"You look . . . grown."

She laughs, because Stefan's manners haven't changed and he's still not one to state ugly truths. But he's poor at covering potential mishaps and there's no real way for him to give her a nice compliment. She looks tired, and worn out. It's okay, because she feels tired and worn out. She forgives him this one slip because she knows how much she has changed. She wonders if it's just the time or if all vampires are genuinely shocked to discover how times affects humans. It must be hard to compare his own timelessness to her . . . growth.

He's fidgeting and not meeting her eyes properly. She feels her patience wearing thin. She'd never had a problem with Stefan back in Mystic Falls, but he's Damon's brother and a vampire, so she wants him out of her house. She invited him in because of the shock his news brought her. Elena being dead is surreal. Caroline had accepted long ago that one day Elena would be dead in the vampire-sense of the word, but to be dead-dead? It's hard to believe because Elena had both Salvatore brothers on her side; that alone should have ensured her safety.

"So what happened?"

Stefan looks surprised at her blunt tone. He keeps doing that, acting shocked or surprised whenever she does the slightest thing. It's like he came here expecting to find seventeen-year-old Caroline Forbes; a silly, boy-crazy cheerleader whose shallowness was a bit of a town joke. She looks back at him steadily, waiting for the shock to wear off and for him to just get to the point already. She's had too many shocks already today; she isn't in the mood to coddle Stefan.

"How much do you-" Stefan stops and shakes his head. His eyes flit across the room nervously. "Do you know who Katherine is?"

"She made you, and him," Caroline jerks her chin in the direction of the front door and then bites her lip thoughtfully. "And she was apparently Elena's exact double. Or I guess Elena was hers, because Katherine came first."

"Katherine came centuries ago," Stefan says with a shake of his head. "Katherine was . . . You don't care how she was."

Caroline shrugs one shoulder, but it's true. Stefan pushes on. "She came back to Mystic Falls, right after you disappeared. She caused . . . problems for Elena. But she had an endgame. We just couldn't figure it out. She stuck around for about a year and a half, and then she was gone-vanished, and we couldn't find her-just like last time."

She remembers nights and nights of Damon's whining. "My sympathies."

He knows what she means, laughs a little and then stops, like he`s ashamed to be caught doing something so light-hearted. Caroline frowns and stares hard at Stefan. She was wrong with her initial assessment; Stefan is not the same as he was five years ago. He looks skinnier, his hair is messy, and he`s constantly rubbing his hands together. Her heart dips and then recovers. Her hand goes out before she can stop it and covers his, stopping the rubbing motion. He stares at her hand, as if unsure what to do with the show of comfort. Caroline figures he is due his confusion; she`s been giving off mixed signals all day.

"Elena," she says softly, to get him back on track.

Stefan looks at her out of the corner of his eye, scrutinizing her face bluntly. It's a long minute of silence, but then he flexes his hand and suddenly their fingers are entwined and he's squeezing her hand. "She missed you every day," he tells her, and then continues before she can respond. "Katherine came back about a year ago. From the looks of the guy helping Damon, I guess you're pretty aware of how bad things were last year?"

She tilts her head slightly. "You've met angels before?"

"Had a few of them in Mystic Falls just after Katherine arrived," Stefan shrugs easily, but there's a stiffness to his shoulders that she doesn't miss. "They told us about her plan and then told us to stop her. Didn't ask, told."

Caroline nods. "That's pretty standard for them. What was Katherine doing?"

"Something insane," Stefan mutters down to her hand, his thumb running over her knuckles in a way that was making her uncomfortable. "Vampires have been around for a long time, but our origins are shrouded in mystery. No one really knows much about how vampires came into being, but there are whispers among the older ones, about the Original Ones. The first humans ever turned into vampires."

"Katherine's not that old," Caroline interrupts.

"Not Katherine, but Klaus," Stefan lifts his head and looks her straight in the eye. "Katherine's maker."

She blinks, surprised by this information. Stefan watches her closely and she doesn't know what he expects from her. She shakes her head at him and shrugs again. Okay, but so what?

"The Original Ones haven't been seen or heard from in over four hundred years," Stefan says. "Some vampires say that they were too old, finally weary with the world, and they went away on their own. Others insist that they were forced to go underground, are being kept asleep by another power-some have accused witches for being responsible for their disappearance. I'm not sure what the truth is, but Katherine certainly believed in the latter. She was devastated when Klaus vanished, dedicated her immortal life to getting him back. Tried her hand at collecting powerful witches that might have the power to release him from whatever prison he was in-"

"Emily Bennett," Caroline sighs and drops her head into her one free hand. "And now Bonnie Bennett."

Stefan nods and continues on with his story. "With Lucifer on the loose last year, there was a lot of talk about the Original Ones emerging once again. The angels told us that Katherine was in Mystic Falls on a mission to get Klaus back. She'd been searching for the right place and the right time for centuries. I always wondered at her obsession with Mystic Falls, why she kept coming back to that place over and over again. Turns out-"

"Ley lines," Caroline finishes for him. Stefan's hold on her hand tightens for a fraction of a second, but he's still a vampire so it hurts. She winces and he immediately cups her hand in both of his, looking at her apologetically. She tries to give him a reassuring smile, sure that it comes out as a grimace, and pulls her hand slowly back to her lap. She raises her other hand and waves to the books lining the wall opposite them. "How do you think Bonnie got that information in the first place?"

