Disclaimer: I own nothing
I will be updating Salvation of the Damned soon. Sorry about the wait.
Caroline wearily watches the pre-midnight fireworks burst above her. She should be there. She should be in the town square cheering on the workers and handing out refreshments. She should be holding a clipboard and a phone and telling everyone where to be, what to do.
But she's not.
Instead, she's sitting on the roof of the Salvatore boarding house cradling a bottle of stolen bourbon. She can't go back to her old life, no matter how hard she tries. And she has tried. But two messed up ex-boyfriends, one father who hates her and one mother who fears her later, she has given up. And she has accepted it.
She has accepted being alone on New Year's Eve.
Caroline doesn't acknowledge the person she hears climbing onto the roof even when they sit beside her, stretching out their long legs.
"Blondie," Damon deadpans, "What the hell are you doing on my roof?" She shrugs and takes a large swig of bourbon.
"Let me guess. You're moping over Elena and you're drunk," she informs him, ignoring his earlier question.
"Actually no. I can't be," he tells her. "You see, it's hard to be drunk when a certain blonde has stolen my alcohol." She widens her eyes innocently and gestures to the bottle in her arms,
"What? This? You're mistaken, this is mine." He raises a brow in disbelief,
"Caroline, that's a $200 bottle of bourbon. I didn't realise you had that much stored away in your piggy bank." She grimaces in defeat and hands him the bottle which he accepts eagerly. To her surprise, however, after taking a long drink he hands it back to her. They sit there for some time, waiting for the midnight fireworks and watching the smaller ones building up to the new year. Damon grimaces,
"I hate fireworks." Caroline looks at him in surprise,
"But you're a guy. Fireworks are loud, destructive and explosive. Guys love that." He rolls his eyes at her generalisation,
"And they're also colourful, pretty and sparkly. Girls love that."
"I never said I didn't," she replies quickly.
"Do you?" he asks with slight curiosity. She hesitates and looks away awkwardly,
"No, actually. I can't stand them." He frowns, remembering something.
"I thought you said you loved them. At least that's what you told me," he says, referring to their past relationship. She replies, still refusing to meet his eyes,
"I did love them. I used to adore them. So now I have to hate them." Damon looks at her in confusion,
"What?" She sighs,
"I have to hate everything I used to love. I can't keep being Caroline the human cheerleader. I have to be Caroline the blood-sucking monster. And in order to do that, I have to be everything that I'm not. That I wasn't," she corrects herself. Damon looks at her confused before shaking his head,
"That's bullshit." She doesn't respond and they sit in silence for a few minutes. Caroline turns to him,
"You know, I never thanked you." He frowns,
"For what?"
"Saving my life." He grins,
"Which time?" She ignores the subtle jab at her habit of getting kidnapped and replies,
"I don't mean saving me from werewolves or anything so trivial. I mean…" she hesitates, "when you gave me your blood." Damon looks away and furrows his brow. When he replies his voice is tentative and troubled,
"Caroline… I didn't save you. I condemned you."
"No," she corrects him firmly. "Katherine killed me. Katherine condemned me. You saved me twice over."
"Becoming a vampire isn't salvation."
"It's better than dying."
"Is it?" Caroline doesn't reply to his question but continues,
"Anyway, I much prefer you as a sire than her." He laughs coldly,
"Yeah, because I've been a great one of those." She smiles timidly at him,
"Well, I guess you could have been better."
"Hey, you could have come to me at anytime about your boy problems and I would have fixed them."
"By killing them?" she asks mockingly.
"Well, maybe. Probably," he laughs and she joins in. She turns to him with a sad smile,
"Face it Damon. You're very good at playing the father who greets his daughter's boyfriend at the front door with a shotgun but not good at much else." He shrugs,
"I'll work on it." She looks up in surprise,
"Really?" He purses his lips before whispering,
"I promise." She smiles as she turns away,
"Maybe this new year won't be so crap after all." Damon's reply is drowned out by the sound of fireworks lighting up the sky, signalling the start of a new year. Caroline leans against him and offers him the bourbon bottle that they're sharing.
"Happy new year Damon," she murmurs into his ear. He looks down at her fondly and whispers back,
"Happy new year Caroline."