Shut Up, Caroline
DG32173

Sarah: sequel to I Never Had You. This is also from Stefan's point-of-view. I only own what I write.

WARNINGS
Rated T for my sanity. Damon and Elena aren't actually in this one-shot, but their relationship is talked about, with Stefan actually telling Caroline to shut up and listen.

SUMMARY
Instead of agreeing with Caroline that Damon and Elena's relationship is only because of a possible sire-bond, what if Stefan tells her about the love he has seen between the two ever since they met and reminds her that vampires emotions are only heightened from human emotions rather than changed? What if he tells her how a sire-bond is really formed? Damon/Elena

I massage my forehead as Caroline keeps trying to prove her point that Elena is sire-bound to Damon and that's the only reason she cares about my brother. "Shut up, Caroline," I finally snap.

She snaps her jaw shut, staring at me in surprise. "What's wrong with you?" she asks.

"If you think a sire-bond is simply a rare manifestation among vampires, you are entirely mistaken," I inform her.

Her eyes widen. "What do you mean?" she demands.

"A sire-bond only forms if the new vampire had strong feelings for the sire before they were turned. If you ever talked to Tyler about it, you'd know that. Tyler and the other hybrids were grateful to Klaus for making it so they never have to transform into a wolf again if they don't want to. That's why they were sire-bound to him."

"What about Elena and Damon?" she asks sarcastically.

"They have loved each other pretty much since they first met," I tell her with a sigh.

"What?" she gasps.

"I've seen plenty of proof of it in the past two years. I knew a long time ago that she would one day leave me for Damon and would one day be turned into a vampire by him," I remark, closing my eyes against the heartache. "If I hadn't been so selfish, I would have forced her to face her feelings for him a long time ago. But I couldn't bring myself to give her up, even if she didn't truly love me."

Caroline leans back on her couch and watches me. "You should start when you first realized they had feelings for each other," she comments. "I never understood their friendship. But you're saying they love each other!"

I pinch the bridge of my nose while taking a deep breath. I open my eyes, cross my legs, and clasp my hands on top of my knee. "The first time I slept with Elena, I left right after to get her a glass of water. I didn't realize that she would investigate my room," I say.

"First mistake," she interrupts. "Elena has the curiosity of a dozen cats. I have a feeling that's why Damon calls her kitten."

"I know that now," I tell her. "Well, by the time I got back to my room, she was gone. I found her vervaine necklace on a picture of Katherine I had."

"She saw the resemblance, thought you only wanted her because she looks like the bitch, and fled without confronting you," Caroline surmises.

"Pretty much," I admit. "Apparently, she had a crash as she was speeding down the road. She hit a vampire and her car rolled until it landed on the roof. Damon saved her from the vampire and decided to take her to Georgia with him. I think she may have said something to him before she fainted in his arms, but he never told me what."

"So Damon pretty much kidnapped her," Caroline sighs.

I shrug. "I called her cell phone the next day, not knowing about the crash. Damon answered. I demanded to speak to Elena. He offered the phone to her and I heard her refusal to answer. I tried to threaten him when he got back on the phone, but he hung up on me." I look out the window of Caroline's living room. "By the time they got back, I was half crazy with worry. She confronted me about the picture and also pried out my knowledge of her adoption and that I was the one to rescue her from the crash that killed her parents. I returned her necklace, realizing that for some reason, Damon didn't compel her while in Georgia. I didn't think much of it until the next time I saw them together. They teased each other and acted like best friends. I had never seen either of them so happy."

"Well, before her parents died, Elena was a much different person from the Elena you know. She was a lot like Damon, except she wasn't an ass."

I raise my eyebrows in surprise. "She acts similar to Damon whenever she's around him, minus the being an ass part," I admit.

"I guess he brings out the real Elena," Caroline says reluctantly. "She loves dancing, and has told me many times that she's hurt that she has to beg for every dance she gets from you. She says Damon makes dancing even more fun than usual."