"You knew?"

She shakes her head. "Not all of it. I've tried to stay out of all things Mystic Falls-related. And we were a bit busy back then. She called and gave me the basics of what she was looking for. I passed the question onto Uncle Bobby, and we looked into it when we got the time. But it was all in a rush-I emailed her back the information and didn't hear a peep about it afterwards."

Stefan leans back against the couch and stares at the bookshelves. "I can't believe she had that much contact with you," he mutters softly. "She never let on-even when we were so panicked and Elena and Matt both begged-"

"That was my decision," Caroline interrupts again. She gives Stefan a hard look. "I made the choice, Bonnie respected it. She didn't agree with it, but she respected it because it was my decision to make."

Stefan shifts and a look of discomfort washes over his face. "Caroline, I-"

"Tell me about Katherine," she interjects before he can get started. She expects him to look pained and then move on, but he gives a bitter laugh and runs his hands over his face tiredly.

"We destroyed you, didn't we?" he mumbles through his fingers. She says nothing, because nothing needs to be said. He sneaks another look in her direction and she just looks back steadily. He can't hold her gaze for long and his eyes drop to the floor. "We did as we were asked. Katherine wasn't easily defeated. She nearly wiped out all of the Founding Families, most of the vampire allies I could scramble up, some of Bonnie's witch friends before Elena-"

Her heart's thumping wildly in her chest. She wants to know, but at the same time she's terrified to hear the truth. Stefan looks near tears and her hand is out and grasping his again. "She was newly turned. We thought it would be best considering Katherine's natural jealousy of Elena, and that it would be better-"

"Don't make justifications for me, Stefan," Caroline tells him. "It was always going to end that way. We all knew."

Stefan opens his mouth, but seems to reconsider what he wants to say. Their fingers are entwined again and he's suddenly fascinated with the scar on her right hand. He continues to speak, running one finger lightly over the faded white line. "She sacrificed herself. She kept saying that it was her town and Katherine wasn't allowed to destroy it. In the middle of the battle, she threw herself at Katherine. Katherine saw her coming, laughed, and plunged a stake into her chest. Elena saw it coming, but didn't stop. In her last moments, she reached out and tore off Katherine's necklace. The one with the gem that lets her walk in the sunlight. Dawn was just breaking and Katherine didn't get it for a second. I didn't see what happened afterwards, just knew that I ran for Elena, Damon pushed Katherine back, and Bonnie lost her mind."

A shudder rips through her body before she can stop it. "What do you mean Bonnie 'lost her mind'?"

Stefan laughs that same bitter laugh again. "I mean, she lost it. She screamed, I still remember her scream-it's was so horrible. I was so caught up in Elena that I didn't realize at first that it wasn't coming from my own mouth. Everything was just static for a few seconds. But Bonnie-she didn't shut down, didn't pause once for grief. It was just rage, full on rage, and then it was like the world was ending. Wind, lightning, rain-the earth was shaking and there was fire everywhere. Katherine got caught up in it-she couldn't make the quick escape to shade and shelter. Bonnie's scream faded and then Katherine was screaming-long, wailing screams as Bonnie and the sun ripped and burnt all the parts of her body."

He falls silent and leans forward, free arm resting on his knees as he turns to face her. "It wasn't natural, but we don't know what it was. Bonnie wore herself out killing Katherine; she was out cold for almost a week. When she came to, she didn't want to answer any questions. Said that it was over and that we should try and make sure that no one could follow in Katherine's footsteps."

"And what were those footsteps exactly?" Caroline asks, pushing down the ominous feeling that Bonnie's actions raised. "How was Katherine going to get Klaus back?"

Stefan looks uncomfortable, his frown deepening as his eyes drift to the front hall. "Katherine was determined to get Klaus out, desperate. It's an uncomfortable parallel for everyone involved, but we had to deal with it. Katherine wanted Klaus out, and that meant reawakening all the Original Ones; twelve in total and all insanely powerful. But Katherine wasn't strong enough to wake them on her own. She needed someone older, more powerful. We didn't know exactly who it was; we only had the name 'Upir Lichy'. We couldn't find information on the creature, who or what it was. The angels came just one month after Katherine's reappearance and told us to stop the awakening of Upir Lichy, also known as Lilitu."

Something in the way he pronounced the word sets off alarm bells in Caroline's head. "Lilitu?" she repeats slowly, mind racing to find the connection to something she had read somewhere.

Stefan nods. "Yeah, Lilitu, the Father of all Vampires. The angel outside said you knew his mother."

Caroline's throat goes dry. "His mother?"

"Lilith."

~0~

It's been a year and a half since Founders' Day and Caroline is in danger of falling into that same old trap.

"So, this Lilith person is bad?"

