Summary: It has been said that key moments in our lives will forever define us, and lead us to the path that will take us to our eventual destination but you're losing your memory now and your course shift to where you were always meant to be. Steroline.

Zero Reviews? What's a guy gotta do?

Long Road Home
by
xConcr3t3 Jungl3 5urf3r

Chapter Two: Gather the Troops. (We Have a Soldier Down)

Caroline stood at a crossroads.

People say he's become a monster, a real Ripper, bonded to Klaus willingly and damned for all eternity…But are people as wrong about him as they are about everything else? Not really knowing the answer, Caroline decides to act- remembering a time when nobody believed in her but him. Slender arms scoop him up and position his limp body over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. Then without a word she vamp speeds into the night towards her house.

xXx

In the dead of night, Damon Salvatore lays intertwined in bed with his girlfriend, Elena Gilbert. Girlfriend. Even after two years of exclusivity, the words Elena and girlfriend feel surreal without the word Stefan as a tagline but it's a good kind of surreal, the kind that makes him feel like his heart is beating every single time he thinks or says the word.

Elena: Whatcha' thinking about?

His fingers lace into hers atop his bare chest as that devious smirk teases his lips, the one that makes her heart skip a beat. He turns his head down to hers and brushes his lips gently against her ear whispering seductively.

Damon: Round two.

His body flashes in a blurred movement solidifying with him atop her pressing his forearms into the bed to keep from crushing her. Laughter permeates the air and tickles beneath his kiss. Expert lips move down to her neck and across her collarbone turning that laugh into a gasp as her fingers slip into the hairs on the nape of his neck only adding fuel to the fire.

Riinng. Riiing.

Blue eyes darken as he rolls off the brunette beneath him and silently curses whoever it is that's interrupting their moment. Long digits wrap around the cell phone and bring it up to read Blondie flashing across the screen. With a furrowed brow, he flips open his phone and presses the green call button knowing that it must be big if she'd dare to call him.

Damon: Whataya' want.

The words come out gruff and frustrated, not exactly thrilled to be interrupted by the girl that he had a strained relationship with- and that's putting it mildly. Blue eyes see Elena curiously staring immediately picking up on his discontent.

Caroline: Well hello to you too, Damon.
Damon: Whataya' want?
Caroline: You're help.

Judging by her tone she hated saying it about as much as he hated hearing it.

Caroline: I was low on blood so I got all nostalgic and decided to go hunting in the woods for some dinner and I ran into him- well I didn't run into him as much as he ran into me. Or I guess you could say we ran into each-
Damon: Caroline, the point?
Caroline: It's Stefan.

Disbelief clutches the usually sarcastic, witty vampire and he repeats his brother's name in a dumbfounded manner. Elena's ears perk at the broken whisper of her ex-boyfriends name. Stefan?

Caroline: He's really hurt and I can't get him to drink. Damon, you know I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't life or death.
Damon: Where're you?
Caroline: My house.
Damon: You brought him home with you! Are you insane? *groans in frustration* I'll be right there. Don't do anything stupid.

Snapping his phone shut, Damon pulls back the covers and grabs his jeans off the floor hoping to get out of the room before she could react. It is only wishful thinking. Slipping into his jeans and fiddling with his belt buckle is interrupted when he feels the soft skin of her hand latching onto his forearm.

Elena: Damon, what's going on?

Lips close tightly and his eyes narrow as he internally debates telling her. Giving in to those curious chocolate irises, he nods over to the nearest article of her clothing. After all, if he didn't clue her in, she'd find out another way and take manners into her own hands which usually spells disaster.

Damon: C'mon. Looks like our past has come back to haunt us.

xXx

Stunning sapphire eyes study his prone form worriedly. His chest was canvased with lacerations and bruising. On his side a large chunk of flesh had been removed and his rib bone was exposed. She tries to clean and mend the injuries to the best of her capabilities but handy with a medical kit was not on her list of skills.

Caroline: C'mon, Stefan. Stay with me.

Pain and darkness ravish the injured vampire, pulling him like quicksand- the more he fought it the deeper he slipped. When all hope seems lost and he's about to give into it- allow it to swallow him hole and carry him off the face of this planet- a soft hand gently touches his cheek. Was it the angel from the woods? Maybe it was Lexi. He knew she'd come for him, she always did. Wait, no. The touch is too soft, too foreign.

A strangled moan escapes his lips as he tries fruitlessly to open tired swollen eyes. Sandpaper rubbing against his vocal chords prohibit speaking though when another hand rests on his other cheek so that the person was now cupping his face, did make him want to try harder.

Caroline: Stefan. Stefan, c'mon. You're scaring me. Open your eyes.

The voice so beautiful and angelic; there's no way he could do anything but comply. Heavy lids are pried open by sheer power of will to reveal sage irises searching her with curiosity. Blue eyes oozing relief meet his and the edges of her lips curl into a smile.

Caroline: Thank God.
Damon: Please, call me Damon.

Stefan watches baby blues roll in annoyance before she turns away to look at the newcomers face. That's when the voice earlier struck a chord within his mind. DAMON! Fear, panic, and repulsion hit him with the force of a physical blow and he tries to move, run for his life but he's too weak, too close to death to fight it.

Helplessly, he watches Damon saunter over to him and toss a bag onto the bed dangerously close to the gaping hole in his side. Pulling out a blood bag from the dufflebag causing the sting of betrayal to smart worse than anything he'd endured physically. The blonde (did she say her name was Caroline) brought him to the man that wanted him to be a soulless monster, be his definition of his brother. They were going to make him drink HUMAN blood. It'd been over fifty years since he'd gotten back on the rails… or so he thinks.

Damon: Hello, brother. Decide to come home? (sighs after giving up the urge to just leave his baby bro for dead) Drink up then get the hell out.

Damon busts the top off the blood bag and holds it to his little brother's lips then took his little brother's hand in his before placing it securely on the bag and letting it go entirely. Once he's sure Stefan can hold the bag, he grabs Caroline by the arm and drags her out of the room to where Elena stood eyeing the room eagerly.

Caroline: Whata' we do now?

Brown eyes bore into Damon also curious of the answer to the question. Part of her wants to run in there and throw her arms around him begging him to never leave again then there was the part that wants to take Damon by the arm and run out of the house to never look back. Torn between two brothers, back where she started all those years ago. God she hates it.

Damon: We wait to see if it's Stefan or the Ripper that comes out of that room.

xXx

They wait, wait, and wait.

5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes… Entirely too long to finish a bag of blood.

Cautiously, Damon nears the door only to have it plow into him with the force of a foot driving squarely into the middle of it. Before Damon can even hit the grounds hands grip his shirt and drive him the rest of the way down.

Stefan: Over fifty years of not drinking human blood- fifty years, Damon! Why'd you do it? So I'll remember what it's like to be brothers again or because you hold me responsible for what happened to Katherine over a century ago.

His grip on his brother loosens then tightens, picking him up off the floor just to slam him down again. That's when he hears a voice that strikes a chord within his soul. Eyes roam upwards to take in dark chocolate hair and even chocolatier eyes with gold flecks that he thought he'd never see again. Wordlessly, he climbs off of his brother and closes the space between him and her. Green eyes bleed a torrent of unrecognizable emotions as a gentle hand reaches up to cup her face.

Stefan: You can't be real. Katherine?
Elena: No, it's me Elena.

His hand retracts as though he's been physically burned and confusion contorts his features.

Stefan: Who's Elena?