I wince. "Damon dances with her every time she even hints at wanting to dance; he loves it," I admit. "I've never liked dancing. I didn't realize I was hurting her by refusing to dance, though."

"Well, tell me more. When did you realize that what they have is more than friendship?"

"When we opened the tomb to let Katherine out," I admit.

"Except the bitch wasn't in the tomb in the first place," Caroline say sarcastically.

"Right. Damon was devastated. I wasn't really happy about it myself. But Elena pulled out of my arms and ran straight to Damon, hugging him as tightly as she could," I say. "I knew then that she knew what my brother needed better than I did."

"Why were you upset about Katherine not being in the tomb?" Caroline demands.

I wince, having wanted to avoid admitting this. "I never told this to anyone, but I had half-hoped to see her again and find out if what I had felt for her in 1864 had really been compulsion like I thought it was," I admit.

Caroline's eyes narrow. "But you had Elena," she points out angrily.

"I know, I know. I hadn't even realized I had that hope until we realized she wasn't in the tomb," I say. "Anyways, Elena helped Damon out of his depression. But then she found out he had turned her mother into a vampire. She was angry with him, but I could see the relief in her eyes that he hadn't actually killed Isobel. He eventually managed to soothe her into forgiving him. I think she actually forgave him when he helped her rescue me from the tomb vampires that had escaped."

"How did they escape?" Caroline asks curiously.

"Damon get pissed when Katherine wasn't in the tomb and he slammed the blood bag he had brought for her against the wall. It broke open, blood flying all over the place," I tell her. "Elena had to come beg Damon to leave the tomb with us. He wouldn't listen to me, but he did listen to her. We escaped just as the door slammed shut when Bonnie and Sheila were worn out from using up their magic. We thought the seal that keeps vampires in there had dropped back in place. Only it hadn't, and we didn't realize that until a couple tomb vampires broke through a window in the boarding house to attack me and Damon."

Caroline nods as I stop. "So, back to Elena and Damon," she prods when I'm silent for a while.

"Well, they started hanging out more and more after that, particularly because Elena had had to feed me some of her blood so I could be strong enough to protect the both of us from one of the more powerful tomb vampires that day. I did something that I think scared her more than anything," I say.

"What?" she asks.

"I kept staking the tomb vampire repeatedly, even though he was already dead. Elena tried to calm me down and get me to stop, but I turned and growled at her, full vamp face. She backed away and tripped, landing on her butt, fear radiating from her in waves. I hadn't had human blood in decades, and I could barely control the cravings. I managed to calm down enough for Elena to get us back to the boarding house to wait for Damon and Alaric. After Elena left, I binged on human blood, unable to stop. Then Damon stumbled on me and I knew he would tell Elena the truth, that I had lied to her when I told her I was back on animal blood."

"I heard that you can't control yourself when you get human blood in your system," Caroline comments.

"You remember the Miss Mystic Falls pageant you won? Where Damon was Elena's last-minute escort?" I ask.

"Of course," she retorts.

"Well, remember the one contestant who didn't show, Amber?"

"Yeah," Caroline says slowly. Then realization dawns on her face. "You attacked Amber when you were supposed to be dancing with Elena?" she asks sharply.

I nod. "I wasn't thinking straight, the human blood was overpowering my common sense. I'm just grateful that Damon filled in for me. But I think that was the biggest turning point in their relationship," I say with a sigh.

Caroline narrows her eyes in speculation. "I have a feeling this conversation is going to need alcohol," she says, standing up. "Be right back." Before I can say anything, she zips into the kitchen. I hear the clinking sound of glass against glass. Then she's back, a bottle in each hand. She hands me the scotch. I glance at the year, then raise an eyebrow at her. She shrugs. "I don't like cheap liquor or low quality. That's a good year for Scotch," she says.

"I know," I say. "But how'd you know I drink scotch?"

She chuckles, sitting down in her chair as she opens the vodka bottle in her hand. "Same way I know Damon prefers bourbon," she says.

"Damon prefers bourbon?" I ask, startled.

She rolls her eyes. "What? You've been offering him scotch all these years?" she asks. I nod. "Jeez, he must love you if he's actually been drinking it. He hates the stuff."

"He does?" I ask, my eyes widening in surprise. "How do you know all this?"

"Elena knows the two of you very well," she informs me. "I get the feeling you brothers don't know each other even a fraction as well as Elena does. Even I noticed the face Damon makes when you drink scotch."

"I've never seen him make a face," I retort.

"I guess he doesn't want to hurt your feelings," she admits. "Whenever you turn to him, he hides his disgust at your choice of alcohol immediately." She takes a swallow from her bottle of vodka. "Okay, back to this story about Elena and Damon's relationship."

I take a sip from my scotch before I continue. "Well, after the Miss Mystic Falls pageant, I would notice those two exchanging looks full of some meaning that I couldn't decode. Then Isobel showed up, demanding a piece of a device that would cripple all vampires within five miles of it for five minutes. We didn't know it at the time, but it also crippled werewolves and those with the potential to become werewolves."

Caroline's eyes widen. "That's why Tyler crashed that day," she gasps. "And I suppose that's why Mayor Lockwood got burned with the vampires."

I nod. "Yep," I confirm. "Well, back to Isobel for the moment. After Elena turned the device over to her, Bonnie having tricked us into thinking that she had de-spelled it, she asked Isobel how she knew Damon would give it to her. Isobel replied by announcing Damon's love for Elena. I was surprised that the two were as shocked as they were. I had figured out that they are in love with each other by that time. I was surprised they hadn't figured it out themselves. I guess they were in denial about their feelings."

Caroline narrows her eyes. "Elena's told me a bit about her birth mom. If that bitch could see it, I should have been able to as well," she says.

"You and Bonnie don't like my brother," I remind her. "That biases you against seeing his feelings for Elena and makes you skeptical of her emotions for him."

"True," she admits.

"Well, we didn't realize Bonnie hadn't deactivated the device until it was too late. By the time it was off, all the remaining tomb vampires, Anna, and Damon had been tossed into the basement of the building that burned down that day, full of vervaine."

"How did Damon get out?"

I raise an eyebrow at her and she blushes. "I was back to my senses. Elena and I had rushed to the building. John tried to stop us. I asked Elena about a back entrance, she told me. When she tried to follow me, John stopped her momentarily. I couldn't pause to wait for her. I guess she said something that knocked John off his pillar because as I'm heading down the burning stairs to the basement, I hear Elena begging Bonnie to do something to help me save Damon. Next thing I know, a path opens between me and Damon. I manage to help him stumble out of the basement just as the stairs collapse from the flames that Bonnie had released form her hold." I pause, as the memory floods over me. "Elena was hugging him as best she could around the burns that were healing slowly, thanks to the vervaine. I could see the tears in her eyes as he returned the hug. It looked to me like they had forgotten about the rest of the world in their reunion. She even offered him her blood to help him heal faster. He refused, saying he'll be fine. He informed us that he had to go tell Jeremy the bad news about Anna and left. Elena watched him walk away until he rounded a corner. By the time he had rounded that corner, he was pretty much healed from the burns, though I could tell he was still stiff."

"I bet there was a time he would have gladly tasted her blood," Caroline says.

"When he first got to town, maybe. But I'm not sure he could have brought himself to do it even then. They're the soulmates, Caroline," I tell her. "I'm just lucky that I got to be her first love."

"But what if she really is sire-bound to Damon?" she asks. "He might be the reason she can't drink from blood bags. She hates drinking from humans. That has to be fixed."

"I'll talk to him about it tomorrow, and I'll make sure to drill it in his head that if it is a sire-bond, he should be flattered that she loved him that much even as a human instead of trying to figure out if she really loves him or not," I say. "So you agree to quit trying to separate them?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"I won't try to drive them apart. But I don't have to like it."

"'The heart wants what the heart wants'," I quote. "There's a reason that saying has been around for centuries."

"I know," Caroline sighs, finishing her vodka.