A/N: This was an unexpected story coz I had no idea that I ould ever be writing for TVD. But here we are and I really hope that you're going to like it. Daroline story, coz I just love love the idea, though I'm a FORWOOD shipper. The story will be a short one, will try to finish it within a few chapters, till then, enjoy the ride.
He was feeling weak. He never feels weak, that's not how he rolls. He tries to remember what happened last but all he could remember was him trying to save Caroline from getting bitten by Tyler on that godforsaken night where everything went downhill. They managed to save Elena but they had lost Jenna as well as John. Though he could care less about the Gilbert guy but Jenna was a good person. The only family to Elena and Jeremy and the light of his best friend, Ric's life.
"Shit!" he exclaims.
He remembered now why he was in this position. He was bitten by Tyler that night. A werewolf bite is fatal for vampires. He knew this coz of his firsthand experience with Rose, a friend he did not expect to make but she had somehow managed to get past the walls he had made around himself and had been a comfort to him, till she was bit by Jules, the female werewolf. He did not want to remember that time.
"You are awake." He heard a familiar voice, but he wasn't expecting this voice to be the one. He had actually hoped to see Elena there, internally hoped that she would be there taking care of him. She had always been such a kind hearted girl. But it was not the brunette he expected to be there, instead it was the blonde standing in the doorway to his room.
"What are you doing here, Blondie?" he asked annoyed.
"Well since no one is here, I'm stuck taking care of you" the blonde said in a mock angry voice, trying to match his annoyed tone.
"I don't need anyone to take care of me" the annoyance still evident in his voice.
"Well, I don't care about that so deal with it. I promised Stefan and Ric that I'll take care of you so that's what I'm doing. Shut up with your annoying moaning of how you don't need help." The blonde said in a no-nonsense tone which left the vampire speechless.
"Uhmm … ahh! Where are they?" he asked. The blonde looked at him cautiously.
"Who?" she asked taking a step towards him as the vampire tried to sit up. She was beside him in a blink and helped him to sit up, pushing a pillow behind him.
"Stefan and Ric" he said like it was obvious.
"Damon, don't you remember?" she asked, taking his name for the first time since he woke up.
"Remember? Remember what? Caroline what is it?" he asked confused.
The blonde unexpectedly took his hand in hers. Her face a mixture of pain and pity. Damon did not understand any of it.
"Caroline … what are you not telling me?" Damon asked again.
"Damon, Stefan left with Klaus." The blonde said cautiously. "That was Klaus's deal for the cure he gave to heal you. Did Katherine not tell you about this? I thought you knew about it all." She told him sympathetically. Even if the older Salvatore did not show, he loved his brother more than anything and it was definitely not one sided. Both brothers could die for each other, however infuriating they might be for each other at times.
As the words left Caroline's lips, Damon remembered exactly what had happened. Elena was there with him, trying to keep him company in his last moments when Katherine had showed up with the cure. Elena had asked her why she was there and where Stefan was. The vampire had told them all about the deal Stefan had made with Klaus to get the cure for his brother and that he won't be home, for a very long time.
Damon did not show it but he was devastated. He did not want his baby brother to go play martyr for him, dammit! He should be the one dying. He did not even care for this life but he cared about his brother. Elena had been heart broken after hearing the news.
Katherine had left as soon as she was done and so had Elena. That was all he remembered from the night. He knew he took the cure, Katherine had forced it down his throat before leaving and then he woke up today.
"I need to go get him. I can't let Klaus do whatever he intends to do with my brother. No way in hell." Damon said angrily, trying to get up from the bed, in haste.
"Damon, now is not the time." The blonde told him, the no nonsense tone still evident. "You are still weak; it hasn't been 12 hours yet. The cure takes time to heal if the bite is older than 24 hours. We all want to get Stefan back and I know how much you love him but you have to get better before you do something reckless. I promise you I'll help you get Stefan back but you need to gain strength before doing anything."
Damon looked at her cautiously. When did the blonde get so mature? He thought to himself. Wasn't she the insecure neurotic girl who needed approval from her friends before she did anything? When did she become this calm composed level-headed girl? If he thought about it, actually, she had been like this for a long time now, he just did not notice or may be it wasn't important to him then but now he could clearly see the changes in the blonde.
He did not even see that she had moved from her place in the bed and now was a few steps away from him near his shelf. She was getting something from there. What? He did not have to ask coz she was next to him in a second holding a blood bag for him.
"You need to drink, here" she said thrusting the bag towards him.
"Thanks" he took it. Appreciation clear in his voice and she gave him a small smile. Well, that wasn't so hard, she thought to herself.
