Chapter III: Incidents, Cupid and a broken hand

November 2017

Caroline burst out of her bedroom trying to close her briefcase. She looked at her reflection on the mirror of the hall, trying to make her hair look acceptable.

"Too busy?" Damon asked as he chewed his cereals.

"Oh, you're there" Caroline walked over to them and Stefan looked at her over his shoulder as he was preparing coffee. "More like too late, actually."

Stefan started to pour a cup of coffee. "Where are you going?"

"I have to go meet some girls to bring them home. I'm writing an article and I'm going to interview them, if that's okay."

"Fine to me."

Caroline nodded at Damon. "Stefan?"

"Yeah, no problem" he said, distracted. "Though, how many people are we talking about?"

"Uh, just a couple of girls" she waved, not giving too much importance to it. She started walking backwards. "See you in a couple of hours, Salvatores!"

"Caroline, wait!" Stefan said. Caroline peeked into the kitchen from behind the wall with curiosity. "Um, don't leave without having something." Stefan took the coffee pot and Damon raised an eyebrow with a smirk on his face. "How do you like coffee?"

She sighed and sat on a stool. "As black as bitter as my soul."

Stefan scoffed as he poured a cup of coffee for her. "So, pink and sparkly, then?"

She and Stefan exchanged an amused look due to the teasing. Damon had been observing them during the whole thing, entertained.

"Don't we have one of those cups to take it away?" she caught a glimpse of the time in her watch. "I'm super late."

"I'm pretty sure we do" Stefan gave his back to them and looked for a cup in the cupboard.

Damon looked at Caroline from the corner of his eye and caught her with her eyes fixed on the back of his brother.

"Huh."

Caroline jumped. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing" he brought his cup of coffee to his lips.

"Here" Stefan poured the coffee in the plastic cup and handed it to her.

"Thanks" she jumped off the stool. "Bye!"

Once the door was closed, Damon looked at Stefan with a questioning look.

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

"Don't leave without having breakfast" he imitated. "Someone looks very concerned about the new roommate."

Stefan rolled his eyes. "You really can be a pain in the ass sometimes, you know that? It was just coffee."

"You never pour me a cup of coffee. On the contrary, you always tell me to do it myself. That speech of having my own hands and that… stuff."

Stefan shook his head. "I was just trying to be polite."

"Uh-huuuuuuh" Damon grinned.

"Whatever."

Stefan turned around, trying not to think about Damon's words and to erase his annoying grin from his mind.

Caroline looked around and waved her hand to the girls as a sign of invitation. "Come in, come in."

The girls from different nationalities, shapes, appearances, etc., walked into the living room.

"Sit wherever you can and I'll start interviewing you one by one. I'm gonna go get my notebook, just one sec."

Just when Caroline was heading to her bedroom, Stefan opened his door to see what all that noise and voices were about.

"Caroline?"

"Stefan?" Caroline turned to him and looked at him with wide eyes, surprise visible on her face. "What—, what are you doing here?"

"I work at home on Mondays, you know this."

"Right! You do. I do."

Stefan made gesture of stepping into the hallway. "What's all that—"

Caroline, faster than ever, spread out her arms and held the frame of the door with her hands to stop him. Stefan looked at her with a frown and she offered him a fake smile.

"How's your day?"

"It's 10am."

"So? How is it?"

He sighed, frustrated. "Boring, and unproductive."

The sound of the laugh of a girl reached their ears and Caroline swallowed. Stefan looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What's going on there?"

"Nothing! I prom—"

Stefan was about to walk out of his bedroom but Caroline, without thinking, pressed her hands against his chest, pulling him into the room and making him stagger to the point of falling on the floor.

"Carol—", she had fallen on top of him, blocking his hips with her knees and wrapping his wrists with her fingers. "Your hair is in my mouth."

Caroline tried to think quickly about an excuse, looking around, and Stefan watched her with his eyes, getting lost in his thoughts when staring at her freckles, the deep blue of her eyes, and her soft pink lips. The fact that her hips were brushing against his wasn't helping at all to his cause.

And it got worse when his body decided to react to her proximity in a way that shouldn't have.

"What's going on here?" Damon asked with a smirk, showing his face behind the door.

Caroline looked at him over her shoulder. "What are you still doing here?"

