It's Damon who eventually called Tyler. He obviously hadn't actually expected Tyler to answer the phone because he didn't seem to have a clue what to say to him—but then again, maybe that's just Damon. Tyler hasn't spent much time around the guy, but from what he's gathered over their sparse run-ins, he's not exactly one with words…at least, not when it's not Elena he's talking to.
"I just thought I should let you know," Damon had eventually managed to say, "your human best friend is trying to kill your vampire almost-girlfriend."
Damon hung up after that and Tyler stared at the phone for a minuet before zipping up his suitcase and taking Jules' car back to Mystic Falls.
-x-
He goes to Elena's house first thing, because he assumes someone there will be able to fill him in on what he needs to know, but when all he gets is Elena's aunt, Jenna, he excuses himself and drives to Caroline's.
He knows he's going in blind, but at this point, he doesn't give a damn.
The word kill is repeating in his mind, and he's seeing Caroline's face from that night when she was taken and Tyler's literally shaking he's so fucking scared.
-x-
He parks far enough down the road that even Ms. Forbes won't suspect anything, and he carefully makes his way to Caroline's house. Right off, he hears Matt's voice. "Is she okay in there alone?"
Tyler carefully looks through a window and sees Caroline's mother nod. "I injected her with vervain; she should be out for a few hours. That'll give us time to figure out what to do."
Tyler's fists clench, but he takes a deep breath and carefully goes around the house to Caroline's room where he finds her lying peacefully on her bed.
-x-
He takes the few hours time he has before Caroline wakes to make nice with his mother and prepare his room for Caroline's soon-to-be-secret stay. He had called Elena first, but when she hadn't answered, he had no choice.
When all preparations are made, he goes back to Caroline's house and doesn't even bother to knock on the door because Caroline's inside crying and he can hear her. And the sound makes him cringe.
"Tyler!" Liz Forbes exclaims upon seeing him in her house. "Your mother is looking for you, she's been worried sick."
Tyler doesn't even spare her a glance as he heads toward Caroline's room.
-x-
He breaks the door literally off its hinges.
"What the fuck is this, Matt?" he screams when he sees Matt with a wooden stake in front of Caroline.
Caroline's crying, but she's not fighting him, and Tyler knows she has the power to fight him if she really wanted too. He knows Caroline, though; and he knows she feels that it's her fault, her punishment.
"I told you to be good to her—I paved the way for you two to be happy—and this is what you do when she finally tells you the truth?" So, yeah, he's sure he doesn't have his facts straight, but that can't be helped.
"You don't understand, Tyler," Matt says, and Tyler hardly recognizes his voice. "She's one of the things that killed my sister."
He walks right over to them. "I don't give a damn if she killed the President, it's still Caroline fucking Forbes. Now get the hell away from my girl."
The moment Tyler pushes Matt away from Caroline, she wraps her arms around his neck and sobs. "It's gonna be fine," he whispers in her hair as he takes her out of her house—straight past her own mother.