Caroline makes her mom drink vampire blood in season 6 ep. 11
Hope you like it and tell me what you think :)
I apologize for any spelling mistakes or grammar flaws, english is not my native tongue.
When her mom dies, it's like the guilt comes rolling down on her like a thousand rocks and stones. Even though she knows it wasn't really her fault, they had thought it would work hadn't they?
She blames herself for not waiting long enough to know it wouldn't work.
Elizabeth Forbes' funeral is two wakes after her death.
The first week Caroline had spent crying and drinking a lot of vodka and blood.
The second week spent making sure everything would be perfect for her mom's funeral. Flowers, clothes, the gravestone, the casket. Everything.
Every night she would cry herself to sleep.
Every day, when everything became too much, she would take a break. Away from the stress and people, she would say.
She would be gone for at least an half an hour and no one, no one could find her. She would be hiding somewhere, crying and drinking one or two more extra blood bags to calm her anger.
She became cold and numb in the time of those two weeks.
Not turning of her humanity, but still putting off and away all the guilt and pain of everything bad in her life.
Damon, her dad, all the times she'd been tortured, all the times when she'd been betrayed, all the people she'd killed, how she killed her own mother.
Elena would say Caroline was mourning and that it was okay. They should leave her alone for a while.
Elizabeth Julia Forbes
Born: 1. December 1968
Died: 29. January 2015
Loved mother, friend and sheriff
The gravestone was classic and yet elegant in its dark stone and gold letters. Caroline had picked it. She just wished her mother liked it just as much as she did.
When the priest kept speaking of her mother like he knew her sometime in his past, Stefan came to stand beside her.
"I really am sorry." he whispered in a low tone.
"We should have waited."
"Maybe."
She keeps quiet. All the tears have already been cried.
She really wishes she would have waited. If she had, maybe her mom would be alive and she herself would be okay.
But things don't always go like we plan them to.
The priest ends his speech.
"And may she rest in peace. Amen."
Flash back
"No, Caroline was right. Technically, she's dead. Sorry, but you don't need a birthday, you need a funeral. You need to say goodbye to your old life, so that you can move on with your new one."
She sighed and then said:
"Okay. Here lies Caroline Forbes."
While she's putting candles to the cake, Elena slowly continues.
"Cheerleader, Ms. Mystic Falls, third grade hopscotch champion."
They all laugh at that.
"Friend, daughter, overachiever…" says Bonnie in turn.
"Mean girl… sometimes, no offence." Matt says, and laughing they all admit it to be true.
"None, taken." she managed to get out.
"She was 17, and she had a really good life. So rest in peace, so that she can move forward. That's all you really need. What we all really need." Elena says.
End of flash back
"And she had a really good life." she says quietly, no one notices. She thanks God.
A week or two later
Elena calls her when she's standing in front of a white gravestone with gold letters.
"Hi, Caroline. We, Stefan, Damon and I, were just thinking about going to the graves again. Would you like to come with us?"
"Yeah, I'd like that."
"Should we pick you up, or?"
"No, you'll see me there."
"Yeah, in an hour. We are going to get flowers first."
"Would you mind buying for me too?"
"Not at all, white tulips right?"
"Yes."
She ends the call.
She lights the cigarette lighter she'd bought when she was about sixteen.
It's warm, almost too warm. The grass beneath her is burning, and when the ashes fall down on the ground, she's released.
And now, she lives a new life.
There was a tree in the cemetery that Elena loved. It was old and decayed and they would always sit under it and talk about life and death, after they'd put flowers on the graves.
Something like 30 meters from that tree there was an oak. Caroline loved that oak. She would always ask why they couldn't sit under it instead.
They would sit under Elenas tree, because, she'd lost the most people. Or, at least that's what Damon said. Everyone just seemed to like Elena's old maple tree more.
To this day there had not stood a gravestone under any of those two trees. Today was different, but no one had noticed yet.
Elena, Damon and Stefan come to the cemetery together. They arrive to Elena's maple and wait on Caroline.
Elena carried 5 red roses, one for Jenna, one to each of her parents, one to John and one to Isobel. Stefan has Caroline's white tulips and Damon holds one red rose for Bonnie.
Once they have waited for Caroline an half an hour, they call her.
She doesn't pick up, they get worried but decide to put the flowers to the graves. Caroline will arrive when she does.
They walk back towards the maple when Stefan notices something.
There's a white gravestone under Caroline's oak, Caroline's baby pink lighter lays a few meters away from it. Ashes lay on the ground in front of it.
Caroline Unity Forbes
Born 12. January 1994
Died: 2011
"She was seventeen and she had a really good life."
Thank you all for reading.