Oh my.. It's been a while since the last upload of this fanfiction. I'm so sorry but I was so busy, plus I've started a new fanfiction ( A Fairytale for you) and I didn't have a second for this one. Anyway here's the 4th chapter. I don't know what I think about it, I mean I loved writing it but I'm not sure about the result. I just hope you like it. Let me know what you think about it.
"Where are you?" the sweet voice of Elena was coming from the phone, it seemed so far away from where he was.
"I just got to LA" in those 5 words there was all the hope Stefan was holding on to for the past two days. Stefan was always been the positive kind of person, he used to find the good in every situation but this time was different: there was anything left that could have killed Klaus and saving Caroline would have been just temporary. It wouldn't take long before they all got killed by the hands of Klaus. There was not hope for Stefan or anyone else but those green eyes were just focused to find the blue ones. He owned her that. He promised her to always protect her and that was exactly what he was trying to do.
"What is the plan, Superman?" the sarcastic voice of his brother brought Stefan back from his thoughts.
"I have none" Stefan was on speaker phone and his non-plan was clearly heard from both Damon and Elena. Damon rolled his eyes at the phone. His brother wasn't really a great plan maker, all of them had failed through the past year so maybe it was a good thing to not have an actual plan.
"Little advice: when you're looking for something the best thing to do is just looking around"
"Thank you Sherlock, problem is that LA is way too big to just 'looking around'. I have no time to waste so your little advice is pretty much useless" there was no sarcasm in his voice.
"Start from the bars, vampires love to drink and knowing Caroline they have to be beautiful and full of famous people" Stefan pictured Damon's smirk while he hear clearly Elena's soft laugh.
"This is actually a good idea and it looks like you don't have a better plan so.." Elena started, she stayed silent for a second because she didn't know what to expect from Stefan. He was different, she could feel his anxiety, he was scared, probably of the consequences that saving Caroline would have led to.
"Okay, we'll see what I'm managed to find out. I'll call you later in case I discover something" Stefan was about to hang on when Elena's voice stopped him.
"Stefan, be careful okay?"
"You should be careful too. We don't know how many hybrids Klaus has around Mystic Falls and if he finds out that I'm looking for him, you'll probably be his first target to push me back" Stefan was right on this one. Damon and Elena were the only people Stefan actually cared about. Well, there was another person but she was already in Klaus' hands so he couldn't do anything but finding her and, with some luck, saving her.
For how risky the situation was, Stefan knew that Elena was in good hands. Damon would protect her with his own life, doesn't matter what was the price, Damon would always put Elena first. This was the reason why he left. Because he failed to protect the people he loved: both Elena and Caroline. But Elena had her own savior, it was Damon that with his blood had avoided her death. In that moment he just wanted to be Caroline's savior. She was the one who needed to be saved the most, she was the really one in danger.
"We'll be careful" Elena reassured Stefan.
"I'll protect your girlfriend's ass, so you find Caroline and come home right after. Got it?" This was Damon's way to express his concern: sarcasm. A big amount of sarcasm and Stefan knew it.
"Got it" Stefan replied. And with that he hung the phone call.
He didn't say 'I love you' and neither did Elena, it wasn't fair for both of them, it didn't feel right. He had left her to save another girl, he left her again and even if it was for a good cause he couldn't help but feeling guilty. Other hand Elena couldn't say it either, she was in love with his brother and even if she promised herself to never tell Damon what her feelings were, they were a constant presence in her life. And so was Damon.
She wanted Stefan to come back soon with Caroline, she wanted to know they were both safe but most of all she didn't want to be alone with Damon. He scared her, he always did.
When Elena was alone with Damon she wasn't able to control her feelings. Damon was able to make her feel anything, rage, passion, love and she wasn't able to control them. With Stefan around everything was easier. Those emotions were still there but beside him she doesn't think to be allowed to feel them. Somehow Stefan was her harbor, her safe place while Damon was her ocean. But Elena was too scared of the storm to sail.
In that moment Elena noticed that she wasn't the only one worried about something, Damon was oddly quiet, his eyebrows furrowed. That was definitely not good.
"Do you think he's gonna make it?"
Damon was now looking at Elena, he needed a full minute before answering the question.
