Disclaimer: Not mine, borrowed & nurtured. A/N: I had this idea ages ago, but have been trying to update my other stories. HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all, can you believe it's 2017? Crazy! Thought I'd give both Tyler & Klaus a break, so I've cast Helen's boyfriend as Wes, instead (love writing my weirdo alternate universes!) R&R x
Sliding Doors
1.
Caroline was having one of those days, shit days, to be precise. She hadn't even gotten out of the wrong side of the bed that morning, in fact, Wes, had passed out from an all-nighter writing fest, which he did most nights, leaving her to climb over him, taking half the bedsheets with her, as she exited from the foot of the bed – but no, karma didn't give a fuck, today was shit on Caroline day.
There was a glimmer of hope when Aaron, her coffee guy noticed her waiting in line, with her Little Women novel under her arm, and a half-eaten granola bar, with hardly enough cherries. She hated cutting lines, mostly because grumpy-without-coffee people turned into monsters, her included, but being a regular meant they knew her coffee order by heart, and was given a chocolate biscuit.
Chocolate was her weakness.
Caroline Forbes licked her cocoa-flavoured fingers, glancing at her watch to find she was running super late for her Monday staff meeting.
Shit, shit, shit!
Dumping her coffee into the nearest bin, she sprinted through the glass doors of her building, wishing she wore flatter heels, and stabbed the lift's 'UP' button, three times more than necessary.
Once in, she wiped her sticky fingers on her black skirt, and poked her tongue along the crevices in her teeth. God, she wished she could miss the meeting entirely. Her boss would want an update on her marketing statistics – she'd have to make something up, because, a) they remained the same, and b) nobody cared about the marketing or sales of plastic water bottles.
Her boss, Luke Parker, looked up from the white-board as she crept into the room.
"Hello Caroline, I'd almost forgotten you worked here…" he said, as she smiled at the partners.
The meeting went on for hours, or at least, until Caroline's stomach decided to rumble, and she needed another hit of coffee: i.e. right before lunch. At least nobody had addressed her, or asked for her opinions, she thought, itching towards the raspberry muffins in the centre of the table, nobody ever touched.
"Ah, that reminds me, Caroline," Luke put down the whiteboard marker and pointed to an empty liquor cupboard. "This morning I went to offer our guests some refreshments, then noticed the cupboard empty of vodka, I'd specially ordered from Russia. Care to explain?"
Caroline raised her eyebrows, then confessed, with a charming smile, always with a smile.
"Oh, I borrowed four bottles of vodka for my birthday, I didn't think you liked Vodka, Luke."
Obviously, the wrong thing to say, but Aaron must have slipped some kind of spill-your-stupid-beans into her morning coffee because she couldn't stop her verbal diarrhoea.
"I actually bought more to replace it, but I left it at home, I can go home and get them right now…"
Luke frowned, pointed at the guests who had filed silently out the door.
"No good now that they've left, is there?" he said.
Caroline should have shut up, but couldn't resist answering his rhetorical question.
"Oh, I don't know, now we can forget the whole thing. I mean, it wasn't very nice vodka anyway. I would have offered them red wine, like a nice pinot-noir or rose, something like that."
She chewed the inside of her lip, assessing her options, but the job did nothing for her anyway.
Luke's frown, advancing footsteps, and decency to open the door whilst also firing her, gave her the audacity to continue, this time with an added passion.
"Fine, I'll go, I was dying with all the testosterone here, I better get out before I grow a penis!"
She left the meeting room, stomping over to her desk, with the whole office staring at her.
Caroline grabbed a box of A4 Reflex paper, tipped the reams out, and dumped her entire draw of stationery into the box, as well as her multi-coloured post-its and her pink Legally Blonde mousepad.
Her marketing statistics could burn in hell.
Caroline walked into the lift, carrying her box of stuff, and played with her earring.
At least she could surprise, Wes, she thought, with a smile.
Her stud fell from between her fingers, to the carpeted floor of the lift.
"Shit," she tried to balance her belongings on her knee, and not touch anyone else in the lift.
A man stopped his conversation with his friend, casually picked up her earring and gave it to her, right before the doors opened on the ground floor.
"Thanks," she said, glancing at her watch.
If she hurried, she might be able to catch the 12.15 pm train, rather than the 12.55pm.
Caroline sprinted to the train station, dodging the hordes of people who came up the subway steps.
She took her Opal card from her wallet, and swiped it across the pay stations.
She managed to avoid bumping into anyone, as she ran down the steps, hearing the Guard's whistle.
Almost there, she thought, looking up her belongings to see the doors hadn't closed yet.
"Lizzie, come away from the rail, you're in the way," a nurse chided her daughter.
Caroline watched the child frown, unable to pass by her.
She watched the train doors close, and heard the final whistles, too late to board.
Shit, she hissed, hitting the doors with her gloved hands, now she had a forty-minute wait.
If only the little girl hadn't strayed from her mother, she sighed.
