AN: so just about everyone has asked the same question. It gets answered, don't worry! And to my lovely reviewer who so earnestly wanted to know why Caroline was in the character list -you are my favorite, and here you go.

Chapter 4

She needs a daylight ring; that much is clear. If she has a daylight ring, then she might be willing to stay, and if she stays, then he will be able to help her.

It might take ages, but he's willing to earn her trust, bit by bit. Her children are already two tiny suns that he is in deep danger of orbiting. But he senses a spark in her, one that someone tried very hard to stamp out and extinguish. If he can do something to coax it back into a flame, he would be remiss not to try.

He already has too many regrets.

But in order to obtain a daylight ring, he needs a witch, and the closest happens to be his mother. He instantly rejects that idea.

The truth is, he doesn't trust his mother. He wants to, desperately; but the doubts are strong. And this isn't a task he would entrust to someone he doubts.

The next closest witch is Bonnie Bennett, who has little sympathy for his family. She won't do it as a favor to him –and he doubts she'd think much of being paid for it. No, it needs to come from someone else's mouth, someone who can sympathize with Leah and her children as well. Someone who can help, too.

He's lucky he's only a few minutes from Mystic Fall's limited shopping district.

"Miss Forbes, how lovely to see you," he says, smiling at the blond woman placing packages in the trunk of her car.

"Elijah, hey," she says, smiling back in surprise. "Never too early to get the jump on Christmas presents, huh?" She shuts the trunk and adjusts the purse on her arm. "What's up?"

Sometimes this century's flippant and all-too-direct forms of communication exasperate him. But now they work in his favor; he won't have to maneuver around his point. "I was in the neighborhood, visiting a new acquaintance. I wondered if you might be able to help me with something."

She frowns, but says, "What is it?"

"I met a young woman who came to town last night with her two children… she is a vampire, and she was starving for lack of blood."
"Oh my gosh!" Caroline exclaims, her blue eyes growing round.

"I was able to help her a bit, but she seems to know very little about vampirism. Since you –at least, by my standards," he clarifies, "are still somewhat recently turned, I wondered if you could –"

"Where is she?" Caroline asked, pulling out her phone.

"The motel six a few blocks away. Room 114."

The blond vampire taps the information into her phone with concentration, and Elijah knows he picked the right person. He doesn't even have to mention a ring to her; with Caroline's attention to detail, she'll pick up on it right away. And, while his suspicions are still hazy… he knows Caroline has had to deal with physical opposition from her own father over her vampirism. She can help.

"I'm on it," Caroline says, nodding. "What's her name?"
"Leah," Elijah says. "Her children are Malachi and Grace."

"Got it," Caroline says. "Thanks for telling me." She smiles. "You want me to let you know how it goes?"

He is floored, absolutely, and he knows she can tell by the way her eyes are sparkling. "If you are so inclined, Miss Forbes."

She laughs, and Elijah finally knows why Klaus is so taken with her. Her heart extends to everyone. He kisses her hand in gratitude, and she giggles.


Leah lies on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Grace dozes peacefully curled up against her side. On her other side, Malachi sits against the headboard and reads his book with eyes slightly squinted. He needs glasses.

Running doesn't solve everything.

But three weeks of distance doesn't make you feel safe, either.

She wants stability for her family. She wants safety. The former will be a struggle, and the latter… seems impossible.

But right now, she can stroke her daughter's hair without fear. So maybe anything is possible.

A quiet rap on the door makes her and Malachi sit up. There is a slow heartbeat outside, but she doesn't think that it's Elijah's.

"Mom?"

She gets up and peeks through the peephole. A young woman with a happy, expectant face stands outside the door.

"Get the door but keep the chain on," she says, still wary but now mostly confused. She backs up, and Malachi opens the door as far as it will go.

"Hi!" the girl says to him cheerfully. "My name's Caroline Forbes. Elijah asked me to stop in and talk to Leah. Is that your mom?"

"Yeah," Malachi says, unhooking the chain from the door, like Elijah's name is some kind of secret password. She's going to have a talk with him about that later.

The door swings open fully to reveal the blond girl in a coat and scarf. Her eyes light on Leah and they widen in surprise. "Hi," she says quietly, as though Leah's an animal she's trying not to spook.

Leah guesses that in some ways, she is. "Hi," she says, crossing her arms. This girl's what, seventeen? She's still older than her.

"I ran into Elijah a few minutes ago, and he told me that there's a new vampire in town," the girl says, now a little shy. "And I wanted to know if you needed anything, or, you know…" she trails off as Grace sits up and rubs her eyes.

Leah watches as her daughter scoots to the edge of the bed and drums her heels before waving at the newcomer.

