STAY WITH ME
Chapter Two: Everyone But Them
He likes her.
She likes him.
Everyone knows it.
Except for them.
She never liked hospitals.
Hospitals were a place which always held sadness. There were children with cancer, elderly unable to walk, stroke victims, people suffering at the hands of others, families being torn apart. Hospitals were the hub of so much pain and suffering, it was unbearable to even be within the remote vicinity of one.
It was also the place where many people took their last breath.
Caroline leapt out the ambulance, quickly following the paramedics as they pushed the stretcher through the concrete building. She watched as she was rushed towards the hallway marked with angry red letters reading 'emergency'. The hospital floors were like a maze of hallways, she almost lost sight of her own blonde hair as it was sped through the building in a crowd of people. As they reached a larger room, she was lifted from the stretcher onto the hospital bed where blue curtains and white walls consumed her sight. She was suddenly overwhelmed with medical professionals all around her, crowding her body to the point where she almost felt as though it was impossible to breathe.
"Who have we got here?" A woman asked, her hands moving frantically around the bed and contrasting with the relaxed ease of her question.
"24 year old female, car accident. Broken tibia, dislocated kneecap, punctured right lung and bleeding in the abdomen. The list goes on." The male paramedic replied, who Caroline recalled had been the one she saw by her stretcher at the scene of the accident.
"We need to get her in for surgery right now," a female nurse said more frantically.
A gas mask was pumped onto her face, which was bloodied and slightly blue. A group of six nurses then crowded around the bed, unhinging the brakes on the wheels and wheeling it away so fast Caroline had to push through the curtain that flew in front of her face. She watched as they went through heavy doors labelled 'staff only', swinging closed so she was left watching helplessly on the other side.
"It's okay," she chanted, feeling as though she was going to hyperventilate. You're going into surgery; you're alive. You're going to be okay.
As she calmed her breathing, her mind was able to catch up with her. Alive. Stefan - she had to find him. If he was alive, he wouldn't be too far away.
Caroline's eye caught sight of the reception, and she sped up to it, splaying her hands across the counter. "Hello? Excuse me?" She asked the dark-skinned woman on the other side of the desk.
The woman kept punching the keyboard, not once looking up. "I need to find my friend, Stefan Salvatore?" She pushed.
Caroline waited a moment before letting out a huff. "HELLO?"
Still nothing. She was just about to jump over the counter when the entrance doors burst open again, this time pushing another stretcher which wasn't herself.
"Second car accident victim, 25 year old male." Someone told the front desk as they pushed past. Caroline's eyes widened and she turned around - hoping for it to be one of two people she was desperately waiting to see.
A familiar white buttoned shirt and skin as pale as hers sparked familiarity within her. "Stefan?"
An oxygen mask was cupped around his face and being pumped by one of the medical team. It seemed as though he was hyperventilating, but she could still see his brown eyes flickering although they were in a daze - he was conscious. Her eyes flickered rapidly up and down his body - no traces of blood or splintered limbs, and he wasn't kept in a neck brace like she was. Aside from the signs of shock that looked to be overtaking his body, he was very much alive. She let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding as he was taken down an opposing hallway to where her body was.
Stefan was alive. He was going to be okay.
Part of her heart was relieved and joyous at the realization, but that joy was quickly squashed as memories of the crime scene came to mind. Elena and her stone-cold eyes frozen open, staring up into the night sky as if her body were watching her soul lift away, her brown hair shaped around her face. Images of her blue lips and bloodied scalp flashed before Caroline's eyes as Stefan's nurses and paramedics pushed him out of her sight. Elena was dead, and Stefan was alive - what was Stefan going to do when he found out his wife was no longer with them?
No, she couldn't deal with this right now. There was one more person she had to find before she even considered the aftermath of this entire ordeal. Caroline turned back to the emergency entrance, expecting another ambulance to bring someone in with them. Tyler was still alive at the scene of the accident, granted unconscious and worse for wear, but they were putting him on a stretcher. That meant he was alive, didn't it? She watched anxiously, balling her hands into fists, waiting. She needed to see Tyler.
XOXOXOX
The Mystic Grill was often a place of solitude for them. At seventeen, Caroline found some of her favorite nights were unexpected ones, where she spent them sitting with her best friends. They had little care in the world; their main issues things like studying for finals or what to wear for prom. They were little worries, but at the time it was all she thought about and sometimes, it was good to get away from it and enjoy a meal with her friends.
