When she gets home, she cries a little. Sitting on the very edge of her bed. Without really thinking about it, she moves to the shower. She turns up the heat, as far as it will go, waits until the fog thickens, enclosing the room and folds herself into a ball and sobs.
This is why she had walked away from him. He couldn't see her like this. He was her rock, her best friend and it made her guilty sometimes, even though she knows it shouldn't, how much she depended on him. Leaned on him.
Needed him.
She lets the water run across her back, ease the aches of her body, ease the thoughts screaming in her head and she waits for it to run out.
Her throat is thick and her eyes are swollen when it finally does but she feels better. Lighter almost even though nothing about their situation has changed.
Caroline was still a vampire. An innocent life had been lost and Katherine was still…Katherine, her actions and her poison being felt without her even needing to be present.
The heat from the shower has made her lucid and so lazy, she's hardly able to walk the short distance to her bed. She manages to shake her hair out and slip on a tank top and a pair of sweat pants, her stability wearing thin as she practically stumbles and falls to the mattress.
She's asleep within seconds.
He's too worried to sleep, thinking of her. She needed this space, this time just to gather herself in a little, let her self breathe, fall apart maybe. Feel everything that had happened to her in the past week.
But it's the hardest thing being so far away. Knowing she was upset.
He's lying on his bed, staring up at the rafters when the thought comes to him, so perfect and complete that he leaps off the bed and heads for the door even though it's barely 4 am.
But he has a few stops to make, and the timing, was everything.
The guard is slumped forward against an abandoned trailer, not far from the entrance and it's so easy, the compulsion, that Stefan's unlocked the gate and worked out how to handle the Ferris wheel in seconds. And by handle, it's really a matter of turning the lights on and off. The keys were missing to operate it.
He checks in on Caroline, who's sleeping soundly in her bed and spends the rest of the time, waiting, sitting on the bench swing on Elena's front porch.
When it's almost time, he comes up through the window, something he hasn't done in awhile and stands there, just for a moment, watching as she slept. She looked calm and peaceful, her chest moving up and down steadily and he contemplates on letting her be and wriggling into the bed beside her.
But this plan, what he wants to show her, do for her is worth waking her up for.
"Mmmm," She groans when he's bent forward, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. She crinkles her face, full of sleep but smiles, taking in his face.
"Hi…" She whispers groggily and her eyelids are heavy as she sticks her hands absentmindedly through her hair, "What time is it?"
"It's almost dawn, " He replies quietly and she grimaces a little, "Come with me."
She stills at that, brown eyes widening and he smiles encouragingly and leads her up and out of bed by her hand, lingering his lips over the top of it.
She pulls whatever's closest on over her head and he hands her the jeans she left in a ball by her bed. She pulls them up lethargically, still blinking awake.
"Did you sleep okay?" He asks softly as she's doing up her zipper.
She nods her head and moves for him once she's finished, hanging on tight to his arm, "Missed you though."
She's closing her eyes again, tucking herself into the fold of his arm as he kisses her head, "I missed you too. Come on, we're going to miss it."
"Miss whatttt?" She almost slurs and they head out through her bedroom door and towards the staircase.
He pauses just behind her, right as he's on the top step and she's on the one right below, "It's a surprise," He whispers against her ear and she grins, growing awake.
They walk to the school and she loses most of her sleepiness along the way. They talk a little and check in on one another, about what had happened the night before and discuss, only a little about what they were going to do next. When they're almost at the entrance, they're voices settle to a hush and she reaches to hold his hand.
"Stefan, what are we doing here? We're gonna get caught." She looks up across the frame of the Ferris wheel, looking forlorn without all of the bright lights surrounding it.
"Well, I compelled the guard to go on his break so I could kiss my girlfriend on top of the Ferris wheel." He says, swinging around to meet her and she looks away from him, open mouthed just as the lights come to life, blooming full into the early morning sky.
She's speechless for a moment. Of course he would do this for her. Of course. But it made her a little nervous, the obviousness of them trespassing, and the guard being only a couple feet away….
"Stefan…" She starts half heartedly, sounding unsure.
"We have to take these moments, Elena," He quickly starts and her worry is already fading, looking into his reassuring eyes, "Alright? What Katherine did to Caroline could just be the beginning and…and then there's things with Tyler's family that we don't even understand yet and there's always the 'D' word but…"
She smiles a little, at the last part, looking away towards the ground.
"But I came back to this town," She looks up as he grows closer, cupping the side of her face, his fingers running over the curve of her ear, "To start a life with you…"
She can feel her heart, full and open as they stared at one another and she likes those words, more than she could probably ever tell him, all put together, all in a row. Starting a life. They were starting a life together.
"We can't forget to live it." He finishes and she closes her mouth, grips to his hand and leans against it, looking at him as he smiles, knowing he was right.
Beyond everything else, they were two people who loved each other, wanted to be together, share moments together. Two, normal people who were just in love.
"But Stefan," She says, looking up towards the sky, remembering where they were and why they had came here. There was nobody to operate the ride, the lights still twinkling all around the Ferris wheel, and she assumed that they weren't going to climb their way up there, "How are we going to get to the top?"
And she breaks into a wide smile, watching as he got a sure, teasing look all across his face, "Ah…I guess you'll just have to hold on tight."
She's nervous again but only mildly as he wraps his arm securely around her shoulder and she grips tight to the front of his shirt.
And he jumps. The sudden rush is terrifying but thrilling. The seat rocks but not too much when they land and she finds herself giggling, feeling like she was right on top of the world.
"What?" She asks, breaking out of her giggles to find him staring intently at her.
He rubs his fingers across the nape of her neck, reveling in the sound, the way her face looked somehow younger, innocent, whenever she did laugh and knowing that it would always, always make him want to laugh back.
"It's just so nice, to hear you laugh." He says tenderly and her smile softens as they move closer, right in the middle and kiss.
It's slow and soft and all them and as the skin of their foreheads rub together, their kiss deepens, their faces pressed close.
When they pull apart, it's only barely as he leans against the shell of her cheek, watching her with her closed eyes and her sad face. This moment had truthful, painful reality in it. As romantic as it was, it should've happened last night, would've happen last night.
"It's not gonna get any easier, is it?" She asks and though part of her already knows the answer, her eyes are a little wider, little hopeful, as she looks at him.
He looks away from her towards the skyline, already starting to light up, letting out a darkened laugh, "No," He says, truthfully, shaking his head as he turns back to her, "It's not."
She looks a little defeated but she expects him to be honest with her, needed him to be honest with.
"Come here." He says softly, wanting to rid the sudden darkened moment and she smiles and rests against him.
His arm stays around her and they watch the sun together, coming up and across the mountains, over the tree branches and it's beautiful and magical and so perfect.
She whispers thank you, into his chin and he doesn't need to ask what for.
They stay up there for as long as they possibly can but when he can make out the sounds of cars on the road, footsteps on the pavement, growing less and less distant, it's time to leave.
Time to get back to reality, side by side one another.