Disclaimer: Nope, if I did, Damon would be mine. ;)

A/N: Wow guys, I know 5 reviews isn't a lot, but it's something. I didn't expect any and to be honest, I'm grateful. Thank you (it really means a lot!). I plan on continuing this now, so please give me your thoughts in a review.

Chapter Two: The Second Part

She has never been this alone. At least, she feels like she's never been so alone as she is now. She is sleeping in his bed every day of the past week, and the pillow beneath her head is stained with tears. She hides in her dreams, retreating from the cruel reality fate has thrust upon her. In sleep, she decides to believe nothing has changed. She's lying there with him, her head nestled against his chest and his arm wrapped protectively around her frame. She feels the faint rhythm of his heart beating beneath her ear, and she tells herself he isn't gone. He never left. Unbeknownst to her, a tear slips out of the corner of her closed eye.

The phone vibrating against her nightstand rattles her out of her sleep, and the moment her eyes open, reality comes crashing down on her. No more crying, she tells herself as she pushes herself upright in the bed, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands. I'm sick of crying. She ignores the rattling cell phone and stares blearily at the sunlight filtering through the window. The sun is out and shining, and the birds are chirping as if nothing's happened. What a lie that is, she thinks to herself. Finally, she snatches the phone and glances at the caller ID. 'Caroline Forbes' flashes on the LED screen. She swipes the lock screen and holds the phone to her ear. "Care, it's 7 in the morning."

Caroline screams much too loud into her cell phone's speaker. "ELENA! Elena, you have to come to my place right now, please." Her friend's voice sounds distraught, and the hyper-neurotic blonde sounds not unlike Elena the week before.

"Caroline, whoa, what happened? Slow down and tell me what happened," she tries to get her friend to calm down enough to make coherent speech. The blonde on the other hand sucks in a deep breath and does as ordered. She delivers the news with a shaking, intermittent voice marked by the occasional sob or sniffle. When Caroline finishes, Elena nearly drops the phone. The news had hit her like a punch to the gut, especially so soon after… I lost him, she finishes in her head. What sort of life is this? I lose both of them now? "I-I just woke up, and um I'll call Ric.

Ric drives her to the Forbes' place and within seconds, they're out of the car and heading inside the house. In the parlor, they find Caroline on the floor, bowed over a prone Stefan Salvatore. The blonde seizes him and shakes him a few times, turning him over in her arms to brush the hair back from his forehead. She slaps his cheek and shouts at him,

"Wake up, Stefan! God, please wake up!" She starts to shake him again until it's Elena who comes to her friend's side and extends willowy arms around the blonde's shaking frame. Elena pulls Caroline close and away from Stefan.

"Caroline, shh, it'll be okay. It's going to be okay, alright?" Elena whispers, guiding Caroline up off the floor and onto the couch.

"But what if it isn't, Elena? He just-what if it's not? This is Mystic Falls. Nothing is ever okay."

"Caroline, you mean he just—how did this…Stefan," Elena says softly, her voice quivering as the fractured words pour forth from trembling lips.

"How did he…" Alaric asks, trailing off. Caroline glances at him briefly and takes a moment to compose herself, swallowing and wiping the wetness from her eyes.

"He came downstairs and told me he was going to see you, Elena," she recounts, her breath hitching. "He wanted to tell you something. Ric, he just dropped. He fell to the floor with a grunt and then just...he's been there since you guys arrived." She wasn't able to continue because another round of sobs wracks her frame, and Elena seizes that moment to pull the sobbing vampire into an embrace. "I don't even know what happened. I just-it scared the hell out of me, and that is not okay. I mean, I get it with Damon. He had to save everyone and that's what happened, but Stefan didn't even do anything! He didn't deserve this."

Some nagging notion in the back of Elena's mind prickles at Caroline's statement. She can't for the life of her understand why. The nagging notion makes itself into a still small voice and whispers, Not to him, but to Damon. A dark brow arches in her own surprise at the treacherous idea. Try as she might, now that she has entertained it, she can't chase it away.

"Damon didn't deserve it either, Caroline. Neither of them did. You remember Damon nearly got himself killed protecting you," Elena remarks, balling her fist and pressing it into the floor to hold back the enmity in her gut her friend's words had stirred. "He died for all of us. I mean, look, Stefan's not dead. He can't be. Damon died, Caroline." The last bit comes out quietly, almost an afterthought. Caroline doesn't hear any of it. She stops listening at the first mention of the elder Salvatore's name.

"You don't care that Stefan is gone, do you? You hated him, Elena. You betrayed him," she continues, the sorrow gone and replaced with a rising and misplaced anger, "When he left to save your precious boyfriend and he came back to you, you hated him. Don't talk to me about Damon." Elena recoils at the acid in Caroline's voice and a shadow falls over her features.

"Listen, Care, I get it. You're upset and sad that he's gone, but please don't turn this into a fight. I'm not here to fight about the brothers. We did that already, and it's just. It's not the time," she sighs as her shoulders slump wearily. "It's not a fight."

"But isn't it, Elena? What if you wanted—No, I don't know," Caroline stammers, shaking her blond head in a frustrated fuss. "I don't know. I don't know how to deal with this, and I don't think I can right now. I honestly do not know if I should scream or fight or hit something or blame someone. Ugh, why is it always so complicated? I miss 'not-complicated'." Elena's mind fixates on the what-if in her statement, and her brows furrow. Ric can nearly see the gears turning in the doppelganger's head as she puts two and two together, and he can definitely see the shift in her body language from relaxed to tensed.

"You think I wanted this to happen to Stefan because I couldn't have both of them? Care, how could you even think that? I never stopped loving him, you know that," Elena explains, rising to her feet. She keeps her gaze riveted on the blonde and holds her hands on her hips as she speaks, "I hated him. You know as well as I do you can feel both emotions for the same person at the same time. There's a fine line. So I hated the ripper. I hated the selfish, blood-lusting Stefan who tore my life apart, but I never stopped loving the part of him beneath all that. I would never, ever wish this on anyone. I am not Katherine."

Caroline opens her mouth to launch a retort, but the hunter moves before she can. Ric steps in then, reasoning he should act the part of responsible adult here, and positions himself between the two girls. "Now isn't the time to bicker over all this. I think right now we need to make sure the Travelers' spell is gone for good. Save the day now, save the drama for later, agreed?"

"Fine," Caroline grumbles.

"Okay, whatever," Elena mutters. Ric catches her eye and dips his head in a subtle nod. It's the right thing, his eyes say.

A/N: Okay yay this chapter was tough to write. I was trying to get Caroline and Elena's characters down to pat, so please tell me if I got them right? Next chapter: Damon's return which means Dalaric (oh my heart) and Defan. Delena soon! xx - Ella

P.s. it might be a bit early, but can anyone guess what song I'm basing the chapter titles off of? Hint hint: It's from The Script. ;)