Love Is Not Time's Fool
Chapter Nine: Rescue
Stefan felt a pointed tip pierce his skin . . .
"Aaahh!" He cried out as pain spread through his shoulder. He snarled, his fangs extending. He twisted his body and threw the vampire who stabbed him across the room.
He rushed the vampire, staking the vampire in the heart. He staked the last two vampires and then he went over to Tyler. The werewolf was on his hands and knees, hunched over in pain.
"Tyler, you okay?" Stefan said.
Tyler heaved, looking up. Panting, he nodded. He stood up, clutching his shoulder. "Yeah . . . it's healing. Let's go find the others."
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"Move," Bonnie said. Caroline nodded, moving away from the door.
Bonnie closed her eyes, raising her hand toward the door.
"Can you get it open?" Caroline asked.
Bonnie started chanting under her breath, her hand still raised. The door started trembling, shaking as if it were an earthquake..
It rattled louder and louder until it exploded, sending iron into oblivion. Bonnie and Caroline rushed into the room . . .
. . . inside was a weak, scared, Elena holding Gabby in her lap and . . . Katherine?
Bonnie reacted, using her powers to send the older vampire flying against the wall. Katherine grunted, collapsing on the ground.
"B-Bonnie, no . . ." Elena's voice was weak.
Caroline raced to Elena's side, picking Gabby – who was now crying – up.
Bonnie started to go after Katherine again but Elena shook her head. "N-no . . ." She struggled to move.
"Elena, it's Katherine!" Bonnie said.
"D-don't . . ." Elena breathed. "She h-helped . . ."
Bonnie and Caroline stared at Elena in disbelief. Katherine watched all of them closely, ready to defend herself.
"Elena, we can't trust her," Caroline said.
"She w-won't do anything . . . I-I know she w-won't," Elena said. Bonnie sighed, shaking her head. Katherine looked at Elena in confusion.
"We need to get out of here," Caroline handed Gabby over to Bonnie. Bonnie nodded, cradling Gabby.
"I don't t-think I can . . ." Elena sighed. "The v-vervain did too m-much . . ."
"Caroline and I can help you," Katherine spoke up, rising to her feet and going to Elena's side.
"Yeah," Caroline nodded. She stood up. Katherine and Caroline each hooked their arms under each of Elena's burned ones. Elena grunted in pain as they lifted her up. She leaned against Caroline's shoulder.
"She needs blood," Katherine told them.
"First lets find the others and get out of here," Bonnie said.
Caroline and Katherine guided Elena out of the room with Bonnie and Gabby taking the rear.
"S-Stefan?" Elena whispered.
"He's with Tyler," Caroline said. "We all split up in pairs." Elena nodded, her eyes closing as she slipped into unconsciousness.
Just then, Bonnie felt a horrible stabbing pain in her heart.
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Damon and Jeremy rounded a corner when Jeremy grunted in pain. Damon turned around: A vampire came out of nowhere and stabbed Jeremy with a stake in the gut. The vampire pulled the stake out and Jeremy fell to the ground, bleeding . . .
"Shit!" Damon cursed. He staked the vampire who fell to the ground, dead.
Jeremy was curled up in a ball, clutching his stomach. Damon bit the inside of his wrist and shoved it in Jeremy's mouth. Jeremy resisted at first but took the blood.
When he thought Jeremy had enough, Damon pulled his wrist back. Jeremy coughed, gagging. The wound healed, and Jeremy stood.
He stared at Damon, unsure. "Um . . . thanks."
"Don't mention it," Damon shrugged.
"Jeremy!"
Bonnie ran around the corner and up to her husband with Gabby in her arms. She nestled her head in his chest, tears running down her face.
Jeremy wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head.
"I felt it, I felt all of it," Bonnie sobbed. "Oh god, I almost lost you . . ."
"I'm okay," Jeremy whispered in her ear. "It's okay."
It was then that Caroline and Katherine rounded the corner with unconscious Elena slumped between them.
Damon and Jeremy just stared. "Why is she coming with?" Damon snarled in disgust.
"Damon, don't," Bonnie warned.
"We need to find Tyler and Stefan and get Elena and Gabrielle out of here," Caroline said.
"I can find them," Bonnie handed Gabby to Jeremy. She closed her eyes, chanting. Then she opened her eyes. "I know where they are. Follow me." The witch took the lead and the others followed.
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"They've got to be around here somewhere . . . I can smell them," Tyler said.
Stefan nodded as they ran through the corridors. "I can hear Jeremy, Bonnie, and Gabby's heartbeats."
Tyler sniffed, stopping. Stefan stopped behind him. "What is it?" Stefan said.
"I-I . . . I don't know . . ." Tyler swayed, his vision blurring.
"Whoa . . ." Stefan steadied the wolf's shoulder.
"I can't – I can't . . ." Tyler stumbled on his words.
Stefan heard footsteps in the distance and it wasn't long before the entire gan was in the hallway with them.
Caroline's eyes widened when she saw her husband. She dropped Elena's arm and the weakened vampire fell on her doppelganger's shoulder. Caroline took hold of Tyler and Stefan let go. Tyler's eyes dropped and Caroline held him up.
Confused, Stefan pulled Elena from Katherine's arms and picked his wife up, bridal style. His gaze fell on the now-sleeping Gabby in her uncle's arms.
"Why is Kath―"
"Don't ask," Damon rolled his eyes, cutting Stefan off. "Let's just find our jackass of an ancestor and get the hell out of here."
"He's dead," Stefan told him. "I killed him."
"Well then," Damon said. "Let's get out of here."
"I second then," Caroline sighed, still holding hr husband up.
