Okay. This is pure insanity.

First big news : I am now a graduate student, just got my BA in English.

Second, I have been nominated in the TVD Fanfiction Awards 2011 in the Best Hurt/Comfort category. Please, please, please : go ask this person (.net/u/2415030/) how you can vote for me. Please ?

Love you all.

- M. -


Part 11 - There Goes the Neighborhood

Caroline doesn't stop cursing herself from the moment she leaves Elena to the end of her day at work on the following day. She is very careful to avoid Damon as much as she can – he would know that she's hiding something. All day long, she is at work, rejecting his calls, ignoring his texts and trying her best to stay focused on what she has to do. It's true that, since Stefan came back, she has been very inconsistent in her work; she needs to fix that. And she does dive into everything she has to do – it makes her forget that there will come a time when she needs to go home and face Damon. That time comes much, much faster that she would have liked. When she gets home, it's already almost 8 and she knows she doesn't have much time before Elena comes over. Damon seems to be waiting for her.

"Hey, princess," he greets her.

"Hey," she says nervously and gets immediately upstairs. "I need a shower!" she yells.

"Mind if I join you?" Damon purrs and suddenly Caroline hears the seductiveness in his voice.

She comes back downstairs and looks at him with bewildered eyes. He is cooking. Italian. And there's a bottle of wine in the fridge. Is he planning a freaking romantic dinner? Of course, he would do that just today. This is typical Damon. She internally sighs. Maybe she has a little time to have THE conversation after all.

"So," Caroline says, drawing the vowel as much as she can. "You said you loved me, yesterday."

Damon smiles at how she is trying her best to sound casual when he knows he has freaked her out. Having such a conversation makes him feel a little bit funny because, when was the last time he was in an actual relationship? Oh yeah, never. However, he thinks he can be good at this – he wants to.

"I have no intention to take it back. Actually, I have a speech," he says very seriously.

Caroline's smile grows wider. She can't really picture him practicing a speech in front of the mirror; she can't really imagine him being nervous because of her but she likes the idea. It doesn't make her forget what she has told Elena. Elena, who should be here any minute now, if she trusts the sound of the tires of her car getting closer and closer.

"I just need to know if you will love me no matter what," she says in a hurry.

"Well, I did say 'I do', didn't I," he shrugs.

"So, no matter what I do, you will love me the same, right? You promise?"

"Until death do us part, princess. And just so you know, that means forever," he laughs. "Why do..."

"You promise?" she says, getting a little hysterical now that Elena is about to knock.

"Yes, Caroline! What…"

That's when Elena storms in with a big smile on her face, saying in a sing-song voice "Okay, Mrs. Salvatore, I'm here to see whatever it is you want me to see!" Caroline makes a face and shrugs. They both walk to the door.

"I'm sorry," she whispers sheepishly.

"I should have seen it coming. You are terrible at keeping secrets, Blondie," he says a little reproachfully.

She painfully notices how he is calling her Blondie, and not "princess" anymore. She knows she deserves it; this was an important decision, they should have made it together. Elena is about to tell Damon that this is a girly thing and that he should mind his own business when she sees the look between husband and wife. Something tells her that this is much more serious that she thought.

"You guys are freaking me out. What's going on?" she asks.

"Elena, there's something in the basement that you need to see," Damon says.

Elena feels her heart beating faster; it's almost painful. Obviously, this is supernatural related. She has seen that look on Damon's face before, it says that her life is about to be turned upside down. She is not sure she wants to know anymore.

"Damon, please," Caroline says and he understands that she doesn't want Elena to see Stefan locked up like an animal.

"Fine."

"Why am I not a part of this conversation? You got me worried now," Elena states.

Caroline smiles reassuringly at her and suggests that she sits. It doesn't make her feel any better to see her friend acting so cautiously around her. This is not like her. Caroline is annoyingly honest and says everything that comes to her mind without thinking about it. Elena feels like she's back in her high school days when everyone treated her like a fragile little thing. She refuses to sit and puts her fists on her waist.

"What is it?" she says, making a dramatic pause between every word.

"You should sit," Caroline says again.

"I don't want to sit, Caroline!"

Damon goes down to the basement and unlocks the door. While Stefan makes his way upstairs, Damon goes to the kitchen and comes back with a glass of water; he hands it to Elena. She almost wants to throw it in his face. But she doesn't have time to tell him that, because her jaw drops and her eyes pop out of her head. The glass drops to the floor and she literally walks on broken glass to close the distance between her and the ghost of Stefan. There's barely a few inches between them and she raises her right hand to his chest. She doesn't expect to meet actual flesh; because there is no way that he is really here. She jumps back when he shivers.

"Elena," he whispers.

She gasps at the sound of his voice. There are a million things running through her head. Like, when did he get here? Why does he look so much like the Stefan she used to love and not the animal that she met on that dreadful night? How come Caroline and Damon are keeping him hidden? And then, she's thinking something that she shouldn't be thinking – how his handsome features have not changed at all, how is green eyes are still capable of burning a hole right into her soul. Her whole body is shaking and she has tears in her eyes.

Elena's reaction is quite undecipherable so far; she is staring at Stefan and as a single tear rolls down her face, she extends her hand to brush his cheek. He leans into the touch and briefly closes his eyes. "Stefan," she acknowledges, her voice getting stuck in her throat. She has not said his name in years and the way it feels on her tongue is funny.

Stefan realizes that five years have indeed gone by. Elena looks different; not only older, but really different. Her hair is shorter and a few shades lighter. She has lost that sparkle she used to have in her eyes. And the contradictory emotions he sees in them make him understand that he is the one who took it away from her, that everything Damon told him is true.

Caroline and Damon are watching from a distance, trying to give the ex-lovers some privacy. He is looking at her; she's looking at him. Seconds seem days. All the super-hearing in the world couldn't hear what's being said between Stefan and Elena. They don't even know it themselves. It's the way their bodies respond to each other and the way their minds are trying to fight it. It's the way Elena's hand on his skin feels like fire and how Stefan loves it. It's the way she can't seem to take a step back from the monster she knows he is.

Eventually, Elena does take her hand away and Stefan feels colder than ever before. He was waiting for her, but he wasn't prepared for this. He doesn't know what to say or do. You don't just say "Hey baby, I'm back" to the girl you left without a word five years before. Especially when you killed her best friend in front of her eyes. Elena seems to remember that as she takes a few steps back. She doesn't run, she doesn't throw things at him, she doesn't stake him – she simply stands there, staring and silently crying.