A/N: Yeah, so I realize that I've been MIA lately. I'm still around, I just have had a few family emergencies, and then I really had no inspiration, but this just came to me. Now, I know that it may seem similar to my story Unbroken, but just bear with me, it's a different story all together, I promise.

Also, this is my first shot at writing AU/AH. I've never written it before, so I'd really like feedback on what was good, what wasn't good, all that good stuff.

Safe.

It was a small word, a simple word, but as she looked back on her whole life, Caroline Forbes had never felt safe.

The house she grew up in as a child was never safe. If she could go back in time she would tell fifteen year old Caroline that someday, she was going to find someplace to feel safe, and somebody who actually loved her. Of course, if she had gone back in time, she would have to resist the urge to punch her father in the face. Of course, he wasn't her real father anyway; her real parents were long gone. After Liz and Bill Forbes had died, Caroline had been catapulted into another world.

It was a darker world; a more cruel world. It was a world in which she would never be safe. It was a world where she would cry herself to sleep at night on the cold hard floor, and where she would learn to hate everything that she ever was. It didn't matter what it was; too fat, too thin, too smart, too stupid – she could never be what people wanted her to be, and for that they found a way to tear her down.

Sometimes she'd try to make herself feel better by telling herself that if her life now was this bad, the future would be better. She was going through this hell for a reason – there just had to be a reason.

It all goes back to that word: safe. Even now, as a twenty-two year old who had a good job as a fashion designer in Richmond, Virginia, she still didn't feel safe.

Caroline practically had the world. She had the money, she had the successful business, and she had friends. She had everything that anybody could ever want.

She still wasn't happy. There was a big hole inside of her that got bigger every day. She looked at her best friends Bonnie and Elena, and right away, she was envious of them. Bonnie and Elena were probably the best things to ever come out of her life – they had helped her all they could, and had always kept in touch with her, but Caroline envied the relationship s that they had. Elena had been steady with the same guy, Stefan Salvatore, since high school, and Bonnie had been with Jeremy, Elena's brother, for almost as long. Yes, Caroline thought they had the perfect lives.

-x-

Love.

It was word that had been used countless times, but never for him. His first love, his true love, Katherine, had used him up and spit him out. She had come between Damon and his brother, and then, after spewing some I love you both crap, she left him with his heart in little pieces. Since Katherine left, Damon had a really hard time connecting with people – after her, there was Andie and Rose, both of whom left because he had too much emotional baggage – they just couldn't deal with it.

He saw the way that his little brother looked at Elena Gilbert. They were the perfect couple, a match made in heaven. They complimented each other very well. He also saw that Bonnie Bennett and Jeremy Gilbert had something going on. Now, Damon wasn't a very big fan of Bonnie, but he knew one thing for sure – she had love and he didn't. Sometimes he wondered if his dad had even loved him. They had clashed on so many levels that it wouldn't surprise Damon at all if he had hated him. All Damon Salvatore wanted was for someone to love him as much as he could love them.

Instead of looking for someone to dedicate his life to, he started pushing people away. After Katherine came along, things were different. They were tainted. He had to wonder what it would be like he hadn't ruined him the way that she did. He was just an insecure, bourbon-drinking mess. Sure, it seemed like he had it all together – he owned the local hangout, the Mystic Grill, and on the surface, he looked and acted like a normal, well-adjusted guy. Underneath it all, however, he had one motto: drink your problems away. And that seemed to be all that he did lately.

However, unknown to both Caroline and Damon, their lives were about to change drastically.