Title: Help
Pairing: FORWOOD (FOREVER!)
Series: The Vampire Diaries
Italics – Caroline's thoughts
Enjoy!
She is crying by the time she throws the lamp away and runs to the motionless body that is Tyler Lockwood.
"Tyler? You're okay! You're okay. You made it! You didn't get out, you're okay." She breathed raggedly as she embraces him, hearing him whimper in pain. She turns his face so that she sees his eyes, his warm, hazel eyes. She brings her face and rests her cheek on his. She repeats her sentence, like a mantra.
Say something.
"No, I'm not." His voice breaks, he breaks.
Caroline almost wishes that he stayed silent instead of falling to pieces right in front of her.
He is crying. Tyler Lockwood, the guy that made every kid cry during recess back in preschool, is crying. Caroline doesn't need to breathe now that she's a vampire, but this is the first time she has ever felt like she's suffocating.
They stay there for hours, all the way until sunbeams penetrate the hellhole they were in, from the entrance to the old Lockwood mansion, a cage now.
He is still in her arms or rather; she is still clinging onto him. He might dissolve if she even so much as loosened her grip.
"Thank you." He whispers to her gently, hoarsely. At this moment, she remembers the ordeal that he has just been through and remembers he needs food, he needs water, he needs medicine because he's probably injured something, he needs something to give, he needs, he needs he needs…he needs someone to help him.
She, slowly and painfully, lets go of him. She stands up, frantically looking around for food and water and some clothes and medicine. Her eyes are everywhere as she searches and searches and searches. There! She finds them. Even though it's practically in arms' reach, she uses her speed, grabs them and speeds back to Tyler.
She tries to smile at him, reassure him.
"Tyler, you need to drink, you need to hydrate yourself." She says gently as she tries to get him to sit up, leaning him against a rock. She lifts the bottle to his lips. Carefully, she tips the bottle. He swallows, with enormous difficulty.
"Just one more, you need to drink up after-" She stops herself and curses herself inwardly.
She stops when she hears a soft chuckle. She looks down at him.
She drinks the sight of him; closed eyes and a lazy, peaceful smile, as if he didn't just go to hell and back.
In her mind, Stefan and Damon's warning of just how dangerous all of this is – her staying with Tyler through his transformation, being by his side in general – echoes.
She puts down the bottle of water and she stares, her heart dropping as she continues.
"Blondie?"
She snaps back at his voice, still hoarse. She smacks herself in her mind for making him exert himself when he clearly was still recovering, for being selfish and staring at him when she should clearly be helping him.
He opens his eyes.
"How long – what time…" He trails off, unable to continue.
"It's around 9am…" She takes his hand and caresses it, "Just a little over 12 hours."
Tyler begins to cough violently and she's ready to cry again, because there's blood and she hasn't fed.
A hiss escapes her lips as she feels both disgust and desire. She is as far away from him in the blink of an eye, gulping air hungrily.
He continues to cough. Maybe he never noticed what just happened? Her chest tightens at every painful sound he makes and it is enough for her urges to recede and before even she knows it, she is back at his side with a piece of cloth, wiping the blood away.
All she cares for is him.
Right now, just right now, only for now.
Tyler's coughing stops and he looks at her, his face torn with an emotion she can't place.
Then she gets it. Shame. Humiliation. Weakness.
Caroline roughly grabs his shoulders and pulls him to her. "No! You aren't going to PMS on me now and be all moody! Tyler, you survived!" She practically shouts at him, letting the relief of her statement wash over herself. "You have nothing to be ashamed of." She ends in a whisper, looking at him.
She realizes only a moment later how close they are, in ways more than one and she immediately remembers, once again, Stefan and Damon's warning.
And once again, she just stares, defeat flooding her like a tidal wave.
She is thinking of kissing Tyler Lockwood.
She looks at him carefully. He's still stunned at what just happened. She never fully blown shouted at him before. She smiles sadly to herself and looks down. She never expected that this is how she'd make Tyler Lockwood speechless.
She flinches as she feels his warm fingers touch her cheek.
Her eyes widen in alarm as she whips her head up to face him.
He is suddenly so, so close.
He's causing it again, I'm suffocating again.
She is pulled into the tightest and warmest embrace she has ever received.
He whispers fervently, as he grips her tightly, "I don't know what I would have…become if you didn't – if you weren't – Thank you, just – God – thank you Caroline."
She laughs shakily and so does he, thinking this is some sappy and emotional moment. She starts to pull away only to realize that he isn't moving away.
"You stayed. Nobody ever stays." He murmurs into her hair and then pulls away, smiling at her.
She cracks a smile and shrugs, "You look like you needed me." She says simply as she watches him lean against the rock again, a sunray illuminating them both.
He chuckles. "Nah. Forbes, it looks like you need me way more than I need you from here actually." He teases, once again closing his eyes to rest.
She only moves to sit beside him, her smile fading away.
When she confirms that he's sleeping, she starts to cry. She reaches out to touch him only to pull back right when she's about to.
"You don't know how much." She whispers, and she knows he surely won't hear, because she outside, in the woods, staring at the stairs leading to him.
Stefan and Damon are there, watching her silently as she sinks to the ground. She continues to stare at those stairs, listening for any sound from Tyler that he might need her.
"I know. 'I told you so' right?" She says out loud to them.
She turns around with a smile on her face, challenging them and waits for Damon to nod, waits for Stefan to lecture her. They do neither.
Her smile crumbles, she crumbles. "I – It happened before I even knew what was- I'm sorry." She heaves as Stefan wraps his arms around her.
"Sssh, it's okay." Stefan coos. Damon even pats her back. "I don't know what to do, this so unfair! He doesn't even see me that way and –"
Then all three of them hear Tyler groan in pain.
Tyler.
Caroline is gone before Stefan or Damon can do anything.
Fin.
Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes!
Caroline disappeared to Tyler's side, in case it wasn't clear.
I tried putting in some ambiguity there, with the title being 'Help' and the whole concept of 'Need' and the different types of danger. I also toyed around with some dynamics, like how that scene where Tyler suddenly reached out to touch Caroline's cheek and him leaning towards her was actually just a lead-up to him giving her a platonic hug. Plus that part where he 'murmurs into her hair'. Usually such intimacy is clearly a romantic notion but since this whole piece is through Caroline's eyes, that's basically my way of showing how she gets her hopes up that Tyler feels the same way she does when actually, she misinterprets it because it was all just appreciative, friendly gestures.
I mean, they do have to have some kind of intimacy, they have been through so much together and it just wouldn't make sense if there wasn't any development.
I really hope they get together though. I mean, Matt is a nice guy but after all FORWOOD (FTW) has gone through, Matt just kinda basically lost, in my opinion.
Hope you liked it!
-Darlingdearestdeadforever