The Reaping

Cautious

Caroline wasn't going to leave him. Take off, skip town, back to Mystic Falls. It's not in her nature. Plus, his current situation was – her fault. She felt bad and there was something in that kiss.

She was in the hospital, keeping a safe distance from Stiles' room. They rolled him into the ER around 20 minutes after Caroline had bitten him. His tanned friend was waiting outside the room, talking to a middle-aged woman.

"Melissa!" A police officer, no, the sheriff ran up to them. He was frantic, red faced and out of breath, "I got here as fast as I could. Where is my son? Where is Stiles?"

Shit. Shit. Shit. I turned the Sheriff's son?

"John, he's in there. He hasn't woken up yet." The woman said, she was having a hard time keeping it together as well. Was she his mom?

"What happened?" The man, John, was flustered. He was staring the other boy down, like he had something to do with it. Like he was to blame. "Scott?!"

"He was attacked." Scott responded quickly and raised one of his hands up in defense.

"By a werewolf?" John questioned.

Wait? What? Werewolves? Stiles' knew about werewolves? Caroline's head was spinning, what had she started? Shit. I'm going to die. She kept listening and tried not to draw attention to herself in the process.

"I don't think so." Scott's clarified, rubbing his hands together, agitated.

"He has bite marks on his neck and came in with blood dried on his face." Melissa conformed whilst looking between John and her clip board.

"His?" The Sheriff asked, looking even more horrified.

"No." she shook her head. "We ran tests on it when he came in, the DNA didn't match anyone in the system." Of course, it wouldn't. Even if Caroline still was human, her records are across the country. In a completely different medical system.

Scott seemed shocked by this. Maybe they have yet to encounter vampires. "He doesn't look so well." He gaze veered into Stiles' room. Stiles was paler than usual. Red circles around his eyes, his lips had also turned a sickly grey. He resembled a stone statue.

John's breath was shaky. "He looks…" but it seemed like he couldn't bring himself to say that one ghastly four-letter word; 'dead'. The three of them were silent for a while, just looking at the boy in the bed.

"Miss?" One of the orderlies took Caroline out of her small bubble of concentration. "You have been here a while. Can I help you with something?" He seemed annoyed, or existed… possibly both.

"No, nothing at all." She said, zoning in on his eyes. "Forget I was here." Compulsion never failed to work, he blankly left without another word. She tried to turn her attention back over to Scott and the other two, but they were gone. Fuck.

Caroline walked up to the room. Peering inside she could see the full mass of the situation. Stiles was hooked up to a breathing machine. It was odd that he didn't wake up immediately when he became alive again, so to speak. Normally new vampires wake up screaming, or at least pancaked, but Stiles 'woke up' unconscious.

She scanned around to see if anyone was watching. Slowly, she walked over to the door and snuck in. It was eerie, the sounds of the machines… the boy's breath gargled by the tube. She was hoping that after everything She had been through, she would never have to be around a hospital again. But obviously not, as fate would have it.

"Hey Stiles." Caroline whispered, towering over him. Taking in a moment to absorb the magnitude of the situation. She took off the breathing mask and shook his shoulder to see if any movement might help.

To her surprise, his eyes weakly peeled open. He blinked at her once, twice before stiffening in fear. He backed further into the mattress, knocking his back against the wall he screamed. It was blood curdling. Caroline had to cover her ears.

She did what her instincts, as a vampire, told her to do. She jumped up on the bed and pinned him down. "Stiles. Calm, the fuck, Down!" Caroline spat, she knew she could no longer compel him, and that was making this all the harder.

"Who the hell are you?" Came an invading, gruff voice. The Sheriff had walked in, and he wasn't happy, not at all. "Get off him!" He demanded sharply, grabbing her shoulders to hoist her off his son.

Instead of complying, she hissed and popped her pearly fangs out. Probably wasn't Caroline's best choice of action. She then irrationally picked Stiles up, one arm under his knees and the other firmly gripping his upper back. Before anything else could be said, she sprinted from the room. Gladly, she was too fast for anyone else to see them.

Caroline took him to the motel she was renting out.

"You!" He pointed at her after putting him down on the musty bed. He scrunching down to the floor awkwardly. "You forced me to go with you!" He was remembering, and I could see a tear strain down his cheek from frustration. Caroline just had to turn the emotional one. Fan – Fucking – Tastic!

"I know." She nodded, staying put in front of the door. Just in case he decided to make a run for it.

He continued, "You bashed me up against a wall."

"I know." She repeated.

"You bit me!"

"I know."

"You made me…" He swallowed nervously, chewing slightly on his thumb nail. "Drink your blood."

"I know."

"You. Killed. Me!"

"I KNOW!" Caroline honestly did not need a play by play, it was bad enough, what she did.

"Am I…" He swallowed, roughly rubbing his tired eyes. "Like you?"

God, he didn't even know what she was. "Yes…" She clarified with a breathy whisper.

"And… what are you?"

She took a step towards him, wanting to try and be of some comfort, but he only seemed to tense more. She stopped. "I'm a vampire."

"Of course, you are" He wasn't surprised in the least. "But that doesn't explain why I'm here." His attention was taken from wall to wall. Planning an escape, Caroline assumed.

"There's someone out to get me… Another vampire. If I don't do what he says. He will make my life and my family's a living hell." She whispered at eye level. "It's was confusing, I know."

Stiles stood up, god did he resemble a zombie. "What now? I feel like shit and my dad is probably back at the hospital freaking out."

"Well I wouldn't suggest going back there." Caroline explained, a sympathetic smile rising to her lips.

"Because?" he asked, shuffling slowly in the direction of the door. As if she wouldn't notice.

She exhaled. "Because." She walked over to the mini fridge, she had stocked it with blood bags just before she went to the hospital. The last thing Caroline needed was a massacre on her hands… his hands, definitely his hands. "You're blood lust."

"But I don't have any…" He stopped speaking the moment she bulled a bag out. In an instant, he was next to her. Eyes fully diluted, veins leaking from their edges. She offered it to him. He sniffed, before cautiously taking it from her hand. A disgusted look fell upon his face. "This is wrong." He threw the bag away from himself. It smacked into the wall and splattered. The stench of it hit Caroline's nostrils in full force, she couldn't even imagine what it was doing to him.

"Look." Caroline pointed out. "You are going to have to eat at least some of it soon. Otherwise you'll die, you are on a clock."

Stiles continued to stare at the wall, the crimson liquid dripping in deliquiate lines. "Aren't I already dead?"

She couldn't help but flash back to when she drank blood for the first time. Caroline was at the hospital, after Katherine decided to strangle her with a pillow. She was alone and scared. She drank a blood bag first before eating from a nurse. The control came somewhat easy to her. Compassion was the reason Stephen gave her. But she knew nothing about Stiles, he could be a reckless teenager for all she knew. 17 forever, just like her. But Caroline could tell that there was some sort of barrier that was stopping him from doing it. Most new born vampires let their instincts take over right away. The way he was hesitating made her feel a bit better about the situation.

"Technically, but you are actually going to cease to exist if you don't eat it."

"Fantastic." He was now up angst the wall, rubbing his noes on it.

"Stiles, just eat. Playing with it won't help anything."

He inhaled deeply, his fangs dropped, and his tongue extended out; lapping up what had yet to dry. Caroline walked up behind him and handed him another full bag. Thankfully, he took it with ease and bit into it, swallowing the contents in seconds. "Is there anymore?" he asked, a small crimson river leaking from the right side of his mouth.