"And Ric?" the Salvatore asked from the bed. The other vampire was near the door, may be she had to go somewhere. She looked back at him.
"He's okay. He'll be here tonight probably. I'll let him know you are awake. Its been a hard day for him. First Jenna and then you, he hasn't stopped drinking from what Matt told me.
Matt! Oh yes, even he knew about the supernatural now. But his thoughts did not linger there long. Ric needed him, he thought. But he could not go to him, not yet.
"Hey Blondie!" he called though she was not in the room. She could hear him, of course. He heard her downstairs, doing something;
"Yes?" she asked back. A smile graced her face at the familiar nickname he had given her.
"Can you call Ric now? Tell him to come here, we can drink together. I don't think leaving him alone is a good idea right now. May be your mutt boyfriend can give him a ride or something." Damon said.
"I'll do that" she did not say anything else. It was clearly evident that the 172 year old vampire cared deeply for his friend, however crappy his ways were to show it.
"Hello. Care?" It was Matt she had called. "Want update on Mr. Saltzman?" he asked humorously. The vampire had been calling him every hour to check on their history teacher.
"Yeah! About that. Can you tell Ric that Damon's awake? And he would like if Ric was here. In Damon's words, 'He could give him company with all the drinking.'" She chuckled. She knew Damon could hear her and even Matt over the phone but she did not care, of course. "And if he's bit too drunk, can you give him a ride to the boarding house?"
"Yeah sure. I'll see to it that he gets there." He replied sincerely. After the fall-out Matt had taken a liking to all these people. They were his friends, he would not turn his back on them.
"Thanks Matt." The blonde replied cheerfully before hanging up.
"Ric will be here." she said. Damon heard the conversation of course, but it didn't hurt to let him know.
The blonde went it the kitchen and started dinner.
"What should I make for dinner?" she asked no one in particular. Of course there was only her and Damon in the house and its not like Damon had any interest in what dinner she was making but they did eat human food and Ric would be here too.
"Whatever you want Blondie, doesn't matter much." The Salvatore answered sitting in his bed. He was bored. It would be sometime till Ric gets here and it was getting on his nerves to sit here like that when there was so much to be done. But the blonde was right, he was weak.
She shook her head. Of course it doesn't matter to him. She looked into the kitchen cabinets and like she suspected, there was nothing in there. 'Don't they ever eat?' she asked herself. After quite a lot of searching she found ingredients to make mac & cheese. This should be enough, she thought.
It was almost 15 minutes later when she heard the sound of tiers in the Salvatore driveway. She could hear Ric and Matt outside so she quickly got to open the door for them.
"Ric's here Damon" she called out.
"I can hear him, Blondie!" he replied sarcastically.
Caroline shook her head. 'Why do I even bother?' she thought.
She helped Ric up to Damon's room. He looked much better now. "I'll bring dinner up here," she said before leaving the two friends to them.
"You okay?" Ric asked once Caroline left the room.
"Of course I am. Barbie wont let me up though, says am not strong enough." He said in mock annoying tone. "Whatever. I'll be up running in a few hours." he said.
"She is right. You are weak. Just take it easy for a while." Ric said, shaking his head. 'Damon, always so stubborn' he thought.
"Enough about me, what have you been doing? I heard you drank half of Mystic Falls stock in one day? I am disappointed, my friend. All alone? You could not wait for me to wake up?" Damon said in a mock hurt tone.
Rick chuckled. May be for the first time after Jenna's death. The past few days had not been easy on the hunter. He had lost the woman he loved, his best friend almost died and another friend was off paying debt for saving said best friend's life. Life was a mess.
"Yeah! I saved the other half. We can finish that off together later" he said to the vampire. He knew Damon, he was hurting for Stefan. He won't say it but it showed, Damon's eyes were the most expressive. And Ric could read him like no other.
Downstairs Caroline could hear everything that was being said. She loved how both friends loved each other so much, even though Damon killed Ric, twice. She shook her head at the weird notion. Only Mystic Falls could have people like this. And of course Damon had to be one of them.
She sat with Matt and talked to him for sometime while dinner was getting ready in the ove. He left shortly after that but not before Caroline packed him some dinner. She had made so much that it could feed there whole friend's group.
After sometime when she thought it was okay she got three plates and cutleries in a tray along with some bread and the mac & cheese, upstairs.
"I hope you two are decent" she called before peering into the room. Ric laughed and Damon just gave his trademark smirk.
"No we are not, so you could come back later" he said sarcastically.
