second chapter :)

Chapter 2

Caroline is sitting outside the Salvatore house, and she jumps up to meet us as we get out of Damon's car.

"There you are! I was so worried about y-" she stops short when she sees me. She looks at me with eyes full of terror, and when I try to step closer to her she draws back fearfully. Tears sting my eyes once again at the sight of one of my best friends backing up in fear from me.

"Caroline, I… I'm so sorry for what I did to you. All those things I did, and the things I said… I wish I could take it back. Really," I add, seeing suspicion in her eyes, "I really am sorry. For everything." She looks at Stefan, still slightly suspicious. I see him nodding encouragingly out of the corner of my eye, and the next thing I know Caroline is strangling me in a tight hug, and I can hear her crying silently into my shoulder, and feel her tears falling on it as she holds me close. I hug her back just as furiously, giving in to the feeling of having a friend to lean into once more.

"It's really you… I can't believe it! God, I've missed you. How did you guys do it?" she asks, turning to Damon. He shrugs his shoulders, "I have no clue. One second she was killing any human being she saw and the next she started producing more tears than the Hudson River. I was a little busy playing the hero and saving some guy's ass to see it happen. Stefan, on the other hand," he turns to Stefan and smacks his shoulder, "was right there next to her. So tell us, Stef – what happened there?"

Stefan looks at me softly. "I think," he starts slowly, "that before I tell you the whole thing, this one," he points at me, "needs to clean up and rest a little. After that, I will tell you two everything."

"Come on! We wanna know!"

"Caroline, I really don't think-"

"It's ok, Stefan. Just tell them now, I'm fine meanwhile," I say, but as I look at him I realize he isn't stalling for me – he's stalling for himself. He wants to keep that moment special by making it one only the two of us know about. I smile softly at him, and say, "You know what? I really am quite tired, and I am absolutely filthy, so.. I agree with Stefan." Caroline and Damon sigh loudly and Caroline starts complaining. "But I also wanna know! Please?" I shake my head, stifling a laugh. "Come on… pleeeaaase!"

"Nope."

"Pleeeaaase!"

"No!"

"Please please please!"

"fine!" I say, lifting my hands up in defeat, but giggling at the same time. "You were always good at driving me crazy," I say to Caroline, who claps her hands triumphantly. "You tell them," I say to Stefan, and settle down against the car as he clears his throat and starts talking, speaking directly to me.

"Well, when we got there and saw you draining someone from blood we tried to stop you with force, and maybe seduce you with some vervain so we can take you back and lock you up again. We figured we could take you – you are, after all, much younger than both of us – but you were smart. You knew we didn't want to hurt you and you used it. you got away so easily because you fought back, which we expected you to do, but not with such force. We were afraid we would hurt you if that continued, so we decided to stop that.

"When you started on another body, Damon and I decided that we also needed to save the people who were hurt, not just stop you. That's the point where Damon left you and started feeding his blood to whoever was still alive and compelling them to forget. Now I needed to find a way to stop you alone, and soon.

"But I was still afraid. I was out of ideas. Nothing seemed to work, and I had enough of seeing you suffer, and starve, and scream out in pain. So I did the only thing there was left to do. I started talking." Stefan pauses for a second to look at me silently, and I give him a small smile and gesture for him to continue. I want to walk up to him and wrap my arms around him. I want to find a way to say thank you for what came next. He takes and deep breath and continues, "So… I spoke. I just started talking. I talked about our friends, our families, the day we met. I was just rambling, bringing up every possible memory. I had no idea it would work, but suddenly you stopped and turned to face me. The expression on your face… I have no idea how to describe it. but it was one I hadn't seen in a while. I suppose it was understanding – you were acknowledging what I was saying, and it was all slowly sinking in. and I think that somewhere, deep inside of you, a small part of you remembered what I was talking about, and with that your emotions started resurfacing in your brain. I knew I had to keep talking, so I continued bringing up memories, and talking about everything we had been through.

"At that point you started looking around, and for the first time you really realized what you had done. You were slowly opening up, letting your emotions flood in. and then … I whispered something. I-in your ear. And that – that was the final wake up call. You finally woke up, and you were finally you. And that was it," he ends with a shrug. I look at Caroline, and see her holding a hand to her heart. "That was the sweetest thing I have ever heard," I smile and turn to Damon, agreeing with her, but when I see Damon my smile vanishes. His face reflects shock, and surprisingly – a bit of anger and hurt. He catches my eye briefly, but turns to Stefan immediately.

"What did you whisper in her ear?" Stefan shrugs again. I barely remember anything, you expect me to remember that little thing?" but I can tell he's lying, and so can Damon. "What did you whisper to her?" he asks more forcefully. "Tell me!"

"I don't know!"

"Yes, you do. What was it?"

"I can't remember, ok?"

"Tell me!"

Stefan shakes his head. Damon looks at him, then at me, and back to Stefan. "What did you say?"

"I-"

"He told me he loves me, ok?" I say, annoyed. "He came up to me and whispered 'I love you' into my ear. That's what woke me up."