[REWIND – Narrative B]
If she hurried, she might be able to catch the 12.15 pm train, rather than the 12.55pm.
Caroline sprinted to the train station, dodging the hordes of people who came up the subway steps.
She took her Opal card from her wallet, and swiped it across the pay stations.
She managed to avoid bumping into anyone, as she ran down the steps, hearing the Guard's whistle.
Almost there, she thought, looking up her belongings to see the doors hadn't closed yet.
Caroline jumped the last few steps, and thrust her arm out between the doors like a lunatic.
"Wait!" she pushed against the door, and took a seat beside two men near the exit.
Caroline put her belongings between her feet, and took out her book, finally at peace.
[PRESENT – Narrative A]
Caroline shifted in her seat, her shoes were giving her blisters, and she really needed to the loo.
"Attention passengers, the 12.55pm train has been delayed due to a derailment, please find alternative forms of transport…"
Her shit day had just got a lot worse.
She emerged on the street with a ton of others, and thrust her hand out to hail a cab.
Someone shoved passed her, grabbing her handbag.
The guy was trying to mug her!
"No, my life is in this bag, you can't have it-"
The guy yanked her bag from her grip, and Caroline overbalanced slamming into a nearby oak tree.
She heard the mugger running away with her stuff, including her copy of Little Women and all her credit cards, tampons, and her unfinished granola bar.
"Are you okay? No, I guess not, you're bleeding," a man helped her to her feet.
He had blond hair beneath a golfer's hat, and kind eyes.
"Matt, you flagged me down two minutes ago, I'm sorry I couldn't get here fast enough. Is there something going on with the trains? I've never seen so many people walking around. Listen, I'll take you to the hospital, free of charge, you need that head looked at."
Caroline let the nice cab driver take her to the hospital, pressing the serviettes he'd given her from his burger, to stop the bleeding. His worried gaze checked on her through the rear vision mirror every few minutes, and she forced a smile, despite feeling as though she was going to vomit all over his leather seats.
"Hang in there-" he raised his eyebrows. "What's your name?" he asked.
"Caroline," she sighed. "Caroline Forbes."
[Narrative B]
"It's funny how nobody talks on trains, or lifts, people shut down and pretend to read a book. You've got a terrible tea stain on your book…." The man beside Caroline noted.
He craned his head to the side to see inside her book.
"Laurie, I always thought him to be a bit or a prick," he said, bumping against her shoulder.
Caroline lowered her book, annoyed with the interruption, but tried not to let it bother her.
"Have we met? No, seriously?" the man eyed her. "Oh, I know, you were in that lift, I picked up your earring," he grinned. "I promise, I'm not a psychopath, and I can see you just want to read your book, so I'm going to shut up now, and let you read," he said.
Caroline read the same sentence thirty times.
"Who's your favourite Little Woman?" he interjected, all of thirty seconds later.
"Jo, followed, by Beth," she snapped. "Not to be rude, but I've just been fired from my shitty job, and I would rather be left alone to read my book, than talk to a stranger on the tube," she said.
A few minutes passed before Stefan turned to her.
"Well, I'm not a stranger, we've met before, but I understand," he sat up in his seat. "I get off at this stop, I'm only telling you in case you get off this stop and you think I'm following you, and well…" he paused, made an embarrassed face, and ran his hand through his thick brown hair.
"I'm not, I'm not that good at… you know?" he shrugged.
"Constructing sentences?" Caroline offered, a finger holding open her page.
Stefan smiled, and offered his hand – she'd never noticed how charming his smile was.
"I'm Stefan Salvatore," he chuckled.
"Caroline," she sighed, shaking his hand.
They left the train platform together, having spent most of the train ride discussing her book, and its characters. Caroline had a new appreciation for Stefan's company, mainly for his opinions, and knowledge of classic literature, but also because of his humour.
She found him easy to talk to, but he also made her nervous.
"I live with someone, a man, I live with a man," she explained.
Stefan tucked his hands deeper into his jacket, breathing fire though the cold afternoon sky.
"Really? What would he say if he knew you were walking up the tube with a complete stranger?"
Caroline punched him in the arm. "You're not a stranger, we've met remember?" she laughed.
"Oh yeah! Look, I'm sorry about your job, remember what the Monty Python crew say?"
She looked at him, puzzled.
"What, always look on the bright side of life?" she asked.
Stefan shook his head.
"No, nobody expects the Spanish inquisition," he said, bidding her goodbye with a tap on the arm.
Caroline rolled her eyes, and let herself into her apartment at 1.30pm.
She could hear music playing, and wondered whether Wes was writing or having a people over.
"Wes, I'm home early. I thought we could go out for dinner," she threw her house keys onto the coffee table, and noticed an empty cheese platter there, as well as several pages of his manuscript.
The music got louder as she walked towards their bedroom.
"I didn't think you liked Elton John?" she added, dropping her bag on the couch.
