A/n: I may or may not be writing an actual fic for once. I'm trying to do a few chapters before I actually post more though. Want to be ahead of schedule. Especially seeing as I have no time. Tell me what you guys think! There's not much Klaus in this first chapter but he is there ;) Be patient with me.
Be warned though. The historical facts in this fic are not always correct. Most have been made up to fit the story. So if false historical facts bother you then this story is not for you.
There is a certain smell to the air when death and despair are near. It is a sour stench. It hits you like a wall of bricks and at first you're repulsed, but it quickly turns into fear and sadness. Some have been unfortunate enough to be familiar with it. Someone who is very familiar with it is nurse Caroline Forbes.
She's tending to a woman's wounds at the hospital near her home in Mystic Falls, Virginia. The woman has a bloodied lip and a swollen eye. She's dressed to impress in her white and green floral print dress. She's one of the wealthy in Virginia. Caroline is very familiar with this woman. Her name is Mary Brothers and she is married to an angry man but she insists that her injuries are all accidents. The first time she came in she had proclaimed that she fell off her bike. The second time she came in she said it was from a fall down the steps. The third she had no excuse and simply sat quietly as Caroline tended to her needs. This time however, she's a bit more honest.
"What do you do when you love a man you want to leave?" She looked up at Caroline with wide desperate eyes when she asked.
"I'm not sure I understand." Caroline said slowly as she cleaned the blood from her lip.
Mary looked at her as the tears started to form. "He was a real gent when we first met and I couldn't help but fall in love with him." She looked down at the red mark on her wrist. "I just didn't know what I was getting myself into." She whispered.
"Listen to me." Caroline says demandingly. "No man in this world is worth this." Caroline lifts up her wrist as Mary flinches. "You seem to have a sprain here."
"I suppose." She has this far away look like she's not really there. Like she doesn't really know what she's saying. "But you see, as much as I want to leave him, I'm still waiting for the man that I love to come back." She says this quietly as Caroline wraps an elastic bandage around her wrist.
It's something she could never understand. How anyone could forgive a man for cruel acts. She doesn't know how any woman could love such a black heart. "Mrs. Brothers, this will be my last day here. I advise you to get out of this life because you are in dire need of help. I can only do so much if you let me."
"Where are you going?" Mary asks with a panicked look. Caroline looks at the poster behind her promoting the army nurse corps and Mary follows her eyes. The sign reads at the top, You are needed now. "Oh I see." Mary looks down. "You have a brave heart Caroline. Your mother and you have that in common. Your heart is kind and you never cease to care. I wish you the best of luck." She stood up and hugged Caroline and whispered into her ear. "Go help those men."
Her mother is a different story that night. Caroline has just about finished packing when her mother walks in the room. She stands up straight and looks at her mom who is leaning against the wall. For a moment they just stare at each other with a look that could break hearts. A look of fear, honor, and anguish. Neither are smiling. Her mother who has been very vocal about her disapproval of this decision changes in her demeanor on this night. Her disapproving headshakes are now replaced with a look of respect in her eyes. Caroline softly smiles when she sees it and the tears start to well in the corner of her eyes.
"I understand why you've chosen this but I still believe you should find a man to take care of you here at home." Her mother says firmly, so firmly that you almost miss the crack in her voice as she stops speaking.
"All of the men are in the war mother." Caroline responds quietly with a cheeky smile.
Her mother laughs softly and walks over to the chest that she has packed. "Are you sure that will be enough?"
"What else will I really need?" She asked white a sarcastic glint in her eye.
"Don't forget this." Her mom said walking over to the dresser. She lifted up her dog tags and dangled them in the air.
"I would never." Caroline smiled as she grabbed it from her grasp. She looked outside the window at the empty driveway.
Her mother followed her eyes and sighed quietly. "He'll be here to see you off tomorrow."
Caroline presses her lips together and nods. Her father had always been her best friend when she was a young girl. He had adored his first and only daughter and she was his shadow. But somewhere along the way, when she was a teenager he began to drown himself in his work and she felt as if he had forgotten about her.
And maybe that was why she decided to become and army nurse. At 25, she was still neglected by her family, stuck in her small town aiding patients for minor scratches, still unmarried even though her mother had wanted to marry her off to the local town hero, Tyler Lockwood. The mayor's son, who she had been dating since her high school days. When they were 21 he proposed and she denied him, claiming that something was missing. To be honest the boy was quite dense. The second she denied him he ran off for military training.
Caroline felt like she really wasn't leaving much behind. She wanted to move on to bigger and better things. That was her answer when the women who gossiped asked if she was leaving to chase after Tyler. Caroline Forbes was never one to chase a man. She was the one they pursued.
Her and her mother stood, staring at the chest she had just closed. The silence drowning the air in the room was deafening. Her mother breathed in deeply and her breath hitched and a soft cry escaped her throat. She pretended like it never happened though and smiled back at her daughter.
