You've Got Five Minutes
One-Shot
Tyler/Caroline
Set at the End of Crying Wolf
"How come the only way to know how high you get me
Is to see how far I fall
God only knows how much I'd love you if you let me
But I can't break through at all.
It's heartbreak..."
John Mayer – Heartbreak Warfare
The sounds that reverberated through her ears were precise. Her hearing was enhanced so she could tell that there was someone coming up to her door. Caroline tossed the book off her lap and her dainty feet off the side of her bed. She was cautious but the urge, the strength that came from within her told her just to go for it. "Mom?" It was a plea in a way, the human part of her wishing to avoid any conflict. That's when she felt it. The pang in her stomach telling her someone was there, at her door.
Tyler's smell was incredibly pungent to her. She knew exactly was soap and shampoo he used. What odor his musk gave off. She knew he was there. A part of her was full of rage, of anger, of fury. She wanted to lung at him. Rip his conceited, backstabbing neck out. Tear out his carotid artery and let him bleed on her porch, but that was just the anger talking.
She gathered her strength and as quickly as she felt the handle the door opened and he was pinned against the side of her house. His eyes were pleading with her, trying to convince her he came in peace but nothing helped subside the anger she felt, the betrayal. "Caroline" Exasperated he let out the only thing he could form. The name passed his lips with such passion, breathless passion.
"How dare you?" Caroline gripped his throat till her knuckles turned white. "You know its one thing to run into me in public but this is my home and you're no longer welcome." She seethed his hand grasping at her wrist. His fingers rubbed her wrist in an effort to gain some sort of oxygen. Her eyes were red and she was in her primal form.
"Caroline, Please?" He pleaded with her.
She let go. Her eyes falling, the only real contact they had been broken. She let out a couple breathes, "I can't believe you…"
"I wanted to return your phone." He cut her off trying to avoid anymore confrontation. This was already killing him. He had already poured his soul to Matt Donovan; he wanted to avoid all confrontation with Caroline. It hurt too much. "I got it from your bag this morning. It was an accident, sort of."
"Thanks." She brushed him off and picked up her phone from the ground.
"Caroline?" He caught her before she got to the door. "Please, I can't leave with you mad at me."
"Too late, there are some things you can't fix Tyler. Like this friendship." She gave him an half assed smile before grabbing her door knob again.
"Caroline, please just…" He grabbed her hand, squeezing it hoping for something. "Just give me 5 minutes."
"You've got five minutes." She carefully inserted the time into the timer on her iphone and shrugged. "
"You're seriously going to time it?" He asked a little confused.
"You're wasting your time." She said carefully.
"Caroline, I'm sorry. I just I can't…" Tyler Lockwood, the normally smooth ladies man was struggling for words. He was trying to form some sort of sentence in front of her. He was struggling to the point of anger. "I was wrong, completely. I should've jumped in, helped. I shouldn't have just jumped onto the wolf bandwagon. Caroline I just, I've never had someone care about like you. It scared me."
"You're ridiculous."
"I know." He took a breath and looked at her. Every inch of her was still angry still tense. This was the only chance Tyler had. "Jules and her friends haven't known me forever and yet they came and they were nice. They understood me unlike anyone and it jaded me." He paused, licked his lips and took yet another look at her. The blond hair falling off her shoulders, the eyes that once got him through the roughest moment in his life; the perfect image of a person stood in front of him and he was babbling like an idiot. "I forgot about you because I can't understand why you cared. What was the exterior motive?"
"There wasn't one." She groaned, her hands balling into fists gripping onto the phone for dear life.
"Caroline, I know that now. I just couldn't see why someone who used to hate me would care so much. Someone who once told me to drop dead actually wanted to save my life." Tyler looked at his feet. Jules was waiting for him. He had to leave. This might be the only chance he'd get. "I was naïve to the fact that you're incredible. All you wanted to do was help me and I betrayed you." His eyes got cloudy. He was a man. This wasn't going to happen. "I'm leaving; I just want you to know how thankful I was and how stupid I feel for losing you."
"Tyler," Her voice showed that she was affected by his words. They showed her he was telling the truth. "where are you going?"
"Florida, with Jules. Mystic Falls is not my home anymore." He gripped at his leather jacket and fought back the urge to look into her eyes.
"Tyler you can't leave." Her hand gripped his. "You can't just run away."
It wasn't the reaction he was expecting. He was expecting her to bid him off with a big "Fuck you". He expected anger and rage, he didn't expect her kindness. That just complicated everything.
"Caroline, I'm falling in love you and more than anything that scares me. I can't just stay here knowing I can hurt you, that all I do is hurt you. You don't deserve that, I don't deserve you."
She was speechless. It was true there were fireworks in their kiss. The looming idea that they could fall into something more was there. That he liked her, the idea was there. She knew it, but she never saw this coming. Nothing could have prepared her for this. She didn't know what to say because anything she said couldn't match the power and the emotion that Tyler was showing her. He was letting his guard down for her. He was showing her all his colors. It wasn't new, but it was scary.
"Tyler, you can't leave me with telling me that, it's not fair." Sobs gripped at her throat. Her eyes welled and her stomach felt weak nothing was right on the inside of her because there was nothing right with the situation as it was. This was not something she expected, but it was a wonderful surprise.
"I'll come back."
"No you won't, no one comes back." Those words were meant for something else; those words were going to kill Tyler.
"Nothing can keep me here; I don't want anyone to get hurt on my behalf."
"Tyler, please." She wanted to tell him that she was falling for him, but she didn't think it was true. It was her subconscious denying it in spite of him.
He sighed and shook his head. "Just, be happy, okay?"
She gripped at her shoulders; her eyes looked down at her phone. "You've still got a minute." Her tears pulling away from her eyes dropping onto the concrete below her.
Tyler's hand cupped her cheek; he rubbed her cheek sensually and pulled her lips to his. Unlike the first time the passion in this was apparent. Her arms uncrossed and found their way to his chest. His lips were soft against hers but there was a sense of urgency in it. A sense of heat, something there that wasn't familiar to either of them.
The timer on Caroline's phone buzzed. Parting away slowly was only going to bring tears to her eyes. This moment was something Tyler never wanted to deal with. He didn't do well with emotions. He wasn't made for them.
So Tyler did what he did best.
He shoved his hands in his pockets and walked down the stairs. Caroline stood there, breathless and confused. Heightened senses just made all of this worse.
Tyler opened the door to the dirty SUV. "I'm sorry about Brady and your friends but if I'm going to go with you, no more lies."
"No more lies." Jules confirmed. "You're doing the right thing."
"I can't stay here, not like this." Jules put the car in gear. She took a breath, hit the gas and off they went.
"You love her." She said, regret tainting her every word.
"Let's not talking about that," Tyler confirmed and stared mindlessly out the window. Jules nodded and glued her eyes on the road in front of them, leaving Mystic Falls behind them.
A/N: That's not really the end; I just really wanted to write my own version of the ending. It's a prequel to something I'm working on. Stay tuned for that. (:
