Hi, friends! This is a new canon fix-it drabble series inspired by my fic, We Persevere. These drabbles have nothing to do with that fic, I merely opened the Tumblr blog to prompts asking how I would have handled canon situations. Please feel free to drop in my ask box or message me on Tumblr at weperseverebyhonestgrins!
Prompt from jads1000: Why wouldn't Caroline read Stefan's letters? Why didn't Stefan phone/email/Facebook/WhatsApp her? Why didn't Alaric know about them?
This takes place in 7x21, after Stefan vervained Caroline to get her away from Huntress!Bonnie.
When Caroline gasped back to life in the backseat as he desperately drove away from Bonnie, Stefan expected her to scream, pout, try to escape. Instead, she sat up and leaned her head miserably upon the window, perfectly hiding her face from his view.
More than an hour later, she had yet to say anything.
"It was hell," he whispered, thinking back to her angry reaction in the boarding house. She gave no sign she was listening, but Stefan needed to say it anyway. "It was three years of hell for me to be away from you."
"Yeah," she answered blithely. "Tell Valerie I said hi when you're done with Damon's mess and leave again."
Furrowing his brow, Stefan tightened his grip on the steering wheel. "Caroline, I am not here for Damon and I am not going back to Valerie."
"Where have I heard that before?" If the words didn't cut into him, her tone would have. She sounded like she didn't care in the slightest. "You don't need to prove anything to me, Stefan. Just let me go home."
His heart clenched. He wanted to go home, too, but Caroline wasn't acting like she knew his home lay within her. "I had to leave you, just like I had to get you away from Bonnie," he implored. "The scar constantly endangers you, which you would know if you had just read my letters."
"Do you know why I didn't read your stupid letters, Stefan?" Her voice finally held some emotion, even if it was a seething rage. "Because they weren't to apologize to me, or to explain to me, or to make me understand that you just loved me too much, that you had to leave me behind while taking another girl around the world."
Opening his mouth to defend himself, Caroline just kept talking.
"Those letters were a coward's way of making you feel better about yourself for knowingly making a shitty decision for both of us," she spat. "What would have preferred from me? I know you didn't want a response. Nope, you would have called me or fucking told me in person what the plan was if you wanted my input. Tacit acceptance of your grand plan to run away with someone else? I mean, hell, at least Valerie wasn't a doppelganger of your greatest loves. Nope, she was just almost the mother of your child. Hey, a witch can protect you, right?"
He winced at that. Valerie hadn't exactly shared her theory of transferring the scar until it was no longer an option, making the witch argument completely toothless. Worse, it was entirely beside Caroline's point.
"You were a coward for that, and I hate that it made me second guess myself. What could I have done differently? Was I not paying enough attention? I mean, I was clearly missing some important details about the situation, silly me for thinking you were keeping me in the loop. Hell, at least I knew you were alive when the first letter came.
"Most of all, I hate that I let you make me feel weak. Sending those letters back was weak of me. It was petty, and apparently, it was all the permission you needed to screw your first love."
His hands fisted so tightly, his knuckles blanched to white. "I thought you had given up on me," Stefan yelled, his heart breaking at the utter despair on her face.
"You had given up on me," Caroline yelled back. "Those were crappy Dear John letters, and you know it. I'm sorry I didn't care to read your excuses, I'm sure you were really torn up about it. After all, you must have cried every day about the girl whose love you threw away."
Stefan bit his lip, trying not to cry. As cruel as she was, Caroline had every right to throw this back in his face. He had come prepared with three years' worth of apologies for the hurt he caused; he should have known she had three years' worth of anger built up in response.
"I-I can't begin to apologize enough for whatever pain I caused," he started hesitantly. "And I could probably tell you until I'm blue in the face that I felt that pain three times over, but you have absolutely no reason to believe me. I get that. All I'm asking is for you to just let me keep you safe, and maybe for a chance to-"
"To what?"
Glancing to the rearview mirror, Stefan was surprised to meet her eyes in the reflection. She genuinely seemed curious at his answer.
His head fell to the side as he couldn't look away from her. "To make it right," he whispered.
Caroline sucked at her lips like she tasted something sour, her arms crossed tightly. Waiting like someone anticipating a death sentence, Stefan's heart pounded in his chest.
"Just," she sighed, letting out a tired breath and sagging with exhausting. She looked out the window again, away from him. "Just keep your eyes on the road. I have a family to get back to in one piece."
Stefan ground his teeth in frustration. She wasn't giving him a chance, not that he deserved one. The most selfish part of him knew he had overreacted to Caroline's scar in the hope that some time alone was all they needed to get back on track. With the way things were going, though, he was going to have to be more creative in earning her trust again.
He only hoped he still had the chance once all this was over. Caroline might be his home, but she had a whole life in Dallas. Alaric loved her, was going to marry her. She was a mother, something Stefan hadn't really processed even in his years of isolation. In a feeling of overwhelming defeat, he wondered what the hell he had to offer her in consolation of leaving all that behind.
Still, a small voice in his head encouraged him to fight for his love. That voice sounded a lot like Caroline. Stefan trusted her, and it was up to him to be worthy of her again.