Lost In You

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or its characters. I just borrow them for some fun.

Spoilers: All of Season 1.

Author's Note: Thank you to the wonderful people who have reviewed! You guys are amazing! This chapter is more plot oriented but I hope you still like it.

Caroline sighed as she looked out one of the many large windows of the Lockwood mansion. The sky had been overcast and dreary all morning, but sheets of rain were coming down now. She was thankful the weather had held at the funeral, when everyone had still been outside. Still, even though she had brought her new umbrella, the rain would most likely ruin her hairdo and make up when she stepped outside. Caroline just hoped that by the time she left the reception with her mother, that the weather would be better.

"It's really coming down out there," Bonnie said in a bored tone of voice, while taking a bite out of her honey-glazed cracker.

Caroline, Elena, and Bonnie were standing together in a corner of the massive room arranged for the reception. They had already filled their plates with food and were now gobbling it up, as they hadn't eaten in days. It was a little embarrassing how quickly the girls had bee-lined it for the snack table. The funeral had been depressing and long, leaving them starved by the time they made it to the mansion.

"Has your mom said how Mrs. Lockwood is doing?" Elena asked Caroline.

"Not really. Mom only complained that Mrs. Lockwood had called her a few dozen times, one of which was to remind her that she couldn't wear her uniform to the funeral." Caroline answered amused.

Bonnie snorted and bits of the cracker she was chewing on flew out of her mouth. "Sorry," Bonnie mumbled embarrassed as she covered her mouth, albeit a little too late.

Caroline continued talking, wearing a disgusted expression on her face. "I actually feel really bad for her. It's no secret that the mayor wanted to hump anything with breasts, but he was still her husband."

"It was sad to see her crying at the funeral. I don't think I've ever seen her cry before." Elena said.

Caroline and Bonnie slightly nodded their heads in agreement. From where she was standing, Caroline wasn't able to see Mrs. Lockwood's face for most of the funeral, but her tense and rigid stature and the occasional slight tremors of her shoulders gave the woman away.

Picking up the toothpick and spearing a tiny gourmet sausage, Caroline inquisitively looked around the reception room. The room was beginning to fill up quite quickly, despite its expansiveness, but she spotted the new widow waiting by the door greeting people as they came in. The woman was smiling and carrying on small talk with each person, giving the first impression that this was one of her frequent social occasions, rather than a funeral reception for her husband.

Caroline could easily recognize how fake Mrs. Lockwood's smiles were, all the way across the room though. Her smile was too forced and the strain was showing at the corners of her mouth. She must have felt Caroline staring at her because she slowly turned her head in Caroline's direction. Their eyes locked, Mrs. Lockwood's shield dropped momentarily, and Caroline could read the grief and loneliness in the woman's gaze.

At that moment, she gleaned an odd insight into Tyler's mother. Mrs. Lockwood wanted to be the best and to have the best, and had thought she had gained it by marrying into the Lockwood family. She had gotten her heart's desire, only to realize that it wasn't all that it was made out to be. Despite her beauty pageant looks and classy personality, Mrs. Lockwood still hadn't been able to keep the attention of her husband. She had friends, but none of them was close enough to her to stand at her side, during her time of grief. Loneliness was emanating from the woman, as she was standing by herself in the crowded room. Suddenly feeling like this was emotionally hitting to close to home, Caroline darted her eyes away.

She spotted Matt making his way towards the group of girls. Caroline saw that he was wearing the same suit that he had worn for Vicki's funeral, which instinctively made her want to hug him. Bonnie and Elena made very unsubtle excuses to leave, in order to allow Matt and Caroline some privacy for their conversation.

"You look nice," Matt said lamely.

"Thanks, you look pretty dapper yourself" Caroline said with false cheer. She had noticed how Matt's eyes had trailed after Bonnie and Elena.

Matt seemed to drag his attention back to her with a renewed vigor. He came closer to her and pulled her soft hand into his own larger one, lacing their fingers together. It wasn't a perfect fit and her fingers started cramping almost immediately. But she wasn't going to say anything or pull away. Matt rarely initiated any public displays of affection, including holding hands.

She wondered if the reason why he was holding her hand now was because he saw her grab Tyler's hand at the funeral. Caroline opened her mouth to explain, but not apologize. She wouldn't apologize for lending his best friend comfort, not when he had so badly needed it.

Standing there, watching Tyler suffer as his father was being lowered into the ground, she couldn't stop herself from going to him. Caroline had only meant to lend comfort and strength by taking his hand, but had ended up experiencing something more intense. The way he looked at her, like she was saving him, no one had ever looked at her like that. It was the first time she could remember being that instinctively connected with another person.

"Matt, if you are worried about me and Tyler, don't be. We were just holding hands because I was offering him support during that rough time." Caroline said trying to soothe any fears that her boyfriend may have.

Matt looked horribly confused and then understanding seemed to dawn on him. "I'm not worried. It's cool," he said nonchalantly.

