All Those Pretty Lights

Okay, this is the second part of Don't Say A Word. I hope you guys enjoy it. And P.S. anything in this chapter that remotely resembles Pretty Little Liars or The Vampire Diaries, I do not own.

Kol was one of her favourite people in the world. Not that she didn't love her girls, but Kol occupied a special place in her heart since forever. In fact, she had been friends with him long before Elena had burst into her life and strong-armed her into meeting Bonnie, Rebekah and Katherine. He was the one with whom she shared her white-bread-with-the-crusts-cut-off sandwiches in grade school. He grumbled and sat through all of her tea parties, making imaginary small-talk with the stuffed animals around them. They sat, closeted together, at lunch, heads pressed together as they whispered secrets that only the two knew. Hell, she even taught him how to play Double Dutch and hopscotch. Honestly, he was her first kiss when she was shy and thirteen and just wanted to know what the fuss was all about. She forced him to come with her to the first Homecoming dance at the high school, and in turn, he twisted her arm and made her be his date at his father's wedding (even though majority of her had only agreed because hello? Klaus in a suit?).

Which was why, when she opened the door that morning and found him on the doorstep, joy swept over her.

"Kol!" She cried out, throwing her arms around him, immediately.

"'Lo, darling." He hummed in her ear, squeezing her back in a comfortable band around her ribs.

When she pulled away, she smacked him on the arm, ignoring his wince with a roll of her eyes. "Where the hell have you been?" She asked, grumpily.

Kol rolled her eyes. "While I understand that Elena Gilbert's death is an immense tragedy for this town, blah-blah-blah, did you really think I was going to show up at her funeral?" He asked, pointedly.

Caroline grimaced. She had kind of walked straight into that one. "Well, no…" She trailed off. "But it would have been the right thing to do!" She protested.

Kol tilted his head in a genuinely confused manner. "And I care about doing the right thing all of a sudden because…?" He asked, frowning. He paused. "Are you seriously going to leave me standing here on the doorstep?" He pouted.

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Come on." She waved him inside.

"So, how was the Queen Bee's wake?" Kol asked, curiously, as they made their way to Caroline's room.

It wasn't as if Caroline's mum was home enough to actually complain that there was a boy in her room, unsupervised. But it was Kol. Having sex with him would be like having sex with her brother. (And she had actually had sex with his brother.)

"It was… eventful." Caroline admitted. "Speaking of which, why didn't you tell me Klaus and Hayley were back in town?"

Kol raised an eyebrow. "Because, honestly, my father didn't say a word until it was actually time for them to come down. Bekah and I barely had a few days' notice ourselves before they were already here." He leaned in, his voice turning low and serious. "I know you have this major requited-but-unrequited love for him and everything, and I know something serious went down between the two of you – and I'm sure Elena Gilbert had something do with it – before Klaus was sent off to juvie. But I told you this before, he's bad for you, darling."

His hand was warm in hers when he squeezed, his dark eyes intent on hers.

Caroline swallowed past the lump in her throat. "I don't know what you're talking about." She said, breezily. "I'm not in love with Klaus." She laughed, shakily.

Kol's shoulders slumped. "Oh, Caroline, sweet, it's all sickly and sweet on your face." He said, gently. Caroline grimaced. "Although, if I were you, I wouldn't worry about Klaus figuring it on your end. He's just as oblivious and pining away as you are." He rolled his eyes.

"What?" Caroline's eyes widened.

Kol raised an eyebrow. "You must have figured out by now that Klaus is just as madly in love with you as you are with him. It's kind of disgustingly adorable in a way. He gets this sopping look on his face when he looks at the picture of you and Rebekah, or you and me, on the mantle." He paused, his brow furrowing. "You never did tell me what happened with the two of you, after your romps in the coat closet." His nose scrunched up. "By the way, cliché much?"

Caroline shook her head. "And I never will."

The Hayley thing was off-limits. Even in her own thoughts.

Kol sighed, dramatically. "Very well, then, back to the town's great tragedy. What happened at the wake?"

Caroline fell back onto her pillow. "Other than your brother and Hayley showing up out of the blue? Nothing that would blow your mind. Oh, but Elena's death has officially been classified as a murder."

Kol snorted. "With a rap sheet like Elena's, half the school wanted to slice and dice her."

