Spoilers : between 2x18 & 2x19

"Hey there. Sorry I didn't call you earlier, but...you know what happened."

Caroline smiled upon hearing Stefan's voice on the phone. "Yeah, don't worry. You know I remember when my biggest concern was to win the Miss Mystic Falls Pageant...how times have changed !"

He laughed at that and replied, "Anyway...I talked to Matt last night. Everything seemed normal."

Actually, Matt had acted anything but normal. And Stefan didn't want to upset Caroline before knowing a little bit more about it. So this is why he was calling her hiding in his car just a few feet away from her house. He had to make sure she was alright.

"Really? Because I had a weird impression when he came to get me the night of the dance...and there was something with my mom too. Well, that was probably me being a big schizo !"

Stefan made a mental note of checking on Sheriff Forbes too.

Just when he was about to say goodbye, and ambulance passed him by with its sirens blaring. The sound, that Caroline couldn't miss, echoed in her phone.

"Stefan...are you in front of my house?"

There was a silence, then, "Yes."

She hung up, and for a moment he feared she was mad, but she appeared a few seconds later on her doorstep, smiling broadly and looking for him. He stepped out of the car and walked to her, raising his hand in apology.

"Sorry. It was already late and I didn't want to bother you."

"You never bother me," she said, and realized she sounded a little bit too enthusiastic. Those intensified feelings were a pain in the ass sometimes. "Come in," she opened the door wide and he followed her in the living room."My mom's not there," she added, just as he was about to ask."So, tell me about your conversation with Matt."

He opened his mouth, intending to stay vague. But then the reason why he didn't want to talk to her face to face came back to him, just as he looked at her brilliant eyes and trusting smile.

He just couldn't lie to her.

"Actually...I think you are right," and her smiled vanished at that, and Stefan suddenly hated Matt and whatever he was hiding for doing that to her.

"What do you mean?"

"His attitude was...let's just say it didn't go very well."

In fact Matt had been right down aggressive at some point, even asking if Stefan wanted to date Caroline himself. Then he had reverted back to a calmer tone, apologizing and blaming tiredness. Stefan had preferred not to insist.

He focused back on Caroline who was now sitting on the couch. He sat in front of her.

"What are you thinking? You have your pensive vampire look."

"My what?"

"Your pensive vampire look, you know, as opposed to my serious vampire look...?" he told her, feeling like his attempt at a joke to make her smile was failing miserably.

"Oh!" she suddenly remembered, and her smile came back. He cheered himself mentally. "I was sure there was something," she muttered, "but I have no clue what."

"If your compulsion didn't work and he's been faking it all this time...we have to understand why."

She liked how he said 'we', including himself in her problems so naturally.

"What about your mom?" he asked.

"I don't know, I though Matt was weird because I was kissing him in front of her, but then they exchanged that look..." she shrugged. "Maybe I'm just paranoid."

He hesitated, thinking now was a good time to say his goodbyes and leave for the Grill where he was supposed to meet Elena. Instead he found himself saying, "Hey, what about a good run in the woods? Chasing some bunnies?"

"That would be great," she told him, grateful that he didn't seem willing to leave immediately. Grateful and just a little bit excited.

Stefan sent a quick text message to Elena, telling her something had come up and he couldn't meet her tonight. And was both marveled and horrified at how much not guilty he felt about it.

They ran for about two hours, often stopping to talk about stuff, like the latest events, the curse, Klaus...she even told him about what had happened with Tyler.

"I haven't heard from him since he left town," she said, and she sounded so sad that it took all his powers not to take her in his arms and comfort her. Somehow too much physical contact with Caroline seemed a very unwise idea.

"You risked your life to help him," he told her, and he didn't try to conceal how impressed he sounded. "I'm sure he will never forget that."

"Yeah, just one example of Caroline's wonderful track record with men. I should get my own reality show," she said derisively. "Ok, enough with the pity party! The last one to that big tree over there is a loser!"

It was dark when they arrived back at her house. She turned to him with a soft smile.

"Thank you Stefan. I really needed this."

He raised his hand to her face, putting a blond lock behind her ear. "i know. I'm always there for you, you know that."

He was looking at her so intently, with something in his eyes...something he was probably not even conscious about.

She raised on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. "Good night Stefan," she said and she closed the door before he could actually replied.

Once inside she leaned on the door, wondering for the hundredth time what the hell she was doing. So much for her little hypocritical speech to Damon. I could never do that to Elena. Yeah, right.

Ok, nothing had actually happened, but she couldn't deny how she felt any longer. She realized that she had been concentrating on her problems with Matt in order to avoid thinking how she truly felt, and most of all for whom she had those feelings. And this time it was so much harder to quell them like she had a year and a half ago when Stefan had chosen Elena. She barely knew him back then. She had no idea yet that he was such a wonderful guy and an amazing friend.

But now she would bet a year supply of blood bags that Stefan felt the same way. And whatever happened, it wasn't going to end well.

Driving back to the Boarding House, Stefan was still feeling Caroline's kiss on his cheek.

God, he was so screwed.