"I was about to leave for work but then I've seen all your friends there and have decided to stay."

Stefan peeped out above Caroline's shoulder. "Just like that? You decide to stay home and not go to work as if it was that simple?"

"Yeah, I'm going to call and say I'm sick" he shrugged.

Stefan let his head drop on the floor and sighed. "Jesus Christ."

"Are you guys foreplaying?"

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Get out, Damon."

He chuckled and walked away, but then Caroline felt something brushing underneath her and looked at Stefan.

"Uh, is that…"

"Listen, it's not—"

"I'm only sitting on—"

"Yeah, Caroline, you're ON me. And I'm a man."

"Oh my God" she laughed, trying to sound unaffected. Although she could feel him completely, and, wow. "This is what makes it to you?" The fact that she had made him react like that kind of turned her on too.

Stefan tried to get up and Caroline's skin started to warm up. "I'm not discussing this with you."

"Well, considering I was the one who made your—"

"Nope." Stefan managed, who knows how, to get rid of Caroline and get to his feet. She followed him and wrapped his waist with her arms from behind. Stefan closed his eyes and clenched his jaw.

"Stefan, please! Just don't walk in there. I'm trying to save you a tantrum."

"Excuse me? When have I had a tantrum?"

Caroline snorted. "Well."

"Caroline, no hands."

She realized her hands being around his waist wasn't helping him. "Oh, sorry."

Stefan cleared his throat and, taking his laptop, he got out of his bedroom.

"Great" Caroline knew what was coming.

She followed him 3 seconds later and stood next to him. He was staring at the mess of his living room, invaded with 20 or 25 girls.

"Okay, I get it, you're pissed off."

Stefan saw Damon talking to three girls in a corner as they were eating croissants.

"I'm not pissed off…! Alright, I'm a little pissed off."

"Listen, I promise I'll be as efficient and fast as I can and in a blink of an eye, they'll be gone."

"What? You're not leaving with them?"

"I'm going to interview them here. It's the only place where I—"

"Aha, that's very funny. See, I know you're joking" Stefan looked at her and Caroline gave him nothing but silence. "You're joking, right?"

"Look, this is important to me", she looked down. "I'm trying to give my boss something more important than articles about stupid things that no one cares about. I just want to…" she looked around, "I don't know, make a difference. And I can't do that in my office, because they'll give me a no beforehand, okay?"

Stefan stared at her for a few seconds. Who was this girl?

"What are you writing about?"

"Female friendship and union against sexism."

"Huh" Stefan smiled and tucked a loose lock of her hair behind her ear and she looked at him. "So you."

Caroline felt an irrational and stupid fluttering in her stomach. Stefan let out a sigh.

"Okay, but try not to make much noise, please. I really need to work."

Caroline clapped her hands. "You're the best, thank you", she was going to give him a hug, but Stefan stepped back, still covering his down area with his laptop. "Oh, yeah. The incident" she whispered.

"It's a human reaction."

"Of course it is."

"Then why are you looking at me like that?"

"We are roommates."

"Really? Since when?"

"And we should talk about these things to, you know, put them behind us."

"What things?"

Caroline scoffed and looked at him with amusement.

"Do I turn you on?"

Stefan laughed nervously and stepped backwards, heading back to his bedroom. "What?"

Caroline gave a step towards him. "Do I turn you on?"

"Of course not" he said with a not very believable face. "I think my phone is ringing, please don't make any noise."

He closed his door behind him and leaned against it, rubbing his face with his hand.

"What's this game you two are playing?"

Caroline jumped and turned to look at Damon.

"I can smell the sexual tension every time you two are around."

"Damon, go to your room and don't bother me until I'm done here, okay?" she pointed at the end of the hallway. He left with fallen shoulders and a sad face.

"I'm pretty sure there's enough Chinese food for everyone, En—" Bonnie looked around with wide eyes. Her living room was crowded with women. Damon was showing off his biceps in a corner while chatting with some of them. Caroline was sitting with others in a circle on the floor, apparently asking them questions and writing down the answers.

"What is going on?" Enzo asked.

Bonnie closed the door behind them. "I have no idea."

"Bonnie, hey!" Caroline waved at her. "Come here, I need your testimony too."

Bonnie saw the cocktail in her other hand. She didn't need more encouragement than that.