Even if that "meal" had secret intentions.
"I cannot stop eating!" Caroline exclaimed as she shoved another forkful of pasta into her mouth. "You know, I believe eating is good for the soul - you know, stops me from getting all angry as a result of being hungry? I call it 'hangry' -"
"Caroline?" Stefan interjected, looking up tiredly from his plate. "Why did you bring me here?"
She stared at him for a moment before laughing it off. "Because I have been so busy planning prom and you have been busy doing... whatever it is that you do and I thought it was about time we caught up."
"We saw each other two days ago."
"Well, I know, but two days is too long, in my opinion."
Stefan exhaled, not looking completely convinced but he still smiled at his best friend anyway. Caroline pushed her food around on her plate, scrounging her brain for something to say. She had basically exhausted every topic she could think of already.
"So, you know Tyler Lockwood? The Mayor's son, footballer?" She started; finding the last topic starter she could think of to bide some needed time.
"Yeah, I think I've seen him at school," Stefan said. "Why?"
"I think he's into me." She stated as though it was the most interesting thing that had happened all week and Stefan barked a laugh, earning him a glare. "What?!"
"I'm sorry Care, but didn't Matt break up with you two weeks ago?"
She twisted around uncomfortably on her seat - this isn't how this was supposed to go. "Well, yes. But I have moved on from that! I have come to the realization that I no longer want to chase after guys who don't want me."
"And you really think Tyler Lockwood is the solution to that?" He raised a thick brow.
"He did ask me to prom, after all." She announced proudly. "Although, I think I may have been the one to first hint it -"
"Don't you have Bonnie, or someone else, to talk to about this sort of stuff?" It was Stefan's turn to look uncomfortable as he stuffed some of his burger into his mouth.
Caroline was about to retort when two girls walked into the grill and caught her eye. A dark-skinned girl walked along side her doe-eyed friend, both approaching the bar. Her gaze rested on them for a moment, and Stefan caught her silence. He frowned, turning around and following her gaze.
He nearly choked on his burger.
His eyes almost popped out of their sockets, and he whisked back around to face Caroline who was already bracing herself for his reaction. "Stefan, let me explain," She began, but she was quickly interrupted by his high-pitched voice.
"You invited her," he stated, not daring to look behind him. "You brought me out to lunch just so I could see her."
Caroline frowned, surprised by how frantic he was being. "Uh, duh. It's kind of obvious, Stefan."
"What is?"
"You know. The way you both look at each other during class, the way you look around the hallways for her in between classes. So I thought I'd invite her here to... meet you, properly."
He stared at her dumbfounded. "You can't be serious."
"Elena Gilbert is one of my best friends. You've been into her since forever. So go on - go talk to her."
Stefan went over it in his brain, looking as though he was in a back and forth with himself, till he stood up, smoothing out his blue shirt.
He marched off stoically, approaching her beautiful friend by the bar where Bonnie had left her. Caroline listened from her spot at their table as Stefan introduced himself, Elena looking almost as nervous as he was. She could practically feel the nerves rolling off him from the other side of the room.
"Would you like to grab a coffee?" She heard him ask, catching Elena's bright smile as he said so. She watched with pride as two of her best friends proceeded to go sit in a booth. Finally.
"About time," Caroline looked beside her as Bonnie plonked onto the available seat next to her. "She's had a crush on him since forever."
"And Stefan wasn't going to do anything himself," Caroline admitted, taking a sip of her drink as she watched the pair exchange conversation. "Someone had to make the first step happen."
"You're a good friend, Care." Bonnie said, and Caroline simply smiled in return.
That sat in silence for a moment before Bonnie turned and watched the pair as well. "They both liked each other, yet they didn't think for a moment that the other felt the same way. Everyone knew it but them."
As Caroline stood in the hospital, remembering the moment from years before, she didn't realize how true the statement was until now or how much it related to herself, as images of a certain blue-eyed British man came to her mind.
XOXOXOX
So this is a bit of a filler, and the next chapter will be too. I just want to set everything up and get it out the road so I can make way for Klaroline, because come chapter 5, that's basically all there will be. But I will continue dropping hints of their relationship :)
I was thinking of mashing chapter 2 and 3 together, but they're quite different so I'll leave them separate and just update earlier. I hope you are enjoying this story so far! Reviews are awesome.
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- Hayley