"Well, I'm already here so I'll just suck it up" she said before putting the tray in the table.
"What is it? Please tell me you didn't burn my kitchen down" Damon said worried.
"Oh shut up you ass. Everything is fine. Now eat up. You need your strength and Alaric, if you don't eat I'll force it down your throat. Don't make me say it twice, coz I won't. I'll just do it." She said before getting three plates ready for the three of them.
"God Care, how much did you think we were gonna eat? It could feed a whole army." Ric said, laughing at the quantity of food displayed in front of them.
"errr … I wasn't paying much attention to the 'how much' part. It doesn't matter. I'll just pack and keep it in the fridge. We can eat it later" she said before handing them their plates.
"I won't die after eating this, will I?" Damon asked, as if the blonde had poisoned his food. Ric and Care just shook their heads at his antiques.
"Decide for yourself" she said before she dug into her plate. She was quite hungry herself.
Damon took the first bite and he had to stop himself from moaning. It was delicious. Ric did not even bother to stop the moan that escaped his lips, making Caroline laugh.
'She is beautiful when she laughs.' Damon was stunned at the sudden thought that crossed his mind. Thank god he did not say it out loud, that would have been embarrassing.
They ate in a comfortable silence, once or twice engaging themselves in mundane chit-chats. It was no surprise that both the men sought out more food, coz they didn't even realized that their plate was empty in no time. Caroline was totally okay with it. She loved to cook, though there weren't many people that knew about this talent of hers. The food was finished before they knew it. The tray now empty in front of them.
"How did you learn such amazing cooking?" Ric asked once they were done.
"Its nothing really." The blond would have blushed if she could. "When you live with a mother who is always out fulfilling her duties to the society you have to fend for yourself." She said ruefully. "I learned cooking pretty early, and the 'good' part probably came with time." She laughed.
"Anyways, I should clean these up. Do you two want me to get you anything?" she asked as she walked back from the sink from Damon's bathroom.
No one expected what she did next. It was odd but she did it like she had been doing it for years. She got a soaked cloth from the bathroom and washed Damon's face and hand. All this while talking to Ric.
Alaric was stunned for a moment before he regained his composure. He walked to the bathroom and washed himself up.
"Nah! We are good I guess. I'll just go get us two glasses and a bottle." He said starting to walk towards the door.
"No. you sit down, I'll go get it. You both need to lie down, get some rest." She finished freshening Damon up, went back to the bathroom, kept the cloth there and walked out of the room. It took her less than a minute to return back with three glasses and one of Damon's favorite Bourbon.
Damon was still sitting like he had seen some ghost. Caroline was confused and Ric looked like was having trouble keeping his laughter in.
"What's going on?" she asked confused. Her voice might have shook Damon out of his transfixes.
"Nothing!" both men said simultaneously.
"Oh-kay" she stretched. 'Weird' she thought but didn't say anything out loud.
Ric moved to the table and poured all three of them the alcohol she bought.
"Thanks" she said taking the glass in her hand. "I'm gonna go hit the sack. Ric, I cleaned the next room for you if you want. I'll be downstairs in the guest bedroom" she said, smiling at the duo.
"Thank you, Care" Ric smiled. The blonde had been doing all she could to make everything easier for the two of them and Alaric was sincerely thankful. "I'll just stay here with Damon for a bit before getting some sleep. Good night, Care" he said to the smiling blonde.
"No problem. Just call me in you need anything. I'm a light sleeper" she told before turning to Damon. The Salvatore had not said much of anything lately.
"Are you okay?" she asked softly, running a hand through his hair absent-mindedly.
"Yeah! I'm fine" he said, startled. It was then she noticed what she was doing and quickly excused herself from the company of both men.
She said a quick good night and before either could reply she was out of Damon's room.
She walked downstairs to the guest room she had now occupied as hers. She went in the attached bathroom and after a quick shower changed into one of her pajama shorts and a tank top. She lied down with her copy of 'Gone with the Wind'. It was her favorite book and she wasn't sleepy, at all.
It was an hour later she heard Ric leaving Damon's room and going to his. He was out within minutes after his head hit the pillow. She sighed and turned to look at the table clock. It read 2 am. It was really late.
"Get some sleep Caroline" she murmured to herself and put the lights out in her room after keeping the book in the night-stand.
She was halfway asleep when she heard the distinct sound of Damon's voice. She might have been dreaming but something told her she wasn't.
"Good Night, Caroline" he said softly into the darkness of the night.
"Good Night, Damon" he heard just before sleep overtook him.
A/N: Dont forget to lemme know what you liked and where I screwed up. ^_^