Caroline wondered, briefly, if she should tell him about the text message, but if he asked her what 'everything' was, she didn't know if she could keep her mouth shut. Not to Kol.

Caroline, Bonnie, Katherine and Rebekah sat at a table in the Grill, closeted from the other patrons, which weren't more than a few servers and an older couple, as they ducked their head and whispered furiously.

"Why was Hayley there?" Katherine asked, angrily.

Caroline shrugged, a bitter something curdling in her stomach. "I guess she's back." She muttered.

Rebekah scowled. "That cop acted like we were suspects or something."

Bonnie shifted, uncomfortably. "Do you think we looked guilty?"

Katherine's face scrunched up. "Why would we? We haven't done anything wrong."

"…except lie about 'The Hayley Thing'." Bonnie finished.

Katherine's fists clenched around the edge of the table. "We promised we'd never bring up 'The Hayley Thing' again. Remember? It never happened." She said, fiercely.

Caroline stared at her, with an eyebrow raised. "Have you found a way to forget?" She asked, curiously, and with the slightest judgment in her eyes. "I still wake up sometimes in the middle of the night."

"Care, it was an accident." Katherine said, vehemently.

Bonnie stared down at the friendship bracelet wound around her wrist and played with it, nervously. Rebekah dumped the last of the booze from her silver flask into her diet coke, rolling her eyes when the man of the older couple gave her disapproving look at her action.

"It's medicinal." She said, sweetly. He continued to judge her with his stare. "Cramps." She said, sharply, making him finally look away, a hot flush running under his collar.

"I don't get it." Bonnie shook her head. "How does A know something about me that only Elena knew?"

They all shared a look.

"Elena knew all of our secrets, but..." Katherine pursed her lips. "We never knew any of hers."

"I knew some." Caroline said, suddenly, the other's eyes snapping to her.

When Caroline said nothing more, Katherine pushed. "Go on."

"Talk." Rebekah said, sharply.

"Care! You are not going to drop a bomb like that and clam up." Katherine snapped.

Caroline swallowed. "She'd so kill me if I told you."

Rebekah raised an eyebrow. "She's dead." She said, pointedly.

Like it mattered what saintly-but-bitchy Elena Gilbert thought.

Caroline licked her lips. "Elena was seeing someone that summer." She confessed.

Bonnie clucked her tongue. "I knew she was keeping something from me. From us." She amended.

Katherine frowned. "Why didn't she want us to know?"

Caroline shrugged. "He was an older boy. And he had a girlfriend."

"Who was it?" Bonnie asked.

"Can we at least have initials?" Rebekah urged.

Caroline shook her head. "She never told me his name."

"My money's on Damon." Katherine said, nonchalantly.

"Wow, Kat," Caroline gave her withering look. "Don't beat around the bush or anything." She said, sarcastically.

"What?" Katherine shrugged. "He's older. He's got a girlfriend. Case in point: you." She said, pointedly. "And we all know that she hated you because you stole him from her."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "First of all, Damon was never hers for me to steal." She said, sharply. "Second of all, she didn't hate me." She protested.

"She hated you." All three intoned in one beat.

Caroline scowled. "You guys suck."

Katherine leaned in. "Damon's a sleazebag. Everyone knows he had some unrequited thing for Elena. Which is exactly why it's so easy for me to believe he was fucking Elena while fucking you. Ergo, he's a sleazebag. You know it, we all know it, Care. And we're only saying that because we love you. He's a sleazebag and you need to ditch his arse, like right the fuck now, before he drags you any deeper down with him." She sipped on her soda. "Elena was a bitch, but the two would have been perfect for each other because they were equally toxic. You're nice. You deserve better than him." She snorted. "Hell, even Klaus is better."

Caroline groaned. "Why is everyone mentioning Klaus to me today?"

"Because you two have some ridiculously unfinished business," Katherine hummed. "At least, that's what all that eye-sex told us today at the funeral."

Caroline's nose wrinkled. "I was not eye-sexing Klaus at one of my best friend's funeral."

Rebekah slammed her drink down on the table. "As much as I adore talking about my best friend and my brother having eye-sex, can we please get back to the topic at hand?" She said, angrily.

"Look, whoever the guy was, it wasn't Damon." Caroline said, determinedly.