"Here", she put the Chinese food in Enzo's hands. "I need this, it's been a long week."

"It's Monday, Bonnie."

Bonnie didn't listen to him and sat down between Caroline and another girl. Enzo shook his head as Stefan stood next to him.

"Do I want to know how this happened? And, more important, how did you let it?"

Stefan put his hands up in a defensive gesture. "Listen, don't ask, not my fault."

"It's 2pm, and they're drinking. Are we getting old, mate?"

Stefan laughed, shaking his head.

"Damon is making a fool of himself. Those girls are secretly laughing at him."

"Oh, I know" Stefan said. "That's why I didn't stop him."

This time, Enzo was the one to laugh.

"It has something to do with Caroline's job" Stefan said casually. "Speaking of, something, uh…" he rubbed his neck. "Something embarrassing happened to me."

"What?" Enzo had his eyes fixed on Damon, trying not to laugh out loud at how he was embarrassing himself.

"Well, uh" he cleared his throat. "Caroline, she… She fell over me and, you know, I had an—"

"Man!" Enzo looked at Stefan. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I need to talk about it with someone, dude! I need to get it out of my chest and I really need your help here."

"Why the fuck do you need my help with your problem, Stefan? I'm not going to help you to—"

Stefan rubbed his eyes. "I just want to know what I should do with Caroline. We're roommates and I don't want us to be in a weird situation."

"Oh, that."

"What were you thinking?"

"Well, you haven't dated in a while, I just thought maybe you wanted to experiment and—"

Enzo noticed Stefan's annoyed and impatient face and closed his mouth.

"HE WHAT?!"

Bonnie started to laugh uncontrollably and Caroline covered her friend's mouth with her hand.

"Shh!" she giggled too. "It was super traumatic to him, I don't want him to hear us."

Bonnie tried to control herself. "I'm just trying to imagine his face."

"He got so nervous" Caroline looked down at her hands, delivering a slight close-lipped smile. "It was kind of adorable."

Bonnie glanced sideways at her.

"Listen, what you have to do is simple" Enzo explained. "You can't let her think you like her. I mean, as you say, you're roommates, we all are, and we can't ruin that. I don't want her to leave because you're misbehaving, Stefan."

Stefan frowned. "Misbehaving? It was just a human reaction, for God's sake."

Enzo wasn't listening to him. "I've appreciated having to pay less rent so, so much, Stefan. We can't lose a roommate, okay? Besides, Bonnie is very happy with her around."

"You aren't helping at all."

"Just make sure she doesn't think you like her" Enzo nodded. Then, he looked at Stefan very fast. "Because you don't like her, right?"

"What? No, of course not" he said with high-pitched laughter. He cleared his throat. "What should I do, then?"

"Just establish some boundaries, man. And, it'd be a good idea to start dating again, Stefan. Why don't you make an attempt to talk to any of these girls? Meet new people, I don't know."

"Yeah, why not, I can do that."

"Sure you can" Enzo slapped his back.

"Okay, let's do this."

Bonnie cleared her throat.

"What do you mean adorable?"

Caroline looked up. Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "It's just a way of talking."

"I think the poor guy just needs to go back to dating. Look at him, he's trying to hit one of your girls."

Caroline followed the direction of Bonnie's eyes towards the kitchen and saw Stefan talking and laughing with one of the girls, indeed.

"That's…" Bonnie read Caroline's notebook. "Lisa, right? Wow, doctor, from Norway.

Caroline stared at them for a few seconds, not knowing what to say. She saw Bonnie watching her carefully and she sat straighter.

"Guess it's time for me to play Cupid" Caroline got to her feet.

"What? Caroline, that's not—"

"I used to play Cupid all the time in high school, Bon."

"Yeah, and how did that turn out?"

"Um, great?"

"I had the worst first date experience of my life, Care."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic."

She walked over to Stefan and Lisa as Bonnie covered her eyes with her hands.

"Hey, guys! Chatting?"

Stefan got startled and turned around.

"Yeah, we were just chatting."

Caroline leaned forward.

"You two look so cute together! Why don't you go out tonight? Have a couple of drinks, get to know each other!"

Stefan gave Caroline a wide-eyed look.

"What are you doing?" he mouthed.

