"I know she wants you to do it slowly. You probably want to make me suffer too but please, please just make it quick."

The memory of Caroline's tear stained face and her broken words were playing on a non stop loop in Tyler's mind.

"You know I was actually in love with you and the sickest part of all is, I still am. I didn't want to lie to you but I didn't have any other choice. I didn't have a choice."

Tyler's heart was heavy with sadness and pain. Now that the horror that had happened with Jules was all over and he was back home, locked in his bedroom, thinking about what happened in the cellar over and over, it was ripping him apart. The thought that Caroline really believed that he would want to kill her, want her to suffer, made him have to squeeze his eyes shut tight to keep the pain from burrowing deeper, but it didn't work. She really didn't have a choice and he was so blinded by everything Jules had told him that he couldn't see the real truth. That there were people, things, out there that were truly evil. That some things were better left in the dark and that without Caroline he was nothing.

As if she knew he was silently praying to see her again, a soft rapping noise on his window broke his thoughts and he knew without having to look that it was Caroline. He ran to his window and slid it open helping her in even though she didn't need the help. He just wanted to touch her.

She had cleaned up, now wearing a pair of jeans, black boots, and a dark sleeveless purple top. Her hair fell around her face and god, she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He couldn't even comprehend how he never really noticed her for all the years they had known each other, their entire lives basically. He didn't understand how he could have been so blind.

"Hey." Caroline said in a soft hesitant voice.

Tyler let out a mixture between a sigh and sob and pulled her to him crushing her body against his. He lifted her up and spun her around. Tyler put her down and touched their foreheads together. He could hear the silent questions swirling around in her head.

"I thought I could trust her, Caroline. I thought she was telling me everything and it killed me to think that you would lie to me." He pulled his head back to look at her. "I know why you couldn't tell me about everything, I understand now. I still despise Damon for what he did to my uncle but my uncle deserved it in a way. He betrayed all of us by teaming up with Katherine. He should have known what the outcome of what he did would have been. When I saw you chained up like that I couldn't..."

Caroline silenced him with a kiss. "I know." She said. "I know now. But, when I was chained up down there I couldn't help but think that you wanted your revenge. I figured everything we went through was just a lie and if it was I wouldn't blame you. I was still in love with you even when I thought you wanted to watch me suffer and plunge a stake through my heart. I still loved you, Tyler. I still do."

"Caroline, I could never hurt you in any way. If you're hurt," Tyler took her hand and placed it over his heart. "Than I'm hurt."

"What did Jules mean when she said imprinting? I mean I know what imprinting is, sort of, but what does it mean for the two of us?"

"It means that we're bound together in every way possible. It means that we belong to each other, with each other, and even if you decide you hate me and never want to see me again, you will always be half of me. You are, what makes me whole.

"I could never hate you, Tyler. Maybe get annoyed and frustrated at you..." A freeing laugh escaped Caroline as Tyler tickled her sides and wrapped his arms around her placing a searing kiss on her lips. He was never going to let her go, literally and figuratively. Never.

"So, where do we go from here?" Caroline asked when she pulled away, staring into his dark eyes.

A wide grin came over Tyler's face. "I think we both know the answer to that question already."

TBC