Sam looks up from his spot on the couch and gives her a lopsided grin. "Demons tend to be bad," he says with a short laugh. Caroline kicks off from the ground with her feet, spinning her new swivel desk chair in circles. It makes her dizzy after a short while, so she stops and turns slowly to look over at him. The laptop Uncle Bobby had reluctantly bought for her (along with the internet hookup to go with it) is sitting idly on the desk behind her. She's sort of angry with Google; it isn't offering any solutions to the current problem. So much for the information age.

"I mean, she's worse than usual," Caroline narrows her eyes at her research partner. "And a little concern from you would probably be reasonable right now."

Sam scratches at his neck and looks towards the front hall. "Shouldn't they be back by now?"

Caroline rolls her eyes at this lame diversionary tactic. "Dean's probably looking down some waitress's blouse while Uncle Bobby is waiting for him in the truck. They'll be a while. And stop avoiding the issue."

Sam favours her with another dazzling grin. "What issue?"

"You know, you're not that cute," Caroline huffs as she resumes her spinning. "Fine, be that way. You obviously aren't ready to discuss your feelings about how Lilith is a scary-ass demon after your hide. It's okay; I accept your cowardice on the matter."

"Wow, 'cowardice'," Sam leans back and folds his arms across his chest. "Aiming a little low there, aren't you? What happened to our sweet, Sweet Caroline?"

"Ha-ha, I've never encountered that reference before," Caroline pushes herself up out of her chair and walks over to join Sam on the couch. She makes a point of kicking at his leg and forcing him to slide over before taking a seat. Sam watches her with obvious amusement, taking great pains to seem unaffected by her attitude. He pulls the book he had been reading before closer to him and promptly ignores Caroline. She's unimpressed with this course of action and slides herself even closer to him than before.

"I'm not Santa Claus," Sam murmurs absently and Caroline responds by getting up and flopping down on his lap-hard. Sam grunts and drops the book to the floor.

Caroline arches a brow at him. "Be careful," she says mildly. "Uncle Bobby is particular about his books."

"More so about his niece," Sam grumbles, poking her lightly in her arm. "Want to get off before he comes through that door, assumes the worst, and blows my head off?"

Caroline frowns. "Being in a compromising position with me is the 'worst'? I think my feelings are hurt."

"You're fishing for compliments," Sam retorts, but he's smiling again so there's little sting to his remark. "But I'm still not talking about Lilith."

She pouts and rests her head on his shoulder. "Sam, I seriously don't want to see you dead, ever again. Once was bad enough."

His hand finds its way to her arm and she's soon encompassed in a half hug while Sam rests his cheek against the top of her head. "I'm sorry you had to see that. Not as sorry as I am that Dean got away from you, made that dumbass deal of his, and brought me back-but still, I'm sorry."

Caroline tilts her head upwards and Sam looks down to meet her eyes. "I'm not crazy about this deal either, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with what's going on now. You're ignoring this Lilith thing so you can obsess over Dean."

Sam's eyes harden. "My brother is not going to hell," he says stonily.

"No one wants that," Caroline snorts and pushes away from him. She also elbows him in the side for even thinking her dedication to helping Dean is lacking in any way. "But you've got to think about this rationally. You just said demons tend to be bad; so why the hell are you so okay with this Ruby chick?"

"She can save Dean-"

"She's lying," Caroline interrupts with a shake of her head. "You're not this dense, Sam."

"No, but I'm that desperate," Sam sighs and pulls her back against his side. "We're running out of time."

"I still don't trust her," Caroline mutters. "And you're still not talking about Lilith."

"My, we're quick today," Sam jokes, wincing when she delivers another elbow to his ribs. "I'm kidding! Stop hurting me-you won't leave anything for Lilith to torture."

"That's not funny, Sam Winchester!" Caroline slides off his lap and gets up on her knees so she can punch Sam in the shoulder. "I'm genuinely concerned for your scrawny ass-" she punctuates this with another hard punch to the shoulder and Sam's scrambling to cover, but she's in a groove now, so the assault continues. "I'm worried, I'm agitated-all because of you, and you're laughing at me!"

"Caroline! Stop!" He's laughing as he says this and she's annoyed that he's not taking her anger more seriously, so she punches harder. Sam tries to grab her hands and she's trying to avoid his clutches, and somehow in the middle of the scuffle, his back is on the couch and she's sprawled out on top of him, and it seems only natural that they kiss.

It's near sixteen months of building sexual tension that just explodes and wow, can that boy kiss! Sam's got his hands buried in her hair and she's making funny little mewling noises in the back of her throat-it's all insanely hot. She can't get close enough to him and she's pulling at his shirt trying to pull him closer. One of his hands drop from her hair and . . . yup, Sam's hand is on her butt. And she likes it. She likes it a lot.

She pulls back when oxygen becomes an issue, and a gasp escapes her because that's the exact second Sam decides to give her bottom a quick squeeze. She's hovering over him, all her nerve-ends on fire, and seriously she can't touch him enough. Sam's looking up at her with a confused and almost dazed look on his face.

"Bobby's going to shoot me," he says with a thick voice. But he follows this with another, longer, squeeze of her bottom.

"He's definitely going to shoot you," she laughs, and then dips back down to kiss him.

It's a year and a half past Founders' Day, and Caroline Forbes is foolishly in love, once again.

~0~