Caroline looked at him to see if he was lying to her, but he honestly looked like he didn't care. While she was thankful that he wasn't making a big deal out of it, she would have liked her boyfriend to have some reaction over her holding hands with another guy.

"I heard you and Bonnie talking before the funeral, I'm glad to see that she's dealing better with Gram's death." Caroline said.

Matt looked uncomfortable, obviously not wanting to talk about his conversation with Bonnie. Caroline couldn't understand why, since she had heard the whole thing and he knew it. She was trying to give him the opportunity now to talk about it, if he wanted to.

Caroline sighed in frustration. Matt would seek comfort from Elena, talk about his troubles with Bonnie, but he wouldn't do either with his girlfriend. She had thought that if she had just held on that he would eventually learn he could confide in her. It didn't look like that moment was coming anytime soon. Deciding the best way to save the conversation from complete awkwardness, Caroline started a remarkably boring discussion with Matt about something she had learned in science class last year.

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Tyler looked at the multitude of dishes that were scattered across the long table in the center of the reception area. Plates of lobster, caviar, gourmet cheeses, meats, and dips all lended themselves to the sea of color. Tyler had attended enough formal dinners in his lifetime to be familiar with such foods, but that didn't stop him from looking longingly at the kitchen where the lasagna was still stored in the fridge.

"I'm deciding between eating the rodent of the ocean or fish eggs. Which do you think is better?" The sound of Jeremy's voice from behind him jumped Tyler a little.

"The safest option is to stick to the crackers and veggies." Tyler said while loading his plate up with meats. He was not taking his own advice. Tyler knew that, like him, Jeremy had eaten all this stuff before at some dinner party or another, which was probably why Jeremy had ignored his advice as well, by loading his plate up with a little of everything.

"Sorry to hear about your dad, man" Jeremy said, looking quickly over to Tyler.

"Yea, well. Shit happens. Good to see you are still amongst the living," Tyler said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Jeremy looked startled, and then scanned Tyler's face, as if checking for a double meaning. Tyler wasn't sure what he was looking for, but figured he must have found it when Jeremy shot a grin at him. Tyler was a little relieved that the other guy hadn't taken offense to what he had said. He didn't know why, but he decided to push it further.

"Did you mean to do it?" Tyler asked. Both guys had experiences with drugs, and shared a girl who was a junkie. Tyler didn't know if Jeremy had just overdone it a little.

"Yes. And yes, I know it was a total chick move to do it by pills" Jeremy said with a teasing lilt to his voice, but there was an edge to it that warned Tyler that it was not a subject he wanted to discuss further.

Tyler was curious about what had pushed Jeremy to the edge, but he didn't care enough to ignore the subtle warning that had been given to him. It's not as if he and Jeremy were close friends. Tyler also didn't want to discuss his father, having already embarrassed himself by almost breaking down at the funeral. Instead, he struggled to find a subject that didn't expose any of the sore points between the two.

Tyler was saved by a chuckle from further down the table. He looked over and spotted a man in his mid-thirties, heavily muscled, with dark eyes and dark shaggy hair. The guy looked like he had been in his share of fights, sporting scars in several places from what Tyler could see. Irritated that someone had been listening in on their conversation, Tyler couldn't help snapping at the guy.

"Find something funny?" Tyler demanded. It had been a rough day so far and Tyler's patience was at an all time low.

"Nothing. Just getting something to eat." The man said not so innocently. He grabbed a piece of cheese from the platter and popped it into his mouth.

Tyler and Jeremy exchanged looks; neither seemed to know who the guy was. Tyler was going to find out, since he wasn't going to have some random stranger crashing the reception of his father's funeral. The mystery man didn't give them the chance though, when he started to speak again.

"I heard it's going to be a beautiful night. When the moon is half-full, like it will be tonight, it almost looks like the sky is grinning. Don't you think? You boys have a good evening," and with that, the guy walked off.

Something about the man inexplicitly bothered Tyler, something that he instinctively felt within his bones. The acute sensory awareness he had been feeling lately was alerting him to the fact that something was off about the guy. Jeremy didn't look like he felt it, having already gone back to munching his food. Tyler looked back at the direction the guy had gone, and decided to follow him. He wasn't going to have some strange man wandering around his family home.

Without saying anything more to Jeremy, Tyler left the table to investigate this ominous feeling he was experiencing with the stranger. He quietly rounded the corner into the hallway between the reception room and his father's office, but found the area surprisingly vacant. The only sounds that Tyler heard were those of guests fetching their coats in the front vestibule before leaving. He hadn't even noticed that it was starting to get late.

Tyler had only ventured halfway down the hallway, when he picked up the faint sound of his mother's voice coming from the office. He stopped when he heard other voices join hers. It appeared as if Damon Salvatore and the Sheriff were in the office as well. His curiosity got the better of him, and he quietly moved closer to listen in.

"With John in the hospital and the mayor dead, we have to wonder if someone is targeting council members." The sheriff said worriedly.