"What do you think, Lisa? He's a writer, this guy here. All sensitive and cute" Caroline pointed at him with her head. Stefan gave her a murderous look. "He hasn't let me read anything, but maybe he'll let you."

"Why not?" Lisa said, suddenly. "If you don't have any other plans, I mean."

Stefan wondered how he'd gotten into this. "No, nothing in my agenda for tonight."

"It's settled, then! Have fun. First we have to finish all my interviews, though, so let's go back to work!"

Caroline looked at Bonnie and thumbed up as she walked over to her.

"Why did you do that?"

"What? I was just trying to help him."

"SO LET ME GET THIS CLEAR."

Caroline let out an exasperated sigh, started to twirl her pen, and massaged her temple with her other hand. "What now, Damon?"

He sat on a stool opposite hers. "I've heard you've arranged a date for my brother and one of the girls."

"So what?"

"So what?" he repeated, offended. "SO WHAT?"

Caroline closed her eyes. "Stop screaming, Jesus."

"You prohibited me to talk to these girls and you let Stefan go out with them?"

"Did you listen to me at all? Did you actually do as I told and ignored them?"

"Well, no, but that's not the point—"

She rolled her eyes. "It's exactly the point."

"No, blondie, the point is why you want my brother to date anyone."

Caroline looked up and pressed her lips together.

"You like him, clearly" Damon said as if it was obvious. Caroline crinkled her nose, but Damon noticed the trouble she was having maintaining the eye contact with him. "So why throw him to the arms of another?

"Oh, my, God" she said with impatient. "First, you're delirious. And second, I don't like Stefan, he's not my type. Like, really, he's the opposite of my type."

"Keep trying to lie to yourself."

"Dammit" she ran her hands through her hair. "How did I fill the pages of this notebook so fast?" Caroline closed the notebook, frustrated. "I still have to talk to 5 other girls."

Damon looked at her, clearly uninterested and bored.

"So?"

"Huh?"

"Do you a notebook to lend me, Damon?" she said very slowly.

"Oh, no" he laughed. "Ask Stefan, he's the writer."

"Right."

She bit her lower lip, trying to figure out if it was a good idea to bother Stefan again after the day they'd had.

But he was her only opportunity and option, so.

"Stefan?" she looked around in his bedroom, giving steps forward when she suddenly step on something bony, fleshy and, basically, human.

"OH MY GOD!"

Caroline gave a step back very quickly and looked down. Stefan was on the floor, gritting his teeth with his closed eyes.

"Oh, there you are. Why are you on the floor?"

Stefan got to his feet with the fingers of one hand wrapped around the other. He clenched his jaw and looked at her.

"I was doing some exercise, and you just—"

"I need a notebook, do you have one?"

Stefan sighed and took off his headphones. "What?"

"I filled all the pages of my notebook and I need another one. Do you have one?"

Stefan shook his head in disbelief and picked a notebook of his bookshelf.

"Thank you" she smiled. "Wow! What happened to your hand?"

Stefan's hand was bruised and a little swollen. He gaped at her.

"Caroline, you stepped on me. Just a minute ago."

"That was what I stepped on? Whoops, sorry" her mouth straightened. "You really must be hating me today."

He eyed her carefully. "Hate is a strong word."

"Hey, sorry for stepping on your hand."

"Yeah, it's… whatever" he raised his hand to look at it better. "I just have a few extra angles now."

Caroline snorted and bowed her head. "I should probably get you to a hospital."

"What? No, I'm sure it'll go back to normal in a few years."

Caroline rolled her eyes, amused. "Stefan…"

"No, seriously, I don't think it's serious. Besides you still have so much to do, I—"

"Stefan, I'm taking you to the hospital. Your hand looks super bruised and swollen. I might have moved or twisted one of your bones. I'm stronger than what I look."

Stefan was the one looking amused now. "Caroline, please, don't say things like that if you don't want me to laugh at you."

"Hah, hah" she slapped him in the shoulder. He gave a step backwards.

"Easy, easy, I don't want any more bones broken, thank you."

"Come on, I'll take you to the hospital. I'm friends with a doctor, we won't have to wait."

Caroline headed to the door, but then stopped.

"Unless you don't want to, uh, miss your date. With Lisa."