"The lady doth protests too much, methinks." Katherine said, dryly.

"Shut up, Kat." Caroline shot back.

"Both of you, please shut up." Rebekah growled. She turned to Caroline. "And anyway, that's only half a secret."

Caroline glowered. "It's more than you ever got from her." She retorted.

Katherine shook her head, disbelievingly. "How was it that Elena told us nothing and we told her everything?"

Bonnie softened. "She made us feel like we were a part of something special." She said, wistfully, grief twisting her features.

"We were." Rebekah admitted.

"I miss that." Katherine confessed, quietly.

"Me, too." Caroline swallowed hard.

"I miss Elena." Bonnie whispered.

The table felt silent. All of them had mixed feelings about Elena – Rebekah and Katherine leaning towards hatred and resentment, Caroline sitting on the fence and Bonnie just a tad too loyal to a dead girl – but none of them could deny that Elena Gilbert's one good deed in life was to bring them all together. They were sisters now.

A waitress came up and refilled Caroline's coffee, dropping a packet of sugar on the table.

"She's gonna need more than that." Katherine commented, dryly.

The waitress stared at her, strangely.

"She hates the taste, but loves the rush." Bonnie offered.

She dropped three more packets and Caroline dumped all the contents into her coffee. As Bonnie passed a spoon over to Rebekah, she noticed the friendship bracelet around Bonnie's wrist.

Rebekah rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you still wear that." She said, grimacing at the tacky jewellery.

Bonnie flushed. "We swore we'd never take them off." She said, pointedly. "Elena still wears hers. Wore." She amended.

Katherine cleared her throat, her nose crinkling at the maudlin of the moment. "So for the entire year I was gone, Hayley was away?"

Katherine had spent the past year travelling the world with her parents and trying her hardest to forget memories of Elena and the other girls, the former only because no teenage girl experienced a girl – cousin, she amended (of course, she was practically a pro at tuning out the fact that she was related to Elena I'm-too-perfect-to-be-a-bitch Gilbert) – you didn't necessarily like but spent all her time with going missing without getting a little messed up, and the latter because it genuinely hurt to leave the girls she thought of as sisters behind in Mystic Falls (Elena never quite made the cut for her despite the blood relation).

Caroline nodded. "She left Mystic Falls that night and never came back."

"If Hayley is A, then this is about revenge." Katherine said, coldly.

Rebekah snorted. "Sorry, but A is 'watching' us and that rules out Hayley."

Everyone stared at Rebekah, unable to believe she had just said that. Out loud.

Rebekah stared back, unashamedly. "Those sunglasses aren't a fashion statement. She's blind." She said, slowly.

Bonnie played with her bracelet and Caroline stared at her, guilt rising in her at the grief that should have been swaddling her, making it hard for her to breathe, but didn't. She should at least be a sobbing mess, but she just felt as if nothing had actually happened. Hell, she was more freaked out about that essay due for AP World History than the fact that her best friend had died. Maybe that made her a bad person. Someone who she considered a sister, her best friend had died and she just couldn't gather enough emotion to feel bad. Or maybe the finality of Elena's death simply meant that the girl just hadn't meant that much to her in the long run.

She cleared her throat. "When Elena didn't come home I knew something terrible must have happened to her, but there was a part of me that imagined someday she would just show up." She confessed.

Katherine cracked a smile. "I just assumed she was shedding her whole good-girl image and she ran off with some guy."

Bonnie pursed her lips. "That she was laying on a beach somewhere-"

"Getting a tan with that hot lifeguard who worked at the pool."

Katherine grinned. "What was his name?"

Rebekah snorted. "Who cares? 'Save me!'" She cried out, dramatically.

The four girls dissolved into laughter and it was like the past year had never happened.

Caroline sobered. "I can't believe she's gone." She whispered.

The four exchanged a similar look. Maybe it wasn't grief that pulled them all together. Maybe they all didn't need to feel the same way about Elena to be friends like they used to, God knows Rebekah and Katherine would object strongly to that. Maybe it was just the shock and disbelief of having someone so permanently torn away from them.

Suddenly, a rhythmic tapping sound echoed through the restaurant, growing closer and louder with every moment that passed. The girls finally turned in the direction of the sound.

