You shimmy shook my bone leaving me stranded all in love on my own
Do you think of me? Where am I now? Baby where do I sleep?
Feel so good but I'm old, 2000 years of chasing's taking its toll

- Kings of Leon, Closer

"This is for your own good, Caroline." Her mother told her, her eyes focused on the road and refusing to catch her eye in the rear-view. "You'll see, sweetheart, it's for the best."

Caroline didn't think so. She didn't think being banished to the crazy house would help her any, the voices were still there and they weren't going away.

Caroline stared at the long, cold hallways of the hospital, everything smelling and looking sterile and pristine.

"This way, Caroline." One of the attendees gently grabbed her arm and she shook her off. Apprehension clouded the woman's eyes as she prepared for some kind of violent freak out but Caroline just rolled her eyes and followed the woman to her new room.

Caroline…

She shivered as the voice in her head started again, his voice always made her feel like invisible fingertips were caressing her skin, like he could almost touch her, like he was in the same room as her.

Caroline….help me…

She whimpered and curled into herself more under the covers. He always asked for the same thing – for help. But what? How could she help him? He wasn't real. He was just in her head.

Caroline….

She was crazy, they told her, crazy, crazy. Totally lost her marbles, had a few screws loose, the whole shebang. She just had imaginary voices in her head for what reason then the fact that she was clinically insane even the doctors said so. All she needed to do was take her medication and she would get better.

Help me…Caroline, help me….

She groaned into her pillow and wanted to cry. She just wanted a good full night's sleep but the voices in her head just wouldn't leave her alone. She didn't know what it wanted and being a part of her less than sane psyche, it was not like she could do anything for it.

Caroline…Caroline…

Damn it. No wonder crazy people were so cranky. Your own insanity kept you awake.

Sighing, she threw the covers off herself and went to get ready for breakfast. Meals were always early in the mental hospital and an attendee would come to pick her up and escort her to the cafeteria soon.

Caroline…

"Shut up." She muttered and rubbed her hands over her face.

A new attendee came to pick her up, she knew this because even though she'd only been staying at the hospital for two months, all the attendees were mostly women and all the men were over the age of forty. This attendee was a guy who looked not older than she was and was incredibly good-looking with his dark features.

He smiled at her in an almost predatory way, his dark eyes gleaming with some cruel secret. "Hello Caroline."

Her fingers gripped the hem of her hospital gown and she stifled a scream.

He sounded just like the voices in her head.

"My name's Patch." He told her as he led her towards the cafeteria, his hand on the middle of her back. To others, it looked like he was just guiding her but she could feel a wave of possession coming from him and it made her uncomfortable. "And I have a feeling…"

He stopped her and she stiffened at the hand on her shoulder, his grip tightened and he forced her to look at him. Everyone was in the cafeteria for breakfast and the few that were passing didn't pay them any heed to notice just how frightened she was. "I have a feeling that we'll be seeing a lot more of each other."

There was something wrong about him she knew, she could just feel it and she had to get away from him, had to figure out some way to get far away from him.

Don't even try, Caroline.

He smiled at her, hiding his teeth. "Let's go eat."

Things returned to some kind of routine. Patch would pick up Caroline for meals, escort her in the gardens outside for some exercise and sunlight, watched over her as she painted during art class – he was just there, always there and she was getting more and more afraid of him as the days went by. Every single time she tried to get away from him, he would be there, blocking her exit, grabbing her by the arm with a firm grip so strong she could feel her bones almost breaking.

And he kept touching her too. Not anything noticeable most looked like accidents like a brushing of his fingers on her elbow or a hand on the small of her back to guide her. But he was always, always touching her like he couldn't get enough and the dark emotions hiding in his eyes made her feel like he was just waiting for the right opportunity to explore every expanse of her skin more thoroughly.

It made her want to lock her room at night but her door had no locks. And so she barricaded the door with the measly furniture in the room. All the other attendees thought she was trying to kill herself and had burst into the room to 'stop' her.

They upped her meds and she slept restlessly.

Patch liked to talk, shocker it was, he was the more talkative of the two which was due to Caroline's refusal to speak in his presence because he still very much made her scared and uneasy. He, on the other hand, acted normally as if oblivious to her more than apparent terror of him.

"You look lovely in the sunlight." He told her, eyes dark and intense and it made her self-consciously reach up to touch her unkempt blond curls. She fisted her hand when she realized what she was doing and turned away from him to stare at the poppy bushes around them.

But I think you'd look lovelier in the dark.

She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself.