Stefan frowned and Caroline wondered for a second if he actually had already forgotten about it. "Oh, the date. It's fine, um, we can hang out any other day. The hand thing could actually be important, since I write for a living."

"You're right-handed."

"And?"

"I stepped on your left one."

"Oh."

Caroline raised an eyebrow at him and he cleared his throat.

"Still, I should make sure it's fine."

"Well, okay. If you've stopped acting weird, let's go."

As soon as they walked into the loft after their visit to the hospital, Bonnie, Damon and Enzo gave Stefan a standing ovation, clapping their hands and cheering him on.

"How's our vulnerable patient?" Bonnie asked.

"Yeah, yeah, very funny" Stefan said.

"The doctor put a cast on his hand. Apparently I twisted his wrist."

Bonnie and Enzo flinched, but Damon smiled.

"Nice."

Stefan gave him a murderous look. "Caroline here, though, forgot to mention that her friend doctor is a gynaecologist. So we were sitting there, surrounded by pregnant women in the room."

Stefan looked around, realizing that they were actually in the gynaecologist room. All the patients were women, and they were pregnant.

"Um, Caroline?"

"Yes?" she didn't look away from her magazine.

"Why are we here?"

"Oh, Sophie is a gynaecologist. I didn't mention it?"

"No, you didn't."

"Should I fear for my life? A female invasion in our loft, a little party in the living room, a set up date with me playing Cupid, a physical attack, and now this."

"Caroline, I have a penis."

Caroline pressed her lips together. "Well", she laughed. "Yeah, I noticed this morning."

"Oh my God" Stefan raised his hand to rub his face but then flinched because of the pain.

"So what? She treated you, right? And she gave you painkillers, didn't she? Stop complaining, Mr. Broody."

"I'm sorry, what? You made me go through hell today, Caroline."

She rolled her eyes and started to walk over to the kitchen. "Baby girl" she murmured, though everyone was able to hear her.

Stefan tilted his head to one side and his eyes flashed as he watched her walk away, kind of mesmerized. Damon cleared his throat loudly and Stefan stood straighter.

"I—, I'll be in my room."

Enzo turned on the TV and Damon leaned towards Bonnie's ear.

"They're so close to jump each other's bones."

"Ugh, Damon!"

"Yes?"

Caroline showed her head behind the door. She had her hair up and no make-up. She looked really beautiful.

"Hi, can I come in?"

Stefan swallowed hard, waking up from his thoughts. "Well, at least you've knocked this time."

"I'm a slow learner, it's true. But I learn."

"Game of Thrones?"

"You watch?! You might not be that boring after all!"

Stefan shook his head and scoffed. Caroline sat on his bed and took something that she had been hiding under her shirt.

"My way of saying sorry for all the mess I caused."

He took the card and looked at the cartoon.

"It says Congratulations for the pregnancy, Caroline."

She shook with laughter. "I got it at the hospital shop while you were being treated."

Stefan started to shake with laughter too, shaking his head. "You're unbelievable."

The sound of their laughs together made a good harmony and they seemed to notice because they looked into each other's eyes with a little smile still on their faces and the echo of their laughs in their ears. Stefan ran his eyes over her face, from her eyes, through her nose, to her mouth. Caroline swallowed when she felt a tingling in her stomach.

She cleared her throat. "What matters is the interior, though. I wrote an apologize there."

Stefan had to make a great effort to look away from her, but he finally looked down and started reading. "Dear Mr. Broody, sorry for everything I did to you today. You've put up with so much today in order for me to be able to carry out my work. Thank you for not being an ogre to me and for putting up with me as well. Maybe Bonnie was right. Maybe you aren't that bad either. Who knows, you and I may even become friends" he looked at her and she gave him a little smile.

"What do you think?"

"I think that you're still…" he pinched her nose and Caroline narrowed her eyes at him, "8 years old."

"Hah, hah" she mocked, pulling away. "And you… You're actually…" she grabbed a cushion and threw it at his face, "annoying."

Stefan pressed his lips together and closed his eyes. "Again with throwing things at me?"

"It's what you deserve" she headed to the door.

"Hey, Caroline."

She stopped and looked at him.

"Thank you for the card, and for taking me to the hospital."

"Any time."

"Night, friend."

Caroline rolled her eyes and smiled before closing the door behind her.

"Friend" he repeated, biting the inside of his mouth.