Hayley, wearing dark sunglasses, stood ominously in the doorway of the restaurant.

The four girls held their breath as Hayley made her way over to the counter and took a seat. They exchanged looks and Caroline slid to her feet first, the other silently following her lead. None made a sound as they walked past Hayley and out of the restaurant.

With the end of the awkwardly confronting moment, the four walked off in opposite directions, there being nothing more they could say to one another.

The four were squeezed together on the couch.

Detective Saltzman loomed over them.

His attention was on Caroline. "You thought you heard her 'scream'?"

Caroline nodded. "I said that, yeah."

He turned to Katherine, Bonnie and Rebekah.

"And when you three woke up in the barn, Elena was gone, but so was Caroline?"

Caroline answered for them. "Yes, I woke up before them and I realised that Elena was gone-"

"So you went to look for her." Alaric finished.

"That's what happened." Caroline said, impassively, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Was this a slumber party?"

"Is this an interrogation?" Caroline asked, bristling.

Alaric was slightly taken aback by her sharp tone before he quickly recovered. "No. Just a routine follow-up. Why did you all fall asleep?"

Katherine raised an eyebrow. "I guess we were tired." She said, dryly.

Alaric's eyes snapped towards Rebekah. "Is that how it was, Rebekah?"

"Yes." She replied, sweetly.

"We've told you everything we know. Just like we did the night she went missing." Caroline said, coldly.

Alaric smiled. "Yeah, I know. It's almost exactly what you said last year. Almost like it was rehearsed."

There was a long pause as he stared them down.

"Like Caroline said, we've told you everything we know." Katherine said, simply.

"He knows we're lying." Rebekah said, uneasily.

Katherine snorted. "Lying's not a crime."

"It is when you're giving false statements to the police. It's called obstruction of justice-" Caroline started.

"Oh, please. We lied about drinking." Katherine interrupted. "The truth that matters is that we don't know anything about what happened to Elena that night." She said, firmly.

"We also know about someone who might have wanted to hurt her." Caroline said, quietly.

"We should have told the police the truth about Hayley's accident the night it happened." Bonnie whispered.

"I wanted to, remember?" Rebekah said, pointedly.

Katherine shook her head. "We had a chance to do more than tell the truth. We had a chance to stop Elena."

"But we didn't." Caroline said, finally.

They all exchanged a remorseful look.

"Telling the police now about what happened to Hayley isn't going to make her see again. It'll just ruin our lives." Caroline pointed out.

Out of the corner of her eye, Bonnie spotted Hayley, standing on her own, carrying her lunch tray.

Katherine groaned. "Oh, my God, she's back in school too?" She said, incredulously.

When some nameless boy, who wasn't paying a lot of attention, bumped into Hayley, and her face quivered, leaving her vulnerable and lost, Bonnie jumped to her feet and walked to her without a second thought.

"Hayley, it's Bonnie. Would you like to join us?"

She registered the surprise on Hayley's face. They had never been any sort of friends, even before the accident.

"Sure." Hayley said, lightly.

Bonnie led Hayley over to the other three, who simply stared at the odd duo, disbelieving that she was actually willing to sit with them.

"Here's a chair. You're between Rebekah and Caroline and Katherine is directly across from you." Bonnie told her, as they both sat down.

Hayley smiled. "So, this would be Elena's chair?"

Bonnie shook her head, even though Hayley couldn't exactly see the action. "No. We're not even sitting at that table."

"You know she came to see me in the hospital after the accident." Hayley said, surprising all of them.

"Elena did?" Caroline asked, incredulously.

Elena had never made secret her distaste-borderline-hatred for the new girl that had made her intention to usurp Elena's place very clear. Imagining her visiting Hayley in the hospital after an accident that Elena had orchestrated herself, it rewrote history. Perhaps the saintly-but-bitchy Elena Gilbert lost faith her in self-righteousness and visiting Hayley was her form of penance.

Rebekah popped a tater-tot into her mouth, as the girls watched Hayley's pleasant-as-pie face with suspicion.

"So many people misunderstood her." Hayley sighed. "But I knew exactly who Elena was."

Caroline gritted her teeth. "When did you get back, Hayley? We heard you were in Philadelphia at a school for the visually impaired." Her jaw twitched with repressed irritation.