"You can't run you know," He told her, leaning on the door frame of her room, hands crossed over his chest and postured exuding arrogance. Those dark eyes stared her down with no remorse and she hugged her knees to her chest to make herself smaller. "Wherever you go, I'll find you."

"What are you?" She dared to ask and he smirked.

"You're asking all the wrong questions."

"What are you going to do to me?" She asked him one night after dinner and they arrived in her room.

His hand reached up to her cheek and she flinched at the contact but wasn't brazen enough to shake him off. There was something almost soft in his gaze as his hand caressed the apple of her cheek. "Something I've always wanted."

She was almost afraid to ask. "And what's that?"

His eyes flickered down to her lips and for a moment, his gaze so intense she was blushing without her consent. She thought, for a horrible second, he was going to kiss her but instead his fingers tucked a few strands of her hair behind her ear before turning and leaving her to stare at him in wonder.

He kissed her a few days later. They were out in the garden again and everyone else was inside. She'd picked one of the flowers and was enjoying the scent of it and twirling it with her fingertips when he'd suddenly grabbed her face, turned her face up and kissed her. It was a bruising kiss, hard, demanding and possessive and she was shocked so senseless by it that she's overcome by the tidal wave of tongue, breath and heat.

By the time, he lets her go she's breathless and staring confusedly at his dark eyes speaking of want.

He wordlessly pulled her up and they went inside.

She replayed the memory of the kiss repeatedly in her head for the next few days and in horror found herself wanting to relive it again.

He kissed her again just a day later after escorting her from lunch. She sat down on her bed, her hospital gown wide like a tent on her small body and she stared up at him questioningly as he lingered on the doorway.

Then as if making up his mind, he closed the door behind him and making his way towards her. She barely remembered any thoughts after that and he's kissing her again, all passion and a surprising tenderness underneath it all.

She's flat on her back on the bed, his lips kissing, biting, licking her neck and she had to stifle her moans as his fingers play with her until she came, moaning his name.

He kissed her several more times after that. Always ever careful not to get caught by other people and he didn't seem to care that her only outfit was a hospital nightgown and her hair was a mess. He wanted her, he told her himself. But for some reason, they could not go through the entire thing yet.

She wondered about that but didn't ask.

He left for reasons that are not explained but she didn't push.

He'd be back, he'd promised her. Whether she liked it or not.

She's being led back to her room after dinner when she heard the news from a TV in one of the attendees lounge rooms.

"…local teenager Nora Grey was found dead this morning…"

Caroline thought she should care about this but she really wasn't.

Patch arrived back the day after that and she knew instantly something was different about him. That wrongness she felt when around him, like he didn't belong in this world had been stripped off and he felt normal, absolutely normal.

But he was still equally as arrogant as he smirked at her in greeting. "Caroline."

"Patch," She acknowledged and wondered whether she should move from where she was sitting on the bed.

He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. "I missed you." He told her almost kindly and walked towards the bed, slowly, no need to rush.

The waiting made her heart beat faster in anticipation and she stared up at him hopefully as his hands pushed her down on the bed, enveloped her mouth into a kiss and his hands made quick history of her hospital gown.

"Patch?" He let out a groan of protest. He still wanted to lounge about in the afterglow after all. "What now?"

He got up from the bed and put on his clothes as he gathered them. She kept her eyes on him, wondering what he was going to say next.

"We leave." He told her and offered her a hand to get up, she accepted and once she got to her feet, she started packing.

A black jeep that would've made gotten mother's heart pumping in panic was waiting for them outside the hospital, their getaway car. She didn't even have any second thoughts before opening the car door and saying goodbye to her old life as Patch drove them to some place far, far away.

They arrive in New York a few days later where he had a small apartment they would be temporarily staying in. There was only one bedroom and one bed but she didn't mind, she loved the view of the city from there.

"Why me?" She asked him one night. Out of all the girls he could fall for and lose his wings of, why her? "Why?"

He just pulled her close and whispered against her lips. "Because."

She was about to protest that wasn't a real answer but he did do a damn good job of making he forget.

"Did you kill that girl?" She asked him a few days later as they were eating their breakfast. Her bluntness had always been one of her biggest character flaws but it was one of the things she valued the most. It got her answers.

He stared at her levelly for a second before answering. "No."

She waited for him to elaborate more but he didn't.

She was watching the view from the bedroom again, the fast moving cars and the lights, all the bright lights of this city that truly never slept, wondering what secrets they all held. Patch came home looking tired as usual and wordlessly went to her.

She smiled at him in greeting and he pulled her closer to kiss her as if he'd never have enough.

I love you…

She just laughed.

This was written for Day #8 for The Month of Caroline challenge with the pairing Patch/Caroline.