"I'll miss you Sunshine." They simultaneously pull each other into a tight grasp. Their arms were holding onto each other's backs as if they were holding on to their lives.
Her mother was never one for words. Caroline was always the affectionate one in the relationship. But in that moment, her actions made up for the silence. And she understood exactly what they were saying. "I love you too."
The next morning she's waiting to board the trains. Her father hadn't returned from work and they hadn't said goodbye. A part of her wanted to quit it all. Why wouldn't he say goodbye? What if this was the last time they saw each other and he couldn't even bother to show up? She wasn't sure if she wanted to sob or scream.
Probably both. She thought. Just when she scoffed she sees him behind the crowd running after her with his coat hanging on his arms. He's failing his arms in the air waving something around in his hands. His knuckles were white as he grasped whatever it was. She stares, her mouth agape. He calls her name breathlessly and stops once he reaches her. "I'm sorry." He breathes out. He holds his stomach from all of the running.
She looks at his hand and sees what he was waving in the air. It's a necklace. "What's that?" She asks, ignoring his apology.
He lifts it up and she can now see it all. It's a gold thin chain with a dangling flower patterned pendent hanging from with and oval glass atop it. Inside the oval glass gem, sits a rose pattern. "It's why I was late."
She lifts her hair and turns around, allowing him to clip the necklace on her. She touches it and feels the crease. She opens the back and inside there a picture of their family happy and smiling outside of church one morning when she was 8. She stares at the herb attached to the other side of it and looks up at her father. She smiles and with that smile he knows she's forgiven him.
"Wear it for safe keeping. For luck." He says as he's finally able to breathe normally.
"I will, Dad." She keeps looking at it and notices a familiar smell. "Is that herb the same scent as the perfume you gave me?"
He smiles, proud of himself. "Yes it is." He says as they start calling the other army nurses on the train and his face falls. "I should have gotten here sooner."
"It's okay. Don't beat yourself up about it." She smiles hesitantly and goes to hug him. "Thank you." She whispers. The water in her eyes starts welling up and he holds onto her tightly. Her tears are now staining his coat.
"I love you little one. Be safe." He says firmly, as if he's commanding her to be safe out there. It's the last call for everyone as he releases her and helps her with her bags to the train.
Caroline steps on and finds her seat next to a tall and thin raven-haired girl who is waving goodbye to one of her loved ones. She looks out the window of the train and spots her dad whose face is red, and cheeks are puffed out as if he's holding in a sob. And then the train starts moving, and she's waving goodbye, not only to her family, but to her life as she knew it.
Caroline sits in the back of a truck with eleven other girls who have all had much more experience than she has. She looks at the confidence that each of them holds but she also sees the fear. There is one, Miss Elena Gilbert who sits tall on the right. At first glance she seems intimidating but if you get a closer look you see the panic in her eyes and you see that she is just like every other girl out here. Elena has become Caroline's confidant in the last two weeks since they met on the train that day. They have grown close and they both admire each other's healing abilities greatly.
It's dawn and they are being transferred to a base in France. It's nearing fall and there is a cool chill to the air that makes Caroline uneasy. The truck comes to an abrupt stop and the tarps open up to show two soldiers standing in front of the tents that will soon become their infirmary. All of the women jump out of the truck with the help of the soldiers. They all begin their walk to the tents.
Caroline is the last of the women to exit the truck. She looks to the man on the left who is smirking at her in a way that makes her feel uncomfortable. He offers her his palm and she, of course, scoffs and ignores it. She tries to jump out on her own but nearly falls and before she knows it she's gripping onto the man's stone cold hands. His other hand goes to her shoulder to steady her.
"Are you all right, Love?" He asks in his eloquent British accent.
She speaks quietly from embarrassment. "Yes. I'm fine, thank you." She looks up at him and is taken aback for just a moment. She's not sure if it's because he is strikingly handsome or if it's the hunger she notices in his eyes. The danger. She clears her throat and pulls her arm away from his grasp abruptly. "I'm fine." She reiterates. Caroline quickly walks away trailing after Elena once she catches up. She slowly turns around to find the soldier looking after her with a hard stare.
"Are you okay? Sorry for not waiting. They forced me to keep moving." Caroline is startled by Elena's voice and looks at the girl walking beside her.
She smiles slowly. "I'm fine." She feels as if it's a lie she'll be repeating for months as she's about to embark on this new journey. Curious, she looks back once more and searches for the soldier who is no longer in sight. Maybe it's just an army thing. She tells herself. And as much as she wants to believe it, she can't shake the part of her that believes that the danger out here is far worse than she thought.
a/n: This is actually a fic I've been working on since August. I know it's short but it's only the first chapter! Forgive me. So tell me what you thought! Leave a review if you can. Constructive criticism is always welcome :) I have quite a few things planned for this. Follow me on tumblr :) Sweettemptation92