He is rather surprised to hear Caroline come in this morning, after what happened yesterday he was sure she would leave and never come back, yet he hears her soft voice filter through the door, "Good morning Robert."
By the sounds of it Robert is surprised too, "Uh-morning Caroline, I, um, wasn't expecting you this early."
Her soft giggle reverberated through his chest in a way he decides not want to think about.
He stands and lets the shadows wrap around him, waiting for her to come in. His shirt is stained with new blood, covering the old stains and creating new ones, aside from that he looks as he did yesterday morning even if he feels a thousand times worse. The phantom pains of the carving of his heart has him clawing at his chest every now and then, to try and take the pained organ out. But for her, the only human to ever show him kindness in all his years on this planet, he will not add guilt.
The door unlocks, and she walks in, her note book held to her chest by her arm, an arm with a white shirt draped over it. Robert sends her a puzzled look, but shuts and locks the door behind her without a word.
Her eyes seem to find him, even though the human eye can't detect him in this light, she gives a shy smile and holds the shirt out, "I brought one of James' old shirts. It's nothing fancy, but.." She trails off.
He hasn't had a new shirt in years, since before being taken away and locked up. His usually composed poker face dissolves into shock, this girl has no reason to be kind to him. He composes himself and steps out of the shadows, if she's shocked by his appearance she doesn't show it. Her smile widens and she holds the shirt out for him, he takes the fabric as if it was more precious and valuable then a simple cotton shirt one could find anywhere.
"Thank you, gorgeous," she blushes at his comment, "but who is James."
She blinks, "My fiancé." she simply says, there is no utter adoration behind it like someone in love would say about the person they are about to commit the rest of their life to, it's just a simple fact.
He lowers his gaze to her swollen lip, careful makeup applied over it, "And what does your fiancé think of that."
Caroline covers it with her hand, "He threatened to get Robert fired, but I talked him down. Is it noticeable?"
He doesn't answer, seeing no reason to assuage her vanity.
She seems uncomfortable with the silence, and suddenly apologizes, "I'm sorry about yesterday."
He raises a dark brow in slight confusion, if he remembers correctly she tried to stop the whole ordeal, "Please excuse me, but what in the bloody hell are you talking about?"
Caroline's blue eyes search his face as if she doesn't believe him, "I didn't stop them from hurting you yesterday." She pauses, her cheeks are slightly pink with anger and her breathing increases slightly, "Scratch that, I'm sorry for never stopping them. I've been here for months and I've silently stood by as they cut you open and cause you pain. You never asked for any of this." She huffs.
He smiles, a genuine smile, not a smirk. His response seems to deflate her anger and she smiles back at him. "I don't think I've ever seen you smile before." She comments.
"Well, there's not much to smile about." He states, and her demeanor darkens slightly.
Normally he wouldn't do anything to quell others pain, but, "Gorgeous, as you said early, I never asked for this. But," He holds up the shirt she gave him, "I never asked for this either, life is full of things we never asked for. Some are good, and some are bad, that's just a fact."
He takes off his ratty shirt and drops it in the corner of his cell, he has no reason to be modest, this girl sees him cut open 5 days a week. But she blushes and looks away, sometimes he forgets she's a Southern bell. He chuckles at her innocence and quickly puts on the clean shirt. He leans against the wall that's perpendicular to the bars and lets one of his long legs stretch in front of him and bends the other to drape his arm across the knee. "So whens the wedding?"
She chances a look, and when she realizes he's full clothed she looks at him fully. "It's in the winter."
He snorts, she narrows her eyebrow, "What?" she asks.
He shakes his head, "You seem like a summer girl, or a fall girl."
"The summer is to far, it's September right now."
"So wait." He shrugs.
"I can't, my mom is worried someone else will snatch him away." Caroline explains, eyes staring at him with a far away look.
"His loss." He states.
Caroline is now at a loss for words, she focuses her wide sky blue eyes on him.
He looks at her like she's is missing a big piece of the puzzle, "You're a smart, kind, beautiful girl with endless legs, what's not to like?" He teases slightly, but it does the job, she is beat red.
"A house wife." She mumbles.
He gestures for her to continue, she spills almost immediately, "I want a career, and even though we haven't talked about it, I know he wants someone to stay at home to take care of the home and raise children."
"Write down 'Subject seems to be healing normally, but yesterday's dissection seems to be affecting the subject more then previous dissections, it seems slower and favors the area more'." He instructs.
She doesn't listen to him, "Why?"
"Whitmore just walked in, don't make it look like you've been sitting here doing nothing. Then begin to transcribe Paul's notes, so they are more cohesive with your notes." He says.
She raises an eyebrow, he sighs, "Trust me."
He didn't expect those two words to have an affect on her, but, surprisingly, they seemed to as she begins to do as he asked.
Whitmore walks in mere minutes later, he seems more upset about Caroline's presence than surprised, "What are you doing?" He asks, his tone harsh.
Caroline looks up from her notes, "I'm making Paul's notes more cohesive with my previous ones, and writing down observations."
She looks back down at her notes, but not before sending him a smile and mouthing 'thank you'.
Whitmore nods, "Good. Today we will see how much oxygen the subject needs." Without further explanation Whitmore turns on his heel and leaves.
A/N Updates for all my stories will be sporadic from here on out, I'm half way through my semester and there seems to be more homework now. I do hope you enjoyed this chapter, it means the world to me when you leave a review with your thoughts! Thank you for reading up to this point!
I would like to run an idea by you guys, please let me know what you think. I recently started watching Smallville, I'm only on episode 3 of season 1, but I'm already thinking this would be a great crossover with the Vampire Diaries. Clark Kent looks so much like Damon Salvatore, with some personality similarities akin with Stefan, I was thinking he could be the Salvatore's paternal half brother or a descendant, like Zach's son or something. I know this isn't the best thing, especially with all the unfinished stories I have.
I hope Caroline doesn't seem to out of character or anything, but she does seem to talk a lot. Plus she is very trusting of people. Also it's been months, and presumably they've had a few conversations. Not to mention, she doesn't feel as if she can voice any of these opinions about her 'perfect fiancé'. Speaking of said fiancé, James Lockwood is one of Tyler's ancestors.
Loveklaroline: As always, thank you so much for reading and reviewing my stories! Your reviews mean the world to me! Thank you for addressing the review issue, everything seems sorted out now, but I was able to see the reviews. Don't worry, she's not going to marry Tyler, he's not alive yet. Paul is both kind and mean, I think he sees the world very black and white, for example, he sees vampires as monsters and has no remorse, but he sees Caroline as a scared girl who has yet to grasp what he thinks of as common knowledge about vampires. Sorry for that lengthy explanation :) We are going to see bites and pieces of this story line until I catch up with the show, you will be able to see all the characters; it probably won't be for a few more chapters though. Thank you for your encouragement, I hope to map out the next chapter if nothing else. Until next time (hopefully it's sooner than I think)!
Guest: Thank you for your kind review, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!