There was a guttural moan coming from the bedroom, and Caroline pulled a face – did she just walk in on her boyfriend masturbating?
A second voice echoed him, followed by pet names, 'kitten', 'baby', 'sweetheart'.
Caroline felt sick, like somebody had violently punched her in the stomach.
She kicked open their bedroom door, to see Wes splayed out in her bed, a woman atop him, his hands massaging her porcelain bottom.
"Who is she?" Caroline asked in an icy tone.
Wes jumped a mile in the air, shoving his mistress off him, and scrambling to grab a pair of pants.
"Caroline, I didn't hear you come in?" he spluttered.
"She's Katherine," the woman responded, grabbing her clothes, and exiting the room.
Wes watched her leave, and had the nerve to turn to Caroline, as if he'd never even fucked the strange woman at all, and asked her how her day had been.
"I've had a dreadful day, I got sacked, so did you I presume… cup of tea?"
Caroline went from a docile puppy to a raging volcano in under two seconds.
"YOU USELESS BASTARD!" she threw his own shoes at his head, leaning down to pick up something else, just as heavy and hard. "Here I am, thinking we could go out to dinner so I could erase this shit day I've had, to seeing you, up to your nuts in lady shagging cadaver!"
"Sweetheart, I'm sorry, I had a moment of weakness. Katherine's a friend, well – a student, of mine."
Caroline's eyebrows shot through the roof.
"We met through a writing course, she's been helping me with my novel," he began, blocking her lampshade with a pillow.
"You're telling me, this isn't the first time? I've been working my ass off at this crap Marketing firm so you can stay home and work on your first novel…how long? Do you love her? No I don't want to know. I'm only asking because I need to know exactly how big a fool I really am."
"No, I don't love her," Wes climbed over the bed, taking her hands in his.
"No, but you love to shag her," Caroline pulled her hands free of him, and packed her bags.
[PRESENT – Narrative A]
Caroline sat up in her hospital bed, feeling alone and violated. The stitches in her forehead stung, and Matt had gone to get her coffee, to make her feel better.
She put down the hospital phone, sick of hearing the same engaged ring-tone on her boyfriend's phone. Maybe Wes was talking to some big publisher, maybe he finally got the break he wanted to finish his novel. She should be happy for him.
With a sigh, and a final clearance from her doctor, Caroline pulled the hospital gown from her, and dressed back into her work clothes. She couldn't wait to get home and tell Wes everything that had happened, and hope that the police could track down her stuff, especially the book her Dad had given to her for her birthday, the year before he'd died.
"Keep in touch," Matt said, giving her his card through the driver side window, when Caroline thanked him. "I'll feel better knowing I made a difference, and that you're not lying in a ditch somewhere," he pressed. "Do you want me to wait until your boyfriend comes down?"
Caroline shook her head, surprised and overwhelmed by his kindness.
"Thanks, but, I'm fine. Spare key," she said, tipping an old gumboot upside down.
Matt gave her a nod, and drove away.
Caroline heard the shower running, and Bennie and Jets blasting from the CD player.
Wes called out to her.
"Caroline, is that you?"
"No, it's the other woman, Monday, shag day, remember? Have you just gotten up, lazy?"
She made her way passed an empty cheese platter, seeing his manuscript on the coffee table.
"Went into a really deep sleep, think I'm coming down with something!"
She touched her stitches, reminding herself to leave them alone, or she'd make them bleed.
Wes came into the room, brushing past the dresser where two wine glasses stood.
"Oh my god, what happened to you?" he demanded, in an over dramatic way.
She sighed, sitting down on the edge of their bed.
"Which story do you want first?" she asked. "Well, I got sacked, then I missed the train, and all the trains were cancelled, so I went to get a cab, and some loser mugged me – the police called it an attempted mugging – even though he stole everything, my wallet, my book.. is this Elton John?" she looked up at Wes for the first time.
He made a face, turning off the CD player.
"Can't stand Elton John, you know that," he said, brushing her hair from her face. "You're in shock, just relax… do you want a brandy?" he asked, reaching for the bottle.
Caroline contemplated the offer, then remembered the two wine glasses, and saw only one on the dresser – was she going mad? She was sure there were two.
"If only I'd just caught that bloody train, I'd have been home ages ago," she sighed.
Wes looked alarmed, and clammy, and downed half the bottle of brandy, much to Caroline's bewilderment. He must have had a tough day writing his novel, she thought, lying against her crumpled sheets, and yawning.
"I know, how about we go out to dinner, listen to some Streisand songs, drink until we're under the table and forget this day ever happened?"
Wes kissed her softly on the lips.
"I love you," she murmured when they broke apart.
He smiled, a sad sort of smile.
"I love you too," he said, kissing her forehead. "But you need something more casual, you must have a party dress in here somewhere," he added, searching her wardrobe.
A/N: Some changes to the plot, here and there. I literally wrote this in about four hours, so please let me know if there's any typos, UFOs or any weird formatting that may occur. R&R x