"I babysit, too," Caroline says earnestly. "If you ever need somebody."

"We're not staying in town long," Leah says.

"Why not?" Caroline says. "Mystic Falls is like, supernatural central, it seems like. Everybody comes here," she says with a little laugh.

"I want to stay," Malachi says strongly.

"We have some really great schools, and the seasons are gorgeous, let me tell you. And I grew up here; it's a great small town to raise kids in," she says brightly.

"Why does everyone want me to stay in Mystic Falls?" Leah asks, a little harsher than she meant.

"Well…" Caroline says, knowing she hit a nerve but having no idea where to step to relieve the pressure, "You shouldn't have to be alone, you know? I mean, when I turned I was all alone, and I had no idea what was really going on, and it was really scary, but my friends helped me out and taught me how to do this whole," she waves her hands for emphasis, "vampire thing, and it's like…just way better when you've got people around you to support you, you know?"

Leah chews on her lips as the words echo relentlessly in her ears. She clears her throat and asks the burning question. "What… happened to you, when you…."

"Turned?" Caroline says.

Leah nods, acutely aware of the knot of tension in her stomach.

"You can come in," Malachi says, tired of holding the door.

Caroline looks to Leah for confirmation. Leah nods. The young woman steps through the doorway, and Malachi cuts off the sunlight. Caroline sits on the end of one twin bed, and Leah sits on the other, a distorted mirror image.

Caroline sets her purse down and clasps her hands. "Well… at the time, this vampire turned me to hurt my friends. She's a total bitch," she mumbles. "And I was in the hospital when it happened, so I woke up and had this craving, because I was in transition, you know?"

Leah does.

"And so I feel super hungry, but it's the middle of the night, so the night nurse just told me to go back to sleep. But I see this IV bag full of blood in this other patient's room, and I just…" she shrugs. "I go for it. And one part of me keeps saying, 'Car, that's so gross, cut it out!' But the new side, the vampire part says, 'oh my gosh this is amazing'." She glances at Malachi, who is listening intently. "I did bite one of the nurses," she admits, ashamed. "But I compelled her to forget. Compulsion is pretty great, actually," she says, thinking about it. "And the super strength and speed and everything, too. But yeah, the blood craving is a downside."

She sighs, fiddling with the side of her coat. "I did kill somebody," she whispers. "I didn't mean to, but… I was right out of the hospital and in a crowd of people at a carnival, and none of my friends had realized what had happened yet. But then Stefan –that's my friend Elena's boyfriend –well maybe ex-boyfriend now –but he helped me through it and helped me learn how to feed. I'm on the bunny diet," she says, with a little laugh, "with the occasional blood bag. No people." She shakes her head. "And sometimes it's rough, but this is life now. Sort of." She giggles. "Considering I'm dead." She leans forward, and two compassionate eyes coax Leah. "What about you?"

"It was in a hospital, too," Leah whispers.

Words that she has never spoken, a day that she has never wanted to relive all come tumbling back to her in a rush. "I had Grace four days before, and they hadn't released us yet. Frank was down in the cafeteria, eating. Someone came in the room –held me down. Made me drink blood." She shivers. She still remembers icy hands holding her down and forcing the tacky, coppery liquid down her throat. "Said it was nothing personal. Just business. Then he broke my neck."

Caroline reaches for her hand and squeezes, and the kindhearted touch makes Leah shake worse. Malachi presses up against her side, and she wraps her free hand around him.

"It's okay, Mom," he says. She can't find her voice anymore, so he speaks for her. "He had compelled me not to move," he told Caroline. "So I had to watch and I couldn't scream or anything. And then he told me that she'd wake up, but I had to go steal a blood bag from somewhere and give it to her."

"How old were you?" Caroline whispers, horrified.

"Seven."

Her baby, her precious baby had to watch her die and say nothing. Leah wraps her arms around her son and kisses him. "You were so brave."

"I had to do it. He was making me," Ky points out.

She waves his protests away. "You were brave. You're still brave. And I'm proud of you, Ky."

"Oh my gosh." Caroline's voice breaks on the last word, and she swallows hard.

"And then you woke up and you didn't know what had happened." Ky was speaking just to Leah now. "So I had to tell you."

She brushes Ky's hair off his forehead and nods. The hunger that had run through her had been so –so horribly wrong. She had stared at the blood bag and then at her son and she had thought –she had considered –living blood might just be better than the heavenly smell from the bag. And then revulsion crawled through her. She grabbed the bag out of his hands and told him to stay away from her. She wasn't safe.

Frank found her sucking the bag dry and Malachi watching –horrified, confused–from the corner of the room.

After that, hell was real and nothing mattered anymore.