"Klaus won't kill him, at least not now, if that what you were asking me"
"You can't know this, Damon. There is no certainty when it comes to Klaus"
"True, but don't forget that Klaus and Stefan were friends back in the 20s" Damon said the word 'friends' with disgust, he wasn't a real fan of Klaus and he was definitely not a fan of the complicated bond Stefan and the hybrid used to share.
Elena was still confused about the reason and Damon tried to be more clear.
"Why do you think Caroline is still alive?" he asked.
"We don't know if she is" just the idea that her best friend could have been dead made Elena shake.
"But if she was, what would be the reason?" Damon crossed the distance between him and Elena to look into her eyes.
"Because Klaus is interested in Caroline?" she wasn't sure about the answer but when he nodded, Elena realized that Damon's assumption wasn't that wrong. But what did this have to do with Stefan?
"Same happens with my little brother: Klaus has a thing for Stefan" Damon was just joking, but when Elena's eyes went wide he realized that she didn't get his irony. "If I were you Elena, I'd be careful, Klaus will steal your precious boyfriend" She finally rolled her eyes. "Both of them will" She didn't roll her eyes at this, actually she didn't move at all. Deep inside she knew that Stefan and Caroline shared a strong bond: Stefan seemed to care about her deeply and so did her. However, the thought of those two together wasn't new in Elena's mind. When she was still human she thought about giving a try with Damon. At that time it didn't seem so wrong, she knew that Stefan was strong enough to get over it, maybe he would have found somebody else, somebody that would have loved him the way he deserved to. And the thought of Stefan and Caroline really crossed her mind and it didn't seem so bad. Friendship doesn't take long to become love, she and Damon were the proof of it.
"I was just kidding, nobody is going to take your Stefan" Damon's voice brought her back. The blue eyes were looking at her, waiting for her reaction.
"Actually Klaus had stolen Stefan before, I wouldn't be surprised if he would do that again" she was smiling but it was true. He was sure about his feelings for her but he wasn't really by her side, he hadn't been for the past months at least. First he left to protect Damon, now it was Caroline's turn and even if this made Stefan a good person, always willing to protect the people he loved, he was barely there to protect her.
"Elena" she turned her head at the voice just to find Damon right next to her, exactly where he's always been. And in that moment it felt right.
Stefan didn't say it out laud but his brother's plan wasn't so bad, problem is that he didn't know where to start. It was almost 4am, the early morning sky was still dark, Stefan had a few more hours to step in some bars. And that was what he decided to do. He was tired and hungry but he needed to use every minute, he wanted to find Caroline and he wanted to do that soon.
Stefan had been to Los Angeles decades before and things had changed. After he asked a passer-by the shortest way to reach the most famous places attended by the people of the night, he went there in high speed.
Damon and Caroline weren't really friends but he did know her. If there was a place where Caroline would have brought Tyler's body it would be definitely one full of famous people. She loved that kind of life.
In a couple of hours Stefan had entered every possible club, approached every possible barman hoping to discover something. He had repeated Caroline's description more than a hundred of times but nobody seemed to have seen her or 'Tyler'.
The thought that they weren't in LA crossed Stefan's mind more than once.
It was 6am, the sun was raising and Stefan was tired, tired and hungry. He needed a drink to calm his thirst. He had spent hours into bars and didn't take a single one, he was just focusing in finding something, anything that could have led him to Caroline. But it didn't go well and in that moment the green-eyed vampire just needed to drown his failures into a bottle of whisky.
Stefan found a small bar in a periphery street, it appeared quiet: exactly what he was looking for.
Since it was so early in the morning, there was just a few people. Some workers that were having breakfast before their shift, a man that was sleeping with his head on the table and an old man sited at the bar with a drink into his hand.
Stefan sat two chairs after him, asking for a glass of whisky. The girl didn't look surprise to serve alcohol at 6am and Stefan was really happy about it. He wasn't really in the mood for any judgmental looks.
When the drink got into his hands, Stefan just needed a second to knock down the alcohol and immediately asked for some more. The same happened three more times before Stefan decided to ask for the bottle.
"Rough night?" the low voice was coming from the old man. He wasn't looking at Stefan but at the drink in his hands.
"Rough century" The old man laughed at Stefan's answer but the vampire wasn't joking at all.
"You're not from here, are you?" the old man wanted to have a conversation with a tired and hungry vampire. That wasn't really smart but Stefan tried to be polite and answer his question.
"I'm from Mystic Falls, Atlanta" The old man's eyes went wide.