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By the time they returned to the Salvatore Boarding House, Tyler had taken a turn for the worst. During the drive, an inspection of his wound revealed that there was wolfsbane in the bite. He was pale, the wound stopped healing, and he was in and out of consciousness.
Caroline was beside herself with worry. The others tried to comfort her but nothing helped. One look at Dillon and the blonde broke down in tears. Bonnie tried spells to heal it but it didn't do anything. Not even vampire blood was working.
After hours of searching, they were no closer to helping Tyler.
At first the others didn't want Dillon around his ailing father but Caroline decided that he should be able to say goodbye.
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Meanwhile, Elena was recuperating in her and Stefan's bedroom. Most of the burns and bruises had healed but the process was slow―even after she drank a few blood bags. She was still weak from the beatings and vervain-laced water soak. Like Tyler, she was also in and out of consciousness. However, her body was healing.
Stefan sat by her side the entire time, holding Gabby in one arm and holding Elena's hand with the other. He couldn't let his girls out of his sight again.
Gabby fell asleep and it wasn't long until Stefan joined her . . . now all three of them sleeping.
Later on Stefan jerked awake when he felt the weight on one of his arms lighten. He immediately went into alter seeing someone who looked like his wife picking his daughter up and cradling the infant in her arms.
But one look confirmed that Elena was still unconscious in their bed. "Katherine!" He growled, dropping Elena's hand and rising to his feet.
"Calm down," Katherine whispered, shushing him.
"What are you doing?" Stefan whispered . . . though harsher.
"She was crying," Katherine shrugged. "Everyone downstairs is either sleeping, out, or busy."
Stefan wasn't sure what to make of this. This Katherine was much different than the Katherine he'd ever known. "You haven't taken off yet." He observed.
Katherine rocked the fussy baby in her arms, shrugging. "Don't really have anywhere to go. I've been running from Klaus for so long . . . never really thought of anything else."
He didn't trust Katherine, but . . . Bonnie and Caroline did tell him that she helped Elena and Gabby while they were in captivity. He watched her, trying to study her body language. She wasn't tense or on alert. She also didn't seem to be on the hunt or contemplating the blood in the helpless baby's veins.
"I won't hurt her," Katherine seemed to know what he was thinking. She walked over to him, holding Gabrielle out. Stefan held out his arms and Katherine gently placed the baby in her father's arms.
Stefan was at a complete loss.
Katherine walked over to the bed and sat at the end of it. Stefan resumed his seat, cradling is daughter close.
"Can I ask you something, Stefan?" Katherine said.
"Um . . ." Stefan thought about it. "Sure."
"When you were human, before you knew I was a vampire . . ." She said. "Did you ever think about us . . . the future?" She took a deep breath. "Children?"
Stefan sighed, watching Elena's chest not rise and fall. Who was this Katherine? "Well . . . yeah." He told her honestly. She nodded, staring down at the floor. "It was the times more than anything else. From early on Father ingrained in both me and Damon – not that he payed any attention – that it was our job to find a wife, have a family, and do all we could to provide for them.
Katherine nodded – he figured it had been the same when she was alive.
And just like that, the entire room felt completely different. Normal, almost. He didn't feel threatened by Katherine's presence so close to the lives that meant so much to him. Dare he say, he even felt that he could trust her.
"Katherine?" He looked up, but the older vampire was suddenly gone. Shrugging, he turned his attention back to Elena, who was still asleep.
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Three days later, Stefan opened the car door and stepped out. On the other side, Elena also got out. She smoothed her black dress, pulling the sleeves of her sweater down. She opened the backseat and bent down, unattaching and lifting Gabrielle's car seat out.
"Honey, can you grab the diaper bag?" Elena asked him as she adjusted the car seat in her arms.
He nodded, opening and reaching in the backseat for the diaper bag. "You want me to take her?"
About 95% of Elena's wounds had healed . . . it was just the burns on her arms that hadn't quite healed.
"I'm fine," she assured him, sighing. "Let's just get this over with. Today Caroline needs us."
Stefan nodded as they crossed the parking lot and across the grass of the cemetery. They saw Bonnie and Jeremy with Jenna, Alaric, and Zoe and stood over by them. There were other people there to mourn the fallen Mayor – other Lockwood's including Carol, the other Founding families, and pretty much the rest of the town.
"Hey," Elena said. "Where's Caroline and Dillon?"
"Inside," Ric told her. "Talking to the minister."
"How is she?" Stefan asked.
"She's . . ." Bonnie sighed. "She's Caroline. She says she's okay but her face says differently. We tried to get her to let us take Dillon for today . . . but she said she was fine."
"She needs Dillon right now," Jenna said.
"Here she comes," Elena saw Caroline step out of the main building with Dillon on her hip. The boy was asleep, his head resting on his mother's shoulder.
"Guess its time for the funeral to start," Jeremy observed.
Stefan watched Caroline walk toward them. Dried tears stained her face. The whites of her eyes were tinged with red.
The minister followed closely behind her . . . and soon after the funeral began.
To Be Continued...
A.N. Sorry about the shortness...wasn't really feelin' it this chapter. I did really like the scene between Stefan and Katherine . . . that was one of my favorites. It seems like Katherine's sort of getting her humanity back, isn't she? Wonder where that'll take her . . . hmm...we'll see. And . . . poor Caroline. How do you guys feel about Tyler's exit? Where should I go with Caroline next? As I said last chapter, we're almost done with this one. I'm thinking part three will mostly be about Gabby and the challenges of raising a half-vampire child. We'll see . . . maybe one of you'll inspire a different route altogether.