"Why are we even talking about this now, it's my husband's funeral!" His mother exclaimed. Tyler almost charged into the room after hearing the pain in her voice, but his need for knowledge kept him from interrupting.

"The best way to show respect for Richard is to honor his work. He wouldn't have wanted us to put off this discussion for any reason. Our families could be in danger." The sheriff said, obviously determined to continue.

Tyler wondered what the families had to fear. It had to be something so powerful that it caused his father and several other bystanders on Founder's Day to be killed. He felt a sudden rage that his mother knew what had killed his father, but had kept it from him. It also struck him that his father must have known that something bad was going to happen, by the way that he was trying so hard to get Caroline and him to leave the grill that night. It had never occurred to Tyler before that his father had said "you two", as if the only concern would be the two of them, and Matt was just an afterthought.

"Anything that could have targeted them was down during the time when they were hurt." Damon said. It seemed as if he was trying to curb what he was saying, as if Damon knew that Tyler was listening into the conversation.

"Not when John was stabbed." The sheriff pointed out.

"So you think whoever tried to kill John is going to go after our families next?" His mother asked worried.

"I don't know. It's best to keep a close eye on the children until we know for sure what is behind this. There was another thing we should discuss." The sheriff continued on.

"Another thing?" Damon sounded intrigued at this point.

"The local news stations were recording the events during the celebrations and managed to pick up something interesting from the time period that the device was on. I can play it back for you."

"I'd rather talk about the threat to our families, than whatever you found on the tapes." His mother said, in her no nonsense tone of voice.

"I'm concerned about that too, but we don't have any further leads at the moment. We might however, have a weapon we can use again." The sheriff said, still refusing to let the subject drop.

"This is all great and intriguing, but I can't leave my brother very much longer. It's getting late." Damon said, now sounding like he was in a hurry to leave.

"That's understandable, I'll talk to you about it tomorrow. Stay safe." The sheriff said, with a concerned tone.

Tyler hid under the stairwell as Damon exited the room, relieved when it didn't look like the guy had noticed him. Tyler crept back to his previous position to pick up on any further conversation going on. He didn't think he missed anything since it was quiet in the room.

"Just give me a second, your video player is very complicated" The sheriff said. Tyler could tell that she was starting to get frustrated with both the video and his mother's demands to return to the topic of the threat.

Something in him warned him that he should leave, that whatever was on the tape couldn't be very good, but he resisted the urge to pull away. Tyler dropped to his knees the second he heard that terrible screeching noise again. The first time, it seemed like the sound was everywhere, like a speaker system had been set up with a direct link to his brain. The pain had been unbearable. This was milder than that, but extremely painful nevertheless.

It took everything in him not to cry out, not to give himself away to the people in the room. All Tyler could do was grit his teeth and ride it out. He knew that the sound would go away eventually.

Tyler was relieved when the sound stopped not too long after it started, the sheriff obviously having gotten her point across. He barely heard her say that they needed to think about what this could mean and set up a time to meet later. Both women strolled into the hallway, oblivious to the fact that they had been annihilating his eardrums.

Once again he hid, but this time his movements were far from graceful. The sound had woken something in his body and he felt strange sensations all over. The light hurt his eyes, so he kept them squeezed shut, willing everything to go back to normal. He would just stay there, mentally curled up into himself, until they did.

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"Tyler, there you are. Have you seen my mother?" Caroline called out to Tyler as she rounded the corner into the hallway. He didn't look at her, just continued sitting on the stairs with his arms wrapped around his head. She figured he was hiding, since it took a lot of effort on her part to even find him in the first place.

"Tyler?" Caroline asked, with a worried tone to her voice. She noticed his quickened breathing
and he still hadn't acknowledged that she was there.

"Talk to me" Caroline demanded, but with a concerned tone of voice. Her heels made tapping noises on the hardwood floor as she crossed the distance between them. She tried tugging at his arms that were wrapped around his head, but he was resisting her.

"Go away Caroline" Tyler growled.

"No, I'm not leaving you. So you'd better just tell me what's wrong. Is this about your dad?" Caroline said. She wasn't budging. Caroline wasn't surprised that Tyler was hiding his grief about his father, since she knew guys could be overly sensitive about showing any emotions.

"I said go. You don't want to be near me right now" Tyler said, his voice raising.

"I told you, I'm not going anywhere." Caroline said frustrated.

Not giving a thought to the stupidity of her actions, Caroline simultaneously stomped on his foot and tugged on his arm with all her strength. It had originally seemed like a good idea, but it occurred to her now that this might not be the best way to break through this impenetrable shell he had built around himself. Surprisingly, it did accomplish her goal. Tyler cursed and flung himself up off the stairs, forgetting to keep his eyes closed.

"Holy crap!" Caroline let out an exclamation in surprise, riveted by the golden orange eyes staring back at her from Tyler's face.

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As always, thank you for reading! I hope this was worth the wait. Please take the time to let me know what you think. :)