"That's such a change. Why are you here?" that question hit Stefan. Caroline's face appeared into his mind like a memory.
"I'm looking for someone" now was Stefan turn to look at his drink and avoid the stranger's eyes. He crossed the distance between him and Stefan and sat down on the chair next to the vampire.
"A girl?" it was a question but just apparently. He knew that when a young man like Stefan finds himself drowning in alcohol in the morning, it means there's a woman behind it.
"She's somewhere in Los Angeles with her boyfriend" Stefan made things easier for his friend "Actually, I'm not even sure if she's here"
"Why are you looking for her?" the man said, pouring other whisky into Stefan's glass.
"It's complicated" he cut him off. He wasn't really in the mood to make up an excuse.
"Do you love her?" this question hit Stefan more. It was unexpected and Stefan found himself unable to answer this one.
Caroline was his friend. He didn't like her at the beginning, she seemed to be too shallow, insistent and hyperactive, way too far from his personality. But when he started to date Elena, they actually got to know each other better. Caroline wasn't how he expected her to be and when she turned she became even more amazing. They grew closer and their friendship stronger. But his heart was Elena's, he had never questioned that before. And now a stranger asks him if he was in love with Caroline and he is notable to answer. What was happening to him?
"She's my friend" he came up with the most ridiculous excuse ever. The stranger glanced at him and laughed.
"I used to have a female friend too when I was younger. And when I crossed the country to find her I realized I was in love with her" Stefan gasped, he wouldn't do that. He wouldn't wake up in the morning and find that he was in love with Caroline. There was just Elena, he kept repeating to himself.
Even if that wasn't going to happen to Stefan, he was really interested into the old man's story.
"What happened next?" Stefan asked, handing him another drink "When you figured out your feelings"
"She was dead" the man paused "When I'd found her, she was dead" his face became a mask of pain. He didn't move or talk for a few minutes and Stefan had the time to figure out that that was the reason why he was drinking whisky at 6am. The same reason why he was drinking with him. Because didn't matter what kind of love Stefan felt for Caroline or how long would have took him to find her, the result would be the same. He would find her dead or worst. The imagine of Caroline's lifeless body was something that had hunted his nights for days.
"Don't do like me. Don't waste your time because you'll never get it back. I will never get her back. If you find her, don't ever let her go" the man finally looked at Stefan.
"I looked for her everywhere, I've asked for her in every bar. It was just useless" Stefan pointed out, hopeless.
"Not here" the girl at the other side of the bar interrupted. She had listened to the whole conversation, more interested in Stefan's story than in the man's one. She knew that story pretty well.
"Not to be rude or anything but this is not the kind of place she attends" Stefan told her.
"Not taken but you should give it a try" what other alternatives did he had?
"Her name is Caroline. Long blond hair, deep blue eyes, a bright smile that's able to light up your darkest day" Stefan stopped suddenly when the recognize the tone of adoration in his voice. "She's with a guy. Tall, dark eyes, black hair. Did you see them?"
"Caroline.." the old man echoed "I've heard somebody call a blond girl with that name. She was the most beautiful creature that ever entered this bar. But she didn't stay long, she didn't like the place and they went out" that was definitely something Caroline would have done and the hope Stefan had lost started to reemerge. It didn't take long before it got crushed again.
"I do remember her but the man she was with doesn't match with your description. He had light blue eyes and blond hair" the girl looked into Stefan's eyes to find disappointment.
"Then he can't be Tyler" he sighted.
"Tyler? The girl called him with a weird name, something like Klaus" the old man said and the girl nodded.
Stefan biggest fear became real all of a sudden: Klaus was back into his own body. When did it happen? How did it happen? He didn't know but things were worse than he thought.
The look in Stefan's eyes told the old man that something was wrong. "Are you okay, son?"
"Not really but at least I know that she's here" and that was the only positive aspect. There wasn't nothing else to do, though. They left the bar hours before, there was no point in looking for them and he was way too tired to do that. The only thing left was to pay and find a motel to rest.
Stefan greeted the strangers who had been very useful and when he was about to went out, the old man stopped him.
"What's your name, young man?" Stefan was confused about the question but answered it anyway.
"It's Stefan" the old man smiled at him.
"Then Stefan, I wish you to find your girl" Stefan nodded with a smile on his lips.
"I will find her" and he closed the door behind his back.