Hayley smiled. "You can say blind, Caroline. It's not a dirty word." The girls exchanged guilty looks. "So quiet. This used to be the fun table. What happened to you girls?" She said, mock-mournfully.

The girls were all in Elena's bedroom, listening to music and trying on outfits for the town's July 4th festivities. Bonnie looked on as Elena pulled on a skimpy, summer top. When she caught Bonnie's gaze in the mirror, she shot her a secret smile that made Bonnie blush right down her neck. Suddenly, Elena spun around, a glare fierce on her face.

"I see you!" She snapped. She stormed over to the window and threw it open, looking outside at a tree. "Oh, my God. I can't believe it!" She cried out.

The girls ran over.

Bonnie looked out, worriedly. "Who was it, Ali? What did you see?" She asked, quickly.

Elena rounded on them. "He was in that tree, spying on us. I am so creeped out!"

Caroline frowned, approaching them. "Who was it?"

"Your brother." Elena looked at Rebekah, scathingly.

"Kol?" Rebekah's brow furrowed.

"No, Klaus." Elena's voice was thick with disgust.

Caroline couldn't help but laugh. "Really? No way. Klaus wouldn't do something like that."

Rebekah stepped forward. "Yeah, Elena. You're way out of line. My brother's no perv."

Elena shuddered, ignoring Rebekah and Caroline's objections. "I'm sure he saw all of us naked." She grimaced directly at Bonnie, knowing that it would bother the other girl.

Sure enough, Bonnie cringed.

"Look if there is someone out there," Caroline stressed. "We should tell someone."

A glint entered into Elena's eyes, one that set Caroline's teeth on edge. "We could. But I've got a better idea."

Fireworks exploded in the distance as Elena led the girls across the lawn, sneaking towards a free-standing garage that stood on the Mikaelson property. As they neared the garage, Elena pulled a firecracker from her pocket.

Bonnie shifted, uneasily. "And we're sure he's not in there?" She asked, warily.

Elena rolled her eyes. "He's not, okay?" She said, dryly. "You've got the lighter, right, Caroline?"

"Wait a second." Katherine said, sharply, and Elena, annoyed, turned to her.

"What, Kat?"

"I don't think we should do this." She said, coolly. "I mean, revenge on a possible peeping tom is one thing, but this heading into levels of seriously messed up."

"Fine. Go back. You're on your own." Elena crossed her arms over her chest.

Caroline sighed. "If we tell the police, they can actually find out who it is and take care of it."

Elena laughed, tipping her head back to display the long line of her throat. "What's the fun in that?" She asked, sweetly. She looked at Rebekah. "Come on, even if it isn't Klaus," Her eyes drifted, briefly, over to Caroline, who looked away. "You can't tell me you don't want to get back at Mikael for bringing that wannabe Southern-belle prima donna into your lives."

No one said a word.

Elena had this way of talking shit but still managing to make a lot of sense so that no one argued with her.

Elena rolled her eyes. "It's a stink bomb, for God's sakes. We're not nuking the place." She said, dryly. "Now, let's do it."

She snuck closer to the garage, while the other girls exchanged cautious, reluctant looks, but then one by one, they followed their leader. When they reached the garage, Elena opened the top half of the Dutch door and peeked inside. Inside was what she presumed to be a makeshift storage room, filled with exercise equipment and unnecessary boxes.

"Give me the lighter." Elena held out her hand.

Caroline dropped it into her palm, reluctantly, and Elena gleefully ignited the fuse, tossing it into the garage when it sparked. She took one last look inside, her eyes widening infinitesimally when she spotted something inside, which Caroline caught briefly, and then she snapped her attention back to the other girls.

"Let's get out of here." She said, quickly.

She ran back across the yard, the others running alongside of her. Suddenly, a terrified high-pitched scream rang through the air and they stopped dead in their tracks, watching in horror as the garage burned behind them.

Caroline swallowed hard, staring at her reflecting in Hayley's dark glasses. Suddenly, her phone, along with Katherine's, Rebekah's and Bonnie's, sounded simultaneously.

Hayley, nonchalantly, picked up Caroline's phone, which vibrated loudly against the table. "Aren't you going to get that?" She asked, innocently, passing the phone to Caroline.

The girls all looked down at the text they had just received.

If only she could see how guilty you look.

– A